Hentie Dirker, Chief ESG and Integrity Officer with SNC-Lavalin, speaks to Jonathan Drimmer of Paul Hastings about building a culture of compliance in the aftermath of a bribery scandal. (This episode was originally published in August 2019.)

Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Ressa joins the podcast to talk about corruption, disinformation and how to stand up to a dictator.

Rob Koehler, WADA veteran and current Director General of Global Athlete, joins the podcast to discuss the epidemic of doping in sports, the imbalance of power between athletes and administrators and the IOC's startling decision to allow Russia to compete in the Paris Games in spite of its invasion of Ukraine.

Laura Harth with Safeguard Defenders joins the podcast to talk about the more than 50 illegal Chinese police stations operating around the world, including in the United States and Canada. These violate both the sovereignty of the inadvertent ‘host’ countries and the rights of the Chinese citizens abroad who are stalked and coerced to comply with government demands to return to China or risk the persecution of their families. Laura discusses her organization’s excellent report 110 Overseas:  Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild. (The title is based on the emergency number for the police in China - 110.) 

Jim Campbell, author of “Madoff Talks” and featured in the recently released Netflix documentary, “Madoff:  Monster of Wall Street,” joins the podcast to talk about FTX.  Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

Michael Forsythe, co-author with Walt Bogdanich of “When McKinsey Comes to Town”, joins the podcast to talk about McKinsey’s work in support of autocratic regimes, its rampant conflicts of interest and the distance between its stated values and its work on the ground. 

Diana Henriques describes Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, discusses how difficult it is to uncover fraud by those who prey on the trust of others and addresses the simple, consistent controls that saved some investors from losses. Diana is featured in the new Netflix series MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins the podcast to discuss her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, which examines 100 years of authoritarian rule. She describes the characteristics of a strongman and the strange virility cult surrounding these leaders before turning to the central role of corruption in the autocrat’s playbook.

(This episode was originally published in November 2021.)

Reflecting on the year as it draws to a close, we note with great sadness the recent loss of sports journalist, author and inimitable soccer analyst, Grant Wahl. We’re replaying today our podcast with Grant from 2017.  He was generous with his time, happy to share his expertise and invariably good humored. He is missed.