I remember that night in the summer of 2005 like it was yesterday. I was a sophomore at the University of Oregon, living on my own, and thoroughly enjoying this awesome new site on the web: youtube.com. Oh, this other great site had just popped up a couple months earlier as well: reddit.com. Was I in heaven, or what? I have always considered myself an information junkie, devouring books, articles, movies, music, anything I could get my hands on – nothing was off limits because I wanted to know it all. The sudden arrival of these two godsends was, by all accounts, exploited to the max.

So, what was so special about that night? In short, I learned a very important truth. One that changed my beliefs, my worldview, my whole life, really. It was something I could not look away from, ignore, dismiss, or explain away, because the obvious truth was, well, obvious. That obvious truth was the footage I saw, for the very first time, there in my one bedroom apartment in Eugene, drunk on cheap whiskey, of WTC 7 collapsing at freefall speed in New York City. My jaw hit the floor. Not only did I not know a third building collapsed that day – I did not know that it collapsed the way it did. Everything I thought I knew about the world, my country, politics, the media, everything really, was shattered, right then and there. To be fair, the first time I heard 9/11 was an inside job was actually on the day itself. My cousin, 10 years older than I was at the time, said, “It’s the CIA. It’s the Mossad. It’s all a lie and there’s gonna be a war.” He was promptly told to fuck off. A few years later, someone in my college dorms showed me a video alleging the Pentagon strike could not have been by a plane. “Do you mean to tell me the government, the politicians, the military, the intelligence agencies, the media, are all in on it?” I asked. He responded affirmatively and was promptly told to fuck off. But somewhere deep inside, I suppose the question remained. A seed had been planted. Besides, hadn’t I watched Oliver Stone’s JFK in high school? Didn’t I remember the headspace that movie put me in? The thought that my textbooks were lying, knowingly, about the complete absurdity of one shooter named Oswald? Governments could, and did, lie. I knew that. It troubled me then, but I was 16 and cared almost exclusively about, well, other things, so the thoughts were pushed away.

Back to that night in Eugene. I went down the rabbit hole. It was a dark period. I’m sure a lot of you can relate. I had a tiger by the tail, and all this information was becoming available to me. I tried to tell my friends and family. I sounded crazy, I’m sure. Later on, I started a website where I tried to share some of this new information I was coming across. Hey, it even had a visitor tracker! Wait, why was I getting a steady supply of hits from people in Langley, Virginia? I didn’t know anyone there, did I? Enter paranoia. I smoked a lot of weed to cope. I drank too much. I was in a hole, and I could not relate to anyone. If it wasn’t for my bike, which I rode for hours and hours day or night, just to get away from that damn laptop, connected to that damn internet, connected to those damn sites that were really starting to make me wonder if we weren’t ruled by reptilian overlords… I might have lost it completely.

The next few years were an absolute blur. I continued to drink. I made a lot of bad decisions. I graduated, somehow. But I was jaded. And pissed off. I knew what was up, and everyone else was lost. Everyone except for folks on a few online forums. Infowars.com was my church, Alex Jones my preacher. Until one day I woke up and saw him for what he really was. I won’t go into that anymore than I have to, but I think a lot of you will understand. I have to give credit where it is due – Jones played a large role in a lot of people’s awakenings, and that was important for a lot of people, including me, but… I don’t think I need to say more. If you know, you know, and if you don’t, you’ll figure it out.

In 2008 I left the U.S. and moved halfway around the world. I stopped my daily rituals. No more hours every day spent reading, reading, reading… About what, exactly? Bullshit. So much bullshit. Websites with black backgrounds and bright blue or yellow text. You might remember the ones. Who could separate the bullshit from the truth? I suppose it was my fault. Maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. I wasn’t doing enough homework, or I wasn’t doing it right, at least. At any rate, I stopped – I had to, for my sanity and for my health. But it’s kind of a shame that I did, because it was around that time that James Corbett was really getting started, and I wish I could have been there from day one.

Welcome my friends, welcome…

OK, so I lied. I’m an addict through and through and I never really stopped. I still frequented /r/conspiracy. Every once in a while I would come across something by a James Corbett. Mostly links to podcasts, which, to my detriment, I wasn’t into. In fact, I never really gave them a chance, but when I did, oh boy. I kicked myself for waiting too long. That was in 2011. Here was a man who was articulate in presentation, was obviously intelligent - as evidenced by the subject content he chose and the way in which he approached it - and most impressively, I don’t think I’ve ever heard this guy interject a sentence with an “um,” “ah,” or dreaded “uhhhhh.” This dude had thoughts in his head and goddamnit, he could lay them down thick and hard and without compromise. He knew what he wanted to say and he said it. He was damn good at it, and I really appreciated him for it. So, I continued to listen and I learned that many of the topics he addressed on the Corbett Report were ones I was familiar with – but he had done something so much more with the information. He had done his homework, and he spoke to people in the alternative news community, he spoke to whistle blowers (some real ones actually exist!), he did his research, and he cited it all and organized it in a way that was comprehendible. And he never talked bullshit. There has never been outlandish conjecture. There have never been wild claims. Nothing is unsubstantiated. He’s so sane and reasonable, it’s almost painful.

All Hail James the King

If James Brown was the hardest working man in show business, James Corbett is the hardest working man in the news business, period. Mainstream, alternative, whatever, it doesn’t matter, when it comes to content, I can’t think of anyone anywhere who has James beat. And he does it, for the most part, by himself. For his consistency, his attention to detail, and his honest, heartfelt quest to just get down to the truth, James is unparalleled. That isn’t to say there aren’t others who are working just as hard, but to me, James represents the absolute best of what the alternative news community stands for.

Am I a little sad that the weekly podcasts of years previous have given way to the less frequent docupodcasts of late? No. Those 300+ pieces of work are still there, and guess what, they hold up just as strong as ever, and I still go back and listen to them, and I always learn something new. Besides, James has great guests, and the work he does with James Evan Pilato from Media Monarchy is superb, and he always has something in the pipeline.

Seriously, thank God for James Corbett. I can’t imagine this world without him. I see a lot of new people on /r/conspiracy asking the right questions, and no matter where you are on your journey, there’s something for you over at the Corbett Report. Go there. Read the articles. Listen to the podcasts. You’ll be glad you did.

The Corbett Report

By the way, I’ve found the easiest way to digest the Corbett Report is on my commute. Download an app like Overcast and you have easy access to the podcasts, interviews, etc.

Love and peace to you all.

TL;DR: Listen to James Corbett. You'll be glad you did.