The Shawn Ryan Show · · Transcript & summary by WhipScribe
Reckless Ben lays out, step by step, how a broke YouTuber with spy glasses got inside a cult farm and a troubled-teen school and then fought the lawsuits that followed.
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“when i was there i was hoping to go to jail because that would have been way better” Reckless Ben · at 36:49 — open in the transcript →
“I like my stuff to feel like it's like a high school project just on steroids” Reckless Ben · at 1:29:23 — open in the transcript →
Reckless Ben, a former slackliner who once lived in his car in California to train, tells Shawn Ryan that having nothing to lose is why he can take on groups that sue or intimidate better-funded documentary teams. His test for an idea is that friends call it impossible or illegal, a habit he links to his mechanical-engineering training: only an uncertain result is worth testing. He wants his work to look like a high school project anyone could copy, built on spy glasses, borrowed phones and budgets of a few thousand dollars.
The undercover work fills much of the conversation. Ben spent about three weeks on a Twelve Tribes farm behind its Yellow Deli restaurants, describing 12-hour labor shifts, love bombing he felt working on him, and teachings members gave him on race, women and medicine, until a leader found his camera's SD card. At Provo Canyon School in Utah he placed a fan as staff, then got himself admitted at 30 by claiming a $50,000 payment was pending, and described silent solitary rooms, restraint training and classes of short-video compilations before escaping over a fence.
The rest is about what happens after a video lands. Ben aired former employees' claims that the purifier maker Ideal Living funds the JKP religious group and hid abuse; the company denies it and he notes he has not been sued. He recounts Scientology's legal threat, a lawsuit from Bricks and Minifigs that has cost him about $250,000 in lawyers, and a plan to move that chain's franchisees to a Reckless Bricks brand he says he would hold at a 0% cut.
Investigative YouTuber and former competitive slackliner with a mechanical-engineering background who goes undercover inside cults, schools and companies. He says he started with Scientology while homeless and living in his car in California.
Reckless Ben told Shawn Ryan he lived about three weeks on a Twelve Tribes farm that supplies its Yellow Deli restaurants, sleeping in a shared yurt with about 20 people. He described 12-hour days of manual labor in 100-degree heat followed by restaurant shifts, and said members taught him that freeing the slaves angered God, that women belong in the kitchen and that medicine interferes with God's plan. He said several members told him their babies had died without medical care.
Reckless Ben said he first placed a fan, who had a serious criminal record, as a staff member at Provo Canyon School in Utah, and the fan was hired after one interview question and worked there about a month with spy cameras. Ben then got himself admitted as a student at age 30. The school wanted about $50,000 up front, so he posed as his own father, said the money was pending at the bank and claimed a flight to Germany, and he said no ID or birth certificate was checked.
Reckless Ben described solitary at Provo Canyon School as a room of about ten students sitting at desks facing forward, told off if they turned to look at each other. He said he spent about 30 hours there with no stated reason, and that staff sent one student to two weeks of it over a bag of chips. He said Utah bars solitary confinement for minors. He also described staff training on restraints that can last up to 45 minutes.
Reckless Ben told Shawn Ryan that six or seven former employees of Ideal Living, an air and water purifier company of about 30 staff, told him it exists to fund the JKP religious organization and that its late founder abused children behind closed doors. These are the former employees' allegations as Ben relayed them. Ben said Ideal Living denies them, threatened legal action unless he published its side, and pointed to its CEO's court testimony, but has not sued him.
Reckless Ben said Scientology threatened to sue him for about $1 million over his first documentary, made while he was homeless and had no lawyer. He argued that Scientology avoids false-advertising claims over its courses by invoking religious protection, so he registered his own religion with the IRS, the Church of Scientology Sucks. He said suing him would then mean discriminating against his beliefs, and that the matter was decided in his favor.
Reckless Ben said a family consigned a huge LEGO collection to a Bricks and Minifigs store in Oregon, and new owners later refused to return it or pay, telling the owner a lawsuit would cost more than the sets. Police called it a civil matter. Ben said his team then ran a state-approved lottery for a roughly $1,000 set so that withholding the prize became a criminal matter, and sold the debt to ten friends so they could each file in small claims court.
Reckless Ben said he handled earlier legal threats himself, but after the Bricks and Minifigs video viewers pushed him to hire counsel. He estimates about $250,000 in lawyer fees so far for a video that cost under $2,000 to make. He listed a civil RICO suit, six days of mediation at close to $1,000 an hour, and three criminal cases tied to a GoFundMe, serving court papers and a claim he tried to burn a Provo building, which he denies.
Reckless Bricks is a brand Reckless Ben is offering to Bricks and Minifigs franchise owners, who he says lost customers after his videos because shoppers did not want 6% of each sale going to corporate. Stores that switch pay him nothing, and he provides lawyers for the change. Ben said two stores have switched and 30 to 40 want to. He said that if all of them move he could end up owning a brand worth about half a billion dollars while taking a 0% stake.
Our own transcript of the public episode, with a timestamp about every 90 seconds. Tap a timestamp or the link button on a paragraph to copy a link that opens this page there.
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0:48The highest form of approval. No haggling. No hassle. No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. Reckless Ben. Welcome to the show, man. man yeah thanks for having me uh excited thanks for coming dude you've been in some shit yeah uh i would say still am yeah yeah i saw you get little stuff going on but how long ago how long ago did you did you start this whole thing the like youtuber yeah so i started slacklining before youtube and then i would film myself slacklining and just post it to youtube like just doing tricks and stuff yeah and then i don't know after that i was like i kind of liked like how people would like watch me doing slacklining so I was like how can I make this cooler so then I would
1:52do weird stuff where I'd like set up the slackline over like a busy bike path where people were biking underneath me and doing backflips over their heads slacklines like you just it's like a it's like a cable that you put in between trees or two or whatever and walk. That's how most people slack line. But I like doing backflips and crazy flips and spins on it and stuff. And then once that got boring, it was like, okay, we're the worst places I can set this up at. So we set up over spiky rocks, like 20 feet in the air. But then it's like if I fall, only I'm getting hurt. So then we would set up over a bike path, and then other people would, over people's heads, if I fall, we're gonna cause a crazy bike accident.
2:33So there's big pressure not to fall. It's like, I really have to be good. It was a real test of how good I am slacklining. Or we'd step over mouse traps or tasers with rubber bands around them. And I would dress up like Spider-Man and stuff just to make it fun for the video. Holy shit, dude. And then, I don't know. So I started posting stuff like that. And then after that, I don't know. I just moved to California for slacklining. And California is big for Scientology. And I was like like what goes on inside and I would always google it and I couldn't find anything I was like that was your first thing yeah that's a big one and I was uh homeless living in my car at the time because I just was like I
3:19just want to go out to California you know I just want to live out there and just become the world's best slackliner you know I'll just live in my car and just train slacklining every day so i didn't have a house or anything it's like all my energy i just want to put into being the best slackliner ever and then um so i was like at this point because i heard that like scientology will like sue you or they could even like just like try and ruin your life i was like i have no life so how can they ruin my life you know so because that was the reason why because there's all these like documentaries that have like million dollar budgets you know that try and like find out what goes on inside and they can never do it yeah but i think it's
3:54because they had something to lose you know uh because they could get sued and they have money to lose but me i was like i have nothing though i can go in scientology and what are they going to do to me i'm already living in my car like how can my life there is a saying never mess with somebody that doesn't have anything to lose yeah it's been that one that's been my whole youtube career yep that's how i get away with everything because i've yeah i just i i'm such like a minimalist i guess i don't need anything to be happy except for doing fun stuff it's a good boy to live dude let me give you an introduction here reckless Ben you're an investigative documentary creator and YouTuber at the forefront of a new wave of independent end of investigative journalism
4:37your investigations have taken you inside Scientology 12 tribes McKamey Manor, and Provo Canyon School documenting allegations of abuse, manipulation, and exploitation. Most recently, you've investigated allegations of human trafficking and sexual abuse connected to the ideal living controversy, pushing the boundaries of traditional journalism while facing significant personal physical and legal risks Yeah, you know I honestly had not heard of you and then Or production manager Put you on a radar and I was kind of picking through and I was like, holy shit, dude Like this dude is getting into it. It's impressive. Oh, thanks. And I didn't even know about this one, but the Yellow Deli. Yeah, it sounds like a restaurant, I guess.
5:35No, I know. So a long time ago when I first moved here, there's this town like maybe an hour south of here called Pulaski. Have you heard of it? No. They have a yellow deli there. Well, I think their headquarters are in Nashville, I think. Are you serious? That's where the whole thing started is in, it's like their home base is Nashville. So we went, so Pulaski is an interesting town. And supposedly it's like where the KKK started. And it's a weird spot. And so before I knew any of that, we were... Actually, I don't even know if we moved here yet. I think we were looking for a place in Tennessee to live and, and we couldn't really afford anywhere here. So we were, we were like doing the outskirt towns and we went down there and I was like,
6:33it was weird. Yeah. It was before we moved here because we went driving down there and I was like, dude, I, I told him it was dark out. I told my wife, I was like, I feel like somebody is going to like pop out of the woods in a hood or some shit. And then we told our realtor the next day that we were down there. She's like, dude, you got to be careful down there. That's where the KKK started. I was like, oh shit. Well, I guess I wasn't too far off. But is it still like active there? I don't know. But it's just crazy people, I guess. Like, no, I mean, I think it, that was like what, nine years ago. And I have been back there and it's, it's developed, uh, quite a bit from what it was. It's good.
7:17But, um, but it was dinner time or whatever. And we wanted to stop somewhere and get somewhere to eat. And there was like, dude, there's like nothing in that town at this time and we said we ran into this place called the yellow deli it was like the only place that was open and so we pulled in went in really odd like it looked like the whole restaurant, I don't know if they all look the same, but the whole restaurant looked like a jungle. Like, it was like you're in the woods or like a, not like quite like as, it wasn't like Rainforest Cafe, but it was just odd. You know what I mean? Like, it looked like you were kind of, they'd set it up to make it look like it was in the forest scene or something.
8:04Like Peter Pan, actually. And we ate and the waiter came around and he was just, everybody in there was weird, man. It was really odd. And so I started talking to the waiter and he kept referring to his boss as the authority. And we're like, wait a minute, what's the authority? And probably the weirdest place I had ever eaten. And it was almost like a recruitment thing, but it was like, oh, man, we got to run that. I don't know where I'm going next. The authority will tell me. And I'm like, what is the authority the authority like what are you talking about and every everybody there was just a little off like the stairs how they treated you like weird shitty eating grins and smirks on their faces and
8:57stuff that's the thing i noticed because and once you like live there for a little bit you can kind of tell that they're all miserable because they're all overworked. They have no sleep. They're just kind of like, okay, we're being tortured right now, but it's okay because that's going to get us into a better afterlife. If we have miserable lives now, but it'll be worth it in the end. But they have to pretend to be happy at the Yellow Deli because that's where they're recruiting you. So they're these miserable people that have to put on a smile. And you can kind of tell when someone's, like, faking a smile like that. It comes off as, like, creepy, you know? Um... They seem drugged. Yeah. Well, I don't think they are,
9:36because they don't do drugs, but... It was like, it was a very, like, very hippie kind of vibe. They don't do drugs, though. They're all sober. Um, so... Like, like in a trance like not not like high on like opiates or anything i was there they had us work it was like 12 hour manual labor in the 100 while i was there like during one of the hottest months but it was 100 degrees and i don't know if everywhere's like this but we had i was like shoveling like things for like 12 hours a day and then after that then you have to go to the restaurant and work for another like couple hours so everyone was just like dead um so hold on obviously i'm personally curious on this one because we went there and i i still talk about this because it was such a weird
10:21experience me and my wife left there were like what like what is that like what who is the authority and what the hell is going on in there you can tell it's a cult it's just called so yeah how did it pop on your radar so one of my friends his name's danny burke i was doing a couple videos with him he's just like some surfer dude from san diego and he knows that i was like i did the scientology video and that was like a cult and i did some other things that were cult related and he's like dude i got a pretty crazy cult you could infiltrate i just went to this restaurant with my uh girlfriend and we think it's a cult and same experience and i i just looked i was like no like i'm like i'm like he's oh you're probably exaggerating or whatever i'm like there's no way you just have
11:12like a bad restaurant experience maybe i had like a bad weight or something you know and so i was like skeptical and we were just talking i was like yeah yeah okay you know and then i'm like okay he's like it's on the way home just go and like eat there on the way home you know so as i'm driving back to los angeles we stopped there and then within like 30 seconds I'm like, okay. He's like, it's on the way home. Just go and like eat there on the way home. You know? So as I'm driving back to Los Angeles, we stopped there. And then within like 30 seconds, I'm like, I think this is a cult, you know, like this is crazy. Uh, like our waiter came and he's like, I love you, you know? And we're like, oh, okay. Like we're already having
11:39these like intimate, deep conversations. And he's like, you have to come back to the farm with us, you know? And I'm like, well, I just met this guy like we like two minutes ago and he's saying he loves me it was just weird i don't know um but so we definitely got like a bunch of like red flags and i started looking it up and then i saw like all the abuse that happens and stuff and all the crazy brainwashing that goes on and what they're i started studying their beliefs i was like maybe i could do a video on this this would be interesting you know just i kind of live there for a couple weeks and just see what they believe you know and like why does this exist i guess was kind of my thought process on doc tell me about it how'd you get in they just
12:21invited you yeah he said come back to the farm so we went back to the farm with them that and that night yeah and then he said so it was me and danny doing it so we had spy glasses because we want to like document it and so the thing with spy glasses they only last like an hour and a half so we had i think like four pairs with us but then you have to charge them and they don't have any electricity there so dann Danny said that he was like dog sitting. So I would actually spend the night and I slept there for like three weeks. Uh, and then Danny would be like, oh, I'm dog sitting. Like, I already have this prior commitment. Like the dog will die if I don't go back home, I have to feed it food.
12:58But really he was just going back to charge the spy cameras. And so we did that for like three weeks. Um, what was, I mean, so... What are you doing there? What are the living conditions? So, most of it was manual labor. Um... We had to... And obviously, we have to run this farm, and there's like 20 people running this huge farm. Uh, so that way they can have food for the restaurant. So, we're constantly like digging and sho... I was a guy, so I was constantly digging and doing the manual stuff. And then we all lived in a yurt. So it was a giant yurt. And there was probably 20 of us. They all had bunk beds. And so we just all slept in one room together. What do they talk about? So they believe in the same bible that christians believe in uh but they just have a very
13:50weird interpretation of it so they're talking about like what god was actually meaning by these like verses and i grew up uh i heard you're catholic right yeah so i grew up catholic also i went to a catholic school first through eighth grade. And so I was taught one version of the Bible, and their version is just like the weirdest version I've ever heard in my life. Like it's so strange. It's – I don't know. Like I guess, for example, some of the weird stuff that they believe is like – obviously they were like the KKK is like they were like, the KKK is good. Basically, the KKK is good? Yeah, because they were like... One of the things they told me was peak America was when slavery happened.
14:36So that's why they're on Pulaski. Yeah. That makes... That's no shit. But they told me that America was awesome and exactly how God wanted America to be until slaves got freed. And that's when God got mad at America was because we freed the slaves. Now all these sinners are in America now. And America can't be a functioning country if black people aren't involved. So now it's like a sinful country, I guess. Wow, I was not expecting to hear that. I'm picky with eyewear because I wear it every day. If it's heavy, slides around, feels cheap, or gets annoying after an hour, I'm done with it. And that's why I like Roka. I've been wearing these Lockhearts and prescription readers, and the first thing I noticed is with it. And that's why I like Roka. I've been wearing these Lockhearts and prescription
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18:25So his, on his TikTok, he's like, you know what? I think it's good that women have the right to vote, you know? And then on my TikTok, I'd be like, like women belong in the kitchen. Like if a woman wants to go out and have a job, that's bad. Women shouldn't have jobs, you know? And then we'd show them our TikToks and they're like, oh, Danny, like you should, you should get off social media. Social media is evil and stuff. But they're like, but Ben, you know? And then we'd show them our TikToks, and they're like, oh, Danny, like, you should get off social media. Social media is evil and stuff. But they're like, but Ben, you're actually saying some good messages. You know, you're like, maybe you should keep doing TikTok, you know?
18:53And it was just, like, funny to, like, how they would react to, like, our social media presence. Where it's like, normally people would say, I'm the bad guy, you know, for doing that. And they would be like, oh, Danny's is fine. You know, he's like, he's just saying stuff. Like, I think women should be able to vote, you know? But they're like, oh, that's the bad TikTok, you know for doing that and they would be like oh danny's is fine you know he's like he's just saying stuff like i think women should be able to vote you know but they're like oh that's that's the bad tiktok you know so so how do they how do they suck these people in um the yellow deli i think people go to the restaurant and the food's really good like uh i mean i don't know if you
19:19liked it but i really really like the food there was no pesticides. It's all organic, like handmade, you know, and it's amazing food. It's cheap too, because they don't pay the workers. So yeah, because their payment is heaven, I guess, like eternal life in heaven. So yeah, you can get really good food for really cheap. And then people are like, oh, this is awesome, you know? And they're like, oh, come back to the farm. And then we did a whole 12-step plan of how to join a cult, I guess. So I think step one was love bombing. So they basically make you feel like you're the most special person in the world. And we knew it was love bombing going into it. And it still worked on us. We were like, I mean, it feels good
20:07when people are constantly telling you how awesome you are, you know? And they're like, you finally found like the right place. And they make you feel like, like all 20 or 30 of them like love you and you're finally accepted into a family. And say you like grew up without like the best, like loving family, which a lot of these people probably didn't. They grew up in a bad family that didn't love them. And so for the first time, they feel loved by people. And you kind of let your guard down. And now that your guard's let down, you're more easily manipulated, I guess. And that worked on you? Yeah. And we knew it was a cult, and we still got brainwashed kind of. Are you serious? How did you know you were brainwashed?
20:48I don't know, because they kept saying things like... If you're just told stuff like every single day, you kind of start to believe it. I think it's... you've probably heard that metaphor. It's like, show me who your top four friends are, and I'll tell you what type of person you are. You are the people you surround yourself with. I think it's just how our brains work. So if you're just told the same lie over and over, you kind of start to believe it, I guess. So after week three of me living there, because I kind of lost sense of what was happening on the outside world. This was my new reality now. And I kind of started to believe my mission is to work on a farm you know like this is my mission because
21:29that's what everyone was telling me the whole time is like your mission is to work on this farm that's gonna make you happiest in life um and yeah they were like uh also we had this whole backstory where because we got invited to a wedding, and so I thought it'd be really funny if I had a wedding there. So, because, like, it was really, they had all these, like, weird rituals they did for the wedding. So I was like, oh, it'd be funny if, like, I had a wedding there. So we told them that I had a fiance, and it was this, her name's Lydia, and she's Chinese. And that was a big problem with them, that we were mixing the races together. Like, they were like, oh, if you have a kid with a Chinese woman,
22:07the kid's gonna come out deformed. They treated it like incest. Your kid's gonna have all these deformities and stuff, which we actually looked it up. And I think the science of interracial kids, it actually makes for better genetics, I think, from what science shows. But they were like, oh, your kid's gonna come out all deformed and stuff, and you're gonna have a mutant kid and stuff. have to keep like the race pure, you know? And so they like tried to like break us up. But I started to believe that like, maybe this girl like wasn't even good for me, you know? And I was like, maybe she is bad. Cause I was just hearing it every day for like three weeks. And we actually had a story, we had her die off in
22:41the story. Like we told them that she had a gay thought once, because they're super against homosexuality and stuff. So one time, we were walking down the street and she told me that she thought another girl was hot. She was like, oh, that girl's hot. And they're like, oh, well, God hates that. And then they're like, God's going to punish her for that. So the next day, I was like... So yeah, she's dying of pneumonia. And they're like, so, yeah, she's like dying of pneumonia. And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah. Because she had that gay thought that one time. She thought that girl was hot. So God's punishing her. And then the next day we were like, oh, yeah, she like died. And they like started celebrating.
23:17They did like a bunch of like this like circle dance, like celebrating her death. Are you serious? It was crazy. It was pretty insane. Wow. There was a little bit more to it i guess there was a part two where i was like they don't believe in medicine that's another big big part because we were like the doctor said all she has to do is like take this like pneumonia medicine she'll just be better tomorrow like in like an hour it's like no tell her she can't take the medicine that's like evil like like medicine is like a man-made creation like if god wants her to survive like like God will like heal her. So like if she's dying, like God wants her to die. And like by her taking medicine, that's like humans intervening with God's plan, I guess, is what they were taught.
23:57Which is weird because when I was in Catholic school, there was this parable that they told us where there's like a flood. And he prays to God and God says, I'll, I'll, I'll save you, you know? And then a guy comes in on a boat and he's like, Hey, like I'm here to save you. And the guy's like, no, no, it's okay. God already told me he saved me. And so he's like, okay. And the boat leaves. And then a second guy comes on a boat. And then the guy's like, Hey, I'm here to save you and stuff like from this flood. And the guy's like, no, like to save you and stuff like from this flood and the guy's like no like god's already said it's all good like you can leave you know and then a third guy comes up same thing and finally like i think the flood's getting really bad and then he's like
24:35praying to god he's like hey god like when are you gonna come save me and then god's just like i sent you three boats yeah i've heard that like uh before too oh that's what came to my mind with that i think the same thing with medicine it's like you know it's like i mean like god created humans to be smart so we could make medicine so shouldn't we use it like i don't know are you still catholic uh i don't know i've been in so many like different like religion i've studied so many different religions and cults and stuff and it's like i think my ultimate conclusion is i'm too stupid to know what the real answer is like uh the analogy i like to think about a lot is like say you have uh like the internet right
25:21like that's this crazy complex thing that an ant is never to be able to understand and like say say you try and like talk to an ant you're like hey look at the internet like you can like this is how it works it's like the ant's not even gonna be able to understand like begin to understand how complex and crazy this thing is you know it it doesn't mean the internet doesn't exist it just doesn't it's It just doesn't, it's just, how's the ant going to understand that? I kind of think the same thing with God. It's like, it's so complex and crazy. Like how is like my human brain to be able to understand what goes on? And so I'm kind of just like open to anything. I think, you know, I try to, I try to use the teachings I learned in Catholic school a lot. I think it's very helpful with being a good person and living the best life possible.
26:10I try to treat people how I want to be treated and love people and do nice things, not for selfish reasons. So you've fallen out of Christianity. I wouldn't say I've fallen out. I think I just don't like saying like, I'm a hundred percent sure that this is like correct because I don't know, like what if something else ends up being correct? You know, like, like someone that's like Hindu or some other religion is also a hundred percent that they're correct too, you know? And so I think if I believe this because that's how I was raised, is that a real reason for believing, you know? And when I was looking back at myself, it's like, I was only believing because that's what I was taught, you know?
26:56And so I'd rather believe something because I believe it, not just because that's what was like told to me, I guess. It's the biggest investigation of all time yeah but i don't know i'm i mean i'm not against any religion i guess i think i think they're all probably just equally awesome i guess um but i don't think there is any way for me to know you know it's kind of like the ant analogy it's like hopefully whenever god is up there can send me enough like i don't think i'll be able to i think it's like too complex for my like brain to understand i don't know i don't think i'll ever know the answers maybe when we die we'll find out i guess but i try to live like a good life you life and stuff and help people out. I've kind of dedicated my life to helping people
27:45and trying to make other people's lives better. When did you start thinking that? When did you start kind of falling away? I mean, you can't really say you're a Christian if you don't believe in Christ and you're open to all these other religions. So I guess... Or philosophies or whatever you want to call it. So my parents were raised super Catholic. Like, my dad was like an altar boy and stuff. Like, my grandparents on both sides are super, super hardcore Catholic. And then my dad started just kind of being like... I don't know, like... Like, I guess we were just taught, like, this is what is true because I said so, you know? Like, this is what the Bible says, and if you question it, you're going to hell type of thing,
28:36you know? And so my dad was like, well, that seems kind of weird, I guess. So like, what if there's like other things, you know, like other possibilities? And so I guess that's kind of how he raised me also. So I guess it is kind of, you're right. It's like the same thing I was saying. It's like, maybe that is just what I believe. Cause that's how I was raised, you know? But, um, I don't know. So they still sent me to Catholic school, even though they were like, this might not be like basically like 100% reality, but it's a good like metaphor, you know? And I think- Good values. Yeah, yeah. And I think even a lot of Catholics would say that about the Bible too. You know, like you can't take everything like literally like it says God created the world
29:18in seven days, but maybe the seven days are metaphors for like seven time periods that God created the world, you know? With like the Big Bang, because like, okay, the Big Bang didn't happen in seven days are metaphors for like seven time periods that God created the world, you know, with like the big bang, because like, okay, the big bang didn't happen in seven days. So like, maybe that was like the seven days or seven different like segments of like the way he created the universe, you know? So that's kind of what I was taught is like, kind of take it as like a metaphor, but it might not be like 100, like word for word, a hundred percent true, you know? Because also the Bible is just people recalling it, you know? And like word for word 100 true you know because also the bible is just
29:46people recalling it you know and like i think there are some contradictions obviously because people's like memories are different you know so if you have four people witness an event all four people are going to witness it differently they're going to have different recollections of it so it might not be like word for word true but is what i was taught i guess but i don't know if it contradicts itself well not contradicts but they're like different what's it called like uh there's different perspectives perspectives yeah and so um which if you do have like i actually heard that's the reason that makes the bible more trustworthy you know because people are like well how do like luke and matthew how do
30:24they have like how like they're they're saying two different things happened. And it's like, well, you have to think this happened, they wrote the Bible years and years after they witnessed this. And if you have four people witness an event, they're going to have different memories of it. So it's actually more proof that the Bible is real. Because if it was made up, then you would expect it to all be the same you know like why would you you know how many times the bible cross-references itself uh how many times 62 over 62 000 times whoa see that thing right there uh rainbow looking arches yeah yeah yeah that's all the time every book and then i think every chapter in each book and those arcs all represent a cross-reference whoa that's sick no other book in the world does
31:17that whoa pretty wild i learned some storytelling techniques from the bible but uh so how did you get out of the yellow delhi 12 tribes thing they uh they found us out that we were youtubers i guess oh they found out yeah i don't know how they never found out our last names uh we just i told them my name was ben i think i told him i was a slackliner so i think they look but it's weird because they don't use the internet or anything but i think there's like one guy at the top probably the authority that you were talking about that uh i think they have to use the internet because they're a restaurant and they have to so i think like the top guy from what i heard is i'll use the internet. So he probably looked up like Ben Slackline.
32:06Yeah. Cause we were pushing things kind of far. Like, like, like we had like this girl died because she had a gay thought one time, you know? And we were asking them some stuff about like their thoughts on black people and stuff. And I don't know, I guess we were being suspicious and but we lasted three weeks and we got a lot of good information out so it was kind of perfect timing we got kicked out how'd they kick you out um they just said hey we i think we're wearing the glasses they look kind of like the ones you're wearing right now and the guys like i see these and then he pulls up the sd card and he's like what's this you just hold the sd card in her face we're like oh man like like we're sorry and then we'll leave i guess
32:52um he caught us that was a yeah it was like the worst yeah it's probably like the most awkward thing ever it was like we like did the walk of shame out and they'd like walk us out and because like we kind of became friends with these guys like because my whole thing was like none of these guys were like bad people they were just brainwashed you know um like they genuinely thought that like god hates black people and by them also hating black people they're doing the morally good thing you know because in their eyes that's the morally good thing to do or like by like putting women in the kitchen and not letting them to do anything else and live life you know like that's what god would want so if you let a woman go out and have a job you're evil that's
33:36what satan would want you know and they think that's bad so they just have like different morals than like me and you probably have you know um so uh so i didn't ever think they were like bad people because they're doing what they think is the good thing to do but they're just right so we became friends with them and it was terrible like just having like are now friends like so disappointed it was so sad but i don't know so what i mean what happens if somebody does have a baby there? So the guys we were talking, there's a lot of baby deaths because they're all at home. And they're all without pain medicine. And yeah, they said that God wants women to feel the pain of childbirth, I guess. I think that's like a holy thing, I guess.
34:28And yeah, we were talking to a lot of people there. I mean, there's only like 30 people there and it was surprising how many people had kids that died because they were like, I mean, they should have told us like, yeah, if we would have had medicine, we could have saved our kid, but that wasn't God's plan. God wanted the baby to die and God works in mysterious ways. So we can't question God. Wow. Yeah. I think that's like a direct quote from my video series was we would have had medicine. We could have just saved the baby, but yeah, it's not what his plan is. Wow. It was so sad. But did you learn how, like how, because these restaurants are all over. I think they had a map in there, and I was like, you guys got restaurants in, like, I remember one in Costa Rica, and then all over the country.
35:21Yeah, I think there's some in Australia. There's some in, I'm not sure if there's any in europe but a lot of them in the united states because yeah it's originally from tennessee but there's uh the one in california we're like oh it's close stuff to our house we'll let's go to that one and then uh once we got kicked out of that we were actually let's go back because they don't use the internet so then we went back to uh one in colorado which was apparently this is really uh famous like fire that was like the biggest fire ever in Denver, like destroyed like the whole city or whatever. And it was started by the Yellow Deli is what people think. So. Interesting. And we lived there for a little bit and they caught on to us there. So then we got kicked
35:59out again, but yeah. Right on, man. let's talk about provo because it sounds like a big one yeah you got in you you got in just a random email because you read how do you read all your emails well this was before i blew up i guess so i i i only had like a little bit amount of emails compared to uh what i have now so you got a random email but i i i did read every single email that i got when i first put that feeler out yeah about a like a troubled teen facility in provo utah yeah and the guy's describing it he's like they put kids in solitary confinement they do like they basically will beat you up and like for doing nothing like if you just don't do everything they say you can't talk to anyone like they take away your childhood and the part that like really sold me was he was
36:49like when i was there i was hoping to go to jail because that would have been way better and i was like whoa this place is because you always think of jail as being like the worst place ever so like this place being worse than jail and like a kid's going there just for like smoking weed one time or something like that's insane you know like so it's like uh something that's like not that bad gets you a punishment that's like really really like worse than jail it's like and so i call him like okay let me just call this guy so i call him he's talking to me about it i'm like this guy's lying to me like this doesn't exist kind of the same thing with the cult like every time i do these ideas i mean that's what makes a good idea is like when i'm shocked you know because then this guy's lying to me. Like this doesn't exist. Kind of the same thing with the cult. Like every time I do these ideas,
37:25I mean, that's what makes a good idea is like when I'm shocked, you know, cause then I'm like, this doesn't exist. Like there's no way. And then when I found out it does now I'm shocked. I'm like, Oh, I learned something, you know, I want the audience to also learn this too. So I find out that that's probably like all my ideas is stuff that I'm shocked to find out where I'm like, I was wrong in something. And I'm like, Oh, that's okay. That's so you're going after the stuff. That's just so outlandish that it's unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. And I always say that too, in my videos, like if I have an idea to like take down a corporation or something. And so I, every, this is how I pitched my ideas.
38:00I'm like, okay, so I'll tell like four or five of my friends. And if they're like, that sounds like a really good idea. Like you should do that, then I know it's a bad idea because it's believable. Because then if I do it, if I tell you I'm gonna do this and you're like, oh yeah, you could do it, and I do it, then you're not surprised. But I know it's a good idea when I tell my friends, they're like, oh no, you can't do it, that's bad, like you can't, that's horrible, there's no way you're gonna pull that off, or you're gonna go to jail, or like that's horrible. Then I know it's a good idea,'s no way you're gonna pull that off like or you're gonna go to jail or like that's horrible then i know it's a good idea
38:27because then when i do pull it off then now you're surprised where'd you hear that because that's that's a saying really uh i was just some of the best ideas are making that are going after bad ideas and making them work really just from experience because i would like tell people ideas and they're like okay and then i don't know because it's just believe but like if you already believe that i can do it, then why are you watching? You know, I can pull it off. You want to watch because you don't know how it's going to work out. You know, that's science. Like, I was a mechanical engineer. So in science, you don't test something if you already know the answer. You test something that you don't know what the answer is,
39:00you know, because that's why you have to test it. So if I pitch an idea, my friends are like, oh, how is that going to turn out? Like, that might go really bad, you know, because that's why you have to test it. So, if I pitch an idea, my friends are like, oh, how is that gonna turn out? Like, that might go really bad, you know? Then now we have something to test, you know? It could go good, it could go bad. Uh, and... yeah, I don't know. But the Provo Canyon video was like that, I guess, because I completely just thought the guy was crazy. I'm like, oh, you're exaggerating this. No way. Like, you just probably didn't like that your, you're exaggerating this. No way. You just probably didn't like that your parents sent you away from them for a month.
39:30You're exaggerating all this. And I turned out to be wrong, I guess. So what did he say that made you think it was so crazy? Just like they'll put you in solitary confinement for like a month. They'll beat you up randomly because the workers are mad. You can't talk to anyone. It just doesn't seem real. Oh, you have to go to school for like three years of your life and the whole time you can't talk to anyone. Sounds terrible. How long was this kid in there? Usually they're in there for like two to three. I think he was in there for like three years. Because it's like your high school. Like, they advertise themselves as a high school, so you can graduate with a diploma. But apparently they're faking the diplomas.
40:14So then you're like, oh, yeah, I got a diploma. Let's go apply to a college now. And then the college is like, that isn't a real diploma. That's like a fake certificate. Is this place still in operation? It closed down one day after we posted our video but um yeah that's what i was thinking too i was like there's no like maybe back in like like 50 years ago this could exist but today like this would place we get shut down if this existed today and then we went there and it's still just as bad as he's describing i mean even how you got in there sounds like some pretty extravagant tradecraft yeah we we just called him and said like hey take my son and they're like okay and didn't ask for any paperwork well okay we probably like signed like one thing but they didn't
41:00ask how old i am they didn't ask for anything i never had to ask for anything. I never had to show my ID. The dad never had to show his ID. We never had to show birth certificate. No, we didn't verify anything. They just said, sign this. Okay. You're in. Okay. And you, but you had somebody on the inside too. Yeah. I, uh, so, so walk me through the whole process from, from idea of we're doing this to your inside? So I wanted to apply as a teacher. And then I was like, shoot, they're going to background check me and find out I'm a YouTuber. And they're going to be like, why is this YouTuber who takes down companies going to want to work for us? Because they were already pretty bad in the media.
41:51Paris Hilton went to this school and so she's been like all over the media like shut down Provo Canyon and stuff she's been trying to work with people to shut them down so they're already skeptical that people are like trying to shut them down so I was like there's no way I'm getting hired to this place uh but this one guy reached out to me on instagram his name's sheldon uh and he was like dude you're my favorite youtuber ever can we please collab like i'll do anything to collaborate with you and i was like i bet this guy would want to work there i was like you want to work at promo canyon school he was like i'm down so he was just some fan that uh i was like i just bought him some spy cameras i taught him how they worked and i was like i'll pay for your airbnb your travel and uh i don't have money to pay you
42:31because i was like broke at the time but i was like you can make money by working there they'll school pay you and i'll cover all your costs and stuff so um and uh and then he was also like really wanted to be a youtuber also so i I was like, you can make your own, like kind of give you some storytelling techniques. You can make your own video on it, which he posted on his channel. But yeah, he, we thought he was gonna be in there for like a week, but he ended up being in there for a month. Like every, he just worked there full time for a month at a point. We kept making the joke, like, okay, like he's not even investing in it. He's just actually just like working there now. But yeah, he was undercover we had so much footage to go through it was because he was
43:10working there every day for like eight hours a day so we have eight hours of footage for a month every day of him working on inside so it was pretty crazy and you were in there too yeah the very end i was able to get in um and yeah, we just, we did the same thing. We told him that I, so we told him I had like a gay thought, because we saw on the website that you could be in there for like homosexuality or whatever. So we were like, out of all the things you get sent there for, I thought that was like the least evil thing, you know, because we're like, that way if they like punish me harsh, then we can be like oh i didn't even really do anything bad and uh also in utah which is where the school's at uh there's
43:51like all these like weird like uh like uh conversion camp bands and stuff like it's like super illegal to like try and like convert someone who's gay so we're like oh well that could be a way to shut them down you know if like we can prove that they're still doing like gay conversion there then and then i went there and then there it was actually like pretty progressive they were like um like if you're gay we have to treat you differently and stuff and they're like why are you here i was like yeah my dad thinks i'm gay and stuff and and they're like oh we don't have a problem with that so they didn't even try and convert me to like straight or anything they were just so i was like so why am I here then if you guys are fine with gay people?
44:26It was weird. And what we found out is they just want money, I guess. So they'll just kind of accept anyone if you pay them because it's not really about helping the kids. It's just about helping the guy at the top make money. So as long as you're making him money, they'll accept you. Is there a lot of these? Yeah, I think they're kind of all over uh um they have a bunch of so the one owner has like four or five companies so now this one shut down i actually snuck back in last week we went back there and because i was just curious like because it shut down and i was like is it just an abandoned building or there's still people there and we went back and there was a bunch of people like unloading books and they said it was going
45:07to a sister company, I guess. So they don't really ever shut down. They kind of just move locations and rebrand. Gotcha. I know I talk a lot about preparedness on this show. Most of the time that conversation's about what gun you're carrying, what knife you have, what your EDC is. But here's the reality. People bleed out from injuries they could have survived all the time. And it's not because nobody wanted to help them. It's because nobody had a tourniquet on them when it happened. It's in the truck. It's in a kid at home. It's somewhere other than being on your person. And that does nothing for you in a parking lot It's in a kid at home. It's somewhere other than being on your person. And that does nothing for you in a parking lot or out on a trail.
45:49That's why if you've been watching this show for a while, you've seen me hand these, these tourniquets right here, out to guests. This is the ETQ Gen 2 from Snake Staff Systems. And it's probably the most important thing I carry every day. It's about 65% smaller than a standard tourniquet. It rides in your pocket or on a belt and you forget it's even there. And because of how it's built, it works on smaller limbs too. That matters if you've got kids and it matters if you're out with your dog. I think everybody should carry a tourniquet. A bad bleed can take a life in minutes, faster than any ambulance is getting to you. And the only version of this that actually works is the one that's on you.
46:37One warning. I just want to tell you, the internet is full of cheap, Chinese-made tourniquets and counterfeits. They're on all the websites. They're cheap. They look legit. They're not. And this isn't the type of thing you want to gamble with. Snake Staff is made in the USA. Get the real thing at snakestaffsystems.com. They're on Amazon now, too. Get one for yourself and one for the people you love. Again, that's snake staff systems.com so that's the sad thing is like these people are like billionaires like they know how to like get around stuff like so i mean what you got so you meet this guy that wants to be a YouTuber. He goes down as an employee, as a teacher. Yeah. Also, the funny part is his criminal history is so bad.
47:32He's not allowed to work with kids. He's like a changed man now. He used to do heroin and meth and stuff and fentanyl. And then he was addicted and he needs the heroin, so he would steal cars and stuff. And he has grand theft auto and he's been to jail for that and stuff. And so he's not allowed to work with kids. And he has literally the worst criminal history of anyone I've ever seen in my entire life. But now he's sober, he doesn't do drugs anymore and he's a good person now, I guess. So it wasn't bad to send him in there. He's not gonna hurt any of the kids. He was there to protect the kids from like the actual bad people but just looking at his criminal history like he is not allowed to work there and they were like
48:13uh i think he did the interview they asked him one interview question which was like are you down to restrain their kids if things get dirty and he was like yeah because you might have to get your hands dirty and once he said he was down to get his hands dirty they're like you're hired and he got the job without any background search and uh yeah um that's actually ended up why they ended up getting shut down was for the background searches because they just weren't background search and they were just hiring terrible people to work there that's ultimately what got him shut down but so how long was he there before you infiltrated uh about a month it was like three and a half weeks how long were you in there only two days because
48:55what we did is so it's a thousand dollars a day to be there and when i would film the video i had two thousand dollars in my bank account so i, shoot, I can only be here for two days. But to make it worse, they needed a full month down payment before letting me in. So I think they said they needed 50, or it was like a month and a half of payment. They needed $50,000 for me to go in before they would let me go in. I had $2,000 in my bank account. And so I was was like and basically my entire youtube career has been me getting shadow banned so i post a video and it gets taken down i post a video it gets taken so i could never have made any money on my youtube before this so i guess i could have
49:36taken out like a fifty thousand dollar loan but like fifty thousand dollars is more money than i made like the last three years so i'd just be paying that off like the rest of my life probably. I didn't think like it was worth it for me to get the video. So I came up with a plan, which was, cause I was like, at this point we kind of found out the whole system wasn't to help the kids, it was to make money. So we're like, okay, let's use that to their advantage. If their whole point is to make money, let's tell them that we have $50,000 on the way to them. But for whatever reason, the bank just blocked, like they're pending the transaction, you know? And then to add urgency, I called him pretending to be the,
50:14we had like a running joke where I was pretending to be the dad and the son at the same time. And so I'm like calling him as my dad and I'm like, hey, so like, yeah, I have to go to like Germany on a work trip for like some weird island in Germany or something. And I leave in like two hours is my flight. So you have to accept them in now, but the money will transfer. The bank just, it's pending for the next 48 hours. So in 48 hours, you will get the money. But if you don't accept them, I'm going to be in Germany and then we'll just send them to like some other place and we'll give them the money instead. So they were so money hungry, they said yes. And they didn't ask for any IDs, any birth certificates,
50:49any paperwork. They were just like, yeah, just bring them in. We can accept them. And then, but like, if the money doesn't come in 48 hours then we're gonna send them out so we're getting around the 48 hour mark and we were outside i guess they give the kids like 15 minutes of outside time per day i guess so we were outside and i was like if i go back inside they're just gonna um like be like oh your dad didn't pay you have to leave i'm like that's kind of boring so instead i was like what if i escape and then because they're like really scared of having like escape kids. That looks like that's really bad PR for them. So I can escape and they'll say, I only come back if they fix their facility, you know?
51:26So I'm going to blackmail them with all this bad PR to improve themselves. So I ended up just escaping instead. How'd you escape? I just climbed a fence. There was like, it's like 15. Easy? Well, there was a basketball hoop next to it. So I climbed the basketball hoop and I just jumped the fence. It was like a three foot gap from the basketball hoop and the fence. So I was just able to jump over. And then I just did a parkour roll and it was soft grass. So it was fine. So what happened after that? And then, I don't know, they chased me. Did they know you escaped? Yeah, they chased me for a couple of miles and then I like got away and then Sheldon picked me up. I think I like went to like some like fast food restaurant and I was like all out of breath.
52:07I think I threw up like three or four times because I don't, it was like 20 degrees outside. I'm just in like a, I actually think I had a sweatshirt on, but I have like an asthma thing where I can't like exercise in cold weather. So I just start like throwing up all over the restaurant. And then I'm like out of breath. I'm like, Hey, like I'm doing a scavenger hunt. Like my phone died. I like just beat the scavenger hunt, but I have to like contact the person to come pick me up. Can I use your phone? And then I had my friend's phone number memorized. So I called him. I'm like, Hey, pick me up. I just finished a scavenger hunt. And then my friend comes and picks me up. And yeah, then we, I guess got away from from the police they weren't able to get me so i was sick wow right so i mean what did you what did
52:49you uncover um and your your buddy was there in there for a month what kind of stuff was he witnessing inside this place one of the worst ones was the solitary confinement so in utah every state's different but in utah like i think solitary confinement is allowed for like murderers and stuff but only for like a couple hours a day you know like it can't go on like extended and for kids like no solitary confinement at all like that's like super illegal uh because like that makes sense like there's scientists have done studies on solitary confinement, like literally damages your brain. And so for kids going through solitary confinement, like that's when your brain's developing. Like you don't want to,
53:26that's why like we can't smoke or drink alcohol when we're kids because it's going to ruin our brain, you know? So solitary confinement does a similar thing. It's like horrible for us and it's going to cause problems later in life. And so it's like super illegal and then they'll just send kids like we caught them sending a kid to solitary confinement for two weeks for stealing a bag of chips and uh basically the teacher was handing out chips to everyone and then uh one of the kids took a bag of chips from the other kid resulting in the kid to go up and grab another bag for himself. So what inconvenienced this kid, maybe 20 seconds, now this other kid has to pay for that with two weeks of solitary confinement.
54:08So it kind of seems like the punishment... What was solitary confinement like for him? So I guess it's not what you think of normal solitary confinement. It's not like, okay, I'm in a prison cell all by myself, and I can't do anything. Actually, I would argue that type of solitary confinement. It's not like, okay, I'm in a prison cell all by myself, you know, and I can't do anything. Actually, I would argue solitary confi- that type of solitary confinement would be better. Uh, because at least you could do, like, push-ups, you could work out and stuff. This was... I know you told me not to sit up because of the microphone, but you have to sit like this in a school desk. There's, like, probably ten kids
54:33all in a room, and you have to just sit there and just look forward. And, uh, if you, like, look at, like, another kid, if you, like, turn your head to look, the teacher will be like there and just look forward. And if you look at another kid, if you turn your head to look, the teacher will be like, hey, look forward. Don't look at that kid. So you're just tempted. So you have all these kids that are in their phase where you're supposed to be social. All they want to do is just... Every kid has ADHD, and they just want to talk to these other kids. And so it's like dangling candy in front of a kid's face, probably, just like, you can't eat it. You can't eat, you know? And it just sucked because you just have
55:03to sit there. And even I, like I was 30 years old when I was in there. And even me, I was tempted just to be like, I just want to talk to these kids, you know, like they're just sitting right, it'd be so easy just to talk to them, but you can't. You're just sitting there like, that was terrible. It was really sad sad the saddest part for me too was like you just they said every kid is suicidal in there um which is like terrible because you just see these kids with no hope because they're like i don't know like i had a pretty good childhood i'd say like i did a lot of sports and. I had a lot of friends and went on a lot of adventures. They say childhood's the best time of your life. These kids are just getting that robbed from them.
55:49It was just so sad to see, picturing my childhood. And then when I was sitting in the solitary, because I was in solitary confinement for 30 hours, just for no reason, because they thought I was gay in the solitary, because I was in solitary confinement for like 30 hours and just for no reason, because they thought I was gay, I guess. So solitary confinement's the way out. I don't know. Just like picturing what mild childhood was like and then looking at these kids just sitting there, it was so sad. I don't know. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life but are they beating on the kids so there's stories of it we didn't witness that um but yeah we didn't witness that there but they do what's called restraints i guess and they were
56:35like in the training they were bragging about the restraints. So, they would be like, yeah, if you tell this kid to sit down, and he doesn't sit down, the protocol is we're gonna restrain him. And sometimes these restraints will last up to 45 minutes. So, they'd get down and they would practice how to restrain the kids and stuff. And they try and do it in a way that doesn't hurt the kids, I guess. But obviously, there's stories where kids have died from it and stuff. Shit. I think that's also led to the provocation getting shut down. No, sorry. That was a different school that got shut down. It was like a sister school owned by the same company, I think, where I think the kid like threw a brownie or something.
57:16And then they went and like did a restraint on him, but they were like choking him and he ended up dying uh and then he was the only reason he was in there was because uh his parents died i think so they're like oh where should we send him he wasn't even a bad kid they just sent him there because like his parents he was like a foster kid and they just killed him uh holy shit yeah that's crazy that happened i don't know i'd have to look that up but i remember that was a very famous story when i started researching it that was like a big story that kept coming up wow but yeah that was really sad how many kids were in there when you got there i think 300 300 i think 150 boys and 150 girls, I think.
58:00Yeah. Are you conversing with them? No. You talking with them? No. I didn't talk to a single one. Why not? Because you're not allowed to. So even outside of solitary confinement, there's no socialization? Yeah, I don't think so. He'd be like, go to bed, no talking. And then we'd have to go to bed. I think some of the kids would talk and then he'd come in and yell at them. Yeah, I just didn't talk. Which was nice because I was kind of scared that they were going to tell I wasn't 17 years old because that's the oldest you're allowed to be is 17 in there. And I'm 30 years old. So I was like, it was kind of nice because then they couldn't like catch that I was 30 years old. Shit. But yeah, I just kind of just sat in silence the whole time.
58:49I guess there was a couple of times where the teacher would talk to us and he'd be like, what are your goals for today? And he'd be like, I'm going to try to go to sleep without talking to anyone. That's what I think I said my goal was. They're like, I'm going to be a good kid today. I don't know. And that's like pretty much all I would say the whole day. Are they teaching? What are they teaching? So I never got to experience school. I escaped before school started because I was just in solitary confinement the whole time. But Sheldon, he was in school for a lot of it. And he said they would, have you heard of like what they call Riz brain rot TikToks? I haven't really heard of it either, but it's basically,
59:33so what the kids are watching nowadays is they would watch YouTube compilations of these like 15second TikToks, which is... I don't even know how to describe it. It's definitely not educational. I guess the audience can look up Riz Brain Rot and look it up for themselves, but... How do you describe brain rot to someone who doesn't know what brain rot is? I guess you can... It's just... It's kind of self-describing it's content that rots your brain uh that's what they're doing yeah i guess they're just playing that for kids and stuff at least that's what sheldon said they were how long all day i guess just like eight hours they're just play it because i mean sheldon got hired as a teacher and so they would take these kids in and sit them in front of brain rot TikTok shit for eight hours a day.
1:00:26Yeah. In solitary confinement. Well, these aren't teachers. They don't know how to teach, I guess. I don't know. I guess the only thing I was told when I got there was the teacher pulls me aside and he's like, hey, class is going to start tomorrow. And he's like, class is going to be a joke to you. It's a joke, but you have to do it. And that's what the teacher told me. So yeah, it's kind of unbelievable. And then they give you a fake diploma at the end. They're like, you graduated. Congratulations. You can't- So there's no- College or anything. Like math, literature. From my understanding, you graduated. Congratulations. You can't... So there's no math, literature... From my understanding, I don't think so.
1:01:04Nothing. Holy shit. And some of the sister companies, from what I heard, they'll have... They'll... They would take exams, so you learn by taking the test. So instead of giving you the material to learn, they'll just give you the test. And then you just learn what the answer is. So you'll be like, okay, you will get it wrong. You'll be like, okay, number one was 14. And so the answer to number one is 14. So you're not really reading the question. You're just memorizing what the answers are. And then that way, okay, when I take the test again, now I can get all the right answers. So you're not really learning anything. You're just learning how to take the test, guess i mean when you're like when you're in there and your buddy's in there
1:01:45and you guys are you know turning this into you know a video what's what's do you feel like any kind of responsibility to save these kids that are in there i mean this is messed up yeah it was so sad yeah it's this is probably one of the hardest videos ever filmed the first reason is because yeah you're dealing with kids under 18 so it's like i wanted so bad to be like i pitched this to sheldon as like a joke and instantly we're like we can't do this but going to be like, getting all the kids together and be like, if we all escape, like we can all get away and I'll return you, like I'll send footage to the kid's parents and we'll show them what's really going on inside. And then we'll all escape and we'll all return the kids back to their parents and stuff.
1:02:30And, but then it's like, but then if I escape now, I'm some 30 year old who just kidnapped all these 17 year olds because they're, they have legal custody of these kids. The parents signed their rights away for this corporation to have custody of the kids. So now I've literally just kidnapped all these kids from this place, and that makes me a bad person. So it was very complicated. It's like, I want to do the right thing, but I also don't want to screw this up, you know? Because what do they say? Like the road to hell is paved with good intentions or something, you know? Like I didn't want to do that where it's like, okay, we're trying to do a good thing, but ultimately we just do a terrible thing.
1:03:10So we had to be smart about how we pulled it off, I guess. So we couldn't just act impulsively and be like, oh, let's all escape and let's all free these kids, you know? Like it sounds like a good idea, and then you think about it for 30 seconds i mean you know do you think about where you could get this material to who who could be reported to i mean yeah um i mean that was the goal yeah to shut them down i think i after they got shut down i made a video i was like we're just like well that was easy like we thought we have to go on this like huge adventure to shut them down uh because that's like kind of our brand is we don't really stop until there's like a satisfying ending and the satisfying ending with
1:03:48this was like we just weren't going to stop until it got shut down and it just happened way faster than we expected do you feel like you educated an audience about, you know, maybe some parents on what is actually going on? Or do you think these people's parents even give a shit? I think it's 50, 50. Like Paris Hilton's parents still are like, we're glad we sent Paris Hilton there. Like this was best for her, you know? Cause I think, I think half the parents are able to see like, okay, this is messed up, you know? Because I think half the parents are able to see, like, okay, this is messed up, you know? And the other half are like, by them saying that it's wrong, they would be admitting that they did something bad.
1:04:30And I think that's a hard pill for a lot of parents to swallow. Like, we ruined three years of our kid's life because we couldn't be better parents. That's pretty substantial i think a lot of parents it's easier for parents to lie and just be like like lie to themselves and be like this was a good place for my kid like my kid deserved to go here because the alternative is too hard for them to like it's too like big of a truth for them to understand i guess wow well ben let's take a quick break for them to understand, I guess. Wow. Well, Ben, let's take a quick break. Some guys are tough to shop for. They've already bought the tools, the boots, and whatever else they wanted. So if you're looking for something they'll actually use, take a look at Caldera Lab.
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1:06:06Visit calderalab.com slash SRS and use code SRS for 20% off your first order. All right, Ben, so we're wrapping up the Provo infiltration. But I'm curious. I mean, you escaped. That place sounds... You escaped. It seemed like it was pretty easy, the way you describe it. I mean, you got away. I'm like a pretty good parkour athlete, I guess. So I like rock climb. So it was easy for me. I could see it being hard for the average person um but i think i could probably do it i think it also comes with like what happens after you escape right like you're just some kid alone and 20 degree weather and you because it was really i guess if they escape in the summer it's not bad but when i did it was 20 degrees like like you have no money on you no phone uh like what do you like how do you
1:07:03get how do you eat dinner you know um like where do you go where do you sleep um so i think that's probably the hardest part of escaping um because you can't go back to your parents they'll just send you back to provo canyon probably yeah i guess that makes sense well let's move to ideal living this sounds oh yeah really bad yeah it it's kind of crazy i saw the email and i was like these people were out of their minds you know but so hold on before we go on on, what is Ideal Living for the audience? So Ideal Living is a company that makes air purifiers and water purifiers. And they're just some, I think they do a lot of charity and stuff. So they're seen as like a good company. When the wildfires happened in California, they were donating a bunch of air purifiers
1:07:57to help people breathe better. And yeah, they're just seen as like air purifiers to help people breathe better. And, um, yeah, they're just seen as like this, like heartwarming company that just helps the community out. And, uh, I got an email saying that they're actually the only reason this company exists is to fund the world's biggest human trafficking ring. And I was like, ah, but then they sent the email like, Hey, we have all the, like I used to work at this company. I was like, eh but then they sent the email like, hey, we have all the, like, I used to work at this company, I was the CEO's assistant, and I know basically everything that goes on and I have all this evidence, if you don't believe me, like, we can
1:08:31pull out all the evidence, we can go over everything, and I was like okay, so I gave them a call and these people were kind of crazy like, just the way they, like, they seem like conspiracy theorists you know, like, just the way they like, like they seem like conspiracy theorists, you know, like just the way they talk, they're like, well, like people on the inside of the company. Yeah. Well, they don't work there anymore. Apparently they like whistle blew to the head guy and they got fired for doing that. But yeah, basically they just seem like crazy people. At first I was like, okay. But then everything they said, they could back up with evidence. So I was like, okay, I'll document their side.
1:09:10And then I'll document Ideal Living's side. I'll just share both sides of the story. And I shared their side. And then I tried to get Ideal your living side and they were like yeah we're gonna call the cops on you if you uh keep asking us about this and I was like gosh dang it so I put the video out without sharing their side then finally they were like okay now you have to share our side or we're gonna sue you so basically their whole side well I did like an hour-long video on it but their whole side boils down to like, no, we're not doing a human trafficking ring. And they gave me like all this evidence and every single piece of evidence is because like the CEO said so in court. So like the CEO testified in
1:09:49court that it's not true. So you can't lie in court because that's illegal. It's like their whole argument. So I don't know, right now it doesn't look too good for them I'd say, but yeah, it's pretty interesting story. It's weird, cause this is like the most viral thing I've ever done, like by long, like it's gotten the most views of anything, but it's also like the least talked about thing that I've done. How many views? So the two videos have, I think like 37 million views or something on them combined. 37 million views? Yeah, it's by far the biggest viewed thing I've ever done. But no one's reacting to it online. No one's, like, no news stations are picking it. It's weird how, like, it's the least talked about thing I've done, even though everyone's, like, seen it.
1:10:35It's so weird. So I don't know if people are, are like scared to talk about it or um so they're suing you are they suing you basically they sent me a very scary like email basically being like you got everything wrong like here's these seven bullet points of what you got wrong and if you don't share our side then we're going to use like applicable remedies or something like lawyers speak i guess um basically like share our side then we're gonna use like applicable remedies or something like a lawyer speak I guess basically like share our side or we'll sue you is like the dumbed-down version I guess so I shared their side which was we're right because we said so but yeah maybe more will come
1:11:15out now that I just I just posted that video so they haven't responded to that video yet. So maybe they'll actually be able to give me some evidence or something. But a lot of people have come out of the company saying like, yeah, I was in the room with this guy and he wanted to molest these kids. And so he said like, in order to like, how do we do this you create a religion but how do you fund the religion we have to create companies like you guys you guys are smart people and like you figure out a way to fund this and so they came up with a thing called the miracle blade which according to them it's like a miracle because they're pretending that it's a religion so like a miracle you know and uh i feel like everyone's heard of the Miracle Blade.
1:12:01It's a really popular thing. But apparently that was created to fund this thing. And then that company, there was some problems. I'm not really sure what the problems were, but it was like open businesses, and then transfer all the assets to another business to defraud creditors. So, what did you do? Did you infiltrate the company uh we were we we have some footage of the inside that we haven't released yet uh of not the company but the like the jkp group which is the like religion i guess basically they believe that he's like jesus i guess. So, he's in a human body, but he is God, is what they believe. So, this guy's just like... You have footage of this. Uh, yeah, we have fo... And they're like...
1:12:45Well, he died, I guess, a couple years ago, because he was like 90 years old. But they have a cardboard cutout of him that they worship. They're feeding him cake and stuff, and... Um... The employees? Yeah. Yeah. So, the employees of this company all are a part of this organization, I guess. And they're like the high up people. They run the company, but they also run the organizations. They run both of them, I guess. And I guess from my understanding, the way that- So you're saying that allegedly this company exists to fund human trafficking to specifically all the interview all the people i've interviewed that i mean it's verified that they used to work at this company that's what they're all saying is that yeah what's the sample size how many people uh
1:13:33right now there's like six or seven but it's's a small cut. There's only like 30 people that work at the company. So it's, I guess, compared to the people that work there, it's a lot. So six or seven people out of a 30-person company have all reported the same kind of shit going on? Yeah, I'm not 100% sure. I think it's around like 30 people probably. But yeah, there's been about six or seven past employees have come out. And so where did you go? How did you come in? They just emailed me. I just shared their story. So you just interviewed them and shared their story? is that this was supposed to be like a big news story and stuff. And then, I mean, the guy is like a billionaire at the top and he's like pretty powerful, I guess.
1:14:27So, what they were telling me is that because he has power, he's able to kill the story every time a big news station's gonna, like, air it. So, they were like, no news station can air this story. Like, every time, like, we get so close, and then every single time, they always just don't air the story, you know, and we can't find out why. So my big stunt was just like, I'm going to be the first one to air this story, you know, like if no big, like major networks can air it, then for whatever reason, I'm just going to air it and see what happens, you know, like, so it didn't really like require require me to infiltrate anything. The big stunt on this one was kind of just like... Breaking the story.
1:15:03Yeah, because that was the stunt, you know? So how did you get on the inside then? Where did the footage come from? We would just... They have a temple. It's like an ashram. At the company? No, it's... The organization is called JKP. It stands for Jaga Guru Kripalu Parishat. He's Indian, so it's an Indian name like Kripalu. And then Jaga Guru means God walking on earth. So it's the name of their religion. They were trying to get actual religious status from what I was reading, but because there was like so many miracle blades everywhere, when the IRS came, they were like, this isn't a religion. This is a company. So they didn't really get tax exempt like they wanted to. So it is kind of, from my understanding, the same thing, like company,
1:15:52religions, kind of the same thing, I guess. It's all the same, like the same people are all at the top that like, are both things, but the lawyers are trying to argue they're two separate things and they're like, I don't know, but there's a lot of mixture between the two things. And so we went to the ashram, which is where they do like the religious services and all our footage was from the inside there, like talking to the high up, like execs of ideal, because they all run the, they both run the same thing. So we were able to talk to all of them there. And we didn't have to pretend. So how did you get in there? We just walked in. Why would they talk to you? I don't know. We said, Hey, we're interested in your religion.
1:16:31You just walked up to their temple. Yeah. Who's supposedly according to the people that you've interviewed is the biggest child trafficking ring. Well, I think most of the people there don't think it's bad. So they just... What do you mean they don't think it's bad? Yeah, they just think it's a religion. They actually think he's a god walking on earth. So they actually think that this guy was a god. Why do they think that? Because that's how they were raised. Because this has been going on for i think 80 years or something uh maybe like 70 80 years and so uh they just grew up like kind of like i was saying earlier like uh i think a lot of people are just grown up to be like hey this is the truth and don't question it or else that's bad, you know?
1:17:20And so that's probably what happened with a lot of these people. They just grew up, hey, this guy is our God, you know? Like Kripalu, he is God in human form. So, and they were told not to question it because questioning it is evil, you know? And why would you question that? Like, do you not have faith, you know? Like, why are you quite you vilify asking questions and um and so i think a lot of them believe it and they don't know that so a lot of the like sex trafficking happened behind closed doors so from what i was told they would say like okay i think it's to to be an agogi is what it's called, is like a highest spiritual, basically like it's kind of like their way of getting to heaven,
1:18:06I guess. And so in order to become more spiritual, you could have sex with the Swami, the God. And so basically like you're getting God's love, you know? But the problem is these aren't consenting adults that are doing this. These are like, he's doing this to like nine-year-olds, like 13-year-olds. And so that's like where it's like a big problem, you know, and it's like really bad. And so your average person that shows up to the church isn't seeing that because it's happening behind closed doors, you know? But so if I'm just like some like 25-year-old male showing up, I church isn't seeing that because it's happening behind closed doors you know but so if i'm just like some like 25 year old male showing up i would never know that that was
1:18:44happening you know because i'm not his target person he's going after and then for the females it's like first off you think you're getting god's love you're right so oh this is a way for me to get to heaven if i don't like it it's oh, I'm gonna do it anyways because I'll... It's worth it. It's a sacrifice in order to get to heaven, you know? And then another thing too is, especially in India, if you've been raped, it's like, really hard to get a husband later in life because they see that as, oh, you're an impure now, you know? Like, and so a lot of these women just wouldn't tell people because they're afraid of like, oh, like, society's gonna treat me differently now and impure now you know like and so a lot of these women just wouldn't tell people because
1:19:19they're afraid of like oh like society's gonna treat me differently now because it's seen as like a bigger deal over there and so a lot of them just wouldn't say anything so i think a lot of the people just don't know you know um but yeah because i think there's like, even though there's like been, they're claiming there's been thousands and thousands of victims because this happened for, I think 80 years. Uh, and then they were saying they were raping like three kids a day or something for like, so it's like thousands of people, but there's a hundred million people in this organization. So yeah, it's, it's huge. Yeah. So hold on how does a company with 30 people that you're saying coincides with a religion have a hundred million people
1:20:10yeah well the company was just to fund it so they're pumping uh i mean the guy's a billionaire so um just from this company so this company makes him a lot of money and that money goes to the organization so they can like build ashrams and they have these huge giant temples that are like super beautiful and uh it like attracts people so i'd say most people that are part of it probably don't know what's going on you know um but yeah i mean the company the 30 people the company their main focus with the company is to make these air purifiers and water purifiers but they all just so happen like it's not all of them too it's like just a couple people at the top maybe like six or seven of them at the top that like the people that run ideal living also run jkp and they're
1:21:00very high up like leaders in jkp and they funnel the money through to jkp so what do you think i think they've shown me a lot of evidence for that to be true and unless ideal living shows me evidence for it not to be true, I think it's... What evidence have you seen that makes you believe it's true? So Peter is the CEO of Ideal Living. And he is CEO of Ideal Living, but he's also the treasurer of JKP. So he handles all the money of JKP. I mean, they have billions of... I guess they have this trust. They showed me this trust in India where they put billions of dollars. They claim it's to do tax fraud and stuff, but they also claim it's to give them all the money. It's hard for me to recount because it's so convoluted.
1:21:57The biggest one I'd say is this uh interview with joe kelly he's one of the guys who's like in the organization but also it's like really high up at the company and he was in the room when sarah swati told him like hey like we want to make this a big religion so how do we do that like let's make infomercial companies like your job is to go make companies so we can have money and so um yeah and so then when i asked idea living i was like hey what about what joe kelly saying about you guys and they're like we're not going to debate this like just take it out of your video like they don't even comment on why it's wrong. So it's like, if it was wrong, they should just tell me like, oh, he's lying or something. They won't even say that. So
1:22:44it seems like they agree also with what he's saying or else they would have corrected me on it. AI is becoming part of how a lot of us work. There are plenty of options out there, but for me, I use Claude. It's become a big part of how I prepare of us work. There are plenty of options out there. But for me, I use Claude. It's become a big part of how I prepare for this show, from pulling research together to working through ideas and coming up with better questions for my guests. Claude is the AI for problem solvers. It's the collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you, not for you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model, or strategizing your next business move, Clawed extends your thinking
1:23:27to tackle the problems that matter. Here at SRS, my team and I have research notes and ideas in different places, so Clawed helps us bring that material together and organize it into an outline. Then I can work through the questions and tighten up the structure before I sit down with my guest. Discover what's possible. Try Claude at claude.ai.srs. That's claude.ai.srs. Check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude.ai.srs. So is this like an active lawsuit? I don't know. Apparently, they sue everyone that talks bad about them. And I've probably made the biggest hit piece on them they've ever seen. But they haven't sued me. So I don't know if companies are starting to learn now that like
1:24:22by suing me it's just like helping me uh because uh like every time i get sued it's just like great for me you know like i just get more public support and it just ends up like going to discovery or whatever and then now they have to produce a bunch of documents. Like, that would be horrible for them if they had to do that, I'm assuming. How many times have you been sued? I get threatened to be... I get served papers probably every single video I've, like, ever done since, like, day one with Scientology. They tried suing me for, like, a million dollars. But I always find a way out of it, you know? I always find, like, a creative way that no one would ever see coming. Like I usually just find out like, because here's my thought process.
1:25:07So bad companies exist for a reason, right? Because if they were just bad and nothing else with no loopholes, then why would they exist? Like we don't want bad things. We would just be like, hey, don't exist anymore. But they exist because they're probably smart enough to come up with some type of, like, loophole to stay around. So I usually find out whatever loophole they're using and then do it back onto them to see how they like it. So whatever loopholes, like, these bad companies use to avoid getting sued, I just do the same thing back to them. Give me an example. So Scientology is, when I was really dissecting it, my conclusion was, this is a business hiding behind a religion. So they're selling you these courses and stuff that are completely fake. to sweat out your bad memories and your toxins. You know, like if something bad, traumatic happened to me,
1:26:00you can actually sweat that out, which I think Harvard did a study. They said you should only be in a sauna for 15 to 20 minutes. Anything past that is unhealthy for you. And yeah, our bodies have toxins, but you don't, I think it's like one microgram will come out through like a sauna, like a thing, you know, like toxins. But 99.99999% of your toxins just come out when you pee. That's how you get, like when you use the bathroom, that's how you get your toxins out. And sweating out is nothing compared to just using the bathroom. So that's fake science. And if they sold that class, if anyone else sold that class, you could sue them for false advertising, but you can't sue Scientology. And the reason is their religion and they believe for it to be true.
1:26:46So if you sue Scientology for that class, you're discriminating them against their religion because you don't respect their beliefs. So, okay, how can I use that against them? So Scientology is suing me for my video I made on them. So I was like, okay, what if I just do the same thing? So I went to the IRS website. I made my own religion. We call it the Church of Scientology Sucks. It got approved. So if you go on the IRS website, you can still look it up. It's Scientology Sucks is our real religion that is IRS approved. And we just believe scientology sucks so by them suing us for what we said in our documentary they're discriminating us against our religion they're they're saying our beliefs are invalid uh and so they can't sue us anymore and the
1:27:31detectives actually ruled in our favor on that so holy shit do you have an attorney no i was doing all this by yourself that's why i did it because i i didn't have i was homeless living in my car when i did this video i didn't have money for lawyers so i gotta find some other way out of this i guess oh my gosh but yeah and the formula works like literally every single bad company has some type of loophole that i can just also use against them it's happened to every single video company has some type of loophole that I can just also use against them. It's happened to every single video. But yeah. So you've been sued for just about every video you've done. Yeah. The only one was the 12 tribes. They believe that God will punish me, not the law.
1:28:13They don't believe in the law, like the human law, you know? So they think laws are stupid. They're like, God will punish you. So they're the only ones that didn't sue me. Wow. And nothing has stuck so far. Just the bricks and minifigs one. That one we're still dealing with. But yeah, I think I'm going to win. I mean, we did an anti-slap suit, which is basically, so a slap suit is when they silence for what i'm saying so i made a documentary on them and they're suing me for that for like exposing them for doing a bad thing so anti-slap is an anti doing that and then if that gets approved which i think by the end of the month we'll find out if it's approved or not then it's gonna be exciting to see you're just filing all
1:29:00this stuff yourself no i have lawyers now oh okay but uh i finally did get a lawyer after the bricks and minifigs one the whole i had like the whole internet was like kind of hating on the fact i was just doing everything myself because i thought it was cool to do everything myself you know i was like i don't get lawyers involved i wanted to do it from the perspective of like just some kids sitting at home like i like my stuff to feel do it from the perspective of like, just some kids sitting at home. Like I like my stuff to feel like it's like a high school project just on steroids, you know, like I'm going up against like a human trafficking ring or I'm going to take down this corporation.
1:29:28Like, but like kind of the like fantasy of like a high school project taking on such a big project like that. So I like to present it in that way. And like, I like my methods to be like anyone at home could just be sitting watching like oh i could have done that you know like he didn't have a million dollar budget behind him he just had his creativity you know and i i think it's like an inspiring thing to inspire people to also be more creative and not use excuses of why they can't do things but um so i was like oh i'm not gonna get a lawyer you know because then if i win people be like oh he had a lawyer do everything for him so i was like i'm gonna going to get a lawyer, you know? Because then if I win, people will be like, oh, we had a lawyer do everything for him.
1:30:01So I was like, I'm going to beat this without a lawyer. And then everyone was like, no, you have to get a lawyer. Like, they're going to screw you and stuff. And the whole internet kind of said I had to do it. So I was like, okay, this is one time I'll put money into a lawyer. And then it's crazy because like the Bricks and Minifigs video I did, I think we had like less than a $2,000 total spending on that whole video. Like, which basically it was just like gas money to drive up there and like food and the Airbnb is like that whole video's budget. And then the lawyer, I think I've spent like a quarter million dollars on a lawyer so far, just from that video. You've spent a quarter of a million dollars?
1:30:35Yeah. Okay. What is this? Why'd you get two criminal defense lawyers for... Because I made a GoFundMe and I tried serving court papers. Those are two separate charges. Oh, and then they said that I tried to burn the building down in Provo, which obviously I didn't do. So, I had three criminal cases that I had to have lawyers fight. And then just the civil lawyer... The civil lawyer is like the expensive one. They're suing me for RICO charges. So I think that's kind of expensive, I guess, just because we had like six days of mediation and that just each day, I mean, the lawyers, it's like almost a thousand dollars an hour. And if you're in mediation for 10 hours a day for six days, it's insane.
1:31:15And every single thing the lawyer does, it costs money. It's like if they want to watch my video for context, I think the Bricks and Minifigs video is like four hours long or something, the three videos together. So it's like, that's $34,000 just for them to watch the video. It's insane. And then also we're trying to take over their whole corporation. So we need lawyers for each store that changes from their brand to our brand so we've already taken over two stores so far so we need two lawyers for that um that's a lot of money it's crazy yeah so it is kind of funny like the the video costs this much and the lawyers cost this much. Damn, man. What do you got coming up? What are you excited about?
1:32:10So we're trying to take over the whole Bricks and Minifigs corporation. Basically, something I quickly realized after these videos came out is no one wants to shop at Bricks and Mini-Figs anymore. What is it? Uh, Bricks and Mini-Figs. It's a LEGO store. So basically, this corporation stole... Oh, I've been hearing about this. Yeah, it's just... Okay. So there was the world's largest LEGO set owned by this family. They put it in a Bricks and Mini-Figs to sell. Basically, Bricks and Mini-Figs is like GameStop, but for Legos. So they're not affiliated with Lego. They just resell people's Lego sets. So this guy had a collection and then it was like, okay, can you sell this for me? And they keep a percentage and then,
1:32:53but he gets to keep the majority of the sales and they keep a percentage for like a thank you for helping sell it. And he shows up to the store one day and. It's a consignment show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Consignment. And then he shows up and there's new day and... It's a consignment show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Consignment. And then he shows up and there's new owners there. And he's like, hey, they're like, you guys still selling my stuff? Like, how's it going? Like, can I have my monthly check? And they're like, oh, yeah, like, we took over the store. The old store owner doesn't work here anymore. Um, and these Legos are ours, so if you ask any more questions, we're gonna call the cops on you. Like, you're trespassing the store and he's like what it's like confused like okay and so uh uh basically he was like he
1:33:29like calls him back he's like you sure you don't just want to give the legos back and they're like if you want you can sue us but by suing us it's going to cost you more money than this lego collection it's going to cost you like half a million dollars to sue us so you probably should just let us keep these legos and he's like oh my gosh so he didn't know what to do so he contacted me about it and uh yeah we basically made a documentary just showing the whole thing we got into some crazy schemes stuff i guess but like what um i don't know so one thing is the police were saying it was civil instead of criminal uh which means the police can't do anything you have to sue them so i saw i was reading through this happened in oregon so i was reading through the oregon state laws of like what
1:34:11civil crimes are and criminal crimes and one thing i saw that was a criminal crime was stealing from a lottery so i made a a state-approved lottery. We got approved by the state, and we auctioned off one of his LEGO sets. That was like, I think it was a $1,000 set, which turns into the felony amount of, like, theft. So we auctioned off one of his LEGO sets, and we, a family won it. And then when they went to claim their prize, they didn't give them the LEGOs, which now, it's not civil anymore, it's criminal. Because if you steal from a anymore. It's criminal. Because if you steal from a lottery, that's criminal. And it was a felony amount. So like just stuff like that. We did one where, because it was going to cost them
1:34:48like half a million dollars to sue. Like, I think it takes like two years, two or three years to go up with a full lawsuit. So like, well, instead of doing that, what if we just sue them in small claims court ten times? You know? Uh, because you get a judgment, like, pretty much instantly, and it costs, like, $100 to file. So we sold his debt to ten of my friends, and then we all made ten lawsuits. And so we were all able to individually sue for the amount. And we just did a bunch of, like, crazy schemes like that. And, uh, eventually i put a documentary out and it became like the biggest like story on the whole internet i think it's probably like the story of the year this year and for like internet news at least and um and so the
1:35:35thing that like which is good for him getting his Legos back, but it's bad for all the franchise owners that are now working with Bricks and Minifigs because basically the whole Bricks and Minifigs, like, because it was the number one store and everyone knows that like corporate is thieves now. It's like ruined your name. So if you put the Bricks and Minifigs logo on your store, no one wants to shop there because people know that by shopping there, 6% of every sale goes to corporate. Oh, we don't want to support corporate, so even though it's going to hurt the franchise owners, people are still not shopping there. And it's like, the people that are really hurting is these franchise owners that did nothing wrong.
1:36:16They didn't steal these Legos. So I was like, okay, how do we help these people out? And so we were just joking one day. We were like, what if we make Reckless Bricks? We could make our own store called Reckless Bricks and then we convinced them to change their branding and for every store that changes they'll give basically they're paying corporate to use a logo that hurts their sales so the pitch is well if you put reckless bricks like the internet is like loving what i'm doing so like you'll probably get way more sales you know because people want to support reckless bricks and then i won't take anything you just give me zero percent you know like i won't take anything and so they'll make more money by it'll have a better brand it'll make more money doing it you know, like I won't take anything. And so they'll make more money by, it'll have a better
1:36:59brand and it'll make more money doing it. You know, they won't have to pay for it. And so, uh, we took over two stores, um, just cause a lot of the franchise owners are like scared to leave cause they're like, Oh, corporate's going to sue us. So we set them up with lawyers and stuff. And, um, I guess after this video comes out, the hope is that more stores will see it and want to change. And I think we have like 30 or something, 30 or 40 stores that want to change right now. And the video hasn't even come out yet. So I think once the video comes out, they're probably all going to want to change. And then it's kind of like a, well, they can't stop us all type of thing. Damn, dude. If they all change, I don't think they can stop them all.
1:37:37But it's kind of like a science experiment. We don't really know what's going to happen. We're just kind of doing it and documenting the results i guess that's a hell of a wave you've created yeah but it's rated like a half a billion dollar corporation uh so i might just be the owner of like a half a billion dollar corporation which is crazy i was just like some stupid broke YouTuber before this, you know, and I might own this. I don't think I'd make any money cause I'm taking 0%, but I would, I would be taking 0% of half a billion corporation that I would own. But I feel like it's like a big responsibility, I guess. But yeah, it might happen, but it's funny. Like, it's just like a, like just something like me and my friends were joking about and now it
1:38:18might actually happen, I guess. Dude, that's crazy. Yeah. It's insane. So that's, that's what's next for me, I guess. Um, but yeah, I would be the first CEO that takes 0%. God bless you. Of my company. I own a company and take 0% stake, I guess. Man, that's powerful dude now as long as i can make my youtube videos i'm happy i guess you like doing this yeah um yeah it's really fun i don't know i don't really think i do anything for video i just do it because it's fun and then kind of like a side effect of what i do is i get a cool video out of it i've always just done crazy things my whole life i guess and then like it's kind of cool to share the crazy things i do with the world now so it's fun just feel good helping people like that yeah it's fun i don't know yeah
1:39:18ultimately i just like doing things that are fun. And like, I just like going on adventures and stuff. But I think helping people is kind of the ultimate adventure, you know, because there's like a problem they can't solve. And I'm like, oh, I'll be the one to solve your problem, you know, and it's just like fun. And then it's, it is like a cool like reward because then it's like, oh, if I help them and they're happy and you feel like, I don't know, like when other people are happy, I'm happy, you know, it makes you feel good. Yeah. I'm a very like empathetic person. Like, I feel like my mood is kind of like, like determined by how like other people's mood is. So if other people are sad, then I'm like really sad.
1:39:54But if other people are happy, then I'm really happy. So. Right on, man. That's good to make people happy. I think. Well, Ben, this was awesome. Oh yeah. Thanks for coming, man. Yeah. happy then i'm really happy so right on man that's good to make people happy i think well ben this was awesome oh yeah thanks for coming man yeah thanks for having me this is an awesome podcast yeah it's my pleasure um yeah i'd love to have you again sometime i'm down give you some time get some more stuff and well i definitely have a lot of crazy things playing i think i have 10 videos already filmed that i just haven't edited yet so definitely have some crazy stuff that no one knows about in the future i could probably
1:40:24tell you off camera but i can't tell you yet some of it's like very illegal probably and we're waiting for statute of limitations on some of it but some of them end very very soon so and then it's like oh you can't get us any more statute of limitations is up so you're a smart dude cheers man thanks yeah oh thanks no matter where you're watching the Sean Ryan show from if you get anything out of this at all, anything, please like, comment, and subscribe. And most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can. And if you're feeling extra generous, head to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review. Introducing Pandora's Holiday Collection. Head to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review. who inspire you, who've been there through it all. Give a piece that says exactly what words can't.
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