Abigail Kochunas - The Gloria Gifford Conservatory for the Performing Arts

Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

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True Crime, Talk Radio, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2022

⏱️ 82 minutes

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Summary

Actor Abigail Kochunas and our very own Meagan Elizabeth share stories of what they saw and were subjected to as students in Gloria Gifford's Acting Conservatory including classes that would go on for hours, public humiliation, and the unusual level of control Gloria had over the lives of her members. Abigail shares how much time and money she invested into her education with Gloria, missing nearly every christmas with her family for over a decade, Gloria's ties to Scientology and the Hollywood Reporter article in which numerous former students spoke out. Got your own story about cults, extreme belief, or abuse of power? Leave a voicemail or text us at 347-86-TRUST (347-868-7878) OR shoot us an email at Trust Me Pod @gmail.com INSTAGRAM: @TrustMePodcast @oohlalola @meaganelizabeth11 TWITTER: @TrustMeCultPod @ohlalola @baberahamhicks TIKTOK: @TrustMeCultPodcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you have your own story of being in a cult or a high control group or if you've had
0:04.1	experience with manipulation or abuse the power that you'd like to share, leave us a message
0:08.4	on our hotline number at 347-86 trust. That's 347-868-7878 or shoot us an e-mail at TrustMePod
0:18.2	at gmail.com. Trust me, do you trust me? Trust me, I'm like a smart person. Yeah, I've never
0:25.6	lied to you. I never have lied. If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!
0:32.5	Welcome to TrustMe, the podcast about cults, extreme belief, and manipulation from two
0:37.6	actors who've actually experienced it. I'm Lola Blonk, and I am Megan Elizabeth.
0:42.2	And today our guest is Abigail Coutunas. She is a former member of Gloria Giffords Conservatory
0:48.0	for the performing arts, which Megan also attended. What? They'll both share stories of what they
0:53.4	saw and were subjected to, including classes that would go on for hours, public humiliation,
0:57.7	the unusual levels of control Gloria had over her members' lives, and more. Abigail will share
1:03.3	how much money and time she invested into her education with Gloria and missing nearly every
1:09.2	Christmas with her family for over a decade. We'll also discuss Gloria's ties to Scientology
1:14.1	and the Hollywood Reporter article in which numerous former students broke out. Yes, lots to get
1:19.5	into today, very relevant to the lives of Angelina's. I fucking hate the term Angelina. Why do I
1:26.8	hate that so much? The lives of people living in LA. Yeah, it's not cool. It's not cool, and we will
1:33.3	get into all of it shortly. And we will tell you why it's not cool, but first. Let's talk about
1:41.1	what is cool, or maybe it's not cool, depending. What is your cool-do thing this week? Okay, I kept
1:46.3	mine kind of in the arts related, but I've been seeing online that this artist in London,
1:52.0	his name is Damian Hearst. He made these special, like, dot paintings, right? And he said, you can
2:00.1	either keep it as an NFT and burn the original, or you can keep the original, and he takes away
2:10.2	the NFT. So it kind of started from what I'm reading this. People got culty about it, apparently.
	...

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