Cult Chat
Host: Dr Caroline Ansley, Lindy Jacomb and Liz Gregory
Categories: Special Interest
Languages: English
Plains Media
Produced By: Dr Caroline Ansley, Lindy Jacomb and Liz Gregory
Join us - Dr Caroline Ansley, Lindy Jacomb and Liz Gregory - as we traverse the cultiverse. Journey with us as we unpack the cult playbook, talk to leavers of controversial groups in New Zealand and beyond, and share their stories. We talk with experts to gain greater understanding of cultishness and call for Kiwis to cult-proof their lives. This is a home-grown Kiwi programme where each of us are uniquely positioned to present a survivor-centric radio show/podcast, bringing our individual experiences of high control groups to the conversation. We've each spent years advocating for awareness, education and safety for survivors of controlling groups, and have had our own challenges in the cultisphere. If we name or discuss a group and their beliefs or practices this does not mean they are necessarily a cult, or are harmful as a whole. The views and opinions expressed on Cult Chat belong to the speaker alone and are not necessarily shared or endorsed by Cult Chat.
All Episodes
Cult Chat - E63: The Grief of Leaving with Liz Sallows (Mini-Series Part 2)
Published: 03/6/2025 1:00 p.m.
In this second of three episodes on leaving Lindy is joined by Liz Sallows, Canadian psychotherapist and grief expert. Liz and Lindy discuss the unexpected (and often unrecognised) sadness which accompany the freedoms of leaving a cult. There is a lot to grieve - loss of a community, loss of an ideal, loss of everything you have known and love. We will hear about ambiguous loss, the importance of rest after leaving, and why going slow is absolutely ok.
Cult Chat - E62: Leaving a cult with Theophila Pratt (Mini-Series Part 1)
Published: 20/5/2025 1:00 p.m.
Theophila Pratt, author of “Unveiled - A Story of Surviving Gloriavale” joins the team for our first of three episodes about leaving cults. This compelling conversation explores the immediate challenges, discusses identity construction, and the difficulties of finding people to help along the way. Theo and our hosts explore these topics and more, with a focus on those born and raised in a cult, inviting those thinking of leaving to sit up and listen.
Cult Chat - Episode 61: What’s happening in the cultiverse in May 2025?
Published: 06/5/2025 1:00 p.m.
There’s a lot going on in the cultiverse! We thought it time for an update on the culty happenings in our neck of the woods. In this episode you'll hear more than you want to know about chickens, rats, and mice, and heaps about cults. From news from the Olive Leaf Network, to Caz's connections with professionals & researchers, to Liz sharing culty tree metaphors with professionals on the West Coast. This episode has everything, including some really odd census data about Gloriavale!
Cult Chat - E60: Learning to Think, Trust and Heal after a Cult with Maria Esquerra'
Published: 22/4/2025 1:00 p.m.
In this second of two chats Maria and Caz talk about bad information, and the critical role of education in teaching discernment between good information and bad. Maria shares about coming to understand how the cult used psychological processes to control members, and how often distrust of establishments persists in the minds of cult survivors after leaving. The duo chat about trauma, and the role of safe spaces, and candidly share how even professional people get triggered into the past.
Cult Chat - Ep 59: Growing up in the Children of God with Maria Esguerra
Published: 08/4/2025 1:00 p.m.
Maria was born into one of history's most harmful cults, the Children of God. Maria joins us in the first of two chats to detail what the group was like from the perspective of a child. Maria brings her knowledge and expertise as a psychologist to the conversation, sharing both the harms that children experienced in the group, and also the results of a 2024 study which she authored which details the serious consequences in adulthood of growing up in a cult.
