Leaving The Village

While people are ultimately responsible for their own actions, Bill Gothard, ATI, and Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are in very real and practical ways responsible for the abuses Josh Duggar has been allowed to perpetrate, unchecked, for decades. Jess and Kathleen explain why in this timely episode of Leaving the Village.

In this fascinating BONUS episode Kit takes a break from her usual role of co-host as Jess interviews her about her cult training center nightmare experience. Kit will take us behind the scenes of the insular world inside the Indianapolis Training Center.

This time, on Leaving The Village, Jess and Kit take you inside the curriculum of Bill Gothard's ATI program. Special thanks to the website Homeschoolers Anonymous for their open source copies of the Wisdom Booklets we used for this episode.

So, what do you think happens when a couple of cult survivors watch TV? You guessed it: we geek out like crazy over the portrayal of fictionalized cults on our favorite shows. Join us as we completely spoil the "True Crime" episode from Season 3 of "The Rookie". SPOILER ALERT!!

In previous episodes Jess and Kit talked about how in Bill Gothard's cult, IBLP/ATI, one's personality could feel erased. In this episode they take a deeper look into their journey to recover from the mind control that even took their personalities from them.

Modesty culture is everywhere in fundamentalism across the board but how exactly did ATI manage to take it to a whole other place? Jess and Kit talk clothing standards in the world of IBLP/ATI.

What drew parents to enroll in ATI? How did they go from mainline evangelical to an isolationist cult? Jessica's mom shares her journey with ATI and how she came to the reality of what was really happening to their family. Don't miss this candid and intimate interview!

Did Jess and Kit become the good little ATI girls they were expected to be?? Well, not quite....

Fellow IBLP/ATI survivor, and author Heather Heath, joins us to introduce a bit of her story. You can hear her energy and determined sense of self as it propelled her out and into a whole new life.