Episodes
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For our season finale, we explore the iconic bond between a girl with too much money & not enough love and an animal with absolutely zero agency.
Hosts Lauren McQ & Rebecca Rush know from experience that wild hearts can't be broken. You know who else knows that? HORSE GIRLS. What is a horse girl and why does everyone hate them? Why are men so jealous of horses? Barn hierarchies, urban dictionary, reddit, and horse girl humor.
Bonus: horse women
Patreon: Rebecca's horse girl fails -- as an eight year old, as a camp counselor who was exiled to horseback staff, and the toxic barn dynamics that summer in Georgia. Upon google search only the camp's website comes up over and over which we all know is SUS. The stories that were scrubbed from google for only $5 a month! We will also be uploading new bonus eps during our winter break. See you there!
And a huge thank you to our listeners. There would have been no season two without you!
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For the penultimate episode of season two: belonging, hosts Lauren McQ and Rebecca Rush retreat into the wide world of psychedelics as medicine with special guest Brittany Wilson of Original Instruction School. Brittany is an herbalist and midwife who has lived with indigenous cultures in South America and has been leading ayahuasca retreats for over a decade. The ladies discuss how most plant medicine doesn't get you high, tech bros, the dubious backgrounds of white shamans, Rhythmia in Costa Rica, and group dynamics.
On Patreon, Rebecca interviews Rosemary Gladstar, mother of modern herbalism and founder of California School of Herbal Studies.
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Episodes manquant?
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Lauren's Teal Swan episode as she brings us into a world she knows as intimately as her waking life -- comic book heroes, heroines, and anti-heroes. The simplicity of knowing who to root for in a land of goodies and baddies. Feeling like as a woman, one had to know more about everything and must always be ready to be quizzed on Star Wars by anyone. The empowerment that comes with identifying with superheroes. Cosplay / comic con / autism overlap and what accomodations could be made by comic cons for their disproportionately neurodivergent fanbase.
Want more personal, nobody but our besties know them stories? Head on over to our Patreon where for $5 a month, you get four bonus video episodes, a master book list, access to our close friends list on Insta, free yoga, and more!
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Hosts Lauren McQ and Rebecca Rush explore the ultimate in topics polite ladies don't discuss, the incredible, edible (maybe) menses. Period huts, red tents, witch imagery, gathering together to tell stories at the end of the month, religious taboos, indigenous practices, cultural taboos, herbal allies, and let us not forget Meghan Markle's work to end period stigma. God save the period!
Rebecca reads a personal essay about getting her first period on the day of her Bat Mitzvah (Today you are a woman. Tomorrow you return to 8th grade. )
On Patreon, Lauren discusses painful periods and the shaming, blaming, and misinformation surrounding them while Rebecca shares some beauty and art hacks.
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Go on, have a little pyramid scheme income as a treat. Become a coffee shop missionary and have your church pay you to hang out in one all day. They aren't regular Christians, they are COOL CHRISTIANS. Hosts Rebecca Rush and Lauren McQ wanted to understand WHY people can't just be happy enough with their own beliefs and have to go trying to force them on others. White savior complex, a free ride, and a chance to travel the world made sense. Social media as just a new way for the church to control the narrative. Influencers for Jesus believe that Jesus brought them the abundance they have, and not, say, inherited wealth.
On Patreon Rebecca discusses the joy of messing with missionaries in Thailand.
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If there's anything more insiduous than a good ole fashioned American pyramid scheme it's once we involve the wellness industry. Snake essential oil salesman, the real customer is you, the 'salesforce', Anti MLM Reddit (ofc). Hosts Lauren McQ and Rebecca Rush bring you all the wild details on Herbalife, Doterra, and the satanic panic currently surrounding Mormon essential oil brand Young Living. Oh, by the way, therapeutic grade is totally made up! On Patreon Lauren discusses how she got involved with and ALMOST became a Beach Body coach while Rebecca talks about all the MLM's she's watched ppl get caught up in and how much more sense they made before we bought everything on our phones. Girls from high school in ur dms selling candles.
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Find out why the studio Rebecca once called Yoga to SOME People shut down in 2020-- because it wasn't the pandemic. Hosts Lauren McQ & Rebecca Rush present to you the weird world of lesser known yoga cults. Comprehensive reporting and analysis of YTTP scandal & John Friend's anusara. Also, why is LA so ripe for cults (attachment wound, anyone?) Lauren teaches how to avoid accidentally joining a yoga cult, types of yoga cults, and Father Yod and the Source Family.
On Patreon Rebecca interviews her fav yoga teacher who is not a cult leader, Kim Abraham of Kitchen Gallery Yoga in New London, CT.
https://patreon.com/BrutalVulnerability
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Benefit from Rebecca's seven year hyperfixation on controversial spiritual teacher Teal Swan. A stream of consciousness interview guided by cohost Lauren McQ. The Deep End documentary, the Gateway podcast limited series.The completion process, synchronicity, saying hard things, where does all this knowledge come from, implanted memories, and more.
Content Warning: Suicide.
On Patreon Rebecca details her completion process experiences.
https://patreon.com/BrutalVulnerability
https://instagram.com/BrutalVulnerability
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Call Lauren & Rebecca now for your free tarot reading and sue us later! The psychic hotline boom of the 90's and lawsuits of the 2000's. Miss Cleo, Hotline (doc), CaliforniaPsychics.com, The best reddit has to offer on the topic, the types of people that call psychic hotlines, and a behind the scenes look at both a con man and a person who genuinely believed they were helping people. AND! What it's like working at a psychic hotline in 2022! On Patreon Lauren and Rebecca divulge juicy details from personal psychic readings.
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Cohousing: Is It The Post Covid Cure All We Need?
With the way the pandemic floored the rate of skyrocketing costs of living, the anguish of our isolated lives, and the terrors of climate change it wasn’t shocking to me to find out that applications at Bergholt Hall, one of Britain’s oldest farming communes increased six-fold the past year.
Intentional housing, or cohousing, typically exists in communities small enough for everyone to know each other, where there is shared space and gardens along with relatively smaller stand alone single household units.
Some, like Lost Valley in Oregon, founded in 1988, serve as an educational and conference center, some, like Mariposa Grove in Oakland, seeks to provide community, affordable housing, and the sharing of resources for those living in the bottom 30% of income in the Bay Area.
Whatever the vision and mission that unites them, cohousers firmly believe that cooperation allows them to live lighter on the planet, is easier, more interesting, more fun, and more economical.
While more people may be drawn toward cohousing in the coming years even more may learn from them and make small changes in their life toward community and sustainability.
ALSO! The shadow side of community. On Patreon they discuss times & places they felt truly a part of a tribe.
Follow us on our beautifully curated Instagram page!
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For this episode Lauren McQ takes us on a ride through the Satanic Panic that swept America in the 70's and 80's. Christian fundamentalism, MK Ultra, ritualistic aspects to various serial killers MO's including the zodiac and alphabet killers. Michelle remembers, day care centers, the man who killed Halloween, and more. On Patreon Lauren discusses her own experiences with abuse.
Patreon
Instagram
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Welcome to the Burning Man missive, an ep so nice it has a Patreon twice. Documentaries were watched and Twitter weirdos hit up, but the gold came from Radical Ritual (2019) by Neil Shister, an impressive work of journalism that skillfully paints a montage of a soul exploding celebration of creative freedom. Burning things to cleanse your soul, SF in the 80's, gifting culture, leave no trace, Larry Harvey, art installations, Black Rock City, burners without borders, playa magic, your self as gift. The main episode closes w an interview w the pod's fav burner -- a member of the legion of Mollys, @forest_molly.
It's not your job -- it's your turn.
Patreon ($5 a month for 4 hella personal video episodes on each topic and heaps more)
Instagram
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Lauren takes the lead as we seek to understand the Disney Adult pipeline. Golden Oak (a gated disney community) & Celebration murders, a bit of a history into Walt, the feral cats of Disneyland, weddings at the park, renting the whole thing out for WHATEVER, what it's like to work at the park, and how connected we are to the Disney movies that came out at certain times in our own development. On Patreon, comedian Jeena Bloom joins to discuss the time she and Rebecca went to Disneyland California with an actual Dis Dis Adult.
& follow us on Instagram for everything BV & please give us a review if you're enjoying yourself.
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Two of the original influencers, Kenneth Hash (partygay turned tinsel town costumer) & James St James (the first celebutante turned author turned producer) join Rebecca & Lauren to discuss the Original Club Kids as they pertain to the theme of belonging and the courage to be fully who you are. The audacity to spread joy during the AIDS crisis, finding your tribe, a land before cell phones, and when the party truly does not start until you walk in. James is the author of Disco Bloodbath, the book from which the film Party Monster starring MaCauley Culkin is based. Lauren discovered both book and movie as an angsty teen & the pure relief of knowing that somewhere, there was a place she would belong. More on this era of Lauren's adolescence on ($5/month for personal video episodes on each episode, access to our instagram close friends list, yoga, and more on) Patreon!
Instas:
@jamesstjames1
@kennethhash
@brutalvulnerability
Please review the pod if you've a moment & enjoyed listening!
XOXO
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What is straight edge & who knew it's part of punk rock history? Everyone but Rebecca, apparently. Enjoy an opinionated timeline of straight edge music and culture in the US, the different genres of punk rock and hardcore, gang activity & SX, and SX scene in Europe. Bibliography: Sober Living For The Revolution & Straight Edge: A Clear Headed Hardcore Punk History.
On Patreon, Rebecca talks about learning the difference between crust punks and hippies the hard way, and Lauren talks mosh pits, farm towns, and the world's saddest youth center.
We have a new column, Ask An Alcoholic, at The Sober Curator as well!
If you enjoy the show please give us a review, tell a friend & we love you either way!
Insta
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Lauren explains why she was 'completely intoxicated' by American cheerleading. Comprehensive history, different sorts of leagues, teams, and competitions, & film & media. Former professional cheerleader, cheer captain, and prom queen Katie Fischer joins to talk about her experience giving her all to cheerleading, and the joys and challenges created by her path. Enjoy this very wholesome episode!
@brutalvulnerability
Patreon
On Patreon, Lauryn W. gives a a darker tale of cheer.
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What does it mean to be a Swifty (Taylor Swift fan)? Rebecca invites on two fellow T Swift stans to discuss, while Lauren sits back and asks questions. Digital ethnography, what it's like to love Taylor when you don't look like Taylor, growing up alongside Taylor, her 2018 political awakening (and the historical context that made it so hard to do), and coming out of the closet as a Taylor Swift Adult. Comedian Molly Sanchez on main, and soon-to-be-pilot Aly York on the Patreon to discuss the night that began with Rebecca's SD taking them to the 2018 Reputation tour at Metlife Stadium, was middled by eating McDonald's with an SNL cast member, and ended with -- you'll have to subscribe to find out! Only $5 a month gets you access to 4-5 juicy & exclusive video episodes, our monthly Zoom yin yoga class and more. Also our Ask An Alcoholic Column is now live on Sober Curator -- Patreon sub questions get first priority.
Molly Sanchez
Aly York
Brutal Vulnerability
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In part two of the troubled teen industry episode, Lauren covers deaths directly caused by abuse and negligence inside of TTI facilities; Rebecca details Breaking Code Silence, a multi faceted social movement organized by activists and survivors of the child abuse wrought at these facilities that is relentlessly and shamelessly working to hold these f*ckers and the systems that hold them in place accountable. Comedian Sean Hennessey details his experiences in juvenile hall and the cash for kids prison system. Bonus! Sean gives us advice on loving a man who has been a victim of prolonged trauma and neglect.
For a very special Patreon, Rebecca gets an exclusive -- the first interview with Curtis Galloway Conversion Therapy Survivor (spoiler alert, it doesn't work) and founder of nonprofit Conversion Therapy Dropout Network. Patreon is only $5 a month and comes with 4-5 exclusive video episodes that definitely belong behind a paywall, access to our close friends list on Instagram, and our monthly Zoom Yin Yoga class -- next class Monday the 27th of June at 3 PM PST. To take the yoga without joining Patreon you can PayPal $4 to [email protected] - and you are welcome to tip us ANYTIME.
Your support truly makes a difference! Next episode on Taylor Swift & the fans that love her.
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Lauren and Rebecca bring on three guests that were victims of the troubled teen industry. First up McKenzie Graves, a comedian who attended the infamous Elan school (that came from daytop which came from synanon which was a CULT founded by a man who found 12 step not tough enough) while it was shut down. Second story by Sam Huber, who attended Midwest Academy also during the time it was shut down, whose founder is still at large in Idaho. Attack therapy, concrete isolation boxes, synanon in depth, the Paris Hilton story, five facts about this largely unregulated industry that continues to bring in 23 billion a year JUST IN PUBLIC FUNDS.
On Patreon Rebecca reflects on the attack therapy (therapeutic community) she experienced at Florida House, a rehab in Deerfield Beach, and realizes, for the first time, that being put alone in the woods for four days on an Outward Bound trip with only five fig newtons and a tiny bag of GORP at the age of fourteen was abusive by definition - basic needs.
Also! Our next Zoom yin yoga class (Lauren reads soothing spiritual lit, Rebecca intructs) is June 27 at 6 pm PST, free to our Patreon subscribers ($5/month) and $4 to our Paypal [email protected] for the class only, more details on our Instagram!
Patreon
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Hosts Lauren McQ and Rebecca Rush explore the poison ivy league and the private school culture that feeds them. Guest Molly C comes on to discuss her recent experience attending Princeton Reunions, a yearly party so big it's been written up in Esquire, SOBER. Status, money, nepotism, and the pressure. On Patreon Lauren discusses attending Yale Music School and Rebecca talks about dating someone at Columbia and why she didn't go to Loomis Chaffee.
@BrutalVulnerability on Insta
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