🎧Podcast Drop: Rethinking Identity in the Age of Algorithms

Exploring Cultural Intelligence with The Up Next Podcast

A few months ago, I wrote about how identity is being reshaped by what we consume, not just who we are. That post apparently struck a chord— it led to some of the most interesting conversations I’ve had this year.

One of those conversations was with Gabriella Mirabelli, host of The Up Next Podcast, who reached out after reading “It’s the End of Identity As We Know It (And I Feel Fine…?)” The resulting conversation became Episode 379, and you can listen to it here:

🎧 Listen: Episode 379 - Cultural Intelligence with Andre Banks

The Core Question That Started Everything

In that original post, I posed a hypothetical: If you were designing a voter persuasion campaign, what would tell you more—knowing your target is a 45-year-old Black woman, Democrat, living in Texas, or knowing they listened to 16 hours of extremist right-wing influencer Candace Owens last month?

One gives you demographics. The other gives you worldview.

Gabriella and I drive deep into why this distinction matters so much right now, especially for marketers and strategists trying to build authentic connections in our fragmented media landscape.

Why Cultural Affinity Is Challenging Demographics

The conversation explored something I’ve been obsessing over: how the right has mastered affinity-based targeting while progressives lag behind. They’ve built entertainment-forward media ecosystems—The Daily Wire, PragerU, Rumble—that attract audiences across traditional demographic lines by leading with culture first, but ideology close behind.

Meanwhile, too many organizations are still organizing around categories instead of cultures, building campaigns for who people used to be while opponents shape who people are becoming.

From Theory to Practice

What I appreciated most about talking with Gabriella was her push beyond abstract theory into practical implications. How do you actually build marketing strategies around cultural affinity? How do you evolve “multicultural marketing” when we can no longer see demographics as destiny?

We explored the concept of “cultural intelligence”—merging performance marketing rigor with identity-powered insights to create strategies that resonate with diverse audiences based on shared media consumption and cultural affinity, not just shared demographics.

It’s about treating identity as dynamic and revealed through culture, rather than fixed and over-determined.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation here

Huge thanks to Gabriella Mirabelli for the thoughtful dialogue and for creating space for the conversations!