(Exclusive.) Vicky Ward has reported for Vanity Fair, CNN, and she’s a New York Times Bestselling author. Today, she’s the founder of her own Substack, Vicki Ward Investigates, and she’s our guest on this week's edition of The Breaker Pod coming to you from iconic steakhouse Delmonico’s in the Financial District (cheers to restaurateur Max Tucci for inviting us down). 

When Ward began reporting on Jeffrey Epstein for the first time back in 2002, little did she know that his name would go on to dominate the headlines and that her reporting would be some of the first and most extensive on his crimes. 

Ward had just read the recently released tell-all by key Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, (whom Ward also knew), and she told Breaker that she found the book powerful and revealing “by the time she gets drawn in to work for Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, part of the appeal for her is that they are weirdly the family she's never had.”

Epstein aside, Ward has also covered another controversial figure, former Trump adviser and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in her book Kushner Inc. “I think probably people perceive me rightly as, as probably Jared Kushner's, harshest critic, I'm very proud of the work and the reporting in Kushner Inc. I really feel it was ahead of its time.”

In July, Ward released her latest book, with legendary author James Patterson on the tragic murder of the Idaho Four. Not one to sit idle, she’s already back at work with Patterson on their next book, focused on Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. “Everybody, it doesn't matter what your politics are …everybody has, has a really negative response to the health insurance industry, obviously, everyone should also condone murder,” she told us.

Catch more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.