Watch our interview with author Veena Dinavahi, about our January 2026 Open Secrets Book Club selection The True Happiness Company: How a Girl Like Me Falls for a Cult Like That.
For a little over an hour, Veena and Open Secrets Editor-in-Chief Rachel Kramer Bussel discussed how she went from a depressed teenage college student to a married Mormon mother of three, the a-ha moment when she realized she was in a cult, how she escaped cult life, the insidious nature of her cult leader’s mind control efforts, how to spot cult-like red flags, how she found her editor and publisher for her debut memoir, other titles that were considered and why she fought for her subtitle, what her “fugue state” writing process was like, what she’s working on next, and so much more.
Follow Veena on Instagram and learn more about her at veenadinavahi.com
Read an excerpt from The True Happiness Company here.
Want to discuss the book, cults, and related topics? Join our book club chat discussion.
Our March 2026 Open Secrets Book Club selection is memoir sorry i keep crying during sex by Jesse James Rose; we’ll interview Jesse James Rose on March 24 at 7 pm ET. Keep up with all of our virtual and in-person events on our about page.
