Know Your Enemy15 Mai 2025

Did Podcasters Make Trump President? (w/ Andrew Marantz)

Among the many factors credited for Donald Trump's victory over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race was one that, naturally, the hosts of Know Your Enemy took an interest in: podcasts. More specifically, "bro" podcasts—think Joe Rogan or Theo Von—seemed to be one reason why Trump continued, as he did in 2016 and 2020, to perform so well with male voters, especially gaining ground with younger, Black, and Latino men. An episode of one of these podcasts might stretch to three hours long or more, and typically features meandering, casual conversations that put a premium on apparent authenticity, as well as a knack for hanging with the boys. Trump and other Republican candidates and figures on the right (such as Elon Musk, a regular on Rogan's show) made appearing on these podcasts part of their campaign strategy, which allowed them to reach men who tend not to "follow politics" or even vote in every election.

To try to understand what's happening with bros, podcasts, Trump, and beyond, there was no better guest than New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz, author of an early—and quite perceptive—piece on KYE and, more importantly for this conversation, a recent investigation into the world of bro podcasts and streamers, and what they might mean for both the left and the right at the start of Trump's second term.

Sources:

Andrew Marantz, "The Battle for the Bros," The New Yorker, Mar 17, 2025

— "Is the U.S. Becoming and Autocracy," The New Yorker, April 28, 2025

-- "Why We Can’t Stop Arguing About Whether Trump Is a Fascist," The New Yorker, March 27, 2024

— "The Post-Dirtbag Left," The New Yorker, July 26, 2021

Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes, "The inside story of Harris' lost gamble on Joe Rogan, Beyoncé and a late Texas rally," NBC News, Jan 29, 2025

Jack Crosbie, "Hasan Piker: A Progressive Mind in a MAGA Body," New York Times, April 27, 2025

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(266)

KYE EXTRA: "Morning Hate" (w/ Hannah Gais)

UNPAYWALLED:Sam interviews journalist Hannah Gais about (1) the far right's ongoing efforts to infiltrate conservative media and (2) the self-victimizing grift of Quillette anti-anti-fascist Andy Ngo....

23 Okt 201944min

Working-Class Conservatism (w/ Max Alvarez)

Matt and Sam talk to Max Alvarez—writer, editor, and host of Working People, an excellent podcast—about growing up working-class and conservative in a mixed race household.Matt and Max compare experie...

7 Okt 20191h 24min

Koch'd Out

With the help of Jane Mayer's essential 2016 book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, your hosts explore the world of right-wing philanthropy and ...

9 Sep 20191h 32min

Gunpower (w/ Patrick Blanchfield)

Matt and Sam's first ever guest, Patrick Blanchfield, is an Associate Faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and author of the forthcoming book Gunpower from Verso books, which y...

15 Aug 20191h 29min

The Definitely-Not-Racist National Conservatives

The first National Conservatism conference was convened at the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C. two weeks ago. It was a coming out party for the rising nationalist wing of the conservative movement, wi...

30 Jul 20191h 37min

The Rise of the Illiberal Right

Interested in the background reading we did for this episode? There's a lot of it. But we want to show our work and give you the chance to dig deeper. Below are the articles we referenced, read, or dr...

12 Jul 20191h 18min

The Death of Conservatism? (Part 2)

Special thanks to Will Epstein and The Downtown Boys for providing music for these two episodes. Check them out. Ronald Reagan's televised "A Time for Choosing" speech in support of Barry Goldwater in...

26 Jun 20191h 1min

The Death of Conservatism? (Part 1)

Sam Tanenhaus's original 2009 essay in The New Republic, the basis for the book we're discussing today: https://newrepublic.com/article/61721/conservatism-dead Whitaker Chambers's 1957 dismantling of ...

12 Jun 20191h 1min