Amanda Montell: Cultish and Coded Language, Revisited (Part 1)
A Little Bit Culty
Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amanda Montell—author, linguist, and our reigning three-time champion guest—returns in studio to talk about the newly released paperback edition of Cultish, the book that launched a thousand cult-discourse hot takes and made us all think twice about our SoulCycle memberships. We dove into what it's like to write a cult book when you're 27, watch it blow up unexpectedly, and face the onslaught of feedback (good, bad, and "I want to ruin your life").
Amanda opened up about the changes she made for the paperback after years of listening, learning, and hiring her own sensitivity checkers, and why the brainwashing debate is way more nuanced than an X thread can handle. Plus: updates on married life, her forthcoming novel Where To Put Your Tongue (yes, really), and why OneTaste's "get off on any stroke" might be the culty-est thought-terminating cliché we've ever heard.
Stay tuned Thursday for part 2, follow Amanda on Instagram @amanda_montell and the Sounds Like a Cult podcast @soundslikeacultpod. Be sure to listen where you get your podcasts!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Join me and follow the podcast conspiracy theories, where we explore what's really going on behind the official narrative. |
| 0:09.1 | Like, what if the Loch Ness monster isn't a monster at all, but an elephant? |
| 0:13.7 | What do the richest 1% know that we don't? |
| 0:16.7 | Why are they building all those bunkers? |
| 0:18.9 | And really, what the heck is going on with the Denver airport? |
| 0:22.7 | Join me every week to see just how high up this goes on the Spotify podcast, conspiracy theories. |
| 0:29.8 | Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:34.2 | This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, or mental health advice. |
| 0:40.2 | The views and opinions express do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast |
| 0:45.1 | and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything. |
| 1:01.4 | No. individual, anyone, or anything. I'm Sarah Edmondson. |
| 1:02.8 | And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames, and this is a little bit culty. |
| 1:05.8 | We woke up from a cult, and that journey was captured in The Vow on HBO and in my memoir, Scard. |
| 1:11.1 | Now, in this podcast, we break down the shame and secrets that make these experiences so destructive |
| 1:15.7 | with honest conversations on how seemingly benign groups can cross into the cultiverse |
| 1:19.9 | and how to spot and recover from trouble if it happens to you. |
| 1:23.4 | Each week, we bring an expert, survivors, and whistleblowers to explore red flags, resilience, |
| 1:27.4 | and even share a few laughs because sometimes you've got to laugh. |
| 1:30.7 | Subscribe to our Patreon for early and ad-free listening, some live Q&A and exclusive content at patreon.com slash A Little Bit Culty. |
| 1:37.7 | Welcome to Season 8 of A Little Bit Culty. |
| 1:40.9 | Seeking down to the depths of the ocean. Hanging on to win my life. Welcome back to a little bit culty everyone. We are here with |
| 1:59.0 | here with Amanda Montel, not two, three-time guests. She's in the lead. Sarah, you're going to drop some knowledge about Amanda here? Yeah, drop it. A lot of Caldy here, the number one guest. Oh my God, I love to win. Well, you're in the lead. Sorry, I have, no, exactly. There's some invites out. |
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