{"podcast":{"title":"River to River","slug":"river-to-river-1060576","podcast_index_feed_id":1060576,"rss_url":"https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/rss.xml","website_url":"https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river","image_url":"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7cee9f6/2147483647/strip/false/crop/3000x3000+0+0/resize/2000x2000!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2Fb9%2F816b46a344b5bd56d5470b36497d%2Friver-to-river-podcast.png","author":"Iowa Public Radio (digitalservices@iowapublicradio.org)","episode_count":100,"summary":"River to River is a conversation about the news with an Iowa perspective. Together we dig into the story behind the headlines - we talk with newsmakers and a diverse range of experts to find out how the news affects you. We take on challenging topics, explore issues from all sides, and foster conversation and understanding","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T00:17:13.366040+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576"},"episode":{"title":"How the U.S. has arrived at its most blatant era of oligarchy","slug":"how-the-u-s-has-arrived-at-its-most-blatant-era-of-oligarchy","published_at":"2026-05-20T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576/how-the-u-s-has-arrived-at-its-most-blatant-era-of-oligarchy","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576","url":"https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/2026-05-20/how-the-u-s-has-arrived-at-its-most-blatant-era-of-oligarchy","audio_url":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/4c9587f2-e550-4709-b293-ad0300ce922d/5d200c83-8a20-48a7-ab87-ad51012cafbe/8ea909ca-ce60-45d2-b385-b44f011a4d7b/audio.mp3","summary":"After two centuries of expanding democracy, why has America become more unequal — not less? On this episode we listen to highlights from a recent conversation with political scientist Jeffrey Winters of Northwestern University. His new book, The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy, examines the failure of democracy to address wealth inequality and why this issue is by design. This conversation was recorded on May 7 at the Englert Theatre, presented by the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council.","meta_description":"After two centuries of expanding democracy, why has America become more unequal — not less? On this episode we listen to highlights from a recent conversa…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2884,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/river-to-river-1060576/episodes/how-the-u-s-has-arrived-at-its-most-blatant-era-of-oligarchy/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576/how-the-u-s-has-arrived-at-its-most-blatant-era-of-oligarchy.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}