In between jokes about identity politics and the taste of urine, massively popular podcaster Theo Von and his most recent show guest debated President Donald Trump’s tariff and trade policy. Would rising prices in the short term justify the supposed return of manufacturing jobs to America? Or would automation and artificial intelligence end up vaporizing those jobs as well?

“Here’s the thing with tariffs. Is the goal of tariffs…if it costs more for people to bring their products in, then they’ll build them here?” Von asked comedian Mark Normand on the April 7 episode of This Past Weekend With Theo Von.

“Yes, that’s part of it, yeah,” Normand replied. They continued:

Von: “So it’s kind of a long-term play. It’s going to take a while.”

Normand: “It’s going to be bumpy for a while, but that’s if it works. So we’ll see, but it might take 10 years.”

Von: “Right, but if we don’t try this though, then I think it’s a wrap.”

Von then recounted some memories from his stand-up tour across America: In many of the towns and smaller cities where he performed, “there’s nothing there.” No business, no industry, and abandoned downtowns. “You start to be like, nothing’s going to change. There’s nothing coming that’s going to make that different, right?”

Tariffs, it sounded, might be a way to reverse that. But don’t forget, Normand replied, “We got automation coming, we got AI coming, so jobs are going away quick, and everything’s digital now. There’s nothing manufactured here.”

Von was stumped. “That’s one of the things that people say, well, even if you bring jobs back here, those jobs are going to disappear because of AI anyway,” he said. “That’s one of the other arguments against doing the tariffs at all.”

This excerpt is one of the more sophisticated conversations related to Trump and tariffs happening in the non-hard news space of podcasting. And it’s one of many.

Trump’s tariff proposals, their partial delay, and their effect on the stock market have been a hot topic across the “manosphere” — the loose network of podcasters and influencers who market themselves particularly toward young men.

Trump news is covered differently there than it is in the mainstream — often through personal anecdotes, comedy, and banter with non-subject matter experts. But it matters.

How this manosphere reacts to........

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