One of the most significant political developments in the last few years is the emergence of the “manosphere,” a loose network of longform podcasts that are especially popular with young men. Although the top manosphere podcasts are not primarily about politics, they have been credited with effectively promoting right-wing viewpoints.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump was interviewed by manosphere podcasters Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, and Shawn Ryan. On election day, Trump won 56% of the votes of young men 18-29. That was a huge improvement over 2020, when Trump was supported by just 41% of young men.
At Trump’s November 2024 victory party, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White took the stage and thanked Rogan, Von, and other manosphere podcasters for contributing to Trump’s win.
Why are these podcasts so influential? What is actually discussed? The answers to these questions are difficult to ascertain. Yes, the podcasts are public, but they are also extremely long. Rogan, for example, puts out around three podcasts a week and each one can be three or even four hours. The only people who regularly listen to these podcasts are fans.
To pull back the curtain on the manosphere, Popular Information reviewed every edition of The Joe Rogan Experience, This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant, and The Shawn Ryan Show published in September. Collectively, these podcasts have over 30 million subscribers on YouTube and millions of additional listeners on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms. The shows and hosts also have tens of millions of followers on social media platforms like X and Instagram.
In September, these four shows published 35 episodes with a combined runtime of 94 hours and 55 minutes.
Nearly 95 hours of content includes little overt discussion of public policy or political philosophy. But the episodes frequently feature crude racism, outlandish political conspiracy theories, brazen misogyny, medical quackery, and homophobia.
Wealthy Democrats are reportedly spending tens of millions of dollars to identify “the next Joe Rogan” for the left. The people financing these efforts do not seem to have grappled with the kind of content Rogan and other major players in the manosphere create to attract a loyal audience.
In a September 2 episode with comedian Dave Landau, Rogan claimed that people who get their protein from soy are being feminized, asking, “Why do I have tits? Why am I lactating? Why am I always crying?” He also asserted that lab-grown meat causes cancer, a false claim that appears to have originated from a Facebook post. Later in the episode, Rogan referred to Beyond Meat as “trans burgers,” prompting Landau to reply, “You’re getting the patty that basically shoots up a school.”
In an episode with comedian and podcaster Jim Norton on September 5, Von insinuated that the United States Postal Service (USPS) cannot be trusted. Using the USPS, Von said, was like “handing a letter to a Black guy and hoping he takes it where it’s supposed to go.” Norton agreed, responding, “Yeah, just here you go. Please bring that… to the government.”
On a September 4 episode with comedian Tim Dillon, Rogan promoted the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which involves the claim that powerful Democrats were running a child-trafficking ring in the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant (that does not have a basement). “There’s a lot of misinformation that gets attached to true stories to make the stories goofy,” Rogan said. “This is the Pizzagate thing.” Dillon responded, “Something’s weird with that though.” Rogan replied, “Oh fuck yeah, something’s weird with that,” before offering to “send [Dillon] a documentary” about it.
In a September 3 episode, the Flagrant hosts asked guest Andrew Bustamante, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, whether he believed a conspiracy theory that Israeli intelligence agents had information about 9/11 before it happened, but withheld it from the U.S. government. “I think there’s actually probability to it,” he said. “Whether or not Israel nefariously held that information back is a different story.”
In an episode with Dillon on September 4, Rogan complained that immigrants in the United Kingdom are “outbreed[ing]” English people. “But what they’re doing with allowing mass migration in the UK… It’s really weird because like where does this end up?” Rogan said. “Because it seems like it ends up with some places that have Sharia law.”
“Especially when you consider like how many babies they’re having versus how many babies the English people [are having]. I mean they’re openly talking about it. ‘We’re going to outbreed you,’” Rogan said.
During a September 2 interview with country musician John Rich, Ryan claimed that certain people in Hollywood have engaged in child sacrifice in exchange for power. Ryan said, “I know that there are people that trade things for power, sacrifices, child sacrifices, all that kind of stuff… Have you seen it?” Rich said that he had been invited to participate in such rituals, but had never actually seen them.
Rogan and Dillon joked that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband is married to her for her body in a September 4 episode. “Why marry that old witch if you can’t get your beak wet?” Dillon asked. “Because she’s got some big yabos,” Rogan responded. Dillon agreed, saying, “She does have big yabos.”
On September 19, in an episode with comedian Louis C.K., Von said that he doesn’t trust people that “won’t say the f-word about gay folks,” but will say the n-word. Von said that he’ll “say [the f-word] really fast because some people don’t like hearing it,” before saying the slur, which is bleeped out.
In a September 9 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Brigham Buhler, founder of a “restorative medicine” company, claimed that pharmaceutical companies “tried to hide” evidence that certain anti-depressants lead to increased suicidal ideation and violent thoughts in children. “They’re also connected to almost every school shooter,” Rogan responded. There is no evidence that SSRIs increase violent behavior and only 4% of mass shooters in the last several decades took SSRIs in their lifetime.
In the September 2 edition of the Shawn Ryan Show, Rich discussed the biblical story of the plagues that God inflicted on Egypt. He wondered when the U.S. would receive a similar punishment. Rich asked, “When is God going to remind America who he is?” Ryan replied, “I feel like it’s coming.”
In the September 9 episode of his show, Rogan complained that society no longer celebrates “traditional” roles for women. He said, “We’re criticizing normal femininity, especially like traditional wife roles. But we are celebrating women who assume roles in society of toxic men, which is CEOs. We’re celebrating a woman becoming more manly. We’re celebrating men becoming feminists… Clearly, we’ve lost our way.”
In the September 19 episode with Louis C.K., Von said “the first time a Black man touched my hand… was different.” Von went on to describe his first experience with a Black doctor. “I’d never walked into a room in my life with a Black doctor,” Von said. “And I was like, whoa.” Von compared the experience to “like when you’re at Foot Locker and there’s a white woman working in there.”
On September 11, during an interview with Charlie Sheen, Rogan said it was “very likely [the CIA] had groomed [Charles Manson] when he was in prison and taught him mind control techniques when people were high on acid … [to] shape their mind and even get them to commit murder.” He also claimed that the CIA used Manson as a “psyop” to stop the anti-war movement of the 1960s.
John Tiegen — who is a survivor of the 2012 Benghazi attack, a Colorado militia leader, and a two-time Colorado Springs mayoral candidate — said on the September 11 episode of the Shawn Ryan Show that teachers are “forcing all that LGBT… stuff” on students and telling them to hide it from their parents. He compared this to child sexual abusers telling their victims not to tell their parents they are being abused. “If anybody says ‘don’t tell your parents,’ you should be telling your parents [because] what they’re doing is something that is wrong,” Tiegen said.
In Rogan’s September 4 episode with Dillon, the pair discussed a conspiracy theory that convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is still alive. “Is it possible that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t die in his cell and that’s all horseshit?” Rogan asked. Dillon explained that he heard that there is a “tiny” possibility that Epstein is alive and living in Ohio at the house of Les Wexner, who is the founder of L Brands, the former parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. “If that was true, there would be… a service that delivers masseuses to that house. There’s no way that guy’s stopping doing creepy shit,” Rogan said.
In a September 5 episode, Von made crude comments about Representative Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) body. “She got them bumpers on her, too,” Von said. Norton agreed, calling her “quite attractive.”
In a livestream on his YouTube channel on September 6, Rogan claimed that autism rates are higher in states with stricter vaccine requirements. He said, “How come one in every 12 kids who’s a boy in California has autism now?… [California] has one of the strictest fucking vaccine policies.”
“Did I say vaccines cause autism,” Rogan continued. “Maybe.”
When one of the guests on the livestream asked if Rogan believed people should not be vaccinated, he responded that certain vaccines should not be given to children. “The MMA [sic] vaccine is absolutely connected to a host of serious debilitating fucking problems that kids have gotten from them,” Rogan said. The MMR vaccine is in fact safe and poses little risk to children’s health. It also does not cause autism.
