Brett Cooper, Steve Bannon & Megyn Kelly
Discussion on The Brett Cooper Show: A Pathetic End To Pride Month + The $40 Million Dollar Wedding & Bannon's War Room: The Depravity of the Ruling Class with Megyn Kelly.
Link to this week’s episodes:
The Brett Cooper Show: A Pathetic End to Pride Month + The $40 Million Dollar Wedding
Bannon’s War Room: The Depravity of the Ruling Class with Megyn Kelly
Hello and welcome to the inaugural newsletter of Unfortunately Not a Sound Bath (UNASB)—we’re glad you’re here! UNASB began meeting in January 2025 in the wake of Trump’s reelection to discuss important questions, i.e. WTF just happened?!?, why, and how did we miss this??? We are a coalition of diverse, left-leaning thinkers—many of us work in politics and media, but we’re also your local city council members, fitness instructors, stay-at-home-parents, retirees, artists, nurses, and so much more.
Every other week, we select a conservative-leaning podcast (from obvious political figures like Ben Shapiro to more ~sneaky folks like Jay Shetty), analyze its messaging and themes, and try to apply this knowledge to how we (the broader Democratic coalition) can do better. We resist the temptation to argue with the content, no matter how bananas it gets, and try to meet these podcasters and their listeners where they are. In this newsletter, we’ll summarize our chosen podcast and takeaways, as well as round up the various articles, social media content, and other podcasts our vociferous membership recommends you check out.
So, whether you’re curious about the so-called manosphere, the girly pop movement to Make America Healthy Again, the tech right, or just want some new content to hate-listen…we hope you’ll find this space instructive or, at the very least, cathartic. Unfortunately, this is not a sound bath.
This week, we crawled further down the rabbit hole with three spirited thinkers…
Who is Brett Cooper?
This 23-year-old MAGA darling is taking the right-wing media ecosystem by storm, with 1.2M followers on Instagram1, one of the country’s fastest growing YouTube channels at 1.58M subscribers, and a new deal as a regular contributor to Fox News (Here’s a quick bio from The Cut). A top-billed speaker at the recent Turning Point USA Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas (read more about that cursed event here), Cooper is one of the leading voices in a new conservative media landscape targeting Gen Z women.
Distinct from many of the previous pods UNASB-ers have traversed, The Brett Cooper Show sounds more like a pop culture podcast than a political one. She begins by regaling a personal tale of car troubles—with many references to her husband to ensure you don’t forget this media mogul is married and with child—then jumps into a diatribe on Pride Month, followed by a mixed bag review of the Bezos wedding (too expensive for Cooper’s taste but she was delighted that Lauren Sanchez’s dress was appropriately modest), a bit on her broad hatred of Gen Z, and finally a segment on Cooper’s anxiety that Zohran Mamdani may be planning to take over Trader Joe’s!
What’s the effect of this rapid-fire, pop culture-centric format that feels more like scrolling TikTok than a traditional political podcast? Well, like many elders that have come before her (see Ben Shapiro’s viral Wicked rant or Candace Owens’s coverage of the Justin Baldoni/Blake Lively battle), Cooper uses cultural commentary as a Trojan horse for broader ideological positioning. This is a strategy right-wing creators have latched onto and succeeded at—effectively acting as a tabloid rather than a political messenger—where the left’s serious, issue-based comms has failed.
Her tone is sarcastic, self-aware, and meme-literate. She’s willing to poke fun at her own side (“Trump and Elon breaking up…was like the gayest thing that happened throughout the entirety of Pride Month”). We’re not sure if she’s appealing to an imagined center-right audience or simply hedging to avoid sharing an actual opinion, but the intended vibe is clear: We’re just yapping with the girls here!
For more on Brett, NYT just published this profile:
Biblical flooding & conservative nostalgia with Steve Bannon & Megyn Kelly
On the other end of the spectrum, we dropped in on a familiar friend with Steve Bannon and his podcast/live “news” show Bannon’s War Room. Did you know this man is dropping multiple podcast episodes a day?!? I am loathe to admit it, but I have to commend this man’s creative output. I guess everyday is carpe diem after serving time in prison <3.
Bannon begins the episode by dropping in on a local press conference about the deadly Texas floods, complete with local correspondents, a quick check-in with Congressman Chip Roy, and a whole lot of prayer. Then, Megyn Kelly joins to give a bleak sermon of her own on the state of America, marked with cultural panic, class resentment, and a populist call-to-arms.
Framed around the 250th anniversary of the American Republic, Kelly launches into a sweeping condemnation of modern life in cities like New York and San Francisco, which are in absolute “cultural collapse.” She bemoans the chart-topping success of Cardi B’s “WAP”2 and longs for the sweet love songs of the 1950s. We miss you Phil Spector and Jerry Lee Lewis!
The conversation quickly pivots to education as the battlefield of choice for the right, with Kelly recounting stories from her children’s time in elite New York schools. The kids are writing papers on feminism in the 2nd grade (Megyn, incensed, is not a feminist), gender theory in 3rd, and anti-capitalist doctrine by college. Together, Bannon and Kelly argue that the pipeline of progressive education is creating a future class of voters who are hostile to the founding principles of the United States
In a sharp tonal shift, the pair decry billionaire decadence, specifically the Bezos-Sanchez wedding, as a symbol of elite moral decay. (Someone get Brett Cooper on the phone! I want to hear these three trade Bezos barbs!) The resistance duo almost reaches the logical endpoint of calling for the end of the billionaire class, before retreating to familiar territory: celebrities have run amok as evidenced by lewd behavior at the Met Gala and the foam from Bezos’s yacht party running into the ocean.
Despite the news conference leading things off, ultimately the episode is less of a news segment than a cultural grievance sermon designed to stoke resentment and fortify tribal lines. Both hosts argue that liberal run cities and institutions must be “allowed to fail” so voters can suffer the consequences and correct course. It’s a politics of punishment and purging, not reform. The message is clear: things may feel apocalyptic, but the forthcoming collapse is necessary for national rebirth, or as they see it, the symbol of rapture.
For more on Steve Bannon, we recommend:
Steve Bannon Is Out of Jail, and He Has a Plan for Trump’s Next Term This October 2024 profile, written by New Right expert James Pogue for Vanity Fair, is a great primer on understanding Bannon’s mindset.
Politics Is Downstream from Culture, Part 2: “Cultural Marxism,” or, from Hegel to Obama Bannon isn’t a political strategist, he’s a cultural strategist!
Takeaways
Use buzzy pop culture topics as a nonthreatening entry into political discourse.
We were totally tickled by this Instagram reel on Love Island USA winner Amaya Papaya as a “cultural reset,” and
this Call Her Daddy interview where Alex Cooper notes the significance of the first ever Hispanic couple winning the show, which is decided by a public vote: “For the world and especially right now, this was such an incredible moment in history. I think sometimes, obviously, people can look at Love Island and think it’s just a dating show. But to see you and Brian up on that stage and winning in the world that we’re in right now, it’s probably what a lot of people needed.” What a smart way to signal greater ideological points re: two first-gen immigrants on the show of the summer!
We can find common ground with figures like Brett Cooper, Steve Bannon, and Megyn Kelly by our shared distrust for the billionaire class. Everyone is down to roll their eyes at billionaire foam parties on megayachts!
Megyn and Brett—and others like Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlsen—use speaking cadence not unlike a religious sermon to connect effectively with listeners/viewers. How can we harness some of that energy on our side?
The Bannon episode opens with a press conference that gives it a sense of legitimacy (with statements from local officials), then shifts into opinion, making it hard to tell what’s fact and what’s commentary. By placing opinion next to official statements, it can lead the audience to believe the commentary is just as credible, under the guise of “reporting”.
What UNASB-ers are reading, watching & sharing this week
On the MAGA youth, Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, and more folks like Brett Cooper
Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation (The Daily Show)
What Do Mamdani and the MAGA Movement Have in Common? ‘Hot’ Supporters. (The New York Times)
The Womanosphere Claims It’s Winning Young Women—But Is It? (Diabolical Lies)
Another one of the Christian right’s main influencers if you want to go down a rabbit hole: Allie Beth Stuckey (Instagram) and her interview with Ross Douthat
General comms talk
Trolling Democracy by Nathan Taylor Pemberton (The New York Times)
How a Broken Media Ecosystem Enables Trump and the GOP (The Message Box)
Some good news about political polarization: It can change (Politico)
Republicans treat politics like viral marketing, Democrats don’t (Flux): Featuring one of our fabulous members Rynn Reed!
MAGA Meltdown over Epstein Files
Trump is the establishment now (Young Men Research Initiative)
How Dems Should (and Should Not)Talk About the Epstein Scandal (The Message Box)
The Epstein Saga Has Splintered Trump’s Movement Like Nothing Before (Politico)
Finally, an excellent documentary
on the rise of the Evangelical Far Right in Brazil, streaming on Netflix July 14.
Our members note that unfortunately Brett Cooper’s instagram has a great aesthetic. It’s often apolitical with lots of cute pics of farm life in Nashville, outfit checks, travel, and a seemingly charmed life with her husband and new baby on the way.
Btw WAP turns 5 years old in August! Megyn Kelly still bumping it 5 years on…we love to see it.