The 2024 election saw both President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris embrace non-traditional methods of appealing to voters, with podcasts emerging as one of the key formats.
The U.S. podcast audience is larger than ever before. Around 135 million Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month, with 15 million new listeners starting in the last year alone. According to a new poll from Intelligent.com, Trump voters were two times more likely to get their news from podcasts than voters for Harris. So which podcasts are young Trump voters tuning into, and what is their reach?
When Trump claimed victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, he and his inner circle gathered on stage. As Trump thanked his supporters and his family, his long time friend Dana White thanked some of the podcast hosts that Trump had appeared on during the campaign: "I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan."
The 2024 election marked a major shift in attitudes towards the media. President Joe Biden will likely leave office as the first president since Franklin Roosevelt to deny The New York Times an on-the-record interview. Harris is the first presidential candidate in modern history to snub Time magazine and Trump hasn't sat down with CNN in 18 months.
Instead, Trump focused his campaign media strategy on podcasters and social media influencers like Patrick Bet-David. Trump appeared on 14 major podcasts or streams during the campaign, including Theo Von's This Past Weekend and The Joe Rogan Experience. These podcasts have largely male audiences, and have amassed tens of millions of views on YouTube, and many more on other platforms.
The Podcast Charts | Spotify Charts
The Joe Rogan Experience
Hosted by the comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan, The Joe Rogan Experience is Spotify's most popular podcast, with a listenership of an estimated 14.5 million people per episode, according to Digital Music News.
Rogan has 19 million followers on Instagram, and 17 million subscribers on YouTube.
According to Media Monitors, Rogan's listenership consists of 71 percent men, and this listenership is evenly divided between high school and post-secondary graduates, with the average of his listeners being 24.
President-elect Trump appeared on Rogan's podcast, in an episode which has over 50 million views at the time of writing. Rogan endorsed Trump shortly after he appeared on his podcast.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Hosted by Ben Shapiro, the American conservative political commentator, columnist and media personality, The Ben Shapiro Show is another podcast that young Trump voters are tuning into. On YouTube, Shapiro has over 7.2 million subscribers and has amassed over 4.1 billion views on the platform.
His podcast, which airs Monday through Friday, is the 52nd most popular podcast on the Spotify Podcast charts. The podcast's Spotify description states: "The Ben Shapiro Show brings you all the news you need to know in the most fast-moving daily program in America. Ben brutally breaks down the culture and never gives an inch!"
Though Shapiro has been critical of Trump at times, he is widely supportive of his policies and The Ben Shapiro Show is widely popular among young Trump voters.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Hosted by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Spotify description of Kirk's podcast states: "Charlie is on the front lines of America's culture war, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students on over 3,500 college and high school campuses across the country, bringing you your daily dose of clarity in a sea of chaos all from his signature no-holds-barred, unapologetically conservative, freedom-loving point of view."
Kirk and his organization Turning Point USA, which is a a nonprofit organization founded by Kirk in 2012 that promotes conservative values and free-market principles among young people, particularly on high school and college campuses, see a significant amount of young men turnout at their events.
University of Georgia showed up today!!
The Gen Z campus energy is insane. Just look at that sea of red.
My message: VOTE NOW
Go Dawgs!! 🐶 pic.twitter.com/HHkyPSuiKF
Kirk reaches over 100 million people monthly on social media, and has been described by Axios as having one of the "top 10 most engaged" X, formerly Twitter, handles in the world and he has 2.75 million subscribers on YouTube.
This Past Weekend With Theo Von
Hosted by the comedian Theo Von, This Past Weekend is currently the 11th most popular podcast on Spotify. Von, who has 3.38 million subscribers on YouTube and 7.2 million followers on Instagram.
Von's widely popular podcast has a huge audience among young men, and young Trump voters, with Trump's episode on his podcast having been viewed 15.5 million times to date.
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