Peabody & Emmy-winning investigative journalist ✨ Trafficked 🎥 (Nat Geo / Hulu) The Hidden Third 🎙️ (YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
Joined April 2008
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Mariana van Zeller retweeted
Joe Rogan and Mariana van Zeller talk about the Sackler family and the opioid epidemic.
"A million people have died from the opioid epidemic in the last 20-something years. That's more than all wars combined in the last 150 years."
Watc Netflix's Painkiller series if you haven't already. You'll get an idea of just how disturbing the whole Sackler family scandal was.
Mariana van Zeller retweeted
$16B from scam and banned-goods ads. Suspected scammers paid Meta more to stay.
Emmy-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller went through Meta's internal documents with Joe Rogan this week. By Meta's own estimate, that was 10% of its revenue, and users saw 15 billion "higher risk" scam ads a day.
If Meta was less than 95% sure an advertiser was a fraud, the ads stayed up at a higher price. Inside Meta, that's a "penalty bid."
Rogan's first reaction was "What?"
The case for Meta: it told Reuters the documents "present a selective view" and called the estimate "rough and overly-inclusive."
The case against: a penalty that pays Meta isn't a penalty.
Bug or business model?
Clip below.
Mariana van Zeller retweeted
Four trucks of armed soldiers escorted her team 12 hours into the Niger desert to film a gold mine.
When they got back to town, a coup had closed the airspace and the borders. Watch the full conversation on the latest Change Agents with @MarianaVZ and @AndyStumpf77 on YT and X.
Mariana van Zeller retweeted
Joe Rogan: “The Sacklers are responsible for a million people being dead.”
Mariana van Zeller: “More than all wars combined in the last 150 years.”
Rogan: “And they’re still rich as fuck.”
“No one’s gone to jail.”
“Everyone knows somebody.”
“Everyone has lost somebody.”
Zeller: “Purdue, not one single one had criminal charges.”
“Not one single one in the Sackler family.”
“And it wasn’t just Purdue.”
“The other pharmaceutical companies eventually use the same playbook.”
“And how many people are still dying?”
“Because the fentanyl crisis is just … an evolution of what was started by these pharmaceutical companies.”
Rogan: “A guy who’s hooked on pills today is normal.”
“Everyone knows someone who’s overdosed.”
@joerogan @MarianaVZ
Mariana van Zeller retweeted
just dropped a 3-hour-20-min LOADED episode w/ Black Markets & Underworld investigator, Mariana van Zeller
Mariana van Zeller retweeted
Every single one of us will fight a battle that we think may end us.
This is mine, with @JeffBezos + @amazon
Thankful to the brilliant @MarianaVZ for talking with me.
Full talk here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
FROM METH ADDICT TO CHANGE-MAKER
Rob Archuleta on addiction, rehabilitation and what actually works 🙌
Episode drops tomorrow (Wed, Nov 12) on YouTube (link in bio) + wherever you get your podcasts.
Body Brokering Survivor 🚨
At 23, Sequoyah Thiessen moved to SoCal believing the “Rehab Riviera” would help her kick opioids. Instead, she was pulled into the shadow economy of fraudulent rehab programs, where people are bought and sold on a multi-billion-dollar black market. New THE HIDDEN THIRD ep drops tomorrow - Wednesday Nov 5. Watch on YouTube 📺 (link in profile), or listen on Spotify/Apple 🎙️
THE BOOKIE INSIDE THE OHTANI BETTING SCANDAL
This week on The Hidden Third, @mathewbowyer5 talks abt his multimillion-dollar ilegal operation, how underground betting works + what the scandal revealed ⚾️ Drops WED 10/29 on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts (link in bio).
#SportsBetting #BettingScandal #MLB #Dodgers #WorldSeries
From cocaine trafficker to prison reformer. 🚨 This week on The Hidden Third I sit down with @MichaelGSantos, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison and transformed his time inside into a mission.
New episode drops tomorrow (Wednesday) on YouTube.com/marianavanzeller, Sporify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Thank you, @joerogan, for the space to talk about something I care deeply about 💙
The full interview is now available wherever you get your podcasts. While there, don’t forget to subscribe and listen to my new podcast.
youtube.com/@marianavanzelle…
Mariana van Zeller retweeted
29x-Emmy nominee and award-winning journalist @MarianaVZ launches her brand-new video podcast, "The Hidden Third," a deep dive into the underground markets powering the global economy.
More about her hit @NatGeo series "Trafficked": abc7.com/post/national-geogr…
Episode 1 of THE HIDDEN THIRD is up now. Also available on all other podcast platforms. Please watch, listen, subscribe and comment 🩵
youtu.be/92YrEUBT128
After years reporting on black markets, I wanted to have real, raw conversations with people who’ve lived on the other side of the law. Smugglers. Scammers. Gang members. Kingpins.
What makes someone cross that line and could it ever be us?
Welcome to The Hidden Third. 💛
🎙️ First two episodes drop Oct15! Watch on YouTube.com/marianavanzeller or listen wherever you get your podcasts!
That time @darren_foster and I tried to film South Florida’s largest pill mill 💊 operation, and were chased down I-95 by its owners.
THE HIDDEN THIRD launches Oct 15 - in two days!!!⚡️Subscribe now ⚡️ (YouTube link in bio).
After years inside, Fabian Alomar is making it count. I loved getting to know him, and I think you will too. He’s “very incredible” — my professional review.
THE HIDDEN THIRD — Wed, Oct 15. Subscribe (link in bio).
Former inmate / pro skater & actor Fabian Alomar (my first guest) meets our studio rat 🐀🎙️which is actually a guinea pig purse I was given while filming cocaine trafficking in Peru.
THE HIDDEN THIRD launches Wed, Oct 15.
Subscribe now on YouTube (link in bio)
Available Oct 15 on Spotify, Apple and wherever you listen to podcasts.
BIG NEWS!! 🚨My brand-new podcast, THE HIDDEN THIRD, launches Wed, Oct 15.
Please subscribe here youtube.com/marianavanzeller
I’ve spent my career reporting on the underworld, or what economists call the “Hidden Third”, the estimated 1/3 of the global economy made up of black & gray markets. I’m so excited to share intimate and fascinating conversations with people who know these worlds firsthand 🎙️
