Laura Richards: What Kanye West, Britney Spears, and Blake Lively’s Cases Reveal About Coercive Control (Part 2)

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is sponsored in part by Betterhelp.

We’re back with behavioral science expert Laura Richards for Part 2 of our deep dive into coercive control—and how it shows up in some of today’s most talked-about celebrity cases. Laura, who spent ten years at New Scotland Yard and helped establish the UK’s coercive control laws, joins us again to unpack the ways power and control are used to manipulate, silence, and harm.

This time, we dig into recent headlines involving Kanye West, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, Britney Spears, and the Depp v. Heard trial. Laura explores the public’s reaction to each case, exposing how gender bias and societal conditioning influence who we believe—and who we dismiss.

We also discuss how these patterns connect back to cults, Hollywood, and broader systems of manipulation. And since Laura’s work centers around prevention, she asks Sarah and Nippy to reflect on what might have helped them exit NXIVM sooner.

This episode includes a trigger warning for sexual assault, murder, and domestic abuse.

If you haven’t heard Part 1 yet, be sure to listen to that first. And for more from Laura, check out her podcasts Crime Analyst and Real Crime Profile, or visit thelaurarichards.com.

Also… let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

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CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Amphibian.Media

Writer & Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

Associate producers: Amanda Zaremba and Matt Stroud of Amphibian.Media

Audio production: Red Caiman Studios

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical,
0:03.9	or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the
0:07.9	official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion group,
0:12.1	club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything.
0:25.8	I know. I'm Sarah Edmondson.
0:27.6	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames.
0:30.3	And this is A Little Bit Calty.
0:31.8	Cults are commonplace now.
0:34.2	From fandums to fads, we're examining them all.
0:38.9	We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad. Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real culty stories
0:43.3	told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want you to learn a few
0:47.3	things that we've had to learn the hard way.
0:50.0	For example, if you think you're too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might
0:53.8	be prime recruitment material, and who knows, you could already be in a cult.
0:58.3	If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed.
1:01.6	So keep listening to find out.
1:03.3	We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware.
1:06.8	This podcast might contain stories that could be alarming to some of our listeners.
1:10.6	So please check our show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself.
1:15.2	Subscribe to our Patreon for Thursday bonus episodes, Q&A, and all sorts of exclusive content.
1:19.8	That's patreon.com slash A Little Bit Culte.
1:22.7	Welcome to Season 7 of A Little Bit Calti.
	...

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