Pete And The Podcasters

It's Fine To Talk To The Manosphere, But Its Negotiating Terms Of Political Surrender

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with Flagrant host Andrew Schulz

Last week, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg ventured into the Manosphere.

The potential 2028 presidential candidate made an appearance on the Flagrant podcast, hosted by comedians Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh – and it’s been getting him rave reviews. The podcast is one of many on the so-called Manosphere – the name given to the industry of podcasts and streaming talk shows hosted by mostly male comedians and featuring a large audience of young men. Donald Trump appeared on many of them, including Flagrant, during the 2024 campaign, and their hosts have been relatively open about their support for Trump. 

It took me several days to get through the entire three-hour Buttigieg appearance. While I agree that Buttigieg did a great job representing the Democratic Party and laying the foundation for an anti-Trump, anti-MAGA message, what many liberal supporters of his missed – probably because they only listened to some clips from the broadcast and not the whole interview – was that Buttigieg was basically on defense the entire time. He did not command the interview; instead, he let Schulz take the lead and did not challenge him on some of Schulz’s more regressive views. He was able to land some anti-Trump points about government funding of research, but he conceded a lot to Schulz that most Democrats wouldn’t.