The Orgasm Cult

1. Changing the world through orgasm

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co.Nastaran Tavakoli-Far explores the rise and fall of One Taste. We learn how to practise Orgasmic Meditation with a former member and his wife, and hear co-founder Nicole Daedone’s story of how she encountered a Buddhist monk at a party who changed her life. And former One Taste members and staff tell us about the optimism with which they joined the project, looking for a sense of purpose, for adventure, or for healing.But we hear how things soon started to go sour, with predatory sales practices, coercive control and abuse – financial, emotional, physical and sexual.And we’re also asking bigger questions that go beyond just one company.What makes people turn to organisations like One Taste in search of connection in the modern world?Why are women’s health and women’s sexuality still not taken seriously by conventional medicine?And where is the line between healing and harm?Presenter: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Producer: Lucy Burns
Editor: Penny Murphy

This podcast is now the subject of a legal complaint by Nicole Daedone, Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste Incorporated, the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co.In the search for wellness, how far would you go?Nicole Daedone, the charismatic co-founder of wellness company One Taste believed that orgasm would one day sit alongside yoga and meditation as the self-care practice for the modern empowered women. Except that now the FBI is making enquiries in to One Taste over allegations including sex trafficking, prostitution and violations of labour law.How did Orgasmic Meditation go from hippy beginnings to a sleek, million-dollar operation? How did this wellness practise – touted as the next big thing everywhere from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop to the New York Times – lead to isolation, debt and abuse?Why is women’s health and pain still not taken seriously by conventional medicine? The Orgasm Cult is a story about people desperate for connection and how far they would go to find it. Join Nastaran Tavakoli-Far as she investigates One Taste through exclusive interviews with former employees and asks big questions about the wellness industry.