December 9, 2024 • 56 mins
Renowned News Anchor, Dana Bash is known for asking the tough questions as one of CNN's top broadcasters, but who knew her talent for television ran deep in her blood.
From the days on the set of her dad’s show "Nightline" to her playful brawls with her little brother, David, Dana shares how her family helped her feel 'anchored' as she pursued her dreams.
In this episode, she is joined by her little brother who lovingly supports (and sometimes produces his big sister) from afar.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling railvalry.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
No, no, sibling, you don't do that with your mouth.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Revelry.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, Oliver Hudson here doing another episode of as sibling Revelry.
We're getting close to the holidays. Christmas is on its way.
I love Christmas. Man very very big into Christmas. It's
been a you know, Christmas. This has been a very
(01:00):
important tradition for my family. I don't know, I'm probably
probably talked about it before, but you know, Sanna has
been a big deal for us. I don't know when
this show is actually coming out, but it's close enough
to Christmas. San has been a very big deal for
us ever since Kurt came into our lives six years
old because with his family, San has been everything. So
(01:21):
he brought that into our family. And I remember the
first Christmas that we had in Colorado. We were little
kids and we wake up in the morning and you know, Pa,
my dad, Kurt, Paw Dad, Paw Kurt, whatever you want
to say. The man who raised me, the man who
made me the incredible man that I am today. He
(01:44):
had a place in Colorado and we were there and
we wake up and he goes, oh my god, you guys,
you're never going to believe what I just saw. And
we run up to this on the side of his
hill and you can get on the roof because it
was like built into the hill, and on the roof
were sled tracks that had flown off of the roof.
(02:07):
There was a bell that said Blitzen on it that
had a leather old you know bell. It was a
collar that was on the ground, and there was a
present that was stuck in the chimney and it was
just awe in spine. We we were floored. We couldn't
believe what we had just seen. And we opened up
the president. It was actually interesting. It was a it
(02:29):
was a little jumper. It was like a little baby jumper,
you know, a boy, a blue little onesie thing, and
it was just like almost it was just so detail
and that set it off, you know, and then each year,
you know, it just keeps getting bigger, bigger and better,
and now there's this actual Santa. One of us has
(02:50):
to play Santa. And now I think it's my turn
because my kids are now of age and they no
longer believe. Although I still believe in Santa Claus. Let's
just keep that it's clear. So read the Night before
Christmas and you know, Merry Christmas, do all, and do
all a good night, and then boom, alt near these
(03:13):
bells and everyone runs to the window and out in
the distance you see Santa running in the snow with
a big sack. He's just sort of be on the lights.
You're like, holy shit, it's him. I mean, it was
so real looking and and every year someone played Santa,
and now it's gonna be my turn for aman do
(03:33):
I have some funny stories about the Santa game, which god,
I want to tell them, but I think this intro
is getting a little long. Shit anyway, I'll save it.
I'll save it for another episode. How about that? Because
this is this is very this is exciting, this is
(03:55):
very exciting for me. Their next guests, he's well, Dana pertiful.
Dana bashes coming up, and I think he was about
saying that she has seen and a journalist. She's a journalist,
she's an anchor, she's a host of Inside politics. What
a fun time to have her on, given that the
(04:17):
election was only a few weeks ago. And then her
brother Dave, And we're going to talk all. We're going
to talk siblings, We're going to talk politics. We're going
to talk about it all. I have some questions and.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Hopefully they answer them. Hopefully anyway, without further ado, bring
on the bashes, the Schwartzes and the bashes, the Schwartzes. Schwartz, bash, Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
We did it. Hi, so good to see you guys. Yeah. Fun.
I'm so happy you guys are both on.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Thanks for having us on. I'm I want you to
know that I am an early listener, like I think,
I'm like an og Oh my gosh, sibling revelry.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, I amazing, amazing. I can't I can't even believe that.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Like I first I first learned about the Foster sisters
from you guys.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Wow, that was early early, I know, wow, I feel
I know. I'm telling you. Well you are, you're in
your office. When do you go on? Are you working tonight?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I worked already. My show is on at your your
west coast, right, yeah, so it was on at nine
it's on at nine am.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You don't do the later shows.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah sometimes sometimes, Okay, not very much, but yeah, crazy.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
I talked to her every day, and I just dumbfounded
the fact that she's, you know, in the middle of
all this. Yeah, you know, surrounded by all this. But
you know, she's always said that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
She's excited no matter what, it's exciting. I know we'll
get into all that shit, but I want to get
into I want to get into your life and your
childhood and where you grew up. And you guys are
the only siblings, right, Okay, so let's just paint. Let's
just paint a nice sort of Bob Ross picture of
(06:29):
where it all went down.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
So we Our parents met in dif from Chicago, met
in Chicago at the local ABC affiliate in Chicago. They
were both working in news and they had a whirlwind romance.
Six months later they were engaged. My dad got a
(06:55):
job with the network in New York and my mom said, okay,
I'm coming with you and he said, okay, I guess
we're getting married. So it was really romantic.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
So they so they got them much a story for
most of their lives.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yes, is practice practical.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Practical, Like okay, we're you know, late sixties and then
and then moved to New York and I was born,
and then we moved to New Jersey and he was born.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Came in New Jersey, I was doing I just did
finish Happy Gilmore two. Yeah, it's amazing. So where in Jersey,
I was living in Short Hills, I was staying in.
I was staying in, staying in Short Hills. That was
the Yeah. I was in the short One Giant mall
(07:45):
for about a month. Yeah, but I was It was
very sexy. I will I will say the bartender was
really fantastic. But anyway, I would go to the shore though,
any chance I could get to fish because I love
to fish. So and it was beautiful. I mean there's
no tourism there at the time. It was just awesome.
(08:05):
I don't know why Jersey gets a bad rap. It
was beautiful. The leaves were changing. My family was living
in the city at the time. I'm like, I'm not
fucking going to the city. I love you, Kate, but
like I want to stay here.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Yeah, it gets a bad rap because you land and
if you land in Newark, forget about it.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That's why.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Yeah, I'm surrounded by factory and that's it.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And it smells, but it's actually the Garden State. Most
of the state, like where we grew up was farmland before.
I mean now it's all like suburb and everything, but
it was farmland.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Moved to New Jersey and that's where it is. We're
we're born.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, we were lucky. I was born in it.
So the trajectory is we were born in angle I
was born in Anglewood. And then when I was two
and she was born and a half, we moved to
d C or just outside d C in mc Virginia
because my dad got a job working at the AB
Bureau and we were there for eight years, eight or
(09:05):
nine years, I think, and then he got called back
to New York. So we moved back to Jersey when
she was almost in high school and I was in
fifth grade.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I was in middle school.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
Yeah, you're in middle school. Yeah, and then show So
she went to high school in Jersey. I had middle
school high school Jersey, and then she went I came
down after college. So she's been in DC much more
than she's been in Jersey. She called herself a Jersey girl.
But I'm throwing a Q flag HU flag on that.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I feel like in twenty twenty four. You should be
what you identify.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
This is true, and I definitely.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Identify as a Jersey girl for sure. I mean, you
can't see that I've got my.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
My brutal because it also separates you from the DC
world that you live in. So even from a psychological place, yes,
you know that your senior year, you're almost into situating
from the news in a sense saying now, fuck that,
I'm a Jersey girl.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Totally you.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Did.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, I got to meet him. Oh my god, have
you ever? I I was so not cool, Oliver. I
mean I was like the opposite of cool. I was
so adork. I literally, I just I lost my ability
to in his ox.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
And he's so cool.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I couldn't do it. I was, He's so But I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'm a huge Howard Stern fan, so which went an
amazing interview and watching it, you know, watching I think
it was on Max, but it was, by the way, do.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
You not for me, like I if I could be
an interviewer like Howard Sterne one day, it would be.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So he is the best because you know, he's so
different than he was however many years ago, you know,
but he is still the same guy. Who can you know,
have the month of cock Tober? Yeah, said he does
(11:06):
like some cock bit. And then the next guest is
Joe Biden. You know, I mean, who who you can
do that?
Speaker 6 (11:17):
That's the same thing, Danna, So Danna every Wednesday has
the same exact thing. Politics.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Danaged to do her own Coctober, pitching that to the
top brass like, hey guys, I got an ideas.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Listen find out we're trying to stem the tide away
from cable from the Portcus you.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Met, were you able to get words out eventually?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
A little? Oh? Yeah? And I was with my son
who's thirteen. A he Springsteen was so nice. He like
gave him one of his guitar picks. I was like,
of course, I immediately took it on him. It was
like she were not losing.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
This and so then the dynamic, you know, two and
a half years basically just like myself and my sister.
I'm the older one, though. Was it good? Did you
guys love each other? Was it battles? You know? Because
with Katie and I I didn't. Let's just be straight up.
(12:20):
She bothered me.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
You know, I guess I put on rose colored glasses
because the other day, I was like, we didn't really
fight when we were kids, do we? And she looked
at me, she goes, are you insane? We're always fighting?
But it was really it was a one way street
for most of our childhood where she she would abuse me,
(12:42):
things like spinning me around until I threw up. She
would lock me out of the house. One time she
locked me out of the house and we had like
glass window panes in our door. I put my fists
through the glass.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
I got bit troub for that one. And I think
when I was twelve thirteen years old, I realized and
figured out that I was I was stronger than she was.
Well to figure that out. And there was very one
specific time we were in Jersey and she was abusing
me like she normally would. I went to a rage
and I like jumped over the couch and started wailing,
(13:18):
wailing on her.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
H that was in the smooth sailing from there on.
Did you.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
But did you? You guys didn't out with your friends, right.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
It's kind of a funny situation because she wanted to
be a part of my life so badly, and I
just wanted nothing to do with her. She would literally
hang on my door knob when my friends were over, Like, Kate,
you just get it, get out of here, you know,
So the answer is no. And then I went to
college and then came back for a break and the
(13:51):
tables were turned because all of her girlfriends were cute,
and I'm like, Kate, like, what are you guys doing?
You know, what was happening? And She's like all of
her like getting you know, only you know. I mean
obviously in the last ten years, of course we've become very,
very tight. But it took a minute, you know, I
mean it really did. I think that because we were
(14:12):
sort of a product of divorce and I was sort
of just trying to as a six year old self
navigate whatever that meant, you know, for me emotionally, I
probably had no idea what my feelings were other than
just survival. I didn't have the capacity to be a
good brother, a big brother, or even give Kate the
(14:33):
love that she needed when I was the man in
her life that she was looking for to sort of
comfort her. I'm talking pure psychology here, but you know,
and she just wanted me to love her and be
a part of her life and to essentially, you know,
be friends and hold her and be her bigger brother,
and I just couldn't do it, you know, I just
(14:55):
couldn't do it. And then you know, that sort of
had its effects, and then you know, she got married
and she got famous, and she was off being fabulous
and you know, it's just passing ships. And then eventually
you get a little bit older and realize how important
that sibling relationship is and then you have to nurture
(15:15):
it like any other relationship, you know. And then we
started this show four or five years ago and that really, honestly,
our relationship took off. Do you guys fight as adults still?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, but it's quick, but it's like we can be
I don't know, I'm sure you guys are like this too,
Like we can kind of explode, I don't know the
way you can't with any other people.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And then it's but what could you possibly fight about now?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Like little bullshit? Yeah, it's bullshit.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
It's bullshit. It's it's logistical stuff. It's how come you
weren't here? Are there? Or you know, what what are
we doing now?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You know, it's just god, what are we doing now?
Like what do you mean? Like exactly right?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
But yeah, literally it's like, what are we having for dinner?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And then and then we start yelling at each other
about nothing. And then I think you met Spencer Garrett,
who's my guy, and he and he he says, he's like,
oh my god, the way you and David talk to
each other, it's like, I can't believe that you guys
are still so close. And I was, what do you mean,
(16:40):
I don't even I.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Don't even see it, like your brother sister love language essentially,
you know, did you guys grew up in like a
like a liberal not politically, but just a liberal family,
meaning like go out and play. There's no rules, you
can be whatever the hell you want to be, there's
no restrictions.
Speaker 6 (16:59):
We were the quintessential nineteen eighties last Ki kids. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. I mean, you know, my dad worked a
lot of hours, so we saw him when we could
see him. My mom also worked. She was a she
was a journalist as well, but she never made it
a career out of being a journalist, so she had
kind of the nine to five jobs. But you know,
they go home at six o'clock, and you know, our
(17:20):
house was kind of the house that friends came over
to and you know, stuff happened, stuff happened there. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Maybe when we were little, I mean we literally had
like the key. I don't know if I had it
actually hanging around my neck, but pretty darn closed.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
It just it was it was get on your bike
and dust it's center.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It just informs who you are now. And I don't
know you guys, hopefully we become great friends, but you know,
I'm sure you wouldn't be the humans you are today
without that kind of freedom and that that independence. And
you know, do you have You got a thirteen year old,
but do you have any do you have any children?
I do have a nine year old daughter who got
(18:06):
seventeen fourteen eleven, a little bit older. But we live
now in a world where there's so much fear around
letting our kids sort of just roam and be free,
even though you know, crime isn't nearly as bad as
it was when we were kids, and now there's devices
so you can track them all the time. But there
(18:27):
is this sort of lack of that independence and freedom
that I try to give to my kids. And that's
my wife and I kind of not fight about. But
she's a little bit more like but what if they
get hit by a car. I'm like, I mean, yeah,
but what are we gonna do? Just keep them here,
let them, let them be free, let them roam. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah. Yeah, it's so my son were love stranger things,
and that's the thing they say. He's like, was it
really like that? Like you just get out of your
bike and you go? And I said, exactly what it
would like.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Right, yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, I wish eighties.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
And it's also like the Devoutments or just our fellow
number two. You know, we didn't you know what we
have in television atari, but I did.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I mean, I was the latch key kid. I don't know.
And I'm sure your parents were.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
They were long we traveled with them two, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I mean I was brought up by Carol and Mike Brady. Yeah,
illigant you know again Gilligan's Island and Fantasy Island. Did
you watch a lot?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah? So my favorite show was wonder Woman because I
was in love, you know, with Linda Carter and oh
and I didn't understand like two dimension three dimensions, you know,
so young, and she would always wear that, you know,
her Wonder Woman outfit. And I would go up to
the TV like this to try to look down her
(19:54):
into her breasts. I distinctively remember being like, how do
I see more? And I used to like put my
forehead on the TV to see if I could see down.
Oh my god. Yes, So that that's probably indicative of
who I am now, unfortunately, but you know, but yeah,
(20:16):
I grew up on I grew up, you know, loving TV,
watching TV. But at the same time, I was an
outdoor kid, you know, and with the kids, with my
kids today, I'm not not getting to deny them technology,
you know. I mean, it is what it is. This
is the world that we live in right now. I mean,
to completely cut them off of it, to me is
almost a disservice. It's more about a balance, you know.
(20:38):
It's a balance. And I'm not even restrictive. I'm not
like you can only do such and such and such
as like, hey, yeah, what am I gonna do? You know,
I don't want to as long as you're outside and
you're on your motorcycle or you're out playing, or you're
doing whatever you're doing, all right, you know. And yeah,
in Colorado, they all ride motorcycles and my and my
fourteen year old has. It's an e motorcycles called a
(21:01):
sir On and they're you know, all of rage right
now you have to be sixteen, but he's fourteen. Anyway,
he's doing these crazy No this is in La. He's oh,
he's doing crazy in our neighborhood. And he's really amazing rider.
And then he goes, He's like, hey, dad, can I
go on a rideout? I'm like, what the hell is
(21:22):
a rideout? And he goes. We get dropped off at
a certain place and I was working and my wife
was like, I think I'm taking him to a rideout
butt And he goes and he pissed the bike in
the back of my truck and they drop him off
in like Marina del Ray. I get video sent to me.
It's a pack of like seventy kids going down those
(21:42):
main streets, like all wheeling and shit, and they're like
in Century City then they're Marina Delay. They're going all
over like Body's it's body like body, what the hell?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Man?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Like, you're fourteen, like rolling all around LA and the
pack of like seven.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Do that in New York now too. It's common. Whether
it's going down like Madison Avenue, it's oh, yeah, you
see it all the time.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, it's crazy. I know.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I know.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So then wat dan for you to watch your parents
obviously do what they did. That I mean obviously an inspiration, right,
I mean we all kind of do what our parents do.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I know. Well, that's the thing is that I swore
I would never do. Did you did you feel like
that I swore because he was I mean, I guess
obviously somewhere.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
But the whole, but the whole idea of like we
would go on vacation, and then there was some there
was a time when the pope died like three times.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
The popes kept dying, multiple pope.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Epidemic.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
It was, it was, and then we kept having to
come home from the vacation. I was like, your job sucks.
I'll never do this. I'll never do this to my kids.
And then cut to this past summer. I'm on a
beach vacation with my son Kamala. Harris's team calls me like,
do you want the first interview with the vice president? Okay?
(23:21):
And I said to Joan, I'm like, I think I
have to leave. He's like, Okay, that sounds like a
good opportunity. He was way cooler than I was.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
You know, we he would take us into my dad
would take us into work. You know, he was one
of the original cruisers on Nightline, so it was live
at eleven thirty, so there were well he was at night.
We didn't see him a lot. So on Friday nights
he would take us into work and we would be
in the back of the control room, you know, five
years old. I'd fall asleep because it was eleven thirty
(23:52):
at night. Before that, we were recavoc all over the
all over the bureau.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So stop his cow.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Yeah, I'd be like stabling my phone from the middle
of the news let's get out of the news room.
But you know, I would fall asleep, and she obviously
was paying attention to what was happening, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So I just eventually realized that I don't really have
skills to do anything else.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's just like it, right, you have to you. Every
time I watch you guys on television, I can't imagine
the work that goes into what you guys do day
in and day out. Just from a pure volume standpoint
and a retention standpoint and a reading standpoint. Everyone knows everything.
(24:40):
All you guys know everything. I mean, I I you know,
I work to live. I don't live to work, you
know what I'm saying, which is probably detrimental to me.
You know, I would probably be further along in my
career even though I'm happy. But you know, I I
my god, damn, I'm like, do they ever get a
break to do anything fun?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
It's hard. Sometimes it's the answer sometimes sometimes, I mean
obviously election years are little, but it's it's definitely all consuming.
We're talking about technology, I mean saying about technology certainly.
(25:24):
I mean I've been at CNN for thirty one years,
like almost literally before the Internet, and so now that
we can do everything on our phone, not just like
communicate or do zoom or whatever, but like I can
be in touch with anybody at any time. I mean,
we all feel like this, but it's even more for
(25:47):
a twenty four to seven job. It really, it really
does free me up. I can't check out mentally and emotionally,
but I can, you know, physically be gone, do.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You know, I mean yes, not acting. You know, I
wanted to make movies. So it was in the same
sort of world my sister came out of the womb,
like singing and dancing for the most part, you know,
which annoyed the shit out of me, but I wanted
to know. So while she was doing plays, I every
weekend with my best friend and now still my producing partner. Now,
(26:24):
we made movies. You know. We had squibs and blank
gun I mean that back then in the eighties, you know,
you can mail order a gun that had blanks in it,
like a real nine milimeter Burretta with blanks, and we're like,
no one checked idea. It was just kind of like
we did the craziest shit. But we made movies. And
(26:45):
I went to college for a couple of years. You know,
that wasn't really my thing, and I just started to
act because my family did it and I needed to
figure out how to make money and it seemed to work.
You know. Now and as I'm getting older, it's become
still an actor, no doubt, but I've got a production
company and you know, I'm sort of wanting to do
(27:05):
more creative things. You know, acting can be kind of limiting,
you know, because you're at the mercy of money essentially
and supporting a family and not necessarily doing the things
that are inspiring you in any way. And the way
to sort of combat that or compliment that is to
have you know, your own projects.
Speaker 6 (27:29):
And well you're also not beholden to the big studio
anymore because everything is so much more democratic. You can
you can have a company and don't need a human
you know.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And you know, this is my first year with a deal.
I have a deal at Fox, and it's been really
really fun. I mean it's been a blast, you know,
to have an actual place to take gigs, you know,
to take ideas and to watch them sort of blossom
into something. So it's been it's been fun. You know,
it's been fun. So I guess to answer your question, yes,
(28:00):
it's all my kids want to do it. I mean,
all of Kate's kids want to do it. It's just
kind of there. I don't know what else anyone's going
to do.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Jonah Jonah doesn't he does he.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Talk about like sports he wants to do it's like
a sports version of their podcast or sport Ors.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
And then David for you, like, you know, first of all, Dan,
when did you have that moment of like, you know what,
I guess, this is who I am. I mean, this
is what I want to do. And did it come
with passion or was it kind of like you're just like,
this is my destiny.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I came to GW to school here in Washington, and
I tried a lot of different things with internships, and
I could because I was in a city that allowed
for it. So I got a little bit of the
political bug, which I never had before. I mean, our
father always jokes that he's pretty confident. I graduated high
(29:00):
goal without knowing that there are three branches of government.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Like I was, I'd like to party.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Let's just leave it for you back to the eighties. Yeah.
So so I got more serious and I did internships
slash sort of volunteer gigs on Capitol Hill, at the
White House I did. I thought about maybe law school,
(29:26):
I thought about going into politics. And then once I
was doing those internships, I realized that I'm not passionate
on one side of the aisle or another, or about
a political philosophy or another. That I really liked to
kind of observe at all and to understand it all.
And then I did an internship. I was at CBS
(29:47):
News here in Washington, and I said, oh, okay, is
it And that was it. I just took off from there.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Ah, and a day for you, you know, finding your path.
I mean you're still you know, it's a it's a
cousin what you do. I mean you know we're all
in media, right, yes.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
Yes, yeah. For me, it was I figured it feels
a little more straightforward for me. I went to school.
I went to New High School in Syracuse to study
television film production. And my first job out of school
actually I worked for a talent agency and we represented
newscasters and sportscasters, entertainment hosts, and it was just it
(30:42):
was so easy for me because this is kind of
I grew up, like our dinners at home revolved around
the six thirty evening news. You just grew up watching
these guys and paying attention to these people. So it
was like it was an easy field for me to
kind of stumble into. But then I worked for news
and I didn't like that at all, and I said,
you know what, I want to do more production. And
(31:03):
I knew there was a world of like, well, corporations
need video, let's let's do that. And I worked for
a coming that did that, left there and then started
my company. Now it's been fifteen sixteen plus years that
I've I've had pressure and it's uh and it's great
and I love it, and I still feel you know,
our our eating dinners still revolve around politics really in
(31:28):
our household, yeah, for sure. I mean if you don't,
if you're not up on your current events, there's nothing
to talk about if the four of us are together
really for sure. Not not in my house. My house
were alls around fuller house eating conversation.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
No, I know, it's it's it's kind of like when
you have family dinners. It's like, Okay, I got to
brush up, you know, I mean to make sure that
I'm current.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Oh yeah, but he's David's more creative. I mean, You've
got the creative production side, and I'm more of the like,
I mean, I need a modicum of creativity for like
when I'm going out and shooting pieces. It's not but
it's like in my mind, how is this going to look?
How are we going to Am I going to write
this piece?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
And how much writing is there for you? Dan, like
a lot, what you're reading, what you're reading, what's on
your prompter? Are you writing that? So?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
No, I don't do the well, honestly, it just depends.
For the most part, we have people, I have show
team in each producer kind of writes a segment, but
I have a pretty heavy hand and and and and
change things sometimes though oftentimes when I'm in the chair
(32:42):
and something's happening, I don't have the ability to do that.
So they'll write something and if I'm not like crazy
about it, I'll just outlive it and kind of ignore
what's in the tele prompter.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You have to be tough to do what you do.
Do You have to say, hey, guys to a producer
like this fucking sucks. I'm sorry, like we're this is
I can't baby you. I mean, is there that sort of.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Some people are like that. I don't. That's generally not
my style.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
I think she's tough, but she has a gentle hand
in her toughness. You're definitely tough.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I'm tough, but yeah, I mean sometimes I'll just go
in and usually I'll go in and change it, and
then I'll have a conversation like, hey, you know, this
is minor thing and minor thing. But I don't know
if you've noticed this, but a lot of people who
are in my business, they just act as if the
verb to be doesn't exist and everything is an ink
(33:50):
today campaignting. They they are can't no, it's it's okay.
I mean they're starting to have I have little pet
piece that other people don't. But separate from that, I
when I do. I mean I came up as a
(34:11):
producer and then as a reporter where I wrote all
my own you write all your own pieces and it
and it is about sort of creativity because you know
that you have I think, if it's done right, you
have sound bites of people who you want to get
out there. You have pictures, you have natural sound to
(34:33):
the pictures, and so writing to the pictures in the
sound in a way to put it all together, so
it's edited together to tell a story. Is actually it's
one of the things that I learn.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Well, there's the creativity right there.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
And and the fact that she came up through CNN
being a PA, being a death sistant, being a writer,
being assistant producer library she was fetching years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yeah wow, which doesn't exist anymore. When was your do
you remember both of you? Do you you know your
sister and then you Danna do you remember that break?
We were like, holy shit, here's my shot as a
brother being like, oh my god, here's my sister on
TV fucking doing it.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
So before I got to that fucking doing it, I
was I was still behind the scenes on Capitol. I
was a Senate producer and I was there on nine
to eleven in the Capitol, and that's a whole different
story or going into the Capital. So in the aftermath
(35:46):
of nine eleven, there was just, you know, a lot
of reporting to be had, and I broke It was
one of the first big stories that I broke, and
it was that in a classified briefing after the attacks,
people in the intelligence community told Senate Intel Committee that
(36:07):
the NSA had actually received a message that they didn't translate.
They received it on nine ten, they didn't translate till
nine twelve, and it said the mess the match is
happening tomorrow. Tomorrow is game day tomorrow, zero hour. So yeah,
(36:32):
you know, had they had even if they translated it,
I don't know. I imagined planes going into towers. But
and so that was a big deal, and that was
I didn't do it on camera because I wasn't on air,
so an on air reporter did it. But I ended
up winning an award for that and broke a few
(36:53):
other stories and they were like, hey, do you want
to maybe try being the White House correspondent.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
It was like the starting out the White House.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah, And I knew enough to know that it was
like really scary and I think the head CNN throws
bash at the White House.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
At the White House.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah. So I started at the White House in two
thousand and two. George W. Bush was president, and so
I was there at the end of two thousand and
two and then beginning of two thousand and three. It
was a run up to the Iraq War. It was
I mean, it was it was rock I don't recommend
the first live shot you do to be on the
(37:34):
White House lawn. It was not.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
That was your first live shot very first.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, I was like noxious. I was so scared. Oh
my god. Absolutely, And now there are a lot more
people who come from either behind the scene, from print
onto the TV. Back then, it was really a pipeline
for the post part. You started in local is at
(38:00):
a really small market. You got to do a bigger market,
a bigger market, a bigger market, and then you ended
up at a network or cable and that was after
you all these reps where you no good sense of
the performance of it or feeling of it, and you
know I was behind the scenes doing it, producing reporters.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
But never actually when you're doing those, there are there
queue cards or you just have a memorization thing like
such a when you when you hear them ripping ship off,
we're like, wow, that's oppressive.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, no, it's their no que cards. It's it's just
what you know and what you're.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Old And Dave, did you watch them? Did you see them?
I mean, were you how supportive? Were you? Guys all
always supportive of each other?
Speaker 6 (38:42):
Yeah, yes, very supportive. I believe I actually cut her
resume tape when she wanted to be a an on
air report.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Right what I thought?
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I thought I wanted to do it, and then I didn't.
Speaker 6 (38:54):
This is a check card. I did my best to
make her look. Of course, it's it's it's on a.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Data tap transfer that.
Speaker 6 (39:12):
Yeah, it's very supportive. Still, you know, it took me
at least a year or two to not freak out
every time I saw her on Oh my god, exactly exactly.
Of course, as it went on and I you know,
I less so and now now now she'll like text
me at a long fifteen I'm like aren't you on
(39:33):
the TV right now? Like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Tech?
Speaker 6 (39:37):
She's more comfortable, right, but uh, you know, very supportive,
you know, and and it also of course helps that
you know, I grew up in an assehold that I
grew up in. So when when she does an interview
that I have a couple of comments on you, I'll
talk to her about it and I'll send her text
about it.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Yeah, you're like, so I can give her a lot
of her I a lot of production notes. Actually on
the Wals Harris interview, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, why is he so big?
Speaker 7 (40:06):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
He was opened, Wasn't there all kinds of ship made
of that? The whole way it was set up and
on a desk and.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
She was hunched over and he was twice the time,
say our production seen as production team, they know what
they're doing. There was there was a bit of a
struggle with Harris's advanced team.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I'll just yeah, yeah, yeah, after yeah, well, you know,
I don't want to keep you gets going, but we
got to get I just want to get into the
state of the world a little bit, you know, I
obviously want to get deep into it all because you know,
it is what it is, and it's the country is spoken.
There's no fucking doubt about that, you know what I'm saying.
(40:50):
Even going back a little bit further, forget about just
you know the political landscape today thirty one years ago
as far as media goes, Like, how much have you
seen it change from when you started to what it
is now? Oh yeah, it's like vastly.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
So many ways changed more than it has stayed the same. Honestly,
when I started at CNN, Ted Turner, who of course
found at CNN, it was still his company. He hadn't
sold it to AOL and then Time Warner and then
WarnerMedia and all that, Like, it was still a very
(41:29):
rudimentary company and relatively small, and it was sort of
scrappy and all of that. And uh, it was before
Fox News, it was before MSNBC, and obviously it was
before the Internet and and and then then smartphones and
(41:51):
everything else. So I saw a huge transformation in terms
of competition, in terms of more importantly, the way we communicate.
I mean, Ted Turner used to say, the news is
the star. And it was just like today on Znet,
(42:14):
very dry and not a lot of personality, which was
his intent again, because it was like it was US
or c Span or soap operas and that was it.
So it's changed.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, no, I'm sure, But I'm wondering if that competition,
you know, for ratings has sort of diluted the idea
of what news is supposed to be because now we're
searching for ratings a ton of opinion people, and it's
just about being as loud as you can fucking be
(42:53):
so you can win, rather than just sort of delivering
the news, you know. And yeah, you know, obviously for me,
we're living in this world of like, what is a fact?
I guess nowadays? But there is fact obviously we live
in the real world where whatever happened actually did the
way it did. But it's impossible to sort of trust
(43:18):
anything I guess anymore. And what do you attribute that to?
You know what I mean? Like, misinformation has been going
on for a while, but why all of a sudden
has it just blown up?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
There are lots of reasons. Number one, it's easier to
transmit misinformation you get it in your pocket on your phone,
and the algorithms if you watch one thing that is
about let's just say the election being stolen then the
algorithm will push other people to you, so you think
(43:55):
that is the truth because that's all you're getting on
your phone, on your social feed and so forth.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Do you feel like media is skewed in one direction
or another non timeout CN I'm talking about just generally
just because of ratings, because of opinion shows like how
Do You Square?
Speaker 3 (44:15):
That it's fractured. It's skewed in a lot of different directions,
and it's fractured. So so, like you've talked about facts
in my dreams, I'm giving the facts, and I'm giving
objective information and people are there and they're listening to it,
(44:38):
and then they make up their own mind. But because
of what we were just talking about, not only on
people's phones, which is primarily how they're getting information, which
is causing the whole media infrastructure to shift, including and
especially cable news, which is what I'm doing for more
than thirty years, it's harder to get people to who
(45:00):
want to listen to objective news. And I do think
that you know, you were talking about the ratings, like
I do think that you can be interesting and fact
based at the same time. You don't have to scream
and yell. You don't have to be outrageous. It's a challenge,
(45:20):
but I think it's possible, and I think that we
need to strive to do more of that and to
do better to attract people, because look, I mean, what
do people want to do. They want to look at
a clip that somebody sends them, or look at a
clip that shows up on their feed. But at the
same time, people are more and more investing hours listening
(45:42):
to podcasts like yours, listening to longer podcasts like Joe Rogan.
So it goes back and forth. It's finding that that
sweet spot.
Speaker 6 (45:50):
And when you when she always says when she posts
a video online or on Instagram, and when when she's
getting attacked from the left and get any attack from
the right, yeah yeah, yeah yeah. And I think that's
what makes her not to tootor her own honkers and
just her own horn. But she's really uh, she's really straight,
(46:13):
and she she plays it down the middle. And I
think that that's what makes her really a really good
journalist and a really good reporter, is that she does
give it to both sides. And I think people see that,
and it's hard for people to see that nowadays, but you.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Know, What's interesting though, is like even though we are
telling the news straight, I think we have it's it's
okay to not necessarily have a verbal opinion, you know,
I mean, but it is you can see an emotional opinion,
you know what I'm saying. Like, you know, instead of
straight news, there is you can you can see whoever
(46:49):
is reporting, you can feel where they lean just based
on you know, that feeling that they have, that energy
that is put out, you know, and that is something
that is human and so it's fun to watch. But
I wonder if that is something that you know, takes
away from sort of that straight down the middle I'm
just telling you the news.
Speaker 6 (47:11):
Yeah, yeah, people people don't want to hear it anymore.
They want to hear what they what they believe, and
what they what they think as well.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
So yeah, it's true, you're just trying to It's but
there is.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
It's so important and there is a place for it.
And I mean, look the New York Times, the Wall
Street Journal, like they don't have the circulation or you know,
clicks maybe they used to, but they still are doing
pretty well. And uh and us see, I mean CNN
dot com is the most red news site on the planet.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Mm hmm. So that, yeah, Harting, And it's.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Not just and it's not just straight. I mean there's
there's also a pinon and different sort of flavors of news.
It's not just politics. So there is an appetite for it.
You just have to get past it.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
No, you do.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
And you know, I'm not this.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
We never do talk politics on our show at all
or even you know, broach it, you know, but I
will say that, you know, I do. I watch CNN
because I feel like that is I'm getting the best
sort of news from CNN. But I also honestly like
Brett Behar is a good friend of mine and I
love him, and I think that you know, he really,
(48:33):
you know, does it straight just for the most part
when I watch his segment, you know, But I just
want to stay away from it. You know, it's it's
just too divisive, it's too crazy. Right now, I just
want to talk about sort of just accountability, you know,
in the newsroom. You know, first of all, do you
feel like there is accountability in media just generally, Well.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
It depends on what flavor of media.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Let's just let's just go with you guys. The big threes.
You know what I mean it I do? I mean,
who keeps everyone accountable?
Speaker 3 (49:06):
That's a great question. There is definitely accountability in that
we have internal standards. Quite literally, we have a whole
standards department. We have a department that does that does
approving of stories, approving of sources, and then we of
course have you know, our legal department, and they all
(49:28):
get together along with our editorial heads, and if there's
something that either isn't reported quite right or isn't totally
accurate unintentionally, then we make a correction. And that's what
makes us different from people other people. It's important to us,
(49:53):
and like you said, we are all human and people
make mistakes or are maybe led astray by by sources
depending on the situation. But it's a very big part
of our culture and I think that of other real
journalism and journalist entities to do that, and I do
(50:18):
think you know, of course, in today's environment, it's very
easy to get attacked by oh my gosh, they had
to make a correction. Well, you know what, if I'm
a consumer of media, a consumer of I see that
the news outlet that I watch or read makes a correction.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Of course, good because it Yeah, so that yeah, account
you think it could be better. You think you think
just across the board.
Speaker 3 (50:45):
Yeah, sure, I mean we could all all always be better.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
When you guys come off the air, when you when
you go to commercial, do you guys all talk on
the panel.
Speaker 7 (50:57):
You do?
Speaker 2 (50:57):
Is there a lot of cursing and stuff that happens.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yes, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Behind the scene ship is what I want to see.
I want to see them behind the scenes ship after
they go to commercial, and it's like all.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
I know, you know what, I always joke about that
because we're not on broadcast, We're on cable, so there's
no we're not going to get like an FCC fine
for cursing.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Oh it's so great.
Speaker 3 (51:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
It's always fun to hear the opinions and the pundits
and the right and the left, and you know, see
the battles. It it's fun. But then once the cameras
go away you go to commercial. That's the fun shit,
you know if all that back and forth it goes on.
And I'm sure so you have.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
I would love to Washington end of the day here
and you can just hang out.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
And oh my god, I would love to and are
there people internally you know who are on air who
everyone seems to like each other, but are there are
there like rivalries and people who don't like each other
but have to work together, and no, specifically in your world,
there are.
Speaker 6 (52:06):
There are Listen, I can open the door and walk
out there and we can we.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Can start because just.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
In all seriousness, it's actually kind of kind of amazing
how well most of us get along.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
You can tell, I mean you can really tell. I've
seen Scott Jennings get like really you can see his
face go flush sometimes when he's gets really angry.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
He loves is great, He's I mean, I've done him
for a long time. He is He's a funny guy
and he's and like walk off the set with I mean,
you're obviously a viewer, so like Ashley Allison left as they.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Come and see what I'm talking about behind the scenes
stuff like you know, the cutaways. Would it be great
to see Ashley and Scott like yucking it up at
the craft service table and being like, look, we can disagree,
but we can still be homie.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (53:10):
But but that happens all the time when when Dan
is interviewing somebody and she's really going after him and
trying to get to them and trying to get facts,
the truth out of them, and they'll have a real
heated conversation as soon as that camera shuts off. Hey,
so you're gonna be, you know, going to the dinner
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
So it's sometimes that doesn't sometimes, but for the most.
Speaker 6 (53:32):
Part nowadays it's less.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah. Yeah, earlier on, there's a mutual respect there. I mean,
there used to be like a respect for what they do,
as you know, is there something else I can help
with what happened as a public serpent or aspect for.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Yeah, I'm gonna let you guys go, but I have
one more question for the Why was Anderson Cooper like
in the hurricane came the most shocking thing I saw.
So I'm like, what is he doing down there? Like
you you Ranison? Cooper loves it so loud, So he
gets like smashed by some like weird like siding. I'm like, Anderson, like,
(54:17):
you've put in your time, you don't have to go
down into the hurricane. Does not have to do it.
That ships so funny.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
The black T shirts.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
He's got to show off the guns, I know, but
I remember turning on the TV to look at it,
and I'm like, wait a minute, Anderson like, obviously you
called your number on this assignment. No one's telling you
to go there. Well, I appreciate you, guys. It's been
so much fun. When I am in Washington, I definitely
(54:52):
would love to come down and see that. I mean, no,
but I'm on the East coast, you know. I'm on
the East coast a bunch, you know, And I mean
I would love to just see the inner workings of it.
It's just so fun. I mean, I it would be
a blast. Now, all right, guys, I appreciate it. Thank you,
all right, we'll talk, thank you, thank you. Oh my god,
(55:14):
that's not enough time. That is not enough time, because
I know when I do these shows, I got it.
I want to get to the childhood. I want to
get into the thing, you know. I wanted to learn
where everyone's coming from, and that's what's fun about it,
you know, to sort of see where they But I
wanted to get into the whole news thing. Oh god,
there's so much I want to talk about. Anyway, maybe
(55:35):
next time I'd love to have Dan on again. She's great,
So it is Dave. Dave great, I always say that
after everything. Anyway, I'm gonna go to DC. I'm going
to do that. I think that'd be fun. It'd be
really fun. And you know what, you know what else,
I actually have a credit. I have an Airbnb credit.
(55:57):
How about that? So I can use my Airbnb credit
to say, somewhere in DC, so I can cut some cost.
All right, this is good, it's all coming together. It's
all coming together. I'm gonna go to DC. I'm gonna
use miles so I don't have to pay for that.
Then I'm gonna use my Airbnb credit, stay at some
probably like radical place, and then I'm just going to
(56:21):
stay at CNN all day and just eat there craft
service and whatever lunch they have and then leave, so
I essentially won't spend any money. Perfect, did it done?
All right? Thank you Dan and David. This was really awesome.
It wasn't enough time, but hopefully I get to I
get to hang out with them again.
Speaker 3 (56:41):
All right.
Speaker 2 (56:42):
Oliver Hudson
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling railvalry.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
No, no, sibling, you don't do that with your mouth.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Revelry.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, Oliver Hudson here doing another episode of as sibling Revelry.
We're getting close to the holidays. Christmas is on its way.
I love Christmas. Man very very big into Christmas. It's
been a you know, Christmas. This has been a very
(01:00):
important tradition for my family. I don't know, I'm probably
probably talked about it before, but you know, Sanna has
been a big deal for us. I don't know when
this show is actually coming out, but it's close enough
to Christmas. San has been a very big deal for
us ever since Kurt came into our lives six years
old because with his family, San has been everything. So
(01:21):
he brought that into our family. And I remember the
first Christmas that we had in Colorado. We were little
kids and we wake up in the morning and you know, Pa,
my dad, Kurt, Paw Dad, Paw Kurt, whatever you want
to say. The man who raised me, the man who
made me the incredible man that I am today. He
(01:44):
had a place in Colorado and we were there and
we wake up and he goes, oh my god, you guys,
you're never going to believe what I just saw. And
we run up to this on the side of his
hill and you can get on the roof because it
was like built into the hill, and on the roof
were sled tracks that had flown off of the roof.
(02:07):
There was a bell that said Blitzen on it that
had a leather old you know bell. It was a
collar that was on the ground, and there was a
present that was stuck in the chimney and it was
just awe in spine. We we were floored. We couldn't
believe what we had just seen. And we opened up
the president. It was actually interesting. It was a it
(02:29):
was a little jumper. It was like a little baby jumper,
you know, a boy, a blue little onesie thing, and
it was just like almost it was just so detail
and that set it off, you know, and then each year,
you know, it just keeps getting bigger, bigger and better,
and now there's this actual Santa. One of us has
(02:50):
to play Santa. And now I think it's my turn
because my kids are now of age and they no
longer believe. Although I still believe in Santa Claus. Let's
just keep that it's clear. So read the Night before
Christmas and you know, Merry Christmas, do all, and do
all a good night, and then boom, alt near these
(03:13):
bells and everyone runs to the window and out in
the distance you see Santa running in the snow with
a big sack. He's just sort of be on the lights.
You're like, holy shit, it's him. I mean, it was
so real looking and and every year someone played Santa,
and now it's gonna be my turn for aman do
(03:33):
I have some funny stories about the Santa game, which god,
I want to tell them, but I think this intro
is getting a little long. Shit anyway, I'll save it.
I'll save it for another episode. How about that? Because
this is this is very this is exciting, this is
(03:55):
very exciting for me. Their next guests, he's well, Dana pertiful.
Dana bashes coming up, and I think he was about
saying that she has seen and a journalist. She's a journalist,
she's an anchor, she's a host of Inside politics. What
a fun time to have her on, given that the
(04:17):
election was only a few weeks ago. And then her
brother Dave, And we're going to talk all. We're going
to talk siblings, We're going to talk politics. We're going
to talk about it all. I have some questions and.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Hopefully they answer them. Hopefully anyway, without further ado, bring
on the bashes, the Schwartzes and the bashes, the Schwartzes. Schwartz, bash, Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
We did it. Hi, so good to see you guys. Yeah. Fun.
I'm so happy you guys are both on.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Thanks for having us on. I'm I want you to
know that I am an early listener, like I think,
I'm like an og Oh my gosh, sibling revelry.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, I amazing, amazing. I can't I can't even believe that.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Like I first I first learned about the Foster sisters
from you guys.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Wow, that was early early, I know, wow, I feel
I know. I'm telling you. Well you are, you're in
your office. When do you go on? Are you working tonight?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I worked already. My show is on at your your
west coast, right, yeah, so it was on at nine
it's on at nine am.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You don't do the later shows.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah sometimes sometimes, Okay, not very much, but yeah, crazy.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
I talked to her every day, and I just dumbfounded
the fact that she's, you know, in the middle of
all this. Yeah, you know, surrounded by all this. But
you know, she's always said that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
She's excited no matter what, it's exciting. I know we'll
get into all that shit, but I want to get
into I want to get into your life and your
childhood and where you grew up. And you guys are
the only siblings, right, Okay, so let's just paint. Let's
just paint a nice sort of Bob Ross picture of
(06:29):
where it all went down.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
So we Our parents met in dif from Chicago, met
in Chicago at the local ABC affiliate in Chicago. They
were both working in news and they had a whirlwind romance.
Six months later they were engaged. My dad got a
(06:55):
job with the network in New York and my mom said, okay,
I'm coming with you and he said, okay, I guess
we're getting married. So it was really romantic.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
So they so they got them much a story for
most of their lives.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yes, is practice practical.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Practical, Like okay, we're you know, late sixties and then
and then moved to New York and I was born,
and then we moved to New Jersey and he was born.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Came in New Jersey, I was doing I just did
finish Happy Gilmore two. Yeah, it's amazing. So where in Jersey,
I was living in Short Hills, I was staying in.
I was staying in, staying in Short Hills. That was
the Yeah. I was in the short One Giant mall
(07:45):
for about a month. Yeah, but I was It was
very sexy. I will I will say the bartender was
really fantastic. But anyway, I would go to the shore though,
any chance I could get to fish because I love
to fish. So and it was beautiful. I mean there's
no tourism there at the time. It was just awesome.
(08:05):
I don't know why Jersey gets a bad rap. It
was beautiful. The leaves were changing. My family was living
in the city at the time. I'm like, I'm not
fucking going to the city. I love you, Kate, but
like I want to stay here.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Yeah, it gets a bad rap because you land and
if you land in Newark, forget about it.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That's why.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Yeah, I'm surrounded by factory and that's it.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And it smells, but it's actually the Garden State. Most
of the state, like where we grew up was farmland before.
I mean now it's all like suburb and everything, but
it was farmland.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Moved to New Jersey and that's where it is. We're
we're born.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, we were lucky. I was born in it.
So the trajectory is we were born in angle I
was born in Anglewood. And then when I was two
and she was born and a half, we moved to
d C or just outside d C in mc Virginia
because my dad got a job working at the AB
Bureau and we were there for eight years, eight or
(09:05):
nine years, I think, and then he got called back
to New York. So we moved back to Jersey when
she was almost in high school and I was in
fifth grade.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I was in middle school.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
Yeah, you're in middle school. Yeah, and then show So
she went to high school in Jersey. I had middle
school high school Jersey, and then she went I came
down after college. So she's been in DC much more
than she's been in Jersey. She called herself a Jersey girl.
But I'm throwing a Q flag HU flag on that.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I feel like in twenty twenty four. You should be
what you identify.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
This is true, and I definitely.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Identify as a Jersey girl for sure. I mean, you
can't see that I've got my.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
My brutal because it also separates you from the DC
world that you live in. So even from a psychological place, yes,
you know that your senior year, you're almost into situating
from the news in a sense saying now, fuck that,
I'm a Jersey girl.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Totally you.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Did.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, I got to meet him. Oh my god, have
you ever? I I was so not cool, Oliver. I
mean I was like the opposite of cool. I was
so adork. I literally, I just I lost my ability
to in his ox.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
And he's so cool.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I couldn't do it. I was, He's so But I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'm a huge Howard Stern fan, so which went an
amazing interview and watching it, you know, watching I think
it was on Max, but it was, by the way, do.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
You not for me, like I if I could be
an interviewer like Howard Sterne one day, it would be.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So he is the best because you know, he's so
different than he was however many years ago, you know,
but he is still the same guy. Who can you know,
have the month of cock Tober? Yeah, said he does
(11:06):
like some cock bit. And then the next guest is
Joe Biden. You know, I mean, who who you can
do that?
Speaker 6 (11:17):
That's the same thing, Danna, So Danna every Wednesday has
the same exact thing. Politics.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Danaged to do her own Coctober, pitching that to the
top brass like, hey guys, I got an ideas.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Listen find out we're trying to stem the tide away
from cable from the Portcus you.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Met, were you able to get words out eventually?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
A little? Oh? Yeah? And I was with my son
who's thirteen. A he Springsteen was so nice. He like
gave him one of his guitar picks. I was like,
of course, I immediately took it on him. It was
like she were not losing.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
This and so then the dynamic, you know, two and
a half years basically just like myself and my sister.
I'm the older one, though. Was it good? Did you
guys love each other? Was it battles? You know? Because
with Katie and I I didn't. Let's just be straight up.
(12:20):
She bothered me.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
You know, I guess I put on rose colored glasses
because the other day, I was like, we didn't really
fight when we were kids, do we? And she looked
at me, she goes, are you insane? We're always fighting?
But it was really it was a one way street
for most of our childhood where she she would abuse me,
(12:42):
things like spinning me around until I threw up. She
would lock me out of the house. One time she
locked me out of the house and we had like
glass window panes in our door. I put my fists
through the glass.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
I got bit troub for that one. And I think
when I was twelve thirteen years old, I realized and
figured out that I was I was stronger than she was.
Well to figure that out. And there was very one
specific time we were in Jersey and she was abusing
me like she normally would. I went to a rage
and I like jumped over the couch and started wailing,
(13:18):
wailing on her.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
H that was in the smooth sailing from there on.
Did you.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
But did you? You guys didn't out with your friends, right.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
It's kind of a funny situation because she wanted to
be a part of my life so badly, and I
just wanted nothing to do with her. She would literally
hang on my door knob when my friends were over, Like, Kate,
you just get it, get out of here, you know,
So the answer is no. And then I went to
college and then came back for a break and the
(13:51):
tables were turned because all of her girlfriends were cute,
and I'm like, Kate, like, what are you guys doing?
You know, what was happening? And She's like all of
her like getting you know, only you know. I mean
obviously in the last ten years, of course we've become very,
very tight. But it took a minute, you know, I
mean it really did. I think that because we were
(14:12):
sort of a product of divorce and I was sort
of just trying to as a six year old self
navigate whatever that meant, you know, for me emotionally, I
probably had no idea what my feelings were other than
just survival. I didn't have the capacity to be a
good brother, a big brother, or even give Kate the
(14:33):
love that she needed when I was the man in
her life that she was looking for to sort of
comfort her. I'm talking pure psychology here, but you know,
and she just wanted me to love her and be
a part of her life and to essentially, you know,
be friends and hold her and be her bigger brother,
and I just couldn't do it, you know, I just
(14:55):
couldn't do it. And then you know, that sort of
had its effects, and then you know, she got married
and she got famous, and she was off being fabulous
and you know, it's just passing ships. And then eventually
you get a little bit older and realize how important
that sibling relationship is and then you have to nurture
(15:15):
it like any other relationship, you know. And then we
started this show four or five years ago and that really, honestly,
our relationship took off. Do you guys fight as adults still?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, but it's quick, but it's like we can be
I don't know, I'm sure you guys are like this too,
Like we can kind of explode, I don't know the
way you can't with any other people.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And then it's but what could you possibly fight about now?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Like little bullshit? Yeah, it's bullshit.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
It's bullshit. It's it's logistical stuff. It's how come you
weren't here? Are there? Or you know, what what are
we doing now?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You know, it's just god, what are we doing now?
Like what do you mean? Like exactly right?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
But yeah, literally it's like, what are we having for dinner?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And then and then we start yelling at each other
about nothing. And then I think you met Spencer Garrett,
who's my guy, and he and he he says, he's like,
oh my god, the way you and David talk to
each other, it's like, I can't believe that you guys
are still so close. And I was, what do you mean,
(16:40):
I don't even I.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Don't even see it, like your brother sister love language essentially,
you know, did you guys grew up in like a
like a liberal not politically, but just a liberal family,
meaning like go out and play. There's no rules, you
can be whatever the hell you want to be, there's
no restrictions.
Speaker 6 (16:59):
We were the quintessential nineteen eighties last Ki kids. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. I mean, you know, my dad worked a
lot of hours, so we saw him when we could
see him. My mom also worked. She was a she
was a journalist as well, but she never made it
a career out of being a journalist, so she had
kind of the nine to five jobs. But you know,
they go home at six o'clock, and you know, our
(17:20):
house was kind of the house that friends came over
to and you know, stuff happened, stuff happened there. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Maybe when we were little, I mean we literally had
like the key. I don't know if I had it
actually hanging around my neck, but pretty darn closed.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
It just it was it was get on your bike
and dust it's center.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It just informs who you are now. And I don't
know you guys, hopefully we become great friends, but you know,
I'm sure you wouldn't be the humans you are today
without that kind of freedom and that that independence. And
you know, do you have You got a thirteen year old,
but do you have any do you have any children?
I do have a nine year old daughter who got
(18:06):
seventeen fourteen eleven, a little bit older. But we live
now in a world where there's so much fear around
letting our kids sort of just roam and be free,
even though you know, crime isn't nearly as bad as
it was when we were kids, and now there's devices
so you can track them all the time. But there
(18:27):
is this sort of lack of that independence and freedom
that I try to give to my kids. And that's
my wife and I kind of not fight about. But
she's a little bit more like but what if they
get hit by a car. I'm like, I mean, yeah,
but what are we gonna do? Just keep them here,
let them, let them be free, let them roam. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah. Yeah, it's so my son were love stranger things,
and that's the thing they say. He's like, was it
really like that? Like you just get out of your
bike and you go? And I said, exactly what it
would like.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Right, yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, I wish eighties.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
And it's also like the Devoutments or just our fellow
number two. You know, we didn't you know what we
have in television atari, but I did.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I mean, I was the latch key kid. I don't know.
And I'm sure your parents were.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
They were long we traveled with them two, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I mean I was brought up by Carol and Mike Brady. Yeah,
illigant you know again Gilligan's Island and Fantasy Island. Did
you watch a lot?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah? So my favorite show was wonder Woman because I
was in love, you know, with Linda Carter and oh
and I didn't understand like two dimension three dimensions, you know,
so young, and she would always wear that, you know,
her Wonder Woman outfit. And I would go up to
the TV like this to try to look down her
(19:54):
into her breasts. I distinctively remember being like, how do
I see more? And I used to like put my
forehead on the TV to see if I could see down.
Oh my god. Yes, So that that's probably indicative of
who I am now, unfortunately, but you know, but yeah,
(20:16):
I grew up on I grew up, you know, loving TV,
watching TV. But at the same time, I was an
outdoor kid, you know, and with the kids, with my
kids today, I'm not not getting to deny them technology,
you know. I mean, it is what it is. This
is the world that we live in right now. I mean,
to completely cut them off of it, to me is
almost a disservice. It's more about a balance, you know.
(20:38):
It's a balance. And I'm not even restrictive. I'm not
like you can only do such and such and such
as like, hey, yeah, what am I gonna do? You know,
I don't want to as long as you're outside and
you're on your motorcycle or you're out playing, or you're
doing whatever you're doing, all right, you know. And yeah,
in Colorado, they all ride motorcycles and my and my
fourteen year old has. It's an e motorcycles called a
(21:01):
sir On and they're you know, all of rage right
now you have to be sixteen, but he's fourteen. Anyway,
he's doing these crazy No this is in La. He's oh,
he's doing crazy in our neighborhood. And he's really amazing rider.
And then he goes, He's like, hey, dad, can I
go on a rideout? I'm like, what the hell is
(21:22):
a rideout? And he goes. We get dropped off at
a certain place and I was working and my wife
was like, I think I'm taking him to a rideout
butt And he goes and he pissed the bike in
the back of my truck and they drop him off
in like Marina del Ray. I get video sent to me.
It's a pack of like seventy kids going down those
(21:42):
main streets, like all wheeling and shit, and they're like
in Century City then they're Marina Delay. They're going all
over like Body's it's body like body, what the hell?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Man?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Like, you're fourteen, like rolling all around LA and the
pack of like seven.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Do that in New York now too. It's common. Whether
it's going down like Madison Avenue, it's oh, yeah, you
see it all the time.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, it's crazy. I know.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I know.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So then wat dan for you to watch your parents
obviously do what they did. That I mean obviously an inspiration, right,
I mean we all kind of do what our parents do.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I know. Well, that's the thing is that I swore
I would never do. Did you did you feel like
that I swore because he was I mean, I guess
obviously somewhere.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
But the whole, but the whole idea of like we
would go on vacation, and then there was some there
was a time when the pope died like three times.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
The popes kept dying, multiple pope.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Epidemic.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
It was, it was, and then we kept having to
come home from the vacation. I was like, your job sucks.
I'll never do this. I'll never do this to my kids.
And then cut to this past summer. I'm on a
beach vacation with my son Kamala. Harris's team calls me like,
do you want the first interview with the vice president? Okay?
(23:21):
And I said to Joan, I'm like, I think I
have to leave. He's like, Okay, that sounds like a
good opportunity. He was way cooler than I was.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
You know, we he would take us into my dad
would take us into work. You know, he was one
of the original cruisers on Nightline, so it was live
at eleven thirty, so there were well he was at night.
We didn't see him a lot. So on Friday nights
he would take us into work and we would be
in the back of the control room, you know, five
years old. I'd fall asleep because it was eleven thirty
(23:52):
at night. Before that, we were recavoc all over the
all over the bureau.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So stop his cow.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Yeah, I'd be like stabling my phone from the middle
of the news let's get out of the news room.
But you know, I would fall asleep, and she obviously
was paying attention to what was happening, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So I just eventually realized that I don't really have
skills to do anything else.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's just like it, right, you have to you. Every
time I watch you guys on television, I can't imagine
the work that goes into what you guys do day
in and day out. Just from a pure volume standpoint
and a retention standpoint and a reading standpoint. Everyone knows everything.
(24:40):
All you guys know everything. I mean, I I you know,
I work to live. I don't live to work, you
know what I'm saying, which is probably detrimental to me.
You know, I would probably be further along in my
career even though I'm happy. But you know, I I
my god, damn, I'm like, do they ever get a
break to do anything fun?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
It's hard. Sometimes it's the answer sometimes sometimes, I mean
obviously election years are little, but it's it's definitely all consuming.
We're talking about technology, I mean saying about technology certainly.
(25:24):
I mean I've been at CNN for thirty one years,
like almost literally before the Internet, and so now that
we can do everything on our phone, not just like
communicate or do zoom or whatever, but like I can
be in touch with anybody at any time. I mean,
we all feel like this, but it's even more for
(25:47):
a twenty four to seven job. It really, it really
does free me up. I can't check out mentally and emotionally,
but I can, you know, physically be gone, do.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You know, I mean yes, not acting. You know, I
wanted to make movies. So it was in the same
sort of world my sister came out of the womb,
like singing and dancing for the most part, you know,
which annoyed the shit out of me, but I wanted
to know. So while she was doing plays, I every
weekend with my best friend and now still my producing partner. Now,
(26:24):
we made movies. You know. We had squibs and blank
gun I mean that back then in the eighties, you know,
you can mail order a gun that had blanks in it,
like a real nine milimeter Burretta with blanks, and we're like,
no one checked idea. It was just kind of like
we did the craziest shit. But we made movies. And
(26:45):
I went to college for a couple of years. You know,
that wasn't really my thing, and I just started to
act because my family did it and I needed to
figure out how to make money and it seemed to work.
You know. Now and as I'm getting older, it's become
still an actor, no doubt, but I've got a production
company and you know, I'm sort of wanting to do
(27:05):
more creative things. You know, acting can be kind of limiting,
you know, because you're at the mercy of money essentially
and supporting a family and not necessarily doing the things
that are inspiring you in any way. And the way
to sort of combat that or compliment that is to
have you know, your own projects.
Speaker 6 (27:29):
And well you're also not beholden to the big studio
anymore because everything is so much more democratic. You can
you can have a company and don't need a human
you know.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And you know, this is my first year with a deal.
I have a deal at Fox, and it's been really
really fun. I mean it's been a blast, you know,
to have an actual place to take gigs, you know,
to take ideas and to watch them sort of blossom
into something. So it's been it's been fun. You know,
it's been fun. So I guess to answer your question, yes,
(28:00):
it's all my kids want to do it. I mean,
all of Kate's kids want to do it. It's just
kind of there. I don't know what else anyone's going
to do.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Jonah Jonah doesn't he does he.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Talk about like sports he wants to do it's like
a sports version of their podcast or sport Ors.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
And then David for you, like, you know, first of all, Dan,
when did you have that moment of like, you know what,
I guess, this is who I am. I mean, this
is what I want to do. And did it come
with passion or was it kind of like you're just like,
this is my destiny.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I came to GW to school here in Washington, and
I tried a lot of different things with internships, and
I could because I was in a city that allowed
for it. So I got a little bit of the
political bug, which I never had before. I mean, our
father always jokes that he's pretty confident. I graduated high
(29:00):
goal without knowing that there are three branches of government.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Like I was, I'd like to party.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Let's just leave it for you back to the eighties. Yeah.
So so I got more serious and I did internships
slash sort of volunteer gigs on Capitol Hill, at the
White House I did. I thought about maybe law school,
(29:26):
I thought about going into politics. And then once I
was doing those internships, I realized that I'm not passionate
on one side of the aisle or another, or about
a political philosophy or another. That I really liked to
kind of observe at all and to understand it all.
And then I did an internship. I was at CBS
(29:47):
News here in Washington, and I said, oh, okay, is
it And that was it. I just took off from there.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Ah, and a day for you, you know, finding your path.
I mean you're still you know, it's a it's a
cousin what you do. I mean you know we're all
in media, right, yes.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
Yes, yeah. For me, it was I figured it feels
a little more straightforward for me. I went to school.
I went to New High School in Syracuse to study
television film production. And my first job out of school
actually I worked for a talent agency and we represented
newscasters and sportscasters, entertainment hosts, and it was just it
(30:42):
was so easy for me because this is kind of
I grew up, like our dinners at home revolved around
the six thirty evening news. You just grew up watching
these guys and paying attention to these people. So it
was like it was an easy field for me to
kind of stumble into. But then I worked for news
and I didn't like that at all, and I said,
you know what, I want to do more production. And
(31:03):
I knew there was a world of like, well, corporations
need video, let's let's do that. And I worked for
a coming that did that, left there and then started
my company. Now it's been fifteen sixteen plus years that
I've I've had pressure and it's uh and it's great
and I love it, and I still feel you know,
our our eating dinners still revolve around politics really in
(31:28):
our household, yeah, for sure. I mean if you don't,
if you're not up on your current events, there's nothing
to talk about if the four of us are together
really for sure. Not not in my house. My house
were alls around fuller house eating conversation.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
No, I know, it's it's it's kind of like when
you have family dinners. It's like, Okay, I got to
brush up, you know, I mean to make sure that
I'm current.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Oh yeah, but he's David's more creative. I mean, You've
got the creative production side, and I'm more of the like,
I mean, I need a modicum of creativity for like
when I'm going out and shooting pieces. It's not but
it's like in my mind, how is this going to look?
How are we going to Am I going to write
this piece?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
And how much writing is there for you? Dan, like
a lot, what you're reading, what you're reading, what's on
your prompter? Are you writing that? So?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
No, I don't do the well, honestly, it just depends.
For the most part, we have people, I have show
team in each producer kind of writes a segment, but
I have a pretty heavy hand and and and and
change things sometimes though oftentimes when I'm in the chair
(32:42):
and something's happening, I don't have the ability to do that.
So they'll write something and if I'm not like crazy
about it, I'll just outlive it and kind of ignore
what's in the tele prompter.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You have to be tough to do what you do.
Do You have to say, hey, guys to a producer
like this fucking sucks. I'm sorry, like we're this is
I can't baby you. I mean, is there that sort of.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Some people are like that. I don't. That's generally not
my style.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
I think she's tough, but she has a gentle hand
in her toughness. You're definitely tough.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I'm tough, but yeah, I mean sometimes I'll just go
in and usually I'll go in and change it, and
then I'll have a conversation like, hey, you know, this
is minor thing and minor thing. But I don't know
if you've noticed this, but a lot of people who
are in my business, they just act as if the
verb to be doesn't exist and everything is an ink
(33:50):
today campaignting. They they are can't no, it's it's okay.
I mean they're starting to have I have little pet
piece that other people don't. But separate from that, I
when I do. I mean I came up as a
(34:11):
producer and then as a reporter where I wrote all
my own you write all your own pieces and it
and it is about sort of creativity because you know
that you have I think, if it's done right, you
have sound bites of people who you want to get
out there. You have pictures, you have natural sound to
(34:33):
the pictures, and so writing to the pictures in the
sound in a way to put it all together, so
it's edited together to tell a story. Is actually it's
one of the things that I learn.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Well, there's the creativity right there.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
And and the fact that she came up through CNN
being a PA, being a death sistant, being a writer,
being assistant producer library she was fetching years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yeah wow, which doesn't exist anymore. When was your do
you remember both of you? Do you you know your
sister and then you Danna do you remember that break?
We were like, holy shit, here's my shot as a
brother being like, oh my god, here's my sister on
TV fucking doing it.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
So before I got to that fucking doing it, I
was I was still behind the scenes on Capitol. I
was a Senate producer and I was there on nine
to eleven in the Capitol, and that's a whole different
story or going into the Capital. So in the aftermath
(35:46):
of nine eleven, there was just, you know, a lot
of reporting to be had, and I broke It was
one of the first big stories that I broke, and
it was that in a classified briefing after the attacks,
people in the intelligence community told Senate Intel Committee that
(36:07):
the NSA had actually received a message that they didn't translate.
They received it on nine ten, they didn't translate till
nine twelve, and it said the mess the match is
happening tomorrow. Tomorrow is game day tomorrow, zero hour. So yeah,
(36:32):
you know, had they had even if they translated it,
I don't know. I imagined planes going into towers. But
and so that was a big deal, and that was
I didn't do it on camera because I wasn't on air,
so an on air reporter did it. But I ended
up winning an award for that and broke a few
(36:53):
other stories and they were like, hey, do you want
to maybe try being the White House correspondent.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
It was like the starting out the White House.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah, And I knew enough to know that it was
like really scary and I think the head CNN throws
bash at the White House.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
At the White House.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah. So I started at the White House in two
thousand and two. George W. Bush was president, and so
I was there at the end of two thousand and
two and then beginning of two thousand and three. It
was a run up to the Iraq War. It was
I mean, it was it was rock I don't recommend
the first live shot you do to be on the
(37:34):
White House lawn. It was not.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
That was your first live shot very first.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, I was like noxious. I was so scared. Oh
my god. Absolutely, And now there are a lot more
people who come from either behind the scene, from print
onto the TV. Back then, it was really a pipeline
for the post part. You started in local is at
(38:00):
a really small market. You got to do a bigger market,
a bigger market, a bigger market, and then you ended
up at a network or cable and that was after
you all these reps where you no good sense of
the performance of it or feeling of it, and you
know I was behind the scenes doing it, producing reporters.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
But never actually when you're doing those, there are there
queue cards or you just have a memorization thing like
such a when you when you hear them ripping ship off,
we're like, wow, that's oppressive.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, no, it's their no que cards. It's it's just
what you know and what you're.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Old And Dave, did you watch them? Did you see them?
I mean, were you how supportive? Were you? Guys all
always supportive of each other?
Speaker 6 (38:42):
Yeah, yes, very supportive. I believe I actually cut her
resume tape when she wanted to be a an on
air report.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Right what I thought?
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I thought I wanted to do it, and then I didn't.
Speaker 6 (38:54):
This is a check card. I did my best to
make her look. Of course, it's it's it's on a.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Data tap transfer that.
Speaker 6 (39:12):
Yeah, it's very supportive. Still, you know, it took me
at least a year or two to not freak out
every time I saw her on Oh my god, exactly exactly.
Of course, as it went on and I you know,
I less so and now now now she'll like text
me at a long fifteen I'm like aren't you on
(39:33):
the TV right now? Like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Tech?
Speaker 6 (39:37):
She's more comfortable, right, but uh, you know, very supportive,
you know, and and it also of course helps that
you know, I grew up in an assehold that I
grew up in. So when when she does an interview
that I have a couple of comments on you, I'll
talk to her about it and I'll send her text
about it.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Yeah, you're like, so I can give her a lot
of her I a lot of production notes. Actually on
the Wals Harris interview, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, why is he so big?
Speaker 7 (40:06):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
He was opened, Wasn't there all kinds of ship made
of that? The whole way it was set up and
on a desk and.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
She was hunched over and he was twice the time,
say our production seen as production team, they know what
they're doing. There was there was a bit of a
struggle with Harris's advanced team.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I'll just yeah, yeah, yeah, after yeah, well, you know,
I don't want to keep you gets going, but we
got to get I just want to get into the
state of the world a little bit, you know, I
obviously want to get deep into it all because you know,
it is what it is, and it's the country is spoken.
There's no fucking doubt about that, you know what I'm saying.
(40:50):
Even going back a little bit further, forget about just
you know the political landscape today thirty one years ago
as far as media goes, Like, how much have you
seen it change from when you started to what it
is now? Oh yeah, it's like vastly.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
So many ways changed more than it has stayed the same. Honestly,
when I started at CNN, Ted Turner, who of course
found at CNN, it was still his company. He hadn't
sold it to AOL and then Time Warner and then
WarnerMedia and all that, Like, it was still a very
(41:29):
rudimentary company and relatively small, and it was sort of
scrappy and all of that. And uh, it was before
Fox News, it was before MSNBC, and obviously it was
before the Internet and and and then then smartphones and
(41:51):
everything else. So I saw a huge transformation in terms
of competition, in terms of more importantly, the way we communicate.
I mean, Ted Turner used to say, the news is
the star. And it was just like today on Znet,
(42:14):
very dry and not a lot of personality, which was
his intent again, because it was like it was US
or c Span or soap operas and that was it.
So it's changed.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, no, I'm sure, But I'm wondering if that competition,
you know, for ratings has sort of diluted the idea
of what news is supposed to be because now we're
searching for ratings a ton of opinion people, and it's
just about being as loud as you can fucking be
(42:53):
so you can win, rather than just sort of delivering
the news, you know. And yeah, you know, obviously for me,
we're living in this world of like, what is a fact?
I guess nowadays? But there is fact obviously we live
in the real world where whatever happened actually did the
way it did. But it's impossible to sort of trust
(43:18):
anything I guess anymore. And what do you attribute that to?
You know what I mean? Like, misinformation has been going
on for a while, but why all of a sudden
has it just blown up?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
There are lots of reasons. Number one, it's easier to
transmit misinformation you get it in your pocket on your phone,
and the algorithms if you watch one thing that is
about let's just say the election being stolen then the
algorithm will push other people to you, so you think
(43:55):
that is the truth because that's all you're getting on
your phone, on your social feed and so forth.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Do you feel like media is skewed in one direction
or another non timeout CN I'm talking about just generally
just because of ratings, because of opinion shows like how
Do You Square?
Speaker 3 (44:15):
That it's fractured. It's skewed in a lot of different directions,
and it's fractured. So so, like you've talked about facts
in my dreams, I'm giving the facts, and I'm giving
objective information and people are there and they're listening to it,
(44:38):
and then they make up their own mind. But because
of what we were just talking about, not only on
people's phones, which is primarily how they're getting information, which
is causing the whole media infrastructure to shift, including and
especially cable news, which is what I'm doing for more
than thirty years, it's harder to get people to who
(45:00):
want to listen to objective news. And I do think
that you know, you were talking about the ratings, like
I do think that you can be interesting and fact
based at the same time. You don't have to scream
and yell. You don't have to be outrageous. It's a challenge,
(45:20):
but I think it's possible, and I think that we
need to strive to do more of that and to
do better to attract people, because look, I mean, what
do people want to do. They want to look at
a clip that somebody sends them, or look at a
clip that shows up on their feed. But at the
same time, people are more and more investing hours listening
(45:42):
to podcasts like yours, listening to longer podcasts like Joe Rogan.
So it goes back and forth. It's finding that that
sweet spot.
Speaker 6 (45:50):
And when you when she always says when she posts
a video online or on Instagram, and when when she's
getting attacked from the left and get any attack from
the right, yeah yeah, yeah yeah. And I think that's
what makes her not to tootor her own honkers and
just her own horn. But she's really uh, she's really straight,
(46:13):
and she she plays it down the middle. And I
think that that's what makes her really a really good
journalist and a really good reporter, is that she does
give it to both sides. And I think people see that,
and it's hard for people to see that nowadays, but you.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Know, What's interesting though, is like even though we are
telling the news straight, I think we have it's it's
okay to not necessarily have a verbal opinion, you know,
I mean, but it is you can see an emotional opinion,
you know what I'm saying. Like, you know, instead of
straight news, there is you can you can see whoever
(46:49):
is reporting, you can feel where they lean just based
on you know, that feeling that they have, that energy
that is put out, you know, and that is something
that is human and so it's fun to watch. But
I wonder if that is something that you know, takes
away from sort of that straight down the middle I'm
just telling you the news.
Speaker 6 (47:11):
Yeah, yeah, people people don't want to hear it anymore.
They want to hear what they what they believe, and
what they what they think as well.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
So yeah, it's true, you're just trying to It's but
there is.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
It's so important and there is a place for it.
And I mean, look the New York Times, the Wall
Street Journal, like they don't have the circulation or you know,
clicks maybe they used to, but they still are doing
pretty well. And uh and us see, I mean CNN
dot com is the most red news site on the planet.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Mm hmm. So that, yeah, Harting, And it's.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Not just and it's not just straight. I mean there's
there's also a pinon and different sort of flavors of news.
It's not just politics. So there is an appetite for it.
You just have to get past it.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
No, you do.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
And you know, I'm not this.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
We never do talk politics on our show at all
or even you know, broach it, you know, but I
will say that, you know, I do. I watch CNN
because I feel like that is I'm getting the best
sort of news from CNN. But I also honestly like
Brett Behar is a good friend of mine and I
love him, and I think that you know, he really,
(48:33):
you know, does it straight just for the most part
when I watch his segment, you know, But I just
want to stay away from it. You know, it's it's
just too divisive, it's too crazy. Right now, I just
want to talk about sort of just accountability, you know,
in the newsroom. You know, first of all, do you
feel like there is accountability in media just generally, Well.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
It depends on what flavor of media.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Let's just let's just go with you guys. The big threes.
You know what I mean it I do? I mean,
who keeps everyone accountable?
Speaker 3 (49:06):
That's a great question. There is definitely accountability in that
we have internal standards. Quite literally, we have a whole
standards department. We have a department that does that does
approving of stories, approving of sources, and then we of
course have you know, our legal department, and they all
(49:28):
get together along with our editorial heads, and if there's
something that either isn't reported quite right or isn't totally
accurate unintentionally, then we make a correction. And that's what
makes us different from people other people. It's important to us,
(49:53):
and like you said, we are all human and people
make mistakes or are maybe led astray by by sources
depending on the situation. But it's a very big part
of our culture and I think that of other real
journalism and journalist entities to do that, and I do
(50:18):
think you know, of course, in today's environment, it's very
easy to get attacked by oh my gosh, they had
to make a correction. Well, you know what, if I'm
a consumer of media, a consumer of I see that
the news outlet that I watch or read makes a correction.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Of course, good because it Yeah, so that yeah, account
you think it could be better. You think you think
just across the board.
Speaker 3 (50:45):
Yeah, sure, I mean we could all all always be better.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
When you guys come off the air, when you when
you go to commercial, do you guys all talk on
the panel.
Speaker 7 (50:57):
You do?
Speaker 2 (50:57):
Is there a lot of cursing and stuff that happens.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yes, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Behind the scene ship is what I want to see.
I want to see them behind the scenes ship after
they go to commercial, and it's like all.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
I know, you know what, I always joke about that
because we're not on broadcast, We're on cable, so there's
no we're not going to get like an FCC fine
for cursing.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Oh it's so great.
Speaker 3 (51:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
It's always fun to hear the opinions and the pundits
and the right and the left, and you know, see
the battles. It it's fun. But then once the cameras
go away you go to commercial. That's the fun shit,
you know if all that back and forth it goes on.
And I'm sure so you have.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
I would love to Washington end of the day here
and you can just hang out.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
And oh my god, I would love to and are
there people internally you know who are on air who
everyone seems to like each other, but are there are
there like rivalries and people who don't like each other
but have to work together, and no, specifically in your world,
there are.
Speaker 6 (52:06):
There are Listen, I can open the door and walk
out there and we can we.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Can start because just.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
In all seriousness, it's actually kind of kind of amazing
how well most of us get along.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
You can tell, I mean you can really tell. I've
seen Scott Jennings get like really you can see his
face go flush sometimes when he's gets really angry.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
He loves is great, He's I mean, I've done him
for a long time. He is He's a funny guy
and he's and like walk off the set with I mean,
you're obviously a viewer, so like Ashley Allison left as they.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Come and see what I'm talking about behind the scenes
stuff like you know, the cutaways. Would it be great
to see Ashley and Scott like yucking it up at
the craft service table and being like, look, we can disagree,
but we can still be homie.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (53:10):
But but that happens all the time when when Dan
is interviewing somebody and she's really going after him and
trying to get to them and trying to get facts,
the truth out of them, and they'll have a real
heated conversation as soon as that camera shuts off. Hey,
so you're gonna be, you know, going to the dinner
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
So it's sometimes that doesn't sometimes, but for the most.
Speaker 6 (53:32):
Part nowadays it's less.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah. Yeah, earlier on, there's a mutual respect there. I mean,
there used to be like a respect for what they do,
as you know, is there something else I can help
with what happened as a public serpent or aspect for.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Yeah, I'm gonna let you guys go, but I have
one more question for the Why was Anderson Cooper like
in the hurricane came the most shocking thing I saw.
So I'm like, what is he doing down there? Like
you you Ranison? Cooper loves it so loud, So he
gets like smashed by some like weird like siding. I'm like, Anderson, like,
(54:17):
you've put in your time, you don't have to go
down into the hurricane. Does not have to do it.
That ships so funny.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
The black T shirts.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
He's got to show off the guns, I know, but
I remember turning on the TV to look at it,
and I'm like, wait a minute, Anderson like, obviously you
called your number on this assignment. No one's telling you
to go there. Well, I appreciate you, guys. It's been
so much fun. When I am in Washington, I definitely
(54:52):
would love to come down and see that. I mean, no,
but I'm on the East coast, you know. I'm on
the East coast a bunch, you know, And I mean
I would love to just see the inner workings of it.
It's just so fun. I mean, I it would be
a blast. Now, all right, guys, I appreciate it. Thank you,
all right, we'll talk, thank you, thank you. Oh my god,
(55:14):
that's not enough time. That is not enough time, because
I know when I do these shows, I got it.
I want to get to the childhood. I want to
get into the thing, you know. I wanted to learn
where everyone's coming from, and that's what's fun about it,
you know, to sort of see where they But I
wanted to get into the whole news thing. Oh god,
there's so much I want to talk about. Anyway, maybe
(55:35):
next time I'd love to have Dan on again. She's great,
So it is Dave. Dave great, I always say that
after everything. Anyway, I'm gonna go to DC. I'm going
to do that. I think that'd be fun. It'd be
really fun. And you know what, you know what else,
I actually have a credit. I have an Airbnb credit.
(55:57):
How about that? So I can use my Airbnb credit
to say, somewhere in DC, so I can cut some cost.
All right, this is good, it's all coming together. It's
all coming together. I'm gonna go to DC. I'm gonna
use miles so I don't have to pay for that.
Then I'm gonna use my Airbnb credit, stay at some
probably like radical place, and then I'm just going to
(56:21):
stay at CNN all day and just eat there craft
service and whatever lunch they have and then leave, so
I essentially won't spend any money. Perfect, did it done?
All right? Thank you Dan and David. This was really awesome.
It wasn't enough time, but hopefully I get to I
get to hang out with them again.
Speaker 3 (56:41):
All right.
Speaker 2 (56:42):
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