Ex Neo-Nazi | The Hidden Third with Mariana van Zeller
About this episode
Christian Picciolini discusses his journey from neo-Nazi to a voice against extremism.
Go to http://expressvpn.com/hiddenthird to secure your online data and get up to four extra months. At 14, Christian Picciolini was a lonely kid from an Italian immigrant family in Chicago when he was recruited into the Chicago Area Skinheads — one of America's first neo-Nazi skinhead groups. By 16, he was leading it. He fronted white power punk bands, helped merge his group with the violent Hammerskin Nation, opened a record store selling hate music, and toured Europe playing to thousands. For years, he recruited young men into a movement built on violence and fear. Then something broke. In 1996, he walked away. Today, Christian is one of the most important voices in the fight against extremism. He's the author of “White American Youth” and “Breaking Hate”, and has spent decades helping people leave hate groups — doing the painstaking, one-on-one work of deradicalization. In this episode of THE HIDDEN THIRD, Christian joins me to unpack how radicalization actually works: the loneliness, the emotional hooks, the sense of belonging, the slow normalization of hate — and the personal unraveling that comes when your entire identity is built around an ideology designed to destroy. We…
Sponsors
ExpressVPN
More episodes of The Hidden Third
- The American Captive Inside Venezuela's Deadliest Prison
- Shaka Senghor: 19 Years for Murder
- Chosen by Aliens: The Kidnapping of Jan Broberg
- NYC Drug Kingpin Turned Weed CEO
- From Prison Cell to Rocket Scientist
- Undercover Cop
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Hidden Third podcast page.