Rachel Maddow is one of the most talked-about news correspondents on television.
Her sharp wit, cheerful demeanor, and compelling storytelling resonated with audiences even
before The Rachel Maddow Show premiered in 2008.
But how well do Maddow's fans really know her?
Some of these things might surprise you!
Meet-cute
Maddow has been linked to Susan Mikula for almost two decades.
And the two met by pure happenstance.
At the time, Maddow had just moved to Western Massachusetts to work on her dissertation
when Mikula hired her to do some yard work.
Maddow quipped to People in 2010, "It was very Desperate Housewives."
Years later, in 2016, Maddow told Us Weekly that with Mikula, it really was love at first
sight.
Punk rock babe
During her 2012 Reddit AMA, Maddow disclosed a secret that her parents were "very very
horrified by": she was a huge punk in her teens.
She admitted to being a huge fan of the Dead Kennedys, Husker Du, Meat Puppets, and Black
Flag, saying, "I actually got grounded when my mom found an SST records sampler LP in
my room — I think it had particularly porny cover art...As a teenager, I thought at the
time that it was probably the apex of my coolness.
As an adult, looking back, I realize that is true."
Outed by a newspaper
Speaking to Newsweek, Maddow revealed her parents found out she was gay by reading about
it in her college newspaper.
The Stanford grad said, "I did an interview with the student newspaper about being one
of the only two gay freshmen on campus.
The mistake I made was that I had not come out to my parents.
[...] some anonymous person helpfully clipped the article and mailed it to my parents — and
that’s how my parents found out that I was gay."
She said her strict, Catholic parents took it poorly at first.
But Maddow's courage earned her support from her classmates.
Jill McDonough, a close friend of Maddow's, told Rolling Stone, "No one at Stanford was
saying they were gay — there were no other out lesbians — and she saw that it was a
lie.
The choice was, 'I'm not going to be a hypocrite.
I'm going to have courage.'"
Grammy nom
With her silky-smooth voice, it should come as no surprise that Maddow was once nominated
for a Grammy.
In 2013, her bestselling book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, was nominated
for "Best Spoken Word Album."
Maddow ultimately lost, but considering she was also nominated alongside Ellen DeGeneres,
Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama, she had already pretty much nailed it.
Radio double-dare
According to The Guardian, one of Maddow's friends dared her to audition for a local
radio show sidekick spot because, Maddow said, "We thought it might pay more than the minimum
wage."
But as soon as she was on air, something clicked.
She said, "I'd never done anything like it before but I can remember thinking: 'I like
this.'"
In 2004, radio executive Shelley Lewis received a tape of Maddow's show and put her on the
air with Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead and Public Enemy's Chuck D.
Soon, she was given her own national radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, which quickly
led to guest spots on CNN and MSNBC.
"Joining us now to sift through this wreckage and examine the political campaign coverage
as well in Springfield Massachusetts Rachel Maddow from the Rachel Maddow show on Air
America radio."
Hi."
Odd jobs
Maddow recalled her employment history with The Guardian, saying, "I was a waitress, bike
messenger, bucket washer at a coffee-bean factory, yard help, landscaping labourer,
handyman...I went for a job at a video store and got turned down because I didn't know
enough about movies."
"I'm also..
I'm just a person who's had about 200 jobs over the course of my life."
As for her most unique gig?
Maddow admitted to Us Weekly that she once worked "a very short-lived moonlighting job
hosting a gay love songs call-in show with a co-host named Martini."
Downward spiral
In 2012, Maddow admitted to Rolling Stone that she suffers from "cyclical depression,"
which can affect the consistency of her on-air performance.
She said, "One of the manifestations of depression for me is that I lose my will.
And I thereby lose my ability to focus.
If I'm not depressed and I'm on and I can focus and I can think through something hard
and without interruption and without existential emptiness that comes from depression...I exalt
in not being depressed."
On CBS Sunday Morning, Maddow revealed how Mikula helps her cope with her illness.
"The time when it's hardest is when I have forgotten that this happens to me.
And so I don't know what it is so she says, 'you're depressed.'
Knowing that it's not going to be forever and it's going to pass and that it'll ease
at some point... helps.
First impressions
When she was given her own TV show in 2008, Maddow inherited the staff from Verdict with
Dan Abrams.
About a week before The Rachel Maddow Show's first taping, executive producer Bill Wolff
threw a launch party for the entire staff — where Maddow's rallying speech totally
bombed.
According to Rolling Stone, Maddow essentially told her new staff that "they needed to forget
everything they had ever learned — that this show would be completely different...that
they must forget all of the skills they'd spent their careers building."
Maddow felt the vibe, saying, "I think Day One I was a bummer.
Forget everything you've learned!
Which implicitly says everything you've learned doesn't matter to me."
Dress up from the waist up
During CBS Sunday Morning's behind-the-scenes look at her show in 2016, Maddow revealed
her pre-show green room ritual:
"It takes me about 15 seconds to get dressed, 'cause I only dress from the waist up."
Indeed, underneath her desk and out of sight, she's boasting a pair of comfortable jeans
and Converse sneakers.
She joked, "It's like a mullet: it's business upstairs, party downstairs."
Maddow got real with The Guardian, saying, "I'm not a TV anchor babe.
I'm a big lesbian who looks like a man."
"Hey congratulations by the way on being Out Magazine's 50 most beautiful people."
"Oh not beautiful."
"Excuse me."
"Powerful."
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