Chez Chuck is Charlie's place

"I’m just trying to talk about this stuff like I would to my friends at a bar."

Jul 24, 2026

You probably already know Charlie Goldensohn—you just know him as Chuck.

Charlie has spent the last decade working with global leaders, inside government, and on campaigns, all for the “yeah, I’ve heard of them” variety (Dianne Feinstein, Joe + Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, and Chef José Andrés, to name a few.) These days, he’s a booked and busy political strategist running his own comms agency, but can often be found pacing the blocks of New York City, where he records himself talking about things like progressive politics, healthy masculinity, and, occasionally, where to get the best dumplings on either coast. Between TikTok and Instagram, Charlie has used facts, candor, + mustache to amass half a million followers and present an alternative to the toxic manosphere Joe Rogan-shaped grift permeating dark corners of the internet. This week, we chatted for an hour.

HT: I want to hear first about the first six months in Mamdani’s New York.

CG: It’s pretty fucking awesome. There’s been a collection of great things that have happened over the last six months that have added to that feeling, right? Beyond him winning, it’s the World Cup, it’s the Knicks—there’s just been this incredible joy. When you feel like there’s a foundation of government that’s fighting for you and looking out for people—it brings a breath of calm to everything else. And I really do think there’s just this tangible, palpable feeling here of people feeling good and excited.

Fun fact, I was watching the World Cup final at this bar in Greenpoint with some friends and look across [the room] and Rama, the first lady, is just there with some friends.

HT: Oh my god!

CG: It was just this beautiful moment of like—this is one of those reasons people love these people. She’s just a normal New York person with normal New York friends. If I didn’t know that was the first lady I would assume that was any other Bushwick creative woman. They’re so normal, and it made me really happy.

HT: It’s rare in this moment to have people representing you in government who care about you.

CG: And they’re getting things done. There’s a lot of “I told you so” moments—he’s executing a lot of his campaign promises already. And that feels good. We put our trust behind this person, we put our weight behind him, and like, they’re moving. They’re trying to do the stuff they said. It wasn’t just messaging—they were serious about these ideas. That’s a really great feeling. We’re not used to that in politics, Democratic politics especially.

HT: Yeah, I’m hopeful we can get Nithya [Raman] here in LA.

CG: Fingers crossed.

HT: You’re originally from San Francisco. How did being raised there impact your politics?

CG: Drastically. More than I can explain in words. I grew up in what I think of as, like, an old-school traditional San Francisco family. Pre-tech. My family was lower-middle income. My dad was a music teacher his entire life, and an activist. My mom worked in nonprofits—she was the executive director of the local Planned Parenthood chapter. They never had careers where they made much money, and their friends were artists, activists, journalists. It was an exceptionally progressive world—not just politically, but socially. I got to grow up in the Mission District—folks reading this from SF, specifically where the Mission hits the Excelsior, Bernal Heights. It’s a super diverse neighborhood. It gave me the foundation of thinking about and understanding that politics is everything and everywhere. Of course big legislation, but also potholes and stop signs and what kind of coffee you’re drinking and how it got there. I’m beyond grateful for my parents choosing to raise me there. Can I go on a quick rant?

HT: Of course.

CG: One of the most frustrating things for me now, especially living in New York—and don’t get me wrong, New York, LA, San Francisco are so fucking expensive, I know that. But I feel like a lot of people our age, I don’t know if you hear this with your friends, but I hear a lot of people say “Oh, I love living in New York, but I would never raise my kids here.”

HT: Yep, all the time.

CG: And listen, if it’s purely financial, and you can’t afford it, totally. But if it’s not that, I’m like, why? I genuinely believe that the greatest gift and education you can give your child is having them grow up in a city of diversity, multiculturalism, religions, colors, ethnicities, foods, art. That is a real education. And once you experience those things, it’s hard to go back. It’s hard to choose a world that isn’t that open, that isn’t that progressive. And I would encourage any millennial parent or soon-to-be parent, if they’re considering whether to raise a kid in a city: fucking do it. Worth it.

HT: What’s the most cliché Bay Area kid thing about you?

CG: I still get super pissed off and I take it personally if someone says they’re from San Francisco and they’re not. Like if someone says, “I’m from San Francisco” and then I find out they’re from like, Walnut Creek, I turn into like a 12-year-old boy. I’ll let them know they’re not from San Francisco. I also say “hella” all the time. And I drink a lot of Fernet—

HT: What is that?

CG: It’s an Argentinian digestif, and in San Francisco it’s just, like, the shot you get at a bar. And I didn’t realize until I left that no one else drank it. It’s meant to sort of cleanse you after a big meal.

HT: It’s the limoncello of San Francisco.

CG: Exactly.

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HT: So what is the Chez Chuck origin story?

CG: My whole career has been in and around Democratic and progressive politics. I worked for the Bidens in 2020, I was Dr. Biden’s digital director and in the White House for a little bit, and then going into 2024 they asked me to come back and I said no for a multitude of reasons: I didn’t want to. Gaza. I didn’t think he should run again. And then when he dropped out and it became Kamala, I gave myself the permission to go back and try to beat Trump again.

I jumped back in as an advisor on the paid media team, where I was producing and directing big premium ads. And it was only my small little window, but I saw what I viewed as a really broken program, a pretty broken campaign, tons of mistakes being made, huge amounts of money being set on fire. And really feeling like there was such a lack of investment and strategy when it came to digital voices, creators, influencers, independent media, etc. And so after we lost, I spent a few months traveling around and seriously trying to think about how we get big Democratic donor money to stop funding PACs that are only buying big premium ads and get them to spend that money on liberal-slash-progressive online voices. The Republicans have been doing it for 15 years.

HT: Makes sense.

CG: After six months I ran into a wall, it was exhausting and people weren’t listening. And then simultaneously of course people were having the conversation about needing a “Joe Rogan of the left.”

HT: We’ll circle back to that subject.

CG: I was meeting with big D.C. people, DNC people, donors, other strategists, and I would tell them about the need to invest in creators, and they’d be like, “well why don’t you do it? You’re a guy, and you talk about this stuff well.” I didn’t want to—it felt so embarrassing and cringe and I didn’t want to be public facing. But eventually I just did it out of frustration. These meetings were going nowhere, and so I said fuck it. I was just walking down Mission Street in San Francisco, and I don’t know what got into me. I just decided to go off on something. I think it was about the El Salvadoran prisons. It got like 6,000 views, so I just kept at it. Within a few weeks [the account] was at 10,000 followers and I was like, oh, there’s something here. When I started it was just on TikTok, and there’s a setting where you can hide it from your phone contacts—I didn’t want anyone to know I was doing this, it felt so embarrassing. But then my friends Lizzie and Eve texted me and they were like, we saw it, it’s good, this stuff needs to be on Instagram. And then it exploded.

HT: Did it take time to get comfortable with the earnestness of it? You said you were afraid of the cringe, but you’re also very clearly wearing your heart on your sleeve when you do this.

CG: One of the things I learned very quickly with this—I didn’t come up with this phrase, I don’t think—you have to just get over cringe mountain. And then once you get up there, it’s like, who gives a shit? I’m just trying to talk about this stuff like I would to my friends at a bar. Of course there’s some times on the masculinity stuff where I lean into the bro-ey stuff to reach the bros, but it’s just my authentic self.

HT: On the subject of reaching bros—my issue with the “Joe Rogan of the left” conversation is that Joe Rogan is wildly uninformed. I think the model of, like, Buttigieg going on Andrew Schulz, Talarico going on Rogan, makes a lot of sense. But I’m curious how you think we should reach men in this media landscape.

CG: I think there’s some validity to it. You’re right, he’s a fucking idiot and basically just mirrors his guests. But I think the conversation comes from a flawed understanding of what Joe Rogan is. He is not and was not a Republican commentator. I mean, he was a Bernie Sanders supporter. He built an audience over a decade being himself and talking about stuff that he liked: hunting, MMA, conspiracy theories, the gym, and space. And again, not that long ago, he was kind of a leftist. So that’s what frustrates me, especially when it comes from Democratic elite folks. I actually do agree we need a “Joe Rogan of the left,” but not Joe Rogan. What we need are sweet, genuine, authentic voices who are given the time and space to build audiences and who aren’t controlled by corporate media or the DNC. And in terms of the media environment, talking about, like, Talarico going on Rogan—

HT: Which is a great example of the mirroring, like you said. He was obsessed with Talarico.

CG: Totally. My view is we need to be everywhere—however—it has to be authentic and well-spoken people. Kamala probably should have gone on Rogan, sure, but in my mind the question is: Once she was there, would she have performed well? Do we think she could sit in a room with Joe Rogan for three hours and come off as authentic? Could you understand her ideology and what she stands for? On that front, I don’t think so. I worked for her, and it was exceptionally hard to understand her policy positions. So we need to be choosing and uplifting candidates and messengers who know how they feel about things and be able to communicate that.

HT: You’ve worked for a lot of major establishment Democrats, despite having much leftier personal politics.

CG: This is where I differ from some leftists. There’s a reality of the electoral democratic system that at some point we have to give into. The Bidens asked me to join their campaign in 2018, and I said no because I was a Bernie Sanders supporter. But after he lost the primary, they came back and I said, fuck it, all hands on deck to beat a fascist. It was a binary option. Primaries, fight for your people and your ideas, but when you get to a general election, unfortunately, we don’t have a viable third party in this country, and I view politics as harm reduction.

HT: I agree.

CG: Like, I wish these weren’t my options, but I think it’s dishonest when people say Joe Biden or Kamala Harris would be just as harmful as Donald Trump. That’s complete bullshit. I mean, I do think there’s a valid debate to be had about whether it’s your responsibility to better the lives of the people in America and the world 100 years from now, or should you leverage as much power as you have to fight for people in this moment? But for me, it’s very hard for me to say that I’m not going to give a vote to the person who is not the fascist.

HT: What’s your 30-second elevator pitch to self-described moderate Democrats who are afraid of progressive politics?

CG: Ooh. That’s a good question. I guess it’s something like…I want you and your children to have better healthcare. I want you to be able to retire safely and not have to work forever. I want you to be able to take your kids to Disneyland once a year if you want to—that you can be able to afford that. I want your children to be able to afford college, if they want to go. I want your children to be able to pursue any career they want because they are interested in it, not because it’s the only way for them to make money. If your child is an artist or a creative, they should be able to pursue that without risking a life of poverty. And if you agree with me on any of those things, in my view, there’s absolutely one party that is fighting for those things and one that is absolutely not.

HT: You post a lot about food. I want to hear about your favorite places in New York, LA, San Francisco, anywhere really.

CG: Can I give you a fun fact about the food stuff and the connection to Chez Chuck?

HT: Please.

CG: The reason Chez Chuck started as “Chez Chuck” was because I was so miserable when I first moved to LA and my girlfriend at the time suggested that I make a food account to distract myself, so I did. And I was an idiot, and clearly didn’t speak any French, and I thought that “chez” meant chef. But it means “home of.”

HT: I mean, either way, it’s a great handle.

CG: Okay, best restaurants. My favorite restaurant in LA, it’s one of my favorite restaurants on the planet, Dan Sung Sa. Koreatown joint. It looks like an abandoned dive bar outside and then you walk in and it’s just filled with smoke. It’s a horseshoe bar and there’s all these old Korean grandmothers grilling the meat themselves and then you sit around it. They’re known for their skewers, and you drink a lot. And it’s one of the few places that’s open til like 5 am in LA.

HT: What’s your New York spot?

CG: Shu Jiao Fu Zhou. Super cheap hole-in-the-wall Chinatown spot that is known for peanut butter noodles. They’re probably using, like, Jif, but it’s like peanut butter, rice vinegar, homemade chili oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and they mix it with hand-pulled Chinese buckwheat noodles. They also do amazing boiled dumplings. And then in SF, a Mission-style burrito from Mexico Tipico in the Excelsior District.

HT: If you’re trying to cut the fuck off from politics, what are you watching or listening to or doing?

CG: I like going on long runs. I don’t use the running apps, I don’t want to know my speed, I don’t know how far I run, it’s just therapeutic for me.

HT: That sounds remarkably healthy.

CG: That’s one of the things I love about Manhattan. I love running in a super congested, busy place because so many people are watching me. They can’t see me stop. There’s motivation in it. And then stuff I’m watching—somebody just put me onto The Traitors.

HT: Ughhhh, it’s so good.

CG: I’ve never been into reality TV and I got through that in like three days. Now I want to be on it.

HT: Last one. What’s your message to anyone who has either “apolitical” or “moderate” in their dating profile?

CG: Uh, what year is it? Okay, let’s start with “apolitical.” The amount of privilege you have to have to be able to say that you don’t care about politics is, like—privilege or stupidity, honestly. If you’re old enough to have a dating profile, you’re old enough to get that. You’re an adult. Your decision to engage, or more so, to not engage in politics has downstream impacts on human bodies. And being apolitical is a political decision. You are making a political choice to not be engaged, and unfortunately for you, that decision is having impacts on people that you cannot see. And you need to understand and accept that. And in terms of “moderate”—just make it Republican.

HT: **Aggressively nods in ~oops been on that date~**

CG: Like if you’re saying you’re moderate, you’re a Republican, you’re just embarrassed to say it, I guess. But also then if you’re too embarrassed to say it, you know at your core there’s a problem there. So maybe you should reflect on that. Maybe that would be helpful.