Speaker 1: Nobody thinks they're joining a cult. People in cults don't
Speaker 1: know they're in cults. And my parents thought they were
Speaker 1: in a nonviolent drug rehabilitation society, which is kind of
Speaker 1: how it started. It was just trying to get addicts clean,
Speaker 1: and it did a pretty good job of doing that,
Speaker 1: saved a lot of people's lives.
Speaker 2: First, that's Michael jo Lay reflecting on his unique and
Speaker 2: complicated childhood.
Speaker 1: But then you isolate people and you start getting group
Speaker 1: think going, and then there's kind of like this quirk
Speaker 1: of human psychology that they tend to line up behind,
Speaker 1: very often a narcissistic and abusive man, and that's what
Speaker 1: happened in our case.
Speaker 2: I'm Danny Shapiro and welcome to the new season of
Speaker 2: Family Secrets. I can't wait to share ten astonishing new
Speaker 2: stories with you, stories of resilience, memory, and the way
Speaker 2: in which long held family secrets so often need.
Speaker 1: To come out.
Speaker 2: Welcome to season nine, which drops on Thursday, November ninth.
Speaker 2: Here's Susan ko Itto recalling the risks she took to
Speaker 2: crack the code of her identity.
Speaker 3: I said to the receptionist, I just need to get
Speaker 3: something from my car, I'll be right back, and I
Speaker 3: race walked out to my car and threw it in
Speaker 3: the seat and just drove off as fast as I could.
Speaker 3: And that was how I got those records which had
Speaker 3: my birth mother's name. I was like, I am like
Speaker 3: breaking the law? What am I doing here? Is this
Speaker 3: a crime? Am I going to jail for this?
Speaker 4: What did I do?
Speaker 3: I was terrified. My heart was pounding so hard.
Speaker 2: And Daniel Wallace, whose role model shaped and surprised him.
Speaker 4: And on the edge of that roof, looking down twenty
Speaker 4: five feet or so to the pool below, was William.
Speaker 4: He was cut off, jeans, nothing else, spotlighted in the sun,
Speaker 4: his long golden hair draping over his shoulders. He dove
Speaker 4: off the roof into the pool and lived. It was
Speaker 4: clear to me whether that was going to be how
Speaker 4: this all turned out, but he did it. He got
Speaker 4: out of the pool, climbed the house again, which was
Speaker 4: no easy feet, walked across the hot tar to my parents' bedroom,
Speaker 4: and jumped off again.
Speaker 2: I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for
Speaker 2: this new season of Family Secrets, coming Thursday, November ninth,
Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you'll get
Speaker 2: your podcasts