A Little Bit Culty

Latest Episodes:

Big Phoenix Energy: Actor, Activist & Badass Evan Rachel Wood (Part 1) Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

We’re kicking off Season 5 with none other than actor, activist, and epic badass Evan Rachel Wood whose impressive AF resume also includes: “Most likely to be hideously trolled by the Marilyn Manson stans of the world.” If you’ve seen the HBO Max mini-series Phoenix Rising which chronicles her fight to break away from the rocker formerly known as Brian Warner, you’ve already seen the culty wafting off that dude like a bad cologne. We caught up with Evan to talk about her journey to hell and back, how she’s doing now, and why she won’t ever stop blowing the whistle on complete fuckery.

As a note to our listeners, and our lawyers, Mr. Manson has repeatedly denied the multiple sexual assault allegations from multiple women and is currently suing Evan for defamation over the accusations, claiming it’s all part of an elaborate organized attack. Please note that conversations like the one you’re about to hear can be traumatizing for abuse survivors. Listen to this episode with caution, and if you or anyone you know needs support, see our site for free resources. Also please note that we love Evan Rachel Wood and believe her without reservation. Sorry, not fucking sorry Manson Stans. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound

Producer: Will Retherford

Senior Producer: Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

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

Season 5 Trailer: A Little Bit Culty Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

Oh hai. No biggie but…we are COMING BACK, baby.

New episodes, new word salads, and other new-fangled podcasting treats are coming your way on Monday. Actually who are we kidding… it’s a biggie.

Support the ALBC Pod:

We’ve made a link where you can support A Little Bit Culty with a one-time, weekly, or monthly contribution. Your support will be repaid in cosmic love and light. To make a contribution, smash this link. Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Summer Bonus: Sarah and Nippy answer your emails and make some big moves Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

If you’re in the mood for a breezy little summer check-in with Sarah and Nippy, you have arrived at the right episode. They answer some recent audience questions about NXIVM, and do some critical podcast housekeeping. Plus, they chat about the highs and lows of leaving Vancouver for Atlanta.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: 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.

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Summer Bonus: Sarah and Nippy Chat with the IndoctriNation Podcast Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

It’s another summer bonus episode, and you’re all invited to put this in your ears and enjoy it from your favorite pool floatie. This time, we’re chatting with the righteous Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, on her Indoctrination Podcast about our trip in and out of that thing we did for a while that turned out to be a notorious cult. Just some light summer listening about sex cults, trauma, and coming back from hell. Pairs well with watermelon frosé.

About Rachel: She’s an OG cult awareness and recovery podcast host, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from Los Angeles, California who has specialized in cult intervention and re-acclimation for over 30 years. She serves on the advisory board of the International Cultic Studies Association and has worked with the Department of Justice providing therapy to cult victims who testify against their perpetrators. She's also made many media appearances over the years as a cult expert on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, Bloomberg, and many other news outlets. Ms. Bernstein is also the host of IndoctriNation: A weekly podcast covering cults, manipulators, and protecting yourself from systems of control where she has interviewed hundreds of cult survivors, journalists, and experts. Her book, "Kids Talking to Kids about Divorce" is available now on Amazon.

Website: https://rachelbernsteintherapy.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Now-I-Know-Rachel-Bernstein/dp/1620867893

Podcast: https://linktr.ee/indoctrination

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Summer Bonus: Sarah and Nippy Chat With The ‘Sickboy’ Podcast Fellas Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

We loved chatting with our friends Jeremie, Taylor, and Brian over at the Sickboy podcast, and these three literal princes among men were nice enough to let us borrow the episode for your summer listening pleasure. They’re a trio of Halifax-based best friends, and they started the podcast after recognizing that when faced with difficult situations, illnesses and diseases, people tighten up, they get awkward, and they simply don't know what to say. Taking the lead from Jeremie’s life-long battle with Cystic Fibrosis, the boys help people understand that sometimes the best way to deal with the darkest stuff in life is simply to laugh. You can listen to new episodes every Monday over on iTunes, Spotify. Soundcloud, Google Play or wherever you get your podcast fixins. Or go find all their links, socials, and such at their very happenin’ linktree

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Rude Awakening: Sarah Landry On Nithyananda & Other Nightmares (Part 2) Jul 11, 2022

Show notes

Content Warning: Discussions of child abuse and sexual assault. Listener discretion advised.

Here’s the second part of our conversation with Sarah Landry who shares what it’s like to face down the very online army she helped create for the so-called guru Nithyananda after going wide with explosive accusations of rape, child abuse, and a whole sordid cornucopia of culty shit.

Show notes:

Sarah Landry on YouTube, Instagram & Twitter

Nithyananda - Wiki

My Daughter Joined a Cult: 3-part VICE Doc Trailer (Discovery+, Amazon Prime)

Republic World Article by Pooja Prasanna: “Former Nithyananda Aide Narrates Horrifying Brutality Against Children”

Gizmodo Article by Jed Oelbaum: “She Built a Shady Guru’s YouTube Army. Now She’s His Fiercest Critic—But Who Will Believe Her?”

Hear Ye, Hear Ye:

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.

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Rude Awakening: Sarah Landry On Nithyananda & Other Nightmares (Part 1) Jul 04, 2022

Show notes

Content Warning: Discussions of child abuse and sexual assault. Listener discretion advised. At just 24 years old, Sarah Landry found herself drawn to Hindu avatar Nithyananda’s teachings like a fly to honey. Moldy, toxic honey. She quickly became an apt pupil, and then his top recruiter via a steady stream of stylized YouTube videos and camera-ready social content. But after learning that the rape and child abuse allegations dogging the organization were just too credible to simply swat away, she stepped down as its propagandist-in-chief and stepped up as one of its harshest critics. The fallout since she blew the whistle on the godman’s shady ways in a series of incendiary 2019 Facebook posts and Youtube videos has been steep. (If you’re labeled as a double-agent for the Vatican by loyalists of a guy who is on the lam after being charged with rape and abduction: You’ve officially reached Remini-levels of cult busting.) In this episode, and the next—there’s just too much to cover to make it a one-parter—Sarah shares what it’s like to be on the other side of an army she helped build, and why she won’t stop working to deplatform culty characters like Nithyananda no matter how many self-proclaimed island nations they pull out of their asses. Learn more about Sarah Landry on her YouTube or Instagram or Twitter.

Show notes:

Nithyananda - Wiki

My Daughter Joined a Cult: 3-part VICE Doc Trailer (Discovery+, Amazon Prime)

Republic World Article by Pooja Prasanna: “Former Nithyananda Aide Narrates Horrifying Brutality Against Children”

Gizmodo Article by Jed Oelbaum: “She Built a Shady Guru’s YouTube Army. Now She’s His Fiercest Critic—But Who Will Believe Her?”

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Page Turner: Spencer Schneider on Writing His Way Out of ‘School’ Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

“We were invisible. We had to be. We took an oath of absolute secrecy. We never even told our immediate families who we were. We went about our lives in New York City. Just like you. We were your accountants, money managers, lawyers, executive recruiters, doctors. We owned your child’s private school and sold you your brownstone. But you’d never guess our secret lives, how we lived in a kind of silent terror and fervor. There were hundreds of us.”

That’s a snippet from Spencer Schneider’s compelling and creepy AF memoir: Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Sex, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival. This isn’t an ad, it’s just the truth: We think you’re going to want to grab yourself a copy before you hit the beach this summer. It’s that much of a page turner. In this episode of A Little Bit Culty, Spencer joins us to share more about what it was like living inside the nightmarish bubble of ‘School’, the ultra-secret Manhattan organization that consumed his life for 23 years. And just in case you’ve not heard of ‘School’, this particular culty shitshow gives us Eyes Wide Shut vibes with sprinklings of Eloise if she lived at The Plaza in the Upside Down. For extra credit, read up on the late Sharon Gans, the eccentric School leader whose cult resume lowlights include: forced adoptions, arranged marriages, twisted displays of public humiliation and conspicuous consumption, and forced labor. Glad you got the hell out of there, Spencer.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye:

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Tangled Up in Teal: Jon Kasbe & Bits Sola on Making ‘The Deep End’ Jun 20, 2022

Show notes

Dear Teal Swan: You continue to be a mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in wrap-around Oakleys. Are you okay? For reals, we’re getting some super hinky vibes from all seven layers of your auric field. Dear Everyone Else: In case you haven’t watched all four installments of The Deep End, you might want to catch up before you listen to this ALBC conversation with the filmmaking duo behind the series. In this episode, director/cinematographer Jon Kasbe and producer/writer Bits Sola join Sarah and Nippy to share what it was like inside Teal Swan’s campy, creepy world. But don’t get your plastic Mala beads in a twist, Teal Tribe: ‘campy’ and ‘creepy’ are our words, not theirs…and those two words are about the nicest things we could think of to say. Also? Sorry, not sorry, Teal…but you just can’t deep fake this shit.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye:

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Trust Fall: Dr. Natalie Feinblatt on Trauma, Addiction & Cult-Informed Therapy Jun 13, 2022

Show notes

Finding a therapist can be mission critical when you’re recovering from a culty situation, but the process of finding a clinician with basic cult awareness can be a total cluster. In this episode, Sarah and Nippy chat with Dr. Natalie Feinblatt about why more therapists need to get cult-informed and the Venn diagram overlap between trauma and addiction. She also chats with Sarah and Nippy about tangible techniques for getting unstuck when fight/flight/freeze mode takes over.

Dr. Feinblatt is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles, California who specializes in the treatment of addiction and trauma. And one of her trauma sub-specialties is working with former cult members. She received her BA from UCSD and her Masters & Doctorate from Pepperdine University, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on psychotherapy with former cult members and has specialized in helping them ever since. She also does EMDR, Brainspotting, and other trauma-specific therapies. She was also featured on the series finale of ‘Leah Remini: Scientology & The Aftermath.’ Learn more at her website or follow her on Instagram for tips, tools, and healing resources.

Concepts/Resources mentioned in this episode:

Window of Tolerance

Dan Siegal, MD

Psychology Today

Hear Ye, Hear Ye:

Support the ALBC Pod:

Check out our Linktree to sign up for our mailing list. We’ve got some fun things coming your way soon. It rhymes with “t-shirts.” Okay, it’s t-shirts.

Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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