After Party with Emily Jashinsky - “Happy Hour”: The Candace Situation, New Media, Airing of Grievances, and Holiday Fun: Emily Answers YOUR Questions

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

On this edition of “Happy Hour,” Emily Jashinsky answers questions about Candace Owens, why she feels sadness about it, and why she believes Candace has been influenced by a psychological difficulty in coping. She also discusses why it’s important to vet tips and she acknowledges Candace has been dabbling in antisemitism. Emily explains how difficult Charlie Kirk’s death has been on so many people on the right who were friends and fans of his. Then Emily moves on to her profession, why she loves new media, and thoughts on Rachel Maddow. She also discusses the tragic murder of Rob Reiner,  “All in the Family,” and Trump’s post. Then the conversation turns to fun topics like her favorite holiday drink, memories of her early days at D.C. holiday parties, favorite musical genre, favorite Wisconsin restaurants, favorite places to travel, and the backstory on the airing of grievances with Christopher Bedford.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome, everyone to a special New Year's edition of Happy Hour, which is, of course, itself, a special edition of After Party that we do here on podcast feeds only for all you podcast listeners out there. Make sure to subscribe. It's the best way to make sure that you get Happy Hour every week. Subscribe on your preferred podcast feed, whether it's Apple or Spotify. make sure that you're subscribed so that you get these right into your feed. Subscribe on YouTube too, by the way.

If you haven't yet, we want to go into 2026. Happy 2026, by the way. We want to go into 2026 with some real momentum. We're over 100,000 subscribers and looking forward to growing, growing, hopefully exponentially in the new year because we want to get, we believe that we do some fun, relaxed, but also honest, transparent, authentic coverage in the 10 p.m. hour on Mondays and Wednesdays. course, here the 5 o'clock hour on Fridays for you podcast listeners. We're not live, but I do

tape these live. I go through all of your emails live. I mark them in my inbox, just flag them when I see that they are for a happy hour so that I can come to them fresh, which is what I'm going to do right now. Hope you all had a wonderful New Year's by the way. Here's a message from Ken. Kent says, still laughing from the segment with Bot. that's really funny. This is a little bit about Candice. Ken says signed off on listening to Candice a while back. Couldn't Erica bring a lawsuit against her?

And I don't know why anyone still cares about her. Interesting email, Ken. Now, of course, I am pre-recording this on December 19th before Christmas, before New Year, so any number of things could have happened in the interim. But I'll try to keep this kind of broad and just say, I, the Kansas stuff just makes me sad. I feel like I've said this a couple of times, but say whatever you want to say about Candace Owens.

I think one thing that's obviously true is she cared about Charlie Kirk. No matter what you think about her, she cared about Charlie Kirk and was affected by his brutal assassination on live video. So my take is all of this since September. has really been influenced by a real psychological difficulty in coping with that violence. Now, I've actually been frustrated with generally the media's lack of care or attention to how traumatic that was for many, many, many people on the right. you know, just about everybody in media, conservative media, knew Charlie Kirk, and many, many people in the Republican Party, in the White House, they were really good friends with him. Charlie and I weren't friends, knew of each other, but weren't friends.

And I was on that live coverage with Megan, who was a friend of his, a dear friend of his. And I could not believe how she was able to do what everyone really needed, which was have the news delivered. as it was happening. And it seemed like after a week or two, people just moved right along and were no longer aware or willing to be aware of how powerfully traumatic seeing that happen was for people on the right. And, you know, Keynes really was a, uh, was very close with Charlie Kirk for many years. Some debate about how close she was with Charlie Kirk when he, when he passed. seems to have thought that they were, they're close. And hey, I do really think some of this has been downstream of a psychological difficulty in coping with that. I, again, don't think

that's an excuse. I mean, what I've seen, I have watched some full episodes of her coverage of this. And what I've seen is, you know, someone who's literally reading random emails allowed on the show. And, you know, with theories, right, with tips. So to this inbox, I'm at devil makecaremedia.com, where you all hit me up. You probably wouldn't be surprised to hear that I get random tips all of the time. And you can usually smell if it's from a crazy person from a mile away, right? Because there are many people among us who are having psychological breakdowns or are mentally impaired who are sending insane emails with tips saying, you know, the CIA is doing this or this. person's out to get me or I saw this and that and the other thing. And to just kind of read

those tips aloud, which that's my take on what's happened on the show, without vetting them, running them down and doing the journalism, I just don't think that's helpful to anyone at all. And I do, by the way, blame some people who have created such a tough culture for honesty and who just call everyone crazy and anti-Semitic whatever I think that

fuels some of this again not an excuse but an explanation and I think people should stop doing that you know only call someone anti-Semitic or crazy if you think that they're legitimately someone

who believes in this ridiculous theory that Jews are lesser only call someone if you think that's what's happening. And if you don't, then keep that definition tight, just like I believe people should keep the definition of white supremacy tight. People on the left should keep that definition of white supremacy tight and applied only to those who believe in literal racial white supremacy. So that's, I think that's really important. And I disagree with people who are broadening that definition. And I think it is fueling some of the reasons that people

are taking Candace seriously and the like in some of these rabbit holes. So I think it's been unfortunate. I have not taken a lot of this coverage seriously because I've seen, again, just as a journalist, I don't know if Candace considers herself a journalist, just as a journalist. Our profession is wildly self-serious

and, you know, just so high on its own supply. But there are like certain... I was going to say tricks of the trade, but, like, in some respects, like, journalism used to be a trade, right? Like, it used to be kind of a blue-collar profession where there are just actual skills that you have. Like, there are steps that you take, just like a craftsman to vet things before publishing them. And so I have always felt uncomfortable with her commitment to those things. Like, since she first kind of came on the scene, I've always been wary of her. I do understand. I think she's like a talented broadcaster. I understand the entertainment value. I do think a lot of people watch her for the entertainment value because she is very entertaining. And I think she has touched on some third rail topics that nobody else wants to touch on and has said some accurate things in certain cases. And so I understand actually why people listen to Candace Owens. I've just always been kind of like, eh. I don't know her heart. I don't know if she's acting in good faith or bad faith. But I've never.

followed her too closely because I feel like she's just a little too loose, a little bit of a loose, a little bit too loose with taking seriously every, like, rabbit hole. I don't like that. You know, because I think the solution to the trust deficit in media is not, is not going going down certain rabbit holes without vetting them, right? Oh, by all means, go down a rabbit hole. Like, there are a lot of Epstein rabbit holes that you can, like, I was just before I pre-taped this, reading my friend Ryan Grimm's latest piece as of December 19th on Jeffrey Epstein's connections to Iran Contra.

And you're reading this piece. And I know, Ryan, and I know I talked to him a little bit about the editorial process behind the story. I know he vetted these facts. I know in there are documents. We were literally talking about documents that are being pieced together. Emails that are being pieced together. So I think there are some legitimate rabbit holes for journalists to go down.

I don't think that it's helpful for people in the public eye to go down those rabbit holes without some serious vetting and to just constantly do the sort of just asking questions routine if you're not also substantiating the impetus for those questions, if that makes sense. So that's sort of my position on all of that. I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot more that I can say. I'll keep it a little bit more brief, probably, even though that was already kind of a long rambling answer. I just kind of think, like, I don't know that it's people all over the country taking what Candace says as gospel so much as people listen to her because she raises. And I think there's something similar about Nick Fuentes, not to open that can of worms, but I do think a couple of these people

who are in conspiracy-ish territory or, like, genuinely racist territory. I think Candice has actually dabble in anti-Semitism. But, and I am somebody who uses that word, I take that word very seriously. And I try to use a very, a very narrow definition of it. I just, you know, some of the stuff is, I think, intentionally dabbling to tow the line and then be able to say, hey, hey, hey, you know, this is the left's game. They use this, they overuse this all the time. And I think Fuentes plays that game a little bit too. I think he played it on Tucker Carlson. And we talked about this on last week's happy hour, you know, acting like he doesn't, he doesn't engage in blood guilt, he does. But he doesn't always. And so if you see one clip, you know, it just gets into this foolishness. And I think we're just in general, my position is that it's being talked about disproportionate to its importance and relevance to the daily life of the average American. And it's importance to the average conservative. Not to say there's no problem. at all, just to say that the problem has been inflated. So, yeah, I don't think that everybody

who's pushing them to the top of the podcast charts is doing it because they, or is listening because they are like agreeing with them on every single thing or particularly on these types of things. I think they just find it to be an interesting kind of compliment to their news diet. Tell me if I'm wrong. I'm not saying that's everybody. I just think it's why some people do But, whoa, this is a super nice email from Howard, who says, as someone who recently discovered you, I just wanted to say how impressive I think you are so articulate and wicked smart, especially considering your age. I'm not that young anymore, guys, by the way.

I, you know, I am in almost mid-30s here. I guess maybe that's kind of young. For media, maybe it's kind of young. Howard goes on to say like a young female version of William of Buckley, your parents supposed to be over the moon proud. There's only one downside. I consider myself to be pretty smart when I look back at when I was your age, but I can feel like I'm probably more on like a person. I'm sure that's not true, Howard. I think you should have your own regular TV show like Tucker Carlson used to have. You could be the Rachel Maddo of Fox. What do you

think? Thank you, Howard. Merry Christmas back to you. Although I'm delivering this Merry Christmas a little bit late. Hopefully I responded to your email before you hear this. I think I will have. I'll probably respond to your email right after this recording. But the Rachel Maddo point is kind of interesting to me. That is kind of interesting. I'm not super interested in like doing Fox a lot like I did when I was even younger. First time I went on Fox. I think it was 22. I think it was 2015. And used to do it pretty frequently. I just see, you know, especially when you're a guest on those shows, it's very interesting. It requires its own set of skills where you, you know, learn to kind of package your answers in these 20-second sound bites.

And that's kind of difficult to do because you can't count, you can't look at a timer. You just kind of have to develop innately inability to be persuasive in that time period and all without looking at the clock. So there's something about it that's compelling. and you have to be skilled in order to do it. I love new media. You know, I love podcasts. I love YouTube. And so I'm kind of in that world now and happy to be in that world. But I do actually, and this, I don't know if I've ever said this before. But I think Rachel Meadow is very talented as a writer and broadcaster. And unfortunately, she went so deep.

She got lost in the Russia collusion sauce. And I think part of that was because she had, like many people in liberal media at the time, so many sources in the FBI, in the legal world, in the government, who were, like if you were media at the time, people were, the rumor mill was spreading with absolute certainty that Trump had, there was something weird in Trump's background with Russia. That was, like, people were legitimately saying that people who knew the intelligence world or were in the intelligence world were circulating that very seriously. And I think once you buy into that as seriously as she did, I mean, the level of humility

it would require to back off rather than dig in deeper and deeper. I mean, she really does still believe it. And that's more than I can say for others. Like, I can at least give her that, right? Like, she, I think she genuinely believes in her heart of hearts that Donald Trump, uh, colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election. And everything that's happened in our politics is downstream of that for the last 10 years. So she's at least holding to that. She's not giving it up and acting like it never happened. Except people just never talk about it. They never really, Mueller report, never really, They talked about it once and then threw it in the trash and never covered the rest of it, acted like they didn't say everything that they said for, you know, five years or whatever, three years before the Mueller report.

So I think at least you could give Maddo that, but she has a, I don't know, I used to in the first Trump term, even when she was spinning up this Russia collusion narrative, I actually think she really skillfully, journalists aren't always skillful, storytellers, especially in the broadcast format, meaning they don't do a good job telling the stories that come from complicated documentary records. So when you have tons and tons, you know, decades worth of documents, then you have sources, you know, human sources, and all, and then you have pictures, phone records, and you have to put that together into a cable news story. That's really, really difficult. And I think Maddo did something interesting with her monologues. And I don't really write monologues often. I'm mostly speaking contemporaneously. Anytime I do write a segment, I like doing it, I find it to be a very interesting

challenge. But when I was writing monologues, those are more for breaking points. I actually did think a lot about Mato. And, you know, I'm not like your, your typical, like, or at least I don't think of myself as your typical, like, I don't know, type A, like, preppy conservative. Like, it's, I say that with no disrespect. Like, I wish that I could, you know, be that, put together all of the time, but it's just not who I am, to be honest. Like, I'm more of like the ink-stained wretch. I say that it's with self-deprecation. You know, I've never been good with, like, hair and makeup or wardrobe or anything like that. And, you know, no offense to Rachel Maddo, but I kind of like her simple style. Did you ever watch the show Doug? I know you can't answer

me, so this is rhetorical. But in, it's like on Nickelodeon in the 90s. And in the opening credits, I think Doug would open his closet. And there would be like 10 different versions of the exact same outfit hanging up in his closet. And even as a kid, I was like, that's awesome. That's the dream. You open the closet every. I think this was what Zuckerberg did or something. So I feel like Maddo does that. She, her closet every day, black blazer, black undershirt. let's go. And so that part of Maddo resonates with me too. It's too bad she got lost in the sauce, to be honest, because I think we do need more. You know, I wish Rachel Maddo was as concerned about civil liberties across the board. Like, I wish she didn't have blind spots on civil liberties

and wasn't just concerned about conservatives' war on civil liberties. And I wish she was concerned about these like foreign policy, the corruption in our foreign policy without blinders. Because she's a compelling broadcaster and researcher and writer, but she's too lost in the sauce. And that's unfortunate. So thank you for the nice words. Howard, I really do appreciate it. I really do appreciate it. And, you know, the Buckley point, I don't think of myself as in any league similar to Buckley,

but there's been a lot of a debate about Buckley. And you know who had a really good piece on this is, and it was, it might have also been in Compact. Where was it? It was Dan McCarthy. It might have been a spectator. He had a great piece on how people misconstrue Buckley. Some of the misconceptions about Buckley as this like obsessive gatekeeper type

because everyone always just gets sucked in to the bircher legend about how Buckley purged the birchers. And there's been some interesting debate about who he really was and all of that. But it's just to say, I love going on YouTube and watching old firing lines. And if you haven't done that, I kind of recommend it in this holiday break. It's like slower. They're so long and sometimes so tedious.

But like you can see Reagan debating Buckley with a young, George Will, who's not someone I particularly admire, to be honest, but all of these, like, people engaged in these serious long forum discussions, and they were happening really before cable, even when cable was competitive. I think it was on PBS, right? And so it's always happened in America. We have this great tradition of discourse. And I love that. And I think, you know, you can see like Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schles. laughly. So I have always really, really appreciated and admired that and Buckley, the way that he was able in those conversations to be the devil's advocate, even ask questions against his own belief, like a prosecutor. And I definitely try to, you know, I think I'm actually one of my skills is moderating debates rather than being a debater because I like doing that. I just enjoy doing that because one of the reasons I do what I do is I have a lot of questions and more questions and answers. So Buckley was arguably the best, the best to do that. All right, here is a nice

message from Marlow. Oh, yes. This is a little disagreement with Hank on Batya and the integration of people from heavily Muslim countries based on what Batya, Unger Sargon said, on. a recent show about assimilation and all of that. Marla says, I hope Boughtia is correct that America is special in assimilation will continue. I'm nowhere near journalistic, but I am deeply concerned than in my lifetime. I will hear a call to prayer in America. Oh, this is actually similar to what Hank said, actually. I'm glad Brooklyn is still a melting pot, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are parts of Minneapolis or Dearborn, where I would not enter. Interesting, interesting perspective here from Marla who says, on Rob Reiner, I wonder if those men are

Mago women were on X. I chose to block Rob Reiner and Stephen King or their team slash bots because I was sick of being told my people before my youth that I'm an awful room. You know, that is, I think that's a great point, Marlowe. Thank you for the email. As always, thank you for the email. It's, isn't that true that there's just something about seeing the contempt that an icon, particularly of your childhood who has these like, you know, so many of these pop culture figures we remember warmly. And I think we remember them so much because we have warm feelings attached to them. And there's something about that that feels like a gut punch, like someone you really like, it feels like someone you really like hates you or doesn't understand you. And I think that's very, I think a lot of people had that experience with Rob Reiner over the last 10 years. But from all accounts, you know, when Charlie Kirk was

assassinated, Rob Reiner was very clear that he thought it was a terrible thing and that he loved what Erica Kirk said about having grace. So by all accounts, he was probably somebody whose political commentary often did not reflect his personal, like James Wood. Did you see on Jesse Waters talking about how Rob Reiner was one of his greatest champions, even though they disagreed on politics? One of the ways I think people misuse social media and the only reason And I think I didn't fall into the traps because I kind of grew up around social media at this point. Not quite like today's kids. But, you know, Facebook came out when I was in high school and all of that.

I think some people use social media to say things that they wouldn't say to other people's faces. And believe me, I'm on the receiving end of that all the time, which is why I'm hyper-conscious about not being on the delivery end of that. And, boy, you know, in some ways it's good that social media. media lets people, you know, have anonymous accounts, for example, where they can report tips to journalists and, you know, solve crimes on Reddit or whatever it is. But on the other hand, we let it tempt us, seduce us into, again, I say this, I'm a broken record, speaking in speaking for the algorithm, right, communicating for the algorithm, which incentivizes strong emotions. So condemnation or full exoneration, those sorts of things. And that's unhealthy. And it does

force people to talk about others, like Trump voters, for example, in a way that if you're sitting across the barbecue from someone who's talking to you in good faith, they might not. And I think that affects both sides. Of course, I think that affects both sides. I think that affects all of us. um not even both sides all sides everyone uh so those those women on ex who were celebrating i think that's what marl is referring to because i made a uh sort of passing comment on uh in a monologue about why rob reiner's killing resonated uh killing at the hands of his son uh which is what appears to have happened resonated and that's because the whole point of all in the family was a father and a mother and their children and their son-in-law,

their daughter and their son-in-law, and eventually their grandson, but getting along, right? Like, that is the sort of reassuring nature of the sitcom, of the network sitcom from the 70s, 80s, 90s, maybe still to some extent today, is that the episode opens, there's a problem. The problem is typically solved by the end the episode or resolved in one way or the other by the end of the episode, which often means

that by the end of the episode, these social problems, political problems, personal problems are resolved by members of the family. It was all in the family. And I think that's really why Reiner's son, appearing to slit his throat and his, oh my gosh, I think that's why it struck a chord. But what I did see were some of these posts coming from people on X, after Donald Trump came out. And with his post on X about Reiner, I saw some people suddenly start to be like, well, Rob Reiner said X, Y, and Z about Trump. And the comments I made on After Party was, you sound exactly like those people who said, well, Charlie Kirk made these comments about transgender people. Like, it's the exact same thing. And I know that these situations are not

apples to apples, but they're apples to apples in the sense. that when someone is brutally murdered, you do not have to offer this context because this person was a political opponent, right, like in the first 24 hours. So you just leave that. Like, if you think it's relevant to the crime or something like that, make it the point in that sense. Like, well, maybe the motive could be explained by this, this, and that. Of course, it doesn't excuse it, blah, blah, but I just just saw a bunch of people with no context being like, oh, Rob Reiner said this, this. It's like, no, no, no. And I think what they were trying to do was explain why Trump reacted the way that he reacted. But there's, again, no moral justification for Donald Trump dancing

on the grave of Rob Reiner who was brutally murdered by his own son, whose wife was brutally murdered by their son, within a, you know, such close proximity to the event actually happening. And I really, really did not like that. And I just think it's an example of people letting social media dictate their reactions, if that makes sense. All right, let's take some, ooh, some questions here from Instagram. JP says, oh, this is about Rob Reiner. Emily, have to say how impressed I am of your breath of knowledge and the insights far around your years. Rob Reiner, all in the family response was so perfect and frankly gave me a different perspective and appreciation for the show.

having grown up watching it, love your stuff, and us. Canadians are very tuned into your expertise on all things. Well done. Thank you. Thank you, J.P., I appreciate that. The breadth of knowledge I have on All in the Family is because I watched every episode of All in the Family as a teenager myself. So I can only give credit to my parents for that. There was, I think I mentioned this on that episode, but there was a year where one of those channels that plays Oldies was replaying all of the family in sequence every night. And so for like a year, I don't know, maybe it was less. It was like we watched every episode of All in the Family.

And I've since seen those episodes, some of them multiple times. And they really do hold up. I was just telling someone that last night. Like they, some of those shows, I go back and watch. And maybe people will go back and watch friends and the office, whatever, and feel similarly. Although I think some of them are just timeless. But some of those shows in the 70s, because they really had to appeal to everyone, sometimes the humor was just a little too soft for my taste. But sometimes it was like the type of joke that was so good that everyone could laugh at it, you know, like the stuff that Johnny Carson was a master of.

And that, I think all in the family really, really was timeless and American in the best possible way. So thank you for the nice words, JP, but all credit to my parents for that. Uh, here's another Rob Reiner one from Christine, uh, comment in question. I'm truly so disappointed by the president's comments over the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, so vile. Question, you mentioned the West Wing last week in the show. Some of the press seem to work there full time in a room, thinking specifically the character Danny. Is that true or is that just for the show? It's one of my all-time favorite shows. Great question. Um, great comment too. I just want to say in response to the comment about Rob Reiner, we, on the Megan Kelly wrap-up show, which is on Sirius XM,

Monday through Friday, I take your calls basically after Megan from 2 to 3 p.m. Live. And that day, it was like the Monday after the Rob Reiner killing, the phone lines lit up specifically about Trump's truth social post on Rob Reiner. And I did not expect that. And, you know, listen, do I think that means people are breaking with Trump? Honestly, no. I think maybe, you know, Trump is now that he's likely not trying to run for president again, the incentives to sort of be a little tougher on him are different. I think we're going to see that into the future here. But I think there was just something people were disappointed in that was resonant with that post because they grew up watching Rob Reiner. It's probably an obvious point. And because the murder was so brutal. A few points

here. One, people really grew up loving Rob Reiner. He's just been a constant picture. in our pop culture as a sort of jolly man, even as his politics seemed to harden. Two, the nature of the crime was so brutal and unthinkable. And three, Trump's post was so intense and so soon. So I think that combination made it really resonate with people and made people really disappointed in Trump. And I think a lot of that also is because they knew Rob Reiner as Meathead and someone whose problems were, you know, he worked to resolve his problems with Archie and

Archie worked to resolve his problems with him as hard-headed as they both were. And so I think that explains it. Now, to the West Wing, I've seen a total of like one or two episodes of the West Wing. I tried to get into the West Wing because I love these like soaring depictions of America at its best from the 90s and 2000s. You know, like the movie October Sky is a good example or Mona Lisa smile. People who captured America in that way. Brian are really captured America in that way, I think. And the West Wing, Sorkin does that. It's just, it's a little too much for me when I go back and watch it.

I'm like, oh, my gosh. No. Like, he's a little too much of a, what's the right word for it? It's a little cringy to me when I go back and watch. But I think if I had grown up watching it, I probably would have loved it. I just didn't. The press, yes. So there's a, it works in a couple of different ways. If you are part of the White House press associations press corps, they work with the White House. Now the White House, one of the things Trump 2.0 has done is mostly take that over from the WHCA against their wishes. But they, the White House manages the seating chart of the chairs. So if you have a chair, you likely also have a desk. And if you're with a television network, you likely also have a

little studio or a radio studio down there. And that was all, that's all coordinated with the WHCA. Some of it is right behind the press room. So if you walk, there's a hallway. You can see it on camera. If you're looking, if you're taking the view that the press secretary has, that Caroline Levitt has on the left, you can see there's a little hallway. And that hallway goes back to a kitchen. It goes back to desks and offices. And then there's also a lower level where there are like little booths and desks for people who have chairs. And if you are, you know, one of the camera guys or the print reporters, pool reporters,

many of them actually do work full time out of the White House. Some of them have desks at their respective offices too. But a lot of them just like literally have to be there certain hours every single day in case, you know, if you're a cameraman or an audio person or an on-camera reporter, you kind of have to be there because you have to jump up at a moment's notice if there's breaking news, to do a hit from the White House for your network, or to be the person that's, if the president's doing a press availability, he's bringing people in the Oval Office with Trump, which Trump will do with a moment's notice, you want to be there. So they're there full-time. Also, you know,

taking meetings with the press team and all that stuff, too. so that is true that is true um dio v tretn't i don't know i'm not saying that correctly i don't know how to pronounce it um says what's your favorite holiday drink oh boy what's my favorite holiday drink i like eggnog um i actually didn't try eggnog until like kind of well into my 20s and into my adulthood because it just always seemed kind of gross to me. But when I tried it the first time, I think I was at a daily caller Christmas party when I tried it for the first time. And those parties used to be like, I remember, this was in the Tucker years of the daily caller. I remember

when this was like 2016, maybe 2015 or something like that. I walked in and I saw, you know, if you're in conservative media, you know, like some of these newsrooms, it's just, They're so young, and I was, of course, young at the time, too. They're kind of, like, they almost feel like frat houses. I remember walking in as they were prepping the party and just watching someone who's now a friend, overturn a just a massive bottle of, like, bottom shelf, like, you know, the lowest quality whiskey you could possibly find into this big punch bowl of eggnog, just overturning the whole thing. and I was like, oh my gosh. So I tried it. And I liked it. So I'm an eggnog person.

I also like a Stella, you know, a nice cold Stella. Everyone now associates that with Christmas. I'll have a Stella any time of year. But a nice cold Stella or Peroni for whatever reason. Those are my winter beers that I like. What are my favorite? This is from the agog egg. What are my favorite bands slash singers? Woo. For every person, myself. included. That's a big question. My best answer is that my musical tastes were shaped on a very specific night. I think it was 2007. It was like January 2007 or 2008. My mom had to travel for work and she had gotten my dad tickets to a concert at the Papps Theater in Milwaukee. I think it was at the Paps. It might have been the Riverside. So we drove into the city and

it was freezing it was like 10 below that night and uh i always remember my dad just like refuses to pay for parking um even when it's 10 below so we wouldn't park at the at the theater so we parked like five blocks away or something and we were a little late coming into the theater which is also unusual because my dad's never late but uh as we walk up to our seats in the kind of upper level it's just a gorgeous theater um it was the opening notes of red dirt girl by emily Harris, because the concert was, it was called Three Girls and Their Buddy. And if you're into Americana folk music, this lineup is just like mind-blowing. And this was like the first concert that I really ever attended. It was Sean Colvin, Amy Lou Harris, Patty Griffin, and Buddy Miller.

Oh my gosh. I can't believe how lucky I was. And I went home that night. And I think it was on my iPod touch. I stayed up until like three in the morning, listening to, you know, obviously I couldn't do the whole like emmelo harris discography at that point because you know she was so um prolific uh but i did as much as i could i listened to just about the whole sean colvin patty griffon discography a lot of buddy miller um and that to me just set the tone you know i grew up really listening to uh like country and my dad's music of course which is you know the buddy miller steve earle uh lucinda williams stuff um and uh obviously my so not obviously but But, you know, my dad plays guitar, little drums.

I did drums in high school all the way up through my senior year, percussion, all up through my senior year, through whatever the top band was. I wasn't very good. That was kind of the running joke. But, you know, I love drum set, love guitar. So that was a lot of, you know, coming from, a lot of that in my life came from my dad. And he has fantastic taste in music. So I grew up on some of that good kind of alt country, early Steve Earl, early Lucinda Williams, all Lucinda Williams. Honestly, I've seen her and Steve

both multiple multiple times. Patty Griffin, I've seen multiple times. Emily Lou, I've seen multiple times. I love Sean Colvin. I love that 90s music. I remember when I first watched Dawson's Creek, like going through the soundtrack. They used to have. have an early, like, 2000s-looking website at the time with all of the music from Thomas Creek on it. So that's where the Lilith Fair stuff that I really like comes into the picture. And now, probably my favorite contemporary people who are still like really, I don't know, putting out music and touring and are in their, maybe you would say in their prime, I'm a huge Heim fan. I've probably mentioned that before. I've seen Heim in a bunch of different places.

I wish I would have been able, it was such a busy fall with after-party starting and the wrap-up show starting and all of that. But I wish I'd been able to travel and see some of the European leg and some of the West Coast leg. I really want to do the Santa Barbara Bowl. I spent a lot of time in Santa Barbara over the years because, you know, I've done some work at the Reagan Ranch. And I have always wanted to do the Santa Barbara Bowl. And Hym was playing there. And it was like early November and there was just no way I can make it work. So that's a long answer to that question.

But yeah, like 90s country, 90s Lilith, and especially like Alt-Country. I love Alt-Country. You know, even, like, not even even, but like a lot of the new stuff. Like if you're on, if you're listening to Sirius XM, Outlaw, the Outlaw Country channel, some great stuff over there. If I had to, if I had to live with one Sirius XM channel other than the Megan Kelly channel, that's the little nut I would pick. All right. What's my favorite Wisconsin restaurant? Oh, man.

So I want to put anyone on blast. Let's see. There's so many. And there's some like really great little like supper clubs up north. I will say our favorite separate club up north is the white stag. I like the white stag a lot if you're looking for a good like Wisconsin experience. That's one of my favorites. Oh, what else? What else? There's, again, there's like, there's little ones. La Dukes that was across from my high school.

That's a great Wisconsin restaurant, great Wisconsin custard burger place. I know lots of people like cops. I also like cops. That's a good one. Milwaukee. I didn't go into Milwaukee too much as a kid. To be honest, I worked there. I had an internship with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in college, but it wasn't spending too much time there. And then another one in college, too. But

yeah, I'll stick with Leducs and Cops. I love the white stag for supper clubs. I think they closed the Paul Bunyan in Eagle River. There might still be one in the Dells. I always like, my family makes fun of me all the time because I liked the Paul Bunyan. That was in, by the way, that Dan Aykroyd movie, what was it called The Great Outdoors? I think a lot of that was filmed in Monacoa up there. I think the scene where he eats that disgusting big steak was at the Paul Bunyan in Manacua.

I think I could be wrong about that. Maybe that's just a legend or Eagle River. I think they might have closed that one, though. There may still be one in the Dells that's open. But anyway, if you're ever in Wisconsin, there's honestly just like a lot of good, there's just a lot of good stuff. The watershed brewery on the lakefront

is a classic choice if you find yourself in Milwaukee. Yeah, I could go on forever, but my favorite, of course, is in my hometown of Delafield, which is holy cow. That's a classic. Like Ledukes, custard, burgers.

Anyway, it's a great place, great place. Let's see, this one is Anonymous. Hi, Emily, big fan of your work on breaking points and after party happy hour international travel question what are your top three favorite international cities you've visited and what are three international cities that you've not yet been to but would like to visit thanks and congrats on all your success okay um you know i i i know a lot of people who are much more well traveled than me because of my job i have been able to do some fun travel but not nearly as much as i've gotten older i've just gotten more into like

there's just much a as i after i went for the first time i started getting the bug and so there are a lot more places that I want to go to. Favorite international cities, top of the list is Rome for me. I've been a couple times, just you cannot be Rome. It is the most, like, I don't know. It's just if you're on a movie set, right? It's kind of like New York City has that. It's not an international city, so it doesn't count for the sake of this question. But Rome, you're on a movie set, but you're not, right? Like, there's just so everything. Every little nook and cranny of Rome is Rome. And it's so fascinating, incredible food, obviously. And I've been in different parts of Italy, and I thought the food in Rome was just, I mean, the seafood once you get to the

coast is like insane. I'm not a big seafood person, but yeah, the food in Rome is just unreal. I haven't really been. I've done most of the Amalfi Coast. I haven't been to Venice, Florence, any of those I haven't been in northern Italy. I haven't done Sicily or anything like that. So those are definitely on the list, a place that I want to go as well. So I can't compare the food, but I do think the food in Rome is just outrageous. Let's see. It's not a city, but well, International cities. Okay, I'll stick to international cities. I just honestly haven't been that many places that aren't kind of the obvious. So, like, I've done London, Paris, Dublin, Lisbon, Rome a couple times, Amalfi Coast. I've been, like, I've done a lot of, like, the Caribbean stuff on

vacation. I really love, actually, I've been to San Juan for work. I interviewed the governor of Puerto Rico years ago, but I love San Juan Puerto Rico. I think that's an incredible city. The architecture is out of this world, like just beautiful. So we have Rome and San Juan so far. Obviously, I mean, London is, you know, it's an incredible city. But I don't know. But I don't know. I mean, I feel like I just need to travel more. That's my answer to this. I have a lot of places that I really, really, really want to go to. So obviously, yes, for three international cities, I definitely want to do Jerusalem, Bethlehem.

I really want to do Athens. And I want to do, you know, like, I'd love to do like a pilgrimage that follows like the like Paul's footsteps or Peter's footsteps. So probably, you know, those islands, yeah, I would love to do, like, Santorini, and I'm sure all of you are now going to, like, hit me up with travel tips. I definitely want to go to Mexico City. I've never been to Mexico City. I love Mexico. That was going to be my answer when I said it's not a city, but just the country.

It's such an incredible place, like whether you're in a tourist destination or not, the time that I spent in northern Mexico doing reporting on the border, I really, just the combination of cultures and the way that Spanish Catholic culture merged with indigenous culture and how it is today, like it's just an absolutely fascinating place. So that'd be my answer. I really want to go to Buenos Aires. I want to do, yeah, I definitely want to do different places in South America. I'd love to do Venezuela at some point. Kind of tough right now. I would love to do, like, you know, I don't know. Like, you know, I don't know. That's my time filling, as I'm trying to think. But yeah, I like South Central or I like Mexico and Central America.

I've never been to South America. I would like to go to South America. All kinds of places. As you can see, there are all kinds of places that I want to go that I haven't been to yet. So I'm going to Turks and Kekos for the first time soon. I love the Caribbean, even like Miami. I love Miami. No, that's not international.

Let's see. Here is Terry who says, Emily, thank you for your Midwestern sensibilities. Love listening to you. If you're ever in Cleveland, let me know. I went on a family vacation to Cleveland once. It's a little bit of a sample of just how Midwestern my family was. We did take a family vacation to Cleveland once. We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Yeah, we did summer vacations in the Midwest for a while. Yeah, we did Traverse City in the Dunes, South Dakota, Mount Rushmore. Yeah, one time we took a vacation. in Cleveland. I was too young to really be mad about it, but I remember being like, really. Guys, this is, I'm sorry, vacation is Cleveland, Cleveland. No offense to Cleveland. I know everybody in Ohio loves Ohio. I love Columbus, actually. The, like, I like downtown Columbus. It reminds me a lot of like Milwaukee, Waukesha, Midwestern cities. Seth Red Star asked if I've ever heard of the new Apostolic Reformation, Bethel, et cetera. I've definitely heard of Bethel. I haven't heard of

haven't paid super close attention to that. M. Bowman asks, how do we get Megan Kelly on Joe Rogan? Man, that would be awesome. I love that idea. I don't know. I certainly don't have any power over it, but that would be great. I'd love to see that because Megan has such an interesting professional story, personal story. That would be awesome. So I'm all. for it. One more question here. This is from Maddie. Says, Emily, an after-party crew. I understand this message, poorly time. It could have been sent early. However, I absolutely love this podcast. I wanted to express my desire for an airing of grievances pod with the beloved Christopher Bedford. I've had a tough time getting in the Christmas spirit this year, and there's nothing that would spur on the

Yuletide glee like an airing of grievances. Please know that if it's not too late this year, consider this as an early request for next Christmas. Thank you for all you're doing. Merry Christmas. All right. This is a great place to end because the backstory. And now I'm like kicking myself because it would have been so easy to do an airing of grievances with Bedford just over Zoom and air it as a holiday Happy Hour episode. Oh, I'm so sorry, everyone. I should have thought about that. But the backstory here is that every Christmas, even when he didn't work at the Federalist, Bedford, who's been on the show, he's over at the Blaze now, he forced me to do what was called an airing of grievances. I want to say it started with Ben Dominic on Federalist Radio Hour when Ben was the host.

and then Bedford would force me to do it. I have no idea why. I think mostly it was his excuse to day drink in the middle of the week before the holidays because we would come in and he always liked to record in person and he would immediately go to the Hemingway. So Mark and Molly, when the federalist first got an office or when we got our Capitol Hill office,

they just brought all the liquor in their base. that was like 20 years old and half consumed made for like niche specialty cocktails, like the most random stuff. And Bedford would come in during the airing grievances and forced me to like drink some concoction. But he is a bartender. So he is a pretty good ability to make cocktails. And he would do a Seinfeld style like Festivist level airing of his grievances. And they were bizarre, but kind of a good way to wrap up the year behind. because he would just have grievances with the stories that you've forgotten or with the characters from the year that you've forgotten. So thank you so much, Maddie, for sending this in.

I actually wish that I had thought about this. And I hope that we can do this next year because it was always fun for me to, he forced me to drink with him. And the key was just to go slowly. You know, just like, then you can throw away what's left over. Maybe I didn't always throw it away. maybe he would always find this really great beer and i don't know what it was called um but all that is to say yeah he by the way he did do beer and cocktails um over the like 40 minutes that we would take to record this so i think that's probably why he forced us to do the festivist was to have an excuse for a midday holiday happy hour we should have done that i'm sorry mattie apologies to all uh grievance airing fans out there we'll try to bring that back next year i'll try

to remember it. Thank you, Maddie, for remembering the airing of grievances. I'll make sure that Bedford here is that his fans miss him. Appreciate it. Appreciate you all. Hope your new year is off to a great start. And I'm so excited to be back. Because right now, as I'm recording this, we have one after party left before the year's end.

And I'm already kind of itching to just have it be January and to dive back in. I don't like, I rarely, rarely take time off. I don't like it. It gives me like a rash because I've gotten too used to mixing it up. So I'm excited to get back to it. And I hope you're all having a wonderful break if you were able to get one and that your new year is off to a great start. God bless. See you back here soon with more.