‘No Girls Allowed’? Why won’t Gavin Newsom feature women on his podcast? | Opinion
After two months and a gratuitous 15 episodes — including interviews with far-right talking heads Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, Obama-era Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and New York Times columnist Ezra Klein — guess how many women the governor of California has deigned to interview on his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom”?
One.
That (dubious) honor went to Amie Parnes, a senior political journalist at The Hill, who shared the interview with Johnathon Allen, a political journalist with NBC News. The two co-authored “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House” about the 2024 presidential election, which was released in April.
Good for her. But in a state that’s home to nearly 40 million people, more than half of whom are women, the governor really can’t find any of them to interview for his little podcast project? Yikes.
Newsom’s choice to exclude women’s voices from such important conversations about the state of American politics — and these conversations must be important! If they’re not, then why is the governor of the world’s fourth-largest economy spending his precious time in office recording them? — only reinforces the stereotype that women’s opinions are fringe to “real” politics; that they have not yet earned a voice in the government decisions that affect them.
Forgive me, but I thought we put that matter to rest with the suffragette movement last century? Apparently not.
Ironically, Newsom would need to look no further than inside his own $9 million mansion for a good interview: First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s documentary “Miss Representation,” in particular, examines how women in power are habitually underrepresented in media. How embarrassing — has he seen it?
If he doesn’t want to interview his wife, then maybe Newsom could interview women integral to California politics, like San Francisco’s former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or Oakland’s incoming mayor, Barbara Lee? How about former Rep. Katie Porter, former State Controller Betty Yee, former State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins or Newsom’s own Lt. Gov Eleni Kounalakis; just some of the women vying to replace him as governor in 2026?
He could interview titans of industry like Lois Quam, the now-former, first female CEO of Blue Shield of California, the insurance company that just admitted it revealed the personal health information of 4.7 million members to Google, in a stunning breach of state and federal privacy laws.
Or maybe he could talk to Patti Poppe, CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric, whose company is responsible for 31 wildfires that killed more than 100 Californians in recent years. I’d think the governor publicly questioning Poppe about PG&E’s plan to prevent further disasters is a pretty relevant topic, considering the state is well into fire season, even though it’s only May. (Thanks, global warming!)
At this point, it’s painfully clear to see why Newsom hasn’t highlighted any women on his podcast: “This Is Gavin Newsom” is meant to appeal to moderate and right-leaning voters in middle America who he hopes will support him in a 2028 presidential campaign.
His podcast is definitely not for left-leaning California residents who already know about — and are deeply tired of — his political flip-flopping.
Newsom hasn’t featured a woman by herself on his podcast because he probably thinks those moderate voters he’s courting don’t want to hear women’s opinion about politics. In doing so, he’s perpetuating the same stereotypes that have kept women’s voices all but silenced in American politics for the last 250 years.
What a shame. A governor of such a powerful state could use his podcasting platform for the betterment of the people under his care, promoting civility, conversation and equality in politics. Instead, we got “This…”
This story was originally published May 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
