31: #31 Radhia Gleis, Author & Former Cult Member

This week's episode is something of a departure from the podcast's usual stomping ground of speaking to industry insiders. Instead it focuses on how the industry and wider society can deal with narcissistic leaders, during a time in history when both media companies and tech platforms are faced with challenges on balancing the spread of misinformation - something that is part and parcel of having a sociopathic narcissist at the helm - with the need to protect freedom of speech. 

Our guest is Radhia Gleis, who was a member of Buddhafield, a cult that started in Hollywood in the 1980s. The group was the subject of a documentary, Holy Hell, which was produced by actor Jared Leto. Radhia also wrote a more comprehensive account of the cult in her book, The Followers, which explores the parallels between narcisstic leaders, most notably Donald Trump, and people like Jaime Gomez, Buddahfield's leader.