Chapter 1: What led to the rise of OneTaste and its practices?
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Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast that you're listening to or like watching right now. I think like 10% of the audience watches, but it's impossible to tell because streaming numbers are famously opaque. But you know what's not opaque?
Our guest for the podcast today, the great Jamie Loftus, here to help us finish the epic saga of One Taste, a Bay Area orgasm cult that went way too far. Jamie, welcome back to the show. So good to be here. I am famously translucent. It is nice to not be opaque.
Yeah, I do wonder who's watching. But usually I feel like if someone is watching, they'll let you know and they'll let you know exactly what looks wrong about you.
So I'll get back to you. With the numbers. Good to know. We also have on the podcast today our producer, Sophie Lichterman, who is not showing up through video because you just need to justify that to you, you maniacs watching the show. You don't need to know why Sophie's not going to be on video. She's not.
Deal with it. Yeah, we don't need another subreddit about if I'm safe or not, guys.
Yeah, podcast listeners, you can just continue ignoring all of this.
It's 2026. Of course I'm unsafe. What are you talking about?
Jamie, are you excited to conclude this epic story? Because we had a little bit of a break, a longer one than we usually do between the first two parts and the third. So, you know, I expect things have been building up, edging, if you will, as we wait for, you know, the conclusion here.
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Chapter 2: How did Nicole Daedone's leadership style affect the cult dynamics?
That's true. That's true.
And I will say, you know, say what you will about Nicole, but she certainly has gotten creative with it so far.
She's creative. She's creative.
I have never heard quite of this.
Yeah. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas.
We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.
We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know. Tired and sick.
Tired and sick.
Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.
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Chapter 3: What role did financial pressures play in OneTaste's operations?
This will be the first of two different warehouses that are like communal living spaces. And he's like, nice warehouses? Warehouse could mean so much. They're in the Bay, you know, it's off of, what's it called? It's off of Folsom Street. So it's not like a, it's an expensive area. Like it's fairly expensive real estate. From the videos, it's like a warehouse, but not a bad one.
I have spent time in San Francisco warehouses that are living, well, Oakland warehouses that were living spaces. This seems like one of the nicer ones, right? Okay, okay. So around 50 people move in at first and they have to give up most of their earthly possessions to do so. Once they all live in the warehouse, clothing, basically most things are communal and borrowed or shared.
People will like borrow and take each other's clothes. If you complain that someone's like taking all of your clothes or taking your stuff and that you don't feel like it's equal, you'll be sort of critiqued or attacked for being too obsessed with attachments.
Nicole starts having these, she'll go through a couple of different names, but they're all, there's these various different sort of group meeting structures that she'll do where everyone sits around in a circle and like critiques each other. This is all downhill from Sinanon and the game that they played where everyone gets in a circle and insults each other.
There's different versions of this, but it's a way for- That's how a lot of clown classes work.
Yep. Yep. Yeah.
So people who complain that like, hey, all my clothes have been taken by someone else will be critiqued as being obsessed with attachments. You don't want to be too obsessed with attachments. You know, we're doing this for the betterment of humankind. You know, why do you care that everyone's taking your shirts? Yeah. Everybody sleeps.
There's one giant central main room with like a dozen or more beds crammed together. Like it has to be like 20 beds, 20 something beds for 50 people crammed together. And like between two and three people for a bed, it kind of seems like. I think it's usually couples, but it does, at least from some interviews, it seems like some people are doing, you know, throuples or foursomes too. Okay.
So again, at this point, you've got a few dozen, maybe around 50 full-time members who have like really devoted themselves completely to the cult. And then a few hundred people in the Bay Area who are kind of taking their courses. Some of these folks are casual. Maybe once or twice a year they'll do a thing. Some of these folks are more regular.
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Chapter 4: How did OneTaste's public image evolve over the years?
Don't you want to get, right? That's kind of how this is. And that's not quite prostitution, but that's like on the edge, right? Well, especially-
Yeah, she has too much. She has all the power in that situation. And also, I'm assuming that, you know, at least some of the time she's lying about that.
Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.
So, yeah. So in a way, that is trafficking, isn't it?
Yeah. It's definitely trafficking or trafficking adjacent. It's going to get a lot more direct at this point. It's a little, you know, fuzzy. And she always frames this.
I'm still enjoying the idea of all of the, like, the few hundred people who are just sort of, like, one toe into the cult. I think we both live in cities where that is the case for about half of the residents.
Where I'm like, yeah, I'd probably go to a cult a couple times. Yeah.
Yeah.
A couple times a month. I probably go to a place that I'm going to read an expose about in a couple years. I don't know.
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Chapter 5: What were the consequences of OneTaste's controversial practices?
And so even outside of the classes, she's sometimes saying, hey, this guy needs you know, I want to convince him to sign up. Would you do me a favor? And favor is a hand job, generally. Usually when she uses that term, that means like, I want you to jerk this guy off for me outside of a class. And so now we're really, now we're, yeah. Come on. No, this isn't, the line has been crossed. This is,
This is kind of ā from a very early point, 2005-06, she's regularly ā it's not always, but she's pretty regularly crossing the line into prostitution, right? Well, this exceeds certain Epstein tactics to me. It's not just you're recruiting someone to go to a second location. It's you're being trafficked to go give a handjob to get to a second location, right? Right.
To get them into the class where they'll then be going down on you for an hour or for three days or whatever, depending on the kind of class that they're doing. Depending on how in the warehouse you are. Yeah. Yeah. How in the warehouse you are. And yeah, that that kind of over time, this just becomes a major part of how one taste gets by. Certain money men will pay for group workshops and.
where many of the other seats are taken by other people paying for seats, including women. There are women in the Bay Area who pay for these seats, and they get paired up with these guys, too. But a decent number of seats and holes, kind of, if we haven't sold. Oh, there's 24 slots in this.
We only found 15 people, and most of them are men, so we need to make up the difference with a lot of young females from the cult, right? The ratio is off in the cult.
Yeah.
We've got to get the ratio. Right. So by 2008, the constant struggle to keep the lights on in one taste, because again, they're never quite in the black, had made Nicole desperate, right? She likes the lifestyle, but it's also not quite working. And I think she's aware of the risk. I think she knows I've crossed the line already and we're still not profitable.
Maybe I should either leave or try to like sell off. my position in the cult to a mark, right? So she starts wondering, has this thing run its course? And just as she's wondering, like, do I need to cancel or do I need to end things? A savior appears. And that savior is the New York Times.
Oh, so one of the reporters calls and here's I've heard there's this Bay Area company that's, you know, an orgasm classes and they're teaching people how to do orgasmic meditation. Sounds like a great story. And Nicole is like, come on by. We would love to have you. Now, I quoted a couple of times in previous the previous episodes from that New York Times article.
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Chapter 6: How did the media coverage impact OneTaste's legitimacy?
Right. That's how it's framed.
These are researchers. I feel like that's often how, like, I mean, the New York Times is its whole own set of issues.
But how like East Coast journalists often talk about like West Coast trends where they are just like, they're just kooky. They're just weird over there. Check out these freaks. And you're like, no, those are sex criminals. No, this is bad. We're doing other weird stuff you couldn't conceive of. Yeah.
And so as a result, the article winds up working as an advertisement for One Taste more than anything else. And it even features ā they take photos of OM sessions of like women being stroked and otherwise masturbated in these different clinic classes that go on. But like really work safe. So you'll just get ā like Sophie's going to put one on screen for those that you can see.
And it's this like beautifully lit photo of just like the top half of a woman masturbating. And she's like, it's reversed. So like her head is facing down. And so you could just see her head. And she's got this like expression of ecstasy. She's wearing like a black shirt or something. It has her hands like kind of folded across her chest.
And she's lit so that like it almost looks like her face, just her face is glowing.
She kind of looks like a vampire coming back to life. A little bit, yeah. Why would you consent to have this picture taken of you? Oh my God. I mean, it's beautiful, but.
In the article, the framing of it, the title of the photo is Inner Bliss. At a one-taste urban retreat center, a resident practices orgasmic meditation. Partner not shown.
partner not shown yeah so best of all in in the article the times describes nicole as a literal quote sex diva and here's sophie i'll show you again there's this photo nicole's right in the center this is her giving a class she's like well lit sex diva nicole dadone one tastes founder says women will experience freedom when they own their sexuality
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Chapter 7: What legal challenges did OneTaste face leading to its downfall?
They have like an erotic poetry open mic. Mike Knight and like Audible sponsors turning that into a podcast.
They always. Oh, my God.
Every cult is trying to get stand up comedians in the door. Some of the worst people to come in your door. They're never forget. I came very close.
I was nearly persuaded in 2015 to go to a Scientology open mic.
Oh, that would have been amazing.
They have refreshments. They have refreshments.
It was really tempting. That would have been awesome. I know. Oh, man. I know. My career would be in a better place, I'm sure. Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah. So cult members were very active on social media and specifically like a lot of like local social media, like in the Bay Area. So there's a lot of like posts about like, was that this great house party? Here's some crazy pictures.
And you'll see these like giant cuddle puddles of a bunch of young women and like. 30% of the cuddle puddle will be like schlubby Bay Area engineer looking dudes, right? These are all very much framed as being like, hey, are you like a nerdy guy with a lot of money who lives in the Bay Area and maybe he's not good with like women? This cult, there's lots of young women who are good to go.
All you got to do is pay to take a class, right? That's very much what the messaging is to these guys. And a lot of new members are drawn in, a lot of new male members in particular, who Mm-hmm. I watched an interview with ā and I think this actually was from the Netflix documentary. I've watched a couple of interviews.
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Chapter 8: What are the long-term implications of OneTaste's story on cult dynamics?
More than one, almost certainly. Anyway.
God, what if it's an ad for dick pills? What if it's an ad for dick pills? There's a good chance it will be, and I hope it is. I know.
Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, Nick? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.
We're the first people to do podcasts. Yeah, a pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special.
So how did we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it, and... Well, we were thinking of originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers.
This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.
Oh, wow. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.
Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy? Not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Who's the worst singer in the group? The worst?
yeah me is there anything to the idea that because you're from harvard uh you only got in because your parents made a huge donation to the group the yard birds right that's the name the harvard yard but they're open do you have a name suggestion we're open since you guys are middle-aged uh one erection
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