If you have your own story of being in a cult or a high control group or if you've had

experience with manipulation or abuse the power that you'd like to share, leave us a message

on our hotline number at 347-86 trust. That's 347-868-7878 or shoot us an e-mail at TrustMePod

at gmail.com. Trust me, do you trust me? Trust me, I'm like a smart person. Yeah, I've never

lied to you. I never have lied. If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!

Welcome to TrustMe, the podcast about cults, extreme belief, and manipulation from two

broads who've actually experienced it. I'm Lola Blanc. And I'm Megan Elizabeth.

Today, our guest is Mubin Shake, de-radicalized Islamic extremists, and former security

intelligence and counter-terrorism operative. In part one of our interview this week,

he will tell us about how he grew up in Toronto, balancing secular and religious life.

The party he threw that made him feel ashamed enough to dive deeper into Islam and how seeing

men in the Taliban when he traveled to Pakistan radicalized him. We'll talk about the

structure of Islam and his particular sect, what he's learned about the many complex factors

that contribute to extremism and terrorism, and the deep dive he did into understanding his

own religion, and stay tuned for part two next week in which we learn about how Mubin

went undercover to disrupt a terrorist plot. This one is so interesting. It's so interesting.

I've been wanting to do an episode like this for a long time, and I'm glad we finally found

someone who was willing to share his experience with us. He's great. Before we dive in with Mubin,

Megan, what's your cultiest thing? My cultiest thing, it's pretty depressing, but basically,

there's more coming out about cult mom Laurie Valow. We talk about her sometimes on this show,

but basically her and her husband Chad Debel believed that it was about to be the end of times.

They ended up murdering her two children, and I always imagined it was kind of a spur of the moment

...