The 2024 US presidential campaign was dubbed the ‘podcast election’, with Donald Trump’s appearances on shows targeting young male audiences hailed for securing victory with this demographic. However, limited attention has been paid to how the specific affordances of audio media are leveraged to engage voters with appeals to hegemonic masculinity. Drawing on the theoretical framework of counterpublics, this study applies an innovative close analytical listening method and critical discourse analysis to five long-form podcast interviews with Trump. It finds that intimacy, authenticity, and convivial, free-wheeling conversation were key elements of Trump’s political communication—reaching mass audiences while bypassing the scrutiny of professional journalism. Furthermore, these shows celebrated men’s superiority while largely excluding women from public discourse. These findings are important for understanding the implications of an increasingly masculine, right-wing podcast scene, which we theorize as the brosphere. Ultimately, we argue that the brosphere is distinct from—but related to—the overtly misogynistic manosphere.
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