Welcome back, everyone to a new episode of You're Wrong with Molly Hemingway and
David Harsani and Molly. Today we have a special episode. We have a
Q and A episode or is it an ama? Is that what they used
to call it? Oh right, ask me anything. We ask me Molly
Hemingway and David Harsani, mostly Molly Hemingway. I have the questions. You
do not. I feel, yeah, you're going to ask the questions,
whether they're of me or you. I have no idea what the questions are,
but you know what all the questions are, right, I think that
the spontaneity of such a someone's got to ask the questions unless we brought a
third person in to do it. So I'll ask them because a lot of
them directed it you. In fact, I wanted to mention before we started
that I don't know that people or many of our listeners understand what the word
question means because it says in the subject line question for Molly or question for
Molly and David, and then the rest of the email is just about how
great is Molly the greatest or just great? Like that kind of question,
which is not really a questions. I want to Yeah, all right,
this is our We've done fifty episodes of this. It's pretty amazing, right.
Time flies. Yeah, since I came back to the Federalist, I
want to quickly say also that I went through tons of emails, and I
have to say I think one of our most popular episodes, or the episode
that and most people writing, was our free trade argument episode where I do
I just yelled at you the whole time. And then yeah, and then
some of the other like Russia Gates Russia, I woulda Russia Gate, Russia
collusion stuff was pretty popular. Anyway, I'm going to start with a question
from me. I had a question for you that I've never asked day.
Okay, so I know you are a while and you know, we work
with a lot of other conservatives who are in the conservative world. I haven't
always been there. I think you've been in the conservative world longer than I
have in DC. I moved here and around, I don't know, twenty
twelve something like that. Can you tell us a little in the audience,
a little bit about your journey, like not your biography, but your philosophical
journey, Like were you always a conservative? Did you grow up a conservative?
Was your family conservative, Like, how did you come to have the
opinions you do? Oh, that's I like this question. I was very
nervous that you were going to ask a question but means really uncomfortable. Okay.
So I think I'm very much the product of my parents. So my
dad, when he married my mom, was just very much from a Democrat
family, like Union democrat family, and he is a pastor. And then
my mom, despite being a government school teacher, came from a long line
of Republicans. Like I remember talking to my grandmother about how FDR was a
good president, you know, because I'd been told that Democrats were bad,
but FDR was a good president. So I was just repeating what i'd heard
in school or something, and she's like, I don't know where you heard
that, but you're wrong, and let me explain why. Like, you
know, just all of the people in my mom's family were Republican going way
back, and my mom has a very strong libertarian streak. My favorite example
of this was we were visiting I think I told you this. We were
visiting the Ludlow massacre site, which was the site of a big Union uprising
that was violently put down in Colorado, and so my dad Union Democrat is
telling this story about how horrible this corporation was and how they had basically enslaved
these people in a way because they had come out to work in this town
and then they had to give all their money back to the company, and
then when they tried to get fairer conditions, they were all like brutally slaughtered.
And my mom is just like, they didn't have to work there.
So that's my you know, very libertarian mom. So I have both of
those things in me, a very strong libertarian streak, and in fact identified
as a libertarian pretty much my whole life until I had kids. And I
hate that, you know, because I had kids later in life, and
all along people would pooh pooh my libertarianism by saying that when I was older
and more mature, I wouldn't be a libertarian anymore. And I was like,
yeah, well I'm you know, I'm in my thirties now and it's
still happening. But things that I liked about what I perceived to be libertarian
culture, which I actually understood, I was born in like the classical liberal
side of things, definitely where I got my skepticism about storylines that are sold
to you in order to engage in foreign conflict or just like not doing wars
to win. Openness to new ideas, and you know, one thing I
love about libertarian culture is like there's no idea that's it sounds bad, but
no idea that it's like so far out there that you can't discuss it.
And the idea is that you rationally debate all that. Definitely my free market
love of the market and for my dad, though I've always had this very
strong love of people, and I think about this all the time, like,
particularly when I'm on TV, is who's going to represent the views of
the people who are totally not represented here? And I seek to be liked
by those people rather than the Washington DC crowd. So I don't even know
if that answer made sense. Sorry the journey, though, I do want
to say I thought libertarianism was about, you know, different people cared about
different things, like for me, religious liberty is number one, and other
people really cared about like legalizing drugs or sexual issues or whatever. And I
kind of thought we all care about different things, but we're all in this
together. And then when the twenty thirteen twenty fourteen religious freedom battles happened,
the Libertarians were nowhere. I mean, they were the worst, and they
were awful, and I was like, why was I helping these losers out
with their stupid hedonistic pagan like idiocy that wasn't even that isn't even good,
and they're not even here for like pretty easy fights on my issue. And
it did create me a little bit of like, you know, they're the
people who smoke their whole lives and then they quit and then they become like
annoyingly anti smoking or whatever. That's kind I've kind of pretty angry at how
bad libertarians are on everything now, and but it didn't change my views on
like like I feel like my views are very much the same in terms of
I believe in the market, I hate communism, I do not like stupid
wars. So but it has changed a little. I think you're right about
the libertarians where this kind of DC cosmopolitan libertarian is really concerned about like legalizing
drugs and what do they call prostitutes now, like sex work and all of
that kind of thing, and they call them online prostitutes or online yeah,
or the Colorado's Western style social socially conservative libertarian. Maybe Ron Paul is more
sort of emblematic of that kind of libertarianism. I would say that I felt
the same way around the same time. But I think I've always you know,
libertarian like conservatives kind of a shorthand could mean a lot of different things.
Uh. Yeah, So I understand where you're coming from. I think
we actually come from the same place, probably not on the foreign policy as
much, but on the other issues. So that is interesting. That's a
good question. I do want to say that it does also this like these
twin ideas are why So I never really was that political, Like when it
came out to DC, I had all these political friends I hated. I
hated both political parties. And when the whole Donald Trump thing happened, though,
there was something about that where my dad's family and my mom's family both
ended up liking him, and it was this like unifying thing where they were
like, if Republicans could be like this, we would like Republicans and that
is that helped me kind of navigate and understand the moment. Interesting. It's
it's interesting too because you know my background, my parents defected all that,
so I became probably concerted to that because of that, and I've always been
a pretty classical overall. But my family, my dad and my family also
were very surprising to me right off the bad big Trump fans, and it
was it's still sort of a mystery. It's not a mystery to me ever,
why people would vote for a Republican of any kind over a Democrat,
but it is a mystery why he gets such devotees, why they love him
so much, why he connects with working class people so much. That to
me has always been a mystery, but I do it does remind me to
the one. So my parents were not in any way big fans of Donald
Trump during the primary, but when he won the primary, they very much
were. I should say my mom here. And I was yelling at my
mom coming home from the twenty sixteen Republican convention about you know, I was
still in anguish about the whole thing, and she hung up on me,
and I love, like that's not her style, but she was just sort
of like, I don't have to deal with this crap anymore and hung up
on me. And it it really sent a message loud and clear, and
I loved my mom, Carolyn. I should say this in case they're listening.
My mom actually is more of a she's offended by some of the things
Donald Trump says, who has said about women and stuff like that. But
my dad and I think I've related the story before. I said I was
having a conversation. It sounded like he liked Donald Trump. This was during
the primaries. I'm like, wait, you like Donald Trump? Goes no,
I love Donald Trum Like, oh my lord, all right, thank
you for that. Someone asked Jeff, I should give the names everyone down,
just the first names. I don't get anyone in trouble asked us what
the intro too and is to our podcast, And it's a band called Medications
and the song is called the Perfect Target. It's a DC band from their
early two thousands that I liked and I just thought it it was a good,
you know, driving song, guitar driven song for our intro. What
can I ask you? How you you how you pick other music? Because
we have the same song at the beginning, right, different songs at the
end. What is your thinking and picking a song? Well, I think
Molly, you know that we both think about that. Well, we try
to think of something we've spoken about. Either the music that we've spoken about,
or something that relates to a topic that we have mentioned. So,
for instance, if I mock you for liking Broadway musicals, we'll use like
got like hair, or a song from air or whatever, right, or
things like that. So people who listen should pay attention to that song and
try to figure out why we pick it. I think it might be fun
for them. We have fun, I think picking that song. Right.
Yeah, we waste a lot of time, a lot of time of that
song. So I you remember back when, back when we used to actually
tape in a studio together, we would and Madeleine was producing, and we
would waste the beast bulk, Like the vast majority of our time was like
discussing what songs to do for each intro outro. It was like a very
important issue for us. We would sit there for And also she never knew
any of the songs now because they were all old people songs, gen x
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out on your favorite podcast platform. Molly, you have a husband. His
name is Mark. Is he related to the famous author? And if so,
how? Oh so? I guess like it's a very frustrating question because
it would be so great to just answer no, And I think I'm if
I had could go back in time, I would just tell everyone no,
because it's they're technically related, but it's so distant as to be meaningless.
They're basically it's a very uncommon last name and so kind of probably if you
live in the United States and you have it, you're related. But I
don't even remember exactly how it is. But like that grandfather is cousins with
someone or other. Definitely not not like I mean my I have family members
who interact with more famous members of the clan, but I don't and or
haven't really yet. And then I do want to say one thing about it,
though, Yeah, yeah, one is that before we were married,
Mark and I went to a wedding in Key West for one of his close
friends, and the people there didn't care that it was a distant relation.
They were like your royalty down here. I mean, I don't think we
paid for a drink the entire time we were down there. They were so
happy to have lived there. That's why. Oh yeah, that's where the
beautiful house, the cats, the office. You should go there just as
a writer. It's a really lovely tour of the house and office. And
you're not a fan of him, No, not really, but yeah,
so I am and Mark is not. And I wouldn't say he's not.
I like him more than Mark does. I would say, but I really
have always enjoyed his writing. And yeah, I'm not saying like all he's
garbage, you know, I'm just saying like, he's not one of my
favorite writers. Was not a great person. But um, okay, So
all the time people ask me if I'm related all the time. But last
year Mark and I went to the Hemingway House in Oak Park. We go
there once a year usually for this Lutheran conference that's out there, the Issues
etc. Conference. It's awesome and we had some extra time and we went
to the childhood home. It's a small tour. We walk in, we
pay with a credit card. Our last name is Hemingway. Nobody had any
questions, and I'm like, it's literally like the one place I wouldn't mind
being asked. They just weren't curious. So we didn't say anything, didn't
raise any flags, nothing, huh so. And then the only final thing
I'd like to say about last names is that when we got married, I
am a very traditional person and I knew I would be taking Mark's last name
because that's just to me, like a very orderly way to do things.
And the family all has the same last name. But my maiden name was
Ziegler, which is an awesome name, very German. It begins with the
letter Z. I love my family so much like its I just loved having
that name, and so I was very sad about it. And Mark has
never understood that. He's like, this is literally the best thing I can
offer you, and you don't like it. I was like, well,
it's not even German for one thing, and he was like, you could
be in a darkened cave at night and people would know that you're German.
Like it's going to be fine, Molly. So it's funny because I was
watching this show that told you a boat. In another episode, Missus Davis,
and there's a guy pretending to be a German and he for his name
is Hans Ziegler, and the guy's like, you're not a German. That
is the most German name I've ever heard. No one that has to be
invented. So can you give us a little tutorial on the truly proper way
to pronounce your name and then also the way you pronounce it? Oh so
you saw my tweets on this, I think I Oh no. So when
my name, last name is Hungarian, it is typically a Jewish Hungarian name.
There are some there are some famous Harsanis. I'm not related to them,
Nobel Prize winners and so on. But the correct pronunciation of my name
is Harshani Harshany. The s is an sound and Hungarian, which is a
very tough language to learn, by the way, But when I was a
kid, no one could pronounce this name in school. Ever, so around
second grade or third grade, I just started pronouncing it Harsani so that people
so I wouldn't have to go through the whole thing with the teacher, so
harshany is how you're supposed to pronounce it. How I pronounce it as Harsani,
ignoring the y and treating the S as an s. What is the
worst most common mispronunciation of her name. I don't know. It's always messed
up, but a lot of people think it's Iranian or Indian. One time
I was in a debate in Denver with a woman who is like China anti
growth, like she was a Malthusian, and I think I was doing well
in this debate. It was on the phone and she just started yelling at
me and goes, you're just Indian and you hate Chinese people, and that's
why you're saying the things she's saying. Good stuff like that. So quite
often people think it's Indian. It's not. I don't know what the worst
people can pronounce it. It's just really phonetic. Now right horror Sani.
It says it right there. Sometimes I think about taking the why out,
but then you know, I don't. But thank you for asking people do
it. You know I should say lately people have been doing a better job.
I don't know. I don't know. Here's another question. This is
more serious, what did you use it? Who's it from? This is
from now Daie. Sorry that last one was from Elizabeth, and Natalie asks,
what did you both choose for schooling for your kids? I've had to
leave not one, but two Christian private schools over world curriculum. And then
she just goes on to complain about the state of schools. I don't know
if you want to answer that question, but you're free to if you like.
Yeah, I do so. My mother is a retired government school teacher
and the one thing I knew having kids is that we would not be sending
our children to government schools. And this was the started whatever like ten years
ago before some of the more recent insanity happened. And my husband has served
on the board of our parish school, our Lutheran school, for much of
the last twenty years, and I have previously served on the board as well.
And we cared about good education for our children before we were even married,
and we kind of put a lot of work into it. And we
are big believers in the classical model, and we worked to change our school
into that and our school is amazing. I guess so I was talking with
someone else at Fox whose kids had gone through there and they had now graduated
college, and we're saying that they thought they learned everything that they learned in
their education in this junior kindergarten through eighth grade school. But it does take
a lot of work. Now. One thing that is helpful about the Lutheran
Church Missouri synid like structure is there it kind of limits like you can't go
woke because we don't change our doctrine for now, you know, like we're
still we're still bound by the Lutheran Confessions, which were like you know,
from fifteen eighty or whatever. So we just are operating on a completely different
time path and that it does constrain some of what we even like could do
if we wanted to, and we don't want to. So very clear teachings
on sex and sexuality and where it's not political, and a belief that teaching
children like logic and scriptures and art, it's all just part of it.
So I love are So that's what we've done. But then that school only
goes through a certain grade and so we don't have a Lutheran high school in
Washington, DC. So we've done something else for those that have finished the
Lutheran School, and I don't know. I just I'm always surprised when people
don't care as much as Mark and I do about education and the pedagogy involved.
But my like, I have close friends and siblings who've sent their kids
to government schools and they've actually been maybe it's like where they are in the
country, it's been not so bad. I send my kids government schools.
Yeah, I moved around a bit, and uh, and I have to
say, I think a lot of those schools are fine in some ways.
They weren't as bad as some other you know what I'm hearing, woke wise
or whatever. They went to school and they got a really good education in
science and math where they went, and and that's what their careers are,
you know, are based on there in the sciences. So which makes me
extremely happy that they're not doing something like being becoming writers or whatever. But
yeah, I think that it was it was not great in many ways,
and it's it's a real battle for parents. And I'm not saying, you
know, a lot of people don't have the means to to like send their
kids to a private institution or I saw you earlier. Eyes I don't mean
that only rich people can do it, but you know, it's difficult in
some areas you don't have like minded people. I've generally been in liberal areas
where it's been a kind of difficult to find the right kind of schools.
It's just I think, yeah, I just schools should be blown up and
we should have choice, but it is difficult right now for a long Yeah.
No, I understand everybody has a different situation. But when Mark and
I first sent our oldest to private school, I wasn't working and he was
having to support the whole family on reporter salary, and we couldn't afford to
buy a house. But we did prioritize the education of our children. And
I was just telling one of the kids about how glad I am that we
did that. But I do understand that other people aren't willing to make those
kinds of sacrifices. And it definitely got us into our first home at a
ridiculously old age. But we still feel so happy that we did it the
way we did it. And I have to say, even when I was
young, public schools were terrible in the sense of indoctrination in certain areas,
But my kids are older than your kids. And I have to say,
it sounds like things have gotten a lot worse recently than they were, you
know, when my kids started going to school, and you know, it's
never been good, but it sounds like it's really bad. Right now,
Are you done with that topic now? I just hope that that person is
able to figure out. Sorry it wasn't Elizabeth, it was a Natalie.
Yeah. I just hope that she can figure something out because I even I
hear people complain about their children's school all the time, and Mark and I
are always like, it's literally the best thing we have going on in our
life is our children's school. And I wish that everyone could have that,
and I do feel for people who don't. And it's going to be incredibly
frustrating to send your kid to a Christian school and then have that sort of
you know, stuff showing up there where you know it probably is, just
it gives you a feeling of helplessness, right like you know, you have
to start your own school literally to teach your teach your kids the right value
is actually when we were doing admissions for one of the kids recently, it's
at a Christian school, but not in our denomination. And so there was
the admissions meeting, but then they had a totally separate, like religion meeting,
and the person who ran that one was like, Okay, so we're
in we're in this religion, and here's what that means. And we're in
this particular like division of that religion, and here's what that means. And
we believe that sex is ordained by God, you know, in marriage,
that biological distinctions are real and affect you know, the following things. And
we if you don't support that, you are so welcome to get up and
walk out and never come back again, and we wish you well, but
like that's how it's going to be. And I was like, sounds great,
very happy. Literally might have cried like I would, like, it's
it's weird, how And I don't know enough about all the Christian denominations that
you could probably send your kid to a school of a completely different denomination or
even religions, say an Orthodox Jewish school, and they would be better educated
than if you sent them to one of these like modern liberal you can do
whatever you want kind of church schools, you know what I'm saying, Like,
it's pretty interesting, which brings me to a question from a man named
Joshua, who says most conservatives I meet tend to be religious. While I
obviously have no issue with this, how does one go about meeting conservatives who
are atheists or agnostics. I'm going to take this one, Molly, you
don't like everyone. How can I say this? I would say that most
people I know and are friends with our religious I have no problem with it.
They treat me with respect. I've always thought the conservative social conservatives I've
noticed this in Denver when I first moved there from New York treated me with
farmer respect than liberals who disagree with me on issues did. And you just
have to figure out a way to be friends with them. I think I
can think of myself and maybe my friend Charlie Cook at National Views and atheists
I think, But other than that, I can't really think of too many.
And so that's that next question, where do you recog Yeah, you
have something to say that seemed like worth considering. Why that is too like?
I would just offer that for both of you. You know that me
say this and a relationship between I'm not going to speak for him, but
I'll also speak for Tom Holland, the historian. I'm not comparing myself to
him in any way, Guys that I'm just a genius, amazing writer.
He is also an agnostic or an atheist. All three of us are pro
faith. We believe that that that the foundational ideas are Christian, that free
choice comes from you know, the idea of free choice, the idea you
know that the morals of Christianity are helpful for a society, that that Christianity
gave each individual worth in society. And I think that a lot of the
atheists and agnostics or conservative actually just believe in a lot of Christian ideas.
Would you say that that's fair? Wear them like a skin suit kind of
thing. Yeah, I'm just going to summarize this next question so basically,
and I don't have a name on it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry about
that, but basically, sorry, Yeah, hold on, I just want
to again, going back to this, I think there are a lot of
people. I think a lot of people who are bright are prone to atheism
or agnosticism. And I understand that, and everyone asked to work this out
on their own, but I would just say sometimes it's good also to like
revisit some of the things that you had, Like you might go through many
decades of your life and you think, you think that you're like firmly set
in these belief systems, and it's just good to keep pushing yourself and the
fact that there are fruits of you know, Christianity or maybe even other religions
that have created the systems that you like, should play into things. Or
I was talking recently with this like very well known, very smart. I
don't want to describe him in any ways, I don't want to reveal this,
but someone who'd been like publicly identified as an atheist and he recently had
convert is converting, I should say, because I don't think he's been baptized
yet. And he was just saying that he couldn't get away from how much
humanity had changed around the time of Christ's death, and that he just kept
finding it to be like a fascinating, like it's so different, weird.
He just kind of was like exploring it more. And he was married to
a Christian lady, and he also kind of like found that some of what
he some of the reasons why he'd been an atheist in the past didn't work
like he was reasoning his way into something and then he kind of realized he
was being a little limited in his own rational capabilities. And my point is,
just keep working on it and keep being open minded religious. Do orthodox
religious folks ever sit down and say, hey, I wonder if there is
a God? Let me think about this again. Oh my gosh, literally
I think. I mean, yes, I'm reading the scripture right now,
and I'm like constantly thinking, like sort of testing everything. I don't I
don't know any other way to be, but I've always felt kind of comfortable
in that space. Like when I first told my kid my parents when I
was younger, that I was having doubts about this, that or the other,
and they were like, oh, yeah, you know that's common,
you know, like and they just were so understanding about it, and they
were like, so what are they And you know, let's talk about it.
And so I am in a you know, it's very normal, like
you hear about it in sermons, you talk about it with other people,
and um, yeah, so it's very common. Well, let me take
a step back quickly and just say that I want to mention that I went
to a religious school for many, many years. I went to eshiva,
an Orthodox modern Orthodox Ashiva York, and I learn Thalma Gamara. I was
very immersed in Jewish thinking. It's not like I just don't want people to
think that this is something I haven't thought about pretty deeply in my life.
I have, and I am a big fan of Judaism as a culture and
an ethnicity and all that. And I'm very respectful of Orthodox Christian faith because
i think it's incredibly important for modernity. So I do think about that stuff,
and you never know where things end up, but I wouldn't I wouldn't
put bets on that or anything like, Okay, we'll see. So the
next question was where do you look? So basically, I think what this
person is trying to say, if I may, is that it's hard to
trust media anymore. Basically can trust big media, can't trust establishment. Where
do you go today to get information? In the end, you're going to
need some kind of basic foundational information about what's happening in the world, So
where do you go to find that stuff? This is a question that I've
actually wanted to ask the staff where they're getting, you know, their information,
just because I'm I think it's an interesting thing to hear from people.
In my case, I am just I kind of curate my own editorial feed
through social media, which is Twitter in my case, and I very much
go to original sources because I have the luxury of getting paid to do that,
you know, So I like to go to something and just sort of
react to it on my own. But if I were to and I the
only newspaper I subscribe to is the Wall Street Journal. Quite unfortunately, it
has gotten much worse in recent years, I think, just not covering things
they should cover, or covering it in a biased fashion. Their Ukraine War
coverage in particular has been kind of a joke, Like I really wish I
could understand what's going on in the Ukraine War, and they constantly are writing
stuff about how like Russia's making all these advances but they're losing and it doesn't
really make any sense. And then I think I've mentioned this before, but
like during the twenty twenty riots, they just like didn't cover the riots that
were besieging the country. And so it's not perfect, but it is the
best of the big corporate media. And then I do a lot of reading
real clear politics and what I like about real clear politics is that they cover
the best pieces from a wide variety of political perspectives. So you do get
that like really smart leftist take on or you know, like the most reasonable,
thoughtful take of that, and then like some DC groupthink version, and
then like a conservative version. And I like to see what the different people
are saying. What about you? Well, it's a difficult question. I
used to read a lot of the big you know, the New York Times,
Washington Post, all of that, and I thought of myself as sophisticated
enough to kind of read between the lines. Maybe i'd say or synthesize what
they were saying and make it into normal speak and figure out what was going
on. I found that harder and harder because now they're just baseless lies a
lot of times in these papers. That's impossible to do, so it's got
a lot worse. But I still read those papers to try to figure out
stuff. And I have to say, like the New York Times, occasional
we'll have like an amazing feature about somebody you know that's a political, or
an amazing story about something in Africa or Asia that you wouldn't get elsewhere.
Because they have the kind of financial backing to be able to do that.
But as far as politics goes, I do the same thing. I go
to the Wall Street Journal, I go to Real Clear Politics, I'll read
if I read something in the Washington Post, I make sure to go find
other sources to try to see what's going on or go to the source.
Must be difficult for people who have regular jobs to take all that time,
so I think Real Clear is a good place to go. I think the
Wall Street Journal is probably the best of the big papers. I guess that's
what I do. I don't know, I'm all over. I read a
lot of stuff. If I do subscribe to a lot of newsletters, I
actually have been thinking there are too many. I'm not reading them, but
there are. And maybe we should do maybe a short segment on this one
time on the show, but go through some of the best substacks or best
people, uh, that we turn to to kind of explain the news a
bit, especially when it takes some kind of expertise to do. Um.
Well, yeah, I'm just curious what the substacks you subscribe to are,
or what are some of the substacks geus tons of them? Um, Jonathan
Turley, is that a substack that just might be like, uh, that
just might be a newsletter. Um, this is guy like a lot.
There's a lot of followers. Name is Michael Smith, which is a hard
guy to find. Probably I think it's called Unlicensed Punditry or something like that
is pretty good. But is it Matt Matt Tobai? Is that he pronounced
eb? Sorry? Um? I like the Free Press, you know,
is a pretty good site. Do you know Barry Weiss's site? They'll have
interesting stuff. Was the guy Michael Schellenberger? Is that his name? I
forget it. He's the guys. He's pretty good. I don't know.
I probably have around fifty that I subscribe to. I don't pay for all
of them. A lot of them are free, but they just stream into
my inbox and it's you know, I think, like, I'll give you
a good one. Actually, tablet. I love Tamblet. Yes, not
always but almost always. But they will allow all kinds of you know,
unorthodox opinions as it were, right, but there is there. They have
the single the scroll that like, at the end of the day, I'll
just tell you what happened that day, and it is really useful, really
useful. Yeah, I would. I like the Tablet like I used to
like The New Yorker. They have really interesting, like magazine length stories that
they do a deep dive into things. The story Slow Election is great.
I like it so much that I do something I never do, which is
occasionally email their editor and I compliment her on like how well the whole thing
is going, because it's really I you know, it's hard to put together
that level of consistent good stuff, and she does it. I subscribe to
Matt Taiebe, and I find it worth every penny. I think he's doing
just really important grave work. And he brings in other voices as well,
which is good. And Glenn Greenwald, which like shocks me that I give
him money. But I do like his journalism and I don't always agree with
it, nor do I always agree with Matt Taiebe, But I just get
a lot out of what they're reporting, the thoroughness with which they substantiate it,
so that you can go check it out yourself. I really like Chris
Bray and I think people should definitely follow his sub stack, and he occasionally
writes for us. He's really smart and living in California, and you can
tell he just kind of gets the seriousness of the problems and he has a
good attitude and how to broad that. So but yeah, I am I
like a little bit. I don't need any more, you know, I'm
not looking for more substacks to subscribe to subscribe to. But um, but
yeah, it's to me, it's like the it's just bloggers again, except
you get them in your inbox. Basically, I don't really see much of
a difference. I just we just got this question. I just got in
the in the inbox. I'm going to ask it. Can you explain and
tell us a story of how you got into journalism originally, like and what
your motivations were for doing that? Oh well, um, I feel like
there aren't very exciting stories. But I mean I do have an age if
you're wrong, I think people really like to hear stuff like this. I'm
really interested in hearing what you're going to say right now. So it's funny
because like I actually liked journalism. I'm at a young age. I started
in newspaper at my elementary school. I was the yearbook editor for two years.
Never occurred to me that I might go into journalism, And in high
school I had this economics teacher, I think his name was mister Smithwick,
and I really liked his class, and I just knew I would like to
be an economist. And it kind of matched all the things I cared about.
I love math, I like politics, I like history, and econ
just kind of put it all together in a way that really worked for me.
So I just decided, you know, I think it's like ninth or
tenth grade, I'm going to be an economist. And then I went to
college and I studied economics and I got a degree in economics, and I
was going to get an advanced degree in economics. And I started that and
realized that I didn't want to be in academia, which was a very political
institution. And I knew that, so like also kind of working at a
university affiliated group, and I just was kind of lost. I didn't know
what to do. I had been so clear for so long, Like all
these friends that changed their majors didn't know what they wanted to do. I
knew, you know, I just knew the whole time, and I just
had no idea what I wanted to do. And this is where Mark Hemingway
plays a big role. Because he and I had met right when he got
out of college. He's a younger man than he's younger than I am,
so and he was really into journalism and he was a beautiful writer, and
he really seemed to like journalism, and through him, I met all these
other journalists and they seemed to like journalism. And one day I got fired.
This is you know, I got yeah so good. I was just
telling talking about this with Greg Guptfeld last a couple of weeks ago. Got
fired and really didn't know what I was going to do at this point except
that I didn't want to continue in like nonprofit management, which is what I'd
been doing. And that night watching The Daily Show with this friend of mine
who worked I don't think like now he's at the Journal But anyway, Peggy
Noonan was on the Daily Show and I was like, oh, yeah,
I read that book. You know what I did, what I saw at
the revolution? Did you read that book? Which I really liked? And
I was like, oh yeah. I kind of like remember thinking that it
would be cool to be a speech writer, and so I learned from friends,
like I lived with a girl who was doing some speechwriting and basically learned
you have to get a job as a press secretary to write speeches. Yeah,
And so I had not had any engagement in politics, and I go
to the Hill and I started interviewing, applying for jobs as a press secretary.
By the way, there are still people I run into who didn't hire
me, and I totally get it, and it's no hard feelings, but
it's hard, like even whenever twenty years on, you're like, oh,
yes, I remember you. You thought I wouldn't be able to cut it
as a press secretary, and but I kept on getting people saying you basically
need to in ordered to be a press secretary, which is what you needed
to be in order to be a speechwriter, you actually have to have some
journalism experience. So that's how I started applying for jobs in journalism. And
I had this longtime friend who was an editor at Rodeo e Musica, which
was well, he was at Radio and Records the English language portion of the
Spanish language Rodway Musica, which is like covering the radio and recording industry.
And I mean I was desperate for work. I had no money, no
safety net, I had no job, and he hired me to answer phones
at Rodewy Musica, and I would just like make coffee and send phones and
like delivered the faxes. And I asked if I could write, and he
let me just write up earnings reports, and then he actually gave me a
story that involved like a hearing on the hill and the FCC, and I
went and did it all and it got on the front page. And Mark
Hemingway, of course helped me with this. And when I saw my story
on the front page and he said it was good, I was like,
press secretary, speechwriter, No, this is what I want to do.
And from that point on, I've just known that I wanted to be a
print journalist. That's an amazing story. There's no feeling like it. I
grew up around a lot of books. My dad was just read all the
time, loved history all of that, and I just always just like the
written word, you know. And I wasn't a great student or anything like
that, but I was always good at writing, or I have to think
I was. And then I read PJ. Rourke around that time in my
late teens early twenties, and I was like, this is amazing. It's
politics, it's hilarious. It's like in your face. It's funny, and
I wanted to be like him, but I couldn't really find any jobs being
PJ o' rourke. They don't like hand those out. So I became a
I got into sports, which I loved, and I became a sports writer
from any you know. For years worked at AP and New York Daily News
and all that, and then when nine to eleven happened, I said,
you know, I just felt like I needed to do something more right about
the stuff, that was more serious. So I started writing freelance. And
then this is a kind of a funny story. I guess on the corner
at National Review, which was kind of new then and very exciting to read.
Who's the guy? The blogger at American Conservative was just like retired.
He's like Hungary. What's his name? Yeah, you know he wrote the
book about he always changed his religions. He's constantly converting. All right,
Rod Dryers, I'm sorry if that is the wrong. Randomly was just talking
to him this morning, but yes, So he put up a tweet a
post that said two newspapers are looking for conservative metro journalists. So I sent
him my resume and stuff, and one of them was the Daily. One
of them I think was a Seattle paper, I'm not sure still, and
one of them was the Denver Post. And I don't think they wanted to
hire me because I didn't really have a ton of experience. I'd written one
Wall Street Journal thing, like a couple of things for NRO, so I
just kept daily. I would write a column and send it to him.
I'd write another column and I'd send it to the editor of the Denver Post
before he hired me. And I just kept sending him columns until he just
hired me. And that's that I think I applied for that job. I
just want to say. I hear sometimes people tell me that I'm sorry that
you didn't get it. You probably would have been better than me. I
did metro column writing, which was a lot of fun. And what happened
was I'd write me a conservative column, but then I'd go out to like
a record store and write about the experience, or go out to weird places
and weird events, and I think the people like that writing, but then
they breed me again and it would be something conservative, and they would be
very confused because my sensibilities were not what they imagined a conservative would be,
you know, is kind of a interesting, interesting situation. By the way,
that question was asked by Reverend Drew, who was a pastor in a
Catholic church. And I'm not giving names right because yeah, I just what
you just said reminds me that this is how Mark Hemingway and I ended up
together because I was kind of like loosely in this conservative libertarian space and it
was really hard for me to find someone who shared my values and my musical
tastes or like even that I liked music and I liked going to concerts and
I you know, I've always had a huge final record collection, and I
like artsy films, and so I would meet these people who I really liked.
I liked how they thought in terms of politics, and they had the
right values, but they bored me to tears. And Mark was the first
and really kind of only person I ever met who just lined up on all
of that stuff eventually, meaning he was not Christian when I met him,
but you know, but it all worked well, and so like I remember
thinking, I want someone who I can just like talk to about things when
I'm old. And we've been married now, not that long, but like
enough time to you know, naturally get sick of each other whatever, and
I just don't like. I love hearing what he has to say. I
love when he'll just tell me about like this band or his trip to the
record or or you know, this concert or this movie or whatever. He
just is It's nice. It's interesting that you say that because one of the
reasons I was never like a conservative when I was youngest because I thought conservatives
were boring. They weren't funny, they were you know, just uptight.
They didn't like good music, all of that. But the funny thing was
when I read PJ, I was like, actually, you can make fun
of these liberal pieties and you can like cool things and you can be funny
and you can write that way. And I think that when you see Tucker
in the old days when he was a writer, for instance, or or
would you just mentioned um on Fox Greg Godfeldt, who's incredibly funny, and
I don't know if people realize this. I mean, he's obviously funny on
TV, but his books are hilarious. His first book is hilarious. So
um, it's just you know, interesting. So on that note, if
people like Rourke, I just want to recommend Peachie Keenan's debut book, Domestic
Terrorist. Is that what it's called? Something like that? If you look
up domestic terrorist and Peachie Keenan, which is a pseudonym. Um, hold
on, my husband is whispering something to me. You can just shout it
out, honey. Oh sorry, it's domestic extremist, which does make a
little bit more sense. Um terrorist. She's very like, laugh out loud,
funny. She's a she's a talented writer. I've not that book,
but yeah I will. So here's another question I'm keeping. By the way,
this episode is just gonna be personal questions, and we'll do another one
that's gonna be a little more political. Is that okay? All right?
So you like whatever this person says. Molly and David always talk about music
and bands and things like that. They love talking about new music. Okay,
if they were in a band, what instrument would they play? If
you could be in a band yourself, did you ever play an instrument?
By the way, Matthew, Okay, I play piano, but not well
enough to play in a band. And it's really embarrassing because I took twelve
years of piano lessons and my brother and my sister and I all took twelve
years of piano lessons. And my sister and brother can play at any occasion
for any reason. They can accompany people. My brothers played jazz piano in
bars and I do not have those skills. And our children have taken piano,
and one of them, like, after a few years of piano,
was composing her own music and I didn't even know you could do that,
and she did it from like fourth grade on. So what about you.
I played guitar. I played it for like thirty years and think I'm pretty
amazing at it. I could probably play in a band. What's sad is
that when I it mattered. When I was young, I was terrible.
Everything I played was just derivative of whatever I was listening to and badly done.
I was in a bunch of bands and stuff like that. And now
that I'm good, none of the none of the youngsters want to play play
in a band with me. I think this will be the last series of
questions right here, and then we'll wrap up, and it's from Daniel the
first one, and I'll just ask them separately, But what is your favorite
state to visit and spend time, and oh favorite state to visit and spend
time in. So I don't have. But I'm not a man, so
I don't have like a single favorite, you know, men always have,
Like I've ranked everything and my number one and my number two. So I
would just say I'm obsessed with the West. I am unfortunately living on the
East coast and have been for some time. So my favorite state to visit
is Colorado because that's where most of my family lives, and it's the most
beautiful, amazing state. It has beautiful mountains, it has you know,
whether you're rowing in any season, there's something to do that involves, you
know, hiking or skiing or fishing or whitewater rafting. And I would like
to live there, and my family is there, So that's, I guess,
a pretty easy answer. But I just also feel like Utah is a
really amazing state and I love going hiking there, and Alaska is the only
place I've ever been that's more beautiful than Colorado, And like Idaho and Wyoming,
I'm also thinking about, you know, I don't know it was Wyoming
is a really special place, particularly in the summer. So what about you,
Okay? Number one New York. Stay in New York. We're in
We're in upstate New York. Oh, I don't know, just anywhere the
Finger Lakes up, like all the way to Lake George is really nice.
Like I just love upstate New York. I love Virginia. I actually love
Maryland where we're not for the people there, you know, there are a
lot of beautiful things to see. I'm an East Coast person. It's funny,
I do think the West is beautiful. I always thought Colorado was beautiful
when I lived there, but I always missed the forest, the trees,
the water, like those are the things that appeal to me as far as
like nature and topography go. You know, um, what is your favorite
holiday? To sell them? Hold on? You said New York and then
New Hampshire in Virginia, Maryland I don't like. I don't. I'm not
a fan of Florida, and I don't like the heat, that kind of
heat, So more like Middle Atlantic is kind of where I like at best,
or North Northeast great. What's your favorite holiday to celebrate? Easter?
Always Easter. I do a big party at Easter usually, although we didn't
get to do it this year because we're doing some like renovation work in our
basement, but I like to do a big rager on Easter. It's the
most important Christian holy day, and it's just like also so great to come
out of Lent when you're usually engaged in some kind of fast and then you
get to come out to this like amazing celebration. And what about you?
Alicnica's most violent holiday, it's about freedom and war. Have you ever gone
fishing and how would you describe your experience? I love fishing. I have
not fished much in recent decades, but growing up, my dad I think
envisioned that my brother would just go fishing with him all the time, because
my dad loves fishing and my brother didn't love fishing. And I am the
youngest, and I was like desperate for time with anyone, and so I'm
dad, I'll go fishing with you. And so I got to go fishing
with my dad all the time, also with John Dugapolski, who was the
best and funniest fishing partner anyone ever had, and a very good friend and
a very good Christian And we would just do that Colorado like high mountain fishing.
No, just like I mean, yeah, sorry, we would fish
with flies and rod and reel. So um, I mean I think when
you're saying fly fishing, you mean with the fly rod. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, we were fishing with flies, but on a normal and U
but John would sometimes do the John and my dad would sometimes do the actual
fly rods and h Also, I did once catch the largest non commercial fish
in California one week, and I'm pretty proud of this off shore like a
deep sea or yeah, deep sea fishing. It was off the coast of
San Simeon. I was eleven years old and it was a twenty eight pound
thirty six inch king salmon. And I brought that in and it was like,
you know, you remember really amazing fish you've caught, but like particularly
when you're eleven, it's like almost as big as you are. And it
was I thought it was a shark because of where I caught it, but
it was a king salmon. And then we ate it and it was great.
It was a really good fish. I have never I've never caught anything
like that. Our coworker John was telling us about how he just like puts
a net into water and picks up giant salmon in Alaska. You know,
and I would love to do that. So when I went to Alaska a
few years ago, I thought it was almost like it was almost like you'd
taken drugs and you were experiencing things that weren't real, Like the streams are
just full of fish, like you could just reach in and grab that.
They've actually made it illegal. I think they call it snagging or something where
you just try to cast in and just like grab the side of a fish.
Because there are so many fish, you can just do that to catch
them. I think maybe locals can do a certain amount or something like that,
but people to risk can't. Yeah, I do fish. I fish
for bass now a lot. I'm really into it. It's not something that
comes naturally to me. I didn't grow up fishing. Actually that's not true.
I grew up near the ocean and we used to catch flounder and stuff.
But this is a lot more fun. This is the last question.
It's kind of like, I don't even know if you're going to care,
but what's the better film franchise, Indiana Jones or Mission Impossible. I don't
even know why I'm asking. That's a dumb question, No offense reader listener.
I was like, thinking about it, Indiana Jones is better because Indiana
Jones first Indiana Jones movie is almost a perfect film. It is the closest
we've ever come to making a perfect movie. So do you know that children's
book King Solomon's Minds or whatever it's called. I've heard of it. Yeah,
it's a really great book, and I'm always wanting movies to be that
book. And that's what I feel about The Raiders of the Last Dark.
It's that book in different forms, although it's gotten. You know, the
recent months are not good. Yeah, I'm talking about the first three movies.
Yeah, yeah, and then Mission Impossible. I do enjoy them.
It's kind of what I want for action films, just like absurd, ridiculous
stuff. It keeps me engaged, and if we go, I enjoy them.
But it's just nothing compared to like the wit and the humor and the
you know. Also, I was eleven when I went to see It's not
a bad question, it's a good question. I take back that last comment.
Yeah, it just sounded a little I take it back. Actually,
I went to see Raiders when I was eleven. It was like one of
the great moments of my youth. I just had so much fun. It
was so amazing. Our whole family was there and all that. The Mission
Impossible movies have actually gotten really good. I think that they give you everything
you want in an action movie, like you say, and they don't pretend
to be anything else. They're not teaching me any lessons. It's just Tom
Cruise holding onto the side of the plane and going into the sky, and
you're like, he's actually doing it because he's crazy. And then you're like,
he's sixteen. He looks amazing, Like I'm ten years older than in
him, and I look like twenty years older than him, so or younger
than him and I look twenty years older than him. So they're a lot
of fun. But I still think Raiders just because that first movie is so
great. All three of the first films are good, but that first one's
great. Molly, I want to thank you for answering these questions. We
learned a lot about your life and where you're coming from, why you are
the way you are. I always forget you're the youngest. Really, I
feel like I use youngest child when I think about it, you do do
I use oldest child? Very responsible? Was looking out for thinking more like
bossy entitled revolves around him and visited. I visited a friend who has three
children and her youngest. I was like, I get this kid. He
was just kind of quietly observing everything, and I was like, I've been
there, buddy, so obvious. Like the first one gets all the attention,
the second one is bottled between the two, and then last one just
does whatever they want. Like we had three and my younger brother just was
running wild, even though we all raised ourselves because we're gen xers, right.
So next week, I think we'll come back with another a bunch of
cute questions, but there'll be more about politics in the future. A lot
of people have questions about the future of American what you think is going to
happen. I'm not going to share those questions with you this week, but
we shall. I will ask you them next week. Until then, the
lovers of freedom and anxious for the tray talk to soon.