What happens when someone with A Big Idea makes even bigger promises but fails to attend to logistical tasks and/or infrastructure? We’re sticking with our summer theme by telling the story of a beach music festival for the ultra-elite that became a trending trainwreck on social media. Charismatic entrepreneur + unquestioning yes-people + exploited local staff = a vacation that dreams (nightmares, specifically) are made of. That’s right, we’re going to Fyre Fest, and we want you to come along! We can’t promise comfortable accommodations, but we do promise insightful analysis about wealth, access, and influence in the digital age.

Bikram Choudhury claimed to heal President Nixon's thrombosis and developed his own form of yoga that became an international brand. The brash, tale-telling, foul-mouthed yoga teacher built an empire around his teacher training courses. But he was also a predator and abuser. Where did Brikram yoga come from? (Spoiler: it's a long story about colonialism in India) Why do we think physical training requires verbal abuse? Is Bikra, the Vince McMahon of yoga? We'll answer all of these questions and more this week!

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod.

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

Theme music produced with Udio.

Pull up a chair or twenty, and join us for a conversation about Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets (2023). Made famous in the mainstream for their TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar presented a very specific image of a very large family within the “Quiverfull” movement whose children were reliably obedient and mild-mannered. Behind the literal and figurative scenes, however, the line between authority and abuse was often a blurry one, both for the family and for the Institute in Basic Life Principles, whose teachings were reflected by the Duggars at every turn. Merinda has logistical questions about big families and returns to the mundane workings of power. Mike watches cartoons and muses about strategies within group mobilization. As always, we think together about how/when/why “cult” rhetoric appears, who wields it, and what its effects are. #cultfavorite #duggars #studyreligion

Links:

Danielle Lindemann, True Story: What Reality TV Says about Us (2022) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374720964/truestory/

Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (1991)

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/the-democratization-of-american-christianity/

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod.

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

Theme music produced with Udio.