We’re in for a shocking one this week: The Troubled Teen Industry has for decades promised parents to reform their “problem-causing” kids through 8-12 week “wilderness therapy” and other military-style schools. But kidnappings, isolation, punishment, secrecy, and abuse are all a part of the equation, resulting in the separation of families and years of traum ... Show More
Jul 8
The Cult of America's Next Top Model
This week, Chelsea, Amanda, and guest Sarah Hartshorne (@sarahbhartshorne) dig into the high-gloss, high-drama, and disturbingly high-control world of America’s Next Top Model. Once hailed as a launchpad for aspiring models, the long-running franchise masked emotional manipulatio ... Show More
1h 21m
Jul 1
The Cult of Elon Musk (Part 2)
What happens when a billionaire tech mogul starts to look less like a CEO and more like a modern-day messiah? This week, Chelsea, Amanda, and Reese team up with historian and authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) to explore the cult of personality surrounding Elo ... Show More
1h 12m
Mar 2024
The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping
Like hundreds before her, Katherine Daniel was sent by her parents to a school for troubled teens. The Academy at Ivy Ridge claimed to use therapy and recreational activities to help its students. Instead, teens suffered mental and physical abuse in a program that operated like a ... Show More
37m 9s
Jan 2024
Joe Wicks on addiction, homeschooling and body image
TW: addiction The popularity of Joe Wicks’s online workouts and meal plans as ‘The Body Coach’ catapulted him into fame during lockdown. He’s a source of endless positive energy for the rest of us, but he had a challenging childhood. Growing up on a council estate, his father had ... Show More
54m 45s
Apr 2024
Will Young - ‘I like to talk about it because I survived it’
TW: this episode contains discussion of sexual assault and suicide. In many ways, Will Young is the definition of resilience. As a child, he endured physical and psychological abuse at prep school. In his 20s, he found fame on a reality TV show and was forced to be public about h ... Show More
58m 17s
Jan 2024
LSD Children Cult
In the 1960’s, Elites from Australia’s Political, Medical, Psychiatric, and Academic circles, joined a Cult. They stole children and subjected them to unimaginable horrors, drugging them with LSD to create a supposed master race. The children endured a life of isolation and abuse ... Show More
1h 27m