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.
Produced by Multitude (https://multitude.productions/)
Getting Out: Cult Recovery, Religious Trauma, and How to Help Someone Leave
An ex-Mormon turned religious trauma therapist provides advice about what it takes to leave a cult—whether that person is you or someone you love.
20 Jan 2026
Influencers, Algorithms, and the Business of Belief
From brand partnerships and algorithmic gambling to conspiracy economies and digital radicalization— digital influence is far from accidental.
6 Jan 2026
Digital media changed the game
How did digital technologies go from a tool to a belief system, and how do we get our agency back?
23 Dec 2025
The ultimate commercial cult
A firsthand account of how multi-level marketing operates as a commercial cult—what starts with purchase turns to years of coercive control and ends by creating a crusader.
9 Dec 2025
What are brand cults?
Shopping used to be transactional–you have a product, I give you money. Today, it’s not so simple. Products are brands, and the most successful brands provide communities, identities, or even belief systems. Learn why the psychology behind “cult brands” has quietly moved from the fringes into everyday marketing.
25 Nov 2025
A new kind of cult
How cult tactics slipped into everyday marketing—and why your favorite brands, like Apple and Lululemon, might be shaping more than your shopping habits
11 Nov 2025
The nitty gritty of cults
Ex-NXIVM-cult-member Sarah Edmondson joins Dr. Einstein to provide an insider's perspective on cult tactics.
30 Oct 2025
What is a cult?
What exactly is a cult—and how is it different from religion?
In this opening episode, Dr. Mara Einstein sits down with Kathryn Lofton, one of today’s most incisive scholars of religion and culture, to unpack how belief, devotion, and consumer behavior intertwine. From worshiping gods to worshiping brands, Lofton and Einstein explore how modern life blurs the line between the sacred and the sold.
Mentions:Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon by Kathryn LoftonConsuming Religion by Kathryn LoftonAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanThe Cult of Thinness by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber
About the guest
Kathryn Lofton is Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies, History and Divinity, at Yale University. She is the author of two books, Consuming Religion and Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon. Learn more about Kathryn’s work: https://religiousstudies.yale.edu/people/kathryn-lofton
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 CUNY, she’s dedicated to helping people understand how marketing shapes what we buy, what we 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): https://bookshop.org/a/116018/9781493086153
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
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
21 Oct 2025
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.
____________________________
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
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
18 ratings
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