The Orgasm Cult

10. Picking up the pieces

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 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek published an article by reporter Ellen Huet exposing the toxic culture within One Taste.Shortly afterwards, the FBI started making enquiries into the company over allegations of sex trafficking, prostitution and violation of labour laws.The company has since closed all its physical locations and is no longer offering in-person courses.Co-founder Nicole Daedone had stepped down as CEO the previous year – and after the FBI started making enquiries, she vanished.Former One Taste members tell us about their disappointment that the company has not responded better to the allegations against it.And we hear how many people struggled to put their lives back together after their time at One Taste.If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme, help and advice are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.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.