Trust me, do it, trust me. Trust me, I'm like a smart person.

Yeah, I've never lied to you. I never have lied.

If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!

Welcome to Trust made the podcast about cult, extreme belief, and the abusive power from two Americans who've actually experienced it clearly.

I am Lowell Blanc, and I am Megan Elizabeth.

I could try harder, you know. No, it's horrible. Make it stop.

This week's guest is Herardo Lopez, Gang Interventionist and former member of MS-13, the notorious gang, best known for a handful of highly publicized and very brutal murders.

So you may have heard of MS-13 on, say, Fox News, when people like Donald Trump would mention the name in a sensationalized context, because, you know, the gang is frequently uses a right-wing talking point for a stricter immigration law.

And there are a variety of reasons why this argument was baseless and pretty much just xenophobic fear mongering, but for the purposes of today, we're going to focus on Herardo's story.

We have another two-parter, because there was so much to talk about, and we veer a little bit off the subject of cults, and we get pretty deep into the criminal justice system, but it's pretty fascinating.

In part one this week, he's going to tell us about growing up in Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, living in gang territory and joining MS-13 just to feel safe in his own neighborhood.

He'll talk to us about getting jumped into the gang and regretting the decision, but then falling in love with it and even being willing to die for it.

Plus, he'll get into the systemic conditions that lead to the rise of gangs and how expecting people to just be stronger than that is foolish.

He'll also describe getting arrested, how he learned to play the game of appearing reformed in juvenile facilities, and how it actually began to stick in his brain.

And when he got out, how his life began to change when he was approached by a gang interventionist, who ran a group called Homies Unidos.

To be continued next week when we talk more about Homies Unidos and his wild journey through the criminal justice system in the era of the Ramparts scandal, with the very corrupt LAPD for those of you who don't know what the Ramparts scandal is.

It's a lot, y'all, it's a lot, but he's so cool and fucking hilarious, so funny, and I don't want anybody to be scared off by the justice system stuff like it.

I'm the most ADD person alive and I was held wrapped in attention. All right, Megan, please tell me the coldest thing that's happened to you this week.

Okay, so L.A. is a cult, right? Sure. I guess it kind of is, right? I went to go stay with a friend. One of my friends moved out of L.A. She moved to Palm Springs. I went to go stay with her.

And there's a ton of people who moved to Palm Springs from L.A. during this pandemic. And then there's also an actress I follow on Instagram who moved out of L.A. and started a farm in like the middle of nowhere.

And you how they talk about L.A. now is so funny. And I'm just going to stick with the actress's point of view on her Instagram. You know, it's like I went back to L.A. this week.

Everyone had dead eyes like I escaped and like all this shit and they all just talk so much shit on people who still live in L.A. and I'm just kind of like, bro, we're like fine.

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