Vassalage: Truth, Lies, and Power

MJ Maeyers
  • 5.0 (1)
  • PERSONAL JOURNALS

When I was five years old, I watched my father threaten to drive off a bridge. Years later, I began to understand the truth: my father — a respected school headmaster and teacher, trusted by families and admired by students — was not who he appeared to be. Vassalage: Truth, Lies, and Power is a serial narrative podcast and true story about how one man’s lies and abuse of power tore his family apart — and my attempt to understand why so many people chose to believe him instead of the truth. Told through the actual letters exchanged during my parents’ bitter divorce, alongside memories I can’t forget, this podcast examines power, control, loyalty, manipulation, and deception — and what happens when truth is managed, softened, or replaced to protect the person who controls the board. Season 1: The Prologue sets the stage. The pieces are arranged, the players take their positions, and a family prepares for a conflict that will change everything. Season 2: The Departure unfolds day by day through letters written during a family crisis. As the situation escalates, the story told to the outside world is carefully shaped — not through quiet, but through narrative substitution, strategic omission, and reputation management. What emerges is my study of how truth is redirected, how authority is protected, and how reality itself becomes negotiable. Companion Book & Exclusive Content This podcast is the companion to my upcoming book. To be the first to know when it’s released, join my mailing list at https://www.mjmaeyers.com. Bonus Letters & Behind-the-Scenes Insights To hear the full, unedited letters featured in these episodes — plus behind-the-scenes context — visit patreon.com/mjmaeyers. In a world where power protects lies… speaking the truth is how you change the game. Disclaimer: All names, locations, and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy.

  1. 4D AGO

    April 11 - Buying Time

    There is still no word from my father. But behind the scenes, we are scrambling. On April 11, two documents reveal what was happening in his absence: a letter sent to the school’s staff and a bill of sale quietly signed at home. Together, they show the reality we were facing — empty accounts, payroll looming, and a family trying to protect both a business and a reputation. While he remained silent, we were buying time. But... was he doing the same? This episode contains the full documents, read in their entirety. For background and behind-the-scenes context for this episode, listen to April 11… Continued on Patreon. ⚠️ Content Note: This series discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    5 min

  2. 4D AGO

    April 10 - Calculated Silence

    On April 10, there are no letters. No explanations. No apologies. No instructions. Just silence. But this isn’t peace — it’s pressure. While my father remains quiet, the rest of us are scrambling behind the scenes to stabilize the school, protect his reputation, and keep everything from collapsing. This episode is short. Because sometimes silence says more than words ever could. But  Silence doesn’t last long. Continue with April 11 — Buying Time, available now.   For background and behind-the-scenes context for this episode, listen to April 10… Continued on Patreon. ⚠️ Content Note: This series discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    3 min

  3. FEB 17

    April 9 - The Monologue

    On April 9, communication resumes — but not in the way anyone expected. After days of silence, my father responds with a single, overwhelming letter. At more than 2,500 words, it is not a conversation, but a performance: expansive, accusatory, self-justifying, and meticulously constructed to control the narrative. This episode contains only two letters.  First, my mother’s measured attempt to reach him.  Then, my father’s response — read in full, exactly as it was written and sent. What unfolds is not an exchange, but a monologue. One voice dominates the page, reframing events, assigning blame, and recasting himself as both victim and authority. It marks a clear escalation in tone, and a turning point in how this conflict is being documented — and weaponized. As with all of Season 2, this episode contains no commentary or analysis. Just the letters themselves, in chronological order. For background and behind-the-scenes context for this episode, listen to April 9… Continued on Patreon. ⚠️ Content Note: This series discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    23 min

  4. FEB 10

    April 8 - Controlling the Narrative

    After a day of confusing silence, April 8 brings an avalanche of communication. Five letters arrive by mail — all written before my father left, all delivered to our mailbox at the same time. For the first time since he disappeared, we hear directly from him, not in conversation, but through pages of explanation, accusation, and justification. April 8 — Controlling the Narrative consists only of these letters, read in full and in the order they were received. There is no commentary or interpretation — just the words themselves, as my father attempts to define what has happened, assign blame, and shape how his departure will be understood. This episode marks a clear shift. Silence gives way to saturation, and the story begins to be told loudly, repeatedly, and on his terms. April 8… Continued is available free right now on Patreon. The letters in this episode tell only part of the story. What we discovered when we entered his office at the school tells another.   ⚠️ Content Note: This series discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    14 min

  5. FEB 3

    April 7 - What Is He Doing?

    April 7 begins with uncertainty. After my father’s disappearance the day before, my family is left trying to piece together what has happened — where he is, what he intends to do next, and how seriously to take the letter he posted on the school door the day before. As concern spreads beyond the immediate family, communication widens and the narrative begins to shift. What started as a private dispute is now pulling in others, adding urgency and confusion to the situation. This brief episode continues Season 2 of Vassalage: Truth, Lies, and Power with the next set of letters, presented exactly as we received them. There is no commentary or analysis — only the documents themselves, read in full and in chronological order.  For background and behind-the-scenes context for this episode, listen to April 7… Continued on Patreon.  ⚠️ Content Note: This series discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    4 min

  6. JAN 27

    April 6 - Abandoned

    After weeks of escalating conflict and a proposal he titled Operation: Divide and Move On, my father walks out without warning. He doesn’t return home. He doesn’t explain himself face to face. Instead, he disappears — and communication stops. April 6 — Abandoned consists only of the letters from that day, read in full and in the order they were received. There is no commentary, no analysis, and no hindsight — just the words exchanged as a family is left to reckon with sudden absence, uncertainty, and what happens when leaving becomes another form of control. This episode marks a turning point. What begins here will unfold over the next nine days, revealing how control is maintained not just through confrontation, but through withdrawal, timing, and what is deliberately left unsaid. For background and behind-the-scenes context for this episode, listen to April 6... Continued  for FREE, right now on Patreon. ⚠️ Content Note: This series discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    25 min

  7. SEASON 2, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    Season 2 Trailer: The Departure

    Season Two of Vassalage: Truth, Lies, and Power begins with a disappearance. In April 2004, my father abruptly walks away from his family, his marriage, and the private school he helped build — leaving behind confusion, fear, and a trail of letters that tell a very different story than the one he presents to the world. Season Two, The Departure, unfolds over just nine days. Twenty letters exchanged during seven of those days. More than 8,500 words. All written in real time as my family scrambles to keep a school alive, protect one another, and make sense of a man who insists he is not abandoning anyone — even as he disappears. This season is told largely through the letters themselves, allowing you to experience events as we did: without hindsight, without resolution, and without knowing what comes next. If you’ve ever watched power shift the moment someone stops playing along… If you’ve ever seen love used as leverage… If you’ve ever wondered how control survives even after someone leaves… Season Two begins January 27 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    3 min

  8. 12/30/2025

    Goodbye, I Love You

    On the season finale of Vassalage: Truth, Lies, and Power, my father’s next move shocks everyone. Yes, it is the long-awaited progress toward separation — but not the kind of progress we were expecting. Instead of negotiation or resolution, my father suddenly disappears. He walks away from his family, his business, and everything he has built, leaving everything — and everyone — hanging in the balance. It feels like the ultimate temper tantrum. One so extreme that his family begins questioning his mental health. But was it really a breakdown? Or was it just another power play — another attempt to control the game by leaving it entirely? In Goodbye, I Love You, I read the letters that mark this moment: a calm, detailed response from my mother, followed by silence, panic, and finally a goodbye letter framed as love and sacrifice. This episode sets the stage for Season 2, where the story unfolds over just seven days, across twenty letters and more than 8,500 words, as my father’s family desperately tries to get him to come home before it’s too late — only to discover that when the dust settles, he emerges more powerful than when he left. ⚠️ Content Note: This episode discusses sensitive themes and adult content, including suicide, abuse and coercive control, and may not be suitable for all listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 🔒 Link to Patreon episode 🎵 Music Credit: Opening and closing music features Moonlight Sonata performed with permission by Paul Pitman.  This piece is used intentionally. My father often played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven on our piano at home, and I remember sitting in the hallway listening as a young child. Its presence in this podcast reflects the emotional atmosphere of these events — restrained, familiar, and unresolved. 🌐 mjmaeyers.com

    24 min
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About

When I was five years old, I watched my father threaten to drive off a bridge. Years later, I began to understand the truth: my father — a respected school headmaster and teacher, trusted by families and admired by students — was not who he appeared to be. Vassalage: Truth, Lies, and Power is a serial narrative podcast and true story about how one man’s lies and abuse of power tore his family apart — and my attempt to understand why so many people chose to believe him instead of the truth. Told through the actual letters exchanged during my parents’ bitter divorce, alongside memories I can’t forget, this podcast examines power, control, loyalty, manipulation, and deception — and what happens when truth is managed, softened, or replaced to protect the person who controls the board. Season 1: The Prologue sets the stage. The pieces are arranged, the players take their positions, and a family prepares for a conflict that will change everything. Season 2: The Departure unfolds day by day through letters written during a family crisis. As the situation escalates, the story told to the outside world is carefully shaped — not through quiet, but through narrative substitution, strategic omission, and reputation management. What emerges is my study of how truth is redirected, how authority is protected, and how reality itself becomes negotiable. Companion Book & Exclusive Content This podcast is the companion to my upcoming book. To be the first to know when it’s released, join my mailing list at https://www.mjmaeyers.com. Bonus Letters & Behind-the-Scenes Insights To hear the full, unedited letters featured in these episodes — plus behind-the-scenes context — visit patreon.com/mjmaeyers. In a world where power protects lies… speaking the truth is how you change the game. Disclaimer: All names, locations, and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy.

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