Untold: The Retreat

About Untold: The Retreat

Financial Times reporter Antonia Cundy uncovers how a little-known group within the Catholic Church has come to wield outsized cultural and political influence in America. Opus Dei exists to help people get closer to God, but some members say they found other agendas – and unexpected harm – entangled in that spiritual mission. In this series, Antonia hears stories from insiders who describe how boundaries within Opus Dei are often blurred: how guidance becomes control, how privacy becomes secrecy and how spiritual belief becomes political ideology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Financial Times

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Dec 2023

Latest episode

4 May 2026

Latest episodes

23 of 25 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   4 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Toxic Legacy: Bonus episode with Samantha Power

   Laura Hughes interviews Samantha Power, former USAID head, about global lead poisoning efforts and supply chain tracing.

2. 

   17 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Opus Dei, Ep. 4: The closest tabernacle to the White House

   A sleepy Catholic bookshop and events space run by Opus Dei priests in Washington, has turned into a central networking hub for an ascendant conservative movement. Some of the biggest names on the right gravitate around it. People close to Opus Dei say that is not a coincidence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   10 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Opus Dei, Ep. 3: Snow on the mountaintops

   Over the past decade, elite universities have become home to a network of influential conservative think-tanks fighting against the “woke secular creed”. Meanwhile, at Opus Dei student centres, the next generation of ambitious leaders hear similar moral teachings creep into partisan politics. Is it just ideas that link the two – or more? Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com (https://www.ft.com/content/d5353ecd-7ad3-4b00-9b98-632129e77edd) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Inside a recent episode

Toxic Legacy: Bonus episode with Samantha Power

Published 4 May 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] But For all the investments we were making in educational programming over the years, lead poisoning was not really atop the list of reasons that one might give to explain really limited educational attainment. And yet it might well be that all these other investments are just going down the tubes. because the paint on the school walls are poisoned with lead or because, and it breaks your heart really to think about pre-K kids or primary school kids who are maybe more tactile. They pick up a toy or maybe they get a school lunch, but the bowl that they're using for the school lunch has paint on it and, or the toy has paint on it. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

3.9 / 5

260 ratings

Spotify

4.2 / 5

470 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 5 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

0

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

27

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