Why I Appreciate the Pod

Hey, so I’m not much of a Reddit user, and in most of my interactions on the internet, I’m mostly a “lurker”, but I really wanted to express what the H3 Podcast has done for me in the last 4 years I’ve been watching.

Back in 2019 I had fallen down the alt right pipeline pretty hard, even to where in my senior year of high school I was attending Coservative Club everyday, and obessing over every post from the usual suspects, It was only when I graduated in 2020, and I had stumbled upon videos of left leaning people debating and “destroying” conservatives did I start to look back and reassess my life.

I remember starting to watch debate videos from Destiny, who I knew nothing about, and still know almost nothing about outside his debates, and thinking “this person seems to be somehow both rational, and empathetic”, it stark comparison to the cold pseudo-utilitarian “logic” I had been watching in Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder.

Several moths later, and when my feed was stock full of political debate content, I stumbled upon the H3 Podcast, which was at the tail end of the Frenemies saga. I had watched H3 Productions back in middle and High School, long before I even thought about politics, and I decided to put it on in the background while I was opening at work in the morning. I was hooked ever since.

Around that time, I started to get the feeling that the left leaning debate politics I was listening to, was still a little too, “spiteful” for my tastes, and when I discovered another debater who felt like they cared more (at least more than Destiny) about people than the grind of the political slop fights, I transitioned to watching them.

I continued watching Vaush for a long while, I would say up until the “Vaush Files” expose the crew did a year ago, I was watching most of his videos, but I had started to have the weird feeling that I had felt back when I watched Destiny, and the conservatives before him, that his politics had become more and more vitriolic and spiteful, or at least I was a little older and had begun to see it for what it was.

At this point I had found myself watching every H3 podcast, I’d even attended the Ace Theatre live show. If I was off work I would catch the lives, but if not I would listen after I got off, or when I was prepping before we opened the following morning.

In the last few months I realized why I’ve stayed watching, and why I’ll forever be a fan. The H3 podcast its cast and crew embody the humanism and empathy I had been searching for ever since I drastically changed my politics and actually enter the real world out of high school. I had been severely depressed and anxious when I had graduated back in 2020, and it was only after I rediscovered H3, and had heard Ethan’s journey and struggles with depression and obesity did I ever decide to seek out help myself.

I truly don’t think I would still be here if it wasn’t for the pod and the family.

While there are fights and drama and petty disagreements, I come away from the show (mostly from the political serious topics) often feeling that if it was anyone else anywhere else online who I saw discussing the same topics, I would come away feeling angry or numb to the pain and suffering of others just as I had when I was conservative. The same feeling I had gotten from Vaush, Hassan, Destiny, and Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and Jordan Peterson before them.

In the last four years the show has evolved in so many ways, new crew, better sets, guests, no guest, live shows, no live shows, debates. I’ve been there for all of it, and I’ll be there for the next chapters.

During last yesterday’s show, I felt more that ever that the H3 pod is a show of people, people who have ideas and are different from one another, from different backgrounds and beliefs, but the absolute beauty of the podcast, is that when it all comes together, when you actually watch the show, it is obvious that these people have good intentions, and want the best for themselves, their families, each other, and people in general.

I have faith that the good Ethan, Hila, AB, Lena, Olivia, Zach, Nate, Tom, Galia, Love, Tamara, and Daniel the Hater has done for me and for the world in general will come to the surface through this current miasma of misinformation, and they will come out the other side stronger.

I love the Family, and wish everyone the happiness and success they all absolutely deserve.

Family for life.