Today, we have two podcasts that shine the light on two disparate nooks of our society. The Sunshine Place investigates a tough-love teen rehab called Straight Incorporated. Then, journalist extraordinaire Peter Bergen restores our faith in election integrity with one Michigan clerk who is on a mission to restore the trust that’s been lost.
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Audacy Podcasts, in partnership with Team Downey and Wink Pictures, have announced the launch of the second season of the award-winning investigative documentary podcast series The Sunshine Place.
The Sunshine Place Season Two is Executive Produced by Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Emily Barclay Ford for Team Downey, together with Josh McLaughlin for Wink Pictures, and Maddy Sprung-Keyser, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and Leah Reis-Dennis for Audacy Podcasts.
The Sunshine Place Season Two launched with the first two episodes on October 30, 2024, on the Audacy app and everywhere podcasts are available. New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays through December 11, 2024. Listen and follow the show here.
“As we were wrapping up Season One of The Sunshine Place, we uncovered a startling connection: a link between Synanon, the origins of Straight Incorporated, and the troubled teen industry that still thrives today, said Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr., Team Downey. “Through riveting first-person accounts, we’re once again able to understand how vulnerable families seeking solutions to complicated problems can lead to dangerous consequences.”
Launched in the 1980s against the backdrop of the war on drugs, Straight Inc. was endorsed by First Lady Nancy Reagan and spotlighted by a televised visit from Princess Diana. The program swept the nation, but survivors of Straight tell a very different story — one of abuse, torture, and brainwashing. The eight-episode series is narrated by author and teen life coach Cyndy Etler, herself a survivor of Straight Inc. Guests include other survivors, many of whom are still recovering and telling their unflinchingly candid stories for the first time.
Check out season two of The Sunshine Place.
Don't get turned off because Peter Bergen is from CNN. This guy is good. Very good. Look at his photo below. He could be the protagonist, or villain, in any John LeCarre or Robert Ludlum spy novel. I think Bergen even knows Jason Bourne.
The conceit of the podcast is that Listeners go “in the room” with Peter Bergen as he presses his contacts for accurate, on-the-ground information to help his listeners contextualize and understand the impact of these stories on their lives through a quality, trustworthy, and engaging lens.
On the most recent episode of In the Room with Peter Bergen, Ottawa County, Michigan's Clerk and Register of Deeds Justin Roebuck joins Bergen to discuss election voting integrity, voter's skepticism around the country, especially in Michigan, and Roebuck's efforts to restore faith in elections.
Justin Roebuck has a license plate that says "I voted." He first began volunteering as an election worker at age 16. Now, he oversees the election process in Ottawa County. But not everyone in his county shares his faith in the voting system.
Like election officials all around the United States, he’s gotten accustomed to a high degree of skepticism about his integrity — and the elections he oversees. And he’s on a mission to restore the trust that’s been lost. So how did trust break down? And what’s at stake if it can’t be restored in a place like Ottawa County?
The episode “In One Michigan County, There’s a Republican Fighting to Restore Faith in Elections” is out now on Audible and the SiriusXM app.
Listen HERE.
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