In this wide-ranging and engaging conversation, media commentator Ben Domenech shares his unexpected journey from a non-political upbringing to becoming a leading voice in American media. Ben reflects on the mentors and early influences that shaped his career, the pivotal transitions that defined his professional path, and why family remains central to his success.
The discussion also dives into Ben’s passion for sports, including bold predictions about the future of the NFL, and wraps up with practical insights on personal growth—highlighting the surprising benefits of becoming a morning person and building better daily habits.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thanks, and welcome back to the Carol Markut Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
My guest today is Ben Dominich.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Ben is a Fox contributor and the host of The
Big Ben Show, editor at large at The Spectator, and
writes for the trans Some sub Stack.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi, Ben, so nice to have you on, Carol.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
It's great to be with you. You're one of my
favorite people in this industry. Thank you a real part.
You're visual invited to talk to you today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I have been a long time, Ben, and I actually
was thinking this, like I feel like I've been reading
you and watching you for so long, like longer than
you know, most people in our world, in this thing
of ours. But I don't know the origin story. How
did you get into this business?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
So I have kind of a weird life. And I'll
just put that. I'll just put that in front and centers.
I was born in Jackson, Mississippi. I grew up in
the South in Charleston, South Carolina, North Charleston near Park
Circle for the listeners who are from South Carolina, Nancy
Mace's district now and it is. And I grew up
(01:09):
in a family that was not particularly interested in politics
other than the pro life issue. There was actually a
picture of me when I was a kid that ran
in New York Times of me holding a sign at
the March for Life in DC because my family would
make the track up there every year to March. I
(01:31):
was born to two Christian hippie foresters, which is, I
know sounds a little odd, but I'm not really. I
don't think they're very crunchy, and they were, I mean,
I think you would have considered them kind of conservationist
environmentalist types, you know, within that space.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, do you remember Roger had that whole crunchy conservative movement.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
God was talking about my people basically so interesting, and
they got into the homeschooling thing very early before it
really kind of took off. And so I and my
younger siblings. I have a younger sister brother and another
sister who came later because she was adopted, and we
which is ended up being actually it's the same lineup
(02:15):
as my as my wife. But in terms of that,
but the thing, wow, yeah, but the thing that's that
was really president in our lives from me, gig Go
was that we were part of the homeschooling movement, and
it really was not for some people. It was like
a religious thing for my parents. It was more of
a we think our kids are very smart and we
want them to be able to push ahead. It was
a real royal ten and bombs kind of situation. And
(02:38):
to be quite honest, the three of us older ones,
I'm probably number one. I'm the least accomplished academically. I'm
a I'm a college shop out and they all of
course got have multiple.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Who cares about college? It's like a gas job out
of college.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Exactly exactly do you have the best kind of degree honor.
So the thing that is the thing that really happened
was that within the homes movement there was a guy
who came up who will be familiar to people, Mike Ferris,
who ran for lieutenant governor in Virginia. We moved to
Virginia when I was I guess eleven ten, and my
dad happened we happened to go to the same church
(03:13):
as this fellow who was a homeschooling leader, and he
asked my dad to run his campaign. And it was
an upstart campaign like you would have thought of it
as a kind of a proto tea party thing. Yeah,
and it was our first real experience in elected politics,
and how did you.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Pick your dad for this? Your dad is, like I know, a.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Minute ago, very odd and it was a big deal
that my dad kind of made like rolled the dice on,
like leaving. He was working for like a literally like
a paper company, and it was something that we did.
And then it put us into this whole new sphere
of this like homeschooling kind of quasi libertarian, crunchy activist community.
(03:55):
And I really got the political bug. I would watch
the McLaughlin grew with my family. We would, you know,
sort of, which was very surreal when it ended up
being able to be on it with most of the
same original folks eventually, and I was I was interested
in that, but I always thought I was going to
be I always wanted to be a magazine writer. I
wanted to work for National Geographic or something like that.
(04:17):
I wanted to go travel the world and write like
four articles in a year, and you know that are
kind of books or novellas. I love that land in
a place and understand every time, to understand everything about it.
And then I went to Willem and Mary while I
was in college nine to eleven happened and I completely
changed my plans because of it. It changed plans for
(04:39):
both my sister and my brother as well, who both
ended up and you know, going into the military side
of things, my sister working at the Pentagon under multiple
administrations and my brother going into the army, and we
I went into the writing side of things. I went
and was an intern at the White House speech Writing
Office under W. Bush and then stayed on a little
(05:01):
bit there as a speechwriter, and then went over to
jess where I wrote for Tommy Thompson while he was
the secretary there, and then went to Capitol Hill where
it was a speech writer for John Corny. And really
I just went on a completely different path than I
thought I would. I thought I would end I would
be like in the magazine world. The irony of it is,
I'm now kind of, yeah, I'm I'm now kind of
in the job that I like. I literally, you know,
(05:24):
just my last report was, you know, a thing where
I went to Madrid to cover a bunch of stuff,
and it's like I ended up in the thing that
I thought I would, but I took this circuitous route
to it, and you know, along the way, I co
founded Red State, which a bunch of people and with
a bunch of people and sold it. You know. I
got to edit a bunch of controversial books in the
(05:46):
course of like a year when I worked at Regnery,
including for like Ben Shapiro and people like that, and
then co founded The Federalist ran that for ten years
as publisher. And now I'm at a largest spectator and
I ended up at Fox, which, to be quite honest,
I always thought I was going to be somebody who
just communicated with written word. And it just seems a
(06:09):
little surreal to me still to be even on television.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Really, you have such a great voice, Like I feel
like your your voice lulls me into like wanting to
listen to you more.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Well, I appreciate it. It's due to my vices. The
thing that I would just say is I feel very
fortunate to be where I am. I am so lucky
and in so blessed in life. I got divorced when
I was younger, never thought I would have kids. Then
I meet this woman who happens to be the daughter
of a famous senator, but is someone who I actually
(06:42):
fell in love with and have had two kids now
with two daughters, and in the way right third on
the way, a son on the way, and the quickening
in her roomb is it is the so exciting. The
hour is late, so it's I think it's going to
be here before Christmas, but she thinks that earlier after
we have to be But I guess the thing I
would just say is there's some people who kind of
(07:05):
start out and they just go gung ho, guns blazing
to try to get into the industry and to make
their mark and to be able to, you know, have
a column that they're writing somewhere, to get on TV,
to do this kind of commentary thing. And for me,
I kind of feel like I ended up there by accident,
and I still kind of have to pinch myself. I
(07:28):
still have a little bit of that mister Smith attitude.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Honey, you're very natural at it.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
That's why, like I could see have imposter synt. All right, Well,
I guess my question always is what would a Plan
B have been for you? What if this hadn't worked out?
What if you, you know, start trying to be a
writer and it just doesn't happen. What would have what
would have different road you might have taken have been?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well, I think they're kind of I think the actual
way that I would have ended up having my mark
is I think I would have just gone into sports.
I love sports, I love sports radio, I love talk.
I think that it's work quality than it should be.
I just interviewed Seth Wickersham on my show a couple
of weeks ago. She just wrote this great book about quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I thought you were going to tell me that was
a quarterback or something.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
No, No, that's fine. Seth writes for Yet he was
a writer for The Athletic and ESPN, the magazine and
that kind of thing. He's a writer for ESPN and
he has this great book about quarterbacks where he interviewed
all these famous quarterbacks and like did these deep dive
profiles and it's like dramatic and moving. That's totally the
dream job. I would love to do something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I also love I'm doing that. You have your own podcast.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You could do whatever you want. You could have an
episode a week on you know, whatever sports topic.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Ben once, whenever I talk about sports. What I'm told
is from my producers is that is that people are
less interested in your collectors they are in politics. And
they don't show me the numbers.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
But I believe my view of them because I feel
like people love when we are off of our you know,
typical thing, when we're not just talking about the issues
of the day.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I think they like when we, you know, get into
an interest or maybe maybe they don't, maybe they hate
it anywhere.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Here's what I truly think, Carol. I somehow I ended
up into like in this like young serious guy Lane
because I do Special Report and I do some of
these serious shows, and I really envy the fact that,
like other people get to be funny, I think to
be I get to be I try to inject the
humor when.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I can, but like, but you are funny, and you're
writing you are funny.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I wish that I
could put more of that into like the TV side
of things. And for whatever reason, I'm in this young
serious Guy Lane.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's hard on Special Report. What are you going to
crack jokes with? Brett? You know?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I will say the I don't know what you have
as like an icebreaker when you meet new people or
when you have, you know, kind of I always.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Look look at them awkwardly. I don't know. I don't
really have when.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I when I whenever I meet somebody who I'm going
to do something with, or you know, it's it's like
a new thing, or there are two questions that I
typically ask if I'm interviewing you for a job, which
is not something that I do now but used to
do quite a lot. Usually I ask people what their
favorite conspiracy theory is. It doesn't have to be one
(10:18):
that very tough right now, but I want to hear
what their favorite conspiracy theory is. And then and then
for people who especially if it's a situation where I
was paired recently with this great a Christian guy who
runs a major pro life group for an event in
Dallas promoting the Dallas Dallas's major pro life group, and
(10:42):
I always ask of them, what's your favorite dark joke?
Because that's a good measure of like, good, yeah, how
dark someone is willing to go? And also like it
tells me something about their sense of humor and what
you're going to be able to, like, you know, break
their balls about.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I don't ask this on your show, Oh you if
you have people, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Always I'm not sure. I'm not sure how you know.
Mark Wayne Mullen would respond to that question but I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
He has a given exactly the right kind of people. Yes, So.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
The thing is that I think that kind of you know,
it opens things up. And you know, look, I love
I love comedy, I love Hollywood. I don't think I
would really want to write about them because they'm not
as passionate about it as I maybe I am about sports.
But but I think that's the alternate kind of route.
And you know, my let me just put it this way.
My dream, even though I was never somebody who could
(11:35):
who could play sports all that well, my dream job
would be like I would like to slide into that
chair next to Al Michaels and make him more interested
in the game. Yeah, and I'm not I'm not saying
that just because you know, I think that, you know,
there's a lot of boring pairings frankly in the sports
commentary world right now. Yeah, but you know, just to
(11:56):
be able to talk about Jerry Jones for like an hour,
it's like dream for me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You could, you know, you could come on here and
talk Jerry anytime you want.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
You know, I'm a big Cowboys fan. Yes, that definitely
discussed Jerry's world.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
When congratulations on having a quarterback with two working arms.
I'm told that's helpful.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Who's your team?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Oh, I am a diehard Washington fan. I have been. Yes.
So my mom is actually from the DC area and
she's the sports fan in the family. She gets she
has national tickets that we get for her every year
and is a passionate sports fan. My dad grew up
in the Caribbean and so because of that, he doesn't
really care about like American domestic sports as much. He
goes along for the ride. But like, it was always
(12:38):
my mom who was really passionate and gets really sad
when like a player gets traded or injured or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I love that. I actually love a mom being super
into it. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, she scores all the games when she goes to
the Nats park. And it's funny because she sits next
to these two like these two older black guys in
their like probably late seventies, early eighties, and they're all
friends and they all score the games together. End.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Why do people do that? I've always kind of wondered,
why did you?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It's like making it's like almost like scrap booking or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Do they think that actual scorers are making a mistake
or they're just keeping.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It for their own No, it's more than I think.
It helps them remember every game and they can look
back at them and sort of say at the end, oh,
you know, I was there for that, and I'm a
big I mean this year I got the Nationals offer
a I'm a bigger football pam in baseball, but the
Nationals offer like a walk up plan where you can
basically walk into any game and it's standing room. But
(13:35):
then there's the seas are never full, so you can say,
you know if you want to. And I got to
see so many interesting moments that I never would have
seen otherwise. I went to all the Dodgers games that
they had this season, and there was there was a
pitcher for the Nationals and he was a reliever who
had to start because of an injury. Like it was
(13:55):
not it was not an ideal situation against the Dodgers,
and reading up on him, it was before the game,
it turned out that he had been working at home
Depot the previous like literally months earlier, Like he was
working at home depot over Christmas, like he was in
charge of the Christmas tree lot.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
He is pitching in a game that's so good against
the Dodgers, and the first pitch, the first hitter that
he faces is sho Heo Tani. Okay, you know the
best most talent my.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Name I could probably name in baseball.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and and he strikes him out.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And it's just like, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
How can you not love sports. That's something that's just like,
you know, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
So I love the whole get them off the couch,
you know sports phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That's always a good time and fun to watch. Yeah,
So I.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Don't know, I think you can definitely work more sports
into your repertoire.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
I think you're you're ben dominant. You could do whatever
you want.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Really, I appreciate. I wish I always. When I was
in in like twenty and eleven, twenty twelve, I was
on the Blaze when they were having their New York show.
I don't know if you ever did that show where
it was a panel and it's so funny.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, my first time on TV was that.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Oh really, Okay, So people who don't know the show
it had on it s E Cup, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh, Will Kine, Will Kane Sexton.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
UK Sexton, heg seth, Well I was not with him,
but yeah, yeah, and usually there was a rotating chair
and I was in the rotating chair sometimes it's funny
and uh. And did like the coverage of like the
the twenty twelve, the Romney Convention with them and everything
like that, And it's just so funny to see where
(15:44):
everybody I know, right, I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, And whenever I'm on with Buck and Will, I
was like, you guys were both there the first time
I was ever you know, on TV.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It was exciting times.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
We're going to take a quick break and be ready
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What are you most
proud of in your life?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I think the thing that I'm probably most proud of
is that, you know I've made I think I've made
some bad decisions in my life. I've made mistakes like
everybody does. But right now I would say I'm probably
the happiest I've ever been in life because of making
the decision to, you know, ask my wife to marry me,
(16:29):
and to have these two beautiful little girls, and to
be raising them in an environment and with a job
or multiple jobs where thankfully I have enough time to
just spend time with them all the time and be
present in their lives and seeing them grow and seeing
them push ahead. I mean, I am someone who really
(16:50):
believes in pushing ahead. Thanks to homeschooling, you know, I
was someone who was always like a a year ahead
of where my age would dictate when it came to
that kind of stuff. And so I'm always pushing them
to try things that are new. And we have, you know,
a son who's going to arrive soon. I'm just most
proud I think of my family and the fact that
(17:10):
I was able to do that after screwing up a bunch,
you know, when I was younger and not being able
to have a family and really coming to kind of
think that I was never going to be able to
have one. And it required a lot of tough times.
I mean, going through the death of my wife's father
so public, and you know, I mean this literally being public,
but I mean, I you know, I had to go
(17:32):
to the White House and tell Jared and Ivoka that
they didn't want their you know, their dad to come
to the funeral and that kind of thing, and it
was it was just a very tough time all around.
And I think helping you know, everyone in my life
through that was really a challenge. And so I'm I'm
proud of that. I'm proud of the of my family
and of my kids, and you know, I've started a
(17:53):
bunch of companies. Some of them have been successful, some
of them haven't, but I'm more proud of them of course.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, I feel like you guys are. I mean, it's
such a beautiful family.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I love want to hear Megan talk about the kids,
and I just love watching you guys. But yeah, I
think that that's what we should derive pride from, right,
I mean, everything else is so secondary, and you are
in a very golden time.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I have my kids are a little older. You know,
I know everybody tells.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You enjoy every minute, and it's very, very hard to
actually enjoy every minute. But you know, you're in such
a good time, and the fact that you recognize that
you're already a step ahead, it's really wonderful.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
And the thing that I also would encourage people about
is that, you know, I know that there's this whole
thing about you know, you need to start earlier or like,
you know, people are worried about delaying things wrong, especially
in the DC area. You know, there's so many examples
of women who are struggling to get pregnant when they're
you know, well past the age where you would have
(18:53):
recommended it for medical reasons and things like that. And
so I think that there's a natural hesitancy for people
where they say, you know, isn't that risky or isn't
it hard? You know, especially if you are, you know,
maybe in a position where you're worried about finances or
things like that, and it costs a lot, especially if
you live in a city, to you know, just do
(19:13):
the basic things to kind of keep up with the joneses.
But the thing that I would just encourage people with
is pulling the trigger on it is something you will
not regret. You will not regret it. Ever, it will
always be you know, My wife's only regret, what she
expresses to me, is like, I wish we could have
started sooner, and she knows that we couldn't, but you know,
it's just because of timing and not even knowing each
(19:34):
other and that kind of thing. But it's also just
like a this is the most fulfilling aspect of it.
And I don't mean to denigrate anybody who's who's single,
or who can have kids or anything like that. It's
just more that like, for me, this is what gives
my life purpose and everything else is just secondary.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
There's no words, there's no words to describe it to
people that don't don't have it. About the starting early,
my husband and I were best friends for a decade
so before we started dating, so we could have started
early had we been smarter.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
But it goes the way it goes.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And what are you going to do? Give us a
five year out prediction, and it could be about anything,
anything at all.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
So I'm going to stick to sports a little bit.
Uh yeah, do it by I predict that by twenty thirty,
the NFL will have announced that it is going to
expand in a global way with multiple teams in Europe
and perhaps one in Mexico City, and that what's really
going to fuel this is the fact that we're going
(20:32):
to have a reintroduction of supersonic travel across the Atlantic,
and that that technological barrier coming down, which essentially cuts
in half the time that you know, teams need to travel,
is going to be the thing that allows teams to
be able to you know, not have kind of some
(20:52):
of these weird London experiences that people have had or
something like that of you know, not being able to
travel quickly enough across and that I think is going
to be a huge American footprint placed on the world.
And I think I think it's going to be a success.
I think the amount of interests and appeal of that
(21:13):
in an era when so much else in terms of
entertainment is going downhill. The numbers for the NFL are incredible,
and I think that you're going to just see that
expansion happen and make a lot of people a lot
of money.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Wow, this is the most interesting prediction I have gotten
on this show.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Like I have to tell you because a lot of
people the very standard answer right now is AI.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
AI is going to be good. AI is going to
be bad. There's a lot of that. But this supersonic
travel is coming back in the NFL, is going to
expand to other countries. This is this is some good stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, no, you you heard it. You heard it here first,
or you've heard it here. And the Wall Street Journal
has profiled this supersonic company a bit, and it's it's
really fast, it's fascinating stuff. But I think you know, look,
this is America. Is is producing sports content in a
way that the world really wants to get into in
a huge way, and that this is this is going
(22:07):
to be I think a major part of that and
seeing it firsthand during the Madrid game was it was
just impressive. And the and the way that they've established
a footprint there in Europe as an alternative to to
foot their football is something that I think is very real.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Roder Goodell believes in manifest destiny for the NFL.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I mean and Jerry Jones on the supersonic plane on
the way to play in Europe.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I love to see it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Oh man, he's gonna have some fun on that trip,
that's forr sure.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It really is, Ben. I have loved this conversation.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I again, you've always been one of my favorites, but
really getting to know you has been fantastic. Leave us
here with your best tip for my listeners on how
they can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So this is probably an uncomfortable tip, but for yourself
to become a morning person, it's really you can do it,
because I was not and I forced myself into it.
Kind of how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Because I'm like a mid afternoon person.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
You have to start giving yourself early morning obligations that
you have to fulfill in order to do various things.
I now do most of my writing before seven o'clock
in the morning, and it's just one of these things
where the adjustment time will take time. But once you
do that, the other thing is it gives you an
(23:32):
easy out or an easy excuse I would say, for
being the first to leave when it comes to the
evening events.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Really what this is all about, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And to me, that is something that is actually critical.
Like if you have the excuse of saying, oh no,
I have to do this in the morning, and it
means that you're not the person shutting down the bar,
you will feel better. You really will, trust me. Too
many late nights is bad for you, and I know
that from experience, and nothing good to happen after a
certain hour at night. Bad decisions are made. And so
(24:03):
I'm just telling you it's a much better to become
a morning person, even if it makes you boring, and
even if it means you're doing irish goodbyes at parties
that are well away from being over, but you will
feel better for it, and it'll make you more tolerant
once you have to interact people around seven and eight
o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I love it. He is Ben Dominic.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Check out the Big Ben Show, read him at the
Spectator and sign up for the Transom on sub sac.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Thank you so much for coming on, Ben, it's great
to be with you.
Thanks, and welcome back to the Carol Markut Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
My guest today is Ben Dominich.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Ben is a Fox contributor and the host of The
Big Ben Show, editor at large at The Spectator, and
writes for the trans Some sub Stack.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi, Ben, so nice to have you on, Carol.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
It's great to be with you. You're one of my
favorite people in this industry. Thank you a real part.
You're visual invited to talk to you today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I have been a long time, Ben, and I actually
was thinking this, like I feel like I've been reading
you and watching you for so long, like longer than
you know, most people in our world, in this thing
of ours. But I don't know the origin story. How
did you get into this business?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
So I have kind of a weird life. And I'll
just put that. I'll just put that in front and centers.
I was born in Jackson, Mississippi. I grew up in
the South in Charleston, South Carolina, North Charleston near Park
Circle for the listeners who are from South Carolina, Nancy
Mace's district now and it is. And I grew up
(01:09):
in a family that was not particularly interested in politics
other than the pro life issue. There was actually a
picture of me when I was a kid that ran
in New York Times of me holding a sign at
the March for Life in DC because my family would
make the track up there every year to March. I
(01:31):
was born to two Christian hippie foresters, which is, I
know sounds a little odd, but I'm not really. I
don't think they're very crunchy, and they were, I mean,
I think you would have considered them kind of conservationist
environmentalist types, you know, within that space.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, do you remember Roger had that whole crunchy conservative movement.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
God was talking about my people basically so interesting, and
they got into the homeschooling thing very early before it
really kind of took off. And so I and my
younger siblings. I have a younger sister brother and another
sister who came later because she was adopted, and we
which is ended up being actually it's the same lineup
(02:15):
as my as my wife. But in terms of that,
but the thing, wow, yeah, but the thing that's that
was really president in our lives from me, gig Go
was that we were part of the homeschooling movement, and
it really was not for some people. It was like
a religious thing for my parents. It was more of
a we think our kids are very smart and we
want them to be able to push ahead. It was
a real royal ten and bombs kind of situation. And
(02:38):
to be quite honest, the three of us older ones,
I'm probably number one. I'm the least accomplished academically. I'm
a I'm a college shop out and they all of
course got have multiple.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Who cares about college? It's like a gas job out
of college.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Exactly exactly do you have the best kind of degree honor.
So the thing that is the thing that really happened
was that within the homes movement there was a guy
who came up who will be familiar to people, Mike Ferris,
who ran for lieutenant governor in Virginia. We moved to
Virginia when I was I guess eleven ten, and my
dad happened we happened to go to the same church
(03:13):
as this fellow who was a homeschooling leader, and he
asked my dad to run his campaign. And it was
an upstart campaign like you would have thought of it
as a kind of a proto tea party thing. Yeah,
and it was our first real experience in elected politics,
and how did you.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Pick your dad for this? Your dad is, like I know, a.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Minute ago, very odd and it was a big deal
that my dad kind of made like rolled the dice on,
like leaving. He was working for like a literally like
a paper company, and it was something that we did.
And then it put us into this whole new sphere
of this like homeschooling kind of quasi libertarian, crunchy activist community.
(03:55):
And I really got the political bug. I would watch
the McLaughlin grew with my family. We would, you know,
sort of, which was very surreal when it ended up
being able to be on it with most of the
same original folks eventually, and I was I was interested
in that, but I always thought I was going to
be I always wanted to be a magazine writer. I
wanted to work for National Geographic or something like that.
(04:17):
I wanted to go travel the world and write like
four articles in a year, and you know that are
kind of books or novellas. I love that land in
a place and understand every time, to understand everything about it.
And then I went to Willem and Mary while I
was in college nine to eleven happened and I completely
changed my plans because of it. It changed plans for
(04:39):
both my sister and my brother as well, who both
ended up and you know, going into the military side
of things, my sister working at the Pentagon under multiple
administrations and my brother going into the army, and we
I went into the writing side of things. I went
and was an intern at the White House speech Writing
Office under W. Bush and then stayed on a little
(05:01):
bit there as a speechwriter, and then went over to
jess where I wrote for Tommy Thompson while he was
the secretary there, and then went to Capitol Hill where
it was a speech writer for John Corny. And really
I just went on a completely different path than I
thought I would. I thought I would end I would
be like in the magazine world. The irony of it is,
I'm now kind of, yeah, I'm I'm now kind of
in the job that I like. I literally, you know,
(05:24):
just my last report was, you know, a thing where
I went to Madrid to cover a bunch of stuff,
and it's like I ended up in the thing that
I thought I would, but I took this circuitous route
to it, and you know, along the way, I co
founded Red State, which a bunch of people and with
a bunch of people and sold it. You know. I
got to edit a bunch of controversial books in the
(05:46):
course of like a year when I worked at Regnery,
including for like Ben Shapiro and people like that, and
then co founded The Federalist ran that for ten years
as publisher. And now I'm at a largest spectator and
I ended up at Fox, which, to be quite honest,
I always thought I was going to be somebody who
just communicated with written word. And it just seems a
(06:09):
little surreal to me still to be even on television.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Really, you have such a great voice, Like I feel
like your your voice lulls me into like wanting to
listen to you more.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Well, I appreciate it. It's due to my vices. The
thing that I would just say is I feel very
fortunate to be where I am. I am so lucky
and in so blessed in life. I got divorced when
I was younger, never thought I would have kids. Then
I meet this woman who happens to be the daughter
of a famous senator, but is someone who I actually
(06:42):
fell in love with and have had two kids now
with two daughters, and in the way right third on
the way, a son on the way, and the quickening
in her roomb is it is the so exciting. The
hour is late, so it's I think it's going to
be here before Christmas, but she thinks that earlier after
we have to be But I guess the thing I
would just say is there's some people who kind of
(07:05):
start out and they just go gung ho, guns blazing
to try to get into the industry and to make
their mark and to be able to, you know, have
a column that they're writing somewhere, to get on TV,
to do this kind of commentary thing. And for me,
I kind of feel like I ended up there by accident,
and I still kind of have to pinch myself. I
(07:28):
still have a little bit of that mister Smith attitude.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Honey, you're very natural at it.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
That's why, like I could see have imposter synt. All right, Well,
I guess my question always is what would a Plan
B have been for you? What if this hadn't worked out?
What if you, you know, start trying to be a
writer and it just doesn't happen. What would have what
would have different road you might have taken have been?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well, I think they're kind of I think the actual
way that I would have ended up having my mark
is I think I would have just gone into sports.
I love sports, I love sports radio, I love talk.
I think that it's work quality than it should be.
I just interviewed Seth Wickersham on my show a couple
of weeks ago. She just wrote this great book about quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I thought you were going to tell me that was
a quarterback or something.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
No, No, that's fine. Seth writes for Yet he was
a writer for The Athletic and ESPN, the magazine and
that kind of thing. He's a writer for ESPN and
he has this great book about quarterbacks where he interviewed
all these famous quarterbacks and like did these deep dive
profiles and it's like dramatic and moving. That's totally the
dream job. I would love to do something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I also love I'm doing that. You have your own podcast.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You could do whatever you want. You could have an
episode a week on you know, whatever sports topic.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Ben once, whenever I talk about sports. What I'm told
is from my producers is that is that people are
less interested in your collectors they are in politics. And
they don't show me the numbers.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
But I believe my view of them because I feel
like people love when we are off of our you know,
typical thing, when we're not just talking about the issues
of the day.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I think they like when we, you know, get into
an interest or maybe maybe they don't, maybe they hate
it anywhere.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Here's what I truly think, Carol. I somehow I ended
up into like in this like young serious guy Lane
because I do Special Report and I do some of
these serious shows, and I really envy the fact that,
like other people get to be funny, I think to
be I get to be I try to inject the
humor when.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I can, but like, but you are funny, and you're
writing you are funny.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I wish that I
could put more of that into like the TV side
of things. And for whatever reason, I'm in this young
serious Guy Lane.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's hard on Special Report. What are you going to
crack jokes with? Brett? You know?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I will say the I don't know what you have
as like an icebreaker when you meet new people or
when you have, you know, kind of I always.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Look look at them awkwardly. I don't know. I don't
really have when.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I when I whenever I meet somebody who I'm going
to do something with, or you know, it's it's like
a new thing, or there are two questions that I
typically ask if I'm interviewing you for a job, which
is not something that I do now but used to
do quite a lot. Usually I ask people what their
favorite conspiracy theory is. It doesn't have to be one
(10:18):
that very tough right now, but I want to hear
what their favorite conspiracy theory is. And then and then
for people who especially if it's a situation where I
was paired recently with this great a Christian guy who
runs a major pro life group for an event in
Dallas promoting the Dallas Dallas's major pro life group, and
(10:42):
I always ask of them, what's your favorite dark joke?
Because that's a good measure of like, good, yeah, how
dark someone is willing to go? And also like it
tells me something about their sense of humor and what
you're going to be able to, like, you know, break
their balls about.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I don't ask this on your show, Oh you if
you have people, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Always I'm not sure. I'm not sure how you know.
Mark Wayne Mullen would respond to that question but I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
He has a given exactly the right kind of people. Yes, So.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
The thing is that I think that kind of you know,
it opens things up. And you know, look, I love
I love comedy, I love Hollywood. I don't think I
would really want to write about them because they'm not
as passionate about it as I maybe I am about sports.
But but I think that's the alternate kind of route.
And you know, my let me just put it this way.
My dream, even though I was never somebody who could
(11:35):
who could play sports all that well, my dream job
would be like I would like to slide into that
chair next to Al Michaels and make him more interested
in the game. Yeah, and I'm not I'm not saying
that just because you know, I think that, you know,
there's a lot of boring pairings frankly in the sports
commentary world right now. Yeah, but you know, just to
(11:56):
be able to talk about Jerry Jones for like an hour,
it's like dream for me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You could, you know, you could come on here and
talk Jerry anytime you want.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
You know, I'm a big Cowboys fan. Yes, that definitely
discussed Jerry's world.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
When congratulations on having a quarterback with two working arms.
I'm told that's helpful.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Who's your team?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Oh, I am a diehard Washington fan. I have been. Yes.
So my mom is actually from the DC area and
she's the sports fan in the family. She gets she
has national tickets that we get for her every year
and is a passionate sports fan. My dad grew up
in the Caribbean and so because of that, he doesn't
really care about like American domestic sports as much. He
goes along for the ride. But like, it was always
(12:38):
my mom who was really passionate and gets really sad
when like a player gets traded or injured or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I love that. I actually love a mom being super
into it. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, she scores all the games when she goes to
the Nats park. And it's funny because she sits next
to these two like these two older black guys in
their like probably late seventies, early eighties, and they're all
friends and they all score the games together. End.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Why do people do that? I've always kind of wondered,
why did you?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It's like making it's like almost like scrap booking or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Do they think that actual scorers are making a mistake
or they're just keeping.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It for their own No, it's more than I think.
It helps them remember every game and they can look
back at them and sort of say at the end, oh,
you know, I was there for that, and I'm a
big I mean this year I got the Nationals offer
a I'm a bigger football pam in baseball, but the
Nationals offer like a walk up plan where you can
basically walk into any game and it's standing room. But
(13:35):
then there's the seas are never full, so you can say,
you know if you want to. And I got to
see so many interesting moments that I never would have
seen otherwise. I went to all the Dodgers games that
they had this season, and there was there was a
pitcher for the Nationals and he was a reliever who
had to start because of an injury. Like it was
(13:55):
not it was not an ideal situation against the Dodgers,
and reading up on him, it was before the game,
it turned out that he had been working at home
Depot the previous like literally months earlier, Like he was
working at home depot over Christmas, like he was in
charge of the Christmas tree lot.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
He is pitching in a game that's so good against
the Dodgers, and the first pitch, the first hitter that
he faces is sho Heo Tani. Okay, you know the
best most talent my.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Name I could probably name in baseball.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and and he strikes him out.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And it's just like, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
How can you not love sports. That's something that's just like,
you know, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
So I love the whole get them off the couch,
you know sports phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That's always a good time and fun to watch. Yeah,
So I.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Don't know, I think you can definitely work more sports
into your repertoire.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
I think you're you're ben dominant. You could do whatever
you want.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Really, I appreciate. I wish I always. When I was
in in like twenty and eleven, twenty twelve, I was
on the Blaze when they were having their New York show.
I don't know if you ever did that show where
it was a panel and it's so funny.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, my first time on TV was that.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Oh really, Okay, So people who don't know the show
it had on it s E Cup, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh, Will Kine, Will Kane Sexton.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
UK Sexton, heg seth, Well I was not with him,
but yeah, yeah, and usually there was a rotating chair
and I was in the rotating chair sometimes it's funny
and uh. And did like the coverage of like the
the twenty twelve, the Romney Convention with them and everything
like that, And it's just so funny to see where
(15:44):
everybody I know, right, I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, And whenever I'm on with Buck and Will, I
was like, you guys were both there the first time
I was ever you know, on TV.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It was exciting times.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
We're going to take a quick break and be ready
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What are you most
proud of in your life?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I think the thing that I'm probably most proud of
is that, you know I've made I think I've made
some bad decisions in my life. I've made mistakes like
everybody does. But right now I would say I'm probably
the happiest I've ever been in life because of making
the decision to, you know, ask my wife to marry me,
(16:29):
and to have these two beautiful little girls, and to
be raising them in an environment and with a job
or multiple jobs where thankfully I have enough time to
just spend time with them all the time and be
present in their lives and seeing them grow and seeing
them push ahead. I mean, I am someone who really
(16:50):
believes in pushing ahead. Thanks to homeschooling, you know, I
was someone who was always like a a year ahead
of where my age would dictate when it came to
that kind of stuff. And so I'm always pushing them
to try things that are new. And we have, you know,
a son who's going to arrive soon. I'm just most
proud I think of my family and the fact that
(17:10):
I was able to do that after screwing up a bunch,
you know, when I was younger and not being able
to have a family and really coming to kind of
think that I was never going to be able to
have one. And it required a lot of tough times.
I mean, going through the death of my wife's father
so public, and you know, I mean this literally being public,
but I mean, I you know, I had to go
(17:32):
to the White House and tell Jared and Ivoka that
they didn't want their you know, their dad to come
to the funeral and that kind of thing, and it
was it was just a very tough time all around.
And I think helping you know, everyone in my life
through that was really a challenge. And so I'm I'm
proud of that. I'm proud of the of my family
and of my kids, and you know, I've started a
(17:53):
bunch of companies. Some of them have been successful, some
of them haven't, but I'm more proud of them of course.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, I feel like you guys are. I mean, it's
such a beautiful family.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I love want to hear Megan talk about the kids,
and I just love watching you guys. But yeah, I
think that that's what we should derive pride from, right,
I mean, everything else is so secondary, and you are
in a very golden time.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I have my kids are a little older. You know,
I know everybody tells.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You enjoy every minute, and it's very, very hard to
actually enjoy every minute. But you know, you're in such
a good time, and the fact that you recognize that
you're already a step ahead, it's really wonderful.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
And the thing that I also would encourage people about
is that, you know, I know that there's this whole
thing about you know, you need to start earlier or like,
you know, people are worried about delaying things wrong, especially
in the DC area. You know, there's so many examples
of women who are struggling to get pregnant when they're
you know, well past the age where you would have
(18:53):
recommended it for medical reasons and things like that. And
so I think that there's a natural hesitancy for people
where they say, you know, isn't that risky or isn't
it hard? You know, especially if you are, you know,
maybe in a position where you're worried about finances or
things like that, and it costs a lot, especially if
you live in a city, to you know, just do
(19:13):
the basic things to kind of keep up with the joneses.
But the thing that I would just encourage people with
is pulling the trigger on it is something you will
not regret. You will not regret it. Ever, it will
always be you know, My wife's only regret, what she
expresses to me, is like, I wish we could have
started sooner, and she knows that we couldn't, but you know,
it's just because of timing and not even knowing each
(19:34):
other and that kind of thing. But it's also just
like a this is the most fulfilling aspect of it.
And I don't mean to denigrate anybody who's who's single,
or who can have kids or anything like that. It's
just more that like, for me, this is what gives
my life purpose and everything else is just secondary.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
There's no words, there's no words to describe it to
people that don't don't have it. About the starting early,
my husband and I were best friends for a decade
so before we started dating, so we could have started
early had we been smarter.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
But it goes the way it goes.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And what are you going to do? Give us a
five year out prediction, and it could be about anything,
anything at all.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
So I'm going to stick to sports a little bit.
Uh yeah, do it by I predict that by twenty thirty,
the NFL will have announced that it is going to
expand in a global way with multiple teams in Europe
and perhaps one in Mexico City, and that what's really
going to fuel this is the fact that we're going
(20:32):
to have a reintroduction of supersonic travel across the Atlantic,
and that that technological barrier coming down, which essentially cuts
in half the time that you know, teams need to travel,
is going to be the thing that allows teams to
be able to you know, not have kind of some
(20:52):
of these weird London experiences that people have had or
something like that of you know, not being able to
travel quickly enough across and that I think is going
to be a huge American footprint placed on the world.
And I think I think it's going to be a success.
I think the amount of interests and appeal of that
(21:13):
in an era when so much else in terms of
entertainment is going downhill. The numbers for the NFL are incredible,
and I think that you're going to just see that
expansion happen and make a lot of people a lot
of money.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Wow, this is the most interesting prediction I have gotten
on this show.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Like I have to tell you because a lot of
people the very standard answer right now is AI.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
AI is going to be good. AI is going to
be bad. There's a lot of that. But this supersonic
travel is coming back in the NFL, is going to
expand to other countries. This is this is some good stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, no, you you heard it. You heard it here first,
or you've heard it here. And the Wall Street Journal
has profiled this supersonic company a bit, and it's it's
really fast, it's fascinating stuff. But I think you know, look,
this is America. Is is producing sports content in a
way that the world really wants to get into in
a huge way, and that this is this is going
(22:07):
to be I think a major part of that and
seeing it firsthand during the Madrid game was it was
just impressive. And the and the way that they've established
a footprint there in Europe as an alternative to to
foot their football is something that I think is very real.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Roder Goodell believes in manifest destiny for the NFL.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I mean and Jerry Jones on the supersonic plane on
the way to play in Europe.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I love to see it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Oh man, he's gonna have some fun on that trip,
that's forr sure.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It really is, Ben. I have loved this conversation.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I again, you've always been one of my favorites, but
really getting to know you has been fantastic. Leave us
here with your best tip for my listeners on how
they can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So this is probably an uncomfortable tip, but for yourself
to become a morning person, it's really you can do it,
because I was not and I forced myself into it.
Kind of how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Because I'm like a mid afternoon person.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
You have to start giving yourself early morning obligations that
you have to fulfill in order to do various things.
I now do most of my writing before seven o'clock
in the morning, and it's just one of these things
where the adjustment time will take time. But once you
do that, the other thing is it gives you an
(23:32):
easy out or an easy excuse I would say, for
being the first to leave when it comes to the
evening events.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Really what this is all about, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And to me, that is something that is actually critical.
Like if you have the excuse of saying, oh no,
I have to do this in the morning, and it
means that you're not the person shutting down the bar,
you will feel better. You really will, trust me. Too
many late nights is bad for you, and I know
that from experience, and nothing good to happen after a
certain hour at night. Bad decisions are made. And so
(24:03):
I'm just telling you it's a much better to become
a morning person, even if it makes you boring, and
even if it means you're doing irish goodbyes at parties
that are well away from being over, but you will
feel better for it, and it'll make you more tolerant
once you have to interact people around seven and eight
o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I love it. He is Ben Dominic.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Check out the Big Ben Show, read him at the
Spectator and sign up for the Transom on sub sac.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Thank you so much for coming on, Ben, it's great
to be with you.
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Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.