What podcasts reveal about the growing gender divide

I spent the holidays thinking about the growing political divide between young men and women. I was at a cabin in rural Canada with friends, and needed their help understanding why boys are becoming increasingly conservative.

💬 Me: Does anyone have a good clip of a male podcaster I could use?

💬 Male 1: What?

💬 Me: You know…like anything from the manosphere – where guys talk about Sigma males, red-pilled content – Andrew Tate, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan…that kinda thing.

💬 Male 2: Woah woah. Joe Rogan is nothing like Andrew Tate, wtf???

💬 Me (already regretting this interaction): No, I know. I just meant– 

💬 Male 1: See this is exactly the issue with [insert debate about echo chambers, cancel culture, whatever wave feminism we’re in].

It took 45 minutes to convince them I wasn’t critiquing men who listen to male podcasters, I was just trying to unpack the need it addresses, and why the category is often labeled “problematic”.

The cabin was up in arms. The women weighed in, and by the end, two things were clear. (1) The women associated Joe Rogan with toxic masculinity, but we weren’t entirely sure why. (2) None of us had ever listened to Joe Rogan.

💬 Me: I guess it’s the male equivalent of Call Her Daddy.

💬 Male 2: Wtf is Call Her Daddy?!!?!

Why we aren’t speaking the same language

How could it be possible that the girls had never listened to Joe Rogan, and the boys had never even heard of Call Her Daddy? Maybe you don’t know one or both of these references. But you should. Here’s why:

These two podcasts reach entirely different listeners who, in all likelihood, will never overlap. Yet, they are some of the most influential podcasts in the Western World.

This matters for three reasons

1️⃣ You’ll note the most striking difference is their gendered audiences. They both skew relatively young and politically diverse (more than I expected). In theory, these are spaces ripe for bridging the political divide. But only within a single gender. 🙅

2️⃣ This begs the question why. Young men and women have entirely different media exposure. There’s almost no crossover in the topics covered and hardly any in guest appearances, despite 2,000+ and 400+ episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience and Call Her Daddy respectively (Miley Cyrus was one).

3️⃣ I would argue that women’s association of Joe Rogan with the word “problematic” has little to do with his content (we’ve never consumed it) and all to do with audience stereotypes. The second you describe someone as: young, male, single, gamer, politically Independent, fitness-oriented… It’s not long before your brain adds “conspiracy-totting, anti-woke, woman hater”.

So what?

💡 For marketers & builders

• TLDR… It’s harder to reach one, unified Gen Z audience.

• Ask yourself…  If you want to access young men and women at the same time, where are those politically neutral media spaces?

• Check this out… Harmony Labs does fascinating work to identify where divergent political opinions meet online.

🫂 For parents & advocates

• TLDR… Media content young people are exposed to is increasingly gender-segregated.

• Ask yourself… What influencers seem to resonate with your sons vs. daughters and why?

• Check this out… Here’s a fact sheet from Internet Matters and Google on how to help your kids think critically about influencer content.

🤳 For Gen Z

• TLDR… Your peers aren’t seeing eye to eye on important political issues, like who’s actually suffering from gender inequality. This is in stark contrast to previous generations, where men and women’s political views typically shift in tandem.

• Ask yourself… What do you define as  “problematic” and why?

• Check this out… Read this Reddit debate about the use of the word.

That’s all for now. If you need me, I’ll be in the femosphere.

– Your Internet Translator