Episodi

  • The Missing Boot: How an Artist Escaped a Secretive Cult Collective

    The Missing Boot: How an Artist Escaped a Secretive Cult Collective
    Oct 16 2026
    The Missing Boot: How an Artist Escaped a Secretive Cult Collective

    Cold, precise details - a single dry leather boot on a loading dock at 6:15 a.m. on February 4, 2019, no second boot, no tracks - point to something hidden inside a creative sanctuary that behaved more like a takeover. How did an artist end up trapped in a residency that transferred her work and nearly half a million dollars into one leader's accounts, and how did she finally get out?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Gail Holmes into Threshold Collective, the system Patricia Burns used to control residents, and the discoveries journalists and investigators later made; what did investigators find when they finally looked inside the building?

    Person: Gail Holmes
    Person: Patricia Burns
    Date: February 4, 2019
    Location: Kellerton building, Calloway Industrial District, Morrow Falls
    Amount: $412,000 total revenue (2016-2019)

    - Gail Holmes arrived at Threshold Collective in March 2016 at age 26 and stayed nearly three years.
    - Threshold Collective grew from 12 residents in 2016 to 19 residents by 2018.
    - The Creative Commons Agreement transferred full intellectual property ownership of residents' work to Burns's LLC.
    - Financial records show $412,000 in revenue from resident sales and licensing between 2016 and 2019.
    - Residents received $11,000 in stipends total while roughly $401,000 was paid into Burns's personal credit union account in Dunfield.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • The Radio That Kept Running: How 41 Vanished from Clearwater Road

    The Radio That Kept Running: How 41 Vanished from Clearwater Road
    Oct 15 2026
    The Radio That Kept Running: How 41 Vanished from Clearwater Road

    A frozen porch, a rack-mounted radio still on, and fourteen open spiral notebooks each labeled with a name - forty-one adults vanished from a thirty-two acre compound while a receiver kept transmitting static. What compelled ordinary people to sign away financial control and leave with only a notebook or a bowling scorecard, and why was a machine left to keep running?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the first discovery by a utility worker to the prior lives and choices that led forty-one people to a compound tied to a late-night radio program, and we ask how a radio host persuaded dozens to give power of attorney and leave everything behind.

    Person: Janet Reed
    Date: January 9
    Location: Clearwater Road
    Person: Emily Stein
    Event: Second retreat cost $1,800

    - A utility worker named Janet Reed found the building and porch items after driving her meter-reading route for eleven years.
    - The rack-mounted radio was bolted to a wooden pallet and powered by an orange extension cord running into an otherwise empty building.
    - Tire tracks indicated a convoy of vehicles had left the property roughly seventy-two hours before Janet arrived.
    - Forty-one adults had lived on the thirty-two acre property and were gone when found.
    - Emily Stein paid $1,800 for the two-week second retreat after attending an initial $400 long weekend retreat.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • Unmailed Letters: How a Fake "Pemberton Method" Broke Families

    Unmailed Letters: How a Fake "Pemberton Method" Broke Families
    Oct 14 2026
    Unmailed Letters: How a Fake "Pemberton Method" Broke Families

    A corridor held 112 sealed, stamped envelopes written by children - none mailed, each marked with crayon postmark dates as “calendar accountability.” The founder Howard Fisher invented a credentialed-sounding “Pemberton Method,” yet the supposed originator Charles Pemberton never existed; how did one fabricated system lead families to relocate, restrict visits, and leave these letters unmailed?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the first library-basement orientation to the discovery in a converted grain facility and trace the policies and quiet pressures that changed routines and relationships - could small, incremental rules have been the mechanism that isolated families and kept those letters from ever being sent?

    Person: Howard Fisher
    Event: First public orientation in Crestfield, Indiana
    Date: Second Tuesday of December 2019 (discovery); first orientation occurred eleven days after foundation registration
    Location: Converted grain facility on Dellwood Farm Road, Millhaven, Indiana
    Case: 112 handwritten sealed envelopes found unmailed

    - 112 handwritten, sealed, stamped envelopes arranged in a single row down a 40-foot corridor
    - 43 families had enrolled by spring of the second year
    - 11 families relocated for “residential continuity”
    - The cooperative agreement expanded from 1 page to 14 pages
    - Fisher registered the Pemberton Method 11 days before the first orientation

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The Woman Who Sold the Ocean: 11 Signatures, One Vanished Shore

    The Woman Who Sold the Ocean: 11 Signatures, One Vanished Shore
    Oct 13 2026
    The Woman Who Sold the Ocean: 11 Signatures, One Vanished Shore

    The Oregon coast promised ownership, community and a stake in the sea - and eleven people signed away their exit. A federal vessel documentation card tied to a Douglas fir and a buried cache at Dunmore Harbor Works turned a small trail into evidence that peeled back how a cooperative called the Tidal Covenant dissolved from the inside. Who was Peggy Morris, and what did she hide that made departure a moral - and legal - impossibility?

    In this episode, we follow the paper trail and personal stories tied to the Carnack inlet and Dunmore Harbor Works to show how a coastal dream became a contract that trapped members; we trace the card on Osprey Loop to the financial agreements that required members to be "separate from the body" to leave, and ask what that phrase really meant for the eleven who signed.

    Person: Peggy Morris
    Location: Carnack, Oregon
    Event: Discovery of federal vessel documentation card
    Case: Tidal Covenant cooperative dissolution
    Date: November (card found), three years before cooperative collapse

    - A federal documentation card for the fishing vessel Abiding Shore was found tied with orange crab-trap line to a Douglas fir on Osprey Loop in November.
    - Frank Tillman saved $4,200 over eighteen months and handed the envelope to the cooperative the same afternoon he arrived in July.
    - Peggy Morris was described as fifty-one years old and wore an olive jacket embroidered with "Tidal Covenant."
    - The cooperative's financial agreement required exiting members to be "separate from the body," language later used to make departure feel like a moral failure.
    - Public records from the National Maritime Center did not list Peggy Morris on the Danika K in any season despite her claims of fifteen years working Pacific waters.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • He Invented a Language - Then He Took Craig Barnes's Voice

    He Invented a Language - Then He Took Craig Barnes's Voice
    Oct 12 2026
    He Invented a Language - Then He Took Craig Barnes's Voice

    Fear and fascination collide: a retired engineer began writing his last pleas not in English but in a language that did not exist, invented by a man who had fabricated every credential he claimed - so how did a precise, methodical man end up losing his voice, his money, and almost himself? What forced Craig Barnes to abandon his mother tongue and write in Verath, and who was George Stroud really?

    In this episode, we tell the story of Craig Barnes from Fort Elden and the sequence of events that led him to move onto an eleven-acre property called the Renwick Farm, join the Ardenmere Language Preservation Society, and begin transferring money monthly to the group's account; we follow the trail from a library talk to a waterproof bag found on the Culver River and ask how English was taken from him.

    Person: Craig Barnes
    Event: Missing and found items on October 9, 2019
    Location: Renwick Farm, eleven acres east of Ardenmere
    Person: George Stroud
    Amount: $1,400 monthly transfers

    - Craig Barnes was sixty-one years old and a retired engineer with twenty-two years at the Fort Elden water authority.
    - Craig moved to the Renwick Farm in July 2017 and began sending $1,400 each month to the Ardenmere Language Preservation Society.
    - The Renwick Farm operated as a nonprofit with eleven residents and included a main structure, two converted outbuildings, and a Hall of Forms.
    - George Stroud gave a library talk in spring 2016 claiming fabricated university affiliations and introduced the constructed language Verath.
    - On October 9, 2019, Monica Long found a waterproof bag containing a spiral notebook written mostly in an invented language and a laminated ID card for Craig Barnes.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The Case of the Sixty‑Three Faces: Inside a Cult's Prosthetic Identities

    The Case of the Sixty‑Three Faces: Inside a Cult's Prosthetic Identities
    Oct 11 2026
    The Case of the Sixty‑Three Faces: Inside a Cult's Prosthetic Identities

    A county surveyor found a hard-sided olive-drab case in a drainage ditch containing sixty-three handcrafted prosthetic face pieces labeled with identities like "Roman senator" and "THE FOUNDER"-a discovery that would expose a traveling theater that blurred performance and control. How did one man build a world where people lost their names, and how did a twenty-five-year-old maker of those faces walk herself back out?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the September morning Nicole Henderson found the case through the months of investigation that revealed the Mirror Company’s communal residency model, its disputed founder Paul Richardson, and the financial trail that moved roughly $290,000 into Richardson’s personal account. How did roles, money, and immersion turn an ensemble into something more controlling?

    Person: Nicole Henderson
    Person: Erin Zimmerman
    Person: Paul Richardson
    Event: discovery of case on Glenner Road in Talbot County
    Date: third week of September 2011

    - The case was found forty feet inside the tree line at the edge of a drainage ditch at 9:15 AM on a Tuesday in the third week of September 2011.
    - Inside the case were sixty-three prosthetic pieces nested in dry foam, each labeled on white medical tape with identities such as "Roman senator" and "Grieving widow."
    - The central assembly was labeled "THE FOUNDER" and consisted of a full forehead and nose construction.
    - The Mirror Company was founded in 2006 and had been traveling for three years by 2009 when Erin Zimmerman joined.
    - Public filings show the Mirror Company collected approximately $400,000 in member contributions between 2006 and 2011, with roughly $290,000 moved into Paul Richardson’s personal account labeled as consulting fees.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • Peterson framed Warren's role using Warren's own professional language

    Peterson framed Warren's role using Warren's own professional language
    Oct 10 2026
    Peterson framed Warren's role using Warren's own professional language

    A child's size four red rubber boot hid a laminated index card with a grown man's name, birth date, and a six-digit account number - an account that had already been closed and drained. How did a record of Warren Perry's financial identity end up half-buried on Dellway Farm, discovered six months after federal investigators finished their work?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from Warren Perry joining the Renewed Earth Covenant in September 2012 through his discovery in November 2017, tracing how community structures, personal roles, and financial systems intersected - and why that buried card changes everything about who controlled the money.

    Person: Warren Perry
    Date: August 14, 2019
    Location: Dellway Farm, Harlan Township
    Event: discovery of red rubber boot with laminated index card
    Account: six-digit account number (closed and drained)

    - Warren Perry joined the Renewed Earth Covenant in September 2012 at age 42.
    - The farm lease was $800 per month, on land owned by Tom Ashcraft who was largely absent.
    - Peterson maintained seven marbled composition notebooks called the Accountability Ledger.
    - Warren sold his truck, closed his apartment, and transferred his savings into the Common Resource Account.
    - The laminated index card with Warren's name and birth date was found inside a left-foot child's red rubber boot.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • The Secret Letters Hidden in the Reservoir That Exposed a Cult

    The Secret Letters Hidden in the Reservoir That Exposed a Cult
    Oct 9 2026
    The Secret Letters Hidden in the Reservoir That Exposed a Cult

    A morning birder found a heat-sealed gallon bag wedged in a drowned willow containing forty-one stamped, sealed letters all addressed to "Mom" - none mailed - and those preserved letters led investigators three miles to a forty-two-acre property called the Hearth. How did someone waterproof and hide that archive instead of destroying it, and what did those letters reveal about the people living at the Hearth?

    In this episode, we follow the chronology from the 4:15 a.m. discovery to the arrival of investigators and the connection to a residential program that brought nineteen residents together, asking whether preservation rather than destruction was deliberate and what that decision meant for everyone involved.

    Person: David Bennett
    Date: July 9
    Location: Vance Reservoir
    Event: Discovery of 41 sealed letters
    Location: The Hearth, Harwick Township

    - At 4:15 a.m. on July 9, David Bennett waded eight feet into Vance Reservoir looking for a warbler and found a gallon zip-lock bag.
    - The bag was heat-sealed, wrapped in electrical tape, and wedged in the fork of a drowned willow two feet above the waterline.
    - Inside the bag were forty-one handwritten, stamped, sealed envelopes all addressed to "Mom" and none of them had ever been mailed.
    - The reservoir is three miles by road from a forty-two-acre property in Harwick Township called the Hearth, which had nineteen residents when Kelly Lewis arrived.
    - Kelly Lewis moved into the Hearth in the second week of June; she had been writing letters to her mother on Fenwick Road in Dunmore that Cheryl Wright read before the letters were discovered.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min