Blazing Eyes, Cult Ties, and New Age Vibes with Leah Sottile

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is sponsored in part by BetterHelp.

New Age isn’t just sage bundles and Instagram affirmations. It can also be a fast track to conspiracy-laced belief systems, grifty gurus, and straight-up cults. In this episode, we’re joined by journalist and podcaster Leah Sottile, whose new book Blazing Eye Sees All takes a sharp look at how New Age spirituality has seeped into American culture, and not always in ways that sparkle.

We dig into the strange and disturbing world of Love Has Won, a New Age cult led by self-proclaimed deity Amy Carlson, aka Mother God, who gained infamy for turning blue from drinking colloidal silver. (Yes, really.) Leah breaks down how Carlson built a loyal following online, why her followers believed she channeled Robin Williams, and how the group continued after her death.

We also talk about the deeper issues hiding behind the crystal curtains—like why women are often drawn to New Age ideologies, the patriarchal dynamics hidden in so-called matriarchal cults, and the troubling rise of antisemitism in these belief systems.

This one is equal parts fascinating and horrifying. Come for the blue lady, stay for the sharp insight.

You can find more of Leah and her work on her website https://leahsottile.com/, on her blog, and on Instagram @leah.sottile

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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Cult awareness and recovery resources

Watch Sarah’s TEDTalk

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Amphibian.Media

Writer & 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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