TikTok Stars on the Politicians Begging Them for Exposure
Question Everything
Brian Reed
4.6 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when TikTokers replace TV hosts and interviewers, and presidential candidates start begging to be on their shows?
Brian Reed sits down in a Brooklyn wine shop with four of the internet’s biggest creators: Caleb Simpson, who gets people on the street to take him up to their apartments; Julian Shapiro-Barnum who interviews kids on Recess Therapy; Anania Williams of the LGBTQ quiz show Gaydar; and Jack Coyne, host of the music game show Track Star. Their videos reach more people than many major news outlets. But who gets control over what they run? When is money changing hands? What do they do when politicians like Kamala Harris and RFK Jr. come calling?
A frank conversation about the blurry grey area between this new form of entertainment and journalism.
Check out our Substack, with more reporting on the war over truth, free speech, and tech’s role in it all.
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
Guests:
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Julian Shapiro-Barnum, Recess Therapy
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Caleb Simpson gets millions of views asking people how much they pay for their rent in New York City
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Jack Coyne, Track Star
- Anania Williams, Gaydar
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Jealousy, resentment, |
| 0:02.6 | Jealousy, resentment, admiration, how to describe the way I think plenty of journalists feel about a certain type of creator or influencer on social media. |
| 0:18.1 | Regular folks who've come up with some kind of stick for an interview, |
| 0:21.7 | like eating progressively spicier hot wings with an interviewee or going on a date with them |
| 0:26.3 | in a chicken shop. A bunch of people have made shows like this and then blown up on TikTok |
| 0:32.0 | or YouTube or wherever. And now lots of these creators have massive audiences, way bigger |
| 0:36.7 | than many news outlets. |
| 0:37.9 | And they're scoring big interviews that journalists used to get with celebrities, business people, politicians, presidential candidates. |
| 0:45.9 | Hi, I'm Kamala Harris. |
| 0:47.1 | If you can name the artist, you went five bucks. |
| 0:48.8 | Now politicians can go do a music quiz with a friendly Instagram personality and show that they're a regular person, |
| 0:54.9 | like the rest of us. |
| 0:57.1 | Stevie Wonder. |
| 0:58.0 | Tell me about Stevie Wonder. |
| 1:02.5 | Well, Stevie Wonder is one of the greatest musicians who has ever lived, from songs in The Key of Life to teaching us everything we need to know about superstition. |
| 1:06.5 | And he's actually a friend. |
| 1:07.6 | So, yeah, you didn't know that. |
| 1:09.0 | These productions, they aren't journalism, but they are filling a space that journalism held for a long time. |
| 1:15.9 | So many people are learning about their leaders, their icons, through the work of creators like this. |
| 1:22.7 | Take New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani. |
| 1:25.6 | He's made these creators and influencers a core part of his campaign strategy. |
| 1:30.6 | Sure, there was just a hefty New York Times magazine piece about him, |
... |
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