Celeste Gross - Growing Up in the Children of God
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Celeste Gross joins the girls to talk about her experiences growing up in the Children of God - aka the Family - along with her many siblings. She explains how her parents joined when it still just seemed like a beautiful gospel movement that helped her dad get sober, but how it changed over time once they lived on a commune in Brazil and became reliant on donations for survival. She shares how every part of life was controlled–down to how many squares of toilet paper they were allowed to use.
They discuss the media ban the group imposed, and how only songs and TV shows made by the group were allowed--other than two very specific movies (which will surprise you). She shares how her family became homeless overnight after they finally left, and the extreme hardships they faced while trying to rebuild a life from nothing.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is exactly right. |
| 0:07.3 | Trust me. Do you trust me? |
| 0:10.4 | Would I ever lead you astray? |
| 0:11.9 | Trust me. |
| 0:12.9 | This is the truth. The only truth. |
| 0:15.4 | If anybody ever tells you to just trust them, don't! |
| 0:19.3 | Welcome to Trust Me, the podcast about cults, extreme belief, and manipulation from two celestial |
| 0:24.6 | beings who've actually experienced it. |
| 0:26.8 | I'm Lola Blanc. |
| 0:28.0 | And I'm Megan Elizabeth. |
| 0:29.8 | If you're a bad Mormon, you're a telestial being. |
| 0:32.8 | No one gets that joke. |
| 0:34.4 | Okay, this week... |
| 0:35.2 | Not at all. |
| 0:36.2 | Our guest is Celeste Gross, survivor of the children of God, aka the family. |
| 0:41.9 | She is going to share what it was like growing up in the cult, along with her many siblings who all talk about it on TikTok. |
| 0:47.9 | She'll explain to us how her parents joined when it still just seemed like a beautiful gospel movement that helped her dad get sober and what it was like |
| 0:54.8 | living on the commune in Brazil, living off of donations with every part of life controlled down to how |
| 0:59.7 | many squares of toilet paper they were allowed to use. We're going to get into the media band, |
| 1:04.4 | the group imposed, and how only songs and TV shows made by the group were allowed, other than two very specific movies, |
| 1:12.5 | which will surprise you. Celeste will tell us about how her family became homeless overnight |
| 1:17.4 | after they finally left and the extreme hardships they faced while trying to rebuild a life |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.