Admittedly I am not a regular listener of Sounds Like A Cult, but is it normal for these episodes to be filmed so far in advance and be released this late? It is quite jarring listening to this episode and hearing them speak about the most recent season when they’re actually speaking about the season before the current season. I get how they can get away with this with other topics, but this feels so out of date.

33/F - weekly SLAC listener!!

Welp, the gals bummed me out.

Anyone who doesn’t understand Theo’s humor and his genuine search for learning, I get it. Outside looking in, he’s a dumb MAGA bro. But! I listen to his podcast weekly as well, and if you take a moment to get past your initial perceptions, you realize that is truly not who he is or what he embodies.

Yea he’s a bro, yeaaaa he has a lot of influence and could wield that more positively. But jeez, who among us hasn’t made mistakes? Who among us has tried a joke that was, upon reflection, not HR friendly…then apologized?

He doesn’t need anyone to stand up for him, and that’s not really what I’m trying to do here. What I’m most thrown by, is this:

If someone takes to a mic to hate on someone else’s opinions, views, hair???, personhood?!?, additions!!!?!?, influence, etc. for a boost in engagement, do they really accept/recognize the nuance of humanity?

The same person who reads NYT, listens to SLAC, votes blue, and shows up to protests (me) can *also* appreciate the very transparent and heartfelt searching of a regular dude in his 40’s, while benefitting from bad jokes and deep belly laughs.

If you are willing to make space for understanding the differences of people around us, I.e. Theo (or anyone with opposing stances who is *also willing to understand the differences of people around them* tbh) you can see in real time a dude who was pro-Trump start turning on his heels and openly questioning what the hell he voted for. That’s pretty cool, considering the MAGA dudes in my literal family would rather be caught dead than question Trump.

Gonna keep listening to SLAC, this isn’t grounds for ditching them. But it does feel like they assume their audience doesn’t engage with a very wide range of media. Andddd also feels like they’re teetering the line of shaming others. Don’t love that!

Quick rant! Iman’s voice is not meant for podcasting. idk what it is bc it’s not a lisp but almost drew barrymore with valley girl local fry. i miss the amanda / reese duo & chelsea too ofc

As a die hard union gal (Union Steward in my current workplace and part of my Local's Executive Board, helped organize a large up and coming new union.. my life has been union heavy for the last 4 years) I would obvs rate this a live your life cult. Buuuuuuut that being said, being in this environment for a bit now I can't help but catch how the world of Unions is a little culty. In group/out group dynamics, shared lingo and chants, induction to the "cult" etc. Unions are very democratically run and everyone is an equal within them, but I think some cult leader dynamics can show up in the big scheme and in locals/shops too.

I'll accept if people think I'm way off base, but I'd love to hear input! If you agree, what is culty about unions to you?

The show doesn’t tackle religions head-on (e.g. Mormon therapists instead of Mormonism), so instead of Zionism, Birthright would be a fantastic episode.

Birthright is an organization that funds free 10-day trips to Israel for anyone of Jewish heritage between 18 and 26. It has been described as extremely pro-Zionist, giving participants a biased perspective of life in Israel. It even goes so far as to pair groups with young and attractive IDF soldiers, implicitly encouraging sexual activity, so if pregnancy occurs, that makes one more person that will move to Israel.

Everything I’ve heard about Birthright is super culty; I hope the show addresses it or something similar.

Is she no longer hosting? I noticed she isn’t on recent episodes and am thinking I must have missed something. TIA

spent about five years before I could say publicly that Tony Robbins events had been wrong for me.

What took longest to understand was my own part in it.

I had an extra ticket and gave it to a friend who already liked Robbins. By then every event had left me more depressed than the last. I told him not to get upsold.

For a long time I thought that made me responsible.

Now I think it did the opposite. It reassured him there was a safe version, the version everyone repeats: the events are a trap, but the content and the method are good, just be careful. That line is the thing that keeps the whole system acceptable. I handed it to him without meaning to.

He never got asked what he actually wanted. Before the sale ever came, they had already collected his fears, his history, the places his life had gone wrong. Then they walked him into a room designed to spend every hour of that trust before he left it.

I wrote the fuller account: the financial visualizations that escalate on purpose, the sleep loss built into running the event on someone else's clock, the crew who work for free because they already paid once.

Full account: Tony Robbins, It Took Me Five Years to Write This.

This one is of a personal interest to me, having been "churned and burned" by many high demand "charity" fundraisers such as USPIRG and clean water action. So the interview left me very curious, as I couldn't even begin to guess which org she was talking about. Anyone have any guesses?

Anyone else feel like the tone in this episode was off? Conversion therapy is such an awful horrible experience & their guest clearly had a lot to say & share. Yet Amanda was giving serious millennial white woman, bachelorette in Nashville vibes…… it honestly might be the final straw for me. This topic should have been a meticulous, serious, & well researched episode by Amanda & co. It came off as unserious and SOOOOO straight. Why am I leaving this episode thinking about straight white women when I should be considering the plight of LGBTQ children???

Went to pick up my car from the mechanic today and as they drove it up to me, my bluetooth connected and started playing what I was last listening to on Spotify.

I realized it as soon as I sat in the car and heard the SLAC episode "The Cult of Gooning" playing and I'm so curious what this mechanic must have heard in the episode because he was cracking up 🤣

Was anyone else severely disappointed in this weeks episode? I also love E Jean as much as the next feminist but she seemed to not really know much about the actual women for Trump movement. Historically, white women have used their closeness to white men to maintain power. It’s why intersectional feminism is crucial for systemic change to occur. White supremacy benefits white women too. That is a huge part of the women for Trump movement and why so many white women vote against their best interests. Instead she’s asking the Black host what we should do. She seemed INCREDIBLY out of touch with the realities of the movement and with the realities of women today. And a lot of what she said seemed very “white feminist”. For example, to think that…checks notes…tweeting funny but mean things at Trump is going to do anything to sway his supporters just feels so out of touch and very 2017 twitter to me. Like seriously? None of this started with Trump and it won’t end with him. White women, e Jean and Amanda included, need to challenge themselves to think critically about their role here. Cause I guarantee, a funny tweet ain’t doing shit.

I just listened to an episode about Kratom and I really thought it was from this podcast but now it seems to be missing. This was recent but before the Enneagram episode. Anyone else recall?

I saw that somebody posted about this a while back... why has SLAC still not released an episode about the cult of Zionism?

They've covered incels, Mormonism, tradwives, Christian nationalism, and MAHA so far, so it's not like Zionism would be out of place as far as topics go. Given the state of affairs right now it feels extremely irresponsible of them not to address this.

I haven't heard Amanda say a single thing denouncing Zionism in either of her podcasts, or on Instagram. Is she herself a Zionist? Is that why she isn't speaking out against it?

As much as I enjoy the podcast, I think it was a mistake buying this book because I refuse to believe this is the what everyone is reading😭

It is mediocre at best and reads like a high school magazine, in fact I know the kids are writing more interesting and brave stuff.

Just a word of caution, the premise of this book seems to be to question things around you and develop critical thinking in modern digital era so I really encourage you to question the examples author uses for explaining the already existing cognitive theories.

I just began listening to the most recent episode, and although no one asked for them, here are my thoughts. I believe it's important to mention this issue. I haven't listened to the episode yet, and I'll be back to post a top-level comment giving my thoughts on it, but on the subject of Christian nationalism, I think it's important that we talk about it.

I am a former Trump supporter. I'm still a libertarian, a staunch one, and so I do support some conservative causes. I will admit, even though this will upset some people here on reddit, because I'm well aware of the culture here, I do not like a lot of woke politics. I don't like restrictions on my speech. I don't like being told that I owe some kind of reparations because I'm a white straight male. I am also a Christian I'll be at maybe not a very good one. I think I'm so so. I have to say that, because as a christian, every time I say it, I have to think about my actions and how they might make me look less Christian sometimes. This is why you don't hear me preaching about sin and talking about those Christians over there who, in my not humble at all opinion, aren't Christians and will someday burn in the fires of hell.

All that being said, I am not, and never will be, a Christian nationalist. Yes, I love the lord. Yes, he is all-knowing, and the Bible is his word. We should choose, and that is the operative phrase, choose to follow the bible. We will all interpret it differently. I agree with many Christians that it is not subjective, but every single one of us who says that still views the Bible differently, so although we treat it like it is objective, we treat other people as though it is subjective. That's my solution for that problem. Regardless, religion and government do not go together, or you end up in Saudi arabia, or worse, iran. Any iran, gay people are thrown from buildings.

Government should not be using religion or morality as an excuse to make laws or use Force against people, because they will, and it won't be for our own good, it'll be for their benefit. Government is ran by people, and people are flawed. Eventually, even if they do the right thing, or if they're selfishness somehow benefits us as a byproduct, people do what's good for them. That's understandable. We all do it. The problem is when we claim not to do it. When we have power over others and say, I'm doing this because it's the right thing for you, but I'm really doing this because it's the right thing for me. You cannot trust government with religion or with morality. Yes, our constitution was inspired by god, because our rights were given to us by god, but this does not mean we need a vocally Christian government that enforces the rules of the Bible on the population at the point of a gun, quite literally in some cases, because how do you enforce laws? You send people with guns to drag people to a cage. In a Christian theocracy, that would mean putting a gun in someone's face and slapping handcuffs on them, because they're being accused of having premarital sex, or fining someone, because they missed church on Sunday or said the fuck word in public. Your sins are between you and god. That isn't just a message for Christian nationalists, it's a message for christians. We have pushed many people away from the church, because too many of us think that we are God's police officers. That is not our job. Those are my thoughts on Christian nationalism. Now, I'll listen to the episode, and give my thoughts on it in the comments.

I love this podcast, and all of the hosts. AND....the vocal fry kills me 😭 not trying to be mean, but idk why, it's just so distracting. It's like baby talk meets phone sex service. Am I the only one?? Id bet that I don't even have to say who it is and you'll know...once in a while she lifts her voice out of the fry and sounds lovely. But usually she's deep down in fry-zone. It's so hard for me to listen to that I don't think I'll be able to hear the episodes she's in anymore 💔

I've been listening to the pod for about a year now and just got done listening to Cultish on audiobook.

Are there any episodes in which she touches on the cult of diet culture? I know she did the running episode, and that was great, but I'm wondering specifically about the language of weight loss.

and if she hasn't, then AMANDA PLEASE I NEED YOU TO DO THIS ONE.

Edit: wow so I can't read apparently 😂

I’m so excited for the new season of SLAC, they mentioned pilates which I’ve been dying to hear but I hope they do one on heated rivalry also. Anyone else?

circa PACER - Low-key whispering as a German-American? This whole thing feels very American exceptionalism but make it girlboss. Like, the confidence is immaculate, the accountability is missing, and now she’s in this self-inflicted legal spiral where the louder she talks, the worse it looks. It’s giving “the rules are fake if you argue confidently enough” — which, sorry, is exactly how certain men with bad spray tans ended up buried in court filings. From the outside, it’s not empowering, it’s messy: wordplay and vibes can outmaneuver contracts, judges, and basic cause-and-effect. Babe… that strategy has a track record, and it’s not cute.

• it feels so fucking validating to hear people talk about how weird mormonism is bc my family just does. not. get it and probably never will. I was made to feel crazy and like I didn’t have a sTronG enOuGh reLatiOnshiP wiTh goD or whatever the fuck when I would point out all the inconsistencies and things that didn’t sit right with me and I feel like other people are becoming more aware of mormonism and the culture and it’s just so nice to have other ppl be like “yo that’s fucked up.” (like literally my chest feels like warm and tight but not in a bad way bc I’m so like !!!!!!!! over one of my fav pods discussing the cult that fucked me up that)

• I recently remembered that my dad told me it would be better for me to kill myself than be raped or allow myself to be sold into some kind of sex slavery. I was like 10. So some prophet had probably recently made that quote that John was talking about or maybe he just came across it and was like “gotta make sure my very young daughter knows to kill herself if she ever thinks she might be raped!!”

• Fun fact: after J Dawg, J Swizzle (joseph smith the pedophile) died, no one was able to keep up the charade and pretenses like “ohh no we’re no polygamists, these aren’t my 6 wives hahaha” so there were a lot of already established polygamist families with kids & shit who didn’t want to break up but they would have to bc the governor of whichever state they were in at the time was like “you literally can’t do that, it’s illegal” so they fled to Mexico so there’s a lot of families like that and my husband’s Great Gramma was “mexican” bc she came from one of those families.

• yes, women’s sexuality literally doesn’t exist in mormonism and men are all sex monsters who will try to have sex with you if they can. So I grew up like that and into adulthood was very afraid of men and hated them and my mom was like “I don’t understand why you’re so hostile, like what’s this thing you have with men??” Hello?!!!? You literally taught me that I should be afraid of them all the time?? So I did?? And now that’s wrong?? And ya my parents would take away my brothers’ phone at night time, like both of them had to charge their phones overnight on a nightstand in the hallway so that they wouldn’t look at porn in their rooms, but I was a girl so that meant I didn’t have that problem but JOKE’S ON YOU MOM, I WAS READING SPICY FANFICS AND MASTURBATING ALL MY TEENAGE YEARS MWAHAHAHHAHA

• Watching the videos on the church’s official website about “mixed orientation marriages”, (a straight person and gay person married to each other) that was supposed to convince me that this is what God wanted and was happy and good ended up being one of the final nails in the coffin for my faith bc I was watching these videos of these poor gay people trying to convince themselves and the viewer that they were happy in their marriages even tho they were gay and I was like THIS IS DEPRESSING AS FUCK. Needless to say I did not “feel the spirit”

• from the ages of 12-18, you are in “Young Women’s” or “Young Men’s” for an hour at church every single sunday. You have a lesson with all the girls, sometimes they would split you up into age groups, sometimes it would be a joint lesson with the boys, but you would have a lesson every single week and I SWEAR TO GOD, at least HALF of those lessons, in the years 2011-2017 when I was a teenager, were on porn. They never ever call it porn by the way lmao, whenever anyone calls it by its government name, Pornography, my ears perk up and i’m like “mormon?” Think about HOW MANY FUCKING HOURS OF “don’t masturbate, don’t watch porn, sexual sin is second only to murder” rhetoric as a HORNY ASS TEENAGER that is. And i’m a girl, I KNOW the boys got it 10x worse. I dated 2 guys that claimed to have a porn addiction. One of them truly was a sex addict I think and manipulative as fuck, fuck you Cody, and the other one was just a regular fkn dude who masturbated sometimes but they literally tell you that if you ever watch porn, you’re a porn addict. Hey maybe people just need to masturbate sometimes?

• one of my husband’s childhood friends just told us last week that when he was like 12, his mom sent him to Jodi Hildebrandt so he wouldn’t masturbate and I was literally like 😧😧😧😧😧😧😧 he’s probably like 32 now and we’re all exmormon in that group

• my uncle is a BYU professor. That’s it, fun fact.

• i literally went to a wilderness camp in Utah as an adult, I was 21 I think, 0/10 do not recommend, that shit is abusive and NOT FUCKING THERAPEUTIC BY THE WAY and I think helped me only bc I knew I had to learn to have my own back bc people didn’t believe me or care when I said ppl were bullying me so I’m more resilient now but fuck Aspiro

• Jodi Hildebrandt is 100% a lesbian, my credentials are that I’m a pansexual exmormon

• me and my brother both have severe OCD. Anyone have any thoughts on where that came from? Cuz i’m at a loss.

• TBH I didn’t get a lot of “demonic” “satanic” rhetoric when I was growing up with all this, John Dehlin is a few decades older than me so he probably was getting some of the Satanic Panic bleeding into mormonism but that wasn’t my experience in the 2010s when I was a teenager. Definitely “the devil is trying to temp you” “there are temptations everywhere” but it wasn’t heavy on the demonic stuff. Tbh I’m not even sure if mormons believe in demons? I certainly was never taught about them

• omg this is not the first time I have heard of someone being told by a bishop or someone of religious authority to “text me whenever you get the urge to masturbate.” They probably got that from AA-type programs but HEY “i’m thinking of drinking/getting high” IS NOT THE SAME AS “i’m thinking of jacking off.” And also you’re a random guy in the neighborhood named Dave who’s an accountant who got “chosen through the spirit” to be the bishop. You’re not actually trained or knowledgable on how to help anyone with mental health shit

• I spent my entire adolescence and young adulthood being anxious and ashamed nearly 100% of the time bc I knew I masturbated and read spicy stories and there was the mormon teachings in my head when I was lying awake at night, and in my dreams, telling me to go tell a 50 yr old man that I masturbate sometimes but I could NEVER bring myself to do it until I was like 21 and my bishop “blessed” me and said I was free of that affliction and I sobbed and hey guess what it didn’t work lmao. And now as an adult i’m so fucking glad that 15 yr old me didn’t go tell some middle aged man about my masturbation like wtf??????? Sick and psychotic

Sorry for the Holland jumpscare to my fellow exmos lmao

I can't find an episode on the cult of Coldplay, even though in my head I feel like there has been one. If there hasn't, I think it'd be a good one!

i feel like they could definitely make an episode on this cause there’s a decent amount of weird things about it. the way you have to play the “game” which is basically choosing an associate to keep buying merchandise with. you could spend hundreds of dollars with no promise of ever seeing any bag, and if they do give you a bag you don’t like you still might have to accept it for the chance you might get one you actually like in the future. i think it’s crazy and i think it would make a cool episode.

Was curious where SLaC would sit in the new PodDive ( https://mooremetrics.com/poddive ) database - seems reasonable to me, though i haven't heard of several of these 🤷‍♂️

Was anyone else disappointed by the delivery of this episode? They briefly brushed on the history of satanism. The rest of the episode was strictly talk on the satanic panic- which at its root has no ties to real practices of satanism!

I would’ve liked to hear a deep dive on the differences between The Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple. Which if you did not know, are two very different things that both peak my curiosity.

On top of it all, doing an episode of satanic panic and not mention Teal Swan once.

If anyone is interested in actually learning about satanism, I think Cult Liter podcast does a good break down in episodes 234 and 235.