Sarah Edmondson (@sarahjedmondson) and Anthony "Nippy" Ames (@nippyames) are two former NXIVM cult members turned whistleblowers. Together, they host the podcast A Little Bit Culty, and are featured in HBO's series The Vow. Sarah's 12-year ordeal is chronicled in Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life. [This is part one of a two-part conversation. Stay tuned for part two later this week!] What We Discuss with Sarah Edmondson and Nippy Ames: How NXIVM began as a community of like-minded individuals who were committed to personal growth and self-improvement and devolved into a cult under the leadership of its narcissistic founder, Keith Raniere. How Hollywood celebrities came to be courted and ultimately controlled by Raniere and the NXIVM cult. The endless abuses suffered by NXIVM's victims — from mind games to being branded as property and trafficked as a way to fund Raniere's lavish lifestyle. Where Sarah and Nippy existed within NXIVM's hierarchy, the parts they played, and what broke the spell that held them enthralled in the cult's sinister machinations. How Sarah and Nippy are coping with the aftermath of their traumatic experiences, and what they're doing to raise awareness of how cults like NXIVM ruin people's lives. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/770 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Most resources seem to focus on how to separate from people with narcissistic behaviors and get them out of your life — but what are you supposed to do when you’re the loving parent of an adult narcissist and you just want them to have a normal family and a fulfilling, productive life? We'll try to find an answer to this and more here on Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/769 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: As a loving parent who really wishes the best for your children, is it possible to reconcile with a violent, gaslighting, blame-deflecting 20-year-old, narcissistic son, or is it time to just cut your losses and move on? [Thanks to clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula for helping us field this one!] As someone with abandonment issues, PTSD, and depression, it drives you nuts that the person you're dating frequently goes for days without contacting you. Should you keep pushing for this relationship, or accept that your personalities may just not be compatible? When your father was killed in an ATV accident, the driver who picked up the vehicle offered to buy it for $800. Five months after putting down $200, he has still not paid the balance and you're wondering if you can repossess the ATV or report it as stolen. [Thanks to attorney Corbin Payne for helping us answer this one!] Jordan and Gabe compare what they've learned over this past year of answering Feedback Fridays together, and extend special thanks to Corbin Payne, Dr. Erin Margolis, Michelle Tillis Lederman, Alisa Cohn, and all the other brilliant people who have helped us out in 2022! Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at

Chase Hughes (@thechasehughes) created The Behavioral Table of Elements for behavior analysis in interrogations, and is the author of The Ellipsis Manual: Analysis and Engineering of Human Behavior. [Note: This is a previously broadcast episode from the vault that we felt deserved a fresh pass through your earholes!] What We Discuss with Chase Hughes: What is The Behavioral Table of the Elements and how can we use it to determine the likelihood that someone is telling us the truth? Why Chase considers polygraph tests “just about as accurate as a coin toss” — and how they’re actually biased against people who tell the truth. What someone training to spot deception indicators and stress might learn from watching Conan O’Brien interviews. How training ourselves to be subconsciously aware of truth signals clues us in when someone who’s lying deviates from them. How to hack authority for influence and personal development. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/768 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Miss our conversation with FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss? Catch up with episode 165: Chris Voss | Negotiate as If Your Life Depended on It here! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Dr. Sohom Das (@dr_s_das) is a consultant forensic psychiatrist who works in prisons and criminal courts to assess and rehabilitate mentally ill offenders. He is the author of In Two Minds: Stories of Murder, Justice, and Recovery From a Forensic Psychiatrist.  What We Discuss with Dr. Sohom Das: How was fake heiress Anna Delvey (aka Anna Sorokin) able to convince even the savviest New York social elites that she was one of them and gain access to their checkbooks? The numerous non-violent ways psychopaths act out to exploit others for their own gratification. Is social influencer Andrew Tate mentally a 12-year-old playground bully in the body of a former professional kickboxer, or is he just playing a caricature of one for fun and profit?  Why InfoWars honcho Alex Jones can't resist peddling provably false conspiracy theories even though it's bankrupting his media empire down to the rivets. Are narcissists psychopaths? And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/767 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Did you hear our conversation with Paul Holes, the former investigator known for his contributions to solving the Golden State Killer case using advanced methods of identification with DNA and genealogy technology? Catch up with episode 725: Paul Holes | Solving America’s Cold Cases here! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Why are so many of the snacks and drinks offered as safe for consumption in the United States wholly banned in other parts of the world? How bad could our favorite foodstuffs actually be? Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and fact-checker, comedian, and podcast host David C. Smalley break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. Editor's note: A previous version of this show's notes erroneously declared that aspartame was banned in the EU. We are in the process of correcting this and apologize for the error.  Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/766 On This Week’s Skeptical Sunday, We Discuss: Coffee Mate's liquid version is banned in Europe due to the presence of trans fats (found in hydrogenated vegetable oils) that can lead to heart disease. While the US requires warning labels for these foods, they are still available to consumers. Mexican and most European cola brands use cane sugar, while American Coke uses high fructose corn syrup, which is regulated in the EU. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to health issues such as insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular illnesses. Aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener found in many US foods and drinks, including diet sodas and gum. It contains phenylalanine, which can cause problems for people with a rare genetic condition called PKU. While evidence is still being gathered, there have been concerns about the potential health effects of certain artificial food dyes, particularly their potential to cause hyperactivity in children. In the European Union, these dyes are banned from use in food products, while they are widely used in the United States. The EU has banned the use of growth hormones in cows due to concerns about potential health risks to humans and animals, as well as potential negative impacts on the environment. In the United States, however, they're commonly used in the dairy and meat industries to promote faster growth and increase milk production in cows. Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know! Connect with David at his website, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and make sure to check out The David C. Smalley Podcast here or wherever you enjoy listening to fine podcasts! If you like to get out of your house and catch...

You're a straight man who was sexually assaulted by another man when you were just 21 years old, and it's haunted you ever since. Additionally, you bear the burden alone because you've never been able to tell your wife about this traumatic experience. What can you do to make this right after all this time? We'll try to help find an answer to this and more here on Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/765 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: As a straight man, you were sexually assaulted by another man at 21 and have never told your wife. The experience has been haunting you. What should you do? Written accuracy is a crucial part of your job, but you seem to make typos and mistakes no matter how hard you try. How can you improve your attention to detail while coping with the anxiety and insecurity that come with being criticized for your slip-ups? You work hard to secure your children's future, not so your in-laws can hobnob at the country club and drink wine they can't afford — so their failure to repay the $20,000 you loaned them is making you resentful. What do you do now? Is it worth reaching out to the "friends" who know about how your charming ex used to physically abuse you but went on vacation with him anyway? Or should you just write them all off and look for newer, better friends? You're a human resources management major who aspires to become a job recruiter. The irony: you can't seem to get yourself a job in spite of doing well in mock interviews. How do you get better at selling yourself to potential employers? Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even...

Nick Bilton (@nickbilton) is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, a contributor to CNBC, a former columnist for The New York Times, and author of American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road. [Note: This is a previously broadcast episode from the vault that we felt deserved a fresh pass through your earholes!] What We Discuss with Nick Bilton: How does a merit badge-bedecked Eagle Scout become the head of a thriving online black market worth a billion dollars? What are the costs of maintaining a double life? What’s the real reason Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht was caught? What is Nick Bilton’s unique research process for covering a story like this? Is everyone susceptible to the level of Ross Ulbricht’s mix of ambition, hubris, and self-deception, or does it require a certain personality type? And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/764 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Miss our two-parter with Bridgewater Associates founder and world-famous investor Ray Dalio? Start catching up with episode 389: Ray Dalio | Principles of an Investing Pioneer Part One here! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Laowhy86 (@laowhy86) — aka Matthew Tye, aka C-Milk — is a Westerner who lived in China for 10 years, and watched it change from an opening and liberalizing society into regression and authoritarianism. His YouTube videos explain China, Chinese culture, and Chinese politics, and decode Chinese propaganda so viewers are armed with the knowledge to identify and resist it. Welcome to what we’re calling our “Out of the Loop” episodes, where we dig a little deeper into fascinating current events that may only register as a blip on the media’s news cycle and have conversations with the people who find themselves immersed in them. Here, Laowhy86 joins us to share his Westerner’s perspective — with those of us out of the loop — on the uprisings going on in China right now over the government’s draconian lockdowns and ongoing human rights abuses. Listen, learn, and enjoy! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/763 On This Episode of Out of the Loop, We Discuss: Welded into an apartment building in China’s Xinjiang region to prevent their escape during the Chinese government’s strict “zero-COVID” lockdowns, 10 people — including a three-year-old child — were killed when a fire broke out. The violent crackdown by authorities during a candlelight vigil for victims of the fire escalated into massive protests against the government, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, across China — at a scale unseen since 1989’s Tiananmen Square massacre. Coordinated across 79 universities in China, these protests have evolved to include demands for political reform and an end to corruption — a rare display of unity among a population so long repressed by a regime that traditionally punishes dissent with social stigma, imprisonment, and death. The intensity of these protests is surprising given the effectiveness of surveillance tools used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the past. This indicates that there is a larger sentiment for dissent among the population than may be visibly apparent. What this wave of protests portends for the future of China, its people, its historically inflexible authoritarian government, and its place on the global stage. And much more! Connect with Jordan on Twitter, on Instagram, and on YouTube. If you have something you’d like us to tackle here on an Out of the Loop episode, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know! Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Miss our conversation with David...

Mysterious circumstances suggest your brother didn't die at birth per "official" sources in Cold War-era East Germany, but he may have actually been abducted and sold to a family connected to the corrupt political hierarchy of the day. What can you do to find out for sure and give your parents the certainty they've been seeking for decades? We'll try to find answers to this and more here on Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/762 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: Jordan just got back from Morocco and he didn't even bring us a lousy t-shirt. But he's got stories! Did your brother really die at birth in the midst of the Cold War per "official" East German hospital records, or was he abducted and sold to a family of Communist party insiders? [Thanks to clinical psychologist Dr. Erin Margolis (and some secret sources) for helping us with this one!] Though you love her unconditionally, your partner's negative self-image makes it nearly impossible for you to relay constructive criticism without it being taken as callous insensitivity. What can you do to improve this dynamic? [Thanks to Haesue Jo, Head of Clinical Support at BetterHelp, for helping us with this one!] Is there a healthy way to justify moving back in with the manipulative ex who’s always trying to weasel his way back into your life in order to save money and see your shared daughter more often? How can an inexperienced traveler with wanderlust overcome the anxiety of planning a trip to a foreign destination? Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!

Bradley Steyn (@bradley_steyn_) is an expert on risk mitigation, operational support, and racial injustice. He is the co-author of Undercover with Mandela's Spies: The Story of the Boy Who Crossed the Square, a memoir of his time as a double agent working for Nelson Mandela during the dying days of South African Apartheid. [This is part two of a two-part episode. Make sure to check out part one here!]  What We Discuss with Bradley Steyn: Bradley shares his observations as a white kid growing up in Apartheid-era South Africa. How, as a teenager, Bradley bore witness to the brutal Strijdom Square massacre, in which white supremacist Barend Hendrik Strydom calmly took the lives of eight People of Color and injured 16 with a 9mm pistol. The PTSD, nightmares, anger issues, and emotional distress Bradley was forced to cope with in the aftermath of this horrific experience — and still deals with more than three decades later. How Bradley was recruited for undercover duty by the feared security police of the Apartheid government while working as a bouncer at a Pretoria gay bar. What led to Bradley's dedication to the anti-Apartheid struggle and his service as a deep cover double agent within the Department of Intelligence and Security under the directive of Chris Hani's and Nelson Mandela's paramilitary wing, uMkhonto weSizwe. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/761 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Miss our interview with Freeway Rick Ross, the crack empire kingpin gone good? Catch up with episode 121: Freeway Rick Ross | Life in the Crack Lane here! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!