The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas. The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-ticket
episode 84: Paul Manafort and the Problem of White-Collar Crime
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will spend around seven years in federal prison — far less than the nineteen to twenty-four years recommended by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The sentences prompted a backlash when a federal judge in Virginia said Manafort deserved leniency for his “otherwise blameless life.”
But it’s not just the punishment that has people talking. Manafort’s crimes only came to light after the unlikely events that led to the Mueller investigation. Manafort’s own lawyer said as much this week: “but for” the 2016 election, his client wouldn’t have been in court. The episode has renewed questions that have been asked — if not answered — since the the 2008 financial crisis: Why are white-collar criminals so rarely prosecuted? And when they are, why do they seem to get off with lighter punishment?
Alex Wagner puts those questions to attorney and former federal prosecutor Ken White. White is the person behind @popehat on Twitter and the author of the recent Atlantic article: “6 Reasons Paul Manafort Got Off So Lightly.”
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