What the Epstein Files Reveal About How Elite Worlds Work | The Ezra Klein Show
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At the end of January, Trump’s Justice Department released what it said was the last tranche of the Epstein files: millions of pages of emails and texts, F.B.I. documents and court records. Much was redacted and millions more pages have been withheld. There is a lot we want to know that remains unclear.
But what has come into clear view is the role Epstein played as a broker of information, connections, wealth and women and girls for a slice of the global elite. This was the infrastructure of Epstein’s power — and it reveals much about the infrastructure of elite networks more generally.
Anand Giridharadas is something of a sociologist of American elites. He’s the author of, among other books, “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World” and the forthcoming “Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle and Belonging in an American City.” He also publishes the great newsletter The.Ink.
Back in November, after the release of an earlier batch of Epstein files, Giridharadas wrote a great Times Opinion guest essay, taking a sociologist’s lens to the messages Epstein exchanged with his elite friends. So after the government released this latest, enormous tranche of materials, I wanted to talk to Giridharadas to help make sense of it. What do they reveal — about how Epstein operated in the world, the vulnerabilities he exploited and what that says about how power works in America today?
Note: This conversation was recorded on Tuesday, Feb. 10. On Thursday, Feb. 12, Kathryn Ruemmler announced she would be resigning from her role as chief legal officer and general counsel at Goldman Sachs.
00:00 Intro
6:50 Power lies where you don’t expect
10:40 Epstein was a broker of relationships
15:34 Epstein’s exploitation of gaps in our culture
27:32 Concentric circles of enablement
38:46 Epstein’s “catch me if you can” approach
47:14 Epstein’s cultivated mystique and the men who were drawn to it
1:08:45 The similar genius of Trump and Epstein
1:12:26 The cowardice of elites in Trump’s second term
1:23:13 Book recommendations
Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/0....2/13/opinion/ezra-kl
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You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/articl....e/ezra-klein-show-bo