Grab your trusty #2 and find the desk with your name tag on it, because class is in session this week at Sounds Like a Cult! Our /pedagogically inclined/ episodes are always RIPE with juicy insight, and today’s topic is no different. Be it Hogwarts or Pacific Coast Academy, boarding schools have long shrouded themselves in an air of mystery and exclusivity that has most recently led to a culture-wide obsession with the Dark Academia genre. But is this intrigue secretly supporting a sinister institution? What culty rituals and traditions lie behind the plaid and ivy? Let’s find out! Amanda and Chelsea are thrilled to be joined by the wonderful Ceara O’Sullivan from the Petty Crimes podcast to discover what lurks within boarding schools' hallowed (culty) halls.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @chelseaxcharles @reesaronii

Watch the new season of Sounds Like A Cult on YouTube!

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Dipsea is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult.
• Go to the App Store or Google Play store and download the FREE Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CULT.
• Visit BetterHelp.com/CULT today to get 10% off your first month.
• Shop the SKIMS bras at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "Sounds Like A Cult" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.

Further reading:

• Psychopathology and Dissociation among Boarding School Students in Eastern Turkey
• National Museum of the American Indian: Boarding Schools
• Time for America to Get Over Our Ivy League Obsession
• A Brief History of Boarding-School Scandals

NOT going to lie, this episode was a wee bit nerve racking to record!!! Despite the, ahem, LARGE number of requests we received for this topic (which would make you think it was ubiquitously reviled), the acolytes in this group ride HARD for their leader! Money and religion are the twin engines that make the world go ‘round, dear culties, and as such, they are the perfect mediums for sinister influence. This week’s subject has been ~blessing~ the airwaves and teaching your parents how to be debt free AND godly since the 1990s…the OG finance bro…the one and only… Dave Ramsey. This week, Amanda and Reese take a trepidatious foray into the chaotic, testosterone-filled, rapidly aging world of Ramsey Solutions with the help of seasoned Dave Ramsey experts (though, tbh, *survivors* is probably a more apt word) Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni from the Frugal Friends Podcast.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @chelseaxcharles @reesaronii

Watch the new season of Sounds Like A Cult on YouTube!

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast, click here :)

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.
• Earn points by paying rent right now when you go to joinbilt.com/CULT.
• Shop the SKIMS bras at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "Sounds Like A Cult" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.

Who’s your #mommy culties: Taylor or Whitney? That’s right, fresh(ish?) off the release of Hulu’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reality series (for which Amanda and Reese attended a blissfully tinsel-adorned premiere party #notsponsored lol), this week we are covering the cult of Mormon MomTok. This coalition of young Mormon mothers turned TikTok stars raises a truly baffling number of questions: Are these girls really Mormon? Does that matter? Where are their garments? Are they even friends? And most importantly, will MomTok survive the "swinging scandal" that overtook headlines a few years back, earning these gals their own TV show?!?!?!??!?! Grab your heaviest Stanley, fill it with Fruity Pebbles ;) and settle in to have all of your most sacred prayers answered. Potentially cultier than the sum of its cults (and trust us there are plenty), Reese and Amanda are determined to get to the bottom of the drama-filled, diet Dr. Pepper flavored mom-strosisty that is #MomTok.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @reesaronii @amanda_montell @chelseaxcharles

Watch the new season of Sounds Like A Cult on YouTube!

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.
• Visit BetterHelp.com/CULT today to get 10% off your first month.
• Dipsea is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult.
• Go to stopscooping.com/SLAC and enter promocode SLAC to save an EXTRA $50 on any Litter-Robot bundle.

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast, click here :)

Settle in with a Kirkland brand sparkling water and a rotisserie chicken because this week, Amanda and Chelsea are going IN on the us/them dynamics, strange rituals, manipulation tactics, over-the-top passion, and lore of your favorite membership-only cathedral of affordable excess, Costco. Based on this episode’s fervent listener call-ins alone, it’s clear Costco is more than just a place to buy 500-packs of plastic cups, gold bars, and even your future casket (???) ⚰️ Costco is some people’s entire personality. But has it crossed over into full-blown cult? Tune into our lol-filled analysis to find out.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @chelseaxcharles @reesaronii

Watch the new season of Sounds Like A Cult on YouTube!

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast, click here :)

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.
• 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 the SKIMS bras at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "Sounds Like A Cult" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.
• Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code CULT at checkout

We’re baaaAAAAAaaaaack!!! Join us for a 🪐transcendent🪐 new season of Sounds Like A Cult, whose opening episode features Chelsea Charles, one of our sparklingly hilarious new co-hosts. An unscripted TV producer by day, Chelsea joins returning host Amanda to unpack this week’s nightmarish topic: Dance Moms. Indeed, we’re exploring every culty corner of the fanatically followed Lifetime reality show, which centers on a group of competitive child dancers, their high-drama mothers, and their veritable cult leader of a teacher, Abby Lee Miller *shudders*. It mightttt sound dramatic to call this goofy little TV program a cult, but the sky-high exit costs, rampant verbal abuse, lifelong trauma, obsessed fan behaviors, and scandalizing financial crimes say otherwise!!! Tune in as Amanda and Chelsea dissect the show’s cultiest characteristics, and their broader implications, with the help of The Pyramid Podcast.

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @chelseaxcharles @reesaronii

Watch the new season of Sounds Like A Cult on YouTube!

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Shop the SKIMS bras at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "Sounds Like A Cult" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.
• Dipsea is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult.
• 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.
• Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code CULT at checkout

This is Sounds Like A Cult, a show with two sparkling new cult leaders, ahem, co-hosts!!!!!! We’ve been keeping this secret for months, and it feels downright ~transcendent~ to let you culties know: Joining host Amanda for the next season of Sounds Like A Cult are two brilliant, kind, warm, and hilarious recurring voices—unscripted TV producer Chelsea Charles and theatre/rhetoric student Reese Oliver (whom you may already recognize as SLAC’s beloved coordinator). Tune into today’s surprise bonus minisode for some angelic wee introductions, teasers, and deats about what to expect from SLAC 2.0. The next season premieres Tuesday, September 17!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @chelseaxcharles @reesaronii

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast and/or watch full episodes on YouTube, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsor!

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

New Age love & wellness influencers turned baby NXIVM: That's kinda the best way we can succinctly describe this week’s cult, Twin Flames Universe, one of the most chilling groups we’ve discussed on the pod thus far. Several months ago, Twin Flames survivor Jessi Hersey, whom you might recognize from the “Escaping Twin Flames” doc on Netflix, slid into our DMs and made a very generous and compelling argument as to why Twin Flames needed airtime on Sounds Like A Cult. After all, it’s important to represent the whole LYL, WYB, GTFO cult spectrum! This week, we're asking the fundamental questions: How did this niche online self-help “community” turn so destructive so fast, and how are its tenets low-key a threat to us all? Tune in to find out, and make sure to listen to the very end of the episode. We’re making a highly exciting announcement about the next season of SLAC… let’s just say there might be a couple new “cult leaders” (ahem, co-hosts) in your future!

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell @reesaronii

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast and/or watch full episodes on YouTube, click here :)

Thank you to our sponsors!!

• Visit BetterHelp.com/CULT today to get 10% off your first month.
• Dipsea is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult.
• 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.
• Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code CULT at checkout

Further reading:

How ‘Twin Flames Universe’ YouTubers Monetized Heartbreak and Trauma

“Everywhere I Went, They Went With Me, Because They Were on My Phone”: Inside the Always Online, All-Consuming World of Twin Flames Universe

Why We Can't Get Enough of Cult Documentaries

Twin Flames, Explained

Pack your hammer and your lack of cultural awareness, because this week on Sounds Like A Cult, we're interviewing Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist, mission trip devotee, and survivor of church-sanctioned domestic violence. Tia is also the author of the brand new memoir A Well-Trained Wife. She joins to discuss the ever-so-common culty practice of recruiting church kids to go on white savior vacations all under the guise of bringing Sky Daddy and ultimate nepo kid Jesus into the lives of people who most certainly never asked for that. Aka, mission trips! Many thanks to all the listeners who submitted call-ins for this episode! Be sure to listen to the end, because we’ve got a verrrrrrrry exciting announcement about next season coming :)

Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell

To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here. To subscribe to Amanda's new Magical Overthinkers podcast and/or watch full episodes on YouTube, click here :)

• 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.
• Earn points by paying rent right now when you go to joinbilt.com/cult.
• Shop the SKIMS Soft Lounge Collection at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, select "Sounds Like A Cult" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.
• Go to the App Store or Google Play store and download the FREE Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CULT.

Further reading:

• Mission trips are an evangelical rite of passage for US teens – but why?
• YouTube channel: ExMoLex
• Stop going on Mission Trips
• Why I'll Never Go on a Mission Trip Again