Cult upbringing (with Sam and Melissa) 

It’s so sweet to see Sam’s love and respect for his wife and just holding the mic for her not interrupting or anything

Every time you Sam & Melissa are in a room together, the chemistry is through the roof! I could listen to you all talk about cutting the grass. 😅 literally anything. But I’d much rather hear you talk about your upbringing!! Your lives are so parallel and spreading that knowledge into the world to “normies” like me - is always so powerful &. !uplifting! Can’t wait to watch this 20 times ❤ adore u all.

“I thought it was going to be something to do with a dump truck” took me out. 😂

My great grandpa had to have my great grandma go ask her mother about sex after they got married. He tried explaining it, but she thought he was a creep. I'm still shocked that her mother didn't bother to at least tell her before she got married. For context: this was in the Bible belt around 1920.

My 3 favorite people together again, love it. Sam was so strong and so passionate in this episode. Melissa truly opened up a lot and helped explain things so well. Thank you Amanda for always being amazing and talking about the tough topics, we need too. These kids and young adults especially need to hear it. They all need to hear it but I feel so strongly for the younger ones

I really resonated with Melissa when she talked about taking the church as your identity and needing to check all the boxes. ❤ Thank you for sharing

I love hearing the words 'earthly temptations'. We do live on planet earth right?! I always thought religiously my background was the wildest eveeer. My mom was a catholic nun, left, married and had children. And then i learned about FLDS, the Order, AUB etc. 😂At that point i realized that i am so randomly "normal" haha.

Part of my job is US west historical research, analysis etc. I'm struck by certain elements of western culture that the "Mormonist cults" embody. I think we've discounted both the impact of LDS history on western history, and a subtle thing I'm seeing where modern rural westerners become very entrenched in tradition & give it spiritual value, to a degree that shocks me in 2024. I think there must be more common elements between big picture LDS/Mormon history and the settler colonial experience in general. If I'm right, it's not good and we need to be very vigilant about this extreme behavior creeping further into public/community institutions.

Warrens thoughts on “fun” is interesting since he believes in Joseph Smith and there are multiple records of him playing games with kids and making time for “fun”.

I hope you all can learn to be yourself and not worry about who may or may not be offended. Having a glass of wine is not a sin. I know it’s hard when you’re raised in a strict religious upbringing. Love all three of y’all ! 😊

Very good analysis using the roof crushing who you are and meant to be.

I think you all are amazing and insightful. The fact that you’re so positive, introspective and willing to just search for your own individual truth in a loving way is amazing to me. To not be bitter and angry and take on a “victim” mentality shows your strength and courage and how “good” and “worthy”you all are! Thank you for another honest raw and heartfelt discussion! Love both of your channels! ❤

Love this interview! Great work

Wonderful episode. Thank you to the 3 of you for sharing so much.

love this collaboration!! hope the lights turn green for all three 🎉

Great interview, I really enjoyed it. It’s like therapy for me, so thank you, you help me a lot 💞💓💞

Amanda everytime you smile you are so alike with Cammy eskel and Rachel 😮 it’s unbelievable how alike you guys are! 😊

about the edited explanation... the statement made perfect sense but the explanation was an interesting insight, love listening to your perspective

Thank you!

Great video! I love when yall collab together!

Melissa, brilliant comment regarding a line. I am Catholic and always wished we were given a list of what we can and cannot do. I am in my mid 60's now with 2 married kids. They made life so hard

Love this collaboration. I love both your channels

This is a great interview. You guys brought up 2 helpful things for me. 1) How these ideas can stick around for years even long after you don't believe them anymore. I think it can sometimes be hard when deconstructing. And then 2) The idea of making a list when you were no longer tithing so you could kind of deconstruct the magical thinking that this happened because you tithed. I'm thinking of trying this. Never Mormon, never tithed but I think it's useful idea that you could apply to many beliefs

It's hard bc I think it is one thing for a person to feel like their relationship with God is important and to make sure their life is not in contradiction of what they say they believe bc the reality is, if there is a God - then therefore a standard/morality that comes with that--then that would be very important thing to care about. I see that as different than someone feeling like they have to do everything perfectly by a very specific set of standards set by a organization, every little tiny detail has to be part of a church or group, doing certain rituals a certain way or means you don't get to heaven, etc- the scrupulosity Melissa was speaking of can be dangerous.

It is fascinating what happens in communities as cults die out. The Church Universal & Triumphant used to control the town of Emigrant, MT, and there's still some sort of active group there, but nowdays tourists want to see if they can visit the town, which is very safe but dont trespass - they love their guns - and now there's a fun biker bar there. I can almost guarantee that in 10 yrs it will be overtaken by summer homes & there will be a fancy restaurant there. I guess rich people can gentrify anything lol!

I really love the souls you three are.

Another entertaining and insightful video from two great channels. When Melissa spoke about the chains of her past indoctrination making even the smallest decision difficult, it illustrated so well, to me how challenging deconstruction is.

Loved this

Wow, I can't hear them when they speak. Amanda you are loud and clear, but the mic they are using isn't turned on. Sorry it was my earbud it was turned down really low. Sorry.....

For some reason when listening through headphones Amanda your mic only comes through the right earbud and Sam and Melissa’s mic only comes through my left earbud. Just a heads up about the sound!

The Seer stone looks like rounded off petrified wood.

Interesting audio; Sam and Melissa on the left channel. Amanda on the right

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24:30 Wow, that is so similar to the “narcissist’s prayer“ if you have heard of that before!

We stayed in hurricane for our honeymoon in 22 and tbh I was SHOCKED by how welcomed we were esp as a queer couple. Most bakeries wanted us to put a pin on their map from where we came from, there was a dinosour metal sculpture shop and a queer shaved ice place. It was a lot of fun seeing and NOTHING like I expected

One of my favorite questions my oldest kid asked when they were 15yo was why were there so many terms for guys that masturbate (like jack off) but not for girls. I didn’t have a great answer so we googled terms for girls & omg just soooo funny. We had such a great time learning those things together. Of course there were times I was not yet comfy about taking to them bc of their age or my own limitations, but that exactly how I’d reply to them - like I need some time to find a way to explain it, but when I do we’ll definitely have that conversation. My kids are now 23yo & 21yo, and I’ll say the hardest part about being open to your kids is the things they tell you about their own sex life. But on the flip side, they are very comfortable talking to doctors and communicating with their partners and standing their ground when it comes to boundaries & consent, as well as wanting the same for everyone else.

I LOVE WATCHING AND HEARING Y’ALL!!! Y’all are able to bring so much out of each other! Thank y’all for letting us be a part of this phenomenal relationship!!

When absolutely everything having to do with avoiding sex and the human body is forbidden to be talked about it just increases the curiosity and setting the followers for abuses and to carry the abuse onto following generations such an injustice for men, women and children 😭😢💔

Whenever I hear about adults who don't even know the proper names for their body parts my brain hurts. My sisters and I were really good at science, so our parents made sure we knew about anatomy. We were always in the library getting science books way above our grade level. I don't remember having "the talk," because we were reading science books with the proper names for all body parts and their functions. It was always about the science, and not until we were 11 or 12 when mom made sure we knew how this scientific information tied with the feelings of teenage hormones.

The stone is a big tigers eye. Pretty, but not Magic.

Big fan Love You 😘

Melissa’s need to be 110% was a typical need for some of us that wanted to be “all in”

I'm so glad I found your content, i used to LOVE watching you on Escaping Polygamy!! I found your channel after watching a "Where are they now" about everyone on the show, and they mentioned you had a RU-vid channel and I just HAD to come find you!! I freaking LOVE you and everything about you!! I love your passion, I love how you get so annoyed with these people, I love that you call them out on their BS and it totally helps watching you when you're absolutely gorgeous!! ❤❤😁😁. I wish they'd bring the show back, i totally miss watching you guys, I know I'd watch if they brought it back and I'm sure I'm not the ONLY one!! From what I read, I heard part of the reason why they took it off the air was because of multiple trespassing lawsuits brought on against you girls and the network, is that true??? I find that very hard to believe when every house you guys went to, someone from the house invited you there!! So how could anyone bring a trespassing lawsuit against you or the network? It makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyways, keep up the great work, love your content, you've got another new subscriber as long as you're creating content!!

Does The Order own Lee's Marketplace in SL, UT? Does anyone know?

Kody & Janelle were both born into the mainstream LDS (Kody even went on a mission).

I remember watching the god squad in Escaping Polygamy and being so scared for you. I’m really glad the town has changed. Did you know Sam is an ex god squad member? Or at least, he drove his truck around to scare people a little. He didn’t seem to have the perception of god squad being militant like how the show portrayed it.

Great content, but sadly never ending editing/ audio issues :-( This channel is long enough on RU-vid to figure these things out.

Forgive and forget but consequences are an requirement to maintain an civil society

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There not being an exact line on what is allowed concerning kissing and making out is on purpose. The church relies on binding their members to them by shame. What the church sells is your salvation from being a sinner, so they have to make sure you are a sinner. Making the lines blurry keeps you in a constant state of feeling guilt and shame because maybe you went too far?!?, so you need the church to repent and god to forgive you for being a sinner.

20:22

That was an excellent video, so insightful! Im at a stage where my partner and I, are considering having children and I wonder how id explain the concept of religion to them when we are athiest ex cult members 😅 i dont want to keep them ignorant from the concepts, or immerse them in specific dogma either, but how to do that when neither of us think its real...mindblowing

Hej Folks, I rea 2:59 lly like Amanda..Itd really.Intresring to listen and learn all about the crayness thet polygami means in Western world...I have a god 🎉 friend in Indonesien Who had 4 wives.( 2vis dead) He builds houses to all wives, and provade for him..He has 14 kids and 50 gtandchildren.. a cuple of kids from wife 1 lives next to papi...He gets angry on peole getting a 2nd wife and and he doesnt take care for wife 1..My friend take care of those children. All children now lives with him.. If you not rich peple dont take xtra wifes..

Your edit at the end wasn't needed. I thought your observation was astute and makes people think. Nevertheless, yes, you said what we immediately comes to mind with that statement. That is ALSO the problem with the IBLP Duggar cult!

So so sweet to see the husband holding that mic for his wife from start to finish. What a gentlemen ❤ they still exist

passed through "hurrikin" once and was appalled that they didn't pronounce it hurricane lol

I was raised Evangelical Chrisitan, in a very insular bubble that seemed a lot more normal than those weird culty Mormons. Except my sex ed was as repressed and pro-ignorance as yours. My parents never told me anything about anatomy, sexuality, sex, etc. I think my mother thought I would just be a spinster if she never told me about sex.

Using god or religion to justify hurting people is so gross. What’s the answer? How does a nobody like me help?

Modesty is not a bad idea though. Dressing modestly like LDS can save you a lot of trouble in life.