This week, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the new charges brought against Jeffrey Epstein, a former financial manager who socialized with prominent figures, like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Larry Summers, and Woody Allen.

Both address how the U.S. establishment press should have been more diligent in covering this case, especially as the #MeToo movement spread in 2017. Even though the Miami Herald published a major feature on disgraced former labor secretary Alex Acosta's role in shielding Epstein, there was not much interest in the case, even as survivors of his crimes pushed prosecutors to correct the injustice they had done in Florida.

Later in the show, the hosts talk about further evidence of a possible mass extinction event as a result of ocean acidification. They highlight about the casual indifference toward the very real threat of climate disruption.

The show ends with a discussion about past guest and friend Aaron Maté, who appeared on Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News and was shamed for it on Twitter.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Katie Halper of "The Katie Halper Show." She is a writer and contributor to FAIR. Her work has appeared at various outlets like The Nation, New York Magazine, etc.

During the show, Katie, Rania, and Kevin cover many of the highlights from the first 2020 Democratic presidential debate—and then some moments that have gone under-reported and have not been discussed. They critique the . format.

Katie gets into the media bias on display against Bernie Sanders. They talk about John Hickenlooper and John Delaney and how evident it is that Sanders has pulled debates over within the Democratic Party to the left.

Later in the show, they celebrate Kamala Harris using her rhetorical talents to go after Biden over segregation and racism. Other Biden moments are discussed, like how he praised himself for passing a bill with Mitch McConnell that made the Bush tax cuts permanent as well as how he falsely claimed he ended the Iraq War.

Rania shares her view on why U.S. foreign policy was so overlooked in the debate, and they talk about the right-wing politics of Miami residents—particularly those from Latin American countries.  

*Note: This show is typically posted on Sunday. It is published early while what happened in the first debate is still somewhat of a fresh topic of interest. Enjoy!

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Gareth Porter, an award-winning journalist whose work has been published at Salon, The Nation, and Consortium News.

He is the author of "Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story Of the Iran Nuclear Scare," which was published in 2014.

Gareth talks with the hosts about what we know about the incident that allegedly occurred against a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which President Donald Trump's administration says was attacked by Iran. He outlines what the Trump administration has not proven and some of the many questions that should be answered.

He reacts to news of Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone and addresses how Trump seems to be the only prominent official in the White House reluctant to go to war against Iran.

And later in the show, Gareth discusses what a war with Iran would look like and why the U.S. military remains extremely reluctant to commit troops and resources to an open-ended conflict.

For this week's episode, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview a researcher for Food and Water Watch named Oakley Shelton-Thomas. He worked on the organization's recent report, "Fracking Endgame: Locked Into Plastics, Pollution, and Climate Chaos."

The report describes how fossil fuel companies are building a "wave of new gas-fired power plants" and relying on the proliferation of plastics plants to prop up business. Industry is propping up the fracking industry.

"Our latest research shows that their endgame is a world locked into plastics, pollu-ion and climate chaos. In addition to the buildout of a growing pipeline network, we’ve discovered that more than 700 new facilities have been built or proposed to capitalize off a glut of cheap fracked gas," according to the report.

In the organization's assessment, "These new projects [will] bring dangerous air pollutants associated with heightened cancer risks and respiratory illnesses, and color where they are most commonly located."

"If even a fraction of them come to fruition, they will condemn the planet to a future of climate chaos," the report declares.

Later in the show, the hosts stick with the issue of climate change and discuss a report from Brown University's "Cost Of War" project that details how the Pentagon is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases.

They conclude the show by highlighting Bernie Sanders' "Democratic Socialism" speech and some of the reactions to the speech among Democratic presidential candidates and establishment media.

Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss YouTube's purge of users, which was sparked by several complaints from Vox's Carlos Maza about right-wing vlogger Steven Crowder. They specifically highlight several examples of educational videos on Nazis and right-wing ideology that were taken down as part of the purge and once again share their concerns about encouraging Big Tech companies to make censorship decisions.

They respond to a patron's question about insane conspiracy theories and how seemingly respectable, level-headed, or smart people may come to believe such theories.

And since Rania finally watched all of the last season of "Veep," the show ends with a conversation about this unapologetic political satire, which they both enjoyed greatly and will miss.

For this week's episode, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola begin the show by covering the superseding indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He became the first publisher in United States history to be charged with violating the Espionage Act, a development that was met with immediate condemnation from news editors and press freedom groups.

The rest of the show is spent responding to questions and comments submitted by patrons of the show.

Rania and Kevin go through many of the reasons why Joe Biden should not be doing so well in Democratic presidential primary polls.

They also talk about the latest cycle of allegations related to the Syrian conflict and their significance, as well as the intensifying efforts on the part of President Trump's administration to provoke war with Iran.

For this week's episode, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss how officials in President Donald Trump's administration are threatening Iran with war. They talk about the raid against the Venezuela embassy in D.C., where four remaining embassy protectors were arrested in flagrant violation of international law.

Later in the show, Kevin comments on the latest prosecution of a drone whistleblower, who allegedly released the "Drone Papers" to The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill.

On this week's show, we have a crossover between the "Unauthorized Disclosure" weekly podcast and "Media Roots" radio.

In the first part of the show, we talk with Abby Martin and Robbie Martin of Media Roots about some of the projects they're involved in currently. Abby tells us about "Empire Files." Robbie mentions he is working on another documentary in his "A Very Heavy Agenda" series on neoconservatives.

Both Rania and Kevin talk about some of their recent work. Rania highlights a recent project for "In The Now." Kevin shares some of the work he is doing to cover Julian Assange's case.

Later in the show, they talk about the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to force regime change in Venezuela, as well as the right-wing attacks backed by law enforcement against the Venezuela embassy in Washington, D.C.

***

This was a reward show for patrons who helped "Unauthorized Disclosure" reach a 200-patron milestone a few months ago. Rania and Kevin had Abby and Robbie record an additional segment entirely for patrons, where they talked about the threat of censorship and other media issues.

If you would like to hear this segment, become a patron.

If you are already a patron, go here to listen.

Thanks again to all of our wonderful patrons who help make our show a continued success, and thanks to Abby and Robbie for helping us make this week's episode possible. We plan to join forces on a more regular basis.

For this week's episode, Mark Weisbrot, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, joins the show to discuss a paper he co-authored on United States sanctions against Venezuela.

The paper—released in April—showed at least 40,000 people died between 2017 and 2018 from sanctions. That was before Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido claimed he was Venezuela's true president and mounted a coup that that has persisted for the past months. Tens of thousands of more people in Venezuela will die as a result of recent sanctions.

During the interview, Weisbrot outlines some of the biggest impacts to the Venezuela economy, as well as how imports of essential medicines and medical equipment have been cutoff.

Weisbrot compares the Trump sanctions to sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama.

Later in the show, Weisbrot highlights a chief goal of the sanctions: to inflict pain and suffering and breed discontent among the people that results in the military turning against President Nicolas Maduro.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared on March 11, 2019, "The circle is tightening, the humanitarian crisis is increasing by the hour. I talked with our senior person on the ground there in Venezuela last night, at 7:00 or 8:00 last night. You can see the increasing pain and suffering that the Venezuelan people are suffering from."

The action on April 30 was viewed by many news outlets as a new attempt at a coup. However, it was part of a slow-motion, aggressive, and sometimes erratic push for regime change since January.

The attempt, one of several over the last few months, failed yet again. It by no means will be the last attempt, and every day this continues more Venezuelans will die.

Charles Derber is a professor of sociology at Boston College. He is currently collaborating on some work with Noam Chomsky, and he joins the "Unauthorized Disclosure" weekly podcast to discuss a book he co-authored, "Moving Beyond Fear: Upending the Security Tales in Capitalism, Fascism, and Democracy."

The book outlines how elites manufacture security stories and protect their own wealth and power. Derber describes how this method of managing populations goes all the way back to the days of feudalism.

While it is abundantly clear how President Donald Trump names so-called enemies to solidify control over his base, it may be less obvious how establishment Democrats use this method to protect their power as well. Derber assesses how Democrats wield security stories and why they may find them useful.

Later in the show, Derber talks about the role of the "professional managerial class" and the reality that elites ignore particular threats that are real because to acknowledge them would threaten their power.