Diabolical Lies

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Some quick housekeeping to start this lovely Sunday:
If you’ve already pre-ordered Caro’s debut novel Yesteryear, or wish to do so now, Knopf wants to thank you. They’re sending custom, limited edition bandanas to DL Substack subscribers — all you have to do is input proof of your order in this link here, and they’ll ship you the bandana, clean and simple. (This is only for US subscribers.) Thanks so much for the support, y’all!
Jeffrey Epstein got away with it because he was richer than God. No — he got away with it because he had a rolodex filled with the most influential and powerful people on the planet. No — he got away with it because of his wiliness, and his almost preternatural ability to charm people.
All of these claims have been discussed to death in both mainstream and alternative media, and continue to serve as the prevailing theories for why this man was able to abuse young women at a terrifying scale for decades without suffering legal repercussions for it.
Today, we discuss an alternative hypothesis.
”A Young Jeffrey Epstein Made An Impression On His High School Students,” by Cat Schuknecht for NPR
“Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich,” by David Enrich, Steve Eder, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Matthew Goldstein for The New York Times
“The Talented Mr. Epstein,” a March 2003 profile by Vicky Ward for Vanity Fair
“Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery,” a 2002 profile by Landon Thomas Jr. for New York Magazine
Here’s one of the many, many early pieces of reporting I leaned on from The Palm Beach Post; not going to link all of them because it would fill Substack’s word count limit but highly encourage poring through their 2005/2006 archives
And here’s a pretty interesting FBI transcript of an interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, conducted in 2020
And here’s the deposition interview between unproblematic king Brad Edwards and World-Renowned Fucking Loser Epstein:
Highly encourage anyone and everyone to read Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl
Here is the deposition Katie and I role-played where a Very Smart Lawyer played Very Smart Gotcha with Giuffre about, checks notes, whether or not she was a bartender in 2007
Here’s where a federal judge decided that Giuffre’s testimony about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring was not relevant to a case about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring
Here is a timeline from the Miami Herald on all this gruesome shit; cc looking through their archives, too, as well as the archives for The Tampa Bay Times for any interested armchair sleuths
If you liked that timeline by reporter Julie K. Brown, consider reading her book, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story
”How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” by David Enrich, Matthew Goldstein, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg for The New York Times
“Newly Unsealed Epstein Records Shed Light on Years of His Financial Transactions with Wall St. Figures,” by Kara Scannell for CNN
Here’s a link to the Epstein email dump, neatly organized in this little faux-inbox
Here’s the meta study elaborating on the justice gap, which highlights precisely how fucked survivors of sexual assault are in their efforts to seek justice
Read Jessica Knoll’s phenomenal book, Bright Young Women, if you want a highly entertaining and cathartic literary experience to exorcise the fury from your body
Thanks (and also sorry???) for listening!


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com

If you pay attention to political commentary, you’ll often hear a few pieces of conventional wisdom:
— America is “too polarized”
— “Both sides” are “too extreme”
— Or, most innocuously, that politicians should simply do that which is “popular,” which is itself code for policies that are considered “moderate”
But do voters really punish candidates for being extreme? Are most “popular” ideas the “moderate” ones? And, moderate or not, does popularity necessarily indicate merit?
The supposed antidote to this handwringing about political polarization is, more often than not, the mythical “centrist” candidate who will appeal to the even-more-mythical “ordinary American.” Centrism is, as the name implies, an ideology that lacks an ideology.
Today, Diabolical Lies investigates the myth of centrism.
[Full references and citations can be found in the show notes at www.diabolicalliespod.com.]

Little bit of a heterosexual smackdown taking place today!
But first, some housekeeping:
As a reminder: Caro’s debut novel, YESTERYEAR, is coming out this spring (April 7th, to be exact), and she would love to see you all at the evening launch event in NYC. One can reasonably assume there will be laughter, tears, a book signing, and Caro on a stage looking incredibly sweaty while she talks about all things America, womanhood, tradwives, writing sex scenes in fiction, etc. She’ll be joined on stage by the famed pod duo Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton as moderators for the evening, which essentially means we have finagled this book launch into a pseudo Good Noticings/Diabolical Lies crossover event. Ur welcome.
Also, we’d be so grateful if you humored us with a little anthropological insight by letting us know how you found the pod. Quick survey here.
Now, onto the show notes.
The Usha-Verse
“What Is Usha Vance Thinking?,” by Irin Carmon for The Cut
“From Yale to Newsmax, Usha Vance Has Helped J.D. Vance Chart His Path,” by Joseph Bernstein and Katherine Rosman for The New York Times
“Usha Vance Tries to Defend her Husband’s ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Comment,” by Eric McDaniel for NPR
“The One Thing You Need to Know to Understand Usha Vance,” by Susan Matthews for Slate
…and of course, If Books Could Kill’s Coverage of Hillbilly Elegy
The Rama-Verse
“The Artist in Gracie Mansion,” by Danya Issawi for The Cut
“Artist Spotlight of Rama Duwaji,” by Nasri Atallah for YUNG
“Mamdani Names an All-Woman Transition Team,” by Nandika Chatterjee for TIME
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality
Read the book
“The invention of ‘heterosexuality’,” by Brandon Ambrosino for the BBC



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com

Note: This episode was filmed on Monday, January 19 and the edit was finalized early on Saturday, January 24, before news broke about the second (known) ICE execution in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti.
Today, we’re talking about a beloved American pastime: killing civilians in the name of public safety.
On the right, you’ll watch JD Vance and his trademark charmless sneer explain that this is only happening because civilians are being disorderly. Kristi Noem will tell you—straight from her lying bitch face—that ICE agents are being assaulted every day.
And on the liberal side of the aisle, you’re more likely to hear that the problem is that these agents aren’t “trained” to “follow the law.”
This conversation examines how media has traditionally been used to manufacture consent, and where new media might be used to undermine its efficacy; where individual identity does and does not matter when it comes to state violence; and what “public safety” and “order” really mean, and what these concepts serve to justify.
Strap in.