The Underground Bunker Podcast

Yesterday evening, Alex Barnes-Ross joined your proprietor as we made our first experiment with Substack’s new live video feature. Paid subscribers got to watch it and comment and ask questions, and now everyone can see the result. We hope you’ll be interested in becoming a paid subscriber and joining us live for the next video. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other su...

We had a feeling that Judge Barber was going to reject the motion for reconsideration by Valeska Paris and the Baxters. But that doesn’t make their situation any less infuriating. We thought we’d add a little more background and details to this morning’s news. Want to help? Please consider joining the Underground Bunker as a paid subscriber. Your $7 a month will go a long way to helping this news...

We’re still reeling over what happened in a Los Angeles courtroom today, when Scientology managed to keep a ruling that was devastating for them from becoming final. How? By having David Miscavige send his personal attorney down to the courthouse to tell the judge he was off the case. How did he get away with that in a case that was filed last August? We explain how Miscavige is using his wealth a...

What a week Phil Jones has had, with his stealth operation in Los Angeles to put up a billboard on behalf of the Aftermath Foundation, and then the controversy that then ensued. We wanted to ask him even more questions about what went down and how he’s feeling about it, and we hope you enjoy our conversation. As usual, you can listen to the podcast (above) or watch it at our YouTube channel, below...

With a little more than a week before election day (and with early voting already underway), it was great timing for Mark Bunker that Tracey McManus revealed in the Tampa Bay Times this week that Clearwater police determined it was a couple of Scientologists who were caught stealing Bunker’s yard signs. So we checked in with Wise Beard Man about how the miscreants were caught, what they’re doing a...

We waited a long time for the four-year drought to end and for Scientology leader David Miscavige to start putting on his Ideal Org dog-and-pony shows again. But imagine how long the wait was for the poor saps who had been gouged for donations to pay for the thing as far back as 20 years ago! We were reminded of what those Scientologists were put through when Kat, a former Austin stand-up comic, r...

Readers have been raving about the pieces that Val Ross has been writing for us lately, so we thought it would be fun to have a conversation with her for our latest podcast episode. Wow, we were not disappointed as Val goes into some really striking moments from her life as a Scientologist. After we recorded it, however, she let us know that she had some things a bit mixed up on her chronology, an...

Well, we’ve done it again. We’ve gone and collaborated with Apostate Alex and we think you’re going to like the result. Over at his website, Scientology Business , we have a fun piece about some emails Alex obtained with a records request that help explain the shenanigans Scientology that was up to with the help of local officials to try and squelch the IAS protest last November. We also talked ab...

November 1966. February 1995. December 2021. Those are the three epochal turning points in a remarkable life that is the subject of this week’s podcast. Last week, we were in Los Angeles to cover a couple of hearings in Leah Remini’s lawsuit. After the first one, we got a message from a surprising source. It was someone, a legend really, whom we had admired and written about for many years. It was...

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Alexander Barnes-Ross continues to produce results, and this time he has a remarkable update: His meddling with Scientology's affairs has resulted in an MP calling for an investigation of the Church in Britain. We're in California and yesterday we took a cycling excursion to visit a favorite aunt, but we managed to do a Zoom call with Alex on our phone. Alex tells us that he had written to his Mem...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyortega.substack.com/subscribe

Tammy Synovec’s tale about sitting down next to a Scientologist on a flight out of Los Angeles generated a big reaction. For three hours, she had an opportunity she’d been hoping would happen for a long time: To talk to a current Scientologist about the problems she saw when she was a member. We’ve been talking to Tammy behind the scenes for some time now, and we know that her experiences in Scien...

In August 2022, we talked to Andreas Heldal-Lund about his diagnosis with terminal cancer, and the brave way he was facing the end of his life. So his death this week was something we had sadly been anticipating, but it hit us hard nonetheless. We came to know Andreas in 2001 because of the way he helped Tory Christman leave Scientology, and the kindness and wisdom he displayed. We had been a big...

Twice now, we’ve partnered with “Apostate Alex” Barnes-Ross to bring you the speeches of Scientology leader David Miscavige. On November 3, Dave addressed the IAS gala under the big tent at Saint Hill in East Grinstead, England. And last Saturday, he gave a stemwinder to the audience at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Both times, those speeches were leaked to us, and Alex put out the audio t...

Alex Barnes-Ross, a/k/a ‘Apostate Alex,’ continues to be on a roll. Fresh off of his success with his three days of protest at Scientology’s IAS weekend, he dug into one of the details of the third day, the Sunday charity concert. Images showed that East Grinstead’s mayor was there to pick up a large charity check, and then later at Twitter he defended his cozy relationship with Scientology. In pa...

Alex Barnes-Ross, the former London Scientology staffer who goes by ‘Apostate Alex,’ just can’t stop getting into trouble. After the triumph of last week’s protest he planned at Scientology’s IAS gala in East Grinstead, he and Jeff from Canada, a/k/a YouTuber ‘PTS for Life,’ who had come over for the demonstration, made a side trip up north. They decided to swing by the Scientology org in Sunderla...

On Friday, we had a great time checking in with Alex Barnes-Ross after what turned out to be a very successful day protesting Scientology’s IAS gathering at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England. But what really seemed to catch Scientologists by surprise is that Alex and some of the other protesters came back for more on both Saturday and Sunday, which they found was not the case in the past...

Yesterday we told you that Alexander “Apostate Alex” Barnes-Ross had succeeded at getting the main road to Scientology’s UK headquarters shut down for his planned protest and march, making it a challenge for the Scientologists to get to their event, which begins on Friday. We also had some fun with the news that Scientology celebrity and Dharma and Greg actress Jenna Elfman will be emceeing the Su...

We’ve really enjoyed working with Alexander “Apostate Alex” Barnes-Ross lately, and we’re pretty thrilled by the idea that he’s planned a major protest to greet Scientologists on their way to the IAS gala in East Grinstead, England this coming weekend. We recorded this conversation before Alex got the news that his request for a march in East Grinstead had been approved. ( Read about that developm...

Last week, we had a great time talking with Trish Conley and her sister Liz about what it’s been like for these former third-generation Scientologists to struggle with parents so dedicated to this abusive, totalitarian organization. And there’s more to the story, particularly with how Trish was declared a “suppressive person” and saw her parents and all other Scientologists disconnect from her as...

It was pretty big news around here last month when “Ellen,” the woman who we featured in our 2015 story about a Scientology “Daycare from Hell,” decided to come forward and identify herself publicly. She was Trish Conley, a close friend to Leah Remini and someone who grew up a third-generation Scientologist. Originally from Australia, she and her sister Liz decided to speak out about what it’s bee...

It’s Day One of Mark Bunker’s campaign for re-election, and we’re fortunate that he stopped by to spell out his platform! Want to help? You can support the Underground Bunker with a Paypal contribution to bunkerfund@tonyortega.org, an account administered by the Bunker’s attorney, Scott Pilutik. And by request, this is our Venmo link, and for Zelle, please use (tonyo94 AT gmail). Thank you for rea...

The gang is back together this week for some Group Therapy, but given the magnitude of this week’s Scientology news, we thought we’d make this episode available to everyone. If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a paid subscriber of the Underground Bunker. For $7 a month, you’ll not only help keep this place going, but you’ll get access to future episodes of Group Therapy and other s...

We’ve been talking to Sandy Holeman for years, and we should have introduced you to her long ago. And when she told us that she had attended the San Jose world premiere of ‘Brothers Broken’ last month, we decided to make up for lost time. Imagine, at only 19, making the decision to leave behind everything to join a ship in the Mediterranean and serve the leader of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, aboa...