Cover Story

An episode of reckoning. We catch up with Matt in prison, Mike in Whitefish, and everyone else – wherever they’ve scattered. Both of the men's wives have surprising news. And we add our final touches to what has turned into an uncomfortably intimate portrait of a modern billionaire.

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The ex-spy is under arrest for fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. And, in a surprise move, he pleads guilty to all three. What? We start to closely examine his dealings with the billionaire to figure out what really happened between them and the threads start to unravel, and keep unraveling. By the end, one person stands up in court and declares, “I am the victim.”

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Where does sex with a billionaire land you? We talk to three women who soured on Mike, at different points. We examine a court case, a police investigation, and one woman’s memories. We weigh the question: if none of it adds up to a crime, what does it add up to?

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We dig into the billionaire and ex-spy’s bromance and business partnership – which means a detour into the world of spies for hire. The rich cozy up with former intelligence personnel and try to, for better or worse, carry out missions the government can’t seem to do on its own. We are guided by a powerful female ex-spy who was in Matt and Mike’s circle and who explains, “it’s all about the size of your freaking penis. It’s true!”

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The billionaire is into…Batman. Is that because he’s an actual hero, or because he’s using showy philanthropy to cover up his bad deeds? We track down some women he’s paid millions of dollars to. And we talk to the billionaire about his hero complex.

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In a cabin in Whitefish, Montana, two ex-spies tell us an outlandish story: right here in town, a billionaire philanthropist is allegedly running a sexual enterprise, importing young women into safehouses. One of the spies knows this because he was the billionaire’s right hand man, and best bro friend. He claims to know a shocking amount about this billionaire’s affairs, personal and professional.

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A billionaire. An ex-spy. A lot of women. Too many lies.

Cover Story, Season Two: Seed Money.

Hosted by Hanna Rosin.

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So. Should YOU do psychedelic therapy? In the last episode of Power Trip, we get a lot of different answers to this question. Plus, we catch up with some of the people we met throughout this season who fight like hell to get people and institutions to acknowledge what happened to them. And make it less likely to happen to YOU.

In an earlier version of episode 9, we stated that as part of an agreement Meaghan Buisson signed with MAPS she waived the right “to ever sue MAPS again,” mistakenly implying she sued MAPS in the past. She has not. We’ve updated the episode to say she waived the right to ever sue MAPS.

Credits

Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.

Power Trip is co-created, produced, and reported by David Nickles and Lily Kay Ross.

Our senior producers are Marianne McCune and Whitney Jones. Also produced by Tarkor Zehn, Liza Yeager, Noor Bouzidi, and iO Tillett Wright.

Our executive producer and editor is Hanna Rosin.

Additional editing help by Nichole Hill.

Sound design and scoring by Brandon McFarland.

Additional sound design by Sharif Youssef, who also mixed the show.

Cover Story’s Theme music is by Santigold.

Additional music by Lynx DeMuth and John Ellis.

Fact-checking by Britina Cheng and Ted Hart.

Crystal Finn is the voice of Susan, and Maaike Laanstra-Corn is the voice of Ashley.

Special thanks to legal minds Elissa Cohen, Jillian Robbins, and Samantha Mason. Also to Gaby Grossman, and to Sara Ahmed for her writings on complaints.

Power Trip is also produced with Psymposia, a non-profit watchdog group. For a deeper dive into some of these issues visit psymposia.com/powertrip.

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Since the publication of Michael Pollan’s bestseller, How to Change Your Mind, more people than ever have gotten comfortable trying psychedelics. And a few of them have died. We look into two cases and ask, who’s responsible for warning people about the dangers? And we explore one important motivation for keeping quiet about them: money.

CREDITS

Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.

Power trip is co-created, produced, and reported by David Nickles and Lily Kay Ross.

Our senior producers are Marianne McCune and Whitney Jones. Also produced by Tarkor Zehn, Liza Yeager, Noor Bouzidi, and iO Tillett Wright.

Our executive producer and editor is Hanna Rosin.

With additional editing help by Nichole Hill.

Sound design and scoring by Brandon McFarland.

Additional sound design by Sharif Youssef, who also mixed the show.

Cover Story’s Theme music by Santigold.

Additional music by Lynx DeMuth and John Ellis.

Fact-checking by Britina Cheng and Ted Hart.

Special thanks to legal minds Elissa Cohen, Jillian Robbins, and Samantha Mason. And also to Gaby Grossman.

Power Trip is also produced with Psymposia, a non-profit watchdog group. For a deeper dive into some of these issues visit psymposia.com/powertrip.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices