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Scientology spends $26 million to double the size of its European HQ

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Scientology will no doubt say that it just plunked down $26 million to double the size of its European ‘Advanced Org’ because of increased demand. But we think there’s a different reason for it. []

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Scientology bragged on new Africa drug rehab, now it’s accused of stiffing workers

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: At Scientology’s New Year’s event in LA, church leader David Miscavige boasted about a new Narconon drug rehab in South Africa, where he probably figured there would be lax oversight. But now a local []

Briefing not meant for the public: LA fires are ‘historic opportunity’ for Scientology

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: LA’s fires are located where Scientology has its biggest concentration of members, so it’s not surprising the ‘Volunteer Ministers’ have been called out to take advantage of it. But rarely have we had such []

Scientology’s new ad push is really getting on people’s nerves

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Central to Scientology’s announced new media campaign are three TV ads that church leader David Miscavige revealed to the audience at the October IAS gala. But it’s a series of the campaign’s new billboards []

Becky Bigelow, 1962-2025, escaped from Scientology with Ron Miscavige

[Becky, in white, enjoying post-Scientology life in 2016 on a cruise with Ron and others, including Janis Gillham Grady, Steve Hall, Dan Koon, and Jefferson Hawkins]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Scientology’s smears of Ron Miscavige and Becky Bigelow remain []

Anonymous fought ‘disconnection’ — but Scientology never stops destroying families

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: On Tuesday, the 17th anniversary of Anonymous declaring war on the Church of Scientology will arrive, and we wanted to mark the occasion with a story that recently came up thanks to Alex Barnes-Ross, []

Neil Gaiman’s Scientology upbringing, and how he mined it for content

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: With the disturbing allegations against Neil Gaiman blowing up after a New York mag story this week, we noticed people are interested in our previous reporting about Neil and his Scientology upbringing. We decided []

A vanished Scientology executive voted in the last election, and other surprises

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: In 2012 Mike Rinder helped us assemble a list of prisoners in ‘The Hole,’ Scientology’s bizarre concentration camp at Int Base. Now, one of our researchers has used public records to determine how many []

Editor who worked on ‘Aftermath’ loses home, incensed to see Scientology VMs

[Robyn Migel and her daughter in front of what was their home]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: After she lost her home to the apocalyptic fires in LA, Robyn Migel says she was unhappy to see Scientology’s ‘Volunteer Ministers’ descend []

Leah Remini posts longer, more detailed remembrance of Mike Rinder

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Last night Leah Remini posted a more detailed remembrance of Mike Rinder, several days after her first posting following his Jan 5 death. It’s an emotional tribute, and we appreciate the glimpses Leah provides []