Worldwide

In 1967, well-known fashion tycoon Jim Thompson went on vacation in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia and  vanished without a trace. His disappearance resulted in the largest manhunt ever conducted on land in Southeast Asian history. But who exactly was Jim Thompson? In this episode, we will walk you through the life and legacy of this charismatic millionaire, adventurous intelligence officer, and founder of a renowned fashion empi...

When the police fail to turn up leads in missing persons cases, families sometimes get desperate and ask psychic detectives to “help.”  In the case of Jim Thompson, his sister, Eleanor, hired the world’s most famous psychic celebrity at the time – Peter Hurkos – to locate her brother when the police could not. But psychic detectives are rarely helpful, and we sit down with professional skeptic and former psychic entertainer, D.J. G...

In the mid-2010s, Dr. Lew Toulmin, a search and rescue operations specialist, went to Malaysia and Thailand to research the Jim Thompson case extensively and to evaluate the possible causes of his death. Was Jim Thompson the victim of foul play?  Was he attacked and eaten by a tiger?  Was he caught up in a communist conspiracy?  Or did he simply stumble upon something in the jungle that sealed his fate? Listen and make your own con...

In 2013, former CIA officer Barry Broman received a phone call from someone claiming to know who killed Jim Thompson. Join us as we follow that lead from Thailand to Singapore and evaluate whether Jim was killed by a communist plot to eliminate him.

To watch Broman's short film, Who Killed Jim Thompson The Thai Silk King?, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cic9Wh-MSw

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In this last episode, we examine the story of Jim’s associate, who swears he spotted Thompson in a hotel lobby in Tahiti weeks after he disappeared, as well as the still unsolved murder of Jim Thompson’s sister, Katharine, five months after Jim vanished.   We'll also explore the  legacy of Jim Thompson and how it continues today.  Join us for the final twists and turns in the Thompson tale.

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In this series finale, we hear from listeners about their own WCG experiences, what listeners took away from the series, and how listeners can share their own stories through www.igotout.org.

Worldwide: The Unchosen Church is hosted, written and produced by Dr. Tricia Jenkins; sound design and editing is done by Thirteen Media; and music is licensed by SoundStripe.

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Cults almost never admit error or de-radicalize themselves, but that is exactly what happened in the Worldwide Church of God.  Hear our interview with Joseph Tkach Jr - the last pastor general of the WCG - who helped take this doomsday cult from "the fringe to the fold" at great economic, emotional and personal costs.

Worldwide: The Unchosen Church is hosted, written and produced by Dr. Tricia Jenkins; sound des...

Church hurt, women’s roles in ministry, and pastor worship are all topics that we discuss with Pastor Dave on this week’s episode. Dave grew up in a legalistic, authoritarian church that preached you had to earn your salvation by works. Today, he’s a non-denominational pastor at the Life Church in Texas that preaches salvation by grace.  Learn why, unlike a lot of our guests who gave up on religion after leaving the Worldwide Churc...

LaNisa Frederick is a comedic actress with credits in The Goldbergs, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Young Sheldon. In this episode, she describes what it was like to be raised in a high demand group with one parent in the church and one outside of it and why cults are not just a white people thing. LaNisa also talks about her efforts to develop a single-cam television comedy called Church Candy based on her experiences growing up in th...

Bobby Fischer was the Muhammad Ali of chess. He became the youngest person to ever win the US chess championship at the age of 14 and the only American-born player to ever win the World Chess Championship. But after defeating the Soviet Boris Spassky in 1972, Bobby Fischer never played another professional match for over twenty years. Instead, he became a recluse, preferring privacy over prize money.  Not much is known about Bobby’...

In 2022, Armstrongism isn't dead. It's alive and well, and in Wadsworth, Ohio, it's on steroids. Meet The Restored Church of God, headed by new cult leader Dave Pack. In this explosive episode, we talk with Kevin Denee, Pack's son-in-law and a former high-ranking member in the RCG who left the church in 2016. He talks publicly for the first time about Pack's church, ready to blow the whistle on its nefariou...

DJ Grothe is the former host of the Point of Inquiry and For Good Reason podcasts and the past president of the James Randi Educational Foundation.  While he has interviewed hundreds of skeptic and scientific leaders, he rarely tells his own story of how he attended a little Bible college in the piney woods of East Texas, called Ambassador University.  In this episode, I sit down to ask DJ why he joined the Worldwide Church of God ...

In this episode, we talk with Heather, Dawn and Lisa about how the expectations set for women by the WCG and its offshoots affected their future careers, marriages, parenting, and relationship to sex. An honest and authentic look at how conservative churches often affect women, this show is not to be missed. 

While this podcast is a labor of love, if you'd like to support Worldwide: The Unchosen Church, we would gladly accept  ...

Glynn Washington is a highly successful podcaster, hosting shows such as Snap Judgment, Spooked and Heaven’s Gate. But I bet you didn’t know that his storytelling style is highly influenced by cult leader, Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God. How did Glynn end up in this cult?  What did he take from Armstrong? And what was it like to be in a black family that joined a “white supremacist Jesus cult?” Glynn Washington...

What is it like to watch your three-year-old sister succumb to leukemia, while your family relies on prayer, rather than doctors, to save her? How does being raised by an authoritarian father, who is also a minister in an authoritarian church, add to that trauma? And how might those experiences connect to your being sentenced to both the death penalty and a life sentence as an adult in a Thai prison?  Jesse Moskel answers these que...