Poplar Rose shares their story of being a social justice activist, a witch, and their eventual major fall out and extreme crisis of faith in social justice. As they say, "social justice broke up with me." This came after experiencing two back to back call outs. The stress of these coupled with moving to a plot of land in the forest, exposed to the elements after their shelter fell through, led them to shut down their business for the last 2 years. They share the before, during, and after of this experience, and reflect on what social justice means for them now. There is mention of active suicidal ideation in this episode.

Aliza, at age 40, ended up undergoing a series of distressing life events that threw things into disarray. It was at this time, while dealing with the aftermath of bed bugs, she ended up in a heart-centered, new age spiritual gathering at her mysterious massage teacher’s house. Aliza attended these gatherings as make up sessions for massage school classes she missed while in the midst of all the chaos. Things got peak weird in the group when her teacher’s guru came into the picture. Aliza eventually left the gathering behind, but not before some heartbreak.

In this episode I sit down to talk with Avery, who shares their story about being involved in a new age spiritual cult-y group. They got involved with this cult and felt like after so many years struggling to find solid queer community—that they had found a home. Their story details the ups and downs and struggles of being embedded in such a cultish community, their mental anguish, and their eventual break out into a new life: getting the right support for their neurodivergence, pursuing a degree in STEM, and coming out as trans.

In this episode, we hear from Clementine Morrigan, a writer who has recently started speaking out against “cancel culture.” Her story begins with her as a teenager who dropped out of high school because of homophobia, then started attending a queer alternative school in a new city. This is where her entry into social justice & identitarianism began. After years of active alcoholism she got sober, re-entered social justice culture and gradually her career as a self-employed writer creating zines about trauma, sobriety, being queer succeeded big time on social media. This summer, she was, in her words, Fucking Cancelled. We hear her story, but we also talk together extensively about cancel culture and social justice.

Gabi shares her experience growing up as an evangelical Christian and then choosing to attend a nearby wealthy conservative Christian college. Although she was deeply tied to her faith growing up, and found meaning in it, the homophobic and repressive culture of the school onset not only mental heath struggles but a crisis of faith in her religious beliefs. Gabi reflects on this time in her life and shares what happened after leaving campus and graduating.

YouTuber Megan Anne shares her story getting involved the fat acceptance movement, then leaving it behind after developing health issues and undergoing weight loss surgery. She also talks about getting out of the Amberlynn Reid community.

Skye reflects on their experience in "Leftbook," a constellation of leftist Facebook groups that were popular around 2016-2018. They started out in a group called "political aesthetics escape pod," and eventually became tied up in a group about mental illness and trauma. It was in this group where they encountered a militant approach to "trigger warnings."

Felix McLean begins his story by reflecting on his time living at anarcho-primitivist protest sites in the UK. After leaving, he quickly got involved in queer social justice spaces, and eventually got sober. Felix shares all of this and more in this 4th episode of Out of the Woods.

Ky shares their story about growing up Baptist in a family that was not only deeply integrated with a local Baptist college where their father taught in the seminary, but had ties to prominent Evangelical figures. When they really sat down and tried to understand why their faith was so ardently against "homosexuality," their entire worldview began to crumble.

Kira Rosen shares her story of separating from punitive online social justice culture. She recounts how the concurrent experience of her escalating bipolar disorder symptoms and a dysfunctional intimate relationship forced her to confront the reality that the shame and punishment normalized in the culture was unsustainable for her.

Welcome to...Out of the Woods! Out of the Woods is a podcast for stories about not-quite-cults but not-quite-not-cults. People share their experiences being strong believers in something--a religion, an ideology, a community, anything--and share how they came to realize it was, well...cult-ish. This first episode is a "concept-trailer" that explains why this podcast exists, how it came to be, and what sorts of experiences it hopes to share.