Podcast / American Prestige / Dec 30, 2025

Masculinity, the Manosphere, and Climate Politics

On this episode of American Prestige: Daniel Waite Penny discusses the new season of Carbon Bros.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Masculinity, the Manosphere, and Climate Politics w/ Daniel Waite Penny | American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Danny and Derek speak with journalist and cultural critic Daniel Waite Penny to discuss the relationship between masculinity, the manosphere, and climate politics, as explored in the new season of Drilled, Carbon Bros. They talk about the “manosphere,” libertarians promoting techno-fixes, and Silicon Valley elites pushing solutions like space colonization; how gendered ideas about strength, autonomy, and grievance have fused with climate denial and hostility toward environmental regulation; where these dynamics fit within broader shifts in political economy and the interests of fossil capital; and the roots of these alignments, their role in contemporary right-wing politics, and what they mean for efforts to build public support for climate action.

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Pumpjacks lift oil from wells at the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, California’s largest, in Fellows, near Taft, on October 17, 2025.

(Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images)

Danny and Derek speak with journalist and cultural critic Daniel Waite Penny to discuss the relationship between masculinity, the manosphere, and climate politics, as explored in the new season of Drilled, Carbon Bros. They talk about the “manosphere,” libertarians promoting techno-fixes; Silicon Valley elites pushing solutions like space colonization; how gendered ideas about strength, autonomy, and grievance have fused with climate denial and hostility toward environmental regulation; where these dynamics fit within broader shifts in political economy and the interests of fossil capital; the roots of these alignments, their role in contemporary right-wing politics, and what they mean for efforts to build public support for climate action.

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The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Trumpism Abroad w/ American Prestige / Fighting Fascism
byThe Nation Magazine

That’s right, friends… it’s another crossover episode! We were joined by Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison from American Prestige, a podcast that offers a left analysis on international affairs. Which… we got to eventually (Iran, Israel, USAID, what Democrats’ foreign policy should look like, all the hits)… but only after Daniel and Aaron ended once and for all the age-old debate of: Is Trumpism fascism? All this and more on this banger of a crossover!

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Daniel Bessner

Daniel Bessner is an historian of US foreign relations, and cohost of American Prestige, a podcast on international affairs.

Derek Davison

Derek Davison is a writer and analyst specializing in international affairs and US foreign policy. He is the publisher of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter, cohost of the American Prestige podcast, and former editor of LobeLog.

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