Triple Hate Special: Scientology

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS

For their 25th episode (and one-year anniversary), Love Hate Relationship proudly presents the first-ever Triple Hate Special, all about that bastardly bastion of religious rectitude, Scientology.

Alex takes the helm at the start of the discussion, opening with a brief-ish rundown on the pre-founding-a-cult life of L. Ron Hubbard, told mainly through his lies. Highlights include his time as a real-life Eagle Scout and completely fake student of a Blackfoot shaman and Chinese mystics, his hilarious turn as an idiot naval officer, and the discovery that his talents for bullshitting people could earn him a decent living as a pulp science fiction author, self-help guru, then millionaire messiah.

Following this, Andy picks up the story with Scientology in its current state, from it’s horrifyingly expensive entry requirements to the literal torture-prison it runs for all of its dissidents and enemies to the abuses of its current leader, David Miscavige, and the weird little navy they run for their most hardcore practitioners.

Special shout-outs to Leah Remini’s A&E documentary show Scientology and the Aftermath (link to the A&E website where it’s free to stream and available on Hulu and Amazon Prime at time of release). Also to iHeartRadio and How Stuff Works’s podcast, Behind the Bastards and their three-part episode on the life of L. Ron Hubbard (link to their site, and also available wherever you stream podcasts–please also check out their recent two-part episode on Hubbard’s final years, released after recording). Their work was instrumental to our research, and you should absolutely go check them out for yourself.

Finally, a personal note from Alex and Andy, we want to thank you for listening. Whether this is your first episode or you’ve been with us from the beginning, we’ve delighted in the last year of making Love Hate Relationship and have zero intentions of stopping. Your support has meant so much to us and so here’s to another year of loving, hating, and woefully unqualified advice.