The Orgasm Cult - podcast cover

The Orgasm Cult

BBC Radio 4www.bbc.co.uk

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co.

In the search for wellness, how far would you go?

Nicole Daedone, the charismatic co-founder of wellness company One Taste believed that orgasm would one day sit alongside yoga and meditation as the self-care practice for the modern empowered women.

Except that now the FBI is making enquiries in to One Taste over allegations including sex trafficking, prostitution and violations of labour law.

How did Orgasmic Meditation go from hippy beginnings to a sleek, million-dollar operation?

How did this wellness practise – touted as the next big thing everywhere from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop to the New York Times – lead to isolation, debt and abuse?

Why is women’s health and pain still not taken seriously by conventional medicine?

The Orgasm Cult is a story about people desperate for connection and how far they would go to find it.

Join Nastaran Tavakoli-Far as she investigates One Taste through exclusive interviews with former employees and asks big questions about the wellness industry.

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Episodes

10. Picking up the pieces

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. Episode 9 of the Podcast has been removed for legal reasons. Minor amendments have been made to Episodes 8 and 10 to reflect the removal of Episode 9. In 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek published an article by reporter Ellen Huet exposing the toxic culture within One Taste. Shortly afterwards, the FBI started making enquiries into the company over all...

Dec 16, 202025 min

8. Is One Taste a Cult?

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. Episode 9 of the Podcast has been removed for legal reasons. Minor amendments have been made to Episodes 8 and 10 to reflect the removal of Episode 9. Even from the early days of One Taste, discussion swirled around whether the company was a cult. Co-founder Nicole Daedone even had a tank top which said “cult” on it in big white letters, and staff ...

Dec 09, 202020 min

7. Sex, money, power

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. One Taste was all about the female orgasm – but a lot of men wanted to get involved too, whether to learn how to relate to women better or just in the hope of more sex. And because Orgasmic Meditation was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, the home of Silicon Valley, it attracted a lot of men who worked in the tech industry, some of whom were extr...

Dec 09, 202026 min

6. One woman’s story

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. One former One Taste member tells us the story of her experiences inside One Taste. Before she encountered One Taste, she had struggled to orgasm, and mainstream doctors hadn’t been able to tell her why. She says the prospect that she could experience orgasm through Orgasmic Meditation left her “saturated with hope”. Initially, One Taste welcomed h...

Dec 02, 202029 min

5. Inside the OM Houses

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. Many One Taste members lived in communal houses, known as OM houses. They would practice Orgasmic Meditation together multiple times a day while also working for One Taste selling and running courses. Some people moved in to the OM houses only weeks after their first encounter with One Taste. Some were attracted by the possibility of lots of sex, b...

Dec 02, 202026 min

4. Why do people turn to the wellness industry?

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. One Taste sold itself as a wellness company – part of a multi-billion dollar industry selling everything from green smoothies to healing crystals to cryotherapy. The wellness industry has grown massively in recent years. Wellness practices can offer hope and empowerment to people – particularly women – who are looking for connection or meaning in t...

Nov 25, 202026 min

3. Welcome to One Taste

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. One Taste didn’t invent Orgasmic Meditation – but they did repackage it for a modern audience. The idea of “deliberate orgasm” achieved by genital stroking started in the hippy communes of 1960s California. It was a time of huge social and sexual experimentation. One Taste co-founder Nicole Daedone first experienced the practice in the late 1990s. ...

Nov 25, 202024 min

2. What is an orgasm?

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. Before we dive into the story of One Taste, we go back to basics on the female orgasm. What exactly is an orgasm? What’s going on in the body and the brain during the process? Why do some women struggle to experience orgasm? And what’s the best way to get there? We find out with neuroscientist and sex therapist Dr Nan Wise, author of Why Good Sex M...

Nov 23, 202018 min

1. Changing the world through orgasm

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. Nastaran Tavakoli-Far explores the rise and fall of One Taste. We learn how to practise Orgasmic Meditation with a former member and his wife, and hear co-founder Nicole Daedone’s story of how she encountered a Buddhist monk at a party who changed her life. And former One Taste members and staff tell us about the optimism with which they joined the...

Nov 18, 202022 min

Discover The Orgasm Cult

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co. Nicole Daedone, the charismatic co-founder of wellness company One Taste believed that orgasm would one day sit alongside yoga and meditation as the self-care self-care practice for the modern empowered women. Except that now the FBI is making enquiries in to One Taste over allegations including sex trafficking, prostitution and violations of labou...

Nov 10, 20203 min
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