Episodes

  • The Envelope Please

    The Envelope Please
    May 12 2026
    Every year, state attorneys general quietly negotiate billions in corporate settlement dollars with almost no oversight—money that rarely reaches the victims it's supposed to help. We follow the paper trail of where these legal windfalls actually go and who decides their fate. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    17 mins
  • The Zoning Wars

    The Zoning Wars
    May 11 2026
    Local planning boards wield extraordinary power over American lives—deciding who gets to live where, what businesses can operate, and how communities develop. But these seemingly mundane Tuesday night meetings have become battlegrounds where housing costs, racial segregation, and economic opportunity are determined by part-time volunteers most residents can't even name. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
  • The Sheriff's Rebellion

    The Sheriff's Rebellion
    May 10 2026
    When federal law meets local defiance, who really holds the power? We explore how county sheriffs across America have become unlikely kingmakers, wielding an obscure legal doctrine to nullify everything from gun laws to pandemic orders—and why Washington is surprisingly helpless to stop them. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    16 mins
  • The Paperwork That Runs America

    The Paperwork That Runs America
    May 9 2026
    While politicians fight over big bills, a handful of career bureaucrats quietly write the thousands of pages of regulations that actually govern your daily life. Meet the anonymous rule-writers whose technical decisions about everything from car safety to loan applications wield more practical power than most elected officials—and discover why industry lobbyists spend more time in their cubicles than in congressional offices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins
  • The Memo That Ate Democracy

    The Memo That Ate Democracy
    May 8 2026
    In 1995, a mid-level Justice Department lawyer named John Yoo wrote what seemed like routine legal advice about presidential war powers. Two decades later, that 42-page memo had been stretched into a constitutional theory that presidents could ignore Congress, surveil Americans without warrants, and detain citizens indefinitely. How a forgotten Office of Legal Counsel opinion became the blueprint for the imperial presidency—and why every administration since has quietly kept it in their back pocket. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
  • The Judge Who Broke the Internet

    The Judge Who Broke the Internet
    May 7 2026
    In 1996, a single federal judge's ruling on an obscure telecommunications law created Section 230—the 26 words that built the modern internet. Now Congress wants to tear it down, but they're discovering that dismantling the foundation of Big Tech might collapse everything else too. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    18 mins
  • The Comma That Killed Coal

    The Comma That Killed Coal
    May 6 2026
    How a single punctuation mark in the Clean Air Act became the legal foundation for the EPA's war on coal plants—and why industry lawyers spent decades missing the weapon hiding in plain sight. The story of how bureaucrats turned a 1970s-era pollution law into the government's most powerful climate tool, one semicolon at a time. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
  • The Trillion Dollar Typo

    The Trillion Dollar Typo
    May 5 2026
    How a seemingly minor drafting error in the Affordable Care Act created a multi-billion dollar legal battleground and nearly brought down the entire law. We trace the behind-the-scenes scramble as lawyers, bureaucrats, and politicians discovered that four missing words could unravel a decade of healthcare policy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins