Sarah Edmonson publicly left NXIVM, a life coaching MLM made famous by the HBO documentary, The Vow, in 2017 shortly after being branded with the founder's initials. Jane and Sarah sit down to discuss the fine line between coaching and culting. Sarah and her husband, Nippy Ames, host the podcast A Little Bit Culty.

Sarah Edmonson publicly left NXIVM, a life coaching MLM made famous by the HBO documentary, The Vow, in 2017 shortly after being branded with the founder's initials. Jane and Sarah sit down to discuss the fine line between coaching and culting. Sarah and her husband, Nippy Ames, host the podcast A Little Bit Culty.

From Little Everywhere and Pushkin Industries, and hosted by Jane Marie, comes the third season of The Dream. Past seasons of this award-winning investigative podcast looked at pyramid schemes and the world of wellness. This season we're getting to know the gurus and life coaches who claim they know the secret to living our best lives. Is it all in our mindset? Or our privilege? Or are we all under a spell? Find out this September.

From Little Everywhere and Pushkin Industries, and hosted by Jane Marie, comes the third season of The Dream. Past seasons of this award-winning investigative podcast looked at pyramid schemes and the world of wellness. This season we're getting to know the gurus and life coaches who claim they know the secret to living our best lives. Is it all in our mindset? Or our privilege? Or are we all under a spell? Find out this September.

The Dream

Bonus 1: Coaching or Culting?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/22d6bf5f-2810-4ed3-beae-b0cf015d2955/transcript

Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting spectacular returns. Sam himself had spent years proclaiming the fund's brilliant results. In reality, Sam had been marking his own homework, publishing fraudulent accounts and using these to lure in new investors. 

What to do? Well, the logical thing of course: wait around for an extraordinary profitable streak, and in the meantime keep up the ruse...

We're bringing you an episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. This episode was recorded live at the Bristol Festival of Economics and studies three incredible investment scams. How do pyramid and ponzi schemes snowball out of control, flattening victim and fraudster alike?

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting spectacular returns. Sam himself had spent years proclaiming the fund's brilliant results. In reality, Sam had been marking his own homework, publishing fraudulent accounts and using these to lure in new investors. What to do? Well, the logical thing of course: wait around for an extraordinary profitable streak, and in the meantime keep up the ruse... We're bringing you an episode of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/id1484511465">Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford</a>. This episode was recorded live at the Bristol Festival of Economics and studies three incredible investment scams. How do pyramid and ponzi schemes snowball out of control, flattening victim and fraudster alike? For a full list of sources, see the show notes at <a href="https://timharford.com/">timharford.com</a>.

From Cautionary Tales: The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/f1e0b0ef-4ff9-418f-8266-b15d01635f5b/transcript

A chapter from Jane Marie’s forthcoming book. Preorder at jane-marie.com.

A chapter from Jane Marie’s forthcoming book. Preorder at <a href="https://www.jane-marie.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jane-marie.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709927220135000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2T-TECCsKdpZ5iiYp5fXoa">jane-marie.com</a>.

Selling the Dream

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d5248370-8c96-4d94-8811-b12c01484557/transcript

The Dream listeners called in to share their own experiences with life coaches: the good, the bad and the absurd.

The Dream listeners called in to share their own experiences with life coaches: the good, the bad and the absurd.

Bonus 2: Caller Episode

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/0bc98b61-042d-4568-98dd-b0d7002ebab6/transcript

Bonus 1: Coaching or Culting?

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