MFM Minisode 446

In honor of Trust Me’s premiere, this week’s hometowns are cult themed. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Everyone loves the idea of spending an afternoon curled up with a good book.

• 0:10Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, grow up, because it's almost impossible.

• 0:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Luckily, you can take your next great story with you on Audible.

• 0:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Audible has a massive selection of titles to choose from, including This American Life, new books by Michael Connelly, along with classics from Magathah Christie, and so much more.

• 0:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Whether you want a mystery, a true crime story, or something completely different, there's always something new to listen to.

• 0:29Karen Kilgariff?

  New members can start listening with a 30-day free trial at audible.com/mfm.

• 0:34Georgia Hardstark?

  Audible, stories that speak to you. Goodbye.

• 0:38Speaker 02

  Do you ever feel like your computer is tracking you? Well, it's not. It's your browser following you. But not if you come back to Firefox. Firefox blocks the trackers automatically, doesn't follow you from site to site, and supports the ad blockers other browsers dropped. Plus, you can switch AI on or off when its intelligence is acting too artificial. And switching? Totally painless. Your bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history come right with you. Come back to Firefox. Visit firefox.com.

• 1:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Hello and welcome.

• 1:27Georgia Hardstark?

  To my favorite murder.

• 1:28Karen Kilgariff?

  The minisode. And this week, we have a very special minisode for you because our newest podcast, Trust Me, is going to premiere on Wednesday, July 30, right here on Exactly Right.

• 1:37Georgia Hardstark?

  If you love cult stories, you're going to love this podcast. Hosts Lola Blanc and Megan Elizabeth are badass cult survivors themselves, and they unpack how cults work, how people get pulled in, and how to get out.

• 1:49Karen Kilgariff?

  And so, in honor of the new podcast, Trust Me, this week's episode is themed, we will be doing some cult stories.

• 1:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Hell, yeah. Turns out, we have enough to do a whole minisode about cults.

• 1:59Karen Kilgariff?

  It turns out, you all need to call your dad. Do you want to go first?

• 2:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Sure. All right. Alamo Christian Foundation tried to recruit me.

• 2:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Is that the airbrushed jean jacket?

• 2:08Georgia Hardstark?

  It is the airbrushed jean jacket cult I covered.

• 2:11Karen Kilgariff?

  First person.

• 2:12Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right. Hi, y'all. Longtime listener, first time writer. Let's get into it. In episode 482, Georgia told us the shocking story of the Alamo Christian Foundation. I know about this cult. My sister was a member, and they tried to recruit me. In about 1973, we sadly lost my older sister, let's call her Jane, to this cult. It sounds like she's dead, but she's not. Just spoiler alert.

• 2:35Karen Kilgariff?

  It's tough, though. It's like they get ripped out of the family and they cut people off.

• 2:39Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. She was living near Los Angeles and at the age of 19, struggling with the death of a close friend, possibly her boyfriend, who was killed in the Vietnam War, she must have been easy prey. For years, the only contact we had were occasional letters. I remember the envelopes were thick with pages handwritten by Jane and others in the cult. My secular parents were pretty angry and these pages were quickly thrown out. Once I managed to peek at them, I'm 12 years younger than Jane, so at about age 10, I couldn't really understand what was written, but I remember thinking it was a lot of religious gobbledygook, even at 12. Fast forward to 1985. I was spending the summer near San Francisco and had managed to get in touch with Jane, who was still in Los Angeles. By this time, she was married to a fellow cult member and had a one-year-old son.

• 3:23Georgia Hardstark?

  I arranged to visit them for the weekend. Initially, the reunion was awkward, but her husband seemed kind and I enjoyed playing with my nephew. I was 19 at the time, the same age my sister was when she was recruited into the cult. During the visit, I stayed in a small hotel and we all ate out together in cafes, so I never actually saw where they were living. Remember they were living, they got kicked out because there were 300 of them in one house.

• 3:46Karen Kilgariff?

  The apartment?

• 3:47Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, in one apartment.

• 3:48Karen Kilgariff?

  I pictured it, those apartments that are on Crescent Heights, like right past.

• 3:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, exactly what it is.

• 3:53Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 3:54Georgia Hardstark?

  When I asked about their home, Jane brushed off my questions and said something about how there wasn't enough room for me to stay at theirs.

• 4:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, literally.

• 4:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Because there's, yeah. On the Saturday, there was a big get-together where I was introduced to lots of people and everyone was very friendly. It's a hallmark sign, right?

• 4:10Karen Kilgariff?

  I'd love to meet a rude cult member, just someone that's like a withholder.

• 4:13Georgia Hardstark?

  No, thank you. Like, they don't want you.

• 4:15Karen Kilgariff?

  There's my cult.

• 4:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Then, on the Sunday, we went to a church service where the pastor gave a dramatic fire and brimstone sermon. He then invited my sister to the stage and she began telling a story of how she was brought up in a godless family who had not found Jesus. I remember feeling annoyed. Our parents had instilled in us good family values, even though we did not attend church. When she finished, she asked me to join her on the stage so that the Lord could be brought into my heart. Everyone was cheering and I didn't know what would happen if I refused, so I politely went up to the stage. The pastor held my hand and said some prayers, then the congregation began singing and chanting. Finally, with a lot of amens and praise the Lord, the service finished and as we were leaving, everyone came up to me to ask how I was

• 5:00Georgia Hardstark?

  feeling now that I was saved.

• 5:03Georgia Hardstark?

  I nodded and smiled, playing along as best as I could. I don't remember much else, but you can bet I was on my flight back to San Francisco that evening.

• 5:11Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, it's already like your older sister making you do something where you're like, what? She just called my name. She's making me go up there. It's such a bad way to try to get somebody to join your cult.

• 5:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, right. I heard almost nothing from my sister for several more years, but once the cult was disbanded, the family moved to Texas and began leading relatively normal lives. I'm so grateful we are now in touch and though we live quite far apart, we have regular video calls and I visit them all at least once a year. I'm careful never to ask anything about their experiences and nothing is ever mentioned. Fucking family.

• 5:44Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, shut it down.

• 5:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Secrets.

• 5:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Nope, never. Memory hole, that shit.

• 5:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. The one-year-old is now 41 and a loving father.

• 5:52Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm so glad because those stories of like the abuse in that cult.

• 5:56Georgia Hardstark?

  Absolutely.

• 5:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Horrifying.

• 5:57Georgia Hardstark?

  I have no idea if he was involved in making the famous jean jackets. Remember, it was all made by kids?

• 6:03Karen Kilgariff?

  Child labor.

• 6:04Georgia Hardstark?

  But on a recent visit to my sisters, I spotted one hanging in the closet.

• 6:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh shit.

• 6:08Georgia Hardstark?

  For some money on Etsy. Stay safe and if anyone tries to save you, make sure you get the hell out of there. Yours, E, she, her.

• 6:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Damn, that is a true first-person witness account.

• 6:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, and like a badass 19-year-old who said nope, because, you know, you're susceptible at that age.

• 6:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Also really smart where it's like you get forced into being saved and everyone's like, don't you love it? And you're like, ah.

• 6:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Just keep it real blank. Oh, my god. Okay, well, you might remember this cult. We talked about it when we did shows in Australia. Tour. Yeah. Okay, so this says, hello, MFM pals. I wanted to share a story I've been told by my nana Joan. And then a parentheses, it says, I know you guys love nana names. Yeah. That has a creepy, personal connection. My nana had seven kids in the 50s and 60s. The youngest were my two aunts, who are twins, born sometime in the late 60s. They lived in Victoria, near where the cult called The Family operated. And if you didn't know, The Family is known to have stolen babies from hospitals. What? So remember, they were the ones where the kid's hair was bleached blonde? Yeah. And it was super eerie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So apparently, they did that. Maybe I talked about it when I covered it. Right. Seven years ago.

• 7:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Can't remember. Yeah. Says, they got away with this because of staff who worked in the hospitals that were connected to The Family. And from my understanding, they were stolen from unwed mothers. Oh, god. So it probably went to the people they knew. Right. Couldn't fight them. While ultrasound's had been recently invented and available in Australia, I guess my nana hadn't received one because she had no idea she was pregnant with twins. Oh. The story goes that on the day of her labor, she gave birth to a baby. And while the medical staff were doing what they do with a newborn, bustling about the room, she felt herself give birth to another baby. After a short while, the doctor brought her baby over to her, and she said, where's the other one? You only had one baby, they reply. I mean, you gotta be fucking kidding me. What? You only had one baby.

• 8:04Karen Kilgariff?

  You didn't... That experience that you just had of having a baby. Oh, I get it now. Okay. She says, no, I gave birth twice. I had two babies. One thing you... You wouldn't be mistaken. No. About having a baby. No, what happened? They denied this again. It wasn't until she started screaming down the hospital walls, where is my other baby? That they relented and said, okay, here it is. Ah, shut the fuck up. The suspicion is that since no one was expecting a second baby, the staff, who were probably connected to The Family, had attempted to abduct the second baby. I bet they knew she was having twins. So you could tell just by feel, if you're a good doctor, probably, right? Yes. And size. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my god. You may be thinking, but probably not, maybe she felt herself giving birth to the placenta.

• 8:49Karen Kilgariff?

  Right, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, yeah. I thought the same, but surely they would have been able to prove that that's what it was. Yeah. They did bring a second baby back to her, and I do have adult twin aunts, and they do look like they both belong in our family. So I think her suspicions about the event are probably correct. Oh my god. Also, again, I just have to say, the idea that anybody is gonna doubt a woman who says, "I had two." I just gave birth twice, totally. No, you didn't. I just passed an extra-large football through my body. Oh my god. My nana passed in 2018, so I'm not able to ask her to repeat the story. Toward the end, she had dementia and may not have been able to recall it correctly anyways, though she did spend many of her last days being annoyed at my uncle,

• 9:33Karen Kilgariff?

  who she lived with for withholding her daily square of chocolate. He always gave her a square, but she would forget and think that he hadn't and be real mad about it. Aww. Stay sexy and always demand to receive your babies and your chocolate, Lara. Don't say no to Grandma Joan. Nana Joan. Nana Joan. Nana Joan. That's a good... Wow, that is so fucked up. I think that's the ultimate, I mean, not the ultimate, because the cult stories are so crazy, but like, a baby-stealing cult is wild. That's wild. Phew. And horrible. And scary. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Turning something you love into a career is exciting. Then come the invoices. Lucky for you, Squarespace can handle the business stuff, so you can focus on your business.

• 10:17Karen Kilgariff?

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• 10:52Georgia Hardstark?

  The Hulu original series Phony is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+

• 10:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Sonny's life is pretty great, until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his with one exception: his mom.

• 11:05Georgia Hardstark?

  To everyone else, she's the same Ellen they've known their whole lives, but for Sonny, he knows something is off.

• 11:10Karen Kilgariff?

  As his relationship with his mother begins to crack in unsettling ways, he's forced to question what happens when the perfect mom becomes a perfect stranger.

• 11:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Is this all in his head, or is there really an imposter in his house?

• 11:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Starring five time Emmy nominee Connie Britton and Sam Nevola, this small town is hiding the mother of all mysteries just beneath the surface.

• 11:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Watch the Hulu original series Phony.

• 11:31Karen Kilgariff?

  Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Goodbye.

• 11:38Georgia Hardstark?

  This one's called, "I Can't Call My Dad, He's in a Cult."

• 11:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 11:44Georgia Hardstark?

  And then they write in Pig Latin, and luckily I'm fluent. "Earday, Aaron K. and Orji J." What is earday?

• 11:51Karen Kilgariff?

  Dear.

• 11:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Dear, thank you. Earday, yes, dear.

• 11:55Karen Kilgariff?

  I thought you were fluent.

• 11:56Georgia Hardstark?

  I thought it was too.

• 11:57Karen Kilgariff?

  The first word throws you-

• 11:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, like, I don't know that word.

• 12:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, also, who starts any of our emails, dear?

• 12:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Right, that's true. That's true. Hey makes more sense. Okay. "To keep a long story short, yeah, right. I am 27 years old. I grew up with a single mom, and as a child, I had never met my father, never even seen a picture. The first and only thing I remember my mom telling me about him was that he was in a cult. I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what a cult was when she told me this. So I grew up wondering what my father was like. Was he a good man? Did he think about me? What did he look like? Would I meet him one day? Was he actually in a cult, or was my mom being dramatic?" You know the usual childhood questions. "When I was 15, I had some random light colored spots on my stomach. Apparently, even though this was probably before WebMD was a thing, my mom Googled

• 12:44Georgia Hardstark?

  diagnosed me and freaked the fuck out, thinking I had some incurable terminal disease. But she needed to know if my father's side of the family had it, as it was hereditary," whatever she found on Google. So she then Googled my father's name, found his brother's contact information online, and contacted him to ask about this medical situation. So she really needs to calm down with the Googling.

• 13:07Karen Kilgariff?

  It says that there, that's your opinion.

• 13:08Georgia Hardstark?

  It says that there. Turns out, nobody in my father's family had any idea I existed. And they were all shocked and furious that they had missed out on my childhood and wanted to meet me immediately.

• 13:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 13:19Georgia Hardstark?

  However, it was agreed upon by everyone that I should meet my father first. Meanwhile, I had no idea any of this was going on. I was an awkward and pimply high school freshman who just wanted boys to pay attention to me. One day, my mom calls me out of the blue from work and tells me I have to meet my father the next day. Of course, I freaked out and eventually had to go to therapy. I did meet him the next day and met his family soon after. I think I have dissociative amnesia for some of these events as I'm missing their content in my memory. Makes sense. Fun stuff. The point is, after I met my father, I found out that it was true. He was indeed in a cult. He lives near the cult's complex in Lake County and follows a guru named Franklin Jones, who later in life was called Adida. You heard of this?

• 14:03Georgia Hardstark?

  As a teenager, I was super creeped out by this, and the most I could bear to do was to look at the cult's website and wait for my head to swim when I read the nonsense bullshit this guy was teaching slash brainwashing. The bottom line is that this guru claims he is God and immortal, and his devotees worship him. I never really talked to my father about it directly, even though it's been 13 years that I've known him. In 2008, however, Adida slash Franklin Jones died. I thought it was funny that this dude was claiming to be immortal, just saying. I thought that surely my dad would snap out of it then? Nope, he and his wife are still followers to this day. There haven't been any murders associated with Adida, but Franklin Jones has been accused of sexual assault and false imprisonment.

• 14:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Now that I have so much more insight into what this cult actually is, I finally felt I had to tell you ladies that I can't call my dad because he is in a cult. In truth, my dad is a decent guy, and my grandparents and uncle are the sweetest people, and they love me very much.

• 15:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Nice.

• 15:02Georgia Hardstark?

  I guess you could call that a happy ending. Stay sexy and don't call your dad if he's in a cult. Hillary. P.S. It turns out that the spots on my stomach were harmless, and my mom's life-altering Googling actions were for nothing.

• 15:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Those spots were meant to be.

• 15:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 15:17Karen Kilgariff?

  That's why you got those spots.

• 15:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 15:19Karen Kilgariff?

  I like the idea that there was a family like

• 15:20Georgia Hardstark?

  So excited.

• 15:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Waiting to meet her.

• 15:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 15:23Karen Kilgariff?

  That's lovely. Okay, the subject line of this is sibling story. It says, "Hiya, MFM team. Love you all so much. You have been a massive part of my life for a very long time. You bring so much joy to my life, I have no words. Let me take you back to the late 80s when Evel Knievel was still making waves and everyone wanted to replicate him."

• 15:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Yes.

• 15:43Karen Kilgariff?

  There's a hard left turn into the story. "Just for context, I was born in New Zealand but raised in Australia in a cult called the Science of Identity Foundation."

• 15:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 15:52Karen Kilgariff?

  "It was run out of Hawaii and yes, it's the same one Tulsi Gabbard is still involved with. I've attached a letter from the great Swami himself complaining about not getting his daily mango allotment flown in, especially from Hawaii, so you can see what we're dealing with here. In the late 80s, the founder, Chris Butler, decided that we children, I was 11, my siblings, who were twins, were eight, should no longer attend public school. Commence chaos. There is nothing like a bunch of bored pre-teens sitting around a five-acre former farm with nothing to fill their time. Our sense of fun was jumping on our horses without a saddle or a bridle, just holding onto their manes and hoping not to fall off, or putting a massive blue antifreeze barrel

• 16:36Karen Kilgariff?

  at the top of a 45-degree slope, wearing a horse helmet and hoping we didn't die."

• 16:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my god.

• 16:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Just rolling down a hill. So, cut to the story. "We lived on my aunt and uncle's property in a caravan because they were donating every cent to Chris Butler's mangoes. So, one day, my brother and my cousin decided to mimic Evel Knievel and had a can of petrol that they poured over a log of wood. Then they set the log on fire and proceeded to jump the log and flames on their BMX bikes."

• 17:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 17:06Karen Kilgariff?

  "In their eight-year-old wisdom, they decided the flames weren't high enough, so they poured the can of petrol directly on the flames."

• 17:13Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my god.

• 17:13Karen Kilgariff?

  "Causing the can to ignite.

• 17:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my god.

• 17:15Karen Kilgariff?

  "I wasn't much older than 12 and I was running around frantically trying to find a way to put out the flames, fearing the can would eventually explode. My brother and cousin had the same fear, so again, in their eight-year-old wisdom, decided the best course of action was to kick the can away, which resulted in it rolling still on fire underneath the gas tank of my aunt and uncle's car, which was parked in the carport next to their house's kitchen."

• 17:39Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, no!

• 17:41Karen Kilgariff?

  It all starts like fun and games.

• 17:43Georgia Hardstark?

  It does.

• 17:44Karen Kilgariff?

  Cue utter panic mode. I ran to the garden hose. It's important to note that we were not connected to city water, so water pressure was not a thing. Our garden water ran on gravity and the pressure was flaccid at best, like barely a trickle. I was 12 with minimal outside experience, so I fed that flaccid hose water into the can and managed to put out the flames before they exploded the car's petrol tank and blew up half the house. The relief when the danger was over was immense. My brothers were not allowed to play Evel Knievel again. Not that that stopped any of our antics. But just a short note, I got out when I was 19 and I've been living my best life since. I do chuckle every time you say, "Call my dad, I'm in a cult," because I can't call my dad because he's in a cult.

• 18:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my god.

• 18:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Two in a row. Love you all so much. Keep being you. I appreciate you so much. L.

• 18:35Georgia Hardstark?

  That definitely sounds like something my brother did or would have done.

• 18:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 18:38Georgia Hardstark?

  As a kid.

• 18:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Fire.

• 18:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Fire.

• 18:40Karen Kilgariff?

  It starts as jumping and then it's like, well, everyone can do the jumping after 20 minutes. What?

• 18:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Starts as negligence and then it ends in fire and chaos.

• 18:49Karen Kilgariff?

  It starts as a lack of childcare after school.

• 18:52Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right. The Hulu original series Phony is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

• 18:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Sonny's life is pretty great until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his with one exception, his mom.

• 19:06Georgia Hardstark?

  To everyone else, she's the same Ellen they've known their whole lives, but for Sonny, he knows something is off.

• 19:12Karen Kilgariff?

  As his relationship with his mother begins to crack in unsettling ways, he's forced to question what happens when the perfect mom becomes a perfect stranger.

• 19:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Is this all in his head or is there really an imposter in his house?

• 19:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Starring five-time Emmy nominee Connie Britton and Sam Nevola, this small town is hiding the mother of all mysteries just beneath the surface.

• 19:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Watch the Hulu original series, Phony.

• 19:33Karen Kilgariff?

  Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

• 19:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Goodbye.

• 19:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Sometimes being a little salty is completely justified.

• 19:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Pair your salty side with something sweet with the new salted caramel flavor from Kachava.

• 19:47Karen Kilgariff?

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• 19:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Just two scoops provide complete nutrition your body craves with protein, fiber, greens, and so much more.

• 20:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Their new salty caramel flavor combines sweet caramel with a little salt. So you get that salty, sweet balance along with the nutrition Kachava is known for.

• 20:08Georgia Hardstark?

  When the day demands your salty side, fuel it with plant-based protein that actually tastes delicious.

• 20:13Karen Kilgariff?

  I really do love Kachava, and I really do think it does taste delicious for getting you through the morning, filling in the gap if you just need some protein and you need some vitamins. It's such a nice little treat.

• 20:24Georgia Hardstark?

  It's such an easy way to get everything you need, and it tastes good, too, which is just huge bonus.

• 20:29Karen Kilgariff?

  So embrace your salty side.

• 20:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Go to kachava.com and use code MFM for 15% off your first order.

• 20:34Karen Kilgariff?

  That's Kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A dot com, code MFM. Goodbye.

• 20:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, my last one. The time I cock-blocked a cult despite delicious cult cookies. Hey, friends, year one listener, third time writer, gonna keep shooting my shot. As a very young girl, I was in awe of my older girl cousins. In my eyes, they were beautiful, accomplished, and sophisticated, especially my eldest cousin, Lucy. Lucy was a gorgeous, witty brunette, easy to laugh with a great personality. She was my cousin from my mother's side and hailed from a large family of 10 kids. Lucy was also in a cult. Lucy and her family lived in Southern California. However, when I was a kid, think 10 years old, I learned that she had relocated to the Bay Area, where my family resided.

• 21:23Georgia Hardstark?

  I was so excited at the prospect of having Lucy so nearby. However, overhearing phone conversations not meant for me, I came to learn that her family was desperate to bring her home. They even hired an investigator to track down her whereabouts.

• 21:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Can I just paint a picture really quick? It's like a little kid in the front room watching TV, but then that certain tone in their mother's voice on the phone is like, wait a second, I need to listen to what this is.

• 21:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Turn the TV down. Oh, my God. What I did not know as a kid was that Lucy had joined a cult, commonly known as the Moonies.

• 21:54Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 21:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Huge. She left home and was now living in a coed commune in Berkeley with other young people. The one time my sister visited, she dragged me along. My memory is somewhat hazy, but I recall arriving at the house my cousin shared with her friends and noting that they seemed very cheery and smiley. Too much so, again. We ate, played games. They held sing-alongs as we spent the afternoon with Lucy and her friends. As the evening set in, my sister said we had to get back home. They insisted we stay. But my sister lamented that she needed to get me, the snotty younger sibling, back home. After persisting, they relented, but not before urging us to come back soon and packing us a goody bag for the road. We made our way back to the BART station.

• 22:40Georgia Hardstark?

  There, I tucked into the thick, soft, and gooey, still-warm chocolate chip cookies they had gifted us. My favorite, I could have easily devoured all of the cookies as we waited for our train. We made it home, never to return. I tried to bribe them with cookies. Never to return. Sometime later, Lucy left, or was, quote, "taken back" to her family. Today, Lucy is long married with a family of her own. Her ordeal is never talked about. It's like a theme, you guys. That's all I would talk about at that family gatherings.

• 23:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Do you think the main person is like so either embarrassed or feels like

• 23:13Georgia Hardstark?

  I don't know.

• 23:14Karen Kilgariff?

  bad and othered in a way?

• 23:16Georgia Hardstark?

  I don't know. Cousin Nancy, tell us again about how you fucking got... I want to know everything.

• 23:20Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes, were you on drugs and they offered you a spaghetti dinner, the way I know the Moonies used to do it in San Francisco?

• 23:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 23:25Karen Kilgariff?

  It's like...

• 23:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, that's right.

• 23:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 23:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Tell us.

• 23:27Karen Kilgariff?

  Spaghetti dinner.

• 23:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Tell us, cousin, whatever, cousin Lucy. And no mention of those delicious cult cookies.

• 23:33Karen Kilgariff?

  Can we get the recipe?

• 23:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Anyway, stay sexy and don't join a cult, even if there are mouth-watering cult cookies involved. M.C., she/her.

• 23:43Karen Kilgariff?

  I don't know if I'm strong enough.

• 23:44Georgia Hardstark?

  I know.

• 23:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Because a good chocolate chip cookie is rare.

• 23:47Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, it's still warm.

• 23:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh. Can you imagine? You're just like, well, wait a second.

• 23:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Don't eat the cookies.

• 23:52Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay, this is my last one. It says, hometown story, you're in a cult, call my gran.

• 23:57Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 23:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Hello, lovely people. I have a two-for-one badass grandma and cult story for you today. My gran's name was Anne. That was my grandma's name. Well, actually, her name was Elizabeth, but she did the old folks thing of insisting on being called anything but her legal name. Anne was an absolute badass. My mom recalls her walking outside in the middle of the night to stop thieves on her property in her dressing gown with a lit smoke and a softball bat.

• 24:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Hell, yeah.

• 24:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. She lived with us most of my childhood, and every time I hear a new wild story about her, I wish I had even longer to hear them from her directly. I wanted to write in to share a particular story about my gran's cult-busting fruitcake. Long before I was born, my uncle was in a cult. Well, technically, two of my uncles were in two different cults, but this story is just about one of them. So this uncle, let's call him John, was a member of the Moonies. Oh. That cult was gigantic. Huge. And I think in the 70s. 70s, 80s, yeah. It's also known as the Unification Church. While my gran was still able to send letters and the odd gift, she had to be really careful about not criticizing the cult or calling the cult a cult. Something we know about cults now is that they often control and limit the amount and

• 25:06Karen Kilgariff?

  types of food that members can eat. Limiting overall food and protein makes it hard for our brain to do stuff. Much harder to come to terms with the fact you're in a cult when you're running on almost empty. Totally. It's so creepy how they know that. Yeah. It's like. Torture. Wake them up in the middle of the night, feed them Kool-Aid, run them in a circle. Okay, so this is where the fruitcake comes in. From my childhood memory, Gran's fruitcake was the size of someone's head and loaded with enough nuts to break a window. Gran used to send this cake to my uncle in the cult, and he said it became a bit infamous. Whenever a parcel from Gran arrived, all the protein-starved cultists would gather around to enjoy a fat slice of her cake. I always used to joke that the protein from the nuts was what gave my uncle the brain

• 25:49Karen Kilgariff?

  power to eventually get himself out of the cult and reunite with my gran, my mom, and the rest of the family. It turns out, however, that the magic ingredient was not the macadamias, it was the whiskey. Oh. The way my mom describes it, when Gran prepared a cake for my uncle, she would, with a glint in her eye, hold the whiskey bottle upside down into the cake mix after adding approximately three solid cups of whiskey. Oh, my god. She would mix in the fruit, which of course had been soaked in more whiskey, and bake the cake. Fresh from the oven, she would then poke holes all over the cake, and you guessed it, pour more alcohol in. Oh, my god. It seems the magic allure of Gran's fruitcake was not the dawning realization that you're in a cult, but the clarity that comes from a slice of cake that hits like

• 26:34Karen Kilgariff?

  a straight shot. Stay sexy and escape cults with alcoholic cake, Hannah. Oh, my god, they got that dopamine hit real quick, and they're like, oh, yeah. Yeah. They're like, maybe they got some sleep that night? Yep, sleep, and they got a little protein as well, and they're like, fuck this shit. What are we doing? It's not that bad out there. We can get our own spaghetti. And alcohol. And whatever.

• 26:56Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, that was fun. Thanks. Thank you, guys, for listening to our cult stories. One more thing before we go. Follow the show on Instagram at Trust Me Podcast and on TikTok at Trust Me Cult Podcast. Please, please, please.

• 27:10Karen Kilgariff?

  And if you missed it, you can go back and listen to Trust Me hosts Lola Blanc and Megan Elizabeth because they joined us on MFM episode 490. So get to know them and then listen to the podcast when it comes out.

• 27:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Yay.

• 27:21Karen Kilgariff?

  And also stay sexy.

• 27:22Georgia Hardstark?

  And don't get murdered.

• 27:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 27:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Elvis, do you want a cookie?

• 27:34Karen Kilgariff?

  This has been an Exactly Right production.

• 27:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith.

• 27:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

• 27:40Georgia Hardstark?

  This episode was mixed by Leona Scolacci.

• 27:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Email your hometowns to [email protected].

• 27:45Georgia Hardstark?

  And follow the show on Instagram at MyFavoriteMurder.

• 27:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 27:52Georgia Hardstark?

  And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page. And while you're there, please like and subscribe.

• 27:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 28:04Karen Kilgariff?

  Vacation planning should feel like a breeze, not a deep dive into countless travel sites searching for the best deal.

• 28:10Georgia Hardstark?

  With Cheap Caribbean's Budget Beach Finder, you can search every destination and every date all in one search.

• 28:16Karen Kilgariff?

  You'll save time and money with the Budget Beach Finder.

• 28:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Say goodbye to endless scrolling and tab hopping and hello to Budget Beach Bliss at your fingertips.

• 28:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Go to cheapcaribbean.com to try out the Budget Beach Finder and see just how stress-free vacation planning should be.

• 28:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Goodbye.

• 28:31Speaker 03

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