Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of my podcast, cults, culture, and coercion.

And I have with me today a very special woman who I've chatted with previously.

Nikki McCarty is the famous childless cat lady that J.D. Vance like to talk about

and she actually has a relationship with a historical relationship with J.D. Vance. She was raised by his biological father and stepmother.

Nikki's neurodivergent, queer, disabled, and has been busy deconstructing her faith system of the

Christian nationalist upbringing that she and J.D. Vance had.

She has a master's degree from Liberty University and has worked as a social worker and therapist

in the child welfare system for eight years.

She recently published a poetry collection called Buried Before Winter that examines the themes of breaking toxic cycles, political protests, and finding peace through healthy relationships and the beauty of nature.

She also has a blog on Substack, as do I, Nikki McCarty 9.

And when we do our blog, we will put a link to that,

where she examines the personal impact of the political divide. She's hoping to share her experience with high control groups in both family systems and larger political systems,

as well as discuss her observations of her loved ones' ideologies,

becoming more polarized over time.

Nikki McCarty, I understand this is your first video interview,

so please be at home, and thanks for contacting us and saying, you know, I really would like to

contribute and help share more insight into not only Christian nationalism and what you were raised

with, but also the man who will take over if Donald Trump dies or gets

too ill. So J.D. Vance is, you know, the vice president of the United States. And before I ask you

your first question, I'll just say yesterday, I watched a video with S.E. Cup, who was a prior

guest and friend of mine, who was doing a video showing J.D. Vance, looking at the camera and

completely lying about the woman who was murdered by ICE in Minnesota,

...