Jul 14, 2026 · 46 min · 14 segments
Ed Coper explains how angertainment has co-opted our social media feeds and taken over our lives, in conversation with Sushi Das. Originally presented on Wednesday 24 June 2026 by The Wheeler Centre…
In your book, you say angertainment can stop any idea in its tracks, regardless of rational arguments, peer-reviewed research or any kind of hard evidence.
And you give the example of a full-on mad frenzy that broke out over gas stovetops over a 48-hour period in the US.
I love the example of the gas stoves because it is spookily neat, tidy little 48-hour window into the world of entertainment.
So a couple of years ago in the US, there's a federal body called the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
They look after product recalls and public information campaigns around them, as you would expect.
What are you going to do about that? And the commissioner said off the cuff, oh, we'll take a look at that and, you know, everything's on the table, everything ranging from doing nothing to a full ban.
And so what is actually a well-organised and well-oiled machine exists waiting for an outrage to weaponise.
And so the very next day, all of the internet was awash with things like celebrity chefs taping them to their stoves saying, I'm going to stay taped to this stove forever.
Or you had, you know, you remember Charlton Heston at the NRA, you know, take my gun from my cold dead hand.
And all of a sudden, from nowhere, gas stoves became this icon of the culture wars for a 24-hour period, and everyone in that ecosystem on social media grabbed it with both hands, and not just your political leaders, but everyone common person out there was all of a sudden in a frenzy about gas stoves.
In your book, you say angertainment can stop any idea in its tracks, regardless of rational arguments, peer-reviewed research or any kind of hard evidence.
And you give the example of a full-on mad frenzy that broke out over gas stovetops over a 48-hour period in the US.
I love the example of the gas stoves because it is spookily neat, tidy little 48-hour window into the world of entertainment.
So a couple of years ago in the US, there's a federal body called the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
They look after product recalls and public information campaigns around them, as you would expect.
What are you going to do about that? And the commissioner said off the cuff, oh, we'll take a look at that and, you know, everything's on the table, everything ranging from doing nothing to a full ban.
And so what is actually a well-organised and well-oiled machine exists waiting for an outrage to weaponise.
And so the very next day, all of the internet was awash with things like celebrity chefs taping them to their stoves saying, I'm going to stay taped to this stove forever.
Or you had, you know, you remember Charlton Heston at the NRA, you know, take my gun from my cold dead hand.
And all of a sudden, from nowhere, gas stoves became this icon of the culture wars for a 24-hour period, and everyone in that ecosystem on social media grabbed it with both hands, and not just your political leaders, but everyone common person out there was all of a sudden in a frenzy about gas stoves.
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