The Cult That Inspired David Koresh

Softcore History

Improv, Comedy, History

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Koreshan Unity cult is NOT the infamous Waco commune the FBI barbecued in the 90s. Rather, it's a turn-of-the-century Florida cult founded by a man who so badly electrocuted himself that he woke up thinking he was Jesus. It turns out that Cyrus Teed was not the Messiah, but his incredibly whacky teachings sure did intrigue David Koresh, who would go on to take quite a bit of inspiration from this random and fringe historical figure.Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app FREE for seven days at Fitbod.me/SOFTCORE.Get 15% off OneSkin with the code SOFTCORE at oneskin.co/HAIR #oneskinpodJust visit ProlonLife.com/SOFTCORE to claim your 15% discount and your bonus gift.Rob Foxhttps://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree Dan Regesterhttps://www.instagram.com/danregester/ https://twitter.com/dan_regester Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are now listening to soft core history.
0:15.0	You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of sound,
0:24.6	a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind.
0:28.6	You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance,
0:32.6	of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the twilight zone.
0:42.0	Hello and welcome back to soft core history.
0:44.9	Spooky month.
0:46.1	Halloween Horror Nights, whatever Dan wants to call it.
0:48.5	Spooky month.
0:49.7	Dan likes Halloween Horror Nights.
0:51.3	Halloween Horn Nights because he went to Orlando University.
0:53.9	I was a big universal fan.
0:55.5	Yeah. Is that a thing there? Yeah. Okay. Wow. I don't know. I didn't have eight theme parks next to my college. Yeah, most people don't. Yeah, it's very night heavy. I'm your host, as always. By the way, Jake Goldman, I'm joined as always too by Dan Regester and Rob Fox. Missouri wishes they had theme parks.
1:11.7	There's not a theme park in Missouri.
1:13.6	We were the original location. Goldman. I'm joined as always too by Dan Regester and Rob Fox. Missouri wishes they had theme parks. There's not a theme park in Missouri.
1:13.6	We were the original location for Disney World. It got denied.
1:17.9	Who? Who? Walt Disney was like first Missouri. Let's try that out. And then he showed up and was like, no.
1:23.7	The St. Louis Riverfront is where he wanted to put it. And St. Louis said no because A.B. wanted to sell beer there. And Walt was like, this is for children. And they were like, yeah, that's why we want to sell beer there. Yeah. Yeah. We're like, we just have a feeling that being at your park is going to need me, need everyone to drink. And Disney was like, no. So he moved it to Florida.
1:44.7	I will say Star Warsland was awesome, but it made it even better having booze. Oh, I bet. Yeah. I haven't been to a point. Yeah, now they sell booze everywhere there. It's stupid. Oh, the entire place is ransacked with booze. I got drunk at the canteen. You got drunk of the canteen? Yeah. on Moss Isley
2:00.7	That's a fucking legit ass You got drunk of the canteen? Yeah. On Moss Isley?
2:05.7	That's a fucking legit-ass place to get drunk.
2:07.4	And then I went on the Millennium Falcon.
	...

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