Journalist Sam Walker interviews an ‘American Vigilante’ who could be a real-life Jason Bourne

February 9, 2022

This week, Dax and Alesha were joined by the creator and host of the phenomenal true crime podcast “American Vigilante,” Sam Walker. But first, Dax and Alesha have some podcast recommendations to get to.

First up, Dax recommends his first ever Hollypod, which are podcasts about celebrity and pop culture news. He recommends “Ringer Dish.” The show, which features a rotating cast of hosts, does deep dives into the lives of celebrities, covers the latest industry news, and does lightning fast coverage of the latest gossip. He’s particularly fond of episodes about Kanye West and the Kardashians.

Next, Alesha has a podcast that Dax has also recommended on the show, “Even The Rich.” After name dropping her friends like Lamorne Morris and Jamie Foxx, she highly recommends the “Even The Rich” series on Beyoncé and Jay-Z. The podcast has also covered the Guccis, the Murdaughs, the Royal Family, etc., and it reminds us that even the rich have problems, like getting beat up on elevators by their in-laws (Alesha said it first).

And for the main event, former BBC journalist Sam Walker sits down with the duo to talk all things “American Vigilante.” Alesha and Dax have not been able to stop talking about the podcast since they listened to it, obsessed with the Jason Bourne-esque stories that are quintessential to Crowd Network’s “American Vigilante.” Dax and Alesha have so many questions about this podcast, so let’s jump in.

Dax sums up the podcast quite nicely: “American Vigilante” features the stories of a man, anonymously identified as KC, who has traveled the country to step above the law and save abducted children. It’s filled with rescue missions and assassination attempts, as well as the revenge and redemption of KC who is righting wrongs the only way he sees fit. And, on Sam’s podcast, he sits down to tell his plethora of stories.

As for Dax and Alesha’s questions about KC, well, Sam has the same questions. She does not know his real name, where he lives, nor much of his background besides the little bits he has told Sam here and there. All she does know is that he wanted to share his story about what he has done and what others like him have been doing in the United States. She talked with KC for over 50 hours over the course of 2021, with the podcast first being released in September of that same year.

Dax comments how some of his stories verge on entirely unbelievable, too much like a Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne to be real, but that’s half of the battle. Sam herself doesn’t know whether these stories are entirely truthful or not. Instead, “American Vigilante” leaves it up to the viewer to not only determine whether or not to believe him, but to trust him. Sam says that in the podcast, she wanted to take listeners on the same journey that she was on, instead of trying to tell them what she believes and forcing us to believe it as well.

She said she often wonders that if KC weren’t such a good storyteller, would he be more believable? Or is he truly picking up storylines from a movie franchise? She won’t even tell Dax and Alesha if she fully believes KC or not.

Sam does share how she met him, though. She was introduced to him after she and her family were threatened by a landlord when they moved to Arizona from the UK. This third party had heard what happened to Sam and said that they knew somebody who could essentially take said landlord out into the desert for good. She was shocked that that was somehow an option, and she does clarify that she did not take them up on that option. Although this led her down the path of being introduced to KC by a different third party.

She says that audiences are split right down the middle about their opinion on KC: some think he is an American hero, and others (always men, she says) send Sam lengthy series of tweets about why she shouldn’t believe a word KC says. To see for yourself what you think of this hunter of child abductors, sounds like you’ll need to check out “American Vigilante.”

As for podcasts she recommends, Sam has another podcast called “Sam Walker’s Desert Diaries,” which is essentially her move from rainy Britain to the sunny, wild west. She loved staying up to date on Elizabeth Holmes’ trial in “The Dropout” and regularly listens to and loves “How Did We Get Here?” and “The Adam Buxton Podcast.”

To wrap it all up, Alesha has a Murder Most Foul podcast recommendation in the form of “Root of Evil.” The great grand daughters of George Hodel believe that he was the one who murdered the Black Dahlia, and this podcast dives deep into their lineage and the crime.