Men Dominate the Top of the Podcasting Charts. As listeners, they slightly outnumber Women, too. “Brocasters” and the “Manosphere” have even Become a media obsession, and for good reason. During the Election, Conservatives Successfully Tapped Into A World of Dude-Driven Content to Reach Disengengen Voters.
But there has been a surge of podcasts made by Women, for women, too. And a company Called dear media is at the center of much of it.
Based in Austin, Texas, Dear Media Operates the Large Network of Podcasts for Women. Its Nearly 100 shows are as freewheeling and chummy as those in the “manosphere,” similarly hosted by comedians and content creators. Exception here, Joe Rogan’s Alpha Masculinity and Logan Paul’s unabashed Idiocy are Swedpped for Girlboss Confidence and Therapy Speak.
Gone, too, is the overt conservatism that now blankets the manosphere – but not all of its ideas. Dear Media Emphasizes Health and Wellness in Its Programming, at Times Dipping Into the Same Kind of Contrinian Thinking that Powers Make America Healthy Again, The Agenda of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Some of its shows are Hosted by Medical Doctors. Others Promote RAW Milk, parasite cleanses and communicating with angels. There is a do-you-with-research ethos, Already Familiar to Those Who Follow “Maha” or Even Goop. But here, it is slid between dating diaries and reality-television recaps.
This Range is working. In 2024, Dear Media Reached No. 7 On Apple Podcasts’ List of Top Channels, AlongSide Media Juggerquets Like Iheart, Siriusxm and the New York Times. This year, it debated a khloe kardashian show on x and acquired “The world’s first podcast,” Which Inspired a Hit Netflix Romantic Comedy. And its success could open the door for more networks to embrace women’s interest in alternative health.
“These conversations are not new to me or us, and it’s exciting to see the pickup and the traction,” Said Paige Port, the President of the Company.
Whether Labeled Fringing, Woo-Woo or Crunchy, alternative Health has long drawn Both Devotion and Debunking. But since the ascent of mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who believes autism is preventable and seed oil is poisonous, it has never been mainstream.
If feminist News was the nucleus of “lady blogs” a decade ago, wellness takes its place Today. Edison Research Recently Identified the Two Topics Most Interesting To Female Podcast Lists: Self-Care and Mental Health.
In an interview, Michael Bosstick, The Chief Executive of Dear Media, Described His Editorial Sensibility as “Nonjudgmental” and Orient Around Free Speech. He has described himself as a political independent, with a “don tread on me” tattoo, and publicly supports Mr. Kennedy, Once Writing on x That COVVI-19 Vaccines Were “Experimental Shots that caused many.”
Mr. Bosstick, 38, Co-Founded Dear Media in 2018. Trainly, He was the chief Executive of Jetbed, A Company Founded by his Father that that made for private planes. His wife is lauryn bosstick of the Skinny Confidential, a self-Care Product Brand Operating Within Dear Media that began as a blog in 2011.
Together they Host One of Dear Media’s Most Popular Shows, “The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast.” Their Interviews Often Complement Products in MS. Bosstick’s Line. Andrew Huberman, A Neuroscientist and Wildly Popular Podcaster, Helped Inspire Her Bubble-Gum-Pink Mouth Tape. In April, a guest claimed falsely that tap water contains birth control and that grooming paper is toxic. MS. BOSSTICK SELLS BAMBOO Groom Paper Rolls, $ 33 for a dozen.
“Note Everyone Likes Me,” Said Ms. Bosstick, 38, Who Has Been Skewed Online for Years. “I Sort of Just Lean Into.”
The Company Country Little Mind to Social Media Backlash. Claudia and Jackie Oshry, Sisters who Host the Daily Pop Culture Show “The Toast”-One of the Network’s Most Popular Podcasts-Have also Faced Criticism, Particularly Around Their’s Being A Prominent Anti-Islam Activist.
Mr. Bosstick is firm that he has no interest in police or censoring masts. On his own show, he said, where he agrees or disagraes with a guest, “I want to list openly, and i try to kind of culturally push that to the rest of the company.”
His thinking aligns with that of the manosphere: cancel culture is bad, unchecked conversation is good. People are too “hypersensitive,” Mr. Bosstick Said.
During the election, that attitude attractive president Trump’s Campaign to New Media, as he racked up appearances with podcasters included theo von, lex Fridman and Andrew Schulz. In January, Two Prominent TrumpWorld Women Were Similarly Draw to Dear Media.
A Week Before the Inauguration, the Bossticks Released A Rare Interview With the First Daughter Ivanka Trump, Followed by One With Cheryl Hines, The Actress and Wife of Mr. Kennedy, Three Days Later. (Last Summer, The couple also interviewed Calley Means, Top Advis to Mr. Kennedy.)
Ms. Trump Hardly Talked Politics, Which She Called a “Very Dark, Negative Business.” Over Nearly Two Hours, She Talked More About Her Life, Burning French toast and Practicing Jujitsu.
Some Hosts Have Joked that their Progressive Politics Were Out of Step with the Beliefs of the Bossticks and Their Guests: “Unfortanely they have Ended dei at Dear Media,” The Comedian Mary Beth Barone Quipped on Her Podcast, “Ride,” in Februry. “UNFORTUNATELY IVANKA will be TOKING THE REINS.”
But Dear Media’s Recruitment has not been hindered. On May 20, Savannah James, Wife of Lebron James, Will Bring “Everybody’s Crazy,” The Podcast She Co-Hosts With Entrepreneur April McDaniel, to Dear Media. The Company is also Introducing Shows from Cory Cory, the Train Chief Executive of Refinery29; ToGETHXR, A Women’s Sports Brand; Jordin Sparks, The “American Idol” Winner; and anastasia karanikolaou, an influencing with 10.3 million Instagram followers.
Aurora James, A Fashion Designer and Activist who Ooce Dressed Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in A Gown Reading “Tax the Rich” for the Met Gala, Said She Things To Work With Dear Media Precisely to Reach Audiences Outside Her Bubble, Such As White Women Voles
“I COULD Go to Croooked Media”-A Left-Leaning Podcast Network-“But I’m Still Going to be Talking to the Same People,” Ms. James Said. “If you can talk to someone with a different opinion than you, then you also can’t defend your position.” Her Show, “Curious,” will ben in June with a conversation on “Partnering and polyamory” with Diane von Furstenberg, the Fashion Designer and Wife of the Media Mogul Barry Diller.
While Declineing to Provide Specific Figures, Mr. Bosstick Said Dear Media’s Return Fell Between $ 51 million and $ 100 million, Largely through advertising. But he do not see podcasts as the primary business. The goal is to “help creators monetize” through various channels: events, merchandise, television, publishing. Video podcasts may be booming, but they are just “one sliver of media,” Mr. Bosstick Said.
The Company, which has raised about $ 12 million in investments, has in turn invested in about 10 consumer brands attached to its talent roster, such as spritz socied cocktails and arrae supplements.
Amanda Hirsch, Host of the Celebrity Interview Show “Not Skinny But Not Fat,” Approached Dear Media in 2020 Using the Company’s Public Website Form, She Said, Corcumventing The Traditional Agent Or Manager Negotiations.
“I Just Wanted to Be One of them,” She Said. “You could just tell that it was a supportive surrounding where you that could say Whatever you want.
Dear Media Hosts have described their audiences as open-minded, Even suggestible. Gabby Bernstein, A Motivational Speaker and Medium, Said Her “Dear Gabby” listers Were “Spiritually inclined” and “Looking for Answers.”
“They are coachable,” She Said. “I do not experience naysayers.”
In March, at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, some of these lists waited for a dear media panel. While the subject was the future of women’s media, Personal Health Became the Focus.
“When We Think Something’s Wrong, Almost Always Something is Wrong,” Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, a well-Known Hollywood Gynecologist and Co-Host of “She Md,” Told the Crowd.
Audience Lined Up upward, Asking Questions that dream their struggles: a woman who watched her mother suffer from an autoimmune disease; Another with postpartum depression; One woman who felt “like a crazy person” after look to multiple doctors for ANSWERS.
This is the NonTraditional Media Approach to Health: Direct, “Raw” and “Vulnerable,” As Sami Bernstein Spalter, A Fitness Entrepreneur and Co-Host of the “Transform” Podcast, Described It On the Panel. “It allows for that real, intimatus connection that we all craving,” she said.
Traditional Media is comparatively Less Raw-More Edited, More Polized, More Fact-Checked.
“Almost all of these podcasts right now trying to make this world a better place,” Dr. Aliabadi Said. “Reading A Magazine Doesn’t Make This World A Better Place.”
