Ana Navarro is free, finally free, to say what she wants. And she wants listeners of her new podcast to know it right from the start.
The title of the new show, “Bleep! with Ana Navarro,” lets audience members know they’re in for an unfiltered version of the popular commentator, who appears regularly on CNN and ABC’s “The View.” The program launched Monday.
“I can’t cuss on TV,” she acknowledges in a recent interview. Even so, she adds, “there’s a lot of s–t in the world that requires, that merits a good cussing.”
Navarro is one of a growing line of popular analysts and commentators keeping their feet in two different worlds. One is the traditional-media news sources and the other is the growing digital-media realm, where many are trying to set up new offerings in hopes of catering to a younger audience that tends to get more of its information from social outlets and streaming venues.
Navarro says she is eager “to form a sense of community” among people who believe the current news cycle is “as insane as it’s ever been in my lifetime.” “People tell me they are sad. They can’t sleep. They feel helpless. They feel hopeless,” she says. She hopes her program will give people a new source of conversation. “A lot of people are feeling alone and overwhelmed,” she adds, “I think it’s important to have that feeling that there are more of us than we think, and we are in things together.”
The weekly podcast is the latest project for Navarro, who has pivoted from working in and for Republican administrations to charting a more centrist positioning in her commentary and analysis work. “Bleep!” is the first new show to launch under iHeartMedia’s My Cultura Podcast Network and Hyphenate Media Group’s joint podcast slate, and is executive produced by Eva Longoria, who launched Hyphenate in 2023.
“Eva is one of my best friends,” says Navarro. “We have conversations that are very truthful. We talk about politics. We talk about life. We talk about our families, our history and our heritage.” The idea for the podcast “grew out of those conversations.”
Navarro will use “Bleep” to point out the courageous and cowardly, and to discuss things that offer the audience respite. “This last year has been hard on a lot of people and we have to give ourselves grace and the ability to find some joy,” she says. “Joy is most definitely a form of resistance” and can help “interrupt the barrage of s–t” that people grapple with every week.