Truth Hurts Show

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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Kim Rogers is known online as the “Worm Queen,” and she believes parasites are a much bigger problem than most people realize.

In this episode, she breaks down the symptoms she associates with parasites, where she believes people are picking them up, and the personal experience that turned her obsession with worms into a business that she says has now shipped more than 300,000 kits worldwide.

Kim makes some massive claims. She says eating late at night, grinding your teeth, unexplained bloating and other symptoms can be signs of parasites. She discusses pinworms, tapeworms, hookworms and roundworms, and explains why she believes pet owners in particular should be paying attention.

Then things get graphic.

Kim describes finding pinworms, flukes and roundworms during her own cleansing journey and claims she even documented what she believed were pinworms emerging through her skin. That experience helped launch her online following and eventually earned her the name “Worm Queen.”

Kim’s views and product claims should not be taken as medical diagnosis or treatment advice, and several claims discussed in this conversation are controversial or not established by mainstream medical evidence. But if you’ve ever wondered why the internet has become obsessed with parasite cleanses, this episode takes you directly inside that world.

By the end, you may never look at sushi, tap water or your dog the same way again.

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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

Kim’s Links
Instagram:   / https://www.instagram.com/mrsrogers.hood/
Website:   / https://rogershood.com/
YouTube:   / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0DqZB28z2jtUSLgXyC-N9g

Timestamps:

00:00 The Worm Queen Returns
02:26 The Signs Kim Associates With Parasites
06:41 Pinworms and the Itchy Butt Problem
10:53 How Kim Approaches Parasite Cleansing
15:17 Kim Says Worms Came Out of Her Skin
19:46 The History of Worms and Public Health
24:32 Can Your Pets Give You Parasites?
28:58 Tapeworms and the Weight Loss Rabbit Hole
33:21 Foods Kim Says Parasites Love
37:44 Sushi, Raw Food and Flash Freezing
41:16 Kim’s Experience Finding Worms in Water
45:39 Water Filters and What Kim Uses at Home
49:07 How the Worm Queen Built Her Business

#KimRogers #WormQueen #TruthHurtsShow #Parasites #ParasiteCleanse #GutHealth #Tapeworm #Pinworms #Hookworms #Roundworms #GutHealth #WaterQuality #Sushi #HealthPodcast #RogersHood 

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Jonathan Shaw grew up inside Hollywood’s elite, became close with Johnny Depp before he was famous, battled heroin addiction, tattooed cultural icons, traveled the world with almost nothing and said what he witnessed behind Hollywood’s curtain took decades to fully understand.

He recalls being around figures including Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Marlon Brando as a child. But underneath the celebrity, money and glamour was another world entirely.

Jonathan eventually became a pioneering tattoo artist and met Johnny Depp before Depp had become a household name. They were young, immersed in Hollywood’s punk and drug scene, and Shaw says they were both heavily using heroin during that period.

Years later, Shaw says he began recognizing pieces of himself in Depp’s performances and claims he became one of the inspirations behind Captain Jack Sparrow.

But this conversation goes far beyond Johnny Depp.

Jonathan discusses his belief that his mother participated in early MKUltra-era LSD experimentation and describes her connection to people associated with the CIA program.

At 73, Shaw has survived addiction, arrests, Hollywood, decades on the road and a life that reads more like fiction than biography.

It’s the story of a man who lived on the edge of celebrity, addiction, art and self destruction, survived it all, and came out the other side with an entirely different view of reality.

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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

Jonathan’s Links
Instagram: / https://www.instagram.com/jonathanshawworks/
Facebook: / https://www.facebook.com/JonathanShawWorks/

Timestamps:

00:00 Welcome Jonathan!
04:17 Growing Up Inside Old Hollywood
09:36 Meeting Johnny Depp Before He Was Famous
14:52 Heroin, Punk Rock & Hollywood in the 1980s
20:41 Did Jonathan Inspire Jack Sparrow?
26:08 Hitchhiking Across Mexico With Almost Nothing
31:47 Learning to Tattoo Sailors & Traveling the World
37:26 Charles Bukowski, Writing & Finding His Own Path
43:11 Addiction, Sobriety & Surviving Himself
49:38 The Arrest That Nearly Put Him Away
55:44 Returning to Tattooing & Becoming a Legend
01:00:27 Growing Up Around Hollywood’s Dark Side
01:04:53 His Mother, LSD & MKUltra
01:08:21 CIA, CERN & Jonathan’s View of the Occult
01:11:06 David Icke & Who Jonathan Believes Really Holds Power
01:13:12 Where to Find Jonathan Shaw

#JonathanShaw #JohnnyDepp #JackSparrow #Hollywood #HollywoodInsider #MKUltra #CIA #DavidIcke #TattooHistory #HeroinAddiction #AddictionRecovery 

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