WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: Gregory Lyakhov

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

WRFH's Sophia Mandt interviews Gregory Lyakhov, a freshman at Hillsdale College and one of the youngest nationally syndicated columnists in the United States.  Lyakhov has written for publications including Townhall, The Wall Street Journal, Reason Magazine, and The Washington Times, and has appeared on national media platforms, including Fox News, Newsmax, and The Epoch Times. His work has been cited by the White House, and he has collaborated with various media figures including Roger Stone.

You're listening to Sophia Mant, interview at Gregory Lycob on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Lychov writes for dozens of notable publications as one of the youngest nationally syndicated columnists in the United States. Publications that Lycalf has contributed to include Newsmax, Town Hall, Campus Reform, the New York Post, The Hill, and the Wall Street Journal. With that introduction, I must ask, when did your interest? in writing for national publications begin? And did you first begin with local or smaller outlets before moving up the ranks? Yeah, so I was always interested in politics, and that's primarily what I write about. It's politics, education, education reform, particularly. That's what I like.

And the reason why I write in general was for 16 years, I had undiagnosed ADHD. So I was a failing student. I barely could read. I definitely couldn't write. and an essay would not go well for me for, you know, 16 years in school. Then when I finally got diagnosed, realized my potential, really, of learning and liking to learn, I guess out of spite I started to write because it was everything that I couldn't do. I couldn't analyze a topic like politics and put it in a concise format, like an article. So I originally just started to dabble in politics by publishing in a blog. Then that blog expanded.

The right people saw that blog. me first to contribute to a very small publication. And from there, I just continued writing for bigger and bigger publications until I reached the top, I guess. You've appeared on national television, including on Fox News, where you spoke about the late Charlie Kirk as a high school senior. What was your message to those watching? And what is it like to appear on national television? Yeah, definitely. So first, obviously, national television is very scary. It's not easy thing to do. And I remember my first few appearances. I felt the nerves. I felt scared and everything. Now it has become very regular for me, which is unfortunate because I don't get

those same nerves and that same thrill as I did the first time, but it's still fun and I love TV, mostly because you are given a few minutes to deliver a very concise argument and convince the listeners of your viewpoint. There's very few things in life that give you that ability. One is law. That's why I like law and the other is TV, et cetera. So when you are basically on a time frame to convince someone of your perspective, of your opinion, and to share it in the most effective way possible, that is what I love to do. That's why I like TV so much. In general, my message on TV always is referring to either a story that I covered, a national news trend. For example, I will be going on Fox News, actually the same show that I went on when you refer to Charlie Kirk. I will be discussing. a new poll that came out about students, about Jewish students in particular. So different topics every single time, but the message around them is usually something to do with education and education reform. Because I do believe that education reform is the most important issue in our country today. And then I was wondering, what was your message when you were talking on Fox News about Charlie Kirk, especially as it's around the one-year anniversary of his assassination?

Yeah, well, it's interesting. you bring this up, but obviously it's one year tomorrow will be one year since his assassination. And this week will be filled with news and national television too to discuss my message with Charlie Kirk. And that is that his assassination was a tragedy for every conservative out there because I know every conservative that is active in politics was thinking the same thing. What if that was me? What if I am the next person to be assassinated? And that is what I was thinking. That is what everyone was thinking that Charlie Kirk inspired. My direct relationship of Charlie Kirk really was one where it made it very difficult to talk about at first, obviously, the assassination.

He helped me a lot. I mean, he was one of the first people to ever say that my articles were good. He actually recognized me from one of my articles at a Turning Point USA event. And then, you know, later on, he invited me to even speak at the biggest Turning Point USA event of the year. and that was about a week before he got assassinated, obviously. And I looked up to Charlie. I wanted to be exactly like him and I still do. I think he was an exact representation of what we need more of in this realm of politics.

And my message is, number one, that political division leads us here. When we start calling people fascists, when we start calling people authoritarian, then people are going to take it into their own hands to try and prevent that. And that's exactly what happened. In general, we need to stop. We need to stop with this rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, where we frame someone as incompatible with American ideals or frame someone as a fascist and then expect nothing to happen of them. It's just ridiculous. You're listening to Sophia Mant interview Gregory Lykov on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.

I'm also wondering what is it like being on national television in terms of the camera work, what you have to do to prepare, because I'm not super used to, like, you know, hearing a national television. So how's that different from, say, being in a newsroom and writing articles or even the radio station and just recording, you know, some audio? Yeah, it's very different. I think TV is one of the hardest fields that looks the easiest because, oh, you're just speaking. It's not just speaking. Every word on TV you have to think of before. Every word matters because every word is a second that you're taking from however many viewers are listening to you live. So it's very important. It's very difficult to prepare. And I guess the things that I do to help prepare first off is to lock in, get into that mindset of what TV is. And that helps you understand that every word you are saying right now is going to make an impact. And with that, it's a power that you can use very well or very poorly.

that's usually what I do and then when I kind of scare myself into fearing and being nervous then you already are there then you're already going to perform as long as you know what you are talking about TV is just as much as a performance as it is a actual

informative segment because if you don't keep your user or listener engaged then who would listen to you? And then I'm also wondering do you have perhaps some favorite TV appearance Yeah, so I was on the Falconer Focus. I believe that was in July and she is one of my role models.

She's everything I want to be like. So that TV appearance, I really enjoyed that. It was in front of the Statue of Liberty and everything. So that was fun. Another TV appearance that I enjoyed was actually the day before that Falconer Focus one was Katie Pavlach who was, who actually founded Town Hall Media, which is a publication I'm a columnist for and I have a lot of immense respect for her. So that was also something that it was fun. But mostly, I can't judge myself whether I do well, whether I do bad. I always think I do

worse than I could have. But it's not objective, you know, every TV appearance you couldn't improve. Yeah. So I actually, my favorite article, my most favorite article I've ever written was in real care politics. That was an article about originalism and explaining why originalism is the only proper way to interpret the Constitution. I love law as a passion and as an interest, but it is not my ultimate passion. My ultimate passion is education reform and school choice, all of that stuff. So that was a little different from what I usually write, but it was really fun and it was one of the longest articles. I think it was over like 3,000 words, that singular article. So it was really fun to write that. But in general, yeah, I like, I think all of my articles,

each one adds something new or else I wouldn't be writing them. But definitely that one stuck stuck out to me as my favorite. And then I was also wondering, do you have an article you've written that's gone, like especially viral or popular? Like, what's your most popular article if you have a sense that are aware? Yeah. So it depends. It really depends on what fields I had articles that were not, that did not do that well,

that got reposted by the Trump administration and got on the White House website. I also had articles that got, I don't know, 250,000 views or something or reads, and it didn't really go anywhere. So it really depends on what you would classify as popular, in my opinion. Popular means impact, what had the most impact. And for that, I would say definitely my articles for the Leadership Institute's campus forum, that organization focused on obviously campus reform, exposing liberal bias on campus. those types of articles usually were what really had the most impact, in my opinion.

And also it's wasting taxpayers money, all of that stuff. I love writing about that stuff. I think it's important to uncover. You have, it seems a pretty good sense of how things might go viral, given the success you've had with a lot of your articles. So I was wondering, like, do you have any tips or tricks for making an article likely get a lot of attention or getting a accepted. So I guess there's two ways to go about it. Number one is to actually make your article quality. It's to make it about what you think is the most effective way to put your words on a paper. And number two is to make it go viral. They're very different and usually they are exclusive.

And the reason I say that is because not one of them is bad. It doesn't, it's not bad if you just want your article to go viral because it means that we'll still have an impact. The more people that read it, the more of an impact it has. If you write an article that is extremely effective and it's very good that maybe does not do as well, you still published it and your goal is accomplished because who knows, maybe one person who saw it actually changed their mind or maybe it landed on the right group of people. There's a difference between experts when they read stuff and just normal readers when they read stuff. They're after different things. So I would say that focus on what is important to you. If you really just want to go viral and that's okay, then write about the most viral thing,

write about what is in the news and make a unique perspective on it, make a unique argument. If you actually want to make a impact in terms of adding something new to the conversation, then don't focus on going viral. That will happen naturally. Just focus on actually making your writing as great quality as possible. And again, I really think this is a direct reflection of how much time you put into it, the more time you do it, the better it gets. And I was also wondering, as I can imagine, like writing articles and stuff is likely a bit

time consuming, especially upon being a full-time student. So either ways you manage your balance it or are you like, well, I'm going to, you know, attend school here, but also going to really focus on my articles. And I mean, how did that work? And how did that work when you were also in high school, like managing it? That's the million dollar question. That's the hardest thing to do, to balance time commitment. with school and with everything writing TV stuff.

The writing and TV stuff, the reason I would say I'm far, you know, for my age, I'm ahead of other people that do it is mostly because ADHD gives you a superpower and a really bad super, well, the opposite of a superpower, a curse, I guess, which you can't do stuff that you're bad at. Like, it's really hard to do math, for example. I'm really bad at math and I have no interest in it. But the stuff I like, I'm going to be the best stat. because I'm going to spend the most time and I get excited about it.

All I can think about is it. And for me, that it is politics and that it is writing and TV. So that's really why I have been able to get so far ahead because it's my passion. It's what I enjoy. It's what I do 24-7. So the balance is extremely difficult. And there's no right answer there, but you just have to do it because there's no other option. It's either do it or don't.

But for me, yeah, I mean, I have to admit, I have put my writing and TV stuff above school before. It's not a good thing to do. I don't suggest it, but that is the reality. You're listening to Sophia Mant, interview Gregory Lycop on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm wondering how you handle or what it's like to face maybe criticism or even sometimes hatred for your views, given that I would say it's perhaps counterculture to be young and conservative. And I know that you're also Jewish and writing issues relating to there. So how do you handle that? First off, I would say that this is not for everyone. And I understand how people dislike writing. I understand how people dislike going on TV.

Because the amount of hate you get for it is crazy. I don't know the amount of hate I get for it because I can't read that many comments. But it's thousands upon thousands of comments. And sometimes hundreds of hate comments per article that you write. They find your email. They find it's crazy what they would do. But to me, I don't really care and I never cared. I don't know why. Maybe it's just the way I was raised, not to care about what other people say, but making

sure that you're confident in your convictions. And to also understand that you are never going to be right about everything and to listen to other points. I mean, if you're not open to other points, if you're not listening to other points, then you'll never get ahead. The only way to really understand a certain issue and become a quote-unquote expert on it is to listen to every perspective and to understand that you will never know everything about it and everyone will have a different take on it. So listen, be open. That's the most important thing.

And if you encourage discourse, then the other side hopefully will reciprocate that discourse. Do you hope to be a syndicated columnist after graduation or to go into the news world? Like what's maybe your sort of dream job? Yeah, my dream job would be obviously to be president. I say that a lot now. And I'm not kidding. I would love to be president. I think that that is the ultimate sacrifice to your country and everything.

Like, you know, dedicating your entire life for eight years to or for four to eight years to, you know, really give it your all and make true policy change. I find that very impactful. I would love to join the military if I was physically capable to, but unfortunately not. But yeah, that's really my goal. I really want to serve my country in some sort of way. I don't want to become a politician. I think that, you know, that's a world that is very different. But I do want to become president.

And I'd say my dream pathway would be, I don't know, continue news. I like TV. And then one day, president. Who are some of your favorite political opponents and why? Yeah. Okay, that's a good question. So by far, my number one favorite is Ben Shapiro. And the reason is less that I agree with what he says.

I agree with some of what he says and I disagree with others, like Tarras, for example. But the reason why Ben Shapiro is my favorite is a lot. First off, he was the youngest nationally syndicated columnist at 17. And I beat him at 16. So I took his title. That's the first thing I told him when I met him. And he's really, in my opinion, a genius. He's a hero.

Like, he has contributed a lot to the conservative movement. he has state to his principles and whether people agree with his principles or not, he has been able to go around the criticism, not care about the criticism, not take it to heart. And what he has done in the conservative movement is very impactful. Also, obviously, Charlie Kirk made a massive impact. He showed really what it meant to dedicate your life to changing this country and making it a place for the better end. That I will take to heart always. But yeah, those two people really made a difference and I look up to both of them. Why did you choose to attend Hillsdale College?

Yeah, I chose to attend Hillsdale College primarily because of Charlie. He obviously called it the best college in the country, the hardest college in the country. So that appealed to me, the values that Hillsdale embodies are the same values that I embody. And the idea and recognizing that I will never know everything and that I am so much dumber than everyone else, that is beautiful in my opinion and that is the only way to learn. So being in an environment surrounded by people smarter than you, by professors that will introduce concepts that you never even thought of. That is my favorite. That like getting an intellectual rebirth is really why I chose Hillsdale.

And I don't think there's any other place better than Hillsdale to get that intellectual rebirth. And of course, Charlie's legacy in my opinion, I had to pick Hillsdale. I couldn't not. I mean, he spoke about it 24-7. He always, he loves Hillsdale or he loved Hillsdale. And that's the primary reason I took it. I'll be honest, the one issue I had with Hillsdale before I picked it, and the one thing I was unsure of was whether there would be an intellectual diversity on campus. That was my question.

I actually wrote an article about this. The one question I would have asked Charlie if he were still alive was, should I go to a liberal college campus, which is ranked very high and everything. But the issue is that everyone there disagrees with me, and I would be debating them trying to convince them of. something else and maybe making my conviction stronger while doing so, where should I go to a place where I actually learn and where I actually am introduced to concepts that are real? So I chose a latter mostly because the conservative movement has a lot more intellectual diversity than the left does. And it's very clear here on campus. I mean, no two people think the same. And it's the conversations I have had at Hillsdale, I have never thought I would be able to have at any college campus.

This has been Sophia Mant, interviewing Gregory Lykov on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.