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Speaker 1: Okay, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Steph.

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Speaker 2: I never told your production of iHeartRadio, and.

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Speaker 1: We are back with another Monday Mini in which I

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Speaker 1: complain about things you ready any day jk sort of,

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Speaker 1: you know, as a lot of stuff is happening on

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Speaker 1: the interwebs and all of my TikTok has been amazing content,

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Speaker 1: including the Montgomery brawl, things that are happening with Eminem

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Speaker 1: apparently he just released a track and sound of Freedom,

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Speaker 1: the movie. If you don't know what I'm talking about,

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Speaker 1: I want to talk a little about it has been

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Speaker 1: popping up. And then obviously the algorithm I have is

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Speaker 1: people contesting this movie and talking about how this movies

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Speaker 1: not what you think, as well as the people behind

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Speaker 1: it are not great, as in fact they may be

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Speaker 1: telling on themselves. But we're not getting into those conspiracy

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Speaker 1: theories necessarily. Yeah, so before we jump into this, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about trafficking essentially. So if you're like, we're not

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Speaker 1: really going into too much detail or any specific incidents,

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Speaker 1: but we want to talk about why, why this doesn't

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Speaker 1: matter that we should be talking about. So if this

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Speaker 1: is like a wait for a little while, I understand it,

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Speaker 1: but yeah know that know that it's not the happiest

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Speaker 1: of topics. I just want to take a minute to

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Speaker 1: remind everybody what sex trafficking actually is, and also just

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Speaker 1: trafficking in general, and just kind of have a reminder.

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Speaker 1: I know most of our listeners already know, and they're

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Speaker 1: very well aware, but for those who are sneaking in

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Speaker 1: or are trying to find new episodes of a short

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Speaker 1: episode they got this title, They're like, Oh, this is

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Speaker 1: gonna be good. Maybe we can get some education. As

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Speaker 1: everyone who listens to the show knows, I am a

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Speaker 1: social worker. I was in the field since I graduated

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Speaker 1: for technically, I guess for twenty years. That made me panic.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, And the latter part of my

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Speaker 1: career was working with at risk teens with the Department

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Speaker 1: of Juvenal Justice, and I worked with a chunk of

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Speaker 1: young women and young men who were involved in ce

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Speaker 1: SEC or what is also known as commercially sexually exploited

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Speaker 1: children and their specialized group of at risk teens that

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Speaker 1: we talk about and work for. So when I talk

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Speaker 1: about these issues, I'm not necessarily an expert, but I'm

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Speaker 1: definitely not a novice to it. I know what I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about. I do have personal experience and professional experience

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Speaker 1: and working in this field. So what made me even

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Speaker 1: come into this any and I've already complained to you

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Speaker 1: about this, is while checking in on my family, I

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Speaker 1: was just because if we had a really severe storm,

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Speaker 1: y'all we had limbs falling, I'm having to pay thousands

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Speaker 1: of dollars for tree work. I'm very unhappy and sad,

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Speaker 1: but at the same time, I got a good deal,

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Speaker 1: so cheers to that. But I was taking it on

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Speaker 1: my family and their activity. They were talking about how

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Speaker 1: they had gone to see Sound of Freedom at theaters,

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Speaker 1: very proud of that fact, by the way, and I

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Speaker 1: think they thought that I would approve of this, and

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Speaker 1: they didn't ask me my opinion. I try to quickly

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Speaker 1: turn the subject because, as you know, as much as

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Speaker 1: I love my family, our opinions differ greatly, and not

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Speaker 1: that it would be bad, but these topics are hit

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Speaker 1: and miss, and sometimes we can have a rational conversation

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Speaker 1: and sometimes we get in outright fights, maybe publicly at

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Speaker 1: restaurants where we end up crying. Anyway, so I didn't

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Speaker 1: want to talk about it, but you know, the comment

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Speaker 1: was it's so sad watched this movie, you know, but

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Speaker 1: people need to know about it? Was this comment, and

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Speaker 1: I just kind of just I don't say much. I

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Speaker 1: move on, and people are probably like, you should say

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Speaker 1: something again. This is about the fact that I've done

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Speaker 1: this with my family for years and years and years,

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Speaker 1: and there's only so much you can do, as well

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Speaker 1: as the fact that keeping the peace sometimes just means

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Speaker 1: being quiet and choosing that battle. I think people know

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Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, however, So one of the things

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Speaker 1: about some do you know much about the movie.

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Speaker 3: Adie, No, I have a general vibe, but right.

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Speaker 1: That's essentially my thing too. I had a general vibe

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Speaker 1: of it, and I'm like, I already know this is

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Speaker 1: gonna be bad because the main actor who has been

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Speaker 1: spewing QAnon think conspiracies on the press tour for this movie,

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Speaker 1: including once again talking about harvesting of children for some

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Speaker 1: kind of drug for the leftists. So yes, yes, that's

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Speaker 1: apparently what I've seen. I don't know. I'm sure there's

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Speaker 1: things I'm missing about this whatever whatnot, but it's base

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Speaker 1: And I'm gonna say this with big quotes very loosely

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Speaker 1: on a real life person named Tima Ballard, who supposedly

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Speaker 1: has gone to different places in the country and has

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Speaker 1: stopped sex trafficking rings. As he says, he has been

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Speaker 1: brought in front of politicians to talk about this situation

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Speaker 1: and issues. No surprise, one of those times was in

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. I think we know who was in office

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Speaker 1: at that point in time. All these things, and I

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Speaker 1: don't want to rag on the fact that he was

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Speaker 1: thinking he did good works. Part of this conversation was

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Speaker 1: that he was a missionary and this was a part

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Speaker 1: of the thing. And y'all, I'm not gonna lie. Part

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Speaker 1: of the thing I wanted to do as a missionary

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Speaker 1: was this type of work as well, thinking that I

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Speaker 1: was going to save children. Also, I wanted to be

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Speaker 1: in the medical field as well and trying to do things.

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Speaker 1: But you know, when you really believe or doing something,

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Speaker 1: you really want to be in the right. So there's

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Speaker 1: so many things. He also apparently is a part of

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Speaker 1: the Church of the Latter day Saints and he's still,

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Speaker 1: I believe, as a member of that church. Apparently he

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Speaker 1: got onto Jordan Peterson's podcasts and bragg that he broke

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Speaker 1: up a ring in South Africa that was harvesting children

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Speaker 1: for organs. None of that has been validated from what

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Speaker 1: I gather, But this is the man that this movie

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Speaker 1: is based on. And it is said by the team,

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Speaker 1: the production team and directors that it was very heavily

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Speaker 1: dramatized and they took a lot of liberties quote unquote

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Speaker 1: with the story narratives. So we know that that's for

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Speaker 1: anything and everything anything that's like based on a true story.

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Speaker 1: It probably was like they got his name in the

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Speaker 1: location and then they did what they want. We know this.

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Speaker 1: It is for all the shows. I'm saying this for

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Speaker 1: like any in all movies. Be very careful of what

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Speaker 1: you see when you say it's based on a true story,

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Speaker 1: because technically, like we know that the Conjuring is based on.

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Speaker 3: True stories.

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Speaker 1: Exactly.

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Speaker 2: So we're gonna We're.

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Speaker 1: Gonna leave it at that. I just wanted to kind

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Speaker 1: of remind the statistics and I'm gonna go to Polaris.

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Speaker 1: Polaris is one of the biggest and the most accurate

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Speaker 1: factual statistics when it comes to sex trafficking in this

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Speaker 1: country and then around the world. They have worked for

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Speaker 1: years and they are a mandated organization that has been

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Speaker 1: around so it's trusted. I think both left and right

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Speaker 1: would agree that they are a trusted research site. I

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Speaker 1: say this now, and then I'm going to if one

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Speaker 1: day we do get outed by in cells or extremists,

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Speaker 1: we may have a lot of arguments to be said,

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Speaker 1: but whatever. But just as a reminder that the recruiters

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Speaker 1: are not typically strangers. And when I say recruiters, those

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Speaker 1: who exploit children, those who come and kidnap the children,

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Speaker 1: that type of level that we see in TikTok about

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Speaker 1: how they're putting. They're marketing your cars with bolgoney sandwich meat,

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Speaker 1: and you think you're going to be trafficked, that is

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Speaker 1: typically untrue. As in fact, it says that family members

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Speaker 1: and caregivers make up thirty three percent of those who recruit,

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Speaker 1: and partners make twenty eight percent, and employers make twenty

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Speaker 1: two percent. And to give this example, I literally have

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Speaker 1: had mothers who have pimped out their own children. And

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Speaker 1: when I say pimp out, they send them on dates,

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Speaker 1: whatever whatnot, and or use them as labor. And when

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Speaker 1: we're talking about trafficking, Polaris is talking about all types

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Speaker 1: of trafficking. But we know most of the time the

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Speaker 1: biggest one. I guess the most type is sex trafficking,

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Speaker 1: but they do talk about labor trafficking as well, and

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Speaker 1: we don't talk about this enough, by the way, when

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Speaker 1: we talk about like domestic work or domestic help or

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Speaker 1: international and migrant workers and how a lot of them

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Speaker 1: are trafficked in but we ignore that, we ignore that,

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Speaker 1: and I find that very very telling. Also, one of

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Speaker 1: the big things that you should know that the types

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Speaker 1: of services that are trafficked for it is for massage, residential,

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Speaker 1: commercial sex work, and pornography. This is specific to that

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Speaker 1: type of sexual trafficking. So once again I think we

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Speaker 1: have to have that conversation. And there have been articles

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Speaker 1: with experts who have talked about this, and I want

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Speaker 1: to take some quotes and remind people of that. And

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Speaker 1: this article is from the USA Today and it was

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Speaker 1: written by Kristin Abrams, who is a senior director of

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Speaker 1: Combat and Human Trafficking at the McCain Institute. So this

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Speaker 1: is her job, and this is what she had to

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Speaker 1: say that this movie by highlighting false narratives and reinforcing

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Speaker 1: inaccurate stereotypes, we condition ourselves to be on high alert

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Speaker 1: for things like windowless vans, failing to notice actual signs

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Speaker 1: of exploitation. In doing so, we may miss it. Economically

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Speaker 1: and socially vulnerable young person lured into trafficking by others

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Speaker 1: of meals, gifts, shelters, or simple companionship. And that is

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Speaker 1: exactly what I saw in my work. I had many

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Speaker 1: kids who ran away from a really bad situation or

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Speaker 1: even a not great situation, not bad, just not great

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Speaker 1: because they have been told by friends that they could

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Speaker 1: come over and hang out with us, and we are young,

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Speaker 1: we are cool, and then they get tricked into things.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, these young kids are often the

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Speaker 1: kids that people don't want to deal with because they

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Speaker 1: have a lot of issues, whether it's they have behavioral issues,

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Speaker 1: whether they have attitudes or sometimes or whether they're just loaners.

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Speaker 1: All of those things oftentimes lead to becoming this and

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Speaker 1: trying to find their group. And when they feel like

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Speaker 1: they found a group who lavishes you with gifts, then

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Speaker 1: you're like, this is cool, and then you think you

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Speaker 1: have freedom. And then on top of that, later on

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Speaker 1: you're told, nope, you owe me money, which is the

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Speaker 1: biggest thing that I've seen kids thinking that they have

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Speaker 1: to stay with somewhere because they owe them money. If not,

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Speaker 1: they're going to get hurt. And then when they are

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Speaker 1: quote unquote rescued, they're usually not happy. I will say

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Speaker 1: I've had many kids who are happy for a split second,

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Speaker 1: but then think that the other way is better and

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Speaker 1: try to run away again. That happens a lot. That

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Speaker 1: happens a lot. And these are the same people. These

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Speaker 1: are the same kids that most of the people who

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Speaker 1: are like crying about this child trafficking ring were like,

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Speaker 1: I don't want them to block them up, like I've

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Speaker 1: seen that so many times. And these are the same reasons,

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Speaker 1: like this type of line, these types of movies. This

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Speaker 1: is why kids are charged with prostitution instead of being

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Speaker 1: seen as victims. And that's a whole different conversation. I

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Speaker 1: know we're slowly changing that, but that narrative really hasn't

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Speaker 1: changed when it comes to being judged individually and who

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Speaker 1: could be treatable. This article goes on. It says, in

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Speaker 1: addition to problematic depictions of child trafficking, is also troubling

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Speaker 1: how Sound of Freedom glorifies the rescue missions, disregarding decades

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Speaker 1: of research and experience showing that international sting operations are dangerous.

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Speaker 1: US sometimes illegal, often unethical, and fail to dismanage or

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Speaker 1: discourage human trafficking. While rescues and rays make for an

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Speaker 1: action packed movie, they are far from the preferred response

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Speaker 1: to any kind of human trafficking. I feel like that

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Speaker 1: should just be.

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Speaker 3: On a billboard.

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Speaker 1: For everyone to see, because again, the people who you're

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Speaker 1: trying to help often are the ones that get hurt.

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Speaker 1: Then what kind of mission was that to begin with? Right?

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Speaker 1: And I've seen this once again, And also it's amazing

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Speaker 1: who gets punished again, like we talked about it, maybe

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Speaker 1: the children that sometimes get punished more so than the adults.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, the customers, they are rarely noticed unless they're

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Speaker 1: doing a whole like sting operation with the FBI and GBI.

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Speaker 1: Who does the internet stuff, the catcher predator stuff. I guess, oh, okay,

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Speaker 1: that's when they get That's where they get caught, which

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Speaker 1: does a work out well either, But still that's the

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Speaker 1: only time I could think of them being actually prosecuted.

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Speaker 1: And then it goes on. Instead of buying into false

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Speaker 1: narratives of child trafficking or promoting outdated responses, Congress has

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Speaker 1: this unique ability to help create a safer world for

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Speaker 1: all kids. So this is the other part I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about. I actually recently met up with my

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Speaker 1: good friend Courtney, who's been on the show before, and

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Speaker 1: we've talked about the woes and ins and out of

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Speaker 1: the system, which is really set up so corruptly that

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Speaker 1: it doesn't help anyone, but it's workers like her who

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Speaker 1: tried their damnedest to work in the system that's set

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Speaker 1: up to fail, essentially the children. And we have talked

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Speaker 1: about what this looks like, and she actually specifically talked

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Speaker 1: about Sea sec again that's actually exploited children, and about

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Speaker 1: the fact that she can't find treatment for these kids

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Speaker 1: because they don't get enough funding. Surprisingly, they're asking and

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Speaker 1: some of them are asking up to like I think

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Speaker 1: five million, but for an organization and four things that

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Speaker 1: we pay for. And the movie, by the way, made

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Speaker 1: millions of dollars, millions of dollars, and it's been on record.

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Speaker 1: It's not going to anyone, is going straight to the

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Speaker 1: directors and the actors and to Tim Ballard for sharing

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Speaker 1: his story. Like that's where it's going. It's not actually

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Speaker 1: going to any organizations that could help open up five

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Speaker 1: into what thirty at least thirty facilities that could open

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Speaker 1: up and for sea sick children that have no place

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Speaker 1: to go, and y'all as a person who sole responsibility

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Speaker 1: was to try to find treatment places for these kids

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Speaker 1: that actually helped and not just locked them up and

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Speaker 1: had poor service so they wouldn't be homeless, It's hard.

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Speaker 1: I think the entire time of all the kids that

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Speaker 1: I had that were actually classified. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: to classify child as a sea sec the children have

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Speaker 1: to admit that they were exploited, which do you know

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Speaker 1: how many kids would say that. They'd be like, no,

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Speaker 1: I was just hanging out with my boyfriend, or now

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Speaker 1: I'm just hanging out with my friends, and no, I

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Speaker 1: was hanging out with my mom. Do you know how often? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because part of that narrative was because is they don't

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Speaker 1: want to believe that they are either because that's not

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Speaker 1: what happened. They didn't get kidnapped by strangers, right, All

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Speaker 1: the other things happened. That's horrible, do you think anger anger?

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Speaker 1: But to have that to get them services, they have

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Speaker 1: to admit it. In the State of Georgia, which was

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Speaker 1: infuriating because it was very rare. This also comes into

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Speaker 1: the lines of the idea. But the kid they they

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Speaker 1: need to do theirselves. They have to get help themselves.

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Speaker 1: They're kids. They wouldn't have to be the situation if

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Speaker 1: people around them made good choices for them. Like, there's

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Speaker 1: so many things to this, Like if there wasn't perpetrators

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Speaker 1: like out there trying to get them, and there wasn't

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Speaker 1: customers perpetrators also out there, who who call asp a

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Speaker 1: demand of this, Like there's so many things our systems

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Speaker 1: and so the one of the biggest things, like all

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Speaker 1: of these facilities that may help do not exist, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of them are mainly religious, and that in

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Speaker 1: itself is a pushback just n fhy. So it's really

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Speaker 1: funny because we have tons of churches in State of

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Speaker 1: Georgia alone that get a lot of money, and yet

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Speaker 1: these church funded organizations don't have enough to actually do service.

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Speaker 1: Odd right, moving on, but yeah, they keep on saying

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Speaker 1: this means leading a global coalition of governments that commit

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Speaker 1: to sharing information and increasing funds for survivor protection, prevention

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Speaker 1: and parpetary prosecution. And then they go to say, this

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Speaker 1: also means adopting new protections for children in the child

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Speaker 1: welfare system, partnering with those who have lived experiences the

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Speaker 1: real life heroes of anti trafficking movement and policymaking and

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Speaker 1: investing in technology to detect all forms of exploitation. That's

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Speaker 1: the other part they don't want to talk about is

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Speaker 1: that they are in the part of the welfare syce

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Speaker 1: them which they want to shut down so badly. They

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Speaker 1: sha'll want to shut this down so badly. But people

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Speaker 1: who hate the system and say that they shouldn't exist

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Speaker 1: and that they don't deserve more money are the same

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Speaker 1: people going to pay for tickets to this movie that's

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Speaker 1: doing nothing but spread more disinformation. I am so upset

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Speaker 1: when things get onto like this because of my experiences

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Speaker 1: with these young kids who do who There are finally

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Speaker 1: some that really do want to get out, but there's

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Speaker 1: nothing set up for them to help them. Because the

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Speaker 1: places that I had to put them were not great

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Speaker 1: and I wouldn't want to be there. I remember talking

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Speaker 1: about that we would have to go back and forth,

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Speaker 1: like I would never want to be here. You have

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Speaker 1: to be in a room with three other kids. They

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Speaker 1: may have bed bugs, which we had several facilities that

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Speaker 1: had bed bugs that rarely get closed. They get an

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Speaker 1: allowance kind of they have to wake up every day

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Speaker 1: at eight am and then maybe or maybe not go

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Speaker 1: to counseling that's not really suited for them, but that's

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Speaker 1: all they have. And then also are our medications. I

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Speaker 1: still don't get that. I'm like they were medicating them

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Speaker 1: so harshly because they didn't want to truly treat these children,

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Speaker 1: and then if the kids could play nice enough for

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Speaker 1: a little while, we would release them back home and

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Speaker 1: hope that was for the best. Removing a child from

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Speaker 1: a home is never good. Trying to find a way

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Speaker 1: to get them back home is almost impossible where they

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Speaker 1: can thrive. Don't get me wrong, It's happened, and yes,

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Speaker 1: some children really understand and take an effort to it.

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Speaker 1: But if I was one of those kids going through

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Speaker 1: those troubled times, I wouldn't want to do that either.

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Speaker 1: And because we give so little funding and so little

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Speaker 1: help that these places just become a shelter. They don't

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Speaker 1: treat children, and children who are truly traffic need of

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Speaker 1: so much treatment, not just the counseling for the trauma

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Speaker 1: that they went to went through, but their own behavioral

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Speaker 1: Because there's so many things to this, so many layers

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Speaker 1: to trafficking victims, traffic victims, whether it's poverty, whether it's

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Speaker 1: mental health, whether it's behavioral that they don't address that. Instead,

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Speaker 1: we see this flight little movie about a white dude

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Speaker 1: who went to save the people of color, and yeay Jesus, like,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of how I feel like these things go

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Speaker 1: no thank you right again. I have worked with some

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Speaker 1: amazing people. Unfortunately, some of these amazing people, their funding

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Speaker 1: gets cut so quickly, and it feels like the good

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Speaker 1: ones are the ones that leave first. I know, in

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Speaker 1: the state of Georgia, we do have an organization called

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Speaker 1: Georgia Cares. They get paid thirty five thousand a year

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Speaker 1: to be a master's level employee to handle a case

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Speaker 1: load that is probably five counties wide, that equals to

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Speaker 1: that point, and they have to travel every day and

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Speaker 1: they don't get reimbursed for all the things that they

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Speaker 1: have to do it. That's the problem with the trafficking system.

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Speaker 1: That's an issue. That's where the money should be. That's

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Speaker 1: the heroes that they have to go around and hear

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Speaker 1: these horrible stories and have to deal with this, and

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Speaker 1: then the turnover rate is so exponential, y'all. Like, I

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Speaker 1: don't think I ever worked with a casework or twice

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Speaker 1: in my seven years that I worked with DJJ. It's horrible.

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Speaker 1: So just as a reminder, these movies are fabricated movies

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Speaker 1: and I'm not even gonna talk about conspiracy theories that

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Speaker 1: they hold, but they are really doing some harm for

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Speaker 1: those who are actually doing this work.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed.

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Speaker 1: I just had to remind everyone because it's never ending.

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Speaker 3: It's true, It's true.

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Speaker 2: Happy Monday, yay Tew.

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Speaker 3: You introduced this topic to me, but I didn't know

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Speaker 3: what we were talking about. You're like this and I

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Speaker 3: was like, oh, but and it's a very important thing

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Speaker 3: to talk about. It's something that comes up in our

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Speaker 3: conversations all the time, especially how conservative people use trafficking

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Speaker 3: to accomplish their goals or to opuskate or hide something.

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Speaker 3: And always appreciate you sharing your expertise and everything that

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Speaker 3: you learned that you know, because I know it isn't easy.

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Speaker 3: So thank you.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening well of course.

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Speaker 3: Well listeners. If you have any thoughts about this, please

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Speaker 3: let us know. You can email U at stephanemail steph

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Speaker 3: atiheartmedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at

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00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 3: mom Stuff Podcasts, or on Instagram and TikTok At Stuff

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Speaker 3: Whenever Told You. We have a tea public store check out.

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Speaker 3: We also have a book that you can pre order

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Speaker 3: at Stuff You Should Read but bolks dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 3: as always to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,

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Speaker 3: and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you

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Speaker 3: for listening. Stefan Never Told You's production by Heart Radio.

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Speaker 3: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check

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