How do you escape from a scary religious cult? | The Way Down docu-series parts 2 and 3

50% Facts

Jim McDonald

Fitness, Entrepreneurship, Business, Tv & Film, Health & Fitness, Film Reviews

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we discuss the final chapters of The Way Down. These episodes cover the impact on the lives and families of the cult surrounding the Remnant Fellowship and diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara. Many former members detail the extent to which the cult controlled their behavior and actions, and their struggle to get free of its grip. Check out this article for some good coverage of the issues around leaving a cult. Quick recap of the series: The author of the bestselling diet book The Weigh Down, Gwen Shamblin, appeared on the national TV talk shows and sold her weight loss philosophy to people across America. Especially churchgoers. By 1999, she had essentially started her own Tennessee church (or cult depending on your point of view). Her background as a nutritionist brought some actual common sense to the diet, but when she put herself forward as a prophet who equated devotion to diet as devotion to God she stepped into dangerous and manipulative territory. Watch the trailer for The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin here. Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com and subscribe for updates about our apparel line at 3sb.co! Local memberships and international fresh fits! Get early access to our NEXT DROP! Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd). Produced by Jim McDonald Production assistance by Sam McDonald. Branding by Joseph Manzo (@jmanzo523)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And they're coming up with the brand new shit next week. I didn't know so soon. So next week I am.
0:24.4	I'm rolling out. I liked the previous series I was in six feet under, especially the first season.
0:33.7	The first season in the six feet under might be one of the most perfect episodes or seasons of any
0:40.6	television show ever. Yeah, I'm seeing it. The writing is so good. The premise is so well
0:50.1	established and even with that, there are twists along the way that you don't expect. Yeah, it's
0:57.8	really really good. Dexter's like that too, but then a couple things get a little predictable.
1:01.7	Well, they did this new season to sort of erase the memory of the last season where the guy who
1:06.4	was the original showrunner and creator was not involved. Yeah, why is that just like the norm?
1:12.5	Star Wars? Yeah, I mean, I get contracts and money and maybe creativity. You know, because
1:17.6	what we always forget about like directors and producers, like their creatives, they're humans.
1:21.8	So if they're burnt out and maybe they didn't run out of ideas or, you know, like I understand that,
1:26.3	but it just seems like sets the norm with like Game of Thrones and even like Star Wars stuff or
1:29.7	whatever, everyone just like with having tried to create powerlifting content with some regularities
1:37.6	as 2006 and podcasting with great regularities since late 2008. Yeah, excuse me, 2013, Burn Me.
1:48.7	Eight years. So it's hard. It gets hard. It's hard. You run out of ideas and you need to keep pivoting
1:54.8	toward different things. And then when you do that, people bitch at you and you can never win.
1:59.2	And I do understand it. Also, everyone gets mad and not even two and some things that like
2:02.9	everything's a remake or everything's a sequel, but like movies were new in 1950. You know what I
2:09.4	mean? Like now, like it's hard to come up with anything you do. It's hard to come up with an
2:13.2	original idea, right? People say there's no such thing. But and then even that, you know what, I mean,
2:18.1	to come like fucking left field out of nowhere, you seen the series you. Why are you? I haven't seen
2:23.8	it. So first he's not thought was really kind of like you just said, maybe not the perfect thing,
	...

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