I love this show so much! It is a refreshingly creative and light-hearted pod that reflects on pop-culture and our society at large. I binged this show when I first came upon it. Now I look forward to new episodes every Tuesday!

I can accept the tongue & cheek discussions even if they lack substance and facts. The podcast is a light mindless listen but Amanda’s constant “up talking” is incredibly grating! You betray your intelligence with this style of speaking. Stop ending every sentence as if you’re asking a question. Make a statement or stop talking!

Can’t waste my time to write pages of this garbage.

Love this show - and there’s a cult out there you simply must explore. The Yellow Deli! I got into a car accident, and the person who hit me just so happened to be owner of The Yellow Deli in Arcadia, FL. Oh…what I have learned since…! Such an awesomely humorous and well-structured program. Thank you for creating!

I like this podcast for short, random entertainment. My husband likes this podcast too, so it’s perfect for car rides.

Two airheads coming to sweeping generalizations about things they appear to have spent about 20 minutes researching. The level of ignorance is embarrassing.

Some episodes are really informative. Some are fun. I started listening for the Dave Ramsey episode and just got hooked. Cant wait to hear what’s next

I cant really take Amanda seriously anymore. After reading her last book, she comes off as a know it all, without actually having the background to really criticize. Half baked arguments made me lose respect for her. The costco cult was also a joke. I live in southern CA and have never encountered anything she was talking about. Costco is a business… changing deals monthly… is a normal business practice. Criticizing the holistic psychologist as a cult who harms people with wu wu therapy in her book? That was ick.

I still can’t get over the fact that you don’t know the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym. Appt. Is an abbreviation for the word appointment. NATO is an acronym —North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Pretty interesting but not subjective, and abiut they Taylor episodes it just sounds like they had a bad time online and are like just trying to diss her for the sake of it

Many of us are still waiting… where is the MAGA Cult exposé??

Don’t listen if you want learn about Montessori and if it’s a cult. Do listen if you hate LA, erewhon moms and permissive parenting.

This is really interesting stuff, but they definitely seem to be coming to these things with an opinion, then researching to confirm their biases. Mocking the subject right off the bat makes me tune out to the opinion.

I finally had to unsubscribe after finding myself more and more annoyed each time I tried to listen. Amanda’s analysis is always shallow and completely immaterial, lacking context, and in dire need of more thorough research. I also can’t take a single second more of her theater kid antics, nor her frequent mispronunciations. I’d be completely fine with an occasional mispronunciation if the host didn’t claim to be a linguist.

For people calling this podcast unserious, you might be missing the point. There is cult like behavior all around us every day, from our jobs to our places of worship, to our gyms, our car or transportation preferences and more. Reflecting on the good the bad and the ugly in lots of everyday subjects (Costco?) is literally a project in collective cultural self-reflection. It’s healthy to ask whether the harm outweighs the good in (for example) Soulcycle and Peloton and certainly more serious subjects. We are more shaped by our environments and the people we come in contact with than we would like to admit. These hosts do a good job of staying compassionate, human and humorous in this project, and I think in a world smacking us upside the internet with propaganda from unsavory sources, this self reflection is exactly what we need more of.

My favorite toxic listen! Basically: Men bad Straight people bad Not to be taken seriously. Just people shooting the *ish and having a good time. A nice palate cleaner if you want to diversify your podcast rotation.

I used to be a huge fan of this podcast, it became a shallow, boring and pointless listen. Dealing with very serious subjects with embarrassing conversations, offering no deeper look into things. Skip this one!

Never before have I heard two young women absolutely giddy to describe horrifying sexual assault allegations because said allegations give them an in to discuss a hot topic on their mediocre podcast. You can literally hear the smiles on their faces and the breathless excitement in their voices. Disgusting. It's the perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with true crime: "Bad things happen to people who aren't us, the wise and powerful podcast hosts, so we don't need to empathize with victims at all, because that sort of thing would simply never happen to us. We're smart, good girls. Not the sort of girls who experience THAT. So we can treat this whole thing like entertainment, like a joke." Maybe try to sound a little less thrilled and happy the next time a powerful person does something very very very bad to powerless people. Victims deserve more respect.

This podcast brings me so much joy

Truly don’t know why so many people are giving this show low ratings. I’ve found every interaction of this show funny and thought provoking. Worth a listen!

Where’s the MAGA Cult episode?

I love this podcast. Amanda is so good at bringing our attention to things we ought to be paying attention to in an entertaining and lighthearted way. It’s thought-provoking without getting too existential or bogged down. I love true crime and cult content, and I love that I can listen to this in a regular basis and always find an episode to fit my mood.

Loved this when it first started—it’s gone so downhill :(

I actually really want to like this show but find the profanity offensive. It is rated “clean” and seems to be with the several shows I have listened to too but for heaven sakes. The F bomb is never necessary or enjoyable to listen to.

I love the concept of this podcast and so many episodes are fascinating but I wish the host would quit the fake giggling. It’s so distracting and frustrating because it’s so frequent. Makes me want to shut the podcast off. Host, please listen back and you will hear what I’m saying. I think it’s an easy fix if you’re aware of how painful it is to listen to.

The older episodes of this show are really enjoyable and informative. I enjoyed the episodes with Isa and the season where Amanda had a guest host come on was great because they brought their knowledge about the subject matter to enrich the episode. The quality has really decreased, unfortunately, in the newest season with the new hosts that have been added. It is a lot of giggling and joking and very little information. I unfollowed. I think the new hosts and new tone might be designed to reach a younger demographic, which might be more suited to other listeners. I just preferred the way it was before.

I just turned off the latest episode after the 3rd ad break repeated itself and was over 6 minutes long. I know you need to make money, but I just can’t do 3-4 breaks that are over 5 minutes each. I hope they reign in the amount and length of breaks soon! (And yes, I know I could subscribe to get rid of ads but I also cannot do another subscription omg our whole lives are paywalled). Otherwise it’s a great podcast.

I made it half way through the Synanon episode when the repeated use of the term “dope fiend” and demonization of drug addiction made my have to turn it off. In 2024 to continue to use language that suggests drug addicts are lesser people than her innocent Dad in joining the cult is really an ignorant choice to everything we know today.

This used to be one of my favorite shows, but over the past few months it just hasn’t been very good. I’m not sure what happened, but this went from a very funny and informative show to something completely different. Now it’s more of a snark podcast where they pick random topics and mostly insult or make fun of them.

I was so excited to hear their take on Burning Man, which I have attended and enjoyed in all its culty fun for over a decade. And then…. they chose only to interview 2 random women who have never even been, and know nothing about it. So that’s now 4 people who know absolutely nothing about Burning Man, get together to discuss it. You literally worked harder to find a Disney Adult. 80,000 people go to the burn EVERY year and you couldn’t be bothered to find one of them? You could have had an amazing discussion, and instead it was just 4 people sharing their judgements and assumptions without fact checking anything. I’m so done with this podcast, now I’m doubting the research on every other episode.

I just found this podcast because of two girls one ghost and I’m in love! All I have is time to listen to music in podcasts because I’m a mobile dog groomer and I have to say that I binged this podcast so fast. I love hearing intellectual conversations with a mix of silliness. Also really loving Amanda’s other podcast which I will do a review for! Thanks for all your work ladies!

Love this show, love what you’re are doing !

I love this podcast! Amanda’s wit, humor, smarts and insights are a breath of fresh air in this culty universe. If you haven’t read her book Cultish, highly recommend it too - that’s what led me to this podcast :)

I was recommended this because I like You’re Wrong About. I enjoyed the first few episodes, but over time I realized there’s little to no factual statements about the groups they talk about and often it just perpetuates stereotypes, it’s fully just their opinions. Which would be fine if they marketed it like that or if it were funny at all, but it’s not. If people want to learn about obscure things from a well-researched POV, there are plenty of better podcasts! This missed the mark for me, not funny enough to be comedy and not thoughtful enough to be informative.

This show looks at all culty groups, not just the extremely destructive ones.

I wish half stars existed so I could give this a 3.5… it’s a decent show and the premise it started out with was great. Over time I’ve realized it’s pretty unpredictable based on the subject, guest, co host etc. (I can’t exactly remember but wasn’t the guest on the army wives episode one of the hosts dad? Random.) Anyway, it’s interesting still and having different co hosts coming in has me continuing to listen, for now.

SLAC used to be one of my favorite shows. Haven’t felt as connected to it as of late. I really like the hosts as women but do feel like Reese does a bit too much with acting out a scene instead of just holding a conversation. The past few episodes (Gilmore Girls, Horoscope Apps) I couldn’t get through. Will come back in a month to see if there’s any change ironing out the growing pains? It’s understandable the podcast is trying to find its new footing. Looking forward to giving it another shot soon.

Went down hill when second host left unfortunately…I wouldn’t waste my time with this one

I’m sorry, but there was no content. I don’t even know how you could stay on this topic for an hour.

Based on the title, I was expecting something else. I thought they might be actually talking about the “traditional” interpretation of a cult—don’t get me wrong, they do stay within the parameters of the definition, just with a different spin on it, which you might like. I appreciate how much work goes into producing a podcast and the enthusiasm and interviewing skills of the host. I listened to the Gilmore Girls episode where they shared insight that millennials, it seems the host and guests were in agreement, have had so many more challenges in life than their parents. They had found their people with each other—which is a great feeling; however, showed bias toward certain demographics (age) of their listeners.

As soon as I finished Amanda’s book Cultish, I started binging every episode of this podcast. It’s one of my favorites!

Truly enjoy the discussions on this pod. Now and then the guest is underwhelming but the topics never disappoint. And neither does Amanda. Alright podcaster, writer, thinker, fun human, pop off ☺️

I just listened to The Cult of Free Birthers. Language and medical trauma…look up certified child life specialists. There are professionals trained and hired to educate, support, and decrease the likelihood of medical trauma starting in the pediatrician’s office. Love this podcast and the fact that I’m a certified child life specialist who spent ten years making sure people know there are resources for them/their kids and help them understand that the words you use to describe healthcare experiences determine how you continue to feel about healthcare. I’ve also had an IUD placed and it was uncomfortable but the purpose was so much more important than the few minutes of being uncomfortable. I coached parents into describing procedures to kids afterwards focusing on the positive parts not on the “pinch” or “pressure” felt but on how they held so still. If we describe everything at the doctor as painful and scary it creates fear and stops people from getting potentially life-saving procedures.

One of the cohost’s (Reese) audio is consistently bad. I understand the first episode not having the right equipment, but there’s really no excuse after multiple episodes to get it figured out. It’s distracting and unpleasant to listen to now, which is sad, because I really like this pod!

I’ve been in it since the beginning and I’m still enjoying it!

The host will not stop talking in the most sing songy voice that is actually so grating to listen to. And the cadence is very forced like a nervous rejected late night talk show host who can’t make their big break. Some of the content can be good but it also feels very judgy. I am also tired of the incessant self promotion, it feels disingenuous. It’s nice to let your hard work speak for itself sometimes if it’s truly good. I’m sorry to sound so mean but I have tried this podcast many times and I just can’t get past the privileged mean girl vibes of it. Also there are WAY too many ads and the mics pic up SO MANY AWFUL mouth sounds. It sometimes sounds like they’re trying to chew smooth peanut butter when they talk it’s like they’re smacking while they speak PLEASE figure out the mics.

Very entertaining! I like the ones where they go further in depth/detail. As a member of the cult of FIRE (financial independence retire early) I’d love to suggest it as a topic—it’s a solid live your life imo, but try to change my mind:)

I have been a fan of Amanda Montell‘s since I read her very first book “wordslut” and have read all subsequent books she’s written as well. Her podcasts are just as beautifully done, hilarious and eye-opening as her books. I look forward to every podcast drop and can’t wait to hear more. Both this podcast and Magical Overthinkers are the only podcast I listen to because they are hands-down the greatest ones. Can’t recommend this podcast more!!! ❤️💕

I listen to this podcast on the daily, and it’s really fun yet informative and interesting!!

I have been listening to this show for a few years now because it’s a great concept, and there’s been many fascinating topics. I was about to give up on it after a while of Amanda only episodes because I couldn’t take them anymore. The amount of silly voices and acting like a ditz (instead of a confident woman who is an authority on the topic) was grating. Amanda is a wealth of knowledge and she is at her best when she is sounding competent, not silly. Then, they introduced two new co-hosts, and the episode with Amanda, Chelsea and Reese was great. It was back to the “friends having a conversation” style. Chelsea’s episodes have been my favorite by far. She balances out Amanda really well. She has made great points in every episode. She is a confident, self-assured, intelligent woman who is eloquent and doesn’t try to act like a teenage girl. She is so much more relatable to me as a millennial woman. Anyways, I’m loving the new episodes! More Chelsea, please! (I just wanted to add I have never met Chelsea, just so no one thinks this was written by a friend of hers or something. Also, this isn’t a dig at Reese in any way. I haven’t heard enough of her yet to make an honest review).