Episode 539: Mitchell Prothero

Longform

Education, Arts, Books, News

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mitchell Prothero covers intelligence and crime for Vice News. His new podcast with Project Brazen is Gateway: Cocaine, Murder, and Dirty Money in Europe. “I’m really interested in transnational networks—crime, intelligence. I’m fascinated by the gray. Like, when is something legal and when is something illegal? One thing with this Gateway project [was that] nobody could ever tell me that moment where money goes from absolutely being illegal to being legal.” Show notes: @mitchprothero Prothero on Longform Prothero’s Vice archive 01:00 “Paintballing with Hezbollah” (Vice • March 2012) 01:00 “Inside the World of ISIS Investigations in Europe” (Buzzfeed News • Aug 2016) 36:00 “The Wild Story of the Psychic, the Sheikh and the $90 Million Diamond Heist” (Vice • June 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Longform Podcast. I am Aaron Lammer. I'm here with my co-host Max
0:15.0	Linsky and Evan Ratlett. Hey, Aaron. Evan, Aaron, hello. How are you? Aaron, who is on
0:20.9	the program? On the program today is Mitchell Protharo, someone who's byline I have been
0:27.4	enjoying for many years. In fact, I was able to rewind my Gmail to show that I had once invited
0:33.8	him on the show in 2013. That didn't work out, but this did. He's written for Vice, for Buzz
0:40.9	Feed News. He worked out of Iraq for a period. He wrote one story that has always stuck with
0:48.8	me where he went paintballing with members of Hezbollah. He is a foreign correspondent
0:54.9	and a war correspondent, but who I think brings sort of like a unique personal flavor to the
1:01.0	stories he does. His most recent project is called Gateway. It's with the podcast Studio Project
1:08.6	Brazen. It's about how Europe is becoming a narco state as various cocaine cartels have
1:20.0	come to influence politics, how the ports operate, and it kind of centers mostly around
1:27.0	this Moroccan gang that operates out of the Netherlands. The leader is now on trial. There's
1:34.0	been threats against politicians. A journalist was assassinated. It's turned into a pretty
1:40.3	big story. And so this podcast is both a true crime story that's very, very entertaining
1:47.1	about the rise to power of this guy, Taki, and a larger story about what happens when this
1:55.2	much money starts flowing through these European port towns. I'm glad you got him. I'm also
2:01.3	a big Mitch Prothrow fan reader, so I'm excited you had him on. This sounds like the kind of
2:06.2	story that you're real into, Aaron. I actually benched this entire podcast straight through
2:12.7	without even a five minute break. I listen to it. It's not for people at home. I know the
2:19.2	whole thing's probably like three, three hours ish long. So just injected it straight into my arm,
2:27.2	and I hope they do a second season. We make this show with the people at Vox. Thanks very much to
2:33.8	them. And now here's Aaron with Mitchell Prothrow. Welcome to the long form podcast, Mitch Prothrow.
	...

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