Podcast playlist: insurrection at the Capitol

Our airwaves and digital spaces are saturated with the voices of podcasters and influencers who claim to challenge the status quo corporate establishment—exposing corruption, rank hypocrisy, moral scandal, and systemic injustice. These commentators portray themselves as beleaguered outsiders, independent thinkers forging paths to truth and accountability, and enemies of a corporate machine that prioritizes profiles over basic principles. But in reality, what have they become if not purveyors of passivity and the commodification of outrage? Rather than mobilizing their audiences for deliberate action and committed change, they encourage a culture of consumption—a cycle of listening, nodding, tossing a few dollars once in a while to keep the show going, and otherwise doing nothing much.

Exhibit A: the ongoing genocide they’ve failed to stop, nearly two years in—a slaughter that now reliably feeds their segments and sustains the outrage economy they depend on.