Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

This week, Meagan and Lola sit down with Michelle McPhee, investigative reporter and host of podcast Kingdom of Fraud, to discuss how Jacob Kingston, a fundamentalist Mormon from the secretive polygamist sect known as the Kingston clan, or the “Order,” teamed up with a shadowy Armenian tycoon nicknamed “the Lion” to commit one of the largest fraud schemes in U.S. history.
She’ll explain how Jacob’s drive to prove himself as one of over 100 siblings within the insular Kingston hierarchy got him in over his head with Levon Termendzhyan, his unlikely partner in the massive scheme they embarked on: it involved renewable fuel tax credits, international money laundering, powerful political connections, and billions of dollars. Plus, how they finally got caught–with the help of a couple of Trust Me’s previous guests.
SOURCES
Kingdom of Fraud
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This week is part 2 with Anke Richter, journalist, author of Cult Trip, former member of Tantric group ISTA, and founder and director of New Zealand’s cult conference DeCult. In part 2 with Anke, she explains how the founder of International School of Temple Arts had constructed a sort of harem culture and was sleeping with all the women, where the line is between normal dating in a community vs. coercion, and how her journalistic investigation into a different tantra group while still actively in this one finally set off her alarm bells.

They discuss what’s positive about the tantric world, how the flip side of sex-positive groups can be a pressure to act sex positive when you don’t actually FEEL sex positive, and why she started cult conference Decult.
SOURCES
Cult Trip
DECULT
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Today is part 1 with Anke Richter, journalist, author of Cult Trip, former member of Tantric group International School of Temple Arts, and founder and director of New Zealand’s cult conference DeCult. In this week’s episode she shares how she began as a journalist investigating cults, but when she went to a tantric sex festival, she had a peak experience with ecstatic dancing that made her never want to go back to her old way of life.
She’ll talk about doing her first training in tantric pleasure, which got her deeper into ISTA and the idea of tantric polarity and exploring her feminine energy that she’d felt she’d been missing, and how the intensity and the highs she felt in these communities made real life seem boring. Plus, how there often aren’t a lot of sexual communities to choose from in general, which can create room for the sketchier ones to flourish.
SOURCES
Cult Trip
DECULT
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This week is part two with Sophie Fergi, former child influencer featured in the Netflix docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. In this episode, she shares what happened after she and her mom moved in with Piper Rockelle and Piper's mom Tiffany, how Tiffany's explosive rage became impossible to ignore, and what it was like filming long, highly controlled days--and then spending their nights cleaning up after more than 70 cats.
Sophie also reveals how Tiffany manufactured conflict between the other kids' parents, how her inappropriate behavior escalated through her bizarre animal characters, and why Tiffany secretly sent photos and inappropriate personal belongings to a fan named "Megan"—who was later revealed to be an adult man. Sophie discusses the breaking point that led her to leave, what it was like to be completely shunned by the Squad after she left, and the advocacy work she's been doing to protect other kidfluencers.
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This week is part one with Sophie Fergi, former child influencer who told her story in the Netflix docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. In this episode, she explains how she first met YouTube kidfluencer Piper Rockelle, and how Piper’s mom Tiffany formed the “Squad,” a group of children making content together for their YouTube channels.
Sophie will share what it was like to film the videos, which included fake challenges, fake crushes and relationships, and carefully curated drama that blurred the line between reality and performance, and how she began to see red flags with Tiffany, who created characters - based on family animals - which she used to speak inappropriately to the kids.
Next week, she’ll talk about moving in with Tiffany and Piper, and how everything began to escalate.
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