Clickbait & Controversy: The Double Standard of Podcasting

Every Sunday around 5 p.m., the Santa Barbara sun begins to melt into the horizon. Palm trees sway against the California skyline as a cool ocean breeze drifts through the hills. Inside a well-known California home, a group of women take their seats around a white square table. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind them, the setting sun casts a golden glow across the room, framing the palm trees and rolling hills beyond.

Some of the women are dressed in revealing outfits, while others wear more modest clothing. Their chairs are arranged in a U-shape around the table, allowing everyone to see one another while facing a camera positioned at the centre of the room. That camera is broadcasting live to an audience of more than 4.68 million subscribers on YouTube.

At the very end of the table sits a man who, despite being surrounded by a cast of outspoken guests, is arguably the real star of the show: Brian Atlas, host of the popular podcast Whatever.

The first episode of the Whatever podcast aired on January 28, 2023, and since then, the show has become immensely popular online, accumulating hundreds of millions of views across social media and YouTube. The podcast has featured outspoken individuals such as Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, John Doyle, Justin Waller, and many others from the worlds of politics, media, and online commentary.

The podcast has gained notoriety for its promotional segments and clips that are frequently shared on social media. Typically posted as Instagram Reels, TikToks, or YouTube Shorts, these videos are short, highly engaging moments taken from longer conversations. The clips often highlight controversial or non-conforming opinions on topics such as dating, relationships, gender roles, and modern culture.

As short-form content continues to dominate social media, these clips have become increasingly popular, often generating outrage, debate, criticism, and praise simultaneously. In many cases, the controversy itself fuels engagement, causing videos to reach millions of viewers and introducing new audiences to the podcast every day. Whether viewed as a platform for open discussion or a source of online controversy, Whatever has become one of the most recognizable debate podcasts on the internet.

Although Whatever has gained immense popularity, it is far from being the only show stirring controversy, creating outrage, and discussions online. In recent years, a growing number of podcasts have emerged as part of a broader trend in digital media, with creators building massive audiences through conversations about modern relationships, monogamy, dating, and gender dynamics.

Whatever is just one example. On the opposite end of the so-called podcasting spectrum sits Alexandra Cooper, better known as Alex Cooper, host of the wildly successful podcast Call Her Daddy.

Like Brian Atlas, Cooper has built a media empire by discussing topics that many consider rather deeply personal or, at times, controversial. While the tone, audience, and presentation of the two podcasts differ significantly, both have found success by tapping into conversations about sex, relationships, dating, and modern social expectations.

Launched in 2018, Call Her Daddy quickly grew into one of the most successful podcasts in the world, attracting millions of listeners through candid conversations about relationships, dating, sex, and personal experiences. Like Whatever, the podcast relies heavily on social media clips to attract new audiences, with short-form content frequently going viral across platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Despite their different formats and audiences, both podcasts have built their success on conversations surrounding relationships and modern dating. However, public perception of the two shows often differs dramatically. While Whatever is frequently criticized for the views expressed by its guests and participants, Call Her Daddy is often framed as empowering. This raises questions about how audiences and critics evaluate similar forms of media depending on who is hosting the conversation and the perspectives being discussed.

Part of this difference in perception may come down to format and editorial structure. Whatever is built around live debate-style conversations that bring together guests with differing and often opposing viewpoints. The host Brian regularly moderates discussions, asks follow-up questions, and allows disagreement to unfold in real time. Guests range from OnlyFans creators to politically conservative and liberal commentators, contributing to a mix of perspectives within the same setting.

In contrast, Call Her Daddy is heavily interview-based, often featuring high-profile guests, including celebrities and media personalities, in more controlled conversational settings. While both shows rely on personal storytelling and discussions of relationships and sex, the structure and tone of each podcast shape how audiences interpret what is being said and how the hosts themselves are perceived.

A key difference often raised in discussions about the two podcasts is the type of messaging each is perceived to promote. Critics of Call Her Daddy argue that the show, at times, presents a confident and independent approach to dating and relationships. That can be interpreted by audiences as endorsing casual sex, prioritizing independence over long-term commitment, and focusing more on personal experiences rather than on traditional relationship milestones. At the same time, supporters of the podcast describe it as empowering, framing it as a space where women can openly discuss topics that typically warrant backlash.

Some of this discussion has also focused on perceived consistency between messaging and personal life. In particular, Cooper has publicly shared milestones such as marriage and motherhood after previously discussing and promoting a single lifestyle and female independence on the show. Supporters argue this reflects personal growth over time, while critics interpret it as a disconnect between audience messaging and personal choices.

By contrast, Whatever is structured less around prescriptive messaging and more around live debate. Guests are invited to share and defend their own views in real time, often with opposing perspectives present in the same conversation. In this format, the host’s role is primarily to moderate the discussion and to ask follow-up questions rather than promote a single viewpoint. Because of this, supporters argue that disagreement and ideological conflict are an intentional part of the show’s structure, where statements are presented as opinions within a debate rather than directives to an audience.

Another key difference between the two podcasts lies in guest selection and perceived audience influence. Call Her Daddy frequently features high-profile guests, including celebrities, public figures, and individuals with established platforms. Because of this, the podcast often draws on conversations that carry an existing level of authority or public recognition, which can shape how audiences receive the discussions.

In contrast, Whatever operates on a more open application-based format, where guests may include a wide range of participants, from everyday individuals to influencers, models, and online personalities. Supporters of the show argue that this structure creates a more mixed and unpredictable dynamic, where conversations are not limited to already established public figures, but instead reflect a greater cross-section of opinions and experiences.

In recent coverage, including a Salon article, Whatever has been described as contributing to the radicalization of young male viewers through its short-form clips and debate-style format. The piece argues that the podcast’s viral content can reinforce misogynistic narratives when consumed out of context on social media, where algorithmic distribution often strips conversations of their broader framing.

Supporters of the show, including Brian Atlas, have pushed back against this interpretation, pointing to audience analytics suggesting a more diverse viewer base that includes women and older male audiences, rather than exclusively young men. From this perspective, they argue that claims of targeted radicalization do not fully reflect who is actually watching the content or how it is being consumed across platforms.

The disagreement and comparison between Whatever and Call Her Daddy have led to debates about how male-led and female-led commentary spaces are perceived online. Some supporters of Whatever argue that criticism of the podcast reflects a broader cultural shift in which male-oriented discussion spaces are more likely to be viewed through a negative lens, particularly when they involve debates around gender, dating, and relationships.

From this perspective, even the expression of opinions within a debate format can at times be interpreted by critics as harmful or influential in ways that go beyond the intent of the discussion itself. Supporters argue that this creates a situation where context is often overlooked in favour of short clips and isolated moments.

At the same time, critics maintain that online debate spaces can still shape audience perceptions, regardless of intent, particularly when content is widely circulated in short-form formats.

Within this ongoing disagreement, supporters of Whatever argue that Brian Atlas has often been misrepresented in parts of the media narrative, suggesting that public understanding of the show does not always reflect the full structure of the conversations or the range of perspectives featured.

This raises a significant question for journalists and media audiences alike: how consistent are we in the way we evaluate different forms of podcasting and media?

While Call Her Daddy has often been discussed through the lens of success, branding, and celebrity influence, Whatever is more frequently framed through controversy and concern. Yet both platforms rely on conversations about real-life relationships, dating, and personal experience, shaped for large digital audiences.

Rather than viewing one format as inherently more valid than the other, it may be worth asking why certain creators are more often celebrated for their cultural influence, while others are more readily criticized for similar subject matter. At the centre of both is a shared reality of modern media: ordinary people building massive platforms through conversation, debate, and personal storytelling in an attention-driven digital landscape.

Ultimately, the comparison between Whatever and Call Her Daddy highlights how differently similar forms of media can be interpreted depending on who is hosting them, how they are framed, and how they circulate online. Both podcasts centre conversations around modern relationships, dating, and gender dynamics, yet they are often received through very different cultural narratives.

For supporters of Whatever, the podcast represents a debate-based format where disagreement is the point of the conversation, not a directive to the audience. From this view, criticism of the show can sometimes overlook the structure of the discussions and the range of perspectives included, focusing instead on isolated clips or viral moments removed from context.

The comparison between Whatever and Call Her Daddy leaves another question worth considering. Are journalists and media commentators applying the same standards to both platforms?

Much of the coverage surrounding Alex Cooper focuses on her success, influence, business ventures, and cultural impact. Coverage of Brian Atlas, by contrast, often centres on controversy, criticism, and concerns about audience influence. Yet both creators built massive audiences by discussing relationships, dating, sex, and modern social expectations.

This is not an argument that criticism of Whatever is unwarranted, nor is it an argument that Call Her Daddy should receive more scrutiny. Rather, it is an argument for consistency. If journalists are willing to examine the influence and impact of one platform, they should be equally willing to examine the influence and impact of the other.

Atlas built an audience of millions through long-form conversations, debate, and an open application format that brings ordinary people, influencers, and public figures into the same discussion. Whether one agrees with the opinions expressed on the show is beside the point. The scale of that achievement, and the audience it has attracted, are also part of the story.

As media consumers, we often inherit narratives before we encounter the people behind them. In the case of Brian Atlas, much of the public conversation has focused on what critics believe the podcast represents. Far less attention has been paid to how the show is structured, who watches it, and why millions of people continue to tune in each week.

As the clips continue to circulate, the conversations from both podcasts live far beyond the rooms in which they were recorded. A moment of disagreement, a personal confession, or a provocative statement becomes detached from its original setting and reshaped by algorithms and audience interpretation into something larger than the conversation itself.

What remains is not only the podcasts as they were created, but the versions of them that exist online, clipped, shared, debated, and reframed across platforms and audiences.

At the centre of this digital ecosystem is a familiar cycle: conversation turned into content, content turned into controversy, and controversy turned into visibility. And within that cycle, both Whatever and Call Her Daddy continue to exist not only as podcasts, but as cultural mirrors reflecting how audiences choose to interpret them.