A Massive Percentage of Lex Fridman’s Guests Have This in Common

HERE’S ANOTHER VIDEO in the media representation series produced by the Leather Apron Club. What is the common thread that runs through the selection of guests on popular video interviewer Lex Fridman’s program? Does that common thread have any connection to Fridman’s sudden success?

This time the team takes a look at “The Lex Fridman Podcast,” a show more stacked with a “certain type” of guest — moreso than even Joe Rogan’s podcast.

One observer, M. Maelo, notes:

I remember when Lex first got on Joe Rogan’s podcast four years ago (Oct. 24, 2018). I looked him up because he was a nobody at the time. I specifically remember he had fewer than 5,000 followers on any of his socials and had no achievements that would make him noteworthy. Lex only had four episodes of his own podcast at that point. It’s a wonder how he even got on Joe’s podcast in the first place, as if Joe was doing him a favor. He has got to be the most unknown person to ever be brought on as a guest to JRE. You can go to Google Trends and filter to just 2018; you will see that before the Rogan appearance, literally nobody searched for this guy. It’s been a while since I listened to it, but I don’t remember that JRE episode being anything too special that would raise someone’s profile like that. It was just generic vague talk about the consequences of AI/machine learning.

Another, Michael Learnott, stated:

The fact that Lex podcast is as popular as it is illustrates the nepotism problem. There’s no way in Hell I believe someone as monotonally boring as Lex Fridman is that popular without a lot of behind the scenes algorithm manipulation and artificial trending.

Examine the data yourself: click here for the entire spreadsheet. Corrections and additional data (on guests we weren’t able to categorize with a reliable source) are welcomed.

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Source: Leather Apron Club