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Americans are used to being on the lookout for a scam, but authorities are warning of a new kind of fraud. Puppy Kingpin shines a spotlight on Jolyn Noethe, a secretive businesswoman from Iowa who is accused of laundering puppies like drug money. Over the course of 7 episodes, investigative reporter and host Alex Schuman exposes the scheme and an underground part of the industry bringing us the pets we love. From Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment. Smoke Screen: Puppy Kingpin is available June 16th. Subscribe on apple podcasts to binge all episodes or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.  Smokescreen: Puppy Kingpin is part of The Binge -  a new podcast channel from Sony Music Entertainment. The Binge: All Episodes, All at Once. Coming Soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, as the final episodes of The Sellout aired, LA TACO got a tip from a listener: for years, Jose Huizar had been awarding flashy scholarships to college-bound students from Boyle Heights and East LA. But some of those students say they never got the scholarship money promised to them. Was Huizar really stiffing high school students from his own neighborhood? After months of investigating, we're ready to share what we found out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From critically acclaimed podcast studios Pineapple Street and Wondery comes a new 8-part series called Will Be Wild that shines a light on the human stories left out of the headlines. It goes deep into the lives of people who took part in that day. People who saw it coming. And people who fear that January 6th was just the beginning of something, not the end. Follow Will Be Wild wherever you get your podcasts, or you can listen early on Amazon Music or early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Listen Here: wondery.fm/SS_WillBeWild Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was supposed to be a reality show with a twist. In a sun-drenched villa in Ibiza, six hot guys compete for a cash prize and for the love of the beautiful and mysterious Miriam. It’s meant to be her big break: the moment she becomes the superstar she was born to be. But this is the era of “cruel reality TV” and the show producers have a different goal: they want to surprise the men with the fact that Miriam is trans. A new six-episode investigative series from Wondery, the makers of The Shrink Next Door and The Apology Line, and from Novel, HARSH REALITY is the story about love, lies, reality TV and a woman before her time: Miriam Rivera. Written by Agnes Borinsky and hosted by Trace Lysette. Listen to Harsh Reality: http://wondery.fm/HR_Smoke_Screen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mariah talks to the Boyle Heights residents who watched as FBI agents raided Huizar’s home and offices. Three months into the pandemic, he’s arrested and pleads not guilty. The residents of CD14 are left in limbo. We look at what the FBI investigation reveals about Los Angeles’s housing and homelessness crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Huizar’s carelessness starts to catch up with him. After more than a dozen all-expenses paid trips to Vegas with plenty of perks, Huizar gets played by one of his own. A businessman turned FBI informant gives Huizar an envelope with $15,000 in cash, and then tells the Feds all about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Huizar’s downfall started with a sexual harassment lawsuit. He didn’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle the suit on his own... so the Feds say he relied on a new friend. A developer who had plans to build a 77-story hotel in downtown LA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gentrification comes in waves. Over years, a piece of downtown LA transformed from Skid Row, to a bastion for young artists, to a hipster neighborhood with some of the highest rents in the city. By 2018, Huizar was allegedly collecting bribes from developers planning a luxury high rise just a couple blocks from where some of his constituents were getting evicted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No man is an island. Huizar couldn’t have pulled off the alleged corruption scheme without help. Host Mariah Castañeda tells the story of how Huizar allegedly built the criminal enterprise the FBI would eventually arrest him for. It all started when downtown was reassigned to his district. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When fancy new developments like The Gold Line expansion get proposed, residents of Boyle Heights wonder if it’s actually for them, or if these new new things are meant to attract future residents... a.k.a. gentrifiers. A mechanic is harassed by the city of Los Angeles after he refuses to sell his land to make way for construction. And Huizar's re-election campaign against Rudy Martinez gets petty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alvin Parra worked for Huizar when he first got elected. He saw early warning signs that Huizar wasn’t the man of the people he made himself out to be. Parra tried to warn people about what he saw behind closed doors, but most of them weren’t ready to listen. He ends up doing something drastic to try to expose Huizar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A militant organization called Defend Boyle Heights protests encroaching gentrification, by any means necessary. We dig into two origin stories: how Huizar emigrated at the age of 4 and ended up at Berkeley and Princeton, and how Boyle Heights has had a history of resistance and displacement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a working-class Latinx neighborhood in Los Angeles faces gentrification, residents are ready to fight to defend their turf. Mariachis lead a rent strike and ask their councilman Jose Huizar for help. But what they don’t realize is that he’s allegedly been taking bribes from developers building luxury housing right across the river, in downtown LA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Hirsch, Neon Hum CEO and host of I Am Rama, introduces this season of Smoke Screen (it's called The Sellout!) and our new paid subscription service, Smoke Screen Plus. If you buy a paid subscription on Apple Podcasts, you’ll get three episodes of bonus content throughout the season. You’ll also get each episode without ads, and 24 hours early. And, if you don’t subscribe… that’s fine! You’ll still get access to all the episodes, free. The first two episodes of The Sellout drop on October 26th. It's the story of a politician dogged by allegations of corruption, harassment and pathological pettiness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jose Huizar grew up in Boyle Heights – a working-class Latinx neighborhood in L.A. Eventually, he became their councilperson. And, for the most part, people trusted Huizar... until the day the FBI raided his home and offices, looking for evidence of corruption. The Feds would go on to say that Huizar led a criminal enterprise based in city hall. He stands accused of taking bribes from luxury developers as his constituents were displaced from their homes. This season of Smoke Screen is a collaboration with grassroots media organization L.A. TACO. In this 9-part investigative series, journalist and host Mariah Castañeda investigates how Huizar got the power to do what he did, and how the community that raised him paid the price. "The Sellout" drops October 26th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we explore all that Rama left behind: students, a charitable foundation, music, books, and a complicated legacy. I Am Rama is a Neon Hum Original podcast. Host and Executive Producer: Jonathan Hirsch Producer: Kate Mishkin Editor: Vikram Patel Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis Sound Designer: Scott Somerville Fact Checker: Justin Kloczko Production Manager: Sammi Allison Special Thanks: Shara Morris, Nick White, Carla Green, Chrystal Genesis, Natalie Rinn, Hayley Fager, and the rest of the team at Neon Hum and Sony Music Podcasts  Theme Song: Dolphin Dance, by Tangerine Dream. Other tracks in this episode are from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. You can find out more about this series and all the podcasts we produce at Neon Hum by visiting our website: Neonhum.com. You can also follow the show (@smokescreenpod) and Jonathan (@jonathanihirsch) on social media. For more information on this show and all other Sony Podcast shows, follow @SonyPodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Power trips to paradise and never-before shared knowledge -- were these golden times, or Rama’s way of saying goodbye? This episode explores the final years leading of Rama's life.  I Am Rama is a Neon Hum Original podcast. Host and Executive Producer: Jonathan Hirsch Producer: Kate Mishkin Editor: Vikram Patel Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis Sound Designer: Scott Somerville Fact Checker: Justin Kloczko Production Manager: Sammi Allison Theme Song: Dolphin Dance, by Tangerine Dream. Other tracks in this episode are from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. You can find out more about this series and all the podcasts we produce at Neon Hum by visiting our website: Neonhum.com. You can also follow the show (@smokescreenpod) and Jonathan (@jonathanihirsch) on social media. For more information on this show and all other Sony Podcast shows, follow @SonyPodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Rama’s image took a hit in the public sphere, his students circled the wagons around their teacher. In something of a last ditch effort to win over the media, Rama accepts an invitation to appear on Dateline.  I Am Rama is a Neon Hum Original podcast. Host and Executive Producer: Jonathan Hirsch Producer: Kate Mishkin Editor: Vikram Patel Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis Sound Designer: Scott Somerville Fact Checker: Justin Kloczko Production Manager: Sammi Allison Theme Song: Dolphin Dance, by Tangerine Dream. Other tracks in this episode are from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. You can find out more about this series and all the podcasts we produce at Neon Hum by visiting our website: Neonhum.com. You can also follow the show (@smokescreenpod) and Jonathan (@jonathanihirsch) on social media. For more information on this show and all other Sony Podcast shows, follow @SonyPodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Multiple women accuse Rama of sexual misconduct and emotional manipulation. Many of Rama’s students defend their teacher.  I Am Rama is a Neon Hum Original podcast. Host and Executive Producer: Jonathan Hirsch Producer: Kate Mishkin Editor: Vikram Patel Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis Sound Designer: Scott Somerville Fact Checker: Justin Kloczko Production Manager: Sammi Allison Theme Song: Dolphin Dance, by Tangerine Dream. Other tracks in this episode are from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. You can find out more about this series and all the podcasts we produce at Neon Hum by visiting our website: Neonhum.com. You can also follow the show (@smokescreenpod) and Jonathan (@jonathanihirsch) on social media. For more information on this show and all other Sony Podcast shows, follow @SonyPodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rama finds himself in the crosshairs of the Cult Awareness Network, a group dedicated to extricating people from what they consider to be cults by “deprogramming” them. But Rama’s students tell a much different story. I Am Rama is a Neon Hum Original podcast. Host and Executive Producer: Jonathan Hirsch Producer: Kate Mishkin Editor: Vikram Patel Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis Sound Designer: Scott Somerville Fact Checker: Justin Kloczko Production Manager: Sammi Allison Theme Song: Dolphin Dance, by Tangerine Dream. Other tracks in this episode are from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. You can find out more about this series and all the podcasts we produce at Neon Hum by visiting our website: Neonhum.com. You can also follow the show (@smokescreenpod) and Jonathan (@jonathanihirsch) on social media. For more information on this show and all other Sony Podcast shows, follow @SonyPodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices