Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: On Monday's monologue, I asked for your resolutions and whether
Speaker 1: you're keeping to them. I got some really good responses,
Speaker 1: and yes, most people have fallen off the bandwagon of
Speaker 1: what they had hoped.
Speaker 2: To do in January.
Speaker 1: A lot of you are restarting your exercise regiments or
Speaker 1: eating healthier. You're trying again, and that's amazing. One response
Speaker 1: was funny. A listener wrote, this year, I combined my
Speaker 1: resolutions for my own form of penance. I vowed to
Speaker 1: stop taking the Lord's name in vain each time I
Speaker 1: caught myself with than oh my god, I had to
Speaker 1: do thirty minutes on the peloton, which I detest. It worked,
Speaker 1: and you know, I do wonder if something similar would
Speaker 1: work for me. In the few days since I declared
Speaker 1: I would do more fiction reading, I committed to one
Speaker 1: fiction book a month. It's not even that much, but
Speaker 1: I've read a total of two page It's a slow start, friends,
Speaker 1: But now I'm wondering if there should be more.
Speaker 2: Not punishment exactly, but if I should.
Speaker 1: Make myself risk something if I don't succeed at my goal.
Speaker 1: I think some people really do respond to negative repercussions
Speaker 1: more than they do to the positive reward, and I
Speaker 1: think I might be one of those people. Like I've
Speaker 1: never stolen anything in my entire life because I was
Speaker 1: terrified of being caught.
Speaker 2: I would love to tell.
Speaker 1: You that I'm just morally amazing and I'd always thought
Speaker 1: it was a bad thing to do. But no, even
Speaker 1: when I was a child that wouldn't take anything, just
Speaker 1: the fear of being caught made me paralyzed and unable
Speaker 1: to do anything bad. And I you know that works
Speaker 1: for me. So now I just have to figure out
Speaker 1: what the punishment would be and I'll take your suggestions.
Speaker 1: Carol Marcowitz Show at gmail dot com. Also send me
Speaker 1: how you're bettering your life this week. I really love
Speaker 1: reading all your notes and emails and dms, so please
Speaker 1: keep in touch and I love hearing what you're up to.
Speaker 1: Coming up up next and interview with Stephen Miller. Join
Speaker 1: us after the break. Hi, and welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Carol Markuit Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Stephen Miller.
Speaker 1: Stephen does the Versus Media podcast on Substack. He is
Speaker 1: contributing editor at the Spectator and has written.
Speaker 2: For many places including NRO.
Speaker 1: Fox News, and The New York Post.
Speaker 2: Ty Stephen, Hi.
Speaker 3: Carol, you have to put in the middle initial because
Speaker 3: that's important. So well google this stuff. They think you're
Speaker 3: interviewing on NAZI.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: The first thing I was going to ask you is
Speaker 1: are you the Stephen Miller?
Speaker 3: No, not anymore. But I was for a bit. I
Speaker 3: was for a bit, and then Trump won and then
Speaker 3: Trump lost, and now I'm back to kind of being
Speaker 3: that because he's, you know, until he becomes Attorney general.
Speaker 3: I think I'm okay.
Speaker 1: You know, I was the top search result for Carol
Speaker 1: with a K, and then Pope John Paul, whose birth
Speaker 1: name was Carol with a K, died and that was it.
Speaker 1: He messed out all of my search results because everybody
Speaker 1: was using his real name. And there's a pop star
Speaker 1: from Latin America named Carol K.
Speaker 2: So we all have our problems, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I have guys on my hockey team starting to search.
Speaker 3: They're like, you know, somebody said, like the search of it,
Speaker 3: I couldn't find you. I'm like, oh, I'm very searchable.
Speaker 1: You just got one letter, So what is your mid
Speaker 1: So yeah, but that's your middle in Itchell, I don't
Speaker 1: even know it.
Speaker 2: El Stephen L.
Speaker 1: Meller will include that in the you know, in the
Speaker 1: in the the bis No, you know.
Speaker 3: People going to be like Carol Marcus is interviewing an insurrectionist.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I'm sure I've had an insurrection too
Speaker 1: on here.
Speaker 3: Probably, I mean, you know, depending on circumstances, I could be.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm just not one. After twenty twe right, right, So.
Speaker 1: We knew each other in New York and neither one
Speaker 1: of us live in New York anymore. That's a big
Speaker 1: topic of conversation on this show, people moving from places
Speaker 1: that they lived. How was leaving New York for you?
Speaker 1: You just like bye?
Speaker 3: I miss three big things. I miss my hairstylist, my
Speaker 3: hair dialist. I missed my dentist. Well, she's a barber,
Speaker 3: like just tattooed to the you know whatever, and she was.
Speaker 3: She's actually a sponsored marathon on her for Nike, and
Speaker 3: it took me forever to find one. So I missed
Speaker 3: my hairstylist. I missed my dentist. Believe it or not,
Speaker 3: my dentist was featured in Vogue and I was one
Speaker 3: of her very first customers in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: Why are you so fancy?
Speaker 3: It was No, she's not that it's weird. She's just
Speaker 3: cool and hip. And so she was right down the
Speaker 3: block and she started this little dental practice and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden she's in like a vogue spread
Speaker 3: for like dental and Brooklyn or some weird thing. Okay,
Speaker 3: And I still I still talk to her occasionally, just
Speaker 3: for you know stuff. And I miss restaurants. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: you know, I think about the lifestyle. Obviously. The neighborhoods
Speaker 3: like Brooklyn were just so cool back then, and they
Speaker 3: change and they become different and stuff. So there was
Speaker 3: it was still when I got there, it was still
Speaker 3: kind of sketchy sort of but getting cooler, you know,
Speaker 3: like whatever. And when I left, you know, my place
Speaker 3: was staring at the construction of a Trader Joe's and so.
Speaker 2: And this is bad, and somehow I don't think it's bad.
Speaker 3: I am one of these people where I prefer local places.
Speaker 3: I prefer local businesses. But it's not like I'm going
Speaker 3: to protest the Trader Joe's. I'm not going to throw
Speaker 3: red paint on the wind, right, But those are the
Speaker 3: three things I missed the most, and when I really
Speaker 3: think back, I don't miss much more. I moved there
Speaker 3: in twenty ten, and things were different. The internet was different,
Speaker 3: how we connected was different. So I can kind of
Speaker 3: like go anywhere in the country now, and I can
Speaker 3: still order from stores that I like than in New
Speaker 3: York City to like close me. So those are those
Speaker 3: are probably the top three things that I actually really
Speaker 3: find myself missing.
Speaker 1: It's funny because growing up in Brooklyn, when a chain
Speaker 1: would come to your neighborhood, that meant that things were
Speaker 1: turning around.
Speaker 2: That meant that things were getting better.
Speaker 3: Like I remember they kicked the wart out. Well, yes, no,
Speaker 3: you're not coming to Queen's.
Speaker 1: No, we've never had I don't think they've ever allowed
Speaker 1: Walmart in New York City, which is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: But I remember a friend of mine who.
Speaker 1: Lived in East Flatbush was very excited and McDonald was
Speaker 1: opening because there had never been a chain anything near
Speaker 1: where she lived.
Speaker 2: So it was a it.
Speaker 1: Was seen as a positive stephen, and you know, people wanted.
Speaker 2: It to have it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was weird when I left Brooklyn
Speaker 3: and I got a little bit more domesticated, still in
Speaker 3: a kind of suburban urban area, and I saw Chilies,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I realized, I haven't seen at
Speaker 3: chilies in like ten Like I didn't go to Target,
Speaker 3: you know. So it was like its kind of a
Speaker 3: weird different thing. It was like getting used to it.
Speaker 3: It's not like I had some dying neque to go
Speaker 3: to Chili's, but I didn't. I went back to Chili's
Speaker 3: just because I'm like, I'm going to go to Chili's
Speaker 3: like whatever, any maybe back ribs and so yeah, it
Speaker 3: was a little bit of an adjustment. But I was
Speaker 3: never one of those kind of like snobs where it's
Speaker 3: like I'm in Willis there and me, you don't get
Speaker 3: a Walmart? I do, of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was never like a snob, but there was
Speaker 3: I remember the Whole Foods open on the corner of
Speaker 3: Bedford in Williamsburg, and that was a huge thing to do.
Speaker 3: And you go down later the Whole Foods thing, and
Speaker 3: that was kind of a sign there and it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is all changing, like completely, so totally.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean Williamsburg more than any other place, I feel like,
Speaker 1: just blew up so fast and yeah, so drastically.
Speaker 2: So what what year.
Speaker 3: Did you leave COVID No? I just barely before COVID.
Speaker 3: I just my circumstances changed, so I moved out of Brooklyn,
Speaker 3: and of course some pandemic happens, and I look back
Speaker 3: on that, I would to say, like, I what would
Speaker 3: it I look back and I say, what could it
Speaker 3: have been like to have been there? Durrection? And oh no,
Speaker 3: yeah I don't. I'm not sitting here thinking fondly in
Speaker 3: my diary. But it is one of those things when
Speaker 3: you know, you hear about people banging the pots and
Speaker 3: pans out of their buildings and stuff like that and
Speaker 3: some of those kind of trimunal experiences. You know, I thought, yeah,
Speaker 3: I do think about that sometimes, but yeah, I got
Speaker 3: out of Dodge just really I think it was September
Speaker 3: of October rate before COVID happened. So part of me
Speaker 3: was like, you know, no, I would not have wanted
Speaker 3: to experience that, but it would have been one of
Speaker 3: those things looking back where it's like, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 3: guess I was in New York during that, right, And
Speaker 3: I know you're and I know you are a casualty
Speaker 3: of that. And I followed that about you know, just
Speaker 3: having the city that you love so much, but yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not like a fond thing.
Speaker 1: How I get it. It's a big part of the experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I completely understand. I have friends who were not in
Speaker 1: New York on nine to eleven, but they were New
Speaker 1: Yorkers and they were.
Speaker 2: Like, I missed it, Like I missed.
Speaker 1: They're not like, oh I missed a terrorist town. They
Speaker 1: missed the carderie and all of the you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I totally get it. Also, people who didn't feel the
Speaker 1: earthquake a few weeks ago and they.
Speaker 3: Just weekend away, they feel left out. Yeah. No, So
Speaker 3: I went to an earthquake in New York and it
Speaker 3: was the one that I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 2: I've never ever felt in it.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's only hit. It hit Washington and it
Speaker 3: knocked the bricks out of the Washington Monument, and that's
Speaker 3: what I think. This was twenty twenty thirteen. And I've
Speaker 3: lived on the West Coast. I've lived in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: I've never had a hurricane. There are a great I've
Speaker 3: lived on the Upper West Coast and no real weather
Speaker 3: events there. And I moved to New York and I
Speaker 3: experienced two hurricanes in the earth and there, so I
Speaker 3: do remember the earthquake from I was twenty twelve or
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen, and a marble counter in my loud is
Speaker 3: singing at my lounge and I just feel like I'm
Speaker 3: having a stroke, Like what is that?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: What is going on here? Is? And the first thing
Speaker 3: is when things feel weird, it's like, oh, it's terrorist.
Speaker 2: Attack the right, Oh totally yeah.
Speaker 3: And so I do remember the forty five second earthquake
Speaker 3: from like twenty and that's the one they hit the
Speaker 3: East coast and they had to shut down the Washington
Speaker 3: Monument because wow, ricks out or whatever. But yeah, so
Speaker 3: when people were talking about this earthquake, I was kind
Speaker 3: of like, eh, I've done it.
Speaker 2: Whatever. I have never felt an earthquake.
Speaker 3: I would be the New York earthquake before it was cool, so.
Speaker 2: Very very Brooklyn in view.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you play hockey, ice hockey, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is there another kind of hockey?
Speaker 3: Oh? I mean not really. I mean people try to
Speaker 3: play roller and people try to I mean, I don't
Speaker 3: know there's like professional field. I know that there is
Speaker 3: a like for high school kids, there's field hockey. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I grew up playing it in about five years ago.
Speaker 3: I'd get in New York City I just kind of
Speaker 3: was like, I need to be more active, I need
Speaker 3: to start, you know. I was kind of missing it
Speaker 3: and I was, you know, starting to to that age
Speaker 3: where it's I don't pick this back up, then I'm
Speaker 3: never gonna do it. So I just kind of took
Speaker 3: the money, went to there was a there's a hockey
Speaker 3: store just in lower like mid midtown lower Manette and
Speaker 3: you just go up an elevator and then it opens
Speaker 3: up and there's a hockey store. And I had played
Speaker 3: in god since I was a teenager, so I was
Speaker 3: just told the guy, I was like, I need gear,
Speaker 3: so like suit me up and whatever, and uh I
Speaker 3: was twenty eighteen, I think. And so yeah, like six
Speaker 3: years later, I capped in my own team, which I
Speaker 3: didn't want to do, and so we branded it and
Speaker 3: I'd made one of my French bulldogs the mascot of it.
Speaker 3: Just wow, I can do that, and yeah, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's going well. I played kind of a prison league.
Speaker 3: So there's a few weeks around and one of the
Speaker 3: rieks has like a bar restaurant upstairs where you can
Speaker 3: watch games. And mine doesn't know that we're playing an
Speaker 3: old airplane hangar I'm sorry because you're playing with no, no, no,
Speaker 3: it's just our rink is known for being like the
Speaker 3: kind of the prison rink is because.
Speaker 2: Just no fly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just ice. It's ice, and it's run by
Speaker 3: Russian on it.
Speaker 1: Oh oh yeah, they don't have alcohol, kind of Russians
Speaker 1: don't have Oh.
Speaker 3: You have to bring yours?
Speaker 1: Well, yes you can kind of sucker buys their own
Speaker 1: alcohol out. You got to bring theirs obviously.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't do that. You don't bring like a
Speaker 2: bottle of vodka.
Speaker 3: No, no, I don't, I don't. I don't know. It's
Speaker 3: my team is funny Because've done on teams where they
Speaker 3: are just a bunch of fat drunks and that I've
Speaker 3: been on teams where they're not Like my current team
Speaker 3: now doesn't really even have beers a locker room anymore,
Speaker 3: including me. So I stopped I kind of stopped doing that.
Speaker 3: And uh yeah, my team's a bunch of squares right now,
Speaker 3: but we aren't winning.
Speaker 1: Sounds it sounds like you're a bunch of old men.
Speaker 3: Actually, yeah, not so much. I have I have, I have,
Speaker 3: I'm the second oldest on the team. I have a
Speaker 3: couple of guys in their forties, and then I have
Speaker 3: a couple of guys that are in their twenties, so it's
Speaker 3: all kind of mixed. But I I have a few
Speaker 3: more years of that and then I'm going to have
Speaker 3: to probably go to an old family.
Speaker 2: I love it. Are you good?
Speaker 3: I think I'm good. I'm probably the third best skater
Speaker 3: on the team, and it's competitively, so there are guys
Speaker 3: who are faster than me because they're younger than me.
Speaker 3: I'm great backwards. I have a good head. I'm at
Speaker 3: that point now where older athletes, which I'm not an athlete,
Speaker 3: where it's like, if I had my brain now in
Speaker 3: the body that I had ten years ago, i would
Speaker 3: have been an All Star. And that's kind of where
Speaker 3: I Yeah, I'm a very smarter player, but I'm also
Speaker 3: just getting up an a so I know when I'm
Speaker 3: losing a step. I saw a personal trainer for a
Speaker 3: year which kind of just got me into better shape
Speaker 3: and just kind of kicked the crap out of me.
Speaker 3: And then part of the reason I did that was
Speaker 3: to kind of keep doing some sports, and so yeah,
Speaker 3: I had I haven't like better shape than I was
Speaker 3: when I started. I don't feel like throwing up after
Speaker 3: every ship.
Speaker 1: See, I would say you should try vodka, but whatever
Speaker 1: up to.
Speaker 3: You really just not skating. So I mean that's the thing.
Speaker 3: You guys that will do that, they'll load up before again.
Speaker 3: Now I'm just like, I just I don't know how
Speaker 3: you do that anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you seem happy.
Speaker 1: You seem I don't know, not that you weren't happy
Speaker 1: when I knew you in New York, but you maybe
Speaker 1: even seem happier now, Like do you feel like you've
Speaker 1: made it?
Speaker 3: Oh God, I don't even know what happy is. I
Speaker 3: don't have any may like happy.
Speaker 2: I'm not happy.
Speaker 3: I don't have any major catastrophes at the moment. So
Speaker 3: it's like it's like I haven't I'm not I haven't
Speaker 3: been hit by a car recently. So gosh, maybe as
Speaker 3: far as I don't know, like professionally, especially.
Speaker 1: Every way you want to look at it, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean professionally, especially with what we do with things
Speaker 3: have things change so rapidly, and you know, a lot
Speaker 3: of us swipt from like you said, we're writing from
Speaker 3: your post and I still do once in a while,
Speaker 3: or Nashville or Fox whatever. A lot of us have
Speaker 3: now just kind of branched out into our own things
Speaker 3: because of the technology is there, and that's kind of
Speaker 3: where media is. So I never believe in kind of
Speaker 3: thinking like you make it because this could all go
Speaker 3: away tomorrow, So like you have to be prepared to
Speaker 3: go be a ditch digger if that comes at you.
Speaker 3: And so, and I also think you have to be
Speaker 3: a little hungry in what we do. I think that
Speaker 3: especially older pundits, older generations, older people who are kind
Speaker 3: of in the media commentariat are just kind of at
Speaker 3: this point going through the motions because I don't know
Speaker 3: if they know if there's any use for them either
Speaker 3: hate Trump or you know, they the media landscapes at
Speaker 3: a place to where they just don't feel useful. So
Speaker 3: you can tell it's not in it anymore, see when
Speaker 3: they're just kind of trying to cash the paycheck. And
Speaker 3: so I think if it ever gets to that point, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean to say, if you've made it, I don't
Speaker 3: need to go out and do like Craiglist hits or
Speaker 3: anything like that to get by. So I'm doing I'm
Speaker 3: doing enough to keep my life.
Speaker 2: What what are preglans not that I.
Speaker 3: Can't tell you. So I'm doing enough to keep my
Speaker 3: lights on, which is if for for what this is,
Speaker 3: you know, basically, I'm paid for my opinion, which is
Speaker 3: the only thing I'm good at. So to be able
Speaker 3: to do that is I don't know if it's to
Speaker 3: say like you've made it, but I'm doing enough to
Speaker 3: where again I don't I don't need to go, h
Speaker 3: do any kind of sort of menial labor that I
Speaker 3: don't want to do. It's not a thing. I'm media labor, right,
Speaker 3: I got it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but.
Speaker 3: I don't know as far as being able to make it.
Speaker 3: I'm doing and I'm doing enough, you know, to where
Speaker 3: I can do a podcast at you know, at one
Speaker 3: o'clock in the afternoon as opposed to having to turn
Speaker 3: on a TPS report. Right.
Speaker 1: I like that you put that in East Coast time
Speaker 1: because I know, you know that's the real time.
Speaker 3: So yeah, of course it is.
Speaker 1: So what would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
Speaker 1: What would be like a.
Speaker 2: Plan B for you?
Speaker 3: Oh God, I don't really believe.
Speaker 2: In just because like, okay, not forget while plan B?
Speaker 2: Actually what what what's the dream career that you didn't follow?
Speaker 2: I mean, my jokey one.
Speaker 1: Is I always say like I would be a DJ,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like I am very good at playing
Speaker 1: music in a certain you know way, or in songs
Speaker 1: in the right order. Really, so I think that would
Speaker 1: be my plan. B I don't know that I would
Speaker 1: actually do that, if that, you know, if things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I mean, I've been doing some form
Speaker 4: of writing since I was in high school, screenwriting or
Speaker 4: doing anything, poemwriting, doing songwriting, whatever.
Speaker 3: So I think I have the kind of just a
Speaker 3: natural fit for where the path has taken me and
Speaker 3: spen you know, I can. I kind of came of
Speaker 3: age a little bit sort of in my twenties through
Speaker 3: the Internet age to read it, you know, read it
Speaker 3: when read it, blue up and read threads and four
Speaker 3: Chan before it was kind of a Nazi cesspool. There
Speaker 3: was a time when four Chan was fun. Believe me
Speaker 3: when I say that some of it still is through
Speaker 3: message boards and things like that. So he kind of
Speaker 3: learned to hone a little bit of you know, what's
Speaker 3: engaging about some of those things and what's not. And
Speaker 3: so I think the just kind of whatever trajectory your
Speaker 3: path I was on was always just going to kind
Speaker 3: of develop in some kind of way. So no, I'm
Speaker 3: not an Oscar winning screenwriter, but that's fine. I tried
Speaker 3: that and I couldn't do it. I couldn't be in
Speaker 3: the industry.
Speaker 2: So your plan B would just be be a writer.
Speaker 3: Is that what you don't clearly gotten here? You know,
Speaker 3: I probably retire to a prepper ranch in Wyoming. That
Speaker 3: would probably plan B, which we'll see given the you
Speaker 3: don't know, there might be a lot of people buying
Speaker 3: up land and doing that here in about the next
Speaker 3: seven months.
Speaker 2: That sounds like plan A.
Speaker 3: Actually, oh yeah, right, So no, I've never really kind
Speaker 3: of believed in plant be so I think it's just
Speaker 3: to focus on the plan that you're on, and you know,
Speaker 3: this is what I'm doing. I'm clearly maybe whether it's
Speaker 3: me or whether it's somebody else, whether it's you, whatever
Speaker 3: it is, somebody in their career. Generally, I think most
Speaker 3: people believe they're doing what they're supposed to be doing,
Speaker 3: even if it's hard, even if it's not exactly you know,
Speaker 3: what they thought they would turn out to be or
Speaker 3: anything like that. But that's just talking to people in
Speaker 3: different professions where they are, you know, I just I
Speaker 3: kind of don't look at it and go gun I
Speaker 3: could I could be doing X y Z. You know,
Speaker 3: I was very fortunate to, you know, have a good
Speaker 3: ten years in New York where I was able to
Speaker 3: kind of you know, catch on fire a little bit
Speaker 3: with writing and get noticed by Nashal Review and have
Speaker 3: a couple of fun hits on The Gutfeldt Show and
Speaker 3: whatever like that. And I kind of look at that
Speaker 3: and just kind of say, well, I mean, just act
Speaker 3: like you're supposed to be doing this. I guess right.
Speaker 1: I don't think most people do think that they're doing
Speaker 1: what they're supposed to be doing. Did you know that
Speaker 1: several Kardashians do not think that they're supposed to be famous?
Speaker 3: Well? Thanks Oj? All right, Pete warming out, Yeah, you
Speaker 3: could thank him for that. That's the That's the worst
Speaker 3: thing O. J.
Speaker 1: Simpson ever did, by the But they don't believe that
Speaker 1: they're meant to be doing what they're doing.
Speaker 3: They think that they they're in a position where they
Speaker 3: can change their path very easily. If they're like, I
Speaker 3: don't believe you should be on TV, then what do
Speaker 3: you believe you should be doing?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: I believe I should be a shepherd on the island
Speaker 3: And stop it. Well, go do that.
Speaker 1: That would be no, so good, very good television.
Speaker 3: Actually, go do that, that would be great. So I
Speaker 3: guess I kind of mean it in the sense of
Speaker 3: I don't know. I never really thought about, you know,
Speaker 3: should I should I be doing something else. I kind
Speaker 3: of look at me, you are doing this. It's funny
Speaker 3: because you know, my college degree was in interactive media design,
Speaker 3: which is you know, front end web front and graphic
Speaker 3: things look pretty on the Internet. And as that kind
Speaker 3: of shifted where I had clients and then kind of
Speaker 3: a online Twitter persona sort of takes off to the
Speaker 3: point to where I have to kind of go public
Speaker 3: if I want to get writing. You think like that, right,
Speaker 3: And I think it was roughly like around twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen I started my website, The Wilderness, and I
Speaker 3: got picked up by National Review. That was really the
Speaker 3: point where I'm like, well, you're in this now, like
Speaker 3: there's no all going back from it, because you're going
Speaker 3: to be You're going to be Google searchable from here
Speaker 3: on out, if people are going to be able to
Speaker 3: search your name, and then of course when you start
Speaker 3: doing media hits, and you know, I've told people this
Speaker 3: who kind of gotten into activism and they you know,
Speaker 3: they stay anonymous and stuff. It's like, you know, be
Speaker 3: good at it, be safe at it, but be prepared
Speaker 3: that any day, you know, any time supporter is going
Speaker 3: to knock on your door and it never works out right,
Speaker 3: like what do you do that? And so you have
Speaker 3: to kind of be prepared that if you want to
Speaker 3: do part time actives or anything that would be anonymous
Speaker 3: and you start to get serious about it. Lives a
Speaker 3: TikTok as a perfect example of this, that it may
Speaker 3: end up being what you're doing. And so that's kind
Speaker 3: of how I always looked at it. It's like, well,
Speaker 3: there's no going back to this anymore. Go more web
Speaker 3: clients over and uh you know, I know I've had
Speaker 3: journals poke around to try and find some of that
Speaker 3: stuff and it was well hid and it was in
Speaker 3: you know, LLC's and different names. I wasn't a part
Speaker 3: of it. So it's fine, But like I said, there
Speaker 3: was there comes a point when you have to make
Speaker 3: that decision. I think mine was about you know, twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen, where like I said, it's just you're not
Speaker 3: coming back from this. This is going to be your
Speaker 3: life until it's not anymore, until you're not getting paid
Speaker 3: to do it anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So here we are, almost ten years later, and I'm
Speaker 3: still doing okay on it?
Speaker 2: Did you used to use your initials? Am I remembering
Speaker 2: this correctly?
Speaker 3: Or no it was I just created some dumb ship
Speaker 3: posting anonymous account when it started.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: Think, okay, I might, I might be remembering it. I
Speaker 2: think we don't.
Speaker 1: We met.
Speaker 2: We met when on the.
Speaker 1: Internet, on on the twitters, when I had U, I
Speaker 1: had a I was doing a big house, you know, purge,
Speaker 1: and I had an an culter doll and I offered
Speaker 1: it up up to the internet and you were like,
Speaker 1: I will take that and culture doll. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because now I met her in Florida, were friends. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, I should have held on to that thing.
Speaker 3: Would you like it back?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, it's okay, you can doesn't.
Speaker 3: She doesn't talk anymore. It's just.
Speaker 1: You know, like, right, well, the talking was the best part.
Speaker 3: I think there's a joke there. But yeah, she's she's
Speaker 3: still up there. She's up there. I do have a
Speaker 3: shelf that's kind of my political memorabilia shelf, and she's
Speaker 3: up there with an original Anthony Wiener court room sketch
Speaker 3: of praying while he's reading his apology. The original court
Speaker 3: room sketch of that.
Speaker 2: Uh, that is a weird purchase.
Speaker 3: I have a George W. Bush flight suit Barbie doll.
Speaker 3: He's still in the box. So I have a couple
Speaker 3: of my media passes, which, you know, just remind me,
Speaker 3: don't ever act like a filthy journalist. What else is
Speaker 3: up there? There's a there's a there's a few things
Speaker 3: that I've kept throughout the years that I've just accumulated.
Speaker 3: And uh so she's up on the shelf, she's sitting
Speaker 3: right there.
Speaker 2: I'll let her know.
Speaker 1: I'll tell her that you're.
Speaker 3: Still that she's sitting up there with a bust of
Speaker 3: you know, plastic Japanese toy bust of Batola and Rea
Speaker 3: like looking, David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. I love it.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and be right
Speaker 1: back on the Carol Markowitch Show. So you write a
Speaker 1: lot about culture, I mean to write a lot about politics,
Speaker 1: But what is your biggest cultural concern? Like, where do
Speaker 1: you think are major cultural problems?
Speaker 2: Live societal problems?
Speaker 3: Oh jeez, I think it's our media. And I know
Speaker 3: that this is a cliche for someone like me, but
Speaker 3: when you have interactions from day to day people, and
Speaker 3: they could be different politics, they could be different race,
Speaker 3: they could be different anything. It's not this kind of
Speaker 3: fever pitch media environment. That can be social media. It
Speaker 3: can be what you see on Twitter X, what you
Speaker 3: see on Facebook, what you see on nextdoor whatever. It's
Speaker 3: really not that in real life. To give you an idea,
Speaker 3: I've never had someone and I'm fairly social. I'm not
Speaker 3: you know, mister party guy like that.
Speaker 2: But I've seen you do karaoke.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 3: I have a video I know, and she's still holding
Speaker 3: it over for stuff while you're on the show. Right,
Speaker 3: We're good, We're gonna insert that clip. I would just
Speaker 3: be like, look how much weight I lost. I've never
Speaker 3: had someone introduce me and tell me what their pronouns are,
Speaker 3: for example. So when I say media, I don't mean
Speaker 3: like to see it, and for example, I mean the
Speaker 3: pervasive media culture that we live in does not reflect
Speaker 3: a reality. And I think that that's always the biggest problem.
Speaker 3: A perfect example that's you know, might be outdated by
Speaker 3: the time this comes out is we have the shooting
Speaker 3: in Chicago of this kid who was pulled over and
Speaker 3: then he opens fire eleven shots on police officers. Police
Speaker 3: officer shoot killed. And now you have our entire media
Speaker 3: trying to gas a you know, rage, And there's no
Speaker 3: reason for them to be doing this, is what I'm
Speaker 3: This is a choice of what they're doing. And so
Speaker 3: that is something that could very well lead to property damage,
Speaker 3: it could lead to people injured, it could lead to riots,
Speaker 3: and they're actively doing this. And that's kind of what
Speaker 3: I mean about, like when culture, So when you say
Speaker 3: what's you know, what's one of the worst things in culture?
Speaker 3: I could say, well, race relations, Well, no, you know,
Speaker 3: I think we're pretty much fine. It's just you have
Speaker 3: an industry that is actively juicing content to get it
Speaker 3: out there because either they believe something politically or culturally
Speaker 3: or whatever. You know. You and I spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time in kind of online swamps and fever dreams,
Speaker 3: and you have to pull apart some of the things
Speaker 3: about what is actually important here. So when we talk
Speaker 3: about women's sports, for example, is that something that looks
Speaker 3: like it's it's getting worse. I don't want to say worse, worst,
Speaker 3: it looked like someone's getting pushed further and further into
Speaker 3: the mainstream, and I would argue that, yes it is.
Speaker 3: And so it's as far as like, culturally, like I said,
Speaker 3: I think for the most part, people are fine. I
Speaker 3: think for the most part, we're all just kind of
Speaker 3: like we all for the most part, are trying to
Speaker 3: get along with each other and stuff like that. But
Speaker 3: there are forces at work, and it's not just yeah,
Speaker 3: left or right, it's everybody who are actively trying to,
Speaker 3: you know, keep us pissed off and hating each other. Right,
Speaker 3: And so as far as like I said, culturally, that
Speaker 3: to me is a huge problem. And so the media.
Speaker 2: Is the worst.
Speaker 3: I mean, they have to agree, yeah, And it's for
Speaker 3: people think that that's a cliche for what I do.
Speaker 3: Now it's true, of course you said media, But I'm
Speaker 3: trying to explain why it is that way. And the
Speaker 3: latest example of what we're seeing happen, I think it's
Speaker 3: in Chicago is a perfect example of that that they
Speaker 3: are pushing this and pushing this and pushing this, and
Speaker 3: we're seeing like body Camp footage and it's like don't
Speaker 3: believe your eyes and ears like no, and you see
Speaker 3: this and you just go, this is infuriating about doing here,
Speaker 3: because this is stuff that's going to actually result in
Speaker 3: a real world harm, in real world public harm. Like
Speaker 3: I said, you know, people could lose businesses because you
Speaker 3: have a media that's juicing race riots. You have people
Speaker 3: who could get killed or injured or whatever. And they're
Speaker 3: just gonna stand there and they're gonna put their camera
Speaker 3: on it and they're gonna fill it and then in
Speaker 3: three weeks they're gonna leave and they're not gonnactly right.
Speaker 2: That story will be over and who cares what happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll be on to the neck one. You know,
Speaker 3: they're gonna, like I said, kind of And I know
Speaker 3: this is dark, but it feels like they're holding auditions
Speaker 3: for the next kind of Summer of twenty twenty. Here.
Speaker 3: It's like there's combing these cities to find an incident
Speaker 3: that they can use. And like I said, that's that's
Speaker 3: not journalism, that's narrative searching. And so as like I said,
Speaker 3: as far as culture, it's not. You know, you can
Speaker 3: define a lot of things under that, but as far
Speaker 3: as like what I do and what I see and
Speaker 3: what we're just actively trying to change or at least
Speaker 3: point out and say, see right here you're being that's
Speaker 3: that's really what I believe and where we're at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that we're in a dark place in
Speaker 1: that way, and I hope that people wake up and
Speaker 1: fight back against that kind of thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard to talk about. Another one that you're
Speaker 3: seeing a lot of is this this idea of the church.
Speaker 3: This is one of these things I see, you know,
Speaker 3: journalists talking about people in media saying, you know, you
Speaker 3: know the church is being taken over by trump Ism
Speaker 3: or whatever. And I'm not religious, but I know church
Speaker 3: is a sense of community. So when you get to
Speaker 3: a point where you're pushing that kind of thing, even
Speaker 3: into churches where your your goal is to get people
Speaker 3: in church, separate them voting for I've never really been
Speaker 3: big on church. I have been to church for kind life.
Speaker 1: And you're probably you don't seem like a big Trump
Speaker 1: supporter either, so so double it's maybe you're actually seeing
Speaker 1: what's going on there and not.
Speaker 3: You think it's about. But church has always not just
Speaker 3: been about going in and worshiping religion. It's a sense
Speaker 3: of community. Especially in Black communities, this is huge. You
Speaker 3: go with your neighbors. You know, it's whether you see
Speaker 3: these people and you see them only at church, but
Speaker 3: it's still a sense of community. You go there, you
Speaker 3: sit with them worship, and then you walk out and
Speaker 3: you see their kids, and their kids are running around
Speaker 3: and they're talking. They're like whatever, it's nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And when you have a section of media who's trying
Speaker 3: to pierce that sense of community by making everything about uh,
Speaker 3: whether it's Trump isn't or politics, that the idea that
Speaker 3: you're trying to get, you know, suspicious of who the
Speaker 3: pew with you is voting for trouble. You better not
Speaker 3: do that. A lot of a lot of that stuff
Speaker 3: that is so toxic, and that that falls under things
Speaker 3: you see in media where everything has to be kind
Speaker 3: of connected to the political moment that we're having, and
Speaker 3: it really doesn't. Right, Yeah, you don't have to attribute
Speaker 3: every single thing back to the political moment because some
Speaker 3: people might feel personally betrayed by it.
Speaker 1: Right, not everything is Trump involved?
Speaker 3: It turns into oh and not everything not everything Trump
Speaker 3: involved is the de mars.
Speaker 1: Right. Well, I loved having you on, even though when
Speaker 1: I asked you to come on my show, you said,
Speaker 1: oh fine.
Speaker 3: All right, and then you told me twenty minutes and
Speaker 3: I was just.
Speaker 2: Right, You're like, no, I'm going to go along.
Speaker 3: Actually I thought for the hour, I rearrased the furniture
Speaker 3: and everything. Yeah, just all right, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Come on well, forecast, you know, so end here with
Speaker 1: your best tip for how my readers my readers, for
Speaker 1: how my listeners can improve their lives.
Speaker 3: Oh geez, you see, I can tell you didn't.
Speaker 2: You didn't read the email that I said.
Speaker 3: Oh I did I read? I did? I read a
Speaker 3: But even that's one where I thought about It's like
Speaker 3: you were asking the exact wrong person on how to
Speaker 3: improve your love.
Speaker 2: I disagree.
Speaker 1: I think you've made a lot of really good changes
Speaker 1: in your life since I last saw.
Speaker 2: You in New York.
Speaker 1: I think you're you're looking great, you're sounding great, You're
Speaker 1: you know, I.
Speaker 3: Did, I did put on a compound so because I
Speaker 3: thought it was gonna be an hour, So I wouldn't
Speaker 3: have done it for twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: Right, I think, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know so much about changes. Something that something
Speaker 3: I will say that I do is I kind of
Speaker 3: believe in constantly moving forward or evolving, and when by
Speaker 3: that is so. And I don't say I make a
Speaker 3: conscious decision, but every year it's trying to kind of
Speaker 3: learn something new. Last year it was golf, like, and
Speaker 3: I'm always at golf, but I'm in a place sort
Speaker 3: of where there's some courses and you kind of get
Speaker 3: that itch when you see And then I went out
Speaker 3: and I tried it and it was like I had
Speaker 3: worked pain in my hips and I've ever had an occupant.
Speaker 3: So this year, this year is going to be kind
Speaker 3: of official lessons less Like I said, last year, I
Speaker 3: would you personal training. I just wanted to get better
Speaker 3: shape this year. This year I did two things. I
Speaker 3: got my eye fixed with Lasak, which is kind of
Speaker 3: an a thing. And the reason I did is because
Speaker 3: I bought a gun. I bought my first GUDEN and
Speaker 3: I was out on the range with an instructure and
Speaker 3: instructor and they couldn't figure out my vision. And as
Speaker 3: far as like which I dominant, I was right. My
Speaker 3: right eye dominant was the worst blurry vision I had.
Speaker 1: So they're like, maybe don't shoot with that vision.
Speaker 3: Oh, but no, it's been a whole I'm gonna I
Speaker 3: have a draft for Spectator Magnet about going through the
Speaker 3: process of buying it not just you know, it's not
Speaker 3: just you go and you find one you like, and
Speaker 3: then and then you go and you shoot it, and hey, like,
Speaker 3: you learn so much about yourself. You learn which handed.
Speaker 3: It's funny because I'm right handed, but I learned I'm
Speaker 3: a left handed shoot. You know. You learn about your
Speaker 3: eyes and now I had to get my eye fixed
Speaker 3: because I don't want to be blind. Learn about accuracy,
Speaker 3: you learn about speed, and you learn about just everything.
Speaker 3: You learn about the mechanics of it's fascinating. And so
Speaker 3: I guess, like that's my thing is every year it's
Speaker 3: trying to do something that's either new or evolving, or
Speaker 3: something that challenges you to kind of step out, you know,
Speaker 3: step out a bit. Again, you're really asking the wrong person.
Speaker 2: I will say that, I again will disagree. He is
Speaker 2: Stephen Miller.
Speaker 1: He thinks you should be moving forward, and I think
Speaker 1: that that's really good advice.
Speaker 3: Thanks a lot for TV.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2: Steven.
Speaker 1: Catch his podcast, The Versus Media Podcast on substack and
Speaker 1: read him all over the place.
Speaker 3: Thanks again, Steven, Thanks Carol, it's good to see you again.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
Speaker 1: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.