If you have your own story of being in a cult or a high control group or if you've had

experience with manipulation or abuse the power that you'd like to share, leave us a message

on our hotline number at 347-86 trust. That's 347-868-7878 or shoot us an e-mail at TrustMePod

at gmail.com. Trust me, do you trust me? Trust me, I'm like a smart person. Yeah, I've never

lied to you. I never have lied. If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!

Welcome to TrustMe, the podcast about cult, extreme belief, and manipulation from two

troll dolls who've actually experienced it. I'm Lola Blanc. And I'm Megan Elizabeth.

Today, our guest is Chris Bale, he's a professor of sociology and public policy at Duke University

where he directs the polarization lab and studies political tribalism, extremism, and social

psychology using computational, social science that is a mouthful. He'll talk to us about this idea

of the echo chamber and why it doesn't work the way we think it does, how our needs for identity

and community factor into extremism and how there aren't as many extreme thinkers as the internet

makes us think. We'll get into what the online trolls he met are like in real life, and they're

not crazy. How our attraction to narcissists is part of the problem. What a better social media

could look like and lots more. Indeed! Lots of food for thought in this one. Before we dive in,

Megan, I would like to know what's the cultiest thing that's happened to you. Okay, I'm really stuck

on the Raje versus Kim Kardashian's drama that's going on right now, and I really don't know.

I mean, the more you look into it, the more confused I kind of get, but from what I can gather,

Raje is saying Kim Kardashian and her mother helped sell the tape. Her mom actually picked

which tape she thought made Kim look the best at. That's true. That is so creepy.

So creepy. And I think it is true. I'm sorry. I do. But what happened is, um, Christian

just went on the James Corden show and took a lie detector test to say, no, I didn't do that.

...