Newsletter: Profits Over Public Health
Keeping Safe From Pollutants and Misinformation
This week’s livestream will be tomorrow, Wednesday, July 30th, at 3-4 p.m. EDT. I welcome everyone to tune in with questions and comments! Last week’s livestream was a great success; you can see the recording here if you missed it. Also, check out my latest Q&A live here on Substack.
In this week’s episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, titled “Ending Corporate Harm: Undue Influence Within Corporate Product Health and Safety,” I spoke with Dr. Tracey Woodruff, who previously served as a scientist and policy advisor in the US EPA Office of Policy. We discussed how corporations consistently choose profit over public health and how the current administration’s policies will make people sicker. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Of course, the video of the interview is on our YouTube channel and is embedded in the Substack post.
In next week’s episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, I speak with Dr. Sander van der Linden, author of Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity. This important discussion will highlight the need to immunize ourselves against misinformation, a vital task in today’s world. The video of our talk is available in advance for our YouTube members, so now is an excellent time to become a YouTube channel member.
Last week, we posted part one of a special two-part blog post for our paid Substack Members titled “A Look at Unhealthy Forms of Control in Parent-Child Relationships.” Many people grow up in families surrounded by coercive control as unhealthy as any found in a high-control authoritarian cult, and it is crucial to understand this form of control and how to heal from it. Part two will be published later this week, so if you’re not a paid subscriber, now is an excellent time to become one. I wish to thank those who have become paid subscribers here and channel members on YouTube; the financial support of our subscribers keeps me and my team able to do our important work, speaking out about authoritarianism in all its forms.
I have been invited to speak on Thursday, August 14th, from 6:30 – 8:00 PM at a special free community event, Defending Democracy in Hampden County. The discussion will center around the rise of authoritarian influence in American politics. If you’re in Springfield, Massachusetts, I’d love to meet you and talk with you! It will be streamed on Zoom, plus we plan to stream it live!
Finally, for our readers Down Under in Australia, we’d like to spread awareness about a crucial governmental inquiry in the state of Victoria. Their Social Issues Committee is looking into cults and fringe groups in Victoria, particularly how they recruit and control people; they understand their current laws are not equipped to deal with groups that use manipulation or control in ways that can seriously hurt people. They are accepting submissions until Thursday, the 31st. My colleague, Dr. Maria Esguerra, ex-Children of God member, is the director of the new nonprofit organization, the Olive Leaf Network, and was kind enough to submit my BITE Model and Influence Continuum as helpful models for their inquiry. I am also grateful to ex JW whistleblower Lara Kaput for bringing international awareness to this important discussion; she will be a guest on my podcast soon!
Did you know that environmental factors, rather than hereditary factors, are taking the lead in driving illness and early mortality? That shift is primarily due to the harm caused by corporations and their products, says Dr. Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Services at the University of California, San Francisco, and Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and the new Center to End Corporate Harm. A world-recognized expert and scientist who studies how exposures to environmental chemicals affect children’s development and health and translates scientific findings to improve clinical care.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast, below:
Parent-child relationships profoundly shape our development. In the best cases, these relationships are built on love, trust, and mutual respect. However, they can turn dark, dominated by coercive control or undue influence.
As a mental health professional and cult expert who has spent decades studying undue influence (and as a former cult member myself), I want to shed light on how these forms of manipulation differ, how to recognize them, and why they’re especially relevant today. In part two, I also wish to touch on “estrangement culture”, adult children who cut off parents, and tease apart when estrangement is a reasonable self-protection versus when cult-like influences might drive it.
Read the paid subscribers-only article or become a paid subscriber now!
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
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