Coercive control in cults
Subject in Social Sciences
Coercive control in cults has come up in 1 episode across 1 podcast in TMT, including TED Radio Hour. 1 person has made recorded remarks about it.
What people said
Sarah EdmondsonFormer NXIVM member and whistleblower, author and podcast host
Edmondson says whether members who leave are shunned is a key indicator of an unhealthy group.
“If you leave the group, are people still going to communicate with you or are they going to shun you? That's a real tell”
TED Radio Hour: Escaping the modern world and your noisy mind (Nov 6, 2026) · Listen from 30:05
Edmondson lists red flags of cultic groups, including claims to definitive answers about life's mysteries.
“if they're claiming to have the definitive answers to life's mysteries, big red flag”
TED Radio Hour: Escaping the modern world and your noisy mind (Nov 6, 2026) · Listen from 30:53
Edmondson maintains that people do not join cults knowingly but join something that appears good.
“People join, I've said this a million times, nobody joins a cult, they join something good”
TED Radio Hour: Escaping the modern world and your noisy mind (Nov 6, 2026) · Listen from 29:59
Edmondson argues that modern cults disguise themselves as appealing things that meet normal human desires for connection and purpose.
“Cults thrive by disguising themselves as something wonderful that appeals to your total normal humanity, your desire for connection, meaning, and purpose”
TED Radio Hour: Escaping the modern world and your noisy mind (Nov 6, 2026) · Listen from 28:35
Podcasts
- TED Radio Hour · 1 episode
Episodes
Escaping the modern world and your noisy mindTED Radio Hour · Nov 6, 2026 · 50 min
Manoush Zomorodi talks with Pico Iyer, Sarah Edmondson and Lehua Kamalu, and airs Shonda Rhimes's talk, about escape, silence, cults, voyaging and burnout.