Secrets of the Underworld

*Content warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of domestic violence, sexual assault and coercive control.*
For sixteen years, Zoe lived with a man she believed was troubled but trying — a husband who attended church, raised a family and told her his mental health was to blame for his behaviour. Behind closed doors, the abuse was relentless: physical, psychological, financial and sexual. But the most devastating truth didn't come from police. It came from his own mouth.
When Zoe's husband confessed, he didn't just admit to an affair. He admitted to drugging her tea and assaulting her while she slept. What followed was a battle through the courts, through a community that took sides, and through her own body — which began to break down under the weight of years of unprocessed trauma.
Now, having waived her anonymity and co-founded the End I Check campaign, Zoe is speaking out — not just for herself, but for the hundreds of women across 28 countries who have recognised their own stories in hers.
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Marina Lacerda returns to finish her story — and this time, she goes deeper.
In this second conversation, Neil and Marina explore the psychological grip Jeffrey Epstein held over his victims, the chilling way he wielded power and control and how Marina's childhood trauma shaped her ability to survive what others couldn't fully comprehend.
She opens up about the abusive marriage she stayed in for years, the moment she finally broke her silence in Washington and the healing that only began once she found the courage to walk away from everything that had been holding her down.
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Marina Lacerda arrived in New York from Brazil as a child, hoping for a better life with her mother. Instead, she found herself trapped in years of abuse at home — and then, at just 13 years old, was introduced to Jeffrey Epstein.
In part one of this conversation, Marina shares how her traumatic upbringing made her vulnerable to exploitation, how Epstein groomed her and used her to recruit other young girls and how she only recently learned — decades later — the full extent of what was done to her. She also opens up about the mother who knew but didn't protect her, a marriage marked by abuse and the long road toward healing.
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Neil Cummins has spent his career standing between the public and Sydney's underworld — but this time, he's the one in the hot seat. In a rare role reversal, Neil opens up to his producer about the doors he worked, the people he protected, and the world he left behind.
From his first gig running security,to becoming John Ibrahim's most trusted man, Neil pulls back the curtain on what it really took to keep Sydney's most notorious nightclubs under control — turning away gangsters, staring down bikie chapters and surviving a drive-by that put bullets where he'd been standing seconds before.
He also reflects on what it meant to walk away — and the identity crisis that followed — before finding a new purpose in Secrets of the Underworld. Plus, the podcast milestone that started it all: the interview that changed everything, and what's coming when the show lands on YouTube.
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Freelance journalist Nicole had no idea that a chance encounter at a kids' footy catch-up would upend her life for the next three years. A brief, strange interaction with a woman at the sidelines seemed harmless enough — until the messages started. What began with a vulgar Facebook message quickly escalated into relentless contact across every platform Nicole used.
In this episode, Neil speaks with Nicole — journalist and author of Obsession — about the three years she spent being stalked by the ex-partner of a man she'd fallen in love with, the repeated failures of police to take her seriously and what it finally took to get the law on her side.
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