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Power Corrupts

Brian Klaas

47 episodes · in order

Does power corrupt? Absolutely. This is the podcast about the hidden—and often nefarious—forces that shape our world. Election rigging. Smuggling. Narcopolitics. Ransom. Conspiracy Theories. North Korean bank heists. Cults. Drug Lords. Voodoo. Money laundering. Assassinations. Unhinged conspiracy theories. Unbelievable stories. Stitched together with the help of world-leading experts. Created and narrated by Dr. Brian Klaas, a political scientist and columnist for The Washington Post.

More about the show

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Episodes

  1. Introducing Power Corrupts

    · 2:25 · Trailer

    Does power corrupt? Absolutely. This is the podcast about the hidden—and often nefarious—forces that shape our world. Election rigging. Smuggling. Narcopolitics. Ransom. Conspiracy Theories. North Korean bank heists.…

  2. How to Rig an Election

    · 51 min · S1 E1

    How do you rig an election—and get away with it? Why did a cult try to poison an entire county to win a local election? And what about using disappearing ink, or threatening arson, or name doubles? This episode shows…

  3. Conspiracy Theories

    · 56 min · S1 E2

    Why do some people believe unhinged conspiracy theories? How are they affecting our politics? How did insane theories—like QAnon—convert millions of people? Did John Kerry split a hurricane in half with a laser beam…

  4. Narcopolitics

    · 1 h 00 min · S1 E3

    How have drugs been used in warfare? Why does the cocaine in London nightclubs pass through a dictatorship in West Africa? Why did British soldiers get high on hallucinogens and try to talk to birds? How does heroin…

  5. Voodoo, Vampires, and General Butt Naked

    · 1 h 01 min · S1 E4

    Why did a West African rebel leader send his troops into battle completely naked, protected only by talismans? How did threats of voodoo and invisible zombies stave off a US invasion of Haiti? And why was a journalist…

  6. Disinformation and Deep Fakes

    · 55 min · S1 E5

    Disinformation is a powerful weapon. It forces your enemy to inflict damage upon themselves based upon lies that you've deliberately spread. How did a homeless man's corpse help win World War II? How does reality…

  7. Ransom

    · 53 min · S1 E6

    What's it like to be held by Somali pirates for 977 days? Or to meet your Dad for the first time after he's been held in a basement in Beirut for nearly 7 years? Are you more likely to be killed as a hostage if you're…

  8. Smuggling

    · 1 h 00 min · S1 E7

    What's the best way to smuggle a crocodile onto an airplane? What is the journey actually like for migrants getting smuggled from Afghanistan to Australia? Why is the European Union paying migrant smugglers in Niger to…

  9. International Arms Trade

    · 59 min · S1 E8

    Why did the war in Afghanistan hinge on the ability of a teenager to help buy 100 million bullets for the US military? Where do you even go to buy 100 million bullets? What are international arms dealers actually like?…

  10. Assassinations

    · 58 min · S1 E9

    Why did the CIA try to kill an African political leader with poisoned toothpaste? How did a sturdy couch save a leader from being killed during an elaborate plot involving a self-sinking boat and a collapsing ceiling?…

  11. Witnessing 283 Executions

    · 52 min · S1 E10

    What's something that you do every 2 weeks? For Michelle Lyons, over a span of 12 years, she watched someone get executed every two weeks in Texas. What are inmates like on their last day alive? Did she have misgivings…

  12. An Eye for an Eye?

    · 1 h 03 min · S1 E11

    Nick Yarris spent 22 years on death row. At one point, he even escaped. But then, right before he was slated to be executed, DNA evidence proved he was innocent. Is the death penalty justified? Can a just society…

  13. Blood Diamond / Blood Chocolate

    · 59 min · S1 E12

    Why are countries that are rich in natural resources so often poor and war-torn? You've probably heard of blood diamonds, but what about blood vanilla, blood microchips, or blood chocolate? How are rebels and…

  14. Dirty Cash In / Clean Cash Out

    · 51 min · S1 E13

    You've probably heard of money laundering, but how does it actually work? How did billions of dollars of dirty gold from South America become clean cash in Florida and Ohio? How do crooks launder money using video…

  15. Nukes

    · 53 min · S1 E14

    How did 2 guys you've never heard of save the world from nuclear apocalypse? Can nuclear weapons be hacked? What's the most consequential honeymoon in human history? Why was a British nuclear weapon designed to contain…

  16. Letters of Last Resort

    · 58 min · S1 E15

    The UK has a new prime minister. On his first day, Boris Johnson will handwrite four identical letters to the captains of Britain's nuclear submarines. They are one of the most closely guarded secrets of the British…

  17. From Dictator to Demigod

    · 1 h 02 min · S1 E16

    Why do dictators and despots create outlandish myths about themselves? Why spread lies claiming that you've written 18,000 books or that you personally invented hamburgers? Why waste millions on a golden statue of…

  18. The Greatest Heists You've Never Heard Of

    · 58 min · S1 E17

    When you think of heists, you probably think of masked men, bank robbers, and priceless art. But governments carry out heists, too. In this episode, we explore a billion dollar bank heist carried out by North Korean…

  19. The Anatomy of Evil

    · 1 h 07 min · S1 E18

    What makes ordinary people commit extraordinarily violent acts? Is it their brain chemistry? Social pressure? Or a charismatic leader telling them it's their patriotic duty? In this episode, we explore the morality of…

  20. Children of Monsters

    · 59 min · S1 E19

    To end our first season we look at Nepotism. What's it like to be the son or daughter of a dictator? Why did one dictator's son go from a high-flying life playing football in Italy to being shorn like a sheep in the…

  21. Power Corrupts Season 2: Coming February 6th 2020

    · 1:23 · Trailer

    Come explore the dark side of power as we travel across the globe meeting the often unsavory characters who inhabit the hidden world of mercenaries, propaganda, biological weapons, information warfare and trolls, dirty…

  22. The Dark Art of Propaganda

    · 59 min · S2 E1

    Propaganda has been around for thousands of years. But what separates the pros from the amateur propagandists? Why are North Korean radios made without dials? Who is Sister Potato and why is the Chinese government…

  23. Guns for Hire

    · 53 min · S2 E2

    Mercenaries are sometimes described as "the world's second oldest profession." But how do they operate today? Can mercenary armies topple dictatorships? Why did one mercenary plot get duped by a Congolese con artist…

  24. How to be a Dictator

    · 58 min · S2 E3

    If you're trying to consolidate power as a dictator, what's the best way to go about it? Is it better to be feared or loved? How do you eliminate your enemies? We'll speak to Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion…

  25. The Unthinkable Olive Branch

    · 58 min · S2 E4

    When a brutal dictatorship collapses, there's a big problem: everyone who knows how to run the government is someone who worked for the brutal dictator. It's a battle of pragmatism vs. justice. Should Nazi civil…

  26. The Godfather of Fake News

    · 53 min · S2 E5

    Christopher Blair has been called the Godfather of Fake News. He's an American troll. And whether you realized it or not, you've probably unknowingly read a fake news article that he's written, cooked up on his…

  27. Corruption in Plain Sight

    · 52 min · S2 E6

    Corruption is usually hidden. But sometimes, it's out in the open — either by design, or by incompetence. In this episode, we explore some unexpected hotspots of corruption and kleptocracy. How does a fugitive…

  28. Catastrophic Miscalculation

    · 1 h 00 min · S2 E7

    Have you ever made a catastrophic mistake? What if your mistakes could cause an empire to fall, a war to start, or thirty million people to starve to death? History and politics are defined by catastrophic…

  29. Pandemics

    · 52 min · S2 E8

    Pandemics are as old as human civilisation, from the Plague of Athens to mysterious diseases that ravaged armies throughout history. But there's a lot you probably don't know about them. Why did "dancing plagues" erupt…

  30. Revolutions

    · 55 min · S2 E9

    When revolutions happen, everything changes. In this episode, we'll look at why one revolution was launched when a rebel leader in southeast Asia started climbing trees; how Teddy Roosevelt's son led a CIA-backed coup…

  31. Biological Weapons

    · 50 min · S2 E10

    Pandemics are horrifying. But what if one could be unleashed deliberately? How did ancient armies from the Greeks to the Mongol hordes use germ warfare? Why did America conduct tests on unsuspecting people in New York…

  32. Power Corrupts Season 3: Returning 31st August 2021

    · 2:22 · S3 E1 · Bonus

    They say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But when it comes to the underworld of corruption, murder, and greed, from drug cartels to hackers to political psychopaths, what you see is often just…

  33. The Billion Dollar Shack

    · 42 min · S3 E1

    We all know that offshore areas of financial secrecy exist. In this episode, we're going to take a look at the origin story of one of them. It's a story that will make you question the caricature you probably have in…

  34. The Shell Game

    · 46 min · S3 E2

    When it comes to understanding the underworld of corruption and criminality, you can't just look at the rich crooks. You also have to look at the lawyers who help them dot the i's and cross the t's as they try to stash…

  35. Click Here To Kill Everybody

    · 49 min · S3 E3

    In early 2021, hackers infiltrated the software that controlled the city's water supply in Oldsmar, Florida. Through dumb luck, they caught the intrusion shortly after the hacker tried to poison the city's water. This…

  36. Do Not Disturb

    · 53 min · S3 E4

    Is going into exile safe any longer? A few years ago, a former Rwandan intelligence chief hiding out in exile was found strangled to death in a Johannesburg hotel room. Hanging on the door outside was a "Do Not…

  37. Fake IDs

    · 54 min · S3 E5

    Could you fake your death and get away with it? In this episode, we look at fake identities, from people who've tried to fake their own deaths to an audacious wine fraudster who made millions as he sold new wine in old…

  38. Hitman for Hire

    · 47 min · S3 E6

    What if you hacked a hitman-for-hire website and found out the identities of people who were slated to die before the murder? How much does it cost to hire a hitman on the Dark Web? And what if all of these supposed…

  39. Golden Handcuffs

    · 55 min · S3 E7

    Can doing the wrong thing ever be the right policy? That's a question we'll tackle this week as we look at the possibility of letting some very bad people get away with their crimes…in order to prevent them from…

  40. The Invisible Hook

    · 46 min · S3 E8

    Pirates can teach us quite a lot about democracy and economics. What can Blackbeard teach us about signaling theory? Why were pirates racially progressive for their era? And is it possible that pirate ships were…

  41. Walk the Plank

    · 35 min · S3 E9

    How do you capture a pirate after they've hijacked a ship? In today's episode, we look at two ingenious sting operations that managed to lure some pirates across borders to their arrest. And in the process, we'll see…

  42. War Criminal or Victim?

    · 54 min · S3 E10

    The International Criminal Court prosecutes perpetrators of horrific crimes. But what if the perpetrator is also a victim? That's the question we explore this week, with the disturbing tale of a child soldier who was…

  43. Does Power Corrupt?

    · 46 min · S3 E11 · Bonus

    The title of this podcast is Power Corrupts. But is that true? In this week's episode, host Brian Klaas has the microphone turned around on himself, as he's interviewed by Emma Nelson about his new book, Corruptible:…

  44. Corruptible: Audiobook Excerpt

    · 23 min · S3 E12

    This week's episode is an excerpt from the opening chapter of Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us. (If you pre-order the book or audiobook, you're eligible for a bonus episode of Power Corrupts that…

  45. Loot

    · 51 min · S3 E13

    Is it a crime to steal back something that was once yours? That's the question we'll tackle this week, as we look at a string of sophisticated art heists aimed at reclaiming some stolen heritage objects. And we'll…

  46. Space Wars

    · 43 min · S3 E14

    Is the next war going to happen in space? What are space weapons like, anyway? And why should we be worried about the space ventures of billionaires? In this episode, we look at the militarization of space, including…

  47. The Dark Side of AI

    · 55 min · S3 E15

    Artificial intelligence is the frontier of human innovation. But it has a dark side, too. In this episode, we explore how AI intersects with everything from criminology to creative writing -- and in the process, we see…

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