Dr. Christine Marie on Trust Me: The False Prophet and the Fight for Justice (Part 2)

In Part 2 with Dr. Christine Marie, we dive into Netflix’s Trust Me: The False Prophet and why the lack of victim-shaming in the response has been a dream come true. She walks us through the strategy (and frustration) of working with the FBI on the Sam Bateman investigation, why she needed footage of Sam committing obstruction of justice to get him arrested, and the devastating mistake of housing all the underage victims together in one group home where older girls could obstruct interviews. We discuss the heartbreak of watching Nomz and other victims serve prison time despite being coerced themselves, and Christine's proposal for a new kind of facility.

We talk about Sam's ongoing manipulation from jail (he's going to trial next month just to psychologically torture the girls who turned against him), the $15,000 white leather jacket that should be a crime in itself, and why coercive control laws could change everything for FLDS survivors and beyond. Christine shares why public love and dignity after shame is the most healing thing that could ever happen, her work with Voices for Dignity, and her next mission: promoting empathy, fighting online cruelty, and making kindness cool again. Plus: Christine reads her journal entry about Keith Raniere and Sarah reads the Facebook message where she told him to “de-cult” himself—spoiler: he didn't listen.

Definitely watch Trust Me on Netflix and visit the websites for Dr. Christine Marie and Voices for Dignity: ChristineMarie.com, VoicesForDignity.org. And follow her on Instagram @dr.christinemarie and on TikTok @drchristinemarie.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of child sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, human trafficking, and the criminal justice system's treatment of cult survivors.

Also…let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

Buy the A Little Bit Culty book on Amazon or order a signed copy.

Check out our amazing sponsors

Join A Little Bit Culty on Patreon

Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag

Support the pod and smash this link

Check out our cult awareness and recovery resources

Watch Sarah's TED Talk and buy her memoir, Scarred

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound

Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

Audio production: Will Retherford

Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore

Writer: Sandra Nomoto

Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.