The Cult Vault

In this episode, Kacey interviews Amir, a former Scientology executive from Scotland who says he escaped in January after four years in Scientology.

Amir describes a normal pre-Scientology life and explains that modern recruitment emphasises self-help books, stress/personality tests, courses, and front groups rather than overt sci‑fi beliefs, while internal operations follow outdated Hubbard-era policies.

After taking an initial communications course, Amir rapidly increased course participation, was recruited onto staff, and by 2024 was running major functions at the Edinburgh org, sacrificing time, friends, and education while keeping involvement from family. Reassigned to PR, he ran social media and public outreach, heard growing criticism, contacted protesters, and appeared on a critic's channel.

Amir says this triggered intelligence scrutiny, two weeks of interrogation, pay penalties, shunning, and forced manual labor, prompting him to gather evidence and leave via an emergency exit, later facing disconnection and monitoring. He advises offering leavers support and compassion.

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In this episode, Kacey interviews author and speaker Raylynn Van Oort about her memoir, From Shit to Sunshine, which recounts how childhood experiences with a controlling stepfather primed her for manipulation by a charismatic preacher-politician who claimed to speak for God and eventually claimed to be God. 

After meeting him at McDonald’s, she became his unpaid campaign manager/executive director, was isolated from family, coerced into surrendering money and using credit cards in members’ names, and endured coercive control, public humiliation, beatings, and forced “med runs” to obtain drugs and alcohol during a period he called “atonement.”

She was ultimately arrested for writing bad checks for the group, spent 13 months jail-hopping, and found her first physical safety behind bars, though mental freedom came years later; in 2010 she named it a cult, sought specialised therapy after appearing on Dr. Phil, and spent five years in intensive recovery. She now promotes hope through speaking and book events, calls herself a “hope hooker,” and the book is available in print and audio narrated by her.

Raylynn's Website - From Shit to Sunshine: Raylynn Van Oort's Inspiring Journey

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In this episode, Kacey interviews Bloomberg investigative journalist Ellen Huet, author of Empire of Orgasm, about OneTaste and its founder Nicole Daedone.

Huet explains how Daedone rebranded a partnered clitoral-stroking practice into trademarked “Orgasmic Meditation” in 2004 and marketed it through Silicon Valley-era mindfulness, wellness, and “girlboss” culture as a life-transforming cure-all.

Huet describes her reporting process, including interviewing 125+ people over five years, and alleges former members reported financial, psychological, and sexual exploitation, communal living, social isolation, and “assignments” tying sex to sales. She discusses Daedone’s shifting personal narrative and teachings rejecting victimhood, which former members found harmful. Huet recounts the FBI investigation, a 2023 forced-labor-conspiracy indictment of Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, their 2025 Brooklyn trial and guilty verdicts, and their subsequent prison sentences.

Ellen's Website - Ellen Huet

NEW 11-PART PODCAST SERIES "THE INSTASCAMMER" - THE INSTASCAMMER

In this episode, Kacey interviews author and journalist Priya Hutner about her memoir, Chasing Nirvana, and her experiences in the Kashi ashram led by a Brooklyn-born female guru known as Ma. Priya explains how her father brought the family into the New York-based spiritual community, which later centralised in Florida, and describes her dual life as a largely unsupervised teen in the city and later as a devoted adult who returned with her two sons seeking meaning and “enlightenment.” 

She outlines daily ashram life, Ma’s teachings, service work with people dying of AIDS, and the control, confusion, and moral complexity Priya faced as she rose to become CEO and Ma’s link to the outside world. Priya recounts her gradual exit, Ma’s death, ongoing contact with her mother who remains in the community, her current nature-based spirituality, and her book tour and song-titled chapters.

Priya Hutner | Writer. Storyteller. Advocate for the Literary Arts

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In this episode, Kacey interviews author Ru Marshall about Ru's new book American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda. Ru describes how decades-long curiosity about Castaneda led Ru to investigate after reading about the discovery of Nury Alexander’s skeleton and speaking with memoirist Amy Wallace. Ru outlines Castaneda’s rise after 1968’s The Teachings of Don Juan, the slow debunking of its anthropology claims, and the parallel development of a secretive high-control group that later publicised “Tensegrity,” promised ascension, concealed Castaneda’s liver cancer, and saw five women vanish after his 1997 death. Ru details interview-driven research, how UCLA dynamics and Harold Garfinkel aided credibility, and publishing battles including “cult wars,” UC Press resistance, and legal threats before OR Books released the book.

Writing - Ru Marshall
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