Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

Jeffrey Augustine is an investigative journalist whose blog, The Scientology Money Project, covers Scientology's money, crimes, lies, and legal matters. Augustine covers Scientology in real time and offers in-depth analysis, legal and governmental documents, and court cases. Augustine reports on the pervasive culture of white-collar criminality and financial scams within Scientology perpetrated by...

Jason Kander’s new book significantly contributes to mental health, particularly to military folks walking around with undiagnosed PTSD. He is a former Army Captain and rising political star–yes, he was invited to the White House to meet with President Obama, who encouraged him to run for President. Jason realized that he had been suffering from classic PTSD symptoms for ten years and needed to st...

Named one of the “100 best minds on leadership” by Leadership Excellence magazine, Ira Chaleff has a lot of positive, constructive things to guide people. I loved his books, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You’re Told To Do Is Wrong, and The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders. At this time in world history, Chaleff has a lot of important wisdom to help people r...

There are an estimated 40 million Americans and approximately 650 million people worldwide involved with Pentecostal/ Charismatic groups led by a prophet or apostle who claims to get direct revelations from God. Most of these fulfill the BITE model of Authoritarian Control criteria. Some of these folks see themselves as “spiritual warriors” and are convinced other people who wish to have human rig...

A frank discussion on the subject of the Netflix docu-series Bad Vegan. One-on-one coercive control is what this story was about! Sarma co-founded Pure Food and Wine restaurant in NYC and founded the raw vegan brand, One Lucky Duck. The series failed utterly by not explaining how predators operate, or how hypnosis can be used to elicit obedience and induce amnesia. In this case, large sums were dr...

Germaine is a Geriatric Neurologist, Professor Emeritus at OU College of Medicine. Her career has been devoted to people with dementia and their caregiver. She became a caregiver for her mother with dementia. She was recruited to Oklahoma University College of Medicine to develop a geriatric curriculum for medical students and focused her teaching on recognizing and caring for people with cognitiv...

Lance Dodes, M.D. is a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has been the Director of the substance abuse treatment unit of Harvard’s McLean Hospital, Director of the Alcoholism Treatment Unit at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (now part of Massachusetts General Hospital), and Director of the Boston Center for Problem Gambling. He is the author or co-au...

Dr. Holzer was co-editor of the Oxford University textbook entitled Lone-Actor Terrorism: An Integrated Framework. The book is a scholarly endeavor to approach the complex subject from a variety of disciplines. I contributed a chapter titled, Understanding Online Indoctrination, with my coauthors, Jon Caven-Atack, Mansi Shah, and Simron Malhotra. With hundreds of mass shootings as well as other vi...

Tricia Jenkins, Ph. D. is a podcaster and professor of film, TV, and digital media at TCU in Fort Worth, TX. She is the author of three books including The CIA in Hollywood, as well as Superheroes, Movies, and the State. Her new podcast, Worldwide: The Unchosen Church, features stories about growing up in the Worldwide Church of God- a doomsday apocalyptic cult. We talk about issues facing childre...

In the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe by the assassin Tetsuya Yamagami, we are posting this interview. The killer was reportedly angered because of Abe’s family’s support of the Unification Church - aka Moon organization. Wood was a major expert testifying to courts including before the Supreme Court. Allen Tate Wood a former American Leader of the group talks with S...

Dr.  Pavao is a psychologist, trained social worker, and licensed marriage and family therapist who is an internationally recognized expert in the field of adoption. An adoptee herself, she has been influential in moving adoption from a parent-centered process to a child-centered one. This in-depth interview is essential listening for all people who have been adopted, have a relationship with an a...

Founded by John and Revé Walsh (America's Most Wanted), the National Center (NCMEC) is the major resource to help children in America. Marsha Gilmer Tullis is a trained social worker and the Vice President of Family Advocacy. For anyone truly interested in helping children who are abducted, being trafficked, or being abused, this non-profit is THE go-to resource. Their center has experts from the...

Amanda Ripley is the Co-Host of the Slate podcast How-To and is the best-selling author of High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We & The Unthinkable.' This book was so well researched and easy to read and so interesting that in all of her research, it pretty much aligns with my experience. This is a fascinating conversation and helps to identify patterns characteristic of high conflict. She g...

A leader in the anti-human trafficking movement, Carissa Phelps is a highly respected and impressive advocate to protect young people from pimps and traffickers. She has an MBA and JD from UCLA, had a documentary, Carissa, and a book, Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets One Helping Hand at a Time, and a company to help train survivors on how to educate and help victims. Carissa invited me t...

Multi-level Marketing (MLMs) is a consumer protection challenge! The Direct Selling Association (DSA) is a powerful lobby influencing American politics. Attorney Douglas Brooks has championed victims of pyramid schemes and MLMs. We describe the critical things you need to know about to protect yourself and your loved ones. Are you concerned that Crypto uses the same formula as MLMs - buy into the...

S.E. Cupp is a nationally syndicated political columnist, culture critic, author, and CNN political commentator. In this episode, we talk about the horrific recent school shooting in Texas and the root causes as we see them. She talks about how she used to repeat the same talking points as other Republicans and what can be done as a country to avoid these tragedies in the future. We talk about oth...

Jennifer Cohn is a writer, journalist, and election integrity advocate. Since the 2016 election, she’s focused her professional efforts exclusively on investigating and exposing our country’s insecure computerized elections. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about her work and steps that all of us can take in our own communities to uphold the integrity of our elections. Learn more about y...

Sarah Edmondson and Anthony “Nippy” Ames are former members of the NXIVM cult but today are some of the most visible whistleblowers of the cult. They host the popular podcast “A Little Bit Culty,” and Sarah is the author of “Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life.” In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about NXIVM and the attributes we also find in other c...

For this week’s episode, we’re focusing on the POSITIVE side of the Influence Continuum. I interview Judy Stevens-Long, Ph. D. Judy is a faculty emerita at Fielding Graduate University, where she served as Associate Dean for Curriculum Development from 2001-2008. She is an expert in developmental psychology and was my mentor for my doctoral program and oversaw my dissertation. Her research publica...

James Scaminaci III is an expert on 4th generation warfare. He has a Ph. D. from Stanford University in political sociology and is a retired US Navy Reserve intelligence officer. He was a senior civilian military intelligence analyst responsible for the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Following the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, from outside and inside the former Yugoslavia, James learned a g...

John Collins grew up as “royalty” in the William Branham “Message” cult. He has worked tirelessly to understand and reveal its true history with the KKK and its influence on modern Pentecostalism today. He has authored two books and built an incredible website to expose the facts of this criminal, white supremacist, misogynistic cult. John helps us realize an essential part of American authoritari...

Paul Chang serves as a Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator at the U.S. Department of Labor – Wage and Hour Division. In his 25+ years with the agency, Paul worked on some of the most notorious cases as an investigator and Assistant District Director. He’s developed numerous training materials and programs that also utilize my BITE Model and Influence Continuum. He has also been on a specia...

n this episode, I interview Joe Szimhart. Joe is a cult information specialist I have known for decades. He is also an author and knows a great deal about psychology. Joe appears in the unearthed 1986 former member video I recently shared as a former CUT and Agni Yoga member. Like me, Joe is a former cult member who uses his experience to help others understand and reevaluate destructive cults. Jo...

A tweet thread I wrote about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni went VIRAL two days ago. I shared a video from 1986 few people have seen from a conference for former cult members. Ginni Thomas spoke in this video about her past experience in a cult. Ginni later went on to do a great deal of anti-cult work, but as is the case with so many former members, she joined a new authoritari...

Dr. Cindy Blackstock is Gixtan native in Canada, Professor of Social Work at McGill University, and Executive Director of First Nations Child & Family Caring Society. I collaborated with Dr. Blackstock for the presentation “Mind Control and Colonization.” With her help, I’ve come to realize that the same mind control I’ve studied for 45+ years exerted by cult leaders has unquestionably been exerte...