The Cult of Dancing With The Stars

When does hate following become its own kind of devotion? This week, Amanda and Iman descend into the anonymous world of influencer snark, where strangers gather to dissect creators’ relationships, bodies, businesses, politics, and every perceived inconsistency in real time. They get into Reddit groupthink, parasocial “accountability,” the thin line between critique and bullying, and the time suck of doing something from such a negative place. Joining them is writer and influencer Hannah Stella (@hannahstella), who became the subject of an intense snark community during her public divorce. Hannah opens up about being nearly four years “Googling myself sober,” the real life impact of anonymous speculation, and how engaging with snark can chip away at your soul. And fittingly, the episode drops alongside Iman’s new novel Once in a Timeline, a darkly funny Groundhog Day story about an influencer trapped inside the algorithm, exploring the masks we perform online, the loneliness behind the feed, and what happens when your audience knows you a little too well. Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Pre-order Iman's new book, Once in a Timeline, here! Your pre-order helps make more books possible! Sounds Like A Cult is coming to you LIVE from The Elysian in LA on October 15th! Get tickets at soundslikeacult.com! Thank you to our sponsors! Find the card that fits your lifestyle and apply today at https://joinbilt.com/cult Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to https://Quince.com/slac  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, Amanda and Chelsea enter The Cult of Dog People, from pup birthday parties and breed evangelists to raw-feeding wars, “adopt don’t shop” morality, and the steadfast conviction that your dog can detect bad vibes better than you can. How did man’s best friend become a personality trait and a reason to feel morally superior to cat owners? We (lovingly) poke fun at the dog people culture before taking a much darker turn with our anonymous listener who, for the first time publicly, shares her experience working inside what she now describes as a dog-training cult. And this cult had everything: an isolated property, a charismatic guru, secretive and abusive training methods, rigid scripts, and the belief that hurting dogs could be justified because they were “saving lives.” Content Warning: Cruelty to animals. Please take care while listening. Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Pre-order Iman's new book, Once in a Timeline, here! Your pre-order helps make more books possible! Sounds Like A Cult is coming to you LIVE from The Elysian in LA on October 15th! Get tickets at soundslikeacult.com! Thank you to our sponsors! Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to https://Quince.com/slac  To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://MintMobile.com/slac Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happens when your cool older stepbrother gets a mullet, a microphone, and millions of impressionable young men listening to him yap for three hours at a time? This week, Reese finds out while covering The Cult of Theo Von, the comedian-turned-podcast juggernaut whose whole brand is built on seeming like he has absolutely no brand at all. Joining her is Hysteria host and political commentator Erin Ryan (@eringloriaryan) to talk about Von’s particular place in the manosphere. They get into the power of playing dumb, why “authenticity” can be just as manufactured as professionalism, the parasocial appeal of the endless hangout podcast, and what happens when a guy who claims not to stand for much keeps handing his enormous platform to people who very much do. Maybe the cult leader isn’t always the guy pulling the strings, sometimes he’s just the mascot standing at the mouth of the funnel. Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Pre-order Iman's new book, Once in a Timeline, here! Your pre-order helps make more books possible! Sounds Like A Cult is coming to you LIVE from The Elysian in LA on October 15th! Get tickets at soundslikeacult.com! Thank you to our sponsors! For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1Pro at DRINK https://AG1.com/CULT Find the card that fits your lifestyle and apply today at https://joinbilt.com/cult Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grab your onions, this week, Reese and Iman are entering The Cult of Shrek, a fandom that somehow evolved from a beloved children’s movie into an online religion (or dare we say... cult). Joining them are Bechdel Cast hosts (@bechdelcast) Caitlin Durante (@caitlindurante) and Jamie Loftus (@jamiechristsuperstar), two certified Shrek scholars whose devotion includes transatlantic Shrek tourism, academic conferences, a $200 themed dinner, and, in Jamie’s case, selling roughly 200 green-painted Shrek nudes for Planned Parenthood. Together, they get into why Shrek inspires such a uniquely sincere brand of irony, why Shrek 2 may actually be a feminist masterpiece, and how fans apparently bullied DreamWorks into reconsidering Chad Shrek. Is Shrek love? Is Shrek life? We're heading far far away into the swamp to find out. Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Pre-order Iman's new book, Once in a Timeline, here! Your pre-order helps make more books possible! Sounds Like A Cult is coming to you LIVE from The Elysian in LA on October 15th! Get tickets at soundslikeacult.com! Thank you to our sponsors! Use code CULT at https://jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Gift with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re taking a little holiday break this week, but unfortunately, incels are not. With the “male loneliness epidemic” becoming a bigger part of the cultural conversation, we’re revisiting one of the internet’s darkest and most tragically cringey cults: self proclaimed “involuntary celibates,” who believe they’ve been cursed by the universe (read: women) to live a life without love, sex, or accountability. Amanda and Reese are joined by cult comedy kings Henry Zebrowski (@drfantasty) and Ed Larson (@eddietunes) of Last Podcast on the Left (@lpontheleft) to trace how a chronically online subculture became a full-blown belief system with its own doomer mythology, and a whole lot of weaponized loneliness. Enjoy this trip back into the manosphere, culties. We’ll be back next week with a brand-new cult lurking somewhere much greener, muddier, and suspiciously swamp shaped. Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Pre-order Iman's new book, Once in a Timeline, here! Your pre-order helps make more books possible! Sounds Like A Cult is coming to you LIVE from The Elysian in LA on October 15th! Get tickets at soundslikeacult.com! Thank you to our sponsors! If your glasses are overdue for a refresh, now is the time. Use code PODCAST15 for fifteen percent off your first order at bit.ly/3OdtU5X Find the card that fits your lifestyle and apply today at https://joinbilt.com/cult Download Whatnot today and get $20 off your first purchase Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices