Show Notes
What if the FBI invented a fake billionaire just to see which politicians would sell their office?
In this episode of Executive Dysfunction, Amanda Nelson tells the unbelievable true story of ABSCAM, the undercover operation that caught members of Congress accepting bags of cash on hidden camera. It's a story about corruption, accountability, and the uncomfortable question that still haunts American politics: Is the problem bad actors, or a system that lets them believe they'll never get caught?
We’re always looking for new opportunities to partner with creators, companies, politicians, and organizations that share our mission. If you’re interested in partnering with us to help reshape the national conversation — get in touch! @wearefindout
More from Executive Dysfunction
In the season finale of Executive Dysfunction, Amanda Nelson tells the story of the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when a massive labor movement in Chicago collided with police violence, a mysterious bombing, and a trial that put anarchism itself on the stand. Eight men were convicted despite no proof that any of them threw the bomb, and four were ultimately executed.
In this episode of Executive Dysfunction, Amanda Nelson traces the birth of America's two-party system, from the bitter feud between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson to newspaper propaganda, congressional brawls, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the first constitutional crisis over a presidential election. Along the way, she reveals how fights over slavery, wealth, and foreign policy hardened into the partisan warfare that still defines American politics today.
Who was America's most anti-First Amendment president? It wasn't Richard Nixon. It wasn't Donald Trump. It was Woodrow Wilson.
Welcome to Season 1, Episode 1 of Executive Dysfunction: a deep dive into the presidential election of 2000, in which a butterfly ballot, a discriminatory voter purge, a staged riot by dorks in khaki, and a Supreme Court ruling that its own authors said should never be used as precedent combined to hand the presidency to George W. Bush...by 537 votes in Florida. Oh, and did we mention his brother was Governor? We’re always looking for new opportunities to partner with creators, companies, politicians, and organizations that share our mission. If you’re interested in partnering with us to help reshape the national conversation — get in touch! @wearefindout
History doesn't stay in the past—it keeps shaping the present.