Best Important Podcasts

In this multi-part podcast, "Alchemy of Violence: Narcos, Reapers and Survival," host and Marine Staff Sgt. Johnny Joey Jones will guide you through a series of wide-ranging interviews with Ed Calderon, a former paramilitary law enforcement officer from Mexico who took on the country's ruthless drug cartels face-to-face at a time when their gruesome violence was reaching a fever pitch in 2006 and beyond. Calderon’s dangerous career south of the border, and the rampant corruption he says came with it, ultimately forced him to run for his life. It also left him with a lifetime's worth of on-the-ground experience, and a set of unique survival skills akin to a real-life McGuyver, just a few years shy of his 40th birthday. In his own words, Calderon shares intimate details on everything from his childhood and family inspiration, to the horrors he witnessed firsthand in his career, and how he’s using those experiences now to help others who might be recovering from similar traumas –a new career in what he calls his "after-life."