Hoodwinked by the Algorithm: Dr. Mara Einstein on Cult Tactics in Marketing (Part 1)

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You don’t have to join a cult to get manipulated—just log onto the internet.

This week on A Little Bit Culty, we’re diving into the marketing matrix with Dr. Mara Einstein, professor, media critic, and author of Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults. From influencer culture and MLMs to “brand cults” and rage farming, Mara breaks down how modern marketing preys on fear, insecurity, and our need to belong.

She joins Sarah and Nippy for a deep-dive into the culty parallels between conversion funnels and recruitment tactics, why brands like Apple and Lululemon are more community than commerce, and how social media algorithms corral us into echo chambers where we become both the audience and the product.

If you’ve ever felt like your phone is reading your mind, or like the coaching industry is selling more promises than progress, this one’s for you.

This is Part 1 of a two-part convo. Stay tuned next week for more!
To learn more about Dr. Einstein and her work, visit drmaraeinstein.com.

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

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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0:00.0	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical,
0:03.9	or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the
0:07.9	official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion group,
0:12.1	club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything.
0:25.8	I know. I'm Sarah Edmondson.
0:27.6	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames.
0:30.3	And this is A Little Bit Calty.
0:31.8	Cults are commonplace now.
0:34.2	From fandums to fads, we're examining them all.
0:38.9	We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad. Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real culty stories
0:43.3	told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want you to learn a few
0:47.3	things that we've had to learn the hard way.
0:50.0	For example, if you think you're too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might
0:53.8	be prime recruitment material, and who knows, you could already be in a cult.
0:58.3	If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed.
1:01.6	So keep listening to find out.
1:03.3	We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware.
1:06.8	This podcast might contain stories that could be alarming to some of our listeners.
1:10.6	So please check our show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself.
1:15.2	Subscribe to our Patreon for Thursday bonus episodes, Q&A, and all sorts of exclusive content.
1:19.8	That's patreon.com slash A Little Bit Culty.
1:22.8	Welcome to Season 7 of A Little Bit Calti.
	...

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