The description of “The Ben Shapiro Show” asks, “Tired of the lies? Tired of the spin?” and then proceeds to spin the facts in the opinion of the all-knowing host, Ben Shapiro. “The Ben Shapiro Show” is a conservative daily news commentary podcast on political and current event topics. 

There are two sides to Shapiro. The first is an effective debater who states his claim and provides adequate evidence to support his line of reasoning. The second is a finger-pointing, whining child. 

When I come across the debater persona, I contemplate the reasonable points he makes and acknowledge the somewhat non-valid points he makes. This is called productive discussion. He has evidence to support his reasoning and can intelligently respond to pointed questions. 

By no means is Shapiro uneducated. He attended Harvard Law School, and his debate and commentary skills are good enough to get him a solid platform. While listening to his preaching, I am reminded there are strong reasons and beliefs that lead to a large number of conservatives in America. 

When Shapiro goes into his debate mode, he is able to get his points across and takes an intuitive look at all sides of an argument and makes points that are hard to ignore. 

My views were not totally changed, but perspective is necessary for everyone. I may never be able to understand someone who is pro-life and I certainly can never make everyone in America have the same political views, but it’s certainly a step to promote understanding and battle immense polarization in politics. 

 The second side of his show is the whining baby. This is where I listen and start to question whether the man complaining about a music video is the same one who was citing trustworthy sources in another episode. 

Sure, everyone vents sometimes, but the destructive sarcasm and rants he releases to his 2 million listeners are not on the same scale. He claims the media and the “cult left” are polarizing politics by “making Donald Trump the evil that needs to be defeated by voting.” When in fact, those words can be perceived the exact same way.

At one point Shapiro was discussing Demi Lovato’s new single, “Commander in Chief,” which boldly covers a political topic, our president. However, his acclaimed commentary sounded just like whining and ridiculing. 

Sometimes this childish character hides behind the intelligent wording you might have tuned out at that point, but this is where Shapiro abuses that debater persona. He sometimes relies on his established reliability to his viewers to preach his cranky and petty opinions. You just need to be able to spot when that is happening.  

Don’t use this show as your news source. He tries to write his commentary off as unbiased opinions because he is a conservative who doesn’t fully support Trump, but he’s not special. There are certainly Republicans that won’t be voting red this election.
If you are left-leaning, I highly recommend you listen to Shapiro rapidly talk about his politics to try to understand where half of America is coming from. If you are more right-leaning, be aware of gibberish said in a convincing tone, or stay away from this toxic podcast altogether. It promotes a one-sided opinion, not looking onto itself for the same assessment it does on others. Either way, his commentary bites you in the brain, whether you are conservative, liberal, or moderate.