In recent days, some of the most popular podcasts in the United States have hosted known anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, leading many in the media to sound the alarm over the world’s oldest hate reaching new, younger audiences on the right.

Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Stephen A. Smith, and Patrick Bet-David have all raised eyebrows for bringing on guests who regularly dabble in anti-Semitic tropes and accuse Jews — or Israel — of global manipulation and influence.

Last week, avowed neo-Nazi and one-time Trump dinner guest Nick Fuentes praised the ongoing trend.

“Candace [Owens] on Theo Von and Theo Von’s clearly red-pilled. Stephen A. Smith had Candace Owens on. He’s clearly red-pilled. Jason Whitlock is praising Andrew Tate. He’s clearly red-pilled. Andrew Tate is on NELK, red-pilled. Tate is on PBD [Patrick Bet-David] spreading the message,” Fuentes cooed. He added:

Ian Carroll on Joe Rogan. And Joe Rogan seems to be – I don’t know if we could say he’s red-pilled, but certainly he hints every now and again that he knows maybe more than he lets on.

Many of the podcasts Fuentes listed make up what has been dubbed the new right’s “manosphere.” President Donald Trump’s 2024 win was fueled by these personalities, which helped him reach younger, male voters across the country.

After Owens, Tate, and Carroll were platformed for some of the largest audiences in media today, other publications were quick to highlight their history of outlandish, conspiratorial, and bigoted comments.

The Forward dove into Rogan’s near three-hour sitdown with Carroll – who has amassed a large following promoting conspiracy theories on TikTok. “Joe Rogan podcast guest says Israel is behind a Jeffrey Epstein coverup. (And 9/11, too.)” blared The Forward’s headline on a lengthy report into Carroll’s long history of pushing “false claims about the Holocaust, Israel and Jewish power.”

The report also noted that Carroll is far from Rogan’s first guest to promote hardcore anti-Semitic tropes elsewhere on the internet. “He’s invited on conspiracists Candace Owens and Alex Jones, promulgated widely debunked COVID-19 falsehoods, and last June he hosted Jake Shields, an MMA fighter-turned-far-right commentator who had said the previous month that Jews control America,” wrote The Forward.

Owens has grabbed headline after headline in recent months, all by design and even promoted by her own PR machine, for making outlandish and bigoted claims. She even went so far as to “stake” her entire “professional reputation” on the claim that France’s first lady was born a biological male as part of a hateful screed suggesting French President Emmanuel Macron is some kind of sexual deviant.

Owens exited the Daily Wire last year after feuding with Ben Shapiro over the headlines she made for her attacks on Jews, which included claims that a “small ring” of Jewish people in Hollywood and D.C. are involved in “sinister” plots to harm the rest of the country.

Owens has also dabbled in everything from Holocaust revisionism to pushing conspiracy theories about Israel and the USS Liberty – her most popular video on YouTube at the moment. She ended 2024 being labeled the “Anti-Semite of the Year” by a right-leaning watchdog group, which warned “There is no psychotic rabbit hole too extreme for this poisonous hater.”

Tate, who has been charged with sex trafficking in Romania, joined the Full Send Podcast this past week and said there is no free speech in America because there is no “speaking out against the Jews” – an anti-Semitic trope related to Jewish control of the media.

Tate also represents the rise of unabashed misogyny on the new right, which is also coupled with anti-Semitism on shows like Fresh & Fit, hosted by Myron Gaines. Gaines, who has been banned from YouTube, maintains a large audience on platforms like Rumble, where he defends Adolf Hitler —saying things like “he definitely did a bunch of things correct for his country.” “We’re the biggest platform that’s talking about the JQ. No one else will do it,” Gaines told his audience, referring to the Nazi-era term the “Jewish Question.”

A key part of this new movement is that the various hosts and influencers all appear on each other’s shows and collectively cultivate an audience by validating one another’s views – and they have clearly found that boosting anti-Semitism gets them clicks.

Conservative commentator Ian Haworth offered his take on this trend, writing, “Here’s the thing about the Ian Carrolls and the Candace Owens and the Dan Bilzerians and the Jake Shields of the world… they search for anti-Jewish stuff on the internet (stuff that’s decades, if not centuries old) and share it — with or without modernized tweaks — like they just discovered something brand new.”

“Then, when people say they’re wrong, or point out that their hyper-focus on Jewishness is a pattern, or add context to their contextless claims, they rush to cry victim,” Haworth added, noting that these influencers score attention and viewers not just from promoting the anti-Semitism but also from the backlash.

The rise of anti-Semitism on these platforms, including Rogan’s show, which regularly pulls in over 14 million viewers, serves as further proof of the media’s disintegration and what happens as guardrails and editorial standards not only fall by the wayside but become the enemy of new media. While podcasting has never aspired to do the job of news media and original reporting, it can swing the same amount of influence with listeners, especially as hosts like Owens present their takes as “investigative journalism.”

But, in fact, the likes of Rogan and Owens adhere to no actual standards beyond whatever they impose on themselves, which in the end of the day is whatever helps grow their audiences. Rogan has long raised eyebrows for bringing on guests and not only allowing them to push whatever wild theories they come up with that day, but for being easily taken in by them and nodding along in agreement — something that would never pass muster in a credible newsroom.

This isn’t only happening on the right either, Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch has also been accused in recent months of platforming anti-Semitism coming from the far-left.

Right-wing pundit and Project 2025 contributor Richard Hanania (who has had his own past controversies regarding racism) weighed in and warned of the dumbing down of the discourse. “Theo Von talking to Candace Owens. Stephen A Smith defending her. Ian Carroll going on Rogan. Now this. Antisemitism is breaking through to the mainstream,” he wrote, adding:

I tried to explain to influential Jewish friends once that their battle is not against antisemitism narrowly, but the general problem of the rise of Low Human Capital.

Once stupidity is accepted in the public square, antisemitism is the natural corollary. There’s no version of the universe where you have a Rogan who doesn’t go in this direction.

While there is no evidence to suggest that someone like Rogan is himself harboring some deep down anti-Semitic views, it’s hard not to argue that Hanania has hit the nail on the head. Rogan, like so many before him, is falling to audience capture. And the platforming of the world’s oldest hate on shows like his should serve as a stark warning for where both the media and the general public is headed.

The post Joe Rogan, Candace Owens, and the Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism Exposes a Rot in American Media first appeared on Mediaite.

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