S24 Ep2: Unsilenced

Something Was Wrong

Broken Cycle Media

True Crime, Documentary, Education, Society & Culture

4.1 • 24.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

*Content warning: institutional child abuse, childhood abuse, death of a child, suicide, psychological, physical and sexual violence, abduction, kidnapping, disordered eating, stressful themes, disability abuse, ableism, PTSD, medical abuse and neglect.

*Meg Appelgate’s Work:

Meg Appelgate’s website here: https://megappelgate.com/my-story/

Meg Appelgate’s nonprofit, Unsilenced here: https://www.unsilenced.org/

Meg Appelgate’s memoir, Becoming UNSILENCED: Surviving and Fighting the Troubled Teen Industry: https://megappelgate.com/book/

*Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips:
somethingwaswrong.com/resources

Please note: Kenny Pannell and Mary Alexine have never publicly responded to allegations against them. They appear to be no longer involved with Chrysalis in Eureka, Montana since its sale to Embark Behavioral Health. Chrysalis opened in 1998; however, the exact year when Kenny and Mary left is not readily available information.

*Sources
Adverse events in children: predictors of adult physical and mental conditions, Pub Med
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25225793/

Breaking Code Silence
https://www.breakingcodesilence.org/

Chrysalis, InnerChange
https://innerchange.com/programs/chrysalis/

Chrysalis School, Unsilenced
https://archive.unsilenced.org/program-archive/us-programs/montana/chrysalis-school/

Consonance Capital Partners Acquires Majority Stake in Youth-Focused Embark Behavioral Health, Behavioral Health Business
https://bhbusiness.com/2023/02/09/consonance-capital-partners-acquires

Highland Park teen's death leads parents to call for change in troubled teen industry, NBC 5 Chicago
https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/highland-park-teen

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Health and Development in Young Children.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882933

Intermountain Health
https://intermountainhealthcare.org

Intermountain Hospital, Unsilenced
https://archive.unsilenced.org/program-archive/us-programs/idaho/intermountain-hospital/

Meg’s Testimony – Chrysalis School and Intermountain Hospital, Unsilenced
https://archive.unsilenced.org/megs-story/

Parents say Discovery Ranch Academy’s negligence led to their son’s death in new lawsuit, The Salt Lake Tribune
https://www.sltrib.com/news/health/2025/05/17/parents-sue-utahs-discovery-ranch/

Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, Pub Med
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9635069/

Residential Consonance Capital Partners Acquires Majority Stake in Youth-Focused Embark Behavioral Health, Behavioral Health Business
https://bhbusiness.com/2023/02/09/consonance-capital-partners-acquires

Taylor Goodridge TikTok, Meg Appelgate
https://www.tiktok.com/@megappelgate/video/

A therapeutic boarding school for adolescent and teen girls in Montana, Embark Behavioral Health
https://www.embarkbh.com/locations/montana/chrysalis-residential-treatment-center/

*SWW S23 Theme Song & Artwork:
Glad Rags: https://www.gladragsmusic.com/

The S24 cover art is by the Amazing Sara Stewart

Follow Something Was Wrong:

Website: somethingwaswrong.com
IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcast
TikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast

Follow Tiffany Reese:

Website: tiffanyreese.me
IG: instagram.com/lookieboo

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Something was wrong is intended for mature audiences and discusses upsetting topics.
0:05.9	Season 24 survivors discuss violence that they endured as children, which may be triggering for some
0:12.0	listeners. As always, please consume with care. For a full content warning, sources and resources
0:19.1	for each episode, please visit the episode notes.
0:23.2	Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent
0:27.7	the views of broken cycle media. All persons are considered innocent until proven guilty
0:33.2	in a court of law. Responses to allegations from individual institutions are included within the season.
0:40.4	Something was wrong and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution
0:45.1	for legal or medical advice.
0:48.8	Hi friends.
0:50.2	For this episode, I'm honored to interview Survivor,, author, and nonprofit founder, Meg Applegate.
0:58.0	In the early 2000s, Meg spent three and a half years at two different residential programs.
1:04.0	The first one she was sent to was Intermountain Hospital in Boise, Idaho, which is still in operation and under the ownership of Intermountain
1:12.4	Health. After that, Meg went to the therapeutic boarding school, Chrysalis School, Montana.
1:19.6	Chrysalis in Eureka, Montana, was founded in 1998 as an independently owned program by
1:26.4	married couple, Kenny Panel, and Mary Alexine.
1:30.5	And it is still in operation.
1:33.3	In 2013, Chrysalis School Montana was sold to Interchange.
1:38.3	Later in 2018, Interchange became part of the youth behavioral health provider, Embark Behavioral Health,
1:46.6	which owns 30 programs across 20 states.
1:50.5	In 2023, Embark Behavioral Health received a significant investment from the private equity firm,
1:57.8	Consonance Capital Partners.
	...

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