The Karol Markowicz Show: Brad Polumbo on Gen Z Radicalization, Media Trust Collapse & the Future of AI
4/22/202623 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeart Radio.
0:13My guest today is Brad Palumbo.
0:16Brad is a YouTuber and host of Brad vs.
0:19Everyone. Hi, Brad. So nice to have you on.
0:21Thanks for having me. So you're one of the few repeat guests I've had.
0:25The last time you were on was October 2024, but we wanted to catch up
0:29and see what Brad vs.
0:30Everyone has been up to.
0:32Have you been starting lots of fights?
0:33Oh, wow. You know, it's interesting.
0:37There's really, what we cover is a mix of like insane media stories and insane
0:43internet stories, and there's really no shortage of either.
0:47So at this point, yeah, I think I've managed to anger everybody a little bit,
0:51but especially I know somebody near and dear to your heart, Candace Owens, who you're
0:57a huge fan of. My best friend, yes.
0:59Well, I mean, we just keep up with characters like that and see what their
1:03latest developments are. Yeah. I'm just waiting for the Egyptian planes to finally circle back
1:09and be connected to Brigitte Macron's secret male identity.
1:15Yeah, I didn't know if I could say penis.
1:17I love to say Brigitte's penis just casually and flippantly as if that's a normal
1:21thing everyone totally believes in.
1:23Right. So, yeah, so there's really no shortage of, because obviously the mainstream media and
1:29the establishment media is still terrible.
1:31And then the new media has, in my opinion at least, not lived up to
1:36its promise in a lot of ways.
1:38So the last time you were on the show was October 2024, and we already
1:42kind of saw the right heading into some fringy directions.
1:48I mean, obviously it's a small sliver.
1:50I find that in general, most of the right is like, what is going on
1:54with these crazy podcasts to stand people?
1:57But did you see this coming?
1:59I feel like libertarians are like, oh yeah, we saw this coming.
2:03Yeah, I did. Because frankly, some of the people I saw some of the red
2:09flags years and years ago on some of these folks.
2:11Like, I've been blocked by Candace Owens since I think like 2018.
2:16That's a badge of honor now.
2:17At this point, it is.
2:19Though it is, when I'm trying to keep up with it all, I have to
2:22switch my burner account. So that's a little frustrating.
2:25Yeah, I mean, so the new media kind of disintegrating into just like fact -free
2:30conspiratorial stuff. Yeah. Um, I'm not sure that I totally saw it going this far.
2:36I thought we were in for a pendulum swing.
2:38I observe American politics happening in pendulum swings often, right?
2:44So, and so often my hope is that things will land back in the middle
2:48somewhere where you'll have a healthy mix of legacy media and kind of independent podcasting.
2:53And some of the podcasters will either come back to reality or lose their massive
2:58market share. I tend to agree with you that the, it's not that they represent
3:03tremendous portions of the population, but I also think that like sometimes people who are
3:08skeptical of Tucker or Candace pretend all their followers are bots or whatever.
3:13Right, no, that's what you do.
3:14Their numbers are huge and they do represent real people.
3:17Like I know personally, several people in my family who listen to Tucker or Still
3:22or what have you. And so I think to downplay their importance too much is
3:27a mistake, but so is to pretend that they're like representing 90 % of MAGA.
3:32That's also clearly not true either.
3:34Right. I mean, to me, I think that they've moved a little, more than a
3:38little in some cases to the left.
3:39I, they're, you know, I, I don't know, like the Jackson Hinkle, that he's an
3:43open communist now. MAGA communist.
3:46Right. I don't know what that means.
3:48That is a nonsensical term.
3:50A communist is a communist, you know?
3:52So I think that these people are on the left.
3:55I don't think that their audience is all fake, but I don't, I also don't
3:58think it's all conservative. So, oh no, it's broad and also some of it's in
4:03other countries as well. Absolutely.
4:05Right. So you do see a correction coming.
4:09Does that mean that the mainstream media will return to a better place?
4:12Like, do you have optimism in that?
4:14I mean, somewhat. I mean, I think like what Barry Weiss is doing at CBS
4:18is interesting. I'm actually unfortunately also kind of skeptical that that will work out.
4:24I think it's very hard to take over an institution where you're facing resistance at
4:28every single level and have it actually succeed.
4:31But I do think people, especially with the spread and advancement of AI technology, it
4:39is going to, as fake things become more and more difficult to discern with the
4:44eye, I think there's going to be a tendency among viewers almost to feel forced
4:49to navigate back to like verified sources because you're just not going to be able
4:54to believe that any video you see on social media is real unless you know
4:59that it's been verified by some sort of news outlet.
5:02So I think even just the technological advancements might push people back.
5:08Now, that doesn't have to mean back to CNN or Fox News, but they seem
5:12best positioned to bring people back into that kind of thing, but potentially through new
5:19mediums. I just like social media or YouTube or what have you, but I just
5:23think there's going to become a point.
5:25where it's impossible to just get your news from social media.
5:29It's already difficult to sort through the totally demonstrably false things or the re -shared
5:33old things that are out of context or what have you.
5:36I see that getting worse, not better.
5:38So you cover a lot of Gen Z topics and, you know, kind of their
5:43interests. What do you see them doing?
5:47Are they tuning out or are they looking for more trustworthy sources?
5:52Well, I think there's a couple of groups.
5:55And frankly, I think that young people are either checked out or increasingly radicalized, which
6:02is not great in my perspective, at least.
6:04But I see a chunk of young people really being drawn towards hard left kind
6:10of nihilistic extremism, the type of thing that's embodied by a Hassan Piker or a
6:16Kyle Kalinsky, this like dirtbag leftism that is it's not like Democratic Party, really.
6:24They actually disdain them as well.
6:26But it's a mix of like hard socialist views with antisocial tendencies, right, in terms
6:35of political violence, trolling, indecency.
6:39And it's justified in their mind as kind of a rebellion against the status quo
6:44they feel totally abandoned them and what they feel as an abandonment of like these
6:49standards in the Trump era.
6:52They're like, well, then we're going to be indecent, too.
6:54And we're going to mock you and we're going to post memes about you.
6:57It's like and then I see also a portion of the young young people have
7:01been kind of radicalized to the right.
7:03Right. That's where you see the Groypers and some of the there's different versions of
7:07that. And I don't think all versions of that are bad.
7:10But I would put even like young women who want to be trad wives, I
7:14would say radicalized might not be the right word because there's nothing wrong with being
7:17a trad wife. But they've been propelled to that by the forces of modern society
7:22in a way that I just didn't see young people feeling that way in this
7:26number 10 years ago or five years ago.
7:28And so I think they've been people are either been pushed towards some extreme, right?
7:35Like or they are checked out totally and utterly to the point where they have
7:40no idea what's going on.
7:42And I don't think any of those three are ideal situations in terms of Groypers,
7:49leftists or totally disengaged human beings and adults.
7:53Then there's also a nihilism that I think is very unfortunate that I actually see
7:58more in Gen Alpha than Gen Z.
8:00Like very young people just seem to me to be totally desensitized to violence, tragedy,
8:09war and the most horrific things imaginable.
8:12So I play a game, 2K, which is like basketball.
8:17Imagine this, right? So like it's sports game on Xbox.
8:21And when I play with my cousins who are like 18, 17, we're playing against
8:27random people. They have most of them are young.
8:31A lot of them are kids or minors.
8:32They have their mics on.
8:33They're calling you slurs or whatever.
8:35Yeah. The avatars that come up, they make that you can facetune their avatars.
8:40They make themselves George Floyd, Jeffrey Epstein and Charlie Kirk.
8:45And that will be the team you'll come up against.
8:48It's like, and that's just one tiny example.
8:50But I feel this way, like they're just totally desensitized.
8:54They're sharing like memes about the Epstein files and all this stuff.
8:58Or they're joking about ditty parties.
9:00Like they literally say no ditty.
9:02Young people say no ditty to each other.
9:04It's like there's a level of desensitization to like the worst things of humanity that
9:12wasn't present, at least even in my generation.
9:15And I'm like, you know, 10, 15 years older than these people.
9:17And I don't think that's good either.
9:20Right. So I guess my obvious next question is, are you optimistic about the future?
9:26Like, do you feel like we're going to shake some of this off and have
9:30a good future? Or are these the future leaders of our country?
9:35I'm optimistic about the future in some ways.
9:38I'm actually, and this might be a controversial take with you, but I'm a big
9:42AI optimist. Oh, no, I like AI.
9:44Yeah. I mean, I'm not a I'm not optimist or a pessimist, I guess I'd
9:48say. I think I'm actually very optimistic.
9:50And obviously it will cause disruption and job loss in some areas.
9:54And like, I have sympathy for those people, but I think it's going to be
9:56a net massive positive and it's going to save human lives.
10:01And it's going to be a force for massive economic growth and prosperity.
10:05But the flip side of that is that, like, say that we produce all this
10:09wealth and what's the right word?
10:12Productivity soars. But there maybe there are some people who are suddenly jobless.
10:18And even if you were to address that economically through some something like a universal
10:23basic income, which I've I've I have in theory can be interested in, but have
10:28a lot of problems within practice.
10:29Yeah, I think there's a there's a social malaise that I worry about from having
10:34particularly among men without jobs or like meaningful jobs that they feel they're contributing to
10:42their community and with and this is quickly getting out of my area of expertise,
10:47but kind of the broken dynamics of modern heterosexual dating having a lot of.
10:52men who don't feel like they have a path to productive work that they feel
10:57good about and are struggling with family formation, you can have all the flying cars
11:03and robots and like soaring GDP and stocks in the world.
11:06You're going to have some problems as a society still.
11:09And so I would say that much.
11:12I'm concerned on that social level, but I do see a lot of positive things.
11:18And I feel like it's so easy to focus on all the negatives.
11:21But I see, you know, constantly the cure treatments for cancer getting better, fewer and
11:27fewer traffic fatalities, fewer overdose deaths, like all this stuff that it's even dropping murder
11:33rates. Like, we don't talk about all that enough.
11:37And I, I'm guilty as that.
11:39I only I talk about things that I think are bad or wrong that are
11:43happening. Right. But so I think there's cause for optimism.
11:47in some ways, and then not so much in other ways.
11:50But yeah, I mean, I think in general, I, you know, I, if I had
11:55to think about it, I'm more optimistic than pessimistic on AI.
11:58I think that you're right.
11:59It's going to open a lot of opportunities.
12:01And I think it'll ultimately lead to a lot of positive things.
12:05But it's funny you say like the dropping murder rate.
12:08I think this, I think about this a lot that we're very much like, what
12:12have you done for me lately?
12:13And, you know, I even see that among Trump's, you know, supporters, they're like, what
12:17has he done? Really? Like, I don't know, he like stopped the border flow to
12:21almost zero, the murder rate has dropped, like all the, you know, all these kind
12:24of different things that I, I was never a big Trump lover.
12:28But I think this term is going, you know, better than I ever imagined.
12:32And so to have his supporters be like, well, what has he even done?
12:36I'm like, I think you've forgotten all of these things that you were rooting for
12:40that he did do. The show isn't about politics, but I just, I do sense
12:45that there's this, you always, the politicians always need to be doing the next thing
12:50because nobody cares about what you did three days ago, you know?
12:54Yeah. Well, I think that's a problem with humans.
12:57It's like, we have a huge negativity bias in terms of what sticks out to
13:01us. And we adapt and we take for granted things.
13:05Like, I'll give you an example.
13:06When I was living in Michigan, the cold weather in the winter just took such
13:11a negative toll on me and my life.
13:14And now I moved to Florida.
13:15Oh, yeah. Yes, of course.
13:17No income taxes, a much better governor.
13:20But now I guess like it's lovely and it's nice how all the time and
13:24I'm never cold and I've kind of just already taken that for granted.
13:27I just don't think about the fact that my life has massively improved in that
13:30way, in the same way, you know?
13:33Yeah. You get a hundred positive comments on your podcast or my podcast, but you
13:38get two that are negative and really nasty and those just stick in your mind
13:42and stick in your craw a little more.
13:44And you're thinking about those when you walk later.
13:46That's a problem. I mean, I think evolutionary, like evolution wise, it probably makes sense
13:52because you like need to be more concerned about your threats than the things that
13:56are going well. But in terms of like having a thriving and happy life in
14:00the modern world that in the digital era.
14:02Yeah, that's a real problem.
14:04And so I think the only you have to actively counteract that by trying to
14:07remind yourself and be grateful every day.
14:11I can't wait till you're in Florida for a few years and you see that
14:14the weather we're having right now is actually quite chilly.
14:19I was in a sweatshirt on the beach this weekend.
14:22This is still not like this is not the heat that I was promised, you
14:26know? I was out sunbathing.
14:29I don't know. It was windy.
14:30It was definitely a little chilly.
14:33Brad, what are you most proud of in your life?
14:36Probably my relationship. You know, I came from divorced parents when I was 11 or
14:4112 and they, you know, had a horrible marriage and it was really toxic and
14:47terrible. And then I lived with my dad and his marrying again and they didn't
14:53get divorced, but they have a very destructive relationship.
14:57Very unpleasant to be growing up in.
15:00And so when you when you come from a bunch of like broken families, the
15:04idea of having like a nice, stable, long term relationship is something I'm I'm not
15:10sure I believed I would build, but I'm, you know, six plus years in now
15:15and still going strong. And so, yeah, I think especially it's also a little more
15:20difficult among gay men to sometimes find long term monogamous partners.
15:25That's not always the go to option that many people are looking for.
15:32But yeah, I would say probably that.
15:34I mean, it's not something I would have assumed I'd be able to do.
15:37And I've kind of done it in spite of the examples around me.
15:40So huge. Yeah, for sure.
15:42Yeah. Taking those bad examples and actually turning them on their heads is, I think,
15:49a miraculous thing to do.
15:51And if you, you know, if you came from a bad marriage and I did
15:55as well and you end up having a really good marriage, a really good relationship,
15:59it's it's hard, but it's incredible and so worth it.
16:03Yeah. And I've also prioritized it.
16:06Like I have multiple times made choices, especially with travel and relocation and other stuff
16:12that are me putting my relationship over career prospects or over where I my preferences
16:18or other things that I feel like some.
16:20Yeah. people are like just totally disinclined to do they're like well right if it's
16:26not all super convenient if I have to sacrifice something for this I guess we'll
16:30just give up on it I'm like no actually and from very early in the
16:34relationship I realized that was not the approach I was going to take and I
16:37also you know obviously have the benefits of some flexibility and other things with my
16:42work but I thought I was going to live in Washington DC and I would
16:46have significantly probably some more career opportunities there than I do random out out disconnected
16:53from the scene but that wasn't what that was most important to me and I
16:56managed to build my own path that is probably better anyway but in the moment
17:00seemed like I was putting myself out somewhat of a disadvantage I know what you
17:05mean yeah and I no regrets at all and um would do it again I
17:10love that we're gonna take a quick break and be right back on the Carol
17:13Markowitz show give us a five -year -out prediction and it could be about anything
17:22at all anything the world the country art music oh boy um a five -year
17:28-out prediction so so we're in 2026 2031 I think um we will see an
17:36inversion I think we're already seeing it but I think it will really finalize and
17:40crystallize in the class dynamics of technology so for like a long time for me
17:45growing up it's like well the do you have the new iPhone that's a status
17:49signal right like oh you can afford the latest technology I actually think that five
17:54years from now or maybe 10 years from now the wealthy and affluent people will
17:59be the ones at dinner with no iPads with their kids and the ones who
18:04have dumb phones because it will become a lug the technology is already proliferated and
18:10become more inexpensive to the point where many many working class and poor people can
18:14afford it yeah and it will get even cheaper and more uh kind of proliferate
18:19even more and it will become a sign of affluence to be unplugged and have
18:25less technology rather than chasing the latest gizmo as I think over the last couple
18:33decades has been you know keeping up with the Joneses so interesting yeah I mean
18:37I would say my kids were not allowed to have phones or iPads or anything
18:42that not not at restaurants not in the car certainly not like at the beach
18:46where I see it more frequently now it really really bugs me um and they
18:50can hold conversations in a way that I think a lot of kids simply can't
18:54they could make eye contact they could ask questions it's I'm not saying they're perfect
18:59and we do let them have screen time we're not one of those like they
19:02do have you know they do play games they do chat with their friends they
19:06they do it all but it's sort of like in contained time periods it's not
19:10just whenever whenever you're bored for a minute um so I love that prediction I
19:16think that you're right I I see it already I see the kind of wealthier
19:20people I know their kids are at the dinner table making conversation and not staring
19:26at their iPad and I'm not without sympathy for like the poor working class single
19:30mom who gives her kid the iPad yeah I'm I'm not saying she's like terrible
19:35for that it's just obviously not the best thing for the child and because obviously
19:41you know there's so many stressors and societal factors that go into why they might
19:46need to to lean on that kind of a thing um but it is unfortunate
19:51and I think the way that we used to see and have seen and still
19:54seen huge like statistical divides based on whether you're you were read to as a
19:59young child yeah right like that's a heavily studied thing in economics and in outcomes
20:04and it makes a huge huge difference if parents read to their kids when they're
20:08very young or not right I think this kind of thing will emerge as a
20:12dividing line for a long time and it's I mean I guess it's a sign
20:17of advancement but it's also going to reinforce uh societal inequality in in a host
20:24of ways I'd also add about the single mom like my hardest parenting time was
20:29always like you know from like 4 p .m until my husband came home from
20:32work when my kids were little that's the time I I get why you'd give
20:36them a screen put on a movie like it's so different than them watching you
20:41know my kids are not a lot on tiktok but I I see a lot
20:44of kids watching you know the short videos they're on instagram their reels or on
20:48youtube their shorts and that's what destroys the attention span it's not the screen you
20:53could put on you know a movie and that still entertains them and kind of
20:57keeps them occupied and doesn't destroy their you know well it's funny you say that
21:02because I've uh we have dear friends with a three and a half year old
21:06and they've researched which shows have lower frame rates when they do put something on
21:11for the kid for half an hour a day or whatever um because some of
21:15these shows are literally visually designed to change frame every two seconds to get that
21:21stem for the child and that's not good yeah go back to basics go to
21:26old school movies where they don't they don't haven't thought of that yet Brad I
21:31have loved this conversation I think you're super interesting and I always I watch all
21:35of your clips whenever they come across my feed um leave us here with your
21:39best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives and tell me
21:43if you remember what you said last time I think I said exercise like time.
21:48You did. You said to move more.
21:51And I still think we need to defeat.
21:54Sometimes I'll post on Instagram a picture of myself on the treadmill and I'll say
21:57defeating body positivity one step at a time.
22:00I know you know Jillian Michaels a little bit.
22:03She just did a debate about that, that she absolutely nuked some of those body
22:06positivity activists into orbit. So I'm a big proponent of exercise.
22:11I also think I would say build more routines because habits are easy to they're
22:21easy to build over time and they're but they're very bad habits are very hard
22:24to break. Yeah. I think the the way to if you say that you want
22:27to I should read more in 2027 or something it's like or I need to
22:33outreach to friends more put more of an emphasis it's like set a rule.
22:39Okay every day at fourth for half an hour before bed I'm gonna read or
22:45whatever or set a rule that you know every Friday at four o 'clock I'm
22:50gonna call my mom or whatever because if you just when goals are really nebulous
22:53or things you want to change are kept nebulous you just end up not getting
22:57busy stressed and not doing it.
22:58But when you set something then it's easier to hold yourself accountable.
23:02So set I would say that build more routines to pursue your goals.
23:06And be specific about those routines.
23:09I love that. He is Brad Palumbo.
23:11Check out Brad vs. Everyone.
23:12Thank you so much for coming on Brad.
23:14Thanks for having me Carol.
23:17This is an iHeart Podcast.
23:20Guaranteed human.