THE WEEKLY REVEAL
Saturday, June 21, 2025
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A Retired Brigadier General Slams Trump’s Military Power Grab
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Hi. It’s Al Letson, host of More To The Story.
The news coming out of Los Angeles over the last couple of weeks has been troubling, to say the least. The National Guard is patrolling the streets. The Marines have been deployed. And protesters—the vast majority of whom have peacefully exercised their First Amendment rights opposing the Trump administration’s immigration raids—have been detained and intimidated.
These last few weeks have felt like an inflection point—not just for those who oppose the Trump administration’s policies and came out for the “No Kings” marches across the country, but also for the way the military is being wielded in the US. That’s why I wanted to talk with someone like Greg Smith, a retired Army National Guard brigadier general. In his 35-year career, he’s seen riots and mass protests and even led the military’s response to the Boston Marathon bombing. Smith is worried about the direction of his beloved National Guard. He’s seeing the armed forces being asked to enforce a political agenda rather than defend the Constitution. And he’s not afraid to speak up about it.
“I’m watching the military becoming co-opted by politicians, and where that leads is some really troubling places,” Smith says. “If that happens, the roots of our democracy are in extreme danger.”
I talked to Smith about that and much, much more on this week’s More To The Story. I hope you give it a listen.
—Al Letson, host of More To The Story
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Find this episode wherever you listen to Reveal, and don’t forget to subscribe:
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Across the country, women seeking addiction treatment are being harassed and assaulted by men in positions of power.
The problem is so pervasive that it has a name among those in the industry: the 13th Step.
“I fell right into it, right into it. You know, it’s like, it’s just, you're so vulnerable,” says a victim named Andrea. “The 13-stepper is like, um, when you take advantage of a newcomer. Like, they, they joke like, ‘Don’t be a 13th-stepper.’”
This week on Reveal, we revisit an episode that first aired in February 2024 with Lauren Chooljian from New Hampshire Public Radio, who started her investigation by looking at that state’s largest addiction treatment network, founded by Eric Spofford.
After exposing allegations that he was harassing patients, Chooljian, her sources, and staff at New Hampshire Public Radio became the targets of intimidation and vandalism. In recent weeks, Spofford was indicted on charges that he orchestrated those attacks.
Chooljian then follows another case, this time in California, where the owner of a group of treatment centers was sexually assaulting clients and carrying out massive insurance fraud. The owner, Chris Bathum, was brought to justice after two women teamed up to gather evidence and take it to law enforcement.
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