Modern WisdomExorcisms, Rockstar Priests & Dangerous Taboos - Andrew Gold | Modern Wisdom Podcast 355
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Inside Exorcisms, Pedophiles, and Media Taboos with Andrew Gold
- Andrew Gold, a documentary journalist and podcaster, recounts his career documenting fringe subcultures, from South American exorcists and abortion activists to pedophiles in German treatment programs and Amazon warehouse workers.
- He describes a harrowing confrontation with a celebrity exorcist in Argentina, the ethical and psychological complexities of exorcisms, and how belief and placebo can temporarily relieve genuine mental health conditions.
- Gold also details systemic issues in UK broadcasting—especially diversity-driven casting and risk aversion—that have blocked his progress despite a successful BBC film, arguing that on-screen diversity has become a performative substitute for deeper structural change.
- The conversation closes with his ongoing investigation into non-offending pedophiles, the moral minefield around prevention, stigma, and treatment, and why society must talk about such taboos to reduce real-world harm.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasSensational religious practices often mask untreated mental illness.
Gold’s Argentine exorcist was ‘treating’ women with schizophrenia and eating disorders by performing dramatic exorcisms, highlighting how lack of education and medical access allows charismatic figures to hijack faith and exploit vulnerable people.
Belief and context can produce powerful, but fragile, placebo effects.
Exorcisms and historical cases (e.g., catatonic patients mobilized by wartime need) illustrate that intense meaning, fear, or social pressure can trigger real behavioral and symptomatic change, even without a genuine supernatural cause.
UK broadcasters’ diversity strategies can be performative and distort meritocratic commissioning.
Gold repeatedly heard that his stories would be commissioned only if fronted by a minority presenter, regardless of his language skills and years of research, suggesting a focus on visible on-screen diversity rather than structural change or journalistic ownership.
Industrial giants like Amazon can thrive in regulatory blind spots.
The undercover Amazon account describes intense physical strain, punitive point systems, and underpayment in a supposedly well-regulated country, raising questions about enforcement priorities and political incentives to confront major employers.
Non-offending pedophiles present a prevention dilemma society cannot ignore.
Clinics in Germany promise confidentiality to attract pedophiles into treatment, betting that therapy and destigmatization reduce offending, but this clashes with public instinct for punishment and zero tolerance, making policy design extremely contentious.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes“He had posters of himself superimposed on The Exorcist and other superhero movies around the church. This was a guy who really liked the attention.”
— Andrew Gold
“The last 10 minutes are pretty insane… We realized my microphone had been recording the entire time he was screaming at us backstage.”
— Andrew Gold
“Every single meeting they’d say, ‘We love the ideas, but we just need someone from a minority ethnic background to be the onscreen presence, and you behind the camera.’”
— Andrew Gold
“One percent of men are thought to be exclusive pedophiles… That’s more men in most countries than you have people in the army.”
— Andrew Gold
“If you say to someone enough, ‘You are evil, you are a monster,’ they just sort of give up and go, ‘Well, okay, I’m a monster then.’”
— Andrew Gold
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