Show Notes
Ralph welcomes, Robert Weissman co-president of Public Citizen, to discuss his Senate testimony about the many ways the Trump Administration’s assault on fraud is itself fraudulent. Plus, Ralph informs us of a report from Aljazeera about the MK-84 weapon the IDF is using in Gaza that is designed to generate so much heat it literally vaporizes people.
Robert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the president of Public Citizen, he has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy. Every American should be worried about fraud. So it’s fine for the committee to be talking about fraud, but it should be based on actual facts and what’s actually happening, which is not what’s going on with this focus on Minnesota… And without a doubt, if the concern is about fraud in the public or the private economy right now, the number one problem with fraud is the Trump administration. Robert Weissman
Thanks to the Supreme Court decision on Presidential immunity, Trump believes (correctly) that he will not be held criminally accountable for anything that he does while he’s President. And that is true so long as that Supreme Court decision stands. And I think it’s fair to say that basically everyone who’s working for him right now—who I think are committing all kinds of crimes, including through the sale of pardons and through the outrageous use of ICE in Minnesota and around the country—I think they expect they’re going to get pardoned before he goes. So I think they think they too will be (and they’re probably not wrong in expecting it) that they too will be immune from criminal prosecution (at least federal criminal prosecution) for any crimes they commit while they’re in the administration. Robert Weissman
In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis News 2/13/26 * Our top stories this week concern the Jeffrey Epstein case. According to POLITICO, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who, along with Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has led the charge to release the Epstein files, “took to the House floor Tuesday and read aloud the names of six ‘wealthy, powerful men’ whose names were originally redacted,” in the files. These names include billionaire Victoria’s Secret owner Leslie Wexner, Emirati shipping magnate Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, and Italian politician Nicola Caputo, among other more mysterious figures like Salvatore Nuara and Leonic Leonov. Khanna used congressional representatives’ unique power under the speech and debate clause to make these names public, after combing through the files personally along with Rep. Massie. Khanna added “if we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3 million files.” * Speaking of hiding names in the files, Axios reports that Representative Jamie Raskin stated that “when he searched President Trump’s name in the unredacted Epstein files… it came up ‘more than a million times.’” The implication of this statement is clear: Trump’s cronies in the Justice Department are covering up the extent of Trump’s relationship and involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. Another member of the administration, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, admitted under Senate questioning that he had lunch with Epstein on his island, along with his family, claiming he “could not recall” why they did. The administration is allowing members of Congress to view the unredacted files within certain hours via a database they describe as confusing, unreliable, and clunky. * Another surprising revelation from the files is that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries apparently solicited campaign donations from Epstein back in 2013. According to MSN, Epstein received a campaign solicitation via email from a fundraising
More from Ralph Nader Radio Hour
Ralph speaks to Peter Maybarduk of Public Citizen about how the Trump Administration's drug pricing deals favor Big Pharma. Then, some advice for progressive candidates from Ralph and former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green.
Ralph welcomes Dr. Alison Galvani, the founding director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis, and co-author of the forthcoming article, “Projected Economic Gains and Lives Saved Under Universal Health Care in the United States.” Then our constitutional law expert, Bruce Fein, stops by to tell us about a letter he and Ralph sent to states Attorneys General urging them to prosecute Donald Trump for exhorting his followers to commit voter fraud in the forthcoming midterm congressional elections. Finally, we respond to your feedback on how to be a smart voter. Alison Galvani is the founding director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis and the Burnett and Stender Families Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine. She has applied her modelling and health economics skills to address public health challenges including HIV/AIDS, Zika, Ebola, influenza, and COVID-19. And she is co-author of the forthcoming article “Projected economic gains and lives saved under universal healthcare in the United States.” We analyze the American healthcare system as a national balance sheet. And on one side of the ledger, we have: covering the uninsured and expanding care for the uninsured (that costs money). And we took into account that utilization will increase for people that currently have inadequate health care… And when we initially started looking at this in 2019…I anticipated a hefty price tag as well. Our work has focused on the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of public health policy in the US and around the world, and usually we’re asking: How much will it cost to save lives? And we rarely get a no-brainer where you save money and you’re saving lives. Alison Galvani
Ralph speaks to Dr. Feroze Sidhwa for an update on the death toll in Gaza as well as the new documentary film “American Doctor.” Then Ralph and economic William Lazonick discuss Nvidia’s planned $235 billion stock buyback. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a general, trauma, and critical care surgeon in California. He is also a humanitarian surgeon who has worked in Palestine, Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso. He most recently volunteered at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Gaza. He was blocked from entering Gaza by Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service in November 2025. His work in Gaza is featured in the new documentary film American Doctor. If I’m remembering the exact time right, March of 2016 was the deadliest month for children that [Airwars] had ever studied anywhere—so that’s the 31 days of March of 2016. In the first 25 days of the US-Israeli assault on Gaza, the rate of killing of children was 71 to 142 times higher than in the deadliest month they had ever studied for children anywhere else. And just to put these numbers in a little bit of perspective…If you look at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine versus Israel’s invasion of Gaza, Russian forces killed the same percentage of children in Ukraine in 10 months as the US and Israel kill in Gaza every 18 to 37 hours. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa
Ralph welcomes Mary Berry the daughter of the late American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer, Wendell Berry. Ms. Berry runs the non-profit Berry Center in New Castle, Kentucky, which serves as a repository for the study of small farm agriculture and preserves the legacy of her family’s work. Then, with the midterms on the horizon, Ralph and the team talk about how to be a smart voter. Plus, Ralph has some choice words for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s so-called “Free Enterprise Express.” Leave a comment about how you are a smart voter. We will collect these and discuss them on our next program. Click the button below to get Professor Laura Nader’s book Controlling Processes.
Ralph welcomes “New York Times” reporter Natasha Singer to discuss her new book, “Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools.” Then, Ralph talks about Donald Trump’s midterm convention speeches and the latest impeachment drive with Constitutional law expert Bruce Fein. Natasha Singer is a New York Times reporter covering the intersection of technology, business and education. She has covered tech industry influence in schools for the New York Times for more than a decade, and her school tech reporting helped prompt California to enact a landmark student online data protection law. In 2019, she was part of a Times team whose tech coverage won a George Polk Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting. She is also the author of the book Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools. It’s not about the companies immediately making money off schools. It’s about influencing kids, getting customers early and for life. But I think more importantly, it’s about imprinting Silicon Valley worldviews and values on young people. So that you get docile consumers who maybe aren’t worried about wholesale surveillance and data gathering, and docile employees who are not going to push back against being surveilled by their employer or using AI tools or having AI replace them. And so I think this story about tech companies capturing the classroom is not just about how they’re shaping learning. It’s about how some of the most powerful, wealthiest corporations on the planet are able to influence school systems. Natasha Singer