Up and Vanished - S1E18: Not Guilty
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Listener discretion is advised.
I'll send you the fucking message where Bo talks about how Ryan, literally Ryan, brought the body to his fucking farm and just dumped it on the edge of the farm.
And apparently he didn't tell Bo about it for four days days and then Bo went in and just did fucking damage control.
I'll send you the fucking message where Bo talks about how Ryan, literally Ryan brought
the body to his fucking farm and just dumped it on the edge of the farm.
And apparently he didn't tell Bo about it for four days.
And then Bo went in and just like fucking damaged control.
More than 40 GBI agents swarmed a pecan orchard in Ben Hill County this afternoon.
Not one, but two former students from that school under arrest.
With the intent to and did call serious bodily harm to the person of Tara Grinstead.
Charging Ryan Alexander Duke with the murder of Tara Grinstead.
From Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, this is Up and Vanished, the investigation of Tara Grinstead.
I'm your host, Payne Lindsey.
At the end of the last episode, I played a call from one of Bo Duke's friends, who I called Darren.
Darren had reached out to me right after Ryan Duke's arrest and began sharing with me his text message conversations between him and Bo.
This went on for months, up until the last episode, actually, when I revealed a portion of our first call together.
I told you that it wasn't his real voice,
and that's because it wasn't.
He was scared about his identity being revealed,
not to Bo, but to the public.
So he made a distorted voice transcription of the call.
But since the last episode aired,
Darren changed his mind,
and he agreed to let me use his real voice in the podcast.
So here it is. I don't even know how to begin
I mean I'm sure you have plenty of questions
how about you just hit me with one
okay so
is there anybody else besides Ryan Duke
involved in Tara's disappearance or murder
yes
okay so maybe we should start from my connection to all of this.
Bo and I were roommates in the military. And from that relationship that we had, we actually became
friends. And, you know, we were confident in each other. The military, obviously, there's a certain connection that people draw from that.
And we had that.
And through a relationship, Bo had mentioned once that he was aware of a body that had been buried.
And at that time, you know, I mean, I just thought of it as macho talk, bullshit talk.
I mean, we were heavy drinkers back then, party animals, work hard, play hard mentality kind of thing.
And I never really ever asked him any more details.
I just, I literally just atoned it to like, shut the fuck up, you're full of shit.
Once again, I'm just trying to help you put together the pieces of this, this case.
But yeah, he told me, he told me a while ago, and I've already
talked to the GBI, and I've told
the GBI all this as well. So I told
the GBI, actually everything I'm
telling you, he had made a comment
and I had written it off
as macho talk. But yes, he told
me, I want to say it was circa
2009. Honestly, I don't remember, man. This is
years ago for me. A lot of water
has passed under the bridge since then.
Now, if he would have mentioned the name to me,
if he would have made it more real,
then I think I would have done something sooner.
You know, that's the thing. Like, you know,
I'm sitting here beating myself up. Like, maybe I could
have done my own research and figured
out that maybe that
she was the one, but I never did, and I never
wanted to, honestly. I've been in touch
with Bo. Bo reached out to me. He talked to me. I don't know. I don't think Bo has very many
friends, and I think that he wanted to tell somebody about it, and he reached out to me
and pretty much told me everything that he knew. Well, he told me a lot. Now, whether
or not it's true, I mean, I'm taking it all with a grain of salt. I'm not the investigator.
I'm not the one that knows what's going on, but he told me quite a bit of information. And I'm
going to share that with you because, like I said, I think that the presentation that
you're going to give to the public will be better than, say, Fox News. So, Bo got drunk
one night on Jim Beam. He got drunk on Jim Beam one night and he told his girlfriend Brooke
about what happened.
And she got scared
and told her mother. And her mother's the one
that went to the police
and told them.
So as soon as that happened,
you know, her mother obviously told Bo like,
hey, this is not okay. I went to the cops
and Bo went and got a lawyer immediately.
So he went to a lawyer, and he was able to approach the GBI and get an immunity plea.
So Bo is absolutely free right now. I'm pretty sure he'll remain free from what I understand
from him, but no, he basically went to them, and he's like, okay, I'll tell you who the
murderer was if you give me an immunity deal
his involvement was that he was
him and Ryan Duke
were roommates
they're not of relation they were just friends and they were
roommates at the time
so from what I understand from Bo
Ryan was just burglarizing
the place it was
you know around the events of some big festival
and Ryan knew that all the town folk would be distracted so we went over there to rob her raising the place. It was, you know, around the events of some big festival, and Brian
knew that all the town folk would be distracted, so we went over there to rob her house. And
once again, this is just from Bo. If there's any kind of romantic relationship, Bo never
told me about it, and Bo actually even asked him for details once, and he never, ever,
ever told Bo as far as I know.
told Bo as far as I know. Now, they were living on a house on the outside of Bo's family pecan farm. So Bo told me that after it happened, Ryan was able to get the body on the pecan
farm. Ryan brought the body to the pecan farm and left it there. Now, Bo told me that he,
Ryan didn't even tell him about it
until four days after the incident
or the murder, or the fact of.
So after four days passed,
Ryan eventually told Bo,
and then from there,
Bo helped him dispose of the body.
And how was that?
Burning.
All of my information that I've gotten from Bo has been through text messages.
So a lot of my ideas have been through inference, you know what I mean?
Like, he sent me text messages, I read them, and I'm just putting into pieces together myself.
When Bo originally went to the GBI after everything I already told you,
the GBI were skeptical. They were you, the GBI were skeptical.
They were like, okay, we need some evidence.
Obviously, all police need evidence.
You can't just come to somebody and be like, hey, I know who did it.
So from there, they had to collaborate Bo's story in another way.
And the way that that got collaborated was actually through
a couple of friends that he had talked about this with prior, including me.
So basically, to collaborate Bo's story,
the GBI had to talk to me and a few other individuals
who Bo said that he had told in the past.
So Bo's like, hey, you know, I'm not lying.
There are other people I told about this at one time or point.
And GBI's like, okay, give us their names.
We're going to talk to them.
So the GBI contacted these people and they're like hey did Bo ever say anything to you about a disappearance
of a body or anything like that everybody basically said yes and from there the GBI was
able to get a warrant and then the arrest was made and that's literally the extent of my involvement.
I've been keeping up with the discussion boards.
Brooke's on there, too.
She's not shy about this shit,
and I think it's because, once again, at this point in time,
Bo has an immunity deal,
so I think they think that they're untouchable,
which is kind of not an okay thing to feel like, in my opinion.
I mean, honestly, at this point, I don't even want to talk to Bo anymore.
I don't want anything to do with this.
It was just weird.
It was an honestly weird experience.
I'm pretty indifferent about my feelings and all this.
I don't know if I should have spoke up earlier when he first mentioned it to me,
but the truth is, how the fuck should I have known?
You know what, dude?
At this point in my life, I'm saying, fuck Bo.
Like, yeah, we were friends.
He told me this, and I dismissed it as fucking pure gossip.
But at this point, dude, like, I'm a fucking normal guy.
Like, this is fucking wrong.
Like, the fact that Bo has immunity and he's my friend, like, I think that's wrong.
I think Bo deserves to go to fucking jail just as much as anybody else does.
I think Bo deserves to go to fucking jail just as much as anybody else does.
Whatever he told me is probably right on par with whatever he told the GBI with his immunity deal.
You know what I mean? So whether or not I'll figure out the truth, I mean, I doubt it, man.
I mean, Bo's not a fucking dumb fucking individual.
He's actually a highly intelligent guy.
So I have a feeling that he will not deviate from his original
story, I feel like I'm fucking working with you now, I guess I am, it is a small town,
these fucking people are, they know each other, everyone knows each other, I went to Oso once,
to Bo's farm, we visited there once, and the fucking sheriff rolled up to the fucking house,
and was like, hey, how's it going, everybody, hey, Bo, how's it going, like, they fucking know each other, man, like, it is absolutely one of those things
where it's like, yeah, we all want to get the truth, but like, how many people are actually
fucking complicit, who the fuck knows, it's so funny, it's just like, all this shit, like,
I think Bo got spooked by your podcast, I really do, like, the fact that he's sitting
there fucking trolling people too,
it's like, does he have any fucking remorse for any
of this shit? Like, I don't think he does,
dude.
I think the GBI just is
happy with the case being settled.
Which is absolutely
fucking unfortunate.
So Darren was an old friend of Bo's, who got roped into this mess,
because at one point in time, Bo told him he knew where a dead body was.
And when it became time for the GBI to corroborate Bo's story,
Darren was one of the first people on the list, and he told the GBI everything he told me.
And as for the other people Bo told,
he didn't know all of them, just the ones Bo had sent in a text message. Bo's text message said this, Emily, two guys from Osceola, Brooke, my cousin, and possibly others I don't remember
telling. I've learned that Emily is Bo's ex-wife, and Brooke is Bo's current girlfriend. But as for the two guys from Osceola,
and his cousin,
we still don't exactly know.
But one thing's for sure,
it was Bo's girlfriend Brooke
that brought the tip to the GBI,
through her mom.
So if anyone besides Bo knew the truth,
it would be her.
Brooke has to know everything. If you haven't heard the news yet,
last week, there was some pretty major movement in this case. On Thursday, May 4th, was Ryan
Duke's arraignment at the Irwin County Courthouse in Osceola. 33-year-old Ryan Duke's arraignment
is scheduled at the Irwin County Courthouse at 9.30. 33-year-old Ryan Duke's arraignment is scheduled at the Irwin
County Courthouse at 9 30 tomorrow morning in Judge Melody Cross's courtroom. An arraignment
is a formal reading of charges against the defendant and the defendant is expected to
enter a plea before the court. The day had finally come for Ryan Duke to hear his official charges
listed in the court of law. A long-awaited step for justice in the Tara Grinstead case. The feeling inside the courtroom this morning matched the weather outside for most of South
Georgia today. The public was rained on. Everyone was anticipating Ryan Duke to walk through the
doors. But then he didn't. Ryan Duke didn't show. In his place was his attorney.
Duke didn't show. In his place was his attorney. to the Starting with regards to our calendar, the first thing on our calendar this morning is the Raymond calendar.
Position 1, say that Georgia versus Carlos Guardabiano.
Position 8, 2017 CR 027 State versus 9, how do we have to do it? It didn't sound dramatic, but what Ryan Duke's attorney filed was not what everyone was expecting.
So what exactly did this mean? Did Ryan Duke
just waive the arraignment?
Ryan Duke essentially pleaded not guilty to the murder of Tara Grinstead.
Who saw that coming?
Ryan Duke, who was arrested in Urine County for the murder of Tara Grinstead,
waived his arraignment hearing today in Urine County Superior Court. That waiver is an automatic plea of not guilty.
Duke was not there, but his attorney, John Mobley, waived the arraignment on behalf of Duke.
That means that Duke acknowledges that he's aware of the charges against him,
and he is entering an initial plea of not guilty.
Law experts say it's highly likely he won't be tried in Irwin County.
It will take a lot of time and money, but the court will have to find another location to try him.
That location has to have a similar demographic as Irwin County.
After the announcement, I caught up with Dusty Vassie.
I'm sure you heard.
I suppose you've heard.
I suppose you've heard too, huh?
Ryan Duke, his attorney,
entered a not guilty plea. He also
entered an omnibus
motion and discovery request,
which is a five-page document
basically asking for all the prosecution's
evidence. Creating this five-page document
to ask for discovery
of all the evidence, it seems like he's
preparing for trial. Out of decency,
you wouldn't want to make somebody have to copy all the evidence, it seems like he's preparing for trial. Out of decency, you wouldn't want to make somebody have to copy all the evidence in this case
unless you were preparing to go to trial.
He's there asking for every interview, every police report, everything related to the case.
And we know that it's supposed to be the largest case file in GBI history. Thank you. With Rakuten, you can. You can earn cash back on just about anything you buy from over 750 stores.
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Ryan Duke waived his arraignment.
That simply means that he told the judge through his lawyer, I don't need to have the charges read out loud.
We've got a copy of the indictment.
He's represented by competent counsel.
There's no need to have a formal arraignment process.
The attorney also filed various pretrial motions, including a motion for discovery, which means that they're asking the prosecutor to send them a copy of everything they've got in their case file.
Now, this is an extremely large case file from an investigative perspective.
It's likely that it could take quite some time, maybe even weeks or months, just simply to get the material to the defense counsel.
And then the defense counsel has to digest each and every item of evidence. So if they're going
to do their job, they're going to have to look for any factual defenses, any legal defenses,
or anything else that might be in their client's benefit before they make the decision about
whether or not to
take the case to trial. That's how it typically works. Of course, there can be an exception in
any case. And this case, as we have already seen, has proceeded like none other in many ways. So
while what I've just described is the traditional way, it doesn't mean it's necessarily going to happen that way,
but this is a procedural thing. The plea of not guilty can be changed at any time,
but in order to do his due diligence, his lawyer is ethically obligated to go through all this
material. Before you cut a deal to plead someone, even if it's to a reduced sentence or a reduced
charge,
you've got to do your due diligence. You've got to make sure that you look for legal and factual
defenses, things that can help your client in the event that you may have overlooked something. So
you don't want to overlook anything. You want to be thorough and careful and get it done right.
Ultimately, the decision about whether to go to trial is one that the defendant and only the defendant can make.
It's usually done after consultation with counsel and perhaps family members.
But in any event, it's Ryan's decision to make and his alone.
If a plea offer is made, the DA would convey that to his lawyer, who would then be ethically obligated.
The DA would convey that to his lawyer, who would then be ethically obligated, regardless opinions about this case and probably holds on to those opinions very strongly and could not listen to the evidence
and base their decision just on what they hear in the courtroom.
The chances are very high. It's just 99.9% or higher that it would have to be moved.
There's just no way.
percent or higher that it would have to be moved. There's just no way. And then the judge would have to pick a jurisdiction in the state of Georgia that has similar demographics to Irwin County.
And if you've ever been to Irwin County like you and I have, you know that the demographics there
are fairly unique. So it's going to be a challenge for the judge to find a place in the state of
Georgia to have a trial. But that in and of itself is a tall order.
It takes a while to logistically set everything up for a change of venue.
You've got to move not only the defendant who's in custody,
so that means that law enforcement's involved.
You've got to move court staff to someplace else in the state.
You've got to provide housing for the judge.
You've got to provide housing for the defense team.
You've got to provide housing for the judge. You've got to provide housing for the defense team. You've got to provide housing for the witnesses.
Basically, you just pick up the entire circus and move it on the road.
The only thing different is that the jury would come from another county.
Based on how specific the indictment documents were, stating that Ryan Duke used his hand, singular,
it seemed likely that in some capacity he had confessed to the crime.
But maybe that wasn't the case. I asked Philip about that.
Even if he did confess or if he made some incriminating statements,
you got to keep in mind it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be admissible. One of the
things that the attorneys will do will be to evaluate the circumstances surrounding the way
law enforcement obtained the statement or the confession, if there was one.
They've got to make sure that it was freely and voluntarily given, that it wasn't made in violation of his Miranda rights.
If he was in custody and he was interrogated without having his Miranda rights read to him,
that would affect whether or not his statement can be used against him.
read to him, that would affect whether or not his statement can be used against him. It would almost be malpractice to rush into a really quick, fast-track plea deal without going through
everything. This has been said to be the largest case file, a criminal case file, in the history
of the state of Georgia or with the GBI. And I've seen some very, very large case files in my career. And those
files sometimes take years to resolve. If they've got to look through every item of evidence,
this could take a while. They need to look for any evidence that's exculpatory in nature.
There's a lot of things in this case file, no doubt, that are completely irrelevant to these defendants. Because as we've
seen, there's been lots of leads that were followed up on that didn't amount to anything.
But if you were going to defend this case and you were going to say, it really wasn't my guy,
then the defense is going to have to explore all of that. So they're going to have to go through
all of these leads that turned out to be dead ends to see if they were in fact dead ends or did the GBI misinterpret something? Did they overlook something?
Did they just simply not follow up on something that they should have when other leads or tips
were coming in? While the parties are trading the evidence back and forth, and there is a reciprocal
obligation if the defense has any evidence that they want to use in their case in chief, there's an obligation that they give most of that stuff over to the prosecution as well.
But the flow of information is almost entirely one directional in these cases.
And from the defense perspective, it's probably a lot like drinking from a fire hose because they've got a lot of stuff just coming at them really fast. While that's going on, they are going to explore the legality of any statements.
They're going to look into any plea deals that may be in works for maybe a witness like a
Bo Dukes. One of the things they filed was a motion to reveal the deal. So any specifics of any plea deals or promises of leniency
or immunity deals, anything that's been offered to Bo Dukes will have to be given over in detail
to Ryan Dukes' attorney so that they can use it in the event of a trial. So it would work like this. When Bo takes the stand to testify
and he's cross-examined, the jury gets to hear all of the details about the price that the state is
paying him basically for his testimony, paying him in the sense that he's getting a huge benefit.
And the idea would be to cast him in the light that, you know, you're just saying
this because this is what the prosecution wants you to say, and you're doing it so that you can
avoid very serious consequences. You're doing this so you can avoid criminal conviction. Really,
isn't it true that it's the other way around? You're just saying this because this is what
the prosecutor and his plea deal has induced you to do.
If he has some particular incentive to testify in a certain way,
it goes directly to his motive to fabricate testimony or to change testimony or to say things that aren't necessarily 100% accurate.
So if Ryan's case goes to trial, Bo is going to have to testify,
and he's going to have to satisfy that condition of truthful testimony and cooperation.
Because if he doesn't live up to his part of the deal, then the deal can be revoked.
So Ryan says he's not guilty,
at least according to what his attorney filed in court.
And as far as we know it,
it appears that Bo may have some sort of immunity deal.
If Bo deviates from the truth,
or if he doesn't hold up his end of the bargain,
he could lose that immunity.
This means, assuming Bo sticks to his original story, he's going to have to implicate Ryan in court.
He's going to have to step out from behind that gag order and make that statement public.
This means Bo will have gone from helping Ryan dispose of Tara's body to incriminating
his once roommate and ultimately having him convicted of murder.
roommate and ultimately having him convicted of murder.
So now it's Bo's word versus Ryan's word.
Neither one or both of them are lying.
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As much information as there was flying around Osceola,
there was still very little we knew about what actually happened to Tara.
The GBI claims Ryan Duke killed Tara with his hand late in the night of October 23rd, 2005,
after unlawfully entering her home with the intent to commit a theft.
And then, Bo Dukes comes into the picture
and allegedly helps Ryan cover up the crime by disposing of Tara's body. But that's pretty much
all we know. How did Ryan get to Tara's house? Was he on foot? Did he drive? Was he driving a black
truck? And how did Ryan manage to get Tara's body from her house all the way out to the pecan orchard
in fitzgerald completely undetected still so many unanswered questions but recently some new
information surfaced that supposedly came directly from the grand jury if you remember all the
members of the grand jury in this case were presented with the state's evidence against
ryan duke but they were sworn to secrecy. But just last week, something
pretty interesting happened. Dusty Vassie, who was originally on the grand jury but decided to opt
out, received a letter in the mail, as did all the other members of the grand jury. The letter read
this. Dear Mr. Vassie, Circumstances following the April 12th meeting of the grand jury require
inquiry into the means by which certain information presented to the grand jury was released publicly. We would like to meet with you prior to the next
scheduled meeting of the grand jury. In that regard, I have scheduled time to meet at the
Irwin County Courthouse at 9 o'clock a.m. on May 2nd, 2017, in order to accomplish this inquiry.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter. Paul Bowden.
So, was there a leak from the
grand jury? It certainly sounded like it. Dusty went to the courthouse on May 2nd as instructed,
and I called to ask him about it. Essentially, they were looking for a grand jury leak.
They were looking for how information from the grand jury became public knowledge.
Waited for a little bit. They started calling names and pulling people off.
By the time I got out, there were only two left.
They called me back to a room,
and there were two posters on Up and Vanish
that they were asking about,
and I'm not going to say their names.
Apparently, two different people
from the Up and Vanish discussion board
had leaked information from the grand jury,
and the GBI wanted to
know who.
You know, they asked me for what my screen name was on there, and of course, everybody
knows I'm a solar boarder.
And they asked me if I had any contact with those two people, or if I was familiar with
them.
And one of them sounded familiar, and it turns out that's the one I tried to reach out to.
The other one, I didn't recognize the name, but I probably had
read some of their posts. I didn't really have any information for what he was looking for.
So when it gets to the end, he says, do you have any more information that's pertinent
to the investigation? And I said, well, maybe. Right before Dusty met with the GBI,
he released an article on his blog at rationaltoafault.com. In his article, Dusty claimed to have talked to someone who received information from the grand jury.
And this was not the same person the GBI was looking for from the Up and Vanished discussion board.
This was someone different.
The GBI obviously asked him about this.
They asked me for my source that I wrote about, which wasn't the one they were looking for.
But I wouldn't give them the name, not even their screen name, well, nothing vanished.
They asked me like three times, so I told them, you know,
I've decided to be a journalist in this.
I mean, not even just as a journalist.
Somebody's asked me to protect their work, you know,
to keep their name confidential.
You know, that's a human decency thing to me.
You know, they say we're investigating a crime, and it's serious.
But to me, it's serious to keep your word to somebody too.
So they asked me like three times, and, I mean, they weren't cool with it,
but they didn't push me too hard either or try to intimidate me or anything.
You know, I felt intimidated by the situation,
but they didn't overtly, you know, try to intimidate me
or they didn't pressure me too hard.
They just asked like three, four times, maybe, you know, they told me not to report on things
that came from the grand jury and the GBI agent called the district attorney and they talked.
And then, um, they called me back there again and told me I shouldn't report on things that
may have come from the grand jury. And I said, I don't know that it came from the grand jury. And they said, well, you were told it came from the grand jury. And if that was,
I don't know, the end of it or whatever, but I personally feel like I don't know what happened
in the grand jury room because I wasn't part of the deliberations. So what was the whole point
of even excusing me from the grand jury if I can't report on something that didn't come, as far as I know, from the grand jury room?
Dusty stuck to his guns and didn't reveal his source to the GBI,
or even me for that matter.
The details about what information did exactly emerge from the grand jury leak are a little murky,
but from my own
source i've gathered it was said that ryan duke was inside tara's home and she was asleep when
she woke up he hit her and the next morning he wrapped her body in a blanket and took her out
to the orchard if anything this made things seem even more confusing. But apparently, the GBI felt that these statements had some merit.
So I've found myself in a weird position now.
We've come a real long way in learning the truth about what happened to Tara Grinstead.
But we've been left with what feels like even more questions.
And even if there is a trial, it could be months or even years before we know the truth.
And still then, the GBI could keep this case open indefinitely.
All we can do is keep searching, and hold on to the hope that one day, the truth will finally come out.
Every story has an ending.
Sometimes they're puzzling or even unsatisfying.
But in real life, you can't control the narrative.
Sometimes you only get bits and pieces of the truth.
A few days ago, an individual came forward and reported
that they had information into Tara's disappearance.
Our case agent, Jason Shadel, was sent out to conduct an interview.
Through these interviews, enough probable cause was discovered
so we could swear out an arrest warrant charging Ryan Alexander Duke
with the murder of Tara Grinstead.
But in Tara Grinstead's story, we're going to get the whole truth.
When are you going to get your story straight, Payne?
Do you want the true story,
or do you want what's going to sell ratings?
You want the truth?
Here's the truth.
I found out on January the 10th what happened to Tara.
They told me everything.
I don't want them to know the secrets.
I don't want them to know the way I loved you.
I don't think they'd understand it, no.
I don't think they would accept me, no.
I loved and I loved and I lost you.
I loved and I loved and I lost you. I loved and I loved and I lost you.
I loved and I loved and I lost you.
And it hurts like hell.
This is Brooke, Bo Duke's girlfriend.
This is Brooke, Bo Duke's girlfriend.
She decided to come on record and set the story straight.
It had just all been coming to a head.
He knew that I was over some of his behaviors.
He knew that I was just over the relationship.
And I told him, I was like, what is it? And I said, whatever it is, I said,
you need to tell me. I said, you have to tell me what it is. But I made him tell me everything.
He showed me where Tara lived and just kind of drove me around.
He then took me out to the orchard.
This podcast has always been about getting to the truth.
So with that being said, the story isn't quite over yet.
I mean, it's just kind of a scary place.
It's very scary looking.
He took me out there
and then he showed me the path
they had taken her down.
Starting with episode 19 on May 22nd,
I'll be playing for you all my calls with Brooke
in hopes of getting one step closer
to providing the closure that Tara's family and this community deserves.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Today's episode was mixed and mastered by Resonate Recordings. If you want to improve the quality of your podcast or start a podcast of your own,
go to resonaterecordings.com and get your first episode produced for free.
Thanks, guys.
And I'll see you soon. you