Ride or Die: Jess Rothschild Spills on SoulCycle's Inner Circle

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is sponsored in part by BetterHelp.

This week, we’re clipping in with Jess Rothschild to talk about SoulCycle: the high-octane, candlelit cardio craze that once had New Yorkers dropping $20k to ride front row. With $100M+ in revenue, instructors trained like pop stars, and a tightly curated sense of belonging (read: exclusivity), SoulCycle pedaled its way into cultural obsession—and, depending on who you ask, cult status.

Jess, a former SoulCycle regular and host of the GLAAD-nominated Finding Fire Island and new docu-podcast Cult of Body & Soul, joins us to unpack the seductive psychology of the SoulCycle experience: from spiritual monologues to the sweaty transference happening mid-sprint. We talk about limerence, manipulation, performance, and yes, the merch.

Whether you’re a front-row devotee or just cult-curious, this ride gets personal.

For more from Jess, check out her podcasts Hot Takes & Deep Dives and Cult of Body & Soul, or follow her on Instagram @jessxnyc.

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

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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0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
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 express do not necessarily reflect
0:37.8	the official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion
0:41.7	group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything. I'm Sarah Edmondson.
0:56.0	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames.
0:57.9	And this is A Little Bit Calti.
1:00.7	Cults are commonplace now.
1:02.1	From fandums to fads, we're examining them all.
1:04.5	We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad.
1:08.9	Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers
1:12.0	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.
1:31.4	So keep listening to find out.
1:33.2	We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware.
	...

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