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I expect this view won’t be popular on here, but I think the fact that Fridman is a Jew helps a lot. Fellow Jews like Netanyahu and Zelenskyy feel more welcome on his podcast rather than going on Joe Rogan, for instance. “Fridman is one of us.” That gives Fridman entreé to a lot of interviews with powerful Jews that non-Jewish interviewers might not get. Hence why his podcast has accumulated so much popularity.
There are a lot of charismatic Jewish interviewers out there. Fridman’s Jewishness is probably largely incidental even if you believe claims about nepotism etc since he built his following pretty organically and clearly attracts guests because of it rather than because of his connections, the following came first (which is surprising), and many of his big guests that drove his following (Musk, Peterson) aren’t Jewish (some were of course, but I don’t know that they’re out of proportion with the percentage of important people who are Jewish).
You can’t make the case, for example, the way you could with, say, Seth Meyers or indeed with Zelensky himself, who were Jewish comedians hired by Jewish producers and eventually given big shows (whatever you think of their merits). I’m not saying either case was ethnic nepotism, but the allegation holds more than it does for Fridman, who largely built his following organically and on his own.
Genuine question, did he? Did he not get a huge Rogan boost?
Yeah, but that’s only non-organic if you’re implying Rogan invited him on for a non-usual reason, I would say.
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As far as I’m aware, Seth Meyers is only 1/8 Jewish (through his paternal grandfather) and I’m not sure that he was even raised with any connection to Jewish culture. He grew up in Michigan and then in New Hampshire. His wife is Jewish, and they’re raising their kids Jewish because of her, but as far as I’m aware everything he’s said about it is that he doesn’t think of himself as Jewish at all.
Fair enough, there actually aren’t a huge number of Jewish talkshow hosts, Maher and Stern and Jon Stewart are I guess.
Jimmy Kimmel would be the other obvious one. (EDIT: Actually, no! Another one like Meyers who just looks and acts Jewish. A crypto-gentile!) And then Larry King, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Ricki Lake before that. (Also Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, if you consider those talk shows.)
I am going to make myself sound about 30 years older than I am, but there were also David Susskind and Joe Franklin
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Terry Gross from NPR's Fresh Air comes to mind as probably the best of the pure interviewers. It's a testament to her skill that most of the interviews of hers I've listened to aren't of people I'd normally seek out on my own but happened to come across when flipping through the dial. Larry King just wasn't any good. His philosophy was that he should be in the same position as the average audience member who didn't know particularly much about the subject and would go on a journey of discovery or whatever, but in reality it seemed like he used it to not only excuse his lack of preparation but to make it a point of personal pride.
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