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Content Warning: Discussions of child abuse and sexual assault. Listener discretion advised. At just 24 years old, Sarah Landry found herself drawn to Hindu avatar Nithyananda\\u2019s teachings like a fly to honey. Moldy, toxic honey. She quickly became an apt pupil, and then his top recruiter via a steady stream of stylized YouTube videos and camera-ready social content. But after learning that the rape and child abuse allegations dogging the organization were just too credible to simply swat away, she stepped down as its propagandist-in-chief and stepped up as one of its harshest critics. The fallout since she blew the whistle on the godman\\u2019s shady ways in a series of incendiary 2019 Facebook posts and Youtube videos has been steep. (If you\\u2019re labeled as a double-agent for the Vatican by loyalists of a guy who is on the lam after being charged with rape and abduction: You\\u2019ve officially reached Remini-levels of cult busting.) In this episode, and the next\\u2014there\\u2019s just too much to cover to make it a one-parter\\u2014Sarah shares what it\\u2019s like to be on the other side of an army she helped build, and why she won\\u2019t stop working to deplatform culty characters like Nithyananda no matter how many self-proclaimed island nations they pull out of their asses. Learn more about Sarah Landry on her YouTube or Instagram or Twitter.

Show notes:\\xa0

Nithyananda - Wiki\\xa0

My Daughter Joined a Cult: 3-part VICE Doc Trailer (Discovery+, Amazon Prime)

Republic World Article by Pooja Prasanna: \\u201cFormer Nithyananda Aide Narrates Horrifying Brutality Against Children\\u201d

Gizmodo Article by Jed Oelbaum: \\u201cShe Built a Shady Guru\\u2019s YouTube Army. Now She\\u2019s His Fiercest Critic\\u2014But Who Will Believe Her?\\u201d

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Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy

Theme Song: \\u201cCultivated\\u201d by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

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