I'm Rebecca Lervoy and this is You Can't make this up is the podcast where we uncover the true stories behind your

favorite Netflix documentaries and films.

On today's episode, we take a closer look

at the Netflix documentary series, The Program,

Kons, Colts, and Kidnapping.

I keep thinking after all these years

of looking into it, you'll get to the bottom of it

there's just more and more and more and you just keep finding out more characters

more connections and it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Today we're talking to

director Catherine Kububler.

Like hundreds before her, Catherine Daniel was sent by her parents to a school for troubled teens.

The Academy at Ivory Ridge claimed to use therapy and recreational activities to help its students.

Instead, teens suffered mental and physical abuse in a program that operated like a cult.

Years later, Catherine and her former... program that operated like a cult.

Years later, Catherine and her former classmates rummage through the files and videotapes

left behind in the abandoned school.

Their goal was to come to terms with what happened to them within its walls and hold those responsible to account.

The Netflix documentary series, The Program, Kons, Kholz, and Kidnapping, is a gripping look at the so-called trouble teen industry from the point of view of those traumatized from its practices.

It also explores the company whose business model is to keep parents paying huge fees while their children suffer horrors at the hands of their school staff.

For them to be isolated like that in captivity and told that their parents don't care about them.

It's really setting them up for some real disaster. her.

And I'm joined now by Director Catherine Kubler.

...