What the hell happened to Russell Brand?

WE FINALLY HAVE SOME ANSWERS, thanks to the "On Brand" podcast.

On Brand is a new podcast dedicated to debunking Russell Brand: “each episode Al and Lauren dissect the ideas and antics of the man who is fast becoming one of the world's leading propagandists”. You better believe I jumped on it. Here’s my conversation with co-host Al Worth.

A screenshot from the movie “Get Him to the Greek”. It’s still pretty good!

Alright, true story: "what the hell happened to Russell Brand" is the question a blood relative asked me way back in 2021; like most of us, my relative knew Brand as a charming actor, enthusiastic about yoga and meditation and very frank about his past drug addiction, so watching him pivot to a million conspiracy theories in real time was extremely jarring. I guess the point of "On Brand" will be to figure out what the hell has been happening to Russell Brand over the years, but ... what the hell happened to him? 

What the hell happened to Russell Brand is, fundamentally, one of the bigger questions we can hope to answer with On Brand. We've not sunk into it yet, but we will be embarking on an investigation into his older content to figure out exactly when and why the pivot from general anti-establishment contrarian to full on right-wing propagandist happened. My feeling is it happened sometime not long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The last I recall seeing of him prior to that point were generally vague videos decrying big business, poor governance, and political corruption - all well and good - but then once the pandemic hit I remember an onslaught of videos from Russell spouting anti-vax narratives and how it was all a conspiracy to control people. I also have a feeling part of Brand's pivot was related to his now Series Editor who often joins him onscreen, Gareth Roy. Gareth seems to do the actual reading into the stories shown on Stay Free with Russell Brand, shaping the narratives they want to push, and he's worked with Brand for as long as he's been in television. We shall see!

British citizens might have seen some of this coming - I had no idea Brand had been such a polarising public figure in the UK, but then, unless we were living in the UK at the time, most of us weren't aware Brand had dominated several news cycles with his refusal to vote (in a 2014 YouGov poll Brand came first as the celeb who had made "the most negative contribution to the political debate in Britain"). If I'm not mistaken you hail from Wales - is there any way  relative proximity and access to information gave you an inkling of what was gonna happen down the line ? 

Honestly? No. Not from my perspective at least; a lot of people to this day believe that Brand is a lovely verbose chap who says and does witty things, just now with a bit more 'woo' and meditation thrown in. I don't think anyone hugely anticipated his turn to the right-wing propaganda machine, but then again the hippie-to-nazi pipeline has been in full swing for a while now. He always seemed like the type to have his head screwed on, and he's most certainly intelligent enough to know better.

Brand had this "anti-establishment" stance going on for most of his adult life. I remember watching and enjoying a late night talk show he did in the U.S. (Brand X), although a good editorial staff and a steady production hand can improve any broadcast tremendously. What's your expert take here: are most "anti-establishment" contrarians going to pivot to "COVID was a scam", "gotta hand it to Putin" territory? Is it a matter of individual entertainers becoming hostages to their audience, and not being quick enough to escape the embrace of bigots ? 

I hesitate to describe myself as an expert, but I would say a big issue that the anti-establishment crowd has is the sheer quantity of grifters spreading misinformation in order to make money. From Alex Jones to Jordan Peterson, to Steven Crowder, all the way to Tucker Carlson, these irresponsible shitheads make it their bread and butter to twist truths, and often tell outright lies, in order to keep people trapped in their ecosystem of never trusting any media source but them and their ilk. Brand executes this beautifully every week by reinforcing a lack of trust in the media, government, or anyone but him, and in the next breath will encourage viewers to subscribe to his 'Locals' channel for a minimum of $60 a year, to join his community and access exclusive content. He's outright saying 'Don't trust them, trust me, and then give me your money'.

… why the fuck is “transphobia” always the outcome for the grifting class? 

With transphobia, Russell Brand is actually something of an outlier in his class. He's not, at least to my knowledge, spouted transphobic views, or any particular amount of racism, unlike his counterparts. He has referenced the evils of 'Globalists' before, which in some circles is code for Jews, but it remains to be seen whether he's anti-semitic or whether he's referring more to global government. Hopefully it will be revealed as we go along with On Brand, but because his social views are generally quite inclusive, he's able to pull in a much greater audience from the political centre and left wing.

When it comes to celebrities past and present, a common argument frames any right-wing influencer as a "failed actor", a "failed comedian", a "failed writer" ... you get the idea: personal bitterness over one's career is seen as the driving force behind the political shift. Now, it's completely possible Brand felt hollow or unsatisfied in the limelight, but this guy has enjoyed immense success from his TV presenter days (starting with MTV UK) to his "established comedian turned mainstream actor" years (you don't get cast in multiple leading roles if people aren't ready to bank on your likability). That's why I think the "failed showbiz" argument doesn't quite hold. What are you seeing in the research you've been doing ? 

I wouldn't describe Brand so much as 'failed showbiz', but more 'successful showbiz', which makes people's ignorance of his narratives all the more worrying. In 2022 he was one of an ensemble cast of excellent actors and A-List names in Death On The Nile, and he also voiced one of the characters in the most recent Minions movie. He continues to have enough pull to interview world-famous individuals, in fact, coming up on his show will be interviews with Roger Waters, Richard Dawkins, and Elon Musk. We all saw what happened when someone famous wanted to become President. Now picture someone famous wanting to spread propaganda, and throw in that they're handsome, charming, intelligent, and have comedic chops. And as a cherry on top, imagine that the general public, or indeed most people are unaware of his intentions. We are nowhere near the peak of this man's power and in all honesty it scares me.

An element you're already zeroing in on is the "diversifying" push Brand was still committed to, until a short time ago. In your first two episodes you note how Brand was still able to get well-known, flawless guests on his “Under the Skin” podcast - once that shuttered, he's moved on to a conspiracy-heavy podcast that's supposed to "help us understand and see the ulterior truth behind our constructed reality". Every time I hear this kind of language I leave my body for a minute as I mumble ‘ah christ another one’. How are you planning to stay cool as you do your show? (Most folks I've been speaking with stress the importance of touching grass, logging the fuck off, etc.) 

Right now it's not something that's worrying me too much! We're in the early days of this podcast, and while Brand's content is often insufferable, I still have a good amount of eagerness and excitement to be able to get into what he's saying, and try to figure him out just a little more. My co-host Lauren helps in keeping it an activity of making fun of Brand, rather than just being an academic exercise of dissecting his ideas. I think the tough point will likely come about six months down the line, but at that stage I have enough things to shut my brain off if needed - gaming, anime, making music - and I also have a two-nearly-three year old daughter who effortlessly brings me back down to earth, particularly if I'm working too much. The moment she asks me to put the laptop down and come sit with her, I can't help but do it.

There's been an interesting observation made by the Conspirituality crew in their 2022 Joe Rogan episode - one of the hosts said, if a media personality manages to create and maintain a successful business around their private home / recording studio, that kind of hyper-focused, I'm-the-center-of-the-universe environment is bound to shift right-ward.  Russell Brand has definitely become a one-man Content Factory over the past few years. Might this be the case for him as well? And: how can a creator avoid such a trap? 

I'm going to give something of a lawyer's answer on this one and say it depends. I really do think it comes down to the individual, their own moral compass, and their ability to assess and avoid misinformation and propaganda. Joe Rogan is unfortunately awful at doing so, and he continues to invite guests on his show that only reinforce his viewpoint (while conveniently having a product to sell). Where Brand differs in this case is his production is not small. His show has a staff of 20 people other than him, and he records it in a very fancy studio in one of the priciest areas of the UK. Again I find this nothing short of worrying, as his views are not held in isolation, and it calls into question his financial situation. At a conservative estimate his outgoings must be at least half a million pounds a year, probably a lot more. He receives money from Rumble for hosting his content there, as well as paid advertising in his show, and of course he has his Locals channel. But is that enough to turn a profit, or are there other shenanigans afoot? It certainly puts his pro-Russia narratives in a different light, and I look forward to figuring out his income streams through the course of the podcast.

My personal advice here would be START FOLLOWING ON BRAND. Go:

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