~Join us~ as Isa and Amanda unpack the "cult" of the Peace Corps—its peculiar rituals of initiation, close-knit camaraderie that borders on religious obsession, unwavering devotion to a higher cause, and (wait a second) abuse and murder?? Thanks to insightful listener call-ins, we reveal the eerie similarities that make this hallowed American organization an uncanny mirror to cult-like communities. To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up with our live show dates, see Isa's live comedy,...
Jul 25, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Get ready for some no holds barred sh*t-talking, culties, because this week, Amanda and Isa are joined by the hosts of the motherhood-themed "I've Had It" podcast for a wild discussion of how PTA Moms are kindaaa just like a cult. Relentless groupthink, wacky power dynamics, oh my... this conversation will leave you questioning bake sales forever. To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up with our live show dates, see Isa's live comedy, buy a copy of Amanda's book Cultish , or visit our ...
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast You're sure to *devour* this week's episode analyzing four generations of wealthy men who, in our little opinion, represent a stunning example of how a powerful American family can resemble a cult. This week, Isa and Amanda are joined by a third co-host of sorts, true crime TikTokker and friend of the pod Lauren Skae (@thezenblonde), who's here to help tell the harrowing story of The Hammer Family, including actor Armie Hammer, who was exposed for a bunch of power-abusive behaviors. Sometimes mu...
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast It sounds like an episode of Black Mirror: 18-year-old kids are sacrificing their futures and signing their incomes away for the chance to move into a #sponsored Southern California mansion and dedicate every waking moment to the pursuit of online virality. Are TikTok Social Houses an innocuous influencer trend or something more like Heaven's Gate for the 21st Century? This week, Amanda and Isa are joined by performer and Scam Goddess host Laci Mosley to figure out if these uncanny little dystop...
Jul 04, 2023•53 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Volunteering to subject yourself to isolation, starvation, and desperation on a remote island under high-pressure circumstances, all in pursuit of money and fame (aka today's spiritual enlightenment)… is that a dangerous cult we're describing or the premise of America's OG "cult-followed" reality show? Survivor is the topic of discussion on this week's episode, and Isa and Amanda are analyzing everything from the sacrifices contestants make to the behind-the-scenes production to the fanatical fa...
May 23, 2023•44 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast The Hippocratic Oath says do no harm. Explain elitism, secret societies, and debilitating physical and mental exhaustion to the point of potentially harming both doctor and patient, then?? Such is the "cult" of med school, this week's in-demand topic, which Amanda and Isa are discussing with insights from listeners who've survived this seemingly prestigious, but sneakily damaging (allegedly!!!) everyday "cult." To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up with our live show dates, see Isa's...
May 16, 2023•46 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast America's favorite buxom, rhinestone-clad Southern songstress, Dolly Parton, has a "cult following" like no other celebrity. Thanks to her unmistakable image, her "Dollyisms," her theme park, her illustrious music, and her ability to transcend politics, "Saint Dolly" has become so much more than your average country star. But are there any risks to worshiping a singer as your spiritual idol? Tune in as Amanda, Isa, and special guests Claire and Ashley from Celebrity Memoir Book Club attempt to b...
May 09, 2023•52 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast This *highly* requested topic has all the makings of a modern-day cult: mystery, unquestioned loyalty, and the future of children's hearts and minds at stake. But does that make it dangerous?? This week, Amanda and Isa dive into the cult of Montessori education, those idyllic primary schools where kids allegedly (!!!) access transcendant knowledge with nothing but wooden blocks and hippie vibes (oh, and $40,000 annual tuition). Are Montessori schools a brilliant alternative approach to learning ...
May 02, 2023•47 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast What began as a Woodstock-esque alt music fest in the '90s for fans of indie electronica to get freaky in the California desert has swiftly morphed into more of a celebrity horror show/Instagram museum, where people pay thousands of dollars to gather on a hot slab of corporate-sponsored land, wear disposable outfits, and pretend to have fun. Has Coachella just become obnoxious or something more like a cult?? As we come down from the festival hype this month, with the help of no-holds-barred list...
Apr 25, 2023•56 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast One of our fav episodes to date tbh. The promises include acceptance, stability, and fertility, but the reality = rigidity, conformity, and oftentimes outright shunning. Thinking about heterosexual culture as a "cult" might seem far out at first, but teasing it out with comedian Ashley Gavin, whose hilarious comedy special is viewable April 23 on YouTube, Isa and Amanda unpack sooooo much culty oppression that comes with our society's narrow standards for sexual expression (and also how the insi...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast It's time to dynamically synergize mission-critical alignments. Let's go ahead and fungibly communicate client-centric potentialities. If you can even half-way understand either of these sentences, then you might be a member of this week's "cult": Corporate America. With the help of special guest, Jamie Jackson of the cult-followed @humorous_resources Instagram account, Amanda and Isa are picking apart corporate culture's hyper-controlled rules, rituals, and hierarchies to tease out if this "lea...
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Fame, wealth, fraud, backstabbing, plastic surgery, hidden power hierarchies... are we talking about one of reality television's most successful franchises or a full-blown cult??? Host of the Reality Life podcast Kate Casey, an unscripted TV connoisseur who's been analyzing The Real Housewives for years, joins Isa and Amanda this week to unpack the inner workings and potential damage of this notoriously clique-y "cult." To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up with our live show dates, ...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Pinkies up and wallets out for this week's quaffable "cult": the elitist, jargon-packed, ritual-soaked world of fine wine. Amanda and Isa were always highly intrigued but knew very little about this top-shelf "cult" until chatting with special guest Cristie Norman, certified sommelier, Wine Enthusiast's "educator of the year," and creator of The Online Wine Course. The fine wine world is certainly mysterious and exclusive, but how "dangerously culty" is it? Drunk on Cristie's insights, we're rea...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Stocks? The economy?? Don't get us started! Look, any industry that allowed the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, aka Bernie Madoff, to literally *thrive* is an automatic sounds like a cult to us. Members willing to "sell their soul" to Wall Street in exchange for the American Dream enter a world ripe for corruption, deception, and exclusivity, and this week, ex-trader turned "finfluencer" Vivian Tu (aka, Your Rich BFF ) joins Isa and Amanda to spill all the *insider trading* on what makes Wall S...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Kayaking, friendship bracelet making, and oh yeah, threats of eternal damnation! What better way for a kid to spend the summer than at church camp? These pricy summer experiences for God-fearing kiddos might look all wholesome from the outside (a little *too* wholesome, in fact), but there have been enough allegedlys over the years to make Amanda and Isa think church camps might be serving up their 'smores with a side of cultiness. But are Christian summer camps a Live Your Life, a Watch Your Ba...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast As Keenan Thompson said in a recent SNL parody of the Miss Universe pageant, "Welcome back to Miss Universe, one of several shows still on the air where we rank women. But it's not what you think—we do it based off of looks." Welp when you put it that way :/ In our humble little opinion, it's hard to believe that the conformist, objectifying, and sometimes downright exploitative "beauty contest" business—perpetuated by the likes of Donald Trump and P.T. Barnum (yep, the circus guy)—is still a th...
Mar 07, 2023•51 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Did the first episode of HBO Max's Sex And The City reboot turn you off of Peloton? That makes one of us. This week, Amanda and Isa unpack the fanatical riders, worshipped instructors, and dystopian nature of the highly fetishized fitness brand that has been described as “SoulCycle via Zoom.” Peloton is definitely hardcore, but does that make it dangerous? With the help of insightful listener call-ins, your hosts explore just that. To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up with our live ...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, and Daniel Radcliffe are all survivors of today's "cult," and so is our guest, Mara Wilson, star of 1990s cinematic classics like Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire. Mara was only five years old when she started appearing in major commercials, and the next ten years of her life were a dream come true—full of glamour and accolades... and intense pressures, isolation, creepy stalkers, and other shocking experiences that make the world of child stars seem VERY culty. This week...
Feb 21, 2023•56 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast In 2005, this week's guest Sarah Edmondson joined what she thought was a personal development program devoted to helping her overcome her "limiting beliefs." Little did she know it'd turn out to be one of the most notorious and scrutinized groups of all time, NXIVM. "Self-Help" is a distinctly optimistic American pursuit and a majorly profitable industry. Sooo many culty groups start out with the innocent promise of helping their members become their best self. This gray area between positive se...
Feb 14, 2023•57 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Allegations of right-wing dogma, unquestioned power dynamics, charismatic leaders, freaky rituals, and physical abuse... are we talking about a serious cult or the Boy Scouts of America? Potato, po-tah-toe? That's the question on the docket this week, as Amanda and Isa dissect this prestigious but potentially sinister after-school organization for all-American boys. To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up with our live show dates, see Isa's live comedy , buy a copy of Amanda's book Cul...
Feb 07, 2023•53 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Motherhood is hard, lonely, and exhausting... except, apparently, if you're a momfluencer. Since the mid-2000s, a crop of seemingly perfect, all-knowing mommy goddesses in billowy tunics have emerged on social media—and we can't help but feel that their highly monetizable (often misinformation-ridden) internet presences basically exist to make other moms feel less than. This week, with the help of journalist and real-life mother Sara Petersen , author of the forthcoming book MOMFLUENCED, Isa and...
Jan 31, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast The end of the world... but make it cute and consumerist! "Preppers" are the latest iteration of doomsday survivalists, who band together on social media to talk canning, stockpiling, and first aid, but also multi-million-dollar bunkers in rural New Zealand?? Um, yeah, there are also billionaire preppers, and if the apocalypse weren't coming already, these guys are definitely speeding up the process. This week, Isa and Amanda are unpacking the so-called "doom boom" to judge how cultishly bananas...
Jan 24, 2023•48 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast The stigma around the green text bubble alone could ruin a man's life. How has Apple's secretiveness, superiority complex, and (admitted) marketing genius put our culture's social dynamics and behaviors in such a chokehold? In this week's much-anticipated 'sode, Amanda and Isa analyze how Apple built not just a multi-trillion-dollar tech business, but a "cult" (allegedly!!!), and spoiler alert: We're all a part of it, whether we like it or not. To support Sounds Like A Cult on Patreon, keep up w...
Jan 17, 2023•50 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast We’re baaaaaaack! We can barely record an episode of this podcast without a snack, so how are millions of people supposed to escape the "cult" of dieting when its mission is to keep everyone hungry, tired, and riddled with self-loathing? Let's count the red flags: a strictly controlled eating regimen, shame and peer pressure up the wazoo, false promises, hidden costs, viciously addictive cycles that offer no exit strategy... um, how is diet culture *not* a cult? In our highly requested relaunch ...
Jan 10, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Remember the Juniper Latte? Wasn't it just about the strangest thing you ever tasted? Yet, you still came back. Some might say you couldn't help yourself. This week, Amanda and Isa *roast* Starbucks’s “cult following”—the coffee religion with a church on every street corner—from its savvy marketing tactics and insider-y vocabulary to its addictive beverages and behind-the-scenes corporate ~vibes~. With a Starbucks cup in hand, comedian Jade Catta-Preta adds an extra shot of espresso to this epis...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast A cabal of black-robed elites who preside, unquestioned, over all our rights and freedoms… hmmm… sounds like a dang cult to us! Isa and Amanda are getting *judicial* this week to analyze the “cult” of The Supreme Court with NYU law professor and host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, Melissa Murray. Just in time for voting season! Check out voting resources below for this year's upcoming midterm elections. Register to vote, learn about your local elections, and make a plan – resources below! Midte...
Nov 01, 2022•57 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Cultyweeeeeeen! Our favorite holiday at Sounds Like A Cult is here, and to celebrate the spooky season, we’re asking: What could be more frightful than a haunted house dedicated to pushing an oppressive right-wing religious agenda onto high school kids just trying to have a good time? That’s the topic on Amanda and Isa’s minds this week for our very festive ‘sode on the “cult” of Hell Houses, a phenomenon that is somehow even scarier than it sounds…. Get tickets to Sounds Like A Cult’s fir...
Oct 25, 2022•41 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast I was never good at telling jokes but the punchline goes: If Taylor told her Swifties to kill a man, they would. They would kill a man for Taylor, because her music means *that* much to them. But the "cult" of country-pop sensation Taylor Swift is not just about the music. It's about the Swiftie community, the rituals, the beliefs, the aesthetic, and (of course) Taylor's cult of personality. This extreme fandom definitely seems classically culty, but is it dangerous just because it's fanatical? ...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Summer 2022, it seemed like everyone and their cult leader was *devouring* the TV show The Bear: an inside look at the hierarchical, co-dependent, misfit-ridden, sometimes downright abusive—but also totally transcendent—“cult” of restaurant kitchen culture. This week, Amanda and Isa are chatting with Matty Matheson, a big-time chef and cast member of the show, for a no holds barred analysis of the culty power dynamics and rituals found in the world of knives, remoulades, shift drinks, “family me...
Oct 11, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Cults tend to thrive during times of broader cultural questioning and turmoil, when institutional support seems to be failing so alternative groups swoop in to offer solutions to the world’s most urgent problems. War, famine, healthcare crisis. Hmmm… sounds not unlike the nonprofit industry, no? This week, Amanda and Isa look into the language, background, and structure of the nonprofit industry to try and figure out how cultishly sus it might be 👀 Get 20% off at honeylove.com with the code CUL...
Oct 04, 2022•48 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast 
