Asmongold says Pokimane has a "lack of empathy" for her podcast staff amid HasanAbi controversy

Twitch and Kick streamer Zack "Asmongold" has expressed his belief that Imane "Pokimane" has a "lack of empathy" for her podcast staff. For context, on October 13, 2025, Sweet n Sour, a podcast hosted by Pokimane and Lily "LilyPichu," announced that the episode featuring Hasan "HasanAbi" would be delayed due to the CollarGate controversy.

Pokimane eventually addressed the situation, stating that the podcast episode was "supposed to air as usual." However, the staff "refused to upload it out of fear." Furthermore, the co-founder of OTV (OfflineTV) claimed that the podcast episode delay update was posted without her approval:

"the episode was supposed to air as usual but staff refused to upload it out of fear it'd cause drama & also posted this statement without my approval :( sorry guys! we'll talk about everything on this week's episode & go on a hiatus afterwards to restructure."

Asmongold commented on Pokimane's X post on the same day (October 13, 2025), stating that she had a "lack of empathy" towards her podcast employees. He elaborated:

"So, Pokimane, this is what she should have done, because this is an issue, right? And I think that, you know, it's a lack of empathy, I think, with her. And I'll explain the reason why I say that. The reason why I say that is because I think that she should understand that, while she has a big fanbase and a lot of people are fans of her and are going to defend her, and she's got a lot of people that like her, a lot of her staff don't have that."

While claiming that the Sweet n Sour Podcast staff "are getting attacked on social media" because of Pokimane's post, Asmongold said:

"And so what happens is that the staff are now getting attacked on social media. People are being hostile to them. Somebody sends in a mean message to the Patreon of this thing and, you know, to the YouTube channel, you want to know who's going to read that? It's going to be the staff that are going to read that."

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Asmongold explains "what he would've done" while commenting on Pokimane's viral X post about her podcast staff's action

Asmongold continued the conversation by explaining "what he would've done" while commenting on Pokimane's X post, in which she announced a hiatus to restructure her Sweet n Sour Podcast.

The Texas-based personality said:

"But what I would've done is, I would've said, 'Listen, I understand that a lot of you guys like Hasan. But there's a lot of people that don't like him right now, and I don't want to put my staff in a situation where they could be caught in a cross-fire between, you know, my friendship with somebody else and internet drama.' At that point, it would have exonerated the staff. They would've not gotten attacked because, again, you're trying to protect them from things having, like, something bad happening to them. Right?"

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As of this writing, Pokimane has not responded to Asmongold's comments.

Edited by Aarnesh Shrivastava