May 30, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


I Was a Child Bride: Dr. Tamara MC on the Language of Manipulation (Part 1)

When she was only 12-years-old, Dr. Tamara MC had a secret wedding ceremony in the middle of the night. Shrouded in pitch black and with no one present but her new husband, a much older man who could supposedly guide her to the kingdoms of knowledge and heaven, this night further cemented Tamara’s place in a highly abusive religious cult. Above all else, men wielding black leather whips forced females to surrender their “nafs”—the Arabic word for “self.” As she put it in an article for Mother Well Mag, the girls in that cult “didn’t know where [their] bodies stopped and the perpetrators' bodies began.”

Now, Tamara has earned a Ph. D. in Applied Linguistics, specifically studying how language can be used to manipulate vulnerable populations. She advocates against gender-based violence and has written prolifically about the nightmarish experiences that punctuated her youth, d0ing as much as she humanly can to prevent this from happening as frequently in the future.

Episode available since May 29, 2023


May 23, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


The Lumerian Sisters: Jennings Brown on Liana Shanti

Another day, another wellness guru preaching enlightenment on social media. Total snooze, right?! Unless said guru begins telling her followers to cut ties with their “family cults'' in order to save their children from a ruling class of evil reptilian creatures, the likes of which are responsible for creating the COVID-19 “scandemic” as a Luciferian tool to harvest innocent souls…that might spice things up a bit. Or a shit ton.

Such has been the case with Liana Shanti, a nymph-like online persona who’s amassed thousands of predominantly female followers on Instagram, a platform she uses to share beliefs such as the one where the US government is going to put unvaccinated children into concentration camps, or that Florida is the only safe space and thus all her followers should move there.

Suffice to say, Shanti’s story is…truly a wild one. And luckily for us, we get to hear about it from none other than Jennings Brown, an investigative journalist and podcast/documentary producer who previously joined us to discuss The Teal Swan. This time, he’s on ALBC to explain the woman hiding behind Shanti’s online persona, her recent legal woes, and just how damaging her teachings have been to numerous families that now stand divided.

Episode available since May 22, 2023


May 16, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


Murder, Faith & End Times: Leah Sottile on Lori Vallow & Chad Daybell

f you still manage to read the news, good job. You’ve then no doubt heard that “Doomsday Mom” Lori Vallow was just convicted of murdering her 16-year-old daughter Tylee and seven-year-old son J.J. This judgment will be an end to this harrowing yet enthralling story, which turned 49-year-old mom and Mormon, Lori Vallow into an international media fixture, seemingly entangled in a web of infanticide, zombies, escapes to Hawaii, and a trail of mysterious deaths that remain suspicious as hell.

On today’s episode, we’re joined by freelance journalist and author Leah Sottile, whose book When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Faith, and End Times, illuminates the story of the former beauty queen and her grave-digger turned doomsday novelist slash extremist douchebag husband, Chad. Take a listen to learn more as Sottile breaks the case down, explaining how Vallow’s tale is just symptomatic of something larger.

Episode available since May 15, 2023


May 9, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


‘Uncultured:’ Daniella Mestyanek Young on COG and the US Military (Pt. 2)

Today’s episode is Sponsored by BetterHelp. We’re back for part 2 of our interview with Daniella Mestyanek Young, the badass author of Uncultured: a Memoir. In her book, Young gets into the nitty gritty of growing up in the Children of God cult, now known as “The Family International,” with their horrifying pedophilic practice called “Law of Love.” In part 2, we dive deeper into Young’s time as a Captain in the US Army—a role that threw Young back into the trenches of misogynist and coercive abuse resembling the neglect she survived in her childhood.

How did military personnel respond to Young’s whistleblowing? What did she endure during her hazing as a new soldier? And why did another captain tell her she’d “probably get raped” on a certain military deployment?

Episode available since May 08, 2023


May 2, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


‘Uncultured:’ Daniella Mestyanek Young on COG and the US Military (Pt. 1)

If hell is real, there is perhaps no circle of it as harrowing nor vile as the experience of growing up in the Children of God cult. Still active under the name “The Family International,” the group is known for being a real-life manifestation of the shittiest of shitty macabre practices, such as child sexual abuse involving their “Law of Love,”—a mandate for females of all ages to show Jesus their love by letting men straight up rape them.

One would hope that growing up in COG would be the last coercive, abusive, and negligent experience for today’s guest, Daniella Mestyanek Young, who is an American author, keynote speaker, and previous Captain in the US Army. One would also hope for ponies and rainbows and a bigger tax return this year but HEY, life’s no cake walk. On today’s episode, Young discusses her book Uncultured: a Memoir, wherein she details her cult-riddled childhood and how, shockingly, the US Army reflected comparable practices.

But how? Take a listen to part 1 of our interview with Daniella, with part 2 coming out next week.

Episode available since May 01, 2023


Apr 25, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


Into Quicksand: Kate Amber on How Cults Pull You In

Landmark Worldwide is a corporation that offers personal and professional development programs with a total of over 2.4 million (!) past participants in 21 countries. Yikes on bikes—that sounds a bit like NXIVM on steroids. Well, while Landmark isn’t technically a cult, it certainly is “A Little Bit Culty”, with no shortage of spirit-stomping coercive control and intimidation in order to create “A world that works for everyone by 2020.” Wait, is that how 2020 went and we’re just misremembering it?!

Today’s guest, Kate Amber, survived Landmark and went on to become a badass expert on violence and abuse prevention after receiving her education from UPenn and the University of Salford. She’s also gone on to create the PsychoSocial Quicksand Model™—take a listen to learn all about it, as well as the time she challenged a Landmark leader, and how she eventually got out, even if she didn’t 100% want to (at the time).

Oh, and would you believe she has a Keith Raniere overlap? What a small, culty little world we live in.

Episode available since April 24, 2023


Apr 18, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


Hey, Hun: Emily Lynn Paulson on MLMs and Other Lies

Imagine this: an invitation comes your way to join a group of friends, mostly moms (and let’s assume you are one). Primary activities involve drinking lots of wine, relishing in sisterhood and female empowerment, and best of all, making loads of money. It’s enticing as hell, which explains why Multi Level Marketing groups (MLMs) remain ubiquitous today.

What could go wrong? A shit ton! Hence why our guest today, author and mother Emily Lynn Paulson, believes that all MLMs—which form a $180 billion industry—are cults. Oh, but they’re not just your average cults, because lobbyists and politicians are fighting hard to keep the legal pyramid schemes not only intact, but growing throughout American suburbia (and beyond) like wildfire.

In this episode, we discuss how to not get caught up in the flames.

Episode available since April 17, 2023


Apr 12, 2023

Esoterica



‘Headed off the charts’: world’s ocean surface temperature hits record high

The temperature of the world’s ocean surface has hit an all-time high since satellite records began, leading to marine heatwaves around the globe, according to US government data.

Climate scientists said preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) showed the average temperature at the ocean’s surface has been at 21.1C since the start of April – beating the previous high of 21C set in 2016.

“The current trajectory looks like it’s headed off the charts, smashing previous records,” said Prof Matthew England, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales.

. . .

Current observations show moderate to strong marine heatwaves in several regions, including the southern Indian Ocean, the south Atlantic, off north-west Africa, around New Zealand, off the north-east of Australia and the west of Central America.


Apr 11, 2023

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A Little Bit Culty


Your Turn to Listen: Gwenith Kikkawa and Kevin Alexander on Resilience

You know the old adage; person A joins an organization, person B joins the same organization, persons A and B learn organization is a cult and, after getting married, decide to escape. Wait, is that not normal? Well, thankfully Sarah and Nippy aren’t the only ones who’ve experienced this. Gwenith Kikkawa (they/them) and Kevin Alexander (they/them) are multiple-cult survivors, meaning they’ve experienced culty horrors not just once (like a great majority of our guests), but numerous times. Now, the couple has channeled their experiences into art via playwriting, songwriting, and more, narrowing in on how one can reclaim identity after traumatic coercive thought control over several years.

#IGotOut - The Musical will be featured at the igotout.org produced Story Jam (taking place on October 21st, 2023) as the grand finale performance. The event as a whole is meant to provide a platform for #IGOTOUT stories from all sorts of survivors and advocates.

The venue, The Improv Shop in St. Louis offers an intimate, comedy club atmosphere and tickets will be limited and sold on a first come, first serve basis. Use this link to subscribe and to have the first option on tickets.

This event is a collaboration with the RetreatCon, taking place on the same weekend with the local non-profit Tears of Eden.

Episode available since April 10, 2023


Apr 4, 2023

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Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


Leading Nowhere: Jordan Harbinger on Self-Help Hell

Today’s guest, Jordan Harbinger, went from Wall Street lawyer to interview talk-show host. Turns out he’s been pretty damn good at both careers, with some even calling him “The Larry Kind of Podcasting.” On The Jordan Harbinger Show, he’s now spent 14 years deconstructing the most successful people in the world and asking them how they got to where they are. Inevitably (to us) but unexpectedly (to Jordan), one thing that’s come up a lot on the show? Cults, especially self-help cults, and the absolute ubiquity of coercive control across the United States. In fact, he even experienced some seminars that were A Little Bit Culty himself.

Episode available since April 03, 2023


Mar 28, 2023

Cafe



Around the Web, Around the World

A Little Bit Culty


Press Replay: Robert Gavin on the NXIVM Trials

The press has been perhaps the most crucial third party for world happenings since, well, whenever the press was invented. While there is of course no shortage of fake news out there, the main goal of the press is to keep society honest, investigating everything from corrupt governments to those cute little cliques we like to call cults.

Robert Gavin has been a news reporter for 28 years, having also worked for two years as an editor. Originally from Staten Island, Gavin began his career by covering the New York City police and fire departments, the NYS Capitol, State and Federal Courts, various murder trials, and cases involving terrorism, the mafia, street gangs, and political corruption. And eventually, Robert’s role in the NXIVM trials and their coverage would play a crucial part in bringing down Keith Raniere, which we’re sure you saw on HBO’s “The Vow.” On today’s episode, we talk to Gavin about his time covering the cult, as well as the aftermath.

Please note, this series includes details of sexual abuse. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you, or someone who know, is a survivor of sexual assault, abuse, grooming, child abuse, or human trafficking, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers support at 800.656.HOPE (4673).

Episode available since March 27, 2023


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