It's been a year since the 'cult'ure series wrapped, so I invited Tracy Stamper back for a chat & check-in. No, this is not a reboot, it's a final word long in coming. Filters are off, y'all. Using the real name of 'the Org' publicly used to feel scary AF... now it feels 🤷♀️ so we do it & it's no big whoop. Tracy shares how she was able to break her addiction to "the spin cycle" & why setting boundaries has been such a...
“My mouth is a fire escape. The words coming out don't care that they are naked. There is something burning in here.” ~ Andrea Gibson (RIP 🙏🏽💕) It's time I spoke to the 'mean girl' label. It's been tossed around a bit too liberally for my taste, so I've decided to risk the high-road backlash and tell you what I’ve really been thinking and feeling. Am I a mean girl? I'll let you decide. I kick things off with an excerpt from a...
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, 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...
This week, I sit down with Joelle Tamraz to discuss her award-winning memoir, The Secret Practice: Eighteen Years on The Dark Side of Yoga. Here's a quick summary: "Joelle Tamraz was barely past twenty when she traveled to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. In Rishikesh, the home of yoga, she met an alluring older man who offered to teach her a secret practice. This encounter would realign her next twenty years. Joelle was controlled...
If you’ve been listening to the pod recently, you know that I’ve made the choice to shift away from featuring stories about ‘the Org’ on the main feed (really hoping it will stick). There’s now a literal digital library of evergreen episodes - between the main feed and Patreon - that all focus on the mind-body fitness brand / cult-fitness movement that I was once a part of. And frankly, there are many other topics that I’ve been...
In this week's episode of Deconstructing Dogma, I'm coming to you solo with a metaphysical buzzkill - as I dissect dogma, magical thinking, and how they shape our perceptions of the world and of one another. I offer up some personal stories - a few of which I've shared before - to illustrate what I (we?) often mean when we say something looks, feels, or sounds 'culty.' And I celebrate how, at times, magical thinking can be...
This week's release features an excerpt from the episode that I recorded but didn't release last November; you might remember is as the one that was supposed to wrap the 'cult'ure series. I pulled it at the last minute & I'm still sitting on the bulk of the content (for reasons that I won't go into here). Pulled from the intro to that episode, I share a story about a recent run-in with my first-ever cult, Dahnhak (aka 'Dahn Yoga' aka 'Brain...
Beginning next week, we'll be shifting the conversation here on the main feed away from wellness 'cult'ure convos. But first, back in early February, Candice invited Tracy Stamper to record a last-minute Deconstructing Dogma release for Patreon, and it soon after became one of this pod's most downloaded bonus episodes to date. Flying monkey is a term popularized in cult recovery spaces. Borrowed from the storyline of the Wizard of Oz, it...
"You saved my life... don't give anybody that power. Anybody who lets you say that without correcting you, that's highly problematic." - Aimee Van Ausdall Welcome to Part 2 with Aimee Van Ausdall. If you missed DD#57, you're definitely gonna want to start there. dd #58 - Beyond The Org: Servant Leadership & No More Bangs! | Aimee Van Ausdall - Part 2 In this second half, we pick up right where we left off: For a hot-minute, Aimee became an...
