The Deeper Pulse with Candice Schutter
Hi. I'm Candice Schutter. I started this podcast during the pandemic, repackaging personal stories as self-help epiphanies because old habits die hard and turning pain into profit was at the heart of what I had long bought and sold as a new-age grifter. Eventually, I began to look more critically at two decades spent in spirituality and wellness circles. Sharing about those years publicly for the first time (See Episode 33) led me into the world of cult recovery, and I soon after became a wellness cult whistleblower. The Deeper Pulse offers cultural commentary alongside in-real-time recovery as my guests and I grapple with moral injuries in the aftermath of spiritual abuse and the toxic positivity that silenced us. Finally free(ish) from the myopia of self-help 'cult'ure, the pod now focuses primarily on current events, social justice, and ongoing critiques of leadership that disrupt the hierarchical frameworks that live inside and around us.
Episodes
115 episodes
#100 - Close To Home: Turning Anguish Into Action | Solo Bonus Brief
Hi y'all. Things are off the rails in the U.S., and I'm here because what we need most in dark times is each other. In this release, I'm sharing excerpts from an earlier-this-week Patreon drop where I discuss how I'm coping and making my feelin...
#99 - Together, We'll Outlast Them: Community & Collective Imagination | Darcy Totten
Episode 99(!) of the pod is a riveting and heart-hitting conversation with Darcy Totten, Executive Director of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. In this episode, you’ll hear about the Commission's history, its growth o...
#98 - ‘Yelder’ Wisdom: Indigenous Leadership to Bridge Cultural & Generational Divides | Wyatt Kelly, MS
November is Native American Heritage Month, and in the lead-in to this week’s convo, I speak about the whitewashing of U.S. history, not to be a Thanksgiving buzzkill (sorry, not sorry), but because truth matters. Then I invite listeners into a...
#97 - The Flesh of Leadership: Embodied Resistance for Collective Justice | Lesa Clark, PhD
Is embodiment a tool in the ongoing fight for collective justice? In the intro, I share how the wellness world shaped my understanding of embodiment (why it matters and what it is for) and share how two decades of navel-gazing conditioned me to...
#96 - Power Source: How Beliefs About Leadership Shape History & The Present Moment | Suze Wilson, PhD
Kicking off a new short-form series on reinventing leadership, I sit down with Dr. Suze Wilson, an associate professor at Massey University in New Zealand. She and I discuss the history and significance of critical theory as a tool in understan...
#95 - No Kings 2.0: Embodied Resistance & ‘Followership’ Reimagined
In the words of Timothy Snyder: “Do not obey in advance.” On October 18th, millions of Americans will gather across the nation to say ‘No’ to authoritarianism. This episode opens with audio from my solo experience at the first No Kings Protest ...
#94 - Doctrine Over Person: A Convo on Cult Recovery, Anti-Vax Denialism, & Being ‘Gay Again’ | T Brown
This episode is dedicated to American psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, who recently passed after decades of research into the psychology of totalism. “Doctrine over person” is one of Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform; it’s wid...
#93 - The End of Aliases + Liberation Is Free
Risk is relative, and fascism places everything in perspective. As such, this episode puts an end to ‘Org’ aliases (because, why not?) before reiterating the purpose that has been core since the 'cult'ure series inception. It was never about on...
Trauma & Control: How Authoritarianism Shows Up In Wellness Culture & In Our Bodies | Magdalena Weinstein (ENCORE)
It's time for another encore!Ep.67 (originally released September 20, 2023) — Originally from Chile, Magdalena Weinstein spent the first 17 years of her life living under the rule of an authoritarian dictatorship. In this episode, she sh...
#92 - 'Mean Girl': Parasocial Influence, Spilling the Tea, & Red-Flag Reminders for 'Org' Apostates
“My mouth is a fire escape. The words coming out don't care that they are naked. There is something burning in here.” ~ Andrea Gibson (RIP 🙏🏽💕)It's time I spoke to the 'mean girl' label. It's been tossed around a bit too liberally for my...
#91 - Beyond The Binary: A Critical Look at Gender Essentialism
This pic you see in the episode thumbnail was taken at an LA photo shoot back in 2002. I’m sharing it now because, in today’s pod release, I include personal stories that challenge the gender binary. And if your brain is suddenly scrambling to ...
#90 - Miss Nature LLC: Uniting Rural Communities & Demystifying Drag | Christopher Jay Hall
Happy Pride month, y’all! Please help me to welcome lifelong activist and Arizona Drag Show organizer, Christopher Jay Hall, to the pod. Earlier this week, Christopher and his father were featured in a
#89 - The Penny Peace Project: Rural Organizing & Bridging Culture War Divides | Julie Fernatt & Llama Habern
“Be Like Penny.” If you visit my current hometown of Cottonwood, Arizona, you’ll see these three words displayed around town. Penny Smith was a friend to many and a living example of how everyday citizens can make a meaningful difference in the...
#88 - Power To The People: Decolonizing Our Psyches & Reimagining Leadership | Nikki G
Nikki G isn’t the type to say “I told you so.” Nevertheless, it was just one year ago when she was on the podcast, walking us through the evangelical vision behind Project 2025 and the looming theocratic dominionism of the far right. Now that t...
Follow The Leader - Myth or Inevitability? (Patreon Preview)
Here's a preview of a bonus drop now streaming on Patreon. It's a peek behind the scenes at where we'll be heading next, with a critical examination of leadership that's likely to push some buttons. If you want to listen to the whole episode, y...
Bully Backlash & Tinderbox Truths - Speaking Up When It Matters Most (ENCORE)
Time for another encore! Ep.80 is even more relevant now than when I recorded it one year ago. And in the newly updated intro, I share audio from Saturday's Hands Off Protest in Flagstaff, Arizona - one of over 1400 protests around the globe wh...
#87 - Resistance For Beginners: 4 Questions to Jumpstart Everyday Activism | Susan McCulley
I'm doing a lot of deep breathing lately, and I know I’m not alone. A helluva lot of Americans are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, and preoccupied by a single question: What can I possibly do in response to a billionaire-funded fascist co...
Gaslighting, Victim Blaming, & Tone Policing for Social Control (ENCORE)
I’m just gonna leave this right here. It's an encore presentation of an episode I dropped almost two years ago. Ep.59 is ripe for a reboot because fascism has come for America, and much of what I speak to here has become an everyday norm. I’ve ...
#86 - Hive Mind Paralysis & How We Break Free
I'm back. Because silence isn't an option right now. In this episode, I share how graduate study / critical inquiry into leadership and social psychology is helping me make sense of an upside-down world. Groupthink, aka hive mind, isn't just a ...
#85 - Hope Is A Verb: Surviving Anxiety & Restoring Agency (#GOTV)
Candice is back on the main feed with a final #gotv reminder and a deep-dive into this thing we call 'hope' - what is it, really? She shares about her pre-election anxiety and how she's actualizing hope in the face of so muchness. Vari...
Patreon Preview - Losing My Religion + Is Social Media Radicalizing Us?
The main feed of the pod is on hold indefinitely, but solo episodes continue rolling out over on Patreon. In this one-off drop, Candice offers a summary of recent content, sharing why she's taking sides in the upcoming U.S. general election and...
.png)
#84 - Q Her A: The 'Cult'ure Series Finale
Right around the time Candice was puzzling over how to wrap the 'cult'ure series, regular contributor Tracy Stamper reached out to ask: Hey, Can I Q Her A? The result is the series finale where Candice responds to a long list of listener questi...
#83 - Power Trip: Psychedelic Therapy & The Ethics of High-Minded Healing | Lily Kay Ross & David Nickles
Candice is proud to welcome New York Magazine's Cover Story: Power Trip producers Lily Kay Ross & David Nickles to the pod. Lily & Dave share about the behind the scenes events that led to the 2021 launch of their investigative...
.png)
#82 - Smokescreen: Christian Dominionism & The 'Pro-Life' March on Washington | Nikki G - Part 2 of 2
Welcome to the second half of a two-part exposé on the NAR movement in America. Candice continues her conversation with former insider, Nikki G, who shares more about the strategic aims of this belief system and how dominion theology has long b...
#81 - Trojan Horse: The NAR Movement, Christian Nationalism, & The Cult of Trump | Nikki G - Part 1 of 2
American democracy is hanging on by a thread. But how did we get here? Today's episode offers an insider's peek into Christian nationalism. You may remember Nikki G from Ep.77; she was on the pod back in January, sharing about her work as a Cer...
