Government Works Best in the Dark: Miranda Spivack on Secrecy & Corruption
For two decades, Miranda Spivack covered government and land-use fights for the Washington Post. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on how local governments avoid scrutiny, why wealthy landowners and developers often get a pass on the rules, and how the boom in data center construction is reshaping communities with little public input.
Miranda explains what she calls the "secrecy industrial complex" — the web of closed-door deals, vague public notices, and bureaucratic friction that keeps ordinary residents from knowing what's happening in their own backyards. She also talks about the collapse of local news coverage, why that decline directly correlates with less civic participation, and what "accidental activists" look like when they discover a project that will change their community forever.
Topics covered:
- Miranda's career investigating government secrecy at the Washington Post
- How the decline of local news enables corruption and disengagement
- Wealthy landowners and developers dodging zoning and environmental rules
- The data center boom and its environmental costs
- How communities organize and fight back — and what "doing it right" looks like
- Why supporting local journalism matters for democracy
Miranda is the author of Backroom Deals in Our Backyards (The New Press).
- Backroom Deals | Substack
- Backroom Deals in Our Backyards - The New Press
- Miranda Spivack | Webpage
- Barrett Gruber | Linktree
- The All About Nothing: Podcast | Linktree
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