Introducing Season Seven of Nobody Should Believe Me
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03/31/26
•64m
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Introducing Season Seven of Nobody Should Believe Me. Andrea revisits the case of Maya Kowalski—the story at the center of the Netflix film Take Care of Maya–and the family’s high-profile lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. What became widely framed as a story about “medical kidnapping” began when hospital staff reported suspected medical child abuse after Maya arrived with a history of extreme ketamine treatments.
How did a case of horrific abuse become a story about evil doctors kidnapping children?
Listen to Season 7 on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3l3MDM959yf6f4fEbw4Dmz?si=6dba402bffa8435b
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Previous Episode
I Beg Your Pardon part 3
March 24
•36m
You know that little bottle of 5-Hour Energy sitting on the counter of almost every gas station in America? Someone was faking it. Millions of bottles, mixed by hand in a filthy warehouse by day laborers with no training, no sanitation licenses, and no recipe. Just plastic barrels, canoe paddles, and industrial chemicals that may not have been approved for human consumption.
In this episode, you meet Geoffrey Potter, an anti-counterfeiting attorney at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler who only takes cases where the fake product can kill you. Think of him as a private prosecutor with powers most people don't even know a private attorney can have. He helped bring down one of the most sophisticated food counterfeiting operations in US history.
You'll also learn what happened after the convictions. How a woman with no obvious connection to the President of the United States managed to secure not one, but two acts of presidential clemency. And how, just 42 days after walking out of prison, she was already running a $59 million scheme in the background.
This is the story of Adriana Camberos — a woman who was convicted twice, freed twice, and is still out there. This series is called I Beg Your Pardon for a reason.
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Next Episode
I Beg Your Pardon part 4
April 7
•25m
Content Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of nursing home neglect, including accounts of residents found in unsanitary conditions. Listener discretion is advised.
You're about to hear the story of a man who built a nursing home empire from a tiny office above a pizza parlor in New Jersey.
His name is Joseph Schwartz. At its peak, his company Skyline Healthcare owned or operated more than 100 facilities across eleven states. What happened inside those facilities (the rationed diapers, the unpaid bills, the maggots, the residents left without food or clean water) is one of the cruelest stories of corporate neglect you will hear this year.
When Schwartz finally got convicted of defrauding the government out of $38 million, he started making calls.
In this episode, we'll follow the money from a nursing home empire to a presidential pardon, and then to a violent extortion plot that ended with an FBI arrest in Midtown Manhattan.
EPISODE RESOURCES & SHOW NOTES
ARTICLES & INVESTIGATIONS
Brookings Register: Wave of SD nursing home closures hitting hardest in rural small towns URL: https://www.brookingsregister.com/article/wave-of-sd-nursing-home-closures-hitting-hardest-in-rural-small-towns
Arkansas Advocate: Nursing home owner pardoned by Trump ordered to serve state sentence URL: https://arkansasadvocate.com
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (2019): Firm's fall risked care in homes for frail URL: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/apr/28/firm-s-fall-risked-care-homes-frail-201/
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (2025): Judge orders former nursing home magnate to prison URL: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/dec/18/arkansas-judge-orders-former-nursing-home-magnate/
The Washington Post: Joseph Schwartz Trump Pardon Fraud (Coverage of the $960k lobbying effort) URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/23/joseph-schwartz-trump-pardon-fraud/
The New York Times: Pardon Industry Offers Rich Offenders a Path to Trump
The New York Times: Trump Pardons: Lobbyist Charged in Extortion Attempt
Philadelphia Coverage: Skyline Healthcare: Scenes from the collapse of a nursing-home operator by Harold Brubaker
BROADCAST COVERAGE
NBC Nightly News: Nursing Home Chain Collapses Amid Allegation Of Unpaid Bills, Poor Care
KELOLAND News: Skyline Healthcare owner facing federal charges
PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS
State Petition: Attorney General Tim Griffin's Petition to force Schwartz to serve his state sentence URL: https://arkansasadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Arkansas-v-Schwartz-12022025-Motion.pdf
State Civil Lawsuit: State of South Dakota ex rel. Jason Ravnsborg v. Joseph Schwartz, et al. (Case No. 32CIV22-000010)
Federal Criminal Complaint: U.S. v. Joshua Nass (Attempted extortion affidavit, Case No. 26-MJ-54)
Lobbying Disclosures: Federal filings for Joshua Nass (Merkava Strategies Corporation) and Jack Burkman (J.M. Burkman & Associates)
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