The Jordan Harbinger Show

Big porn sites enabled trafficking for profit. Here, Takedown author Laila Mickelwait shares how her fight against Pornhub led to industry-wide reform.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1143

What We Discuss with Laila Mickelwait:

• For over a decade, internet porn content provider Pornhub knowingly profited from illegal content with minimal moderation (10 staff per shift reviewing 700+ videos each) while requiring 15+ flags before review and tracking profits from questionable categories.
• Sex trafficking includes deception/coercion in monetized sexual acts. For minors, any commercial sexual exploitation automatically constitutes trafficking regardless of consent.
• Financial pressure proved most effective in Laila Mickelwait's crusade against Porhub's shady practices credit card companies cutting ties forced the company to remove 80% of content overnight, demonstrating how targeting enablers can be as effective as targeting perpetrators.
• Third-party age and consent verification for everyone in every video would prevent most exploitation while protecting privacy.
• Strategic activism works Laila succeeded by gathering evidence, building coalitions with victims and experts, and applying targeted pressure despite threats and harassment. Her example shows that determined individuals can challenge harmful systems by identifying pressure points and maintaining focus on accountability.
• And much more...

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From Emperor Shen Nung to Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign, Michael Regilio unpacks 5,000 years of cannabis history on this Skeptical Sunday!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by skeptic, comedian, and podcaster Michael Regilio!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1142

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• The modern war on cannabis has deeply racist roots, beginning with targeted efforts against Mexican immigrants in the early 20th century. Officials like Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, pushed explicitly racist propaganda against cannabis users, helping transform what was once widely accepted medicine into a demonized drug.
• Cannabis prohibition was also driven by powerful business interests. Companies like DuPont (developing petroleum-based products like nylon and cellophane) saw hemp as a competitive threat, while William Randolph Hearst wanted to protect his paper mill investments. These business moguls leveraged political connections to criminalize cannabis despite scientific evidence of its relative safety.
• The Nixon administration weaponized cannabis laws against political opponents. Nixon's domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman later admitted: "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin ... we could disrupt those communities. ... Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
• Cannabis interacts with our bodies through the endocannabinoid system, a biological network that helps regulate mood, energy, balance, and appetite. Our bodies naturally produce cannabinoids, but plant-derived versions like THC are approximately a thousand times more powerful. Importantly, cannabis use during pregnancy or adolescence can be harmful to developing brains, with studies linking early use to depression, anxiety, and even psychosis.
• The good news? If you're over 25, moderate cannabis use appears relatively safe (unless you're predisposed to mental health issues). Today, cannabis legalization is creating positive social impacts through tax revenue funding education, environmental cleanup, and drug prevention programs, while simultaneously reducing spending on enforcement and incarceration — turning a historically problematic policy into community benefits.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [email protected] and let him know!
• Connect with Michael Regilio at Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and make sure to check out the Michael Regilio Plagues Well With Others podcast here or wherever you enjoy listening to fine podcasts!

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A manipulative "dark guru" assaults women in your community while event organizers ignore reports. How can safety be restored? It's Feedback Friday!

And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at [email protected]. Now let's dive in!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1141

On This Week's Feedback Friday:

• If you've ever wanted to hear Gabriel discuss feet, thumbs, and hot tubs with another J. Harbinger, you're going to love how this episode begins!
• Your arts community should be a safe haven, but it's been infiltrated by a predator who uses spiritual "shadow work" (à la Carl Jung) as a cover for assault. Multiple women have shared their stories with you, but event organizers won't act. How can you protect these women while ensuring this shady manipulator faces consequences without putting yourself in danger?
• Your mother-in-law threw you a baby shower featuring strangers from her MLM "tribe" who didn't follow registry instructions. The event felt more like her show than your celebration. Now you're anticipating boundary battles when the baby arrives — especially around her anti-science beliefs. You don't want to seem ungrateful, but what can you do to gain control of this awkward situation?
• As a federal employee during massive governmental "re-alignment," you're watching colleagues get "released" after lifetimes of civil service. With the sword of Damocles hanging over your own head daily, how do you process the potential loss of purpose, the anxiety of uncertainty, and the feeling that important work might remain undone? What's next if your mission suddenly evaporates?
• Your intellectually disabled sister-in-law attempted suicide in front of your young son after refusing an apology. Without legal guardianship established, paramedics couldn't force treatment, and your in-laws seem unwilling to address the situation properly. How do you protect your children, handle familial responsibility, and prepare for her eventual care?
• Recommendation of the Week: Strrrrrrrrretchiiiiiing!
• Remember the 27-year-old daughter who refused to leave her parents' home on Feedback Friday episode 1127? After discussing this "failure to thrive" case, listeners offered their perspectives on potential autism, cultural norms around adult children living at home, and the delicate balance between support and enabling. What does true parental love look like?
• Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at [email protected]!
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger.
• Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi and Instagram @gabrielmizrahi.

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Why do mass shootings occur? Trigger Points author Mark Follman explains warning signs, behavioral assessment, and how to stop attacks before they happen.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1140

What We Discuss with Mark Follman:

• Mass shootings are not random events, but involve a "pathway to violence" where perpetrators plan their attacks over time, showing warning signs that create opportunities for intervention.
• Mental illness is not the primary cause of mass shootings. While mental health issues may be present, perpetrators are typically making deliberate choices driven by factors like anger, isolation, and perceived grievances rather than psychosis.
• Many mass shooters seek notoriety and are influenced by previous attackers through emulation behavior — they want to transform from nobody to somebody through violence and media attention.
• Warning signs that appear before attacks often include threatening communications, research/planning behaviors, significant life stressors, and social isolation — but these must be evaluated collectively rather than as a checklist.
• Behavioral threat assessment teams offer an effective prevention approach by bringing together mental health professionals, law enforcement, and educators to identify at-risk individuals and provide constructive interventions like counseling, education support, and family involvement — showing that these tragedies can be prevented with the right collaborative approach.
• And much more...

And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

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Fad diets work — until they don't. On this Skeptical Sunday, Nick Pell reveals why a sustainable regimen always beats restriction for lasting weight loss!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1139

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday, We Discuss:

• Most fad diets work primarily through inadvertent caloric restriction, not some kind of metabolic magic. When you eliminate entire food groups (per keto's commandments) or shrink eating windows (as with intermittent fasting), you're essentially performing a disappearing act on hundreds of daily calories. The weight loss isn't mysterious — it's mathematical.
• These diets often resemble nutritional extreme sports — thrilling at first, but impossible to maintain over the long term. Like trying to hold your breath underwater, eventually you come up gasping for carbs.
• The Standard American Diet (ironically abbreviated S.A.D.) sets such a dismally low nutritional baseline that almost any structured eating plan looks miraculous by comparison. When researchers celebrate a diet's success, they're often comparing it to a nutritional landscape where frozen pizza qualifies as a vegetable serving.
• Many of these diets carry surprising biological price tags — keto's potential kidney damage, carnivore's digestive rebellion (pooping "once every three days" is less a feature than a warning sign), and nutritional blind spots that could leave your body wondering what happened to all those essential micronutrients it once enjoyed.
• The most effective diet isn't the most restrictive or trendy, but simply the one you'll actually maintain. Like finding your soulmate, the best nutritional approach matches your lifestyle and preferences while gently steering you toward better choices. The best diet is the one that you'll stick with. Consider finding your personal sweet spot between nutrition science and real-life application by making modest, consistent improvements rather than dramatic overnight overhauls. Your future self will thank you for the balanced approach.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [email protected] and let him know!

And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

• This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals
• Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!
• Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom!
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