Danny Gold

speaker

4,199 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 8 Sep

Danny Gold’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.

Appearances

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The Underworld Podcast · The Heroin Warlord of Pakistan: Armed Tribesman, the CIA, & a Smuggling Empire · 18 Aug 2026 podcast

It uh has also provided hundreds of millions. voice-verified

millions, if not billions of all dollars for all sorts of less than bizarre buntities, warlords, drug lords, insurgents, rebels, US allies, US enemies, and yes, the Taliban. voice-verified

We gotta go back though, friends, back to the fourth century BC, when Alexander the Great is credited with bringing opium poppies to the region despite him not conquering it. voice-verified

Maybe because he was, you know, dipping into his own supply, maybe made him a little lazy. voice-verified

Who can who who can know these things? voice-verified

Arab traders are also said to have spread it into what's now India in the seventh century, but it doesn't really pop up as a crop being grown in Afghanistan in that area until about the eighteenth century, according to Robert Draper in a 2011 article in that geo. voice-verified

Though it's easily grown in what's known as the Golden Crescent, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. voice-verified

Iran has had opium growth and usage since I think the eleventh century. voice-verified

offended 'cause most of this is crib from my old Afghanistan episode. voice-verified

I've been doing this too. voice-verified

I just sometimes you know voice-verified

as far back or as academic as you do because I want our listeners to keep listening. voice-verified

I'm just kidding. voice-verified

Sean's wonderful, guys. voice-verified

Wonderful. voice-verified

Anyway, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says there's some evidence it was a traditional crop in Afghanistan and this area from the 18th century on, though not a wide-scale cash crop. voice-verified

But not much happens with it until the middle of the 20th century. voice-verified

For example, in 1932, Afghanistan produces 75 tons of opium, but China produces 6,000 tons. voice-verified

Things have actually slowed down so by the mid 50s it's only 12 tons, and there's kind of a ban, but it's not really enforced. voice-verified

And the reason I'm talking about Afghanistan here, even though this is an episode of Pakistan, is is this is the area right on the border with it and there's a lot of sort of cross pollination and that sort of stuff. voice-verified

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