To me, it seemed like a story of a father being terrorized and subjugated by his narcissistic son. He seemed pretty apologetic for getting him involved in the first place.

Where do you think he was trying to shirk responsibility? I've listened to a lot of his podcasts and that was also the only one where I couldn't understand why Joe was acting so harshly towards him. Once his son was absorbed into the cult, I don't think there's anything he could've done. Not to mention how hard it is even to get yourself out of it, as he explained in great detail.