Parvati Shallow - From Surviving a Cult to Winning Survivor
Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the show is joined by Parvati Shallow, two-time Survivor winner, current cast member on The Traitors, and author of Nice Girls Don’t Win: How I Burned it All Down to Claim My Power. Parvati shares about her childhood growing up in the Kashi Ashram, a high-control commune led by Joyce Green–or, as she made everyone call her, “Ma”. She discusses Joyce’s origin story and how she claimed to have experienced the stigmata, Joyce’s relationship with Ram Dass (who he later said he’d been bamboozled by her), and how she became increasingly coercive and controlling, including taking children from their parents and instructing members to scam their own families for money.
Parvati reflects on how her parents escaped but ultimately came back to the group, what it was like living on the commune and being wild in nature, and how surviving that environment shaped her instincts, resilience, and ability to read people–skills that later helped her win Survivor, and how she’s now unpacking what it means to reclaim her power on her own terms.
SOURCES
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is exactly right. |
| 0:07.6 | Trust me. |
| 0:08.9 | Do you trust me? |
| 0:10.7 | Would I ever lead you astray? |
| 0:12.2 | Trust me. |
| 0:13.1 | This is the truth. |
| 0:14.3 | The only truth. |
| 0:15.7 | If anybody ever tells you to just trust them, don't. |
| 0:19.4 | Welcome to Trust Me, the podcast about cults, extreme belief, |
| 0:23.8 | and of course, manipulation from two survivors who've actually experienced it. I'm Lola Blanc. |
| 0:30.2 | And I'm Megan Elizabeth. Wow. Today, our guest is Parvety Shallow, reality TV icon, who's won Survivor twice and is |
| 0:40.6 | currently on Traders, and author of New Memoir, Nice Girls Don't Win, How I Burned It All Down to |
| 0:46.3 | Claim My Power. She's joining us today to talk about her childhood in a commune called the |
| 0:51.5 | Kashi Ashram, led by a woman named Joyce Green who made everyone call her Ma. |
| 0:56.1 | She'll tell us about Ma's history, including her relationship with Ram Dass, who said he had |
| 1:00.3 | been bamboozled by her, and some of the controlling behaviors that Ma exhibited in the group, |
| 1:05.1 | including taking children from their parents and making members scam their own families for money. |
| 1:10.2 | She'll talk about how her parents |
| 1:11.8 | escaped but ultimately came back to the group, what it was like living on the commune, being wild |
| 1:18.6 | in nature, and how some of the good and some of the bad of the group helped give her some of her |
| 1:23.8 | skills she needed to win Survivor later on, plus how she processed everything that's |
| 1:28.5 | happened to her. And that's called Resilience, and we have an episode on it. That's right. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.