Introducing: The Alicia Kozak Podcast

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello. I'm Alicia Kazakh and this is the Alicia Cozac Podcast.
And I have waited such a long time to say
that I am a survivor of child abduction and online exploitation.
And for more than twenty years, I've been a speaker
and a child protection advocate. Some of you might know
me from my story, from Alicia's Law, or from my

(00:25):
work with law enforcement across the country. If you don't,
here's what you need to know. When I was thirteen
years old, someone I met online lured me away from
my home. I was kidnapped, held in abasement, and abused
while the world searched for me. A stranger on the
internet had become a monster in real life. But I survived.

(00:46):
I was rescued, and pretty quickly, about a year later,
I started telling my story so that other kids wouldn't
have to live it. I have now spent most of
my life speaking out fighting predatory crime, and I get
to work with real heroes in this space, the investigators,
the prosecutors and advocates who fight chad exploitation every single day.

(01:10):
The stories that they've shared with me, they make me laugh,
they make me cry, They make me literally want to
throw up or sometimes want to burn the world to
the ground, but they never fail to inspire me. And
I want to introduce you to them. I want you
to meet them not as people who are wearing a

(01:31):
badge or a uniform, but as the people that they are,
the people that I know, and I want you to
understand what they actually do, how it affects them, how
heavy it is, and why they keep going. Anyway, You're
going to hear some really heavy things on the show.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it, and I'm not going
to shy away from it. We are talking about child abuse,

(01:54):
about exploitation, and about the absolute worst things people do
online and off line. But you're also going to hear
about courage and ridiculous gallas, laughter and friendship and the weird, little,
joyful things that keep people going. I like to say
that my guests and I live in that darkness so

(02:16):
that kids don't have to. And that's what's really at
the heart of this podcast. So come join me for
a little while and I'll bring you into this world,
this world of darkness and wild humor that helps us
to survive it and to meet the people whose light
keeps pushing back against it,