A people's history of Zyn

On the surface, Zyn seems like just another post-cigarette nicotine push from Big Tobacco. But look a little closer, and you’ll find that these little white nicotine pouches have taken on an entire life and culture of their own, complete with political connotations, subcultural slang, and even social media “Zynfluencers.” You can count Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and even “Joe Rogan of the Left” Hasan Piker among Zyn’s highest-profile enthusiasts. It’s become a symbol of American masculinity in the age of the bro-coded YouTube podcast, the digital equivalent of whipping out a tin of dip in the frat house.

To find out about how Zyn became both a new symbol of American masculinity and a political lightning rod, journalist T.M. Brown published a deep dive for the New York Times, just before the November election. So we decided to have him on for a brief cultural and social history of Zyn.

We get into why Zyn resonates with male consumers in particular — despite initially being much more popular among women in the product’s home country of Sweden — its bizarre trajectory across national borders and party lines, and its multifaceted nature as a social signifier that somehow manages to encompass such seemingly contradictory impulses as indulgence and health, working class culture and internet hustle culture, and individualism and brotherly love.

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