Pete Hegseth’s résumé maps the trajectory of a man who failed upward from Fox News host to Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. As Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearings proved, sexual assault allegations are rarely a roadblock to a powerful job in the Trump administration. In fact, Donald Trump has consistently rewarded Hegseth for years of documented bad behavior—from financial mismanagement of veterans organizations to the relentless promotion of toxic masculinity.

Hegseth presents himself as the prototypical "man’s man," seemingly more invested in a pull-up challenge with a shirtless Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than with abiding by the rules of war or the gravity of the Pentagon.

This week, Kill the Computer podcaster June Sternbach joins Katelyn and Christine to unpack Pete Hegseth’s pathetic masculinity complex. We dissect how mainstream media sanitized his record, and how rewarding his fragile masculinity both reflects and reinforces the darkest corners of U.S. political culture.

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Episode Links:

Follow June Sternbach on Bluesky, @junlper.beer
Nick Schwartz for USA Today: Fox News host hits man with an axe on live TV
Gabriel Sherman for Vanity Fair: Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Said to Face Previous Sexual Misconduct Allegation
Sharon LaFraniere and Julie Tate for The New York Times: Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years
Jane Mayer for The New Yorker: Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube and Sarah Fitzpatrick for NBC News: Pete Hegseth's drinking worried colleagues at Fox News, sources tell NBC News
Julie Tsirkin, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Courtney Kube for NBC News: Senators receive affidavit containing new allegations against Pete Hegseth, who denies the claims
Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
Calum Marsh for The New York Times: 100 Push-Ups and 50 Pull-Ups in Under 10 Minutes. What Could Go Wrong?
Watch Pattie Gonia’s pull-up challenge
Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima for The Washington Post: Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill Them All
Graham Smith for Morning Edition: Pentagon shifts toward maintaining ties to Scouting
Michael Liedtke and David Klepper for the Associated Press: What to know about the clash between the Pentagon and Anthropic over military’s AI use

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The Fragile Masculinity of Pete Hegseth (ft. June Sternbach aka junlper)