Kylie Kelse was at the top of the charts. The former field hockey coach and NFL loyalty abdicated Joe Rogan in his territory. His fans couldn’t believe it.
It happened late last year: Kelse – her marriage to former Philadelphia Eagles Center Jason Kels brought her to the spotlight. , sometimes politics.
Podcasting is male saturation. Alex Cooper’s Uber-Sucessues Call Call Her Daddy Podcast is one of a few exceptions, but men tend to occupy the top spots on podcasting charts. Think Joe Rogan, Theo Fon, Andrew Hooverman.
So, especially for Logan fans, Kelse’s debut escaped the Joe Rogan experience from Apple’s No. 1 slot in December, taking the top spot on the Spotify charts for 10 days. In fact, some of Logan’s fans argued that the numbers must have been artificially inflated. Kelse claimed that they had claimed, that it was no one.
Still, the two shows will continue to trade locations on Spotify for the next few weeks. Even today, they only publish once a week, but they don’t lie on Spotify’s top 10 on a daily basis.
There is a plausible reason for the success of the show’s breakout. Her Kelce and Taylor Swift connections, her ability to speak relatively about motherhood and femininity, and the relatively short (45 minutes) length of the show compared to her competitors. But regardless of what burns it, her trip to the top of the charts – and the resulting mistrust, ock ha ha, and hot is about its success.
The podcast has become one of the main ways Americans can inform themselves. While there are still traditional newscasts from news organizations, the most popular podcasts, especially since the pandemic, are piloted by charismatic, trusted, and unpolished creators. Their content is a combination of news, political analysis, cultural commentary, and pop culture, where hosts often promise to tell the truth or have conversations that no one else has.
But not everyone hears the same thing. Americans sort themselves into ideological bubbles, giving these shows and their hosts the reach and influence that once was the exclusive source of mainstream media.
The fragmentation of audience ideological ideology, combined with the power of these hosts, creates a different realm of truth, both through the opinions of the hosts and the current events they choose to discuss for their fans. News and information are filtered into different groups of consumers in fundamentally different ways. And there are no indications that these habits are about to change.
Certainly, as the second Trump administration takes off, they are in a position to further promote American polarization, informing and organizing the opposition in one territory as the main communications building on the right, and in another territory. It acts as a way.
Americans were obsessed with listening
Podcast role in the 2024 campaign. Meanwhile, Donald Trump sat for free wheel conversations with his most popular male hosts, while Kamala Harris caught up with the smaller liberals, showing the burgeoning advantage of the medium in American life.
Over a decade ago, I reported that I was hearing one in a particular month, just over a tenth of it. According to an Edison Research’s “Infinite Dial” media survey in 2024, that number has quadrupled to almost half of the American population over the age of 12.
The types of podcasts people listen to have changed too. What once dominated by public radio and facility institutions has replaced an expansive ecosystem of partner shows between independent podcasters and non-news organizations. As of 2023, less than 20% of the top 451 most appearing on the show are associated with mainstream news stubborns such as NPR, The New York Times, and The Ringer.
Until recently, men, millennials, and older Americans were the leading consumers of these shows. However, over the past few years, ZERS and women have been driving the growth of their podcasting audiences.
Every week or every day, pop culture, sports, self-help advice, personal stories and discussions folded into news and politics is how nearly a third of America stays up to date with current events . In 2023, a report from the Pew Research Center found that about two-thirds of American podcast listeners were hearing the news that was “discussed” on the show.
Still, what they are listening can be radically different depending on the host and the audience they are cultivating. Facts and opinions often blend together in conversations that filter information, and listeners do not necessarily get better information as a result.
And listeners really trust what they’ve heard at these shows
This new kind of podcast, where hosts discuss primarily sports, pop culture, history, or lifestyle trends and mix at several current events, creates a certain kind of intimacy and trust. Perhaps the audience is loyal, as these shows don’t aim to be obviously political. These shows are not standard cable news fares. It either attracts politicians or remains apolitical, like Trump’s arrival last year. But most commonly, it blurs the line between news, opinions and analysis.
The presence of certain charisma and podcast hosts is particularly influential in persuading listeners to change their habits or take action. Understanding this impact explains why the podcast circuit is a large part of the strategy Trump and his campaign pursued. And it explains how important it will be to political efforts over the next four years.
Pew’s study in 2023 found several practical examples of this shaking. On average, over half of listeners said the podcast moved to watch movies and read books, and about four in ten people tried new training or started dieting. There are also indications of a core group of more loyal followers who feel comfortable spending money and time doing what these shows and hosts suggest. At least one in ten listeners participated in online discussion groups, participated in donations, volunteers, or political events or causes, and purchased those promoted on the podcast.
This impact also means listeners expect podcasters to tell them the truth. A huge share of 87% believes that what they are hearing on these shows is “almost accurate.” The third says they trust that this information is more accurate than what they get from other sources.
These levels of trust are particularly striking compared to trust in news from social and mainstream media. Still, these types of shows don’t necessarily have the same type of editorial surveillance or infrastructure to fact-check and verify the claims and stories that traditional news organizations have spread.
And this is where the Manosphere appears. Republicans, or Americans who leaned towards GOP, are particularly loyal and trusting in these shows. They report trusting podcast news more than other sources at a much higher rate than Democrats and Democrats Leanlers.
The most ideological and partisan listeners report that they are more likely to listen to opinions and analysis that align with existing views. In fact, they stand on the shore in the echo chamber of this ecosystem. Compared to moderate Republicans, Pew’s 2023 survey found that twice as many conservative Republicans are listening to political opinions that are almost in line with what they already think. Masu. The same can be said for the Liberal Democrats when compared to moderate Democrats.
This ideological sorting also happens among listeners of the most popular shows. For example, about 54% of Logan’s listeners leaned towards Trump before the presidential election, a survey by Edison found. Only a quarter of the people leaned towards Harris. What I would call her dad’s listenership was a mirror image. And the most popular left-leaning show, Pod Save America, is mostly exclusive to Democrats.
This development, where audiences are fiercely loyal to their chosen hosts and not exposed to others, creates interesting dynamics. Information and political debates are filtered into the echo chamber. And it explains how residents of these different ideological realms can be surprised when they rediscover others, as in the case of Logan fans in Kelce’s success.
Podcast bubbles waiting for us
These different areas of podcasting reality do not appear to disappear anytime soon. Given the success of political rights in the Trump and the Last President’s cycle, it is likely that American liberals and the left will continue to look for ways to replicate, or at least imitate, what their rivals have accomplished. Apparently.
That’s why lies have come at an interesting time. Looking for reasons to explain Harris’ loss, Democrats and Liberals identified one major contributor. Democrats ignored the new media environment and lost their fight, particularly for the influence of these podcasts and their hosts. Trump realized this and began early with the proposal of his Zoomer son Baron and his young campaign aide.
Now Democrats need to create their own liberal version of Logan. They needed their own vast, intimate network of friendly and trustworthy podcasters and influencers. The deeper anxiety here is the revelation that these increasingly popular podcasts could reach so many Americans and influence their thinking, and that liberals had no answers It was.
These areas exist, but they are not vast enough to support cultural rights. The most obvious Rogan Replicas – Streamer Hasan Piker (3 million followers), Leftist Chapo Trap House Network (approximately 150,000), and liberal pod protects American brothers (at least 1.5 million listeners per episode). But , with loyal and dedicated followers, but few of them, leading to more difficulties than the conservative Manosphere show.
All of this suggests there is room for growth on the left side.
The Podcasters themselves are trying to innovate to win these audiences. With traditional forms of political and hard news declining, they experiment with a variety of formats, including live streams, pushing video content, and building closer relationships with viewers. . Young people in particular are hungry for this type of content and analysis. Especially on YouTube, Gen Z’s political consultant and author Rachel Janfaza told me. Google-owned video platforms have become a leading podcast hosting service driven largely by the demand for video-first content among young people. Many of America’s most popular podcasts are currently recorded and streamed directly on the platform.
“We’re seeing more movement in terms of shows adding video components to podcasts. It could become an area that explodes in the coming months (the creators see)… Young people We love to keep our YouTube streams background, or YouTube is visible in the background (doing other things),” she said.
This makes Kelse’s position more interesting to see in the coming years, along with liberal and female hosts like Cooper of Call’s Dad. There is a large and growing audience, especially for young, women and liberals. So when Kelse reveals that her politics is “actively” leaning left, she wants to interview former First Lady Michelle Obama or Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in the future. When I did, I wondered if they had found the answer to the right.
“Kylie Kelce could be “Joe Rogan on the left.”
Based on her first six episodes, it doesn’t appear that Kelse is trying to actively move around that lane. She has not jumped into previous analysis of Biden’s presidency or the end of Trump’s term. Instead, she talks with guests about the struggle for motherhood, the costs of childcare, the struggle for raising young boys, and the future of Tiktok. And that might be the overall point. She hasn’t said anything groundbreaking – yet. But she’s nurturing an audience who says something, gives demand and gives her trust in her when she wants to say something big.
