Cult or Just Weird

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- Thinking – the talking of the soul with itself. -Plato   Chris and Kayla attend class at another small local group... whose presence & influence is worldwide & ubiquitous.   --- *Search Categories* New Religious Movement; New Age​   --- *Topic Spoiler* Theosophy   --- *Further Reading*   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- "It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible." -David Brin     Chris and Kayla explore the nature of power and learn some shocking stories about the group du jour in this part two.   --- *Search Categories* New Religious Movement; Anthropological   --- *Topic Spoiler*...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- "Repetition not for monotony but the ecstasy it induces." - Martha Graham     Chris and Kayla go to a restaurant. Kind of. Don't worry, we'll repeat ourselves.   --- *Search Categories* New Religious Movement; Anthropological   --- *Topic Spoiler* The Hare Krishnas / ISKCON   --- *Further Reading* https://iskconla.com/H...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   ---   It's hard to detect good luck--it looks so much like something you've earned. - Frank A. Clark   Chris and Kayla visit a liquor store to try and resurrect the American dream.   --- *Search Categories* Anthropological; Destructive   --- *Topic Spoiler* The American State-run Lottery System   --- *Further Reading* https...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord! ---   FVNEM? FVNEX?   Kayla and Chris get up at the crack of dawn to try and solve a cryptogram from 1925.   --- *Search Categories* Common interest / Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* The Los Angeles Breakfast Club   --- *Further Reading* https://twitter.com/labreakfastclub https://www.labreakfastclub.com/ https://www.latimes.com...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord! ---   Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices. - Theodor Adorno   Chris tries to land this Ayn Rand plane in an objectively satisfying manner.   --- *Search Categories* Anthropological; Common interest / Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* Objectivism & Ayn Rand   --- *Further Rea...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord! ---   Who is Ayn Rand?   Chris and Kayla try to answer this ocean of a question, exploring the many rivers and tributaries that feed it.   --- *Search Categories* Anthropological; Common interest / Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* Objectivism & Ayn Rand   --- *Further Reading* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism https://en....

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord! ---   I am evolving and it's so damn beautiful. -Anonymous   Chris ponders the philosophical orb with Kayla, and finally comes out as a cultist himself. Objectively speaking.   --- *Search Categories* Anthropological; Common interest / Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* Objectivism & Ayn Rand   --- *Further Reading* https://en.wiki...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord! ---   The body says what words cannot. --Martha Graham   Kayla and Chris explore the roots of human bonding...set to music.   --- *Search Categories* Anthropological; New Religious Movement; Common interest / Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* Ecstatic Dance   --- *Further Reading* Professor Chill Spotify Electric Sufi Spotify http...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord! ---   Experience is the teacher of all things. - Julius Caesar   Kayla and Chris kick off Season 5 by going to a cult within a cult... culturducken.   --- *Search Categories* New Age; New Religious Movement   --- *Topic Spoiler* The Source Family   --- *Further Reading* http://martinostimemachine. blogspot.com/2021/06/the- so...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   ---   Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. - Arthur C. Clarke   Kayla and Chris end the season on a topic with a twist unlike many others covered on this show.   --- *Search Categories* New Age; New Religious Movement   --- *Topic Spoiler* The Aetherius Soc...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- "Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there.'" - Randall Munroe   Keep an eye on this one- Chris talks to Kayla about a particular type of therapy that has been gaining in popularity in the last few years.   --- *Search Categori...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- " It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."  -Audre Lorde   Kayla & Chris have a healing conversation about a topic that weighs heavily on all of us.   --- *Search Categories* Destructive; Science / Pseudoscience; Alt Medicine / Wellness   --- *...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- Sometimes you want pain to be acknowledged and not whitewashed- or erased by some exceptionalist point of view. -Ari Aster   Chris & Kayla mix things up a bit by analyzing a cult that doesn't even exist.   --- *Search Categories* Internet Culture; Common interest/Fandom; Anthropological   --- *Topic Spoiler* the film Mi...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food. -Dean Ornish Kayla & Chris explore a much-maligned fandom on the internet, and learn a little bit about themselves and humanity along the way.   --- *Search Categories* Internet Culture; Common interest/Fandom; Anthropo...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- In my estimation, the only thing that is more to be guarded against than bad taste is good taste. - Russell Lynes Chris & Kayla partake of an ancient (relatively speaking) autumnal ritual.   --- *Search Categories* Business; Internet Culture; Common interest/Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* Pumpkin Spice Fandom   --- *Furth...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- All is Number. Chris helps Kayla square her understanding of a well known but little understood historical character.   --- *Search Categories* New Religious Movement; Science/Pseudoscience; Anthropological --- *Topic Spoiler* Pythagoreanism --- *Further Reading* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras https://en.wikip...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- When you're surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible." -Howard Schultz Grab your favorite iced, sugary, coffee-adjacent beverage, because Kayla and Chris have an episode brewing, featuring a conversation with some partners who are helping their corporate overlo...

"Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things." - Vernor Vinge Kayla and Chris tell another side of the classic MLM story - the downfall. And we've got a special interview here to give us all the dirt. --- *Search Categories* MLM; Internet culture; Business; Science/Pseudoscience; Alt Medicine/Wellness --- *Topic Spoiler* Black Oxygen Organics aka BOO --- *Further Reading* https://mombi...

"Human connection is the suicide killer." Chris and Kayla revisit a former topic that's reared its head in mainstream culture again to talk about why this person continues to amass power...and what the other options are. --- *Search Categories* New Age; Internet culture --- *Topic Spoiler* Teal Swan and suicidality  --- *Further Reading* Emmengard suicide scale The North Wind & the Sun parable Dav...

Kayla and Chris are on vacation this week! But we still want to bring you some sweet sweet content, so here is a bonus episode from the CoJW patreon last season, where we discuss how weird it is that abusers from disparate communities all use the same refrain when facing accountability: "I didn't know it was wrong!" --- *Search Categories* Destructive --- *Topic Spoiler* S3E19 Patreon Bonus episod...

"Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form." - Jean Luc Godard Kayla and Chris fall down the dollhole into an online world of unstable meaning and multilayered storytelling. --- *Search Categories* Internet culture; Common interest/Fandom --- *Topic Spoiler* Empty Spaces --- *Further Reading* https://litreactor.com/columns/the-art-of-microfiction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_fi...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- "Before you attempt to beat the odds, be sure you could survive the odds beating you." - Larry Kersten Chris takes us back to the 90s... a decade of neon green baseball hats, Crystal Pepsi, Michael Jordan, Alanis Morrisette. And hedge fund disasters. --- *Search Categories* Business; Destructive --- *Topic Spoiler* Long...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- "Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair." - Mariame Kaba With the tragic June 24th reversal of Roe v Wade, Chris & Kayla eschew the usual format and lean hard into talking about helpers. --- *Search Categories* Destructive --- *Topic Spoiler* Abortion Justice & Access --- *Further Reading* For those see...

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- "The worm is not to be trusted" - William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra Chris & Kayla "dig in" to an unlikely but prolific Ponzi scheme in this week's episode. --- *Search Categories* Business; MLM --- *Topic Spoiler* B&B Worm Farm Ponzi scheme --- *Further Reading* https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/06/30/craw...