In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Tanya Johnson (she/her), licensed mental health counselor, clinical supervisor, and counseling professor, for a deep dive into the psychology of religious trauma and high-control groups.

Dr. Johnson breaks down exactly how high-control religions use behavioral, emotional, thought, and information control to keep members compliant and disconnected from their own instincts.

In this episode we cover:

• Why religious trauma is so hard to recognize and why we minimize it
• The BITE model and how cults control every aspect of your inner world
• How high-control groups train you to interpret your emotions through their lens
• Why anger is repressed in religious spaces and what that costs you
• The connection between the fawn response and religious conditioning
• Why neurodivergent people can have a unique relationship with high-control groups
• How to talk to loved ones who are still inside a high-control religion
• Why leaving religion can feel like losing your identity and map for reality
• Reclaiming your inner authority and learning to trust yourself again
• The martyrdom complex and how it follows you out of the church
• Why doing it scared is the only way through conditioned guilt and fear

Dr. Johnson also shares resources for finding religious trauma informed therapists and her own courses for both clients and therapists in training.

Dr. Lulu (Coach Udaku) is a queer Nigerian immigrant pediatrician, certified life coach, bestselling author, and advocate whose life defies every box society tries to put her in.

In this conversation, she opens up about her own decades-long journey to understanding her identity and how navigating faith, culture, immigration, and medicine shaped every step of the way.

Dr. Lulu shares the raw, unfiltered experience of learning her eldest child is transgender and how that moment cracked her world open and ultimately became her life's calling. She breaks down the critical difference between accepting and affirming a queer child, why siblings are the forgotten members of a transitioning family, and what parents absolutely must do before their child ever comes out to them.

We also dive into the concept of "inviting in", a powerful reframe that puts the power back in queer people's hands, and her trademarked theory of reverse intersectionality, which transforms marginalized identities into tools for meaningful change.

Check Out: https://drluluspridecorner.com/

Biconic breaks down what it means to be an AFAB (assigned female at birth) drag queen in a space historically dominated by AMAB (assigned male at birth) performers, how she built her drag persona inspired by Ursula, and why she chose drag queen over drag king.

We talk about Texas's SB12 "drag ban", what it actually says, why it's deliberately vague, and how it's creating a climate of fear for performers and small businesses alike. Biconic shares what it's like to perform on the front lines of this legislation and why pre-complying with oppression is never the answer.

We also get personal, from growing up as a military brat across 13 countries and 44 states, to knowing she was bisexual since kindergarten, to being closeted through a private Christian school and finally coming out at 18. Plus her wildest drag moments including sneaking through the streets of Dublin in a purple wig and asking Trixie Mattel and George Takei the closing question at an LA Pride panel.

This episode is a love letter to queer joy, community organizing, and drag as political defiance.

Topics Covered:

• What it means to be a sapphic/AFAB drag queen
• Texas SB12 drag ban explained
• Bisexual erasure and coming out later in life
• Drag as political resistance and queer history
• Building community in hostile political climates
• How drag healing and queer joy are acts of defiance

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