Cover Story
What can a billionaire get away with these days? A secret bat cave? A harem of women? An international spy operation? Stealing the soul of a small town in Montana? A Silicon Valley venture capitalist was accused of running a massive sex-trafficking operation by his best bro friend. And we unravel the truth about both of them - their business, their break-up, their lies, and their embarrassing text messages. The story of a billionaire with a hero complex, the ex-spy who turned his life inside out, and us, the reporters who got caught up in their macho drama. Cover Story is an investigative podcast series featuring original reporting from New York Magazine. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. New episodes every Tuesday.
Episodes
November 10, 2021 • 1 min
Mind. Body. Control. Uncover the dark truth in Power Trip, the first season of Cover Story, a new investigative series from New York Magazine. Hosted by iO Tillett Wright.
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November 30, 2021 • 32 mins
After years of experimenting with drugs, Lily discovers the psychedelic underground. It’s a world of shamans and guides - people illegally practicing psychedelic therapy to treat trauma. Their secret mission is make this treatment more widely available in order to “promote the evolution of humankind.” But what will they overlook to get there?
Credits
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power Trip is co-created, produ...
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December 7, 2021 • 39 mins
Lily visits the Ecuadorian Amazon to work on a project when something terrible happens to her. She barely escapes and makes it home alive. But it’s what happens next that really sets the course of her life. Meanwhile, the psychedelic renaissance is really starting to take off.
Credits
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power Trip is co-created, produced and reported by David Nickles and Lily Kay Ross.
Hosted and pro...
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December 14, 2021 • 52 mins
We cross through the portal to the underground where “Susan” goes through the training to become a psychedelic therapist. Her mentor Eyal crosses way too many boundaries. (Is he the wolf?). And we finally meet Francoise Bourzat, honey-voiced trainer of trainers.
In an earlier version of episode 3, we misidentified Eyal Goren as a “licensed therapist.” He became a licensed therapist in the State of California in November of 2019. W...
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December 21, 2021 • 38 mins
We go to the source - a Mexican psychotherapist named Salvador Roquet, who is known as a “master of bad trips.” It starts to dawn on “Susan” that the problem is not her one rogue mentor. What if boundary crossing is baked into the psychedelic guide training, and implicates Francoise Bourzat and her husband Aharon Grossbard?
Credits
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power Trip is co-created, produced and reported by...
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December 28, 2021 • 54 mins
Stories of transgressions multiply. Psychedelic therapists are meddling in marriages, dating their clients, and worse. Francoise Bourzat herself tells us what she thinks is going on, and how her psychedelic community has handled complaints in the past.
Credits
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power Trip is co-created, produced and reported by David Nickles and Lily Kay Ross.
Hosted and produced by iO Tillett Wrigh...
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February 23, 2022 • 2 mins
Cover Story is coming back March 1st! In Part II, we move from the psychedelic underground to the above ground—the world of labs and clinical trials and accredited institutions.
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March 1, 2022 • 59 mins
We talk to participants in the most advanced clinical trials on MDMA as a treatment for trauma. On paper, they are success stories. In reality they are a mess. And one of them was put in a terrible bind by her trial therapists.
CREDITS:
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power trip is co-created, produced and reported by David Nickles and Lily Kay Ross.
Our senior producers are Marianne McCune and Whitney Jones. Als...
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March 8, 2022 • 63 mins
Meaghan gets a hold of the clinical trial data and she and Dave and Lily pull it apart. Why are the studies so small? What actually happens in the black box of therapy? Why can't the trial participants find their actual experience reflected anywhere in the published data? We look to MAPS for answers.
CREDITS
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power trip is co-created, produced and reported by David Nickles and Lily ...
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March 15, 2022 • 52 mins
Since the publication of Michael Pollan’s bestseller, How to Change Your Mind, more people than ever have gotten comfortable trying psychedelics. And a few of them have died. We look into two cases and ask, who’s responsible for warning people about the dangers? And we explore one important motivation for keeping quiet about them: money.
CREDITS
Cover Story is a production of New York magazine.
Power trip is co-created, produced, ...
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March 22, 2022 • 53 mins
So. Should YOU do psychedelic therapy? In the last episode of Power Trip, we get a lot of different answers to this question. Plus, we catch up with some of the people we met throughout this season who fight like hell to get people and institutions to acknowledge what happened to them. And make it less likely to happen to YOU.
In an earlier version of episode 9, we stated that as part of an agreement Meaghan Buisson signed with MA...
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October 18, 2022 • 2 mins
A billionaire. An ex-spy. A lot of women. Too many lies.
Cover Story, Season Two: Seed Money.
Hosted by Hanna Rosin.
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October 25, 2022 • 43 mins
In a cabin in Whitefish, Montana, two ex-spies tell us an outlandish story: right here in town, a billionaire philanthropist is allegedly running a sexual enterprise, importing young women into safehouses. One of the spies knows this because he was the billionaire’s right hand man, and best bro friend. He claims to know a shocking amount about this billionaire’s affairs, personal and professional.
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November 1, 2022 • 45 mins
The billionaire is into…Batman. Is that because he’s an actual hero, or because he’s using showy philanthropy to cover up his bad deeds? We track down some women he’s paid millions of dollars to. And we talk to the billionaire about his hero complex.
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November 8, 2022 • 39 mins
We dig into the billionaire and ex-spy’s bromance and business partnership – which means a detour into the world of spies for hire. The rich cozy up with former intelligence personnel and try to, for better or worse, carry out missions the government can’t seem to do on its own. We are guided by a powerful female ex-spy who was in Matt and Mike’s circle and who explains, “it’s all about the size of your freaking penis. It’s true!”
...
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November 15, 2022 • 54 mins
Where does sex with a billionaire land you? We talk to three women who soured on Mike, at different points. We examine a court case, a police investigation, and one woman’s memories. We weigh the question: if none of it adds up to a crime, what does it add up to?
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November 22, 2022 • 48 mins
The ex-spy is under arrest for fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. And, in a surprise move, he pleads guilty to all three. What? We start to closely examine his dealings with the billionaire to figure out what really happened between them and the threads start to unravel, and keep unraveling. By the end, one person stands up in court and declares, “I am the victim.”
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November 29, 2022 • 35 mins
An episode of reckoning. We catch up with Matt in prison, Mike in Whitefish, and everyone else – wherever they’ve scattered. Both of the men's wives have surprising news. And we add our final touches to what has turned into an uncomfortably intimate portrait of a modern billionaire.
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