Here Are All The Possible Joe Rogans Of The Left

Following last week’s brutal election, there has been a lot of soul-searching from liberals about how such a thing could have happened. And, instead of questioning why the Democrats’ were spending so much time trying to appease their “high-income base,” most of the election post-mortem has boiled down to vague assertions that liberals needed their own Joe Rogan to win.

It’s laughable to think that President-elect Donald Trump’s appearance on Rogan won him the election. But the idea of a “liberal Joe Rogan” is interesting, if only because it requires defining what Rogan is and means politically in America.

As anyone who has suffered through Rogan’s three-hour-plus episodes can tell you, he’s not actually that political. Instead, he exists as an important algorithmic node for different buckets of men’s interests. Bodybuilding, weed, comedy, UFC, I Fucking Love Science stuff — if you’re a man and you like any of these things and you look them up on a platform like YouTube, you will eventually find Rogan. And his platforming of libertarian and right-wing politicians is crucial for connecting those ideologies to those aforementioned interests.

But less than 15 years ago we had TV hosts like Jon Stewart and bands like Green Day who were able to make progressivism feel just as relevant and countercultural as Trumpism feels to young American men now. And this could easily flip again — even without heaps of Republican dark money. You just have to meet young men where they are, talk to them in a way they think is cool, and guide them left. And so, Garbage Day researcher Adam Bumas and I put together a list of 10 possible liberal or leftist Rogan candidates and one honorable mention. Notice how few on our list are actual podcasters.

Pod Save America

We included the Pod Save guys only so we could immediately say it’s probably not going to be them. They’re, frankly, too old, as is their audience. They also feel way too establishment in both tone and presentation. It’s possible they discover some kind of cool factor during the second Trump era, but it’s more likely that their entire strain of American liberalism gets flushed down the drain over the next four years. They’re also too political. The Rogan X factor is packaging politics into general interest content for men. Maybe they should launch a bodybuilding show?

Red Letter Media

Red Letter Media, the popular film review YouTube channel, is decidedly not political at all. That said, they’ve also carved out a fascinating anti-corporate, pro-nerd film criticism philosophy that is also casually very socially progressive. Which is huge for young men being bombarded by millions of “Woke killed Star Wars” videos. Are these guys going to interview Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Probably not. But they might make her watch Videodrome or something.

Conner O'Malley

The comedian’s solo work has slowly transformed into maybe the single best articulation of 21st-century American life. Especially as it appears (and appeals) to lonely young men. His most recent video was actually screened in theaters, but they all still work perfectly on YouTube and TikTok. And it would make a lot of sense for him to start actually taking clearer positions on social ills. His recent moves like appearing in I Saw The TV Glow show it’s definitely on his mind.

Travis Kelce

The Super Bowl winner/pop megastar boyfriend/icon of hanging out with your boys has parlayed all the media attention from his romance with Taylor Swift into a nine-figure podcast deal. Kelce stayed quiet this election even as Swift endorsed Harris, but he’s currently defending his brother for breaking a guy’s phone for calling him a homophobic slur. Which is still bipartisan, for better and worse. Though, Kelce might be too big and too mainstream actually. Part of Rogan’s appeal is that he’s not a traditional media figure and Kelce seems interested in going down that route.

Hasan Piker

Mega-popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker is probably the closest to a Rogan figure we have on our list. He’s masculine, he’s funny, he’s tapped into video game culture, and he’s aggressively left-wing. But he might be too political to capture the mainstream like Rogan has. More importantly, Piker is a streamer. Rogan has a podcast, you can download it on any app, and listen to it on the way to school or work. Livestreaming will never be as accessible. Maybe the Pod Save guys should hire him and let him yell at them for the next four years lol.

Jamelle Bouie

This is a bit of a curveball, but hear us out. The New York Times columnist has been building a really solid following on TikTok, specifically for his calming, sensible, and well-argued videos about American politics. He’s not an obvious choice here, but if he keeps reaching young audiences the way he has, it’s not unthinkable. He’s also got a podcast. If it’s not Bouie, it could easily be another journalist following the same playbook. What are the laid off VICE writers doing right now? Give them a bag of drugs and get them on TikTok.

Sam Reich/Dropout

Most Joe Rogan fans are too young for Fear Factor. Similarly, many fans of Sam Reich and his independent media network Dropout weren’t around for College Humor. Nonetheless, Dropout has been a hit both financially and culturally. Its shows connect the comedy world with other big subcultures like Dungeons & Dragons and all of them have a breezy left-liberal sensibility. And now that Dropout is a streaming service unto itself, they’ll need more content, and reckoning with a second Trump administration is definitely on the table.

Anthony Fantano

On paper, Fantano is perfect. He’s ditched his weird alt-right flirtations. He’s got a huge platform. He has some cachet with the cultural dynamos of the punk and hip-hop worlds. He seems sort of lefty kinda? And he dominates an entire world of general interest content. Unfortunately, his fans, the music industry, and the internet at large all sort of hate him. If he can fix that, he’s in a good spot.

Kai Cenat

Readers might remember Cenat from the time his fans got arrested for rioting in New York City last year. Since then, his reach has only grown. His near-constant Twitch streams have included guests recently like Nicki Minaj and John Cena. And seeing as how both presidential candidates appeared on Twitch streams this year, the Harris team should have definitely talked to Cenat. If there’s a streamer who’s able to cross over to the enormous audience who will never watch a stream, he’s an obvious candidate.

The Chapo Trap House cinematic universe

Is it a cop out to lump the Chapo guys in with their regular collaborators like Adam Friedland and Stavros Halkias? Probably. But it’s worth throwing them all under one umbrella for now as Chapo figures out what their show means in a post-Bernie world. They’re even more overtly political than Piker, but it’s possible someone in their stable figures out how to grab the mainstream. And if that happens they have a decade of experience converting attention into direct political messaging.

Honorable mention: Hbomberguy

We were going to leave YouTuber Hbomberguy, real name Harry Brewis, off this list because he’s, unfortunately, British. But he’s big, he’s political, and he’s fun. The main problem with Hbomberguy, or any leftist YouTuber, or BreadTuber, like him, though, is output. As X user @robertsecundus wrote recently, “As soon as lefty video essayists get a Patreon, they start making one carefully scripted, staged, and shot video every year or so, while right-wing YouTube guys pump out seven hours of rage bait a week.”

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It’s Shoddy Goods all the way down

You get, and presumably like Garbage Day, right? Shoddy Goods is like Garbage Day, except instead of catching up on all the shit that's going on right now you'll catch up on all the weird ways everyone’s trying to sell us crap.

Did you know Lego US was, for a disastrous period, run by Samsonite? That in Europe, Kraft can’t legally call their sprinkle cheese “parmesan”? And what’s up with those terrible see-through sports jerseys?

Shoddy Goods is a newsletter from Meh, the daily deal site, but it’s not about Meh. It’s about Shoddy Goods. Check it out.

One Last Kamala Post

Nick Fuentes, Doxxed

Far-right worm Nick Fuentes had his address posted on Facebook. I’m not going to link to any posts containing it, but people have already started leaving reviews for it on Google Maps. They’ve also tagged it as a public restroom.

One of the users that shared Fuentes’ address reportedly went to his house and claims that he answered the door by immediately pepper spraying her. It would be a real shame if people spent the next four years infringing on Fuentes’ bodily autonomy like this.

Swifities Are Moving To Bluesky

Podcaster and newsletter writer Adam Cecil has a great post about the big Swiftie Bluesky migration that’s underway right now. One of coolest little innovations Swifties came up with is to use Bluesky custom domains to find each other. As Cecil explains, “Anyone who wants to can get a username on the swifties.social domain, broadcasting to everyone on the app exactly who you stan. As of publication, over 7,200 have done so.”

Even cooler, Swifties are using a Bluesky labeler to tag one another. This is the kind of user behavior I’ve been waiting to see. It’s totally unique to the platform and opens up a lot of different use cases going forward.

If you’re curious about Bluesky activity, in general, right now. It’s way up.

Pro-Gaddafi Disco Propaganda Kinda Slaps

Researcher Aldan Marki has been collecting and digitizing funk and disco records that were commissioned by Muammar Gaddafi. He’s calling the music “Jamahiriya funk,” named after Gaddafi’s concept of Jamahiriya, or “state of the masses.” Marki said that he’s working on getting all of the records up on streaming platforms. There was also a Jamahiriya Funk listening party in Toronto over the weekend.

Jack Schlossberg Refuses To Admit He’s Dennis Reynolds

Jack Schlossberg, the other weird Kennedy America’s most chronically online fell in love with this election cycle (don’t you love not having an aristocracy?), is stirring things up. He refuses to admit that he looks and, honestly, kind of acts like Dennis Reynolds from Always Sunny In Philadelphia. And he’s even addressed this on his Instagram Story recently, once again refusing to admit it.

Even though the proof is undeniable:

Someone Baja Blasted A Chicken

Yes, X is bad, blah blah. I know, I know. Click through to read the full thread, regardless. It’s a baja blasted chicken, from the same visionary who gave us the air fried hotdog.

Some Stray Links

P.S. here’s a vision of our horrifying present.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***