Picker is a man who is used to working under pressure, which is fortunate because the pressure has rarely been greater. To his audience – mostly young, white men – the 34-year-old far-left commentator is a spokesperson against a failing establishment. To his critics within the Democratic Party, he is a liability protected by his “jock insurance” when he makes controversial comments about Israel and US foreign policy. Last month, a Wall Street Journal op-ed called him “anti-American, anti-women, anti-Western and anti-Semitic” and demanded that Democrats cut ties with him altogether. As Politico says, the left is in a pickle. Picker has learned to manage with the help of his daily routine.
“Sanity in a crazy world must be pursued by a strict diet,” Picker told WIRED. “Think about it. Death. Destruction. An ineffective state that will not meet the needs of the working class. To maintain some semblance of hope, I have to maintain my sanity, and I felt this was the way to do it.”
I spoke to Pickler—who has previously chatted with WIRED’s global editorial director Katie Drummond—about his tireless routine, his streaming setup, and his borderline obsession with zines.
When you wake up, what’s the first thing you reach for?
Unfortunately my phone. Then, my finasteride.
Are you a coffee lover?
Yes. Once I’m done tweeting, reading, and listening to NPR morning editionI get out of bed and down two double espresso shots, one after the other. And I take a lot of pills. I take my creatine in the morning. I take fish oil pills because I vomit when I eat seafood. I take a lot of multivitamins, ashwagandha, zinc – all that good stuff.
You stream at least eight hours a day. When do you have time to eat lunch?
I eat the same lunch every day on stream, usually around 3pm. This is one pound of chicken. Straight white chicken breast and rice – This would be either Asian or Middle Eastern chicken. I also drink a lot of cold brew when I’m taking 3-milligram Zins. Sometimes I substitute 6-milligram zinc. Coffee and cinnamon are my two tastes.
You are often reacting to breaking news in real time to thousands of viewers. How do you avoid giving instant takes that may be badly out of date?
It happens, but I try to stay calm. I have my own ideology and messaging discipline on things I’ve been talking about for years, and as problems persist, it’s not hard to respond immediately. I have talked about the need for gun control a thousand times at this point. So, after another horrific mass shooting, I know there are some systemic factors involved that I can talk about right away.
There is a lot of young crowd watching you. How do you present some of these political issues to them?
Donald Trump has made my job very easy. My job is to educate people about imperialism and sometimes consider the victims’ perspective. This is a not often discussed part of our war machine. We talk about how wars affect us – our sons and daughters are sent overseas, they die, and we’re spending all our money on it, on petro-capitalists or whatever. But rarely is the focus focused on the actual victims on the ground, and their perspective also changes over time when they realize that the US and Israel are not at all as invested in the liberation of the Iranian people as they initially presented.
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