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, do you trust me? Trust me, I'm like a smart person. Yeah, I've never

lied to you. I never have lied. If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!

Welcome to TrustMe for the podcast about cults, extreme belief, and manipulation from two jacked

gals who've actually experienced it. I am so jacked, I am lowly blank and I'm Megan Elizabeth.

You know, I didn't know how many phrases the word Jack or the name Jack was in until I started

dating Jack. It is everywhere. And he's Jack. And he and Jack is Jack. What are other ways

people use Jack? Oh, Jack. Oh my god, Jack off. That came to me as well as saying it.

There are many others. I have a list somewhere. Oh, good. Not important. Today, our guest is Sam

Sivarella, former employee and enthusiast of CrossFit. She's going to tell us about working at a

CrossFit gym and becoming obsessed with it, constructing her entire identity around it and

feeling constant pressure to push herself to the limit. We'll talk about the shady original

owner. Whether it's CrossFit, that's the problem or competitive athletic endeavors in general.

And why pushing yourself that hard can be physically dangerous. Indeed. Well, before I ask you your

question, I was curious about how much CrossFit is actually regarded as cult like. Because you know,

you kind of hear that, but I'm like, but why? And who thinks that? And there are a shit ton of

articles about it. Mostly about how, you know, there's this like value of like hyper masculinity or

something. And then also the like, what's the word, the zeal that people have for it. But then also

in regards to the like physical injury stuff, I'll just shout this out because I thought this

is interesting. In December 2013, outside magazine published an article called is CrossFit

...