WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: Vic Matus

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Victorino Matus is Arts & Culture editor at the Free Beacon, co-host of the Getting Hammered podcast, and author of Vodka. He joins WRFH for a conversation.From 04/22/25.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm Scott Bertram. We're joined by Vic Mattis. He is a arts and culture editor at the Washington Freebeacon. Freevecan.com. Co-host of the Getting Hammered podcast. You can find him on X at Victorino Mattis. Vic, how are you? I'm doing great, Scott. It's a wonderful, beautiful day here in Hillsdale. I understand that it's like this every day. It wasn't like this yesterday. And it won't be like this tomorrow. That's just the weather up here. But we appreciate you being here on campus. Working at the free beacon, you've had a long distinguished, I've been told, career in journalism. Where do the free beacon fit into the ecosystem? How would you describe the free beacon to someone who's not experienced it before?

It's very edgy. It's very irreverent, but it's also hard hitting. It started in 2012, founded by Matthew Contenetti. And our current editor-in-chief is Eliana Johnson. The whole idea about it was giving the left a taste of its own medicine. We're going to give you some hard-hitting, reported, well-investigated stories, but the kind of stories that you would see either in the Associated Press or Reuters in the New York Times, if you read it from beginning to end, it's all facts, but it's facts you might not like if you're coming from a certain bent. And that was the whole reason. I mean, they're really good. The mainstream is really good at going after targets on the right. They've been doing it for a very long time, whether it be media like 60 minutes or CNN or in print. And we figured that it was time for a little bit of the Again, taste of their own medicine. And that is what we do, uncovering things like plagiarism by Claudian Gay at Harvard, other

issues of anti-Semitism on campus and the antics of the Biden administration. And here we are. DEI and its effect on the UCLA Medical School. Oh, yes. Free beacon investigation recently? Yes. For some reason, the mainstream didn't think it was a big deal that there is sort of a a course where the professor had all the students want to know.

kneel and bow to Mother Earth, Gaia, right? Mama Earth and yell free, free Palestine. Apparently, that was not a big deal, but we kind of thought it was. You're the arts and culture editor at the free beacon. So readers who are there for news and politics and investigations, why do they, or why should they care about arts and culture? Because on the weekend, we all need a break. Monday to Friday, the news is relentless. And we have news at breaks on Saturdays and Sundays, But we wanted to give things sort of a just our readers, listeners, whoever, just a change of pace. And here are some really interesting books, but reviewed by all the writers you love, whether it be Andy Ferguson or Neil Ferguson for that matter, or folks like, you know, John Miller or Richard Norton Smith historians David Garrow, or Dominic Green, Tunku, Veridarjan, who was just recently here at Hillsdale. You're going to get some really interesting stuff.

and again, give you a break. The week is hard. Here's Sunday. Here's an interesting piece. We just had one, a couple interesting pieces, Easter-related, themes regarding, you know, religion. But at the same time, there was an interesting piece by Kara Kennedy on Spotify. And the fact that a lot of the music on that algorithm is made by just a handful of bands, apparently, because of, you know, it's cheaper. in a fractured media landscape where we all have our own streaming services, be it for audio or video,

we don't all get a daily newspaper plopped out our driveway anymore. How do we find things to talk about? I'm going to tell you about a great TV show, but you don't subscribe to that streaming service. You can't find it anyway. How do we find things to talk about? That's right. One of my contributors, Rob Long, who writes a lot for a national review, he actually reviewed a book about the Netflix phenomenon. And the answer is we could never talk again about any show. There's no going back to, oh, did you see the last episode of MASH or JR was shot? That's just not going to happen anymore.

I mean, it really is a problem. I don't know how you would go back to that because, again, you have Netflix, you have Hulu, you have Amazon, Apple. Apple TV. For me, a lot of it is Michael Rosen. who's at American Enterprise pitched me a review of this TV show that I have never watched a single episode of called Severance. But apparently it's a big deal. So I told Michael, give me the draft.

And if it's something that for somebody like me who knows nothing about it, we'll find interesting, we'll go with it. And sure enough, I found it very interesting. And I still don't know if I'm going to watch any a minute of severance. It looks interesting. I just don't have time. And it's a real problem now. Yeah.

Vic Mattis with us from the Free Beacon where he's Arts and Culture Editor, Find him on X at Victorino Mattis. Andrew Breitbart famously said that politics is downstream from culture. And I've been kicking around the idea that perhaps we're reversed at this point. Is culture downstream from politics? Because we are so fractured, politics is now the one thing everyone has an opinion on. Everyone thinks they know something about. Does politics now run so much of our culture? Yeah, that's kind of sad.

And I think it is going in that direction. That's a really interesting point, Scott. You're right. In the olden days, we can always find some commonality in the culture. And the only thing that's happening now is our fixation over how much we either love a certain politician or hate a certain politician. And it brings together all Americans in the worst possible way. And there are a lot of people who are trying to do good work out there and find ways to bring us together. because we're not talking to each other anymore, right?

We watch, we're watching networks that we agree with. And sometimes I do this for a living. I will watch CNN, for example, from time to time. Wow. And I'll think, I can't believe they're not, you know, covering something else that I think is a big deal. What's happening on campuses, for example. It's kind of a serious thing. Or can we just talk, for example, about the fact that we once had two to 300,000 to

three hundred thousand people crossing over to this country illegally and suddenly leads down to 7,000, 6,000, that's pretty remarkable, but it's all bad news. And then you switch to another network and it's all good news. A totally different subject. Completely. You've written a book called vodka. Yes. About the history of and how it conquered America, I think, is the subhead, right? I was reading the Chicago Tribune over the weekend and saw this and I got to ask Vic about this. And I hate questions that are, I just want your thoughts on this, but I just want your thoughts on this. A chef in Chicago. Yes.

We have seen a significant trend toward less alcohol consumption. People are becoming more mindful of the negative impacts of alcohol, but we still want to have cool dining experiences, and this is another way to do it. This is marijuana and cannabis infused food, drinks, beverages. It was for 420 day, which was a few days before we're recording this interview. So the chef is saying, people don't want to drink anymore, but they're happy to be. They're happy to take part in marijuana infused foods and beverages. What do you think about that?

So in other words, skip the martini, have the brownie? Yes. Is that what you're saying? Or the Gumby? Yes. Or there was some infused like gravy, you know, thing that he was making that you could pour over food. Yeah, that's not parsley.

No. I would say that's kind of dangerous territory since we don't know about the interaction of drugs with individuals. Some people, you can have an adversary. Some people, great. It's going to chill you out. Other people, it's going to make you very paranoid. Or it can make you sick.

And then you're going to operate a vehicle. I don't know if that's a good idea. And I get it. You drink a lot. It's dangerous either to your body or it's dangerous to others. If you're drinking and driving, which is a terrible idea, I get it.

But you're venturing into an area that there's so much emphasis on, you know, legalizing certain drugs. I will walk down the street, Scott, and I will enjoy. the occasional whiff of nicotine because I haven't smelled it in ages. I'll go up to New York City. It's not when I'm smelling.

And it doesn't sit right with me. And the idea that I'm going to be eating something like this, what about kids? I mean, how do you regulate this? I don't think it's a great idea. I think it is interesting that even in the chef's quote, people are becoming more mindful of the negative impacts of alcohol. There is some kind of screen that's going up in front of. marijuana and because it's been legalized in New York and Chicago and in the state of Michigan and all these places, people aren't seeing or not thinking about or don't care about the negative

impacts of this other thing. Yeah. We talk about the long-term impacts of alcohol and of course the immediate. There are a lot of long-term impacts to, let's say, marijuana now. Marijuana in 2025 versus 1975, right? Locker effects on the brains of young people. we're sort of trying to ignore that and it's a serious problem. So yeah, I don't know why we want to do this when I think, you know, a few years from there, you're going to see the effects of,

well, the sort of long-term use and when do people start, you know, smoking or taking these gummies? And we just don't know the long-term effects of this versus I do know the long-term effects of, you know, two martinis and three. And again, moderation in all things. But I would be very wary about intentionally infusing some of these drugs into our restaurant. Vic Mattis with us, arts and culture editor at the Free Beacon, also co-host of the Getting Hammered podcast with Mary Catherine Ham. How did that come about? And how would you describe that to people who have not heard it before? Yes, it's more than getting hammered. It is a play on her last name, which is ham. That is for me to name. I explained that to students at the end of last week.

They laugh. They heard the title. Like, no, no, no, Mary Catherine Hamm. Yes. That's right. Versus like ham and eggs. I mean, we went through various iterations until we ended up with getting hammered. I have known Mary Catherine for a very, very long time. We worked briefly together when she did a stint at the Weekly Standard Magazine.

And she had been with CNN for, she was at Fox, CNN, and then she was in between. Now she's full time back again. She's on contract with Fox, and it's great to see her all the time. But she needed a place as well to sort of like a shingle, as they say in Hollywood,

and have her own podcast. And if memory served me correct, this was almost four years ago, she said, I'll do it, but I need some help. I don't want to do it alone. And if I had my choice, she would ask me her Ed McMahon, or her Andy Richter, if you will. And so I decided, okay, let's do it. And it was kind of a big jump for me

because I don't normally get involved in politics. I had been in a previous podcast, the Subbeacon. that's mostly pop culture. But over time, hanging out with Mary Catherine, I was able to get out of my political shell and feel very comfortable about calling the balls and strikes. And what we do is we're not telling people how to think about certain things

or how to spin things in the best possible way for certain people. We're looking at it honestly and saying, is this good or is this bad for us, for each other, for the country? That's all it is. And the first half, of course, is how is your day and what's going on in your life? A lot of people like that,

especially Mary Catherine Ham, she's got four kids. A lot of people can relate, particularly moms. And I talk about my own various antics. I'll be talking about being in Hillsdale on Thursday's show. Only good things. You have great chemistry with Mary Catherine Ham. You have great chemistry with Hugh Hewitt, where you do a weekly or semi-weekly hit.

I lose track the schedule in my brain. But you're often on with Hugh. What do you think is the key to connecting with these people? With someone, and this happens so often now, with someone who's not in the same room in the same state. How do you make that connection? Well, with Mary Catherine, it's because I've known her for a long time. When you do a show with people that you know, I mean, there are pluses and minuses, of course, Scott.

I mean, one of the minuses, if things don't work out, that could kind of, you know, solely the friendship. But more often than not, if you're committed to a show and you're committed to the regularity of the show, which is very important, the consistency of it, it's going to come very naturally having a conversation, as you know, podcasting is actually very hard work to make things come off, you know, relaxed in a casual environment, but talking about important things and things that matter to our listeners. So with Mary Catherine, it's because I knew you can sort of read each other and you're very sensitive to these sorts of things. When you're doing something at a distance, such as with Hugh Hewitt, it does take sort of a

skill of social awareness, what I guess they would call emotional intelligence, but having an awareness about being able to read people and getting the vibe right. So I think I can tell or anticipate where he was going to go. One of the great challenges of being on the Hugh Hewitt show, which I do every Monday afternoon, except for this last one, is you never know what he's going to ask. Yeah. Keeps you on your toes. You've got Andrew Stiles at the Free Beacon, the great satirist. Yes. Do you think that satire and humor are still effective? tools in the cabinet these days, do people still want to laugh? Yeah, I think certainly for our listeners, I mean, there are people who will send us

the occasional angry letter to the editor in our email account saying this was not funny at all words, offensive, but that's the whole point of this. You're going to offend people because that's the business that you're going to be in. It's satire. And sometimes even for me, as an editor, I look at all the copy at the free beacon, and I'll look at style sometimes. I'll think, man, he's just pushing that envelope. And I'm not the one to say, I'm not going to, I'm almost never the one to say, hey, let's like not do this. I'm going to see how far we can go with it or how far we can get away. And more often than not, I think people need

that sort of relief and they're going to go with the flow. So we've been very fortunate. Irreverance is a good thing. Dick Mattis is Arts and Culture editor at the Freebeacon. Freebeacon.com. His book is vodka. He's also the co-host of Getting Hammered, Merrill Catherine Hamm, wherever you find your podcast and audio. And if you feel like it, you can follow him on X at Victorino Matters. Vic, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, Scott. More of our interviews and conversations on our website, Radiofreehillsdale.com, click on student shows and features. And I'm Scott Bertram on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.