The Oh, Hello and

Welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood. Today the journalist Alex

Koch talks about the Koch funded academic network and the political

economist Alfredo Saad Philo updates us in the political and economic crisis in Brazil.

First, the Koch brothers and their campus network.

Recently, some writers in the left have been arguing that we're paying too much attention to academic

politics which is somehow a distraction from real politics.

It's amazing how little liberals and leftist have learned from the long-term success of the

right.

Reactionary philanthropists, led by the infamous Charles Koch and his family foundation,

have had their eyes on transforming academic discourse for years.

They've created a vast network of institutes, think tanks, and

scholars to promote their cause. My guest of several weeks ago, the historian

Nancy McClain has gotten the taste of its breadth and power. Her book Democracy and Change is an examination of that

right-wing scholarly network. Over the last couple of weeks she's been relentlessly

attacked by the Koch-funded network she criticized. The journalist Alice Kach, a freelancer when he wrote his articles

mostly for alternate and now a reporter for International Business Times, has been investigating

these reactionary academic warriors. Here he is to report, Alex Koch.

Welcome, Alex. I'm sure you're familiar with the attacks on Nancy McLean after her book

came out. Quite a cast of characters with very similar critiques. As someone who studied this coke network, what did you

make of this?

Well, you know, it wasn't surprising that a lot of the people who benefit from the coke

...