Episode Details

In this episode of pplpod, we investigate the terrifying trajectory of Shoko Asahara, the visually impaired yoga instructor who transformed a meditation circle into the deadly doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. Born Chizuo Matsumoto, Asahara rose from a poverty-stricken childhood where he bullied classmates to becoming a self-proclaimed "enlightened" guru who recruited graduates from Japan’s elite universities.

We explore how Asahara’s ideology—a dangerous mix of Buddhism, Christianity, and Isaac Asimov’s science fiction—radicalized his followers and justified horrific violence. We cover the cult's escalation from the brutal 1989 murder of a lawyer’s family to the 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto. Finally, we detail the group’s notorious 1995 chemical attack on the Tokyo subway, Asahara’s capture while hiding inside a wall, and his execution in 2018 after the "trial of the century".