The Leftist Podcaster Who Studies Online Radicalization

"This past March, the Times writer and power podcaster Ezra Klein appeared on "Doomscroll," a small but influential YouTube interview show hosted by the thirty-eight-year-old artist, researcher, and author Joshua Citarella. Klein, an avatar of the technocratic liberal media establishment, did not fit the profile of "Doomscroll" 's typical guests, who tend to come from the further reaches of leftist political theory and punditry."

"Since its launch a year ago, the series has featured such interlocutors as Kyle Kulinski, a populist YouTuber who views political discourse as a "bar fight," and Brace Belden, a Marxist podcaster who volunteered to fight with a Kurdish militia in the Syrian Civil War. In Klein's episode, he and Citarella acknowledged that they agree on the need for a "productive, Promethean, techno-optimistic future," as Citarella put it, but differ significantly on how to get there."

"He was, Citarella told me recently, one of the earliest bold-faced names to subscribe to a Substack newsletter that Citarella launched, in 2022, to publish research on obscure new forms of political radicalization among young people on the internet. That work, along with "Doomscroll," has helped build Citarella's reputation as someone who can read the internet tea leaves and augur the direction of America's political id."

In March, Ezra Klein appeared on Doomscroll, a YouTube interview show hosted by Joshua Citarella. Doomscroll is small but influential and typically features guests from the further reaches of leftist political theory and punditry. The series has included figures such as Kyle Kulinski and Brace Belden. Klein and Citarella agreed on the need for a productive, Promethean, techno-optimistic future while differing on how to achieve it. Klein subscribed early to Citarella's 2022 Substack, which publishes research on obscure new forms of political radicalization among young people online. Citarella's work and Doomscroll have built his reputation for reading internet tea leaves. Citarella's interest in leftist politics and digital dissemination traces to his post-internet art background after graduating from the School of Visual Arts.

Read at The New Yorker