What if your favorite brand—or your favorite influencer—used the same playbook as a cult?
Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein unpacks how modern marketing borrows tactics from cults, MLMs, and political movements to win hearts, minds, and wallets. Through conversations with academics, activists, and insiders, Einstein—author of Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults—reveals how belief and commerce became inseparable in the digital age.
From influencer culture and wellness scams to pyramid schemes and political persuasion, Hoodwinked traces the hidden connections between belief and manipulation. Each episode explores how the same tools that keep followers loyal also keep consumers buying—and how to recognize when inspiration turns into indoctrination.
Produced by Multitude
What if your favorite brand—or your favorite influencer—used the same playbook as a cult?
Hoodwinked with Dr. Mara Einstein unpacks how modern marketing borrows tactics from cults, MLMs, and political movements to win hearts, minds, and wallets. Through conversations with academics, activists, and insiders, Einstein—author of Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults—reveals how belief and commerce became inseparable in the digital age.
From influencer culture and wellness scams to pyramid schemes and political persuasion, Hoodwinked traces the hidden connections between belief and manipulation. Each episode explores how the same tools that keep followers loyal also keep consumers buying—and how to recognize when inspiration turns into indoctrination.
Produced by Multitude
