The Extemporaneous Style # 5 - Veggie Cults of SF

Welcome to the Paranoid Style Podcast! We're finally back with an episode, done in the Extemporaneous Style!

 We discuss another podcast that we've been loving and recommend: Chasing Enlightenment.
Website for Chasing Enlightenment Podcast: https://www.chasingenlightenment.net/

We also make a reservation to our favorite cult-run vegetarian restaurants. And we close the book on Season 1 of The Paranoid Style Podcast. From Canada's The Junction to San Francisco's Skid Row. From giant cookies to veggie neatloaf. From why no cult would want us to why we could never join a cult. 

Thank you for listening! And please subscribe where ever you get your podcasts, so that you don't miss Season 2 when we return on January 4th, 2022!

 If you have any topic suggestions for the show or any tales to share, please email us at theparanoidstylepod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram @theparanoidstylepod or on twitter @style_paranoid.  

Music used in this episode is from: Purple Planet Royalty Free Music (purple-planet.com)
 
Opening theme music provided by Tony Molina. You can hear more of his music at https://tonymolina650.bandcamp.com/

Transcript

CCK:: [00:00:00] Hey sister

ARK:: Hey Sister

CCK:: My name is Christine and I am a basic biatch who loves peppermint mochas and pumpkin spice, lattes and I'm not ashamed to say it. I mean, I'm slightly ashamed to say it, but 

ARK:: and I am Amanda and I am in no danger of joining a cult Cause I hate group activities I hate interacting with other humans so much. that I'm in no danger. 

CCK:: podcast is going to go swimmingly 

ARK:: Hey listener, if this [00:00:30] is your first time, listening welcome to the paranoid style podcast. And if this is not your first time listening, then you can probably already tell by the loosey goosey fly by the seat of our pants. intro that it's an extemporaneous style episode. So this week for our extemporaneous style, speaking of Cults we are going to talk a little bit about that something that we've both been enjoying lately. 

CCK:: [00:01:00] Yes. 

ARK:: is not a cult yet, but who knows what kind of 

CCK:: podcasting cult following they might have. 

ARK:: So specifically we wanted to talk about chasing enlightenment 

CCK:: it's about a Canadian cult 

ARK:: The Students of Light 

CCK:: I really like this podcast for several reasons. The first thing is I learned so many crazy things about Toronto. That I didn't realize.[00:01:30] the junction had prohibition from 1904 to the late 1990s. 

ARK:: That's so weird.

CCK:: I didn't even know they had prohibition in Canada.

ARK:: Actually, now that you say that, I don't think 

CCK:: thought that that was such an American 

ARK:: Yeah, me too.

CCK:: But I am dumb. So what do I know? 

ARK:: This cult this students of light. Their leader was a man named John Hanas. 

CCK:: I love that his name 

ARK:: is heinous I know it's [00:02:00] not spelled same, but it means same. So Colts are so fascinating to me, It's such a fascinating topic. And I really love, hearing stories from people who were part of it and then came out the other end and how they look back on that time in their lives. And it's always that thing of as a listener, you're like, oh, I could never be sucked into a cult, blah, blah, blah. But you know what though? I'm way into woo-hoo [00:02:30] shit. 

CCK:: The students of light, we're very into this thing called Aura balancing. And that sounds like something we would totally.

ARK:: I once had in my aura balanced. I kid you not, I did. It went really 

well. 

Apparently I learned that all my aura kind of floats above my head and around my head. I was really imbalanced. All my aura was up here, like a gigantic 

[00:03:00] Helmet 

around my head. 

CCK:: Interesting. Does that mean that you didn't have a connection with your body? all 

true I 

ARK:: think that is true. I'm one of those people, I always have a moment of , am I in pain right I never, I always feel really, disconnected. 

But yeah, but I mean, that's the thing, as much as I am so into woo shit, I'm such a non joiner 

CCK:: that is true. 

ARK:: And I hate cleaning. And it seems like that is always the number one part about cults is that they make your [00:03:30] ass clean from date 

CCK:: That is true. I might need a brief stint in a Colts to improve my, my spacial hygiene. Cause I'm not a great house cleaner, but chasing enlightenment does have interviews with actual members who left the cult, people in the junction who kind of saw the cult from the outside that I thought that that was really interesting and it's really well produced.

The interviews are really clear the audio 

ARK:: The [00:04:00] presenter's really good. 

CCK:: The music, the music cues and stuff are 

ARK:: the music in that podcast It's so nice. 

CCK:: agree. 

ARK:: And okay, so they've technically have finished their first season. I think there's six episodes in their first season, but they're going to release. some Bonus 

CCK:: content 

ARK:: content in the near future.

And I really hope they do a season two because I would love to hear their take on all kinds of [00:04:30] cults. 

CCK:: Plus there's probably, I mean, based on my complete lack of knowledge about anything Canadian, that there's probably a bunch of other Canadian 

ARK:: I mean, Roch Thériault was in Canada and that's one of the freakiest terrible cults that. ever 

CCK:: I've never heard of 

that I'm very 

ARK:: his I swear his cult was , the humans or the people's people, or I don't know. 

CCK:: kind of familiar, 

ARK:: Yeah. But, oh my God. I would love to hear chasing. enlightenment do rock Terrio or, oh man. So [00:05:00] 

CCK:: Yes. And there it's available on iTunes, Spotify, good pods, probably other places where you get your podcasts and we're going to now play a little, a little promo clip of it.

[5:26 - 7:05 - Chasing Enlightenment Podcast - https://www.chasingenlightenment.net]

ARK:: So we recommend chasing enlightenment for sure. 

CCK:: I just love a well-organized podcast. I say on our extemporaneous mayhem episode, 

ARK:: it's very well [00:07:30] organized. It's very well-researched. And there was a moment in the very last episode that was so amazing. It could have been out of a movie, and I'm not going to spoil anything.

You just have to go listen. Cause it was, it was like when that happened, the hairs on the back of my neck, kinda stood up. I was oh my God, this is so 

CCK:: exciting. 

It was really cool. 

ARK:: And you know what I would say that, I think part of the appeal of chasing enlightenment, especially for us, [00:08:00] is that the privilege of being in the San Francisco bay area means that we are super.

blessed With having, a wide array of vegetarian cult restaurants to choose from 

CCK:: so many good choices. 

ARK:: And we've always joked that the only thing it would take to get you into a cult is a well-made giant cookie. 

CCK:: Oh my gosh. 

ARK:: And so many of these vegetarian cult restaurants have 

CCK:: really delicious giant [00:08:30] cookies.

ARK:: We're going to break down a few of our favorite Cult vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco and the first one up is a Ananda Fuara, which apparently means fountain of delight. It's operated by students of a spiritual leader named Sri Chinmoy he was born in Shakpura in East Bengal, India, and he moved to New York in the sixties and opened his first meditation center. And he had a lot of [00:09:00] actually very famous Followers, including Roberta flack, Carlos Santana and America's sweetheart, the big man, Clarence Clemons from the estreet band. rest in peace. 

CCK:: I had no idea. My experience with Sri Chinmoy is he used to sometimes be on the 11 o'clock news during the sports cast with Gary Radnich because Sri Chinmoy.

One of the things that [00:09:30] he talked about was harnessing the power of the brain or spirit or something to lift heavy objects.

ARK:: Well, he was an avid distance runner, and then he became a major weightlifter. And once in 1986, he lifted an elephant. I mean, I think it was a baby elephant 

but still it was pretty hardcore.

You can, you can go watch it on You Tube. 

CCK:: Oh you think it was hardcore for you imagine the poor [00:10:00] baby elephant

ARK:: Yeah so he believed that the spiritual path to God was through prayer and meditation, obvs, but then also sports, which he was, again, he was a distance runner into weightlifting creativity. He used to paint and he wrote poetry. 

CCK:: in the restaurant. There are paintings from Sri Chinmoy some of the paintings that are on the wall or , and then there's a section with the books of 

Sri chinois art and [00:10:30] books.

Yeah. And there's one with him hugging a koala that I always wanted. 

ARK:: Right. And so in addition to sports, creativity, meditation, and prayer, he also believed that vegetarianism was a part of the spiritual path to God. So henceAnanda Fuara The inside is painted baby blue.

And apparently he used to encourage all his followers to paint their houses, that color, that baby blue [00:11:00] color. And then the walls are decorated withChinmoy's paintings and then a bunch of pictures of him. There's a picture of him with Pope John Paul, the second.

I think there's a picture of him in Mikhail Gorbachev. 

CCK:: One of the defining characteristics of Ananda Fuara for me is we always used to try to go there to eat and it always seemed to be closed whenever we went there and it took us years to realize that they're closed in April and August.

ARK:: Yeah [00:11:30] to this day.

If I ever think about going to a Ananda Fuara I have to stop and I tell myself, What month is this Is it an a month? Is it April? Is it August Is it? 

CCK:: is one of those months Sri Chinmoy's. Birthday. 

ARK:: Yeah. And the other one is, oh man, I don't remember 

Yeah I think probably when he achieved enlightenment or 

CCK:: Yeah. The outside looks a bit sketch, but inside it's nice.

ARK:: [00:12:00] It's nice. I would say that every experience I've had with the wait staff at Ananda Fuara, they are infinitely, kind. But maybe a little on the flaky side, they'll forget what you ordered.

I mean, Not that they're just bringing you whatever, but I've had experiences where they'll come back to your table, two times to be like, what did you order again? but they're sweet. They're kind. And 

CCK:: yeah Although not disturbingly, they're not in your face. Sweet. They're sort of [00:12:30] serene and distant, but very overall nice.

ARK:: Yes, I agree. 

CCK:: And the most important thing is that they will bring you the best in my opinion, the best. Vegetarian chicken salad sandwich. 

ARK:: I got, so That's what I was going to say. I was going to say that I do feel like their signature dish is the neat loaf, 

which is a grain, loaf served with a tangy barbecue sauce. And it is delicious, but it is not my go-to dish.[00:13:00] 

the chicken salad sandwich and chickens in quotation marks that is there. a 

CCK:: Yeah. And, and that they have vegan stuff, but they also have just vegetarian. That's vegetarian. It comes with mayonnaise and the chicken 

ARK:: Same with the neat loaf. I'm almost positive. The meatloaf contains eggs, if I'm not 

mistaken Yeah. Yeah. And spoiler alert.

The veggie of the day is always shredded carrot and raisins. I've never gone in there and they had a different, veggie side of the day 

on 

CCK:: do [00:13:30] because for some of the, some of the, or maybe all of the entrees, you can pick what you want. Either a veggie side, a bowl of dal 

ARK:: which is really 

CCK:: which is good. They have a couple of other things rice, or I don't remember what, but then they say seasonal vegetable, which is always carrots and raisin 

ARK:: right but nothing, nothing in the world.

beats their banana and chocolate chip cake. Oh my God. I love that thing. It is, 

CCK:: This is where I'm going to have to disagree with you [00:14:00] because the plate size chocolate crinkle, cookie 

ARK:: Oh, they're crinkle cookies. Very 

CCK:: Oh it's delicious. It's oatmeal held together with chocolate and something else. And it forms a platter sized cookie treat. 

ARK:: but Don't let the giant cookies and delicious banana chocolate chips. 

What's the 

word I'm looking for It don't let it to seduce you because there were some culty things going on. 

CCK:: One thing that I think is interesting is I don't feel like they were trying [00:14:30] to recruit you ever, or maybe did they, do you think that there were people that they were trying to recruit? I just felt like they wanted me to eat my meal and get the heck out.

ARK:: Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think maybe if anyone had ever come in and got one of the books and was sitting at their table, reading the book Then maybe you would have gotten a little bit more of the hard sell yeah. Or engagement about [00:15:00] it. But there were culty accusations against Sri Chinmoy. In 2009 Jayanti Tamm Wrote a memoir called "Cartwheels in a Sari: A memoir of growing up cult". And she was one time considered the greatest disciple of Sri Chinmoy. she was born into the cult And she escaped when she was 25. And then she wrote this memoir that, talks about[00:13:30] the cruel abuse towards children in the cult. And one of the facets of the cult was. that Was abstinence, which happens so often in these cults, that's such a way to control people is this forced abstinence.

CCK:: That's what I kind of wonder. Does that dovetail into the vegetarian aspect of a lot of cults, the abstinence from meat, or abandoning the traditional diet that many people grow up with? [00:14:00] Or, I mean, why vegetarian? I mean why are so many of these cults vegetarian? 

ARK:: I think a lot of them probably are based on the five tenants of Buddhism, which includes not killing anything, including animals.

So I think maybe that's because they kind of get their basis off of That Yeah But anyway, 

there was accusations of, cruelty to children forbidding married couples from having [00:15:30] sex, punishing disciples, If they got pregnant. And then also some sexual misconduct allegations against Chinmoy himself.

And he died in 2007 and Mikhail Gorbachev wrote of Chinmoy's death that it was quote a loss for the whole world. Yeah. 

So 

CCK:: next up Cafe gratitude. 

ARK:: gratitude, 

CCK:: [00:16:00] Okay. So cafe gratitude, I have to say is a little bit different than some of the other cult restaurants that we're going to talk about because I'm not sure it was so much a cult is just a money making 

ARK:: Oh, what did they call that? An MLM, like a multi-level marketing 

CCK:: Sort of more like that. So Matthew and Terces Engelhart opened the first cafe gratitude in 2004.

And that was in San Francisco and there [00:16:30] were eventually eight bay area locations and they featured vegan raw food menu and they had selections that had names so that when you ordered them, you basically had to make. 

ARK:: I feel I feel emboldened. 

CCK:: Yes, exactly. Like I am blessed. I think that that was my favorite it was a raw vegan sushi bowl kind of thing. But they had things like, I am blessed. I am loved, I am 

ARK:: No I am. [00:17:00] Flatulent after eating all these raw vegetables, 

CCK:: There was also a card game on each table at the restaurant that was invented by the Engelharts. And it was called the bounding river. I don't know if you remember that, but it was a card game and the cards had. Basically sort of spiritual related conversations, starters, like what is the most precious thing in your life? it's interesting because on the one hand, I am not super [00:17:30] against the affirmation aspect of the 

ARK:: You just think it's something that should be done in the privacy of your own home. 

CCK:: Yes. I mean, it's just, there's definitely a conflict within me because I'm not against affirmations, but there was something that felt kind of forced 

ARK:: Yeah. because am I misremembering that I want to say that the waitstaff used to

CCK:: they had a question of

ARK:: that's what it was the question of the day.

I was trying to 

remember Yes. 

CCK:: They would ask you, if you want to, [00:18:00] to answer the question of the day, which again was probably from the abounding river, they were those kinds of questions. Like what do you do to make yourself feel special? Or, how do you engage in self care?

I mean, those may not have been actual questions, but they were those kinds of questions. But I think several times, cause they come up and they ask you, would you like to answer the question of the day? And depending on who I went with, sometimes the answer was no cafe gratitude was hit with a number of lawsuits [00:18:30] related to unfair employment practices. And those practices included tip pooling, cutting salaries, and then adding additional people to the tip pools and then , allegedly firing someone for not participating in the, and I'm using quotes here, optional landmark extracurricular classes.

So cafe gratitude, Matthew and Terces, they would pay for half of your introductory session to a program called [00:19:00] landmark education. It was called landmark education before 2013, and now it's called landmark worldwide. And I actually, I know a couple of different people in the bay area who've been into landmark.

And I think it's more a self-empowerment exercise, but there are fees involved that's where it gets a little sticky. But also if your employer is optionally requesting that you go to this, [00:19:30] but then firing you, if you don't, that is a problem.

So landmark itself is headquartered in San Francisco and they offer personal development programs. And landmark education started in 1991 by licensing the right to use the intellectual property owned by Werner Erhard. And if that name sounds familiar, which it may or may not, or was the inventor of the Erhard seminars training.[00:20:00] 

which was a huge movement in the seventies, in around the world, actually. But it, I think that that one also started in Northern California. So landmark is based off of that Este teachings and S was listed as a seminar to transforms one's ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with clear up just in the process of life itself.

So basically [00:20:30] kind of realizing your own power and not being so much controlled by outside forces, but on the downside, some people report that the landmark seminars, which came out of that EST, require you to be in a room. For multiple hours of a time without bathroom or food breaks, which is something that has been attributed to cults as a way to break down your resistance to the ideas.[00:21:00] 

 But the lawsuits, as a result of encouraging employees to attend that landmark training and the tip pooling resulted in the closure of all of the bay area at cafe gratitude, 

ARK:: Does that mean that there are still cafe?

gratitudes in the world? 

CCK:: good question. There are five in Southern California. 

ARK:: wow. Yeah. 

CCK:: So there's also one remnant in San [00:21:30] Francisco. You may not remember, but gracias Madre, which is a Mexican raw food 

restaurant 

is still is still open and up and running. 

ARK:: That is right. I completely forgot 

that that was associated 

CCK:: wasn't clear to me. I didn't see anything that said maybe the practice was a little different at that restaurant.

They kind of kept that one separate, but, but grossness Monterey is still open in the mission district in San Francisco. And there are four restaurants in [00:23:00] LA and one in San Diego. And the. Southern California restaurants apparently have a big celebrity following.

So celebrities who have allegedly dined at cafe gratitude's down, there are Gwenyth Paltrow, Beyonce and Sasha Baron Cohen. 

ARK:: Interesting. 

CCK:: However, the angle hearts have not completely skirted additional controversy [00:23:30] because they announced that they personally on the farm that they ran in Vacaville, California called the beelove love farm.

We're going to begin consuming meat, killing animals that they had on the farm and consuming. 

So it wasn't that they were gonna change their restaurants to add meat to the menu, but they themselves were going to start consuming meat. So on the one hand, they can do whatever they want.

On the other hand, they [00:24:00] are making money in preaching, one way of living, but then they're, living another way. And I thought that this sounded, this was kind of a weird thing, but Matthew Engelhart, when asked about it said that cows make an extreme sacrifice for humanity, but that is their position in God's plan as food for the predators.

We can be part of that sacrament

ARK:: they should've just kept it on the down low. And just went and got their big Macs. 

CCK:: maybe they were afraid that they'd get [00:24:30] reported. Do you have any memories of a cafe gratitude food you enjoyed?

ARK:: They were not my favorite. I D when it came to picking a restaurant to go to cafe gratitude was not my favorite, which is weird because when I was in Amsterdam, there was a restaurant called the bowl. Hoad, Which means bowler hat. And they were very cafe gratitude in their menu and their menu. I love. yeah. Same kind of [00:25:00] deal. Lots of Raw, lots of sprouted grains.

And things like that. And for some reason I really liked how they did their food. And I wasn't crazy about cafe. 

CCK:: They did have dessert.

ARK:: Can I do not remember their desserts at all?

CCK:: remember ever eating is a chocolate mousse kind of thing, which must have been cashews. 

ARK:: I was just about to say, was it dates and 

CCK:: Yes, it was dates and cashews and 

ARK:: and cocoa. Yeah. I remember that actually. 

Now that you 

CCK:: terrible And it had a cashew cream whipped cream. [00:25:30] I mean, basically the one thing I will say about cafe gratitude is that you were eating 8,000 grams of cashew fat per meal.

But, but I liked at cafe gratitude was 

okay. 

And again, maybe not a cult in the traditional sense, but cult adjacent perhaps, 

ARK:: Definitely Yeah. Which brings us to our,

next restaurant loving hut, which just right away the name loving huts. I mean, [00:26:00] it's, amazing. it's a chain of vegan restaurants. There are over 200 locations. In 35 countries. And I hope I'm not making this up because I didn't take any notes on it, but I want to say that the Czech Republic is the love and hut capital of the world. with five locations in the Czech Republic.

CCK:: Amazing I actually didn't think to check, but there was a loving hut in the mall in San Francisco 

ARK:: Yes And that's actually [00:26:30] where we kind of discovered it. Their slogan is be vegan, make peace. And the concept was created by it. Ching Hai also known as Supreme master to her followers.

And Ching Hai was born in Vietnam and she became a spiritual leader of the Guanyin Famen, which is a Buddhism like group and is one of the 20 band groups on China's list of forbidden [00:27:00] religions. And it's one of 11 that is listed as dangerous by the government of China. So Guan, yin femin is based out of Taiwan and it may have as many as 2 million followers worldwide, which is huge. And high is usually credited with inventing the Quan Yin method of meditation, which is also sometimes called. And I just wanted to include this because I liked it so much. It's also sometimes called immeasurable [00:27:30] light meditation center and the way of sound contemplation. 

But, but HIE herself has stated that she did not invent this method, but rather it is something that has existed since the beginning of time.

And its main tenants are adherence to the five precepts of Buddhism that we talked about before. , you can't kill anything, people or animal, no adultery. No theft. No drugs or alcohol and [00:28:00] no harsh words. At least two hours of daily meditation. And of course, or else we wouldn't be talking about this, a strict adherence to a vegan diet.

So there's the restaurants, what I like about Lovin' Hut. And when I say like, one of the things that I've always appreciated about loving hut is that they, most of their restaurants, not all, but most of their restaurants broadcast something called Supreme master TV. So they'll have [00:28:30] television sets set up in the restaurant where they're just constantly running.

CCK:: I have it at the mall, but it's on the side of the, you would never even notice it because it's on the side of the little kiosk. 

ARK:: Well, apparently it's a whole 24 7. Television station with multiple different shows. So I picked out some of the classic shows, which we may have seen these shows in the process of eating at 11 hot. So there's one show called enlightening entertainment, and that covers news people [00:29:00] movies, and documentaries that focus on spirit and humanitarianism. There's a show called our noble lineage, which is a look at the cultural and religious roots in vegetarianism. And then there's the vegetarian elite, which is just a list of famous vegetarians throughout history, including modern, actors and actresses.

And then there's words of wisdom, which features lectures by the Supreme master Ching HAI herself. So like you [00:29:30] said, we first discovered Levin hut because it was in the mall in downtown San Francisco. It's set up like a Panda express style buffet. line Where, you know, you pick out what you want. You know, you pick a rice or a noodle and then you pick out two entrees. But then they also have steamed pork and that's in quotation marks, steamed pork buns, which is unusual to find in a vegetarian format. Usually Steamed buns are straight up meat and then of course we are [00:30:00] obsessed with their barbecue Sesame stacks, which are super duper delicious. They also have a selection of Western food, like burgers and fries, which I've never tried every time.

I've gone in there. I've always eaten the Asian food, 

style 

CCK:: and sour. Yeah. Oh my gosh. 

ARK:: But would you believe That's someone that runs a cult-like vegetarian restaurant may have some controversies surrounding them. So high donated [00:30:30] over $600,000? to bill Clinton's presidential legal expenses, trust

but all of that money was returned in 1996, due to suspicious funding sources. So when The Clinton's are turning down money

it does kind of make me wonder how suspicious worthies. so maybe not just the sales of steam buttons I've never really had their

CCK:: I've had a cheesecake. It was good. It was the Oreo [00:31:00] cheesecake or something because Oreos are technically vegan, I guess. 

ARK:: The 

CCK:: was like an yeah 

ARK:: the off-brand. are 

Yeah, 

Definitely up there on my list though. cult or not, they've got some really good food. 

CCK:: That is probably the one that I eat at most frequently.

Amanda fora is out of the way and not open in months, starting with the letter a and cafe. Gratitude's no longer around in San Francisco. 

ARK:: So there was one, I threw this restaurant on, [00:31:30] on here, but it technically, and you'll see why it's, it doesn't really count it's kind of like a half a restaurant Michael's American vegetarian diner rest in peace, rest in power. Michael's American vegetarian diner This was actually in Berkeley. It was on Telegraph avenue and it was in a former I hop. And you could tell because it had the iHub shape and 

everything [00:32:00] 

that place was. amazing. It was owned and ran by a man named Michael who was a meditation instructor

and and founder of his own religious group called the foundation for spiritual 

CCK:: No wonder they're fake tuna was so damn 

ARK:: Well, let me just say, If that restaurant had asked me to join their called, I would have, because that was one of [00:32:30] the best Vegetarian restaurants, in 

all of the bay area Yes 

CCK:: choy garden. Also rest in peace, 

ARK:: yes not a cult.

But I did find out Michael his children now run a restaurant in Berkeley called the butchers. And they have a tuna melt on their 

CCK:: No Alright. Screw this podcast. Let's get in the car and go. [00:33:00] 

ARK:: just something to keep in mind for the future. 

CCK:: Their tuna melt was insane. 

ARK:: Oh man. All their food was so good. The cowboy, Mike, remember 

the cowboy Mike 

CCK:: burger with onion rings on it 

ARK:: and fake and bacon 

CCK:: and barbecue sauce.

ARK:: Michael's one of the best. 

CCK:: see, it's always difficult because we've been vegetarian for a long time. So when I think of the tuna melt, I'm like, it tasted exactly like tuna, [00:31:30] but it's, you know, when it's been a while, since you've had like beef or something, when you taste bacon and you haven't had it in a while and you taste a fake in bacon with smoke seasoning in it, maybe you just think it tastes like the original, 

ARK:: especially a place like Michael.

actually, honestly, Pretty much. all these restaurants. God, I hope they're not real. Colts. Give me a signal next time. I'm in there and I'll help for you. All of these restaurants they're good food. Like [00:34:00] regardless, if you eat meat, if you on a regular basis, this is good. food, especially Michaels.

Oh, 

CCK:: Yeah. Yeah It is sad. Although the fact that Michaels was cult adjacent makes me wonder how many others that we don't even know about 

ARK:: golden era, who we did not mention, which is also one of the best vegetarian restaurants still in the city. When they were at their [00:34:30] old location, they used to run something. that Vaguely sounds like it was Supreme master television.

 It was just on a constant loop. These 

videos of why you should have a vegetarian diet and, yeah. So, I mean, that makes me think that maybe they were more cult adjacent than we thought, although in their new location, which is a little swankier they no longer have those videos playing on a loop. 

CCK:: Yeah. 

It doesn't make me [00:35:00] wonder, is there any meat centric cold, like a keto centric, Colt, 

ARK:: I mean, I think keto diet itself is probably the Colt.

CCK:: So I have a question sister, why haven't I gotten my paranoid style podcast fix for the last few weeks? 

ARK:: Well, as one of two

listeners, me being the other listener, I can understand why you're concerned. and I would say it's because of the biggest conspiracy of all, [00:35:30] which is working for the man day jobs day jobs have just gotten in the way, and other, you know, family related who had drama, kind of stuff. but It's hard to tell when you're listening to an episode like this, but we actually, we try 

to do a lot of research and to put a lot of into the episodes. that we make. And [00:36:00] unfortunately we, we hit this wall Where 

CCK:: I couldn't write anything for weeks because I'm so slow. You're much faster at this than I am. Unfortunately, you're the one whose job suddenly ramped 

ARK:: up.

CCK:: My research process involves stalling from the writing section for as long as possible. So it may involve half reading, a couple of different books and gathering all this [00:36:30] information that I probably will never use, but then whittling things down. And for me, the hard part I find is trying to get things in a logical order so we try not to just regurgitate facts that you can find yourself online, but rather to pull from different sources.

So that it's more interesting. 

ARK:: Some subjects, you're just, you're it lends itself. Well, and you feel inspired and there's a lot of information to pull 

from And 

CCK:: not too much [00:37:00] information because that's the other episode killer. 

But we have decided to take off the rest of November, so only one more week. And then December and we'll return on January 4th with our next 

ARK:: We're basically calling this the end of season one. of the paranoid style. And then season two, will return in 2022. 

CCK:: Yes. And if you haven't heard all of the episodes in season one, my personal [00:37:30] favorites are probably men in black and the Titanic.

ARK:: Hold on. Oh, I didn't think we were going to be saying what our favorites were? My favorites are, I really like the MK ultra 

CCK:: I do too That one is a good one.

ARK:: and I'm trying to think which one was my favorite to like work on [00:38:00] 

CCK:: my favorite 

ARK:: Hollow earth was kind of fun to work on. even though I, I, to this day I'm still conflicted about hollow earth, which is probably our most downloaded episode 

CCK:: Yeah. Denver airport is another one. That's highly downloaded and. 

I always have a fight within myself about the conspiracy part of the conspiracy.

So we think that that, that one could have been a little bit more conspiracy heavy, cause there was [00:38:30] so much in the Denver airport. I think, I think my favorite one to work on was probably satanic panic because that one was really fun and I added a bunch of cheesy audio things to it, which we, which we do kind of differ on our feelings about cheesy audio,

ARK:: I try, I don't want to go to morning zoo with 

CCK:: whereas I am full on mornings. You

and we're back. [00:39:00] 

ARK:: So yeah, I would say thank you so much if you've listened to any of the episodes of season. one, it's actually really amazing that when, So you can kind of see what your download numbers are. And I'm always completely like blown away. It's not, they're not big numbers, but they're like amazing numbers. Cause You would never expect that someone in South Africa would be listening to your pub, reign someone in Bob reign, downloaded our [00:39:30] podcast.

And I mean, maybe they didn't listen to, it. I don't know. I'm just assuming

CCK:: I mean, I assume they listened to the first five 

ARK:: minutes 

at least before they turned it off. 

CCK:: Yeah, no, we really appreciate anyone who has listened. And if you haven't listened before there's 21 episodes available. So you can check out the other 20 episodes if you haven't experienced this before.

And some of them are not like this. I will say, if you see extemporaneous style on a title and you don't like this one, just skip those. 

ARK:: [00:40:00] And if you do go back and listen and you like what you hear, it helps a lot. Apparently if you rate and review 

CCK:: and subscribe and then that way you'll know when we come 

ARK:: you won't miss 

CCK:: January 4th, you can download your brand spanking new 

ARK:: and then you can also reach out to us via email, if there's any topics that you'd like us to cover, we can be reached@theparanoidstylepodatgmail.com 

CCK:: and Andrea, I promise we're going to do something on the Georgia Guidestones.

[00:40:30] So hang in 

ARK:: We're also on social media, on Twitter. where 

CCK:: at style underscore 

ARK:: and on Instagram. Whereas. The paranoid style pod. 

CCK:: Happy Thanksgiving and whatever other holidays you may or may not celebrate in December 

And we'll see in the new year.