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How Podcasts Became the New Battleground State


Want to win future presidential elections? Time to bro out.

This doesn’t yet mean abandoning traditional media spaces like broadcast networks and newspapers — though the Washington Post ’s and the Los Angeles Times ’ decisions to stop making presidential endorsements, seemingly because of their billionaire owners, have certainly diminished their influence in the eyes of campaign managers and, potentially, the public. It’s widely established by now that Trump, who avoids all forms of unfriendly press, has rounded out his unwavering support from the right-wing media ecosystem by wholeheartedly embracing the “manoverse.” He’s appeared on bro-casts like This Past Weekend With Theo Von, Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant, and the Nelk Boys’ Full Send, among others, deepening a strategy of playing into the aesthetics and grievances of what’s often described as “disaffected young men,” a demographic that makes up a considerable portion of his base. As reflected by anything from Smartless to Call Her Daddy to any number of other reality-television podcasts, lasting episodes are ones containing moments that feel like you’re looking beyond the veil: a private revelation, the dispensing of tea, an instance of interpersonal friction, the emergence of an inside joke.

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