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Rachel Anne Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American radio and television personality and liberal political pundit. She is the host of both The Rachel Maddow Show (radio edition) on Air America Radio and The Rachel Maddow Show (TV edition) on MSNBC.

Education and Activism

A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, Maddow later obtained a degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. She then received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1995 and used it to obtain a D.Phil. in political science from Lincoln College, Oxford University. Her political activism focused on AIDS and prisoners' rights, especially the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS in prisons.

Radio career

Maddow got her first radio hosting job at WRNX (100.9 FM, Amherst, Massachusetts) when the station held a contest for a new on-air personality. She was hired on the spot. She later went on to host Big Breakfast on WRSI, in Northampton, Massachusetts, for two years. She left the show to join the newly created Air America in March 2004.

She was initially hired by Air America to read the news, but was soon offered an opportunity to co-host Unfiltered along with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead and did so until its cancellation on March 31, 2005. Two weeks later (April 14), her own hour-long program, The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS), began airing in the 5-6 a.m. slot. It was later granted an additional hour (the “double-wide” period), moved to a more prominent morning time slot, and then to evenings. It was expanded to three hours from March 10, 2008 until September 5, 2008, at which point it was returned to its former two-hour format to accommodate Maddow’s new schedule as the host of her own TV show. TRMS currently airs from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. EST weekdays.

Television career

Maddow was a regular panelist on MSNBC's Situation with Tucker Carlson, and later an infrequent guest on Carlson’s Tucker. During and after the November 2006 election, she was a frequent guest on CNN's Paula Zahn Now. In January 2008, Maddow was given the position of MSNBC political analyst and became a regular panelist MSNBC's Race for the White House with David Gregory and MSNBC's election coverage, as well as a frequent contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

On April 4, 2008, Maddow was the substitute host for Countdown with Keith Olbermann, her first time hosting a news program on MSNBC. Maddow described herself on air as "nervous," but Olbermann complimented her work and she was brought back to host Countdown on May 16, 2008; that day, Countdown was the highest rated news program in the key 25–54 year old demographic. For her success, Olbermann awarded Maddow the 3rd ranking in his regular segment, "World's Best Persons" on the following Monday, calling her "World's Best Pinch-Hitter." Maddow hosted Countdown again a number of times, including July 2, 2008 and from July 7, 2008 to July 15, 2008. She also filled in for David Gregory as host of MSNBC's Race for the White House a number of times (first on June 16, 2008).

On August 19, 2008, The New York Times broke the story that Rachel would be the host of her own show on MSNBC, The Rachel Maddow Show, starting on September 8, 2008, and airing weeknights from 9-10 p.m. EST.

Personal life

Maddow lives in Manhattan and Cummington, Massachusetts, with her partner of many years, artist Susan Mikula and their black lab, Poppy. She is the daughter of Bob Maddow, a lawyer, and Elaine Maddow, a school program administrator, and has a brother named David.

Fun facts

- Rachel is an enthusiastic Red Sox and Pats fan, though she doesn't know much about sports. She also loves the Olympics.

- Rachel is an accomplished mixologist; she has said that if she couldn’t be a pundit she’d like to find a way to professionally bully people about what they drink. Source: The Nation Magazine.

- In January 2006 Rachel got very sick the day after bragging that she was unaffected by everything she ate and drank in Mexico. Source: TRMS 1/3/06.

- Rachel believed until April 2006 that one of her childhood pets, a goldfish, mysteriously disappeared. Her mother confessed on TRMS that she knew the fish's true fate (suicide). (She also had a bunny that was eaten by the neighbor's dachshund and a chicken that was pecked to death by other cliquish chickens.) Source: TRMS 4/18/06.

- Rachel was mugged in London (while getting her D.Phil. at Oxford), so she began "acting crazy" to ward off attackers, singing Ben Harper's "Pleasure and Pain" and "Walk Away" at the top of her lungs while riding her bike home. Source: TRMS 4/18/06.

- Rachel and four of her friends interrupted Al Gore's announcement that he would run for president in 2000 by yelling and unfurling a banner that read "AIDS Drugs for Africa." Source: TRMS 5/26/06.

- When Rachel was awarded the Rhodes in 1994, she celebrated by fulfilling a promise made to her roommates: she shaved most of her hair and dyed the remainder blue (a symbolic gesture to prove that she hadn't sold out to the establishment). Source: Stanford News 12/13/94.

- In addition to winning the Rhodes, Rachel also was named a Marshall Scholar, but turned it down--had she turned down the Rhodes, it would not have gone to anyone else, but the Marshall was given to someone else when she turned it down and accepted the Rhodes. One of her mentors in making those difficult decisions was her friend Corey Booker, now Mayor of Newark, NJ, a Rhodes Scholar who was a close friend from their days at Stanford. Her hair was still blue when she was honored by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for winning the Rhodes. Source: Bob Maddow (Rachel's dad)--I was there.

- When Rachel won the Rhodes scholarship she was featured in Curve Magazine. There was a full page photo of her with the aforementioned blue hair. The first sentence of the article said "Rachel Maddow, 21, believes she is the first out lesbian to be named a Rhodes Scholar." This was accurate, since she hadn't been able to confirm that any other openly gay people had received the scholarship, but the phrasing made her sound delusional.

- Rachel's honors thesis was titled "Identifiable Lives: AIDS and the Response to Dehumanization." Source: Program in Ethics in Society at Stanford.

- Rachel's 1994 essay "AIDS: Responding to Dehumanization" was awarded an honorable mention in the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity's Prize for Ethics competition. Source: Elie Wiesel Foundation.

- Rachel lived in San Francisco for the year (or so) in between graduating from Stanford and going to Oxford in England.

- Rachel was briefly a single malt scotch aficionado, but seems to have thought better of it.

- Rachel is a big fan of Bob Mould/Husker Du. She was also as giddy as a schoolgirl when Billy Bragg appeared on her show.

- Rachel loves Underdog. Source: TRMS 8/1/06.

- Rachel worked as a (really bad) bike messenger in Washington, DC one summer after finishing an internship early. Source: TRMS 1/09.