Episode 12: The Big QuestionIf not the Troubled Teen Industry, then what else? Where can families, caregivers, schools, the justice system, and the courts look for effective support for struggling teens? Learn what survivors, activists, and lawmakers see in the future for the TTI, and what steps must be taken to change... more
Episode 11: Lipstick on a PigIt all started with Paris Hilton: since 2020, legislation passed to regulate and oversee the Troubled Teen Industry has outpaced the previous 50 years combined. Hear aboutthe past, present, and future of regulation, activism, and legislation around the TTI, efforts to abolish the industry,... more
Episode 10: AfterwardsMany survivors can remember their very first day out – often, it’s their 18th birthday, a much-anticipated day when, suddenly, they are free. But where do you go from there? Hear from survivors young and old about the lasting effects of the TTI, from the day they got out to the trauma that endures... more
Episode 9: Pray the Gay Away Conversion therapy has been disavowed by nearly every major medical organization in the United States, but survivors and staff say it is still a prevalent practice in the Troubled Teen Industry. Hear from LGBTQ+ survivors about conversion therapy, forcible detransition of transgender youth,... more
Episode 8: The System Gone MadParents aren’t the only ones who can send kids away. Learn about the government’s role in putting juvenile offenders, foster youth, and other wards of the state into the TTI, and how lackluster regulation can make starting a TTI facility all too easy.Find Gooned at goonedpodcast.com an... more
Episode 7: NATSAPEmma goes undercover at a conference for members of NATSAP, the preeminent trade organization for troubled teen industry programs and directors, to discover the culture of those at the head of the machine.Find Gooned at goonedpodcast.com and on TikTok @goonedpodcast.To see the notes and materials fro... more
Episode 6: Money TalksThe TTI is a multi-billion-dollar industry whose funding is nearly untraceable by design. Tracking where this money comes from and whose pockets it lines is crucial to understand how an industry built around victimizing the vulnerable has continued to thrive for so long.Find Gooned at goonedpo... more
Episode 5: Straight, Inc.Straight, Incorporated was one of the earliest troubled teen industry programs to take hold in the United States, garnering support from the media and the likes of Nancy Reagan and Princess Diana. Hear from a survivor of Straight, Inc. about the program that became a blueprint for the industr... more
Episode 4: Drinking the Kool-AidSo, what’s the pitch? Despite growing public scrutiny towards the troubled teen industry, tens of thousands of parents and caregivers still send their children away every year. Hear from Sharon, who sent her son into a TTI program, and listen in as the host contacts admissions director... more
Episode 3: Level ZeroTroubled Teen Industry programs use a system of points and levels that award or revoke basic needs based on compliance and submission. Necessities like food, water, and social interaction are privileges that can be taken away at any time, and constant surveillance means nothing goes unseen. Inside... more
Episode 1: The EdConEducational consultants, or EdCons, are a first step in the pipeline into the Troubled Teen Industry. Meet Nancy, Emma’s 57-year-old alter-ego, and Sharon, the mother of a child currently in a wilderness program, to learn how consultants use parents’ desperation to funnel kids into the TTI.Find Goon... more
Episode 2: The Hard WayWith just a few clicks and a phone call, anyone can hire “goons,” or legal kidnappers, to take their child away in the middle of the night. Emma goes undercover as Nancy, a fictional mother looking to transport her daughter to a wilderness therapy program, and discovers just how easy it is for ... more
Gooned is a deep dive into an industry with blood on its hands. The Troubled Teen Industry (TTI) is a network of profit-incentivized behavior modification facilities for youth, ranging from wilderness programs to therapeutic boarding schools. The decades-old industry uses predatory tactics to capitalize on families in... more
Visit goonedpodcast.com for more information, and follow Gooned on TikTok @goonedpod. Support Gooned on Patreon at patreon.com/goonedpodcast.Gooned premieres December 2023.