Sacramento Bee -- Capitol Alert

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, debuting as a cable talk show host on Friday night, told viewers he often wished to share in public the kinds of conversations he has with fascinating people all the time.

"Hosting this show is definitely not in place of doing my job as lieutenant governor," Newsom said. "It's an 'and,' not an 'or.'"

The Gavin Newsom Show, he said, is "in many ways is just an extension of what I'm already doing."

Politics, yes. But also talking with people to "learn from them, to listen to them and to explore new ideas with them."

The weekly, hour-long program on Current TV aired at 8 p.m. on the West Coast. Guests were champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, Google Vice President Marissa Mayer and The New York Times columnist Nick Bilton.

Armstrong talked about the doping scandal - he's tired of it - and about Proposition 29, the ballot measure he supports to increase California's tobacco tax to raise money for cancer research.

"This is interesting," Newsom said. "Some nice kid from Texas is out in California now all the time getting involved in a politically charged issue out here."

He asked Mayer about innovation and the willingness to try new things and fail.

"I think the one most important part of failure is being able to learn from it," Mayer told him, "and to be able to learn from it, you have to diagnose when it's happened, and actually figure out what you should learn from it and move on."