Elise Hu

This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tansika Sangmarnivong.

This episode was mixed by Christopher Faisy-Bogan.

Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo.

I'm Elise Hugh.

I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.

Thanks for listening.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Writer, linguist, and podcaster Amanda Montel says we are living through the cultiest era on record as the hardwired cognitive biases that helped early humans survive brush up against social media and digital communication.

She exposes three sneaky language tactics that cults use to influence us, for better or for worse, revealing why none of us are as cult-proof as we'd like to think.

And stick around after the talk.

Amanda and I got together to go beyond her talk to discuss what led her to the study of cults, the role of AI in these cultier times, and what to do if we think someone we know and love may be in a cult.

That's all coming up right after a short break from our sponsors.

Don't go away just yet.

My conversation with Amanda Montel is coming up right after a short break.

Amanda, congratulations on your talk.

Oh, thank you.

How do you think your work has evolved through three books and now with your TED Talk?

Okay.

Well, let's dig into your talk because you share in your talk a little bit about your dad's past and how he was in a cult when he was a teen before he managed to escape.