Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover this podcast and so much more

    Podcasts are free to enjoy without a subscription. We also offer ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more for just $11.99/month.

    157. CULTS: How NXIVM Controlled Women & How Sarah Edmondson Helped Take It Down

    157. CULTS: How NXIVM Controlled Women & How Sarah Edmondson Helped Take It Down

    FromWe Can Do Hard Things

    Start listeningView podcast show

    157. CULTS: How NXIVM Controlled Women & How Sarah Edmondson Helped Take It Down

    FromWe Can Do Hard Things

    ratings:
    Length:
    66 minutes
    Released:
    Dec 6, 2022
    Format:
    Podcast episode

    Description

    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 coercion

    About 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: @sarahjedmondson
    IG: @sarahedmondson

    Sarah’s resource page: https://www.sarahedmondson.com/resources
    Steven Hassan’s BITE model: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/

    To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Released:
    Dec 6, 2022
    Format:
    Podcast episode

    Titles in the series (100)

    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. Because we experienced the hardship of the pandemic collectively, many of us finally acknowledged what was true before COVID and will be true after: That life is freaking HARD. We are all doing hard things every single day – things like loving and losing caring for children and parents; forging and ending friendships; battling addiction, illness, and loneliness; struggling in our jobs, our marriages, and our divorces; setting boundaries; and fighting for equality, purpose, freedom, joy, and peace. On We Can Do Hard Things, my sister Amanda and I will do the only thing I’ve found that has ever made life easier: We will drop the fake and talk honestly about the hard. Each week we will bring our hard to you and we will ask you to bring your hard to us and we will do what we were all meant to do down here: Help each other carry the hard so we can all live a little bit lighter and braver, more free and less alone.