This episode is dedicated to American psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, who recently passed after decades of research into the psychology of totalism. “Doctrine over person” is one of Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform; it’s widely considered to be a defining characteristic of the cultic headspace. But how exactly does it function? Meet T Brown. In 1997, T entered a Sufi group as a free-thinking, openly gay man. But he...
I've divided this episode of Subject to Change into four chapters: Satire (5:28) Turns out, there's a TikTok account heckling the same launch that I've been speaking critically about here on the pod. Is it distasteful according to wellness-cult standards? For sure. Do I think that's part of its brilliance? Absolutely, and I'll tell you why. The Eagle & The Crow (21:54) There's a viral post circulating with a parable about an eagle & a...
In the opening to this episode of Subject To Change, I share details about work I did as a wellness grifter when I was fresh out of Nia (2007-2009) for another mind-body fitness empire. I didn't know it, but I was re-enacting colonizer logic and creating top-down leadership models because capitalism teaches wellness influencers that this is really the only way to get ahead. Did you know that the (once-fringe) Wellness Industry is worth more...
It's still dark outside. I spent an hour tossing and turning about unimportant shit and then my mind caught up to reality and here we are. Dystopia is no longer a Netflix diversion, it is my newsfeed daily. My will to bright-side has been lost to the night. Time is speeding up, but sometimes it moves slow enough that I can see the wreckage all around me/us... damage of our own choosing. How can this be? I knew humans could be ugly, but I didn't...
This week on TDP… an encore presentation of an episode I dropped almost two years ago. Ep.59 is ripe for a reboot because fascism has come for America and much of what I speak to in this drop has become an everyday norm. I re-recorded the intro to reflect our current reality, and I hope you listen to the end, where I take a closer look at tone policing and why it works to silence us. (The right knowledge can help us to beat them at their own...
Some of you may be relieved to hear that today's release will turn our attention away from current events, circling back to a 'cult'ure series topic that is yet-unfinished. I recorded the bookend portions of this episode a couple of weeks ago, just as I was wrapping up my first term of graduate study at ASU. I was still actively recovering from Covid, but I sat down to press record anyway. I was feeling fired up and eager to share some recent...
This week's drop is a very special 'cult'ure series bonus convo with friend of the pod, David Gallegos-Roybal. David is a Mestizo Native of New Mexico who some loyal listeners of the pod (particularly former 'Org' members) may recognize. David's husband, Mark Frossard, was features in Ep.60 & Ep.61 of the 'cult'ure series when we did a deep-dive into his painful separation from 'the Org' back in 2018. In this episode, David shares his own...
Candice is back on the main feed with a final #gotv reminder and a deep-dive into this thing we call 'hope' - what is it, really? She shares about her pre-election anxiety and how she's actualizing hope in the face of so muchness. Various definitions of hope are offered, then she digs into the groundbreaking work of her late mentor, C.R. Snyder, 'the hope guy', sharing what she learned in the late '90s torturing freshmen in his research...
I recorded this episode on a whim over the weekend. This one is for all of my fellow new-age apostates + anyone who catches themselves checking their smartphone WAY too often. September 23, 2024 >> Losing My Religion + Is Social Media Colonizing Us? In this episode, I talk about: Healing as an active state (vs. a destination) & why I think writing the 'cult'ure series book may take long than I think. Is new-age spirituality a...
This week, Candice is honored to welcome New York Magazine's Cover Story: Power Trip producers Lily Kay Ross & David Nickles to the pod. Lily & Dave share about the behind the scenes events that led to the 2021 launch of their investigative podcast series and about the backlash they’ve experience researching and reporting on abuse in psychedelic communities. Topics touched upon in this episode include: how trauma shapes our...
