From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Q&A With The Duffys: Getting To Know Dagen McDowell

Episode Date: October 21, 2023

On a special episode of Q&A, Sean sits down with Co-Host of The Bottom Line on FOX Business, Dagen McDowell, as she answers questions about her upbringing in rural Virginia, and how she got her start in journalism in New York City nearly 30 years ago.   Later, Dagen talks about the best and worst jobs she ever worked, and why President Reagan is her favorite politician of all time. Follow Sean & Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Mejuri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Mejuri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Mejuri has something for everyone. Mejuri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials.

So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at Mijeri.com today. Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy. I'm not with my co-host for the podcast, my partner in life or my wife, Rachel Campos Duffy, but I am with my other partner at Fox, the great Dagan McDowell. Dagan, welcome to the Kitchen Table. Thank you so much. take questions that are written in by the listeners of the show. But today, I just have some questions for Dagen McDowell. So you are my guinea pig for the podcast. So I know you've been at Fox for a long time. How long have you been here and how did you start working at Fox? All right. I have been here 20 years as of June. And you started at 15. No, I am elderly.

Please. That's full time. I started part time. Let's go back. I've lived and worked in New York City for almost 30 years. I moved here after I lived in Colorado for a couple years after college, because I knew I could find something to do for a living that I enjoyed, and I was good at it. In New York?

Yeah. And that's why I moved here. I grew up in the rural South, you know that, in Brookneal, Virginia, and I didn't want to live. It's either country mouse or city mouse. I am not suburb mouse. So you were going to be like, okay, I'm going to be a city mouse. I didn't want to live in a small city. I wanted to big, it's city means big city. And I just knew that there were so many jobs like so many industries here i could find something that i could make a living doing and so you but you started in finance right i started i got a job at institutional investor which was a magazine. It was like a Vanity Fair magazine about finance, but it was for people in the finance business. It was a terrific magazine, but they had these newsletters. And I didn't know anything about finance. I took a I didn't know anything about finance I took a reporting test and I never didn't major

in journalism either but you had to take a reporting test and report a story about finance and write it and I passed the test and they gave me a job and And it was just learning. You had to learn on the job about finance and report stories. And I had a very kind of crusty curmudgeon of an editor, but he was just Just terrific. He ran the entire newsletter division. And it was like going to graduate school for journalism. In three months, you get like two years worth of training. And it wasn't even training. It was just on-the-job training. You just make sources. And it's like, okay, break some news.

Figure it out. And I worked there. So I was a writer for years. I was working at thestreet.com and Fox News had a show with thestreet.com briefly. And that was how I developed a relationship. how I developed a relationship. And eventually, I got starting into early, right before 9-11. In May of 2001, I started doing a show regularly that was on Saturday morning, one of the business shows. And I was doing that like once a week. And so then I got,

I was a contributor. And then they, Neil Cavuto called me on the phone one day and said, Hey, kid, we know you don't know how to do TV professionally, but do you want a job? If you figure it out, you get to stay. If you suck at it, you got to go. You don't get to stay. Neil, how nice. So it's interesting. So you come to the city. Now, this is 30. Neil, how nice. So it's interesting. So you come to the city. Now, this is 30 years ago, you said.

And if you look at the map, Brookneal, Virginia, it is barely a little dot. You barely get a name on the map with Brookneal. It is very, very small, the town that you grew up in. And you make it in the big city. So if you have advice to young people today

who are like, listen, I want to make it in the big city. So if you have advice to young people today who are like, listen, I want to make it in TV or in journalism or whatever space they pick, and they want to come to whether it's New York or Chicago or wherever they're making their career, what advice do you have to young people today as they're trying to find their course? What advice does Dagan McDowell have? One who's made it successfully from the small town to the big city. You have to work your ass off. It is just, it is about, that's, it's about preparation. It's about trying to do your level best every day, all day long, every week, every month. That sounds so rote. Cliché, if you will, but true, right?

But when I mean hard work, I mean that you never take your foot off the gas, that it's just always about. off the gas, that it's just always about. And also, it's focusing on what's in front of you. And it's fine to have a plan. But if you're worried about what's happening six months from now, or a year from now, and you're not focused on your actual job, then you're not doing your current job well. And so people, I think, and this is in TV too, is like, here is my, what is my task today? day. And so you move up and out and on to better and bigger things if you excel at what you're doing now. And you can only do that with intense focus and hard work on that very thing. So that's what I'm trying. That's what I'm getting at. Really smart. Because I think a lot of people focus on their next job. And if you want the next job, you want the next bump, go to the next level, you actually

have to do the job that you have right now really well. And so don't leave this job before you have the next one. Do this one. Well, you mentioned work ethic, right? And I think- That's what I was trying to get at. And anyone who works at Fox, and they know everybody in this building, a lot of people work really hard. But I would say probably one of the hardest workers in this

building is you. You prepare, you study. You might have a show at six o'clock at night, and you might be in your office at eight in the morning, prepping, reading, and when you're at home at night as well, you work really hard at your job. Where does that work ethic come from? Mom and daddy and family. How so? Our family. Some of that is coming from farming families. My most immediate family, mamas, my grandparents on my mother's side.

My grandfather was a businessman and a farmer. And then my grandfather and my parents ran a wholesale grocery business. And when you run a very small family business, it's nine to five. You work seven days a week, seven days a week. And my parents would, Seven days a week. Seven days a week. And my parents, they couldn't do their books and write out their order sheets until they closed the business. They'd close up, come home, eat, and at 7 o'clock at night, that's when my mama did the books. That's when daddy sat down and wrote out his order sheets. So, and it's to our detriment

for my brother and me, but we don't really know how to take vacations. And we had this conversation. I was like, right. You haven't taken any time off. And by the way, I think it's really good.

It reorients your perspective and just to get to get away. That is true. and we had this conversation like you haven't taken any time off dag and you got to go somewhere you got to do something because you don't take vacation and we just never did as children we never as a family ever ever ever took one whole week off until we were both like I was like my brother was 18 by the time that we took one whole week off as a family and I was 22. And I think it's a good lesson for you know those who try to make it and again sometimes and I and I see a lot of kids just through my own kids and there's a lot

of people who think they're going to get great jobs and great careers without working. And also they want to start at a really high level. And I think it's important to go, you know what? You can start at the very base, basic level, learn the skill sets of that industry. And if you work hard at it, you're going to rise, but they all want to start at like level three or four instead of going, I'm going to go to level one and learn it. And I'm going to master it and move up from there. But they don't. I would. And that's a mistake wanting to start at some higher level. Yes. Because if you don't have the skills, you'll fail. Right. So what is the point of that? You start it. I started in a job. I had no journalism experience and zero finance experience. But I had the grit of a door to door salesman and curiosity. And I have no shame. And so I would call. I literally would. I had a book with names of money managers in it. It was a giant two volume.

It looked like a paper two volume giant phone book of money managers with phone numbers in it. And I cold called people. Just looking for info? Looking for just cold, making friends, making sources, and talking to people. Interesting. And learning, because I didn't know anything about the difference between the buy side and the sell side, the difference between a money manager and a broker. I didn't know anything. But the key is, you don't have to act like you know. If you admit, I don't know, but can I, and just ask questions.

They respect that. People respect that if say, I don't know anything, let me ask you, and there are no stupid questions. So I say this a lot, like when you're young, you're kind of expected to be kind of stupid. Like you don't really know what's going on. And if you ask questions to people who do, they find it endearing. They want to actually help you out. When I started as a prosecutor, I was horrible. It was like I was not good at all.

And I asked questions and I had some really good people that I worked with and I endeared myself to them. They were really helpful to me and I grew and I was a great prosecutor when I left, but I didn't pretend like I knew and I was, I was a great prosecutor when I left, but I didn't pretend like I knew what I was doing because I didn't. And older people will, will assist in helping. We've all, we've not, at our age, we've been in both of those positions, right? You've

been in the one where you need the help and now you're in a spot where you can, you can give the help, which I, I think that's, that's really good advice. Don't start too high and don't be afraid to start at the bottom and work your way up, which is exactly what you've done. What was your first job? Was it in the store with your parents? That I got sort of paid for. Yeah. I remember running cartons of cigarettes through this tax stamp machine. My brother and I talk about that. She's from Virginia, everybody know she's from virginia everybody she's from virginia cigarettes have all packs of cigarettes have a tax stamp on them and we you have to that you know when you see mob movies and like in goodfellas they're selling the uh the cartons of cigarettes off the back of the truck those don't have tax like're not taxed. That's why they're so much cheaper. And you just have to run the – so you – this is a long story,

but you cut the carton, the case of the cigarettes open, and each carton had to be fed through a machine, and we hand-fed them because we were country and didn't have a fancy machine. And so you have a pitcher and a catcher one person has to feed feeds the cartons through the machine and the other person catches and has to restack them in the box the box yeah so that was your first job and but the machine made this fabulous noise and when you would feed the cartons, it would go, it had a whir to it. It was like, brr. And when you'd feed the carton, it would go, wook, wook, wook, wook, like that. My brother and I talk about that to this day. So I did were. First real job was like probably a summer job. Yeah. Like summer jobs.

I remember working after my senior year in high school, like where it was like a full time job at a it's not there anymore. Down at Nags Head, North Carolina, it was like a group of retail stores. But it was like a mini little department store called the Galleon Esplanade. And it's since been torn down. It was very well known at the time. But I had to work in the changing room. One of the worst jobs ever would be helping women try bathing suits on. That would not be fun.

That was not fun. No. Oh, and also I managed an ice cream shop at Atlantic Beach a few years later. And Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. And that was terrible because the people who worked for me used to do whippets from the ice, the whipped cream canisters. And so I would come in and they'd be like passed out with blue lips on the floor of the ice cream shop.

That was real go getters. It's a good, it's a great team. Beach jobs are just awful. They're, they're sandy. We'll have more of this conversation after this. This episode is brought to you by Mejuri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Mejuri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Mejuri has something for everyone. Mejuri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials.

So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at Missouri.com today. So let's talk about this because I would have, I was a little bit surprised when we got to know each other doing, by the way, it's the, I mean, most rockstar show on all platforms, The Bottom Line with Dagon and Duffy. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, you're a rarity, but you can always catch us at 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Business Channel. It's great fun, smart, good politics. But I was surprised that you spent 30 years in New York because if someone meets you on the street, if someone sees you on a train or in the airport, they'd go, you shed Virginia and rural Virginia. You shed country. And so it's kind of shocking that you've been here for so long. And again, obviously, the city has an impact on you,

long. How, and again, obviously, the city has an impact on you, right? If you live every day in the city, and obviously, it changes you, but you really haven't left your country roots. How is that, number one, and to your point also, you're a conservative. Why? Two-part question. Conservative, that's ingrained in me from my way I was raised. Your mom and dad yeah your mama worked at the polls advocating for republican candidates for four decades she's a staple and every election and until she you know she died of cancer lung cancer and her it was in her bones until she couldn't stand because it was in her backbone. It was because they ran a small business and government does not help you.

Everything the government does not help you. Everything the government does, anything that some lawmaker tells you is going to help you does not. Government is a burden. Government is intrusive. The government is a thief. And so less of it. The less government, the better. And so that's just the general – The values they raised you with. Right. Guiding principle of politics. Of Southern Virginia. The problem is, though, I don't think the Republican Party represents that now either. It's big government, just a different type of big government. Well, it's less big government. It's not small government. But we've become detached and untethered from, well, even reagan's idea of government and i don't i don't think we can

ever get back to that but i think we can reclaim and have to the the basic rights that are guaranteed personal liberties that are guaranteed to us and if we refocus on that and try to get our financial house in order as a nation, that if we head in that direction, I digress. That's where it comes from. It's just very small government. So you're like a limited government conservative. Very, very limited government. And why are you still so Virginian and rural and country, redneck, if you will, using a term of endearment that you use. I can only—this is also for my family—you can only try to be your best self. And I never wanted to be anybody but who my parents raised.

And I deeply—the older I've gotten, the longer I've lived here, I value where I came from even more. I was always very proud of where I grew up. I was, I never ran away from it. I just wanted to, but it was very tiny. and growing up in the 70s like we barely had television and so that was one of the reasons i didn't want to live there is because it's very i it's very ice it was a very isolating place to live and my brother and i loved movies and you couldn't really go to the movies right we loved things like that and i my parents and loved architecture and i love buildings and just seeing things and says you know one of the reasons you don't have to spend any money in new york city you can just walk around and just look at all of these amazing things that people created just from stone and iron and glass we just watch people too. Yeah. Entertainment in and of itself. But I, living here, New York can be, it's very difficult to live here because it's expensive and it's dirty and it's loud, but it can be a small town.

It smells like dope. Yeah. But the people. There's neighborhoods, neighbors, friendships. The people are lovely. The people who live in New York City, the rude people, to anybody who comes to visit, the people who are rude and pushy don't live in New York City. They're the ones who have to commute in and drive in, and they're angry, and they're irritable.

Not you, Duffy, but they're the ones who are in a bad mood the people who live here who are long time or even short time residents they're lovely the people who live in my neighborhood from all over the map different um you know make all kinds of money. Some have nothing. Some have everything. And my little neighborhood's like a small town. Interesting. I would not think that in New York City. It's so big and so massive that it doesn't break down into a small neighborhood and small community. But I treat all my neighbors the way I would treat my neighbors in Brookneal, Virginia. I look at them in the eye, strangers. I look them in the eye when I see people on the street in the morning, and I wish them a good morning and wish them a blessed day.

And that's how you get to know people. And they're probably like, wow, that was strange. She just wished me a blessed day. They strangely don't. They don't. If you wish people blessings, they bless you back. Interesting. Because most good people, if they're good people, they are rooted and grounded in church, regardless of where they go to church.

I'm going to ask you three really quick questions. Number one, do you think, because we just did this, we did a homestead conference, and a lot of people are leaving instead of going out to the country, to the places where you grew up. Do you have any interest in going back to small-town America? I will one of these days. When I stop working, I will. You'll go back to small-town. Okay. What's your favorite band? Right now? No, just your favorite band of all time. You go home and you throw something on your,

I was about to say on your record player. Well, I love Levon Helm. I love the band, but I love the band because of Levon Helm. Okay. And people who know the band. I love the band because of Levon Helm and Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, and not because of Robbie Robertson. Okay.

Are we talking country? No. No. The band. I pulled into Nazareth, was feeling about half past that, the band, and the Allman Brothers. The Allman Brothers. Mm-hmm.

So Dagan does not like pop country. She is real rooted. Real country music is where she's at. Okay. Like Patsy Cline.. Like Patsy Cline. I like Patsy Cline. You know, we've got both kinds here, country and Western. I go a-walkin' down the road.

She's from Virginia. Is she really? Winchester. I didn't know that. Favorite movie? Good Fellows. That's a good flick. And final question, who is your favorite politician of all time?

Like in your lifetime, like someone who's like, you know what? It could be the dog catcher to a president, but somebody who's's like, you know what? It could be the dog catcher to a president, but somebody who's been like, you know what? This person has been honest. They've done what they said, and I just, my values, my vision fits with them, and they've been really effective from catching dogs to leading a country

to a member of Congress to a mayor. God, that's hard to name a favorite politician. Yeah, and I know a lot of times we give a lot of hate to politicians. So one that you go like, no, this one's been pretty good. Do, do, do, do. I mean, you go with the classic Reagan if you want it, but that might be a little— Well, you tell me who yours is.

So listen, I think Reagan changed the world, right? He changed our generation's view of the world. And that's why you see Gen X. I call us now the greatest generation because we have a lot of Reaganisms in us and why a lot of us are more apt to fight for small government. But listen, I wasn't so sure about Donald Trump. If I'm honest, I wasn't sure what I was going to get. And there's imperfection. And there is imperfection. And he's not a politician. But I look at what he to get. And there's imperfection. And there is imperfection. And he's not a politician.

But I look at what he's done. And even the people that hate him, can't stand him, they want to imprison him. If they fairly look at his record and what he did, whether we're dealing with the Middle East right now, it was impressive, the Abraham Accords. And things that you would never think could happen were happening. Even his outreach to Kim Jong-un in North Korea. He wasn't shooting missiles, wasn't, you know, planning with Hamas to attack Israel. Things were more at peace. People were prosperous. And, you know, it came from a lot of the policies that he, and again, he wasn't rooted in politics, but he had a lot of good gut instincts as a businessman and so my expectation was not that great i'm a pro-lifer i know you are as well what he did for the life

movement impressive my my my i didn't expect much and i got a lot more than i expected which is which is why um i those those are probably two easy ones for me to say, but those are my two. Dagan? He gave voice to abandoned, well, all the, my entire hometown who had been abandoned by every politician for 30 some odd years. And they had just been left. They're middle-class jobs with pensions at furniture companies and textile companies had been traded for cheap crap at Walmart. That's right. But I still have to say Reagan for his soaring speeches and just glorious vision. And because of when he came along in our lives at that age. Very impressionable.

And it stuck with me. And, you know, if you think back to that time, listen, we thought there could be a nuclear war. We thought, I mean, you'd get under a desk in your second grade classroom. It was real. And I remember, given this day, sorry to interrupt you, the Iranian hostage crisis. Yeah. Vividly. I remember lining up for gasoline. I remember the hostage crisis.

I remember the hostage crisis and just how that changed. Everything just seemed like the dawning of a new America. And we talk about this a lot on our show, but it comes back to strength and leadership and a vision and the projection of strength with a country that is strong, which both Trump and Reagan did. Listen, Dagan McDowell, thank you for pitching. Rachel was not feeling well today that you stepped in before about to go to the bottom line. She's the best. I am grateful for. You're the best. I'm grateful for both of y'all. I'm grateful for you. And it's been a pleasure. We've been about 10 months into the show and

five days a week we spend together and I've had more fun getting to know you and doing the show with you. And so if you haven't seen it, check out the bottom line. We have a lot of fun and Dagan throws fastballs. She throws heat. She throws sliders. Like you get, you get a whole montage of, of Virginia coming from Dagan McDowell. It's a, it's, it's, I usually, I feel myself pretty exciting, but on our show I'm a little bit of a drip as she throws the fastball. So check out the show. And listen, thank you all, Dagen.

Thanks for joining the kitchen table. Thank you all for joining us. If you like our podcast, you can rate, review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. You can always find us on foxnewspodcast.com. Please subscribe. You'll get a notice every time our podcast drops. And again, as I always mention, we're like a little more than one short week away from going

five days a week, which is going to be a blast, a ball. So not just three days, we're going to five days. I appreciate y'all joining us at the kitchen table. Bye-bye. Listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. From the Fox News Podcasts Network. Subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcast.com.