Behind the Bastards

CZM Rewind: How The Zizians Went Full On Death Cult & The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)

January 1, 2026

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  • The extreme beliefs and subsequent violent actions of Ziz and her followers (the Zizians) are presented as an outgrowth of pre-existing, high-stakes, and sometimes psychologically damaging dynamics within the mainstream rationalist and Effective Altruism (EA) subcultures, including obsession with cosmic significance and mental hacking. 
  • Ziz's descent into cult-like behavior was accelerated by severe personal stressors, including housing insecurity in the Bay Area, which led her and Gwynne Danielson to isolate themselves on a sailboat and develop increasingly esoteric theories like 'unihemispheric sleep' aimed at achieving psychopathy. 
  • The foundational texts and social norms of the rationalist movement, particularly Eliezer Yudkowsky's Harry Potter fanfiction, are highlighted as a primary, almost religious, source material that influenced the group's worldview and later contributed to real-world violence. 
  • Ziz's ideology, centered on concepts like unihemispheric sleep and 'jailbreaking' followers into sociopaths, directly contributed to the suicide of a follower named Maya, which Ziz then reframed as an 'infohazard' called 'Pasix Doom'. 
  • The rationalist community's internal culture, which discussed suicide as a potential 'net value' decision and was rife with sexual abuse allegations (like those against Brent Dill), provided a toxic substrate for Ziz's extreme beliefs to flourish. 
  • The Zizians' escalating radicalization culminated in violent confrontations, including a highly publicized protest at a CFAR event and, ultimately, the fatal stabbing of landlord Curtis Lind, who was killed after attempting to evict the group squatting on his property. 
  • The Zizian group's escalating logic, influenced by concepts like "Quirrel's algorithm" from Harry Potter fanfic, culminated in multiple violent acts, including the attempted murder of Curtis Lynn and the subsequent murder of Jamie Zajko's parents. 
  • Following the initial violent attack, Ziz and several followers went on the run, while arrested members (Somni and Suri Dow) used bizarre rationalist arguments in court, and Ziz herself was briefly detained but released due to authorities struggling to legally connect her to the murder charges. 
  • The final violent climax involved Zizian followers Teresa Youngblood and Ophelia Bacholt being surveilled by Homeland Security before a fatal shootout with Border Patrol that resulted in the death of Agent David Mallon, followed shortly by the arrest of Ziz, Jamie Zajko, and Daniel Blank. 

Segments

Host Introduction and Microsoft Copilot
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Robert Evans initiates the ‘Behind the Bastards’ episode by framing his current focus as a ‘one-man army’ war against Microsoft’s Copilot.
  • Summary: The episode of ‘Behind the Bastards’ begins with host Robert Evans declaring war on Microsoft Copilot. He is joined by producer Sophie Lichterman and guest David Borey. The initial banter quickly establishes a shared disdain for the software product.
Script Length and Self-Correction
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(00:01:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Robert Evans admits the script for the Zizians story is excessively long (28 pages), indicating the complexity and depth of the source material.
  • Summary: Robert Evans confesses to making an error by creating a script spanning 21 to 49 pages for this story, acknowledging the difficulty of covering the breadth of topics without error. He notes that reporting on this small community is deeply incomplete, forcing reliance on internal, often lengthy, blog sources.
The Zizian Murder Spree Preview
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(00:04:12)
  • Key Takeaway: The story culminates in a Border Patrol agent’s murder in Vermont, which is directly linked to a piece of Harry Potter fanfiction written by Eliezer Yudkowsky.
  • Summary: The narrative arc is previewed, leading to a confrontation involving a member of Congress at a Vermont library following a Border Patrol agent’s murder. This event is explicitly tied back to the influence of Yudkowsky’s fanfiction, setting the stage for the extreme nature of the Zizians’ actions.
Rationalist Community Dynamics
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(00:04:58)
  • Key Takeaway: The Zizians’ early interactions with the rationalist community involved discussions reminiscent of cult-like behavior, specifically concerning the ethics of murder.
  • Summary: The previous episode covered Ziz’s move to the Bay Area and attendance at a CFAR conference featuring exercises similar to Sinanon. The community frequently theorized about the ethical justification for killing people, which the hosts identify as a major red flag.
Bay Area Housing and Early Trauma
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(00:06:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz’s desperate search for housing in the expensive Bay Area led her into an abusive sublet situation that ended in physical violence and police involvement.
  • Summary: Ziz sought to integrate into the Bay Area rationalist subculture despite lacking significant funds, leading to a stay in a horrible sublet with an abusive alcoholic. Following an argument where the landlord called the police on her for assault, Ziz fled this situation.
Liminal House and Job Struggles
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(00:08:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz’s next housing option, a rationalist house called ‘Liminal,’ was short-lived due to conflicts, including transphobia from another resident.
  • Summary: Ziz moved into a rationalist house named Liminal, but quickly left after a resident reacted negatively to her identifying as a non-transitioning trans woman. Her subsequent job search, including a slow process with Google, failed because she could not feign enthusiasm for companies she didn’t believe in.
Hormone Therapy and Sinceriously Blog
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(00:10:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Starting hormone therapy provided Ziz with significant cognitive benefits, prompting her to launch her blog, ‘Sinceriously,’ modeled after Yudkowsky’s writing style.
  • Summary: Upon starting finasteride and estrogen, Ziz experienced positive cognitive effects and committed to writing about her theories on rationalism, naming her blog Sinceriously. Her early posts covered basic thought experiments with a rationalist spin.
Obsession with Enforcement Mechanisms
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(00:11:39)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz quickly became obsessed with ’enforcement mechanisms,’ like the app BeMinder, viewing them as necessary tools to break things to make people better in pursuit of her goals.
  • Summary: Ziz focused heavily on using enforcement mechanisms, such as financial penalties for failing goals, to force personal betterment. This fixation on breaking things to improve them is noted as an early, unsettling indicator of her path.
Meeting Gwynne and Brain Theory
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(00:12:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz bonded with Gwynne Danielson (then Jasper Gwynn), who introduced the theory that the brain contains multiple, distinct personalities residing in each hemisphere.
  • Summary: Ziz met Gwynne Danielson, who believed each brain hemisphere housed a separate, intact person. When the broader rationalist community rejected this idea, Ziz and Gwynne began theorizing separately, marking a split from the mainstream.
Taking to the Sea: The Boat Life
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(00:14:28)
  • Key Takeaway: To escape Bay Area rent, Ziz and Gwynne adopted the punk/artist solution of living on a boat, which immediately exacerbated their psychological instability.
  • Summary: Bonding over housing struggles, Ziz and Gwynne moved onto Gwynne’s sailboat anchored in the Encinal Basin. This cramped, isolated environment, likely fueled by drug use, intensified their existing neuroses and theoretical discussions.
Gwynne’s Otherkin Beliefs and AGI Fear
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(00:16:39)
  • Key Takeaway: Gwynne, an Otherkin, believed that a successful AGI singularity would grant them a dragon body in the resulting robot-God heaven, linking their personal desires to existential risk mitigation.
  • Summary: Gwynne was deeply immersed in AGI risk literature and held Otherkin beliefs, specifically anticipating being transformed into a dragon post-singularity. This belief system motivated their intense focus on ensuring a ’nice AI’ outcome.
Vegan Sith and Akrasia
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(00:19:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz adopted a ‘Vegan Sith’ ideology, rejecting the moral restrictions of the ‘Jedi’ (conventional morality) to overcome ‘Akrasia’ (lack of willpower) and achieve cosmic goals.
  • Summary: Ziz framed moral acceptance as a prison for the ’truly great,’ deciding she and her followers needed to become ‘vegan Sith’ to achieve their goals, such as a vegan singularity. This was rooted in overcoming Akrasia, the inability to act according to one’s goals.
Rationalist Psychosis and Grandiosity
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(00:20:11)
  • Key Takeaway: The grandiosity and paranoid obsession seen in Ziz were mirrored in the mainstream rationalist community, where some members experienced psychotic breaks over AI risk, sometimes leading to hospitalization.
  • Summary: The stress of AI risk in the EA set caused paralyzing panic attacks and psychotic episodes, exemplified by Jessica Taylor’s delusions of being intrinsically evil. This highlights that Ziz’s extreme thinking was rooted in the high-stakes environment normalized by the broader subculture.
Google Failure and Financial Strain
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(00:28:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz’s failure to secure employment at Google, partly due to an inability to feign enthusiasm and lack of proof of address, ironically provided her with unemployment funds and ‘freedom’ to pursue her theories.
  • Summary: Ziz’s Google hiring process stalled, requiring proof of address, which she lacked as a 26-year-old struggling with housing and health insurance transition. She viewed the failure positively, as it granted her several months of freedom funded by unemployment to continue developing her ideas with Gwynne.
Cult Dynamics in Rationalism
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(00:30:59)
  • Key Takeaway: The rationalist/EA mindset creates an engine for self-imposed cult behavior, exemplified by members cutting off friends and donating all money to causes to prevent the world’s end.
  • Summary: The belief in preventing global catastrophe leads individuals to adopt cult-like behaviors independently, such as dropping out of PhD programs to donate all assets, as seen with Kwao Chu Yuan. This distortion of priorities makes it difficult for members to accept external compromise or socialization.
Sexual Abuse in Rationalist Circles
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(00:33:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz cited sexual abuse within the rationalist community as a reason for her break, exemplified by the case of Sonia Joseph being propositioned by an older founder who bragged about inspiring Yudkowsky’s fanfiction.
  • Summary: The rationalist scene was rife with sexual harassment, where norms around polyamory and relationships with older men were exploited by influential figures. The case of Sonia Joseph, who was told it was noble for 12-year-olds to have sex with adult men, illustrates the toxicity.
The Rationalist Fleet Project
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(00:37:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz formalized her isolation by planning the ‘Rationalist Fleet,’ intending to buy multiple boats anchored in the Bay to avoid rent and focus solely on plotting cosmic salvation.
  • Summary: Ziz and her followers aimed to create an aquatic commune to circumvent high Bay Area costs, buying a small boat named the Black Signet. The flagship of this fleet became the Caleb, a 94-foot, 70-year-old Navy tugboat anchored in Alaska, purchased with significant investment from Dan Powell.
Mana and Escalation Logic
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(00:53:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz developed the concept of ‘mana’—the inherent power to persuade—and used World War I mobilization logic to justify immediate, life-or-death escalation in conflicts with Gwynne.
  • Summary: Ziz believed high ‘mana’ allowed her to mind-control others, leading to verbal battles with Gwynne over who could dominate the other’s perception. She concluded that if conflict inevitably led to mutual destruction, it was rational to attempt to kill the opponent immediately.
Unihemispheric Sleep for Psychopathy
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(00:49:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Gwynne proposed ‘unihemispheric sleep’ (UHS)—a sleep-deprived, vulnerable state—as a tactic to jailbreak the mind into full psychopathy, a goal Ziz embraced.
  • Summary: UHS, potentially inspired by Warhammer 40,000, involves closing one eye while the other stays engaged, leading to disorientation and sleep deprivation. This process was intended to allow the group to isolate and harness different personality aspects to achieve sociopathy.
Ziz’s Cultic Ideology and Suicide
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(00:57:39)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz coached a trans woman follower, Maya, through dangerous unihemispheric sleep practices, linking her suicidal ideation to a ‘mostly dead’ male hemisphere, leading to Maya’s likely suicide.
  • Summary: Ziz directly contacted Maya after she engaged with Ziz’s blog, specifically targeting theories on hemispheric personalities. Ziz claimed Maya’s suicidal impulses were caused by the pain of being trans combined with a ‘mostly dead’ male brain hemisphere. Maya subsequently replaced sleep with unihemispheric sleep, exacerbating her condition, and is believed to have died by suicide in February 2018.
Rationalism’s Role in Abuse and Suicide
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(01:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Mainstream rationalism discussions normalize suicide as a ’net value’ decision and have been used to silence victims of sexual abuse within the community.
  • Summary: Maya’s death was framed by Ziz as an ‘infohazard,’ but the segment highlights how suicide is debated in rationalist circles regarding an individual’s ’net value to the world.’ A Bloomberg article revealed that victims of sexual abuse in the community were told their allegations harmed AI safety, with one person suggesting suicide as an ‘agentic option.’
The Protest at CFAR Reunion
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(01:17:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz, Gwen, and others staged a non-violent protest at a CFAR reunion wearing black robes and Guy Fawkes masks, which escalated when venue staff falsely reported a gun and an axe to the police.
  • Summary: The Zizians blocked entrances to the CFAR alumni reunion in November 2019 to distribute flyers criticizing CFAR and Miri. Police responded with a massive SWAT-level backup after being falsely informed of a gun and an axe. The resulting arrests involved high-risk takedowns and alleged sexual assault and mockery of the trans women protesters.
Escalation to Violence and Murder Plot
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(01:45:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Following escalating internal conflicts and threats, Ziz explicitly instructed follower Jamie Zajko to murder her ex-girlfriend Alice Monday using a gun with a potato suppressor.
  • Summary: After Jamie admitted to trolling Ziz with sock puppet accounts, Ziz demanded she kill Alice, Ziz’s former mentor, as a way to prove loyalty and gain power. Jamie countered by posting publicly that if she died, Ziz was responsible, creating a checkmate that was interrupted when Gwen faked her death.
The Murder of Curtis Lind
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(01:50:20)
  • Key Takeaway: The Zizians ambushed and fatally stabbed landlord Curtis Lind approximately 50 times with a samurai sword after he initiated eviction proceedings against them for squatting.
  • Summary: The Zizians plotted to murder Lind because they viewed the impending eviction as an attempt on their lives, justifying the act as necessary praxis. Lind claimed he was attacked after being threatened with a knife, sustaining 50 puncture wounds and a sword through his chest before shooting and killing Emma Borhanian in self-defense. This event marked the crossing of a critical line into lethal violence for the group.
Stabbing Aftermath and Evidence
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(01:55:41)
  • Key Takeaway: The victim of the stabbing survived multiple wounds, including a sword through the chest, leading Zizians to doubt the account based on physical possibility.
  • Summary: The victim sustained a sword entirely through his back near the heart and was shot 50 times in the chest, yet survived, leading Zizians to claim the account was false. The speaker believes the victim’s account is accurate, suggesting an ambush where he shot one attacker in self-defense. Stabbing outcomes are highly unpredictable, with survivors often enduring numerous wounds.
Ziz’s Escape and Evidence Discovery
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(01:57:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz avoided arrest at the scene of the attack, and subsequent police searches of Zizian vehicles uncovered containers of lye, suggesting a plan to dissolve bodies.
  • Summary: Ziz did not participate in the attack but was recognized by police who failed to arrest her, possibly due to prior familiarity. Police found tubes of lye in box trucks cleaned out after the arrests, linking back to Ziz’s prior discussions about dissolving bodies, possibly relating to the fate of Curtis. Ziz justified deadly violence using ‘Quirrel’s algorithm’ from a Harry Potter rationalist fanfic, emphasizing intent to kill without flinching.
Arrests and Legal Proceedings
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(01:59:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Two surviving Zizians, Somni and Suri Dow, were arrested and charged with murder under California’s felony murder rule for the death of Emma during the attack.
  • Summary: Somni and Dow were charged with murder because a death occurred during the commission of a crime they were involved in, a common California law. The arrested members made unusual requests regarding jail placement and submitted bizarre rationalist arguments to the court. Meanwhile, Ziz and the remaining inner circle went on the run, and Gwen went into hiding.
Vermont Followers Prepare Compound
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(02:01:29)
  • Key Takeaway: Zizian followers Jamie Zajko and Daniel Blank established themselves in Vermont, dropping out of society to prepare an isolated compound for Ziz’s arrival.
  • Summary: Jamie Zajko was living with Daniel Blank in Vermont after Alice bounced, and Blank quit his job to join her, suggesting preparation for Ziz. The speaker suspects they were securing private property for a compound where Zizians could hide and continue their work away from legal scrutiny. Jamie’s parents were murdered in Pennsylvania on December 31, 2022, but the perpetrators remain unknown.
Zajko Parents’ Murder Investigation
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(02:03:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Jamie Zajko became the sole beneficiary of her wealthy parents’ estate shortly after their murder, despite having previously accused them online of abuse.
  • Summary: Zajko’s parents were worth millions, and she was due to receive savings bonds just before their deaths, raising financial motive concerns. Police questioned Zajko and Blank in Vermont, noting Zajko owned a handgun of the same caliber used in the shooting, though this was not conclusive. A Pennsylvania attorney filed for a potential slayer statute issue, preventing inheritance if she is proven to be the killer, and Zajko lied about having a working car to travel to Pennsylvania.
Ziz’s Arrest and Release
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(02:06:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz was apprehended in a Pennsylvania hotel raid alongside Daniel Blank, but was only charged with minor offenses and quickly released, abandoning $40,000 in cash.
  • Summary: Ziz was detained after warning Blank during the hotel raid, and police found a 9mm handgun and $40,000 cash in Zajko’s car, but Ziz was not charged with murder. Authorities held Ziz on high bail for misdemeanors, attempting to hold her while gathering evidence for the homicide connection, but her bail was reduced, and she immediately fled. Zajko and Blank were also released quickly, though Zajko later blamed the murders on the LessWrong rationalist community.
Escalation to Border Patrol Shootout
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(02:14:27)
  • Key Takeaway: The Zizian group’s final violent confrontation occurred when followers Teresa Youngblood and Ophelia Bacholt engaged Border Patrol in a shootout after being surveilled, resulting in the death of Agent David Mallon.
  • Summary: In early 2024, Jamie Zajko purchased handguns used months later in the final confrontation, while Youngblood disappeared and later married fellow Zizian Maximilian Snyder. Youngblood and Bacholt, who were scouting property for Ziz, were pulled over in Vermont while wearing tactical gear and openly carrying pistols, leading to an immediate shootout. Both Youngblood and Bacholt were killed, and Border Patrol Agent David Mallon died in the exchange, with the firearms traced back to Jamie Zajko’s purchase.
Final Capture and Current Status
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(02:21:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Ziz, Jamie Zajko, and Daniel Blank were captured living in box trucks, and Ziz immediately requested pre-trial release based on delirium from a self-imposed vegan diet.
  • Summary: The trio was caught in Frostburg after being spotted camping on private land, with Ziz attempting to negotiate staying longer while wearing a robe. They were charged with illegal possession and carrying firearms, found wearing gun belts. Ziz requested release, claiming she was near starvation due to the jail not providing a vegan diet, stating she had done nothing wrong.