Anand Giridharadas: What the Epstein Documents Reveal about Power in America

Feb 4, 2026 | In a wide-ranging conversation, Anand Giridharadas joins Terry Moran to examine power, morality, and the elite networks that shape American life — from politics and corporate culture to inequality, immigration, and democracy itself. Prompted by the release of the Epstein documents, the discussion moves beyond scandal to ask deeper questions: how elite impunity works, why consequences so rarely attach to power, how corporate values shift with political winds, and why so many Americans have lost trust in institutions meant to serve them.

The conversation also explores the rise of Donald Trump, the collapse of elite credibility, and the enduring tension between exclusion and belonging in American history — including what still draws people from around the world to become American. This is not a story of conspiracy. It is a factual story about systems, incentives, and power — and about what, even now, continues to set America apart.

Covid Deaths in US Fall to Level Not Seen Since March 2020 | The Mehdi Hasan Show

With Covid cases receding in the United States and Americans readjusting to life before the pandemic, Anand Giridharadas reflects on the lessons he hopes society has learned in the 14 months in between.

How the Richest Get Richer in the Pandemic While Americans Struggle | The Mehdi Hasan Show

Anand Giridharadas joins Mehdi Hasan to detail how America's richest few have grown their wealth amid the pandemic, often at the expense of the poor and middle class.

Anand Giridharadas: ‘Trump Is the Head of the Snake But Our Whole Culture Needs a Reckoning’ | MSNBC

Anand Giridharadas joins Lawrence O’Donnell to put into perspective how the historic events of the past week are “all the same story of a masquerade of strength” by a president who knows he’s losing the election and how Trump’s illness reflects America’s culture of masculinity: “He has this disease because he’s more afraid of not being seen as a man than dying.” Aired on 10/05/2020.

“The Billionaire Election”: Anand Giridharadas on How 2020 Is a Referendum on Wealth Inequality

The 10th Democratic presidential debate took place Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina, and two billionaires were at either end of the stage: Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. Front-runner Bernie Sanders, who has made attacking the power of the “billionaire class” a central theme of his campaign, stood in the middle. It was a visual representation of the split within the Democratic Party, in which a growing number of people are “rising up against plutocracy,” says Anand Giridharadas, editor-at-large at Time magazine and author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.” His recent piece for The New York Times is titled “The Billionaire Election: Does the world belong to them or to us?

Anand Giridharadas: ‘Winners Take All’ with Teddy Schleifer

Today's elites are some of the more socially concerned individuals in history. Yet, according to journalist and writer Anand Giridharadas, while their philanthropic missions may attempt to reform the root causes of unjust systems, many elite initiatives serve only to maintain the very power structures they claim they want to fix. So, who really benefits? To what extent are the elite working to create real progress and systemic change for people and communities? Giridharadas is joined onstage by Teddy Schleifer, Senior Reporter at Recode, for an in-depth discussion on elite leaders and how communities might work together to create a more participatory democracy.

Anand Giridharadas is the bestselling author of Winners Take All, The True American and India Calling as well as an editor-at-large for TIME, an on-air political analyst for MSNBC and a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. A former columnist and correspondent for the New York Times, he has written for the Atlantic, New Republic and New Yorker.

A Conversation with Anand Giridharadas

Join Anand Giridharadas author of Winners Take All, in conversation with Belfer Center Executive Director Aditi Kumar on the perils of philanthropy and policy in the hands of the global elite.