In this conversational interview, Dennis Prager welcomes Alex Marlow, editor‑in‑chief of Breitbart, to discuss several interrelated topics. They begin by praising Breitbart as a vital alternative media outlet that exposes the mainstream media’s hidden deals and corruption, noting the low public approval rating of the press compared to other institutions. The conversation shifts to a broader question about which American institutions still enjoy public esteem; both agree that few remain, with universities being singled out as a moral cesspool. Marlow recounts his own college experience at UC Berkeley, where he studied political science and music, and explains how his conservative activism there led to his career at Breitbart. He argues that non‑STEM students should forgo a four‑year degree, suggesting they gain practical work experience instead, and observes that recent hires at Breitbart with university degrees often lag behind those who entered the workforce directly. They discuss the paradox of elite‑school graduates at Breitbart who are indistinguishable in productivity from non‑graduates. The interview then moves to Marlow’s personal life: he has four children, the newest ten days old, and is married to a medical doctor, whom he praises. Marlow shares an anecdote about a friend who chose to fund a scholarship at Hillsdale rather than Harvard, illustrating his view of the decline of elite institutions. Throughout, Prager promotes Marlow’s paperback book, "Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media's Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption," highlighting its new foreword and urging listeners to read it and visit Breitbart daily.
Chapters
Somehow get to Breitbart News. It's one of the most important websites in the world, in my opinion, and it's certainly one of the most visited. And its editor-in-chief is Alex Marlow. This is really funny because the last time I was on with Alex Marlow, you were interviewing me. It really doesn't matter. It's a very funny thing. If I interview you or you interview me, it's sort of the same result. Just issues get fleshed out.
Things get fleshed out, a conversation gets had. I think that's a, we all grow a little bit, hopefully. Hopefully we have a laugh or two. No, it is interesting because I was on air as a host for 7 or 8 years. So, you conduct thousands of interviews in that amount of time. And I've been off air for 6 months and I've only been in the guest chair pretty much with the one exception of when I go to an event, like where we were at Turning Point, the Phoenix event. And it's really, it is a different start to the interview, but then eventually they all kind of get to the same place.
That's exactly my point. Yes. Which is perfect. And fine. The excuse for having Alex Marlow on is that the paperback edition of his latest book, Breaking the News, Exposing the Establishment Media's Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, has just come out. It's got a new forward. Again, the book Breaking the News, which is a great pun.
Thank you.
Yes, they break the news. They, in fact, you know my single biggest view of the left, they break everything.
Yes, they do, of course. And it's thankfully, Dennis, thanks to conservative talk radio websites like Breitbart, the public understand this. I mean, the media's approval rating is the lowest of any major institution there is aside from maybe Congress. Congress might be a little bit worse. And a lot of it's thanks to alternative media stepping up and showing the public what they are all about.
So it's an interesting overall question when you say that the media are held in such low esteem.
Yeah.
Can you name— and this is not meant to make a political point— I'm very curious if you can name an institution, not individuals, an institution that Americans hold in esteem?
Yeah, it's a really interesting question because you would have said the three-letter alphabet agencies until recently— FBI, CIA, etc.— but I really think over the last half decade those have dipped below probably the Mendoza line, so to speak, in terms of approval. So, but this says so much about what's going on. Is it— could you name any? Because I can't.
No, I can't. I was curious if you could. I mean, yeah, the universities.
Yeah.
I mean, I have to say, a lifetime of calling universities moral cesspools and being somewhat of an outlier or considered a crank, that's no longer a crank view.
I don't think the Supreme Court is terrible given its current makeup. That's the— I would give that a slight passing grade, and that's about all I can think of off the top of my head.
Yeah, that's fair. Did you go to college?
Yeah, I did. I went to Berkeley.
Yeah, that— what did you study? What did you major in?
Well, I studied political science and music.
Um, all right, so music was worthwhile. Why the hell did you take political science?
Uh, I'd be— because I was a card-carrying member of the conservative movement. I'd already interned for Larry Elder. Uh, I went to cause trouble, and I did. It was the, the story, and I'm sure I've shared this with your audience over the years, but the— I was a baseball player, and I'd assumed I would go to college for baseball. But I surprisingly got into Berkeley on academics. And I thought, huh, that's an interesting thing because I was already developing as a conservative thinker, I would like to think, and I was a talk radio obsessive, and my mom had been to Berkeley, so I was very aware of what it was gonna be like. And I went to visit, and the conservative club, the College Republicans, which was the only conservative club, very organized, and I thought, oh wow, You could do a real social experiment here. And it went perfectly because I was able to use that experience to get a job with Andrew Breitbart, eventually become editor-in-chief and get to do all these cool things like talk to you, Dennis.
You went to Berkeley. Here's a question. Other than causing mischief, good mischief, was it worthwhile? Did you learn anything? And I don't mean about life and seeing how the left operates, I'm really asking, do you recommend that people outside of the sciences go to college?
No, no, no, of course not. You're better off spending 4 years trying to find a job in an industry you want to work in and getting that baseline experience and the employment experience. It's really interesting because I hire young people now at Breitbart and the people who had gone through the university system are objectively behind the people who decided they want to be in— That's awesome.
Their objective behind them. So in a sense, the guy who, or the girl who went to college and comes to Breitbart for a job, yeah, is even more impressive. Not because they went to college and learned anything, but because they survived college.
Yes, and they somehow righted the ship. Yes, that's right.
So yeah, they, they've been through the nonsense factory and come out and come out with common sense.
Absolutely, and I can't tell you how many people at Breitbart have degrees from Harvard, even double Harvard, and Stanford, and they're wonderful, but it's not a clear distinction between their productivity—
Right, if I met them, I would not know it.
You wouldn't know, absolutely.
That's right, yes, I believe that exactly.
Yeah, and so if you're not studying something where you feel like you're going to get a career in that field, there's no reason to go. But that's it for me. It wasn't a terrible experience because I do think that the bias was probably less than it is now where it wasn't pure agenda-driven. And they're teaching just such nonsense now. I mean, even the subject matters that you can get degrees in what Taylor Swift now, you can, of course that's useless. Of course. And people still are suckered into it. But for me, I was able to, because I'd honed my BS detector for lack of a better expression, through talk radio, I could tend to sift through, this is actually useful and this is not useful. I'll reject this stuff, I'll accept this stuff. I don't know if you can do that anymore 'cause it's been 15 years since I've been on campus.
Well, you can't. The suppression is remarkable. I have to say, the 3, was it MIT, Penn, and Harvard presidents, 3 incredibly unimpressive women, That is one of the few times in my life that I felt one moment changed the country. People, I believe that Harvard's cachet was lost in 10 minutes.
I think you're right about this, and it's so refreshing. You know, our mutual friend Joel Pollack, who has two degrees from Harvard and is married to a woman who's a degree from Harvard, he has started a scholarship because his mother-in-law, a woman named Rhoda Khodaly, who was a famous activist in South Africa. When she passed away, in her honor, he created a big scholarship. You would think it would be at Harvard, right? He's got all these degrees in his family from Harvard. No, he did it at Hillsdale. So he made the scholarship at a different college because he knows what Harvard has become. It's deteriorated in this cesspool of Jew hatred and wokeness and nonsense and a waste of time and money.
That's such a perfect story. So you have, by the way, I asked you, would you, recommend that someone go to college if they're not studying STEM, obviously. Yeah, science, technology, engineering, math. So you have now 4 children?
Yes, I do.
Your latest is 10 days old?
10 days old.
How come your wife looks so terrific?
I have no idea. She, she's a superhero. She's a— she's not a normal person.
Okay, that answers the question.
Yeah, she's not. And a STEM person, by the way, a medical doctor. So, so she had to go to school.
So you married a doctor?
Yes.
That is so great. 'Cause that's every, you're not Jewish, but that's every Jewish parent's dream. Either be a doctor or marry a doctor. So you married a doctor.
Yes. No, it's great. I love it. I do brag about it quite a bit, which is somewhat embarrassing, but I'm a fan of hers. But it is, Dennis, you might recall, and I know Alan does, when I had one child who was 11 months old, I called into this show as a caller and I'd been a guest prior. To that, and I recommended to everyone have as many kids as possible. I had one 11-month-old, and you asked me some probing questions that made me completely reconsider, but I ended up— it's just being devil's advocate.
I'm panicked. I made you reconsider having a lot of kids?
You were doing a devil's advocate.
Oh, okay.
You're making me defend my position.
Okay.
Which was terrific exercise.
But I'm totally on board with that.
Yes, no, it's a great line of inquiry. And you do it so effortlessly, it's really unbelievable.
That's very sweet of you. But yeah, but we're up to 4. You're living, you're, what is it, walking the walk or whatever the phrase is?
It's the exact phrase I've been using. I want to walk the walk. I believe that we're only going to save this country with people raising people with good values.
And well, by the way, in that regard, I have a certain smile when I keep reading about how leftists won't have children because of climate change. And I'm thinking, what a blessing.
Yeah, yeah, thumbs up, thumbs up, fine. It's more opportunity for us. And that book is—
All right, let me tell everybody, forgive me, I wanna promote your book, I really do. He's an important, truly important voice in America. Breaking the News is the book. Alex Marlow is the editor-in-chief of Breitbart. You should go to Breitbart every day, just sign up. It's free.
