Lots of people post podcasts nowadays. But a political podcast by a young Tallahasseean is starting to attract followers from all over the world.
The young man's name is Dylan Tillman.
"I am 20 years old. I graduated from Tallahassee Community College and I'm going to transfer to a 4-year university, maybe Florida State or UCF. Maybe out-of-state. I'm not sure at this point, but I'm looking to pursue a degree in Political Science."
Which makes sense, considering that Tillman had a political epiphany a few short years ago.
"I got motivated to politics, originally, back in March of 2018 when the March for Our Lives started. I didn't really know what it was about, just they were talking about something called 'common-sense gun control.' I wasn't sure where I was on that issue, but I went to the march anyway because it was dark stuff. And I saw how national issues can come right to your front yard. It's crazy!"
That wasn't the only experience that energized Tillman's desire to probe the depths of political thought. He says one of his classes at Tallahassee Community College was a particular motivator.
"In my philosophy class, we were learning about Socrates, Plato, all the classical authors. And then we started to go off the syllabus, off what we were supposed to be taught in the class. And we were learning about these concepts like 'intersectionality,' which is a tenet of Critical Race Theory."
Tillman took exception to this.
"My motivation is by teaching through an ideological lens, you're creating less competition and you're leaving out all these students that have less of an education than they should because of the politicization of the classroom."
This led to Tillman taking his thoughts online through his "A More Perfect Podcast." He says it attracted attention from its earliest installments.
"I did an episode with a friend of ours, who's a doctor, at the outset of the COVID pandemic. And I talked to him about COVID and what it was over 2 episodes. I asked him all these questions from people my age and he was able to tell me stuff that was very insightful, but also that the mainstream media was reporting a month later."
Suddenly, comments and critiques were pouring in from all over the world. Now, Tillman has more than three dozen episodes produced. The topics range from his take on the election, which he believes was not fraudulent but was rigged, and the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Tillman insists he does extensive research using multiple sources before producing his podcasts.
"If I want to go to a conservative source, I would go to National Review. They really do some good reporting. If I want to go to a more left-leaning source, I might to mainstream media such as CNN. But then there's also a bunch of 3rd party sources that I go to. Progressive commentators, like 'Beau of the Fifth Column' is a YouTuber. He does some good stuff. And I'll take in all this information and really analyze the issues from that."
And Tillman isn't shy about sharing his sources with his podcast's consumers.
"I'll note all the things I read and put it on a document online for everyone to see."
Tillman says the feedback from each installment comes in fast and furious. Many of the comments are positive. But sometimes the opposite holds true.
"I explained the different interpretations, the semantic overload that we're going through as far as Black Lives Matter that received a lot of pushback. A former friend of mine wrote a long, nasty review of it."
Even so, Tillman says the total number of people listening to A More Perfect Podcast is significant enough that a sponsor came calling.
"I became a sponsored affiliate for Surf Shark VPN. I get to say that at the beginning and end of my episodes every time now and if you purchase a subscription, I get a cut. Pretty cool."
It's about as cool as 20-year old Dylan Tillman of Tallahassee having a podcast that's being listened to - and talked about - in an ever-growing circle of fans both at home and abroad.
