The Campaign Strategist

Dive into the world of advocacy with The Campaign Strategist. Each episode features in-depth conversations with activists and experts who break down their approaches to planning, executing, and winning campaigns. Learn about the strategies that have shaped policies, changed minds, and mobilized communities. Perfect for anyone looking to amplify their impact and drive meaningful change. New episodes on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays each month.

The Campaign Strategist is a government podcast hosted by Pete Altman, with 30 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Pete Altman hosts The Campaign Strategist, a government show with 30 episodes published.

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  Episode #7

  Will Robinson: "Consultants are parasites"

  Sep 8, 20261h 4mS2

  Will Robinson has made ads for Democrats for forty years. He opens this conversation by calling his own profession parasitic. We start with what artificial intelligence has done to political communication since late 2025. Voters searching for a candidate increasingly get a synthesized paragraph instead of a list of links, and only about one percent click through to a source. Will searched himself and found out he is a Republican state representative from Florida. His conclusion: thirty years of message discipline now points the wrong way. The rule was never repeat the attack, but if the denial is not published somewhere a machine can read it, the denial does not exist. From there: why the Democratic Party cannot adapt, and what Blockbuster and Sears have to do with it. Why broadcast is down to nineteen percent of video viewing while campaigns still spend like it is 2004. Why a college-educated woman from Bryn Mawr, one from Ohio State and one from Liberty are three different audiences, not one demographic. Why a story beats a bag full of facts. And what he would build with one hundred million dollars, which is not ads. Will Robinson is co-founder of the New Media Firm and writes Will Robinson's Newsletter on Substack. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:20 Introduction 02:17 AI has changed politics, and it does not know what is true 06:23 Why never repeat the attack is now backwards 10:10 The two questions every campaign should start with 13:18 The innovator's dilemma, from Blockbuster to the Democratic Party 17:12 Consultants, profit, and the case for programmatic 20:50 Why campaign managers cannot push back 23:36 Audience-first: Bryn Mawr, Ohio State, Liberty 26:51 Culture crushes credentials 29:00 Why a story beats a bag full of facts 34:08 Two hospitals close, and a woman sobbing at the pharmacy 37:20 What Abdul El-Sayed's win actually shows 41:06 The fire hose of falsehood 45:59 If I had one hundred million dollars, I would train 50:01 Leadership, Tip O'Neill, and what is going on on the ground 55:41 We cannot rent attention, we cannot rent allegiances 58:48 Career advice: you have not lost enough elections LINKS Will Robinson's Newsletter: https://willrobinson.substack.com The post on the two questions: https://willrobinson.substack.com/p/im-a-media-consultant-who-tells-clients The Rob Stein conversation: https://willrobinson.substack.com/p/a-legacy-of-strategy-what-rob-stein The New Media Firm: https://thenewmediafirm.com GAIN Power: https://www.gainpower.org This episode: https://thecampaignstrategist.substack.com/p/will-robinson-consultants-are-parasites The Campaign Strategist is produced by Prismatic Strategies. Hosted by Pete Altman. Music by Andrea Perry and Pete Altman. New episodes at https://substack.tcspod.com If this episode was useful, a rating and review on Apple Podcasts genuinely helps other people find the show. Find and subscribe: Substack and your favorite platforms. Contact: Contact@PrismaticStrategiesLLC.com Find us on LinkedIn and Bluesky

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  Episode #6

  "Trust Scales Through People Now" — Amanda Brink on Why the Old Organizing Toolkit Is Breaking

  Aug 11, 202645 minS2

  The tactics most campaigns were built on are quietly breaking, and the reason isn't messaging — it's trust. Host Pete Altman talks with Amanda Brink, executive director of The Empower Project, whose recent essay "The Rules of Engagement Have Changed" argues that real persuasion now happens in the group chats, DMs, and comment sections where people decide who to believe. Amanda makes the case that we're organizing in an environment where credibility travels through people rather than institutions: "I really feel like trust scales through people now. It no longer scales through institutions, which also makes me sad, but I think that is the reality that we are living in." She walks through what friend-to-friend organizing looks like at scale — 47,000 community mobilizers in 2024, three million names, nine million conversations — and why the app is never the answer: "In the same way you can't build a house with just a hammer, a tool is not enough." She's also blunt about why the left is behind, from status quo bias to a movement that is "literally letting the perfect be the enemy of the good." For anyone rethinking how their organization reaches people in 2026, this is a practical conversation about building power instead of perfecting copy. LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE The Empower Project: https://empowerproject.us/ Amanda Brink on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brinkamandal/ Amanda's bio: https://empowerproject.us/amanda-brink Amanda's essay, "The Rules of Engagement Have Changed": https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rules-engagement-have-changed-amanda-brink-krfgc/ Marquette Law School Poll on trust, July 2026: https://law.marquette.edu/poll/2026/07/07/marquette-law-school-poll-finds-a-steady-decline-by-age-in-trust-in-other-people/ Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don't, and Why, by Steve Martin and Joseph Marks — the trusted-messenger research Amanda cites More episodes at substack.tcspod.com Find and subscribe: Substack and your favorite platforms. Contact: Contact@PrismaticStrategiesLLC.com Find us on LinkedIn and Bluesky

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  Episode #5

  "Anything Else Is Just Busy Work" — Dana Johnson on Strategy, Solidarity, and What Comes After

  Jul 14, 202632 minS2

  "If you're not focused on democracy and holding the line there, anything else you're doing is just busy work." That's movement strategist Dana Johnson, and it's the spirit of this whole conversation — clear-eyed about the moment, and unwilling to retreat from it. Dana is the founder of Strategic Movement Collective and the former Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. In this episode she walks through how she actually designs a campaign — from the first "big sky" objective all the way down to the question she keeps returning to: what's missing from this conversation, and who's missing from it? She shares the moment at WE ACT when she realized an emissions-modeling fight was incomplete until they hired someone who could take it down to the level of regions, states, and communities. From there we go somewhere harder: how the advocacy toolkit has changed under real pressure, why she thinks the movement "missed the mark" on solidarity, and what the people of Minneapolis taught the rest of us about building organizing infrastructure that outlasts a single fight. We close on what it would actually take to rebuild — not the way things were, but for the next fifty years. What you'll take away: a working method for designing a campaign from objective to messenger to gap; why solidarity is a strategic commitment and not a sentiment; how organizing infrastructure gets built in one fight and repurposed in the next; and a "both/and" frame for rebuilding institutions instead of just restoring them. Dana Johnson is a movement strategist and founder of Strategic Movement Collective. She previously served as Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice and sits on the board of Green 2.0. Follow The Campaign Strategist wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode. If the show is useful to you, a rating and a quick review on Apple Podcasts genuinely help more people find it. Go deeper: full show notes on Substack — substack.tcspod.com More from Dana — https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-g-johnson/ , Strategic Movement Collective Green 2.0 - https://greentwopointzero.org/ Find and subscribe: Substack and your favorite platforms. Contact: Contact@PrismaticStrategiesLLC.com Find us on LinkedIn and Bluesky

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  Episode #4

  Francesca Koe on Narrative vs. Messaging — and How Stories Shift Power

  Jun 16, 202649 minS2

  If you've ever used "narrative," "messaging," and "communication strategy" as if they meant the same thing, this episode sorts that out fast. Host Pete Altman sits down with Francesca Koe — a communications and advocacy strategist with more than two decades helping movements grow power and win change, now a Program Director with Narrative Initiative — who has led integrated campaigns across climate, oceans, energy, and social justice. Francesca breaks down the layered structure of narrative using a Jaws-and-sharks example that sticks, explains why rigor and resonance are an "and" rather than a trade-off, and makes the case that trusted institutions are having to rethink who gets to be the messenger. She also argues that the work belongs to everyone, not just consultants: as she puts it, "guess who narrative practitioners are? Everyone, we all are." For anyone trying to talk about hard things in a way that actually lands, there's a lot here on landscaping narratives, building local capacity, and meeting people where they are. Keywords/tags: narrative change, political messaging, communication strategy, advocacy strategy, progressive messaging, narrative initiative, movement building, climate communication, health equity, deep narratives, meta-narrative, framing, asset framing, building power, community organizing, ocean conservation, kelp restoration, The Campaign Strategist, Pete Altman, Francesca Koe Watch all episodes at substack.tcspod.com Find and subscribe: Substack and your favorite platforms. Contact: Contact@PrismaticStrategiesLLC.com Find us on LinkedIn and Bluesky

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  Episode #3

  Anna Aurilio on Child Poverty, Affordability & Political Power

  May 12, 202657 minS2

  <p>Anna Aurilio joins The Campaign Strategist to talk about the intersection of advocacy, economic security, and political power. Drawing on nearly four decades of organizing experience — from environmental campaigns to leading federal advocacy at the Economic Security Project — Anna explains how policies like the expanded Child Tax Credit and guaranteed income can materially improve people’s lives while building broader economic stability. Pete and Anna discuss the affordability crisis, corporate concentration, healthcare cuts, and the challenges of communicating progressive solutions in today’s fragmented media environment. Along the way, Anna reflects on the importance of coalition building, durable power, and why...

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