Welcome to Hoodwinked!

What if your favorite brand—or your favorite influencer—used the same playbook as a cult? 

Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein unpacks how modern marketing borrows tactics from cults, MLMs, and political movements to win hearts, minds, and wallets. Through conversations with academics, activists, and insiders, Einstein—author of Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults—reveals how belief and commerce became inseparable in the digital age. 

From influencer culture and wellness scams to pyramid schemes and political persuasion, Hoodwinked traces the hidden connections between belief and manipulation. Each episode explores how the same tools that keep followers loyal also keep consumers buying—and how to recognize when inspiration turns into indoctrination.

Debuting October 30th, 2025. 

Produced by Multitude.

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About the host

Dr. Mara Einstein spent a decade in corporate marketing working for some of the world’s biggest brands before turning her focus to exposing the industry’s inner workings. Now a tenured professor of media studies at Queens College (CUNY), she’s dedicated to helping people understand how marketing shapes what we buy, believe, and even who we think we are.

With a background spanning business, media, and the arts, Dr. Einstein brings sharp insight and humor to the systems that sell us our identities—and the power we have to push back.

Pick up Dr. Einstein’s book Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults on Bookshop.org and beyond.

Website: https://www.drmaraeinstein.com

Books: https://www.drmaraeinstein.com/writing

Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @drmaraeinstein

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Drmaraeinstein

Credits

Production: Multitude

Lead Producer & Editor: Bren Frederick

Music: Marc Langer

Cover art: Cayla Einstein