IndoctriNation

Sochil Martin is a Mexican American woman born and raised in the religious high control group La Luz del Mundo. She was groomed from a young age to be a "concubine" for the leader of the organization, becoming a slave to the leadership. After escaping at 30 years old, Sochil, with the help of her husband Martin and family, began seeking justice and founded the WithYou Foundation in 2020. T...

Emma Lehman is the host and producer of Gooned, a limited-series investigative podcast now available on all platforms. Gooned is a podcast about the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI), a network of profit-incentivized behavior modification facilities for youth ranging from wilderness programs to therapeutic boarding schools. ​​ ​​​​Gooned is Emma’s second investigative podcast. Her first podcast, Texas...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can hear the episode in its entirety, by becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/indoctrination In this special bonus episode, Rachel offers advice on how ex-cult members can safely communicate with current devotees of the groups they left. She outlines healthy ways to protect yourself from re-traumatization and maintain autonomy whe...

Angela J Herrington is a faith deconstruction coach and host of The Deconstructing Faith Summit who helps people break free from toxic religious culture & empowers them to recover from #churchhurt. She has led online ministries for a decade, enjoys working with clients 1:1, in groups, and is a dynamic conference speaker. She holds a BA from Indiana Wesleyan and a Masters in Leadership from Wes...

Mike Rinder was raised as a Scientologist from early childhood. He went on to serve as Scientology’s international spokesperson and as the head of its Office of Special Affairs and was a member of the Board of Directors of Church of Scientology International from its creation in 1983 until he left in 2007. Since renouncing Scientology, Rinder has become a prominent whistleblower against its abuses...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can hear the episode in its entirety, by becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/indoctrination In this solo bonus episode, Rachel examines the often problematic language popularized in self-help circles and explains its origins in Large Group Awareness Training organizations such as Landmark. Throughout her monologue, she points out...

Matt and Tawni Browning are the authors of the new book "The Hate Next Door: Undercover within the New Face of White Supremacy" Matt is an internationally recognized authority on the inner workings of white supremacy groups. As an undercover detective for more than two decades in Arizona, Browning has been infiltrating, documenting, and disrupting White supremacy movements from the inside,...

Cynane Shay is a nuclear engineer in South Carolina. Her childhood in White Christian Nationalism normalized conspiracy theories like Obama “Birther-ism” and the Biblical apocalypse; but 2020, with COVID and Qanon, finally made her realize something was deeply wrong. Now Cynane is writing a book, “Taking Off the Tinfoil Hat: How Lizard People and Space Lasers Dismantled my Christian Worldview,” to...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can listen to the full episode by becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/indoctrination In this special bonus episode, Rachel explains how survivors of high-control groups or relationships can sometimes lose their natural emotional warmth and sensitivity. She explains why they often struggle to regain those empathetic feelings after...

Dr. Clint Heacock is an ex-evangelical pastor and Bible college teacher of over 20 years and the host of the MindShift podcast. Clint grew up in the Church of Christ with parents who followed the Bill Gothard method of child-rearing. After deconstructing his former Christian faith and leaving it behind more than a decade ago, he’s used his podcast platform to educate and help those who have left r...

Jon Atack is a leading expert on authoritarian cult groups as well as a best-selling author. He has worked with hundreds of former members and has lectured and written extensively in a career spanning four decades. Jon wrote the book, “Scientology: The Cult of Greed” as a simple introduction to the subject, while his influential book, “Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky” is the only compr...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can listen to the full episode by becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/indoctrination In this special bonus episode, Rachel explains how cult survivors are often uniquely primed to be involved with contentious in-fighting within the ex-member communities they participate in. She advises what safeguards and protocols should be impl...

Mattie Jo Cowsert was a pastor’s kid and proud purity ring-wearer before she moved to New York City and experienced an unexpected worldview and identity implosion. When the marriage equality act passed in 2015, Mattie Jo decided to share how the queer community was one of the catalysts for questioning everything she’d been taught, in her first publicly released blog post entitled: God and the Gays...

In this special bonus episode, Rachel shares her thoughts on the "Twin Flames Universe" cult and its leaders Jeff and Shaleia. After becoming aware of this strange online-based group around 2019 she received several disturbing reports to her therapy practice by former and current members and their concerned families. Throughout this talk, Rachel outlines the many red flags and dangerous id...

Jolie Holland is a world-renowned Los Angeles-based artist who has forged a timeless, captivating musical legacy mining the depths of her, at times harrowing, life experiences. Her fearless creative choices are rooted in honesty and presence. She is a co-founder of the musical trio The Be Good Tanyas and has been featured on Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" Jolie was raised as a fou...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can listen to the full episode by becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/indoctrination Returning guests, Nikieta Lambert and Asha Glenn are former members of the International Churches of Christ. Both having grown up with narcissistic mothers, they've been gaslit, shamed, and silenced their whole lives by the people closest to...

Wendy Baker is a former member of the infamous Los Angeles-based cult The Source Family, a commune that began in the 1960s by Jim Baker AKA Father Yod. The group was funded mainly by The Source restaurant a vegetarian cafe popular with celebrities such as John Lennon and Marlon Brando. Wendy is the author of the award-winning memoir "My Name Was Mushroom: My Life as a Teenage Runaway in The So...

Lamont Lindstrom is an Emeritus Professor and former Chair of Anthropology, at the University of Tulsa, where he also served as Associate Dean of the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences. Lindstrom has taught courses in sociolinguistics and anthropology at Rhodes College, Memphis, the University of Papua New Guinea, and UC Berkeley. Lamont has long-term research interests in Vanuatu and othe...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can listen to the full episode by becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/indoctrination Returning guest, Perry Bulwer was Born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada, where he joined the Children of God after dropping out of high school at age 16. He then spent the next two decades living in Children Of God communes across the wo...

Eva Collins is a content creator and online business consultant with over 20 years of experience in the spiritual and personal development world and 8 years in the online business and coaching industry. She has 750 hours of yoga teacher training, along with certifications in Reiki and health coaching. Over the years, during her entrepreneurship journey, she started learning from and working for so...

Eric Skwarczynski is a versatile media professional with a passion for storytelling. Over the past 7 years, he has held various roles, including videographer, photographer, writer, and graphic designer, leading him to explore over 20 states and 13 countries. His mission revolves around shedding light on the significant issue of mental, physical, and sexual abuse within Independent Baptist Churches...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can listen to the full episode by becoming a member at: https://www.patreon.com/indoctrination In this special bonus episode, Rachel offers her thoughts on La Luz Del Mundo, the Mexican mega-church that teaches that it is the only true Christian church founded by Jesus Christ because it is led by Naasón Joaquín, whom it considers t...

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit American artist, community organizer, technologist, and theorist. Currently, Thenmozhi is the Executive Director of Equality Labs, which she co-founded. Equality Labs is the largest Dalit civil rights organization working to empower caste-oppressed people in the US and globally. Through her work at Equality Labs, Thenmozhi has mobilized South Asian Americans towa...

Sarah Steel is the creator and host of the "Let's Talk About Sects" podcast, where she produces, and writes all of the episodes. And, today you can actually hear Rachel's guest appearance on that podcast by following the link in the show notes of this episode or just search for "Let's Talk About Sects" wherever you get your podcasts. In addition to podcasting, Sarah is...

This is just a preview of our Patreon exclusive bonus episode. You can hear the full episode by becoming a supporter at: https://www.patreon.com/indoctrination Returning guest, Erin Burchwell is a Columbus, Ohio-based florist, designer, and illustrator. She grew up as a faculty kid on the campus of Bob Jones University, an extremely conservative Christian college known for its strict rules and con...