SoulCycle Without the Bike: Here Comes Peoplehood

Tara Isabella Burton, who studied the “religiously unaffiliated” in her 2020 book, “Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World,” has written that many people who have lost trust in institutions will put their faith in Instagram influencers specializing in self-care. A center devoted to self-improvement and community — expertly marketed and bu... See more

Ms. Cutler and Ms. Rice see Peoplehood as a natural successor to SoulCycle, which became a phenomenon because it made its customers feel as if they were sculpting not just their bodies but their selves.

“What Elizabeth and I found at SoulCycle was that people came because they thought they wanted to get in better shape,” Ms. Rice said in an interview. “But, ultimately, what they found in those rooms was connection. We quickly learned the product we were selling was connection with other people.”

“A decade later,” she continued, “we realized that connection should be its own product. We are modern medicine for the loneliness epidemic.”

Since last summer, a start-up in beta mode has been soliciting volunteers to take part in 55-minute sessions called “gathers,” where strangers discuss their deepest hopes and fears. The fledgling company, Peoplehood, is led by the entrepreneurs Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, who combined sweat and spirituality in their last venture, the high-end ... See more

“Peoplehood sounds like a natural culmination of how we think about spirituality and commerce in 2022,” Ms. Burton said.

The selling of spirituality and personal fulfillment outside houses of worship and therapists’ offices is nothing new in American life, said the historian Natalia Petrzela, an associate professor at the New School who has studied cultural movements.