In conversations with Mr. Peterson, Mr. Rogan disdained the “the social justice warrior brigade,” but also lamented President Trump’s failure to distance himself from white supremacists. Mr. Rogan has said he’s “mostly on the left.” What troubles him is “when people just ramp up their positions and get more ideologically based, and they’re doing it as a reaction to the other side instead of just being who they are, instead of having some sort of a personal sovereignty,” he said last year. (Mr. Rogan’s website sells T-shirts emblazoned with the political affiliation “Freak Party.”)

Tim Ferriss hit on some of the same themes on his podcast when he interviewed Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey. He grilled Mr. Booker on his career path but he seemed more interested in neutral advice for would-be activists rather than partisan politics. Mr. Booker called himself “a huge fan” of the show (he has taken up regular fasting on Mr. Ferriss’s recommendation), and repeatedly rebuked culture-wars polarization. “We’re at a point in our society right now where we have just stopped listening to each other, and stopped being empathetic,” Mr. Booker said.

This is the podcast bro ethos: Ditch your ideologically charged identity. Accept your evolutionary programming. Take responsibility for mastering it, and find a cosmic purpose. “I’m not saying it’s only personal responsibility that matters, but you have to start there,” Mr. Marcus told me.

But wait — how does cutting down carbs and tossing kettlebells set me up to serve the universe? Here is where the podcast bros get metaphysical. Many have a strong interest in spirituality, and see practices like Buddhist meditation or consuming hallucinogenic “plant medicine” as not just a way to improve daily performance, but a path to something deeper. Their metaphysical tastes range from Carl Jung’s psychology to ancient Stoic philosophy, which calls for self-control and transcendence of material wealth. (Like Seneca himself, the podcasters manage to reconcile anti-materialism with their own financial success.)

Cory Allen — who told me that income from other projects, including his work in music production, supplements his more modest podcast operation — invites cognitive scientists, master shamans and shiatsu alchemists onto his show. He sees their spiritual discussions as a subtle kind of political intervention that might help people transcend their tribal programming. “If I could direct someone toward compassion that’s at a level of consciousness below their flighty political beliefs, from the bottom up, that could eventually get them to say, ‘Hey, I think Trump is causing a lot of suffering right now, and I don’t agree with him as much,’” he said.

The common thread linking the podcasters’ interest in evolutionary psychology and their metaphysical dabbling is the quest to transcend the ego, and to overcome the idea that we are personally aggrieved by enemies wholly unlike ourselves. This means mistrusting ideology and identitarian politics. “I think having a one-world tribe, a tribe of human beings, period, is really what’s going to heal us for our next stage of life as a species on this planet,” said Mr. Marcus, whose spiritual interests include yoga, Toltec philosophy and hallucinogenic elixirs brewed by Amazonian shamans.

Some of these men realize that their collective identity as a bunch of financially comfortable white dudes undermines their cosmic universalism. Lewis Howes makes a point of inviting women and people of color onto his show, and featured a Muslim woman at his “Summit of Greatness” conference last year. “I know I’m only able to reach a certain number of people based on how I look and my experience,” he told me.