Thanks to a woman prosecutor, Lucky Luciano finally faces the long arm of the law. And with a second world war on the horizon, the stage is set for the realms of mobsters and spies to cross the rubicon… and become partners.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When crime lords, or their puppets, find their way into political office, the worst of mankind is unleashed. LB sits down with scholar and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat to talk Mussolini and Hitler, the techniques and circumstances that lead to a Strongman's rise, and the devasting parallals and symbiosis they have with mob bosses - past and present. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two gangland hits propel Meyer and Lucky to the top of the world they helped create; while Elizebeth's investigations show a darker product being shipped through their smuggling empire. One that would only grow with Prohibition's repeal, and ravage our families and communities for generations to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The offshore laundromat that Meyer Lansky created continues to ravage the free world today. LB sits down with Stuart Syvret, former Senior Senator of Jersey Island - a Crown Dependency in the English Channel. Senator Syvret is the only political prisoner in the world without legal representation thanks to the global mobsters who control the Queen's island. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizebeth successfully hunts and exposes a pivotal piece in The Syndicate's smuggling empire, enabling Elmer Irey and his T-Men to finally nail Public Enemy #1…and leaving Meyer Lansky shaking in his fedora. To save The Syndicate's money, Meyer runs to Switzerland to create the global laundromat... and the Second Economy is born.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LB sits down with Melissa Davis - Director of Library and Archives at the George Marshall Foundation, guardian of William and Elizebeth Friedman's legacy, and world's happiest librarian. Melissa lets us into the more personal side of Elizebeth and William's life together, raising a loving family while protecting the nation's most valuable secrets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano find the business mentor they need to launch their bootlegging empire. Once they do, the Treasury Department sends an officer to go knock on Elizebeth's door. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LB sits down with friend and novelist Greg Olear, who was one of the first artists to write and warn about the invasion of mobsters and spies that swarmed us in the Trump Presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We meet our first season's hero: Elizebeth Smith Friedman, creator of cryptanalysis and godmother of the NSA. And she would never have formed what would become the world's most powerful intelligence agency without a conspiracy theory about Shakespeare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LB's first sit-down is with her uncle, Jeremy Black - a loving father, terrific twin brother, and 35+-year veteran of the National Security Agency. Mr. Black walks us through the everyday workings of the NSA. And the man from the world's most secretive intelligence agency let's the cat out of the bag: his niece's real name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LB introduces The World Beneath with two assassinations in 1985: the Boss of Bosses of the American Mafia and the Little Godfather of the KGB's Russian Vor. Unanswered details between the two hits lead us on a journey back in time to find the first intersection of mobsters and spies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season one of The World Beneath explores the motivation behind the creation of the underworld of mobsters and spies. It was built in pursuit of one, simple thing. Treasure. When the pirates of the old world were taken over by the gangsters of the new, the criminal realm organized itself around the money – the bounty - that could be earned through Prohibition and vice. And our most formidable spies found the way to both capture them and partner with them through the map to their treasure, they...

COMING THIS SUMMER: The first-ever series that defines and exposes the true nature of the underworld: a second economy of dirty money, born from the intersection of organized crime and intelligence operations. They are twin heads of this realm, and they have never been separated. This is the world of MOBSTERS & SPIES.