Bigfoot vs. the Right-Wing Media Machine: What MAGA Reads When We're Not Looking

Howard Polskin of TheRighting joins Dave Pederson to track the headlines, podcasts, traffic charts, and outrage narratives shaping MAGA media.

What happens when millions of Americans are living inside a completely different media weather system?

In Episode 26 of The Bigfoot Manifesto, Dave Pederson talks with Howard Polskin, founder and chief curator of TheRighting, a media company that tracks conservative news outlets, right-wing headlines, podcast rankings, traffic data, and the broader media ecosystem shaping MAGA politics.

Howard began following right-wing media after the 2016 election, asking the same question many liberals asked: How did this happen? What he found was not just a few fringe websites, but an alternate information universe powered by grievance, fear, anti-woke panic, celebrity pundits, Trump loyalty tests, and headlines designed to make every political disagreement feel like the end of civilization.

This episode digs into how right-wing media works, why outrage is a business model, how fringe narratives move into mainstream politics, why podcasts build such deep loyalty, and what progressives need to understand without simply amplifying every bad-faith frame.

Bigfoot may be folklore.
But the outrage ecosystem is measurable.

It has headlines, traffic reports, subscriber charts, podcast rankings, algorithms, donor networks, celebrity pundits, and a business model that turns fear into loyalty.

Guest: Howard Polskin
Founder & Chief Curator, TheRighting
Website: https://therighting.com/

The Bigfoot Manifesto:
https://bigfootmanifesto.com/

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(35)

Never Again for Whom? Gaza, Genocide & Progressive Jewish Identity | Nicole Levin | EP34

In Episode 34 of The Bigfoot Manifesto, Dave Pederson is joined by environmental scientist, organizer and writer Nicole Levin for a deeply personal conversation about Gaza, genocide, Zionism, Jewish i...

2 Syys 1h

Bigfoot vs. the Health Insurance Beast: Why America Still Doesn't Have Universal Healthcare

Bigfoot vs. the Health Insurance Beast: Why America Still Doesn't Have Universal Healthcare Dave Pederson talks with Wendell Potter, former Cigna vice president of corporate communications turned heal...

26 Elo 54min

The Union-Busting Industrial Complex: Pinkertons With PowerPoint

When workers start organizing, corporations rarely improvise. They call in the professionals. In this episode of The Bigfoot Manifesto, Dave Pederson talks with Professor John Logan, Professor and Pro...

18 Elo 1h 29min

Bigfoot vs. the Child Care Desert: Why Raising a Family Became a Luxury

Parents pay more than they can afford. Child-care educators earn less than they can live on. Providers still struggle to remain open. How can all three be true? Dave Pederson talks with nationally rec...

6 Elo 1h 2min

Fund the Cryptid: Universal Basic Income and the Right to Say No

Universal basic income is usually presented as an anti-poverty program. Scott Santens argues that it is also a foundation for freedom—the ability to refuse an abusive job, leave a dangerous situation,...

29 Heinä 1h 5min

Markets Built for Humans: Nick Hanauer on Why Trickle-Down Broke America

Nick Hanauer joins The Bigfoot Manifesto for a conversation about Markets Built for Humans, his new co-authored work with Eric Beinhocker, and why America needs to abandon trickle-down economics once ...

14 Heinä 1h 3min

Bigfoot vs. the Server Farm: Who Pays for the AI Boom?

Everybody says AI lives in "the cloud." But the cloud is not weightless. In this episode of The Bigfoot Manifesto, Dave talks with Danny Caine of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance about the data c...

7 Heinä 54min

Bigfoot vs. The Union-Busting Machine

The real monster isn't hiding in the warehouse. It's in the scanner, the algorithm, the productivity metric, the union-busting meeting, the legal delay, and the idea that workers should be grateful ju...

18 Kesä 43min