Secrets of the Underworld

Marina Lacerda returns to finish her story — and this time, she goes deeper.
In this second conversation, Neil and Marina explore the psychological grip Jeffrey Epstein held over his victims, the chilling way he wielded power and control and how Marina's childhood trauma shaped her ability to survive what others couldn't fully comprehend.
She opens up about the abusive marriage she stayed in for years, the moment she finally broke her silence in Washington and the healing that only began once she found the courage to walk away from everything that had been holding her down.
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Marina Lacerda arrived in New York from Brazil as a child, hoping for a better life with her mother. Instead, she found herself trapped in years of abuse at home — and then, at just 13 years old, was introduced to Jeffrey Epstein.
In part one of this conversation, Marina shares how her traumatic upbringing made her vulnerable to exploitation, how Epstein groomed her and used her to recruit other young girls and how she only recently learned — decades later — the full extent of what was done to her. She also opens up about the mother who knew but didn't protect her, a marriage marked by abuse and the long road toward healing.
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Neil Cummins has spent his career standing between the public and Sydney's underworld — but this time, he's the one in the hot seat. In a rare role reversal, Neil opens up to his producer about the doors he worked, the people he protected, and the world he left behind.
From his first gig running security,to becoming John Ibrahim's most trusted man, Neil pulls back the curtain on what it really took to keep Sydney's most notorious nightclubs under control — turning away gangsters, staring down bikie chapters and surviving a drive-by that put bullets where he'd been standing seconds before.
He also reflects on what it meant to walk away — and the identity crisis that followed — before finding a new purpose in Secrets of the Underworld. Plus, the podcast milestone that started it all: the interview that changed everything, and what's coming when the show lands on YouTube.
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Freelance journalist Nicole had no idea that a chance encounter at a kids' footy catch-up would upend her life for the next three years. A brief, strange interaction with a woman at the sidelines seemed harmless enough — until the messages started. What began with a vulgar Facebook message quickly escalated into relentless contact across every platform Nicole used.
In this episode, Neil speaks with Nicole — journalist and author of Obsession — about the three years she spent being stalked by the ex-partner of a man she'd fallen in love with, the repeated failures of police to take her seriously and what it finally took to get the law on her side.
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Marissa Rose has spent 14 years as a paramedic — chased out of houses, holding arterial bleeds with her bare hands and sent alone to crashes in the middle of nowhere on her first day on the job. But long before the ambulance, she was a little girl making tea at four years old, hands shaking, never knowing if it would be good enough.
In Part 2, the conversation goes to the darkest places: the hangings that stay with you, the jobs you can't leave at work, the night Marissa had a date set, a plan made and a wedding anniversary picked. What pulled her back wasn't a hotline or a hospital. It was horses.
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