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Special thanks to the REL Digital Lab in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama for production assistance.

The views expressed in this episode are our own as experts and researchers in religious studies and do not represent the University of Alabama.

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It's our 2nd annual Halloween special episode!!! And that's doubly funny because Mike hates Halloween. For this year's special we take on TWO documentaries (and kind of a third one too) about Ed and Lorraine Warren, 20th century demon and ghost hunters extraordinaire. We discuss The Devil on Trial (Netflix 2023) and Devil’s Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren (HBO Max, 2020). There's also a special cameo by the 2023 Canadian documentary about the Satanic Panic, Satan Wants You. But we also talk about Ghostbusters, why Mike doesn't do horror and why Merinda does, why we need horror stories and tales about demons, and Mike lore about genre-hopping Christian musician Carman. It's a spooky episode of Cult Favorite that goes great with candy corn!

This week’s documentary tracks a religious leader who separated followers from their families, made them take vows not to critique authority, engaged in shady financial misdeeds, strictly controlled access to information, launched attacks on defectors, and suggested that a critique of him was an attack on the church itself. But there is no “cult” talk! How come? We give our media kaleidoscope a turn and look into Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of God (HBO Max, 2025), noticing what a lack of “cult” rhetoric refracts and obscures when presented with the image of the Catholic church. Maciel formed the Legion of Christ congregation in the early 1940s. Over the next 50+ years, he would become an ally in Pope John Paull II’s fight against communism, he would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to the church, and he would sexually abuse more than 60 children. When do we find the term “cult” to be a reasonable label, when do we not, and why? It’s the ol’ tree-falling-in-a-forest-with-no-one-around-to-hear-it question...sorta: If a group is exploited and no one’s around to call them a cult, what kind of documentary do we get? Come hang, and let’s find out! #cultdocumentary #cultfavorite #studyreligion

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Production assistance from the Department of ReligiousStudies at the University of Alabama.

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This week we’re talking about The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult? (HBO, 2024),

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

Theme music produced with Udio.

Follow us on the socials at @cultfavoritepod.

Production assistance from the Department of ReligiousStudies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

Just how well do signifiers float, you ask? Well, we’re back with a corporate case study whose labels could serve as lifesavers. Examples include but are not limited to: “charisma” (=yelling + boss energy + money), “revolution” (=paying a fair wage), and, of course, “cult” (=a group of people trying hard for someone who’s a jerk). Pull on a comfy v-neck and go window shopping with us at American Apparel, which recently received Trainwreck treatment from Netflix. CEO Dov Charney first made waves by not subjecting workers to sweatshop conditions (revolutionary!) and then made waves by creating an abusive work environment of his very own (just another day at the office!) and then...went on to launch a new brand and keep making money elsewhere (you saw it coming!).  As “cult” shows up with increasing frequency in public discourse about harm, the element of “religion” becomes more and more nebulous. We talk about this and then some, leaving you with our cult favs in the way of some TV recs for your consideration.  

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

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There’s a new season of Shiny Happy People out now, and Cult Favorite is on the case with some unsolicited advice. Do: process dad issues. Don’t: crack eggs over your head for tuition money or others’ sport. Season 2 of the series focuses on Teen Mania, an evangelical youth phenomenon spearheaded for thirty-ish years by Ron Luce (himself stylized by way of motorcycles, loud voices, and evangelizing at drive-thrus). Youth culture has always scared grownups, and the latter have always strategized about how to corral the former. Enter Honor Academy, wherein ambitious teens volunteered via a lifetime commitment to serve on the frontlines in an ostensible battle between good and evil. What they came to realize, however, is that serving God and country also involved unpaid labor, telemarketing, crawling through trenches, and carrying a heavy cross in the middle of nowhere sans food/shelter/map. We talk about the rise and fall of the program, its ideological framework, and its relationship to political power. Remember, everybody: social structures always shape our own senses of self! And eggs are best enjoyed as a protein boost rather than as a humiliation device.

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

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Would you like a methodology for optimizing or enhancing human experience and behavior? Would you like a vagueness-translator to make that question make sense? Well, have we got an episode for you! We’re finally talking about The Vow (season 1), a documentary series about NXIVM—a MLM with an acronym as confusing as its mission. We hit the highlights about what the group got up to and why leader Keith Raniere is now serving a 120-year prison sentence. More than that, though, we talk about how/why universalizing rhetoric and individualist ethics can make for such a compelling and explosive combo. We also think through some of the ways the doc’s production lands, and we ask how it might look different if the former and current members of the collective weren’t rich. Come for Catherine Oxenberg’s phone call to a princess, asking her to get the now king of England to put her in direct contact with the Dalai Lama. Stay for the critical thinking!

Links:

NYT reporter Barry Meier reviews The Vow and Seduced: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/arts/television/nxivm-the-vow-seduced-keith-raniere.html

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

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For the last stop of our summer road trip, we head to Rome, NY, where a retired Air Force base closed out the millennium by playing host to mosh pits, sexual assault, avoidable death, raw sewage, and fire. That’s right, campers, we’re talking about Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (HBO/Max, 2021). Pack some critical thinking along with your fresh water because questions about how quickly/easily true horrors can become normalized are vital to ask right now. On the main stage, we’re playing a few of the hits: the making and marketing of a collective, the consequences of ignoring systemic issues, the curation of blame, and the strategies of subsequent history-telling. On the second stage, there’ll be appearances including but not limited to: moral panics embedded in generational logic, gender scripts/expectations, machinations of social cohesion, and Merinda’s distaste for nu metal.

Links:

Gina Arnold, Half a Million Strong: Crowds in Power from Woodstock to Coachella ⁠https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/half-million-strong

Demographics of Jan 6 attackers: https://www.shu.edu/news/a-demographic-and-legal-profile-of-january-6-prosecutions.html

Texas Death Breathes New Life Into Professional Wrestling by Colette Arrand

https://vgbees.com/texas-death-breathes-new-life-into-professional-wrestling/?ref=bigeggwrestling.com

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

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This week we’re talking about sports celebrity, open secrets, and what people are willing to ignore in the name of loyal fandom. Join us for some conversational tailgating as we discuss Netflix’s Untold: The Fall of Favre (2025). A small town hero who became a football legend in his own time, Brett Favre is known by most for his time as a superstar quarterback in the NFL. Sports media personality Jenn Sterger alleges, though, that she knew him as a dude who unsolicitedly sexted her. Meanwhile, the state of Mississippi knows him as the sports star who diverted millions of dollars from welfare funds for use in pet projects. Spoiler alert: a story about a charismatic leader is yet again a story about abuses of power. In such a story, which elements get what amount of time/attention and why? What boundaries get drawn around which kinds of behavior? And what’s with the impulse to compare sports and religion? Listen in for thoughts from two of your biggest fans.

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

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