A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein
For years, Matt’s been unpacking the events, people, and culture wars shaping the world around us. On A Bit Fruity, we take deeper dives into those issues — joined by celebrities, experts, and journalists who help us laugh and learn along the way.
Follow Matt: https://www.instagram.com/mattxiv
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattBernstein1
Follow Matt: https://www.instagram.com/mattxiv
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattBernstein1
Episodes (51)
Dr. Phil: From Nice Guy to Nazi (with Aubrey Gordon)
Dr. Phil has a new hobby: ICE raids. The daytime television fixture bewildered fans when he began touring with the Trump campaign last year, ending his decades-long streak as a seemingly apolitical...
Sydney Sweeney and the Outrage Machine
Sydney Sweeney is Hollywood’s most-discussed starlet, often for confusing reasons. Her existence as a visible woman with a human body made her the target of widespread male adoration, ridicule, and...
The Trans Teen Imprisoned for Refusing to Join the IDF
Yona Roseman is 19. In two weeks, the Israeli government is imprisoning her for refusing to join Israel's military, for which service is required by all Israeli Jewish teenagers. Because she is...
Jojo Siwa: The Internet’s Court Jester
Jojo Siwa has been a lot of things: an eleven-year-old abused on television for public entertainment, a tween merchandising mogul with a billion dollar brand, Nickelodeon’s first out gay child star,...
The New York Times Thinks Gays Have Gone Too Far (with Chase Strangio)
On the twilight of Pride Month, the New York Times published (and sent out a push notification for) a guest essay titled “How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized and Lost Its Way” by a gay journalist...
Why Is Everyone Going Back Into the Closet?
From granola fascism to the manosphere, much gets said of the various right-wing pipelines people have gone down in the years since lockdown. One such pipeline remains more mysterious. When you think...
Never Apologize to Fascists (with Contrapoints)
Last week, world-class athlete Simone Biles stood up to failed-athlete-turned-crybully Riley Gaines when Riley antagonized a transgender child to her 1.5 million Twitter followers. A harassment...
The Antisemitism Panic (with Matt Lieb)
“From the river to the sea” is antisemitic. “Free Palestine” is antisemitic. Children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel raising money for child amputees is antisemitic. ICE is kidnapping college students for...
A Morning With Vivian Wilson, Elon’s Estranged Daughter
In today’s special episode, we’re taking a break from political and cultural analysis to chat with someone who’s been at the center of today’s culture wars but rarely in her own voice: Vivian Jenna...
The Breeders Who Want You to Have More Kids Right Now
Last week, the New York Times reported: “White House Assesses Ways to Persuade Women to Have More Children”. But who exactly is behind this push, and why, and what does it have to do with Elon Musk’s...
“Alpha Males” Are Making Men Lonelier (with Ryan Broderick)
When fitness influencer Ashton Hall’s absurd morning routine went viral a few weeks ago, I was… moved. The hours-long skincare, gym, and journaling ritual felt like an American Psycho-inspired...
Maia Poet: The Final Boss of Detrans Grifters (with Kat Blaque)
What does “gender ideology” have in common with ISIS? Well, they are both… things, arguably. As more people become aware of opportunities to commodify their trauma into anti-trans right-wing media...
Gwen Stefani: From Feminist to Fascist
When Gwen Stefani made a tacit endorsement of Tucker Carlson earlier this month, I felt like somebody had knocked the wind out of me. Had the iconic 90’s ain’t-no-hollaback girl made a not-so-sweet...
The Complex Tragedy of Grimes
To the mainstream news, she’s the mother of three of Elon Musk’s children. To a certain type of extremely online Tumblr user in the year 2012, she once approximated God. Today, we take a challenging...
The Incoherent Sexual Politics of the Right
Elon Musk just (allegedly) had his thirteenth child with a fourth woman — a 26-year-old “conservative” influencer named Ashley St. Clair. In a past version of the “traditional family values” party,...
How Conservatism Infiltrated Pop Culture
Quiet luxury. Clean girl. Old money. Trad living. Kylie Jenner’s pivot from Black culture vulture to glass skin pilates princess. College youth dressed like polyester Shein replicas of Reagan-era...
The Tech Bro-ligarchy
Our country is now run by a bunch of spineless billionaires who were cast out as nerds in college so they launched a vendetta against humanity. Today, Edward Ongweso Jr. of This Machine Kills helps us...
Blake Lively and the Amber Heard Effect
The first episode of this podcast ever recorded was about Amber Heard and the online public’s inability — or unwillingness — to distinguish between their organic feelings about celebrity abuse...
Why is the Media Coverage of Luigi Mangione So Bad?
The remarkable dissonance between the public’s embrace of UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione and the mainstream media’s outward disdain for both Luigi and the public’s martyrization of him...
How Did Elon Musk Get Like This?
There was a time before Elon Musk was tweeting 60 times a day about trans people and the woke mind virus — and it wasn’t that long ago. As recently as 2018, Elon was boasting about Tesla scoring a 100...
Is Glinda Good?
A Bit Fruity was due for a good old-fashioned film analysis. Wicked is a kids movie that is actually for adults, holding up a mirror to our increasingly fascistic reality and asking us to question our...
How the Right is Winning Young Men (with Taylor Lorenz)
This was the first election where the online far-right radicalization of young boys and men revealed itself in exit polls. After years of being fed diet-incel podcasts, one thing is clear: Gen Z will...
Riley Gaines: Tie for 5th, Grift for Life
In America, the only thing standing between you and wealth beyond your wildest dreams is tying for fifth with a trans person. Today, media critic Ari Drennen takes us into the bizarre world of the...
Jubilee Must Be Stopped
The slogan of YouTube’s most popular debate channel, Jubilee, is “provoke understanding & create human connection.” So why is all of its content a cesspool of bigotry, rage-bait, and pseudoscientific...
The Cult of Stan Culture (with Amanda Montell)
Well, I got Swiftied. As I sat there, sifting through ever more creative and graphic death threats, I wondered: is it time for a podcast episode? Today, Amanda Montell (of Sounds Like a Cult) takes us...
Chappell Roan’s War on Fame (with Eliza McLamb)
H-O-T-T-O-G-O, Chappell Roan is someone we do not actually know. But what do we do with the (very real) feelings and relationships we form with the people on our screens? Today, Eliza of Binchtopia...
The Crunchy to Far Right Pipeline
How does a harmless interest in yoga turn into a crusade against homosexuals in public schools? Specific though it seems, we’ve all seen it happen: a friend with a seemingly innocuous interest in...
Transvestigating (with Contrapoints)
Your gender is not determined by your anatomy, your chromosomes, your hormones, or even your internal sense of self. It is determined by J.K. Rowling. Today, Natalie Wynn (aka Contrapoints) and I...
The Kamalafication of BRAT
Is Kamala bumpin’ that? Is BRAT summer over? Who killed it? Today, Maia of Rehash and I attempt a cynical but fair analysis of meme culture, Gen Z nihilism, and political standom.
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Support me + listen...
Hawk Tuah: From Harmless Meme to Right Wing Symbol
I stay away from heterosexual mess, but this time it came to me. Today, Taylor Lorenz and I work backwards to understand how a 21-year-old bed spring factory worker from Tennessee became a culture war...
Stories from the AIDS Crisis
A special episode where we hear from listeners of the show who were lovers, nurses, relatives, students, and friends of people who died from AIDS.
Support me + listen to bonus episodes on...
Support me + listen to bonus episodes on...
The Celebrity Ozempidemic (with Aubrey Gordon)
A drug that needs no introduction and a culture of fatphobia that lives on. Today, we are ALL beating the Ozempic allegations.
Use code "fruity" at https://incogni.com/fruity to get an exclusive 60%...
Use code "fruity" at https://incogni.com/fruity to get an exclusive 60%...
Oli London & the Right Wing Grift (with Taylor Lorenz)
How does a white gay guy from England go from “trans-Korean” troll to a member of the conservative media establishment? It’s easier than you think! Today, Taylor Lorenz helps us unpack the anatomy of...
Amy Schumer & the Plague of White Feminism (with Broey Deschanel)
Girlbossing too close to the sun can cause a real trainwreck. Today, we examine the unstable foundation of Amy Schumer's feminist brand of comedy and how it all fell apart.
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Everything the Media is Getting Wrong About the College Protests
Until a month ago, college students in America were dweeby snowflake liberals, too socially anxious to notify the waiter of an incorrect order. Now, they’re (allegedly) well-connected, well-funded...
Annoying Gays are Not the Problem
Autistic nonbinary TikTokers. Loud, flamboyant gay men. The twink who filmed himself having sex in the Senate hearing room. Are gay rights being eroded across the country because some of us are…...
Drake Bell and the Cycle of Abuse
The new docu-series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” is shedding light on the abuse that early-2000s child stars faced behind the scenes of our favorite Nickelodeon shows. The doc focuses...
J.K. Rowling’s Spiral into Madness (with ContraPoints)
From “sex is real” to Holocaust denial — if it happened to the wizard lady, it can happen to you.
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Watch more from the brilliant Natalie Wynn a.k.a. ContraPoints.
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Support me on Patreon!
Watch more from the brilliant Natalie Wynn a.k.a. ContraPoints.
Find more of...
How Love, Simon’s Author was Pushed Out of the Closet
In 2018, I called “Love, Simon” a “gay movie made by a straight woman for straight people.” Today, I tell you why I was wrong.
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Huge thanks to Blueland for sponsoring today’s...
Support me on Patreon!
Huge thanks to Blueland for sponsoring today’s...
Conservatives Don’t Care About Your Kids
A rant.
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Learn more about Trans Lifeline.
Big thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring today’s show. Save more and get your life together at www.rocketmoney.com/fruity.
Find more...
Support me on Patreon!
Learn more about Trans Lifeline.
Big thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring today’s show. Save more and get your life together at www.rocketmoney.com/fruity.
Find more...
The 100-Year-Old Myth of Gays “Coming for Your Children”
I get called a “groomer” on Twitter every day — which is weird, because I want nothing to do with your kids. What is it with queers and kids that gets conservatives so livid? Today, we explore The Gay...
Surviving AIDS in the 80s
Peter Staley was a 24-year-old, closeted finance guy when he was diagnosed with HIV. Having been handed a death sentence, he quit his job and devoted what life he had left to fighting the homophobic...
The Political Power of Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has the power to swing the presidential election. What if nothing else matters?
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Find Angela on Twitter, not X.
Find more of A Bit Fruity.
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Support me on Patreon!
Find Angela on Twitter, not X.
Find more of A Bit Fruity.
Find more of Matt.
Huge...
Bud Light and the End of Rainbow Marketing, For Now
How the manufactured hysteria over a single can of beer brought an end to the golden age of rainbow Doritos and “Homo Estás” Chipotle ads — at least until we’re profitable again.
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Support me on...
George Santos is a Terrible Person and the Embodiment of the American Dream
Is there valor in scamming your way through a system that failed you, even if you hurt people along the way? What is the value of the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves? Can you be morally...
The Detransitioner Panic
99% of people who transition continue identifying as transgender for the rest of their lives. The very small amount of people who stop or reverse their transitions — known as “detransitioners” — have...
Queer Palestinians & The Power of Pinkwashing
Are “Queers for Palestine” really like “Chickens for KFC”? No, but understanding intersectional justice can be hard, and sharing memes is easy. Joined by Moe Dabbagh, a gay Palestinian American with...
Christian Indoctrination in Homeschooling
The number of kids being homeschooled today is more than double of what it was four years ago, and nobody is making the rules. While the religious right is convinced that political indoctrination is...
Libs of TikTok
At the forefront of today’s anti-LGBTQ movement is one shockingly uncharismatic woman. Journalist Taylor Lorenz helps us understand the rise of Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent who now makes...
The Mom Who Invented Gender Reveals Regrets It
In 2008, Jenna Karvunidis was looking for ways to involve her distant mother in the life of her soon-to-be child. Fifteen years, thousands of acres of wildfires, and a few plane crashes later, she...
Becoming a Woman (with Miss Benny)
Like many people, sitting still and staring at the wall during the early days of the pandemic brought up new feelings for Miss Benny. Notably, that she was transgender. From viral closeted teenager to...
About this Podcast
Copyright
Matt Bernstein
Language
en
Categories
Society & Culture, News, News Commentary