Logan studies how lonely young people get radicalized online, and Colin has little patience for influencer fame. In Ian's second episode, Recursion's billionaire keeps rebuilding the timeline and it keeps going wrong.
Where it comes up 8
Within this theme 54
Ideas 12
- Social Media Addiction
Ian argues it is still culturally acceptable to spend all day on Instagram in a way it isn't to drink whiskey for six hours, and predicts it will enter the DSM. People know it's a problem…
- Grifter vs. True Believer
The question behind Troll: does a ranting online personality really believe it, or is he farming engagement? Logan imagined a provocateur who is completely neutral on the issues and uses…
- Self-Help as Gateway to Extremism
In Troll, a 4chan-style forum's ten guidelines begin with genuinely good advice (reject nihilism, persevere, quit porn) before moving to who 'our people' are and who the enemy is. Logan…
- Decimation of Decorum
The loss of respect, care for reputation and shame online, which Tamir calls the decimation of decorum. With news cycles this fast, the scammer assumes 'you'll forget I scammed you next…
- Life as Performance
Goffman's idea that in public we play roles and wear masks, knowing others do the same, and take them off at home. Logan argues the internet amplifies this and removes the backstage, so we…
- Radicalization
Logan's research field: what leads an otherwise normal person to join an extremist movement or terrorist group, regardless of ideology. He describes recruiters who validate young men's real…
- Prepackaged Identities
Logan uses the phrase for ideologies and labels that young people 'try on' to get a script, a purpose and a sense of being unique, like a 16-year-old calling himself an…
- Influencers
Colin says today's culture celebrates influencers who have 'absolutely no weight' beyond how to get more Botox, while people like Newton aren't talked about. They are his example of fame…
- Social Media as Shopping Cart of Symbols
Social media pictured as a shopping cart that young people fill with symbols and labels to build an identity. Tamir offers the image and Logan agrees.
- FOMO
Fear of missing out. Tamir's explanation for why people can't leave social media: everyone has to check on how so-and-so is doing or how a scandal is unfolding.
- Power, money, fame
Colin's three things society tells kids to aim for, instead of being a great teacher, police officer or firefighter, or simply a great human being with friends you actually spend time with.
- Monk Mode
A hypothetical Instagram setting Tamir mentions. He says a company maximizing shareholder value would never build one.
Books 3
- Troll
Logan's 2023 novel about Peter Riley, an aspiring actor who becomes the online provocateur and cult leader 'Petrol'. It's written as short, dated fragments (forum posts, lectures…
- Recursion
Blake Crouch's sci-fi thriller about memory and time, in which a chair that records memories is used to create new timelines. Tamir takes from it that life can't be engineered to avoid pain.
- DSM-5
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Ian predicts social media addiction will eventually be listed in it, as video games were.
People 13
- Logan Macnair
Criminology professor at Douglas College and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver who researches radicalization, terrorism, extremism and extremist media strategy; author of the novel Troll…
- Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, author of Meditations.
- Isaac Newton
Physicist and mathematician who invented calculus.
- Blake Crouch
Novelist, author of the science-fiction thriller Recursion, which anchors two episodes in early 2026.
- Andrew Tate
Both Tamir and Logan think he is 'full grift': self-made success-story self-help with misogyny attached. He rose to fame as Logan finished Troll, so readers' comparisons are retroactive…
- Coffeezilla
Tamir's favorite chronicler of YouTuber grifts. He targets the reckless more than the outright criminal, often crypto scams, and insists recklessness is still wrong.
- Mike Tyson
Boxer whose fight with Jake Paul, and whose public forgiveness after prison, both come up on the show.
- Milo Yiannopoulos
Tamir sees him as the purest troll. He was one of the people Logan studied while writing Troll: an articulate, self-described provocateur 'playing the heel' who wanted to be the target of…
- Alex Jones
A lot of him went into Troll. Logan calls him a legitimately talented broadcaster who knows exactly how to make engaging content, and places him nearer the true-believer end of the spectrum.
- Jake Paul
Cited with Logan Paul as YouTubers involved in crypto scams who seem not to care about their audience. Logan also mentions watching the Tyson vs. Paul fight, which everyone forgot within…
- Logan Paul
Cited with Jake Paul as an example of half-grift YouTube scams that treat the audience as numbers to milk.
- Mark Zuckerberg
Named as one of the 'tech overlords' whose products compete for hours of attention a day.
- Jeff Bezos
Named alongside Zuckerberg as tech leaders driven by the same profit motive as Costco's CEO, in the discussion of why social media draws more anger.
Quotes 3
Don't get bamboozled, don't join a cult, read a book. Your life will be better.
Have those masks become grafted to our face in such a way where removing them is not as easy as it used to be in a pre-connected world?
At the end of the day there's something inside them that's missing. For some of them they fill that hole with Funko Pops and video games; for some of them they fill that with darker things and go in much darker directions.
Insights 9
- Borrowed wisdom as a battery
Classical quotes work as batteries that power whatever idea they are plugged into. Influencers must then cross a line to set themselves apart from the thousands of others quoting Marcus…
- Responsibility for what we share
People cut ties over polarizing posts during wars and elections. If you later realize you no longer believe what you posted, you may have lost friends for nothing, so sharing takes work and…
- Terrorists who walk among us
Many people 'terrorize' their families, workplaces or industries without making the news, out of the same troubled roots as extremists: a repressed or badly integrated shadow. Logan agrees…
- The highest influence doesn't proselytize
Alan Watts never tried to convert anyone; he stated things as they are and let people be enchanted. Being secure enough not to care whether someone converts is the pinnacle of influence.
- Media literacy as defense
Part of Troll's purpose is to make readers more media literate: to ask what agenda sits behind the content they consume, and what their own habits are doing to them. Some readers said it…
- Nobody is born a neo-Nazi
To depict extremists honestly you have to show why people join. The path usually starts with self-discovery and legitimately good advice about accountability. The poison only comes later…
- Scandals wash away faster now
Bad PR used to follow you for years. As news cycles keep speeding up, scandals fade within days, which removes much of the reputational cost that once kept people honest.
- Extremists sell an answer to malaise
Effective extremist propaganda doesn't deny young people's pain. It says 'your feelings are real and valid' and then supplies a reason and a group to blame, turning private emptiness into a…
- Social media is culturally sanctioned addiction
A friend drinking whiskey six hours a day would get an intervention, but six hours on Instagram is normal. Blaming tech companies isn't enough, since their incentives are the same as…
Practices 1
- Social media fast
Delete Instagram from your phone for a weekend or a few days to notice how habitually the brain 'hunts' for it.
Stories 4
- Satisfied Customer excerpt from Troll
Tamir reads an undated page-15 excerpt from Troll by a user called 'Satisfied Customer'. It is a stream of a young person's online mind: irony pulled over the eyes, Mario speedruns, vanilla…
- Gym influencer in London
At a London gym a man filming his muscles yelled at Colin for walking past his camera. Colin told him the gym is for everybody and he should film at home. Colin reads it as people feeling…
- Making a famous person out of nothing
For the film 'I Know You', Colin's team invented a character, walked him through the streets of Italy and made him famous, and were amazed by what they got away with. The idea came from a…
- Four days without Instagram
A couple of weeks earlier Ian deleted Instagram from his phone for about four days and felt his brain 'hunting' for it every day, an internal battle that showed him how habitual the pull…
Films, music and art 3
- I Know You
A film Colin made almost ten years ago. They invented a character, walked him through the streets of Italy and made him famous out of nothing, to show how little substance fame needs. The…
- Shrek
Part of the Troll excerpt's absurd feed: a video challenge to eat a raw onion every day until a new Shrek movie comes out, 'day 14'.
- Assassin's Creed
Tamir recalls the town criers in the game's town squares, whose words never left the village. He contrasts that with how today one mistake reaches everyone.
Organizations and movements 6
- Daily Mail
British newspaper. In 2010 it reported that 48% of 14 to 17 year olds surveyed wanted to be famous and didn't care at what, where 25 years earlier children wanted to be doctors, lawyers…
- 4chan
The model for the forum in Troll ('the more unhinged Reddit'), where extremists post ten guidelines for escaping a 'useless existence'.
- Facebook
Ian argues Facebook 'has no product': if everyone left social media, it would lay people off the next day. Tamir jokes it would survive on WhatsApp.
- Instagram
The social app Ian deleted for four days, during which he felt his brain 'hunting' for it. Tamir notes Instagram has no incentive to offer a 'monk mode'.
- Costco
Ian's contrast to social media companies: just as profit-driven, but nobody resents Costco because it doesn't demand six hours of your day.
- WhatsApp
Joked about as what Facebook would survive on, followed by doubts that it even makes money.