Episode 61: What's Happening in the Cultiverse May 2025
There’s a lot going on in the cultiverse! We thought it time for an update on the culty happenings in our neck of the woods. In this episode you'll hear more than you want to know about chickens, rats, and mice, and heaps about cults. From news from the Olive Leaf Network, to Caz's connections with professionals & researchers, to Liz sharing culty tree metaphors with professionals on the West Coast. This episode has everything, including some really odd census data about Gloriavale!Show notes:Webpage: Olive Leaf Network and how to donateWebpage: International Cultic Studies Association home page and Montreal annual conference Podcast: Cult Chat Episode 58: 2x2s and Survivor Advocacy with Tristan Phipps and Kyle EggletonPodcast: Cult Chat Episode 55, 56 and 57 - Are the Jehovah Witnesses a Cult? (Parts one and two) and Waking Up - with Dr Andre JacksonArticle: One News coverage of Two By TwosArticle: Inquiry into cults prompted by media attention on Geelong Revival Centre in Victoria. Facebook group: Stop Religious Coercion Australia run by Ryan CareyPodcast: Secrets We Keep - Pray Harder - series about Geelong Revival CentreArticle: BBC - Japan court dissolves controversial 'Moonies' churchArticle - The Saints cult and the convictions for the manslaughter of 8 years old Elizabeth Struhs - BrisbaneReligious Trauma Collective and the on-line conferenceWebpage: Theophila Pratt - Unveiled - A Story of Surviving GloriavaleArticle: Press - Gloriavale population falls while 100 babies born, census shows
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Episode 60 - Learning to Think, Trust and Heal after Leaving a Cult with Maria Esguerra
In this second of two chats Maria and Caz talk about bad information, and the critical role of education in teaching discernment between good information and bad. Maria shares about coming to understand how the cult used psychological processes to control members, and how often distrust of establishments persists in the minds of cult survivors after leaving. The duo chat about trauma, and the role of safe spaces, and candidly share how even professional people get triggered into the past.
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Episode 59: Growing up in the Children of God with Maria Esguerra
Maria was born into one of history's most harmful cults, the Children of God. Maria joins us in the first of two chats to detail what the group was like from the perspective of a child. Maria brings her knowledge and expertise as a psychologist to the conversation, sharing both the harms that children experienced in the group, and also the results of a 2024 study which she authored which details the serious consequences in adulthood of growing up in a cult.
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Episode 58: 2x2's and Survivor Advocacy with Tristan Phipps & Kyle Eggleton
Join us for a moving conversation with Tristan Phipps and Dr Kyle Eggleton, who share about the Two by Twos in NZ. This organisation is currently under FBI investigation for child abuses, which has prompted NZ survivors to speak up. Our guests talk to us about the hierarchy & control of the church, the social context which has made systemic child sexual abuse possible, and the work they are doing as advocates in a movement that's drawing survivors together into safe spaces.Show NotesTwo By Two kiwis who left sect being probed by FBI form support group - RNZ articleFBI enlists NZ police to investigate sexual abuse in secretive sect - RNZ articleLaura McConnel Conti’s new podcast Truth 2x2 Cult Kids - a new podcast from a multi-generational survivor of the church in AustraliaLets Talk About Sects Two by Two episodes - https://www.ltaspod.com/26 and https://www.ltaspod.com/2x2s-updateABC - Survivors waiting for compensation and FBI Child Sex Abuse InvestigationCherie Kropp-Ehrig’s websiteA Hulu documentary The Secrets of the Two by Two church BBC Sounds Crime Next Door Season 2 Servants and Saints - podcast series exploring the church from a UK based journalistWings For Truth - Guidance and support those who have been sexually abused within the Fellowship of Friends and Workers (aka Two by Two or Truth)Facebook - Surviving the Truth NZ - Message Tristan and KyleShow notes for therapist episodes of Cult ChatOlive Leaf Network - Email Lindy for resources for therapistsReligious Trauma Collective resources
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Episode 57: Waking Up with Dr Andre Jackson
We loved Andre so much we got him back for a third episode! This time he tells us about his PhD on waking up from indoctrination in the Jehovah Witnesses. In this fascinating interview you’ll find out all about the role of doubt (even in the most fervent believer), the trigger event which leads to the effort to resolve the doubt, and if that isn’t resolved… the turning point which leads to waking up. This episode will give you the language to understand this experience common to people who have left a cult. Show NotesDr Andre Jackson Dissertation - Waking Up: A Narrative Inquiry into Deconversion Stories by former Jehovah's Witnesses Bethelites Dr Andre Jackson Presentation at ICSA 2024 - Waking Up
Join Dr Caroline Ansley, Lindy Jacomb and Liz Gregory as they traverse the cultiverse. Journey with them as they unpack the cult playbook, talk to leavers of coercive and controlling groups in New Zealand, and share their stories. On “Cult Chat” our hosts talk with experts to gain greater understanding of cultishness and call for Kiwis to cult-proof their lives. "Cult Chat" is a home-grown Kiwi podcast where each of the hosts are uniquely positioned to host a survivor-centric podcast, bringing their individual experiences of high control groups to the conversation.
New Zealand