A Little Bit Culty

Today we re-air our conversation with Theranos whistleblower Erika Cheung, with a new intro where we share our thoughts on A24's new documentary, You Can See Everything.

Erika arrived at Theranos headquarters at 22, a freshly minted UC Berkeley grad who saw Elizabeth Holmes the way much of Silicon Valley did: a visionary about to upend healthcare. Her dream job lasted about seven months. She quit the lab, bought a burner phone, and reported the company to federal regulators—a report that led to the shutdown of Theranos' clinical lab and kept false medical results from reaching thousands of patients.
The new, nearly three-hour documentary directed by Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder, follows Holmes, her partner Billy Evans, and their two young children in the 34 days before she reported to prison in May 2023. It's an unnerving, often uncomfortable watch about performance, access, and how much a camera can actually capture—and it pairs eerily well with Erika's account of what the inside of that company felt like. We highly recommend seeing it.

Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.
Buy the A Little Bit Culty paperback, ebook, or audiobook on Amazon or order a signed copy.
Check out our amazing sponsors
Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon
Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag
Support the pod and smash this link
Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources
Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Audio production: Will Retherford
Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore
Writer and administrator: Sandra Nomoto
Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, litigator Carol Merchasin joins us to explain how the law actually works when someone tries to hold a high-control group accountable, and why coercion is the hinge everything turns on. Carol spent years defending companies against sexual harassment claims before an investigation into sexual misconduct in a Buddhist community, Shambhala, pulled her into this world. She worked pro bono as an independent investigator for Buddhist Project Sunshine, and her findings landed on the front page of The New York Times.

We dig into the "why didn't they leave?" problem, the difference between physical and psychological freedom, and how Carol builds a case by mapping what she calls systems of coercion: isolation, information control, engineered financial dependency, sleep deprivation, and forced labor. She explains why human trafficking law—sex and labor trafficking, with its force, fraud, or coercion standard—has become one of the few usable legal tools, how the NXIVM case created precedent for civil suits, and why courts are barred from judging belief but not behavior.

Carol also walks us through the P. Diddy and OneTaste cases, the limits of consent law, mandated shunning, and her push to expand legal remedies beyond sex and labor. She explains how she found ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association), why its interdisciplinary mix of survivors, clinicians, academics, and lawyers matters, and what she'd like to see next.

Follow ICSA at internationalculticstudies.org or on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube, and Carol on LinkedIn.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of sexual assault and misconduct, clergy abuse, coercion, human trafficking, forced labor, shunning, institutional cover-ups, and legal proceedings involving abuse.

Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

Buy the A Little Bit Culty paperback, ebook, or audiobook on Amazon or order a signed copy.
Check out our amazing sponsors
Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon
Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag
Support the pod and smash this link
Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources
Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Audio production: Will Retherford
Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore
Writer and administrator: Sandra Nomoto
Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Part 2 of our conversation with journalist and author Chet Hardin, we trade the NXIVM rabbit hole for another deeply disturbing case of charisma, coercion, and a self-appointed king with a seriously dark side. Chet joins us to discuss his book, The Vampire’s Cult: The Untold Story of Obsession, Control, and a Shocking Small-Town Murder, which explores the world of convicted murderer Aubrey Trail, his accomplice Bailey Boswell, and the murder of Sydney Loofe in Nebraska. Drawing on his reporting and hours of conversations with Trail, Chet unpacks how a man with a long criminal history built a small, cult-like circle around himself by exploiting people’s vulnerabilities, promising money and security, and gradually tightening his grip through isolation, dependency, and control.

Naturally, we can’t help comparing notes with our own experience of NXIVM, Keith Raniere, and DOS: from love bombing and manufactured specialness to rules governing women’s bodies, constant check-ins, and demands for obedience, the parallels are chilling. We also discuss Chet’s earlier book, The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and The Rise and Fall of NXIVM, the psychology of con men and cult leaders, and why none of us are quite as immune to manipulation as we might like to think. Turns out, cult dynamics don’t require a fancy self-help curriculum or a volleyball court to get seriously sinister.

Be sure to check out Chet’s website at ChetHardin.com and follow him on Instagram @chethardin.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of murder, graphic violence, sexual content, sex work, coercive control, manipulation, abuse, and childhood trauma, including abusive conditions in juvenile detention facilities.

Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

Buy the A Little Bit Culty paperback, ebook, or audiobook on Amazon or order a signed copy.
Check out our amazing sponsors
Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon
Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag
Support the pod and smash this link
Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources
Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Audio production: Will Retherford
Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore
Writer and administrator: Sandra Nomoto
Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Journalist and author Chet Hardin joins ALBC to revisit the early days of reporting on NXIVM, Keith Raniere, and the machinery of intimidation that kept members insulated from outside scrutiny. Chet was only a month into his job at Metroland when attorney Joe O’Hara called with a story about a group “some people might call a cult,” leading him to Toni Natalie, Rick Ross, and a dossier that made clear NXIVM was already watching its critics very closely.

NXIVM sued Chet’s newspaper for tens of millions of dollars, tried to recruit him, and invited him to a midnight volleyball game where Keith Raniere offered an exclusive interview in exchange for Chet stopping his reporting on the Dalai Lama. We also unpack the group’s legal warfare, Kristin Keeffe’s access to the district attorney’s office, the arrests of whistleblowers including Toni Natalie and John Tighe, and how Chet’s later book, The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and The Rise and Fall of NXIVM (with Toni Natalie), helped connect the pieces he had spent years chasing.

Stay tuned for Part 2 when Chet discusses The Vampire’s Cult and the disturbing parallels between Keith Raniere and Nebraska cult leader Aubrey Trail—two men who used isolation, control, and carefully dangled promises to draw vulnerable people into their orbits.

Be sure to check out Chet’s website at ChetHardin.com and follow him on Instagram @chethardin.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of cult coercion and manipulation, stalking and surveillance, lawsuits and legal intimidation, sexual misconduct, child sexual abuse, child pornography, imprisonment, suicide, and emotionally distressing testimony.

Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

Buy the A Little Bit Culty paperback, ebook, or audiobook on Amazon or order a signed copy.
Check out our amazing sponsors
Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon
Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag
Support the pod and smash this link
Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources
Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Audio production: Will Retherford
Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore
Writer and administrator: Sandra Nomoto
Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ryan Carey grew up in the Geelong Revival Center, a Pentecostal Fundamentalist group where nuclear Armageddon was apparently on the calendar, but choosing your own career or dating without permission was a bridge too far. He joined us to talk about doomsday beliefs, religious trauma, shunning, and the coercive control that dictated everything from relationships to access to mental-health care—and what finally made him stop doing the mental gymnastics and leave.

But Ryan and his wife Catherine weren’t interested in playing cult whack-a-mole. Alongside fellow survivors and journalist Richard Baker, they helped push for a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into cults and fringe groups, taking their fight from the lounge room to the halls of government. We get into survivor advocacy, group-based coercive control, child protection, and the work of turning recommendations into legislation—because “religious freedom” shouldn’t come with a complimentary license to abuse people.

Follow Stop Religious Coercion Australia on TikTok @stop_religious_coercion and check out Ryan at the DECULT conference this weekend.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of religious, spiritual, and child sexual abuse, childhood trauma, suicide, grief and death, doomsday and nuclear-war fears, denial of mental-health treatment, misogyny, shunning, and family estrangement.

Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

Buy the A Little Bit Culty paperback, ebook, or audiobook on Amazon or order a signed copy.
Check out our amazing sponsors
Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon
Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag
Support the pod and smash this link
Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources
Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Audio production: Will Retherford
Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore
Writer and administrator: Sandra Nomoto
Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.