meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness

What Makes A Cult A Cult? with Dr. Natalie Feinblatt

Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Self-improvement, Education, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2018

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr Natalie Feinblatt explains the four criteria an organization needs to meet to be called a cult and looks at how the term can be used and misused in relationship to religions and rehabilitation programs. Plus, Jonathan asks about murder porn cults and Wild Wild Country, because that’s what the podcast charts like, right? Find Dr. Natalie Feinblatt’s work at DrNatalieFeinblatt.com. She’s on Instagram @Dr_Natalie_F. Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Getting Curious, I'm Jonathan Van Nads and every week honey you heard it right

0:05.2

It's a week now girl. We every week. I sit down for a gorgeous 30 minute conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious

0:12.3

This week I'm curious about cults. What is going on with them? Where did they come from? Why are they important? Why do we care? Everyone's vulnerable? Here we go honey

0:22.9

You guys new listeners. Thank you so much like oh my god

0:27.8

I just feel like we're killing it right now. I'm so excited you guys are listening like we are dominating the charts. We're Cardi B

0:33.6

We are Nicki Minaj. We are Mariah Carey. We are

0:37.9

Everyone we're every woman and we're so excited. I'm so happy that you're here

0:41.4

And you know I'm even more excited. It's here in studio a gorgeous doctor honey her name is doctor Natalie

0:48.6

Fine blood. Yes, Dr. Natalie. She's here. Um, how are you? I'm good. Thank you. How are you? Good?

0:55.6

You have really pretty gorgeous waves. I'm obsessed with your purple tip tear. Thank you. I have to just so everyone she's got fierce hair

1:02.3

And I'm really here for it

1:05.1

so I feel one thing that I'm curious about these days are

1:10.3

The psychology of cults. How do they start? Where are they from? Like what is going on with cults? I'm on episode two of Wild Wild Country

1:19.1

Honey that Sheila is a handful. Yes

1:23.8

Yeah, she is a handful

1:25.9

So yeah, it's really just like like cults are very timely, you know very much

1:29.2

So let's just start right off at the top what defines a cult? So in the field of cultic studies

1:35.5

There is not cultic studies you guys

1:39.4

Very fancy

1:41.0

There's not one centralized definition of cults

1:45.2

We pretty much go by these two sets of criteria, which are pretty similar. They have a few differences, but

1:51.9

By two people who are kind of were kind of experts in the field of cults one is Robert Lichten and the other is Margaret singer

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sony Music, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sony Music and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.