Prevail with Greg Olear

By Greg Olear

What's Prevail with Greg Olear about?

On PREVAIL, a weekly interview podcast, the author and columnist Greg Olear discusses politics, world news, history, national security, foreign affairs, organized crime, dirty money, global corruption, and the fight for democracy with authors, journalists, academics, diplomats, researchers, and other expert guests. Every Friday.

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Prevail with Greg Olear episodes:

04.19.2024
Like Hell Matt Gaetz is Winning, and Other Tales of Danger Close (with Gal Suburban)
Gal Suburban is an open source researcher who has spent the last six years deep-diving on fifth generation warfare, psyops, corrupt creatures of the Florida swamp, and traitors to our democracy. In this conversation, Greg Olear and Gal Suburban discuss various...
04.12.2024
Active Learning Feedback Loop, or, Democracy Isn’t a Spectator Sport (with Robbie Harris)
Robbie Harris is a strategic communications and behavior change subject matter expert with over 25 years’ experience working with local influencers, activists, civil society organizations, journalists, and senior stakeholders in Iraq, Syria, Africa, and Central America. She has designed and...
04.05.2024
Failures of the Reconstruction: The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic (with Manisha Sinha)
In this discussion with Greg Olear, the historian Manisha Sinha discusses her book “The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920.” The book explores the period between the Civil War and World War I, highlighting the importance...
03.22.2024
Robes Gallery: Clarence and Roberts and Brett, Oh My! (with Lisa Graves)
Lisa Graves is the founder and Executive Director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group that exposes the shadowy machinations of dark money funders like Leonard Leo, Barre Seid, Harlan Crow, Charles Koch, Dick Uihlein, and Rob Arkley,...
03.15.2024
From Cowboy State to Christofascist State: Kevin Roberts, Wyoming, Project 2025, and the Spectre of a Second Trump Term (with Rone Tempest)
For 26 years, Rone Tempest was the national and foreign correspondent for the LA Times, based in Paris, New Delhi, Beijing, and Hong Kong, as well as the craziest capital city, Sacramento. After his retirement, he worked for Pro Publica...
03.08.2024
Around the World in 80 Minutes (with Alexandra Hall Hall)
For more than 30 years, Alexandra Hall Hall worked as a diplomat in the British Foreign Office, with postings in Bangkok, Delhi, Bogota,Tbilisi, and Washington. She resigned in December 2019 because she felt unable to represent the Government’s position on...
03.01.2024
Feelingsball: The Leonard Leo Industrial Complex, SCOTUS Nihilism, and the Doctrine of Sad (with Dahlia Lithwick)
Greg Olear welcomes Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at SLATE and the author of the bestseller “Lady Justice: Women, The Law, and the Battle to Save Democracy.” They discuss the current state of the Supreme Court and the impact of recent...
02.23.2024
Trickling Down: How the Anti-Tax Movement Hijacked America (with Michael Graetz)
In this conversation with Greg Olear, Michael Graetz discusses his book “The Power to Destroy: How the Anti-Tax Movement Hijacked America”' He explores the history and influence of the anti-tax movement, the role of race and xenophobia in shaping it,...
02.16.2024
All About Leonard Leo, the Reactionary Legal Activist, Radical Catholic Zealot & Dark Money Maestro Who Captured the Supreme Court (with Tom Carter)
Tom Carter worked in Washington for years, in journalism and then in PR. For three years, he handled media relations at USCIRF, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, where his boss was one Leonard Leo, a key figure in...
01.19.2024
Dispatches from the Road (with Diana Spechler)
Greg Olear welcomes his friend, the novelist, essayist and travel writer Diana Spechler. They discuss the novel as an art form, writing as a profession and vocation, the allure of travel, how the U.S. is perceived abroad, the future of...
01.12.2024
Covert World War III, or, Operation Gemcrusher (with Aja Raden)
Aja Raden, author of “Stoned” and “The Truth About the Lies,” returns to PREVAIL. She updates Greg Olear about the changes coming to the diamond industry (which she foretold in the documentary “Nothing Lasts Forever”), and discusses her concerns for...
12.29.2023
Cheerios or Death (with Brynn Tannehill)
We know that Donald Trump is a fascist, but what would MAGA fascism look like in a second Trump term? Brynn Tannehill, senior defense analyst and author of “American Fascism” and “My Child Told Me They're Trans...What Do I Do?,”...
12.22.2023
Making It in America (with Rachel Slade)
Greg Olear is joined by the journalist and editor Rachel Slade, author of the new book “Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (and How It Got That Way).” They discuss the history of...
12.15.2023
America/America, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Presidential Suite at the Ritz-Carlton Moscow (with Steven Beschloss)
Greg Olear is joined by the writer, author, professor, filmmaker, and “America, America” columnist Steven Beschloss. They discuss the failure of the media to adequately cover Trump, then and now; the stakes of the next election; Lee Harvey Oswald, childhood...
12.08.2023
Red Caesar (with Will Bunch)
Greg Olear is joined by Will Bunch, the national opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. They discuss how the higher education system broke our politics, why the media fails to accurately report on the rise of American fascism, Trump’s ominous...
12.01.2023
Lawyers, Guns, and Money (with Jack Bryan)
We all remember the keywords of the scandal known as Iran-Contra: Oliver North, Fawn Hall, potted plant, Nicaragua, Sandinista, “I don’t recall.” The Reagan Administration was covering SOMETHING up, but what were they up to, exactly? Jack Bryan, creator of...
11.10.2023
The War We Never Wanted (with Elisa Albert)
In October, the novelist Elisa Albert went with her mother on a trip to Israel, to attend the installation of the Codex Sassoon, the oldest known copy of the Hebrew Bible, at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People. She...
11.03.2023
The Age of Disorder (with Jason Pack)
What does Putin want? How about Iran, Hamas, and the GOP? Greg Olear talks to geopolitical analyst Jason Pack, founder of the NATO & The Global Enduring Disorder Project and the co-host of The Disorder Podcast, about the Post-Post-Cold War,...
10.27.2023
Chaos Crescendo (with Cheri Jacobus)
Cheri Jacobus is a political analyst and operative, as well as the host of the “Politics with Cheri Jacobus” podcast. She talks to Greg Olear about her experiences as an early “Never Trump” Republican, the consequences of her truth-telling, how...
10.20.2023
Reprise: The Trauma Vortex (with Claudia Black)
Trump, the assault on common decency, pandemic, quarantine, insurrection, and now war: we have all suffered collective trauma these last seven years. Greg Olear talks with actor and trauma therapist Claudia Black about the causes of trauma and how to...
10.13.2023
Competing Realities: 24/7 Politics & the Rise of Cable News (with Kathryn Cramer Brownell)
Greg Olear talks to Kathryn Brownell, history professor at Purdue University, about her new book, “24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News” (Princeton University Press, 2023): how cable TV came to be, how...
10.06.2023
Russia Goes Scorched Earth in Kherson (with Zarina Zabrisky)
The Russian invaders are attempting to wipe the Ukrainian city of Kherson off the map. Greg Olear talks with war correspondent Zarina Zabrisky, who is one of only two journalists in Kherson, about the situation on the ground there, the...
09.29.2023
A Fabulous Failure (with Nelson Lichtenstein)
Greg Olear talks with historian and research professor Nelson Lichtenstein, author of “A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism,” about the “fabulous decade” of the 1990s, neoliberalism, Robert Rubin, Clinton-era deregulation, NAFTA, healthcare, and the...
09.22.2023
The World is Ruled by Wounded People Wounding Us (with Ronlyn Domingue)
Greg Olear talks to the novelist Ronlyn Domingue, author of “The Mercy of Thin Air” and the “Keeper of Tales” trilogy, about growing up and living in Louisiana, ancestral memory, reconciling the national sin of slavery, A.I., alternative societies, the...
09.15.2023
The Rush Limbaugh of the Left (with Tony Michaels)
Greg Olear talks to Tony Michaels, host of The Tony Michaels podcast, about the Left’s need for talk radio-style programming, the importance of narratives, media fecklessness, how the Republican Party is a cult in search of a leader, and how...
09.08.2023
Crimean War and Peace (with Elina Beketova)
In 2014, Putin’s Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that is part of Ukraine. This was the opening move in the full-scale invasion Putin ordered in 2022. Greg Olear talks to Elina Beketova, an in-residence fellow with...
09.01.2023
How to Wreck a Democracy (with Ruth Ben-Ghiat)
In an interview recorded on July 29, Greg Olear talks to fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” and the “Lucid” Substack, about the nature of coups, lessons from Berlusconi, the rise of Hitler, DeSantis as...
08.25.2023
The Only Way to Tell the Future is After It Happens (with Denver Riggleman)
In the Season Six Premiere of the PREVAIL podcast, Greg Olear talks to former Virginia Congressman Denver Riggleman, the senior technical advisor to the J6 Committee and the author of “The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into January...
07.21.2023
SEASON FINALE: Rhetorical Questions (with Jennifer Mercieca)
In the Season Five Finale of the PREVAIL podcast, Greg Olear talks to Jennifer Mercieca, a professor of rhetoric at Texas A&M and the author of “Demagogue for President: the Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” about myths of the Founders,...
07.14.2023
Too Big To Care: Containing Big Tech (with Tom Kemp)
Five companies in Silicon Valley run the online world–which gives them enormous offline power. Greg Olear talks to Tom Kemp, the Silicon Valley-based CEO and entrepreneur and author of “Containing Big Tech: How to Protect Our Civil RIghts, Economy, and...
07.07.2023
What Is Corruption? (with Alex Aronson)
Greg Olear talks to Alex Aronson, the former chief counsel to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse who advised on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, about SCOTUS corruption, what constitutes “entertainment” for Sam Alito, John...
06.30.2023
KHive & The Reelection Rundown (with Candidly Tiff)
Greg Olear and Candidly Tiff, the political commentator and KHive charter member, discuss the Trump indictment, the GOP presidential candidates, Joe Biden’s successes, Kamala Harris’s impressive vice presidency, and what to expect in the election of 2024 and beyond. Plus:...
06.23.2023
Reprise: Dead Pimps & Tucker Carlson’s Long Slide (with Nia Molinari)
After a new introductory rant about Sam Alito and RFK, Jr., Greg Olear replays this conversation with PREVAIL contributor Nia Molinari about Rudy Guiliani, Dennis Hof, country club Republicans, and the many faces of Tucker Carlson, the most dangerous man...
06.16.2023
Notes on the Trump Indictment (with Gal Suburban)
One week ago, Jack Smith unsealed the 38-count indictment against Donald John Trump and his valet, Waltine Nauta. OSINT researcher extraordinaire Gal Suburban breaks it all down with Greg Olear. Plus: it’s Nauta love song.
06.09.2023
The Trump Tower Meeting Was Seven Years Ago Today (with Cliff Schecter)
“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” Seven years ago today, Donald Trump, Jr., held the infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected attorney and other Russian proxies. Greg Olear and Cliff Schecter break...
06.02.2023
Making it in the USA, or, Building Back Better (with Rachel Slade)
Where have all the manufacturing jobs gone? Is it possible to bring them back? Can an American manufacturing company exist in today’s market? Greg Olear talks to the best-selling author and journalist Rachel Slade, whose forthcoming new book, “Making It...
05.26.2023
Not All Doom (with Arthur Snell)
Greg Olear welcomes Arthur Snell back to the program. After graduating from Oxford with a first class degree in history, Snell joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. A fluent Arabic speaker, he served in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Yemen, and Iraq,...
05.19.2023
Reprise - Rapid Fire: The Pathway to Violence (with Shavaun Scott)
Greg Olear talks to the mental health therapist P. Shavaun Scott, author of “The Minds of Mass Killers: Understanding and Interrupting the Pathway to Violence,” about the scourge of mass shootings, how to identify potential killers before they strike, and...
05.12.2023
International Intrigue (with John Fowler)
Greg Olear’s guest is the former diplomat John Fowler, co-founder of International Intrigue, a media outfit that provides smart, insightful, and witty commentary on global politics. They first discuss the politics of John’s native Australia, and then turn their attention...
05.05.2023
Succession: The King & Comedy (with Will Sebag-Montefiore)
Greg Olear hits some of the week’s prevailing news topics: the debt ceiling, Tucker Carlson’s racist text, the Paul Stanley thing, and graft on the Supreme Court. Then he welcomes the British actor and comedian Will Sebag-Montefiore for a discussion...
04.28.2023
Keepin’ It Real (with Elwood Watson)
Greg Olear is joined by the historian, columnist, and author Elwood Watson. They discuss Biden-Harris 2024, Biden’s place in history, how the 2020s are like the 1850s, the potential for a new civil war, creeping fascism, the word “woke,” and...
04.25.2023
BONUS SPECIAL: The Five 8, “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” (with Stephanie Koff)
As a bonus for PREVAIL listeners, Greg Olear shares the latest episode of THE FIVE 8, the live YouTube show he does on Friday nights with his friend Stephanie Koff, aka LB. We take FIVE of the week's most notable &...
04.21.2023
"Jin, Jiyan, Azadî!" | Protests in Iran (with Samira Ghaderi)
Greg Olear is joined by the immigration attorney Samira Ghaderi, who talks about the protests in Iran that started in September, prompted by the death of Jina Amini in police custody. They discuss the brutal incident that started the protests,...
04.14.2023
Uh-Oh, Canada (with Max Fawcett)
Greg Olear is joined by Max Fawcett, the lead columnist for Canada’s National Observer and the host of the podcast “Maxed Out with Max Fawcett.” They discuss Justin Trudeau’s standing, when Canada might hold another election, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre,...
03.31.2023
Between the Shaman and the Microchip (with Mark Plotkin)
Greg Olear is joined by the ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin, president of the Amazon Conservation Team, author of “Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice” and “The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know,” and the host of “The Plants of the Gods.”...
03.24.2023
Nothing Lasts Forever (with Aja Raden)
Greg Olear is joined by Aja Raden, author of “The Truth About Lies” and “Stoned,” to talk about “Nothing Lasts Forever,” the new documentary about the diamond industry in which she appears. They also discuss “peak crazy,” the banking crisis,...
03.17.2023
Settling Scores: F*ck Giuliani (with Nia Molinari)
Greg Olear is joined by the pseudonymous Nia Molinari, the retired stripper, screenwriter, mob watcher, and PREVAIL contributor, who tells her epic “F*ck Giuliani” story. They also discuss Tucker Carlson’s strange relationship with dead pimp Dennis Hof, an obscure Serbian...
03.10.2023
Biden Or Bust & What’s Up With Ohio (with Cliff Schecter)
Greg Olear is joined by consultant, commentator & writer Cliff Schecter, of the Blue Amp Channel. They discuss the current political climate, Nazis in Ohio, why the Dems would be crazy to not run Joe Biden again in ‘24, and...
03.03.2023
The Jokerfication of Tucker Carlson (with Kat Abughazaleh)
Kat Abughazaleh’s job at Media Matters For America, as she puts it in her Twitter bio, is to watch Tucker Carlson so we don’t have to. Greg Olear talks to her about MMFA’s mission, how she found herself watching many...
02.24.2023
Madoff Talk (with Jim Campbell)
Bernie Madoff ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history – and he ran it for decades before finally getting caught. Greg Olear talks to Jim Campbell, author of “Madoff Talks,” about how he got access to Bernie and his family,...

What's Prevail with Greg Olear about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Prevail with Greg Olear episodes:

Like Hell Matt Gaetz is Winning, and Other Tales of Danger Close (with Gal Suburban)

Active Learning Feedback Loop, or, Democracy Isn’t a Spectator Sport (with Robbie Harris)

Failures of the Reconstruction: The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic (with Manisha Sinha)

Robes Gallery: Clarence and Roberts and Brett, Oh My! (with Lisa Graves)

From Cowboy State to Christofascist State: Kevin Roberts, Wyoming, Project 2025, and the Spectre of a Second Trump Term (with Rone Tempest)

Around the World in 80 Minutes (with Alexandra Hall Hall)

Feelingsball: The Leonard Leo Industrial Complex, SCOTUS Nihilism, and the Doctrine of Sad (with Dahlia Lithwick)

Trickling Down: How the Anti-Tax Movement Hijacked America (with Michael Graetz)

All About Leonard Leo, the Reactionary Legal Activist, Radical Catholic Zealot & Dark Money Maestro Who Captured the Supreme Court (with Tom Carter)

Dispatches from the Road (with Diana Spechler)

Covert World War III, or, Operation Gemcrusher (with Aja Raden)

Cheerios or Death (with Brynn Tannehill)

Making It in America (with Rachel Slade)

America/America, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Presidential Suite at the Ritz-Carlton Moscow (with Steven Beschloss)

Red Caesar (with Will Bunch)

Lawyers, Guns, and Money (with Jack Bryan)

The War We Never Wanted (with Elisa Albert)

The Age of Disorder (with Jason Pack)

Chaos Crescendo (with Cheri Jacobus)

Reprise: The Trauma Vortex (with Claudia Black)

Competing Realities: 24/7 Politics & the Rise of Cable News (with Kathryn Cramer Brownell)

Russia Goes Scorched Earth in Kherson (with Zarina Zabrisky)

A Fabulous Failure (with Nelson Lichtenstein)

The World is Ruled by Wounded People Wounding Us (with Ronlyn Domingue)

The Rush Limbaugh of the Left (with Tony Michaels)

Crimean War and Peace (with Elina Beketova)

How to Wreck a Democracy (with Ruth Ben-Ghiat)

The Only Way to Tell the Future is After It Happens (with Denver Riggleman)

SEASON FINALE: Rhetorical Questions (with Jennifer Mercieca)

Too Big To Care: Containing Big Tech (with Tom Kemp)

What Is Corruption? (with Alex Aronson)

KHive & The Reelection Rundown (with Candidly Tiff)

Reprise: Dead Pimps & Tucker Carlson’s Long Slide (with Nia Molinari)

Notes on the Trump Indictment (with Gal Suburban)

The Trump Tower Meeting Was Seven Years Ago Today (with Cliff Schecter)

Making it in the USA, or, Building Back Better (with Rachel Slade)

Not All Doom (with Arthur Snell)

Reprise - Rapid Fire: The Pathway to Violence (with Shavaun Scott)

International Intrigue (with John Fowler)

Succession: The King & Comedy (with Will Sebag-Montefiore)

Keepin’ It Real (with Elwood Watson)

BONUS SPECIAL: The Five 8, “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” (with Stephanie Koff)

"Jin, Jiyan, Azadî!" | Protests in Iran (with Samira Ghaderi)

Uh-Oh, Canada (with Max Fawcett)

Between the Shaman and the Microchip (with Mark Plotkin)

Nothing Lasts Forever (with Aja Raden)

Settling Scores: F*ck Giuliani (with Nia Molinari)

Biden Or Bust & What’s Up With Ohio (with Cliff Schecter)

The Jokerfication of Tucker Carlson (with Kat Abughazaleh)

Madoff Talk (with Jim Campbell)