This epiosde is sponsored by Better Help. We always jump at the chance to talk to Dr. Ramani. This time she arrives at A Little Bit Culty fresh from publishing her newest book: It’s Not You: Identifying And Healing From Narcissistic People. (We read the advanced copy and it blew our minds.) Dr. Ramani wants you to know that thriving after—or even during—a narcissistic relationship can be challenging, but it is possible. She also wants to flip the script on the prevailing cultural and clinical co...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 26
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We get emails and messages from people every day who are looking for guidance on what to do when someone they love is in a cult, so we called in an expert. Here’s our chat with Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, of the mighty helpful and always bingeable IndoctriNation podcast. Is this technically a crossover episode? We don’t make those rules, but we do feel pretty confident in saying that this episode is a power hour on what to do if your loved ones become culty c...
Mar 04, 2024•59 min•Season 6Ep. 25
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/culty and get on your way to being your best self. And…we’re back for part two of our conversation with Claire Headley, a defiant Scientology whistleblower who still owes the shadowy organization a billion minus 30 years on her contract. (Don’t hold your breath, David Miscavige.) Born and bred in England’s Scientology boarding schools before rising up through the ranks all the way to headquarters, Claire’s escap...
Feb 26, 2024•54 min•Season 6Ep. 24
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/culty and get on your way to being your best self. In part one of this 2-parter, we feature Scientology defector and whistleblower Claire Headley who spent 30 years in the church isolated from her family and basically any outside influence. Headley was born and bred in England’s Scientology boarding schools, was shipped to the big blue buildings in LA, and then onto headquarters. Thoroughly indoctrinated, she la...
Feb 19, 2024•59 min•Season 6Ep. 23
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/culty and get on your way to being your best self. If you’re not already familiar with the culty cluster known as ‘School’, it was an ultra-secret Manhattan organization run by late actress and forever eccentric Sharon Gans. The shadowy group did its dark magic in the form of secret study groups, arranged marriages, and some pretty gnarly narcissistic abuse. In this episode, former School enrollee Esther Friedma...
Feb 12, 2024•56 min•Season 6Ep. 22
This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Tom Krumins was one of the brave whistleblowers who came forward to shine a light on the scandal of abuse and predation within the Boy Scouts of America. You can see his story in the recent Netflix doc, ‘Scout’s Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America,’ and we’re guessing you’ll be as moved and inspired by him as we were. In this episode we sit down with him to learn more about his experience in the Scouts, how he navigated the aftermath, an...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 21
This episode is sponsored by Better Help. But maybe it should also be sponsored by a company that manufactures blood pressure cuffs, because the “Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals” docuseries had us all kinds of pissed off. If you haven’t seen it yet, the doc wades into the darkness and depravity within the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement and takes no prisoners. Sidenote: Fuck you, IFB predators and enablers, fuck you very, very much. In this episode we speak with Ruthy Heiler, ...
Jan 29, 2024•43 min•Season 6Ep. 20
This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Today we welcome Wise Jezebel and former fundie Dr. Laura Anderson to the ALBC huddle. She’s a psychotherapist, podcaster, and smarty-pants content creator specializing in helping people come back from the sneaky scars of high control religion. She’s also the author of the next book you need to read. Seriously. We cannot recommend it enough and it’s called: When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High Control Religion. Dr...
Jan 22, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 19
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Buckle up ALBC babies, we’re about to go all over the map through Hollywood, the music industry, Australia, and a couple decades of cult-hopping. In fact, it’s so epic that (picture this) we are holding an invisible boombox over our heads outside your window while blaring Peter Gabriel, asking you to listen. Got the picture? Okay cool: Because we’re chatting with Ione Skye and Ben Lee, married podcasters that you may know from their hilarious Weirder T...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 18
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Nikieta Lambert’s life was derailed by the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) – a culty Evangelical tentacle of Christianity promising nothing short of a fiery eternity in hell for choosing any other lifepath. In this episode, Nikieta discusses how they converted her. She describes the grooming and gaslighting. And she reveals which scriptures they use to keep people in line. Lucky for us and for her, Nikieta got out and is sharing how she reclaim...
Jan 08, 2024•59 min•Season 6Ep. 17
This is a replay of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to access to all of our content bonuses, ad-free episodes and other goodies, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jan 04, 2024•31 min•Season 6Ep. 58
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We made you a mixtape of some of our fave segments from our full episodes with Daniel Shaw, LCSW, Dr. Ramani, and Dr. Natalie Feinblatt. Think of this as our Chicken Soup for the Culty Soul power-medley. We’ve got Dan Shaw dropping knowledge on why traumatizing narcissists are so…traumatizing. We’ve got Dr. Ramani on how to recover from narcissistic abuse. And we’ve got Dr. Natalie Feinblatt on Trauma, Addiction & Cult-Informed Therapy. It’s practi...
Jan 01, 2024•59 min•Season 6Ep. 16
This is a short preview of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to hear the whole thing, plus get bonus to ad-free episodes and other exclusive content, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Dec 28, 2023•8 min•Season 6Ep. 52
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Just in case you’re thinking about joining that incredible business opportunity selling a life changing product…don’t give them your credit card info until you’ve listened to this A Little Bit Culty remix. We’ve put together a special Anti-MLM 101 Starter Kit episode with some of our favorite crusaders in the war on schemes, scams, and other internet flim-flams especially for you. Our upline on this one is pretty solid. We dug into our archives and Rob...
Dec 25, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 15
This is a replay of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to access to all of our content bonuses, ad-free episodes and other goodies, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Dec 21, 2023•51 min•Season 6Ep. 59
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Brandie Hadfield woke up from a good-then-ultimately-nightmarish tour through the MLM world, and today she’s telling us her story without naming the organization because, well, you know culty types: They are soooooo lawsuit-happy. She got out, and today she’s a self-described recovering wellness influencer on her way to becoming a Registered Psychotherapist. She’s also working on her cult memoir, titled The MLM Recovery Handbook. She’s on a mission to ...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 14
This is a short preview of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to hear the whole thing, plus get bonus to ad-free episodes and other exclusive content, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Dec 14, 2023•8 min•Season 6Ep. 58
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Dr. Robin Stern is not your average psycho-therapist – she’s renowned for her work in emotional intelligence, relationships, and well being. And she’s the psychological sleuth who’s highlighted one particularly culty behavior: gaslighting. Fun fact: Dr. Stern actually coined the phrase “the gaslight effect.” As we know, gaslighting is straight out of the culty charismatic coercive fuckwad playbook. But we want to get specific and don’t mean to merely c...
Dec 11, 2023•56 min•Season 6Ep. 13
This is a replay of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to access to all of our content bonuses, ad-free episodes and other goodies, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Dec 07, 2023•34 min•Season 6Ep. 59
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you had a good Waldorf experience, we’re thrilled for you. Not all the schools are the same. Just like not all churches are the same. Don’t get your knickers in a knot. But if there are things about Waldorf that chap your ass, pour yourself some tea because we have just the guest for you. In this episode Chloe Weise sheds light on her decade and a half in a Waldorf School before leaving for college and grad school. Now steeped in the scientific meth...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Here’s part two of our conversation with Jaime Mahler, MS, LMHC, who is the woman behind the popular Recollected brand on social media, as well as the author of TOXIC RELATIONSHIP RECOVERY: Your Guide to Identifying Toxic Partners, Leaving Unhealthy Dynamics, and Healing Emotional Wounds After A Breakup. If you didn’t listen to part one, pause and rewind so you can avoid being extremely confused. As a reminder, in the last episode we focused on Mahler’...
Nov 30, 2023•43 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Jaime Mahler, MS, LMHC, is a New York-based psychotherapist and mental health educator who recently published her book TOXIC RELATIONSHIP RECOVERY: Your Guide to Identifying Toxic Partners, Leaving Unhealthy Dynamics, and Healing Emotional Wounds After A Breakup. She’s also the powerhouse behind the explosively popular social media brand, Recollected. Her podcast, ‘Unlearned,’ helps people of all sexual orientations and genders to heal from relationshi...
Nov 27, 2023•49 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Jane Marie is the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, and producer of This American Life. Now, she’s hosting the hit investigative podcast The Dream where she’s examined pyramid schemes and culty, late-stage, self-care capitalism. In season 3, she gives the side-eye to all the gurus and life coaches that promise new and improved secrets to living our best lives as they empty the pockets of working class people. Check out this podcaster-i...
Nov 20, 2023•57 min•Season 6Ep. 9
This is a short preview of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to hear the whole thing, plus get bonus to ad-free episodes and other exclusive content, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Nov 16, 2023•9 min•Season 6Ep. 59
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Julie Bogart homeschooled her five children for seventeen years and participated in a Cincinnati homeschool co-op of 100 families with over 300 youngsters. But it wasn’t merely homeschoolers that were a little bit culty in her life. With experiences of missionary evangelical Christianity, the New Thought movement, Scientology, and four years as an e s t devotee, Julie Bogart’s got some culty notches in her belt. Now she’s helping cult-proof parents and...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 8
This is a replay of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to access to all of our content bonuses, ad-free episodes and other goodies, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Nov 09, 2023•20 min•Season 6Ep. 59
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Yasmine Mohammed attended Islamic schools and wore a hijab starting at the age of nine, all while living in Vancouver, BC. In this episode, she invites us into her childhood to get a taste of what it was like to live in two different worlds – the West and extreme fundamentalist Islam – while fitting into neither. She pulls back the curtain on the culty dynamics, indoctrination, and dehumanization characteristic of both worlds. We learn a little about h...
Nov 06, 2023•46 min•Season 6Ep. 7
This is a short preview of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to hear the whole thing, plus get bonus to ad-free episodes and other exclusive content, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Nov 02, 2023•6 min•Season 6Ep. 58
Today’s episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. The self-help book industry alone is expected to grow from $10.5 billion annually to $15 billion by 2025. Of course, with that kinda dough floating around, a raging demand for personal growth has led to a plethora of tools aimed at achieving it. Unfortunately, there are people that seek to take advantage of this, leading to dangerous—or even deadly—consequences. When Kirby Brown was only 38 years old, a man named James Arthur Ray pushed her to stick ou...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 6
This is a short preview of an episode Sarah & Nippy recorded for the A Little Bit Culty Patreon . If you want to hear the whole thing, plus get bonus to ad-free episodes and other exclusive content, sign up at: www.patreon.com/alittlebitculty See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Oct 26, 2023•28 min•Season 6Ep. 59
