Fascinating Listening
Last week, when I was driving down to the LA Flower Mart, I found myself listening to This American Life on KCRW. This was my first time listening to the program, so the repeat they were airing didn’t bother me at all. The repeat followed a fascinating story of corporate greed, intrigue and betrayal. Originally broadcast in September of 2000, this episode deals with the global price fixing by Archer Daniels Midland and the incredible video and audio tape taken by a corporate insider who turned spy for the FBI. You can listen to the entire program online.
You should listen not because it’s another example of corruption in corporate America, but because the story is filled with more intrigue than your typical Hollywood movie. The FBI finds a high ranking official within ADM, one slated to run the company, who cooperates with the Government in a fashion never before seen. He gets to the point where he practically enjoys his new, quite precarious position. And all the while the Government thinks they have an honest witness on their hands, they learn something about their informant that threatens to destroy all credibility of their case. Twists and turns that’ll make your head spin.
