Podcasters are Radicalizing Your Little Brother: The Danger of the Manosphere
- Emily Reckard
- Apr 19
- 5 min read
I doom-scroll like it’s a sport– mostly on TikTok, with the occasional Instagram Reel mixed in. Never YouTube Shorts, I’m a hater. My feed encompasses a wide range of content: basketball edits soundtracked by Hamilton, dogs splashing in pools, and thrift hauls that fill me with envy. But without fail, my peace is interrupted every few scrolls by something far more sinister.
Men. Hosting. Podcasts.
Now, not all of them are bad, of course. One of my favorites– The Bald and The Beautiful– is hosted by two men. But the type of men hogging the Apple Podcast charts and my For You Page? Overwhelmingly hypermasculine, conservative, and dangerously influential. They have become a voice of reason to my generation’s young men who are desperate to feel understood.
Disenfranchised Youth
It’s easy to see how we got here. Young men in Gen Z have been fed a toxic cocktail since birth: hide your tears, be tough, succeed or you’re worthless. With the large ideological and educational gaps brewing between Gen-Z men and women, the rise of female autonomy (women no longer need men to provide), and the breakdown of traditional gender roles, many young men are looking around and asking: Where do I belong?
We, as a society, have failed to provide them with an answer.
They’re not connecting with each other, or anyone for that matter. We don’t emotionally support them. Pop culture rarely even depicts male friendships with the same intimacy and depth we see in female-driven shows like Girls, Sex & The City, or Insecure. They want someone–anyone– who gets it. And the right-wing media machine is waiting to welcome them with open arms.
Entering the Echochamber
It begins slowly. A few clips of Theo Von (This Past Weekend w/Theo Von), The Nelk Boys (Full Send Podcast), Jake and Logan Paul, plus Dave Portnoy (Barstool Sports). They don’t appear political at first. However, under all the sports talk, pop-culture digests, and comedic responses, you’ll find undertones that expose their political ideologies easily.
Then, we have the new form of podcasting: streaming. Streamers like Adin Ross and Asmongold, who began with content surrounding comedy and gaming, have now dived headfirst into political discourse, echoing conservative talking points to their young audiences, with misogyny acting as a cherry on top.
This is where the process of radicalization begins.
Halfway There
Curiosity leads young men deeper into the ‘manosphere’: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire), Tim Pool (TimCast IRL), Jordan Peterson (The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast), Joe Rogan (The Joe Rogan Experience), and Charlie Kirk (Turning Point USA) await their arrival. Politics aren’t hidden here– they are embraced.
Sure, it’s not all political. But the main topics? Trans rights. Immigration. Vaccines. They offer advice on dating, finances, and confidence, but all through a lens that frames the world as being stacked against the average straight man.
They have a secret weapon. They speak to their audience like they understand. Positioning themselves as allies to the misunderstood, despite raking in millions and living in luxury. Their reach, however, isn’t harmless.
According to the U.S. Justice Department indictment filed last September, Tim Pool, alongside Benny Johnson and other conservative figures, were allegedly unknowingly duped into working for a Russian media operation that sought to sow division in America to weaken opposition to Russian interests, like the Ukraine War.
This is a part of their strategy.
Mission Accomplished
Now we reach the final stage. Full radicalization. Here, we can find Andrew Tate: former kickboxer, accused human trafficker, and arguably the ‘king’ of the manosphere who resides in every corner of the internet. However, his politics focus on uplifting men by demonizing women, utilizing misogyny as empowerment and emotions as weakness, alluding back to what so many of these young men have been taught.
The worst part? His influence is widespread. Middle school boys are quoting him in their classrooms. He has become an idolized figure for young men. My younger cousins are fans– I glared over their shoulders one day to find them scrolling YouTube Shorts (despite my objection) and counted at least ten Tate clips.
Or take Nick Fuentes: white nationalist, Holocaust denier, and buddy to both Kanye West and Donald Trump. He spews extremist, hateful takes on the daily and gains traction online with ease. He championed the phrase, “Your Body, My Choice,” after the 2024 election. Love it!
Outliers and Enablers
There are hundreds of other content creators influencing young men daily. However, it goes further than just internet personalities.
Celebrities like Kanye “Ye” West have become far-right icons. Elon Musk– the chainsaw-wielding, child-support-dodging owner of X– uses his platform to boost conspiracies (with nothing but a simple retweet and thinking emoji) and silences opposition. But, he's a big proponent of ‘free speech’, right?
Young men love them. They idolize these figures because they seem powerful and unfiltered. They don’t realize it’s all a fantasy. Young men who aspire to be like them are far more likely to end up like their peers than to reach the status of the billionaire tech giant. But class solidarity is a conversation for another time.
Where the Left Loses
So, what now? The left can't podcast themselves out of this.
I know what we shouldn’t do. Supplying more airtime to the voices harming society in the name of ‘understanding both sides’ (looking at you, Gavin Newsom) or creating a ‘Joe Rogan’ of the left. We don’t need to capitulate to the right or act like Republicans.
We have to change the message.
America’s young men need to be heard and seen. Not coddled, not excused, but we have to provide them a landing space. And, right now, the Democrats aren’t safe to crash.
Many feel as if the Democrats come off as elitist. Self-righteous. Calculated. No wonder why they don’t listen to us; Trump appears as an understanding friend who will fight for them, even when he clearly doesn’t.
If we want to really reach young men, we have to talk to them like they’re humans. We have to acknowledge their pain without giving cause for them to push that pain onto undeserving others, which is what the right is doing currently by blaming Immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and women for male problems.
Our policies have to provide and help the working class. If we create policies that make the average American's life better and message in a way that feels authentic, we may be able to bring the young men back to the party.
I don’t have all the answers, but if Democrats don't fix something soon, the next generation of men will keep hitting “block” on anything that feels remotely blue.
Photo Credit:
[Header]: Adin Live / Youtube
[Embedded 1]: Mishalynn Brown/Tallahassee Democrat
[Embedded 2]: The New Republic
Sources:
[2]- https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-male-college-crisis-is-not-just-in-enrollment-but-completion/