Narativ with Zev Shalev (Audio)

Zev Shalev

Uncover the hidden forces shaping our world. Zev applies his skills gained as a journalist and news executive for 30 years to give viewers and listeners an unparalleled view of events changing our world.  Narativ is Where Truth Lives. www.narativ.org

  1. Clinton Testifies, DOJ Database Goes Dark, Lutnick Photo Surfaces, and the Ellison Media Takeover

    1D AGO

    Clinton Testifies, DOJ Database Goes Dark, Lutnick Photo Surfaces, and the Ellison Media Takeover

    Hillary Clinton testified behind closed doors today in Chappaqua before the House Oversight Committee, and within minutes the circus began. Rep. Lauren Boebert passed a photo from inside the closed-door deposition to conservative influencer Benny Johnson, pausing the hearing. Clinton demanded the session be public. Comer refused. Clinton’s opening statement was direct: she never met Epstein, never flew on his plane, never visited his island. Ellie Leonard noted the absurdity of the Pizzagate-era framing still driving the committee’s agenda while the man with thousands of mentions in the Epstein files sits untouched in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, a photo surfaced from the Epstein files showing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with his two sons on Little St. James Island, an image that has since been scrubbed from the internet. The DOJ’s Epstein files search database went completely offline during the show. Ellie confirmed she could access previous searches through the back end but could not initiate new ones through the front page. The timing raised immediate suspicion, coming the same day NPR confirmed 50-plus pages were withheld from the release, including four FBI 302s from a woman who accused Trump and Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was between 13 and 15. Lev Parnas called the missing 302s the most important documents being hidden, noting that the FBI conducted four separate interviews with the accuser, provided her legal representation, and followed up repeatedly, all markers of a credible case. “The number one protector of pedophilia of Jeffrey Epstein is Donald Trump and his administration,” Lev said. Zev presented new Narativ reporting on the Rothschild-Epstein-Trump financial network. Emails from the Epstein files show Jeffrey Epstein claiming descent from the Ritter von Epstein banking dynasty of 1870s Vienna, a claim taken seriously by associates including Harvard professor Martin Nowak, who photographed ancestral tombstones in Europe and sent them to Epstein, and Ariane de Rothschild herself. Zev connected this to Wilbur Ross, who ran Rothschild’s bankruptcy practice and bailed out Trump’s casinos in the 1990s, and to the Commerce Department seat passing from Ross to Lutnick. Ellie added that Linda Rothschild, not Ghislaine Maxwell, was the person who introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew. Lev Parnas confirmed that a Washington Post report validated what his sources had been telling him for months: the White House is circulating a 17-page draft executive order to declare a national emergency over elections, claiming China interfered in 2020. The order would ban mail-in ballots, mandate voter ID, and give the president power over how votes are cast and counted nationwide. Lev said his source inside the administration had been urging him for weeks to keep mentioning Tulsi Gabbard and China, warning it was coming. Wajahat Ali connected it to a broader pattern of voter suppression including the SAVE Act, gerrymandering, ICE at polling places, and Gabbard’s involvement in the Fulton County FBI raid. Trump is down 10 points underwater in Texas and 22 to 26 with independents. “It’s not who votes for you, Donald,” Lev said, quoting what Putin told Trump. “It’s who counts the votes.” The panel discussed Netflix pulling out of the Warner Brothers acquisition, clearing the way for Larry and David Ellison’s Paramount-Skydance to merge with Warner Brothers. Wajahat Ali laid out what that means: the Ellisons, hardcore pro-Trump and pro-Netanyahu, would control TikTok, Paramount, Warner Brothers, CBS, TNT, TBS, Discovery, HBO, and CNN. David Ellison sat with Lindsey Graham at the State of the Union. Paramount has already blacklisted talent who spoke against the genocide. John Oliver’s contract expires next year. Ali called it a deliberate territorial expansion where the return on investment is not profit but control. Zev warned that consolidating newsrooms means fewer reporters covering each story and a drift toward state-run media. Lev cautioned that even Substack could one day be bought out and urged the independent media community to grow so large that abandoning them becomes too costly. Narativ Live is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Narativ Live is a production of narativ.org. Thank you Cheech Previti, Mary Kay Elloian, MBA, JD, Esq, Elaine Cimino, Iulia Huiu, Nancy McAllister, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas and Ellie Leonard! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    1h 17m
  2. Exclusive: Inside Epstein’s Death Cell: New Video From the Files, Plus Maxwell, Rodriguez, and the Rothschild Connection

    4D AGO

    Exclusive: Inside Epstein’s Death Cell: New Video From the Files, Plus Maxwell, Rodriguez, and the Rothschild Connection

    For the first time, Narativ Live showed never-before-aired video from inside the Special Housing Unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center — the exact cell where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019. This footage, embedded deep in the Epstein files released by the DOJ, is a police evidence tour conducted for evidentiary purposes. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have seen it. The public has not — until now. The video walks through the SHU’s shower area, the toilet facilities, and the barred imprisonment corridor before entering Epstein’s cell itself. What strikes you immediately is the scale. The bunk beds — the structure Epstein allegedly used to hang himself — sit roughly four feet off the ground. The cell was designed to be suicide-proof, as any federal facility housing inmates on psychological observation would be. Inmates who have spent time at MCC have described it as the worst place in humanity. It has since been shut down. The footage raises the same questions that have haunted this case since that August morning. After the July 23 incident, when Epstein was found with marks on his neck — an event he first attributed to his cellmate attacking him, then changed to a suicide attempt — the Bureau of Prisons required he be housed with a cellmate at all times. On August 9, the day before his death, that cellmate was transferred. No replacement was assigned, despite at least eight jail officials knowing Epstein was not to be left alone. That same day, the Second Circuit unsealed 2,000 pages of Ghislaine Maxwell civil litigation documents. That same evening, MCC staff allowed Epstein to make an unrecorded, unmonitored phone call in violation of BOP policy. He told staff he was calling his mother. He was not. That same night, guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas — one working forced overtime, the other a material handler not regularly assigned as a corrections officer — stopped conducting their required 30-minute rounds after 10:40 PM and falsified records to show the checks had occurred. Nearly all cameras in and around the SHU failed. The Digital Video Recorder system had malfunctioned on July 29 and was not repaired until after Epstein’s death. The cascade of failures is not explainable by coincidence. It is a sequence that, taken together, left one of the most high-value federal detainees in American history completely unmonitored, alone, in a cell full of excess linens that had been ripped into nooses, for approximately eight hours. The New York Chief Medical Examiner ruled suicide. Michael Baden, the forensic pathologist retained by the Epstein family, found fractures in the neck bones — including the hyoid — more commonly associated with strangulation than hanging. Stephen Hoffenberg, Epstein’s former business partner who spent 18 years in prison for crimes Epstein orchestrated, told Narativ the morning of August 10 that he was certain Epstein had been murdered. He later filed a report with the FBI naming Donald Trump. Mark Epstein, Jeffrey’s brother, has reportedly never received a death certificate. Tonight’s broadcast also previewed deposition footage of Ghislaine Maxwell from 2016 and video clips and photographs from the Epstein files showing scenes from Little St. James, Zorro Ranch, and gatherings with figures including Richard Branson, Lord Peter Mandelson, and what appears to be Walter Cronkite. The broadcast also touched on the Alfredo Rodriguez deposition — the Epstein houseman at the Palm Beach mansion who stole the “Holy Grail” black book, was arrested in an FBI sting when he tried to sell it for $50,000, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He died before he could testify further. The timing of tonight’s show matters. Prince Andrew was arrested in Britain — the first royal family member detained in 400 years. Lord Mandelson was charged. In the United States, heads are falling at Goldman Sachs, CBS News, and elsewhere. What we are witnessing is a rupture in the way the world has operated for decades — a clearing of the house forced by public pressure and, by all indications, by Prince William and Princess Catherine’s insistence that the Crown cannot enter its next era carrying this baggage. The Rothschild connection surfaced as well. Leslie Wexner’s recent deposition confirmed what the archive has long suggested: the Rothschild family hired Jeffrey Epstein as early as the mid-1980s, and he was still working for them in 2019 when he died. Ariane de Rothschild is the single most frequent correspondent in Epstein’s email records, communicating with him almost every other day. Lynn Forester de Rothschild introduced Prince Andrew to Epstein and maintained deep ties to the Clintons. None of this is conspiracy. It is what the documents show. Bill Clinton’s deposition is imminent. What he decides to do — speak the truth or cover for himself — may determine whether the full scope of this network is ever exposed through official channels. The files have already validated years of independent reporting. The evidence tour of Epstein’s death cell is one more piece of a picture that demands a complete, unflinching investigation. The evidence is in the files. The question is whether the institutions will finally act on it. Thank you This Will Hold, Cat: Poli-Psych, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Natasha K., and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    55 min
  3. Michael Cohen's Stunning Admission To Right Wing Talk Show: "I never wanted to testify"

    FEB 14

    Michael Cohen's Stunning Admission To Right Wing Talk Show: "I never wanted to testify"

    Michael Cohen secretly taped a two-hour interview with far-right podcaster Patrick Bet-David in early January — and told that audience things he’s never told his Substack subscribers. He said he never wanted to testify against Trump. He called the Russia investigation a “hoax.” He praised Trump as a great baseball player, reminisced about their breakfasts together, and admitted that if someone had shown him “a shred of loyalty,” he would have kept his mouth shut and done three to six months like Allen Weisselberg. “I would never have testified,” Cohen said. “I didn’t want to.” Even the right-wing host seemed stunned. Lev Parnas, who lived that world and broke from it completely, was blunt: this wasn’t meant for MAGA. It was a two-hour plea to Donald Trump. Cohen himself said his Substack audience “would kill me” if they knew. Parnas noted that Cohen never actually cut ties with Trump’s orbit — he still knows Lutnick, still knows Witkoff, still operates in that world. “Michael Cohen never had a mea culpa,” Parnas said. “He never gave up that world.” Cohen also tried to separate the Katie Johnson rape allegation into two different cases on PBD, claiming he only handled a “Jane Doe” complaint. But his own timeline collapsed. He described sending private investigators to the accuser’s address, calling it a “vacant parking lot.” Shalev pulled up the actual location — it’s a house. And the lawyer Cohen contacted turned out to be the same lawyer connected to Katie Johnson. His own words confirmed what investigators had been saying: it was the same case all along. The timing matters. Around that same interview, Cohen advised 100 university presidents on a Yale-hosted call to settle with Trump rather than fight — the exact opposite of what works against Trump’s bullying. He was spotted near Mar-a-Lago. And he published a Substack letter claiming prosecutors coerced his testimony, which Trump himself reposted. Parnas and a team of volunteers drafted a letter to every university president who attended, warning them about Cohen’s motivations and his connections to the Epstein files. Before the Cohen exposé, Shalev reported on his investigation connecting Peter Thiel to Jeffrey Epstein and Russian intelligence. The Epstein archive reveals Epstein arranged meetings for Thiel with two senior Russian officials connected to the FSB — Sergei Beliakov, deputy minister of economy, in 2015, and Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, five weeks before the 2016 election. During this period, Epstein invested $40 million into Thiel’s Valar fund while Thiel was simultaneously one of Trump’s biggest donors and a key member of the transition team. Parnas added that Thiel lent his private jet to Parnas and Rudy Giuliani for a 2018 midterm campaign swing. Meanwhile, accountability is happening everywhere except America. A UAE sultan with close Trump ties was arrested. Norway’s former prime minister was arrested. Goldman Sachs lawyer Kathy Rumler resigned. Prince Andrew faces new charges. Around the world, people in the Epstein files are losing titles, jobs, and freedom. In the United States, Lutnick, Bondi, Witkoff, and Trump remain in power. Parnas also announced that a coalition of independent journalists has established a direct crowdsourcing channel with House Democrats to deliver Epstein file research to Congress, with a 30,000-signature petition to be delivered next week. Subscribe to Narativ and the independent journalists doing this work. The truth has teeth. Narativ Live streams Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 PM ET. Subscribe at narativ.org. Thank you Ellie Leonard, Nick Paro, Cat: Poli-Psych, Lyudmila and Daniel, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    2h 4m
  4. SPECIAL COFFEE And TEA 🫖 With LEV And DEAN: WHITE HOUSE IN A MELTDOWN

    FEB 8

    SPECIAL COFFEE And TEA 🫖 With LEV And DEAN: WHITE HOUSE IN A MELTDOWN

    The White House is in full meltdown — and it’s not because of what’s already come out of the Epstein files. It’s because of what they don’t know is still coming. Lev opened by dropping a bomb: his son Aaron broke news that Howard Lutnick wasn’t just a neighbor of Epstein’s on the island — he was in business with him. This goes far beyond the “my wife said he’s disgusting, I never went back” story Lutnick sold the public. Emails show Lutnick bringing other people’s children to the island, ages 7 through 16, and maintaining contact with Epstein all the way through 2019. With only a fraction of the 3.5 million document dump reviewed so far, the panic inside Trump’s circle is about the unknown — what else is buried in those files. Zev Shalev joined to break down the Russian intelligence angle. He revealed that Epstein held multiple Russian visas from 2002 onward — at least four — and on two occasions listed his destination as Vimpel, an FSB-linked organization, and Putin’s Ministry of Economic Development. Shalev connected this to $1.1 billion in transactions through now-sanctioned Russian banks, at least two Russian women in Epstein’s circle with direct ties to Putin, and the proximity of Russia’s UN office on 67th Street — just four blocks from Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, where Ambassador Churkin was a frequent visitor. Shalev traced the financial warfare back to the late 1980s, when about $50 billion exited the Soviet Union as part of a deliberate KGB strategy to corrupt Western capitalism. Robert Maxwell facilitated much of that money movement. The operation created billionaires out of nowhere, engineered market crashes, and planted seeds that grew into the system now controlling the U.S. government. Lev added firsthand testimony about the Russian mob’s takeover of New York’s underworld — the gas tax scam that generated billions, the weekly runs to Trump’s Taj Mahal casino to launder millions in cash, and the direct lines between the Brighton Beach mob, the Italian crime families, and Trump’s real estate empire. On breaking news, Dean laid out the Tulsi Gabbard whistleblower situation: an NSA analyst intercepted a call between someone in the Oval Office and a foreign intelligence service, taking direction on U.S. policy. Gabbard took a paper copy to Susie Wiles, who ordered it buried. Eight months later, the whistleblower is talking. Lev also revealed that Trump is terrified of the Clinton testimony precedent — not because of what Bill might say, but because if Democrats take the House, Melania gets subpoenaed next. Nick Parro closed the show with a warning about the SAVE Act — disguised as immigration enforcement but designed to strip voting access from 86 million women and anyone who’s changed their name. “This is the new Confederacy,” Parro said. “Come try it, Donald Trump. See what happens.” Share this far and wide — and sign the Epstein petition before Lev hand-delivers it to Congress on February 11th. Oh and Happy Birthdays to Lev and Dean! Thank you Cat: Poli-Psych, Lyudmila and Daniel, Cheech Previti, John Liccione, ESBC NFL And SportsBetting, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Blundell, Lev Parnas, and Nick Paro! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    1h 53m
  5. FEB 5

    EPSTEIN SPECIAL: TWO FBI TIPS CLAIM GIRLS MURDERED AND BURIED AT TRUMP GOLF COURSE

    Two separate individuals, calling the FBI years apart, made the same allegation: that girls were murdered at Donald Trump’s Rancho Palos Verdes golf course in California and buried on the property. The allegations appear in documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Both reports describe sex parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Trump facility. Both name Robin Leach—host of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”—as present. Both claim a young girl was strangled to death during rough sex. Both say she is buried behind the 19th hole. These are not anonymous tips forwarded without vetting. These are FBI intake documents—reports serious enough to be logged into the Bureau’s National Threat Operations Center system. One was filed in 2021. The other in 2025. Two people. Two separate reports. Years apart. The same allegation. THE FIRST REPORT Document EFTA01249507, dated June 21, 2021, contains detailed allegations from a complainant identified only as “X.” According to the intake, X called the FBI to report that Donald Trump “knew about and funded underage sex parties” at the Rancho Palos Verdes golf course. The parties were brokered by Ghislaine Maxwell. X claims to possess recordings of Trump, Epstein, and Maxwell “discussing marketing strategies for high profile sex parties” at the facility. In these recordings, according to the document, “Trump stated he was aware of the underage sex parties and charged the house money of the golf course to fund the sex parties.” X witnessed Robin Leach strangle a young girl during one of these parties. “He claims she is buried behind the 19th hole at the Donald Trump golf course.” The complainant says he is “aware of three separate occasions in which girls were murdered and buried” at the facility. X was told that if he ever spoke about what he witnessed, “he would end up in the hole as well.” The document also states that X “gave Maxwell the idea to put cameras in the golf course to review the cartel members and u nderstand how to market the 12 to 14-year-old victims to the cartel.” THE SECOND REPORT A separate FBI intake, filed in 2025, contains a strikingly similar account from a different complainant—this time a woman. This second individual also reported sex parties at the Trump golf course. Also named Robin Leach. Also described a girl dying during rough sex. Also said she was buried on the property. Two people. Two genders. Two separate reports. Years apart. The same allegation. WHAT THE FBI DID NOT DO There is no indication in the released files that the FBI investigated these claims. No cadaver dogs. No ground-penetrating radar. No search of the property behind the 19th hole. Robin Leach died in August 2018—before either of these reports was filed. He cannot be questioned. He cannot face justice. But the property still exists. The ground behind the 19th hole can still be searched. 1994 In 1994, Robin Leach sat across from Donald Trump on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” The subject turned to Trump’s one-year-old daughter Tiffany. When asked what she inherited from her parents, Trump replied she had “Marla’s legs.” Then, gesturing toward his chest, he added: “We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet, but time will tell.” That same year—1994—a 13-year-old girl named Katie Johnson alleges she was repeatedly raped by Donald Trump at parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein. Her federal lawsuit describes “extreme sexual and physical abuse” including “forcible rape” over a four-month period. Also in 1994—according to the FBI documents—sex parties were being held at Trump’s California golf course where girls would later be murdered and buried. Robin Leach. Donald Trump. Jeffrey Epstein. 1994. THE FIFTH AMENDMENT In 2010, Jeffrey Epstein was asked under oath: “Have you ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18?” Epstein paused. Then he replied: “Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today, I’m going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth, and 14th Amendment rights, sir.” What did Epstein know about Trump and underage girls that he refused to answer? “A PIECE OF ASS” Trump’s comments about his own daughters form their own pattern. About Ivanka: “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” Asked what he and Ivanka have in common: “Well, I was going to say sex, but I can’t relate that.” About Ivanka’s body: “She’s six feet tall. She’s got the best body.” On Howard Stern, when asked if he could call Ivanka “a piece of ass”: “Yeah.” About one-year-old Tiffany’s future breasts: “We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet, but time will tell.” These are not isolated comments. This is a pattern of sexualizing his own children in public—the same man now accused in FBI documents of funding sex parties with 12 to 14-year-old victims. THE PATTERN At Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, a former staff member reported in 2019 that two foreign girls are buried in the hills—strangled during “rough, fetish sex” on orders of “Jeffrey and Madam G.” At Trump’s golf course in California, two separate FBI complainants report girls murdered and buried behind the 19th hole. The allegations span decades. The properties span the country. The pattern is consistent: rough sex, strangulation, burial. Survivors have described Epstein’s preferred victims as “waif-ish girls” who “looked younger, were thinner, less strong, felt weak, looked childlike.” When you combine that with men whose thing was to choke girls until they passed out—like Ehud Barak, according to testimony—the likelihood of someone not coming to because someone took it too far is not unlikely. They weren’t going to call the EMT to revive a girl from an Eastern European country who came in with no name. They would just deal with it. Thank you to our panel Lev Parnas, THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Ellie Leonard and Kait Justice for the tireless work that you do to expose the truth. Please subscribe and support their individual publications. Thank you THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Notes from the Apocalypse, Cat: Poli-Psych, IAMPEGS, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas, Ellie Leonard, and Kait Justice! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    1h 16m
  6. LIVE SPECIAL: Sebastian Junger on Fascism, Near-Death, and Why Trump Will Fail

    FEB 4

    LIVE SPECIAL: Sebastian Junger on Fascism, Near-Death, and Why Trump Will Fail

    Sebastian Junger has spent decades documenting war, and his family has spent generations fleeing fascism. So when the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm, War, and Tribe sat down for Narativ Live, he brought a perspective few others can offer on America’s current moment. His father Miguel fled fascism twice before turning 18 - first from Franco’s Spain in 1936, then from Nazi-occupied France in 1940. “I like to say that because of the fascists, my father spoke five languages fluently,” Junger said. That father became a physicist, raised his son as a rationalist and atheist, and never returned to Europe because he wasn’t convinced fascism wouldn’t come back. Now Junger watches America with the same question in mind. He calls Trump “a wannabe fascist” who “fulfills the definition of fascism” - noting Trump once asked a general if the military could shoot protesters in the legs. “That’s the kind of thing fascists say,” Junger observed. But unlike many on the left, he believes Trump will fail. “Dictators always look good until the last five minutes,” he said, quoting a Czech statesman who watched fascism rise in the 1930s. “Only Franco survived to die a natural death. It’s a very, very unstable form of government.” Junger pointed to Trump’s string of failures - Greenland, the wall, Minneapolis blowing up in his face - and the Democrats winning special elections in conservative Texas districts. “Bloodbaths for the ruling party do not happen in a fascist state,” he said. “We are not a fascist country.” He attributes America’s resilience to 250 years of democratic tradition that Germany in the 1930s simply didn’t have. But the conversation took its most profound turn when Junger described the summer of 2020, when a ruptured aneurysm nearly killed him at his Cape Cod home. He was bleeding internally at a pint every 10-15 minutes, an hour from the hospital. “I was literally a human hourglass,” he said. In end-stage hemorrhagic shock, minutes from death, something extraordinary happened: he saw his dead father. “A big black pit opened up underneath me that I was getting pulled into, and I was terrified of it. And my dead father appeared above me and basically communicated to me: it’s okay, you don’t have to fight it, you can come with me, I’ll take care of you.” Junger, the lifelong atheist, the son of a physicist, had no framework for what he experienced. “There aren’t words in English for what I was looking at. It was his essence. An energy field that was immediately and intimately recognizable to me as my father.” What haunts him isn’t the vision itself - science can explain dying brain chemistry - but the universality of it. “The dying seem to all have the same vision. If you give a roomful of people LSD, they see wildly different things. But the dying see the dead - even people they didn’t know had died.” He can’t quite explain that through brain chemistry alone. The ICU nurse who saved him offered a reframe he’s been thinking about ever since: “Instead of thinking about it like something scary, try thinking about it like something sacred.” His latest book, In My Time of Dying, is his attempt to follow that advice. Junger now lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side with his wife and two daughters. He doesn’t own a smartphone - “I think they’re ghastly, addictive, and awful” - and plays accordion for strangers in Tompkins Square Park. At 64, having nearly died while his daughters were still babies, he has a different relationship with time. “I’m an older father. I have an awareness of mortality that many younger parents might not have.” When asked what gives him hope, Junger didn’t offer easy comfort. “I don’t think good really won in the early 1940s until ‘45 rolled around. It’s a tennis game.” But he pointed to the brave people who have vowed with their lives to fight sociopaths. “Human morality comes from humans. It’s not divinely directed. And to me there’s great hope there.” His father fled fascism. He will die an antifascist. But he doesn’t think Americans need to run - not yet, maybe not ever. The system is holding. The question is whether we can hold it together. Watch the full conversation on Narativ Live. Sebastian Junger’s latest book In My Time of Dying is available now. His Substack, Tribe, is free to subscribe. Thank you Lyudmila and Daniel, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Karen Hinton, Social SLP, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    40 min
  7. Epstein’s Last Interview: How He Advised the 2008 Crisis From Jail: A Special Sunday Edition

    FEB 1

    Epstein’s Last Interview: How He Advised the 2008 Crisis From Jail: A Special Sunday Edition

    For the first time, the public has heard Jeffrey Epstein speak at length about the 2008 financial crisis, and what he reveals is stunning. A two-hour interview between Epstein and Steve Bannon, recorded in 2019 and released this weekend, shows the convicted sex offender describing in detail how he advised world leaders and financial institutions during the worst economic collapse since the Depression - all while sitting in a Palm Beach County jail cell. As Zev Shalev explained on Sunday’s special edition, the footage is remarkable because we’ve never heard Epstein discuss anything at this length, and what he says confirms much of what The Greatest Heist investigation has been documenting about his central role in the financial crisis. The interview is believed to be Epstein’s last before his death later that year, and it was apparently part of a media rehabilitation campaign that Bannon was helping orchestrate. The most striking revelation comes when Epstein describes September 14, 2008 - the night Lehman Brothers collapsed. Epstein was in an 8x10 cell in Palm Beach County Jail, wearing a brown jumpsuit, confined to a metal bed with a chrome sink and toilet. A guard informed him that Wall Street was crashing. Epstein was allowed two collect phone calls per day, and he used both of them that night in a way that reveals the depth of his financial network connections. His first call went to Jimmy Cayne, the president of Bear Stearns, the firm that had collapsed six months earlier in March 2008, triggering the crisis everyone was now watching unfold. His second call went to a contact at JP Morgan, the bank that was trying to buy what remained of Bear Stearns. As Shalev described it, Epstein held both phones simultaneously, one in each hand, advising both sides of a major financial transaction from his jail cell during the worst financial crisis in 80 years. But Epstein’s influence extended far beyond those two phone calls. In the interview, he confirms that he was in contact with the Treasury Secretary during the crisis, offering advice on how to handle the collapsing financial system. Even more remarkably, Steve Bannon at one point in the interview reveals Epstein’s client list for financial advisory work - a list that includes Vladimir Putin, the President of China, and the King of Saudi Arabia. Epstein doesn’t dispute this, and the exchange makes clear that world leaders were consulting with him about American financial decisions even as he sat in jail for sex crimes. Lev Parnas emphasized the significance of this timing, noting that in 2019, while Trump was in office, Bannon and Epstein had this level of interest, control, and influence over global financial matters. The interview also addresses whether institutions like Harvard should accept donations from a convicted sex criminal, with Epstein defending the practice by invoking the Derek Bok principle that taking money for good causes is a good thing, regardless of the source. The interview comes at a critical moment as independent journalists continue to dig through millions of newly released Epstein files. @EllieLeonard, who first flagged the Bannon interview footage, has been working late into the night reviewing documents alongside researchers like Kait Justice Justice, and others in a crowdsourced investigation that could be the biggest of all time. Aaron Parnas and Joy-Ann Reid and Lev Parnas continue to advocate for greater transparency Parnas says the DOJ never anticipated would be so effective. As Shalev noted, every single bit of evidence they find confirms they’re on the right path, showing clear connections between financial crimes, sexual crimes, and the network that helped elect Donald Trump. Parnas announced that he and others will travel to Washington DC on February 11-12 to meet with survivors, face Attorney General Pam Bondi, and deliver investigative packages to every member of Congress they can reach. The goal is to ensure that elected officials have the real proof they need to pursue justice, walking the halls of Congress to personally hand-deliver the evidence that has been painstakingly assembled by this growing community of investigators. The full two-hour interview reveals Epstein as articulate and affable, which Shalev acknowledged was clearly the point of the media training exercise Bannon was conducting. While Epstein doesn’t confess to collapsing the 2008 market, he certainly confirms that he was involved and talking to all the key parties at the exact moment when the financial system was in freefall. The footage provides an unprecedented window into how Epstein presented himself, how he justified his actions, and how deeply embedded he was in the global financial and political power structure - right up until the end of his life. PAID SUBSCRIBERS CAN ACCESS A LONGER CLIP OF THE INTERVIEW BELOW. This is a special Sunday edition. For more investigative reporting on the Epstein network and the 2008 financial crisis, visit narativ.org. Thank you Ellie Leonard, Cash Flow Collective, Lesley Jane Seymour, Cheech Previti, Debbie Hupp, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    1h 13m
  8. WATCH: The Evidence That Proves It Was an Execution

    JAN 25

    WATCH: The Evidence That Proves It Was an Execution

    The Department of Homeland Security says a man “approached Border Patrol officers with a 9mm handgun” and “violently resisted efforts to disarm him.” The video shows something completely different. We synced three angles of the shooting. What you see is clear: An agent in a gray jacket pulls Alex Pretti’s gun from his pants while Pretti is restrained on the ground. The agent walks away with the weapon. Pretti is now disarmed. Both arms are secured by federal agents. He cannot move. Then—and only then—do you hear the gunshots. At least 10 shots fired into a restrained, disarmed man surrounded by six federal agents. What Actually Happened Alex Pretti was filming federal agents with his cell phone. First Amendment activity. Legal. An ICE agent assaulted a woman. Alex intervened to help her. Federal agents tear gassed him. They tackled him to the ground. Six agents surrounded him. Both arms secured. While he was restrained, an agent reached into his clothing and pulled out his legal firearm—Alex had a valid Minnesota permit to carry. That agent walked away from the scene with the gun. Alex was now completely disarmed. Restrained. No threat to anyone. Federal agents shot him anyway. Multiple times. While he was pinned to the ground. While his hands were secured. After his gun had been removed. This Wasn’t a Shooting This was an execution. Executed by the federal government on a Minneapolis street for filming police and helping a woman. Alex Pretti was 37 years old. He was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. He cared for America’s veterans. He had no criminal record—just two traffic tickets in his life. He was a U.S. citizen exercising his First Amendment right to document what federal agents were doing in his city. And federal agents executed him for it. Stephen Miller Called Him a Terrorist Within hours of the shooting—before any investigation, before Alex’s family was even notified—White House advisor Stephen Miller called Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” An ICU nurse. Who saved veterans’ lives. Who was filming police. Who was helping a woman being assaulted. Stephen Miller called him a terrorist. They Blocked the Investigation After killing Alex, federal agents prevented Minneapolis police from accessing the crime scene. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension—the state agency responsible for investigating officer-involved shootings—was denied access. Even with a search warrant. BCA Superintendent Drew Evans, with over 20 years in law enforcement, said he’d never seen anything like it. Federal agents controlled the scene. Controlled the evidence. Controlled the narrative. Then they released that staged photo of the gun—the gun their own agent had removed before shooting Alex. This Is the Insurrection Act Strategy This execution isn’t random violence. It’s part of a documented strategy: * Deploy federal agents to create confrontations * Execute U.S. citizens * Stage evidence to justify killings * Fabricate narratives about “violent resistance” * Block state investigators * Smear victims as terrorists * Provoke local officials * Use “chaos” to invoke Insurrection Act * Remove elected officials * Install federal control We’re at Step 6. Governor Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard today. They remain under state control—for now. But that activation is exactly what Stephen Miller needs to claim the state has lost control. Watch the Full Analysis Tonight’s Narativ Live show breaks down the video evidence frame by frame. We show you the agent in the gray jacket. We show you when the gun is removed. We show you the execution. Warning: The footage is disturbing. But it’s important you see what federal agents are doing on American streets. Say His Name: Alex Jeffrey Pretti 37 years old. ICU nurse. U.S. citizen. Legal gun owner. No criminal record. He filmed police. He helped a woman. Federal agents tear gassed him, restrained him, disarmed him, and executed him. This is what America becomes when we let it happen. Don’t let them get away with this. Watch the full forensic analysis on Narativ Live. Share this story. The video proves everything. Thank you Dean Blundell, Nick Paro, Cat, John Liccione, Caro Henry, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    56 min
4.6
out of 5
175 Ratings

About

Uncover the hidden forces shaping our world. Zev applies his skills gained as a journalist and news executive for 30 years to give viewers and listeners an unparalleled view of events changing our world.  Narativ is Where Truth Lives. www.narativ.org

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