Guru: Don't Cross Kat - Podcast Rankings and reviews

This was powerful journalism about a story that I needed to hear. I’m especially grateful for the focus on responsible practices in the self-help industry. James Arthur Ray may not have been a cult leader per se, but we need to discuss the manipulation tactics he utilized that show up in many abusive authority figures. Grateful for what I learned and considered from listening to this show.

Love Chico’s voice. Great storytelling. Gave the listener an understanding of Brazilian culture.

This was very interesting and a good warning to people about bad influencers and manipulation. I have Wondery+ so I didn’t have the ads like I read in other reviews. That said, I was so disappointed in the last episode that was an update. It sounded like a total switch and like the hosts were in the palm of Kat’s hand. They even say they’ve been talking to her and her family and it sounds like they’ve been manipulated by her as well honestly. She is a sex trafficker and that episode was made so light hearted and talked an out her being in pageants, modeling, etc. It felt out of touch. Shes a pathological liar, narcissist and borderline cult leader. She doesn’t deserve any praise or good publicity.

I’m super confused by all these negative reviews. The series on Kat Torres is really interesting and I love that it’s narrated by a Brazilian podcaster. The story is bizarre and captivating. One of the best podcasts on scammers I’ve found recently!

I’ve enjoyed other Wondery podcasts but I tried both seasons of this show and they were definitely not worth the payoff. This season was a bit interesting, but had a lot of issues.

It feels like it really struggled with timing, and there was definitely no mystery or shocking revelations. They also spoiled stuff by like, quoting from one survivor’s book recounting the event, which made it obvious she made it out okay (even though they were teasing that she was in grave danger). The storyline also just didn’t make sense, it jumped around and I noticed several inconsistencies in the order that they claimed things happened in.

In fact, everything was basically already explained in the first episode, they just dragged out the story over a bunch of episodes. Even the last two bonus episodes were just “recaps” of what happened in the series, definitely not worth listening to.

At some point hearing that Kat was “beautiful” every single time she was mentioned made the whole listening experience unbearable. There are a lot more attributes that a woman, a person can have. Plus, is the host implying that the main reason why she was influential was that she was beautiful? That’s a very superficial statement and she seemed to be very manipulative and power hungry from what I’ve learned so far. That’s a weak journalism there, to be honest.