The Shawn Ryan Show
#269 Nick Shirley - Minnesota’s Daycare Fraud, Nick Fuentes, Gen Z and Philly "Zombies"
08 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What inspired Nick Shirley to investigate daycare fraud in Minnesota?
Nick Shirley, welcome to the show, man.
Beautiful hoodie.
Thanks for the new wardrobe. Love this.
It's awesome. We're gonna let you know.
Quality Learning Center. 1-800-FRAUD. What's this from?
We're gonna be learning a lot today.
What inspired this?
There's a lot of fraud happening in Minnesota.
So, hey, hey, just for anybody that's listening that knows Nick Shirley, which is pretty much the whole world at this point, he's selling these amazing hoodies. So head over to where?
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Chapter 2: How did Nick Shirley's video on daycare fraud go viral?
We want the evidence to be so solidified that they can't escape. And so it might maybe take a little bit longer. But there has to be accountability because the fraud is so open and blatant. I mean, they already charged somebody for feeding our future. She was a white woman too, so this isn't about race. She was a white woman, she got charged.
And then they also did charge somebody just a few months ago who was a Somalian for $7.2 million, $7.2 or $7.6 for Medicaid fraud. But after being charged and found guilty, the judge overturned it and let the guy walk.
What?
Yes. So that's how bad the government is inside of Minnesota. And so that's why it's so critical by what I just did. Not only did we expose fraud, but we also just exposed how corrupt and how that government is not working for the people, for the Minnesotans.
Well, Nick, let me give you a, we're going to dive into this pretty deep. Let me give you an introduction here. Nick Shirley, a bold 23-year-old independent journalist who's taken the internet by storm with your fearless on-the-ground investigations. Known for exposing stories the legacy media won't touch from immigration debates to government waste.
Recent bombshell video uncovering alleged massive fraud in Minnesota's taxpayer-funded programs racked up over 126 million views.
literally broke the internet a fearless patriots who a fearless patriot who goes to where the stories are and you're the youngest guest i've ever had on this show and um once again thank you for the hoodie so a couple of things nick i'm worried about your safety so you know i got some buddies over at sig One of them's name is Jason. And he's the VP of marketing over there.
I told him you were coming on the show. He's like, I fucking love that guy. You got to ask him if he's carrying, which I did. You're not. So now you are. No way. So I got you a little something, me and Jason.
No way.
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Chapter 3: What evidence did Nick Shirley uncover about the daycare fraud?
Now it's a lot more dangerous. Right now I have 24-7 security with me because pirates are after me, essentially. I didn't piss off the best group to be pissing off.
Been there, buddy.
Yeah.
It never goes away once it's here.
Now I have that, and it's just harder to plan stuff, but it's necessary, so I will continue to do it.
Good, man. Good. It's important. It's really important what you're doing I am curious. Do you think you've inspired people? I hate to call them copycats, but I don't know what else to call them. I mean, are you inspiring? Are you seeing people getting inspiration from what you're doing and getting out there and starting to uncover more and more stuff?
Yeah, I think, like, usually I'm always kind of ahead of the stuff. So, like, for instance, I was ahead of this fraud stuff, and now after you've seen other people go and do that, which is great. It is a little worrisome because you don't want just a bunch of people going knocking on daycares. Mm-hmm. Like, I did all my due diligence with the man, David, before I went and did it.
It doesn't sound like you actually knocked on any daycares, though.
Me? I mean, we've knocked on, we try to talk to people, but... No one was there.
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Chapter 4: How does Nick Shirley feel about the media's response to his findings?
If there's no kids, is it a daycare?
Yeah, well, that's true. There wasn't any daycares. It was just buildings.
You know, Jeremy brought up a good point. He was talking about... I can't remember how many kids you have, but he's like, if you have four kids and I have four kids and I watch your four kids and you watch my four kids, there's two daycares. That's $25,000 a month per person.
Yes.
I was like, holy shit. So let's go to the very beginning. How did this pop up on your radar?
Yeah.
So I knew about the fraud happening because I went to Minnesota last June to do a video on the rise of Islam inside of America. And I had heard that it's growing super fast and that mosques are popping up everywhere inside of Minnesota. Christian churches are turning into mosques. And I started talking to the people. And everyone kept telling me, well, you need to look into the fraud.
And I said, well, how do I look into the fraud? all these Minnesotans, they started reaching out to me and they knew I was in their state.
So you just went up there to talk about the rise of The Muslim religion in Minnesota.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Nick Shirley face in his journalism?
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Chapter 6: How does Nick Shirley view the current state of government accountability?
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Exclusive offers from our partners you won't find anywhere else. So subscribe to the Vigilance Elite newsletter right now. So who was telling you, you're going around looking at how Minnesota's changed and everybody's telling you to look into the fraud. I mean, when did it start?
Yeah, so I put on my Instagram story that I was in Minnesota, and this lady by the name of Jennifer, she messaged me. She's like, I'm a real estate agent here. You wouldn't believe what's happening. Our property taxes are going up.
They're putting in these daycares and these adult centers right next door to the house I'm trying to sell, and I can't even tell the seller, I can't even tell the buyer that the house next to it is an adult daycare center or else I'll be breaking a law.
Well, you're breaking a law.
Like, they're not able to let people know that... That's what she told me. They're not able to let people know that they're running these adult centers or these adult home health care facilities next door.
Breaking a law?
Yeah, like, they cannot... And she's... In the government, for instance, if a person is a... Like a PDF or a predator... The state's not... It's not... It's not necessary for them to tell the neighbor next door that they're moving in or that if that real estate agent is then selling that house, she can't tell the client who's living next door. Holy shit.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Nick Shirley provide about the fentanyl crisis?
I needed the physical numbers from the state capitol. And then I randomly get this message from this guy named David on Instagram. And he says, Nick, I have all the proof, all the money. Someone from inside the Capitol has given me this information. And there is nobody inside these daycares. Come to Minnesota and I'll help you expose the fraud.
And I usually don't respond to DMs because I get so many of them. And I was like, all right, send me your number. Let's hop on a phone call. So I get down at the gym. I give this guy a call. And he's super charismatic, super cool guy. I was like, all right, this guy would be awesome. And he tells me all the information. And I told him, all right, I'm coming to Minnesota around December 16th.
How many years has this guy been diving into this subject? He's been looking at it for years, upwards of seven years. And he's also been fighting corruption since he was around my age as well. Like just fighting to keep the, he kept, he fought to keep the twins inside of Minnesota, the baseball team.
And so he's kind of been like a lifelong, like he just wants the truth to be out more than anything. And I was the only person who actually gave him the opportunity to present his evidence and go out and do what we did. The local news, they have been reporting on fraud for years, but... They had been?
They had been, but they weren't able to get it pushed to a national level because these news organizations don't know how to reach new audiences. Holy shit.
I mean, there's a video from 20... But this is where the news always starts. It always starts at the local level. It starts at the local level, and then it goes to mainstream. And so mainstream had to have seen this and refused to pick it up. And that's both right and left, by the way.
Yes. And Tim Walz was also selected to be vice president. And within just a day, he raised the most money than any other candidate in history.
Actually, I didn't know that.
Yeah, you can look that up. Kamala Harris picked him. There's actually really no reason to pick Tim Waltz. Nobody really knew him. He's a weird guy who vouches for tampons in boys' bathrooms. And he ends up raising the most amount of money than any other candidate in U.S. history within a day for a campaign.
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Chapter 8: What are Nick Shirley's thoughts on the future of his investigative work?
Go ahead and make your own analysis. And I did give her the opportunity to interview me live. She wouldn't do it.
It's so, I mean, it's, I just, the, oh man, they have legacy media has clung to the baby boomer generation and they will fucking die with the baby boomer generation. We'll never change that generation's mind. I mean, they're bought and sold on legacy media, but when they will fucking die with the Baby Boomer generation, it will be a glorious death.
I can't wait. I don't know who's even watching. Who's gonna continue to watch them after my grandparents are gone? That's what I'm telling you.
They're gonna die with the baby boomer generation.
Like, Fox News is probably the only one where I feel like they provide actually... Like, their show's a good quality show. If you watch CNN, it's very boring. Fox News at least keeps it interesting for you to watch. Um, but it's gonna be interesting too with Fox News. Like, will they eventually just drown out as well? I don't know. I feel like
they're maybe doing a better job than other news organizations, but they also have their own biases as well. Each organization has their own bias, but like you watch CNN, it's so boring. If you watch MSNBC, a lot of their stuff's just on Zoom, but if you watch Fox, you'll notice how much higher quality it is. And if you get invited on, they treat you a lot better as far as like bringing you on.
um they like make sure you're good to go they check you out all these other ones are like all right hop on the zoom and okay sounds going and then after you finish your shot they just like drop you you don't even know what to do next but fox is the most professional by far your leaps and bounds ahead of all of them man congratulations i'd like to think so thank you that's pretty awesome pretty awesome and an embarrassment for every single one of them
So the first place you go to, how many times did you strike out before you actually found one?
We went to the first one, Mako Child Care. And Mako is also connected with another child care inside the same building. So inside the same building, two daycare centers were receiving separate money. And I thought we were just going to go and open the door and talk to the lady at the reception about how can I enroll my child. And I get there and all the windows are completely blacked out.
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