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PODCAST

Non-Toxic

From the manosphere to the atmosphere, Non-Toxic is devoted to understanding the intersections between the crisis of masculinity and the climate crisis. Join us for conversations with experts, journalists, and regular guys on topics ranging from how to blow up a pipeline to why incels are obsessed with the idea of alphas to why meatfluencers may not have your best interests at heart. Hosted by critic and journalist Daniel Waite Penny. nontoxicpodcast.substack.com

society & culture nature

All Episodes

13:32

Getting it Up on Cape Cod

Non-Toxic ·

2026/09/22

Summer is officially over. Put away your linen and your bathing suits and unpack your sweaters. To salute the last glimmers of the season, I’m bringing you a special bonus episode featuring an essay by my friend, Abraham Storer. It’s called “Getting It Up” about a summertime tradition on the Outer Cape of a crew of young guys finding a big log on the beach and trying to plant it upright in the sand.…At least tonight, the boys seemed alright. Maybe their task was pointless, but there was strength,

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22:07

Bryan Johnson still wants to live forever

Non-Toxic ·

2026/09/16

In May, I met the biohacker and wellness entrepreneur Bryan Johnson while I was in Las Vegas reporting a story about the Enhanced Games for Now Voyager. The article, called “Gear and Doping in Las Vegas,” is in issue four of the magazine, which comes out today.A former tech bro who sold his company, Braintree, to PayPal, Johnson has dedicated the last five years of his life to trying every therapy and intervention possible in an effort to reduce his biological age, sharing his findings on social

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37:16

Abdul El-Sayed on how progressives can win back men...

Non-Toxic ·

2026/08/03

Today I’m bringing you a conversation I had with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who is one of the two Democratic candidates facing off in a primary tomorrow to represent Michigan in the US Senate.I talked to Dr. El-Sayed about a year ago for Carbon Bros., the miniseries I did with Amy Westervelt and Drilled. In this conversation, we get into why Democrats lost young men in 2024, and whether it’s possible to win them back. El-Sayed's argument is basically that corporations are engineering addiction—through

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37:55

Why the government has failed to keep us safe from...

Non-Toxic ·

2026/07/31

Throughout “Just Keep Swimming,” we’ve been connecting the dots between the chemicals hiding in everyday life and what they're doing to male fertility, and it’s not looking good. To catch you up:* Phthalates are everywhere — your cologne, your aftershave, even milk — silently interfering with the hormonal signals your body uses to produce healthy sperm.* Flame retardants migrate out of your furniture and into household dust — which sounds whatever until you realize how much dust you’re actually

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26:55

How do we know our clothes are safe?

Non-Toxic ·

2026/07/23

You’ve likely heard the horror stories about lead-contaminated fast fashion or airline uniforms triggering severe allergic reactions. Maybe you’re worried about the chemicals lurking in your own closet or have stared at a tag while shopping, wondering what’s actually safe and reliable versus what’s just marketing BS.In this special episode of Non-Toxic’s summer miniseries, “Just Keep Swimming,” we’re diving into the world of textiles—specifically, the hidden chemicals in our clothes and how they

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26:24

These chemicals may be killing your fertility

Non-Toxic ·

2026/07/17

Thinking of having children? Wondering whether your sperm has been compromised by years of eating lunchables and drinking from a battered Nalgene?A growing body of evidence suggests sperm counts may have dropped by nearly half since the 1970s. Commentators have blamed obesity, nutrition, even feminism. But the more I dug into the research, the more one culprit kept coming up: the endocrine disrupting chemicals hiding in plain sight in our food packaging, furniture, products with fragrances, and even

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29:06

After Cooling with Eric Dean Wilson (Part 1)

Non-Toxic ·

2026/06/25

Western Europe has been experiencing its hottest temperatures in the history of humanity this week, so it felt like a good time to resurface this episode I recorded way back with my old co-host Andrew Lewis, and our guest Eric Dean Wilson, author of After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort.We take a look back at the history of air conditioning (it’s weird and wild), and try to understand how we almost managed to destroy all life on earth in our quest for personal

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10:38

"I've got two sperms"

Non-Toxic ·

2026/06/08

I’m bringing you the first episode of a series I’m doing called “Just Keep Swimming.” It’s a Non-Toxic miniseries about male infertility and chemical exposure, exploring how chemicals in our environment (or chemicals we choose to inject into our bodies) can have an enormous impact on our individual health and even the future of humanity.This episode is a conversation that I had with the Dutch looksmaxxer, Felix van der Heiden, when I was visiting the offices of the biotech startup, Sperm Racing

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7:19

The real winner of the war in Iran will be solar power

Non-Toxic ·

2026/04/21

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit nontoxicpodcast.substack.comA fifth of the world’s oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a sliver of ocean between Iran and the Gulf States. Since the beginning of the US Israeli war in Iran, that traffic has slowed to a trickle, which has sent the price of oil skyward. Countries around the world are doing everything they can to accelerate the transition because whether they care about the climate crisis or not, they recognize that

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24:48

How to break the rightwing chokehold on gym culture

Non-Toxic ·

2026/04/03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit nontoxicpodcast.substack.comIn this episode of Non-Toxic, I’m joined by fitness influencer Colin Davis to explore the intersection of muscle hypertrophy, masculinity, and climate activism. You might remember Colin from the Carbon Bros finale, but a brief cameo didn’t do him justice—so we’re diving into the full, extended conversation here.Colin is breaking the mold by proving bodybuilding isn’t just for the right wing. He argues that to

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38:45

The Dark Side of the Battery Supply Chain

Non-Toxic ·

2026/03/20

Is our “green” future being built on a global sacrifice zone?In this episode, I’m joined by my former New Yorker colleague Nicolas Niarchos to discuss his revelatory new book, The Elements of Power. It’s a globe-spanning investigation into the battery supply chain—stretching from the Congo and Indonesia to Israel, China, and the US—revealing how the promise of clean energy is often built on violence, child labor, and systemic corruption.With conflict in the Middle East driving up oil prices, many EV

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28:06

The doctor who was helping Jeffrey Epstein live (and...

Non-Toxic ·

2026/02/20

If you’ve been reading the latest batch of the Epstein files, you may have noticed an unlikely name from the world of longevity and “Medicine 2.0”: Dr Peter Attia. To understand the connection between Jeffrey Epstein and Attia, I sat down with Sami Reiss, author of the Super Health. An expert in “dark wellness,” Sami interviewed Attia way back for GQ and has been following his rise (and fall) for a long time now.In our chat, he breaks down the history of longevity medicine and Attia’s kind of basic

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25:44

Moggers, Gigachads, and Neo-Nazis

Non-Toxic ·

2026/02/11

Are you a genetic loser with a recessed maxilla? Have you been brutally framemogged? Will you ever ascend? Welcome to the world of looksmaxxing, where all your problems can be solved with specially crafted fitness protocols that will change your life, or at least mutilate your face.In this episode of Non-Toxic, we’ll be talking about one squarejawed looksmaxxer in particular, Clavicular, whose advice on fitness, skincare, and more extreme methods of changing your appearance have been ricocheting

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12:34

Why Climate Denial Feels So Good

Non-Toxic ·

2026/01/23

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit nontoxicpodcast.substack.comIn this subscriber-only episode, I talk to writer and broadcaster Richard Seymour about his recent book Disaster Nationalism. Richard breaks down how his concept of disaster nationalism is different from the Coke Classic version of nationalism, and how real and imaginary disasters play into the hands of the far-right. We get into how to exploit social crises and conspiracies and what role masculinity plays in

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22:58

From the vault: Starting the new year with a burning...

Non-Toxic ·

2026/01/07

Every year on January 7th, the artist Jay Critchley holds a ceremony inviting attendees to “re-root” themselves to the earth. He also pushes a flaming Christmas tree into the harbor. In this episode from the vault, I visit Jay’s Provincetown studio to discuss everything from his conceptual patriotic condom company to the problem with “carbon captured broligarchs.” Enjoy!The discourse won’t detoxify itself. To keep the show going, ⁠become a Non-Toxic patron today⁠. Get full access to Non-Toxic

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41:39

Carbon Bros (Bonus mailbag episode)

Non-Toxic ·

2025/11/24

Amy and I are back after a little hiatus to bring you our long awaited Carbon Bros mailbag episode. We received so many interesting responses from people around the world. Thanks for sharing your stories, sparking ideas, and raising pivotal questions.Carbon Bros is a collaboration between Drilled Media and Non-Toxic, written and co-hosted by Amy Westervelt and me, Daniel Penny.If you want to listen to more amazing climate reporting by Amy, head to Drilled’s vast archive. The investigations they’ve

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32:59

Young men are swinging away from Trump. Will they...

Non-Toxic ·

2025/11/20

Democrats did surprisingly well in the recent spate of elections. One of the key pieces of that story was that young men came back to the party after supposedly abandoning them in 2024 for Trump and the far right. So what happened in that intervening year to change their minds?With insights from Charlie Sabgir of Young Men Research Project, this episode unpacks the surprising political trends among young male voters, the impact of affordability issues, the long tail of COVID, and the gender divide

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35:35

This progressive candidate for US senate is benching...

Non-Toxic ·

2025/10/27

Democratic pundits have been wringing their hands about how they lost young men in 2024 and how to win them back. With Election Day comming up, I thought I’d share this bonus episode of Carbon Bros, in which I talk to Michigan US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about what the Democratic establishment is getting wrong and how to redirect young men’s anger towards the people actually making their lives worse. From stagnant wages to sports gambling addictions to poison in our air and water, El-Sayed

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53:51

Carbon Bros: Episode 4 (Integration)

Non-Toxic ·

2025/09/05

The kings of the manosphere love to talk about “integrating” a man’s warrior and civilized self, but how about integrating men, and new ideas of masculinity, into the climate movement instead? What does that look like, who’s doing it, and where are there opportunities for repair and progress?Want to help detoxify the discourse? Smash that like and subscribe!Carbon Bros is a collaboration between Drilled Media and Non-Toxic, written and co-hosted by Amy Westervelt and me, Daniel Penny.If you want to

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19:17

Why is the fossil fuel industry funding anti-trans...

Non-Toxic ·

2025/08/22

In this eye-opening episode of Carbon Bros, my co-host Amy Westervelt talks with special guest Vivian Taylor. A veteran of both trans rights activism and climate policy (and a literal veteran), Vivian reveals the shocking connections between fossil billionaires and anti-trans campaigns. Turns out, it’s easy to distract people with genital inspectors so you don’t have to deal with methane leakage inspectors.In this episode, Amy and Vivian break down the disturbing overlap between anti-trans,

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61 results

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