September 8, 2025 • 33 mins
Nate Lewis is the Founder of The Innocent, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the innocence of children inside the United States, with a focus on child sex trafficking, exploitation, and sexual assault. With a robust background as an Executive at a leading global anti-trafficking organization, Nate has honed his expertise in both international and domestic anti-trafficking operations, working with law enforcement agencies worldwide.
You can learn more about what I do here:The Trauma Therapist Newsletter: celebrates the people and voices in the mental health profession. And it's free! Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4jGBeSa
———
If you’d like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.
Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.
Thank you to our sponsor Jane App - Practice Management Software for Health & Wellness Practitioners. Use code GUY1MO at check out.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.
You can learn more about what I do here:
The Trauma Therapist Newsletter: celebrates the people and voices in the mental health profession. And it's free! Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4jGBeSa
———
If you’d like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.
Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.
You can learn more about what I do here:The Trauma Therapist Newsletter: celebrates the people and voices in the mental health profession. And it's free! Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4jGBeSa
———
If you’d like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.
Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.
Thank you to our sponsor Jane App - Practice Management Software for Health & Wellness Practitioners. Use code GUY1MO at check out.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.
You can learn more about what I do here:
The Trauma Therapist Newsletter: celebrates the people and voices in the mental health profession. And it's free! Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4jGBeSa
———
If you’d like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.
Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Trauma THEAPIS podcast. My name is Ga Macpherson.
I interview incredible people who dedicated their lives to helping
those who have been impacted by trauma. Here we go
five four, three, two and one, our folks, welcome back
to the podcast. Very excited to have as my guest today,
Nate Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Nate welcome, Oh, thank you, thanks for having me. Appreciate
it so.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Nate is the founder of the Innocent, a non profit
organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the innocence of children
inside the United States, with a focus on child sex trafficking, exploitation,
and sexual assault. Nate's twenty years of traveling and living
abroad and more than forty countries have profoundly shaped his
passionate and understanding of human trafficking. These experiences have given
(00:48):
him valuable insights into the global and domestic dimensions of
trafficking and exploitation. To his leadership at the Innocent, nata's
instrumental in driving critical initiatives to create sever communities inside
the United States. All right, Nate, just a little bit
about you, but before we get going here, share with
the listeners where you're from. Originally and where you are currently.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, Well, I grew up in Washington State in the
middle of an apple orchard and a farming community right
in the center of Washington State. I'm currently in northern Idaho,
just south of the Canadian border. But I've spent, like
you just mentioned, most of my adult life not in
the United States and traveling out of a suitcase mostly
(01:33):
or back.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, now, is that due to what just wonderlust or military?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Now on my background, Actually, I worked in the film industry,
so I was on set on location on some of
those movies and televin shows, and I worked very closely
with Jim Caviezel. He's a good friend of mine, Okay.
And that's really when the Sound of Freedom movie was
being filmed, was my introduction to this, you know, arena.
(02:03):
And then I ended up going and worked for an
organization doing this internationally really as an executive and just
kind of seeing what it was and experiencing was traveling
the world in addition to travel the world for twenty years,
started traveling in a different.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Arena in this space and.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Just hit my heart, man, And honestly, the timing of
this call just even the things that happened right.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Before this call happened.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Of the work that from four years ago continues to
just be present in my life.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
It's just it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But yeah, that's kind of how I got here, and
that's where I spent most of my time, living in
foreign countries, in locations, and so that's a little.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Bit of my background, tiny bit.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So let's talk about your your introduction into this field
or space, because, as I said before we started recording this,
I mean, this is no I mean, this is so
freaking serious. I mean, you know when I tell people,
you know, what do you do? Well, have a podcast?
(03:08):
Oh what's it about? It's about trauma? Oh my god,
how could you do that? But this to me is
so it's so crazy, you know, and when you hear
stories about this, it's like it's hard to look at
how the hell did you get into this?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, I mean that introduction from Jim Caviezel really was
my introduction to the organization. Yeah, the gentleman that he
was playing, you know, in that movie.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And here's here's the reality. So crazy.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Again, the timing of this, I was I was in
Northern Africa, my first real kind of deep dive into
the deep end of what's going on. We were dealing
with witch doctors that were performing child sacrifice. And it
was really that experience that day that profoundly changed my
life and put me in to a completely different realm
(04:02):
than I've ever been, experiencing different emotions that shouldn't be
having at the same time. Number one, but I think
for me the first time, and I've been through some things.
I've been abused, I've been taking a gunpoint before, and
you know, I've been through some trauma myself.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But this time in my life.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
To see these children who are being sacrificed that survived,
brought on a whole another level of anger and hate
inside of me, which was I didn't want I wanted
it to leave my body, and it compelled me to
move forward. And interesting enough that that day I met
this gal named Hope who was taken at a very
(04:37):
young age, and they did all kinds of things to
her starting in eighteen months, and when they took some
blood from her, the lack of oxygener brain called but
we know sobal palsy. Her body was caving in on
her lungs and so several years ago I was able
to be a part of raising funds to get her
to the emergency care.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That she needs.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And there's a lot of doctors and people and hosts
that were involved with this, but at my you know,
I was able to help with a campaign to raise
the money to get her to the United States. And
literally ten minutes ago, I got a text from the
organization we work for in Africa and she's here.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
She's doing really well.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And they're actually coming through my home, this town that
I live in right now, and I get to see
her after four years, and she really is I talk
about her all the time. She's why how do I
get into this? And they're seeing her on the floor
just smiling like I don't even know. Her name's Hope.
And and the fact that she can smile constantly and
not do much else than just smile.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
She really drives everything that I do. She's been a.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Huge inspiration in my life. So that's really how I
got into it. And there's some there's some there's some
difficult things, but these type of stories and success stories
and you see where they were and not focus, you know, constantly,
and I've been through lots of therapy and all times
types of things that are helpful in tools and not
living in the.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
In the darkness and in the sadness and really trying
to you.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Know, it's okay to be there for a little bit
of time, I don't live in it and and pull
myself out of that and just continue to look the light.
And sometimes it's really the people that bring the light.
You know, we work in such a dark, evil space.
But when I meet people like you and others probably
watching who really have just incredible hearts and wanted and
passion for wanting to do something and stand up for kids,
(06:24):
that's the fuel and the light that I live off of.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
You know. Let me let me interject here for a second.
So you you said it to lay the groundwork here,
you said you were northern Africa with the with these
witch stuff. How the hell did you get there?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh? Yeah, that was with the organization that I was
working with.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Okay, So you're on set, you're in the film industry.
You're on set, you meet you meet with Jim Cavizel,
who was a star. Was he producing that film? Also
here was.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The lead role in the Sound of Freedom and the
guy okay, the true life guy. It was the guy
he introduced me to that I was able to go
and work for. And so that organization worked all over
the unit, all over the world, and so it was
through that organization that I was taken over to Africa
and the work that they're doing there hunting witch doctors
(07:18):
really in this visiting with other survivors in different multiple countries.
So while I was there, one of the days that
we were there, was was visiting this home of child
sacrifice survivors.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Okay, but my question is, how how does it come
about that you were introduced to this guy and I
guess he proposes, oh you come work for How does
how does it get to the point where you like, yes,
I want to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, So here's what it came down to.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
One when I got introduced to the movie, it was
it was actually a little bit later when I was
actually when we when we met, and honestly, I went down,
I met with a bunch of people and there.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Was you know, this was years ago. There were so
many great people.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And when I was leaving, I had this weird like
I can only described it as a magnetic pole in
the city that I was in. And I went home
and told my wife about it. She was like, what
do you think it means?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
She's like, you're not going to work with them? And
I was like, no, I know that we you know,
we're definitely not. And then they actually did come back
to me and you know, like, hey, what about a
contracting thing and this and that? And I thought, you know,
no way, but something came out of my mouth. I
was like, well, what's a full time position looked like?
And I was like, oh no, my wife's going to
kill me. And I was like, I'll just say no.
(08:31):
And then they presented this to me. But you know,
this was on my heart since two thousand and four.
Work with children actually my first experience in Morocco on
a movie called Sahara and just seeing children there and
spending a one hundred and sixteen days in the desert there,
and I knew at some point I was going to
be working with children. I tried my own nonprofits.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Why why, I believe.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That I was just something inside of me. I have
this childlike thing, but I'm drawn to children. I don't
know what it is. It's a natural thing to me
to I connect with children. I don't I don't know
how else to explain it. Whether it's my niece's nephews,
it could be a kid I just run into if
mom is talking to me, and I like, I'm instantly
getting down at their level and like talking to them
(09:15):
and interacting. I don't even know what it is. It's
just this thing I was born with. I have no
idea I could be honest.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
With but it's but it's from from the outside looking
in here. It's obviously to help them, to get them,
I mean, to them, protect them with all this crazy shit.
I mean what you talked about being in with witch
doctors and doing sacrificial stuff. I mean, that's like that
(09:43):
shit's going on. Yeah, I mean for those of us
who are not in that, that is like, Holy Christ,
what do you do when you're there? Was that your
first experience with craziness?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It was my first experience and there was no going back.
There was no going back.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And what was your role there? What was the your
role there at that moment?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So I was an executive.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Most of what my position was was to raise the funding,
but with our highest level of you know, I worked
with celebrities my entire adult career, obviously, you know, working
with Jim Caviezel was one of my clients or whatever
that I worked for in supported. So I was hanging
around movie stars for decades, big the biggest movie stars
in the world.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I never got starstruck. I never didk So it just
was easy for me.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And so I think they were like, Hey, we have
all these high profile individuals. You can you know, get
along with pretty easy. They'll like you and this and that,
and so why I was sent over there, it was
really to just get an understanding of what the organization
was doing and just really first hands experience of interacting
with like survivors. What does that care look like, what
do these facilities look like? And actually I was able
(10:54):
to raise a significant amount of money in that country
to buy a significant chunk of land to build land
which is still in the works, which is really a
vision that I got from this day when I was
walking into see Hope and all these other children. You know,
they've they've gone through horrific things in their life. Why
don't we just build them a paradise so to speak,
(11:15):
in their country without running water in areas.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
But how do we bring in a.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well and how do we start building these paradise is
somewhat so to speak and provide hope, which happens to
be her name, But how do we create hope land?
And really so it was through these experiences, and through
even going on in different countries with with the OPS
team and understanding how the operations work, and then being
involved in all those logistics because I could find the words,
(11:41):
you know, going into the film business as a writer
and being able to actually articulate what that was like.
I'm a storyteller since and so really truly it was
through the stories, these true stories, which is why I
got into the movie business in the first place.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I loved the true stories.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And I could share these true stories with people that
potentially would donate money to make impact. So through storytelling,
we can make change and make impact. And that was
really what it was. And then it was like more
and more and more and so certain things I was
drawing from, not from other people's stories, but from my
own real experiences where I experienced emotions that I had,
certain things. But then I understand all the aspects of
(12:19):
what does it look like for aftercare, what do they
have to go through, what are they facing, what does
the ops guys look like?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Hang on here, so the ops, the ops got what
are the ops, what are these ops missions? What are
they doing?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, so mostly it's professionally trained undercover operators through either
an intelligence source or law enforcement that goes into these communities,
have an MU and they would meet with the local
law enforcement who have zero training, zero equipment to do
these type of investigations to go undercover, and we would
bring that in and help kind of train them and
(12:56):
teach them along these investigations and go in and infiltrate
whether whatever organized crime it is, whether it's a sex
hotel or a brothel or a child sacrifice, you know, ring.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Or whatever it may be.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
We would go in there and try to empower and
equip the law enforcement to be able to effectively kind
of do this after we're gone, but bring the research.
Sometimes it's just hey, they need fuel to go out
and make the arrest and their cruisers so they could
support that.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So to get these kids out of the way, out
of the out of the situation.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, not rescue the kids, but also bring justice, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Really, and so that that was the whole model, and
now it was it was only a matter of time
before the people started saying, well, what are we doing
here in America and then me doing some investigations with
my law enforcement friends saying like, do what's going on,
and then listening to them and says like, well, why
don't we just cut the red tape and fill those
gaps because the people are demanding to do something, they
(13:55):
want to do something, and they want their dollars to
stay in our border.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right, So I was like, well, let's just that.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Let's just start an organization where the people can bring
in the resources. And my team's all active duty law enforcement.
We have a retired law enforcement officer as well. They
have experience and these things. When we come in, we
bring the equipment, we train, and we build task forces
here in America. So we go into a community, recruit
two to three detectives at the highest level from each department,
and then they all get roles and responsibilities. We do
(14:21):
a live undercover sting operation and actually make arrests during
our training. But we come to them and we teach
them how to fish, give them the equipment, and then
when we leave they can continue to make those rests.
I think three weeks ago we were in Texas and
I just got to report today that one of the
people that we've trained have made four rests since we've
left from the training, So they're going to now continue
(14:42):
to go through this task force.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It's not like a department has.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
To give up all this whole resources and manpower from
one department. It's a few from all of them. And
then you're also building community between law enforcement, which is
amazing is to take these five or six departments and
how do you bring them together to prioritize children. And
here's what I think would be interesting, I think to
you and maybe your audience is really looking at there's
(15:11):
so much that's happening locally, but law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, firefighters, nurses,
whenever there's an incident that they have to be a.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Part of, whether it's a car wreck, fire in the house,
some sort of trauma.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
When it involves a child, it's different, right, And so
the men and women that are one hundred percent of
their dealings involve child crimes. We have a lot of
work to do for mental wellness, and eventually that's what
we're gonna get to.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
We're started with law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
How do we build them and give them the tools
and the training they need to be effective in what
they do Now we're going into the communities. We're gonna
have education that we're gonna be promoting, giving them the
tools and the training that they need to now be
effective in their communities.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And then hold.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Certain officials accountable for you know, like hey, we want
bigger senses whatever. And then now, how do we go
into these departments when we're coming in and get from
the higher ups to accept the idea that like, hey, look,
you're gonna have turnover like crazy every two years someone
and now you got to train more guys and more women.
We needed you to have a support system not just
(16:23):
within the department, but outside the department too, so that
we can prevent these you know, whatever it be, suicide, alcoholism, divorce,
whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
How do we keep.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Those numbers down so that these men and women who
want to do this stuff, who are on the front
lines I called there on the gates of hell, because
this is the darkest of evils.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
When you're doing these things.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
The children, how do we keep them going and keep
them healthy and keep them balanced in their life and
understand the understand that part of it too. And so
maybe next year we'll get into that mental wellness piece
of really taking care of the men and women on
the front lines of this. You know, look, I'm telling
you right now, we pretend to be eleven year olds online.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Let's just say the things that we see.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I can't imagine an eleven year old see if it damages,
you know, or not damages that's not the right word.
Affects us to that degree. I can't imagine what it
does to a child, you know. But when you're seeing
it day in and day out, you know, you're you're
dating predators.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Man, that's what it's like. You're basically having to date predators.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And man, it can it can be brutal, you know, photos, conversations,
the things they want to do to children. You gotta
we gotta, we gotta, we gotta prioritize that, prioritize the children,
but also prioritize the men and women who they're dealing
with these crimes on a daily basis. Our interesting videos,
(17:48):
writing reports.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
So yeah, I mean, it's just interesting to hear you
talk and to imagine and to feel the how far
this spreads out Right, it's not just finding these people
and talking to them online, but setting up care and
education for the first responders. As you said, who are
(18:11):
on the front lines or the gates of hell, how
they can learn to take care of themselves, because it's
one thing to want to take care of someone else,
but obviously they're going to be impacted. So let me
just remind everyone was speaking with Nate Lewis of the
Innocent non profit organization which helps kids. So to what degree,
(18:33):
how prevalent is this stuff it's going on in the
United States?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So when you say this stuff, I guess we have
to be kind of specific.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Okay, talking about human trafficking people.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yes, sure, that's human trafficking, and I think.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That human trafficking is the tip of the umbrella. Really,
what falls underneath human trafficking all the statutes people crimes
that they can commit, whether people are now you're hearing
the word exploitation a lot, it's extortion, You're hearing a
lot of these things. And so when you talk about
how prevalent, I guess, really, what specifically is how prevalent?
How I can give you a statistic that you know,
(19:11):
only two percent of children that are being trafficked are
snagged and grabbed, meaning kidnapped and taken. So it's kind
of a small percentage even though that's the fear of parents.
The reality is there's thirty seven million teenagers on social
media and through our experience, what we're seeing in our
mission first foremost is to protect and preserve the innocence
(19:33):
of children in the United States, where we were starting
to see that the deterioration of innocence is really through
social media and these different platforms, because if they have
an open account, they're not helping these social media platforms,
they're actually enabling. They're making an introduction friends suggestions, and
once that child accepts that friend suggestion to if you
(19:55):
look at the psychology, become more popular because of the
number of followers, friends that they have with.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Their identity and sort of things.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
So when they accept that, now, depending upon who that
person is and what their profile is, they may start
grooming them slowly or it might be immedia photo rate
my blank right, And so what happens after that, Well,
since that eleven year old and the fifty one year
old's accepted, the algram says, well, here's five more identical
(20:25):
profiles that are following twenty five hundred individuals, same kind
of demographic, but are being followed by anyone.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
We should probably introduce them to right, So then they
get introduced, you accept those and we.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Only know this and we have recorded because we do this,
and then it's hundreds within a week people and they're they're, they're,
they're doing these things and that's how this is happening.
Here's the thing and why, And I'll try to get
to specifics on that question. But in my childhood, it
was more worried about like, hey, who's showing up the playground,
(20:57):
Just be careful, you know that kind of thing. But
cameras on every corner and every stoplight, and no one's
going to expose their identity in public. They're going to
stay hidden and try to spoof their id online so
that they can't be identified. So now why would they
go in public? I mean, if they're stupid, and that's
(21:17):
great and please do come in public. But it's not
like it used to be in the old days where
we're going under covering an alley with a backpack and
trying to buy drugs. So much communication in society, including
with families, is done through a phone or messaging and
through technology it's the same way. It's no different. So
how prevalent is it? Let me give you some statistics.
(21:39):
One in five children before the age of eighteen will
be solicited for sex online.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So that's that's crazy, it is. That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
I mean crazy a lot. I'm surprised at that crazy
a lot.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Here's another statistic. We just did a video I think
yesterday we put out a video on this. There are
forty six million survis of child sexual abuse living in
the United States.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay, and that also.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Is sourced on the video throughout our I believe it's
the National Center for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse. So
that's a statistic. Now here's the reality is what does
that look like? Forty six million people of the population,
that's eight that's all thirty two NFL Super Bowl stadiums
filled up eighteen times. That's a lot of people that
(22:26):
were abused as a child sexually. So that's been going
on for decades and generations. That was before technology right
now with the abuse where it used to always be
physical and there still is a ton of physical abuse.
Now it's three electronics sending photos, bribing people, what are
sending photos back and building these trusts and these relationships
(22:47):
people pretending to be young boys online or they have
these communications and then he says, Oh, hey, I can't drive,
so my aunt's going to come and pick you up.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
What was the aunt talking the whole time trying to
recruit these girls.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
There's so many different things that are occurring that used
to not occur.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
It's hard to get real statistics.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
But there's a couple more statistics, and all these are
sourced on our website and through videos.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
On our Instagram and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
But one in three girls and one in five boys
will be sexually abused before they turn eighteen. Why is
that important that I say that? Because we don't just
focus on trafficking and exploitation. We're trying to understand the
patterns and the behaviors online of people.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So when they are online viewing.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Maybe it's pornography, but we call it on against under
the AGA eighteen, it's child sexual abuse material.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
It's called exam in the law enforcement world.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
And they start viewing younger and younger and younger, right,
And so at some point that digital addiction becomes a
physical addiction, and they understand they can pay for it.
And then at some point it becomes really expensive and
they decide not to pay for it. They decide to
just somebody's in the wrong place the wrong time, or they
can groom and manipulate into somebody to build trust with
(24:04):
them and then they can get what they want that way.
It's it's, it's it's it's interesting psychology of this whole thing.
But that's that's that's what's going on these days, and
so you're seeing it. It's pretty prevalent.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I think at some they will probably have better statistics,
but things are happening and technology is moving so fast.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Here's this true story.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I don't know how this helped, but we did a
presentation to a group of individuals and you know, an
upper class community to you know, raise it's kind of
a fundraiser and sharing a lot of this stuff and
some of the conversations, you know, things are blurred out,
but we're trying to protect adults in a sense, so
we don't want to throw them into the deep end
and make them go through therapy.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know. Grandy's in the front row going, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
All these things, you know, and people are shocked and
we're trying to keep it g rated, but they're still
shocked because they they're oblivious. And then you know, about
an hour in this girl raised her hand.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And I was like, yeah, I CA.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
She's like, I wasn't suposed to be here tonight. My
dad was a beer he couldn't come, So I came
last night. I'm twenty four years old, and the most
shocking thing to me tonight isn't everything you're talking about.
It's the gasps in the room, because I have lived
this life.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
For the last ten years of my life. Oh my god,
from fourteen to twenty four.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
This everything we were talking about was things she experienced online,
and it was normal to her. And she was more
shocked that people were shocked by it than being shocked
by that. That's just what children deal with if you're
a young teenager, especially girls.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
They're just praying on these young children.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Now in the wild, predators prey on the week, right,
so completely unformed brain would be a weak victim.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Right. And and there's other statistics. I didn't even need
to go into this.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
I know I'm kind of going off, but those who
have either mentally challenged or have difficulties are also preyed
on way more and then once they have been prayed on,
there ten times.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
More likely to be continued to be pret on.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Right, So they're they're manipulating, they're taking advantage of them. Uh,
it's it's a it's it's it's it's pretty prominent.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
It's it's sick. We see we see it, we see it.
We we can post.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Ads on these crazy sites that exist, just pay for
sex sites, and it's it's immediate responses. And and this
isn't small towns too. This isn't even like metropolitan areas.
This is small town USA.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So let me ask you your your work with the
innocent is to what go into and help law enforcement
get educated on this and help them equip themselves to
deal with this specifically somewhat.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
So my team is active duty law enforcement and we
have a we're bringing on retired law enforcement officers too.
But we go in to a community and like I said,
we build a task force. So we're taking individuals from
all the surrounding agencies and we bring them together and
we'll start to finish three to four days scaled operations course.
So how do you start the investigation? What are somebody
(27:11):
the laws and those things? How do you write the warrants?
And then how who has the roles and responsibility on
the takedown day? Where we're setting up undercover steeing operations
and really that's in a nutshell, that's kind of really
what it is. We're going in and building task forces
inside of communities, all by my team, which are incredibly
experienced and amazing team members that are teaching and leading
(27:34):
this out through experience.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Now we're just advisors.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So when they run that operation during our training, they
run a real live operation.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
We're there to.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Advise them if they have questions and certain things, so
we're not involved in those operations. We want them to
own it the whole thing. Now, hopefully they've learned enough
from the first day and a half, but we're still
there to kind of walk them through and kind of
do the scenario thing and hopefully they can can and you.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
To just be successful, and we were seeing it they are.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
They continue to do these things and the higher up ranking,
you know, lieutenant sergeants, chiefs, they love this stuff because
they see that it's super effective, it's needed, and they
probably have been exposed to something they weren't really sure was.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Going on because they didn't know the tactics right, They
didn't know where to look, where to go.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
If you're not spending one hundred percent of your time
doing these investigations. You probably don't know where to go.
We learned from these predators. Hey, let's go over to
blank and communicate. We're like, oh, that's cool. Hey did
you have you ever been on this? And you're like, no,
but I will now, you know. So if you're not
in these conversations, you don't know where to be and
where to live.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
And so they just don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And that's when the people see this and they go
the usually the officials or even some city council that
come in and see this, they're.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Like, I had no idea. I had no idea. We
probably need a full time person for this, right, And
so that's really what we do. There's a few other things.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
So we cut red tape on equipment and technology.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So there's a lot of technologies.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So some of them are super expensive, some of them
are expensive, some of them aren't that expensive. But the
process is long and it's tedious, and sometimes they still
get denied.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And so you know, we'll do a little bit.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Of of a vetting and everything's grant based, and so
we'll provide a subscription to some really really effective and
efficient software for these investigations for a year and then
they report back to us, what are you doing, how
are you using it? Are you being effective? Is it
collecting dust? And then if they can and the following
(29:38):
year prove to us that, look, they're out there doing
really good work and they're utilizing this stuff and they're
taking advantage of we're going to support you, and we're
going to continue to support that for you.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
And they also now know how effective this tool is.
They don't want to lose it, right, and so they're
gonna use it and so finding that out.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
One one example is just some of the high these
high tech.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Computers that are analy.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Evidence in certain things when you unlocked phones and get
into these things and analyzing all the breakdown. You know,
those are expensive, somewhat expensive computers, high performing gaming style
type of computers.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
And man to get a.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Couple of those for your detectives, you know, it is
a significant budget hit for a small community.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Sure, they're probably not going to.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Get them, you know, So for us to be able
to provide those the people actually be able to able
to provide that for department is huge, huge, And some
of these other devices aren't even that expensive. It's just
it takes us about two minutes to order them for
them or send them to them, versus the six month
process of going through you know, and in that time,
how many people could you have arrested. So that's what
(30:44):
we're doing. We're cutting the red tape. We're speeding up,
making them more effective, more efficient, and giving them the
actual training that they need to be experts in this,
you know, specific crime.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
So it's like you're funding the police to give them gas,
you know whatever. This is specifically for child sex crimes.
And so the communities.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Are really loving this that they feel like they can
keep their money in their communities. They can see it,
they read about it on their posts or their local Facebook,
people that follow the arrests and.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
They it's they love it.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
They love that they feel like they can actually play
a part in making community safe.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Nate, dude, amazing, I mean and so inspiring. My god,
I'd love to have you back. I mean, it just
seems like there's so much, so much. Seriously, there's so
much to talk about. But as we as we wind
down here, how do people learn more about you and
the innocent what's the best way.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
The Innocent dot Org is our website and there's lots
of links on there. If you're in law enforcement, have
a law enforcement tab. Fiell that out with your law
enforcement email address. We're gonna want to get in touch
with you and see how we can come into your communities.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
There's a community tab.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
There's gonna be education coming soon on the main homepage.
If you sign up for the newsletter, that's our most
effective way to communicate with you. Social media doesn't allow
us really to get out there to people for whatever reasons,
but that's our most effective form of communication. So sign
up for the e email and then really just just
if you can. We're funded by the people, and if
(32:14):
you want to start a campaign for your community, click
on the community link. Also, we call it a protector,
somebody who donates as little as ten dollars a month.
If you think it doesn't make a difference, then it
probably you won't go do it, and you won't make
a difference. But if one hundred people today just went
and did that, we could make significant change.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
We can provide.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Those pieces of equipment to a department every single month,
you know, so think about that. If you can just
become a ten at least ten dollars a month. If
you can do more, that's fantastic. But we're funded one
hundred percent by the people to protect the children and
the innocence of children here in America. One hundred percent
of your dollars donated. We'll stay right here inside of
(32:52):
America as well.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
All right, and we will link that up here at
the show notes page at the Trauma Therapist podcast dot
com for those of you who want to sign up
for that. Nate, I'm so glad I got to meet
you and again love to have you back. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Let's do this.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Thanks, all right, brother, all right, man, take care, all
right
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Talk too soon.
Welcome to the Trauma THEAPIS podcast. My name is Ga Macpherson.
I interview incredible people who dedicated their lives to helping
those who have been impacted by trauma. Here we go
five four, three, two and one, our folks, welcome back
to the podcast. Very excited to have as my guest today,
Nate Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Nate welcome, Oh, thank you, thanks for having me. Appreciate
it so.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Nate is the founder of the Innocent, a non profit
organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the innocence of children
inside the United States, with a focus on child sex trafficking, exploitation,
and sexual assault. Nate's twenty years of traveling and living
abroad and more than forty countries have profoundly shaped his
passionate and understanding of human trafficking. These experiences have given
(00:48):
him valuable insights into the global and domestic dimensions of
trafficking and exploitation. To his leadership at the Innocent, nata's
instrumental in driving critical initiatives to create sever communities inside
the United States. All right, Nate, just a little bit
about you, but before we get going here, share with
the listeners where you're from. Originally and where you are currently.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, Well, I grew up in Washington State in the
middle of an apple orchard and a farming community right
in the center of Washington State. I'm currently in northern Idaho,
just south of the Canadian border. But I've spent, like
you just mentioned, most of my adult life not in
the United States and traveling out of a suitcase mostly
(01:33):
or back.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, now, is that due to what just wonderlust or military?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Now on my background, Actually, I worked in the film industry,
so I was on set on location on some of
those movies and televin shows, and I worked very closely
with Jim Caviezel. He's a good friend of mine, Okay.
And that's really when the Sound of Freedom movie was
being filmed, was my introduction to this, you know, arena.
(02:03):
And then I ended up going and worked for an
organization doing this internationally really as an executive and just
kind of seeing what it was and experiencing was traveling
the world in addition to travel the world for twenty years,
started traveling in a different.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Arena in this space and.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Just hit my heart, man, And honestly, the timing of
this call just even the things that happened right.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Before this call happened.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Of the work that from four years ago continues to
just be present in my life.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
It's just it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But yeah, that's kind of how I got here, and
that's where I spent most of my time, living in
foreign countries, in locations, and so that's a little.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Bit of my background, tiny bit.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So let's talk about your your introduction into this field
or space, because, as I said before we started recording this,
I mean, this is no I mean, this is so
freaking serious. I mean, you know when I tell people,
you know, what do you do? Well, have a podcast?
(03:08):
Oh what's it about? It's about trauma? Oh my god,
how could you do that? But this to me is
so it's so crazy, you know, and when you hear
stories about this, it's like it's hard to look at
how the hell did you get into this?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, I mean that introduction from Jim Caviezel really was
my introduction to the organization. Yeah, the gentleman that he
was playing, you know, in that movie.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And here's here's the reality. So crazy.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Again, the timing of this, I was I was in
Northern Africa, my first real kind of deep dive into
the deep end of what's going on. We were dealing
with witch doctors that were performing child sacrifice. And it
was really that experience that day that profoundly changed my
life and put me in to a completely different realm
(04:02):
than I've ever been, experiencing different emotions that shouldn't be
having at the same time. Number one, but I think
for me the first time, and I've been through some things.
I've been abused, I've been taking a gunpoint before, and
you know, I've been through some trauma myself.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But this time in my life.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
To see these children who are being sacrificed that survived,
brought on a whole another level of anger and hate
inside of me, which was I didn't want I wanted
it to leave my body, and it compelled me to
move forward. And interesting enough that that day I met
this gal named Hope who was taken at a very
(04:37):
young age, and they did all kinds of things to
her starting in eighteen months, and when they took some
blood from her, the lack of oxygener brain called but
we know sobal palsy. Her body was caving in on
her lungs and so several years ago I was able
to be a part of raising funds to get her
to the emergency care.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That she needs.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And there's a lot of doctors and people and hosts
that were involved with this, but at my you know,
I was able to help with a campaign to raise
the money to get her to the United States. And
literally ten minutes ago, I got a text from the
organization we work for in Africa and she's here.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
She's doing really well.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And they're actually coming through my home, this town that
I live in right now, and I get to see
her after four years, and she really is I talk
about her all the time. She's why how do I
get into this? And they're seeing her on the floor
just smiling like I don't even know. Her name's Hope.
And and the fact that she can smile constantly and
not do much else than just smile.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
She really drives everything that I do. She's been a.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Huge inspiration in my life. So that's really how I
got into it. And there's some there's some there's some
difficult things, but these type of stories and success stories
and you see where they were and not focus, you know, constantly,
and I've been through lots of therapy and all times
types of things that are helpful in tools and not
living in the.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
In the darkness and in the sadness and really trying
to you.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Know, it's okay to be there for a little bit
of time, I don't live in it and and pull
myself out of that and just continue to look the light.
And sometimes it's really the people that bring the light.
You know, we work in such a dark, evil space.
But when I meet people like you and others probably
watching who really have just incredible hearts and wanted and
passion for wanting to do something and stand up for kids,
(06:24):
that's the fuel and the light that I live off of.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
You know. Let me let me interject here for a second.
So you you said it to lay the groundwork here,
you said you were northern Africa with the with these
witch stuff. How the hell did you get there?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh? Yeah, that was with the organization that I was
working with.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Okay, So you're on set, you're in the film industry.
You're on set, you meet you meet with Jim Cavizel,
who was a star. Was he producing that film? Also
here was.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The lead role in the Sound of Freedom and the
guy okay, the true life guy. It was the guy
he introduced me to that I was able to go
and work for. And so that organization worked all over
the unit, all over the world, and so it was
through that organization that I was taken over to Africa
and the work that they're doing there hunting witch doctors
(07:18):
really in this visiting with other survivors in different multiple countries.
So while I was there, one of the days that
we were there, was was visiting this home of child
sacrifice survivors.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Okay, but my question is, how how does it come
about that you were introduced to this guy and I
guess he proposes, oh you come work for How does
how does it get to the point where you like, yes,
I want to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, So here's what it came down to.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
One when I got introduced to the movie, it was
it was actually a little bit later when I was
actually when we when we met, and honestly, I went down,
I met with a bunch of people and there.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Was you know, this was years ago. There were so
many great people.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And when I was leaving, I had this weird like
I can only described it as a magnetic pole in
the city that I was in. And I went home
and told my wife about it. She was like, what
do you think it means?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
She's like, you're not going to work with them? And
I was like, no, I know that we you know,
we're definitely not. And then they actually did come back
to me and you know, like, hey, what about a
contracting thing and this and that? And I thought, you know,
no way, but something came out of my mouth. I
was like, well, what's a full time position looked like?
And I was like, oh no, my wife's going to
kill me. And I was like, I'll just say no.
(08:31):
And then they presented this to me. But you know,
this was on my heart since two thousand and four.
Work with children actually my first experience in Morocco on
a movie called Sahara and just seeing children there and
spending a one hundred and sixteen days in the desert there,
and I knew at some point I was going to
be working with children. I tried my own nonprofits.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Why why, I believe.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That I was just something inside of me. I have
this childlike thing, but I'm drawn to children. I don't
know what it is. It's a natural thing to me
to I connect with children. I don't I don't know
how else to explain it. Whether it's my niece's nephews,
it could be a kid I just run into if
mom is talking to me, and I like, I'm instantly
getting down at their level and like talking to them
(09:15):
and interacting. I don't even know what it is. It's
just this thing I was born with. I have no
idea I could be honest.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
With but it's but it's from from the outside looking
in here. It's obviously to help them, to get them,
I mean, to them, protect them with all this crazy shit.
I mean what you talked about being in with witch
doctors and doing sacrificial stuff. I mean, that's like that
(09:43):
shit's going on. Yeah, I mean for those of us
who are not in that, that is like, Holy Christ,
what do you do when you're there? Was that your
first experience with craziness?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It was my first experience and there was no going back.
There was no going back.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And what was your role there? What was the your
role there at that moment?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So I was an executive.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Most of what my position was was to raise the funding,
but with our highest level of you know, I worked
with celebrities my entire adult career, obviously, you know, working
with Jim Caviezel was one of my clients or whatever
that I worked for in supported. So I was hanging
around movie stars for decades, big the biggest movie stars
in the world.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I never got starstruck. I never didk So it just
was easy for me.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And so I think they were like, Hey, we have
all these high profile individuals. You can you know, get
along with pretty easy. They'll like you and this and that,
and so why I was sent over there, it was
really to just get an understanding of what the organization
was doing and just really first hands experience of interacting
with like survivors. What does that care look like, what
do these facilities look like? And actually I was able
(10:54):
to raise a significant amount of money in that country
to buy a significant chunk of land to build land
which is still in the works, which is really a
vision that I got from this day when I was
walking into see Hope and all these other children. You know,
they've they've gone through horrific things in their life. Why
don't we just build them a paradise so to speak,
(11:15):
in their country without running water in areas.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
But how do we bring in a.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well and how do we start building these paradise is
somewhat so to speak and provide hope, which happens to
be her name, But how do we create hope land?
And really so it was through these experiences, and through
even going on in different countries with with the OPS
team and understanding how the operations work, and then being
involved in all those logistics because I could find the words,
(11:41):
you know, going into the film business as a writer
and being able to actually articulate what that was like.
I'm a storyteller since and so really truly it was
through the stories, these true stories, which is why I
got into the movie business in the first place.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I loved the true stories.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And I could share these true stories with people that
potentially would donate money to make impact. So through storytelling,
we can make change and make impact. And that was
really what it was. And then it was like more
and more and more and so certain things I was
drawing from, not from other people's stories, but from my
own real experiences where I experienced emotions that I had,
certain things. But then I understand all the aspects of
(12:19):
what does it look like for aftercare, what do they
have to go through, what are they facing, what does
the ops guys look like?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Hang on here, so the ops, the ops got what
are the ops, what are these ops missions? What are
they doing?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, so mostly it's professionally trained undercover operators through either
an intelligence source or law enforcement that goes into these communities,
have an MU and they would meet with the local
law enforcement who have zero training, zero equipment to do
these type of investigations to go undercover, and we would
bring that in and help kind of train them and
(12:56):
teach them along these investigations and go in and infiltrate
whether whatever organized crime it is, whether it's a sex
hotel or a brothel or a child sacrifice, you know, ring.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Or whatever it may be.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
We would go in there and try to empower and
equip the law enforcement to be able to effectively kind
of do this after we're gone, but bring the research.
Sometimes it's just hey, they need fuel to go out
and make the arrest and their cruisers so they could
support that.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So to get these kids out of the way, out
of the out of the situation.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, not rescue the kids, but also bring justice, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Really, and so that that was the whole model, and
now it was it was only a matter of time
before the people started saying, well, what are we doing
here in America and then me doing some investigations with
my law enforcement friends saying like, do what's going on,
and then listening to them and says like, well, why
don't we just cut the red tape and fill those
gaps because the people are demanding to do something, they
(13:55):
want to do something, and they want their dollars to
stay in our border.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right, So I was like, well, let's just that.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Let's just start an organization where the people can bring
in the resources. And my team's all active duty law enforcement.
We have a retired law enforcement officer as well. They
have experience and these things. When we come in, we
bring the equipment, we train, and we build task forces
here in America. So we go into a community, recruit
two to three detectives at the highest level from each department,
and then they all get roles and responsibilities. We do
(14:21):
a live undercover sting operation and actually make arrests during
our training. But we come to them and we teach
them how to fish, give them the equipment, and then
when we leave they can continue to make those rests.
I think three weeks ago we were in Texas and
I just got to report today that one of the
people that we've trained have made four rests since we've
left from the training, So they're going to now continue
(14:42):
to go through this task force.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It's not like a department has.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
To give up all this whole resources and manpower from
one department. It's a few from all of them. And
then you're also building community between law enforcement, which is
amazing is to take these five or six departments and
how do you bring them together to prioritize children. And
here's what I think would be interesting, I think to
you and maybe your audience is really looking at there's
(15:11):
so much that's happening locally, but law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, firefighters, nurses,
whenever there's an incident that they have to be a.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Part of, whether it's a car wreck, fire in the house,
some sort of trauma.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
When it involves a child, it's different, right, And so
the men and women that are one hundred percent of
their dealings involve child crimes. We have a lot of
work to do for mental wellness, and eventually that's what
we're gonna get to.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
We're started with law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
How do we build them and give them the tools
and the training they need to be effective in what
they do Now we're going into the communities. We're gonna
have education that we're gonna be promoting, giving them the
tools and the training that they need to now be
effective in their communities.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And then hold.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Certain officials accountable for you know, like hey, we want
bigger senses whatever. And then now, how do we go
into these departments when we're coming in and get from
the higher ups to accept the idea that like, hey, look,
you're gonna have turnover like crazy every two years someone
and now you got to train more guys and more women.
We needed you to have a support system not just
(16:23):
within the department, but outside the department too, so that
we can prevent these you know, whatever it be, suicide, alcoholism, divorce,
whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
How do we keep.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Those numbers down so that these men and women who
want to do this stuff, who are on the front
lines I called there on the gates of hell, because
this is the darkest of evils.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
When you're doing these things.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
The children, how do we keep them going and keep
them healthy and keep them balanced in their life and
understand the understand that part of it too. And so
maybe next year we'll get into that mental wellness piece
of really taking care of the men and women on
the front lines of this. You know, look, I'm telling
you right now, we pretend to be eleven year olds online.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Let's just say the things that we see.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I can't imagine an eleven year old see if it damages,
you know, or not damages that's not the right word.
Affects us to that degree. I can't imagine what it
does to a child, you know. But when you're seeing
it day in and day out, you know, you're you're
dating predators.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Man, that's what it's like. You're basically having to date predators.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And man, it can it can be brutal, you know, photos, conversations,
the things they want to do to children. You gotta
we gotta, we gotta, we gotta prioritize that, prioritize the children,
but also prioritize the men and women who they're dealing
with these crimes on a daily basis. Our interesting videos,
(17:48):
writing reports.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
So yeah, I mean, it's just interesting to hear you
talk and to imagine and to feel the how far
this spreads out Right, it's not just finding these people
and talking to them online, but setting up care and
education for the first responders. As you said, who are
(18:11):
on the front lines or the gates of hell, how
they can learn to take care of themselves, because it's
one thing to want to take care of someone else,
but obviously they're going to be impacted. So let me
just remind everyone was speaking with Nate Lewis of the
Innocent non profit organization which helps kids. So to what degree,
(18:33):
how prevalent is this stuff it's going on in the
United States?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So when you say this stuff, I guess we have
to be kind of specific.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Okay, talking about human trafficking people.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yes, sure, that's human trafficking, and I think.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That human trafficking is the tip of the umbrella. Really,
what falls underneath human trafficking all the statutes people crimes
that they can commit, whether people are now you're hearing
the word exploitation a lot, it's extortion, You're hearing a
lot of these things. And so when you talk about
how prevalent, I guess, really, what specifically is how prevalent?
How I can give you a statistic that you know,
(19:11):
only two percent of children that are being trafficked are
snagged and grabbed, meaning kidnapped and taken. So it's kind
of a small percentage even though that's the fear of parents.
The reality is there's thirty seven million teenagers on social
media and through our experience, what we're seeing in our
mission first foremost is to protect and preserve the innocence
(19:33):
of children in the United States, where we were starting
to see that the deterioration of innocence is really through
social media and these different platforms, because if they have
an open account, they're not helping these social media platforms,
they're actually enabling. They're making an introduction friends suggestions, and
once that child accepts that friend suggestion to if you
(19:55):
look at the psychology, become more popular because of the
number of followers, friends that they have with.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Their identity and sort of things.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
So when they accept that, now, depending upon who that
person is and what their profile is, they may start
grooming them slowly or it might be immedia photo rate
my blank right, And so what happens after that, Well,
since that eleven year old and the fifty one year
old's accepted, the algram says, well, here's five more identical
(20:25):
profiles that are following twenty five hundred individuals, same kind
of demographic, but are being followed by anyone.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
We should probably introduce them to right, So then they
get introduced, you accept those and we.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Only know this and we have recorded because we do this,
and then it's hundreds within a week people and they're they're, they're,
they're doing these things and that's how this is happening.
Here's the thing and why, And I'll try to get
to specifics on that question. But in my childhood, it
was more worried about like, hey, who's showing up the playground,
(20:57):
Just be careful, you know that kind of thing. But
cameras on every corner and every stoplight, and no one's
going to expose their identity in public. They're going to
stay hidden and try to spoof their id online so
that they can't be identified. So now why would they
go in public? I mean, if they're stupid, and that's
(21:17):
great and please do come in public. But it's not
like it used to be in the old days where
we're going under covering an alley with a backpack and
trying to buy drugs. So much communication in society, including
with families, is done through a phone or messaging and
through technology it's the same way. It's no different. So
how prevalent is it? Let me give you some statistics.
(21:39):
One in five children before the age of eighteen will
be solicited for sex online.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So that's that's crazy, it is. That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
I mean crazy a lot. I'm surprised at that crazy
a lot.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Here's another statistic. We just did a video I think
yesterday we put out a video on this. There are
forty six million survis of child sexual abuse living in
the United States.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay, and that also.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Is sourced on the video throughout our I believe it's
the National Center for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse. So
that's a statistic. Now here's the reality is what does
that look like? Forty six million people of the population,
that's eight that's all thirty two NFL Super Bowl stadiums
filled up eighteen times. That's a lot of people that
(22:26):
were abused as a child sexually. So that's been going
on for decades and generations. That was before technology right
now with the abuse where it used to always be
physical and there still is a ton of physical abuse.
Now it's three electronics sending photos, bribing people, what are
sending photos back and building these trusts and these relationships
(22:47):
people pretending to be young boys online or they have
these communications and then he says, Oh, hey, I can't drive,
so my aunt's going to come and pick you up.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
What was the aunt talking the whole time trying to
recruit these girls.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
There's so many different things that are occurring that used
to not occur.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
It's hard to get real statistics.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
But there's a couple more statistics, and all these are
sourced on our website and through videos.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
On our Instagram and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
But one in three girls and one in five boys
will be sexually abused before they turn eighteen. Why is
that important that I say that? Because we don't just
focus on trafficking and exploitation. We're trying to understand the
patterns and the behaviors online of people.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So when they are online viewing.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Maybe it's pornography, but we call it on against under
the AGA eighteen, it's child sexual abuse material.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
It's called exam in the law enforcement world.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
And they start viewing younger and younger and younger, right,
And so at some point that digital addiction becomes a
physical addiction, and they understand they can pay for it.
And then at some point it becomes really expensive and
they decide not to pay for it. They decide to
just somebody's in the wrong place the wrong time, or they
can groom and manipulate into somebody to build trust with
(24:04):
them and then they can get what they want that way.
It's it's, it's it's it's interesting psychology of this whole thing.
But that's that's that's what's going on these days, and
so you're seeing it. It's pretty prevalent.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I think at some they will probably have better statistics,
but things are happening and technology is moving so fast.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Here's this true story.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I don't know how this helped, but we did a
presentation to a group of individuals and you know, an
upper class community to you know, raise it's kind of
a fundraiser and sharing a lot of this stuff and
some of the conversations, you know, things are blurred out,
but we're trying to protect adults in a sense, so
we don't want to throw them into the deep end
and make them go through therapy.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know. Grandy's in the front row going, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
All these things, you know, and people are shocked and
we're trying to keep it g rated, but they're still
shocked because they they're oblivious. And then you know, about
an hour in this girl raised her hand.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And I was like, yeah, I CA.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
She's like, I wasn't suposed to be here tonight. My
dad was a beer he couldn't come, So I came
last night. I'm twenty four years old, and the most
shocking thing to me tonight isn't everything you're talking about.
It's the gasps in the room, because I have lived
this life.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
For the last ten years of my life. Oh my god,
from fourteen to twenty four.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
This everything we were talking about was things she experienced online,
and it was normal to her. And she was more
shocked that people were shocked by it than being shocked
by that. That's just what children deal with if you're
a young teenager, especially girls.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
They're just praying on these young children.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Now in the wild, predators prey on the week, right,
so completely unformed brain would be a weak victim.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Right. And and there's other statistics. I didn't even need
to go into this.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
I know I'm kind of going off, but those who
have either mentally challenged or have difficulties are also preyed
on way more and then once they have been prayed on,
there ten times.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
More likely to be continued to be pret on.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Right, So they're they're manipulating, they're taking advantage of them. Uh,
it's it's a it's it's it's it's pretty prominent.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
It's it's sick. We see we see it, we see it.
We we can post.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Ads on these crazy sites that exist, just pay for
sex sites, and it's it's immediate responses. And and this
isn't small towns too. This isn't even like metropolitan areas.
This is small town USA.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So let me ask you your your work with the
innocent is to what go into and help law enforcement
get educated on this and help them equip themselves to
deal with this specifically somewhat.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
So my team is active duty law enforcement and we
have a we're bringing on retired law enforcement officers too.
But we go in to a community and like I said,
we build a task force. So we're taking individuals from
all the surrounding agencies and we bring them together and
we'll start to finish three to four days scaled operations course.
So how do you start the investigation? What are somebody
(27:11):
the laws and those things? How do you write the warrants?
And then how who has the roles and responsibility on
the takedown day? Where we're setting up undercover steeing operations
and really that's in a nutshell, that's kind of really
what it is. We're going in and building task forces
inside of communities, all by my team, which are incredibly
experienced and amazing team members that are teaching and leading
(27:34):
this out through experience.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Now we're just advisors.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So when they run that operation during our training, they
run a real live operation.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
We're there to.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Advise them if they have questions and certain things, so
we're not involved in those operations. We want them to
own it the whole thing. Now, hopefully they've learned enough
from the first day and a half, but we're still
there to kind of walk them through and kind of
do the scenario thing and hopefully they can can and you.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
To just be successful, and we were seeing it they are.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
They continue to do these things and the higher up ranking,
you know, lieutenant sergeants, chiefs, they love this stuff because
they see that it's super effective, it's needed, and they
probably have been exposed to something they weren't really sure was.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Going on because they didn't know the tactics right, They
didn't know where to look, where to go.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
If you're not spending one hundred percent of your time
doing these investigations. You probably don't know where to go.
We learned from these predators. Hey, let's go over to
blank and communicate. We're like, oh, that's cool. Hey did
you have you ever been on this? And you're like, no,
but I will now, you know. So if you're not
in these conversations, you don't know where to be and
where to live.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
And so they just don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And that's when the people see this and they go
the usually the officials or even some city council that
come in and see this, they're.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Like, I had no idea. I had no idea. We
probably need a full time person for this, right, And
so that's really what we do. There's a few other things.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
So we cut red tape on equipment and technology.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So there's a lot of technologies.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So some of them are super expensive, some of them
are expensive, some of them aren't that expensive. But the
process is long and it's tedious, and sometimes they still
get denied.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And so you know, we'll do a little bit.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Of of a vetting and everything's grant based, and so
we'll provide a subscription to some really really effective and
efficient software for these investigations for a year and then
they report back to us, what are you doing, how
are you using it? Are you being effective? Is it
collecting dust? And then if they can and the following
(29:38):
year prove to us that, look, they're out there doing
really good work and they're utilizing this stuff and they're
taking advantage of we're going to support you, and we're
going to continue to support that for you.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
And they also now know how effective this tool is.
They don't want to lose it, right, and so they're
gonna use it and so finding that out.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
One one example is just some of the high these
high tech.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Computers that are analy.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Evidence in certain things when you unlocked phones and get
into these things and analyzing all the breakdown. You know,
those are expensive, somewhat expensive computers, high performing gaming style
type of computers.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
And man to get a.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Couple of those for your detectives, you know, it is
a significant budget hit for a small community.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Sure, they're probably not going to.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Get them, you know, So for us to be able
to provide those the people actually be able to able
to provide that for department is huge, huge, And some
of these other devices aren't even that expensive. It's just
it takes us about two minutes to order them for
them or send them to them, versus the six month
process of going through you know, and in that time,
how many people could you have arrested. So that's what
(30:44):
we're doing. We're cutting the red tape. We're speeding up,
making them more effective, more efficient, and giving them the
actual training that they need to be experts in this,
you know, specific crime.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
So it's like you're funding the police to give them gas,
you know whatever. This is specifically for child sex crimes.
And so the communities.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Are really loving this that they feel like they can
keep their money in their communities. They can see it,
they read about it on their posts or their local Facebook,
people that follow the arrests and.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
They it's they love it.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
They love that they feel like they can actually play
a part in making community safe.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Nate, dude, amazing, I mean and so inspiring. My god,
I'd love to have you back. I mean, it just
seems like there's so much, so much. Seriously, there's so
much to talk about. But as we as we wind
down here, how do people learn more about you and
the innocent what's the best way.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
The Innocent dot Org is our website and there's lots
of links on there. If you're in law enforcement, have
a law enforcement tab. Fiell that out with your law
enforcement email address. We're gonna want to get in touch
with you and see how we can come into your communities.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
There's a community tab.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
There's gonna be education coming soon on the main homepage.
If you sign up for the newsletter, that's our most
effective way to communicate with you. Social media doesn't allow
us really to get out there to people for whatever reasons,
but that's our most effective form of communication. So sign
up for the e email and then really just just
if you can. We're funded by the people, and if
(32:14):
you want to start a campaign for your community, click
on the community link. Also, we call it a protector,
somebody who donates as little as ten dollars a month.
If you think it doesn't make a difference, then it
probably you won't go do it, and you won't make
a difference. But if one hundred people today just went
and did that, we could make significant change.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
We can provide.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Those pieces of equipment to a department every single month,
you know, so think about that. If you can just
become a ten at least ten dollars a month. If
you can do more, that's fantastic. But we're funded one
hundred percent by the people to protect the children and
the innocence of children here in America. One hundred percent
of your dollars donated. We'll stay right here inside of
(32:52):
America as well.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
All right, and we will link that up here at
the show notes page at the Trauma Therapist podcast dot
com for those of you who want to sign up
for that. Nate, I'm so glad I got to meet
you and again love to have you back. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Let's do this.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Thanks, all right, brother, all right, man, take care, all
right
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Talk too soon.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.