"From Crack to Crocs" - A Conversation with Richard Velazquez

About this episode

THE INSTASCAMMER FULL SERIES HERE - Full INSTASCAMMER Podcast Feed! In today's episode, Cult Vault host Kacey interviews Richard Velazquez about being born into a strict Jehovah’s Witness upbringing in New York City. Richard describes his mother’s recruitment through door-to-door preaching and promises of paradise healing, family conflict with his non-JW father, and prohibitions on holidays and birthdays that fueled a “split personality” and fear-based childhood with corporal punishment. After his mother married an elder stepfather, he experienced severe abuse, leading to his father removing him at 11; subsequent instability included drug exposure, suicide attempts, and living on his own as…