About

A country that arrives at its next election with a working moral imagination.

Kendall Ciesemier and Alessandra Biaggi in commencement robes at Harvard

Our story

Alessandra Biaggi and Kendall Ciesemier arrived at Harvard Divinity School in the middle of their own crises of belief, looking for something more for themselves and for the country.

They left with a shared vision for a new kind of media company: grounded in dialogue, curious about belief, and committed to helping people engage confidently across difference. Genuine Media makes spaces where people can think, speak, and grow with integrity.

Through a newsletter, a podcast, and live events, we help Americans work out what they believe, why they believe it, and how to make their leaders answer for it.

Our inspiration

The sound of the genuine

Our name comes from Howard Thurman, the Christian mystic and civil rights leader. In a 1980 address at Spelman College, he asked students to get still enough to hear what was genuine in themselves, and argued that when two people hear it in each other, the wall between them falls away.

“Who are you? How does the sound of the genuine come through to you?”

Our commitments

1
We embrace complexity.There are no pure spaces and no pure people.
2
We are independent.We are not of the Democratic Party, or any party.
3
We honor plurality.The opinions we feature aren’t all our own, and that’s the point.
4
We are anti-censorship.We make space for opinions we find difficult, guided by self-regulation and self-compassion.
5
We engage without endorsing.Engagement is a commitment to curiosity.
6
We practice dialogue, not takedowns.This isn’t gotcha journalism.
7
We seek connection across difference.We work outside spheres that seek to evangelize, religious or political.
8
We normalize conflict.Disagreement is part of relationship.
9
We value human dignity.It is our moral red line. We welcome complexity, conflict, and difference, and we will not legitimize rhetoric that strips people of their humanity.

Who we’re for

Different entry points. The same hunger: meaning, belonging, and a way forward together.

Faith

Spiritual seekers

Exploring outside institutions. They want depth without dogma.

Faith

Disillusioned believers

They left over exclusion and hypocrisy, and still long for meaning and belonging.

Faith

The faithful but restless

Still in the pews, and hungry for something the rules alone don’t give.

Politics

Open-minded moderates

Willing to listen when they’re met with clarity and respect.

Politics

Burned-out progressives

Justice-minded and exhausted by outrage cycles and purity politics.

Politics

Wary independents

Skeptical of spin, looking for coherence without partisanship.

The team

Alessandra Biaggi

Co-founder & Co-CEO

Alessandra Biaggi

In 2018, outspent 10 to 1, Alessandra toppled a 24-year political dynasty to win New York’s 34th Senate District, helping flip the State Senate for the first time in a century. As Chair of the Ethics Committee, she led Albany’s first sexual harassment hearings in three decades and championed the Reproductive Health Act, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the Child Victims Act, and the Adult Survivors Act.

Kendall Ciesemier

Co-founder & Co-CEO

Kendall Ciesemier

A reporter and executive producer at The New York Times, the ACLU, CBS, and Mic. Her reporting on Alice Marie Johnson led to Johnson’s clemency and helped catalyze federal criminal justice reform; her coverage of the organ transplant system spurred bipartisan legislation. At eleven she founded Kids Caring 4 Kids, which raised more than $1 million. A two-time liver transplant survivor, she has wrestled deeply with questions of faith and meaning.

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