This is the video and edited transcript of yesterday’s “The Ezra Klein Show” podcast with guest Anand Giridharadas, a journalist and author who has long been focused on how the elite shape the world the rest of us occupy without ever actually changing it much, and who is now focusing on Epstein.
This is an incredible deep dive into how the Epstein class as a whole operates, and how Epstein operated in it to such great success, even though it was such an open secret that the writer Tina Brown, upon being invited to a dinner with Epstein, Prince Andrew and Woody Allen, replied, “What the fuck is this — the pedophiles’ ball?”
If you want to know what’s in it for the rich who already have all the money in the world but are not themselves pedos, or the famous or socially lofty who already have all the social cachet they’d ever want but are not themselves pedos, or what sucks people into that network of supporters and enablers of well-connected pedos who would not necessarily choose to be there, this is for you. A sample:
E.K. - There’s this amazing quote from Justin Nelson, Epstein’s personal banker. I’m quoting Nelson from the Times piece: He prepares a memo trumpeting Epstein’s large volume of business with JPMorgan, and noting that despite his status as a sex offender, he was “still clearly well-respected and trusted by some of the richest people in the world.”
His network is the proof that he is worth dealing with and not beyond the pale. Because if he was, well then how would he still have this network?
A.G. - He is revealing how these elites make decisions about trust — that I think are really different from the way folks at home go through the world and make decisions. I think you make character judgments about people, about how honest they have been and therefore will be.
These billionaires, these superelites, these superlawyers are working on a whole different kind of system. Their system has to do, as you say, with how loaded with connections you are in this network, how high your stock is on a given day in this network.
What Epstein figured out was how to game this. He figured out the vulnerability of this entire network, which is that these people are actually not that serious about character. In fact, character may be a liability for some of them, may be an unnecessary source of friction. These people are actually not that grounded in the evidence of how someone has lived.
This is one of the best articles I have ever read on how all the people involved and their hierarchies of favor worked together to protect Epstein, and are still working to protect others equally as heinous but of that same seemingly untouchable class.
The NYT column (embedded video plus lightly edited transcript, not paywalled):
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-anand-giridharadas.html
Archive link:
https://archive.ph/XdncI
Direct NYT link to podcast (not paywalled):
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010705735/the-infrastructure-of-jeffrey-epsteins-power.html
Other links to Ezra Klein podcasts (not paywalled):
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/opinion/how-to-listen-ezra-klein-show-nyt.html