Trafficking Hate: The Story of Frank Meeink

Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller

National Geographic

Documentary, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 527 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Frank Meeink was once one of the most prominent neo-Nazis in the U.S. and inspiration for the character played by Edward Norton in the 1998 film American History X. At 17, he was hosting a neo-Nazi cable-access TV show and touring around the country preaching white nationalism. After Frank kidnapped a rival gang member, he was arrested and sentenced to three years behind bars—but it wasn’t until he got a job moving antique furniture for a Jewish boss that his perspective really shifted. Join Mariana deeper in the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller Wednesdays on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The trafficked podcast with Mariana Van Zeller is intended for mature audiences.
0:06.8	Listener discretion is advised.
0:09.2	And a special note about this episode.
0:11.4	Today's story deals with topics of race, bigotry, and violence in a way that may be particularly upsetting to some listeners.
0:21.6	I don't consider myself a terrorist.
0:24.6	Now, is that something I'd be opposed to if I thought it would help us take power in the United States?
0:28.6	No.
0:30.6	I met this 28-year-old while reporting a TV episode about the growing global network of white supremacists.
0:38.1	He asked us to call him Arthur.
0:40.1	He wore a mask and asked us to alter his voice.
0:43.8	How did you find your neo-Nazi beliefs?
0:46.8	I was looking for a worldview, for an ideology, to explain why things were going so haywire.
0:54.0	Political discord, racial discord, people being so alienated, shootings, drug addiction.
1:00.9	I felt that there must be something that could stop all of this from happening.
1:05.8	And he found his answers online on a white supremacist forum.
1:12.2	In my reporting for this episode of the TV series, I was shocked by the online network of white supremacists,
1:19.6	who operates much like a trafficking network. Only, they're not putting drugs in people's bodies
1:26.0	or guns in their hands. They're putting violent ideas
1:30.0	in their heads. What are your thoughts on the New Zealand shooter? I think the only thing
1:35.5	he did wrong was that he didn't kill more. That is such a horrific thing to say. I mean,
1:41.4	is it, is it for the shock value that you say these things?
1:46.5	Not for shock value at all. If you have an invasion coming into your country, you don't
	...

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