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A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

“Alpha Males” Are Making Men Lonelier (with Ryan Broderick)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

Matt Bernstein

News, News Commentary, Society & Culture

4.92.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When fitness influencer Ashton Hall’s absurd morning routine went viral a few weeks ago, I was… moved. The hours-long skincare, gym, and journaling ritual felt like an American Psycho-inspired metrosexual fever dream — one peppered with shocking misogyny and profound loneliness. Hall’s viral moment felt like a tipping in point in “alpha male” influencer culture, or the content ecosystem of men teaching boys what it means to be men. The further down the rabbit hole I went, the weirder it got — and between scammy financial incentives and an authoritarian take on gender, I began to understand why so many of these influencers are Trump supporters, and how they’re teaching their viewers to follow suit. Most disturbing is the message that underpins almost all alpha male content: a life well-lived is one lived alone. COME SEE A BIT FRUITY LIVE! Tickets are on sale here. Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Thanks to today’s sponsors! Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at https://www.rocketmoney.com/fruity.  Get 15% off a cuter, more sustainable way to clean at https://www.blueland.com/fruity. Subscribe to Ryan Broderick’s newsletter, Garbage Day. Follow Ryan on Bluesky. Me on Instagram. A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Patrick Bateman, if he had been born in like 2004, could have been such a great, like, alpha male get rich quick TikToker.

0:13.0

Hello, hello, and welcome back to A BitFruity. I'm Matt Bernstein. I'm so happy that you're here. On March 22nd, just under a month ago,

0:22.5

I was scrolling on Twitter when I came across a video, when you came across a video,

0:27.9

when we all came across a video of an Instagram influencer I had never heard of before.

0:33.6

Even though he already had at this point 8 million followers now by the way up to 14 million

0:38.8

named ashton hall ashton is an extremely fit 29 year old man living apparently in an ultra-modern

0:49.0

barely furnished miami apartment the video which you know, was of his alleged morning routine,

0:57.1

which begins at a crisp 354 a.m. minute by minute, he chronicles his many morning tasks.

1:04.9

I mean, kind of, it's like unclear how, like why you need five hours to do exactly what he's

1:10.2

doing here, but not the point.

1:11.9

He does push-ups on the balcony of his apartment. He drinks many bottles of Saratoga water,

1:17.8

meditates for a few minutes, journals briefly, watches some church preacher Instagram reels,

1:24.4

inexplicably dunks his head in a bowl of ice water, handed to him by the hands of a woman

1:29.3

who is otherwise disembodied. She'd also later hand him food to which he says thank you

1:34.2

without looking up from his computer to acknowledge her. He eats a banana and then rubs the peel on

1:39.1

his face, some sort of biohacky skin care. He hops on a Zoom call. And in what is the only time in this morning

1:47.2

routine video that we hear his voice says, quote, so looking at it, bro, we got to go ahead and

1:52.0

get in at least 10,000. Unclear as to what we're talking about there. Ashton Hall's Instagram bio

1:58.3

touts, you can reinvent your life in one year.

2:02.0

And his website offers personal training programs that range in price from $3,300 to $8,250 a year.

2:10.2

When Ashton Hall's morning routine went viral, it was basically entirely because of people

2:15.6

dunking on him for how ridiculous it was. And Ashton

...

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