Award-winning journalist and author, Ellen Huet, spoke with us about the expose that set off an FBI investigation and the resultant book, EMPIRE OF ORGASM: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult.

Ellen Huet is an award-winning investigative journalist who covers technology and Silicon Valley for Bloomberg News. She writes features for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, and has hosted two seasons of the podcast Foundering… a narrative audio series from Bloomberg Technology.

Her first book EMPIRE OF ORGASM: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult (2025), is about the rise and fall of alleged sex cult OneTaste, and “…explore[s] how the group's former employees and customers alleged it was a sex cult that exploited its members financially and sexually.”

New York Times bestselling author Ashlee Vance said of the book, “This isn’t just a tale of one cultish company―it’s a mirror held up to tech’s dark side, so full of greed and self-delusion.”

Ellen was also featured in a 2022 Netflix documentary about OneTaste called Orgasm, Inc., and her reporting about OneTaste has been cited in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Slate and many other outlets.

Trigger warning: This episode includes some explicit descriptions of OneTaste’s practice of orgasmic meditation (OM).

[This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ⁠ulys.app/writeabook⁠ to download Ulysses, and use the code FILES at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."]

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In this file Ellen Huet, Milena and I discussed:

Hitting the Crime beat for the SF Chronicle straight out of college

The company at the heart of her investigation dubbed "The Whole Foods of sexuality"

Why OneTaste is different than many cults

What it was like to finish her passion project after six years of work

How to change your mindset about busy work

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

ellenhuet.com

Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult by Ellen Huet (Amazon)