Master Plan

In a special Master Plan bonus episode, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins David Sirota to break down the impact of the Supreme Court’s’ 2010 Citizens United ruling on 2024's super PAC spending spree. The two dig into billionaires like Elon Musk openly backing candidates and the hidden power of dark money, and discuss current reforms efforts to bring transparency back to democracy. Plus, the Master Plan team answers audience questions.

Binge the entire season of the award-winning Master Plan now. Paid subscribers enjoy ad-free episodes, score exclusive bonus content, and help support the show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com.

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

We all live in the master planners’ world now, immersed in an ocean of corruption. The 2024 Republican presidential campaign is bankrolled by billionaires, while corporate interests’ power was in full display at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. What will it take to reclaim our democracy? Is there any hope of reversing the master plan? 

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Unleashed by the Citizens United ruling, the master planners launch a three-part heist to crack the vault protecting democracy itself. First, the schemers take out the security cameras monitoring dark money. Then, they disarm the last campaign finance cops on the beat. Finally, they pull off a getaway so prosecutors can’t charge them as they run off with the loot. 

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

An anti-abortion legal activist starts using the federal courts to chip away at campaign finance restrictions, setting his sights on the Supreme Court. Indiana lawyer James Bopp Jr. engineers the Citizens United case and hand-tailors it for Justice Anthony Kennedy’s storied swing vote — setting him up for an explosive 5-4 ruling that would devastate campaign finance law.

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com.

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

As President George W. Bush declares “Mission Accomplished” in the Iraq War, his administration wages a different war with swing-state senators defying his judicial nominees. Operatives like Leonard Leo and Brett Kavanaugh seize the moment to try to dramatically shift the balance of the Supreme Court. But when Bush goes off script and nominates a trusted legal aide for a Supreme Court vacancy, the conservative legal movement launches an insurgency. This is part two of our story about the creation of the Roberts Court.

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

After a series of setbacks in the push to legalize corruption, the master planners know they must take over the U.S. Supreme Court and halt the trend of Republican-appointed justices siding with campaign finance reformers. So in the early 2000s, they deploy their new judicial machine in an epic battle to try to permanently change the courts from the bottom up. This is part one of a two-part story about how the Roberts Court was built.

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

When five U.S. senators get caught pressuring a regulator on behalf of a financial magnate, they become known as the “Keating Five.” The public is predictably outraged. But what no one expects is that one of those senators will learn from his mistakes and become the staunchest campaign finance reformer in decades. 

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

You might remember Mitt Romney’s infamous line: “Corporations are people, my friend.” But where did this idea come from? In this episode: how the Ford Administration and the Powell Memo movement turned to the Supreme Court to establish the precedent that legalized corruption: money is speech, and corporations are entitled to First Amendment rights. 

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, score exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

How did corporate executives and politicians turn Lewis Powell’s memo from a blueprint into a master plan — and begin executing it? In this episode, we uncover proof of a secret “Powell Memo Task Force,” as well as clandestine meetings involving America’s most powerful businessmen, a future president, and an ambitious young media consultant. The results would change history.

Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.

A seemingly moderate corporate lawyer grows alarmed by anti-corruption reformers’ policy wins and writes a manifesto detailing how corporations and oligarchs can dominate American politics. Months later, he’s confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court by senators unaware that his manifesto is going viral among the business elite.   

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Get Master Plan episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit masterplanpodcast.com

Master Plan Special: 50% off a Lever subscription! Access bonus episodes, articles, and more. Support independent journalism at LeverNews.com/50.