As if the podcast industry isn’t oversaturated enough, it has now been plagued by the rise of the TikTok podcast. Without much context, a TikTok podcast may seem like a cool way to merge both platforms in a way that elevates it to a new level. Much to my chagrin, that is far from the reality of it. The truth is, and this may shock some of you, those pod clips you see on TikTok are fake. Not fake in the realistic A.I. bot kind of way (although that is a thing), but in a “I just bought a microphone and tripod from Amazon and now I’m going to pretend like I’m talking to someone while spewing utter nonsense for thirty seconds just to go viral” kind of way.
In some of these videos, the person isn’t even speaking into the correct side of the microphone. It’s quite embarrassing but somehow, people fall for it. But why do they fall for this obvious grift? These videos are sometimes nicely produced and although high production value helps with your credibility, it can only go so far. That’s when I started seeing a pattern. But you have to listen very closely. All these videos are rinse and repeats of weirdly conservative talking points that have been chewed up and spit out endlessly across the internet.
There are archetypes these fake podcasters fall under. For some reason, they’re all either pro-capitalism finance drop shipping bros, porn stars, misogynists and pick me’s or pick up artists. They post fifteen to thirty second clips telling women to submit to their men or telling boys to stop caring about school and find a product on Alibaba to ship. These self-proclaimed gurus all preach things like going to the gym instead of taking anti-depressants, staunchly defends gender roles and tend to spread transphobia, and making young men believe that getting rich will solve all their problems. Obviously, most adults can realize the fallacies within this logic, understanding that life is more black and white than that and that most of these kids have worked sideways instead of upward for their success. So, how is it that these talking points seem to be ideal content for the algorithm?
There’s a reason why TikTok podcasts seem sexy to people looking to make money from spreading a slanted sense of reality. Of course, inflammatory content is going to put a lot of people on a soapbox. The comments are always full of reductive arguments in the replies, there are always tens of thousands of shares and people always feel compelled to stitch with their own longer replies. For most people, we want to earn money in a way that is fulfilling, possibly something that makes us feel happy or important, or something that’s comfortable or provides benefits. But for these influencers, they are looking to make cold hard cash quickly and loads of it, any way they can. They are fine with the amount of money they get from the one-off share and like. But what I’m unsure of is if they realize the amount of damage they’re doing.
Take JustPearlyThings for example. For those who may not know, Pearl or JustPearlyThings has been deemed the “female Andrew Tate” because of her misogynistic views and unstable talking points. She’s quoted for saying that divorce should be made illegal, women are only valuable until the age of twenty-two and that slavery was embellished. Her comment section is full of men praising her for speaking the truth about women and being “red pill”. Besides the occasional vlog or antisemitic song post on Twitter, most of Pearl’s content is the same fake podcast dribble that’s oversaturating our FYP’s. And the formula is almost genius if it wasn’t so rotten—film three hours of half baked, reactionary mini debates that can be easily clipped into dozens of Tik Toks, Reels and YouTube Shorts, each getting thousands, if not millions, likes and views and comments. Pearl is raking in so much cash by exerting as little effort as possible, she doesn’t even bother to do simple Google searches to affirm her own talking points.
But Pearl is a special case of sorts. She has admitted herself that she never had much experience with boys, or even had many friends. She didn’t know how to confront these issues, so she began turning to the internet for her answers. Obviously being completely naïve about these topics, she attached herself to “Manosphere” content and “Red Pill” ideology. And that’s what makes this side of the internet so dangerous. To someone who lacks the resources and knowledge about real world experiences, talking points that seem logical on a surface level that use easy to understand language become more accessible than rhetoric based in a bit more research. Weighty terms with a lot of letters and complex definitions are overwhelming and inaccessible to people who have never experienced them.
Another influencer, guru if you will, that uses odd rhetoric is Sebastian Ghiorghiu. He isn’t a one-of-a-kind act, the world of fake TikTok pods is full of guys just like him. Rich kid nope babies turned drop shippers who made their money from cheap generic products from China and spend all day in the gym and preach unrealistic standards to confused young men looking for answers. Ghiorghiu speaks to the fragility of a man’s sense of self-security. They need to conform and completely turn their lives to capitalism and western beauty standards rather than, I don’t know, go to therapy. So now, you have young men without the vocabulary or proper guidance to address issues they may be having with finding a girlfriend, or confronting their sexuality, or becoming financially free. They turn to content like Ghiorghiu’s but they wonder why they can never achieve what he has, no matter how diligent the attempt.
And that’s because all of these creators are lying to you. They understand how and why the things they say are wrong and toxic, but that’s why they are so good at convincing you. And the algorithm loves this content because it’s sneaky. These guys don’t always come right out the gate swinging with their hot takes. They begin with telling boys to fix their posture and create a hygiene routine, helpful things that seem like appropriate content anyone can get behind. But as you like a few of the rather benign videos, the algorithm begins to feed you more and more of their content, each Tik Tok becoming full of more and more fringe ideas.
That is why it is important to be cognizant of the content we consume, especially in short form spaces. It’s okay to question someone with a platform or percieved authority and find information for yourself. And don’t shy away from being aggressive with yourself and your own ideologies if you find yourself relating to some of these more inflammatory viewpoints. Remember that the internet makes us more and more vulnerable to stumbling across dangerous content that could twist our world view just a little bit. These people are masters of manipulation and know exactly how to muddle the algorithm around in their hands like putty.
