Welcome Dylan: Not a Stranger in a Van - Resilience & Relationships (R&R) - Stephanie Olson and Rebecca Saunders

In this engaging episode, Dylan Yeomans, the new Director of Communications for The Set Me Free project, joins Stephanie Olson and Rebecca Saunders to discuss human trafficking myths, misconceptions, and prevention strategies. They explore how trafficking often involves relationship building rather than kidnapping, the role of online platforms, and the importance of awareness and education.

key  topics

Myths about human trafficking and misconceptions
Relationship building as a trafficking tactic
Impact of online gaming and social media
High-profile cases and their influence on perception
Prevention tools and warning signs

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dylan Yeomans and His Role
02:59 Dylan's Journey into Understanding Human Trafficking
05:33 Debunking Myths: Human Trafficking Misconceptions
08:11 The Role of Influence and Wealth in Trafficking
10:36 Local Stories: The Impact of Human Trafficking
12:27 Understanding Vulnerabilities and Recruitment Tactics
15:02 The Role of Online Platforms in Trafficking
17:48 Addiction and Coercion in Trafficking Scenarios
20:28 Recognizing Warning Signs of Trafficking
23:58 Empowerment and Safety Measures for Individuals
25:27 Innovative Safety Solutions: Noonlight App
28:13 Understanding Traffickers: Their Tactics and Intelligence
30:45 The Impact of Online Platforms on Trafficking
36:06 Conspiracy Theories: Truths and Misconceptions
39:44 Hollywood and Human Trafficking: A Dark Connection
46:22 R&R Outro.mp4

resources

The Set Me Free Project - https://setmefreeproject.net/
Noonlight App - https://www.noonlight.com/
The Goonies (Movie) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089218/
Backpage and online trafficking platforms - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpage
Epstein Case - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein
Justin Bieber and Hollywood influence - https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53057416

Transcript

Stephanie Olson: 0:17

In this episode of resilience and relationships is sponsored by the set me free project. Hello and welcome to resilience and relationships. I'm Stephanie Olson. I'm here with

Unknown: 0:29

Rebecca Saunders

Stephanie Olson: 0:30

and Dylan Yeomans. Yes, we are here with Dylan Yeomans. I'm so excited. So going to share with you who Dylan is. Actually, I'll let you share who you are, Dylan, and then we're going to have kind of a fun episode of just asking questions and all the things. So Dylan, why don't you tell us who are you?

Unknown: 0:50

That's a great question. Who am I? I am happy to and excited to say that I am the new director of communications for the 73 project. Yes, I couldn't be excited.

Stephanie Olson: 1:00

Yeah, we are so excited. And so with communications, you kind of own all the digital media stuff. We've got events.

Unknown: 1:11

We're gonna be doing everything and anything. We'll be helping out in the podcast space here. We're doing a lot more video work down the road as well. So all more fun stuff to come. So just keep your eyes tuned here. But yeah, I'm super excited because we've already kind of talked some creativity and some options for us to do, kind of with some things planned. I don't want to privy too much here. But yeah, I'm excited.

Stephanie Olson: 1:33

I am too, and you might recognize Dylan's face because I was on Dylan's podcast when he was with his last company, and he is just a natural talent, and we've known each other for some time, like, what, two, three years

Unknown: 1:51

in the I think we're coming up, like three and

Stephanie Olson: 1:53

a half. Yeah, networking space. So yeah, we are so grateful to have Dylan on our team. So welcome Dylan.

Unknown: 2:00

Thank you. I will put my old radio face to good use here.

Stephanie Olson: 2:04

Yes, okay, love it. I would never say you have a face for radio. I would never say that you might be the first. I love it. All right, so we thought what would be kind of cool to do today is have a conversation with Dylan, or Dylan has a conversation with us, and Dylan is new to this organization. He's definitely not new to media and communications, and he's not even 100% new to human trafficking, because he is. He has been in our world as far as we've been colleagues and talked about this, but He's new in the sense that he is really learning and diving in with what is human trafficking, what does prevention look like, all the things. So we thought it would be kind of cool to have Dylan ask and some questions, or have a conversation about what he knows about human trafficking and maybe what he might not know, because I think that's where most of us are living at any time.

Unknown: 3:06

Well, I think there's definitely more than I don't know than I do know at this point in time, yeah, I will say at this point in time,

Stephanie Olson: 3:13

yeah, well, and I can say that about myself on so many things, right? Okay, so I don't know, Rebecca, anything you want to add before we we dive in now, I'm just

Unknown: 3:22

excited for this conversation. Yeah, this

Stephanie Olson: 3:24

will be fun. All right, so Dylan, why don't you start with like when you came even when you started to learn about human trafficking, what did that look like for you? And then even now today, what are some of the things you're interested in learning, that's a really

Unknown: 3:42

good question. So I'm originally from the Sandhills, so out in that neck of the woods, I'm just gonna put it, it's more of a trade. It's more of a you know, you're hands on with a lot of things, like you're either farming, you're ranching, your carpentry. There's not a lot of different variations out there. That being said, once I went to college, that was kind of where I first had my introductory to, hey, this is a thing that exists in the world. And then that was kind of it. There wasn't a lot more to go on. As bad as this might sound, it was really kind of until I moved over here into Omaha in about 2020 that I started to kind of pick up the breadcrumbs that there was a lot more out there than what's usually reported, maybe what you actually see or even hear about. So then we got to networking later down the road here, and I networked with you in the beginning, quite frequently, actually, almost at every single meeting with you,

Stephanie Olson: 4:34

seriously, which was a good thing. It

Unknown: 4:37

was because, yeah, each of the presentations that I got to be a part of were varied just slightly, but it was all still the core message, of course, but how the information was presented was different and unique each time, and was always adding to what I didn't know. So, like, I remember one that stuck out with me, particularly the rotary that you and I happen to be a part of. Yeah, we were doing a. Wednesday meeting, kind of collaborative, you know, invite some people out for some networking, and you were the present presentation giver there. And that was such a fun one, because that was, like, I knew some of it, and I was kind of sitting there holding my tongue because I was like, I don't want to answer and take away anybody's thunder here. But it was so intriguing and interesting to see the other faces in the room like light up when you're like, well, actually, true or false. You know, human trafficking peaks at the CWs, yes. And when you told them no, that's wrong, everybody went, yeah. They were just perplexed by the whole idea of that, which I thought was a one of those huge misconceptions that's always a hurdle to try to get over. But then it made me kind of start to dive back into it a little bit more of like, okay, well, what are more misconceptions? What are some of those really just out there, ones that people don't think about, or people overthink?

Stephanie Olson: 5:52

Yeah, you know, it's so interesting too, because so you mentioned CWS or the College World Series. I hear a lot people saying, you know, we really need to think about the College World Series, because it's the biggest human trafficking event of our city, or the Super Bowl, the biggest human trafficking event of the world. And those are just not accurate statements. We know that human trafficking increases anytime there is power money and people like it's going to increase, but to increase with the amount of the amount that they say it does is not necessarily the case, and certainly for the College World Series, which happens in Omaha, Nebraska, for those of you who do not know it doesn't. There is no empirical data that it increases. And I think that's a common myth, which kind of leads me to the other myth, which we've talked about, because people think about kidnapping, yeah, that's where they go.

Unknown: 6:54

That's almost like a hand in hand, kind of situations like, oh, well, you're a human trafficker, so you had to have been grabbed off the street,

Stephanie Olson: 6:59

right, exactly, and thrown into a white van,

Unknown: 7:02

yeah, yeah, the unmarked white van, blacked out windows, you know, the whole gambit. And it really is surprising to me that even, like, friends of mine that I can kind of mention stuff too, it's like, you know, that is just such the hollywoodized version of what happens that sometimes people start to take that as truth. Yeah.

Stephanie Olson: 7:20

Well, it's exciting, right? It's sensationalized and but we haven't even talked about Epstein and all of that stuff. But you look at the conversation, that's a whole conversation, which I'm happy to get into, but some other time, even the Epstein episode, that's next episode. So you look at the the Epstein conversation, and that whole thing, and he recruited in the same exact way anybody else does. He sent individuals he was trafficking to go get their friends or hey, go invite this person to a party, or we're going to do this. It was through relationship building the entire time, and the only real difference, I think, that we see with Epstein is the amount of money that he has. We might not all be able to relate to that. You probably can Dylan, but not the rest of us.

Unknown: 8:15

Like, I don't have that many zeros in my bank account. I tell you, that much

Stephanie Olson: 8:21

are you? Yeah, you work for us. So, I mean, nonprofit,

Unknown: 8:25

it is what it is. I think it's very, very interesting, too. On that, that same note that we have Epstein here and we have Diddy here, yeah, because they are so they're almost the extreme of the examples. But that's how much it can be hidden, and that's how much influence can have over news and media and things like that. Oh, well, a little money goes a long way, like you were saying, or maybe a little influence goes a long way to where Epstein was doing, like the active recruiting with, Oh, tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend. Diddy's approach was more like, Hey, do these things and I'll make you famous. I'll make sure that you hit that level of fame. And so there was those, it's almost the same side, or almost different sides of the same

Stephanie Olson: 9:06

coin, yeah, yeah. And, and we can look at that because they are famous or uber rich and all of the things. And it's amazing. Diddy is a perfect example, because he didn't even get convicted of sex trafficking,

Unknown: 9:23

miles of proof, not a conviction.

Stephanie Olson: 9:25

I know it's,

Unknown: 9:27

yeah, I thought it was horrible that you have his lawyer that resigned. Was one of the lawyers for, I believe, a not particularly well known person, but a very bad person. We'll just put it that way. And he quit because this was too much. Oh, gosh, yeah, that should have told everybody anything right there, exactly.

Stephanie Olson: 9:45

Yeah. It's like, when the mob, you've got the mob lawyer, and they're like, who can't handle this? I mean, that's exactly what it is, yeah.

Unknown: 9:55

It's like, yeah, sorry, you can't throw enough money at this one right now. Yeah.

Stephanie Olson: 10:00

It's, it's, it's a lot, it's a lot, but I do think those things bring it to light, you know, that brings the conversation forward, and it shows and I think both of those cases show how recruiting happens. Yeah, none of them kidnapped anybody. They didn't have to No, it's relationship building. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know

Unknown: 10:25

what's interesting is, I've heard of a new myth surface, I guess. I don't know if it's new, but I've heard it more often with these stories being so public that you have to have money and power to be a trafficker. But we know that that's not true either. That's a great misconception.

Stephanie Olson: 10:38

Interesting is that, do you think that's because of Epstein and Diddy and all that

Unknown: 10:45

I've been seeing mainly online and a few real life conversations, but mainly online that, Oh, see, it's those people, not people in our life, but that can be so dangerous, right, right? I remember, and I don't know if this was necessarily a trafficking case or not. But do you guys remember the Sydney loop story from like 10 years ago? Do you

Stephanie Olson: 11:04

know we have a scholarship for Sydney full circle? Let me tell you the story super fast, but we can talk about that. So when Sydney went missing, we were getting ready to go into Neely Nebraska to educate because one of the students wanted us to do that. Sydney went missing shortly after that, and so we reached out to them and said, Okay, we know this is going on. How can we help? Well, I think it was right before we went in, or maybe a month before we went in, she was found. So when we went in, we connected with the Lou family and got really close to them. And Danielle's, it was Danielle's idea. We were putting on our fundraiser, and we were like, how can we honor Sydney? And so we started a scholarship, and it was like, we can maybe afford $500 well, people started donating to the scholarship, and the first scholarship was $3,000 and we have had it ever since the Lou family now puts on a a golf tournament for the scholarship.

Unknown: 12:09

I love that full circle, because I did not know that that scholarship today's day one for me. I was just gonna drive home on that one was that was such a local Home Story, like I grew up in the Sandhills area. I actually went to school in O'Neill, Nebraska at one point, which is adjacent to Neely, which also had a

Stephanie Olson: 12:29

big labor trafficking case in O'Neill. But yeah,

Unknown: 12:33

so it's one of those that we always nationalize this, and we always think it's the coasts or, Oh well, that's outside of our bubble. And then we don't really realize, or maybe we just don't pay attention to the signs that your your friendly, average home community, that's so wonderful. And you know everybody's name, sometimes the people that you don't know so well might fit that category of things happening now. And that's not always the case, and that's unfair to say that about everybody, but it's more prevalent, I think then people understand. And again, it's not just sex trafficking, it's the labor trafficking. It's, you know, those coercion attempts and things like that, right?

Stephanie Olson: 13:08

Well, yeah, and it, I think Sydney's story. And for those of you who don't know, Sydney went on a date, and fortunately, she sent a picture of the person and information like, Oh, this is who I'm going on a date with who had a pseudo name, but was that person and she went on the date. First date went great. Second date, unfortunately, they took her life. And it was a horrific story. The guy who we don't even talk about them, but he got death, and the gal got life. And so it's a horrible story. Wasn't sex trafficking, per se, but we do tell that story a lot because of that social media component. The thing about Sydney that I think is so powerful and such an important piece of the story, her family is the closest family I've ever met. They're a loving, faith filled family that just, I mean, they get together all the they're just an amazing group of people. And I think that's one of the big myths, is that it only happens to people who are from broken homes, or who are just from these terrible families, not that a broken home means a terrible family. I'm not saying that, but that's that's kind of that, that that what you hear so often, and that is not Sydney's story at all. And so people can take advantage of us wherever we are because of those vulnerabilities we talk about all the time. Yeah, yeah. And I

Unknown: 14:54

think it was about that same point in time, not maybe necessarily, exactly, but I. Do remember it about that point in time. There was a lot of different reports coming out about people meeting up with each other on gaming platforms, and then, oh, well, let's coordinate meeting up in real life. And that started, kind of what seemed to me, it kind of started pushing the rock down the hill for everybody to kind of start paying attention a little bit more, because there was a few stories that happened. Well, my kids meeting up with his friend from Roblox, and it's a four year old dude showing up, yeah, like, you know,

Stephanie Olson: 15:25

the online gaming thing is huge. I mean, it's huge what we're seeing. But to your point, it was like, we would hear the same story, the same story. Started gaming. After a year, we started connecting, that we started dating, and then they invited me to meet in person or, I mean, it was the same story over and over again. And we know online gaming is a huge tool that traffickers can use, because we're just gaming, it's no big deal. Yeah, right, absolutely.

Unknown: 15:59

And you can get that false sense of security, if you've talked for a long period of time, you know, if they were creepy, I would have known in the first month. Well, maybe not. You don't always know someone's intentions.

Stephanie Olson: 16:09

Yeah, yeah. When we used to go to the schools and talk, I used to always ask, because my daughter's a gamer, and so I always tell the story like my nicknames, gamer Mom, I'm very proud of my gamer family and my and I would go into schools and say, you know, if gamers said this, like, Hey, I have just really enjoyed gaming with you. You know, I want to sell you. Let's, let's just get that going. I mean, that's never gonna happen, right? It's never gonna be quite that obvious. So, yeah,

Unknown: 16:47

because I think the old cliche before the gaming one kind of took hold was the modeling industry. I remember that being kind of, maybe that might be like the 90s, early 2000s industry. A lot more print magazines in that day. But I remember that was a huge one of like, oh well, I've got this modeling buddy of mine that he works for the modeling company. I'm gonna set you up for a photo shoot, yeah. And then that person's just gone, yeah, yeah.

Stephanie Olson: 17:12

And we hear, I would say, I don't know, Rebecca, I would love to hear your thoughts about this, because we hear both things, like, some of that is true, some of that is myth, some of that. But certainly, there have been those situations where they, they even do start to, like, rarely do they just take you right, even at that point. But you, I mean, we've done things Dylan, you'll actually love to do this with us, because we do. We respond to tiktoks on human trafficking, a lot of fun. It is a blast. But you do, you still hear those stories that you know, and then there are some that just are real, where somebody gets involved in a work situation that's just not legit or or it is sort of legit, but you're still getting trafficked in a situation. Yeah, there's ton of that. Yeah, yeah. All right. What else Dylan, what are some of the other things? I think

Unknown: 18:17

one of the ones that I could come up with off top my head here might be. A misconception might not be. I think this is where the education piece is going to come in on today's show. So I again, I'm going to go back to the Hollywood eyes version of it, to where, if you are being trafficked, most times they're trying to get you addicted to something or they're trying to hook you with something so you can't leave. Is that necessarily true?

Stephanie Olson: 18:41

That's good, really

Unknown: 18:42

good one. That is not uncommon. So we see a lot that traffickers will use any type of leverage they can. So if you're addicted to a substance, and I can provide that substance for you, that's great leverage for a trafficker to have. Doesn't always happen that way, but it can. Something else that we see is that traffickers will prey on someone who is already vulnerable in that area. So maybe they're already using substances. Great, I can use that against them, you know, those types of things, right? So it doesn't always happen, but yes, not uncommon.

Stephanie Olson: 19:12

And I will add, like, if I always think of the movie Taken where Liam Neeson finds the one gal, and they're in that kind of drug house, and she's dead at this point. Sorry. Spoiler alert, it's an old movie. If you haven't seen it, I know you should have seen it. If you did, that's on you. Sorry. Sorry. But you know, it's that that drug house thing, and she was literally chained, and she had been so that is not necessarily the way it looks, but certainly to what Rebecca was saying, Yeah, we're going to use that as leverage. And drugs and trafficking go hand in hand. It's and it desensitizes the trafficked individuals. It. Desensitizes buyers. I mean, it's a it's a great tool for traffickers to use to Yeah, that leverage exactly what Rebecca was

Unknown: 20:09

talking about. In addition to that, we also can see some forced criminalization happening. So that's when a trafficker is manipulating that individual, exploiting them, not only for sex or labor, but then also having them perform illegal activities. So this could look like maybe I'm being trafficked for sex, and then part of the way that I'm blackmailed is I've helped sell drugs, and so you've got that on

Stephanie Olson: 20:29

me too, which is essentially labor trafficking. If I'm making you sell drugs, I'm trafficking you for labor. Problem is if you get busted for selling drugs on the street corner, you're probably going to get busted for selling drugs on the street corner, and most of the time there's not going to be those questions behind the questions, was this coercion? Was this force? Fraud? I mean, and so, yeah, absolutely, this episode of resilience and relationships is sponsored by the set me free project. At the set me free project, we believe that prevention is powerful, and through our ready to stand curriculum, we equip youth, parents, educators and industry professionals of all kinds with the tools to recognize human trafficking, navigate digital spaces safely and build healthy relationships before exploitation can occur, our mission at the set me free project is to stop human trafficking before it starts by providing prevention education

Unknown: 21:29

to all ages. So I guess maybe an important question for maybe viewership at home, maybe somebody might be experiencing something like that. At what point is there, like a warning sign, or is there something that they can try to do to pick up on something like that is like there's these things that keep happening in life, and all life just isn't going my way. Sometimes it's not always that way. Sometimes people have a hand in life not going your way.

Stephanie Olson: 21:51

That's good. Rebecca, you want to take that or sure throw the hard ones out today. You are.

Unknown: 21:56

I like it, though. So that's a really difficult question to answer, because yes, sometimes there are things that we can pick up on or choices that we can make that could lead to a different outcome. Now I'm not trying to say I don't want anyone out there to hear me wrong. If you have been exploited, you are not responsible for that exploitation that happened to you. You are not asking for it. So don't hear me wrong. I am not saying that, but sometimes there does come a moment where maybe you feel uncomfortable with someone, and you ignore that feeling because you think you're being dramatic, you know. So sometimes those kind of things do happen that you might get that just gut feeling of something's not quite right here, and then you're worried, and maybe you choose to walk away, maybe you don't, but that that's not always easy to pinpoint to like, there can't be times where this person, what I've seen from them, is they have provided a house for me, they have provided food for me, and then a switch flips, and maybe you don't see it coming. So that's a really difficult question to answer. I think it really is highly situational,

Stephanie Olson: 22:57

yeah, but I think to that point, that's what we try and teach, that there are some things. And I think you're right. I think part of that whole I'm being dramatic, or, Oh, I don't want to be rude, you know, or I don't they've given me so much, yes, and, and one of the things we try and teach is it is never wrong to listen to that instinct. And if something doesn't feel right, it is okay to say no. And I think that's where that consent piece comes in. But yeah, it it's i It would be so much easier if it was super cut and dry, like, Oh, that is clearly like the eighth grade girl who, when I asked, What does a predator look like? She said, Oh, you know that old guy, like, super old, like 30 with a trench coat. And yes, I know that'd be fabulous if that's what it looked

Unknown: 23:55

like, spotted from a mile away at that point.

Stephanie Olson: 23:57

Yeah, that really old, old, 30 year old, more gray hair. Come in. Thanks for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry about that, but yeah. I mean, it would be so much easier, but I heard a story of a young woman who was friends with somebody for an entire year, and he said, Hey, let's go to Chicago. They went to Chicago together, and they got to this house, and he punched her in the face and said, now you're mine. And there was no indication, according to her, that there were red flags, there was, and I think that's just the scary truth is that we do have to be that's where our support system comes in, you know. And I think to your point, that's the whole Sydney piece with that second date she went on one date went great, second date did not. And what can we do in those moments to say, Okay, I need to protect myself somehow. That's where I don't know if you've ever heard of I'm gonna. It. I'm going to shout them out. I want to make sure I get their name right, because I really do love this app. It's called noon light, and noon light is an app. I feel like I'm doing a commercial, but I'm not. They're not sponsoring us at all. Moonlight. I wish they were new light, but it could be an ad. That's right, if you're listening noon light. We would love to be sponsored by you. I'll catch you a whole 32nd promo. Absolutely see this app is amazing because and I have it on my phone, my kids have it on their phone. If you press it and hold it, it automatically and silently calls law enforcement, so they will reach back out to you, whether with a text or and if you keep holding it, I think that like if you hold it and let it go, they will reach back out to you, but if you continue to hold it, they just send police to your location. And I know it works, because I was giving a presentation to a group of parents and caregivers when I was talking about noon light, I pressed on the button, or I didn't even mean to press on the button, but apparently I did, and immediately I got a text, and they were like, are you okay? And I just said, Yes, I'm so sorry. I accidentally hit that. And then they they do, I think they do things to make sure that, but they are amazing. I've had them call me because I've done it more than once. I'm really

Unknown: 26:35

that adds to the presentation at that point.

Stephanie Olson: 26:37

Like, this is, yeah, and they're amazing, like, when they call and then you have, by the way, you have a code. So they ask you to put in their code, or if they call you, they say, give me the code. So if, for example, a trafficker is responding, they won't have the code. And then they send the police. So it's a great, great option. And I always think of things like that. Now, you know, you might not be able to do that all the time, but that is something that I always think if, if you can get help in that moment. You know, what are things

Unknown: 27:15

you can do moonlight, if you're listening, billion dollar idea here, incorporate that app to pair to, like a ring or something that you can twist,

Stephanie Olson: 27:21

like an aura ring,

Unknown: 27:23

yep, exactly

Stephanie Olson: 27:24

which I love, by the way, aura. I love your ring sponsors,

Unknown: 27:34

but we could be sponsored.

Stephanie Olson: 27:36

Yes, we would love to be. No, I think that's a great that's awesome, although

Unknown: 27:41

I was thinking, like, the Life Alert thing,

Stephanie Olson: 27:42

yeah, yeah, right,

Unknown: 27:44

something in that field, like they could, that could be, like, the next step in, yeah, anti trafficking, yeah,

Stephanie Olson: 27:51

I love it. Yeah. There's a lot of different you you have to work it so that the trafficker can't interfere. And how that works, that's not my wheelhouse, by any means. But yeah, I think that so to answer your question, 500 years ago, I think, yeah, that's that's a tough one, but I think that is, in part, what we teach is how to maybe see some of those signs,

Unknown: 28:17

if possible. And the big thing too is traffickers are smart, and this is something we talk about all the time, right? We like to think they're just they're not, they're smart, and they know that. They know their next step, right? And so you see someone building a friendship with you. They're thinking, okay, how can I get them dependent on me? How can I push it further? How can I push you past your comfort zone, and so to understand better how they work is so helpful. Yeah, that's a good point. And I think that's it's the unfortunate, fortunate part about the internet. The internet gives us access to everything and anything, right? It also gives those people access to everything and anything, right? So any of those things that we can maybe help people with, they're on top of it trying to figure out how to get around it, which is just, it's one of those

Stephanie Olson: 29:04

ongoing battles, I would say a step ahead of us half the time. Yeah. And that's why we say, you know when, when you have access to the world, the world has access to you. I don't know Dylan, if you are familiar with Back Page, or what Back Page was, and and the fact that you're not familiar with it, yay. Okay, you're setting me up on a question. Yeah, it wasn't a trick question, but maybe that's a good interview question for Dylan day one, first day, and we're setting him up on a podcast. Sorry about that, Dylan, no, I'm

Unknown: 29:47

gonna take a wild stab at what it is. Yep, I'm gonna go ahead and say it's like a similar thing that Craigslist had,

Stephanie Olson: 29:54

very good. Yeah, so back page was. Like Craigslist, and you could buy couches, and, you know, just like Craigslist, but you could also buy people, and these would display as individuals who were maybe selling themselves for a date, maybe, you know, so there would be a lot of code in there and things like that, but the FBI ultimately wanted to take Backpage down. That was one of their goals. And all of the people in the counter trafficking work were like, don't do it, because that's how we found so many traffickers, was through Backpage. So when the FBI was succeeded, they took Backpage down. Well, unfortunately, what happened is they all went underground, and so they went into places that were much harder to find. Now, they did create Backpage too, and I'm not sure where that is today, but there's, you know, you take something down, there's always going to be a pop up of something else, or they're going to go somewhere else. So I think instead of working to, that's why we're all about prevention, you know, let's, let's move in first. And I think instead of working to take things down, maybe we should utilize some of those things to find the individuals who are doing the heinous crimes.

Unknown: 31:24

So, yeah, not only that, but use it as an educational piece. Going forward of, hey, you're on this website, everything seems hunky dory, and then all of a sudden you come across this really weird advertisement for somebody, right? Not, not a something, a somebody, right? So I think that again, that maybe is, you know, hopefully they've grown with the time so that I'm talking about the alphabet agents there, yeah, yeah. Maybe they're a little more like, oh yeah. Maybe we shouldn't hindsight, 5050, you know, yep, yep.

Stephanie Olson: 31:53

I'm sure they had people internally to tell them don't do it. But, you know, it looks good. Thing, though,

Unknown: 32:01

is the only it's always you got to listen to the top down. And if the top says, do it.

Stephanie Olson: 32:05

And I love that you said that, okay? Because I've always said and I think this doesn't always happen enough, you have to listen to the people on the ground. If you're not listening to the people on the ground, you're not going to get the full story. Yeah, wow, that's that's good, okay, I want to ask you a question, because that just made me think of it. So for a while, there was all of this conversation about Wayfair and Amazon. I've heard selling human beings through cabinets. There's all of the stuff with MK Ultra and pizza gate. So what hearing all of that stuff? Where do you fall on some of that? Or where did you fall? Or what were your thoughts? So, you know, I don't

Unknown: 32:54

want to say I'm out there by any means, but I do like my tin foil hat conspiracies from time to time, okay? And I feel, unfortunately, I feel like a lot of those conspiracies are not so conspiracy anymore. And that's kind of the frightening aspect of it is, you know, some of these wild hair brain kind of like, man, that guy's out there. Prime example. Corey Feldman, oh, prime example.

Stephanie Olson: 33:20

They I emphasized him. Rebecca, do you know who Corey Feldman is? She might be too young.

Unknown: 33:28

Oh, because I'm turning 30 this year, so I'm close. No generation, no

Stephanie Olson: 33:36

you are, but it could be because you're more media.

Unknown: 33:40

Maybe, probably is, although

Stephanie Olson: 33:43

Rebecca's a Tiktok influencer, I should say

Unknown: 33:47

I actually, I just have a soft spot for, like, movies and movie culture a little bit. My grandma and grandpa used to have a video store in Taylor Nebraska, funny, oh my gosh, it was all VHS, yeah, back in that day, and so, yeah, like, have you ever seen the Goonies, or heard of the Goonies? Corey Feldman's one? In a little bit? But yes. So he was one of those. He was a big child star

Stephanie Olson: 34:09

gremlins. He did, yeah,

Unknown: 34:12

he's in a lot of things. Very early on. Knew him, but not his name. Stand by me, yeah. And what ended up happening was he was getting abused. And I don't know if it was trafficked, necessarily, or, yeah, of any of that, but his whole story, like, for years and years and years, he was saying, Hollywood is horrible. People are getting trafficked. They're getting taken advantage of, they're getting abused. And the media and people were basically writing him off as crazy. He's off on drugs. He's doing everything wrong. And lo and behold, about 1520, years later, he was dead on the money, and he was 100% right. And now people are basically apologizing to Yeah, in

Stephanie Olson: 34:56

fact, two Coreys. It was the two cores. Yeah, Cory five. Feldman, Corey Haim, yep. And Corey Haim also was abused severely and took his life, right? Yeah, yeah. And I think that, and I wonder if that might have been an instigator for him to start really speaking out. I can't remember if that's I thought they were really close with you. They were very close. And in fact, they did a show the two, Corey. Corey, yeah,

Unknown: 35:25

not quite Kramer and Kramer, but no,

Stephanie Olson: 35:30

not quite, but yes, but yeah, it he. People are listening to him now, and I do agree with you. That's a really good point. I think people are starting to see how corrupt Hollywood is. I think people are starting to see how corrupt Washington DC is now the wayfarer and Amazon thing. I yeah, that that was, we actually did a live on that, and we were kind of talking about that, and talking about some of the Miz. And, you know, I think probably they're not selling children in cabinets. And gotta, like,

Unknown: 36:07

that's the thing is, I think people kind of on those kind of theories, forget one important fact to those people, that person that they're shipping is merchandise. We have to make sure it gets to the location in one piece and it's okay and usable, right? So there's that misconception again, of, oh, they're just packing them in a crate and shipping them off. It's like, no, you gotta understand,

Stephanie Olson: 36:26

yeah, you could die,

Unknown: 36:28

yeah, you can suffocate, you can freeze the death. You can there's too many options and variables there. So I think it's more of maybe, if they there might be something that comes out down the road of, oh, if you placed this certain particular number of orders for a cabinet that meant you were interested, or something like that, you know? Yeah, I think it's going to be something along that line, if anything ever comes about it. But again, it's to those people and those traffickers. People are merchandise. They're not, they're not anything else. But it's, I'm going to see you as $1 sign, and how much do I get from you, right?

Stephanie Olson: 37:01

Well, and to your point, like, I'm pretty sure it's not happening through Wayfarer Amazon, but here's what I will say, we do know that there are things online that are well, we know there's codes, and we know that there are books, so to speak, of children's photos, and you can pick and purchase so just, I mean, there are a lot of things I would say, my sister's got a really big tin foil hat, and it's fun to listen. I mean, she hers isn't as big as some people I've seen bigger, but she's always like, allow me to put my tin foil hat on, and I love it. It's so funny. But what I would say is, any good deception has truth in it, that you can't have good deception without there being truth in it. And so I do know there are, like, the MK Ultra thing, which was a government brainwashing thing that was real, that was a, is, was, you know, a real thing. I do think if we knew what was going on as a whole in the government, we'd be shocked.

Unknown: 38:15

I don't think there would be one after we knew. I think it was restarted at that point. If, yeah, we really knew everything behind the scenes at this point. I, you know, I'm not calling for that by any means. But no, yeah, it's one of those things that it would be so guttural that I don't think people would have a different reaction than to get these people out and chase them out.

Stephanie Olson: 38:41

And by the way, that's on both sides of the

Unknown: 38:44

aisle as not just a particular party there, that's anybody in that government official, the organization,

Stephanie Olson: 38:54

yeah, I and I think too, you know, back to Epstein. It'll be very interesting if and when the actual list comes out. I mean, we know there's certain people. Certainly you could have gone to a party. We same thing with Diddy, right. There were people who were invited to a party, went to a party, and then didn't know anything else was happening, or were like, I'm out, or whatever. So I'm not saying that everybody who is mentioned in the Epstein files is a trafficker or a pedophile. I'm not saying that right, but I think if the true list came out that we knew who was associated very strongly with that somebody said, we would also be shocked at who's on the list.

Unknown: 39:44

I'd thoroughly believe that because, I mean, it's already kind of, you know, you've seen certain names come out, and it's like, oh, we had football stars go here. We had basketball stars come out. And it's they get asked about it, and they're like, Well, yeah, I went to this party and I left, you know, four or five. Hours later. But then, you know, all the obscene stuff was happening six or seven hours later, right? It's almost like corroborating their story, right? So it's like the traffickers are doing this intentionally to build this big narrative. It was just a party. Guys like, Oh, what are you talking about? We had this guy here. He would never do something like that. So it's almost like they were trying to build a full proof alibi, and it's starting to unwrap a little

Stephanie Olson: 40:24

bit, right? Well, who Justin Bieber? Yeah, actually, Justin Bieber came out and said that there were things happening in the industry, music, Hollywood, all that. And he was like, I had to walk away because it was appalling what was going on. Yeah, and

Unknown: 40:44

it hasn't been really confirmed or denied by him, either, but I don't remember, if you remember how Justin Bieber was found? It was by a con and Diddy, no,

Stephanie Olson: 40:55

I didn't. I remember that, yeah.

Unknown: 40:57

So they were the ones who discovered Justin Bieber. And then

Stephanie Olson: 41:00

I was not a big Justin Bieber follower. I'm just gonna go on the record.

Unknown: 41:04

I'll be real honest with you, I made fun of him a lot. Is obsessed. I know him because she's got a bad that's funny. Couldn't do it, but I do remember he was very young in this interview, but I remember they were shooting, it was like, TMZ or something like that. They were in the studio and they were talking to him, but did he was in the background, and they were asking him about, like, you know, how is like Hollywood, and like, you know, all these different things, because he was originally from Canada, and so, like, all these new experiences that you're getting because you blew up overnight kind of thing. And then Diddy, like, steps in front of the interview, kind of deal, and is like, well, he knows not to talk about, like, what happens at puffs parties, you know, like, in like, outright says this in a clip of like, he knows not to talk about these things. Like, yeah, it's a real clip. You can go find that he was in this, and he just kind of like, laughs and like shrugs down and like, he's, yeah, there's some body language shift after that too. He upset. Yeah, he looks like, you know, he knows something or something happened, and he had to bury it.

Stephanie Olson: 42:10

I think that would be so hard to live with that. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, I don't know. I think that there is truth to you know whether, whether some of this stuff, tin foil hat stuff, is all true or partially true, or whatever, a will always say that any good deception has truth in it, or else it's not a good deception.

Unknown: 42:40

The best liars are the ones that can look you straight in the face, smile and tell you just enough to make you believe it.

Stephanie Olson: 42:47

Yeah, absolutely, wow, wow. Yeah, you took us on a whole thing.

Unknown: 42:52

I love that was John. I was excited for my first day.

Stephanie Olson: 42:57

How many people, unless they're working for a podcast company or something like that, can say they went on a podcast on their first day of work. I mean,

Unknown: 43:05

that's true. That's pretty I know.

Stephanie Olson: 43:06

Yeah, that's dust off

Unknown: 43:09

all the old radio stuff, and you're pulling me out of retirement kind of thing. You're just kidding.

Stephanie Olson: 43:13

I don't think so. I don't think so you It's like riding a bike. Pretty sure you were doing a podcast at your old company as well. So might have been, yeah, this, this might be old hat to you.

Unknown: 43:26

Might know a thing or two about it, but,

Stephanie Olson: 43:28

yeah, but we're excited to have Dylan on board. I first of all, we're excited to have dude on our team. Yes, it's overdue. Yeah, over dude,

Unknown: 43:44

I'm sorry, ahead of time for all my terrible jokes that you're gonna have to deal with.

Stephanie Olson: 43:48

Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. I appreciate them, though, and yeah, I just think it's just great you you come with a wealth of knowledge. And obviously you can all see he's very dynamic, and he's a great presenter and a great podcaster. All the things, all the things we need, right? Rebecca, that's right, yeah, thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, I'm excited, and we don't think you're a creepy old guy at

Unknown: 44:19

all. That's good. You know, I don't wear trench coats either, so

Stephanie Olson: 44:23

I show up one day

Unknown: 44:25

in a trench coat, maybe ask if everything's okay. Deal.

Stephanie Olson: 44:30

We've got ourselves a deal. Well, this was fun, so we will do some. You know what would be fun? I would love to So Rebecca, here's what we need to do. We need to do some Tiktok videos and have Dylan say whether it's true or false first, yeah, and then we can respond,

Unknown: 44:52

okay, you just gave me permission to scroll. So I'm gonna find some. Gave me permission to make it even more. More fun. Like, oh, what happens if I get one wrong? Now, we might have to add a little spice challenge or something into that.

Stephanie Olson: 45:06

Yeah, ooh. I like that idea now, and we don't even usually, when Rebecca finds one, then she doesn't watch it.

Unknown: 45:16

No. Search the tag human trafficking. I will look at, like, the description or the comments and then choose it based off that, because I don't want to see it ahead

Stephanie Olson: 45:24

of time. Yep. And so we watch it together. Yeah, now I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be fun. Okay, so we got our next podcast on, on We're

Unknown: 45:36

next set in stone, kind of, if we consider, like, soft clay stone.

Stephanie Olson: 45:40

Yeah, I think that's good. Okay. Well, this was fun. I loved it. Thank you, Dylan, that was great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. And we will see more of you, no question. And welcome to the set me free project.

Unknown: 45:59

I'm excited to be here, and I'm excited

Stephanie Olson: 46:00

to be a part of it. And noon light Nora, if you decide you want to sponsor us, by all means, we love you. Yeah, yeah, put a

Unknown: 46:09

comment down below. Maybe reach out to Steph personally on email. You know, we'll make sure the back end happens.

Stephanie Olson: 46:13

Don't worry about We sure will. Yes, awesome. All right. Well, thank you for joining us and go get some R and R. We'll see you next time you.