{"podcast":{"title":"Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation","slug":"trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation-1320347","podcast_index_feed_id":1320347,"rss_url":"https://www.omnycontent.com/d/playlist/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/f804eed6-dd2f-4bf9-ba37-b2de011a8b27/462fb424-93c4-4e4b-8e00-b2de011a8b44/podcast.rss","website_url":"https://art19.com/shows/trust-me","image_url":"https://www.omnycontent.com/d/playlist/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/f804eed6-dd2f-4bf9-ba37-b2de011a8b27/462fb424-93c4-4e4b-8e00-b2de011a8b44/image.jpg?t=1749574865&size=Large","author":"Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts","episode_count":270,"summary":"Trust Me is a weekly interview podcast about cults, extreme belief, and the fine line between devotion and delusion—told through firsthand accounts from the people who lived it. Hosted by two women who’ve been in cults themselves, Lola Blanc and Meagan Elizabeth, the show features survivors from groups like Heaven’s Gate, the Manson Family, NXIVM, OneTaste and more–sharing personal stories of how they got in, how they got out, and everything in between. Each week, they invite these guests alongside experts who can dive deep into seductive leaders, the darker aspects of organized religion, and the subtler shades of groupthink and the psychology of influence. Trust Me explores it all with unfiltered honesty, dark humor, and a lot of heart. This isn’t a sensationalized deep dive into cults—it’s a compassionate, first-person exploration of what it means to believe, to belong, and to break free. At the end of the day, wanting to believe in something bigger than yourself is one of the most human instincts there is.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T16:18:33.645391+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation-1320347"},"episode":{"title":"Dr. Christine Marie - Undercover in a Cult Town: Taking Down False Prophet Sam Bateman","slug":"dr-christine-marie-undercover-in-a-cult-town-taking-down-false-prophet-sam-bateman","published_at":"2026-07-01T07:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation-1320347/dr-christine-marie-undercover-in-a-cult-town-taking-down-false-prophet-sam-bateman","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation-1320347","url":"https://omny.fm/shows/trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation/dr-christine-marie-undercover-in-a-cult-town-taking-down-false-prophet-sam-bateman","audio_url":"https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/f804eed6-dd2f-4bf9-ba37-b2de011a8b27/f330a719-f2b2-4983-ab0e-b479006d232a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=462fb424-93c4-4e4b-8e00-b2de011a8b44","summary":"This week, Lola’s mom Dr. Christine Marie (and the podcast’s very first guest!) comes back on the show to talk about moving to FLDS town Short Creek, how she and Lola’s stepdad Tolga earned the trust of new self-proclaimed polygamist prophet Sam Bateman, and what else was going on behind the scenes of what’s in the Netflix docuseries Trust Me: The False Prophet. She’ll tell the girls about her frustrations with the speed of the case, what it was like going undercover with the FBI, the bravery of all of the women involved, and being there for the raid that finally landed him in prison for sexual abuse. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.","meta_description":"This week, Lola’s mom Dr. Christine Marie (and the podcast’s very first guest!) comes back on the show to talk about moving to FLDS town Short…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4864,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation-1320347/episodes/dr-christine-marie-undercover-in-a-cult-town-taking-down-false-prophet-sam-bateman/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trust-me-cults-extreme-belief-and-manipulation-1320347/dr-christine-marie-undercover-in-a-cult-town-taking-down-false-prophet-sam-bateman.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}