Latest Abuseofpower Podcast Episodes
Priscilla Tucker, Part 1: The Kingstons, Polygamy, and a Cousin Engagement
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - April 05, 2023 08:00 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsPriscilla Tucker, friend of the show and survivor of Mormon-offshoot polygamist group the Kingstons, talks about the origins of the group and how it differs from other polygamist sects, why so many members become doctors and lawyers, and her upbringing, including how she began working for pennie...
Adam Levin - Romance Scams, Hackers, & Protecting Your Identity
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - March 29, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsHave you been scammed? Lola and Meagan have... and one of them was even part of one. What the Hack podcast host Adam Levin joins Trust Me to chat about phishing, romance scams that target the elderly, social engineering, who the scammers ARE, and tips on how to protect your identity online. Got...
Zacch Comfort, Part 2: The Bride of Christ Church, and an Important Story From Lola
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - March 22, 2023 11:08 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsIn part two of Lola & Meagan's interview with Bride of Christ Church survivor Zacch Comfort, they discuss how leader Thomas Clyde Smith Jr's control tactics got more extreme once the group moved to the Oregon commune, including separating children from their families, requiring people to hit eac...
Zacch Comfort, Part 1: The Bride of Christ Church and a Sex Offender Turned Prophet
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - March 15, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsSurvivor of The Bride of Christ Church and creator of the Boiled Frogs podcast, Zacch Comfort, shares how convicted child molester Thomas Clyde Smith, Jr went from seeing visions in a psych ward to starting his own church, asserting control and arranging marriages while the group was in Las Vega...
Sam Ciavarella - When CrossFit Gets Culty
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - March 09, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsIf the shoe CrossFits... Former employee and enthusiast of CrossFit, Sam Ciavarella, shares about a time when she constructed her whole identity around CrossFit, the feeling of constant pressure to push herself to the limit, the shady story of the original owner, comparing CrossFit to generally ...
Keith Page - From Megachurch Pastor to Secular Death Doula
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - February 22, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsIt's the episode you've been dying to hear. Keith Page, funeral celebrant, hospice chaplain, and death doula/midwife, shares what it was like being a pastor of large church and why parts of that experience made him uncomfortable, his fall from grace that led him to turn away from religion, and h...
Rosanna Arquette - Commune Life, Racism, & Harvey Weinstein
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - February 15, 2023 10:00 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsActor, director, and activist Rosanna Arquette discusses her childhood growing up on a commune that was part of the Subud spiritual movement, her mom's journey from her own abuse to helping other women, the racism she saw in the community outside of the commune, her own personal experience with ...
Felicia Rosario and Daniel Levin - Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - February 08, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsSurvivor's of Larry Ray's sex cult Felicia and Daniel discuss how they came to meet Larry, how he leveraged his memory and connections to craft an image of authority, how Larry gained control of their lives under the guise of helping them, when the manipulation elevated into sexual abuse and vio...
Antonio Perez - Alex Jones, the New World Order, and Conspiracy Theory Addiction
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - February 01, 2023 16:36 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsGet your pocket constitution ready. Antonio Perez, a former conspiracy theorist who followed Alex Jones, shares why Jones' over-the-top theories about the New World Order appealed to him, how Antonio's addiction factored into his dopamine-seeking thinking, and why building an internal locus of c...
Chris Kavanagh & Matthew Browne - Decoding the Gurus
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - January 25, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsCognitive anthropologist Chris Kavanagh and psychologist Matthew Browne, hosts of the podcast Decoding the Gurus, share some of their criteria for what makes a guru, discussing a few of the many personalities they've covered on their podcast: Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, oh my. T...
Lauren Drain, Part 2: Life After Westboro
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - January 18, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsIn part two of their discussion with former Westboro Baptist Church member Lauren Drain, she'll share how she was kicked out of the group and struggled to build a new social circle, the fear mongering that the Church used, and her healing journey including the use of fitness, EMDR, and ayahuasca...
Lauren Drain, Part 1: Joining The Westboro Baptist Church
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - January 11, 2023 10:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsBanished author, fitness model, and registered nurse Lauren Drain joins Lola and Meagan to talk about her upbringing in the Westboro Baptist Church. They'll discuss the group's hateful and cruel picketing of public events, how Lauren's family joined after her dad intended to make a mockumentary ...
Jay Van Bavel - Groupthink, Social Identity, and Cult Psychology
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - January 04, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsGroups!... I did it again. Jay Van Bavel, NYU Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, Director of the Social Identity and Morality Lab, and co-author of The Power Of Us, discusses how our social identities change depending on our environment and context, how the groups we identify ...
Conspiracy Month: Morbid - Elisa Lam, False Accusations, & the Dangers of Web Sleuthing
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - December 28, 2022 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsMetal musician and filmmaker Pablo "Morbid" Vergara, who appeared in the Netflix docuseries "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel," shares what drew him to metal music and its horror-centric imagery, and how his dark persona led to him being accused by strangers of murdering Elisa Lam--...
Conspiracy Month: Aja Romano & The Satanic Panic
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - December 21, 2022 18:35 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsDon't panic! Writer Aja Romano shares how they became interested in the history of the Satanic Panic in the US, how it ramped up in the 60s and 70s, the societal impact of horror films like The Exorcist, books like Satan Seller and Michelle Remembers, rising fear and trials that arose in the 80s...
Conspiracy Month: Mikey Biddlestone - What Makes Conspiracy Theorists Double Down
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - December 14, 2022 17:25 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsLola and Meagan chat with Mikey Biddlestone, post-doc researcher at the Cambridge social decision making lab whose focus is on conspiracy beliefs, misinformation, and political psychology. They'll dig into what factors make someone more likely to believe in conspiracies, the values they do or DO...
Conspiracy Month: Lisa Fazio - Why Fake News Feels Real
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - December 07, 2022 17:55 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsIt's Conspiracy Month! In our first episode of the series, Lisa Fazio, Associate Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University, discusses how we come to believe falsehoods, why none of us are experts at discerning fact from fiction, and how repetition can make false information seem more true...
Josh Lobo - What Happens When You Troll a Cult
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - November 30, 2022 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsFilmmaker and Lola's pal Josh Lobo shares his experiences as a teenager dealing with a militant small-town religious group in Wyoming. He'll discuss how trolling the group on Facebook led to them seeking revenge, escalating over time to the point of shooting his car up, how he sought legal actio...
Jan Broberg, Part 2: Seduction, Secrecy, and Realizing the Lie
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - November 23, 2022 10:00 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsJan Broberg, kidnapping survivor and subject of the Peacock documentary Friend of the Family: True Evil (plus scripted series Friend of the Family), describes how Robert Berchtold seduced Jan's mom to get to Jan, and what it was like the second time he abducted her, keeping her hidden for 4 mont...
Jan Broberg, Part 1: Family Grooming, Aliens, and the First Kidnapping
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - November 16, 2022 10:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsJan Broberg, kidnapping survivor and subject of the Peacock documentary Friend of the Family: True Evil (plus scripted series Friend of the Family), shares her story of how a man from church befriended her family when she was a child, grooming and seducing both of her parents to get to Jan. She ...
Trust Me 100!
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - November 09, 2022 17:03 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsLola and Meagan celebrate their 100th episode by looking back at some of their most awe-inspiring, informative, and touching moments from their interviews with former Moonie Steve Hassan, NXIVM survivor India Oxenberg, former Manson girl Dianne Lake, Heaven's Gate survivor Frank Lyford, and more...
Elishaba Doerksen, Part 2 - Escaping Alaska and the Road to Recovery
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - November 02, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsLola and Meagan continue their conversation with Elishaba Doerksen, author of Out of the Wilderness: Escaping My Father's Prison and My Journey to Forgiveness. Elishaba discuess her family's move to Alaska, how her father's physical abuse turned sexual after years of grooming, how she finally es...
Elishaba Doerksen, Part 1 - My Family Cult in the Wilderness
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - October 19, 2022 21:57 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsElishaba Doerksen, author of Out of the Wilderness: Escaping My Father's Prison and My Journey to Forgiveness, describes how her father rejected his well-to-do upbringing, became a hippie, and eventually found Christianity, deeming himself a sort of prophet. In part one of her story, she shares ...
Abigail Kochunas - The Gloria Gifford Conservatory for the Performing Arts
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - October 12, 2022 19:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsActor Abigail Kochunas and our very own Meagan Elizabeth share stories of what they saw and were subjected to as students in Gloria Gifford's Acting Conservatory including classes that would go on for hours, public humiliation, and the unusual level of control Gloria had over the lives of her me...
Sari Crawford - Synanon: Rehab Program Turned Cult
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - October 05, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsSari Crawford, host of podcast The Sunshine Place, details her father's involvement with Synanon, the notorious drug rehabilitation program turned cult. Sari shares what led Charles Dederich to found the group in the 1950s, Synanon's early success helping addicts recover, and practices like "the...
Charlotte Laws - IsAnyoneUp.com, Revenge Porn, and the Most Hated Man on the Internet
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - September 28, 2022 21:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsAuthor and anti-revenge porn activist Charlotte Laws details her battle against the infamous founder of IsAnyoneUp.com and the subject of Netflix's The Most Hated Man on the Internet, Hunter Moore. She shares how her daughter Kayla's photos were hacked and stolen by Hunter, how he refused to tak...
Listener Stories - Financial Abuse, Mormon Missions, and Coming Out
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - September 22, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsLola & Meagan re-open up the hotline to Stephanie in Los Angeles as she shares how she was stalked and subjected to financial abuse by her narcissist ex-husband, and Annie in Utah who discusses coming out as a lifelong Mormon, the hardship she experienced on her mission, how she left the LDS chu...
Chris Bail - Online Extremism, Trolls, & the Myth of the Echo Chamber
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - September 14, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsChris Bail, professor and director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, talks about his work in computational social science, why social echo chambers don't work the way we think they do, how our needs for identity and community factor into extremism, and why the moderate majority is the ...
Cheryl Nichols - High School Teacher Grooming, Patriarchy, and "Passing the Trash"
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - August 31, 2022 18:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsFilmmaker and subject of Freeform's "Keep This Between Us," Cheryl Nichols, shares how her high school teacher groomed her for a sexual relationship when she was 16, isolating her from her loved ones, testing the waters with a series of inappropriate emails, and giving her the book Lolita. PLUS:...
Camille & Trillium - A Pagan Coven and a Southern Fried Narcissist
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation - August 24, 2022 08:00 ★★★★★ - 224 ratingsYou're a bisexual Libra living in the south trying to make friends when a guy you're dating invites you to attend a coven meeting... just as the prophecy foretold. Two former members of a southern coven, Camille & Trillium share what drew them to the group, the dubious claims their leader "Kath...
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