Photo from Jubilee Video titled, “Can 1 woke teen survive 20 Trump supporters?”
Politics. Famous for being a world of pure excitement. Every time you open your phone, you’re enlightened with some new public humiliation, TikTok debate, or viral moment. Anybody over the age of 25 knows it wasn’t always this way. As a matter of fact, for the large majority of American history, the everyday ins and outs of politics were plain boring. Back in the days of C-SPAN and people literally falling asleep on the Senate floor, people weren’t really paying attention unless it was an election year. Fast forward to 2025, and teenagers are forming their political opinions via the Joe Rogan podcast and Jubilee videos. And while to those who recognize those platforms might find it cliché, the reality is that politics has now rapidly found a new home in the world of podcasts and viral debating.
For context, especially in the last few years, political figures ranging from influencers to the president have made appearances on large podcasts like Joe Rogan or Theo Von to reach the younger generation. Unfortunately, it’s working very well.
AIXOS provides some insightful statistics: the top two most-watched videos during the 2024 election were Joe Rogan’s interviews with Donald Trump and JD Vance. Unsurprisingly, Trump dominated in support from white men ages 18-25, which happens to be a large chunk of the Joe Rogan Experience’s viewer base. 27% of young people who voted for President Trump say they listen to “The Joe Rogan Experience” at least once a month. 19% of Trump voters say the same about “The Charlie Kirk Show,” and 18% tune into “The Ben Shapiro Show.” Among Harris voters, it’s 3% for each. Podcasts from Barstool Sports, founded by Trump supporter Dave Portnoy, are the most popular among young people who voted for Trump. 34% of young Trump voters say they listened to a Barstool Sports podcast in the last month, compared with 9% of Harris supporters.
To mainly conservative politicians, hoping on a podcast that reaches millions of new voters to answer bad questions from a comedian who dabbles in politics, is the dream. In the words of YouTuber Marco Insco in a video titled “The Cost of Turning Politics into Content,” it’s basically a shortcut to get increased viewership, but to avoid questions from actual journalists. The problem with this shift to political content is the loss of nuance. With short-form content dominating the social media space, podcast interviews can be cut down and stripped of context, leaving viewers with an oversimplified clip to be spread around on youtube shorts or reels.
Political brainrot is still brainrot.
A 10-second clip on TikTok simply can’t cover a complex issue like immigration. This oversimplification of national issues is a major factor in political polarization right now, as a 15-year-old kid who is not informed on an issue can feel knowledgeable after a short clip, despite never digging deeper into the issue.
In fact, teenagers are more likely to agree with people featured on their favorite podcast because of something called “Parasocial politics.” Meaning, people connect emotionally to podcast hosts or streamers they like and will be willing to agree with whatever they or someone on their show is saying simply because they’re a loyal fan.
The International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), which is a program under the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin, conducted a study comparing mainstream news podcasts vs conservative and far-right news podcasts, especially in how listeners express emotional and parasocial bonds in reviews. It finds a stronger emotional/parasocial connection in conservative/far-right podcast listeners, meaning the connection to the podcast has a direct correlation to how they will respond to information being said on that podcast.
The podcast infestation has gotten so bad that the NELK Boys, who are YouTube pranksters, somehow managed to get Benjamin Netanyahu on their podcast, who is an actual war criminal and whose nation is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court. To no surprise, the NELK Boys faced massive controversy and were forced to apologize. It just goes to show that serious issues that have real-life impacts on people are being turned into clickbait content for young people, which is already frowned upon on the moral level, but also creates an all-around negative internet culture that plays on the suffering of others.
While politics’ new newfound home in podcasts has definitely been significant, a new form of politics on the internet has been arguably just as influential: TikTok “Debates”. Debates in quotations because political debate content on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram is designed to get clicks and bring the most entertaining and fiery debates to your phone. They aren’t considered the formal debates you’d think of, like Lincoln-Douglas.
This format has been popularized by a specific popular YouTube channel called Jubilee. Jubilee has become increasingly popular, amassing over 10 million followers and millions of views, for posting videos where two opposite groups clash over their views in formats like “Middle Ground,” where opposing sides argue over prompts while attempting to find a middle ground. Spoiler: they never do. Or the more recent format “20 vs. 1” where one expert or popular political figure sits down and is surrounded by 20 people who are free to go up and debate. Don’t get me wrong, these political debates are amazing to watch and offer educational value; however, it just seems like a given that putting two opposite groups together to yell at each other in front of a camera will lead to divide.
Jubilee has a videos like Fat people vs Skinny people or Millionaires vs. Minimum wage workers and that tells us everything we need to know about the goal of these videos.
Today, almost every single issue has two distinct sides. Pro-life and Pro-choice. Israel and Palestine. Left and Right. When the content we consume politically is always the most ferocious viral moment between two adversaries, the educational value is lost, and we feel pressure to align with a side. As a high school student, I personally see this impact on my own phone, but more so through other students who are subject to this content.
Conservative TikTok debater Charlie Kirk has become incredibly popular with people in high school by posting clips of himself using seemingly commonsense and witty talking points that can be condensed into a short video. What ends up happening is impressionable teens regurgitate those talking points, and once again lose any real political education.
Politics moving into a more exciting and widespread space like social media is definitely not a bad thing, and a powerful weapon that politicians are catching onto. What’s troubling is when the attempt at a healthy discourse and education on important issues is turned into a spectacle or “content.”
Our nation and the world have a range of issues, and some are just too detrimental to be making clickbait internet content about.
Even though these videos and podcasts on the surface seem harmful, the loss of nuance can be a dangerous thing, and it’s absolutely crucial that for the young generation, over-generalization is discouraged and deep research is encouraged. The videos out there that are purely educational and present what real political debate looks like should be center stage over what will attract the most attention.
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