The Sunshine Place

By: Audacy Podcasts | Team Downey
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  • Summary

  • Welcome to the 1980s, where the war on drugs rages on and America's teenagers are caught in the crossfire. Enter Straight Incorporated, a controversial new rehab program that promises its tough love approach can set kids back on the straight and narrow. But for the survivors of Straight, their experience tells a horrifyingly different story — one of abuse, torture, and brainwashing. Season 2 of “The Sunshine Place” delves into the shocking tale of Straight Incorporated, an experimental teen rehab that descended into a sadistic cult exploiting parents' deepest fears and their children's vulnerabilities. This heart-wrenching exploration of parenting, family, and the human spirit intertwines with the dark underbelly of power, money, and politics. And at the heart of it all, we find a connection back to the subject of “The Sunshine Place” Season 1, Synanon. Executive Produced by Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Emily Barclay Ford of Team Downey, together with Josh McLaughlin of Wink Pictures. The Sunshine Place is an Audacy original.
    © Audacy, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Social Sciences True Crime
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Episodes
  • Welcome to The Sunshine Place

    Welcome to The Sunshine Place
    Jul 26 2022
    Once called “the miracle on the beach,” Synanon began in the 1960s as an experimental rehab facility in Santa Monica, California with a radical claim: It could cure heroin addiction. Before long, it would make an even bolder claim: It could cure any of your problems. All you had to do was move in. What started in a house on the beach, soon spread to compounds across the country. The man who made the miracle happen, Charles E. Dederich, aka “Chuck,” would be the one to destroy it all, along with the lives of many of his followers and millions of dollars in assets. The Sunshine Place tells the mind-blowing, true-story of Synanon - one of America’s most cutting edge social experiments, turned into one of its most dangerous and violent cults - as it’s never been told before: by the people who lived it. Executive Produced by Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Emily Barclay Ford for Team Downey and C13Originals, together with Josh McLaughlin for Wink Pictures and written, produced, and directed by Peabody-nominated C13Originals, a Cadence13 Studio. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    4 mins
  • S1|E1: The Kidsnatchers

    S1|E1: The Kidsnatchers
    Aug 10 2022
    Welcome to Synanon. If you're wondering what Synanon is, then you're asking the same question as Celena and Mike, whose lives change forever the moment they arrive. It's the 1970s, and Synanon is a community, a utopia, a cautionary tale, and a cult. But more than anything else, it's a person, the founder of Synanon, a man named Charles E. Dederich, who most people call, Chuck. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    48 mins
  • S1|E2: The Miracle on the Beach

    S1|E2: The Miracle on the Beach
    Aug 10 2022
    Chuck Dederich hits rock bottom as an alcoholic in the beachside slums of Los Angeles. It's 1958, and he's got nothing but an idea, but it's one that would save countless lives. He calls it Synanon. Others call it the Miracle on the Beach. Through sheer force of will, Chuck's idea becomes national news, and Synanon becomes a household word. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    46 mins

What listeners say about The Sunshine Place

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Profile Image for Phil Elberg

first rate and compelling

The Straight, sembler, Miller Newton story has been "out there" in a variety of forms but this is the telling that ties the pieces together in a way that makes sense of the "incredible" and lays out how and why it happened. I highly recommend it.

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Profile Image for Brittney

Shines light on a dark place

This is a story that has needed to be told for a long time. there is much more to the story than was told in the Sunshine place, but it does shed some light on a seemingly happy place full of darkness.

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