Marshall here. Welcome back to the realignment. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the show.

Today's episode is about something we talk about a lot lately on the realignment, the story

gap between the center, the populist left, and the populist right. My guest, Danielle Lee

Thompson, is a writer and strategist who's worked at the University of Washington's

Center for an informed public and has spent years studying conservative media from Steve

Bannon's world to the overall influencer ecosystem. She also has a forthcoming book with Oxford

University Press under the influence What's Real when America Feels Fake.

She also has a really great substack that I really enjoy reading and recommend you all check

out. In this conversation, we dig into the Wright's alternative media ecosystem and argue

that it didn't just go viral in 2024, coming out of nowhere on the backs of big donors.

Instead, the right alternative media ecosystem in Danielle's telling, it's the culmination

of decades of participatory oppositional culture building.

At the same time, liberal institutions keep trying to solve this story problem with marketing, polls, focus

groups, attention hacks, and new publications and think tanks.

We get into the ways that those approaches, while necessary, will not build the overall picture.

We get into her writing on authenticity, vibes versus ideology, what Obama's America built

and lost when it got folded into the DNC, and why philanthropy faces a lot of challenges

when it comes to approaching this space.

I really enjoy this conversation.

I haven't spent much time actually speaking with a person who deeply studies communications at a theoretical level. It's so we probably have the realignment's highest

rate of scholars and academics referenced, but lots of interesting things to check out. And

Danielle did a great job of signposting. So hope you all enjoy the conversation.

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