One of the revelations that producers were surprised by was how deeply rooted the radical ideologies were in today's society. IBLP teaches women to obey men and children to obey their parents, and these teachings are more widespread than many would believe. Olivia Crist, an executive producer of the docuseries, told People: "It went into our police system. It went into the military. And I think also, just how far and wide, like I said, the ideology spread," she explains. Crist found that Bill Gothard — the preacher behind IBLP, had taught the damaging teachings universally and reached people all across the globe.
Another producer of "Shiny Happy People" couldn't believe that she could relate to the extreme abuse that these teachings inflicted on women of the organization. Julia Willoughby Nason told People, "I feel like being a woman in this culture, whether I'm coming from a place of a high control system as IBLP or coming from not that place ... I could identify with the themes of abuse and trauma that we're going through these people's lifelines."
