Stolen: Elizabeth Gilpin on the ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry

A Little Bit Culty –

As a high school student, Elizabeth Gilpin was taken from her bed in the middle of the night, left in the woods for three months of forced camping with 12 other girls, then remanded to a prison-like boarding school where she and other so-called ‘troubled teens’ were subjected to nightmarish conditions and psychological abuse. Her debut memoir, “Stolen” is a harrowing account of her time at Virginia’s Carlbrook school, and examines the therapeutic boarding school industry’s culty trajectory from an actual cult named Synanon to an entrepreneurial charismatic type with zero credentials named Mel Wasserman. In this episode, she joins Sarah and Nippy to discuss “Stolen”, her healing path, and how it feels to shine a light on a dark and insidious industry.

Elizabeth Gilpin is an actress, writer, and producer. She starred in and produced Life Boat, a short film directed by Lorraine Nicholson which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Live Action Short Film at AFI Fest and won the Audience Award at the Napa Valley Film Festival. Elizabeth also starred in Endings, Inc. and Guerra. ‘Stolen’ is her first book. 

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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.

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A Little Bit Culty is proud to support the #IGOTOUT project, which empowers survivors of cultic abuse to share their stories online as a catalyst for education, prevention, and healing. Learn more at igotout.org

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For more information on A Little Bit Culty and co-hosts Sarah Edmondson and Nippy “Anthony” Ames, visit our official website at alittlebitculty.com. Follow us on Instagram & Twitter @alittlebitculty

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CREDITS: 

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound 

Producer: Will Retherford

Associate Producer: Jess Tardy

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

Additional Music Score by Will Retherford

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