Empire of Orgasm: An Investigative Look into a Cult of Orgasmic Meditation with Ellen Huet

Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 843 Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cults and high-control groups often use sexuality to access and manipulate a person’s emotional regulation. Some cults, like the Moonies, used it to create a barrier of fear and shame surrounding sexual thoughts or actions. Ellen Huet’s new book Empire of Orgasm explores how OneTaste, Inc. and its founder Nicole Daedone used the topic of Orgasmic Meditation to challenge boundaries and minimize taboos through coercive practices and were ultimately convicted of a forced labor conspiracy. Ellen Huet is an award-winning investigative journalist currently writing for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek. She also hosts the narrative audio series Foundering, from Bloomberg Technology. In recent seasons, she has worked on topics such as WeWork and OpenAI, as well as examining the trustworthiness of OpenAI’s leader, Sam Altman. The 2022 Netflix documentary called Orgasm, Inc.: The Story of OneTaste featured her investigative journalism about the group. Her reporting has also been cited in news outlets such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of my podcast, Colts Culture and Coercion.
0:11.9	And I have a author of a new book out.
0:16.9	I want to say Ellen Hewitt and I talked years ago when she was an investigative journalist
0:23.6	called Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Business Week, which has a brand new book out called Empire of Orgasm,
0:32.3	which is about a cult that I know about because former victims came to me and were asking me what did I think
0:40.1	and do I think it was a cult and isn't it cool that people are having orgasms and I had to try
0:46.7	to parse out what what is going on here with this group anyway Ellen, Ellen, the leader has gone to jail.
0:58.8	We're going to talk about that.
1:01.0	But Ellen, you have two seasons of a podcast foundering, a narrative audio series for
1:08.0	Bloomberg Technology.
1:10.0	One season recounts the rise and fall of WeWork.
1:13.4	Another one chronicles the story of open AI and analyzes the trustworthiness of its leader,
1:19.8	Sam Altman.
1:21.2	We should do more of another interview because I want to hear more about that too.
1:25.6	But we're talking about one taste now. And if you
1:28.7	haven't seen it, Netflix did a series that featured Ellen and her work in 2022 called Orgasm, Inc.
1:38.0	And Ellen has been cited in The New York Times, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair,
1:43.3	just a few other places. And before you started
1:48.5	at Bloomberg, you were at Forbes and a crime reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. And you have
1:53.9	this interest in writing about strange and complex subcultures. And I wonder if it's because you
2:00.3	live in San Francisco,
2:01.9	Bay Area. I doubt it. But anyway, welcome. And how you doing? I hope the book's doing great.
	...

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