alt Hacker NewsThis is the same "heating" effect as social media algorithms apply to random podcasters (e.g. Joe Rogan) - those isolated cases of success which happen to be completely synthetic provide an 'american dream' for the system, whose success depends on the Fantasy being alive and believed in by those who are its customers/product
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To Rogan's credit, he was early to the concept of video podcasts, which Youtube's algorithm picked up on after they lifted video time limits in 2010 (or thereabouts). His videos were so long that he also profited handsomely from pre-roll and mid-roll ads that Youtube started introducing early in the last decade. Finally his popularity exploded once he started delving into "pop culture commentary" and "conspiracy theories" in the mid-2010s.
I like the parallel as Joe Rogan is a trained actor who mastered the art of incorporating all the success factors of its predecessors. He saw obscure podcasts gaining intense viewership, he literally mimicked the patterns and merged it into the "best" of all. Even made his more mainstream, while fooling millions to feel they are part of a niche enlighten resistance community.
I recall listing to one of the now vintage series, I thought it was Joe Rogan himself. But it wasn't, the voice was a bit different but the pause, the reactions, the "waaah" with the overall tone of uncovering some secret truth.
It's a fascinating societal phenomenon, coupled with the American dream, yes.
In any case those examples are doing no good by setting themselves as models for millions to become obsessed in replicating. No surprise the rate of people in depression keeps going up.