Last Year on the PREVAIL Podcast...
A look at some of the program's 2023 highlights
There were 45 episodes of the PREVAIL podcast in calendar year 2023—the last few episodes of Season 4, all of Season 5, and most of Season 6.
As the show is on hiatus until next month, here are the ten most-downloaded episodes of last year, in no particular order, in case you missed a few. As usual, Gal Suburban appears more than once. She is the Taylor Swift of podcast guests.
S5 E3: 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 hours of primetime Fox News, what makes good content for the network, how Fox News coverage has changed since J6, all things Tucker Carlson, and Mike Huckabee’s Christofascist children’s books. Plus: a new song about a bad guy.
S4 E16: SEASON FINALE: Charley Horses in DeSantistan (with Gal Suburban)
In the Season Finale of S4 of PREVAIL, Greg Olear talks to ace OSINT researcher Gal Suburban about the J6 Committee, the sudden preponderance of classified documents, the slowness of the DOJ, McCarthy as Speaker, Jack Smith, George Santos’ Florida connections, Organic Fresh Coin, the importance of defense spending, Brazil, Mike Flynn, Ginni Thomas, roosters, and puppies. Plus: a new anthem for Florida.
S5 E5: 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 crime lord now in police custody, the strip club landscape in 1999 NYC and how it correlated to the politics of the various crime families, and Rudy’s shady dealings over the last four decades. Plus: a bank you KNOW ain’t woke.
S4 E14: There’s No Concert (with Moscow Never Sleeps)
The pseudonymous PREVAIL contributor Moscow Never Sleeps returns to the podcast. He talks to Greg Olear about Ron DeSantis in 2024, how NFTs are a perfect money laundering vehicle, SBF and the vanishing of all that money, Ginni Thomas, audits, and “The White Lotus.” Plus: Who?
S5 E2: 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, his contribution to the Netflix docu-series “Madoff: Monster of Wall Street,” the complexity of the Madoff scheme, the failure of the regulatory agencies to identify and stop the fraud, and the similarities and differences between Bernie Madoff and Sam Bankman-Fried. Plus: a new get-out-of-jail-free card.
S5 E20: 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, rhetoric as a field of study, rhetorical devices Trump uses, how fascists learn from each other, the power of nostalgia, conservative rhetoric, “search vs. research,” and what’s going on in Texas. Plus: indictment #3.
S6 E1: SEASON PREMIERE: 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 6th,” about his role on the Committee, the White House blackout the day of the insurrection, the deal with Mark Meadows, Executive Order 13848 and Trump’s attempt to pervert it, Ginni Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Patrick Byrne, Rick Perry, secret comms, and the new forever war.
S5 E16: 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.
S6 E2: 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 fascist, the extremist Texas GOP, secessions, the trucker convoy and the fascist threats in Canada, Meloni in Italy, the Vox party in Spain, and the power of nonviolent protest. Plus: Clash of the titan.
S5 E13: 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, and then headed the international strand of the UK Government’s Prevent counterterrorism program. He is currently a geopolitical consultant, author of “How Britain Broke the World,” and host of the hit podcast “Doomsday Watch” which has produced a new season that chronicles the history of the war in Ukraine. The far-ranging discussion goes from Eurovision to Rishi Sunak to the coronation to Mariupol. Plus: Seid hustles.
COMING UP TONIGHT:
A new live episode of The Five 8.
Great compilation, Greg. Hope you are enjoying your time off.
With you all the way, Greg. Hope you are at the end of your COVID woes.