157. CULTS: How NXIVM Controlled Women & How Sarah Edmondson Helped Take It Down
1. How attending a personal development training at a Holiday Inn led to Sarah being branded in a sex "secret sisterhood" initiation ceremony.2. Her path from top recruiter to the whistleblower who helped take down the cult and its leader Keith Ranieri. 3. Why we’re all susceptible to cult culture – the need for belonging, the temptation of simplification, and how we’re trained to deny our gut instincts.CW: Discussion of cult culture and sexual coercionAbout Sarah: Sarah Edmondson is an actor, podcaster, author, and cult-recovery advocate.Sarah has starred in a number of TV series, yet she is most recently known for her real-life saga escaping the multi-level marketing company NXIVM – and DOS, a “secret sisterhood” within NXIVM – which can also be seen on HBO’s The Vow. Sarah’s memoir Scarred shares her true story from the moment she joined NXIVM, to her harrowing fight to get out and bring its founder to justice. Sarah co-hosts the podcast A Little Bit Culty with her husband Anthony ‘Nippy’ Ames, and lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons.TW: @sarahjedmondsonIG: @sarahedmondsonSarah’s resource page: https://www.sarahedmondson.com/resourcesSteven Hassan’s BITE model: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/
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158. CULTS Part 2: How Intuition Can Save Us with Sarah Edmondson
About The Show
I’m Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed, the book that was released at the very start of the pandemic and became a lifeline for millions. I watched in awe from my home while this simple phrase from Untamed – WE CAN DO HARD THINGS – the mantra that saved my life twenty years ago, became a worldwide rally cry.Life is freaking hard. We are all doing hard things every day – we love and lose; we forge and end friendships; battle addiction, illness, and loneliness; care for children and parents; struggle in our jobs, our marriages, our divorces; we try to set and hold boundaries – and we fight for equality, purpose, joy, and peace right in the midst of all the hard.On We Can Do Hard Things, my wife Abby Wambach, my sister Amanda Doyle, and I do the only thing that has ever made life easier: We talk honestly about the hard. We laugh and cry and help each other carry the hard so we can all live a little bit lighter and braver, free-er, less alone.
