The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Thirteen days into a missing persons case that has captivated national media, the story isn't the search anymore—it's the searchers. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has turned a crisis investigation into a reputational implosion, and former ABC News correspondent Clayton Sandell walks me through exactly how it happened.

Guest: Clayton Sandell covered high-profile missing persons and mass casualty events for ABC News, inclu...

When law enforcement calls a press conference, they're supposed to provide clarity and control the narrative. Last week's Pima County Sheriff's press conference about missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie—mother of Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie—did the opposite.

I brought on Emmy-winning former network correspondent Clayton Sandell to break down what went wrong. He spoke with me during a live chat on Substack on Febr...

Breaking down Peter Attia’s public PR response after his name appears more than 1,700 times in recently released Epstein-related documents. The documents include emails and calendar references tying Attia to Jeffrey Epstein over multiple years. While the files do not allege Attia participated in Epstein’s criminal sexual conduct, the relationship and tone of the correspondence raise serious questions about judgment, proximity to po...

Most leaders hide behind surprise when disaster strikes. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara did the opposite.

In a January 2025 interview with The New York Times' Michael Barbaro, O'Hara said the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent was "predictable and entirely preventable"—and that he'd said so publicly the day before it happened. Days after I recorded this episode, federal agents killed Alex Pret...

Brooklyn Beckham just torched his parents on Instagram, and the timing? Impeccable. Devastating. Strategic.

In this episode, breaking down the Beckham family crisis as it unfolded in real time (Literally! Molly was doing a live BBC interview about the drama while it was still erupting). From Brooklyn's calculated Instagram story to David Beckham's suspiciously polished CNBC damage control, this is a masterclass in reputati...

When Renee Goode was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, two completely different stories emerged from the same event. One side called her a domestic terrorist who weaponized her Honda Pilot, while the other saw a mother trying to escape. As a crisis manager from the Twin Cities, I break down the competing narratives from President Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Governor Tim Walz, and Mayor Jacob Frey to reveal the five hidden cu...

This week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz abruptly ended his bid for a third term. This episode was recorded four days earlier during a live conversation and, in hindsight, it explains exactly why this outcome was almost inevitable. 

Amid a sprawling welfare fraud crisis that Republicans and former President Donald Trump turned into a national political flashpoint, the pressure escalated, division deepened, and Walz found himself tryin...

This is the most downloaded episode of the year, resurfaced for the holiday week because the fallout is still unfolding in real time. Breaking down the Hollywood power struggle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, with Ryan Reynolds playing a pivotal and controversial role, all sparked by a single voicemail that cracked open a much larger conversation about control, narrative management, and reputation at the highest level. 

Thi...

This is the main event of Molly's Top PR Wins and Fails of 2025 series, recorded live on Substack (aired Friday, December 19) and built around the stories that truly owned the year: culture-war outrage that turned into real market impact, celebrity reputations getting torched (sometimes by their own silence), late-night becoming a political battleground, and the kind of persona erosion that turns “brand equity” into “lawsuit e...

This week’s episode kicks off Part One of The Top PR Wins and Fails of 2025 by pulling straight from the headlines and social media feeds that dominated the year. Instead of rehashing scandals, it digs into the decisions behind them: who understood the moment they were in, who badly misread their audience, and who confused being everywhere online with being trusted. From cultural power plays to celebrity miscalculations, the patter...

This week’s episode gives you a front row seat to my Friday live sessions, where culture, crisis, and community collide in the best possible way. Think of it as a sampler plate of reputational highs and lows. Some hits. Some misses. A few absolute disasters. And plenty of sharp commentary from the people who show up ready to spar.

We dug into the stories bubbling across media, politics, entertainment, and news. 

Here’s what we got in...

A close look at Tatiana Schlossberg's viral New Yorker essay, A Battle with My Blood. It is an emotional piece that blends grief, legacy, and quiet fury, and it signals a deeper shift inside the Kennedy family. The episode walks through the layers of the essay and the choices behind it. From the shock of Schlossberg's leukemia diagnosis, to the way she describes the strained healthcare system, to her understated but unmis...

This week’s episode dives into a crowded lineup of public figures who all managed to confuse PR maneuvering with actual accountability: President Trump’s “quiet piggy” moment on Air Force One and the broader pattern behind his attacks on women in the press, Larry Summers’ fog-filled non-apology after his Epstein emails resurfaced, Pope Leo XIV’s straightforward call for human dignity contrasted with a White House response that dodg...

This episode starts with a line that should make anyone in communications sit up a little straighter. Michael Wolff, a bestselling Trump biographer and longtime access journalist, emailed Jeffrey Epstein with strategic advice about how Epstein could handle questions about Donald Trump. Not expose him. Not confront him. Advise him.

And now, those emails are a crisis in themselves.

Today’s episode focuses on the messaging behind Wolff’...

You saw “GEO” in the title and almost tuned out, didn’t you? Hold that thought. If you work in communications, PR, media, or journalism, this episode might just change how you think about your job.

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is not another passing buzzword. It is the next major shift in how information is found, shared, and trusted. It shapes how AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini decide which stories and bra...

This episode goes behind the polished words of Buckingham Palace to unpack the public relations machinery that managed the downfall of Prince Andrew.

In October 2025, King Charles III formally removed all of Andrew’s titles and evicted him from his Windsor residence.
On the surface, it looked like accountability.
But beneath the royal phrasing lay a carefully timed communications plan.

We’ll walk through the anatomy of that p...

When your marriage becomes a media strategy, what do you say—and what do you not say?

In this episode, Molly McPherson breaks down Cheryl Hines’ carefully crafted response to rumors surrounding her husband, RFK Jr., and journalist Olivia Nuzzi. Fresh off her appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast, Hines offered a masterclass in polished PR talk, leaning on trust, communication, and a dash of Kennedy-style deflection.

But was it authe...

When Politico dropped nearly 3,000 pages of leaked Telegram messages from the Young Republican National Federation, it revealed a disturbing culture behind closed doors. In this episode, Molly McPherson unpacks why private chats are never really private, how weak apologies deepen a crisis, and what this scandal teaches every leader about accountability, ethics, and reputation in the digital age.

Key Discussion Points:

• The leaked ...

When the internet comes for you, your instinct is to fight back or disappear. Neither helps. In this episode, Molly breaks down her simple, proven 90-second rule for handling online hate without losing your cool or your credibility.

You’ll learn:

• Why outrage online is a revolving door (and why it’s never really about you).
• How to recognize when your brain has flipped into fight-or-flight mode—and what to do about it.
• The golden rul...