Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein
& special guests
Find it wherever you listen to podcasts
Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein is a limited series about how marketers use the same tactics as cults.
Featuring conversations with academics, practitioners, and past cult members, the show is a perfect resource for those who want to understand not only why they buy, but how they have been manipulated to buy too much.
Hoodwinked is produced by Multitude. Our Lead Producer and Editor is Bren Frederick. Thanks to Marc Langer for our theme music.
Get ready to learn about cults, marketing, MLMs, brand cults, influencers, and even conspiracy theories.
Upcoming Episodes
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What is a cult?
Katie Lofton, Yale professor of history and divinity, explains the difference between religion and cults, and the intersection between consumer culture and belief systems.
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Cults: Let’s get into the nitty gritty
A Little Bit Culty co-host, Sarah Edmondson, digs into the nitty gritty of cults helping us understand who gets pulled in, how they get pulled in, and how they can get out.
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A new kind of cult
Dr. Mara Einstein, author of Hoodwinked: How marketers use the same tactics as cults, takes us on a journey to understanding how cults and brands use deception to get us to buy.
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What are brand cults?
We bring together Chris Kneeland, co-founder of the Cult Collective, with Ali Demos, Group Strategy Director at StrawberryFrog, to debate the merits of brand cults versus brand movements.
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MLMs the ultimate commercial cults
Anti-MLM advocate, Julie Anderson, takes us inside the world of multilevel marketing companies. After years selling for Monat, she now uses her social media skills against these companies that prey on women.
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Digital media changed the game
Jamie Cohen, media scholar and digital producer, and special guest explain how digital media have reframed the cultural discourse around advertising while we ask the question: what are the real cults?
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Influencers as cult leaders
Influencers purvey marketing messages. While some work to provide helpful information to their followers, others game the system with disinformation and rage-bait to generate as much revenue as possible. In this episode, a practitioner and an activist explain the incentives that lead influencers toward less altruistic ends.
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Getting out
Dr. Tanya Johnson, a neurodivergent, queer, Cuban-American licensed mental health counselor, provides listeners with the tools to understand how people are pulled into cults, and more important, how they get out.
ABOUT THE PODCAST: Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein
When people think of cults, they imagine Jonestown, Waco or Heaven’s Gate. That’s old thinking. Today, cults coalesce around brands and influencers, MLMs and politicians.
In Hoodwinked, we talk with leading authors, activists, and scholars about the changing definition of cults, why they have become so pervasive now, and what that means for us as individuals and as a society.
Over the course of the podcast, listeners will learn why cult ideas have become more prevalent, why people are more vulnerable to them now than ever, tips for how to avoid being taken in by cults…and how to get friends and family members out of them.
Cult content is having a boom, per Forbes, and it is easy to see why. People are feeling anxious and vulnerable, which leaves them open to cult tactics. We want to believe someone has the answers to all of our problems, especially as times become more insecure. Hoodwinked will give you information you need to know to avoid being taken in by cults—whether they are religious, commercial, or political.
Latest Episodes & Transcripts
What is a cult?
From worshiping gods to worshiping brands, Dr. Kathryn Lofton, professor of religious studies and American Studies, helps me explore how modern life blurs the line between the sacred and the sold.
Welcome to Hoodwinked!
New podcast, Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein is about how marketers use the same tactics as cults.