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Rachel Maddow - A breath of fresh air in a sea of rightwing radio talkshow hosts

Rachel Maddow - A breath of fresh air in a sea of rightwing radio talkshow hosts
Interview by Mike McNamara - SGN Contributing Writer Rachel Maddow, host of Air Americas The Rachel Maddow Show, was Celebrity Grand Marshal and Master of Ceremonies for Seattles GLBT Pride Parade/March and Rally on Sunday. Launched in April 2005, The Rachel Maddow Show airs weekdays on dozens of Air America Radio stations, as well as nationally online and on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. Her show can be heard locally on Seattles progressive talk station, AM 1090. Maddow is an expert on U.S. prison conditions and has been credited with founding several HIV/AIDS activist groups. She has a Doctorate in Politics from Oxford University and a degree in Public Policy from Stanford. She was the first openly Gay American to win a Rhodes Scholarship. Her background is in commercial radio (WRSI, WRNX) and political activism. Prior to launching The Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel co-hosted Air Americas Unfiltered with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead. Perhaps more importantly, Rachel knows how to make a Pegu Club Cocktail, enjoys appearing on right-wing TV shows as the smiling-but-obstinate liberal, loves her parents, and thinks AMTRAK hot dogs are a national treasure. She lives in Western Massachusetts and New York City, with her partner, artist Susan Mikula, and their outstanding dog. The SGN conducted a brief interview with the very busy Maddow as she prepared to help lead Seattles GLBT community celebrate Pride 05. SGN: Where did you grow up? Rachel Maddow: In the San Francisco Bay Area a town in the East Bay Area called Castro Valley. Not to be confused with Castroville, the artichoke capital of California, or The Castro, self-explanatory. SGN: What were your parents like? RM: My parents are great Dad worked for the water company, Mom worked for my middle school. Theyre suburban Democrats married 35 years who still live in the house I grew up in. SGN: Did you go to college, if so where? In what ways were these years influential in your life? RM: I went to Stanford for undergrad, and Oxford (in England) for my doctorate. I didnt love student life, but I came out during college and had a successful academic career that opened a lot of doors for me. I was also a die-hard activist, which probably gave me even better training for the real world than my degrees. SGN: What is your political history? Past activism? RM: Lots of AIDS activism several ACT UP chapters, several student groups related to HIV/AIDS at Stanford, work at the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and the Womens AIDS Network in San Francisco, the AIDS Treatment Project and the AIDS in Prisons Forum in London, and the National Minority AIDS Council in DC. LGBT anti-conservative stuff in college, prison reform in conjunction with HIV/AIDS issues in California and London. I worked with the ACLU National Prison Project on two successful campaigns to overturn the worst HIV/AIDS policies in the country, in Mississippi and Alabama state prisons. SGN: How do you like working with Tucker Carlson? Is he as conservative as he leads us to believe. (Ed note: - With that little bow tie?) RM: Hes definitely conservative, but hes openminded. Hes against the war in Iraq, for example a position on which he changed his mind within the last couple of years. Hes also changed his views over the years on the death penalty and abortion. So hes not a kneejerk partisan, and that makes him more fun to work with than youd think just from the bow tie! SGN: What do New Yorkers really think of Seattle? RM: Ive only been a New Yorker for about a year or so, so Im no expert. But Id say we think of Seattle as a the westernmost Scandinavian country. SGN: How did you hook-up with Air America? Do you think we will be able to build a monolith that can really challenge the right-wing talkers. RM: I kept hounding them for a year until I finally figured out a way to get a mutual friend to get Lizz Winstead (my former co-host) to listen to my tape. Then I got hired as a newscaster. Then I finagled my way into a co-host spot with the great Chuck D and Lizz. Then when our show got replaced by Jerry Springer (!) on my birthday this year (April 1), I finagled my way into my own show by volunteering to work all night and start broadcasting at 5:00 a.m.!