Welcome back to the podcast, Bribes, Swindle, or Steel.

I'm Alexandra Rogge.

And today I'm speaking with Sarah Chays about her most recent book on corruption in America

and what is at stake.

Sarah's been on the podcast before to talk about her last book, Thieves of State, and all indications are that this new book has been equally well received.

That was a fantastic book, a real contribution to the community.

And I look forward to chatting about this book, having just finished it myself.

Thank you for joining me.

Thanks so much for having me, Alexandra.

Your book provides a sweeping review of the

corruption landscape here in the United States, an area that I think gets too little coverage. So I'd

really like to just let you jump in with the key points that you developed after such extensive

research. I'm going to sit back and listen. It's an unusual take on this topic. This book is not

the typical sort of scandal filled. I mean, there's plenty of that, and there are plenty of

names that are named. But I really wanted to take a step back and provide a kind of framework

that will allow readers to kind of decode the welter of information that is

coming at them and that I think will continue to come at them and choices that will confront them

as we move into the next administration here in the United States. So the first major point.

So like beware, this is a book

on contemporary America that starts with a fairy tale. And I do that because some of the ancient

sacred stories that we have turned our backs on these days actually hold tremendous wisdom that our species has developed over its, you know,

several tens of thousands of years of existence.

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