Shouts to the Lakewood Advocate for being attentive listeners of the new podcast “Heaven’s Gate,” about the San Diego cult whose members committed mass suicide in an effort to leave their corporeal forms behind and board an alien spaceship following the Hale-Bopp Comet.
The paper turned up the local angle, as one does, noting that the podcast reveals Heaven’s Gate co-founder Bonnie Nettle’s ashes are scattered in White Rock Lake. Nettles died of cancer at Parkland 12 years before Heaven’s Gate members in 1997 donned matching Nike sneakers and sweatpants and shuffled off this mortal coil in pursuit of a new life among the stars. Per the Advocate, the podcast features interviews with Bonnie Nettles’ daughter, Terri, who still lives by White Rock.
Here’s your holiday listening, then. A podcast with an impressive pedigree—NPR luminary Glynn Washington, who grew up in a cult himself, hosts—about a fascinating story, with a local hook. Eight episodes are already out.
