California Governor Gavin Newsom is confronting a reality that many parents of teenage boys are facing: the strange, algorithm-driven world of “looksmaxxing” has entered his household.
During a recent interview with Peter Hamby for Good Luck America, Newsom revealed that his own son has been influenced by online trends focused on facial aesthetics and physical enhancement, bringing the internet phenomenon directly into the governor’s living room.
“I’m living it at home. You kidding? It’s not on the internet. It’s in the physical world,” Newsom said. “I mean, add that to the peptides. My son says, ‘Hey, dad, what about peptides?’ And then he literally, this whole thing about the jaw, I’m not kidding. My son says, ‘Hey, dad, you ever do this with your…’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I didn’t know where this came from.”
The conversation began when Hamby referenced a viral clip of Clavicular, a prominent figure in the looksmaxxing community who praised Newsom’s appearance, saying the governor “mogs” Vice President JD Vance.
The looksmaxxing movement centers on young men attempting to enhance their facial features through various methods, from jaw exercises to discussions about surgical procedures, all based on the premise that physical attractiveness is paramount to success with women.
What concerns Newsom most is not just the superficial nature of these trends, but who is shaping his son’s worldview. The same son who became enthusiastic when his father brought controversial conservative commentator Charlie Kirk onto his podcast, not because of political alignment, but because the algorithm had made Kirk familiar to him.
“This is, by the way, the same son. He’s an amazing kid that was all excited when I was bringing Charlie Kirk on my podcast,” Newsom explained. “It wasn’t that he aligned with his politics. It just, his algorithm had aligned with him and all of these others in this space.”
The governor sees this as part of a larger challenge for Democrats: young men are being reached by voices on the political right while his own party has been hesitant to engage with this demographic.
“Look, this is a space that’s consuming so much of attention to our young men,” Newsom said. “And, you know, and these are the guys that are, you know, if we’re not raising them, these are the guys raising our kids. And so I just think we need to pay a lot more attention to this.”
Additionally, high-profile podcasters, political figures, and scientists have openly embraced peptide therapies.
On The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan has repeatedly praised peptide protocols. During one episode, while discussing injury recovery, Rogan advised: “If you ever get injured, get immediately on BPC-157 and TB-500.”
He described the combination, often referred to as the “Wolverine stack,” as “a f**king phenomenal stack” that “just really helps injuries,” particularly soft tissue damage. In other discussions, Rogan has argued that people in their 50s can now be in the best shape of their lives thanks to modern interventions such as stem cells, IV treatments, supplements, and peptides.
That enthusiasm extends into political circles. During his appearance on Rogan’s show, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his position clear: “I’m a big fan of peptides. I’ve used them myself and used them with really good effect on a couple of injuries.”
Meanwhile, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has also contributed to the growing mainstream conversation. Discussing the next generation of metabolic and PEDs, Huberman recently described retatrutide as “the peptide that’s going to change everything” and predicted it could become “a trillion-dollar d**g.”
While clarifying that he has not personally used GLP-1 agonists, he has noted their expanding applications beyond weight loss, suggesting potential effects on alcohol appetite, impulsivity, and behavioral regulation due to how these compounds interact with receptors throughout the brain and body.
