One of the largest podcasts targeting women in the Manosphere-led podcast landscape may sound like a children’s TV show.
Fool Team Hosted by two best friends, fashion influencer Paige Desorbo and comedian Hannah Berner, they first rose up through the Bravo reality show Summer Villa. In 2020, the two began their weekly Instagram life and eventually launched a podcast.
since then, Fool Team Has become one of the most important shows on Apple podcasts 44 million downloads last year. Desorbo and Berner have just finished a sold-out national tour and are now releasing their first book How to giggle: A guide to life lowers; Promotions for this book recently include The appearance of the guest exist Show tonight Starring Jimmy Fallon.
In several aspects, Fool Team Feel like the obvious daughter of Alex Cooper Call her dad. The show attracted white women of Gen Z to a large extent. (Their fan base calls themselves “Gigglers.”) It also has a similar idea to the first iteration of Cooper’s Pod: Two girlfriends have honest, sometimes flippant, conversations about dating, gender, mental health and other aspects of life.
It’s similar to a casual text chain between two best friends. In a recent episode, Desorbo updated her UTI to listeners, and Berner joked about the intense rounds of PMS. “I like to let fools know where we are in the cycle,” Berner said.
Today, intimacy and kinship among hosts has become the expected feature of female-leader podcasts, with best friends chatting about their own genre. It also makes the audience feel like one of the gangs.
“It really feels like you’re dressing up for your best friends,” said Alexa Toback, who calls himself a fool. “You get such a close relationship with them. It’s like the conversation you have with your friends every week.”
Affinity fans believe that not only are there to talk about the increasing number of parasitic roles of podcasts after our lives, but female friendship has become the way for commercial businesses.
How Podcasts Become Our New BFF
In the podcast world, casual carnival among women is not a new invention. Some of the best examples are the organic efforts of friends to seek public channels to discuss their personal lives and interests.
A popular product that prospered early podcasts was Call your girlfriend Podcast, hosted by Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow. Two long-distance friends will attract each other in their lives while having insightful and informative conversations about culture, politics and gender. My favorite murder caseHosted by comedians Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff, he saw two friends connected with their interest in real crime stories. BuzzFeed-Then-Slate Podcast Thirst assistive tool kit See hosts Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins beckoned with their latest celebrity charming and verbally.
These older examples are more productive and polished than the ready-made, super personal atmosphere Fool Team. But podcasts like Desorbo and Berner feel like a natural development of this setup. Recently, this phenomenon of “group chat” has spread the podcast world, such shows Lyme said sohosted by college best friends Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix and Ringer’s Jam sessionHosted by workers Amanda Dobbins and Juliet Litman. This type of growth is especially evident on social media. Tiktok and Instagram Reels are filled with clips of two women sitting in pink or beige studios, and in Tiktok’s words, there’s a Yap for what seems to be irrelevant.
Naturally, this dynamic can also be found in popular podcasts hosted by sisters, a subcategory you might consider to be the best friend Pod. Popular culture performances Toast,Depend on Controversial sibling duo Jackie and Claudia Oshriwhich has managed to become a mainstream hit song. Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher’s new podcast, Mach House Her sisters Adrianna and Olivia are described as audio versions of their sibling chat. It already performs well on Apple Podcasts charts.
Popular Netflix series No one wants this Gained new attention The world’s first podcastHosted by Erin Foster, the creator of the show, and her sister Sara. The Netflix show portrays a fictional version of the podcast, with Kristen Bell standing in Foster.
“Will this format be richer in culture?” said Nicholas Quah, a podcast critic for the vulture. “The answer is yes, and it has to do with the fact that the podcast has been normalized. It has become part of everyone’s media diet.”
Quah added that these loosely structured podcasts that are largely scriptless are everywhere because they are simply made: “The economic structure of podcasts is privileged shows that are very cheap, easy to record, and effective.”
The barrier to entry is low – they do not require journalistic skills or expertise on a certain topic. Instead, the prerequisite is friend chemistry and a sense of relevance. Over time, listeners learn from each other about the host’s history, interests, darlings and other details. By listening Lyme said sofor example, audiences learn about Harris and Dicks’ core college memories, past relationships and parental quirks.
While the goal of “Podcast Brothers” is to improve themselves, Podcast Girls are embracing gossip and chaos
Watching the side-social effects of women relating to each other may be particularly familiar to fans of reality shows, another highly character-driven format that gives viewers unnatural personal knowledge of people they have never met before. Maybe not surprising, then podcast Fool Team It has become a natural expansion of the brand of the star itself. You can expect almost all real housewives today, including the famous duo, to launch their own podcast based on their established personalities and friend dynamics.
These podcasts inevitably begin to mimic real-life television, in the process of providing unconscious entertainment and a deep connection to talent.
Through design, the host creates his own extracurricular gossip for the listeners to talk to. When Litman announces pregnancy Jam session A few weeks ago, fans arrived nycinfluenersnark subreddit To share their excitement and curiosity about the news and to meditate on her performance on maternity leave. When Desorbo discloses Fool Team She is having a panic attack, Reddit fans Try to investigate the cause immediately.
Fool Team Friends’ very public air characters bring additional benefits and stress; the show is where they can also discuss news moments outside of podcasts. When the tabloid reports that Desorbo is separated from her partner for three years, Southern Charm Star Craig Conover, last December, fans knew they could watch it Fool Team Used for internal spoons. The same feedback loop happened last month, when Bernard gave comments from an interview with Megan Thee Stallion at the Oscars. Listeners look forward to the next episode, Burner solve Viral events.
Quah said “embracing chaos and scandal” has become the core of how young women build their brand through podcasts.
The way these shows embrace gossip and intimate conversations can easily be used as cheap strategies to attract listeners. But, as Quah puts it, it is no coincidence that these podcasts have become “a ruin of women’s empowerment.” With Joe Rogan and Andrew Hubermantalk to Wonky’s self-help experts and promote a self-improvement individualistic lifestyle.
As shown Fool Team Continue to produce, listeners continue to grow, and these alleged frivolous podcasts occupy key space in women’s lives. They are a backup friend, a gossip topic, and a much-needed space, understandable.
