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The Fall Line: True Crime

Introducing Operator

The Fall Line: True Crime

The Fall Line® Podcast, LLC

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.64.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2021

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During the 1-900 number craze of the Nineties, one company provided the vast majority of phone sex. American Telnet was an empire founded by the man who called himself “The Telephone Pimp.” He ran the company “like General Motors” and got filthy rich doing it. But for the (mostly) women who answered the calls and delivered fantasies 24-7, it was a different story. The powerful stigma against sex work was always lurking just beneath the surface, until it threatened to tear apart the whole company. Hosted by Tina Horn (Why Are People Into That?), OPERATOR is an eight-part series about big ambitions, Shakespearean-level corporate backstabbing, men and women at the cutting edge of a technological revolution...and on the front lines of a sexual one. Listen to Operator now! http://wondery.fm/OP_The_Fall_Line Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and

0:05.9

tools together in one place. It's your digital HQ where you can increase productivity,

0:11.1

enable flexibility and automate workflows. Plus, Slack is full of game-changing features

0:16.7

like huddles for quick check-ins or Slack Connect, which helps you connect with partners

0:20.9

inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at

0:26.9

Slack.com slash DHQ. Honda Civic, CI, VIC, Civic, starts with a soft

0:35.4

C, ends on a hard C. A name with two sides for a car with two sides. The new Honda Civic

0:43.0

Hybrid has a soft side with anti-fatec seats to help you feel less tired after a long drive.

0:49.1

And a hard side with a firm platform for cornering and responsiveness. The new Civic Hybrid,

0:56.3

CI, VIC, Honda, the power of dreams. There's a new mini-series out from

1:01.8

Wondry and topic studios that's truly fascinating and digs into a story and world that's largely

1:08.9

been untapped until now. It's called Operator and it presents the untold true story of

1:15.6

a phone sex line company that took over the world. Some of you may remember that in the

1:21.1

90s, ads for phone sex lines could be seen everywhere, flickering on late-night cable

1:26.6

channels and printed on the back of magazines. And there was an industry of phone sex operators

1:32.1

who worked around the clock to fulfill fantasies. It all started with an idea from a man named

1:38.1

Mike Partes, CEO and founder of American Tellnet. He was eventually joined by tech genius

1:44.4

and partner Michael Self, who was known as the Bill Gates of Phone Sex. But it was the

1:51.4

women working behind the phones who turned American Tellnet into a multi-billion dollar

1:56.0

company and revolutionized the sex industry. As fortunes grew, the founders were sailing

2:02.5

lavish yachts, fueling wild drug parties and burning through cash by the minute, and

2:07.8

the FCC was watching their every move.

...

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