Disney has its own dating app?
Everybody knows about some cults. We've had the Manson family who were a commune that killed innocent people for "sacrifice", the NXIVM cult that abused and sex-trafficked its followers, and Bikram yoga, which had accusations of sexual harassment, rape, and control of its followers.
The 'Sounds Like a Cult' podcast dives into some modern-day cults that we all know about, but may not necessarily make a cult connection to.
Iza Medina, comedian, and Amanda Montell, author of the book 'Cultish' are the hosts that take us on a journey of uncovering the "cults" in our day to day lives.
How is it possible to recognise these modern-day cults? Well, there's a checklist.
- The group has a living leader whom members worship
- It relies on bringing in new members
- It's used to make money
- There's no room for other beliefs, questioning, or doubt
Tuning into these women might just make you realise that you too are unwittingly part of a cult. Don't believe us?
They explore the potentially cult-y strands of society today such as 'Insta-therapy', Disney adults, skincare, astrology, and more of the unsuspectingly cult-ish zeitgeist.
Nowadays, guests from the possibly cult-y group come on as spokespeople on the podcast, making for an even more balanced view.
It's important to note that not all of these modern-day cults are as extreme as the likes of NXIVM. They have an in-house ranking system on which they rank levels of cult-y ness and advise what approach listeners should take to the proposed cult.
For extreme cult-like behaviours, they rank the topic "get out". For medium cult vibes, they recommend "watch your back". Some of the groups they examine turn out to be relatively okay cult-wise, qualifying as "live your life".
We love this kind of podcast because it's pretty bitesize in length being about an hour-long per episode, it's funny because it takes the piss out of things we all like and/or know about, and they have great voices made for an easy-listening piece of content.
Listen to 'Sounds Like a Cult' now on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, iHeart radio, and Audible.