Podcast Summary: Across the Gooniverse

The Gray Area with Sean Illing — Vox
Guest: Daniel Kolitz
Release Date: December 8, 2025

Overview

This episode examines the rise of “gooning”—a niche but revealing digital subculture centered on ritualized, hyper-stimulating online pornography consumption. Through an in-depth interview with Daniel Kolitz, who reported on the phenomenon for Harper’s Magazine, the conversation expands beyond the quirks of the Goonverse to interrogate its chilling implications for culture, attention, technology, and the future of human connection. With painstaking honesty and philosophical depth, the episode encourages listeners to see “gooning” not just as a spectacle of online extremity, but as a window into trends transforming society at large.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Gooning and the Goonverse

• What is gooning?
  • “A masturbatory practice... edging for a prolonged period... with the aim of attaining the ‘goon state,’ which is a kind of masturbation nirvana, a transcendent zone of pure bliss. Some liken it to advanced meditation.” (Kolitz, 03:34)
  • Dual meaning: the act and the community—online groups, primarily on Discord and Twitter, engaging in communal, often gamified sessions, sharing and discussing extreme forms of pornographic content.
• Elaborate Rituals and Language:
  • Subculture marked by unique lexicon (“goon state,” “goon fuel,” etc.), elaborate hardware setups (“goon caves”), and a mix of sincere addiction, parody, and roleplay.

2. Reporting on the Goonverse

• Origins of the Investigation:
  • Triggered first by the mainstreaming of softcore porn (e.g., OnlyFans via social media), then by Reddit’s ban on “Goon Cave” due to revenge porn.
  • Kolitz describes being “stunned” by both the scale and the sheer intensity: “It was like a Zoom call where everyone was masturbating to the same porn… it was neck down and they were fervently going at it… weirdly competitive or gamer-like.” (Kolitz, 07:10)
• Participants and Willingness to Share:
  • Many Gooners eager to be interviewed—"It’s a real hobby…with the equipment, with the time invested, with the connections made.” (Kolitz, 08:18)

3. Hobby, Addiction, or Something Else?

• Blurred Lines:
  • “Is it an identity? Is it a hobby? Is it a lifestyle? Is it an addiction?...The entire sort of conceit of being a Gooner is that you're addicted to porn. Right? Gooning is in a sense, a kink. The kink being: I’m addicted to pornography." (Kolitz, 09:34)
• Addiction Debates:
  • The clinical legitimacy of porn addiction is disputed, with shame and social discomfort often central to the experience rather than physiological compulsion.
• "Sliding scale of addiction":
  • Many digital hobbies now functionally mirror addiction, especially as tech platforms optimize for compulsive engagement.

4. Who Are the Gooners?

• Demographics and Surprising Normalcy:
  • Contrary to stereotypes, Kolitz found Gooners to be “distressingly normal”—not angry loners, “but sweet-natured” 20-somethings, not driven by misogyny or resentment: “The Gooner thing is like a celebration…It’s like I can’t get a date and that’s fine, and I love women anyway…” (Kolitz, 12:25)
• Divergent Attitudes Toward Sex:
  • Surveyed numbers: ~40% claim to be sexually active, but most identified as “pornosexual”—no interest in real-life sex, finding online interactions safer and more satisfying or less anxiety-provoking.

5. The Content: From Porn to Meta-Pleasure

• Porn Music Videos (PMVs):
  • Dominant genre: “hundreds of clips spliced together, synced to pounding techno beats, image cycling every three seconds...less about any individual than about shapes, colors, the female form...an embodiment of the experience of clicking around on Pornhub.” (Kolitz, 13:43)
• Meta-Fetish:
  • The real kink isn’t always sex, but the act of consuming content—“The fetish is consuming media.” (Kolitz, 13:43)
• Chasing Stimulation:
  • “It is more about the wash of media, it’s more about the stimulation than...the porn itself.” (Kolitz, 14:48)

6. Generations and Fear of Real Interaction

• Younger Gooners as Post-Sexual:
  • “It was very telling that the Gooners...still having real relationships with people are the older ones. It’s the younger ones...who can’t deal with the actual world, or maybe...don’t want to.” (Elling, 17:02)
• Psychological Implications:
  • Deep anxieties about intimacy, ambiguity, and rejection—born from a life spent online in low-stakes, low-expectation environments: “There’s just this terror. Terror of the other, and terror of...rejection.” (Kolitz, 18:01)

7. Gooning as a Mirror of the Attention Economy

• A Parody or a Prophecy for Everyone?
  • “The more I looked at it, the more it seemed like this was...almost a...funny parody of the Internet, writ large...Ultimately...we’re all looking at a screen. It’s all screens all the way down.” (Kolitz, 25:15)
• Neil Postman and the Death of Literacy:
  • Kolitz references Amusing Ourselves to Death: “This tied in with my general terror...about the death of literacy writ large...video had just completely supplanted text as the way people encountered the world.” (Kolitz, 26:39)
• Gooning as the Attention Economy’s Endpoint:
  • “Gooning is just an extreme version of what we all do online...How different is gooning from compulsively watching YouTube videos or TikTok reels...” (Elling, 29:36)
  • “It’s free-basing content.” (Elling, 30:20)
  • “We are both literally and metaphorically Gooners.” (Kolitz, 31:30)

8. Honesty vs. Rationalization

• Gooners’ Radical Admission:
  • Unlike most users who rationalize their screen time, Gooners “make no attempt to justify...They say: This is bad for me and I love it and I’m leaning into it. So in that sense there is a kind of honesty.” (Kolitz, 32:29)

9. Escalation of Stimulation & Post-Literate Culture

• Tolerance and Escalation:
  • “The more you do it, the greater your tolerance. And so you need more and more...to get the same experience. If you live your life consuming content, on a long enough timeline, you’re a gooner.” (Elling, 37:18)
• Collapse of Narrative and Stillness:
  • Hyperkinetic content eating away patience for narrative and stillness—mirrored in children’s media and across culture: “When I bemoan a kind of post literate culture, it’s because there is real joy and value in unpacking complex narrative.” (Kolitz, 44:02)
• Pleasure That Requires Work:
  • “What I’m interested in is a more intense degree of pleasure...that can only be unlocked with work.” (Kolitz, 46:44)

10. Is Gooning an Inevitable Outcome of the Internet?

• Technological Destiny or Human Nature Exposed?
  • Referencing Infinite Jest: “It was clear even 30 years ago that if given the option, people will kill themselves with entertainment.” (Kolitz, 47:30)
  • “Was there a way to design the Internet away from these incentives? I don’t really think so.” (Kolitz, 48:09)
• Perils of Hyperconnection:
  • “We were not meant to access anyone who ever lived at every second...Too many people.” (Kolitz, 48:44)

11. What’s at Stake? What Do We Lose?

• Loss of Rich Social Fabric:
  • “You lose a way of being in the world...being embedded in a rich social context is preferable to being atomized and on the Internet...I think that these things are valuable.” (Kolitz, 50:54)
• Atomization & Surplus of Entertainment:
  • Overstimulation can make isolation easier, shrinking motivation for social engagement.

12. Is There Hope? Or Is This The End of History?

• Possibility for Change:
  • “The conditions of passivity...have to do with larger social factors, atomization, people being unable to find fulfilling work, being overworked...these are things that have political solutions.” (Kolitz, 54:37)
• Boredom as Salvation:
  • “What gave me hope was the idea of boredom...At a certain point, you can’t get any more [stimulation]. You burn out and you look around and think, Where am I? I’m alone...and from there decide to open the door, go outside, touch grass...” (Kolitz, 55:21)
• End of History or Exaggeration?
  • “If we're talking about literal gooning, then no...But gooning more broadly...a lot of great stuff is out there...a lot of creativity has been unlocked. It's not all bad.” (Kolitz, 53:56)
  • “I do maintain a sliver of hope.” (Kolitz, 54:22)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Gooners’ candor:

  “The Gooners make no attempt to justify what they're doing...Their whole thing is, this is bad for me and I love it and I’m leaning into it.”
  — Daniel Kolitz, (32:29)

• The meta nature of gooning:

  “The real kink isn’t actually porn...the fetish is consuming media.”
  — Daniel Kolitz, (13:43)

• On generational shifts:

  “It's the younger ones...who can't deal with the actual world, or maybe even worse, they don't want to. And that should scare the hell out of everyone. It scares the hell out of me for sure.”
  — Sean Illing, (17:02)

• Attention economy and screens:

  “Ultimately, you’re all looking at a screen. It’s all screens all the way down.”
  — Daniel Kolitz, (25:15)

• Self-aware summary of modern digital life:

  “Wasting hours each day consuming short form video content, chasing intensities of sensation across platforms, parasocially fixating on micro-celebrities...Does any of this sound familiar?”
  — Sean Illing reading Kolitz’s piece, (30:47)

• On boredom as hope:

  “I have to hope that at a certain point you can’t get any more. At a certain point you reach the limit, you would think you burn out and…decide to open the door, go outside, touch grass...”
  — Daniel Kolitz, (55:21)

• Kolitz’s warning:

  “You do lose a lot when you cut yourself off from...the rich fabric of existence and instead, pummel yourself in your goon cave. Then again, you don’t have to be gooning in there. You could just be gaming or whatever.”
  — Daniel Kolitz, (50:54)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:34] — What is gooning?
• [06:12] — Introduction to “goon caves” and the Reddit ban
• [07:10] — “Stunned” by the intensity and scale of the Goonverse
• [09:34] — Gooning as addiction, hobby, lifestyle
• [13:43] — The real kink is content consumption, not sex
• [15:59] — “Pornosexuals” and attitudes toward real sex
• [17:02] — Generational divide, fear of intimacy, and atomization
• [24:20] — Realizing this is bigger than porn: a commentary on screen culture
• [26:39] — Reference to Neil Postman, “the death of literacy”
• [29:36] — Gooning as a paradigm for digital life; “free-basing content”
• [31:30] — “We are both literally and metaphorically Gooners”
• [32:29] — The radical honesty of Gooners
• [37:18] — Stimulus escalation and the analogy to any addictive digital behavior
• [44:02] — Loss of narrative, post-literate culture, pleasure from complex work
• [47:30] — Was this outcome inevitable? Infinite Jest and the lure of entertainment
• [50:54] — What we lose: real-world social fabric
• [54:22] — Possibility for hope and redemption in boredom
• [55:21] — Boredom as a trigger for change

Final Thoughts

The episode’s strength is in refusing to simply gawk at “the Gooners” as a digital oddity. Instead, it offers a profound meditation on contemporary culture’s embrace of compulsive content consumption and the ways we rationalize (or fail to rationalize) our digital lives. Both Sean Illing and Daniel Kolitz urge listeners to see the “Goonverse” as a frighteningly honest endpoint for trends already present in mainstream digital culture. The central question—“Are we all Gooners now?”—is left provocatively open, with the lingering hope that recognition, boredom, and possibly collective action could steer us away from total atomization.

“The Gooners make no attempt to justify what they're doing…This is bad for me and I love it and I'm leaning into it.” (Kolitz, 32:29)

“If you live your life consuming content, on a long enough timeline, you’re a gooner.” (Elling, 37:18)