Podcasts about metals

People wanting to purchase heat pumps might soon face sticker shock. Many consumers have sought out energy credits to find a greener and more affordable alternative to heating oil, but the tax credit to help make them cheaper has expired. Today on the show: how homeowners, the renewables industry, and its critics all feel about it.Related episodes: Metals, government debt, and a climate lawsuitAll these data centers are gonna fry my electric bill … right?Cold-o-nomicsFor sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Feb 3, 2026 – When markets soar but Main Street struggles, what signals should you trust? In this episode, Peter Boockvar, author of The Boock Report, explores the implications of Trump's choice for new Fed Chair, the recent parabolic move...

This episode of the Trading Justice Podcast breaks down the current market environment as stocks trade near critical technical levels. The Justice brothers analyze equities, index structure, and broader market momentum, focusing on support and resistance zones, consolidation patterns, and what traders should be watching ahead of upcoming catalysts. The conversation blends technical analysis, options market context, and trader psychology while keeping the discussion practical and approachable. The episode also highlights ongoing education, live trading events, and community resources available through Tackle Trading, making it a valuable listen for traders navigating range-bound and breakout-ready markets.

Feb 2, 2026 – On today's edition of the Lifetime Planning segment on the Financial Sense Newshour, Jim Puplava welcomes Jennifer Stevens from International Living to talk about their newly released Best Places to Retire in 2026...

A.M. Edition for Feb. 2. Volatility is gripping global markets as jittery investors sell off everything from gold to bitcoin. WSJ markets reporter Chelsey Dulaney helps us assess whether a broader correction could be in store. Plus, the U.S. government begins the week partially shut down, with a tough battle looming in the House as lawmakers debate immigration-enforcement changes. And Israel reconnects Gaza to Egypt in a major test of President Trump's peace plan. Luke Vargas hosts. Explore the famous names in the latest release of Epstein files. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andreas Steno and Mikkel Rosenvold of Steno Research break down the mounting U.S.–Iran tensions, the implications for oil, the U.S.–China decoupling, strategic mineral stockpiles, and supply-chain weaponization. They cover the biggest forces reshaping global markets – including today's surprising ISM print.

Oracle plans to raise $50 billion to shore up its AI spending, while Nvidia stalls its $100 billion investment into OpenAI. Mizuho says speculative money will move out of metals and into memory stocks. Plus, the partial government shutdown delays the January jobs report. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows!   This is where we answer our community's wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track!   Check out today's questions:    Will: Hi Dr Cabral, Thank you for giving us the opportunity to ask you questions. I've learned so much from other people's questions! I have two of my own. 1. Regarding your past podcast on the importance of broccoli and garlic. I travel a lot for work. When I travel and can't get broccoli or garlic, would it be ok to take a broccoli and garlic supplement. ? 2. I recently purchased the equililife mushroom supplement. Do you recommend taking it all year round or just in the winter. Thanks so much! Will   Carol: Dr Cabral, I would like to start by thanking you for all the information you freely give. I've been listening to your podcast almost since it started and I have been able to make positive changes in my life and my family's. I am a healthy, active 62 year old woman. I walk 5 to 10 miles most days. I do strength training 3 to 5 times a week plus cardio a couple days a week. Through diet and exercise I have been able to maintain my weight most of my adult life. If my weight started to go up I would make adjustments in my diet (which was usually from getting sloppy with my diet). Since 2017 I've done your detox at least 3 times a year (I just haven't been able to swing 4), and they usually help me lose the few pounds I gained and put me back on track with my eating. For the last few years, however, my weight has been creeping up higher and nothing (not even the detoxes) have helped me lose the added weight. I've tried everything I could think of, but my weight continues to go up instead of down. I went through menopause 10 years ago. I'm at a loss at what to do, but I definitely don't want to continue to gain weight. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you, Carol                                                                                                                                                                                  Mohamed: Good morning to you Doctor Cabral and all the listeners. Grateful for all that you do. My question is regarding a sort of pinch like feeling on my left side (near heart). On and off randomly.. did blood work and EKG (normal findings). Ran minerals and Metals.. on the higher side for K & N.. Mg green and Calcium (leaning towards high). Other minerals were low, except phosphorus (slightly high) Noticing bloating after meals.. could leaky gut be related to the occasional pinch feeling I get… it's either that or cortisol.. Which lab should I run (can only do 1).. Taking Omega3 support, DNS, Magnesium and exercising twice a week.. I'm a 27 year old man. Noticing new onset fatigue, bloating.. A bit worried about my heart.. thanks.. What can help, proteolytic enzymes, Apple cider Vinegar before meals. Or B vitamins. Thoughts?    Cheryl: Morning, My 73 year old dad has type 2 diabetes. He is otherwise in good health, an active golfer, is about 165lbs and walks daily. My parents are old school and believe everything the dr says. Recently, his dr just uped his metformin to 2x a day from 1x and put him on a pill for his A1C. I am annoyed that the meds are just increased instead of looking at the root cause. They recently saw a dietician who said it is not reversable which I know is not at all true. My mom cooks healthy meals but my dad does have a sweet tooth. When he wants something sweet it is often sugar/free which is terrible and full of chemicals. I do not agree with all of the sugar free stuff/sweetners and try go get them to choose different things-monkfruit/coconut sugar but the dietician recommended the splenda type stuff. would love to help my dad reverse this. Any suggestions where to start would be appreciated. Thank you:)    Elizabeth: Hi Dr Cabral! Thank you for the amazing work that you do! My 80 year old mother has been experiencing consistent burning mouth syndrome for the past 12 years. She had tried all the conventional methods, gabapentin, CT scan etc and nothing has helped. I recently read that the drop in estrogen during menopause could be the cause. What do you think and any recommendations? Thanks again!    Thank you for tuning into today's Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community's questions!    - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/3648 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!  

Jordi Visser is a veteran macro investor with 30+ years of market experience and the author of the VisserLabs Substack. In this episode, we unpack the Federal Reserve rate pause, the case for a more forward-looking Fed, and how rapidly advancing AI is reshaping inflation vs. deflation expectations. We also explore the scarcity trade across bitcoin, silver, energy, and semiconductors—and how investors can think about positioning as physical constraints collide with abundant software.====================Figure – Enter to win $25k USDC with Democratized Prime while earning ~9% APY! They also have the lowest industry interest rates at 8.91% with 12 month terms! Take out a Bitcoin Backed Loan today and buy more Bitcoin. Check out Figure! Figure Lending LLC dba Figure. Equal Opportunity Lender. NMLS 1717824. Terms and conditions apply.====================This podcast is sponsored by Abra.com. Abra is the secure way to access crypto and crypto based yield and loan products through a separately managed account structure.Learn more at http://www.abra.com.====================0:00 – Intro1:24 – Fed's decision to pause interest rates5:05 – Impact of the next Fed chair7:07 – Time, psychology, & bitcoin10:32 – Pricing assets in gold terms11:40 – AI factories, energy, and compute limits15:29 – Metals runs & investor fear18:37 – Software selloff & big tech risk24:02 – Trimming winners & rotating capital28:44 – Elon, Tesla, & SpaceX34:07 – Jordi's Sunday video preview & AI urgency

Katy Kaminski joins us to assess the early signals shaping markets in 2026. The conversation explores the resurgence of commodity trends, the role of volatility estimation, and why diversification across markets and speeds matters more than ever. Drawing on new research, they examine dispersion within the CTA universe, the limits of replication, and how volatility targeting quietly determines outcomes. From precious metals to currencies, from crisis alpha to geopolitical risk, this episode offers a grounded look at why trend following thrives during disruption and why regime change remains its natural habitat.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE-----Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT's TRUE ? – most CIO's read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.Follow Katy on LinkedIn.Episode TimeStamps:00:00 - Introduction to the Systematic Investor Series00:39 - Weather disruptions and market perspective02:31 - Precious metals and extreme commodity moves04:28 - Gold, central banks, and monetary regime shifts07:43 - Replication versus full CTA diversification09:47 - Liquidity differences across metals12:03 - Metals leading trend performance in 202615:01 - Multi-sector trends and diversification benefits20:13 - Media attention and the return of trend following23:29 - Research insights on speed and dispersion31:44 - Trend speed and timing tradeoffs40:59 - Market concentration and narrow universes43:19 - Volatility estimation as a hidden...

Jan 30, 2026 – Market optimism faces a reality check as Financial Sense Newshour interviews Craig Johnson, renowned for his accurate market calls. Despite record highs, Johnson discusses recent sell-offs triggered by weaker-than-expected...

Jan 30, 2026 – Has the dollar's reign ended? In this detailed interview, Jim Puplava sits down with veteran metals strategist Greg Weldon to dissect the powerful fundamentals driving metals and the broader commodities prices, from unsustainable...

Jan 30, 2026 – Amid a global race for resources, Financial Sense's Jim Puplava unpacks the “invisible chokehold” disrupting energy and minerals supply chains in the US and around the world. Puplava outlines America's decline in coal and nuclear power...

In this episode, the panel analyzes sharp volatility in metals, crypto, and markets following the Kevin Warsh Fed nomination, extreme crypto fear, and recent parabolic spikes in silver and gold. They debate potential peaks (silver possibly reverting to ~$50), Bitcoin's bearish setup and risk-asset correlation, decoupling from precious metals, reflation signals, energy/commodity trends, Trump-era deregulation for power and industry, stablecoin/tokenization growth, and Bitcoin's long-term thesis amid short-term pain.

Eric Criscuolo, NYSE Market Strategist, highlights a week where mega cap tech snapped back into leadership after small caps' strong run faded. A quiet Fed meeting kept rates steady and shifted attention to earnings, where Meta and IBM surged on AI strength while Microsoft slumped on lofty expectations. Travel, leisure, and select industrial names outperformed as software and healthcare lagged. Metals stole the spotlight with extreme volatility, led by gold's dramatic intraday swing, while crypto struggled to gain traction. With a busy earnings slate and key labor data ahead, markets move into next week with momentum reshuffling once again.

The Prophecies say Silver will Skyrocket far more than gold, and now silver is well on its way to skyrocket. Today’s Guest is Jonathan Rose from Genesis Gold Group, and he gives us his expertise on the gold and silver markets. Will it be a good investment to put your money into gold and silver? Let’s find out.

The Prophecies say Silver will Skyrocket far more than gold, and now silver is well on its way to skyrocket. Today’s Guest is Jonathan Rose from Genesis Gold Group, and he gives us his expertise on the gold and silver markets. Will it be a good investment to put your money into gold and silver? Let’s find out.

Send us a textSupport the showShow RTPF Podcast Some Love - PREMIUM!!! Get a RTPF Winter Beanie - MERCH! PROJECTION LAB Interested in starting your own podcast? Get a $20 Amazon gift card with this link!

Jan 27, 2026 – Our next guest, David Woo, CEO of David Woo Unbound, believes 2026 could be the year the impossible becomes plausible, as we shift into a post rules-based international order. While the US and China battle for dominance...

Brian from Santiment joined me to review the crypto market metrics for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple XRP, Solana, and Avax. We also look at the surging price and sentiment for gold and silver.

Welcome to Q&A Wednesday: The YouTube Chat Free-for-All — our most interactive show of the week. Lance Roberts & Danny Ratliff answer real-time questions straight from the YouTube live chat. No scripts. No pre-selected topics. Just timely, unfiltered discussion on the issues investors are wrestling with right now. 0:00 - INTRO 0:19 - Major Mega Cap Earnings After the Bell Today 3:27 - Re-setting the Doomsday Clock 5:59 - Markets Set (Another) All-time High 11:31 - Metals as Assets - Where Are Retail Investors Piling In? 21:14 - Commodities are Just an Asset 22:33 - Dollar's Decline & Relative Strength 25:16 - Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage? 29:00 - Tokenization of Real Estate Holdings 33:27 - Roth Conversions Ahead of Higher Taxes 35:04 - How Does an Economy Work in an AI Environment 36:08 - Buying Houses for $500 Down 36:58 - Private Lending Fund? NO. 39:33 - Do Not Sell Gold to Buy a Porsche 40:38 - Take Risk, Retire Young? 44:44 - When is the proper time to rebalance portfolio? 45:54 - Risk vs Volatility 48:23 - CME Raising Silver Margin Requirements 50:17 - What Are Allocations in All-Weather Portfolio? Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist, Lance Roberts, CIO, w Senior Investment Advisor, Danny Ratliff, CFP Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer ------- Watch Today's Full Video on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLaWDc-IGAw&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 ------- Watch our previous show, "Work Sucks...or Does It?," here: https://www.youtube.com/live/ziEdWYE1VwQ -------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "Big Tech Drives Market Highs" is here: https://youtu.be/ut624yuAvDg ------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestm entadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #MarketOutlook #MarketRisk #SP500 #EarningsSeason #PortfolioManagement #QAWednesday #InvestorQuestions #MarketVolatility #FinancialEducation #RiskManagement

Welcome to Q&A Wednesday: The YouTube Chat Free-for-All — our most interactive show of the week. Lance Roberts & Danny Ratliff answer real-time questions straight from the YouTube live chat. No scripts. No pre-selected topics. Just timely, unfiltered discussion on the issues investors are wrestling with right now. 0:00 - INTRO 0:19 - Major Mega Cap Earnings After the Bell Today 3:27 - Re-setting the Doomsday Clock 5:59 - Markets Set (Another) All-time High 11:31 - Metals as Assets - Where Are Retail Investors Piling In? 21:14 - Commodities are Just an Asset 22:33 - Dollar's Decline & Relative Strength 25:16 - Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage? 29:00 - Tokenization of Real Estate Holdings 33:27 - Roth Conversions Ahead of Higher Taxes 35:04 - How Does an Economy Work in an AI Environment 36:08 - Buying Houses for $500 Down 36:58 - Private Lending Fund? NO. 39:33 - Do Not Sell Gold to Buy a Porsche 40:38 - Take Risk, Retire Young? 44:44 - When is the proper time to rebalance portfolio? 45:54 - Risk vs Volatility 48:23 - CME Raising Silver Margin Requirements 50:17 - What Are Allocations in All-Weather Portfolio? Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist, Lance Roberts, CIO, w Senior Investment Advisor, Danny Ratliff, CFP Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer ------- Watch Today's Full Video on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLaWDc-IGAw&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 ------- Watch our previous show, "Work Sucks...or Does It?," here: https://www.youtube.com/live/ziEdWYE1VwQ -------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "Big Tech Drives Market Highs" is here: https://youtu.be/ut624yuAvDg ------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestm entadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #MarketOutlook #MarketRisk #SP500 #EarningsSeason #PortfolioManagement #QAWednesday #InvestorQuestions #MarketVolatility #FinancialEducation #RiskManagement

Gold and silver hit fresh records as the dollar slides, and investor Peter Boockvar sizes up the Fed meeting with a massive earnings week on deck — including whether Big Tech's AI spending holds up. Plus: Nvidia takes a stake in CoreWeave, the latest on the travel trade after this weekend's snowstorm, and a private-credit warning from BlackRock TCP Capital ripples through the space.Fast Money Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jan 26, 2026 – Gold and silver prices have gone parabolic. CPM Group's Jeff Christian speaks with FS Insider to unpack the forces behind the explosive move in gold, silver, and other commodities. Christian explores the sustainability (or unsustainability)...

Jan 26, 2026 – What if you could recharge your body's cellular battery as easily as you charge your phone? In this groundbreaking conversation, Jim Puplava sits down with Biocharger CEO and co-founder Jim Law to explore a revolutionary device...

As the stock market witnesses high volatility, experts anticipate potential sharp corrections in the stock market as well as gold and silver prices. ~This episode is sponsored by iTrust Capital~iTrustCapital | Get $100 Funding Reward + No Monthly Fees when you sign up using our custom link! ➜ https://bit.ly/iTrustPaul00:00 Intro00:10 Sponsor: iTrust Capital01:00 Metals top in?01:30 Crypto marketcap02:30 Tom Lee: Time to sell metals?03:50 BTC/Silver bottom?04:45 TACO Tuesday05:30 Bloomberg: Bullish for investors not traders06:50 EU & India08:20 IMF doing the unthinkable09:30 BlackRock backtracks BTC sell-off10:10 Asset owners winning10:30 Morgan Stanley: Post Davos14:20 Christine Lagarde: Central banks may not always be around15:30 Bitcoin vs Gold is completely broken16:45 The world is waiting on crypto17:00 Outro#Crypto #bitcoin #ethereum~Trillion Dollar Comeback into Crypto?

January 27, 2026 - Zach and Chase discuss the recent volatility in precious metals, particularly gold and silver, and the broader market dynamics influencing these changes. They explore the implications of economic indicators, investment strategies, and the unprecedented nature of current market conditions. The conversation also touches on conspiracy theories related to gold and the speculative nature of current investments in precious metals.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails a ‘big agreement' struck with Brussels while European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen says the deal removes almost all trade barriers with a new a free trade zone of 2bn people. President Trump has increased tariffs on South Korean autos and other goods to 25 per cent. Metals are up at new record highs due to geo-political uncertainties with silver on course for its best month in more than 40 years. And in retail news, China's Anta moves to acquire a 29 per cent in German sportswear brand Puma. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The icy-white crust of Arctic permafrost is melting, and increased plant growth is turning the glacial north green. Metals like iron, once locked inside the ice, are leaching into hundreds of Arctic rivers, giving them an orange hue. Vivid changes may catch our eye, yet invisible shifts are also afoot. Microbes locked in the frozen ground since the age of the mammoths can now be revived when they thaw. We're exploring the consequences of changes in permafrost, how AI may help us better understand Greenland ice loss, and get reactions from scientists about the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the premier climate and weather researcher centers in the world. Guests: Tristan Caro – Postdoctoral Fellow, Geological and Planetary Sciences Division, California Institute of Technology Twila Moon – Glaciologist and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, within the cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Abagael Pruitt – Biochemist and ecosystem ecologist, postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis Karina Zikan – Glaciologist and snow hydrologist, PhD candidate at Boise State University Roland Pease – Science writer and broadcaster often heard on the BBC World Service, and former presenter and host of its program Science in Action Alan Sealls – Retired broadcast meteorologist, adjust professor at the University of South Alabama and president of the American Meteorological Society Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friday gave us a huge signal that the US may be extending Japan a helping hand in preventing further yen weakness - certainly effective for putting a floor on the JPY price from here on out - but how should we read the US dollar on this apparent move? Elsewhere, US natural gas prices are spiking wildly if only for the front contract on the winter storm there and precious metals prices have extended aggressively once again as silver sliced through 100 dollars an ounce. This and more as earnings season heats up this week. Today's pod features Saxo Head of Commodity Strategy Ole Hansen and is hosted by Saxo Global Head of Macro Strategy John J. Hardy. For our longer form podcasts, you will also find links discussed on the podcast and a chart-of-the-day over at the John J. Hardy substack. Read daily in-depth market updates from the Saxo Market Call and the Saxo Strategy Team here. Please reach out to us at marketcall@saxobank.com for feedback and questions. Click here to open an account with Saxo. Intro and outro music by AShamaluevMusic DISCLAIMER This content is marketing material. Trading financial instruments carries risks. Always ensure that you understand these risks before trading. This material does not contain investment advice or an encouragement to invest in a particular manner. Historic performance is not a guarantee of future results. The instrument(s) referenced in this content may be issued by a partner, from whom Saxo Bank A/S receives promotional fees, payment or retrocessions. While Saxo may receive compensation from these partnerships, all content is created with the aim of providing clients with valuable information and options.

Get my new book: https://bronsonequity.com/fireyourselfDownload my new special report - How to Use Inflation to Your Advantage - www.bronsonequity.com/inflationJoin Bronson Hill on the Mailbox Money Show for a replay of this high-octane webinar, "Don't Miss the Precious Metals Boom," packed with insider strategies to capitalize on surging gold and silver prices amid global uncertainty. As host of monthly investor forums and author of Fire Yourself, Bronson moderates a powerhouse panel dissecting the rally's drivers—from central bank hoarding and Fed rate cuts to dollar weaponization and industrial demand—while weighing physical metals against crypto's volatility.Featuring:Brien Lundin, veteran editor of The Gold Newsletter (55+ years strong) and producer of the world's oldest investment conference, the New Orleans Investment Conference.Russell Gray, founder of Raising Capitalists Foundation and advocate for sound money, sharing arbitrage tactics like metals-backed equity lines.David Morgan, publisher of The Morgan Report, delivering contrarian takes on market tops, silver acceleration, and deflation risks.Dana Samuelson, precious metals expert at American Gold Exchange, breaking down dealer insights on ratios, IRAs, and 10-20% upside potential.Whether stacking bullion or blending with equities, don't sleep on this boom—tune in for actionable intel to hedge inflation and seize the next leg up.TIMESTAMPS2:28 - Episode Overview3:04 - Panelist Introductions: Dana, Brien, David, Russell3:58 - Gold Rally: Real or Topping Out?4:17 - Russell: Gold as Liquid Wealth Store vs. Trading6:02 - Brien: Gold as Insurance, Debt Endgame Bull7:34 - Fed Cuts: Bullish for Gold in September8:38 - Poll: Reasons for Gold Breakout9:03 - Dana: Central Banks, Tariffs Driving $400 Rise11:25 - David: Gold 3200-3500 Range, Silver 90/10 Acceleration15:13 - Crypto vs. Physical Metals Debate16:15 - David: Crypto as Gold/Silver Diversion, Miners Losing17:49 - Russell: Circle of Safety - Gold, Bitcoin, Treasuries23:07 - Brien: Bitcoin Speculation, Potential Phoenix Rise25:44 - Dana: Bitcoin Volatile, CBDC Control Threat27:23 - Gold-Silver Ratio at 88:1 Discussion28:13 - Dana: Favor Silver, Ratio Arbitrage29:19 - Brien: Hold Both, Silver to $40 Soon30:15 - David: Swap to Silver/Platinum at Extremes33:02 - Bronson: Metals Benefits - Hedge, Value, Liquidity33:40 - Russell: Metals as Equity/Savings, Arbitrage Debt37:58 - $100K Allocation Rapid Fire38:28 - Brien: 60-70% Silver, Add Copper39:21 - David: Physical First, Then Mining Equities40:36 - Russell: All Gold, Borrow to Buy Silver42:22 - Dana: 30% Gold, 50% Silver, 20% Plat/Pall43:37 - Q&A: Industrial Demand on Silver Prices46:01 - Q&A: Metals in Self-Directed IRA46:48 - Q&A: BRICS Restructuring LBMA/COMEX50:30 - Rapid Fire: US Return to Metal Standard Odds52:40 - Panelist Offers and ClosingJoint the Wealth Forum: bronsonequity.com/wealthConnect with the Guests:Brien Lundin:Gold Newsletter: goldnewsletter.comWebsite: https://neworleansconference.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brien-lundin-b37a4819/X: : https://twitter.com/GoldNewsletterRussell Gray:Investor Mentoring Club: rsvp@investormentoringclub.comLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellwgray/Email: follow@russellgray.comDana Samuelson:Website: www.amergold.comPrecious Metals Starting Guide (Email): info@amergold.comYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AmericanGoldExchangeAustinLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-samuelson-64793056/ David Morgan:Website: https://www.themorganreport.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedavidmorgan/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMorganReport#PreciousMetalsBoom#GoldRally#SilverAcceleration#DeDollarization#CryptoVsGold#InvestorStrategies#SoundMoney

Gold and silver hit record highs, yet again, as the dollar hits a four-month low. The Mag 7 name Clockwise Capital says is the best-positioned to pivot on spending.  Plus, how the recent events in Minneapolis could result in a government shutdown. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A warning signal may be flashing in the metals market. In today's episode, we break down the ominous "shooting star" candlestick pattern that's just appeared across key metals—and what it could mean for gold, silver, and the broader commodities complex going forward. Is this a routine pause… or an early sign that momentum is rolling over? We'll also dig into the latest durable goods orders data and what it says about demand, growth, and industrial activity. Plus, we'll cover the slide in Tesla, why it matters for market sentiment, and how these cross-currents fit together in today's tape. If you trade metals, tech, or macro themes, this episode connects the technicals with the fundamentals. Listen now:

Ivan Bebek, Founder, Director, Chair, and CEO of Coppernico Metals, joins host Michael McCrae on Mining Stock Daily from the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference to unpack what he calls a “new paradigm” for metals markets. With gold pushing record highs and copper trading near historic levels, Bebek argues the sector is still in the early innings of a powerful, multi-year bull market—particularly for copper.Bebek explains why surging demand from electrification, AI data centers, infrastructure modernization, and electric vehicles is colliding with a tight global copper supply. New discoveries are scarce, existing mines are aging and declining in grade, and building new copper mines now takes decades due to massive capital requirements, social and permitting challenges, and logistical bottlenecks. Money alone, he says, can't solve the problem—time is the real constraint.The conversation also explores why M&A is poised to accelerate as major miners, flush with cash and higher share prices, look to replace depleting reserves. Bebek discusses Coppernico's strategy of chasing higher-grade copper targets and why major miners like Newmont and Teck are already shareholders.Touching on lessons from past bull markets, cost inflation risks, and the importance of grade, Bebek makes a compelling case that copper prices have much further to run—and that discoveries, not capital, will ultimately define the winners in this cycle.

Derek Moore is joined by Shane Skinner and Mike Snyder to talk about how it seems every metal is surging including Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, and what else? Plus, Shane reports on the options conference and record option volumes. Oh, and did the market and volatility overreact to Greenland? It lasted all of one day. Oh, we have a big earnings week coming so what is the options market predicting for earnings moves?   Big earnings week Implied volatility of most of the Mag 7 pre-earnings Record options contract volumes Greenland market event that lasted all of one day Volatility goes up and comes right back down Palladium, Copper, Gold, Platinum, and Silver all moving Bonds vs Gold     Mentioned in this Episode   Derek Moore's book Broken Pie Chart https://amzn.to/3S8ADNT   Jay Pestrichelli's book Buy and Hedge https://amzn.to/3jQYgMt   Derek's book on public speaking Effortless Public Speaking https://amzn.to/3hL1Mag   Contact Derek derek.moore@zegainvestments.com       

Kevin Hincks returns to the floor of the @cboeglobalmarkets and takes investors through the whirlwind of catalysts throughout the week. Among them: Mag 7 earnings like Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (META). Keep your eyes on commodities as well, with Kevin pointing out silver and gold's glimmering rally catching lots of attention. Natural gas also has made parabolic moves to the upside as a historic winter storm grips the U.S.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – / schwabnetwork Follow us on Facebook – / schwabnetwork Follow us on LinkedIn - / schwab-network About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

Interview with Meredith Eades, President & CEO of EraNova MetalsRecording date: 23rd January 2026EraNova Metals represents a compelling asymmetric investment opportunity in the critical minerals sector, combining an advanced-stage molybdenum development project trading at a substantial discount to peers with emerging high-grade silver exploration upside that remains unrecognised by current valuation.Under newly appointed President and CEO Meredith Eades, EraNova has repositioned around a dual-path value creation strategy centred on its 30,000-hectare Ruby Creek property in British Columbia. The company's 433 million pound molybdenum resource benefits from $30 million in existing infrastructure, historical feasibility study and environmental approval, and simple metallurgy requiring straightforward processing. Working with engineering firm Tetra Tech to advance toward preliminary economic assessment, EraNova is updating project economics to reflect improving molybdenum market fundamentals with minimal additional drilling required due to comprehensive historical work.The valuation opportunity is striking. At approximately $10 million market capitalisation, investors acquire the Ruby Creek infrastructure at 33 cents on the dollar before accounting for the molybdenum resource itself. Trading at 2.5 cents per pound of molybdenum in-ground versus comparable developers at 5-35 cents, EraNova presents potential for 2-14x re-rating as the PEA demonstrates project economics and strategic partnership discussions advance. Management has confirmed active interest from potential partners exploring joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and offtake agreements—structures that could fund development whilst preserving shareholder value.The exploration dimension provides additional upside optionality currently ignored by market valuation. A 1,585-pound bulk sample from the Silver Surprise zone yielded a 14.3-ounce silver bar through simple crushing and gravity separation, with grades of 4,200 grams per tonne silver and 95% recoveries. Three parallel surface veins extending up to 180 metres offer compelling drill targets, whilst strengthening silver prices above $30 per ounce enhance the economics of potential direct shipping ore scenarios. This near-term revenue generation potential offers an anti-dilutive funding mechanism for continued exploration across seven distinct mineralised zones showing copper-gold-silver-tungsten potential.Management's capital structure and alignment merit investor attention. The operations manager and chief geologist both hold significant equity positions and work without cash compensation, ensuring decisions prioritise shareholder value creation. The autumn financing round came together efficiently with participation from both long-term shareholders and new investors, demonstrating market confidence in the strategic vision whilst maintaining the company's stated focus on execution and disciplined capital allocation.The macro backdrop supports both elements of EraNova's investment thesis. Molybdenum serves critical functions in high-strength steel alloys for infrastructure, pipelines, and construction, with emerging demand from offshore wind, nuclear power, and hydrogen infrastructure supporting steady price improvement. Government emphasis on domestic critical mineral production in stable jurisdictions enhances the strategic value of Canadian molybdenum supply. Simultaneously, silver benefits from monetary uncertainty, industrial demand growth, and supply constraints.For investors seeking exposure to critical minerals development with precious metals exploration leverage, EraNova presents compelling risk-reward at current valuation. The combination of near-term PEA catalyst, potential strategic partnership announcements, 2026 exploration results, and substantial valuation discount to peers creates multiple pathways for value recognition as the market adjusts to the company's repositioned focus and demonstrated progress on both development and exploration fronts.Learn more: https://cruxinvestor.comSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Jan 23, 2026 – Are we witnessing the end of the US dollar's bull run and a generational opportunity in commodities? In this insightful Smart Macro episode of the Financial Sense Newshour, Chris Puplava discusses the latest seismic shifts in...

Jan 23, 2026 – What's behind silver's explosive run past $100 an ounce and gold's push toward the $5,000 mark? Join host Jim Puplava for an in-depth interview with Bob Coleman, CEO of Idaho Armored Vaults, as they dive into the historic...

Dan Niles of Niles Investment Management looks ahead to a critical earnings slate for big tech when Microsoft, Meta, Tesla and Apple report. Commodities stay in focus with Pippa Stevens and Helen Amos of BMO covering moves in gold, silver, and natural gas. Katie Stockton of Fairlead Strategies explains why the S&P 500 remains stuck near October levels. The broader macro setup with Tim Hayes of Ned Davis Research. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, we unpack why metals are ripping, how dollar weakness and bond market dysfunction are reshaping macro, and what Japan's experience signals for the U.S. We also explore extreme metals positioning, dispersion across assets, and what uncertainty around the new Fed Chair means for rates. Enjoy! — Follow Tyler: https://x.com/Tyler_Neville_ Follow Quinn: https://x.com/qthomp Follow Felix: https://twitter.com/fejau_inc Follow Forward Guidance: https://twitter.com/ForwardGuidance Follow Blockworks: https://twitter.com/Blockworks_ Forward Guidance Telegram: https://t.me/+CAoZQpC-i6BjYTEx __ Weekly Roundup Charts: https://drive.google.com/file/d/158S7DSViXUrZ4Lw2kPLtKE4yPNvKD6s9/view?usp=sharing — Grayscale offers more than 30 different crypto investment products. Explore the full suite at grayscale.com. Invest in your share of the future. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal. https://www.grayscale.com/?utm_source=blockworks&utm_medium=paid-other&utm_campaign=brand&utm_id=&utm_term=&utm_content=audio-forwardguidance Coinbase crypto-backed loans, powered by Morpho, enable you to take out loans at competitive rates using crypto as collateral. Rates are typically 4% to 8%. Borrow up to $5M using BTC as collateral and up to $1M using ETH as collateral. Manage crypto-backed loans directly in the Coinbase app with ease. Learn more here: https://www.coinbase.com/onchain/borrow/get-started?utm_campaign=0126_defi-borrow_blockworks_FG&marketId=0x9103c3b4e834476c9a62ea009ba2c884ee42e94e6e314a26f04d312434191836&utm_source=FG — Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:18 Metals, Japan & Global Debt 15:58 Inflation, Politics & Metals 23:00 Commodities & Elitist Wake Up Call 27:12 Market Positioning & Sector Dispersion 43:30 New Fed Chair & Rate Implications 51:17 Long The Periodic Table — Disclaimer: Nothing said on Forward Guidance is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed. #Macro #Investing #Markets #ForwardGuidance

Join OANDA Senior Market Analysts & podcast guest Nick Syiek (TraderNick) as they review the latest market news and moves. MarketPulse provides up-to-the-minute analysis on forex, commodities and indices from around the world. MarketPulse is an award-winning news site that delivers round-the-clock commentary on a wide range of asset classes, as well as in-depth insights into the major economic trends and events that impact the markets. The content produced on this site is for general information purposes only and should not be construed to be advice, invitation, inducement, offer, recommendation or solicitation for investment or disinvestment in any financial instrument. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of OANDA or any of its affiliates, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc

Tony Arterburn (DavidKnight.gold) warns that the surge in gold and silver isn't a market cycle—it's a symptom of systemic failure as debt, de-dollarization, and political chaos collide. He explains why governments and central banks are abandoning Treasuries for physical metal and how Trump's push to dominate the Fed and spend without restraint accelerates collapse. Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHT Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

Tony Arterburn (DavidKnight.gold) warns that the surge in gold and silver isn't a market cycle—it's a symptom of systemic failure as debt, de-dollarization, and political chaos collide. He explains why governments and central banks are abandoning Treasuries for physical metal and how Trump's push to dominate the Fed and spend without restraint accelerates collapse. Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHT Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Jan 22, 2026 – This year has already erupted with seismic geopolitical shifts. In today's podcast, RANE's Adriano Bosoni unpacks the high-stakes US invasion of Venezuela, the capture of Maduro, and what it all means for American dominance...

Jan 21, 2026 – What surprises could catch investors off guard in 2026? In today's FS Insider interview, Jonathan Petersen, macro strategist at Variant Perception, walks through the firm's contrarian calls for the year ahead. From a long-awaited capex...

We have lots of news today, including new drill results from Kingfisher Metals, Talisker Resources, Banyan Gold and Q2 Metals. Tudor Gold and Alaska Silver published new resource estimates. There are meaningful corporate updates form Revival Gold, Gold Hart Copper, and K2 Gold. This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by... Revival Gold is one of the largest pure gold mine developer operating in the United States. The Company is advancing the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho. Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. Learn more about the company at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠revival-dash-gold.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vizsla Silver is focused on becoming one of the world's largest single-asset silver producers through the exploration and development of the 100% owned Panuco-Copala silver-gold district in Sinaloa, Mexico. The company consolidated this historic district in 2019 and has now completed over 325,000 meters of drilling. The company has the world's largest, undeveloped high-grade silver resource. Learn more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://vizslasilvercorp.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Equinox has recently completed the business combination with Calibre Mining to create an Americas-focused diversified gold producer with a portfolio of mines in five countries, anchored by two high-profile, long-life Canadian gold mines, Greenstone and Valentine. Learn more about the business and its operations at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠equinoxgold.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Integra Resources is a growing precious metals producer in the Great Basin of the Western United States. Integra is focused on demonstrating profitability and operational excellence at its principal operating asset, the Florida Canyon Mine, located in Nevada. In addition, Integra is committed to advancing its flagship development-stage heap leach projects: the past producing DeLamar Project located in southwestern Idaho, and the Nevada North Project located in western Nevada. Learn more about the business and their high industry standards over at integraresources.com

⬜ Welcome to Palvatar Market Recap, your go-to daily briefing on the latest market movements, global macro shifts, and crypto trends—powered by Raoul Pal's AI avatar, Palvatar. ⬜ In today's update, Palvatar breaks down a sharp global risk-off move as Greenland tensions and renewed tariff threats push equities lower and volatility higher. Gold and silver hit fresh records, while investors watch a key Supreme Court case tied to Fed independence. The report also covers mixed inflation signals from Canada and Germany, Asia's AI-driven export boom, rising Japanese bond yields, and crypto weakness amid geopolitical stress.

In this powerful and wide-ranging episode of Gangland Wire, host Gary Jenkins sits down with Ken Behr, author of One Step Over the Line: Confessions of a Marijuana Mercenary. Behr tells his astonishing life story—from teenage marijuana dealer in South Florida, to high-level drug runner and smuggler, to DEA cooperating source working major international cases. Along the way, he offers rare, first-hand insight into how large-scale drug operations actually worked during the height of the War on Drugs—and why that war, in his view, has largely failed. From Smuggler to Source Behr describes growing up during the explosion of the drug trade in South Florida during the 1970s and 1980s, where smuggling marijuana and cocaine became almost commonplace. He explains how he moved from street-level dealing into large-scale logistics—off-loading planes, running covert runways in the Everglades, moving thousands of pounds of marijuana, and participating in international smuggling operations involving Canada, Jamaica, Colombia, and the Bahamas. After multiple arrests—including a serious RICO case that threatened him with decades in prison—Behr made the life-altering decision to cooperate with the DEA. What followed was a tense and dangerous double life as an undercover operative, helping law enforcement dismantle major trafficking networks while living under constant pressure and fear of exposure. Inside the Mechanics of the Drug Trade This episode goes deep into the nuts and bolts of organized drug trafficking, including: How clandestine runways were built and dismantled in minutes How aircraft were guided into unlit landing zones How smuggling crews were paid and organized Why most drug operations ultimately collapse from inside The role of asset seizures in federal drug enforcement Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here.  To purchase one of my books, click here. Transcript [00:00:00] well, hey, all your wire taps. It’s good to be back here in studio of Gangland Wire. I have a special guest today. He has a book called, uh, title is One Step Over the Line and, and he went several steps over the line, I think in his life. Ken Bearer, welcome Ken. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Now, Ken, Ken is a, was a marijuana smuggler at one time and, and ended up working with the DEA, so he went from one side over to my side and, and I always like to talk to you guys that that helped us in law enforcement and I, there’s a lot of guys that don’t like that out there, but I like you guys you were a huge help to us in law enforcement and ended up doing the right thing after you made a lot of money. So tell us about the money. We were just starting to talk about the money. Tell us about the money, all those millions and millions of dollars that you drug smuggler makes. What happens? Well, I, you know, like I said, um, Jimmy Buffett’s song a pirate looks at 40, basically, he says, I made enough money to to buy Miami and pissed it away all so fast, never meant to last. And, and that’s what happens. I do know a few people that have [00:01:00] put away money. One of my friends that we did a lot of money together, a lot of drug dealing and a lot of moving some product, and he’s put the money away. Got in bed with some other guy that was, you know, legal, bought a bunch of warehouses, and now he lives a great life, living off the money he put away. Yeah. If the rents and stuff, he, he got into real estate. Other guys have got into real estate and they got out and they ended up doing okay. ’cause now they’re drawing all those rents. That’s a good way to money. Exactly what he did. Uh, my favorite, I was telling you a favorite story of mine was the guy that was a small time dealer used to hang out at the beach. And, uh, we en he ended up saving $80,000, which was a lot of money back then. Yeah. And then put it all, went to school to be a culinary chef and then got a job at the Marriott as a culinary chef and a chef. So he, you know, he really took the money, made a little bit of money, didn’t make a lot Yeah. But made enough to go to school and do something with his life. That’s so, um, that’s a great one. That’s a good one [00:02:00] there. That’s real. Yeah. But he wasn’t a big time guy. Yeah. You know what, what happens is you might make a big lick. You know, I, I never made million dollar moves. I have lots of friends that did. I always said I didn’t want to be a smuggler. ’cause I was making a steady living, being a drug runner. If you brought in 40, 50,000 pounds of weed, you would come to me and then I would move it across the country and sell it in different, along with other guys like me. Having said that, so I say I’m a guy that never wanted to do a smuggling trip. I’ve done 12 of them. Yeah. Even though, you know, and you know, if you’ve been in the DEA side twelve’s a lot for somebody usually. Yeah. That’s a lot. They don’t make, there’s no longevity. Two or three trips. No. You know, I did it for 20 years. Yeah. And then finally I got busted one time in Massachusetts in 1988. We had 40,000 pounds stuck up in Canada. So a friend of mine comes to me, another friend had the 40,000 pounds up there. He couldn’t sell it. He goes, Hey, you wanna help me smuggle [00:03:00] this back into America? Which, you know, is going the wrong direction. The farther north it goes, the more money it’s worth. I would’ve taken it to Greenland for Christ’s sakes. Yeah. But, we smuggled it back in. What we did this time was obviously they, they brought a freighter or a big ship to bring the 40,000 pounds into Canada. Mm-hmm. He added, stuffed in a fish a fish packing plant in a freezer somewhere up there. And so we used the sea plane and we flew from a lake in Canada to a lake in Maine where the plane would pull up, I’d unload. Then stash it. And we really did like to get 1400 pounds. We had to go through like six or seven trips. ’cause the plane would only hold 200 and something pounds. Yeah. And a sea plane can’t land at night. It has to land during the day. Yeah. You can’t land a plane in the middle of a lake in the night, I guess yourself. Yeah. I see. Uh, and so we got, I got busted moving that load to another market and that cost, uh, [00:04:00] cost me about $80,000 in two years of fighting in court to get out of that. Yeah. Uh, but I did beat the case for illegal search and seizure. So one for the good guys. It wasn’t for the good guys. Well the constitution, he pulled me over looking for fireworks and, ’cause it was 4th of July and, yeah. The name of that chapter in the book is why I never work on a holiday. So you don’t wanna spend your holiday in jail ’cause there’s no, you can’t on your birthday. So another, the second time I got busted was in 92. So just a couple years later after, basically I was in the system for two years with the loss, you know, fighting it and that, that was for Rico. I was looking at 25 years. But, uh, but like a normal smuggling trip. I’ll tell you one, we did, I brought, I actually did my first smuggling trip. I was on the run in Jamaica from a, a case that I got named in and I was like 19 living down in Jamaica to cool out. And then my buddies came down. So we ended up bringing out 600 pounds. So that was my first tr I was about 19 or [00:05:00] 20 years old when I did my first trip. I brought out 600 pounds outta Jamaica. A friend of mine had a little Navajo and we flew it out with that, but. I’ll give you an example of a smuggling trip. So a friend of mine came to me and he wanted to load 300 kilos of Coke in Columbia and bring it into America. And he wanted to know if I knew anybody that could load him 300 kilos. So I did. I introduced him to a friend of mine that Ronnie Vest. He’s the only person you’ll appreciate this. Remember how he kept wanting to extradite all the, the guys from Columbia when we got busted, indict him? Yes. And of course, Escobar’s living in his own jail with his own exit. Yeah. You know, and yeah. So the Columbian government says, well, we want somebody, why don’t you extradite somebody to America, to Columbia? So Ronnie Vest had gotten caught bringing a load of weed outta Columbia. You know, they sent ’em back to America. So that colo, the Americans go, I’ll tell you what you want. Somebody. And Ronnie Vests got the first good friend of mine, first American to be [00:06:00] extradited to Columbia to serve time. So he did a couple years in the Columbian prison. And so he’s the one that had the cocaine connection now. ’cause he spent time in Columbia. Yeah. And you know, so we brought in 300 kilos of Coke. He actually, I didn’t load it. He got another load from somebody else. But, so in the middle of the night, you set up on a road to nowhere in the Everglades, there’s so many Floridas flat, you’ve got all these desolate areas. We go out there with four or five guys. We take, I have some of ’em here somewhere. Callum glow sticks. You know the, the, the glow sticks you break, uh, yeah. And some flashing lights throw ’em out there. Yeah. And we set up a, yeah, the pilot came in and we all laid in the woods waiting for the plane to come in. And as soon as the pilot clicks. The mic four times. It’s, we all click our mics four times and then we run out. He said to his copilot, he says, look, I mean, we lit up this road from the sky. He goes, it looks like MIA [00:07:00] behind the international airport. But it happens like that within a couple, like a minute, we’ll light that whole thing up. Me and one other guy run down the runway. It’s a lot, it’s a long run, believe me. We put out the lights, we gotta put out the center lights and then the marker lights, because you gotta have the center of the runway where the plane’s gonna land and the edge is where it can’t, right? Yeah. He pulls up, bring up a couple cars, I’m driving one of them, load the kilos in. And then we have to refuel the plane because you don’t, you know, you want to have enough fuel to get back to an FBO to your landing airport or real airport. Yeah. Not the one we made in the Everglades. Yeah. And then the trick is the car’s gotta get out of there. Yeah, before the plane takes off. ’cause when that plane takes off, you know you got a twin engine plane landing is quiet, taking off at full throttle’s gonna wake up the whole neighborhood. So once we got out of there, then they went ahead and got the plane off. And then the remaining guys, they gotta clean up the mess. We want to use this again. So we [00:08:00] wanna clean up all the wires, the radios. Mm-hmm. Pick up the fuel tanks, pick up the runway lights, and their job is to clean that off and all that’s gonna take place before the police even get down the main road. Right? Mm-hmm. That’s gonna all take place in less than 10 minutes. Wow. I mean, the offload takes, the offload takes, you can offload about a thousand pounds, which I’ve done in three minutes. Wow. But, and then refueling the plane, getting everything else cleaned up. Takes longer. Yeah. Interesting. So how many guys would, would be on that operation and how do you pay that? How do you decide who gets paid what? How much? Okay. So get it up front or, I always curious about the details, how that stuff, I don’t think I got paid enough. And I’ll be honest, it was a hell of a chance. I got 20 grand looking at 15 years if you get caught. Yeah. But I did it for the excitement. 20 grand wasn’t that much. I had my own gig making more money than that Uhhuh, you know, but I was also racing cars. I was, there’s a [00:09:00] picture of one of my race cars. Oh cool. So that costs about six, 7,000 a weekend. Yeah. And remember I’m talking about 1980s dollars. Yeah. That’s 20,000 a weekend. A weekend, yes. Yeah. And that 20,000 for a night’s work in today’s world would be 60. Yeah. Three. And I’m talking about 1985 versus, that was 40 years ago. Yeah. Um. But it’s a lot of fun and, uh, and, but it, you kind of say to yourself, what was that one step over the line? That’s why I wrote the book. I remember as a kid thinking in my twenties, man, I’ve taken one step over the line. So the full name of the book is One Step Over the Line Con Confessions of a Marijuana Mercenary. That’s me actually working for the DEA. That picture was at the time when I was working for the DEA, so the second time I got busted in 1992 was actually for the smallest amount of weed that I ever got, ever really had. It was like 80, a hundred pounds. But unfortunately it was for Rico. I didn’t know at the [00:10:00] time, but when they arrested me, I thought, oh, they only caught me with a hundred pounds. But I got charged with Rico. So I was looking at 25 years. What, how, what? Did they have some other, it must have had some other offenses that they could tie to and maybe guns and stuff or something that get that gun. No, we never used guns ever. Just other, other smuggling operations. Yeah, yeah. Me, me and my high school friend, he had moved to Ohio in 77 or 78, so he had called me one time, he was working at the Ford plant and he goes, Hey, I think I could sell some weed up here. All right. I said, come on down, I’ll give you a couple pounds. So he drives down from Ohio on his weekend off, all the way from Ohio. I gave him two pounds. He drove home, calls me back. He goes, I sold it. So I go, all right. He goes, I’m gonna get some more. So at that time, I was working for one of the largest marijuana smugglers in US History. His name was Donny Steinberg. I was just a kid, you know, like my job, part of my [00:11:00] job was to, they would gimme a Learjet. About a million or two and I jump on a Learjet and fly to the Cayman Islands. I was like 19 years old. Same time, you know, kid. Yeah, just a kid. 19 or 20 and yeah. 18, I think. And so I ended up doing that a few times. That was a lot of fun. And that’s nice to be a kid in the Learjet and they give me a million or two and they gimme a thousand dollars for the day’s work. I thought I was rich, I was, but people gotta understand that’s in that 78 money, not that’s, yeah. That was more like $10,000 for day, I guess. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It was a lot of money for an 18, 19-year-old kid. Yeah. Donnie gives me a bail. So Terry comes back from Ohio, we shoved the bale into his car. Barely would fit ’cause he had no big trunk on this Firebird. He had, he had a Firebird trans Am with the thunder black with a thunder, thunder chicken on the hood. It was on the hood. Oh cool. That was, that was a catch meow back then. Yeah. Yeah. It got it with that [00:12:00] Ford plant money. And uh, by the way, that was after that 50 pounds got up. ’cause every bail’s about 50 pounds. That’s the last he quit forward the next day. I bet. And me and him had built a 12 year, we were moving. Probably 50 tons up there over the 12 year period. You know, probably, I don’t know, anywhere from 50 to a hundred thousand pounds we would have, he must have been setting up other dealers. So among his friends, he must have been running around. He had the distribution, I was setting up the distribution network and you had the supply. I see. Yeah. I was the Florida connection. It’s every time you get busted, the cops always wanna grab that Florida connection. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You gotta go down there. I there, lemme tell you, you know, I got into this. We were living in, I was born on a farm in New Jersey, like in know Norman Rockwell, 1950s, cow pies and hay bales. And then we moved to New Orleans in 1969 and then where my dad had business and right after, not sure after that, he died when I was 13. As I say in the book, I [00:13:00] probably wouldn’t have been writing the book if my father was alive. Yeah. ’cause I probably wouldn’t have went down that road, you know? But so my mother decides in 1973 to move us to, uh, south Florida, to get away from the drugs in the CD underside of New Orleans. Yeah. I guess she didn’t read the papers. No. So I moved from New Orleans to the star, the war on where the war on drugs would start. I always say if she’d have moved me to Palo Alto, I’d be Bill Gates, but No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was so, uh, and everybody I knew was running drugs, smuggling drugs, trying to be a drug deal. I mean, I was, I had my own operation. I was upper middle level, but there were guys like me everywhere. Mm-hmm. There were guys like me everywhere, moving a thou, I mean, moving a thousand, 2000 pounds at the time was a big thing, you know? That’s, yeah. So, so about what year was that? I started in 19. 70. Okay. Three. I was [00:14:00] 16. Started selling drugs outta my mom’s house, me and my brother. We had a very good business going. And by the time I was got busted, it was 19 92. So, so you watched, especially in South Florida, you watched like where that plane could go down and go back up that at eventually the feds will come up with radar and they have blimps and they have big Bertha stuff down there to then catch those kinds of things. Yeah. Right, right. Big Bertha was the blimp. Uhhuh, uh, they put up, yeah. In the beginning you could just fly right in. We did one trip one time. This is this, my, my buddy picked up, I don’t know, 40 or 50 kilos in The Bahamas. So you fly into Fort Lauderdale and you call in like you’re gonna do a normal landing. Mm-hmm. And the BLI there. This is all 1980s, five. You know, they already know. They’re doing this, but you just call in, like you’re coming to land in Fort Lauderdale, and what you do is right before you land, you hit the tower up and you tell ’em you wanna do a [00:15:00] go around, meaning you’re not comfortable with the landing. Mm-hmm. Well, they’ll always leave you a go around because they don’t want you to crash. Yeah. And right west of the airport was a golf course, and right next to the golf course, oh, about a mile down the road was my townhouse. So we’re in the townhouse. My buddies all put on, two of the guys, put on black, get big knives, gear, and I drive to one road on the golf course and my other friend grows Dr. We drop the guys off in the golf course as the plane’s gonna do the touchdown at the airport. He says, I gotta go around. As he’s pulling up now, he’s 200 feet below the radar, just opens up the side of the plane. Mm-hmm. The kickers, we call ’em, they’re called kickers. He kicks the baskets, the ba and the guys on, on the golf court. They’re hugging trees. Yeah. You don’t wanna be under that thing. Right. You got a 200, you got maybe a 40 pound package coming in at 120 miles an hour from 200 feet up. It’ll break the bra. It’ll yeah. The [00:16:00] branches will kill you. Yeah. So they pull up, they get out, I pull back up in the pickup truck, he runs out, jumps in the back of the truck, yells, hit it. We drive the mile through the back roads to my townhouse. Get the coke in the house. My buddy rips it open with a knife. It’s and pulls out some blow. And he looks at me, he goes, Hey, let’s get outta here. And I go, where are we going? Cops come and he goes, ah, I got two tickets. No, four tickets to the Eddie Murphy concert. So we left the blow in this trunk of his car. Oh. Oh, oh man. I know. We went to Eddie Murphy about a million dollars worth of product in the trunk. Oh. And, uh, saw a great show and came back and off they went. That’s what I’m trying to point out is that’s how fast it goes down, man. It’s to do. Yeah. Right in, in 30 minutes. We got it out. Now the thing about drug deals is we always call ’em dds delayed dope deals because the smuggling [00:17:00] trip could take six months to plan. Yeah. You know, they never go, there’s no organized crime in organized crime. Yeah. No organization did it. Yeah. And then, then of course, in 1992 when I got busted and was looking at Rico, a friend of mine came up to me. He was a yacht broker. He had gotten in trouble selling a boat, and he said, Hey, I’d you like to work for the DEA. I’d done three months in jail. I knew I was looking at time, I knew I had nothing. My lawyers told me, Kenny, you either figure something out or you’re going to jail for a mm-hmm. And I just had a newborn baby. I just got married three weeks earlier and we had a newborn baby. I said, what are you crazy? I mean, I’m waiting for my wife to hear me. You know, he’s calling me on the phone. He goes, meet me for lunch. I go meet him for lunch. And he explains to me that he’s gonna, he’s got a guy in the, uh, central district in Jacksonville, and he’s a DEA agent, and I should go talk to him. And so the DEA made a deal with the Ohio police that anything that I [00:18:00] confiscated, anything that I did, any assets I got, they would get a share in as long as they released me. Yeah. To them. And, you know, it’s all about the, I hate to say this, I’m not saying that you don’t want to take drugs off the street, but if you’re the police department and you’re an agent, it’s about asset seizures. Yeah. Yeah. That’s how you fund the dr. The war on drugs. Yeah. The war begets war. You know, I mean, oh, I know, been Florida was, I understand here’s a deal. You’re like suing shit against the tide, right? Fighting that drug thing. Okay? It just keeps coming in. It keeps getting cheaper. It keeps getting more and more. You make a little lick now and then make a little lick now and then, but then you start seeing these fancy cars and all this money out there that you can get to. If you make the right score, you, you, you hit the right people, you can get a bunch of money, maybe two or three really cool cars for your unit. So then you’ll start focusing on, go after the money. I know it’s not right, but you’re already losing your shoveling shit against the tide anyhow, so just go after the goal. [00:19:00] One time I set up this hash deal for the DEA from Amsterdam. The guy brought the hash in, and I had my agent, you know, I, I didn’t set up the deal. The guy came to me and said, we have 200 kilos of hash. Can you help us sell it? He didn’t know that I was working for the DEA, he was from Europe. And I said, sure. The, the thing was, I, so in the boat ready to close the deal, now my guy is from Central. I’m in I’m in Fort Lauderdale, which is Southern District. So he goes, Hey, can you get that man to bring that sailboat up to Jacksonville? I go, buddy, he just sailed across the Atlantic. He ain’t going to Jacksonville. So the central district has to come down, or is a northern district? I can’t remember if it’s northern or central. Has to come down to the Southern district. So, you know, they gotta make phone calls. Everybody’s gotta be in Yep. Bump heads. So I’m on the boat and he calls me, he goes, Hey, we gotta act now. Yeah. And I’m looking at the mark, I go, why? He [00:20:00] goes, customs is on the dock. We don’t want them involved. So you got the two? Yeah. So I bring him up, I go, where’s the hash? He goes, it’s in the car. So we go up to the car and he opens the trunk, and I, I pull back one of the duffle bags I see. I can tell immediately it’s product. So I go like this, and all hell breaks loose, right? Yeah. I could see the two customs agents and they’re all dressed like hillbillies. They, you know. So I said to my, my handler, the next day I called them up to debrief. You know, I have to debrief after every year, everything. I goes, so what happened when customs I go, what’d they want to do? He goes, yep. They wanted to chop the boat in threes. So they’re gonna sell the boat and the 2D EA offices are gonna trade it. Yeah. Are gonna shop the money. Yeah. I remember when I registered with the DEA in, in, in the Southern district, I had to tell ’em who I was. They go, why are you working for him? Why aren’t you working for us? I’m like, buddy, I’m not in charge here. This is, you know? Yeah. I heard that many [00:21:00] times through different cases we did, where the, the local cop would say to me, why don’t you come work for us? Oh yeah. Try to steal your informant. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So how about that? So, can you get a piece of the action if they had a big case seizure? Yeah. Did they have some deal where you’d get a piece of that action there? Yep. That’s a pretty good deal. Yeah. So I would get, I, I’d get, like, if we brought down, he would always tell everybody that he needed money to buy electronics and then he would come to me and go, here’s 2000. And to the other cis, he had three guys. I saw a friend of mine, the guy that got me into the deal. Them a million dollar house or a couple million dollar house. And I saw the DEA hand him a suitcase with a million dollars cash in it. Wow. I mean, I’m sorry, with a hundred thousand cash. A hundred thousand. Okay. I was gonna say, I was thinking a million. Well, a hundred thousand. Yeah, a hundred thousand. I’ve heard that. I just didn’t have any experience with it myself. But I heard that. I saw, saw Open it up, saw money. I saw the money. It was one of those aluminum halla, Halliburton reef cases and Yeah, yeah. A [00:22:00] hundred thousand cash. But, uh, but you know, um, it’s funny, somebody once asked me out of, as a kid I wanted to be a cowboy, a race car driver, and a secret agent. Me too. Yes. Yeah. I didn’t want, I wanted to be a, I grew up on a farm, so I kind of rode a horse. I had that watched Rowdy, you got saved background as me, man. Yeah. You know, we watched, we watched, we grew up on westerns. We watched Gun Smoke, rowdy. Oh yeah. You know, uh, bananas, uh, you know, so, um. So anyway, uh, I got to raise cars with my drug money, and I guess I’m not sure if I was more of a secret agent working as a drug dealer or as the DEA, but it’s a lot of I, you know, I make jokes about it now, but it’s a lot of stress working undercover. Oh, yeah. Oh, I can’t even imagine that. I never worked undercover. I, that was not my thing. I like surveillance and putting pieces together and running sources, but man, that actual working undercover that’s gotta be nerve wracking. It’s, you know, and, and my handler was good at it, but [00:23:00] he would step out and let, here’s, I’ll tell you this. One day he calls me up and he goes, Hey, I’m down here in Fort Lauderdale. You need to come down here right now. And I’m having dinner at my house about 15 minutes away. Now he lives in Jacksonville. I go, what’s he doing in Fort Lauderdale? So I drive down to the hotel and he’s got a legal pad and a pen. He goes, my, uh, my, my seniors want to, uh, want you to proffer. You need to tell me everything you ever did. And they want me to do a proffer. And I go, I looked at him. I go, John, I can’t do that. He start, we start writing. I start telling him stuff. I stop. I go, I grew up in this town. Everybody I know I did a drug deal with from high school, I go, I would be giving you every single kid, every family, man, I grew up here. My, I’m gonna be in jail, and my wife and my one and a half year old daughter are gonna be the only people left in this town, and they’re not gonna have any support. And I just can’t do this to all my friends. Yeah. So he says, all right, puts the pen down. I knew [00:24:00] he hated paperwork, so I had a good shot. He wasn’t gonna, he goes, yeah, you hungry? I go, yeah. He goes, let’s go get a steak. And right across the street was a place called Chuck Steakhouse, which great little steak restaurant. All right. So we go over there, he goes, and he is a big guy. He goes, sit right here. I go, all right. So I sit down. I, I’m getting a free steak. I’m gonna sit about through the steak dinner, it goes. Look over my shoulder. So I do this. He goes, see the guy at the bar in the black leather jacket. I go, yeah. He goes, when I get up and walk outta here, when I clear the door, I want you to go up to him and find a talk drug deal. See what you can get out of him. I go, you want me to walk up to a complete stranger and say, he goes, I’m gonna walk out the door. When I get out the door. You’re gonna go up and say, cap Captain Bobby. That was his, he was a ca a boat captain and his nickname, his handle was Captain Bobby. And he was theoretically the next Vietnam vet that now is a smuggler, you know?[00:25:00] Yeah. And so he walks out the door and I walked out and sat with the guy at the bar and we started, I said, hi, captain Bobby sent me, I’m his right hand man, you know, to talk about. And we talked and I looked around the bar trying to see if anybody was with him. And I’m figuring, now I’m looking at the guy going, why is he so open with me? And I’m thinking, you know what? He’s wearing a leather jacket. He’s in Florida. I bet you he’s got a wire on and he’s working for customs and I’m working for the DEA, so nothing ever came of it. But you know, that was, you know, you’re sitting there eating dinner and all of a sudden, you know, look over my shoulder. Yeah. And, you know, and I’m trying to balance all that with having a newborn that’s about a year old and my wife and Yeah. Looking at 25 years. So a little bit of pressure. But, you know, hey and I understand these federal agencies, everybody’s got, everybody is, uh, uh, aggressive. Everybody is ambitious. And you just are this guy in the middle and right. And they’ll throw you to the [00:26:00] wolves in a second. Second, what have you done for a second? Right? It’s what have you done for me lately? He’s calling me up and said, Hey, I don’t got any product from you in a minute. I go, well, I’m working on it. He goes, well, you know, they’ll kick you outta the program. Yeah. But one of the things he did he was one of, he was the GS 13. So he had some, you know, he had level, you know, level 15 or whatever, you know, he was, yeah. Almost at the head of near retirement too. And he said, look, he had me, he had another guy that was a superstar, another guy. And we would work as a team and he would feed us all the leads. In other words, if David had a case, I’d be on that case. So when I went to go to go to trial or go to my final, he had 14 or 15 different things that he had penciled me in to be involved with. The biggest deal we did at the end of my two years with the DEA was we brought down the Canadian mob. They got him for 10,000 kilos of cocaine, import 10,000 kilos. It was the Hell’s Angels, the Rock something, motorcycle [00:27:00] gang, the Italian Mafia and the, and the Irish mob. Mm-hmm. And the guy, I mean, this is some badass guys. I was just a player, but. The state of Ohio, they got to fly up there and you know, I mean, no words, the dog and pony show was always on to give everybody, you know. Yes. A bite at the apple. Oh yeah. But I’ll tell you this, it’s been 33 years and the two people that I’m close to is my arresting officer in Ohio and my DEA handler in Jacksonville. The arresting officer, when he retired, he called to gimme his new cell phone. And every year or so I call him up around Christmas and say, Dennis, thank you for the opportunity to turn my life around, because I’ve got four great kids. I’ve started businesses, you know, he knows what I’ve done with my life. And the DEA handler, that’s, he’s a friend of mine. I mean, you know, we talk all the time and check on each other. And, you know, I mean, he’s, [00:28:00] they’re my friends. A lot of, not too many of the guys are left from those days that will talk to me. Yeah, probably not. And most of them are dead or in jail anyhow. For, well, a lot of ’em are, maybe not even because of you, I mean, because that’s their life. No, but a lot of them, a number of ’em turned their lives around, went into legal businesses and have done well. Yeah. So, you know, there really have, so not all of ’em, but a good share of ’em have turned, because we weren’t middle class kids. We were, my one friend was, dad was the lieutenant of the police department. The other one was the post guy. We weren’t inner city kids. Yeah. We weren’t meeting we, the drug war landed on us and we just, we were recruited into it. As young as I talk about in my book. But I mean, let’s talk about what’s going on now. Now. Yeah. And listen, I’m gonna put some statistics out there. Last year, 250,000 people were charged with cannabis. 92% for simple possession. There’s [00:29:00] people still in jail for marijuana doing life sentences. I’ve had friends do 27 years only for marijuana. No nonviolent crimes, first time offender. 22 years, 10 years. And the government is, I’ve been involved with things where the government was smuggling the drugs. I mean, go with the Iran Contra scandal that happened. We were trading guns for cocaine with the Nicaraguans in the Sandon Easterns. Yeah. Those same pilots. Gene Hassen Fus flew for Air America and Vietnam moving drugs and gun and, and guns out of Cambodia. Same guy. Air America. Yeah. The American government gave their soldiers opium in Civil War to keep ’em marching. You know, I mean, we did a deal with Lucky Luciano, where we let ’em out of prison for doing heroin exchange for Intel from, from Europe on during World War II and his, and the mob watching the docks for the, uh, cargo ships. So the government’s been intertwined in the war on drugs on two [00:30:00] sides of it. Yeah. You know, and not that it makes it right. Look, I’ve lost several friends to fentanyl that thought they were doing coke and did fentanyl or didn’t even know there was any. They just accidentally did fentanyl and it’s a horrible drug. But those boats coming out of Venezuela don’t have fentanyl on ’em. No. Get cocaine maybe. If that, and they might be, they’re probably going to Europe. Europe and they’re going to Europe. Yeah, they’re going, yeah. They’re doubt they’re going to Europe. Yeah. Yeah. And so let’s put it this way. I got busted for running a 12 year ongoing criminal enterprise. We moved probably 50 tons of marijuana. You know what? Cut me down? One guy got busted with one pound and he turned in one other guy that went all the way up to us. So if you blew up those boats, you know, you’re, you need the leads. You, you can’t kill your clients. Yeah. You know, how are you gonna get, not gonna get any leads outta that. Well, that’s, uh, well, I’m just saying [00:31:00] you right. The, if they followed the boat to the mothership Yeah. They’d have the whole crew and all the cargo. Yeah. You know, it’s, those boats maybe have 200 kilos on ’em. A piece. Yeah. The mothership has six tons. Yeah. That’s it. It’s all about the, uh, the, um, uh, optics. Optics, yeah. That’s the word. It’s all about the optics and, and the politic, you know, in, in some way it may deter some people, but I don’t, I I, I’ve never seen anything, any consequence. In that drug business, there’s too much money. There is no consequence that is really ever gonna deter people from smuggling drugs. Let me put it this way, except for a few people like yourself, there’s a few like yourself that get to a certain age and the consequence of going to prison for a long time may, you know, may bring you around or the, all the risk you’re taking just, you know, you can’t take it anymore, but you gotta do something. But no, well, I got busted twice. Consequence just don’t matter. There is no consequence that’s gonna do anything. Here’s why. And you’re right. [00:32:00] One is how do you get in a race car and not think you’re gonna die? Because you always think it’s gonna happen to somebody else. Exactly. And the drug business is the same. It’s, I’m not, it’s not gonna happen to me tonight. And those guys in Venezuela, they have no electricity. They have no water. Yeah. They got nothing. They have a chance to go out and make a couple thousand dollars and change their family’s lives. Yeah. Or they’re being, they’re got family members in the gar, in the gangs that are forcing them to do it. Yeah. It’s the war on drugs has kind of been a political war and an optics war from the seventies. I mean, it’s nobody, listen, I always say, I say in my book, nobody loved it more than the cops, the lawyers and the politicians. No shit. In Fort Lauderdale, they had nothing, and all of a sudden the drug wars brought night scopes and cigarette boats and fancy cars and new offices. Yes. And new courthouses, and new jails and Yep. I don’t have an answer. Yeah. The problem is, [00:33:00] you know what I’m gonna say, America, Mexico doesn’t have a drug problem. Columbia doesn’t have a drug problem. No. America has a drug problem. Those are just way stations to get the product in. In the cover of my book, it says, you don’t sell drugs, you supply them like ammunition in a war. It’s a, people, we, how do we fix this? How do we get the American people? Oh, by the way, here’s a perfect example. Marijuana is legal in a majority of states. You don’t see anybody smuggling marijuana in, I actually heard two stories of people that are smuggling marijuana out of the country. I’ve heard that. I’ve heard that. Yeah. They’re growing so much marijuana in America that it’s worth shipping to other places, either legally or illegally. Yeah. And, and, and you know, the biggest problem is like, what they’ll do is they’ll set up dispensaries, with the green marijuana leaf on it, like it’s some health [00:34:00] dispensary. But they, they just won’t it’ll be off the books. It just won’t have the licensing and all that. And, you know, you run that for a while and then maybe you get caught, maybe you don’t. And so it’s, you know, it’s, well, the other thing is with that dispensary license. It’s highly regulated, but you can get a lot of stuff in the gray. So there’s three markets now. There’s the white market, which is the legal Yeah. Business that, you know, you can buy stocks in the companies and whatnot. Yeah. There’s the black market, which is the guy on the street that Kenny Bear used to be. And then there’s the gray market where people are taking black market product and funneling it through the white markets without intact, you know, the taxes and the licensing and the, the, uh, testing for, you know, you have to test marijuana for pesticides. Metals, yeah. And, and the oils and the derivatives. You know, there’s oil and there’s all these derivatives. They have to be tested. Well, you could slide it through the gray market into the white market. So I know it’s a addiction, you know, whether it’s gambling or sex or Right. Or [00:35:00] there’s always gonna be people who are gonna take advantage and make money off of addiction. The mafia, you know, they refined it during the prohibition. All these people that drink, you know, and a lot, admittedly, a lot of ’em are social drinkers, but awful lot of ’em work. They had to have it. And so, you know, then gambling addiction. And that’s, uh, well here’s what I say. If it wasn’t for Prohibition Vegas, the mob never would’ve had the power and the money to build Vegas. No, they wouldn’t have anything. So when you outlaw something that people want, you’re creating a, a business. If, if somebody, somebody said the other day, if you made all the drugs legal in America, would that put out, put the drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia and out of business? Yeah, maybe. How about this statistic? About 20 to 30,000 people a year die from cocaine overdose. Most have a medical condition. Unknown unbe, besides, they’re not ODing on cocaine. Yeah. Alright. 300,000 people a year die from obesity. Yeah. And [00:36:00] another, almost four, I think 700, I don’t know, I might be about to say a half a million die from alcohol and tobacco. Mm-hmm. I could be low on that figure. So you’re, you probably are low. Yeah. I could be way more than that. But on my point is we’re regulating alcohol, tobacco, and certainly don’t care how much food you eat, and why don’t we have a medical system that takes care of these people. I don’t know that the answer if I did, but I’m just saying it, making this stuff more valuable and making bigger crime syndicates doesn’t make sense. Yeah. See a addiction is such a psychological, spiritual. Physical maldy that people can’t really separate the three and they don’t, people that, that aren’t involved and then getting some kind of recovery, they can’t understand why somebody would go back and do it again after they maybe were clean for a while. You know, that’s a big common problem with putting money into the treatment center [00:37:00] business. Yep. Because people do go to treatment two and three times and, and maybe they never get, some people never, they’ll chase it to death. No, and I can’t explain it. And you know, I, I’ll tell you what, I have my own little podcast. It’s called One Step Over the Line. Mm-hmm. And I released a show last night about a friend of mine, his name is Ron Black. You can watch it or any of your listeners can watch it, and Ron was, went down to the depths of addiction, but he did it a long time ago when they really spent a lot of time and energy to get, you know, they really put him through his system. 18 months, Ron got out clean and he came from a good family. He was raised right. He didn’t, you know, he had some trauma in his life. He had some severe trauma as a child, but he built one of the largest addiction. He has a company that he’s, he ran drug counseling services. He’s been in the space 20 or 30 years, giving back. He has a company that trains counselors to be addiction specialists. He has classes for addiction counseling. He become certified [00:38:00] members. He’s run drug rehabs. He donates to the, you know, you gotta wa if you get a chance to go to my podcast, one step over the line and, and watch this episode we did last night. Probably not the most exciting, you know, like my stories. Yeah. But Ronnie really did go through the entire addiction process from losing everything. Yeah. And pulling himself out. But he was also had a lot of family. You know, he had the right steps. A lot of these kids I was in jail with. Black and brown, inter or inner city youth, whatever, you know, their national, you know, race or nationality, they don’t have a chance. Yeah. They’re in jail with their fathers, their cousins, their brothers. Mm-hmm. The law, the war on drugs, and the laws on drugs specifically affect them. And are they, I remember thinking, is this kid safer in this jail with a cement roof over his head? A, a hot three hot meals and a bed than being back on the [00:39:00] streets? Yeah. He was, I mean. Need to, I used to do a program working with, uh, relatives of addicts. And so this mother was really worried about her son gonna go to jail next time he went to court. And he, she had told me enough about him by then. I said, you know, ma’am, I just wanna tell you something he’s safer doing about a year or so in jail than he is doing a year or so on the streets. Yeah. And she said, she just looked at me and she said, you know, you’re right. You’re right. So she quit worried about and trying to get money and trying to help him out because she was just, she was killing him, getting him out and putting him back on the streets. This kid was gonna die one way or the other, either shot or overdosed or whatever. But I’ll tell you another story. My best friend growing up in New Orleans was Frankie Monteleone. They owned the Monte Hotel. They own the family was worth, the ho half a billion dollars at the time, maybe. And Frankie was a, a diabetic. And he was a, a junk. He was a a because of the diabetic needles. [00:40:00] He kind of became a cocaine junkie, you know, shooting up coke. You know, I guess the needle that kept him alive was, you know, I, you know, again the addict mentality. Right, right. You can’t explain it. So he got, so he got busted trying to sell a couple grams. They made it into a bigger case by mentioning more product conspiracy. His father said, got a, the, the father made a deal to give him a year and a half in club Fed. Yeah. He could, you know, get a tan, practice his tennis, learn chess come out and be the heir to one of the richest families in the world, all right. He got a year and a half. Frankie did 10 years in prison. ’cause every time he got out, he got violated. Oh yeah. I remember going to his federal probation officer to get my bicycle. He was riding when he got violated. Mm-hmm. And I said, I said, sir, he was in a big building in Fort Lauderdale or you know, courthouse office building above the courthouse. I go, there’s so many cops, lawyers, [00:41:00] judges, that are doing blow on a Saturday night that are smoking pot, that are drinking more than they should all around us. You’ve got a kid that comes from one of the wealthiest families in America that’s never gonna hurt another citizen. He’s just, he’s an addict, not a criminal. He needs a doctor, not a jail. And you know what the guy said to me? He goes but those people aren’t on probation. I, I know. He did. 10 years in and out of prison. Finally got out, finally got off of paper, didn’t stop doing drugs. Ended up dying in a dentist chair of an overdose. Yeah. So you, you never fixed them, you just imprisoned somebody that would’ve never heard another American. Yeah, but we spent, it cost us a lot of money. You know, I, I, I dunno what the answer is. The war on drugs is, we spent over, we spent 80, let’s say since 1973. The, the DEA got started in 73, let’s say. Since that time we’ve, what’s that? 70 something years? Yeah. We’ve done [00:42:00] no, uh, 50, 60. Yeah. 50 something. Yeah. Been 50. We spent a trillion dollars. We spent a trillion dollars. The longest and most expensive war in American history is against its own people. Yeah. Trying to save ’em. I know it’s cra it’s crazy. Yeah, I know. And it, over the years, it just took on this life of its own. Yeah. And believe me, there was a, there’s a whole lot of young guys like you only, didn’t go down the drug path, but you like that action and you like getting those cool cars and doing that cool stuff and, and there’s TV shows about it as part of the culture. And so you’re like, you got this part of this big action thing that’s going on that I, you know, it ain’t right. I, I bigger than all of us. I don’t know. I know. All I like to say I had long hair and some New Orleans old man said to me when I was a kid, he goes, you know why you got that long hair boy? And this is 1969. Yeah, 70. I go, why is that [00:43:00] sir? He goes, ’cause the girls like it. The girls didn’t like it. You wouldn’t have it. I thought about it. I’m trying to be a hippie. I was all this, you know, rebel. I thought about it. I go, boy, he’s probably right. Comes down to sex. Especially a young boy. Well, I mean, I’m 15 years old. I may not even how you look. Yeah. I’m not, listen, at 15, I probably was only getting a second base on a whim, you know? Yeah. But, but they paid attention to you. Yeah. Back in those days you, you know, second base was a lot. Yeah. Really. I remember. Sure. Not as, not as advanced as they are today. I don’t think so. But anyway, that’s my story. Um, all right, Ken b this has been fun. It’s been great. I I really had a lot of fun talking to you. And the book is 1, 1, 1 took over the line. No one, no, no. That’s a Friday slip. One step over that. But that was what I came up with the name. I, I believe you, I heard that song. Yeah. I go, I know, I’m, I’ve just taken one step over the line. So that’s where the book actually one step over the line confessions of a marijuana mercenary. [00:44:00] And I’ll tell you, if your listeners go to my website, one step over the line.com, go to the tile that says MP three or the tile that says digital on that website. Put in the code one, the number one step, and then the number 100. So one step 100, they can get a free, they can download a free copy. Yeah, I got you. Okay. Okay. I appreciate it. That’d be good. Yeah, they’ll enjoy it. Yeah. And on the website there’s pictures of the boats, the planes. Yeah. The runways the weed the, all the pictures are there, family pictures, whatever. Well, you had a, uh, a magical, quite a life, the kinda life that they, people make movies about and everybody watches them and says, oh, wow, that’s really cool. But they didn’t have to do it. They didn’t have to pay that price. No. Most of the people think, the funny thing is a lot of people think I’m, I’m, I’m lying or I’m exaggerating. Yeah. I’m 68 years old. Yeah. There’s no reason for me to lie. And you know, the DEA is, I’m telling that. I’m just telling it the way it [00:45:00] happened. I have no reason to tell Phish stories at this point in my life. No, I believe it. No, no, no. It’s all true. All I’ve been, I’ve been around to a little bit. I, I could just talk to you and know that you’re telling the truth here I am. So, it’s, it’s a great story and Ken, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you for having me. It’s been a very much a, it is been a real pleasure. It’s, it’s nice to talk to someone that knows both sides of the coin. Okay. Take care. Uh, thanks again. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.