“Ask me anything,” Big Mike tells his interviewer, Eljay, an ACT specialist and longtime friend. “Even the dirty, outlaw stuff?” Eljay asks. “Sure, it’s part of my life. I don’t disown it. I’m proud of it because I helped a lot of people in a lot of situations.”

Mike Straumietis, once known as Mike Remington, the would-be heir to the Remington family fortune; Mike Werbach, the trust-fund baby; Tom Newman, the Canadian man about town; and another handful of card-carrying aliases, is now known to most as Big Mike, founder of Advanced Nutrients. The company that makes the most finely tuned nutrients to grow the best cannabis in the world. And in the podcast he started, it’s his turn in the hot seat.

“Life on the run... it’s not fun,” Big Mike would say, after considering his colorful past as one of the biggest drug traffickers in America. Or Canada. But who’s counting? We can talk about a past like Big Mike’s these days, because it’s legal. And he’s done his time.

He was born Michael Straumietis in North Aurora, Illinois, to an intense and scrappy father whose go-to nickname for him was El Stupido. His mother was an alcoholic. His birthright of an active mind and a high IQ, in combination with what’s known as high-performance trauma, set him on a path. At 19, he began putting his “gifts” to work.

His entrepreneurial self introduced his thrill-seeking self to the opportunity of cannabis, and he was all in. One of the first things you learn about Big Mike when you meet him is his penchant for deep research, observation, and studying things and people—himself, most of all. This is likely the reason for his success, not only in eluding capture for many years but also in building one of the best cannabis smuggling businesses ever. And now, the best cannabis nutrient company in the world.

Many chapters of Big Mike’s high-stakes life read like movie scenes, ready for casting, complete with helicopter chases and police radio-scanner surveillance. The ingenuity required to produce thousands of pounds of cannabis a week during the dark days of total illegality foreshadowed the kind of tech-sleuthing later glamorized on CSI. Pre-cell phones, no less.

Big Mike learned to fly a plane, requisitioned soil reports across the country from the USDA, and spent relentless hours listening to a police scanner until he not only recognized the voice of the female dispatcher but discerned her difference in tone with enough confidence to tell everyone, “Run!” Because she knew, and only the excitement in her voice revealed, that an entire team of DEA agents was on the verge of busting through his doors and blowing the lid off of everything. He ended up hiding in a field with his crew until it was safe for everyone to escape. And they did.

This is one thing Big Mike seems exceptionally good at doing. Helping everyone escape. Except himself, eventually, after enough close calls to impress even El Chapo’s smuggling ops, yet with none of the murder. Don’t forget: this is cannabis, a healing medicine as well as a potent psychedelic for nature lovers and enthusiasts.

Cocaine and heroin, even in smuggling worlds, are very different animals.

Finally, in Wisconsin, cops narrowed in on one of Big Mike’s operations. When he learned from one of his partners’ girlfriends that he was being ratted out, he dropped everything and went on the run. There was no time, and he didn’t know anyone, but he had researched Vancouver, Canada, as the place to grow the quantity of cannabis he wanted without going to jail for life. So he crossed the border out of his home country, where he could have received a life sentence.

At its height, Big Mike’s operation could set up a newly acquired house as a high-tech grow in 48 hours. He had over 200 people working with him, selling weed all up and down the West Coast, dozens of closed-system automated greenhouse grows with countless lights in houses across the country, speedboats, a helicopter, a Unimog (which is like a tank that could climb a 45-degree incline), Ford Explorers, Benelli safes, six lawyers. “I liked expensive homes because I found out the neighbors stick to themselves, they don’t ask you a lot of questions... they’re too busy making their own money... and the nice places have amperage.”

One time, a fire broke out across the ridge near his home, the police department was there, telling everyone to evacuate. Big Mike was there with his truck, ready to run, yet holding strong to defend the crop no one knew was inside the house. He was always ride or die.

After years and years of ample drama and money, Big Mike is back to straight-up society. And the tables are turned. The patient, well-studied, inquisitive entrepreneur who knows how to drive a podcast interview with intuitive questions, is on the other side of the desk, telling it all.

This 2-hour and 22-minute podcast is a fascinating perch upon which to learn about the man who was pivotal in the thriving cannabis scene—likely instrumental to the thriving part—but also what it was like to live in the time of total illegality. Back when you could get caught for now seemingly insignificant things that would land you in prison for years, depending on the fervor of the day, time, state, or judge.

Big Mike has done well for himself. He started Advanced Nutrients more as a side hustle early on, with a driving ambition to be the best grower in cannabis. Now his nutrient products are found in nearly every country around the world. It began as the only fertilizer formulated specifically for the growth of this one plant, and in 2026, with the release of the 8th generation of nutrients, Big Mike continues to push the edge of possibility for cannabis. Watch the podcast and consider it a teaser for when the book is released and the story of Big Mike’s life continues to unfold. There’s never a dull moment.

Lorien and Big Mike trade stories about the smuggler’s economy of trust from the “good” old days. Lorien talks about her legacy and devotion to sungrown cannabis of the Emerald Triangle, while they both agree that this region will be forever famous for growing some of the very best cannabis in the world, fed by dreams, ideals, plant responsibility, and good old-fashioned sunshine. Watch on YouTube.

Shane talks about the need to be a little weird in order to push through the chaos of building a brand while growing world-renowned indoor flower in Cali. “You have to have the authentic passion of cannabis as opposed to just the hunt for financial gain in order to make it in this business.” See how this legend in cultivation has figured out how to live the dream by growing top-shelf herb. Watch on YouTube.