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A podcast about the modern-day “cults” we all follow. Each episode asks the culty questions we’re all wondering… Do you think SoulCycle is a cult? What about Elon Musk stans? Or the Royal Family? What about spiritual influencers? Is Instagram itself a cult? Sounds Like A Cult, hosted by Amanda Montell, author of Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, analyzes a different zeitgeisty group every week to try and answer the big question: This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? And if so, ...
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Grab your trusty #2 and find the desk with your name tag on it, because class is in session this week at Sounds Like a Cult! Our /pedagogically inclined/ episodes are always RIPE with juicy insight, and today’s topic is no different. Be it Hogwarts or Pacific Coast Academy, boarding schools have long shrouded themselves in an air of mystery and exc…
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NOT going to lie, this episode was a wee bit nerve racking to record!!! Despite the, ahem, LARGE number of requests we received for this topic (which would make you think it was ubiquitously reviled), the acolytes in this group ride HARD for their leader! Money and religion are the twin engines that make the world go ‘round, dear culties, and as su…
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Who’s your #mommy culties: Taylor or Whitney? That’s right, fresh(ish?) off the release of Hulu’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reality series (for which Amanda and Reese attended a blissfully tinsel-adorned premiere party #notsponsored lol), this week we are covering the cult of Mormon MomTok. This coalition of young Mormon mothers turned TikTok st…
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Settle in with a Kirkland brand sparkling water and a rotisserie chicken because this week, Amanda and Chelsea are going IN on the us/them dynamics, strange rituals, manipulation tactics, over-the-top passion, and lore of your favorite membership-only cathedral of affordable excess, Costco. Based on this episode’s fervent listener call-ins alone, i…
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We’re baaaAAAAAaaaaack!!! Join us for a 🪐transcendent🪐 new season of Sounds Like A Cult, whose opening episode features Chelsea Charles, one of our sparklingly hilarious new co-hosts. An unscripted TV producer by day, Chelsea joins returning host Amanda to unpack this week’s nightmarish topic: Dance Moms. Indeed, we’re exploring every culty corner …
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The Cult of Sounds Like A Cult (Meet Your New Co-Hosts!)
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This is Sounds Like A Cult, a show with two sparkling new cult leaders, ahem, co-hosts!!!!!! We’ve been keeping this secret for months, and it feels downright ~transcendent~ to let you culties know: Joining host Amanda for the next season of Sounds Like A Cult are two brilliant, kind, warm, and hilarious recurring voices—unscripted TV producer Chel…
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New Age love & wellness influencers turned baby NXIVM: That's kinda the best way we can succinctly describe this week’s cult, Twin Flames Universe, one of the most chilling groups we’ve discussed on the pod thus far. Several months ago, Twin Flames survivor Jessi Hersey, whom you might recognize from the “Escaping Twin Flames” doc on Netflix, slid …
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Pack your hammer and your lack of cultural awareness, because this week on Sounds Like A Cult, we're interviewing Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist, mission trip devotee, and survivor of church-sanctioned domestic violence. Tia is also the author of the brand new memoir A Well-Trained Wife. She joins to discuss the ever-so-common culty…
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Get Tickets to Isa Medina's Live Comedy Show in NYC August 24th! Click Here! Follow Isa on Instagram to keep up with her upcoming comedy shows! Subscribe to Isa's new podcast I'm Right You're Wrong on Spotify or Apple! If you want to support Isa's new podcast subscribe above, listen or watch the full episodes at the I'm Right You're Wrong Podcast P…
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The Cult of Conservative Youth Activism
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Oops a politically flavored episode of Sounds Like A Cult!!!!! Would you believe it if we told you we recorded this nearly SIX MONTHS AGO and just crossed our fingers it would resonate whenever it ended up going live??? This week, host Amanda is joined by Puck reporter and former MAGA youth recruit, Tina Nguyen, author of the 2024 memoir The MAGA D…
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Learn more about host Amanda's Italian writing "cult" ;) It's a Live Your Life!!! https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/italy/italy-with-amanda-montell-oct-2024 If you’ve ever seen a suburban lady wearing a tee shirt that reads, “I wine because he whines” or “I’m not a normal mom, I’m a wine mom,” then you have likely born witness to a follower of this…
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From TV executives abusing kids on sets to Scientology's "Celebrity Center," the cult of the entertainment business can getcha from about 6,000 different angles. After all, what other mainstream American industry is glamorized and lusted-after to this extreme degree, only to betray its most successful acolytes with financial and physical exploitati…
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Listen to Isa's new podcast: I'm Right You're Wrong! Isa is the co-creator and former host of Sounds Like A Cult<3 Click here to Subscribe/Listen on Spotify Podcasts Click here to Subscribe/Listen on Apple Podcasts Botox & Filler: Right or Wrong? Does getting botox and filler contribute to unjust beauty standards? Or are women literally not allowed…
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The Cult of The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
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You culties preyed and preyed for us to analyze the cult of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, and at long last, host Amanda Montell and coordinator Reese Oliver are blessing you with one of our favorite episodes in a very long time 🥲 To the undiscerning eye, Netflix’s new “America’s Sweethearts” series may look like an innocent little feature on the…
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Class is in session and boy oh boy is it perturbing. Teaching is not just a profession, it's a calling to shape young hearts and minds—one that looks all wholesome on the outside, but once you're lured in, actually comes with labor exploitation, emotional manipulation, weird power dynamics created by the tenure system, and other sinister qualities …
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Catch Amanda back on tour this summer! July 29: The Age of Magical Overthinking book talk at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, WA (free!) Imagine you’re a little kid and your parents are actually your bosses. Now imagine that, as your professional superiors, your parents' job is to engineer and exploit every single precious moment of your childh…
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Right or Wrong? Nepo Babies (Preview of Isa's New Podcast!)
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Listen to Isa Medina NEW PODCAST – I'm Right You're Wrong on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or wherever! Isa Medina is the Former Host and Co-Creator of Sounds Like A Cult Podcast. Follow Isa on IG @isaamedinaa for info about her live stand up comedy and her new podcast @ethicalgirlies. The episode preview ended at 23 min 40 seconds if you want to star…
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