(0:55) : Welcome back to TSC HIM & HER Show. #726: Today we’re sitting down with Arthur Rapkin, a former drug smuggler, author, musician, Bob Dylan impersonator, Chinese medicine practitioner, and survivor of torture in a Mexican prison. In the late 60’s, he ventured into the dangerous world of drug trafficking cocaine and was subsequently apprehended in Mexico where he then spent time in a Mexican prison. He tells us his wild story as a self-made outlaw whose misdeeds ultimately influenced U.S. drug trafficking policy, and led to his life-changing personal transformation.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS WITH
3:06- Michael says, “There’s a quote that you have here. It says, ‘If you’re going to be sad, be real sad.’”
4:53- Michael asks, “Do you remember your first hustle as a kid?”
7:33- Michael asks, “So is this how it starts, I guess, in the world of crime? It starts kind of like small kind of maybe harmless things where you’re kind of sneaking into things and then you kind of get a taste for maybe a faster life and you start to want to do more. Is that kind of what happens?”
9:33- Lauryn says, “You mentioned off air about how something that you were really good at is you were good at being clever. When do you remember knowing that? Was that an awareness that you had when you were young?”
10:48- Michael asks, “Did you have a good family upbringing?”
11:50- Lauryn asks, “When you found out she was alive, what was the first thing you did?”
13:09- Lauryn asks, “How does one decide at your age, I’m going to go to Columbia.”
14:56- Michael asks, “And it’s in the late 60’s?”
15:47- Lauryn asks, “Do you at any point think that you going to Colombia was kind of like a fuck you to your parents because they had lied to you about something so intense and then they kind of kept it? No.”
19:04- Lauryn asks, “When you landed in Columbia, what was the first thing you did?”
19:22- Lauryn asks, “And is that normal to ask there?”
20:57- Lauryn says, “So what I’m so curious about what the micro moments of getting into this business are, meaning like, do you go and buy $200 of cocaine and just start selling it small? Do you buy a way bigger amount? Does he give you it and let you do it on consignment?”
22:58- Lauryn asks, “What did airport security look like at this point?”
24:24- Lauryn asks, “But when you said pounds of cocaine, and it fit perfectly in the aqua… To me, how did you get all of that cocaine over there?”
26:22- Michael asks, “And so at this point in time, to give people some context, how big or small is the drug trade in the US.? Is this before Escobar? Is this before many of the things that people have seen, you know, later adapted to television?”
27:45- Lauryn asks, “Was there a thought to the operation or how people move?”
30:42- Lauryn asks, “Does Lily know that she’s smuggling cocaine? And do your parents know that they’re smuggling cocaine? And how are you putting something in your parent’s luggage?”
31:22- Lauryn asks, “Now, are you dipping into your own supply?”
32:30- Michael asks, “When does this start to kind of heat up and maybe get more dangerous for you?”
37:58- Lauryn asks, “How were you so high level with this if you were doing cocaine?”
44:11- Michael asks, “And how much money at this point, between 19 and whatever age you were here, when they start tracking down, how much money do you think you had made?”
45:37- Lauryn asks, “When all of this is going on, if you look back now, and you could edit what you were doing, meaning you could say don’t get that car, don’t get that house, don’t buy that plane ticket, when you look back, what would you tell yourself?”
47:47- Lauryn asks, “When you get detained, is this around the time that they’re investigating you?”
50:57- Lauryn asks, “What do you mean electrocuting you with a cattle prod?”
54:06- Lauryn asks, “They torture you in the dungeon?”
56:43- Lauryn asks, “How long did they torture you for?”
59:55- Lauryn asks, “When you heard that, were you like shocked?”
1:01:11- Lauryn asks, “What did you do with Jimmy Carter though?”
1:03:44- Lauryn asks, “She has to shove it up her vagina?”
1:09:35- Michael says, “I want to talk about what life in Mexican prison is like for somebody who grew up in America and probably thought that they would never be in Mexican prison.”
1:12:13- Michael asks, “He was an inmate or a guard?”
1:16:38- Lauryn asks, “What is your morning routine in prison? Are you waking up and like going outside and working out and interacting with… I’m really curious about the day in prison, like what you do every day.”
1:18:13- Lauryn asks, “How’d she get that in?”
1:20:12- Lauryn asks, “Does your son remember at two going to the prison?”
1:22:15- Lauryn asks, “How long were you there?”
1:28:24- Michael asks, “I don’t know if you would look back and change anything about what you did earlier, but if you could go back, would you?”
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