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PODCAST

The Hidden Third

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. New episodes drop every Wednesday wherever you get your

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

135:26

From College World Series Hero to $32M Ponzi Scheme

The Hidden Third ·

2026/10/07

Go to https://meetfabric.com/HIDDENTHIRD and apply today, risk-freeHe was a College World Series champion, a pro baseball prospect and a relative of Tampa mob boss Santo Trafficante Jr. Then a gambling addiction drove Sam Favata to run a $32 million Ponzi scheme that sent him to federal prison. In 1979, Sam hit .418 for Cal State Fullerton, a national college record that stood for 16 years, and scored the winning run in the school's first College World Series title. The Milwaukee Brewers drafted

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143:45

Evan Rachel Wood: The Cost of Speaking Out Against...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/09/30

Disclaimer: Marilyn Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, has denied Evan Rachel Wood’s allegations. He has previously said that her claims are “horrible distortions of reality” and that his intimate relationships were consensual. In January 2025, Los Angeles County prosecutors announced that no criminal charges would be filed following a four-year investigation, stating that the domestic-violence allegations fell outside the statute of limitations and that they could not prove sexual-assault

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145:59

He Helped Save Thousands of Abused and Exploited Kids

The Hidden Third ·

2026/09/23

Join The Hidden Third Patreon today: https://patreon.com/TheHiddenThirdTry ZipRecruiter for free at http://ZipRecruiter.com/HIDDENTHIRD Jim Cole spent two decades as a Homeland Security Investigations special agent, working child-exploitation cases. Early in his career, he saw a problem. Investigators were focused on the people making, possessing, and distributing child sexual abuse material. But the children in the images often went unidentified. Jim helped change that. In 2010, he founded

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143:33

The Vigilante Hunting Bullies, Scammers and Predators

The Hidden Third ·

2026/09/16

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

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94:43

Trapped in Bolivia's Deadliest Prison. Then She Took...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/09/09

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

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132:00

She Escaped Traffickers, Then Was Kidnapped Again

The Hidden Third ·

2026/09/02

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,

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130:20

Ohtani's Bookie Is Out of Prison — And He's Talking

The Hidden Third ·

2026/08/26

Try ZipRecruiter for free at http://ZipRecruiter.com/HIDDENTHIRDGo 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

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141:20

The Man Governments Send to Negotiate with Terrorists...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/08/19

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

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112:46

Secret Service Interrogator: How He Got Killers to...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/08/12

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

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159:24

He Robbed a Casino With a Blow‑Up Doll and a Fake AK‑47

The Hidden Third ·

2026/08/05

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

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112:19

Bad Vegan: Scam, Abuse & Netflix Scandal | Sarma...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/07/29

Go to https://meetfabric.com/HIDDENTHIRD and apply today, risk-freeTry 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

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127:47

How an LAPD Captain Solved a 30-Year-Old Cold Case...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/07/08

Nearly 30 years after 15‑year‑old Danielle “Danni” Houchins was murdered in Montana, former LAPD captain Tom Elfmont helped finally bring her family answers. Drawing on more than 25 years running gang and narcotics operations in South Los Angeles, Tom has turned his skills to cold cases and long‑forgotten victims.In this episode, he takes us inside policing during some of the most volatile moments in modern U.S. history — from Vietnam and the protest years in Berkeley to the 1992 Los Angeles

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62:42

Wallo267 spent 20 years in Prison for Armed Robbery....

The Hidden Third ·

2026/07/01

In this episode of The Hidden Third, we sit down with Wallo267 to unpack a story that starts in the harshest possible place: prison. Wallo caught his first conviction at just 10 years old. By 17, he was sentenced to adult prison, where he would spend the next 20 years locked away. Sometimes in the same facility as his own brother and stepfather. Instead of letting prison break him, he turned it into a classroom. Inside, Wallo started paying attention. He interviewed every newly arrived inmate

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68:50

The World’s Best Bounty Hunter: How Michelle Gomez...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/06/24

How do you find people who do not want to be found? In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with skip tracer and private investigator Michelle Gomez – described by Wired as “the world’s best bounty hunter” – to unpack how she tracks down people who have disappeared on purpose, from the fugitive Ryan Eugene Mullen to a fake “Prince of Dubai.” At 4'11" and just over 100 pounds, Michelle doesn’t look like the person you’d send after fugitives, stolen heavy equipment, or missing yachts

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169:44

America’s Last Weed Prisoner

The Hidden Third ·

2026/06/17

This past January, America’s so‑called “last cannabis prisoner” walked out of federal custody after serving years on a marijuana trafficking conspiracy between California and the East Coast.At 24, he was running a multi‑million‑dollar weed pipeline from Northern California to Maryland, using tractor‑trailers, private planes, and even FedEx franchises as part of the cannabis supply chain. Before he was ever arrested, he realized a federal case was coming, contacted a lawyer known for representing

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89:40

She Was the Crystal Meth Queen of Waikiki. Then She...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/06/10

Nikki Mammano arrived in Hawaii as a college student and, within months, was running crystal meth in Waikiki. She became known as the Crystal Meth Queen of Waikiki — until it all came crashing down. Today, she’s a PTA mom in New Jersey and the author of Breaking Good, a brutally honest memoir about addiction, trauma, and the long road to healing.In this episode of The Hidden Third, we trace Nikki’s journey from an abused child and teenage addict to a meth dealer in Hawaii’s underworld, and

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128:12

Lee Harris Claims to Channel Aliens. Why Do Millions...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/06/03

On this episode of The Hidden Third, I interview Lee Harris — a channeler who claims to communicate with 88 intergalactic beings known as “The Z’s.” He reaches over 2 million people each month and leads a global spiritual community built around his teachings on consciousness, aliens, and the future of humanity.I’m a journalist, trained to look for evidence — not claims about non-human intelligence. But given Lee’s growing influence, I wanted to understand what’s behind it. For this conversation, I

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139:19

He Was a Violent Neo-Nazi Leader. Then He Found Out...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/05/27

Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthirdFrank Meeink's life runs parallel in many ways to one of the most powerful films ever made about hate in America — American History X. Except his story is real. By 16 he was one of the most notorious skinhead gang leaders on the East Coast. By 17 he had his own cable TV show preaching white supremacy. By 18 he was doing hard time in an Illinois prison for kidnapping and beating a teenager. In prison, a friendship with a Black inmate

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66:35

Prophet or Predator: How He Tricked Her and...

The Hidden Third ·

2026/05/20

Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthirdLola Blanc was 12 when a man at an LDS (Mormon) singles dance told her mother he was a prophet receiving direct revelation from God. No compound, no mass following — just a one-on-one system of control that separated Lola from her mom and escalated into coercion and trafficking, all framed as God's will. Lola's mother, Christine Marie, just starred in Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet — but this story never made the headlines, and

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98:26

Mariana's Interview on The Jordan Harbinger Show

The Hidden Third ·

2026/05/15

Special episode drop! We're excited to share an interview with Mariana on The Jordan Harbinger Show. Mariana talks about her long-running show, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, her experiences in the field, and what she's taking on now. We hope you enjoy!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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