Another great podcast by Vanessa and Greg thank you! 😁

I like true crime and the study of colts this podcast is great love it !!!!!

Carter? You are most likely never gonna anchor Dateline. Dial it down, Keith Morrison. 🙄

I’m very selective in my choices for what I choose to listen to, and follow only 2 podcasts. Cults is so sound in their content, delivery, and research. Easy to understand layout, well-constructed, and what sounds like professionally produced. Podcasts accompany me while I am engaged in other things therefore I enjoy an intriguing or entertaining podcast that I can reliably learn from (they cite their sources). Most importantly, a podcast that can enhance what I’m doing as I feebly attempt multitasking. A great show covering some of the most eccentric and zealous leaders and their cults.

This podcast is terrible.

Just listened to one episode, picked a topic I was familiar with to test it. There were two factual errors, an easy google away. The lies made the story sound more disturbing, which such stories hardly need. This pod is clearly for entertainment ONLY with no regard for how many people might be misinformed.

“Cults” is well-researched and fascinating. The hosts are warm and personable. I can’t recommend this one enough!

You need to dig a little deeper or did you have to sign an nda? You glazed over the 90s and lcm

I love this podcast, I love Greg and Vanessa storytelling, love how they’re always looking for the why’s.

I love the show but am really baffled by something. I see people commenting that they are upset that this show moved to Spotify yet clearly in the description of the show it says “Cults is a Spotify Original from Parcast,” as in SPOTIFY CREATED THE SHOW with Parcast! Any-whoooo, great show. All of the “SPOTIFY” original podcasts (Dictators, Kingpins, Deathbed Confessions) are awesome! I listen to these podcasts while walking my dog and as crazy as it sounds, don’t mind the walk even when its 104° outside.

If a production won’t offer their show on the platform I’m using, I won’t listen. They should ask Microsoft and Sony how exclusives worked (or didn’t).

Was well into 50+ eps when you made the transition and I’m not going w you. I’m guessing I’m not the only one. Enjoy your bottlenecked distribution model.

I’ve listened to just about every episode I’m a very long time listener now all the podcasts that I had meant to finish are now gone because I guess you moved to Spotify. Bad move to bad.

Good podcast, well produced and performed. Would like to see them do a few episodes on scientology.

This show has a lot of interesting stories and I like the pacing. But if you’re going to have a show about cult psychology you need to have an actual psychologist. It’s totally not cool for Vanessa to present herself as a psychology expert if she doesn’t have any legitimate credentials, no matter how much “research she’s done for the show.” She should not be diagnosing people with borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia, and especially not without citing her sources (which she doesn’t do enough for my liking). This is my biggest issue with the show. The monotone voices don’t bother me, but the forced, scripted conversation does. Are y'all a formal, educational style podcast or a casual informational podcast? Pick a side.

i loved this show. but i am not loyal to you i am loyal to my listening experience. i dont like spotify. sorry you lost a long time listener.

Lost me when you moved to Spotify. Not as user friendly/intuitive as apple. Too bad I enjoyed the show.

I LOVE this show!!! Having 2 episodes on each cult where 1 explores the background of the leader(s) and give insight on how actions/events may have had a part in the cult being formed then the 2nd episode being about the cult itself is amazingggg. Also having someone explain some of the psychology as well. Can’t say enough good things about this show!❤️

Was interested until I got to the FLDS episode. I don’t know if it was due to a lack of research or if it’s bias on the part of crew but to say Jospeh smith wasn’t a cult leader is untrue and harmful. The man was both fraud and megalomaniac and the church leadership went to great lengths to hide his wrongdoings over the years. What the mainstream church has evolved to over the years isn’t much better. (Revelation of ‘78 anyone?) seriously this isn’t hard to confirm or understand. Also saying Vanessa isn’t a licensed psychiatrist but HAS done a lot of research for the show is a meaningless gesture. If she’s not qualified to make assessments or judgements, get somebody who is for crying out loud.

I tried to use Spotify and do not like how it works and how it controls what I am able to do. You have lost me as a listener to this podcast and also many of the other Parcast offerings. I actually enjoyed listening to your programs but am not willing to put up with Spotify.

Deleted all their episodes?

There’s a lot of cool info but it’s a lot of stuff you can find on Wikipedia. There are also parts of certain episodes that leave out important details.

I find cults fascinating so this podcast is very interesting for me. My only complaint is the faux conversational bits. I get that it’s a way to provide information, but I’m not a fan of how scripted it sounds.

Creepy interesting thought provoking strange bizarre weird

I have always enjoyed the breakdown of each cult. I won’t be following to Spotify but, I wish you the best. I’ll be here when you come back next year. Hopefully Im not a cult leader predicting the return of Greg and Vanessa…

Corny voice actors and lame attempts at “explaining” psychological terms to you come off as fake and condescending, respectively. Just like all other Parcasts, this one’s too glib and phony to be tolerable. Too bad, since the stories chosen are all interesting by themselves. Stop talking down to the audience like we’re a bunch of impressionable children. Stick to facts, the stories are interesting enough without you ruining them by your failure to get out of your own way. And tell this woman to *STOP* over pronouncing the last word of every god damned sentence, it’s behind ridiculous. I don’t know how much money these Parcast people have but they are the scourge of the Podcast world. Can’t imagine who can listen to their crap and not cringe. Probably your average Facebook user who finds cat memes funny.

It’s moving to Spotify only and I don’t want to listen to half an hour of ads so, that’s all she wrote

I’m dying for a good podcasts about cults that isn’t hosted by morning zoo wannabes, or unfunny mean girls. This one sounds like it’s been run thru a text to speech program. The voices are so robotic sounding I had to turn it off after ten minutes.

I wonder how long it will take to come back to the other podcast app? Nobody is following to Spotify, maybe that should tell you something. People won’t be interested in merchandise if they can’t hear the podcast. Good bye Parcast.

I love your podcast. Sad to see you sell out to go exclusive with one content provider. I won’t be following.

Are all of the shows going exclusively to Spotify? Because I am not. So long Parcast 🤷‍♀️

I really like this podcast and would’ve given it 5 stars. But the inclusion of Seventh Day Adventism as a cult is wrong. Yes, they have different views. But it’s those views that have helped revolutionize healthcare for what it is today. In the way of diet, exercise and lifestyle. Including the idea that smoking was harmful. Because back in the day, smoking was encouraged for many lung disorders, and bloodletting was common for many disorders. And although Willam Miller, Ellen G. White and others had radical views. Without them this wonderful Church wouldn’t exist.

Just listened to the Wesson Family Cult episode. It was interesting but I am bothered by the hosts refusal to use the word Rape. Marcus Wesson raped his daughters. He didn’t “have sex with” or “have relationships” with them. He raped them. He also raped his girlfriends daughter. Because a grown man does not have a relationship with a 15 year old. He raped a 15 year old. Please understand the importance of using the correct words when discussing abuse. Marcus Wesson is not a cult leader. He is a murderer, a sexual predator and a rapist.

I recently heard a snippet about the cult 12 Tribes on another podcast and I was like, hey! They are taking over our Main Street, buying an entire block and now I see they’ve acquired another building. They had a deli but closed it and mostly make their living selling clothing. I’ve been interested in hearing more about them because they creep me out and their kids seem abused, plus I’ve grown up hearing stories, they’ve even asked my sister in law to come to dinner on numerous occasions while she’s shopping. Sure enough, they’re horrible. Interesting listen though and I’ll definitely listen to more!

I love Cults. It provides a good overview of some unheard of cults and seems well researched. However, now they’re announcing it’s becoming a Spotify exclusive podcast. Spotify is not great for podcasts. I shouldn’t have to have multiple players for my podcasts, especially those from the same company. Cults will go to Spotify but I will not follow.

Sad to see this Pod going exclusively on Spotify…

They are moving Spotify. Good luck!

I, in fact, love the robotic, monotone voices, I fall asleep to it every night. Also, there are cults I have never heard of, thank you for the new knowledge. This podcast is very thorough and professional. I LOVE THE ROBOTIC-NESS. Love.

Did this podcast really compare conservative families, afraid of satan worshippers, to the Manson family!? Holy smokes, it’d be nice to find one, just one, podcast that isn’t biased towards God, Christianity, Republicans, and conservative values, but even these robotic voiced nit wits are spewing propaganda that’d make Hitler blush. What a joke.

Heard about this pod on another podcast and it sounded like it was right up my alley. Didn't get past the first 2 minutes before I turned it off. Their voices are so robotic and dry.

I appreciate the wealth of info this podcast has to offer, especially since they discuss a lot of lesser known cults around the world, but I just desperately wish they would stop armchair diagnosing the leaders of the cults the cover. It is completely unnecessary for them to attempt to cover the psychology of cult leaders in the way that they do currently and they absolutely are contributing to the stigma against certain mental illnesses when they do this, especially since these people are not professionals who are qualified to do this in the first place. Sometimes cult leaders act the way they do because they are selfish jerks, not because of a speculated mental illness, and it would be incredibly beneficial to cult survivors and people at risk of being taken advantage of by cults if they would actually recognize and say this. So yeah, this podcast would be perfect if the hosts and producers would stop engaging in ableism by armchair diagnosing cult leaders with mental illnesses that are already extremely stigmatized. The hosts and producers need to seriously reevaluate how they cover the psychological side of this topic if they want to stop contributing to the ableism that people with highly stigmatized mental illnesses already have to deal with in our society.

I’m hearing that I’ll have to download another podcast app starting in August and I’m not doing it, I use apple podcast and I refuse to have to switch between all these apples in order to listen to my favorites. I get you want to monetize your show but I’m not chasing it around….

Good info but I wish they would take a few minutes to find out how to pronounce names

I enjoy listening occasionally, but their monotone reading isn't my favorite. Each time Greg says, "Vanessa isn't a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist, but she has done a lot of research for the show." It drives me crazy (#1, because Vanessa always murmurs, "Thanks Greg," the same way every time) because as far as I can tell, neither host has done ANY research for the show. The research was all done for them by a team and they just read their script. Vanessa is in quite a few other weekly Parcast productions which she says she's done a lot of research for (although she's not a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist) but she neither has the time for research, nor does she speak with the passion of a researcher interested in a topic. The delivery on the podcast is very dry, although the information is interesting.

Just listened to their episodes on the Manson Family, and I am convinced that no research was done on the topic. Many of their claims directly contradict the evidence of the trial and the confessions of the killers themselves. They portray Manson’s followers as innocent victims of brainwashing but most of them had prior records and trouble with their families and police. There were also NO drugs involved with the crimes. To claim so erases the culpability of the followers in the dozens of murders committed by the family. This is one of the more famous and well-documented cults, so I won’t even listen to hear what they do to other cults.

This is a great show and I love listening to it, however it’s becoming more and more obvious that the podcasts on Apple podcasts for this show and other parcast shows like serial killers skips backwards / duplicates sections constantly. It’s not my devices or headphones, as I can literally rewind and hear the duplicated section occur again. Does anyone actually proof these and listen all the way through?

Love the podcast, but the Evereve ad makes me NUTS! The voice actor is the worst. I am going to stop listening to this show until this ad cycle is finished.

I listen to many Crime podcasts and have listened to this one for a while but I’m stopping now. I feel like they’ve jumped on the band wagon of making all law Enforcement either seem racist or totally incompetent. I’m over it. They’ve become too Woke for me and I also get annoyed Greg telling us Vanessa is not a real therapist. I wish she’d become one so he could stop repeating that statement every episode.

I like the podcast and the hosts, but I cannot listen anymore. There is a commercial every 5-10 minutes it seems. It is beyond BEYOND annoying. I can no longer listen to this.

Please stop Greg from saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Vanessa isn’t a trained psychologist or psychiatrist but she HAS done a lot of research on this subject.” Then Vanessa demurs, “thanks, Greg.” It would be much more empowering for Vanessa to make this statement for herself. Better yet, it really doesn’t even need to be said since she immediately sites where she got the info and who said it. This bugs me every podcast!!! 😡