Pod Save America
| RPF Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name(s): | Pod Save America, Crooked Media RPF |
| Scope/Focus: | RPF about the hosts of the podcast |
| Date(s): | 2017- |
| See also: | Pundit RPF |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Pod Save America is a progressive political podcast distributed by Crooked Media and co-hosted by Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett, and Daniel Pfeiffer. It was started in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, though the co-hosts had previously done similar podcasts. Other hosts of Crooked Media podcasts, employees, and the significant others of hosts are the focus of the fandom, as well as crossover with Political RPF and some Pundit RPF. The podcast started in January 2017, and by March fans were writing fanfic about the co-hosts.
The community is tight-knit and by convention is extremely dedicated to staying private and not drawing the attention of the real people in the fanworks by crossing the Fourth Wall. Crooked Media RPF fanworks have been on AO3 since April 2017, and as of 2020 all 600+ works are archive-locked. Fan accounts on platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter are also private or locked, or avoid using searchable terms or tags. There have been a few minor Fourth Wall scares that caused distress in the fandom. In April 2018 Aja Romano began tweeting about her observations of Pod Save America RPF, tagging and mentioning the real people in the RPF by name. This was not the first time Aja had indicated she might write an article about RPF (see Hockey RPF and the Fourth Wall) and received a negative and defensive reaction from fans who did not want their activities publicized. Aja ultimately did not indicate that she intended to write about the fandom. The most significant breach was in December 2018, when a host of Crooked Media podcast Keep It said on that podcast that somebody had told him of "slash fic" between Tommy and a politician. Tommy responded with confusion on Twitter.
The most popular ship appears to be Jon Lovett/Tommy Vietor. There is also a large amount of poly shipping. Most shipping involves the three co-hosts Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, and Jon Lovett.
The fandom generally refers to Jon Favreau as "Favs" and Jon Lovett as "Lovett" to avoid confusion. In the fandom, "Campaign Era" refers to the time when the hosts met before the Obama presidency, "White House Era" is the period when the hosts were working in the Obama administration, and "LA Era" is the period after the hosts left Washington DC but before Pod Save America began.