Podcasts · Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Powered by Orgasm: The Rise and Fall of a Sex Cult - with Ellen Huet

30 Jan 2026 · 41 min · S7 E5 · Explicit

Run by the charismatic Nicole Deadone, OneTaste billed itself as a sexual wellness startup celebrating the power of female orgasm. But behind the celebrity endorsements and promises of healing, lay a darker reality. When Bloomberg journalist Ellen Huet began to dig into the organisation, she uncovered financial, emotional and sexual exploitation of its members, many of whom would call the company a cult. Huet, author of Empire of Orgasm, joins Tim to discuss why we should beware people promising pleasure, and what we can learn from the rise and fall of OneTaste. This episode contains explicit content from the beginning, and is not suitable for children.

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