Perhaps it’s an obsession, perhaps it’s a cult

Sounds Like a Cult, but is it, really? This podcast is hosted by writer, actor, and comedian Isa Medina, and Amanda Montell, an author and linguist who penned a book on how cults use language to gain power called Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism.

Wait, am I in a cult? You might find yourself asking that question after listening to Medina and Montell discuss modern day cultural zeitgeists in each episode and ultimately decide how culty they are and how bad. In a recent episode, they discussed AI, and we’d say that calling it a cult might not be so far off, especially after an ex-Google engineer recently founded the Church of Artificial Intelligence.

High fashion, podcasting, and more: The hosts are always ready with a new topic and they’ll do it while balancing humor, usually from Medina, and research, more so from Montell.

They take the definition loosely a bit too seriously…but at the end of the day, the point of the show is to tackle cultural movements, or happenings that amass a following and how and why they were able to do so. We’ve all been guilty of obsessing over something — Dolly Parton, podcasts, Wall Street, ‘NSYNC, the list is endless — so it’s interesting to examine how we got there along with so many other people. At its core, the podcast analyses shared human experience.

It can get chatty, so be warned if that’s not your kind of thing. But, using anecdotes, humor, and research, the pair really paint a picture of their chosen topic.

WHERE TO LISTEN- You can listen for yourself on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or their sporadic updates on YouTube.