What sets Generation Z apart from other generations? What drives today’s youth, and what keeps them awake at night? No one can tell us better than Gen Z themselves. That's why we are portraying 24 students from Radboud University. In this episode: Pre-master's student of Public Administration, Bram van Gendt (22), maintains a blog, Anti-Populista.

‘I find it really upsetting that certain public figures can freely spread disinformation, without any critical questions being asked. That’s why I started my blog, Anti-Populista.

The rise of populism is happening all over Europe. That is something that worries me. The radical right, as well as other extremist groups, know how to use social media very effectively. They have a huge reach, and the more moderate voice is getting drowned in the noise. With this blog, I hope to actually strengthen the moderate centre, and act as an antidote to disinformation.

I think I spend at least five hours a day on my phone. I follow a lot of news channels and podcasts, and I try to listen to different voices from society. To try and understand the experience and ideas of my “political opponents”, I listen to sources like the Wierd Duk podcasts or the Forum voor Democratie talk shows. I should actually also follow Robert Jensen, but he just goes too far; I can’t listen to it.

Social media have negative consequences, but also a positive side. In a way, they have a democratising effect. From my position as a simple student, I can already gain a huge reach. My blogs are attracting more and more readers. When I started out in March, I didn’t even have 500 followers on X; now I’m close to 9000.

All those radical-right podcast makers use blogs and donation models to spread their message; I try to some extent to follow their media strategy. Eventually, I hope to make this into my student job, but it is still in its infancy.’