How Podcasts Became the Same Club They Replaced |
I pay attention to media for a living. In crisis work, there is no luxury of ignoring what people are saying or where narratives are forming. My clients live inside those narratives whether they like it or not. I watch, read, and listen constantly because understanding the environment matters as much as understanding the facts.
That includes podcasts.
Over the last few years, I have spent more time than I would like to admit listening to them, not for entertainment, even though they are entertaining, but to understand how ideas are shaped and spread. What people believe does not come out of nowhere. It is influenced, reinforced, and repeated until it feels like common sense.
Nowhere has that been clearer than in how Israel has been discussed since October 7, 2023.
I have written about Israel for years, including my views, my support, and my disagreements when I have them. The current moment is different. It is not just criticism. It is inversion.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and even the Ayatollahs of Iran are framed, implicitly or explicitly, as resistance fighters. Israel, and at times America, is cast not simply as flawed, but as the villain, aggressive, colonial, and indiscriminate. Complexity disappears. Context disappears. What remains is a simplified story that is easy to consume and easy to repeat.
This narrative is not limited to obscure corners or progressive mainstream news ideologies. It comes from some of the largest voices in the podcast........