The Karol Markowicz Show: California Corruption, Media Decline & the Fight for Accountability with Susan Crabtree

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Karol Markowicz Show — California Corruption, Media Decline & the Fight for Accountability with Susan Crabtree

Original Air Date: April 3, 2026
Host: Carol Markowitz
Guest: Susan Crabtree (National Political Correspondent, RealClearPolitics; Author, Fool’s Gold)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Carol Markowitz interviews Susan Crabtree about California’s entrenched culture of political corruption, the decline of local and investigative media, and ongoing struggles for accountability in government. Crabtree shares personal stories from her reporting career, addresses the bleak political forecast for California, and offers sharp insights into how media and technology are impacting the fight against corruption.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. State of Hope in California Politics

• Are you hopeful for California’s future?
  • Susan’s blunt answer: “Oh, no, I’m actually not hopeful. I have to be brutally honest.” (03:08)
  • The rare glimmers of hope are in the emergence of accountability-focused media, such as California Post and new anti-fraud ventures by the Manhattan Institute.
  • Despite some efforts, political leadership isn’t changing meaningfully:
    • “If I were to predict… who’s going to win the governorship, we’re going to go from Gavin Newsom, possibly most likely, to Eric Swalwell.” (03:46)
    • Markowitz jokes, “Suddenly we’re like, maybe we’ll keep Gavin.” (04:25)

2. The Culture & Mechanisms of Corruption

• “Radicals, Con Artists and Traitors who Killed the California Dream”
  • The book, Fool’s Gold, details a who's-who of California’s political elite: Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff.
  • Common thread:
    • “It’s a one party system... Corruption just feeds upon itself because no one’s watching.” (05:07)
  • Decline of local news outlets has worsened the lack of oversight; even the LA Times is now “much more openly liberal.”
  • Example: Behested Payments
    • Unique to California: Politicians can direct corporate donations to charities of their choice, including those they (or their spouses) are involved with.
      • “The national media can’t believe… you can direct hundreds of millions… even to your wife’s charity that she takes a salary from.” (06:16)
    • “This is common practice in California.” (06:48)

3. Media Decline and the Accountability Gap

• Local journalism’s collapse has removed crucial checks and balances, enabling unchecked corruption.
  • “You have the death of these local news outlets… the smaller media outlets… really held these people accountable.” (05:32)

4. Investigative Journalism: A Personal Calling

• Crabtree credits her mother for encouraging her interest in writing; she pursued journalism from high school through college.
• D.C. years:
  • Crabtree started at National Geographic, worked at The Washington Times, Roll Call, and The Hill, where she covered ethics, corruption, and launched stories that led to FBI investigations.
    • “I think I should have been a prosecutor if I wasn’t [a journalist]. I just—I love [investigative work].” (09:41)
  • Passion: “Investigative journalism is your passion?” — “Oh, yeah, absolutely. It really is.” (09:45)
  • She enjoys the “mystery” and discovery aspect: analyzing filings and tracing dubious earmarks—sometimes leading to national stories like the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” (10:07, 11:04)

5. Corruption and Citizen Journalism Now

• Are things more corrupt now, or just more visible?
  • Crabtree sees corruption as ever-present, but now “it seems to be starting at the grassroots level and then percolating up” via platforms like X (formerly Twitter).
    • “I honestly think I credit X… citizen journalists… putting something out there.” (11:52)
  • Emphasizes that traditional reporters still bear a higher standard of proof and accountability compared to citizen journalists, where mistakes are less consequential. (12:52 – 13:37)

6. Technology, Mistakes, and the Pressures of the Job

• Typing errors (typos) are especially stressful in established media, as print editions cannot be edited post-publication.
  • “Even typos make me feel so terrible… it’s in the actual newspaper… I can’t fix that.” (13:13)

7. Personal Journey: Moving Back to California

• After 23 years in D.C., Crabtree moved back to California to prioritize family, choosing to freelance and then take a position as an investigative reporter amid California’s political turbulence.
  • “I needed to do something different with my life… a little scary in my early 40s… but I wanted to really experience it with [my daughter].” (18:21)
  • Washington Free Beacon welcomed her, especially as Newsom was rising; “lots of material to work with.” (21:02)

8. Living With—and Fighting—California’s Challenges

• On staying despite pessimism: “Stay to fight. As long as you have the resources… The elites can stay and then we have [the highest] poverty rate. So the middle class is shrinking… anyone under $300,000 for household income, that’s middle class out here.” (25:04)
  • Crabtree wants her daughter to experience the California she remembers, and believes accountability-focused media is now providing critical checks.

9. The Media (and Life) 5 Years From Now

• Prediction for 2031: Worries about the future of information—especially increased siloing as social and news platforms become more niche, reducing broad knowledge.
  • “If you lose that wider breadth of information, you just become sort of siloed.” (27:01)
  • Concerned about AI’s role in changing how people (especially youth) relate to information, and each other.
    • “There’s a new phenomenon… WhatsApp. It’s so disturbing… kids are relating to these Ai bots…” (28:41)
    • Markowitz: “Nothing creeps me out more than the idea that my kids are gonna have a friend who is an AI bot.” (28:48)
    • Crabtree: “It’ll happen first in California, of course.” (29:15)

10. Broader Social Issues

• Touches on the impact and backlash to transgender ideology, noting that changes are starting to happen outside of California—“hopefully we’re on the right track with something.” (29:54)
  • “Even overseas… realizing that hormones for kids is not healthy.” (30:02)

11. Personal Practice for Resilience

• Advice: Start every day with a moment of calm and centering, e.g., reading scripture—especially for those in stressful, high-stakes environments like journalism or parenting.
  • “If you center yourself in the beginning of the day… realize: these are my values… I can only control how I react.” (30:27)
  • “I truly value [my belief in Christ] and I try to live it… it has helped.” (31:46)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Political Hope:

  • “I’m actually not hopeful. I have to be brutally honest.” – Susan Crabtree (03:08)

• On California’s Political Climate:

  • “If I were to predict… who’s going to win the governorship, we’re going to go from Gavin Newsom, possibly most likely, to Eric Swalwell.” (03:46)

• On One-Party Rule and Accountability:

  • “It’s a one party system… corruption just feeds upon itself because no one’s watching.” (05:07)

• On Media Decline:

  • “You have the death of these local news outlets… and even the Los Angeles Times has gone in a much more openly liberal direction.” (05:32)

• On Citizen Journalism:

  • “I honestly think I credit X… you have citizen journalists tugging at something… then you get some really solid journalism… it seems to be starting at the grassroots level and then percolating up.” (11:52)

• On Family and Priorities:

  • “I needed to do something different with my life… I wanted to really experience it with [my daughter]… I decided to just go throw… we’re going to go back to my home state of California.” (18:21)

• On California’s Middle Class:

  • “The elites can stay, and then we have poverty rate. So the middle class is shrinking. I’m talking… anybody who’s making under 300,000 for your household income. And that’s middle class out here.” (25:16)

• On Technology and Media Siloing:

  • “If you lose that wider breadth of information, you just become sort of siloed…” (27:01)

• Best Tip for Listeners:

  • “Center yourself in the beginning of the day and realize… I can only control how I react.” (30:27)

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Key Timestamps

• 02:27 – Introduction of Susan Crabtree
• 03:08 – Crabtree’s outlook on California’s future
• 05:07 – Theme of Fool’s Gold; corruption and lack of accountability
• 06:16 – Behested payments explained
• 09:41 – Crabtree’s investigative journalism career
• 11:52 – The rise of citizen journalism and impact of social media
• 13:13 – The stresses and standards of traditional vs. new media
• 18:21 – Major life change: moving home to California
• 25:04 – Why Crabtree stays in California despite difficulties
• 27:01 – Predictions: Increased media siloing, impact of AI
• 30:27 – Crabtree’s life advice for resilience and calm

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Tone & Style

The episode balances somber realism about the state of California and American media with optimism about investigative journalism’s lasting importance. Both Crabtree and Markowitz speak candidly, with humor and warmth, about the challenges journalists face, life decisions, and society's changing dynamics.

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Conclusion

Susan Crabtree paints a vivid, sometimes bleak portrait of California’s political dysfunction—a result of unchecked one-party rule and media decay—but remains motivated by her investigative work, her commitment to accountability, and her hope for new generations of journalists. The conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in American politics, journalism, or the evolving role of media and technology in society.

Transcript

[Susan Crabtree]

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[Carol Markowitz]

Hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iheartradio. My Guest today is Susan Crabtree. Susan is the national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics, author of the book Fool's Gold on California corruption, and a contributor to the California Post and City Journal. Hi, Susan. So nice to have you on.

[Susan Crabtree]

It's great to be with you, Carol. Thanks for having me.

[Carol Markowitz]

So I've been on a little bit of a California run on this show. I had Joel Pollock on. He's the opinion editor at California Post. I had Jennifer or Van Lore from Red State on. And so the question I ask my California buddies is, are you hopeful about California?

[Susan Crabtree]

Oh, no, I'm actually not hopeful. I have to be brutally honest.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's the bluntest answer I've gotten.

[Susan Crabtree]

California Post is actually a bright light. I think things are changing a little bit in the media landscape because of the California Post. And now there's a new venture within the Manhattan Institute is launching their California anti fraud venture.

[Carol Markowitz]

I didn't know that. That's great.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yes, everybody. You know, fraud is suddenly sexy in California. We've been dealing with it, people who live here for, you know, decades, and it's only gotten worse and worse. But at least there's some. There's some signs of hope flickering. But the problem is that the politics aren't changing. We have, you know, if I were to predict at this point who's going to win the governorship, we're going to go from Gavin Newsom, possibly most likely, to Eric Swalwell.

[Carol Markowitz]

Wow.

[Susan Crabtree]

And that is someone, as you know, Carol, who's had a very dodgy record in Congress about his own personal ethics and, you know, caught with a relationship. Chinese spy. And this is who I'm complaining about, Gavin Newsom's connection to China.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. Suddenly we're like, maybe we'll keep Gavin.

[Susan Crabtree]

It's on the horizon here as we look to the actual politics of California. I don't think it's going to change. I do think that there's more accountability happening now. I hope that lasts. I hope it's not a flash in the pan just because the national media outlets on the conservative side are wanting to take Gavin Newsom out. And I think, I hope it's not short lived.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, so your book is subtitled the Radicals, Con Artists and Traitors who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us all. What's the common thread there between the radicals, the con artists and the traitors?

[Susan Crabtree]

Well, we do have a lovely list of characters underneath the book title. We've got Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris and Adam Schiff. And the common theme is that what I just mentioned, a lack of accountability in California. California. I grew up here and it wasn't the case. It's a one party system. And so the corruption just feeds upon itself because no one's watching. And we've lost that. The media, these smaller media outlets that everybody. These newspapers that sometimes were family run, locally focused and really held these people accountable. Has everybody's reading habits have changed. Where we get our information has changed. You have the death of these local news outlets and even the Los Angeles Times has seen its staff decimated and they've gone in a much more openly liberal direction. It's accessed journalism in California. So the common theme is these. You know I just did a story on behested payments. This is a common. This is a unique phenomenon to California. And now the national media is getting wind of it and they can't believe that you can just the news seminar. Politicians can direct hundreds of millions of dollars from their char. From corporations with business before the state to a charitable cause of their choice. Even their wives charity that she takes a salary from.

[Carol Markowitz]

That sounds questionable.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah. But this is common practice in California.

[Carol Markowitz]

So how did you get into this world? How did you get into writing about California specifically or just being a writer in general?

[Susan Crabtree]

I think my mom encouraged me to be a writer. I give credit to my mom. She said she was a teacher. She's a kindergarten teacher and she always in a stressed reading. We couldn't. Watched too much TV and we were. She liked. She thought that I was talented At a young age I had. I did long writing. I think my boss, Carl Cannon. I'll tell him it began then. I always write too long but she. She's my mom saw something in me then. I always pursued it in high school it was on the newspaper staff and then in. I went to college. I took journalism courses. I didn't. I honestly don't think it was a great decision. But I wanted to pursue journalism instead of a wider major. So I didn't. I bypassed all the UCs and only chose schools that had journalism as a major. Then I went immediately to D.C. and started there with the American Society of Magazine Editors. I got a internship at National Geographic and I got the bug for Washington D.C. i thought it was going to be there for three months. It turned out 23 years and lots of ups and downs that happens.

[Carol Markowitz]

D.C. catches people, you know.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah, it was sort of addictive. The climate there is great for young people in journalism and politics in general. It's like going to a Graduate school. It's like another college atmosphere, an extension of college. But I loved it for so long. I had great experiences at the Washington Times. Then Roll Call newspaper is where I did a lot of my cutting my teeth with other journalists that have gone on to bigger and better places. Like I was there with Jim Van Heit, some little laughing with him. Founder of Politico and Axios. Paul Kane, who was the political editor. Sorry, the congressional reporter, senior one at the Washington Post, Chris Aliza and Mark Preston at CNN and a lot of others that I'm not going to mention. But so that was the group that I, you know.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Susan Crabtree]

Then I. I kind of went to the trader side of the. I decided to go to the Hill newspaper and work for them. It had a great run there. Did a lot of ethics reporting and corruption cases that launched FBI investigations. I really loved it. I think I should have been a prosecutor if I wasn't injured. I just. I love. Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

Would you say that investigative journalism is your passion?

[Susan Crabtree]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It really is. And I've been so lucky to have the opportunity to do it because it's sort of a rare thing these days. But I keep getting new opportunities. It's amazing. I'm so thankful for them.

[Carol Markowitz]

What do you love about investigative journalism? Is it the discovery or is it the process? What do you enjoy?

[Susan Crabtree]

I think it's sort of like a mystery of, you know, you see something that is. You think is bizarre or not. Right. In some kind of filing. Looking at. And that Roll Call. We were trained to look at these federal election records on a quarterly. Bas were all the big politicians, all the big senators and leaders in Congress, as well as the party committees. So you see something and then use that. Okay. You talk to your editor about it and see if you can get some time to pursue it. And sure enough, I did a lot of earmark reporting. It was corruption. I got a little stuck with it. Where you're plotting out the earmarks for local. In California. Actually, a lot of work in California where they would get like a beautification. One million or two million dollars for beautification. Right near the Target store that they owned.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, right. Yeah.

[Susan Crabtree]

And, you know, the Bridge to Nowhere was a great one. We followed that. Senator Stevens and in Alaska that Those pet projects, you know, just were. There was an abundance of material. There always is in common, of course.

[Carol Markowitz]

But I feel like we're in a particularly, like, corrupt time right now. I don't mean that more people are corrupt. I'm sure it's been the Same amount of people throughout history. But I feel like a lot of these stories are surfacing. Like on my other podcast that I do with Mary Kathryn Ham, we've had, we've just covered a lot of corruption stories in the last few months where it just seems to be everywhere and maybe coming to the surface more. Is that just because of reporters making these discoveries that they didn't make before, or has it always been here?

[Susan Crabtree]

I think the corruption is part of human nature, so it's always going to be there. And. But I do think because of X, there's an excitement for even citizen journalists to get involved. You have Nick Shirley tugging at something and going and confronting these daycare centers, these ghost daycare centers in Minnesota. And then you have the follow up and you have people like CBS News going in and really, you know, nailing it down and making sure that everybody's interviewed that should be interviewed. And so it seems to be starting at the grassroots level and then percolating up. And then you get some really solid journalism where it's confirmed. Absolutely, this is happening. So I honestly think I credit X. Even though I don't love X at

[Carol Markowitz]

times, I understand that feeling. We all have a very love it or hate it situation over there.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah, I mean, you could get sucked in and your whole day is gone. Happens to the best of us. As journalists, we have to actually do the work that it takes to produce these stories and really nail them down. Whereas like a citizen journalist, they can just put something out there and their reputation is not, and their job is not tied to it.

[Carol Markowitz]

So if they make a mistake, they make a mistake and kind of their audience is more forgiving. But when you work for an established news brand and you make a mistake, it's a lot harder. Even typos make me feel so terrible. When I have a typo in one of my columns, I stress out about it. I'm like, oh, it's in the newspaper. It's in the actual newspaper that you're gonna be holding in your hand. And I can't fix that.

[Susan Crabtree]

It's tough. I'm just mad about the ones that I constantly have typos in mind. I'm juggling so much, as we all are as parents and journalists, and trying to break stories and trying to dig deep. It's a lot. And follow that's breaking, you know, constantly on a variety of topics, you know, international news and local news here. Because I'm a national reporter, so I feel like, you know, I covering it all. But, you know, sometimes very inch thin. But, you know, I will have. I use that mechanism on X to try to edit my tweets and when it's not working, I'm screaming at Elon Musk. Why does it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, sometimes you just don't have the edit button.

[Susan Crabtree]

Sometimes it just does not. It's rare. Random, though. It doesn't seem to.

[Carol Markowitz]

And I think that, I mean, we're at a stage with AI and stuff where we could. You it. You should be able to use the edit button to fix a typo and not have it be like a whole new tweet. Like, it should just be the old tweet if, you know, if it's one word, it's okay to change it and move on with our lives instead of being like, it's a whole new tweet now.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah, you have to take it down.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, you have to take it down and redo it. That's basically what I do. I almost never use.

[Susan Crabtree]

I just go, you know what? Exactly. You know, me and Donald Trump, we had big thumbs. So it's all good.

[Carol Markowitz]

Same, same. We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.

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[Carol Markowitz]

What are you most proud of in your life?

[Susan Crabtree]

I'm most proud of and I when you were getting at this in the previous question that I decided in 2017 as a new mom and someone who had been in D.C. for 23 years that I needed to do something different with my life and I needed a change of scenery and a new job and it was a little scary for me. More than a little scary in my early 40s. I'll date myself here. I'll age myself to be doing that. But I was 43 and just had my only child and wanted to really experience it with her. And it was clear to me four days went by where I was not seeing her at night or in the morning during Donald Trump's first term and I still wanted to do journalism, which was hard for me. But I had the opportunity with my husband who could work from anywhere and we decided we would move. And I decided to take sort of like, I was a White House correspondent for the Washington examiner, and I was moved over to the Senate. At the time, I didn't really want the Senate because you have to be there at all hours of the night. Depending on the White House is actually a little bit more. With Donald Trump, the hours are slightly. And I didn't want to get a night nanny and a day nanny and do all of that.

[Carol Markowitz]

It's a lot.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah, it was a lot. So I did. And also, I think just challenging in my job, I didn't need to cover the Senate again. I had already done that many years. So I decided to just go throw. I wanted to do a freelance story for the Free Beacon. I decided I was going to move no matter what. We're going to go back to my home state of California. I grew up. I love the landscapes here. I missed the recreation, being able to just jump in your car and go to the beach if you wanted to go to the mountains. All of these things that were part of my upbringing, my childhood. And so I just, I decided I was going to freelance a story or try to pitch the Free Beacon. And they actually said, well, we have a position that's opened up, an investigative reporter position. And honestly, I love the Wash and Free Beacon. I love how they did great work. Yeah, Just a really great place because they give you a lot of freedom, and if you're performing, they let you run with it. So they said, we have a position. I was like, oh, I'm moving to California. And they thought about it for a second, and I said, well, we'll try you out and we'll see how it goes.

[Carol Markowitz]

There's a lot to investigate in California. Yeah.

[Susan Crabtree]

And actually, they loved having me out here. And that was when Newsom was first on the rise and he was leading his first resistance to Trump. So it was. It's been great fun and I've had lots of material to work with. It is difficult to live in California at this time if you're a multimillionaire, to be quite honest. Especially because the coast. We live at, the coastal area of San Diego. I grew up more inland where it's cheaper. So, you know, there's challenges for sure. And. But I. For me, it's a passion, and I'm learning so much more than if I would just circling the same hallways, Congress and actually learning how policy affects people, state lives.

[Carol Markowitz]

We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.

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[Jim]

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[Bethenny Frankel]

closures this is Bethany Frankel from Just Be with Bethany Frankel. Most dog food is marketing, not nutrition. That is why Biggie and Smalls eat just food for dogs. Real 100% human grade food with ingredients I actually recognize. And yes, I do see the difference. Better digestion, healthier skin, more energy. Dogs that feel better. My babies, if you've been on the fence about switching, stop overthinking it. What's more important than your furry babies and their health? Go to justfood for dogs.com right now and get 50% off your first box. No code needed. Just try it.

[Carol Markowitz]

So you love California, but you're pessimistic about the future of California but you stay.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah, stay to fight. I think that you've as long as you can stay as you have the resources because like I said, it's becoming

[Carol Markowitz]

quite harder and harder all the time. Right.

[Susan Crabtree]

The elites can stay and then we have poverty rate. So the middle class is shrinking. I'm talking, when I talk about middle class, I'm talking anybody who's making under 300,000 for your household income. And that's middle class out here. It is, unless you live in the Central Valley or inland areas. But it is something I feel like I shouldn't be. This is my home state. I grew up. I had wonderful, wonderful memories. I want my daughter to experience it. I don't know if she'll be able to. I go back and forth with my husband all the time because he's from Boston and he has a lot of family in Florida. And we do evaluate it on a regular basis. But now we're staying to fight. And I love the fact that there's a new arsenal. There's a new group of reporters out there with a big masthead to bring in some true accountability to the state.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's really great. And I'm rooting for California. I mean, I always loved California and I always saw it as like, I wouldn't say like a promised land in America, but it was the new frontier. You guys were supposed to be the leaders of what came next. And I always wanted California to be that. And of course the politics over the last decade plus have just done so much damage. But I root for California to pick itself back up and I hope you're all successful with that.

[Susan Crabtree]

Well, thank you. We need it. The more accountability the better.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, that's the way to go about it. The more accountability the better. Give us a five year out prediction. It could be about anything at all.

[Susan Crabtree]

Well, what I'm worried about in five years is our information, flow of information, how we're receiving it. I feel like I have. I'm so lucky to work for Carl Cannon. He's One of the best editors I've ever known and worked for. The best, actually. And people like Victor David Hansen, who have a knowledge of so many things, you know, they can talk about, or they can talk about, you know, the political, what happened in the Reagan administration and to science. So many different subject matter. And I feel like on X we will be laughing about what we are tweeting on X. X is going to probably. It's already exploding with information that you feel like you have to keep track of the little tidbits. And I think it's going to be far more siloed. You're going to have a. Maybe have like sort of an X for just politics or California politics versus national politics, because people want to be experts in their field, and they love luch. But if you lose that, if you lose that wider breadth of information, you just become sort of siloed and. And sort of just thinking about things in a very incremental way instead of, you know, big picture. I truly worry about that for my daughter. And I also worry about these new AI bots. Okay. There's a new phenomenon that I just discovered it. What's this? WhatsApp. It's so disturbing.

[Carol Markowitz]

It really is.

[Susan Crabtree]

To relate to one another and how kids are relating to these. I mean, honestly.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. Nothing creeps me out more than the idea that my kids are gonna have a friend who is an AI bot. I mean, I had Deborah so on the show recently, and she has a book called Sextinction about how Americans aren't having sex. And she said, you know, in our lifetime, somebody's gonna bring a sex robot to your party, and that's gonna be their girlfriend, and you're gonna have to be like, well, that's just how it is. And I was like, not to my party, they're not.

[Susan Crabtree]

That is so weird. No, absolutely not. But it'll happen first in California, of course. You would not believe what we run into on the daily basis in our communities and what we have to fight in our schools. What's going on? Several national news stories came out of our school district, both the elementary school and the high school. Now the high school district. It's unbelievable what's going on and what is acceptable. I do think things not in California, but in the rest of the country are changing in terms of the transgender ideology. So hopefully we're on the right track

[Carol Markowitz]

with something, I guess. Yeah.

[Susan Crabtree]

But I do worry about it.

[Carol Markowitz]

We'll take the win, right?

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah. At least at the Supreme Court.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Susan Crabtree]

Yeah. And in others, and certainly even Overseas, you know, they're not transgender. Surgeries are when they're realizing that hormones for kids is not healthy.

[Carol Markowitz]

Bad idea. Yeah. Susan, I've loved this conversation. I really enjoyed talking to you and getting to know you a little bit more. Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.

[Susan Crabtree]

I try to, I'm not always successful successful. I try to start my day with a few minutes of just calm. And for me, I read scripture and do a little study for that, even if it's five minutes. Because as a journalist in a rough and tumble world, you never know what's going to be coming at you throughout the day. The same as a parent, you know, your kid might be sick as my kid is this morning, and your day changes. And so it's sort of like that rudimentary Kipling phrase, that poem, you know, if you can keep your head about you when all of the rests are losing that to me, like if you center yourself in the beginning of the day and realize like I'm, this is what my values are. This is how I like to handle things, I'm going to start, I'm not going to just react. I can only control how I react to something. I think that would, if I would have really focused on that as a younger journalist, I think things would have been smoother and I think I would have been more emotionally regulated. It is a difficult business, especially when you're in the throes of it on the front lines in Washington. And so you can then as you approach these either conflicts with other people, news stories that didn't work out as you wanted to disappointments, or something's going on in your personal life, you can just go back to that place of calm and centered. And for me it is my, my belief in Christ. So I truly value that and I try to live it. I'm not always successful to live out my values, but it has helped.

[Carol Markowitz]

I love that. Yeah, she is Susan Crabtree. Read her at realtorpolit.com California Post and City Journal and pick up her book Fool's Gold. Thank you so much for coming on, Susan.

[Susan Crabtree]

Carol, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me so much.

[Bethenny Frankel]

This is Bethenny Frankel from Just Be with Bethany Frankel. Most dog food is marketing, not nutrition. That is why Biggie and Smalls eat just food for dogs. Real 100% human grade food with ingredients I actually recognize. And yes, I do see the difference. Better digestion, healthier skin, more energy, dogs that feel better. My babies, if you've been on the fence about switching. Stop overthinking it. What's more important than your furry babies and their health? Go to justfoodfordogs.com right now and get 50% off your first box. No code needed. Just try it.

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[Jim]

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[Carol Markowitz]

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[Susan Crabtree]

But that's weird.

[Carol Markowitz]

Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

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