Brian Tyler Cohen (born January 12, 1989) is an American progressive[1] YouTuber, podcast host,[2] author,[3] political commentator, actor and MSNBC contributor.[4] His political podcast is No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. In his YouTube channel, titled "Brian Tyler Cohen,"[5] he interviews political figures, reports on politics, and live-streams events, including debates and election results.[6] As of November 2024, his channel has over 3.4 million subscribers and had received 2.9 billion views.[7]
On February 25, 2022, Cohen became the first YouTube creator/podcaster to interview U.S. President Joe Biden.[8]
Education
In 2011, Cohen graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a BS degree in Business and Economics and a BA degree in English. He addressed the graduating class of 2011 as their class president.[9][10]
Career
Cohen acted in a handful of film and television roles from 2012 to 2016.[11] In October 2018, he started posting political content on his YouTube channel which primarily covers national politics and in June 2020 started his first podcast, No Lie, during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cohen has since created multiple shows on his channel, cohosting Democracy Watch with voting rights lawyer and Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias[12] and The Legal Breakdown with former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.[13]
In addition to hosting podcasts and creating YouTube videos, Cohen has been a speaker at Netroots Nation,[14] Collision[15] and Web Summit in Lisbon.[6] He had been an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post prior to launching his show.[10] Cohen has worked for the left-wing website Occupy Democrats as a writer[16] and on-camera host.[17] On June 22, 2023, MSNBC announced that Cohen would be joining the network as a political contributor.[18] He made his national television debut as an MSNBC contributor on The Reidout on July 20, 2023.[4]
Cohen is critical of mainstream media, believing that most Americans consume new media rather than television news. He has criticized the Democratic Party for what he perceived as an overreliance on mainstream media, arguing that podcasts and YouTube shows reach wider audiences.[19]
Book
On August 13, 2024, Cohen's debut book, Shameless: Republicans' Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy,[a] was published by the flagship Harper imprint of HarperCollins.[3] In it, he outlines his evaluation of the current state of the Republican Party, and what the Democrats and everyone who wants to protect democracy should do about it.[20] It was met by favorable reviews.[b][21]Shameless debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending August 17, 2024, and remained on the list for three weeks.[22]
Podcast
President Joe Biden being interviewed by Brian Tyler Cohen on February 25, 2022
Guests who have appeared on No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen include:[23]
^In Shameless, he skillfully chronicles Republicans’ decades-long descent into a politics of dysfunction, disinformation and personal destruction ... A must-read. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi
^"The insidious reason Tucker Carlson supports the Canadian trucker protest". No Lie on 13 Feb 2022
