April 18, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode, Karol interviews Stephen L. Miller about his life and career. They discuss leaving New York, playing ice hockey, and the challenges of being in the media industry. Miller shares his thoughts on the media's role in shaping culture and the importance of community. He also emphasizes the need for constant personal growth and learning. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
On Monday's monologue, I asked for your resolutions and whether
you're keeping to them. I got some really good responses,
and yes, most people have fallen off the bandwagon of
what they had hoped.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
To do in January.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
A lot of you are restarting your exercise regiments or
eating healthier. You're trying again, and that's amazing. One response
was funny. A listener wrote, this year, I combined my
resolutions for my own form of penance. I vowed to
stop taking the Lord's name in vain each time I
caught myself with than oh my god, I had to
(00:42):
do thirty minutes on the peloton, which I detest. It worked,
and you know, I do wonder if something similar would
work for me. In the few days since I declared
I would do more fiction reading, I committed to one
fiction book a month. It's not even that much, but
I've read a total of two page It's a slow start, friends,
(01:03):
But now I'm wondering if there should be more.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Not punishment exactly, but if I should.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Make myself risk something if I don't succeed at my goal.
I think some people really do respond to negative repercussions
more than they do to the positive reward, and I
think I might be one of those people. Like I've
never stolen anything in my entire life because I was
terrified of being caught.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I would love to tell.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You that I'm just morally amazing and I'd always thought
it was a bad thing to do. But no, even
when I was a child that wouldn't take anything, just
the fear of being caught made me paralyzed and unable
to do anything bad. And I you know that works
for me. So now I just have to figure out
what the punishment would be and I'll take your suggestions.
Carol Marcowitz Show at gmail dot com. Also send me
(01:50):
how you're bettering your life this week. I really love
reading all your notes and emails and dms, so please
keep in touch and I love hearing what you're up to.
Coming up up next and interview with Stephen Miller. Join
us after the break. Hi, and welcome back to the
Carol Markuit Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Stephen Miller.
(02:13):
Stephen does the Versus Media podcast on Substack. He is
contributing editor at the Spectator and has written.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
For many places including NRO.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Fox News, and The New York Post.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Ty Stephen, Hi.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Carol, you have to put in the middle initial because
that's important. So well google this stuff. They think you're
interviewing on NAZI.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
See.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The first thing I was going to ask you is
are you the Stephen Miller?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
No, not anymore. But I was for a bit. I
was for a bit, and then Trump won and then
Trump lost, and now I'm back to kind of being
that because he's, you know, until he becomes Attorney general.
I think I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
You know, I was the top search result for Carol
with a K, and then Pope John Paul, whose birth
name was Carol with a K, died and that was it.
He messed out all of my search results because everybody
was using his real name. And there's a pop star
from Latin America named Carol K.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So we all have our problems, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah. I have guys on my hockey team starting to search.
They're like, you know, somebody said, like the search of it,
I couldn't find you. I'm like, oh, I'm very searchable.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You just got one letter, So what is your mid
So yeah, but that's your middle in Itchell, I don't
even know it.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
El Stephen L.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Meller will include that in the you know, in the
in the the bis No, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
People going to be like Carol Marcus is interviewing an insurrectionist.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well, I mean, I'm sure I've had an insurrection too
on here.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Probably, I mean, you know, depending on circumstances, I could be.
I mean, I'm just not one. After twenty twe right, right, So.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
We knew each other in New York and neither one
of us live in New York anymore. That's a big
topic of conversation on this show, people moving from places
that they lived. How was leaving New York for you?
You just like bye?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I miss three big things. I miss my hairstylist, my
hair dialist. I missed my dentist. Well, she's a barber,
like just tattooed to the you know whatever, and she was.
She's actually a sponsored marathon on her for Nike, and
it took me forever to find one. So I missed
my hairstylist. I missed my dentist. Believe it or not,
(04:28):
my dentist was featured in Vogue and I was one
of her very first customers in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Why are you so fancy?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It was No, she's not that it's weird. She's just
cool and hip. And so she was right down the
block and she started this little dental practice and then
all of a sudden she's in like a vogue spread
for like dental and Brooklyn or some weird thing. Okay,
And I still I still talk to her occasionally, just
for you know stuff. And I miss restaurants. Yeah, And
(04:55):
you know, I think about the lifestyle. Obviously. The neighborhoods
like Brooklyn were just so cool back then, and they
change and they become different and stuff. So there was
it was still when I got there, it was still
kind of sketchy sort of but getting cooler, you know,
like whatever. And when I left, you know, my place
was staring at the construction of a Trader Joe's and so.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And this is bad, and somehow I don't think it's bad.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
I am one of these people where I prefer local places.
I prefer local businesses. But it's not like I'm going
to protest the Trader Joe's. I'm not going to throw
red paint on the wind, right, But those are the
three things I missed the most, and when I really
think back, I don't miss much more. I moved there
in twenty ten, and things were different. The internet was different,
(05:41):
how we connected was different. So I can kind of
like go anywhere in the country now, and I can
still order from stores that I like than in New
York City to like close me. So those are those
are probably the top three things that I actually really
find myself missing.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's funny because growing up in Brooklyn, when a chain
would come to your neighborhood, that meant that things were
turning around.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
That meant that things were getting better.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Like I remember they kicked the wart out. Well, yes, no,
you're not coming to Queen's.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
No, we've never had I don't think they've ever allowed
Walmart in New York City, which is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
But I remember a friend of mine who.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Lived in East Flatbush was very excited and McDonald was
opening because there had never been a chain anything near
where she lived.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So it was a it.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Was seen as a positive stephen, and you know, people wanted.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It to have it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, it was. It was weird when I left Brooklyn
and I got a little bit more domesticated, still in
a kind of suburban urban area, and I saw Chilies,
and I was like, I realized, I haven't seen at
chilies in like ten Like I didn't go to Target,
you know. So it was like its kind of a
(06:57):
weird different thing. It was like getting used to it.
It's not like I had some dying neque to go
to Chili's, but I didn't. I went back to Chili's
just because I'm like, I'm going to go to Chili's
like whatever, any maybe back ribs and so yeah, it
was a little bit of an adjustment. But I was
never one of those kind of like snobs where it's
like I'm in Willis there and me, you don't get
(07:18):
a Walmart? I do, of course.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, it was never like a snob, but there was
I remember the Whole Foods open on the corner of
Bedford in Williamsburg, and that was a huge thing to do.
And you go down later the Whole Foods thing, and
that was kind of a sign there and it's like, oh,
this is all changing, like completely, so totally.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean Williamsburg more than any other place, I feel like,
just blew up so fast and yeah, so drastically.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So what what year.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Did you leave COVID No? I just barely before COVID.
I just my circumstances changed, so I moved out of Brooklyn,
and of course some pandemic happens, and I look back
on that, I would to say, like, I what would
it I look back and I say, what could it
have been like to have been there? Durrection? And oh no,
(08:15):
yeah I don't. I'm not sitting here thinking fondly in
my diary. But it is one of those things when
you know, you hear about people banging the pots and
pans out of their buildings and stuff like that and
some of those kind of trimunal experiences. You know, I thought, yeah,
I do think about that sometimes, but yeah, I got
out of Dodge just really I think it was September
(08:36):
of October rate before COVID happened. So part of me
was like, you know, no, I would not have wanted
to experience that, but it would have been one of
those things looking back where it's like, oh, yeah, I
guess I was in New York during that, right, And
I know you're and I know you are a casualty
of that. And I followed that about you know, just
having the city that you love so much, but yeah,
(08:57):
it's not like a fond thing.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
How I get it. It's a big part of the experience. Yeah,
I completely understand. I have friends who were not in
New York on nine to eleven, but they were New
Yorkers and they were.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Like, I missed it, Like I missed.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
They're not like, oh I missed a terrorist town. They
missed the carderie and all of the you know, Yeah,
I totally get it. Also, people who didn't feel the
earthquake a few weeks ago and they.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Just weekend away, they feel left out. Yeah. No, So
I went to an earthquake in New York and it
was the one that I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I've never ever felt in it.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So, yeah, it's only hit. It hit Washington and it
knocked the bricks out of the Washington Monument, and that's
what I think. This was twenty twenty thirteen. And I've
lived on the West Coast. I've lived in Los Angeles.
I've never had a hurricane. There are a great I've
lived on the Upper West Coast and no real weather
events there. And I moved to New York and I
(09:54):
experienced two hurricanes in the earth and there, so I
do remember the earthquake from I was twenty twelve or
twenty thirteen, and a marble counter in my loud is
singing at my lounge and I just feel like I'm
having a stroke, Like what is that?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Like?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
What is going on here? Is? And the first thing
is when things feel weird, it's like, oh, it's terrorist.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Attack the right, Oh totally yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
And so I do remember the forty five second earthquake
from like twenty and that's the one they hit the
East coast and they had to shut down the Washington
Monument because wow, ricks out or whatever. But yeah, so
when people were talking about this earthquake, I was kind
of like, eh, I've done it.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Whatever. I have never felt an earthquake.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I would be the New York earthquake before it was cool, so.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Very very Brooklyn in view.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, you play hockey, ice hockey, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Is there another kind of hockey?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh? I mean not really. I mean people try to
play roller and people try to I mean, I don't
know there's like professional field. I know that there is
a like for high school kids, there's field hockey. But yeah,
I grew up playing it in about five years ago.
I'd get in New York City I just kind of
was like, I need to be more active, I need
to start, you know. I was kind of missing it
and I was, you know, starting to to that age
(11:06):
where it's I don't pick this back up, then I'm
never gonna do it. So I just kind of took
the money, went to there was a there's a hockey
store just in lower like mid midtown lower Manette and
you just go up an elevator and then it opens
up and there's a hockey store. And I had played
in god since I was a teenager, so I was
just told the guy, I was like, I need gear,
so like suit me up and whatever, and uh I
(11:28):
was twenty eighteen, I think. And so yeah, like six
years later, I capped in my own team, which I
didn't want to do, and so we branded it and
I'd made one of my French bulldogs the mascot of it.
Just wow, I can do that, and yeah, it's it's
it's going well. I played kind of a prison league.
(11:48):
So there's a few weeks around and one of the
rieks has like a bar restaurant upstairs where you can
watch games. And mine doesn't know that we're playing an
old airplane hangar I'm sorry because you're playing with no, no, no,
it's just our rink is known for being like the
kind of the prison rink is because.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Just no fly.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, it's just ice. It's ice, and it's run by
Russian on it.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Oh oh yeah, they don't have alcohol, kind of Russians
don't have Oh.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You have to bring yours?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well, yes you can kind of sucker buys their own
alcohol out. You got to bring theirs obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, you don't do that. You don't bring like a
bottle of vodka.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
No, no, I don't, I don't. I don't know. It's
my team is funny Because've done on teams where they
are just a bunch of fat drunks and that I've
been on teams where they're not Like my current team
now doesn't really even have beers a locker room anymore,
including me. So I stopped I kind of stopped doing that.
And uh yeah, my team's a bunch of squares right now,
but we aren't winning.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Sounds it sounds like you're a bunch of old men.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Actually, yeah, not so much. I have I have, I have,
I'm the second oldest on the team. I have a
couple of guys in their forties, and then I have
a couple of guys that are in their twenties, so it's
all kind of mixed. But I I have a few
more years of that and then I'm going to have
to probably go to an old family.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I love it. Are you good?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I think I'm good. I'm probably the third best skater
on the team, and it's competitively, so there are guys
who are faster than me because they're younger than me.
I'm great backwards. I have a good head. I'm at
that point now where older athletes, which I'm not an athlete,
where it's like, if I had my brain now in
the body that I had ten years ago, i would
(13:26):
have been an All Star. And that's kind of where
I Yeah, I'm a very smarter player, but I'm also
just getting up an a so I know when I'm
losing a step. I saw a personal trainer for a
year which kind of just got me into better shape
and just kind of kicked the crap out of me.
And then part of the reason I did that was
to kind of keep doing some sports, and so yeah,
(13:47):
I had I haven't like better shape than I was
when I started. I don't feel like throwing up after
every ship.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
See, I would say you should try vodka, but whatever
up to.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
You really just not skating. So I mean that's the thing.
You guys that will do that, they'll load up before again.
Now I'm just like, I just I don't know how
you do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, so you seem happy.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You seem I don't know, not that you weren't happy
when I knew you in New York, but you maybe
even seem happier now, Like do you feel like you've
made it?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Oh God, I don't even know what happy is. I
don't have any may like happy.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I'm not happy.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I don't have any major catastrophes at the moment. So
it's like it's like I haven't I'm not I haven't
been hit by a car recently. So gosh, maybe as
far as I don't know, like professionally, especially.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Every way you want to look at it, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I mean professionally, especially with what we do with things
have things change so rapidly, and you know, a lot
of us swipt from like you said, we're writing from
your post and I still do once in a while,
or Nashville or Fox whatever. A lot of us have
now just kind of branched out into our own things
because of the technology is there, and that's kind of
(15:00):
where media is. So I never believe in kind of
thinking like you make it because this could all go
away tomorrow, So like you have to be prepared to
go be a ditch digger if that comes at you.
And so, and I also think you have to be
a little hungry in what we do. I think that
(15:21):
especially older pundits, older generations, older people who are kind
of in the media commentariat are just kind of at
this point going through the motions because I don't know
if they know if there's any use for them either
hate Trump or you know, they the media landscapes at
a place to where they just don't feel useful. So
you can tell it's not in it anymore, see when
(15:42):
they're just kind of trying to cash the paycheck. And
so I think if it ever gets to that point, yeah,
I mean to say, if you've made it, I don't
need to go out and do like Craiglist hits or
anything like that to get by. So I'm doing I'm
doing enough to keep my life.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What what are preglans not that I.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Can't tell you. So I'm doing enough to keep my
lights on, which is if for for what this is,
you know, basically, I'm paid for my opinion, which is
the only thing I'm good at. So to be able
to do that is I don't know if it's to
say like you've made it, but I'm doing enough to
where again I don't I don't need to go, h
do any kind of sort of menial labor that I
(16:22):
don't want to do. It's not a thing. I'm media labor, right,
I got it.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
I don't know as far as being able to make it.
I'm doing and I'm doing enough, you know, to where
I can do a podcast at you know, at one
o'clock in the afternoon as opposed to having to turn
on a TPS report. Right.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I like that you put that in East Coast time
because I know, you know that's the real time.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
So yeah, of course it is.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So what would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
What would be like a.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Plan B for you?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Oh God, I don't really believe.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
In just because like, okay, not forget while plan B?
Actually what what what's the dream career that you didn't follow?
I mean, my jokey one.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Is I always say like I would be a DJ,
Like I feel like I am very good at playing
music in a certain you know way, or in songs
in the right order. Really, so I think that would
be my plan. B I don't know that I would
actually do that, if that, you know, if things.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I've been doing some form
of writing since I was in high school, screenwriting or
doing anything, poemwriting, doing songwriting, whatever.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So I think I have the kind of just a
natural fit for where the path has taken me and
spen you know, I can. I kind of came of
age a little bit sort of in my twenties through
the Internet age to read it, you know, read it
when read it, blue up and read threads and four
Chan before it was kind of a Nazi cesspool. There
was a time when four Chan was fun. Believe me
(17:52):
when I say that some of it still is through
message boards and things like that. So he kind of
learned to hone a little bit of you know, what's
engaging about some of those things and what's not. And
so I think the just kind of whatever trajectory your
path I was on was always just going to kind
of develop in some kind of way. So no, I'm
(18:12):
not an Oscar winning screenwriter, but that's fine. I tried
that and I couldn't do it. I couldn't be in
the industry.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So your plan B would just be be a writer.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Is that what you don't clearly gotten here? You know,
I probably retire to a prepper ranch in Wyoming. That
would probably plan B, which we'll see given the you
don't know, there might be a lot of people buying
up land and doing that here in about the next
seven months.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
That sounds like plan A.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Actually, oh yeah, right, So no, I've never really kind
of believed in plant be so I think it's just
to focus on the plan that you're on, and you know,
this is what I'm doing. I'm clearly maybe whether it's
me or whether it's somebody else, whether it's you, whatever
it is, somebody in their career. Generally, I think most
(18:58):
people believe they're doing what they're supposed to be doing,
even if it's hard, even if it's not exactly you know,
what they thought they would turn out to be or
anything like that. But that's just talking to people in
different professions where they are, you know, I just I
kind of don't look at it and go gun I
could I could be doing X y Z. You know,
(19:19):
I was very fortunate to, you know, have a good
ten years in New York where I was able to
kind of you know, catch on fire a little bit
with writing and get noticed by Nashal Review and have
a couple of fun hits on The Gutfeldt Show and
whatever like that. And I kind of look at that
and just kind of say, well, I mean, just act
like you're supposed to be doing this. I guess right.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I don't think most people do think that they're doing
what they're supposed to be doing. Did you know that
several Kardashians do not think that they're supposed to be famous?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well? Thanks Oj? All right, Pete warming out, Yeah, you
could thank him for that. That's the That's the worst
thing O. J.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Simpson ever did, by the But they don't believe that
they're meant to be doing what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
They think that they they're in a position where they
can change their path very easily. If they're like, I
don't believe you should be on TV, then what do
you believe you should be doing?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I believe I should be a shepherd on the island
And stop it. Well, go do that.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That would be no, so good, very good television.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Actually, go do that, that would be great. So I
guess I kind of mean it in the sense of
I don't know. I never really thought about, you know,
should I should I be doing something else. I kind
of look at me, you are doing this. It's funny
because you know, my college degree was in interactive media design,
which is you know, front end web front and graphic
(20:41):
things look pretty on the Internet. And as that kind
of shifted where I had clients and then kind of
a online Twitter persona sort of takes off to the
point to where I have to kind of go public
if I want to get writing. You think like that, right,
And I think it was roughly like around twenty fourteen,
twenty fifteen I started my website, The Wilderness, and I
got picked up by National Review. That was really the
(21:04):
point where I'm like, well, you're in this now, like
there's no all going back from it, because you're going
to be You're going to be Google searchable from here
on out, if people are going to be able to
search your name, and then of course when you start
doing media hits, and you know, I've told people this
who kind of gotten into activism and they you know,
they stay anonymous and stuff. It's like, you know, be
(21:25):
good at it, be safe at it, but be prepared
that any day, you know, any time supporter is going
to knock on your door and it never works out right,
like what do you do that? And so you have
to kind of be prepared that if you want to
do part time actives or anything that would be anonymous
and you start to get serious about it. Lives a
TikTok as a perfect example of this, that it may
(21:45):
end up being what you're doing. And so that's kind
of how I always looked at it. It's like, well,
there's no going back to this anymore. Go more web
clients over and uh you know, I know I've had
journals poke around to try and find some of that
stuff and it was well hid and it was in
you know, LLC's and different names. I wasn't a part
of it. So it's fine, But like I said, there
(22:07):
was there comes a point when you have to make
that decision. I think mine was about you know, twenty fourteen,
twenty fifteen, where like I said, it's just you're not
coming back from this. This is going to be your
life until it's not anymore, until you're not getting paid
to do it anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
So here we are, almost ten years later, and I'm
still doing okay on it?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Did you used to use your initials? Am I remembering
this correctly?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Or no it was I just created some dumb ship
posting anonymous account when it started.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
And.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Think, okay, I might, I might be remembering it. I
think we don't.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
We met.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
We met when on the.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Internet, on on the twitters, when I had U, I
had a I was doing a big house, you know, purge,
and I had an an culter doll and I offered
it up up to the internet and you were like,
I will take that and culture doll. And it's funny
because now I met her in Florida, were friends. Now,
you know, I should have held on to that thing.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Would you like it back?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
No? No, no, it's okay, you can doesn't.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
She doesn't talk anymore. It's just.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
You know, like, right, well, the talking was the best part.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
I think there's a joke there. But yeah, she's she's
still up there. She's up there. I do have a
shelf that's kind of my political memorabilia shelf, and she's
up there with an original Anthony Wiener court room sketch
of praying while he's reading his apology. The original court
room sketch of that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Uh, that is a weird purchase.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I have a George W. Bush flight suit Barbie doll.
He's still in the box. So I have a couple
of my media passes, which, you know, just remind me,
don't ever act like a filthy journalist. What else is
up there? There's a there's a there's a few things
that I've kept throughout the years that I've just accumulated.
And uh so she's up on the shelf, she's sitting
(23:54):
right there.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I'll let her know.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I'll tell her that you're.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Still that she's sitting up there with a bust of
you know, plastic Japanese toy bust of Batola and Rea
like looking, David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Markowitch Show. So you write a
lot about culture, I mean to write a lot about politics,
But what is your biggest cultural concern? Like, where do
you think are major cultural problems?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Live societal problems?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Oh jeez, I think it's our media. And I know
that this is a cliche for someone like me, but
when you have interactions from day to day people, and
they could be different politics, they could be different race,
they could be different anything. It's not this kind of
fever pitch media environment. That can be social media. It
(24:47):
can be what you see on Twitter X, what you
see on Facebook, what you see on nextdoor whatever. It's
really not that in real life. To give you an idea,
I've never had someone and I'm fairly social. I'm not
you know, mister party guy like that.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
But I've seen you do karaoke.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I have.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I have a video I know, and she's still holding
it over for stuff while you're on the show. Right,
We're good, We're gonna insert that clip. I would just
be like, look how much weight I lost. I've never
had someone introduce me and tell me what their pronouns are,
for example. So when I say media, I don't mean
(25:28):
like to see it, and for example, I mean the
pervasive media culture that we live in does not reflect
a reality. And I think that that's always the biggest problem.
A perfect example that's you know, might be outdated by
the time this comes out is we have the shooting
in Chicago of this kid who was pulled over and
then he opens fire eleven shots on police officers. Police
(25:49):
officer shoot killed. And now you have our entire media
trying to gas a you know, rage, And there's no
reason for them to be doing this, is what I'm
This is a choice of what they're doing. And so
that is something that could very well lead to property damage,
it could lead to people injured, it could lead to riots,
(26:10):
and they're actively doing this. And that's kind of what
I mean about, like when culture, So when you say
what's you know, what's one of the worst things in culture?
I could say, well, race relations, Well, no, you know,
I think we're pretty much fine. It's just you have
an industry that is actively juicing content to get it
out there because either they believe something politically or culturally
(26:32):
or whatever. You know. You and I spend a lot
of time in kind of online swamps and fever dreams,
and you have to pull apart some of the things
about what is actually important here. So when we talk
about women's sports, for example, is that something that looks
like it's it's getting worse. I don't want to say worse, worst,
it looked like someone's getting pushed further and further into
(26:54):
the mainstream, and I would argue that, yes it is.
And so it's as far as like, culturally, like I said,
I think for the most part, people are fine. I
think for the most part, we're all just kind of
like we all for the most part, are trying to
get along with each other and stuff like that. But
there are forces at work, and it's not just yeah,
left or right, it's everybody who are actively trying to,
(27:15):
you know, keep us pissed off and hating each other. Right,
And so as far as like I said, culturally, that
to me is a huge problem. And so the media.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Is the worst.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I mean, they have to agree, yeah, And it's for
people think that that's a cliche for what I do.
Now it's true, of course you said media, But I'm
trying to explain why it is that way. And the
latest example of what we're seeing happen, I think it's
in Chicago is a perfect example of that that they
are pushing this and pushing this and pushing this, and
we're seeing like body Camp footage and it's like don't
(27:48):
believe your eyes and ears like no, and you see
this and you just go, this is infuriating about doing here,
because this is stuff that's going to actually result in
a real world harm, in real world public harm. Like
I said, you know, people could lose businesses because you
have a media that's juicing race riots. You have people
who could get killed or injured or whatever. And they're
(28:11):
just gonna stand there and they're gonna put their camera
on it and they're gonna fill it and then in
three weeks they're gonna leave and they're not gonnactly right.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
That story will be over and who cares what happened.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah, we'll be on to the neck one. You know,
they're gonna, like I said, kind of And I know
this is dark, but it feels like they're holding auditions
for the next kind of Summer of twenty twenty. Here.
It's like there's combing these cities to find an incident
that they can use. And like I said, that's that's
not journalism, that's narrative searching. And so as like I said,
as far as culture, it's not. You know, you can
(28:42):
define a lot of things under that, but as far
as like what I do and what I see and
what we're just actively trying to change or at least
point out and say, see right here you're being that's
that's really what I believe and where we're at.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, I think that we're in a dark place in
that way, and I hope that people wake up and
fight back against that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, it's hard to talk about. Another one that you're
seeing a lot of is this this idea of the church.
This is one of these things I see, you know,
journalists talking about people in media saying, you know, you
know the church is being taken over by trump Ism
or whatever. And I'm not religious, but I know church
is a sense of community. So when you get to
a point where you're pushing that kind of thing, even
(29:27):
into churches where your your goal is to get people
in church, separate them voting for I've never really been
big on church. I have been to church for kind life.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you're probably you don't seem like a big Trump
supporter either, so so double it's maybe you're actually seeing
what's going on there and not.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
You think it's about. But church has always not just
been about going in and worshiping religion. It's a sense
of community. Especially in Black communities, this is huge. You
go with your neighbors. You know, it's whether you see
these people and you see them only at church, but
it's still a sense of community. You go there, you
sit with them worship, and then you walk out and
you see their kids, and their kids are running around
(30:10):
and they're talking. They're like whatever, it's nice.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
And when you have a section of media who's trying
to pierce that sense of community by making everything about uh,
whether it's Trump isn't or politics, that the idea that
you're trying to get, you know, suspicious of who the
pew with you is voting for trouble. You better not
do that. A lot of a lot of that stuff
that is so toxic, and that that falls under things
(30:33):
you see in media where everything has to be kind
of connected to the political moment that we're having, and
it really doesn't. Right, Yeah, you don't have to attribute
every single thing back to the political moment because some
people might feel personally betrayed by it.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Right, not everything is Trump involved?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
It turns into oh and not everything not everything Trump
involved is the de mars.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Right. Well, I loved having you on, even though when
I asked you to come on my show, you said,
oh fine.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
All right, and then you told me twenty minutes and
I was just.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Right, You're like, no, I'm going to go along.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Actually I thought for the hour, I rearrased the furniture
and everything. Yeah, just all right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Come on well, forecast, you know, so end here with
your best tip for how my readers my readers, for
how my listeners can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Oh geez, you see, I can tell you didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You didn't read the email that I said.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Oh I did I read? I did? I read a
But even that's one where I thought about It's like
you were asking the exact wrong person on how to
improve your love.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I disagree.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
I think you've made a lot of really good changes
in your life since I last saw.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
You in New York.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I think you're you're looking great, you're sounding great, You're
you know, I.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Did, I did put on a compound so because I
thought it was gonna be an hour, So I wouldn't
have done it for twenty minutes.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Right, I think, I don't.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I don't know so much about changes. Something that something
I will say that I do is I kind of
believe in constantly moving forward or evolving, and when by
that is so. And I don't say I make a
conscious decision, but every year it's trying to kind of
learn something new. Last year it was golf, like, and
I'm always at golf, but I'm in a place sort
(32:28):
of where there's some courses and you kind of get
that itch when you see And then I went out
and I tried it and it was like I had
worked pain in my hips and I've ever had an occupant.
So this year, this year is going to be kind
of official lessons less Like I said, last year, I
would you personal training. I just wanted to get better
shape this year. This year I did two things. I
got my eye fixed with Lasak, which is kind of
(32:50):
an a thing. And the reason I did is because
I bought a gun. I bought my first GUDEN and
I was out on the range with an instructure and
instructor and they couldn't figure out my vision. And as
far as like which I dominant, I was right. My
right eye dominant was the worst blurry vision I had.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
So they're like, maybe don't shoot with that vision.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Oh, but no, it's been a whole I'm gonna I
have a draft for Spectator Magnet about going through the
process of buying it not just you know, it's not
just you go and you find one you like, and
then and then you go and you shoot it, and hey, like,
you learn so much about yourself. You learn which handed.
It's funny because I'm right handed, but I learned I'm
a left handed shoot. You know. You learn about your
(33:34):
eyes and now I had to get my eye fixed
because I don't want to be blind. Learn about accuracy,
you learn about speed, and you learn about just everything.
You learn about the mechanics of it's fascinating. And so
I guess, like that's my thing is every year it's
trying to do something that's either new or evolving, or
something that challenges you to kind of step out, you know,
(33:55):
step out a bit. Again, you're really asking the wrong person.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I will say that, I again will disagree. He is
Stephen Miller.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
He thinks you should be moving forward, and I think
that that's really good advice.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Thanks a lot for TV.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yes, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Steven.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Catch his podcast, The Versus Media Podcast on substack and
read him all over the place.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Thanks again, Steven, Thanks Carol, it's good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
On Monday's monologue, I asked for your resolutions and whether
you're keeping to them. I got some really good responses,
and yes, most people have fallen off the bandwagon of
what they had hoped.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
To do in January.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
A lot of you are restarting your exercise regiments or
eating healthier. You're trying again, and that's amazing. One response
was funny. A listener wrote, this year, I combined my
resolutions for my own form of penance. I vowed to
stop taking the Lord's name in vain each time I
caught myself with than oh my god, I had to
(00:42):
do thirty minutes on the peloton, which I detest. It worked,
and you know, I do wonder if something similar would
work for me. In the few days since I declared
I would do more fiction reading, I committed to one
fiction book a month. It's not even that much, but
I've read a total of two page It's a slow start, friends,
(01:03):
But now I'm wondering if there should be more.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Not punishment exactly, but if I should.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Make myself risk something if I don't succeed at my goal.
I think some people really do respond to negative repercussions
more than they do to the positive reward, and I
think I might be one of those people. Like I've
never stolen anything in my entire life because I was
terrified of being caught.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I would love to tell.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You that I'm just morally amazing and I'd always thought
it was a bad thing to do. But no, even
when I was a child that wouldn't take anything, just
the fear of being caught made me paralyzed and unable
to do anything bad. And I you know that works
for me. So now I just have to figure out
what the punishment would be and I'll take your suggestions.
Carol Marcowitz Show at gmail dot com. Also send me
(01:50):
how you're bettering your life this week. I really love
reading all your notes and emails and dms, so please
keep in touch and I love hearing what you're up to.
Coming up up next and interview with Stephen Miller. Join
us after the break. Hi, and welcome back to the
Carol Markuit Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Stephen Miller.
(02:13):
Stephen does the Versus Media podcast on Substack. He is
contributing editor at the Spectator and has written.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
For many places including NRO.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Fox News, and The New York Post.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Ty Stephen, Hi.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Carol, you have to put in the middle initial because
that's important. So well google this stuff. They think you're
interviewing on NAZI.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
See.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The first thing I was going to ask you is
are you the Stephen Miller?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
No, not anymore. But I was for a bit. I
was for a bit, and then Trump won and then
Trump lost, and now I'm back to kind of being
that because he's, you know, until he becomes Attorney general.
I think I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
You know, I was the top search result for Carol
with a K, and then Pope John Paul, whose birth
name was Carol with a K, died and that was it.
He messed out all of my search results because everybody
was using his real name. And there's a pop star
from Latin America named Carol K.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So we all have our problems, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah. I have guys on my hockey team starting to search.
They're like, you know, somebody said, like the search of it,
I couldn't find you. I'm like, oh, I'm very searchable.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You just got one letter, So what is your mid
So yeah, but that's your middle in Itchell, I don't
even know it.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
El Stephen L.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Meller will include that in the you know, in the
in the the bis No, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
People going to be like Carol Marcus is interviewing an insurrectionist.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well, I mean, I'm sure I've had an insurrection too
on here.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Probably, I mean, you know, depending on circumstances, I could be.
I mean, I'm just not one. After twenty twe right, right, So.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
We knew each other in New York and neither one
of us live in New York anymore. That's a big
topic of conversation on this show, people moving from places
that they lived. How was leaving New York for you?
You just like bye?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I miss three big things. I miss my hairstylist, my
hair dialist. I missed my dentist. Well, she's a barber,
like just tattooed to the you know whatever, and she was.
She's actually a sponsored marathon on her for Nike, and
it took me forever to find one. So I missed
my hairstylist. I missed my dentist. Believe it or not,
(04:28):
my dentist was featured in Vogue and I was one
of her very first customers in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Why are you so fancy?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It was No, she's not that it's weird. She's just
cool and hip. And so she was right down the
block and she started this little dental practice and then
all of a sudden she's in like a vogue spread
for like dental and Brooklyn or some weird thing. Okay,
And I still I still talk to her occasionally, just
for you know stuff. And I miss restaurants. Yeah, And
(04:55):
you know, I think about the lifestyle. Obviously. The neighborhoods
like Brooklyn were just so cool back then, and they
change and they become different and stuff. So there was
it was still when I got there, it was still
kind of sketchy sort of but getting cooler, you know,
like whatever. And when I left, you know, my place
was staring at the construction of a Trader Joe's and so.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And this is bad, and somehow I don't think it's bad.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
I am one of these people where I prefer local places.
I prefer local businesses. But it's not like I'm going
to protest the Trader Joe's. I'm not going to throw
red paint on the wind, right, But those are the
three things I missed the most, and when I really
think back, I don't miss much more. I moved there
in twenty ten, and things were different. The internet was different,
(05:41):
how we connected was different. So I can kind of
like go anywhere in the country now, and I can
still order from stores that I like than in New
York City to like close me. So those are those
are probably the top three things that I actually really
find myself missing.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's funny because growing up in Brooklyn, when a chain
would come to your neighborhood, that meant that things were
turning around.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
That meant that things were getting better.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Like I remember they kicked the wart out. Well, yes, no,
you're not coming to Queen's.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
No, we've never had I don't think they've ever allowed
Walmart in New York City, which is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
But I remember a friend of mine who.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Lived in East Flatbush was very excited and McDonald was
opening because there had never been a chain anything near
where she lived.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So it was a it.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Was seen as a positive stephen, and you know, people wanted.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It to have it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, it was. It was weird when I left Brooklyn
and I got a little bit more domesticated, still in
a kind of suburban urban area, and I saw Chilies,
and I was like, I realized, I haven't seen at
chilies in like ten Like I didn't go to Target,
you know. So it was like its kind of a
(06:57):
weird different thing. It was like getting used to it.
It's not like I had some dying neque to go
to Chili's, but I didn't. I went back to Chili's
just because I'm like, I'm going to go to Chili's
like whatever, any maybe back ribs and so yeah, it
was a little bit of an adjustment. But I was
never one of those kind of like snobs where it's
like I'm in Willis there and me, you don't get
(07:18):
a Walmart? I do, of course.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, it was never like a snob, but there was
I remember the Whole Foods open on the corner of
Bedford in Williamsburg, and that was a huge thing to do.
And you go down later the Whole Foods thing, and
that was kind of a sign there and it's like, oh,
this is all changing, like completely, so totally.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean Williamsburg more than any other place, I feel like,
just blew up so fast and yeah, so drastically.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So what what year.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Did you leave COVID No? I just barely before COVID.
I just my circumstances changed, so I moved out of Brooklyn,
and of course some pandemic happens, and I look back
on that, I would to say, like, I what would
it I look back and I say, what could it
have been like to have been there? Durrection? And oh no,
(08:15):
yeah I don't. I'm not sitting here thinking fondly in
my diary. But it is one of those things when
you know, you hear about people banging the pots and
pans out of their buildings and stuff like that and
some of those kind of trimunal experiences. You know, I thought, yeah,
I do think about that sometimes, but yeah, I got
out of Dodge just really I think it was September
(08:36):
of October rate before COVID happened. So part of me
was like, you know, no, I would not have wanted
to experience that, but it would have been one of
those things looking back where it's like, oh, yeah, I
guess I was in New York during that, right, And
I know you're and I know you are a casualty
of that. And I followed that about you know, just
having the city that you love so much, but yeah,
(08:57):
it's not like a fond thing.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
How I get it. It's a big part of the experience. Yeah,
I completely understand. I have friends who were not in
New York on nine to eleven, but they were New
Yorkers and they were.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Like, I missed it, Like I missed.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
They're not like, oh I missed a terrorist town. They
missed the carderie and all of the you know, Yeah,
I totally get it. Also, people who didn't feel the
earthquake a few weeks ago and they.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Just weekend away, they feel left out. Yeah. No, So
I went to an earthquake in New York and it
was the one that I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I've never ever felt in it.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So, yeah, it's only hit. It hit Washington and it
knocked the bricks out of the Washington Monument, and that's
what I think. This was twenty twenty thirteen. And I've
lived on the West Coast. I've lived in Los Angeles.
I've never had a hurricane. There are a great I've
lived on the Upper West Coast and no real weather
events there. And I moved to New York and I
(09:54):
experienced two hurricanes in the earth and there, so I
do remember the earthquake from I was twenty twelve or
twenty thirteen, and a marble counter in my loud is
singing at my lounge and I just feel like I'm
having a stroke, Like what is that?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Like?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
What is going on here? Is? And the first thing
is when things feel weird, it's like, oh, it's terrorist.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Attack the right, Oh totally yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
And so I do remember the forty five second earthquake
from like twenty and that's the one they hit the
East coast and they had to shut down the Washington
Monument because wow, ricks out or whatever. But yeah, so
when people were talking about this earthquake, I was kind
of like, eh, I've done it.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Whatever. I have never felt an earthquake.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I would be the New York earthquake before it was cool, so.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Very very Brooklyn in view.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, you play hockey, ice hockey, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Is there another kind of hockey?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh? I mean not really. I mean people try to
play roller and people try to I mean, I don't
know there's like professional field. I know that there is
a like for high school kids, there's field hockey. But yeah,
I grew up playing it in about five years ago.
I'd get in New York City I just kind of
was like, I need to be more active, I need
to start, you know. I was kind of missing it
and I was, you know, starting to to that age
(11:06):
where it's I don't pick this back up, then I'm
never gonna do it. So I just kind of took
the money, went to there was a there's a hockey
store just in lower like mid midtown lower Manette and
you just go up an elevator and then it opens
up and there's a hockey store. And I had played
in god since I was a teenager, so I was
just told the guy, I was like, I need gear,
so like suit me up and whatever, and uh I
(11:28):
was twenty eighteen, I think. And so yeah, like six
years later, I capped in my own team, which I
didn't want to do, and so we branded it and
I'd made one of my French bulldogs the mascot of it.
Just wow, I can do that, and yeah, it's it's
it's going well. I played kind of a prison league.
(11:48):
So there's a few weeks around and one of the
rieks has like a bar restaurant upstairs where you can
watch games. And mine doesn't know that we're playing an
old airplane hangar I'm sorry because you're playing with no, no, no,
it's just our rink is known for being like the
kind of the prison rink is because.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Just no fly.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, it's just ice. It's ice, and it's run by
Russian on it.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Oh oh yeah, they don't have alcohol, kind of Russians
don't have Oh.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You have to bring yours?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Well, yes you can kind of sucker buys their own
alcohol out. You got to bring theirs obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, you don't do that. You don't bring like a
bottle of vodka.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
No, no, I don't, I don't. I don't know. It's
my team is funny Because've done on teams where they
are just a bunch of fat drunks and that I've
been on teams where they're not Like my current team
now doesn't really even have beers a locker room anymore,
including me. So I stopped I kind of stopped doing that.
And uh yeah, my team's a bunch of squares right now,
but we aren't winning.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Sounds it sounds like you're a bunch of old men.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Actually, yeah, not so much. I have I have, I have,
I'm the second oldest on the team. I have a
couple of guys in their forties, and then I have
a couple of guys that are in their twenties, so it's
all kind of mixed. But I I have a few
more years of that and then I'm going to have
to probably go to an old family.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I love it. Are you good?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I think I'm good. I'm probably the third best skater
on the team, and it's competitively, so there are guys
who are faster than me because they're younger than me.
I'm great backwards. I have a good head. I'm at
that point now where older athletes, which I'm not an athlete,
where it's like, if I had my brain now in
the body that I had ten years ago, i would
(13:26):
have been an All Star. And that's kind of where
I Yeah, I'm a very smarter player, but I'm also
just getting up an a so I know when I'm
losing a step. I saw a personal trainer for a
year which kind of just got me into better shape
and just kind of kicked the crap out of me.
And then part of the reason I did that was
to kind of keep doing some sports, and so yeah,
(13:47):
I had I haven't like better shape than I was
when I started. I don't feel like throwing up after
every ship.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
See, I would say you should try vodka, but whatever
up to.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
You really just not skating. So I mean that's the thing.
You guys that will do that, they'll load up before again.
Now I'm just like, I just I don't know how
you do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, so you seem happy.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You seem I don't know, not that you weren't happy
when I knew you in New York, but you maybe
even seem happier now, Like do you feel like you've
made it?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Oh God, I don't even know what happy is. I
don't have any may like happy.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I'm not happy.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I don't have any major catastrophes at the moment. So
it's like it's like I haven't I'm not I haven't
been hit by a car recently. So gosh, maybe as
far as I don't know, like professionally, especially.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Every way you want to look at it, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I mean professionally, especially with what we do with things
have things change so rapidly, and you know, a lot
of us swipt from like you said, we're writing from
your post and I still do once in a while,
or Nashville or Fox whatever. A lot of us have
now just kind of branched out into our own things
because of the technology is there, and that's kind of
(15:00):
where media is. So I never believe in kind of
thinking like you make it because this could all go
away tomorrow, So like you have to be prepared to
go be a ditch digger if that comes at you.
And so, and I also think you have to be
a little hungry in what we do. I think that
(15:21):
especially older pundits, older generations, older people who are kind
of in the media commentariat are just kind of at
this point going through the motions because I don't know
if they know if there's any use for them either
hate Trump or you know, they the media landscapes at
a place to where they just don't feel useful. So
you can tell it's not in it anymore, see when
(15:42):
they're just kind of trying to cash the paycheck. And
so I think if it ever gets to that point, yeah,
I mean to say, if you've made it, I don't
need to go out and do like Craiglist hits or
anything like that to get by. So I'm doing I'm
doing enough to keep my life.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What what are preglans not that I.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Can't tell you. So I'm doing enough to keep my
lights on, which is if for for what this is,
you know, basically, I'm paid for my opinion, which is
the only thing I'm good at. So to be able
to do that is I don't know if it's to
say like you've made it, but I'm doing enough to
where again I don't I don't need to go, h
do any kind of sort of menial labor that I
(16:22):
don't want to do. It's not a thing. I'm media labor, right,
I got it.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
I don't know as far as being able to make it.
I'm doing and I'm doing enough, you know, to where
I can do a podcast at you know, at one
o'clock in the afternoon as opposed to having to turn
on a TPS report. Right.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I like that you put that in East Coast time
because I know, you know that's the real time.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
So yeah, of course it is.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So what would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
What would be like a.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Plan B for you?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Oh God, I don't really believe.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
In just because like, okay, not forget while plan B?
Actually what what what's the dream career that you didn't follow?
I mean, my jokey one.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Is I always say like I would be a DJ,
Like I feel like I am very good at playing
music in a certain you know way, or in songs
in the right order. Really, so I think that would
be my plan. B I don't know that I would
actually do that, if that, you know, if things.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I've been doing some form
of writing since I was in high school, screenwriting or
doing anything, poemwriting, doing songwriting, whatever.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So I think I have the kind of just a
natural fit for where the path has taken me and
spen you know, I can. I kind of came of
age a little bit sort of in my twenties through
the Internet age to read it, you know, read it
when read it, blue up and read threads and four
Chan before it was kind of a Nazi cesspool. There
was a time when four Chan was fun. Believe me
(17:52):
when I say that some of it still is through
message boards and things like that. So he kind of
learned to hone a little bit of you know, what's
engaging about some of those things and what's not. And
so I think the just kind of whatever trajectory your
path I was on was always just going to kind
of develop in some kind of way. So no, I'm
(18:12):
not an Oscar winning screenwriter, but that's fine. I tried
that and I couldn't do it. I couldn't be in
the industry.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So your plan B would just be be a writer.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Is that what you don't clearly gotten here? You know,
I probably retire to a prepper ranch in Wyoming. That
would probably plan B, which we'll see given the you
don't know, there might be a lot of people buying
up land and doing that here in about the next
seven months.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
That sounds like plan A.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Actually, oh yeah, right, So no, I've never really kind
of believed in plant be so I think it's just
to focus on the plan that you're on, and you know,
this is what I'm doing. I'm clearly maybe whether it's
me or whether it's somebody else, whether it's you, whatever
it is, somebody in their career. Generally, I think most
(18:58):
people believe they're doing what they're supposed to be doing,
even if it's hard, even if it's not exactly you know,
what they thought they would turn out to be or
anything like that. But that's just talking to people in
different professions where they are, you know, I just I
kind of don't look at it and go gun I
could I could be doing X y Z. You know,
(19:19):
I was very fortunate to, you know, have a good
ten years in New York where I was able to
kind of you know, catch on fire a little bit
with writing and get noticed by Nashal Review and have
a couple of fun hits on The Gutfeldt Show and
whatever like that. And I kind of look at that
and just kind of say, well, I mean, just act
like you're supposed to be doing this. I guess right.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I don't think most people do think that they're doing
what they're supposed to be doing. Did you know that
several Kardashians do not think that they're supposed to be famous?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well? Thanks Oj? All right, Pete warming out, Yeah, you
could thank him for that. That's the That's the worst
thing O. J.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Simpson ever did, by the But they don't believe that
they're meant to be doing what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
They think that they they're in a position where they
can change their path very easily. If they're like, I
don't believe you should be on TV, then what do
you believe you should be doing?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I believe I should be a shepherd on the island
And stop it. Well, go do that.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That would be no, so good, very good television.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Actually, go do that, that would be great. So I
guess I kind of mean it in the sense of
I don't know. I never really thought about, you know,
should I should I be doing something else. I kind
of look at me, you are doing this. It's funny
because you know, my college degree was in interactive media design,
which is you know, front end web front and graphic
(20:41):
things look pretty on the Internet. And as that kind
of shifted where I had clients and then kind of
a online Twitter persona sort of takes off to the
point to where I have to kind of go public
if I want to get writing. You think like that, right,
And I think it was roughly like around twenty fourteen,
twenty fifteen I started my website, The Wilderness, and I
got picked up by National Review. That was really the
(21:04):
point where I'm like, well, you're in this now, like
there's no all going back from it, because you're going
to be You're going to be Google searchable from here
on out, if people are going to be able to
search your name, and then of course when you start
doing media hits, and you know, I've told people this
who kind of gotten into activism and they you know,
they stay anonymous and stuff. It's like, you know, be
(21:25):
good at it, be safe at it, but be prepared
that any day, you know, any time supporter is going
to knock on your door and it never works out right,
like what do you do that? And so you have
to kind of be prepared that if you want to
do part time actives or anything that would be anonymous
and you start to get serious about it. Lives a
TikTok as a perfect example of this, that it may
(21:45):
end up being what you're doing. And so that's kind
of how I always looked at it. It's like, well,
there's no going back to this anymore. Go more web
clients over and uh you know, I know I've had
journals poke around to try and find some of that
stuff and it was well hid and it was in
you know, LLC's and different names. I wasn't a part
of it. So it's fine, But like I said, there
(22:07):
was there comes a point when you have to make
that decision. I think mine was about you know, twenty fourteen,
twenty fifteen, where like I said, it's just you're not
coming back from this. This is going to be your
life until it's not anymore, until you're not getting paid
to do it anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
So here we are, almost ten years later, and I'm
still doing okay on it?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Did you used to use your initials? Am I remembering
this correctly?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Or no it was I just created some dumb ship
posting anonymous account when it started.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
And.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Think, okay, I might, I might be remembering it. I
think we don't.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
We met.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
We met when on the.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Internet, on on the twitters, when I had U, I
had a I was doing a big house, you know, purge,
and I had an an culter doll and I offered
it up up to the internet and you were like,
I will take that and culture doll. And it's funny
because now I met her in Florida, were friends. Now,
you know, I should have held on to that thing.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Would you like it back?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
No? No, no, it's okay, you can doesn't.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
She doesn't talk anymore. It's just.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
You know, like, right, well, the talking was the best part.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
I think there's a joke there. But yeah, she's she's
still up there. She's up there. I do have a
shelf that's kind of my political memorabilia shelf, and she's
up there with an original Anthony Wiener court room sketch
of praying while he's reading his apology. The original court
room sketch of that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Uh, that is a weird purchase.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I have a George W. Bush flight suit Barbie doll.
He's still in the box. So I have a couple
of my media passes, which, you know, just remind me,
don't ever act like a filthy journalist. What else is
up there? There's a there's a there's a few things
that I've kept throughout the years that I've just accumulated.
And uh so she's up on the shelf, she's sitting
(23:54):
right there.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I'll let her know.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I'll tell her that you're.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Still that she's sitting up there with a bust of
you know, plastic Japanese toy bust of Batola and Rea
like looking, David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Markowitch Show. So you write a
lot about culture, I mean to write a lot about politics,
But what is your biggest cultural concern? Like, where do
you think are major cultural problems?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Live societal problems?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Oh jeez, I think it's our media. And I know
that this is a cliche for someone like me, but
when you have interactions from day to day people, and
they could be different politics, they could be different race,
they could be different anything. It's not this kind of
fever pitch media environment. That can be social media. It
(24:47):
can be what you see on Twitter X, what you
see on Facebook, what you see on nextdoor whatever. It's
really not that in real life. To give you an idea,
I've never had someone and I'm fairly social. I'm not
you know, mister party guy like that.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
But I've seen you do karaoke.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I have.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I have a video I know, and she's still holding
it over for stuff while you're on the show. Right,
We're good, We're gonna insert that clip. I would just
be like, look how much weight I lost. I've never
had someone introduce me and tell me what their pronouns are,
for example. So when I say media, I don't mean
(25:28):
like to see it, and for example, I mean the
pervasive media culture that we live in does not reflect
a reality. And I think that that's always the biggest problem.
A perfect example that's you know, might be outdated by
the time this comes out is we have the shooting
in Chicago of this kid who was pulled over and
then he opens fire eleven shots on police officers. Police
(25:49):
officer shoot killed. And now you have our entire media
trying to gas a you know, rage, And there's no
reason for them to be doing this, is what I'm
This is a choice of what they're doing. And so
that is something that could very well lead to property damage,
it could lead to people injured, it could lead to riots,
(26:10):
and they're actively doing this. And that's kind of what
I mean about, like when culture, So when you say
what's you know, what's one of the worst things in culture?
I could say, well, race relations, Well, no, you know,
I think we're pretty much fine. It's just you have
an industry that is actively juicing content to get it
out there because either they believe something politically or culturally
(26:32):
or whatever. You know. You and I spend a lot
of time in kind of online swamps and fever dreams,
and you have to pull apart some of the things
about what is actually important here. So when we talk
about women's sports, for example, is that something that looks
like it's it's getting worse. I don't want to say worse, worst,
it looked like someone's getting pushed further and further into
(26:54):
the mainstream, and I would argue that, yes it is.
And so it's as far as like, culturally, like I said,
I think for the most part, people are fine. I
think for the most part, we're all just kind of
like we all for the most part, are trying to
get along with each other and stuff like that. But
there are forces at work, and it's not just yeah,
left or right, it's everybody who are actively trying to,
(27:15):
you know, keep us pissed off and hating each other. Right,
And so as far as like I said, culturally, that
to me is a huge problem. And so the media.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Is the worst.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I mean, they have to agree, yeah, And it's for
people think that that's a cliche for what I do.
Now it's true, of course you said media, But I'm
trying to explain why it is that way. And the
latest example of what we're seeing happen, I think it's
in Chicago is a perfect example of that that they
are pushing this and pushing this and pushing this, and
we're seeing like body Camp footage and it's like don't
(27:48):
believe your eyes and ears like no, and you see
this and you just go, this is infuriating about doing here,
because this is stuff that's going to actually result in
a real world harm, in real world public harm. Like
I said, you know, people could lose businesses because you
have a media that's juicing race riots. You have people
who could get killed or injured or whatever. And they're
(28:11):
just gonna stand there and they're gonna put their camera
on it and they're gonna fill it and then in
three weeks they're gonna leave and they're not gonnactly right.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
That story will be over and who cares what happened.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah, we'll be on to the neck one. You know,
they're gonna, like I said, kind of And I know
this is dark, but it feels like they're holding auditions
for the next kind of Summer of twenty twenty. Here.
It's like there's combing these cities to find an incident
that they can use. And like I said, that's that's
not journalism, that's narrative searching. And so as like I said,
as far as culture, it's not. You know, you can
(28:42):
define a lot of things under that, but as far
as like what I do and what I see and
what we're just actively trying to change or at least
point out and say, see right here you're being that's
that's really what I believe and where we're at.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, I think that we're in a dark place in
that way, and I hope that people wake up and
fight back against that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, it's hard to talk about. Another one that you're
seeing a lot of is this this idea of the church.
This is one of these things I see, you know,
journalists talking about people in media saying, you know, you
know the church is being taken over by trump Ism
or whatever. And I'm not religious, but I know church
is a sense of community. So when you get to
a point where you're pushing that kind of thing, even
(29:27):
into churches where your your goal is to get people
in church, separate them voting for I've never really been
big on church. I have been to church for kind life.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you're probably you don't seem like a big Trump
supporter either, so so double it's maybe you're actually seeing
what's going on there and not.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
You think it's about. But church has always not just
been about going in and worshiping religion. It's a sense
of community. Especially in Black communities, this is huge. You
go with your neighbors. You know, it's whether you see
these people and you see them only at church, but
it's still a sense of community. You go there, you
sit with them worship, and then you walk out and
you see their kids, and their kids are running around
(30:10):
and they're talking. They're like whatever, it's nice.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
And when you have a section of media who's trying
to pierce that sense of community by making everything about uh,
whether it's Trump isn't or politics, that the idea that
you're trying to get, you know, suspicious of who the
pew with you is voting for trouble. You better not
do that. A lot of a lot of that stuff
that is so toxic, and that that falls under things
(30:33):
you see in media where everything has to be kind
of connected to the political moment that we're having, and
it really doesn't. Right, Yeah, you don't have to attribute
every single thing back to the political moment because some
people might feel personally betrayed by it.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Right, not everything is Trump involved?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
It turns into oh and not everything not everything Trump
involved is the de mars.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Right. Well, I loved having you on, even though when
I asked you to come on my show, you said,
oh fine.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
All right, and then you told me twenty minutes and
I was just.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Right, You're like, no, I'm going to go along.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Actually I thought for the hour, I rearrased the furniture
and everything. Yeah, just all right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Come on well, forecast, you know, so end here with
your best tip for how my readers my readers, for
how my listeners can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Oh geez, you see, I can tell you didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You didn't read the email that I said.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Oh I did I read? I did? I read a
But even that's one where I thought about It's like
you were asking the exact wrong person on how to
improve your love.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I disagree.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
I think you've made a lot of really good changes
in your life since I last saw.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
You in New York.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I think you're you're looking great, you're sounding great, You're
you know, I.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Did, I did put on a compound so because I
thought it was gonna be an hour, So I wouldn't
have done it for twenty minutes.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Right, I think, I don't.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I don't know so much about changes. Something that something
I will say that I do is I kind of
believe in constantly moving forward or evolving, and when by
that is so. And I don't say I make a
conscious decision, but every year it's trying to kind of
learn something new. Last year it was golf, like, and
I'm always at golf, but I'm in a place sort
(32:28):
of where there's some courses and you kind of get
that itch when you see And then I went out
and I tried it and it was like I had
worked pain in my hips and I've ever had an occupant.
So this year, this year is going to be kind
of official lessons less Like I said, last year, I
would you personal training. I just wanted to get better
shape this year. This year I did two things. I
got my eye fixed with Lasak, which is kind of
(32:50):
an a thing. And the reason I did is because
I bought a gun. I bought my first GUDEN and
I was out on the range with an instructure and
instructor and they couldn't figure out my vision. And as
far as like which I dominant, I was right. My
right eye dominant was the worst blurry vision I had.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
So they're like, maybe don't shoot with that vision.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Oh, but no, it's been a whole I'm gonna I
have a draft for Spectator Magnet about going through the
process of buying it not just you know, it's not
just you go and you find one you like, and
then and then you go and you shoot it, and hey, like,
you learn so much about yourself. You learn which handed.
It's funny because I'm right handed, but I learned I'm
a left handed shoot. You know. You learn about your
(33:34):
eyes and now I had to get my eye fixed
because I don't want to be blind. Learn about accuracy,
you learn about speed, and you learn about just everything.
You learn about the mechanics of it's fascinating. And so
I guess, like that's my thing is every year it's
trying to do something that's either new or evolving, or
something that challenges you to kind of step out, you know,
(33:55):
step out a bit. Again, you're really asking the wrong person.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I will say that, I again will disagree. He is
Stephen Miller.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
He thinks you should be moving forward, and I think
that that's really good advice.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Thanks a lot for TV.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yes, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Steven.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Catch his podcast, The Versus Media Podcast on substack and
read him all over the place.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Thanks again, Steven, Thanks Carol, it's good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.