The drug rehab/utopian community/violent cult. Shaved heads, The Game, rattlesnakes, and dope fiends!

Connect on Facebook or at the Failed Utopia website.

Links & Resources

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741 741

Domestic Violence Helpline: 1-800-799-7233

VictimConnect, a referral helpline for victims of crime: 1-855-484-2846

Make The Connection

• Synanon movie trailer. Skip to 2:23 for the best fight scene of all time.
• Paul Morantz’s Escape: My Lifelong War Against Cults and From Miracle to Madness: The True Story of Charles Dederich and Synanon
• Paul Morantz’s website 
• A website run by a former Synanon member with a bunch of pictures. This is probably the worst website I have ever seen, and it’s worth looking at based on that alone. 
• Mikel Jollett’s Hollywood Park 
• An interview with Mikel Jollett on NPR’s All Songs Considered
• Claire Clark’s The Recovery Road: The Battle Over Addiction Treatment in the United States
• Rod Janzen’s The Rise and Fall of Synanon: A California Utopia
• C.A. Wittman's Synanon Kid
• THX 1138
• Equilibrium

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton