The Epstein Files, The Pyramid of Power, & Overcoming Addiction (Derrick Broze on The Kim Iversen Show)

Hello and welcome to the Kim Iverson Show. Thank you guys so much for joining us. We do have a really fascinating show for you tonight, something a bit different. We've had Derek Brose, investigative journalist, on the show several times. He is a fantastic investigative journalist. What I really like about Derek is he explores a lot of the deeper, darker, deep state stuff, but he does it from a very, very fact based lens. So yes, he'll explore conspiracy theories, but he'll either debunk them and say there's absolutely no evidence of this or he'll say yes, there is maybe some evidence of this after all. And you know, this. We're going to explore this a bit further. He is the creator of the really excellent series the Pyramid of power. It's a 17 part series where he explores in each different part. Each episode is about things like big tech or big education, big food, big pharma. He goes into, you know, big banking, also things like false flags, secret societies. It's a very fascinating series. It's now in book form, he says it's now been released in book form for those of you that would prefer to read it. But we're going to be talking to Derek Brose again tonight. One thing that he did in 2018 was he released a documentary called Bringing Down Jeffrey Epstein. And this has now landed him also in the Epstein files. He did a search for himself and found that he in fact had been mentioned in the Epstein files, you know, 3 million, but, but not in the bad way, but in the way that, you know, they were bringing up the fact that he had, he had done this documentary Bringing Down Jeffrey Epstein. And we're going to be talking to him about the investigative work he's done on Jeffrey Epstein. What he now has Learned from these 3 million documents, what is new, how this might reshape the pyramid of power that he's been working on. A lot of us have thought Jeffrey Epstein was maybe just a lackey, but now maybe things are different and now Jeffrey Epstein might be at the top of the pyramid of power. Just really interested to see what Derek has to say about that. But also Derek has released a memoir, a very private personal memoir about his time addicted to drugs and in prison. Derek has reformed, changed his life, turned it around. And in his new memoir, A Man of My Word, How I Overcame Addiction, Depression and Mental and Physical Prisons, he really showcases his vulnerability, shares his story, walks the, the reader through his, the reasons he became addicted to drugs in the first place from having a drug addicted father that broke his heart. All the time when he was a kid, to him becoming suicidal, doing self harm, turning to drugs, turning to crime and ultimately landing in prison before he eventually turned, turned his life around and has become the fantastic investigative journalist that he has today. We're going to talk about that. I think it's important to talk about drug addiction and it's important to talk with people like Derek who've overcome it because right now, obviously it's a hot topic in our country. Trump is blowing up boats in the middle of the Caribbean, thinking that that is somehow going to save our society from the drugs and the homelessness that we have riddled in our streets. I don't think that's the, that's the way to fix it. But many in this administration thinks that is. And people like Derek who share their stories of why they got addicted in the first place, I think are powerful messages to help us maybe shift and guide our policy decisions. So let's get to it. We're going to be chatting with Derek Breeze Bros, investigative journalist, author of A Man of My Word, How I Overcame Addiction, Depression and Mental and Physical Prisons. Also the creator of the documentary Bringing Down Jeffrey Epstein and the Pyramid of Power series. Derek Brose, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Hey Kim, thanks for having me on again.

Okay, so first of all, the Epstein files. You made a documentary back in 2018 bringing down Jeffrey Epstein. It actually ended up being mentioned inside of the, the Epstein files. That how was it mentioned exactly? What was the context? Somebody was emailing who was emailing who about the Bringing Down Jeffrey Epstein documentary.

Yeah, so this was a little interesting. I was searching through the files like everybody else and I decided to search for my name and I didn't see anything. And then I searched for the Conscious Resistance, my website, and I did get a hit on that. And it is an email from a Ronald Weiser, who is a former former Republican politician from the first Bush administration, Republican donor during Trump's first administration up until this point. And he was emailing another person or receiving an email from another person called Larry Brayboy, who I've looked into is like a pastor. I think he's deceased by now. I haven't seen anything shady or any specific connections with them to Epstein, which is why it's interesting that it's even in the files. And they were basically Mr. Weiser was receiving a forwarded email from ForbiddenKnowledge TV, which is a so called conspiracy website where videos like Bringing Down Jeffrey Epstein might appear. And basically they were just promoting It I had just released it November 1st. The email that Mr. Weiser received was from November 29th. So, you know, it was a few weeks later and Forbidden Knowledge was just promoting it, saying, hey, Jeffrey Epstein, if you don't know who he is, he's currently having civil trials. And I was reporting on the civil trials and that's kind of part of the documentary and they were just recommending it for people to check, check it out. So someone received that, it was forwarded a few times before it eventually gets to this Ronald Weiser. I still have no idea why it's in the Epstein files because again, there's been no public connections made between these two men. But I'm definitely digging into it to try to see if there is something there that we don't know about.

So just so that I understand, none of these people were FBI, because I could understand how FBI exchanges end up in the files. Right, but so we're not, as.

Not as far as we know. The one thing I will say is that Ronald Weiser so is the guy who's, you know, receiving it. And his comment is interesting. He just says weird stuff, you know, about my documentary. But again, he's a Trump donor. And I do mention Trump briefly in the documentary. I mean, that came out in 2018. So we knew back then Trump was, you know, had a decades long relationship with Epstein. I don't accuse him of anything, of course, because we don't have proof of that. But I mention it and I did notice that Ronald Weiser, he's listed in, if you search his name on the DOJ website, his name does come up quite a few times. There's another example. I've seen some people kind of concerned about where he was forwarding a Veterans Today article. And Veterans Today, for those who don't know is, you know, it's a, it's a conspiracy website, for lack of a better term. And I say that, no, not in a derogatory way. I think they would be probably okay with that. And sometimes their content, I do think can veer off into the speculative and unproven. Nevertheless, he was forwarding an article that said something to the effect of this is what they're hiding about Epstein. It was talking about Israel and it's a forward of the article, but nearly half the emails redacted for one reason or another. So there's that. And he appears a few other times. So I don't know why the FBI or some other agency, they were definitely looking at this Ronald Weiser's emails. So Again, I think there may be some connection that just hasn't come out yet. And he was clearly keeping up with news about Epstein.

You've been researching Epstein for a long time. What are you thinking of? I mean, what this latest dump, I have to say, frames for me, Epstein a bit differently. I thought Epstein previously, I suspected that he was an asset of Mossad working with intelligence agencies, gathering blackmail. This latest dump seems to indicate that Jeffrey Epstein was kind of above them and they were working for him. I mean, it's almost shows he was in a more. More of a higher position of power than him just being a lackey for the intelligence agencies. What is your kind of take on it?

I think that's a fair assessment, Kim. I think that there's been an effort to downplay the role that Epstein has played by making it seem like he's just some dumb guy who happened to be in this position and for whatever reason, you know, tricked all these famous people. I think that's what a lot of celebrities and politicians would like to believe. In fact, that's what they're all claiming in their statements from Noam Chomsky and others, like, we were fool. He, you know, just ingratiated himself into our life and our world. But I do think that the more emails we're getting and the more you really understand Jeffrey Epstein's position, he's not just a lackey. That doesn't mean he's the top of the pyramid, so to speak, or anything of that sort. But he obviously is, you know, able to communicate with prime ministers and with other powerful people and celebrities, and they show him a certain level of respect. You know, they. Now, they're, of course, all framing it like, again, they were tricked by him or. Or they were just placating him. Different people like Michael Wolf and other journalists, Steve Bannon, who were pretty cozy with him, are trying to say they were just tricking him or they were just trying to get information out of him. But the point is, Jeffrey Epstein clearly had the respect of many and many of these people. And it could have just been respect based on what they thought he could get for them, because they clearly could tell he was connected. He had financial means, he had political means and other ways. But definitely, I think what I'm taking away from it is we're getting little pieces of the puzzle, like the weird things about the torture video. I saw your recent reporting on all the ment of pizza. I think those things are really just kind of confirming what myself and others were talking about when it came to Pizzagate all the years ago, not in the sense of the way it got turned into QAnon, but in the sense that there is real trafficking of children taking place that involves high powerful people and that they do sometimes appear to speak in coded language. And I definitely think if we were in any kind of sane world, the people in charge right now under the Trump administration, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and others would be investigating what those numerous, numerous references did. Jerky and pizza and other things. And then of course, the mention of the torture video. And I have found some other different things. There's been a few scandals breaking out in India and other parts of the world where politicians are actually being called in for investigations. Of course, in the UK it's still kind of unfolding. I found an email between an Indian businessman and Epstein where Epstein told him to visit his house on the United Nations General assembly weekend in September of, I think, 2012, telling him that it would always, it's always off the record and lots of fun. Of course, that could be nothing. But in the context of Epstein, I think, you know, there's reasons to be suspicious, that there's other things going on. And I have a few other threads that I'm pulling on right now that I hope to report about soon, that, you know, just trying to, trying to see what other connections might be in there, including some of my past work on the Finders Cult and other sort of trafficking networks, trying to see if there's any connections to those things. There's long been speculation that Epstein is just kind of a modern version of what we've seen in the past with the Finders cult, with the Franklin scandal, with other things like that. And yeah, I think there might be some truth there. So I'm hoping that at the least there will be more pieces of not only the Epstein network revealed, but the broader picture of child trafficking and just sexual abuse and ritual abuse and things like that. As far as the legal ramifications, I have no hopes of something happening. I mean, it's great that Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna and others are, you know, calling us out and keep pushing and that Pam Bondi is being confronted and, you know, all that stuff. I'm glad it's happening. It looks good, it feels good, but I still don't believe anybody's going to be held accountable. I mean, I'm hopeful, I will say last thing on that. I'm hopeful that Les Wexner being called out now and he's allegedly going to testify in front of a house Committee next week on the 18th. I'm hoping that something comes out of that because he's somebody who myself, Whitney Webb and others have long been saying, well, why are we not talking about Les Wexner and the Mega group and these other people, powerful people around Epstein, which often point towards Israel? I'm hopeful that something, even if it's just new information, comes out, but I don't have much hope for actual legal accountability.

Les Wexner, that one is so weird. Isn't this one so weird? I mean, he gave Epstein his entire fortune. I mean, he gave him power of attorney over everything. I mean, who does that? Who. That. That move right there is very bizarre to me. That Lex, that Les Wexner, somebody that wealthy, that powerful, would hand over everything to Jeffrey Epstein. And then later he claimed. Right. Didn't he later claim, like, oh, well, he. Like he sued him, and he and Epstein had to give him $100 million or something along those lines. But there was some squabble between them. I mean, I'm wondering what Leslie'll say, but I wouldn't. I wouldn't be surprised if he came in there and said, I was possessed by a demon, and Jeffrey Epstein's a demon. I mean, that's what. You know, I almost. I almost expect him to say that. What else is he going to say? How do you excuse this, like, behavior of giving away all your money?

I think it'll just be pleading the fifth, unfortunately. I mean, because I actually reported for the Last American Vagabond last month about this, how some of the information, even prior to this, has been building around Les Wexner. Dropsite News has been doing some great reporting, looking into just the many, many Jeffrey Epstein documents. Because there's so many of them. I think people get confused. We have the DOJ ones, but we've got other coming out from lawsuits and things like that from the Epstein estate that have been released. And some of those emails make it clear that Les Wexner and the Wexner foundation was in touch, not only in touch with Epstein, after the time that they claimed that they had severed all connection and they were tricked and blah, blah, blah, but that they continue to seek advice from him on taxes on all sorts of legal and financial matters. People can find those articles over at Dropsite News if you search Les Wexner, that came out about a month or two ago. And so I was reporting on that, as well as the fact that Wexner is also under fire right now for a separate abuse case that relates to a Former coach at Ohio State University. Of course, Les Wexner is the billionaire from Ohio. Victoria's Secret, limited brands, all that stuff. And he's got connections going back decades to Cleveland Mafia and Ohio Mafia. Whitney's reported on that. I've reported on that. There's some really, you know, big piece of the puzzle I don't think have ever been touched or even looked at by the mainstream. But he's currently being subpoenaed in a lawsuit relating to this coach who did abuse at osu. Because when that abuse was going on, Les Wexner was sitting on, like, the Board of Regents or, you know, some. Some body there at the university. And it's largely suspected that him as well as other members of that board helped cover up the abuse by this coach. So he's not able to in his old age, as I'm sure he would like to just kind of go off into the. Into the dark and disappear from everybody's minds. No, he's being called now in front of a committee. His name's being said again in the mainstream as a Coke, as a potential coconspirator. And he's got this Ohio State thing going on, too. So I'm happy, I'm happy that Les Wexner is back. Because a couple months back in September when I went to dc, I was at the Epstein victims press conference with Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna. And that's the question I asked. The only question I was able to ask was, do any of you victims or attorneys have anything to say about Les Wexner? And for a couple of days, because I asked that Ohio media reported on it, his name was in the, you know, the media again. And it's like, okay, good. You know, it hasn't completely gone away yet, but now we're seeing it really hit the mainstream. So I'll take that win for now at least.

I think they're going to allow some people to fall with this, just like they allowed Ghisne Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein himself to go to jail. But then it'll stop. I mean, they'll. They'll say this, this should satiate people. We. We locked up two people or three people, you know, we gotta. And there are sacrifice. You know, they're sacrificial people. Like, they're like, what. What power does Les Wexner have anymore? So they're thinking, who cares, right? Like, let's just go ahead and go after this guy. You know, I. I think that anybody that they grab just like over in. In the uk, it's like Prince Andrew. Well, what. He's not relevant anymore to any positions of power, really. His brother's now king. There's no really leverage. His mother's already dead, so it's not like she could, you know, she doesn't care to protect. I mean, it's one thing you could see a mother wanting to maybe protect her son and. And shield him from maybe some of the bad things he did and doesn't want that to tarnish her name or tarnish him. But his brother. His brother doesn't seem to care. He's like, yeah, whatever. Throw you to the wolves, right? So, I mean, it seems like they're allowing certain people to just go ahead and take the fall. I'm sure the Sultan in the United Arab Emirates, like, maybe people just be like, okay, who cares? You know, who is he? Um, but the. The power structures underneath that, the. The real issue in my mind, I mean, I. I don't want to diminish or downplay the victims. The actual girls that were abused, even the women that were. You know, a lot of people point out these women who were older, you know, they were not minors, and like, as if you're not able to be raped or trafficked or manipulated as an adult.

Michael Tracy.

Michael Tracy has been one that's been saying that. And it's been. It's like, you know, women can be raped over the age of 18. I mean, that's a thing. In fact, it's still a crime. But, you know, I just don't. I think that there's going to be these sacrificial people that are just kind of sacrificed. Nobody will really care. You know, I mean, at the end of the day, the power structure that's behind all of this and the real abuse, which is the blackmail of our nation, the treason. And not just our nation. I mean, this is clearly. This is clearly extending into Europe. France is heavily implicated in this. The UK is heavily implicated. The United States, and it looks like some of the Arab states are also heavily implicated in these Epstein files. This is a blackmail operation that makes all of us victims. It seems that there was this cartel. There has been. There still is this cartel running our country, running our policy. And, you know, here we are being duped into believing that we the people have a say, and we don't. We're basically still living under, like, a fiefdom in a way. So that's the real. And I just don't think that's going to unravel. I mean, you're the expert on this. You're the guy that did the pyramid of power. So, so you tell me. I mean, do you think this pyramid of power is going to come crumbling down?

No, I don't. And that's a great point to make. And it's not. I hope everyone hearing this isn't taking away the feeling of being completely black pilled by it, but I think it's a reality. We do need to contend with that. As you said, you know, Les Wexner, he's going to be brought in front of the committee. Maybe something will happen. I don't expect charges. Even if that did happen, the Clintons, they're being pushed to actually testify now. We'll see how that turns out. So even if we don't get any legal repercussions for these people, as you said, Kim, the, the sort of machine is allowing these people's reputations to at least be tarred where in the past, you know, it was sort of. That's the realm of conspiracy. Nobody would possibly believe Prince Andrew was involved in that unless Wexner is a professional, respectable businessman. And presidents don't do those kind of things. And now it's almost as if, because the awakening of humanity has pushed things so far, that there are certain people that, well, look, we can't protect you anymore. You know, we're not going to let you go to prison, but your reputation is going to be ruined. You're going to be cast out of polite society. But then that machinery behind it and what I do call the pyramid of power, it will continue. And I think that that is part of the way that this system is designed is that when and if anything of the grand conspiracy is ever revealed by accident or because of, you know, somebody getting caught and it's just, you know, you can't, you can't stop it, then they have people where they can cast out, they have that lower level of the, of the pyramid, if you will, that they can sort of just, all right, well, you know, people can know about that, but we're going to stay hidden in the shadows. And that's, you know, what most, most of us consider a limited hangout operation to be. You know, it's an intelligence term about releasing some information when it's become either no longer possible to hide it or you figure like, okay, it actually serves our purposes to release this now and then we can keep these other things, you know, out of the public view. So unfortunately, I do think that's largely what we're going to witness. And I, you know, I was thinking about this the other day because it is very demoralizing to know to, to really contend with that. Again, on one hand, it's like, wow, we're having this conversation. When I made the documentary in 2018, there was definitely not as many people talking about Jeffrey Epstein. 2016, 2017, Pizzagate was starting to kind of be a thing. And so there was discussion around that, but it was still not something people wanted to believe. Even with Epstein, even with court documents, people were like, there's no way that that was, you know, what you're saying it was. So it's a good thing that the conversation, the Overton window, has moved to this point. But at the same time, if all we get is a mass awakening with no accountability and nobody being held, you know, accountable, nothing, no consequences, then I think that is a sort of situation where it's like a mass learned helplessness for humanity of like, look, secrets can come out, darkness can be revealed, but don't ever actually expect anything to happen from it. And I really hope that's not the lesson that we learn. But it does appear to be there.

It really does, unfortunately. But maybe, you know, I mean, we could still hold out hope because this does seem to be something people are not letting go of. People are not dropping it as much as Trump and his administration's been demanding that we just move on, let it go. It's a Democrat hoax. People are just not. And this is going to tarnish Trump's presidency. This is, this is really truly the death nail in his presidency. I think just for the reputation of the presidency, here's a guy that, especially thinking about Pizzagate, I mean, that was, you know, turned into this QAnon conspiracy. And they all thought Trump was going to be the guy. I mean, they really pinned it like Trump was going to be the guy that was going to unravel all of this and put all these pedos in jail. I mean, that's what the QAnon conspiracy kept riding on all of those years, right? And that Trump was like the savior. They basically lionized the guy. And here he is now doing what? Protecting even Pizzagate. I mean, not just the Epstein files, but Pizzagate. And it's like, wait a minute, this was the guy that everybody pinned their hopes on to actually release this information and hold power accountable. And he's not doing it all. Instead, he's actively covering it up. And then Pam Bondi, you know, yesterday being like, well, why didn't you question Merrick Garland? Why didn't you question, you know, previous administrations, like why is this on us? Well, because previous administrations didn't run on exposing this, you did. So that's why people are now holding you, particularly, you know, Pam Bondi and Trump administration accountable, because you actually ran on that. And people were expecting that as a campaign promise. Nobody in the Obama or Biden or Bush administrations promised that they would be cracking down on these, you know, blackmail pedo rings. Right. That was never mentioned at all. So. But I do think this is going to tarnish the Trump presidency. I mean, I think that this is. This is something that people will see. I'm hoping, though, that it will create an awakening that causes people to say, wow, we're being really screwed over. And that, I think is very dangerous for. I mean, I'd have to go back and study some history, like what led up over the years, what was the stuff that led up to all of the revolutions that overthrew all the monarchies in Europe, for example. You know, when people just finally get to that point where they're like, we're onto you and we don't and we're not going to take it anymore and it's going to result in revolution. And I'm wondering if this, you know, if we do, when we do, I mean, I think it's inevitable because history shows revolutions always happen at some point. There's no way to avoid it. When the revolution happens here again, you know, or in the west, will this be one of those documented events where it's like, well, this was one of the things that happened and people woke up and realized that their government was not run by them, even though they gaslighted us into thinking it was. You know, I'm just wondering, and then I wonder, how close are we to that, to that revolution point? And I think we might be getting closer than we think if they keep unleashing all of this surveillance stuff on us, I mean, because they're, like, going full steam ahead with all this AI surveillance, and that might just trigger it. And people just say, that's it.

Yeah, I think it's quite possible. Because, I mean, well, just on the Epstein piece of it, I feel like, and I'm not the first person to say this, of course, but that the US Is displaying numerous signs of historically collapsing, failing empires, you know, extending itself too far with wars all over the place, having troops and soldiers everywhere, weakening itself at home, losing support and popularity at home. And that's under both parties. Of course, this isn't just about Trump, but definitely, as you said, Kim, Trump ran and has been portrayed as this, you know, rebel against the deep state. But many, many people are coming to terms with the fact that he's serving some of those same agendas. And I think the Epstein one is such a big one because it touches on abuse, like you said, abuse of children and, you know, women of age, but abuse just all across. And I think that's something that society does take, or at least ostensibly take serious, seriously, and seriously enough that whenever something like this comes out and then somebody comes along and promises that there will be. That heads will roll, there will be accountable accountability, and we're going to do something about this, and then the people are straight lied to their faces. It's something that maybe people can't for, you know, can't forgive and move on from. Because I think you're correct that this is going to be a huge stain on Trump's administration going forward, really, no matter what he does, no matter what other perceived or even actual good he may do in the coming years, I think this is just going to be something that, from beginning to end, people will remember. And then in terms of us being close to revolution, I definitely, you know, I don't. I wouldn't ever want to put a number on that, but I do think, again, we're displaying a lot of the same signs that precede civil wars and revolutions. And I think there's sort of a. It's become cliche, especially in the independent alternative or mainstream alternative media, to call everything a civil war. Every other week, you know, we're about to bust into civil war. I think that's a little bit overhyped, because the average American is just, when you walk outside, it's just neighbors, and people aren't fighting over these things in the streets at this point. But I do think that if. If things progress in this direction, you know, maybe it could actually unite the people. When people see, for example, again with the Epstein issue, that this isn't a left or right issue, even though some people on both sides continue to try to make it be that way. The majority of people, I think, realize that this is something that all parties and political candidates and religions and others have been involved in. And this is something that I cover in the pyramid of power as well as revolutions. You know, how many of those revolutions we witnessed, including the American others, were actually guided, or at least largely influenced by some of the same secret societies that have shaped many major world events. So I think we also have to be on guard against that. Right? Are. Are we being guided to a destination that the same system would like us to be, you know, to maybe believe that we have a revolution that gets rid of the bad guys. But then as we've witnessed generations after generations, that same structure stays in place behind the scenes.

I think it's important to remember that oftentimes civil wars are really just two warring powers behind the scenes using the average person as their foot soldier. So instead of militaries actually gathering up troops and throwing them out to battle, and we see those, and those are, you know, those, those kinetic wars, but this is a behind the scenes war between behind, you know, factions of the deep state essentially at war with one another. And then they just reel us in and make us think we're fighting for something. In reality, we're just fighting for whichever, whichever team behind the scenes wants to win. And, and so we do have to guard against that if we can. But it's hard to spot. It's hard to know. But a lot of times I do think they're ushering us toward more violence, more of like a civil war, because they're wanting to unleash more surveillance and tactics, tools to control us. And violence and safety are always, you know, the excuse to, to be able to un, unleash more of those tactics on us. And they certainly have a whole arsenal of stuff that they're wanting to unleash on us. A lot of crazy stuff that they're wanting to put out. I mean, just like even the price stuff, you know, I think people will start to get really pissed off when they realize that AI is being used to manipulate prices of goods, depending on who you are. Like, you walk into a store and you're now going to see a price change because they're like, oh, you make certain amount of money, you can afford it. So now we're going to, you know, rate hike on you, specifically, you know, the dynamic pricing. I mean, they're using AI for all of these crazy things, which should be illegal. I mean, they shouldn't allow dynamic pricing. It should just be, this is the price, no matter who you are, this is what the price is, and that otherwise it's discriminatory. But, you know, they're doing all this AI on us, and I think people will eventually just say, that's it, I've had enough of this. Especially when it hits our pocketbook, which is why I bring that up, because that's when people really do start to melt down. But it's such a, such a, a crazy time. The Trump administration, I hope they get used to being called pedo protectors. That Is that's, I mean, that's Pam Bondi, Cash Patel, Dan Bongino, Trump himself. When this, when this administration's over, they will be. People will heckle them on the streets and call them pedo protectors, and that is what they're. They're going to be called, and that's what they're going to have to live with as their legacy. And that's, that's where. I don't know of any. Something worse to be called, you know, from past administrations. I'm not sure what they were called, but that's pretty bad in my mind. A pedoprotector.

Absolutely.

Before we move on to your book, the Pyramid of Power you had the last time we had you on, I think you were just finishing up the series. Is it, is it full? It was like, how many parts is this? 17 parts.

It's 17 parts. The final 17 episode is split into two volumes because it turned to be two and a half hours long, where the majority of the series is 30 to 40 minutes. So I've released 17, volume one a couple months ago. And right now, as we're recording this, 17, volume two, the final, final, Final Conclusion, is available on the Civil app and it'll be available publicly on March 6th. And so that's the final episode that really tries to outline much of what we're describing here today. Kim, what is that? We talk about the pyramid and the structure. Okay, well, who is part of that and what groups actually make that up? After I spent the last five years of the series describing all the different pieces of this pyramid, from the establishment media, the education system, big wireless, the pesticide industry, all these different players. And then we've kind of got to the conclusion of like, okay, well, if there is a top, who is or what is at the top? And I look at everything from the claims that it's the Jews, it's the Zionists, it's the Jesuits, it's the, the Freemasons. You know, I look at all these claims, I think objectively and honestly and debunk what can be debunked and then also say, look, here's some things that are worth considering that appear to be factual. And then we also, of course, look at secret societies. I do look at claims that it's the Satanists that run things or that it's some sort of otherworldly evil. The final episode features Mark Passio and David Ick and Katherine Austin Fitz, James Corbett, G. Edward Griffin, Peter Dale Scott, a bunch of other people. And everybody kind of has their own take on that. And I give them all basically a chance to say, this is who I believe is, and here's the evidence. And then I, as I said, debunk what I think can be debunked and point to what's true and then draw my own conclusions. But, yeah, it's the big final conclusion. And it's available at thepyramidofpower.net, as I said, it's right now available on the civil app, that's civl.com if anybody wants to sign up for that. But it'll be available March 6th as well. And I also, at the same time, have released the book version of the Pyramid of Power. So this is the entire series, but in book form, you know, so it's the same that you will find same information just obviously formatted for a book. But I will say the book version actually includes more details on the final chapter, because when I wrote the original final chapter, it turned out to be four hours long. And I figured that was way too long for a documentary series. But I kept all that information for the book version. And then, as I said, the video version was split into two, and people can find all of that, all the episodes and links to the. The book, the period. The Pyramid of Power. Same [email protected] okay, well, the Pyramid, the.

Series Pyramid of Power is really great. And I do encourage everybody to watch it or read the book, one of the two. And I would even say, like, give it to your teenage kids and have them start watching it so that they can wake up to the realities of the world around them. It's kind of one of those things that. That I think promotes critical thinking skills, whereas we're lacking a lot of that these days. And so this really showcases, like, these are. This is the reality. This is what they tell us. This is what's real, this is what's going on. And like you said, I like that you break down, you know, yeah, these are the theories. This is the evidence behind that theory. Oh, there isn't any evidence of that. So that's just something that people say. But here's where we do see evidence. And, you know, I think it's just really important for people to know all of these various different, you know, and I like how you break it down by sector. So there's like, big education and banks and, you know, all these. And media, all of these different sectors. So definitely highly recommend it. The Pyramid of Power. And we do have the link down below for people to, to access that series and also the book version, which I think is really, really cool as well. And I have a long drive that I'm going to be doing in the next month and so maybe I'll. If I, if does. Do you have it in audio form? I probably could get AI to read it to me. Right.

I do have.

Speaking of dystopian AI, I don't have.

The book audiobook yet, but I can send you the audio of the, of the final episode if you want to listen to it.

Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, I can always listen to the.

Whole audio of the whole series.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Derek, you came out with a very personal memoir, sort of your origin story, called A Man of My Word, How I Overcame Addiction, Depression and Mental and Physical Prisons. Very raw. I mean, you talk in this book about childhood abandonment, your father being in and out of prison for drugs. You talk about self harm and suicidal behavior, addiction, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, jail, prison time for yourself, a lot of emotional chaos. What you know, right now, what I, what I really like about this book, I think is that it shines. I like that. You know, you don't, you don't blame anybody or any system for yourself. You're, you take responsibility for yourself, but you're also showcasing how a lot of this happens and how you overcame a lot of this stuff. And I think that right now, you know, we've got an administration that's like blowing up boats off the shore of Venezuela, thinking that that's going to solve the problems that we're seeing inside of our country with drugs, that, that's suddenly going to miraculously save lives when it comes to drugs. Maybe it will. I mean, I'm interested to get your, your opinion on that as somebody who's been there, done that. But, you know, one thing that I'm not seeing addressed at all when the, with this discussion of drugs is what causes a person to go into that world of addiction, what causes, what keeps them in it? How do people even get out of it? I, I don't think in your case that a boat being blown up was how you ended up breaking the cycle and getting out. But I mean, I could be wrong. You could say, no, Kim, it was, they blew up a boat and that solved my problems. But what a, I mean, what an interesting memoir. What made you want to write this to begin with?

Yeah. Thank you, Kim, for taking a look at it and for giving me a chance to share about it. Because I do think that addiction of all types, especially drug addiction, is something that is kind of in the background, not only of our world in general, but even in the freedom movement, truth community, whatever you want to say. I've noticed a lot of times over the last decade or so that I've been doing public speaking, that every time I would kind of offhandedly or briefly mention my story, I got addicted to drugs at a young age, at 20 years old, went to prison, turned my life around. Somebody would always come up to me and say, hey, my son is addicted, or my daughter, or I was addicted, or my mom, whatever, or I never touch drugs. But this is how your story relates to something I'm going through. And I've come to realize over the years that even in our so called awake communities, aware, enlightened communities, that addiction still is very pervasive and it affects all of our families in different ways. And so I've known for years that I wanted to tell this story, but also some of the issues you were mentioning there, like the government's failed policy on drugs, whether it's blowing up boats or just locking up people in prisons and not actually trying to get to the root cause of their issues, and that all of those things are things I have a direct experience, as you said, and that I see the failure of. And so I kind of wanted to be able to tell not only my origin story of, you know, this isn't about my activism or journalism. This, this, all the book kind of ends in 2012, right around the beginning of my activism, 2013. So it doesn't tell any of the stories of reporting or any of that sort of stuff. It's the story of like how I got to a place where I could even wake up in the first place. And it started with, with questioning the drug war really for me. And that was because I got arrested, went to prison for selling crystal meth. I had been addicted to crystal meth from January 2005 till about September 2005. And then even after I got sober, I was still kind of in that drug world and I decided to do one more drug deal and that's the one I got arrested on. And at 20 years old, you know, I thought I was, I thought I knew what I was doing. I got locked up and I found out I didn't really know much about the world. And when I got a two year felony sentence and I realized I wasn't going to be getting out for at least a year, I decided to sit down and really try to understand why I had been abusing drugs. And even prior to meth you know, alcohol, pills, ecstasy, whatever. I. Right out of high school, I actually graduated early from high school. My friends were finishing high school. I was in college already, got a job, got an apartment, and then fell into drinking pretty quickly, and then spent about two and a half years leading up to meth, and then eventually getting locked up, just bouncing around, being homeless, getting pulled into this whole drug world that I was definitely not prepared for. And it wasn't until I got locked up and I had the time. Again, it's not about the institution, because those institutions have no redeeming value. And there's plenty of brilliant minds and jails and prisons and facilities like that wasting away, doing no good for society, and not getting any kind of real help. I think what it really was, and I've experienced this a couple times in my life, is just the sort of forced solitude, you know, just having to be alone with myself. And obviously I was getting sober at the same time, so there was some element of that, but really it was the fact that I had nowhere to go. And when I was in this situation, which is, I think, something that might benefit some people more often, maybe not through prison, but the feeling of being truly powerless. Like when I realized I couldn't leave these four walls and there was nothing I could do, I could go get on the phone and cry to my girlfriend or my mother or my lawyer or whatever, and there was nothing that anybody could do that I had to stay there until one day when they were ready, they were going to call my name and I could leave. And having to accept that, of course, was a very powerless feeling. But it's actually in that space where I felt like I was able to kind of step into my personal power. And I started journaling a lot. I started writing just all my thoughts down. As I'm getting sober, as I'm kind of looking back at the last two and a half, three years of my life. And then also, I had a very, very big spiritual influence in my life. My grandmother, and she started sending me books on prayer and meditation and. And that was where I really, I think, started to go deeper and just started to make that a regular practice. And I continued to journal, continued to pray and meditate and to look at my relationships, and was able to clearly see, like this was all related to things I hadn't dealt with, related to my birth father, who had his own drug addiction, who had been in and out of prison my entire young life. You know, my earliest memories at 5, 6 years old were visiting him in prisons and seeing him with a black eye or a broken arm and him coming in and out of my life and writing letters and making promises, and then, sure enough, getting. Getting locked up. And so that contributed to me being a very, very depressed young and as you mentioned, you know, suicidal at times, young kid, until eventually that. That sadness turned into anger in my teenage years, and that anger turned into getting to fights and getting to arrested, getting arrested and all this sort of stuff, sort of lashing out. And then eventually, when I finally tried drugs and alcohol at 18, it was like, wow, okay, this is what it means to be happy. You know, I thought that was the key that I had been looking for. And then, of course, I very quickly found out that that wasn't. And so I had. You know, by time I got locked up at 21 years old, and I'm starting to look back, and it took a couple years. It wasn't like it just, you know, the light bulb went off the first time. I did go back and forth. I did a year, got out, lasted for five months, went back again and did this whole thing. And so the book is basically about all these different stories, some of them very dark and, you know, disturbing, and I'm thankful to have lived through them. But also, you know, there's. There's reflections on the prison system. There's reflections on the racism that I encountered in there and how I realize now that, like, that system didn't save me. It didn't turn me into the person I am today. It was a personal choice I made to change my life because I've witnessed in my own life, friends and family, including my father, die of drug addiction because they weren't able to make that choice for one reason or another. And I think largely it's because these institutions don't actually address the root cause of why people are sticking up things up their nose or wherever they can and drowning in alcohol and other sorts of. It doesn't even have to be that. Today, it's probably easier than ever to be addicted to dopamine hits through the Internet, you know, and to sort of ignore your life, you know, so maybe you're not drinking to drown or you're not doing a bunch of drugs to the point that you get arrested or your health is falling apart, but you might be avoiding things in other ways and other unhealthy ways. Are you. You know, gambling addiction, sex addiction, porn, all these kinds of things. Right. There's so many ways that it impacts people, and I wanted to be able to tell this story and this sort of hope or prayer that if by me being real and raw and sharing all my sort of dirty secrets, that it could help other people, then that's. That's what it's about. And so I released it at the end of 2025 and around Christmas. And just in the last couple months, I've definitely been getting some positive reviews from people who've said that it has helped them or that they're going to send it to somebody who they think is in need. And, you know, part of it, Kim, is like, I want to make. I'm going to continue to do the journalism I'm doing now and everything we talked about today. Epstein Technocracy. These are the things I'm largely known for and I will continue to do that. But it's also going to become increasingly important for me to focus on addiction. Not in the sense of, you know, reinforcing some of the same systems. Like, again, obviously I don't support the prison system. I don't think the drug war is the way to handle these things. You talked about the beginning, like just locking people up indiscriminately isn't the answer. And also full on decriminalization, just glorifying drugs isn't the answer either. You know, I think that there is a balance that happens. We've seen what can happen in places like Portland where there isn't care. It's just like, okay, let everybody use drugs or San Francisco, right? So there's, I think, a real conversation that needs to happen. And I would like for more and more of my activism and my journalism to focus on that. I plan to start the Troy Bros. Foundation after my father as a way to kind of come up with a way that doesn't reinforce probation, that doesn't reinforce parole, that doesn't reinforce, even for me, the AA system. You know, I know that it's helped millions and millions of people. I think there's other probably millions who it hasn't helped. And I talk about this in the book, how I believe that the addiction as a disease model is unhelpful. And telling somebody that they're sort of stuck that way for the rest of their life is, I think, disempowering. And I had some of my own experiences with that. And so, yeah, I plan to put a lot more energy into that and sort of putting this book out and telling the story is just the first step in that direction.

Couple of thoughts. First of all, do you feel that there is a common thread between yourself and others who struggled with addiction or who struggle with addiction currently. Like, is there a common denominator that if society could just. Now, I have my. My theory on what. What I think it is. But I'm curious if you feel like you, you know, you obviously weren't doing drugs by yourself, right? There's other people that you knew who were also doing drugs and also addicted. When you were in prison, you met, I'm sure, a lot of people who also were there for the same reasons and who were addicted. And sure, you've come across a lot of addicted people throughout your life. So did you notice that there was something that was the common cause of the addiction?

I do think that underlying trauma is a big part of it. You know, even if, you know, there's. There's obviously cases of people who are just curious and they try drugs one day and then, you know, it hooks them or something. And, and they weren't coming at it because they were trying to escape or something. But I do think the vast majority of humanity who finds themselves, you know, addicted to drugs or alcohol or other, you know, other sort of vices, that there is an underlying traumatic root there. And again, for me, in my case, it was stuff related to me and my birth father. And then even in his situation, he had, you know, messed up relationship with his father, my grandfather. And in fact, I think it's intergenerational in many cases. It definitely is in my family, on both the bros side of the family and the Sanchez side of my family. Three generations at least, of jail, prison, depression, suicide. Like, I think there's something there, and I don't, you know, I think so. I think sometimes it could be a generational thing, a genetic thing even for some families, if you want to go that route. But I do think there's often, if not always going to be some sort of underlying root. And for me, that is what should be the focus of any kind of treatment process. And I don't even really like the term recovery because again, I think it implies that, you know, when you're in recovery, you've been injured. So if you just tell your life forever I'm in recovery, it's like, okay, I'm always hurt, I'm always injured. I'm always in this state. I think there's even, like a way that we need to rethink how we. How we talk about it.

I think that one thing that is not. I mean, there's been a bit more discussion about it, I think, lately in the culture, but not discussed nearly enough, which is the role of fathers And I know for the longest time people, you know, our society is focused on mothers, right? It's always with a divorce, kids go to the mom. Mom, mom is the most important parent. Has been really the framing, I think for a long time that yes, fathers are important, but moms, you know, mom is mom, right? And I think people get that. I think our society has just really undervalued fathers. And really, really, I think that what we're seeing, the decline of our society in so many ways and the decline of certain, even subcultures entirely like the black community has suffered immensely. And you know, when you, the studies show, I mean, it's just obvious to all of us that they lack fathers more than any other group. Really. You know, there's a massive for. And there's a variety of reasons for that, right? So we could pinpoint that at being locked up and for things like marijuana, a variety of things that have caused that. But I mean my personal opinion has been fathers have been diminished, overlooked and, and deprioritized. And it's, I think fathers, you know, if, I mean, and I. This is going to be controversial to say, but it's not my first time saying it. I actually think fathers are more important than mothers to the development of a child. And the reason I think that is because yes, a mother gives a lot of nurturing and a mother gives a lot of care. But I mean, this is anecdotal, it's totally anecdotal. But I, I have a lot of friends who were raised by fathers, myself included, who were raised primarily by our dads and our mothers weren't around as much. And then I have a lot of friends, more friends, more people that I've met throughout my life whose fathers were not around. That's more common, right? To be raised primarily by your mother and to not have your dad around for whatever reason. Even if a dad just works a lot, like it's not about prison, it's not about drugs, he's just never around. You just. He was the weekend Disneyland dad. You saw him every so often or he moved out of the state or something. You only saw it in the summers. I mean, I just noticed that kids without dads seem to struggle more with self esteem issues than kids without mothers. Surprisingly that the father, you know, mothers are very important, but fathers give their kid their sense of self worth and that is something a mother I don't think gives. I think a mother gives other traits that are also really important. But the self worth element and the father being, I think the pinnacle of the child's self worth is. And you know, and that's why when I see like my girlfriends that were raised by dads versus my girlfriends raised by moms whose dad, you know, the reverse situation. And you know, the girls that didn't have their dad around, you know, some of them got into stripping, they've never had. They, they have really piss poor relationships. They get the guys that are abusive or treat them like dirt, you know, they get all of these bad relationships. And my girlfriends and myself included that were raised by our dads, I mean, I just didn't, I always picked, I mean my ex boyfriends and my ex husband, even good guys, you know, I just, I like, I don't have negative things to say because I didn't pick bad guys because I had a good father, I think. So I had that role modeling of what this is, what men.

Something there, Kim, because, you know, just to speak to, I describe in the books, I think I focus on five of my main relationships from, you know, high school till my early 30s. And they were all with women who were amazing and all sorts of ways, but had their own struggles, just like me. Obviously, if I'm doing drugs, we were doing drugs together in many of these cases, and every single one of them didn't have a father in their life. And the current relationship I'm in right now, which has been 10 years, and I hope for the rest of my life is with a woman who did have a strong father relationship. And so I definitely think that that is probably one of those key pieces again, valuing both mothers and fathers. You know, they're both important, but I definitely saw that. I saw that with people that I met in and out of jail, in prison, lacking fathers. I saw it with other friends that I was using drugs with, you know, lacking fathers. And, and maybe there were some who didn't, like you said, Kim, that they were there, but they weren't there. They weren't, you know, parenting, they weren't being a father figure, things like that. It's, it's a big P of the puzzle. And so, you know, these are the kind of conversations that I want to be able to have and say, look, I come from that experience. I didn't grow up with a strong father in my life. I, you know, had two stepdads who I was grateful for. And now as an adult, I can look back like, wow, I'm grateful they were there to help out my mom.

Yeah, I mean, that's what we've got to do is, is Try to figure out how to solve the problem from the inside. Instead of locking, like you said, locking people up and blowing up boats. That's just clearly neither of those strategies, attacking the drug user or attacking the drug dealer has not solved the problem. The problem really seems to only be able to be solved if we stop the desire and the need for drugs that people have. And certainly, you know, we don't want the stronger drugs coming into the country or stronger drugs being even made in the country. I mean, blowing up the boats, I'm like, what's that going to do? Then people just start making it here. Somehow they'll figure out a way to start making the stuff here. You know, where there's a need, there's. Where there's a demand, there's going to be a supply, someone's going to fill it, that they're just going to come in through Canada or something. You know, I mean, they're not going to. They're not going to stop, especially when there's so much money to be made. But we do need to, I think, focus on the real reason why we have. And if we could solve this problem, then we also clean up our streets. Suddenly we don't have as much of a homelessness problem. The crime rate goes down. Like, this solves so many issues. If we could get to the root of drug use and drug habit and try to correct it from that inside spot. But we're not.

Absolutely. Yep. And that's. That's why I'm sharing this story, Kim, is, you know, like I said, I know a lot of people I can count on both hands who have died of drug overdoses, and some of them are in this book. And I just want to share my story. And it's also kind of a turning page, turning the page a little bit. You know, it's been 20 years. My anniversary of getting arrest was November 16, 2025. So 20 years ago is when this whole thing happened. And as I talk about in the book, it's these experiences and eventually getting out of prison and becoming a felon and then having to face that of like, okay, now I can't get a job here. Now I can't get rent, you know, rented here. People are judging me, looking at me different ways. It is those experiences which directly led to me questioning the systems in general and then starting to kind of wake up and find ron Paul in 2010 and look into conspiracies and so on and get. Get into activism and journalism. All of it came from this experience. So I wanted to be able to share this story and tell people a little bit about what led to what I'm doing today. And hopefully it helps more people by just getting this conversation further out there.

What would you, what advice would you give to somebody who is struggling with drug addiction right now?

Well, the easy thing to say, which it probably does come from 12 step. The easy thing to say, if possible. And I say easy because it is easy if you're willing to do it. It's not easy if it's not, you know, not your current situation. And that is to change your people, places and things. As cliche as that kind of phrase is, it is absolutely true that, you know, you can't expect to make big changes like stop using drugs or stop gambling or whatever it may be if you continue to hang around the people who are doing those things. And so when I came to the end of my drug use and I knew for certain that I did not want to do it anymore, I was living in a crack meth house. I was sleep in a closet under stairs. I was tripping on acid all the time. I was just, I was not happy. I knew I was not where I needed to be. And when I finally made that decision to quit, I at least was. I was lucky enough to have the people around me to respect that. And so when I told the rest of them, who were all still very much in their drug use, that I was not interested anymore, please don't ask me to do anything because I'm going to say yes and I really don't want to. I was able to get that done. So that was possible for me. But it would have been much easier if I, if I had just left. And again, the reason that wasn't possible, because I had burned so many bridges leading up to that moment, you know, that I felt like I didn't have anywhere to go. But I was able to commit myself to getting sober. I had people around me who respected that. And after eight days of not smoking crystal meth and using cannabis to help, honestly, I was able to get up and leave and never go back and kind of go back to my family's house and ask my mom, like, will you just let me come home so I can get my stuff together. I've been, you know, struggling. So that's one thing is like, you have to be in a position where you can and stop being around the people who are doing the behavior that you're trying to get away from. And I understand because I've met people and people have come to me for advice and said, look, I'm in that position, but I don't have the money to move out right now, or I don't have any other family members. Because that's another big part of this problem is when you get pulled into the system, whether it's probation, parole or whatever, if you don't have support structures when you get out, the world is going fast and crazy. You're used to everything going slow in jail or in prison. And they're like, look, look, take drug tests, go to aa, jump through this hoop, pay this money, and if you don't, we'll send you back. It's hard when you don't have those support structures. It's the same thing when you're trying to get out of drug addiction. If you don't have support structures, friends, family members that you can go to where you're at least safe and away from these things, it can be much harder. And some people end up on the street because of that. But if you have the option, if you have the ability to get away from the people who are doing this behavior, change your location, change, you know, who you're hanging around. And that's going to be difficult because you're probably in a place where. Where I was. Where you depressed or sad and you know, you're not. That doesn't feel very good to isolate yourself. And sometimes we think the people who are using drugs or giving us drugs, we think that they love us, they care about us, right? Because that's the way they show appreciation. They keep getting me high. But in reality, they're kind of just lost in their own. Their own, you know, their own struggles, their own traumas. And so I definitely think that's a big thing, is if you have the ability get away from those things, find somewhere, friend, family, that you can be safe if you're truly committed to doing that. And at the end of the day, it has to be a personal decision, because I heard from my father hundreds and hundreds of times throughout my life, and I know he promised to his mother, my grandma, thousands of times throughout his life that he was going to quit. He'd been given money, he'd been given trucks and jobs and all sorts of opportunities. And at the end of the day, he never dealt with the underlying issues of why he was using drugs. And so he never was able to fully quit. So you have to be committed, I think, to doing that work and being willing to look at that. Because if you only do the surface level, then maybe you'll stop using Drugs. But then in reality, maybe you're smoking cigarettes all the time or you're drinking coffee all the time, which is a lot of what you see at aa, or you're just trading one thing for the other, you know, and so if you want to get to the actual root, you need to be willing to look and see why you're, you're using the substance or doing this behavior in the first place.

And what advice would you give to people who have a family member, a loved one, that is addicted to drugs? What should that family member do or that loved one?

Give them my book. Hopefully that will help them. But in all seriousness, I think just be, you know, be there for them. I mean, it's, it's such a tragedy and a sad thing to have family and friends who are addicted to drugs because again, no matter what you do, ultimately, even if you're promising them the world and you're promising them a safe space and those things that I just mentioned, which are important, if they're not ready, they're not ready. And that's, you know, there's nothing you can really do or say. You can promise them everything, you can threaten them to take away everything from them. You can do all those things. And until they are ready to make that choice, it, you know, it might not happen. But overall, I think it's useful to be there and be available for people. I don't think you need to condone or promote their drug use or allow it to happen to per se, but I do think that knowing, letting someone know that you're there for them and that you're not pushing them away, because sometimes all you do is just push people right into the hands of others who are using drugs. And I think that's what happened in my situation as I talk about in my book the second time when I screwed up and I did screw up, my mother told me as I was leaving to go turn myself back into pr, you know, into jail on the way to prison. You're turning into your father. Don't come home, you know, and, and I'm sure she felt that and meant that. And it was true. And it was, it was true in a certain way, but it definitely did, I think, you know, had both effect of pushing me closer to the things she probably didn't want me to. But also eventually it did cause me to say, you know what? I've lost everybody. What am I going to do now? You know, So I think there's that delicate line between trying to punish people and hope that it shakes them out of things and then also condoning it and kind of, you know, encouraging it. You don't really want to do either of those things. So just trying to be there as a loving person, letting them know that you're there, that you accept them, you're ready to be that, you know, to talk to them when they're ready, as hard as that can be. And then as I said, I've had talked to a lot of parents and family members over the years who come to me crying of their stories of my daughter's out on the streets right now. I don't know where she's at. I haven't heard from her in this long. I know that it's heartbreaking, it's heart wrenching and unfortunately there's no perfect answers. But I'm hoping that anybody out there who has other ideas will reach out to me too. That's one last thing I'll say on this is as I pursue this idea of the Troy Bros. Foundation, I don't know exactly what it's going to be yet. I just gave a talk about this at the People's Reset a couple weeks ago and if anybody's interested, if you have experience in these pieces of the puzzle and you want to collaborate with me on that, you can reach out to me at into the light protonmail.com and just put drug addiction or something like that in the email subject. And I would love to talk to you if you have resources, if you've got ideas. I'm not an expert on this. I've just lived through it and, and I want to do something about it.

Well, living through it is definitely, you know, I think it gives you the kind of expert level of, you know, cred because it's. Most people do not have any experience with it. I will say I think that the most difficult, the single most difficult thing that a parent can go through is having a drug addicted kid. I think it's just, I don't think there's anything worse. I've seen a lot in my life, but that is the single most challenging issue for families to have to deal with. The person is rarely will they get sober and get better. I mean, you are a rare lucky one who's actually been able to actually get out of that, but so many cannot and so many end up dead. And that's the ultimate fate of most, I think, who are addicted to drugs is they torment their families with, you know, and it's not just the sadness of seeing your kid addicted to drug. It's what the kid does when they're on drugs. Right. I mean they do a lot of shady when they're on drugs. When they steal from you, they lie, they get into trouble all the time. You're constantly having to bail them out. You're constantly having to try to figure out how you're going to pay for drug rehab if they're willing to even go to rehab. You're, you know, the, the just the chaos that it brings. The night, the middle of the night, phone calls, the going in, you know, it's just the stress of where are they? I haven't seen them in a few weeks and are they dead somewhere? And, and nobody's given me a call yet. I mean, it's just there is, I don't think anything worse really. I don't think there's anything worse for a parent to go through than having a drug addicted kid. I think that is just it. There's layer upon layer. Maybe, I mean, maybe the only thing.

Would be having a drug addicted parent because those are both equally, I mean.

That'S pretty bad too. There's no doubt that that's bad also. I don't know, I, I mean a drug addicted family member that you care about.

Yeah.

And you're wondering about even if it's your, your sibling, you know that and you, and you know, you're the one who needs to care for your sibling and your sibling constantly needs to come home to you because they have nowhere else to go when they have, when they need to come somewhere. I mean, it's just, it is the single most stressful, I think, horrible situation for a person to deal with. And that, that supersedes even having a depressed family member. Depression is terrible and suicidal tendencies are really terrible. But I would still stack, I think drug addiction higher as far as being just a more stressful situation. I've seen it firsthand, I've dealt with it firsthand and I just, you know, and many other issues. But that, that is just the single, it's the hardest. And so, and many parents I think rightfully worry that their, their kid is going to be dead. And oftentimes they are. And that's just the sad reality of it. So I'm glad you wrote this book because I hope that people do read it. I hope those who are addicted, those who are struggling with a family member, a loved one who's addicted, will read it and have it shed some light for them on how they can better help that person if they can help them at all. And sometimes the only thing you can do is kind of let it go and just say it is what it is, and it is up to them. Ultimately, the person who's addicted to drugs is ultimately the person who has to decide to stop. Stop, just like you did. But maybe, you know, if the family member reads the book and then they think, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna tell my kid, look, I'll give you some money, but every time you want money from me or whatever it is, right, like, I'll. I'll let you come stay here, but every time you do it, you have to listen to me read you a chapter from this book. You know, we're gonna go through it chapter by chapter or whatever the strategy, right? I mean, but try to get a person to realize. Try to get them to this point where they realize, oh, so there is an underlying issue here that I need to address, and that is the only way out of this. It's not as simple as just deciding you're going to stop doing drugs. You know, there's. You have to really face up to what is causing you to get there. And you're right. It's a really tough decision. It's hard to cut off all your friends, hard to cut off your lifestyle and totally and completely change. Most people don't feel like. Like they can do that because they do feel like their friends are the only people who love them. They don't have anybody else. You know, that's why they're doing drugs. They feel like they've been abandoned by everybody in their life who should love them, and they probably have been. And so then they've got this friend group and they think, no, these are the people who love me, so why would I leave them? You know, this is where I'm getting my love. And I mean, it's just a. It's a terrible, tragic situation. And it's not. It's not simple. It's complicated. But we as a nation, I think as a society, as community, as family, as friends, as individuals, have to reckon with this so that we can solve the problem that is plaguing our nation, that's plaguing our communities, plaguing our streets and our cities. I mean, we've got to reckon with this somehow and get to the root of it and say, okay, how do we correct it? And maybe that is, you know, like, bringing back more spirituality and. And promoting more, you know, religion. I don't know. You know, I mean, I'm not. I'm not the most religious person right now, but. But I have been at times in my life. I. But I wonder if that's. Then, you know, there's problems with that too, because then it gets kind of dogmatic, you know, then when it gets dogmatic, then it has the opposite effect. So, you know, it's like multi pronged problem here. How do we solve it? But, you know, it's great that people like you are talking, you know, in your way of writing your book, right? It's. People need to know they're not alone, and they need to know that there is a way out. And it's inspiring to hear from somebody who's been there, done that, did the worst of it, and then overcame it. And that's what I think people need to read is. And here is that hope that there is. There is a path out of this. And. And so I, you know, I congratulate you on your bravery. I mean, you've always been a very brave investigative journalist going after the. The darkest corners of our political world. But now for you to tackle this as, you know, a different level of bravery, I think it's more brave to have to share, you know, to share your personal experiences and to be that vulnerable for everybody. And so congratulations on the book. Congratulations on that bravery that you have. The book is a man of my Word. How I Overcame Addiction, Depression, and Mental and Physical Prisons. We do have the link down below for people to get that book. Definitely something they should consider doing. So, Derek, thank you for sharing everything with us today.

Hey, Kim, thank you so much for giving me a chance to talk about the memoir and of course, the Pyramid of Power and. And, yeah, the surprise that I was in the Epstein files. I really appreciate your time and all the work you're doing.

Thank you, Derek.