Episode 1 | Origin Stories

Welcome to our inaugural episode!

Nobody ever sets out to join a cult, but cultic relationships are lurking everywhere!

You might think that this could never happen to you, but we’ve all been affected at some point by a controlling or abusive group or person. Our hosts, Hoyt Richards and Chele Roland, are perfect examples of what it means to go from “victim to survivor to thriver!”

Welcome to our inaugural episode!

Nobody ever sets out to join a cult, but cultic relationships are lurking everywhere!

You might think that this could never happen to you, but we’ve all been affected at some point by a controlling or abusive group or person. Our hosts, Hoyt Richards and Chele Roland, are perfect examples of what it means to go from “victim to survivor to thriver!”

In this first episode we get to know our hosts: 

During his time as the world’s first male supermodel, and a Princeton football player, Hoyt was also entrenched in a dangerous doomsday cult for 20 years, that he ended up giving multi-millions of dollars to. While Chele was in a destructive religious cult for 17 years, married to a stranger, with every aspect of her life on the line— also being forced to give massive amounts of money.

They were both leaders in their cults, and between them, have 37 years of experience and harrowing tales, from two entirely different vantage points.

Their goal in sharing their own stories first— is not to normalize trauma, but to normalize trauma “recovery,” and raise people’s awareness and comfort level in talking about abusive relationships of all kinds.

In this first episode we get to know our hosts: 

During his time as the world’s first male supermodel, and a Princeton football player, Hoyt was also entrenched in a dangerous doomsday cult for 20 years, that he ended up giving multi-millions of dollars to. While Chele was in a destructive religious cult for 17 years, married to a stranger, with every aspect of her life on the line— also being forced to give massive amounts of money.

They were both leaders in their cults, and between them, have 37 years of experience and harrowing tales, from two entirely different vantage points.

Their goal in sharing their own stories first— is not to normalize trauma, but to normalize trauma “recovery,” and raise people’s awareness and comfort level in talking about abusive relationships of all kinds.