Celebrating the music and artists you've loved on iHeartRadio over the past year and giving you an exclusive first look at the biggest new songs coming in the summer of '24. Witness Music History. Iheartinnovator Award Recipient, Beyoncé. Ihearticon Award Recipient, Share. And performances by Justin Timberlake. Green Day. Tlc. Jelly Roll. Laine Wilson. Tate McCrey. And your host, Ludacris. Our 2024 I Heart Radio Music Awards. It's Monday, April first. Watch on Fox starting at 8:00 PM, 7:00 Central. Everyone in our country has a voice. It's something that says not just where you come from, but who you are. Welcome to NPR's Black Stories, Black Truths, a collection of podcasts and a celebration of the hosts in journalism who've always spoken truth to power. Our voices are as varied, nuanced, and dynamic as the Black experience, and stories should never be about us without us.

Find NPR Black Stories, Black Truths on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

All eight episodes of To Die For are available now to bench absolutely free. But for ad-free listening and exclusive bonuses, Subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.

Com or on Apple Podcasts.

Warning. The following contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual assault that may be too intense or triggering to some listeners. Discretion is advised.

One, two, three, four.

Alia Rosa is demonstrating one of the tactics she learned during her espionage training.

Hannah.

The idea is that through certain breathing exercises, she can deepen the residence and power of her voice.

I know that sometimes you feel lonely. I know that sometimes you feel betrayed. I know that sometimes you feel sad.

And speak to the deeper part of her target's subconscious mind.

And it's okay because I feel the same. And I want to tell you that you're not by yourself in this world. I feel you. I'm very, very proud of you, and you're so beautiful.

But there is a price to pay for this.

You have a beautiful soul and beautiful spirit.

Because after a certain point...

Please always remember that no matter what, promise me that you will never give up.

You get so good at faking your emotions.

Because I believe in you. I know you can do it.

You lose touch with your real feelings.

I love you.

I have to kill you.

I'm really sorry.

I have to do it. Got to go on my own.

You didn't care, stuck behind. I was holding my gun.

I got you, I tell you.

I I had to kill you. Was it so much fun?

Episode 4, Chapter 10, Seduce yourself.

At the first day, the female teacher said to us, You are very privileged to be here because those The technologies which you will learn here in this walls will change your life because you will become almost like a superhero, superhuman. Why? Because you would know how to make anyone to do what you want.

This is Alia Rosa talking about her first special training class at the Russian Military Academy. She was being trained to become a seduction spy or a swallow for Russian intelligence. Training Claiming, though, may not be the right word for it. Violated, manipulated, and traumatized might be more accurate. Her introduction to the Russian world of sex binage came a day earlier when after her horrifying experience with the main colonel at the academy, she was called into the office of a lower-ranking officer, a lieutenant colonel, for another one-on-one.

I walked into her room and she was sitting at the huge wooden table with a big Soviet Union-style chair, like her throne. She was like the queen. In fact, she was really the queen of the academy because everybody respected her. She had really big assignments in the past, and she was a colonel. I mean, that's a high rank for a woman. She was about 50-ish. She looked just perfect in her uniform. Everything was so clean and nice, and her haircut was just so perfect. I felt so shy and so stupid and so small in front of her. And she told me, Why are you standing there like a fool? Come and sit. So I followed her order. I sat and she said, Where is Thank you, ma'am. I was like, I'm so sorry. Thank you, ma'am. Okay, so do you know why are you here? I said, Well, I am happy to serve my country. And she said that I am the lucky one because I've been chosen, I will be studying additional...

Elia was then briefed on the special program she'd be placed in, where she'd be trained in the art of seduction, along with four other female recruits. She was then sternly ordered not to share a word about these classes or techniques with anyone else at the academy or in the outside world.

She asked me straight, When was the last time you had sex? And she asked me so directly, so I I think that moment, I felt like my cheeks were blushing so much that she noticed that.

Elia hesitated, trying to decide whether to tell the female colonel that the last time was when she'd been assaulted earlier that day.

I I wanted to tell her that because I felt that she's so powerful and she just knows what to do. But then inside of me, something told me, I should not tell her, they think, because it might be bad for me because it's not safe. My father always taught me, never share with anyone anything. You always have to have your secret. And I didn't tell her anything. I was just blushing. And she He asked me, Are you fucking virgin? And I just said, No, I'm not. Okay. Well, I guess you don't know anything about sex either. There's so much work to do.

The interview, already the unusual became even more uncomfortable at this point.

Okay, so do you know how to receive an orgasm? And I said, Well, I think I do, I guess. And then she said, Okay, got it. Right, go to your dorm this evening, and there is a task for you. You have to masturbate in order to please yourself. And then tomorrow, I am going to ask you in front of your classmates, and you will start your education. I was so confused. I was like, Why would she ask me such a weird thing to do? Besides, I didn't really masturbate before because I didn't really He studied my body, and it's according to my culture and my religion, it was forbidden. And she said, Okay, go. And I left. Absolutely confused.

Overwhelmed on every level, Elia did not do the task she was assigned that night. The next morning at shooting class, she saw the male colonel again.

He looked at me a few times with his eyes checking on me. Every time he looked at me, I had very disgusting feeling inside of me. I was just holding myself together, not to cry, not to scream, not to run During that shooting class, I noticed that Elina, who was my future classmate in that special program, she was smiling and looking at the colonel, and he was smiling back. I noticed that there is some connection going on, but I didn't know exactly what was that. So I decided to just collect more information.

Celebrating the music and artists you've loved on iHeartRadio over the past year. I'm giving you an exclusive first look at the biggest new songs coming in the summer of '24. Witness Music History. Iheart Innovator Award Recipient, Beyoncé. Iheart Icon Award Recipient, Share. And performances by Justin Timberlake. Green Day. Tlc. Jolly Roll. Laine Wilson. Tate McRoy. And your host, Ludacris. Our 2024 iHeart Radio Music Awards. Monday, April first. Watch on Fox starting at 8:00 PM, 7:00 Central. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé. And me, Simone Voce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends lens, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. At 4:00 PM, Elia had her first top secret class. It took place in a smaller adjacent building that she hadn't been to before. She walked into the classroom, dreading what faced her, and saw four other women sitting there.

When I entered the class, I saw these beautiful blonde blue- Eyes girls, and I thought myself, Man, I'll never make it. I felt so ugly and just different and so stupid. And all these girls, they were just so gorgeous. They all had their notebooks ready to learn, and everybody was so excited. Our female colonel came in and we all stand up and we said, Hello, Cornel. Then she let us to sit down. So the lesson has started.

At this point, the teacher appealed to their sense of patriotism and to their egos, telling them how lucky they were to receive this powerful information and the coveted field assignments that would follow. She continued.

These knowledgees, such as manipulation, influence, seduction, programming of someone's brain, you can use as an agent to recruit informers from different countries. First of all, you need to understand that everybody has their weak spots and their goals and dreams. You have to manipulate his dreams and his weaknesses in order to get what you want. This is very powerful because you don't just use it for seducing someone. You use it for anything and for everyone. The first question, the female coronel asked us, How did you do your assignment? Did you succeed with your task? And she started to ask each of us, Did you do your task, your homework, Elina? She said, Yes. Did you have any difficulties? She said, No, I do it quite often. It's okay. It's normal to me. Then another girl. She said, Yeah, everything is okay. I did it. It's fine. So then I had to answer the question, and I I said, Honestly, I just couldn't do it because it was too loud and I couldn't concentrate, and I didn't feel like this way. She said, In the in a very strict way and almost angry way. She said, Okay, the merit to you.

The female colonel then lectured Alia in front of her classmates.

If you want to do any homework I give you, Then you can tell goodbye to this academy and to this position. You don't understand how privileged you are to have this job. You don't understand how privileged you to be here in this room and getting this secret knowledge that nobody has. You have to be so honored that you are here right this moment and you didn't do such a simple task. How are you supposed to seduce any criminals if you don't even know how to seduce yourself? I was like, That's interesting sentence. That's interesting thing. How am I supposed to seduce myself? She explained to us, You need to know how to experience an orgasm in order to have orgasm with any man you sleep with. So they feel that you're really calm, you're not pretending. How How can you do it if you never experience orgasm yourself?

As Alia spoke, I wondered at first why a Russian military colonel was talking like an American self-improvement teacher. Then I realized. She wasn't. She was talking like a cult leader. And sure, maybe the idea was that in order to connect with someone else, we must first make that connection with ourselves. But behind these lectures and assignments was a far more sinister motive. We are conditioning you step by step to surrender your body and your pleasure to the state, to turn you from a human being with natural desires for love and sex into an emotionally void soldier for whom love, sex, and pleasure are weapons to protect national security.

Then she gave us the task to find the sex partner in the academy so we should practice our skills on someone. I was really shocked and I was really surprised. The first day was difficult and I was super tired, and I just wanted to go to my dorm and just lay down and sleep. I was exhausted.

As Alia walked to the female side of the dorm and approached her room, she heard men talking in the hallway outside, which was out of the ordinary. They were senior students and seemed to know that some of the female students had been asked to find sexual partners. One of these men began talking to Alia as she walked into her room.

He came closer to me and he's like, Oh, you're the new one. And I said, Yes. And I don't know. He just fucked me, and I just couldn't do anything. Then he left, and I just was laying there as an idiot. Basically, he came and he just used my body and that's it. And I said myself, I cannot handle this every day. I cannot allow everyone taking my body any moment they want. And I was super angry at myself and just lost. I felt so hopeless because I couldn't do anything and I didn't know how to I went for myself. I was angry for myself that I couldn't say no and I couldn't reject anyone. I couldn't do anything. I was just used. I was so confused from the beginning of the education and that event which happened with Cornel. I just wanted only one thing. I wanted to be strong enough. So not like I could reject, but I could protect myself. I just I wanted protection. That's all. And I didn't want, for sure, give my body to anyone who ever wanted it. And that night, I decided that I need to find the way out of this circle of sexual abuse.

But I didn't know how.

Celebrating the music and artists you've loved on iHeartRadio over the past year. I'm giving you an exclusive first look at the biggest new songs coming in the summer of '24. Witness music history I Heart Innovator Award Recipient, Beyoncé. I Heart Icon Award Recipient. Share. And performances by Justin Timberlake. Green Day. Tlc. Jelly Roll. Laine Wilson. Tate McCray. And Our host, Ludacris. Our 2024 I Heart Radio Music Awards. Monday, April first. Watch on Fox starting at 8:00 PM, 7:00 Central. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello, Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé. And me, Simone Bois. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. Chapter 11, Killing Tools. After her experiences, Elia began not just to be a student at the academy, but an observer, silently trying to figure out how the system worked, who was important at the academy, and how she could keep herself safe. Meanwhile, the classes continued. After a week or so of lessons on human psychology, the instructor introduced a new female teacher, a major, who then took over a portion of the class going forward.

I looked at her and she was so beautiful. I was so shy, and I thought myself, of, Wow, I want to look like her. She was just perfect. She was tall, she had beautiful skin and features, and she had this sexiness about her. I remember something was inside of her eyes. She looked so powerful and beautiful, but her eyes were full of this pain or and I felt like I liked her.

For her first lesson, the new instructor asked Alia to stand up and come to the front of the room.

She asked me to walk in front of the whole class. I walked, and then she stopped me and she asked the whole class, Okay, so tell me what mistakes in walking does she do? My classmates, Elina and Natalia, and other girls, they were telling, Okay, she walks too shy. She dropped her head down. She doesn't look in front of her, and she has this very unstable walk. And I was so embarrassed. She probably saw it in my eyes and she said, That's okay. We all start from something. She was quite nice to me in the beginning. And She said, Just copy me and just do what I do and just walk with me. She showed us how does she walk so we could copy her and do the same. And she walked like a Victoria's Secret model. She explained to us the body has to be fully relaxed and your hands have to be relaxed. And when you walk, you look straight in front of and you don't drop your face down or too much up because your eyes have to be on the same direction that your target. So you look more or less into the eyes.

The next day was much more fun, and I just loved it because it was all girly stuff, and I felt like I'm a Cinderella or something like that. That day, she brought all makeup, mascaras, and eyeliner and lipsticks and so many things. She basically taught us how to do the good makeup by applying toner first and then a cream and then the powder.

The major then taught the students a lesson about one of the most vulnerable parts of a man, his eyes.

Men, when they look at the face of the woman, they look at her eyes Eyes and lips. There's two things. Eyes is a very important tool to seduce your target. When you put eyeliner and you put mascara, you can play with your eyes to make it more intriguing and sexy look. And that's what your target wants. I remember I was taking different lipstick and trying on. And she explained that red lips associated with the female vagina for men. When men look at female lips, the most attractive for a man, red lipstick. The next technique was important of our appearance, the way we dress. We were wearing uniform, but in a civilian world, of course, we had to learn how to wear clothes men-like, basically. If you would start, Okay, so as less close as possible, this is wrong because men, they want to have imagination. They want to see some small part of body, but they want the woman to be covered so they can imagine what her body looks like. A basic black pencil skirt and white shirt, which is unbuttoned and your target can see your cleavage, and also black high heels. When it's always a game, always intrigued, always maybe yes, maybe no.

That's the most sexiest clothes for any male target.

There was also another reason for this type of clothing, what a magician would call misdirection.

You should always put accents on your butt and on your breast. If you will have a very deep deep neckline when she needs to seduce target and eventually kill the target, the focus of the target eyes would be on her breast. When he focused on her breast, basically, right on her voice and having this conversation on a drink, she can basically give his briefcase to another agent, or he would walk by and put the bag on his suit.

When it came to makeup, Alia Aliia was taught an additional lesson that less is more.

Less makeup as well, less lipstick in terms of not too much, like lipstick and powder.

This was for two different reasons. One is that if you're seducing a married man, you want to make sure he comes home clean without evidence of an affair on his clothing. The second reason, Aliia explained, is also related to evidence.

If you need to kill your target and you need to kill your target after sex or during sex, you cannot leave any evidence behind you. So no glitter, no even makeup, no perfume as well. It's important because then even smile can stay on pillows or on his short hair as well. Like either you wear a wig, ponytail or something, so you don't leave your hair next to his body because then they can track you and it's easy. Also, no earrings unless it's not that easy to unlock. Heels have to be very comfortable because heel is a good tool to kill as well. You can really punch someone with a heel. It's really good for my eyeballs. Nails are good. If you also know how to use them, you can kill with nails. Like, literally, with the good nails. If I go to your head like this and I put these two fingers into your eyeballs, and I just punch like that, then straight away, you will feel pain. You will go down like this, and then it's easy just to put you down, and I punch you with my knee.

As Alia tells me this, I question whether or not it was right to do these interviews in my home. She goes on to discuss another reason why the right clothing was important, also familiar to magicians, concealment.

If you need to hide some information like USB, then you need to think where to put it. For example, when you cut your heel and you put it inside in your heel, you can go anywhere it's in your heel, so it's always with you. The hiding place the best for female agents would be their own vagina to store some important things which they cannot lose. Sometimes you have to be in the situation where they can take all your clothes off and your bags. It's only one place, really, to hide something.

After posture, clothing, and makeup, Elia was taught about another important tool, voice.

The tone of your voice, the way you speak with your target, it could be also deep or high, the tone. When you start to speak with your target, you need to adapt your tone to his tone. If you do the same poses when you speak and the same stress and accent on words, so it also helps.

I'm amazed as I listen to Elia speak how in-depth her classes went. At this point, she's had weeks of training and hasn't even gotten to the first word exchanged with a stranger. The only other people I've ever heard discuss social dynamics at this level of micromanipulation before were the pickup artists I wrote about in the book The Game. In fact, the technique she just mentioned was actually in the book called Mirroring.

You need to become his mirror in everything, in body language, in speaking, intonation, voice tone, everything. Eyes, same interests, same goals, same ideas, Everything has to be so mutual. Then eventually your target will think like, Oh, it feels like I know you for many years, so I can trust you. You're my friend. When you do this, then you can all the focus on the trust, and then at the same time, behind, you can do what you want. Kill, get information, betray, recruit, whatever.

Each day, the techniques became deeper and more elaborate until Alia learned the hypnotic speaking method you heard at the beginning of this episode.

She told me that there is a breathing technique which I can use to make my voice sound deeper and sound more sexier. And she said, Okay, breathe in. I breathe in. And she said, Place your air down there where it's your bottom of your belly. And now she said, Now feel your place, feel your vagina, feel your sexuality. And now you exhale.

The instructions continued.

She asked me, Now you talk. When I started to speak, I sound just different, so deep and sexy and sensitive. And she told me, Now remember how your voice sounds. So every time you want to seduce your target, You have to sound like that.

As the lessons continued, they became more and more extreme until one day.

I walked into the class and I took my seat as always. At every table, we had Dildo, we had lubricant, and condoms. I was really shocked. Then our female teacher said, Today we have a special lesson, and this is very powerful techniques, which I will just show you. If you want to terminate your target, it's very important.

Elia's story continues in episode 5, which is available now. You can keep listening for free on Apple Podcasts. For full credits, check out our show notes. If you or a loved one are a survivor of sexual assault, you can visit Raine. Org, that's R-A-I-N-N. Org, or call 1-800-656-4673 for free confidential 24/7 support.

Celebrating the music and artists you've loved on iHeartRadio over the past year, and giving you an exclusive first look at the biggest new songs coming in the summer of '24. Witness Music history. Iheart Innovator Award recipient, Beyoncé. I Heart Icon award her to be in Share. And performances by Justin Timberlake. Green Day. Tlc. Jelly Roll. Laine Wilson. Tate McCray. And your host, Ludacris. Our 2024 I Heart Radio Music Awards, Monday, April first. Watch on Fox starting at 8:00 PM, 7:00 Central. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé. And me, Simone Voice. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side.