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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.

  1. The group has a living leader whom members worship
  2. It relies on bringing in new members
  3. It's used to make money
  4. 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.