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MEDIA & EVENTS 2025
Oct. 21 — Back on Michaelangelo Signorile Show, this time to discuss Trump’s efforts to weaponize the IRS against people and groups that he dislike. As I explained to Michael, it is explicitly illegal for a president, VP, or cabinet member to contact anyone at IRS, even indirectly, regarding things like audits, criminal investigations, or an organization’s tax-exempt status. Trump has done so both directly and indirectly, in total disregard of the law. And he also controls the Justice Department, so…well, liberals better watch their backs.
July 11 — Appeared on the Michaelangelo Signorile Show to talk about how, even in the wake of Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” bill, Republican anti-tax crusaders are pressing Trump to give even more advantages to wealthy investors.
March 17 — Feaured on “Billionaire: Deconstructing the Wealth Fantasy,” the latest episode of the Canada-based podcast At Home and Abroad, with Harris and Walker.
March 14 — Appeared alongside HuffPost political reporter Arthur Delaney on “Your Call,” on San Francisco NPR affiliate KALW, 91.7FM, to talk about Democrats’ vote on a government shutdown and Donald Trump’s plan to slash government and cut taxes.
February 12 — Sat down with hip-hop DJ extraordinaire and “Hard Knock Radio” host Davey D on Pacifica Radio’s KPFA-94.1FM (Berkeley) for an in-depth talk about Trump’s tariffs, economic power, and wealth inequality.
January 16 — Mother Jones published this video, following on my December 2024 story titled “Here’s Trillions in Federal Waste the Doge Bros Could Actually Target.” It’s gotten about 160K views on YouTube and Instagram.
MEDIA & EVENTS 2024
November 22 — This Mother Jones video of me talking about the article below has gotten more than 600,000 combined views on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
November 13 — Back on the Rick Smith Show today to talk about my new Mother Jones article on one of the key reasons Donald Trump was re-elected: persistent wealth inequality, and the Democrats’ failure to do anything about it.
October 6 — A nice conversation today with Malcolm Clemens Young, dean of San Francisco’s renowned Grace Cathedral, as part of the Grace Forum event series.
July 24 — Guardian columnist George Monbiot gave Jackpot a nice shout-out in today’s column, titled, “Extreme wealth has a deadening effect on the super-rich—and that threatens us all.”
MEDIA & EVENTS 2023
June 1 — Current Affairs podcast (or read it here) hosted by editor-in-chief, Nathan Robinson: “Today Michael joins us to discuss life inside ‘the bubble’ that the super-wealthy inhabit—why they pursue endless accumulation, how they rationalize their privileges, and how they rig the system to make sure they never lose any of their dubiously acquired gains.”
May 10 — Comedy club owner and podcaster Noam Dworman had me on The Comedy Cellar: Live From the Table to discuss whether money buys happiness, a topic I wrote about for The Atlantic. Despite provocative recent headlines, the jury is out—and the effect of income on well-being is smaller than one might think.
January 27 — “CounterSpin” Great chat today with Janine Jackson, host of this half-hour podcast/radio show that airs on some 160 stations across the US and Canada. We talked about the ways our tax code favors the the wealthy—and why Republicans are doing their best to make sure the IRS is ill-equipped to collect from rich tax cheats.
January 4 — Sirius XM Host Michelangelo Signorile had me on to talk about how House Republicans are trying to gut the IRS—again—to keep it from pursuing super-rich tax avoiders.
MEDIA & EVENTS 2022
December 1 — Cameo at Washington, DC, conference hosted by Democracy Alliance, Patriotic Millionaires, Institute for Policy Studies, and the Excessive Wealth Disorder Institute.
November 10 — “What Makes This Song Stink,” Episode 11, with host Pat Finnerty. Pat and I discuss talk about the book before wreaking vengeance on my nemesis: Mike+the Mechanics.
November 1 — “The Economic Red Shift,” journal review by sociologist Dalton Conley, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 51, Issue 6 (paywalled)
July 7 — “Writer’s Voice” w/ Francesca Rheannon (podcast)
June 26 — “On the Bookshelf” w/ host Dave “Doc” Kirby, WTBF-FM (Troy, Alabama) & other stations
June 17 — “A Public Affair” w/ Esty Dinur, WORT-FM, Madison, Wisconsin
May 21 — Honored author at Berkeley Public Library Foundation’s annual Authors Dinner
May 12 — “American journalist sheds light on plutocrats’ anxieties,” by sociologist Hans Dembowski, editor-in-chief, Development+Cooperation
May 4 — In conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Barstow at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Rewatch below, or hear the podcast version.
May 3 — “Gathering Peace” w/ Joseph Gainza, Central Vermont Community Radio, WGDR-FM. Listen here.
May 2 — “Between the Lines” w/ Scott Harris, WPKN-FM (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
April 29 — “The Bill Newman Show” WHMP-FM (Amherst, Northampton, and Greenfield, Mass.) My segment starts at 17:18.
April 28 — “The Jefferson Exchange,” w Geoffrey Riley, Jefferson Public Radio (Southern Oregon, Northern California)
April 7 — “IdeaSphere” w/ Guy Rathbun, KCBX-FM, NPR affiliate (San Luis Obispo, CA) Listen here.
April 6 — “The Exchange” w/ Mary Hartnett, Siouxland Public Media (Iowa) Listen here.
April 4 — “Radio with a View” w/ Marc Stern, WMBR-FM (Cambridge, Mass.)
April 1 — “Wade’s World” WAMF 90.3 FM (New Orleans) & eight sister stations
March 31 — “The Michaelangelo Signorile Show” (SiriusXM Radio)
March 23 — “It’s Our Money, with Ellen Brown“ (Public Banking Institute podcast)
March 18 — “The Jimmy Malone Show” (iHeart Cleveland Radio, 1350 AM)
March 7 — “The Rick Smith Show” (Cleveland, Ohio, & syndicated) Listen here.
March 1 — Profile: “East Bay Expense Account,” Diablo magazine
MEDIA & EVENTS, 2021
Nov. 27 — “Als Miljonair kun je je ook arm voelen.” A Jackpot article in NRC Handelsblad, the Netherlands’ newspaper of record. I can’t read Dutch, but I assume it’s glowing praise!
Nov. 19 — Podcast: Had a great conversation about the surreal lives of the super-rich with conservative Daily Beast senior columnist Matt Lewis. (Which goes to show you can enjoy Jackpot no matter your politics.)
Nov. 8 — “Goons and Stooges and Rough-Jacks” In which I team up with the Slate Money podcast cohosts—Axios’s Felix Salmon and journalist Emily Peck—for a saucy episode recap of HBO’s Succession. We debate whether the show is a comedy, how true it hews to real life, and how patriarch Logan Roy uses his love to manipulate his children.
Oct. 29 — “Into the realm of the super-rich: Oakland author reports from the gilded edge,” The Mercury News (and sister papers)
Oct. 6 — “Rich Management,” excerpt in Metro, Silicon Valley
Sept. 21 — “The Lowdown” with Ira Wood, WOMR-FM (Cape Cod)
Sept. 3 — Podcast: The Tully Show, with comedian and New York Times best-selling author Mike Tully
Aug. 21 — “‘Vivons heureux, vivons caché: le mantra des milliardaires américains” ( “Let’s live happily, let’s live in hiding: the mantra of American billionaires”), by Philippe Boulet-Gercourt, L’Obs (a.k.a Le Nouvel Observateur). This article is in French, and behind a paywall—malheureusement.
Aug. 10 — “A Fresh Take on Concentrated Privilege From ‘Jackpot,'” by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed
Aug. 6 — “Winner Takes All: Michael Mechanic’s Deep Dive into the Super-Rich,” by Lauren Sarazen, Los Angeles Review of Books
Aug. 3 — Event: “The Rich Get Richer: How Our Quest to Accumulate Wealth has Divided America,” live signing and conversation with author/researcher Chuck Collins (“The Wealth Hoarders“) at 118 Elliot gallery, Brattleboro, VT. Sponsored by Everyone’s Books.
July 26 — “No, the rich aren’t like the rest of us: Michael Mechanic on the secret worlds of wealth,” by Chancey DeVega, Salon
July 11 — Review in “This Land,” the newsletter of Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn
July 2 — Radio: “Unheard Voices,” KSQD community radio (Santa Cruz, CA)
June 22 — “The Millionaires Who Want to Abolish Extreme Wealth,” by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, The New Republic
June 16 — “Editor’s Picks: What to Read and Watch This Summer,” California magazine.
June 11 — “The Bradcast” w/ Brad Friedman’s KPFK-FM (Los Angeles & syndicated)
June 8 — Instagram Live: With journalist Jesse Mechanic (no relation)
June 7 — Interview: The Giving Review, Part 1 & Part II
June 3 — “Life of the 1 Percent” Cover story/excerpt in Monterey County Weekly. Online here.
May 31 — “The Poor Subsidize the Giving of the Rich,” FrankNews
May 21 — “Stand Up! With Pete Dominick” (Podcast, starting at ~29:00.)
May 19 — “The Sit-Down,” with DJ Sixsmith, CBS Local
May 18 — “Back to School,” a podcast hosted by comedian and “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” guest host Maz Jobrani.
May 13 — “The Wealth Myth,” by Jeffrey Anderson, Red Canary Magazine. Plus: Jackpot excerpt.
May 13 — Radio: “It’s the Economy,” with host Claudia Cragg, KGNU-FM community radio (Denver/Boulder, Colorado)
May 6 — Radio: The Rick Ungar Show, a syndicated program wherein we talk about the gutting of the IRS’s ability to go after wealthy tax cheats.
May 5 — Profile: “Wasteful World,” in Oakland’s weekly East Bay Express
May 3 — “How the Extreme Wealth Gap Harms Us All” On Point, with Megna Chakrabarti. WBUR-FM (Boston, and syndicated on hundreds of NPR stations)
April 29 — “Background Briefing with Ian Masters,” KPFK-FM (Los Angeles)
April 28 — “‘Jackpot’ Looks at How Inequality Is Experienced by the Very, Very Rich,” by Jen Szalai, The New York Times
April 27 — “Late Mornings with Jeff Schechtman,” KVON-FM (Napa, CA)
April 27 — “The Majority Report” with Sam Seder (YouTube/Podcast)
April 23 — “The Secret Credit Card That’s Only for the Rich,” excerpt on Timothy Noah’s “Backbencher” substack
April 22 —Mike talks wealth and inequality with Dashka Slater, author of the nonfiction best-seller The 57 Bus, via A Great Good Place for Books (Oakland, CA).
April 20 — “How the Rich Mask Their Greed With Ostentatious Philanthropy, by Lewis Beale, the Daily Beast
April 20 — A Jackpot chat with bestselling author and veteran DC reporter David Corn via Labyrinth Books (Princeton, NJ)
April 19 — “Get Up!” w/ Michael Causey, WOWD-FM (Takoma Park, Maryland)
April 14 — “America’s Wealth Gap Is Much More Obscene Than You Had Imagined,” by Molly Schwartz. And audio: The Mother Jones Podcast, w/ Jamilah King.
April 14 — “Michael Mechanic Takes on the Absurdities of the Super-Rich,” by Christina Waters, Good Times. (Plus a shout-out from editor Steve Palopoli.)
April 13 — Yahoo Finance TV
April 13 — “It’s All Political,” podcast w/ SF Chronicle reporter Joe Garofoli
April 12 — “Want to Be Really Rich? First Read This!” by former Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Millenson, via Medium
April 9 — “The 20 Best Books of Spring 2021” & “The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 (So Far),” Esquire
April 7 — “Princeton High School Graduate Discusses His Book About Super-Rich,” by Anne Levin, Town Topics (Princeton, NJ)
April 7 — “Oakland Writes,” East Bay Express.
April 4 — “Research Proves It: There’s No Such Thing as Noblesse Oblige,” except in The Atlantic
March 2 — “The 42 Must-Read Books of Spring 2021,” Town & Country magazine
Michael Mechanic 
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