Nine.
What In fact, Carol Markets show on iHeartRadio. Wishbone Kitchen is an Instagram account I enjoy. She's a young private chef and she posts about her morning diet, coke habit and the amazing stuff that she cooks for her fairly well off clients. She has a cookbook coming out too.
I plant buy it.
She's interesting.
I like it.
But she had this to say recently on the Better Home and Gardens page, and I want to.
Talk about it.
Let's roll that clip.
That's the beef I have with like child wife content.
I guess.
I feel like homemaking for me personally is just like within me, Like I feel this urge to nest at all times, and I'm, you know, not preparing.
For a baby.
I'm not nesting for a man. I'm not nesting for a family. I'm doing it for myself.
And so it's so interesting that it's always through the lens.
Of I'm doing this for my husband, and like that makes me feelicky because I'm like, well, if you're if you're not doing it for yourself, you shouldn't just do it for your husband.
Like that's not right.
So I like to approach hosting homemaking, home cooking with a lens of like, I'm doing this because I enjoy it. It makes me happy, and this is how I like to spend my time and period out of discussion.
I know it shouldn't bother me, but this whole, the way I do it is the right way. Thing is annoying, especially when we're talking about something like keeping house, something our grandmothers and great grandmothers and so on did as a matter of course, they didn't give it a name or make it part of their personality. It makes everyone imagine a much more difficult life than most people have. Once you make a thing out of something, it's hard to make it go back to just being a part of life.
Again.
I really like this woman's work, but this whole I don't try to wife like you guys do it for your husband and kids. I do it for myself. It rubs me the wrong way. You can cook for yourself, You can cook for friends, as she often does, and sure it's okay to cook for your husband and kids. And I get that. Part of speaking in public is the ability to do so with some degree of authority. And of course, all of us, including myself, who give public comment have to be saying some version of my
way is best. But I resent this constant drumbeat of anti marriage and family rhetoric.
And that's what I think.
This is a part of I think about myself hearing this kind of thing in my twenties and definitely believing that marriage and children would be drudgery. And I was wrong. And the truth is I learned to cook after I started dating my husband, and it's still something I enjoy doing so much. Could I have done it before him? Of course, maybe I should have done it for myself. And it's fine that she is, but it's very enjoyable
to do it for your family. The woman at this account, she's quite young, and I would bet she will love cooking for a family, and I hope she gets the opportunity to do that and show her followers how that's done. And it won't always be eating caviar on potato chips as she's doing in this clip, and it won't always be instagrammable or have a nice esthetic, but it will still be fulfilling and can still make you happy. Thanks for listening. Coming up my interview with Matt Whitlock. But first,
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Today will help provide security essentials like bomb shelters, flack jackets and bulletproof vests for first responders, armored security vehicles, ambulances and more. Join me in standing with Israel. Call to make your gift at eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ that's eight eight eight four eight eight four three two five. Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Matt Whitlock. Matt is a Republican strategist and host of the Ten Minute Drill podcast.
So nice to have you on Matt.
It is such an honor. I have told you this, but I've been a fan of yours for a very very long time, everything from what you wrote about COVID to what you're writing about parenting now. This is so great. So thank you for having me.
Thank you so much. The feeling is very mutual.
I always found you to be very, very smart and interesting on the old Twitter.
Plans, very kind. We call X.
Now, how did you get into this world? How did you become a Republican strategist?
It's so funny you asked that. So I actually had intended always on going to law school. I just felt like my dad's a lawyer. I thought, you know, that's the lane for me. I love to argue with people. But actually I was a missionary in Japan in my college years, and I found that arguing with people didn't appeal to me as much. And I don't know if that's what turned me or I just enjoyed communications. But I found that I loved talking to people and figuring
out how to explain complex concepts. In that case, it was like about religion to people who had a very different religious background. But I think that sort of started
me thinking about it, and then I got home. I actually moved out to Washington with the intention of starting law school, but while I was doing my applications, I had a friend in Senator Mike Lee's office and they needed a driver for the senator for just the summer months, and I thought, I'm fresh out of college, that would be a really fun experience to just drive a senator around see how the process works. And I ended up having a blast. He was such a great boss. I
had so much fun with him. But I also got to play a role in the writing, and after a little bit of time, I realized speech writing was a lot of fun. So I started writing his speeches and he let me move into doing that full time, which was a blast, and that led me into a very different path than I had intended, but one that was really enjoyable. You know, It's one of those things you
just never know where life's going to take you. And now, gosh, thirteen years later, I've been doing you know, speech writing. And then I was a press secretary. I worked in corporate communications, and now I get to do kind of a general grad bag of everything, which is so much fun. But I did not intend that when I first moved to Washington back in twenty twelve, was it like.
You realized you could argue without the law degree and took off.
And I think that, like, there's more fun outside of the parameters of law when you get into that. You know, for one, there's so much reading inment, but also I just really enjoyed the creative side of debating and trying to win people over to your side using sort of new, creative, different storytelling measures, things like that. It was just so much more fun outside of that realm. And it's funny.
The person who talked me out of going to law school the most was Senator Lee, who's literally a constitutional scholar and the United States Senator. But he said, you know, if you don't want to practice law, you shouldn't do it. And you're a creative, so you should do something that allows you to sort of stretch your legs a little bit more. And I think that really helped me decide, you know, this was a better path to try and chase what was Living in Japan life amazing. Honestly, Japan
is incredible. I feel like everyone if you have an opportunity to go spend a week in one place in the world. Go check out Japan and spend a day or two in Tokyo or Kyoto or the high tourist places, but also spend some time in the rural country. I was up in Sendai way up north, which is very rural but so beautiful, the best people in the world.
I actually served in a place that later had the massive tsunamis in twenty eleven, and it was crazy to see that happen in places that I knew, but also how quickly they rebuilt and how fast they kind of jumped into action. And that's what I really came to love so much about the Japanese people, is that they're so resilient and focused. I really loved my time there. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
How long were you there?
Two years as every two years, which if you're learning a language like Japanese, is like you want all that time. And we spent three months at a training facility where they work on things like both you know, how to become a missionary, but also how to learn the language. But three months is not close to getting you ready to speak Japanese. But once you're there and you're surrounded by people, it's you know, speak or don't talk to anybody and don't figure out, you know, how to feed yourself.
So being there was incredibly helpful to learning the language, learning to love the culture, the food, everything. It just is the best. I had such a great time.
What would have been Plan B if you didn't go into politics or law?
That's such a good question. I think about that sometimes. I I mean, everyone always like falls back on things like sports because that's what their dream was when they were a kid. I played high school baseball and I loved it.
We dream big here anything you.
Know, Well, it's funny like as if as if like professional baseball had really been a possibility. But the thing that turned me off to it the most was when I got to college and all my friends who were on the team had to like wake up at five am every day, And like, I was having way too much fun in college to like wake up at five am for baseball practice. So like, had they wanted this.
MLB career, guys went way too early.
I don't want that anyways, even if it wasn't you know, even if it was going to work out, not for me, no, But so I don't know, I loved sports. I love I actually was an English major. I really loved reading and writing and composition. So I could see myself maybe wanting to teach just because I love delving into literature and things like that. I kind of nerd out over like the American classes, so I could see that being
an angle that would be interesting. I had really amazing teachers in high school, particularly in English and lit that made me passionate about this stuff, and so I think that's an area that I would have maybe spent some time in. But it's really hard to imagine, like say what I do now and then thinking of me like in a classroom and like you know, telling kids about you know, Dickens and Steinbecken. You know, it's just such
a different world. But it is the other thing that I think I'm probably most passionate about outside of politics.
What do you think people misunderstand about the political world and how things actually work on the inside.
I love that question because I think in the last like ten to fifteen years, we've had a devolution of everyone thinking politics is the West Wing, then thinking it was House of cards, and landing on the resolution that really is veep and weep is so much closer to
the actual experience. I moved to DC in part, you know, with this dream because I had watched The West Wing and I really loved it, and I thought, you know, I could make world what I have to tell you, like, I had experiences in the Senate, both for Senator Lee but also in my time with Senator Hatch that did feel like the West Wing, like we were doing huge things, seeing really important things happen, and I loved that. But so much more of the day to day of working
in politics really is deep. I think of the scenes of the aid whispering in her ear who everybody is and what to say and not say. I spent so much time doing that, and a photo line trying to tell the Senator, you know, don't say this to this person, or watch out for this issue with that person, and that, you know, the comedic moments really are so much more what your day to day life is about than the glamorous, you know, heroic moments with triumphant music playing from the West Wing.
As I get older, though, I like wish I had somebody whispering in my ear, like who everybody is?
I like who I shouldn't say? Certain things too that would be very convenient.
Actually all the time.
This is a professor, like a profession that I don't think exists, but like for regular people.
Yeah, honestly I think that, especially now I'm like, I'm not as old as I feel, but I still am, like forgetting names of people that I should know, because you have little kids and you don't get enough sleep, and you start forgetting really easy things. Have you just like someone on your shoulder, like, hey, don't say that to this person. It would be awesome. I do think that all the.
Time, and you meet people all the time. I like, you know, when I moved to Florida and I met like a whole new world world of people. One time I forgot somebody's name and her husband actually said to me something really kind, and it was just like, you know, you moved here, you met like a thousand new people, Like we only met like one person you like it, you know, So it was like, you know, it's not really fair and some kind of thing.
So I'm glad that they get you some grace on that.
Yes, I always give grace when people absolutely my name.
And that kind of thing.
Yeah, they should, they should.
But billion dollar profession you send people out to just walk alongside and you know I would pay something for that.
Yes, So how did you start? What made you start the Ten Minute Drill podcast?
So in this last election, I had so many conversations, particularly with people outside of Washington, asking just like, what's going on? What is this story? Particularly family members who would see things in media and say that sounds crazy, and I would, in a two minute conversation explain the context and they'd say, oh, that makes so much sense.
And so my thought was, it would be great if we had just one more channel to cut through the noise and help people sort of really be able to parse what is overblown, because one thing about the Trump years is you do have a lot of media really eager to jump in and report things, sometimes without getting all the facts. And I think that one thing that is helpful for people to know is what's normal versus what's not. And also sometimes like what happens all the
time that is being treated as some crazy incident. Yeah, so that's a part of what really made me want to do this. Like I had a family member ask, you know, they had heard a story that President Trump's still had kids in cages four years after he was in the White House, and like I explained, you know, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but I can see where the sort of media would want to lead you that way. And so that was a lago or exactly like what you know, give us exactly. So there
are just so many absurd things. But I also feel like the media has the capability to really warp minds. And it's so interesting how the conversation in the last ten years has been you know, more concerned about like conservative family members being warped. But the number of I'm from the San Francisco Bay area, the number of friends of mine who have just totally warped views of the reality of politics because of what media has really dug
into these last few years. It's been pretty shocking. I have really smart, reasonable friends who have been sort of led into conspiracy theories on things that I am like, wait, a sect that's insane and totally not true. And so being able to just spend a few minutes you can't you know, whack every mole, but being able to say here's a real thing and here's a fake thing in
ten minutes or less. That's that's my goal with it is just to make a sort of quick rundown of what's going on and why something you might have heard about is real or not.
How do you choose which story to focus on?
I have to tell you so much of it has to do with like the things that I am getting to engage with on a daily basis. I get to spend a lot of time with, you know, staffers on Capitol Hill, with members with friends working in the administration who are trying to navigate this media landscape and running into these land mines of things getting misreported misrepresented. So that's a big part of it, is working with my own network about what's going on and what needs to
be explained a little bit better. But a lot of it, too is just the things that I follow in track and media and see, Okay, this is getting a lot of attention, but this angle to it. For example, you know, when we talk about protests at town halls, one thing that hasn't gotten enough attention across media is the organization behind that and the dark money that's funding so much
of this. So like if we can shine a light on that and sort of show the reds and you know, follow the money, things like that, those are things that, like, I see so much in my feed that I'm like, Okay, I could spend a few minutes talking about We're going to take.
A quick break and be right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What do you worry about?
I do worry And this is going to sound ironic from a like partisan political operative, but I do worry about division because I grew up in the era of you know, particularly after nine to eleven. For example, I remember I didn't have a lot of Republican friends growing up. President Bush was not popular, you know, among my friends
in high school, things like that. But after nine to eleven, seeing people rally around the flag and feel really positive about our country and the need to stand up for ourselves. It's so interesting that when you look at events in the last ten to fifteen years, we don't seem to have that same unifying energy that sort of brings us all together. We used to sort of have a code that things division could only go so far. And I just worry that, particularly, you know, from the old Ama
year's when we spent a lot of time. And I'm trying not to dive too far into politics because I think one thing that's really fun and fresh about your show is it's not hyperpartisan, but it felt like politics shifted from we disagree about ideas too. If you disagree with me, you're trying to shove Granny off a cliff. And I don't know that we've ever come back from that. And I do think for a long time we tried
to sort of meander our way back to it. You know, A Mitt Romney presidential candidate represented this idea that we could go back to that where we were super respectful of each other. But I think that what happened to Mitt Romney was they still call them hitler and they talked about how terrible of a person he was, even though he was such a good guy, you know. Yeah, And so that radicalized so many people to the point where they're saying, Okay, we need a Donald Trump type person.
And I think that there's reason for that, you know, and I think it makes a lot of sense. I just don't know how we ever go back to where and MSNBC segments at night are not calling us all murderers and getting half the country to think that we're so much more divided because if you look in the halls of Congress, Republicans and Democrats actually get along a
lot better than you would find. Yeah, how do we spread that and actually show that people are not as sort of hateful towards each other as a lot of the political discourse seems to feel, right, I.
Think when you're in the world, you get along far better people on the opposite side, No question, it's actually surprising to people that like activists on both sides.
Would get along well, or list or politicians or any of that. But I also I think about, like, if the internet was what it is today.
On nine to eleven, I think it would have been not quite the easy, exactly right.
Post nine to eleven experience. I don't know that we would have rallied around the flag quite quite like.
We did exactly right. Either. Social media and the media have incentivized so much outrage and division that like that, you know, that has so much to do with what's shifted and changed us in this sort of rapid dopamine hit that comes from dunking on somebody else whatever. I think that, like the nine to eleven reaction would have been completely different. The conspiracy theories that we've seen pop
up online later would have been immediate. We wouldn't have had the sort of rally around the flag that we had. So I do think that you're absolutely right, that's a huge part of it.
There were conspiracy theories even back then, of course, but they were spread in like books you had to read a book about it, you know, or the websites. Right, there were some, but it just wasn't quite what it is now, which is somebody could say something crazy on x and get you know, a million shares or whatever. Absolutely absolutely, it spreads a lot faster now.
Well, and it's so hard. I mean, there's the saying that what is it alike and travel halfway around the world before the truth get its shoes on. With social media and the media, it's even so much faster that being able to sort of put the toothpaste back in the tube is now almost impossible, you know. And so that's that's I think the challenge.
Yeah, what advice would you give your sixteen year old self?
What a sixteen year old Matt need to know?
That's such a good question because I feel like sometimes I think, you know, maybe I shouldn't have been as stressed in high school about things like, you know, grades and what I was studying, things like that. But I also think that stress was really important because I needed to get the education I got, I needed to get
into a good college and things like that. But I do think when we look back on those formative years and think about the things we learned that don't matter now, For example, trigonometry whatever, when's the last time I used that, it wasn't about learning trigonometry. It was about learning how to learn, and it was about learning how your mind developed.
So I think that I would tell my sixteen year old self, keep your head down, keep working through it, because all of these things will play a role at some point in your life, even if it's just conditioning your mind to be able to sort of do things later that are hard, or helping you think outside the box. I think I would probably that's such weird advice, but just you know, stay the course and remember that all
these things have some value. All of these experiences have some value for you that you're going to lean on at some point in your life. Because I think that it's so easy to think back on those formative years again, as I was saying, and think of parts that were less relevant or that you were more worried about than you should have been or more stressed about. But all those are building blocks, right, All those are a part of our development, and I think that that really is
so important. And so I'm grateful for the hard times when I was a teenager, but also the really good times that helped me sort of learn and grow and learn how to build relationships and all of that.
But yeah, you're never going to use trigonometry kids, never. No, No, Actually I made myself figure out a percentage today, even though I could have just googled what is this percentage?
Which is the other thing.
It's like, you have all this information and access to information, we should still exercise your brain. So they exactly that person walking around with you telling you the names of everybody that you already know exactly. It's all one thing, like, yeah, you might never use trigonometry, but there is some important stuff you pick up along the way.
Stretch your brain, stretch your brain a little bit. I think that's when I took the l SAT for example, which again I didn't end up it and I didn't end up going to law school, but there are exercises that stretch your mind. And I was like, this is insane. I've never thought this way, But I'm so glad that I'm learning how to do this. And I do feel like I should clarify. I never took trickon on my treat.
I think I stopped math. I think I stopped making a like algebra two, just trying to make a smart word math person. I never did in mouth.
Yeah, I took the outside.
I did pretty well. I like puzzles, you know, all of that was it was okay.
But yeah, I'm not a I'm a I'm even like.
Today, I count on my fingers like I am not a math.
My god, my wife makes fun of me. I count on my fingers when I'm like doing like you know, ten twenty thirty, fifteen, thirty, forty five, sixty. But she thinks I'm kinding like one two, three, four five, like I'm moron, And I'm like, oh no, these are big numbers. These are like giant times tables. This is smart, but yeah, it doesn't look smart one two five, Right, I.
Kind of wish I didn't count the little.
No judgement here whatever, I'm.
A words person. I'm not me too, you know that's a very different mindset.
Yes, no question, all right, well this is so much fun.
Yeah, and us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
My best tip for how you can improve your lives is figure out how to shut out the noise in certain moments. Figure out how to unplug from things. Figure out how to put politics away, turn off Twitter, whatever for certain amounts of time so that you can actually enjoy other things. I find that I enjoy the news and politics so much more when I've taken some time away from it so I can come back with fresh eyes. It's hard. It's hard, honestly, especially in these Trump years,
when there's so much news all the time. He's doing so many things. The media is up in arms all the time. But I remember when I got married, I went on, like in twenty eighteen, I went on my honeymoon and like put my phone away, and I thought, oh my gosh, it's the early Trump years. I'm a Senate communications director. I'm gonna miss so many things. I missed a million things, but then there are a million
more things that came so I didn't matter. You know, so unplugged, you're not going to miss anything that you can't, you know, pick back up on when you need to. But it makes it so much better to enjoy your family, your life and other things and then come back to it with fresh eyes.
I love that I unplug for like my vacations with my family and I take X off my phone and yeah, you miss a news cycle and you sometimes come back and you're like, wait, Nikki Haley said.
This good, you know, like wait, yes, catch heay, So.
What you missed it? It's gone.
It's well fill space within ten seconds exactly.
You got the time with your family and that you can never get back.
Thank you so much, Matt. He's the host of the Ten Minute Jill Podcast. Check it out. Matt Whitlock, thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Marko Witch Show.
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