In this bonus Q&A episode from our Patreon vault, Marc Headley broke down how Scientology actually works on the inside: from Sea Org recruitment scripts and billion‑year contracts to what really goes on at Gold Base behind the gates and cameras. He explained the day‑to‑day mechanisms of control—sleep deprivation, production quotas, “ethics” punishments, sec checks, disconnection, and constant surveillance—and how those systems are designed to keep members compliant while protecting leadershi...
Feb 26, 2026•59 min•Season 8Ep. 52
Following last week’s conversations with ex-Corey’s Angels musicians Margot Lane and Jezebel Sweet, director Marcie Hume joins us to talk about making Corey Feldman Vs. The World , the cinéma vérité documentary that starts as a quirky comeback chronicle and turns into an unexpectedly raw portrait of a former child star wrestling with trauma, ego, and the need to be believed. Marcie shares how she first got access to Corey Feldman, what it was like to embed with him, his band Corey’s Angels, and ...
Feb 23, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 51
In Part 2 with Margot Lane and Jezebel Sweet, we dive more into the spectacle of Corey’s Angels and the documentary Corey Feldman Vs. the World and what happens after you walk away from someone else’s narrative and start writing your own. They talk about the emotional and professional fallout of leaving Corey Feldman’s orbit, how it felt to watch their time in the band reframed on screen, and the mix of validation, frustration, and grief that comes with seeing the “behind the music” story shown ...
Feb 19, 2026•42 min•Season 8Ep. 50
This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. In this episode, we’re joined by Margot Lane and Jezebel Sweet, former members of Corey’s Angels, the all‑female band and “angel” entourage formed and led by actor and musician Corey Feldman. Drawing on their experience, partially shown in the new documentary COREY FELDMAN VS. THE WORLD—a cinéma vérité chronicle of Corey’s attempt to reboot his career—they describe what it’s like to have the camera rolling long after the performance ends, how it felt to b...
Feb 16, 2026•51 min•Season 8Ep. 49
In Part 2 of our conversation with Sofia May, she continues sharing her experiences connected to Tara Mandala and the community around lama Tsultrim Allione. We get into the messy, nuanced territory where Buddhist teachings, spiritual leadership, and real-world power dynamics intersect. We explore what draws people to Tibetan Buddhist communities and retreat centers in the first place, and how things can get complicated when reverence, hierarchy, and human behavior collide. Sofia shared her pers...
Feb 12, 2026•59 min•Season 8Ep. 48
In Part 1 of this conversation with stand-up comedian and former Tara Mandala practitioner Sofia May, she joins us to talk about how a beautiful Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in the Colorado mountains—founded by western author lama Tsultrim Allione—slowly revealed a deeply culty underbelly beneath the goddess imagery and tantric empowerment language. Sofia traces her path from sincere Buddhist seeker to close student of lama Tsultrim inside Tara Mandala’s residential community. She describes t...
Feb 09, 2026•35 min•Season 8Ep. 47
In Part 2 of our conversation with author Tia Levings, we go even deeper into what it actually takes to leave a high-control Christian fundamentalist marriage and rebuild a life on the other side. Tia shares more about how religious doctrine, patriarchy, and fear were used to justify control, submission, and abuse, and how difficult it can be to recognize harm when it’s framed as God’s will or “biblical womanhood.” We talk about spiritual abuse, domestic abuse in religious communities, and the p...
Feb 05, 2026•42 min•Season 8Ep. 48
This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. In this episode, Tia Levings—bestselling author of A Well-Trained Wife and survivor of Christian fundamentalism who appears in the Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People —returns to dig deeper into what happened after escaping her high‑control marriage and the broader world of Christian patriarchy and homeschooling that enabled it. She talks about navigating the court system and custody battles with an abuser who knew how to weaponize “godly fatherhood,” ho...
Feb 02, 2026•48 min•Season 8Ep. 47
In Part 2 with former Landmark Forum staffer Anne Peterson, we dig into what it actually took to leave the Landmark ecosystem emotionally, financially, and socially—and how she began unpacking the “technology” and jargon she once used to coach other people’s breakthroughs. Anne breaks down the aftershocks of working inside a Werner Erhard–inspired large group awareness training (LGAT): the burnout, cognitive dissonance, and shame hangovers that show up once you’re no longer being love‑bombed on ...
Jan 29, 2026•41 min•Season 8Ep. 44
In Part 1 of this conversation, former Landmark Forum staffer Anne Peterson returns to update us about life post- Is This a Cult? book launch. She takes us back inside the transformational training machine built on Werner Erhard’s EST curriculum, and how something sold as breakthrough personal growth slowly revealed classic high‑control dynamics. Going from enthusiastic participant to full‑time staff, Anne breaks down the structure of Landmark forums, leadership programs, and “enrollment” cultur...
Jan 26, 2026•46 min•Season 8Ep. 43
In Part 2 of our conversation with Priya Hutner, we keep pulling back the curtain on life inside the Kashi Ashram and the world surrounding Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati (“Ma”), including what happens when devotion, hierarchy, and silence collide. Priya continues sharing her lived experience growing up in and around the ashram and how spiritual ideals were often used to excuse harm, blur boundaries, and shut down questions. We talk about the normalization of control and coercion in spiritual communitie...
Jan 22, 2026•39 min•Season 8Ep. 42
This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. In Part 1 of our conversation with writer Priya Hutner, she takes us inside her years at the Kashi Ashram, a spiritual community led by guru Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, AKA “Ma,” in New York. She unpacks how an intentional, service-oriented “ashram family” slowly revealed deeply culty dynamics beneath the incense and darshan (beholding). She traces her journey from an earnest young seeker drawn to Eastern spirituality, meditation, and seva (service), to an in...
Jan 19, 2026•36 min•Season 8Ep. 41
In Part 2 of our conversation with Jared Van Driessche, we go even deeper into what happens when you start questioning the system you were raised in, especially when that system is built on family, faith, and authority. Jared continues to unpack his experience growing up in a high-control religious environment connected to the Bahá’í faith, and how parental power, spiritual obedience, and silence around harm collide in deeply damaging ways. We talk candidly about parental abuse, childhood emotio...
Jan 15, 2026•37 min•Season 8Ep. 40
In Part 1 of our conversation, security specialist Jared Van Driessche shares the story behind his polished “protector” persona: growing up in a Bahá’í family with a controlling and volatile father, and how a faith that preached unity, justice, and service coexisted with secrecy, fear, and emotional and physical abuse at home. He talks about being parentified from a young age, trying to manage his dad’s rage, and the confusing double bind of having a spiritual community that outwardly looked lov...
Jan 12, 2026•44 min•Season 8Ep. 39
In Part 2 with artist and ex-Mormon creator Shelise Ann Sola, we pick up with what happens after you walk away from the LDS Church: family fallout, reclaiming your body and sexuality from modesty/purity culture, and learning how to trust your own inner authority instead of a prophet, bishop, or priesthood holder. Shelise talks about healing religious trauma, unpacking scrupulosity and intrusive fears about hell and worthiness, and the messy, funny, and sometimes dark reality of building a new li...
Jan 08, 2026•47 min•Season 8Ep. 38
In the first part of our conversation, artist, podcaster, and former Mormon Shelise Ann Sola joins us to talk about growing up in a devout Latter-day Saint (LDS) family. She internalized “perfect girl” expectations and slowly deconstructed the high-demand beliefs that shaped her identity and relationships. Shelise shares how modesty culture, purity messaging, temple worthiness interviews, and the LDS obsession with eternal marriage impacted her mental health, sexuality, and sense of self, and ho...
Jan 05, 2026•43 min•Season 8Ep. 37
In Part 2 of our conversation with Elicia Ybarra, she unpacks her path to healing through EMDR trauma therapy. She realized how buried triggers from years of grooming and abuse sabotaged her marriage and self-defense curriculum development, leading to a near-separation and inability to be touched even by her son. She broke down her "Pretty Hands, Hard Punches" empowerment model. We also discussed why stats show 975/1000 sexual assault perpetrators walk free, the red flags of abuse, multi-layered...
Jan 01, 2026•37 min•Season 8Ep. 36
In Part 1 of our conversation with martial artist and empowerment self-defense instructor Elicia Ybarra, we trace how a childhood love of ninja turtles and karate turned into a 30-year journey through grooming, coercive control, and abuse in multiple martial arts settings, and how she eventually turned all of it into a curriculum to help other women fight back before it ever gets physical. Elicia described being groomed by a trusted instructor from ages 13–16, losing her community when she tried...
Dec 29, 2025•46 min•Season 8Ep. 35
Ring the sleigh bells for this A Little Bit Extra Thursday Christmas bonus. We navigate thorny territory around recent NXIVM-adjacent podcasts we legally can't discuss yet. Trust us, we have thoughts, and Sarah spills her feelings about all the drama on her hour-long debrief with Mark Vicente. We reflect on our favorite episodes from 2025—ones that surprised us, moved us, and occasionally got us in trouble—and tease what's coming in 2026: our book is finally landing, and we're doing a live Patre...
Dec 25, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 34
In this episode, Cheryl Tuppa joins the pod to tell the story of her niece Briana’s seven-year entanglement with Twin Flames Universe—from a late-night Google search about soulmates to a full-blown high-control group that nearly swallowed her life and savings. A longtime cybersecurity specialist, Cheryl walks us through how a close, resourceful New England family still missed key early signs, then organized “Team Briana” behind the scenes, contacting ex-members, law enforcement, journalists, and...
Dec 22, 2025•57 min•Season 8Ep. 33
In Part 2 of our conversation with Andrew-Ryan Profaci, we pick up right where things get extra bananas: the “quantum hoax,” the moment he pulled back the curtain on Love Has Won’s manufactured enemies, fake spiritual threats, and collective delusion. Andrew-Ryan realized the whole thing was a miniature version of the way abusive systems run in the wider world. We walk through how he went from compliant “Father God” to sabotaging the belief system from the inside, confronting Amy’s contradiction...
Dec 18, 2025•32 min•Season 8Ep. 32
This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. In the first of this two-part episode, we finally go inside Love Has Won with someone who was actually there, and who tried to stop it from the inside out. We talk with Andrew-Ryan Profaci about how a lonely, spiritually curious guy dealing with addiction recovery, job loss, and a rabbit hole of conspiracies became “Father God–adjacent” in a group led by Amy Carlson, a woman who believed she was Mother God, destined to usher Earth into a new 5D age. Andre...
Dec 15, 2025•46 min•Season 8Ep. 31
Amanda Montell returns for round two, diving into what she's learned since Cultish dropped: Instagram comment wars as tribal battlegrounds, "platforming" as a thought-terminating cliché, and why understanding opposing views could get you canceled. We bonded over podcast economics, navigated controversy around Sounds Like a Cult episodes on Waldorf and fertility, discussed which cult she'd have joined (artist-led, obviously), and took a truly unhinged detour into vampire raves, Gen Z slang, and t...
Dec 11, 2025•36 min•Season 8Ep. 30
Amanda Montell—author, linguist, and our reigning three-time champion guest—returns in studio to talk about the newly released paperback edition of Cultish , the book that launched a thousand cult-discourse hot takes and made us all think twice about our SoulCycle memberships. We dove into what it's like to write a cult book when you're 27, watch it blow up unexpectedly, and face the onslaught of feedback (good, bad, and "I want to ruin your life"). Amanda opened up about the changes she made fo...
Dec 08, 2025•36 min•Season 8Ep. 29
We’re back for A Little Bit Extra Thursday filled with Thanksgiving word salads and gallows humor. We chat about the last few truly bonkers weeks, share a long-awaited update on the book (spoiler: it’s actually finished and with our copy editor!), and talk about why we can’t publicly comment on certain NXIVM-adjacent podcasts just yet. We listen to your voicemails about the podcast featuring Allison Mack, Nippy’s growth arc, Westerners hijacking Eastern spirituality, and a culty resort in Costa ...
Dec 04, 2025•27 min•Season 8Ep. 28
When does sexual empowerment cross the line into cult control? Following Ellen Huet’s OneTaste expose, we sat with Anthia Gillick—former OneTaste “insider,” survivor, and truth-teller—for a deep dive into the mechanics of manipulation inside one of the most controversial so-called “wellness” groups of the last decade. Anthia shares her journey from lost post-grad to commune life, revealing how boundaries were vaporized, “personal growth” was weaponized, and manufactured intimacy masked abuse and...
Dec 01, 2025•54 min•Season 8Ep. 27
We’re back with the second half of our conversation with the unstoppable Heather Gay: housewife, truth-teller, and newly minted slayer of Mormon silence. Heather gets real (and really funny) about what she’s gained since stepping away from the church: self-discovery, creative freedom, and the kind of joy 10-year-old her would’ve fainted over. We dig into her docuseries Surviving Mormonism , the tidal wave of stories she’s helping bring to light, and the church’s (let’s call it) “creative” approa...
Nov 27, 2025•39 min•Season 8Ep. 26
Heather Gay, Real Housewife, “Bad Mormon,” and faith deconstruction trailblazer, joined us to talk about her journey from devout church girl to outspoken survivor. She shares what made Mormonism so magnetic, how family, secrets, and ritual shaped her upbringing, and the pivotal moments that cracked her certainty wide open, including appearing on past ALBC guest Dr. John Dehlin’s Mormon Stories Podcast . From endowment ceremonies and culinary faux pas to finding her voice outside the fold, Heathe...
Nov 24, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 25
We dive even deeper in Part two with Ellen Huet to unpack what drove OneTaste’s inner circle, its culty sales playbook, and the strange tangle of power, personal growth, and manipulation. Ellen reveals the hidden pressures—financial, sexual, emotional—that kept members tied to the group (and often hemorrhaging money), and explains how buzzwords like “aversion practice,” “getting off on any stroke,” and “rapidly changing reality” were really tools for bulldozing boundaries and controlling thought...
Nov 20, 2025•47 min•Season 8Ep. 24
This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. What happens when the pursuit of female pleasure blurs into high-pressure sales, psychological control, and a federal criminal trial? In this two-part episode, we’re joined by journalist Ellen Huet for a candid dive into the rise and fall of OneTaste and the controversial practice of orgasmic meditation. Ellen unpacks how a wellness company promising sexual healing and empowerment became a high-control, high-demand group, luring seekers with mindfulness a...
Nov 17, 2025•41 min•Season 8Ep. 23
