Cult Favorite

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)...

This week’s documentary tracks a religious leader who separated followers from their families, made them take vows not to critique authority, engaged in shady financial misdeeds, strictly controlled access to information, launched attacks on defectors, and suggested that a critique of him was an attack on the church itself. But there is no “cult” talk! How come? We give our media kaleidoscope a tu...

This week we’re talking about The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult? (HBO, 2024), yet another documentary that reminds us why we must always take care with a subtitle. It’s the story of Synanon, a drug addiction treatment community founded in the late 1950s by Chuck Dederich. The group offered solidarity and stability to people on society’s margins, they were unapologetically integrated, and...

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod. Production assistance from the Department of ReligiousStudies at the University of Alabama. Theme music produced with Udio.

Just how well do signifiers float, you ask? Well, we’re back with a corporate case study whose labels could serve as lifesavers. Examples include but are not limited to: “charisma” (=yelling + boss energy + money), “revolution” (=paying a fair wage), and, of course, “cult” (=a group of people trying hard for someone who’s a jerk). Pull on a comfy v-neck and go window shopping with us at American A...

There’s a new season of Shiny Happy People out now, and Cult Favorite is on the case with some unsolicited advice. Do: process dad issues. Don’t: crack eggs over your head for tuition money or others’ sport. Season 2 of the series focuses on Teen Mania, an evangelical youth phenomenon spearheaded for thirty-ish years by Ron Luce (himself stylized by way of motorcycles, loud voices, and evangelizin...

Would you like a methodology for optimizing or enhancing human experience and behavior? Would you like a vagueness-translator to make that question make sense? Well, have we got an episode for you! We’re finally talking about The Vow (season 1), a documentary series about NXIVM—a MLM with an acronym as confusing as its mission. We hit the highlights about what the group got up to and why leader Ke...

For the last stop of our summer road trip, we head to Rome, NY, where a retired Air Force base closed out the millennium by playing host to mosh pits, sexual assault, avoidable death, raw sewage, and fire. That’s right, campers, we’re talking about Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (HBO/Max, 2021). Pack some critical thinking along with your fresh water because questions about how quickly/easily...

This week we’re talking about sports celebrity, open secrets, and what people are willing to ignore in the name of loyal fandom. Join us for some conversational tailgating as we discuss Netflix’s Untold: The Fall of Favre (2025). A small town hero who became a football legend in his own time, Brett Favre is known by most for his time as a superstar quarterback in the NFL. Sports media personality...