The Man Who Fought the Synanon Cult and Won
Paul Morantz helped bring Synanon down—and almost paid with his life. Here, he tells his story to Gizmodo’s Matt Novak.
The All-American Expo That Invaded Cold War Russia
“Over the course of six weeks during the height of the Cold War, almost three million Soviets visited an exhibition that celebrated America.” A look back at how it all happened, with help from companies like Pepsi, IBM, Sears and General Motors.
Synanon’s Sober Utopia
How a drug rehab program became a violent cult:
In 1970, George Lucas needed dozens of actors with shaved heads for his sci-fi dystopian movie THX 1138. He had trouble filling the roles at first, since so few actresses wanted to cut their locks, but Lucas eventually found the extras he needed in a strange utopian community where everyone worshipped sobriety and expressed solidarity by shaving their heads. It was called Synanon, and over the course of three decades it would become one of the weirdest and most vindictive cults of the 20th century.
