COMMONS

Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed Queen of Canada, is unlike almost any other cult leader Canada has ever seen. In an incredibly short amount of time, she’s been able to gain a ma...

Multi-level marketing isn’t based on rational business logic. It’s not even built on irrational business logic. It’s ideology. It’s faith.MLMs have become such a ubiquitous part of...

Nearly 1.4 million Canadians and almost 50 million Americans are involved in multi-level marketing. And that sheer volume of people makes it a near certainty that you’ve encountere...

Mary-Jayne Blackmore is one of the oldest children of Winston Blackmore, the most famous polygamist in Canada. For decades, her family has been the subject of intense media an...

In 1973, a French motorsports journalist claimed to have been visited by a UFO that revealed to him the secret origins of humanity. For the next half-century, the man known as Raël...

An explosion of new spiritual movements in the 1970s led to the creation of an entirely novel academic field. But right from the beginning, the discipline was riven asunder.The Cul...

In the 1960s and 70s, there was a fear that cult leaders were brainwashing young people into joining their new, strange movements. But is it even possible to “brainwash” anyone?At ...

The story of Brother XII still fascinates and even frightens some people in and around Nanaimo.He’s often called the Devil of De Courcy Island for good reason.Brother XII prophesie...

As organized religion declines in countries like Canada, we’ve experienced an explosion of what some call religious movements and what others call cults.The idea of cults has becom...

The word cult gets tossed around a lot. The label gets applied to everything from doomsday religions, to wellness fads, to online conspiracies.Uncovering the stories of both d...

In this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Jordan Cornish sits down with Jashvina Shah to talk about her book, Game Misconduct: Hockey's Toxic Culture and How to Fix It. Featured...

In this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Jordan Cornish sits down with host Arshy Mann to discuss our recent season on hockey. If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get...