Was I In A Cult?

Michelle Dowd was born into a cult that was literally training boys to fight in God’s army when the apocalypse came. It started in sunny Pasadena, California when her grandfather - a former Boy Scout leader - decided the Scouts weren’t strict enough and built his own organization. Boys were recruited young, drilled like soldiers, and raised to believe they were preparing for the end of the world. Michelle grew up inside the group known as “The Field,” running miles before breakfast, enduring military-style obedience drills, selling candy to fund the movement, and eventually living for years on a remote mountain with basically no formal education. What eventually happened is almost unbelievable: a secret college application, a full scholarship, and a cult survivor with no formal education… to becoming a professor teaching critical thinking. Michelle Dowd is now a writer and the author of Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult. _____________________________________ MICHELLE DOWD LINKS → Instagram @michelledowdz |  Subscribe to Michelle's FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Listen to Michelle's book "Forager" on SPOTIFY FOR FREE Pick up a copy of Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult" Michelle’s NYT Modern Love essay: “Love in a Time of Low Expectations” *** Tyler’s mascot book mention: Where Are the Fighting Giraffes? by David Winder FOLLOW US  For more culty content - follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult SUPPORT THE SHOW Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude) HAVE A CULTY STORY? Email us → [email protected] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Star Stone walked into a fluorescent-lit room on Market Street in San Francisco where a man who looked like Mark Zuckerberg stroked a woman's clitoris in business casual while thirty people watched. "This is it. This is what I need," she thought. It wasn't. See, Star didn't join a cult (newsflash, no one does). She joined a sex-positive, orgasm-as-spiritual-practice kind of movement founded by a woman, for women. It was called OneTaste. It promised female empowerment. But what it delivered was sexual trauma. Thanks, Nicole Daedone! Star Stone shares her story with the kind of honesty and dark humor that made us fall in love with her immediately. This isn't trauma porn - this is what happens when groups take your desire for connection, belonging, and sexual empowerment and weaponize it. Star was a joy to have on the show. Be sure to check out her solo comedy show, "Cl*t Cult," premiering this April at New York Fringe. And don't worry... she promised to come back and tell us everything that happened at "the Land" after her show premieres. _____________________________________  GET TICKETS TO CL*T CULT April 2–10 at the Wild Project, East Village, NYC  FOLLOW STAR For more from Star → Instagram @starstonespeaks |  FOLLOW US  For more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult SUPPORT THE SHOW Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude) HAVE A CULTY STORY? Email us → [email protected] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In Part 1, David Archuleta was the church's golden boy - the voice, the fame, the perfect Mormon billboard. In Part 2, that billboard comes down. David goes on a two-year Mormon mission to Chile post fame, confronts the darkest chapter of his life, and finally faces the one thing he spent decades praying would go away. Tyler gets personal about his own loss. And David sings for us again.  DAVID'S NEW MEMOIR DEVOUT  is now available.  FOLLOW US  For more culty content - follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult FOLLOW DAVID @Davidarchie  GET THE BOOK DEVOUT by David Archuleta - available everywhere books are sold. Audiobook includes a bonus EP of original songs. (Squeal!) SUPPORT THE SHOW Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude) HAVE A CULTY STORY? Email us → [email protected] If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. The Trevor Project is available 24/7 at thetrevorproject.org/get-help or text START to 678-678. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David Archuleta was seventeen years old, Mormon to his core, and singing in front of thirty million people on American Idol. America saw the golden boy - the angel voice, the humble smile, the kid who made grown adults cry on national television. What they didn't see was the father who controlled every note, every decision, every version of David he was allowed to be. "I basically was his puppet."  Behind the fame was the sweetest kid grappling with his own sexuality because his church told him who he was allowed to love, and who he wanted to love wasn't on their yes list. David believed that if he just prayed hard enough, God would "fix" the one thing about himself he'd been taught to hate. Spoiler: God had other plans. Today is Part 1 of his story... it wrecked us in the best way.  Part 2 is available NOW exclusively for PATREON members.  DAVID'S NEW MEMOIR DEVOUT  is now available.  FOLLOW US  For more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult FOLLOW DAVID @Davidarchie  GET THE BOOK DEVOUT by David Archuleta - available everywhere books are sold. Audiobook includes a bonus EP of original songs. (Squeal!) SUPPORT THE SHOW Get PART 2 of David's story RIGHT NOW a week EARLY by joining our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. HAVE A CULTY STORY? Email us → [email protected] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When you're numbered among the Lord's anointed, you're supposed to feel special, but for Jeremy Tucker, he was just another mindless cog in the machine of the Kingdom of God. It didn't matter though, he would work hard to do his part, until that hard work nearly cost him his life...   FOLLOW US  For more culty content - follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult SUPPORT THE SHOW Rate, review, share. Join us on Patreon for ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. HAVE A CULTY STORY? Email us → [email protected] From guest producer Lindsay Hansen Park.   https://www.yearofpolygamy.com/ https://sunstone.org/sunstone-history-podcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@lindsayhansenpark?lang=en See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.