Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American Scandal add-free on Amazon Music, download the app today.

I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Scandal.

Next week, we begin a new series looking into the politics of Albany, New York, and what some have called the cesspool of corruption that is business as usual there.

For almost 75 years, most of the big political decisions and especially the budget of the state of New York were decided in secret and apart from any democratic process by three men in a room.

These three men, the governor, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Assembly Speaker, hold the power in Albany. They're accustomed to getting things done their way.

So when freshly elected Elliott Spitzer comes into the governor's office in 2006 and announces everything changes, he is picking a fight.

It is one he will not survive, but his ignoble fall isn't the only one.

Today, we finish our series on the Balco scandal by talking with reporting team that broke the story for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003.

Lance Williams and Mark Fainter-Ruwada. They were there at the beginning, reporting on the IRS raid of Balco headquarters, and then the subsequent grand jury which had world famous athletes testifying under oath.

During the course of their reporting, they cultivated dozens of confidential sources that provided them tips, documents, recordings, and even the secret grand jury testimony of Barry Bonds and Jason Gianvi.

Lance Williams and Mark Fainter-Ruwada joined me from the studios at UC Berkeley.

Well done. You've sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me Rob Briden on my podcast.

In this series of Briden and I talk to among others, Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Charlotte Church, Steve Cougan, and Dame Harriet Walter.

And that's just a few. We tend to chat for about 45 minutes to an hour never longer. It's terrific conversation, reminiscent, sweat appropriate, and exchange of anecdotes.

So do join me Rob Briden wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of Briden and are available early and ad free on Amazon Music, or by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

I love my kid, but is a new comedy parenting podcast from Wondery that shares a refreshingly honest and insightful take on parenting.

Each week the host will share a parenting story that'll have you laughing and thinking, yes, I have absolutely been there.

Listen to, I love my kid, but on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

Lance Williams and Mark Faneur-Wanham, thank you so much for joining me today.

This has been a fantastic story and I'm really happy that we started our American Scandal podcast with this series because I think it sets a tone for not just what we tried to achieve in the podcast.

But it's just, it's just a fascinating epic with all sorts of characters. It's a story of fame, money, ambition, drugs.

But it's not just the story of Balco and performance enhancing drugs. In a large part, and why we're speaking to you, is it's a story of journalism.

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