Know Your Enemy #8: Koch’d Out
Know Your Enemy #8: Koch’d Out
How did ultra-wealthy families like the Kochs, Scaifes, Olins, and Bradleys use their fortunes to reshape American politics?
Know Your Enemy is a new podcast about the American right co-hosted by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell. Read more about it here. You can subscribe, rate, and review to the show on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, and receive bonus content by supporting the podcast on Patreon.
In honor of David Koch’s passing, Matt and Sam delve into the world of right-wing money. How did ultra-wealthy families like the Kochs, Scaifes, Olins, and Bradleys use their fortunes to reshape American politics?
With the help of Jane Mayer’s essential 2016 book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, your hosts explore the world of right-wing philanthropy and the institutions—from centers at universities to think tanks in Washington, D.C.—it has funded. What emerges is a startling history of how a small group of incredibly rich families used novel techniques to shelter their wealth from taxation and fund a right-wing takeover of American politics.
Other sources cited and consulted:
- Theda Skocpol, “Who Owns the GOP?” (a critical review of Mayer in Dissent)
- Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
- Amanda Hollis-Brusky and Calvin Terbeek, “The Federalist Society Says It’s Not an Advocacy Organization. These Documents Show Otherwise.” Politico
- Mark Schmidt “The Legend of the Powell Memo,” The American Prospect
- Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet (1833)
