In Part 2 of our “Where are they now” chat with Mark Vicente, he talks about Narcissist’s Playbook and the emotional toll of spending five years documenting narcissistic abuse and expanding that work through his Instaguru series and podcast. The project keeps revealing the same pattern at different scales, from cult dynamics and propaganda to politics, performance, and the way people get triangulated against each other.

The conversation also gets more personal, with Mark and Sarah reflecting on their own susceptibility to fawning, pedestal-building, and overexcitement, plus the need to slow down, do reference checks, and trust their bodies when something feels off. Mark shares that one of his biggest lessons is not to worship people with charisma or clarity, because that’s often what lets abuse hide in plain sight.

It also touches on the film’s release strategy, funding, outreach, and why he’d rather build an audience directly than hand control to a streamer.

Watch the trailer for Narcissist’s Playbook and stay tuned for early access links and screenings near you: narcissistsplaybook.com/long-trailer-landing-page

Follow Mark at markvicente.com, on Patreon, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X, or TikTok.

Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of narcissistic and sexual abuse, coercion, manipulation, cult dynamics, and trauma bonding.

Also…let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

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CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound

Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

Audio production: Will Retherford