AI is suddenly everywhere it seems, and the self-help world is no different. A low-cost machine that can pump out a nearly endless string of word salad "content" to push on a willing audience? Perfect! Jean and Glenn chat about the implications of AI for self-help and how we are already seeing it wend its way into the industry and the wider mental health industry. Tony Robbins has created an AI Tony app! As a fun little experiment, Jean asks ChatGPT how it would go about creating an AI guru. So ...
Jun 23, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Glenn and Jean talk about the upcoming International Cultic Studies Association's annual conference in July, where Jean is presenting on behalf of SEEK for the third year in a row. Since 1979, ICSA has been building an international network of resources for cult survivors, educators, and researchers. SEEK's presence at the conference since 2023 has been about drawing a link between the self-help industry and cults. This year's conference focusses on the role of the media in the cult conversation...
Apr 21, 2025•52 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Jean’s in her PJs. Glenn is wearing sweats. Because we’re all tired… In this episode, the podcast is checking in on how we’re all coping (or not) in this very busy, constantly “breaking news” era. It is precisely in these moments of uncertainty that the self-help world typically kicks it into overdrive. So beware! We also talk about this interesting development we’re seeing–the self-helpification of US government. And finally, we offer a few thoughts on how to manage in overwhelming times. Thank...
Mar 31, 2025•52 min•Season 4Ep. 6
How do smart, motivated, successful people get pulled into spending thousands of dollars, many years, and lots of trust on a self-help program or teacher? Psychologist Dr. John Hunter applies the dopamine hypothesis to explain how these events may be messing with our brain chemistry in a way that puts us into a manic or hypomanic state. If you are curious about cults or if you’re a self-help person, this is a must-listen! Finally, we have a psychological explanation for what is actually going on...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 4Ep. 5
SEEK was surprised to learn of the death of James Arthur Ray on January 3rd, 2025, at the age of 67. Ray was responsible for the deaths of 3 people at his 2009 “Spiritual Warrior” Retreat in Sedona, Arizona, a crime for which he spent 20 months in prison. As this event was the genesis of SEEK Safely, Jean, Glenn, and SEEK Board Member and self-help industry expert Dr. Christine Whelan reflect on how his death fits into the arc of the self-help industry itself. As the Brown family said in its pub...
Feb 24, 2025•52 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In November 2024, SEEK was proud to present the SEEK Safely summit, a day of reflecting, brainstorming, and imagining what a better, safer self-help world looks like. We gathered together self-help industry professionals to discuss tools for seekers and self-help practitioners, to find and facilitate more ethical self-help. In this episode of the podcast, Glenn and Jean chat with Anne Peterson, SEEK friend and author of “ Is this a Cult ” about her experience in Landmark, who facilitated the Sum...
Feb 10, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Jean and Glenn chat with India Oxenberg, author, producer, and activist whose escape from NXIVM is documented in the Starz series “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.” India was an executive producer on the series. India also shares her story in her memoir, “Still Learning.” The conversations focusses less on the sensationalist aspects of her cult experience, and more on the self-help nature of NXIVM as an organization, and what attracted India to the group in the first place. More about India: Indi...
Jan 27, 2025•55 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In this episode, Dr. Doyle and Jean return to the underlying discussion of the self-help industry and the flaws within it that drive SEEK Safely’s mission. It was after Kirby Brown’s death at the 2009 Spiritual Warrior retreat that the Brown family discovered some of the rot at the core of this multi-billion dollar industry. This drove the family to found SEEK Safely, recognizing that the impulse to seek is not the issue—it’s the unethical, unregulated self-help providers that are the issue and ...
Oct 21, 2024•58 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Previously on the Podcast , Anne Peterson introduced her new memoir, "Is This A Cult?" about her many years of involvement with Landmark. Anne joins the podcast again to discuss the response to her memoir, including a flood of messages from other ex-Landmarkians saying "same here!" Anne also shares what she's learned since her book launch that has given her even more clarity about her own experience and what needs to happen going forward to create a more ethical self-help industry. SEEK is excit...
May 27, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Here is Part 2 with Brit Barkholtz. Brit Barkholtz is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in trauma and eating disorders, active in the Twitter therapist community as The Caffeinated Therapist . Brit shares her take on MLMs, self-help exploiting trauma, “culty” stuff, and Taylor Swift as a tool of trauma recovery. This episode is Part 1 of 2. To Read: Brit’s thoughts on The Tortured Poet’s Department on HuffPo PESI To Listen To: SEEK Podcast Episode on MLMs SEEK Pod Episode on Trauma ...
May 13, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Brit Barkholtz is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in trauma and eating disorders, active in the Twitter therapist community as The Caffeinated Therapist . Brit shares her take on MLMs, self-help exploiting trauma, “culty” stuff, and Taylor Swift as a tool of trauma recovery. This episode is Part 1 of 2. To Read: Brit’s thoughts on The Tortured Poet’s Department on HuffPo PESI To Listen To: SEEK Podcast Episode on MLMs SEEK Pod Episode on Trauma Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poet’s De...
May 06, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Bypassing is, essentially, avoidance. It's something we all do from time to time as a response to something unpleasant in our lives. But sometimes bypassing can cause us to go too far, putting off challenge for later that we'd be better off dealing with now. And sometimes in the self-help world, bypassing is either encouraged or deeply embedded in the thought system being pushed. Dr. Glenn highlights how spiritual bypassing, emotional bypassing, and reality bypassing are all especially dangerous...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Continuing our conversation with Anne Peterson, who has decades of involvement with Landmark, one of the original large-group awareness training (LGAT) companies, including experience producing a breakthrough leadership program developed for Landmark's founder, Werner Erhard. She tells her story in her memoir, “ Is This A Cult: Confronting the Line Between Transformation and Exploitation .” This episode is Part 2 of 2. Listen to Part 1 if you haven’t already! To Read: https://isthisacultbook.com...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Anne Peterson has decades of involvement with Landmark, one of the original large-group awareness training (LGAT) companies, including experience producing a breakthrough leadership program developed for Landmark's founder, Werner Erhard. Millions (3.5 million, according to Landmark's press packet) have passed through its trademark Landmark Forum training, many of them having positive experiences. But after her many years of working with Landmark as a facilitator and program producer, Anne began...
Mar 11, 2024•59 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This episode is a throw-back to our annual fundraiser, Kirby Jam, in October 2023. We had live-streamed on a different topic each night, and on this night, Monday, October 16th, we discussed our effort to pass self-help consumer protection legislation. Dr. Glenn, Jean, and SEEK Founder Ginny Brown talk about why we feel the legislation is necessary, what our effort has looked like, and the bill that we are hoping will make it to the floor in the New York State Legislature in 2024. (And please gi...
Feb 19, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Our resident self-help geeks, Dr. Doyle and Dr. Christine Whelan, along with Jean, talk about self-help books that aren’t self-help books—that is, books that were not written to be self-help books but have been adopted into self-help culture, or society at large, as self-helpy how-to life manuals. Some are about other aspects of mental health and wellness, some are memoir or autobiography, some are straight-up fiction, but somehow they either took on a self-help life of their own, or have been r...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Did you set a New Year’s resolution that is already floundering? Have you been inundated by self-help/wellness/woo-woo New Yearsy stuff, too? Or maybe peri-menopause supplements… The self-help industry loves a New Year’s resolution, so Jean and Glenn talk all about resolutions–their own takes and advice for resolutions, red flags to watch for in scammy self-help world, and some thoughts on how to approach this interesting, sometimes inspiring, sometimes overwhelming, time of year! Also Mentioned...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Glenn and Jean tackle the cosmic matchmaking self-help group/cult, Twin Flames Universe. Much has already been written and said about this fascinating/terrifying group. But on the SEEK Safely Podcast, the focus is on what this Twin Flames phenomenon says about self-help, and what it illuminates about why and how people get into self-help groups that turn out to be cults. Also Mentioned in this Episode: To Read: Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus by John Gray ...
Jan 01, 2024•54 min•Season 3Ep. 3
This is the continuation of the first episode of the 3rd season! It picks up where the first episode left off, deep into Tony Robbins’ assent into self-help superstardom. Tony Robbins was Dr. Glenn’s first stop in the wide world of self-help, and in many ways, he is arguably one of the best known and most successful self-help personalities ever. He put the modern self-help industry on the trajectory of providing The Answer to Everything in your life–a “kitchen sink” approach, as Dr. Glenn calls ...
Dec 18, 2023•40 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Jean and Glenn kick off the third season of the SEEK Safely Podcast, diving right in with a chat about Dr. Glenn’s favourite self-help author, Tony Robbins. Robbins has been one of the biggest names in self-help for decades. His success has inspired numerous other would-be gurus and has shifted the self-help industry in many ways. His career tells a story about the evolution of self-help, from the tape-series model to stadium events to guest appearances... anywhere. This is part 1 of 2. Watch fo...
Dec 04, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Before we take a quick podcast break, Glenn and Jean go back through the episodes from Season 2, reviewing some of the highlights and favorite moments. They also take a look at what theme emerged from this collection of discussions and interviews. We’d love to hear what your favorite moments from this season were! Let us know–send us a message or even leave a voicemail . We’ll be back with new episodes in October! Thanks for listening! Also mentioned in this Episode: Read : The Secret Practice: ...
Sep 04, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 12
“Not unlike the tactics used by cults, who often exploit people who are seeking meaning, The Manosphere and the alt right provide meaning in the form of misogyny and white supremacy, creating an “affective fabric” that binds them together.” Julia DeCook for boundary2.org, linked in notes Jean and Dr. Glenn dive into the murky waters of the Manosphere, specifically where it overlaps with the self-help world, traditionally an industry geared towards women. They discuss how the rise of this segment...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 11
In 2016, CNN Films released a documentary entitled “Enlighten Us,” which followed James Ray’s attempted comeback after his short imprisonment for negligent homicide. That conviction was the result of the deaths of 3 people at Ray’s Spiritual Warrior personal development retreat in Sedona, Arizona, in 2009. The film features interviews with survivors as well as James Ray as he attempted to rebuild his personal development business. Jean discusses what always frustrated her about the film, particu...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Jean and Dr. Glenn speak with author Joelle Tamraz, whose gripping memoir details her time with a “yoga guru” who became her life and business partner. Through her compelling storytelling, it becomes clear that it was not weakness or desperation, but a heady mix of idealism, openness to possibility, and a desire for meaningful connection that put Joelle in the path of Arun, who promised to guide and love her, but instead exploited her faith and abused her trust. Joelle’s personal experience unde...
Jul 24, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 9
In this episode, Dr. Glenn takes us through the fascinating tale of Peter McWilliams who was both the author of the best-selling “Life 101” series and a victim in many ways of his guru/cult leader, John-Roger. The story of Peter McWIlliams is sad and interesting; but importantly, it demonstrates so many of the recurring themes of how the self-help industry operates: Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGATs) as a gateway into more insidious and culty self-help self-help gurus fabricating an origin ...
Jul 10, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Given how much of a buzzword TRAUMA is in the self-help/wellness/self-improvement world and even more broadly in our culture, we’re lucky that Dr. Glenn happens to be a trauma specialist! A lot of gurus and New Age love-and-light types are talking about trauma these days. One in particular stands out. Although there has been a lot of coverage of Teal Swan, the SEEK Safely Podcast has not addressed this very popular online persona who has made her name talking specifically about trauma. Jean and ...
Jun 26, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Conspiracy theories are on the rise in many areas of our society, and this holds true within the self-help industry, especially since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jean and Glenn discuss this situation, shedding some light on why it is that conspiracies fit so easily into the realm of self-help–an industry that has often presented itself as an alternative to the mainstream. But while the fringes have long been comfortable territory for self-help, these conspiracy theories seem to be taking...
Jun 12, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In Part 1 of our interview with Dr. Christine Whalen, self-help researcher and SEEK Safely’s newest Board member, we discussed her background in researching self-help, how she got connected with SEEK Safely, and a bit about what she’s learned about how to be a best-selling self-help author. In Part 2, we really get into what’s going on with self-help today. This packed conversation covers: the new social-media fuelled trajectory for becoming a self-help guru what we’re currently seeing in the ge...
May 30, 2023•47 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Jean and Glenn welcome Dr. Christine Whelan, SEEK Safely’s newest Board member, to the SEEK Safely podcast in this first of two episodes. Dr. Christine is an author, professor and speaker, and one of the few researchers who has specifically looked into the self-help/advice industry. She is also perhaps the only person whose personal library of self-help books rivals that of Dr. Glenn! But more importantly, through her research Dr. Whelan has meaningful insights to share about how we consume self...
May 15, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 4
J ean and Glenn have an amazing opportunity to share with you! That’s right, we’re talking all about multi-level marketing! Why is the self-help podcast talking about MLMs? In this episode, the discussion specifically highlights the links and parallels between self-help and MLMs: how they share similar tactics to pull people in the similar types of people that are targeted by MLMs and self-help how they use self-help tropes like the Law of Attraction to condition/gaslight their victims sales ass...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 3
