The Cult of High Fashion

It's a cult of one dynamic almost too frightful for this show. When your very own caregiver poisons, manipulates, exploits, and lies to you for personal gain... it's the cult of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, a nightmare phenomenon made internationally famous by the notorious (iconic?) Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a victim of child medical abuse, who played a role in the murder of her cult leader of one, aka, her very own mother. To explore the many culty angles of this week's unique subject, host Amanda is joined by novelist and investigative podcaster Andrea Dunlop, whose show Nobody Should Believe Me was inspired by her very close personal connection to the "cult" of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. Stick around for the verdict—we're fascinated to know if you agree!

Get your tickets now to The Big Magical Cult Show—dates and ticket links below!

April 9: Los Angeles, CA — feat. Pauline Chalamet (tickets here)

April 12: Brooklyn, NY — THE BIG MAGICAL CULT SHOW feat. Ceara & Griff from Petty Crimes (tickets here) Use code CULTMAGIC for a 10% discount!!

April 13: Boston, MA — THE BIG MAGICAL CULT SHOW feat. Sasha Sagan (tickets here)

April 15: Washington DC — Solid State Books (tickets here)

April 16: Philadelphia, PA — THE BIG MAGICAL CULT SHOW feat. Kelsey McKinney from Normal Gossip (tickets here)

April 17: Portland, OR — in conversation with Chelsea Bieker (free, no ticket needed)

To preorder a signed and personalized copy of Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, click here :)

For podcast updates and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Follow @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Go to StickerGiant.com/cult and use code CULT at checkout to get 25% off your first order.
• Dipsea is offering an extended 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult. 

First of all, what the hell is going on with culty leggings companies that have too many Ls in their brand name: LuLaRoe, Lululemon... sounds like a conspiracy!!! Anyway, after many long years of listener requesting this topic, Sounds Like A Cult is finally diving into the spandex heart of darkness that is Lululemon. With the help of special guest hosts Taz and Marah, the ridiculously charming voices behind the Sistas Who Kill podcast, host Amanda is unraveling how this bougie "It Girl" athleisure empire stretches beyond mere clothing into a full-blown lifestyle, complete with dogmas, devotees, and even a murder??? Yep, the true crime girlies already know. Oooof, this tale is banaynays—we hope you enjoy our culty analysis of it!

Get your tickets now to Amanda's live tour, The Big Magical Cult Show, feat. Kelsey from Normal Gossip, Ceara & Griff from Petty Crimes, drag burlesque, musical guests, merch, and more!

To preorder a signed and personalized copy of Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, click here :)

For book BTS, news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Follow @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

Thank you to our sponsors!

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.

Shop SKIMS Bras at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "podcast" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.

Visit BetterHelp.com/CULT today to get 10% off your first month.

Further reading!

Business of Fashion: At Lululemon, Being Black Is ‘Off-Brand’ by Sheena Butler Young: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/workplace-talent/lululemon-diversity-and-inclusion-2023/

HuffPost: What the F*ck Was LuluLemon Thinking by Caroline Gregoir: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-the-fck-was-lululemon-thinking_b_4138754

Business Insider: 12 Utterly Bizarre Facts About The Rise Of Lululemon, The Cult-Like Yoga Brand by Jim Edwards: https://www.businessinsider.com/12-utterly-bizarre-facts-about-the-rise-of-lululemon-2012-4#the-founder-is-an-ayn-rand-fan-and-the-company-takes-its-values-from-atlas-shrugged-1

Business Insider: Some Lululemon retail employees say there is an environment of 'toxic positivity,' where workers feel pressure to share personal information with managers and constant feedback can feel like bullying by Caroline Hroncich and May Teng: https://www.businessinsider.com/lululemon-retail-employees-describe-toxic-culture-2021-3

Salon: Yoga, spinning and a murder: My strange months at Lululemon by Mary Mann: https://www.salon.com/2013/12/31/yoga_spinning_and_a_murder_my_strange_months_at_lululemon/

You're invited to The Big Magical Cult Show!!! Catch host Amanda on tour this April to celebrate her new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking. Half the events are star-studded bookstore stops (where she'll be in conversation with the likes of Molly Ringwald and Pauline Chalamet!), and the other half are these wacky, witchy variety shows, featuring cult-followed podcasters (like Kelsey from Normal Gossip and Ceara & Griff from Petty Crimes), drag burlesque, musical guests, and more. There will be book signings, audience Q&As, and Amanda's first-ever merch collection, available only at these live events!!! Get your tickets below :)

April 9: Los Angeles, CA — Barnes & Noble at The Grove, in conversation with Pauline Chalamet (tickets here)

April 11: NYC, NY — The Strand, in conversation with Molly Ringwald (tickets here)

April 12: Brooklyn, NY — Littlefield with Books Are Magic, “The Big Magical Cult Show” feat. Ceara & Griff from Petty Crimes (tickets here)

April 13: Boston, MA — wbur cityspace, “The Big Magical Cult Show” feat. Sasha Sagan (tickets here)

April 15: Washington DC — Solid State Books (tickets here)

April 16: Philadelphia, PA — Underground Arts with Uncle Bobbie’s, “The Big Magical Cult Show” feat. Kelsey McKinney from Normal Gossip (tickets here)

April 17: Portland, OR — Powell’s Books, in conversation with Chelsea Bieker (free, no ticket needed)

Would you sacrifice your phone, passport, dignity, and freedom to move into an isolated pod for 10 days and compete against a sorority of strangers in search of True Love™, all for a world of fiendish reality TV consumers to see??? Sounds like cult behavior to me!!! This week, just in time for the Season 6 premiere, we’re FINALLY covering the cult of Love Is Blind, one of the most ~radical~ reality dating shows to have graced the airwaves. We’re joined by former cult member… ahem, I mean, contestant… Stacy Snyder to discuss the pros and cons of this objectively cultlike approach to marriage.

To preorder a signed and personalized copy of Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, click here :) The first 10 listeners to DM their proof of preorder to @soundslikeacultpod will be sent a free sticker featuring the SLAC logo!

For book BTS, news about Amanda's forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Go to HelixSleep.com/CULT and use code HELIXPARTNER20 for 20% off all mattress orders AND two free pillows.
• 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.
• Head to FACTORMEALS.com/CULT50 and use code CULT50 to get 50% off. 
• Dipsea is offering an extended 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult. 

Grab your rosary and slap on your plaid skirt (although you WILL need to recite six “Our Fathers” if it rides even one millimeter above the knee!!!) because this week’s theatrical episode is here to validate and possibly trigger all our former Catholic School #religioustrauma girlies. Recovering Catholic Aiden Arata—writer, “queen of depression Instagram,” and Amanda's former college pal—joins the pod to unpack all the pageantry and horror of this objectively bizarre (and yet totally mainstream) marriage of religion and education. Bless the many listeners who submitted their voice memo confessions—you truly made this episode sparkle brighter than the Papal tiara.

To preorder a signed and personalized copy of Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, click here :)

For book BTS, news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

Thank you to our sponsors!

Go to StickerGiant.com/cult and use code CULT at checkout to get 25% off your first order.

Go to the App Store or Google Play store and download the FREE Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CULT.

Shop SKIMS Bras at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "podcast" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.

We have NEVER had such a hard time finding a guest brave enough to appear on the show than we did for the week's episode on the flashy, fanatical, downright culty (sorry!!!) world of K-Pop. Thank goddess that Lai Frances, music reporter and expert in the "cult" at hand, was down to come have both a chuckle and a legitimately analytical discush about the pros and cons of this "cult-followed" music genre, which is of course so much more than that... it's a lifestyle, an identity, a bazillion-dollar cash cow, a life-consuming cult? Listen to us chat about the intense training K-Pop idols go through, their hardcore "sasaeng fans," and more to find out... K-Pop sounds like a cult, but is it really??

To preorder a signed and personalized copy of Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here :) For book BTS, news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

Thanks to our sponsors!

• SKIMS Bras are now available at SKIMS.com.
• 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.
• Visit betterhelp.com/cult to get 10% off your first month.

Sorry in advance for all the crack vs. quack wordplay coming in this week's episode, which we already know will push some buttons! Obviously #notallchiropractors, but it’s definitely scary how this industry of psuedo-doctors is entrenched in a cultural history of New Age scammers and conspiracy theorists with Jesus complexes, including dudes who believed they could talk to the dead and heal all that ails you with their bare hands. Joining us is professional chiropractor/mole/part-time critic of his controversial profession, Trevor Zierke, here to help us figure out what level of “cult” the wild world of chiros really is.

To preorder a signed and personalized copy of Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here :) For book BTS, news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

A clandestine society aimed at indoctrinating a fleet of nationalist spies with an extensive entrance process, aliases, secretive language, isolation from the outside world, and no clear exit strategy... sounds like a cult, but it’s actually America’s most prized federal agency, the CIA. This week, former CIA intelligence analyst Christina Hillsberg joins the pod, fulfilling all our Carrie Mathison fantasies with a tell-all interview about how the CIA is high-key just like a fringey religious sect!!! We hope you delight in this dishy, hilarious (and sometime deeply uncomfortable) convo as much as we did.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

To preorder Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here :) For book BTS, news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, and more, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Thank you to our sponsors:

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.

Head to FACTORMEALS.com/CULT50 and use code CULT50 to get 50% off. 

Dipsea is offering an extended 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult. 

Welcome baaaAAAAaaaAAaack, culties!! Time to *ascend* to the 2024 era of Sounds Like A Cult 👽 Kicking off with a damn bang—the most colossal cult we’ve ever covered (as in ~1.5 million employees and 310 million users colossal). It's the multi-pronged monster of convenience, which spares no one, no matter the cost… you guessed it, Amazon. Duh, we know, Amazon is a cult—from its notorious treatment of factory workers to its uncanny world-domination energy to its “never leave us” messaging, it’s obvious. But is Amazon a LYL, a WYB, or a GTFO-level cult? And is the verdict the same for both employees and consumers? To unpack this gazillion-dollar organization (religion?) from the inside, please welcome special guest Kristi Coulter, an ex-Amazonian who spent 12 years in the cult… I mean, *company*… before defecting to write her new tell-all memoir, Exit Interview. It’s one of our juiciest conversations in SLAC history and we hope you enjoy it!! Thanks to all the listeners who leant their voice messages to this episode.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

To preorder Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, out April 9, 2024, click here :) For news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Thank you to our sponsors:

• Go to HelixSleep.com/CULT and use code HELIXPARTNER20 for 20% off all mattress orders AND two free pillows.
• Ibotta is offering $5 just for trying the app by using the code CULT when you register in the App Store or Google Play store.
• SKIMS Bras are now available at SKIMS.com.
• Visit betterhelp.com/cult to get 10% off your first month.

Florals for spring may not be groundbreaking, but you know what is? Today’s brain-tingling interview with possibly the single best speaking voice in podcasting, Avery Trufelman, friend of the pod and host of the critically acclaimed fashion series Articles of Interest. Avery joins our season finale episode for a discush about the “cult” of the haute couture industry, from its elitism and exclusivity to its bonkers sense of conspiracy that (spoiler!!) affects us all, whether we realize it or not. Let’s just say if you’ve ever felt stressed about what pants are cool anymore, you are definitely in this cult!!! Stick to the end for our culty verdict and to hear a brief announcement about next season.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @isaamedinaa 

To stay up to date on Isa’s future projects, click here!

To preorder Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, a lead Simon & Schuster title for 2024, click here :) For news about her forthcoming Magical Overthinkers podcast, consider subscribing to her newsletter!

Thank you to our sponsors:

• SKIMS Holiday Gift Shop is now open at SKIMS.com. Get free shipping on orders over seventy five dollars.
• Go to betterhelp.com/cult to get 10% off your first month.