Bigger Than the Pope: Jennings Brown on Teal Swan & The Fellowship of Friends (Part 2)
A Little Bit Culty
Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames
4.6 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 May 2022
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
[Content Warning: This episode contains references to suicide, mental illness, and sexual assault. Listener discretion advised.] And…we’re back for an extra helping of conversation with investigative journalist Jennings Brown. If Part One’s exploration of creepy AF Youtube spiritual guru Teal Swan didn’t freak you out enough, there’s more Teal talk for you in this episode. Be sure to watch The Deep End docuseries and binge The Gateway podcast to learn more about how each new layer of the Teal Tribe onion seems to be stankier than the last.. We recommend not listening or watching before bed, unless you really dig nightmares.
Despite what Teal may think: She isn’t the center of the universe. She’s not even the center of the cultiverse. So we also use part 2 of our chat with Jennings to ramble from the dark corners of Utah’s Swan country to sunny Yuba County, California where the organization at the center of his Revelations podcast appears to be hard at work making fine wine and disturbing cult headlines. The Fellowship of Friends has some serious issues, and we’re still unpacking it all. Doomsday and rosé anyone?
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Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The views and opinions expressed by a little bit culty are those of the hosts |
| 0:04.1 | and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. |
| 0:08.1 | Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors |
| 0:12.1 | are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, |
| 0:16.6 | organization, business individual, anyone or anything. |
| 0:20.0 | Welcome to a little bit culty, a podcast about what happens when something that |
| 0:33.8 | seems like a great thing at first goes to the dark side and takes you with it. |
| 0:38.3 | I'm your host, Sarah Edminson. And I'm also your host, Anthony Ames, aka Nippy. |
| 0:43.0 | Sarah and I met, fell in love in a, quote, self-help organization that turned out to be |
| 0:47.5 | a mega cult cult nexium. We got out of there together and on our way out we helped shut it down. |
| 0:54.6 | Our journey as nexium whistleblowers was captured in detail in a docu-series called the VAL on HBO |
| 0:59.6 | and also on the front page of a newspaper. New York Times, babe. |
| 1:03.6 | Right. Have you heard of it? Each week on a little bit culty we talk with other former cult members |
| 1:08.4 | and whistleblowers plus experts in things like cultic abuse and coercive control. |
| 1:13.6 | We also turn the mic over to advocates and clinicians with wisdom to share on |
| 1:17.2 | recovering from everything from MLMs and toxic religion to bad romances with raging narcissist. |
| 1:22.8 | There's always something to learn about the cultiverse. Be sure to subscribe to a little bit culty |
| 1:27.6 | so you don't miss an episode. Find us on Instagram and at a littlebitculty.com. |
| 1:44.0 | I believe I don't know. |
| 1:48.9 | Well, this is part two of a two-parter, obviously, with Jennings Brown. |
| 1:53.2 | That is true. It is part two of two-parter. |
| 1:56.5 | Before we get into that, we've just been really enjoying the commentary after episode one. |
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