This episode of Reader's Corner was originally broadcast in June of 2017.
The re-election of Barack Obama in November of 2012 dealt a stunning defeat to the Republican Party. As the GOP reeled from the loss and began laying plans to win in 2016, a small group of shadowy and wealthy figures gathered at the request of Charles and David Koch, otherwise known as the Koch brothers. Their secret agenda: To map out plans to systematically and inequitably influence our political system.
In her bestseller, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, investigative journalist Jane Mayer shows us how the Koch brothers and their like-minded, super-rich colleagues are carrying out these plans. The book is now out in paperback.
Jane Mayer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the recipient of several top journalism prizes. Her previous books include the bestseller, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, which won numerous awards and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critic Circles Award.