The Underground Bunker Podcast

On Wednesday, we showed you a new promotional video that Scientology has recently put out that is intended to lure its wealthier members to the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida for some arcane practices known as the “L Rundowns.” We’ve long marveled at how “the Ls” are sold to Scientologists at such high prices — tens of thousands of dollars for each of three rundowns — and that they are sepa...

A couple of weeks ago we started a new podcast for our subscribers that we call Group Therapy. We've brought together four of our favorite Underground Bunker regulars, Andrea i-Betty Garner, Lynette Observer Waggoner, Phil Jones, and the enigmatic Pan. We spend an hour talking about the Scientology news of the week, and we have a lot of fun. This past week, however, we related some things we had l...

This week, a story we have been covering for a long time, the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige, suddenly became national news, thanks to a joke by comedian Jerrod Carmichael as he was hosting the Golden Globes Awards. For years, we've been telling you what we've uncovered about Shelly , the wife of Scientology's ruthless leader, David Miscavige. Shelly used to help Dave run his empire, but in lat...

Karen de la Carriere has been a regular feature of the Underground Bunker going back to our days at the Village Voice. Her career in Scientology was extraordinary, and so is her track record as a whistleblower. We're so pleased that she's agreed to talk with us for the podcast, and she surprised us with a number of things we hadn’t heard before. We hope you enjoy our latest offering. Today’s podca...

Once again this week we received a timely and terrific narrative from Bruce Hines, a former top auditor in Scientology whose involvement in the church went back decades. This time, he was reacting to news we reported about the death of Jane Kember, the woman who at one time ran Scientology's worldwide spy network, the Guardian's Office. It turned out that Bruce had worked as a Guardian's Office vo...

One of the people we were happy to see in Los Angeles when we were covering the Danny Masterson trial was our old friend Tory Christman. We first wrote about Tory back in 2001 , and she's still one of our favorite people in the world. On this Christmas Eve, we asked if she would join us on the Underground Bunker Podcast. And wow, she let us get into some things we'd kept under our belt for a long...

We're still going through the wreckage of the Danny Masterson Trial, which ended with a hung jury on November 30. And one thing that surprised us about the interview we did with Chris Shelton of the jury foreman , was the revelation that the jury had largely ignored the Scientology component of the case. And it reminded us that Judge Charlaine Olmedo had not allowed the prosecution to bring in a S...

On September 27, we had the treat of meeting Mike Rinder in Manhattan on the publication day of his book, A Billion Years: My Escape from a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology . (See our review of the book here .) We were just plain lucky that we could dine with Mike that evening when he had so much going on. But neither of us really had any idea what the next several weeks would have in stor...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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