0:00
[MUSIC]
0:20
This is Undaunted Life of Man's podcast.
0:23
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:25
Let's get into it.
0:26
All right guys, we've got a special guest for you today's name is Tim Ballard.
0:29
So Tim spent more than a decade working as a special agent for
0:32
the Department of Homeland Security, where he was assigned to the Internet
0:36
Crimes Against Children Task Force and deployed as an undercover operative for
0:40
the US child sex tourism jump team.
0:42
He also worked in that role and since in every type of case in the,
0:47
he's worked in basically every way you could in terms of dismantling
0:50
child sex trafficking rings, right?
0:52
That's kind of the easiest way to describe it.
0:55
So he's worked in the United States.
0:56
He's worked in multiple foreign countries to infiltrate these child sex
0:59
trafficking organizations.
1:00
And he successfully dismantled dozens of these organizations and
1:04
rescued children from slavery and exploitation.
1:07
And while working for the government,
1:09
Ballard saw that there was a whole lot more needed in the fight against child sex
1:12
trafficking, and he thought he could do more.
1:15
And so back in 2013, he and a team of former government operatives,
1:20
they left the, really the security of their, their government jobs.
1:24
So that they could start operation underground railroad.
1:26
And that is a team that Tim created that can work in any jurisdiction around
1:32
the globe and in conjunction with law enforcement to rescue children directly
1:36
and get them out of child sex trafficking.
1:38
And so that that team exists even still today and
1:41
they're doing things all over the globe.
1:42
His story is depicted in a new movie that is in theaters today as of right now.
1:48
Guys, you can go and watch the film today.
1:49
It's called Sound of Freedom.
1:51
He is actually played by Jim Caviesel,
1:53
the same guy that played the lead in Countamani Christo and the Passion of the Christ
1:57
and some other films like that as well.
1:59
But this is a film which basically depicts the, the latter end of his time
2:03
working for the United States government and then how he kind of went out on his own
2:07
and some of the actual, I guess, operations that his team did to directly
2:13
save these little kids because there's always that dissonance between catching
2:17
the pedophile, but also saving the children because you can catch the pedophile
2:20
somewhat easily, but getting the children out of this degradation,
2:23
out of this horrible darkness where they're being raped multiple times a day
2:27
and being sold to people all over the globe.
2:29
That's something that's completely different.
2:31
That's what this film touches on.
2:33
Guys, this is a rougher episode today and that film is incredibly rough,
2:37
but it's one of those things.
2:38
It's like that movie unplanned from back in the day.
2:41
There are some things in that movie that's depicting abortion.
2:43
That's really, really rough.
2:44
And so you might be tempted to, you know, cover your eyes,
2:47
plug your ears and not really pay attention to it.
2:50
What I would suggest is that you lean into something like this,
2:53
because he made this point during the interview where it's like,
2:56
look, they're the lead story on every newspaper across the globe
3:00
should be millions of children raped today, repeatedly, incessantly.
3:06
But it's not.
3:07
It's, you know, did Donald Trump say something now?
3:09
Or, oh, look at the celebrity who's changing their pronouns.
3:12
Like, it's all this nonsense.
3:14
But this film kind of gets at the heart of what it is that we are up against
3:18
as a people and as Christians.
3:20
And again, as men that I'm trying to equip to be able to push back darkness,
3:23
you can't push back against darkness if you don't know the darkness even exists.
3:27
And so we talk about that a lot in this particular podcast.
3:31
This is not an explicit podcast.
3:32
So you can certainly listen to it with your children.
3:34
But it is about a rough subject matter, but I think it's,
3:37
it's well worth your time and attention.
3:38
So guys, without further ado, let's get into it.
3:42
Tim Ballard, welcome to adulted life of man's podcast.
3:45
Thank you, sir.
3:45
Good to be here.
3:47
Hey, I got a lot of ground that I want to cover with you today,
3:49
but we should probably do a little bit of groundwork in terms of like setting up
3:53
who exactly you are and how you got into your line of work.
3:56
So you were a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
3:59
And you did that for over a decade.
4:02
But during that time, you were also assigned to the internet crimes
4:06
against children task force.
4:08
And so I know we're covering a lot of ground there because, you know,
4:10
why'd you even want to be a cop?
4:12
Why'd you go the Fed route?
4:13
You know, how'd you end up there?
4:14
But I guess give us an idea about all of that.
4:17
But specifically, most people in, you know, modern day don't know anything
4:21
about the internet crimes against children task force.
4:23
We didn't even know that thing existed.
4:25
So what is that?
4:26
How'd you get involved?
4:27
Take that wherever you want to go to start.
4:28
Yeah.
4:29
So I actually began my career at the CIA and I wanted to combat terrorism
4:35
and, you know, other kind of drug crimes and so forth.
4:39
Six months into my position after I left CIA in the wake of 9/11,
4:44
I jumped over to the Homeland Security investigations and put me on the border.
4:48
And six months into that new position, I was asked to work,
4:53
it helped start a child crimes unit, which was not something I was interested in.
4:58
I didn't really want to do it.
4:59
And if it was scary to me, I didn't know, no one knew what it was.
5:02
You know, how bad is it, what's going on?
5:05
We began working on the end users.
5:08
There was some software had been created.
5:10
It allowed US agents to identify people who were downloading child rape videos.
5:16
And so that's where we started.
5:17
It was very successful.
5:19
But the haunting part of it was you would always, you know,
5:23
seize these computers sometimes with hundreds of thousands or even over a million
5:27
pieces of child exploitation material.
5:31
And you'd wonder where those kids are.
5:33
You know, you see these videos, you're crying as you're writing the reports like,
5:36
oh my gosh, you know, people, when they think of child sex crimes or child
5:41
pornography, like we used to call it too often, they think it's 15 year olds and
5:46
16 year olds because technically without fit, that's not what the case.
5:49
We're talking seven year olds, five year olds, two year olds.
5:52
And the most grotesque things happening to them, like things,
5:56
your brain couldn't even comprehend.
5:58
You couldn't dream up.
6:00
You would think physically it would be impossible.
6:02
In fact, the things I'm watching here and writing about.
6:06
And you can only do that so long before you either just, you know,
6:10
collapse or run away or go find those kids.
6:14
How do you find the kids?
6:16
Cause most of them seem to be at that time, at least we're from, from foreign.
6:20
Um, and so the internet crimes against children task force was kind of the hub
6:25
using the technology to find the end users.
6:29
Um, and then everything changed for me in 2006.
6:33
Until the sixth, the laws changed in the United States with the passage of the
6:36
Adam Walsh Child Protect Act.
6:38
And what that did was it allowed for the first time opened up legally,
6:42
allowed, uh, US agents to go overseas.
6:45
And if we caught Americans, uh, sexually, uh, assaulting children overseas,
6:51
we could hold them accountable as if they had committed that crime on US soil.
6:55
And so, uh, thus began my undercover career and they, I went undercover and,
7:02
and, uh, I started working in, in several countries, finding the kids.
7:06
But the, the, the government was, you know, unintentionally kind of torturing me
7:10
because, you know, they give me, you know, bureaucracies.
7:13
It's how they are.
7:14
You get a week, Tim, you have a week and a half, go to this country, fine.
7:17
Well, we'd always find the kids, but I had to line it.
7:21
So I, I didn't have a crystal ball, like to show up exactly when the Americans
7:24
showed up and so I'm, I'm being asked over and over, come home, come home, come
7:28
home, and then in two, by, by 2012, I was working a couple of cases, one in Haiti
7:35
and one in Columbia, where when they said, come home, I said, I'm done.
7:39
I can't, like I got too deep.
7:42
It was, it was too big.
7:43
It was over a hundred kids.
7:44
We thought we could rescue and, and, and that was it.
7:48
And that's the basis.
7:49
That's where the movie picks up, uh, where I'm, I haven't made that decision
7:53
with my wife and then what happened in the aftermath of that decision.
7:57
Well, Tim, I appreciate you giving us that detail.
7:59
I certainly want to get into the details from the film.
8:02
Um, I tried to determine whether I wanted to ask this, but I want to go back
8:08
to something that you said, because I don't want it to be lost on the audience
8:10
here.
8:11
And it's that you had to actually watch the same materials that were being
8:16
traded online as fodder between pedophiles.
8:20
And I know you probably don't get asked this a lot, because it's a hard
8:24
question to ask, much less for you to answer, but you're watching the most
8:27
degrading, sinful, evil, dark thing that you could possibly watch.
8:31
You know, here on this planet, how do you process that?
8:35
Because yes, it was part of your job, but I've talked to people that work at
8:39
like, uh, television networks that, you know, have porn channels.
8:44
And so they have to like watch all these different things to make sure there's
8:47
edits and they're just eight to 10 hours a day.
8:49
They have pornographic images in their head.
8:51
And it's like, it's hard for them just to operate.
8:53
And this is beyond that, because these aren't two adults that are being paid.
8:58
These are, these are children that are being raped.
9:00
Um, take, take me back to just how you process that, because I'm sure even to
9:04
this day, it's not something that you can just compartmentalize in your brain.
9:07
No.
9:07
Oh, it is so hard.
9:09
The very first case I worked, I remember the, one of the very first videos I had
9:13
to look at, and then, you know, you got to, you have to write it in detail, you
9:17
know, that you have to like describe it for the, for the, you know, from the prosecution.
9:22
And the very first video I saw was three, there's three little, little boys, um,
9:30
probably about seven, five and three.
9:34
And they were all three of them completely naked with a, an old naked man.
9:40
And they use raping all of them.
9:44
And I, I, I didn't know what it was.
9:47
I didn't know what we were calling child porn.
9:49
And you should also call it child exploitation material, child rape videos.
9:52
I didn't know what that was, I guess, you know, it was like the first case.
9:55
Like here it is, like, wait, what?
9:57
And I remember I fell on my knees and I dry heaved.
10:00
I thought it was going to throw up, but you know, I dry heaved into the, into the trash
10:04
can under my desk.
10:05
And then I just saw her sobbing and I jumped in my car and I, I drove to my
10:09
kid's school.
10:10
I had four or five kids at a time.
10:13
I bought that same age that looked like that.
10:15
And I had two boys that looked just like those kids, blonde hair, blue eyes,
10:20
and then a little girl.
10:21
And they're probably at the same ages.
10:23
And, um, I rushed to the school to get my two boys.
10:27
They're probably like in one kindergarten, maybe in the other ones,
10:30
maybe first or second grade.
10:32
I remember running in there crying.
10:34
I, I said, I got, they got a dentist appointment.
10:36
I just kind of get him and I just took him out, took him home.
10:40
My wife was like, what on earth is going on?
10:43
You know, um, why are you here?
10:45
I'm just sobbing.
10:46
I'm just sobbing.
10:47
And, and I said, you won't believe what's happening.
10:50
You won't believe what's happening in this world.
10:51
And no one knows it because it wasn't like that was a one-off video.
10:54
I mean, that was, there's millions, millions of videos, just like the one I
10:59
described being transferred internationally and even mostly domestically.
11:03
Um, I say mostly domestically because the United States is the number one
11:07
demand where the number one consumer for child rate videos in the world.
11:12
So that was the beginning of it.
11:13
And after that, it's like it's therapy.
11:17
It's, it's prayer.
11:18
It's how do you compartmentalize?
11:20
How do you watch this stuff and not superimpose your own children's faces
11:25
on those videos?
11:26
Cause that's what you naturally are going to do.
11:28
And that's when those, you know, a battle within began, I had to decide, am I
11:32
going to stay doing this or run away?
11:34
Well, so as, as you just alluded to, you got to a point where it looks like
11:38
your runway with the US government doing this work was at an end.
11:42
And so you decide to go out on your own.
11:44
You started a private foundation called Operation Underground Railroad.
11:47
And so this organization is focused on the work of rescuing Lee children all
11:51
over the world from child sex trafficking.
11:53
I guess what led to this decision, you talked about a little bit already, but
11:58
what led to that final decision?
11:59
Like, no, we're going to burn the ships and we're going to do this because some
12:02
might say, well, yeah, you probably had some restrictions working for the feds,
12:05
but maybe you had a lot more resources or perhaps from the outside looking in.
12:09
That's not exactly how it would be.
12:11
So take us through that decision-making process.
12:13
Well, it is true to say, you know, if you quit your, you got a freedom
12:18
from restraints and bureaucracy, but you have no money.
12:21
And that is, that is an enormous piece.
12:24
These are expensive, very expensive operations.
12:26
So, um, it was definitely most people told me, you're freaking, you're crazy.
12:32
You're crazy to leave this.
12:34
Um, but what happened to me is I was working two different cases.
12:37
I mentioned earlier, but, um, one was in Columbia and the film is sound
12:42
of freedom is based on the Columbia one, but it's something else was happening
12:45
simultaneous in Haiti.
12:47
In Haiti, we learned about a little boy.
12:49
He was a US citizen in Guardi, Marty, who had been, um, the family had moved
12:54
back to Haiti, the relation, um, and he was kidnapped at two years old.
12:58
Kidnapped traffic disappeared and I learned about this case.
13:02
I thought I could make it a US case because the kids are US citizen.
13:05
I met the family, became friends with the father and I promised him.
13:08
I promise him we will find, we will never stop until we find him.
13:12
We will never stop simultaneous to that.
13:15
I'm in Columbia.
13:16
This is all about 2011, 2012.
13:18
I'm in Columbia, um, doing consulting with the federal police there and how to
13:23
infiltrate child trafficking rings.
13:25
And we decided to do a real case or committed to a real case, identified
13:30
locations, identified targets and we believe we could rest you a hundred kids.
13:34
So those were some, those are these, my whole life was consumed by these two
13:38
cases and about the same time in 2013, I was told cancel both.
13:43
You're done.
13:44
You don't have jurisdiction.
13:46
We don't have budget.
13:47
We don't have this.
13:47
We don't have that.
13:48
And, um, and it was so frustrating.
13:53
I remember coming home at one point after I was told that I couldn't stay.
13:58
And, you know, there was like a big shipment of, of like combat boots that all
14:02
the agents were given that nobody needed.
14:05
And I counted up how much money that would be.
14:07
And it's just like, no, no, it's, it's, it's, it's no, I'm not blaming anyone
14:12
person at the, it's the system, right?
14:13
It's just like, it's, it's a big, big, slow, bulky kind of system.
14:19
And it's just like kids deserve better than this.
14:20
There, there's no reason why.
14:22
Um, and so it was both of those cases that made us, my wife and I do, do what
14:27
would be irrational.
14:29
It's really irrational, but it's like, I remember my wife had a conversation with
14:33
me.
14:34
This was in December of 2013, while this was all happening.
14:36
And she said, do you think if you were, were to go on both those cases, that you
14:43
would save kids?
14:43
I said, I know I would.
14:44
I know we would.
14:45
She said, well, this is, this shouldn't be a hard decision.
14:48
Then you just got to quit your job to do it.
14:51
And, um, I was very cowardice, you know, I was like, there's no way we got six
14:56
kids at that point, six kids, how do I feed them?
14:59
Um, I, I was able to make a connection with Glenn Beck and Glenn Beck was able
15:06
to raise the money for these operations, but, you know, that was only going to
15:09
last maybe eight months before that would be done.
15:12
And I'll be honest, the second week of December, 2013, I was like, there's no
15:17
way I'm doing this.
15:18
And it was my wife who we had had enough experiences, spiritual experiences that
15:24
we would call a calling even, right, that we had to go do this.
15:27
And, um, I'm, I'm truly freaking out.
15:30
Like I'm having anxiety, like you can't believe, uh, like, uh, what, first of
15:35
all, I'm going, I don't have to cover the government.
15:37
I'm going to have to go convince the police to keep working with me, even though
15:40
I'm quit, I don't have a badge anymore.
15:42
Like there's so many variables.
15:43
And she grabbed me like this.
15:45
And she says, listen to me.
15:47
She said, I will not let you jeopardize my salvation by not doing this.
15:55
And that ended the argument, that ended the debate.
15:57
And we quit.
15:58
I quit two days later and, and off we went to Columbia and Haiti.
16:03
And in both cases, we're insane in Haiti.
16:07
We rescued 28 kids on that, uh, two of which I ended up adopting.
16:10
So we, they, they're my kids.
16:12
And now, um, that's another story to be told.
16:14
And then in Columbia, we ended up rescuing over 120 kids.
16:18
And I remember the biggest operation I've ever heard of.
16:22
Well, there's, there's so much detail there, Tim.
16:24
And we'll get into some more of that when we talk about the film.
16:27
But I guess just in general, I think people generally know that there is a
16:32
problem with child sex trafficking across the globe.
16:34
But how, how prevalent is it exactly?
16:38
Because it seems like it would be impossible to get real accurate numbers,
16:42
but just try to give the listeners an idea, like how prevalent is this?
16:46
Not only in the U S, but worldwide.
16:47
What kind of money are we talking about?
16:49
What types of conditions go?
16:51
So those, uh, those numbers are pretty well established by, you know,
16:56
U S A department department of labor, UN, so forth.
17:00
So they're pretty as close as possible.
17:02
But it's, it's believed that there are, uh, want to break it down about the 27
17:07
million people enslaved today, men, women, children.
17:09
It's labor, Oregon harvesting and sex trafficking.
17:12
Six million of those are believed to be children.
17:15
Um, and then of those six million, two million are forced directly into
17:21
commercial sex.
17:22
The others are labor and Oregon harvesting.
17:24
Um, so what does that produce?
17:26
All those, all those combined produce or the money made off the backs of these
17:31
slaves.
17:32
And by the way, there's more people in slave today than ever before in the history
17:36
of the world who've never seen so much slavery.
17:38
Um, and it's about $150 billion a year, $150 billion is made every year off
17:44
the backs of, of that entire population of slaves.
17:48
And it's the fastest growing criminal enterprise for sure.
17:51
The United States, we are the number one consumer of child rate videos.
17:56
We're also the, on the top three for destination countries.
18:00
Kids are being funneled right through traffic, right through our southern border
18:03
because you can just walk them across.
18:05
I mean, we're facilitating it not only by horrible policy, but just by ignorance
18:10
amongst the populace that we don't understand what's going on.
18:13
It's time for this to not be hidden anymore.
18:15
It needs to come out in the open.
18:16
So I think a lot of people would, uh, it's just crazy to even think about that.
18:21
It's hard to wrap your, your mind around that type of number, but like compare
18:25
that to what you get from a profit from a huge company, like Amazon or Apple,
18:30
that, that number always out does these huge, huge companies.
18:33
And so it's, it's just hard for us to think about.
18:36
And you're right as a father, you do super impose those images or even those,
18:39
those nightmares of your kids faces on those kids where this is happening to them.
18:43
But without giving away any trade craft, um, give us an idea of how you or any
18:51
agency is able to infiltrate these child sex trafficking conglomerates.
18:55
And I guess discuss that, that dissonance between focusing on catching the pedophiles,
19:01
catching the rapists and saving the children.
19:03
Cause that even came up early in the film to where it's like, Hey,
19:05
we caught another pedophile, but it's like, Hey, where are the kids?
19:08
And so like they talk to me a little bit about that.
19:10
Yeah.
19:11
I mean, it's, it's a lot easier to get the bad guys.
19:14
Um, right.
19:15
And that's because of honestly, really amazing technology that a law enforcement
19:19
has utilized over the last 20 years that is able to go in and, and, and identify,
19:25
identify in the public space online, not just not hacking.
19:29
Um, and you can identify these markets and it's, it's astonishing.
19:33
I think in this, the last like 10 years, we've seen an increase of by 5,000% of
19:40
these kinds of images of children being raped.
19:42
It's, and that's just growing and growing and growing as, as sex addiction grows and
19:46
they start people who are wanting, wanting children, finding the kids is a whole
19:51
different game as a whole different, um, approach.
19:55
And that's, that's where my focus began to get into, you know, post 2006, but I
20:01
just couldn't do it.
20:02
I just couldn't grasp it.
20:03
I, the tools weren't available, the jurisdictional limitations.
20:06
Cause once you get involved with the kids, no, it's all transnational human
20:10
trafficking, no snowboarders and boundaries.
20:12
I mean, we, in the last, it's just three years alone.
20:15
We've had 85,000 unaccompanied minors, thousands of them under five years old,
20:19
unaccompanied show up at our southern border and released to, to do whatever
20:23
sponsors shows up.
20:25
I mean, this is just, it's transnational.
20:29
So when you start putting borders and boundaries and jurisdictional limitations
20:32
on it, you can't combat it.
20:34
And that's what drove me out of the government eventually.
20:36
Cause it's like, well, Tim, you can't work this case.
20:38
Cause it's on the wrong side of the border.
20:40
Like, I don't give a hell, uh, why would we care?
20:44
What, what side of the border, once you see it, but if people don't see it,
20:48
it's easy for somebody to sit back and just say, no, that, you know, you can't,
20:52
you've got to see it.
20:53
That's why this movie is so important.
20:54
Cause you see it, you feel it.
20:57
You feel what you would feel if this was a real kid you're looking at.
21:00
And so once you get into that, into that, I'll call it a beautiful trap.
21:05
Cause you want, you actually don't want to be there, but you need to be there.
21:08
Then you start, you start getting into irrational service.
21:12
I'll call it where it's like, look, I got to meet my maker someday.
21:15
And I know too much.
21:16
And I can't, I can't not, like my, like my wife said, my, my salvation
21:22
may be in jeopardy here.
21:24
Like I cannot sit back and do nothing.
21:26
And, um, you know, it's like Edmund Burke said, the, um, evil triumphs when
21:32
men and women do nothing.
21:34
That's it.
21:35
I think you're right.
21:36
And that's, that's a great time to actually segue into the movie.
21:39
So we'll, we'll leave your personal story there because some of the details do come
21:43
in the movie.
21:43
And so the movie is called the sound of freedom.
21:45
Guys, if you're listening to this right now on time, this is in theaters right now.
21:50
So this is a movie that kind of details your story of how you made this transition
21:56
from the federal government to doing these really on the ground operations to
22:00
try and save children that are being, uh, richly, uh, enslaved and raped.
22:05
And so there's a backstory to this movie.
22:08
And so I can't think of another movie like this.
22:11
It's made by Angel Studios, the same studio that is doing the chosen, but take me
22:15
through the backstory, like, who's idea was it to have this film made?
22:20
Um, you know, how did Jim Kvisle become part of the project?
22:23
Because he plays you in the film kind of give us all that information.
22:26
Sure.
22:27
So after that operation went down, the big hit that you'll see in the film on the
22:31
island.
22:31
I was leaving with that.
22:33
I don't want to spoil or alert me right there.
22:35
There are some spoilers here guys that you have to see the film to get.
22:38
So we're not going to be getting into all those details, but go ahead.
22:40
But it made, it made the national news, actually international news.
22:43
It made its way to Scott Pelley CBS news.
22:45
And it was such a, it's kind of an astonishing story.
22:49
It kind of just came and went.
22:50
But like for those who were watching, it's like, wait, what happened?
22:53
A bunch of kids got rescued on some little island that, you know, and then you're
22:58
later on, you get into, you learn about Epstein Island and you realize, yeah,
23:01
there's, there's lots of islands out there, right?
23:03
Um, literal and figuratively speaking.
23:05
And, and it kind of, um, it got the attention of several production companies.
23:11
And we were all of a sudden after that story ran, we got hit up by several.
23:15
Um, we, we turned down even the idea of working with most of them because it's
23:20
a hard thing because Hollywood, right?
23:22
I, I have a job because of Hollywood and that's not a good thing, right?
23:26
I mean, the demand exists sex addiction that leads to everything else.
23:30
You know, it can be argued that that's a big, that's a big part of the problem.
23:35
And so here they are coming one time, my story.
23:37
So it was no, no, not comfortable.
23:39
Finally, we met Eduardo Verastagi and Alejandro Monteverde, and they just
23:44
finished a movie called Little Boy and they showed us the movie and then invited
23:49
us to, to sign up to, to tell our story and my wife and I were so overcome by the
23:55
beauty of this film, Little Boy, that we said, yes.
23:58
Um, so they, they, they race up to my home.
24:01
They take me up to the mountains of Park City and tie me to a, uh, an audio device,
24:07
a recording device.
24:08
And I sit there for two days and just cry my eyes out and just tell everything.
24:14
Um, they sent me home.
24:16
I come back two days later and they have this like, I don't know, a thousand
24:19
post-its on a wall with a story arc and this is what we're going to do.
24:23
And then they left, you know, and, and I, I did some research and it said like 4% of
24:30
movies go from that concept, go to a spig screen.
24:33
So I'm thinking it's never gonna happen.
24:35
And then a year and a half, maybe two years later,
24:36
they show up, hey, we're gonna film this summer.
24:39
And you don't get to choose, but you can request,
24:43
like who would you wanna play you?
24:45
And immediately I just said Jim Cavistle.
24:47
And they were taking it back because they said, no, we,
24:50
you know, Tim's, Jim's tall, dark and handsome
24:53
and you're, you're, you're, you're stocking
24:55
and not tall, dark and handsome. (laughs)
24:59
And, and I, and I, I said, what does that matter?
25:02
And they said, well, at the, at the end of the movie,
25:05
there's this kind of cool transition where they actually,
25:08
if you forgot you were watching a real story, right,
25:12
at the end, they showed a real footage
25:15
from the scenes you saw depicted earlier.
25:18
And they said, that's an important part.
25:19
But he has to, someone has to look kind of like you.
25:22
And I said, look, one, I don't trust Hollywood.
25:25
I don't even know if I trust you guys yet.
25:27
I'm just, I'm still watching.
25:28
But I do know this that Jim Cavistle loves Jesus
25:32
and I love Jesus.
25:33
And so that's a really good starting point.
25:35
And he's a badass actor.
25:37
One of my favorite movies is The Kind of Money Crystal.
25:39
And that was it.
25:40
And they said, okay, they could tell us pretty much,
25:42
I was pretty passionate about it.
25:44
And they, they hit up Jim and he took the role
25:47
and they, they didn't do a horrible job
25:50
of making him look, look like, look like me, right?
25:53
It's, it's, it's kind of a, I was just.
25:56
- You got to bleach the tips a little bit.
25:58
And so it kind of worked out.
25:59
All right.
26:00
And I remember that scene at the very end.
26:01
And I was like, yeah, that, that actually,
26:03
the resemblance does come in, come in there.
26:04
But at the very end of the film, after the credits roll,
26:08
Jim Cavistle's, you know, does his little spiel about,
26:11
hey, you know, just to support this movie,
26:12
buy tickets for other people and all that.
26:14
And I'm all for it.
26:15
He said this movie was actually made five years ago.
26:18
And he kind of alluded to the fact that y'all had a lot
26:20
of problems kind of getting it released.
26:23
And I mean, we've heard of studios making movies
26:26
and then shelving them for a little bit.
26:27
And releasing them when it makes the most sense,
26:30
but five years, like half a decade,
26:32
like what in the world happened to him?
26:35
- It was, it's, it's spiritual warfare.
26:37
I'll tell you that, like there's, there's a lot of forces
26:40
that do not want this movie out because nothing makes sense.
26:42
I remember the first day they shot,
26:44
I went to the set just like two or three times,
26:47
but I was there the, I want to be in the day one.
26:49
And I remember I was sitting with Jim Cavistle
26:51
in a hotel patio in Bogota, Columbia.
26:56
And the producer walks in and says $8 million
26:59
just fell through like what we can't film this tomorrow.
27:03
I'm like, what do you mean you can't start filming tomorrow?
27:06
Everything's seven ready.
27:07
And, and he says, and this is Eduardo Verostegi.
27:12
This is a man he had, this he was tested right here.
27:14
He says, I only have a million dollars.
27:17
And the production company, if I give it to him,
27:19
they'll start.
27:20
But that means I got to raise another $12 million
27:24
or something in the next two months,
27:26
or I'm going to be sued.
27:29
And I can be liable for this million.
27:30
And he said, he prayed.
27:32
He said, God said, go for it.
27:34
He was testing him.
27:35
He did it.
27:36
He dropped the money, the movie began.
27:38
And he sure enough in the 11th hour,
27:41
all the money was raised, right?
27:44
The movie gets completed.
27:45
It's supposed to come out in 2020.
27:47
It's owned by Fox.
27:47
Fox actually was the production company.
27:50
Then Disney bought Fox and Disney
27:52
was not going to put it anywhere.
27:53
Disney was going to show it.
27:55
And so Eduardo had to work his magic and pray to God
27:58
that somehow he could rest control of it
28:01
out of the hands of Disney.
28:02
He was able to do that.
28:03
Then it went through several other hands.
28:07
People had the right to--
28:08
and nothing felt right.
28:09
Nothing took off.
28:11
And then the coolest story, you mentioned the chosen.
28:15
Last year, I was on the set of the chosen.
28:17
I got invited randomly to go tour the set in Goshen, Utah,
28:23
which is a replica of Jerusalem.
28:25
It's beautiful.
28:27
And I'm on the set.
28:27
And it was the only day during that four-week or five-way period
28:32
they were filming there, the CEO of Angel Studios
28:35
have visited the set.
28:36
The only day happened to be the day I was there.
28:40
And his name's Neil.
28:41
Neil Harmon.
28:42
And I recognized him because we had worked on something
28:45
or tried to, like, years earlier.
28:47
And I said, Neil, what's up?
28:48
I haven't seen you for years.
28:49
I told him.
28:50
I said, hey, they're this movie, and looking back,
28:54
it's such a beautiful moment that it happened here.
28:57
By the time the rights deal ended and Angel looked at it,
29:01
they have five days to make a deal
29:04
if we wanted to get the trailer up for their next movie, which
29:08
was called His Only Son, which is a phenomenal film.
29:12
And somehow the team in five days, if you can believe it,
29:16
from beginning to end negotiation,
29:18
they'd signed the deal, Angel took it, and now it's out.
29:21
And it's killing it.
29:23
It's outselling three to one Indiana Jones.
29:27
We're selling out theaters right now.
29:29
And July 4 is the big day.
29:31
So the whole thing was a miracle.
29:33
Yes, lots of opposition.
29:34
But in the end, heaven won out.
29:37
I think that's great that it's almost better
29:40
that you had that resistance, because just like anything
29:43
in life, you know when there's a little bit of resistance,
29:45
whatever's on the other side of that
29:46
is going to be well earned.
29:47
And well worth the sacrifice.
29:50
I've seen this film, I really appreciate your team
29:51
sending me a screener for this so that I can watch it.
29:54
This is what I'll say about the film.
29:56
It's very rough.
29:58
And I don't mean rough like editing.
29:59
I mean like the subject matter, it's so heavy and so rough
30:03
from the very beginning, like really, really rough,
30:05
very disturbing, not explicitly,
30:08
just so nobody understands me.
30:09
Certainly not as explicit as a film like this could have been,
30:13
but very punchy.
30:14
I found myself, Tim, fighting back, you know,
30:17
albeit unsuccessfully, angry tears for much of the film,
30:22
because even from the very beginning, no spoilers,
30:24
I have a three year old son and a one year old son.
30:27
And so I was seeing me as the father in that opening scene,
30:30
and I was seeing my boys as the children in that opening scene.
30:34
Take us through the creative decision making
30:37
to make it so raw, because for me,
30:40
I think films and people that talk about this,
30:42
they sanitize the subject matter way too much.
30:45
And so people can kind of easily move on past it.
30:48
They just kind of go aw, shucks, isn't that unfortunate?
30:50
And then they go grab their latte and their lunch.
30:52
But this film is sticky.
30:54
It's been stuck in my brain and it's like,
30:56
I can't get it out.
30:58
And I think that's part of the point, right?
30:59
- Absolutely it is.
31:00
It has that effect.
31:01
I mean, I can't, I don't even watch it.
31:03
If I go to like a screening,
31:05
I stay outside until they tell me to come in.
31:07
I can't, I sweat, I cry.
31:09
Well, you know, they filmed so many scenes in the very places
31:13
where things happen.
31:15
So for me it was very, very, you know,
31:17
it triggered my PTSD quite a bit.
31:21
That's not a personal level though,
31:22
but for the general audience, I'll say this.
31:24
These guys are geniuses, Alejandro Monteverde,
31:28
the director and writer, he's a genius
31:31
because he has to tell the story.
31:33
And I told him, I said, I will not make this movie
31:36
if you create any pedophile material.
31:38
In other words, if you create any material
31:39
that would turn on a pedophile,
31:41
you can't show it, you can't show it anything.
31:44
Isn't it crazy, Kyle, you saw that they didn't.
31:47
You never actually saw a scene where a child's being abused.
31:51
And yet it punches you in the stomach
31:53
because it's how the creative they were.
31:55
I won't get into the particulars of how you'll see it
31:58
when people, when they watch it.
32:00
But, and he also used light, he wanted to make every scene.
32:04
This was by design in the beginning.
32:06
Every scene's like a portrait, using lights and darks.
32:09
And you can see every scene, even in the trailer,
32:11
just watch the trailer.
32:12
It's all intentional to kind of almost distract you
32:15
into something a beautiful scene, even if you're,
32:18
even if the scene is about something ugly,
32:20
it was his way to make it digestible.
32:22
So you don't, we want people to be at the edge of their seats,
32:25
but we don't want them to go so far to the edge
32:27
that they run out of their theater.
32:28
So he kind of plays with you, he keeps you there.
32:31
And it's also, it's a thriller.
32:33
I mean, it's a story that once you get in,
32:34
you don't want to, you can't get off that,
32:36
you can't get off, you want to see what's going to happen,
32:38
what's going to happen.
32:39
So they're just, they care about the cause,
32:42
that's why they did this.
32:43
How do we get people to come and stay and feel,
32:47
but not feel to the point where they want to run away,
32:49
but instead they want to engage at the end, engage
32:52
and join the fight?
32:54
- I, you know, it's funny to hear you say that
32:56
because that's obviously what he did.
32:57
If that was the bullseye he was shooting for,
32:59
then he nailed it because like,
33:01
I'm one of those lean forward,
33:03
like let's go type people and we all see ourselves
33:05
in Hollywood thrillers, like we all put ourselves
33:07
in the film somehow.
33:09
It definitely strikes that chord.
33:10
Well, let's actually talk about that a little bit
33:13
because right from the beginning,
33:14
it says based on a true story.
33:15
And if you've watched any films for any length of time,
33:18
that word based means it could be very loosely based
33:21
on the truth, or it could be really, really, really close
33:22
to the truth and everything in between.
33:25
How much of the storyline of the movie,
33:26
again, all of you in the audience who need to go see
33:28
this film, but as they walk into the theater,
33:31
how much of the storyline is legit?
33:33
How it went down with you?
33:35
And then how much of it is like Hollywood,
33:37
they had to do this to where, you know,
33:38
looked cool and sounded cool.
33:39
- Yeah.
33:40
So I will say first, that yeah,
33:42
Kavisil definitely makes me look way more badass
33:46
than I am and--
33:48
- Way more tall, dark and handsome.
33:49
- Way more tall, dark and handsome as well.
33:51
But the, every, I'll tell you this,
33:54
every bad guy is real.
33:55
Every kid is real.
33:57
I can point you to them, I can show you them.
33:59
And they had to cut the movie down,
34:01
but there was like about five minutes segment at the end
34:04
that says, where are they now, who are, you know,
34:06
and you see, I love that, I wish they didn't take it out,
34:09
but it shows every bad guy, every good guy,
34:12
every kid is accounted for.
34:15
You know, there were exactly 54 rescue on that island.
34:17
There, you know, every bad guy is a real bad guy.
34:20
Now, in order to, in order to protect identities,
34:24
they did merge two stories together.
34:28
So you couldn't find those two, the two main children
34:31
that you see the most in the film.
34:32
I mean, these are real, these are real people
34:34
and they're still minors today.
34:36
Like they're, you know, they're teenagers, but,
34:39
so we had to be very careful to tell just enough
34:41
of their story and then, and then they brought out
34:42
another true story and merged and merged them.
34:46
So you couldn't follow them all the way, but,
34:48
but I would give it, I'd say like 85% of it is,
34:52
is extremely accurate.
34:54
- Okay, well, I've got to echo, I really wish at the end
34:57
of the film there would have been a, where are they now?
34:58
Because that would have substantiated it a little bit more
35:01
because obviously you're wondering,
35:02
is that really the little girls that really little boy,
35:04
not in the film, obviously those are actors and actresses.
35:07
But it's in theaters right now, as you said,
35:09
this is kind of the big release day as of today.
35:11
If you're listening to this on time,
35:13
I guess before we move forward,
35:14
what is the best way for people to support this project
35:17
outside of just seeing it themselves?
35:19
Is there something writing on the success of this film?
35:22
Like is there a project two or three after this
35:25
that the studios are just trying to wait and see like,
35:27
hey, let's see how this does in theaters
35:29
before these other projects come out?
35:30
Tell us about all that.
35:31
- Yeah, absolutely.
35:32
The best thing people are going to do is just keep
35:34
fun theaters up, right?
35:36
At the end of the movie, there's in the theaters,
35:38
there'll be an opportunity, a QR code will come up.
35:40
People can even put their phones up now and buy tickets
35:43
for others, right?
35:44
It's a pay it forward program,
35:46
because we want 2 million people that week,
35:47
but we want 100 million people to watch it by the end.
35:50
And yes, to answer your question,
35:52
we have multiple documentaries.
35:54
Because people are going to ask how real is this?
35:56
Well, how about watch some real documentaries
35:59
about our operations?
36:00
One of the documentaries was actually filmed back
36:02
in 2014.
36:03
And it is in fact the story that you see set of freedom.
36:06
There's a documentary about what happened on that island
36:09
rate, the film shows 54 rescue,
36:12
there was actually 120 that were rescued.
36:16
It was actually underreported in the movie,
36:19
which doesn't usually happen.
36:21
- Right.
36:22
- And also center freedom too is in pre-production.
36:25
The script is written.
36:26
And so they're already excited to see.
36:28
So it's important, this thing does well,
36:31
because it'll produce more and it'll also support
36:34
a lot of different organizations that I'm helping right now.
36:36
I want to get funding, I want to get resources to,
36:40
not just operation under real railroad,
36:41
but several many, many others who are doing amazing work.
36:44
That's my goal is to get it out.
36:47
- Guys, it is in the show notes.
36:48
You can check the links there, go and check it out
36:50
as well worth your time. I will tell you,
36:53
it's a rough film.
36:54
Like I told some guys, I was like, look,
36:55
if you take your wives, make sure they don't walk in
36:58
expecting, you know, finding Nemo part three.
37:00
Like make sure they understand that this is a,
37:02
this is a tough film, but it's something that we need
37:05
to see and that we need to watch.
37:07
And Tim, we have a global listenership to this podcast,
37:10
thankfully, and what are some of the easiest ways
37:14
for parents, I just, I want to transition away
37:15
from the film, like let's just get practical brass tacks.
37:18
What are some of the easiest ways for parents
37:20
and for common citizens to be more vigilant
37:23
about preventing child abduction and child sex trafficking?
37:26
I tell people all the time, your children do not need
37:30
smartphones because it's not just about
37:32
what you're giving them access to.
37:34
It's about who you're giving access to them
37:38
because these pedophiles will go on these chat sites,
37:40
met for teenagers and social media and they will pose
37:44
as 16 year old boys and their 45 year old men
37:47
and they're trying to do meetups and it's like parents.
37:50
This isn't about your kid being the only weirdo
37:52
in school without an Instagram or a TikTok account.
37:55
This is about protecting them from the stuff that they'll see
37:57
and protecting them from other people,
37:58
but that's just what I say.
37:59
Are there other things that are just easy
38:01
for parents and common citizens to do?
38:03
- Well, you hit it.
38:05
You hit it exactly on the head, Kyle, it's access points.
38:09
It's all about access points.
38:10
And it's always been about access points,
38:12
but access points used to be when,
38:14
if you're a parent my age or older,
38:17
access points meant playground,
38:20
meant park, meant it's no longer that.
38:24
There's a million access points.
38:25
And if you're my age or older,
38:27
you don't even know what it's like.
38:29
You don't remember that 'cause you don't have a memory
38:30
because you weren't there.
38:32
You didn't grow up in a time as an adolescent or child
38:36
in the age of this digital age.
38:39
So what's happening, the most simple thing parents can do
38:41
is know what's on your kid's phone.
38:44
Don't give them an iPhone, by the way,
38:46
until you know they're responsible.
38:48
And if and when you do,
38:50
give it to them, like you're giving them a car,
38:52
teaching them everything about it
38:53
'cause they can kill themselves or kill someone else.
38:56
And so, the parents don't do that.
38:58
They just can't imagine that this game
39:03
is anything but the kid playing the computer.
39:07
Because when I was a kid, we played Atari or Nintendo
39:09
or however, I mean, you're playing the computer, right?
39:12
No longer are they playing the computer, mom and dad.
39:14
They're playing Uncle Skippy two counties away
39:18
who's pretending to be, like you said,
39:20
a 15-year-old or something.
39:21
And it's happening constantly.
39:23
I helped, I executive produced a documentary
39:27
called It's Happening Right Here.
39:29
And we get into all the nitty gritty,
39:31
all the details, real stories of what happens,
39:33
how kids get hurt and abducted and abused
39:36
here in the United States.
39:37
And I'm gonna have that documentary ready to run
39:40
and fully available in the wake of the sound of freedom.
39:43
So look for that.
39:45
- We'll certainly be looking for that as well.
39:46
So that's the easy stuff.
39:48
Are there maybe some more difficult to implement ways
39:52
for parents and common citizens to be more vigilant
39:55
about preventing child abduction and child sex trafficking?
39:58
You hear about some people that are like,
39:59
"Hey, if you're on I-35 or I-44, I live in Oklahoma."
40:03
So I-35, I-44 and I-40 all connect
40:05
right in the middle of Oklahoma City.
40:07
And they're like, those are thoroughfares
40:09
for child trafficking, other sex trafficking,
40:11
things like that, here are some hand signals
40:14
that people might try to show you this
40:15
to say that they're in trouble or something like that.
40:18
What are some of those more difficult things to look for?
40:21
- Well, there's a human ability of a decent person
40:27
just know something's off, right?
40:30
There's a hundred signs in a kid
40:32
that's not supposed to be,
40:34
or if they're somewhere they're not supposed to be.
40:35
It's about looking for it.
40:37
You know, like after years of petitioning, finally flight,
40:42
flight attendants gets to get training.
40:46
What's it look, and it's the same thing,
40:47
but the, well, you know, the kid doesn't belong.
40:50
The kid is something, it's more intuitive, honestly,
40:53
even spiritual or intuitive than anything else.
40:57
And, but the problem is if you're not looking,
40:59
but after flight attendants got the training,
41:01
they'd find cases all the time.
41:02
They'd see this kid doesn't wanna be there.
41:04
I don't know if the kid's looking away.
41:05
The kid doesn't look like the person,
41:07
doesn't look like a family member.
41:09
And they've saved, they've rescued kids.
41:12
You know, wait for the kid to go to the bathroom,
41:14
put a post it on the, on the window, on the mirror.
41:17
Hey, come talk to me around the corner.
41:19
And the girls, this is a true story.
41:20
The girls said, this guy kidnapped me.
41:22
I don't even know who he is.
41:23
And they, you know, they have the cops waiting when they landed.
41:25
But this, we could be doing more rescues
41:27
if people are paying attention.
41:29
And, and don't just walk away like,
41:31
ah, something tells me, ah, I'm not gonna,
41:34
no, pick up the phone and call.
41:35
It might, it might seem like a little piece,
41:37
but it might be the last piece of a thousand piece puzzle
41:40
that was required to take on a whole ring.
41:42
So people talk, if you see something that makes you feel
41:46
uncomfortable, even if you can't fully articulate it,
41:48
just pick up the phone, call the police.
41:51
You know, tell security.
41:52
- Yeah, part of it is getting out of your phone.
41:55
I mean, I've seen videos literally of people that get mugged.
41:57
They don't even know they're being mugged
41:58
'cause they're looking at their phone.
41:59
And so it's having spatial awareness,
42:01
having situational awareness, seeing what's going on
42:03
around you.
42:04
Now, one thing that I wanna talk about as well,
42:06
anytime you talk about child sex trafficking
42:08
or things like this, automatically people will speed up
42:12
and go a hundred exits later to talk about QAnon
42:15
and all this, there's a cabal of nefarious,
42:18
but extremely powerful, wealthy group of people
42:20
that engage in pedophilia and drink children's blood
42:23
and all this kind of stuff.
42:24
But, but the thing about it is,
42:25
is every time something like this happens, Tim,
42:28
people just start being quiet.
42:30
Epstein Island happens, you know,
42:32
Elaine Maxwell is in prison, but we don't know any of the names
42:35
of the people that are in the black book.
42:38
And Epstein apparently killed himself in prison
42:40
where that wasn't really supposed to be able to be possible.
42:43
These things happen always around the trafficking
42:46
of children for sex.
42:48
And so it's easy to just dismiss it and say,
42:50
"Oh, that's just QAnon stuff."
42:51
But then like, this is actually happening,
42:54
but is there a nefarious force of people
42:58
that wear masks in the woods and rape kids
43:00
that are controlling the levers of government?
43:03
And like, it's such a silly question to even ask,
43:05
but like, there's so much evidence
43:07
that would point to the fact that, yeah,
43:09
there are secret societies that are doing stuff like this.
43:11
- I mean, it's complex, right?
43:13
And I'll try to tackle it.
43:15
Yes, I mean, when we find out that Epstein
43:17
had been colluding and entertaining,
43:20
hanging out with top intelligence officials,
43:24
do I believe it was a black male kind of said,
43:27
"Absolutely, I don't know that."
43:30
But do I think that there's something going on
43:33
when people were pulling the strings there?
43:34
Yes, I do.
43:35
Do I think he killed himself?
43:36
No, I don't.
43:37
Again, this is not me being conspiratorial.
43:39
This is, I don't, I can't say I know these things,
43:42
but I know enough about these things
43:43
that it just doesn't add and most prominently
43:47
or most importantly, I think, or relevantly, as you said.
43:51
You can't sell someone without an empire.
43:54
What are you talking about?
43:55
Like in the Maxwell case, where are the buyers?
43:58
She couldn't have been found guilty
44:00
unless buyers were identified.
44:02
You couldn't make a legal argument.
44:05
And where's that list and why who's hiding it?
44:08
Now, I'll say this.
44:10
I'll also add, the other side of that coin is
44:16
I think the QAnon movement has done a lot of damage
44:19
because, and I think some of the bad guys,
44:22
I wouldn't be surprised at pedophiles and traffickers
44:25
and people are people supporting that for whatever reason
44:28
were some of the main pushers of QAnon.
44:30
Why?
44:31
Because it's discredited us.
44:33
People have used those arguments to discredit me
44:37
and they try to say, you know, it's not real,
44:38
it's not really happening.
44:39
Here's an example, right?
44:41
Okay, there's these dums, like underground tunnels
44:44
and kids, blood being, you know, whatever.
44:49
They drink their blood or whatever it is, right?
44:52
Well, okay, it's so fantastical and sensational
44:55
and we've never identified any dums under any cities.
44:59
And so it's discredited.
45:00
However, at the same time, I'm working in cases
45:02
in the Middle East and Africa
45:03
where little children are being kidnapped
45:06
and having their blood taken out by witch doctors
45:09
for satanic ritualistic stuff.
45:12
We took down just this last year in Western Africa.
45:15
In fact, I've posted about this some really disturbing
45:18
footage of what we call baby factories
45:21
where they kidnap girls between 13 and 17,
45:24
usually mentally handicapped girls,
45:25
break them incessantly
45:27
and so they're producing all these babies.
45:28
They take the babies, they sell the baby's hearts
45:30
for a quarter million dollars in the black market
45:32
or they sell to a pedophile group
45:34
or they sell them, and this is infants.
45:35
These are like, you know, one week old babies
45:38
or they'll sell them to witch doctors who then,
45:41
again, they'll suck their blood
45:43
and sell their blood to people who wanna drink it
45:45
and they'll cut the genitalia off the babies
45:47
or the children and hanging over, you know,
45:49
and their business 'cause the gods will bless them.
45:52
This is very real and it's happening all the time.
45:54
So my ability to attack that is hugely hurt
45:59
by these crazy stories that aren't happening
46:02
with Hillary Clinton and Tom Hanks
46:04
and all these people being named
46:05
and, you know, in these underground, like, cities.
46:10
Like, so we need to get to the truth
46:14
because the truth is bad enough.
46:16
The truth is still the worst thing in the world.
46:19
Don't exaggerate it and allow us to be discredited
46:23
in us hurting our work.
46:25
- I would agree with that and it's the capital T truth
46:28
because, yes, it's sensational whenever you see
46:30
a TikTok video where this guy lays out a form
46:32
into argument as to how Tom Hanks is a pedophile
46:35
and how he's constantly using hand signals and could he be?
46:37
Yes, do you have direct evidence of it?
46:39
No, but it's that type of thing to where it's like,
46:42
the focus should be on getting the people
46:44
that are actually doing this right now.
46:46
Not the biggest name person who will make
46:48
the most headlines because guess what?
46:50
For the child, it doesn't matter if they're being raped
46:52
by somebody with, you know, an Oscar award
46:55
or just somebody that lives on their block.
46:57
It's the worst, it's the same for them.
46:58
It's terrible for them, which kind of leads me to this.
47:01
This is this kind of rough for a lot of people.
47:02
A lot of people get really, really uncomfortable
47:04
when I talk about this,
47:05
but the automatic death penalty for child rapists.
47:09
In this country, I just saw yesterday,
47:10
a thing came up on my news feed.
47:12
There was a young boy that raped to a four-year-old
47:15
or there was a man that raped a four-year-old
47:16
and a nine-year-old, he got 180 days in jail, 180, okay?
47:21
And so for me, I know we've seen the state of Florida,
47:25
the great governor DeSantis,
47:26
they've signed off on legislation
47:28
that would allow for the death penalty
47:30
for people that have, you know,
47:32
for pedophiles that have raped children.
47:34
For me, I don't understand why more people aren't for that.
47:38
I'm for death penalty for rape of any kind
47:40
because you're holding down an image bearer of Christ
47:43
and you're forcibly penetrating them against their will.
47:46
Other than killing them, there's nothing worse
47:47
that you can do to a person.
47:49
But for somebody to rape a child
47:51
and get, you know, basically a holiday
47:53
in a state prison or a federal prison,
47:57
it just seems crazy to me.
47:58
Like, should we be advocating for that?
48:01
Do you support measures like that?
48:03
- I absolutely do.
48:05
I take exception with one little thing you said.
48:06
You said there's something worse killing them?
48:09
I don't agree.
48:10
I think it's actually, like I agree with me.
48:12
- Yeah, you have to live with it if you don't get killed.
48:15
- I think, yes, I think that there's nothing worse.
48:17
I think death is way better than,
48:21
because I, well, look, I'm very Christian.
48:24
I, the afterlife is the real life anyway.
48:27
And so when you have that perspective,
48:28
but I believe, I've seen little children be raped
48:31
and I saw what happened to them.
48:33
And killing one man, killing another man
48:37
is not as bad, in my opinion,
48:40
as raping a four-year-old, a child.
48:42
And absolutely, I applaud 100% what Governor DeSantis is doing.
48:47
If you believe in capital punishment at all,
48:51
you have to believe it.
48:53
It applies to people who would rape a baby.
48:57
- And so I guess even whenever I was thinking
49:00
about that question, Tim, it's like,
49:02
why aren't there vigilantes just going around
49:06
killing pedophiles, or are there?
49:08
Is that just not covered in the news?
49:09
Because I feel like you see these Hollywood-ized versions
49:13
of a guy that's an adult, and he finds the man
49:15
that used to sexually assault him whenever he was a child,
49:19
and then he beats him up and that type of a thing.
49:21
But of all the crimes that happened,
49:23
that would be the one that I would be cheering on the most.
49:25
But I guess I wonder why people aren't more fired up about this.
49:30
- It's because they don't know it exists.
49:35
And that's a huge problem.
49:36
I mean, coming home from rescue operations,
49:39
for the last 18 years, and you're in it,
49:43
you're seeing it, you're with these victims, these children,
49:45
and then you come home and look at the headlines.
49:47
Are you kidding me?
49:48
This is the headline?
49:50
It's first of all, it's this entertainment.
49:52
It's not even real.
49:53
The headlines never match the stories.
49:55
It's just, you know, tribal attacks and bloopers is red
49:58
and whatever.
49:59
And it's like, can we just make the headline every day,
50:02
at least one headline.
50:03
Children are being raped and masked,
50:05
millions of children are just,
50:06
let's make that the headline until we start solving it.
50:10
And then we can resume with our blue and red,
50:14
kind of tribal wars.
50:15
It's very frustrating.
50:17
Why won't people talk about it?
50:18
One, because it's discussed earlier, it's hard.
50:21
I've been turned down by many media
50:23
because like, our audience doesn't want to hear this.
50:25
And like, okay, well,
50:26
till it's a little kid getting raped every day,
50:29
you know, down in wherever.
50:33
And then two, there's a contingent.
50:35
I mean, if there's two million children
50:37
in a commercial sex trade,
50:38
that means there's how many millions of people,
50:41
men, who want to abuse those children.
50:43
Those people are in high places.
50:44
They're in low places.
50:45
They're in every place.
50:46
So there is definitely a movement to not let it get out.
50:49
I mean, there's a reason that our movie gets shelved, right?
50:52
People don't want it out.
50:54
There's a power, there aren't power people,
50:56
I believe, that don't want these things talked about.
50:59
They want to discredit these things.
51:01
But until we get loud, we're never going to solve it.
51:04
Until people see it and millions see it
51:07
instead of been saying enough is enough.
51:09
And I really think that the best opportunity ever
51:13
that I've known for that to happen is this film,
51:15
Sound of Freedom.
51:16
I think these guys are geniuses.
51:18
These filmmakers are amazing.
51:19
And I think more people will learn about human trafficking
51:23
and modern slavery because of this film
51:25
than anything else.
51:26
- I would have to echo that for sure.
51:28
Well, Tim, I've got one more question for you today
51:30
before we get you out here.
51:31
I know you got a lot more of these to do.
51:33
How can sheepdogs get involved with fighting against this?
51:37
'Cause my guys in my audience, I can feel them right now.
51:41
They're chomping at the bit.
51:42
When they see this film,
51:43
whenever they hear some of the real details,
51:46
they're going to be fired up and ready to go.
51:48
How can we channel that outside of just, yeah,
51:51
hey, buy your buddy a ticket to the film as well?
51:53
How can we channel these sheepdogs in a direction
51:55
to actually fight against this?
51:57
- Well, I personally, there's two organizations
51:59
I founded Operation Underground Railroad.
52:02
That's an organization that you can support.
52:06
It's various ways.
52:07
We're in 30, we've worked in 30 countries every state
52:10
and we're doing everything we can.
52:12
I also run, I'm the CEO of something called the Nazarene Fund,
52:16
which helps persecuted Christians all throughout the world.
52:20
And we also do a lot of anti-trafficking work
52:21
that was funded by Glendbeck.
52:24
And I serve as the CEO there.
52:26
So go to the Nazarenefund.org.
52:28
Those are two organizations, but there's many.
52:30
The best thing people we can do if they really want to get in
52:33
is find an organization and there's many, many of these.
52:36
Find one that fits you and sign up as a volunteer
52:40
and see if you can become an operator.
52:43
Bring your skills, bring your talents
52:45
and let's see how we can use you.
52:47
- I think that'd be great guys.
52:48
I will make sure there's a link to that
52:49
in the show notes as well.
52:51
But we've covered a lot of ground today.
52:52
I know this is a heavy subject for a lot of people,
52:54
but that's all for me.
52:55
Is there anything else you want to get off your chest?
52:57
- I just thank you, Kyle, I thank you and you're one of the few,
53:02
frankly, relatively speaking in the media
53:04
that will talk about this and get into the weeds of it.
53:08
Like, you know, and ask the hard questions.
53:10
If we don't ask the hard questions,
53:12
we don't get the answers, which will be the solution.
53:15
And so thank you for doing that.
53:16
I hope others will follow your example.
53:19
- Absolutely, Tim Ballard,
53:20
thank you for coming on a Daunte of Man's podcast.
53:23
- Thank you.
53:24
- There you go guys.
53:25
I hope you enjoyed my time with Tim Ballard,
53:27
but before I let you go,
53:28
we are going to do a quick resilience boost.
53:29
Add on Daunte Life, our mission is equipping men
53:31
to push back darkness with content that forges,
53:34
spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
53:36
So I've got three links for you today.
53:37
We talked about them in the show.
53:38
I've got a link to Operation Underground Railroad.
53:40
I've got a link to where you can go and check out
53:42
the sound of freedom.
53:43
You can buy tickets there.
53:44
You can look at the trailer.
53:45
You can share it around with friends.
53:46
You can do that from there.
53:47
And then also link to the Nazarene Fund.
53:49
- Thank you guys for listening to this episode.
53:51
Wherever you're listening to this,
53:52
please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five star review.
53:54
If you want me to come speak live at your event
53:56
or on your podcast,
53:57
you shoot me an email to info@undontin.life.
54:00
That's i-n-f-o @undontin.life.
54:02
Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook
54:04
and check out our website for everything else,
54:05
including how to donate to keep more content
54:07
like this coming your way.
54:08
Just go to www.undontin.life.
54:11
Also, we want to thank the band Holy Name
54:13
for allowing us to use their music for our content.
54:15
The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
54:18
which is off their self-titled debut album
54:20
on Face Down Records.
54:21
The links are in the description.
54:23
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
54:25
Remember, keep pushing back darkness,
54:28
keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience,
54:31
keep seeking the lion of Judah.
54:34
(upbeat music)