Oops a politically flavored episode of Sounds Like A Cult!!!!! Would you believe it if we told you we recorded this nearly SIX MONTHS AGO and just crossed our fingers it would resonate whenever it ended up going live??? This week, host Amanda is joined by Puck reporter and former MAGA youth recruit, Tina Nguyen, author of the 2024 memoir The MAGA Diaries, who’s here to shed light on the culty modern movement that is conservative youth activism: why it exists, how it works, and why there’s no left-wing analog. Culty times people!!! Intrigued how this episode will land with you culties 👀😵‍💫✌️

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast and/or watch full episodes on YouTube, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsors, who make this show possible!

• Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code CULT at checkout
• Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to https://www.squarespace.com/CULT to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
• Go to stopscooping.com/SLAC and enter promocode SLAC to save an EXTRA $50 on any Litter-Robot bundle.

Learn more about host Amanda's Italian writing "cult" ;) It's a Live Your Life!!!

https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/italy/italy-with-amanda-montell-oct-2024

If you’ve ever seen a suburban lady wearing a tee shirt that reads, “I wine because he whines” or “I’m not a normal mom, I’m a wine mom,” then you have likely born witness to a follower of this week’s “cult.” Wine moms may have nailed the merch aspect of modern-day fanaticism with their culture of “rosé all day,” and there’s certainly valid solidarity in venting about the hardships of American motherhood over a glass of Prosecco or two. But… ten? At the kids’ soccer practice? Is any group that aims to cutesify alcoholism en masse ever not at least a “Watch Your Back”-level cult??? To help figure it out, please welcome this week’s special guest, survivor of both the wine mom cult AND the cult of MLMs (no small feat!!), author and sobriety coach Emily Lynn Paulson.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast and/or watch full episodes on YouTube, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsors, who make this show possible:

• Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code CULT at checkout
• Dipsea is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult.
• Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to https://www.squarespace.com/CULT to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

From TV executives abusing kids on sets to Scientology's "Celebrity Center," the cult of the entertainment business can getcha from about 6,000 different angles. After all, what other mainstream American industry is glamorized and lusted-after to this extreme degree, only to betray its most successful acolytes with financial and physical exploitation, social isolation, dehumanization, and a destroyed sense of self-worth to the point that entertainers dying early tragic deaths of despair is not only accepted, it's practically a meme??? This week, host Amanda offers a lil history lesson on the cult of Hollywood before getting into some juicy personal stories and an analytical discush with the one and only Maria Bamford, iconic comedian and author of Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere. Who are Hollywood's true "cult leaders," and do their worst behaviors earn it the title of a GTFO-level cult? Tune in to find out!!!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast and/or watch full episodes on YouTube, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsors, who make this show possible:

• Go to stopscooping.com/SLAC and enter promocode SLAC to save an EXTRA $50 on any Litter-Robot bundle.
• Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to https://www.squarespace.com/CULT to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
• Earn points by paying rent right now when you go to joinbilt.com/cult.