Politics, Power & Performative Diversity: Celina Caesar-Chavannes Speaks Out
A Little Bit Culty
Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on A Little Bit Culty, we're diving into the deceptively polite world of Canadian politics—where the optics are polished, but the manipulation runs deep.
Our guest is Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a former Member of Parliament and once a rising star in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party. She served as his parliamentary secretary before leaving in 2019, fed up with the gaslighting, tokenism, and isolation she faced for speaking out. Celina pulls no punches as she breaks down the emotional toll of navigating a system that rewards obedience over honesty, and how Trudeau's carefully curated image masks something far less inclusive behind the scenes.
We also get into the broader culty dynamics that show up in institutions like politics, and what it takes to walk away with your integrity intact.
This episode contains discussion of racism, emotional abuse, and political retaliation. Listener discretion is advised.
For more on Celina, find her on instagram @iamcelinacc and check our her book Can You Hear Me Now?: How I Found My Voice and Learned to Live with Passion and Purpose
Also… let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything. Nobody's mad at you, just don't be a culty fuckwad.
**PRE-ORDER Sarah and Nippy's newest book here
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CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Amphibian.Media
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Associate producers: Amanda Zaremba and Matt Stroud of Amphibian.Media
Audio production: Red Caiman Studios
Theme Song: "Cultivated" by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, |
| 0:03.9 | or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the |
| 0:07.9 | official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion group, |
| 0:12.1 | club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything. |
| 0:25.8 | I know. I'm Sarah Edmondson. |
| 0:27.6 | And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames. |
| 0:30.3 | And this is A Little Bit Calty. |
| 0:31.8 | Cults are commonplace now. |
| 0:34.2 | From fandums to fads, we're examining them all. |
| 0:38.9 | We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad. Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real culty stories |
| 0:43.3 | told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want you to learn a few |
| 0:47.3 | things that we've had to learn the hard way. |
| 0:50.0 | For example, if you think you're too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might |
| 0:53.8 | be prime recruitment material, and who knows, you could already be in a cult. |
| 0:58.3 | If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed. |
| 1:01.6 | So keep listening to find out. |
| 1:03.3 | We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware. |
| 1:06.8 | This podcast might contain stories that could be alarming to some of our listeners. |
| 1:10.6 | So please check our show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself. |
| 1:15.2 | Subscribe to our Patreon for Thursday bonus episodes, Q&A, and all sorts of exclusive content. |
| 1:19.8 | That's patreon.com slash A Little Bit Culte. |
| 1:22.7 | Welcome to Season 7 of A Little Bit Calti. |
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