Beg-A-Thon Live Show 1-30-24: The Grim Popularity of Rise-And-Grind TikTok #Influencers
Added 2024-02-28 15:20:16 +0000 UTCOn this Live Show Beg-a-Thon, recorded on January 30, we discuss the social media phenomenon of the #GRINDSET Guys, the Elite Performers, the Sigma Males. They are cult personalities - no, no, influencers - who urge their followers to be solipsistic, jingoistic rise-and-grinders.
Alongside guest Hussein Kesvani, we'll look at the toxic, militaristic, reactionary and often soft-eugenicist tendencies of some of the leading voices of the #GRINDSET, all of whom have cultivated some sort of perverse combination of fitness advice, hustle porn, productivity worship and motivational speaking.
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Guest
Hussein Kesvani is a journalist, author, editor, media producer and co-host of the popular podcasts TrashFuture and Ten Thousand Posts. He is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Digital Anthropology at University College London.
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Show Notes
Rise, Grind and Ruin: The Dangerous Fetishization of ‘Hustle Porn’
Hussein Kesvani | November 12, 2018 | MEL Magazine
Kobe Bryant Inspired a Fleet of Hustle Porn Bros
Hussein Kesvani | January 28, 2020 | MEL Magazine
Hustle culture: Is this the end of rise-and-grind?
Megan Carnegie | April 20, 2023 | BBC
Sigma grindset: TikTok's toxic worshipping of Patrick Bateman is another sign young men are lost
Ruchira Sharma | November 7, 2022 | GQ
Rise and grind: how ‘sigma males’ are upturning the internet
Günseli Yalcinkaya | January 13, 2022 | Dazed
Taylor Lorenz | April 1, 2020 | The New York Times
Jim Edwards | November 6, 2018 | Business Insider
Why The Rise Of ‘Work Porn’ Is Making Us Miserable
Vicky Spratt | September 24, 2018 | Grazia
The Underlying Toxicity of The “Struggle”, “Hustle”, and “Grind” Mentality
Lauren LeMunyan | May 6, 2018 | Medium
What Is the Grindset and How Do I Overcome It?
Brad Hook | August 28, 2023 | Resilience Institute
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can find transcripts of past episodes, Beg-a-Thons, Interviews and News Briefs here.
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Citations Merch
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Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Transcription: Mahnoor Imran
Music: Grandaddy
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Comments
i've thought about starting an insta called The Left Can't Lift but have it be fitness/socialist content. The name is satire and also to get righties to accidentally look at it
Jake Winkler
2024-05-01 16:37:00 +0000 UTCI found this episode remarkably timely. There’s some synchronicity (especially y'all's conversation at the end) and a burgeoning program I am pursuing in my IWW branch (in fact our first meeting for it is tomorrow). The left lacks righteous belligerence and often seems afraid of physicality, so we are trying to address this. Me and some like thinkers are putting together a kind of "conflict cabal" (name pending, lots of great alliterative possibilities) group that focuses on building competence and confidence for both physical and verbal confrontation. It’ll operate non-hierarchically as a kind of knowledge share, and act as practical experience in self organizing when a goal is clear but not the path. We aren’t focused on young men in particular, but I am hoping we can build something that speaks to them, because not only are they being seduced toward the right, but they also are important in their own right. And right now we need their innate bellicosity to fight the powers that be. There’s no revolution without rebellion. Anyway, I hope y’all can find reasons to keep revisiting adjacent topics and hopefully find and report on more leftist outlets for a mature and magnanimous masculinity.
Jacob
2024-03-08 17:37:49 +0000 UTCImmediately recognized Hussein's voice. I love it when my favorite podcasts collide! Great episode.
Neoinean21
2024-02-29 13:07:48 +0000 UTCI was initially unsure of this episode because of the male-centered focus. I know of plenty of influencers who identify as women and say things about getting up at 4am (see: Rachel Hollis and her infamous TikTok video from a few years ago). But your analysis still applies and I found myself nodding along to what you all said. Also, side note - Ed Mylett is involved in the MLM scene, was in one himself I think, and there is chatter that he charges $30k an hour for coaching. He charged that amount to another notorious MLMer, who was also spewing hustle rhetoric until she died last fall of cancer. And yes, even as she was dying of cancer she did that.
Felicia Baucom
2024-02-28 20:14:27 +0000 UTC
