From Waco to Tulsi Gabbard: How the news media struggle to cover cults

From Waco to Tulsi Gabbard: How the news media struggle to cover cults

From Unspun by Amanda Sturgill

June 30, 2026 · 26 min

About this episode

This episode explores the intersection of secretive religious movements and politics, focusing on media coverage of cults from the 1930s to today.

What happens when secretive religious movements intersect with politics? In this episode of Unseen, Dr. Sturg begins with the present: recent reporting on Tulsi Gabbard and the Science of Identity Foundation before tracing the fascinating history of journalists covering new religious movements from the 1930s to today and on multiple continents. She has aliens, telepathy and a wild story about how a news guy actually tipped off the Branch Davidians. Links Here's the Washington Post piece on Gabbard (gift link) Check out the Heaven's Gate website - still maintained by some followers left behind just to keep it up. Hear the Hu sound from Eckankar for yourself. Follow @drsturg on Bluesky DrSturg's book, Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News teaches you how to identify this kind of shady language yourself, using real examples from the news. Check it out and be smarter! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

People in this episode

Host: Amanda Sturgill

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Science of Identity Foundation, Washington Post, Heaven's Gate, Eckankar

Books & works: Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

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