Master Plan

Silicon Valley's billionaires have amassed enormous economic and political power. Some have even embraced an ideology that sees democracy itself as an obstacle to progress. Now that Democrats are heading back into power in Washington, will they finally take on the broligarchy?

In Episode 2 of Don't F#*k It Up, Democrats, David Sirota examines the growing power of tech billionaires, the threat of an AI economic crisis, and what Democrats can do about it.

WATCH: The video version of this episode is available on The Lever's YouTube channel.

Journalist Gil Duran, author of The Nerd Reich, explains the anti-democratic movement emerging from Silicon Valley and why Democrats have been so slow to confront it. Then Saikat Chakrabarti, co-founder of Justice Democrats and former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, discusses how Democrats can rein in Big Tech, protect workers from AI disruption, and prevent a taxpayer bailout for tech billionaires if the AI boom goes bust.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The Age of the Broligarchy

02:27 Gil Duran: Inside the Nerd Reich

09:57 Why Tech Billionaires Want to Replace Democracy

16:28 Have Democrats Lost Silicon Valley?

23:47 How to Break the Tech Oligarchs' Power

28:34 Saikat Chakrabarti: The Coming AI Bailout

35:27 Will Washington Bail Out Big Tech Again?

40:55 AI Is Coming for Your Job. What's the Plan?

Get episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit levernews.com/upgrade

To leave a tip for The Lever, click here. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After losing big in 2024, Democrats have staged a historic comeback, riding a massive blue wave back into power in Washington. Now comes the bigger question: What will they do with it?

That's the idea behind Don't F#*k It Up, Democrats, a new video series from The Lever hosted by David Sirota.

WATCH: The video version of this episode is available on The Lever's YouTube channel.

In conversations with politicians, economists, activists, and political insiders, Sirota asks how Democrats can use whatever power they win — without repeating the mistakes that brought them here.

In Episode 1, we explore the civil war dividing the Democratic Party. As the party returns from the wilderness, will it once again bend to wealthy donors, or will it embrace voters’ populist demands, rebuild working-class trust, and finally deliver on its promises?

Joining Sirota are Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton and has become a leading progressive voice on economic inequality, and Patrick Gaspard, a longtime Democratic strategist and labor organizer who served as political director in Barack Obama's White House and recently advised Zohran Mamdani's successful mayoral campaign.

WATCH: The video version of this episode is available on The Lever's YouTube channel. Watch the series on YouTube.

CHAPTERS

0:00 A Note From Sirota

1:12 Democrats Have a Habit of Blowing It

4:50 Robert Reich: How Democrats Can Fight Back

10:53 The Democratic Party's Corporate Problem

15:46 How Do Democrats Avoid F#*king It Up?

23:13 Patrick Gaspard: What Democrats Got Wrong

30:16 When Billionaire Donors Call the Shots

34:52 What Democrats Can Learn From Zohran Mamdani

39:50 What Democrats Need to Deliver, Now

46:15 The Lesson Trump Taught Democrats

Get episodes early and ad-free by becoming a paid subscriber. Enjoy bonus episodes, exclusive content, and support this show. Visit levernews.com/upgrade

To leave a tip for The Lever, click here. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’ve probably heard of Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that helped unleash billionaire money into American elections. But few know the inside story of how a network of conservative lawyers and activists carefully orchestrated the case.

With the 2026 midterms just days away, we're revisiting Episode 9, “Going Big,” from Season 1 of Master Plan: Legalizing Corruption. We travel to Indiana to meet James Bopp Jr., the conservative lawyer who helped engineer the Citizens United case, and uncover how it evolved from a decades-long campaign to dismantle America's campaign finance laws — and how one particular Supreme Court justice pushed its impact far beyond what anyone anticipated.

Read the transcript and explore original archival documents from our investigation.

Want the full story? Get the book Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America, featuring additional reporting and material beyond the podcast. Lever subscribers save 20%, and new paid members receive a special offer.

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

To leave a tip for The Lever, click here. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the 2026 midterms approaching and billions of dollars flooding into American elections, we're revisiting one of our most popular episodes of Master Plan.

In 1971, corporate lawyer Lewis Powell wrote a manifesto explaining how corporations and oligarchs could fight back against New Deal-era reforms and use their money to hijack American politics. For decades, the Powell Memo seemed like an urban legend — until our investigation uncovered new details about the people behind it, and how the memo’s author snuck his radical ideology into the Supreme Court.

Read the transcript and explore original archival documents from our investigation.

Want the full story? Get the book Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America, featuring additional reporting and material beyond the podcast. Lever subscribers save 20%, and new paid members receive a special offer.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we are sharing the Season 3 premiere of The Future of Our Former Democracy, the Signal Award-winning podcast from More Equitable Democracy and Mori Strategies. The Future of Our Former Democracy has spent two seasons exploring what the U.S. can learn from democracies around the world, most recently Germany and then Ireland.

This season, host Colin Cole, Director of Policy, Outreach, and Communications at More Equitable Democracy, is joined by new co-host Ruth Greenwood, Director of Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic and proud Australian expat, as the show heads to the other side of the world.

Australia built its democracy using America’s blueprint, then kept innovating. Today, its elections are famously “boring, boring, boring,” and voters across the political spectrum trust the results in a way Americans rarely do.

With the 2026 midterms approaching and confidence in American democracy continuing to erode, Colin and Ruth explore why, with help from Dr. Marija Taflaga (Australian National University), Professor David Smith (University of Sydney), and Professor Thalia Anthony (University of Technology Sydney). Along the way, they ask a provocative question: if Australia learned from the United States, what can the United States learn from Australia?

Follow and listen to more episodes of The Future of Our Former Democracy here: https://play.megaphone.fm/lmfwb0zrqham8b4xmpo43q

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices