Was I in a Cult?

As Cassie on Skins and Gilly on "Game of Thrones," Hannah Murray spent years stepping into other people's pain, other people's stories, other people's worlds. But after shooting a brutal scene for a film that left her body wrecked, Hannah went looking for relief.
A trainer suggested a healer. And that healer became the doorway into a world that promised magic, ancient wisdom, secret knowledge, and above all, a way to finally heal the pain Hannah had been carrying around for years. 
And as these things so often go, at first it worked.
Until it really, really didn't.
Hannah is a dream guest. Thoughtful, funny, self-aware, and deeply honest. Her memoir, "The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness," tells the full story, and it is as gripping as it is beautifully written.
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Hannah's Memoir:
"The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness," is out June 23 in the U.S. and available now in the UK.
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*CONTENT WARNING: *This episode contains discussions of child marriage, sexual assault, domestic abuse, homelessness, parental abandonment, and religious trauma. Please take care while listening.*
Married off by her mother at thirteen. Abandoned in India. Sent back to America at sixteen with a one-way ticket and a hundred dollars.
Part 2 picks up where the unthinkable left off, and follows Vilas through what comes after, which turns out to be harder, stranger, and more devastating than anyone could prepare for. But also braver, more defiant, and darkly funny.  
 
This is a story about what happens when no one is coming to save you. About strangers who showed more decency than your own family. About becoming a mother while still needing one. About breaking every cycle you were raised inside. And about why, in 2026, child marriage is still legal in most of the United States.
Today, Vilas uses her experience to advocate for children and raise awareness about the lasting impact of child marriage and childhood trauma.
This is the final chapter to her remarkable story of resilience and reclamation. A true badass, she is.
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FIND VILAS:
Website: vilaswright.com
Instagram: @vilaswright / Facebook: @vilas.wright
END CHILD MARRIAGE — GET INVOLVED:
Unchained at Last — Advocacy and direct services to end forced and child marriage
Tahirih Justice Center — Legal services protecting those fleeing gender-based violence
Equality Now — Global action to end legal inequality for women and girls
AHA Foundation — Protecting women and girls from forced marriage and honor violence
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FOLLOW US  → For more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult

SUPPORT THE SHOW
Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)
 
HAVE A CULTY STORY?

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*CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of child abuse, child sexual abuse, rape, child marriage, neglect, religious trauma, and family trauma. Please take care while listening.*
Born into the Hare Krishna Movement aka ISKCON, Vilas was supposed to be part of a "pure" new generation of devotees.
Instead, she was sent away at three years old, raised in boarding schools and temples across the world, taught that suffering was holy, comfort was indulgent, family attachment was weakness, and obedience was the only way back to God.
From Los Angeles to Iran to India, Vilas's childhood was shaped by silence, neglect, impossible rules, and adults who kept choosing devotion over protection.
Part 1 takes us behind the chanting, robes, and airport flowers into the devastating cost of growing up inside a movement that promised divine love, while denying a child the human kind.
 
FIND VILAS: 
Instagram: @vilaswright  / Facebook: @vilas.wright
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Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)
 
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Hi faithful listeners - 
We're going to have to delay release of this episode until we get a behind the scenes technical issue sorted out. Please don't look behind the red curtain.

NOTE: This episode discusses sex, sexual exploitation, coercion, and sexual abuse. 
What happens when female empowerment, Silicon Valley startup culture, spiritual enlightenment, and clitoral stroking walk into a fluorescent-lit conference room?
You get OneTaste.
In this episode, we sit down with Bloomberg investigative journalist Ellen Huet, author of Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult, to unpack the rise and fall of OneTaste, the orgasmic meditation company founded by Nicole Daedone that promised connection, healing, and transformation through a 15-minute partnered orgasm practice called OM (Orgasmic Meditation).
But behind the language of liberation and "turn-on" were allegations of sexual coercion, financial exploitation, sexual abuse, forced labor, and a belief system that taught members their discomfort was just something to push through on the path to enlightenment. 
Ellen walks us through how her 2018 investigation helped expose the darker side of the company, the criminal case that followed, and why OneTaste's story is not just about sex. It's about power, belonging, manipulation, and the very human longing to be seen.
 
FIND ELLEN: 
Instagram: @ehuet 
Book: Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult 
Bloomberg: bloomberg.com/authors/ASmGayS_jTQ/ellen-huet__
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Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)
 
HAVE A CULTY STORY?
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