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PODCAST

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

Think you might be in a cult? Want to know the signs? Join Sarah Edmondson and Anthony “Nippy” Ames to talk about things that are..a little bit culty. Or in their case: a whole bunch of culty. As whistleblowers documented in the critically-acclaimed HBO series “The Vow,” Sarah and Nippy have a lot to say about their experience, and burning questions to ask people with similar stories. They’re here to help people understand, heal from, and avoid abusive situations one little red flag at a

society & culture

All Episodes

00:44:52

Summer Bonus: Sarah & Nippy on Cults to Consciousness...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/08/13

In the second half of our Cults to Consciousness bonus episode, the conversation gets even more practical: how to spot coercive control in real time, rebuild trust in your own intuition, and stop confusing love with obedience. We share more from our new book, A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control and Coercion, including why survivor stories matter, how to talk about cultic experiences without re-traumatizing yourself, and what “healthy” can actually look like when your nervous system is

en

00:45:14

Summer Bonus: Sarah & Nippy on Cults to Consciousness...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/08/10

In this bonus episode, we hop over to Cults to Consciousness with past ALBC guest Shelise Ann Sola for a real, slightly sweaty, very honest conversation about how cults mess with your head, your body, and your sense of what’s normal. We talk about our new book, A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control and Coercion, and how survivors can move from confusion and self-blame toward clarity, boundaries, and a little less second-guessing. Stay tuned for Part 2 on Thursday.Check out Cults to

en

00:34:34

Where are they now? Gerette Buglion on Writing to...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/08/06

Gerette Buglion’s back for part two of our catch-up. This one dives deeper into the messy, important work of healing through writing, therapy, and self-trust. She talks about internal consent, knowing when to pause, and why it’s so important for survivors to move slowly when a story starts to light up the nervous system.We also get into the realities of publishing after cultic abuse, including how predatory dynamics in the writing world can hit old wounds hard, and why it’s crucial to know your

en

00:34:54

Where are they now? Gerette Buglion on Writing to...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/08/03

In our next “Where are they now?” catch-up episode, Gerette Buglion is back, and she’s still doing what she does best: helping survivors turn cult experience into something meaningful, grounded, and actually useful. In this conversation with Sarah, she shares how life has evolved since we last spoke, from personal recovery and family life to the gentle, steady growth of Living Cult Free and her writing work with survivors.A big focus here is Writing to Reckon, her trauma-informed, cult-informed

en

00:46:33

Summer bonus: Chapters 3 and 4 from the A Little Bit...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/30

If you love listening to ALBC on your commute, while folding laundry, or as your little antidote to the daily chaos, you’ll be right at home with the audiobook version of A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control and Coercion. This bonus episode gives you Chapters 3 and 4 from the audiobook, so you can hear the book the way it was meant to be heard—out loud, in your ears, and with all the same candor, humor, and hard-earned insight you get from the podcast. It’s a great way to dip into the book

en

00:37:16

Summer bonus: Preface to Chapter 2 from the A Little...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/27

If you love listening to ALBC on your commute, while folding laundry, or as your little antidote to the daily chaos, you’ll be right at home with the audiobook version of A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control and Coercion. This bonus episode gives you the Preface, Introduction, Introduction to Part I, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 from the audiobook. You can hear the book the way it was meant to be heard—out loud, in your ears, and with all the same candor, humor, and hard-earned insight you get

en

01:00:09

Dr. Gillie Jenkinson on Thought Reform, Trauma, and...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/23

In Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Gillie Jenkinson, we move from her remarkable story into the practical question so many survivors ask: How do you actually recover after leaving a cult? Gillie shares how her own experience escaping a high-control Christian group led her to become one of the world's leading specialists in cult recovery, and why she set out to create ethical, trauma-informed support when almost none existed. We dig into the foundations of her work, from the International Cultic

en

00:43:43

Dr. Gillie Jenkinson on Thought Reform, Trauma, and...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/20

This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp.Dr. Gillie Jenkinson—the OG, the GOAT, and the GG of cult recovery work (she needed a definition, we provided several)—finally makes her long-overdue debut on A Little Bit Culty. She’s a therapist, cult survivor, and the author of Walking Free from the Trauma of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse, and this first part is all about how she got in.It started in 1970s London: a posh English boarding school girl who grew up in Uganda, wanted to marry a lord, and

en

01:01:32

The Workout Witch: Liz Tenuto on Trauma, Somatics,...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/16

In Part 2 of our conversation with Liz Tenuto aka The Workout Witch, we get into the science (and surprisingly practical magic) behind somatic healing and why so many trauma survivors feel stuck even after years of therapy. Liz shares how her own search for relief from chronic health issues led her to the world of nervous system regulation, and explains how simple somatic exercises can help move the body out of survival mode and into a place where real healing can begin. We also explore the

en

00:37:50

The Workout Witch: Liz Tenuto on Trauma, Somatics,...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/13

Liz Tenuto, aka The Workout Witch, joins A Little Bit Culty for a seriously useful, beautifully weird conversation about healing after abuse, trauma, and all the body-based chaos that can follow. She shares how TikTok accidentally became her platform, how somatics helped her reclaim her body after an abusive marriage, and why movement ended up being the thing that finally made a dent in her insomnia and dissociation.Liz also talks about the early warning signs she missed, including love bombing,

en

00:43:08

Religious Trauma and Cults: Sam Sellers & Elise...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/09

Sam Sellers and Elise Heerde return for Part 2 to unpack what healing actually looks like after leaving high-control religious environments. Spoiler: it is not neat, linear, or especially glamorous. Sam talks about getting married, being shunned, learning to live with religious trauma, and slowly rebuilding after years of dissociation. Elise shares how counseling helped her connect the dots between assault recovery, body-based trauma responses, and the God-image she had been handed.A big thread here

en

00:42:23

Religious Trauma and Cults: Sam Sellers & Elise...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/06

Sam Sellers and Elise Heerde of Religious Trauma and Cults bring the receipts on growing up in high-control faith worlds, with Sam from the Brethren Christian Church, an independent off-shoot of the Exclusive Brethren, and Elise from the Pentecostal Church & New Apostolic Reformation. They talk about how those systems can start out feeling like belonging with a side of certainty, then slowly turn into “wait, this is weird” when obedience, fear, and authority start doing the heavy lifting.Sam

en

01:10:33

Michael Shamblin Black on The Way Down and Escaping...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/07/02

Michael Shamblin Black is back for Part 2, and this one goes to the darkest corners of life inside Remnant Fellowship—and the even darker corners of life after it. Michael walks us through the red flags he couldn't ignore: Gwen's suffocating control, the Remnant "guidance system" cataloging every member's doubts and mapping their homes (collateral, just without the branding), an arranged marriage designed to keep him monitored, Joe Lara's sniper threat with a Creedmoor round, and the moment the

en

00:46:00

Michael Shamblin Black on The Way Down and Escaping...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/29

Michael Shamblin Black joins ALBC to talk about growing up inside his mother Gwen Shamblin’s world, featured in the HBO Max docuseries The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin. He reflects on life in Remnant, his current efforts to expose the church, and how therapy with Dr. Laura Anderson (past S6 ALBC guest) has helped him gain clarity while he works through long-held trust issues.He shares a deeper look at Gwen’s early worldview, including how her anti-authority instincts, fixation

en

00:58:03

Corey Jentry on Selling Sanity: Inside the Troubled...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/25

In Part 2 of our conversation with Corey Jentry, we pick up where we left off and follow the long, winding path out of the troubled teen industry and the program founded by Bob Meehan. Corey shares how years of coercive control, dependency, and identity-shaping didn’t simply end when he left the program; they followed him into the world of recovery, where he found himself grappling with many of the same dynamics inside certain corners of 12-step culture and the addiction-treatment industry. We talk

en

00:49:53

Corey Jentry on Selling Sanity: Inside the Troubled...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/22

In Part 1 of our conversation with Dr. Corey Jentry, we dive into a side of the troubled teen industry that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough: the programs that didn’t need to kidnap kids in the middle of the night, because they convinced them to walk in willingly. Corey shares how, as a struggling teenager looking for connection, he was drawn into what would become a five-year stay inside the Insight Substance Abuse program, formerly Palmer Drug Abuse Program (PDAP), a highly controlling

en

00:39:07

Bring Me the Beauties: Hoyt Richards, and a Double...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/18

Hoyt Richards is back for Part 2 with the escape story nobody knew they needed: love, coercion, a shaved head, and the unlikely guardian angel who turned out to be Fabio. After Frederick's death, the new cult leader still made Hoyt's life hell. When Hoyt fell secretly in love with Donna over four years and dared to question the apocalypse timeline (spoiler: it didn't happen by 1999), he was forced to break up with her, shave his head to prevent modeling, and do slave labor while facing nightly

en

00:52:35

Bring Me the Beauties: Hoyt Richards, and a Double...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/15

This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp.Hoyt Richards joins the pod to talk about the double life behind his modeling fame and his nearly 20 years in Eternal Values, the high-control group also featured in HBO’s Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult. He reflects on how a seemingly glamorous world of fashion, access, and status got tangled up with grooming, identity loss, and a spiritual system that kept pulling him deeper in.Our conversation focuses on how recruitment worked: being flattered, singled

en

00:42:54

Where are they now? Mark Vicente on the Narcissist’s...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/11

In Part 2 of our “Where are they now” chat with Mark Vicente, he talks about Narcissist’s Playbook and the emotional toll of spending five years documenting narcissistic abuse and expanding that work through his Instaguru series and podcast. The project keeps revealing the same pattern at different scales, from cult dynamics and propaganda to politics, performance, and the way people get triangulated against each other.The conversation also gets more personal, with Mark and Sarah reflecting on their

en

00:49:32

Where are they now? Mark Vicente on the Narcissist’s...

A Little Bit Culty ·

2026/06/08

Mark Vicente returns for a new “Where are they now?” conversation and opens up about the five-year journey behind his upcoming film, Narcissist’s Playbook, which he describes as a way to better understand the psychology he once lived inside. We revisit how narcissistic patterns showed up in NXIVM and why they’re so hard to see clearly while you’re in it, and how the film tries to explain the mechanics of manipulation without pretending people can simply “love” abuse away.Our conversation also

en

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