PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (WHTM) – President Joe Biden was in Philadelphia to see the I-95 collapse but he wasn’t the only special guest of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Alex Pearlman is a TikTok titan, he records himself discussing the news of the day. Millions, sometimes, watch him. He has more than a million followers on the social media app.

“I’m just some guy who yells into his phone,” Pearlman said.

His yelling the morning of the bridge collapse was heard and seen by Shapiro’s digital team who invited him to the governor’s press conference.

When first invited, Pearlman thought it was a prank.

“I was talking to his team,” Pearlman said. “I said, Why am I here? And they said, We realized more people heard the news from you than any other one agency. So we want you here to let them know the update.”

He was invited back for the president and an even bigger, incredible update.

“We will have I-95 reopened within the next two weeks,” Shapiro said at the presser.

Pearlman says there were no strings attached to the invites.

“They treated me exactly as they would treat (the media),” Pearlman said. “We’re giving you access. You’re going to say what you’re going to say.”

Pearlman is 39 years old with a side hustle of stand-up comedy. He’s not laughing that he and his social media brethren are the only news source for more and more people.

“You guys have years of training and you have journalism school English degrees, I have an associate’s degree in general studies from Delaware County Community College,” Pearlman said. “So it’ll be very easy for me to make mistakes. It’ll be very easy for me to be able to be misled. Like, that’s all possible. And I’ll be honest about that.”

The governor, who turns 50 on Tuesday, no doubt wants to reach younger viewers. He has a message and is embracing messengers with megaphones, wherever he finds them and however fleeting.

“TikTok is an attention economy more than anything else,” Pearlman said. “How quickly can you grab someone’s attention and how long can you hold it?”

The Shapiro administration did give us an old-fashioned statement saying it is committed to getting things done for Pennsylvanians and that includes meeting people where they are and communicating with them on the issues that matter most.