Truth Hurts Show

What if the very people paying to kill wild animals are also helping keep those species alive?

Trophy hunting is one of the most controversial industries in the world. But according to Rob Kern of Hunting Consortium, there's a side of the story most people have never heard.

In this episode, we sit down with Rob to challenge everything we thought we knew about hunting, conservation, poaching, and the billion dollar business surrounding African wildlife.

Rob explains why wealthy hunters spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on hunting safaris, where that money goes, and how regulated hunting programs can provide funding for local communities, anti-poaching operations, and wildlife habitat protection.

We get into the disturbing reality of illegal poaching, the international black market for rhino horns, and what happens when lions, elephants, and other dangerous animals come into conflict with villages and livestock.

Rob also shares firsthand stories of being charged by elephants, sleeping just feet away from wild lions, and working in remote parts of Africa where traditional tourism struggles to generate enough money to protect wildlife.

But the biggest question remains: Is it ever ethical to kill an animal in the name of conservation?

Whether you're against trophy hunting, support regulated wildlife management, or have never considered the economics behind conservation, this episode will challenge you to look at the issue from a different perspective.

You don't have to agree with hunting to understand why this debate matters.

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Brian's Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/briangoldphd 
TikTok:   / https://www.tiktok.com/@briangoldphd  

Makan's Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/Makan.Mostafavi  
TikTok:   / https://www.tiktok.com/@makanmostafavi

Rob’s Links
Website:   / https://huntingconsortium.com/
LinkedIn:  / https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-kern/

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome Rob!
04:13 The Different Types of Hunting
09:27 Why Trophy Hunting Is So Controversial
15:42 Can Hunting Actually Save Endangered Species?
21:16 Where the Money From Hunting Safaris Goes
27:38 How Hunting Supports African Communities
33:51 The Difference Between Ethical Hunting and Poaching
39:24 Rhino Horn Trafficking and the Illegal Wildlife Trade
45:17 Anti Poaching Operations in South Africa
51:43 Lions, Leopards and Human Wildlife Conflict
57:26 The 23 Day Leopard Hunt in Tanzania
1:03:14 Elephant Charges and Sleeping Near Wild Lions
1:09:32 The Most Dangerous Safari Experiences
1:15:18 Hunting Ethics and the Future of Conservation
1:19:37 Rob Kern and Hunting Consortium

#TruthHurtsShow #RobKern #TrophyHunting #WildlifeConservation #EthicalHunting #AfricanSafari #Poaching #WildlifeProtection #HuntingConsortium #AnimalConservation #Africa #BrianGoldstein #MakanMostafavi

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100,000 subscribers. We did it.

When we started the Truth Hurts Show, the goal was simple: create a place where we could have real conversations, ask the questions other people avoid, and sit down with guests who have stories worth hearing.

What started as an idea turned into something much bigger than we expected. We’ve had conversations about health, business, politics, relationships, corruption, recovery, technology, personal transformation, and some of the wildest stories we’ve ever heard.

Now we’ve officially crossed 100,000 subscribers and received our YouTube Silver Creator Awards.

In this episode, we’re looking back at the journey from our perspective. The guests who surprised us, the moments that stuck with us, the episodes that made us rethink what we believed, and what we’ve learned from building the show together.

More than anything, this episode is our way of saying thank you.

Every person who watched an episode, shared a clip, left a comment, subscribed, sent the show to a friend, or supported us along the way helped make this possible.

We’re proud of how far the Truth Hurts Show has come, but we’re nowhere near finished.

100K was the first major milestone.

Now we’re coming for 1 million.

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Brian's Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/briangoldphd 
TikTok:   / https://www.tiktok.com/@briangoldphd  

Makan's Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/Makan.Mostafavi  
TikTok:   / https://www.tiktok.com/@makanmostafavi

Timestamps:

00:00 We Hit 100,000 Subscribers
01:17 Unboxing Our YouTube Silver Awards
03:46 Thank You to the Truth Hurts Community
05:12 The Road to One Million Begins
06:38 Our Favorite Guests So Far
08:21 The Prison Story We’ll Never Forget
10:07 The Episodes That Opened Our Eyes
12:16 Body Brokers and the Dark Side of Los Angeles
14:09 The Stories Coming Out of Downtown LA
16:02 Politics and Conversations That Surprised Us
17:41 The Weird Guest Requests We Get
19:03 Should Hunting for Sport Ever Be Ethical?
20:18 Who Should We Interview Next? 

#TruthHurtsShow #100KSubscribers #YouTube100K #SilverPlayButton #Podcast #BrianGoldstein #MakanMostafavi #PodcastMilestone #YouTubeCreator #100K 

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Dr. Topeka Sam went from facing more than a decade in federal prison to becoming one of the country’s prominent advocates for women impacted by incarceration and eventually receiving a full presidential pardon.

Topeka was sentenced in 2012 after pleading guilty to a federal drug conspiracy charge. In this episode, she takes Brian and Makan inside the moment everything collapsed, what she encountered after entering prison and why meeting incarcerated women from radically different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds changed the direction of her life. The archived White House clemency announcement says she received a 130 month sentence and served three years before becoming an advocate for criminal justice reform.

Topeka says she became convinced she wouldn't serve her entire sentence.

After writing directly to the judge, her sentence was reduced. Additional programming and sentencing changes shortened her incarceration further, and she was ultimately released on May 5, 2015 after serving roughly three and a half years.

But her story didn't end when she walked out.

Topeka founded The Ladies of Hope Ministries and began advocating for women and girls affected by incarceration. The organization now describes its mission as ending poverty and incarceration while providing housing, reentry support and advocacy.

On December 23, 2020, President Donald Trump granted Topeka a full pardon. The White House announcement cited her post prison advocacy and identified Alice Johnson among those supporting the pardon.

This is a story about what happens after the sentence. From federal prison to advocacy, Alice Johnson, Kim Kardashian and ultimately a presidential pardon, Topeka Sam turned one of the darkest periods of her life into a mission to change what comes next for others.

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Brian's Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/briangoldphd
TikTok: / https://www.tiktok.com/@briangoldphd

Makan's Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/Makan.Mostafavi
TikTok: / https://www.tiktok.com/@makanmostafavi

Dr. Topeka’s Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/topekaksam/
Website: / https://www.drtopekaksam.com/

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome Dr. Topeka!
03:18 How Her Life Led to a Federal Case
06:47 Facing More Than 10 Years in Prison
10:26 Entering Jail and Seeing Who Really Gets Incarcerated
14:03 What Federal Prison Was Actually Like
17:38 Why Topeka Believed She Would Get Out Early
20:16 The Letter That Helped Change Her Sentence
23:41 Walking Out After Three and a Half Years
26:08 Building The Ladies of Hope Ministries
29:37 The Alice Johnson Case Goes Viral
32:24 How Kim Kardashian Became Involved
35:06 Alice Johnson Helps Topeka Get a Presidential Pardon
37:42 Trump Pardons Topeka and the Backlash Begins
40:13 Why She Works Across Political Lines
42:16 Restitution and the Punishment That Continues After Prison
44:07 What Topeka Is Building Now
#TopekaSam #TruthHurtsShow #PrisonReform

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Rafael Petardi has spent more than 30 years acting, and after working alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, he has stories about what these people are really like when the cameras stop rolling.

Eventually, that persistence put him on some massive sets.

Rafael appeared in Netflix’s Red Notice alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. He describes The Rock as extremely professional, Ryan Reynolds as funny and Gal Gadot as glamorous, while explaining what filming one of Netflix’s biggest productions during the COVID era actually looked like.

Then there’s Keanu Reeves.

Rafael worked with Reeves on Siberia and says everything people have heard about Keanu’s kindness is true. He recalls sneaking away for a cigarette with him when a homeless man emerged from a pile of garbage and immediately recognized Keanu. Instead of ignoring him, Rafael remembers Reeves treating the man with kindness and helping him get something to eat.

But not every celebrity left the same impression.

Rafael reveals that he once worked with someone who has since become an Oscar nominee whom he describes as “horrible” to work with. He refuses to reveal the identity, but the conversation turns into a brutally candid discussion about ego, fame and why Rafael has sometimes found the biggest stars easier to work with than actors still fighting their way to the top.

This is what Hollywood looks like from someone who spent decades actually doing the work. The celebrities, the egos, the rejection, the changing industry and the perseverance required to stay alive in a business designed to make most people quit.

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Brian's Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/briangoldphd
TikTok: / https://www.tiktok.com/@briangoldphd

Makan's Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/Makan.Mostafavi
TikTok: / https://www.tiktok.com/@makanmostafavi

Rafael’s Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/rafaelpetardi/
Facebook: / https://www.facebook.com/rafaelpetardi/

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome Rafael!
03:16 Getting His First Acting Job
06:47 Moving to LA and Starting From Scratch
10:28 Working With The Rock, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot
14:36 What The Rock Is Really Like on Set
17:12 Keanu Reeves Is Exactly Who You Hope He Is
21:03 The Homeless Man Who Recognized Keanu Reeves
24:41 The Oscar Nominee Rafael Says Was “Horrible”
28:26 Why Some Famous Actors Are Surprisingly Nice
31:54 How Bad Hollywood Has Become for Working Actors
35:17 Will AI Replace Actors?
38:43 Adapt or Die in the New Hollywood
41:26 Growing Up Italian and Learning Real Food
44:38 Food, Community and Surviving Between Acting Jobs
47:09 Rafael’s Depth of Field and What He’s Working on Now

#RafaelPetardi #Hollywood #KeanuReeves #TheRock #DwayneJohnson #RyanReynolds

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Your phone knows where you sleep, where you work, who you spend time with, what you search for, what you buy, where you worship and potentially even what political events you attend. And according to Joe Weil and Matt Green of Unplugged, most people have no idea how much of that information is being collected, sold and stored.

Joe and Matt join the Truth Hurts Show for a deep dive into the surveillance economy hiding inside the device almost everyone carries in their pocket.

They explain how ordinary apps continuously generate data that can reveal a person's pattern of life, why a VPN may not stop apps from identifying your real location, and how first party and third party tracking work behind the scenes.

The conversation gets darker when AI enters the equation.

Joe and Matt argue that the massive amount of information already collected about consumers becomes exponentially more powerful once AI can analyze it at scale. Your photos alone can reveal your relationships, locations, clothing preferences, habits and insecurities.

But this episode goes beyond one phone.

It becomes a much bigger conversation about freedom versus convenience, whether Americans have unknowingly traded privacy for free apps, why surveillance has become an economic model worth trillions and whether AI will finally make that model too powerful to ignore.

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Brian's Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/briangoldphd 
TikTok:   / https://www.tiktok.com/@briangoldphd  

Makan's Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/Makan.Mostafavi  
TikTok:   / https://www.tiktok.com/@makanmostafavi

Joe and Matt Link’s
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/weare_unplugged
Website:   / https://unplugged.com/
X:   / https://x.com/weare_unplugged

Timestamps:

00:00 Welcome Joe and Matt!
05:14 How apps build a pattern of your entire life
11:27 Joe’s journey into Unplugged and the freedom versus convenience problem
18:06 Matt’s cybersecurity background and the threat of deplatforming
24:41 Why switching phones does not erase your old data
30:18 Why VPNs cannot stop every form of tracking
35:52 Stingray technology and tracking phones at protests
42:16 How an IMEI number can follow your device
48:37 The surveillance pyramid from app tracking to phone extraction
55:21 Cellebrite, device cracking and what happens when authorities take your phone
1:01:46 The emergency PIN that wipes your phone and creates decoy data
1:07:33 Pegasus spyware and zero click attacks
1:14:09 Why AI could make sophisticated cyberattacks dramatically cheaper
1:20:31 Your photo library may be more valuable than you realize
1:26:04 The $10 trillion surveillance economy
1:30:42 Unplugged’s plan for private AI and American manufacturing
1:34:11 Where privacy technology goes from here 

#Unplugged #Privacy #CyberSecurity #Surveillance #AI

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