Let's Talk About Sects
Channel Details
Let's Talk About Sects
Let's Talk About Sects is an award-winning monthly podcast focusing on a different cult each episode. Sarah takes a storytelling, deep dive approach, looking at the history of a sect's leaders, the recruitment of members, their experiences, psychological aspects, and notable incidents during its exi...
Recent Episodes
105 episodes
The Collective: Dark Squares with Danny Rensch
Danny Rensch grew up in the Church of Immortal Consciousness, a cult he usually refers to as ‘the Collective’. Started by Steven and Trina Kamp, the g...
Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes
From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate, to the Octopus Murders and the Waco Siege, the world is full of deception, manipulation, and destruction. Listen to C...
Interview Episode: Fynn's time with the Logos Foundation
The Logos Foundation was often described as ‘mysterious’ in media coverage, but became a part of the religious right that published full page newspape...
Interview Episode: Clare Heath-McIvor
Clare Heath-McIvor is the daughter of the leader of the City Builders Church, an organisation that she and others who know it feel confident fits the...
Cult Bride & Providence/JMS with Liz Cameron
In 2011, an 18-year-old Liz Cameron joined a Bible study group she only knew as ‘Sarang Church’. Over the coming months, she lost more and more of her...
Interview Episode: Victorian Inquiry into Cults with Ryan & Catherine Carey
The Parliament of Victoria has launched an Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups, which is open for su...
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is familiar to many as a spiritual exercise movement, and a sect that has been persecuted by the People’s Republic of China. In Sydney you'...
Children in Scientology with Mirriam Francis
In the wake of updates to Child Safety Standards emerging from Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mirria...
SGAs with Maria Esguerra
Maria Esguerra escaped the Children of God at the age of 22 with her two children who have disabilities. Maria’s firsthand experience drives her passi...
Interview Episode: An Everyday Cult with Gerette Buglion
Gerette Buglion holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and Special Education, and earned her ‘Master's Degree’ in cult awareness education from the scho...
Interview Episode: The Community of Jesus
Ewan Whyte's feature essay, ‘The Cult That Raised Me’ – about the United States based Community of Jesus and Grenville Christian College – includes th...
ISKCON / Hare Krishnas – Part 2
When asked about the Hare Krishnas, most people will conjure images of dancing, chanting people with colourful robes and joyful dispositions. Members...
ISKCON / Hare Krishnas – Part 1
When asked about the Hare Krishnas, most people will conjure images of dancing, chanting people with colourful robes and joyful dispositions. Members...
Interview Episode: Two by Twos Update
Let’s Talk About Sects did a deep dive episode about the Two by Twos, also known as The Truth, in October 2020. In the years since we recorded, huge n...
Interview Episode: Geelong Revival Centre with Richard Baker
Richard Baker's Pray Harder podcast for LiSTNR's Secrets We Keep series delves into the world of the Geelong Revival Centre, which Richard describes a...
The Jesus Christians – Part 2
In Melbourne you might have picked up a book or a comic from a Jesus Christian outside Flinders Street Station, or you could have seen their religious...
The Jesus Christians – Part 1
The media coverage of the Jesus Christians tends to outweigh their size. Most people who have heard of them recognise the name ‘The Kidney Cult’, deri...
Bonus Episode: A New Media Narrative at Decult
Sarah moderated a panel discussion at the recent Decult conference in Christchurch, New Zealand, entitled 'A new media narrative: Survivor-focussed cu...
The Revival Fellowship
The Revival Fellowship is a Pentecostal Australian sect that believes in Bible Numerics, a thoroughly debunked theory about numerical patterns found w...
Running River: the Divine Madness School
AJ was sent to the Running River school in around 2007, to attend kindergarten when she was five or six years old. The school was headed up by longtim...
ICAM & The Freedom Train Project
Dr Tabitha Chapman is the founder of The Freedom Train Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides crucial services for individuals exiting cults or...
Cults & Healthcare Neglect
Dr Caroline Ansley is the founder of Centrepoint Restoration Project, a website that serves as a connection point, archive of information and safe lan...
Universal Predator with Esther Rockett
You may recall the name ‘Esther Rockett’ from episode 2, season 3 of this podcast, which was all about Universal Medicine – Serge Benhayon’s esoteric...
Cult Information and Family Support with Tore Klevjer
Tore Klevjer has been involved with the volunteer charity organisation Cult Information and Family Support (CIFS) since its very formation almost thre...
Escaping Twin Flames with Cecilia Peck & Inbal B. Lessner
Cecilia Peck and Inbal B. Lessner are the director/producer/editor team behind the award-winning Escaping Twin Flames, a three-part documentary series...
Interview Episode: LGATs with John Hunter PhD
For his 2017 PhD, John Hunter put forward a hypothesis that offers insights into both the “transformational” experiences associated with large group a...
Message from Sarah
A little update from Sarah about what to expect with Let's Talk About Sects now that we're winding up the sixth season of the show. Don't worry, we're...
The Retreat: a Divine Madness Update
In the last episode of season 5, we looked into a Boulder, Colorado community then known as Divine Madness and led by Marc Tizer, usually referred to...
Interview Episode: The Troubled Teen Industry with Emma Lehman
Journalist Emma Lehman is the creator of the independent podcast Gooned, which dives into the Troubled Teen Industry or TTI – a network of for-profit...
Avatar
Harry Palmer created Avatar after his presidency of the Church of Scientology's Elmira Mission ended in the mid-1980s, as a result of legal proceeding...
Interview Episode: Thomas Parsons
Thomas Parsons joined the Twelve Tribes community in Hiddenite, North Carolina in April 2019, and left in November 2021. With Hiddenite being the unof...
Woodford Folk Festival Live Show: The Twelve Tribes
This episode was recorded live at Woodford Folk Festival on 1 January 2024. Many people in the audience would have come across the Twelve Tribes previ...
Interview Episode: The Hate Next Door with Matson & Tawni Browning
Matson Browning is a law enforcement officer who, along with his wife Tawni, spent years undercover infiltrating various hate groups to research and r...
Interview Episode: Chabad and Zionism
Yaakov Aharon and Shula Kirovsky’s lives in Sydney’s famous beach suburb of Bondi were lived largely separate from mainstream society, within the Chas...
Interview Episode: IndoctriNation with Rachel Bernstein
Rachel Bernstein is an LA-based therapist who has specialized in cult intervention and re-acclimation for over 30 years. She serves on the advisory bo...
Xenos / Dwell – Part 2
Xenos was originally set up as a leaderless group that rejected the structures and trappings of mainstream churches. Springing forth from the Jesus Mo...
Xenos / Dwell – Part 1
Xenos was originally set up as a leaderless group that rejected the structures and trappings of mainstream churches. Springing forth from the Jesus Mo...
Theatre of All Possibilities / Odyssey Study Group
In many ways, this theatre troupe and Fourth Way school became the most secretive this podcast has looked into yet. Most members didn’t know each othe...
International Cult Awareness Month: Andrew Pledger and BJU
Andrew Pledger was raised in the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, and after completing his homeschool education, attended Bob Jones Universit...
International Cult Awareness Month: Sarah
Sarah is a cult survivor, domestic violence survivor, and a survivor of trafficking and modern slavery. She wouldn’t have been able to name these thin...