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The Hidden Third: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Mariana van Zeller
From Emmy and Peabody Award–winning journalist Mariana van Zeller comes THE HIDDEN THIRD, a weekly dive into the underground markets that quietly power a third of the global economy. Every episode Mariana sits down with people who know these worlds firsthand - the hustlers, smugglers, scammers, kingpins, and those trying to shut them down. The series reveals how they function, why they endure, and the profound ways they impact us all.
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- 4 days ago2h 23m
The Vigilante Hunting Bullies, Scammers and Predators
Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/HIDDENTHIRD and use code HIDDENTHIRD and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MARIANA at https://www.oneskin.co/MARIANA #oneskinpod James McGibney is the man who took down Hunter Moore, the "King of Revenge Porn" behind the notorious site Is Anyone Up. He infiltrated Moore's operation, bought the site out from under him for less than $15,000, and turned it into an anti-bullying platform. That story became the hit Netflix documentary The Most Hated Man on the Internet. But that was more than a decade ago. Today James, a former Marine and cybercrime investigator, is going after something much bigger and much darker. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana Van Zeller sits down with James to talk about his current investigation into two loosely connected online networks called The Com and 764. The Com is a sprawling group of mostly young people, some as young as 15 and 16, who trade stolen data, run crypto scams that have drained hundreds of millions of dollars from ordinary people, swat their enemies, and in some cases prey on underage girls. 764 is the offshoot that has captured the FBI's attention for coercing minors into producing sexual and self-harm content, sometimes pushing them to suicide. James walks Mariana through how he traced these networks from low-level "script kiddies" all the way up to what he calls the head of the snake in Pakistan. Along the way he uncovered a billionaire's son who allegedly trafficked a 16-year-old girl into Miami and beat her on tape, a teenage girl who laughed on a recorded call as her crypto scam victim killed himself, and a group of young men flashing quarter-million-dollar nights at Miami clubs while underage girls walked past bouncers uncarded. The conversation moves through the sextortion crisis pushing American teenagers to suicide before their parents ever find out, why crypto scams have quietly surpassed drug trafficking as the most profitable criminal enterprise in the world, and somewhat of a disagreement between Mariana and James over cheaters.com and the question of who the bully actually is when you publicly out someone for cheating. It also goes somewhere personal. James opens up about his own childhood in foster care and about watching his foster sister be sexually abused. He talks about why every case he takes on today, he takes on for her. There is a lot more in this one. A guy in Texas moving faster than the FBI because subpoenas take months and he doesn't. Living armed, with private security at the house, because that is now the cost of doing this work. An ISIS hit list. More than a thousand death threats sitting in his Instagram inbox right now. And a very simple explanation of why you should never, ever connect to the free Wi-Fi at your hotel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 34m
Trapped in Bolivia's Deadliest Prison. Then She Took It Over.
Use code HIDDENTHIRD at http://Monarch.com to get 50% off your first year of Monarch Core! Sharon Yitzhaki was 20 years old when she was pulled off a plane at a Bolivian airport. Authorities searched her bag, and the second bag she was carrying, which belonged to her boyfriend. Hidden in the false bottom was 10 kilos of cocaine. She had no idea it was there. Her boyfriend had abandoned her days earlier, telling her he'd been deported and asking her to meet him back in Amsterdam, where they both lived. Instead, Sharon was sent to Miraflores, one of the most violent women's prisons in the world. What happened next is one of the wildest true stories I've ever heard on The Hidden Third. Inside Miraflores, Sharon was beaten, electrocuted, and developed a severe cocaine addiction. She got clean by asking to be locked in solitary confinement for a month. She adopted a one-month-old baby born inside the prison. She fell in love with a cartel leader locked up in the men's prison next door, and ended up running the drug trade inside her own prison. She was finally released through a Papal edict from Pope John Paul II, and then had to flee the country to avoid being sent back to prison. In this episode, Sharon opens up about betrayal, hope, addiction, motherhood and love behind bars. As well as what happened to the man who betrayed her and to the woman who brutalized her and countless others inside Miraflores. Her bestselling memoir is now a feature film called 10 Kilos, in theaters now and coming to digital worldwide on September 29, 2026. WATCH 10 KILOS Movie🎬 Find a theater near you 🎧 Bonus content, uncut interviews, and behind-the-scenes on our Patreon: patreon.com/thehiddenthird 👉 Subscribe for more stories from the hidden economies most people never see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago2h 12m
She Escaped Traffickers, Then Was Kidnapped Again
https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/HIDDENTHIRD and use code HIDDENTHIRD and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup! Sex trafficking survivor Lurata Lyon was kidnapped twice. First, at 17, by a trafficking network in Bosnia while fleeing the Yugoslav Wars. Then, after escaping, by Serbian paramilitaries who held her captive for six months. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana van Zeller speaks with Lurata Lyon about surviving war, sex trafficking, human trafficking, kidnapping, captivity, trauma, and the long road to rebuilding a life after violence. Lurata was a teenager when the violence surrounding the breakup of former Yugoslavia forced her to flee her home in Serbia. She made her way to Bosnia, where she was kidnapped by a human trafficking and organ-harvesting network. She escaped. But after returning to her hometown, she was taken a second time by Serbian paramilitary forces. Held in solitary captivity for six months, Lurata survived abuse, torture, and the constant fear that she would not make it out alive. Her father ultimately arranged for her to be smuggled out of the country in the back of a truck. She arrived in the United Kingdom as a political refugee and began rebuilding her life from scratch. Today, Lurata Lyon is the author of Unbroken: Surviving Human Trafficking. She is an international speaker, public-speaking and presentation coach, and human trafficking advocate who uses her experience to raise awareness about sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, survivor recovery, resilience, and life after trauma. Sex trafficking is not rare, and it is not limited to conflict zones. The International Labour Organization estimates that 6.3 million people were living in forced commercial sexual exploitation worldwide in 2021, nearly four out of five of them women and girls. In the United States, the National Human Trafficking Hotline received 50,123 signals in 2021, including calls, texts, online chats, and tips from people seeking help or reporting possible trafficking. Even though human trafficking is often discussed through statistics, headlines, and criminal cases, Lurata’s story helps us understand the human reality of sex trafficking and survival. It also shows how war, displacement, fear, isolation, and the search for safety can make people vulnerable to exploitation. #SexTrafficking #HumanTrafficking #SexTraffickingSurvivor #HumanTraffickingSurvivor #HumanTraffickingAwareness #SurvivingSexTrafficking #YugoslavWars #WarSurvivor #PoliticalRefugee #TraumaRecovery #LurataLyon #MarianaVanZeller #TheHiddenThird Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago2h 10m
Ohtani's Bookie Is Out of Prison — And He's Talking
Try ZipRecruiter for free at http://ZipRecruiter.com/HIDDENTHIRD Go to http://Quince.com/hiddenthird for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Matt Bowyer — the illegal bookmaker at the center of the Shohei Ohtani–Ippei Mizuhara betting scandal — is back on The Hidden Third, and this time he's talking from the other side of federal prison. The last time Matt sat down with me, it was 11 days before he self-surrendered to FCI Lompoc. His underground sportsbook had handled more than $1 billion in bets in a single year, taken action from roughly 700 to 1,200 clients (including Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter, who stole nearly $17 million from the Dodgers superstar to cover his losses), and helped trigger one of the biggest gambling scandals in Major League Baseball history. Now he's out, released early after six months, and the story has only gotten stranger. In our conversation, Matt takes me inside Lompoc: how contraband gets in, how the “cars” (prison crews) really run the yard, why a pouch of "carnitas" (shredded pork) is the closest thing to currency, and how he ran a full business from behind bars — concierge service, personal chef, the works. He tells me what he actually believes about what Shohei Ohtani knew — or didn't know — about Ippei Mizuhara's bets. He opens up about how prison changed him, why he thinks Resorts World Las Vegas got off easy with a $10.5 million fine, where he lands on the explosion of legal prediction markets and sports betting apps, and what he's building next now that he's a free man. This is a rare, unfiltered look at how the illegal sports betting world really works, from the bookie known as "bookie to the athletes." TOPICS COVERED • The Shohei Ohtani betting scandal, explained by the bookmaker at the center of it • Ippei Mizuhara and the $17 million embezzled from the Dodgers • Life inside FCI Lompoc federal prison camp • Running a business from behind bars • What Matt believes Shohei Ohtani knew (and didn't know) • How illegal sports betting operations actually work • Resorts World Las Vegas, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and the $10.5M money-laundering settlement • The Nevada Black Book and Matt's nomination • Prediction markets vs. sportsbooks vs. offshore books • Athletes, gambling addiction, and what MLB still doesn't want to talk about • What Matt is building now that he's out #ShoheiOhtani #MattBowyer #MathewBowyer #IppeiMizuhara #OhtaniScandal #SportsBetting #IllegalGambling #MLB #Dodgers #TrueCrime #Investigation #Podcast #MarianaVanZeller #TheHiddenThird #ResortsWorld #Bookmaker #PredictionMarkets #Kalshi #Polymarket #Lompoc #FederalPrison Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Aug 19, 20262h 21m
The Man Governments Send to Negotiate with Terrorists | Tom Gregg
Hostage negotiator and UN mediator Tom Gregg on Afghanistan, the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange. He has spent more than twenty years in rooms most of us will never see. Tom Gregg is a conflict and hostage mediator — the man governments send when they need to talk to people they officially refuse to communicate with. He was the UN's man in eastern Afghanistan, the most dangerous corner of the country, when a full-blown insurgency against America took hold. In September 2006 a suicide bomber assassinated Governor Hakim Taniwal, the man he worked alongside — a former university professor who'd come home from exile in Australia to try to rebuild his homeland. The next day a second bomber walked into the funeral and blew himself up among the mourners who'd come to bury him. He has mediated in Somalia, Nigeria and the Sahel, negotiated with kidnappers to bring hostages home, and run back channels for the United Nations, the U.S. government and the World Health Organization. When Kabul fell in August 2021, the UN sent him in to open the first face-to-face talks between the United Nations and the Taliban leadership. He almost never gives interviews, because almost none of his work can be discussed. This is one of the very few long conversations he has ever done. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Tom Gregg sits down with me to explain how the invisible business of negotiation actually works. We talk about: The 2014 Bowe Bergdahl exchange: five Guantánamo prisoners for one American soldier, and how a deal that big actually gets done Flying into Kabul days after the Taliban takeover to open the UN's first face-to-face talks with the new regime The Haqqanis: how the family America armed to fight the Soviets became the deadliest enemy the U.S. faced in Afghanistan Washington armed the father. The son now runs the police. How Sirajuddin Haqqani went from a ten-million-dollar FBI bounty to Afghanistan's interior minister The morning a suicide bomber killed Governor Hakim Taniwal, who he worked alongside in Gardez, and the second bomb that hit the funeral the next day Why those two attacks were the first sign that America's plan for Afghanistan was already failing How a kid from Australia ended up as a UN Political Affairs Officer in the most dangerous corner of Afghanistan The backpacking trip that changed his life, and the time he almost got mugged in Mexico City — the strangest night of his life Negotiating vaccine access with armed groups, and what it takes to get a nurse safely into a war zone Private diplomacy at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, and what an NGO can do that no government can What Afghanistan looks like in 2026, with Pakistan now bombing the same provinces the insurgency once crossed from How Bono once told him he was against Bill Clinton engaging Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin leader the U.S. had banned for twenty years — and how watching that gamble help deliver the Good Friday Agreement changed his mind about talking to your enemy Why the most consequential work in the world is done by people whose names you will never learn His PTSD, how he got better, and why he believes communication is the only thing that ever really ends a war If you're interested in war, hostage negotiation, Afghanistan, the Taliban, intelligence, diplomacy, or the hidden systems that decide who lives and who comes home, this conversation goes somewhere almost no interview does. Subscribe to The Hidden Third on YouTube, and follow, rate and comment on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. It genuinely helps. Get exclusive episodes, behind-the-scenes conversations, and unaired footage from stories we couldn't tell anywhere else at Patreon.com/thehiddenthird Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Aug 12, 20261h 52m
Secret Service Interrogator: How He Got Killers to Talk | Brad Beeler
Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MARIANA at https://www.oneskin.co/MARIANA #oneskinpod Brad Beeler is one of the most experienced criminal polygraph examiners in U.S. Secret Service history — a 25-year federal agent who has sat across the table from counterfeiters, child predators, killers, and fraudsters, and gotten a remarkable number of them to tell him the truth. What looks in the movies like pressure, threats, and Reid-technique interrogation is, in his telling, almost the opposite: a science-backed set of trust-building, deception-detection, and interview techniques that he says a parent, a teacher, or a business leader can learn to use just as effectively as a federal agent. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Brad sits down with me to walk through the cases that shaped his career — from a years-long hunt for a master counterfeiter, to child-exploitation investigations, to a homicide confession he still calls the most transformative moment of his life — and to break down what actually gets people who don't want to talk to tell you the truth. We dig into: – Growing up in Union, Missouri, and how a childhood best friend who was deaf became the origin of the way he now thinks about communication.– His path into the Secret Service. – How he became a federal polygraph examiner and ended up conducting more criminal polygraph exams than anyone in Secret Service history.– The real story of how polygraphs work - why people "beat the examiner, not the instrument," how false confessions happen, and where confirmation bias becomes dangerous. – The King of Counterfeit case: the multi-year hunt for a master counterfeiter, and how the suspect's own ego became the interview lever.– His child-exploitation work with local ICAC task forces and homicide detectives — the cases that earned him U.S. Secret Service Special Agent of the Year in 2015. – The homicide confession he describes as "transformative," and how silence, presence, and empathy did what pressure never could. – Four years on the protective detail of former President George H. W. Bush in Maine and Houston, including what the Bushes did every Christmas so agents could be with their families. – His final post as instructor and Secret Service liaison at the National Center for Credibility Assessment, the federal government's polygraph school at Fort Jackson. – The tradecraft behind his new book, Tell Me Everything: A Secret Service Agent's Proven Strategies for Earning Trust, Revealing the Truth, and Communicating with Anyone — and why the same techniques that get a suspect to confess can also get a scared kid to text his parents at 2 a.m. If you're interested in true crime, interrogation techniques, deception detection, lie detector tests, Secret Service stories, child-exploitation investigations, or how the best interviewers in federal law enforcement actually get people to talk, this interview goes far beyond the headlines and tells the story in Brad's own words. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Aug 5, 20262h 39m
He Robbed a Casino With a Blow‑Up Doll and a Fake AK‑47
Timeline’s clinically proven formula, Mitopure, now starts at $79, when you subscribe at http://timeline.com/MARIANA. Adnan Alisic is the mastermind behind one of the craziest casino heists in American history — a Hollywood‑style armored car robbery that used a fake AK‑47, a blow‑up doll, bear spray, a motorized skateboard, and underground ATVs to try to steal millions from Casino Arizona. What sounds like a parody of Ocean’s 11 was, in reality, a desperate, meticulously planned casino heist built on bravado, improvisation, and a deep belief that he could outsmart a system designed to never lose. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Adnan sits down with me to trace how war, trauma, and gambling addiction led from Yugoslavia’s conflict zones to a multimillion‑dollar casino robbery — and what happened when the plan fell apart. We dig into: – His childhood and adolescence during the war, and how he helped support his family by selling counterfeit cigarettes. – The massacre of women and children he witnessed, how he survived it, and the trauma that followed.– His family’s move to Arizona after the war, adapting to life in America, and building a car business from scratch. – His first time inside a casino, how gambling took hold, and how his addiction spiraled into millions lost and the collapse of his business. – The day he decided he was going to rob Casino Arizona, and the planning that went into pulling off an armored‑car casino heist. – What actually happened on the day of the robbery, how the plan unraveled, and how he was ultimately caught. – His years in federal prison, what changed there, and how he began to confront his addiction and his past. – His work now in gambling‑addiction awareness and recovery — and why he wrote his book Arizona Dream. If you’re interested in true crime, organized crime, casino heist stories, scam psychology, gambling addiction, or how people convince themselves a casino can be beaten, this interview goes far beyond the headlines and tells the story in Adnan’s own words. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Jul 29, 20261h 52m
Bad Vegan: Scam, Abuse & Netflix Scandal | Sarma Melngailis Speaks Out
Go to https://meetfabric.com/HIDDENTHIRD and apply today, risk-free Try ZipRecruiter for free at http://ZipRecruiter.com/HIDDENTHIRD Sarma Melngailis was once the queen of New York’s vegan scene — a Wharton‑educated former Wall Street analyst who turned Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck into celebrity hotspots frequented by Alec Baldwin, Woody Harrelson, Gisele Bündchen, Tom Brady, and many more. Then her life collapsed into one of the most infamous restaurant scandals of our time: a controlling partner, psychological abuse, coercive control, missing millions, a fugitive manhunt, Rikers Island, and the Netflix true crime documentary Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Sarma sits down with me to break down how a serial con man and psychological abuser — a man who first introduced himself to her as “Mr. Fox” — took over her mind and her life. We dig into: How a serial con man/abuser who called himself “Mr. Fox” (Anthony Strangis) slowly took control of her decisions, her finances, and her reality. The elaborate belief system he built around her: promising to make her dog Leon immortal, claiming access to a powerful otherworldly “family,” and turning wire transfers into supposed tests of loyalty. How he used spiritual language and “tests” to coerce her sexually — pressuring her into sex and sexual acts under the guise of bringing light, protection, and transformation into her life. The “meat suit” — how he used his own body and weight gain as yet another test of her devotion, and a tool of psychological control. How the press treated her, including the viral tabloid story that she was caught because “the vegan ordered a pizza” — a headline she says is completely false. Why she believes Bad Vegan unfairly portrayed her story, and what the documentary leaves out. How scammers and psychological abusers gain power over smart, empathetic people — and why intelligence alone isn’t a shield against coercive control. The mechanics of coercive control, isolation, and emotional abuse, and how one person can quietly take over your decisions, your money, and your sense of reality. How she was diagnosed as being on the spectrum late in life — and how that helped her understand both her vulnerabilities and her strengths. Her relationship with Alec Baldwin — and her thoughts on his marriage to Hilaria Baldwin. The cost of public shame, and what recovery looks like after fraud, prison, and global headlines — including her attempt to reclaim her story through her memoir The Girl with the Duck Tattoo. If you’re interested in true crime, scam stories, cult psychology, coercive control, or the dark side of fame and celebrity culture, this interview goes far beyond the documentary and tells the story in Sarma’s own words. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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About The Hidden Third
From Emmy and Peabody Award–winning journalist Mariana van Zeller comes THE HIDDEN THIRD, a weekly dive into the underground markets that quietly power a third of the global economy. Every episode Mariana sits down with people who know these worlds firsthand - the hustlers, smugglers, scammers, kingpins, and those trying to shut them down. The series reveals how they function, why they endure, and the profound ways they impact us all.
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