Women allege assault at the hands of cultlike leader in ‘Pearadise’ plus-size community

**Ana Garcia** (0:00)
A word of warning, this podcast explores graphic and disturbing stories and includes some strong language. It therefore may not be suitable for our young listeners or other folks who may find it disturbing. Hello and welcome to a special edition of True Crime News The Podcast. I'm your host, Ana Garcia. Everyone in the world of true crime has a story to tell about a case that they worked on, or maybe they lived through. Some are high profile, some you have never heard of, but they're all fascinating. Today's case is about a Las Vegas mansion run by a man who admits to being obsessed and sexually attracted to plus size women. So he built a community where women could visit or live with him.
Was it a commune? Was it a cult?
Was it just consenting adults having fun? Many victims say that they were intimidated, coerced, and assaulted. It is a story about the lines between celebration and fetish, as well as the question of consent. And the survivors who came forward publicly say that they have been sued to shut them up. Our guests today are the team behind this new investigation discovery docu-series. Big Girls Wanted Escaping Pearadise, a documentary that examines if a place for plus size women was really a front for the organizer to allegedly violate women, which he denies. Here's a clip.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:27)
I want to feel loved. I want to feel desired. And that's not something that happens often to a fat girl.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:39)
I was scrolling on TikTok. This guy holds up a pair of bathing suit bottoms. And he says, if you can fit in these, I want you in my pool.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:46)
Welcome to paradise.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:48)
Stefan's a TikTok creator living in this mansion in Vegas with all these bust size women.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:56)
But he's selling a fantasy. You'll be loved here worshiped like a goddess, but they don't tell you the price that you pay.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:04)
You have this older man with women half his age. And that power dynamic is predatory.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:12)
He says, this is just a body positive space. And I just love fat women. And it's totally innocent when it's totally not.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:19)
There was no consent. Pearadise is not a safe and positive place.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:24)
This man is a predator. No one deserves to be a victim to him. He gets off sexually, watching people eat and gain weight. It can kill you.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:34)
911 emergency. Do you need police, fire or medical? Medical.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:37)
I did not bid for Pearadise. Should be alive today.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:43)
I need to finally tell my story.

**Tara Malone** (2:46)
Are you a dangerous man?

**SPEAKER_5** (2:52)
Big Girls Wanted, Escaping Pearadise, an ID documentary event, premieres June 10th on ID.

**Ana Garcia** (2:57)
Joining us now are the filmmakers, Tara Malone and executive producer Michael Hirschhorn. Welcome you two. It's such a pleasure.

**Michael Hirschhorn** (3:07)
Thank you for having us. I appreciate it.

**Ana Garcia** (3:10)
As I was saying, this is really fascinating. This case is fascinating. I watched the three parts last night in preparation for your interview because our producer Will Upteich said, you really have to see this to understand it or you will not be able to do the interview. He was absolutely right. This is about a place called Pearadise, spelled P-E-A-R.
It is about how women are shaped like pears because the man who runs this in Las Vegas celebrates, he says, plus-sized women. At first, I was like, what is this? Where is this docu-series going? But it's so layered.
I have to tell you, I think you two did a beautiful job of navigating a very difficult story to tell.

**Michael Hirschhorn** (4:04)
Well, that's A, a lovely intro and B, a really perfect description of the project.
Credit here goes to Tara because I think Tara brought a lot of empathy and a lot of nuance and a lot of thoughtfulness to a project that could very easily have careered off in a random direction. She should answer this.

**Tara Malone** (4:25)
Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Ana. Truly, it's so gratifying to hear you see what we see in the story.
It is on every level just a complex set of personalities and facts and getting into it. It was to do it justice. We needed to find that balance. We needed to lean into the nuances. We needed to live with discomfort at times and run with that. I think it's all the better for it.

**Ana Garcia** (4:55)
On this podcast, we have examined a lot of situations where and I use the term very carefully, whether it's like a commune live in situation, which then sometimes members worry or the people on the outside can look at it and say, you know, there's some things about this that could be cult-like. And that's kind of what drew me in to this story, because you have this man. So this is a man who starts like posting all these videos on TikTok about his obsession about plus-sized women and how he has this home in Las Vegas, of course, where else would it be? And he's made a lot of money, I guess, in chip design and he's using this as a party place, but it's also a refuge. He embraces women who are plus size.