Message Received: Nobody Listens to That Podcast

Published: May 21, 2026

A year and more than 20 editions later, this newsletter has become an ongoing attempt to make sense of how culture, media, politics, and the internet now collide in real time. Every edition seems to bring a new reminder that trust is personal, attention is fleeting, and sometimes the most revealing conversations start with something as ridiculous as a meme or a pair of jeans.

We’re grateful to everyone who has read along, shared editions, sent tips, and indulged our fascination with the chaos online.


The Podcast “Nobody” Listens To

Communications strategist Sarah Evans’ latest LinkedIn post (our favorite social media network) made an argument worth repeating. When a CEO turns down a podcast because the audience is too small, they're not being selective. They're optimizing for a media landscape that no longer exists.

Reach used to be the whole game. Get into the New York Times or Washington Post (RIP), add impressions to a clipping report, call it a day. That logic held when influence flowed through a short list of publications and broadcast slots. It holds less well when AI systems are pulling from podcasts, Substacks, YouTube interviews, and niche newsletters to populate the answers people actually see.

The audience for a transcribed podcast isn't the people who listened. It's everyone who asks Claude or ChatGPT a relevant question later.

How to convince your spokesperson:

  • Discoverability is now part of the visibility calculation. Content doesn’t just reach an audience once. It stays findable.
  • Recency matters. A steady drumbeat of appearances across platforms holds up better than one big placement that's six months old.
  • If your executives aren't in these conversations, someone else (like your competitor) is shaping the answers.** The Primary in CA is Coming. The Plot Is Still Developing. **
The Primary in CA is Coming. The Plot Is Still Developing.

With California’s primary on June 2, mail-in ballots are already making their way into homes, and into the familiar pile of things people fully intend to “deal with this weekend.” Across federal, statewide, and local races, the picture is still coming into focus, and with the recent passage of Prop 50, the cycle has picked up an extra layer of uncertainty.

What we’re seeing:

  • This is the stage where campaigns quietly separate into two categories: the ones that feel inevitable, and the ones that still feel completely alive.
  • Most of the attention is clustering around a small number of marquee races, while a much larger set of contests is unfolding with very little public visibility.
  • In the tighter races, momentum is less about big moments and more about steady engagement from people who are already paying close attention.
  • Even with ballots in hand, many voters are still loosely engaged, meaning the election is happening at different levels of intensity depending on who you ask.

For communicators, it’s another reminder that elections don’t behave like a single, unified event anymore. They feel more like overlapping conversations that peak at different times, with outcomes shaped less by who breaks through the noise and more by who manages to hold attention long enough for it to matter.


“That’s My Mayor”

This month, we directed the launch video for Andrea Hunley's campaign for Mayor of Indianapolis, alongside the fabulous team at Bayonet Media. Hunley is a former IPS teacher and principal, now a state senator. She's exactly who we built this firm to elect.

Most candidate launch videos tell a biography. Where they grew up, what they've done, why they care. Candidates who lead with bio alone often struggle to pivot to a bigger vision later in the race. The launch sets the tone for the entire campaign, so it pays to be strategic and think bigger from day one. Hunley's video opens in Indianapolis and we centered the piece on the city's future, not the candidate's past.

What this means for communicators:

  • Before you write the first line of a launch, ask what frame you are building, not what story you are telling. The story can change. The frame is much harder to walk back.
Hotcakes & Housing: LA Mayoral Forum on Homelessness

Earlier this month, Hope the Mission and Los Angeles Mission hosted a mayoral forum at the Original Pantry Cafe, pancake breakfast included. The event brought together homelessness service providers, advocates, and people with lived experience to put LA's mayoral candidates on record about their plans for the city's crisis. Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman, and businessman Adam Miller participated.

The format was the point. A breakfast at the Original Pantry Cafe is not a press conference; it is a community table. That setting shaped the tone of the conversation and helped drive coverage from more than 23 outlets, including LAist (KPCC) and Spectrum News 1.

We were proud to partner with both organizations on the concept, planning, and earned media outreach.


Until Next Time

When we sent the first edition of this newsletter into the void, we had no idea where it would land. Some of you have been here since the beginning, whether by choice or because unsubscribing takes effort.

What hasn’t changed is the pressure around the work. Communicators are still navigating the same realities, just louder. A president who deflects for sport. A news cycle that doesn’t pause. An American Dream that feels increasingly out of reach for most people. And somehow, in the middle of all that, you still have to make news.

We started this because we wanted to be useful to the people doing it. We hope we have been.

—Bryson Gillette