The Most Divorced Men in History

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Next Comes What — "The Most Divorced Men in History"

Host: Andrea Pitzer
Guests: Ryan Broderick, Nina Burleigh, various commentators
Date: March 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In "The Most Divorced Men in History," Andrea Pitzer delivers a trenchant critique of the ongoing political and social turmoil under the second Trump administration. Through a mix of journalistic reporting, sociological research, and sharp cultural observation, Pitzer explores the psychological and emotional underpinnings of authoritarian “strongmen”—particularly their common thread: the resentment of "divorced guy energy." The episode draws connections between this energy, contemporary American right-wing leaders, and global trends, all while interrogating how collective fury against women and minority groups undergirds current policies and political dynamics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Authoritarian Recklessness and Punitive Governance

• The current administration is characterized by reactionary and punitive measures:
  • Mass layoffs ("chainsaw for bureaucracy"), random tariffs, and aggressive foreign actions without congressional approval. ([00:00-01:21])
• Quote: “Thirteen months into the second Trump administration, we have seen a litany of wild behavior with a rationale of little more than punishment behind the actions.” — Andrea Pitzer [00:00]
• War in Iran described as "very complete," but without preparation or coherent goals. ([00:50-01:20])
• Rapid, qualitative and quantitative escalation in abuses: expanded detention, violent crackdowns, concentration camps, and unchecked military actions. ([01:20-02:36])

2. The "Divorced Guy Energy" Analogy

• Pitzer theorizes that many of today’s right-wing leaders and influencers embody “divorced guy energy”—a miasma of unresolved, gendered resentment.
  • “They all have the energy of the man who won't stop talking about the woman who left him.” — Andrea Pitzer [03:43]
• This energy manifests as brittle, reactionary masculinity, projecting personal grievances onto broad policy choices. ([03:34-05:04])
• Memorable moment: Pitzer wryly dissects right-wing influencer drama and hypocrisy, referencing public figures’ divorce stories and their public antagonism toward women, from Jesse Watters to Andrew Tate. ([04:16-05:17])

3. Misogyny as the Root of Authoritarianism

• Pitzer and guests articulate that misogyny is not just an accompanying feature but possibly the organizing principle for the Trumpist right. ([06:42-10:16])
  • Quote: "I've come to wonder if misogyny might not only sit alongside the rest of those things, but might even undergird the whole apparatus." — Andrea Pitzer [10:16]
• Discussion of how anti-woman sentiment justifies anti-democratic acts, violence, and shifting policy. ([05:30-08:41])
• Historical and present political figures’ personal lives and public rhetoric consistently reveal gendered resentment, from Donald Trump to Stephen Miller and J.D. Vance.
• Widespread projection: Female politicians like Hillary Clinton and AOC become scapegoats for male rage ([12:29-13:51]).

4. Protest Masculinity and Social Science

• Pitzer introduces research by Malia Fikete (Rural Sociology) showing that risk-taking, aggressive behavior in men is often rooted in "protest masculinity"—a compensatory reaction to perceived abandonment, often by women. ([16:03-18:24])
  • Quote: "Their descriptions about why they turned to these behaviors tended not to focus on the very real shifting social conditions in their communities, but on the end of romantic relationships with women." — Andrea Pitzer [16:25]
• This reactive identity underpins broader political trends, showing how personal trauma recasts as public vengeance ([17:52-18:06]).

5. Trumpism’s Emotional Appeal

• The emotional through-line: Trump’s own impulsive, harmful actions channel the personal resentments of his base, particularly divorced or aggrieved men.
  • Quote: "Trump takes hold of their resentments and acts out the risky behavior himself ... inflicting harm not on himself, but on the national and global stage." — Andrea Pitzer [22:26]
• Data point: Divorced men are Trump’s strongest voting group in 2024 polling ([16:03-16:35]).
• Political allegiance often comes not from policies, but from identification with Trump’s spectacle of risk-taking and vengeance ([20:06-22:35]).

6. Structural Manipulation and the Global ‘Divorced Guy’ Network

• The “Epstein class” of billionaires and influencers—Musk, Gates, Summers—were manipulated and emboldened by Jeffrey Epstein, who recruited insecure, resentful men ([24:00-25:32]).
• International spread: Bannon, Le Pen, Salvini, Bolsonaro et al. are part of a global feedback loop, sharing tactics and fueling a backlash to #MeToo and social change ([26:03-26:41]).

7. Reimagining Masculinity and Political Resistance

• The episode closes by considering how progressives can engage men without capitulating to toxic masculinity. Unconventional candidates (e.g., Graham Platner, Zoran Mamdani) and grassroots outreach offer more authentic models for male agency and civic engagement ([27:50-31:45]).
• Quote: “A vote is not just something to be coaxed away from someone grudgingly. It can be a byproduct of a process in which individuals realize they have a role to play, that their communities need them, and that they can make a difference.” — Andrea Pitzer [31:19]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On “divorced guy energy” and politics:

  • “I mean that they all have the energy of the man who won't stop talking about the woman who left him.” — Andrea Pitzer [03:43]
  • “What kind of husband goes grocery shopping with his wife? ... Men shouldn't eat soup in public.” — Satirical commentary, unnamed male contributor [03:14-03:23]
  • “They just speak out about restricting the rights of all women, as if the other sex has already betrayed them right out of the gate.” — Andrea Pitzer [04:42]

• On policy and revenge:

  • “The administration itself is filled with people who have had literal and often bitter divorces and who seem to be tapping into some kind of primordial hatred of women that fuels their current work.” — Andrea Pitzer [05:57]
  • “At its heart lies the feeling of betrayal and a desire for revenge against whole groups that appear to be stand ins for their rage against their ex.” — Andrea Pitzer [15:24]

• On protest masculinity:

  • “Some men are able to redefine their idea of what being a man means, but others develop a reactive form of protest masculinity in which they adopt hyper masculine, aggressive and risk taking behaviors.” — Andrea Pitzer [17:52]

• On outreach and hope:

  • “It is my great pleasure to introduce the Mayor of New York City, Mr. Mamdani ... convey a different kind of strength, but one that is just as powerful and even more authentic.” — Andrea Pitzer [27:50-29:22]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00-02:36]: Opening rundown of current administration's punitive actions
• [03:34-05:04]: Introduction and satirical breakdown of “divorced guy energy”
• [06:42-10:16]: Misogyny as the foundation for authoritarian policy
• [16:03-18:24]: Sociological research on "protest masculinity"
• [20:06-22:35]: Risk-taking as political spectacle & identification with Trump
• [24:00-25:32]: Epstein, Musk, and the “divorced guys” of global influence
• [26:03-26:41]: The international network of right-wing strongmen
• [27:50-31:45]: Positive models for masculinity and organic grassroots resistance

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Conclusion

Andrea Pitzer’s episode offers a powerful narrative connecting the growing authoritarianism and chaos of the Trump administration to a culturally widespread masculine grievance—manifested as “divorced guy energy.” Through a combination of trenchant observation, interviews, and research, the episode highlights how this resentment targets not only women, but broader groups, fueling reckless policy and persistent political division. Yet, the episode concludes with avenues for hope and action: authentic community engagement, redefinition of masculinity, and building resilient networks to counteract nihilistic politics.

For listeners seeking a sharp, insightful lens on American politics and culture, this episode combines sociological depth with darkly funny commentary—and points toward routes for practical, collective resistance.

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Transcript

[A]

Thirteen months into the second Trump administration, we have seen a litany of wild behavior with a rationale of little more than punishment behind the actions.

[B]

This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw.

[A]

There's Elon Musk's comment about feeding USAID into the wood chipper.

[B]

I mean, I've been hanged in effigy many times.

[A]

We watched the massive Doge cuts to grants and a seizure of the US Institute for Peace in the opening months after Trump's return.

[B]

I'm just living the meme. It's like there's living the dream and there's living the meme, and it's pretty much what's happening, you know.

[A]

Later came the apparently AI generated nonsensical tariffs.

[C]

It's so sad to say, it's so pathetic.

[A]

Earlier this year, we got the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela.

[C]

We went right into the middle of a fort.

[A]

And on the last day of February, the President delivered a new war of aggression on Iran. Mr. President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your Defense Secretary says this is just the beginning. So which is it and how long should Americans be?

[C]

Well, I think you could say both

[A]

with no preparation, no approval by Congress and apparently no clear goal.

[C]

I mean, we're doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China.

[A]

We're in a new space.

[C]

So we have sanctions on some countries. We're going to take those sanctions off till this straightens out. Then who knows, maybe we won't have to put them on. There'll be so much peace.

[A]

And that's not even counting the expanding network of concentration camps.

[B]

There's now over 70,000 people in detention facilities across the country. And even that, the Trump administration says, is not enough people in detention. That's why they asked Congress for almost $50 billion, basically a blank check to expand immigrant detention and to scale up

[A]

rapidly or the street violence against citizens and non citizens alike.

[D]

Now to newly released videos of the deadly shoot of an American citizen by

[A]

a federal immigration agent last year in Texas. The videos appear to contradict the Department

[D]

of Homeland Security's allegations that the driver deliberately rammed an agent with his car.

[A]

The grimmer face of United States history definitely echoes through a number of these actions.

[C]

It's going to be very tough to beat Washington and Lincoln, but we're going to give it a try, right?

[A]

But a new recklessness and fury has been injected into old tactics.

[B]

For example, today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.

[A]

It's certainly a quantitative expansion of abuses,

[B]

the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.

[A]

But it also feels to me like a qualitative one.

[B]

So I'll close with Scripture, drawing strength from Psalm 144. Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.

[A]

So many elected and appointed political types who are in charge right now.

[B]

I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him.

[A]

And a number of political figures who have been neither elected nor appointed, but who support the President.

[B]

This is what the President means when he says he ain't seen nothing yet.

[A]

Also fit a certain mold.

[B]

What kind of husband goes grocery shopping with his wife?

[A]

I think there's a commonality here that I want to talk more about today.

[B]

Men shouldn't eat soup in public.

[A]

I'm going to look at them a little through a scientific lens as well as a more subjective and impressionistic one.

[B]

Again, you're pursing your lips in anticipation.

[A]

For the purposes of this episode, let's call them the most divorced men in history.

[B]

You have to blow on it. If it's too hot, it's too hot.

[A]

Sit down. When I call them divorced guys, what do I mean? I mean that they all have the energy of the man who won't stop talking about the woman who left him.

[B]

What else is she keeping from me?

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

What else has she been lying about?

[A]

And what a monster she is.

[B]

The sanctity of our marriage with the

[A]

clear implication that her mistreatment of him was entirely undeserved.

[B]

That's the same thing as having an affair.

[A]

We have several examples of this in the right wing influencer universe. Jesse Waters, Fox News golden boy, married his first wife, Noel Inguagiato, in 2009 and together they had twin daughters. In some cases, as with incels, the guys haven't even been abandoned yet. This man decided to pull a classic Fox News movie having an affair with a much younger staffer, emma Digeveen, a 25 year old associate producer working on his show. They just speak out about restricting the rights of all women, as if the other sex has already betrayed them right out of the gate.

[B]

When I was trying to get Emma to date me, first thing I did, let the air out of her tires. She couldn't go anywhere. She needed a lift. I said, hey, you need a lift? She copped right in the car.

[A]

In other cases, as represented by Andrew Tate, the men advocate the active physical and psychological abuse of women as a group, as a means to power in a physical hierarchy in which men are supposed to dominate by default.

[B]

Does she know this story? No, she doesn't know the story.

[A]

But the heart of divorced guy syndrome in the US today, you're basically the zodiac killer.

[B]

It has a happy ending. Really?

[C]

Yes.

[A]

We're married.

[B]

Did you really do that?

[A]

Is that the first time you did

[D]

it or did you use that before?

[B]

It works like a charm.

[A]

Is the Trump administration.

[C]

She's very aggressive.

[A]

I mean that metaphorically. In which we see variations on divorced guy energy in podcasters blaming women.

[B]

It's interesting because the fight moves now, in my opinion, to take on feminism once and for all.

[A]

They're talking about restricting their rights and

[B]

that's the next great battle.

[A]

But I also mean it. Literally days into his presidency, Trump has already made anti abortion moves. He pardoned 23 militant activists who had been convicted for illegally blockading medical clinics, in some cases committing violent acts. And on Friday, he signed an order reinstating the so called global gag rule. The policy prohibits any international NGO receiving US funding from providing abortions or even just information about the procedure. The administration itself is filled with people who have had literal and often bitter divorces and who seem to be tapping into some kind of primordial hatred of women that fuels their current work. He also rescinded Biden era policies aimed at protecting the right of pregnant people to travel out of state for abortion care. Think Donald Trump.

[C]

You know, she's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years. I don't think I've ever seen a smile.

[A]

Or Russell vote.

[B]

We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.

[A]

Or RFK Jr. Do you remember when RFK Jr. Robert Kennedy Jr. Was accused of having what he called a textural T e x t affair? With political reporter Olivia Nuzi or Pete Hegseth?

[B]

Pete acknowledges that there was a sexual encounter. He says it was consensual. The woman had a different story. He did pay her an undisclosed sum.

[A]

I have no idea if it started with their moms.

[B]

Donald Trump's childhood was complicated early on. A family crisis, his mother seriously ill.

[D]

When he was two and a half, my grandmother got very ill. Donald, who was at a very, very critical point in his development as a child, was

[A]

essentially abandoned by her. But it has played out through adult relations with women and often through divorce. The Daily Beast website says Ivana Trump once used the term rape in a court deposition to describe a sexual encounter with Trump.

[B]

The author of the Daily Beast article said Trump's attorney threatened him if he ran with the story.

[A]

With J.D.

[B]

vance, I never liked him.

[A]

We don't have to wonder if it started with his mom, because it definitely started with his mom. He's only 32 years old, whose addiction and abdication from reliable parenting scarred him for life. But JD Vance is already best known for his tumultuous childhood. He's apparently a seething sponge of rage and willing to inflict infinite harm on his own community.

[B]

Are you a racist?

[A]

The country?

[B]

Do you hate Mexicans and the world? I nearly lost my mother to the poison coming across our border because he's

[A]

still mad at her.

[B]

So he's trying to talk to me about Pikachu and I'm on the phone with Donald Trump and I'm like, son, shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu.

[A]

Along with Vance, you might think, wait, Stephen Miller is not yet divorced?

[B]

I had a buddy who used to eat French fries and mayonnaise. I thought that was disgusting.

[A]

That's the only thing my husband eats. He and his wife seem to be together and unified in their willingness to

[B]

say horrific things with french fries or like, period, period.

[A]

But like Vance, Miller's wounds came early in life.

[D]

We're joined by Gene Guerrero, award winning

[A]

investigative journalist who reports on immigration and profiles Mil in her new book, Hate Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. And Jean Guerrero's book reported that Stephen Miller, at a very young age, when he was a teenager going through a difficult time in his life, came into contact with multiple extremists who introduced him to this fantasy that he had to save the country from the Democratic Party, partnering with Muslims, Mexicans and other people of color. Later, in college, Miller had a connection with a Latina girl named Sarah who appears to have tolerated him for a time before cutting him off.

[B]

I was hoping it'd be better than that this time.

[A]

Why does this matter? I would like to propose that the seething root of resentment that fuels all these men is hatred of women.

[B]

I'd like to talk about this with Nina Burley. She's written, really a book you have to read called the Trump Part of the Deal.

[A]

We are also witnessing tidal waves of racism and homophobia and disdain for the poor.

[D]

Russell Vaught, a very prominent person in the creation of the Project 2025. He's Mr. Family Values. And when he first came onto my radar, I did notice that he had just gotten divorced.

[A]

But I've come to wonder if misogyny might not only sit alongside the rest of those things, but might even undergird the whole apparatus right about that.

[D]

Time is when ProPublica had a hidden camera or somebody in one of the right wing des owner meetings that where he was selling his project 2025.

[B]

We want, when they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are so they are increasingly viewed as the villains we want to put them in trauma.

[D]

He repeatedly used the word trauma.

[A]

Patient Zero in their hate, more often than not is the woman that each resents.

[B]

Angry guy, isn't he?

[D]

And very angry. We're not psychologists, but when you look at that, you wonder what's going on at home. Like what made this person this way? And then of course you find out, well, he's divorced. Well, now comes more information about Mary Grace fought.

[A]

The later targets might well be people who want to be treated as human that they refuse to treat as human because they need more targets for their fury.

[D]

Putting the pieces together just timeline wise.

[A]

So instead these guys come to feel that they have been attacked by the actions or even the existence of these minority groups.

[D]

She divorces her husband right around the time that she and Matt Langston get these rather lucrative and one of them at least off the books contracts with taxpayer money from the people of Oklahoma.

[A]

They direct that same kind of fury against those other groups as they do the women they're most mad at.

[D]

Can we say anything about the relationship between Matt Langston and Mary Grace Vought? Well, what we can say about Matt Langston is that his ex wife wrote a screed about him that is on the Internet in which she accuses him of serial infidelity.

[A]

In the political world, female high profile targets of these guys reveal what they're up to.

[B]

It's been a remarkable weekend in this 2016 presidential race for Donald Trump in particular. You know, he's coming on the heels of this video that was released on Friday that revealed for the first time that he made what were essentially predatory sexual comments about women.

[A]

Hillary Clinton is perhaps the longest lived punching bag for the US right wing.

[B]

And just an hour, hour before the debate appeared with several women who had made allegations against Hillary Clinton's husband.

[A]

And this is entirely separate from the Democratic criticism of her corporatism, her hawkishness and so forth. Thank you. I'm talking about the Pizzagate and pedophilia accusations, the Benghazi obsessions and the conspiracy theory stuff. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked hard for. The language on the right about her embodies the rage that the divorced guy has for his ex wife. And I'm sorry that we did not win this election. And then there's AOC Step Miller is a clown who represents the cute, smart girl who wouldn't have anything to do with them in high school or even college.

[E]

I've never seen that guy in real life, but he looks like he's like 410 and he looks like he is angry about the fact that he's 4 10.

[A]

Fox News seemed to set the model for attacking her because she has charisma and her politics are farther left than all but a handful of representatives.

[E]

And he looks like he is so mad that he is 410 that he's taking that anger out at any other population possible.

[A]

But time and again, congressmen, Hill staffers or political activists have stepped up to stoke that resentment.

[B]

I'm tempted, sir, just to freeze for 20 seconds and just stare at the cameras and maybe they'll say nice things about me like they do about Congresswoman Cortez.

[A]

AOC fired back Advance's comments writing on X.

[B]

The only thing longer than my pause

[A]

to think was their silence to his joke. And to be clear, when we're talking about presidents in general, the US has a long tradition of those with daddy issues, both Democratic and Republican.

[B]

I see a future when the world is at peace with the United States of America promoting the values of democracy and human rights and freedom all around the world. Even in Iran, they have had an election that began to bring about some change. We stand for those values and we have to be willing to assert them.

[C]

We have to go to the closing statements and.

[B]

Well, can I answer that? One reason people are skeptical is because

[C]

people don't answer the questions they've been asked.

[B]

The trillion dollars comes out of the surplus.

[A]

But the divorced guy energy president is a newer phenomenon.

[C]

You don't mind being called beautiful, right? Because you are. Thank you very much for coming. We appreciate it. She wanted to be here and she's incredible. And they really respect her in Italy. She's. She's a very successful, very successful politician. We have Norway. Oh, Norway.

[A]

At its heart lies the feeling of betrayal and a desire for revenge against whole groups that appear to be stand ins for their rage against their ex.

[C]

I think it's an embarrassment to their families. You want to know the truth? The two of them? Yeah.

[A]

It comes out in the rhetoric they spout as shown by Stephen Miller.

[B]

So we're going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they're all over 90 years old.

[A]

Just as with your corner bar divorced dad it's no accident that so much of what they accuse their opponents of are things they have done themselves.

[C]

Right now, I think I'm sharper than I was 25 years ago. But who the hell does?

[A]

Soon after that statement, the president appeared to be struggling to stay awake. Now I'm far from the first person to see a divorce Guy Energy warming its way through the heart of the second Trump administration Research shows that over the last two decades, divorced men have been growing more conservative in their political views. And new Polling shows that 56% of this cohort supports former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, a greater percentage than their single and married counterparts. Which is why I was fascinated by a recent article, Beyond Deaths of Despair, Narratives of Distress and Risk Taking Behaviors among Rural Working Class Men, that recently appeared in the journal Rural Sociology. The author is Malia Fikete, a postdoctoral fellow at the Irsay Institute for Sociomedical Science Research at Indiana University. She looked at a group of 79 men in a rural Pennsylvania setting and identified a subgroup that engaged in risk taking behaviors. What was fascinating was that in the interviews done with the men who fit into this group, their descriptions about why they turned to these behaviors tended not to focus on the very real shifting social conditions in their communities, but on the end of romantic relationships with women. Unlike peers who proved to be more adaptable to changing circumstances, they often seemed to feel that the treatment they'd received was unfair or undeserved, and they were prone to displaying resentment. Fikete also mentions the established concept of protest masculinity, in which men no longer have access to a vision of masculinity they once lived.

[B]

I think we might have Stephen Miller back in response.

[A]

Some men are able to redefine their idea of what being a man means, but others develop a reactive form of protest masculinity in which they adopt hyper masculine, aggressive and risk taking behaviors.

[C]

There's nobody smarter or tougher than Stephen Miller.

[A]

In the current study, when men were asked to explain those behaviors, they tended to focus on abandonment by a partner, usually a woman, and expressed resentment toward that partner.

[B]

You're not hearing me and you're not understanding me now.

[A]

This particular study is a small one, and the author is clear that the article is less some definitive statement than an interesting idea worthy of further research.

[B]

Oh, wrong.

[A]

One of her key questions is how this population might be reached to gain additional tools that would help them be more flexible and to adapt.

[B]

I don't want to measle seem like I'm being Evasive. Yeah, but I don't think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.

[A]

All of which is to say that my extrapolation from the study is not meant to be rigorously scientific here.

[B]

You want me to indicate a product

[C]

for which there is no clinical data

[A]

center has made a preliminary finding.

[C]

Kunis is the Consul General of Israel in New York, and he joins us now.

[A]

But what fascinates me about the interview she did was this link between feeling wronged.

[B]

I don't know if President Trump is watching us. I don't know if he's watching us right now. And resentful like Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. I suppose I hope that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu will receive the Nobel Peace Prize next year.

[A]

And then this increase in risk taking, harmful behavior, depending on the outcome of

[C]

this, it certainly has the potential to completely reshape the Middle East. So we'll see how it goes.

[A]

The men she identified were struggling. Once Trump was questioned about when this conflict might come to an end. That is when the message shifted and she was looking at how and why and what could be done about it.

[C]

We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here. I could call it. Or we could go further.

[A]

If we stretch this concept of risk taking as one way to do reactive protest masculinity in response to abandonment by a partner, and without mercy, apply it to the current national political scene in the United States, two ideas emerge.

[B]

We have reached a milestone when it comes to President Trump's approval rating.

[A]

First, we have a kind of explanation for this wild careening from catastrophe to catastrophe, all generated needlessly by the cabal of men currently running the federal government.

[B]

We have now reached the year mark in which he has a negative net approval rating.

[A]

Many people have observed the degree to which we're seeing a dangerous macho chest thumping going on.

[C]

I said, why did we just capture the ship? We're going to use it. Why did we sink them? He said, it's more fun to sink them. He said, that's not.

[A]

But this idea of risk taking as a kind of compulsive response to what is perceived as an unjust or unfair treatment by women is interesting. The Washington Post has this piece on what it's cost so far. American coffers, $5.6 billion in munitions were used in just the first two days of strikes on Iran to make a generalization. Fichetti, in her study, has discovered a more rigorous equivalent of divorced dad energy.

[C]

What's the biggest thing for you that

[B]

keeps you up at night?

[A]

The other observation is that this could as much as anything, be the source of Trump's die hard support in some communities.

[B]

The birth rate is very low in almost every country and unless that changes, civilization will disappear. America had the lowest birth rate, I believe, ever. That was last year.

[A]

The reason? He can't seem to displease a specific chunk of the electorate. No matter how ham handed or cruel

[B]

his actions, humanity is dying.

[A]

Many of his most devoted followers may be small bore divorce guys.

[C]

And my people told me about four weeks ago, I was saying, no, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of

[A]

our country adopting risky behaviors because they're unable to shift to this new kind of masculinity in the face of economic or cultural change.

[C]

I want to protect the women. Sir, please don't say that.

[A]

But Trump takes hold of their resentments and acts out the risky behavior himself.

[C]

I said, well, I'm going to do it, whether the women like it or not.

[A]

Inflicting harm not on himself, but on the national and global stage. The near omnipotence of the President allows revenge fantasies in which unjust past rejection is meaningless because the divorce guy they've attached themselves to has almost infinite power. This strange controlling fury and resentment against women in particular is evident in Trump associates as well. Remember that Steve Bannon once described me too as the end of the patriarchy.

[C]

That's time's up in the end of the patriarchy. And what they wanted to have is

[B]

a fundamental shift in the power dynamics in society.

[A]

And he meant it as a bad thing, I think.

[B]

I'm not 100% with the time's up movement, but I can see it's a very powerful political force.

[A]

Elon Musk may be the single most divorced guy in all of history.

[B]

Once you have birth control and, you know, abortions and whatnot, now you can still satisfy the limbic instinct, but not procreate. So we haven't yet evolved to deal with that.

[A]

Though he's not an integral part of the current administration, at this point he bears significant responsibility for Doge cuts and cutting of USAID programs, which will soon have led to as many as a million deaths around the globe, two thirds of them children. Longtime close friend Jeffrey Epstein seems to have made a habit of courting these kinds of divorced guys.

[B]

Others said that they had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Epstein, especially after he was convicted in 2008, and cultivating

[A]

their insecurities and resentments with Elon Musk. He said that he refused to go to the island. And then in these new files it came out. I think it was an email that said, what day or night will be

[E]

the wildest party on your island?

[A]

It seems to be a unifying feature of the Epstein class.

[B]

Another very prominent person caught up in all this is Bill Gates, of course, claims that he picked up a sexually transmitted disease from a Russian woman. He's denied that publicly.

[A]

Some of whose public transition to divorce guy happened as a direct result of spending time with him or women to which Epstein connected them.

[B]

Listen to Melinda Gates, the former wife of Bill Gates, talking about all of this.

[A]

Whatever questions remain there of what I

[B]

don't can't even begin to know all of it.

[A]

Those questions are for those people and for even my ex husband. They need to answer to those things, not me.

[B]

And I am so happy to be

[A]

away from all the muck. Epstein's manipulation of the Epstein class embraced this underlying anger at women and tapped into and cultivated a group of people who would normally not adopt this kind of treatment of girls and women in public. At least to discuss all of this, I have Ryan Broderick here, author of the Garbage Day newsletter and host of the podcast Panic World. He's been digging into the files. We see a Yale professor recommending a student to Epstein based on her being a very small, good looking blonde.

[B]

So the New York Times publishes their investigation into Harvey Weinstein in 2017. And then Epstein immediately gets connected with Steve Bannon.

[A]

And then there are people like Larry Summers, whom the Epstein files reveal as potentially aspiring to be a divorced guy.

[B]

These two are just like the most insane con artists of our era and they are both fantasizing about a political takeover of the world.

[A]

The nihilism of Trumpism has always existed in the background, but has made itself especially apparent in recent months.

[B]

Jar Bolsonaro says he's not talking to Bannon. Turns out he was talking to Bannon and also possibly talking to Epstein. Matteo Salvini with La Liga in Italy, Marine Le Pen with Front national In France, the AfD party in Germany, Nigel Farage and the Brexit movement in the uk.

[A]

What would it mean if the divorced guy energy the president and those around him display is driven by a compulsion toward risk taking?

[B]

They're all talking to Bannon and Bannon is talking to Epstein. And they're all trying to accomplish this one thing which is unregulated financial transfers, far right politics and crushing the MeToo movement.

[A]

It would suggest that the kind of Recklessness we're seeing is unlikely to drop off and in fact might even increase.

[C]

I think you'll see it's going to be a short term excursion.

[A]

If he is hemmed in on one side, Trump may well make more egregious attacks on another front.

[C]

We could go further, and we're going to go further.

[A]

In addition, if the affinity regular divorced guys feel for Trump is due in part to identification with Trump being able to export the costs of risk taking onto the country as a whole in dramatic ways, we also shouldn't expect that support to stop easily or to fade away on its own. I think there's a way to reroute reactive protest masculinity that doesn't turn these men into infants and makes them accountable for themselves. It is my great pleasure to introduce the Mayor of New York City, Mr. Mamdani. Even back when I was teaching self defense and violence prevention, there were various community level programs in which men would have get togethers over sports or other activities and create social networks that could build on or share more positive ideas of what it meant to be a man.

[B]

We often tell young people what they shouldn't be doing. How about we start telling them what

[A]

they should be doing? I think a hunger for this is why so many people, men especially, desperately want someone like Graham Platner, who is running for U.S. senate as a Democrat from Maine, to be a viable candidate.

[B]

It is not every day that a movement by the people and of the people truly delivers for the people.

[A]

There's an idea that a stereotypical man will be a more legitimate driver of votes for these divorced guy dads, that they will identify with him.

[B]

It's a statement of our values and what kind of city we're choosing to build.

[A]

But Platner is no more powerful than many of the divorced dads he would represent.

[B]

It's also incredibly confusing, and I suspect

[A]

that it's the risk taking behavior that attracts these guys to Trump.

[B]

But it doesn't have to be.

[A]

Getting a Nazi tattoo might make Platner attractive as a risk taker, but unless he's enacting that risk taking in the present, he might not keep their support. And honestly, unconventional candidates are quite possibly a key to winning November races. But trying to appeal to voters on the same ground that Trump does is a shaky proposition. Reinventing the ways that candidates can appeal to voters the way that Zoran Mamdani, for instance, wins over and persuades even Donald Trump.

[B]

They meet again. That's a big smile from President Trump and New York's Democratic Socialist Mayor Zoran Mamdani at the White House, while sticking

[A]

to his stated values, can convey a different kind of strength, but one that is just as powerful and even more authentic.

[B]

Today, the mayor brought props. On the right, the President is holding a copy of a 1975 New York Daily News front page showing then President Gerald Ford and the headline Ford to City, drop Dead. On the left, a mock up of that same front page, but with the current president's photo and the words Trump to City, let's build.

[A]

It's important to say that not all divorced guys are Trump followers, and neither are they all working class rural men. The latter just happens to be the group the researcher was looking at in this recent study.

[B]

Back in November, the pair had another remarkably friendly Oval Office meeting. The President is suggesting the two actually had a lot in common, even though he's often falsely referred to him as a communist.

[A]

In any case, the US is unlikely to redefine masculinity nationwide before November.

[E]

We need to fight for change at every single level, local, city, state and federal. And that's what movement politics are all about.

[A]

Which means opponents are unlikely to swipe Trump's hardcore base away from him.

[E]

What this is really about is about knocking on our neighbor's door or talking to our friends outside of the bodega, or outside of the bank or or outside the subway station.

[A]

But in doing honest outreach at the grassroots level, the better goal may be to keep more voters from embracing that self canceling kind of identification with nihilistic and overtly mercenary politicians.

[E]

And the reason why that's important is that, is that strong communities talk to

[A]

each other to further democracy now. And in the long run, it's vital that communities and politicians give everyone ways to plug in that help them increase their power and their sense of agency.

[E]

We say, hey man, what's up? Let me just tell you something that we really need.

[A]

A vote is not just something to be coaxed away from someone grudgingly. It can be a byproduct of a process in which individuals realize they have a role to play, that their communities need them, and that they can make a difference.

[E]

These types of practices and becoming a place where we're used to engaging in that is how we build a better, stronger community that can get what we need.

[A]

Everything I've been encouraging you to do for the last 15 months is that work with the goal of not only finding your own way to plug in, but creating networks where others might realize how valuable they are too. And that's it. Thanks for listening to. Next comes what? Please share this with one person who's looking for ways to survive this mess. To support this podcast, please become a paid [e-mail] and consider giving Nextcome's what? A five star review where you get your podcasts.