The Karol Markowicz Show: From Media to Mindset: Ben Domenech on Career Growth, Family Values, and the Future of the NFL

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Karol Markowicz Show — Ben Domenech on Career Growth, Family Values, and the Future of the NFL

Overview

In this engaging episode of The Karol Markowicz Show, host Karol Markowicz sits down with journalist and commentator Ben Domenech to explore his unconventional path through media and politics, the centrality of family and values in his life, and his thoughts on where American—and global—sports culture is headed, particularly with regard to the NFL. The conversation is wide-ranging, personal, humorous, and offers both introspection and bold predictions for the future.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Ben Domenech’s Origin Story and Media Journey

[02:19–08:03]

• Unique Upbringing: Ben shares that he grew up in North Charleston, SC, in a family of “Christian hippie foresters” who were “conservational environmentalists” and embraced homeschooling early on.

  “I was born to two Christian hippie foresters… I know, sounds a little odd, but.” (Ben Domenech, 02:36)

• Early Political Exposure: Although his family wasn’t deeply political, they cared about pro-life causes, and he appeared as a child in the NYT holding a sign at the March for Life.
• Homeschooling Community: He describes the homeschooling movement as a “Royal Tenenbaums kind of situation,” emphasizing academic acceleration and individual interests.
• Accidental Political Bug: His father’s involvement with early homeschooling activists (including running Mike Ferris's campaign in Virginia) drew Ben into the world of grassroots politics.
• Shifted Aspirations Post-9/11: Ben initially aspired to be a magazine writer for something like National Geographic. After 9/11, he pivoted to political writing and speechwriting.
• Career Path: Interned at the White House speechwriting office under George W. Bush, wrote for various government officials, and eventually co-founded Red State and The Federalist. Now, he’s at The Spectator and Fox News.

Media Versus Mindset: Reflections on Success, Authenticity, and Plan B

[08:10–13:51]

• Feeling Fortunate and “Accidental” Success: Ben sees his career as somewhat accidental and remains deeply grateful.

  “For me, I kind of feel like I ended up there by accident, and I still kind of have to pinch myself…” (Ben Domenech, 08:44)

• Alternative Career Dreams: If not for journalism, he would have loved a sports commentary career.

  “My dream job would be like, I would like to slide into that chair next to Al Michaels and make him more interested in the game.” (Ben Domenech, 13:02)

• Sports Journalism Quality: Ben criticizes the state of sports talk as “lower quality than it should be.”
• Podcast Realities: Despite personal interest, his producers maintain that his audience prefers politics over sports.

The Power of Humor and Personality in Media

[11:00–13:32]

• Ben regrets being labeled the “young, serious guy” on television and wishes he could showcase more humor, which comes more naturally in his writing.
• He shares his icebreaker questions: favorite conspiracy theory and favorite dark joke, which he used during interviews to gauge humor and personality.

Family Values and Personal Fulfillment

[22:33–26:21]

• What He’s Most Proud Of: Ben shares heartfelt reflections on his late-in-life family, pride in fatherhood, and finding meaning and redemption after tough periods.

  “I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been in life because of making the decision to… ask my wife to marry me and to have these two beautiful little girls…” (Ben Domenech, 22:36)

• Encouragement to Others: He urges listeners not to delay starting families for career or financial reasons, emphasizing that “pulling the trigger on it is something you will not regret.”

  “…This is the most fulfilling aspect of it. And I don’t mean to denigrate anybody who’s single or who can’t have kids… for me, this is what gives my life purpose, and everything else is just secondary.” (Ben Domenech, 25:01)

Five-Year Prediction: The NFL’s Global Expansion and Technology’s Role

[26:40–28:59]

• Bold Sports Prediction: By 2030, Ben predicts the NFL will have announced multiple expansion teams in Europe and possibly Mexico City, enabled by the return of supersonic transatlantic travel.

  “I predict that by 2030, the NFL will have announced that it is going to expand in a global way with multiple teams in Europe and perhaps one in Mexico City. And that what’s really going to fuel this is… a reintroduction of supersonic travel across the Atlantic…” (Ben Domenech, 26:45)

• Sports as American Soft Power: He believes the NFL’s global expansion will be a “major American footprint placed on the world,” citing incredible demand and growth potential.
• Karol’s Reaction: Karol finds his prediction fresh compared to typical AI-themed responses.

Life Advice: Becoming a Morning Person

[29:23–30:50]

• Actionable Advice: Ben advocates that listeners “force yourself to become a morning person,” having personally transitioned to early mornings for productivity and better health.

  “Too many late nights is bad for you. And I know that from experience. And nothing good happens after a certain hour at night. Bad decisions are made.” (Ben Domenech, 30:09)

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Notable Quotes

• “Rod [Dreher] was talking about my people, basically.” (Ben Domenech on crunchy conservatives, 03:43)
• “I always thought I was going to be somebody who just communicated with written word, and it just seems a little surreal to me still to be even on television.” (Ben Domenech, 08:03)
• “My wife’s only regret… is I wish we could have started sooner.” (Ben Domenech, 25:01)
• “Roger Goodell believes in manifest destiny for the NFL.” (Ben Domenech, 28:55)
• “Become a morning person. …Too many late nights is bad for you… nothing good happens after a certain hour at night.” (Ben Domenech, 30:09)

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Memorable Moments & Cultural References

• Royal Tenenbaums Homeschooling: Ben likens his siblings to the eccentric, talented Tenenbaum children. (04:09)
• Jerry Jones and the Cowboys: Playful sports trash talk between Ben (a lifelong Washington fan) and Karol (a Cowoys fan). (13:51–14:34)
• Underdog Baseball Story: Ben recounts a Nationals pitcher once working at Home Depot, now striking out Shohei Ohtani. (15:05–16:20)
• Blaze TV Alumni: Shared nostalgia about early careers at The Blaze with now-prominent media figures like SE Cupp, Will Kane, and Buck Sexton. (17:00–17:46)

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Important Timestamps

• Origin story & upbringing: 02:19–08:03
• Alternative career dreams and sports talk: 09:40–13:51
• Sports fandom & stories: 14:00–16:26
• Reflections on family & fulfillment: 22:33–26:21
• NFL’s global future prediction: 26:40–28:59
• Life advice on mornings: 29:23–30:50

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Tone and Style

The conversation is simultaneously candid, introspective, and witty. Karol and Ben maintain a warm rapport, mixing in gentle ribbing and thoughtful reflection throughout.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Embrace serendipity in your career path; sometimes accidents lead to fulfillment.
• Prioritize family and making time for loved ones—you won't regret it.
• Don’t fear starting late; the timing that feels right personally is more important than societal pressures.
• Stay open to new opportunities, whether in media or sports, and don’t take yourself too seriously.
• Practical life hack: cultivate an early morning routine for better productivity and well-being.

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For more from Ben Domenech:

• Listen to the Big Ben Show
• Read his work in The Spectator
• Subscribe to The Transom on Substack

Transcript

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[Carol Margaret]

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[Carol Margaret]

Hi and welcome back to the Carol Margaret show on iHeartradio. My guest today is Ben Domenech. Ben is a Fox contributor and the host of the Big Ben show, editor at large at the SP Spectator, and writes for the Transom Substack.

[Guest or Co-host]

Hi Ben.

[Carol Margaret]

So nice to have you on Carol.

[Ben Domenech]

It'S great to be with you. You're one of my favorite people in this industry.

[Carol Margaret]

Thank you Ben.

[Ben Domenech]

It's a real pleasure to be invited to talk to you today.

[Carol Margaret]

I have been a longtime fan and I actually was thinking this like I feel like I've been reading you and watching you for so long. Like, longer than, you know, most people in our world, in this thing of ours, but I don't know the origin story. How did you get into this business?

[Ben Domenech]

So I have kind of a weird life. And I'll just put that. I'll just put that in front and center. I was born in Jackson, Mississippi. I grew up in the south in Charleston, South Carolina. North Charleston, near Park Circle. For the listeners who are from South Carolina, Nancy Mace's district now. And it is. And I grew up in a family that was not particularly interested in politics other than the pro life issue. There was actually a picture of me when I was a kid that ran in the New York Times of me holding a sign at the March for life in D.C. because my family would make the trek up there every year to march. I was born to two Christian hippie foresters, which is. I know, sounds a little odd, but.

[Carol Margaret]

Are there a lot of those or.

[Ben Domenech]

No, not really. I don't think they're very crunchy. And they were. I mean, I think you would have considered them kind of conserv. Environmentalist types, you know, within that space.

[Carol Margaret]

Yeah. Do you remember Rod Dreher had that whole crunchy conservative movement?

[Ben Domenech]

Rod was talking about my people, basically.

[Carol Margaret]

That's so interesting.

[Ben Domenech]

And they got into the homeschooling thing very early, before it really kind of took off. And so I. And my younger siblings. I have a younger sister, brother and another sister who came later because she was adopted. And we, uh. Which is. Ended up being actually the. It's the same lineup as my. As my wife, but in terms of that. But the thing.

[Guest or Co-host]

Wow.

[Ben Domenech]

Yeah, but the thing that's. That was really present in our lives from the get go was that we were part of the homeschooling movement. And it really was not. For some people, it was like a religious thing. For my parents, it was more of a. We think our kids are very smart and we want them to be able to push ahead. It was a real Royal Tenenbaums kind of situation. And to be quite honest, the three of us, older ones, I'm probably number one. I'm the least accomplished academically. I'm a college dropout. And they all, of course, have multiple.

[Carol Margaret]

Who cares about college? It's like Ace dropped out of college.

[Ben Domenech]

Exactly, exactly. You have the best kind of degree. Honorary. So the. So the thing that is, the thing that really happened was that within the homeschool movement, there was a guy who came up who will be familiar to people. Mike Ferris, who ran for lieutenant governor in Virginia. We Moved to Virginia when I was, I guess, 11, 10. And the. My dad happened. We happened to go to the same church as this fellow who was a homeschooling leader. And he asked my dad to run his campaign. And it was an upstart campaign. Like, you would have thought of it as a kind of a proto Tea Party thing.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah.

[Ben Domenech]

And it was our first real experience in elected politics. And it made.

[Carol Margaret]

How did he pick your dad for this? Your dad is like, I know a.

[Ben Domenech]

Minute ago, very odd. And it was a big deal that my dad kind of made, like, rolled the dice on, like, leaving. He was working for, like, a. Literally, like a paper company. And it was something that we did. And then it put us into this whole new sphere of this, like, homeschooling kind of quasi libertarian, crunchy activist community. And I really got the political bug. I would watch the McLaughlin Group with my family. We would, you know, sort of. Which was very surreal when I ended up being able to be on it with most of the same original folks eventually. And I was. I was interested in that, but I always thought I was going to be. I always wanted to be a magazine writer. I wanted to work for National Geographic or something like that. I wanted to go travel the world and write, like, four articles in a year and, you know, that are kind of books or novellas.

[Carol Margaret]

I love that.

[Ben Domenech]

Land in a place and understand every. Come to understand everything about it. And then I went to Blooming Mary while I was in college. 9, 11 happened, and I completely changed my plans because of it. It changed plans for both my sister and my brother as well, who both ended up in, you know, going into the military side of things. My sister working at the Pentagon under multiple administrations, and my brother going into the Army. And we. I went into the writing side of things. I went and was an intern at the White House speechwriting office under George W. Bush and then stayed on a little bit there as a speechwriter and then went over to Jess, where I wrote for Tommy Thompson while he was the secretary there, and then went to Capitol Hill where it was a speechwriter for John Cornyn. Really, I just went on a completely different path than I thought I would. I thought I would end. I would be like, in the magazine world. The irony of it is I'm now.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah, I'm.

[Ben Domenech]

I'm now kind of in the job that I like. I literally, you know, just. My last report was, you know, a thing where I went to Madrid to cover a bunch of stuff. And. And it's like I ended up in the thing that I thought I would, but I took this circuitous route to it and you know, along the way I co founded Red State, which a bunch of people and with a bunch of people and sold it. You know, I got to edit a bunch of controversial books in the course of like a year when I worked at Regnery, including for like Ben Shapiro and people like that, and then co founded the Federalist, ran that for 10 years as publisher, and now I'm editor at large at Spectator. And I ended up at Fox, which to be quite honest, I always thought I was going to be somebody who just communicated with written word. And it just seems a little surreal to me still to be even on television, really.

[Carol Margaret]

You have such a great voice. Like, I feel like your, your voice lulls me into like wanting to listen to you more, you know.

[Ben Domenech]

Well, I appreciate it. I. It's due to my vices. The thing that I would just say is I feel very fortunate to be where I am. I am so lucky and so blessed in life. I got divorced when I was younger, never thought I would have kids. Then I meet this woman who happens to be the daughter of a famous senator, but is someone who I actually fell in love with and have had two kids now with two daughters.

[Carol Margaret]

And they're on the way, right?

[Ben Domenech]

Third on the way, a son on the way, and the quickening in her womb.

[Carol Margaret]

It is so exciting.

[Ben Domenech]

The hour is late, so I think it's going to be here before Christmas, but she thinks it'll be after. We haven't dispute, but, but I guess the, the thing I would just say is there's some people who kind of start out and they just go gung ho, guns blazing to try to get into the, the industry and to make their mark and to be able to, you know, have a column that they're writing somewhere to get on tv to do this kind of commentary thing. And for me, I kind of feel like I ended up there by accident and, and I still kind of have to pinch myself. I still have a little bit of that Mr. Smith attitude.

[Carol Margaret]

You're a very natural at it. That's why, like I could see why I have imposter syndrome. All right, well, I guess my question always is, what would a plan B have been for you? What, what if this hadn't worked out? What if you, you know, start trying to be a writer and it just doesn't happen? What would have, what would a different road you might have taken have been?

[Ben Domenech]

Well, I think they're kind of, I think the actual way That I would have ended up having my mark is. I think I would have just gone into sports. I love sports. I love sports. Ra. I love students talk. I think that it's lower quality than it should be. I just interviewed Seth Wickersham on my show a couple weeks ago. He just wrote this great book about quarterbacks.

[Carol Margaret]

I thought you were going to tell me that was a quarterback or something.

[Ben Domenech]

No, no, that's fine. Seth writes for. He. He was a writer for the Athletic and ESPN the Magazine and that kind of thing. He's a writer for ESPN and he has this great book about quarterbacks where he interviewed all these famous quarterbacks and, like, did these deep dive profiles, and it's, like, dramatic and moving. That's totally the dream job. I would love to do something like that.

[Carol Margaret]

I also love doing that. You have your own podcast. You could do whatever you want. You could have an episode a week on, you know, whatever sports topic Ben wants.

[Ben Domenech]

Whenever I talk about sports, what I'm told is from my producers is that. Is that people are less interested in your content sports than they are in politics.

[Carol Margaret]

That's so funny.

[Ben Domenech]

And they don't show me the numbers, but I believe my.

[Carol Margaret]

Because I feel like people love when we veer off of our, you know, know, typical thing when we're not just talking about the issues of the day. I think they, like when we, you know, get into an interest or maybe. Maybe they don't. Maybe they hate it.

[Ben Domenech]

No, no. So here's. Here's what I truly think, Carol. I somehow I ended up into, like, in this, like, young, serious guy Lane because I do Special Report and I do some of these serious shows, and I really envy the fact that, like, other people get to be funny and get to be. And get to be. I try to inject humor when I can, but, like.

[Carol Margaret]

But you are funny in your writing. You are funny.

[Ben Domenech]

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I wish that I could put more of that into, like, the TV side of things. And for whatever reason, I'm in this young, serious guy Lane.

[Carol Margaret]

It's hard on Special Report. What, are you gonna crack jokes with Brett?

[Ben Domenech]

You know, Bear, I will say the. I don't know what you have as, like, an icebreaker when you meet new people or when you have, you know, kind of.

[Carol Margaret]

I was look at them awkwardly. I don't know. I don't really have one.

[Ben Domenech]

Whenever I meet new people, somebody who I'm going to do something with or, you know, it's. It's like a new thing or there are two Questions that I typically ask if I'm interviewing you for a job, which is not something that I do now, but used to do quite a lot. Usually I ask people what their favorite conspiracy theory is. It doesn't have to be one.

[Carol Margaret]

They're very tough right now.

[Ben Domenech]

But I want to hear what their favorite conspiracy theory is. And then, and then for people who, especially if it's a situation where I was paired recently with this great, a Christian guy who runs a major pro life group for an event in Dallas promoting the Dallas, Dallas's major pro life group. And I always ask of them, what's your favorite dark joke? Because that's a good measure of, like, how dark someone is willing to go. And also, like, it tells me something about their sense of humor and what you're going to be able to, like, you know, break their balls about.

[Carol Margaret]

You don't ask this on your show when you, if you have people on.

[Ben Domenech]

Not always. I'm not sure, I'm not sure how, you know, Mark Wayne Mullen would respond to that question, but I'm sure he has a good one.

[Carol Margaret]

He's exactly the right kind of people to answer stuff like this.

[Ben Domenech]

So the thing is that I think that kind of, you know, it opens things up and, you know, look, I love, I love comedy. I love Hollywood. I don't think I would really want to write about them because I'm not as passionate about it as I maybe am about sports. But I think that's the alternate kind of route. And you know, my, let me just put it this way, my dream, even though I was never somebody who could, who could play sports all that well, my dream job would be like, I would like to slide into that chair next to Al Michaels and make him more interested in the game.

[Carol Margaret]

Yeah.

[Ben Domenech]

And I'm not, I'm not saying that just because, you know, I, I think that, you know, there's a lot of boring pairings, frankly, in the sports commentary world right now.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah.

[Ben Domenech]

But, you know, just to be able to talk about Jerry Jones for like an hour is like a dream for me.

[Carol Margaret]

You could, you know, you could come on here and talk Jerry anytime you want. You know, I'm a big Cowboys fan.

[Ben Domenech]

Yes.

[Carol Margaret]

Definitely discuss Jerry's world.

[Ben Domenech]

Congratulations on having a quarterback with two working arms. I'm told that's helpful.

[Carol Margaret]

Who's your team?

[Ben Domenech]

Oh, I am a die hard Washington fan. I have been. Yes. So my mom is actually from the D.C. area and she's the sports fan in the family. She gets, she has Nationals tickets that we get for her every year and. And is a passionate sports fan. My dad grew up in the Caribbean and so because of that he doesn't really care about like American domestic sports as much. He goes along for the ride. But like, it was always my mom who was. Who was really passionate and gets really sad when like a player gets traded or injured or something like that.

[Carol Margaret]

I love that. Love a mom being super into it.

[Guest or Co-host]

That's cool.

[Ben Domenech]

Yeah. She scores all the games when she goes to the Nats Park. And it's funny because she sits next to these two, like these two older black guys in their. In their, like probably late 70s, early 80s, and they're all friends and they all score the games together.

[Carol Margaret]

Why do people do that? I've always kind of wondered why do people.

[Ben Domenech]

It's like making. It's like almost like scrapbooking or something like that. While.

[Carol Margaret]

Do they think like that actual scorers are making a mistake or they're just keeping it for their own?

[Ben Domenech]

No, it's more that I think it helps them remember it every game and they can look back at them and sort of say at the end, oh, you know, I was there for that. And I'm a big. I mean, this year I got the Nationals offer a. I'm a bigger football fan than baseball, but the Nationals offer like a walk up plan where you can basically walk into any game and it's standing room, but then there's. The seats are never full, so you can sit, you know, if you want to. And I got to see so many interesting moments that I never would have seen otherwise. I went to all the Dodgers games that they had this season and there was. There's a pitcher for the Nationals and he was a reliever who had to start because of an injury. Like it was not, it was not an ideal situation against the Dodgers. And reading up on him, it was before the game, it turned out that he had been working at Home Depot the previous, like literally months earlier. Like he was working at Home Depot over Christmas. Like he was in charge of the Christmas tree lot.

[Guest or Co-host]

That's amazing.

[Ben Domenech]

And here he is pitching in a game. Oh, that's so good. Against the Dodgers. And the first pitch. The first hitter that he faces is Shohei Otani. Okay. You know, the, the best, most talented.

[Carol Margaret]

Only name I could probably name in baseball. Yeah.

[Ben Domenech]

And. And he strikes him out.

[Carol Margaret]

Wow. And it's just like, that's awesome.

[Ben Domenech]

How can you not love sports? That's something that just like, you know, it's, it's amazing.

[Carol Margaret]

So I love the whole get them off the couch. You know, sports phenomenon. That's always a good time and fun to watch.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah.

[Carol Margaret]

So I don't know, I think you can definitely work more sports into your repertoire. I think you're Ben dominate. You can do whatever you want. Really.

[Ben Domenech]

I appreciate. I wish I always, when I was in like 2011, 2012, I was on the Blaze when they were having their New York show. I don't know if you ever did that show where it was a panel and it's so funny.

[Carol Margaret]

Yeah, my first time on TV was that. Yeah.

[Ben Domenech]

Oh, really?

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

Okay.

[Ben Domenech]

So people who don't know the show, it had on it. Se cup.

[Carol Margaret]

Yeah. Oh, Will Kane.

[Ben Domenech]

Will Kane, Buck Sexton, meet Hegseth.

[Carol Margaret]

Well, I was not with him, but yeah, yeah.

[Ben Domenech]

And, and usually there was a rotating chair and I was in the rotating chair sometimes.

[Carol Margaret]

So funny.

[Ben Domenech]

And, and, and did like the coverage of like the, the 2012, the Romney convention with them and everything like that. And it's just so funny to see where everybody ended up.

[Carol Margaret]

I know, right? I love that. Yeah, yeah. Whenever I'm on with Buck and Will, I was like, you guys were both there. The first time I was ever, you know, on tv. It was exciting times.

[Ben Domenech]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very cool.

[Carol Margaret]

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

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Can you grab one more thing? I'll come back up for you.

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[Carol Margaret]

What are you most proud of in your life?

[Ben Domenech]

I think the thing that I'm probably most proud of is that, you know, I've made. I think I've made some bad decisions in my life. I've made mistakes like everybody does, but right now, I would say I'm probably the happiest I've ever been in life because of making the decision to, you know, ask my wife to marry me and to have these two beautiful little girls and to be raising them in an environment and with a job or multiple jobs where thankfully I have enough time to just spend time with them all the time and be present in their lives and seeing them grow and seeing them push ahead. I mean, I am someone who really believes in, in pushing ahead, thanks to homeschooling. You know, I was someone who was always like a year, a year ahead of where my, my age would dictate when it came to that kind of stuff. And so I'm always pushing them to try things that are new. And we have, you know, a son who's gonna arrive soon. I'm just most proud, I think, of my family and, and the fact that I was able to do that after screwing up a bunch, you know, when I was younger and not being able to have a family and really coming to kind of think that I was never gonna be able to have one. And it required a lot of tough times. I mean, going through the death of my wife's father so public and, you know, I mean, this literally being public, but I mean, I, you know, I had to go to the White House and tell Jared and Ivanka that they didn't want their, you know, their dad to come to the funeral and that kind of thing. And, like, it was. It was just a very tough time all around. And I think helping, you know, everyone in my life through that was really a challenge. And so I'm, I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the, of my family and of my kids. And, you know, I. I've started a bunch of companies. Some of them have been successful, some of them haven't. But I'm more proud of them, of course.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah.

[Carol Margaret]

I feel like you guys are. I mean, you're such a beautiful family. I love to hear Megan talk about the kids, and I just love watching you guys. But, yeah, I think that that's what we should derive pride from. Right? I mean, everything else is so secondary, and you are in a very golden time.

[Guest or Co-host]

I have.

[Carol Margaret]

My kids are a little older. I'm. You know, I know everybody tells you enjoy every minute, and it's very, very hard to actually enjoy every minute. But, you know, you're in such a good time, and the fact that you recognize that you're already a step ahead, it's really wonderful.

[Ben Domenech]

And the thing that I also would encourage people about is that, you know, I know that there's this whole thing about, you know, you need to. You need to start earlier or like, you know, people are worried about delaying things longer, especially in the D.C. area. You know, there's so many examples of women who are struggling to get pregnant when they're, you know, well past the age where you would've recommended it for medical reasons and things like that. And so I think that there's a natural hesitancy for people where they say, you know, isn't that risky? Or isn't it hard? You know, especially if you are maybe in a position where you're worried about finances or things like that. And it costs a lot, especially if you live in a city, to just do the basic things to kind of keep up with the Joneses. But the thing that I would just encourage people with is pulling the trigger on it is something you will not regret. You will not regret it ever. It will always be. My wife's only regret, which she expresses to me, is I wish we could have started sooner. And she knows that we couldn't. But, you know, it's just because of timing and not even knowing each other and that kind of thing. But it's also just like a. This is the most fulfilling aspect of it. And I don't mean to denigrate anybody who's. Who's single or who can't have kids or anything like that. It's just more that, like, for me, this is what gives my life purpose, and everything else is just secondary.

[Carol Margaret]

There's no words. There's no words to describe it to people that don't. Don't have it about the starting early. My husband and I were best friends For a decade. So before we started dating. So we could have started early had we been smarter, but it goes the way it goes. And what are you going to do? Give us a five year out prediction. And it could be about anything, anything at all.

[Ben Domenech]

So I'm going to stick to sports a little bit.

[Carol Margaret]

Yeah, do it by.

[Ben Domenech]

I Predict that by 2030, the NFL will have announced that it is going to expand in a global way with multiple teams in Europe and perhaps one in Mexico City. And that what's really going to fuel this is the fact that we're going to have a reintroduction of supersonic travel across the Atlantic. And that that technological barrier coming down, which essentially cuts in half the time that, you know, teams need to travel, is going to be the thing that allows teams to be able to, you know, not have kind of some of these weird London experiences that people have had or something like that of, you know, not being able to travel quickly enough across. And that, I think is going to be a huge American footprint placed on the world. And I think it's. I think it's going to be a success. I think the amount of interest and appeal of that in an era when so much else in terms of entertainment is going downhill, the numbers for the NFL are incredible. And I think that you're going to just see that expansion happen and make a lot of people a lot of money. Wow.

[Carol Margaret]

This is the most interesting prediction I have gotten on this show. Like, I have to tell you, because a lot of people, the very standard answer right now is AI, AI is going to be good. AI is going to be bad. There's a lot of that. But this supersonic travel is coming back and the NFL is going to expand to other countries. This is, this is some good stuff.

[Ben Domenech]

Yeah, no, you heard it here first or you heard it here. And the Wall Street Journal has profiled this supersonic company a bit. And it's fascinating stuff. But I think, you know, look, this is America is. Is producing sports content in a way that the world really wants to get into in a. In a huge way. And that this is. This is going to be, I think, a major part of that, and seeing it firsthand during the Madrid game was it was just impressive. And the. And the way that they've established a footprint there in Europe as an alternative to. To foot their football is something that I think is very real.

[Guest or Co-host]

I love it.

[Ben Domenech]

Roger Goodell believes in manifest destiny for the NFL.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah, for sure.

[Carol Margaret]

I mean, Jerry Jones on the supersonic plane on the way to play in Europe. I love to see it.

[Ben Domenech]

Oh man, he's going to have some fun on that trip, that's for sure.

[Carol Margaret]

He really is. Ben, I have loved this conversation again, you've always been one of my favorites, but really getting to know you has been fantastic. Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.

[Ben Domenech]

So this is probably an uncomfortable tip, but force yourself to become a morning person. It's really, you can do it. Because I was not and I forced myself into it kind of.

[Carol Margaret]

How do you do it? Because I'm like a mid afternoon person.

[Ben Domenech]

You have to start giving yourself early morning obligations that you have to fulfill in order to do various things. I now do most of my writing before 7 o' clock in the morning and it's, it's just one of these things where the adjustment time will take time, but once you do that, the other thing is it gives you an easy out or an easy excuse, I would say, for being the first to leave when it comes to the evening events.

[Carol Margaret]

That's really what this is all about, isn't it?

[Ben Domenech]

And to me, that is something that is actually critical. Like if you, if you have the excuse of saying, oh no, I have to do this in the morning and it means that you're not the person shutting down the bar, you will feel better. You really will. Trust me. Too many late nights is bad for you. And I know that from experience. And nothing good happens after a certain hour at night. Bad decisions are made. And so I'm just telling you it's much better to become a morning person, even if it makes you boring and even if it means you're doing Irish goodbyes at parties that are well away from being over. But you will feel better for it and it'll make you more tolerant once you have to interact with people around 7 and 8 o' clock in the morning.

[Carol Margaret]

I love it. He is Ben Domenech. Check out the Big Ben show, read him at the Spectator and sign up for the Transom on Substack. Thank you so much for coming on, Ben.

[Ben Domenech]

It's great to be with you.

[iHeart Podcast Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Carol Margaret]

Guaranteed Human.