Political corruption

A talk with David Enrich about his book Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump and the Corruption of Justice.

New York Times journalist Charles Homans says scores of groups at the state and local levels, with the help of right wing media figures and activists, are taking aim at the electoral system.

Reporters Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld won a Pulitzer for their investigation of Trump's 2016 hush money payments to Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels. Their new book is The Fixers.

Journalist Anjali Kamat spent a year investigating Trump's business deals in India. Her report is in the New Republic and on the WNYC podcast, Trump Inc., which is co-hosted by Andrea Bernstein.

DVDs have enabled us to see movies from some unlikely places. Our critic at large says some of the best films he's seen come from South Korea: the crime drama Memories of Murder and the political thriller The President's Last Bang are two examples, based on true stories.

Kevin Spacey strangles a dog in the pilot, which creator Beau Willimon says producers balked at because they'd lose viewers. But "why not provide that litmus test right at the beginning?" he says.

Leviathan follows a man who fights back after a corrupt mayor uses eminent domain to claim his house, and Red Army recounts the story of the Soviet Union's famous hockey team.

To some, Detroit may be a symbol of urban decay; but to journalist Charlie LeDuff, it's home. In Detroit: An American Autopsy, he says the city's heart beats on. "We're still here trying to reconstruct the great thing we once had," he tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

Dexter Filkins recently broke the story that top Afghan officials have been receiving bags of cash from Iran. The New York Times foreign correspondent tells Terry Gross that the situation in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly dire for both soldiers and journalists.

After 44 years as a newspaper man, former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. makes his debut as a fiction writer. His new novel, Rules Of The Game, features an investigative reporter on the beat of a hotly contested presidential election.