If the unstoppable rise of social media defined the 2000s and 2010s, then the 2020s belong to the podcast. Audio talk formats have existed since the advent of radio, but for years, they struggled to hold younger audiences’ attention, eclipsed by television, streaming platforms, and social media.
But talking is back. And this time, the listeners aren’t just middle-aged commuters or retirees pottering around the garden. Today, young people are tuning in en masse, eager to hear podcast hosts discuss everything from politics to pop culture and self-improvement.
Social media’s meteoric rise inevitably led to intense scrutiny. In its early days—a digital Wild West—platforms like Facebook and Twitter (now X) hosted everything from hardcore pornography to snuff videos. But as these companies grew, so did their moderation efforts. Today, giants like Meta and TikTok employ large teams to monitor and remove illegal or inciteful content. Case in point: HonestReporting’s successful campaign to get pro-Hamas influencer Jackson Hinkle de-platformed from Meta.
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Yet, despite these efforts, antisemitic hate speech remains rampant on social media, particularly since Meta followed X’s lead under Elon Musk in loosening content moderation policies. The result? A documented surge in violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories targeting Jews.
Still, social media platforms at least pretend to enforce some level of oversight. In January, Meta once again mimicked X by introducing its own Community Notes feature, allowing approved users to add context to misleading posts. It’s far from perfect, but at least it’s something.
Podcasting, on the other hand, operates with virtually no scrutiny. Part of this is due to its relatively recent rise in popularity. But there’s also a lingering—and patently inaccurate—perception that podcasts, like traditional broadcast media, adhere to some level of fact-checking and editorial standards.
Podcast platforms today are closer to a free-for-all, where anything goes so long as it attracts enough listeners to be profitable. And young people are listening—a lot. According to Pew Research, nearly half (48%) of Americans aged 18 to 29 tune in to podcasts multiple times a week. More importantly, they don’t just passively consume content—they actively engage with it.
Listeners under 50 are far more likely to follow podcast hosts on social media, adopt new habits based on what they hear, and participate in online discussions about their favorite shows. Around 40% of listeners aged 18 to 49 say they’ve made lifestyle changes because of something they heard on a podcast.
For younger audiences, podcasts aren’t just background noise. They shape conversations, influence personal choices, and, as growing evidence indicates, are increasingly pulling listeners toward more extreme ideologies.
Spotify’s Cash Cow: Joe Rogan
With over 14 million listeners and the title of Spotify’s top podcaster in 2024, Joe Rogan is the undisputed king of the podcasting world. His guest list includes everyone from Donald Trump to Mark Zuckerberg, Bernie Sanders, and Edward Snowden—proof of both his influence and his ability to play host to just about anyone.
Controversy has always been Rogan’s currency. His media empire thrives on the outrage his show generates, and at this point, what once shocked no longer has the same impact. That may, at least in part, explain his latest choice of guest: Ian Carroll, a self-proclaimed journalist who has spent years trafficking in virulent antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Read More: Joe Rogan’s Troubling Anti-Israel Podcast Episodes
Carroll checks all the usual modern-day antisemite boxes: blaming 9/11 on Israel, ranting about a “Zionist mafia” controlling the U.S., and recycling every tired trope about Jewish financial and political influence. Over the course of his nearly three-hour appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, he delivered an unfiltered torrent of conspiracy theories, offering little more than a jumble of well-worn antisemitic rhetoric.
Israel, he claimed, was founded by “organized crime figures in America” with ties to “the Jewish mob” and “the Rothschild banking family.” Jeffrey Epstein, he added in a particularly incoherent segment, “was clearly a Jewish organization working on behalf of Israel and other groups.”
And Rogan? He nodded along, offering words of encouragement, even musing at one point, “What’s interesting is you can talk about this now, post-Oct. 7, post-Gaza.”
It was a telling remark. The host who built his brand on “just asking questions” had stopped questioning entirely—and instead, provided a platform for undisguised Nazi propaganda.
Selling Holocaust Denial: Tucker Carlson & Candace Owens
Not only did Carlson give Cooper an unchallenged platform to spread these lies to an audience of millions, but he also lavished him with praise, calling him “the most important popular historian in the United States.”
Carlson’s interview with Cooper appeared to be an attempt to disguise his guest’s modern-day Nazi views with a veneer of intellectual credibility. It was only a slightly more sophisticated repackaging of antisemitism than that offered by Candace Owens—one of the most influential podcasters in the world, with nearly 4 million subscribers—who has used her platform to defend Adolf Hitler, accuse Israel of enforcing apartheid against Muslims, and push the ever-reliable conspiracy that Hollywood is secretly controlled by Jewish elites.
Owens, perhaps, lacks the intellectual prowess to attempt subtlety. When Kanye West praised Hitler, Owens brushed it off as merely his opinion while mocking Jews who criticized him as overly “emotional” and insisting they “can’t take a joke.” When confronted, her response followed the predictable script of the intellectually dishonest—first doubling down, then claiming victimhood, and, when that failed, falling back on the old “I was just asking questions” line.
With figures like Carlson and Owens normalizing and laundering these ideas, Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracies are no longer confined to the fringes—they’re being streamed to millions, dressed up as “alternative perspectives” in the name of free speech.
Mainstreaming the “Manosphere”: Myron Gaines
The online ecosystem known as the manosphere was once the niche domain of pick-up artists, incels, and self-styled “alpha males.” But thanks to figures like Nick Fuentes and Myron Gaines, it has metastasized into a mainstream movement—one built on a foundation of misogyny, racism, and antisemitism.
Gaines, a former Homeland Security agent turned dating guru (real name: Amrou Fudl), co-hosts the Fresh & Fit podcast, a show that masquerades as a men’s self-improvement program but in reality serves as a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and open admiration for fascism.
Fresh & Fit has repeatedly hosted Holocaust deniers, white nationalists, and far-right propagandists, including Nick Fuentes—who has used his multiple appearances to justify Nazi book burnings and deny the Holocaust. Gaines himself has bragged, “We’re the biggest platform that’s talking about the JQ. No one else will do it”—a reference to the so-called “Jewish Question,” the same phrase the Nazis used to justify genocide.
In another episode, Gaines defended Hitler, declaring, “Though he did things that were morally incorrect, he definitely did a bunch of things correct for his country. That’s a fact.” One of the show’s longest-running gags—if you can call it that—is playing a cash register sound effect whenever discussing Jewish people.
Despite this, Fresh & Fit remains wildly popular, drawing millions of views on Rumble and other platforms.
Read More: The Horseshoe Theory Brings AOC & Nick Fuentes Together
A Wall of Silence From Podcast Platforms
At the heart of all this are the podcast streaming platforms themselves: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Rumble—giants that make a healthy profit off the hate spewed by their most popular stars.
YouTube, to its credit, has been marginally more proactive, demonetizing Gaines’s Fresh & Fit podcast and banning Nick Fuentes entirely. But these measures are ultimately futile. Without a unified approach across all major platforms, these creators can simply migrate elsewhere, continuing to rake in millions of views and sponsorship dollars.
And even outright bans mean little when controversial figures can just appear as guests on someone else’s show. Case in point: Candace Owens’ most popular YouTube video isn’t even her own—it’s an interview with alleged sex trafficker and influencer Andrew Tate. That single episode has racked up nearly 7 million views, more than twice as many as her channel’s entire subscriber base.
Podcasting’s near-total lack of oversight is no longer just a fringe problem—it’s a mainstream industry failure. Given the enormous reach of these platforms, the question isn’t whether they should be scrutinized, but why they haven’t been already.
And if the platforms won’t take responsibility, perhaps their advertisers should. Does Coca-Cola want its brand associated with Holocaust denial? Should Nike, Pepsi, and Amazon be comfortable sponsoring content that jokes about Jews being murdered? Are they certain their ads aren’t playing next to a discussion about how “Hitler was right”?
It’s easy to dismiss podcasting as mere shock talk. But talk influences action. And right now, podcast platforms—and the brands funding them—are profiting from hate. The only question is: how long can they pretend not to notice?
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