This week I welcome Alanda Carter,  @The Recovering Hunbot  for a discussion about multilevel marketing and the coercive, cult-like tactics that are employed at every level to promote, recruit, retain and financially devastate their “members.” Alanda has personal experience to share about this and has been a staunch anti-MLM crusader who has helped educate me on the subject. Enjoy!

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This week I welcome back Jeff Hawkins for one of the most fun and certainly interesting conversations I’ve had in a long while about Scientology, David Miscavige and the marketing and expansion of Scientology (or lack thereof). This is a wide-ranging discussion and we tie in some current events as well, which may help give some insight into why this last week was so mad. Enjoy!

Jeff’s email: jeffersonhawkins1 (at) msn.com.

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This week we do our traditional year-end review of what happened in 2020, mainly in but also of course outside of the world of Scientology. There were some good and some bad, some ups and some downs, but certainly no shortage of things to talk about. Enjoy!

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This week I welcome Matan Schecter, a second-generation former Messianic Jew. As we clarify in this episode, that term is a misnomer of the highest order and Matan had to face a great deal of struggle to find his own voice and acknowledgement of his own identity. We talk about what the Messianic Movement is all about and how Matan had to undergo multiple attempts to “adjust” his gender identity because of religious belief. His story is quite something and I hope you learn as much as I did from it.

Matan’s story

Contact email: PikachuNefesh (at) gmail.com

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This week I welcome back Jon Atack to discuss the problem of dealing with cults and how can we ever hope to solve this immense task, or should we even be trying? In this far-ranging conversation we cover answers to this and a lot more. Enjoy!

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This week I welcome back my friend and DC lawyer Ciprian Ivanof to discuss Scientology lawsuits, both recent and old, and what lawyers for Valerie Hanie may have gotten wrong in their latest fight against the Church of Scientology. We recorded this last week and it was just yesterday that news came down that Haney’s appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected. That decision doesn’t change the opinions we offer here about what went wrong on her case and hopefully how we can make sure the same mistakes are not repeated again.

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This week I welcome local Denver author Dylan Aames to discuss his book Lies Your Psychologist Told You, a critical take on some of the taller tales that have been accepted as literal or practical truth when perhaps they should not be, including in the very textbooks of psychology. We have some lively and interesting discussion in this one. Enjoy!

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This week we are doing a bit more of a raw interview than usual as I discuss the Scientology experience with former member Shane Rybacki, a second gen member from Detroit and Orange County who had quite a few wild experiences growing up in and around Scientology including a brief stint on the EPF and working for the Office of Special Affairs in Orange County. Now he’s ready to start talking about them. This is the first time I’ve had to bleep out content in one of my podcasts for legal reasons, so don’t be surprised when those pop up. Enjoy!

Shane’s GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/syute-family-in-need

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This week I welcome Stacie and Jeff Mallinson to discuss how they have been pushing back from within the religious community against “religious wolves,” people in religious settings who engage in destructive cult behavior and abusive religious indoctrination of children. We found quite a bit of common ground and I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did.

Mallinson website

Alfie Cohen – psychologist

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This week I welcome back Dr. Jonas Kaplan to discuss the possibilities of neuralink or the melding of our brains with electronics, potentially launching us into a whole new sphere of existence in a digital world or using digital tools to assist every aspect of our thinking and our life. Sound like a transhumanist’s wet dream? Well, maybe we can temper all that with some reality. Enjoy!

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