Troubled Teen Industry Confessions

Tales of Taboo

Ali Weiss

Society & Culture

4.8 • 725 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2022

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The "Troubled Teen Industry” is an elusive, corrupted, for-profit network of schools, programs, rehabs, and residences meant for "unstable," "out of control," "promiscuous," and drug-addicted young people. Some of these programs are notorious for kidnappings, forced medication, even brainwashing; all of them use emotionally or physically violent therapy and control tactics. These schools came to mainstream recognition with the release of Paris Hilton's 2020 documentary This Is Paris. In it, she reveals how her abusive experience at Provo Canyon in Utah led to lifelong trauma, dissociation, and the creation of her (fake) public image; in my intro, I reveal how watching the doc changed my life, forcing me to confront my own, very similar narrative.

Then, our anonymous contributors bravely tell all about their own experiences with parallel institutions to Paris': New Haven Residential Treatment Center, La Europa, an unnamed wilderness program, a specialized dyslexia boarding school, Outward Bound, another unnamed wilderness program in Costa Rica, CEDU, and a Lord of the Flies-esque, pedophilia-ridden hockey boarding school.

TRIGGER WARNING: though profoundly moving and illuminating of a complex subculture, this episode is dark.

Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Isabel McMahon & WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. GOT A SECRET TO GET OFF YOUR CHEST? Share your own confession - or thoughts and feedback - at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and those of you who identify as neither, hello
0:24.7	and welcome back to another fast track train into the underworld.
0:29.5	Your favorite weekly hour of sin, Tales of Taboo!
0:34.0	My name is Ali Weiss, for those of you who are new here, I am a downtown New York
0:38.6	Z-list actress, writer, and professional conversationalist, obsessed with all people, experiences
0:44.0	careers and ideas outside the bounds of what society considers traditionally acceptable
0:50.0	or accessible or quote-unquote normal. I fucking hate that word to talk about.
0:56.0	Each week I invite my audience and their network to share their unconventional life
1:01.6	stories all behind the shield of complete anonymity.
1:06.2	The result is half important investigative journalism and half dramatic daytime TV, and producing it is the
1:14.0	absolute honor of my life. Today's episode was one of the first I ever did that was formatted
1:22.0	with anonymous audience-sourced confessions. It was a part of my old show, How This Hell,
1:28.7	and it was originally released September 2020. But it's just as much, if not more, of an honor to re-release this
1:37.6	reworked version, which has combined the two previous episodes.
1:50.7	It was such a surreal experience listening back to pre-pandemic me.
1:54.4	Holy shit, it's like night and day.
1:59.4	In moments of self-doubt, I tend to feel very stagnant. And no matter what industry you're in, if you've been doing the same
2:02.7	thing over and over again for a long time, I think it's natural to ask yourself, like,
2:08.1	what the fuck have I accomplished? You know? And have I grown and have I progressed at all?
2:14.8	Especially when we're so overexposed to each other and constantly comparing ourselves
2:21.0	as a result. But two years later, it's incredible to listen back and hear how much more
2:28.7	realized of a human I am now and better of a host I am now as a result. I can hear in my voice how eager I was
	...

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