Cult Hackers

Robin Jackson: South African Ex JW Activist

What was it like to be raised a Jehovah's Witness during apartheid? What was it like to leave the organization? Robin Jackson is a podcaster with his show 'Cult Life' and the author of two books. He joins us today on the 'Would should I think about..?' podcast and talks about his life, his awakening from the Group and his need to go public about his experience.

 

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Robin's Work

Losing The Faith: Amazon https://tinyurl.com/27x2htzm 

Cults: How They Work Amazon https://tinyurl.com/3bw82jk4

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RobinJacksonZA

Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/cult-life-with-robin-jackson

 

Bonus: The MGTOW Men‘s Movement with Jexit

Riley from the Jexit 2020 channel joins Stephen to discuss the MGTOW movement - Men Going Their Own Way. Riley reached out after we talked about it during the Matrix episode and he provides an interesting perspective as someone who got involved after he left the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Thank you Riley for a fascinating discussion.

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”What‘s your Weltanschauung? How your ‘worldview‘ affects your beliefs.

A Weltanschauung is a 'worldview', a way of making sense out what we see and experience. Each person has a specific way of making sense of life and leaving a high control group means rewiring our worldview in many areas. Stephen also presents the case for understanding political and social angst in light of different people's Weltanschauung.

Strap in, it's a philosophical episode of 'What should I think about..?', where we also explain terms like ontology and epistemology. Plus we talk about some feedback from a current Jehovah's Witness on Apple Podcasts. 

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Lynette Pretorius: Academic Language and Literacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkcqGU7l_zU

John Elson Ex JW Stand-up Comic and Caricaturist

A very special episode, John Elson is an old friend and fellow ex Jehovah's Witness. John is very important to us as he is our resident artist, producing the cool artwork we use to promote the podcast every week. A professional artist, he talks about his journey from very active Jehovah's Witness, elder and regular pioneer to stand-up comedian and then on to professional artist. Also our first ever in-person interview.

John is a fabulous, very entertaining guest, you will love listening to him.

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John Elson's Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/Johnelsonartist

 

Perfection

What do we mean by perfection? How do cults use the concept? What is its connection to sin? Where does excellence and achievement sit within this conversation and why can it be tricky for leavers of high control groups?

All this plus a couple of 'Tweets of The Week'.

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Vox article

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/27/20975989/perfect-mental-health-perfectionism

 

 

Bonus Short: Cults as Organizations - Change

In this series Stephen uses Organizational Psychological Theory to explore High Control Groups. In this episode Stephen explores whether high control groups (cults) respond favourably to external pressures to change their policies and behavior.

”I was stunned because no-one seemed to care at all”: Phd student and ex JW Ryan David Tuttle

Ryan David Tuttle talks about his life growing up on the edge of the Jehovah's Witness congregation, his efforts to embrace what he saw as his community and his eventual disenchantment and leaving. He also discusses his ideas about an ecological model of cult involvement.

Review of Unorthodox

Today we review 'Unorthodox', the short series on Netflix, inspired by the book by Deborah Feldman. The story follows a young woman fleeing a closed community that restricts her freedom to make her own decisions about her life. We explore the remarkable way this story resonates with other experiences of people raised in High Control Groups. We also discuss some criticisms of the show and the potentially difficult questions it raises when it comes to highlighting the problematic behavior of minority religious groups. 

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Interview with Mark Jones, the Quora guy

Mark Jones is an ex Jehovah's Witness who has carved out a niche for himself in one of the most influential and read question-and-answer websites - Quora. Mark has over 14 thousand followers on Quora and has been able to help many people to learn the truth about the organization behind the name. He's a great interview and has his own story to tell. 

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Mark's profile on Quora

https://www.quora.com/profile/Mark-Jones-400

 

Bonus Conversation: Born-in Cult Member Recovery

Stephen talks to Producer Bob about the research of Sofia Klufas, presenter at the International Cultic Studies Association convention, into the experience of second and third generation cult members, as they leave their group. 

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