In Part 2 of our conversation with Corey Jentry, we pick up where we left off and follow the long, winding path out of the troubled teen industry and the program founded by Bob Meehan. Corey shares how years of coercive control, dependency, and identity-shaping didn’t simply end when he left the program; they followed him into the world of recovery, where he found himself grappling with many of the same dynamics inside certain corners of 12-step culture and the addiction-treatment industry. We talk about the dangers of pathologizing autonomy, the power of belonging, and why it can take decades to untangle beliefs that were imprinted during adolescence.

Our conversation also explores Corey’s evolution from survivor to researcher and advocate. He reflects on discovering how the business of treatment really works, recognizing familiar patterns across the behavioral health, rehab, and youth treatment worlds, and why he’s dedicated so much of his work to understanding indoctrination, radicalization, and coercive influence. Thought-provoking, nuanced, and occasionally darkly funny, this episode is a masterclass in spotting the difference between genuine support and manufactured dependence.

Pick up Corey’s book, Selling Sanity: The Troubled-Teen Industry, the Insane Profits, and the Kids Who Pay the Price, and follow him on his website, coreyjentry.com, Substack @drcoreyjentry, or on LinkedIn.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of psychological manipulation, coercive control, addiction treatment programs, suicide, overdose, mental health struggles, emotional abuse, and experiences within the troubled teen industry.

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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.

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CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

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Writer: Sandra Nomoto

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

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