How much can someone find out about you online? More than you think. Former CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Kirby Plessas explains open source intelligence (OSINT), the methods intelligence agencies, federal agents, and investigators use to track people, money, and secrets using only public information.
 
Kirby started as an Army Arabic linguist and SIGINT analyst. She was sent to the NSA right after 9/11, then hunted for Iran's nuclear program online at DIA, and later helped run a CIA open-source innovation center. Today she trains law enforcement and investigators around the world through Plessas Experts Network.
In this episode:

• What OSINT is and how investigators use it
• The difference between the CIA, DIA and NSA
• Is your phone listening to you?
• How AI is changing investigations, and how to spot fake news and deepfakes
• The AI tools a former CIA analyst uses (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok)
• The most secure web browser for privacy
• Her take on Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning
• How to become an OSINT investigator
• Tracking cryptocurrency

🔎 Plessas Experts Network: https://plessas.net
🎓 OSINT Academy: https://academy.plessas.net
 
Reasons We Serve is a long-form interview podcast with the people who run toward danger: police officers, detectives, federal agents, corrections officers, dispatchers, prosecutors, forensic nurses, firefighters, and military veterans. Guests come from small-town departments, big-city precincts, state and federal agencies, and police forces worldwide.
 
Every conversation comes back to three questions:
Why did you choose this life?
What did it cost you and your family?
After everything you've seen, how do you see people now? 
No politics, no scripts. Just first-person stories from people who served.
 
▶️ Subscribe for new interviews every Sunday: https://www.spreaker.com/user/reasons-we-serve--17128705

🎙️ Know someone with a story to tell? [email protected]
 
💬 What do you think the CIA’s job really is?

They thought they were recruiting a vulnerable woman. They were talking to Detective Heidi Chance.

The retired Phoenix detective takes us inside her undercover work investigating sex trafficking—and shares what those encounters taught her about manipulation, control, and the warning signs families can miss. Heidi discusses online grooming, sextortion targeting boys, and why a parent’s reaction can determine whether their child asks for help again. She also reveals the encounter with a former student that changed her career.

Subscribe to Reasons We Serve for candid conversations with the people behind the badge. 

Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into the personal stories of officers, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.

If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a 5-star review, subscribe, and share with others. 

To watch more interviews with retired and active-duty cops and law enforcement, watch here: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonsweserve

Navy Commander who lost his best friend at 17 spent 20 years in the fleet, then walked into the DEA at age 42 as a diversion investigator. Brian Rucker helped take down the first internet pharmacy case under the Ryan Haight Act, shut down early OxyContin pill mills in Philadelphia, and watched the opioid crisis migrate from Florida into Georgia.

In this raw interview, he breaks down what diversion investigators actually do, the black-sheep relationship with special agents, leadership lessons from the Navy, and how one personal tragedy shaped an entire career fighting pharmaceutical diversion.

If this story hits home, hit like, subscribe, and drop a comment with the name of someone you lost to drugs or someone who still serves. Share it with a young person considering federal law enforcement or the military.

More veteran and law-enforcement stories in the “Reasons We Serve” playlist.

Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into officers' personal stories, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.

If you liked this episode, please give us a 5-star review, subscribe, and share to stay updated on more inspiring law enforcement stories.

He went from a full-ride offensive tackle at Oregon State to the Korean DMZ… then became a U.S. Secret Service special agent who protected presidents and hunted criminals. Jim Davidson never planned on law enforcement. One phone call from a concert promoter led him to the sheriff’s office, then IRS Inspection, and finally the Secret Service after a clerk wrongly told him he needed an accounting degree. In this episode of Reasons We Serve, Jim shares the unlikely path that took him from the professional football field to the White House protective detail, the reality of balancing high-stakes investigations with presidential protection, and the family cost of a career that demanded everything.

Later, he and his wife, Mary (also a Secret Service agent), sit down to talk about raising kids while both served, the guilt, the trade-offs, and the advice they’d give every law-enforcement couple.

If this story of unexpected service, grit, and family sacrifice resonates, like, subscribe, and share it. Drop a comment: What part of Jim’s journey hit you hardest?

Related: Watch Mary Davidson’s episode (Ep 178) for her side of the same extraordinary career.

You can find Jim Davidson's book called "Supernote" here: https://www.amazon.com/Supernote-Jim-Davidson/dp/166576435X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7KOI993AQBPV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.EOr6MVj_c4foMBpW3DHbUg.Tv2Z4LMOE7OXDtOewL_0kXoinXkrDbh7NF_3n1q1l6o&dib_tag=se&keywords=supernote+book+by+Jim+Davidson&qid=1788479912&s=office-products&sprefix=supernote+book+by+jim+davidson%2Coffice-products%2C228&sr=1-1

Reasons We Serve — real stories of service, sacrifice, and the people who answer the call. Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into officers' personal stories, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.

If you liked this episode, please give us a 5-star review, like, share, and comment. Thank you.

She was one of the first women in the Secret Service — and a single $100 bill from a pizza place in Brea led her to a Colombian cartel operating underground in caves.

Mary Davidson walked into Secret Service headquarters as a 22-year-old clerk the day before her birthday in 1980. She became an agent in 1981, one of the earliest women on the job, and spent two decades balancing criminal investigations and protective details while raising four kids. In this episode of Reasons We Serve, she shares the raw truth about arriving in LA right after the murder of Agent Julie Cross, qualifying with a revolver she’d never held, serving 13 arrest warrants while pregnant, and the counterfeit case that started with two preppy kids and ended with bricks of cocaine, a suitcase sewn with fake money, and the collapse of an entire network. 

If this story of grit, quiet competence, and unexpected impact resonates, hit like, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs to hear what real service looks like. Drop a comment: What part of Mary’s journey hit you hardest?

Related: Search “Reasons We Serve” for more veteran and agent interviews.

If you liked this episode, please give us a 5-star review and don’t forget to subscribe and share.

A 31-year San Francisco law enforcement veteran who grew up with a pot-smoking, drug-dealing hippie mom reveals how childhood trauma drove him into policing, gave him rare empathy for the homeless and addicted… and ultimately fueled a secret opioid addiction that ended in a pharmacy robbery, jail, and near-suicide.

Davin Cole went from K9 handler to citywide homeless outreach leader, earned medals of valor, and still lost everything to complex PTSD and pain-med addiction. This is the raw, unfiltered story of what the job really costs — and how he clawed his way back.

Key Moments:
01:00 - The Hidden Pharmacy Robbery and 10-Year Addiction
06:20 - Why He Had More Empathy for Drug Users and Homeless People
08:04 - The Subconscious Drive Behind First Responders
13:05 - Why His Mom Was Proud He Became a Cop
17:00 - Building San Francisco’s Homeless Outreach Unit
21:00 - COVID, Defund the Police, and the Fentanyl Explosion
23:28 - The Real Causes of Homelessness, According to Davin Cole
30:49 - The Gang Member Shotgun Ambush
42:10 - The K9 Bite That Eventually Put Him on the Road to Addiction
 
If you’re a first responder, veteran, or anyone carrying invisible wounds — this conversation will hit hard.

Like, subscribe, and share this with someone who needs to hear it. Drop a comment: what part of Davin’s story hit you most?
 
Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into the personal stories of officers, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.
 
If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a 5-star review, comment, and share.

He started as a 23-year-old All-American powerlifter and ended as a DHS OIG Special Agent in Charge who investigated Border Patrol shootings, Secret Service scandals, and the largest fentanyl seizure in U.S. history.
 
In this raw Reasons We Serve interview, retired federal agent Paul Leonard reveals what really happens inside the Office of Inspector General — the agency with first right of refusal on criminal misconduct by federal officers. From blank naturalization certificates worth $50k on the black market to a doctor who threatened to shoot the warden… and the day a dirty LAPD officer nearly killed him.
 
In this raw Reasons We Serve interview, Paul breaks down:
• How powerlifting got him recruited into federal law enforcement
• What OIG really does (and why it differs from OPR)
• High-stakes cases involving INS corruption, Border Patrol shootings, and cartel-compromised agents • Surviving near-misses, leadership lessons, and why fitness still matters after 33 years
 
Stick around for the fitness advice that could save your career and your health.
 
Book: Built by History (Amazon) Instagram: Paul J. Leonard (PLUSA)
Gym shoutout: ATP Powerlifting Gym, Chandler, AZ

Paul's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/pauljleonardplusa
Paul's YouTube page: @PLeonard71
 
 
Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into the personal stories of officers, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.
 
If you liked this episode, please subscribe, comment, and share.

What happens when a SWAT cop dies at home reading a book — and comes back after 16 minutes and 48 seconds?
 
Deputy Sheriff Brandon Griffith shares his incredible story of sudden cardiac arrest, a powerful near-death experience, fighting his department to return to the streets, and founding Griffith Blue Heart to train law enforcement in life-saving medical skills.
 
From the moment his heart stopped to the spiritual guidance he still feels, this is one of the most powerful stories of survival, faith, leadership, and purpose you will ever hear.
 
If you're a cop, veteran, first responder, or someone searching for meaning after hardship, this episode will hit hard. Brandon's journey proves tomorrow is never guaranteed — and how one second chance can change everything.
 
To support Brandon's organization, please go to: https://griffithblueheart.com
 
If you liked this interview, please give us a 5-star review, comment, and share.  | 💬 Comment: What would you do with a second chance?
 
Watch next: Randy Sutton | Matt Thomas episodes in the Reasons We Serve playlist.
 
 
Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into the personal stories of officers, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.

Police Chief Matthew Thomas shares his unfiltered 33-year journey—from a 20-year-old jail deputy who didn't expect to survive, to undercover cartel hunter, SWAT commander, undersheriff, and now Chief of Police in Florence, Arizona.

He opens up about brutal fatalities, fighting cartels as well-armed as police, the hidden trauma that nearly broke him, and the leadership lessons that saved his life and career. This is the real side of the badge most people never see. 

Matt drops powerful advice every young man and cop needs to hear about dealing with trauma, becoming a better leader, and staying in the fight. 

If you respect the men and women who serve, watch until the end and share this with someone who needs it.
 
Anyone interested in Matt's book, Matt Thomas Interceptors: The Untold Fight Against the Mexican Cartels, can find it here. https://www.amazon.com/Interceptors-Untold-Against-Mexican-Cartels/dp/0578374277
 
Subscribe for more real stories from those who protect our communities. Like, comment your biggest takeaway, and turn on notifications.
 
Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into the personal stories of officers, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.
 
If you liked this episode, please give us a 5-star review, subscribe, comment, and share. 

Sheriff Mark Lamb pulls no punches on the border crisis, fentanyl killing tens of thousands of Americans, human trafficking, and why local sheriffs are the last line of defense against government overreach. In this powerful interview, the retired Pinal County Sheriff breaks down how cartels became more powerful than ever, the real war on American families, leadership lessons from the front lines, and why he continues fighting for the Constitution.
 
Key Timestamps:
• 00:00 - Intro & Mark Lamb's Background
• 00:32 - Border & Fentanyl: Still the #1 Threat
• 04:06 - Human Trafficking: More Lucrative Than Drugs
• 08:44 - Shocking Story of Young Girl with Morning After Pills
• 11:58 - Why Globalists Want to Destroy the Sheriff Office
• 17:42 - Rule of Law & Holding Judges Accountable
• 35:19 - Obama, Media, and the War on Police
• 46:36 - Mark's Journey Into Law Enforcement at Age 34
• 56:00 - Leadership Lessons Every Man Needs
• 1:23:00 - Why He's Still Fighting for Congress 

If you care about America, border security, strong leadership, and real talk on the fentanyl crisis — watch until the end.
 
Drop a comment: What's the biggest threat facing America right now?
Links to Mark's channels as well as his family's channels. www.youtube.com/@UClpN1KGwKTTbnCNBdqL5pfQ www.youtube.com/@UCuztGMlXcI0S5xUthSMs_JQ www.youtube.com/@UCszgNefuegP4vTCjqIjcMuA
 
Welcome to our channel, Reasons We Serve, a podcast dedicated to exploring the motivations, challenges, and realities of working in law enforcement. We dive deep into the personal stories of officers, discuss different career paths, and break down the roles of various agencies—from local police departments to state and federal law enforcement.
 
👍 If you liked this episode, please give us a 5-star review, like, and subscribe to stay updated on more inspiring law enforcement stories!