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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

As you can tell I'm a huge cinephile hehe. I actually wanted to be a director when I was in high school but those dreams never came true obviously

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yeah, I love movies too. I like to give them ratings in my head - one to five stars...

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

I remember first hearing about the golden triangle when I watched the French connection with Gene Hackman lol. Of course Asia has a long history with narcotics too. Going back to the opium wars of the 19th century. Which was maybe the first quote on quote "drug war" in history. And of course the Indochina wars and the birth of the golden triangle in the cold war. The underworld podcast did a video on the golden triangle and the story of sergeant smack an African American GI that helped frank Lucas run heroin out of Laos into harlem in the 60s and 70s. Of course everbody knows this now because of the Ridley scott movie american gangster which is another film I recommend although it's very fictionalized.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yeah, French Connection is a classic. I enjoyed American Gangster but I think it is a little dry as a movie, although the subject matter is fascinating...

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

The CIA has a pretty murky history for sure. I'm sure you heard of air America and the phoenix program

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

It reminded me of those 70s blackspoitation movies lol. It felt like Ridley incorporated some of those elements in it.

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Daniel Helkenn's avatar

What a fascinating story. I was hooked and ordered the book. I will continue to check him out. Thanks for pointing the way.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Nice one Daniel. Yeah, Patrick really nailed an untold story here.

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Lee HammMX's avatar

Wow, fascinating. The market size is incredible!

Was anyone else expecting Patrick Winn to be an inconspicuous asian guy? He must stand out dangerously in this part of the world!

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yes, incredible how much the meth market is worth in Asia - growing dragon economies kept alive with speed. Best there Lee.

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Daniel V's avatar

Thanks for putting the audio out, listen to it religiously in my podcast app!

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Well appreciated Daniel. Do you have a preferred platform to listen to it? I put it here on the Substack as well as Buzzsprout, Spotify, Apple, YouTube and a few more. And please let me know if you think there is anything I can do to improve. The Podcast is still very much a work in progress - I also have some more narrative episodes I am developing...

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Daniel V's avatar

I think I have the substack rss set up in podcast addict, I'm a fan of RSS because it's been around since I started listening to podcasts in the early 2010's and a lot of apps support it, but I'm a techie, so I'm probably in the minority.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Good to know. Thanks there brother.

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Daniel V's avatar

Thank you for all the great reporting!

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