Raspy-voiced and cooly detached podcast hosts are gaining substantial soft power in contemporary culture, not only shaping what topics we engage with, but also how we talk and act.
In one of the most spoken about shows of the year - HBO’s The White Lotus - there are two characters - Olivia and Paula. Throughout the intense, uncomfortable and often depressing comedy-drama, the daughter character and her college friend remain intimidatingly blasé in heated situations. They smuggle secret staches of ketamine and prescription pills. They read Roland Barthes and Sigmund Freud by the pool, while correcting Olivia’s parents’ unwoke comments. They have come to represent a particularly scary strain of teenagers and twenty-somethings.
When it came to creating the terrifying twosome, the show's creator Mike White pointed the actresses to Red Scare, referencing the hosts’ repartee and timing, delivered with a particularly smoky, monotone vibe - full of raspy vocal fry.
Red Scare - the blueprint for White Lotus’ Gen Z duo - is a podcast fronted by two New Yorkers - Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova. Launched as a “response to the mainstream-meme and girl-boss feminism”, no topic is too taboo, involving criticism of almost any mainstream opinion, often unclear whether it comes from a place of sincerity or mockery, and always detached from any higher, guiding ideology.
Red Scare episodes have an equally captivating and fraught aura - dotted with moments of silence (that come after particularly controversial comments) - then followed by quiet, aloof laughter or the sound of ice clinking in glasses filled with rosé spritzer. As Noreen Malone in the Cut describes it: “there’s this decadent, Baudelarian, reclining-on-a-divan-drinking-heavily-from-a-carafe-of-brandy vibe to the show.”
The podcast hosts’ peak-baudelerian, emotional detachment and indifference to their own politically incorrect provocations has amassed many enemies, but also made them revered, growing in popularity, gaining a cult-like status with a particular but scattered demographic (in their words - a “bisexual, urban and art people cluster”). But their influence is now reaching much wider. They have gained notoriety online, with their own dedicated, lively subreddit. They have also become symbolic beacons of Dimes Square, New York - the geographical epicentre for a certain strain of young creatives.
Dasha and Anna have walked at New York fashion week (for designers Rachel Comey and Eckhaus Latta). Dasha also stars in the role of a PR publicist in the latest season of Succession, the perfect casting for a Twitter-fluent media professional.
Beyond Red Scare there’s a small but quietly influential category of podcasts gaining similar boundary-crossing pop culture relevance, like brand consultant Chris Black and former DJ Jason Stewart’s “bicoastal elite podcast” How Long Gone. They have amassed a loyal following of ‘Goners’, who tune in 3 times a week - not just to listen to their exaggerated takes (on topics ranging from the upmarket grocery store Erewhon, Barry’s Bootcamp to natural wine and the worst neighbourhoods in LA) - but to immerse themselves in a very distinct way to talk about these topics.
On the surface How Long Gone might seem like a typical male-on-male “friendship simulation”. But the more you listen, the hosts reveal a much more nuanced personality and voice. They have a unique ability to explore the realms of fashion, food and lifestyle, but delivered with unusual fraternal vernacular like ‘fire’ and ‘bro’ peppered in rigorously. It’s become a blueprint for how young men can express their appreciation for Whole Foods and penny loafers without abandoning their alpha-male vocabulary.
This power to influence common parlance used to be reserved for TV shows. If you were watching "Grey's Anatomy" in 2006, you know a vajayjay is slang for vagina. You can thank Ashton Kutcher and MTV for adding the word "punk'd" to our vocabulary. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" made "testosterone-y" a cool catchphrase in the '90s.
Now, vocal identities are cobbled together from podcast hosts like Dasha, Anna, Chris and Jason - whose nihilistic, fluid and nuanced personalities and snappy dialogue - delivered with an intimidatingly cool indifference - is seeping into popular culture.
Every podcast has its own distinct voice, but they’re all united by their ability to - in one way or another - reflect the current online discourse. They combine many of the ingredients that make social media both an alluring place (the irony and absurdity), but also repulsive (the narcissism and snobbery), creating a perfect vocal playbook for the extremely online, urban crowd in cities across the world.
Idle gaze is a newsletter written by Alexi Gunner, a strategist & writer based in Berlin. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend or your powerful boss. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!)
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