Episode 11: Paul Johnson - Challenging Inequalities

Episode 12: Gareth Gore - Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church

Gareth Gore has been investigating the secretive Catholic sect, Opus Dei, for years. His interest in the organization started when a Spanish bank collapsed in the early 2000’s. As a financial reporter he followed the money and realized that something besides poor judgement had caused the failure. His book was condemned by the leadership of Opus Dei but Pope Leo XIV asked him to the Vatican for a private meeting in March 2026.  In this interview we talk about his book Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.

Episode 11: Paul Johnson - Challenging Inequalities

Paul Johnson takes a look at the impact of economic inequalities in the US and the UK in his book Challenging Inequalities.

Episode 10: Ryan Griffiths - The Disunited States

In September of 2025 Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a national divorce arguing that Red and Blue states had so little in common it was time for them to part company.  She isn’t alone. There are secession movements on both the right and the left as polarization in the country is on the rise. But what would that entail? In his book The Disunited States Ryan D. Griffiths looks at how secession has played out in other countries and what it might look like in the United States.

Episode 9: Dean Spade - Love in a F*cked up World

There is an epidemic of loneliness in the United States. Alone, we watch the country slide away from democracy and toward dictatorship. We need to band together to fight for what had already been won.  Staying in it for the long run means learning how to get along with others. In his book Love in an F*ed- up World Dean Spade looks at how to build enduring private and public relationships for the work ahead.

Episode 8: Clara Mattei - Escape from Capitalism

What if we have it all wrong? We accept unemployment, inflation, low wages, lack of access to healthcare and education, periodic recessions, ecological collapse, food insecurity and endless wars as inevitable. The underlying belief in a market driven system is the bedrock of our economy. We’ve handed our lives and resources over to a mechanism that doesn’t value humans or their well-being. But humans created this system and humans can change it. In her book Escape From Capitalism Clara Mattei makes the case that we can build systems that serve people not the market. Her organization is the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation (freeforum.org).