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- [00:04]
A
Hello.
- [00:05]
B
Thank you guys for joining us. That was super fast. I was not ready for that. This is an All Access that we're doing for a particular reason. Our five year anniversary is a show and the 3,000th episode of the show, according to certain metrics that I believe we have 3,000 episodes, which is kind of crazy. Every now and then we talk about this. I can't believe where we are and how much time and stuff we put in this show because it doesn't feel like it. We've loved doing this show.
- [00:41]
A
Yeah, it's so fun.
- [00:41]
B
We wanted to take the next half hour to maybe longer than that to talk a little bit about some of the behind the scenes with the show, the history of the show, but also really to take your questions and try to give you some answers and just hear from you guys some and respond to that. So that's what we really wanted to do. Because in the end, the show exists because you guys tune in. We are constantly amazed at when we meet people that listen to this show. It never, never gets old. We've said this before on the show, but it never gets old to learn that somebody actually listens to this show every day. And, and we appreciate some of you guys have been there from the beginning. In fact, we want to figure out a way to find the people that have been there from the beginning and do something. I don't know what. I can't make any promises, but we want to find out who's been there from the beginning no matter what. If you just started tuning in, if you've been there for a long time. We really appreciate you guys and we love our jobs. I think part of the thing with the five years and the 3,000 episodes, it went fast.
- [01:46]
A
Yeah.
- [01:46]
B
It doesn't. It doesn't feel like that at all until I start remembering some moments from this. And then it does seem like.
- [01:53]
A
And then it's like long ago memories. Yeah.
- [01:56]
B
So we, you know, one of the things, we're also going to hear from Cabot. We specifically wanted to queue up Cabot. Cabot's been a major part of this show. You'll hear from him pretty soon. He cannot be on tonight. Usually he's on our All Access episodes because it's fun and we love. The three of us love each other. It's easy. But he can't be on tonight. He's got a prior engagement, so he can't be here. But Georgia, so your biggest sort of response to 3,000 episodes, five years. What's the main thing that kind of Comes to mind.
- [02:31]
A
Well, one, that time flies. And two, I feel a lot of gratitude to do a job that is like such a dream job. I mean, I feel like we have fun every day. There are some days that are like, it's hard. It's hard work. And, you know, there are moments of some stress. But I would say, like I was an ER nurse before this. Some people have asked that. I would say, like, we don't really have life or death stress here, which is kind of nice.
- [03:00]
B
I feel that sometimes Georgia. But I'm glad, you know, Georgia is. It's so funny. Georgia is really chill. And like, mostly I am the. I'm the high strung one because I'm always like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, something's going to go wrong.
- [03:14]
A
He's such a workhorse that he, he fills that role.
- [03:17]
B
I was queuing that up. Thank you. Yeah. So we want to.
- [03:21]
A
Yeah, gratitude is my main gratitude, I think. And surprise. Every time we see ourselves on the charts. So we debuted at number one on the news Apple charts and we kept waiting for our ranking to fall. Guys, we have been pretty much top 10 for five years. I mean, yeah, sometimes, like we were like 11 and 12 sometimes. But it's like the craziest thing that we never left the charts.
- [03:49]
B
Yeah, we. And we should. Let's talk about that. So some of the history, quick. Some people have heard this before. If you've been in All Access, you've heard parts of this before. I'm sure if you're new to this, maybe you haven't heard some of this stuff. The history of the show is kind of interesting. It is surprise. You said surprising, like a lot. Almost every element of the show to me personally is surprising. Neither of us. You weren't hired exactly to do this. You were hired. You weren't hired for a very specific purpose. You were hired as like, maybe she's going to be on screen talent or do something or maybe she's going to be a journalist. We don't know. I was actually, weirdly a part of the hiring process. I was editor in chief at the time. Jeremy Boreing reaches out to me is like, hey, will you interview this girl? We're looking at hiring. I have no background knowledge. I don't know anything about her little viral video. Her little viral video that got millions. Your viral video. I didn't know anything about it. I just talked to her through zoom. It was like, she seems super smart. I mean, I don't know. He's like, I don't know what we're going to use her for, but just see if. Do you think that she's somebody that's a good hire? And I said, seems like it to me. But at this point, there was no specifics on what Georgia was going to be doing. There wasn't like, oh, she's going to do Morning Wire, which didn't even exist.
- [05:01]
A
Well, also, I didn't even know that I was being considered for a job either. So I had this video that was viral in around September of 2020, and Jeremy asked me to come in for a meeting. And I didn't know who Jeremy was, so I just thought maybe I would come in and someone from Daily Wire wanted to talk to me about my video, maybe do a little article. And they were like, do you want to, like, read off a teleprompter for a few minutes?
- [05:26]
B
This is seriously how it went. I never heard this before. Yeah.
- [05:29]
A
And so we did a practice Morning Wire read. So I was literally like, okay, let me put up this teleprompter. I'm gonna read it for a little bit. I had no idea what I was talking about.
- [05:37]
B
So you used one of the drafts of the non existing Morning Wire show that we had initially done when we tested Cats, probably.
- [05:45]
A
And Jeremy was like, yeah, we're thinking about maybe a morning show at some point. And I was like, all right.
- [05:50]
B
You know, that's wild. Yeah, that's great.
- [05:55]
C
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- [08:07]
B
to 83848 so to fill you in on how this happens. So the idea of a morning show has been there for at least six years in the Daily Wire. Ben and Jeremy at different points had talked about this. They looked at the most popular shows in podcasting and of course New York Times, the Daily, which infuriates all of us. New York Times, the Daily is number one every day, every year, all that stuff. And we looked at those and we looked at up first NPR's show and said, look, these are obviously people want news and they want it in the morning. There should probably be a daily wire news focused offering. So in 2026, I was, I mean, 20, sorry, this is 2019, 2019. I'm totally getting the Times screwed up. But anyway, before 2020 went haywire, we started looking at this idea and started testing around some ideas and we eventually said, look, let's just bring in some possible talent and maybe give a couple options that would be something like a morning format. So we brought in a number of people. I won't name them all and I can't remember everybody, but one of them for sure was Cabot Phillips and one of them actually was Isabelle Brown. And both of them were total standouts to us but we had them write segments, we had them write intros. We had them test out a couple of different formats. Still not even sure what the heck we're trying to accomplish, but eventually decided, look, we're going to hire Cabot. We wanted to hire Isabel. The whole idea of the show then suddenly vanishes. Okay. So this is the kind of thing that can happen at a complicated company like this where it's very multifaceted. We have a lot of things going on, but it kind of died. And there's. There's a big move that happened. We moved over into Nashville, all that stuff. I moved my whole family up here. At some point, I became the editor in chief. So my focus was, like, the website and all that stuff. But we finally got Georgia in here and a couple other people started filling in the Nashville office and sometime early in 2021.
- [10:26]
A
So it was July of 2021. I don't remember how fast the edict came down that we needed to, like, make a pilot, but I know that our first episode, real episode, went out July 19th. And I also know that we had. I think it must have been July 1st that we did our first fake episode, because we did. Yeah, I think 19. And. But anyway, it might have been late June that we wanted to practice and, like, hone the show.
- [10:53]
B
Yep.
- [10:54]
A
And, yeah, we did. It was. So it would have been June of 2021 that we started making these sort of, like, fake episodes that never went anywhere. I'm sure we can fully produce them somewhere.
- [11:05]
B
Yeah, we looked at. It was 19 or 20 fully produced episodes that were never released that we did as a test for, like, just figuring out the skill set. Both of us learning how to be hosts. For me, this is not something I was even. Oh, yeah, that's right. We hadn't even decided who the hosts were. Yeah, I'm jumping ahead. Yeah. So we did. We did a test. So the idea, the core concept was news you need to know. Let's make it 15 minutes or less. This is something that NPR's Up first did well at some point in the distant past before they started doing it terribly. And we probably need two hosts. At least there's ideas of having rotation of hosts. Weren't even sure. So we start doing these tests. George and I are obviously central to the test. Cabot, Ian Howarth was also involved in this. And so we were all testing out, seeing who should be the host. How does it work in terms of working with the reporters? How scripted should the show be? How much should it have? Live interviews, all those Kinds of things.
- [12:07]
A
The first year, we didn't even have any live interviews, I don't think.
- [12:10]
B
Yeah, we really went, like, heavily scripted. And part of the reason is we wanted to respect the time of the listeners and their minds. And so what we wanted to do is, can we actually create a show where there's not. There's almost not a single fluff sentence in the show. Every piece of the show informs you, and you feel like you appreciate the efficiency of the show. And so we really. We really focused in on that. And so that was part of the idea of creating this, like, very tightly controlled show. We've since moved into more and more organic interviews and live interviews, partly because we've realized just in the editing process, all that stuff, you can still have a very tightly produced show that's very, very much informative, but can also be a little bit more enjoyable and have some more human elements than it used to have. I remember one of the things that Georgia, he would be like, is this a real human? Is Georgia Howe a real human? And we were going to do some social media jokes about her, like, actually downloading at night and stuff like that. You know, more and more. We let more and more mistakes in the show, like, deliberately. It was actually kind of an interesting reverse process compared to a lot of different shows. Anyway, so did that. We immediately, like Georgia said that the shock for all of us is the launch of the show. And like you said, we actually went all the way up to number one. We were like, okay, look, when you first launch something, it's all about the velocity of new followers. That doesn't actually tell you about the success, really, of the show in terms of actual downloads. So we kept thinking, it's gonna plumme. It's going to plummet. And week after week went by and we started, we would, like, edge down to 4 and 5, 7, and then we've kind of hovered at an average of 10. Some days we'll go, you know, higher, some days a little lower over the weekends or whatever it is, but we fluctuate. But that was. Jeremy said it at the time, he said, this is actually the most successful launch of anything we've ever released. As a first, as a show with
- [14:09]
A
no marketing, FYI, with no marketing at all, basically, for five years, practically no marketing.
- [14:15]
B
So anyway, again, not to, like, oh, because we're so amazing and toot our own horns, but we. Because obviously there was a desire for this kind of show. The leadership of the company was exactly right. People want news they can trust. People want information. That is useful to them, relevant to them. And that to me is like, we can never ever forget that about the show. We've always talked about that. It's not about us as hosts, it's not about the people we bring on. Exactly. Other than they need to be people that are trustworthy, people that you can, you feel like they can inform you.
- [14:49]
A
Well, I think part of what makes it a good show is like we're not really a big part of the show, to be honest. You know what I mean? We really try to keep like the information as the main part of the show. And I think people, busy people who just want their information, they appreciate that.
- [15:03]
B
Yeah, we. A couple other things. We'll move off this soon, but the. We launched another thing about the history of this. I don't know if we talked about this, but we launched with the goal of it's going to be five days a week, Monday through Friday. Great. And by week two, Jeremy goes, can you do six days a week? So we, by the second week of the show, we then were six days a week. And within. I have to look at this, but within weeks or months at worst, we added the seventh day. And the way that we started figuring out how can we even do a weekend without all of us burning out instantly was we can do longer form interviews, topical type things that are news adjacent. Sometimes they can be newsy, but most of the time it's going to be like news adjacent type stuff. We can do that, that's sustainable. So we, we added that as just sort of a. If people want content from us, we'll see if they keep wanting to listen to it. We'll add weekend interviews. So that's where some of the interview concept came. And then at some point we added afternoon update is what we called it. And the whole reason we did that,
- [16:12]
A
that was probably what, three years ago? I don't know. Why did we do that?
- [16:16]
B
Three or four years? There was a breaking, there was a developing news story, There was some major developing news store. And we're like, dang it, man, we can't hit this until tomorrow. That's a bummer. Maybe we drop a special news update. And so we dropped it in the afternoon. It was some special news update on something very important. And the numbers on it were really good. And so we thought maybe we try that again. And then eventually I went in and asked for approval of like, can we actually just do this every day? Day. Maybe we can do it like headlines that you need to know on your way home. It's like a drive home update. And we just kept it going. So one of the things we found is you start something. This is something. You have to be careful with podcasting. You start something and you offer something to. Yeah, you can't take it away. You put it out there. You're like, oh, my gosh, we got to keep going, which is what we've done. We've tweaked everything, but we've tried to keep a lot of that going. And then the big thing. I'm interested in your perspective on this. When we launched video. So that was a little over a
- [17:20]
A
year ago, April of 25.
- [17:26]
B
How has that changed things for you? Have you enjoyed that?
- [17:29]
A
Yeah, I like video. I think it forced us to be more efficient at first. It feels like you're adding in an additional thing, so you think about walking and chewing gum and all this. We used to just literally have to like, talk into a mic like this. And then we had to start actually having good posture and like looking presentable as we were, as we were presenting. And so that was a little stressful at first. And then I very quickly forgot that anyone was watching. And, you know, now it's like I don't even think that much about it, but I do try to maintain the posture.
- [18:06]
B
I still think something about it. I had to get over it. To me, it was like a psychological. I had to get over a lot of self consciousness. I'm much more self conscious than people probably think just because I'm like, I'm a weird bipolar in terms of confidence and lack of confidence. But I've had to learn to be on camera and just get over it. You had been on camera more than me.
- [18:29]
A
Well, earlier today when we were recording and we will get to what time we record because people ask that. I realized halfway through the show, I was like, my shoes are fully off and they're like floating out here where they. Where they can be seen in the wide. So, like, there are moments where I do notice and I'm like. And I start having some self consciousness. But I don't know. It's happened before. It'll happen again.
- [18:54]
B
One thing I was thinking about, you know, with the format, we've. We've talked about this. The. The format of the show. The approach has changed with video in that we've emphasized live interviews or organic interviews more with it because it is a better viewing experience. So that's something, I think, that has tweaked the show, I think, in a way that's positive. I think this is Good. And also we've gotten more and more people from the outside over the years. This has kind of happened at time, the same. Same time as going to video. We're trying to get more and more experts. We love our internal reporters as much as we can feature them too, of course, but there's just times it makes sense to have experts from the outside. That's been something I think has changed in the last year and a half. And then we did have a pause for a little while with Evening Wire when we first launched the video and people got all upset with us. So we had to quickly get Evening Wire back. We actually rebranded it from Afternoon Update to you, Evening Wire. So that's something. That's a little history of where we came from, where we're going. If people have more questions about that, we'll gladly answer those. Before I forget, though, I need to play a video from Cabot. So Cabot was essential to the launch of our show. He has been. Anybody that's been listening for a long time. You know, you hear Cabot more than anyone else. You probably hear him talk more than you hear us talk. He's been in at least, I think, 2,000 of the 3,000 episodes, probably easily by far the most featured reporter and played, has played a huge role in helping shape the show.
- [20:28]
A
He's probably said more words on this show than we have.
- [20:31]
B
Truly, I think that's. That's accurate. I think that's totally accurate. So he did give a. He could not show up tonight, so we wanted to play this video real quick and we're going to watch it along with. With you guys. So let's watch this statement from Cabot.
- [20:45]
D
Sorry I'm not there live with you guys, but I had to jump in. You know, I'm going to take any opportunity, John, to be on camera. It is crazy to think that we've been doing Morning Wire for five years. Especially crazy to think just how much the show has grown. I remember six years ago actually going out to LA and doing these auditions for this morning news show where the details were kind of murky and. And Bickley was telling me, we don't really know what it's going to be, but it's going to be a morning news show. I thought I flopped at the audition because I got a call back saying, hey, we're actually not gonna do this show. Ended up getting hired by the Daily Wire anyway. And like, the moment I got hired, John was saying, they don't wanna do this show, but we still need to do this show, let's find a way. And so Jon and Georgia and I and some other folks who were with us way back in the day, I think one of the coolest things about the show was just how much collaboration there was in the early days where we were finding empty studios at the Daily Wire and recording these pilot episodes that ended up going nowhere. I remember times where Michael Knowles would come in and he would start recording his show and we'd get yelled at and we have to be quiet because ours wasn't actually a show yet and we were just kind of holed up in these random corners of the office. And that first week when the show launched, none of us really knew if anyone was going to listen. And to see the way that it succeeded early on. It's not that hard to climb the charts your first day. It's very hard to stay there for years. And I think it's a testament not just to the work of our production team and all of our on air talent and guests and our recurring favorite contributors, but also to our audience that they believed in what we were doing. And that's been one of the coolest things has been not just to grow with, with you and Georgia and the rest of our team, but to grow with our audience. It really does feel like a family. And that consistent support that we have felt from you guys who listen has been just such a special thing to feel like we're a part of your lives. You guys are a part of our lives. And it never gets old. There's never been a day, I can truly say where I've sat down to record an episode from Morning Wire and have groaned and thought, I have to do this all over again. It's a special thing to get to do. We realize how privileged we are and it's thanks to our audience. And doing this for five years now, it's taught us all so much about the news, about each other. I feel like we're all family at this point. And here's to five more years. Thank you to everyone who has made this show possible.
- [23:11]
B
Once I stop weeping, we'll continue on again. Man, Cabot. Love him. One of the best hires we've ever made at this company. Said this a lot. We are going to take some questions and let that shape what it is we talk about.
- [23:30]
D
This was really enlightening. I did not know that about your story.
- [23:33]
A
Neither one of us came from a talent background, so it's easy to be like, why would anyone want to listen to me? Or like, watch me on a screen.
- [23:39]
D
You know, is there a morning Wire episode that you've covered or story that you covered that has stuck to you?
- [23:45]
B
That's a great one. I have my the recent one I talked about.
- [23:48]
D
What's your favorite kind of cake and why is it vanilla?
- [23:50]
A
Oh my gosh.
- [23:53]
B
Daily Wire is where I'm reading all the time. We just went off.
- [23:56]
D
That's so funny.
- [23:57]
B
We're in the dark, guys.
- [23:58]
D
When do we get a reel of bloopers to enjoy? And can we commit to an All Access blooper reveal?
- [24:03]
B
There's gotta be some good Georgia ones, right?
- [24:05]
D
Oh, there's tons.
- [24:07]
B
Has she ever made a mistake, though? I mean, maybe I shouldn't be saying saying this.
- [24:11]
A
If you enjoyed that conversation and want to hear more, head over to DailyWire.com for the full version of this podcast where we dive deeper into the stories behind the show and answer questions from our members. And if you want to ask questions yourself, head to dailywire.com subscribe to become an All Access Member as an All Access member, you'll get the full Daily Wire library plus exclusive access to our All Access live streams and you can chat with us if you real time and ask your questions there. You'll also get to listen to our show ad free every day. We'll see you there.