Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America with Jane Borden

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 684 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of Jane’s most striking points in her book and our conversation is that cults aren’t just something “other people” get involved in. Cults can deceptively recruit anyone and work in many different spheres of influence. “I just started pulling the thread,” Jane recalled, “and traced it back to the Puritans.” She explains how the theological worldview of early American settlers, particularly the Puritans, established a pattern of black-and-white/good-versus-evil thinking. The Puritans believed in things like divine judgment, righteous punishment, and the idea that only a few could be saved while the rest would suffer in the apocalypse. This religious idea was an organizing principle for our society and prevails today. For instance, the idea of an existential threat or ultimate salvation has bled into common culture. Whether it’s climate doomism, political collapse, or even the rapture, American society is addicted to “the end is near” thinking. It is everywhere, embedded into our popular culture. Cultic control today has many faces: multilevel marketing schemes (MLMs), political cults, religious cults, therapy cults, “wellness” gurus, and even one-on-one abusive dynamics. These groups reflect and exploit the very same psychological patterns found in traditional cults—fear, isolation, obedience, and identity manipulation. And there are many cults in the Cult of Trump. Check out this fascinating interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of my podcast, Cult Conversations, with Dr. Steve Hassan.
0:11.7	And I have today with me, Jane Borden, who is an author and culture journalist, and she has a brand new book out.
0:22.7	Colts like us, why doomsday thinking drives America, just came out hot off the presses,
0:30.8	and I heard about it through a friend who's taking a master's course and course of control and said, hey, Steve,
0:39.3	have you heard of this book? And then I looked in my emails and I saw that you had talked with me
0:46.5	back in 2021, I guess, while you were researching it. So I immediately emailed you back with your
0:53.4	email address saying,
0:54.7	hey, come on and let's talk about it.
0:57.6	I just want to also say that you've also done, I totally meant to do that.
1:03.9	And your work has been featured in Vanity Fair.
1:07.5	In fact, you have a recent article this March on Donald Trump's America Echoes Our Puritan
1:14.9	Past. You've also been featured in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, and other
1:21.0	publications, and you are in LA, and I'm in Massachusetts.
1:25.9	Thank you. Thank you for having me.
1:27.8	I'm very excited to speak with you.
1:30.0	I appreciate the work you continue to do in this arena.
1:35.9	Yeah, thank you.
1:37.6	So let's cut to the chase because right now there's a whole lot of doomsday talk.
1:44.1	Apocalypse This and Apocalypse that.
1:46.8	They're the tech apocalypse people who are saying AI is going to destroy everything.
1:53.2	They're the Christian nationalists who are like wanting to push that narrative.
1:59.3	So let's start, though, with what made you want to do this book.
	...

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