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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Rachel Maddo, has a new hit podcast series

called Ultra, in which she reports a little-known story about an ultra-right, pro-Nazi movement

that plotted to overthrow the U.S. government by force in the lead-up to World War II. These

groups worked with an agent from Hitler's government named George Vierak. He also

colluded with over 20 sitting members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives

to launder and spread Nazi propaganda, often a taxpayer's expense. Those congressmen were

associated with the America First Committee, a group with many anti-Semitic leaders, the

group of posed America entering World War II. In 1944, the plots led to the largest

sedition trial in U.S. history. Maddo says there's a reason to know this history now, because

calculated efforts to undermine democracy, fomentoku, spread disinformation, over-adactions involving

not just a radical band of insurrectionists but actual serving members of Congress working

alongside them. It's terrible, but it's not unprecedented. For 14 years, Maddo hosted

MSNBC's flagship weekday evening show. She recently cut back to hosting only Monday

nights and special coverage so that she could devote more time to deeply reported long-form

projects like Ultra. Yesterday was announced that Steven Spielberg's production company

optioned the movie rights for Ultra. Rachel Maddo, welcome back to Fresh Air and congratulations

on the news that Steven Spielberg optioned your podcast for a movie, which makes perfect

sense because it's about World War II and it's about anti-Semitism.

Oh, Terry, thank you so much for having me. It is even just hearing you say those words.

The word Steven Spielberg associated with something that I'm working on. It's very overwhelming.

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