Cult Favorite

In the summer and fall of 2016, reports of “killer clowns” lurking at the edges of American towns spread from community to community. This week, Mike and Merinda watch the documentary Clown Panic currently streaming on Hulu to explore that moral panic and ask how it spread. Was it local media, Facebook, Pokémon Go, a Rob Zombie movie, or something deeper about how we form communities around fear a...

What justifies calling something a conspiracy, What is "conspiracy" really shorthand for, and How does the term "conspiracy" function for people? In this episode, Mike and Merinda use the documentary Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy to theorize how something comes to be labeled a conspiracy and what this does for the classifier. They also discuss the differences in l...

Can there be a cult without a camera pointed at it? Mike and Merinda have asked this question a lot and it is central to this week's documentary. The Cult of the Soulful Journey tells the story of a new age group based in Minnetonka, Minnesota organized around new age teacher and channeler Soulaire Allerai. The documentary depicts Soulaire as a controlling and charismatic "cult leader.&qu...

Merinda and Mike dive into the documentary chronicling Eternal Values, the New York new age group built around self-styled guru Frederick von Mierers — and the model, Hoyt Richards, who spent years inside it. It starts on a Nantucket beach in 1978, with talk of alien walk-ins, past lives on the star Arcturus, and a coming tribulation only Frederick's followers are prepared for. It ends with a...

It's relaunch week here at Cult Favorite! You might notice some changes and some new things as we roll into the fall. So keep checking in! On this episode we discuss the summer's biggest "cult documentary," Trust Me: The False Prophet from Netflix. This story of an abusive FLDS leader who emerges in the wake of Warren Jeff's incarceration and the woman who gains his trust in...

In our final episode of our summer mini-series, Merinda and Mike discuss how people online are thinking about the "cult documentary" genre. What do the ways people talk about "cult docs" tell us about how the term "cult" functions in our current discourse? Listen in and find out! Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Stud...

The summer is almost over but we still have one more episode from the archives for your last days of vacation travel. In this episode from last spring Mike and Merinda talk about the first season of Amazon's Shiny Happy People and why certain kids of Christianity get the "cult" label. Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Departmen...

We have another episode in our summer series of meta conversations about cults, cult documentaries, and the cult discourse of our current moment. This time we talk about some of the very unhelpful terms that get used to talk about those groups that get labeled as "cults." Mike and Merinda breakdown "belief," "brainwashing," "intent," and "authenticity.&...

We are diving back into the archives again this summer while Mike goes surfing and Merinda is writing and conferencing. We take you back to the first year of our show in November 2024 and this episode reviewing Netflix's Escaping Twin Flames docuseries. It's a great example of the "cult documentary" tropes we discussed in our last episode. Check it out! Follow us on the socials a...

We are back with a new episode in our summer series of meta conversations about "cult documentaries." In this episode Mike and Merinda ask: 1. What is the basic formula of a cult documentary and what makes it effective? 2. What makes them easy to make, produce, and consume? 3. What’s the media’s role in perpetuating a certain definition of “cult”? 4. Is there something about this particu...

Merinda and Mike are enjoying summer vacation but we don't want to leave you with nothing for your ears. We have a lot of new listeners so we are dropping this deep cut from the Cult Favorite vault. You might have missed this the first time so don't miss it now! We'll be back soon with new content but for now, have a cold drink, sit back, and enjoy one of our favorite episodes. ----- O...

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance. The views expressed in this episode are our own as experts and researchers in religious studies and do not represent the University of Alabama. Theme music produced with Udio.

This week we are taking a break from all of those cult documentaries you can’t stop binge watching to have a conversation about our journey so far and where we are going. We have a lot of new listeners so we want to revisit why we started this podcast almost two years ago, what we have covered across our 50 episodes, and where we are headed with this project. We have a lot of great stuff in store...

Put your brain in Warrior 2 and join us for a conversation about the new documentary series Twisted Yoga on Apple TV+ (in which Gregorian Bivolaru assaults women in the name of divine transmogrification at yoga retreats). We talk about classification and the power of language—acquiring it, adapting it, and applying it. Our pronunciation skills could use some work, and Merinda mentions Unsolved Mys...

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance. The views expressed in this episode are our own as experts and researchers in religious studies and do not represent the University of Alabama. Theme music produced with Udio.

http://www.sarahkernochan.com/documentaries/index.html https://www.vice.com/en/article/marjoe-director-sarah-kernochan-talks-about-her-incredible-doc-on-the-evangelical-conman-456/ Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance. The views expressed in this episode are...

This week, we dive into Kumaré, in which Vikram Gandhi fashions a social experiment that turns into a journey of self-discovery...or something. Topics include but are not limited to: guru persona as ideological container, autauthenticity rhetoric and performance, what factors make manipulation seem innocuous or exploitative to an audience, yoga + air guitar, and what Mike’s been reading lately. Jo...

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance. The views expressed in this episode are our own as experts and researchers in religious studies and do not represent the University of Alabama. Theme music produced with Udio.

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance. The views expressed in this episode are our own as experts and researchers in religious studies and do not represent the University of Alabama. Theme music produced with Udio.

Buckle in and get ready to hear two of the worst Werner Herzog impressions of all time. Not unlike the famous filmmaker, we just couldn’t seem to help ourselves! In his case, however, the self-indulgence comes tethered to a story nominally about Timothy Treadwell, the so-called Grizzly Man who inspired a 2005 documentary by the same name. What does that 20-year-old cinematic exploration have to do...

It is the end of the semester and we here at Cult Favorite are ready for a long winters nap. So, we have a special episode from deep in the Cult Favorite archives that you may not have heard yet. This week we are replaying our episode about Season One of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives from 9/23/2024. And we have a lot more episodes in our back catalog for your long holiday drives and airport lay...

What drives someone to risk everything for a calling? In this episode, we dive into The Mission (2023), a gripping documentary that follows the story of John Chau—a young missionary whose journey to reach one of the world’s most isolated communities sparked global debate. We unpack the film’s layered narrative: faith and zeal, cultural boundaries, colonial echoes, and the ethics of evangelism in t...

This week, we hop into a car Louis Theroux is driving, but we have questions about his vehicular management...or at least about his playlist choices. Luckily, we’ve saved a seat for the insider/outsider problem, and it’s a great navigator! Yep, we’ve cued up My Scientology Movie, a title that at least offers truth in advertising. It is very much Theroux’s movie that follows his curiosity based on...

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance. The views expressed in this episode are our own as experts and researchers in religious studies and do not represent the University of Alabama. Theme music produced with Udio.

It's our 2nd annual Halloween special episode!!! And that's doubly funny because Mike hates Halloween. For this year's special we take on TWO documentaries (and kind of a third one too) about Ed and Lorraine Warren, 20th century demon and ghost hunters extraordinaire. We discuss The Devil on Trial (Netflix 2023) and Devil’s Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren (HBO Max, 2020)...