This week we’re sharing an excerpt of the first episode of our new investigative series Master Plan, which was recently named a must-listen by The Guardian and Apple Podcasts.

In each episode of Master Plan, The Lever’s David Sirota and his team of journalists expose the secret scheme that legalized corruption for the wealthy. With the help of never-before-reported documents, we’ll look back at where this plot began, how it is accelerating in the 2024 election - and how it can be stopped. 

In this epic tale, you’ll learn things you never knew about icons like President Richard Nixon, Senator Mitch McConnell, Fox News founder Roger Ailes, and Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito. You’ll learn how their master plan to legalize corruption affects you and your family - and undermines American democracy today. 

Listen now to the full first episodes of Master Plan and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to our Premium feed to hear episodes early and exclusive bonus content.

Josh and Dave are joined by journalist and media expert John Knefel to discuss how the conservative propaganda operation PragerU landed a major new partnership with Florida’s public schools.

For the final episode of The Audit season three, Dave and Josh are joined by comedian and actor Wyatt Cenac. These old-school chums engage in a wide-ranging exploration of their favorite PragerU topics, including abortion, climate change, guns, pornography, and “woke” investing.

PragerU videos discussed this week:

• Why Do You Hate Conservatives?
• ESG: Woke to Broke 

For Star Trek fans out there, here’s a link to the Bad Faith podcast episode where Wyatt and Josh debate whether or not the Federation is a space navy.

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

In this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh join forces with Andrew Perez, investigative reporter from The Lever, to delve deeper into the financial underpinnings of PragerU. 

The three review, with horror, the organization’s fawning and unhinged interview with Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who donates millions to PragerU. Dave and Josh also recount their mission to obtain PragerU’s tax documents, which leads to an unexpected face-to-face encounter. Finally, the episode also discusses how right-wing media outlets provoked the extremist assault on the Glendale Unified School District.

Videos discussed:

• Who Is Dennis Prager?
• Bernie Marcus's Impact on the Success of The Home Depot

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh submit their supple minds to the mental libido of Dennis Prager, whose “fireside chat” video about the sexual nature of “men versus women” exposes the ugly truths about the many regressive cravings of modern conservatism. Joined by guests Will Menaker of Chapo Trap House and Kath Krueger of Discourse Blog (43:22), this episode will require that you too repress your urges — to laugh! 

Also discussed: The Joe Rogan anti-vax “debate-gate” controversy (5:10). Here’s the link to the referenced Naomi Klein article on RFK Jr. Here's the link to the PragerU article Will mentions.

PragerU videos viewed this week:

• Sex and Human Nature (A “Fireside Chat” with Dennis) 
• Woke War on Reality 

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh are in the back of the classroom with comedian and TV writer Lisa Curry (38:29) to consider a pair of PragerU videos about the male identity. Listening to conservative white men trying to give sex and relationship advice to young people is both hilarious and enlightening for what it reveals about today’s national political conversation. You can follow Lisa on Instagram @olympianlisacurry and on Twitter @lisa_curry. 

Videos discussed this week:

• The Sexiest Man Alive by Jim Geraghty of National Review 
• Why Are so Many Young People Unhappy by Dennis Prager

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

On this week’s episode of The Audit, comedian, writer, and political commentator Katie Halper joins hosts Dave and Josh to react to PragerU’s videos on race, liberalism, and affirmative action.

PragerU wants to teach you about the American Left. To gauge the results, the team discusses the organization’s political explainers — covering what they get right and wrong, and pondering who is the last best hope for Earth. The group also discusses how conservatives view the liberal media industry, and the trio level their own criticisms against mainstream corporate pundits. 

PragerU videos we discussed this week:

•  Left or Liberal?
• Can You Trust the Press?

Katie currently hosts The Katie Halper Show and Useful Idiots.

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

This week, journalist and activist Naomi Klein joins Dave and Josh as a special guest to look under the hood of several PragerU “educational” videos that offer a conservative spin on the topics of climate science and green technologies. 

Klein, who has authored several influential books (including This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate), points out how the fossil fuel-funded groups behind videos like these have shifted tactics in the years since COVID, moving from a strategy of “hard denialism” to one that centers on the rhetoric of “personal freedoms.”

Here are the PragerU videos discussed with Naomi Klein this week:

• Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say? (2016)
• What's the Deal with the Green New Deal? (2019)

Dave and Josh also have a lengthy discussion about the recent Vanity Fair exposé detailing the culture of fear that surrounded the actors and TV writers on the landmark mystery series Lost. The article sheds light on many of the same toxic Hollywood workplace issues being raised in the current Writers Guild of America strike. (Here's TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s follow-up statement responding to the article.) 

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh cover Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement and observe that GOP politics are mostly a match-up between manly “right-wing lunatics” against “nerds and dorks.” 

Despite their differences, all Republican campaigns seem to agree that homelessness in cities is the fault of Democrats, woke liberals, and the unhoused people themselves. PragerU videos are an excellent resource for observing exactly how conservative activists are reframing complex social issues like homelessness and addiction into black-and-white talking-points about “compassion brigades” and reductive policy that evades real solutions. 

Special guest Josh Androsky — a Los Angeles-based comedian, organizer and leftist political advisor — joins the fray to scrutinize one (highly dramatic) short documentary produced by a conservative think-tank that aims to reveal the “reality” of LA’s homelessness problem.

PragerU videos we discussed this week:

• The documentary about how the right wants to fix homelessness

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Bill Maher is all the rage over at PragerU. On this week’s episode of The Audit, Dave and Josh look at why PragerU regularly uses video clips featuring the comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher for their more hard-line conservative screeds on race, culture, and economics. 

They are joined by special guest Gareth Reynolds, a comedian, writer, and co-host (along with Dave) of The Dollop podcast. The crew discusses the “Bill Maher bubble,” cranky old men, reanimating Martin Luther King Jr., North Korea, and Mr. Potato Head.

PragerU videos discussed this week:

• Bill Maher: Americans Take A Look At What Real Oppression Looks Like 
• Bill Maher Blasts Gen Z and Millennial Leftists: "Your Ideas Are Stupid. 
• Bill Maher Calls Out Woke Indoctrination in Schools 
• Bill Maher: "We Live in an Arrogant Society" 

If you’d like to support this show, head over to www.levernews.com/audit/ and leave a tip for Dave and Josh. To get access to Lever Premium Podcasts, and all the other benefits of a paid subscription, click here. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.