Today's episode of Eyes Wide Open is part one of two where I talked to Callie Ezell. Callie is a Chicago-based abstract artist and founder-entrepreneur with Mcmillan Street Art. We recently got connected through a mutual friend, who told me that Callie spent 10 years of her life in a cult.    Reality and unscripted television are often anything but that. Join us in demanding that producers add a mandatory disclaimer before and after each episode, underscoring that episodes are for entertainment purposes only, and the content can be edited, manipulated, and presented in any order for storyline purposes. https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/add-a-disclaimer-to-all-reality-television-programming    For those of you who've been following my post-Love Is Blind journey, you may have seen me compare elements of the production process to being part of a cult. This was inspired and informed by my conversations with Callie, because a lot of what she has shared with me about her experience in this cult was very similar to what I and my fellow cast members experienced when we participated in the Love is Blind experiment.   Callie’s story was way too difficult for us to cover in one episode, so we split it up into two parts. In part one, Callie will help us understand how she was recruited by this cult, what her first day and year was like, what she experienced from a control perspective, and what her life was like while she was living within this program. In the upcoming part two, we will focus on how Callie came to realize what was happening and how she got out.   I hope that this episode opens your eyes to some of the control mechanisms and horrific practices that are happening in our real world, and how this can really happen to anyone. Callie’s story is something that I think is really important for everybody to hear, and I hope that this helps you go through life with your eyes wide open. Find Callie here:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/callieezell/?hl=en    Mcmillan Street Art: https://www.instagram.com/mcmillanstreetart/?hl=en  Find Nick Thompson here:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nthompson513/    Website: https://www.engagewithnick.com/    UCAN Foundation: https://www.ucanfoundation.org/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EngageWithNick  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickthompson13/