Moderation Isn’t a Media Strategy

2025

NYC

DATE:

05/15/25

INHERITED LOGICS

MODERATION ISN'T A MEDIA STRATEGY

WRITTEN BY:

TRISTAN MCALLISTER

Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom (left) interviews political commentator and influencer Charlie Kirk (right). Source: This Is Gavin Newsom

LONG STORY, SHORT:

California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a podcast. Yes, a podcast. And no, it's not just him reading legislation and bills in ASMR. It's a cross-aisle chatfest featuring the likes of Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon.

The goal? Bridge the divide. The result? A media category confusion cocktail that's left listeners—and political and brand strategists—asking: who was this for? But we do think there's hope.

INHERITED LOGICS

#002

Inherited Logics is an At Large content series that looks at why certain brand moves land—and why others fall flat—through the lens of category logic: the unwritten rules audiences and industries expect brands to follow.

THE STORY:

We love a Hollywood-trained, dulcet-toned, progressive Northern Californian just as much as … well, Northern Californians do (really, we do). Still, Newsom’s new audio venture, This Is Gavin Newsom, arrived with all the branding optimism of a wellness startup, but the vibe? It's more ... ideological rollercoaster. We’ve even held our tongues on this one, because we wanted to give the endeavor a few months to breathe. And we, admittedly, had very high expectations.

In early episodes, he sits down with hardline conservatives such as Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, and potentially your uncle’s TikTok algorithm. His pitch: debate without demeaning. His positioning: unclear. Is it empathy? Is it strategy? Is it prep for a 2028 run or just an elaborate way to troll Fox News?

The press response: skeptical.

The base: confused.

The podcast charts: it’s hanging out around 75th place in the US/News category.

The Democratic brand: still confusing. (Not wholy Newsom's fault …)

The real tension: Inherited Logics vs. category confusion

1. Political Messaging (Inherited Logic: Stay in Your Lane)

— "Both sides-ism" in this cultural moment is flawed

Progressive voters like their politicians legible. Nuance may sound noble, but here it lands like a shrug. By nodding to both-sidesism—giving airtime to conspiracy-laced ideologies—Newsom risks flattening the stakes. The right signals loyalty. The left, when playing moderator, risks looking rudderless.

2. The Podcast Format (Inherited Logic: Be Relatable, Be Provocative, Beat the Algorithm)

— When chaos is algorithmic currency, you have to bring chaos

Podcasts reward personality and provocation. These are two things Kirk has in spades. Here, Newsom delivers policy nuance and mild-mannered deference. The algorithm prefers chaos. Kirk, for example, across his media presence, weaponizes it. Newsom tiptoes through it. His “I respect that” reflex makes him feel less like a challenger, more like a guest trying not to be rude.

3. Public Trust (Inherited Logic: Consistency = Credibility)

— Appealing to all sides means you appeal to no sides

You don’t build trust by platforming people you’ve previously condemned, especially without a clear why. When, in one episode, Newsom suggests Dems lost because of “the trans issue,” it feels like message drift. Without clarity, the whole project reads like brand confusion. You can’t just show up with a mic—you need to lead with a POV.

Was it ever an opportunity?

In short, yes, and it still could be. The idea of engaging the other side with an evolved Democratic brand is noble. Still, the execution is wobbly. Newsom has gambled on political podcasting as a play for cultural relevance—but ended up in a credibility gray zone. This is especially so when the audience that’s actually paying attention to this podcast—liberal, Gen Z, media-savvy—was ready to clock the contradictions. It’s hard to imagine anyone on the right giving this podcast the time of day. Ultimately, it’s just more preaching to the choir, which the Dems seem to be colossally good at doing.

The Story

On April 14th, Blue Origin launched a mission celebrating “women in space”—including morning TV host and journalist Gayle King, pop star Katy Perry, activist and entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen, former journalist and Jeff Bezos fiancée Lauren Sánchez, and two others (yes, the lineup was already getting exhausting)—on a short suborbital flight.

The intended message? Progress. Inclusion. A future that’s female… in zero gravity.

It was a moment the Blue Origin team—and Sánchez, leveraging her PR instincts as a licensed pilot and former news anchor—clearly believed would be hailed as a milestone in human history. But the public didn’t exactly cheer. Within minutes of launch (and surprisingly, not much before), criticism swirled around the perceived performativity, the exclusivity, and the disconnect between what space represents and what influencer culture tends to sell.

The PR teams involved claimed they were caught off guard by the backlash. But we weren’t. A simple read of the logic driving influencer culture, aerospace, and tourism would’ve given you every reason to call this a “no-go” before takeoff.

The Real Tension: A Clash of Inherited Logics

1. Aerospace (Inherited Logic: Collective Progress)

— This isn’t Apollo. It’s Apollo-for-Instagram.

Historically, space has symbolized shared achievement. NASA. National pride. The global imagination. When commercial space becomes a platform for selfies and singalongs with Katy Perry, it breaks the collective logic. Space isn’t a product—it’s a cultural milestone.

2. Tourism (Inherited Logic: Transformation/Self actualization)

— Is this a spiritual journey… or a sponsored post?

We expect travel to expand our worldview. Whether it’s through culture, nature, or new perspectives, luxury tourism still promises personal growth. But this mission offered no immersion, no narrative arc, aside from Gayle King’s face of dread in the moments before blastoff, a few minutes of weightlessness for the crew’s perfectly coifed hair, and a branded flight suit.

3. Influencer Culture (Inherited Logic: Relatability)

— I don’t want to be you. I want to know you got there for a reason.

The influencer economy runs on aspiration, yes—but also access. And if space is the ultimate flex, it’s also the ultimate alienation. The moment you’re literally above the rest of us, the contract breaks. Even Amanda Nguyen—widely seen as the mission’s most legitimate passenger—couldn’t salvage that disconnect. A bioastronautics researcher, she was conducting material absorption tests to challenge the outdated belief that menstruation made women unfit for spaceflight. But even that meaningful work got lost in the noise.

A Picture-Perfect Landing … Botched

Even though the New Shepherd capsule safely and gently landed in the West Texas desert, the mission's mission just didn't land … It tried to collapse categories—aerospace, tourism, influencer—without fully understanding what each one owes its audience. When brands borrow from powerful categories without honoring their values (or meaningfully creating new values), the result is cultural dissonance.

THE AT LARGE TAKE:

Reason won’t win a fight that is staged for furry. The conservative media machine—folks like Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, and Ben Shapiro—has mastered the podcast format because it rewards outrage, spectacle, and narrative control. Rage, as NYU professor Scott Galloway notes, sells. In fact, Galloway, a guest on Newsom’s podcast, has explained how platforms like YouTube and Facebook are engineered to amplify anger because anger keeps us clicking. The right exploits that better than the left. Newsom and the left more broadly have yet to fully grasp this, although the gents at left-leaning The Find Out Podcast seem to be on to something.
The medium has its own logic. Podcasts reward strong POVs and memorable moments. Newsom brought nuance to a battlefield built for provocation (see the Galloway reference above). There’s no shame in trying to change the tone—but you better know how loud the other side is shouting. Galloway calls this the monetization of outrage. The algorithm doesn’t favor moderation. It favors chaos. And the right knows how to package chaos in tight, clickable soundbites.
You need the teeth—and the stomach—to be absurd. Right-wing figures lean into theatre. They push narratives even when facts get fuzzy. Newsom, for better or worse, seems stuck in a world where facts matter. That’s admirable—but in the media arena he stepped into, it reads as indecision, not strength.

This Is Gavin Newsom isn't just a media experiment—it is a brand that is suffering from misalignment, albeit with exceptional intentions. In politics, as in branding, you don’t just break category rules to be clever. You break them with purpose, with backing, and with a plan to win. We think Newsom still has a chance, but he'd be wise the heed the above.

BACK TO IDEAS