A Little Bit Culty

Latest Episodes:

Sean Miller: From Jehovah’s Witness to Apostate Artist (Part 2) Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

In Part 2 of our conversation with Sean Miller, we get into the messy business of figuring out what to keep—and what to leave behind—after spending 36 years as a Jehovah’s Witness. Sean talks about the anger, grief, and identity crisis that came with leaving, and how learning to incorporate the good parts of his past without excusing the harmful ones helped him move forward. We dig into the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of sexual abuse allegations, shifting positions on medical care and mental health, and the mindfuck of discovering that the people and institution demanding impossible standards from you don’t always hold themselves to those same standards.

We also talk about how Sean found a way to rebuild through art. He shares the inspiration behind his book Novice Enthusiasm, his comic project Kinsugi, and his goal of creating a roadmap for anyone trying to reconnect with their creativity after religious trauma. Plus, we get into the surprisingly culty potential of AI and one very committed—and ridiculous—Jehovah’s Witness parking-lot grift involving the magic number 1914. Because apparently deconstruction can be healing and useful at the beach.

Be sure to pick up Sean’s book, Novice Enthusiasm: Belief, Rebuilt. Built One Line at a Time, visit his website, SeanGregoryMiller.com, and follow him on Instagram @seangregorymiller.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of religious trauma, domestic and sexual abuse and institutional cover-ups, mental health, coercive control, grief, and estrangement from family.

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sean Miller: From Jehovah’s Witness to Apostate Artist (Part 1) Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

Sean Miller grew up as a Jehovah's Witness golden boy—son of a highly respected elder, raised in what he calls a nearly perfect JW family, and groomed from infancy to be the best Witness in the room. The only problem? Nobody asked Sean. He wanted to shred guitar and make art, but was too busy passing an invisible bar exam at five years old, with love that felt conditional on performance.

We get Sean's full origin story: how a rock band, a spiritually feisty Pentecostal girl, and a forbidden relationship got him disfellowshipped the first time—which, for the uninitiated, means treated like you're dead by everyone you've ever known, effective immediately. He got reinstated, got married, started a family, and lasted about 10 more years before his ex-wife picked up Crisis of Conscience and blew the lid off everything. Cue the Australian Royal Commission testimony on child sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses, the laundry folding, the sobbing, and the full worldview collapse.

We also get into the ex-JW community, cult hopping, and the real danger of trying to fill the cult-shaped hole in your heart, including Sean's wild encounter with a licensed therapist in the ex-JW space who, somewhere between the ayahuasca retreats and the art collaboration, revealed he wanted to start a cult, using Sean's art as the centerpiece. (The audacity!) Part 2 brings the book, the art, and the constructive use of all that very justified anger.

Be sure to pick up Sean’s book, Novice Enthusiasm: Belief, Rebuilt. Built One Line at a Time, visit his website, SeanGregoryMiller.com, and follow him on Instagram @seangregorymiller.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of shunning, child sexual abuse institutional cover-up, and religious coercion.

Also…let it be known that:

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

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:

Go to https://OmahaSteaks.com and use promo code CULTY at checkout for $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When God Becomes a Predator: Melissa Archer Inside the 5F Ministry (Part 2) Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

Melissa Archer's story in 5F continues with a “deliverance,” a session conducted over speakerphone ( audio now public through Be Scofield's reporting) that turned deeply personal fast, and a follow-up call where the "prophet" asked if she was "wet" and how "thirsty" she was. That was a major crack, but not the exit.

What happened there is a masterclass in coercive control: a middle-of-the-night break-in, gunshots, and a wide-open back door that GeorDavie waved off after claiming he'd checked the "spiritual realm"; plainclothes "cops" recasting what she knew she heard; Wi-Fi that mysteriously went dead; and a one-on-one that ended with Melissa going limp—"surrendering," exactly as instructed. She came home blaming herself and tripling down, until her friend disclosed she had been assaulted and the group's response was pure pattern: Catherine called the victim a liar, and GeorDavie denied the sexual-assault allegations while reframing the recordings as a third-language misunderstanding. Melissa went to the FBI, wrote about the experience in 2022 to almost no response, and is finally being heard now, with a message for anyone judging victims: when people are taught from childhood to surrender to spiritual authority, “you're indoctrinated from an early age to be able to join a cult.”

Check out the original post on 5F on The Guru: https://www.gurumag.com/l-a-s-viral-exorcist-kathryn-krick-knew-of-prophets-sexual-abuse-allegations

And follow Melissa on Instagram, Facebook, or X.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of sexual assault allegations, invasive sexual questioning, cult dynamics, coercive control, religious and spiritual abuse, grooming, manipulation, gaslighting, threatening situations, and victim blaming.

Also…let it be known that:

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When God Becomes a Predator: Melissa Archer Inside the 5F Ministry (Part 1) Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

Melissa Archer is best known as Natalie Buchanan on One Life to Live, with later stints on Days of Our Lives and a run of indie films. These days she builds software, including NeuroRewire, an app for rewiring thought patterns formed in situations people didn't choose. Somewhere in the middle of all that, she accidentally joined a cult. We first learned about her from Be Scofield's reporting in The Guru, and she joins us fresh off the story going public.

In Part 1, Melissa walks us through how a non-practicing Catholic went looking for a deeper connection to God and found a pile of red flags she didn't yet have the language for: love bombing, daily phone calls, leadership titles, "diamond memberships," doubt dismissed as a "religious spirit," and isolation bragged about so openly she figured a group that culty couldn't possibly be a cult on purpose.

Her entry point was a Tanzanian "prophet" named GeorDavie and his 5F movement (formerly Advanced Anointing), with twenty-something emcee Kathryn Krick and pastor David launching the American branch. And to her credit, Melissa was skeptical enough to design a literal test for whether the prophecy stuff was real. But a streak of "miracles" had her healthy skepticism gaslighting itself, until it ended with a prayer: "I'm going all in—pull me out if I get too deep." Come back Thursday for Part 2, when we head to Tanzania, where the promises got bigger, the control got tighter, and the whole thing stopped feeling like a miracle.

Check out the original post on 5F on The Guru: https://www.gurumag.com/l-a-s-viral-exorcist-kathryn-krick-knew-of-prophets-sexual-abuse-allegations

And follow Melissa on Instagram, Facebook, or X.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of cult dynamics, coercive control, religious and spiritual abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, and isolation.

Also…let it be known that:

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

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shop the Collection at our New A Little Bit Culty Merch Store! Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Our merch store just got a glow-up, and yes, it’s as Gen X as it sounds. We’ve teamed up with Dashery for new designs and better deals. Every purchase helps support the podcast—think cozy hoodies, sweaters, and mugs for fall and winter, plus shirts, tank tops, phone covers, stickers, pillows, totes, pins, magnets, hats, and basically everything you could use in your house or on your body. No uniform required, but the hoodie is so soft, you’ll want to wear it while planning your exit from a high control group. Shop at alittlebitculty.dashery.com for all your ALBC merch needs.

Also…let it be known that:

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A Little Bit Culty x WTF is on my Mind?! - Kicked Out of Our Own Book Launch (Part 2) Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

We’re back with Mark Vicente for Part 2 of this joint A Little Bit Culty and WTF is on my Mind?! episode. This one gets into the real meat of what happened at our book launch event gone sideways—and what it means beyond just us.

We play the last 12 minutes of Sarah’s recording from the event, then the bookstore owner's public social media post about the incident. We contrast it with what actually happened, including eyewitness accounts from people in the front row who tried to set the record straight, only to have their comments deleted. We talk about what it feels like to be publicly misrepresented with no ability to correct the record, how cancel culture weaponizes the cloak of altruism, and why the best fight is the one you don't fight. We also get into identity politics, why fusing your sense of self to a belief system makes civil discourse impossible, and why Mark thinks we're all being triangulated against each other on a macro scale.

This episode is a case study in culty thinking without a cult—and a reminder that dehumanizing the person in front of you while claiming to fight for humanity is not advocacy; it's the problem. If the comments on this one devolve into a debate about geopolitics rather than the patterns at play, you've already missed the point.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of public shaming, online harassment, and geopolitical conflict.

Also…let it be known that:

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A Little Bit Culty x WTF is on my Mind?! - Kicked Out of Our Own Book Launch (Part 1) Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

In this special joint episode of A Little Bit Culty and Mark Vicente’s WTF Is on My Mind?!, Mark interviews us about the “Massy incident” during our Vancouver book tour for A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control and Coercion. Together, we unpack what happened when a conversation about cult dynamics, extremism, and pattern recognition was hijacked by a highly charged political conflict—and how loaded questions, forced verdicts, black-and-white thinking, and moral purity tests can turn a book event into a full-blown ideological cage match. Stay tuned for Part 2 on Thursday.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, the Israel–Gaza conflict, genocide, extremism, religious and political polarization, and online harassment.

Also…let it be known that:

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Corporate Vagina: Star Stone on OneTaste (Part 2) Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

In Part 2, Star gets into the red flags that finally became impossible to ignore at OneTaste: missing consent and accountability protocols, sexual boundary violations, spiritual bypassing, gaslighting, and an organization that seemed to have more “trust the process” than actual process. She shares how she slowly pulled away, eventually leaving the Bay Area, rebuilding her life, and finding her way back to herself through therapy, community, and the very thing she once avoided: feeling everything in her body.

Star also talks about turning her experience into a solo theater show, complete with original songs about red flags, narcissism, orgasm, and—because apparently the universe demanded it—corporate vagina. We talk about the unregulated wellness industry, spiritualized intimacy, predatory influencers, and the tools every sexual or spiritual seeker needs: ask questions, check credentials, find out what happens when someone says no, and remember that “no” is a complete sentence. We’ll also share a few minutes of Star’s show at the end, so prepare for trauma, time, and comedy to make one very entertaining baby.

Follow Star at starstonespeaks.com, on Instagram @starstonespeaks, and The Wild Project: thewildproject.org

Star performs Cl*t Cult September 10 and 11 at 10:30pm at Under St Marks Theater in NYC: https://tickets.frigid.nyc/event/6897:1495

Also check her out at Brooklyn Comedy Collective on October 4 at 7pm.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of sexual assault, rape, sexualized practices, nudity, orgasmic meditation, coercive control, gaslighting, spiritual bypassing, sexual boundary violations, financial exploitation, communal living, and trauma recovery.

Also…let it be known that:

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Corporate Vagina: Star Stone on OneTaste (Part 1) Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

In Part 1 of our third deep dive on OneTaste, Star Stone joins us to explain how a spiritual seeker looking for female empowerment and connection ended up inside a world of confusing intro events, “corporate vagina” demos, goalless orgasmic meditation, and communal housing that sounded like a nightmare waiting to happen. Star walks us through the slow creep from curiosity to commitment: Meetup mixers that felt like team-building exercises, increasingly intimate “communication games,” and a coaching program that promised transformation but delivered a grab-bag of incoherent teachings, hidden courses, and credit-card-friendly upsells.

Along the way, we talk about loaded language, financial exploitation, blurred sexual boundaries, coercive control, and the very real moment when your yoga-trained brain goes, “Wait, this syllabus makes no sense,” and the culty fog starts to lift. It’s insightful, unsettling, and darkly funny—because sometimes the only way through is to name the absurdity, laugh until it hurts, and keep asking the questions they really don’t want you to ask. Stay tuned for Part 2 Thursday.

Follow Star at starstonespeaks.com, on Instagram @starstonespeaks, and The Wild Project: thewildproject.org

Star performs Cl*t Cult September 10 and 11 at 10:30pm at Under St Marks Theater in NYC: https://tickets.frigid.nyc/event/6897:1495

Also check her out at Brooklyn Comedy Collective on October 4 at 7pm.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of sexualized practices, nudity, orgasmic meditation, coercive control, financial exploitation, communal living, and sexual boundaries and assault.

Also…let it be known that:

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

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Season 9 Opener: A Little Bit Culty Vancouver book launch & live Q&A (Part 2) Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

In Part 2 of our Vancouver book launch, we do a full-on audience Q&A, covering everything from cult susceptibility and the “cult-shaped hole in your heart” to how groups can start with good intentions and slowly slide into coercion, control, and abuse of power. We talk recognizing your own hooks, spotting personality changes and loaded language, rebuilding trust after leaving, and why “What to Do When It’s Time to GTFO” is a chapter in A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control and Coercion—because sometimes you need a roadmap, not a motivational quote.

We also answered questions about us meeting in NXIVM, leaving safely, the metaphorical shelf breaking, survivor shame, and the importance of sunlight, support, and keeping the conversation going.

Special thanks to:

Megan Williams at The Self-Publishing Agency for emceeing

Eric Lee at CoFunction Events & Workspaces for generously hosting us: cofunctioneventspaces.com

Jennifer-Lee Gunson for recording: podcastconsulting.ca

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of cultic and sexual abuse, coercive control, indoctrination, trauma, family separation, death, suspected poisoning, cancer, suicide, and leaving high-control groups.

Also…let it be known that:

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