COMMONS

Multi-level marketing isn’t based on rational business logic. It’s not even built on irrational business logic. It’s ideology. It’s faith.

MLMs have become such a ubiquitous part of North American life that their tenets are rarely ever questioned. The sector holds enormous political sway. Millions of people join, leave and rejoin every year, almost all of them ending up poorer for the experience.

And to call it a cult is not just a cute turn of phrase. The cultishness of MLMs is essential to their success.

Featured in this episode: Robert L. Fitzpatrick, Julie Anderson

To learn more:

Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing by Robert L. Fitzpatrick

“How lobbying dollars prop up pyramid schemes” by Matt Stroud in The Verge

YouTube: @JulieAndersonvideos

Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise by Stephen Butterfield

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Aviva Lessard (Additional Production) Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Douglas, Oxio, Athletic Greens 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

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Nearly 1.4 million Canadians and almost 50 million Americans are involved in multi-level marketing. And that sheer volume of people makes it a near certainty that you’ve encountered MLMs in your life somehow.

The promise of financial freedom can be an intoxicating lure. But MLMs, like so many other cultish enterprises, are about more than just money. They’re about transcendence.

And in their wake, they often leave behind ruined livelihoods and broken lives. 

Featured in this episode: Julie Anderson, Amanda Montell, Robert L. Fitzpatrick, Marco Moukhaiber 

To learn more:

Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing by Robert L. Fitzpatrick

“'They have you in a cultish grip': the women losing thousands to online beauty schemes” by Amelia Tate in The Guardian

YouTube: @JulieAndersonvideos

YouTube: @AlwaysMarco

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Aviva Lessard (Additional Production) Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Oxio, Athletic Greens

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary-Jayne Blackmore is one of the oldest children of Winston Blackmore, the most famous polygamist in Canada. 

For decades, her family has been the subject of intense media and legal scrutiny because of her father’s 27 wives and 150 children. Their lives have been dissected in documentaries and in court testimony.

The name Blackmore has become synonymous with either faith-based persecution by the state or with cult-like religious fundamentalism that victimizes girls and women.

But for Mary-Jayne, these kinds of black-and-white portrayals miss so much about what it’s been like being a Blackmore.

To learn more:

Balancing Bountiful: What I Learned About Feminism From My Polygamist Grandmothers by Mary Jayne Blackmore

The Bishop of Bountiful B.C. by the CBC’s Fifth Estate

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Canva, Athletic Greens 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1973, a French motorsports journalist claimed to have been visited by a UFO that revealed to him the secret origins of humanity. For the next half-century, the man known as Raël would go on to create a new faith with tens of thousands of adherents all around the world. 

The media have portrayed the Raelians as not just a cult, but a strange phantasmagoria of extraterrestrials, orgies and clones. But its followers insist it is the only true path forward for humanity.

Featured in this episode: Nicole Bertrand, Susan J. Palmer, Harold Henning

To learn more:

Aliens Adored: Raël’s UFO Religion by Susan J. Palmer

The Prophet and the Space Aliens by Yoav Shamir

The UFO sect campaigning against female genital mutilation by Monica Mark in The Guardian 

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Douglas, Athletic Greens 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An explosion of new spiritual movements in the 1970s led to the creation of an entirely novel academic field. But right from the beginning, the discipline was riven asunder.

The Cult Wars have been raging for decades. They’re fought not only in academic journals and conference seminars, but in the press, the courts and in legislative assemblies. And their battles continue to have enormous consequences.

Featured in this episode: Michael Kropveld, Stephen A. Kent, Susan J. Palmer

To learn more:

“Caught Up in the Cult Wars: Confessions of a New Religious Movement Researcher” by Susan J. Palmer in University of Toronto Press

“Life after Doomsday: Tracking cult activity from a Montreal storage locker” by Simon Lewson in The Walrus

Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field edited by Benjamin Zablocki & Thomas Robbins

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Oxio

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 1960s and 70s, there was a fear that cult leaders were brainwashing young people into joining their new, strange movements. But is it even possible to “brainwash” anyone?

At a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, one mad scientist, with the help of the CIA, tried to find out.

Featured in this episode: Alison Steel, Lisa Ellenwood

To learn more:

Brainwashed by Michelle Shephard, Lisa Ellenwood & Chris Oke on CBC Podcasts

The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control by John Marks

Father, Son and CIA by Harvey Weinstein

MK Ultra: CIA mind control program in Canada by CBC’s The Fifth Estate

“Federal government quietly compensates daughter of brainwashing experiments victim” by Elizabeth Thompson in CBC News

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Douglas, Oxio

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of Brother XII still fascinates and even frightens some people in and around Nanaimo.

He’s often called the Devil of De Courcy Island for good reason.

Brother XII prophesied about the coming apocalypse. But instead, his story would presage something different. He was a forerunner of the strange, new religions that would sweep over the western world.

Featured in this episode: Bill Miner, Justine Brown

To learn more:

Brother XII: The Strange Odyssey of a 20th Century Prophet by John Oliphant

All Possible Worlds: Utopian Experiments in British Columbia by Justine Brown

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Canva, Douglas 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

risis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As organized religion declines in countries like Canada, we’ve experienced an explosion of what some call religious movements and what others call cults.

The idea of cults has become an omnipresent part of our discourse. But what even is a cult? And why have we become so intrigued by these groups?

And the language of cults has moved beyond just religion into so many different spheres — everything from fitness, to politics, to work. 

Featured in this episode: Harold Henning, Amanda Montell

To learn more:

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Sounds Like A Cult

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor in Cheif)

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Rotman, Douglas 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Support us now! Click here: canadaland.com/join

The first episode of Canadaland was published ten years ago today. If we were to announce this is the last episode of Canadaland, no one would be surprised.

Journalism in Canada is in a fight for its life. You can have an impact. Head to canadaland.com/join to become a supporter today. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The word cult gets tossed around a lot. The label gets applied to everything from doomsday religions, to wellness fads, to online conspiracies.

Uncovering the stories of both devotees and dissenters, this season of COMMONS will go beyond the true crime cliches and will make you question everything you thought you knew about cults.

Our new season launches on October 18th.

Canadaland Supporters can listen to the first episode a week early! Become a supporter at canadaland.com/join. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.