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Of the Law and Order franchises. SVU is considered especially watchable.

We are the amateur detectives who kind of investigate the vicious felonies.

These episodes are based on. These are our stories.

Done done, Yay.

Another episode of That's Messed Up an sv podcast.

I am Liza Traeger.

And I'm Kara Klank. And you know how this podcast works, Guys. We talk about an episode of SVU, we talk about the true crimas based on and then we usually interview an actor from the show. And you know, we've not been able to do that because of the strike.

But the strike is over.

It's been ratified with a depressingly low participation percentage, and we are going.

To be having guests in the new year.

This is coming out the day after Christmas, our last episode of twenty twenty three. What a year it's been. Thank you to everybody who came out and saw us live. We do have one more live show in the on the schedule for January seventh in Seattle at the Wet City Comedy Festival. It's at the Crocodile Slash. The Bell what's it called, the I don't know. It's got like two names, but the Crocodile Lounge.

It's great. It's got like a great.

Uh it's not even called the Crocodile Lounge. That's where I did stand up in New York. It's just called the Crocodile. Go to Thats Messed Up Live dot com. That's got the link for that. You can go see Lisa there on the six doing stand up. There's a lot of other awesome headliners, Patti Harrison, jol Kim Booster. Go check out that fest and come see us on the seventh. I think our show's at like six thirty, and that'll be the last one we have until we start.

Figuring out what we're doing for twenty twenty four.

And as you're listening to this, I am in Mexico City, So I hope you think about me living my full time fantasy.

I'll think about you at the Casa Azul as Rose, he says, She goes, can we go to the Casa Azul, which is.

What she calls Free to Callo's House?

Because if you don't know, every four and five year old in the world like knows everything about Free to Callo. She's truly an icon among kindergarteners and Lisa Rosie was like, can we go to the Kasas? Like, oh, you know, Lisa's actually going there like a week. She was like, can we go too. I was like, I don't think we can tag along on Lisa's vacation, but she'll send us pictures. Well, if there's a gift shop, I'll definitely see what little Blue House plea goodbye please? They I

Daddy, and we thought that was really funny. But she loves Freda.

They named their butterfly Frida, and their class they said it free after it grew out of a Chrysalist.

And everything in a cocoon. So big fans over here.

But yeah, it'll be I will be driving back to Connecticut from West Virginia, where by the way, I'm trying to get my kids tickets to visit Santa at a Bass Pro shop in West Virginia.

And it's a hard ticket to get. How hard are you trying?

So my mother in.

Law's doing it but she was like, didn't seem like there was much of a line, but might get more crowded closer to Christmas than I go. I can't wait to explain to my child how Santa definitely stops by a bass pro shop to talk to kids every year.

Well, listen, some kids want a fishing pole. You know we're not all the same, true, true, Well, speaking of fucking Christmas. So earlier this month, I'm driving back from San Diego. Everything is great, having a nice drive, some nice phone chats. All of a sudden, I can't exit our exit, and then I'm stuck in this insane traffic. And then I finally get to where I need to go. Another street is closed, so I'm turning around with people, and then of course I feel bad for the people

Know what this is.

I call Kara and she goes, it's a fucking Christmas parade and she was stuck in it too, but I got stuck in it.

I was driving, so I took Rosie to Lakhma, which is a modern martn art museum in la and it was so cute. I took her there and I go I got to run run her home by like twelve thirty, twelve forty five because I got to get to therapy by one twelve forty five. We're getting to our neighborhood. This parade started at one, which is what's crazy. Was supposed to go one to two. You called me at three and there was still bullshit going on three o'clock

I just was like texting my therapists, going, ironically.

This is where I need therapy the most, because I am truly freaking out.

I cannot get home.

Jared kept going, just take a deep breath. Traffic sucks, I go. You don't understand.

It's not traffic. It's literally I'm trapped.

I am barricaded onto one side of Figueroa and I cannot get to the other side.

It was terrible.

It was wild. One woman did yell at one of the traffic cops. But it was truly like I got off on forty third So from forty third Street to sixtieth Street full blocked, blocked, I had to go all the way around. I was.

It was bonkers.

And then everybody that was trying to avoid the parade and get home was in the same line of traffic. Like that was crazy just getting once you figured it out and got on to the other side.

So I just was so I was like this, I'm glad.

I wasn't well. Then I called our friend and I go, what is going on? She goes, maybe the President's there? I go, shut the fuck up. The President did not come to Highland Park randomly by the fucking food for less.

You know what I mean? Which friends has said that?

Can you tell me, Julie, She goes, well, last time I got stuck in stuff the President was visiting. I go, Yeah, in New York City, Okay, not in our like little area on a random afternoon. No.

I love that though.

If Biden was just chilling at food for us one day, that would be cool.

I also I would have gone to the parade. I also wish that my Google Maps was better and told me to go on the two like there would have been other options.

But I didn't know what was happening.

Yeah, but you know what doesn't know parade. It knows like accidents, but it can't figure out parades. Like I kept telling me to go back to where I was like, I can't go their Google maps and I couldn't find a traffic cop.

You found one, right, That's how you eventually figured it out. Well, I haven't seeing empty vehicles, No, I saw a guy and then I saw this woman scream at him, and it's.

Like, what girl?

Relax? I was really kind. I go, can you just please tell me how to get to my streets? I'm like, please get me home? And he helped, but my car reeked of weed.

Like I cannot I cannot believe.

I was that desperate that I was like, listen, if I get arrested, I get arrested.

I gotta get home, I gotta get well.

I have more embarrassing. No blame of a Christmas parade. This is all my fault.

So I go.

I drive to the comedy store, I would say, three times a week, maybe more or less.

For years.

Now, I go there more than I go anywhere else, I would say. And I missed my exits twice, truly, driving on the wrong highway for miles because I was listening to Taylor Swift. I twice. This has happened two days in a row, where all of a sudden I'm like, why would I get on the ten? And then I was like, oh my god, I missed the.

One on one.

You were like about you hit the ocean and you were like fuck, like wait, where were you listening to Taylor just her music? You just got someone to the music?

Oh my yes, I'm just that I've It's truly broken my brain in a way I can't I can't understand. And then yesterday I'm driving to the store and then it keeps telling me to get off on these downtown and I hate driving downtown. I feel like it's like truly Gotham, You're underground, Like I really hate driving downtown, and it kept me like get off on the third street. Get I'm like, I'm not fucking going downtown. And then

I like, it's really taken over.

But I was talking so all of a lot of you on the road have made us incredible sview that's messed up friendship bracelets and so we have like bags of them and I brought some yesterday to the comedy store to give to some of of our SVU friends and it was really exciting.

I felt really cool.

And one of our friends, I go, I just can't get enough of her, and he goes, yeah, she's touched.

By God, and I go, yeah, you're right, that is what it is.

It's like, it's really it's too much. And then I woke up. But now everyone knows it's really sweet. I always get Simpson stuff, people send me Miley things, sex SVU stuff, and now I woke up to a text about articles that are happening different tailor things, and like waking up to pictures, You're just people.

Putting more intense interests to your list, but nothing ever falls off. Everything stays on the list.

Well, I'm hoping this tapers off a little, so I'm not missing exits to my job, you know what I mean, Like, I just hope it's but I had like tasks to do today, but instead I read this time article about Taylor Swift was the most I've read about anything outside of the research for this podcast.

It was it was like an eight to ten page article. I was for those long ones that take like hours. Yeah, oh my god.

But the photos are good. Did I try to buy a print? I did? Okay, anyways, but then I got to talk to a friend for a really long time and made people happy. Steph tool of did take the best bracelet? Which one? And I let her have it because that's the spirit of the bracelets. I gave her Stabler's jean jacket. Oh wait, do you have mommy's juice in that? Oh yeah, because yeah, yeah, no I would.

I love his denim. And I go, Okay, the right person got it.

Yeah, she's Canadian stabler, always in a Canadian tuxedo.

It's like, perfect, You're totally right.

Oh.

I had a friend call me that said, on Hulu there's a series called Homicide for the Holidays and it's like holiday based murders, and have have we gone too far as a true crime community?

Like well, it's like everybody's just trying to find different angles in but I don't know, it's like we can't do like an Arbor day murder marathon, all crimes involving trees and wood, like.

Through the snow okay, and on a snow filled lake we found but it's.

A little Right after the family got together, she was never seen again.

Like, I don't know, it's too much.

I will say, though, you know, famously my making a murderer.

My family watched it through a full on a full.

Christmas holiday together, watched the entire thing, and Jared was horrified.

So I love twice holidays.

I've watched it twice, but not at holiday holidays.

Was the first time.

What is his family watch on Christmas? Like a Christmas Jared's family, there's not like a thing. They'll watch anything with us. I mean they'll they like, but we wouldn't probably do that.

But they like.

They like a lot of like upstairs downstairs BBC Downtown Abbey type shit, like they should get into below deck. Yeah, they if they like upstairs it is modern. That is modern Downtown Abbey.

And I'm sure your parents are gonna love Captain Sands are there.

I bet they'll love Captain Sandy.

You know, I felt like your parents would like Captain Sandy, and I feel like his.

Parents would love Captain Lee. Yeah.

Yeah, not that your parents would dislike Captain Lee, but I think they would have something.

Going for Sandy in a way. Well, they're all Republicans. I'm sure that is the way.

Oh my god, my parents finally moved out of my childhood home.

Oh my god, they're gone. It's out.

We're done. We're not we don't, I don't. I can't go back to my old house.

Anymore.

Did was there a lot of memories there?

Like did they live there?

Boxes you had to go through or were all your possessions gone?

And it's just memories.

No, It's like, well I lived there for thirty five years, right, but like my parents moved into it thirty five years ago. I didn't win it for thirty five years, but my parents lived in it for thirty five years.

And we like every year.

My mom was so big on like can you just take these things out of the house that are yours? So like, I've been slowly moving things that Like I just took my wedding dress out of the house like one trip ago when I was in Connecticut. So like I'm I've been getting stuff out, so I don't really think there's anything left.

I mean there might be. Like I asked my mom to.

Put a side a box of VHS tapes because I want to get them digitized to DVD of like family videos and stuff.

But I think, like, yeah, well, so I use this service to do that.

I don't know if you remember a couple of years ago where I got all my old family video It was actually pre pandemic.

For that show, I was doing the vacation.

Oh right, But and I had a Google Drive folder of them all and then I wanted to find one from like a specific video. I'm locked out of it. I didn't doubt, and like I downloaded them on my computer that had water damage, right, And so I've been emailing with the company and I basically had to pay like eighty something dollars to reopen the thing. I'll get it in three weeks, then I can download keep it permanently, and then with a subscription, I can always keep it whatever.

And it is weird that this company and he just has my.

Home videos on lock yeah, because like I literally just asked a photographer, like I was like, could I get some prints of like Rosie's gallery from last year? Like I know you already took the gallery down, and she goes, yeah, I'll just unlock it.

She just unlocked it.

Like it's like they could have just unlocked it for you, Like they're charging you to be dicks. Yeah, fucking because they know it's your family memories, but I'm excited.

I want to get those chart change.

But we were all there at my old house together in August, so we did all get together and have like a little family party. So I think that was like a nice way. But I kind of thought i'd have like one more chance to sort of go and I don't. But my parents moved into this new place and I can't wait to see it.

My sister said, it's nice, and is it close.

It's close to Yeah, it's it's probably twenty minutes from my parents' old house. I'm closer to my brother where it's, which is usually where I stay when I go back now, so it'll be pretty close.

Yeah, that's nice. Yes, so it'll be good. My parents are still scurrying up and down to it's of stairs all the time, NonStop, ranging up, and my mom like insisted on moving to a place where it had like a first floor master bedroom.

A first floor I mean a no getting into a tub, like a walk in shower, like they're trying to minimize accidents, because you know, the day they had to move out of the house, like the final day, final final day, my dad decided, oh wait, we haven't taken anything out of the attic yet. They just never went up there. There was like hockey sticks and sleds from when we were kids up in the fucking attic that they have

Oh my god. So like he didn't like get hurt.

But that's like they had to get a contractor in there to like fix it before the new people moved in the next day.

Damn, it's fucking nuts, Like my mom goes.

My mom was like, I mean, I guess shit happens, and I was like, yeah, with you guys, so much shit happened.

I wonder if basement and attics are regional or like something like that, because we most of my friends had basements. We were in basements. I didn't know of addicts. Addicts were just on TV.

For me.

Yeah, we have an attic, but it's like you had to like pull a ladder down the way you do.

It, well, that's a savation.

Yeah, And so we never went up there, like I think in my life I've been up there twice. Maybe, Like I don't know, my parents would just like go up there and like put boxes and come back down like I don't even think they walked like it was just like a place to you know.

Obviously it doesn't have a secure flooring.

But we had a storage space off of my childhood bedroom that was like that was what we kind of used as an attic. It was what we called the storage space, but it was you could put all the shit in there. And that's where I hid my phone when I bought a phone on my own and I plugged it into a jack so I could have a phone in my own room because my parents said I couldn't. And I would like make little phone calls and then hide my phone in the storage space.

And it never rang. They couldn't really tell when it was ringing.

They weren't like in my room with me, you know, like it rang like the rest of the house.

But they couldn't really tell.

Was it a clear phone with where you could see all the wiring.

I wish I wanted that so badly.

That was my absolute jam, But no, it was like some phone I won through selling wrapping paper for my school, Like I would sell that was like our thing that we did for fundraising or whatever. Was like sell wrapping paper and you would win prizes, and I won. I was able to choose my prize, and I chose this like little shitty phone. Like I don't even think it had a cradle.

I think it was just like a headset piece that you went like this and you can dial on it like it was. It was crazy.

But I are a poster child of you should allow your kids to do things or they will learn how to sneak and lie like no other. Absolutely, that's just no trust, I know. But like you got away with everything, might as well just be like, yeah, I have a phone. I just you know, you know, such a bad parent. Not that your parents are bad, it's a bad that's the generation. Yeah that everyone was silly. Yeah, it was just you're in trouble and then your kids are sneaking

I know, I know.

It's definitely made me think about how I'm going to do things differently. For sure, if Rosie wants a phone in her room, whatever, but by the way, a phone in your room's not going to exist when Rosi's older, because they're all just gonna have cell phones. But when do I give her that? That's the big question.

I think you can get her a jitterbug right yeah, yeah, or one without data where she would need Wi Fi to be.

There's little like watches too that can get texts and make calls, and or like little watches for kids. I might do that too, Yeah, and throw a what are those trackers in the backpack?

Yes?

For you know, a tile?

I heard you could put the tiles in the shoes because the bags can be missing, but you can, like under the sole or something. You can put them in the shoe or even in the Yeah, because you know what I've been watching on TikTok. Well, now I don't have TikTok anymore on my phone, hopefully I've not.

Put it back on.

But I was listening to nine to one one calls where people can't be free to talk, like you know, it's them ordering a pizza or something like that and the other and then the operator is just like, tell me if you're in trouble and can't talk, and then it's yes, and then it's like how they get the cops there?

While Wow, I think about that, like all the time.

I always think about how I'll like make a phone like call my oneman really quickly and then hide my phone and be like I'm just here at my adrene like say your address. I don't know, like I think about that. That's like a like probably a rescue nine one one thing or something I picked up as a child.

Yeah, it's and then it's like does the person armed, and it's say pepperoni, and then you like hear a man yelling like I said that.

You know, it's it's pretty wild, but.

You know, it's just hard to think because like most of humanity is bad at what they do. Not really that's not true, but a lot of people are bad at their jobs. And yeah, we see that all the time. And it's just so scary if you call the wrong nine one one operator, yeah, nobody to watch the hang up.

Yeah yeah, but it is.

It's so scary to think what if you got one that was like shift over wrong number.

Yeah, you know, Well, we have to get the episode started, but I also I wanted to really quickly on the tip of tailor TikTok, wrapping up everything we've talked about today.

Thank you guys, so much.

For all watching and sharing our little TikTok video we made of the We're best Friends, We're SVU.

Fans video that we made.

We had such a fun time making that because we knew that, like only SVU people.

Would like get what we were talking about.

So, and thank you all for spamming the comments of Travis and Jason's podcast We Are you know, hoping to get a call that they want to be on or whatever.

So I'm listening to today's episode. I'm a weekly listener to the New Heights podcast now and there they brought up two bears, one cave. They brought up fucking Sigora and Bert and those boys have enough. We yeah, but I'm talking our time we get brought up. So I'm about to Textagore and be like, don't you fucking dare. Yeah, I was gonna say, oh, and if there are TikTok trends.

That's what I was gonna say that you want us.

To do, send them to us because we'd love to make more videos.

But we like, we're only two elder millennials. We're just two elder mills. And so, like Lisa's took it off her phone and I'm not on it that much. So if you see like a trend that seems like it would be fun for like the SVU or for us or whatever, send it to us, DM it to us, to our Instagram or whatever and let us know so be cause like we'd love to make more stuff like that and it's fun and yeah, but let's get started.

Hopefully you had a great time with Santa. Let's say Boxing Day. I don't know, is the twenty sixth Boxing Day? Let me see, I don't even know what it is.

Mean.

Yeah, it's Tuesday, December twenty sixth, So Happy Boxing Day to all Canada.

So what is Canada? Boxing Day?

The day after Christmas is the feast of Saint Stephen, the first Christian murder. It's also known as Boxing Day, a secular holiday celebrated in parts of.

The Commonwealth, including Canada.

So, okay, happy day to all who celebrate a knockout punch of a day for you, here's a Boxing Day treat this episode.

So we're doing merchandise today and that's season twelve, episode four. You obviously know it's not a good type of merchandise, but let's.

Jump in here.

It's not about it's not about Benson knowing all the high end brands.

No, No, this one's sad.

Okay.

So we start off and there's a Dakota Fanning looking girl running very very fast. She's breathing hard, she's scared. She's running through a farmer's market. She's in flannel, she's knocking down people. It's very action movie. Produce is flying, you know, it could be a comedy. But she looks panicked. Someone's yelling at her, but she's clearly in distress, and

Jam, you dumbass, Like it's like, yeah, she looks terrified.

I just can't believe not one adult went, what's wrong? How can I help you? You know, like, not fucking one. But uh oh, she gets hit by a car and now she's dead in the street. So I guess maybe they're thinking twice about how they acted. So obviously Melinda is now on the case. She's standing over the body and I paused it in that moment to type, and the light is hitting her gorgeous like she is glowing in these blue scrubs.

It is Golden hour.

So Melinda is glowing, but I am haunted by like this girl. When she landed the foliard, the noise of her crunching on the cement was not good for me. Very authentic noise is good of a body hitting cement. So something is jacked up with a socket, So that's not good. So the zygomatic socket is busted. The scapula radius alna in the eye are all fucked. But Benson and Stable are like, okay, sure, but why are we

Yeah, you do, bitch, and like it's season twelve, why are you testing Melinda?

Yea, why are you testing Melinda?

It's so annoying and her full curls are on command today, And so Melinda gets the sad news. There's ligature and friction marks on the wrists and ankles. She is abused and she was starved to death. And then this quote it's sad, but it's the wording is funny to me. Her heart is soft and floppy Floppy is an easter bunny, not for a heart.

Get a posaurus, you know what I mean.

But it's weird, Like floppiness is always in medical jargon. There's a thing called like floppy baby, Like when they're first born, if they're floppy.

That's like bad.

You have to like figure out what's going on. Like they're supposed to be more like rigid, intensed up because they just got pulled out of a body, you know, and like if they're floppy, it's like a bad sign. I think it's called like floppy baby syndrome or something like that.

But aren't they all floppy?

Like how do you know what when the baby's floppy versus a regular baby?

I think, well, here, let me see what causes floppy baby syndrome, neuro muscular disorder, central nervousism.

I don't know.

I think it's just like when they come out, they're usually tensing up their little arms and legs and they're screaming, you know. And then so like when they come out, they're like rigid with their legs and arms, kind of like tether pissing, and so floppy is not not the best. Yeah, But anyway, it is a funny. It is a funny like word in general.

It just sounds more like whimsical and silly than likely mabbs.

Yeah.

So there's also lumin in her stomach and nothing in the small intestines, and her body was breaking down muscle for fuel. Her liver was like fucked and greasy. This is sad, like this girl was starved to death. And but behind Melinda's a skeleton. You'd find it a school or a party city. So it is funny. She's being really serious, but then there's like just a floppy skeleton in the back, and it's like, I think Melinda should know what a skelt, like, what bones are which bones?

You know what I mean, I've seen I've seen that before.

The only reason I think it could be there is so she can explain it to detectives and be like, see where the scapula hits or whatever, because she does do that a lot.

She does a lot of teaching to them. But it is funny. I think I saw that when they had that little morg party where she was.

Trying to fuck I see. Yeah, I think I saw that skeleton, just like chilling with a Santa hat on.

Yeah, Melinda's in an open marriage so anyway, so Stabler asked a good question. How was she even managed to run? And Melinda explains it was adrenaline. She's between twelve and fifteen, and she gave birth within the last year because her pelvic cradle is spreading.

Uh oh. And then the car didn't even kill her.

The you know, the cab rushed the process, but she would have died in soon, you know. So Melinda is ruling it a homicide. We go to the credits, We come back to a flooding. In the squad room, they're mopping water. There's trash bags everywhere. The pipes are old and the city will not get them new pipes.

So then Craigan's like, I hear you're.

Questioning Melinda's ruling, and she's pissed and why are you challenging the Emmy And they're like, we just don't think it's possible to build a case because it didn't actually kill the Jane Doe like the cab did, so the best we could do is attempted murder. So okay, then fucking do it, you know what I mean? So anyway, so Finn has footage up on the flat screen and Craigan goes, well, let's find the bastard who starved her and not be worrying about court and what to charge

She's a dumb bitch.

It's like, the girl is dead, but sure your jars of blueberry compo are really a priority here. I kept thinking that they were going to like break the news to her, like the girl is dead, but it does then they don't, so I'm like, oh, so do you just know?

And you still wanted to come back from the dead and pay for the blueberry compoe.

She wanted the cops bay, she wanted the city to pay for her compo, Like she doesn't care a child's dead. She's not questioning herself being like, fuck, should I have done more to help you know, like that's not really happening. So a man behind her is like, get over it to the you know, to the wife, I think it's a husband. It's a husband energy for sure, and so this isn't Lussia's grape, you know, I don't think he's

Those kids are a menace.

Like those kids, and it's the mission Farms hires, so there's usually more of them. And it's a program that gives at risk kids day jobs, you know, instead of therapy activities, love, Let's get them a job, you know, instead of taking them to the aquarium, let's get him a job in the fields.

What the fuck?

So the husband identifies that that girl running her name is Carly, and then the wife is like, oh, he's such a pushover. He was always giving them samples and that girl scarfed up my food. And it's like, are you pissed that she's hungry and eating it too fast.

You're mad she destroyed it.

Now you're mad she's scarfing it down, Like, I just don't understand the mind frame. But there are people that don't believe in free school lunch and they believe kids should have to be janitors to get food.

Like there are.

Bad people, it's just not the vibe of somebody who sells blueberry compote at a farmer's market. That's not who I think is gonna be horrible to children, Like.

But this bitch sucks. She goes and then they had the nerve to puke it all up. It's like, why would you not help her? Benson and Sailor hate her like we do. And we find out the kids are only there on the weekends and every they're like, how did no one notice that these children were starved? So they go to speak to the farmer's market management to find out where the farm is and they say it's

The last name is Holbart.

She's fifteen Lower East Side address, so he writes it down for Finn, and now we're knocking on an apartment building. Nobody's answering for a very long time, so Finn knocks on the neighbor's door. She has a blunt bob cut glasses and looks like she's about to talk.

I thought she would be a nosy neighbor.

She goes, oh, the whole bird's actually got evicted about a year ago after the mother died cancer, and then they went away, and she slams the door in his face.

Like, she I guess I called her rock.

Yeah, he goes, do you know where they went? She goes away and just shuts the fucking door. She's classic, It's yeah. But I thought she was going to be a different classic. I thought she was gonna know everything and be caring. He thought she was gonna be like, if you want to know what I think?

Yeah, But instead she also doesn't care where these kids are. So no one wants to help anybody. So the parents' voters are on the board now at the squad and there's security footage picks. So the family was tossed out on the street about a year ago. They were drowning in hospital det He has no current job, and Finn goes, there's no missing report for Carly, and Craigan's like, do we think the dad is the one who starve her? And Finn goes, I mean, that's a lot of mouths

Like what?

So you turned defenseless miners to a stranger, He says, well, a woman wouldn't hurt them. He's a fool, so he's a fucking idiot. She gave me a phone number and talked with them, and then one time, one day the number got disconnected.

He said.

Her name was Magda Poloma, thirty five. She was short and she had a little scar over her left eye. And they got a license plate of the car and then they ask, oh, did she give you an advance for salaries? And he says, yes, five hundred dollars each, and Sabler's visibly sickened and said, you sold your children to a predator. He screams, I love my kids. I got them work. Benson says, dude, you had other options,

And he cries, I mean This is.

The first time where I kind of understand where he's coming from. Where he's like, well, they were gonna have shelter and food. I thought it was like a good decision. So because this whole time, I'm like, selling kids for five hundred bucks is insane, Like why are you trusting a random woman in a phone? Like, but then the finally getting to see where he was coming from.

Is a little I'm sure they also know how to dupe you. They're like, yeah, they get to live in nature. They work two hours a day, and then they go to school. It's like going to forest school. It's like an outdoor you know, community or whatever.

You know.

They're not telling them we're gonna pimp them out, and like like the five hundred dollars is just to like get them started with supply, you know whatever. Like I'm sure they know how to fool them, even though it's like unconscionable.

Yeah.

So then the dad in the in the photos in the crowds, he's a picture and he goes, that's my son, that's Micah. Do you have Micah? So they always looked after each other. He's like he would never leave his sister just bleeding in the street. He must be in danger or two. Please please help me find him. That's my boy. So Craigan's at the office with the crew and the dude and it's dark in the office. Turn on a lamp. It is so dark, but Mission farms

Like he'll be like he'll.

Be like this fucking addict, and it's like, but you are an addict, you know, And then he'll be like, I don't know. The guy was just trying to get his kids some pocket money, you know, like he does have weird sides.

Yeah, I like his boomer is showing.

But he and Stabler goes, no kids should have a childhood, and Stablor and Craigan go back and forth, and Craigan is soft and Stabler is like fuck you.

So basically though, the work.

Was legal, so they have to cut like everyone loose and being homeless isn't a crime, so Craigan doesn't want to split the family up. Finn runs in and a civilian caught the chase on his cell camera and it's not what we think, so we watch it and done done. Micah pushed Carly into trap so her bruther I gasped, but.

I knew I just watched it, but I was like, I can't believe it.

Why would the boy do this? And so he looks so scared. So I do have a new candle and it does smell like bananas, and I get whiffs of it once in a while and it brings me to such a place of joy. Okay, sorry, I love that. Were a little serotonin boost?

Can we are?

And I know it's like so sad because the brother just killed his sister.

But then I got a whiff.

Of banana and I was like, mmm, so anyways, why would that happen? So and he looks scared as well. So Finn is like, yeah, he was abused too, and he found out that he was charged with prostitution and resisting. So first they work on the farm and then they're forced into the sex trade, and Finn goes, yep, and there's more money in flesh than produce, and uh, private adoption. Benson says, fuck, they probably sold Carly's baby. And I didn't even fucking think about this. I thought it was

Yeah no, but I mean I like, yeah, no, you get a baby and you raise you, uh, to raise your own victim.

I totally thought it was just rich people wanting babies.

Like my, Uh, that is dark, dude, that is fucking dark to think about. Yeah, really horrible, Oh my god, God, raising your own victim? So yeah, raise victim in house is the direct quote. Saber's like, whoa, how can a thirteen year old be charged? For an act he can't legally consent to. Finn goes, oh, I'm livid about this, and goes, first thing I'm gonna do is ask the dude that fucking pinched him. So Finn runs up to a young woman detective and Finn goes, you know, Micah Holbert,

The first place.

And they're back on the corner and Finn goes, we need to protect these children, and she's like, well, they have to testify against the pimps and open court, and Finn goes, nobody is gonna talk and she's like, exactly my problem.

It sucks, dude, I hate this.

So I still don't like her them, and Finn is like okay, just help me find Micah, bring me to their pimps.

So they go to the pimps.

They ride together and there's all these losers lined up with their hands over their head. Finn goes, fact, now all of you are my bitches. Fact, deliver this kid to me or get used to living in the tombs.

Fact.

Until then, no stables safe, no John's out of reach, and most of all, no money gets made. So then one dude immediately he is like, relax, relax, I can help you out. So he's trying to be chill and helpful and sly. We don't really know what's going to happen. Finn goes, who are you? And he's being super vague and silly, but the other detective knows him and calls him a maggot and a nickel drug dealer and pimp,

Loyal to the Pimpsilverach. It's scary.

So Finn gets in his face and goes, I need this kid brought to me by this time tomorrow, and the dude goes, I'll have Jasmine deliver him to you and only you. Finn goes do that, and so it's like, yeah, he's doing what you're saying. It's so funny. But Finn runs to the office and it's overrun with water. The pipe's finally burst. Everyone has a box of files and they move to the command center outside.

They're gonna be out there for a minimum of a week.

Because the dude that rehabs the precincts he just got indicted.

L ol.

Wait, so I was like kind of wondering, like why are they doing this? Like why are they doing this?

Weird?

The precinct is flooding thing, And I was about this episode for something else and found out that this episode is like right when they were moving their studios from New Jersey to Chelsea Peers. So I think it has something to do with that. They're like in transition, and so they're using like kind of we got to get out of the office, you know, and work out of a van because like maybe it wasn't ready by like

It's just inconvenient, you know.

Yeah, because the usually when things are in construction and a mess, and and like, look, I'm just thinking about when Munch got paint on him.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of too.

That might have been when they were like because they have to explain that they're refurbishing the place because you know, the precinct changes so much over the course of the show. But this pipes and water, I'm like, what the fuck? Like I think it's because of this big move from they like lost their tax credit in New Jersey and so they moved back to the city.

Which I bet was happier with wait, but yeah, so but I also love that the dude that's going to fix its indicted, and it's because concrete testing was fake and so they might have to overhaul the whole foundation.

Of the whole bid away.

But then they go to this mobile center, fully painted, set up, professional trailer like it looks like an office. Things are bulletined. There is no way this is slapped together. There's full walls, there's like walls in there. It's not a trailer. So the running the description on Magda against any known traffickers. There are three options. So let's get a mug book going after we get Micah in custody and show him the photos. Finn goes the deadlines tomorrow,

I don't know. It's awful.

Sailors like, oh god, you know, thinking about his kids. Benson goes, those are not your kids, knows, but it just sucks. Benson says, as long as we treat victims as criminals, it will always be the same arrest the Johns get them. They all get slaps on the wrist. Nobody cares. Nothing is a degiterrent these creeps. Benson wants to treat them like the scum they are. Finn finally has his sights on Micah and he pretends to be

And Finn is a good john. He knows what's up. And just then Mike, Finn.

Like looks like such a cop to me, Like, it's just like he does not look I don't know, like.

No, because he's also is he the cop killer too? Like he is iced tea.

Sure he is iced tea, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who at any point is picking up a team for a blow and go Like, that's just not the vibe I get from Finn or from Ice or from like. But we know him, yeah, of course, of course, of course. But I'm sure think that that kid has seen all kinds.

That's what I mean, Like, we assume no one is molesting children which makes it easier for people to molest children because they're all doing it. You are, it is up to you, and I'm calling child services.

No.

Mike then goes around the world is three hundred, so that's upsetting. Around the world means all the holes in one session. I looked it up, so all three holes is around the world. But Urban Dictionary did have other explanations in this capacity. I know what it is, but it also means rimming situation like a circle around the butthole.

And then the third.

Urban Dictionary explanation is licking from the top of an ascract to the bottom than up the.

Pussy and dick.

Oh, but in terms of where we're coming from, I think it's every hole. Yeah, Vinn says, well, this car's too small for what I want to do. Let's take a ride, and the dude goes yes. So then Stabler approaches him and immediately the fighting. I mean, this young actor is very talented. Like the thrashing, fighting, screaming and pain that he does throughout this whole episode is masterclass. And he's crawling he like does not want to be punished, and he goes, you don't understand. You have to let

And they say please just wait.

And then Finn is about to zip time Mica, but they don't want him to. They're like, what the fuck, Like he's probably been you know, he is tied up and has ligature marks, so like the zip tie is going.

To scare him.

But also I don't get why they're not just bringing him to the precinct faster, like get him into a room, you know what I mean, and feed him. I don't understand why they have to like sit him in the car for this long. They don't know what to do because he's flipping out, but they don't want to tie him up because that's trauma. But now he starts banging his head against the windows so hard they have to take him out. Stable grabs him and goes, just calm down and you can get untied, and he breathes a

Wait, he also plays the father in Wait, I have to look this up.

I'm sorry, wait, do you know his name? I'm looking it up. Fred Melamed.

Sorry, he's in Casual and he plays the main people's father and he's like this complete narcissist and.

They have like a complicated relationship with their parents. He is really good.

He's in so much like he this man has seven things in pre pro I mean like in upcoming, Like he feels like he's so prolific.

Fred Melamed.

Yeah, he's really great and I've only seen him in like sillier parts, so but whatever. So he, you know, is stopping this interrogation, like this chat from happening, and the detectives are trying to help Mike guy, you know, so Sailor takes him outside in the hallway to chat and this guy.

My question is also like where has this man been? Because like I'm a CASA, you know, and he's a gal guardian Adltam is gal and like there's some time I'm like considered like it'll be like costas slash gal or whatever, and I'm kind of like, have you not been checking it? Who called you? How did you get involved? Like at this juncture when things are really bad, do you think he just joined like they just got him. They're like, you gave the Hosco mind.

Yeah yeah.

Maybe Saila breaks it down to him, but the guy is like, I'm sorry. Until he is no longer a suspect in his sister's murder, he is off limits, like I'm here to protect him. Benson goes, you are risking the lives of other children, but he thinks he's doing the right thing in protecting Micah. So Finn and Craigan are standing outside the mobile unit and Craigan is fuming. The construction workers are just hanging around and they're not working because they're union guys. So I just love Craigan

Is that what you want?

He says, you know, I don't. But until the judge rules, my hands are tied.

That's it.

Wang is, you know, talking to Micah and he goes, he made sure you never paid off your debt, didn't he And you're on the hook for everything, food, water, shelter. And then sadly the sex started. So the money was so good that he wanted more money. So then the farm trips turned into motel trips, and then on the weekends he spent on the knee, on his knees, taking one right after another. And like the thing is the price is so cheap, Like if the money is good,

What happened? To the others.

So we worked days and we work nights, and we didn't always get to eat, not even like what we picked. We only ate scraps and garbage from composts, unless the girls were pregnant, then we ate real good. So there were three babies born, and so during those times they got to eat well. But the babies were taken away right away and never seen again.

He says. Carly wanted her baby, and it didn't matter how she got it. It was hers.

But they don't know what happened to the baby. B d Wong looks so disgusted and desperate to help him, but like you know, he needs to take a moment, so he walks out and he goes. They need to catch these animals, he asked. Did you ever notice any landmarks or road signs when you went to these motels? He says, I usually keep my eyes shut. The car rides make me sick. Carl would rub his belly to make him feel better. His sister took care of him, and he's crying at this point. We took care of

No no, no, no, no, no no, no, please don't say that.

He knocks down the chair and starts Thrashinghuang is trying to figure out what's going on. He's crying because if she was really trying to save them, then like uh oh, and bd Wong goes, what did you do? He goes, I killed Carly. I pushed her and she got hit and he starts crying. Stabler nods, we hear Micah say, I didn't know she was trying to save us. I killed my sister. Huang niels and puts his hand down his shoulder as he cries. Stabler's like, we need to

Thank god.

The lawyer doesn't think that any family court judge is going to accept that. Howang goes, I don't fucking care a federal court judge will accept it, and I'm the FBI and I'm taking over. Benson's like, wait, slow down. What he goes human trafficking, sex trafficking, the man act like transporting miners across state lines, all violating US codes. He says, I have to call my boss. Sablor fights

I know, but I kind of get what Stabler.

Like in this moment, I feel like Huang is only looking out for Micah, and Stabler and Benson are looking at the bigger picture of like what's going on with the other kids, Like we got to find these other fucking kids. They're in danger right now. And I think that's where this is all stumming from. Yeah, So they have a stare off into the blackness. So we open up and Benson and Stabler are visiting Gloria Rubin, who's playing assistant US Attorney Christine Danielson.

She's a Neil Bear. She's a Neil Bear.

Darling.

Oh, I mean, I always know Glory.

I always remember Gloria Rubin from her role on Er where she played a doctor with HIV and that was like one of the first like that was like such an important character. I feel, wow, you know, and that's like always how I knew her. But then I know she's been in as few other times as well. But like she is, she's a Neil Bear, fab I feel.

And Saber's like, wow, you've moved up in the world. And she's like, why are you guys here?

You got this?

The case is slid. Why do you have to bring me in? And so they just and then she starts talking numbers. So globally about twenty seven million people are trafficked, and in the US that's fourteen to eighteen thousand, but she thinks that number is low. She then says, how like if a girl from Indonesia is trafficked here and she's found, she gets aid in services, but if it's a girl from New York, she gets nothing. She goes to a TV screen and starts showing photos and chatting

So then then if it's not affordable clean your own fucking house, you don't get a child's slave.

Yeah, you know, yeah, even if you can't afford it. I'm not okay with child slavery. Let me go on the record.

Oh my god.

So then there's a twelve year old sold by her mother for five grand to a middle aged man who shared her with his friends. And now a nine year old girl in Portland tossed to the street by her grandmother and she got taken by a pimp who charged premium prece for someone so young. Just reminds me when parents talk about having unconditional love for their kids and how that's not guaranteed. Yeah, She's like, for each one saved, there eight more like them, and there's not much else

That's the badge. So they switch their badges.

They give their NYPD badges, they get us Marshall deputy badges, and I'm wondering, like, lol, how did she have those badges just ready, two badges ready to give to random people, And so they swap them out and with these credentials they can work outside of their jurisdiction. Benson smiles really cheeky vibes, and then they raise their right hand and

Live victims are dead kids? She sighs.

She looks off to think. So they go and they try to see what they can do. So they're at Federal Correctional Institution interview room in Danbury, Connecticut, Sunday, October third. She's pleading with a tall string being of a man who is like, this, better not mess up my case.

Bullshit.

We've heard this so many times. And it's like you're always wrong, Like these men are always wrong. They're wrong constantly and never learn a lesson. And it reminds you of con Air, which Kara did recently watch for the first time. Yes, and it's like that angry dude and it's like he was wrong like seven times in that episode. I mean in that movie and would not stop yelling and demanding things. It's like, fuck you, you stupid men

They're like he's like, fuck, how big is your case?

And she has no patience since she snaps, quit fishing, tell your witness to cooperate. She gives lip and says, I don't have to talk to you, and she gets right in there in her face. Fine, then I will vacate the deal you have on the table right now, no witness protection, no immunity, and the lawyer yells, you can't do that, and Gloria Rubin goes, you're threatening my human trafficking case. I can and I will. My case

There's just so many letters and codes. It's like I don't understand.

So she shimmy's in her chair Sabler walks over and opens a folder with Mikeah and Carly, and it's just so sad that what they've been through. She looks down and smiles and says, yeah, got a thousand bucks seats. She's cold, she's cold blooded, she's smugs. She doesn't feel bad. But also this woman, I looked her up. She has barely any credit. She should be working more. I think she plays soulless very very well.

Yeah, she's good.

She thinks about it and takes the breath before revealing it's Liam and Julie Ryan want to be farmers, but she's never seen the farm.

Fuck.

The guy was careful and he would meet and pick up the case. We talked on burn phones that he would give me, and he said he needed some merchandise to work on the fields, and I got it for him.

Where did they meet?

So they met at a farm and feed store in some town called Hyan donk Yan Dank whatever. She delivered seven kids and even says I heard they turn those kids out. Evil bitch isn't worried. They ask if she knew any of their names, and she says, I didn't ask. I didn't care. All you saw was Dollar signs hunt. She's like yeah, and of course she then gets pissed and says, well, no one came to my rescue.

That's all we are Dollar Signed. So it's classic, you know.

Obviously she was abused forever and now she has no care for anybody and wants them to suffer as much as she did. So I bet her and the girl from Damaged would get along. I hope they meet in jail one day. I feel like Ari Grainer and this evil bitch can be soulless in jail together, making friendship bracelets, let's say mean things.

She's like the She's like Laura Gomez, who we interviewed her character remember from like where she's helped to traffic the girls. Yeah, because she was trafficked herself, Like yeah, yeah.

And so yeah, hopefully she meets her in jail too. They can all like reminisce. So then she reveals something bad. So she worked, she only worked with them for less than a year and recently stopped. I guess she does have limits because she heard her rumor they burned some workers when the heat was closing in. So they kill kids, they burn them, and yeah, awful. It keeps getting worse. So illegals, she says, are too scared to talk, so

Tailor then does have a great idea.

Let's fax over the photos of them to the farm and feed store and see if they're regulars there. Benson nods, Finn's on the computer getting scooped. So they lost their farm in Maryland due to foreclosure. They moved to North Carolina and then Florida, and they must have skipped down before Sarasota ped could question them after neighbors reported they had illegal labor. And when they got there they found all these bodies of children cyanide with grape juice. Craigan

Stabler is very clear, no lights, no sirens. We can't spook them or the kids will die.

So Gloria is in the backseat of the car and she's calling to get warrants set and first responders ready on hand with cyanide kits. It's a dirt, bumpy road and there's a truck driving at them. They start playing chicken. Benson hangs out the door with a gun ready to shoot. They fly off the road and the detectives get them with guns. They put their hands out the windows right away. They're not playing games right now, and it's just like the plainest looking blonde woman I've ever seen, Like.

Like what we assume criminals look like. They are not. They are there.

This is it.

Benson and Gloria rushed to the farm. They gotta help these kids. Benson enters, gun up, Hello, is anybody there? She announces she's a police officer, and then she remembers, oh my god, the root seller. We gotta go underground. She goes underground. There's children chained up. It is so sad, and the chains are all like they it pulls all their arms over their heads because there's like a thin pole and Benson's trying to tear down the pole so to get all the chains down. The kids are puking,

Oxacobolaman in.

Hydri and see kobalaman Yeah, should bind the crystals, he says, and then a thiosulfate IVY and a hyperbaric oxygen. But that's a tough audition. That's a tough audition, but it's a small enough part. Like I wonder if they were able to get a real EMT. Yeah, but you know, we've talked to people who have memorized Wilder. So but he only has a ten to fifteen minute window to save these kids. There's so many kids, and I hope they're able to do it. This is horrible. Another EMT joins,

I really don't.

Yeah, selling me to sex traffickers what? The dad nods, thanks them and goes towards Micah, who's in the hospital bed and begins to cry and says I'm sorry, and the dad says, it's not your fault, it's mine and we can all agree with that, and then Benson and Stabler walk off like the superheroes they are as benson hair sways in.

The wind and that's Dick Wolf baby, dark, thank you so much?

Wow, Yeah, dark dark episode, but seeing little kids in chains and a cellar is tough. Like, I wonder who those little kids are, their stage parents, they were all there.

Like, how do you explain it to the kids. It's just like a lot I know. Ugh, it's really gross.

Okay, well, please cleanse your palate with a few words from our sponsors and we'll be right back.

Okay. So this episode, I think.

Partially just the beginning part and the brother's sister relationship I think is based on the death of Janis Marie Brock. She was born in nineteen fifty seven and then at some point her parents lost custody and she and her younger brother, Timothy were put into foster care.

So in nineteen sixty nine, at the age of twelve.

I don't know how old Timothy is, but Janis is twelve, and she's Janie Marie, but she goes by Marie mostly in her life.

So she is twelve.

They get adopted by the youngs of Newport News, Virginia, and so there's surnames changed from Brock to Young, so now she's Janis Marie Young. Around nineteen seventy two, she's fifteen, she is raped by an adoptive sibling, which her younger brother witnessed. So she packs her shit into a pillowcase and she gets the hell out of there. And her and her brother were so close, and he he's like, ah, you know, we were like each other's teddy bear, each

And it's really graphic.

I mean, like, I know that the sound was graphic for you in this episode, but apparently this girl was like dragged one hundred feet and like was unrecognizable from this this being hit by this car. She'd been fighting with a man named Laurence Dorn. Doran said he didn't even know her, but had given her and some other people a ride and then at the house where he dropped them off, he claimed she attacked him with a broken bottle and a knife, and he said when he

Kind of looks like my sister.

Calls the Saint Petersburg police, and then finally in twenty fifteen, you know, her body was disinterred in like twenty ten. I don't know why this all took so long, but twenty fifteen, through DNA testing with her brother, they did identify her finally after forty two years as Janice Murray Brock. So her brother Timothy lives in North Carolina and he keeps her ashes with him in his house, so she's.

Always with him, and he finally found her.

So that's like a little bit I think the brothers sister and the getting pushed another thing that was listed. I mean, this episode is obviously based on sex trafficking in general and human trafficking, but I well, I'll start with this. So there is an article from two thousand and four that The New York Times published which was like a huge investigative piece into like the big business of sex slaves and sex trafficking in the US, Mexico

Also, George W.

Bush made sex trafficking a huge thing, so he's the president at the time. So the article refers to the young victims in as products or purchases in quote. So I think that's like where we got some of this inspo for like the title merchandise and for calling them that.

So they also talk about how a.

Lot of times women play the role of breaking down the children's psychologically, like they bond with them as mother figures and then they crush their spirits. So it's a lot like the Victoria Raya's character in the episode, Like most of these women were once victims and then this they eventually move into more you know, supervisory roles in these trafficking circles and stuff, and then the abuse and

It's very stomach turning.

But I realized in reading this article, how much of what they've described I've already like seen on SVU, like you know where, like shipping containers coming over with kids from other countries, and like even the one of the episodes from the first episode of Slaves, you know where she's kept under the she comes over from Romania and

I've only done it once before. Like it was just such a weird interview.

But then in it, Neil Bhaer talks about how he was teaching a class at Harvard and talking about sex trafficking and a student came up to him and was actually telling him about the farm work, like a lot of the human trafficking that goes on without the sexual

It's exploitative because I think it shows the viewer, like me, how fuck fucked fucked up it is and how evil they are and the desperation he felt, yeah, for pushing his sister, and because it's confusing, and then when you see these welts and you see that all these other children's lives are dependent on you returning Like, yeah, I think it adds to the vicious like nature of these fucking criminals and like what these kids are going through.

But you know, I can see where she's coming from.

I guess yeah, No, I mean totally totally. And SVU treads the line of this all the time. I mean, ultimately, all of this is entertainment. It's all for entertainment, but the show does like educate and bring up like so much of this article from two thousand and four, which

Like these girls get pulled off the street.

Like I think that stuff does happen, and I think it's it was happening in Mexico at that time. A lot of these rings have been broken up since there was a huge Russian Ukrainian one that was that was broken up in the early two thousands before this article came out, so you know, they are working to break

But there a lot of them say, you.

Know, you get to a point where you don't even want to go home to your family because you're like, who even am I now? Like what will they even think of me? Like I've been gone for so long and this is what I've become. Like it's just so sad and dark. But at the same time, like I've said it before, I do think that some of the child trafficking and sex trafficking shit that has proliferated in the US now on TikTok hugely is.

A lot in a lot of ways garbage.

Like I mean, I've seen videos of women like holding up a receipt that has a smiley face on it on TikTok going this is how they this is how they track you for trafficking, or like if you find a zip tie on the front of your car, don't take it off. Someone's trafficking trying to mark you for trafficking. Like this kind of stuff is crazy, and so I as always like to direct people to the you're wrong about.

So I think what they did a good job with is showing that it's like family that sells you, because I it's really easy to get behind the idea that some far away traffickers are abusing children, and it's a lot harder to believe the children in front of you that are telling you, they're being abused and mistreated by

Are in front of you.

Yeah.

You know, it's just easier to pretend it's some boogeyman, but it's the people in your neighborhood. Yeah, And I mean, I don't know.

Why it's it's such a huge right wing hot button, especially right now with QAnon and everything. That's how Freedom Movie.

And they don't actually have to make real change, they don't actually have to like even question their part in what's happening.

It's you know.

The other thing is too, is that they touch on in this episode of You're Wrong About That. I've always am like constantly harping on.

Is that there.

The reason why it's a right wing touching point as well is because ultimately human trafficking like gout, like restrictions and guidelines and all this stuff affects sex workers like it it harms sex workers, and they want to shut

So it's like, but you know that's a hot button issue for these people. Well, and this is an old episode of ours, but about Roger Kraft or Robbert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, they talk about this in that episode. Yeah, like the massage parlors in Florida and all these rich dudes and it's like the the raids happen on to save sex. But at the end of the day, the only people really punished were sex workers. None of these rich dudes getting handy is and using sex workers got punished.

They all got free.

But all these women were on house arrests, deported, jail time fees couldn't work, and it was later.

Like what they talk about in this episode also is that it was discovered later that even the New York Times and reputable outlets were reporting on stories by local cops in that craft bus that were bullshit that were later totally proved like bogus. So all of this to say, like, there are absolutely children being abused all over the world right now, and it's horrific, and it's like it's so

But also when you think about it and when you see it in sview episodes, it's like these kids are like beaten and andre and like out of it, and it's like that's what you're doing for your bachelor party. It's like weird. It's weird to me that that's even like an enjoyable.

While they were talking about it too in this in the article about how they're a little bit blaming porn, but they're like the sexual appetite for people is has become harder, like more violent, more younger, like just really and it's they you know, in the article, they're like

I just feel like we need to.

Sort of like, yeah, like let's focus on getting more accurate data and like not penalized sex workers and like figuring out like I don't even know if these rings are still happening. I know they were, but in two thousand and one it said like they were saying a lot of them got broken up.

So I don't know. People will sell drugs guns other people.

For money, and I don't know. We have to just figure out ways to stop that. But I'm certainly not the person to do that. But I do recommend this on podcast episode very highly because it really articulates what I am being terrible at articulating about this.

Now you're doing a good job, and I think us together have made it very clear. But an invisible trafficker is easier to panic about than when it's your local leaders or church leaders or in your family, and so it gives people the sense that they're doing something positive and they're not. You don't have to hold your baby's ankle at target, but okay, yeah, check.

Your receipts guys, they're coming for you. We will be back in a sec with our post mortem.

Well that was a troubling episode. Thanks for listening to that one. Yeah, I guess people are for sale and people will buy a baby and raise it to.

Be its victim. I think that was the most horrifying for me. I didn't know that. Well.

I hope that that's truly like a rare occurrence and like not like a more of a boogeyman thing than anything, because it's like you'd have to be very wealthy.

So it's a printing. Yeah, yeah, like I'm sure it's happened, but.

It's yeah, you have to be quite rich to make that happen, or just sick. I mean the prices we hear aren't even a lot.

Like that's the thing. It's like they work, these fucking kids.

It just really it's a disaster because we're all, you knows, those hierarchy of needs. We're all allowed to have bad days and like be upset by what's happened in our own lives. But if you just take one second to think about the global population, it is like, well, miracle the life we're living.

Yeah, And it's also just like the more and more I think about reproductive rights. I'm not saying like any of these children should like not exist. I'm just saying that, like I think a lot of times it's like children are born into like cycles of violence, They're born into poverty, They're born into like like like situations where reproductive freedom like was not available to the families, and it really

Have kids no matter what, and this and that.

And then it's like we just have thousands of these kids that are just like you know, being forced into labor or forced into sex work, forced into something you know well, and that family like you know, it was medical bills that got them in And there's just no safety net in this country for anything like one illness

I will never understand that. Like no, I was just reading that about this.

I was just reading like a random instagram about a woman who was like I had savings, I was doing great. I got into a car accident that completely fucked my life up. Couldn't work, couldn't do this, And now is like living you know, on snap and in government housing.

It's like it truly is so close.

Everybody is so close to losing everything from one catastrophic event.

You know, hopefully not this Christmas.

Yeah, you know, this is a perfect, perfect holiday season episode to just talk about the horrors of the fucking world. And it is like overwhelming. When I was reading this article, I was like, there's so much information here. The numbers are so staggering. They're so overwhelming. It's like I can't even start to think about how many children are just in horrible situations.

All over the world because I have it, like I shut off, you know, we have to.

I mean they say that like our brains weren't meant for this much information, Like we shouldn't be knowing everything we're knowing.

It's like, that's so I think we're all going nuts. It's it's it's too much to handle.

But also I feel like when we first started the podcast, we'd be like, oh, it's this holiday, well match, and now we're like, here's a human trafficking one Merry Christmas, you filthy animals. Yeah, let's do that.

Let's do the one where Live goes to the Bahamas because it's Christmas time. No, we're just doing merchandise because you capitalists all just gave your kids up on job presents.

I did like this is outdated now, but I did like the kind of fuck you for Black Friday that was exciting where the sales weren't good and people weren't shopping, there were no lines and everyone's like, honestly, go fuck yourselves, and that was just stop. Just no one even went online. No one went on I didn't because usually I do online Monday. There was nothing.

It did not really I that was cool. Oh yeah I heard.

I thought I heard cyber Monday people were like spending, but like, yeah, I think the like pushing each other down for flat screens at a Walmart.

It's not really happening anymore.

Like no, because but like there's also like buy nothing groups and like you know, I'm in these mom groups where people are trading very valuable stuff all the time and selling it for less and blah blah blah. Like so I just think there's a lot of other ways besides like you know, getting trampled at three in the morning on Thanksgiving morning, that you can do. And I like that some stores are taking a stand and saying we're just not gonna be open on Thanksgiving. We're gonna

Yeah.

That goes for a little store too.

You know.

I got to make my way over to a little store in the middle of LA because I just heard a girl I went to high school with owns a little toy store and she doesn't do online sales.

Wow. Yeah, it's over a miracle mile. I gotta go check it out.

Anyway, Guys, take care of your children, keep them close. Jesus, there's so much horror in the world. That's the post mortem on this episode. Let's get to what would Sister Peg Do, where we try to hug kel. Yeah, we try to help a little bit with what would Sister Peg Do. This is our weekly segment where we direct you towards a book, an organization, an article, something to give you more info about what we talked about today.

I brought it up so many times on the show.

The episode does a really great job of highlighting how sex trafficking numbers are overblown, and how like the idea of stranger danger got sort of pushed out again during the Bush administration, and that's more of a boogeyman and that stuff like what we see in this episode, children being forced into labor is much more prevalent and much more and harder to police.

And you know, so listen to that episode.

It is linked in our show notes, and we'll be posted on our Instagram stories the day this episode comes out and then saved forever in our WWSPD highlight that's on our instagum, which is that's messed up pod.

If you're not following us on Instagram, what are you doing with your life? Get over there?

Get over there. Next week we will be doing a fantastic episode called Breakwater, Season twenty four, episode five, So you know, enter this new season.

I don't know. I was gonna say, enter the New Millennium. I'm really losening, I think.

So we're gonna end this podcast watch a Breakwater and we'll see you next week. And I hope you get to lounge all throughout New Year's Happy holidays. Happy New Year, That's Messed Up as an Exactly Right production.

If you have compliments you'd like to give us or episodes you'd like us to cover, shoot us an email at That's Messed uppod at gmail dot com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at That's Messed Up Pod and on Twitter at Messed Up Pod, and follow us personally at Kara Klank and at glitter Cheese.

As always, please see our show notes for sources and more information.

Thank you so much to our producer Casey O'Brien and our associate producer Christina.

Chamberlain, and to our mixer John Bradley and our guest booker Patrick Cottner, and to Henry Kaperski for our theme song, and Carly Geen Andrews for our artwork. Thank you to our executive producers Georgia Hardstart, Karen Kilgarriff, Daniel Kramer, and everybody at Exactly Right Media.

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