The Sunshine Place

E3: The Trip

E3: The Trip

The Sunshine Place - August 17, 2022 - 46:16

Legend, ritual, religion, LSD. Chuck experiments with all of it on his followers in Synanon.

Previous Episode

E2: The Miracle on the Beach

August 10, 2022 - 42:58
Chuck Dederich hits rock bottom as an alcoholic in the beachside slums of Los Angeles. It's 1958, and he's got nothing but an idea, but...

Next Episode

E4: The Punk Squad

August 24, 2022 - 45:30
Chuck breaks one of his two rules for Synanon, no violence, beginning with his youngest followers.

About The Show

Once called “the miracle on the beach,” Synanon began in the 1960s as an experimental rehab facility in Santa Monica, California with a radical claim: It could cure heroin addiction. Before long, it would make an even bolder claim: It could cure any of your problems. All you had to do was move in. What started in a house on the beach, soon spread to compounds across the country. The man who made the miracle happen, Charles E. Dederich, aka “Chuck,” would be the one to destroy it all, along with the lives of many of his followers and millions of dollars in assets. The Sunshine Place tells the mind-blowing, true-story of Synanon - one of America’s most cutting edge social experiments, turned into one of its most dangerous and violent cults - as it’s never been told before: by the people who lived it. Executive Produced by Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Emily Barclay Ford for Team Downey and C13Originals, together with Josh McLaughlin for Wink Pictures and written, produced, and directed by Peabody-nominated C13Originals, a Cadence13 Studio.