Amazing journalism. I can’t believe I had never heard of Centrepoint before. Very thorough and thought-provoking… I have always thought that the idea of communal living sounds amazing, and it’s so crazy and sad how people always manage to screw it up royally and end up with deeply traumatized victims. May they find peace in their lives and may we learn from our mistakes.

Are yall for real? Like no one saw this as wrong? Deviant race of people and strange. So thirsty to be kings and special abuse can just thrive. And it’s all over the world. Strange

Gives a sense of New Zealand fifty years ago along with a gripping dark story of yet another narcissistic cult leader leading the well-intentioned down the garden path. As an American with a lot of NZ communal living in my past, it’s also like a travelogue. It would be more fun if it wasn’t so disturbing. (Warning: abuse is detailed throughout). Hard going but excellent. This story needs to be told.

I really wanted to love this podcast. Fascinating cult, engaging reporter, immersive audio… But to have ads literally every few minutes felt jarring and sleazy and I couldn’t even get through the first episode. Bummer.

I enjoyed this so much! Great job! I am from the US and had never heard of this commune. When I finished it, I felt like an expert. Thanks for the great work!!

The podcast has a big production value and overall, is done well. A godless cult comprised of sociopaths, who want to indulge their every proclivity. What could go wrong? It bothers me are some of the people being interviewed for the duration of the podcast and how their absolutely horrific crimes are just danced around. These are the same people, who sexually abused babies, yes, babies, or covered up and confined the abuse by others. Somehow they are still described as “loyal, great, wonderful.” What? Barri and Barbra should never see the light of day, they should all be in prison. Anyone, associated with that horrific predatory behavior does not deserve to be heard. Why they go, they shouldn’t be mourned. Enraging.

This woman has a terrible feel for story telling

Barri, especially, exemplifies the struggle of being a good person in a bad situation. Watching her progression to see the harm around her, trying to take action from within, and then from without, rings so true. So many see good in a thing and want to fix it, but ultimately, when a pervasive harm runs so deep, sometimes you have to destroy the thing to save those being harmed. This is a story that doesn’t paint the cult with a single brush. It doesn’t paint the members as crazy or evil. It shows the complexity of how people can make equally horrible and terrible decisions while simultaneously making truly caring and loving decisions. The people interviewed are allowed to reminisce with fondness about the good while still feeling regret and pain about the bad. Really well told. I highly recommend listening if you have even a passing interest in cults, or even in the overarching growth (or lack thereof) of a group of people who find themselves in a position they never should have been in.

Exceptional material with Barri and Barbara. I appreciate their candor as well as their acknowledgement of their own failures. I notice the absence of any (living) men willing acknowledging their role in harming others. Though there was clearly one man (I believe it was Barri’s former partner) who served his sentence AND took responsibility for the harm he had done. Oh, and he wrote that astonishing 12 Days of Christmas song!

This pod is excellent. Learned a lot of new terms from New Zealand.

I literally want to strangle the woman named Barri, who is either the dumbest human on Earth or a complicit sociopath. How is that woman not in prison?

Absolutely fascinating. The story is well told, and the guys did exhaustive research. I enjoyed it immensely.

The story was well told by a charming team. Being a podcast, the words, music and audio effects are what convey the story and those components are especially good here. The editing, the way the host would describe what someone was saying then we cut to the person speaking, that was very effective. Other podcasts sound like they are cobbled together from audio recorded in cars and those can be fine... But this podcast sounded very professional and was skillfully put together. Other podcasts have too much overlap, reusing audio from previous episodes. In this podcast that is done appropriately, not to pad the thing out but to remind us of these earlier statements, which may now have clearer meaning. I especially liked the engaging and weird music and way the recordings of the cult leader would pop up and sound warped. Appropriate for the weird and warped world this took place in.

I stumbled across this series and ended up listening to all episodes in 24 hrs. Very thoroughly researched and informative. A cautionary tale heart breaking at times, but always interesting and thought provoking.

Very well researched, with a wealth of interviews from former members who were involved. Incredible story.

Congratulations on this deep dive into another place and time. As someone who came of age in the early 70’s, I appreciate this effort to remember a small social experiment in a worldwide cultural revolution. Your respectful approach to the interviewees was very effective in obtaining candid responses and great stories. I wish for continued healing among those harmed. Any one of us can be preyed upon by narcissistic and charismatic leaders. You are not alone. I send love and light to each of you.

Very difficult to listen to these men/women and not be judgmental… If it wasn’t the great research work and the host, I’d have stopped listening to it

Really well done. Shocked that I have never heard the story. Crazy how long this lasted.

This podcast is fantastic and deserves more attention

This well-done podcast is marred by the confusing decision to play historical audio from the commune with purposeful distortion. I get the ambiance that the producers are probably aiming for, but, find myself disappointed in the missed opportunity of hearing the communal messaging with original tone and inflection.

There are so many lousy podcasts with thousands of 5 star ratings. This one which is so good seems to be undiscovered but it is great. High quality. Well and respectfully narrated. Super interesting. I hope more listeners find it. I’m going to check out other “stuff” podcasts next.

Really interesting, well presented series.

If you grew up in NZ in the 70s/80s this was a story you’ll be familiar with, but the details in this podcast are astounding and l guaranteed you it will hook you! Well written and well researched!

Content was interesting but it was a hard listen. It jumps around from topic and time in history back and forth and the audio splits between narrator, sound effects, and other speakers every few seconds

Very well researched, well written, riveting!