The Karol Markowicz Show: Armin Rosen on Journalism, Truth-Telling & Why the Future Is Better Than You Think

Summary

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Podcast Summary:

The Karol Markowicz Show: Armin Rosen on Journalism, Truth-Telling & Why the Future Is Better Than You Think
Date: May 20, 2026
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show presents The Karol Markowicz Show
Guest: Armin Rosen, Correspondent at Large, Tablet Magazine

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Episode Overview

In this engaging conversation, Karol Markowicz interviews journalist Armin Rosen about his career in journalism, the craft of truth-telling, the unpredictable impact of investigative reporting, and his bright yet pragmatic outlook on the future. The discussion dives into Rosen’s unconventional path into writing, the realities of modern journalism, and his personal philosophies on life, optimism, and happiness.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Armin Rosen’s Origin Story in Journalism

• Getting Started:
  • Rosen emphasizes he’s always had “only one skill—writing,” and stumbled into journalism as the only job he genuinely felt qualified for.
    • “I have no graduate degrees. I have no expertise in almost anything.” (02:58)
  • He discusses the importance of curiosity, “nagging” for information, and leveraging resources like the Harvard Library’s archives.
    • “There are things hiding in plain sight everywhere… I’ve gotten pretty good at finding them over the years.” (04:12)
• Alternative Paths:
  • If not journalism, he speculates he might have ended up in political communications or perhaps leading an unforeseen life abroad—or farming.

2. The Nature of Writing and Rosen’s Beat

• Opinion vs. Reporting:
  • Rosen prefers reporting and syntheses over personal opinion, though he concedes every story has a guiding point of view.
    • “I don’t really love writing stuff in which my opinion plays a big part in it…Sometimes the point of view is more buried.”
  • He describes the distinction between the open terrain of journalistic writing and the more detailed, “minutiae” world of legal writing.
    • “What you do is big picture… Lawyer writing is so minutia and like tiny, tiny details…” (06:03)
• His Beat:
  • Rosen covers a wide array of topics without a definitive beat.
    • “With enough curiosity and persistence, you can write about almost anything… It can look like there isn’t really a through line, but the real through line is what interested me.” (09:07)

3. Investigative Journalism and “Big Scoop” Moments

• Julia Salazar Story (State Senate, Brooklyn, 2018):
  • Rosen recounts breaking the story of candidate Julia Salazar, uncovering inconsistencies in her self-presentation as a “working class, immigrant, Jewish” candidate—which turned out to be untrue.
    • “She was neither an immigrant nor working class, nor Jewish.” (10:00)
  • Despite the scoop, Salazar went on to win and become a prominent lawmaker.
    • “None of it mattered. So not only did she win, she became one of the most important lawmakers in New York…” (11:01)
  • Insight: Investigative journalism doesn’t always have tangible impact, but it remains a “truth-telling exercise” and holds value regardless.
    • “It would seem as if the story had no real world impact whatsoever… it’s still a truth-telling and truth-revealing exercise.” (12:01)

4. Favorite Story and the Joys of Reporting

• Iroquois (not Algonquin!) Lacrosse Team, Israel (2018):
  • Rosen describes his favorite assignment—covering the Iroquois national lacrosse team at the World Championships in Israel, following their near-mythic journey and the cultural intersections at play.
    • [13:42] “Just going to see the Iroquois lacrosse team play every single day... was kind of an amazing gig to have.”
  • The value of journalism for him often lies in unique access and witnessing people and moments few others experience.
    • “One of the perks of journalism at this point is that every once in a while you do get to do something really cool… meet people where you’re astounded they even exist.” (15:53)

5. Personal Life, Fulfillment, and Sanity

• What He’s Most Proud Of:
  • Rosen says marrying his wife and their upcoming baby are his proudest achievements—and staying “normal” or “normal-ish” in challenging times.
    • “Certainly meeting and marrying my wife... that's a big one. Whatever's second is a distant second.” (16:23)
• On Writing’s Future Influence:
  • He anticipates that becoming a father will change the focus of his interests and perhaps influence his writing, though he typically “writes himself out” of his stories.

6. Perspective on Optimism & America’s Future

• Five-Year Prediction:
  • Rosen expresses contrarian optimism, believing the future is less dire than both political sides often claim.
    • “We’re never quite as screwed as we think we are, and the world of five years from now is going to be better than whatever we’re imagining currently.” (23:05)
  • He discusses moving from NYC to Teaneck, NJ—highlighting quality of life as a primary factor.
    • “Here, the quality of life… seems like they do pay for something.” (23:52)
  • He laments the societal pessimism and inability to recognize and protect what is working in America and Israel.
    • “The inability of large numbers of people to recognize what they have…it can really skew an entire society’s direction.” (24:59)
  • He notes the tendency for successes to be quickly forgotten.
    • “There’s no long-term celebration of successes…getting our second pilot out of Iran…made the news for like six hours.” (26:03)

7. Advice for a Better Life

• Three Pillars:
  • At the episode’s end, Rosen shares his three keys to happiness, as observed by his wife:
    1. Reading for Pleasure: “You just need to keep the wheels spinning somehow… it’s gotta be a physical book.”
    2. Practicing Religion: “Whatever religion you are, probably practicing it somewhat more than you currently do, is just a good idea… it’s great to spend those few hours a week focusing on higher matters with people who feel like an actual community.” (33:02)
    3. Exercise: “Swimming or exercising… turns out the keys to happiness are fairly obvious.”
  • On simplicity of these keys:
    • “The things that work are difficult but obvious… you don’t need to go looking for them. They’ve been found for you already.” (34:17)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Journalism’s Only Entry Requirement:
  • Armin: “I really only have one skill...writing. And basically, this is the only job I'm qualified to do.” (02:58)
• On Research:
  • Armin: “It's amazing the stuff you can find just by putting random names into the Harvard Library database.” (03:40)
• On Impact of Exposés:
  • Armin: “It would seem as if the story had no real world impact whatsoever… but it's still a truth-telling and truth-revealing exercise.” (12:01)
• On the Joy of Reporting:
  • Armin: “You do get to do something really cool. Go somewhere amazing, meet people where you're astounded they even exist.” (15:53)
• On Sanity:
  • Armin: “I am still normal. Actually, that's what I'm most proud of.” (16:53)
• On Humility as a Writer:
  • Armin: “Part of it is that I have always felt that like my own ideas or my own views on things are actually not that interesting…” (21:44)
• On Optimism:
  • Armin: “We're never quite as screwed as we think we are, and the world of five years from now is going to be better than whatever we're imagining currently.” (23:05)
• On Leaving NYC:
  • Karol: “I didn't think that life even existed outside New York… now I'm crazy that I didn't do it sooner.” (24:47)
• On Societal Blind Spots:
  • Armin: “There's this incredible pessimism on both sides… it leads us to not value the things that we should value, which leads to them potentially disappearing without any of us putting up a fight.” (26:45)
• On Simple Keys to a Better Life:
  • Armin: “You have to have some kind of imaginative inner life and it can't just be your own voice talking to you.” (32:28)
  • Armin: “The things that work are like difficult but obvious… They've been found for you already.” (34:23)

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:42 – Interview begins: Armin’s origin story and approach to journalism
• 09:29 – Discussion of Rosen’s investigative reporting, Salazar exposé
• 13:40 – Rosen’s favorite assignment: covering the Iroquois Lacrosse Team
• 16:16 – What Armin is most proud of in life
• 23:05 – Five-year prediction and optimism for the future
• 31:24 – Rosen’s three keys to happiness

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Conclusion

This episode offers an insightful, honest look at what motivates a journalist, the limitations and joys of investigative reporting, and the simple, often-overlooked scaffolding that supports a fulfilled life. Armin Rosen’s matter-of-fact humility and optimism serve as a memorable counterpoint to the prevailing climate of cynicism—leaving listeners with both the big picture and practical advice to embrace curiosity, community, and self-care.

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Transcript

[Armin Rosen]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iheartradio. My guest today is Armin Rosen, correspondent at large for Tablet magazine. Hi, Armin. So nice to have you on.

[Armin Rosen]

Great to be on. Thanks.

[Carol Markowitz]

So what's the origin story? How did you get into this thing of ours?

[Armin Rosen]

I mean, what I tell people is that I really only have one skill, and I've always only had one skill, which is writing. And basically, this is the only job I'm qualified to do. I have no graduate degrees. I have no expertise in almost anything.

[Carol Markowitz]

As if graduate degrees gives expertise.

[Armin Rosen]

Right. But the point is, I don't have any qualifications to do much. And if I'm an expert at one thing, it's, you know, the ability to kind of, like, nag people until I get the information that I feel like I'm entitled to.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, I could see that being one of your skills. I would also add, though, I think I feel like you're a good researcher.

[Armin Rosen]

Right. Well, also, you know, when you can't, when there are no people to nag, you do the next best thing, which is just look at what's available and take as broad a definition, as available as you possibly can. I mean, it's amazing the stuff you can find just by putting, like, random names into the Harvard Library database.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Armin Rosen]

Like, it turns out the Harvard Library has, like, a LexisNexis level record of, like, out of print newspapers and magazines.

[Carol Markowitz]

Don't give away all your, you know, all your secrets.

[Armin Rosen]

They're just things hiding in plain sight everywhere. And I'm not the best at knowing how to find them, but I've gotten pretty good at it over the years.

[Carol Markowitz]

I think you're a wonderful writer, and again, I think your research is excellent. But what would you have done had this not worked out? Like, writing is not the easiest career? What would have been the plan B?

[Armin Rosen]

It's a great question. I mean, God, I don't know. I mean, so my dad was a lawyer, like a very good one, but, like, a life in law just never really appealed to me all that much for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on. I mean, maybe I would have drifted into political comms if I'd stayed in D.C. right. Or, you know, strategic, whatever type work, which. Which seems to be where people kind of wind up when they have the Skills or lack of skills that I have, but still have some kind of drive and, you know, desire to be involved in world events in some way or another or I would have wound up somewhere completely inconceivable to me. And right now, in this form of my life, you know, I might be living abroad, I might be, you know, I might be farming. Who knows who to say that's a leap.

[Carol Markowitz]

Okay. I think also the kind of writing that, you know, we do is sort of the opinion, but you do actually more like news, news opinion that be an accurate kind of assessment of your work.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't really love writing stuff in which, like, my opinion plays a big part in it, but I think there is a point of view guiding point of view.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, right.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah. And like, sometimes the point of view is obvious. Sometimes it's a little bit more buried. Sometimes I find out what it is after 5,000 words.

[Carol Markowitz]

I hate when that happens.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

But I would say that why I think the writing world and the like, lawyer writing world is different is what you do is big picture. And lawyer writing is so minutia and like tiny, tiny details that I think would drive. I mean, it would drive me bananas. I also considered law school and being a lawyer and it sounded miserable, actually.

[iHeart Advertising Representative]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

It's like, well, what are you. I mean, I never really seriously considered law school, but there's also the question of, like, what are you supposed to do if you have. No, you know, I wasn't going to like, go into the hard sciences. Not.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, right. Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

Being pre med. Right. It's like, how many, you know, how many options do you really kind of have?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

You know, and there's that great. There's that great joke from the Simpsons where Jimbo quits Homer's vigilante crew and he, you know, he's like, I don't believe in anything anymore. I'm going to law school. Right. That was always kind of. And look, I know some brilliant lawyers, some of the smartest people I know,

[Carol Markowitz]

but yeah, I just know very few happy lawyers.

[Armin Rosen]

Right. I actually do know a few pretty happy lawyers, but they're all doing. They're all doing like criminal defense stuff that's like kind of interesting and weird or they're making like astounding sums of money.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. The astounding sums of money does help

[Armin Rosen]

out of reach to me in this lifetime, probably. But that.

[Carol Markowitz]

What would you consider your beat? Like, is there a thread that runs through your pieces?

[Armin Rosen]

Not really. I mean, Tablet is a Jewish focused Magazine. There was a time where I was writing quite a lot about, you know, Israel in general, but also specifically the foreign policy debate in the United States. What shapes it, why it looks the way it does. I had a number of kind of longer investigative pieces on that theme. Seven or eight years ago. There was a time where I was writing a lot about. About Africa. I think I really kind of began my career writing about U.S. policy in Central Africa at a time when almost no one else really cared that much. That's kind of less my beat now. But the fun of journalism and the fun of my job is that you can really, with enough curiosity and persistence, you can write about almost anything. I mean, you can write about topics that you don't even understand that well, so long as you can find the people who do understand them and just give them, you know, and listen closely. Yeah, as long as you trust your own ability to kind of weigh different pieces of information against each other, there's really almost nothing that's out of reach. And I've, you know, I've written about, like, really just an incoherent grab bag of topics over the course of my career. And it's, it's a strength and a weakness in a way. You know, it can look like there isn't really a through line to any of it, but the real through line is just kind of what. What interested.

[Carol Markowitz]

You're interested in?

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah, what interested me or interested an editor, you know, who saw their own curiosity kind of active me, which is how a lot of great, A lot of the best writing gets done that way.

[iHeart Advertising Representative]

Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

What was your biggest piece that you've ever written? And is that the same as your favorite piece you've ever written?

[Armin Rosen]

I mean, I think the one that got me the most attention. This is still like the biggest scoop of my career. I think we had in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, kind of a dsa. No, she was like explicitly a member of the DSA running for a state senate seat named Julia Salazar.

[Carol Markowitz]

Oh, yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

And this was way back in 2018. She, you know, she was claiming that she was like a working class immigrant and then she claimed she was Jewish. It turned out she was neither an immigrant nor working class, nor Jewish.

[Carol Markowitz]

Like, so wild. She won anyway, though, right?

[Armin Rosen]

Like, well, that, that's, that's the funny thing. So I was the first one to point out all of the inconsistencies in her story. It turned out there was way crazier things in her background than anything I had dug up. Something involving Keith Hernandez, who was like a neighbor of hers in Florida and.

[iHeart Advertising Representative]

Right.

[Armin Rosen]

None of it mattered. So not only did she win, she became one of the most important lawmakers in New York almost immediately. Right. The. The core of a lot of New York City's current Problems is a 2019 rent control law that was largely pushed by Julius Salazar and, you know, basically this DSA aligned caucus in Albany. And I think there's a decent chance that that law would never have gotten passed had it not been for her. She's a plausible replacement for Nydia Velasquez, who's retiring. She said she's not gonna run, but, like, who knows? Julie Salazar says a lot of things that ended up not being true.

[Sophia Donner]

Who knows?

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. Huh.

[Armin Rosen]

So it's a funny little lesson, you know, that, like, what did it matter that I found any of these things out about her? It didn't weaken her. It didn't stop her political agenda even slightly. Not that that was my goal. It wasn't my goal. I just thought it was an interesting story.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

It would seem as if the story had no real world impact whatsoever.

[Carol Markowitz]

So crazy because it's such a big story.

[Armin Rosen]

But, you know, it could be that it exposed something in her character that will stop her from going even further than she could have, but. Or it exposes something in society's character that it matters so little about society.

[Carol Markowitz]

Maybe just the Democratic, you know, machine in New York.

[Armin Rosen]

Right. Whoever was voting in that election. Right. It's like the. I think this is a Richard Nixon quote. No, it's not. It's actually Ed Co. Ed Koch, I think, said the. The voters have spoken and they'll get it good and hard.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Armin Rosen]

You know, it's worth reminding people of that dynamic. Even if the stories you write have no actual effect on the outcome of much of anything, seemingly, it's still a true. You know, it's still a truth telling and truth revealing exercise.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Armin Rosen]

You know, even if it doesn't matter that much once people know who, you know, their lawmakers and representatives really are.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. Was that also your favorite story to do?

[Armin Rosen]

My favorite story to do. So my. My absolute favorite assignment I've ever had back in this is also in 2018, actually. It's like my whole career has been downhill.

[Carol Markowitz]

That was the big year. Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

So the lacrosse world championships were held in Israel that summer. They were supposed to be held in England. The English Lacrosse Federation couldn't kind of get the money together. So like a bunch of like, rich Israeli Americans stepped in and were like, we're going to have this in Israel. And it's going to be the first world championship of any sport ever held in Israel. And I was assigned to follow around the Algonquin lacrosse team, which is the only. It's not the only one. It's the highest level indigenous sports team, I think, you know, competing against other nation states in the world. And they finished. I think they finished third in the last few championships. So just going to the. Going to see the Algonquin lacrosse team play every single day. That's cool. Tanya, during the summer in Israel was like, kind of an amazing gig to have. You know, you go to the game at night, you wake up the next day, you file your report, you go to be for three hours and then repeat for.

[Carol Markowitz]

That actually sounds magical.

[Armin Rosen]

Like eight or nine straight days. That was very cool. And the people on the team were fascinating. The coaches, the players, you know, players who had grown up on reservations. You know, apparently there's like, there's a reservation just south of Syracuse with a population of about 2,000 people total. You know, that sends like, dozens of people a year to Division 1 lacrosse programs. Basically every male from this community winds up as like, a fairly important lacrosse player somewhere.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Funny.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Did it make you a big lacrosse fan? Were you before.

[Armin Rosen]

It didn't, and I wasn't, but. But again, that's. That's the fun of the job, is that you can kind of jump in and out.

[Carol Markowitz]

Snapshot in Armin Rosen's life.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah, yeah. And there was. And I remember the opening match of the tournament. Not the Algonquin, sorry, the Iroquois team. Wow. All right. The Iroquois lacrosse team.

[Carol Markowitz]

All right, all right, sorry. Algonquin was like. I was like, that's an interesting name for it.

[Armin Rosen]

You know, it's the Iroquois.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, Iroquois.

[Armin Rosen]

But they got held up flying out of Canada because there was a question of whether the Israelis would accept their Iroquois national passports or whether the Canadians would recognize them. There was some kind of like, document thing where they had to enter or leave as Iroquois people. So they landed at Ben Gurion, like, three hours before game time. Their opening match was against, I think, the US and they ended up losing. But they jumped out to a three nothing lead very early on, and people were just astounded by it. Like, these guys haven't even been to the hotel yet. They're up against, like, they jumped out to a three nothing lead. Yeah. One of the coolest sporting events I've ever been to. So. But, you know, the message of that is just like the stories that are, you know, the stories you end up really cherishing are not the ones that people necessarily remember reading.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, I don't remember that one. And I read you pretty closely, you know, so, you know, but I'll go check it out after this interview. You know, go, go check out Armin's Iroquois lacrosse story.

[Armin Rosen]

And I don't want to say that I do this job for my own amusement, because that's not true.

[Carol Markowitz]

Oh, yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

But, you know, one of the perks of journalism at this point is that every once in a while you do get to do something really cool. Go somewhere amazing, meet people where you're astounded they even exist. It's like how, you know, how. How did, like, the diversity of the human race produce you? And how lucky am I to be able to just pick your brain for two or three hours?

[Carol Markowitz]

Such an awesome perspective. Yeah. What are you most proud of in your life?

[Armin Rosen]

I mean, certainly meeting and marrying my wife, who's downstairs unpacking boxes right this second from our move to Teaneck. I mean, that's, that's a big one. And whatever. Second is kind of a distant second. You know, I think just the ability to, like, stay sane and motivated these days is.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

If it's a moving target, I don't think that's something we should necessarily be excessively proud of.

[Carol Markowitz]

But, like, I am still normal. Actually, that's what I'm most proud of.

[Armin Rosen]

Or normal enough.

[Carol Markowitz]

Normal. Ish.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah. I mean, that's. I mean, Bizrat Hashem. We're having a baby in July. Our first.

[Carol Markowitz]

Awesome.

[Armin Rosen]

And, you know, at least I'll know the one in the first and second top two things I'm proud of in some order.

[Carol Markowitz]

So awesome. Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

That clarifies life in a wonderful way.

[Carol Markowitz]

It really does. So, yeah. We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.

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[Armin Rosen]

False.

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[Armin Rosen]

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[Carol Markowitz]

Foreign. I'm very much looking forward to you being a father. I can't wait to see what writing comes out of that. I feel like it's going to take you down an interesting path.

[Armin Rosen]

It could. It's. It's funny, you know, I try to write myself out of my work as much as I can. I don't think you can really. You know, there's not a lot of personal detail in 95% of what I, what I write. But that could change. Who knows? Yeah, like I'm not someone who.

[Carol Markowitz]

I think what you're going to be interested in is going to naturally change and it's not. You don't even know yet what you don't know.

[Armin Rosen]

It's true. But part of it is that I have always felt that like my own ideas or my own views on things are actually not that interesting and that it's like far be it for me to give advice or guidance to anyone. So funny.

[Carol Markowitz]

Exact opposite of me.

[Armin Rosen]

Right? Like my own life experience is fairly unremarkable at the end of the day. It's, you know, it's not as if like, you know, I've probably traveled more than a lot of people. I've gotten like exposure to quite a bit. But, you know, the real kind of like nitty gritty details of my life are not that crazy. And I think there's only so much guidance I can, I can give people that's just specific to me. And it's not like, you know, the quality of my thoughts is good, but it's not like mind bogglingly brilliant or anything.

[Carol Markowitz]

It's very, very humble for a writer. I mean, I think what I'm good

[Armin Rosen]

at is kind of gathering and synthesizing detail and sort of weaving different strands of different things together. And then maybe in the midst of that some original insight emerges. But my ability, you know, as far as like sitting down and coming up with insights of my own, like there are other people who are a lot, a lot better at that.

[Carol Markowitz]

I've always thought, give us a five year out prediction. Let's see some of that insight. It could be about anything at all.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah, I mean, I tend to think that we're never quite as Screwed as we think we are, and that the world of five years from now is going to be better than whatever we're imagining currently. You know, there are plenty of sources of optimism that I see that other people don't.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Armin Rosen]

You know, for example, I think New York City is heading in nothing but a terrible direction in the next five years. I think it's been heading in a bad direction for an awfully long time. Teaneck, New Jersey, where we just moved, certainly seems like it's figured most things out, really. Yeah. I mean, look, the property taxes are, yeah. Exorbitantly high. But like, it seems like they do pay for something.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. If you're getting services for it. I think like taxes were always high in New York and it was always very expensive to live there and everyone kind of did it because you got something out of it. I think what you got started to decrease at such a level, like at such a rate that people couldn't do it anymore. Like, a lot of the people that leave, I never hear taxes as their reason. I always hear like, quality of life.

[Armin Rosen]

Right. Exactly. And here, the quality of life. Look, I've been living in Teaneck for 18 hours, 10 minutes.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

I don't know, everything could go horribly south.

[Carol Markowitz]

Sure.

[Armin Rosen]

But I mean, as you found, I mean, you moved to Florida and Yeah. You discovered that like, in a, in a country as vast and as amazing as ours, there's always going to be a place you can go.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Armin Rosen]

Is unaffected, seemingly by the mania.

[Carol Markowitz]

Whatever it was, it was quite, quite the discovery. I didn't think that life even existed outside New York. Like, who would want live outside New York? That's crazy. And now it's like, I'm crazy that I didn't do it sooner.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah. And it's like, look, we're not all hostage to our own circumstances as much as we think. And also there's like, you know, one thing that has really kind of gotten on my nerves lately, something I've become kind of like a little bit obsessed with is just the inability of large numbers of people to recognize what they have. And it can really view an entire society's direction, basically when. Right. If they think that what they have isn't really worth protecting, I mean, what kind of. What drove this home for me was like, maybe this is a bad example, but the last time I was in Israel was in August, like a couple of months after the 12 day war with Iran, which seemed like a huge success to me. And there was like a, a real, like, sense of despair in the country really mostly about the hostages, but like they had just, they had just beaten Hezbollah and Iran. It really seemed to me at least that like the country's big existential problems have been kind of solved for a while.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

And it's, you know, it's like, what is the cost going to be to not recognizing that you've kind of won something?

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Right.

[Carol Markowitz]

I think that about America a lot too. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, like, everything is very like, what have you done for me lately?

[Armin Rosen]

Right.

[Carol Markowitz]

And there's no long term celebration of successes. I don't know, even just getting our second pilot out of Iran after, you know, his, the plane went down. Like, how was that a one day story? That is like an incredible feat that is, you know, nearly impossible to achieve. And we did it and it made the news for like six hours right there.

[Armin Rosen]

There's just, I mean, there's a real kind of, I don't want to call it an instinct or a movement,

[Carol Markowitz]

but

[Armin Rosen]

there's this incredible pessimism on elements of both sides of the political spectrum to claim that, that we're doomed, that things can only get worse.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, I hate that.

[Armin Rosen]

Right. And it has a distorting effect on quite a lot. And it leads us to not value the things that we should be value.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, totally.

[Armin Rosen]

Which leads to them potentially disappearing without any of us putting up a fight.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, I so agree with that. That's like you really verbalized something that has been annoying me a lot lately.

[Armin Rosen]

So back up everyone. It's going to be better in five years than you think.

[Carol Markowitz]

Armin says it's going to be fine, and I believe him. Armin.

[Armin Rosen]

Maybe not fine, but better than whatever you're better than expected.

[Carol Markowitz]

All right, that's something. We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.

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False.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Armin, I've loved this conversation. You are so awesome and interesting. Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.

[Armin Rosen]

So this is like maybe not, you know, these are basically tips for like how I improve my life. So your mileage might vary out of these. You know, my wife once kind of observed that like I basically have three major pieces of scaffolding in life without which things start to, you know, get a little dicey. And it's reading for pleasure, going to shul and swimming or exercising.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, those are good.

[Armin Rosen]

And it's like you need, you need all three. You can let one or two of them kind of drop for a few weeks. Although not the first one. I think like reading for pleasure actually is like vitally important for everybody. You just need to keep your, you need to keep the wheels spinning somehow and it, you know, and it's gotta be like a physical book. It can't be a, even a Kindle, even an ear reader. I think.

[Carol Markowitz]

No, Kindle's no good. I mean, I don't do Kindle, but my avid reader, 16 year old daughter has gotten very Kindle.

[Armin Rosen]

That's fine. I mean, that is right. I mean I'm not going to like,

[Carol Markowitz]

I'm only next generation, you know, it's the youth. Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

But you have to have some kind of imaginative inner life and it can't just be your own voice talking to you. That's not terribly healthy. So yes, breed for pleasure. Keep your brain exercised. I've found that, you know, whatever religion you are probably practicing it somewhat more than you currently do is just like a good idea. It's, you know, it's great to spend those few hours a week focusing on higher, higher matters with people who, you know, really feel like they're an actual community.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

And you can find it wherever you are, you know, unless you're like the only Jew or the only Catholic or whatever, the only Hindu for thousands of miles around which exists obviously. You can probably find people who are,

[Carol Markowitz]

you know, part of your religious community. Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

Focusing their minds and spirits on something better on some kind of predictable schedule that you can participate in. It's, it's a, it's A great thing. So.

[Carol Markowitz]

And the physical exercise, that's the last piece, right?

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah, yeah, that also works. But look, the things, you know, this is like the big kind of like surprise twist in life, I guess. It turns out that like the, the keys to happiness are fairly obvious. You're very kind of like, I guess what the kids would call normie coded.

[Carol Markowitz]

Very Normie coded advice. Yeah.

[Armin Rosen]

You know, there are like exotic and specific paths to happiness that I'm sure work for some people. But like in as much as everything is a numbers game, they're probably not going to work for you.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right? Yeah, it's those three things. They come up again and again in this last question. You got all three of them and I have to agree, those bring happiness. They make a better life.

[Armin Rosen]

Yeah. And it's like, sadly, the things that work are like difficult but obvious.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yep.

[Armin Rosen]

You don't need to go looking for them. They've been found for you already.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, absolutely. He is Armin Rosen. Check out his work at Tablet. He is fantastic. You should definitely be reading. Armin. Thank you so much for coming on.

[Armin Rosen]

Armin, thanks for having me on. This is great.

[GLP1 Drug Advertiser]

Let's take a minute to unpack the myths behind GLP1 drugs. Myth 1 GLP1 is a long term solution for weight loss. True. GLP1 can potentially be a long term solution for weight loss if you want to be on a drug that changes your body's natural instincts. Myth 2 GLP1 can fix your metabolism.

[Armin Rosen]

False.

[GLP1 Drug Advertiser]

GLP1s fix hunger and this leads to weight loss. But the GLP1s may actually slow down your metabolic rate as your body adjusts to consuming fewer calories. GLP1 leads to a loss of muscle mass. True. GLP1 can lead to a loss of muscle mass due to losing weight so rapidly that your body is pulling from both fat and muscle to make up for the energy gap from consuming so few calories. If you're looking for a natural GLP1 therapy, you should consider metabolism ignite metabolism ignite is powered by plants and can help boost your natural GLP 1. Visit VeracityHealth Co to learn more. That's V E R A C I T Y Health Co and type in promo code IHEART for up to 65% off your purchase.

[Sophia Donner]

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[Carol Markowitz]

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