Ed Helms

Headlines were screaming the apocalypse.

And then, of course, nothing.

Like zero.

No uprisings.

Just a traditional lovely May Day with parades and picnics.

I'm John Polk.

For years, I was the poster boy of the conversion therapy movement, the ex-gay who married an ex-lesbian and traveled the world telling my story of how I changed my sexuality from gay to straight.

Once upon a time, I was on 60 Minutes, Oprah, the front cover of Newsweek.

And you might have heard my story, but you've never heard the real story.

So join me as I peel back the layers and expose what happened to me in the midst of conversion therapy to shine a light on what the X-Gay movement does to people and the pain it continues to cause.

I had lost 150 pounds because if I couldn't control my sexuality, I was going to control my weight.

It sounded like, and this is the word I used, a cult.

And as I look, too, at the harm I did from within.

Listen to Atonement, the John Paul story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's about engineering consciousness.

Well, Palmer's credibility evaporated overnight.

His presidential ambitions collapsed.

By summer, newspapers that once hailed him as a patriot were now mocking him.

Palmer's grand crusade had collapsed under the weight of his own paranoia, and he basically is done for as a political figure, which is a little bit reassuring, I must say.

It's nice to see that –