Episode 737: BRENDAN BALLOU-WHEN COMPANIES RUN THE COURTS: Forced Arbitration, America’s Secret Justice System - plus private equity, rampant corruption & presidential pardons
From Free Forum with Terrence McNally by Terrence McNally
May 14, 2026 · 60 min · Episode 737
About this episode
Terrence McNally interviews former federal prosecutor Brendan Ballou about forced arbitration, private equity, and corruption in the justice system.
I speak with former federal prosecutor BRENDAN BALLOU about a number of things. His first book was PLUNDER: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America and we get an update . He’s founder and CEO of the Public Integrity Project, which sues those who seek to bribe government officials, as well as officials who seek to be bribed. We check in on that. Ballou was among those who prosecuted the attackers of January 6th so we talk about Trump’s corruption & pardoning practices. Finally, we dig into his latest book, WHEN COMPANIES RUN THE COURTS: Forced Arbitration and America’s Secret Justice System. You can learn more at PublicIntegrityProject.org
People in this episode
Host: Terrence McNally
Guest: BRENDAN BALLOU
Topics covered
- forced arbitration
- private equity
- corruption
- presidential pardons
- justice system
- government bribery
Keywords
- forced arbitration
- private equity
- corruption
- Trump
- January 6th
- Public Integrity Project
- bribery
- pardon
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Public Integrity Project
Books & works: PLUNDER: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, WHEN COMPANIES RUN THE COURTS: Forced Arbitration and America’s Secret Justice System
More episodes of Free Forum with Terrence McNally
- Episode 741: PROTEST-ANNIE LEONARD & ANDRE CAROTHERS-Respect It. Defend It. Use It. · June 12, 2026 · 1h 14m
- Episode 740: ANDREW WEIL MD (2003)-America’s most trusted doctor of integrative medicine · June 5, 2026 · 57 min
- Episode 739: THE FUTURE IS PEACE-AZIZ ABU SARAH (Palestinian) & MAOZ INON (Israeli) · May 29, 2026 · 1h 21m
- Episode 738: ASTRA TAYLOR (2020)-WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? Can we revive it? Can it meet our challenges? · May 21, 2026 · 1h 0m
- Episode 736: 1) CRAIG VENTER-Genome decoder died last week 2) STUART KAUFFMAN-REINVENTING THE SACRED-Two conversations from 2008 · May 8, 2026 · 59 min
- Episode 735: SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE-MICHAEL MANN (Climate) & PETER HOTEZ (Pandemics, Vaccines) · April 30, 2026 · 1h 1m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Free Forum with Terrence McNally podcast page.