Episode Details

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks set out to profile a government bureaucrat and found something closer to fiction: Jarod Koopman, a fit, tattooed IRS agent who teaches jiu-jitsu three mornings a week, built his own house (including a wine cellar because he also happens to be a certified sommelier), and has personally helped return billions of dollars to American taxpayers while freeing children from exploitation and dismantling criminal empires hiding behind cryptocurrency. Kelly and Geraldine talk about why Jarod turned down the kind of salary the private sector would gladly pay him, and what it costs a country when talented, mission-driven people walk away from public service. This fifth and final episode of our Unsung series is a conversation about what fairness in America actually requires to survive—and why we should be paying much closer attention to the people making sure it does.