Fig. 1 video: Why America is so good at producing cults
October 27, 2025 •
Watch any documentary or listen to any podcast about cults, and you might find one common thread: So many cults are American. But why?
In a recent long-form video from Fig. 1, UC’s award-winning video series, Poulomi Saha, Ph.D., associate professor of English and co-director of the Program in Critical Theory at UC Berkeley, explains why America is so good at producing cults, what we get wrong about cults, and why their popularity in media today points to a cultural yearning for an alternative way of life.
Watch the video below.
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Tags: cults, Fig. 1, research
