A former longtime editor and reporter at the Washington Post, Miranda S. Spivack is now an independent journalist focusing on immigration, urban development, and the need for government transparency. Her new book, winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize, is Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities — and the Local Heroes Fighting Back, which Publishers Weekly calls “an enraging exposé of a nationwide culture of corruption.”

Spivack discussed Backroom Deals in Our Backyards with professor/podcaster Sunil Dasgupta on the “I Hate Politics” podcast earlier this month. Listen to it here.