In the next few episodes of The Cults of Our Lives, Halle and Stasie continue to take a deeper look at the world’s most bizarre cults. I listened to four more episodes: Heaven’s Gate, Symbionese Liberation Army, Jonestown Part 1 and Jonestown Part 2. Though each of these four episodes follows the same format as the first episode – Overview, Notable Craziness, and Where are they Now? – there are already many improvements I have noticed in just a short, few episodes later.
The first improvement I noticed was the sound and editing quality. By only the fifth episode, the sound quality sounded dramatically better. Instead of their voices sounding far away and muffled, it now sounded as though they were in the in the same room as the listener. Their tone also became more casual throughout the episodes which contributed to this impression. While in the first episode, they sounded as if they were reading off a script, they now have become more comfortable and started to talk in their normal, natural voices. They even started cracking jokes and laughing at one another, which ultimately added to the amusement and experience of the listener. Halle and Stasie even mentioned creating a theme song for the upcoming episodes, as a well as a catch phrase of them both saying together, “so freaky!”. This adds a personal aspect to their podcast, giving it something unique to stand out from all of the other cult podcasts.
Not only have the hosts become more casual with their narration, they have also started interjecting and speaking their own opinions on controversial topics. Something in particular I had not found in other podcasts was their willingness to include their political viewpoints. During such a controversial time, they are surprisingly willing to voice their personal beliefs online for their audience to hear. This has come a long way from their very first podcast when they seemed timid talking about difficult topics. They made comments such as, “Trump should burn” and about Trump hating them since they are two women publicly expressing their opinions. I think their openness on this topic roots from the aspect that when they started making these podcasts, they only had three subscribers on SoundCloud and didn’t have a fan base yet to listen and judge their opinions. After the first episode, it seemed as if they figured out that it was just them talking to a small group of fans and there was no reason to be scared of the scrutiny and backlash that comes from saying the wrong thing. I think once Halle and Stasie came to this realization, they became more relaxed and it made a noticeable difference to the listener. They were no longer afraid to stutter or hesitate on what they were going to say next and could interject with the comments they wanted to add, even if they weren’t completely formed just yet. This casual tone becomes advantageous because it makes the podcast more engaging for listeners. Instead of listening to someone read off a script in a monotone voice, they began having real, authentic discussions.
Another aspect playing on the audience’s emotions is their choice of music. They use very fast-paced violin solos for their intro and outro which creates more of an anxious and curious feeling, rather than an eerie and mysterious one. Even though they are talking about such a dark topic, cults fascinate others not just because of all the death, but because of the insane and strange things they partake in as well. This choice of music adds to this tone by intriguing the listener rather than making them alarmed and scared right from the start.
Overall, these next few episodes have improved greatly from the first one. Providing the audience with genuine interest about these cults, Cults of Our Lives gives the listeners a look into the confusing but addictively fascinating lives of former cult members that keeps them coming back for more.
Word Count: 660
