The World Beneath

In the summer of 2017, the FBI's Deputy Director stood firm at the helm of that agency, guiding it through an all-out assault from the realm of mobsters and spies - foreign and domestic… and paid the price. LB sits down with Andrew McCabe to learn about how his early experience at the Bureau - as a street agent investigating Russian Organized Crime in Lucky Luciano's old territory, prepared him for an investigation into a Presidential candidate - who once housed those Kremlin-connected gangsters in his concrete cartel tower. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now having walked through the origin and partial evolution of the Second Economy - built from a smuggling empire, we return to the two assassinations that launched the series. And find our way into the space between them - where a wave of Russian mobsters and spies landed, conquered, and left us buried alive in their avalanche of crime.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LB sits down with author Jason Fagone to discuss his extraordinary book "The Woman Who Smashed Codes", and what we all can learn from the life and work ethic of our heroine, Elizebeth Friedman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The underworld re-organizes after the departure of Lucky Luciano. Elizebeth and William set down their swords and go gently into the good night. And Meyer Lansky's old business fronts lead us right to a modern President's old fixer.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LB sits down with author and investigative journalist, Craig Unger, and former KGB agent Yuri Shvets - Unger's source for his deep dives on Donald Trump's Kremlin history before the Presidency, and career money-laundering for Putin's mobligarchs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elizebeth breaks the German enigma machine - twice, and defends the Western Hemisphere from an Axis invasion. The extensive clandestine intelligence operation she ran during World War 2 has finally rightfully been attributed to her, despite the machinations and thievery of the man who hijacked her legacy as his own - J Edgar Hoover. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LB does the important work of asking dumb questions about spies, so that we can all learn the meaning and value of counter-intelligence from the former assistant director of that division at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The President that Lucky Luciano put into office transforms into the leader a world at war needs. Meyer protects the homefront by taking on Hitler's American Bund and living rent-free in that monster's head. And Lucky finds his way into the sacred hen house - US intelligence, walking away with all of the eggs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eunice Carter was the first woman prosecutor to take on the mob, and Jill Wine-Banks followed her lead to become the first to take on a President. LB sits down with the legend to discuss what it's like to be a woman warrior in the ultimate inner sanctum of male power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thanks to a woman prosecutor, Lucky Luciano finally faces the long arm of the law. And with a second world war on the horizon, the stage is set for the realms of mobsters and spies to cross the rubicon… and become partners.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices