{"podcast":{"title":"The Hidden Third","slug":"the-hidden-third-7538391","podcast_index_feed_id":7538391,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ROOSTER9417367138","website_url":"https://marianavanzeller.me/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/dcfbbf74-9fac-11f0-8877-4fa940d82a6e/image/f5b2b20cb475ccf4247036ec84dfa83d.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Mariana van Zeller","episode_count":40,"summary":"From Emmy and Peabody Award–winning journalist Mariana van Zeller comes THE HIDDEN THIRD, a weekly dive into the underground markets that quietly power a third of the global economy. Every episode Mariana sits down with people who know these worlds firsthand - the hustlers, smugglers, scammers, kingpins, and those trying to shut them down. The series reveals how they function, why they endure, and the profound ways they impact us all. New episodes drop every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. The Hidden Third is a co-production of Muck Media and The Roost Podcast Network.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-08T16:20:00.731987+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hidden-third-7538391"},"episode":{"title":"The World’s Best Bounty Hunter: How Michelle Gomez Finds People Who Vanish","slug":"the-world-s-best-bounty-hunter-how-michelle-gomez-finds-people-who-vanish","published_at":"2026-06-24T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hidden-third-7538391/the-world-s-best-bounty-hunter-how-michelle-gomez-finds-people-who-vanish","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hidden-third-7538391","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/94/claritaspod.com/measure/verifi.podscribe.com/rss/p/pfx.vpixl.com/j0JIg/traffic.megaphone.fm/ROOSTER9019915409.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/94/claritaspod.com/measure/verifi.podscribe.com/rss/p/pfx.vpixl.com/j0JIg/traffic.megaphone.fm/ROOSTER9019915409.mp3","summary":"How do you find people who do not want to be found? In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with skip tracer and private investigator Michelle Gomez – described by Wired as “the world’s best bounty hunter” – to unpack how she tracks down people who have disappeared on purpose, from the fugitive Ryan Eugene Mullen to a fake “Prince of Dubai.” At 4'11\" and just over 100 pounds, Michelle doesn’t look like the person you’d send after fugitives, stolen heavy equipment, or missing yachts – and that’s exactly why she’s so good at it. She leans into her unassuming appearance and uses quirky disguises, from Girl Scout getups to sex‑worker personas, wigs, and glasses, to get close to people who do not want to talk. Michelle grew up in Texas, the daughter of two IBM engineers, and her parents made her build a computer from scratch and solder her own motherboard before she was a teenager. That early crash course in how systems fit together became the blueprint for her career: today she applies the same mindset to people, combing through digital traces, financial records, and tiny “location blips” to build a profile and find the one thread that gives a target away. Over more than two decades, she’s hunted down fugitives, scammers, debt‑dodgers, and high‑risk skips that collection agencies, other investigators, and even law enforcement have failed to locate. In this conversation, she breaks down her use of open‑source intelligence (OSINT), social engineering, and psychological profiling – and what her biggest cases reveal about privacy, ghosting, and the fantasy of truly disappearing. If you’re into investigative journalism, true crime, OSINT, or the hidden world of skip tracing and bounty hunting, this episode is for you. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MARIANA at…","meta_description":"How do you find people who do not want to be found? In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with skip tracer and private investigator Miche…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4130,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-hidden-third-7538391/episodes/the-world-s-best-bounty-hunter-how-michelle-gomez-finds-people-who-vanish/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hidden-third-7538391/the-world-s-best-bounty-hunter-how-michelle-gomez-finds-people-who-vanish.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}