x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

For years, Matt’s been unpacking the events, people, and culture wars shaping the world around us. On A Bit Fruity, we take deeper dives into those issues — joined by celebrities, experts, and journalists who help us laugh and learn along the way. Follow Matt: https://www.instagram.com/mattxiv Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattBernstein1

society & culture news commentary

All Episodes

76:54

“Alpha Males” Are Making Men Lonelier (with Ryan...

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/04/18

When fitness influencer Ashton Hall’s absurd morning routine went viral a few weeks ago, I was… moved. The hours-long skincare, gym, and journaling ritual felt like an American Psycho-inspired metrosexual fever dream — one peppered with shocking misogyny and profound loneliness. Hall’s viral moment felt like a tipping in point in “alpha male” influencer culture, or the content ecosystem of men teaching boys what it means to be men. The further down the rabbit hole I went, the weirder it got — and

en

85:33

Maia Poet: The Final Boss of Detrans Grifters (with...

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/04/04

What does “gender ideology” have in common with ISIS? Well, they are both… things, arguably. As more people become aware of opportunities to commodify their trauma into anti-trans right-wing media bait, the race for those opportunities is getting more competitive, and the results are… fascinating. Today, veteran trans YouTuber Kat Blaque and I interrogate the right’s shiniest new detransitioner, Maia Poet — an ex-trans October 7th survivor, kind of. In doing so, we take a closer look at what

en

82:30

Gwen Stefani: From Feminist to Fascist

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/03/21

When Gwen Stefani made a tacit endorsement of Tucker Carlson earlier this month, I felt like somebody had knocked the wind out of me. Had the iconic 90’s ain’t-no-hollaback girl made a not-so-sweet escape to the dark side? Dizzy and disturbed, I set out to journey Gwen’s path from early aughts punk rock princess to… spokeswoman for a conservative billionaire’s anti-abortion prayer app. I learned a lot about how she’s changed — and perhaps more importantly, how she hasn’t.COME SEE A BIT FRUITY LIVE

en

77:50

The Complex Tragedy of Grimes

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/03/07

To the mainstream news, she’s the mother of three of Elon Musk’s children. To a certain type of extremely online Tumblr user in the year 2012, she once approximated God. Today, we take a challenging look at the strange tapestry of Grimes’s life and unearth stories about the Internet era that shaped millennials, pipelines to right-wing radicalization, and domestic abuse as a public spectacle.COME SEE A BIT FRUITY LIVE! Tickets are on sale here. :-) Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Thanks to

en

75:15

The Incoherent Sexual Politics of the Right

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/02/21

Elon Musk just (allegedly) had his thirteenth child with a fourth woman — a 26-year-old “conservative” influencer named Ashley St. Clair. In a past version of the “traditional family values” party, this might’ve been a career-ending event. Today, it hardly generates coverage. In this episode, Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub (of In Bed With The Right) help me make sense of the right’s impossibly contradictory code of sexuality: is MAGA the movement of the hot, virile new youth, or is it the movement

en

63:36

How Conservatism Infiltrated Pop Culture

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/02/07

Quiet luxury. Clean girl. Old money. Trad living. Kylie Jenner’s pivot from Black culture vulture to glass skin pilates princess. College youth dressed like polyester Shein replicas of Reagan-era prepsters. Something’s happened, and I’m uncomfortable.Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Work smarter, not harder, with Factor meals ready in two minutes at https://www.factormeals.com/fruity50off. Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at

en

88:11

The Tech Bro-ligarchy

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/01/24

Our country is now run by a bunch of spineless billionaires who needed to get laid in college but didn’t, so they made it our problem. Today, Edward Ongweso Jr. of This Machine Kills helps us understand the tech bro-ligarchy’s key overlords, why they are so far up the president’s rectum, their deranged philosophy on life, and their apocalypse escape plans. Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Work smarter, not harder, with Factor meals ready in two minutes at

en

94:11

Blake Lively and the Amber Heard Effect

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2025/01/10

The first episode of this podcast ever recorded was about Amber Heard and the online public’s inability — or unwillingness — to distinguish between their organic feelings about celebrity abuse allegations and their participation in a strategic, well-funded smear campaign against a woman coming forward. Since that episode, journalist Kat Tenbarge and I have become best friends. She’s also reported on this exact news cycle over and over again with different women. Today, we break down the new yet

en

55:58

Why is the Media Coverage of Luigi Mangione So Bad?

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/12/19

The remarkable dissonance between the public’s embrace of UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione and the mainstream media’s outward disdain for both Luigi and the public’s martyrization of him has been… bizarre. In a rare moment where the culture war has been traded in for the class war, billionaire-owned media corporations and politicians alike seem to be panicking. That panic should be a moment of clarity for everyday Americans.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Listen to

en

83:00

How Did Elon Musk Get Like This?

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/12/13

There was a time before Elon Musk was tweeting 60 times a day about trans people and the woke mind virus — and it wasn’t that long ago. As recently as 2018, Elon was boasting about Tesla scoring a 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index and telling anyone who was bothered by that to “not buy our car.” So what happened? Today, Ryan Mac and Kate Conger, authors of Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, unpack Elon’s personal and political midlife crisis — and the price

en

51:41

Is Glinda Good?

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/11/28

A Bit Fruity was due for a good old-fashioned film analysis. Wicked is a kids movie that is actually for adults, holding up a mirror to our increasingly fascistic reality and asking us to question our struggle against it — or place within it. Glinda the Good Witch, thoughtfully delivered by Ariana Grande, is both easy to love and easy to hate. But while some characters’ politics are obvious (a fascist Wizard, a radical Elphaba), Glinda’s are harder to pinpoint. Today, we attempt just that.Support

en

77:00

How the Right is Winning Young Men (with Taylor Lorenz)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/11/15

This was the first election where the online far-right radicalization of young boys and men revealed itself in exit polls. After years of being fed diet-incel podcasts, one thing is clear: Gen Z will not, by some inherent virtue of youth, save us. Today, Taylor Lorenz and I break down the “epidemic of male loneliness”, the influencers exploiting it, the conservative media machine that funds them, and why we can’t just make a “leftist Joe Rogan.”Support me + listen to bonus episodes on

en

81:26

Riley Gaines: Tie for 5th, Grift for Life

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/10/30

In America, the only thing standing between you and wealth beyond your wildest dreams is tying for fifth with a trans person. Today, media critic Ari Drennen takes us into the bizarre world of the 24-year-old whispering policy into Donald Trump’s ear.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at www.rocketmoney.com/fruity. Follow Ari's Substack. Me on Instagram. A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en

87:02

Jubilee Must Be Stopped

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/10/10

The slogan of YouTube’s most popular debate channel, Jubilee, is “provoke understanding & create human connection.” So why is all of its content a cesspool of bigotry, rage-bait, and pseudoscientific slop? Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Huge thanks to the show's sponsors: Get 15% off a cuter, more sustainable way to clean at www.blueland.com/fruity. Get an exclusive 60% on Incogni! https://incogni.com/fruity Subscribe to Big Joel’s YouTube channel! Me on Instagram. A Bit Fruity

en

77:26

The Cult of Stan Culture (with Amanda Montell)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/09/26

Well, I got Swiftied. As I sat there, sifting through ever more creative and graphic death threats, I wondered: is it time for a podcast episode? Today, Amanda Montell (of Sounds Like a Cult) takes us on an exploration of how online music fan culture co-opted the harassment tactics of the far right, which co-opted the social justice tactics of Black Twitter. Let’s go, girls.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Huge thanks to the show's sponsors: Protect yourself online, wherever you

en

83:43

Chappell Roan’s War on Fame (with Eliza McLamb)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/09/12

H-O-T-T-O-G-O, Chappell Roan is someone we do not actually know. But what do we do with the (very real) feelings and relationships we form with the people on our screens? Today, Eliza of Binchtopia and I discuss fame — global fame and niche micro “fame” — to understand where we parasocially flew off the rails, and what the future of celebrity might look like with boundaries in place.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Listen to Eliza's music. Huge thanks to the show's sponsors: Stay

en

91:15

The Crunchy to Far Right Pipeline

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/08/28

How does a harmless interest in yoga turn into a crusade against homosexuals in public schools? Specific though it seems, we’ve all seen it happen: a friend with a seemingly innocuous interest in wellness starts “doing their research”, and one year later, bam: QAnon. Sparked by some recent beauty influencer drama, Derek Beres of Conspirituality helps us identify the far right’s Goop-iest seduction tactic.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Get an exclusive 60% on Incogni

en

87:55

Transvestigating (with Contrapoints)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/08/14

Your gender is not determined by your anatomy, your chromosomes, your hormones, or even your internal sense of self. It is determined by J.K. Rowling. Today, Natalie Wynn (aka Contrapoints) and I unpack the harassment campaign against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and what it reveals about people who can “always tell.”Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Get an exclusive discount on NordVPN (that I wish I had when I first signed up for it, but hey): https://NordVPN.com/fruity. Huge

en

70:14

The Kamalafication of BRAT

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/08/01

Is Kamala bumpin’ that? Is BRAT summer over? Who killed it? Today, Maia of Rehash and I attempt a cynical but fair analysis of meme culture, Gen Z nihilism, and political standom.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Rocket Money is a real one for sponsoring the show. Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at www.rocketmoney.com/fruity. Register to vote here. Me on Instagram. A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en

72:50

Hawk Tuah: From Harmless Meme to Right Wing Symbol

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein ·

2024/07/17

I stay away from heterosexual mess, but this time it came to me. Today, Taylor Lorenz and I work backwards to understand how a 21-year-old bed spring factory worker from Tennessee became a culture war symbol because of a drunken joke about fellatio. None of these words are in the bible.Support me + listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Listen to Taylor’s podcast, Power User. Rocket Money is a real one for sponsoring the show. Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at

en

64 results

Similar Podcasts

Voices of Life

APG Mannheim

Promo Estereo Podcast

Promo Estereo

Talking Timelines Podcast

Talkingtimelines

גיקונומי

ראם שרמן ודורון ניר

Drømmefanger

Drømmefanger