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. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. I'm like a smart person.

I've never lied to you. I've never lied. If you think that one person has all the answers,

don't! Well, welcome to TrustMePodcastUphowCult, extreme belief and manipulation from two

Mary Kays who've actually experienced it and I'm Lola Blanc. And I'm Megan Elizabeth.

And today, our guest is Robert Fitzpatrick. He is an MLM expert and he is an author of a book called

Pond Dynamics, the untold story of multi-level marketing, as well as several other books.

Today, he's going to talk to us about the history of MLMs when they began and why they took off

in the 80s and how deeply connected they are to the American dream and economic inequality.

He'll take us through some of the major ones you've seen in his years exposing multi-level

marketing, how MLMs disconnect people from their identities and what we can do about it if it's

happening to somebody we love. That's right. Before we dive into this history lesson and other

things, Megan, tell me what your cultiest thing of the week is. My cultiest thing of the week is just

come out that there's been some abuse and the two-by-two church and I just want to give people

a resource that they can go to if they've experienced it or want to look into what it looks like.

It's VoicesForTheTruth.org. That's the group that I grew up in and I just want to make sure that

everybody is taking care of. Yeah, as you should, I'm glad that they're moving forward on this

because it sounds like there's lots to uncover. Really, there is. What about you? What's the cultiest

thing of the week for you? Not as important or serious in any way. Great. I was just reading

this New York Times article about a man who in the headline was described as an aspiring cult leader.

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