Tim Pool

Podcast host, political commentator,

Initially achieving notoriety as the unofficial documentarian and live streamer of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Tim quickly established himself as the enfant terrible of the American left, even featuring in TIME's 2011 list for Person of the Year. The newfound acclaim launched him to the position of producer for Vice Media, but his time swimming in the mainstream didn’t last long - Tim’s irreverent, unflinching style could not only flourish if he went solo. In 2019, he started Timcast IRL, an uncensored podcast that has since hosted some of the most famous (and indeed infamous) names in political pop culture, including Kanye West, Nick Fuentes, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and President Donald Trump.

Why did we invite him on?

While credited with reshaping journalism for the internet age, Tim Pool continues to divide. His political alignment may have moved right in recent years, but he’s still unafraid to oppose the conservative orthodoxy. Is he a flip-flopping provocateur or one of America's last ‘real’ journalists? Attention hound or truth seeker? It depends who you ask. But we weren’t interested in asking - we wanted to find out for ourselves.

What did we talk about?

”We are dangerously close to a civil war in this country. I don't know how you come back from this level of polarisation.”

That quote dates back to 2020, and Tim has not been quiet on the subject of a potential intranational conflict since. On more than several occasions, he has suggested a fallout on that scale is inevitable. Does he still feel that way?

In light of Trump’s victory, Tim thinks we may have just about swerved catastrophe. If Kamala had one, things might have turned out very differently, but Trump’s win represented the first truly decisive victory in over a decade - nobody could deny it, so there was little to fight over. Normal programming resumed -”for the first time in 20 years, the country is on the right track.”

It sounds promising. But it’s not all peaches and cream. Civil war may have been avoided, but Tim recognises that his country is still in a troubled spot; a latent, bubbling anger persists, ready to boil over into violence at any moment. He shares stories of the dozens of swattings his business has endured, the threatening behaviour he’s seen targeted at his team for travelling in Teslas… it all points to a climate of venomous, vengeful frustration. For as much as was made about Trump’s victory gifting America back its mojo, his fellow citizens still seem unhappy, often desperately so. Where does that come from? Why are so many Americans miserable?