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What if you could hypnotize yourself into a better you? Or…. secretly hypnotize others into giving you anything you want?
That’s the promise of NLP, which emerged in 1970s California and then took over self-help… in spite of its connection to a gruesome unsolved murder in the late 1980s .
NLP is the secret sauce connecting life coach Tony Robbins, Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort, pick-up artist Ross Jeffries, as well as NXIVM, the most infamous sex cult of the 21st century.
Journalists and best friends Zoë Lescaze and Alice Hines investigate the controversies behind NLP, put the techniques to the test on themselves, and ask the ultimate question: is mind control real?
Mind Games tells the story of NLP and its crazy cast of disciples, including the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune, took it to Fortune 500 boardrooms, and whose gruesome murder trial did little to stop its rise. The biggest mind game of all? NLP may actually work.
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Recent Episodes
S1E9 Meeting Bandler
After following Neuro-Linguistic Programming from a groovy West Coast commune to the inner circles of NXIVM, we track down its elusive creator, Richard Bandler. Our search leads us to a London…
S1E8 NXIVM
How did Neuro-Linguistic Programming become an indoctrination tool for one of the most notorious sex cults of the 21st century? Co-founder Nancy Salzman reveals how she brought NLP to NXIVM, and how…
S1E7 The Pickup Artist Playbook
A new group of fans flocked to NLP in the 90s: pickup artists. At the center of the movement was Ross Jeffries, a hypnotist and purported expert in getting women into bed. Jeffries lets Zoë in on the…
S1E6 Murder in Santa Cruz
Three people walked into a room…only two came out alive. In 1986, Richard Bandler was charged with murdering a woman in his inner circle. We dig into the trial that nearly sank Neuro-Linguistic…
S1E5 A Human Technology
In the 1980s, the U.S. Army was in a weird place. So weird, it was willing to hire Richard Bandler and Tony Robbins to try to turn ordinary soldiers into expert marksmen in just a few days with NLP.…
S1E4 The Self-Help Empire
How do you turn mind games into hundreds of millions of dollars? We ask Tony Robbins, who discovered Neuro-Linguistic Programming, adapted its techniques, and built an empire of infomercials and…
S1E3 All In Your Head
Could a few words really change your mind–or your memories? Zoë tests hypnosis on herself, trying to unlock memories of her late father. Alice experiments with NLP to calm her anxiety around giving…
S1E2 The Drummer with the Knives
1970s Santa Cruz, California–a world of barefoot psychology students, mountain communes, and underground therapy sessions led by a charismatic but troubled young man: Richard Bandler. We go back to…
S1E1 The Guru’s Guru
What if someone told you that you could skip years of therapy with a few mental tricks? It sounded impossible… until we found Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP is a form of hypnosis beloved by…
Introducing: Mind Games
Mind Games tells the story of NLP and its crazy cast of disciples, including the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune, took it to Fortune 500 boardrooms, and whose gruesome murder trial…
Frequently Asked Questions
Mind Games has published 10 episodes since January 2026, covering topics in Documentary, Society & Culture.
Mind Games is currently sporadic with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 40m.
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