ALIIA ROZA-NEIL STRAUSS-TO DIE FOR

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
This is Later with Lee Matthews,The Lee Matthews Podcast more what you hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. It'sa fascinating story. Aliah Rosa is a
coach, public speaker for women's empowerment, philanthropists, and TV hosts. You
might know Neil Strauss, ten timeNew York Times bestselling author, contributing editor

(00:24):
to The Rolling Stone, to RollingStone, and former music critic. They've
teamed up for a unique podcast thatcan be heard on the iHeartRadio, appen
anywhere you get podcasts. It's calledto Die For Aliah. Let's start with
your story. At the age ofeighteen, you were already an intelligent agent.
Yes, that's correctly, thank you. So was this for the former

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Soviet Union or had that already fallenapart? And it was for Russia?
Yes, that's exactly correct. Sothe Soviet Union fall apart in nineteen ninety
one time I was eighteen. Itwas two thousand and two, straight after
the fall, so it was quitehard time, you know, I imagine.
So and you how what attracted youto this or did you even have

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a choice at the time. SoI speak about it in the podcast.
My Dad, my whole family werein the military, so I just followed
my family path and I didn't reallyhave another choice. My dad brought me
to the you know, like thedepartment, and then I was enrolled to
the Special program, so I hadto be there, you know, to

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protect my country at that time.Neil, this really was kind of a
real life Red Sparrow case, wasn'tit. Yeah? It was. I
have like an instatiable sense of curiosity. And when a friend of mine said,
you know, I met a womanwho was trained by the basically equivalent
of KGB seduce men for their secrets. I thought, as having written a

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book The Game about pickup artists malepickup artist, I thought, I want
to meet the female equivalent, Sodid you reach out to her? I
think he did. This guy getsmore interesting. He was part of a
mafia family. I had done aproject with him or I've done I think
a book with his father at onepoint, and so he sort of broke

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her to the meeting, and soI sat there and I just fascinated to
know, how were you trained inthe art of production by literally the Russian
military, Neil Strauss. I askedthat question because I know as a journalist.
One story always leaves you with severalrabbit holes to go down and find
other stories. That's exactly how itworks. And if you're just and I'm

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sure you know the same, butif you're just sort of curious and you
keep saying yes, and eventually onething leads to another, the stories tend
to come to you. So,Alia, what did you specifically work in
one intelligence field for Mother Russia orwas it any anywhere in any time you
were assigned? Sorry, I kindof like didn't really get this question.

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Sure, well did were you specificallyworking on human trafficking and drug cases or
were there some more intense and sensitiveintelligence missions you had? You were served
you you were sent to thank you? Sorry, y, Yes, that's

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correct. I was working at thedepartment to fight against human and job trafficking.
But that was like eighty percent ofmy job. But bin Tea was
some other missions well, more likeyou know, I would say, infiltrating
special people, for getting information forthe government. But you can listen everything

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in the podcast. You can findout they're more interesting things, similar details.
Oh, I understand and have nodoubt about it at all. The
name of the podcast is to Diefor and it can be heard on the
iHeartRadio app and everywhere you get podcasts. A Leah Rosa's story basically is the
whole thing, and it is allbrought to light by the journalistic work of

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Neil Strauss. Neil, so,was this more than you expected for a
book, which is why it's beenturned into a podcast? I think,
yeah, you know, it's interestingbecause I thought, I just thought this
story is so interesting, and Ithink hearing someone's voice, as you know
from doing radios said, sometimes morepowerful than just reading their words. And

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along the way, I can bringan expert to help explain how things work
there. They're completely different than here, and Ala can tell me if I'm
wrong here. But when you're whenyou're busting a human drug traffick gang there,
you might be saying, this drugtrafficking gang is not allowed by the
government, but this drug trafficking gangworked by the government, and so they're
allowed. So the line between what'sa criminal activity, what's a gang activity,

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what's a political activity, what's thepolice activity is completely blurred in Russia.
It's fascinating. Is that is thatcorrectly? And by the way,
I'm just the podcast, Yeah,yes, yes, Neil absolutely. Yeah,
yeah, so you're talking about thoserabbits foles. So, like I
thought I was just writing kind ofor writing or a hero story, this
is more like Red Sparrow. Butinstead it was so convoluted that I had

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to bring in maybe ten or twentyexperts just to unpack how things work there.
Yeah, real life is always farmore complicated than a story. Leah
Rosa is exactly. That's exactly.Yeah, is with us too, along
with Neil Strauss and the podcast isto Die For Aliah. Can you maybe
highlight one of the situations you werein where you were really in fear for

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your life. Well, there werelike a few times when I was really
really in here. To be honest, I would say the one time when
I was completely one hundred percent thoughtthat I will not be alive. When

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I was when my cow was blondeand I had to I basically couldn't do
anything because that time I was surroundedby ten criminals who were beating me up
to that so I felt like thatwas the end. But you know,
life is life, and I'm heretalking with you blessed, feeling blessed.

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So yeah, I did survive somehow, but I did, so that does
answer my next question that there weresituations of abuse involved, whether it was
from your handlers or the people youwere working to infiltrate both. Funny enough,

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in the beginning when I just enrolled, I was enrolled into the military
academy, and then when I wasworking for the whole period of my work,
and unfortunately, this is I dobelieve happening there right now with other
female and male agents. Mostly it'sfe male, but it's just the whole

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system is so corrupted that you know, nobody can stand and talk about that.
So I, you know, II was. I lived in fears
for many years, and this isthe first time when I actually started to
stand for myself and speak out.Alia Rosa a coach, public speaker for

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women's empowerment, philanthropist, TV hostNeil Strauss ten time New York Times bestselling
author. The podcast they put togetheris to Die For. It's about Aliah's
work as an intelligence agent in Russiaand she had to do a lot of
things that most would not do toget some of that information. Neil,
did you learn in the course ofresearching all of this stark differences in the

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way Russia works intelligence and the UnitedStates. Yeah, it was fascinating.
So I talked to several sources inthe FBI to ask about the differences,
and there are a few differences thatthey that they pointed out. One is
that if you're trying to recruit anagent in the FBAD, as they explained
it, you're appealing to their sortof hopes and dreams and Russia. You're

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creating fear or what they call compromants. Usually they can get some compromising materials
line to you and then hold itover your head. And it's very sophisticated
the way these traps work. Like, as an example, maybe they somebody
seduces you, you have an experiencewith them, they have the compromising material
and they ask you to something verysimple, to betray the whole the name

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of your boss, and you're like, everyone knows the name of the Boss's
not a secret. You tell them. Then they document to you giving that
information about your boss to them,and now they have going a bigger charge,
which is treason. So now theyhave a greater blackmail charger than the
other one. So the way itworks is I guess, really really machiavellian.
Yeah, yeah, And you canhear all about it too in the

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podcast to Die for Her and onthe iHeartRadio app and everywhere you get podcasts.
Alia Rosa is the subject of thepodcast and Neil Strauss. I thank
you both for bringing us the story. Yeah, thankflly, thanks for having
us fun. Thank you so much, le Yes, I appreciate it.
Thanks for listening to Later with LeeMatthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and

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remember to listen to The Drive Liveweekday afternoons from five to seven. And iHeartMedia presentation