The Grotto: Crypto, NFTs & An Online Hellscape (Part 1)

The Grotto: Crypto, NFTs & An Online Hellscape (Part 1)

This episode is sponsored by Better Help.

On this week’s show, we’ll talk to four people lured into The Grotto — a mostly online hub for digital art that turned into a kind of Ponzi cult with plenty of love bombing and possible fraud. Our guests — anonymous, but going by Charm, Kateryna, Shayna, and Fomo — say it all begins with Jaime Dubuar Dean, aka “@thr33som3s,” who is a supposed former professional baseball player-turned digital artist who used Discord to coerce people to invest in his NFTs. With each dollar spent on his art, he promised that his followers could get closer to him. Our guests will say that Dean used coercion, financial manipulation, and empty promises to draw them in. And then he took his power too far.

Our artists are mostly anonymous, but you can find Kateryna — and her incredible art — here and here.

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.

Check out our lovely sponsors

Join ‘A Little Bit Culty’ on Patreon

Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag

Support the pod and smash this link

Cult awareness and recovery resources

Watch Sarah’s TEDTalk

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound

Producer: Will Retherford

Writer & Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

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.

Episoder(320)

Securely Speaking: Attachment Nerd Eli Harwood (Part 2)

Securely Speaking: Attachment Nerd Eli Harwood (Part 2)

This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Eli Harwood we can’t quite quit you just yet, but we feel very secure about it. The ever-quotable and mega-helpful licensed therapist, author, and educator is...

27 Mai 20241h 3min

Securely Speaking: Attachment Nerd Eli Harwood (Part 1)

Securely Speaking: Attachment Nerd Eli Harwood (Part 1)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Are cult leaders born or made? Did we get sucked into NXIVM because of our attachment styles? Was Vanguard always just wookin’ pa nub in all the wrong places? ...

20 Mai 202452min

Patreon Replay: Sarah’s Mom Has Got It Going On

Patreon Replay: Sarah’s Mom Has Got It Going On

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Happy Mother’s Day Monday, ALBC babies. To celebrate the occasion, we unlocked a Patreon episode starring none other than Sarah’s mom. We talk a lot about cult...

13 Mai 202449min

Quiet on Set: Kate Taylor on Nickelodeon’s Dark Side

Quiet on Set: Kate Taylor on Nickelodeon’s Dark Side

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sometimes predators hide in plain sight. Like on the set of your kids’ favorite TV shows. The docuseries "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" (Investigatio...

6 Mai 202444min

Patreon Replay: Lucy Taylor on Greek Life & Death at Penn State

Patreon Replay: Lucy Taylor on Greek Life & Death at Penn State

We unlocked this previously released Patreon episode so everyone can hear it, because people need to know: Campus Greek Life Ain’t It. Lucy Taylor joins us to discuss the red flags of ‘rushing’, the t...

2 Mai 202446min

Greek Tragedies: Lucy Taylor on Campus Hazing

Greek Tragedies: Lucy Taylor on Campus Hazing

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Newsflash: Culty, culty college frats and sororities are still fraught with peril. Where do we even start? There’s the deadly hazing incidents…the rampant sexu...

29 Apr 202444min

Cult Trip: Anke Richter on Coercion & Control

Cult Trip: Anke Richter on Coercion & Control

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.  In this episode, we’re joined by international journalist Anke Richter for a conversation about her decade-long investigation into sex cults and her own brush...

22 Apr 20241h 8min

A Journey of Love: Andrew LeCompte on A Course in Miracles

A Journey of Love: Andrew LeCompte on A Course in Miracles

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.  For Andrew LeCompte, his study of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) started off like the proverbial ‘good thing’ of so many cult survivor stories. He eventually tau...

15 Apr 202449min

Populært innen Fakta

fastlegen
dine-penger-pengeradet
mikkels-paskenotter
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
treningspodden
foreldreradet
jakt-og-fiskepodden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
rss-bisarr-historie
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
rss-kull
gravid-uke-for-uke
hagespiren-podcast
sinnsyn
level-up-med-anniken-binz
rss-kunsten-a-leve
rss-bak-luftfarten
hverdagspsyken
takk-og-lov-med-anine-kierulf
fryktlos