The World Beneath

LB sits down with author Jason Fagone to discuss his extraordinary book "The Woman Who Smashed Codes", and what we all can learn from the life and work ethic of our heroine, Elizebeth Friedman.

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The underworld re-organizes after the departure of Lucky Luciano. Elizebeth and William set down their swords and go gently into the good night. And Meyer Lansky's old business fronts lead us right to a modern President's old fixer. 

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LB sits down with author and investigative journalist, Craig Unger, and former KGB agent Yuri Shvets - Unger's source for his deep dives on Donald Trump's Kremlin history before the Presidency, and career money-laundering for Putin's mobligarchs.

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Elizebeth breaks the German enigma machine - twice, and defends the Western Hemisphere from an Axis invasion. The extensive clandestine intelligence operation she ran during World War 2 has finally rightfully been attributed to her, despite the machinations and thievery of the man who hijacked her legacy as his own - J Edgar Hoover.

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LB does the important work of asking dumb questions about spies, so that we can all learn the meaning and value of counter-intelligence from the former assistant director of that division at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi.

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The President that Lucky Luciano put into office transforms into the leader a world at war needs. Meyer protects the homefront by taking on Hitler's American Bund and living rent-free in that monster's head. And Lucky finds his way into the sacred hen house - US intelligence, walking away with all of the eggs.

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Eunice Carter was the first woman prosecutor to take on the mob, and Jill Wine-Banks followed her lead to become the first to take on a President. LB sits down with the legend to discuss what it's like to be a woman warrior in the ultimate inner sanctum of male power.

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Thanks to a woman prosecutor, Lucky Luciano finally faces the long arm of the law. And with a second world war on the horizon, the stage is set for the realms of mobsters and spies to cross the rubicon… and become partners. 

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When crime lords, or their puppets, find their way into political office, the worst of mankind is unleashed. LB sits down with scholar and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat to talk Mussolini and Hitler, the techniques and circumstances that lead to a Strongman's rise, and the devasting parallals and symbiosis they have with mob bosses - past and present.

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Two gangland hits propel Meyer and Lucky to the top of the world they helped create; while Elizebeth's investigations show a darker product being shipped through their smuggling empire. One that would only grow with Prohibition's repeal, and ravage our families and communities for generations to come.

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