The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

Episode: No Mercy / No Malice: Lonely Fans
Date: September 6, 2025
Host: Scott Galloway (essay read by George Hahn)
Theme: The business of OnlyFans as a symptom and driver of the loneliness epidemic, and its wider societal implications.

Episode Overview

This No Mercy / No Malice episode, “Lonely Fans,” explores how the monumental financial success of OnlyFans is built upon, and contributes to, the growing crisis of loneliness worldwide. Galloway unpacks the platform’s economic dynamics, the social costs of digital intimacy, and the larger cultural, political, and health consequences of declining real-world human connection. He closes by urging the value of analog connection amid the rise of artificial intimacy.

Key Discussion Points

1. OnlyFans: Profitable on the Currency of Loneliness

• OnlyFans boasts 378 million customers—greater than the US population—and generated $7.2 billion in annual gross revenue last year with only 46 employees.
• The owner, Leonid Radvinsky, took home a $700 million windfall in the last year, while top content creators (primarily women) earn millions per year.
• The platform’s value proposition is "authentic connection"—but Galloway contends this is largely illusory and commodified.

Notable Quote:

“We’ve created a platform where 95.8% of men pay nothing but still consume content, while a tiny fraction of whales subsidize an entire economy built on loneliness. It's digital feudalism, with OnlyFans as the landlord collecting rent on human connection.”
— Scott Galloway (03:56)

Key Stats:

• Top 0.1% of creators capture 76% of revenue
• Average creator earns $150–$180/month, top ones $146,881/month
• 70% of revenue comes from private messages, only 4% from subscriptions
• 71% of users are male; 84% of creators are female
• 0.01% of subscribers (“whales”) generate 20% of revenue
• 85% of users access via mobile

2. The Decline of Real-World Human Connection

• Technology, especially social media and content platforms, is crowding out traditional sources of social capital:
  • Religious attendance: Fell from 42% to 30% over 20 years
  • Third places (gathering points outside home/work): Disappearing
  • Clubs and unions: Memberships are waning
  • Marriage rates: Plunging
• Digital addiction: Nearly half of American teens are "almost constantly" online
• Loneliness is deadly:
  • Comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day
  • Contributes to 100 deaths an hour globally
  • Economic cost: $400+ billion annually in the US
• Men are especially at risk—historically, societies with many lonely young men face instability and violence.

Notable Quote:

“This isn't just an epidemic, it's a pandemic. Loneliness affects nearly one in six people globally, contributing to 100 deaths an hour. The health impact is massive. Loneliness is about as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes daily.”
— Scott Galloway (05:40)

3. Societal Symptoms and Second-Order Effects

• Examples from around the globe:
  • Japan: 1.5 million “hikikomori” (social recluses)
  • UK: Loneliness crisis costs employers $3B/year; pubs are closing faster than WWII bombings
  • China: Surging downloads of "AI boyfriends" by millions of women
  • South Korea: Only 1 in 20 young people will have grandchildren at current fertility rates
• The “sex recession”: Sexual activity rates are at historic lows
• Young people increasingly choose digital escapism over real-life interaction: Gaming, porn, Netflix, OnlyFans
• Artificial intimacy: As psychotherapist Esther Perel noted:

  “We're in an age of artificial intimacy where we're planning our extinction at current fertility rates.” (09:28) (Paraphrased)

4. Technology Addiction and Individual Isolation

• Galloway reflects on his own experiences and contrasts past sources of social capital (family, schools, first jobs) with today's digital isolation.
• Analog interaction (clubs, bars, sports) once taught risk-taking, accountability, and offered meaningful feedback.
• The rise in isolation (compared to orcas in tanks) correlates with vulnerability to radical ideological movements.

Notable Quote:

“As Hannah Arendt wrote, isolation and loneliness are preconditions for tyranny. A preview of what’s to come is to witness the behavior of orcas when they are put in isolation tanks. Simply put, they go crazy.”
— Scott Galloway (09:55)

5. Policy Solutions and Glimmers of Hope

• Policy intervention: Congressman Seth Moulton proposes investment in "community infrastructure"—centers, pools, green spaces, pedestrian malls.
• Personal solution: Galloway advocates for mandatory national service after high school to unite diverse youth and foster common purpose.
• Signs of hope:
  • Banning smartphones in schools
  • Independent bookstores rising anew
• Yet, digital drift threatens future connection, with women flocking to OnlyFans, sometimes forgoing education and career, and men choosing digital over real relationships.

Notable Quote:

“The best solution? Mandatory national service after high school. Uniting young people from different backgrounds in service to something bigger than themselves.”
— Scott Galloway (10:51)

6. AI, Commoditized Intimacy, and the Future

• The next frontier: AI-powered 'spicy fantasy' companions (e.g., Ochat) threaten to further erode authentic connection.
• Society is veering from the “Tinder Economy” to the “OnlyFans Economy."

Notable Quote:

“We can keep feeding and ignoring the machine that profits from our isolation, or we can remember what it means to be gloriously, beautifully human together.”
— Scott Galloway (11:57)

• The most radical response to this crisis is not more digital innovation, but “showing up”—with all the intimacy, friction, and reward of analog life.

Closing Quote:

“The most subversive act in the 21st century may not be starting a unicorn, but showing up, approaching strangers, asking someone out, grasping for their hand. It's not only fans that will save us. It's only us.”
— Scott Galloway (12:20)

Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “Loneliness is lucrative. Leonid Radvinsky, the secretive owner of OnlyFans, received a $700 million windfall last year…” (02:01)
• “We’ve literally taken childhood and poured it into a screen.” (05:23)
• “The most unstable, violent societies have one thing in common—a plethora of lonely young men. We are producing millions of them.” (07:13)
• “As Esther Perel told me on the Prof. G Pod, we're in an age of artificial intimacy where we're planning our extinction at current fertility rates.” (09:28)
• “Being human is not a solo sport. The loneliness epidemic isn't just killing people at 100 deaths per hour, it's killing our capacity for joy.” (11:41)
• Closing mantra: “Life is so rich.” (12:32)

Key Timestamps

• [01:37] — Introduction; OnlyFans financial overview
• [03:56] — OnlyFans as “digital feudalism”
• [05:23] — Digital addiction and teen isolation
• [07:13] — Societal risks of isolated men; Japan/UK/China stats
• [09:28] — Artificial intimacy and fertility crisis (Esther Perel reference)
• [10:51] — Solutions: community infrastructure, national service
• [11:57] — Call to action: Resist digital isolation with real human connection
• [12:32] — Signature closing: “Life is so rich.”

Summary:
In this incisive essay, Scott Galloway argues that the success of OnlyFans reflects a profit model built on the global loneliness epidemic, feeding off and deepening social disconnection. He details the societal and individual costs, outlines the drivers behind the crisis, and suggests that analog connection and collective action—not more digital fixes—are the remedy. Ultimately, his call is for listeners to rediscover the value of real-world presence and interdependence: “It's not only fans that will save us. It's only us.”