This is Gavin Newsom - December 18, 2025


And, This Is A Look Back At The Biggest Moments of 2025

Topics
affordability
Hosted by
Gavin Newsom
Mentioned
Charlie Kirk Steve Bannon Larry Scott Galloway Sarah McLachlan Bernie Sanders Alessia Cara Donald Trump Jeff Tweedy John Legend Dave Grohl Remy Wolfe Gabe Ortiz Yo-Yos Chuck Josh Leve Ben Macelis Compton Mamdani and 5 more
And, This Is How Trump Loses His Base with Tim Miller of The Bulwark Re-Release： And, This Is Gaming Culture & Gen-Z Nihilism With Content Creator Brandon _Atrio

Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

172.15

Word count

3,217

Sentence count

247

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

As we turn the page on 2025 and move into 2026, I thought it was time to reflect a little bit on where we ve been over the course of the last year. We ve had some remarkable guests on, controversial guests, from Charlie Kirk to Steve Bannon, to Steve Atriok, and so many more. Let s look back on this is Gavin Newsom.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 So as we turn the page on 2025 and we move into 2026, I thought it was time to reflect a little
00:00:05.600 bit on where we've been over the course of this last year. We had some remarkable guests on,
00:00:11.720 controversial guests from Charlie Kirk to Steve Bannon, Atriok, Galloway, so many more.
00:00:17.620 Let's look back on this is Gavin Newsom.
00:00:24.980 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
00:00:30.000 Hey everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast and it's that time of year again
00:00:35.180 when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic
00:00:40.160 holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist that the whole family
00:00:45.780 can enjoy. That's right, maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies,
00:00:49.960 Monopoly, or Yo-Yos, and a whole lot more. So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the
00:00:55.760 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:00:59.060 Hey, I'm Nora Jones and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing
00:01:04.380 Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an
00:01:09.380 intimate setting. Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation
00:01:13.560 with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave
00:01:18.860 Grohl, Leve, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolfe, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name. And this season,
00:01:26.180 I've sat down with Black Pumas, Alessia Cara, Sarah McLachlan, and more. Check out my new episode
00:01:31.600 with John Legend. I feel like in a lot of ways our careers are paralleled in some ways,
00:01:36.700 but they just never intersected for some reason. I know.
00:01:39.520 We should take it slow. We're just ordinary people. We don't know which way to go.
00:01:52.640 Listen to Nora Jones' Playing Along on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
00:01:58.280 your podcasts.
00:01:58.980 Who would you call if the unthinkable happened?
00:02:03.020 My sister was shot 22 times.
00:02:05.000 A police officer, right? But what do you do when the monster is the man in blue?
00:02:09.660 This dude is the devil. He'll hurt you. 1.00
00:02:12.480 This is the story of a detective who thought he was above the law until we came together
00:02:17.340 to take him down. I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. 0.98
00:02:23.460 I got you, I got you, I got you. 0.97
00:02:25.920 Listen to The Girlfriend's Untouchable on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
00:02:32.080 or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:02:33.860 I got you.
00:02:37.320 Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
00:02:41.080 Yo, yo, yo, yo. Can we get a Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry.
00:02:44.700 What's up, y'all? It's Kadeen.
00:02:46.200 And DeVal, the hosts of the Ellis Ever After podcast.
00:02:49.120 This holiday season.
00:02:50.080 Tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After.
00:02:52.460 On Ellis Ever After, we get real with our crew about family,
00:02:55.660 love and marriage, and everything else in between.
00:02:58.660 Listen to Ellis Ever After on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
00:03:02.800 Follow Ellis Ever After and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.
00:03:07.660 I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him.
00:03:10.760 Gabe Ortiz is a cop.
00:03:12.320 His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late.
00:03:16.840 He was the head of this gang.
00:03:19.260 You going to push that line for the cause?
00:03:20.760 Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it.
00:03:25.760 When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle a dangerous past, one that could destroy everything he thought he knew.
00:03:31.640 Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:03:36.960 Many of you are likely familiar with my first guest on this podcast.
00:03:40.640 It was nine months ago that I had Charlie Kirk on for an extended conversation.
00:03:45.560 A lot of folks had a lot of opinions about that podcast, and a lot of clips traveled far and wide, a lot of headlines about the podcast.
00:03:54.520 But lost in the headlines was a conversation that I thought was really important about what the Democratic Party needs to do better, what Democrats need to do more of, particularly as it relates to long-form podcasts.
00:04:08.000 Getting, as Charlie said, out of these unsanitized conversations into the wild and connecting with folks in a more risky, more raw, and at times more emotional way.
00:04:22.020 We pick up on this clip of that part of our conversation with this is Charlie Kirk.
00:04:27.580 I'm part of it, and credit to you for doing long-form podcasting, because long-form podcasting does penetrate different audiences, right?
00:04:35.780 And our show does very well.
00:04:37.540 But part of the problem of the Democrat Party that, for the health of the country, would be great to change is that Democrats cannot survive in long-form podcasting environments.
00:04:46.960 Why?
00:04:47.340 It's too unscripted.
00:04:48.540 It's too masculine, honestly.
00:04:50.080 And the Democrat Party's become too feminine. 0.97
00:04:51.620 What is masculine about a podcast?
00:04:52.860 Honestly, because I get the whole manosphere that's bro podcasting.
00:04:55.160 To go into the wilderness with no rules and duel it out and see who's better or who's stronger.
00:04:59.580 No, seriously.
00:05:00.480 I mean, like, what?
00:05:01.180 Democrats can't.
00:05:02.140 No, I mean, like.
00:05:02.600 We don't do it.
00:05:03.200 You're right.
00:05:03.740 For whatever reason, don't do it.
00:05:05.040 You can laugh, but, like, who in the Democrat Party.
00:05:07.060 We're not.
00:05:07.580 You're right.
00:05:08.080 We'll go.
00:05:08.940 I mean, maybe Bernie Sanders, but he only worked for, like, an hour and a half.
00:05:10.920 RFK when he was a Democrat.
00:05:12.200 Bobby, who's now HHS.
00:05:13.460 But, like, there's something to be said that if you want to earn the respect of Forgotten America, you have to show them that you can intellectually joust with no script, no hard breaks, no producers in the East.
00:05:25.160 Love that.
00:05:25.620 No teleprompters.
00:05:26.740 Love it.
00:05:26.940 That's where new media is going.
00:05:28.500 Now, I will only challenge one thing you say.
00:05:30.540 I am reaching new audiences.
00:05:31.960 I'm not talking to my bubble.
00:05:33.820 Because our content is so appealing, it goes in a decentralized way.
00:05:38.200 And it's not just political.
00:05:39.420 No, it's not political.
00:05:40.280 But, like, again, our conversation here is going to go far and wide, right?
00:05:43.800 A lot of people are going to see it.
00:05:45.200 A lot of people are going to consume it.
00:05:46.980 Because it's also politics and entertainment have begun to overlap, right?
00:05:51.480 And the old adage is, well, politics is downstream from culture.
00:05:55.080 I think politics and culture are indecipherable from one another now.
00:05:57.980 Donald Trump became a cultural phenomenon, right?
00:06:00.460 You go in to, you know, inner city Compton, you'll see guys with Trump shirts with, you know, the hand up.
00:06:06.640 You know, fight, fight, fight.
00:06:08.260 So what Democrats are doing is you're still playing in a very old, hypersanitized media environment.
00:06:13.420 And my advice is you've got to go where it's unpredictable, where it's treacherous, where it's dangerous.
00:06:17.640 One of the other interesting guests we had on earlier this year was Steve Bannon, someone who's very familiar in the MAGA universe, very familiar to those supporters of Donald Trump.
00:06:29.240 What is less familiar was Bannon, who was in the midst at the time of this conversation, in the midst of a debate with members of Congress, particularly Republican members of Congress,
00:06:41.820 where he was actually arguing in favor of raising taxes on corporations and raising taxes on the 1%.
00:06:49.300 In this clip, we have a conversation where I actually interject and challenged him that he was arguing for sounded a lot like California's progressive tax system.
00:07:01.560 This is Steve Bannon.
00:07:02.900 The idea that you're even talking about the corporate tax rate and the tax rate for the wealthiest among us and having, I mean, the fact that you're having this, we're having this dialogue about your different approach.
00:07:16.100 I mean, in some ways, it's the California tax policy as it relates to more progressive tax policy that favors the working class.
00:07:22.960 We would never take it.
00:07:24.020 We would never take anything from California.
00:07:25.680 I understand.
00:07:26.680 I'm challenging you on the point.
00:07:28.380 But first of all, you're over, you're grossly overtaxed in California.
00:07:33.260 We want to cut taxes.
00:07:34.280 We have moderate income taxes for middle class working folks.
00:07:38.880 It's the top tax rate, which you're arguing for a little higher tax rate, which I appreciate in the corporate tax side.
00:07:45.400 I don't know if it's completely dissimilar.
00:07:47.400 I don't want to get you in trouble.
00:07:48.800 This year, we had a series of conversations with thought leaders about the issue of masculinity.
00:07:54.040 One of the most compelling was with Scott Galloway, who just wrote a new book, Notes on Being a Man.
00:08:02.220 Young men are being targeted by the deepest pocketed, most talented organizations in the world, specifically big tech, want to give them the sense that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm.
00:08:14.780 Why go out and try and make friends when you have Reddit and Discord?
00:08:19.780 Why go through the pain of putting on a tie, showing up on time, not partying during the week, and get a real job when you can trade stocks or crypto on Coinbase or Robinhood, which usually leads to disaster?
00:08:32.140 Why go through the humiliation, the effort, the rejection, showering for God's sakes, working out, having a plan, showing resilience, approaching a stranger and expressing romantic interest when you have porn?
00:08:46.200 The scariest stat I've seen is that 51% of American men age 18 to 24 have never asked a woman out in person.
00:08:53.700 So I think the America today, you know.
00:08:57.380 Scott, by the way, just because I can't help it, I got two young women behind the camera, literally both shook their head when you said that.
00:09:06.980 Oh, really?
00:09:07.480 Forgive me.
00:09:08.320 I mean, they literally, and now they're laughing, but nervously.
00:09:11.260 I mean, that was a very powerful stat you just gave, and it was powerful, their response.
00:09:18.140 Well, look, I think a lot about masculinity in America, and the reality is, back in the 80s,
00:09:25.680 that, you know, America loved unremarkable people, and it feels as if America has fallen out of love with the unremarkable,
00:09:39.860 that the objective of higher ed in America is to try and identify a super class and turn them into billionaires,
00:09:46.200 instead of giving the bottom 99 a chance to be millionaires, and to find someone, fall in love, have kids. 0.99
00:09:53.160 You know, all the profound shit, right? 0.98
00:09:56.320 And I worry that young men, who are especially susceptible to these algorithms, are kind of losing, 0.98
00:10:02.320 they've lost a lot of on-ramps into the middle class, and we aren't producing enough economically and emotionally viable men.
00:10:09.700 And who wants more economically and emotionally viable men? 0.99
00:10:12.680 Women. 0.81
00:10:12.920 The issue of affordability is top of mind.
00:10:16.500 I've talked a lot about this, that we need to democratize our economy to save our democracy.
00:10:21.240 Just consider 10% of people own two-thirds of the wealth in the United States of America.
00:10:28.080 But the impact is deeply concerning, particularly for young people.
00:10:34.000 Just consider someone 30 years or younger.
00:10:36.760 It's the first generation that's not doing better than their parents.
00:10:41.100 And an opportunity to talk with a popular streamer who understands this intimately,
00:10:45.680 who talks to folks every single day about how nihilism and radicalization is now taking shape
00:10:51.900 for folks that never can imagine reaching the American dream.
00:10:56.400 This is Atriot.
00:10:57.720 is it comes back to economics.
00:11:00.440 And again, if I could spoil it down to one word, it's like radicalism is when no house.
00:11:06.800 If you can't get a house, if you don't see a path to get a house, and I hear this all the time,
00:11:11.700 some of them are working, they're working decent jobs, they're working hard.
00:11:15.020 It's not even feasible in a lot of these cities to ever get a house.
00:11:19.700 You can't save up enough without taking on an absurd amount of debt ever.
00:11:23.320 It's just not possible.
00:11:24.260 And if you picked one thing to focus in on, that would be it because that's the biggest
00:11:31.960 thing to put you as part of society or outside of society.
00:11:35.060 Once you feel like you can get on that ladder, you're okay.
00:11:37.760 You can calm down.
00:11:39.060 You can find a party.
00:11:40.480 You can vote.
00:11:41.280 But if you can't see that, what's the point?
00:11:43.700 Why am I doing it?
00:11:44.560 Why am I working this job for a boss I hate, for wages that are only okay?
00:11:48.400 I'm never going to get another step up.
00:11:50.920 It goes without saying, 2025 has been a remarkable year, ending with the success of campaigns for
00:11:58.140 governor in New Jersey and Virginia, the success of Proposition 50, a young, new, dynamic mayor
00:12:03.580 in New York City.
00:12:04.760 But it didn't start out that way.
00:12:06.700 The National Guard being federalized, ICE agents, mass men going out in streets all across
00:12:12.700 the United States of America, government shutdown, tariffs, trade policy, all kinds of doubt and
00:12:18.440 anxiety, particularly about the future of the Democratic Party.
00:12:21.920 We talked about that and so much more with Ben from Midas Touch.
00:12:26.760 This is Ben Maisalas.
00:12:28.920 And Trump has inflicted nationwide intentional infliction of emotional distress.
00:12:34.040 His conduct is conscious shocking.
00:12:36.620 And so when people wake up and they're being disappeared by ICE, when their health care is
00:12:41.080 being ripped away, when they're psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck, and
00:12:46.060 people aren't acting with an urgency, they're pissed.
00:12:50.780 You notice the numbers of the Democratic Party are going up as they're seeing the fight.
00:12:55.640 They were low because they didn't see people fighting for them, not because they were unpopular.
00:13:00.100 They were low because they lost and people don't like losers and also that they're fighting.
00:13:04.800 That was the issue.
00:13:05.940 I hope everyone just listened to what you said.
00:13:09.060 Could not agree.
00:13:09.780 By the way, that's why I'm very optimistic about November.
00:13:13.480 We're going to win Proposition 50.
00:13:15.060 We're going to win in New Jersey.
00:13:16.380 We're going to win in Virginia.
00:13:17.800 You've got this young, dynamic leader, whether you agree or disagree, whatever flavor you
00:13:21.920 are of Democrat, Democratic Socialist, conservative mod, whatever.
00:13:25.260 But you've got this young, dynamic leader who ran an unbelievable campaign.
00:13:30.940 Success leaves clues.
00:13:31.840 Talk about media savvy and a communication capacity that's next level.
00:13:36.640 I mean, that guy's, I mean, at another level in terms of ability to communicate.
00:13:39.920 You know, look, look, look where the crowds are.
00:13:42.100 Look who people, look, this is how I describe it.
00:13:44.720 And it's funny because I got you here.
00:13:46.340 I said that there's, you know, on the one hand, you have a Governor Newsom energizing people,
00:13:51.380 fighting back, using moral authority and formal authority.
00:13:54.000 Then I said, look at Mamdani drawing massive crowds, AOC drawing massive crowds, Bernie,
00:13:59.280 massive crowds in red states of Trump supporters also.
00:14:03.120 And so we should look at it.
00:14:04.620 By the way, what Mamdani did before he even launched the campaign, right after the election,
00:14:08.940 maybe right when he launched it, was he interviewed, he was listening.
00:14:11.940 He did a video right away after the election, speaking to people in the boroughs and saying,
00:14:16.960 why'd you do that?
00:14:18.040 And he got the answer.
00:14:19.600 That was very, I think, influential in his, you know, in his race.
00:14:23.100 I was thinking, as you were describing your approach to building Midas Touch and now the
00:14:28.080 network, that was his approach to building the campaign.
00:14:31.320 Ask people what they want, ask them how they're feeling, see them, listen to them.
00:14:35.580 I mean, I thought that that was a masterclass of common sense, really, at the end of the
00:14:39.920 day.
00:14:40.560 But now it's, you know, it's a next generation media savvy as well.
00:14:44.940 And I hope, again, back to your point, just the capacity for us, we've just got to disabuse
00:14:50.040 ourselves of the ways of the past.
00:14:51.320 We've got to completely shift gears in terms of now dominating the area, flooding the zone,
00:14:56.240 but also becoming the party that is empathetic.
00:14:59.120 It's not about power, dominance, and aggression.
00:15:01.500 It's about empathy.
00:15:02.700 It's about compassion.
00:15:04.080 It's about collaboration.
00:15:05.360 Those are the superpowers.
00:15:07.100 So there you have it.
00:15:08.140 Some of the highlights of 2025.
00:15:09.980 Certainly in an eventful year here at This Is Gavin Newsom.
00:15:13.660 But if you have ideas for guests, for subjects that we should be covering here on the show,
00:15:19.500 please send them our way and subscribe to This Is Gavin Newsom.
00:15:24.000 Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing
00:15:34.720 Along is back.
00:15:35.560 I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate
00:15:39.980 setting.
00:15:40.640 Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some
00:15:44.520 of my favorite musicians.
00:15:45.460 Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leve, Mavis Staples,
00:15:51.900 Remy Wolfe, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name.
00:15:55.580 And this season, I've sat down with Black Pumas, Alessia Cara, Sarah McLachlan, and more.
00:16:00.920 Check out my new episode with John Legend.
00:16:03.640 I feel like in a lot of ways our careers are paralleled in some ways, but they just never
00:16:08.300 intersected for some reason.
00:16:09.480 I know.
00:16:09.840 We should take it slow.
00:16:12.920 We should start.
00:16:13.840 Listen to Nora Jones' Playing Along on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
00:16:28.160 you get your podcasts.
00:16:30.980 Hey, everybody.
00:16:32.140 It's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again
00:16:35.720 when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes.
00:16:38.260 We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 Days of
00:16:43.820 Christmas Toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy.
00:16:47.100 That's right.
00:16:47.540 Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or
00:16:51.360 Yo-Yos, and a whole lot more.
00:16:53.100 So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
00:16:58.260 or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:17:00.580 Who would you call if the unthinkable happened?
00:17:03.400 My sister was shot 22 times.
00:17:05.360 A police officer, right?
00:17:07.180 But what do you do when the monster is the man in blue? 1.00
00:17:10.040 This dude is the devil. 1.00
00:17:11.260 He'll hurt you. 0.99
00:17:12.860 This is the story of a detective who thought he was above the law until we came together
00:17:17.740 to take him down. 0.98
00:17:20.000 I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. 0.98
00:17:22.740 Listen to the Girlfriends Untouchable on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 0.75
00:17:33.080 you get your podcasts.
00:17:34.240 I got you.
00:18:04.240 and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.
00:18:08.060 I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him.
00:18:11.160 Gabe Ortiz is a cop.
00:18:12.700 His brother, Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late.
00:18:17.220 He was the head of this gang.
00:18:19.640 You're going to push that line for the cause.
00:18:21.400 Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it.
00:18:26.020 When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle a dangerous past, one that could destroy everything
00:18:30.860 he thought he knew.
00:18:31.640 Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
00:18:36.800 podcasts.
00:18:37.360 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:18:40.300 Guaranteed human.