A misogynistic podcast that describes itself as “the #1 men’s podcast in the world” hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes for multiple hourslong streams during which he denied the Holocaust.
The Fresh & Fit podcast is a central platform of the “manosphere” and describes itself as covering “females, fitness, and finances.” The hosts, Why Women Deserve Less author Myron Gaines and dating and lifestyle coach Walter Weekes, regularly spew misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and demean a panel of young women who appear on the show’s “After Hours” streams.
But during streams on July 7 and 10 (which went past midnight into July 11), the show pivoted to full-blown Holocaust denial and extreme antisemitism. These themes were acknowledged in the title of the streams, with one called “Nick Fuentes, Destiny, Sneako & JonZherka DEBATE The JQ🛎️!” and the other “Holocaust Debate Prompts Matrix To END Show?!”
The “JQ,” or the “Jewish Question,” is an antisemitic framework that posits the Jewish diaspora is a “problem that needed to be solved.” It provided a pretext for the Nazi government to undermine the freedoms of Jewish Germans, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
During one of the streams featuring Fuentes, Myron Gaines bragged, “We’re the biggest platform that’s talking about the JQ. No one else will do it.”
Fuentes’ appearance on Fresh & Fit underscores the links between the antisemitic far-right and the “manosphere,” a loose collection of misogynist influencers who capitalize on audiences interested in lifestyle topics like dating and identity in order to push extremist ideas.
On Twitter, a social media user posted a clip from the Fresh & Fit studio in which Fuentes and others are seen giving the Nazi Sieg Heil salute multiple times.
At one point during the July 11 “After Hours” stream, Fuentes plainly stated, “I don’t believe in the Holocaust.” He went on to deny that 6 million Jews were killed in a network of death camps.
During the same stream, Gaines and guest Sneako, a Fuentes ally and “manosphere” figure tied to Ye West, justified Nazi book burnings, saying that “when there’s photos of the Nazis burning books, it’s books on homosexuality and transgenderism.”
Sneako then railed against The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh for saying that transgender identity was invented by Nazi scientists, instead claiming that it was a Jewish conspiracy. He added, “Why would you lie about that? Who told you -- who gave Matt the call? Matt got the call.”
The streams also included plenty of extreme misogyny. In one instance, Fuentes said women are made to be “baby machines” because “that’s what their brains are about."
More than 11 hours of content featuring Fuentes were streamed on Fresh & Fit’s Rumble account. A fraction of the July 7 stream was also on YouTube, accumulating nearly 200,000 views before YouTube took down the video. According to Fuentes, YouTube prevented the channel from live streaming with him.
During the portion of the stream that was on YouTube, Fuentes stated that he does not “like race mixing” and that “women shouldn't be getting educated, man. They shouldn’t be going to college.”
All together, the streams featuring Fuentes have garnered over 2.4 million views on Rumble. At one point during a stream, 100,000 viewers were tuning in live. The podcast has over 200,000 followers on Rumble and 1.45 million subscribers on YouTube.
Fuentes' appearances on Fresh & Fit is an illustrative example of how far-right extremism proliferates through the manosphere, going beyond bread-and-butter misogyny. The vitriol regularly spewed on the show toward women — simply for existing, pursuing relationships, and building careers — is easily turned toward other groups, especially with the assistance of young pugilistic white supremacist internet figures like Fuentes and his ally Sneako.
Fresh & Fit is simply the internet generation’s shock jock radio, and on a platform like Rumble where basically anything goes, its hosts are free to go further for views than their predecessors ever did.
Update (7/12/23, 4 P.M.): Language referencing dates have been updated for clarity.
