The Scoop
The founder of Vice is hoping to use the recent success of his podcast to prop up a new talent network built around the show.
After several years out of the spotlight, Shane Smith returned in late 2024 with Shane Smith Has Questions, an 18-episode podcast exploring topics like the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and the actual assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, immigration and the border, and conspiracies around vaccines and COVID-19. Vice’s existing massive YouTube following and an enduring fascination with Smith seemed to help the show break through: The video podcast racked up tens of millions of views on the platform.
On June 1, the company is launching the second season of the show along with plans for the Vice News Collective, an expansion of the Vice News podcast platform with news influencer talent from across the political spectrum. The company declined to name names, but said it had two major sponsors already signed on for the second season, and announced that Vice would now be producing the show itself after outsourcing the first season to liberal pundit Bill Maher’s now-defunct podcast production arm, Club Random Studios.
“Season 1 of Shane’s podcast was incredibly successful, and we fulfilled our commitment to Club Random,” a spokesperson for the company said, adding that Vice had continued to have a strong relationship with Maher. “Given the success, Vice is moving forward with Season 2 in-house and Shane has already started filming new episodes (several out of the studio).”
Smith has been quietly recruiting talent to join the network for months. Semafor reported last fall that producers for Smith’s new podcast had reached out to conservative podcasters, left-leaning news influencers, and manosphere media personalities in an attempt to book them for the second season.
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Not everyone has been pleased with Smith’s return or the shift in his perspective: In November, the Intercept blasted Smith for what it described as his “hard-right turn into Trumpism” and his recent apology to Elon Musk for his past coverage of the billionaire.
Bringing Smith’s show in-house is the latest move back into news by Vice, which wound down its news operation last year as it emerged from bankruptcy. The millennial media brand debuted a subscription product and restarted its print magazine in late 2024, and that same year launched the Vice Sports brand to produce original series and podcasts for Vice TV, a joint television venture with A&E.