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The Focus Group Podcast

S6 Ep10: Gen Z: They're Zooming Apart (with Rachel Janfaza)

The Focus Group Podcast

The Bulwark

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.82.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've heard a lot about how young men have shifted to the right...but this week's election showed young women moving to the left as well. Gen Z expert Rachel Janfaza, founder of The Up and Up, joins Sarah to discuss why young women have shifted to the left, why their male peers have shifted to the right, and why their life priorities are so different. They also discuss Gen Z's relationship with technology like AI, why Gen Z is a lonely generation, and the differences between Gen Z-ers who came of age before the pandemic, and after.

show notes:

Get your first three months with Mint Mobile for $15/month at https://MintMobile.com/THEFOCUSGROUP.

JOB ALERT: Sarah is looking for a qualitative researcher to join her team! Apply here.

By Rachel Janfaza in The Up and Up:
More on the two gen zs
Young women are the story (And here's how to piss them off...)
Nearly half of high schoolers have had a relationship with AI or know someone who has
Twice as many young people say religion is gaining influence in American life
Trad Husbands > Trad Wives

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:59.1

Hello everyone and welcome to the Focus Group podcast.

1:03.6

I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bullwork, and this week we are catching up with Gen Z. Don't be scared.

1:06.9

Now, we spent a bit more time on the more red-pilled young right-wingers, especially young men on this show.

1:14.0

But we're going to do just like a little bit of that today, as well as check in with young progressives, particularly young progressive women.

1:22.0

Since the 2024 election, there have been few takes as well worn as the Gen Z gender gap. We see this gap in their politics,

1:29.9

as well as their life priorities. There's been a lot of polling showing that young men and women

1:34.1

are pretty far apart on things like getting married and having children, which is a tough thing

1:38.5

for them to be a part on, since they're going to need each other. My guest today is a zoomer

1:43.4

and a chronicler of Gen Z

1:45.2

Cultural and Political Trends. Rachel Jampaza, founder of the Up and up and media and research

1:50.7

firm and substack publication. Rachel, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, Sarah.

1:56.1

All right. So you've said for some time now and you've got some devotees among some of the young kids in my office, and they hate it when I call them that because they're not kids. They're just, they're just zoomers like you. I shouldn't recognize that they're adults. But you say that there are really two Gen Zers, Gen Z 1.0, who graduated high school before the pandemic, and Gen Z 2.0 who graduated high school

2:20.1

after the pandemic. So what are just like, broadly speaking, the political and social differences

...

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