147: Erik Aude | Imprisoned in Pakistan for a Crime He Didn’t Commit Part One

Transcript for Erik Aude | Imprisoned in Pakistan for a Crime He Didn't Commit Part One (Episode 147)

Jordan Harbinger: [00:00:00] Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. As always, I'm here with my producer Jason DeFillippo. When I heard about Erik Aude, I didn't know what to make of this guy. He went to prison in Pakistan for three years for a crime he didn't commit and he came out a murderer, but that wasn't all. I think what scared me most about Eric’s story was that it could seemingly happen to any of us if we aren't careful and even if we are. Eric story is nothing short of incredible. He's a stuntman and an actor and he ended up using his stunt man skillset to withstand torture in a Pakistani prison. While inside he learned how to play Texas Hold 'em Poker and practice every day with his prison mates who turned out to be some infamous prisoners in their own right. Now that he's out, he plays poker professionally using some of the skills he learned inside, but this isn't just a poker story.

[00:00:49] This isn't just a detailed episode of locked up abroad. This is a story about human resilience, mental and physical toughness and protecting your mind even when the world seems stacked against you. I challenge you to listen to this episode and not put yourself firmly in Eric's shoes. This was one of my favorite interviews recently and I hope you agree. We've split it into two parts because it was so long. I just didn't want to cut it short. And don't forget, if you want to learn how I book all of these amazing guests and create these relationships, you've got to check out Six-Minute Networking . That course is what I wish I had 10 years ago. It's all available at jordanharbinger.com/course Those are invaluable skills. Now here's part one of Erik Aude.

[00:01:31] I will say, watching this documentary made me -- it sounds weird, but I don't care. It made me want to be your best friend because I saw this and I went, “This guy has integrity, he's tough, and he still has good humor. Even though you ended up in like the worst situation that a lot of people could possibly imagine other than maybe some sort of wartime thing and even that, there are prisoners that could capture in war, they could treat it better than you got treated in prison in Pakistan. And I think it's because after you watch this movie, you actually want to be more -- people want to be more like you. I think, and I know that this is probably a little embarrassing, I don't care. But Jen and I were like, this guy is a person that you -- most people would aspire to be like this in that situation, and most of us know damn well that we wouldn't. Does that make sense?

Erik Aude: [00:02:21] It does. And I've never heard it said that way before because I don't feel that way, but thank you. I appreciate hearing that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:02:27] You're welcome.

Erik Aude: [00:02:28] And we are now best friends now, so look that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:02:30] Awesome. That was easy. All right. What were you doing before the prison stunt? You know what, what, what was going on? You were working as a stuntman. You were an actor.

Erik Aude: [00:02:39] I was recurring on four different TV shows. I had just finished working in the movie Scorpion King over the course of a year and a half, and that time also I'd just finished Planet of the Apes will Mark Wahlberg, and I had a pilot that I had book called 360 that I was going to start. So I had a lot of great things going from me. My dreams of being an actor and a stunt man were paying of, I was a working actor stuntman. I was able to pay all my bills, doing what I loved, and I had everything to lose and nothing to gain by being a drug smuggler, it was just bad luck, bad timing, and just really messed up what Rai did to me.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:03:15] Yeah. And we'll get into that story, but -- so you're working stuntman, where do you like 21 at this point?

Erik Aude: [00:03:20] I was 21 years old, yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:03:21] Yeah. So that's pretty fortunate because you think a lot of people, there's a lot of people in Hollywood that are at 41, and they're waiting for that break and you were working already.

Erik Aude: [00:03:29] No, I was in the rooms -- I was in the same room as Ashton Kutcher for the role on that 70 Show. It came down to me, Josh Hartnett and this other guy, I was right there and it was going to happen like I was screen testing against the guys who would go on to do great things. I was up for the role of Stifler. I was up for the role --

Jordan Harbinger: [00:03:50] Sean William Scott [indiscernible][00:03:51]

Erik Aude: [00:03:51] Sean William Scott beat me out for Steve Stifler.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:03:53] I could see you pull off a Stifler.

Erik Aude: [00:03:55] And I was so close to so many huge roles. So it wasn't a matter of if it was a matter of when.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:04:00] Right. One of them was going to hit because you were playing the right game.

Erik Aude: [00:04:04] It was back in the day. The things have changed now. Like now it's like all right you submit yourself and they just cast off the tape, but back then you had to go to a lot of callbacks, like a ton of callbacks, and then they would narrow it down to like five or six of you and then you would go and screen test. So I was always screen test and eventually they stopped even having me audition. They just had me going straight to screen test straight to the producers. I was always the top five or six. I screen tested for Smallville for not only Clark Kent, but also for Luther, for Rosenbaum’s character.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:04:34] That would've been a pretty cool role if either one of those. It's been pretty interesting.

Erik Aude: [00:04:39] But they were considering me for all these different possibly abilities. It was right timing. Everything was going for me and I was just the perfect age for everything that was happening, and all I did was go to the gym. So whenever they needed like a jock and in any sense, I walked into the room and I would literally have casting directors go finally, you know, you know, you know, life was great at that time for me, but I never even understood how great it was until it was all taken away.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:05:04] So how did this begin? You're at the gym and you meet this dude, Rai who you're training. How does this devolve into you go into Pakistan?

Erik Aude: [00:05:13] When I was 19, I was working at this gym in Burbank called World Gym and I was the nighttime manager, but I was also a personal trainer. I worked out with several clients. I would, you know, show them how to use the equipment properly. I would give them like exercise regiments. Really all I would do is motivate them. You know, people just, they can't push themselves. So my whole job was simply to say, “Hey, we've got some more, do it again. Come on, you can do this. Rest times over.” Common sense stuff that, you know, everyone knows, but they all still need a little nudge. And I got to know Rai for about nine months before I finally went on a job for him. Rai was a regular at the gym in Burbank. He was hiring a lot of young people, mostly late teens, early 20s, college to travel around the world for him, importing expensive leather samples and paying them for it.

[00:06:02] And I ended up being one of the people that went on these trips and I'd always been hesitant because you know it did sound too good to be true. It sounded, I asked the right questions. I'm like, “Well, are you bringing back anything else?” And he swore that all we were doing was beating the import tax. When you travel, they give you that little paper and they say, “Hey, do you have anything worth more than $400?” No one ever says yes, you know.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:06:24] Right, of course. Sure.

Erik Aude: [00:06:25] Even if you went on a tourist spending spree, you know, you're coming back with a couple thousand bucks, you're going to be like, “Ah, I got 30 bucks worth of goods. Very cool.” No one wants to pay that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:06:33] And I think the limits like 10 grand or something. Is that cash?

Erik Aude: [00:06:36] No, no, that's cash.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:06:36] Okay.

Erik Aude: [00:06:37] But you can't -- anything over 400 bucks, you got to pay import tax on regardless of which.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:06:43] I've traveled so much and I just always say no because I'm like, “I'm not figuring [indiscernible][00:06:47]

Erik Aude: [00:06:46] The next time you're traveling, just you know, try and say, “Oh, I bought 1000 bucks for the goods and see how quick that bites you in the ass.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:06:51] Yeah, sure.

Erik Aude: [00:06:52] You know, they're like, “All right, cool. You owe some money.” You're like, “What? This sucks.” And you won't say no. So he said by us going and beating the import tax, we would be saving him a ton of money. We get a free trip out of it. He pays us some spending money and we're doing him more of a favor than he's doing us. But for me, the trips were the payment. Like I would've done this for free just to be able to travel outside the country. At this time, I'd barely been out of the California. I'd never been out of the country and to be presented an opportunity to travel and get paid for it. I mean people want to travel, but not just to travel but to travel for free and get paid for it.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:07:27] Yeah, it's a really good deal. And you're 21 at this point. I would've taken that deal.

Erik Aude: [00:07:31] No, I was 19.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:07:32] You were 19, I would've taken that deal anytime, probably up to about the last, I don’t know handful of years, I would have taken a free trip to go do something and get paid for it.

Erik Aude: [00:07:41] And if it hadn't just been me, then I sure as hell want to have told all my friends, my family, my brothers, my mother, and people went on these trips because of my recommendation because I was so sure that it was legit. I wanted everyone -- I wanted everyone to experience this. Like, “Hey, you want to travel around the world and get paid for it?” “Hell yeah.” And the thing that I am so thankful for is that it was me that it happened to because I don’t know how I would've felt had this had happened to somebody else because of my recommendation. I really, I really don't.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:08:10] Sure, and whether they would have made it through because we'll get to what happened. But you were kind of -- this isn't funny, but it's funny how it worked out. You are uniquely suited to what was going to happen because of your mental toughness, physical toughness. If this had happened to some random buddy that you'd met or your brother -- I think even your brother and the documentary, he's like, “I don't know how I would've handled it.” That would've been even worse because you would have felt really guilty and I don't think he would have come out in as good a shape.

Erik Aude: [00:08:36] I don't think any -- I don't think my brother would've been able to handle it. But yeah, as sad as it sounds, if anyone was built for prison, it was me. And I mean, my life growing up was never peaches. I had a really bad childhood and I don't really go and yell that out to the skies. I just, that was my child that I thought, I thought the way I was raised was normal, but it wasn't. And I mean I'm getting run over by a bus isn't normal.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:01] Yeah. You got hit by a school bus.

Erik Aude: [00:09:03] I got run over by school bus, so I've known nothing but pain my whole life. I was told I'd never walk again. I was told I'd never be able to play sport, never be able to make love to a woman. I've proven the doctor's wrong time and time again.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:16] You've done all of those things multiple times.

Erik Aude: [00:09:18] Yeah, yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:19] A lot, a lot of sports. That's a lot of walking.

Erik Aude: [00:09:22] I had my urethra severn and reconnected on the first person on Earth to have that done.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:26] Really?

Erik Aude: [00:09:26] Yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:27] That's a weird badge.

Erik Aude: [00:09:29] I'm in doctors history books, but it's all because I've just had an unusual life my whole life.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:34] So you got hit by a bus that crushed your pelvis and that somehow severed a bunch of stuff down.

Erik Aude: [00:09:38] It destroyed me.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:39] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [00:09:40] It just ripped me apart and I wasn't supposed to make it through the night, let to last the week. And then as time went by, my odds started doing crease. I was told never walk again, a couple of years later I'm walking.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:09:51] And that gave you a high pain tolerance, right? I remember you said something like you just stopped complaining about the pain after a while.

Erik Aude: [00:09:58] Because all I was doing was waking people up. Like my mom's boyfriend at the time, there's this nice guy named Rod, he would come like I would get these sharp pains through my body that would just, it felt like glass is just going through me. And it turned out to be like the worst kidney pains because I was always in pain and things were always passing through me and I would start screaming in the middle of the night. So my mom's boyfriend would come into the room, he was dead tired and all he could do is turn on that Nintendo and play Zelda next to me until it passed. And I went back to sleep and I just remember thinking to myself like, it's weird because there's like a siren going off and here I am nine years old, eight years old, and no one could do anything. And it got to the point that people started just ignore me because they knew they couldn't do anything for me. And I felt so, like such an inconvenience on them that I started just screaming in silence.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:10:50] When you say screaming in silence, it just you're just screaming your head?

Erik Aude: [00:10:52] Yeah, yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:10:54] And just kind of gritting your teeth and dealing with it.

Erik Aude: [00:10:57] Till this day, I still go through those and they had never stopped.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:01] The pain hasn't stopped, so you just will wake up randomly feeling all the super sharp pain.

Erik Aude: [00:11:06] All the time.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:06] And nobody knows why or they know why and they can't do anything?

Erik Aude: [00:11:08] They say that for some reason my kidneys contract and everything and they always will. It just feels like someone's ringing it out like a towel.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:18] Oh God.

Erik Aude: [00:11:19] And it happens. It's not even when I'm sleeping, it's when I'm awake. They just start to come and like to my sides, like literally do this, because it just starts to get really bad. The cramps are just terrible.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:29] Wow.

Erik Aude: [00:11:30] But when I was a kid, I didn't know what was happening to me. I've gotten used to them. I’ve gotten used to them all the time. Now I just an inconvenience, but I fill them all the time. Like what made me scream as a kid, it's just an inconvenience to me now.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:41] So you're going back and forth from different countries transporting these leather goods. What kind of countries are you going to?

Erik Aude: [00:11:47] It was the Turkey.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:47] Turkey.

Erik Aude: [00:11:48] Originally the trips were to Turkey, and Turkey is a great, beautiful country. And then on the way back, you can pick a country to go to. I'd always pick Sweden because I just like Sweden.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:11:58] Yeah, yeah. A lot of good -- I love Sweden and I can imagine at age 21, Sweden's a pretty good stop over for it.

Erik Aude: [00:12:04] I remember it was 1920, and then, yeah, so stopping over at Sweden was great. I mean, I stopped in Sweden during the winter, so it was always nighttime, but all the people are blonde, blue eyed and beautiful. And during the summer it was really cool because the sun would stay up in the middle of the sky at 2 a.m. So you're walking down the street and it's completely deserted and the sun's over your head. And I don't know why anyone would want to film a zombie movie in America when they could save so much money by going over to Sweden or another Scandinavian country during the summer and just film there when everyone is just totally all asleep.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:12:41] That's right. That's right. Yeah, just a ghost town in the middle of the day. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Maybe it's the exchange rate, I don't know. Yeah, so you're 19 and 20 man, this is so -- it's funny because a lot of people must say, “Dude, you must have known. Are you an idiot?”

Erik Aude: [00:12:56] I get asked that all the time. Man, people are pretty harsh when it comes to others. Like if I knew something bad happened to someone, I want to go up to a rape victim and ask them, “Hey, did you really get raped?”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:13:07] “What were you wearing?” Yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:13:08] I would never do that. But I had a woman come up to me and say, “Where you someone's bitch in prison?”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:13:15] That is terrible.

Erik Aude: [00:13:16] I'm thinking to myself, “Man, I wish you were a man for a second.” You know, just for second. I mean, I know man's had the balls to say that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:13:21] No way, no way.

Erik Aude: [00:13:23] I'll be like, let's humor you. Let's say it was, “Do you really want to hear about it? Why would you ask such as such a terrible question?”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:13:30] Yeah, that's just mean.

Erik Aude: [00:13:31] Or people will say, “Oh, I heard all the bad stuff that happened to you. Did that really happen?” Okay, now you're calling me a lot in my face and you don't even understand that. People don't think before they talk sometimes.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:13:42] Are these people that just saw you on locked up abroad or these friends of yours?

Erik Aude: [00:13:46] Yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:13:45] Okay.

Erik Aude: [00:13:45] No, these are definitely not my friends. These are definitely not my friends. Like there were interviews being done when I was overseas by people who knew me  there. There was this girl I knew and she did an interview and she goes, “Well, yeah, I think he did it.” That's it, that was the worst. I think he did it because every time we were at parties, he was always drunk and I was like, this girl is a fucking liar because I don't drink.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:07] Wow.

Erik Aude: [00:14:08] I don't drink at all, and I don't do drugs. My drug of choice was the gym. That's all I did was work out. I didn't drink, I didn't do drugs. And here's this girl doing an interview saying, “I think he did it and he was always drunk.” Well, fuck you.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:21] Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Erik Aude: [00:14:23] I'm already in bad situations, so why are you going and pouring lighter fluid on a spark over here. That's ridiculous.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:30] That's unbelievable.

Erik Aude: [00:14:31] And people -- but other people would do that too. People would be like, “Oh yeah, Erik was talking about this all the time.” Who the fuck are you? I don't even know who you are.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:37] Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Erik Aude: [00:14:38] Out of the woodwork, come people who don't know the situation but they want to start -- they want to get their own, I guess their own reasons to fill a special.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:46] 15 minutes of fame.

Erik Aude: [00:14:48] I think so, like if I don't know anything about a person, I'm not going to go and start making up shit just to be noticed.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:53] Sure.

Erik Aude: [00:14:53] People do that though.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:14:54] So you're going back and forth from Turkey hanging out in Europe. This is an awesome job. You're telling all your friends and family about it where some people like, “Hey dude, you should be careful because this sounds really good and I don’t know, I would all want anything to happen to you. So just do your diligence.”

Erik Aude: [00:15:08] No!

Jordan Harbinger: [00:15:09] Nobody said that?

Erik Aude: [00:15:10] Before I went, I asked my mom. Like I told everyone about this and my mom put me in touch with her FBI friend who wanted to hear the scenario and I told them that importing expensive leather goods, beating the import tax free trip. He says this kind of thing happens all the time. People bring back rugs, people go bring back jewelry, and if you get caught it's a minor offense, maybe like a slap on the wrist. I said, “Is there any jail time?” He goes, “No, that's no jail time.” It's more a moral crime. If anything, like worst case scenario, they'll confiscate it and give you a fine, but that's it. So when he told me there's no jail time that cleared any kind of any kind of doubt or a concern that I might have had, but everyone that I had told this job to, no one not once said, “Erik, be careful. It could be this.” No, everyone wanted in. Everyone wanted to do it. Everyone was asking me to meet with Rai. What I do nowadays. When people tell me about their scenarios, I say, “Hey, you're drug smuggling.” Simple as that. It's a red flag. Better safe than sorry. Why take the chance? Learn from me. Trust me. Learn from me. At least that way it wasn't all for nothing, but people want to believe that I was guilty. They want to believe that I deserved to have this happen to me so that they can swallow their own negativities in their life easier because people love to complain. I don't know if you, you know, especially in 2018, everyone's so positive. No one ever complains about the littlest damn things that go on in our lives. “Oh, you know, I don't have a job,” or “I can't do this because you know, life's too hard for me.” No, you're just looking for a pity party you're looking for you know, people love to have people feel sorry for them.

 

Jason DeFillippo: [00:16:46] You're listening to the Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Erik Aude. We'll be right back after this.

 

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Jordan Harbinger: [00:20:00] I think the other reason people wanted to believe that you're guilty is it's too damn scary to think that an innocent person like you could go to prison in Pakistan for three years and go through that crap for having done nothing. I think because I even wanted to be like, “Please tell me he'd really did that,” and this is not a big cluster fuck of a disaster because it's clearly just unfair.

Erik Aude: [00:20:23] It's easier for them to swallow what happened to me if they think that I deserved it, rather than knowing that I didn't deserve it, and then I went through all those things.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:20:33] Exactly.

Erik Aude: [00:20:34] And it helps them complain about their own little everyday lives because everyone loves, like I said, everyone loves to complain. No one is grateful for the things they have until it's all taken away from them. And that's why I appreciate my life so much more because I've had everything taken away from his, because I've had so many bad things happen to me in my life. I mean to me Pakistan was just one of many bad things have happened to me and my life. But I've had so many things happen and I just learned to get over it. You get knocked down six times, you get up seven, and that's the only way I've ever known how to live. Pakistan, which is one of many things that bad things that happened to me. Last year, someone decided to online bully me and because of a joke I put on my page, you know, my dream since I was a kid was to be a stump man and I was accomplishing that dream. I was hosting these stunts parties at one of my restaurants in Woodland Hills. And I put a joke on my page that I wish they didn't put, but I've always been a sarcastic guy. I had gone to this audition, a friend of mine who was produced in -- I don't know if he was producing, but he introduced me to a producer and writer for this low budget movie where they were looking for people who have PTSD. Now, I absolutely qualify for that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:21:44] Yeah. I was going to ask about that.

Erik Aude: [00:21:44] I have nightmares, night terrors, I sleepwalk, I hurt myself and my sleep and it's like sometimes going to sleep is like Russian roulette. I'll wake up with -- I've woken up with black eyes.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:21:54] From hitting yourself somehow?

Erik Aude: [00:21:56] Yeah. I'm woken up with smashed fingers with this guy on my neck, and I've destroyed whatever room I've been in. When I travel, it happens a lot. I've destroyed a hotel room. So yes, I suffer from PTSD, nothing I go around screaming to the skies. So I got brought in for this interview and they asked me, “What branch of service did you serve in to get PTSD?” I said I'd never served. I mean, I tried to serve but after 9/11, I tried to serve, but I sleep walk. I've always slept walk. So they don't want you around weapons.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:22:29] Weapons, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:22:30] And explosives when you sleep walk. I did try to serve. My dad served, my stepdad and my brothers, my uncles, and these guys, you know, they’ve told me some of the greatest stories, and I respect them 100 percent. Well, they said we're looking for someone who served. So I was irked about it. I understood, but I posted on my page, “Sucks to be told you can't play a role you've played countless times before because you never served in the military.” When they say they're only looking for the real thing, “What does that say about me?” I've been cast as a rapist seven times. The wonderful world of Hollywood. Well, obviously I'm making fun of the situation.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:23:04] Sure, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:23:04] I'm not a rapist, but yet I've played at countless times. I always play a douchebag or a bad guy or a thug.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:23:10] Okay.

Erik Aude: [00:23:11] Well, this woman who was very prominent in the stunt industry went out of her way to post on her page because she only cast real vets. That's her thing. That's cool. But she's not the only one that does that. Other people cast cops, real medics, real doctors. People cast the real thing all the time, she's not the only one. But the stunt industry is so small and they love to just try to kiss each other's ass and you go out of the way to bad mouth people and in order to look good in her eyes, someone brought her this post that had nothing to do with her, but basically saying a look at Erik saying, so she posts on her page. If you've got a problem with vets, don't ever submit to me again. I've never submitted to that woman ever. And then within two days her posts had 600 likes, relikes, reshares, and everything. I was getting death threats again.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:24:00] That’s ridiculous.

Erik Aude: [00:24:01] We had vets come to our house with guns. I had to go to the cops a couple of times and I'm like, “Wow. After all this shit I've been through, this person is going to go over there and destroy my dream because of a joke on my page that had nothing to do with her.” And I'm like, “Wow. I got blackballed from the stunt industry over a joke on my page.” And my family's all vets and she turned it into that I hate vets. Twisted around so bad.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:24:25] Unbelievable.

Erik Aude: [00:24:25] Everyone in the stunt industry has quietly come to me and told me, you should sue that woman. You should do this. This is the worst thing that's ever happened. I'm like, “It's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me.” It's just someone who's very small stepping on an ant and trying to ruin me and kill a dream and that's what people do. I was run over by a bus, I got through that. I was wrongly in prison in Pakistan, I got through that. I had someone kill my dream over here, I'll get through that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:24:50] How did you end up going to Pakistan? Because all right, you're going back and forth from Turkey. You're going through Sweden hanging out. It's great. And then dot, dot, dot, Pakistan. I mean, this is the part that's a little confusing for people because they're like, yeah, okay, Turkey maybe. But when you say, “Hey, you're going to Pakistan.” That's where I would have drawn the line. That's what everyone's thinking when they see this flick, right?

Erik Aude: [00:25:10] Before I went to Turkey, I had a lot of questions. I didn't just want to go to Turkey because before I knew anything about Turkey, all I knew was that it was a Muslim country. I mean back then I thought, you know, Muslims were dangerous people because you know, you only see what you see on the news. The Turkey was a beautiful country. Turkey was an awesome country and I met so many friendly, wonderful people there. I had a great time in Turkey.

[00:25:31] Rai was able to use my experience in Turkey on how amazing it was and how everything I thought was going to happen didn't happen, I had a great time. Like any kind of worries I had, he was able to use that against me and justify, “Well, that's also going to be Pakistan.” He painted Pakistan like a Turkey. Pakistan was supposed to be my brother's trip and when he found that it was to Pakistan, he says, “I'm not going.” And he backed out, and when he told me that it was the Pakistan, it made no sense to me because this was the first I was hearing about at 10 days before Peter was supposed to go on the trip. He tells me that, “Oh it's the Pakistan, it's not the Turkey.” So I asked Rai, what's Peter talking about? Why is it the -- what's his Pakistan thing?” First I'm hearing about it. He lets me know because of the war in Afghanistan, he's getting a great deal on leather goods in Pakistan, my exact words were good. You can FedEx it back then, you're getting such a great deal then just FedEx it back.

He goes, “Erik, before you went to Turkey you are worried, right?” And I was worried about like dangers, like you know, people hurting me. That's what I was worried about. But no one was bad, everyone was kind, and he used that as justification of how great Pakistan is going to be. So this is just the first trip to see how things go. If it's not good then we'll just do it to Turkey, and he made me feel guilty because I had vouched for my brother and I don't want to leave them hanging. He was my friend, Rai was my friend.

[00:26:51] And whenever I say something's going to happen, it's going to happen. I always stick true to my word, I always have. A man's values only as good as his word. And I think everyone, when it comes to bets, you know, I pay all my bets. If I lose a bet, I always pay it. If I say I'm going to do something, I always do. If I say I'm going to show up somewhere, I'm going to do everything I can to show up. And so I told Rai, I felt obligated because Peter, I vouch for having Peter's back backing out, even though it wasn't to Pakistan, I still felt obligated to make this happen for my friend, because I don't want to leave him hanging. But also I didn't want to lose this opportunity even though I was working all the time. As an actor, I know the highs and the lows come, you work all the time. It's feast or famine. So I don't want to lose this opportunity.

Jason DeFillippo: [00:27:31] Yeah. Plus he's your friend and you're just like, “Look, I can take a trip.” It's going to be a pain because the middle of summer.

Erik Aude: [00:27:37] I didn't have any time, I really didn't. And even after I said I'll go, I had booked a guest star on the show Arliss and I would've made more money working on Arliss than I would've on the damn trip, but I had value -- I had given him my word that I'd go. So not only was I losing money, I lose three years of my life for a crime I didn't know I was being used to commit.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:27:56] Unbelievable. All right, so you go to Pakistan and then what is that like? Do you just land in, you're like, “Hey, let me get a suitcase full of leather goods?” I mean, what are you doing?

Erik Aude: [00:28:04] No, it doesn’t work that way. Okay, Rai’s contacts picked me up from the airport. Now Pakistan is not a friendly country at all.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:28:13] The people in it, you mean?

Erik Aude: [00:28:14] Yeah. The second they see me land, I stick out like a sore thumb on one of the taller guys there. The only white guy there. Usually when you go to other countries, you see all kinds of foreigners, you know, Asians, Hispanics, black people, white people, you see different--

Jordan Harbinger: [00:28:29] Diversity.

Erik Aude: [00:28:30] Yes. There's no diversity in Pakistan.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:28:32] Oh, man.

Erik Aude: [00:28:33] There's none. I'm the only white guy there, the one thing I noticed is there's no diversity. Everyone's wearing their shimmies which are like dresses. Everything's really dirty. There's people everywhere. They're no, there's no sense of privacy there. People who don't know, you're like, if we were having a conversation, just some random guys walk up, stand right there between us and just start looking at both of us like they were part of the conversation the whole time.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:28:56] That's so weird.

Erik Aude: [00:28:57] It is very weird and it happens all the time.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:28:59] I could not handle that.

Erik Aude: [00:29:00] It would happen all the time. Like I'll skip ahead. I'll be in chains talking to my damn lawyer or to the consular and these people would just walk up with their hands behind their back know and just look at both of us and I'll be like, “Seriously man, fuck off!” For all these homeless people as I'm being led to the throngs of crowd and the chains would be like grabbing that my pants to like ask for money. I'm like, “Oh fuck. Do I have money?”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:29:24] I’m handcuff, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:29:25] I’m in chains. I got no money for you guys. That shit that would happen in Pakistan would make me laugh. Even there I was laughing. I was like, “This is so fucking ridiculous. It's great.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:29:36] This is so unbelievable. You're like -- and then they're picking up from the airport. What did they take you to like some hotel?

Erik Aude: [00:29:42] They take me to hotel off of Murray road. And they tell me, they go “Rai fucked up.” That's the first thing he says, “Rai fucked up.” You're supposed to go to Karachi. I go, “Hey, what does that mean?” Karachi's an eight hour drive by the way.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:29:54] You're in Islamabad or something?

Erik Aude: [00:29:54] I'm in Islamabad.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:29:55] All right.

Erik Aude: [00:29:55] And I said, “So what does that mean?” I say, “Well we got to go to Karachi and bring back this stuff.” I go, “So am I going with you guys?” I'm assuming I'm coming with you guys because that was sort of the selling pitch on Rai is that, “Oh these guys are going to show you around. They're going to show you a good time. You're not just going to be left hanging by yourself. You're going to have -- some people there showing you how great Pakistan is.” And they said, “No, we're going to leave you at the hotel and then we'll come back.” I go, “When are you coming back?” They asked me, “When is your flight?” Like they didn't say they're going to come back. They just ask, “When's your flight?” I said, “Friday.” They go, “We'll come back Friday.”  Okay, well that's -- I get there on a Monday and I'm being told these guys are going to be just leaving me at the hotel until Friday. And their exact words were, “Don't leave the hotel.” I'm like, “That's not option.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:30:35] No way!

Erik Aude: [00:30:35] No, no, no. Also Rai said they would get me spending money, right? So they gave me a thousand -- when I told them this, they started laughing. So Rai says you guys giving me spending money, which is true.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:30:45] Sure.

Erik Aude: [00:30:45] Because I didn't have any, I didn't, you know, I don't really know how things worked. So nowadays I bring the currency or I know how to exchange and that kind of stuff. But when I'm there I'm just sort of like at the -- I don’t know at the mercy of everyone around me because I'm trying to figure things out as they come. So they gave me a thousand rupees, told me it's like 200 American dollars. I learned very quickly after my first breakfast, that shit was 17 bucks.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:31:11] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [00:31:12] Because like after my first breakfast, I remember my first breakfast being 360 rupees. That's a third of my funds. I'm like “Holy shit!” And these are just a couple of eggs. Eggs and jam toast and some chai.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:31:24] Oh, man.

Erik Aude: [00:31:24] I'm like, this sucks. And that's day one, that's day one. So I'm like, “This sucks.” So I want to go explore the city and the cities like just the wrongs and throngs and throngs of people. It's not like, “Hey, there's a person.” No--

Jordan Harbinger: [00:31:35] It's kind of interesting to do something like that for me, theoretically.

Erik Aude: [00:31:38] Like, well I mean trust me, I wasn't bored like watching all the traffic and everything, but no matter where I went, there was not one smile, not one friendly face. Everyone was like, “Who the fuck is this guy?” And I'm jogging through the streets of Islamabad.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:31:56] You went jogging?

Erik Aude: [00:31:55] Yeah, I went jogging, that was one thing I like to do is run. I wouldn't jogging and I see three girls who, were somewhat attractive and they know younger my age and they had the burqas on but their faces were showing and I see them, so smiles and I go across the bridge and halfway across the bridge, over the traffic and the throngs of people. I look back and the girls are waving and I'm waving at these girls too. I'm like, “All right, all right.” There's a flag planted right there. And I find an Internet cafe far down the way. Well, on the Internet cafe know I send out a group email where I'm at and what's going on. And in my own sense of humor and my smartassness and well, on the way back, those three girls are still there. So I go over and I start trying to chat with these three girls. There's no chance of us communicating the other than a smile. They're smiling and they're like looking blushing and looking at each other and no one speaks a lick of English. There's little guy comes out of one of the shops and just starts yelling at me and I'm talking to this guy, he looks like he's a buck 10, little skinny guy.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:32:587] Right, how much did you weigh?

Erik Aude: [00:33:00] I was 225, I was benching 420 pounds.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:33:03] So you're like more than twice his weight.

Erik Aude: [00:33:05] I was maxing out at 420 and I was ripping 405, you know.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:33:09] That is ridiculous.

Erik Aude: [0:33:10] It’s a ridiculous big guy.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:33:13] You could've picked him up with one hand and throw him.

Erik Aude: [00:33:15] I didn't have to pick him up. I got to just like, “Hey, knock it off.” But obviously I wasn't welcome here.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:33:22] Right, right.

Erik Aude: [00:33:23] So as I was walking, I was walking away like I'm walking away. This guy just kept shoving me down the road. Like, “All right, he could've stopped 10 yards ago. Finally I turned around and grabbed him by his wrist and all I did was bend his wrist and this guy screams and goes out of the crowd.

But instead of like people just minding their own business, the crowd swarms me, the whole crowd gets around me.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:33:42] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [00:33:43] Now when I pushed this guy, when I bent this guy's wrist back, I dropped my bag, my backpack that I had. And when I looked down to grab my bag because I saw the crowd was starting to get antsy around me, I needed to get out of there. I looked down, my bag's gone and the only one that could have jacked my bag was this woman who wasn't making eye contact with me. And I'm thinking to myself, she's got my bag under her dress, but I'm not about to go shake down and all the lady in front of people, because that would look even worse.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:34:08] Yeah, no way.

Erik Aude: [00:34:09 So my first day in Pakistan, I got not the right amount of money. I got put in a hotel, told that I shouldn't leave the hotel, nothing was going according to plan and I got robbed by a little ladies.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:34:20] Geez.

Erik Aude: [00:34:20] That was day one. I'm like, “This place sucks!”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:34:23] Not a good start to the trip.

Erik Aude: [00:34:24] No it wasn't. But I met this girl on the plane from Dubai to Pakistan and it's only a couple hour flight, but I never had a problem with meeting women and talking to girls. And she had a British accent, even though she was Pakistani, she had a British accent. She spoke English great. Sweet girl, very beautiful. And we flirted with each other on the plane. And before we landed, I gave her my email. Well, she had emailed me and I saw her at -- when I got to the Internet cafe, that was one of the emails that I saw. So I told her which hotel I was at, what room number I'm at. The time they get back to the hotel, She's already called, There's a message waiting for me at the hotel.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:35:06] Oh, nice.

Erik Aude: [00:35:07] Yeah. So I'm like, “All right.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:35:08] Game is tight.

Erik Aude: [00:35:10] Trips starting at my games, my games never been terrible.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:35:13] That makes one of us.

Erik Aude: [00:35:14] Friendly, well, you know, confidence and a friendly smile and people like different, you know.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:35:18] Yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:35:19] People like a guy who's doesn't mind making a fool of themselves. And I was great at making myself look like an idiot.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:35:24] All right, all right.

Erik Aude: [00:35:26] So I get to the hotel and she calls me and she goes, “Hey, we should hang out tonight.” And I'm like, “All right, let's hang out tonight.” So she gives the concierge all the information on how to get her and he tells a cab driver and how to get where she lives. Now I go on one of the longest cab rides I've ever been on and we're going by down dirt paths and everything and I'm like, “This guy has taken me to abduct me and steal my kidneys.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:35:52] Definitely, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:35:53] Like I'm like, I'm already got an escape plan. I'm like, ”If this guy is going to be a deep shit and try -- if someone's going to try and pull me out of the car, I'm throwing this guy in the car and jack in his car. I've already got it -- I'm already thinking like I will go after him first and carjack him.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:36:07] Yeah, I remember how to drive a stick and everything.

Erik Aude: [00:36:09] We started off is like this -- the sun was still in the sky when I left and by the time I finally got to our destination, it was pitch black, dark. We'd go to this neighborhood and the first thing I noticed is there's glass on all the walls between the houses. There's barbwire fence and like this is --

Jordan Harbinger: [00:36:25] Like broken glass.

Erik Aude: [00:36:26] Yes.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:36:26] Oh, so like a spikes?

Erik Aude: [00:36:28] Yes, like they'd all just put like walls between houses. It would literally be like all the fences around your house had just broken glass cemented into the top so that people don't climb over and everything. And a lot of the houses had guard shacks in front of them with guards, armed guards in front of like one armed guard. Why get brought up to this house that all these little kids were outside on the driveway, and I'm talking like the whole neighborhood came together to come be here and this one girl comes out, talks to the cab driver, tells me to give him a 100 rupees. Cab driver loses his mind. He's yelling, but I did what she told me 100 rupees is still, I don't have a lot of rupees. I started with a 1,000. I already paid 360 for breakfast. Now I'm paying him a 100, so I'm already losing half my  bank roll in my first day in Pakistan.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:37:13] But that's what it was supposed to cost. She knew that already.

Erik Aude: [00:37:16] Ooh, no, I didn't know that.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:37:16] No, but she knew it.

Erik Aude: [00:37:18] She knew yeah, she was -- if the guy was asking for a lot more, he's probably asking for a lot more, but he's pissed off because I'm a foreigner. Foreigners always have money. I didn't have any money.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:37:27] Yeah, he wanted 10 times the fare, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:37:28] He want probably way more actually. So I follow her into the house. She tells me that her brothers, she told her brothers that I was an actor and I told her the time I'd done the movie, you know, done a few movies and she told people -- it spreads in the neighborhood. So I met all the little kids out front and whatnot and  talk to them. And then a couple of them spoke English, but then we went into her house, which is a huge compound, like just a big house. And she says, “Now she's telling me she messed up.” I'm like, “What happened?” She goes, “I told my brothers about you.” She was like, “All right, cool. Yeah, now they want to hang out with you.” I'm like, “Okay, cool.” So we're all going to hang out. She's like, “No, you're going to hang out with them.” I'm like, “I didn't come here to hang out with your brothers. I came here to hang out with you.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:38:06] Oh right, they don't want her hanging out with you.

Erik Aude: [00:38:08] Oh God, no, no, no, no.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:38:09] Oh, man!

Jason DeFillippo: [00:38:11] You're listening to the Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Erik Aude. We'll be right back after this.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:38:18] This episode is also sponsored by Capterra. Remember 1999, so we're officially 20 years past that, so if you're no longer partying like it's 1999, why is the software you use every day at work feel like it's not quite ready for Y2K? Start the year off on the right foot. Find software that's a little more up to date at capterra.com. Capterra is the leading free online resource to help you fund the best software solution for your business. They've got over 700,000 reviews of products. That is a ton, from real software users. You can discover everything you need to make an informed decision. They've got over 700 specific categories of software. I didn't even realize there were that many. Everything from project management to email marketing, yoga studio, management software, that's actually a thing. So no matter what kind of software your business needs. Capterra makes it easy to discover the right solution fast. Join the millions of people who use Capterra every month to find the right tools for their business. Whenever we need new software, Jen is always stopping by Capterra to find out what the reviews are. It's kind of like, I don't know if I'm allowed to mention this. Imagine a website that has reviews for other things like restaurants, it's that for software. Visit capterra.com/jordan for free today to find the right tools to make 2019 the year for your business. Capttera.com/jordan. C-A-P-T-E-R-R-A.com/jordan.

Jason DeFillippo: [00:39:38] Thanks for listening and supporting the show. Your support of our advertisers is what keeps us on the air. To learn more and get links to all the great discounts you just heard, visit jordanharbinger.com/deals. In the worksheet for Erik Aude will not be released until part two airs on Thursday. That link will be in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com/podcast. Now for the conclusion of part one with Erik Aude.

Erik Aude: [00:40:03] So nothing is going according to plan. And I'm like, “What the fuck?” I didn't want to come hang out with your brothers. Now the brothers, they seem nice. They were aged. They range in age from 24 to 14. And all the older guys had like beards going like long, long beards, but they all had British accents and they all come in as four of them. And she made me a burger actually, which is good. She went made me a burger and gave me some soda. And that was, you know, actually the--

Jordan Harbinger: [00:40:29] The best meal you had in Pakistan.

Erik Aude: [00:40:31] At that time.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:40:32] Yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:40:32] And then her brothers go, “Okay, we're going to go now.” And I'm like, “Can I just say hang here with you?” And she's like, “No, sorry.” Now it's out of her hands. And I didn't understand the customs and culture there. Like I didn't understand, you know, at the time I didn't know that like her even just leaving the house at night to tell the cab, how much it was and have me pay the cab, we get me was a huge risk on her part because women aren't allowed to leave the house after dark in Pakistan. They're not allowed to socialize, and then that if they're not married to in Pakistan. They know people would start talking and the way rumors spread can literally cost a woman her life in Pakistan. I didn't know that at the time, but she was like really taking a risk, even just socializing with someone like me. So I'm glad that I hung out with just her brothers now knowing what I know now, and her brother's idea is showing me a good time was driving around to all the locations. They'd be like, “Hey, there's pizza hut. Hey, there's KFC.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:41:27] Oh yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:41:28] Like all right, all I came all the way around the planet to see some fast foods.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:41:31] Some franchises

Erik Aude: [00:41:31] Yeah, exactly.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:41:32] Geez.

Erik Aude: [00:41:32] But one thing I noticed was that all the lines I saw was guys, my exact words were,

“Man isn't a fucking cockfest out there.” And they're like, “Oh yeah, we're looking for a woman.” I was like, “All right. Yeah, that'd be cool. Let's go where ladies are.” No, their idea of looking for a woman for me was well, they wanted to find a woman that was out after dark so that we could gang rape her.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:41:53] Oh, what?

Erik Aude: [00:41:55] Yeah. Their ideas showing me a good time was so that we can go find a woman unchaperoned and gang rape her because that's their right in Pakistan. I thought they were kidding at the time, but as in obviously time went by no, that's the way it is. If a woman is seen outside past curfew unchaperoned, especially even if she is chaperoned, if she's unchaperoned during the day, some of these areas, it's the man's right to gang raped her. But if it's after hours, no, it's every man's right gang rape. This is insane. It's nuts. And people don't understand how good they have it here because this is the crap that's happening over in other countries. And the media doesn't want to report on it because  you know, people will -- I don't know why they don't want to shine a light on what's really happening. They go, “Okay, well you know, that's just some of them.” No, it's not. It's not some of them. That’s the way their customs are. There is honor killings all the time. There's gang rapes.

[00:42:47] I've got hundreds of hundreds of stories from what I heard, what would go on and impact some, I’ll jump ahead a little bit. There was a British man who was born in Pakistan, but he grew up in Britain and he raised his family in Britain. He brought back his family, two of his daughters, one was a 25 year old doctor. The other one was a 20 year old. He brought them back under the guise of, “Oh, we're going to go see family to vacation.” Well, he didn't tell them was that he had arranged marriages for them. And the reason was because he hated the way they were born with the Western mentality. Well, the 25 year old doctor she has a Western mentality. She's like, “Fuck you dad. That's not happening.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:43:23] Yeah, I'm a doctor. I'm not marring some shitty guy.

Erik Aude: [00:43:26] I’m not getting married. Well, he said this brought this honor to his family. So he shot his daughter in the face, killing her.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:43:32] Oh my God.

Erik Aude: [00:43:33] For two weeks this man complained in prison that I shouldn't be in jail because the victim's family members have forgiven me and under a Muslim law, if the victim's family members forgive you, then all law forgives you and all is forgotten. Who are the victim’s family members, his wife, his sons. So he spent two weeks in prison complaining about being in jail for the murder of his own daughter. He was released, charges were all dropped. His other daughter was sold. I'm sure to this day she's still in Pakistan against her will.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:44:07] This is insane.

Erik Aude: [00:44:08] And this is normal, and that was some guy who grew up in Europe. People go, “Oh no, that's not how it is.” No, that's how it is. I saw it countless times. There was a man, there was a kid he was my age actually, he was 21 when he got arrested and he had an American accent. He grew up in Detroit.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:44:25] That’s where I'm from.

Erik Aude: [00:44:26] Oh, you might know him then. He grew up in Detroit and him and his cousin raped and murdered a girl in Detroit. Well, he fled back to Karachi to, avoid, I don't know, to avoid prison in Pakistan, but he was arrested and Karachi transported to Islamabad as that getting ready for extradition back to the US, and this guy liked the lions. He grew up in America, spoke with an American accent and I said to him, “Why would you do this?” And his exact words to me are like, “It's just the way things are, man. This is how we're raised. “

Jordan Harbinger: [00:44:57] That's crazy.

Erik Aude: [00:44:59] I was like, “Wow!” And he just like -- he didn't think it was, in Pakistan because there's no big deal, but he grew up in America though, but he still grew up with that mentality.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:45:08] That's crazy. How is it -- I feel like that's such a bullshit excuse to be like, “Oh well, you know, I was raised with this way.” If you're such a Detroiter that you actually are one of the ones that like the lions, you should have figured out by now that you can't rape people and murder people.

Erik Aude: [00:45:21] In Pakistan. It's just a different mentality. There was two things we couldn't talk about. We can't talk about politics and women. You couldn't talk about that, and the reason is because we completely didn't agree on anything. Obviously everyone, you know at the time hated Bush. They hated Americans, policies and why America helps Israel, that's usually what I always rotate around. Why is America always back in Israel? But then when it came to women, like one of the questions that stood out to me, someone says in America, “Well, can a woman ask a man out on a date?” Like, “Yeah.” “Really?” “And you guys are okay with this?” “Yeah, actually I'm flattered when a woman asked me out on a date. It's good for my ego.” They go, “And so if a woman comes begging and crawling like a dog,” and I'm like, “I don't really see it that way.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:46:05] Yeah, that doesn't really happen.

Erik Aude: [00:46:05] Yeah, but that's how it was being described, and so that wouldn't be isolated incidences. Many people would ask me, you know, they would say, “Are women not property in America?” And I'm like, “No, no.” not only are we equal, but actually the men are usually the ones who, you know, need to mind their peace and keys around a woman to keep her happy, but in Pakistan, they're considered property. They don't have any rights whatsoever. So that first day in Pakistan, this woman who I met on the plane who was studying abroad and had a British accent and her brothers all studied abroad had British accents were trying to show me a good time to find a woman that we could all gang rape.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:46:45] Unbelievable.

Erik Aude: [00:46:47] Needless to say, we didn't find a woman.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:46:49] Yeah, lucky.

Erik Aude: [00:46:49]  But had we found one that wouldn't happen, not with me there. Whatever I drank that day though made me sick. I drank water from a pitcher at this restaurant, I'm thinking that's where I got sick.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:47:01] Sure, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:47:02] The next two days I was sick as a dog. I was shitting sideways. I didn't even wear pants, the entire day on a Wednesday because it was pointless.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:47:12] I don't mean to laugh, but I can imagine how sick you are.

It was like no point wearing pants.

Erik Aude: [00:47:15] No, no point wearing pants. I lost so much weight. I was dehydrated.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:47:19] Oh, man.

Erik Aude: [00:47:19] I remember I couldn't eat anything on Tuesday. I ordered some room service, and I was drinking only like 7up bottles that so it bring it up to the room, it was nothing. I wasn't take chance on anything water-wise, Thursday, I started to feel better and I went out and I just needed to get out was little cabin fever, being in a room I fell a lot better and I got food. I bought, everything I bought was packaged though I was buying, you know, packaging. I found a store where they weren't charging me a ridiculous amount like they were -- it was like two rupees for like these little Hostess things and I bought bottled water and everything else just, well I go back to the Internet cafe and it's Valentine's day. It's February 14th, and one of the emails that I got was from this. It was from a girl named Missy. Missy, I had been in love with since I was five. Missy was the reason why I had studied longer, why I'd worked out harder. She was everything motivation wise for me to do better in my life, to be better in my life. She was my driving force since I was a kid. For some reason I fell in love with this girl when I was only five years old and it never went away.

[00:48:24] Missy and I, we would date on and off, but her mother absolutely hated me. Her mother hated me. Her mother was a teacher's aide in the second grade. Even as a kid, I was always in trouble. My name was just etched into the board. It was always on the chalkboard because I was always telling jokes and, and you know, being disruptive and being a little dipshit and I was always trying to get laughs from everyone. Well, her mom's sunk these nails into my shoulder.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:48:47] Her fingernails?

Erik Aude: [00:48:48] Her mom was an evil woman, just an evil woman. And she stuck her nails into my shoulder and I was in a lot of pain so I squirted her with glue and this is in second grade.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:48:58] Oh wow.

Erik Aude: [00:48:58] So I squirted her with glue, she was in shock and I grabbed her sweater and threw it in a mud puddle. Well, she never let that go, she never let that go. She never forgave me and she made sure that her daughter wasn't allowed to date me. So Missy and I would have the date, like in secret and her mom would find out and I guess take it out on Missy and we'd have to distance ourselves again, and this went on forever. And now I'm 21 years old. I'm in Pakistan and I'm getting an email from Missy saying that it was a group email, it wasn't to me, but it was to everyone. And I was one of the everyone's, that her mom had died from a pancreatic cancer.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:49:30] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [00:49:32] And you know, my first initial reaction was, “Fuck yeah!”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:49:35] Oh man, that's terrible. That’s terrible.

Erik Aude: [00:49:37] It's awful. But I was like, “Yes, you know, because I can -- this is --

Jordan Harbinger: [00:49:40]  Finally free.

Erik Aude: [00:49:40] This is the woman that's been keeping me from this girl that I've loved since I was five years old, five years old. And so I'm like, “Burn in hell bitch.” You know, because --

Jordan Harbinger: [00:49:50] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [00:49:51] I was a fucking ass. I mean, this is just this -- that was on the first reaction and then I get on the Internet and go, “Missy, I'm so sorry sweetie. I'm sorry you’re going into this. I love you.”

I get back next week. I will be there for you. Anything you need. Don't worry. I'm really sorry this happened but then I'm like this pop. “Yes!”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:50:06] Yeah, oh man.

Erik Aude: [00:50:07] One, it was the reason I couldn't be with this girl.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:50:09] It’s soon. It’s so 20 somethings.

Erik Aude: [00:50:11] That’s February 14, and that's 16 years. It was technically 17 years after I've known this girl. I've been in love with this girl over 17 years. And finally the one woman, the reason, the main reason why we haven't been able to be together and make it go at it.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:50:25] Is out of the way.

Erik Aude: [00:50:26] Is out of the way. And what happens the very next day, I get arrested. I'm sorry, but God's got a fucked up sense of humor, man.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:50:37] That's crazy.

Erik Aude: [00:50:37] Because dude, that's always, I mean, I was not meant to be with that girl for some reason.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:50:42] Yeah, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:50:42] Like I was looking at for that one reason. Like, ”All right, what happened in Pakistan sucks.” You know what happened to me, but what happened -- what I lost at the time, it wasn't getting arrested for a crime to commit. That was the worst part. It was losing her. To me, that was the worst part. Losing the opportunity to be with this woman that I want to be with my entire life. That was the worst part about it. And I get arrested the next day for unknowingly smuggling the opium.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:51:10] So the opium is sewn in the lining of the bag?

Erik Aude: [00:51:13] Yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:51:13] Of the suitcase that you're carrying jackets in?

Erik Aude: [00:51:16] Yeah, the jackets was a smoke screen. If I had taken all the jackets out of the suitcase and put it in my own suitcase, I probably would've, -- red flags that have been raised by how angry they were. Why would you guys be getting so angry? I'm just going to go in my own suitcase. You know, if I'm here for the leather jackets, then there should be no problem.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:51:35] Right, yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:51:36]  But it was professionally sewn into the suitcase. If I had emptied the suitcase, suitcase looks like an empty suitcase. People are like, “How could you not tell from the weight?” I mean well it wasn't ridiculously heavy.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:51:48] A kilo of opium is still a kilo.

Erik Aude: [00:51:49] It was still 3.6, so that's some 0.2 pounds.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:51:52] But that's not ridiculous.

Erik Aude: [00:51:53]. No, it's not, it's not, it's not, and it was still professionally concealed. There's no way to like fill it and know it without knowing it, being in on it. There's no way to see it. And when people say, “How did you not know?” I asked them all the time. I pointed this out. “Have you ever helped somebody move before? Did you go through all their stuff when you were helping them move? Then how do you know you weren't being used to smuggle narcotics then?” And people go, “Because I know.” There's some people are like, “I just know. I just know everything.”  You go, “Cool, well let's go play the lottery since you know everything.

[00:52:24] People love to think they know everything. I ask them, I go, “Well, when a magician taps you on the shoulder and you look and you not there, they're saying, “Look at this hand while they're jacking your watch and your wallet with the other.” A murderer will tell everyone he's a thief if it keeps their attention of a going to be in a murderer.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:52:41] Sure.

Erik Aude: [00:52:41] It's just misdirection. Drug smugglers are shameless and they're smart and that they can get their product across by keeping you in the dark, they will absolutely do that because they figured you won't draw suspicion to yourself, but also they don't have to pay you what you're really worth.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:52:54] Sure, because you don't know the risk.

Erik Aude: [00:52:56] Correct.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:52:57] Yeah.

Erik Aude: [00:52:57] It happens all the time. When I got out of the cab with the suitcases to leave Pakistan. The guy who was there was like, “Next time you come back, we'll show you around you. We'll hook you up with some girls. You have a great time.” And I'm humoring this guy. I'm like, “Yeah, sure. Next time I come back. I know for a fact I'm never coming back to Pakistan. Fucking country sucks.” That fucking country sucks and I'm good at finding like good things that have everywhere.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:53:19] Yeah, you're super positive. So the fact that you are just 100 percent down on Pakistan at this point.

Erik Aude: [00:53:23] I know for a fact I'm never encourage Pakistan to anyone. This is before I get arrested.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:53:28] Right. This before your stint in prison.

Erik Aude: [00:53:29] I would encourage Turkey to everyone because I had a great time. I did not have a great time in Pakistan. I got robbed. I got sick. I hung out with rapist. I wasn't really looking forward to going back to that country. There wasn't one positive note there, you know, only positive note was I couldn't wait to get back to Missy.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:53:49] Right, right.

Erik Aude: [00:53:50] I was counting the, like I didn't even want to go to Sweden. I wanted to go direct home just so I can get the Missy. That was all those on my minds. Just getting back to Missy. So it's early in the morning and I go into international departures and this is long line curving around the corner and I go walking around, I'm waiting in line and the line goes all the way up this wall to where there's a customs. There's customs tables and when the customs officer sees me and flags me, because I'm about six inches taller than everyone. So I'm like, “Fuck yeah.” I don't want to wait in this long line.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:54:20] Let’s get the line. The benefits of being foreign, right?

Erik Aude: [00:54:23] Well, our tall, I mean, so I go skip this long line. I get to the front and the guy says business or pleasure and I'm like an asshole. I say, “Pleasure is my business.” Because I'm stupid, I'm a stupid 21 or older. Who doesn't think before I talk? And they go through everything. Everything's fine. Pack it up. I'm about to walk through the metal detector. When someone grabs my arm, I look back and he goes, “You carry narcotics? And I said, “Check it again.” Grabs the suitcase, not my bag, not my bag, not my stuff. Grabbed the suitcase, throws everything on the fucking floor and I'm pissed. I'm like, “Hey asshole.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:54:55] Yeah, what the hell?

Erik Aude: [00:54:57] That’s fucking rude, you know, that's what I'm thinking. This guy's a rude dickhead. And he takes the suitcase off the, I don't know where the fuck he takes. He takes the suitcase off and leaves me right there. People who are like in line to go through the metal detector and also the customs tables are over here. Now guard standing over me and I'm folding up all the leather goods right in the middle of this floor. This is embarrassing shit. But I'm there for the leather goods. That's all I care about.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:55:20] So worst case, you just carry a bunch of them on the way home.

Erik Aude: [00:55:22] I’m making them nice and cleaning them off because I don't want you know -- I'm folding everything up and I get brought to another room by this man, by the guard that was left with me. Now the guards over there sitting with me and time starting to go by. It's taken a while and I tell them, I go, I don't know what's taking so long, but I'm going to need another suitcase. Destroy the suitcase. “I even tell them destroy the suitcase. I don't give a fuck. Just give me something else.” The guard keeps like asking me to do this though, because he likes that I can bounce my chest.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:55:49] It was like flex your muscles. That's a little homoerotic somehow.

Erik Aude: [00:55:53] No, they're weird like that. Like they're really like, “Dude, you know, do your titty bumps thing, and I humored them. I did it.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:00] You're 21.

Erik Aude: [00:56:01] I don't care. I'm like, whatever, dah, dah dah. And that was a lot bigger and just ready. But time's going by and  all I'm worried about is missing my fucking flight. I don't care about the suitcase, I just don't want to miss my flight. Now I sat in the hallway, I start to see more guards, like congregate, hang out there. Finally, the guy who asked me if there was narcotics and my suitcase comes in and he's wearing a suit, but he's followed by guards, were in a guard uniform. The guard is holding these two flat like sandwich sealed things. And his exact words to me is, “What is this?” And I said, “He's holding it.” That guy should know exactly what it is because he's the one over there. I'm like, “I don’t know fucking know what it is.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:42] Yeah, sure.

Erik Aude: [00:56:43] He says this is opium.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:45]opium.

Erik Aude: [00:56:46] But he said opium.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:46] Opium.

Erik Aude: [00:56:49] I said, “Why are you showing me this?” “Because it came out of your suitcase.”

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:53] What are you thinking right at that point?

Erik Aude: [00:56:55] So I'm such a fucking idiot.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:57] So you knew that that came out of your suitcase.

Erik Aude: [00:56:59] Oh, yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [00:56:59] So you don’t think they were framing you or anything? You were like this was in there.

Erik Aude: [00:57:02] No, I knew, I knew it was, I knew that everything I'd been told was too good to be true. I knew my friends set me up. I knew that, I knew that I got fucked and I was so sad mostly, that I wasn’t even mad. I was just sad and my heart just dropped. And I said something that he never want to say when you're on vacation. I said, “I need to speak with the American embassy here.” And the only reason I even knew how to say that was because I watched the movie broke down palace like the year before, like Claire Danes saying, “I need to speak to the American embassy.” If I’ve never seen that movie. I would've been like, “What the fuck do I do?” I probably would have been like, “I need to call my mom,” and guy says, “American embassy can't help you.” We're going to hang you after five o'clock prayer. Like, just matter of fact, as soon as he said that, “Now I'm scared. I'm freaking.” And they saw that I started to panic and everything and they tried to grab at me and I was chucking guys around and I heard a lot of guys, they said that I tried to escape that day and I wasn't trying to escape. I mean, if I knew then what I knew now, “Fuck yeah, I would have escaped.” If I knew then what I knew now, I’ve never would have gone on a fucking trip. I would have just smashed Rai when he picked me up to go to the airport. I'm like, “Hey Rai, we're going to take a detour in the middle of the desert,” and when they can dig his own fucking grave and buried himself.

[00:58:25] But they said, I tried to escape that day and I was only trying to find a phone because I want it to warn other people because a lot of other people were making these trips. That's all I wanted to do. I figured if I'm going to die, make your life worth something and warn others, that's what I was thinking. So I found a phone. I barricaded myself in an office down the hallway. They're banging on the door. There was no windows. It was a windowless office. And they were like, “Come out, you're surrounded.” And they couldn't come in. I was in there for I think 40 minutes or so, long time it felt like. I can get out the numbers, none of the country codes worked. Finally, I hear a knock on the door and says, “Eric Aude.” Some people don't know how to say the accent on my name. And I said, “You want to speak to an American?” I said, “Are you from the embassy?” He says “DEA.” I said, “Prove it.” He says, “Asked me a question,” and I go, “What state are you from?” He says, “Texas.” And I'm thinking, everyone's know Texas. I said, “Who's your favorite football team?” He says “Cowboys.” I'm like, “Dallas, they suck.” And I said, they said that he goes, you want to talk to, I said, “They said that they're going to hang me.” And so someone talks out there and then he comes back and he like under his breath, like sort of like, “Oh, they were kidding.” How do you fuck with a kid about?

Jordan Harbinger: [00:59:49] Yeah, they're just a bunch of assholes.

Erik Aude: [00:59:51] How do you kid about that? I don't get it. You know, like, why would you do that? I mean, it's already a bad situation. Why would you go out of your way to do that? Imagine the cops doing that to people here. Well, okay, we're going to, we address you for jaywalking, and you going to jail for the rest of your life, and where to put you on death row for this. Whoa! What the fuck? This shit escalated quickly. This morning I'm thinking about getting back to Missy.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:00:15] Sure.

Erik Aude: [01:00:15] And I'm so happy, and next thing I know I'm being told that I'm going to be hung, you know, within the span of 40 minutes. What the fuck? So he says, “You can talk to us or it's up to you.” And I'll say, “Yes, I want to talk to you. I 100 percent want to talk to the DEA. And he tells me don't run. I'm like, “Where the fuck am I going to go”  The whole room is full of guards. Now all the guards are like grabbing onto my arms and like people were like literally touching me like that to feel like they're helping escort me over. But before we take me to another room, they put me in front of the table that now has just one suitcase, the suitcase that I was hired to bring, but also all my stuff thrown into that suitcase. Like from my own bag. I had my own portable DVD player, my wallet, my cell phone, all my clothes to make it look like that's my bag now. So they combined the two luggages into one.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:01:01] All right, so they made it look like you just packed it.

Erik Aude: [01:01:03] Yeah, and now they're taking photos and all the guards are behind me taking these photos. But now that the DEA is here, I'm thinking, all right, cool. There's friendly faces here at these guys and when they hear my story, contact my mom and everyone else, they're going to know that I'm innocent. So now I'm not worried anymore. So now like an asshole, I'm taking photos with these guys. I'm like, “Well shit, live it up, Erik. Let's smile. So I'm smiling.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:01:22] Yeah, there's a photo of  you kind of like what's up everybody?

Erik Aude: [01:01:24] Because I thought that the DEA was going to hook me up, because they're going to see that I'm innocent. I truly thought those guys are going to be there to help me now, because I wasn't guilty. So this shit doesn't happen to innocent people, you know. That's what I'm thinking. If I was scared I might then it'd be sad or in the photos when I'm happy they, these guys are here, all right. And you know, so I was posing for these photos. So this photo doesn't mean like with my arms around the guards and being a dick, and I get brought to this office across the airport. Now all the guards outside and the only ones in that office are three DEA agents. And who's ever office, I'm assuming it is. It's just a quiet Pakistani man behind the desk just doing his own thing. But he's also there just observing, and the DEA agents just start bombarding me with questions.

[01:02:03] One guy asked me a question and I'll be halfway through an answer. Then another guy will cut me off and mid-sentence and bombard with another question and it's like they try to twist my words around and they're trying to catch me and I'm telling them the story. I'm trying to tell them, Rai Gharizian and the gym and everything and this guy goes, “How much where are you getting paid for this?” “800 bucks.” $800! They were like, “What? Why would you risk your life for $800?” It's a free trip for me. I would have done this for free. That's what it was. I would have done this for free. One guy goes, “Do you use? Are you a user or are you junkie?” It was like a fucking look, I'm a gym rat, man. how these motherfuck you'll ever meet. And the guy goes, and this other guy, “Come on, everyone smokes pot.” I'm like, “No, that's just you,” and when they tell them where I was going, because like my flight was going back to U of A, to Heathrow, to Sweden. The guy's like, “Why not just direct routes?” “I don’t know, I'm assuming this is the shortest route,” and back then, I knew this common sense stuff. Today when you go to like the cheapest flights aren't direct there you go 22 hour layovers in Shanghai.

Jordan Harbinger: [1:03:04] Yeah, sure.

Erik Aude: [01:03:05] I found $350 roundtrip tickets to New Delhi and I had to stay in Shanghai for 22 hours coming back. It was the worst layover ever.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:03:13] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [01:03:14] But it makes sense. Like, so when I told this guy I was going to U of A, to Heathrow to Sweden, he goes, “These are all drugs smuggling routes,” and he starts naming off all these countries. I'm like, “Why don't you name the only two countries that aren't on the drug smuggling route?” And so these guys are calling me a smart ass thinking I'm a tough guy. And I'm like, I'm scared. Okay. I'm not trying to be a tough guy, but you guys, you’re twisting my words around. You don't leave a fucking word out of my mouth, and then it becomes completely evident that these guys are fucking with me, because this one guy, he does basically what the Pakistani guys did. I'm already scared. And he tells me if these guys don't give you death, they're going to give you 20, 25 years in prison. And then when you're done there, you're going to go back to America and get another 10 to 15. I was like, “Whoa, now I know you're fucking with me because I saw a little movie called Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:03:58] Yeah, yeah.

Erik Aude: [01:03:58] So why would you guys do that? So obviously they're just fucking with me. So that made me know that these guys don't live a word out of my mouth and I tell them, “Okay, so I'm fucked, right?” You guys don't believe a word on my mouth, but give me the benefit of the doubt and other people are making these trips. You got to warn them, all right? You can't do anything for me, that's fine. But other people are making these trips, and this guy to my right says, “Oh, we're going to go over all the information you gave us.” But now is your chance, if you want us to help you, now's your chance. Once we walk out that door, you're on your own. It was obvious these guys weren't going to help me. And this one dude puts his hand on my heart and he says to me, he goes, “Why is your heart going so fast? Because you're lying to us.” I'm like, I'm not lying to you guys. I'm scared. I was told I was going to be hung. You guys are telling me bullshit. You guys aren't here to help me.” The guy calls me a punk. Says you're here the punk, you're tough. You think you're a tough guy. This country's going to show you how weak you really are. And then when they leave, they say “He's all yours,” And I get nailed with a rifle and I get -- that shit stung and I get taken out of the damn room, And then I got driven to this customs lock up -- not too far from the airport and they just throw me in a cell, that's got all these other dudes in it.

[01:05:04] And the first thing someone asked me is, it says something I don't fucking understand. He goes, then someone says in English, “Country. What country?” And I said, “America.” Wrong answer. Wrong fucking answer. I'm already getting water thrown at me and spit on. So I'm smashing these old guys in this small cell. Like these guys are ballsy, you know, like, “Oh, okay, someone came in here that we can all, I mean, they're all mad, I get it. But now we can all take our anger out on someone. I'm that guy, they think they can take their anger out on and I'm not in the fucking mood to be fucked with at all.

I mean, I'll watch the show Oz, I'll watching all these prison movies and whatnot and plus, no, I'm not to get a fucked it. That’s you not an option for me.

[01:05:40] So the guards see that I'm jacking up all these old guys in the cell and just like launching them around, they moved me to another cell pretty quickly. They can't keep me in that room. And the other cell’s got two old dudes in there and these guys don't want to, you know, these guys are just miserable man, they don't want any trouble, and I wait in that cell for the majority part of the day. And embassy consular comes over, a girl named Christy and she's followed by this Pakistani interpreter who works for the embassy, a guy named [indiscernible] [01:06:06] and she sees me and she gets directed to man. My exact words to her, “Well shit, if I had known I was going to see someone as pretty as you, I would have gotten arrested a long time ago.”

Jordan Harbinger: [01:06:15] Oh man. You just can't turn it off.

Erik Aude: [01:06:17] No, I can't. I'm like, “I'm thinking to myself, people are going to know that I'm here. They're going to know the true story. They're going to know I'm innocent. I'm going to be gone here max a day, two days.” That's what's going to happen and I might get bailed out and go out. That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking this isn't it, just enjoy it. I'm like, “Well shit, this situation sucks. It can be a great story to tell one day.” So she's laughing. Her exact words are, “Yep, he's from California,” and she asked me, “How are you doing?” I said, “Great, never better.” She was “Really?” Like “No, what's happening?” And she tells me that, “Well, we're going to try to come back and see you on Tuesday and this is Friday.” I'm like, “Tuesday? What the fuck? Why are you going to wait until Tuesday?” And then I tell her the whole, she says, you don't have to talk to this. I said, “Yes, I want to talk to you.” They're like, you need to sign something so that we can tell other people. If there's people you want us to contact. Contact my mother, also tell them to call the gym and because the other people were making these fucking trips, you got to warn them. And then when she tells me she will come back, we'll try to come back Tuesday, she tells me what's going to happen, that I'm going to be presented in front of the magistrate in the morning. They're going to decide how many days of physical remand that put me under. And I ask her “What's physical remand?” She says, “Well in Pakistan, if they figure you're not going to tell them the truth. They can beat it out of you.”

Jordan Harbinger: [01:07:28] So physical remand is like, they just torture you until you talk?

Erik Aude: [01:07:31] Physical remand is open torture. Physical remand is straight up torture, yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:07:37] Shit.

Erik Aude: [01:07:38] So this is the embassy telling me this and I'm like, “Aren't you guys supposed to do something?” And they said, “We're only supposed to make sure you're not treated any differently than the people around you.” But the people around me are all being beaten too. There's dudes having the bottom of the feet beating all afternoon and all night. It's not really, they lowered the fucking bar when it went to, I can't be treated any differently than anyone else.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:08:00] Sure.

Erik Aude: [01:08:01] Big time. So I'm thinking, I'm only see this girl next Tuesday, she came back within like an hour or two. The reason she came back is because exactly what I told her. My mom told her over the phone, and so she brought me a soda and they brought me a piece of pizza. I got small, weird box of pizza. So they brought me food back and she let me know that my mom's trying to get a lawyer and everything else. But like her whole attitude changed when she came back because everything I told her was exactly what my mother had told her. So she went from like, “This sucks to be you,” to “Holy wow!” This really sucks to be you. Like you could tell there was a level of like possible she believed, she believed what I was saying. That night a lawyer came but I never saw him again. What was going on was all these lawyers were coming in and then they saw all Americans. So they started jacking up the rates.

Now this is a $400 case for anyone else. All right, in Pakistan, a drug smuggling case is $400 max.

People that were trying to, like they were thinking hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, not rupees, dollars.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:09:03] Dollars, right. This is their ticket to retire.

Erik Aude: [01:09:05] This is their ticket. This is their one chance to like retire and make it big and no one sees a body, a human being there. They see a someone's bones they can like get rich off of. So I'm not getting any opportunities when I get presented in front of the courts and I'm led in these like archaic chains or like one side of this. This is the stuff that you'd see in like medieval movies and everything and the guards would all hold the chains long. And if I really wanted to, I can be swinging these fuckers around, but I'm thinking I'm going through the legal system here, you know, and I don't know where to go. I don't know. If I knew then like I said, I would've gone, I would've gotten a car and driven towards the Indian border. That's exactly what I would've done. But I'm going with the system trying to figure it out as it goes. No one's telling me anything. At the courts, it's bazaars and bazaars. Imagine like a swap meet with just a bunch of a hanging over blankets for shade and everything and dust and trees and homeless beggars everywhere and everyone is like pushing up on each other and they're bringing me to the lower court magistrate, which is it's like a rusty shack that has a bunch of papers pile on top of it and the court is above your head. So you're like your chin goes to the -- like I'm the only one whose chin goes above the desk. Everyone else is below the desks. So the judge is like looking down on you. This was really weird. And I don't understand anything because no one speaking in English, whatever was said that day in Urdu, Christy understood. She was there with all again, the interpreter, and the judge wrote off and the guy who was leading me with the guards, they agreed on something and they were about to turn away. We'll Christy came up to the desk and started speaking in Urdu to the judge. Something that I found out later, she was not supposed to do at all because the embassies, American embassy, strict policy is if it's narcotics related, they don't get involved whatsoever. They leave you completely hanging, whatever Christy said, the judge agreed with her, brought it back and they changed it. And the dude who was in charge of it was pissed, like fucking pissed. And I asked her while we're walking back through the bizarre because we had to walk and talk while I was getting rushed to the vans. I said, “What happened?” She goes, “They want a 10 days a physical remand, I got you three.” And my first words to her where I could have lasted 10.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:11:16] Oh man.

Erik Aude: [01:11:17] Because I'm a fucking moron. Trust me, but I'm scared and that's how I handled it when I was scared. She says, “You're welcome.” And I, to this day, I can't thank that woman enough because for the next three days I'd be tortured for information I didn't have and I'd be electrocuted. I'd be hung up like a punching bag. He used his one, I'd have the bottom of my feet beaten. I was drowned. I was --

Jordan Harbinger: [01:11:42] Like waterboarded, they kind of do?

Erik Aude: [01:11:44] Well, yeah, but it was a dunk tank try. Like waterboards they put the--

Jordan Harbinger: [01:11:48] The cloth over--

Erik Aude: [01:11:49] Your face and drown and whatnot.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:11:51] This is your head dunked in the water.

Erik Aude: [01:11:52] This was my whole head submerged under the water and I just hold my breath and try not to panic because if you panic, water will come in your nose, water going your lungs so you have to not panic. And they would ask me the same questions and I would try to delay the answers. I try to tell them the same thing, but they don't believe you and they just want you to admit the drugs was yours. But when you have no right answers for them, it's not going to stop. The pain is not going to stop. They're not going to, I mean, I mean it's painful, but it was more demoralizing emotionally because it was just people do this to the people and it's so fucked up. It really is. People died. They're in physical remand all the time, all the time. And I would read it in the newspapers in jail that so-and-so died, another person died, and it's just the way things are. People can't handle it. I mean, I could handle it, but it was just in a sense, I guess it's the closest thing to a rape or an assault I guess, because it's just so dehumanizing and so embarrassing and it takes something from you like it really does and I wish I could just forget it ever happened. I really do. And all I could do is just take it. All I can do is take it because nothing I said was going to make him stop.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:13:13] Yeah. You have in the documentary, which we'll link in the show notes. Reenacted, this whole scene is reenacted and you didn't play yourself.

Erik Aude: [01:13:24] I did the show, Locked up Abroad. The whole point of telling this documentary because some people were like, “Well, if I've already seen Locked up Abroad, why do I want to see this documentary?”

Jordan Harbinger: [01:13:32] Oh, this is much more.

Erik Aude: [01:13:33] And I tell them because Locked up Abroad only took the exciting stuff. They left the guts and the heart and everything out. They didn't explain how I was the way I was. They didn't explain how I was able to adjust the situations. They just showed the fights, the tortures and the harshness of it and that left me hanging. And since I did Locked up Abroad for six years now, all I do --whenever the air, the show Locked up Abroad, I get countless emails and messages from people hating on me, telling me to kill myself. I'm a fucking liar that they would kill me and fuck me up. And then I got raped every day and they just want to say some harsh mean stuff to me. And the only reason I told the show, Locked up Abroad, like I didn't want to do the show, I never wanted to do the show. They asked me every season to come do the show and it was finally season six that I agreed to do it. And it was because they said, what if we let you play yourself? And I'm an actor, I'm a stunt man. And I wanted it told right but I also thought had I seen a show like this back in the day, then I would have been armed with the information that this shit really happens. And I would've seen it for what it really was and I would have been smart enough to walk away.

[01:14:35] So I told it because the only way I'm able to sort of justify or find meaning to what happened to me is to hopefully prevent it from happening to somebody else. If I was built and meant to do anything, maybe this is it, maybe. So I told the story and then what they did though was leave me completely hanging and I've been dealing with it ever since. And I've got fillings, I tried to ignore it. I've got thick fucking skin. But man, there are some mean people out there. And for six years I've just been getting nonstop hate mail because of Locked up Abroad. It's an apples and oranges. I get positive messages but I get just as many negative messages and then they get a message as seemed to ring a lot louder than the positive messages. So my friend Jamie who says, well, we need to tell your story because what's happening to you is wrong and it is a good story. It's a powerful story. And when she told me, we'll tell it your words and we'll make it in a long enough so everyone can understand and we'll answer the questions Locked up Abroad and never answered. And the responses have actually been really positive. I've had people who told me they were suicidal and we're about to kill themselves and somehow they came across my documentary and they've since realized that if I can go through everything I've been through and somehow still have a positive attitude, it's still somehow have a reason to want to live, then they themselves can find a reason to want to live. And I've had people say, look, this does sound like a lot like some of my friends doing or something. I was offered and I was able to see it for what it really was. So I thank you for you going through it so I don't have to or that my friend doesn't have to.

[01:16:11] The messages had been a lot more positive because of my documentary and that lets me know that it wasn't for nothing because my life, I try to be positive. Every day, I tell myself I'm happy. Every day, I lie to myself and say I'm happy and I want to live and then there's all kinds of good things and there are reasons for that, but I can't shake my past either. I've been through so much fucking shit. And when people love to kick you when your down and make fun of your situation, knowing that people out there are finding strength from it, lets me know that it wasn't for nothing. So sorry.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:16:54] No, it's okay man. The story is truly amazing and the documentary is truly amazing. That's why I wanted to do this show. So I flew down here to talk to you because like I said in the beginning of this, what you went through is so incredibly harrowing and horrible and it makes everyone who sees it want to be more like you, and I'm not saying that to blow sunshine up your skirt. It's really the truth is nobody comes out of this or I should say very few people come out of this becoming somehow a better person, and you've done that. And that's what's really inspiring about this. There's a lot in this documentary that's incredible, but the best part of that is the fact that you came out and you're not just this reclusive, angry guy who hates everyone. That's the most important thing. And I think that there's so much that people can take away from it. Not just don't carry bags for your friends across the border, but the way that you have. I mean, when I'm having a bad day, I don't think, well, I definitely don't see things the way that you do. And I think that's what's really inspiring about it. I think inspiration generally is something that you can get, is can be cheap, right? It can get it from anywhere. But somebody who's really done the work, you've worked on yourself a lot when you were in prison in Pakistan, whether you realize it at the time or not. And that part is, that part is really amazing. And frankly the fact that you still have your sense of humor about it as amazing as well.

Erik Aude: [01:18:18] All I did was make fun of myself every day. Even there, I made fun of myself every day. I just, my sense that man, I'm in a bad situation. I just, I remember the last day and being tortured and the guard, you're like, “Is there anything you want to say?” I was like, “Less talk more rock. Let's fucking do this.” I just wanted to get it over with. And that last day, they just wanted me to admit the drugs are mine.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:18:42] The last day of physical?

Erik Aude: [01:18:43] Last day of physical remand is only question, just say you're guilty, this will stop. And like the two guards that were there, they like felt like, I don’t know, I kind of got that they felt bad. Like they weren't vindictive, they were just, this is their job.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:18:55] What you think about somebody whose job it is to torture people?

Erik Aude: [01:18:58] I think that they, you know, I don't, I mean, unless you're just a psychopath, I think that sucks.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:19:04] It sucks.

Erik Aude: [01:19:05] Yeah. Like, if your job is to watch people suffer, man, that's not good. That's can't be fun.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:19:09] No.

Erik Aude: [01:19:09] That's got to be draining on them too and everything, you know, and like, wow man, this is my job. I guarantee you those guys want to get out of that position as soon as possible. I wouldn't want to do that job.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:19:20] One of the things that I found amazing was how you got through the torture in the first place. First of all, you have that high pain tolerance because of probably what happened to you as a kid. But when I saw them dunkin your head in the water and you said you learned how to hold your, how come you can hold your breath for so long? This part was so ridiculous.

Erik Aude: [01:19:36] I can't hold my breath that long anymore, but I mean I can hold my breath 90 seconds now. But when I was a kid, the Fear Factor had come out.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:19:47] Yeah, sure.

Erik Aude: [01:19:47] And I'd watched the show Fear Factor, and I was like, “This is a cool show I want to get on the show.” And I remember the episode I watched this guy, whoever held their breath the longest was going to win $50,000, and everyone gets in the tank and is holding their breath. But like then it was funny because there was this fat bartender who's smoking a cigarette before he's about to go on to tank.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:20:09] Unbelievable.

Erik Aude: [01:20:10] And he just out of shape. Dude, he's still got cigarette. He's literally putting the cigarette down before it's his turn to go in the tank for $50,000. And this dude held his breath and minute and 13 seconds, and I'm like, “What man? He’s out of shape.” Smoking jerk is going to win 50K so I always saw these audition for Fear Factor. I absolutely plan on getting on that show, but I wanted it to be ready for like, “Oh God man.”

Jordan Harbinger: [01:20:36] I'm going to crush this.

Erik Aude: [01:20:38] There's a breath holding competition, I would have smoked it, right? So I started learning to hold my breath. I would hold my breath whenever possible at the street. I always did it at stoplights. I do it before I got to certain points in the freeway. You know, like I'll hold my breath to that sign way down there and before I went to bed at night and in the shower, I would hold my breath all the time and I got it to where I can hold my breath almost three minutes.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:21:01] That's incredible.

Erik Aude: [01:21:03] It's fucking crazy. But I started doing that the November or October before that happened. Just a couple of months before that. And I'm thinking to myself, these guys are going to hold me under this water. I'm wanting to laugh because it's like, what are the odds is literally like Slumdog millionaire. They were just asking me the questions. I just happen to know, they were just happening to do the things I just happened to know. These guys are beating me. Well, my mom beat me with a belt all the time. They’re beating the bottom of my feet, that should stings but honestly no more pain than I've ever experienced. I've experienced pain my entire fucking life. They were electrocuting me, my friends and I used to taser each other for fun on the football field and now they're drowning me. And here I was, I had learned to hold my breath literally up until this point.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:21:49] Where these guys frustrated with you or were you like, “Okay, it hurts. Stop.” and then they're like, “All right, fine.”

Erik Aude: [01:21:53] No, I just like, I trust me. They were pissed off at me. They were not happy. They thought it was going to be easy.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:22:00] Yeah. And then they are working for their money.

Erik Aude: [01:22:01] They were laughing and the first start and then work and now here we are. The whole day goes by. They didn't get -- they didn't get anything they want, they could use. The second day goes by, they didn't get anything they use. The third day, they just wanted a confession.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:22:12] Sure.

Erik Aude: [01:22:12] Like for maybe for, I don't know, maybe they were going for a record, which was that we could always get our confession, I don't know. If they didn't get any of that.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:22:21] Yeah, they’re about to lose their bets, yeah.

Erik Aude: [01:22:23] Third day, they just wanted me to admit the drugs or mind, and I did nothing.

Jordan Harbinger: [01:22:28] All right, I know this is kind of crazy, but we're just getting warmed up and in part two, we'll be picking up where we left off and we're the real harrowing story actually begins. So this Erik Aude situation, I'm telling you, we're just at the beginning here.

[01:22:42] If you want to know how I managed to book all these great people and manage my relationships using systems and tiny habits, check out our Six-Minute Networking Course, which is free over at jordanharbinger.com/course. Don't say you'll do it later. Don't say you're waiting for the perfect time. The number one mistake I see is people postponing this and not digging the well before they get thirsty. It's five minutes a day. Quit your crying. They're to just be really quick. And it's the stuff I wish I knew 10 15 years ago. This is not fluff. It is crucial, especially if you're in business. And even if you aren't, you can find all that at jordanharbinger.com/course.

[01:23:17] Speaking of building relationships, tell me your number one takeaway here from Erik Aude. I'm @JordanHarbinger on both Twitter and Instagram. This show is produced in association with PodcastOne. And this episode was co-produced by Jason “Royal Flush” DeFillippo and Jen Harbinger. Show notes are by Robert Fogarty. Worksheets by Caleb Bacon, and I'm your host Jordan Harbinger. The fee for the show is that you share it with friends when you find something useful, which should be in every episode. So please share the show with those you love and even those you don't. Lots more in the pipeline. Stay tuned for Erik Aude, part two coming soon. And in the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you listen, and we'll see you next time.