John Brogan
 | |
| Era | Tweeter Is Not Real Life (cast) |
|---|---|
| Age | 50-65 |
| Home | Austin, TX |
| Demographic | podcaster, white, libertarian-curious |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
He is a long-form podcast host in Austin whose guests range from comedians to political candidates; his audience is the largest in the cast. He votes on instinct rather than party loyalty and distrusts whoever sounds most certain.
Who they stand for
He stands for the podcast-listening man of the 2020s. This is a man aged roughly twenty-five to forty-five, often without a university degree, who has little interest in cable news and is reachable mainly through long, unedited conversation. This bloc voted for Barack Obama, considered voting for Bernie Sanders, and then drifted toward the Republican Party between 2020 and 2024. This shift was driven by school closures during the pandemic, vaccine mandates, and the removal of user accounts from social media platforms, rather than by any settled conservative belief. Both major campaigns in the 2024 election appeared on podcasts to reach this bloc, and exit polls showed young men moving toward Trump. Many members of this bloc also moved from California to Texas and Florida during these years, which is part of why he broadcasts from Austin.
He differs from Simon Harrisson, who shares his taste for long-form conversation. The difference between them is the pandemic. Simon's audience sided with the public-health agencies, and John's audience concluded that those agencies had lied to them.
Playing to them
He responds to candour, to personal liberty, and to any politician willing to sit down for a long conversation. He supports legal cannabis, psychedelic research, an end to pandemic mandates, restraint in foreign wars, and a president who admits a mistake in plain language. He does not forgive a lockdown, a government request to a platform to remove content, or a president who calls his listeners stupid. He is won over in person rather than through policy alone, so a president who avoids difficult interviews never reaches him at all.
Winning his support is inexpensive on the issues of drugs and free speech. Winning his support on health policy is expensive. A president who ends the war on drugs loses the support of Matt Scots and Nick Guttierez. A president who drops pandemic mandates and criticises the public-health agencies loses the support of Simon Harrisson and William Maha, who still trust the doctors. Brian Einstein, Gary Greenwall and Elliot Einstein tend to support the same things he does on almost every issue.