,

The recordings are shocking.

“We want things to accelerate, we want things to get worse in the United States. … And from that point by virtue of the chaos that ensues, that would naturally present some opportunities for us … law and order starts breaking down, power vacuums start emerging … for those who are organized and ready, to take advantage of those.”

Those are the words of Rinaldo Nazzario, leader of the notorious white nationalist group the Base, captured secretly on tape. The latest episode of our podcast Sounds Like Hate – available now – features exclusive, never-before-heard recordings of Nazzario and other members of the Base, revealing the group’s recruiting tactics, violent plots and efforts to avoid law enforcement.

The stated goal of the Base is chilling: to push society to the point of collapse so that a new white ethnostate can rise from the ruins. It is not a group that seeks to build popular appeal. Instead, the Base is trying to inspire a small number of extremists to commit acts of violence and destruction, either by forming small, clandestine terror cells or by carrying out “lone wolf” attacks on their own.

In “Baseless,” the new episode of Sounds Like Hate, co-hosts and producers Geraldine Moriba and Jamila Paksima use machine learning to find patterns in more than 83 hours of secret recordings of members of the Base. The exclusive, explosive audio was captured by men applying for membership in the group – and the unfiltered results feature rhetoric far more extreme and alarming than the Base typically uses in public. “There’s nothing coded here,” said Moriba. “These are expressions of malcontentment with a real goal to destroy our nation.”

“Baseless” will be released in three parts. Part I, available now, goes inside the Base’s “vetting room,” exposing the group’s methods of recruiting deliberately from the U.S. military and the ways they encourage terrorism. Parts II and III – which detail the Base’s paramilitary training drills and the insufficient efforts of law enforcement to address far-right violence – will be released in coming weeks.

You can access all episodes of Sounds Like Hate as soon as they’re released by subscribing with your podcast app of choice, such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Each episode is also available at soundslikehate.org.

Sounds Like Hate is not always an easy listen – but we hope you take the time to engage and learn more about some of the most sinister extremist threats facing America. Our work studying, tracking and fighting hate in our society has never felt more important.

Sincerely,

The Southern Poverty Law Center

P.S. Want to hear more from the makers of Sounds Like Hate? Join our online panel discussion on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Register here.