The New Mainstream Media

Galaxy Brain

The Atlantic

Technology

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel opens with 5 predictions for 2026. Then, Charlie is joined by his Atlantic colleague David Frum, a staff writer and the host of The David Frum Show podcast, to discuss the temptations that come with launching a new podcast and the challenge of serving an audience that often rewards extreme content. Together, they talk about the responsibility that comes with hosting a podcast in a media environment that prizes clicks over truth. They also explore how conspiracy theorists have come to function as an alternate reality of “mainstream media,” and why the fight for truth may not yet be lost. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at theAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There have been so many human beings and so many historical situations, some of them so much more terrible and dangerous than anything we face.
0:07.8	Soldiers and seemingly lost causes and metaphorical soldiers and metaphorically seeming lost causes who just kept going with one thought, I'm not going to let the bastards win.
0:17.6	And sometimes that's all you need.
0:19.1	I think that I think that should be that should be the new motto, right?
0:22.6	Get rid of democracy dies in darkness.
0:24.6	I'm not going to let the bastards win.
0:26.6	I, and emphasize the eye and welcome to Galaxy Brain.
0:41.3	And happy New Year.
0:42.5	Hopefully you've all navigated the Dead Week successfully and had a happy and safe holiday season.
0:51.0	And thanks for joining us here as you start your new year. Today's episode is going to be a
0:56.5	little bit different. I am joined by my colleague David Frum, who has also joined me in launching
1:03.9	a YouTube show and podcast this year. So we talked about a whole bunch of different things, but mostly a lot of inside
1:13.6	baseball about what it's like to enter this ecosystem, how platforms like YouTube are constantly
1:21.7	pushing creators of all kinds towards more extreme ideas. I tend to blame the algorithm. David and I have a little bit of a
1:30.2	debate because he is, he's more on the personal responsibility side of the coin. But it's a,
1:35.6	it's a good conversation that I think really gets at what it's like to be making media here
1:42.4	in 2025, 2026, all the difficulties. But there's one part of the
1:47.5	conversation, though, that's really stuck with me over the past couple days after we recorded
1:51.8	it, which is this idea of first jettisoning the phrase mainstream media, particularly
1:59.4	because, as David notes, what we normally talk about and think about as the mainstream media, particularly because, as David notes, what we normally talk about
2:03.8	and think about as the mainstream media is actually, it's sort of a misnomer now. When you look
2:10.3	at the broader media ecosystem and you see the Joe Rogans of the world, the Candace Owens, the, uh, before he was assassinated,
	...

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