The Cult of Family Vloggers

Catch Amanda back on tour this summer! July 29: The Age of Magical Overthinking book talk at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, WA (free!) Imagine you’re a little kid and your parents are actually your bosses. Now imagine that, as your professional superiors, your parents' job is to engineer and exploit every single precious moment of your childhood for millions of people on the internet to behold, all in exchange for clicks, comments, and ad dollars. Sometimes they prank you, embarrass you, and/or produce a whole ‘nother sibling purely as a career move. Now imagine if your parents manage to figure out at some point that this dynamic is power abusive and manipulative, and they decide to stop sharing your face with the world, scads of strangers who’ve gotten parasocially attached to you since before you were born start flipping the f*** out. Such is the uncanny experience of a kid born into the cult of family vloggers, this week’s culty a$$ subject, featuring journalist Fortesa Latifi, who is currently writing a book about parenthood and content creation.  Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod @amanda_montell To order Amanda's new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, click here :) To subscribe to her new Magical Overthinkers podcast click here! Thank you to our sponsors, who make this show possible: Visit BetterHelp.com/CULT today to get 10% off your first month. Dipsea is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/cult.  Go to the App Store or Google Play store and download the FREE Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CULT. Go to stopscooping.com/SLAC and enter promocode SLAC to save an EXTRA $50 on any Litter-Robot bundle.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices