Speaking of Cults

Jan 31 2025 300 ep. 88 mins 173
Speaking of Cults Podcast artwork

A podcast about cults, coercive control and recovery. Formerly called the Sensibly Speaking podcast, in this weekly show host Chris Shelton interviews cult survivors, psychologists and other professionals and specialists about the topics of cult recruitment, retention and recovery.

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Speaking of Cults...Healthy Sex after Leaving a Cult ft. Jeremiah Gibson & Julia Postema

Jan 31 2025 73 mins  
This week I welcome Jeremiah Gibson and Julia Postema, certified and licensed sex therapists on the East Coast who help me understand honesty, openness and healthy boundaries in romantic/sexual relationships after leaving an abusive relationship or destructive cult. We covered a lot of territory in a short amount of time. Enjoy! J&J's website: https://Sexvangelicals.com and htt

Speaking of Cults...The Post-Truth World is Making Us All Culty

Jan 24 2025 31 mins  
This week I am breaking down the exact reasons why we are living in a post-truth crisis that is quite literally tearing apart the social fabric of our society and institutions. This has allowed populist, dictatorial types like Donald Trump to rise to power and start to destroy everything that has made America great. In addition to defining and explaining how this problem came about

Speaking of Cults...Parasocial Relationships and Social Media

Jan 12 2025 66 mins  
This week we posted the audio stream a little later than usual because we did something special - a live podcast. This particular subject of parasocial relationships with audience members is not a unique problem of YouTube but I thought there was never a subject that deserved an interactive approach with my audience as much as this one. Enjoy!

Speaking of Cults...What Mice Teach Us about Our Purpose

Jan 03 2025 16 mins  
This week we take a dive into the work of ethnologist John B. Calhoun and the very unexpected results of his experiments, and most importantly what this means to us personally. It's a big-picture look, but that's what we do here, so enjoy! Here is the full script of the episode: Hello and welcome back to the Speaking of Cults podcast. I am your host, Chris Shelton. Usually on my po

Speaking of Cults...Does our Economy Create Cults?

Dec 27 2024 33 mins  
This week I have some economic issues to bring up which I believe help explain not only current ideological divides but also why there has been an apparent rise in cults for the last many decades. It's a big-picture look, but that's what we do here, so enjoy! EPI article cited: https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/

Speaking of Cults...Recovering from Religious Trauma with Helen Greene

Dec 20 2024 61 mins  
This week I welcome Helen Greene, a volunteer worker at the Freedom from Religion foundation and a wonderful guest to talk about the experience of religion (traditional and otherwise) on our psyche and what some people experience when they try to leave religion behind. Enjoy! I'm trying out a new thing this week of including a summary of the podcast. Religion, Spirituality, and

Speaking of Cults...Scientology, Auditing and the Sea Org with Julie McKernan

Dec 13 2024 74 mins  
In this show, I welcome again Julie McKernan to take what I hope you'll agree is a much deeper and more nuanced conversation about what it's like to be in a cult like Scientology than you'll usually find. We cover a lot of territory in this show about how Scientologists and the Sea Org relate. Enjoy!

Speaking of Cults...Can Fiction Work Help Expose Cults? with Sadie Hoagland

Dec 06 2024 57 mins  
We are back from our November hiatus with an interview about cult fiction by author Sadie Hoagland. This is particularly important to the ex-cult space because there are tools of exposure available to fiction authors that can help inform and raise awareness about cult phenomena that non-fiction work can miss or ignore. Enjoy! Sadie's website: https://sadiehoagland.com

Speaking of Cults...Scientology's Repeating Pattern of Abuse ft. Julie McKernan

Nov 01 2024 143 mins  
This week's show is an interview with 2nd gen, former Scientologist Julie McKernan, a woman who has a long and fascinating tale to discuss about her growing up in Scientology, what it meant to her and what happened to her including a shockingly horrible incident that occurred to her as a minor which the Church of Scientology enabled and covered up. Unfortunately, this is a pattern

Speaking of Cults...A Reformed Sociopath's Origin Story with Shawn McCraney

Oct 18 2024 74 mins  
This week I welcome Shawn McCraney, artist, pastor and someone with a story to tell of an abusive upbringing, a violent past and a reformed mental state due to the influence of religion and learned empathy. We talk about a wide range of issues and go deep on some religious issues as well. Enjoy! Shawn's website: https://ShawnMcCraney.com