Madness Madness! artwork

Madness Madness!

100 episodes - English - Latest episode: 8 months ago - ★★★★★ - 38 ratings

Erin and Amanda are sisters, librarians, and sister librarians hailing from scenic central Oklahoma, and in this series they examine and rank clubs, cults, MLMs and more to determine which one they'd most like to join. Join us for math and questionable singing.

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Episodes

Episode 44: Elohim City vs. Queen Shahima

January 13, 2022 22:00 - 1 hour - 41.9 MB

There are cults where you skulk around the racist fringes of Southeastern Oklahoma planning terrorist attacks, and cults where the Daughter of God tells you to go out and do crimes so you can all keep staying in luxury hotel suites. Obviously the second kind of cult is way better for everyone, but whatever, we're examining both on today's show! Elohim City's most notable claim to fame is as a stepping stone for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and it's crawling with birds of precisely h...

Episode 43: Gabriel of Urantia vs. (snort) The Gentle Wind

December 27, 2021 00:00 - 2 hours - 59.8 MB

We’ve only come to this conclusion 70 to 90 times on the show, but did you know that a lot of cults are basically just outlets for white Boomer men to plaster over their obvious insecurities? You did, huh? Yeah.  Well, you’re already here, so why not learn about two more of them? Today’s white guys are Gabriel of Urantia, who has a “University” in “Arizona,” which may not even be a real state, and John “Tubby” Miller, who I guess decided he actually wanted other people to call him that. “Th...

Episode 42: John Frum vs. Love Has Won

December 16, 2021 22:00 - 2 hours - 90.9 MB

Cults! Cargo! Colonialism! John Frum is a mythical and beloved figure to many native people of the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, and could, maybe, MAYBE, be part of a vanishingly rare time when the arrival of white people from the United States was an improvement on the squatting of white people from Europe. MAYBE. Our alternative to John Frum is Love Has Won, a cult whose name makes sense if you replace "Love" with "Our Super Drunk Colloidal-Silver Fiend Karen of a Cult Leader" and "Won" with...

Episode 41: Adidam vs. Divine Madness Running Club

December 10, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 71.5 MB

Sometimes you run into cults that remind you why people start cults to begin with: An abiding love of cultural appropriation; a penchant for exploiting others for sex; and the run-of-the-mill belief among white men that we should somehow be getting even more free passes than we're already getting.* Such is definitely the case this week, when Adidam, a cult started by some schmuck from Queens who stole a mishmash of eastern religious ideas and at one point called himself "Bubba Free John," an...

Episode 40.5: The Hot Afternoons, My God, The Hot Afternoons

December 03, 2021 15:00 - 12 minutes - 8.34 MB

Much like the rest of you here in the rapidly crumbling United States, we took some time off this week to give thanks for the people and things we still somehow have. Thus, in place of an episode, please enjoy Erin's reading of the very long poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana," by Aesthetic Realism founder Eli Siegel.

Episode 40: Aesthetic Realism vs. Happy Science!

November 25, 2021 12:00 - 2 hours - 89.2 MB

Happy Cultsgiving! We're celebrating today with Aesthetic Realism, a cult based on the belief that Eli Siegel, a white guy who in 1925 wrote a very long poem that includes a lot of talk about Indians and I guess solved literally everything by doing so; and Happy Science!, which doesn't actually have an exclamation point on the end of it but I refuse to stop typing it that way, and whose leader insists he has eradicated COVID-19 among its members using a "spiritual vaccine" that can be admini...

Episode 39: Taylor Camp vs. Father Divine

November 19, 2021 22:00 - 2 hours - 60.3 MB

This week's episode is not that depressing at all! Relatively speaking! Taylor Camp was camp started by movie star Elizabeth Taylor('s brother)! He didn't really live there; it was less a traditional camp and more of a swath of undeveloped shoreline he gave to some hippies to piss off local Hawaiian authorities. It's that or a sojourn with Father Divine, a guy who was just straight-up God, according to him. (I mean why not, right?) He sure did feed and house a lot of hungry and desperate peo...

Episode 38: MOVE vs. Bikram Yoga

November 11, 2021 22:00 - 2 hours - 98.8 MB

Erin and Amanda are back, and cults have not improved while they were away! Today we examine MOVE, a '70s-era group that some might describe as The Cult Philadelphia Deserved. It was certainly better than former mayor and lifelong shithead Frank Rizzo deserved, but that's not saying a lot. You'd think literally anyone going toe to toe with Rizzo would come out looking better, but cult leader John Africa ... had some problems of his own. These problems would become an entire neighborhood's pr...

SOON!

November 05, 2021 14:00 - 1 minute - 778 KB

We’re putting the final touches on our bummer cults and headed back to the studio. We can’t wait to talk shit with you. 

A Message from Erin

October 28, 2021 15:00 - 1 minute - 948 KB

Hello Lifestylers,  Please accept this meager apology. We here at Madness Madness want y'all to know that we're eager to get back into the studio (living room) and delve deep into some fucked up mind control shit.  Thank you for sticking with us. We've got some good stuff planned and can't wait to share it with you.  Lylas*,  Erin *Love You Like A Sis

Episode 37: UniMed vs. Aum Shinrikyo

October 14, 2021 21:00 - 2 hours - 84 MB

The eternal dilemma: Get groped by a creepy Australian, or get terrorist-tastic with a creepy Japanese guy? Today we're rocketing to the bottom with Universal Medicine ("UniMed"), a cult literally dreamed up by a guy on the toilet to get to second base with the ladies, and Aum Shinrikyo, a cult dreamed up by a weird bully with a thing for constant terrorist attacks. Spoilers: There's "medical" groping. And homemade weapons. And cops who aren't great at their jobs because there is seriously v...

Episode 36: The Rainbow Family vs. Kabbalah

October 07, 2021 22:00 - 2 hours - 64.4 MB

This week's matchup gives you a choice of cultures to appropriate: You can hang out with the Rainbow Family and immerse yourself in some muddled, deeply unsurprising theft of Native American ideas, or you can tie a string on with the Kabbalah and take a moment to consider if it's possible to improperly appropriate your own culture! Seems like a yes to me. 

Episode 35: The Church Universal & Triumphant vs. J.Z. Knight and Ramtha

September 30, 2021 20:00 - 2 hours - 95 MB

Sometimes talkin' real fast is the same as enlightenment, especially when you're extremely sleep-deprived and possibly living in a fallout shelter because the cult you're in is definitely sure there's gonna be a nuclear war any day now. This was certainly the case with the Church Universal and Triumphant, a bunch of weirdos in Montana. Today they go up against J.Z. Knight and Ramtha, a power duo consisting of a drunk person who "channels" a "35,000-year-old" "Lemurian warrior" who lives in r...

Episode 34: Larry Ray & the Sarah Lawrence 9 vs. Beta Dominion Xenophilia

September 23, 2021 16:00 - 2 hours - 67.7 MB

Y'ever meet a college roommate's dad and think, "Now THERE'S a guy I want to move into the common area of our dorm room!" Man, have we got the Dad for you. In today's episode we meet Larry Ray, an insane creep who took advantage of his daughter's suitemates at Sarah Lawrence College and conned them into nearly a decade of deeply bizarre servitude and exploitation. The cult doesn't have a proper name so I'm gonna call it Electric Larryland.  Pitted! Against! A little ethos called Beta Domini...

Episode 33: Educo vs. Zendik Farms (Season 3 Premiere! Cults are back!)

September 16, 2021 19:00 - 2 hours - 65.2 MB

We've had a good time with clubs and organizations, but there's also a limit to how much right-wing white guy bullshit a person can study before they have to switch back to studying not-necessarily right-wing bullshit. That's right folks, cults are back! The season 3 premiere pits a couple of obscure dipshits against each other, which is clearly shocking: Educo, a health cult from the shores of fair Ireland, and Zendik Farms, a badly structured attempt to arrange some Strange for a never-was...

Episode 32: The Future Farmers of America vs. The Friars Club

September 09, 2021 12:00 - 2 hours - 68.2 MB

There's a point in every person's life when they must ask themselves whether 'tis nobler to indulge in forensic sniffing and tasting of milk, or to join a group of dead and dying white male comedians founded on an obsession with Milton Berle's dingus. For us, that day has come. The FFA (Future Farmers of America) was founded to promote pride and develop skills in farming, during a time when more Americans lived rurally than didn't. The Friars Club was founded to cut down on the number of fra...

Episode 31: The Bohemian Club vs. The Shriners

September 03, 2021 15:00 - 2 hours - 69.9 MB

At a glance, one could be forgiven for assuming there's no way we'd join a group where the world's richest and most powerful men (only men) go to piss everywhere in a way that wild animals find unwise.  One could also be correct in assuming this, but that'd make for a short and boring episode. Fortunately we've got the Shriners in the opposite corner, and let me tell you, this is a far more legit group than perhaps any of us realized. Let's learn about tiny cars and the seemingly pretty grea...

Episode DIRTY 30: Mods vs. Rockers

August 26, 2021 18:00 - 1 hour - 54.4 MB

Hop on, loser! We're going to postwar England! Join us for one of the mildest gang fights since the episode of "Newhart" where the Hooligals rumbled with the Puffians. As thoughtfully chronicled in The Who's rock-opera-cumentary "Quadrophenia," this week we'll have a look at the Rockers, a group heavily inspired by U.S. biker culture of the 1950s, and the Mods, who were primarily about dressing real slick and ended up riding Vespas everywhere, for reasons we will get into. Brrrm Brmmmm!!!

Episode 29: The IRA vs. the AIM

August 19, 2021 17:00 - 2 hours - 106 MB

This week we take a look at two groups of people utterly fucked over — by England and by the people so awful they got kicked out of England, respectively — and the groups they formed to express their well-thought-out grievances. Props to the American Indian Movement (AIM) for making their point while killing a whole whole whole lot fewer people; slight demerits for Marlon Brando's involvement, though seriously NOBODY EVEN INVITED HIM. Props to the Irish Republican* Army (IRA) for coming pain...

Episode 28: Skull & Bones vs. The Weather Underground

August 12, 2021 16:00 - 2 hours - 84.5 MB

There's something for everyone in this match: Grave robbery, astonishing-yet-unsurprising disrespect for Native Americans, Paul Walker, Pacey, baffling tests designed to screw marginalized people into dying in Vietnam, "wars" consisting of bombing unoccupied buildings, decades of hiding, and a whole lot of Bad Ideas From White Guys in Their Early 20s. And when the dust settles, we get to join one of these clubs ... oh ... oh god no. It's Yale's own non-frat frat Skull and Bones vs. the homeg...

Episode 27: Deadheads vs. Juggalos

August 05, 2021 15:00 - 2 hours - 91 MB

WOOP WOOP Y'ALL! This week it's a thoughtful examination of getting soaked in cheap soda and occasionally meth vs. endless guitar solos from a band whose most compelling members have been (gratefully, presumably) dead for decades, and whose fans are twirling, TWIRLING, ALWAYS TWIRLING!!! If you think about it, Juggalos are like Deadheads, but tailored to the ruined economy and world left behind by the Deadheads' generation. Join us, won't you? We'll discuss which is worse: Following a hellis...

Episode 26.5: A Song Regarding Chipmunks and the Centennial State

July 31, 2021 15:00 - 2 minutes - 1.55 MB

We're back from vacation, and we miss it severely. But we wrote a song about it, because that's what we do around here. Enjoy!

Episode 26: The Hellfire Club vs. The Women's Christian Temperance Union

July 15, 2021 14:00 - 2 hours - 91.2 MB

We're Americans, after all, which means we can't deal with even the tiniest soupçon of nuance. What better mindset could there be when approaching a showdown between the well-intentioned but ultimately semi-disastrous teetotaling Women's Christian Temperance Union and the gathering of unredeemable 18th-Centuray Upper-Class British Shits that christened itself The Hellfire Club? It's a roller-coaster that starts with unpardonable circumstances that lead to desperate but wrongheaded ideas, and...

Episode 25: 4th of July Mini-Sode

July 08, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MB

On this auspicious week following the United States' 245th birthday, we look back to a week ago, the auspicious week before the United States' 245th birthday, and the not-quite-an-episode we recorded then. I mean, look, it's an episode, it's just not specifically about clubs and organizations—unless you count the mildly exclusive club of people who tried to assassinate our 38th president, Gerald R. Ford! That's right, today we're having a quick look at Sara Jane Moore and podcast stalwart L...

Epsiode 24.5: Another Song About Not Having an Episode This Week

July 02, 2021 20:00 - 2 minutes - 1.82 MB

Folks, it's summer. It's a time of vacation. And last weekend, when we normally would have recorded this week's show, was Brian's vacation. So there's no new entire show this week. However, please enjoy/listen grudgingly to/mercilessly roast this week's offering, a new song about not having a podcast episode for this week.

Episode 24: The Bilderberg Group vs. The Black Panther Party

June 24, 2021 19:00 - 2 hours - 69.3 MB

Look, just because it's a creepily secretive cabal of the ultra-rich and politically connected doesn't mean the Bilderberg Group is creepy as hell, does it? It does? Oh, excellent! I'm relieved to hear you say that; I also find it incredibly creepy. In today's episode they will definitely not show up to their showdown with the Black Panthers, a crucial social justice group from the '60s and '70s that dared to kick the boot off Black Americans' necks and demanded long-denied justice. Also the...

Episode 23: Two Scouts Enter! One Scout Leaves!

June 17, 2021 21:00 - 2 hours - 100 MB

It had to happen eventually, folks: The Girl Scouts are squaring off against the Boy Scouts, and hooboy it is not gonna go well for the one with all the sexual abuse. (SNS for spoilers.) I mean, look: In the Boy Scouts' defense, is there anything inherently wrong with a crypto-militaristic, consistently right-wing group founded in the depths of British Imperialism? ... Yes! Yes. Of course there is. Jesus Christ. Anyway, the good news is we'll also be learning about the Girl Scouts this wee...

Episode 22: The Greek System vs. The John Birch Society

June 10, 2021 16:00 - 2 hours - 117 MB

Sometimes you have choose between inherently evil and stupid organizations. Sometimes it's this week. The Greek System at U.S. Universities is known for just about every kind of baked-in racism, sexism, and classism; the John Birch Society is known for being a paranoid anti-Communist horse shit factory of the type that was generally laughed out of town back before we entered the stupidest timeline ever. Come find out which is worse! Humorous Reference Materials Chad Mitchell Trio: "The Joh...

Episode 21: The Mattachine Society & The Daughters of Bilitis vs. The Wobblies! (IWW)

June 04, 2021 14:00 - 2 hours - 106 MB

Content warning: Part 1 contains some slurs against gay people, spoken by a gay person. Also CW for mentions of r*pe and abuse by police, and an unavoidable smidgen of pedophilia. If you’re gay and have a job, you’ll have a hard time choosing between this week’s clubs! The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis provided safe and empowering places for LGBTQ folk during the early and mid 20th Century when such refuges were painfully scant. Meanwhile, the Industrial Workers of the Wor...

Episode 20: The Peace Corp vs. The Society for Creative Anachronism

May 28, 2021 14:00 - 2 hours - 108 MB

You can have a shovel or a leather mug, but you can't have both. This week we determine whether 'tis nobler to White Savior into a recently semi-decolonized country and insist on capitalism, or to get shitty about the relative authenticity of other people's costumes. It's the Peace Corps, where the germ of an idea John F. Kennedy kind of swiped from Hubert H. Humphrey yielded a pipeline of deeply unqualified, overwhelmingly white college graduates into areas of the world we decided needed He...

No Show This Week: An Excuse, in Song

May 20, 2021 14:00 - 1 minute - 801 KB

For reasons fully explained in a brief song, Erin and Amanda were unable to record an episode this week. Please listen to the song, and if you have any questions afterward please email us at [email protected]. We will definitely see you next week.

Episode 19: UK Showdown: The Royal Order of Buffaloes vs. The Women's Institute!

May 13, 2021 20:00 - 2 hours - 88.6 MB

This week’s matchup hops the pond to England, where we get a look at a couple of longstanding social ensembles: The Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes and the Women’s Institute. One has hats and theater people; one has women who work in the home and get shit DONE. Also the segments are relatively short so there are a lot of pleasant digressions, from soap operas to Jesus’s visit to Glastonbury, which did not necessarily cause the later death of Michael Jackson during the storied music fes...

Episode 18: Clubs & Associations Madness: DAR vs. The Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo!

May 06, 2021 17:00 - 2 hours - 103 MB

So, sometimes you have to take a step back and have a look at what you're doing. Sometimes it turns out that what you're doing isn't actually what you want to be doing, or what you feel you should be doing, or, as the saying goes, "kind of sucks." It turns out that MLMs? All kind of suck. There's not gonna be a winner there, and we've accepted that and moved on. So today marks an exciting new chapter in Madness Madness's journey: Clubs and Organizations! What kind of clubs, you ask? Today's...

Episode 17: Multi-Level Madness: Avon vs. Amway!

April 29, 2021 19:00 - 2 hours - 84.4 MB

Two giants of the field square off this week! One's a semi-beloved fixture of domestic life; the other is Amway. Not to tip our hand too much, but if you're a betting person, think about laying your money on the MLM that isn't a right-wing monstrosity shilling a bunch of goddamn garbage to keep the DeVos family afloat on an obnoxious yacht. 

Episode 16: Multi-Level Madness! Mary Kay vs. Holiday Magic

April 22, 2021 19:00 - 2 hours - 103 MB

IT'S SEASON TWO, SUCKERS!!! Now that we're wig-carrying Unarians, we need another income stream to pay for all these costumes and 8mm film. Time to start a small business and be our own bosses and definitely not wind up thousands of dollars in debt with a garage full of unsalable products! That's right, we're joining a Multi-Level Marketing scheme, and definitely not a pyramid scheme! In our season 2 inaugural matchup, it's a face-off between two cosmetics MLMs! That's why it's a FACE-OFF! ...

Episode 15: BONUS! Cults 'n' Capitalism + Exercise Cults + What's up next season!!!

April 15, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MB

Sometimes—OK, who are we kidding, literally all the time—you look down at the stuff you've had to cut from previous episodes due to time constraints, and you say to yourself, "There's no way I'm leaving this behind." And you're right, there's no way we'd let that happen. SO! This week, a fun little grab bag! A Special Listener Letter: Friend of the Program Allen asks an interesting question about cults and capitalism, which we do some blue-skyin' and some spitballin' about. Exercise Cults:...

Episode 14: SEASON ONE FINALE! Ivanwald, The Breatharians, and a Winner!

April 08, 2021 17:00 - 2 hours - 83.4 MB

It's all come down to this, folks: After grueling weeks of intense research, our intrepid hosts take on the final four contestants and determine which cult is the cult for them! IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!! ... After a reasonable discussion of two more cults, of course. Spoilers: Neither fucked-up Jesus Power Cult "Ivanwald" or the alternating straight-up lies and batshit craziness of the Breatharians will be bursting into The Big Dance.

Episode 13: Wild Card Round!

March 30, 2021 21:00 - 2 hours - 86.8 MB

As you might expect, we here at Madness Madness are constantly bombarded with fun, exciting, and horrific cult news at all hours of the day and night. We're picking it out of our hair; spooning particles of it off the surface of our morning coffee. And today we share some of that goodness with you! Join us for shorter-than usual discussions of Iglesia Maradoniana, Armstrong-ism, the GOP, the Silva Mind Control Method, and much more! Plus listener mail! Exclamation points! My god, the exclama...

Episode 12: Eckankar vs. Moral Re-Armament

March 23, 2021 21:00 - 2 hours - 97.4 MB

Sometimes you have to look your former spiritual mentor in the eyes and say, "Hey, buddy. I'm thoroughly plagiarizing your work so I can make some cash off this cult. And that's OK." Other times you have to sing over the Berlin Wall at an old East German woman who's been through both world wars about how you have to work hard for your freedom. It's a complicated life, this crazy ride we call a podcast. Join us, won't you?

Episode 11: The Sullivan Institute vs. Desteni

March 16, 2021 19:00 - 2 hours - 93.1 MB

Picture it: It's the '70s, you live in New York, you like getting screamed at, and you're really into humpin'. Bang! Welcome to the Sullivan Institute, pal! Or, alternately, picture it: It's the early 2000s, you're at your desk, and your three favorite things are incoherent garbage, constant antisemitism, and MDMA. Whoomp! There's your cult! It's Desteni, a spelling so stupid my keyboard caps keep coming off when I try to type it. Join us, won't you?

Episode 10: Mankind United vs. EST

March 09, 2021 15:00 - 2 hours - 100 MB

This week it's Mankind United, a cult whose story includes a startling refutation of Chekhov's Tiny Man With a Metal Head rule; and EST, whose story includes reinforcement of Chekhov's Confused Boomers Entering the '70s Rule. Join us as we sniff through these grifts, overturning numerous tidbits of knowledge like so many cult-researching truffle pigs.

Episode 9: Raelians vs. Kenja

March 02, 2021 21:00 - 2 hours - 95.2 MB

France! Australia! Oy! Hon hon! Today we go deep—down under, even—into the Raelians, France and French Canada's clone-happy UFO booster club, and see if it's a better fit for us than Kenja, Australia's sorta home-grown, sorta ripped off from Scientology cash vacuum. Raelism (not realism) is, at the very least, a cult where you're less likely to be burned to death for the knights templar than France's other entry into the series. Kenja, meanwhile, may have out-Scientologied Scientology in a f...

Episode 8: The Moonies vs. Falun Gong

February 23, 2021 18:00 - 2 hours - 83.8 MB

Stadiumwide mass weddings! Questionable claims about organ harvesting! Richard Nixon! Al Haig! SHEN YUN!!! This episode's got it all, folks. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his absolutely third-grade-boy ideas about gay people fight for the elite eight against Falun Going, a relative newcomer with an omnipresent troupe of acrobats and a massive compound in the U.S. that you are not invited to. Also we would like to go on record as saying that this matchup was 100% picked by the automatic bracket...

Episode 7: The Solar Temple vs. Tony and Susan Alamo

February 16, 2021 19:00 - 2 hours - 89.6 MB

CONTENT WARNING: The story of Tony Alamo contains details of child abuse awful enough to inspire a person to dig up Tony Alamo's body and beat the shit out of it. The Solar Temple got pretty goddamn lucky when the randomizer put it up against Tony Alamo, let me tell you. But it does have some stuff going for it: Champagne! The Swiss Alps! Grail holograms! Arson! Meanwhile, Tony Alamo makes the impossible possible by making Susan Alamo look like Mother Teresa by comparison. Seriously. We kne...

Episode 6: UNARIUS vs. "Teal Swan"

February 09, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 77.3 MB

We had plans, you see, to talk this week about the Children of God and Aleister Crowley's religion of Thelema. These cults turned out to be, respectively, far too awful and nowhere near awful enough to talk about for even part of a podcast. So we got way better cults! This week: The charmingly earnest weirdos of UNARIUS square off against the social media influencer who is totally not a cult leader you guys, "Teal Swan." Teal Swan is in quotes for the same reason we spell out Nexium how it s...

Episode 5: The Source Family vs. Buddhafield

February 02, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 81.5 MB

Having your own cult is about not having to decide between being a wildly successful health-food restaurant pioneer or being White Human Man God. Or between telling your gaggle of model-like Californians that sex is ridiculous while also ... uh, look, no spoilers, but the dude pushing that notion may actually have had sex. The Source Family was a foundational southern California '60s cult; Bhuddafield was, 20 years later ... another southern California cult. They go head to head in today's ...

Episode 4: Heaven's Gate vs. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

January 26, 2021 21:00 - 2 hours - 85.1 MB

At some point in their lives, everyone ends up asking themselves "Do I wear robes often enough? And should they be maroon? And why are all these pancakes different sizes? What the hell, Self!" Bearing that in mind, there is a 100 percent chance you'll find something relatable in this episode, when we compare weirdly touching space Jesus suicide cult Heaven's Gate to the salad bar-poisoning, small town-overtaking cult of the off-putting libertarian materialist Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Come for...

Episode 3: Scientology vs. The Center for the Conscious Development of Body, Mind, and Spirit

January 19, 2021 22:00 - 2 hours - 89.7 MB

Some people like their cults real big and real ugly, and those people can fuck off! Hahaha, just not kidding. It’s the big one this week, folks. Scientology. The brain fart of L. Ron Hubbard, a man whose writing ability was only eclipsed by his Navy career, this multibillion-dollar jargon cesspit may finally answer the question: “What if I could be surrounded by insufferable batshit narcissists *and* bankrupt myself in the process?” The pile of elephant shit in the room goes head to head wit...

Episode 2: Synanon vs. NXIVM (Nexium)

January 07, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour - 81.4 MB

Sometimes your cult leader is a recovering drunk who's super into LSD. Sometimes he's a twerpy little sex pest coasting on a middle-school judo championship and a good result on an OMNI Magazine IQ test. And since we're all about making choices here, it's time to dig into both these weirdos and the cults they founded. This week's cults: Synanon, a rehab-turned-shaved-heads-and-overalls joint in California, and Nexium, a pyramid scheme-turned-Adult-Friend-Finding service which is supposed to ...

Episode 1: Krishna Consciousness vs. the FLDS

December 29, 2020 21:00 - 1 hour - 65.4 MB

Yogurt rivers? Forfeiture of property rights? Why not both? 'Cuz that's not what this show's about! Our first episode pits the Temple of Krishna Consciousness (the Hare Krishnas) against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) (the ones that still do polygamy). Turns out both groups are appropriated versions of existing religions! Who could have foreseen this? It's apricot body wraps vs. denim prairie skirts in this battle for the ages!