Worldwide
Season One, Worldwide: The Unchosen Church, shares first-hand accounts of growing up inside of a doomsday apocalyptic cult called The Worldwide Church of God. It's a series about the costs and rewards of high-demand religious group, dispels many of the myths about what types of people join cults, and showcases the beauty, comedy, and tragedy of life inside Herbert W. Armstrong's WCG.
Season Two of Worldwide travels to Southeast Asia to explore one of the most captivating, unsolved mysteries of the 20th century: the disappearance of Jim Thompson, the Thai silk king. Join us as we delve deep into the extraordinary life of Thompson and the fateful weekend when he vanished without a trace, leaving behind a perplexing mystery that has confounded investigators, armchair detectives, and conspiracy theorists alike. Through research, expert interviews, and compelling storytelling, we piece together the fragments of evidence to explore the most popular theories about what happened to Jim and shed light on the newest developments in the case.
Episodes
22 episodes
Ep. 2.6. Host It or Toast It
Want to support Worldwide?Visit buymeacoffee.com/worldwidepod and tell us whether you'd rather "host it or toast it" - or both! You can also support the show by leaving us a ...
Ep. 2.5. Another Murder and the Jim Thompson Legacy (Worldwide: The Disappearance of the Thai Silk King)
In this last episode, we examine the story of Jim’s associate, who swears he spotted Thompson in a hotel lobby in Tahiti weeks after he disappeared, as well as the still unsolved murder of Jim Thompson’s sister, Katharine, five months after Jim...
Ep. 2.4. “We Had to Eliminate Him:” An interview with the CIA's Barry Broman (Worldwide: The Disappearance of the Thai Silk King)
In 2013, former CIA officer Barry Broman received a phone call from someone claiming to know who killed Jim Thompson. Join us as we follow that lead from Thailand to Singapore and evaluate whether Jim was killed by a communist plot to eliminate...
Ep. 2.3. Retracing Fading Steps: An interview with Dr. Lew Toulmin (Worldwide: The Disappearance of the Thai Silk King)
In the mid-2010s, Dr. Lew Toulmin, a search and rescue operations specialist, went to Malaysia and Thailand to research the Jim Thompson case extensively and to evaluate the possible causes of his death. Was Jim Thompson the victim of foul play...
Ep. 2.2. Peter Hurkos and The Dangers of Psychic Detectives: An Interview with D.J. Grothe (Worldwide: The Disappearance of the Thai Silk King)
When the police fail to turn up leads in missing persons cases, families sometimes get desperate and ask psychic detectives to “help.” In the case of Jim Thompson, his sister, Eleanor, hired the world’s most famous psychic celebrity at th...
Ep. 2.1. Vanished in the Highlands: The Mystery of Jim Thompson (Worldwide: The Disappearance of the Thai Silk King)
In 1967, well-known fashion tycoon Jim Thompson went on vacation in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia and vanished without a trace. His disappearance resulted in the largest manhunt ever conducted on land in Southeast Asian history. But w...
Ep. 2.0. Getting Out and Moving On (Worldwide: The Disappearance of the Thai Silk King)
In this brief introduction to season two of Worldwide, host Tricia Jenkins and guest Glynn Washington (host of the Snap Judgement podcast) explain h...
Ep 1.11: The End Times and Final Revelations (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
In this series finale, we hear from listeners about their own WCG experiences, what listeners took away from the series, and how listeners can share their own stories through www.igotout.org.Worldwide: The Unchosen Church is hosted, wri...
Ep 1.10: From the Fringe to the Fold: An Interview with Joseph Tkach Jr (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
Cults almost never admit error or de-radicalize themselves, but that is exactly what happened in the Worldwide Church of God. Hear our interview with Joseph Tkach Jr - the last pastor general of the WCG - who helped take this doomsday cul...
BONUS: Host It or Toast It
Want to support Worldwide: The Unchosen Church? Visit buymeacoffee.com/worldwidepod and tell us whether you'd rather "host it or toast it" - or both! You can also support the...
1.9 “Not Many Wisemen Now are Called:” An Interview with Pastor Dave (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
Church hurt, women’s roles in ministry, and pastor worship are all topics that we discuss with Pastor Dave on this week’s episode. Dave grew up in a legalistic, authoritarian church that preached you had to earn your salvation by works. Today, ...
Ep. 1.8. Church Candy: An Interview with LaNisa Frederick (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
LaNisa Frederick is a comedic actress with credits in The Goldbergs, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Young Sheldon. In this episode, she describes what it was like to be raised in a high demand group with one parent in the church and one outside of ...
Ep 1.7: Finding Bobby Fischer: Lost Interviews with the World Chess Champion (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
Bobby Fischer was the Muhammad Ali of chess. He became the youngest person to ever win the US chess championship at the age of 14 and the only American-born player to ever win the World Chess Championship. But after defeating the Soviet Boris S...
Ep. 1.6. "Sound the Trumpet": An Interview with Restored Church of God Whistleblower Kevin Denee (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
In 2022, Armstrongism isn't dead. It's alive and well, and in Wadsworth, Ohio, it's on steroids. Meet The Restored Church of God, headed by new cult leader Dave Pack. In this explosive episode, we talk with Kevin Denee, Pack's son-in-law and a ...
Ep. 1.5 The Closet, the Cult and the College: An Interview with DJ Grothe (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
DJ Grothe is the former host of the Point of Inquiry and For Good Reason podcasts and the past president of the James Randi Educational Foundation. While he has interviewed hundreds of skeptic and scientific leaders, he rarely tells his o...
Bonus: An Interview with Dr. J Gordon Melton (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
In this brief bonus interview, we're joined by American religion scholar Dr. J. Gordon Melton.
Ep. 1.4. "Blessed And Happy is the Man," But What About the Woman? (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
In this episode, we talk with Heather, Dawn and Lisa about how the expectations set for women by the WCG and its offshoots affected their future careers, marriages, parenting, and relationship to sex. An honest and authentic look at how conserv...
Ep. 1.3. “The Worldwide Church of Pod:” An Interview with Glynn Washington (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
Glynn Washington is a highly successful podcaster, hosting shows such as Snap Judgment, Spooked and Heaven’s Gate. But I bet you didn’t know that his storytelling style is highly influenced by cult leader, Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide ...
Ep 1.2. “Trust in God and Stand in Awe:” An Interview with Jesse Moskel (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
What is it like to watch your three-year-old sister succumb to leukemia, while your family relies on prayer, rather than doctors, to save her? How does being raised by an authoritarian father, who is also a minister in an authoritarian church, ...
Ep 1.1. “God Speaks to Us:” An Insider’s Guide to the Worldwide Church of God (Worldwide: The Unchosen Church)
Before Joel Osteen, Brian Houston, or even L. Ron Hubbard, there was Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God (WCG). A doomsday apocalyptic cult active in roughly 70 countries around the globe, the WCG lured its members in wit...
Introducing Worldwide: The Unchosen Church
Worldwide: The Unchosen Church shares firsthand accounts of growing up inside of a doomsday apocalyptic cult. It's a series about the costs and rewards of high-demand religious groups, dispelling many of the myths about what types of peop...
