What I Learn From Writing About Steven Bartlett

Apologies for my lack of newsletters over the summer. It’s been really hot, I have a beautiful three-month old babies, and I’ve been applying myself diligently to other creative endeavours. As a result, I’ve actually (and quite reasonably) lost a handful of my beloved paid subscribers. Please accept my contrition, know that I am gearing up for a fruitful autumn, and take out a subscription to Future Proof so that my baby can afford socks.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a big feature for the i newspaper about Steven Bartlett, the man who, by some measures, is Britain’s most successful podcaster. His show, Diary of a CEO, has been sensationally effective in garnering a large, social media-driven audience, and he was recently named by Forbes as the world’s 3rd highest paid podcaster, with $45m in earnings last year. He has also been accused, by the BBC, of spreading medical misinformation on issues like vaccinations and cancer treatment, and has increasingly platformed libertarian and right-wing guests as he pivots into a political space occupied, in the United States, by men like Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman. In the piece, I spoke to a lot of people who had strong opinions on Bartlett, and tried to understand how the establishment has colluded in the success of such a controversial figure.

There has been a huge response to the piece, which was the i’s most-read feature for several days. Overwhelmingly, people got in touch with me to tell me that they think he’s a grifter and agree with the criticisms in the piece. But there were also plenty of people willing to stand up and defend Bartlett. Here are a few things that I learned from this experience.