I Know How Epstein Groomed America’s Corrupt Elite

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News

4.6 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 109 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get 15% off OneSkin with the code beast at https://www.oneskin.co/beast #oneskinpod Anand Giridharadas joins Joanna Coles to unpack what the Epstein files actually tell us, not just about one disgraced financier, but about the elite network that worked with him. The bestselling author explains why so many of what he calls the Epstein class stayed in his orbit even after Epstein’s crimes were widely known. Coles and Giridharadas dig into the strange rituals of this rarefied class and examine emails involving figures like Larry Summers and former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler. They also confront the darker question at the center of the scandal: How a network built on access, status, and mutual advantage created a culture where no one ever seemed to break ranks—even when they knew the crimes Jeffrey Epstein committed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present?
0:02.0	Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.0	From rags to riches.
0:06.0	I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.0	Yorkshire to New York.
0:10.0	Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.0	A life dedicated to revenge.
0:14.0	Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:17.0	A Woman of Substance on Channel 4.
0:19.0	Stream now.
0:20.0	What went through my head as you were describing that encounter with a rich and powerful person
0:25.5	is how strangely similar it is in certain ways to Virginia Juffrey's account of being groomed
0:35.3	by Jolaine Maxwell and Epsine.
0:38.4	And what's so wild about that is that these are two kind of objects of his behavior,
0:44.6	Efsene's behavior, who are at opposite ends of the power spectrum.
0:50.5	I'm Joanna Coles. This is The Daily Bees podcast, and we have an epic conversation today for you with a philosopher, a writer, a big, big thinker. And his speciality turns out to be the Epstein class. Anand Girdadas has read through the mountain of emails. And what he comes up with is fascinating.
1:13.0	And the techniques that Jeffrey Epstein used to groom teenage girls
1:18.5	were largely the same techniques that he used to groom billionaires.
1:24.0	And you think, well, why would a billionaire even be interested in hanging out with
1:28.2	Jeffrey Epstein? But Jeffrey Epstein was able to bait his conversation with people and reel them
1:34.8	in like an expert fisherman. Anyway, I really want you to share this conversation with your friends,
	...

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