Rachel Maddow
Rachel Anne Maddow (/ˈmædoʊ/ ⓘ, MAD-oh; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator.[1][2][3][4] Maddow hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor.[5] Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010.
Rachel Maddow
- Television host
- political commentator
- author
1999–present
- Air America Radio (2004–2010)
- MSNBC (2008–present)
Susan Mikula (1999–present)
Maddow has received multiple Emmy Awards for her broadcasting work and in 2021 received a Grammy Award for the audiobook version of Blowout (2019).
Maddow holds a bachelor's degree in public policy from Stanford University and a doctorate in political science from the University of Oxford and is the first openly lesbian anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States.[6][7][8]
Early life and education
Maddow was born in Castro Valley, California. Her father, Robert B. Maddow, is a former United States Air Force captain who resigned his commission the year before her birth and then worked as a lawyer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her mother, Elaine (née Gosse), was a school program administrator.[9][10] She has one older brother, David. Her paternal grandfather was from a Jewish family (the original family surname being Medvedof), who arrived in the United States from the Russian Empire. Her paternal grandmother was of Dutch descent. Maddow's Canadian mother, originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, has English and Irish ancestry.[11]
Maddow has said her family is "very, very Catholic" and she grew up in a community that her mother has described as "very conservative".[12][13][14] Maddow was a competitive athlete and participated in high school volleyball, basketball, and swimming.[15]
Referring to John Hughes films, Maddow has described herself as being "a cross between the jock and the antisocial girl" in high school.[14] She is a graduate of Castro Valley High School and attended Stanford University.[16] While a freshman, she was outed as a lesbian by the college newspaper when an interview with her was published before she could tell her parents.[12]
She earned a degree in public policy at Stanford in 1994.[17] At graduation, she was awarded the John Gardner Fellowship.[18] She was the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship and began her postgraduate study in 1995 at Lincoln College, Oxford. She had also been awarded a Marshall Scholarship the same year but turned it down in favor of the Rhodes.[19] This made her the first openly lesbian winner of the Rhodes Scholarship.[a][21] In 2001, she earned a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil)[22] in politics at the University of Oxford.[23] Her thesis was titled "HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons" and was supervised by Lucia Zedner.[24]
Radio
Maddow's first job as a radio host was in 1999 at WRNX (100.9 FM) in Holyoke, Massachusetts, then home to "The Dave in the Morning Show". She entered and won a contest the station held to find a new second lead for the show's principal host, Dave Brinnel.[25] After the WRNX show, she hosted Big Breakfast on WRSI in Northampton, Massachusetts, for two years, leaving in 2004 to join the new Air America radio network.[23] There she hosted Unfiltered along with Chuck D (of the hip hop group Public Enemy) and Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show) until its cancellation in March 2005.[26]
Two weeks after the cancellation of Unfiltered in April 2005, Maddow's weekday two-hour radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, began airing; in March 2008 it gained a third hour, broadcasting from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with David Bender filling in the third hour for the call-in section, when Maddow was on TV assignment. In 2008, the show's length returned to two hours when Maddow began the nightly MSNBC television program, also called The Rachel Maddow Show. Early in 2009, after renewing her contract with Air America, Maddow's radio show was moved to a one-hour timeslot at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time. This iteration of the show began with a short introduction from Maddow followed by a broadcast based on the audio from the previous night's MSNBC broadcast of Maddow's television show. Little explanation or warning was given for this shift except for Maddow's comments that doing two daily shows was far too taxing.[27][28] Maddow's radio show ended on January 21, 2010 when Air America ceased operations.[29]
Writing
Maddow wrote Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power (2012) about the role of the military in postwar American politics. Upon its release, Drift reached the first position of The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover nonfiction.[65]
In December 2013, The Washington Post announced that Maddow would write a monthly opinion column for the paper, contributing one article per month over a period of six months.[66]
On March 2, 2018, The New York Times published Maddow's first crossword puzzle, in collaboration with Joe DiPietro.[67] On the eve of its publication, she said: "This is kind of it, like there will never be a baby, but there's this freaking crossword puzzle, and I am very, very excited about it."[68]
Maddow's second book Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth was published in October 2019.[69][70] In March 2021, the audiobook version of Blowout, recorded by Maddow, won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[71]
Her third book, Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House,[72] written with Michael Yarvitz, was published in December 2020.
Maddow's fourth book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism was published on October 17, 2023. It is based on her podcast Ultra.[73]
Podcasting
In October 2018, Maddow launched the podcast Bag Man, produced with MSNBC and focusing on the 1973 political scandal surrounding Vice President Spiro Agnew.[74] A film adaptation of the podcast was announced to be in production in 2022, with Ben Stiller attached to direct and Lorne Michaels to produce, with Maddow set to be an executive producer.[58]
In October 2022, Maddow and MSNBC launched Ultra, a podcast series chronicling U.S. right-wing extremism during the 1940s and World War II, including the 1944 sedition trial.[75][76] A few months later, in December, famed filmmaker Steven Spielberg's company optioned film rights to the series.[77]
Personal life
Maddow splits her time between Manhattan, New York, and West Cummington, Massachusetts, with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.[98][99] They met in 1999, when Maddow was working on her doctoral dissertation.[98]
Maddow has dealt with cyclical depression since puberty.[100] In a 2012 interview, she stated, "It doesn't take away from my joy or my work or my energy, but coping with depression is something that is part of the everyday way that I live and have lived for as long as I can remember."[101] She has explained why she decided to speak about it in interviews: "It was a hard call ... Because it was nobody's business. But it had been helpful to me to learn about the people who were surviving, were leading good lives, even though they were dealing with depression. So I felt it was a bit of a responsibility to pay that back."[51]
Maddow said, "There are three things I do to stay sane: I exercise, I sleep – I'm a good sleeper – and I fish."[48]: 56 She is also a practicing Catholic.[102]
In 2021, Maddow had surgery to remove a cancerous skin growth from her neck.[103]
In popular culture
Tracey Ullman played Maddow in her Showtime comedy series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union. Maddow invited Ullman on her show and interviewed her in January 2010.[134]
Abby Elliott and Melissa Villasenor have both played Maddow in sketches on Saturday Night Live.[135]
Maddow appeared as a character on the November 3, 2013 episode of The Simpsons, "Four Regrettings and a Funeral".[136][137][138][139]
Maddow appeared at the start of "Trump: The Rusical" on RuPaul's Drag Race season 11 as the star of a mini-challenge where the contestants had to dress up as Maddow and read from a teleprompter.[140]
Maddow is the voice of Vesper Fairchild in the television series Batwoman.[141] In March of 2010 she wrote the introduction to the Batwoman: Elegy trade paperback, in which she noted her appreciation for the work of writer Greg Rucka.[142] She appeared as herself on the Netflix series House of Cards.[143][144]
Maddow also makes a cameo as herself in the 2023 romance film Red, White & Royal Blue.