Playback serverIf a title won’t play, switch servers.

Heart Starts Pounding

Season 4 · Episode 56

Reddit Scary Stories: Terrifying Cult Encounters With Amanda Montell

0.01h 7mNovember 20, 2025

Today, we're discussing real terrifying encounters that people had with alleged cults. We're talking Scientology, people from a "church" showing up at your door to maybe kidnap you, and more. Joined by Amanda Montell, author of the book Cultish, and the host of the Sounds Like A Cult podcast.

Previous Episode Next Episode

Episodes

Episode 1Who Killed John O'Keefe?: The Karen Read Trial
Episode 2The Cases That Keep Us Up At Night // The Parlor (feat. Psychopedia)
Episode 3Horror In The Mountains: The Khamar-Daban Incident
Episode 4Real Life "Purge": Killers Inspired by Horror Movies
Episode 5Brandon Lawson: The Chilling 911 Call That Baffled Investigators
Episode 6Mysterious Reappearances: Steven Kubacki and The Lake Michigan Triangle
Episode 7Terrifying True Urban Legends: Bodies, Bodies, Bodies
Episode 8Lovesick: A Tale of Poison
Episode 9Backrooms Horror
Episode 10Staying In The Most Haunted Airbnb in Salem (Feat. Two Girls One Ghost)
Episode 11Starvation Cult Uncovered in Backwoods of Kenya
Episode 12Australia's Most Haunted Prisons
Episode 13Glennon Engleman: The Serial Killer Dentist
Episode 14Backwoods Horror: Unexplained Disappearances in the Alaska Triangle
Episode 15Has The Martin Family Been Found? Case Updates And Answering Your Darkly Curious Questions
Episode 16Morbid Medicine: Spontaneous Human Combustion
Episode 17North Sea Horror: Terrifying Creatures, Lost Cities, and Submersible Disasters
Episode 18Ghosts on the Appalachian Trail, Creature Encounters in The Backwoods, and more Listener Stories
Episode 19Deathbed Confessions: Small Town Murder // I Am DB Cooper
Episode 20She Said She Was a Social Worker. Then Children Started Disappearing.
Episode 21America's Most Notorious Baby Thief: Georgia Tann
Episode 22Brazilian Horror Folklore: Animated Corpses, Old Hags, and Backwoods Creatures
Episode 23The Burari Deaths: One Family, Eleven Bodies
Episode 24Reddit Scary Stories: Feral People, Hospital Hauntings, Close Calls with Killers, and more
Episode 25The Ghosts of Kadena Air Base
Episode 26Appalachian Trail Horror: Strange Encounters, Feral People, Mysterious Light, and more
Episode 27The Mysterious Death of Cindy James Part 1
Episode 28The Mysterious Death of Cindy James Part 2
Episode 29Zombie Illnesses: Rabies, Parasites and Prions
Episode 30Annabelle's Tour of Terror
Episode 31Camping Horror Stories // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2
Episode 32Rebecca Coriam: The Cruise Employee Who Vanished // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2
Episode 33Unsolved Mysteries of The Great Lakes: Ghost Ships, Lost Crews & Ancient Curses // DS VOL. 2
Episode 34Reddit Scary Stories: Terrifying Encounters (feat. Investigator Slater)
Episode 35The Mysterious Disappearance of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon // DS VOL. 2
Episode 36Abandoned Amusement Parks: Hauntings, Disasters, and more // DS VOL. 2
Episode 37What Was Hiding in Germany's Göhrde Forest? The Göhrde Murders // DS VOL. 2
Episode 38The Mysterious Disappearance of The Beaumont Children: Australia'sMost Puzzling Unsolved Mystery
Episode 39How Did This Yacht Crew Vanish Into Thin Air? The Kaz II Disappearance // DS VOL. 2
Episode 40Reddit Scary Stories: True Camping Horror Tales (feat. National Park After Dark)
Episode 41Lost Media You'll Never See: The Nickelodeon Tapes, Children's Program Hijacks and more
Episode 42Tortured Live on Stream: The Death of Jean Pormanove
Episode 43Reddit Scary Stories: Reddit Stories That Could Be True Crime Docs (feat. Annie Elise)
Episode 44The Vampire: Peter Kurten, the Blood Sucking German Serial Killer // MONSTERS SERIES
Episode 45HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 1 "It's Just a Game."
Episode 46The Siren: Belle Gunness, The Husband Luring Serial Killer // MONSTERS SERIES
Episode 47HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 2 "He's Always Watching"
Episode 48Spooky Listen! Jack the Ripper | CLUES Podcast
Episode 49The Boogeyman: Hinterkaifek, The German Family Slaughtered By A Stranger // MONSTERS SERIES
Episode 50HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 3 "Shady Pines"
Episode 51The Werewolf: H.H Holmes and His Murder Castle // MONSTERS SERIES
Episode 52HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 4 "Win Or Die"
Episode 53Skinwalkers, Stalked In The Backwoods, And Other Terrifying True Stories From Listeners
Episode 54Terrifying True Urban Legends: Cropsey and The Missing Children
Episode 55Mount Everest Horror: The Lost Climbers of the Death Zone
Episode 56Reddit Scary Stories: Terrifying Cult Encounters With Amanda Montell
Episode 57Cold Cases Solved This Year
Episode 58Christmas Horror Folklore: Krampus, Frau Perchta & The Other St. Nick
Episode 59Vanished At Christmas: Two Mysteries That Will Make You Question Everything
Episode 60Lost Media Vol. 2: Missing Holiday Media
Episode 61"Something Is Mimicking My Sister" and Other Terrifying True Stories From Listeners
Episode 62Inside the World's Most Haunted Castles | True Ghost Stories