


The world was first introduced to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar in 2008, thanks to the TLC reality show about their large family called 17 Kids and Counting. Eventually, two more kids came along and the name was changed to 19 Kids and Counting, and in the years since, their family has become synonymous with the religious group they’re a part of called the Institute for Basic Life Principles.
In a new docuseries on Amazon’s Prime Video titled Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, many people involved with the religion — including JimBob and Michelle’s daughter Jill Duggar Dillard and her cousin Amy Duggar King — are finally ready to talk about the movement and the dark and sometimes harmful effects of it’s radical teachings.
At one point in the newly released teaser for the series, Jill Duggar Dillard, who is estranged from her parents, sits with her husband Derick Dillard, and says, “There’s a story that’s going to be told, and I would rather be the one telling it.”
In the trailer for the show, participants say that IBLP indoctrinates its followers, with one person saying it “raises little predators,” which is likely a direct reference to Josh Duggar, the eldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle, and a convicted sex offender currently serving twelve years in prison for possessing child pornography.

The series also sheds light on IBLP’s founder, Bill Gothard, who is described as a man who “turned every father into a cult leader and every home into an island.”
Though the teachings of IBLP are purported to be rooted in the Bible, one former follower explains, “World domination was the goal.” The Duggars’ religious beliefs have often been associated with the Quiverfull movement, which encourages procreation, but that has nothing to do with IBLP which is the movement they actually identify with.
You can tune in to Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets when the series premieres on Prime Video June 2. Watch the trailer in the video above.