Dr. Stein worked as a forensic psychologist under California's Sexually Violent Predator Act. Her role was to evaluate violent sex offenders alone, one by one, at various prisons across the state. It was her job to determine whether these offenders were fit for release or would remain behind bars for the rest of their days.

We caught up with Dr. Stein to discuss her book "Evil at Our Table: Inside the Minds of the Monsters Who Live Among Us" and what it was like to sit less than 3 feet away from some of the most danerous and violent offenders in the state of California.

On Halloween night we had the pleasure of speaking with Mike Brown of the Pleasing Terrors podcast and the Pleasing Terrors Ghost Tour in Charleston, South Carolina! We discuss spooky tales from Charleston and other places that Mike has had a chance to visit. We also discuss some of our own experiences!

What if the people running online scams weren't criminals by choice—but victims themselves?

In this episode, we talk with Ivan Franceschini and Ling Li, authors of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds, about the hidden world of online fraud across Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines. Based on years of fieldwork, their book reveals how thousands of people are trafficked or coerced into "pig-butchering" romance scams and investment cons inside prison-like compounds.

Franceschini and Li explain how organized crime, corruption, and technology have turned Southeast Asia into a global hub for cybercrime—and how many of the perpetrators are actually victims of modern slavery.

Ivan Franceschini is a lecturer at the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne, where he studies transnational crime and labor issues in China and Southeast Asia. Ling Li is a PhD researcher at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, focusing on technology's role in modern slavery and human trafficking. She also works directly with survivors of scam compounds across the region.