By Newt Gingrich
About a year and a half ago, I started my podcast “Newt’s World” as a way both to connect with you and to learn. Most of my episodes feature fascinating guests who can jointly educate us on a wide range of topics, from China’s military buildup to breakthroughs in health care.
But Gingrich 360 as a network is, and should be, about a lot more than just me. We’ve been working to develop a platform for content that goes out and finds new talent — really strong voices and personalities — in today’s conservative movement.
Some may not even be traditional conservatives, but they are people who want to think, to challenge, to explore. In other words, they are conservative but in a challenging way — coming from underrepresented communities and the younger generations of millennials and Gen Z.
So, over the next few months, we’ll be working with iHeartMedia to launch four new podcast series that we hope you’ll really enjoy. The first one, set to launch today – and then continuing Tuesdays starting Aug. 25 -- will be hosted by Rob Smith, my guest on this week’s episode of “Newt’s World.”
Rob calls himself America’s favorite black, gay, veteran, millennial conservative Republican. Needless to say, that’s not a combination that one sees every day. In fact, it’s a combination that makes Rob politically problematic to so many — hence the name of his new podcast, “Rob Smith Is Problematic.”
Democrats think they own the hearts and minds of black, gay, and lesbian voters, defining each group as helpless victims who need to be protected. Rob believes that, no matter one’s background, all Americans deserve to have multiple choices in our political system and to learn about the ideas of conservatism. Too often people confine themselves within a prison of rigid political orthodoxy, afraid to think differently on any given issue — or, as Rob would put it, afraid to think problematically.
I hope you will listen to this week’s episode to hear from one of the most interesting and charismatic people you’ll ever meet as he prepares to launch what promises to be an extraordinary podcast.
