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Viral to Violent: The Nasim Aghdam Story · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, a woman who once went viral for
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: vegan workout videos walked into YouTube headquarters with the gun.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Her name was Nasim Agdam, and she thought the platform
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: was targeting her, deliberately tanking her views and silencing her message.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: What started as fitness content turned into conspiracy and ended
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in a way that left everyone asking how did we
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: get from tofu recipes to a shooting? This is not
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: your usual true crime story. It's weirder and way more
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: unsettling before we dive in. If you like your true
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: crime brief and bingeable, you're in the right place. Hit
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: follow right now for at least two new episodes every week.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: This is ten minute murder. Let's get into it. On
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: April third, twenty eighteen, a thirty nine year old woman
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  Speaker 1: walked up to YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, with
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: one very specific objective. What that objective was and how
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: long she'd been planning it wouldn't become clear until much later.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: But what we do know is that it didn't start
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: that day. It started years earlier and across several countries.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Her name was Nasim Najafi Agdam born in Urmia, Iran.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Then moved with her family to Azerbaijan, then again, this
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: time across the globe to the United States. She'd been
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: living in California since she was a teenager, and she
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: had the kind of life story that looked on this
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: show surface like a model case study in assimilation. Multiple
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: languages under her belt Persian, English, Azerbaijani, Turkish, and a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: passport that could have come with footnotes. That skill set
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: landed her right in the middle of the Internet boom.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: As social media started compressing the globe into bite sized,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: beingible chaos, Nasim leaned into it. She launched a handful
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: of YouTube channels where she shared vegan recipes, fitness routines,
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  Speaker 1: and occasionally opinions that didn't always land softly, but it worked.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Her content hit big overseas, especially in Iran, and for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a while she was living the algorithm dream, going viral,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: collecting ad revenue, and building her brand. For time, things
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: were going up, or at least they looked like they were.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Nasim was living the twenty tens version of the American dream,
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  Speaker 1: one that didn't require a white picket fence, just a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: solid Wi Fi connection and a half deep an upload schedule.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: She was making money through content, going viral and getting
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: attention in a niche that most people would probably scroll
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: past unless it involves a cat or someone falling off
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: of a treadmill, two of my favorite categories, by the way.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And for a minute it looked like the only direction
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: she could go was up. But her content started to shift.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: The tone got heavier, angrier. At first, she used her
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: platform to spotlight animal cruelty, which on paper was a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: solid move. Her videos became more activist focused, and she
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: started showing up at protests, making her presence known offline too.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: That's how she ended up giving an interview during a
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: peda demonstration protesting how the US Marine Corps used pigs
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: for trauma training. She was standing there in blood splattered pants,
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  Speaker 1: fake blood for the record, holding a plastic sword like
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a vegan themed Game of Thrones character, saying for me,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: animal rights equals human rights. It was passionate, sure, but
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it also marked a pivot from content creator to crusader,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and that pivot came with consequences. Naseem wasn't quiet about
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: what she believed. She wanted more people to go vegan,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and she wanted fewer animals used than anything that looked
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: like entertainment or training exercises, but the facts her last
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: confirmed protests with PETA was nearly a decade earlier. Quote
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: she appeared at a few demonstrations about nine years ago,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a PETA spokesperson later said, but changed her phone number
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and dropped out of sight. That's where the disconnect began.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Her identity as an activist wasn't really lining up with
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: her actions anymore. Her content, once upbeat and passionate, started
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: veering into odd territory, like surreal and slightly unhinged. Levels
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: of odd views dropped off, revenue tanked, and instead of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: seeing it as the Internet doing what the Internet does,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: move on, Nasim got fixed. She believed YouTube was targeting her,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: not in a vague the algorithm hates me kind of way,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: but a full blown belief that the platform was actively
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: centering her content because of her pro vegan anti cruelty messaging.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: The channel that once had lifted her up she now
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: saw as trying to silence her. In one twenty seventeen video,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: she's wearing a black hood, asking viewers quote, when it
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: comes to freedom of speech, do you think that Iran
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: as better than USA? Or USA is better than Iran alone.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: It's the kind of question that might get a few
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: comments and a down vote or two, but in the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: context of everything else, her tone, her building resentment, it
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: landed differently, and then came the part no one saw coming.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: As her views kept dropping, Nassim used some of her
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: remaining income to purchase a nine millimeter Smith and Wesson's
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: semi automatic pistol, because to her, this wasn't just about
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: content anymore. It was personal. A few months after buying
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the gun, Nasim quietly packed up her life and left,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: no goodbyes, no notes, just her a car full of
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: belongings and whatever plan she hadn't told anyone about. Up
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: until then, she'd been living with her grandmother, so when
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: she didn't answer her phone for two days straight, her
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: family did what any family would do. They called the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: police and reported her missing. On the morning of April second,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: police found her sleeping in her car outside of a
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Walmart in Mountain View. At first glance, she seemed fine, calm.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: She said she'd had a fight with her family and
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: was just waiting things out until she could land a job.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: The officers didn't know that she had a weapon in
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  Speaker 1: the car and legally there was nothing really they could do.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Nassem was thirty nine years old. Being missing is only
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: a problem if you don't want to be missing. So
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the police called her family, said she was safe, and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: let her go. Later that same day, Nasim drove to
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno. If you've followed any part
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: of her story up to this point, you'd probably assume
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: she was about to start yelling about censorship or demanding
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: someone look at her analytics. But no, she walked up
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to the front desk and asked about job openings. Legitimately,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: she talked to the receptionist and asked how she could
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: get hired by the same company she'd spent months accusing
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: of ruining her life. The conversation lasted about ten minutes,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: then she left with hindsights. It feels like a scouting trip,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, it looked like an awkward,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: kind of confusing job inquiry. Nothing about her behavior raised alarms,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: not yet. After that strange, quiet visit to YouTube's front desk,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Nasim spent one more night in her car alone, parked
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: somewhere in the Bay Area. The next steps already locked
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: into place. Early the next morning, she drove to a
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: nearby gun range, no announcement, no red flags, just walked in,
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  Speaker 1: paid for her time, and spent less than an hour
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: practicing with the nine millimeters pistol she'd legally purchased weeks earlier.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: There was no big outburst, no manifesto handed out at
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the counter, just target practice, quiet and efficient. She got
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: back in her car and drove straight to YouTube headquarters.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: This time, her arrival didn't go unnoticed. Security guards at
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the building saw her approaching, her purse slung over one shoulder,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: walking through the sunny courtyard around lunchtime. She didn't look lost,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: She wasn't meandering or hesitant. She was moving with purpose.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: One of the guards stepped forward and asked for her id.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Instead of answering, Nascene pulled out the gun and opened fire.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: The guard scrambled out of the way and managed to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: call nine one one, but the damage had already begun.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: The courtyard was full of employees, people outside eating lunch,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: scrolling on their phones, catching a quick break from work.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Suddenly that space turned into a war zone. Nasim unloaded
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a full magazine, then paused to reload. She moved toward
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the front doors of the building and tried to force
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: her way inside, but by then the building had gone
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: into lockdown. Security protocols kicked in fast, the doors were sealed,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and no amount of shooting at the glass was going
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to change that. Still she tried. She aimed at the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: glass and kept firing, blowing a hole through the doors,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: large enough to see through but not passed through. When
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it finally became clear she wasn't getting in and she
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to get to whoever she believed was responsible
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: for her downfall, Nasim turned the gun on herself. She
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: fired once into her chest, the bullet piercing her heart.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: She collapsed right there in the courtyard. By the time
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: first responders arrived, she was already gone. In total, she'd
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: fired over twenty rounds. Three people were hit, one man
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: in critical condition, two women were injured but in stable condition.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Another woman hurt her anim trying to escape. Everyone else
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: survived except Nasim. And yeah, there's probably a metaphor buried
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in all of this. A woman who felt ignored, who
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: believed she was being silenced, carried out an act of
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: violence to make people pay attention, and the only person
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: she ended up silencing was herself. You can make a
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: case for mental health or paranoia, for an Internet fueled
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: feedback loop that kept pushing her further into rage and isolation.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: But in the end, the most devastating casualty in the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Seam's plan was Nasim herself. Thanks for listening to ten
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: minute murder brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe, that's
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: my name, I'm the host, And yeah, that one was
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: pretty heavy. A story that started with viral videos and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: vegan recipes, it ended with tragedy at a tech campus,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: and not a single part of it made sense in
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the way that we want stories to make sense. It's
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: tough one because it sits right at the intersection of
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: mental health and Internet obsession and a deep misunderstanding of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: how algorithms and people actually work. And no one walked
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: away from this unscathed, even if they survived. Okay, deep breath,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that's enough of the true crime existential crisis for one day.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: If you're still here, thank you for sticking with me.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And if you're new, go ahead and hit subscribe so
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• 11:37
  Speaker 1: another story, and another weird corner of the human experience.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: To unpack. You can follow along on social at ten
• 11:44
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• 11:51
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• 11:54
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• 11:56
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