Cults Like Us: Jane Borden on Puritans, Power & American Exceptionalism (Part 1)

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Were the Puritans America’s first cult? Our guest this week makes a compelling case for yes.

Jane Borden is a journalist and the author of Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, she joins us to unpack how Puritan beliefs—think apocalypse prepping, chosen nation syndrome, and the worship of wealth—laid the groundwork for the kind of culty thinking that still thrives in America today.

We dig into the legacy of American exceptionalism, the allure of authoritarian leaders, and the ways our pop culture heroes reflect Puritan values more than we realize. Jane also walks us through the tragic case of the Love Has Won cult and explains how power warps empathy, especially when paired with a doomsday mindset.

It’s a wild ride through history, psychology, and politics, with heavy cult undertones.

Check out Jane’s book Cults Like Us and more of her work at janeborden.com, and stay tuned for Part 2 next week.

Also… let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

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CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Amphibian.Media

Co-Creator: Jess Tardy

Writer: Kristen Reiter

Associate producers: Amanda Zaremba and Matt Stroud of Amphibian.Media

Audio production: Red Caiman Studios

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

Transcript

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0:29.7	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical,
0:34.0	medical, or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any
0:41.5	religion group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything.
0:55.8	I'm Sarah Edmondson.
1:00.3	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames, and this is A Little Bit Calti.
1:01.9	Cults are commonplace now.
1:04.3	From fandums to fads, we're examining them all.
1:08.6	We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad.
1:12.0	Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real culty stories told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want
1:16.7	you to learn a few things that we've had to learn the hard way. For example, if you think you're
1:21.3	too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might be prime recruitment material, and who
1:25.7	knows, you could already be in a cult.
1:28.2	If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed. So keep listening to
1:32.3	find out. We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware. This podcast might
1:37.6	contain stories that could be alarming to some of our listeners. So please check our show notes
1:41.9	for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself.
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