9 episodes
The Sunshine Place C13Originals
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- Society & Culture
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4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
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Once called “the miracle on the beach,” Synanon began in the 1960s as an experimental rehab facility in Santa Monica, California with a radical claim: It could cure heroin addiction. Before long, it would make an even bolder claim: It could cure any of your problems. All you had to do was move in. What started in a house on the beach, soon spread to compounds across the country. The man who made the miracle happen, Charles E. Dederich, aka “Chuck,” would be the one to destroy it all, along with the lives of many of his followers and millions of dollars in assets. The Sunshine Place tells the mind-blowing, true-story of Synanon - one of America’s most cutting edge social experiments, turned into one of its most dangerous and violent cults - as it’s never been told before: by the people who lived it. Executive Produced by Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Emily Barclay Ford for Team Downey and C13Originals, together with Josh McLaughlin for Wink Pictures and written, produced, and directed by Peabody-nominated C13Originals, a Cadence13 Studio.
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E1: The Kidsnatchers
Welcome to Synanon. If you're wondering what Synanon is, then you're asking the same question as Celena and Mike, whose lives change forever the moment they arrive. It's the 1970s, and Synanon is a community, a utopia, a cautionary tale, and a cult. But more than anything else, it's a person, the founder of Synanon, a man named Charles E. Dederich, who most people call, Chuck.
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E2: The Miracle on the Beach
Chuck Dederich hits rock bottom as an alcoholic in the beachside slums of Los Angeles. It's 1958, and he's got nothing but an idea, but it's one that would save countless lives. He calls it Synanon. Others call it the Miracle on the Beach. Through sheer force of will, Chuck's idea becomes national news, and Synanon becomes a household word.
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E3: The Trip
Legend, ritual, religion, LSD. Chuck experiments with all of it on his followers in Synanon.
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E4: The Punk Squad
Chuck breaks one of his two rules for Synanon, no violence, beginning with his youngest followers.
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E5: The Breeders
Chuck declares that there will be no more children born in Synanon, and he goes to great lengths to make sure of it.
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E6: Changing Partners
After Chuck's wife Betty passes away, he quickly finds a new partner, and he instructs his followers to find new ones too, whether they want to or not.
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Customer Reviews
Outstanding podcast!
The story of Synanon is so complex that it would be hard to tell over 20 episodes, and that Sari was able to tell a comprehensive story in 8 is amazing! The first hand accounts, including her own, really enriched the podcast.
Helped articulate my own experience
This podcast is a personal origin story I didn’t know well, the whole podcast was so helpful for me in putting pieces together. A program (cult) born of Synanon, called Cedu which would umbrella a few “therapeutic” schools was referenced in the last video, and is where I ended up in 1989. I never knew how to talk about it, I’m impressed that the people interviewed could put their experiences in words at all. I’ve been recommending this podcast to close friends, it’s the only way I know to share anything close to my experience.
Very interesting and well done
Very well told , kept me interested the whole time .