Ep. - 1497 - EVIL INFLUENCER: THE JODI HILDEBRANDT STORY
Reality Life with Kate Casey
Kate Casey
4.4 • 7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kate discusses the Netflix documentary Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story, a chilling true-crime examination of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt and her role in a devastating child abuse case involving popular parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke. Directed by Skye Borgman, the film explores how Hildebrandt, a licensed therapist and life coach, built power and credibility through her program ConneXions, ultimately manipulating Franke and others by weaponizing therapeutic language and moral authority.
The documentary escalates as it reveals the “inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime” enforced under Hildebrandt’s influence, normalizing cruelty in the name of accountability and faith. The story reaches its horrifying conclusion in August 2023, when Franke’s emaciated 12-year-old son escaped through a window of Hildebrandt’s home and sought help from a neighbor, triggering the arrest of both women and exposing the dangers of unchecked influence, therapy culture misuse, and social media-driven credibility.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The amazing Kate Casey. |
| 0:04.0 | Welcome back for another episode of Reality Life with Kate Casey. |
| 0:07.6 | Happy New Year, happy 2026. |
| 0:09.9 | I hope that I'm finding you guys well rested. |
| 0:12.5 | Hopefully that you spent the New Year's Eve holiday and New Year's Day with your |
| 0:16.5 | friends and family. |
| 0:17.5 | And I promise I'm going to keep bringing you some fantastic episodes, |
| 0:25.8 | some great stories your way this year. So I hope that you are subscribed not only to this podcast, but to the what-to-watch list at katekasey.substack.com. This week, I've had some great stories. |
| 0:32.9 | For example, Tuesday's episode is about the cult of the real housewife. This is on TLC. It's a three-part |
| 0:40.6 | doc series. So three hours worth of investigating the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Star, Mary |
| 0:47.0 | Cosby, and the controversial church that she shares with her husband, Robert Cosby Sr. It's called |
| 0:52.8 | Faith Temple Pentecostal Church. So this series |
| 0:56.4 | traces the church's rise under her grandmother. Her name was Rosemary, Mama Cosby. Everybody |
| 1:01.6 | called her Mama. And then also through its contested transfer of power and Mary's marriage to Robert. |
| 1:07.9 | The series unpacks allegations of spiritual but also financial misconduct. |
| 1:14.1 | So you have ex-congregants speaking publicly for the very first time, but also family members, |
| 1:20.3 | investigative journalists, and a leading cold expert. And it is exposing a disturbing playbook of |
| 1:26.0 | control and loyalty. So if you're a Real Housewives fan, I think it fills in a lot of holes for Mary's backstory, |
| 1:32.8 | but it also opens new ones. |
| 1:35.4 | So I think they do a pretty good job of just giving you several different angles to the story, |
| 1:41.6 | and it's really up to you to kind of figure out what you think. |
| 1:44.9 | I have a lot to think about this series and what has happened. And I think it actually shifted |
... |
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