Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthird Lola Blanc was 12 when a man at an LDS (Mormon) singles dance told her mother he was a prophet receiving direct revelation from God. No compound, no mass following — just a one-on-one system of control that separated Lola from her mom and escalated into coercion and trafficking, all framed as God's will. Lola's mother, Christine Marie, just starred in Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet — but this story never made the headlines, a...
May 20, 2026•1 hr 7 min
Special episode drop! We're excited to share an interview with Mariana on The Jordan Harbinger Show. Mariana talks about her long-running show, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, her experiences in the field, and what she's taking on now. We hope you enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 15, 2026•1 hr 38 min
Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthird Scott Budnick produced some of the biggest films in Hollywood — Old School, The Hangover, War Dogs. Then he visited a juvenile detention center in Los Angeles, and it changed the trajectory of his life. He walked away from Hollywood and started going into juvenile detention centers every week — teaching, listening, showing up for kids the system had written off. That was 22 years ago. He still goes every week. Along the way, he buil...
May 13, 2026•52 min
Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthird Watch on Spotify. If you’re subscribed to Spotify Premium, you don’t get any Spotify ads on my video. With a limited-time offer, get Huel today with an exclusive offer of 15% off online with the code MARIANA at https://www.huel.com/mariana . New customers only. Meagan Elizabeth was born into the Two-by-Twos — one of the most secretive cults in the world. No name, no building, no written doctrine. Just families meeting in homes acros...
May 06, 2026•1 hr 31 min
Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthird Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MARIANA at http://www.oneskin.co/MARIANA #oneskinpod Amanda Knox was 20 years old when she went to Italy for a study abroad year. Weeks later, her roommate Meredith Kercher was murdered — and Amanda became the story. She was wrongfully convicted, sentenced to 26 years, and imprisoned for four years while the global media treated her guilt as a foregone conclusion. After one of the most high-profile ...
Apr 29, 2026•2 hr 4 min
Join The Hidden Third Patreon today! patreon.com/thehiddenthird Watch on Spotify. Spotify subscribers get fewer ads on my video. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at http://square.com/go/hiddenthird ! #squarepod James Luckey-Lange had one country left to visit in the continental Americas: Venezuela. He'd survived Haiti, Nicaragua, a husky he buried in Patagonia, and the loss of both his parents — including his mother, the late Q Lazzarus, the singer behind "Goodbye Horses" from...
Apr 22, 2026•2 hr 4 min
Join The Hidden Third Patreon! https://patreon.com/TheHiddenThird Shaka Senghor went to prison for murder at 19 and spent seven of his 19 years in solitary confinement. But his imprisonment started long before that. Today, Mariana sits down with Shaka and has an intimate conversation about life’s hidden prisons, the moment in solitary confinement that changed his life, and the work he is passionate about now - speaking to young kids who grew up like him. Oprah Winfrey called her conversation wit...
Apr 15, 2026•2 hr 9 min
Jan Broberg was kidnapped at 12 by a family friend who convinced her it was an alien mission. Then kidnapped again at 14. Her story — the basis for Netflix's Abducted in Plain Sight — is one of the most shocking grooming cases ever documented. Today she tells it in her own words, and breaks down the predator tactics that are still happening — from family friends to online platforms like Roblox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Apr 08, 2026•2 hr 9 min
This week on The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with Coss Marte — a former drug dealer who, at 17, was running what he claims was New York City's first 24/7 drug delivery business, pulling in over $2 million. A betrayal within his own team brought it all crashing down, and he was suddenly facing up to 25 years in prison. Behind bars, a doctor told him he wouldn't survive to 30. What happened next changed everything. Coss lost 70 pounds, built a workout program with fellow inmates, and wrote the...
Apr 01, 2026•1 hr 45 min
Marta Barreto survived years of sexual abuse, addiction, exploitation, and prison. She became a mother, got sober, went back to school, and eventually landed her childhood dream — working on rocket propulsion at Virgin Orbit. In this episode, Marta talks about the psychological grip of trauma and exploitation, the barriers that keep so many victims trapped, and what it really takes to rebuild a life from zero. One of the most powerful survival stories we've ever told on The Hidden Third. Head to...
Mar 25, 2026•1 hr 25 min
Britt Elmore, former undercover narcotics detective, spent years embedded inside the operations most people only see in crime dramas — building cases against dealers, managing informants, and navigating the moral gray zones that define modern drug enforcement. In this episode, he pulls back the curtain on how undercover operations really work: the mechanics of infiltrating criminal networks, the fragile trust between officers and informants, and how drugs move from international suppliers all th...
Mar 18, 2026•1 hr 44 min
Sonny Von Cleveland survived years of childhood sexual abuse, 18 years in prison, and 19 months in solitary confinement. But it was in that isolation cell where everything changed — through daily conversations with a Muslim mentor in the cell across from his, Sonny found accountability, forgiveness, and a reason to live differently. Today he mentors at-risk youth in juvenile detention centers across Southern California, serves on Riverside County's Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, advocate...
Mar 11, 2026•1 hr 44 min
Between 4,000 and 6,000 cartel trespass growers take to the woods of California every year. They arrive armed, they stay for months, and they are ready to defend their cash crop at any cost. They divert waterways, deploy pesticides and fertilizers so toxic they were banned by the EPA over a decade ago, and leave behind environmental disasters that may take generations to repair. And they do all of this not in some remote foreign country — but in America's own backyard, sometimes within miles of ...
Mar 04, 2026•2 hr 2 min
Go to http://factormeals.com/hiddenthird50off and use code hiddenthird50off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. What happens when one of the most powerful corporations in the world – Amazon – decides your family is a threat? Amy Nelson, attorney, mother of four, and founder of The Riveter, found out the hard way: frozen bank accounts, FBI raids, federal subpoenas, and the full weight of the Department of Justice deployed against her family without a single charge being filed. In this e...
Feb 25, 2026•1 hr 42 min
Go to http://expressvpn.com/hiddenthird to secure your online data and get up to four extra months. At 14, Christian Picciolini was a lonely kid from an Italian immigrant family in Chicago when he was recruited into the Chicago Area Skinheads — one of America's first neo-Nazi skinhead groups. By 16, he was leading it. He fronted white power punk bands, helped merge his group with the violent Hammerskin Nation, opened a record store selling hate music, and toured Europe playing to thousands. For ...
Feb 18, 2026•1 hr 28 min
On The Hidden Third , we explore the underground worlds and shadowy figures that drive much of the global economy—so today I’m excited to share an excerpt from a new audiobook about one of our culture’s most taboo, most-watched, and least-understood industries: porn. It’s the most watched business in the world. And the least understood. Streamed by millions every day, porn is everywhere. It shapes our culture, our relationships, and even technology. Yet, nobody seems to know who really controls ...
Feb 13, 2026•32 min
Go to http://selectquote.com/mariana to save more than 50% on term life insurance. Kari Ferrell became known as “The Hipster Grifter” after her cons went viral. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Kari joins me to talk about how her scams worked — from bad checks to stealing from friends and lying about being a cancer survivor — and how things escalated after she moved from Salt Lake City to New York City, where she landed a job at VICE. We dig into what was driving her at the time, how easy it...
Feb 11, 2026•2 hr 9 min
Eric Balliet spent 25 years with the Department of Homeland Security - first with the CBP and then with ICE - arresting dozens of human traffickers, smugglers, and child predators. He led the wiretap strategy that resulted in the arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán—not once, but twice—and was named Federal Law Enforcement Association's Agent of the Year. In this episode, we dive deep into: - His time as a border patrol agent - His investigation into violent militia groups operating on the U.S.- ...
Feb 04, 2026•2 hr 11 min
Go to http://selectquote.com/mariana to save more than 50% on term life insurance. Go to http://rocketmoney.com/hiddenthird to reach your financial goals faster. In this episode, I sit down with MS NOW correspondent and bestselling author Jacob Soboroff for a candid conversation about what it takes to report on the stories that shape our country, and the personal cost that comes with it. Jacob shares why he became a journalist, the biggest lessons he's learned in the field, the toll his work has...
Jan 28, 2026•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 14
In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with Arman, an underground hacker involved in the infamous Xbox Underground case -- an alleged conspiracy federal investigators said targeted Microsoft and its partners and was valued by the FBI at more than $100 million. Arman says he’s been hacking since he could type. Diagnosed with ADD, he found an early obsession and talent in computer programming, spending months in grade school learning how to break into systems most people didn’t eve...
Jan 21, 2026•1 hr 46 min
This week on The Hidden Third, I sit down with Owen Hanson, known as “O-Dog” — a former USC athlete whose hunger to win at all costs spiraled into a criminal operation spanning sports betting, drug trafficking, and money laundering. Hanson’s story was recently featured in Mark Wahlberg’s docu-series Cocaine Quarterback. But this conversation goes deeper than the headlines. He tells me how it started with his own performance-enhancing drug use — and how, in his early twenties, it escalated into a...
Jan 14, 2026•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 12
Go to http://rocketmoney.com/hiddenthird to reach your financial goals faster. This week on The Hidden Third, I speak to Anna Sorokin, better known as “Anna Delvey”, the infamous “fake heiress” whose real-life story was later dramatized in Netflix’s “Inventing Anna”. Anna posed as a wealthy German socialite, worked her way into New York’s elite circles, and used deception and manipulation to get banks, luxury hotels, and even friends to bankroll her lifestyle – a modern case study in scams, grif...
Jan 07, 2026•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 11
Justin Paperny is a former stockbroker turned convicted felon. In this episode, he takes Mariana from the schemes that landed him in federal prison to how he now coaches white-collar criminals on surviving incarceration and rebuilding their lives. #38b54e70-3445-11f1-81fc-5777b6f0ba3e #423667 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 17, 2025•2 hr 12 min•Ep. 10
Todd Thomas’s daughter was 12 when he discovered she was being groomed by a child predator. What he did next changed the course of his life. Mariana talks to Todd about the moment he found out, the choices he made, the failures that let this happen, and how he’s turned pain into purpose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 10, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 9
Go to http://expressvpn.com/hiddenthird to find out how you can get up to four extra months. At 21, Lisa Phillips was assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein, an ordeal that marked the start of years of grooming and manipulation. In this conversation with Mariana, she opens up about the trauma she endured, the system that enabled it, and her ongoing fight for justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Dec 03, 2025•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 8
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to http://betterhelp.com/mariana for 10% off your first month. Aliia Roza says she was trained by Russian intelligence in “sexpionage” and later defected after falling in love with one of her targets. She shares her straight-out-of-Hollywood story with Mariana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nov 19, 2025•1 hr 53 min•Ep. 7
Rob Archuleta takes Mariana from his meth-fueled days in Las Vegas to the grueling yet rewarding crucible of Ironman, tracing why he quit drugs and how the scrappy running club he founded, Addict2Athlete, is transforming lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 6
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to http://betterhelp.com/mariana for 10% off your first month. At 23, Sequoyah Thiessen moved to L.A., believing the “Rehab Riviera” would help her kick opioids. Instead, she was pulled into the shadow economy of fraudulent rehab programs, where people in crisis are bought and sold on a multi-billion-dollar black market. She sits down with Mariana to talk about how this dangerous underworld works, who profits, and the way she turned her life around. Le...
Nov 05, 2025•57 min
Days before reporting to prison, Mathew Bowyer, the bookie at the center of the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal, sits down with Mariana to walk her through his illegal betting operation, why it collapsed, and what he believes Ohtani knew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 29, 2025•2 hr 5 min•Ep. 4
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to http://betterhelp.com/mariana for 10% off your first month. Go to http://topodesigns.com and use code TOPOHIDDENTHIRD for 10% off your order. When Michael Santos was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for cocaine trafficking, he turned a cell into a classroom, earning degrees, writing books, and, inspired by Frederick Douglass, becoming a leading voice for reform. He tells Mariana how the transformation happened, and what freedom looked like af...
Oct 22, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 3
