If the ingredients of something called a “cult” include a charismatic figure and unquestioning followers, the phenomenon of “Kai the Hitchhiker” helps us think about what happens when the power dynamic between those elements is inverted. Famous for the local news interview that launched a thousand memes, Kai was an unlikely hero whose lowkey charm saw people clamoring to make him a late-night and reality tv star. What do people offer and, alternatively, ignore when we want to see a particular story play out in a way that satisfies us? How do we respond when someone doesn’t follow our social scripts about wealth and power? What stories do we tell retroactively to make it make sense? What do we expect of someone deemed charismatic, and what does that tell us about ourselves? We explore these questions and others, like: will we ever get the video working for this podcast? Hang in as we keep trying, dear listeners!

Merinda's Cult Favorite:

Hanif Abdurraqib’s “To Chan Marshall: A Letter to Cat Power” (in season 2 of the Lost Notes podcast); then his own examination of musical moments and figures in 1980 for the 3rd season (the episode that reckons with the deaths of John Lennon and Darby Crash [lead singer of punk band Germs] is so good). Both are examples of attending to context with empathy, which is one of his trademarks and which siiiiiiiigh, thank you.

Mike's Cult Favorite:

“I Don’t Like Who I Was Then” by The Wonder Years

As an undermatured 40 year old recovering emo kid, a song where a dude sings about genuinely tryingto be a better person with the lyric “Like I'm working babyface, Out of Mid-South in the eighties, I kept a blade hidden in my wrist tape” just hits me right in the heart.

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

We’ve made it to our 25th episode! In all the excitement, Merinda forgets her computer, and Mike swoons over his latest thrift store find. But we do manage to talk about new Max documentary Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu. The story of a guru-turned-prisoner is also a story about evolutions in the Indian legal system and about the relationships between religious and political power. As ever, questions abound. How does the “cult” label morph when applied to a group of 40 million people? How does its functionality as an othering/familiarizing device hold up? What about cult discourse might get lost in translation across different contexts? And when was the last time you wrote/mailed a letter? Thanks for spending your valuable time with us and seeing us through to our 25th documentary discussion!

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

This week, we’re staying in the 90s and are still talking about abuses of power that turned into tv spectacle. Performances of masculinity continue to abound, but gone are WWE’s costumes and Springer’s staged fights. The skirmishes in this case appear within federal agencies and their approaches to an insulated religious group. Join us as we discuss Waco: American Apocalypse (2023), which details the 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidians and the US government. Negotiators, snipers, the ATF, the FBI, armored tanks, desperate parents, a frenzied media, and Timothy McVeigh all make appearances in a story that sees conflicting visions/versions of American identity cancel each other out and go up in literal flames. On much lighter notes, we catch a glimpse into Mike’s childhood dinner rituals, and Merinda opines about tough-guy energy. #cultfavorite #waco #studyreligion

Links:

Bio of abstract expressionist painter Cy Twombly, Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly,by Joshua Rivkin

https://citylights.com/art/chalk-art-erasure-of-cy-twombly-2/

“For the Plot” new single from As December Falls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF-IqeMj9sE

John Stewart used John Cena’s heel turn this past weekend to explain our current geopolitical climate:

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

This week is a treat for Mike, a feat for Merinda. We’re extending our stay in the ‘90s, taking a day trip to the entertainment world o’ wrestling. But, not unlike enlightenment, entertainment can cozy up to exploitation pretty quickly. This is what happens in Netflix’s Mr. McMahon, which tells the story of a lonely billionaire’s quest to gain approval from his father by building the WWE empire. We talk scripts and performances, heroes and villains, masculinity and national identity. Instead of trying to distinguish between illusion and what’s reality or figure out who the real Vince McMahon is, we think about how artifice and authenticity—like babyfaces and heels—rely on one another to be what they are. Kayfabe, babe: it makes up and means every word. Fun facts abound, like: Mike thinks there’s a wrestling match for everyone. And Merinda’s prior knowledge about wrestling is entirely to do with movies that are not about wrestling. Grab a costume, and join us in the ring!

Links:

Colette Arrand: https://colettearrand.gay/

Bigg Egg wrestling newsletter: https://www.bigeggwrestling.com/

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

Once upon a time, a young reporter named Jerry Springer made his way to Chicago with the dream of launching a talk show that allowed regular people to tell their stories. On his journey, he met a tabloid-trained producer, who turned the hopeful tv host into the Ratings King and staged increasingly dramatic antics at court through a daytime talk show that was called brilliant by some and an abomination by others. These included a fist-fight involving a klansman and a man who married his horse, but then one day, there was a murder. Some decades later, two intrepid scholars would go on a quest to learn more about this fraught empire after they found an archive entitled Fights, Camera, Action! on Netflix. They were armed only with questions like: When do people get annoyed when something is “fake,” and when are they happy to suspend disbelief? Whose stories get told and how? Where do exploitation and responsibility start and stop? And just what *was* the show Merinda’s middle school class visited?? What will become of our adventurers? Tune in and find out.

Links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/arts/television/jerry-springer-netflix-documentary-5-takeaways.html

“Good Sex as Food for the Revolution” by Dr. Candice Nicole Hargons via Emily Nagoski’s Substack

https://substack.com/inbox/post/155927881

“Tennessean by Birth” poem by Nikki Giovanni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhPUvucdGvk

Ross Benes’s book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times (out April 2025)

https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700638574/

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

Delving into the term “cult” means looking at unlikely case studies. This week we talk about Netflix documentary OneTaste: Orgasm, Inc. —the story of boss babe Nicole Daedone, who made big business out of personal pleasure. Hers is a love story between capitalism and heteropatriarchy, with supporting roles from yoga, meditation, sexual awakening, exploitative profiteering, and coercion. Questions abound, including but not limited to: What happens to a cultural narrative when it’s rendered “religious”? When do scholars get interviewed, and when do they not? What kinds of conditions would foreclose a company like OneTaste from succeeding in the first place? When is exploitation a story people pay attention to, and when is it just a regular day at the office? Come for the answers, stay for the conversational bookends. Merinda gives a reading! Mike learns what mycology is! And remember, kids, context always shapes the stuff we call special.

Links:

2009 NY Times article on Daedone and OneTaste:https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/fashion/15commune.html

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

Mike and Merinda are back in 2025 to discuss one of the most popular cult documentaries of 2024. Breath of Fire, streaming on Max, tells the story of Kundalini yoga, Yogi Bhajan and Guru Jagat. It's a story of an American counter-cultural movement that turned into a conspiritualist wellness business. Along the way we discuss toner scams, millennial audiences, and Robin Hood. It's good to be back!

Follow us on socials at @cultfavoritepod.

Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

Happy merry holly jolly, everyone! It’s our season finale, and we have a dubious gift for you! Holiday movies already have the magic market cornered, so we’re here to offer balance by demystifying some things that might otherwise seem to fly around in the ethers with Santa’s sleigh. Spoiler alert: they’re to do with religion! While Merinda’s taste in holiday horror tracks toward the 1974 Black Christmas movie, Mike serves up some this year with How to Become a Cult Leader—the 2023 Netflix series that greets religious minority groups with snark and disdain. Sit back and listen to the feelings fly, friends! What is it about

“religion” that tends to flatten structural inquiry? When are we willing to be reflective about our own complicity with exploitative systems and when are we not? What is it about the us/them dichotomy that gives a bear hug to our worst impulses? And how do other binaries like private/public and sacred/profane get in on that action? Why is it so much harder to give the reality media treatment to religion than to something like love? Merinda is incredulous and tries not to swear too much. Mike provides insights about authenticity claims. Ghosts of episodes past (particularly, casting callbacks and young-Mike lore) appear! We reflect on what we’ve learned over the last few months and gear up for a long winter’s nap. We’ll be back in a few weeks, friends! Until then, sit back with a cup of cocoa and settle in for some comparative analysis. And remember: every time a bell rings, a metanarrative gets its wings.