🎙️Welcome to the 287th edition of Find That Pod 🎙️

As always, welcome new subscribers!

Before we get to this week’s recommendations… let’s briefly talk about what just happened in the United States in the context of podcasts.

If you’re new to this newsletter you’ll know that I rarely if ever write about anything other than podcasts. I also never veer into politics because frankly, if I wanted to write about politics, I’d start a politics newsletter. Also, while about 75% of the subscribers to this newsletter are American 🇺🇸, I myself am Canadian. 🇨🇦 (hello fellow Canucks!)

Most of the post-election post-mortems are in full swing. But only a few have come to the right conclusions. Look, I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t dozens of complicated, baffling, systemic, shocking, disappointing, and downright crazy reasons why the election went the way it did. But if I had to pick the two most influential ones, it’s these:

• Inflation (the most corrosive force in the world)

• A media ecosystem dominated by the political right

That media ecosystem includes the growing world of podcasts. Out of every medium that exists, podcasts are unique in the sense that they are often longer than other forms of media, and far more intimate and influential.

Many people are increasingly forming parasocial relationships with the podcast hosts they listen to. That is, they form a one-sided relationship through repeated exposure to a stranger where they invest emotional energy, attention and time, while the other party (the podcast hosts) is completely unaware of the person’s existence.

In the process of forming these parasocial relationships, a new phenomenon has emerged, in which listeners have handed over a direct line of influence from the podcasts hosts mouth to their receptive brains. Imagine if you will, a megaphone 📣 directly connected to millions of brains with no filter in between, mainlining and promoting certain ideas to young and impressionable minds.

As someone who has embedded himself deeply in the podcasting space, I have kept close tabs on the top podcast charts over the last five years, and have watched as those charts have been increasingly filling with right-wing media. Just look at this current Apple Podcasts chart of the top podcasts in the United States:

4 of the top 10 most listened to podcasts in the U.S. are from some of the most prominent right-wing personalities. Only 1 of them is from a left-leaning group of political hosts (Pod Save America). If we go further down the list, 7 of the top 20 most popular podcasts in the U.S. are right-leaning.

I am increasingly convinced that looking in aggregate at the top podcast charts of the main podcast players like Apple Podcasts and Spotify is a good way to ascertain the current psyche of any country (where Podcasts are allowed that is).

Want to know the current vibes in your country? No problem, just look at which podcasts consistently rank in the top podcast charts.

One thing I don’t think the average person appreciates is just how massive the audiences are for some of these podcasts. Joe Rogan’s podcast alone averages anywhere between 12-20 million listeners per episode. In comparison, Fox News, often cited as the most watched cable news network in America, averages 1.3 million viewers per day. 

So is it any wonder that young American men under the age of 30, the exact target audience for many of these right-leaning podcasts, swung 13% away from Democrats and towards Republicans in this election?

Shocking? Yes. Surprising? No.

If the Democrats and left-leaning allies in America hope to ever stand a chance against the finely-tuned machine of right-wing media that has been building, growing and influencing audiences for decades, they must come to terms with the fact that they are currently getting their asses handed to them by the combination of mainstream media (mostly owned by right-leaning billionaires), and the new media (podcasts, YouTube, Twitch, etc.)

And then, they must build their own media machines. In the battle for hearts and minds, sometime you just have to flood the fucking zone, and let the chips fall where they may. As the famous quote goes: “Quantity has a quality of its own”.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this quote from Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s Found Fathers, who unfortunately may have been far too prescient about the unfolding of coming events:

For this week only, I’m going to do something different with the podcast recommendations.

Because I’m a big believer in the power of knowing humanity’s distant and not-so distant history, I’m going to recommend five of my favourite history podcasts, pulled from this list of the Best History Podcasts I created last year. May the lessons contained therein bring us all closer to a better understanding of the times we live in, the times to come, and the human condition.

Also, I’d be happy to hear what you think about podcasts and their current influence in the political landscape, not just in America, but across the world. Just hit reply to this email, I read all of the feedback that is sent my way.

Here are this week’s podcast recommendations:

HISTORY

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

In "Hardcore History" journalist and broadcaster Dan Carlin takes his "Martian", unorthodox way of thinking and applies it to the past. Was Alexander the Great as bad a person as Adolf Hitler? What would Apaches with modern weapons be like? Will our modern civilization ever fall like civilizations from past eras? This isn't academic history (and Carlin isn't a historian) but the podcast's unique blend of high drama, masterful narration and Twilight Zone-style twists has entertained millions of listeners.

Website | Listen: Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Castro

Not sure where to start? Start with any episode.

HISTORY

Fall of Civilizations

A history podcast looking at the collapse of a different civilization each episode. What did they have in common? Why did they fall? And what did it feel like to watch it happen?

Website | Listen: Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Castro

Not sure where to start? Start with any episode.

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HISTORY

History on Fire

Where history and epic collide--"History on Fire" is a podcast by author and university professor Daniele Bolelli.

Website | Listen: Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Castro

Not sure where to start? Start with any episode.

HISTORY

Behind the Bastards

There’s a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater’s insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein’s side career as a trashy romance novelist.

Website | Listen: Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Castro

Not sure where to start? Start with any episode.

POLITICS

Tides of History

Everywhere around us are echoes of the past. Those echoes define the boundaries of states and countries, how we pray and how we fight. They determine what money we spend and how we earn it at work, what language we speak and how we raise our children. From Wondery, host Patrick Wyman, PhD (“Fall Of Rome”) helps us understand our world and how it got to be the way it is.

Website | Listen: Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Castro

Not sure where to start? Start with any episode.

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Know some podcasts I should recommend? Email me.