Episódios

  • Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes

    Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes
    Aug 13 2025

    From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate, to the Octopus Murders and the Waco Siege, the world is full of deception, manipulation, and destruction. Listen to Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes every Wednesday as we explore the real people at the centre of the world’s most shocking secrets and nefarious organizations. Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes is a Crime House Original powered by PAVE Studios. Follow the show now so you don’t miss a single story.


    Listen and follow here: https://link.podtrac.com/c6zbxkmi

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    8 minutos
  • Interview Episode: Fynn's time with the Logos Foundation

    Interview Episode: Fynn's time with the Logos Foundation
    Jul 29 2025

    The Logos Foundation was often described as ‘mysterious’ in media coverage, but became a part of the religious right that published full page newspaper advertisements encouraging the electorate to vote on ‘moral’ issues at Queensland state elections in the late 1980s. LTAS looked into the organisation in Season 5, and you can listen to that episode here.


    'Fynn' (not their real name) was born into the Logos Foundation, and in this interview episode shares the extent to which a childhood in a group like this impacted their family and their life, even many decades later.


    Links:

    • Survivors of the Logos Foundation Australia — a new Facebook group set up by Fynn to help former members connect
    • The Logos Foundation — LTAS episode with further research links, 16 November 2022


    If you have been personally affected by involvement in a cult, or would like to support those who have been, you can find support with or donate to Cult Information and Family Support if you’re in Australia (via www.cifs.org.au), and you can find resources outside of Australia with the International Cultic Studies Association (via www.icsahome.com).


    If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs support right now, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia, or find your local crisis centre via the International Association for Suicide Prevention website at www.iasp.info.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    43 minutos
  • Interview Episode: Clare Heath-McIvor

    Interview Episode: Clare Heath-McIvor
    Jul 1 2025

    Clare Heath-McIvor is the daughter of the leader of the City Builders Church, an organisation that she and others who know it feel confident fits the definition of a cult. Her marriage was arranged within the church to Patrick McIvor, a man who had survived gay conversion therapy. Since leaving, the now-happily-separated pair have become involved in a number of social justice issues, including the current Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups, and Patrick's work was crucial to the ban on conversion therapy practices in Victoria.


    Links:

    • Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups — Parliament of Victoria, open for submissions until 31 July 2025 and due to deliver findings in September 2026
    • Clare Heath-McIvor's Linktree with her Substack, TikTok, Twitter and more
    • Unchurchable podcast
    • Caring church or crazy cult? The extreme religion praying for power — 60 Minutes Australia, 20 November 2022
    • Victorian Cult Survivors Network — Facebook group


    You can support us on Patreon. Sarah Steel's book Do As I Say is available on audiobook.


    If you have been personally affected by involvement in a cult, or would like to support those who have been, you can find support with or donate to Cult Information and Family Support if you’re in Australia (via www.cifs.org.au), and you can find resources outside of Australia with the International Cultic Studies Association (via www.icsahome.com).

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hora e 24 minutos
  • Cult Bride & Providence/JMS with Liz Cameron

    Cult Bride & Providence/JMS with Liz Cameron
    Jun 3 2025

    In 2011, an 18-year-old Liz Cameron joined a Bible study group she only knew as ‘Sarang Church’. Over the coming months, she lost more and more of her life and identity to the group that eventually revealed it was part of a larger South Korean organisation called Providence or JMS – which she was told not to google. Liz managed to find her way out of her indoctrination with the help of her family, and has just released her memoir about her experiences, Cult Bride: How I was brainwashed – and how I broke free.


    Links:

    • Cult Bride: How I was brainwashed – and how I broke free — by Liz Cameron, Hardie Grant Publishing, June 2025
    • liztheformer — Liz Cameron's TikTok channel
    • The Cult Next Door — 7News Spotlight episode, 2 July 2023
    • In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal — Netflix documentary about Providence/JMS, 2023
    • Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups — Parliament of Victoria, open for submissions until 31 July 2025 and due to deliver findings in September 2026


    You can support us on Patreon. Sarah Steel's book Do As I Say is available on audiobook.


    If you have been personally affected by involvement in a cult, or would like to support those who have been, you can find support with or donate to Cult Information and Family Support if you’re in Australia (via www.cifs.org.au), and you can find resources outside of Australia with the International Cultic Studies Association (via www.icsahome.com).

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hora e 27 minutos
  • Interview Episode: Victorian Inquiry into Cults with Ryan & Catherine Carey

    Interview Episode: Victorian Inquiry into Cults with Ryan & Catherine Carey
    May 20 2025

    The Parliament of Victoria has launched an Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups, which is open for submissions until 31 July 2025. If you or anyone you know has been involved with a cult that has a presence in Victoria, Australia, you're highly encouraged to make a submission. There’s also an anonymous questionnaire option available for those who might not wish to make a full submission.


    Ryan and Catherine Carey are two former members of the Geelong Revival Centre who – along with a working group of other cult survivors – have been at the forefront in instigating this inquiry. They secured the support of Victoria’s Labor State Member for Geelong and Parliamentary Secretary for First Peoples Christine Couzens, and Victorian Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny, who launched the Inquiry in April 2025. It's due to deliver its findings in September 2026.


    Links:

    • Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups — Parliament of Victoria, open for submissions until 31 July 2025 and due to deliver findings in September 2026
    • Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder podcast
    • Stop Religious Coercion Australia — websitem Facebook group, TikTok and Instagram
    • Victorian Cult Survivors Network — Facebook group


    You can support us on Patreon. Sarah Steel's book Do As I Say is available on audiobook.


    If you have been personally affected by involvement in a cult, or would like to support those who have been, you can find support with or donate to Cult Information and Family Support if you’re in Australia (via www.cifs.org.au), and you can find resources outside of Australia with the International Cultic Studies Association (via www.icsahome.com).

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    56 minutos
  • Falun Gong

    Falun Gong
    Apr 22 2025
    Falun Gong is familiar to many as a spiritual exercise movement, and a sect that has been persecuted by the People’s Republic of China. In Sydney you'll often see practitioners demonstrating by Town Hall with flyers sharing stories of organ harvesting of wrongfully imprisoned members. But former devotees have come forward with stories of coercion and abuse, alleging that in one thing the CCP is correct: Falun Gong is a socially harmful cult.Full research sources listed here.Links:“I am the only one propagating true Dharma”: Li Hongzhi’s Self-Presentation as Buddha and Greater — by James R. Lewis, ColomboArts Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol II, Issue 2, 2017The life and times of Li Hongzhi: ‘Falun Gong’ and Religious Biography — by Benjamin Penny, The China Quarterly 175, 643–661, 2003The power of Falun Gong — By Eric Campbell and Hagar Cohen, Foreign Correspondent-Background Briefing, ABC, 21 July 2020Shen Yun: The Dark Side of a Dance Troupe — The Daily, New York Times Podcasts, 3 April 2025Facebook bans ads from The Epoch Times after huge pro-Trump buy — by Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins, NBC News, 23 August 2019This Pro-Trump YouTube Network Sprang Up Just After He Lost — by Craig Silverman, BuzzFeed News, 8 January 2021A key source for Covid-skeptic movements, the Epoch Times yearns for a global audience — by Alessio Perrone & Darren Loucaides, coda, 10 March 2022DoJ accuses far-right Epoch Times of being money-laundering operation — by Richard Luscombe, The Guardian, 4 June 2024Behind the Pageantry of Shen Yun, Untreated Injuries and Emotional Abuse — by Nicole Hong & Michael Rothfeld, The New York Times, 15 August 2024Stepping Into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun — by Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 19 March 2019Their posters are everywhere, but behind Shen Yun lies a darker story — by Anthony Segaert, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 February 2025Consider supporting Decult in NZ Subscribe and support the production of this independent podcast, and you can access early + ad-free episodes at https://plus.acast.com/s/lets-talk-about-sects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hora e 12 minutos
  • Children in Scientology with Mirriam Francis

    Children in Scientology with Mirriam Francis
    Apr 8 2025
    In the wake of updates to Child Safety Standards emerging from Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mirriam Francis wrote to Victoria’s Commission for Children and Young People outlining the ways in which she sees Scientology teachings and practices to be violating these standards. While concepts of religious freedom and choice can muddy the waters of certain discussions around coercive organisations, Mirriam sees the regulations and laws to protect children as a key lens through which such practices need to be viewed and pursued. She speaks from personal experience that spans three countries.Links:Child Safe Standards — Commission for Children and Young People Victoria (you can raise a concern here); Queensland Family & Child Commission (you can raise a concern here)Child Safe Scheme — NSW Office of the Children's Guardian (you can raise a concern here)Australian Child Safe Standards – A State By State Guide 2024 — Safe Space LegalRage Against the Dark Arts — Mirriam Francis' SubstackThetans in Young Bodies — Season 2, Episode 1 of Leah Remini's Scientology and the Aftermath in which Mirriam Francis featuresReport of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology — by Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C., the State of Victoria, Australia, 1965The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma — by Bessel van der Kolk, Penguin, 2015Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice — by Judith Lewis Herman, Basic Books, 2023Dianetics excerpt re: 7-year-old child responding to kiss from adult maleA Children of God message to members mentioning their "friends in Scientology"Introduction to Scientology Ethics High CrimesYou can support us on Patreon. Sarah's book Do As I Say is available on audiobook. Subscribe and support the production of this independent podcast, and you can access early + ad-free episodes at https://plus.acast.com/s/lets-talk-about-sects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hora e 11 minutos
  • SGAs with Maria Esguerra

    SGAs with Maria Esguerra
    Apr 1 2025
    Maria Esguerra escaped the Children of God at the age of 22 with her two children who have disabilities. Maria’s firsthand experience drives her passion to support fellow survivors of cults and institutions, advocating for specialised understanding, interventions and access to governmental schemes such as Redress. Maria has actively engaged in media and advocacy efforts to raise awareness about the challenges faced by people escaping coercive environments. She founded a support group for second and multi-generational survivors (also referred to as SGAs or MGAs) from all cults. It addresses the devastating impacts from these groups, including abuse, denial of basic rights and forced labour. Maria is also a psychologist and the founder of Assessable.Links:Maria Esguerra — LinktreeMaria Esguerra — Director at AssessableDecult profile — Maria's information at the recent Decult ConferenceI lived under the so-called 'law of love' and it was terrifying – cult survivor — by Ryan Boswell, 1News, 17 October 2024CIFS Australia — Cult Information & Family SupportThe Olive Leaf NetworkEscaping Utopia — by Janja Lalich & Karla McLaren, Routledge, 2017The Strange Situation Experiment — more about Mary Ainsworth's work on attachment theoryErikson's stages of psychosocial development — more about Erik Erikson's workMake it Meaningful: How to find purpose in life and work — by Debbie Haski-Leventhal, Simon & Schuster, 2023Walking Free from the Trauma of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse: A Workbook for Recovery and Growth — by Gillie Jenkinson, Routledge, 2023Stop Religious Coercion Australia — Advocacy group started by a former Geelong Revival Centre memberWriting to Reckon — Gerette Buglion's workshops, retreats, journal, and moreYou can support us on Patreon. Sarah Steel's book Do As I Say is available on audiobook. Subscribe and support the production of this independent podcast, and you can access early + ad-free episodes at https://plus.acast.com/s/lets-talk-about-sects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hora e 21 minutos