The Hidden Third

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Brad Beeler is one of the most experienced criminal polygraph examiners in U.S. Secret Service history — a 25-year federal agent who has sat across the table from counterfeiters, child predators, killers, and fraudsters, and gotten a remarkable number of them to tell him the truth.

What looks in the movies like pressure, threats, and Reid-technique interrogation is, in his telling, almost the opposite: a science-backed set of trust-building, deception-detection, and interview techniques that he says a parent, a teacher, or a business leader can learn to use just as effectively as a federal agent.

In this episode of The Hidden Third, Brad sits down with me to walk through the cases that shaped his career — from a years-long hunt for a master counterfeiter, to child-exploitation investigations, to a homicide confession he still calls the most transformative moment of his life — and to break down what actually gets people who don't want to talk to tell you the truth.

We dig into:

– Growing up in Union, Missouri, and how a childhood best friend who was deaf became the origin of the way he now thinks about communication.– His path into the Secret Service.

– How he became a federal polygraph examiner and ended up conducting more criminal polygraph exams than anyone in Secret Service history.– The real story of how polygraphs work - why people "beat the examiner, not the instrument," how false confessions happen, and where confirmation bias becomes dangerous.

– The King of Counterfeit case: the multi-year hunt for a master counterfeiter, and how the suspect's own ego became the interview lever.– His child-exploitation work with local ICAC task forces and homicide detectives

— the cases that earned him U.S. Secret Service Special Agent of the Year in 2015.

– The homicide confession he describes as "transformative," and how silence, presence, and empathy did what pressure never could.

– Four years on the protective detail of former President George H. W. Bush in Maine and Houston, including what the Bushes did every Christmas so agents could be with their families.

– His final post as instructor and Secret Service liaison at the National Center for Credibility Assessment, the federal government's polygraph school at Fort Jackson.

– The tradecraft behind his new book, Tell Me Everything: A Secret Service Agent's Proven Strategies for Earning Trust, Revealing the Truth, and Communicating with Anyone

— and why the same techniques that get a suspect to confess can also get a scared kid to text his parents at 2 a.m.

If you're interested in true crime, interrogation techniques, deception detection, lie detector tests, Secret Service stories, child-exploitation investigations, or how the best interviewers in federal law enforcement actually get people to talk, this interview goes far beyond the headlines and tells the story in Brad's own words.

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Adnan Alisic is the mastermind behind one of the craziest casino heists in American history — a Hollywood‑style armored car robbery that used a fake AK‑47, a blow‑up doll, bear spray, a motorized skateboard, and underground ATVs to try to steal millions from Casino Arizona.

What sounds like a parody of Ocean’s 11 was, in reality, a desperate, meticulously planned casino heist built on bravado, improvisation, and a deep belief that he could outsmart a system designed to never lose.

In this episode of The Hidden Third, Adnan sits down with me to trace how war, trauma, and gambling addiction led from Yugoslavia’s conflict zones to a multimillion‑dollar casino robbery — and what happened when the plan fell apart.

We dig into:

– His childhood and adolescence during the war, and how he helped support his family by selling counterfeit cigarettes.

– The massacre of women and children he witnessed, how he survived it, and the trauma that followed.– His family’s move to Arizona after the war, adapting to life in America, and building a car business from scratch.

– His first time inside a casino, how gambling took hold, and how his addiction spiraled into millions lost and the collapse of his business.

– The day he decided he was going to rob Casino Arizona, and the planning that went into pulling off an armored‑car casino heist.

– What actually happened on the day of the robbery, how the plan unraveled, and how he was ultimately caught.

– His years in federal prison, what changed there, and how he began to confront his addiction and his past.

– His work now in gambling‑addiction awareness and recovery — and why he wrote his book Arizona Dream.

If you’re interested in true crime, organized crime, casino heist stories, scam psychology, gambling addiction, or how people convince themselves a casino can be beaten, this interview goes far beyond the headlines and tells the story in Adnan’s own words.
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Sarma Melngailis was once the queen of New York’s vegan scene — a Wharton‑educated former Wall Street analyst who turned Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck into celebrity hotspots frequented by Alec Baldwin, Woody Harrelson, Gisele Bündchen, Tom Brady, and many more.

Then her life collapsed into one of the most infamous restaurant scandals of our time: a controlling partner, psychological abuse, coercive control, missing millions, a fugitive manhunt, Rikers Island, and the Netflix true crime documentary Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.

In this episode of The Hidden Third, Sarma sits down with me to break down how a serial con man and psychological abuser — a man who first introduced himself to her as “Mr. Fox” — took over her mind and her life. We dig into:

How a serial con man/abuser who called himself “Mr. Fox” (Anthony Strangis) slowly took control of her decisions, her finances, and her reality.

The elaborate belief system he built around her: promising to make her dog Leon immortal, claiming access to a powerful otherworldly “family,” and turning wire transfers into supposed tests of loyalty.

How he used spiritual language and “tests” to coerce her sexually — pressuring her into sex and sexual acts under the guise of bringing light, protection, and transformation into her life.

The “meat suit” — how he used his own body and weight gain as yet another test of her devotion, and a tool of psychological control.

How the press treated her, including the viral tabloid story that she was caught because “the vegan ordered a pizza” — a headline she says is completely false.

Why she believes Bad Vegan unfairly portrayed her story, and what the documentary leaves out.

How scammers and psychological abusers gain power over smart, empathetic people — and why intelligence alone isn’t a shield against coercive control.

The mechanics of coercive control, isolation, and emotional abuse, and how one person can quietly take over your decisions, your money, and your sense of reality.

How she was diagnosed as being on the spectrum late in life — and how that helped her understand both her vulnerabilities and her strengths.

Her relationship with Alec Baldwin — and her thoughts on his marriage to Hilaria Baldwin.

The cost of public shame, and what recovery looks like after fraud, prison, and global headlines — including her attempt to reclaim her story through her memoir The Girl with the Duck Tattoo.

If you’re interested in true crime, scam stories, cult psychology, coercive control, or the dark side of fame and celebrity culture, this interview goes far beyond the documentary and tells the story in Sarma’s own words.
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Nearly 30 years after 15‑year‑old Danielle “Danni” Houchins was murdered in Montana, former LAPD captain Tom Elfmont helped finally bring her family answers. Drawing on more than 25 years running gang and narcotics operations in South Los Angeles, Tom has turned his skills to cold cases and long‑forgotten victims.

In this episode, he takes us inside policing during some of the most volatile moments in modern U.S. history — from Vietnam and the protest years in Berkeley to the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the notorious 39th and Dalton drug raid that put his LAPD career on trial.

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In this episode of The Hidden Third, we sit down with Wallo267 to unpack a story that starts in the harshest possible place: prison.

Wallo caught his first conviction at just 10 years old. By 17, he was sentenced to adult prison, where he would spend the next 20 years locked away. Sometimes in the same facility as his own brother and stepfather. Instead of letting prison break him, he turned it into a classroom.

Inside, Wallo started paying attention. He interviewed every newly arrived inmate about the outside world. Music, technology, culture, slang — tracking how everything was changing while he was gone. He filled notebooks, studied human behavior, and built a philosophy around one idea: your circumstances don’t get to decide your outcome. You do.

Then everything changed.

Wallo got hold of a contraband phone and began posting raw, unfiltered content from inside prison, building an audience before he ever walked out. By the time he stepped back into society, he already had a following and a blueprint for his new life.

Today, Wallo267 is a Cultural Advisor at YouTube, co-host of Million Dollaz Worth of Game — one of the most influential cultural podcasts in the country — and a New York Times bestselling author whose books like Armed with Good Intentions and Yes to You, No to Them have inspired millions.

This conversation dives into incarceration, transformation, cultural influence, and the mindset required to rewrite your story when the system expects you to fail.

If you’re drawn to true crime, prison stories, personal transformation, or high-stakes comeback narratives, this episode is for you.

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