The Way Down rewind | Examining media about cults - 50% Facts with Silent Mike & Jim McD

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Is Jim.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
So yeah, we've been talking about cults the last few
weeks back, particularly cults as they are portrayed in media,
and we have talked a little bit about an episode
that we did or a couple of episodes we did
a couple of years ago about a religious cult as
kind of a scary religious cult. And since Mike is
under the weather this week, I thought I would take

(00:32):
those two episodes and put them together into one big
Mugget episode and passed them along to you this week
as our offering and our episode offering, and hopefully everything
will be back to normal next week. I enjoy these.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Obviously, it's a little bit.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Time bound in terms of our conversation outside of the
outside of the mini series, but the documentary mini series,
but I think the rest of it should be a
good and a good comparison to what we've been talking
about the last couple weeks. So anyway, we'll talk to
you next week. And oh, by the way, we're having
it currently having a big sale at three sb dot co,

(01:09):
like huge markdown, so check it out. I feel like
I am now in like a lifelong struggle. This will
land last the rest of my life with technology.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't know if we've talked about allf air on here,
but like the more precise and leveled up technology gets,
the more issues you may.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Have, the more FID lead.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Right. It comes like like a car is way more
convenient than a wagon, right, but there's way more shit
that can go wrong, Like you're wagging your fucking wood
axule breaks or your wheels kind of are junkie and
that's about it. Yeah, or your horse dies, right, but
but you're moving slow.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, exactly, And you can if you need new wheels,
you can probably make them out of wood, or you
can have the person who makes them make them out
of wood. You can't make tigers out of you know, right,
you have to actually have a manufacturing facility to make tires.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I do feel like some things are not only
getting like more convenient, faster, and more reliable, like phones,
I remember like the first smart ish phone I had,
Like even my BlackBerry I think with like freeze kind
of you know, and like I don't know what I
phone I have. I have like four models old. It
doesn't really freeze. It gets slower, but it doesn't like
just straight freeze. Yeah, or even my PC at home,

(02:23):
my streaming PCs beefed up to the gills and like
there's just no real issues. Yeah, Like I know if
there there will be one, and it'll be a nuclear issue,
you know what I mean, Like it'll be fucking insane.
But for the most part, it's fast as shit and reliable.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Right, my, I have a PC sitting over there that's
actually just full of old footage and it doesn't want
to work at all, and it's been upgraded and fixed
twice and it's now dead again. And you know, that's
that's one of the things. I'm trying to upload some
stuff for some things that we're having trying to have printed,
and like nothing is working the way it's supposed to.
Super slow uploads, even though the files are not that big,

(03:01):
and then you know, getting the site to render it
so that I can do a proof is taken forever.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's where like those companies like to go in person
kind of makes sense. Yeah, Like there will always be
some businesses that will have a brick and mortar despite
the convenience of not leaving my house, which I trust me,
I love. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know, Simil
like cameras, right, Like the more it can do, the
more it can do, and the more you can mess

(03:27):
it up.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Right. I live in fear of the day that these
cameras start to die because, yeah, they've been particularly that
one in the middle. Camera two has been with us since.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Long Journey Little Camera two when.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
He fifteen, probably, I mean, that's a long time.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
For But we're like on the cusp of having R
two D two in here famous you know. Yeah, maybe
so someone just bought one of the uh there's Boston
whatever the dog robots in the backflip dynamics. But then
there's like a Chinese version of that, I think, and
they made like a dog and this designer I follow
about one. He's got like a pet robot dog. That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, And they say that people are very adaptable to
that kind of thing, like.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I've seen I robot a lot of times.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
It works to me, well, like, well, Ferbie is kind
of the one of the first ones that people were
freaking yeah developed relationships with their Ferbies.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
And then and then the the rumbas.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know, the yeah, people talk to their rumbas, and
people really talk to their like Alexis and stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah. Yeah, series still does freak me out a little bit.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I still don't use it most of the time. And
as speaking as someone who's like a long time sci
fi nerd, I thought that I would think that that
was the coolest thing ever. Yeah, and I find it annoying.
I just want to get to the thing faster.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, And their functionality is still pretty basically like I
know you can, but you got to like set up
your whole house, like I know they can like maybe
turn the lights off or change the emperature, but then
you got to wire everything, like uh, and that will
be a thing. And I'm sure a brand brand new
house somewhere is like a smart house. Yeah, that's cool.
But the lights of all my inconveniences in my life

(05:12):
and we all you know, have our pet peeves. A
light switch isn't mine, you know, Like I just don't
even like the remote. It's is old pech Like as
a kid, I had a remote for my fan, right,
that's like more annoying than anything because then where is it?
And I lost it? And then these batteries and I'm okay
with a light switch, you know what I mean. Like,
and even the music like that's cool, hey, Alex to

(05:32):
play the Beatles, like that's cool.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
But we we have a couple at home. We have
a couple of fans. They're the like Home brand of
big ass fans. Oh yeah yeah, and they like I
was pretty early adopter on those. They were they'd only
been around a couple years when a bottom and they
have like there's a wall controller, and you don't you

(05:55):
don't run two lines to the fans, so there's not
a line for the light and the line for the
fan itself. It's all in this thing, and you can
control it with an app which works a lot of
the time, but not one hundred percent of the time.
And then the wall controlled like the one in our
bedroom doesn't work at all anymore, and I just can't
get it back online and I don't know what to
do about it. I can you control it from the

(06:16):
tiny little remote that you get with it, but that's
really fiddly and you have to hit it really hard
or the.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
App, which doesn't always work. That's like my thermostat my
house house now is maybe three three and a half
years old. Yeah, I guess just maybe three. It feels
like way longer. I don't even know when I bought it.
But our thermostats are an app based thing, and it
I did a week trying to set it up, called
in the dude the builder try to set up didn't
work and I'm like, all right, we'll fuck you. I

(06:44):
would you just freeze now or nah? I mean it
works on the wall as well.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
It's all confusing because it's like it's a dual system,
not only dual thermostat, but like a dual system because
the house zones. Yeah, because it's three stories tall. But
then like it doesn't really make sense because the duel
is the second and third. Oh, it should be the
first and stance you would think, yeah, and then and
then the second would maybe get the mix of it
or whether the third would always be hot And me
and Kylo's PC's are up there and it's like small ish,

(07:11):
you know, so yeah, it's burning hot upstairs, and then
downstairs feels dope. So I thought the app would be
convenient and then it just doesn't work. Of course that's
all sucks, but I don't know.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
I was talking about actually before we get into it, Yeah,
do us a favor to us a couple of favors.
I'm going to ask you a couple of favors. One
is if you have not reviewed this show on Apple
Podcasts in a while. We would like you to do
that and just give as many stars as you got
in your in your galaxy for us, we'd appreciate thousand.

(07:43):
I learned what retrograde is going backwards?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, well I know that, but like literally Mercury retrogade.
It is just literally literally going backwards. But it's not
it just visually is going backwards. Oh so it's not
even moving.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, it's just our our point of view.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
So it's all bullshit. It's cpletely bullshit.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, that's so Mercury is in retro zodiac bullshit. Yeah, completely.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
How is there so many This is a good segue.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, this is really good segue.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Oh, so many people into the zodiac. I remember as
a kid, even my mom would whip open the newspaper
sometimes and say, hey, read that that's about you. And
she's obviously like my mom's a little out there, but
she's not all in, you know. But also I was
a kid. She was just a thing to read in
the newspaper. Kid, But it's not like she swears by that,
but the world does. There's a lot of folks.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I don't understand it. I if there's anything to it
at all. There might be something to the time of
year that you're born affecting the kinds of experiences you
have at your earliest but stages, so like from like
when your birthday is in the year, So what kind
of party do you get for you?

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Oh? Sure, you get a pull.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Start school and all that stuff and then those things. Yeah,
that stuff, that's all.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
But even that, that's like more. But it's like ten
steps deeper than like the blood type diet. And you
and I bashed that all the time. Yes, exactly, like
the blood type diet more logically makes sense.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Right, but this is this is purely based on timing
when I'm talking about it.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Sure you know your yours is more a random environment
and everybody in July has an outdoor party because it's
hot out. Yeah yeah, and so maybe that affects some
type of person that you are.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, there's a I don't think it's a film serious.
I don't really know anymore. I've totally lost context on it.
But uh, thing called who you are is where you
were when.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
It's confusing, but I get it.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
You get yeah, yeah, like your your consciousness, you're aesthetic,
all that stuff. Is just often formed by what you're
exposed to a certain points in your life. So zodiac
I never really thought about it way before, but I can.
I can justify zodiac on that basis. I can't justify
it any other way.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, but you could, Yeah, you could eat just as easily,
say everybody from Sacramento from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
And a lot of that comes from the you know,
ancient observation of the stars and choosing constellations, and the
constellations turn into signs of the zodiac because they show
up in the sky at different periods of time in
the year, and blah blah blah blah blah, and people
some people latch onto that.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
The science is hard. We're like, the logic is there, right,
because we know the moon affects the ocean, right, and
so you're like, oh, you know, and so if science
tells me that, like, oh, well, why wouldn't the moon
and the stars affect humans? And you know, like the
logic makes sense, just the science isn't there. So I
guess I understand why people dive into things. And that's

(10:42):
where we're going.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, we're talking about this one got me a little
bit though.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, because you build it up, I think you can
explain the basis is better.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Okay, this we're talking about episode one of The Way
Down God Greed and the Cult of Gwynn Chamblain.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
They did her dirty on that cover. I mean, she's
just not that. She just has a look about her.
But that cover is.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Oh but she looks like that in it. What we're
referring to is the central character of this five episode
documentary series about a weight loss strategy that turned into
a religious cult, the Remnant Fellowship. Yeah, back to that
in a second. But she has a lot of hair

(11:29):
and as she is real. Uh no, it can't be
like is she a she a lion?

Speaker 1 (11:34):
That is that her in both of them?

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, that is her in both of them.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
On the right she looks normal well because yeah, they
they this was earlier in her life.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
And and then I feel like that's very nineties haircut,
Like I remember my my friend's parents have a ship
like that.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, the one that's on the cover and that you
see numerous times in the course of episode one, and
I can tell you half of episode two. Uh you
remember the the movie American Hustle.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Uh yeah, I don't think I saw the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Well, the beginning of that movie is Christian Balees character
like putting together the most elaborate comb over on the
top of his head that you have ever seen. And
that's what this looks like to me. It's just like
pair piled on hair. Hair, Yeah, a lot, a lot
of hair. Don't get near a match or an open
flame anywhere, you're just gonna go up in flames. But yeah,

(12:27):
this is uh, really what it comes down to. And
in the world, but in America in particular, we all
care so much about the way that we look, and
we're so insecure about ourselves that it's possible to get
to a place, particularly with weight loss and other of
the things and like other mental health things, that you're

(12:49):
so desperate that you'll do or believe anything to try
to change yourself into more of the image that you'd
like to conform to that is out in society.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
That's what you're not even talked about before watching this,
we just were talking about the idea of this. But
that's why the fitness industry because I bring this up
a lot, you know, and we're in the industry, and
I'll bring it out to people outside or even my
therapist or and they always say like, well, there's bad
people in slime bags in every industry, and I'm like,
it's not the same. It's really not, because this fitness,

(13:20):
the health industry, fitness and health, same thing is really
driving on the essence of every human's self esteem. And
you know, you and I kind of talk about the example,
like some people are little self conscious of what they drive,
or where they live or or or how they dress,
the clothes they wear. That's why they want to wear

(13:42):
brand names, et cetera, et cetera. Right, but how you
look is so tied and I don't care if you're
the most beautiful human on the planet. You have something
that you don't love about how you look, right, And
so to tap into that makes sense. And it actually
in my mind that there's not more like colts based

(14:03):
around that stuff, you know, because the typical cult is
maybe pride on people that are a little lost or
financially unstable or broken family and they're looking for community
and all that makes sense as well, typically maybe lower
financial level. Where this one takes place in Tennessee, and
I looked it up right as I'm watching, of course,
I want to see what these houses cost because they view.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Brentwood, uh Aschelon is the name of the yeah, Brentwood
of the neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
So they're showing they're showing all these like, you know,
b roll of all these houses and they're fucking mc mansions,
you know, and and guess what they cost though, even now,
seven hundred k oh really, which is like and we
say that because we're from California and all I'll you
out there might be saying, fuck you rich bastards, But like,
seven hundred k is a good amount of money. Don't
get me wrong. It's not like I just have that
sitting in my pocket. But seven hundred k gets you

(14:52):
a condo here in Sacramento. Our houses are both worth
more than yeah, yeah where where you're you're in Tennessee,
you gotta fucking it looks like the president lives there, yeah,
and maybe looks like they have acres and you just
have like thirty golden Retrievers dancing in your front and
lawn when you drive home. You know, that's what it
looks like. So I'm like, fucking I need to move
to Tennessee. So that was the first thing that really

(15:13):
surprised me, is like obviously and in Tennessee that they
said it was the richest neighborhood in it right, close
community and all that. That kind of besides the self
esteem thing which they dig into later with the weight issues,
you would think someone with their life so established at
least financially, doesn't mean the rest of your life's established.
You could be a fucking wreck. Wouldn't fall for something

(15:35):
of this nature? But then I started thinking deeper that
if you have stability in a lot of areas, your
attention can go elsewhere. It's kind of like the first
world problem, saying.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, like they think that, like Maslow's hierarchy, you start
meeting the lower level needs and the upper problem needs
to become a bigger issue.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, we're not worried about our dinner, We're not worried
about our vacations. We're not worried about our kids or
health or safety. What are we going to worry about?

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Right?

Speaker 1 (16:00):
It's us overeating? And then how can I find God
through losing one hundred and fifty pounds?

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Right?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
That that tie in? I still they only mentioned it
like once, really like how that she ties it in?

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, So here's the thing. If you were to just
look at parts of this, it would look a lot
like if it fits your macros.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
No, and they even mention they mentioned it eating. They
mentioned that, Yes, Yeah, they mentioned that term, which I
found surprising.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
It would look like, yeah, I had that in my nose.
It would look like that if you didn't have any
other part of it.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Okay, so here's or you didn't see her. Yeah for
some reason, I just see her and I'm like, something's wrong.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
That's it, And I don't want to get ahead of
my She's.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Gonna sell me a fucking what's like the makeup parties
they all have and shiteah, that's what avalon? Is that
one of them? Or maybe so fuck there's like a avon.
This is an avon fucking mom for sure.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Or Mary Kay Yeah, this is a Mary Kay bitch. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
And and uh later on her the guy that becomes
her second husband. Yeah, I'll get into that. He just
seems like the fakest person in the world.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, there's no way, right, there's I thought that right away.
I was like, there's no way. They were like honest
with each other, you know, this is all like this
is like a shit movie set up. Shit. Yeah, you know,
like it doesn't. This isn't a relationship.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, this is and not even a really heavily inspired
plot point.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
If it was a real it was in a movie.
You think, ah, this is such a B movie or
a movie whatever, because they couldn't come up with anything
better than this guy is clearly a fake and clearly
a shyster who happens to be number one good looking
and number two Actually he can sing. I mean he's
got to get voice.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Well, did you know or see any of this? What
I guess The second surprise to me was yeah, one
that it was a cult based around super wealthy people. Yeah.
Two was that how mainstream this was, like she's on
CNN and she's on Oprah and shit, do you remember
any of that?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Or I don't remember any of it at.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
All because it was mostly Obviously this is still taking place,
I believe. I haven't gotten to this other episodes, but
the latest members they interviewed like dropped out in like
twenty fourteen or something, so this is semi recent. But
it started in the nineties. Yeah, which is a little
young for me. I was born eighty eight, so it's
not like I was watching Oprah every day, but for
her book to be like New York bestseller and her

(18:19):
on CNN. I think she was on Late Night or
one of the late nights and then an Oprah.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
The book was called The Way Down, w e igh
Way Down, and that was pre religion.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
That was just that, that was before it got really funky. Yeah,
and they even mentioned they mentioned a bunch of little
things in here. And I actually love how this documentary
was shot opposed a lot of the ones we watched,
because one reminded me of the the Scientology one seeing
clearly have going clear. Love that just because there's a

(18:52):
bunch of psychoists. I love that. And then because it's real,
you know, it's like fucking and then two just so yeah,
the style it shot like they kind of dig in
because they know, you know, it's gonna be bullshit, and
so there's like the vibe is kind of comedic, but
it's not comedy, Like they don't do anything to make
it funny. But I already know going in. It's a
little light. It feels light in a way although it's dark.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, it's dark. It's really dark. It's really really dark.
If you know what the opening scene of the first
episode is about The first episode is actually called The
Kingdom by the way, the opening scene where it's just
kind of video of a landscape and then you can

(19:37):
hear radio tower calls. Oh so I don't know, like airport,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Well, okay, So the idea of us doing this is
to cover each episode because Jim thought, and I think
he's right, that there's enough unveiling and enough meat that
we could do multiple episodes of the podcast based on
multiple episodes of that, and maybe we'll tie in one
and two and three and four or whatever. Probably, but
I literally only watched one and shut her off. But yeah,
there's like the interestings out of the blue. You have

(20:03):
no idea what's going on.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, so I will just spoil it and tell you
because it'd be it's pretty easy to find out that
she died in an airplane crash. While they were making
this documentary conspiracy, they were largely done with this, and
it is not clear at all why the pilot because

(20:24):
the black box seems to have the guy going this
way and that way and this way and that way,
like I don't know, it was a weather thing, but
they didn't comment on that. Actually, it's sort of very
similar to the Kobe Bryant thing, but it was her
and her husband and her son in law.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yikes that that new husband, the new husband, not her
original husband. The only darkness they really show is the
two parents whose daughter's kind of getting recruited. That like,
the stories are dark and you can see the real
passion and like fear in the parent's eyes, but the
rest of it is kind of like not light. But
I kind of like that, like the echotomy of like,

(21:05):
you know, this is fucking weird and it almost feels
fake Stepford Wives. So they mentioned l Ron Hubbard, right,
and so not only did the movie Going Clear feel
that way, but they mentioned him, which like they mentioned
him in like kind of a normal reference to I
forgot exactly the reference, but they mentioned him something kind
of normal. You're like, all right, well that he's not normal,
Like if you know anything about scientology. Yeah, she's a

(21:25):
fucking cult leader and he's a fucking comic book writer. Right,
And then like same with her, like what is They
don't go into her background much, I don't think in
the beginning, but hopefully they do later, Like who the
hell is she and why is she a weight loss coach,
and then why is she the only one talking to God?

Speaker 2 (21:39):
She has she had a bachelor's degree in like in
some I had a master's degree in a nutrition.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Because she was kind of fattoo or something. She gave
a bunch and her parents. Yeah, yeah, so yes, she
did have some stuff and dietitian, which is great. And
then she talks about intuitive eating like, oh, that seems fine.
But then why she talking to God? What makes her
a prophet? Well?

Speaker 2 (22:00):
See, that's that's a part of this whole. I actually
want to look at the definition of a cult a
little bit here. A cult is a social group that
is defined by defined by unusual religious, spiritual, and philosophical beliefs,
or by its common interest in a particular personality, object,
or goal. And so this one had personality yeah, and

(22:24):
and goal for sure and to a certain yeah. I
don't know what was the other sentence.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
There's something about like, uh.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
A defined social group defined by its unusual, religious, spiritual,
or philosophical beliefs like.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
That in itself, because every and they mentioned that in
a movie. They're like, yeah, she created her own church basically,
and then created her own religion basically. Yes, based off
of Christianity. But that's like every Christian branch, like every
Christian branch thinks they're the true Christian branch and they
read the Bible more correctly or their stories are.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Just like just like every power lifting federation thinks is
the best. It's very similar.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
It is, and that I guess is slightly human nature.
Like what you think is depth, what I think is depth.
What I think is real strength with the deadlift bar.
You think is real strength with the stiff bar.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
And if you think about it this way, they're almost
always owned by a particular person.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Unless it's you know, even Martin Luther King right, like
not Junior, the religious one, like he just interpreted things
slightly different. And then there's politics involved because we're in
fucking Europe. And then you have a split in the church,
like like that's fairly normal, right, but we don't look
at those things as colts.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
No, And I tell you that if you like this,
this has a she started in a in a Baptist church,
end up in Assemblies of God and then started her
own thing and having attended a literally like Baptist spin
off church when I was when I was a kid, uh,

(23:51):
and it was literally like, oh, we believe that baptism
is this way and not that way, and so we're
going to go off on our own direction.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Right like what yeah, hang on yeah, or or like
very like the smallest things like I was raised Catholic
and when the Catholic church and so I was eighteen,
but like the smallest things like true Catholics believe like
you are drinking the body and blood of Christ, like
it's not like a symbol.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Trans yeah, transform transfiguration, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Where you just go left to one type of Protestant
and they believe, no, it's just a symbol. And then
you have two billion people in each religion just based
off like that little difference. Yeah, and you know you're
like what And I guess that is maybe what makes
it not as cult tea, you know, because then you
can call based on that definition, you can kind of
call anything a cult, right, you call powerliffic and cult right,

(24:38):
Like we all praise the part bell, it's just to
what extreme do you honor or or bow down to something?
And then typically cults, at least how we look at them,
or at least I do, they're crazy, like they're they're
doing something bad.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah, yeah, this is true. They don't, I mean don't
necessarily have to, like like some of the original cults
would be like within the Catholic Church, a cult around
a particular saint. Sure, so they're looking for that particular
saint to intervene.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
For necessarily negative like same thing. Like I think the
basis of this even if you just strip it down
from crazy hair over here and you think about a
religion based on honoring your body because God gave you
the body and making your because that's like kind of
what they mentioned, like your body is the Holy Spirit
and it's a vessel, and you got to take care
of it.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, except totally not the Holy Spirit because she's not.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, but just that you're like, that's good. That's a
good thing. Like if you do believe in God, which
half of our more than half of our planet does,
believes in some kind of higher power, and you believe
he created us, whether you believe in free will or more.
You know, there's variations within the religions, right then you
would think like, yeah, be taking care of what my

(25:50):
gift from Him and my spirit is like a good thing.
So the core of like yeah, how they lose weight
and how she teaches it, and they mention things like
the more weight you lose, the better you are in
the community, right, stuff like sure, negative, but taking care
of your body. Yeah, tied in with religion does make
some sense.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
It does make some sense.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, you know what I mean where I've never gone
to another church really other than Catholic And they don't
really talk about that at.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
All, No, but they they put so much on it
that they when people cannot do it, they they have
it as a measurement of the person's faith.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, and like a hierarchy of how like dedicated you are,
how good you are?

Speaker 2 (26:33):
Right, And it reminded me. I was listening to a
podcast or radio show or something the other day called
The through Line talking about the origin of what they
call the prosperity Gospel in the fifties, maybe as early
as the forties, but probably definitely the fifties. Oral Roberts,

(26:56):
you've heard of Oral Roberts University or Roberts started at
as as just a preacher and he came upon this,
you know, revelation from God that having money was not
a bad thing, although that is not at all what
Jesus ever said, sorry, folks, And that if you wanted

(27:22):
to have more money. The way that you had more
money was by giving more money to his church. Sure,
and then God would pay you off, you know, karma ish, Yeah,
exactly that kind of thing, and that grew from a
small thing to a huge, huge thing. And this is
very similar to that, except that what you're you're giving

(27:44):
is this, like you're giving all your fat, giving your
diet to God, and then.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
A book and buying her audio tape.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Right and then and then contributing to her religion.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I guess we got to dig into or I do
have to into the next episodes to see because like, yes,
this is all bad, and she's clearly doing it for power.
You could just see it in her eyes and interviews
and shit. But it's not like she's under the radar.
That's another thing about like Colts, or at least how
I think of Colts, because you think about sipping kool
aid shit. When you think about Colts and trying to

(28:19):
kill people or do bad things, you know, in the
scheme or the scale, there's worse Colts so far from
I've seen episode one, you know what I mean. And
she's doing it in clear as day. Yeah, it's not
like a little gang in LA. It's not like, you know,
they're not living in the hills of Tennessee like she's
on CNN.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah. But at the same time, this family that they're
showing who really lost their daughter to it. I mean
that that's as bad as any cult thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah. Yeah, the recruitment part, I think, because it's the
recruitment's purely tearing a family apart and an emotional thing. Yeah,
it's got to be. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
And the question you have have, like, uh, to what
extent was the guy who was kind of romancing her
and proselytizing this this cult, this church, yeah, actually into her.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
You mean the high school boyfriend. Yeah. So so they
interview this parents who basically a high school boyfriend, and
the parents seem so nice too. They're like, don't judge
him differently. I know, we've heard some weird things about
this church, you know, like they basically tell their daughter
to give this guy a chance in a sense, right,
and this high school fault, right Yeah, and then and
then this guy starts to recruit her. Yeah. So again,

(29:32):
I we got to dig into more episodes to see
what's up with this high school kid, because then he
does like talk back to the parents a little bit
in an interview and and say like, yeah, I'm trying
to recruit her. And then they find messages and cell
phones and all these weird things of people from the church. Phone.
Yeah that's someone at the church order.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, any church that involves a burner phone, just probably
when you should get.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Just any activity, like if you had need a burner phone,
you're doing some shit. Yeah, So I guess obviously the
more episodes will lead to why why this kid's so
kind of like sketchy, And you're right, like whether he's
into or not, intent matters so much and we can

(30:14):
never truly judge a human's intent. But if this kid
truly believes he's doing good, God's will or whatever, you
know what I mean, and that is a lot of
religions and cults, like, it's hard to blame it's hard
to blame him if that's what he believes. But hopefully
other episodes will reveal if there's like what what's he gained?

Speaker 2 (30:31):
And that's a really good question. I don't know. I
think the next episodes will tell us, I because I
think he was probably already getting whatever he could gain.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
If you know what I mean, Yeah, probably probably yeah,
and and and it's or maybe the church. Yeah, who knows,
because it is such an emotional mental level up.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
In the church. By pulling somebody in from the outside.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
I don't know that, yeah, that we I don't know either,
but I would assume the church kind of puts some
pressure on you to recruit people. Or maybe you're not
allowed to date outside the church, and maybe he does
like her, and then maybe that's the recruitment passion or yeah.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
It just sounds so calculated because the father at some
point pulls them aside and says, look as your intention
to recruit my daughter into your church? And he says yes.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
It's like, huh okay, honest, Yeah, I guess I was
like a little high school kid. That's gotta be hard,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
But one of the things I should point out is
that it's not common for a woman to be at
the head of some religious movement.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
For sure, the beginning of one. Yeah, it's and I
think I imagine even a cult.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, but if you notice, and I this is knowledge
outside of the first episode, but it's also run by
a council of men. She is on her head, but
she everybody you know that, she's the one that everybody
looks to.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yeah, it's mostly stereotype, and obviously every human is slightly different.
But like, yeah, I would imagine we could find a
stat where if we looked at a psychopaths and narcissist,
I'd imagine the majority of men you would think, right, Like,
I'm making that up in a sense, but I'm almost
sure I bet money on it. And so I think
that leads down to why maybe not the religion part,

(32:08):
but why it chick's probably not the leader of a
cult more than not, also right, because these dudes, narcissists
or just selfish, want the power, want the fame, want the.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
And then it becomes this situation where a group of
men then realizes that they can manipulate this woman to
get what they want or.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Just leach onto the coattails and ride it.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
All right, right, And the thing I'm actually I'm not
far enough into it to really know, but very often
the cults end up with some kind of weird sexual
component to them as well.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Yeah, yeah, maybe yeah, and so yeah, maybe that's the
recruitment too or something, who knows, Yeah, but a lot
of it and maybe it's because we're in a rich
part of Tennessee. For the majority of the footage, although
the book and everything went highly national and she traveled
and did these seminars and stuff, but it seemed like
she built the church in her neighborhood, and maybe there
was other churches. They didn't mention it yet, but it

(33:00):
did seem like there's like a lot of like seven
year old white ladies in the crowd. Right, Yeah, that
was like the majority of what was going on.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
So I'm a little bit because the second episode just
like started on me. So I'm a little bit blurred about.
But did they get into the whole uh you'll leave
your husband?

Speaker 1 (33:19):
No? I don't think so. Okay, Yeah, so that episode.
That's That's the other thing too, is not only is
it a lady cult leader, but there's a lot more ladies,
well at least when I remember, I haven't gone to
the church in whatever fifteen years, but the Catholic church
was pretty equal dudes and chicks. Where if you look
at the crowd of this bu roll or whatever it's like,
or the all the interviews that she brings on stage
talking about her, it's mostly ladies.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah, I think I was gonna say before, was you know,
the definition of being.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
A geek is not what you're into, but how you're
into it. I've always said that, but I didn't know
that was a real definition. Yeah, well that's it' that's
a common social definite, like being really into something. Yeah. Yeah,
then I call you a nerd. Yeah yeah, a powerlifting nerd. Yeah,
you be a powerlifting nerd doesn't mean that you really
read comics.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
And I think that the I think the same is
true of being a member of a cult. It's not
always what you're into, although sometimes it is. It's the
way you're into it.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Right versus the Catholic Church or something.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
And she became such a fan of her own brand
that she took this this philosophy behind the diet thing, huh,
and she turned it into everything.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, you wonder how much of a cult even in
her case, Like she's a little batshit crazy. For sure,
more episodes will tell us how crazy she is. But
do you like because in episode one, at least I
could just say, like, this lady's a really good business
person and marketer and these people.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Bought her shit.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, and how deep these people bought her shit? Doesn't
necessarily mean she's manipulative. Maybe she just hadded something good
to sell.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
It's possible for regular, well intentioned people to develop a cult. Yeah,
that are so much further into it then you would expect.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Or one think about music, yeah, like especially pre social media.
But even with social media, like music in general, a
lot of musicians and bands aren't. They use social media
to promote stuff, but they don't like use it like
a v logger or something, right, Like, at least that
the majority of bands and music that I know. But
some get cult fucking followings. They get tattoos and they

(35:27):
get all this stuff. But that's not because of this
weird message that they're grooming you. No, you're just so
into their music and their lyrics speak to who you are,
and so you buy in. And obviously this wouldn't be
a documentary if some weird shit didn't happen. So, like
you go into watching some of the music and some
of the b roll. You know, some weird shit's crazy.
But if we're going episode by episode, I don't think

(35:50):
besides how she looks, she doesn't. Nothing's that crazy yet
to me at least, you know, some of the ladies
are like, yeah, they kind of shunned me for not
losing enough weight or whatever. I'm like, all right, well
that sucks, but that could be any shitty That could
be a regular gym. Yeah, a powerlifting gym could shun
you for being fat and weak, you know, or using
steroids and being weaker. You know, like all that's normal

(36:11):
human shit behavior. Not that I agree with it, but
just bully behavior. Yeah, yeah, in episode one behavior. Yeah,
in episode one, there's nothing that I say like, oh
my god, this lady needs to go to an insane asylum.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, well, something that you said about, Oh, I know,
I think that the heel turn is when as a personality,
you realize that you could exploit the way that people
view you or revere you.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
The one thing, yeah, the one red flag is when
they they say, although she doesn't, some interviewers say that
she's the prophet and the only one that talks to God.
That's a bit extreme, I guess, yeah, yeah, but everything
else is kind of normal, honestly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
But I think, I mean, very clearly that she had
the heel turn at some point.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
But yeah, but they didn't make that super apparent. Yeah,
you know, it's like they didn't do it with music,
or they didn't do it with the storytelling. They just
kind of start throwing you a bunch of information. The
other thing with the episode one is they bounced from
like nineteen ninety nine to twenty sixteen and back and
forth two thousand and nine. Like, they bounced back and
forth a lot, So there's not like a turn of heel. Yeah,
they're kind of showing like, oh, this is kind of weird.

(37:21):
This is not kind of weird. This is how it started.
This is what's going on, you know. Yeah, so it
is a little gray the whole time.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
It bounce around and bounces around in time.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
I had to look.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
So nineteen ninety nine is when this this remnant fellowship.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Okay, and their point and that's after she sold a
shit ton of books and was on CNN.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, it's like, yeah, we are the one true remnant
of what you know, of the ways Christianity should be.
And I don't know if this is totally a coincidence
or not, but I don't know. If you ever watched
The Leftovers, it was an HBO series based on a book,
and the first season was based on the book, and

(37:58):
then they went past that way past that into I think,
really much better territory. But uh, a like two percent
of the world's population just disappears one day, just disappears.
And yeah, it's about the effects of society on society
of the disappearances, a little butterfly effectee, all the mourning

(38:23):
that happens and people and that and uh, social unrest,
and and then this cult rises that's actually called the
guilty Remnant, which maybe I don't know if I don't
know if there's a but the guilty Remnant. They don't
they're not supposed to talk. They all wear white. They
do these like they do a lot of aggressive recruiting

(38:48):
without talking, which is.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I think that's another Although there's some religions which we
may not want to bash, certain religions here that recruit
a little harder than others. I do feel like cult
the line of cult to like community is how hard
you recruit? Not only how hard do you buy into
something or someone? Yeah, but how hard do you like recruit?
Like all the powerlifting, And I think it's great, and
I think it's very healthy, and I think it would

(39:10):
help everyone on the planet honestly to get a barbelle
in her hand. But I've never knocked on my neighbor's
door and said, hey, you've heard about the barbell if
you're leading savior, I've never done that. Yeah, you know,
so like, yeah, the recruitment process also turns you into
more of this cult. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
The guilty remnant people also figure that they should have
also been taken, so they want to die as quickly
as they can, so they all change, that makes sense. Guilty, Yeah,
they change, smoke cigarettes all all the time. It's it's
it's a thing going back to the the the town

(39:48):
a little bit. They talk about it being kind of
Stepford and Maide's tail kind of.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
I've only seen clips of Stefford Wives, and it's it's
clips because I was too young when it came out
that my parents were watching it, and so I didn't like.
I wasn't entertained, so I was like watching them with them,
but I wasn't, So I have clips in my brain
of what it was, if that makes sense. Uh, And
as soon as they show any of this, it already
clicked in my head. Here's how I'm not gonna mention

(40:17):
here either, but there's an Arian Sacramento that I was
looking to buy a house and I was driving around
and uh, it was like a newer development and I'm
walking around and it felt like that, Like it felt
like paid actors were out there playing tennis, like to
get me to want to live here, and they're just
everyone's smiling and waving at you, playing fucking tennis and shit,
and you're like, this is fake. What's the Jim Carrey movie? Oh,

(40:39):
Truman show Truman? Yeah, same idea, Yeah, same idea. You're like, dude,
what the fuck are you people on? What is going on?

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (40:47):
And I'm all for a community and I'm a bad neighbor.
I don't I wave to my neighbors and say hi
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
But like that's it.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, but I don't want they hit that other extreme either.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Part of it, like the way the children are dressed.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Is yeah, they mentioned that too. I see. Like that's
where like some of this you're like, damn, like the
attention to detail of this chick or her counsel's brain,
you know, to really like that's where it probably is.
Majority of colts are run by smart people, whether you
want to admit it or not, they're smart, and it

(41:21):
probably is on purpose. Although we just made arguments how
it could not be with the bands and stuff, but
chances are it is because like there's something in their
brain where they understand how this will all lead to
more control over her community.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Right, you know what I mean, because the more that
people can form, the more control you at.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Right, and even how detailed, why did they dress like
the turn of the century or why. I'm sure there's
something in her brain that made logic and it probably worked. Yeah,
it obviously did work. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
The kids are just like like out of the nineteen
seventy nine Laura Ashley catalog.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
You know, yeah, I've seen like my my the Italian
side that like floated over here. When they were kids,
they were dressed like that portraits that very godfather. Yeah yeah, yeah,
my grandpa's dressed up like as a little girl kind
of like that.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Uh yeah yeah yeah. So just to get back to
her origin a little bit, she she grew up in
a cleaner plate family. A lot of people developed I
did to weight loss issues or weight issues around the
cleaner plate.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Even though I'm still kind of I still kind of
agree with it, Like, don't like my mom fucking cooked hard,
don't waste her shit and her money. He little bastards but.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
At the same time, like eat only as much as.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
You really don't put as much on your plate.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, don't put as much on it.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
I think that's the lesson. Yeah, right, exactly.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
She started viewing restless hunger, her restless hunger as sinfulness. So,
like so many of these things, she's trying to like
purge her own demons as she starts this whole thin
eating is what she called it.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
In her book. They kind of talk about, I think
the timeline is they talk about more intuitive eating because
she just got out of you know, Dietitian school and stuff.
You're like, all right, that makes sense. And then when
they go into the religion, they more talk about fasting. Yes,
which obviously for anyone out there besides your religious beliefs
by all means, which is hard, right, because there's other
religions that fast a lot. Yeah, almost every religion. I
think even even Catholicism there's some fasting mention. Not everybody practices,

(43:18):
but so like I understand it, and I also understand
the practice of it from a non health standpoint, to
try to strip yourself of what's going on externally and
focus on what's internally. We're always focusing on the brownies
that are in front of me. I could focus more
internally about how to be a good person or whatever.
But they like use it as a punishment for a
fet you are and to lose more weight quicker.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
And there are indercrin effects for from for sure fasting.
And I don't mean like, oh, you make more yah
or whatever. No, it's like you actually you're you experience
a certain amount of euphoria around the hunger. Sure, and
that's a chemical reaction. That's not a you know, you're
not getting closer to God your.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Body and it's probably not good.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, probably not a good thing to do all the time.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Yeah, you could also get that same thing by not
sleeping for like seven days. You're gonna start to see aliens.
But does it partly doesn't mean it's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Some of the things that she said, run to God
instead of food. Stop being obedient to the god of food.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
And like all that and like basic theory is fine. Yeah,
don't make it.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Don't change your relationship right food so that it's not
the center.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Of your world.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Stop bowing down to the refrigerator. There was no no
calorie counting, which is an interesting turn. But The really
freaky thing to me is no exercise.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah nothing was ever mentioned.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, well it it literally says no exercise at no
calorie counting, no exercise. Well, so without exercising or counting calories,
you can.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
But for the if we go back to like marketing
and everyone having self esteem issues but wanting the magic
pill to lose weight, if I tell you you can
have the body of your dreams you don't even have
to exercise, sounds way better than Hey, Jim, I could
get you the body of your dreams. But we're gonna
have to train really really hard four times a week. Like,
which pill are you buying? Right? Exactly, you're not buying mine.

(45:12):
And that's why powerlifting is a hard cell.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
And we also know that if people lose weight by
just not eating really not not eating nearly enough or
protein or veggies, yeah, yeah, it's not sustainable. He bounce back,
and it's worse.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
And yeah, you can be skinny and be diabetic if
if if, if you're fucking not eating for a day
and then the only thing you do eat is white
bread and skittles. Yeah, you know, like that's yeah, if
you're not learning habits.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Wait until you're physically hungry and only eat until you're satisfied. Great,
this is something that totally makes sense. Great, it's like,
on its face, yeah, exactly, fine, that's exactly what you
should do, even if it even like meal time runs
around and you're not hu hungry, eat later, just a
tiny bit, eat enough and then go on.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Right. I mean she has a you know, dietetic background,
Like she's not a complete moron, right, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Falling out of food, of love with food and into.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Love with God again.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Okay, yeah, okay. If it's just about getting you know,
food out of the center of your life, right then
that that actually makes them sense. But that's a that
is not something you can just decide, right, Like that's yeah,
there's iractice.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
There's a lot of work around that. And she does
start to stretch that too. In one of the interviews,
she talks about like, yeah, people are dropping alcohol and
drugs and smoking and pornography, and I'm like yeah, and
like theory that's all great too, Like if you put
your focus on hope or faith or positivity or being
a good human and you take it away from these
things which are arguably not that negative, right, Like you
can argue all you want porn and food and all

(46:49):
this stuff so bad for you, But you know, moderation.
You got one life to live, man, Moderation will be
just fine. But I can get behind Yeah, let's focus
on being a good human. Let's get more introspective. And
if that version of that for you is God or
that word or that thought rather than spirit or soul
or universe or whatever the hell you want to put
in there in that phrase, I can get behind it.

(47:13):
And that's it. But again, that's why our podcast is
our podcast and we're not number one on iTunes because
we never demonize. I'm not going black and white just
to sell shit. Yeah, but that's how you get that's
how you tap into people's self esteem. No, man, if
you guys just don't eat green beans, you're gonna get jacked.
Then you write a book on that, and now all
of a sudden you're popular. Where if you talk about
moderation and some healthy habits, it's not as sexy.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
It's not nearly as sexy.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
The other way that you do it is that you
have people like this crazy woman on your show to
talk crazy shit, and then both sides it.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
And then you know yeah, you platform crazy.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah exactly. I was gonna say, Oh, one of the
things that really struck me and it and I think
it it obviously predates social media. It's you have seen
it in ads forever, but now we seen in social
media all the time and you can't even monetize it anymore.
As like before and after stuff they did. They brought

(48:08):
people up on stage in the church with their old
clothes to show how much weight day had lost and stuff,
and that you know, that's a very emotional thing for
people to to to show that difference that they've made
and seeing in person is a huge impact on people
as well. Uh, it's it's just a it's a it's

(48:29):
a fraud image.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
It's it's and again like if you have like a
decent exercise nutrition program you're selling, I don't think there's
anything wrong with that, right, Like testimonials are great, but yeah,
if you're saying you're going to hell because you're fat
or whatever, yeah, now you're stretching lines.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
And the crazy thing too is that whenever anybody gets
started in something new new workout, new diet, whatever, they
have that zelotry about them at the beginning that if
if your intent was to create a cult.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
You could do it, sure, I mean, that's the joke
about crossover, right. How do you know someone does cross
it because they tell you the first time, to tell
you exactly air vegan or carnivore, insert whatever the hell's
popular right now.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
A move that I don't understand. We touched on this
earlier was the when she created this new you know,
denomination religion to whatever you want to call it. She
lost half because these these programs, these way down programs,
were in churches everywhere, and when she started her own church,
she literally lost half of her following. By saying that

(49:38):
that she didn't know she no longer believed in, you know,
the Holy Trinity, the Father's Son, and a holy ghost.
Doesn't it's just just not I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
I got the answer, Okay. I think by that point
she was already like financially well well well off, and
now it became an ego power thing. So she depth
she she she chose to choose a depth of following
and a zealotry over masses people who were just half

(50:12):
in or kind of in or yeah. So she's like,
and maybe that's intentional, or maybe it's not maybe. I mean,
who knows, right, because hopefully these other episodes, so she
could just be batchit crazy and just made this shit
up and just set it. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Or if the plan that kind of makes sense to me, Like,
if you're conniving, you would rather have a hundred soldiers
that'll die for you than a thousand soldiers that'll kind
of fight for you.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
And not every Christian denomination actually believes in the in
the Trinity, but or their own.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Yeah, they interpreted a million ways.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, it's very Catholic, and it's very mainstream Protestant, and
that's the majority of you know, for sure, America. I
don't know why she would other than what you're saying,
I don't know why she would do it.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
I think the black and white things.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
I think you can you can probably pull more money
out of a smaller group of heavily devoted people than
you can out of a broad group and power there
was a mixture and.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Your ego, right, Like, again, she's got five hundred thousand
people that will die for her versus a million that
kind of care and actually only losing fifty percent is
not that crazy? Yeah, right, Like that's not that big
of a sacrifice. It's not like she just kicked all
her audience. Yeah yeah, and that was only in person
at least, how they say, yeah, that was only in
person ish transformation, but who knows.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah, but just like church's denounced all over the place,
they've banned her program because again that's also about power,
right yeah, yeah, opposite side. You can't even do this
diet thing with someone who believes differently than we do. Yeah,
which is all that's scary too, right when it comes
right down, and.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
That's probably where the darkness starts to creep in. In further
episodes of.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Imagine, and then towards the end this episode we meet
her second husband. We find out that she essentially just
dismissed her first husband because he wasn't looking for a
divorce and he was actually a minister. Yeah, yeah, he
was the one who back minister. Well, you have to
learn about this stuff to be able to copy it
in your own manipulat way.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Yeah, right, she could have. There's no way. She never
goes to church in her entire life and then becomes
this right, exactly prophet. They believe she's a fucking prophet.
Yeah you know, yeah, exactly. So that's how I'm surprised.
I've never heard of this.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
She he bailed from the church after the first uh
two years now something like that guy. Yeah, and then
after they got divorced, she immediately married the other guy.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Uh, the total fake.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Schischer trying to kick the bomb out, Yeah, try to
take the kids.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, this guy was a he was in Tarzan in
New York. Really, he was starred in Tarzan in New York,
which is a just a random yeah, just like a
c r D movie, TV movie, something like that. And
they've fought the his baby mama for custody of the

(53:04):
kid because they wanted to, you know, bring this kid
up in this bizarre as religion.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Yeah, I wonder where the baby mom or the ex
wife probably has more on the story. She is interviewed
a decent amount and talking about how she fought back,
and I was probably unexpected on their half that this big, powerful,
you know, religious leader is now getting fought by this
random mom.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
A five part documentary series, and I'm assuming that they'll
probably be yet another part that that they released.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Later, Yeah, as a time or weekly or whatever.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
Having to do more with with the impact of her
dying and stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
But yeah, check it out. It's on HBO. We'll probably
do very least one other episode on it. Yeah, probably
more if if the next episodes we watch have enough
info on it and tweet us let us know if
you liked it, what you think, and if you want
to join our.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Cult exactly, you can find us at fifty percent facts.
Percent is a word. Fifty just numbers. I am at
Theeja mcdee on. On the social media. Mike is silent.
Mike with two k's are everywhere. Our brand is three
SB dot Co. And this gym is third three Barbell.
However you want to spell third, you will get here

(54:19):
and we'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
And they're coming up with the brand new ship next week.
I didn't know so soon, So next week.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
I am I'm audio. I liked the I like the
previous series that I was in Six Feet Under, especially
the first season. The first season the Six Feet Under
might be one of the most perfect episode or seasons
of any televist seasons of any television show ever.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Yeah, I haven't seen it.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
The writing is so good, the the the premise is
so well established, and and even with that, there are twists.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Along the way that you like and don't expect.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Yeah, yeah, it's really really good.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Dexters like that too, but then a couple things get
a little predictable.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Well they did, they did this new season to sort
of erase the memory of the last season where the
guy who was the original showrunner and creator was not involved.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Yeah, why is that just like the norm like Star
Wars or Yeah, I mean I get contracts and money
and maybe creativity, you know, because they're well we always
forget about like directors and producers like they're creatives, they're
they're humans, and so if they're burnt out and maybe
they did run out of ideas or you know, like
I understand that, but it just seems like SUTs the
norm with like Game of Thrones and even like Star
Wars stuff or whatever.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Everyone just like with having tried to create powerlifting content
with some regularities since two thousand and six and podcasting
with great regularity since late two thousand and eight. Yeah, oh,
excuse me, in twenty thirteen, pardon me, eight years. So
it's hard, it gets hard.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
You run out of ideas and you need to keep
pivoting toward different things and then when you do that,
people bitch at you, and.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Right, you can never win. And I do understand. Also
everyone gets mad ninety two and something that like everything's
a remaker, everything's a sql. But like movies were new
in nineteen fifty, you know what I mean, Like now,
like it's hard to come up with anything you do.
It's hard to come up with an original idea, right,
people say there's no such thing. But and then even that,
you know what I mean, to come like fucking left

(56:33):
Field out of nowhere. You've seen the.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Series, you yo, you, I haven't seen it now.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
So first season I thought was really kind of like
you just said, maybe not the perfect thing, but like
really good shit. You didn't expect left Field, and you
really feel the type of way about all this. And
then season two and three it feels like every other
kind of like murder show I've ever seen, you know,
just like the Normalist. And it's fine, like I'll watch it,
but it's not like.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
It falls into a pattern.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Yeah, the first one you're like, oh, dang, this is
kind of crazy. Indexter's like that too, and Dexter is
a little bit older too, but yeah, I don't know,
I don't know Game of Thrones, right, it's based on
a book, and so that that that hits pretty good
and you get you get like more info already. When
you're a director, right, yeah, you have this piece of
work that you're manipulating.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
I don't know, but I think too it like if
you're a if you're a writer, if you do music, whatever,
the first thing you did is the one that's been
you've been holding on to and and and reworking and
whatever forever. Yeah, the next one is the one.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
That's hard, right because now you're trying to back up
or play off of or uh Ozark's another one. Yeah,
but I think all three rip. I love all three seasons.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
The third season is darker than I wish it was.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
You wanted to keep uh I needed more.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Of a balance between dark and light, and there's just
almost no light in season three.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Of those are yeah, maybe it'll come back, maybe not.
It does also it Yeah, I agree. I don't mind
it though, just because why I look at Bateman, I
kind of feel light regardless because in that whole thing,
he's not like comedic like he is and other stuff,
but he's kind of dry. He's like you know what
it is kind of funny even though it shouldn't be.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
Yeah. I listened to a podcast that he does. It's
called SmartLess. He does it with Will Arnett, who does
a million voices, and then Sean Hayes who was in
Will and Grace.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
You know, weird big names like that of a podcast.
Maybe it's just weird.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Well they started they started in lockdown.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, so or what's the other one that rips or
does a lot of downloads, Dak Shephard And I thought
he's a huge name. He's like a b cless guy.
But it's just weird to me.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
He made his name in podcasting. He was he was
no he was married to Kristen Bell, and people knew
about him.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
He's been in a million things kind of yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Right, yeah, sort of been Yeah, he's been adjacent. He's
been celebrity adjacent for a long time.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah. Yeah, he knows everybody and he's in the scene,
but he's not the guy. But that's like even in
the beginning, when like Kevin Hart and the Rock came
to YouTube, I was like, this just feels weird. Yeah,
you know, yeah, like what are you doing over here?

Speaker 2 (59:01):
And you know, obviously we've experienced too when you pivot,
Like we've burned off a bunch of audience by not
by not interviewing fitness influencers every week. We just have
it's just obviously, but our interests changed and we have
to follow the things that that that we can sustain.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
Yeah, it would be a shitty interview. Yeah, exactly, be
a shitty interview. And what are you gonna do? I mean,
you talk the next Olympic mister Olympia, like he's eating
the same chicken ricey other.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Yeah. Well yeah, And the thing is though that some
some part of the audience is always gonna want that thing,
regardless of how shitty you do.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
It or the brand new audience. There's always a brand
new audience. There's always a brand new who found their
new favorite bodybuilding.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
Yeah, and we don't this I will freely admit as
a as a producer, this is my fault. Like this
show doesn't have a lot of on ramp. We don't
really like we don't introduce ourselves at the beginning. Yeah,
you pretty much have to know who we are whatever. Whatever.
When I see when I listen to h you know,
Masynonomics podcast, they came after us, they patterned themselves somewhat

(01:00:04):
after things we used to do, and they are so
much more regimented, like that did they introduce themselves, they
run their ads all that stuff, and fuck them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
We could do it. We could do all those things.
I just don't know how much it would help that too.
And I do feel like at the end of the day,
the point of YouTube and podcast is that you are
just you. Yeah, and that's what you and I are doing. Yeah. Yeah,
I'm real good at being me. I've said this many
times on Twitter. I'm not good to a lot of things,
but I'm really good at being me. Yeah, which sounds stupid,

(01:00:34):
but I honestly think people aren't. They don't know who
they are. I agree with that, right, So that's the
same idea. Like you do a podcast like oh I
love Joe Rogan, then you try to do your podcast
like Joe Rogan, like bitch you ain Joe Rogan. You
don't have that, So why don't you just be you?

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
But people don't know who they are?

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Yeah, people don't exactly. There's your philosophy, kids, And I
used to say that if somebody is doing long form podcasting,
you're seeing who they are. There's like no chance there
that there's nothing, that there's other stuff going on with it.
But I when I look backwards, I know that that
is not true. People people who we're gonna get sociopathic whatever,
they can keep up any front forever.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
I think I think you get to know, well, if
we're going sociopath or psychopath, that's a whole different conversation because, yeah,
their life is not being them, yeah right, that like
the goal of a psychopath is to not show his
true colors, right or her true colors, right. But I
think I think your right still. And I've said the
same thing with live streaming, or you can like have

(01:01:33):
a gimmick and like rev up. But if you're not
only doing long format, but you do long format for
a long time. Because you do long you can do
three episodes or three hours and put on an act, right,
That's called

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