Surviving the IFB: Shelly Snow Pordea on Trauma, Healing, and Fiction
A Little Bit Culty
Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is sponsored in part by Betterhelp.
Novelist, screenwriter, and publishing consultant Shelly Snow Pordea grew up in the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church, an insular and oppressive religious environment that shaped her childhood. She survived religious trauma and abuse before finding her path to healing through storytelling.
In this episode, ALBC sit down with Shelly to discuss her escape from the IFB, the power of fiction in processing trauma, and how writing her novel, The Cheating Wife, became an act of liberation. Shelly shares the harrowing realities of life in the IFB, the psychological grip of fundamentalist teachings, and the moment she realized she had to leave. She also highlights Living Cult Free, a nonprofit supporting survivors of religious abuse.
Plus, we explore the transformative power of self-trust, the language of healing, and the role of creativity in reclaiming personal narratives.
Trigger warning: This episode discusses sexual abuse and religious trauma.
Find Shelly and her work:
Instagram
Facebook
Website
For resources and support in surviving religious abuse: Living Cult Free
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.
Check out our lovely sponsors
Join ‘A Little Bit Culty’ on Patreon
Get poppin’ fresh ALBC Swag
Support the pod and smash this link
Cult awareness and recovery resources
Watch Sarah’s TEDTalk
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
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. |
| 0:04.8 | Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, |
| 0:12.4 | marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. |
| 0:17.4 | From startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go. Shopify is made for |
| 0:22.8 | entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. |
| 0:29.7 | This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, |
| 0:34.0 | medical, or mental health advice. The views and opinions express do not necessarily reflect |
| 0:37.8 | the official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion |
| 0:41.7 | group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything. I'm Sarah Edmondson. |
| 0:56.0 | And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames. |
| 0:57.9 | And this is A Little Bit Calti. |
| 1:00.7 | Cults are commonplace now. |
| 1:02.1 | From fandums to fads, we're examining them all. |
| 1:04.5 | We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad. |
| 1:08.9 | Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers |
| 1:12.0 | for real culty stories told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want |
| 1:16.7 | you to learn a few things that we've had to learn the hard way. For example, if you think you're |
| 1:21.3 | too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might be prime recruitment material, and who |
| 1:25.7 | knows, you could already be in a cult. |
| 1:28.2 | If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed. |
| 1:31.4 | So keep listening to find out. |
| 1:33.2 | We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.