Inside the Horrific Practice of Child Soldiering | Eyes On Geopolitics

https://endchildsoldiering.com Grab the book “All The Glimmering Stars”⬇️ https://a.co/d/4qB2fwW https://www.loboinstitute.org Today we’re joined by Eric Oehlerich and Mark Sullivan to talk about child soldering and the incredible story of Anthony and Florence in the book “All The Glimmering Stars”, who came out of the other end of being kidnapped and used as child soldiers in Uganda and continue to work to stop the practice. —————————————————————— New merch, patches, and stickers! ⬇️ https://theteamhouse-shop.fourthwall.com Support the show on Patreon:⬇️ You get: -Early access and ad free audio/video -The ability to ask the guys and guests questions -$10 level gets all that plus a free patch ⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse Find Mick Mulroy here: Fogbow ⬇️ https://fogbow.com/ Lobo Institute ⬇️ https://www.loboinstitute.org/ Twitter ⬇️ https://x.com/mickmulroy?s=21&t=-Ze3F_Ix2vlJ18KFvORTCA LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-patrick-mulroy-31198b52/ Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/mickmulroy.bsky.social Mick’s publications ⬇️ https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/publications-of-michael-mick-patrick-mulroy/ Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️ https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8 LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023 Substack ⬇️ https://amilburn.substack.com/ Andy’s book ⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-Operations Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/andy-milburn.bsky.social Find Jason Lyons here: LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lyons-666873316?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/bgsilverback73.bsky.soci Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:41Speaker 04

  Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Eyes on Geopolitics. I'm here with a couple of very special guests, Eric Ulrich and Mark Sullivan. Eric, I think you guys probably know Eric from his Team House episode, former DevGru squadron commander.

• 1:58Speaker 04

  All around badass. Great episode. If you haven't seen that, check that one out. Mark Sullivan. Pretty prolific author, I'd say. Eighteen books, I think, and bestsellers. And they've been working on a project. Called All the Glimmering Stars. It was that came out about a year ago. The link is in the description. So grab it there. Incredible story about Anthony and Florence Apoka. I hope I say that, said that the right way. Former child soldiers in the LRA in Uganda. That. Did the, did the thing that's kind of like, you know, the impossible and got out.

• 2:35Speaker 04

  Met each other and are today, you know, part of the fight against child soldiering. So guys, thanks for, thanks for joining Eyes on today. Really appreciate it.

• 2:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, we're thrilled to be here. Yeah, thank you, Dee.

• 2:48Speaker 04

  No, of course. So.

• 2:52Speaker 04

  All the Glimmering Stars. I mean, incredible story.

• 2:57Speaker 04

  I honestly, it should, it should probably be like a feature film. I think, I think it'd be an incredible feature film that would should win awards.

• 3:06Speaker 04

  Just give us like the, you know. Rundown on, on the book and the story with Anthony and Florence.

• 3:12Speaker 05

  Sure. I mean, one of the interesting things is how this all came to pass. So. I had two sons who tried to make the US ski team and went to school in Salt Lake City. As did Eric and very Eric lived and my sons lived with a guy named Alan Hayes. And Alan unfortunately died. And when he died, Eric and my son Connor. And Bridge, they all went to Alan's house and they were part of the. The crew that was, you know, dealing with Alan's estate and. My son called me up and said, hey dad, I heard this story from Eric last night and I think it's your next book. I, I'm interested in writing books that. Are inherently moving, inspiring, healing to some people and transforming to others.

• 3:56Speaker 05

  And when I heard this story of Anthony and Florence Apoka, I was like, this meets all the criteria and I'm in. We went to Uganda. We were supposed to be there in 20. We ended up going in 21 because of the pandemic. Our trip even got cut short a little because of the Delta virus. But we were able to spend almost two and a half weeks and Eric and Mick, his partner, known Anthony and Florence for years, but it was my first experience with them. And one of the things I've found, uh, working on these kinds of stories is when you meet people like Anthony and Florence, who have gone through some of the harshest things

• 4:40Speaker 05

  that a human being can go through, it's remarkable, but they seem to glow inside. It either destroys them or it creates almost like a superhuman. And, you know, the story of Anthony and Florence is these kids who are 14 years old and they get kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army and a madman named Joseph Coney. And, um, Coney attempts to dehumanize them and to put them through, uh, training that, uh, I believe Eric, when you heard it, you said this, most SEALs could not have survived it. Yeah. And, uh, you know, hearing what they went through and how they survived it was really one of the more remarkable things I've ever heard in my life.

• 5:25Speaker 05

  Um, when you realize that the reason that they survived and escaped was first of all each other, right? But the first, the next thing is that what I found remarkable was they both were raised in villages outside, you know, small cities in Africa and these fairly remote villages. And they were given certain principles and ways to live their life. Um, Florence, for example, was taught from a very early age that there was nothing in the universe more powerful than love. And she held that in her heart, basically her whole life and continues to. And Anthony, in his village, he was taught to be a good human, not a good man, not a good, any that good human.

• 6:10Speaker 05

  And it's amazing that despite the fact that they were kidnapped, sent through this training that was an effort to dehumanize them, they both held on to these things in their, in their hearts. Uh, and when they met each other five years into this 10-year ordeal, they legitimately fall in love and.

• 6:33Speaker 05

  Love basically unearths these lessons from their childhood and allows them to A survive the last five years in captivity, but then escape and then to turn the tables on Coney and his henchmen with Anthony being one of the, you know, top witnesses at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. And the arc of the story is, is just phenomenal that a kid who was 14 and has the best intentions about life can manage to survive one of the most horrific things I've ever heard of and come out and just be a remarkable human being and an agent for change in an area of, of life on earth that needs to be changed.

• 7:17Speaker 04

  Yeah. Uh, please.

• 7:24Speaker 05

  Anything to add to that Eric that I haven't covered?

• 7:26Speaker 06

  Yeah. The, it, and, and the way that it, it came about where I was able to illustrate this story to Mark's son Connor there at Alan's house was that a few years prior to, um, I was working counterterrorism operations down on African continent and my now business partner and used to be in the agency McMullroy, who has been on the podcast and Team House, um, as well. He was a chief of station in Uganda.

• 8:05Speaker 06

  I was working the, to assist the Ugandans to find Coney. And Mick being the chief of station there in Uganda was central to the hunt for Coney. And it wasn't about Americans capturing or killing Coney, cause if we, we would have been able to do it, but it was about enabling Ugandans to capture and kill those with Tony. And we took a couple of really good swings at him, you know, we had him a couple of times, but we just couldn't quite close the distance with the, with the UPDA, Ugandan People's Defense. Um.

• 8:45Speaker 06

  But through that Mick and I and specifically Mick spent a bit more time with Anthony, who at this point had gone through the entire kind of trial and tribulation that Mark was talking about. And he then joined the UPDF because in his heart, he knew

• 9:08Speaker 06

  the atrocities that he had observed and the things that had been

• 9:14Speaker 06

  printed on him that he didn't have a choice and were not right. And he wanted to fix it. So he joined the UPDF and then he started to help us

• 9:26Speaker 06

  specifically intercept the communications decipher them and then know what the LRA elements were doing as we were trying to hunt Coney. So that's how we came across the story. Mick and I have traveled the world. We've been in every, every war, every undeclared war, most places that are unstable and in conflict through the GWAT, the, you know, the global war on terror. And when we understood the full extent of this story, both of us were like, holy cow, we couldn't, we, I mean, one, it was hard to believe. And then two, when we knew it was actually true,

• 10:08Speaker 06

  we were just like, this needs a broader audience. More people need to hear this because just as Mark laid out, it's, it's moving, it's inspiring. It, you know, their character and what pulled them through that, it's, it's transforming for people. And, and we just felt like it needed a broader audience and, you know, the, the universe put us together with Mark through a, you know, set of serendipitous circumstances. And here we are. You know, a couple of years later with a, with a book out, but, but the topic itself, it's, it's not getting any.

• 10:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, and and the amazing thing that I found about both Anthony and Florence is how humble they were. You know, they easily could have been full of resentment, anger. This thing could have destroyed their life, and yet, when you meet them, it actually launched their life. And that's a remarkable thing. The other thing is that when Mick and Eric came to me and told me the story, they said, if we believe that if this story is told right, it can actually end the practice of child soldiering. It'll raise the awareness so high that people will begin refusing to bring children into combat.

• 11:24Speaker 05

  I think Eric can talk a little bit about what are the effects of children who are in combat who don't get the rehabilitation that they need.

• 11:37Speaker 06

  Yeah, thanks, Mark. So Dee.

• 11:42Speaker 06

  As as the as the war on terror has progressed, as you know, somebody that's been in low-level conflict for decades now, in and around it and participating in it. What I'm seeing is that the number of low-level conflict areas around the world are increasing. And the problem that happens is that when a conflict, let's just take, and we can use Syria for example. You know, I mean, Syria started to kick off. The real problem is that when the superpowers align on opposite sides, and then they fight through proxy, and and we continue to supply it,

• 12:24Speaker 06

  what happens is the conflict doesn't come to resolution quickly. So it's it's it's lower levels of conflict. It isn't it isn't like World War II all out, you know. So it's global conflict, but it's a lower level, but it just goes on and on and on and on. And because you have supplies on both sides, it never ends. And what happens is the people that are in that meat grinder, it starts with adults.

• 12:53Speaker 06

  And then five years into it, you're kind of getting into like younger adults. And then seven to eight, nine years into it. Now you start to see that the people that fill those ranks get younger and younger and younger. And I I saw it firsthand for a long time in Somalia, working there. I've seen it firsthand in Yemen and Afghanistan. It's absolutely paramount.

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• 15:22Speaker 06

  So that's what's occurring. And in Syria, again, for example, you know, we had the Russians aligned with the Assad regime. We had the international community that kind of came in to help take care of the ISIS problem. But in the middle of that, you had ISIS. And ISIS wanted, was a terror organization, wanted to function as a state. So they had to fill those ranks and they wanted to fill it with people that were below, you know, like younger. And so they put the Cubs in Caliphate. Cubs of Caliphate, I mean, those are, it's almost a carbon copy of the Lord's Resistance Army. They're taking these kids, knocking them again, making them do horrendously violent things to, to break their psychology,

• 16:03Speaker 06

  separate them from their parent group, and then be able to morph it to how that terror group wanted to be. And, you know, right now, you know, so the international community, we got, we got tired of ISIS blowing up concerts in, in France or running over people at Bastille Day in France and, you know, doing these attacks in Europe. The international community bonded together. We went and kinetically bombed them out of Iraq, choked them all the way down in Syria, dumped them. But now we've got remnants of the terror group left in these independent IDP camps, independently, just based persons.

• 16:45Speaker 06

  But yeah, tens of thousands of kids there, they've only known violence, they've only known no stable home. And now they're stuck in this camp on perpetuity with no education, and the cycle just continues. But that's what I'm seeing around in Europe.

• 17:03Speaker 06

  And the UN reports yearly on the issue of soldiers and children being expelled.

• 17:11Speaker 06

  It went up over 20% between the last two reporting cycles in the UN. So as these comps, as more and more of these are, are occurring,

• 17:22Speaker 06

  this, this, this topic, this, I wouldn't call it a phenomenon, it's like a disease. This disease is continuing to spread and increase and... This is probably one of the first books that really gives you a firsthand look what that is like for the kids.

• 17:42Speaker 06

  Well, like they're like the voiceless population. So that's why Mick and I and Mark are are a bit passionate about it. And Mick, or sorry, Mark committed to writing the book. So.

• 17:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, when I I didn't know much about child soldiering at all, I was sort of tangentially aware of it. But when Mick and Eric, you know, started explaining to me what the greater ramifications are of child soldiering. And I realized I had the opportunity to illustrate it through the book and really take people and show them what these kids have to go through.

• 18:18Speaker 05

  It became, you know, a mission for me that if I could write it in a way that basically brought people right into the experience. I believe that they would be so affected that they would help and and, you know, so far, so good. We've we've had like amazing response when people have actually read the thing and been through it. Again, you know, one of the great things is that I got to spend a bunch of time with Anthony and Florence. And I don't think I've met two finer human beings. I mean, honest to God, it it's remarkable what they went through and again, who they became.

• 18:56Speaker 05

  And that they're trying to end child soldiering and they were willing to, you know, tell parts of their story that were frankly brutally humiliating to them. And and yet they were fiercely honest with me. And because of that, the book rings with authenticity. You know, it you know that you are really going along on this ride with them. The amazing thing to me again was that Coney was basically allowed to operate with impunity for a long time until people started realizing just how far he gone.

• 19:32Speaker 05

  It's definitely a heart of darkness story.

• 19:36Speaker 05

  You know, when I, when I really thought about it, and the thing is, you're watching two children go to the heart of darkness and confronting it again and again, because of course, Anthony, the, the key thing here to understand is that he became Coney's radio man. And he was basically right there for the last, well, you know, the seven years that he was in, in the Lord's Resistance Army. He was a direct witness to most of what Coney did, and he certainly was responsible for, transmitting his orders. So he knew, he knew, he saw everything. And I think Coney would always tell him, you know, you're gonna be my, someday you're gonna be my Minister of Communications when we take over Uganda.

• 20:21Speaker 05

  And the funny thing, the interesting thing is, of course, he, he did become the Ministry of Communication against them. You know, when he gets taken to the Hague and he testifies against them. I mean, you can, you can Google that trial. And Anthony's not named, but he's also, he's always referred to as, you know, Witness XYZ, but he's the radio man. And it's some of the most powerful testimony that were in those, those trials. Because he was a direct eyewitness to everything. And the fascinating thing is how they got out of it.

• 21:01Speaker 05

  Okay, they escaped. Anthony's escape is epic. It, it, you know, he runs for days, 24 hours a day across, gets cadnapped, he's being hunted. But the remarkable thing is they come back and they're able to go on with their lives because they both learned to forgive Coney.

• 21:27Speaker 05

  To under, and when you see what Coney did to them and how he manipulated them and how he attempted to dehumanize their minds, I found it frankly stunning that these two young people come out of this 10 year ordeal and the way they free themselves is to forgive Coney. Now that doesn't mean that they don't want to see him, you know, caught eventually and put on trial because as Anthony said is I've forgiven him, but I would testify against him tomorrow. And Florence did the same thing. Um, when you meet people like that who have that kind of courage, it's pretty remarkable.

• 22:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, you can't help but being all of somebody like that, that can live in a world like that for 10 years while you're developing as a child, you know, and come out of it, not the most cynical. You know, like just having that kind of transformation is incredible. You, most people would think it'd be impossible, right?

• 22:29Speaker 05

  That's right. That's right. And, you know, most people would think it's impossible and they, they do it. You know, it's not like every child soldier who came out of the LRA got reformed. I mean, the sad fact is that some of these kids don't survive it. They, they survive it physically, but mentally they're never right again. There's alcoholism, drug addiction.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  Hey, Mark, I'm just, you're, you're a little bit.

• 23:05Speaker 04

  Oh, you're back now. You got a little bit choppy for a second there.

• 23:09Speaker 05

  Okay. Sorry about that. That's.

• 23:15Speaker 04

  Yeah. So I, if you could just kick off from.

• 23:19Speaker 05

  That's right. Uh, no, again, it, you know, the thing is amazing about them is that they did survive and they survived through the power of love and forgiveness. And yet a lot of kids who went through it. They didn't come back right, you know, drug addiction, alcoholism, uh, deep mental illness from what they were forced to do. And you know, that's the horrible thing is that these kids are innocents. That that's the most important thing to keep remembering is they didn't volunteer for this. Uh, in Anthony Florence's case, they were kidnapped.

• 23:55Speaker 04

  Yo, what's up, guys? Uh, we had a little bit of technical difficulty with Mark over there. So this is a bit of a cut. Usually I'll drop an ad in here or an ad for our Patreon or something. But I really want to put it in a, an ad and a little call to action for checking out this story. Cause it's crazy. It's so incredible. Um, we're filled in a world where everything is falling apart and everything's garbage. And what Anthony and Florence went through was absolutely horrific and for them to come out on the other end. And really prosper and succeed and have a family and still fight to stop child soldiering. It's kind of incredible. So do us a favor. Go to child soldiering.org. Link is in the description.

• 24:39Speaker 04

  Um, a bunch of links are in the description. You could check them out. The book, of course, All the Glimmering Stars. Anything and everything is down in the description. If you can, give a couple bucks to what they're trying to do here. Um, cause it's a horrific, horrific practice and I feel like everybody can kind of get behind. Uh, ending child soldiering and stuff like that. So check out the links in the description. Really appreciate you guys checking out this, this podcast. Thanks.

• 25:06Speaker 06

  I mean, it, it, you know, to be honest with you, Dee, it took Mick and I a couple of months.

• 25:13Speaker 06

  Of talking to Anthony.

• 25:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:16Speaker 06

  And actually going through the whole sequence of events of it. Before we were like, this ain't real.

• 25:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, right.

• 25:24Speaker 06

  I mean, it's like.

• 25:25Speaker 04

  So insane to like, yeah.

• 25:26Speaker 06

  So insane, you know, unlike what Mark is bringing up is, is their, their resilience.

• 25:36Speaker 06

  Two kids, fourteen years old, that are abducted out of their homes with just some founding principles that their, that their parents had planted in them. And to go through what they did, you know, I mean, Florence's brother was stomped to death in front of her. Anthony, you know, I mean, just, you know, horrific events. Anthony, I think he was shot six times and hit with an RPG, looking straight off his chest and the, and the fins, you know, stabilization fins on the back of an RPG ripped through his shoulder, basically tore his right arm almost all the way off.

• 26:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:20Speaker 06

  I mean, you know, just, um, all that. And then when they do, when they do escape the LRA, like, they, I mean, put that in context of the average American citizen.

• 26:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:39Speaker 06

  At fourteen, they were abducted. At twenty-four, they're free.

• 26:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:44Speaker 06

  How many hours of counseling and everything else do you think they would be like, oh, my God, I'll never be right unless?

• 26:51Speaker 04

  I don't even think there's enough hours in the day.

• 26:53Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 26:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:54Speaker 06

  And yet, and yet you have these kids and maybe they don't have counselors, they don't have, no, like what they have is they have their own courage, they have the seeds that their parents planted in them. Like, you know, the resiliency is as admirable as the ability to withstand any, you know, like I don't, I don't want to talk about the whole story.

• 27:24Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 27:25Speaker 06

  But, you know, the, the two things that stand out for me. Are first and foremost, um, flaws, um, but in the book, she's known as Betty because she refused to give her mother's her name. But Betty stands down toughest woman I've ever met my entire life. Absolutely. And there's, there's a part of the book and, and her story that it's, it's hard for me even like watch the own documentary Nick and I put together about it. And not get a tear in my eye about I am a test and what she did and what she had to face on her own with a couple of small kids.

• 28:06Speaker 06

  It's just, it's, it, yeah, giving birth in the middle of a firefight. It's insane.

• 28:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:11Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 28:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:12Speaker 06

  When I, yeah.

• 28:14Speaker 05

  When I heard, when I heard from Eric and Mick that she had given birth during in combat, um, I was, all right, I'm gonna, I wanna write this book. And then, but to hear her tell the story of having a toddler on her back, carrying an AK-47 in the middle of a firefight in the Nile river bottom, uh, it's pouring rain, the Nile's flooding and they're being attacked um, by the Ugandan army and she has to take herself across the river, uh, on a rope with her kid.

• 28:57Speaker 05

  She basically creates a raft out of empty bottles and puts them in a plastic bag and she gets across and she's under a heavy machine gunfire and she gets to the bank and she's in active labor. And she gives birth during this nighttime firefight and I, I, you know, I agree with Eric. She's the toughest woman I've ever met in my life and, and yet she's got the most brilliant smile and laugh and she genuinely loves life, you know, she, she told us that

• 29:36Speaker 05

  when we came that before we listened to the story, she did not think much of her life story, which I found extraordinary in and of itself that she didn't. Um, but she said that. By the questions we asked her and I asked her that she began to see that her story was in effect a universal story about how just how strong the the human spirit can be. And I mean, she is an absolute classic example of the the strength of the human spirit and what it can overcome.

• 30:16Speaker 06

  And then for for Anthony.

• 30:20Speaker 06

  And the only time that Anthony showed emotion when we were asking about all the questions about being shot repeatedly. Having a RPG almost rip his arm off, seeing these atrocities committed against these villagers by, you know, Coney and his soldiers. The only time he he was ever emotional was when he talked about surrendering. Because it was him, in his eyes, it's the first time that he had ever given up. And it was extremely hard for him. He'd figured out a way to get his family out of there. He'd figured out a way to uh receive a message from her that she actually made it.

• 31:05Speaker 06

  He figured out a way to to cover up that he was gonna make a run for it. And then he, you know, he picked his star and that. He ran, put it all on the line, he went for it. And even at the end of all that. It was hard for him to finally give up his gun and and and surrender. It was, it's the only time he gets emotional.

• 31:29Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 31:30Speaker 06

  Yeah, but uh, you know, it just and and it just shows his resiliency.

• 31:37Speaker 06

  And you know, like going through SEAL training, they'll tell you all the time. Look, this it's not a physical thing, it's a mental thing. We're just using physical pain to see how tough you are mentally. And and that's a, it's absolutely accurate. We got all sorts of ways to figure out how tough they are mentally. He had the same thing and that guy is. He's, um, that is just incredible.

• 32:02Speaker 05

  Yeah. Yeah, and one of the things you gotta understand is that the number one rule in the LRA is you never give up your gun. Number one rule, because the guns were hard to come by, they usually were found in combat if they weren't, you know, when they were proxy armies, they were given weapons, but he gets a weapon out of combat that's left behind, and it becomes like his security blanket and as well as his defense and every other thing. But, yeah, that moment where the lieutenant who comes out to receive him says, you know, it's over, it's time to come home.

• 32:45Speaker 05

  That was the only time I saw him break, and he just started crying, recalling that moment, because he was out, you know, I mean, that was it, that was his moment. And then, of course, you know, they put him in jail, because he's a, you know, he's a former LRA guy, and they start interrogating him, and they find out who he is, and they find out he's the radio man, and that not only that, he knows this code system that they developed called TAFAS. And the TAFAS were designed to allow them to communicate, you know, with various LRA factions around southern Sudan and in Uganda, and to talk without, you know, understanding him.

• 33:30Speaker 05

  One of the first interrogators comes in, finds out he's the radio man, he says, prove it, and slides across this, you know, communique that they had intercepted, and he basically translates it right there on the spot. And then they know who he is, and then they know that he's gonna be an incredible tool, because he can tell them exactly what they're doing, when and why, and, you know, he really becomes the... The brain trust of all the people who are trying to hunt Coney. And it's just phenomenal what the guy does and how he does it. And but again, he Mick is a big stoic, for example. And I don't think I've ever met a more stoic person in a sense than Anthony.

• 34:17Speaker 05

  Because he doesn't get rattled by it. And yet he's the first guy to smile. He's the first guy to laugh. You know, he's the first guy to just accept you for who you are. I mean, I was a total stranger. Eric and Mick, you know, knew him by comment. I mean, within a couple of hours, you know, he I felt like he was a really close friend because he was telling me all this stuff and opening up. And the fact that he and both of them retain this amazing sense of humor. They like life, they see life, you know, they both told me that after everything they've been through, they look at life as a miracle. Now, that's pretty stunning, right?

• 34:58Speaker 05

  To go through 10 years of captivity, be exposed to all these inhumane things and to still believe that life is a miracle is shocking to me. And it really made me like rethink, you know, everything about myself, right? I mean, I was like, all right. You know, I'm a I'm a pretty tough guy. I'm not Ulrich or Mick, but you know, whatever. And but I was just in awe of what this guy had gone through and who he became. And the same thing for Florence. You know, she was forced to do horrible things, you know? They married her off to like a 70 plus year old guy. And thank God he got killed in combat.

• 35:40Speaker 05

  And that's how she ends up, you know, marrying Anthony. And, you know, they're the way they the both of them described their meeting was just, you know, it was.

• 35:55Speaker 07

  Hi, I'm Jenna Ashkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At The Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel. People would always think I was lactose intolerant.

• 36:12Jack Murphy?

  So I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 36:20Speaker 07

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone. One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies. So join us and hear their stories and more because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At The Table, the food allergy podcast on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At The Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

• 36:50Speaker 02

  Forget whatever plans you have this weekend because you're staying at home and playing on Spinquest. And there's never been a better time to sign up than right now. New users get $30 coin packs for just $10. All the table games you love with hundreds of slot games and real cash prizes. That's at spinquest.com. S P I N Q U E S T dot com.

• 37:14Jack Murphy?

  Spinquest is a free to play social casino. Void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

• 37:19Speaker 05

  Honey, it was tender, it was beautiful. And it all happened in the middle of the worst thing, right? That you can imagine. And they legitimately fall in love. And when you meet them, they're still in love. You know, they're, they're very passionate about each other and, and it was definitely one of the peak experiences of my life to meet them and interview them and, and to tell their story on page.

• 37:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, it's just unbelievable story. And it kind of, it kind of gives you back a little bit of faith in humanity, a little bit, when you do become a little bit cynical, you hear people like, that go through these kinds of things where most folks, if they experience 10% of that, and understandably so, would be, you know, broken by it, right? And it would take forever to, you know, try and get back to some semblance of, you know, being normal. Eric, I like what you would make, have done with this story, just because.

• 38:27Speaker 04

  We hear about child soldiering, you know, and it kind of feels abstract, right? You know, it's some faraway place where we don't think about it and it's like we all think when we hear about it like, oh, it's very sad and terrible. And it shouldn't be happening. By bringing Anthony and Florence's story to the forefront, you see that like, these are actually human beings. That are going through this. This isn't, you know, something that's like you're just reading in a headline or something like that. And their story is so incredible that it's like. You need to, we need to try and figure out how to fix this issue of child soldiering worldwide. I mean, I know it's a tough. A tough. Hill to climb, but.

• 39:13Speaker 04

  Do you want to talk more about like the strategic level of like where it's at now? How like, how, what we could do to like, try and fix it, try to mitigate it as much as possible and all that?

• 39:27Speaker 06

  Yeah, Dee, thank you.

• 39:32Speaker 06

  Like, like I said, when I kind of outlined the topic at large and the trends that are occurring and kind of where it's going.

• 39:40Speaker 06

  One of the, one of the biggest things with the book is that. You know. We brought.

• 39:48Speaker 06

  We brought the ability through Mark is, you know, killing and writing to walk the readers through what it's like to be. A child stuck in that situation. And. A large part of the, of the revenue generated from that book goes to a nonprofit that we're all a part of. It's called End Child Soldiering. And with End Child Soldiering, we've, we've given out a couple, what we call a POCO awards yearly, annually, we kind of. And Nick and I understand the topic really well. We understand where. This this cancer is is is is occurring a lot.

• 40:31Speaker 06

  And then, you know, we find we know a lot of the inroads and organizations that are very effective at getting it right down to that grassroots level. And the dollar goes a long way there. And so, uh, basically, a a large amount of the book proceeds. They go into a nonprofit and then we're helping to affect change.

• 40:53Speaker 06

  You know, there's another institution that uh did do a really good job at it. And, you know, we'll probably end up partnering with them in some way, shape or form. It's called the Delaire Institute. And uh General Delaire was a Canadian.

• 41:09Speaker 06

  He was in the Canadian Defense Force. And he was the UN officer in charge during the Rwanda genocide. So he saw that whole thing unfold and he he wasn't a peace. Keeping, he was just a a in a monitoring capacity for the UN. So he couldn't really do anything to stop the genocide as it was unfolding. It had a traumatic effect on him. So he came back to Canada and he started the Delaire Institute. And that is to they monitor precursors for instability. And those precursors are they're they're very ingenuative.

• 41:49Speaker 06

  I've been involved in targeting and precursors, low level conflict for decades. Their their approach is very sound.

• 41:59Speaker 06

  You know, it's in partnership with with elements like that. That we're we want to be able to offer the Cubs of the Caliphate.

• 42:11Speaker 06

  So those kids, they want education. They want a future. They want they want to be they want to have pipeline to advance their lives. Other than sit in perpetuity in a IDP camp in northeast Syria.

• 42:28Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:28Speaker 06

  I mean, the only thing that's that's fomenting is anger, resentment, no future. The only thing they can turn to is violence because it's the only option. And and that's what we want to do, you know, I mean, you know, between between the book and the revenue. And then the inroads that we know how to how to plug into. We want to help put some chemotherapy to this cancer.

• 42:51Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:51Speaker 06

  And and, you know, the the book's a tool of raising the awareness.

• 42:55Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:56Speaker 06

  But it's it's it's raising the awareness on a topic that it's vile. It absolutely should not be happening.

• 43:05Speaker 06

  I mean, you know, conflict is inevitable. Make the people that decide to go to conflict, make them the ones that are responsible. Don't make the twelve year old kid that's in the proximity. That's, you know, a personal belief.

• 43:18Speaker 05

  You know, and like, can you talk a little bit more about the precursors? You know, I mean, obviously, economic instability, inability to get a decent education. Um, and then just, I think some of it is just that they're in the wrong place at the wrong time when they get grabbed. But you could talk to that more than I can.

• 43:39Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's that's for the kids themselves, for sure. Um, but you're you're absolutely keen into the right parts there, Mark. You know, it's it's the economic levels of poverty. Um, and then, you know, ironically, one of the last things that you see fall or one of the worst things, if you start to see it. You're like, uh, uh, uh, we better, like, you gotta focus in on it. It's a lack of respect for community laws. And and that that is is, uh, that plays out in violence against ironically like policemen. Those that enforce the law, when you see that they are now being, um.

• 44:21Speaker 06

  They're on the receiving end of violent acts. And then that that erosion of law there like that's one of the biggest dominoes that falls is when you don't have law or security in an area. Combined with extreme poverty. And and here you go. Then then it opens, it opens a door and and this is, this is where these these organizations. These extremist organizations can take root. And then this is where the cycle starts.

• 44:49Speaker 05

  Yeah. The other thing I saw, I I used to be a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, Niger. A place that Eric's pretty familiar with and I. I lived in a place called Agadez, it was way up in the Sahara Desert and and which is now incredibly dangerous place. I probably wouldn't go there. Um, and I lived there for two years. And I saw two things. I saw one. Kids who went to like public schools, uh, and you know, their their parents had to come up with the money for them to go to school. And they were exposed to all sorts of books, right? All sorts of education. So. But you would walk through the old city of of Agadez and there would be um. Uh, Sh- Sharia schools and one book.

• 45:34Speaker 05

  And they're just chanting the story over and over and over and over again. And. That's the educational part. Um, the thing about Florence and Anthony is they were totally into education. They were great students. They not only had this education from their parents on what was fundamental and important in life. But they were exposed to law, you know, and Florence's greatest dream was to been a nurse and go and she was denied that. But. The fact that they weren't raised on one book, they were raised on many. Um, is part of this and um, when you have one book, you have only one way of seeing the world and it's very hard to s-.

• 46:14Speaker 05

  To see the world as your neighbor might, or that as you know, uh, uh, even a fellow combatant might and. Um, that to me is one of the big, big precursors is what kind of education did they get? Before they were taken. Um, and. It's it's amazing to me. How young they were when they learned these lessons, right? They, these things were taught to them at a very young age. The power of love, being a good human being. And it developed until they were, they were grabbed. And yet it, it managed to anchor in them so hard and, and so well that they were able to survive the, basically the unsurvivable.

• 46:59Speaker 05

  And I, you know, I'm, I'm a dramatist at, at heart. You know, I look for stories that have that kind of drama and human component. And boy, when I heard this story, it was in spades. You know, the fact that they would get, they would survive one thing and they would be faced with something worse and then worse and worse. And it wasn't just combat. It was the psychology of, of the Lord's Resistance Army and how the entire thing was operated and it was operated by sheer terror. You know, inflicted upon these children.

• 47:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I still can't get over how they got out of this and they still have such a great look on life, man. It's like, it's really honestly inspiring in a world where like we're inundated with like miserable stories all the time and stuff like that. This is actually like a good one and it needs to be amplified. I mean, I mean, it just needs to, cause I'm a pretty cynical dude, right? And I haven't been through much. And you hear about this and you're like, holy shit. Like there are these people out there who, they might be one in 500 million, but they're out there, right? And it's incredible that they found each other, that they were able to get out, that they have a family, that they're doing well now. They're trying to fight this now.

• 48:21Speaker 04

  I mean, it's as close as you come to like saints.

• 48:26Speaker 04

  On Earth and it's unbelievable. So like guys, check out the book, please. It's the link is in the description. It's all the glimmering stars.

• 48:39Speaker 04

  And you know, I've told it to Mick before because Mick does the show pretty regularly and um, and I've said it before on the show, like you Eric have been pretty much at the pinnacle of your career, right? When you were in Dev Group, Squadron Commander, you know, you've done a lot of stuff. You could have got out and probably made five times more of the money you're making now. And I told that to Mick too, right? SIS, big time guy, worked in the DOD. You know, and I've said it on the show, like what you guys are doing with Fogbo and Lobo and the end child soldiering.

• 49:15Speaker 04

  I mean, I really, really do respect it because like you guys could have came out and just went out and tried and gotten a check, right? And like you make more money, secure your family even more and do all that stuff, but you're not because you guys have seen what's been, what's out there in the world, right? And even if you're a hard charging SEAL Team Six guy or a ground branch guy or whoever, right? You could be Rambo. You see things like this. I mean, it's obviously gonna put an imprint on on you, right? To try and do something, you know, more and better and you know, kind of make this world a little bit better. Right? So I really, honestly, it's commend, it's highly commendable, man. That's why like I respect Mick so much.

• 49:57Speaker 04

  Eric, you too, and Mark, you telling the story about this is what gets people to understand. Understand to like a human level, right? To like on the ground, seeing what it's like, right? Because a lot of times too many people do think of it in the abstract like, oh yeah, we should stop child hunger. Child soldiering, child sex slavery, which is it's all together. But like they don't really understand like the visceral nature of what it's like, right? So like telling a story like this is, I think, so important to like getting the word out there. You know what I mean? So really guys, this is incredible stuff you guys are doing. And it needs to be made into a movie or a mini series or something like it needs to get elevated even more and told to even larger audience.

• 50:42Speaker 05

  We think the same thing. We do believe that if the story spreads, it will raise such an awareness of this issue that governments will begin to act and, and, you know, the ideal thing is to make it so heinous and under people understanding just that the brutal ramifications of child soldiering that even in these low level conflicts that the warlords will refuse to do it. I mean, that's ideal. I don't know if we're ever going to get there, but you know, that's the ideal situation. And it is an issue that hides right in front of you.

• 51:23Speaker 05

  One of the things that I, I just happened to watch Black Hawk Down the other day and, and also the documentary that was done on it. And there were child soldiers in that, in that scene, in that fight. They're running all over the place. You see them. And the interesting thing is they don't wear uniforms for the most part. So it's hard to tell who's a combatant and who's not. And especially when there's children running in the middle of a firefight. You know, it's stunning and I was watching that documentary and all I could think of was Florence and Anthony. You know, I mean, I was, I was, you know,

• 52:06Speaker 05

  very much in the story of the soldiers on the ground, but my eye was going beyond the soldiers. I was looking at the guys attacking them. And there were a lot of kids in the actual documentary.

• 52:20Speaker 05

  So you can see it. It's there and it's almost hiding in plain sight during these situations. I mean, you get into urban warfare, they're gonna be children.

• 52:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 52:31Speaker 05

  They may not be combatants, but they're certainly getting affected by it, you know? And that's, that's an entirely other issue, but they're totally related.

• 52:41Speaker 04

  Eric, I got a question about like when you mentioned an Afghani kid, where like their uncles and stuff will just bring them to a firefight when they're 12 or 13 to just like you gotta learn, right?

• 52:54Speaker 04

  Culture to culture, right, and country to country, does it change in terms of like, you know, obviously like Anthony and Florence were kidnapped? Like this kid is just born into this where it's like, you know, we learn how to fish? You gotta learn how to, you know, shoot an AK at a bad guy that's, you know, that we think is a bad guy. So like, I, I, I'm really interested in like, the nuances.

• 53:18Speaker 07

  Hi, I'm Jenna Ashkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 53:33Jack Murphy?

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant. So I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic. In a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 53:44Speaker 07

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone. One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies. So join us and hear their stories and more because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

• 54:15Speaker 02

  Forget whatever plans you have this weekend because you're staying at home and playing on Spin Quest. And there's never been a better time to sign up than right now. New users get $30 coin packs for just $10. All the table games you love with hundreds of slot games and real cash prizes. That's at spinquest.com. S P I N Q U E S T dot com.

• 54:37Jack Murphy?

  Spin Quest is a free to play social casino. Void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

• 54:45Speaker 04

  Of the different cultures and how because it really seems like a traditional thing for like an Afghani kid, right? They've been fighting people their whole lives for the most part. Um, so like, oh, you know, little Mike is 12 years old now, so let's teach him how to do this because he's gonna have to know.

• 55:02Speaker 06

  Yeah, I, I think that it, it, it, there's differences between exploitation and culture. And you, you do see instances of cultural like normality. It's, it's, I mean, more or less kind of what we're bringing up here. And some of these like tribal cultures um versus exploitation. And in Somalia, I've, I've witnessed the exploitation firsthand and ineptly and over time on a very high level. Uh, so that's absolutely exploitation. Um, you know, another form of exploitation is that, you know, there's, there's very wealthy Gulf states that are involved in conflict.

• 55:46Speaker 06

  You know, they're, you know, the, the Saudis and the Emiratis were involved in the Yemen conflict for a number of years here just recently. And, you know, like, they, they don't want their soldiers on the front line. So like the Saudis were hiring Sudanese to come into southern Yemen and then push on up against the Houthis as they worked up the coast. Well, when you start looking at pictures of those Sudanese forces. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'll start picking out, you'll start picking out 13, 14 year old boys. Standing there, I mean, you know, the great big AK and they're very small and the clothes are overgrown and you're like, okay, so that's exploitation.

• 56:31Speaker 06

  That's a country that doesn't want to do its own fighting.

• 56:34Speaker 04

  They're contracting it out, right?

• 56:36Speaker 06

  And, and, and those, and, and everybody turns a blind eye to it. In fact, uh, the US.

• 56:45Speaker 06

  For those years of this.

• 56:46Speaker 04

  Say that, say that again.

• 56:48Speaker 06

  The US gave, yeah, the US gave them a waiver. On on the act to do that.

• 56:53Speaker 04

  Yikes.

• 56:54Speaker 06

  Yeah, so this is what Mark and I are talking about like, you know, the story, the book provides a first look through this entire process. It shows you, but then behind it is, you know, it's the legislation, it's the blind eye, it's hiding right there in plain sight, just as Mark was talking about. And so we're trying to, if we elevate it, if we get enough awareness on it and we're able to elevate it, we're able to do two things. We're able to sway enough people to actually make make it matter for the rules, for the legislative rules. And then we're also able to generate revenue that we can put to the right cause at the grassroots level and actually address some of the stuff where it's needed most. Yeah, and that's our whole effort.

• 57:38Speaker 06

  And I I I super appreciate the kind words, you know, about, you know, you saying, hey, you know, Mick and Mark, Eric, you know, like, you guys could be doing a lot of other things. But, you know, you you've you've left government life, but you're still pushing, you know, the boulder uphill and and, uh, you know, it's it's just kind of in our DNA at this point.

• 58:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, I believe it.

• 58:07Speaker 05

  The the the issue that we I don't know, I haven't talked a lot about this with Eric and Mick, but one of the issues is these ideas of proxy armies, right? That one government is paying, you know, a separate army or separate entity to do their fighting. And certainly that's what was going on with the LRA. They were being funded by the Sudanese government to try to fight the Dinka who were attempting to succeed. And, you know, and when it's when there's an army for hire, when I really think about the LRA, there were.

• 58:45Speaker 05

  Veterans of the actual Ugandan civil war and and then they were basically mercenaries being hired by this Sudanese government and but it was the children who did the fighting. You know, they they put the children right in front. One of the more stunning things is when you learn that the first time an L R A child soldier went into war, he went in unarmed. He just he was expected to march into gunfire unarmed. And Coney would preach to them that if they believed enough in Coney and his spirit that they would be protected.

• 59:26Speaker 05

  Well, they weren't protected. I mean, Anthony almost had his arm blown off in fight and shot. How many times he wounded? Five times? Just unreal. And and it was all because of a proxy army. In fact, the L R A starts to collapse when the money, you know, gets withheld. And and and they're chasing him and he runs into the Congo and, you know, there's evidence that says he's still there.

• 59:52Speaker 06

  Right.

• 59:57Speaker 06

  I'm not giving up on that guy. He is still on the radar.

• 1:00:03Speaker 06

  Yeah. Figured out where he is. We could we could take a swing at him if we wanted, but he's pretty isolated and he's pretty ineffectual right now.

• 1:00:14Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:00:14Speaker 06

  And but I would I would say. Yeah, I mean, you can get him if we wanted to. But unfortunately, I I don't I don't think it'd be very plausible to capture him at this point was the area. So we'll kind of just let them let it be.

• 1:00:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, I did read when I, you know, the Cole Coney, everyone remembers a Coney 2012 thing and that really put, even though it kind of got a, you know.

• 1:00:45Speaker 04

  Kind of dragooned into like something totally different, but it did put a spotlight on him. And I was reading about him yesterday that like exactly what Eric said, he's kind of like. He doesn't have like the 3000 strong like, you know, militia that he used to. It's like probably down to like, you know. A dozen guys and stuff like that. So he's really ineffectual in terms of that. So. I mean, but still, we could send somebody over. From JSOC, just put a couple in the back of his head and let him, you know. He deserves it. I feel like even though we're talking about something humanitarian. With what's what happens with child soldiering. I feel like anybody you ask anybody and they're going to be honest with you. I think. If anybody deserves it, it's that guy.

• 1:01:23Speaker 05

  I'd love to see him tried though. I I would like to see him and I would love to see Anthony testify against him. If it ever happened. I'd be sitting in that courtroom to watch. I really would. Uh, even if I got nothing out of it, other than just seeing the satisfaction of Anthony being able to face it because. Anthony gets very serious when he talks about this. He he said, I have forgiven him. But I would testify against him tomorrow. And and. I would love to see the guy captured and. Me being made to face, you know, in court, what have you done?

• 1:02:00Speaker 05

  But that's just me.

• 1:02:02Speaker 04

  Eric, without giving up any like sources and methods, but there's gotta be. S- some group of people that are looking into this guy, right? Like and on our side, on the US government. I see whatever. Apparatus, no? Or they just know where he's at? They know he's ineffectual and they don't really.

• 1:02:21Speaker 04

  Look at him.

• 1:02:27Speaker 06

  The organizations that uh. That have a be on him are uh, they're not, they're not a governmental organizations, actually.

• 1:02:34Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:02:34Speaker 06

  It's it's kind of ironic that way.

• 1:02:36Speaker 04

  Interesting.

• 1:02:37Speaker 06

  Right now, but you know, I mean. When when he was a true factor of instability in the region. Then he was, you know, at a level that took some government oversight out. Now, you know, he's he's a producer. Yeah, it's more private. There's this. You know, to to Mark's point.

• 1:02:58Speaker 06

  Seeing him stand trial would be. Kind of the ultimate vindication.

• 1:03:05Speaker 05

  You know, and the other thing is that he hasn't stood trial and I mean, we, we believed that as the book went to press that he was dead. And then, you know, all of a sudden, I think about a week before the book came out, we found out that the, the Wagner Group out of Russia was hunting him. Um, and that was the last I heard, but we did hear that they had located him in a certain part of the deep northern Congo. Uh, but when they went in to try to find him, you know, they had scattered. So.

• 1:03:41Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:42Speaker 05

  That's our last known understanding of where he is.

• 1:03:46Speaker 04

  I mean, honestly, guys, just an incredible story. I'm reminding everybody again, the link is in the description. All the glimmering stars. Get the book, watch the doc, do both, honestly. Uh, cause like,

• 1:04:03Speaker 04

  you can't like, if, if a writer came up with this and pitched it, you'd be like, oh, that's, I don't know if that could really happen. You know what I mean? Like this kind of sounds a little too crazy, right? Um, and like out of like real chaos and just evil, like two people in a family came out, found each other and are doing well today. I mean, it's just, it's super inspiring. I have goosebumps. It's like inspiring, man. It's, it's unbelievable. So check out the book, guys. Like it's, it's so good. You know, you have to.

• 1:04:39Speaker 05

  Great.

• 1:04:40Speaker 06

  Yeah. Thank you, Dee.

• 1:04:41Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 1:04:42Speaker 05

  Really appreciate you.

• 1:04:44Speaker 04

  Anything else that I missed or anything that you want to talk about? I mean, you tell me.

• 1:04:50Speaker 05

  I think you've.

• 1:04:50Speaker 06

  I don't think so. Yeah. Uh, it's just that, hey, these trends are not going in the right direction.

• 1:04:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:04:59Speaker 06

  You know, and it's it's something solvable.

• 1:05:04Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:05:05Speaker 06

  We absolutely can solve it.

• 1:05:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:05:08Speaker 06

  So.

• 1:05:09Speaker 04

  All right, guys.

• 1:05:10Speaker 06

  Appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

• 1:05:11Speaker 04

  No, thank you, guys. Again, guys, the book is called All the Glimmering Stars. The link is in the description. The links. I'm gonna have the link for Lobo Fogbo. Check out what they're doing as well. Incredible stuff. Humanitarian aid. Uh, trying to do it across the world against kind of tough, tough, tough odds. Um, I'm gonna put a link also to Mark's other books, too. If you want to check out Mark's other books. He's a pretty prolific writer. And I I'm gonna try and I'm gonna try and like, I got a couple of friends or like producer friends that are in in like Hollywood and stuff. I'm gonna try and like at least. Send them this and be like, hey, this literally needs to be made into like a narrative, a narrative movie. And or or mini series or something. Tell like the real full story.

• 1:05:56Speaker 04

  So I'll try and do what I can do to help, you know. Push this along and get it in front of people's eyeballs. Um.

• 1:06:03Speaker 05

  Appreciate that.

• 1:06:04Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 1:06:04Speaker 05

  Also, just if you could put a link up to End Child Soldiering, there is a. Link on the on website where people who are interested in contributing to the end of child soldiering.

• 1:06:15Speaker 04

  Is it endchildsoldiering.org? Is there? Is that the link?

• 1:06:21Speaker 05

  Endchildsoldiering.org or com? I can't remember.

• 1:06:24Speaker 06

  I think it's dot org.

• 1:06:26Speaker 04

  Okay, I will have it in the link. I just wanted to get you guys to say it out loud for people that are listening and stuff. It'll be in the video description and the show notes. If you're listening to us on audio. Guys, do the right thing. They're not making money off the book. This isn't like their retirement fund. They're doing this out of the. You know. Kindness of their heart, so. You could do a little bit, too. Buy the book, watch the documentary, go to this website, see if you could give a couple bucks. Whatever you can do, it's going to a good cause, so.

• 1:06:58Speaker 04

  You know, it's something everybody can agree with. Left, right, center, middle, up, down, doesn't matter. Like, you know, kids. In war. No one's, no one's down for that. Like, what are we talking about?

• 1:07:10Speaker 05

  No one's winning with children in war.

• 1:07:11Speaker 04

  Right on. Thanks again, guys. This is great.

• 1:07:15Jack Murphy?

  Thanks to you, Mark. Hey, guys, it's Jack. I just want to talk to you for a moment about how you can support the show. If you've been watching it, enjoying it, but you'd like to get a little bit more involved and help us continue to do this, you can check out our Patreon. It is patreon.com/the Team House. And for $5 a month, you can get access to all of these episodes of The Team House ad-free. The same goes with our affiliated podcast Eyes On with Andy Milburn, Jason Lyons, McMulroy. That one, you will also get all of those episodes ad-free. And you support the channel and the show, and we really appreciate it. The Patreon members are literally what

• 1:07:56Jack Murphy?

  has helped this company, this small business survive, especially during our early years. And you are what continues to help this thing going, even as we navigate the turbulent world of YouTube advertising. So we really appreciate all of you guys. There's going to be a link down in the description to that Patreon page. And there is also going to be a link to our new merch shop. So if you guys want to go and get some Team House merchandise, we got stickers, and we also have patches. And I should mention, if you sign up for Patreon at $10 a month, we will mail you this patch as well. So we really appreciate that. But they're also for sale on the merch shop. And additionally, they got t-shirts up there.

• 1:08:41Speaker 07

  Hi, I'm Jenna Ushkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 1:08:56Jack Murphy?

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 1:09:07Speaker 07

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you, you're not alone. One of the best guys that I dated, he made a Point to memorize all my food allergies. So join us and hear their stories and more because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At The Table, the food allergy podcast on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At The Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

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• 1:10:40Jack Murphy?

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant. So I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 1:10:51Speaker 07

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone. One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies. So join us and hear their stories and more because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At The Table, the food allergy podcast on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At The Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

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• 1:12:52Speaker 07

  Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.

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  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

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• 1:14:31Speaker 01

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