Podcasts dominate the 2024 election

Former president Donald Trump is recording an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with host Joe Rogan on Friday, just over a week out from Election Day on November 5.

There was speculation for weeks that Trump might appear on the wildly popular podcast, with Rogan polling viewers as to whether he should interview the president for the first time in the show’s history. Rogan consistently has the most viewed podcast in America with millions of views per episode and is known for his long and wide-ranging discussions with his guests. His audience is also known to skew male-heavy and is made up of many independent and apolitical voters. As polls show Trump dominating the male vote and his campaign seeks to motivate low- and mid-propensity voters to the polls, the Rogan podcast is a huge get. Not to mention that Trump performs exceptionally well in long-form interviews. 

The Rogan news is just the latest example of the two major party candidates relying on podcasts and other non-typical media sources to get out their messages. Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast earlier this month to talk about abortion and women’s issues. Comedian Theo Von just dropped a podcast with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance. Trump has also appeared on Von’s show, the Full Send podcast, and has done interviews with Andrew Schulz, Adin Ross, Barstool Sports and other popular streamers. 

Harris’s team floated the idea that she might appear with Rogan, as well, but that sit-down has not materialized. Given her penchant for rehearsed non-answers, that’s probably for the best. When I first read that she was considering doing the show, I assumed no one on her team has actually watched an episode of Joe Rogan or else they would have never recommended it to the vice president. 

Trump’s unconventional media tour shows that Trump and his team understand the cultural power that podcasts have in today’s media landscape, particularly among young people. Mainstream media audiences skew older and the ratings for broadcast and cable news shows are in decline. As establishment media sources demonstrate obvious bias and an unwillingness to challenge conventional narratives, young people are hungry for independent voices that think critically about issues instead of parroting a party line.

The mainstream media naturally hates this trend because it takes away their power. If the traditional media cannot monopolize information, people might start believing things that the media doesn’t like. Hence all of the cries about “misinformation” and “disinformation” and how Big Tech or, worse, the government needs to crack down on it. Of course, none of these voices stop to think about why it is that they are so distrusted. Rogan’s audience certainly hasn’t forgotten, for example, that the media insisted Rogan was going to die from Covid because he was using ivermectin — “horse dewormer!” — to assist in his Covid recovery. How many other stories have they gotten wrong over the years? The Hunter Biden laptop, Russian collusion, pretty much everything about Covid, Trump is going to start World War Three, etc. It’s not a bad thing to democratize information when you have a media that has abdicated its responsibility to seek truth.

One Direction boy bander dies

Liam Payne, a member of the boy band One Direction, died last week after falling or jumping from his hotel balcony in Argentina. He was said to be behaving erratically prior to the incident — and an autopsy showed multiple types of illicit drugs in his system. Payne was having legal troubles with his ex-fiancée and had supposedly been quietly dropped by his record label a few days prior to his death.

The tragic end to a young superstar’s life is a reminder of how dangerous it is to become famous at a young age. Most people can’t handle it and turn to alcohol or drugs to cope. Some develop eating disorders or other unhealthy ways to exercise some sort of “control” over their life, which feels totally out of their control. 

Justin Bieber notably went through some hard-partying times and struggled with mental health issues as he reached adulthood — and we recently were reminded that he was present at some of the notorious Diddy parties where young people were allegedly exploited and perhaps sexually assaulted. Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are other high-profile examples of young stars who had a hard time making the transition to adulthood.

Some parents don’t realize what they are getting their kids into. Others are willing to sacrifice their kids to Hollywood so they can get rich. Former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy wrote about this in her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. If you’re lucky, your kid only deals with growing up in the public eye, working adult-like hours and never having a normal childhood. If you’re one of the unlucky ones, your kid gets sexually abused and effectively ruined for life. Seems like a pretty bad gamble.