The Culting of America: From Children of God to the MAGA Playbook

Gaslit Nation

News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.7 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is America a cult? How can we help those trapped in cult-like thinking? Discussing her new book The Culting of America, Daniella Mestyanik Young, a US Army veteran, intelligence officer, and survivor of the notorious Children of God cult, joins Gaslit Nation to help us identify coercive control in our own lives, and in our White House.

Daniella breaks down the "sex cult math" of her upbringing, identifying the same tactics of coercive control now fueling the MAGA movement. Trump has pulled disparate groups into a singular cult of personality, where he is viewed as a "flawed vessel" of a "perfect God" delivering a Christian theocracy coming after our rights.

As a counter-terrorism expert, Daniella warns that the "arrogance" of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner's war of choice in Iran is a classic cult leader trap. Tyrants lose when they start "sampling their own Kool-Aid," she points out. She also advises on how to help those in your life who have fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole of cult-like thinking, to help them find their way to reality. This is an episode not to miss.

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Show Notes:

Yes, Some Government Conspiracies Are Real, like MKUltra: Welcome to The Church Committee Report https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2026/1/28/the-playbook-for-defeating-maga-the-church-committee-report?rq=The%20Playbook%20for%20Defeating%20MAGA%3A%20The%20Church%20Committee%20Report

EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gaslit Nation, a show about Corruption America and rising autocracy worldwide.
0:19.2	I am your host, Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker,
0:22.1	and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones. The film The Cremlet
0:27.2	doesn't want you to see, so be sure to watch it. This week, we are joined by Daniela Mestinik
0:32.9	Young, also known online as the Knitting Colt Lady. So if you hear her metal cultie,
0:40.2	her metal sticks going at it,
0:42.8	that is her knitting,
0:45.3	ferociously during our conversation
0:47.2	on how to fight fascism
0:48.9	so that sound may pick up.
0:51.0	Danielle is an author,
0:52.6	cult survivor,
0:53.4	U.S. Army combat veteran and scholar.
0:55.7	She was raised in the notorious sex cult, children of God, which she escaped as a teenager,
1:01.8	and later served as an Army intelligence officer and went on to write the best-selling memoir
1:07.4	uncultured.
1:08.9	Her new book, The Colting of America, co-authored with Amy Reed,
1:12.8	examines how cult-like dynamics can appear in everyday American institutions and communities.
1:20.9	And so obviously, I want to get into your extraordinary story. Tell us what was the Children of God cult and how old were you
1:33.1	when you first started to awaken to maybe the environment that you were being raised in,
1:38.3	that something was off? So the Children of God cult is one of these many cults that popped up in the late 60s, early 70s, definitely as a reaction to civil rights movements and all of the changes that were happening in America.
1:54.9	The Children of God founder, David Berg, much like a cult leader running America right now, collected a bunch of
	...

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