Sarah Stankorb - Quiverfull, Christian Nationalism, and Why Evangelical Women Are Leaving

Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Talk Radio, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Journalist Sarah Stankorb comes on the show to talk about her book, Disobedient Women, and the deep dive she did on why a series of evangelical women in America began to leave their communities as the internet came into prominence. They discuss patriarchal teachings within cultures like the Quiverfull movement, including stories like Vyckie Garrison’s, who was pressured into having repeated pregnancies that defied her doctors and put her life at risk.

They also dive into figures like Bill Gothard, who built the IBLP curricula and created a system of mini-cults across the country, the many stories of sexual abuse that were covered up by various religious organizations, and how online communities helped women share stories, band together, and begin to speak out. Plus: how figures like Doug Wilson helped push Christian nationalism from the fringes into the political mainstream.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:07.4	Trust me. Do you trust me?
0:10.6	Would I ever lead you astray?
0:12.1	Trust me.
0:13.1	This is the truth.
0:14.2	The only truth.
0:15.6	If anybody ever tells you to just trust them, don't.
0:19.3	Welcome to Trust Me, the podcast about cults, extreme belief, and of course, manipulation from two
0:26.0	disobedient podcasters who've actually experienced it.
0:29.6	And I am Lola Blanc.
0:30.7	And I'm Megan Elizabeth.
0:32.2	This week, our guest is Sarah Stan Corb, author of Disobedient Women, a book about how women
0:36.8	across America began speaking
0:38.8	out about abuse in evangelical communities. She's going to talk to us about the quiverful ideology,
0:44.7	which is the idea of having as many children as possible to populate the earth with patriarchal
0:49.3	Christians, evangelical propaganda from the 80s and 90s that encouraged women to submit
0:54.0	to their fathers,
0:55.1	even as adults, and then their husbands, and of course, Bill Gothard and IBLP.
1:00.5	We'll discuss the patterns she's observed among these women that have spoken out,
1:05.2	whether this kind of systemic abuse and covering up of abuse is inherent to evangelical culture,
1:12.3	and the connections between some of these fundamentalist figures and our current political system. Fun. Fun.
1:17.8	Fun. Before we talk about that, Megan, what's your cultiest thing this week? Okay, so most of you
	...

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