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Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

Auteur(s): Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
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Trust Me is a weekly interview podcast about cults, extreme belief, and the fine line between devotion and delusion—told through firsthand accounts from the people who lived it. Hosted by two women who’ve been in cults themselves, Lola Blanc and Meagan Elizabeth, the show features survivors from groups like Heaven’s Gate, the Manson Family, NXIVM, OneTaste and more–sharing personal stories of how they got in, how they got out, and everything in between.

Each week, they invite these guests alongside experts who can dive deep into seductive leaders, the darker aspects of organized religion, and the subtler shades of groupthink and the psychology of influence. Trust Me explores it all with unfiltered honesty, dark humor, and a lot of heart. This isn’t a sensationalized deep dive into cults—it’s a compassionate, first-person exploration of what it means to believe, to belong, and to break free. At the end of the day, wanting to believe in something bigger than yourself is one of the most human instincts there is.

2025 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia Sciences sociales True Crime
Épisodes
  • Renee DiResta - Part 1: Propaganda, Disinformation, and Bespoke Realities

    Renee DiResta - Part 1: Propaganda, Disinformation, and Bespoke Realities
    Dec 3 2025

    This week’s guest is Renee DiResta, professor, and author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality. In part one this week, she talks to Lola and Meagan about propaganda, disinformation vs. misinformation, and how social media algorithms push us all into highly individualized, “bespoke” realities.

    They discuss how she became interested in this topic after social media algorithms started suggesting anti-vaxxer content to her, how rage bait and other emotionally charged material spreads faster, and why social media makes it seem like other people have more extreme views than the majority of them actually do.

    SOURCES

    Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Voir plus Voir moins
    52 min
  • Mike & Abbi Prussack – Part 2: Predators in Power, Institutional Denial, and the Fight to Expose It

    Mike & Abbi Prussack – Part 2: Predators in Power, Institutional Denial, and the Fight to Expose It
    Nov 19 2025

    This week, Lola and Meagan continue their conversation with Mike and Abbi Prussack, former members of Meagan’s childhood church, the 2x2s. In part 2, they walk the girls through the abuse crisis that has shaken the group in recent years and the long-standing patterns that allowed the harm to continue. Mike and Abbi explain how church leadership handled reports, why victims felt they had nowhere to turn, and how secrecy and obedience has shaped the culture for generations.

    They also discuss the FBI investigation, the community’s response, and what it has been like to help moderate the Ex 2x2 Facebook group during a moment of collective reckoning. The conversation looks at the cost of silence and the pressure to stay loyal, plus why so many people are choosing to finally speak out now.

    SOURCES
    Wings for Truth

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Voir plus Voir moins
    44 min
  • Mike & Abbi Prussack - Part 1: A Church with No Name, Isolated Childhoods, and Doomsday Fear

    Mike & Abbi Prussack - Part 1: A Church with No Name, Isolated Childhoods, and Doomsday Fear
    Nov 12 2025

    This week, Lola and Meagan talk with Mike and Abbi Prussack, former members of Meagan’s childhood church, the 2x2s, also known as The Truth or The Way. The couple, who now help moderate the Ex-2x2 Facebook community, share what it was like growing up in a secretive religious group with no name, no building, and strict rules about who could be “in.”

    They open up about meeting and marrying within the church, the single question that shattered their faith, and how leaving forced them to rebuild their identities from scratch.

    Next week, part two dives into the FBI investigation, decades of hidden abuse, and what’s happening inside the group now that the truth is finally being exposed.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    47 min
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