Rachel Maddow is back with another deep dive into the history of America’s radical right with the second installment of MSNBC podcast “Ultra.”
The eight-episode Season 2 of “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra” is set to debut June 10, with new installments to be released weekly on Mondays. In the second season of “Ultra,” Maddow “uncovers a web of troubling forces at work on the American ultra right in the post-war 1950s,” telling the “complex and little-known history of the all-out international manhunt for a Nazi spy who infiltrated the U.S. Army and left a lasting mark on American politics for decades to come,” per MSNBC. (Listen to the trailer below.)
Maddow details “the desperate search that reveals the extent of the ultra right’s reach into right-wing politics in America, with FBI investigators constantly one step behind, a gruesome hoax perpetrated in Congress, a bogus prosecution targeting a politician’s family, and a Hail Mary scheme to rig the counting of electoral votes rattles democracy’s cage,” according to MSNBC. “And that’s all before the spy unexpectedly turns up… back home in America.”
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“Demagogues are not a new thing in our country, nor are their extreme, even violent, anti-democratic tactics,” Maddow said in a statement. “Our history shows that fighting back against them can be dangerous work. Season 2 of ‘Ultra’ is a story about mostly forgotten American heroes who knew the risks to themselves if they took on these forces, but also the risk to the country if they didn’t.”
Season 1 of “Ultra” — which ranked No. 8 on Apple Podcasts’ list of the most popular new shows in 2022 — documented the history of Americans who plotted to overthrow the government and end democracy in the midst of World War II, along with the members of Congress who supported the movement. The show was the first podcast to receive the Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism award. Last year, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment optioned the film rights for “Ultra.”
“Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra” Season 2 is executive produced by Maddow and Michael Yarvitz, former producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” who had teamed on the first season. Yarvitz and Maddow also previously worked together on the popular MSNBC podcast series “Bag Man,” centering on the 1973 political scandal surrounding Richard Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew,which earned the duPont-Columbia Award and a Peabody award nomination.
Maddow is the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which airs live Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC and is available in a podcast version, after she scaled back to a once-per-week TV schedule in 2022. She also is on standby to lead breaking news and special coverage for MSNBC and has continued to expand her presence across the NBCUniversal’s platforms.
“Ultra” Season 2 will be available on major audio platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and TuneIn. In addition, as part of the new MSNBC Premium offering on Apple Podcasts ($2.99/month and $29.99/year), subscribers will receive early access to new episodes each Friday starting June 7 along with ad-free listening and bonus content.
NBCUniversal News Group’s other original podcasts include “Prosecuting Donald Trump,” “Southlake,” “Truthers: Tiffany Dover Is Dead*,” “The Girl in the Blue Mustang,” “American Radical” and “The Chris Hayes Podcast.”
Listen to the trailer for “Ultra” Season 2:
