Rude Awakening: Sarah Landry On Nithyananda & Other Nightmares (Part 1)
Content Warning: Discussions of child abuse and sexual assault. Listener discretion advised. At just 24 years old, Sarah Landry found herself drawn to Hindu avatar Nithyananda’s teachings like a fly to honey. Moldy, toxic honey. She quickly became an apt pupil, and then his top recruiter via a steady stream of stylized YouTube videos and camera-ready social content. But after learning that the rape and child abuse allegations dogging the organization were just too credible to simply swat away, she stepped down as its propagandist-in-chief and stepped up as one of its harshest critics. The fallout since she blew the whistle on the godman’s shady ways in a series of incendiary 2019 Facebook posts and Youtube videos has been steep. (If you’re labeled as a double-agent for the Vatican by loyalists of a guy who is on the lam after being charged with rape and abduction: You’ve officially reached Remini-levels of cult busting.) In this episode, and the next—there’s just too much to cover to make it a one-parter—Sarah shares what it’s like to be on the other side of an army she helped build, and why she won’t stop working to deplatform culty characters like Nithyananda no matter how many self-proclaimed island nations they pull out of their asses. Learn more about Sarah Landry on her YouTube or Instagram or Twitter.
Show notes:
My Daughter Joined a Cult: 3-part VICE Doc Trailer (Discovery+, Amazon Prime)
Republic World Article by Pooja Prasanna: “Former Nithyananda Aide Narrates Horrifying Brutality Against Children”
Gizmodo Article by Jed Oelbaum: “She Built a Shady Guru’s YouTube Army. Now She’s His Fiercest Critic—But Who Will Believe Her?”
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Producers: Will Retherford & Jess Tardy
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin
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