Let's Talk About Sects

Sarah Steel’s Let’s Talk About Sects is an award-winning podcast that has been quietly producing some of the best cult-related audio content since 2017. Each episode focuses on a different high-control group, examining leadership structures, recruitment tactics, and the psychological dynamics that keep people trapped. The show has earned a 4.7 rating from over 450 Apple Podcasts reviewers, and critics consistently use words like meticulously researched and ethically produced to describe it. Steel’s approach is measured and academic without being cold. She combines survivor interviews with structural analysis of how these groups operate. Her NXIVM coverage benefits from this framework because she does not just tell you what happened, she explains the mechanisms behind it. The show runs 108 episodes and publishes monthly, which means each installment gets real research time. That slower pace pays off in depth. If you have burned through the major NXIVM-specific series and want something that connects the dots between NXIVM and other manipulative organizations around the world, this is your show. Steel also released a book called Do As I Say that extends the podcast’s analysis into print. The production is clean, the sourcing is transparent, and the episodes avoid the exploitative dramatization that plagues a lot of cult-related content. It respects both the subject matter and its audience.