OneTaste: "Empire of Orgasm"
Was I in a Cult?
Liz Iacuzzi
4.5 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
NOTE: This episode discusses sex, sexual exploitation, coercion, and sexual abuse.
What happens when female empowerment, Silicon Valley startup culture, spiritual enlightenment, and clitoral stroking walk into a fluorescent-lit conference room?
You get OneTaste.
In this episode, we sit down with Bloomberg investigative journalist Ellen Huet, author of Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult, to unpack the rise and fall of OneTaste, the orgasmic meditation company founded by Nicole Daedone that promised connection, healing, and transformation through a 15-minute partnered orgasm practice called OM (Orgasmic Meditation).
But behind the language of liberation and "turn-on" were allegations of sexual coercion, financial exploitation, sexual abuse, forced labor, and a belief system that taught members their discomfort was just something to push through on the path to enlightenment.
Ellen walks us through how her 2018 investigation helped expose the darker side of the company, the criminal case that followed, and why OneTaste's story is not just about sex. It's about power, belonging, manipulation, and the very human longing to be seen.
FIND ELLEN:
Instagram: @ehuet
Book: Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult
Bloomberg: bloomberg.com/authors/ASmGayS_jTQ/ellen-huet__
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not |
| 0:04.8 | necessarily reflect the views of Libson or its affiliates. Guest accounts are personal |
| 0:09.4 | recollections shared from their own perspectives. References to specific individuals, |
| 0:14.5 | organizations, or groups are presented as commentary, opinion, and personal experience, |
| 0:19.0 | and should not be interpreted as definitive statement of |
| 0:21.8 | fact. This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. |
| 0:27.6 | Quick heads up before we start. This episode talks openly about sex, orgasms, because those two |
| 0:33.1 | don't always go together, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Please take care while listening. |
| 0:38.2 | I would wait till after drop off to press play on this one. |
| 0:49.1 | Welcome back, everyone, too. Was I in a cult? I'm Tyler Mesa. |
| 0:54.4 | And over here, I am Liz Ayakuzi. |
| 0:57.5 | Now today, we are diving back into the world of one taste. |
| 1:03.3 | Muff diving, that is. |
| 1:05.4 | Ten seconds in, and Liz already has a juvenile joke. |
| 1:09.1 | Wasting no time, Liz. |
| 1:10.6 | Liz, my 15-year- Wasting no time, Liz. |
| 1:14.2 | Liz, my 15-year-old boy co-host. |
| 1:17.0 | Talking about sex and you've got to say diving. |
| 1:19.8 | I did not set you up. |
| 1:23.5 | I said the word diving and you found the dirty, |
| 1:24.7 | juvenile. |
| 1:26.3 | Sure, you did. Childish. |
... |
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