Buckle in and get ready to hear two of the worst Werner Herzog impressions of all time. Not unlike the famous filmmaker, we just couldn’t seem to help ourselves! In his case, however, the self-indulgence comes tethered to a story nominally about Timothy Treadwell, the so-called Grizzly Man who inspired a 2005 documentary by the same name.

What does that 20-year-old cinematic exploration have to do with cults, you ask? Lots! Most of all, we talk about what’s at work when stories (whether told by filmmakers, journalists, or scholars) become projections. “The subject of the dream is the dreamer,” the great Toni Morrison reminds us, so how might we account for distinctions in/of methodology and genre while remaining mindful of their mediators? Digging into that question helps us avoid the perhaps-tempting-but-definitely-inane (or at least none-of-our-business) questions about whether Treadwell had the right or wrong motivations and whether his ex-girlfriend should or shouldn’t listen to an audiotape (Herzog has advice for her). Adjudication and analysis are different, methodologically speaking. What is exceedingly clear in any context, however, is that Mike and Merinda should never attempt voice acting.

Links:

Anderson Cooper podcast All There Is

Cult Favorite Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker episode

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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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