From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, February 18th.

Journalists and others are still learning things worth knowing from the thousands of pages in the recent Epstein files releases.

We will focus in this conversation on three main questions.

One, why does information from the Epstein files seem to be having more political repercussions in Europe

than it is here?

Two, what consequences are any Americans experiencing based on various

kinds of association with Epstein that have been revealed in the files? This will include naming some

names who have had more revealed about them than we knew during our last segment on this last week,

and are the redactions in the files protecting anyone who may have actually committed

pedophilia crimes who law enforcement hasn't pursued? And three, how much are we learning about

Epstein trying to use his influence not just to lure women and underage girls for sex,

but to shape global politics? And does that intersect with his sexual crimes? Back with me

for this is Vicki Ward, who did some of the earliest investigative reporting on Epstein more

than 20 years ago, now writes the Substact newsletter. Vicki Ward investigates and is author

of books, including Kushner, Inc., greed, power, corruption,

The Devil's Casino, Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games played inside Lehman Brothers,

and her latest, an instant bestseller that came out last summer, the Idaho Four,

an American tragedy, that one's about the murders in 2022 of those four

University of Idaho students. Also with us, David Enrich, deputy investigations editor for the New York

Times, who's been covering the Epstein files. Vicki, welcome back. David, welcome to WNYC.

Thanks for having me. David, let me startNYC. Thanks for having me.

David, let me start with an article by some of your New York Times colleagues called,

...