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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Billed Courtney with an army of normal folks.

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Speaker 1: And we continue now with part two of our conversation

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Speaker 1: with Ben and Jess Owen. Right after these brief messages

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Speaker 1: from our Jenner sponsors.

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Speaker 2: Like November comes around and you know, we had everything

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Speaker 2: on auto pay and we're burning through so much money.

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Speaker 2: You don't always notice what gets paid and what doesn't.

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Speaker 2: The rent didn't come out, and that took us to

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Speaker 2: court and I called her. I was like, hey, I

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Speaker 2: didn't realize any of this is going on. She's like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you're fine, to bringing a money order. I was like, okay, cool.

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Speaker 2: So I took her money order. I don't know what

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Speaker 2: she did with it, but she did apply it towards

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Speaker 2: the rent. Because January fifth of twenty nineteen, three linebackers

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Speaker 2: show up to our house and our gated neighborhoods one

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Speaker 2: seven and a half feet to not really guy, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and look, I'm by Grace Saint Luke's in Midtown. I

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Speaker 2: was on my way back or on the way to

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Speaker 2: the dope man, I don't remember, in our only vehicle,

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Speaker 2: which we hadn't been spending any money fixing, because you

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Speaker 2: don't do that your money goes to dope, not your vehicle.

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Speaker 2: And I'm by Grace Saint Luke's right there on Peabody

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Speaker 2: or Belvede or whatever it is, and I slung a

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Speaker 2: ride through the block. That's it. The vehicle's done. I'm

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Speaker 2: standing on the side of the road and my phone

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Speaker 2: rings and it's Chest telling me that we have linebackers

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Speaker 2: that are house throwing us out. So in a matter

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Speaker 2: of ten minutes, I lost my only transportation and I

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Speaker 2: lost the roof over my head on his mom's birthday,

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Speaker 2: on my mom's birthday. And look how many times have

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Speaker 2: I said something where you're thinking, man, that would have

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Speaker 2: been rock bottom one.

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Speaker 1: Hundred that this one right here feels like it, But

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Speaker 1: it wasn't.

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Speaker 2: This This is where things start to get real bad.

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Speaker 2: They weren't bad already, right, they weren't bad enough. And

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Speaker 2: this is up that I tell parents all the time

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Speaker 2: when they reach out and they got a kid struggling

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Speaker 2: with a didiction, like they're not going to do anything

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Speaker 2: different until they've suffered enough. Well, this could have been

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Speaker 2: be suffering enough had somebody been there to tell me

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Speaker 2: a better way. I scrapped together what money I could

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Speaker 2: or rented a U haul. We threw all of our

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Speaker 2: belongings into a ten by twenty storage in it out

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Speaker 2: there off of sixty four in Arlington, and we took

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Speaker 2: that U haul straight to the Dope Track and we

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Speaker 2: moved into the trap pouse that day. For those of

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Speaker 2: you that don't know, a trap house is a house

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Speaker 2: where narcotics and women are bought and sold. Crack house

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Speaker 2: is another way to say it.

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Speaker 1: And women typically sell themselves for their next exactly.

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Speaker 2: So the women out there, they're selling their bodies or

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Speaker 2: their some amusic pump to fund their addiction.

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Speaker 1: And at fifteen hundreds a day, that's a lot of selling.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so most of the ones out there that

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Speaker 2: are just addicted to crack, they're seventy two to ninety

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Speaker 2: six grand a year is what they're smoking at. That's insane.

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Speaker 2: But anyway, we moved into the trap house that day.

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Speaker 2: You know, I had I'm a white guy in South Memphis,

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Speaker 2: but I had trust because I had spent such an

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Speaker 2: ungodly sum of money out there. We didn't have a vehicle.

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Speaker 2: We moved into the trap house on it where's your kid?

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Speaker 3: So we took the his kids went to his ex

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Speaker 3: wife and mine went to my dad's house.

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Speaker 1: And the one that you had together is with us.

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Speaker 3: In the trap house. My dad would while we were

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Speaker 3: in the trap house, I would drop James off with

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Speaker 3: my dad because I didn't want him in that. As

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Speaker 3: horrible of a person as I was, I did not

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Speaker 3: want him in a trap house smelling crack smoke, so

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Speaker 3: I would I did take him to my dad's house,

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Speaker 3: and I was like, look, can you just watch James

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Speaker 3: and just let us get our together. And of course

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Speaker 3: that meant us just going and hanging out at the

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Speaker 3: trap house for like a week without leaving, without sleeping.

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Speaker 3: Eventually we would make it to my dad's house. That's

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Speaker 3: where we ended up going to live. And we got

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Speaker 3: married in twenty eighteen in Starbucks because we didn't even

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Speaker 3: have money for a wedding. But I knew that I

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Speaker 3: loved this man. I wanted to marry him. So we

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Speaker 3: like got this lady on Google. We're like, hey, come

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Speaker 3: meet us here. So we actually got married twenty eighteen

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Speaker 3: in February.

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Speaker 1: In a Starbucks in a Starbucks.

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Speaker 3: And then you know, so so.

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Speaker 2: On Madison on Madison City Union on Union Yes.

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Speaker 3: So, so that was February so not even a year.

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Speaker 1: In the middle of this chaos, But why not a Starbucks? Exactly?

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Speaker 1: It actually oddly makes.

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Speaker 2: A little sense, Yeah, made a little sense.

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Speaker 1: Wis Brandon? So Brandon?

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Speaker 2: At this point we had moved into a high rise

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Speaker 2: overlook the Mississippi River down there off a front street.

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Speaker 2: Brandon was clean when we moved him. This is sixteen seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Brandon pulled back from us when he saw us headed

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Speaker 2: in a bad direction. And then Brandon went in a

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Speaker 2: bad direction while I was doing good. So we had

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Speaker 2: started trying to help Brandon while I was clean and

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Speaker 2: she was on pills. Nobody knew she was on pills.

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Speaker 2: And I'm out there trying to act like this white

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Speaker 2: knight who has it all together. I'm six months sober

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Speaker 2: and I'm gonna save you. Trying to help Brandon ends

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Speaker 2: up losing that apartment because he went back to active

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Speaker 2: addiction with heroin. So oddly enough, we ended up somehow, Hussa,

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Speaker 2: I say somehow, if you haven't figured it out, I'm

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Speaker 2: kind of a serial entrepreneur. I've always got some sort

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Speaker 2: of hustle. We were able to buy a vehicle. Before

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Speaker 2: the end of it. We had James the kid you

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Speaker 2: asked about, and Brandon living in a truck with us

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Speaker 2: in South Memphis seven hundred truck, seven hundred dollars truck,

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Speaker 2: lived in a truck. We lived in a truck that winter,

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Speaker 2: the winter of twenty nineteen, a truck.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that that's after we decided to.

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Speaker 1: The trap house.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes we were. Sometimes we would drop James.

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Speaker 1: A dropped by this place and know exactly what's going on.

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Speaker 2: They know exactly where it's going, they know exactly what's going.

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Speaker 3: I don't really know why. I've never understood that, like

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Speaker 3: if you know what's going.

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Speaker 2: On, been in that house on what weard when it

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Speaker 2: was surrounded by OCU wearing vests with our fifteen's out,

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Speaker 2: and they never read it, Like I don't understand.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Now. Look, I've also been rested in front of the house.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to say they know what's going on,

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Speaker 2: they don't do anything about it, because I've gone to

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Speaker 2: jail in front of that house a few times. So

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Speaker 2: you know, do you process they're going to build a case.

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Speaker 1: And all that these houses, empty houses that people were

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Speaker 1: just squatting in.

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Speaker 3: No, Sometimes they're well, the ones that we were in

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Speaker 3: were actually they're owned by another cracker, another crack.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Do they charge daily rent? They get paid and crack.

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Speaker 2: So you've got women that are are being tried affects,

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Speaker 2: sex trafficked to feed their addiction. You have other crack

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Speaker 2: addicts who are essentially being labor trafficked. You can use

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Speaker 2: an addiction to coerce anybody to do so.

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Speaker 1: The owner of the house is getting paid for the

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Speaker 1: use of the house, Yes, and cracks, So they're satisfying

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Speaker 1: their habit by letting this go on. Exactly how many

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Speaker 1: of these houses ballpart me are in Memphis, Baltimore, Chicago,

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Speaker 1: any city?

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, Oh man, that's that's going to depend on

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Speaker 2: the population, but a lot. You know, every block's got

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Speaker 2: one in the hood, in the hood, right in the Yeah.

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Speaker 1: There's two hundred of these spaces in Memphis.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, or more. Yeah, there's probably that many just

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Speaker 2: in North Memphis, just in South justin which means.

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Speaker 1: In a city like Chicago, way more, New York, DC.

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Speaker 2: Way more. You got to remember, Memphis does not have

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Speaker 2: that him population density. It's just and what really sucks

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Speaker 2: is like I don't think the average person understands the

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Speaker 2: misery that's coming from these houses. You know, just nobody

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Speaker 2: that's in them wants to be there. We didn't want

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Speaker 2: to be there. You know, it's fun to be addicted

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Speaker 2: when you live out in Arlington for a minute, not

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Speaker 2: for long. It's definitely not fun.

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Speaker 1: Ultimately you end up there.

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Speaker 2: You all roads lead to Rome. In Rome in this

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Speaker 2: case is the Trap House. And you know, we've seen

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Speaker 2: we've seen friends die out there. We've seen murder, we've

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Speaker 2: seen overdose, we've seen a rape ja yes, yeah, over

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Speaker 2: a drug deal over nothing, over nothing. A buddy of

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Speaker 2: mine who went by the street name No Talk, he

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Speaker 2: was a.

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Speaker 1: Mute street name what no Talk, no talker.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, he was shot five times in the head

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Speaker 2: in front of that house for absolutely no reason by

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Speaker 2: a guy named Mike Wilson. We called him crazy Mike Crazy.

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Speaker 2: Mike did six years for that six six yeah, and

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Speaker 2: he's back in custody in South Dakota now for another murder.

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Speaker 2: And he called his mom, who is a prostitute, and

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Speaker 2: told her, Mama, I'm probably gonna have another six, which

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Speaker 2: is crazy to me. That's the value we put on

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Speaker 2: human life just because they're an addict that something's not right.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you're in this truck, Brandon's in the truck,

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Speaker 1: your son's in the truck. Are we rock bottom yet?

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Speaker 1: I am?

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Speaker 2: I'm rock bottom and I'm done. I'm done. You know.

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Speaker 2: That lasted for about a month. There were a couple

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Speaker 2: of deaths leading up to that that really pushed me

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Speaker 2: over the age.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: I had gone to detox a couple times during twenty ninety.

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Speaker 1: As bad as you describe detox as being, and you

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Speaker 1: keep going through it, you're just putting yourself through constant misery.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yeah you are. And it's not just constant misery.

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Speaker 2: It takes a toll on your body. I had two

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Speaker 2: heart attacks between thirty five and thirty seven trying to

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Speaker 2: put on my own. I told you I was twenty

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Speaker 2: something years old, and I lost an organ to my alcoholism,

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Speaker 2: like a whole organ. I drank out of my body.

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Speaker 2: These are things that to a normal person would be

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Speaker 2: like signs to stop. But I don't guess up normal.

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Speaker 2: So twenty nineteen, we a very dear friend I had

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Speaker 2: a crack related stroke and died in the house, and

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Speaker 2: I went to detox, and I told Jess it's like,

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Speaker 2: you can come and get clean with me, or I'm

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Speaker 2: out of here. Done, And I hung up the phone.

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Speaker 2: It was about twelve hours later that are wheeling her

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Speaker 2: into Detox in a wheelchair, and I was like, oh, okay, cool.

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Speaker 2: So we got this. We held it together for a

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Speaker 2: little bit, and then we both ended up back out

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Speaker 2: there because we weren't willing to go to meetings. We

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Speaker 2: weren't willing to do the things we knew we needed

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Speaker 2: to do. We just wanted to stop suffering. We weren't

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Speaker 2: willing to put in the work to make sure it's stuck.

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Speaker 1: Yet We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2: So after Brandon and all of us are living in

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Speaker 2: this deep truck, I'll let you tell the story about

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Speaker 2: Nick dying. But uh, we're towards the end of May.

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Speaker 2: And I just woke up in an empty light one day,

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Speaker 2: covered in blood, without a cut on me. To this day,

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Speaker 2: I don't know whose blood was on me. But I

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Speaker 2: was done. I was done. I got a phone, I called.

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Speaker 1: My up with blood, all of them, and you don't

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Speaker 1: even know who's.

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Speaker 2: To this day, I have no idea.

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Speaker 3: And he had been missing for like four days.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I went missing. I don't remember anything, and it

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Speaker 2: wasn't your blood, wasn't my blood? You killed somebody?

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Speaker 1: What do you think?

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Speaker 2: I have no idea. Probably a fight, yeah, probably probably

225
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Speaker 2: a fight. But I called my dad and I got

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Speaker 2: on a greyhound bus and I went to Georgia and

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Speaker 2: that was it for me. I was done, and I

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Speaker 2: told her. I was like, I'm done. We'll figure out

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Speaker 2: custody at James later.

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Speaker 3: And we had been clean for a little while. My

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Speaker 3: daughter's father my first, my first, Oh.

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Speaker 1: No, I'm sorry, I'm catching up. You were missing for

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Speaker 1: four days and woke up without a recollection of how

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Speaker 1: you got where you were in the sparking lot covered

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Speaker 1: in somebody else's blood.

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Speaker 2: I had no recollection. I still don't. We've been able

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Speaker 2: to piece some of it together because we've gone back

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Speaker 2: to those places and we have communication with the people

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Speaker 2: who are there, but a lot of it is just missing.

240
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Speaker 2: There were a couple of fun colls my parents. They

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Speaker 2: could hear gunshots and screaming. I think that second heart

242
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Speaker 2: attack was in there. At one point. My mom heard

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Speaker 2: the MS workers working on me, but couldn't get anybody to.

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Speaker 1: You describe your parents as unbelievable parents. They have to

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Speaker 1: be an absolute terror for their.

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Speaker 2: In a lot of ways, I almost have more regret

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Speaker 2: for what I put my parents through than I do

248
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Speaker 2: what our kids went through. Because my kids didn't see

249
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Speaker 2: what happened. My parents had to deal with all of it,

250
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Speaker 2: and they never turned their backs on me, like they

251
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Speaker 2: never enabled. They stopped that decades ago, but they were

252
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Speaker 2: there when I needed him. But yeah, I woke up.

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Speaker 2: It was May twenty sixth, twenty nineteen. I woke up

254
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Speaker 2: in an empty lot next to the Trap House on Loward,

255
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Speaker 2: covered in blood, and I realized where I was. I'm

256
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Speaker 2: about to go walk to that window. I'm gonna get

257
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Speaker 2: some crack right back at it. And for whatever reason,

258
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Speaker 2: my feet wouldn't move. It was just like, I'm not

259
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Speaker 2: actually going to go to that window today, I'm gonna

260
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Speaker 2: do it.

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Speaker 1: So you go to Georgia. I go, Is that where

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Speaker 1: your parents are?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? My dad. I called my dad and he's like,

264
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Speaker 2: just come home, just come home. So I let her

265
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Speaker 2: pick up back on May nineteenth before I went missing.

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Speaker 3: Well, we had we had her a little time clean

267
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Speaker 3: and then then we had something very bad happened, which

268
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Speaker 3: was my daughter's father, Nick, who I'd been friends with,

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Speaker 3: since I was twelve years old. Ben had actually started

270
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Speaker 3: getting pretty close with him, and we were talking to

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Speaker 3: him every day. Ben talked to him every day because

272
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Speaker 3: he was also an addict, and you know, he would

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Speaker 3: just call Ben, what do I do? What do I

274
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Speaker 3: need to do? And he had just gotten clean. Ben

275
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Speaker 3: was like, look, you need to He was asking Ben

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Speaker 3: if Madison could come over for the summer.

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Speaker 2: Nick had no idea we were back in active addiction. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: he looked at me like a mentor, kind of a

279
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Speaker 2: big brother. I'm hiding it really well. And Nick had

280
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Speaker 2: had just gotten out of prison not too long before that.

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Speaker 2: We were kind of helping him get back on his feet.

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Speaker 2: I had convinced him he needed to get away from Memphis,

283
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Speaker 2: he had a warrant. I convinced him to move to

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Speaker 2: Alabama with some family, and he called asking if Madison

285
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Speaker 2: could come spend the summer, and I reminded him he

286
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Speaker 2: had just told me, like two days prior that his

287
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:33,040
Speaker 2: roommate was a really weird guy. And I was like,

288
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Speaker 2: you know, Jess and I aren't terribly comfortable with Madison

289
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Speaker 2: spending the summer there with this dude. So next like,

290
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Speaker 2: I'm going to take care of that. He called me.

291
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Speaker 2: He kicked the roommate out, and we're talking on plans

292
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Speaker 2: nixt getting a room ready for Madison. It's like midnight

293
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Speaker 2: on the eighteenth, I guess, and Nick goes, hey, man,

294
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Speaker 2: I got some at the door on a call right back,

295
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Speaker 2: And he never called me back because the dude at

296
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Speaker 2: the door was a roommate who came in and stapped

297
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Speaker 2: him to death.

298
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Speaker 3: So he got murdered. And this was like, you know,

299
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Speaker 3: my best friend since.

300
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Speaker 2: I was twelve.

301
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Speaker 3: So I lost it, and Ben, you know, feeled he

302
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Speaker 3: felt somewhat responsible because he's the one that told Nick, hey,

303
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Speaker 3: go back to Alabama. So so we that was a

304
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Speaker 3: hard hit for us. So we went back out and

305
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Speaker 3: we went and got high again. And then that's when

306
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Speaker 3: it got really bad, and we were we were so

307
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Speaker 3: bad off that we had no money and we only

308
00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:24,640
Speaker 3: had like a phone each and we were like, you

309
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Speaker 3: know what, we're always together, let's just sell our phones

310
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Speaker 3: and get another hit a crack. So that's how we

311
00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:31,960
Speaker 3: ended up losing each other because we had no way

312
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Speaker 3: to even communicate with each other. At that point, we'd

313
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Speaker 3: gotten high, we had separated. I think we had gotten

314
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Speaker 3: a fight because you're always fighting when you're high or

315
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Speaker 3: when you're not high.

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Speaker 2: That's that's the part. And her and Brandon had had

317
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Speaker 2: I guess come to meet me at some hotel or so,

318
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Speaker 2: I don't remember, but he yeah, it was bad.

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Speaker 3: So then Brandon was living in my car, just me

320
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Speaker 3: and Brandon and James, and we were trying to find

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Speaker 3: Ben for like three or four days. And then that's

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Speaker 3: when he woke up covered in blood and he called

323
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Speaker 3: and he was like, look I got go.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

325
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Speaker 2: Nick's death was I definitely carried a lot of guilt

326
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Speaker 2: over that, because I mean, I'm the one that convinced

327
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Speaker 2: to move do Alabama in the first place. I'm the

328
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Speaker 2: one that told me to kick that room rate out.

329
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Speaker 2: And you know, when I feel guilty, I drink and

330
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Speaker 2: I went into a blackout drunk. But anyway, I ended

331
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Speaker 2: up going to Georgia. I told her I'm done. I

332
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Speaker 2: was like, I'm not coming back.

333
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Speaker 1: I am not.

334
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Speaker 2: I am done, and she's like, well, I'm done too,

335
00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:26,800
Speaker 2: but you do have to come back because you have

336
00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:28,880
Speaker 2: the keys to the truck that left locked in the

337
00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:35,800
Speaker 2: ground parking lot. So she decided she was done as well.

338
00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:38,760
Speaker 2: That was rock bottom for her and I get back

339
00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:41,400
Speaker 2: on a Greyhound bus back to Memphis with the keys

340
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Speaker 2: all along the way. You know, I don't know how

341
00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:45,800
Speaker 2: you are on your faith journey, but there were like

342
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:49,200
Speaker 2: these little guid shots for God's just telling me, you know, yeah,

343
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Speaker 2: I'm watching, I'm watching. And one of those is when

344
00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:55,000
Speaker 2: I got back to the Greyhound station, TBI boarded our

345
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,720
Speaker 2: bus to search everybody Tennessee beer investigations, and for the

346
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,960
Speaker 2: first time, I'm getting so and I know they're not

347
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:03,240
Speaker 2: going to find a thing on me.

348
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Speaker 1: For the first time.

349
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Speaker 2: I get off the bus, we get Jess, we go

350
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Speaker 2: back to Georgia. I remember on the way we were

351
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Speaker 2: heading down Littlemore and this hit me, and your your

352
00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:18,480
Speaker 2: a little teaser when you talk about turned the review

353
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,840
Speaker 2: mirror fifteen degrees. I got my cell phone. I took

354
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Speaker 2: a picture of that RuView mirror with Memphis behind us,

355
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:24,719
Speaker 2: and I said, I'm leaving the city in the rear

356
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:28,400
Speaker 2: view for good. And I posted to social media, thinking

357
00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,960
Speaker 2: I'm all dramatic or whatever, you know, and I put

358
00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:33,760
Speaker 2: the phone down and not even five minutes later, I

359
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:35,240
Speaker 2: told just I was like, God wants me to go

360
00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:39,439
Speaker 2: back sick. What are you talking about? Let's not do that.

361
00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:41,159
Speaker 2: I know God wants me to go back to Memphis.

362
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,200
Speaker 2: My work's not done, Like what work? What work do

363
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:48,960
Speaker 2: I have in Memphis, Tennessee's And so anyway on our

364
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,400
Speaker 2: way out of town is our little nuclear family. It's me, Jess, James,

365
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:54,480
Speaker 2: and Madison on the way to my parents where we

366
00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,199
Speaker 2: started rebuilding our lives. God put it on me that

367
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:00,639
Speaker 2: I was supposed to come back here and do something.

368
00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,199
Speaker 2: And I had no idea what. I thought for a

369
00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,680
Speaker 2: long time that it had something to with Brandon Kelly

370
00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:12,240
Speaker 2: because he was back out there bad, homeless. Max wife

371
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,560
Speaker 2: was helping us take care of him. She would take

372
00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,359
Speaker 2: him food and cigarettes and you know, money here and

373
00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:20,359
Speaker 2: there when we thought he was gonna be okay to

374
00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:26,440
Speaker 2: handle it. It's hard to hit every point I wanted

375
00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:28,400
Speaker 2: to hit in this period of time. But I want

376
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:36,600
Speaker 2: to rewind twenty eighteen. It was April twenty eighteen. Brandon's

377
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,080
Speaker 2: mom had had relapsed, and this is when I was sober.

378
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 2: Brandon's mom was an area too. She lost into foster care.

379
00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:46,840
Speaker 2: They had rebuilt that relationship kind of it was. I

380
00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,399
Speaker 2: think it was April twenty eighteen. Times she had been

381
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:52,880
Speaker 2: silent for three days, and me and Brandon were talking

382
00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:54,760
Speaker 2: to her every day. Neither one of us realized it,

383
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,960
Speaker 2: so we're like, well, let's let's go check on Virginia.

384
00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:01,000
Speaker 2: And I got there right after Brandon. They kicked the

385
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:02,680
Speaker 2: door in and I could smell her before I got

386
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:07,800
Speaker 2: to the house, so she had killed herself. Fast forward

387
00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,399
Speaker 2: back to December of twenty nineteen. I realized I haven't

388
00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:14,879
Speaker 2: heard from Brandon in three days, and I knew, like,

389
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,440
Speaker 2: there's there's no doubt. But I sent one of my

390
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:22,239
Speaker 2: employees from that business I had back when I had

391
00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,600
Speaker 2: it all together I maintained contact with, and he got

392
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,320
Speaker 2: in his car and I called MPD, and sure enough,

393
00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:29,560
Speaker 2: Brandam was dead from a fentonyl overdose.

394
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,760
Speaker 1: Guys, I've known you for an hour and fifteen minutes

395
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:40,040
Speaker 1: since so far I know about Nick being murdered, Brandon

396
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:44,399
Speaker 1: dying of an overdose, Brandon's bomb dying of an overdose,

397
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:49,560
Speaker 1: just as Mom dying I think of an overdose. Yeah, no,

398
00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:53,320
Speaker 1: talk being shot five times in the head. I imagine

399
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:55,480
Speaker 1: if we sat here for an hour and listed them.

400
00:19:55,359 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 2: All, Oh it's your sheet would be of.

401
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:07,879
Speaker 1: Names of names who were either victims of violent perpetrators

402
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:14,600
Speaker 1: of violence or of overdoses. Your life been filled with

403
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:19,760
Speaker 1: not only personal loss personal guilt, but loss of friends

404
00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:27,200
Speaker 1: and people. You know, this thing is literally destroys lives. Yeah,

405
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,520
Speaker 1: so you kicked that rearview mirror fifteen degrees of left

406
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,840
Speaker 1: and said, I got to come back to Memphis and

407
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:40,040
Speaker 1: you didn't know what. And irony of irony is some

408
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:46,119
Speaker 1: of the very places you stayed in as addicts you

409
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 1: are now rehabbing. Yeah, so here's the redemption, everybody. The

410
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:56,960
Speaker 1: crazy story that you just heard allowed Ben and Jess's

411
00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:02,359
Speaker 1: life and marriage at Starbucks and loss of friends and

412
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:09,080
Speaker 1: abuse and loving parents who never enabled but never gave up.

413
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:15,200
Speaker 1: And despite how hard you tried to destroy one another

414
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:21,080
Speaker 1: in your relationship, figured a way out and all of that.

415
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 1: Now you're in Georgia. You are finally really sober and clean,

416
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 1: and you decided to start a nonprofit called Flanders Fields

417
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:43,159
Speaker 1: with an initiative called Operation by Block the Block, And

418
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:49,399
Speaker 1: I watched a video clip of it, and I'm going

419
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 1: to just tell the listeners what I know, and then

420
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: I want you to go with it. You're basically buying empty, dilapidated,

421
00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,600
Speaker 1: blighted properties, many of which were these what do you

422
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:05,639
Speaker 1: call my houses? Trap houses that had prostitution and drugs

423
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,640
Speaker 1: and everything going on them, and you were figuring out

424
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: ways to refurbish them and make them safe, halfway houses

425
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:23,280
Speaker 1: for people and recovery, I think. But when you left

426
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 1: and you said goodbye, Memphis, I'm never coming back, and

427
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,640
Speaker 1: then somehow you felt like God was calling you back

428
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,880
Speaker 1: to Memphis for a purpose. Tell me how you found

429
00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,600
Speaker 1: it in Georgia, how you started this and what you're

430
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: doing now.

431
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 2: So we used to say a prayer when we're out

432
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,480
Speaker 2: there all the time, when you were out in the

433
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:46,400
Speaker 2: in the streets, the streets, and it was something along

434
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:47,800
Speaker 2: the lines of God, if you'll just get us out

435
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:50,240
Speaker 2: of here together, we'll spend the rest of our lives

436
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:55,120
Speaker 2: coming back for the people we leave bond he called

437
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:56,400
Speaker 2: the debt. Do I guess.

438
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,240
Speaker 1: We do? You know, you may be the fourth guest

439
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: that I can think of right now who in the

440
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,159
Speaker 1: depths of the stare made to do with God. And

441
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 1: they all warn everybody be careful when you make a

442
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,240
Speaker 1: deal with God, because when the deck comes due, that's

443
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:14,800
Speaker 1: one dude you don't want to pay back.

444
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 2: Well, if you know the story of Johnnah and the

445
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 2: whel Memphis was very much our nineveh We didn't want

446
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,120
Speaker 2: to come back here. When we started Flanders. That sergeant

447
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:28,840
Speaker 2: that lost a leg came back in the picture. He

448
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 2: ended up in twenty twenty one. He ended up right

449
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,640
Speaker 2: where I was, crack heroin gun charges and he called

450
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 2: me for help because I'd helped him before. He had

451
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 2: no idea what we had been through in the tenure gap.

452
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,480
Speaker 2: Jess and I, ever committed and always ready for excitement,

453
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:46,679
Speaker 2: were like, well, we're back on our feet. I'm skipping

454
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:48,600
Speaker 2: so much. We moved out of my parents' basement. We

455
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 2: got a town home, we got a big house, we

456
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:51,880
Speaker 2: got all our businesses back.

457
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: We have currently.

458
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome in Atlanta, yeah, or north of Atlanta,

459
00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:58,639
Speaker 2: north of Atlanta.

460
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 1: Souse you after all all this, you're back in business.

461
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:08,159
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, and that is so oh congratulations quick, but

462
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 2: thank you very much. It was all God and it

463
00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 2: was not us.

464
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:12,359
Speaker 1: So you rebuilt.

465
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:13,440
Speaker 2: We rebuilt the business.

466
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 1: The business you did everything you could to destroy on

467
00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 1: Tuscasions and you're back doing it. In North Georgian.

468
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 3: One was actually given back to us because they're like,

469
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 3: we don't know what we're doing.

470
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:26,479
Speaker 2: But you do, and they gave it back to him.

471
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: They so you moved back in your para space. When

472
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: you get a townhouse, you finally buy home, you are sober,

473
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 1: you're building your businesses. But the grip is now not

474
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:39,800
Speaker 1: crack and heroin. It's the people you left base.

475
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:42,119
Speaker 2: It's the people left ironic that.

476
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 1: That's the military thing, and that's good starts.

477
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 2: So it's interesting you bring that up, because this is

478
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 2: where everything starts getting really crazy, if it weren't crazy,

479
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 2: if it weren't already March April twenty one, starting to

480
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,320
Speaker 2: eat and comes back and we're going to fund a

481
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 2: flight for him to get to rehabit Axis and my

482
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 2: business partner on the black Rifle. So I was like, bro,

483
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 2: you need to just start a nonprofit. Well, we'd already

484
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,199
Speaker 2: decided we were going to start a nonprofit. We're going

485
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,639
Speaker 2: to call it Flanders Fields because of the poppy flower

486
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:12,880
Speaker 2: and opium and you know vets, and so we're gonna

487
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 2: start a nonprofit helping vets batting addiction. We're like, oh, well,

488
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 2: here it is, let's go and do it. So we

489
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 2: get sergeant moved to where he needs to be. We

490
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 2: file the paperwork at the IRS again had no intentions

491
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,680
Speaker 2: coming back to Memphis. This is not We're not there yet.

492
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 2: And in July, a Marine Corps intelligence officer hits me

493
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 2: up and about my data company, my day job, Black Rifle,

494
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,200
Speaker 2: which had started with bump stocks, but is now this

495
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 2: massive conglomerate of data that we use for digital intelligence

496
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 2: and digital marketing. And he's like, hey, man, you want

497
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 2: to do something crazy? And I was like sure. He's like, okay, cool,

498
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,119
Speaker 2: We're going to get some people out of Afghanistan. I

499
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 2: was like, I'm sorry, what what did you say?

500
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:57,160
Speaker 1: We will be right back.

501
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 2: So I know what we care about here is what

502
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 2: the army of regular felks are doing in Memphis. But

503
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 2: I got to tell you how we got there. We

504
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,120
Speaker 2: got pulled into the evak out of Afghanistan, and we're

505
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 2: using data to vet Afghans early on, and we saw

506
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 2: some great success. We were able to make contact with

507
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 2: American citizen family members. We were able to determine who's

508
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 2: good who's bad.

509
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:32,479
Speaker 1: We were talking about like inres.

510
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 2: Interpreters, ye in Afghan interpreters and special forces. We were

511
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 2: able to locate some missing people. We were able to

512
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,680
Speaker 2: prevent the trafficking of some children. By the end of it,

513
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,159
Speaker 2: we were running sixty eight safe houses in Afghanistan that

514
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,920
Speaker 2: we leased, which is insane if you think about it.

515
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 2: I went from.

516
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: Sixty eight safe houses we leased sixty eight houses and

517
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 1: or apartments in Afghanistan, contract signed in darry or pashto

518
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,479
Speaker 1: two languages I don't speak, right.

519
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:04,280
Speaker 2: We had real estate agents, we had ground teams, we

520
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 2: had drivers, we had food delivery networks, steod up like

521
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 2: all of this insane stuff. And I'm not even two

522
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 2: years clean yet, right, So that was cool. But the

523
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 2: cooler part was this network of other really cool regular

524
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,959
Speaker 2: people that were building, and a lot of them came

525
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 2: from the special operations community. And I didn't want anybody

526
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 2: to feel like I had misrepresented my service, so I'm

527
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 2: always careful to say I'm barely even a vet. In fact,

528
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,400
Speaker 2: I'm a junkie and an alcoholic. I'm two years clean.

529
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 2: And so I had that conversation with everybody, and instead

530
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 2: of them being like, well, I'm a little afraid to

531
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 2: work with you now, they were like, that's amazing. And

532
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 2: this happened more and more and more, and so we

533
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 2: ended up sorry language, We ended up with this really

534
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 2: great network of special operators, former CIA officers, congressmen, senators,

535
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 2: scary people, very scary, big hearted peaceeople that wanted to

536
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,920
Speaker 2: help with our work. And so we ended up doing

537
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,920
Speaker 2: some similar stuff in Ukraine. We ended up doing some

538
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 2: anti trafficking work in Mexico. And next thing I know,

539
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 2: the same judge that had kicked me off of drug

540
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:16,879
Speaker 2: court and the man who kicked me out of his

541
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,520
Speaker 2: halfway house, asked us if we would be interested in

542
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 2: taking over those halfway houses and the relationship with drug

543
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 2: court back here in Memphis. And that is not what

544
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 2: I wanted. I went into that meeting where that question

545
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,120
Speaker 2: was asked to get them to give us a letter

546
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 2: of recommendation to do something similar in Chattanooga or Knoxville.

547
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 2: And God reminded us of that promise we'd made to

548
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 2: come back to the people we left behind. And so

549
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 2: now we've gone from getting the people our government left

550
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 2: behind in Afghanistan to being called in our own promise

551
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 2: to take care of who we left. So we went

552
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 2: back to that house on Wilbird Street in South Memphis,

553
00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 2: the one fairy.

554
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 1: House that you slept out in front of in the

555
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: truck with Brandon and your sock.

556
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 2: The very house, and I went and I knocked on

557
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 2: the door or the window, and I was scared to death,

558
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 2: and I asked about two women in particular that I

559
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 2: knew we had left, and they weren't ready for help.

560
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 2: But we kept coming back. We kept coming back, and

561
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 2: we kept coming back, and while they weren't ready for help,

562
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 2: we started to seeing other people that noticed we were

563
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 2: coming back, and they also noticed we were clean, and

564
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 2: they started asking for help. And so slowly we're able

565
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 2: to get people off of that street, some of them

566
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 2: out of that house into detox and treatment, and before

567
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 2: long we were able to negotiate a deal with the

568
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 2: people that were selling dope out of that house to

569
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 2: buy it and close it with their blessing. And today,

570
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 2: two years later, both of those women are clean. One

571
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 2: of them put down a forty five year heroin and

572
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 2: she's clean today.

573
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Yeah, So, how many of these houses do you have?

574
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 2: That was the first one, And then we went to

575
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 2: Melrose Street, which is the street that I some of

576
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:17,200
Speaker 2: the worst days of my life before meeting Jess.

577
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 1: You literally are going back to the very places that

578
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: were the worst of the worst for you. You were

579
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: literally going back and buying houses where you left people behind.

580
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: It's not just a slogan. You're literally doing this.

581
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 2: We are starting exactly where we left them. I'm going

582
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 2: back to houses where my blood is on the floor. Yep.

583
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of the people that saw that

584
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 3: blood leave his body, we're still there in active addiction, and.

585
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: You're buying the houses if we can.

586
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 2: You know, in one case, we had had the house

587
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 2: donated to us. Oddly enough, the guy that runs the

588
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 2: Delta Fair also invest in real estate and loved what

589
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 2: we did in Afghanistan, and he happened to own a

590
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 2: house that I lived in with the one nine Vietnam

591
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 2: Marine back in twenty fourteen, and he donated that house

592
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 2: to us. Yeah.

593
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 3: And then we have the halfway houses, and we.

594
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 2: Did we did buy the half of We had a

595
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:13,239
Speaker 2: mortgage in them, and we didn't have wanted to buy

596
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 2: them out right, But we've got the same halfway house

597
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 2: I was kicked out of, so, yeah, the same one

598
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,719
Speaker 2: you were kicked out of the house I was kicked out.

599
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: We took a mortgage on it to buy it. Yeah.

600
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's full and it's full.

601
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: What is full mean?

602
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 2: All the beds twelve men no, I mean twelve men

603
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 2: are well. Right now, we're housing about seventy five men,

604
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:40,520
Speaker 2: women and children in Memphis on mostly our dime. Some

605
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 2: of them do pay rent in these halfway houses, but

606
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 2: all spread throughout the city. We've got people who six

607
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 2: months a year, two years ago were high.

608
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 1: These houses have to be POWs of I got to

609
00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: be careful too, This house has got to be POWs

610
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: of crap. So I gotta believe if it's a trap

611
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: house and people been in it for ten years, those

612
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: are the electrical the walls, they probably stinks like hell.

613
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 1: The floors, there's no applies any You're buying a piece

614
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: of property with a frame and sometimes.

615
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 2: Sometimes not even the frame. Now, the halfway houses were

616
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 2: in good shape, and then when we opened up Sparrow House,

617
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 2: which was a house for trafficking survivors of kids. That's

618
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 2: that one's already renovated. But the trap houses, yeah, we

619
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 2: have to cut them. We have to renovate them. And

620
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:30,400
Speaker 2: what's been really cool is oh roof Yeah, so eighteen roofing.

621
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've heard of them. They're local

622
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 2: veteran on They donated a roof to one of the

623
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 2: trap houses, which is amazing, Like we're seeing all sorts

624
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 2: of people come and swing hammers with us being willing

625
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 2: to bleed with us.

626
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:43,239
Speaker 1: Are you swinging hammers too?

627
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah. This is the part we never planned

628
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 2: and this has been really cool to watch, is that

629
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 2: the guys that live in our halfway houses and the

630
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 2: girls too, they want to help. They see what we're

631
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 2: doing out there on the dope track and they want

632
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 2: to give back because that's where they come from. Maybe

633
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 2: not that track, but a lot of them did. And

634
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 2: so we've seen. I've got one example that comes to

635
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 2: really two that come to mind very quickly that we're

636
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 2: huge problems on their way to getting kicked off of

637
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 2: drug court that asked to come help us, and the

638
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 2: judge will straight up tell you that come in and

639
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 2: helping us save their lives. It changed the trajectory of

640
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 2: their life because it gave them purpose. One of those

641
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 2: guys has graduated drug court now and he's he's he's

642
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 2: our superintendent out there on the block on my construction projects.

643
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 2: We couldn't do any of what we do without him.

644
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,719
Speaker 2: So it's not just we're not just rehabbing houses, We're

645
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 2: not just closing dope houses. We're watching lives get rebuilt

646
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 2: in the process, and it's what keeps me sober. You know,

647
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 2: I've had periods of sobriety over the last three decades

648
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 2: that I've been battling addiction and alcoholism, but never stuck

649
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 2: because I never had anything to fill that void. You know.

650
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 2: I drink to fill an emptiness inside me, to fill

651
00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 2: a void. And this work that we do that I

652
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 2: don't feel the need to drink anymodre. I still have

653
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 2: to do meetings, that's fell a spot's tryst, the steps.

654
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 2: But this is that defining factor that made this time

655
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 2: different for me. I have a purpose now, and I'm

656
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 2: watching other people come alongside us and find their own

657
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 2: purpose in it. Their purpose doesn't look like mine. It's

658
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 2: not the same as mine, or maybe it is, but regardless,

659
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:25,440
Speaker 2: they're able to find purpose through service. When you do

660
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you know this, Bill, but when you

661
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,879
Speaker 2: do something for somebody that can never ever ever pay

662
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 2: you back, it does something to your heart. And when

663
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 2: an addict or an alcoholic, especially in earlier recovery, has

664
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 2: that experience that change that happens in their heart. Being

665
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,000
Speaker 2: of service, well this is nothing new. If you're familiar

666
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 2: with twelve step recovery. That's the twelfth step. We're supposed

667
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 2: to carry that message. We're supposed to be of service.

668
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:52,919
Speaker 2: And so we're watching this play out in real time

669
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 2: and at scale, and it's replicable. We're not special, we're

670
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,799
Speaker 2: not I know, our story sounds insane, but like really,

671
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,279
Speaker 2: we're just lucky we made it, and we're really lucky

672
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 2: we made it together. This is something anybody can do,

673
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 2: you know, blighted houses, tax sales, Like, anybody can do this.

674
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 2: I really do believe that. And even if they can't,

675
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,480
Speaker 2: anybody can just go be of service to their neighbor.

676
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:26,879
Speaker 1: Five days or so after he woke his bloody self

677
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 1: up and hauled us to Georgia and you said, hey,

678
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 1: you got to come back. You got the keys. It's

679
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:36,400
Speaker 1: about five days, right, yeah, days whatever, shortly, yeah, and

680
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: then you all get on a Greyhound and head back

681
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:43,440
Speaker 1: to north of Atlanta and Georgia. What was the date

682
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: do you remember about?

683
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 2: June first?

684
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 3: June first, which is my that's my clean date of

685
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:49,920
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen.

686
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:56,600
Speaker 4: It's four and a half years Yeah, it's four and

687
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 4: a half years ago. You were in a trap house

688
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 4: with a two year old.

689
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: Addicted with a two year old, and you were waking

690
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:09,880
Speaker 1: up in a parking lot covered in somebody's blood, with

691
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 1: no recollection of anything that happened the four days previous,

692
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: four and a half years ago. And now you're telling

693
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: me you have halfway houses and stuff all over the

694
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 1: city currently serving seventy formally addicted people trying to get

695
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 1: their lives right, the people that you refused to lyput.

696
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:28,480
Speaker 2: Yep, that's correct.

697
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:33,319
Speaker 1: See if you guys can do that. Plus you've got

698
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:37,799
Speaker 1: a business again and you burned one down twice. If

699
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 1: you can do that, anybody can.

700
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:45,400
Speaker 2: Anybody can, and it doesn't have to be to this extreme.

701
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,279
Speaker 2: I overdo everything, as do it. I do, you know

702
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:55,360
Speaker 2: it doesn't have to be this extreme. A week before

703
00:36:55,920 --> 00:37:01,360
Speaker 2: Nick died, I was in dts, which are that's alcohol

704
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 2: a drawl and it can kill you. And I had

705
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 2: made the decision I was going to take my life.

706
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,400
Speaker 2: And I went into a gas station in South Memphis

707
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,680
Speaker 2: at at Bellevue and Elvis Presley right there at South

708
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,399
Speaker 2: Parkway with the VP, and I was going to steal

709
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 2: a beer and I was going to go overdose. I

710
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,360
Speaker 2: was just done. And I walked in that gas station

711
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,880
Speaker 2: and a woman I've never seen in my life smiled

712
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 2: at me.

713
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: That was it.

714
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:31,560
Speaker 2: She smiled at me, and something happened in my head.

715
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that moment. I'll never forget her face,

716
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 2: because all it took was a stranger smiling at me

717
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 2: to decide I'm going to stay on this earth just

718
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,359
Speaker 2: a little bit longer. You just listed a whole bunch

719
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 2: of cool stuff that's happened. If that woman hadn't smiled

720
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 2: at me, none of it would have happened. I tell

721
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 2: you that story to illustrate this point. It does not

722
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,399
Speaker 2: have to be anything as extreme as what we're doing.

723
00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 2: Sometimes just smiling at somebody can change the world. Seriously,

724
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:02,920
Speaker 2: you have no idea what you could accomplish just by

725
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,400
Speaker 2: showing kindness to somebody you don't even know. Forget everything

726
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 2: that we've done here in this city. All right. There

727
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 2: are fifteen thousand Afghans that are alive today because of

728
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 2: the results of not just our efforts, but a lot

729
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 2: of organizations like us, A lot of kids that thousands

730
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,800
Speaker 2: of children that are still alive because I chose to

731
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 2: stay on this earth, and a lot of other good

732
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 2: people chose to show up when nobody else would all

733
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:27,680
Speaker 2: because of a smile, All because of a smile.

734
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 1: You mean, normal folks changing lives.

735
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:35,240
Speaker 2: That's one hundred percent normal thoughts changing lives.

736
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:40,879
Speaker 1: We'll be right back.

737
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:55,800
Speaker 2: We're at a at a crossroads as a civil society

738
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 2: right now. We've been here before, about a century ago.

739
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:04,359
Speaker 2: There's a theologists or scientists Robert Puttnam that talks about it. Yeah,

740
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:11,400
Speaker 2: we've been here before. And our faith in institutional leadership

741
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 2: said an all time low, justifiably so watching what happened

742
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 2: in Afghanistan and a million other things that the border

743
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:22,920
Speaker 2: crisis fentanel crisis. I don't trust our government, which is

744
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 2: okay because I don't feel like what we're talking about

745
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:32,280
Speaker 2: right now is our government shop to fix. Government creates

746
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:35,439
Speaker 2: more problems than they're able to solve. At a grassroots level,

747
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:40,360
Speaker 2: these are our communities, these are our streets, and more importantly,

748
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,120
Speaker 2: these are our neighbors. These are the people that we

749
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 2: are supposed to show up and love unconditionally until they're

750
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 2: able to love themselves. And we can all make a

751
00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:51,600
Speaker 2: difference out there. Memphis does not have to be in

752
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:55,839
Speaker 2: the top five deadliest places in America, and before I'm

753
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 2: willing to slow down what I'm doing. It's going to

754
00:39:58,280 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 2: get off that list.

755
00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 1: Jess. I see you sitting there noding your head, then

756
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 1: y'all are probably seeing me nod my head if you

757
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,600
Speaker 1: cann't listen to that and look at where you are now,

758
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: what you're doing now, and understand why you no longer

759
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:27,560
Speaker 1: harbor shame now after hearing that, I just don't think

760
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:33,480
Speaker 1: you've been listening, you know. Yeah, sure, Gil, sure some regret, but.

761
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 2: Not shame, No, absolutely not.

762
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 1: What do you feel when you hear your husband say

763
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: what he just said.

764
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:48,440
Speaker 3: Just a little gratitude. I'm so grateful because we shouldn't

765
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 3: be here. Y'all heard the story. I mean, we should

766
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:53,440
Speaker 3: not be here, and I'm glad that God gave us

767
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 3: a chance. And honestly, I mean we you know, we

768
00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:58,880
Speaker 3: did the work. We did a lot of work. We

769
00:40:59,280 --> 00:40:59,920
Speaker 3: didn't sleep.

770
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: Sounds like you're still doing work.

771
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:03,880
Speaker 3: We're absolutely, I mean like eighteen hours a day. My

772
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,320
Speaker 3: phone never stops ringing, his phone never stops ringing. We

773
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 3: have kids that are like, hey, we need you and

774
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 3: h and that is a problem sometimes, you know, sometimes

775
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:15,399
Speaker 3: we put our kids, our own kids, on the back burn,

776
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 3: our kids that have already had to go through enough

777
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 3: with our addiction. And I just almost hate to say this,

778
00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 3: but they're having to deal with another addiction. Now it's

779
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:30,320
Speaker 3: just helping people instead of it's just a good addiction.

780
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:32,600
Speaker 3: Now instead of a bad addiction, say it's healthy.

781
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, it is a healthy addiction.

782
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 1: Are they involved? They are our son. Jacob is different

783
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 1: if they're watching versus if their participants.

784
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 2: Jacob has got he just turned eighteen, but you know

785
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 2: he went out to Valde with us after the masker

786
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 2: at rob Elementary, we get asked to come out there

787
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 2: and I guess initially work with one of the first responders.

788
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,600
Speaker 2: We ended up providing security for seventeen to the funerals.

789
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:00,800
Speaker 2: We worked with every one of the families. We fundraised

790
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 2: for one of the girls that survived. Jacob went out

791
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 2: there with us. Was such a godsend to the children

792
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 2: that survived. I mean we still talk to those families

793
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,040
Speaker 2: to this day. Jacob went to win Arkansas where the

794
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 2: tornadoes with us the fires in Lahina Task Force Lahina.

795
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, you were literally looking for

796
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,120
Speaker 1: anything you can we do, but.

797
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 2: It's only where God really tells us to go, though

798
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 2: I try to remove self will from it as much

799
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:34,760
Speaker 2: as I can, because I do go into some dangerous places.

800
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 2: I do go into places normal people, particularly some of

801
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 2: that's not a special operations veteran should be going. And

802
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:45,160
Speaker 2: I know if I step too much into my own will,

803
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get myself killed in some of these places.

804
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:49,920
Speaker 2: So we try to go where God directs it. Right

805
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 2: now that God has directed us to focus everything we're

806
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 2: doing here in Memphis.

807
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:57,880
Speaker 1: How many houses total right now?

808
00:42:57,960 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 2: We've got nine?

809
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: And let's just be honest, some of these are leveraged. Yes, yeah, absolutely,

810
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:11,080
Speaker 1: I mean this is not like you're independently wealthy cash

811
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 1: and buying these houses.

812
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 2: We got used to living with nothing. And even though

813
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:21,800
Speaker 2: we're making money now, we don't have excess. Our excess

814
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 2: money goes into our philanthropy. And if that's the price

815
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:26,160
Speaker 2: that it costs to say sober.

816
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: So be it. Why stay in north of Georgia and

817
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,920
Speaker 1: do all this back and forth. You must be buying

818
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:35,880
Speaker 1: a new set of tires every month, and I have

819
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:39,719
Speaker 1: because you're literally going back and forth constantly. You're commuting

820
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:43,080
Speaker 1: from Atlanta to Memphis like I compute to my commute

821
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 1: to my house every day.

822
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:49,600
Speaker 2: That's a good question, and I have tried to convince

823
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 2: her to consider moving back here.

824
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:53,480
Speaker 1: I was wondering if this was going to be the answer.

825
00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: I think I know it.

826
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:58,359
Speaker 2: My kids, you know, well, two of them have two

827
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:01,719
Speaker 2: addicts for parents. Of them have one addict for a parent,

828
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:05,000
Speaker 2: and Memphis is not yet the place I want to

829
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 2: raise kids.

830
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:11,680
Speaker 1: I get it, and I gotta believe in the deepest

831
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:16,280
Speaker 1: recesses of your mind, it could be a dangerous proposition

832
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:17,920
Speaker 1: for your family.

833
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 2: We've already, yeah, crossed one bridge. We're just not willing

834
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 2: to take that risk yet.

835
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:28,239
Speaker 1: Fair enough commute spending wheels off and did I want

836
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 1: to say one more thing. I heard you talk about

837
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 1: Aaron supporting kids, supporting you, just supporting your friends, and

838
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 1: then I heard you talk about Nick supporting you and

839
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:49,360
Speaker 1: you supporting Nick. These are your ex spouses who have

840
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 1: been even through out of it, remain loving and supportive,

841
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,800
Speaker 1: which tells me that they were two unique people that

842
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: could separate the person from the addiction. Hate the addiction

843
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 1: loved the person. I just want to give you an

844
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: opportunity to speak for two or about both of those people,

845
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:17,319
Speaker 1: because they seem pretty phenomenal to me to have had

846
00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:20,960
Speaker 1: their lives torn up by your addictions and still stuck

847
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:24,879
Speaker 1: by note only you, but one another as spouses.

848
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:30,360
Speaker 2: So we had obviously we had a rocky road with

849
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:33,239
Speaker 2: justin Aaron in the very beginning, because there was I mean,

850
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,960
Speaker 2: I made a lot of bad decisions. But I have

851
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 2: often said I had the ex wife lottery, and I

852
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:41,160
Speaker 2: mean that every.

853
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:43,920
Speaker 1: Wife lottery.

854
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 2: Well, funny, I really did. Uh. You know, Aaron, I

855
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:50,640
Speaker 2: think I mentioned I've known since I was twelve years old.

856
00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:56,960
Speaker 2: She's just one of the kindest hearted people. Her life

857
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 2: was impacted by addiction before me on her family side,

858
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 2: and so while she can't relate, she gets it more

859
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 2: than most would.

860
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:09,600
Speaker 1: And yeah, Aaron and you share children.

861
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:12,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, we share five children. That's the biggest thing. You've

862
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:14,120
Speaker 2: got to always put the kids first, always period. I

863
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:15,239
Speaker 2: think always has.

864
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm going to tell you something. Somebody could

865
00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 1: be your dad's a loser, your dad's lost business. Your

866
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:23,480
Speaker 1: dad's an addict, he's a he lives in drap houses.

867
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: Your dad's a piece of crap. But I sense that

868
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 1: she's the kind of person that's like, we hate the addiction,

869
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:30,040
Speaker 1: but we love your dad.

870
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:32,719
Speaker 2: To my knowledge, she's never said a bad word about

871
00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:33,200
Speaker 2: me to the kids.

872
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 1: Want woman Erin. I hope you're listening to this, but

873
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:40,840
Speaker 1: kudos to you for your heart and your patience, and

874
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 1: I got to believe she's rooting for the two of you. Yeah, Nick,

875
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:47,759
Speaker 1: Nick was.

876
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 3: Of course he's not with us anymore, but he was.

877
00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 3: I think he was just so deep in his addiction

878
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:57,520
Speaker 3: that and he was a little crazy out there sometimes.

879
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 3: But I think he just had a lot of respect

880
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 3: for Ben because me and Nick were always down and out.

881
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 3: We were homeless ourselves. We never really had anything, you know,

882
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 3: like Nick never really worked. He had a meth head

883
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,800
Speaker 3: for a dad and a crackhead for a mom. So

884
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:17,080
Speaker 3: he's never known normalcy as I really hadn't known it

885
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 3: when I was a kid. So he sees me get

886
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 3: with Ben, and Ben's this, you know, big time businessman,

887
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 3: and he's got his own house and he's you know,

888
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:27,560
Speaker 3: able to pay for his own kids. So I actually

889
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 3: think Nick really looked up to Ben and he very

890
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:33,440
Speaker 3: much valued his opinion.

891
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 2: Nick was a good dude, but he was a very

892
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:42,359
Speaker 2: good good guy even if he had nothing else. Yeah,

893
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:46,120
Speaker 2: and he just had a most respect He is I

894
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 2: have no doubts about that.

895
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 1: So we'll wrap this up with this. You heard the

896
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 1: story of all that you've been through only four and

897
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 1: a half years ago to pick up in good Lord,

898
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: thank Goodness for your parents to have a respite and

899
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:14,760
Speaker 1: to go to and now rebuild your business. Got involved

900
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:20,839
Speaker 1: helping Afghanistan, people that fought for our country that were

901
00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:25,759
Speaker 1: left behind, and then turn that into work you're doing

902
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:31,720
Speaker 1: in Memphis now, sheltering and harboring seventy formally addicted folks

903
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,840
Speaker 1: getting their life back on track. And I gotta believe

904
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,320
Speaker 1: you're looking for the next house. What an amazing story.

905
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:41,919
Speaker 1: So if someone wants to contact you to find out

906
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 1: more about what you did, let's say they want to

907
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:48,880
Speaker 1: do it with you alongside you in addition to you.

908
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:51,799
Speaker 1: How do people find you? Guys?

909
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:55,720
Speaker 2: So are the nonprofit? There's two of them. We started

910
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:59,400
Speaker 2: flanders Fields, which is Flandersfields dot org to help Hamilson

911
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:02,560
Speaker 2: adicted that. We very quickly realized there's a lot more

912
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 2: people that didn't serve that need the same help, so

913
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:08,240
Speaker 2: we start up We fight Monsters websites. We fight Monsters

914
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,520
Speaker 2: dot org. You can contact us through those websites. I'm

915
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,320
Speaker 2: on social media LinkedIn, Facebook.

916
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:14,640
Speaker 1: Give me handles.

917
00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:18,120
Speaker 2: LinkedIn is the real ben Owen? Instagram is the real

918
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:20,200
Speaker 2: ben Owen Facebook. I have no idea what it is,

919
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 2: but if you just search bno and you're gonna find me.

920
00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:24,479
Speaker 2: I've had a ton of pictures go like crazy viral.

921
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 2: Elon Musk retweeted one of them. I hold signs with

922
00:49:27,239 --> 00:49:30,040
Speaker 2: stupid messages on plus.

923
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:35,800
Speaker 1: Tattered up coolok and you got the cool beard, you

924
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: got the whole, you got the whole groovy dude going

925
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:43,319
Speaker 1: for sure, So I get why you'd be retweeted and stuff.

926
00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:47,320
Speaker 2: So yeah, we've we've got a big social media presence.

927
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:49,959
Speaker 2: I'm pretty easy to find on there. And then jess

928
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 2: of course Jessica Owen on LinkedIn, and.

929
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:56,920
Speaker 3: Our halfway houses are at Rebo's Recovery, which is sober

930
00:49:56,960 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 3: spelled backwards. Do that again, Rebo's Recovery, which is sober

931
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 3: spelled backwards.

932
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 1: That's interesting, okay. And so email addresses if someone wants

933
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:08,480
Speaker 1: to email you.

934
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:12,360
Speaker 2: Email is just at Flandersfields dot org. Ben at we

935
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 2: Fight Monsters dot org. We're both very responsive at when

936
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:19,359
Speaker 2: we can be, we're not. And then YouTube, we got

937
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:21,760
Speaker 2: a YouTube channel. It's at Monster fighters.

938
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 1: All right, there you have it. If you can't get

939
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:26,360
Speaker 1: in touch with you or find you through all of that,

940
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,880
Speaker 1: you're not trying real hard. And I don't do what

941
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 1: I'm about to do a lot, but I'm going to

942
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:36,719
Speaker 1: say this, y'all. These are folks who were living in

943
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,080
Speaker 1: a seven hundred dollars truck four and a half years ago,

944
00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:43,800
Speaker 1: blitzed out of their mind on heroin and crack and

945
00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:49,360
Speaker 1: really fighting just to live another day, having lost a

946
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: couple of businesses, been foreclosed on a home at three linebackers,

947
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:56,640
Speaker 1: so their stuff in a storage unit, sold their phones

948
00:50:56,840 --> 00:51:00,239
Speaker 1: for the next tip, and they are now four and

949
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:03,719
Speaker 1: a half years later north of Atlanta, having rebuilt their

950
00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:10,399
Speaker 1: businesses and not spending everything they make on themselves, rather

951
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:16,680
Speaker 1: investing in the most desperate among us in our society.

952
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:22,560
Speaker 1: And if you heard their stories, they're not evil. There

953
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 1: were addicts and the vast majority of the people in

954
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,359
Speaker 1: these trap houses they're selling themselves for drugs, or selling

955
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:31,560
Speaker 1: their houses for drugs, or doing whatever they have to

956
00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:38,319
Speaker 1: get drugs. They're people with souls and hearts and brokenness,

957
00:51:39,520 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 1: and their brokenness just has to happens to manifest itself

958
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 1: in a way that maybe others doesn't, and it's public,

959
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:51,759
Speaker 1: it's scorned. People don't like it in the neighborhood, and

960
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:54,959
Speaker 1: as a result their particular brokenness we tend to shun

961
00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,720
Speaker 1: and turn our backs on. But they're people with souls

962
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:03,600
Speaker 1: and lives just like just like Ben adjusts. And so

963
00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:08,360
Speaker 1: I'm just going to say this one time. You know,

964
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:15,240
Speaker 1: if you want to donate to something, I can't imagine

965
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:17,760
Speaker 1: a better thing to do than to donate to turning

966
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 1: a dope house into a hope house and intrusting it

967
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:26,759
Speaker 1: to the hands of people who know that life intimately

968
00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:30,120
Speaker 1: and personally, who have now dedicated their lives and have

969
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:32,560
Speaker 1: proven after four and a half years, they're never going

970
00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:36,840
Speaker 1: back to trying to help those that were in the

971
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:39,399
Speaker 1: same position with them. And they know it all too well.

972
00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:41,959
Speaker 1: And so they're not just able to fix houses, they're

973
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:45,000
Speaker 1: able to fix lives because they understand those lives. So

974
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:48,520
Speaker 1: if you feel so compelled, I hope you'll reach out.

975
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,920
Speaker 1: I have a particular affinity for what you're doing because

976
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,279
Speaker 1: everybody says, what are we going to do to fix it?

977
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 1: And when you just got through saying it's not the

978
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:01,200
Speaker 1: government's problem, this is our community and our city and

979
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: our neighbors and our people, and therefore it's our responsibility. Dude,

980
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:08,520
Speaker 1: you just hit me right on the head because that's

981
00:53:08,560 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 1: what I've been saying ever since this podcast started. And

982
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:13,880
Speaker 1: I can't I can't agree with you more. And I

983
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 1: hope somebody listening here reaches out and helps you get

984
00:53:18,239 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: the next nine houses, because it turns seventy in two

985
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 1: hundred and forty, one hundred and forty and two eighty,

986
00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden things start changing and

987
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:30,520
Speaker 1: that five percent most dangerous city in the world gets better.

988
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:36,720
Speaker 1: And guys, I'm in awe of the lives you've overcome,

989
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 1: and then I'm in awe of the lives you're now building,

990
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:43,360
Speaker 1: and mostly in all of the lives you are now changing.

991
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:48,600
Speaker 1: And I cannot thank you enough for spinning the wheels

992
00:53:48,719 --> 00:53:51,439
Speaker 1: off your car and spending the evening telling your story

993
00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 1: with me.

994
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:54,279
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having us.

995
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:57,759
Speaker 2: We appreciate you having this big time brother. Nobody's coming,

996
00:53:57,880 --> 00:53:58,680
Speaker 2: It's up does.

997
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:04,279
Speaker 1: And thank you for joining us this week. If Ben

998
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:08,040
Speaker 1: or just Owen or another guest has inspired you in general,

999
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 1: or better yet, inspired you to take action by volunteering

1000
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:15,880
Speaker 1: with We Fight monsters by donating to them, or starting

1001
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:19,520
Speaker 1: something like it in your own community, or something else entirely.

1002
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:22,239
Speaker 1: Please let me know I really want to hear about it.

1003
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:26,480
Speaker 1: You can write me anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot

1004
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 1: us and you'll hear back from me. If you enjoyed

1005
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:32,400
Speaker 1: this episode, please share it with friends and on social

1006
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 1: subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it. Help us out,

1007
00:54:36,760 --> 00:54:40,239
Speaker 1: become a premium member at normalfolks dot us. Any of

1008
00:54:40,320 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 1: these things and all of these things that will help

1009
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:46,640
Speaker 1: us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

1010
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:47,919
Speaker 1: I'll see you next week.