I'm Hannah. I'm Sruti. And we sound tired, even though it is actually 2023 now. As you

listen to this, we are still in the past. We're getting ahead of the game. Happy New Year,

though. Happy New Year. Yeah. I hope your New Year's were pressure-free and fun as they

never are. But it is January 2023. For all of you. For us, it's still December. And we

are scheming to get out of the office and into pajamas with wine and fire. That is my entire

plan. But that's not the reason for the season when you're listening. It's January, it may

be you're a little bit hungover still. Who knows. But we're here to perk you up. Exactly.

Today, we are telling the story of a billionaire financier who sat atop an international

pyramid scheme of child exploitation. It took place over decades, involved hundreds

of victims and implicated some of the most powerful people in the world, from business

moguls to US presidents and British royalty. It sounds like some half-baked sensationist

conspiracy theory being furiously typed up on a black website in neon green font by

some tinfoil hat maniac screaming, Peterfile Island. And it would sound insane. If it wasn't,

it would be all true.

How did Jeffrey Epstein go from humble beginnings to Megapeto Numeruuno? Just how extensive was

his web of abuse. And how did he evade justice, time and time again?

And what happened in that jail cell in 2019? He's not dead.

To answer those questions, we have to start in Coney Island, New York, in 1953.

Seymour and Pauline Epstein had been married for just over a year when they welcomed Jeffrey

Edward Epstein into the world. When Seymour returned from fighting in the Second World War,

the family moved into an apartment in Seagate, a fenced off residential district on Coney

Island. For the uninitiated, Coney Island is an area of New York City in the southwest

...