The drug rehab/utopian community/violent cult. Shaved heads, The Game, rattlesnakes, and dope fiends!
Connect on Facebook or at the Failed Utopia website.
Links & Resources
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741 741
Domestic Violence Helpline: 1-800-799-7233
VictimConnect, a referral helpline for victims of crime: 1-855-484-2846
Make The Connection
- Synanon movie trailer. Skip to 2:23 for the best fight scene of all time.
- Paul Morantz’s Escape: My Lifelong War Against Cults and From Miracle to Madness: The True Story of Charles Dederich and Synanon
- Paul Morantz’s website
- A website run by a former Synanon member with a bunch of pictures. This is probably the worst website I have ever seen, and it’s worth looking at based on that alone.
- Mikel Jollett’s Hollywood Park
- An interview with Mikel Jollett on NPR’s All Songs Considered
- Claire Clark’s The Recovery Road: The Battle Over Addiction Treatment in the United States
- Rod Janzen’s The Rise and Fall of Synanon: A California Utopia
- C.A. Wittman's Synanon Kid
- THX 1138
- Equilibrium
Written and produced by Anna Roberts
Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez
Intro music by Elliot Middleton