February 1, 2024 • 31 mins
In this episode, Josh Hammer joins Karol to discuss his recent wedding, married life, and the importance of family. He shares his experience of meeting his in-laws and the warm relationship they have. Josh also talks about his move to Florida and the friendships he has made. He reflects on his career transition from law to media and the values he holds dear. Josh discusses his future plans and the fulfillment he finds in life. Karol and Josh wrap up by highlighting the importance of prayer and focusing on what is most important in life. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. You can email Karol at KarolMarkowiczShow@gmail.com - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
This is a show about the beauty of marriage, the
importance of family, the way to live a good life.
But there are a lot of listeners, and some of
them write to me or comment to me who are
single and don't want to be but don't know how
to meet someone. When I try to give single friends
(00:29):
or acquaintances advice, they say things like, it's not like
it was when you were single, because obviously I'm like
three hundred years old and have been married since birth.
The truth is, yes, things have changed a little bit.
I've never dated someone I met on the internet, for example,
and this is a big change from what happens now.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
But I think the.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Basics should generally still be the same. You meet someone,
you hit it off, you date, you get married.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
No, No, people tell me that's not at all how
it works today. Now, you alert someone to your interest
on an app, wait for them to respond, message back
and forth for a few days, then potentially have a call,
and then maybe someday meet them in person, and then
never hear from them again. But what if you didn't
follow this model. I'm not anti meeting someone online. I
(01:21):
have kind of mixed feelings about it. I get that
that's where a lot of the interaction happens now, and
that's where you could hit it off with someone and
maybe make something work. But this method is clearly not
working for many people. I think you need to see
dating apps like being in a crowded bar. You can
spot someone across the bar, smile at them, and then
(01:42):
have a conversation to determine if this can.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Go any further.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
But when you're in a bar, you're not having like
five conversations with people. That's just not going to work.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I met my.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Husband through mutual friends, and we were best friends for
over a decade before we started dating. When I talk
to people in their twenties and thirties, is hoping to
meet someone that they want to marry, They obviously say,
that's a great story, but I don't have time to
make a friend and marry him in.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Ten years, which fair.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So I want to open the floor to my listeners
to give your best advice to these young people who
want to meet someone to date seriously and marry. Write
to us at Carol Markowitz Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
It's K A. R. O.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
L M A.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
R ko Wi CS and Charlie Zas and Zebra Show
at gmail dot com. And tell those youngsters how you
found love and how they can too. I'll read some
of the responses on the Carol Markowitz Show a week
from today next Thursday, and I do hope you'll tune
in coming up next and interview with Josh Hammer. Join
(02:48):
us after the break.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Marcowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Josh Hammer. Josh is senior editor
at Large at Newsweek, a syndicated columnist through Creators, and
the host of The Josh Hammer Show, a Newsweek podcast
and syndicated radio show. He's also, like me, a fairly
new Floridian. Josh is also a newlywed. It's actually a
(03:15):
month ago today, Mazeltov that he and his bride had
a beautiful.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Warm, just amazing, gorgeous wedding.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Thank you so much for coming on, Josh.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Carol, you're a dear friend and fellow flority and transplants.
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Thanks for having me so tell us about married life.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Well, it's a heck of a lot better than engaged life.
You know, it's you know, God willing, should it should
it only be this peaceful and blissful Look, Carol, it's been.
It's been amazing, right. I mean, one thing that we
did that I think that I would not recommend to
newly engage, newly betrothed. I guess you would say couples.
We waited essentially almost a year or two the day
from engagement to marriage. And we had our reasons.
Speaker 7 (03:57):
My my wife, who you know, you know, she was
in grad school, is you couldn't focus on wedding planning.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
And then it was the summer. No one wants to
do a wedding in the summer in Florida. You know,
we had all we had, We had all our reasons, right,
But the downside of that is that just all the
talk and the nits and this and then that of
wedding planning, and you know, as you were there, we
had multiple events for the wedding, so you know, it
kind of all just ended up being a lot. And
you know, I think if we had kind of just
(04:21):
done like three to six months, is that the full year.
That's kind of the one thing that I probably would
have done differently in retrospect. But look, I mean not
having to think about wedding planning.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
At the wedding, which we you know, it was the
best night of our lives. We were thrilled to have
you and Shy there was as a part of our
symco of our happiness, our celebration. It was really beautiful.
You know, it's really amazing. Right now, we're going on
a mini moon I think the kids call it these days,
a mini moon in February. Our birthdays are actually one
week apart in February, so we're excited to go on that.
(04:52):
We're trying to figure out what to do for our
real honeymoon. We hadn't mind going to South Africa, but
now South Africa, as you know, is tied up with
this maybe not yeah exactly, probably played on the best
move for two Zionist to used to go to South
Africa right now. But anyway, I'm a little I'm off
course already married.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
No, no, there is no course here. This is a this
is a free flowing kind of place.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Yeah, well it's really it's it's really been fantastic, And
you know, I only hope that all my friends and
family members and loved ones who are still trying to
find their their bisher, still trying to find their soulmate.
You know, God willing should the only be so lucky
as I've been.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I love that any surprises, any any married life surprises.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Nothing comes immediately to mine. I mean, you know, I mean,
I mean I know my in laws very well. I mean,
like they also live right here in Florida. I'm very
close with them, honestly. You know, my father in law
said it best, so we actually the day after the wedding,
Carobly went to my in law's house for a barbecue.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
It's it's it's so funny. I'm really married. It's the
absolute best family.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean, they seem really great.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
I mean, and not just because the food was like
insane at the Moroccan event you guys did.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Yeah, No, they're just the warmest, sweetest people. And you know,
she and I that's my wife. We liked the joke
that the very first time I went over to her parents'
house to meet the parents. This is back in March
twenty twenty two, so my now mother in law the
time was just my girlfriend's mother. This is my literal
first time meeting her, and they did this whole, massive,
gorgeous barbecue. I was literally there eating for like four hours.
(06:22):
And at the time when it starts, she raised her
glass and she goes, Josh, welcome to the family. This
is the first time, I mean the parents and like,
you know, like they just knew you were in but
maybe but like they're just like really warm people, right,
And I say, all that is kind of breakfast to
say that. Like the night after the wedding, when we
(06:42):
went back to their house for another barbecue, you know,
the Ari Israeli family, they had a lot of relatives
still in from Israel, so they wanted to keep on
hosting and entertaining until they flew back the Wednesday after
the wedding. This is the Monday night right after. And
my father in law said it best. He was like,
you know, Josh, like you're obviously a part of the
family this this whole week because spen you know, but
a but a formality, you know, but a cherry on top.
(07:03):
You got to get the katuba, you gotta smash the glass,
you got to do all the things that our people
do and get the rabbinical seal approval.
Speaker 7 (07:10):
But it was really somewhat of a formality yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
I mean the traditions are important, but yeah, what you
guys had even before you were married, I think is
beautiful and you know.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Just one of my favorite couples.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
So I mentioned you moved to Florida shortly before me,
a few months before me. I think I'm at two
years right now?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Where where do you.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
My Florida moved date, I remember it exactly was August
twenty fifth, twenty twenty.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
One, So I think, okay, you.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Were like six same time.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, five months before me.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
So a lot of people obviously have moved from place
to place in the Great Migration the last four years.
And something we talk a lot about on this show
is making new friends in adulthood. And I know you
have a friend or too, maybe right, Josh and I
hang out a lot, That's why that's funny, and we
have a group of friends here. But have you made
like situational friends, not from the internet, like I know
(08:04):
our friend Dave Rubin hangs out with the oyle who
did his son's brisks, So like anything like that.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
That would be a hard one to top. I'm not
sure that I can top befriend of the oil. Look,
I mean, you know, Carol. When I moved to Florida,
it was in the middle of COVID, like many others there,
And you know, I don't think I realized how many
people I knew in Florida when I decided to pull
the trigger. I knew that I had some friends there,
some of our mutual friends and so forth there, but
(08:34):
I honestly don't think. And then I got here and
I started realizing, oh my god, like, wait, this person
actually lives here, and then like, oh, like your friends
are this person, and like the social circle just like
expands dramatically. And I remember that first month and a half,
two months after I moved here, in the summer to
fall twenty twenty one, you know, my social calendar was.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Just insane, I mean so great, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
I essentially barely had any free nights, if any to myself,
which gets a little tiring, to be sure. And you know,
now that I'm like an old married man, I guess
I'm used to kind of the nights in with my
beautiful wife, which it would be clear I'm very happy
about that arrangement.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
But you know, yeah, I mean, look, you definitely meet
friends that you didn't know. I mean, I so I.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
First moved to Brickle, which is essentially downtown Miami. I
was very active in the local Kabad. They're the shool.
There was like a five minute walk from where I
was living, so I've made a lot of new friends
through that. I've made more friends through the local, much
smaller Hobad, which is closer to where I live now. So,
you know, Jewish life definitely had his benefits as far
as kind of meeting more people things like that. I've
(09:34):
done some. I was in some WhatsApp group about like pickleball.
I love tennis and pickleball. I love like paddle rackets
in general. So I've met some more friends through kind
of you know, like one off sports activities things like that.
You know, you know you mentioned Dave Rubin, Dave's Dave's
been talking about getting this weekly basketball game. I guess
this has for a while now. I'm kind of waiting
for him to kind of come to the table and
(09:55):
make that happen because I definitely look forward to hopefully
meeting some of Dave's basketball friends as well.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Yeah, the Moile plays in the basketball league, so I'm
not kidding seriously, but yeah, I've actually mentioned to my
husband like, Oh, Dave Ruben's trying to put together a
basketball league, you know, and you know you should go play.
So I hope you guys do it, because that sounds like,
you know, it's a good way to like not just
be on the internet and not like, you know, take
(10:21):
it off take it offline, which I'm really into. So
you went to law school, a top law school actually,
you know, just saying, and then you had a prestigious
clerkship and you had various fellowships.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
What made you go into media?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Why would you do this to your Jewish parents?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
You know, it's funny.
Speaker 6 (10:41):
So I grew up with parents who it's not just
their politics necessarily, although they are probably Clinton Democrats, but
kind of their their general worldview is somewhat liberal. Let
me define that in the appropriate expermas. What I mean
by that is, I would I didn't grow up in
a home that was particularly strict and bound by strictures.
(11:02):
My grandfather when he was growing up in New York City,
and this would be back in the nineteen I guess
early nineteen forties, around the time of World War Two.
His name's David Hurwitz. His parents actually put a plaque
on his desk when he was eight or nine years old,
that said David J. Hurwitz, attorney at law.
Speaker 7 (11:18):
So you got the idea.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
I mean, this is the whole time that if you're
a you know, a Jew a certain vintage, you're a doctor,
a lawyer, making accountant. I mean, there's not a whole lot.
My parents were actually never liked that at all. That's
kind of the point I'm trying to make. They were
quote unquote liberal insofar as they really just wanted me
to be happy and fulfill my potential in whichever way
I did that. So look, I mean I always have
(11:42):
had a deep admiration for the law. I mean, you know,
I'm sitting here with my little like pocket Constitution right here.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
I mean I love it.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
And you're the official lawyer of our group chat, which
I mean is very prestigious in and of itself.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
Yes, right exactly. So I'm still getting some bang from
my buck from the Chicago education. Right. Look, I still
actually put the law degree to use in certain ways. Right.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
So, I mean I do a lot of legal talks
through the Federal Society. I speak on a lot of
law school canvasses. You know, we're recording this on January seventeen.
It's actually only two days ago. On January fifteenth, I
had a very long overdue essay come out in the
Harvard Journal of on Public Policy as part of a
very nerdy jurisprudential symposium. So I still kind of get
some play out of that. And we're generally speaking, when
(12:23):
I'm writing and talking and doing my day to day commentary,
it definitely imbues the way I think, and I would
like to think it helps me evaluate certain situations, certain problems,
perhaps a little bit better than some others might be.
At least that's what I tell myself when to go
to sleep at night.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Right.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
But you know, Carol, at the end of the day,
you know, like you like some of the friends that
we've already named dropped here, I mean, I care about
the issues. I really, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart,
love this country. I love the idea of Western civilization,
which which is a concept that that you and I've
discussed offline that I think a lot of youngsters increasingly
are not properly under standing. And I just care about
(13:02):
the issues more generally, And you know, there are some
lawyers who are blessed with certain jobs where they can
do that in days day practice. A lot of them
work in the public sector, whether they're in a state
Attorney general office, Stster General's office. You know, some of
them might work in very specialized, highly elite boutique constitutional
law shops in certain law firms. But a lot of lawyers,
including what I was doing in private practice, just aren't
(13:25):
filling that itch. They're just not.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
So I took a leap of faith.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I mean initially when I kind of made the leap,
like I was kind of doing the media full time
job while staying of counsel at a at a small
not for profit law firm thing, so I kind of
was doing half half for a time period there. And
then when I saw that the media route, you know,
hopefully had some legs to it, I kind of just
stuck with it. I mean, again, I still use the
law degree to a little bit there. But you know,
(13:51):
at the end of the day, I also know I'm
still barred. I'm still barred in Texas, which is where
I used to live for four years, So I still
know that. You know, if I'm not sure, I'm not
sure if we can curse here, but if you know what, Okay,
so hits the fan. I mean, like, I know that
I have a lot of agree to fall back upon
as well.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Got it, and you'd be my first phone call, so
you know, if shit hits the fan?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So what kind of parent do you think you're going
to be?
Speaker 5 (14:14):
The kind that's like, I just want you to be happy,
or like the you know, attorney at law plaque on
the desk, because I am the attorney at law plaque
on the desk kind of parent, like yeah, be happy.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Sure, you know, happy whatever.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
But you know I'm not paying for like a basket
weaving degree at the college.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
You know, so make some good decisions.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
Right, I mean, I think you probably know enough about
me to know that I'm definitely not going to be
the kind of like live and let live, right, I mean,
I mean I believe in order. I believe kind of
in rules. I believe in guidance. I mean, I you know,
I believe in strictures. And you know it's kind of
like our you know, our our friends. So, Mamar, a
few years ago, as as this whole kind of post
liberal thing is starting to develop, I think set it
(14:55):
quite eloquently and I'm paraphrasing here, but you know there's
a certain level of freedom that can actually paradoxically only
be achieved through strictures, through following a certain way of life.
And by the way, that's not just kind of a
soul of Catholic idea. That's also a very rich thought
in our Jewish tradition as well. There's a great rabbi
called Rabbi Ari Lamb who's written a lot about this very.
Speaker 7 (15:15):
Idea as well.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
So anyway, all that's to say that as parents, I
would hope to try to do that obviously, have to
lead by example to an extent there. And you know, look,
I'm not going to be like an authoritarian fascist parents
or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Right, We'll see, right, I guess we'll see.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
I mean, I mean, God willing, you know, I mean,
you know, God willing will be parents will have numerous plentiful,
bountiful children and soon a rabbit and later. And you know, look,
I am I terrified at the idea of having to
you know, you know, like be very strict or yell
or to say you have a time out in your bedroom.
I mean, like honestly that that kind of does terrify me.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
To be honest, it gets easier, let me tell you.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
I hope so, because it genuinely does sound daunting, partially
because you know, as I alluded to you, I really
just did not have that kind of upbringing on it.
But I think because I was raised in a certain way,
and I love my parents obviously, you know, my mom
is my hero. You know, I'm born on Lincoln's birthday,
and Lincoln's really my favorite hero in American history. And
(16:12):
Abraham Lincoln once said, again I paraphrasing here, but he said,
you know, all that I am, or that I may be,
I owe to my angel mother. And you know, in
many ways I really do feel that way are kind
of differences in kind of life and raising children all
that aside there. But because I know, you know, I'm
a byproduct of a certain way of upbringing, and I
and I see some others here, especially in the South
(16:33):
Florida Jewish community, doing a little a little different, I
really am attracted to kind of that more kind of rigid,
kind of strict order order rules. But you know, to
get back to your specific question, Carol, I have no
intention of placing like an attorney at law flafe at age.
Maybe I would, I would be I would be quite
a hypocrite if I did that, given kind of how
(16:53):
I've someone neglected the law.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
So it's funny.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
My middle son, my history loving middle son, is also
born on Abraham Lincoln's birthday. So and I see some
Josh Hammer's similarities here really too. So part of being
in media is, you know, having your face out there?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Do you get recognized a lot?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Like? What's it like living a fairly public life.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Probably not as often as you do, my famous friend,
but but I did have a funny incident at schule
actually a few weeks ago. So you know where we
live in South Florida, I'm sure where you live too.
This time of the year is just like ridiculously busy, right,
I mean there's so many people for me season.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Yeah, it's a season.
Speaker 6 (17:32):
It's a season, right, So specifically where we are is
just totally flooded with Canadians. I'm not sure why exactly.
You know, yeah, our friendly Shapiro might be happy, but
like our people are just flooding in here from Toronto, Montreal,
places like that.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
So the specific Kaba, the shool that I go to,
which is.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
I'm fairly sure walk from from where I live, is
just packed to the brim with Canadians this time of
the year December January. Probably you er as well, but
really December January and if you weeks to go. I
was there and I was dobbining on Shabbab and this
guy comes up to me, probably I don't know, maybe
like around forty years old, early forties maybe, and he's like, are.
Speaker 7 (18:12):
You Josh Hammer.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I'm like yeah, and he's like, you know, like I'm
a huge fan. So yeah, Look, I mean some of
that stuff happens. I'm not gonna pretend like it happens
every day. It definitely doesn't. I'm pretty happy about that.
To be honest with you, I don't necessarily want to
be the kind of person that has to like always
look over my shoulder for people kind of recognizing me.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
I have no aspirations to totally agree.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
Yeah, it's not a good thing, but yeah, every so
often that does happen. And you know, when I speak
at conferences too, it obviously happens a lot more often.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Right.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
So, I just got back from from Israel at this
one less than a week ago. I spoke at a
conference last Thursday night, kind of a right wing conference
there in Jerusalem. It's not worth getting into this bit
of details. But after the conference was over, this one
younger guy came up to me and it's just like,
you know, Josh, been a huge fan of yours and
since you started writing for the Daily Wire, and you
know that was like what six seven years ago and now,
so like that's kind of cool when that happens.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
For sure as well.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
So you got into media because you care about the
issues and you, you know, want to make differences. So
what would you say is our largest like societal or
cultural problem and is it solvable?
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Well, I mean not to sound like a theologian Carroll,
but I genuinely the one thing that I have come
back to time and time again for a very long
time now, I think America genuinely needs like a spiritual reckoning,
like a great awakening here. And that's a that's admittedly
somewhat perhaps somewhat of an odd thing to say, you know,
from one Jew to another there, but I really genuinely want.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
Our Christian brethren to go to church more.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
I really really do worry that the future of this
country is going to end up being between kind of
like two secular or secular adjacent bashing tribes, and that's
just not going to end well. I mean, you know,
you and I both know all the famous quotes John
Adams famously said that, you know, the US Constitution was
only made for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate for any other. They assumed all of this,
(20:08):
They literally assumed that there would be an overriding sense
of Judeo Christian morality that imbues the body politic, that inmbus,
our our civic engagement, that in views our policy making
and our law and our judicial opinions, and all of
the above. There and I really really do worry, and
you know, frankly, Carol, especially.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
For the Jews.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Speaking of the future of the Jews in America, I
want a more Christian America, actually American Christianity outside of
the land of Israel as as far as the so
if the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in
year seventy, go fast forward from the year seventy until
let's call it nineteen forty eight when Save Israel established.
In that almost two thousand year period, there was no
(20:52):
better place ever than the United States of America for
the Jews, and I would say, honestly, above all that
is because not just of not just because you was Constitution,
That's part of it, but because of the distinctly phile
Semitic brand of American Christianity and American Protestantism in particular.
People like John E.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Agree.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
So I really, really, really really pray it that comes back. Unfortunately,
I'm somewhat black filled as to the possibility of that happening,
but I guess I'm trying to do the best I
can to you know, try to kind of not imatize
the Escaton that would be painting it a little too bleakly,
but just just doing what I can to try to
encourage our Christian American friends just be more Christian.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Frankly, I think that, you know, the pendulum swings, and
I could see, you know, thinking back to like the nineties,
like I think evangelicalism evangelism sorry was you know, fairly prominent,
and I think things were like people were going to
church more often and it was sort of an uptick.
(21:51):
So I could see it coming back and people, especially
when I think they the culture coursens and they need
to come back to some thing that makes sense. I
do think people return to church and Christians become more Christian.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
But I fully agree with you.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
I've always called American Jews the luckiest Jews in history.
Very few times that we've lived as openly and as
safely as we have here.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Obviously, last couple.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Of months have been, you know, trying, but in general,
I think even still, you know, you and I did
a conference, we did a panel in DC recently for
Heritage Foundation about Jews owning guns. That's something that you know,
we can basically only do in America. Even in Israel
it's kind of tough even now. So we have some
(22:39):
real benefits to living here, and so I could see
the return to church. I had a friend, a lefty friend,
say to me something like after October seventh, like, imagine
being in Alabama right now, and like, you have no
idea what you're talking about. Being in Alabama right now
one of the safest place Jews can be. Like it's
the crazy idea that you know, Christians don't like Jews
(23:00):
or don't want Jews around is just nonsense. In general,
I think.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
It's it's total and completely nonsense. I mean, look at
the places on campus right now where all of bad
stuff is. It's happening in New York City, it's happening
in Los Angeles. I mean, you know, it's happening in
these mega blue urban centers. I mean, when is the
last time that in SEC school like Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee.
I mean, have they been having any problems with the
(23:26):
Jews now?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
I mean I've seen memes that were like the party
schools were right, right.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I mean, honestly, like, I'm not sure that I can
think of a single headline that I've seen from any
of these universities. I'm sure I'm pinning with an overly
brought brush here.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
No, I don't.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
I think.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I think that's probably right.
Speaker 6 (23:42):
Yeah, yeah, I mean so there's something to be said
for that, right. I mean, look, Carol, I think back
to the twenty sixteen presidential primary. So it was actually
I was a third year law student at Chicago at
the time. But I can't paign for teded Cruz across
a handful of states.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
Illinois.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
He's been a guest on this show There You Go.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
And I remember before where he made his final stand
in Indiana. I was there with my law school, buddy.
We were at that point door knocking and foam banking
for Cruise in South Bend, Indiana, like the day before
the primary or something like that. And the number of
questions that I got from from Christians asking me, you know,
where does Ted Cruz stand on Israel?
Speaker 3 (24:18):
He was a lot.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
I mean maybe like after like abortion, it might be
like the most frequently asked questions. So this idea that
American Christians, broadly speaking, or anti Semitic, granti Israel, it's
a vestige of this bizarre mentality from the nineteen fifties
where some people didn't get into certain law firms or
banks or country clubs that they cared about. It is
(24:40):
so pastime, I think, to throw this mentality into the
ashubok of history. You know, as Ron Dermer said, oh
maybe two years ago or so, he had a controversial
quote that I think was nonetheless correct. It rubbed the
law Jews the wrong way. But he said that the
future of American support for Israel obviously depends on the
Christian And again a lot of big Jewish mockers, big
(25:02):
Jewish donors were kind of offended by that. Tell me
how he's.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Wrong, right, How is he not wrong? Of course he's right.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, like we talked about, you're really
accomplished and you're recently married. Now that you kind of
have the whole package, do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Asked me after we got willing to have our first
child or two, Right, yeah, I mean, look, I'm not
trying to kind of rush things or anything like that.
We've been married, as you mentioned earlier in the show,
for precisely one month at the time this recording. But
I mean, to me, can't I can't say I've made it,
or I can't necessarily say that I've led a truly
fulfilling and meaningful life until I have children, right, I mean,
(25:46):
you know, be fruitful multiply is one of the very
first commandments in the entire Bible. In many ways, I
think it is kind of really the purpose of living, right,
is to kind of give your children better than what
you inherited, to give them more meaning and value and
potential material well obviously being a part of that, not
all of it, but at least a part of it,
you know, things like that and all that. But look,
i am I'm obviously blessed. I am just truly, truly happy.
(26:11):
You know, God is good. I love, love, love living
in Florida.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
You know, yeah, I tease.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
I tease you, Carroll, because I think that you're a
slightly bit more of a Florida the angeest than I am.
But only on the margins. Only on the margins.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
I genuinely we've got a good thing going.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I mean it's hard to like not be happy all
the time here.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Yeah exactly. I mean, like you and I both lived
in cold weather locations. I've done New York, Chicago, Colorado.
I did one year there. I'm done with it. I
am so done, yea with the cold weather. I mean
literally I turn around, like right now and look out
my window. Okay, it's a little cloudy. Not not the best.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I mean, where do we write the letter of complaint
that the last month has been chili and rainy. It's
not supposed to be a rainy season. And you know
a lot of people are like, oh, look at Iowa.
Look they have, like the snowstorm. They signed up to
live in Iowa. I signed up to live in I
shouldn't have to have fifty degrees in rainy in January.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
That's just not acceptable to me.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Sheer and I were talking about how bad we feel
for all these Canadians who have come down here and
like and like this is the weather they've got it.
It really has been oddly rainy here. I mean, you know,
this is what I saw, this one thing on the
street maybe a month ago or so, probably around the
time of the wedding where I saw this. This kid
must have been I don't know, a boy eight, nine,
ten years old something like that was like holding like
(27:27):
his like boogie board, and like he looked so upset
that he couldn't go to the beach, and like, yeah,
my heart kind of razstly. Like it's like very very sad.
But in any event, Florida is obviously great. You know,
I've I've found my bishart, I've found my soulmate. You know,
I'm very happy with where my career is. You know,
God willing you will continue to expand there. I love
(27:48):
what I'm doing now. I don't particularly feel being canceled
and having to go back to law.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
At this point.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You know, there was a you know, maybe right you.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
Never know, I mean, there was a massive hip piece
you ever, you might recall by the SPLC Southern Poverty
Law Center written about the Little.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Their Scam organization. I feel like we have to know
that every time they came.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
Up right right for sure, But you know, I survived
that relatively unscared. So I feel like I'm I'm maybe
arguably uncancellable, which is a somewhat reassuring thing, and hopefully
reassure my parents that the all the law school tuition
money was not totally.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
Wasted, right right, But light life is really good.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
I mean I have I have very few complaints. You know,
children sooner rather than later. But as of now, with
that caveat of side, I feel quite fulfilled in life.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
I mean, I'm not going to be bitter that you
mentioned the weather and finding sheer and you know, all
this other stuff, but not your amazing group of friends
in Florida, like whatever.
Speaker 7 (28:41):
You know, you guys are always amazing.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
We have quite a quite a little cabal here, and
I'm I'm very, very, very lucky to have people like
you and Dave Rubin. We mentioned Buck Sexton moved here
what like a year ago or so too many others
that I you know, I don't want to take up
the rest of the show named me names whatever.
Speaker 7 (29:00):
You know, we have it.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
They're good.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Yeah, they're good people.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
We have a great thing going for us here. You know,
we obviously have an amazing governor and Governor DeSantis politically Florida,
it feels like a very very safe place for folks
like us.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
By the way, it also feels safer from a Jewish perspective.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
Oh yeah, for sure, like considerably substantially better and safer
than it would feel for Jews in New York or
l or La or anything like that. So I'm very
very grateful for that as well.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
So I love talking to you, and here with your
best tip for my listeners on how they can improve
their lives.
Speaker 7 (29:34):
Well, I you.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Know, I guess this is kind of going back to
this this theme that I didn't necessarily plan, but it's
been someone of a late motif of the show, which
is talking about kind of like rules and stricture and
religion whatever. You know, Look, I I'm not a Christian.
I don't really know what a day to day Christian's
kind of prayer routine entials.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
You know.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
I saw Tucker Carlson speak at the Heritage Foundations. It
was like his last talk before Fox fired him last
April One of the things that he said to Kevin Roberts,
the president of Pirot Defination, was you know, just take
ten minutes a day to pray every single day. And
you know something that I've been doing for I don't
know five six or something like that, is I've been
praying every morning. You know, I wrap to Phil and
I kind of do that every morning, and I've gotten
(30:15):
more serious with it. I spend more time with it now,
I'm more earnest. I try to really kind of focus
on it. The Hebrew word would be cavana. You have
to have intent to actually talk to m and anyway,
it doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or a Christian.
I really do think that Tucker's message there, and it's
someone I run with that. I'm quoting Tucker because I've
actually been critical a five times recently. But that's neither
here nor there. But I think that it's really important
(30:37):
for everyone to kind of focus not so much at
every single minute on the here and now and every
single minute and what's happening on Twitter or cable news
thing of that, you know, focus on really on what
is most important, and especially in the morning, especially when
you're first waking up when you get that first cup
of coffee, focused, just just dedicate ten to fifteen minutes
minimum to God, to praying, talking about and thinking about
(31:02):
what is most important. I think that that can really
kind of anchor you throughout the course of the workday,
especially for folks like you and me who work in
this crazy media landscape there.
Speaker 7 (31:10):
And I just found that.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Since I've done that, it really does kind of help
just kind of around me.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
For the data that is to help me.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I love that. Thank you so much for coming on. Josh.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
He is Josh Hammer, catch him on the Josh Hammer Show,
and read him in Newsweek.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Thanks again, always a pleasure, Karen, thanks so much for
joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
This is a show about the beauty of marriage, the
importance of family, the way to live a good life.
But there are a lot of listeners, and some of
them write to me or comment to me who are
single and don't want to be but don't know how
to meet someone. When I try to give single friends
(00:29):
or acquaintances advice, they say things like, it's not like
it was when you were single, because obviously I'm like
three hundred years old and have been married since birth.
The truth is, yes, things have changed a little bit.
I've never dated someone I met on the internet, for example,
and this is a big change from what happens now.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
But I think the.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Basics should generally still be the same. You meet someone,
you hit it off, you date, you get married.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
No, No, people tell me that's not at all how
it works today. Now, you alert someone to your interest
on an app, wait for them to respond, message back
and forth for a few days, then potentially have a call,
and then maybe someday meet them in person, and then
never hear from them again. But what if you didn't
follow this model. I'm not anti meeting someone online. I
(01:21):
have kind of mixed feelings about it. I get that
that's where a lot of the interaction happens now, and
that's where you could hit it off with someone and
maybe make something work. But this method is clearly not
working for many people. I think you need to see
dating apps like being in a crowded bar. You can
spot someone across the bar, smile at them, and then
(01:42):
have a conversation to determine if this can.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Go any further.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
But when you're in a bar, you're not having like
five conversations with people. That's just not going to work.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I met my.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Husband through mutual friends, and we were best friends for
over a decade before we started dating. When I talk
to people in their twenties and thirties, is hoping to
meet someone that they want to marry, They obviously say,
that's a great story, but I don't have time to
make a friend and marry him in.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Ten years, which fair.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So I want to open the floor to my listeners
to give your best advice to these young people who
want to meet someone to date seriously and marry. Write
to us at Carol Markowitz Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
It's K A. R. O.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
L M A.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
R ko Wi CS and Charlie Zas and Zebra Show
at gmail dot com. And tell those youngsters how you
found love and how they can too. I'll read some
of the responses on the Carol Markowitz Show a week
from today next Thursday, and I do hope you'll tune
in coming up next and interview with Josh Hammer. Join
(02:48):
us after the break.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Marcowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Josh Hammer. Josh is senior editor
at Large at Newsweek, a syndicated columnist through Creators, and
the host of The Josh Hammer Show, a Newsweek podcast
and syndicated radio show. He's also, like me, a fairly
new Floridian. Josh is also a newlywed. It's actually a
(03:15):
month ago today, Mazeltov that he and his bride had
a beautiful.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Warm, just amazing, gorgeous wedding.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Thank you so much for coming on, Josh.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Carol, you're a dear friend and fellow flority and transplants.
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Thanks for having me so tell us about married life.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Well, it's a heck of a lot better than engaged life.
You know, it's you know, God willing, should it should
it only be this peaceful and blissful Look, Carol, it's been.
It's been amazing, right. I mean, one thing that we
did that I think that I would not recommend to
newly engage, newly betrothed. I guess you would say couples.
We waited essentially almost a year or two the day
from engagement to marriage. And we had our reasons.
Speaker 7 (03:57):
My my wife, who you know, you know, she was
in grad school, is you couldn't focus on wedding planning.
Speaker 6 (04:01):
And then it was the summer. No one wants to
do a wedding in the summer in Florida. You know,
we had all we had, We had all our reasons, right,
But the downside of that is that just all the
talk and the nits and this and then that of
wedding planning, and you know, as you were there, we
had multiple events for the wedding, so you know, it
kind of all just ended up being a lot. And
you know, I think if we had kind of just
(04:21):
done like three to six months, is that the full year.
That's kind of the one thing that I probably would
have done differently in retrospect. But look, I mean not
having to think about wedding planning.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
At the wedding, which we you know, it was the
best night of our lives. We were thrilled to have
you and Shy there was as a part of our
symco of our happiness, our celebration. It was really beautiful.
You know, it's really amazing. Right now, we're going on
a mini moon I think the kids call it these days,
a mini moon in February. Our birthdays are actually one
week apart in February, so we're excited to go on that.
(04:52):
We're trying to figure out what to do for our
real honeymoon. We hadn't mind going to South Africa, but
now South Africa, as you know, is tied up with
this maybe not yeah exactly, probably played on the best
move for two Zionist to used to go to South
Africa right now. But anyway, I'm a little I'm off
course already married.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
No, no, there is no course here. This is a this
is a free flowing kind of place.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Yeah, well it's really it's it's really been fantastic, And
you know, I only hope that all my friends and
family members and loved ones who are still trying to
find their their bisher, still trying to find their soulmate.
You know, God willing should the only be so lucky
as I've been.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I love that any surprises, any any married life surprises.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Nothing comes immediately to mine. I mean, you know, I mean,
I mean I know my in laws very well. I mean,
like they also live right here in Florida. I'm very
close with them, honestly. You know, my father in law
said it best, so we actually the day after the wedding,
Carobly went to my in law's house for a barbecue.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
It's it's it's so funny. I'm really married. It's the
absolute best family.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean, they seem really great.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
I mean, and not just because the food was like
insane at the Moroccan event you guys did.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Yeah, No, they're just the warmest, sweetest people. And you know,
she and I that's my wife. We liked the joke
that the very first time I went over to her parents'
house to meet the parents. This is back in March
twenty twenty two, so my now mother in law the
time was just my girlfriend's mother. This is my literal
first time meeting her, and they did this whole, massive,
gorgeous barbecue. I was literally there eating for like four hours.
(06:22):
And at the time when it starts, she raised her
glass and she goes, Josh, welcome to the family. This
is the first time, I mean the parents and like,
you know, like they just knew you were in but
maybe but like they're just like really warm people, right,
And I say, all that is kind of breakfast to
say that. Like the night after the wedding, when we
(06:42):
went back to their house for another barbecue, you know,
the Ari Israeli family, they had a lot of relatives
still in from Israel, so they wanted to keep on
hosting and entertaining until they flew back the Wednesday after
the wedding. This is the Monday night right after. And
my father in law said it best. He was like,
you know, Josh, like you're obviously a part of the
family this this whole week because spen you know, but
a but a formality, you know, but a cherry on top.
(07:03):
You got to get the katuba, you gotta smash the glass,
you got to do all the things that our people
do and get the rabbinical seal approval.
Speaker 7 (07:10):
But it was really somewhat of a formality yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
I mean the traditions are important, but yeah, what you
guys had even before you were married, I think is
beautiful and you know.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Just one of my favorite couples.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
So I mentioned you moved to Florida shortly before me,
a few months before me. I think I'm at two
years right now?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Where where do you.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
My Florida moved date, I remember it exactly was August
twenty fifth, twenty twenty.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
One, So I think, okay, you.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Were like six same time.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, five months before me.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
So a lot of people obviously have moved from place
to place in the Great Migration the last four years.
And something we talk a lot about on this show
is making new friends in adulthood. And I know you
have a friend or too, maybe right, Josh and I
hang out a lot, That's why that's funny, and we
have a group of friends here. But have you made
like situational friends, not from the internet, like I know
(08:04):
our friend Dave Rubin hangs out with the oyle who
did his son's brisks, So like anything like that.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
That would be a hard one to top. I'm not
sure that I can top befriend of the oil. Look,
I mean, you know, Carol. When I moved to Florida,
it was in the middle of COVID, like many others there,
And you know, I don't think I realized how many
people I knew in Florida when I decided to pull
the trigger. I knew that I had some friends there,
some of our mutual friends and so forth there, but
(08:34):
I honestly don't think. And then I got here and
I started realizing, oh my god, like, wait, this person
actually lives here, and then like, oh, like your friends
are this person, and like the social circle just like
expands dramatically. And I remember that first month and a half,
two months after I moved here, in the summer to
fall twenty twenty one, you know, my social calendar was.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Just insane, I mean so great, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
I essentially barely had any free nights, if any to myself,
which gets a little tiring, to be sure. And you know,
now that I'm like an old married man, I guess
I'm used to kind of the nights in with my
beautiful wife, which it would be clear I'm very happy
about that arrangement.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
But you know, yeah, I mean, look, you definitely meet
friends that you didn't know. I mean, I so I.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
First moved to Brickle, which is essentially downtown Miami. I
was very active in the local Kabad. They're the shool.
There was like a five minute walk from where I
was living, so I've made a lot of new friends
through that. I've made more friends through the local, much
smaller Hobad, which is closer to where I live now. So,
you know, Jewish life definitely had his benefits as far
as kind of meeting more people things like that. I've
(09:34):
done some. I was in some WhatsApp group about like pickleball.
I love tennis and pickleball. I love like paddle rackets
in general. So I've met some more friends through kind
of you know, like one off sports activities things like that.
You know, you know you mentioned Dave Rubin, Dave's Dave's
been talking about getting this weekly basketball game. I guess
this has for a while now. I'm kind of waiting
for him to kind of come to the table and
(09:55):
make that happen because I definitely look forward to hopefully
meeting some of Dave's basketball friends as well.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Yeah, the Moile plays in the basketball league, so I'm
not kidding seriously, but yeah, I've actually mentioned to my
husband like, Oh, Dave Ruben's trying to put together a
basketball league, you know, and you know you should go play.
So I hope you guys do it, because that sounds like,
you know, it's a good way to like not just
be on the internet and not like, you know, take
(10:21):
it off take it offline, which I'm really into. So
you went to law school, a top law school actually,
you know, just saying, and then you had a prestigious
clerkship and you had various fellowships.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
What made you go into media?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Why would you do this to your Jewish parents?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
You know, it's funny.
Speaker 6 (10:41):
So I grew up with parents who it's not just
their politics necessarily, although they are probably Clinton Democrats, but
kind of their their general worldview is somewhat liberal. Let
me define that in the appropriate expermas. What I mean
by that is, I would I didn't grow up in
a home that was particularly strict and bound by strictures.
(11:02):
My grandfather when he was growing up in New York City,
and this would be back in the nineteen I guess
early nineteen forties, around the time of World War Two.
His name's David Hurwitz. His parents actually put a plaque
on his desk when he was eight or nine years old,
that said David J. Hurwitz, attorney at law.
Speaker 7 (11:18):
So you got the idea.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
I mean, this is the whole time that if you're
a you know, a Jew a certain vintage, you're a doctor,
a lawyer, making accountant. I mean, there's not a whole lot.
My parents were actually never liked that at all. That's
kind of the point I'm trying to make. They were
quote unquote liberal insofar as they really just wanted me
to be happy and fulfill my potential in whichever way
I did that. So look, I mean I always have
(11:42):
had a deep admiration for the law. I mean, you know,
I'm sitting here with my little like pocket Constitution right here.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
I mean I love it.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
And you're the official lawyer of our group chat, which
I mean is very prestigious in and of itself.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
Yes, right exactly. So I'm still getting some bang from
my buck from the Chicago education. Right. Look, I still
actually put the law degree to use in certain ways. Right.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
So, I mean I do a lot of legal talks
through the Federal Society. I speak on a lot of
law school canvasses. You know, we're recording this on January seventeen.
It's actually only two days ago. On January fifteenth, I
had a very long overdue essay come out in the
Harvard Journal of on Public Policy as part of a
very nerdy jurisprudential symposium. So I still kind of get
some play out of that. And we're generally speaking, when
(12:23):
I'm writing and talking and doing my day to day commentary,
it definitely imbues the way I think, and I would
like to think it helps me evaluate certain situations, certain problems,
perhaps a little bit better than some others might be.
At least that's what I tell myself when to go
to sleep at night.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Right.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
But you know, Carol, at the end of the day,
you know, like you like some of the friends that
we've already named dropped here, I mean, I care about
the issues. I really, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart,
love this country. I love the idea of Western civilization,
which which is a concept that that you and I've
discussed offline that I think a lot of youngsters increasingly
are not properly under standing. And I just care about
(13:02):
the issues more generally, And you know, there are some
lawyers who are blessed with certain jobs where they can
do that in days day practice. A lot of them
work in the public sector, whether they're in a state
Attorney general office, Stster General's office. You know, some of
them might work in very specialized, highly elite boutique constitutional
law shops in certain law firms. But a lot of lawyers,
including what I was doing in private practice, just aren't
(13:25):
filling that itch. They're just not.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
So I took a leap of faith.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I mean initially when I kind of made the leap,
like I was kind of doing the media full time
job while staying of counsel at a at a small
not for profit law firm thing, so I kind of
was doing half half for a time period there. And
then when I saw that the media route, you know,
hopefully had some legs to it, I kind of just
stuck with it. I mean, again, I still use the
law degree to a little bit there. But you know,
(13:51):
at the end of the day, I also know I'm
still barred. I'm still barred in Texas, which is where
I used to live for four years, So I still
know that. You know, if I'm not sure, I'm not
sure if we can curse here, but if you know what, Okay,
so hits the fan. I mean, like, I know that
I have a lot of agree to fall back upon
as well.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Got it, and you'd be my first phone call, so
you know, if shit hits the fan?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So what kind of parent do you think you're going
to be?
Speaker 5 (14:14):
The kind that's like, I just want you to be happy,
or like the you know, attorney at law plaque on
the desk, because I am the attorney at law plaque
on the desk kind of parent, like yeah, be happy.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Sure, you know, happy whatever.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
But you know I'm not paying for like a basket
weaving degree at the college.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
You know, so make some good decisions.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
Right, I mean, I think you probably know enough about
me to know that I'm definitely not going to be
the kind of like live and let live, right, I mean,
I mean I believe in order. I believe kind of
in rules. I believe in guidance. I mean, I you know,
I believe in strictures. And you know it's kind of
like our you know, our our friends. So, Mamar, a
few years ago, as as this whole kind of post
liberal thing is starting to develop, I think set it
(14:55):
quite eloquently and I'm paraphrasing here, but you know there's
a certain level of freedom that can actually paradoxically only
be achieved through strictures, through following a certain way of life.
And by the way, that's not just kind of a
soul of Catholic idea. That's also a very rich thought
in our Jewish tradition as well. There's a great rabbi
called Rabbi Ari Lamb who's written a lot about this very.
Speaker 7 (15:15):
Idea as well.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
So anyway, all that's to say that as parents, I
would hope to try to do that obviously, have to
lead by example to an extent there. And you know, look,
I'm not going to be like an authoritarian fascist parents
or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Right, We'll see, right, I guess we'll see.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
I mean, I mean, God willing, you know, I mean,
you know, God willing will be parents will have numerous plentiful,
bountiful children and soon a rabbit and later. And you know, look,
I am I terrified at the idea of having to
you know, you know, like be very strict or yell
or to say you have a time out in your bedroom.
I mean, like honestly that that kind of does terrify me.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
To be honest, it gets easier, let me tell you.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
I hope so, because it genuinely does sound daunting, partially
because you know, as I alluded to you, I really
just did not have that kind of upbringing on it.
But I think because I was raised in a certain way,
and I love my parents obviously, you know, my mom
is my hero. You know, I'm born on Lincoln's birthday,
and Lincoln's really my favorite hero in American history. And
(16:12):
Abraham Lincoln once said, again I paraphrasing here, but he said,
you know, all that I am, or that I may be,
I owe to my angel mother. And you know, in
many ways I really do feel that way are kind
of differences in kind of life and raising children all
that aside there. But because I know, you know, I'm
a byproduct of a certain way of upbringing, and I
and I see some others here, especially in the South
(16:33):
Florida Jewish community, doing a little a little different, I
really am attracted to kind of that more kind of rigid,
kind of strict order order rules. But you know, to
get back to your specific question, Carol, I have no
intention of placing like an attorney at law flafe at age.
Maybe I would, I would be I would be quite
a hypocrite if I did that, given kind of how
(16:53):
I've someone neglected the law.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
So it's funny.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
My middle son, my history loving middle son, is also
born on Abraham Lincoln's birthday. So and I see some
Josh Hammer's similarities here really too. So part of being
in media is, you know, having your face out there?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Do you get recognized a lot?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Like? What's it like living a fairly public life.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Probably not as often as you do, my famous friend,
but but I did have a funny incident at schule
actually a few weeks ago. So you know where we
live in South Florida, I'm sure where you live too.
This time of the year is just like ridiculously busy, right,
I mean there's so many people for me season.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Yeah, it's a season.
Speaker 6 (17:32):
It's a season, right, So specifically where we are is
just totally flooded with Canadians. I'm not sure why exactly.
You know, yeah, our friendly Shapiro might be happy, but
like our people are just flooding in here from Toronto, Montreal,
places like that.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
So the specific Kaba, the shool that I go to,
which is.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
I'm fairly sure walk from from where I live, is
just packed to the brim with Canadians this time of
the year December January. Probably you er as well, but
really December January and if you weeks to go. I
was there and I was dobbining on Shabbab and this
guy comes up to me, probably I don't know, maybe
like around forty years old, early forties maybe, and he's like, are.
Speaker 7 (18:12):
You Josh Hammer.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I'm like yeah, and he's like, you know, like I'm
a huge fan. So yeah, Look, I mean some of
that stuff happens. I'm not gonna pretend like it happens
every day. It definitely doesn't. I'm pretty happy about that.
To be honest with you, I don't necessarily want to
be the kind of person that has to like always
look over my shoulder for people kind of recognizing me.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
I have no aspirations to totally agree.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
Yeah, it's not a good thing, but yeah, every so
often that does happen. And you know, when I speak
at conferences too, it obviously happens a lot more often.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Right.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
So, I just got back from from Israel at this
one less than a week ago. I spoke at a
conference last Thursday night, kind of a right wing conference
there in Jerusalem. It's not worth getting into this bit
of details. But after the conference was over, this one
younger guy came up to me and it's just like,
you know, Josh, been a huge fan of yours and
since you started writing for the Daily Wire, and you
know that was like what six seven years ago and now,
so like that's kind of cool when that happens.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
For sure as well.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
So you got into media because you care about the
issues and you, you know, want to make differences. So
what would you say is our largest like societal or
cultural problem and is it solvable?
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Well, I mean not to sound like a theologian Carroll,
but I genuinely the one thing that I have come
back to time and time again for a very long
time now, I think America genuinely needs like a spiritual reckoning,
like a great awakening here. And that's a that's admittedly
somewhat perhaps somewhat of an odd thing to say, you know,
from one Jew to another there, but I really genuinely want.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
Our Christian brethren to go to church more.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
I really really do worry that the future of this
country is going to end up being between kind of
like two secular or secular adjacent bashing tribes, and that's
just not going to end well. I mean, you know,
you and I both know all the famous quotes John
Adams famously said that, you know, the US Constitution was
only made for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate for any other. They assumed all of this,
(20:08):
They literally assumed that there would be an overriding sense
of Judeo Christian morality that imbues the body politic, that inmbus,
our our civic engagement, that in views our policy making
and our law and our judicial opinions, and all of
the above. There and I really really do worry, and
you know, frankly, Carol, especially.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
For the Jews.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Speaking of the future of the Jews in America, I
want a more Christian America, actually American Christianity outside of
the land of Israel as as far as the so
if the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in
year seventy, go fast forward from the year seventy until
let's call it nineteen forty eight when Save Israel established.
In that almost two thousand year period, there was no
(20:52):
better place ever than the United States of America for
the Jews, and I would say, honestly, above all that
is because not just of not just because you was Constitution,
That's part of it, but because of the distinctly phile
Semitic brand of American Christianity and American Protestantism in particular.
People like John E.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Agree.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
So I really, really, really really pray it that comes back. Unfortunately,
I'm somewhat black filled as to the possibility of that happening,
but I guess I'm trying to do the best I
can to you know, try to kind of not imatize
the Escaton that would be painting it a little too bleakly,
but just just doing what I can to try to
encourage our Christian American friends just be more Christian.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Frankly, I think that, you know, the pendulum swings, and
I could see, you know, thinking back to like the nineties,
like I think evangelicalism evangelism sorry was you know, fairly prominent,
and I think things were like people were going to
church more often and it was sort of an uptick.
(21:51):
So I could see it coming back and people, especially
when I think they the culture coursens and they need
to come back to some thing that makes sense. I
do think people return to church and Christians become more Christian.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
But I fully agree with you.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
I've always called American Jews the luckiest Jews in history.
Very few times that we've lived as openly and as
safely as we have here.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Obviously, last couple.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Of months have been, you know, trying, but in general,
I think even still, you know, you and I did
a conference, we did a panel in DC recently for
Heritage Foundation about Jews owning guns. That's something that you know,
we can basically only do in America. Even in Israel
it's kind of tough even now. So we have some
(22:39):
real benefits to living here, and so I could see
the return to church. I had a friend, a lefty friend,
say to me something like after October seventh, like, imagine
being in Alabama right now, and like, you have no
idea what you're talking about. Being in Alabama right now
one of the safest place Jews can be. Like it's
the crazy idea that you know, Christians don't like Jews
(23:00):
or don't want Jews around is just nonsense. In general,
I think.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
It's it's total and completely nonsense. I mean, look at
the places on campus right now where all of bad
stuff is. It's happening in New York City, it's happening
in Los Angeles. I mean, you know, it's happening in
these mega blue urban centers. I mean, when is the
last time that in SEC school like Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee.
I mean, have they been having any problems with the
(23:26):
Jews now?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
I mean I've seen memes that were like the party
schools were right, right.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I mean, honestly, like, I'm not sure that I can
think of a single headline that I've seen from any
of these universities. I'm sure I'm pinning with an overly
brought brush here.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
No, I don't.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
I think.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I think that's probably right.
Speaker 6 (23:42):
Yeah, yeah, I mean so there's something to be said
for that, right. I mean, look, Carol, I think back
to the twenty sixteen presidential primary. So it was actually
I was a third year law student at Chicago at
the time. But I can't paign for teded Cruz across
a handful of states.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
Illinois.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
He's been a guest on this show There You Go.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
And I remember before where he made his final stand
in Indiana. I was there with my law school, buddy.
We were at that point door knocking and foam banking
for Cruise in South Bend, Indiana, like the day before
the primary or something like that. And the number of
questions that I got from from Christians asking me, you know,
where does Ted Cruz stand on Israel?
Speaker 3 (24:18):
He was a lot.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
I mean maybe like after like abortion, it might be
like the most frequently asked questions. So this idea that
American Christians, broadly speaking, or anti Semitic, granti Israel, it's
a vestige of this bizarre mentality from the nineteen fifties
where some people didn't get into certain law firms or
banks or country clubs that they cared about. It is
(24:40):
so pastime, I think, to throw this mentality into the
ashubok of history. You know, as Ron Dermer said, oh
maybe two years ago or so, he had a controversial
quote that I think was nonetheless correct. It rubbed the
law Jews the wrong way. But he said that the
future of American support for Israel obviously depends on the
Christian And again a lot of big Jewish mockers, big
(25:02):
Jewish donors were kind of offended by that. Tell me
how he's.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Wrong, right, How is he not wrong? Of course he's right.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, like we talked about, you're really
accomplished and you're recently married. Now that you kind of
have the whole package, do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Asked me after we got willing to have our first
child or two, Right, yeah, I mean, look, I'm not
trying to kind of rush things or anything like that.
We've been married, as you mentioned earlier in the show,
for precisely one month at the time this recording. But
I mean, to me, can't I can't say I've made it,
or I can't necessarily say that I've led a truly
fulfilling and meaningful life until I have children, right, I mean,
(25:46):
you know, be fruitful multiply is one of the very
first commandments in the entire Bible. In many ways, I
think it is kind of really the purpose of living, right,
is to kind of give your children better than what
you inherited, to give them more meaning and value and
potential material well obviously being a part of that, not
all of it, but at least a part of it,
you know, things like that and all that. But look,
i am I'm obviously blessed. I am just truly, truly happy.
(26:11):
You know, God is good. I love, love, love living
in Florida.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
You know, yeah, I tease.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
I tease you, Carroll, because I think that you're a
slightly bit more of a Florida the angeest than I am.
But only on the margins. Only on the margins.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
I genuinely we've got a good thing going.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I mean it's hard to like not be happy all
the time here.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Yeah exactly. I mean, like you and I both lived
in cold weather locations. I've done New York, Chicago, Colorado.
I did one year there. I'm done with it. I
am so done, yea with the cold weather. I mean
literally I turn around, like right now and look out
my window. Okay, it's a little cloudy. Not not the best.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I mean, where do we write the letter of complaint
that the last month has been chili and rainy. It's
not supposed to be a rainy season. And you know
a lot of people are like, oh, look at Iowa.
Look they have, like the snowstorm. They signed up to
live in Iowa. I signed up to live in I
shouldn't have to have fifty degrees in rainy in January.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
That's just not acceptable to me.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Sheer and I were talking about how bad we feel
for all these Canadians who have come down here and
like and like this is the weather they've got it.
It really has been oddly rainy here. I mean, you know,
this is what I saw, this one thing on the
street maybe a month ago or so, probably around the
time of the wedding where I saw this. This kid
must have been I don't know, a boy eight, nine,
ten years old something like that was like holding like
(27:27):
his like boogie board, and like he looked so upset
that he couldn't go to the beach, and like, yeah,
my heart kind of razstly. Like it's like very very sad.
But in any event, Florida is obviously great. You know,
I've I've found my bishart, I've found my soulmate. You know,
I'm very happy with where my career is. You know,
God willing you will continue to expand there. I love
(27:48):
what I'm doing now. I don't particularly feel being canceled
and having to go back to law.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
At this point.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You know, there was a you know, maybe right you.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
Never know, I mean, there was a massive hip piece
you ever, you might recall by the SPLC Southern Poverty
Law Center written about the Little.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Their Scam organization. I feel like we have to know
that every time they came.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
Up right right for sure, But you know, I survived
that relatively unscared. So I feel like I'm I'm maybe
arguably uncancellable, which is a somewhat reassuring thing, and hopefully
reassure my parents that the all the law school tuition
money was not totally.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
Wasted, right right, But light life is really good.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
I mean I have I have very few complaints. You know,
children sooner rather than later. But as of now, with
that caveat of side, I feel quite fulfilled in life.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
I mean, I'm not going to be bitter that you
mentioned the weather and finding sheer and you know, all
this other stuff, but not your amazing group of friends
in Florida, like whatever.
Speaker 7 (28:41):
You know, you guys are always amazing.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
We have quite a quite a little cabal here, and
I'm I'm very, very, very lucky to have people like
you and Dave Rubin. We mentioned Buck Sexton moved here
what like a year ago or so too many others
that I you know, I don't want to take up
the rest of the show named me names whatever.
Speaker 7 (29:00):
You know, we have it.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
They're good.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Yeah, they're good people.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
We have a great thing going for us here. You know,
we obviously have an amazing governor and Governor DeSantis politically Florida,
it feels like a very very safe place for folks
like us.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
By the way, it also feels safer from a Jewish perspective.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
Oh yeah, for sure, like considerably substantially better and safer
than it would feel for Jews in New York or
l or La or anything like that. So I'm very
very grateful for that as well.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
So I love talking to you, and here with your
best tip for my listeners on how they can improve
their lives.
Speaker 7 (29:34):
Well, I you.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Know, I guess this is kind of going back to
this this theme that I didn't necessarily plan, but it's
been someone of a late motif of the show, which
is talking about kind of like rules and stricture and
religion whatever. You know, Look, I I'm not a Christian.
I don't really know what a day to day Christian's
kind of prayer routine entials.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
You know.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
I saw Tucker Carlson speak at the Heritage Foundations. It
was like his last talk before Fox fired him last
April One of the things that he said to Kevin Roberts,
the president of Pirot Defination, was you know, just take
ten minutes a day to pray every single day. And
you know something that I've been doing for I don't
know five six or something like that, is I've been
praying every morning. You know, I wrap to Phil and
I kind of do that every morning, and I've gotten
(30:15):
more serious with it. I spend more time with it now,
I'm more earnest. I try to really kind of focus
on it. The Hebrew word would be cavana. You have
to have intent to actually talk to m and anyway,
it doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or a Christian.
I really do think that Tucker's message there, and it's
someone I run with that. I'm quoting Tucker because I've
actually been critical a five times recently. But that's neither
here nor there. But I think that it's really important
(30:37):
for everyone to kind of focus not so much at
every single minute on the here and now and every
single minute and what's happening on Twitter or cable news
thing of that, you know, focus on really on what
is most important, and especially in the morning, especially when
you're first waking up when you get that first cup
of coffee, focused, just just dedicate ten to fifteen minutes
minimum to God, to praying, talking about and thinking about
(31:02):
what is most important. I think that that can really
kind of anchor you throughout the course of the workday,
especially for folks like you and me who work in
this crazy media landscape there.
Speaker 7 (31:10):
And I just found that.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Since I've done that, it really does kind of help
just kind of around me.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
For the data that is to help me.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I love that. Thank you so much for coming on. Josh.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
He is Josh Hammer, catch him on the Josh Hammer Show,
and read him in Newsweek.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Thanks again, always a pleasure, Karen, thanks so much for
joining us on the Carol Marcowitz Show.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Karol Markowicz
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