You can listen to the #2395 – Mariana van Zeller using Speak’s shareable media player:
#2395 – Mariana van Zeller Podcast Episode Description
Mariana van Zeller is the host and executive producer of National Geographic’s “Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller.” Check out her new podcast “The Hidden Third” and also more content on her new YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/marianavanzeller
Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan.
50% off your first box at https://www.thefarmersdog.com/rogan!
Buy 1 Get 1 Free Trucker Hat with code ROGAN at https://happydad.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This interactive media player was created automatically by Speak. Want to generate intelligent media players yourself? Sign up for Speak!
#2395 – Mariana van Zeller Podcast Episode Summary
Based on the provided context, the phrase “has joined the group” refers to someone becoming a member of a group, band, club, or team. Throughout the conversation, there are multiple references to joining various groups, inviting members, and welcoming new people. Specific examples include:
– “we joined the band”
– “He should’ve joined the…”
– “Join the team.”
– “Welcome to the club.”
– “add one more bestie.”
– “they’re in, they’re in.”
– “invite you to…”
These statements all indicate the act of someone joining or being added to a group or collective. However, the context does not specify exactly who “has joined the group” in a particular instance. The general meaning is clear: it signifies the addition of a new member to a group. If you are looking for a specific individual who joined a specific group, that information is not explicitly provided in the context.
Continue reading the full guide (click to expand)
This summary was created automatically by Speak. Want to transcribe, analyze and summarize yourself? Sign up for Speak!
#2395 – Mariana van Zeller Podcast Episode Transcript (Unedited)
Speaker: 0
00:01
Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out.
Speaker: 1
00:03
The Joe Rogan experience.
Speaker: 0
00:06
Want to run this on your own file?
Upload audio, video, or text and get a transcript, summary, and insights in minutes.
Free trial includes 30 minutes (60 with a work email)
Join my day. Joe Rogan podcast ai, all day.
Speaker: 1
00:12
Does it really not fit for you? That glass of wine is so good.
Speaker: 0
00:15
One glass of wine, I do not think is bad for you.
Speaker: 1
00:18
Yeah. That’s all I have.
Speaker: 0
00:19
Great for you. Right. But a glass of wine relaxes you and there’s probably benefit in being relaxed. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. But the problem was Ai own a nightclub, and I’m there all the time. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
00:29
So Ai drinking a glass.
Speaker: 0
00:31
Out with the fellas, and then I’d maybe have a couple glasses of whiskey on a podcast with some guys. And then when I stopped, I was like, oh my god. I feel so much better. Like, why was that poisoning myself?
Speaker: 1
00:42
Really? You did feel much better? Immediately you felt it?
Speaker: 0
00:44
Yeah. Because when you think about it we rolling? Yeah. Yeah. So when I stopped drinking, I was probably having, like, two or three glasses of some kind of alcohol a ai, two or three nights a week. Mhmm. And then I’d go out to dinner with my wife and have, like, a glass or two of wine. That’s a lot of drinks Yeah. Over the week.
Speaker: 0
01:05
And you don’t think it’s much because you’re not drunk, but the next sai, I’d be like, ugh, like, a little draggy Right. Like, when I go to the gym, and that’s gone.
Speaker: 1
01:14
That’s great. Yeah. I wish I had that aspirin.
Speaker: 0
01:18
It’s not not even ai. It was easy to do. Ai don’t yeah. I don’t think I miss it.
Speaker: 1
01:23
You know, I I had I haven’t had a glass of anything for a speak. Now I had surgery exactly a week ago.
Speaker: 0
01:28
What’d you have done?
Speaker: 1
01:29
An appendectomy. Oh. Yep. I was, it was exactly last Thursday, which is why I have these,
Speaker: 0
01:35
marks on
Speaker: 1
01:36
my arms. Yeah. I thought I had to go to the bathroom all day, and then my husband forced me because I had stomach pain. And I just thought I had food poisoning or something, so I kept on going to the toilet.
Speaker: 0
01:46
Those are scary.
Speaker: 1
01:47
Nothing has happened. Yeah. Yeah. It didn’t burst. But, my husband forced me to go to the hospital when he got there, and, yeah, it was an appendicitis. Ai we had emergency appendectomy the next morning. But so, which recovery has been totally fine, but I haven’t wanted to drink because I wanna make sure I was gonna be able to come here today.
Speaker: 1
02:08
And, I wanted to recover faster. So, yeah. So Sai But
Speaker: 0
02:12
you miss it?
Speaker: 1
02:12
Longest I’ve ever been faster. Well, you
Speaker: 0
02:15
have a very, very stressful job. It’s insanely stressful. You are one of the most boots on the ground journalists I’ve ever met. You go to some really dangerous and terrifying places. Ai, I still get nightmares from that video where you showed me where you went to the the jungle where they processed cocaine.
Speaker: 1
02:36
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
02:37
And then walked out with them, hiked out with them through the I mean, that was just nuts.
Speaker: 1
02:43
Yeah. Don’t don’t mean to cause you nightmares, but, I love doing what I do. You know, we’ve done five seasons of Traffic. The last season just premiered a couple of months ago. It’s available now on Hulu. And, unfortunately, it’s the last season of Traffic.
Speaker: 0
02:58
Why is that?
Speaker: 1
03:00
I think a few reasons. I think it’s, you know, it’s a a risky show to put together. Right? It’s a costly show. It’s, Disney decided that Nat Geo should be doing more natural history and animal programming. And, yeah, I think traffic is just a difficult it is a really challenging show to put together.
Speaker: 1
03:19
But I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done, and this last season, the fifth season, has some of my favorite stories we’ve done. And, I’m now starting a podcast. Oh, you know? I launched it yesterday. Congrats.
Speaker: 1
03:30
So now I’m
Speaker: 0
03:30
About that.
Speaker: 1
03:31
Competition. So that’s fine.
Speaker: 0
03:34
Someone will do your show again somewhere else, though. It’s too good.
Speaker: 1
03:37
This is what I’m hoping is with the podcast. It’s on YouTube, and I’m growing it into something bigger. So it starts with interviews. The podcast is called The Hidden Third, because an estimated 35% of the global economy are these black and gray markets, which is what I’ve reported on for
Speaker: 0
03:51
the past week. Wait a minute.
Speaker: 1
03:52
It’s crazy. Number. Right?
Speaker: 0
03:53
Mhmm. 35% of
Speaker: 1
03:54
the economy? 35%, which is what economists call the hidden third. So we’re not just talking about illegal activities and goods, like drugs and scams and whatnot and guns. We’re also talking about so the gray that’s the black arya. And then there’s the gray market, which are the is the irregular unregulated part of the economy.
Speaker: 1
04:12
So untaxed work, untaxed goods, everything from, like, the man selling fruit on the corner, you know, to, other other jobs and and goods that aren’t taxed. But this actually has an effect on all of us because it’s less money that comes in for schools and infrastructure and hospitals and all the stuff we need.
Speaker: 1
04:31
And then apart from all that we know, which is the black market and how that affects us all, which is, you know, whether you talk about guns or drugs or immigration, I mean, it all has a direct impact in our lives. So with this podcast, what I really wanted to do is after reporting on these black markets for twenty years, is I wanted to have a place like this where I can have intimate, raw, you know, sometimes difficult conversations with people who have lived or are living on the other side of the law and, who, you know, I wanted to figure out why somebody decides to become a smuggler, a trafficker, a scammer, a bookie, you know, all these crazy lives that people lead.
Speaker: 1
05:12
See how it affects us all, understand why that what they do affects us all. And also, I think the most important part for ram, which has always been and I I’ve talked about this with you, which is trying to understand if, the circumstances were different, if it could have been you and me doing that, you know?
Speaker: 0
05:29
Ai think I’m most certainly. Yeah. That that’s the case. Yeah. Yeah. Most certainly is the case geographically.
Speaker: 1
05:34
No. A 100% geographically.
Speaker: 0
05:36
If you have no options and you’re stuck in a third world country, guess what? Yeah. You know, you do what you gotta do.
Speaker: 1
05:42
Yeah. It was that story that we did in the same episode you mentioned, the cocaine trafficking, which I will never forget, which was the kid who was carrying in his backpack. Right? He was 16, 17 year old kid carrying cocaine, 20 kilos of cocaine on his back for days on end on the in the jungles.
Speaker: 1
05:58
I’ve seen so many of his friends being killed in front of him by rebel gangs, rival gangs. And, when he, you know, when I asked him, why are you doing what you do? He says, because I’ve always wanted to be a dentist. I wanna go to school and be a dentist, but my ai too poor and they can’t afford my education.
Speaker: 1
06:14
And the only job that I have available for me now is, is doing this cocaine trafficking or, you know, carrying cocaine on my back. And these are stories I hear all the time. So the the idea of being able to place ourselves in people’s shoes and understand that, yes, even the people that we consider the bad guys could be me and you, as as you know, has always been very important for me.
Speaker: 1
06:34
So the podcast allows me to do that.
Speaker: 0
06:36
Well, that’s great. Yeah. When when you say that, like, it’s one third, how much of it is stuff that’s not dangerous? Like selling fruit on the side of the road and
Speaker: 1
06:45
So it’s on tax labor. It’s difficult to have exact numbers, but the estimate is that about 15%, 15 to 20% are black arya, and the rest are gray markets. So the totality is around 35%, an estimate. Okay. But Ai mean So
Speaker: 0
07:02
it’s kinda half.
Speaker: 1
07:03
Yeah. More or less.
Speaker: 0
07:04
Half dangerous stuff.
Speaker: 1
07:06
Yeah. Half people in the unregulated stuff.
Speaker: 0
07:08
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
07:09
But I mean, they also mix. Right? Because, you know, a lot of times what happens in one side affects the other, you know. One of the the really interest the the the things that I think we’ve talked about a lot is, I think this number shocks a lot of people. But if you think of the drug trade alone, $600,000,000,000, that’s the estimate, anywhere between $306,100,000,000,000 dollars every year just from the drug trade alone.
Speaker: 1
07:38
You know, these these are crazy numbers. And so it’s it’s not so out of the box to think that, yeah, this is a hard large percentage of our economy.
Speaker: 0
07:50
Is it difficult to get people to come and sit with you on a podcast and talk about illegal activities?
Speaker: 1
07:56
Yes. But it’s it was also on the show. I think the harder part is that on the show, we figured out a way of how to make them comfortable because I would go to them. Right? On the podcast, it’s harder to convince an active trafficker or smuggler to come and sit down in my office.
Speaker: 0
08:13
Right. I would think it’s a setup.
Speaker: 1
08:14
So Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of ai, the meetings that we had on the show happened in undisclosed locations in vans, for example, or in places that they felt comfortable with. Their, you know, drug labs or their drug houses or their homes sometimes. So this has been a little bit harder, but we’re we’re making it we’re making it work.
Speaker: 1
08:33
We’re having we’re hoping that it grows sai then we actually have money to start traveling more and going to some of these places.
Speaker: 0
08:40
Is this something that you always wanted to do, like do a podcast? Or is it something that was a necessity when the show was vatsal? Or did you just think maybe I should branch out?
Speaker: 1
08:51
I’ve always wanted to do it, and I tried we had done an iteration of it a couple of years ago, but I just didn’t have the time because I was traveling, you know, half the year or more, for traffic. So it was really hard to do a weekly podcast. It was almost impossible. But I spent so much time talking to people, who have really interesting backgrounds, and then we use only five minutes of their interview, if if that.
Speaker: 1
09:16
And these are fascinating people that, again
Speaker: 0
09:19
Do you have access to that footage?
Speaker: 1
09:22
The footage
Speaker: 0
09:23
The footage that you edited out?
Speaker: 1
09:26
Yes. I mean, yes.
Speaker: 0
09:27
But do you have access to it? Like, are you allowed
Speaker: 1
09:29
to Or is it if it’s owned by by National Geographic, it’s owned by National Geographic. I wonder
Speaker: 0
09:33
if they would sign off on letting you put that on your podcast because that would be fascinating as well because I ai I bet there’s a lot that was missed on the editing floor.
Speaker: 1
09:40
You have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But the good news is that I have still that Geo. I know.
Speaker: 0
09:45
Tyler her have the footage. It would only help.
Speaker: 1
09:47
But I have all the contacts. So as long as soon as I start ram as this starts building up, the podcast, the hope is that, I’ll build it myself from the ground up because all the contacts are ai, you know, all the
Speaker: 0
09:59
expertise is mine. You have contacts with, like, assassins and drug dealers that text each other? Hey. What’s up? Send emojis.
Speaker: 1
10:06
I ai yeah. I mean, these are people. I mean, the assassins less so, but the traffickers and the smugglers and the scammers, absolutely, I’m still in touch with a lot of them.
Speaker: 0
10:16
Wow. Yeah. Do you have, like, a file? Or you’re ai ai You
Speaker: 1
10:21
wanna see my secret ai?
Speaker: 0
10:22
But do you have them, like, labeled, like, super shady, less than just unfortunate circumstances, cold blooded killers?
Speaker: 1
10:33
It’s all under my encrypted messaging apps. No. No. You know, it’s really crazy because of the success of traffic, the amount of messages I still get on Instagram and social media on a weekly basis from people who want to be on the show. Now with the podcast as well, I’m hoping that it will grow into that. But people just showing me their drugs and their guns.
Speaker: 1
10:54
They shah me photos of the stuff that they’re doing, and they they
Speaker: 0
10:58
Is it because these people feel like they’re gonna die anyway? Like, they’re gonna probably get killed?
Speaker: 1
11:02
A lot of them are.
Speaker: 0
11:03
You know? They’re not afraid.
Speaker: 1
11:04
One of the most interesting people we filmed for this last season of Traffic was a guy that we called Meh Gringo. So it was a premiere episode of this season. It was about cartel it was called Cartel USA. It’s about the cartel presence in The United States. So I’ve reported extensively on cartels in Meh, right, and in Colombia and in other parts.
Speaker: 1
11:21
But I haven’t actually spent a lot of time with the cartel here or seen what kind of influence they have in The US. And, so so I had this idea, okay, let’s try to figure out how massive their presence is is here, how they make the money, how do they they distribute the drugs, and what impact is it having on, on in America.
Speaker: 1
11:40
And what I found was there several very surprising facts. The story actually starts in Sinaloa because I ai to go there to get access to the people in The US. So I had to go to the top bosses to be able to to get the green ai to then film their operations here
Speaker: 0
11:57
in The US. Ai?
Speaker: 1
11:59
Sinaloa, I mean, it’s the place in the world that I’ve reported most more from, apart from The United States. I’ve reported more from Sinaloa than anywhere else. I have good contacts there. I have an incredible local journalist called Miguel Angel Vega who’s called he’s a ill fixer.
Speaker: 1
12:16
He’s the guy that any journalist in the world who wants to get access to the cartel will contact him. And then he has his own contacts. He’s just an incredibly brave journalist with his own contacts. And then he, basically contacts his people, and then they decide if they want to talk or not.
Speaker: 1
12:32
And,
Speaker: 0
12:33
a lot of
Speaker: 1
12:33
times they don’t. And a lot ai, I’ve done this so many times that that by now they trust me. They know that I’m not law enforcement. And so they allow me to film their operation. So we’ve I filmed Super Meh Labs, Super Labs of Meh there. I filmed, Sentinel Lab. I filmed a guy cooking Sentinel. We were all full you know, masked up, and I filmed the whole operation. I mean, I filmed, Sicarios. I’ve, I’ve yeah.
Speaker: 1
13:01
I Ai filmed more from Sinaloa than anywhere else in the world.
Speaker: 0
13:05
But it’s gotta be very scary to go there and hang out with those people. Is is did they put boundaries on Mhmm. Topics?
Speaker: 1
13:15
Ai on top yes. For example, I’m not even though I’m in Sinaloa, I’m not supposed to ask which cartel people work for, where it’s obvious that when you’re in Sinaloa, everyone works for the Sinaloa cartel. I mean, everybody that’s involved in the cartel works for the Sinaloa cartel.
Speaker: 1
13:28
There are other cartels trying to make, headway in the in that region, but usually it’s all Sinaloa. So you’re not supposed to ask, who exactly they work for. And, and yeah, there are some questions about money, for example, how much money they make. People don’t like to be ask that.
Speaker: 1
13:46
But I always ask all those questions anyway. And I I you know, you get a sense whether you’re pushing it too far.
Speaker: 0
13:52
Right. Have you ever had a moment when you’re doing that where you’re like, I think I crossed the line?
Speaker: 1
13:59
We had a I had a moment where we stayed too long. So it was a day we were doing a story. It was for season one. It was about guns and how about American guns, the flow of American guns to Mexico.
Speaker: 0
14:10
That was when you got the police people that were selling drugs illegally. So for people who didn’t see that episode, it’s quite fascinating. Police in Los Angeles, dirty cops Yeah. Were loading up their trunks with guns that they’ve confiscated Yeah. And then selling them across the border in Mexico.
Speaker: 1
14:29
Oh, they were selling it to gang members or affiliate of cartel members in LA who would then They ship it. Yeah. They would cross the border and ship it to LA. Yeah. We visit it was Crazy. It was a scene. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
14:40
It started with a scene in that episode started with a scene in LA where we interviewed a guy who goes by the name of Tee. And, he had a room packed with rifles. And when I started asking him where they were from, he was like, oh, this one was confiscated. We have an LAPD, contact that, you know, sells us a lot of our drugs.
Speaker: 0
14:58
Ai, I just don’t understand what benefit to them.
Speaker: 1
15:02
To the police?
Speaker: 0
15:03
Yeah. For them no. But for them no. But for them to talk to you.
Speaker: 1
15:07
Which which one?
Speaker: 0
15:08
The any of them. Like, the especially the cops.
Speaker: 1
15:11
So it’s the question that I get, the the cops didn’t talk. We didn’t get
Speaker: 0
15:15
them to talk to us. The people that
Speaker: 1
15:18
We got it from the gang member. Yeah. The cops
Speaker: 0
15:20
sold the guns to.
Speaker: 1
15:21
So Ai speak I spoke to cops who are doing amazing work here in US in combating drug trafficking and and gun trafficking and in Mexico as well. But, but these we’re talking about corrupt cops. So we yeah. That was not the case. This was a gang member telling me how he had acquired those guns from LAPD, confiscated guns that he had acquired from LAPD.
Speaker: 0
15:43
But even that, like, what would be the benefit to him to talk to you?
Speaker: 1
15:46
I think for so in that case, it went back to my contacts in Sinaloa. And I think it’s three reasons why people talk to us. I think the first one is ego. People want to boast. And if you’re part of the Sinaloa cartel or even if you’re a boss in the Sinaloa cartel and you’re there’s an ongoing war between you, a turf war between you and another gang ai the c n JNG, which is a cartel Jalisco, they’re they’re fighting for power.
Speaker: 1
16:12
Right? So here’s a opportunity to show how powerful you are you are. So it’s ego. Right? And a lot of these people that talk to me, I don’t, you know, very often or more often than not, it’s not the bosses or the kingpins that I’m talking to.
Speaker: 1
16:25
Right? It’s the Sicarios. It’s the middle and low level people. It’s the traffickers. It’s the chemists. It’s the smugglers. It’s not the kingpins.
Speaker: 1
16:33
And for them, they spend their whole lives doing something that sometimes their own families don’t know they’re they do. Ai, I remember, an episode we did about counterfeit money, people who make fake US, dollars and euros in Peru, in Lima. And this guy, like, ai eyes, so ai, showing me how he finishes these bills to make it look and feel and smell exactly like a $100 bill.
Speaker: 1
17:00
And when I asked him and he’s a taxi driver by day and he does this by night. And and, and I was asking him, so why did you accept talking to us? He says, look. My wife doesn’t even know how good I am. I am the best of the best at doing this. Like, nobody in the whole world can make this as well as I do.
Speaker: 1
17:18
And I always wanted to be able to talk to somebody and show off how good my skills are, and you’re giving me an opportunity to do this.
Speaker: 0
17:26
That’s crazy.
Speaker: 1
17:27
So I think ego plays a huge role. And then impunity, like, in places like Mexico, so much corruption. Like, what’s the downside to talking to this woman who comes and asks funny questions? Right?
Speaker: 0
17:37
Right.
Speaker: 1
17:38
And then and then I think it’s the wanting to be understood. I think everybody wants to be understood, and they know they’re considered the bad guys. They know that, you know, you know, there’s sai much stigma around what they do. And I tell everybody, I’m here to try to understand what you do.
Speaker: 1
17:54
I’m not here to judge you because I think it’s much more important to understand why you do what you do.
Speaker: 0
17:59
The guy who makes counterfeit bills, what’s his process?
Speaker: 1
18:02
Oh, it’s freaking fascinating.
Speaker: 0
18:03
Because it does he replicate a dollar bill with all, ai, the little things inside of it?
Speaker: 1
18:09
It was incredible. So there’s different there’s the graphics person, there’s the printer, and then and he is he does the finishing job. He’s the finisher. And, he said he was the best finisher in the job. And I said he’s I I started calling him Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese football player because he’s the finisher in soccer. So I called him Ronaldo. Okay. You’re Ronaldo.
Speaker: 1
18:28
And he uses he uses a a, it’s kinda like a porridge that I used to eat when I was a kid in in Portugal. It’s called ai a it’s a type of like a serielac. You don’t you guys don’t have it here, but it’s like a a meh. What do you call that? Ai cornmeal. Like a cornmeal. And he uses that, and I saw him using it. It’s not ai, actually. It’s Maizena, which is another brand.
Speaker: 1
18:50
But it he uses this sort of cornmeal to finish these bills to make it the consistency when you touch it feel exactly like the real stuff.
Speaker: 0
18:59
Is it made with the same paper?
Speaker: 1
19:01
No. It’s a different paper. The paper is the hardest part to get because the paper you can only get, in the US Federal Reserves or wherever the paper comes from. It’s ai.
Speaker: 0
19:11
Like sai easy thing to duplicate
Speaker: 1
19:13
Yeah. Paper. Not very hard. And particularly if you put the, you know, all the little creases and curves and what What
Speaker: 0
19:21
about those little things that you can only see with, like, a flash
Speaker: 1
19:24
light? They they have ways around that too. It was incredible. We brought some home. Haven’t used it. It’s at my office. But it is I mean,
Speaker: 0
19:31
it can fool that stuff?
Speaker: 1
19:33
Okay. So we actually didn’t bring the actual we we brought the cutouts, so so Ai we wouldn’t be able to use it. But it’s, like, it’s in the background of my podcast. So
Speaker: 0
19:41
Woah. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by the Farmer’s Dog. We all know ultra processed food isn’t good for us as humans. Why would it be any different for our dogs? The Farmer’s Dog is real fresh food for dogs, and their recipe goes beyond just using good ingredients. It’s all about how they use them.
Speaker: 0
19:59
Unlike most pet food, they always use real meat and vegetables and gently cook them to retain vital nutrients without any of the bad stuff that comes from ultra processing. Their food is developed by a team of on staff board certified vet nutritionists who make sure it’s all complete and balanced, and it’s backed by research and made to human grade safety standards.
Speaker: 0
20:20
It’s portioned for your dog, making it easy to manage their weight, and they label each pack with your dog’s name that lets you know that this food is truly packed for them. Plus, they have twenty four seven customer support, so you can chat with real dog people who care about your dog anytime.
Speaker: 0
20:38
The Farmer’s Dog says good ingredients matter, but the best recipes call for so much more. Head to thefarmersdog.com/rogan to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. This offer is for new customers only.
Speaker: 1
20:54
You can see the cutout, and it’s really it’s phenomenal. It’s crazy.
Speaker: 0
20:58
What how many bills that are counterfeit make their way into our currency? Is this it right here?
Speaker: 1
21:04
Yeah. This is it. This is the finisher. Yeah. Yeah. Meh. And you sai, he’s teaching he’s showing meh. And there’s a glue to yeah.
Speaker: 0
21:13
And so he’s making it seem more weathered, more worn? And they
Speaker: 1
21:16
make it seem weathered and worn. Wow. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s so crazy.
Speaker: 0
21:23
And how how money
Speaker: 1
21:26
porridge, you sai. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
21:27
Yeah. And so he scrubs it down a little bit.
Speaker: 1
21:29
Yeah. With a toothbrush. All stuff that he bought at the store, like, next door that that you know?
Speaker: 0
21:35
How much currency goes through this guy’s production?
Speaker: 1
21:40
I cannot remember. This was five years ago, season one, but it was a lot. And it’s the US Secret Services that are in charge of, going after these guys. So we actually saw the real money being made when we came back to The US. And, but I can’t remember, but it was millions of dollars.
Speaker: 1
21:55
I mean, there was a there were it was, like, five or six families in Peru, in Lima. They’re the center of all this that were make that were in charge that were the best of the best at making these. And we got inside one of these.
Speaker: 0
22:08
And how does that stuff get into US distribution?
Speaker: 1
22:11
Usually in bags, commercial ai, just like drugs. A lot of drugs make it. And commercial airlines, same thing. Commercial airlines, bags, people would carry. The money mules would carry it, vatsal carry money.
Speaker: 0
22:23
And then when it gets to America, what do they do with it?
Speaker: 1
22:26
They distribute it. So it’s funny. It’s interesting. They actually start they go to small towns and they distribute it in grocery stores, and they don’t go to, like, a Walmart or a big superstore. They go to small first. And that’s how it gets in the general. That’s how that’s how
Speaker: 0
22:40
it gets in the general. So they just
Speaker: 1
22:40
buy things with it? They buy things and, I wish I remember this was five years ago. They buy things, but they also have people that exchange that for less cash. Yeah. That’s what it was. I think they meh end up getting people
Speaker: 0
22:55
Oh, so people that know?
Speaker: 1
22:56
Yeah. That know, and they end up getting, like, 70% of what I think it was something like 70% of the actual cost for real bills. So they get real money in exchange for
Speaker: 0
23:06
They get 70% of what a real bill
Speaker: 1
23:08
Ai mean, the whole operation, I think, was.
Speaker: 0
23:10
So if you have a $20 bill, you get 70% of that back in profit? Like a fake $20 bill?
Speaker: 1
23:16
Yeah. The the head of the group that then sells the bills when they’re made.
Speaker: 0
23:20
Oh, I thought it was like less
Speaker: 1
23:21
than that
Speaker: 0
23:22
for someone to be willing to exchange you real money for fake money.
Speaker: 1
23:25
Yeah. I have to I have to ai. Again, this is five years ago. We’ve done 50 episodes, but I think it was something like that, if I remember.
Speaker: 0
23:33
That’s crazy, though, that it just gets distributed by small businesses.
Speaker: 1
23:37
Yeah. And and so one of the things we started was we reported on a lot of these small businesses that found out that they were having massive amounts of loss every year from fake bills. And, and I remember it was in in Oregon. We did a few stories there where a lot of people were complaining about this small business
Speaker: 0
23:56
owner. Meh discovered that they have fake bills?
Speaker: 1
23:58
I think they go to the bank and try to
Speaker: 0
24:00
Oh, the bank knows. So They try to Does the
Speaker: 1
24:02
bank deposit it.
Speaker: 0
24:03
Do they, like, look at every number on the bills? Like, how do they find out that they’re fake?
Speaker: 1
24:08
I think the bank is able to find out just by looking at it.
Speaker: 0
24:11
Oh, okay.
Speaker: 1
24:11
Because I think it it it, you know, would fool us, but it doesn’t fool somebody who’s trained to look at these bills.
Speaker: 0
24:18
So the bank when you bring money to the bank, they look at every bill?
Speaker: 1
24:21
There’s sai postage. Yeah. I know that that’s how they figured out that they had sana
Speaker: 0
24:24
go to the bank. Bank. Go to go to bank where people are just phoning
Speaker: 1
24:29
all night.
Speaker: 0
24:29
Yeah. They just they just assume that it’s real. They don’t care. Yeah. That’s crazy though. So ai what is like for the overall United States, like, how much money comes in every year that’s fake?
Speaker: 1
24:40
Oh, it was I cannot remember vatsal the statistics, but it was, it was a lot. It was, like, in the millions of dollars that people were making down there.
Speaker: 0
24:47
Wow.
Speaker: 1
24:47
It was crazy. Yeah. But this all back to the story of why I talked about this guy about why people talk to us. And, oh, and back to the cartel USA story, which, started in Sinaloa. There was a point to this you were asking me about how it ended up in The US. Oh, the what I discovered with cartel’s operations in The United States.
Speaker: 1
25:07
So one of the people we interviewed, which was really fascinating, and it was somebody who had this carried this load on his back and why he sai to talk to us, was this guy called El Gringo, or we called him El Gringo. And El Gringo is an American citizen who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish and who’s sort of the wholesale buyer of drugs from the cartel and then is in charge of distributing the drugs here in The US.
Speaker: 1
25:31
He distributes most of his drugs through commercial airlines, usually Delta, because they have really good baggage fees. They have 70 pounds, two bags, 70 pounds if you fly business. And so a lot of ai, it was strippers who would carry the drugs from the West Coast to the East Coast.
Speaker: 1
25:49
And he he one of the things I’ll never forget, he says, if you’re taking a Delta flight from the West Coast to the East Coast, I guarantee that there’s a very high chance that somebody’s carrying drugs on one of those flights.
Speaker: 0
25:59
Wow. You said strippers?
Speaker: 1
26:01
Strippers. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
26:01
Why do they use strippers?
Speaker: 1
26:03
Because, they are, because people don’t suspect it’s a woman, so people are less suspicious of women. Oh. And there’s a higher chance that they’ll make it, and they are more likely to take the money to do this in Wow.
Speaker: 0
26:17
Ai this case, to
Speaker: 1
26:18
do this job. Or they I mean, at least those are the people that he found would agree to do this. Boy, yeah. Ai. I mean, I don’t wanna say anything back ai strippers.
Speaker: 0
26:25
You get busted doing that, though. Yeah. That is a big penalty. Yeah. You’re going to jail
Speaker: 1
26:30
for a
Speaker: 0
26:30
long time.
Speaker: 1
26:31
Obviously a terrible idea.
Speaker: 0
26:33
Such a risk.
Speaker: 1
26:33
Yeah. So this guy, Ai, decided to talk to meh, and he was the one who contacted me. He contacted me initially. And when telling me that he had a story he sana to share, that he was, involved with the cartel. And then sai when we started doing the story about the cartel, I reached back out to him and said, actually, I’m doing a story about cartel presence here.
Speaker: 1
26:53
Would you want to, you know, be on the show? And, and he agreed. And he, traveled out to meh, and we met. And he said, look. I’ve been dying to tell this story because if I get whacked, which he thought he might, he wanted his story to be out there.
Speaker: 1
27:09
He wanted somebody to have heard his whole story.
Speaker: 0
27:11
Wow.
Speaker: 1
27:12
Yeah. And he’d been threatened by the cartel. They’d been sana him photos of his house and where they knew exactly where he lived and where his family was. So yeah. Crazy story.
Speaker: 0
27:22
Mhmm. Sai That
Speaker: 1
27:24
was a crazy story.
Speaker: 0
27:25
When you go over and you have these conversations with the cartels, like, what what is that like? Do they blindfold you and drive you out there? Do they take your phone away?
Speaker: 1
27:34
Yeah. They ask for our phones to be off, turned off.
Speaker: 0
27:38
Not good enough. Don’t they know that’s not good enough?
Speaker: 1
27:43
Where we go in Sinaloa
Speaker: 0
27:45
Uh-huh.
Speaker: 1
27:46
Is areas that are operated and controlled by the cartel. It’s not as if law enforcement doesn’t know exactly where they are. They do. Oh. You know Okay.
Speaker: 0
27:56
Ai just don’t want you recording.
Speaker: 1
27:57
They just don’t want us recording. And they they are afraid that if we, by any chance, are being followed by American law enforcement, they’re way more scared of Meh law enforcement than they are of Mexican law enforcement.
Speaker: 0
28:09
Because Mexican law enforcement’s probably Because
Speaker: 1
28:11
there’s a lot of corruption.
Speaker: 0
28:12
Yes. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
28:12
A lot of corruption. I mean, I’ve been in situations where, you know, there were police officers in the room. So Woah. Yeah. Uh-huh. So
Speaker: 0
28:23
Corrupt cops?
Speaker: 1
28:23
Corrupt cops. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
28:25
Wow. Just in uniform?
Speaker: 1
28:28
Ai in uniform. Sometimes Just
Speaker: 0
28:29
hanging out?
Speaker: 1
28:30
Just hanging out. Yeah. They’re corrupt cops who work many times for the cartel. Right? And that happens all over. I mean, that’s not just in Mexico that that’s happened. I’ve I’ve seen it in Colombia. We’ve I’ve seen it in Brazil. We did a story about militias, where I filmed a militia in Brazil with cops around.
Speaker: 1
28:46
Sai, yeah, that happens unfortunately everywhere. But so when it’s not as if they don’t know where these people are. They’re just afraid that maybe the DEA knowing that I’m a journalist and I go and do the the stuff that they might be following me. So sometimes they ask for our phones to stay ai, but a lot of times tyler just want our phones off, so that we don’t transmit any signals.
Speaker: 1
29:05
But once we’re in their territory, it takes months to get them to say meh. And there’s all these ground rules. Right? We can’t disclose locations or people. We have to make sure we always bring masks and t shirts, long sleeve t shirts and hoodies and everything with us because if they have tattoos and we wanna make sure that they we don’t show who they arya.
Speaker: 1
29:27
Because that can create a problem for them, but it can also create a problem for us. And it can create a problem to the local journalists that help us because they’re gonna be the first targets.
Speaker: 0
29:36
If I was this finisher guy, I would sai, you gotta put sunglasses on me because I have very recognizable eyes.
Speaker: 1
29:40
You know, it’s interesting. Most people don’t want to wear sunglasses. We always travel with sunglasses, and we ask people to put on sunglasses, and people sometimes don’t. They
Speaker: 0
29:48
they say they don’t care. He needed sunglasses. Yeah. His eyes arya very ai, very unusual coloring under the eyes.
Speaker: 1
29:54
I have not met or I haven’t heard of a single person yet who has been caught, from our shah, and I’m in touch with a lot of them.
Speaker: 0
30:01
Well, that’s great. It’s
Speaker: 1
30:02
been it’s been good.
Speaker: 0
30:03
It might just be because they’re not trying.
Speaker: 1
30:06
I I really realistically don’t think it’s be it’s not because they don’t know that these who they are or where they are. It’s not that law enforcement is blind to this. Right. I think it’s it’s, unwillingness sometimes to go after this. It’s realizing that actually these are the low level guys sana what they really want is to get at the big guys, the kingpins.
Speaker: 0
30:26
Ai is a
Speaker: 1
30:27
better strategy anyway.
Speaker: 0
30:28
But isn’t that sometimes how they do it? They get a low level guy and get them to turn? Yeah.
Speaker: 1
30:32
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. But, you know What a terrifying
Speaker: 0
30:37
world that only exists because of an illegal market that The United States fuels.
Speaker: 1
30:42
Yeah. The biggest drug consumers in the world.
Speaker: 0
30:45
We’re number one.
Speaker: 1
30:45
Largest. Number one.
Speaker: 0
30:46
We’re number one.
Speaker: 1
30:47
Number one.
Speaker: 0
30:48
We’re number one.
Speaker: 1
30:48
Ai mean, number one in incarcerations. Number one, it’s a $150,000,000,000 Wow. In drugs that we spend every year.
Speaker: 0
30:55
That’s so crazy.
Speaker: 1
30:56
Crazy. And, you know, we share this border with Mexico, which is fortunate and very unfortunate for them.
Speaker: 0
31:03
Right.
Speaker: 1
31:03
They they blame us for creating the consumer market. We blame them for creating the the drugs that feed this consumer market. And there’s
Speaker: 0
31:11
Is there anyone that has a realistic solution to how to at least mitigate some of that?
Speaker: 1
31:17
We’ve talked about this. We we had a little bit of a debate about this last time because I keep giving the example of Portugal, and you sai, which has decriminalized drugs. Right? Yeah. I know Portugal is not The United States. We’re 10,000,000 people. We’re a small country. But it whatever we it it worked there. Yeah. Drug abuse went down.
Speaker: 1
31:38
Incarceration went down. HIV went down. Levels of HIV went down. So it worked there. They tried it in Oregon. Right? It went terribly.
Speaker: 0
31:46
Yeah. But Oregon is a bad place to try it. Yeah. Because Oregon was already so lawless that going to Oregon, it, like, allowed people to, like, ramp it up. And so because you could get anything and everything was decriminalized, they just went ham.
Speaker: 1
32:00
Yeah. And also, they didn’t have the system in place for people who actually wanted rehab.
Speaker: 0
32:05
Right.
Speaker: 1
32:05
And and so when you don’t, what arya people gonna do? They’re gonna go back to Well,
Speaker: 0
32:09
even then, rehab is very ineffective, like, percentage wise.
Speaker: 1
32:14
It is. That’s was another episode we did this season that you should watch. It’s about it’s called the rehab scam. It’s the great American rehab scam.
Speaker: 0
32:20
Yes.
Speaker: 1
32:20
And it’s about how in California we did we filmed in Arizona in California. In California alone, we got an insurance the head of the insurance, investigations in California, an insurance fraud investigator in California, told us that in his estimates that he said they’re probably very low, 10 of the thousands of rehab facilities out there are probably a fraud and a ram, and which they get 10%.
Speaker: 1
32:47
10%, which is a crazy number. But he thinks it’s a low number that it’s probably much higher than that. So we what we our story was all about body brokering and rehab scams.
Speaker: 0
32:56
And it’s Body brokering?
Speaker: 1
32:58
Body brokering. Yeah. It’s What
Speaker: 0
32:59
is that?
Speaker: 1
32:59
It’s an it’s a term apply that applies to, rehab ram. So rehab scams is basically the the ai and selling of addicts in this billion dollar market. Right? So it’s, these they create these fake rehab centers that bill insurance for treatments that they are not actually giving people. So, for example, it’s a huge problem in Sana.
Speaker: 1
33:29
That’s why we started and in California, but we started in Arizona. Native Americans have really easy access to, health insurance through the the Indian American health plan that they created. And it started as a good thing because there’s it it was difficult. A lot of people lived in reservations far away.
Speaker: 1
33:48
A lot of people, you know, because of generational trauma and alcohol abuse and drug abuse, there’s a real need for health insurance and for them to have access to health insurance. So you have these huge communities that when COVID happened, the state made it even easier for them to get the help that they needed through health insurance.
Speaker: 1
34:07
But all these bad actors realized, oh, this is great. We’re just gonna build these fake rehab centers, go around in white vatsal, literally. There’s ai thousands of people still missing in Sana. Most of them, Native Americans. And they go out in white vans to these reservations in Arizona and New Meh.
Speaker: 1
34:25
And they bring people, people who, you know, have problems with drug and alcohol. And they bring people to these centers. And then they start billing insurance. They get you on an insurance plan, and they start billing insurance crazy amounts of money. Like, we speak.
Speaker: 1
34:40
We were investigating this one facility that they were making 800 and something, million doll sorry. 800 and something thousand, $870,000 a week a week from, you know, dozens of people that they were housing and and not actually providing them the treatment that they so desperately needed.
Speaker: 0
35:02
So just house them.
Speaker: 1
35:03
The so which is also illegal. You can’t house some you can’t offer somebody free housing, and then then tell them that you will only get the free housing if you go and do our treatment. That’s illegal. It’s an illegal kickback. But so they were doing this out in the open. And some of these business operators were actually not even Americans. They were Nigerians.
Speaker: 1
35:22
I found out that there were some Nigerians that owns own some of these rehab facilities.
Speaker: 0
35:26
Nigerians are so good at scamming.
Speaker: 1
35:27
Meh ai god. It’s it
Speaker: 0
35:28
is. Ingenious. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Happy Dad Hard Seltzer. A nice cold Happy Dad is low carbonation, gluten free, and easy to drink. No bloating, no nonsense. Whether you’re watching a football game or you’re golfing, watching a fight with your boys, or out on the lake, these moments call for a cold happy dad.
Speaker: 0
35:49
People are drinking all these seltzers in skinny cans loaded with sugar, but happy dad only has one gram of sugar in a normal ai can. Can’t decide on a flavor? Grab the variety speak. Lemon lime, watermelon, pineapple, and wild cherry. They also have a grape flavor in collaboration with Death Row Records and Snoop Dogg. They have their new lemonade coming out as well.
Speaker: 0
36:14
Happy Dad, available nationwide across America and in Canada. Go to your local liquor store or visit happydad.com. For a limited time, use the code Rogan to buy one Happy Dad trucker hat and get one free. Enjoy a cold Happy Dad. Must be of legal drinking age.
Speaker: 0
36:34
Please drink responsibly. Happy Dad hard seltzer, tea, and lemonade is a malt alcohol located in Orange County, California.
Speaker: 1
36:43
But Americans too. I mean, there were a lot of them that were Americans. So these guys are, like, driving around in Ferraris and, you know, people are living in these fake centers. I spoke to people who the therapy that they were they were billing, like, $2,500 for a therapy session, one hour therapy session.
Speaker: 1
37:00
That was a Zoom meeting, a Zoom call with 600 people on the call, and that’s the therapy session. It’s bananas. Or people who weren’t even there, and they billed for insurance, and the people went
Speaker: 0
37:12
So 600 people were Yes. They were collecting $2,000 from 600 people for one hour. Mhmm. Wow.
Speaker: 1
37:20
It is insane.
Speaker: 0
37:21
Well, I could see why they would do that. Yeah. If that’s a possibility to make money. Yeah. If you open the door to criminals and the thing about rehabilitation centers is a lot of people that get go to rehab or get involved in rehab. They’ve also had shady pasts.
Speaker: 1
37:36
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
37:36
Ai? They’ve been involved with criminals, and then they go, listen, man. I think there’s money to be made here. Like, this ain’t fixing nobody. This is court ordered rehabilitation. I had to go in here. Right. Let’s make some money.
Speaker: 1
37:48
Right.
Speaker: 0
37:49
Start our own place. Right. What is it what’s the, like, what what’s the steps that one has to take if one was to open up? Not that I’m
Speaker: 1
37:56
thinking about doing it.
Speaker: 0
37:57
Not that I’m thinking about doing it. If someone was a scumbag Let’s
Speaker: 1
38:00
let’s see.
Speaker: 0
38:01
Someone’s a terrible person, not me. But if someone’s a terrible person, like, what would someone do? What are, like, what are the parameters? Like, what do you have to do to open up a new You need
Speaker: 1
38:09
a ai, probably a state ai. But in some cases, it was just really easy to get a state license. There was in Florida, it became a huge problem. It was called the Florida Shuffle, which was this. You were going back and forth between, you know, detox and rehabs and, outpatient treatment centers, and they were all owned by the same sort of, you know, well known Yeah.
Speaker: 1
38:29
Fraudsters. So you have to get a a a license, but there’s not much more. And that was the problem, is that anyone could get a license and anyone could operate one of these.
Speaker: 0
38:37
I was reading about a judge that recently got busted because this judge was sentencing people to the rehab that they owned.
Speaker: 1
38:45
That is
Speaker: 0
38:46
And so taking, like like, dangerous ai criminals and not incarcerating them, but instead sending them to these rehabilitation centers that they owned. Wow. Yeah. And just collecting.
Speaker: 1
38:56
Yeah. It is it’s so sad. It’s it’s really, you know, as somebody who’s reported on the opioid crisis for so long, just that is the only hope. Right? Let’s figure out a way. This is we we have been trying to arrest ourselves and militarize, ourselves out of this problem.
Speaker: 0
39:15
It doesn’t work.
Speaker: 1
39:16
It doesn’t work. It’s a public health crisis.
Speaker: 0
39:18
100.
Speaker: 1
39:19
One of the other stories we did this season was about tranq dope. Do you know what tranq dope is?
Speaker: 0
39:23
Tranq dope?
Speaker: 1
39:24
Yeah. No. It’s fentanyl now is being mixed with a thing called xylazine, which is an animal tranquilizer.
Speaker: 0
39:30
Oh, fun.
Speaker: 1
39:30
So fun. It’s horrible. And 90% of the fentanyl that is now being that’s coming out of Philadelphia you know, Kensington, you’ve you’ve seen the zombies?
Speaker: 0
39:41
Ai have seen Ram where those people, like, fall over.
Speaker: 1
39:43
Yeah. Like Yeah. Like zombies. They’re walking down. They’re doing
Speaker: 0
39:46
crazy yoga.
Speaker: 1
39:47
Yeah. In Kensington, it’s the saddest thing. So we spent time in Kensington, Philly.
Speaker: 0
39:50
What is it about that is it the tranquilizer that makes them just fall over like that standing up?
Speaker: 1
39:56
Yeah. It’s part of it. So it’s it’s a really interesting you know, as we all know, it all started with OxyContin. And then it went to heroin. And heroin was a great high for people who are addicted to opiates because it was a powerful high and it would keep you high for a long time.
Speaker: 1
40:11
And then came fentanyl. And fentanyl gives you an even more powerful high, but it’s fast acting. So you get out of it fast. So somebody realized if we mix tranq, animal tranquilizer with this, you will you will still have the big high, but it will extend the time that you have that high.
Speaker: 1
40:31
And what is happening to, you know, thousands of people across The US is that they are taking these drugs, getting the high that they want.
Speaker: 0
40:40
Just doing it like this. Sai is it IV?
Speaker: 1
40:42
Oh ai god. It’s horrible. No. They’re shooting it up. And this is what we shot in Kansingdom. Ai. Yeah. They shoot it up. And what we shot in Kansingdom
Speaker: 0
40:48
Oh, this is it? And where is this? This is Philly.
Speaker: 1
40:52
Philly. Outside of Philly. It’s
Speaker: 0
40:53
in Kansingdom. It’s a big problem in Philadelphia. It’s no
Speaker: 1
40:56
but this is if you find and this might be too disturbing, Jamie.
Speaker: 0
40:59
I was just trying to find something that just to show what he was asking. What’s too disturbing?
Speaker: 1
41:02
It’s what we filmed in our show, which was the the wounds that come.
Speaker: 0
41:07
Gangrene?
Speaker: 1
41:07
Yeah. It’s like it looks like leprosy. Yeah. And it’s people being amputated because
Speaker: 0
41:13
The title of this is losing arms and legs. Yeah. There you go. Oh my god. The guy’s got an ulcer because of it. Oh god.
Speaker: 1
41:20
Yeah. That guy is missing an arm. But the gangrene and the open wounds, and we filmed somebody being treated, and this woman’s arm was, like, all gone. It was just one of the most painful things to to watch. And this, you know, you can imagine the smell and
Speaker: 0
41:35
and Ai, I know a comedian who went to the hospital for gangrene because of heroin. No. Almost lost his leg. He wound up dying eventually. But yeah.
Speaker: 1
41:44
Yeah. I mean and now with Ram, it’s just gotten and, yeah, I don’t think any of these people want to be doing this. Right? Nobody wants to be living out on look.
Speaker: 0
41:53
Oh, boy.
Speaker: 1
41:55
And this is not I mean, the one we Yeah.
Speaker: 0
41:57
This is just filmed
Speaker: 1
41:58
is even worse than me.
Speaker: 0
41:59
Clicking around them. There’s a ton of videos about it. So if anyone’s curious, just go into the room
Speaker: 1
42:03
and look.
Speaker: 0
42:04
Good comparatively. Yeah. There’s some people in this country that have no hope. And Yeah. They’re they’re just caught they’re the the addiction just has got them, and there’s no help for them. And if you get sent to a phony rehab while you’re in that state, that’s that is really evil. That’s really evil.
Speaker: 1
42:22
Isn’t it? I think it’s really evil too. But I I think yeah. In many ways, people sometimes think, oh, these they’re junkies. They’re they’re out there. They just want this ai, and they have failed society. I, quite frankly, think we have failed them.
Speaker: 0
42:36
Well, not you and meh. But Not me. The structure of society.
Speaker: 1
42:40
Yeah. Has
Speaker: 0
42:40
failed them. Are you aware of Ibogaine?
Speaker: 1
42:43
Yes. I I listened to the interview you did with
Speaker: 0
42:46
Rick Perry? Yeah. Governor former governor of Texas?
Speaker: 1
42:48
Yeah. That was fascinating.
Speaker: 0
42:49
Yeah. That is insanely effective and, readily available in Mexico. And now, fortunately, because of former governor Rick Perry, it’s available in Texas. So they’re doing it now in Texas with, soldiers, with PTSD, people coming back from the war with great efficacy, and people that that have also been hooked on substances because of some of the things they’ve seen.
Speaker: 0
43:12
So I think that’s a great doorway into the right Because the right has always viewed these things, ai, particularly a psychedelic, which Ibogaine is, I guess. Mhmm. It’s category one. Right? It’s schedule one. I don’t know. I think it’s schedule one. Ai schedule one?
Speaker: 0
43:32
But it’s certainly illegal in America and it’s thought of as I don’t know how you could ever consider it recreational because it’s, apparently, a very brutal experience and very introspective. And most people say, I did not enjoy that at all. I hated it. I had Dakota Meyer on the podcast and he talked about it.
Speaker: 0
43:50
And he’s ai, I wanted to punch the guy. He gave it to me. He’s like, it’s fucking terrible. For, like, one whole day, you’re going ever over every horrible aspect of your life and it finds, like, the pathways in your brain that created behavior afterwards. And it, like, gives you this, like, insanely introspective ai of your life and sort of lays out this is why you’re an addict.
Speaker: 0
44:11
This is why you’re a gambling addict. This is why you’re addicted to ruining your life. Like, these are the things that happened to you when you’re young, and these are the things that you did when you were adult that you had shame over and all these different thing. These are the things you’ve seen that are horrific, that have scarred you.
Speaker: 0
44:27
And it has, like, an eighty percent effective rate for people getting off drugs with one session, and it’s in the nineties with two sessions.
Speaker: 1
44:37
Wow. That is crazy high.
Speaker: 0
44:39
Exactly. And it’s
Speaker: 1
44:40
Exactly. Go here. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
44:42
Well, it is now legal in Texas. Well, I don’t know what the regulations are, how they’re doing it, but at least they’re they’re giving it to some people in Texas. Mhmm. And I think like I was saying, this is a doorway for the right to understand. And I think this is a lot of the case with a lot of these, speak forces guys, a lot of SEALs and Green Berets.
Speaker: 0
45:03
They come back from combat and they’re all fucked up and some of their friends take them on Ayahuasca journeys. Mhmm. And that helps them a lot. So that’s another, like, doorway into the right because people on the right have always thought of psychedelics as being for losers and hippies and people just trying to escape life.
Speaker: 0
45:19
But just the sheer horror of combat experience has forced a lot of people to reconsider this position. And then they’ve had so many family members that are veterans Mhmm. And that are, you know, especially especially guys that are, like, in the heart of combat. And then they come back and they they’re just fucked up and no one wants to help them. Nobody can just talk you through it.
Speaker: 0
45:43
And the one thing that Ai don’t see universally, but a high percentage have had great success with is psychedelics. Mhmm. So I think it’s another massive disservice that those are lumped in in the same illegal category as fentanyl.
Speaker: 1
45:59
Fentanyl. I know. Or or meth. I know.
Speaker: 0
46:01
Or meth. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
46:02
I agree.
Speaker: 0
46:03
But do you think that the pathway is legalization? Because, like, even decriminalization, where are you gonna get it? You’re gonna get see, here’s the problem with decriminalization. In California, ai friend John Norris
Speaker: 1
46:19
Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
46:20
He was a game warden. And do you know the story?
Speaker: 1
46:22
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
46:22
Yeah. Okay. So John He’s coming on my podcast. Oh, he’s great. So John was a game warden. Right? Loved the outdoors. Became a game warden. He really wanted to, like, check people’s fishing licenses and hunting licenses and making sure the the land was taken care of ram making sure people aren’t littering or doing anything stupid.
Speaker: 0
46:38
So he gets this call that the stream is blocked up. It’s ai the stream stopped running and they can’t figure out ai. Maybe a farmer diverted water. They follow the stream. They find these PVC pipes that are rerouting it to this massive marijuana farm that the cartel owns.
Speaker: 1
46:53
Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
46:53
So when California made marijuana legal in the state, What they also did is make it a misdemeanor to grow grow marijuana illegally. Mhmm. So the cartels are ai, fucking great. Let’s just start growing. It’s the
Speaker: 1
47:06
best business.
Speaker: 0
47:07
So they’re bringing AKs and assault rifles out into the woods, setting up ram, super toxic pesticides, super toxic, like shah that’s totally illegal in modern farming in America, like way worse than glyphosate. And that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 plus percent of all the marijuana that gets sold in the places where marijuana is illegal. Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
47:32
It’s all getting sold from these grow ops in California
Speaker: 1
47:36
It’s insane.
Speaker: 0
47:36
By the cartels.
Speaker: 1
47:37
I’ve I’ve filmed some of them. I’ve been there. I’ve been in those mountains in California.
Speaker: 0
47:41
It’s so crazy.
Speaker: 1
47:42
Meh that. It is insane.
Speaker: 0
47:43
It’s so crazy.
Speaker: 1
47:44
Ai, why don’t
Speaker: 0
47:44
I get it? Sai effect of, like, what Colorado did. Colorado made it legal. Great. But then they also taxed it, like, 39%.
Speaker: 1
47:51
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
47:52
And so most people are ai, look, it’s still cheap. I’ll pay turn 39%. The state gets the money. It’s a meh benefit for everybody. But there’s a lot of people ai are like, us grow weed illegally and sell that since it’s legal in the state.
Speaker: 1
48:04
Right. And because it’s it’s impossible to get a license in California. When they legalized it initially, it was they made it so hard for people to actually get their licenses and doing and do it legally that the vatsal black black market increased when they legalized it.
Speaker: 0
48:18
California is brilliant with that. That’s why they still haven’t rebuilt a single house in the Pacific Palisades that burnt down. Not a single house ai months later with some of the richest people in California. Yeah. Because nobody can get a nobody can get permits.
Speaker: 1
48:32
They’re trying to make it easier to build.
Speaker: 0
48:34
Allegedly. How if you would have done it
Speaker: 1
48:37
Have you had Gavin Newsom on your phone?
Speaker: 0
48:39
No. He’s been he’s been taunting meh, trying to get me to have a look. Ai? I
Speaker: 1
48:43
don’t know. Because he’s interesting. He people he’s interesting. He’s interesting.
Speaker: 0
48:47
He’s interesting as, like, a sociology experiment. Like, if you’re if you’re
Speaker: 1
48:51
a psychologist to everyone, I think. Yeah. Do you know who I really love that you interviewed recently?
Speaker: 0
48:56
Who?
Speaker: 1
48:56
James Delarico.
Speaker: 0
48:57
He’s great. Yeah. He’s fantastic. He’s great. He had great insight as to, what’s going on in Texas too, where these Christian meh who are very, very wealthy are trying to turn Texas into a theocracy. Like, these guys sound like full on nutters. Yeah. And this is something that people have to be really careful of when you become aligned with one party or another party. Right?
Speaker: 0
49:20
If you become ai with the left, ai, Jimmy Kimmel was, like, ignore he was, like, mocking the president for saying that Antifa. Like, Antifa is not real. Antifa is not that’s so crazy to say. I know it’s a Democrat talking point currently, but it’s dangerous for you and for everybody else to sai.
Speaker: 0
49:38
Because they are real. They’re real and they’re anarchists who are committed to overthrowing capitalism. Yeah. They wanna destroy the Western government. Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
49:50
Like, it’s and a lot of them are retards. A lot of them are just ai goofy kids that got lost in the system, and then they found like a gang, like a lot of gang meh, like that’s the same kind of thing. They get you find a community and all of a sudden these people are yours and they’re real and and also they’re willing to fight for something and there’s ai a lot of passion involved in it, so it’s kind of exciting.
Speaker: 0
50:10
And then you also realize like, yeah, corporate society is fucked up. Yeah. UnitedHealthcare, that is ai crazy. You spend all that money on healthcare and you get fucking nothing, and then when you do have something, they deny your claim. Like, what is going on? Yeah.
Speaker: 0
50:25
And is this fucked? And so they don’t know where to turn, and so they they get involved with a bunch of people that are doing stupid shit, and they light Starbucks on fire.
Speaker: 1
50:33
Right.
Speaker: 0
50:33
Or they, you know and but a lot of it’s funded too. That’s the other thing. The reality is a lot of these, you know I
Speaker: 1
50:39
don’t know about the funding part of it. So I’ve I’ve Organized funding. Yeah. Spoken to Antifa. We did I’ve done stories on, on militias. It was one of the stories we did this last season. And it was important for me when we did that story. I’ve been wanting to do there’s rising militias, rising threat of militias everywhere in the world, but, particularly here in The United States.
Speaker: 1
51:00
And we also filmed in Brazil because it’s sai real problem there. And we, I knew from the start that I didn’t want to just do right wing militias, that it was important to also do left wing militia. So we spent time with a group that operates on the border, ai wing militia that operates on the bryden, and was basically trying to catch, illegal immigrants.
Speaker: 1
51:19
And then we also speak time at, you know, just a few miles away from that group. There was another group called the Black Cat Rifle group, that is a left wing militia. And it is to me, what was so scary was that they existed because of the other side. Like, they they they existed because the other side exists. Right? Yes.
Speaker: 1
51:42
And none of them understood that that, you know, that that one would become stronger, the stronger the other would become. And that this was all going to end not well for any of us. And when I was asking the Black Cat Rifle Group, you know, when I was asking why they have a militia and why are they training, I mean, they were training with with guns and and, you know, they look if you look at these guys, they actually look I mean, especially the guys at the border, which were the right wing militia groups.
Speaker: 1
52:14
If if I was an immigrant crossing the country illegally and I saw one of these guys, a 100% would think that this is the US arya or border vatsal, and and Ai be ai. Or I’d hand myself in and then but it’s it’s they’re which, by the way, is not what that’s the part that’s not legal.
Speaker: 1
52:32
You’re not you’re you can train with your buddies. You can do all that, but you can’t pretend to be Right. And you can’t look like you’re part of the
Speaker: 0
52:40
Right.
Speaker: 1
52:41
The military or law enforcement when you’re not. And and these guys a 100% look like they were. I know I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this because every time we talk about I talk about militias, I get flack for it. But
Speaker: 0
52:52
Why?
Speaker: 1
52:54
Because because we are we’re living in the most divided, era of our ai. And there’s a lot of people who, you know, believe that militias are important and think that it’s important that they exist. I I I find them incredibly dangerous, the existence of militias outside or on the periphery of the of the law. I find it incredibly dangerous.
Speaker: 1
53:13
And and so when I was talking to the right wing group, they said something. When I started talking to left wing group, they were giving me the exact same reasons. Yeah. I mean, it was the exact same conversation, but seen from the other side. Right? Yeah.
Speaker: 1
53:25
And so I sai, like, do you not this is exactly the same thing the other guy said. And they were like, yeah. We’re we’re here. We think and their their point was that and they don’t call themselves militias, by the way, the the left wing group. But they and they didn’t like the fact that I called them militias.
Speaker: 1
53:39
But they were saying was that, but this is basically a group who trains for what they think is go going to be an an incoming possible civil war. We talked about civil war with them. Good. I know. And they said, look, minorities in this country are under attack, a lot of ai, by these right wing militias.
Speaker: 1
53:55
Whether they are part of the LGBTQ community or they’re, you know, black or Hispanic, they’re under attack. And it’s our job to train to make sure that we protect these people that are the most vulnerable in our society. And we have to arm up and train and be ready to fight and go after the other people, if we have to. They said they only protect themselves.
Speaker: 1
54:19
They only defend themselves. Right? But that’s the exact same thing that I Ai
Speaker: 0
54:24
is the exact same thing. That was my point was that, ai, people like Jimmy Kimmel talking about Antifa not existing. Like, that’s not good for anybody. Now they are they are real and they are violent. And then people on the right that wanna ignore these people that are trying to turn Texas into theocracy and put the 10 commandments in every school.
Speaker: 0
54:43
The great thing about Tallarico is that he went to seminary school. He’s in seminary right now. So he’s a very religious person and he does not want them to have the 10 commandments in schools. He’s ai, you should not this is gonna create less Christians. It’s gonna have more resistance to Christianity. And really Yeah.
Speaker: 1
55:01
Religion has no place in government.
Speaker: 0
55:03
And also, why would you have that up, but you don’t have something from Hinduism, something from Buddhism, something from Islam, something from Judaism. Like, you should it should be all religions. If you’re gonna have a religious class, that’s a different thing. But if you’re gonna have a thing on the wall that everybody pays attention to that you have to look at every day because it’s through your commandments and it’s Christianity, well, then you’re forcing Christianity on people and that’s very un Meh.
Speaker: 0
55:29
And I thought I think he’s really ai. And I think I’m sorry. That’s the thing about being on a fucking team is that you feel ai you have to defend your team and ignore the horrible thing that your team does.
Speaker: 1
55:40
Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
55:41
And then only pay attention to the bad things the other team does. That’s crazy. Now you’re doing the man’s work for the man Right. And you get no benefit. Right. Not only do you get no benefit, you actually help society erode and become more fractured.
Speaker: 1
55:53
Yeah. And get to the place. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
55:55
It’s horrible. It’s horrible. We need another Martin Luther King, you know. We need someone who’s, like, an adamant expressor of nonviolence as the only option, and then we all need to embrace that because there’s too many punch a Nazi people out there. There’s too many people out there that think you could just go out and do ai, and I get it. That sounds exciting. I’m a revolutionary. Yeah. I get it.
Speaker: 0
56:16
It’s exciting. It’s the wrong way for human beings. We’re this is supposed to be 2025. Right? We arya supposed to have evolved to a point where we recognize that violence is one of the worst things that we ever have in our community in any way, shape, or form, whether it’s police violence or whether it’s gang violence, any kind of violence is the worst thing Yeah.
Speaker: 0
56:39
That we can do to each other. We’re supposed to be living together in harmony. There’s a way at least to minimize that violence by never having violent rhetoric, by never encouraging ai. And we seem to have lost that somewhere along the line.
Speaker: 1
56:54
I agree. I mean, violence and hate, you know.
Speaker: 0
56:57
And hate.
Speaker: 1
56:57
There’s so much hate. Yeah. Talk about hate and hating the other side and hating anyone that doesn’t stand by what I stand or what I believe in. It’s just
Speaker: 0
57:04
Well, look what happened when Charlie Kirk got murdered. People were literally cheering. And we found out about it. I was doing a podcast with Charlie Sheen. And we went to the restroom. And while we’re going to the restroom, Jamie told us Mhmm. That Charlie Kirk got shot and he’s dead.
Speaker: 0
57:18
And we came back and did the podcast, and I was like, people are going to celebrate this, and this is what’s terrifying to me. And I got a message from a a friend of mine who was like, man, I think you’re wrong. I think it’s a bunch of bot counts that are gonna there it’s just to rile people up. But it wasn’t I I watched it.
Speaker: 0
57:36
I watched a lot of it online. I watched it through famous people and prominent people. There were just condoning his assassination, if not celebrating it, by saying, you know, that he put hateful rhetoric out there in the world. The way they’ll counter hateful rhetoric is love. You ai you have to you you you have to recognize that these people are wrong.
Speaker: 0
57:58
They’re coming from a wrong position and eloquently state the right position, which is what Martin Luther King junior
Speaker: 1
58:04
taught. Which is not what president Trump said at the memorial of Charlie Kirk.
Speaker: 0
58:08
What did he say? Oh, well Oh, I hate my enemies. He loved his enemies. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t agree with any of that. I don’t agree with any of that.
Speaker: 1
58:15
I mean, particularly if you’re the president of The United States, you’re not you’re not
Speaker: 0
58:18
Well, he’s, you know, he’s a nut. But it it’s also the only way that that guy survived what he did, what he went through, what they tried to put him through. You have to be a kind of a nut. They tried to put him in jail. They tried to make a fake Russia collusion thing. They did for three years a concerted effort that was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign that funded the speak dossier. It was like, nutty stuff.
Speaker: 0
58:38
Like, try to, put him he got convicted for 34 counts of felony that none of them were a felony. It was misdemeanor booking bookkeeping errors because he was paying off a a lady he had sex with. Like, you gotta be a nut to get through that and not have any feeling about it at all and just brush off your shoulder.
Speaker: 0
58:58
Sai, yeah, he’s he’s fucking crazy.
Speaker: 1
59:00
I don’t think that’s because he’s great. That’s not why he’s crazy. I think he’s
Speaker: 0
59:03
Oh, yeah. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Ai saying he is crazy period. And that’s how he got through all that. That’s the only ai of person that gets through that and gets to where he is today. You have to be kind of crazy. I don’t agree with any of that, like hating my enemies and going after my enemies.
Speaker: 1
59:20
And I know you don’t agree with immigration raids either, which I’ve heard you talk about on this podcast. Listen.
Speaker: 0
59:24
I think I’m
Speaker: 1
59:25
so happy that you do talk about it because I do think it’s an incredibly important issue. I mean, I
Speaker: 0
59:30
It is an important issue. It’s one of those right left things too. Right? Where people on the right ai like, fuck it, turn them all back. I have
Speaker: 1
59:36
no ai. Every time I posted about this and I get so much hate also. Like, I get immediately people saying horrible things about immigrants and saying horrible things about meh. And I if Ai get unfollowed immediately, ai, people don’t like it.
Speaker: 0
59:47
The thing is they’re ai, do it the right way. They, like, do it the right way. Here’s the problem with that. You can’t do it the right way. If you live in Mexico or you’re fleeing Guatemala and you’re walking here and you’re getting across Rio Grande River and here’s the other thing.
Speaker: 0
59:59
For the last four years during the Biden administration, it was well known throughout the world that the borders were wide open. So an estimated who knows? What is the total number? Put this into perplexity. That’s our sponsor, perplexity. Oh.
Speaker: 0
01:00:14
What
Speaker: 1
01:00:14
is it say? Sponsor meh.
Speaker: 0
01:00:16
People do they estimate came in illegally over the past four years during the Biden administration? But it’s millions and millions of people. Right? So people knew that they can come across. Now they’re here because somebody invited them. Right? And then they were bussed to these places and flown to these places, and they were given EBD cards, and some of them were given cell phones.
Speaker: 0
01:00:37
And now you’re gonna arrest them? Now you’re gonna, like, swoop in and handcuff them and fuck. Like, this is crazy. You asked me to be here. They don’t know it’s the same goddamn country.
Speaker: 1
01:00:46
Okay. I have spent time on, the trail of immigrants. I was in the in the Southern Darien Gap where a lot of the immigrants were coming, and I spoke to dozens of people who are doing the journey. And, maybe I just got lucky or unlucky that I spoke to the majority of the people that I spoke to had you know, a lot of them were from Haiti, from Venezuela, places that are completely torn up.
Speaker: 0
01:01:08
Yes.
Speaker: 1
01:01:08
No economic opportunities whatever Right. Whatsoever. Violence, extreme violence. These are the stories that I know are happening. And and Ai I I have a good friend. His name is Jacob Soboroff. He’s a reporter for MSNBC. And he’s been covering immigration raids from the beginning.
Speaker: 1
01:01:24
And one of the stories he did and it it’s ai Sai I love that I’m talking about this because this has become really important for meh, because I’m I live in LA, and Ai I’m affected by this, on on many levels.
Speaker: 0
01:01:36
Also, you have an accent.
Speaker: 1
01:01:37
I have an accent. Exactly. I’m I’m an immigrant. Sai
Speaker: 0
01:01:40
I You might
Speaker: 1
01:01:40
get Greek letters. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:01:41
I’d pull you over. Ask for your papers.
Speaker: 1
01:01:43
Ai take away my citizenship. But, this the one of the stories he covered, and I think exemplifies what’s happening to me right now, is Estella and Nori. This is a mother and a daughter from Guatemala. The daughter was born in Guatemala with her mother, and her mother was gang raped in a small town.
Speaker: 1
01:02:01
She’s from a small, impoverished town town in rural Guatemala. She was gang raped. And the next day and her daughter watched her being gang raped. And she was violently beaten up. She had blood all over her face. They broke her bones. It was horrible. With her daughter, who was young at the ai, watching.
Speaker: 1
01:02:18
And the next day, she decided she had family members in US, and she decided this is it. I can’t live here. And I have to take my daughter to a place that’s safer. Her daughter was traumatized, by the way, by now. Took brought the king. They came to The US.
Speaker: 1
01:02:31
They immediately went and asked for asylum, which, by the way, most people don’t know this, but it is completely legal to become to come to The United States whatever way you enter. Even if you enter illegally, it is legal to come to The US and ask for asylum. That is not coming to The US, entering without papers, and then asking for asylum is legal. So even when people say, meh.
Speaker: 1
01:02:53
But do it you can’t do it illegally, you’re wrong. It is legal to do sai, coming in with no papers and asking for asylum.
Speaker: 0
01:03:00
Requirements to to request.
Speaker: 1
01:03:03
You have to you have to be a victim of persecution, whether it’s, you know, Cartels. Yeah. Violence, rape, political what what what are the five things it’s like? Jamie, can you look this up? It’s political, religious, political, religious. There’s, like, five reasons why people can be, persecuted. And, so they came to the West.
Speaker: 1
01:03:29
They immediately started applying for asylum. And there’s eleven million cases backlogged right now of people asking for asylum. There’s no way to go.
Speaker: 0
01:03:40
Religion, nationality, political opinion, membership in a particular social group. Yeah. So just those five things. Yeah. Interesting. So political persecution also involves imprisonment, torture, or threats of violence. Meh. How what’s the numbers? 10,800,000. This isn’t count it says encounters, though, where they cross and were stopped stopped.
Speaker: 0
01:04:09
But it’s also goes on According to the Trump administrations well, let me say this. According to someone I spoke to at the Trump administration, they said they they believe it’s 20,000,000 over four years.
Speaker: 1
01:04:20
Oh, I don’t think that’s done. I think that number is highly exaggerated.
Speaker: 0
01:04:24
Well, this says, in addition to these, apprehensions and encounters, officials reported an estimated 2,000,000 gotaways, individuals who arya detected crossing the border illegally but evaded capture. Combining these figures suggest roughly 12,800,000 total unauthorized border crossings or attempts during the Biden administration. So not 20, but 12.8. Yeah. That’s still quite a bit. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:04:49
Here’s another thing that people keep talking about is how many people, Obama deported, but I think that’s not I think they’re saying it incorrectly. Because I think when they say that Obama deported 3,000,000 people, they always use this ai as an against Trump deportations. I believe Obama’s deportation numbers count turnaways.
Speaker: 0
01:05:10
Like, when someone makes it to the border and then you send them back. Mhmm. Very different.
Speaker: 1
01:05:16
Yeah. I mean, he was nicknamed Running in the hole in the
Speaker: 0
01:05:18
deep hole.
Speaker: 1
01:05:18
Right. Right.
Speaker: 0
01:05:19
And grabbing people, like, with a mask over your face. Like ai what we’re seeing with Ai.
Speaker: 1
01:05:24
Right. Oh, or worse than that. Ai, even worse than going to the Home Depot is the case of Estelle and Nori, where they were going to check-in on their procedures at the courthouse. And when they went to check on how their asylum case was going, they were detained. They had been living here for several years.
Speaker: 1
01:05:40
The daughter is now is a star athlete. Ugh. Amazing student. But wait, even worse. So they arya deported back to Guatemala, taken.
Speaker: 1
01:05:49
Like, their family didn’t even know they were where they were. They were taken. They took away her medication. She had high blood pressure, the the mother, high blood pressure. They got to Guatemala. They don’t know. They haven’t lived there in decades. They have no idea where what to do. They have no money in their pocket.
Speaker: 1
01:06:04
They can’t they don’t have access to the meh, so the mother dies. And the daughter stays in Guatemala, and there’s footage of her holding the coffin until it’s buried and her wanting to be with her mother. And these are the stories. I mean, if even if this just happened with one person, we should be asking if this is the right thing to do.
Speaker: 1
01:06:21
But this is happening to, you know, hundreds, if not thousands of people all across the country. And this is not alright. I mean, this is not alright. We should not be doing this.
Speaker: 0
01:06:31
Yo. Especially if someone’s already been granted asylum. Like, there should be
Speaker: 1
01:06:35
So their their asylum procedure was ongoing. They hadn’t been granted meh. But that is
Speaker: 0
01:06:40
But still
Speaker: 1
01:06:40
You can’t do you can’t remove somebody who’s ongoing procedure asylum procedure. And plus, that’s not
Speaker: 0
01:06:46
Meaning meaning shah was trying to do it the right way.
Speaker: 1
01:06:48
Yeah. Absolutely. And and that’s not what we were sold. Right? Right. A lot of people voted for Trump because they thought that he was gonna go after the criminals. You know?
Speaker: 0
01:06:56
Ai think very unfortunately, a lot of this stuff is political. And, and then the fear is the both sides fear. Right? So I don’t know if you know this, but Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, who was running for vice president, he just passed,
Speaker: 1
01:07:11
You also had him on. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:07:13
No. No. I did not. I he they just passed something in Minnesota where illegal immigrants are allowed to have driver’s licenses and vote, which is kinda crazy, because
Speaker: 1
01:07:27
Are you sure?
Speaker: 0
01:07:28
Yes. Yes. That they’re allowed
Speaker: 1
01:07:30
to vote.
Speaker: 0
01:07:30
Yes. Just yesterday. They will pull up
Speaker: 1
01:07:32
The illegal immigrants as in
Speaker: 0
01:07:34
As in
Speaker: 1
01:07:34
They don’t even have a green card.
Speaker: 0
01:07:36
As in not supposed to be here. And they’re allowed to vote. Driver’s licenses and can vote. Let’s find out. This is the story that I read.
Speaker: 1
01:07:45
Jamie, find out.
Speaker: 0
01:07:46
I read the story and he was, proudly talking about I know. Sounds crazy. Right?
Speaker: 1
01:07:50
It sounds crazy. Yeah. Because I became a citizen so I could vote and it took me a long time to get Oh, this.
Speaker: 0
01:07:54
Oh, yeah. No. I know a lot of friends who became American citizens, and it’s it was a long grueling process, and they had to prove that they were exceptional, that there was a reason for them to be here. A lot of them were comedians and entertainers and I’m not seeing that. What is it? I don’t know. What are the facts of the case?
Speaker: 0
01:08:10
I typed in Tim Walsh passed a legal immigrant vote and It was all over Twitter. Ai. Tim Walsh has not passed a bill. Okay. Driver’s licenses.
Speaker: 0
01:08:21
That was something that happened in 2023, it said. Yeah. But there was something that just happened a couple of days ago. Ai
Speaker: 1
01:08:31
Find it. Find it.
Speaker: 0
01:08:32
Yeah. I’ll find it. I’ll check on Twitter. Illegal.
Speaker: 1
01:08:41
I I I have to say Ai find it very hard to believe shah.
Speaker: 0
01:08:44
Meh too. But but not because I think that what I was getting at is a lot of the reason for wanting an open border is congressional seats. Because one of the things about when you do a census, it doesn’t count how many people are citizens, it counts how many people. And so you can get extra congressional seats if you have more illegal immigrants in your city, and you have much more political power that way.
Speaker: 1
01:09:06
But why do you get more seats if you they can’t vote?
Speaker: 0
01:09:09
It’s just how it works. It’s just how the sai it’s the the way our census is set up. So the way a census is set up, it’s just counting people. It’s not counting people that are legally here.
Speaker: 1
01:09:18
Oh, the census. Okay. Counting to them.
Speaker: 0
01:09:19
Sai the census is how they dictate the amount of congressional seats. Here’s what was going around Twitter. Okay. Minnesota elections confirms noncitizens can vote with driver’s licenses. October 1425, this is it. State hearing, Minnesota director elections, Paul Linnell, testified that noncitizens holding driver’s licenses under the 2023 driver’s licenses for all law can register to vote and cast ballots by affirming eligibility as the ID verifies identity but not citizenship.
Speaker: 0
01:09:50
Sai as, secretary of state Steve Saloni Steve Simon noted that such voting is illegal and rare with post election adults identifying discrepancies for prosecution, including 59 just 59 potential cases in 2024 that they the testimony has prompted Republican demands for voter roll audits and reforms ai, coinciding with federal lawsuit against Minnesota for incomplete registration data.
Speaker: 0
01:10:19
So at the very least, this is opening up the door for people that are noncitizens to vote. And it seems like they’re confirming that noncitizens with this driver’s license can vote.
Speaker: 1
01:10:31
That that it can be that it can be a consequence of it. And it’s not that’s not the goal
Speaker: 0
01:10:36
of it. But but it’s also
Speaker: 1
01:10:37
It’s a it’s a it’s a consequence that can happen.
Speaker: 0
01:10:39
It is a consequence of it.
Speaker: 1
01:10:40
But I don’t think it’s purposely done. I mean, I think that it’s trying to make it easier for people to vote. And, unfortunately, it’s a little bit like the rehab scam. Right? You’re trying to make it easier for Native Americans to get health insurance, but guess guess what?
Speaker: 1
01:10:54
Then there’s people who are gonna abuse that that that that opportunity or that that
Speaker: 0
01:10:58
But most certainly.
Speaker: 1
01:10:59
Yeah. Vatsal seems like what’s happening.
Speaker: 0
01:11:01
That’s a very charitable way
Speaker: 1
01:11:03
ai thinking. Maybe. But I What
Speaker: 0
01:11:04
are you trying to say, Jimmy? I don’t understand. It says that they they can register to vote, but the next line says that the voting is illegal. Yeah. It’s illegal, but they can register. But they they could do it if they wanted to.
Speaker: 1
01:11:14
Either way, I I think what is happening is that immigrants are being used as political pawns. Right? And we know from both ai. That’s true. Both sides.
Speaker: 0
01:11:22
100%. And and We both agree with that.
Speaker: 1
01:11:24
And and these are human beings, like the mother and like so many of these stories, like the father of the three military American ai went and served for our country and the father was deported. These are, you know, horrible stories of human beings. And and a lot of times, the people that are traumatized are American citizens. They are the kids.
Speaker: 1
01:11:42
They’re pulling away their family members, their mothers, their fathers, and it’s American kids who are being traumatized.
Speaker: 0
01:11:47
It’s also heartless. It’s heartless. And you’re showing to the world that you don’t care, that you just want to achieve a result and you sana achieve result result that is gonna leave a a terrible feeling for anybody with a heart that that looks at that story in that case, and then then they’re gonna associate the United States government more and more with tyranny, more and more with fascism, more and more with, you know, what you’re you think you’re just enforcing a law because these people broke a law.
Speaker: 0
01:12:14
But that there’s there’s still human beings that have been a part of these communities. The law is just some shit people wrote down. It should make sense, and there should be exemptions or at least some sort of amnesty for someone who’s been here.
Speaker: 1
01:12:28
Ai, that too. But there is pathway. Yeah. In a pathway. And right now, there isn’t. There’s
Speaker: 0
01:12:32
Right. Because these people are probably not paying taxes. And if you could make them citizens, ram much more money you would make?
Speaker: 1
01:12:38
Right. Because you do pay taxes, you know?
Speaker: 0
01:12:40
No. No. No. No. No. Ai. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. For buying taxes. Oh, for income tax.
Speaker: 1
01:12:44
For income. They taxes.
Speaker: 0
01:12:46
Right. Do they file for income taxes or they get income taxes removed from their paycheck?
Speaker: 1
01:12:50
Can you check that out, Jamie? I read about this recently because it’s something that so many people it’s often used by the right, how these people are here and they don’t pay taxes. That is actually not it’s millions of dollars a year that undocumented immigrants pay taxes.
Speaker: 0
01:13:03
Most I’m sure.
Speaker: 1
01:13:04
Not only in sales but also in income taxes. And both with the fake social security numbers that you get, but also Ai think there’s something that I I We
Speaker: 0
01:13:13
probably have to have that for certain jobs.
Speaker: 1
01:13:15
Right? Fake social security. Numbers. But I think there’s a way also that they figured out that people are here while they’re going through ai procedures or trying to get their green card that they can
Speaker: 0
01:13:23
also ram 2016 says 11,600,000,000.0.
Speaker: 1
01:13:27
Billion dollars in state of
Speaker: 0
01:13:29
Collectively, undocumented immigrants. So I I would imagine, though, that that’s, like, at the very least, less than there would be if everybody was totally above board. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 1
01:13:43
Oh, yeah. I’m a 100%. We could be making so much more money.
Speaker: 0
01:13:46
Exactly. And Ai
Speaker: 1
01:13:47
mean, they’re the back let’s not who are we kidding? Or so I mean, they are the backbone of our economy, particularly in California where I live. There would be no construction. There would be no agriculture. There would be no, you know, kitchens and and restaurants and hospitality services without Right. These immigrants.
Speaker: 0
01:14:04
Undocumented immigrants paid nearly 97,000,000,000 in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022.
Speaker: 1
01:14:10
So the idea that they don’t pay taxes is bullshit. It’s a
Speaker: 0
01:14:13
lot of money. Yeah. And that’s money that now you have to account for because those people are gonna get kicked out. Yeah. Right?
Speaker: 1
01:14:19
Yeah. And and
Speaker: 0
01:14:20
But meanwhile, if they’d figured out a pathway to citizenship, I bet that number would increase. You know, and also they get different jobs. Yeah. You know, they wouldn’t be stuck economically because that’s the the weird thing about people that sneak about ai, when these farms get raided and they bust all these people, the farm doesn’t get busted.
Speaker: 0
01:14:38
Ai you doing? And how much will you pay in them? Like, arya you should you go to jail for paying them less than you’re supposed to pay people?
Speaker: 1
01:14:46
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:14:46
Because that’s the reason why you hire people that don’t have any paperwork. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:14:50
Because you wanna pay them less.
Speaker: 0
01:14:51
One guy is a horrible person. I heard that they he did a job, and then when the job was over, he called Ai on the people sai he didn’t have to pay them. Ai not be real, though. Might be a TikTok. Might be a little they wanna they wanna got me.
Speaker: 1
01:15:04
They wouldn’t surprise ai.
Speaker: 0
01:15:05
China’s trying to set us up to yell at each other. Oh. Because that’s a lot that’s going on too. Oh, it’s true. But, yeah, it’s it’s heartless. And that’s It is
Speaker: 1
01:15:12
heartless.
Speaker: 0
01:15:12
That’s, and if you’re supposed to be a Christian nation, right, which is like with the hard line right people sana, well, that’s not a very Christian ideal. Yeah. Well, they broke the law. Right. I get it. They’re families. Right? You would you would have broke the law too.
Speaker: 0
01:15:26
By ai way, most of those people are deeply religious. A lot of those people that are coming from South America, deeply religious. From Central America, deeply religious people. Deeply ai. They’re they’d be on your side if they had a chance. You know, those are ai hardworking family people.
Speaker: 0
01:15:41
They’d be the kind of people you want in your community for the most part, but there have to be a way to sift out. You you have to figure out, okay, who’s the cartel meh? Who’s who’s the terrorists? And
Speaker: 1
01:15:53
100%.
Speaker: 0
01:15:53
Sai don’t believe it is an open border.
Speaker: 1
01:15:56
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:15:56
But I do believe that once people are here and have completely integrated into society, it seems pretty foolish to just snatch them up and send them to countries that they don’t even know anymore. How about this guy in Maryland that this Abrego Garcia guy that they keep they’re trying to send them to Africa.
Speaker: 1
01:16:14
Oh ai god. It’s insane.
Speaker: 0
01:16:15
Three countries in Africa said no.
Speaker: 1
01:16:18
But one said yes. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:16:20
Oh, I don’t know. Have they? They got are they gonna send him to Africa?
Speaker: 1
01:16:23
Sana who said yes?
Speaker: 0
01:16:24
They just got a Oh,
Speaker: 1
01:16:26
they failed. Okay. Good.
Speaker: 0
01:16:28
Why are they sending him to Africa? He’s not from Africa. It’s ai, guys. I know. That’s crazy.
Speaker: 1
01:16:34
Yeah. I I’m happy you use your platform to talk about this because I I Wow. Rarely do I get an issue that I’m, like, this passionate about and that I see so much injustice that I feel like I need I need to talk about this.
Speaker: 0
01:16:45
There’s no heart.
Speaker: 1
01:16:46
And when yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:16:47
You have to have a heart. You have to. Like, you have to like, the law should be to serve and protect. Right? This is this is the whole reason why we should have law enforcement. Right? So in this situation, what are you protecting? Are you protecting American jobs? Do you wanna go pick strawberries? Like these people are like coming here because this is a way better option than where they live. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:17:11
Wouldn’t it be better if those people were doing that work and making a livable wage? Yeah. And wouldn’t it be better if these greedy corporations weren’t just able to hire illegal people and pay them under the table a tiny amount of what they really should be getting as a normal human being?
Speaker: 1
01:17:26
Yeah. Absolutely. For all of us, it’d be better for all
Speaker: 0
01:17:27
of us. Sai it’s just you’re taking advantage of these people. And once they’re here look, if you’re here and you’ve been robbing people and say, yeah, fuck that guy. Get rid of them. Like, get rid of all the parasites and all the criminals and all the predators that are destroying people’s lives. All the people robbing people.
Speaker: 0
01:17:44
Well, I’m not gonna
Speaker: 1
01:17:45
everybody wants that.
Speaker: 0
01:17:46
But after that, you gotta figure out a way to, like otherwise, we’re just gonna have this stupid divided country with left and right. And these people will never vote Republican again. Any this they were just really interesting because a lot of Hispanics and a lot of, like, Latino people are religious.
Speaker: 0
01:18:05
And there’s a lot of the things that the Republicans talk about that they would align with, like Cubans, for example. Cubans are ai, right wing people. They don’t fuck around. They’re very disciplined. They know what communism looks like. Fuck you. They they’re not they don’t tolerate no nonsense in Miami.
Speaker: 0
01:18:22
You know, it’s like and that could have been the Republicans could have captured a lot of those people that are deeper religious. Like, that’s one of your core values, is you think it’s a Christian nation.
Speaker: 1
01:18:33
Right.
Speaker: 0
01:18:34
It’s just you gotta figure out how to deal with a heart.
Speaker: 1
01:18:37
I know.
Speaker: 0
01:18:37
You got you can’t ai snatch a a hardworking father away from his children that he brought over here from another country just because he wants them to be able to live and not get killed in the streets. Right. He wants to be able to make a living. And this guy probably works fourteen hours a fucking day, sees them, kisses them on the head before he goes to sleep, crashes Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:18:55
Gets up in the morning and does it again. That’s right. That’s what you want in this country. Right.
Speaker: 1
01:19:00
Of course.
Speaker: 0
01:19:00
It’s like you gotta you gotta find the pathway for good people. And, like, you can’t tell me don’t we don’t have enough resources for that. Because you see the the amount of money that goes through USA or went through Sai, the amount of money that goes to fucking weapons manufacturers.
Speaker: 0
01:19:15
You you know, we don’t have enough money to sort out who’s a good person and who’s a bad person and find some sort of a pathway. I’m not saying keep the border open, but the people that are here, Let’s root out the fucking terrorists. Let’s figure out who’s the bad people vatsal some definitely bad people got through. After that, let’s, you know, let’s fucking break bread. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:19:38
Let’s break bread. ai. I agree agree with you. A 100%.
Speaker: 0
01:19:41
Let’s we’re supposed to be a community. Yeah. If you come over here and you bust ass for twenty five fucking years, and you’re a part of the American community, and then all of a sudden, you don’t have the right paperwork, so they’re gonna send you a country that you don’t even meh.
Speaker: 0
01:19:56
Because, you know, you came over here when you’re 15. Right. Like, you barely know how to speak Spanish anymore. Right. Like, what?
Speaker: 1
01:20:02
Yeah. I know. It’s absolutely I mean, it’s yeah. It’s I’ve I’ve been reporting on these issues for so long. It’s it’s truly I mean, it’s why I came to America, why so many people come to America. It’s because this is what this country stands for. It’s ai it’s welcoming to immigrants sana that’s immigrants make America great.
Speaker: 1
01:20:18
Ai mean
Speaker: 0
01:20:18
Ed Calderon was telling us a story about a young man who came over here when he was a baby. His family brought him over here when he was a baby. So he doesn’t have any paperwork. Mhmm. And, he was in his twenties. They snatched him up and sent him to Meh, and he doesn’t even speak Spanish. Right.
Speaker: 1
01:20:34
And yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:20:35
And he’s ai, fuck you. You’re not American. Now you’re over there. Jump.
Speaker: 1
01:20:39
Just in in was it during these these raids right now?
Speaker: 0
01:20:42
Some sort of an ice raid. Yeah. They grabbed him and sent him to Tijuana. Right. Ai. It’s He doesn’t even speak Spanish.
Speaker: 1
01:20:49
It’s insane.
Speaker: 0
01:20:50
It’s absolutely insane. Meh just with bad paperwork.
Speaker: 1
01:20:53
Yeah. It’s crazy. It’s
Speaker: 0
01:20:55
And the only difference between him and me is that Ai, you know, my parents were born here. Yeah. Ai happen to be born here. I got lucky. It’s ai, I’m not saying you should have the border open because you shouldn’t. Every country should be checked because there’s threats in the world.
Speaker: 0
01:21:09
And also, there’s a lot of people mad at us because we’ve done some fucked up things all over the world. And that’s the the dark part of all this mass migration in both Europe and in Meh. It’s ai, why these people fleeing where they were? Well, because We
Speaker: 1
01:21:22
fucked up their countries.
Speaker: 0
01:21:23
The fuck out of it. We destabilized their government. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:21:28
Yeah. Absolutely. And this
Speaker: 0
01:21:29
is I
Speaker: 1
01:21:30
mean, not not all.
Speaker: 0
01:21:30
It’s not all our fault. Libya. There’s so ai of them.
Speaker: 1
01:21:33
The money that we’re using in trying in these raids, like, let’s figure out how to stem the the the immigration. Let’s try to figure out how to, you know, stop the consumption of drugs so that there’s less violence in those countries, stop the flow of guns so there’s less killings and gangs.
Speaker: 1
01:21:49
You know, it’s it’s like it’s a a cycle of destruction that we’re enabling them and and then we go and catch them and
Speaker: 0
01:21:56
bring them really started with moving manufacturing overseas as well. Once we took all the manufacturing out of America and then we moved manufacturing overseas or over to other countries across national lines, now all of a sudden you can get things made way cheaper. But then you create all this poverty, and then what happens with poverty? People fall into drugs because they have massive despair. Right.
Speaker: 0
01:22:16
You know, and then
Speaker: 1
01:22:16
there’s somebody
Speaker: 0
01:22:17
Well, you brilliantly documented with that with the OxyContin Express. That that piece was how I found out about you, but also how I found out about that problem, which is so insane where you could tell people if they they’re not aware of how it all started.
Speaker: 1
01:22:34
Yeah. It’s interesting because I just had the FBI, agent that investigated us that case on my podcast, which is fascinating. Okay. So I found out that, reading the newspaper, my husband and I were working together at the ai, and we found out that there were all these people who were going to Florida just to buy pills.
Speaker: 1
01:22:54
So there was these pain clinics, these pill mills as they were called. And they were distributing the the numbers were crazy. 90 of the top 100, doctors prescribed prescribing OxyContin were in Florida. 90 of the 100. It’s insane.
Speaker: 0
01:23:12
What are the ai that statistic in the 100? 50 states.
Speaker: 1
01:23:16
I know. It’s insane. And and this is the sad part. It’s it’s not as if, like, these pharmaceutical companies or the distribution companies didn’t know this was happening. They did. They just pretended that they didn’t because it was it was huge business and it was great. And why Florida? Because they had really lax regulation.
Speaker: 1
01:23:33
So you could go doctor shopping. You could go I went undercover. So that was part of the story that we did, OxyContin Express, where I went undercover into one of these pain clinics. And I asked the receptionist. I sai, I have a little bit of a back pain. What do I need to do if I wanna get some bills?
Speaker: 1
01:23:48
And she said, oh, what would you like? And we can give you OxyContin. We can give you some benzos. We can give you what’s called the South Florida cocktail, which was essentially muscle relaxants, benzos, and OxyContin.
Speaker: 0
01:24:00
That’s how she was describing it?
Speaker: 1
01:24:01
She didn’t say it, but that’s what it became known sai, is the South Florida cocktail. But she sai, we can give you this, this, and this. It’s the holy trinity. Right? And all you need to do is you go to the back of the clinic, and there’s a place there where you can get an MRI.
Speaker: 1
01:24:14
And then you come back to us. And an MRI is a ridiculous thing because you can read anything into an MRI. Ai, any all of us have backs, have a spine and whatever comes out, results in the MRI that you the doctor can pretend to look at it and say, oh, yeah. Yeah. I can see why you’re having back pain or neck pain, and I’m gonna give you this. Wow.
Speaker: 0
01:24:34
But the
Speaker: 1
01:24:34
problem is that the doctors weren’t even looking at the MRIs. That was just fake. There was just you know, in case somebody ever came after them, they could say that they had MRIs. They were seeing people in less than three minutes and saying they were doing all these less than three minutes. So you’d have a patient come in.
Speaker: 1
01:24:49
And then these amazing entrepreneurial twin brothers called the George brothers, built this business. It was called American Pain. They basically built a business out of two or three painkillers.
Speaker: 0
01:25:01
Movie. American Pain?
Speaker: 1
01:25:02
So my husband did a documentary about it, about the rise and fall of these twin brothers. Oh. They started by selling steroids. And Then somebody told tyler, like, dude, why are you doing what are you doing selling selling steroids where you could make making so much more money selling
Speaker: 0
01:25:15
OxyContin? Very.
Speaker: 1
01:25:16
It’s called American Pain. You should watch it. It’s not HBO. It’s so good.
Speaker: 0
01:25:20
I think, actually, I’ve heard of it now Yeah. Now that you mentioned it.
Speaker: 1
01:25:23
It’s really good. So we we reported on OxyContin together. And because we were chased down Ai 95 by these goons, by these two brothers, by these twins, Darren became obsessed with them and then contacted them in prison. Okay. So it’s a really funny story. I’m gonna tell the story. So we find out that these were the biggest operators.
Speaker: 1
01:25:42
Five of the top 20 prescribers in the whole country were doctors working for the George brothers. They were it was millions of pills. They were not only prescribing but selling out of their pain clinics. They were making millions of dollars. I mean, so much so that they were stashing it in bags and putting it in the attic their mother’s house’s attic and stuff.
Speaker: 1
01:26:01
There was, like, insane amounts of money. And people would come in from all over the country, mainly from Appalachia. And they would come in, drive down, and they would get to these clinics. And they would say, Sai want you know, see a doctor for less than three minutes. The doctor had a rubber stamp to stamp the prescription to make it fast. So they’d see you three minutes. Okay. Next one and stamp it.
Speaker: 1
01:26:21
There were people passing out in these pain clinics in in the lobby, people passing out outside. So when I went ai, the the talked to the receptionist, and then I went outside and I bummed the cigarette out of somebody. And I explained, hey. I just pretended Ai had secret cameras. They didn’t know I was filming. And I started saying, what are you what are you doing here?
Speaker: 1
01:26:37
And I was ai, oh, yeah. I came from Kentucky, and, I this is one of the best clinics. I can get all my pills here, and then I go back and, you know, we sell them. And we can still use the pills we want. It’s feeding our addiction. And we go out and we sell them for 10 times what we’re paying here.
Speaker: 0
01:26:52
Wow.
Speaker: 1
01:26:52
And so it was a big business. And and so
Speaker: 0
01:26:55
And then no database. Right? So you
Speaker: 1
01:26:56
And no database. Yeah. So you could go to several different doctors, doctor shopping. So we’re outside this this American Pain Pain Clinic, which we knew at the time. They had security guards outside, surveillance cameras. So we knew they were, like, shady. And but we also knew that they were the biggest operators in town.
Speaker: 1
01:27:12
So we wanted to film outside. And it was our last day in Florida. We’d kept it to the last day for safety reasons. And we’re ai. It’s me and my husband. He’s filming it. And suddenly, within minutes, a car comes across and these two got big guys start yelling at us and threatening us.
Speaker: 1
01:27:32
So we get back in the car and we’re saying, no. We’re just filming. This is public property. We can film. It’s like, get the fuck out of here.
Speaker: 1
01:27:38
What are you guys filming? Ta da da. We get in the car. We leave. They start chasing us down ai. And I am running out of gas.
Speaker: 1
01:27:47
And I stop at a gas station. And the night before, I’d watch The Sopranos, which was the wrong thing to do. So the whole time I’m imagining it’s straight a scene out of The Sopranos. Right? They stop right behind us as we stop for sai, and they come out of the car again. I was like, holy shit. Get back in the car, drive out.
Speaker: 1
01:28:03
They continue chasing us, and then we run out of gas ai out on the highway. And we stop the car and decide I’m calling 911, by the way. And, I called an f a sheriff’s department person I interviewed the day before, and I told her what was happening. She said, call 911 immediately.
Speaker: 1
01:28:21
These are not people you wanna be messing with. So I called 911, and eventually, I stopped on the side of the road. They stopped next to us because they’re dumbfounded. They’re like, what the fuck? Why did they stop? They have no idea that we ran out of gas.
Speaker: 1
01:28:33
And then the police comes up, and they asked them some questions. And they came up with this silly excuse, and they let them go. And a few months later, they were taken down by this massive FBI investigation that was happening at the same time. So I interviewed the guy, Curt McKenzie, who was the investigator that knew of us at the time. They re he realized, oh my god.
Speaker: 1
01:28:53
There’s, like, these crazy journalists that are doing this story at the same time as they were. And we were actively trying to get them to talk to us, the Ai. And they couldn’t because they had an active investigation. But they actually tapped in. And American Pain, my husband’s film is all about that. They tapped they did taps, riot taps on all of these guys.
Speaker: 1
01:29:12
So they know everything how they were how they how they knew there were people ai, people OD ing just outside their clinic, and how they were just kept going. And the doctors themselves as well. They were dirty, dirty, horrible doctors that knew there were people dying and they couldn’t give a shit because they were making millions of dollars.
Speaker: 0
01:29:30
They also I think something happens when you see a bunch of people die. There’s a lot of doctors that, I think it they get very calloused to the idea of death. Mhmm. And especially if the idea not not good doctors. Right. There’s great doctors out there, obviously. But there’s sociopaths that become doctors and become even more sociopathic once they realize they can make money off of it.
Speaker: 0
01:29:52
And that that whole Florida pain pill scene was a classic example of that. Because there’s only one way you would have a system like this. You’d have a system like this if you want it to be corrupt. I mean, it’s just designed to be corrupt.
Speaker: 1
01:30:07
Ai to be corrupt. Sai
Speaker: 0
01:30:08
mean, how
Speaker: 1
01:30:09
is it possible that you can go I remember I’ll never forget interviewing the mother of a kid who had just ai, and then a few months later, her other kid died. So she had two sons and she lost both of them to this. And it was all because of the pain clinics. And she was showing me the pain the, painkiller bottles, the prescription bottles that the kid got.
Speaker: 1
01:30:26
It was it was ai hundreds and hundreds of pain pills that the kid got from just doctor shopping.
Speaker: 0
01:30:31
They were just selling them. And the fact that you could doctor shah. The only reason why you would have that, like, it’s not difficult to have a database. I mean, this was, like, 2000 and what when this was going on? What year was it?
Speaker: 1
01:30:41
02/2008, 02/2009. That’s when we did our story.
Speaker: 0
01:30:43
Plenty of computers. The Internet was around. Ai, this could all be prevented. Yeah. It’s so dumb.
Speaker: 1
01:30:48
Everybody was just making so much money. The doctors, the pain clinics, the distributors, the pharmaceutical companies. I mean And the Sackler family. The Sackler family.
Speaker: 0
01:30:55
Now Sai know that after Peter Berg’s Netflix series Painkiller came out that they put a halt on because they were supposed to pay an enormous settlement, ai, 6,000,000,000 not really enormous compared to their property.
Speaker: 1
01:31:08
Exactly. I was about to
Speaker: 0
01:31:09
say But it was gonna supposedly keep them out of jail. And I think there was a judge that put a halt on that, and they started another investigation.
Speaker: 1
01:31:16
What happened was that they the settlement, they had agreed to to to settle as long as they were never found the family itself was never found liable again, which is fucked up.
Speaker: 0
01:31:26
Yeah. You can’t do that. You’re you’re literally buying your way out of jail when you might be responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of people.
Speaker: 1
01:31:33
And and and and Sai mean, it’s been it’s been a million people who have died in the past, twenty something years from the opioid crisis. It’s crazy. Okay? I don’t think people realize
Speaker: 0
01:31:45
how high it ram. Thinks they’re gonna be able to buy their way out of being responsible
Speaker: 1
01:31:50
With a drop in the bucket. I mean, they’re not directly, you know, guilty of all those deaths, but they created the problem of the opioid ai, the biggest drug epidemic in America’s history. And they’re paying buying their way out with a, you know, a profit of the a drop in the bucket of the profits.
Speaker: 1
01:32:06
Compared to
Speaker: 0
01:32:06
what they have. Yeah. They’re not even gonna feel it. Yeah. It’s $6,000,000,000.
Speaker: 1
01:32:09
It’s crazy.
Speaker: 0
01:32:10
Oh, it’s so evil. Yeah. It’s just so evil. Yeah. They tracked down the guy who approved it for the FDA. Do you know that? No. He was living in a small town in New Hampshire. And, apparently, they’d taken this guy would not approve it, and then they got him in a hotel for a weekend.
Speaker: 0
01:32:29
And the pharmaceutical drug companies and no one knows what happened in the hotel. No one knows what they did what ai of deal they made or what happened. But when they got out, he approved it.
Speaker: 1
01:32:41
He approved what?
Speaker: 0
01:32:41
He approved OxyContin.
Speaker: 1
01:32:43
From just
Speaker: 0
01:32:45
The original
Speaker: 1
01:32:46
the original approving of OxyContin.
Speaker: 0
01:32:47
But he would
Speaker: 1
01:32:48
do you think he was ai to do that?
Speaker: 0
01:32:50
I don’t think he did it because he’s a nice guy. I mean, I don’t know what
Speaker: 1
01:32:54
But OxyContin has its place, like, for terminal cancer patients, for people dealing with a lot of pain. There’s a reason why people that that it should be available for those in need.
Speaker: 0
01:33:04
Right. But that’s not how they were selling.
Speaker: 1
01:33:06
No. They were not. And in fact, the ads at the time from Purdue Pharma was that less than one percent of people would become addicted from this. Yes. That literally that was the number they gave. Less than one percent of addiction rates from this.
Speaker: 0
01:33:16
You know what we found out the other day? Heroin was created, to help people who had morphine addiction.
Speaker: 1
01:33:23
To try to wean them
Speaker: 0
01:33:24
out. There was it was offered as a safe alternative to morphine.
Speaker: 1
01:33:29
Wow. I didn’t know that.
Speaker: 0
01:33:30
Yeah. I didn’t know that either. Not kooky.
Speaker: 1
01:33:32
It’s crazy.
Speaker: 0
01:33:32
So it’s like we’ve been doing that forever.
Speaker: 1
01:33:35
To know. This is so cool.
Speaker: 0
01:33:36
We’re not something done for you. It’s called OxyContin. By the way, only one person
Speaker: 1
01:33:41
that’s gonna get addicted to it. And then it was fentanyl too. Yeah. You know, we’ve we when we investigated fentanyl, they started it started as a drug for terminal cancer patients. And we went after this one company called sepsis, where the ai, the the the head of that company called John Kapoor, was the first, and I believe only until this day, head of a pharmaceutical company to be charged and go to jail.
Speaker: 1
01:34:03
And we had a whistleblower in our investigation. This was before he was arrested and found out and charged. We had a whistleblower telling us that the company, Insys Pharmaceuticals, substance was the thing, Insys Pharmaceutical was the name of the company, that they were doing exactly the same that Purdue Pharma did back in the day, which was they in their case, they were actually bribing doctors.
Speaker: 1
01:34:22
They were taking these doctors all up to, like, travel experiences around the world and paying them to prescribe their medication. So you’d call and and you’d go to the doctor and sai, I have a headache. Oh, you should be taking sepsis. It’s a great fentanyl to fentanyl. It’s gonna cure your your your headache. Imagine.
Speaker: 1
01:34:39
And then the people at the company ai by InSys, they had their insurance department, would call insurance and say, oh, this person, you need to approve this medication for this person because they have cancer. They were lying to insurance because it was only approved. The insurance would only pay, and these were very expensive drugs if it was for cancer patients.
Speaker: 1
01:35:00
So they would lie. And this so this whistleblower basically opened up the Pandora’s box and told us all about this. And then there was a big investigation into it, and it was the first and only, I believe, pharmaceutical company owner that ever went to the prison for it.
Speaker: 0
01:35:14
Wow.
Speaker: 1
01:35:14
But it was the same playbook. It’s crazy. So it’s like it keeps repeating itself.
Speaker: 0
01:35:19
Well, it’s just evil. Right? It’s just evil finds a way to manifest itself through any business if you got people that are incentivized by money rather than doing the right thing. Yeah. And evil finds a way to go, listen. We can just fudge the
Speaker: 1
01:35:34
books. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:35:34
Listen. We can form a study and make this study seem as if it’s affecting ai the time they get it.
Speaker: 1
01:35:40
That’s right.
Speaker: 0
01:35:41
By the time they figured out, we made a lot of money. Right. And that’s the playbook. I mean, that’s how they got Vioxx through. It’s like clear email evidence that they knew it was gonna cause serious health problems with people that took it.
Speaker: 1
01:35:52
Right.
Speaker: 0
01:35:53
But the the I believe the exact quote was, but we believe we will do very well with this.
Speaker: 1
01:35:59
It’s It’s fucking crazy.
Speaker: 0
01:36:01
It’s evil. It’s evil. And they’re detached from it because they’re not, like, seeing the peep purple person die in front of them. They’re not seeing some child trying to wake their father up and ai their father is cold and dead because he had an overdose middle of the night ai no one’s taking them to school because their dad’s dead.
Speaker: 0
01:36:18
You know? Like, they don’t they don’t see any of that. They’re they’re, you know, sipping scotch in some fucking country club somewhere and driving around in a Mercedes, and they’re just looking at the amount of numbers that they made from that. Yeah. It’s evil.
Speaker: 1
01:36:29
It’s evil. I remember interviewing a woman. We did a story about fake pharmaceuticals and why I think it’s 20,000,000 Americans that can’t afford their pharmaceuticals, so they go to places like Mexico and online to Indian pharmaceutical companies or fake and buy medication that sometimes works, but a lot of times is counterfeit and is bad and actually can kill you.
Speaker: 1
01:36:47
And I meh interviewing the sort of the head of this big lobby, one of the biggest DC lobby groups for pharmaceutical companies, And asking her and she was very happy to be on the show because we were talking about counterfeit. Right? And she thought she was gonna be able to just talk about how bad counterfeit medications are and how important it is it to buy the real medications from real pharmacies.
Speaker: 1
01:37:08
And I was asking her, but but what does it say about the pharmaceutical companies sana the health care system in this country when 20,000,000 Americans can’t afford their ai saving medications? What do you think that says? And she says, oh, I don’t you know, I’d, the meh, the these they are too expensive.
Speaker: 1
01:37:26
We have to figure out a way to bring prices down. And, you know, they always say that it’s not for profit. It’s for research and development, which is bullshit. Because a lot of it there is is used for marketing and a lot of you is is used for it’s profit. Right?
Speaker: 1
01:37:39
It’s they’re making a fucking ton of money out of it.
Speaker: 0
01:37:41
They make so much money.
Speaker: 1
01:37:43
And and I and I answer, have you ever actually spent time with anyone who’s struggling to buy their medications? As the head of this pharmaceutical lobby, have you spent time with any of these people? She was like, no. Like, straight out, no. It’s ai, how can you how can you represent the pharmaceutical companies?
Speaker: 1
01:38:00
Know that one of the biggest problems we have in this country is that people cannot afford these medications and not have speak one single minute with a person who has a hard time affording these medications. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:38:12
That seems able to. Yeah. It’s that
Speaker: 1
01:38:14
but it’s that disconnect that you’re talking about. Right? It’s not actually understanding the problem or wanting to know the people that are being affected by these problems.
Speaker: 0
01:38:22
Yeah. And they’re the medications are so expensive. Some medications are so ridiculously expensive. And you realize, like, they’re not, they don’t have to be that expensive. This is just a a company making massive amounts of profit.
Speaker: 1
01:38:36
They’re paying their CEOs millions of dollars and
Speaker: 0
01:38:38
They could stop a lot of that if they cut that revolving door bullshit out. If they made it so that if you work for the FDA, you can’t just hop over to Eli Lilly, like, right away after you leave. Like, you have to wait ten years. Yeah. Say that. Like, okay, you sana a career some way? Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:38:54
You cannot profit at all from the pharmaceutical drug industry for ten years after you’re done being a regulator.
Speaker: 1
01:39:00
I I agree with you, and I know that it’s a huge conflict of interest, and we’ve seen how bad that can be and prejudiced how bad it could be. But I also, I try to put myself if the I’ve spent my whole entire career, you know, with ambition and trying to do good, and then I end up at the FDA, and I have a chance to do something good.
Speaker: 1
01:39:19
And then Ai yeah. Whatever happens, I lose my job or I
Speaker: 0
01:39:23
You’re in the vampire machine.
Speaker: 1
01:39:24
Then what
Speaker: 0
01:39:25
And you ai, like, oh, this whole system’s fucked. Let me just hop on over to GalaxoSmithKline.
Speaker: 1
01:39:30
Ai just trying to figure out, like, what I wanna get a house
Speaker: 0
01:39:33
ai suburbs.
Speaker: 1
01:39:34
I know. I know. But I I try to see with a see look at it through other eyes and see, like, okay. We have to figure out what these people are gonna do because what do you do after if you can’t work for ten years? This is what they’ve lived all their lives working in. Right? And
Speaker: 0
01:39:46
Sort of. But I think it’s incentivized. I think they’re they arya making laws and pushing things specifically at the behest of the pharmaceutical drug industry knowing that there’s a golden parachute awaiting them.
Speaker: 1
01:39:58
Right. But I don’t think all of them. I think a lot of people and I’ve interviewed the head of the the the, CDC the it was a ai back. We did a story about, anyway, I’ve interviewed some of these government officials, that work at the FDA, and, I don’t think all of them No. Work either with Benedictine.
Speaker: 0
01:40:20
No. No. No. But a lot of the ones that do know it’s available and the shocking number of people that leave those positions of being a regulator and go over to work for the pharmaceutical drug I mean, that’s a kind of crazy conflict of interest.
Speaker: 1
01:40:34
Yeah. It is. You’ve been passing
Speaker: 0
01:40:36
laws and and winking at people and shaking hands and playing golf with them, and then you make it easy for them, and then all of a sudden you work for them, and you’re making a million and a half a year.
Speaker: 1
01:40:47
Yeah. Of course, it is.
Speaker: 0
01:40:48
A lot of people like that. Yeah. And that’s why it’s a dirty ass business. Yeah. And then you got a dirty ass business because they sponsor all the news. Like, brought to you by Pfizer. Anderson Cooper, brought to you by Pfizer.
Speaker: 1
01:41:02
Bananas in this country. It’s so crazy. It only exists in Meh. You know?
Speaker: 0
01:41:05
I CaliMeat was talking about this and said the issue is not that this way more people will buy their drugs. The issue is now the media won’t criticize their drugs.
Speaker: 1
01:41:17
Oh, because they need it. Oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:41:19
I mean They financially invested in these companies. They’re partners, basically. Right. Without the pharmaceutical drug companies, I think cable news would be in deep shit.
Speaker: 1
01:41:28
Well, as a member of the media, I’ve never had that problem. I have never had and I have a journalist. My boss tell me I can’t hear you.
Speaker: 0
01:41:37
But you look at the kind of stuff you do, you know. Right. You’re you’re you’re doing the real stuff. Right. Like, your boots on the ground in the scariest parts of the world. You’re doing a different thing. You’re a real journalist sana I really appreciate that.
Speaker: 1
01:41:50
Thank you.
Speaker: 0
01:41:50
And, that’s, you know, you’re not getting that on TV for the most part. You know, that’s only has to be on a show like yours. But, like, on TV news, you’re you’re not getting that kind of I mean, not that kind of investigative journalism that you do as applied to everything.
Speaker: 0
01:42:05
But there’s a lot of conflicts of interest. Yeah. So a lot of people that don’t want you investigating certain things, you know, don’t want you investigate waste and fraud and government and
Speaker: 1
01:42:14
And that’s the role of journalism. Yeah. I mean, people in power have a hard time with the truth. Exactly. And their job is to go out and
Speaker: 0
01:42:20
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:42:21
Exactly. Which I know. But which is why, you know, it’s so troublesome that we live at a time where people don’t believe in journalists and and think that all journalists are either fake or they’re ai. And that’s a real problem. That’s a real problem for all of us.
Speaker: 0
01:42:34
I think it is. But the one solution to that, I think is, a, mainstream journalism has to change its way. They you can’t just be working as a propaganda arm for the Republican or the Democratic party, which is what Fox News does and which is what, you know, MSNBC does. Mhmm. They they were they’re they stick within the lines. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:42:56
And you also it opens the door for independent journalists, which I think is the most promising part of it. The people that come through that you know you can count on because they always tell the truth about stuff. Right. And then they develop a reputation ai guys like Glenn Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, those type of Michael Schellenberger, those type of people that work for mainstream organizations and then realize these are this I’m being constrained and this is not real journalism, this is not what I signed up for.
Speaker: 0
01:43:22
Like, Matt Tayibi, I trust that guy Mhmm. Just with everything. He doesn’t lie And he’s gonna tell you what he knows about this and why he thinks it’s this way and what’s going on regardless of party lines, regardless have you ever read Hate Inc? No. His book? Mm-mm. Really fucking good. He makes the case that Rachel Maddow is Bill O’Reilly on the left. It’s ai basically the same thing.
Speaker: 0
01:43:44
And he’s just talking about this this whole industry that sort of set up with media to keep everybody at each other’s throats. And that’s what they’re selling. They’re selling hate and outrage Right. Every day. And your dad gets home, oh, these motherfuckers, and he’s yelling at the TV. Right. Like, that’s what that is.
Speaker: 0
01:44:04
It’s ai everybody’s being played. Yeah. But in your real life, what how are you encountering most of this? Most of this, you’re not encountering. Like, you you don’t need to be this elevated and agitated. But then you’re online on your Twitter feed arguing with people, and it’s ai, ah.
Speaker: 1
01:44:19
I know.
Speaker: 0
01:44:20
Everybody’s going crazy.
Speaker: 1
01:44:21
Yeah. It’s the attention economy. Right? That’s what
Speaker: 0
01:44:24
We need a Martin Luther King. We need someone who has a very compelling voice that preaches nonviolence and someone who resonates with people because he’s a powerful speaker or she’s a powerful speaker who has this message. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:44:38
Maybe it’s James Tellerito.
Speaker: 0
01:44:40
Maybe. Yeah. Ai, he’s he’s a good man. Like, he’s a genuinely good meh. And, but that was the point was, like, if you’re a right winger and you go fuck those Antifa people, you gotta realize, like, stop. Stop being on a team because these kooky theocrats, they’re on this side too. They wanna turn this entire state into theocracy.
Speaker: 0
01:45:00
Like, there’s a lot of nutty people on the right too. The right wing militias, they’re fucking insane too. Don’t ignore them. And on the left, hey, don’t ignore Antifa.
Speaker: 1
01:45:10
Hey. Don’t
Speaker: 0
01:45:10
light the Capitol Building on fire. Hey. Don’t take over giant chunks of Seattle and and change the name of it. Remember that when they did that? Mm-mm. Do you remember? Like like, what did they call it? Chaz. Chaz. Remember that? Where they took over and the the mayor said maybe it’s the summer of love?
Speaker: 0
01:45:26
They took over blocks of Seattle.
Speaker: 1
01:45:29
Wait. This was we’re talking about Antifa. Yeah. Yeah. When Well, I mean,
Speaker: 0
01:45:32
what is Antifa? Right? It’s just But
Speaker: 1
01:45:34
that’s something I think maybe that’s what Jimmy Kimmel meant when when he was I didn’t I didn’t say They
Speaker: 0
01:45:39
have a handbook. They have a flag. Ai, in Antifa has Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:45:42
But it’s several different groups. Right? It’s not there’s not one group. It’s not ai, you know, some of these right wing groups that are
Speaker: 0
01:45:48
actually could say Islamic terrorism. Are you talking about Hamas?
Speaker: 1
01:45:51
Are you
Speaker: 0
01:45:52
talking about Hezbollah? There’s a lot of different factions, but the reality is there is Islamic terrorism and there is Antifa.
Speaker: 1
01:45:59
Absolutely. I mean, like I said Yeah. I have reported on them. I’m not denying that they exist.
Speaker: 0
01:46:03
The thing is the people on the left don’t want
Speaker: 1
01:46:05
to meh ai what I mean.
Speaker: 0
01:46:06
They sana to ignore it because they’re the tough guys of the left. They’re the people that are gonna go out and do the dirty work that needs to be done. The same way that people would look at, like, some right wing militias if they’re ai wing. A few extremists, but, hey, they keep those left wing people on their toes, ai.
Speaker: 1
01:46:21
Right. Right. Yeah. We need we need more independent journalists. I think you’re right. Going back to the independent journalists. It’s it’s partly why I’ve, now started this podcast on YouTube is because I know it’s a place that I can keep doing if it grows, and I hope it will, doing the kind of reporting that I do, that I don’t have to depend on a Disney or, as much as I thank Disney and National Geographic for having me all these years.
Speaker: 1
01:46:45
It is really important to be able to do independent journalism and not be limited and stop and and and be told what you can and cannot do.
Speaker: 0
01:46:53
Of course.
Speaker: 1
01:46:54
It is crucial for the health and and survival of our democracy. So YouTube is actually an amazing platform
Speaker: 0
01:47:03
fortunately, because of social media, you can kinda suss out who’s legit and who’s just a propagandist. You know, it’s a really
Speaker: 1
01:47:10
I I agree.
Speaker: 0
01:47:11
Yeah. Because now, like, if you’re a person who’s, an independent journalist, but it seems fishy that you’ll talk about one issue all the time and then all of a sudden someone ai out, oh, look, this guy gets funding from this organization. Yeah. And this organization is run by this guy, and this guy supports, you know, he’s from Russia or whatever it is.
Speaker: 1
01:47:31
Or just by perpetrating perpetuating these lies
Speaker: 0
01:47:34
Yes.
Speaker: 1
01:47:35
I will keep my fan base even if I know that is lies.
Speaker: 0
01:47:37
It’s not
Speaker: 1
01:47:38
I don’t even think it’s like they’re being paid to say this. I think that they get they get their audience and their followers and pay it that way.
Speaker: 0
01:47:46
They’re also probably not the most nuanced thinkers.
Speaker: 1
01:47:49
Oh, they’re definitely not the most nuanced thinkers. But but yeah. But it it makes them money to not be.
Speaker: 0
01:47:54
I had a friend who briefly worked on a right wing shah. And one of the things that the host told him was, hey, meh, you gotta stay and defend the party. Like, whatever the party says, like, whatever you gotta go with that and get them on your side. That’s how you build an audience.
Speaker: 0
01:48:10
And he was like
Speaker: 1
01:48:10
Right. But that’s exactly it.
Speaker: 0
01:48:12
My friend was like, I’m out. Ai done. No. I’m not doing that. Like, I’m gonna tell you my opinions on things. Right. And some of my opinions are very left wing. Sai I’m not doing that. So he left. Good kudos to him. But this is the world that we’re living in now where it’s ai people decide that they’re gonna only adhere to one ai, and you don’t realize how malleable humans are.
Speaker: 0
01:48:32
It’s so easy to form a group and have everybody, like, get a part of it and have an ai, and it could be positive or it could be negative. And if it’s negative and everybody’s on board with it, then you got Hamas. Or then you’ve got, you know, whatever. You whatever organization it is, you’ve got the, you
Speaker: 1
01:48:50
know Absolutely. Yeah. Fill it out. I think it’s a comfortable it’s a much more comfortable way of living
Speaker: 0
01:48:57
to
Speaker: 1
01:48:57
believe that there’s bad people and then you’re the good person. Right? And there’s that other side and you’re on this ai. You’re on the good side. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:49:04
You just gotta never be willing to do evil because you think you’re doing it against evil people. Right. You can’t do that Right. Because then you’re evil. Like, you’re the thing that you’re trying yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:49:15
Which is interesting. We we did a story about assassins. And, we interviewed an assassin in Meh and an assassin in, South Africa, which has the highest rates of assassins. And that is exactly what they said when they justified what they do, which is the worst of the worst crime. Right? You’re taking away somebody’s ai.
Speaker: 1
01:49:31
But that is their justification was that they were killing bad people.
Speaker: 0
01:49:34
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:49:34
And so they’re you know, God was on their ai, and they were killing bad people. But it’s it’s it’s a little bit not on assassin level, but it’s a little bit that that ai. Like, I’m a That’s
Speaker: 0
01:49:44
a crazy rationalization. Right. You know, that’s what Genghis Khan used to say.
Speaker: 1
01:49:48
That he was killing Well, there
Speaker: 0
01:49:49
was a famous quote of Genghis Khan. You must have done something horrible for God to bring me.
Speaker: 1
01:49:53
Oh my Ai.
Speaker: 0
01:49:54
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:49:54
That’s crazy. That’s That
Speaker: 0
01:49:55
I’m your punishment. And all the love The punishment of God. Shah was his quote. It’s the craziest quote from a guy that killed 50,000,000 people in his lifetime or responsible
Speaker: 1
01:50:04
Wow.
Speaker: 0
01:50:04
At least indirectly to 50 plus million people dying.
Speaker: 1
01:50:07
Shit. Yeah. That’s insane.
Speaker: 0
01:50:09
But imagine that among, you know, God must have sent me. Right. You must be terrible if God sent me.
Speaker: 1
01:50:14
Right. I mean, when you bring God to the equation. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:50:17
But the thing but that’s how crazy people could rationalize evil that, like, I’m working for God to just destroy this whole village. I’m gonna kill a million people in this village and stack their bodies up in the center. Yeah. That’s what Genghis Khan did. He said, well, God must have, really hated you
Speaker: 1
01:50:35
Right.
Speaker: 0
01:50:35
If he sent me.
Speaker: 1
01:50:36
Right. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:50:39
Well, people could do that with anything and this is the problem with tribalism. This is the problem with being on a team. Because if you’re on the left, you hate the people on the right. If you’re on the right, you hate the people on the left.
Speaker: 1
01:50:50
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:50:50
And, you know, you you wear your outfits, like maybe you have blue hair, you got an American flag t shirt, you know, and everybody hates everybody. It’s like, for what?
Speaker: 1
01:50:58
Right. And then they’re on social media talking about stuff with so many opinions but with no actual knowledge. Like, not once having spent time actually on the ground looking at any of these issues. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:51:09
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:51:09
They talk about these immigrant raid, immigration raids, or drugs coming across, but not one not one single one of these people that have all these opinions have actually spent a fucking day reporting on it
Speaker: 0
01:51:20
on ai. I saw one of the, conversations with Tom Homan where they were saying that 70% of the people that they catch coming across Which
Speaker: 1
01:51:27
was bullshit,
Speaker: 0
01:51:28
you know? Well, let’s let me say this. 70% of the people that they catch and send back are criminals.
Speaker: 1
01:51:35
Bullshit.
Speaker: 0
01:51:36
Even if it was true, why don’t you get that down to a 100%? Like, why don’t you, like, figure out who’s not a criminal, and then you’ll have everybody on your ai? Like, if you’re only deporting gang members, no one would be complaining. If you’re only going after known gang members and getting them, only going after known scammers, criminals
Speaker: 1
01:51:57
Mhmm. Fraudsters.
Speaker: 0
01:51:59
Fraudsters. Yeah. Whatever anybody’s doing. Then you’d have everybody on your side. Like, 30% is crazy. Imagine if that applied to most things. Like, if most people who arya accused of a crime, 30%
Speaker: 1
01:52:09
were mean. 70% were guilty. The 30 30% were innocent.
Speaker: 0
01:52:13
Three out of 10. And everyone’s getting fucking snatched up en masse.
Speaker: 1
01:52:17
But you know that that number is not correct. It’s actually 40% that have some sort of,
Speaker: 0
01:52:22
Criminal history.
Speaker: 1
01:52:22
Criminal history. But a lot of time, it’s nonviolent. It can be a misdemeanor. It can be actually a parking ticket. And only seven percent of the people being deported have been are have have criminal, have have been charged with criminal violence.
Speaker: 0
01:52:35
Wow.
Speaker: 1
01:52:35
So it the numbers are insane.
Speaker: 0
01:52:38
I wonder if they could mitigate some of this shit if they just change the way the census works, but I don’t think they can. I think it’s a constitutional thing. I think it’s the way the constitution is written. Mhmm. I think it has something to do with just the way it says it, it doesn’t say lawful citizens. I think it says people living.
Speaker: 1
01:52:56
People. People living.
Speaker: 0
01:52:57
Which is, you know, ai of, you know, they’re people. They’re just people. Like people with paperwork or people with not paperwork. Right. We just gotta figure out who’s a fucking criminal. Yeah. That’s it. Yeah. That should be the only thing that everybody agrees on.
Speaker: 1
01:53:10
Which take money which takes money and resources. Right? It’s a lot harder to do it well.
Speaker: 0
01:53:14
They think that they were moving people into this country politically to get these people eventually a pathway to citizenship and then they would have lifelong voters. And this is what this is the allegations of why they were moving people to luxury hotels in New York City and paying them and and doing it in Chicago as well where the people that were poor that were living in Chicago were like, hey, we’re not getting these resources.
Speaker: 0
01:53:36
Like, why are you giving these resources to people that just came here from another country? This is obviously before all the ai raids which have completely changed public opinion. So that’s where it gets really fucked up because there’s people that probably would have been willing to vote Republican again because they didn’t like what the Democrats were doing because essentially they had a dead man who was pretending to be president and then they just had some people running the government from behind the scenes.
Speaker: 0
01:54:00
We’re not really sure who that was and that doesn’t seem ai, so I voted Republican. There’s a lot of people that feel that way. But then they see this and they’re like, I can’t support that. Right. I can’t support this heartless shit.
Speaker: 1
01:54:11
Exactly. I agree. A 100%.
Speaker: 0
01:54:13
And I’m sure I catch shit for it ai, but lucky Ai don’t read it.
Speaker: 1
01:54:18
You definitely read it. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:54:19
You don’t read it in
Speaker: 1
01:54:20
online stories.
Speaker: 0
01:54:20
You got it. If you have to, if you’re in a position like I’m in, you have to stay sane.
Speaker: 1
01:54:24
Right.
Speaker: 0
01:54:24
And the only way to stay sane is to say as conflict free as possible. Sai even though I talk a lot of shit, I don’t read anything anybody says back. Like, say it all. You’re allowed to. You should be. I read you.
Speaker: 0
01:54:36
I read
Speaker: 1
01:54:36
it all. I I mean, I don’t read what people are posting, but I read all the messages I get sent and everything. Oh, yeah. And I reply and everything.
Speaker: 0
01:54:42
That’s very nice of you. It’s just it’s not tenable at my
Speaker: 1
01:54:45
Oh, yeah. Of course not.
Speaker: 0
01:54:47
But it it it would be nice if I knew they were gonna be nice. Right. People that I meet are almost all nice. Yeah. I meh, so much Universally nice people.
Speaker: 1
01:54:56
So much easier to be mean online than it is face to face. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:54:59
Even people that I know don’t like meh, ai, you know, certain people, ai, I could sell say what I meh. I say hi and they’re ai, hi. And ai, they don’t like me because I represent something, but they’re not mean to meh, you know. Whereas in the privacy of their own home or sitting on the toilet, they could say the most awful shit on Twitter. I don’t need to read that.
Speaker: 0
01:55:16
And I would probably say it if I was them too. That’s the thing. If you’re you feel powerless and voiceless and you see someone doing something that you don’t agree with and then you have this Twitter account and you just, like, fuck that guy and Right. You just I get it. I understand it, but I I can’t read it.
Speaker: 1
01:55:32
Right. No. I don’t think you should. It’s not you’d you’d have to start drinking again if you didn’t.
Speaker: 0
01:55:37
Well, I never drank for that reason. I always drank for fun. I just, you know, I think, social media for the most part is, net positive. I think,
Speaker: 1
01:55:50
You think so?
Speaker: 0
01:55:50
Yes. I do.
Speaker: 1
01:55:52
I mean, I I love it and I use it and I use it as a tool from the work that I do 100%. But, but I I I I’ve you I’m a very optimistic person. And I always thought, you know, there’s there’s a reason you know, there’s great ways of using social media like you do. But it’s, like, with with young people nowadays and
Speaker: 0
01:56:11
Yeah. Young people, it’s very challenging. But this is what I think. Information is almost always good. And then the understanding that some of the information is bad is good. Because then you realize, like, oh, don’t trust everything. Like, figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. And then finding verifiable, like, accurate sources of information is good.
Speaker: 1
01:56:30
Yeah. That’s what I think is harder and harder to do. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:56:32
Yeah. But you can do it. But the point is, at least more information is available now than ever before, which just makes it very difficult for governments to pull off stuff that they were trying to pull off before. It makes it very difficult for people to get get scammed, like they were getting scammed in the past.
Speaker: 0
01:56:51
It’s just it’s it’s just there’s gonna be bunch of people that get duped no matter what. And there’s gonna be a bunch of people that get kidnapped by social media, meaning that their attention span and their focus, their life becomes a part of that thing. But I think this is a new and emerging aspect of society that we will navigate and that we will learn from the failures, and it’ll cost a lot of people their happiness and prosperity.
Speaker: 0
01:57:18
A lot of people will get wrapped up in that shit and it’ll fuck them up and that’s net negative. Right? Mhmm. But I think we’ll learn from it ai you don’t sana get bit by the rattlesnake. You hear that rattle? Get the fuck out of there.
Speaker: 0
01:57:28
Well, we’ll realize through all these other people’s mistakes where the pitfalls arya. So we’ll have to develop more robust ways of thinking about thing and more resilience. Mhmm. More resiliency.
Speaker: 1
01:57:41
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:57:41
And I think that’s the net positive. And then this communication with people all over the world, net positive, I think, ultimately. Yeah. The real problem is the real the challenging aspect of this, a lot of people you’re communicating with aren’t real. And that’s that’s a giant problem now.
Speaker: 0
01:57:57
China was busted using shah GPT to promulgate. They they were using it to they were going into Reddit forums and, they’re using it on social media and they they they were they were pretending to be people. Mhmm. And they were arguing about stuff. And, you know, you could just give it a prompt, like, from the position of a white supremacist, say why all Mexicans should
Speaker: 1
01:58:17
take that seriously. Division.
Speaker: 0
01:58:18
Uh-huh. To
Speaker: 1
01:58:18
create division. I know. In this country. I know.
Speaker: 0
01:58:20
Yeah. And so that’s a giant percentage of all social media discourse. So I don’t necessarily think you should be going back and forth with people. But I think as a source of information and news and alternative perspectives and boots on the ground people, like, hey, I’m reporting live from Gaza.
Speaker: 0
01:58:35
Look what they just did to this airport.
Speaker: 1
01:58:37
Yeah. And it was what we thought was gonna happen when the Arab Spring happened, you know, because everybody has a phone and finally we were able to film these amazing magnifying, you know, revolutions. But I think that promise has sort of waited a little bit. I I have to point out one thing you sai, how scams are not as prevalent these days.
Speaker: 0
01:58:53
I shouldn’t have said that. That that’s not what I meh, really. I meant, the government. That it’s very it’s more difficult for government. Government. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:59:03
Yeah. Online fraud is crazy. You were living in the golden age of of scams.
Speaker: 0
01:59:08
I get, like, 30 texts a day. The dude that owned my phone number before me, this dude Raymond, was a moron. Right. And Raymond Raymond, you fucking idiot. Did you sign up for everything, bitch? Because this guy, like, every day, like, hey, Raymond. Ai too Your loan’s been approved.
Speaker: 1
01:59:26
So really fun. I’m going to come on your podcast next year once I’m done with this project, but I’m working on a really fun project for National Geographic, which is where I say yes to every single scam that comes my way.
Speaker: 0
01:59:38
Oh, boy.
Speaker: 1
01:59:39
I’ve been filming it for a few months, and it’s been the craziest, wildest journey of all time.
Speaker: 0
01:59:44
Tyler sai can’t. No? I can’t.
Speaker: 1
01:59:46
I I just can tell you that I’ve been I have romantic relationships with people.
Speaker: 0
01:59:50
Hot damn.
Speaker: 1
01:59:51
Ai I speak a lot of time on my burner phone with people love bombing me.
Speaker: 0
01:59:57
Really?
Speaker: 1
01:59:57
But it’s not it’s a fake persona. Like, I I put a wig and glasses.
Speaker: 0
02:00:02
Oh, sai you use your own picture. You don’t even use AI?
Speaker: 1
02:00:04
No. I don’t use AI. We actually sort of ai. We put a fake nose on me and
Speaker: 0
02:00:08
Oh, okay.
Speaker: 1
02:00:09
A wig and glasses. But people say it doesn’t look at all like me. I I can see it’s me. But, but I will talk it’s it’s really fascinating. But also to talk about scams, which I can talk about a lot, is, we are living in the golden age of scams. I think it was Warren Buffett that said fraud and scams are the number one industry growth industry of our time.
Speaker: 1
02:00:30
And one of the stories we did, which is so sai, and I hate to bring it down back to a bad sai topic, but is that we I didn’t know this before starting to report on it, which a lot of times you think, you know, these scammers, these guys that are texting you, emailing you, and calling you that these are, you know, people in West Africa or, you know, wherever, but, like, loan operators.
Speaker: 1
02:00:52
Well, we did a story about these scam factories. Have you heard of these? No. It’s these compounds in places like Cambodia and Myanmar, in Asia, where they are it’s basically factories with sometimes with thousands and thousands of people forced labor. So these are mostly people from India, sometimes Brazil, other Asian countries.
Speaker: 1
02:01:14
The Philippines is a big place where they respond to ads to work in what they think are legitimate businesses, to work in online companies and whatnot. And they are they pay for their expenses to travel to these places, to Cambodia and Myanmar. In Myanmar, they’re operating out of this area that’s that’s an ongoing civil war and is ruled by these militias.
Speaker: 1
02:01:35
And they get in there, and they as soon as they get in, they take away their passports, and they’re trapped. And they’re forced to scam. So they speak $24.07 scamming Americans and European people.
Speaker: 0
02:01:46
Wow.
Speaker: 1
02:01:46
And it is an industry where they’re making billions of dollars. The US government just recently seized, $15,000,000,000 from one company, from one group of people alone in crypto. Wow. It’s the craziest thing. So these people are being tortured and and, you know, beaten, sometimes killed, and forced to to scam. So we went actually to Myanmar.
Speaker: 1
02:02:10
We were smuggled into the bryden, into Myanmar, into the country illegally
Speaker: 0
02:02:14
Woah.
Speaker: 1
02:02:16
Across the river, and spent time in this town that was basically built by these this Chinese gang that is all with the money of scamming Americans. And, they were trying to build, like, a mini Macau. And the guy that ran the the the company is called Yatai International. And he took us on a tour of this mini Macau. And it was so surreal.
Speaker: 1
02:02:38
It was like these aqua parks with no one in the Aqua Park and these luxury casinos. We ended the ai. It’s so crazy. In, we were trying this guy said he would give us an interview. But first, we had to do the tour. So and the interview would happen the next day.
Speaker: 1
02:02:54
So we ended the ai, this was actually not filmed, in a karaoke. That was a massive room where every single the whole every wall and the ceiling was all a screen. It was like the future. And this is in a war torn area of a country that’s incredibly poor. And they’ve built this place with millions and billions of dollars from from profits of scamming.
Speaker: 1
02:03:17
And we ended the night with this guy, who’s basically the head of this criminal Chinese gang running these scams, in this karaoke singing Celine Dion and Whitney Houston and being poured whiskey and whatever
Speaker: 0
02:03:32
Oh my god.
Speaker: 1
02:03:32
High end, ram we wanted.
Speaker: 0
02:03:34
You were getting drunk with them?
Speaker: 1
02:03:36
Oh my god. Yes. I was singing my heart out. I spent the whole night singing Whitney Houston. The videos are so embarrassing ai I cannot sing to stay in my life. But I was like, oh, I we need to get this guy on tape, so
Speaker: 0
02:03:50
I’m just gonna do
Speaker: 1
02:03:50
whatever Wow.
Speaker: 0
02:03:52
Wow. And then
Speaker: 1
02:03:53
the next day, we interviewed him, and, and it was just fucking crazy. And we ended our last day. I mean, we interviewed a Chinese dude, so sad, ai, 21 year old, who was caught trying to escape and was chased out of the building. He ran out of a Third Floor, broke both his legs, one at the hip, practically died, was actually saved by an onlooker who took him to the hospital and then moved to Thailand where I met him.
Speaker: 1
02:04:21
He was in a wheelchair, Told us about beatings. We spoke to another Indian kid also who was for like, they had a water hose on his body for he was forced to stand for twenty four hours, and then electrocuted. And, I mean, the videos out of these places were insane. Like, people with, horrific wounds and people dying and killed and yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:04:43
And just forced
Speaker: 0
02:04:43
to be Forced and I never said that they were forced into scamming.
Speaker: 1
02:04:47
Yeah. Forced into scamming. And then we interviewed a girl called Angel who was raped repeatedly by her bosses, and she’s sort of the face model. So a lot of times after speaking to these what they think are romantic relationships for a long time, they sana see people’s faces.
Speaker: 1
02:05:02
So this is the girl that then they put a fake Ai face on top of her, but it has to be a girl because of the aneurysms and the voice. And they have this girl who actually speaks English. And she would talk to victims of scams and pretend that she was the wonderful woman that they’ve been dating for months and and convince them to put their money into this crypto business that was fake and, and take millions out of these victims.
Speaker: 1
02:05:29
So this woman starts crying and telling me how she knows she’s doing something awful, but and how she’s raped and how she doesn’t wanna be doing. And, at the end, she says, I just want your I just said yes to doing this even though it’s incredibly dangerous. But I accepted doing this because I just want a message for the victims in America, the people that I’ve spoken to, that I don’t that I’m sorry.
Speaker: 1
02:05:51
I just wanna apologize for all the harm that I’ve caused. And she’s like in tears, but I have no way out. Ai mean, these are heart wrenching, heart wrenching stories. And the last day we were there, we were able to, there’s this amazing organization called Acts of Mercy, religious based organization that is working to try to get these people out.
Speaker: 1
02:06:12
And a lot of these bosses actually if you can pay for ransom, you can pay $10,000 to save a person from there. So if because if you’re a bad scammer, if you’re there and you’re horrible and you’re, you know, if you’re sad and depressed and you’re not doing your job, it’s better for these bosses if you just get paid $10,000 to let this person go.
Speaker: 1
02:06:32
So there was this case of this the Filipino woman who the boss had agreed to a $12,000 payment to release her. But it’s really dangerous for there’s this negotiator that goes and sort of tries to get her out of this compound. But he has to come with the money and he has to be able to pay the crime boss, but he also has to pay the militias to get him in.
Speaker: 1
02:06:53
So it was like a whole process. And we were with this group, Acts of Mercy and another guy, filming them as they’re on the phone negotiating her release. And they’re on the phone with her. She’s inside the scam center, and she’s like, where do I go? This scam center is massive.
Speaker: 1
02:07:09
She had no idea where to go. And they’re saying, go to the West Gate, and the guy is there waiting for you. She’s like, I don’t know where to go. And she’s crying. If they see me with the phone, because it’s a confiscated phone, they’re gonna beat me and they’re gonna put me in the dark ram where I’m beaten and, you know, tortured for for days.
Speaker: 1
02:07:26
And and and, Amy, the woman on this ai, is telling her, believe us. There’s somebody waiting for you. Do not be afraid. Bring your phone. We need to be telling you how to get there. It’s this whole it was her sole ordeal. It was, like, fucking insane. It was out of a movie.
Speaker: 1
02:07:41
And in the end, they didn’t manage to get her out. But she was not that day, but she was released a month later. Wow. And she made it to safety. But some this just to show how dangerous and difficult it is even when they agree to let them go.
Speaker: 0
02:07:56
Sai what are most of the scams? Are most of the scams from
Speaker: 1
02:07:59
Domestic scams. They’re called pig butchering scams. Pig butchering. Yeah. That’s the name they give them because it’s an express Chinese expression. It started in China. It started as a domestic scam in China, actually. And, yeah, pig butchering because the idea is that you fatten the pig, which is your victim, and then you kill them at the end. Right?
Speaker: 1
02:08:17
And and, which that’s why it’s called pig butchering. But the idea is that you meet somebody ai, and it’s usually a beautiful girl or ram. And, and you create you start a relationship with that person. You just have starts
Speaker: 0
02:08:31
How do they meet them?
Speaker: 1
02:08:33
You know those texts that you get a lot of ai, like, hey. I haven’t talked to you
Speaker: 0
02:08:36
in a while? A lot
Speaker: 1
02:08:37
of those are big butchering scams. A lot of Ah. Messages you get on Instagram from these beautiful girls or
Speaker: 0
02:08:42
other it up because I got a few iMessages like that.
Speaker: 1
02:08:45
Yeah. Me too.
Speaker: 0
02:08:45
Like, woah.
Speaker: 1
02:08:46
Me too.
Speaker: 0
02:08:46
Not even just a green text bubble anymore. They got iPhones
Speaker: 1
02:08:49
now. And then they tell you, you know, follow me on Instagram and then go, let’s go on WhatsApp. Mhmm. And then they are sending you photos of them in their private jets and living this wonderful life. Is that
Speaker: 0
02:08:59
what they’re doing with
Speaker: 1
02:08:59
you? Yes.
Speaker: 0
02:09:01
With your
Speaker: 1
02:09:02
In other ways. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
02:09:03
In other so these scams that you’re
Speaker: 1
02:09:04
responding to? We’re trying to get is that. We’re getting several different kinds of ram, like Indian call centers and all all of
Speaker: 0
02:09:10
the different scams.
Speaker: 1
02:09:12
But eventually, they start saying, look. We are leave living. And so you’re curious. Like, how do you like, how are you making so much money? It’s like, oh, yeah. I’ve been investing in crypto, and, you know, I can’t really tell you much about it now. So they, like, last it can last months.
Speaker: 1
02:09:25
And at some point, they’re like, okay. I built a relationship. Yeah? I’m gonna tell you how I do it. You’ve got $5,000 right now, and then you put the $5,000, and then they show profit on these fake websites. It looks completely legitimate. And you’re saying, oh my god.
Speaker: 1
02:09:39
I put 5,000, and now I have 10. How much more can I put in? So people are going all in, and they’re, like, everything they have. Four zero one k’s. They’re remortgaging their houses, everything. And then did you hear the case was about the guy in Kansas? No. The bank? No.
Speaker: 1
02:09:56
The guy the guy that was the head of this bank in Kansas? Jamie, did you hear about this? It’s a fucking fascinating story. It was a story in the New York Times, and then it got reported everywhere. I was trying to get this guy to talk to me because his story is fascinating.
Speaker: 1
02:10:07
So this guy, amazing member of the community, small town in Vatsal, the local bank that was started by the farmers decades decades ago. It’s where all the farm community was put would put their money, would trust this bank. Well, it turns out that this guy, the head of this bank that everybody trusted, outstanding member of the community, was stole, millions of dollars from the bank, and the bank went bankrupt.
Speaker: 1
02:10:33
And he was stealing the money because he was being scammed by a big butchering scam. And it started with him putting his own money. And then they kept on saying that in order to release the funds and all the millions that he’d made from his initial investment, he would put in more and more money.
Speaker: 1
02:10:50
I think he ended up putting in with something like
Speaker: 0
02:10:53
$47,000,000
Speaker: 1
02:10:55
from from
Speaker: 0
02:10:56
customer accounts. Accounts to scammers depleting the bank’s holdings. When a state banking regulator uncovered this fraud, it closed the bank and called the FBI. Woah. He started slow investing a few thousand dollars in 2022 to buy what he thought was cryptocurrency. Oh ai goodness.
Speaker: 1
02:11:14
How sad is that? Wow. I mean, awful. Obviously, he was stealing from his customers. Wow. But I find it so he actually traveled to Australia at one point thinking he was gonna meet these the the the people that owed him money. I mean, he actually was completely scammed. And this is, like, the head of ai bank. Yeah. The head of a fucking bank.
Speaker: 0
02:11:33
Wow.
Speaker: 1
02:11:34
It’s fucking crazy. These guys are so good. It’s That’s crazy. Bananas.
Speaker: 0
02:11:39
They get a a banker. But he’s a banker in Vatsal, though. You know what I’m saying? Like, come on.
Speaker: 1
02:11:45
Don’t be mean.
Speaker: 0
02:11:49
Sorry, Kansas. But you know what I’m saying.
Speaker: 1
02:11:51
Well, he’s in prison now.
Speaker: 0
02:11:53
Oh, well, he should be. He stole $47,000,000. But he’s also a dumbass. And the crazy thing is that you could be a dumbass and be a smart person if greed gets involved. Greed is ai for I think greed for shady people, it’ll it’s almost it’s ai of fascinating because you gotta know at one point in time this is not smart.
Speaker: 0
02:12:21
But the greed is ai, but what if it is?
Speaker: 1
02:12:24
But it I think more than greed, I think it’s the acceptance that you have lost all that money, and that must weigh so heavily on you. If you have, you know, if you’re about to foreclose your home, if you’d sent all the money from your kids’ college funds, if
Speaker: 0
02:12:42
Oh, I mean the banker.
Speaker: 1
02:12:43
Oh, yeah. But even the banker. I mean but I mean, but even the banker. He sent all his initially, it was all his
Speaker: 0
02:12:49
stealing. That’s all greed.
Speaker: 1
02:12:50
I I I I don’t think I think it got to a point that he was swindled and made to believe that if he give more money, he would he would get the money that he initially invested back.
Speaker: 0
02:13:03
1,000,000. You realized
Speaker: 1
02:13:04
he didn’t love
Speaker: 0
02:13:05
to buy it.
Speaker: 1
02:13:05
Back the 45,000,000 that he gave he stole from his customers. Boy. I think the realization and this is something that I know from talking to so many scam scamming victims. The it’s not so much about wanting to make that money. It’s the realization that you’ve been talking to somebody that’s not real and that you have been so swindled and you know, I don’t sana use the word dumb because I think all of us can fall victims to these scams.
Speaker: 1
02:13:33
But that that the acceptance of that is really difficult. So you just want to keep on believing it.
Speaker: 0
02:13:39
You know,
Speaker: 1
02:13:39
you just pay whatever you need to pay sai the dream stays alive.
Speaker: 0
02:13:43
Yeah. There’s a Carl Sagan quote about that, that it’s easier to convince a person. Like, it’s harder to like, once a person has been swindled, it’s much more difficult to convince them of the swindle. Yeah. They’ll they’ll find ways to justify that it must be true.
Speaker: 1
02:13:59
100%. I Ai feel that with this experiment I’m doing right now. I mean, even though I know I’m being swindled, but there’s something about once you’re deep in that relationship, it’s it’s yeah. It’s it it does something funny to you.
Speaker: 0
02:14:11
It’s also exciting. Ai? And that’s the problem is that most of life is boring. Yeah. You know? And if you you’re involved in something that may or may not yield money or may or may not yield some sort of romantic relationship or may or may not yield
Speaker: 1
02:14:24
100%.
Speaker: 0
02:14:24
Sai drug deal.
Speaker: 1
02:14:25
Or a celebrity ram, which is huge these days. If you’re talk if you think you’re talking to, you know
Speaker: 0
02:14:30
Brad Pitt. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:14:31
Like, you give up maybe maybe your life has a meaning. Right? There’s a reason why you’re here. There’s something exciting happening.
Speaker: 0
02:14:37
Especially if you have, like, a 65 IQ.
Speaker: 1
02:14:39
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:14:40
That’s the problem. There’s a lot of dumbasses out there, and it’s not fair to scam those people. Like, some scams I know. Like, we tyler, like televangelists. We fail we’re we’re ai, look, if you really believe that guy with the private jet and the Bentley, that guy, you need to send him money because God wants you to send him money, you’re on your own.
Speaker: 0
02:15:04
You know, it’s such a dumb scam. It’s so out in the open. You know?
Speaker: 1
02:15:09
Astrology is another one I’ve been looking into.
Speaker: 0
02:15:11
I don’t know if astrology is a 100% bullshit. This is my take on astrology. I think at one point in time, they had some knowledge about astrology that may or may not be lost. Maybe some people understand it.
Speaker: 1
02:15:25
I’m I’m a believer like you There’s
Speaker: 0
02:15:28
There’s thousands of books that are ai ancient I don’t know thousands, but a lot written about the very specific details of astrology.
Speaker: 1
02:15:37
Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
02:15:38
Ai, in terms of, like, where the constellations are, what time of the day it is, where, you know, where the Earth is in relationship to Mars. It’s very weird stuff because I wanna know, like, what the fuck was the origin of all this?
Speaker: 1
02:15:51
Right. Absolutely. I meant psychic scammers. Sorry. Not astrology. I meant psychic scammers.
Speaker: 0
02:15:55
Oh, psychic scammers. Yeah. Ai.
Speaker: 1
02:15:57
I’m a believer in astrology as well
Speaker: 0
02:15:59
as I think there’s something to real astrology. Ai need to get a real astrologer on. I’ve I’ve tried to find one that I think is legit.
Speaker: 1
02:16:06
What sign are you, Benoit?
Speaker: 0
02:16:08
I’m a Leo.
Speaker: 1
02:16:09
Oh, of course you were.
Speaker: 0
02:16:10
Of course. That’s ridiculous.
Speaker: 1
02:16:14
So is my son. So is my dad. It’s, one of my favorite signs. I’m a Taurus.
Speaker: 0
02:16:18
Okay. I don’t know. I I think that, like, newspaper astrology is bullshit.
Speaker: 1
02:16:24
Yeah. Of course it is.
Speaker: 0
02:16:25
But I don’t know that real astrology is not nonsense.
Speaker: 1
02:16:29
Right. Do you get do you get that a lot? That when you say you’re a Leo, they say, yeah. Of course you are.
Speaker: 0
02:16:33
I’ve heard it before. Yeah. Why? I don’t know.
Speaker: 1
02:16:36
Oh, because you like the the ai. Right? Which is my son and my dad as well.
Speaker: 0
02:16:41
Is that what it is? A spotlight?
Speaker: 1
02:16:42
Leo Leos like to Interesting. What is it? It’s, Sai
Speaker: 0
02:16:45
I get attention.
Speaker: 1
02:16:46
They like attention. Yeah. Ai I think I’m a little Leo as well, but I’m a I’m a Taurus. I’m ai Meh.
Speaker: 0
02:16:52
I’ve heard, like, bullheaded. I’ve heard, you know, strong willed.
Speaker: 1
02:16:56
That’s that’s sai Leo is Taurus as
Speaker: 0
02:16:58
well. Yeah. Ai. The bull. Yeah. The bull. Yeah. Yeah. But I don’t what I’m talking about is ai the super specific stuff. Yeah. Pure You were born at 3AM. You were conceived nine months before that. When were you conceived? What was going on? Ai, how did this you know, where where what in the procession of the equinoxes?
Speaker: 0
02:17:20
Where ram this the position of the earth? You know, there’s a lot of weird stuff they take into consideration. I’m like, wow. Look, I’d really like to learn about it. Right.
Speaker: 0
02:17:30
Ai, from someone I’m gonna have someone on that really understand that I just have to have someone ai who’s not a kook. And that’s the problem is it’s like one of those disciplines that’s littered with kooks.
Speaker: 1
02:17:40
Right. Yeah. I find it fascinating too. And I’m a non believer in everything. I’m very skeptical about everything. But astrology, I’ve always kind of believed into. I mean, it’s it’s the idea that, you know, where the sun and the stars, they have an effect on on tides and currents and Mhmm.
Speaker: 1
02:17:54
And why wouldn’t that all have an effect? I mean, I know nothing about it, but why wouldn’t it have an effect of on you when you’re born and when and where the time Right.
Speaker: 0
02:18:03
And it’s probably a part of nature’s natural order too to create a bunch of different kinds of people.
Speaker: 1
02:18:09
Yeah. Maybe.
Speaker: 0
02:18:09
And because, I mean, what makes you who you arya? There’s a lot of factors. Right? There’s environment, there’s genetics Mhmm. And then there’s probably some Yeah. Celestial shit going on.
Speaker: 1
02:18:20
Going on. Yep.
Speaker: 0
02:18:21
Maybe. Yeah. I’m not you know, I don’t know enough about it to but I’m I’m open to it ai I think there’s a lot of information that was lost. Mhmm. I think there’s a lot of information that we would dismiss, you know, from ancient civilizations that we dismiss. But I think I think the problem is that these ancient civilizations collapsed, and ai with the burning of the ai of Alexandria, you’re left with very little.
Speaker: 0
02:18:46
Ai, a lot a lot of, like, very important information is missing. And so then you gotta kinda, like, go, well, that seems like bullshit. That seems like old folksy stuff. Like, maybe. Or maybe there was, like Yeah.
Speaker: 0
02:18:58
Maybe they had figured something out over a long period of time and there was a science to it.
Speaker: 1
02:19:03
Right. Yeah. You should have an astrologist on. Shah would be super interesting.
Speaker: 0
02:19:06
Time when it’s not crazy.
Speaker: 1
02:19:07
Yeah. Right.
Speaker: 0
02:19:08
You know, like a sai, like meh a psychic on. It’s not crazy. I’ve had people on that were remote viewers. That’s another weird one.
Speaker: 1
02:19:15
You have?
Speaker: 0
02:19:15
Yeah. Hal Puthoff. Hal Puthoff who’s, he was running, some various programs for the United States government. Specifically, I had him on though to not talk about remote viewing, to talk about UFOs. Uh-huh. And, he was actually brought on board during, Herbert Walker Bush’s administration.
Speaker: 0
02:19:34
They, well well, he was working for the government at the ai, but they brought him on as one of the scientists that they they’d got a group of people from various disciplines. And they ai life. Mhmm. And this is what they were telling him. Wow. We have recovered crashed UFOs, and we are doing back engineering programs on them.
Speaker: 0
02:20:03
We have for years. We also have recovered biological entities. We are thinking about disclosing this information to the American public. I want you to compile a list on the positive aspects of disclosure, how it affects ai, and give a numerical value to these things, and then negative.
Speaker: 0
02:20:20
And all these scientists came up with a much higher negative than positive, so they didn’t disclose.
Speaker: 1
02:20:27
And what do you know what the list was? What were the
Speaker: 0
02:20:29
negative versus the government? Religion, government, the economy,
Speaker: 1
02:20:35
Those were all negative.
Speaker: 0
02:20:36
Those were all negative. It
Speaker: 1
02:20:36
could affect religion. Yes. It could affect the economy.
Speaker: 0
02:20:39
It would affect government and the fact that no one would ever listen to the president because he’s just a bitch. The fucking aliens are Right. Hovering over our head, abducting people every day.
Speaker: 1
02:20:47
So this is where I think it would be interesting. I actually think that there’s a positive if it were to happen right now because it sure as hell would bring us all together.
Speaker: 0
02:20:56
Yes. Well, that was Reagan said that. You ever you ever see that speech? No. It was a famous speech that he gave at in front of the United Nations. And I think he gave this speech at a time where, you know, this is ai Gorbachev tear down that wall. It was that kind of speech speak there’s, like, trying to unite us all together.
Speaker: 0
02:21:12
And his speech was, imagine if we were all faced with an alien threat from another world, how quickly we would unite together.
Speaker: 1
02:21:20
Yeah. Yeah. We would. Ai mean, we need it now more than ever. So if they’re out there
Speaker: 0
02:21:24
I know. But is that the only way we can unite? We have
Speaker: 1
02:21:27
to be threatened by
Speaker: 0
02:21:28
another enemy? Like, god, we’re so fucking warlike. We’re so warlike. We need a an interstellar war to unite America and the rest of the world.
Speaker: 1
02:21:36
It’s so sad because it didn’t used to be like that. Right? Politics wasn’t something that people talked about all day long all the time. Like, it wasn’t
Speaker: 0
02:21:43
the negative aspect of social media.
Speaker: 1
02:21:45
Yeah. Yeah. Because this is all people talk about. Like, even us, like, you know, there’s so much interesting stuff to talk about. And yet we’ve spent time talking about politics because
Speaker: 0
02:21:54
But we’re talking about the fascinating aspects of politics as it affects human civilization and how No. No. No. Discourse.
Speaker: 1
02:22:01
Yes. But also, like, the division and the right and the left and being careful with what you say because what if the other side did this and that? It it’s it’s now in every single home, in every single conversation people have, and it it’s just it didn’t used to be like that. It just didn’t.
Speaker: 1
02:22:19
Like, government was there. It existed. It’s supposed to work well. If it’s not, hopefully, there are good journalists out there exposing what’s not working out well. But it should not be the discourse all the time about whether you’re right wing, you’re left wing, whether you’re with us or not or against us. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:22:36
And and it it it it just taints everything and and and takes too much space. Yes. For other conversations with much more important conversations that we should be having, whether it’s about AI, whether it’s about social media, whether it’s about aliens. There are much bigger problems that are coming in our future, and we shouldn’t be so sort of tunnel focused on whether we’re, you know, whether what we’re saying is approved by the right or the left or whether this or that.
Speaker: 1
02:23:05
It’s just This
Speaker: 0
02:23:06
is an amazing waste of mental resources. You might have
Speaker: 1
02:23:08
thought
Speaker: 0
02:23:08
that’s a waste of time. Way for very uninteresting people to attach themselves to a worthy cause. Yeah. People that have nothing else going on in their life and all of a bryden, it’s this whatever issue it is. Whatever the issue is that their whole ai. Yeah. And they go all in. And it’s generally a distraction for a failed life.
Speaker: 1
02:23:26
I think so too.
Speaker: 0
02:23:27
That’s a lot of it. It’s not doing what you really wanna do, not having the relationships you really wanna have, the friendships you really and instead, you’re involved in this
Speaker: 1
02:23:35
of those.
Speaker: 0
02:23:35
Fucking stupid cause. Yeah. You know?
Speaker: 1
02:23:37
Yeah. I know.
Speaker: 0
02:23:39
That’s so dumb. But you’re right. If the alien showed up, we’d probably all unite together. But, unfortunately, like, I feel like most united moment that I could remember in my adult life was right after September 11.
Speaker: 1
02:23:50
Yeah. Same.
Speaker: 0
02:23:51
Were you in America? I was in
Speaker: 1
02:23:52
New York.
Speaker: 0
02:23:53
You were in New oh, boy.
Speaker: 1
02:23:54
Yeah. I was,
Speaker: 0
02:23:55
How different was the feeling where everybody was, like, smiling to each other and saying hi on the street afterwards?
Speaker: 1
02:24:00
My the elevators. I mean, I did the the initial reporting for Portugal for Portuguese television that day.
Speaker: 0
02:24:06
Oh.
Speaker: 1
02:24:06
So I was at Columbia University’s journalism school. I just moved to New York a month before.
Speaker: 0
02:24:11
Oh, wow.
Speaker: 1
02:24:12
Yeah. And I think it’s Where
Speaker: 0
02:24:14
were you living?
Speaker: 1
02:24:15
I was living on, 70 Second And Broadway.
Speaker: 0
02:24:18
Okay. So you’re Upper West. Pretty far away from the actual Yep. Did you go down?
Speaker: 1
02:24:24
Yeah. So I didn’t go to Ground 0, but I went to Midtown to the rooftop of this building where everybody was doing sort of the satellite live feed. So you had journalists from all over the world. Meanwhile, I was 24, 25 years old. I have, like, zero experience doing a live feed.
Speaker: 1
02:24:39
I was just I just moved to The United States. It’s actually, it’s an interesting story how I even got to The US because, you know, I applied for Columbia University three times. The first ai, I was not accepted. The second time, I was put in a wait list and didn’t get accepted. The third time, I flew to New York, and I knocked on the dean’s door.
Speaker: 1
02:24:55
And I explained, I’m Portuguese. I really sana come to this university. I wanna be a journalist in America. And he sat me down. We spoke for an hour in that year. I was accepted.
Speaker: 0
02:25:05
That’s amazing. That’s amazing that you could do that.
Speaker: 1
02:25:08
And it taught me my first big important lesson in journalism, which is Get
Speaker: 0
02:25:12
in there.
Speaker: 1
02:25:12
Persistence. Don’t be afraid to get no’s because, I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? Right?
Speaker: 0
02:25:17
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:25:18
And, but a a month after this, I’m in New York. I’m sleeping in the morning, and I start getting phone calls. And I was sleeping that late because I’d been studying until really late that night the night before. And the first phone I pick up, was, my television station that Ai worked for in Portugal. I’d done an internship there and worked there.
Speaker: 1
02:25:38
And they called me and said, hey. Turn on your television. And, it was when the second, the fir the first Tower had collapsed. And they said, turn on the television and see what’s happening. I had no idea this was happening.
Speaker: 1
02:25:49
And they said, we need you to go to Midtown and do we have no Portuguese journalists in Manhattan. They’re all our journalists are in DC or they’re outside of Manhattan. Manhattan had been locked down. You need to go down and do the live reporting for us of what’s happening.
Speaker: 1
02:26:02
And on and suddenly, my cell phone started ringing, and it was my mother who was crying and begging me not to leave the house. And, and I was I had to explain to her meh, this is, like, meh dream is to become a journalist. It’s part of my ai, and I I have to go. Anyway, an hour later, I was at the rooftop of this building surrounded by all these journalist heroes of mine that I grew up watching on live television and shaking.
Speaker: 1
02:26:25
I was so, so nervous. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to put two words together. So nervous. And, I ended up doing my live report and it all went well. And I was ecstatic. I was so happy. I was like, oh my god. I did it.
Speaker: 1
02:26:37
I did it. I have a future in this profession that I really sana be a journalist and this is great. And then I will never forget, and I get emotional every time I talk about this. But I will never forget just walking down to the streets. And it’s every time I talk about this. But and seeing the first, people looking for their loved ones. Right?
Speaker: 1
02:26:58
And it’s like the posters with the faces of the husbands and the children and not knowing where they were. And that moment totally changed my life because, sorry.
Speaker: 0
02:27:09
It was okay.
Speaker: 1
02:27:11
It was a moment that I yeah. First of all, realization, like, what the fuck? This is not about you, and this is about something so much bigger that’s happening where so many people are affected by this. And it was the moment also that I realized that the kind of journalism that I wanted to do was, try to understand why this sort of evil happens in the world and how do things like this exist.
Speaker: 1
02:27:36
And, a year after I graduated from Colombia, I moved to The Middle East. And I enrolled in the University of Damascus in Syria to learn Arabic and to try to, do my I did my first story as a freelance journalist about the jihadis who were crossing to Iraq to fight against the Americans.
Speaker: 1
02:27:53
That was the first story I ever did as a freelance journalist. And, and so yeah. So I was I was there on 09:11. And, remember after reporting, going, you know, to school and going up to my building and meeting strangers on the streets, and everybody was just, like, looking at each other and hugging each other.
Speaker: 1
02:28:15
And there was so much love and support.
Speaker: 0
02:28:18
And it lasted for months.
Speaker: 1
02:28:19
And it lasted for months. And it was really beautiful and everybody came together and it was a beautiful, beautiful time.
Speaker: 0
02:28:24
And everybody went right back to being a
Speaker: 1
02:28:26
fucking asshole. Back to this. Yeah. Which is yeah. Which is me against you, you know, which is so sad.
Speaker: 0
02:28:32
Well, for just that one brief moment, I realized, like, for that during that time when everybody had that American flag on their car and they were driving around with it. In LA Yeah. Which is, like, one of the most unpatriotic places in the country. They all had American flags in their car.
Speaker: 0
02:28:46
It was it was a crazy moment, and I realized, like, oh, this is possible to unite us. Like, we don’t have to be in this stupid ai. But why does it take something terrible? Why does it take a tragedy for us to be united?
Speaker: 1
02:28:59
And and the you know, what’s so sad is that three thousand people died on that day. Right? I’m gonna bring it back to drug and alcohol addiction. But three thousand people die every single week in America from addiction, from drug and alcohol addiction. These these ai are happening every day.
Speaker: 1
02:29:13
And, and and, like, meh, let’s actually unite to do some good and to try to solve problems instead of, you know, dividing to try to figure out, you know, how to hate more another person Yeah. And how to separate us all.
Speaker: 0
02:29:29
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know that and I know that and we both live that way. Ai, why We can talk
Speaker: 1
02:29:35
in circles about this. What’s going on?
Speaker: 0
02:29:37
If I can’t we can’t get the rest of the world on board. We need to get people to stop paying attention to all this shit Right. And just just learn how to be nicer.
Speaker: 1
02:29:46
Right. I agree.
Speaker: 0
02:29:47
I meh, there’s you don’t have much time in this life. Doesn’t last as long as you think it does.
Speaker: 1
02:29:53
No. And just have empathy. It’s my main meh. It’s just, like, try to place yourself in somebody else’s issues. Yeah. Don’t be quick to judge. Like, actually try to understand why these migrants are coming to this country, why these, you know, people are carrying drugs on their backs and excruciating difficult work and dangerous work.
Speaker: 1
02:30:10
Why are they doing it
Speaker: 0
02:30:11
Right.
Speaker: 1
02:30:11
Instead and why are people scamming? Right. You know, try to understand why they’re doing what they do. And once you understand the root causes, then you can actually make a difference and try to change that and actually have an impact.
Speaker: 0
02:30:23
Absolutely.
Speaker: 1
02:30:24
Which is much harder. Right? Much harder to try to solve it that way.
Speaker: 0
02:30:28
Yeah. Much harder. Well, it’s it’s hard for people to have empathy too. Some people, especially if they’re just tired all the time and exhausted and they’re unhealthy and their life sucks and they just want other people ai fuck. And they don’t see those people, they don’t feel it.
Speaker: 0
02:30:41
They’re not
Speaker: 1
02:30:41
They need a Martin Luther King. Yeah. They need a James Tyler.
Speaker: 0
02:30:45
Well, we need someone like that for sure. We need someone who’s got, someone who is a powerful speaker too. Like, they have to be charismatic that has a meh of non ai and love. Because it’s really the only way. You you don’t get anything from violence other than more ai, you know, unless you’re the the biggest, baddest bully and then you squash everything around you and great now you’re dictator.
Speaker: 1
02:31:10
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:31:10
And it’s not good for any of us.
Speaker: 1
02:31:12
None. No. It doesn’t.
Speaker: 0
02:31:13
None. It’s contrary to what we’re supposed to be about in the first place. This is supposed to be The United States Of America. We’re supposed to be a community.
Speaker: 1
02:31:20
Mhmm. I don’t think that LA is the most unpatriotic. I know you don’t like LA. I still live there. And I know you don’t like it, but I disagree that it’s unpatriotic.
Speaker: 0
02:31:29
What do you think it is?
Speaker: 1
02:31:31
Why would you say it’s unpatriotic? California is an incredible state.
Speaker: 0
02:31:34
Ai know If you have a Meh flag, in front of your house, people will call you racist. That’s a fact.
Speaker: 1
02:31:41
That I haven’t seen that happen.
Speaker: 0
02:31:42
That’s a fact. That’s a fact. There’s there’s a lot of indoctrinated young kids.
Speaker: 1
02:31:46
Perhaps. And those people are assholes and they’re not they’re they’re as full as hate as the other side.
Speaker: 0
02:31:53
Meh that in Texas.
Speaker: 1
02:31:54
Ai where if you have an LGBTQ flag on the front of your door, you’re called thoughts of other things.
Speaker: 0
02:32:00
Sure. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:32:00
Right? So that goes both ways.
Speaker: 0
02:32:02
Well, that’s not necessarily patriotism. That’s just being an intolerant asshole. Right. But I think that the real problem with Los Angeles is the government, and the fact that they wanna ignore the rampant fraud, and the fact that everything is so over regulated. It’s impossible to get permits for things, so industry’s leaving. The overtaxing Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
02:32:23
There’s just
Speaker: 1
02:32:24
Have you read Ezra Klein’s book about this?
Speaker: 0
02:32:26
No. I have not.
Speaker: 1
02:32:27
I haven’t read the book yet, but I’ve heard him giving a bunch of interviews about about it.
Speaker: 0
02:32:31
Which And he’s getting attacked for it now. People are saying he’s leaning right, which is hilarious.
Speaker: 1
02:32:36
But it’s about how if you’re he’s a Democrat, as you know, but how Democrats have to figure out how to make the system work or and and and how to build things and how to Mhmm. And not do what you were ai, create all these limits and these problems for, like, building houses in the Palisades and
Speaker: 0
02:32:54
What’s also the problem is the Democrats are the Democrats of 2025, not the Democrats of 1994. If you go back to the Democrats and Bill Clinton was president, it was a totally different thing. Like, Bill Clinton’s if you hear him talk, he sounds like a populist Mhmm. That is, like
Speaker: 1
02:33:11
Sai party going after criminals. Yes.
Speaker: 0
02:33:13
Pre pro America. Ai, it’s sai it’s like that’s what everybody can get on board with. It’s like that’s the the real problem as this ideology shift Mhmm. With special interests and money and funding and propaganda, and then they become something unrecognizable. They become something that supports war. They become something that suppresses free speech.
Speaker: 0
02:33:32
They become something that was, like, entirely Mhmm. In direct opposition to what it would have been in 1985. It’s ai Yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:33:39
But not all. Not all Democrats.
Speaker: 0
02:33:41
Of course, not all. But this is the same problem because it’s ai, if you decide I’m a right winger, you’re supposed to take in all of that. You’re supposed to, ai, like, that guy said to my friend, like, you gotta gotta support a party across the wing. That’s the only way. You gotta get them on your side. And, like, what? What?
Speaker: 0
02:33:59
Even if I don’t agree at all with what they say, I have to bite my tongue because I’m a part of a gang now? Fuck off.
Speaker: 1
02:34:04
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:34:05
And that’s the problem is that we only have two stupid parties. And
Speaker: 1
02:34:09
Huge problem.
Speaker: 0
02:34:10
Yeah. I mean, you do have liberty I voted libertarian ai. But it’s kinda ai, fuck these people. I’m gonna vote for nothing.
Speaker: 1
02:34:19
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:34:19
You know, that’s never gonna win. Right. Which is crazy to say. Yeah. But that is ai of what it is. Right. You know, and then you see other countries that have, like, six, seven
Speaker: 1
02:34:29
Yeah. Portugal and the majority of European countries.
Speaker: 0
02:34:32
The Netherlands. Yeah. Right. There’s a lot of countries that have multiple parties and
Speaker: 1
02:34:37
Yeah. You you know, obviously, there’s division, but there’s nothing like the division that exists in The US right now. It’s
Speaker: 0
02:34:43
Well, that’s the negative aspect of social media, I believe. I believe it’s ramping up people and it’s it’s pushing the divide even further. But what I’m hoping is that this is a growing pain and that we’ll sort through this and and under but we need ai leaders that are very intelligent vatsal also makes sense to both people, which I do think is possible.
Speaker: 0
02:35:05
Both groups of both ideologically captured sides Mhmm. Which I do think is possible. Because in the middle is where we all live. In the middle is where I live. We all want safety. We all want education. We all want fairness.
Speaker: 0
02:35:20
We all sana make sure that no one’s polluting and good access to resources and a chance to make a life for yourself and pursue your dreams. That’s what we all want. Right. All that other stuff is just dividing points. One of the things Ai had rep Luna on the podcast, we were talking about something and she sai, they don’t wanna fix this issue because they can fund their campaign with it.
Speaker: 1
02:35:44
Of course. I mean, that’s immigration to a
Speaker: 0
02:35:45
Isn’t that crazy? Ai, that politicians will fail to resolve an issue on purpose Right. Because they wanna raise funds Right. By campaigning on this issue.
Speaker: 1
02:35:56
It is disgusting. Yeah. But
Speaker: 0
02:35:57
It’s sai that is un American. That’s that’s truly evil.
Speaker: 1
02:36:02
Truly evil. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
02:36:03
And when she sai, I was like, Ai didn’t think of that. Yeah. But I kinda did, but I didn’t wanna believe it. And then coming out of someone’s mouth who works in government, I’m like, oh, fuck.
Speaker: 1
02:36:12
Right. If you stand for a cause, right, and that and and you’re seen as the person that can potentially solve that problem Yeah. And then that problem goes away, then you don’t have a platform to stand on. So a lot of ai, you don’t wanna solve that problem.
Speaker: 0
02:36:26
She’s And
Speaker: 1
02:36:27
I think in many ways, that’s what immigration has been because it is not possible that we have the broken immigration system that we have. We have the backlog of people trying to become to get papers that who can’t. We don’t have a a a way for people who want to come to this country legally to come to this country legally.
Speaker: 1
02:36:42
It’s, you ai, and and and it’s been decades and decades of this, and we haven’t been able to figure out how to solve this problem. And it has to be because it benefits all politicians
Speaker: 0
02:36:52
that this is
Speaker: 1
02:36:54
that this is hasn’t been solved. Right?
Speaker: 0
02:36:55
Well, another very high level politician told me once. Sai can’t remember if he said it on the podcast. I don’t wanna say his name. But that he had a conversation with a man who was a CEO of a large corporation and said he was very opposed to, tightening up the border because he needs the illegal immigrants for the workforce.
Speaker: 0
02:37:14
He just said it openly. Right. Like, yo. Like so that’s part of it too. They want cheap labor.
Speaker: 1
02:37:20
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:37:20
Yeah. Yeah. Because it helps their bottom line. Mhmm. Which is like, oh, god. Yeah. Oh, god. And as long as those people don’t have paperwork, they have to shut the fuck up. They can’t demand better Right. Work rights. They can’t yeah.
Speaker: 1
02:37:33
Yeah. Which is a problem also now with the raids is that a lot of violence is happening, you know, even if it’s rapes or domestic abuse sana people are just even if they’re going through this, they’re not gonna call the police because they’re afraid of being deported.
Speaker: 0
02:37:45
They’re scared they’re gonna get deported. Of course. Yeah. It’s Yeah. Yeah. I know. It’s like, boy. It’s an overcorrection after overcorrection, you know?
Speaker: 1
02:37:54
Without actually fixing the fuck
Speaker: 0
02:37:56
Left and right and left and right. And that’s where you get real cynical. You’re like, I think these people like it like this. Yeah. I think they like all this crazy shit. Shah.
Speaker: 1
02:38:04
It’s difficult not to get cynical. Right? And I I actually it’s to me, it’s always heartbreaking when you hear people saying that they don’t vote or they don’t really they’re not into politics. They don’t they don’t care about what’s happening because politicians are all the same and they don’t they’re completely disengaged. And to me, that’s heartbreaking.
Speaker: 0
02:38:20
It is heartbreaking.
Speaker: 1
02:38:21
Yeah. That’s taking the power away from people. Ai.
Speaker: 0
02:38:24
The other thing you think about these dark times is they call for people to rise up. Like, not I mean, like, rise up against the machine and No. The bell. I mean, like, they call for a hero. And that’s what we always hope for. Ai like, maybe there’s one person’s gonna figure this out.
Speaker: 0
02:38:40
Maybe there’s gonna be this person that that emerges, this
Speaker: 1
02:38:43
real leader.
Speaker: 0
02:38:43
Right. And they’re looking at the Democratic party and they’re like, no. There’s no one there. Then who’s it gonna be? I don’t think Tallerico tyler trying to run for president. So outside of him, who who really makes sense? Well, you got a bunch of people that are just politicians, politics as usual.
Speaker: 0
02:39:00
And then once they get inside They’re
Speaker: 1
02:39:02
a bunch of cowards on the Republican side that 100%. Seeing this stuff happening. Even though we know that they don’t agree with that.
Speaker: 0
02:39:08
100%.
Speaker: 1
02:39:08
Know they know it’s morally wrong. They aren’t they’re too afraid to to speak out.
Speaker: 0
02:39:13
And they’re all inside of trading. Yeah. All of them on top of that. They’re all making it’s crazy. You see they’re making a $170,000 a year. They get into office within a couple years. They’re worth 10,000,000. They’re worth 15,000,000. And you look at it, it’s all stock trades.
Speaker: 0
02:39:26
Like, this is bananas that this is legal. You motherfuckers put Martha Quinn in jail. Put Martha Quinn in jail. They tried her for insider trading and got her online.
Speaker: 1
02:39:38
Martha Stewart, you mean?
Speaker: 0
02:39:39
Oh, did I say Martha Quinn? That’s the MTV VJ. Sorry, Martha Quinn.
Speaker: 1
02:39:42
Martha Stewart. I love Martha Stewart.
Speaker: 0
02:39:44
Martha Stewart. That’s so funny. I’ve probably
Speaker: 1
02:39:46
I really wanna have her on my podcast.
Speaker: 0
02:39:47
Oh, yeah. She’s a badass lady. But they put her in jail. They put Martha Stewart in jail. It was like
Speaker: 1
02:39:53
I know. Beloved
Speaker: 0
02:39:54
by Meh Girl.
Speaker: 1
02:39:55
Have you watched The Doc?
Speaker: 0
02:39:56
No. About her? It’s so good. No. She’s quite a lot.
Speaker: 1
02:39:59
She’s so great.
Speaker: 0
02:39:59
But you also have to be quite a lot to become that person, you
Speaker: 1
02:40:02
know? Shah. Absolutely.
Speaker: 0
02:40:03
That’s how you become that person.
Speaker: 1
02:40:04
She’s a proud bitch and I love her.
Speaker: 0
02:40:06
Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s ai of funny, you know? That’s you could say the same thing about a lot of people. Yeah. They’re very famous. Well, listen. It’s always great to talk to you. I really appreciate you coming here, and you do amazing work. You really do. It’s so courageous and so necessary, and I think you provide a window into various aspects of of life on this planet that ai people would not have access to.
Speaker: 1
02:40:31
Thank you. And I hope the podcast will be the continuation of that.
Speaker: 0
02:40:34
I’m sure it will be. I’m sure it
Speaker: 1
02:40:35
will be. Exciting.
Speaker: 0
02:40:36
So, The Hidden Third. Thanks. And, it is available on YouTube. Is it available everywhere?
Speaker: 1
02:40:43
Everywhere.
Speaker: 0
02:40:44
Everywhere. Who’s this first guy to have here?
Speaker: 1
02:40:46
Podcast. That’s the trailer. Is an amazing guy. That’s the retired FBI agent that I spoke with. You should listen to that episode. He’s the guy who went after the pill mills in Florida. Oh. He was doing his investigation at the same time as I was doing. And then Fabian Alomar is a great guy.
Speaker: 0
02:41:00
And he he’s a oh, this is
Speaker: 1
02:41:02
sai scammer. Skater, did nine years in bryden, two he he was sentenced to seven years in prison for kidnapping and beating the shit out of this guy who supposedly he was on meth high very high on ram, actually, very high on crack. Anyway, he beat the shit out of this guy who supposedly, allegedly had raped his sister, but beat the shit kept him in a trunk, beat the shit out of him, was arrested for seven years, and then did two more years because he he almost killed a child molester in bryden.
Speaker: 1
02:41:27
But basically did a whole one eighty, is now an actor on the Mayans, has an incredible life story. He was brought up by gangs. His family member were all gang members. They’re all the time in prison, but has done an whole one eighty is now involved in an
Speaker: 0
02:41:40
Who’s the Mayans?
Speaker: 1
02:41:41
Which is was that show with the guy the bikers?
Speaker: 0
02:41:44
Oh, it’s a biker gang show?
Speaker: 1
02:41:45
He also did that show that, with the Eva Longoria, the hot chili what was it called? The flaming hot movie. If you consider that movie. Anyway, he’s become an actor, but also very involved a pro skater and also very involved in anti recidivism. And then another guy we had on was Mike Boyer.
Speaker: 1
02:42:01
Do you know Mike Boyer? He was, you should have him on. He’s in prison right now. We interviewed him a week before he went to prison, actually. He’s a guy in the Ohtani scandal. Baseball the baseball the Ohtani scandal?
Speaker: 1
02:42:12
I
Speaker: 0
02:42:12
don’t know that scandal.
Speaker: 1
02:42:13
Yeah. Do you
Speaker: 0
02:42:13
know it, Jamie?
Speaker: 1
02:42:14
Yeah. What happened? Sai you know Ohtani? Yeah. The biggest, most well known, most successful, I don’t know what term I don’t know what sports term terms about. The best player baseball player ever in Burrow is Otani. He’s in the Dodgers. He was signed up for the Dodgers. It turns out that his translator, who is also his best friend, because Otani is Japanese and doesn’t speak fluent or doesn’t speak English.
Speaker: 1
02:42:39
So he has a translator who’s also his best friend in The US, who’s with him twenty four seven, had a gambling problem. And the bookie in this gambling problem was a guy called my Matt Boyer, fascinating ai. Grew up in Orange County and built an ai. I mean, making millions of dollars as a as an illegal bookie. Flying private jets, like, betting insane amounts of money himself.
Speaker: 1
02:43:02
He’s also a a gambling addict, but was, like, had high, you know, athletes from all over and important celebrities basically placing bets with him. Instead of placing them online, they placed them with him. But all illegal. And it was found out just before he was about to sign for the Dodgers, the Ohtani, that while they were investigating a casino in Vegas, they came across this bookie.
Speaker: 1
02:43:29
And with through this bookie, they found out that Ohtani’s translator and possibly they thought initially maybe Ohtani was illegally betting. This is a guy that stands to make millions for the Dodgers, for all the companies that he sponsors. Yeah. So this was a fucking massive deal.
Speaker: 1
02:43:45
And, it turns out that Ohtani was not the one betting, that it was his translator. Matt Boyer, who’s at the center of the scandal, believes that Ohtani knew that he had a that his friend and translator had a betting, gambling problem. But, he came out and said he had no idea. And, you know, nobody wanted this problem on their hands.
Speaker: 0
02:44:09
Right. It came
Speaker: 1
02:44:10
out of money that you you could lose. And, and so they basically the guy came out saying, initially, he said that Otani knew. The translator said Otani knew. And then he came out and said, actually, Otani had no ai. And I ai, and now he’s also in prison. But Matt Boyer is now serving, I believe it’s, seven or something months in prison.
Speaker: 1
02:44:30
And, yes
Speaker: 0
02:44:31
For illegal gambling.
Speaker: 1
02:44:32
For illegal for being a bookie. Yeah. For for money laundering. And he was I think it was something like $40,000,000. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Much more. His losses were around 19,000. That’s
Speaker: 0
02:44:46
boy. That guy was hooked between September 21 and January 2024. His winnings amassed to be over 142,000,000. Woah. He won over 142,000,000, which he kept for himself. His losses were around a 183,000,000. Oh.
Speaker: 1
02:45:02
He lost 40 ai million dollars that he still owes Matt Boyer, by the way. He only he only I mean, his main bookie was this guy.
Speaker: 0
02:45:10
Oh meh god. He must have been gambling so high.
Speaker: 1
02:45:12
It’s insane. That oh, that’s so scary. And Matt talks about, like, this guy, I would text he would, like he’d be down on a place and he says, let’s double that. Let’s triple that. He was always sort of chasing that dopamine high.
Speaker: 0
02:45:26
It is a crazy addiction.
Speaker: 1
02:45:27
It’s the secret. It’s the hidden addiction as they call it. Oh. Because you can be a completely you can have a job. You can be a working addict, and nobody will ever know that you have a massive gambling problem. And Until it all comes down.
Speaker: 0
02:45:40
Bryden people get hooked, they can’t shake it. It is a crazy one.
Speaker: 1
02:45:43
Yeah. Because because the dopamine truly interesting because you get the hit of dopamine whether you lose or win. So you’re always getting that dopamine.
Speaker: 0
02:45:52
Did you see Uncut Gems?
Speaker: 1
02:45:54
I In that movie? I did. Yes. I did.
Speaker: 0
02:45:56
The best representation of a gambling addict I’ve ever seen in a film. Like, watching that film gave me anxiety. I was like, oh my god. Don’t do it. Don’t do that. Don’t
Speaker: 1
02:46:04
do that. I know. It’s so anathema to who I am too that I always get so nervous. Like, don’t let people do ai.
Speaker: 0
02:46:10
I know. It’s but I I’ve been around a lot of those people. You know, when I was in my early twenties, I spent a lot of time in pool halls. And I was around a lot of gambling addicts, and I was just fascinated by it. People that would go from the track to the pool hall. So they go to the racetrack all day, gamble on the races, and then go to, you know, maybe off track betting, bet there, and then they go to the pool hall, bet there, try to get a poker game, bet there, try to go to Atlantic City on the weekend, bet there.
Speaker: 1
02:46:38
Bet there.
Speaker: 0
02:46:38
Yeah. Just full on gambling junkies their whole ai revolved around gambling. They didn’t care about
Speaker: 1
02:46:43
anything else. Smart because they know that the probability that they’re gonna lose more than they win.
Speaker: 0
02:46:48
They were ai a full on meth head that was just chasing the high. I mean, there was no thought of, hey, I don’t have any money and I’m 40. There was nothing like that. It was just there was no it was just Ai in this and this is what I’m doing. I need to I need to win.
Speaker: 1
02:47:02
Right. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. Ai my
Speaker: 0
02:47:04
It’s a terrifying addiction.
Speaker: 1
02:47:06
It’s terrifying. It’s really, really terrifying.
Speaker: 0
02:47:07
Weird. It’s like, oh my god. What it what hijacked your brain? And unlike other addictions, there’s no government program ai hijacked your brain?
Speaker: 1
02:47:10
And unlike other addictions, there’s no government program out there to help you. And now we’re making betting legal. Sports betting is now legal in the majority of states. So it’s ai and, you know, we’ve got ESPN and all these big companies making money from it.
Speaker: 0
02:47:25
I ai. But I’m not opposed to that. Here’s it because I don’t have a gambling problem. So if ai
Speaker: 1
02:47:30
But that I I agree that you the problem is not that you’re making money from the betting, but then knowing that gambling is a problem and that there is addiction, then you should be able You have to. It is your responsibility to set aside some money to try to figure out how to address the problem of addiction in gambling.
Speaker: 0
02:47:46
Yeah. But I don’t think there has been an established solution No. To gambling addiction. I think some people are gonna fall by the wayside, and they’ve always been that way. That that’s my take on it. It’s ai I’m not a gambling addict, but, like, say if there’s a boxing match Mhmm. And, like, it’s Terence Crawford versus Canelo Alvarez.
Speaker: 0
02:48:02
I’m like, I think Terence Crawford is gonna beat Diaz. I think he’s gonna beat him. And so That’s why I was saying before the fight. No, I didn’t. But if I did, I would have bet. But I would sana bet a couple $100 or something, maybe a thousand.
Speaker: 1
02:48:12
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:48:12
You know? Yeah. And I think the odds are I mean, it might have been like two to one for Canelo. So you would have made a a $2,000 on a thousand.
Speaker: 1
02:48:23
Right.
Speaker: 0
02:48:24
But I don’t have a problem with gambling, you know. So it’s not I think it should be legal, just like I think alcohol should be legal. I think you should be able to go to store and buy ai, you know. I think most drugs should be legal.
Speaker: 1
02:48:37
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
02:48:38
I think the real problem is the fact that they’re illegal, which means you’re getting them from cartels, you know. And but Agree. Then there’s a dilemma of how do you change that? Like, would you just rip off the band aid and make everything legal and then you become Portland for a few years? The whole country is fucked.
Speaker: 0
02:48:54
And how many people die of overdoses because of that? Like, that’s an unpopular thing.
Speaker: 1
02:48:57
Is a good example because they also didn’t have the safety net. So that’s what I
Speaker: 0
02:49:00
They were also super kooky. Ai. It’s a super kooky place to live anyway.
Speaker: 1
02:49:05
Keep Portland weird.
Speaker: 0
02:49:06
Meh, I appreciate you very much.
Speaker: 1
02:49:08
Thank you, Joe.
Speaker: 0
02:49:09
When you’re done with the scammer thing, come back.
Speaker: 1
02:49:11
I will. Please. Can’t wait.
Speaker: 0
02:49:12
I need to hear everything. Okay? Ai. Thanks, Joe. One more ai, the show is called The Hidden Third.
Speaker: 1
02:49:19
The Hidden Third. It’s on YouTube on, youtube.com/marianavanzeller. And we’ve got two episodes already that premiere this week, and it’s a weekly podcast. Fantastic. Episodes all the ai. And you can also get it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker: 0
02:49:32
or wherever you
Speaker: 1
02:49:33
get your podcast.
Speaker: 0
02:49:33
Alright. Good luck with that. Thank you.
Speaker: 1
02:49:35
Thank you, TJ.
Speaker: 0
02:49:35
Thanks for being here. Bye, everybody ai.