You're not wrong, actually. Podcasts and aesthetics alone will not fix the problems the Dems have. It's not just "messaging." The sales pitch is bad, but the product also is bad. Bernie on the Schulz podcast is focused mostly on the party's bullshit priorities and failure to offer anything to the working class. Kamala's "opportunity economy" maybe was the closest they came to scrounging something together for them (side note: who's the ad-wizard who came up with that pile of dogshit idea?).
As with most neoliberal ideas, it was a wonky, means-tested, boring and hard-to-follow solution. So I agree with Bernie that the Dems absolutely must change their priorities. That will go a long way toward fixing the product.
The discussion we've been having about Joe Rogan and Asmongold isn't about the party's product, though. It's about how the party's ideas are marketed. We totally abandoned the culture war because we prematurely claimed victory the moment a black man got elected president, and we're paying the price for that. So the marketing strategy should not take strong demographics for granted, and it should not turn its nose up at long-form, unscripted conversational formats that have a lot of influence over Gen Z men.
I really hated how scripted everything Kamala said and did on the campaign trail felt. They really thought a 45 minute softball interview with "Call Me Daddy" (or whatever the fuck it's called) has the same effect as going on Theo Von? Not even close. We desperately needed a candidate who knew how to have a normal conversation with normal people. Tim Walz had that skill in spades. You don't build a reputation as a great teacher without knowing how to read and control a room of unpredictable people.
Even Beto O'Rourke has a tendency to steer normal conversations into a stump speech, which Boomers and Gen X and even Millennials totally adore, but it just doesn't land with Gen Z. I see a lot of the same quirks with Pete Buttigieg. I respect them for being willing to speak up in hostile territory, but after a while the attendees feel like they're being talked at instead of hung out with. JD Vance is worse when it comes to taking fair questions and unnaturally launching into talking points, so don't get me wrong it's not a uniquely Democratic tendency. We just need people who remember how to act normal and connect with normal people.