Untold: Power for Sale

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Vote for The Retreat in the Signal Awards! Oct 10, 2024

The Retreat has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Health and Wellness category! It's a listener choice award, which means we need your help. If you enjoyed The Retreat, please vote for the show to win here. We appreciate your support!

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The Retreat, Ep. 5: The Insiders Jun 26, 2024

Since the podcast published earlier this year, Madison’s inbox has been filled with emails. Some were from former volunteers at the Goenka network who wished to speak out. In this bonus episode of The Retreat, they pull back the curtain on why they believe some people are not being supported when they come on retreats and find themselves psychologically unraveling.

Translations of Sayagyi U Ba Khin’s discourses from Daniel M Stuart and Swe Swe Mon can be found in the paper: Local Cure, Global Chant: Perfomring Theravedic Awakening in the Footsteps of Ledi Sayadaw.

For support or more information about adverse meditation experiences, take a look at the Cheetah House website.

If you are in need of urgent mental health support, please contact your local emergency services or reach out to a mental health helpline, such as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US, or Samaritans in the UK.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Power for Sale, Ep. 4: Business as Usual Jun 05, 2024

With elections just weeks away, and news of more foreign interference scandals in the European parliament, the reporting team gives an accounting of where the investigation and the suspects are to date.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Power for Sale, Ep. 3: Belgiangate Jun 05, 2024

It seemed like the Belgians had everything they needed to bring a case against the people involved with Qatargate, but the investigation hit a wall. Valentina and the reporting team speak to the prosecution side to find out why.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Power for Sale, Ep. 2: Ocean’s Eleven May 29, 2024

Through wiretap transcripts and surveillance footage, captured by Belgian intelligence, Valentina and the investigative reporting team learn just who is involved with this scandal and how it all worked.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Power for Sale, Ep. 1: 'Bags full of money' May 29, 2024

Valentina learns of raids and arrests at the European parliament and a scandal unfolds. They talk to the face of the scandal, Eva Kaili, and hear about the day of the raids through her eyes.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Introducing Untold: Power for Sale May 16, 2024

Introducing Power for Sale, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. In Untold: Power for Sale, host Valentina Pop and a team of FT correspondents from all over Europe investigate what happened in the Qatargate scandal, where EU lawmakers were accused of accepting payments from Qatar to whitewash its image.

Untold: Power for Sale airs May 29. Follow wherever you listen.

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The Retreat, Ep. 4: Another Death Feb 14, 2024

Madison Marriage hears of another death, one that happened five years before Jaqui’s. Was the Goenka network aware of the dangers of intensive meditation? Marriage asks what the organisation is doing, if anything, to protect people from harm.

For support or more information about adverse meditation experiences, take a look at the Cheetah House website.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The Retreat, Ep. 3: Jaqui’s Story Feb 07, 2024

Jaqui was 22 when she signed up to a 10-day Goenka retreat. It was the last known thing she did before she died. This is Jaqui’s story.

For support or more information about adverse meditation experiences, take a look at the Cheetah House website.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The Retreat, Ep. 2: Ten Long Days Jan 31, 2024

Emily’s twin sister spirals after going on a Goenka retreat, and she’s not the only one. Madison Marriage hears multiple accounts of terror, hallucinations and psychosis. Was meditation just the catalyst that unleashed psychological problems? Or did this network of silent meditation retreats actually cause their suffering?

For support or more information about adverse meditation experiences, take a look at the Cheetah House website.

We also spoke to Miguel Farias and Jonny Say to corroborate claims in the podcast about adverse meditation experiences. You can find out more about Farias’s work here, and Say’s here.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The Retreat, Ep. 1: Dear Madison Jan 24, 2024

Madison Marriage receives an email from a desperate father named Stephen. Over the past five years, he says, his twin daughters have changed drastically. They were bright and outgoing, with exciting plans for their future. But over their early twenties, they became increasingly distressed, struggling to eat or sleep and disassociating from normal life. Stephen believes the root of his daughters’ problems is a particular network of intensive meditation retreats.

For support or more information about adverse meditation experiences, take a look at the Cheetah House website.

Note: This podcast previously included a YouTube clip that described a Vipassana meditation retreat that was not linked to the Goenka network, as originally implied.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Introducing Untold: The Retreat Dec 21, 2023

Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In its first series, The Retreat, host Madison Marriage examines the world of the Goenka network, which promotes a type of intensive meditation known as Vipassana. Thousands of people go on Goenka retreats every year. People rave about them. But some people go to these meditation retreats, and they suffer. They might feel a deep sense of terror, or a break with reality. And on the other side, they’re not themselves anymore. Untold: The Retreat launches Jan. 24.

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