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Dec. 13, 2022 - The Delingpod - James Delingpole

01:33:46

Lord Miles Routledge

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	Welcome to The Deling Pod with me, James Delingpoll.
	And I know I always say I'm excited about this week's special guest, but I really am looking forward to talking to Lord Miles Routledge.
	My Miles, We tried to do a podcast, like, five minutes ago, and my sodding Elon Musk Starlink internet, for which I pay gazillions, just kept cutting out, so we're now using rubbishy old BT, which seems to be better.
	What we established was that you have actually listened to the Daring Pod before.
	So you do know that I'm not very good on my research.
	And I've done absolutely subtle research about you.
	I mean, I'm aware of you.
	I'm aware of some of your adventures.
	But it was really my son who said, you've got to get this guy on the podcast.
	Because how old are you?
	I'm 23.
	My hairline says 40, though.
	Yeah, so you're the same age as my son, which is why I'm Generation X. I'm completely out of touch with your scene.
	But the first thing I've got to ask you, Lord Miles Routledge, that's not your real name.
	Oh, it actually is, yes.
	Technically, but on my bank cards and some passports, I have a couple of passports, UK ones, you can have up to four.
	It's under a different name.
	So legally, yes, but I was born with name miles.
	Yeah, no, it's the Lord bit.
	I mean, I think it's a very raffish name, Lord Myles Ratlidge, but technically I think to call yourself Lord Myles Ratlidge, that would make you the second son of a Duke, a Marquess, or possibly an Earl.
	Is your dad an Earl?
	Sadly not, no, but there's a funny story behind it though.
	Tell me.
	So at a time when I was 18, I was homeless for three months.
	No fault of my own, but I got out of that situation very easily.
	And I went to university to study physics.
	And with my flatmates, when it came to my birthday, they thought it was funny if they got me one of those lordship certificates and one of those gag gifts, thinking, oh, a homeless lord, that'd be funny.
	However, upon receiving the certificate, it looked really authentic.
	So I got brainstorming and I thought, what if I brought this to a bank and presented to them?
	Maybe they'll change my title and I can make it official.
	And of course, I wore my best suit at the time.
	I walked up to the bank during the busiest hours so they wouldn't have time to question it.
	And it went on my credit file in the end.
	So every single legal document I have says Lorde.
	So now it's just a running joke.
	That's fantastic!
	By the way, I admire the way you work the system.
	You're obviously quite canny, the way you chose to go in the busiest time of day and so on.
	Has it helped speed you on your journey?
	Has it got you out of tight spots and things?
	A few times, yes.
	So sometimes if you pull up to a hotel, say in Turkey, they might give you a slightly better room.
	They treat you with more respect.
	But at the end, I tell them, hey, I'm not really a lord, it's just a joke.
	And they'll be absolutely fine with it.
	If anything, they'll treat you better.
	They'll think it's funny.
	I would only ever do it to, say, big chains, never an independent store or anything.
	And once Turkish Airlines upgraded me to business class due to the title, so I was very happy with that.
	Well it's obviously going to, the Turks obviously love a lord.
	That seems to be the theme of this show so far.
	Ever since Lawrence of Arabia, yes.
	Oh is that?
	Well he wasn't a lord, he was just an ordinary Lord of Arabia.
	Well in one of his books he stated how he described himself as kind of a lord in spirit and he actually misinterpreted it, mistranslated it, saying he actually is a lord.
	So at that point he treated him a lot better, he just went along with it.
	So I thought that's quite funny and I thought why don't I do the same thing?
	Why don't I pull some strings and see where he can get me maybe?
	I really like what you've been doing.
	Thank you.
	Because I think there are a lot of 23-year-olds out there who've got their degrees at their universities and think it's going to, I don't know, be a ticket to a sort of affluent life with mortgages and, you know, wives and school fees and so on.
	And I think a lot of these poor kids are finding that the degree isn't worth the paper it's written on.
	That there are no jobs because the global economy is being deliberately collapsed.
	And I think you've taken the right decision and you've basically said, fuck it, I'm just going to have fun.
	Is that right?
	Basically, yes.
	So after the mainstream media tried to cause some issues for me.
	You know what I mean, man.
	They tried to bring me down because of my travels.
	And I thought, well, screw it.
	I can change my identity at any point.
	So I changed all my degree and qualifications into a different name.
	Worst comes to worst, if I have to abandon this lifestyle one day, I can just go back to a normal job, consequence-free.
	Nothing links back to me.
	And at the same time, I did the math and I realised, hey, even if I live in London, working in, say, an investment banking job, which I wanted to go into at some point and got quite far with, even with the lifestyle inflation and the extra pay, you cannot save enough money to retire by the age of 50 or 60, unless if you live absolutely minimally and miserably.
	So, this is the only shot I can do.
	If I do this stuff and maybe create the next Vice that's actually not a Woke and do some good work and earn some money from it, absolutely all power to me.
	That's what I hope to do.
	So I better get you to explain what it is that you've been doing.
	Because there'll be some viewers and listeners who are thinking, well, yeah, I'm none the wiser as to who this random young person is.
	So did you get your degree in physics, by the way?
	So in the end not, sadly not.
	So I did two and a half years and the university put me on trial for going to Afghanistan and they said my Christian beliefs were not compatible with the university basically, calling them offensive and they tried to give me a diversity A diversity meeting and set up training and all this nonsense.
	And in the end, I said, hey, I'm going to publish this book after I graduate, stating what I did in Afghanistan.
	At the time, the plan was to donate the proceeds from the book to this one guy who helped me in Kabul.
	And they said, no, absolutely not.
	You have to cancel your book deal right now.
	You cannot publish a book even after you graduate.
	And no social media posts.
	So I'm thinking these people just hate me.
	They're going to try and kick me out no matter what, even if they're saying I can do my final year.
	So I said screw it.
	I quit.
	And what I've done in my spare time is this online degree diploma, which is a total waste of time, a total doss.
	However, it still means I have a degree.
	I see.
	Let me rewind a second there, because you raised a few interesting points.
	So, tell me about your... So, you're a Christian.
	You're a Catholic, did I read it right?
	Yes.
	Okay.
	Yes, you got it.
	You did do your research.
	No, I'm just showing the absolute limits of my research.
	I'm kidding.
	Sorry.
	Research, rather, as my generation calls it, not research.
	You kids, you've just all bought into that American stuff.
	So, you were born a Catholic, and unlike a lot of Catholics, because, I mean, the number of Catholics I've met who were born into Catholic families who've said, it put me off Christianity forever, you weren't one of those.
	No, no.
	So I was born into kind of an atheist family.
	So, um, officially my mother was Catholic, but she was not Catholic acting in the slightest.
	It's like she didn't even know what Catholicism actually stood for at all.
	Never opened a Bible and so on.
	And then during that tough time when I was 18 and homeless, it kind of turned me towards that.
	And it's made sense ever since.
	Right, interesting.
	Yeah, well I think we can get into that a bit later on because I imagine that God's been quite helpful to you on your adventures and sort of helped stop you dying and stuff like that.
	Certainly.
	Yeah, good, good.
	Okay, so you're at university and you decide you're going to go to Afghanistan for a kind of, for a jolly.
	Is that right?
	As you do, yes.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And Was that when you made the list of the 10 most dangerous countries in the world, or was that later?
	That was a little bit later.
	Always mentally, I've always wanted to go to every area of the world.
	Sometimes I would go on Google Maps and search these areas, these extremes, and sometimes look up top 10 lists of the most dangerous places in the world.
	But I never thought I would ever follow through with it, you know, it was a pipe dream.
	But after the media show with the fall of Kabul, I thought, well, I might as well pursue it now.
	Ah, but Kabul hadn't fallen when you went out there, had it?
	No, no, it was a few days before it fell.
	So I was told by the embassy, I was told by my Afghan friends I made contacts with, the media posted the same thing.
	They all said, Kabul's not going to fall for 90 plus days.
	And when another news article would suggest maybe 60 days, everyone laughed at that article, No, no, the country's going to hold.
	It's going to be absolutely fine.
	No issues.
	And then of course, two, three, four days later, the Taliban roll in and the whole country collapses and everyone is wrong.
	Every analyst.
	So I was left there holding the bag, per se.
	How did you get to Afghanistan?
	Was it difficult?
	No, it wasn't.
	It was way easier than you would think.
	So I walked into the embassy initially in May time and I stated I want to go for a holiday.
	And he said, oh, how come you want to come?
	I said, you know, I've seen some videos.
	It does look beautiful.
	I've got a tour guide who has got some excellent reviews.
	And at the same time, the plane tickets are rather cheap.
	I wonder why.
	And they started laughing.
	I said, OK, that's more than fine.
	Fill out this form.
	It was one sheet of A4 paper with about five questions on it.
	I filled that in, showed my passport, and within seven days it gave me a visa.
	And then from there I flew to Turkey, and then it was Turkey to Afghanistan.
	Literally one stop.
	Incredibly simple.
	Right.
	Presumably to Kabul?
	Yes, yes.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And so what was the scene like when you got there?
	So, upon landing, we had these mini TVs inside the actual plane, yes, and one of them was a BBC broadcast stating how the Taliban are making advancements in this area.
	And I kind of saw that.
	I was a little shocked.
	So I pointed to a boy sitting next to me, a young lad, about 17 years old, and he was Afghan.
	I showed him, hey, look, the Taliban taking over.
	He gathered all his friends on the plane and they all started cheering.
	So I was there thinking, oh, what a good impression.
	From there, I decided, OK, well, I'm at the airport.
	So I go through.
	They don't scan my bag or anything.
	They scan everyone else's.
	So they start profiling people.
	One guy tried to scan me.
	By asking for directions.
	So he's waiting outside the airport and he states, hey, if you need to know where to go, I'll show you.
	And I go, oh, thank you so much, but I don't need any help.
	He goes, no, no, I insist.
	I go, OK, whatever.
	So we walk about 50 metres per se.
	Then he asked for some money.
	And I say, I have to pay you?
	And he goes, yes, of course you have to pay, otherwise I tell the police.
	So I pull out 50 pence, no, I pull out one pound and I give it to him.
	And I say, you know, that's probably proportional to the work you did.
	Enjoy.
	And just walked away.
	He looks a little dumbfounded.
	Nice one, nice one.
	Thank you.
	I see you've got some attitude as well.
	OK, so had you booked a hotel at this point?
	Yes, so we had this compound that was about, I would say it's two streets across from the American Embassy.
	So it was inside the Green Zone.
	It was about $50 a night, and it had a huge barricade wall behind it.
	You would have to knock in a certain sequence on this wall, and then a little slot would open up, they would let you inside, they would do a quick And who do you think they thought you were?
	little um mail detector over you and then you'll go through another metal barricade wall and then you'll be in this little garden area where you can just uh play chess or just uh chill and enjoy yourself and who do you think they thought you were because i mean it's not it wasn't really on on the tourist map at that point was it that they must They must have suspected you were something.
	Did you have that short haircut at the time?
	Yes, so this is kind of, I guess this could pass as a military bus, potentially.
	Yes.
	So I had a shorter haircut at the time, and I think they did look at me walking around very confidently.
	So I was walking around with a lot of baggage too.
	I had a military assault bag on me, just plain black.
	So I think they assume any foreigner is either a journalist, a spy or a soldier.
	So I think they assumed I was someone.
	And if I told them I'm a tourist, I think they would think I'm lying.
	Yes, exactly.
	And do you have any plans?
	Oh, well, definitely the plan to get my return flight out.
	But truthfully, I wanted to travel a little bit, just taste the food, see the city, like a normal lad's holiday.
	So I wanted to go to this one area.
	You know the Buddhist statue in Afghanistan?
	It's a famous Buddhist statue, incredibly tall, carved in the mountainside, a good 700,000 years old.
	So I wanted to see that.
	I thought they'd blown it up?
	You mean the Buddhas of Bamia?
	Yeah, exactly.
	Yes, they blew it up.
	However, the face is removed, but you can still see the structure, and around it you have these beautiful kind of monastery carvings into the wall, where you can see some beautiful artwork, and also these monastery rooms that have been carved into the actual rock.
	So if you sit there and speak, They've carved in such a way that your voice harmonises due to the shape of the actual room.
	So I just found that fascinating and I thought, I should check out a piece of history, why not?
	And how far from Kabul is that?
	I believe it's a good 40 minute drive.
	So maybe 10, 20 miles.
	A day trip?
	Yeah, exactly.
	Something you can pop in and out of.
	Right.
	And how...
	Worried were you about being blown up or shot or kidnapped or whatever at this point?
	Well, I've lived in Birmingham most of my life, so if they are watching for America, it's basically the equivalent of Chicago or something like that.
	So I'm kind of used to the same risks in that area too.
	So Birmingham is just as dangerous, same with London nowadays.
	So I was just walking around thinking, well, if I walk around confident, I guess they'll presume I know what I'm doing.
	If I walk around all scared and nervous, they'll kind of sense that.
	So I was a little bit nervous at the back of my head, but I took pretty right precautions.
	Right.
	OK.
	And so you found a guide that you trusted?
	Yes, yes.
	He had excellent reviews, spoke fluent English.
	He had a degree in pharmacy, but realised giving tour guides was a better paying job, weirdly.
	Right.
	And anywhere else on your itinerary before you flew home?
	Yes, so there was also the bird market in Kabul, which is lovely.
	So New York has a stock exchange, Afghanistan has a bird market where you would trade different coloured birds that would have different values and it would hold a certain association with them.
	So you can actually use it as kind of an IOU because a bird is unique by its shape and by its identity and its cutting on its wings.
	So people would use that quite a bit and this bird market was thousands of years old.
	So I was walking down, it was a beautiful piece of history.
	There was also the Lion of Kabul, or the Lion of Afghanistan, a famous political figure from the 70s.
	He had a gravesite that was about five hours driving up north of Afghanistan, of Kabul.
	So I drove all the way there and drove back with my tour guide and this to the area.
	So I saw remote areas of all the mountains and valleys and rivers.
	Right.
	Oh, lovely.
	Lovely.
	You got to see some of that.
	I'm very, very envious.
	Thank you.
	So, when did your jaunt take a sort of more perilous turn?
	Oh, yes.
	So, I arrived on the 12th and around the 15th, 16th was when the Taliban took over.
	So, around 9am There was a notification that went out across Afghan social media stating, hey, we are the Taliban.
	We are coming to Kabul very soon around midday or 3pm.
	If you put up a fight, we will end up killing some people, unfortunately.
	But if you will surrender, we will come in peacefully and we promise not to harm anyone.
	And at this point, everyone thought it was a joke for one or two hours until the official spokesman of the Taliban at the time surfaced saying, no, this is a true threat.
	We are doing this.
	So everyone started panicking and going crazy.
	There was a bank run.
	So the central bank in Afghanistan couldn't dispense $200 to me the previous day.
	So we didn't have $200 in the main system, and people were trying to draw their life savings.
	There was queues of hundreds of people.
	People were running, selling all their merchandise, selling their smartphones, not knowing what the Taliban would or wouldn't permit.
	So everyone changed clothes.
	Everyone shut their shops.
	Everyone basically made it into a ghost town.
	They abandoned everything.
	Did you start trying to grow a beard at that point?
	Yes, yes.
	I tried straining, but sadly it didn't pop out in a microsecond.
	I did grow some facial hair out, but I really wasn't having it.
	But what I did, so I ran towards the British Embassy as soon as I could, but I realised the Embassy had been cleared a few hours earlier, even though a Twitter post stated that they would stay.
	So typical British government, right?
	Not fulfilling their promises.
	So when I got there, there were some people stealing stuff from the British Embassy, stealing a sofa.
	So at that point, I thought, I'm going to go to the airport.
	So as I was running to the airport, there was a lady and a man selling clothes.
	So I quickly bought a burka.
	So, the little lairbox burkas.
	And I put it on, thinking, oh, if I'm with this tall guy, they'll assume I'm a woman, and therefore won't hurt me.
	So we saw the Taliban rolling in at that point.
	I was running in this burka, smiling underneath, because I'm getting a small adrenaline rush, and at the same time, I'm getting away with it.
	I haven't been spotted quite yet.
	So I get to the airport and realise all flights are cancelled.
	Actually just before then too, I tried booking a flight earlier on.
	So I have my card out and I have my phone and I'm booking a ticket.
	But it keeps saying bank cards refused and it hits me.
	Oh, I'm trying to buy a £900 ticket.
	As I'm in Afghanistan, my bank is flagging it.
	So I quickly message NatWest, stating, hey, Taliban are coming to kill me.
	Please, can you unblock my account?
	Thank you.
	They start laughing, thinking it's joking.
	And I share my location on this app.
	And they go, oh, you're serious?
	OK, very sorry, sir.
	We just saw what's happening on the news.
	Your card is ready to use now.
	But then when I got to the airport, I realized all flights are grounded.
	So it wasn't happening anyway.
	And then from there I decided to go to this compound I heard about for foreigners.
	And at that, I mean, how threatened had you felt by the Taliban?
	Did they look scary?
	Were they in, sort of, jeeps with machine guns on the back, or what?
	What was the deal?
	Yes, yes, so they had Toyota trucks, of course, and they had machine guns on the back, AKs, they had headbands on, sometimes they would cover their faces, they looked like very worn torn soldiers.
	You know, they've seen 10, 20 years of fighting ever since they've become teenagers.
	And they've seen their friends die and they've killed several other people.
	This was their big victory.
	So no one was stopping them.
	But as I was walking out of the airport, all these trucks were coming towards the airport.
	It was the last place they hadn't captured yet.
	So as I walked out, I walked in the middle of the road.
	I blocked this Taliban convoy for about five seconds as I was crossing the road.
	So they stopped for me and they were looking at me.
	They saw, because I took off this burka, they saw I was a white dude.
	I actually had a cross around my neck at that point.
	And they looked at me and actually smiled.
	I gave them a thumbs up.
	And tried to say, oh, thanks for stopping, guys.
	At this point, I know my fate might be screwed, so I'm just trying to play the nice guy.
	And they give me a thumbs up, too, saying, oh, yeah, it's all good, it's going through.
	The Taliban in the back don't know that someone's trying to cross, so we start beeping their horn, going, hey, why aren't we moving?
	And I just shout to them, hey, I'm being here, just one second.
	I give them a thumbs down because they start beeping at me.
	And I think they kind of respect it.
	However, as I'm walking towards this new compound that's about half a mile to a mile away, two Taliban soldiers come up to me.
	They push my tour guide out of the way and say, we want to speak to him directly.
	They corner me in this very isolated area and they look pissed to see me.
	So they pull out my passport and they go, hey, you're British.
	And they explain they're from the Helmand province, which is a place notorious for hating British people.
	I think quickly on my feet and state, oh no brother, don't worry.
	See, it says on here, United Kingdom.
	It means Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland.
	And they go, oh, are you not from England?
	I go, no, no, I'm from Wales.
	And they go, where is Wales?
	I go, no, no, it's like country next to England.
	We got invaded by England, brother.
	Same struggle, one struggle with you guys.
	And they go, wait, you got invaded too?
	I was like, yeah, yeah, it's really bad, you know, but I guess we're both not fans of the English.
	And they look at each other and just smile and go, I guess, you know, they nod, they pat me on the shoulder and they go, enjoy your stay and just walk off.
	Do you know what?
	I'd be tempted not to believe that amazing story, were it not for the fact that I've had similar experiences in my time.
	I mean, nothing compared with yours, but I was once On holiday in California when the Los Angeles riots broke out and I got sent by, I was working for the Telegraph at the time, and I got sent by the news desk to interrupt my holiday and go and report on the LA riots.
	And I remember an encounter I had with this gang called the Crips.
	You know, there's two gangs in LA, the Crips and the Bloods.
	And because I was this kind of bumbling, good-natured Englishman, you know, they didn't feel threatened by me.
	They thought I was, you know, kind of like, okay, I wasn't in their...
	I wasn't the target.
	Yeah, exactly.
	It was great.
	I think it works well, that kind of attitude.
	Exactly, yes.
	I think if you treat anyone with respect and talk with some confidence and show, hey, this is where I am, you can do your thing, and you explain yourself, I think usually they're quite fine.
	I think if you start getting mouthy, that's usually what happens.
	Especially with Bloods and Crips, right?
	They demand respect.
	That's their whole thing.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
	So, OK, so you got to the compound.
	Yes, it gets even worse.
	So there's a Turkish guard outside.
	It turns out it's a Turkish compound and there's a huge crowd of people trying to get in.
	People waving their passports, shouting.
	It's for expats only, that's what I've heard.
	And I see some white people get denied.
	And I'm thinking, oh dear, oh, maybe I can't get in.
	So I yell, hey, I've got a British passport.
	Can you let me in, please?
	And he goes, no, we're only taking Turkish people.
	And I just joke saying, hey, I'm not Greek.
	And he just yells, uh, oh, you know, that's funny, blah, blah, blah, but we still can't take you.
	And I'm still trying to talk to him, and some British soldier comes out and goes, no, no, no, he can come in, allow him in, you know, we're allowing anyone now.
	And they go, oh, okay, then, you know, go on through.
	So I go on in, they give me Wi-Fi, they take my name down, and I just, I'm given a room with some food, which I'm very grateful for.
	Now, I decided to livestream my adventures and started talking about it.
	That's when the media really starts picking up on the situation.
	And after I do that...
	I see some soldiers walking downstairs from my room, and turns out they're SAS contractors, you know, they've done their service and they've gone private now.
	So they go, you're that guy, you're that guy on the news, you're that guy off the social media.
	And I go, oh yeah, yeah.
	And they go, come on upstairs, we can have a drink together.
	I go, okay, why not, you know.
	So we head upstairs.
	There's about three other soldiers.
	They're drinking in a Muslim country now with the Taliban, a good less than 50 metres away, surrounding the compound and shooting in certain areas.
	So I think these people are quite all right.
	And they start shaking my hand.
	They're eating some Pringles.
	And they're quite tipsy, to put it lightly.
	They give me some body armour, some level 3 plates, and one of their guns, and they start kitting me up, thinking it's funny, and just let me take some photos in their gear.
	So that's where one of the infamous photos came from.
	And we just chat, and they think it's hilarious.
	They kind of respect it.
	The commanding officer comes in and starts shouting at me, saying, oh, how dare you go on holiday to Afghanistan?
	This was not a good idea.
	What were you thinking?
	So everyone's silent.
	I just agree to whatever he says.
	Keep eye contact.
	Eventually, he just walked away.
	I think he just wanted to let off some steam, thinking this bloody guy's here.
	I have to look after him.
	But all the people that aren't higher of a ranks get on with me just fine.
	I think they liked me very much.
	Hang on, I'm just panicking here because I'm looking at my bloody screen and I'm seeing you're 99% uploaded and I'm 0% uploaded, which is kind of shit.
	Thank you Elon Musk for your Starlink.
	Typical.
	I'm just going to hope that we're not going to have to re-do this.
	When are you next on your... Where are you off to next, by the way?
	So, I'm going to Brazil, but I can't say specifically what I'm doing there.
	However, it will be quite adventurous, to put it lightly.
	Right.
	But it should be before Christmas.
	I'm just waiting on some things.
	OK, that's cool.
	OK.
	So, I just hate recording stuff when I don't even know whether it's going to be a waste of both our time or not.
	How can it be 0%?
	Yeah, it should be uploaded.
	You should know about this technique.
	Yes.
	Exactly, it should be, shouldn't it?
	When I hung up last time, it came up saying 99% and then said completed.
	So either the internet's really bad on your end, Or maybe it's just not recording.
	Hopefully it's just uploading very slowly and it'll do it overnight.
	By the way, I apologise to listeners.
	I tell you what, Miles, I got so much... In my last podcast, my dad rang in the middle of the podcast, I don't know how to turn the landline off.
	Or if I do, it turns off my internet.
	Oh dear.
	And people say, oh, it's so disrespectful.
	It's so disrespectful to you.
	And I was, I was cringing.
	I had to stop watching the... I think, you know, like, deal with it.
	If you want slick, go to an American.
	They're really good.
	They're really, they're as slick as you like, but the content generally isn't as good as mine.
	So, you know, like, fuck off if you want to do that.
	You know, if you want...
	Anyway, um, yeah.
	No, you're right.
	Let, let's just, let's just, should we, should we pray that it uploads?
	I think.
	Yes, that'd be good.
	And then you can, you can slice it together.
	Yes.
	Okay.
	So, you had your jollies with these ex-special forces turned military, sort of mercenary contractors type things.
	Yes, loving people.
	hoping that it works eventually.
	Yes.
	So you had your jollies with these ex-special forces turned military sort of mercenary contractors type things.
	Yes, lovely people.
	That was great.
	And when did you get home?
	Yes, so I think it was about two nights afterwards, we got the go-ahead.
	Someone came to agreement with the Taliban saying, hey, they'll allow safe passage.
	The only thing we aren't allowed to have is weapons.
	So these contractors surrendered their weapons.
	They basically said to me, hey, look, the Taliban are playing ball.
	They haven't hurt a foreigner.
	So they've actually been helping them.
	We trust him enough to take all the expats with us.
	So there was about 200 expats in this building, by the way.
	It was this hotel compound.
	They were mostly workers and charity workers, so you actually had a few journalists that got stuck there that were panicking more than me, which was quite funny.
	Did they?
	Yeah, yeah.
	I can't mention which ones because I'm working with them.
	No, but actually, Miles, tell me, because I've In the last two years, I used to think being a war correspondent was just like, incredibly cool.
	And I would love to have been in the NAM, where all journalists got given the honorary rank, I think either of major or, I think it was major, and you got, you could get a chopper to anywhere you wanted, you got priority, it must have been good, yeah, good times.
	But Now I've seen the events of the last two or three years and I've realised these people are just kind of propaganda shills.
	They don't go outside.
	They don't take risks.
	Obviously there are always physical risks in a combat zone, but They're not reporting the truth.
	They're reporting what their side wants reported.
	Was that the vibe you got?
	Really, yes.
	So, what happened was, these people were half a mile away from this compound we're in, and these SAS contractors Left around 5am and they told me, hey there's these people from this news site in America, they're too scared to go out and walk to our compound, so we're going to escort them back to the compound and we're going to charge them $2000 a head.
	So I was laughing to myself thinking, wow, these people are this pathetic.
	Like, I know they have insurance most likely, but I was happy walking outside for many hours.
	It's no problem.
	And when I was going to other countries like South Sudan, you see a lot of people, especially journalists.
	I saw some from the Daily Mail and also, what was it called?
	I think it was Washington Journal.
	That was it.
	One of those anyway.
	They're all the same in the end.
	Yeah.
	When I was in South Sudan, there was a very nice hotel called The Pyramid, which is several hundred dollars a night compared to the outskirts that are like three dollars a day.
	And they always snooze and booze at these new wine bar openings and stuff.
	They wear these nice dresses.
	I tell them, hey, I went through this area here, and they go, I've never been there.
	How have you not been here?
	You've been here for three, four months and I've been here one week and I've travelled halfway across the country.
	Utterly ridiculous.
	I think these people get an assignment, know the agenda off by heart because they work in this industry, write a very generic article, maybe do one or two phone calls and then that's their research.
	It's not truthful, it's really pathetic.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, yeah, exactly.
	It's not Tim Page in Vietnam, is it?
	It's not living life on the edge?
	I think the best thing I saw, or the worst thing I saw, was I was in Ukraine, in Kharkiv, near the front lines at the time.
	Now, it was 20 miles from the actual fighting.
	You can still hear gunfire and everything, but it was quite far away.
	People were still walking their dogs.
	People were just chilling on the streets, eating food.
	So I was live-streaming this city at the time.
	I was filming everything, and I saw some news reporters.
	Uh, they were from CNN at this time, right?
	So I can say that they're from CNN.
	And they're standing with a wall behind them.
	And the lady's going, hey, there's fighting just around the corner.
	We're trying to keep safe, but, you know, the things are really heating up.
	And she's lying through her teeth.
	I know there's no fighting anywhere near here.
	So I honestly started live streaming and I recorded this so it's on my YouTube channel somewhere.
	But I walk in between this lady and her cameraman and with my GoPro I go, wow it's so safe here even the amateurs are here.
	And they look at me pissed.
	They're so upset.
	I'm just laughing to it.
	So I just don't care anymore.
	I think that's a particularly good, given that it was CNN.
	I mean, CNN or BBC, I think either way that would have been a very good ruin, situation ruin.
	Thank you, I appreciate it.
	Well done.
	So, okay, we'll assume that you got out of Afghanistan and that was cool, and where was your next destination after that?
	Oh, so then you had your fracas with your university authorities.
	Yes.
	What was it like?
	The Daily Mail tried to make you a sort of story of irresponsible young man.
	jeopardises, I don't know, you know, takes up valuable space on a plane.
	Yeah, so he said I took up evacuation space from a refugee, which is absolutely not true though.
	There was a plane coming in every single hour and they only stopped sending the planes when there was no one left, no one eligible to come.
	And even if that wasn't so, the planes were for expats only.
	So on my video at the time, when I took a quick five second video showing this plane I'm on, It's all men, because it's all for workers, all for expats.
	They were all Indonesians and British and American workers.
	There was no women and children.
	So I didn't take up any seats.
	I even went for soldier, and I could contact the soldier and confirm this, because I still got his number, saying, hey, can I go on a later flight, maybe?
	Maybe everyone else can get out before me.
	He goes, no, man, honestly, you're fine.
	Go on.
	Go on through.
	So I try to basically help other people get up.
	I managed to get one or two refugees out by giving them letters of recommendation and they managed to get through the border to Pakistan, no issues.
	So I end up helping people get seats.
	I never took up the seats.
	No, no.
	Well look, the story was in the mail so obviously it was untrue.
	Of course, they never contacted me.
	Yeah, they were trying to create Well, oh, you do surprise me.
	It's a bit like the story about the man with the... the other crazy story, the man with the pets, the dogs.
	What was that about?
	Oh, yes, yes.
	I think there was some man who... I think he was... he was... we were thinking about... we had these sniffer dogs, you know, these worker dogs in Afghanistan, and...
	They aren't allowed to exit by Taliban rule.
	So the dogs in Afghanistan are wild.
	They're prone to diseases.
	They are starving to death.
	It's a really bad situation for them.
	So if we left this domesticated dog there, it would die of heat exhaustion or something really bad in the end.
	So we were contemplating shooting the dog, basically.
	The SAS people were like, well, if we have to, I guess it's better to put it out as misery long term because this dog will just be abused.
	But in the end, there was this man who stated, hey, we can take the dogs in, just pay us $50.
	And he did.
	He kept it from the Taliban.
	And eventually, an agreement was brokered to actually take the dogs out, thankfully.
	And they got back to the West.
	Which was lovely.
	Oh, good.
	I'm happy about the doggies.
	Because we like nice doggies.
	Of course.
	Everyone likes dogs.
	We live a happy life, don't we?
	Yeah, exactly.
	Dogs, horses, cats.
	Oh, definitely.
	We like them.
	So you got home, and you got... tell me about the shit you got from your university.
	Yes, so when I came back from university, they sent me an email saying, oh, you've been investigated, XYZ.
	And they were saying I was anti-semitic.
	I was thinking, how was I anti-semitic?
	Send me the evidence, what happened?
	And apparently on a live stream someone asked... Oh wait, Miles, everything, everything is anti-semitic.
	Do you not realise this?
	Everything, the whole world, yeah, it's the catch-all thing that you didn't even know.
	It's all we use nowadays.
	So carry on.
	So during the live stream someone asked me, Hey, why don't you pretend to be Jewish to get out of Afghanistan?
	I go, oh, no, no, you can't be Jewish in Afghanistan.
	They hate the Jews.
	They would execute a Jewish person and they probably would let off a Christian person like me.
	So thankfully I'm not Jewish.
	And apparently me saying thankfully I'm not Jewish was anti-Semitic.
	And I was like, well, no, playback clip, clearly it's fine.
	And they said, oh, oh yes, but we do think it's anti-Semitic.
	And we've had very strong complaints about your antisemitism just from that.
	And I said, OK, show me the complaints.
	And it was one very poorly put together email where some guy was typing out, he seemed drunk.
	It was only one complaint, by the way, saying, oh, I find it very antisemitic and offensive.
	I was thinking, OK, if it's about reputation, I then printed out about 60, 70 pages of positive comments about what I did and slammed it on the table at the trial, giving it to them.
	I said, oh, well, if it's just a public opinion thing, I guess I'm doing just fine.
	And they wouldn't take it.
	They said, oh, no, we take these complaints very seriously.
	And the media outlash has really shown, you know, it has damaged our reputation.
	I'm thinking, I don't care.
	What?
	Hang on, wait.
	We're talking about... Sorry, Miles.
	We're talking about Loughborough University.
	Oh yes, I do despise them.
	I mean, I don't mean to be rude, but Loughborough University, as far as I know, the only person I've ever been to Loughborough University was my PE teacher.
	I mean, it's got... I presume it's got quite a good PE course there.
	Yeah, it's the best sports uni in the world.
	Yeah, for gym teachers and stuff.
	It's a decent sports uni, even though... Well, there you are.
	Okay.
	But these people aren't really in a position to start, I mean, with respect to PE teachers everywhere.
	It's not a university with a reputation that really needs protecting from brave, adventurous students doing interesting things.
	I mean, that seems to be great for the university.
	Oh, of course it is.
	I've had a few people even message me saying, I want to go to Loughborough University because you go there.
	And a few actually enrolled, which I thought was interesting.
	By the way, on the physics You are obviously, you've obviously got a very quick brain.
	I'm generally quite, as an arts graduate, I'm always quite impressed by people with a physics degree, or people capable of getting in on physics courses.
	What did you do, physics, maths, chemistry?
	Oh, A-level.
	A few A-levels.
	Yeah, so maths, physics, engineering, Cambridge, pre-U, global perspective, some DARS and geography.
	So one of them was just AES.
	One of them was just AES really.
	But when I got in, it was nothing like I expected almost.
	Most of it they tried to make into programming, thinking that everyone's going to do some programming on the side or something.
	It felt like a very poorly put together course.
	Everyone was complaining.
	No one really liked the university at all.
	Most of the students were very dissatisfied.
	And I don't think the staff really knew what was going on anyway.
	Right, right.
	Well, it sounds like you're well out of it.
	OK.
	So, you then quit the university.
	And was that when you made your list of ten?
	Yes, yes.
	At least ten.
	I think it's going on fifty right now.
	Fifty destinations.
	All in priority and with some documents.
	There's some destinations that I want to do over the next year and I've written up PDF documents, latex documents, really fancy formatting that have about 50 pages worth of planning on them, cost breakdowns, analysis, satellite imagery.
	I've done my research and then some of them are just footnotes.
	And how do you finance this?
	I mean, Google dangerous places, or places you shouldn't go, and usually it's an article saying, hey, never go here, it's a warning, several people have died here, there's been terrorist attacks here, something very dodgy has happened here, and so on.
	But in the end, I do my research and I go, well, this is overstated.
	I should maybe go.
	Sometimes I watch a Vice documentary and I go, well, I wonder what that place is like now, 10, 15 years later.
	Or I have a follower message me saying, hey, I live in Libya.
	I know there's a slave market over here.
	I can take you to the slave market if you manage to get to Libya.
	And it really baffles me that there's so many places in the world that are really barbaric or dangerous.
	That most people haven't even heard of.
	Yeah, we think our world's so safe nowadays.
	Yes, well exactly.
	So did you... Sadly not.
	The Libyan visa is incredibly hard to get.
	So I can get into any country within about seven days.
	I've got all the applications set up apart from Libya and North Korea.
	So those are the ones I would struggle with.
	And China at the moment, because they've closed the border.
	But the Libyan ones on the list, it just requires a lot of greasing of the wheels, if you understand what I mean.
	So, a lot of your travelling, in fact all of your travelling has been done at the time when mask bollocks, injection bollocks, travel restriction bollocks, in a way you've picked a good time because I imagine that a lot of the countries you went to were so kind of sketchy that they weren't really interested in enforcing the kind of the World Health Organization's Some of them did.
	One of the main reasons I went to Afghanistan originally was because there was no vaccine requirement, which I thought was quite good.
	So thanks to WHO for making this happen.
	But there were some countries that required a vaccine.
	Now, Of course I'm vaccinated, wink wink, and I didn't do this thing that I'm about to describe, wink wink, but there's a certain strategy some people do that I definitely didn't do, where you would fly to, say, East Africa, and you'd pay a doctor $10-$15 to register the vaccine on their system, and then you would go back and give it to the NHS, and then they would register it on their side, so in case on paper you would be vaccinated.
	But I don't recommend that, wink.
	No, absolutely not.
	That sounds like you'd be breaking the rules somehow.
	I don't know.
	OK.
	So, yeah, so don't do that.
	Just say no, kids.
	Take the death jab.
	So, I'm really disturbed about the lighting on my face.
	It's making me look really old.
	I don't like you seeing your young face there.
	I think you'll live longer than me.
	Don't worry about it.
	Oh, thanks.
	I don't think that.
	I think if we had a death-off, I think I'm going to be there first.
	But, OK.
	So, where was your next destination?
	Yeah, South Sudan.
	Lovely country.
	Sudan.
	South Sudan.
	Newest country in the world.
	Yes, beautiful.
	I love Sudan.
	So this was the newest country of the world, formed in 2011.
	And I watched this YouTube video that most people watched back in the day, describing what the country was like.
	It was like a five-minute animation.
	And it described it as hell on earth.
	So I was like, well, I want to go to hell on earth.
	That'll be entertaining.
	Why not?
	I'm a bit curious.
	So in order to get the visa, you were required to have a tour guide with you.
	But I looked at the prices.
	There was only four tour guides for the entire country.
	And they were like £5,000, £6,000.
	I said, screw that.
	So what I did, I went on the government website to create a business, you know, a company house.
	And I registered a business called Global Tours Limited.
	It's still active right now.
	I'm good.
	I'm going to dissolve it soon.
	But it's on Company House right now.
	You can search it up.
	And I put down as a tour guide agency and I wrote a letter to the South Sudan Embassy saying, I am a tour guide under the name Miles Routledge with Global Tours Limited.
	I am the owner of the company and I designate myself a tour guide.
	I will give myself a tour and keep myself safe.
	So I made it very transparent that I'm just trying to beat the system, basically.
	They gave me a visa.
	Thank you.
	Nice one.
	Now tell me, I haven't looked at the map recently.
	I went to Sudan when it was, well, the Sudan.
	And it was not North and South.
	I wanted to go to Juba.
	But there was a civil war going on so I couldn't make it there.
	Our overland group didn't go.
	But I went to El Fasha and Niara.
	Yeah, they're more in the north now.
	They've split it so the green area is Sudan and the desert area is basically North Sudan.
	So the Juba.
	The Juba are obviously in the South.
	I wanted to see the Juba tribe and the Dinka.
	I saw some of them.
	Did you see any of those?
	They were there with their cattle.
	Some of them were bathing themselves in cow piss because they believe it's healthy or just normal.
	So really they shocked me seeing that.
	I'm sure it is.
	And I was warned beforehand they might try and offer you a wife or something in exchange for some money.
	If you give them $500, they'll grant you a wife.
	And I was thinking, no, it's not exactly my type, not exactly my values, but I do find it quite funny.
	But they do have some weird customs.
	But they're very self-sufficient and they're very fit, respectable people.
	And they're quite friendly too.
	And so what did you do in South Sudan?
	So I walked around Juba quite a bit, and I took a boat ride on the Nile.
	So I got to see everything.
	We saw some crocodiles, we saw some hippos, some giraffes.
	Because South Sudan is very empty.
	It's got a small population, most of the country's just countryside, that's never been utilised or used.
	So I did some drives round of a really bumpy road, and we just saw wild animals everywhere.
	People were just acting like it was normal.
	It was the best safari of my life, never been on one before.
	I did some charity work too, so I took some donations and just gave it out on the streets to anyone struggling.
	I visited a few bars and restaurants, tried some traditional food, felt like average touristy stuff.
	And at one point, I got threatened in South Sudan.
	So, they have a no-photo policy.
	So, they personally believe if you take a photograph of something, you're stealing their soul, right?
	So, in order to take photographs, it's actually also illegal to film.
	But if you ask permission, they're usually fine.
	So, I asked this old man in the market, in the fish market, hey, can I take a photo?
	And he didn't speak English too well, which is weird, because everyone spoke English.
	So he motions saying, yeah, it's okay, gave me a thumbs up.
	So I took a photo, the flash went off, and he started shouting and screaming at me.
	And I'm taking it back, like, oh, what did I do wrong?
	Sorry, I'm motioning, like, ooh.
	And out of nowhere, below the actual market, he pulls out an old AK.
	And I'm there panicking, like, oh, he's going to shoot me.
	So I start kind of casually jogging off.
	So that happened.
	So that's when I got threatened.
	That's some that would have been upsetting.
	Yeah, I can see that.
	So I envy you your safari, because I mean going on safari in Africa these days is jolly expensive and also very crowded as well.
	Like you go and see, if there's a lion kill say, you're quite often surrounded by about 20 vehicles and it kind of ruins that sort of Wilds of the Serengeti.
	Oh, yes.
	It's like seeing Mount Everest nowadays, you know, there's a queue to get to the top.
	And at the same time, you never really see anything on a safari because now the animal is nowhere to avoid.
	But in South Sudan, it's completely untouched.
	It's got a lot of potential for tourism.
	The only issue is the government bureaucracy makes it impossible, really.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, you're selling it to me.
	I'd like to go to... I can definitely help you with Visa.
	...South Sudan.
	OK, thank you.
	Well, maybe I should book one of your tours.
	Thank you.
	You sound like a very experienced guide, which is good.
	So, South Sudan... So, after that, I did tour around East Africa, just touring around.
	And at that point, Kazakhstan That's not dangerous, you cheat!
	I have a little bit of a heartache every once in a while.
	But then Kazakhstan popped off.
	So everyone forgets, but just before Ukraine, Kazakhstan had their protests where they tried to overthrow the government.
	There was a small coup going on and Russia came in to try and secure the country.
	So it stays a Russian puppet state, right?
	So as that happened, the country was shut down by outsiders and there was huge protests going on.
	So we flew into neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and I climbed the mountain border to sneak into the country to see what was really going on.
	So I snuck into Kazakhstan illegally but sadly it took me about a day to get my flight and then two days to climb over the border.
	I filmed that very briefly.
	It was beautiful but it was very cold.
	I did not have the proper equipment sadly and then by then the protest was mostly over.
	So it was kind of a dud trip unfortunately but I've learned from that not to do protests now.
	And then straight off to about what's Ukraine.
	Okay, yes.
	Kazakhstan, I'm not so impressed with that one, because my son was there a couple of months ago, and I kind of think the stands are fairly well on.
	There's three you can go to, aren't there?
	There's Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and the other ones are a bit more difficult.
	Yeah, I mean, it's visa-free.
	I pop down illegally at times, but I don't think anyone can do that, really.
	Um, Ukraine, I'm interested in Ukraine.
	I mean, where are you on?
	I noticed that you went with the Ukrainian side.
	Now, I've got no particular dog in this fight.
	I mean, I wish I don't want any of these people to be dying in completely pointless war.
	But I do rather feel that this particular war was provoked by NATO and the Deep State.
	Russia became aggressive out of nowhere and the heroes of Ukraine defended themselves.
	No, not really.
	NATO did kind of circle Ukraine and entice it to join certain things where there was a verbal agreement with Russia saying, hey, you won't do this.
	Russia gave numerous warnings.
	And then, of course, things broke loose and the propaganda began from the West, of course.
	But I did want to visit both sides.
	But sadly, Russia really did close down.
	And I just couldn't get in, so I thought, oh, I'm just going to go for the Ukrainian side because it's the most accessible.
	I might as well see what's going on anyway.
	And plus, that's where the refugees are.
	So if I can do a little bit of charity work.
	Yeah, why not?
	So, a lot of us feel that, I mean, those of us who are awake and don't trust the media, when we glance idly across at our wife's newspaper, for example, we notice endless stories about massive Ukrainian we notice endless stories about massive Ukrainian victories and sort of the kind of trench warfare not seen since Passchendaele and stuff.
	Some of us suspect that there's actually not a lot of fighting going on.
	What is the deal?
	Oh yeah, so most of the time it was a civil war of attrition.
	So I remember in the beginning there was rumours that the Ukrainian army were using schools and hospitals as military bases, right?
	And everyone was saying, no that's not true, they would never do that.
	But when I met the military and was invited to hang out with them, we walked into a school And they were using that as a base, yeah?
	So straight away I knew, oh yeah, both sides are playing dirty.
	Yeah, it's war, I don't expect anything less.
	But I just hate the fact they lied, you know?
	So most people were just running around.
	Was it fairly easy getting around, did you find?
	Yeah, so the trains were running for free, 24-7, on a different schedule, but you can just jump on a train as long as there's room, and get in and out.
	So during the beginning, the first 10 days, it was very difficult to actually get out.
	There was about a five-day wait to get out from Poland, because everyone just went to that border at that time.
	And then about a month later, it really eased out, where you can get out within one day.
	But if you wanted to go to the front lines, if you wanted to go, say, from Kiev or Odessa to Kharkiv, the trains were empty.
	There was about two other people there.
	Most of the time you came across some Americans that were volunteering to go head up there with their own kit and stuff.
	And I was just sitting there with my little backpack going, yeah, it's a good idea.
	And so, yeah, tell me about some of these these because I think for a lot of Americans and British and et cetera, it's like their Spanish Civil War.
	They want to go and fight for the side they think of as representing freedom and goodness and so on.
	Yeah, I got... Was that the vibe you were getting?
	At the beginning, I was kind of inspired by it for about, you know, half a week I've got to admit, you know, I do fall for PSYOPs every once in a while, but everyone was saying, you know, Ukraine's been attacked.
	Civilians are dying.
	We don't want any Russian aggression.
	They're going to invade the rest of Eastern Europe.
	You have to go and defend it.
	It's really a small nation against a mighty giant.
	Russia's so powerful.
	And I saw everyone volunteering.
	And even I considered it myself.
	I was thinking, you know what?
	This would be interesting.
	I was thinking about it.
	You did?
	I was thinking this could make a man of me a little bit more.
	You know, I could do some good and I'm not really worried about this whole thing.
	Silly enough, I found out I actually enjoy war a little bit.
	I fired some shots myself off camera.
	However, I decided not to.
	I saw what was going on.
	They were using people as human shields.
	You know, the foreigners were just being sent for chopping block.
	How did you, how did you see that?
	Well, we heard stories of people.
	So I, when I was in the country, I met some Americans and they were saying, yeah, I had some people come here a few days ago, they arrived before us, and they have no training.
	They've been given no kits.
	And they've been told to go to the front lines in front of Ukrainians and act as a riot shield, basically.
	Just get abused.
	Yeah, because the Ukrainian's not going to sacrifice one of her own over some complete stranger who's fallen for some propaganda.
	I'm quite interested though, so you went through a period where you actually were quite sort of fired up and you wanted to become a Yeah, I was thinking, you know what, if I can take part in a war, why not, you know?
	And I was really hyped up.
	Everyone was speaking about it.
	I think everyone remembers that was the only thing on everyone's mind in the news for a few weeks.
	I mean, after a while, does no one care anymore?
	And I think people honestly joined just because they would get a kick out of it and their friends would think they're cool, basically.
	It was a reputational thing.
	I don't honestly think most people believed in the whole democracy thing, because Ukraine's very corrupt.
	Everyone knows that.
	It's a very dodgy country.
	I honestly think people just wanted to seem like heroes.
	And most people learned the hard way.
	Well, you know, You know what Dr. Johnston said?
	Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier or gone to sea.
	And I think it's very true, particularly not sounding patronising.
	I mean, I was exactly the same when I was your age.
	I really very much felt like I wasn't a complete man.
	I wouldn't be a complete man until I You know, sort of seeing the elephant, as it were, I'd been sort of shot at.
	I mean, Winston Churchill said that, didn't he?
	You know, about the excitement of being shot at.
	Have you been shot at?
	Where are you?
	Have you been shelled?
	Yeah, so when we were in this school area, we were eating food on the top floor, in complete darkness, so we were using our phone screen, the front of it, as like a torch, almost.
	So we wanted to make sure no lights were on, so they would think the school was abandoned and not shell it.
	However, we heard some shells go off right next to the actual school.
	So everyone starts screaming.
	We all run downstairs to the basement and we're grabbing onto each other's backs, you know, as we're running down the stairs so no one loses anyone.
	And then we see the ceiling start cracking and we see, you know, The windows crash in.
	We see the dust fall from the ceiling.
	The top floor, one part of it, collapsed.
	So we were there like 10, 15 seconds ago and now it's completely gone.
	You know, you would have just died if you stayed up there.
	So we get to the basement.
	I'm just smiling a little bit because truthfully, I enjoyed it.
	No one died.
	I made it out.
	I knew exactly what I was doing.
	It was actually very calming for me.
	I don't know why.
	I feel like I was kind of made for this type of stuff.
	And from there we realised, oh, this whole building's pretty much collapsed, we have to go through the underground and pretty much make our way out.
	And of course, the next day when I slept there, I woke up and the Ukrainian military were chatting with me and they told me how to get back to the hotel.
	So I went through their underground railway service, so we were walking on the tracks, then every once in a while a station would be shelled, and we had to go to the next station across because there was no exit.
	People were sealed in almost.
	Right.
	And what did they make of you?
	What did they think you were?
	Yeah, so I printed out a fake journalist badge.
	So I got a lanyard.
	I printed on A4 piece of paper in black and white this little ID card.
	It had my name on it.
	It had my photograph.
	It said independent war journalist on it.
	So I was like, OK, well it's self-declared if you ask me about it, I'm going to be very transparent.
	I'm not going to claim I'm with the BBC or something.
	But I'll say, hey, I've been on XYZ News Channel before.
	I do cover this type of stuff.
	This is kind of my thing.
	That's all I would say.
	And he said, OK, I need your passport.
	And I was like, OK.
	And they were like, oh, you're not Russian.
	That's good.
	And they flicked through my passport.
	And at this point, they saw Afghanistan, South Sudan, Kazakhstan.
	And the guy brings me into a questioning room and he just straight up asks me, you know, are you working with the UK government?
	Because these visas are very convenient.
	You've been in every single war zone over the last three months.
	And I started laughing.
	I'm like, no, no, I'm just a bit retarded to be honest.
	You know, I'm not fed.
	Would be nice though if they actually get paid something.
	No, I'm just journaling things.
	Here's my social media.
	But truthfully, I don't want to give any will to you guys or interfere with anything.
	I'm just passing through, you know?
	And after a few hours of questioning, he goes, OK, well, you're fine, I guess.
	Yeah, this is unique.
	And then we just end up telling stories to each other.
	This guy used to work with the British, too.
	He's done a few marathons.
	He's really fit and went off.
	So he states, hey, we've got some stuff in common.
	I was in South Sudan as well.
	And we kind of bond over it.
	And all the guys, they start sharing food with me.
	They asked for some selfies.
	They're absolutely chill.
	They're fine.
	So I think they kind of accept me as one of their own football weekends.
	And did you meet any sort of Western...
	Yeah, so there was that CNN journalist I told you about that was in that hotel just outside it, you know.
	I hated them so much.
	And then I saw when we were driving out of Ukraine, so what happened is at one point I got the train to Odessa after that mucking about.
	Because the train to Odessa was empty, of course.
	And I walked all the way from Odessa to Moldova, which took me over 12 hours.
	I was walking through the snow, and I got to the Moldova border.
	I got a train to Poland.
	Sorry, a bus to Poland.
	And then from Poland, me and my friends drove into Ukraine.
	But as we were driving in, we saw a CNN news truck driving in.
	So I tweeted at Russia saying, please airstrike them immediately.
	I hate this news channel.
	I gave the coordinates and everything.
	I almost committed a war crime by accident, but I think they knew I was joking and no one took it seriously.
	I think that you'll be forgiven for that kind of thing.
	I didn't want to serve this.
	But I made sure the tweet was a few hours old.
	Yeah, it was fine.
	What do your parents think about this?
	I won't go into too much detail but I haven't spoke to my mother since I was 18.
	That's the only parents I have.
	She's got major issues to put it lightly.
	She has loads of mental issues.
	She's not a fit parent.
	She's got trouble with the law.
	So, you know, it's been that trouble for years.
	The police are involved.
	And it got to that point when I was 18 and she was the one that made me homeless to try and claim benefits and fake, you know, try and pull some strings.
	So when I went to university, I just cut all ties.
	It was...
	She was a terrible person.
	So she wasn't involved with it.
	But however, the Daily Mail keeps somehow finding her dress and turning up thinking, oh, it's gonna make a good article saying mother worried for her sons in Afghanistan or something.
	And of course, she gets paid for the news articles.
	so she goes along with it and makes a comment.
	And have you, do you find that, do you have lots Yeah, a few people, so it's very kind.
	So my followers follow me on Patreon and donate some money, so I get about £250 a month from that, which I'm very happy for.
	And I give them some content and extra stuff on the side to say thanks.
	I also sell some merch, so...
	Yeah, it's an only fan.
	Exclusive porno material.
	But I sell some Taliban merch, just some military patches, some interesting things.
	I think I might have one.
	I don't have one in my pocket.
	But there's some very exclusive stuff I find in my travels that you can't get anywhere else.
	And I think, yeah, I'm like, no one can export this stuff off me.
	I bet you do!
	I mean, you can't ship it through a post.
	I physically bring it back with me and buy five suitcases.
	And for one month it made me the biggest exporter from Afghanistan to England, legally.
	Which was pretty bizarre.
	And I just ship it through Royal Mail.
	They're not considered terrorists in the US, the UK, the EU, Australia.
	So legally I can ship this stuff.
	Which is funny.
	So tell me, what was the Taliban then?
	This rug basically is just portraying what 9-11 was.
	Because in 2001, when the Americans evaded, none of the locals knew what 9-11 was.
	They didn't know what a skyscraper was.
	Half of them didn't even know what a plane was.
	Because, you know, there was no communication in Afghanistan.
	It was an information black hole.
	There was no internet, there was no newspapers.
	And because they couldn't print pictures because it's against the religion, instead they sewn these images of the Twin Towers into a rug because that was allowed.
	And therefore, because people were hanging up their rugs outside to dry and get off the dust, people would see this and go, oh, that's why the Americans are evading.
	So it was kind of this propaganda piece that the Americans got some women to sew and make.
	And they became collectibles where, you know, it's not celebrating the event.
	It's just like a newspaper clipping equivalent.
	And I bought these up in a market.
	It was very hard to find some of them because they're so old.
	And I just resold them.
	Another one was these traditional Afghan hats and clothing.
	Some are Taliban military patches.
	So I'll find one real quick.
	One over here.
	Oh yeah.
	Yeah.
	Sorry.
	Just right here.
	You just stick it on here.
	It acts as a rank.
	It just says something along the lines of Kabul forces, special forces, Taliban.
	And people love this stuff.
	Mostly the 'et'.
	That's cool.
	Miles, how much is that?
	Oh, I would sell a pair for about $45, including shipping.
	And they were very cheap to buy.
	The only thing that was expensive was... Oh, Miles, I'm gonna buy one of these.
	I'll send you an address, I'll send it to you.
	I've got a whole bag spare.
	Oh, that is just...
	That is just so cool.
	By the way, do they have rugs saying 9-11 was an inside job?
	I think some of them misspell what 9-11 was.
	They say something like, 9-11, Afghanistan, kill 20,000 people, one hour, very bad, inshallah, justice shall be done.
	So they don't fully understand what 9-11 was.
	They had like a rough idea back then.
	But sadly you can't get any rogue saints inside job.
	However, if you do ask them about it, they will blame Israel.
	So they always bring you back to the Jews.
	They're very anti-Semitic over there, which you... it's kind of funny sometimes.
	I... that... that doesn't surprise... I mean... and... California anti-Semitic.
	Shock horror.
	Yeah, yeah.
	That's...
	Crazy, right.
	Yeah, so you sell the souvenirs, which is great.
	I mean, I'm glad.
	Yeah, of course.
	It's enterprising.
	I'm finding something.
	I'm thinking, if, look, if I were I mean, in terms of city recruitment right now, you fail on several counts.
	You're not female.
	You're not transgender.
	You're not black.
	You're not disabled.
	You're not disabled yet.
	But, I mean, your CV is actually really good, isn't it?
	It's interesting.
	I've got six months of investment banking experience, this level six and seven diploma, which is equal to a master's in banking and finance.
	I've got this CFA going on.
	I've got like 50 different extracurricular stuff.
	Of course, because I'm trans black and so on, they wouldn't hire me.
	I'll tell you a funny story, too, about the hiring process.
	So I think it was JP Morgan.
	I was doing their online interview, right, where you have to go through this pseudo IQ test.
	They say it's not an IQ test, but it is, right?
	So you get this whenever you sign up with an email and they send it to you and you have to complete it within 10 minutes or something.
	So I would never create a real account, I would always use a fake email and submit a blank CV and they would send you the exam automatically, so I could practice it, you know?
	And I would always use a different library computer, so a different IP, so they would never know it's me.
	And I would practice this IQ test straight for three days, you know.
	I really went ham on it.
	I went through every single question in my question bank and I would screenshot them and I would analyse them and it got to a point where I was getting about 90% of the questions right.
	I was very good at it, very fast.
	And I honestly thought it would let me get through, but always at the end, it would say, you are not eligible to go on to the next round.
	Thank you very much for your interest.
	Please kindly fuck off.
	Excuse my language.
	But then it got to about 3 a.m.
	one day.
	I'm obsessing over it, thinking, why am I doing wrong here?
	And I realised, oh, at the beginning, it has a diversity quiz.
	So instead of white, cis male, I put down trans, black, gay, whatever.
	I mean, because it's a multiple choice test, it's not like four possible answers.
	It's about 20 questions with about 50 options for each question.
	It's like a huge drop down, you know?
	So, I do half the questions randomly, and it's 3am, so statistically, I was not in a state of mind to get any of them right, and it was statistically impossible to get them right.
	However, I get to the end, and no joke, it told me, oh, congratulations, you can go on to the next round.
	And I'm just sitting there, gobsmacked, thinking, I definitely failed a good 80% of these questions, but because I'm black, trans and gay, they're going to let me on for the video pre-recorded interview.
	So I was like, what is this?
	And I confirmed it the next day by repeating it, and I just gave up on the company thinking, yeah, screw them.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Oh, my brother worked at J.P.
	Morgan.
	in the days I think in, in the days before, I think maybe they had quite such stringent diversity because he, my brother isn't, tell him thank you for 2008.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	So, I honestly think that you'd be wasted in any of the conventional finance houses.
	I mean, you'd be constricted by this excruciating diversity and woke policy, and I think it might stifle you.
	I did work for this Chinese firm during the summer, so I did this summer internship and that was three months and I redid some other work for them.
	It was remote due to Covid, so when I worked for them I was in like a group of other people around the world around my same age.
	The women didn't know what they were doing whatsoever.
	They couldn't put together Any Excel documents to save their life.
	They couldn't do very basic formulas even though they were finance majors and economists.
	I really didn't understand how they were expected to do 90-hour weeks with them constantly just complaining or asking me questions.
	So it kind of broke my soul a little bit.
	And I did realize, you know what, the money's good, but at the same time, if I have to live in a city with high cost of living, because you'd have to live in central London if you want to work in a London firm, right?
	So the benefits, your pay relative to your cost of living would be the exact same if you work a normal retail job, really.
	But you would work stupid hours with stupid stress in a terrible environment that drives people to kill themselves sometimes.
	So I really didn't see the benefits of it, beyond the prestige of working in investment banking, because it was a buzzword, you know?
	Yeah.
	Apart from the money, I can't see any reason why you'd want to be... I mean, what would you be using the money for?
	You'd be using the money to pay for what you're doing anyway.
	Oh yeah, exactly.
	And plus, you're too familiar with this as well.
	Half of it would just be stolen in taxes.
	They're stolen in taxes.
	So the starting salary would be something like 80 to 100K.
	Very nice, right?
	You should be happy about, oh, after taxes, that's 50K.
	Oh, your rent per month is minimum 2,500 pounds.
	Oh, so that means you're profiting maybe 25K.
	Oh, you need to pay for the tube and all these other small fees and taxes.
	Oh, it brings you down to about 20, 20,000, maybe 15,000 a month.
	Oh, but you're working 90 hours, so you have to pay for convenience because you don't have time to cook, basically.
	That one hour a day would distinguish you.
	So if anything, you're saving no money.
	And I figured out, being able to retire by the age of 45, you would have to save 2,000 to 2,500 pounds every single month and invest in the S&P 500.
	Hope somehow it keeps historical averages, which isn't going to happen anyway, because the market is generally slowing down.
	Growth isn't guaranteed, as shown by Japan.
	Japan's economy is stagnated.
	Um, so I was like, you know, this lifestyle just isn't going to happen.
	And plus, I guarantee there are people that are a little bit sharper than me.
	They will get promotions.
	I'm doing pretty well, but I don't see myself really wanting to compete.
	Like, these people are obsessed.
	So I thought, you know what?
	I can try this traveling out and worse comes to worse.
	I give it two years and I can go back to this normal job if I need.
	I think that sounds a very sensible strategy.
	And I think what you'll probably find on your travels, you'll find out what you really want to do, which which may indeed be just carrying on traveling.
	I've got to say, man, this is the first time I've been described as sensible.
	I mean, in getting people to support you.
	Thank you.
	No, well, mind you, it has to be said, if you ask most people these days, they would think I was an absolute fucking crazy, so I'm not sure that's necessary.
	Of course, I think we both are.
	But yeah, look, I mean, you've got a following.
	I'm interested in your Christianity.
	Tell me a bit about that.
	Was it a sort of blinding moment of revelation?
	Yeah, it was a very emotional time.
	What happened?
	So, when I was homeless in the streets of Birmingham, and Birmingham was just as bad on its own anyway, but being homeless there on the streets was bad.
	So, it was during my A-levels at the time, and it was very cold, and I had very little hope, and I thought I was going to fail my exams.
	You know, I was in a tough place, and I was convinced I was going to fail, even though I was revising.
	And I wasn't eating too much because I was a little bit depressed because I was homeless and it got to a point where I generally thought, oh, I will get my results on result day and I will not get into university and therefore I'm just going to maybe jump off a building or just end myself.
	No joke, I was having those thoughts.
	It was a very dark time and it got to a point where my heart stopped and I was actually on the train to Birmingham... What's it called?
	It was Birmingham...
	It was Birmingham Library, that was it.
	I was on the train to Birmingham Library because I realised that has a balcony, you can climb off very easily and jump off.
	So I was convinced I was going to commit suicide at that point.
	And then two hours earlier, I received an email stating, oh, hey, here's your UCAS result.
	You got into Loughborough.
	And I'm there like, oh, that's unexpected.
	I was convinced I was going to die today.
	It was very, very emotional.
	And then I got an email talking about the Bible or something.
	And I was like, OK, I might as well start reading this stuff.
	And a lot of the things made sense.
	Because when I went to university, I didn't like the culture in general.
	I don't drink.
	I respect people who do, but most people just get completely drunk and do terrible things.
	And, you know, people were sleeping around and they were all unhappy.
	And I don't know, it kind of lined up with these Catholic beliefs, so I was like, you know, I agree with this anyway.
	So I read more into it and it kind of made me peaceful, you know, it kind of just clicked.
	And then my best friend at the time was also Catholic, which I found out.
	He brought me to church, I met some wonderful people, kind of the purest people I know, if that makes sense, you know, wonderful people.
	And I was thinking, you know, it's worked out for them.
	Why not grow in it?
	Very interesting.
	So what was the, you mentioned, you said you had the two emails, you had the university results acceptance and you had, was it just a random email about Christianity?
	It was a random email saying my email had been signed up to this mailing list or subscription service.
	And I know I definitely didn't sign up for, say, catholicquotesoftheday.com or whatever.
	So it's weird that my very specific email, it wasn't some random email that could be mistyped.
	It was milesroutledgeblahblahblahatgmail.com.
	So I was thinking, you know, what are the odds, really?
	And, you know, it just kind of pointed me in the right direction.
	even if it was a mistake it was a good mistake but but also just when you picked up the bible i mean it's a big book there's lots of stuff to to you what what what made sense to you about the bible what Which bits did you go to?
	What did you open it around?
	So, I started Revelations, which is right at the end, right?
	So, I kind of wanted to see the spoilers of what's going to happen.
	Were you straight to the exciting bit?
	Yeah, I wanted to see the crazy revelations bit.
	So I didn't know too much about the Bible beforehand.
	I watched some YouTube videos, I explained some quotes and some verses, and like the general idea of Christianity.
	And that made sense, you know.
	Some phrases were confusing, but I was like, you know, I might as well head in and read the book.
	And I read through it, it was very entertaining.
	Half of it I didn't understand, but I would Google a verse and then it would be explained within context and then I would have to jump around and figure out some stuff.
	But I found that entertaining, it was like back in the day when you were in primary school learning to read, or read a decent novel.
	You know, things really made sense.
	And I looked at it, it spoke about degeneracy, it spoke about how there's going to be a world government, really, how things are going to be going downhill.
	It kind of lined up with my beliefs anyway.
	And I was like, you know, I can see that, that does make sense.
	And they talked about certain signs and I was like, okay, well, some of this stuff sounds a bit hard to believe, you know, some of it was a bit off.
	But I did some research and I was like, okay, well, this is based on reality.
	It's historically established that Jesus did live.
	He was real.
	So, you know, no one's really disproved that.
	There's got to be some credit there.
	And this all lines up, these places are real, it's coherent, there's a very clear narrative when you actually learn the context.
	And then I went through some other books, I went through the Gospel, I went through Genesis and I just kind of looked at it and I went, you know what, this is a very good book and The teachings do seem to be successful, even if you're not Catholic or Christian.
	I kind of saw some of the stuff and thought, you know, if you just blindly followed these rules, you'd probably end up with a better life than a normal person, really, you know?
	Yeah, I think some people get pissed off when I talk about Christianity in the podcast, but I'm not going to stop doing it because I've just noticed that Christians, proper believing Christians, are really based.
	I mean, they're the people who really, really totally get it.
	And I mean, I can see in your eyes, I can see a light, you know, I mean, it shines through, which I think is one of the things that Christianity gives you.
	It's a fantastic thing.
	Did you find it a kind of source of strength in your moments of danger?
	Oh, of course, yes.
	So every once in a while I have this Saint Christopher coin, and Saint Christopher, for people listening, he was a gentleman who originally was very strong, he was very tall back in the day, and he wanted to serve the most powerful man on earth.
	So he went to this king guy, and he served the king, but then he found out the king was scared of the devil, because the devil's very powerful.
	So he goes, OK, I want to serve the devil.
	So then he somehow found the devil in spirit or whatever, and then tried to serve him.
	And he was doing some horrific things, you know, murders and so on.
	And then he found out the devil was scared of this person called Christ.
	So he looks for years trying to find Christ instead, because, you know, he wants to serve the strongest man on Earth.
	And he comes across a very old man.
	He goes, oh yeah, I don't know who Christ is.
	Can you help me find him?
	And the old man goes, oh, well, he's in spirit.
	He's not alive anymore.
	He's a religious figure.
	And he explains to him the Bible.
	And he states, hey, if you want to serve Christ, you've got to do good things.
	That's how you serve him.
	He goes, OK, well, what good things should I do?
	And they go, OK, well, you're a very strong man.
	You're very tall.
	There's a river over there that's flooded.
	There's no bridge.
	And it's very deep.
	It's very dangerous.
	Many people drown in that river.
	So how about you help people get across each day and I'll feed you some food or whatever.
	And the guy goes, oh, you know, that sounds pretty easy.
	I'll do that anyway.
	And he does it for a few years or however long.
	And then one day a little kid comes up who wants to cross.
	And the kid is stupidly heavy.
	And he almost drowns because the kid's weighing a million tons or whatever, even though he's just a small kid.
	And when he gets across, the kid reveals he is Jesus, and he's just carried the weight of the world on his shoulders because he's doing a selfless act for nothing in return.
	And, you know, there's no real point of it.
	He's putting his faith in something to do good works.
	And... Oh, sorry, I went for a second.
	I just lost you there with my terrible Do you know what?
	I didn't know the story of Saint Christopher.
	I mean, I know he is the patron saint of travellers.
	Yes.
	But yeah, before we go, are you aware of the extraordinary powers of Psalm 23?
	If you haven't already learned Psalm 23, it's what I recommend.
	Do you know it?
	It's the one that goes, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
	He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
	He leadeth me by the still waters, restoreth my soul.
	That one.
	It's very, very good because it's...
	It's useful to have, particularly when you're travelling, in your head, to have a load of psalms and prayers at your disposal.
	I mean, I'm a fairly novice Christian, but it's quite a useful tip.
	It protects you from demons apart from anything else.
	They hate it.
	They hate someone... On another podcast I did with Gerry Marzinski, if you listen to that one, he talks about how... Excellent, I'll have a listen after this.
	People who are diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia and they hear voices which are supposed to be these imaginary things.
	They're not imaginary, they're demons.
	And the thing that the demons really hate is Psalm 23.
	And actually, there are other religions that have them.
	In Islam, for example, they're called the jinn.
	The jinn are the demons.
	And they have their own bits of Islamic scripture to ward off the demons.
	But for us Christians...
	Thumb 23 is absolutely diamond.
	So that's my tip for you.
	Mars, it's been an absolute joy talking to you.
	I genuinely didn't know what to expect.
	And I'm really grateful to my son for saying, Dad, get him on.
	Because I don't know, I sort of had this idea that you might be a bit of a chancer or something.
	I mean, you are a sort of chancer, but in the nicest possible way.
	So thank you for being you.
	Thank you for being such an entertaining podcast guest.
	No, no, the pleasure's all mine.
	No, no, the pleasure's all mine.
	Thank you for having me on.
	And also I just want to extend my thanks to your son as well.
	I am being serious.
	If you want me to send something like this, either you or your son, I can send some Afghan merch.
	It's the least I can do.
	Just send me your address after this.
	I'll be more than happy to.
	Yeah, I'll totally do that.
	I see... Do you know what?
	It's actually really scary.
	I see that I'm still 0% uploaded, which I... It would be awful if we had to do this again, so let's hope we don't.
	I'm going to change my... What are they called?
	Server?
	No, what are the things called when you have different internets and you use... Come on, you're young, you're a techie.
	Oh, Wi-Fi.
	The... Yeah.
	So I've got my, I've got my... If you change that now... Which is crap, and then I've got... Well, if I change it now, won't it... I think it will still work, it'll just upload later on, won't it?
	Yes, I think if we change it though, we'll cut off our call.
	So we'll do that in a second.
	Yeah, but that's the case.
	Yeah.
	Tell all our listeners and viewers Tell us where they can find your stuff.
	Where's your channel and stuff?
	Oh, thank you.
	Yes.
	So I'm primarily on Twitter at RealLordMiles.
	Or if you just search Lord Miles, Miles over 9, you'll come up.
	I've got 130k on there, so I'm very grateful for that.
	I've also started Instagram and TikTok under a similar name.
	A little bit smaller on there, but just search that up too.
	And you're more than free to DM me guys with some questions or anything.
	That's brilliant.
	Thank you.
	Thank you for that.
	And wonderful supporters and sponsors etc.
	May I say I really appreciate your support and I'm finding it harder and harder to make a living off the things that I do because it seems to me that the system is increasingly finding ways of demonetizing me.
	So my advice to you is just find a way of supporting me.
	I mean you can do things like buy me a coffee I'm on Locals.
	I'm on Subscribestar.
	I'm on Substack.
	I'm on Patreon.
	I think that's all the ones I've mentioned.
	And I think I'm going to put up my bank details soon because it's...
	I don't know whether you've found this, but some people have their banks refuse to process, to let them sign up.
	It's really annoying.
	I'm on some sort of blacklist and I keep getting, even though I don't go to porn sites, I keep getting these viruses and things.
	It's like I'm under attack all the time.
	It's really annoying.
	So anyway, I appreciate your support everyone and please do find a way.
	Miles, I've just, I've so enjoyed this and you're going to be really popular and loved by everyone, so thank you again.

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