The Cult of Family Vloggers

By Amanda Montell & Isa Medina

Sounds Like A Cult

18/06/24·58m 27s

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.

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:

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