212: Part 2: Natasha Herzig – Surviving human trafficking and helping others

Game of Crimes

True Crime

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Murph sits down with Natasha Herzig, a survivor of human trafficking, who shares her harrowing true crime story of survival, resilience, and hope. Natasha reveals the psychological manipulation, coercion, and abuse she endured at the hands of traffickers—and the immense struggles she faced when trying to rebuild her life after escaping.

Now a dedicated advocate and leader with the Arukah Project, Natasha works tirelessly to help sex trafficking victims heal and find freedom. Her story shines a light on the dark reality of human trafficking, the devastating impact on survivors, and the heroism required to overcome trauma and fight for justice.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We have an SOS, which is a survivor of the streets group that is for victims who are only survivors.
0:07.5	And we do whatever we can.
0:09.8	We try to get them housing, any type of hygiene, your immediate needs, clothing when we do rescue them.
0:16.2	We try to find them legal resources, just counseling, trauma recovery, any type, a lot of times they may
0:24.0	need to be on some sort of medicine to just deal with the trauma. And then also one of the most
0:28.7	important things at a Ruka project that we think is important in trauma recovery and healing is
0:34.6	helping them find justice. I like that part. Yeah. I like the whole thing about what you guys do. And just so you know, for those of you that are listening to this on audio and not on the video, go to the YouTube, type in Game of Crimes podcast. Click on the subscribe, please. The reason I'm saying this is because as you're saying this, there will be a slide up with Aruka's numbers on there for people to call.
0:54.5	If you need help, don't hesitate.
0:56.7	Give these folks a call.
1:10.6	Hey, gang. Welcome back to our next catch-up interview here on Game of Crimes with Murph in the morning, still in Southern California, the game conference down here.
1:19.1	And like I said, in some of the other interviews, what I love about this is people that we've had on the show, we do it virtually.
1:25.8	And I'm getting to meet these folks in person.
1:27.7	So this is very special. I hope it's special for them. I think it might be a surprise for them when they see, who's this old man coming up here trying to hug me? But that just kind of goes along with it. But as always, thank you for coming back every week. Your support. I couldn't do any of this without you. So love you guys and appreciate everything you do to keep game of crimes up and running.
1:47.0	So our guest. every week. Your support. I couldn't do any of this without you. So love you guys and appreciate
1:44.3	everything you do to keep game of crimes up and running. So our guest this time is a young
1:50.4	lady that was the first human trafficking victim that we ever had on the show. This is back when
1:57.0	Morgan was co-hosting with me. This is a story that breaks your heart, first of all.
2:04.3	I mean, you guys have seen me when I talked to Tyler Schwab about the kids.
2:07.6	And if you've watched any of the interviews, you've seen me tear up because it just
2:11.2	breaks my heart what happens to children.
2:13.2	But it also happens to older folks as well.
2:15.6	And by older, I'm still talking about a teenager.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Game of Crimes, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Game of Crimes and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.