What If Compassion Scaled To Three Billion People? | Episode 407

What If Compassion Scaled To Three Billion People? | Episode 407

A midnight capture makes headlines, but the real story lives in the human fallout—families torn by trafficking, teens blindsided by counterfeit pills, and communities trying to hold a line against fentanyl without losing their compassion. We open the door to an honest, practical, and stigma-free conversation about keeping people alive and helping them find their way back.

We walk through what alleged high-level trafficking means on the ground: unaccompanied minors who vanish from overwhelmed systems, porous pathways that let bad actors profit, and a drug supply cut with laboratory-grade killers. No grandstanding here—just clear talk about harm reduction, naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and straightforward scripts parents, teachers, and coaches can use today. We also dig into accountability and due process for those who cause harm, while refusing to paint entire nations with the crimes of networks.

Along the way, we share why Voices for Voices leans on humor, music, and personal stories to reach more people across 100+ countries and 1,000+ cities. That reach isn’t vanity; it’s proof that someone out there needs a reason to keep going. We talk persistence, setbacks, and the quiet courage it takes to choose recovery on the twentieth try. The aim is not politics—it’s people. If we center dignity and practical help, the noise fades and the work gets clear.

If this speaks to you, tap follow, send the episode to a friend, and visit lovevoices.org to support the mission. Leave a review and tell us: what’s one action you’ll take this week to protect a life?

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Global Audience Thanks

0:47 Setting A Human-Centered Lens

2:40 Allegations Around Maduro And Capture

5:06 Border Policy And Human Impact

8:43 Human Trafficking Risks To Children

11:35 Fentanyl And Accidental Overdose

16:02 Compassion Over Judgment

19:33 Justice Process And Due Care

22:20 Mission Of Voices For Voices

25:52 Growth, Reach, And Community Support

29:15 Humor, Music, And Mental Health

32:20 Resilience, Setbacks, And Not Quitting

37:10 Belief, Patience, And Opportunity

41:55 Global Listeners And Shared Stories

46:10 Stigma, Healing, And Personal Wins

49:20 Gratitude, CTA, And Closing Hope

#Compassion #ScaleOfCompassion #GlobalEmpathy #HumanConnection #ActsOfKindness #CollectiveCompassion #ChangeTheWorld #EmpathyRevolution #ThreeBillionHearts #SocialGood #UnityInDiversity #GlobalSolidarity #CompassionateSociety #MindfulLiving #PositiveImpact #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices407

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Global Audience Thanks
• 0:47 Setting A Human-Centered Lens
• 2:40 Allegations Around Maduro And Capture
• 5:06 Border Policy And Human Impact
• 8:43 Human Trafficking Risks To Children
• 11:35 Fentanyl And Accidental Overdose
• 16:02 Compassion Over Judgment
• 19:33 Justice Process And Due Care
• 22:20 Mission Of Voices For Voices
• 25:52 Growth, Reach, And Community Support
• 29:15 Humor, Music, And Mental Health
• 32:20 Resilience, Setbacks, And Not Quitting
• 37:10 Belief, Patience, And Opportunity
• 41:55 Global Listeners And Shared Stories
• 46:10 Stigma, Healing, And Personal Wins
• 49:20 Gratitude, CTA, And Closing Hope

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 0:01

Hey everyone, it's Justin here of Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We are grateful to have you with us, whether you're watching or listening or coming to us uh from the United States or uh one of the over 100 countries and over 1,000 cities across planet Earth. Thank you so much. It's because of you. We have a show. It's because of you, we get up every day and want to share and talk and help. Thank you. Uh the last 48 hours, uh we're pretty pretty eventful here in in the United States. Uh and we're gonna we're gonna talk about this next topic as um just human beings, and and then we're gonna go from there. So as human beings, we don't want to see anybody suffer, we don't want to see anybody injured, hurt, and sometimes I'm gonna say allegedly, because I don't have first hand accounts. Uh I I have news reports and uh statements that be given by governments and the like. And the event that I am going to be referring to or be talking to, talking about on this episode is um a couple days ago, in the middle of the night, uh the United States, one of our special forces, um basically extradited, uh captured and brought home. Uh an individual and his wife. Uh so the leader at one time of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, and his spouse. Uh, there was, I believe, a an a US indictment on the books from 2020 or 2021 as a fugitive from the law for a wide range of things. Human trafficking, uh smuggling, you know, trafficking drugs, um, emptying out the worst of the worst prisons in in the country, and with again, what's what's alleged, uh is over the the last well, is it's going on, it's going on almost a year with with uh Donald J. Trump President Donald J. Trump in office here in the United States, but the prior four years uh the the border to the United States was just completely open. There were millions upon millions uh just literally walking through the border, they were you know being given dates to to go decor. Very few would have ever actually make it to court, and there was a pretty porous P O R O U S, uh pretty porous system in place, and that allowed a lot of a lot of individuals in into the the country, um, as well as a lot of what else is alleged, you know, with the um yeah, the the human smuggling, human trafficking, drug smuggling, all uh a lot of it, uh we were being we've been briefed on uh coming from Venezuela. And so again, a couple days ago in the dead of night, uh Nicholas Maduro, who was not the def was not the he was not the person who was uh elected by the people in the most recent election. Um we're not gonna get into like all the politics and that because that could just first off, we just we we try to steer clear as much as we can of the politics side of things. We're just gonna talk it from the human being standpoint. And so, what does human trafficking, what is drug smuggling, drug trafficking, all those things does have in common the potential to hurt people. So if, and we're not just talking about individuals who are uh, you know, sometimes in our mind when we hear the word like, oh, they're addicted to drugs or you know, some terms like that, you know, we think of I don't know, maybe a certain maybe a certain criteria come in our head of what that looks like in our mind without also realizing that there's individuals who go to parties never taken a taken a taken a drug in their life, and they choose to experiment, and we're not condoning this at all. We absolutely are not condoning this at all. And sometimes what has happened is you have your student of whatever age at a party being told, oh, this is what you're you know, you're taking Xanax or you're taking whatever. And that being laced with fentanyl, where just a few grains can kill a person, and obviously the more you have, the more people can potentially pass away, and so what this you know, Delta Force mission with you know hundred and fifty plus uh pieces of equipment, machinery, uh multiple strikes in Venezuela, uh when when Nicholas Maduro and his spouse were uh captured, and and then they're back here in the United States to face justice, uh what that what that looks like. And so we're we're looking at it again from the human perspective that if this individual and and his spouse were doing these things to hurt and they're hurting people, and they're sending gang members and people literally just walking again, walking across the border and in the United States and you know, just process them because we're it just wasn't this wasn't good for a lot of areas of law enforcement when President Biden was in office, and this isn't this has nothing to do with politics, this has all to do with actions, and the actions and the the proof is in the numbers of how many cross the border and how many, or even if you want to ballpark, numbers of unaccompanied minors, so those are children under eighteen who are unaccompanied, and all of them haven't been found yet, so something's going on, and so that's part of that potential of human trafficking, and so that's not a good thing from a human perspective, right? I mean we go, oh this isn't happening in our country, and oh, this this only happens in other countries, and you know, in other neighborhoods, not my neighborhood, and uh it's just unfortunate. So you only have the kids that are the children, and the company minors that were were lost. I know I know ACE and the Trump administration is trying to do their best to locate and find as many and save as many of those children as possible. And then from the drug perspective that is mentioned earlier, you know, you have a you know what if somebody wants to say like a prototypical drug user. I don't like saying that because we're all human and we're all unique. So to say, like, oh, this is a prototypical and you know, this person chose this life. Well, who made us God? Who made I I'm not so who made you God if if you're if you wanted to start, you know, spout them off different different things. So uh regardless of how an individual took a drug, a narcotic, and if they've overdosed and they pass away, doesn't matter if it's a student, doesn't matter if it's a 50, 60, 45-year-old human being. These people pass away, unfortunately, sometimes. And we've talked about it before, so you know, it's not just the individual that passes away, that the the effect of whatever substance caused, caused them to pass away. You know, there's family, there's friends, there's acquaintances. There's a lot of people that are affected, and you know, some may say, oh, well, you know, some don't have anybody that well, you know, do we want to get into like uh you know going back and forth on like that you know, terms and all that? I'd rather keep our conversation. Uh, because I've I've seen comments on on our TikTok lives and other places, and I'm not gonna sit here and second guess and say, oh, well, this person shouldn't have done this, and you know, they they were given all these opportunities, and maybe they had. Maybe they had. Does that still mean the person is a person that well they made their own decision? You'll say that about 18, 17, 16, 17, 18-year-olds at a party, and for the first time they take something, and parents and family go, well, you know, my Johnny or my Susie, or you know, they they would never they would never do that. Well, maybe they wouldn't, but maybe they did. And obviously the intention, and I would say darn near a hundred percent of the case is people don't want to die. They're not thinking, like, oh, I'm gonna do whatever I need to do to get the money or to trade whatever to get a particular substance, just so they they're gonna like, okay, well, this is gonna cause me to pass away. I don't know too many people like that. I in fact, I don't know anybody like that. That that's how they think. So this you know, this raid in Venezuela, you know, bringing Nicolas Maduro, who at a time was president of Venezuela, his spouse. Uh you know, we're talking from the human perspective. We're here to help as many people as possible. You hear us talk about show after show after show that we want to help at least 300. We want to help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. And so there's there's gonna be individuals that some may go, oh well, why would you want to help them? And I go, well, are you know are they a human being? Like are they worthy of a second chance given if there are certain certain crimes that are committed? Um most instances you're caught, you do your time, you do what what's asked, and you turn away from that life that you had before. Yeah, we can see scenarios of I mean, what that help looks like is a lot different than like what you're probably thinking. We're not just gonna stay on the Urbs handing out money hand over fist to you know the some of the some of the individuals that are incarcerated or may be incarcerated. But on the other hand, there's there's others. So we're talking about a human perspective. We don't want we don't want humans to die. So however that's happening, however substances are getting into the country, we don't we don't want anybody we don't want anybody to die. Um at all. I mean that's just we want everybody to wake up tomorrow. That's just the long and short of it. That we want everybody to wake up and live happy, healthy, pro prosperous lives. And again, we're we're connecting on culture more than politics. And so I I would think that most cultures may want people to be healthy. I I would think. I don't I don't know a hundred percent. Um so that's the that's the angle we're we're we're going at this. So there are people who have made bad choices, yes. Uh I say I would gander to say that we all have probably made a bad choice at least once in our days. And so at some point we were given another chance. You know, maybe it was a big maybe it was something very small compared to, you know, bringing things allegedly across international borders and all fentanyl and carfentanol and xylosine and all these offshoots that some of these dealers are using to cut the real drug like cocaine, so they can make more money. So they cut it. So if they have one of something and they cut it that one into three, well, guess what? The one that was gonna be one sale just turned into three. So that's the reason. Greed sometimes, maybe oftentimes, plays a role. And so that's where you sort, you know, they don't these other substances that I just mentioned, you know, fentanyl, uh, carfentanol, xylazine, you know, these literal designer drugs made in the laboratory at first, and then have found their way kind of into the And the society, I guess, at some level. And so what I'm trying to get at is we support all people, even Venezuelans. No matter what. Because we have a we have a thought process that we just like the judicial process, right? I mean we we wanna we wanna believe that there's there's good in people. Sometimes some bad runs into that. And um but what we're talking about is the people that we're talking to and and helping and and getting our messages through is you know the regular and individual trying to make ends meet, pay the bills. For me, trying to do that, trying to help people and so yeah, there's there's individuals where maybe some not very nice things. And so we're we're we're not gonna comment that you know that high our level about like what's going what's gonna happen to Nicholas Maduro and his spouse. And uh you know, we we have an understanding again through media reports, news stories, that they're gonna be going through the United States justice system. Uh and that's about all we know, really, at this this this point. Uh but we're as an organization, voices for voices. We are voices for voices. That includes voices of all shapes, sizes, colors, doesn't it doesn't matter. Uh doesn't matter how big your bank account or how small your bank account, doesn't matter how many times if you've had, if you've went to rehab, and you know, this is your 20th time, and we want to be a light that maybe you won't need that 21st time, the hearing and watching and learning, and then you can pay it forward by sharing our show, the voices for voices, TV show and podcast with 50 of your closest friends, family, colleagues. Text them, send them a chat, a group chat, group message, let them know about the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We're a 501c3 nonprofit charity. So for those watching and listening, you'll know here in the United States that uh that means that you donate the uh your the money you donate, whether that is in dollars at lovevoices.org, lovevoices.org, l-o-v-e, v o i c e s dot org. There's no amount too small, no amount too big, or if you purchase any of our any of our books, you know, the Adalans, like our comic book. Nope, it's like the other one doesn't like orange very well. Let's see if I can raise this up. The young Sarinborn chapter book for kids. Both of these written by the Hottis author and artist on the plan of David Solomon. And so any any of the purchases, the money that you put towards any of those purchases for for uh for us, that that money you can write that off, you know, at the end of the year for taxes. So we just wanna to share that. We share that in a in a lot of different ways. We share that quite a bit on our TikTok lives, but we're we're we're gonna get better at sharing that here on our show. Because this is this is the foundation of voices for voices. This is this is the lifeblood that that keeps us going. This is the show that we were only supposed to reach five uh 300 total episodes at the end of calendar year 2025. We blew through that. We were at, I think, 403 episodes uh by the by the time the page turned into uh the the 2026 year calendar year, and we haven't let up yet, and we're not going to. We're just gonna continue. We know there's gonna be ups, there's gonna be downs, there's gonna be peaks, there's gonna be valleys, and some of our episodes are gonna be uh like our one of the most recent episodes that we did on Aerosmith and going to concerts and kind of my experiences over the years. Uh, you know, we're gonna we're gonna have episodes like that that are a little more lighthearted, but they still they still weave themselves into voices for voices. And music is one way to share your voice, whether that's playing an instrument, whether that's singing, it it just becomes a another uh another way to share our voice. Uh so we're gonna we're gonna have all kinds of episodes like we have. And I said I'll use I guess I'll use the word gander twice in this episode. It's all gandered adventure that first off, you gotta hit subscribe, you gotta share, you gotta like, give us a thumbs up, uh, let us know, let the world know. We're reaching uh over a hundred countries. Let's make that let's make that 300 countries. We're reaching a thousand cities, let's make that three thousand cities. There's no reason why why we shouldn't be able to do that. Uh we can't stop, we won't stop. Uh and every once in a while we'll have some comedy where I'll uh I'll try to sing a song, which is basically uh what usually ends up just being me uh reading the lyrics because I'm not a I'm not a trained musician. Not that I have to be a trained musician or a trained singer at all, uh, but I do it because it's it's another way to share a voice. And and it and comedy, that's another way to share a voice. And you know, laughter, I'm okay with that. We I would I would much prefer laughter over somebody thinking that you know life isn't for them. There's always a reason to live. We all have ups and downs. Look for the positive. Dream. Don't don't let anybody tell you you can't. One thing that I one thing I've I've learned over the years, and this isn't me, this isn't me trying to do anything, this is merely me uh remembering a quote. You know, some you know, sometimes we have these quotes, you know, we see on social media, or or we have these, you know, miniature calendars, and we each each page is a new day and a new date, and uh, and there'll be a you know quote, you know, an uplifting quote. Uh and one of the ones that I remember, I don't know, I don't remember when, where I was, who said it, but I give credit to whoever said it the first time. And and that is quite simply this that there's gonna be a lot of ups and downs. That's just gonna be a given, that's just life, like once once we kind of get to the point, I it took me a long time to grow up. I'm still growing up as the days go. Uh but the quote is generally something something like this that if individuals or people are you know coming at you hard, trying to either stop what you're doing, slow down, then you're probably on the right track. I think it was Dave Ramsey actually. Used to listen to him so much. And he and in addition to that, it's not just the you know, it means you're closer to success or closer to making it, whatever that is. I mean, and it's not always money, it's not always money. I'd rather leave this world knowing I help three and a half billion people than to just have huge stacks of money. So I can't bring it with me. Uh but to go on with that that quote that I'm thinking of. I believe it was Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, uh, you know, the baby steps, and and that that's his kind of his foundation of how he got his start. He went bankrupt a couple times. And anyways, he's got his whole thing, and you check him out if you if you'd like. Uh, we're not getting paid by him, uh, we're not being sponsored by him. Uh, but I'm I'm gonna share what I believe it was something he may have said. So the the closer you get to attaining some level of success, there's gonna be a lot of friction, a lot of a lot of things. It's like, oh my gosh, how am I ever gonna get there? How am I ever gonna make it? And and I'm just talking about having like a an average run-in-the-mill career, I guess. And then the second part that is don't give up because if you gl you give up, you're you're close to the time that you're ready to give up oftentimes is the time right before you make it. So those two thoughts kind of intermingle, and again, I don't want to put words in Dave Ramsey's mouth. Uh I I think it was him that said it, uh, or a variation of that. If it wasn't him, I apologize to Dave. I'm not I'm trying to show it in a good light and share it. Uh so yeah, there's gonna be friction, there's gonna be ups and downs, and there's gonna be times. I guess I'll let me let me attribute it to something else. Let's say somebody buys a stock, so stock in a company for 25 cents, and the time goes by again. This is hypothetical, so I'm just throwing this as an example out. So let's say buy a stock at 25 cents, thinking, and you know, hearing and reading news reports and and everything, like, okay, you know, there's there's a lot going on with this organization, so you know, this could be the next uh Apple or Google or you know, bigger company that's gonna make it, and like, and so you might say, Oh, you know, I bought you know, you know, 10 shares at 25 cents, and time goes on, and it might top out at a dollar. Again, this is hypothetical, and so please do not take this as any advice at all, at all. This is no advice, and everything I'm saying is just coming out of the top of my head. So do not take what I'm saying as uh reality. I'm just giving I'm I'm trying to illustrate something that I thought about when I was just sharing those bits about, you know, if you're you're getting a lot of resistance, are you ready to give up, all signs point, a lot of signs point to giving up. And then we do, and potentially, you know, whether that's selling the company, whether that's I don't know, just stopping and just getting rid of all the assets if you have any assets, um, you know, equipment or what have you. So you buy 20, you know, 10, 10 shares of 25 cents of each for a particular company, supposed to be the next best thing. So a period of time goes by and it tops out around a dollar, and you're like, all right, well, it you know, multiply itself by four, excuse me. So I don't I'm being impatient, and so you sell it, or I sell it, and that's hypothetical. It doesn't matter who sells it because this isn't true, like it's just a hypothetical, okay. And time goes on, so you right, you've sold it, I've sold it, you know. We've made you know four times the money that we made, and we're like, you know, uh like my patience, I just can't take it. I don't want to lose it, or I I don't want to make something, and uh again, like if that's your thing, then like you have a little bit more patience, and uh so then let's say time goes on, time goes on, time goes on, and that 25 cent share of that stock winds up at like 400 a share, and then you can do the math and that you know, and say like okay 400 times 10, you know, the or the you know the difference and all that, and I look at it a little bit like that, where you're just ready to get um, you know, we're we're we're just ready to give up on this company, not as like giving up as in like we're throwing in a towel, we're just like I don't have the patience for this. Uh this could take years, and I just don't have the patience. And so we get out and we sell it. Maybe we make money and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we're like, all right, it's at 22 cents, and I might as well just sell it because it's not gonna, it's not gonna, you know, these reports and every everything, and the cash flows and all these things that we're we were looking at, thinking that like this was the next best next biggest thing. Uh and then it does, then it does, it pops to like 400, maybe it pops at like a thousand over a period of time. And so what I would say to that is to kind of bring all this together is if you believe in something, then there's some higher power, whether it's whether you believe in God, another. Form whatever you believe in or don't believe in it. It just means that if you're continuing to be given the bare minimum to get by, to get at least the bare minimum. Not the bare doesn't always have to be the bare minimum. I know some young people are gonna be like, oh, we said the bare minimum, so I'm gonna just get my you know all the way down to. And I'm not trying to say, you know, you know, until you have 25 cents in your account, then I'm talking like whatever that thing is that you're doing, if if you're you know, if you're an athlete and you still have that dream of making making it pro, or um and you you still have a pair of shoes, a pair of cleats, a pair of shorts, you have the equipment, uh, you have the ability to get to pra to you know work out, and maybe maybe there's uh um like a a day where everybody who wants to try out for a team can do it, and maybe maybe you get that chance and then you you do it. Or maybe you don't, or maybe I do it, or maybe I don't. But as long as those little nuggets, those little golden nuggets are are kind of aligning themselves, give it a go. If that's what you if that's what you like, and that's where your passion's at. And so you're the reason you're watching, you're the you're the reason you're watching, listening that has kept me going for over four hundred episodes. Guests from as far away as Australia, here in the United States, as far as distance-wise talking. Uh, we've had viewers and listeners in Greenland and Antarctica, North Korea, South Korea, Italy, Russia, Russia Federation, Ukraine, France, Tasmania, uh, Mexico, Canada, you know, I it's just incredible. Like those numbers, though those the numbers don't lie. And so I look at our show and say, All right, well, if somebody gave two iodas or one iota, then we wouldn't have reached that many this many countries, this many cities, this many people. We just wouldn't. That would have been like the the the book just closing up. And so while there are very tough days, very, very incredibly tough days, then there's others when I look at numbers that I look at and go, oh my gosh. We're doing it. We're reaching people, we're helping people because otherwise people wouldn't be tuning in because that's been our message from day one, and it continues the over 400 episodes. So that's what I mean. It doesn't mean we're helping my money, doesn't mean everything is a it's a little bit different. How we we help. Some things are small, some things are big. A lot of it is just relating a little bit to just even a tiny portion of either my story or one of our guests' stories. People go, oh, you know what? I'm not, I'm not the only person. And that goes with the stigmas of mental illness and to anything to go on for me, you know, twenty plus years with crooked teeth, and that taking such a mental toll on my my mental health. I mean, I'm I'm lucky that I was able to to have braces for the third time, and you can go visit that episode. It's one of our most, let's say, last ten or fifteen episodes we have. Where we did we talk about that at length. So as as we we just come back and close out this episode of the show. As always, we we thank you for everything for watching, listening. Subscribe, give us thumbs up, follow, follow our social media accounts. We're everywhere. We do TikTok lives from time to time. Become involved. Let us know you hear us or you see us. Share. Share the hundred of your closest friends in a group chat. Just say I was I was watching or I was listening to a show, it's it's got over four hundred episodes. So they must be doing something, right? Because analytic and number wise, the amount of overall podcasts and shows that start with one episode and get to a hundred is smaller than two hundred to three hundred smaller, then three hundred to four hundred, even smaller, meaning there's fewer and fewer podcasts that have at least four hundred episodes or more, and we're at the 400 episodes and more already at the beginning of January of 2026. So uh we we have only you to thank. Send us some followers again. I said we're reaching a hundred countries, territories, thousand cities. Let's make help us reach three hundred countries and territories. Help us reach three thousand cities across the world. I know we can do it. I know we can. We can do it together. We're here to unify, not divide. We're here to talk more about culture than politics. So while this episode started off a little bit on the politics side of things, the main thing is we want to help save people, and we want people to be happy, healthy, prosperous. And so that usually means people being alive. And so that's what we what what we want. I think that's what everybody wants. I think people go to bed at night, they they plan on waking up in the morning. There's some kind of a plan, there's a an alarm clock of sorts to get set for a certain time for a certain reason. And so help us. Help voices for voices again bring bring a hundred or bring thousands to voices for voices. Let them be part of this movement of helping over three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. I know we can do it. I know we can reach over three hundred countries. I know we can reach over three thousand cities across the world. We got nothing but love coming our way to you. And whether you're a believer or not, we're still praying that you have a happy, healthy, prosperous life, whatever that means to you. And we'll see you on the next show. Until next time, let's celebrate all of our lives, let's celebrate all of our voices, and let's be a voice for you and somebody else in need. Until then, this has been Justin Alan Hayes with Voices for Voices. We love you, we thank you, and we look forward to seeing you on a future episode or TikTok live. We love you, take care.