# The Cost of Being a Kingpin | DEA, Federal Prison & Life After Incarceration

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-public-with-ross-mandell-7726056/the-cost-of-being-a-kingpin-dea-federal-prison-life-after-incarceration
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-public-with-ross-mandell-7726056/the-cost-of-being-a-kingpin-dea-federal-prison-life-after-incarceration.md
Podcast: [Going Public With Ross Mandell](https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-public-with-ross-mandell-7726056)
Published: 2026-06-25T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rossmandell.com/
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/podgo.simplecastaudio.com/4c15ef58-9a61-4ea8-9b67-92e903bca92b/episodes/d7a0006a-fdfa-47c5-82e5-3e43b373634c/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=4c15ef58-9a61-4ea8-9b67-92e903bca92b&awEpisodeId=d7a0006a-fdfa-47c5-82e5-3e43b373634c&feed=cWL8jqtR
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/going-public-with-ross-mandell-7726056/episodes/the-cost-of-being-a-kingpin-dea-federal-prison-life-after-incarceration
Duration seconds: 4843

## Resource

In this episode of Going Public with Ross Mandell, Ross sits down with Ryan Root, entrepreneur, hormone health educator, former federal inmate, and founder in the TRT / HRT / hormone replacement therapy space, for a raw conversation about testosterone, steroids, bodybuilding, federal prison, entrepreneurship, GLP-1 weight loss drugs, Ozempic, and rebuilding life after indictment. Ryan opens up about growing up undersized, struggling with low testosterone symptoms, discovering weight training, and eventually entering the underground world of performance-enhancing drugs, anabolic steroids, testosterone, bodybuilding forums, and hormone education. What started as a passion for helping people understand testosterone and hormones eventually turned into a major online operation — and then a federal case. Ross and Ryan break down what it feels like to be indicted by the federal government, why Ryan chose to plead guilty, how conspiracy cases work, what federal prison was really like, and how he rebuilt his life after serving time. Ryan also explains how he turned his past knowledge into a legal business through H4M, one of the larger hormone replacement and TRT clinics in the country. This conversation goes deep into the controversy around testosterone replacement therapy, the misinformation surrounding steroids, the difference between underground steroid use and medically supervised hormone therapy, and why Ryan believes testosterone has been misunderstood for decades. Ross and Ryan also discuss GLP-1 medications, Ozempic, weight loss, metabolic health, blood work, fitness, nutrition, and long-term health. If you are interested in TRT, HRT, testosterone therapy, hormone optimization, bodybuilding, steroid laws, federal prison stories, entrepreneurship after prison, Ozempic,…

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## Transcript

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