Roommate would not stop talking about this show for some reason listend and loved it! Time for them to listen to the regulation podcast now a deal is a deal!

I have a very complicated relationship with this podcast. I love the topics covered. I love the length of the episodes, and the deep dives they do into cults and people’s experiences. I do appreciate how the hosts will highlight queer and trans people’s experiences in religion. That being said, I have to take a lot of breaks from this show. The way Sadie talks brings me back to my days on leftist Facebook groups, and it’s exhausting. I feel as though Sadie is particularly precious with her language in an effort to be inclusive, only to end up excluding a group of people. She’s used the phrase “non-men” when talking about the things women and afab people suffer through. As a trans man who was raised as a girl in the church, it was annoying to be overlooked, especially because her language tends to be so detailed and specific. Another issue I have, which both hosts are guilty of, is drawing comparisons between other branches of Christianity to the IFB in ways that come off as dismissive. An example being an episode where someone wrote in that they had attended the same church where Joshua Harris hailed from, and Gavi said something to the effect of “It’s not as bad as the IFB, right?” which Sadie agreed with. There was also an episode description of the documentary Jesus Camp being nothing compared to what Sadie experienced. Things like that really bother me. I have zero doubt that Sadie’s experience was awful, but I don’t see the point in downplaying other people’s experiences with religious trauma and abuse in the process. Now are any of this issues prevalent in every single episode? No, which is why I haven’t dropped it completely. But at this point, it bothers me enough to say something.

I found LE many years back, almost from day one (Sadie was pregnant with Chuck). I enjoy all things culty, especially IBLP/IFB. Sadie is a phenomenal host and does incredible research. She is thoughtful, well-spoken and likable. Gavi has been a problem since the beginning and has become progressively worse. His arrogance and condescension to all things Christian is digusting. (That said, I am an ex-Catholic agnostic.) I am ok with him being the comic-relief to the seriousness of the material, but he has no lived experience, knowledge or education to be speaking on a soapbox. At one point in an earlier episode, he claims he has expert knowledge due to watching Law and Order, no this does not make you an expert in the legal field. I have noticed he speaks down upon followers of all religions except Judaism. I respect his Jewish faith, however he sees himself far superior to others. I hate his smugness. Sadie, if you ever break off on your own and start a new podcast, I’d be thrilled! Otherwise, you’ve lost a listener (and likely many more) because of your inconsiderate cohost.

Sadie’s voice is unbearable. Getting a vocal coach would make this podcast so much better.

I have been listening to this podcast for a couple of months and it just gets better and better. So many of the IFB experiences expressed are very similar to mine. The show does a great job of calling out things that need to be called out but at the same time showing empathy.

I LOVE this podcast. Sadie and Gavi have great chemistry and the thorough research combined with experiences, listener input, and Gavi’s “outsider” questions and insight have been so helpful for me as I work through my own deconstruction. I feel validated, and learn new things all the time. Keep up the great work!

I love the latest episodes about Revelations.

The info Sadie provides is super interesting. I’ve learned a lot. BUT I absolutely could not listen to the Josh Duggar episodes from a while back due to her completely stuffed up nose and literally blowing her nose and sniffling throughout the episode. I really want to listen but Sadie’s voice is too aggravating. It sounds like she needs to clear her throat constantly but she doesn’t. I can’t listen anymore.

Upside: I find some some insights (especially from Sadie) to be some of the most concise and clear explanations of harm and abuse I’ve heard in a cult podcast. Downside: Please get a vocal coach. No offense personally, but the nasal and gravelly tone literally makes it impossible to continue listening at times even when I want to. A coach can teach you how to relax your throat so it’s way more enjoyable to listen. The “offering” and intro music is triggering for me. Hate both of those things. Also there are times they step out of their lane in a way that’s not at all good. Example: reviewing Shannon Harris’ book and adding their opinion about whether they think she was sincere in her beliefs at any given point. How can you possibly know how someone else felt and why do you feel like it’s appropriate to tell everyone your opinions of someone else’s thoughts or feelings? It for real the vocal quality was better and I could trust that they stay in their lane this would be my favorite podcast.

Sadie and Gavi have taught me so much about cults and the IFB in general. Just this morning-a Sunday-I noticed a large school bus for a Baptist church in the town over from mine. In the past, I never would have thought twice, but now I know so much more. I love listening to these two funny and smart friends and learning while I do it!

Your favorable bias and your superiority to Amish women is evident in how you refuse to respond to the amish raised women and afab people that object to being further exploited and objected whilst you spread disinformation about Amish people, culture and theology. Please stop.

They speak about important topics but when they speak about things outside their lane without acknowledging the harm done; they are just like all the other religious leaders who exploit people for their personal gain. I am so disappointed. We easily become like the people we speak against.

Episodes are not structured well- too much small talk and thanking new members…by the time you get to the actual content it’s ten minutes of actual interviews followed by 20 minutes of host commentary that is just retelling the story…hopefully they learn as they grow and it gets more interesting.

The stories are great! It seems like the hosts have a good chemistry together. I just started listening, so I’m only 7-8 episodes in. I don’t appreciate the political content they have already added in.

Imagine my surprise when my favorite podcast discussing fundie issues not so subtly mentions their stance on Israel. Being inclusive of LGBT people doesn’t make it okay to be so callous about the siege on Gaza.

Gavi is pretty intolerant of any religion other than Judaism. He often makes fun of Christian beliefs, both fundamental and progressive. He has dismissed ALL pagan religions as if they shouldn’t even be discussed (and it’s pretty clear that he holds strong biases against people who practice these religions, even though it’s obvious that he has ZERO experience with any religions outside of the Abrahamic realm), even when Sadie is trying to educate him on them. He makes comments like ‘well, you shouldn’t trust the Satanists anyways because…they’re satanists.´ Can you IMAGINE if this was said about Jews or Christians??? WILDLY offensive! It’s clear that Sadie, however, has spent ALOT of time learning about a wide variety of practices both inside and outside of the Abrahamic religions and seems very accepting of EVERYONE. Her perspectives are very insightful and I’ve never heard her talk down towards anyone regardless of belief. I Will keep listening because of her and the multitude of things she has taught me already, and hope that she rubs off on Gavi so that I don’t have to cringe so much. If they would like to uphold their values that state ‘it is our goal to promote freedom of mind, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion,’ then I suggest Gavi should lead by example. 5 stars for Sadie, 0 stars for Gavi= 2.5 stars. Signed, a pagan who doesn’t feel welcome in this space.

As the son of Wycliff Bible Translator missionaries in Bolivia and have left the fundis years ago, I still find the validation of the abuse and trauma of spanking, shame, fear and thought control at the foundation of these cults and cultural appropriators (destroyers) to be very helpful. I cry as I listen, usually while tending my vegetable garden, as the memories of the thankfully almost forgotten language of hate and absolutism and stories of the massive trauma of others remind me I am not alone. The trauma was real and deep. We didn’t imagine or deserve it. Very healing. Thank tou for this service.

Great podcast, very informative and entertaining. I especially love how they are inclusive to LGBT people, and how they handle sensitive subjects.

I love this podcast, because the hosts are so well-versed in the subject matter and they bring it to the audience in an interesting yet informative way. We need more awareness about the insidious nature of fundamentalist Christianity. Thank you to Sadie and Gavi for shedding light on such an important topic.

These hosts are very well spoken and respectful. Such interesting perspectives and story. Thank you for your willingness to share and your honesty. Wow. What an interesting world.

I found this podcast randomly and have been in love with it ever since. I’ve learned so much listening to Sadie and Gav’riel and that has only lead to me doing more research and learning even more. Also, Gav’riel’s humor is the ABSOLUTE BEST and I can listen to him make fun of these abusive cults all day long. The leaving Eden podcast has officially replaced music in my car and I’m not about it 😎 I recommend this podcast all day everyday to people around me and they may start to assume I am the one in the cult now, but I’ll take it lol.

Like most of the episodes that I’ve listened to, this one has also touched on some deeply buried experiences that I can now process. Thank you! This podcast gives a “real-ness” to the murkiest part of my past. It’s “shining a light on the darkness“ (funny that a Christian term says it best)

The content is good, and I enjoy one half of the team. However, I feel as though the forced jokes, explaining every joke that doesn’t land, long drawn out anecdotes are just becoming too much and detracts from the content.

Sadie is amazing and very knowledgeable, but Gavi always comes across as very rude and unsympathetic.

Thanks, Gavi and Sadie!

I’ve seen so many “shut up Gavi” posts!! Gavi you make the podcast better just like Sadie! You make me laugh and realize how utterly wrong some of these practices/teachings are by how normal I think something is until you’re horrified by it. Thank you for you!

Like most of these reviews- Gavi takes away from the podcast. I was so enjoying hearing Sadie’s unique perspective and her stories and I feel she is very insightful and informative. I like hearing her perspective, but she is constantly interrupted by Gavi. I started from the beginning a few weeks ago and just had to stop listening to the Titanic review (ep.7) because Gavi decided to sing “My Heart Will Go On” for entirely too long. Took away from the discussion and was not funny. Not sure if I’ll keep listening but seems like it gets worse from the reviews. It’s a shame because I think this story and Sadie have a lot of potential!

I love the show. But please for the love of all that’s good in the world… could you please consider changing the intro and exit song? I’ve recommended the show to a few others going through various stages of deconstruction and all but 1 person has mentioned the intro song made them want to immediately turn off. I’m happy they didn’t, but I can appreciate where they are coming from 😅 Thank you for your work and openness in sharing your first hand experience!

I found this podcast recently and really enjoy listening. Sadie has really put a lot of thought and time into deconstructing her past and it’s so interesting to hear her perspective. Gavi would be better if he just stuck to asking questions to promote Sadie’s perspective. Unfortunately, he thinks his opinions are equally weighted with hers. It is beyond frustrating to hear someone who grew up learning to question her perspectives and defer to others (especially men) be routinely cut off by a man who didn’t even grow up in that community so he can give his opinions. And his opinions rarely go beyond basic blind rage, but he gets basically equal air time. Also, please consider that some listeners are deconstructing from Catholicism, have trauma from Catholic upbringings, and experience many of the same effects that Sadie describes going through after her deconstruction.

I attended southern baptist churches as a child, in Texas and Oklahoma. I knew that the things I was taught were harmful to my mental and emotional health, but the way it’s presented to a child is so covert that it took me listening to this podcast to realize how very insidious the messaging was. I am shocked every day, hearing Sadie tell about concepts and practices that I did grow up with in the “mainstream” baptist church, and realizing, as Gave says, that the venn diagram of our baptist upbringing is almost a circle. Undoubtedly, the experience of being raised in a cult was more traumatic and rigid than my own secular church experience, but I relate, and find myself in tears at the brainwashing techniques that did slip through my own awareness, as a child, as a very intelligent teenager, as an adult who eschews religion, and as a parent, raising my own young children without a religious belief system. Thank you for this show. I’m making my way through the episodes from the beginning, and it’s very healing for my inner child.

Gavi is always hard to listen to with his self righteous attitude and always acting like an expert on a religion he knows nothing about through experience. He makes it sound like those who are religious (outside of his religion) are not as smart as him. It’s awful. The Pearl episode was unbearable because even though Sadie and the guest had lots of actual expert and lived experience things to say, Gave just screamed about how he hated the book and why he thinks anyone who would use it is stupid. Gavi has no empathy and Sadi could do so much better with a better cohost.

Love the discussions on this podcast!!!

I really enjoyed this show at the beginning, I loved that Sadie exhibited vulnerability in deconstruction. But as the podcast has gotten more popular the hosts have started exhibiting more cultish behavior. Joking about “being cult experts” and “what kind of cult you’d have” are really insensitive to those who are healing from high control religion. Spending a weekend watching/researching about other cults/denominations doesn’t make you an expert over those who have lived the experience. Once they moved away from the hosts personal experiences and learning to having “hot takes” and “fundy snarking” it created a very toxic environment. Also, Gavi needs to go back to being a compassionate listening ear. I tried staying for a while but I think it’s time for me to move on. Hopefully the hosts start listening to they viewership and mature in their content.

Wow I never heard of a more inaccurate description of the IFB! Yes they are ultra conservative but she’s way off.

As someone who grew up as an evangelical on the fringes of fundamentalism, I find a lot to think about. I began working my way out of the evangelical mindset about 15 years ago and this is one of my favorite podcasts for thinking through my years in the church.

Just discovered this show and shared it with my daughter, saying that Sadie sounds like a genius.

They think that their narrow religious experience defines that religion for all people. Sadie is particularly guilty of this. With Gavi—it’s pretty rich when someone from one religious framework tells followers of a completely different religious framework how they are supposed to believe and act. I’m glad they don’t have much of a following; they are obnoxious, ill-informed individuals who think that they have the ultimate religious understanding and knowledge to tell other people how to live. Hard pass on this one.

I don’t often leave reviews, but these two are worth it and deserve recognition. They handle hard topics with grace, wisdom, and understanding while also holding their own ground. 5 starts, and keep up the good work!

This show " jumped the shark" after Sadie was done with her personal story. Claims to be a Cult Expert. I have yet to hear that confirmed.

Enjoy the subject matter but maybe sensitive snowflakes shouldn’t listen with all the hilarious “trigger warnings” she warns us about.

I just found this podcast and woooww it’s really incredible! Just such a wealth of information. I specifically enjoyed the episode on the versions of the Bible and why the fundies are King James Only. I really have already learned so much, and have enjoyed hanging out with you guys! Thanks for all your hard work and research!

Growing up, I would occasionally see these otherworldly, super-fancy regal-looking girls at the grocery store, the park, the library, and other public places, and I wanted to know them. They had long hair and were always in dresses. They looked so...beautiful and nice. I vaguely recall trying to make friends with one of these girls somewhere and feeling rejected when their mom called them away. My assumption was that I was not pretty or fancy enough. Wrong! Turns out they were in a CULT! Sadie Carpenter does a stellar job depicting her experience in the IFB and giving her audience insight into a thriving subculture that flourishes below the surface of American society.

Sadie is the best!!! Finally a podcast about PACE education & Bible worship. Thanks for processing it publicly so the rest of us can unpack it privately.

This podcast is really interesting. However, I’ve had to stop listening because it is hypocritical by, in my opinion, spreading falsehoods about the Catholic Church. I am an ex-Catholic and was raised in the faith. I attended CCD for over 10 years and completed all of the sacraments up to and including being confirmed. One of the co-hosts is converting to Catholicism after growing up in a Christian cult. I don’t have a problem with that. I truly admire her strength to leave her previous religion and can empathize with the needs to find a new spiritual home. The problem is that she talks about how the Catholic Church is different from her cult upbringing because you can have different beliefs from church doctrine in the Catholic faith That may be true in her specific church, but it is untrue of the Church as a whole. I am one of many people who is still working to unpack the ways in which Church doctrine has been significantly harmful. Become Catholic if you want to - but stop saying that you can still support LGBT people or be pro-choice and be an active Catholic. You can’t. These are key issues for many Catholics. Moreover, a big part of the church is tithing. And every time you tithe, you are giving money to support those beliefs. I don’t fault you for calling yourself a cult expert. At this point, you know enough to call yourself what you want. But you are not an expert on the Catholic Church, and you should not elevate it and paint it as you do.

This is truly one of my favorite podcasts!! I’ve been listening for about two years now and everything they talk about is always fascinating. They take a great, responsible, and educated stance on everything they discuss. Thank you for sharing your story Sadie! I also love how long the episodes are. It makes working from home a lot less lonely!

This is such an informative podcast. Anyone interested in Christian fundamentalism and it’s history should check it out.

I love monster energy 👹👹👹

Absolutely fascinated by this pod and adore the two hosts. They work off each other so well. Also the compassion Sadie brings to each episode speaks volumes about her character.

Love the show! I grew up in a few different Christian subcultures (in Indiana and Chicago, too!) and I wondered if you would ever do a podcast on Dave Ramsey? Love you both!

I found the show from Reddit and now listen to it whenever I’m on my 45 minute commute to work. Sadie’s story is so fascinating to me especially coming from a pretty fundie background myself. I can relate to some of her story and I learn so much from her well researched topics. The true crime episodes are top notch! The good part about having Gavi as a cohost is that he is from a different culture than Sadie and brings a different perspective. HOWEVER, I often have to skip through his long rambling diatribes that don’t really add much to the discussion and are often condescending in tone. He doesn’t always seem to be open to learning without judging and even skirts the lines of being disrespectful to Sadie’s new catholic beliefs. I suffered through half of his episode that focused on Judaism but couldn’t finish it. He was at peak smugness and in my opinion included statements that were offensive and discriminatory toward non-Jewish people. I wish they would edit out the rambling unrelated side conversations. One episode took them 20 minutes to get to the topic at hand. I’m thankful for the skip button. Despite my criticism, I would still recommend this podcast especially if you came from a fundie culture because it’s just so relatable. Thanks to Sadie for sharing her story!