Last updated on September 24, 2024 – 10:40 AM
Louis Theroux was interviewed by Adam Buxton onstage at Spotify in London last night to celebrate the launch of season 3 of The Louis Theroux Podcast.
In our conversation with Adam, he talks about the “Heaven's Gate” UFO cult, whose members committed mass suicide just days after his team set up an interview, how he doesn't want to be “unnecessarily intrusive” to vulnerable guests on his podcast, and why he thinks he can make a difference in the crowded podcast market.
Speaking about UFO cults, Lewis said that when he was making the original Weird Weekend series, he instructed his team to look for cults, and one of the members said he found a good one but then got sick and missed three or four days of work.
“Meanwhile, the news was reporting a UFO cult committing mass suicide,” Louis explained. “They committed mass suicide. They were called Heaven's Gate, and I thought that was weird… My producer came back and said, 'Those are the people I'd been in contact with.'
“Not only that, but there was an envelope on his desk with instructions inside. It said that they were planning to commit suicide, that they had not yet 'got out of the car' by the time we received the envelope, and that after they were dead, they wanted us to be the first on the scene to report the shocking event.”
Louis also said he doesn't want to be “unnecessarily intrusive” with guests he feels are vulnerable. “It's not our goal to make guests look like assholes. We take it seriously. A lot of times we will back off if we feel like we're being unnecessarily intrusive,” he said.
As for making a difference in the competitive podcast market, he said throughout the interview that sometimes it means being pushed a little outside of your comfort zone and tackling aspects of life or culture that don't feel like the most perfect fit for you.
“I strive to explore new worlds and interview people who are different from me,” he added.
The Louis Theroux Podcast launched today and is available on Spotify.
