Smart People Fall For The Cult Of Trump With Journalist Virginia Heffernan
About this episode
Virginia Heffernan discusses the surprising individuals drawn into the Trump cult and her experiences with the Epstein-sponsored group Edge.
From Richard Dawkins to Larry Summers, brilliant minds get pulled in. I sat down with the journalist Virginia Heffernan for a recent conversation on Cults, Culture & Coercion to talk about who falls for the Trump cult and why. Virginia spent time inside a group of academics and intellectuals sponsored by Jeffrey Epstein, called Edge, run by literary agent John Brockman. She wrote about involvement in the Epstein cult for The New Republic. She told me she was fortunately kept at arm’s length from the worst of it. “I was only there as a fig leaf because they didn't have any women,” she said. “They didn't want me at the parties or on the island.” She watched the dynamics around her. Edge included Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and Harvard president. The Epstein correspondence released by the House Oversight Committee in November 2025 documents a years-long stream of personal advice Summers sought from a convicted sex offender. In the messages, Summers asked Epstein for guidance on his pursuit of a younger woman he described as a mentee. Epstein called himself Summers' wing man and urged Summers to play the long game by keeping the woman in a forced holding pattern (Harvard…
More episodes of Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan
- He Was Ordained by the Mormon Prophet: Former Mormon Bishop Ian Wilks on 37 years inside the LDS authoritarian cult
- He Was 18. Scientology Put Him in Charge. A former Scientology executive in Scotland on recruitment, control, and getting out with Amir Essalhi
- Why filmmaker Deeyah Khan sits with extremists demonstrating how listening matters!
- The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism with Holly Berkley Fletcher PhD
- The Olive Leaf Network: Public Testimony to the Parliament of Victoria on Children in Cults and High-demand Religious Groups with Psychologist Maria Esguerra
- American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom with Keri Ladner, PhD
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan podcast page.