Checkmate: Chess Master Danny Rensch on Leaving the Church of Immortal Consciousness (Part 2)

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when your purpose gets weaponized, relationships are rewritten by group doctrine, and chess becomes both sanctuary and battleground? In this powerful second part of our convo with Danny Rensch, we return to unpack life after his “purpose ordainment,” and the heartbreak of being separated from his mother by cult coercion.

With raw honesty, Danny shares how spiritual manipulation, covert contracts, and collective pressure led to the deepest trauma of his youth and how healing and reconnection became possible, despite loss and pain. We chat about his wild chess tournament sagas, the story of Igor (the inappropriate Russian master with a soft spot for broken kids), and the unraveling of the Church of Immortal Consciousness as generations, money, and ideals collided. Danny gets real about calling things what they are, facing the dark side of “doing good,” and why his redemption arc is proof that you are not what happens to you—you are what you choose to become.

We also drop a secret character from his book who collided with NXIVM. File this one under: complex, courageous, and essential listening.

Fill in the gaps in our convo and read Danny’s gripping memoir, Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life. Also, follow him on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.

Also…let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

**PRE-ORDER Sarah and Nippy's newest book here

Check out our amazing sponsors

Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon

Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag

Support the pod and smash this link

Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources

Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound

Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

Audio production: Will Retherford

Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore

Writer: Sandra Nomoto

Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, or mental health advice.
0:06.1	The views and opinions express do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast
0:10.6	and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything.
0:17.0	Music. anything.
0:28.0	I'm Sarah Edmondson.
0:31.1	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames, and this is a little bit culty.
0:35.8	We woke up from a cult, and that journey was captured in the vow on HBO and in my memoir,
0:36.4	scarred.
0:40.3	Now, in this podcast, we break down the shame and secrets that make these experiences so destructive with honest conversations on how seemingly benign groups can cross into
0:44.7	the cult of us, and how to spot and recover from trouble if it happens to you.
0:48.8	Each week, we bring an expert, survivors, and whistleblowers to explore red flags, resilience,
0:52.9	and even share a few laughs because because sometimes you've got to laugh.
0:56.0	Subscribe to our Patreon for early and ad-free listening, some live Q&A and exclusive content at patreon.com slash A Little Bit Culty.
1:03.0	Welcome to Season 8 of A Little Bit Culty.
1:06.0	Seeking down to the depths of the ocean ocean Hanging on to win my love
1:14.6	I'd let go of all I could leave but I'll know all around.
1:22.6	Welcome back everybody to Part 2 with Danny Wrench, International Chessmaster Broadcaster, Chief Chess Officer at Chess.com, and all-around amazing person.
1:32.9	So if you ever listen to the first part, you know the drill.
1:58.0	Yeah. Welcome back to part two, everyone.
2:34.3	And before we get into the history where we promised we would leave off, we have to say the audible that you performed was so good, Danny. And I don't know if you know this, but I also do voicemover. It's very, very difficult to narrate an audible. And you fucking, not only did you nail it, but you should consider a career of voiceover. Really? Yeah. Thank you for saying that. It was so hard, honestly. It's difficult. Your Russian accent was amazing. Thank you. Thank you. We have to talk about Igor at some point. We'll get it. Igor, I promise Igor will be in this timeline in part two because he has to be. I think it was actually when Igor was introduced that I was like, this better be a series. This better be a series or a movie.
2:36.0	No, that's what I said here.
2:37.0	I was casting it in my head.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.