The Hidden Third

How do you find people who do not want to be found?

In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with skip tracer and private investigator Michelle Gomez – described by Wired as “the world’s best bounty hunter” – to unpack how she tracks down people who have disappeared on purpose, from the fugitive Ryan Eugene Mullen to a fake “Prince of Dubai.”

At 4'11" and just over 100 pounds, Michelle doesn’t look like the person you’d send after fugitives, stolen heavy equipment, or missing yachts – and that’s exactly why she’s so good at it. She leans into her unassuming appearance and uses quirky disguises, from Girl Scout getups to sex‑worker personas, wigs, and glasses, to get close to people who do not want to talk.

Michelle grew up in Texas, the daughter of two IBM engineers, and her parents made her build a computer from scratch and solder her own motherboard before she was a teenager. That early crash course in how systems fit together became the blueprint for her career: today she applies the same mindset to people, combing through digital traces, financial records, and tiny “location blips” to build a profile and find the one thread that gives a target away.

Over more than two decades, she’s hunted down fugitives, scammers, debt‑dodgers, and high‑risk skips that collection agencies, other investigators, and even law enforcement have failed to locate. In this conversation, she breaks down her use of open‑source intelligence (OSINT), social engineering, and psychological profiling – and what her biggest cases reveal about privacy, ghosting, and the fantasy of truly disappearing.

If you’re into investigative journalism, true crime, OSINT, or the hidden world of skip tracing and bounty hunting, this episode is for you.

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This past January, America’s so‑called “last cannabis prisoner” walked out of federal custody after serving years on a marijuana trafficking conspiracy between California and the East Coast.

At 24, he was running a multi‑million‑dollar weed pipeline from Northern California to Maryland, using tractor‑trailers, private planes, and even FedEx franchises as part of the cannabis supply chain. Before he was ever arrested, he realized a federal case was coming, contacted a lawyer known for representing El Chapo, and then disappeared into Central America as a fugitive.

In this episode of The Hidden Third, we go inside his full story as a federal cannabis defendant in a “legal weed” America: how his operation actually worked, what happened to the millions he made, and how, once he was back in the system, he says he was scammed by a lawyer he trusted.

We talk about:


How a kid who’d been homeless as a teen in suburban Maryland built a national cannabis logistics network


The nuts and bolts of the operation: Northern California grow, East Coast demand, trucks and FedEx franchises in between


Why he fled to Central America under another identity — and what finally made him come back and face the federal indictment


What happened to the money and why the millions he made didn’t translate into a soft landing


How he says he was scammed by his own lawyer 


Life inside pretrial custody and prison, “diesel therapy,” and what it means to try to rebuild while still on probation

If you’re interested in the war on drugs, federal marijuana cases, or how large‑scale cannabis trafficking really works behind the headlines, this episode pulls back the curtain in a way you rarely hear from someone who’s just come home.

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Nikki Mammano arrived in Hawaii as a college student and, within months, was running crystal meth in Waikiki. She became known as the Crystal Meth Queen of Waikiki — until it all came crashing down. Today, she’s a PTA mom in New Jersey and the author of Breaking Good, a brutally honest memoir about addiction, trauma, and the long road to healing.

In this episode of The Hidden Third, we trace Nikki’s journey from an abused child and teenage addict to a meth dealer in Hawaii’s underworld, and eventually to a sober life built on therapy, accountability, and telling the truth about her past. She talks candidly about prison, homelessness, sex work, parenting with a criminal record, and what recovery really looks like years after the last high.

In this conversation, we cover:


Childhood abuse and the early wounds that shaped her


Her teenage struggle with addiction


How a college move to Hawaii spiraled into full‑time meth dealing


Life as the Crystal Meth Queen of Waikiki and the rules of that underworld


Violence, paranoia, and the moment everything collapsed


Prison, shame, and confronting buried trauma


Homelessness, sex work, and the cost of survival


Parenting, PTA meetings, and living honestly with your past


The role of therapy in long‑term recovery


Why she wrote Breaking Good and what she hopes readers take from it

If you or someone close to you is dealing with addiction, Nikki’s story is not a neat redemption arc — it’s a raw, hopeful map of relapse, repair, and the possibility of starting over.

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On this episode of The Hidden Third, I interview Lee Harris — a channeler who claims to communicate with 88 intergalactic beings known as “The Z’s.” He reaches over 2 million people each month and leads a global spiritual community built around his teachings on consciousness, aliens, and the future of humanity.

I’m a journalist, trained to look for evidence — not claims about non-human intelligence. But given Lee’s growing influence, I wanted to understand what’s behind it. For this conversation, I kept an open mind.

What followed was one of the most unusual interviews I’ve conducted.

During our conversation, Lee entered a channeling state and began speaking as the Z’s — allowing me to ask questions directly. He also gave me a personal spiritual reading in real time.

We discuss:


Who the Z’s are and what they claim


Lee’s journey from musician to globally known channeler


What these beings say about the future of humanity


UFOs, UAPs, and recent government disclosures


What it feels like to channel non-human intelligence


A live channeling session during the interview


A personal reading done on me

Whether you’re skeptical or curious, this episode explores one of the fastest-growing and most controversial movements in modern spirituality.

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Frank Meeink's life runs parallel in many ways to one of the most powerful films ever made about hate in America — American History X. Except his story is real.

By 16 he was one of the most notorious skinhead gang leaders on the East Coast. By 17 he had his own cable TV show preaching white supremacy. By 18 he was doing hard time in an Illinois prison for kidnapping and beating a teenager. In prison, a friendship with a Black inmate put the first cracks in his beliefs. After his release, a Jewish furniture dealer hired him — swastika tattoo and all — and treated him with more dignity than anyone ever had. Then the Oklahoma City bombing pushed him the rest of the way. He walked into the FBI and told them everything.

But the biggest twist came later. A DNA test revealed he had Jewish ancestry. The man who once believed Jews were the root of all evil now keeps kosher and studies Torah.

In this episode, Mariana sits down with Frank to talk about his time in the neo-Nazi movement, his deradicalization work, his memoir Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, and his life today — including his marriage to Allison Mack, the Smallville actress who served time for her role in the NXIVM sex cult.

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