Netflix has had some hits. The series finale of “Stranger Things,” for example, pulled in 31.3 million views worldwide, and it wasn’t even the streamer’s biggest show. That would be “Squid Game,” season one of which achieved 265.2 million views. Season one of the second-biggest series, “Wednesday,” released in 2022, drew 252.1 million views. Season two of “Wednesday,” released in 2025, dropped to 119.3 million views. Season three is slated for release in 2027 – that’s three seasons in five years. Since Netflix began offering original programming, though, it’s canceled 85 series, at least at the time of writing. The problem is that those cancellations are basically Netflix’s specialty. While easy to attribute the gaps between seasons to the dropoff in numbers, and thus the need to cancel, it’s not just that, though the gaps are ridiculous. It’s the business model. It lives to cancel series. And while the service is profitable, it also sucks. Killing programming shouldn’t be the goal of production studios. Substacker Aakash Gupta has a theory about why Netflix suffers in a way that, say, HBO Max does not. On X, he posited that the gaps punish Netflix twice. That is, since it releases series all at once, it encourages bingeing, but then when people have to wait years for another season, they’ve lost interest. HBO Max, which also has ridiculous gaps between seasons, at least draws them out, forcing people to wait between episodes. That creates a stickier product because viewers invest months in each season rather than a weekend. This could be accurate – or not. Streaming services don’t like sharing their data because it could be used by competitors. Perhaps it is that Netflix’s internal metrics reveal a much less popular show than it would seem to viewers. On the other hand, it could be that the company is simply quick to cancel rather than putting in the effort to develop a show, such as network favorite “The Office,” with massive potential. This happens, or at least used to happen, more than people realized. “Seinfeld” had a weak start, something even we fans have to admit. “Cheers,” which ended up wildly successful, was almost canceled in its first season. “Futurama” has been canceled twice, with its final season streaming this year. This isn’t a phenomenon that’s unique to television, either. Many bands and artists that ended up with long, successful careers started off with a flop or two. Bruce Springsteen, Hall and Oates, Genesis, Pantera, Tori Amos, David Bowie, Shakira, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, and Bon Jovi all would’ve been axed had they been streaming shows. Musicians and bands, though, can bypass the studio gatekeepers much more easily now. For starters, the barriers to entry are much lower than they once were. They don’t need recording studios, just some equipment, an interface, and a laptop. Second, once they have a product, they can simply upload it to Spotify, SoundCloud, Beatport, and YouTube. Unless, God forbid, AI becomes a popular way to produce video content, it still costs money to make a show. And unlike music, a field which also became more ruthless when sabermetrics came to dominate all, it’s not as easy for those who want to make it to bypass those gatekeepers. Gone are the days of deciders with good instincts willing to take a chance on a product. Now, it’s all analytics. (Unrelated, but please comment and share this article, and subscribe if you don’t already do so.) And there is nothing inherently wrong with an analytical approach to business. The problem is when the business of art, which is what streaming platforms sell, becomes purely analytically driven. No, something like “Eastbound and Down” isn’t what people would traditionally consider art, but when you really dig into just how juvenile and vulgar Shakespeare was, you gain an appreciation for how sometimes being really old can change people’s perceptions. Incidentally, “Eastbound and Down,” an HBO show, is a more modern example of beating the system, even though it aired on cable. Part of its brilliance was Danny McBride’s. The show was filmed in North Carolina. Although there were family concerns, a major reason was the lack of direct flights from L.A. to Wilmington, which allowed them to create season one without interference from the executives. Season one was successful, and the studio trusted them moving forward. Now, though, the execs are always watching, keeping up with the numbers, canceling without compunction. And while it makes money, the modern system, particularly as Netflix employs it, doesn’t tend to create the lasting sort of programming that the old ways did. For even though “Stranger Things” closed out with strong numbers, it also closed out with a very anticlimactic ending, after only five seasons over nine and a half years. As things currently stand, the Netflix formula is unlikely to change unless its profits turn south. Which is a shame, because the future would be better with a return to executives looking to make not just money, but also great programming, even if the numbers don’t initially justify keeping a show on for another season. Step one is to get rid of the ridiculous gaps and the focus on bingeing. Both are overrated, and as the push notification from the Wall Street Journal I received while writing this suggests, they actually aren’t working out so well for maintaining overall engagement. The proposed solution? Adding live television, which is a revolutionary idea. In any case, maybe it’s not that analytics are bad after all, but how the executives respond to them. *** Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin’ Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to here. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4

Jennica Pounds, also known as DataRepublican, is a data analyst and self-described algorithm geek. In the Weekend Punch interview, she speaks with The Daily Wire about debunking wild conspiratorial claims surrounding Charlie Kirk’s assassination, widespread skepticism about information, and what it means to pursue the truth. The following quote is Pound’s X response to Candace Owens and her conspiracy theories in light of the evidence presented at Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing, which concluded this week. Hello Mrs. Owens, You told millions of people that Tyler Robinson “wasn’t even there.” That you felt “confident stating that Tyler Robinson did not kill murder Charlie Kirk.” He was on camera. Prone on the Losi rooftop at 12:22. Shot at 12:23:28. DNA on the screwdriver at 30 quintillion to one. DNA on the rifle at 1.7 octillion to one. He told his family what he did. His parents helped him surrender. He texted his roommate: “I am, I’m sorry.” He engraved “Hey Fascist! Catch!” on the ammunition a month before he used it. You said police “didn’t even question” Lance Twiggs. He was interviewed twice. FBI the morning after. Joint state-federal team seven months later. His own attorney. Voluntary phone surrender. You laughed when you said it. You told Shawn Ryan a shaped charge killed Charlie. That PETN was in his microphone. The medical examiner says gunshot wound. Bullet fragments were recovered from his body. A .30-06 Mauser with Robinson’s DNA was found in the woods. Neither side — not prosecution, not defense — has mentioned explosives. Not once in four days. You said the shot came from below. The Losi building is above the amphitheater. You called Erika Kirk a “clinical psychopath” to an audience of millions. You said the assassination was “an occult ritual.” You said Charlie was “sitting in a pentagram.” You told people Israel killed him because he refused Netanyahu. You made over a hundred episodes. You built a franchise on a dead man’s name. And the hardest fact of all: Tyler Robinson’s own defense lawyers — the people whose entire career is on the line to get him acquitted — have refused to make a single one of your arguments. Not one. They’re challenging DNA methodology. They are doing their jobs. You were doing something else entirely. Charlie Kirk changed my life. He platformed my work when nobody knew who I was. He had my back when I was doxxed. I was the ten-thousandth most important person in his world and I will never be able to repay him. So I did what I know how to do. I read every transcript. I watched every hour of testimony. I cataloged your claims and I held them up against what was said under oath. Every single one failed. I don’t know why you did this. I’m not going to speculate on your motives, because that would make me exactly the kind of analyst I’ve spent my career refusing to be. But I know what you did. You told people confident lies about a dead man’s murder, and millions of them believed you, and some of them turned that belief into threats against his widow. The trial continues. And every day of sworn testimony is another day your words get tested against reality… under oath, on the record, where it counts. I’ll be here for all of it… because just as Charlie defended me, I will do what little I can to defend his legacy and @TPUSA and @MrsErikaKirk from evil.   Ben Domenech: You’ve done extensive research on the details surrounding the shooting of Charlie Kirk, particularly regarding the conspiracy theories that have spread online like wildfire. What topline details have you found that you think are most important for people to know? Jennica Pounds: After a week, all of the conspiracy claims have been thoroughly demolished in court. [Tyler] Robinson’s own defense team isn’t making any of the claims circulating online. They’re making procedural challenges to not show evidence. The people who have the most to gain from a conspiracy being real won’t even touch any of Candace [Owens]’s claims. Data analysis is a skill. The hardest part isn’t connecting dots; anyone can do that, as Candace and her fans have proven. It’s knowing when not to connect them. When you find yourself pulling more and more people into your theory as villains to make the story hold together, that’s when it crosses into fan fiction territory. Except in this case, fan fiction is posing a very real threat to Erika Kirk’s life. BD: We live in an era of heightened skepticism after a cascade of media scandals that destroyed public trust. It’s reiterated constantly – consider Graham Platner the most recent example. How do you go about breaking through that skeptical assumption – that everyone is lying – with the truth?  JP: The skepticism is earned. People have been lied to by institutions for years, and they’re right to demand receipts. So I give them receipts. Now, I’ve made mistakes and been wrong. But I’ve never gone wrong by letting the receipts talk as much as possible. Also, most people in this space try to destroy the person they disagree with. I’m not interested in that. What I do is show people the story they’ve been told, and then show them what the evidence actually says, and let the distance between those two things do the work. The trick is that you don’t have to convince anyone of anything. You just have to make the evidence accessible and let people be honest with themselves. BD: Candace isn’t alone. Her conspiracy theories – too many to count – have been echoed and defended by Ian Carroll, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly. What’s your interpretation of why people would entertain these theories as legitimate, given the evidence? JP: I’m not going to speculate on anyone’s motives; that would make me exactly the kind of analyst I just warned you about. What I can tell you is what I see in the data. None of these people have gone line by line through three days of sworn testimony. None of them have spent hours cataloging their own claims to track how far the theories have drifted from anything falsifiable. They built a narrative before the evidence was available, and the narrative is more important than anything. And I’d be remiss not to mention Joel Finkelstein at The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a good friend, who has done more work than anyone studying the assassination culture that took Charlie’s life… and that may take more lives if it isn’t confronted. We need to learn the difference between data and narrative, and fast. BD: There are clearly a lot of people obsessed with the idea that Candace and her supporters have uncovered some vast political conspiracy. If you were sitting next to someone who thought that way at a local bar, what would you say to them? JP: I’d tell them that Charlie Kirk changed my life. He gave me a platform when nobody knew who I was. He stood behind me when I was doxxed by Rolling Stone. I owe him more than I’ll ever be able to repay. Then I’d buy them a drink and tell them I get it. We’ve all been lied to by people in power, and the instinct to distrust official narratives is earned. But finding the truth isn’t making a conscious decision to follow a different narrative to the prevailing one. It’s about following the data, the actual data, no matter where it goes. The data shows that many institutions are failing us and are taking escalating actions to maintain their legitimacy by coercion. That’s true. But the data also shows that Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk, and that’s becoming more obvious every day the court proceedings are televised. BD: The effort that goes into heavy research these days seems harder than in the past, but also more accessible. What approaches and tools do you wish young journalists would use to pursue information and data rather than just chasing after everyone else? JP: AI is a double-edged sword for sure. Most people use AI to replace their thinking – that’s why those stories of lawyers using AI-hallucinated citations are becoming more common. For me, agentic AI has been a godsend in analyzing gigabytes of video transcripts, books, documents, website mirrors – and connecting them all together. It’s not unusual to burn 100+ subtasks to compile a 12-post thread. If AI is making your job easier rather than challenging you to meet a 100x productivity increase, you’re probably using it wrong. BD: I have bottle 887 of Distilled Data in my bar. It is nearly empty. Can we get a rerelease? JP: Glad you enjoyed it! I’ll petition my husband. ***

It’s a shame that “Saturday Night Live” is on its annual summer break. Otherwise, we’d laugh about the show ignoring the scandals coming out of the Graham Platner camp. Except it’s not actually funny. Once upon a time, when a politician stepped on a rake, a crush of comedians would rise up to tease them. That fueled late-night king Johnny Carson’s decades-long reign, among many others. Carlin. Sahl. Klein. Miller. Bruce. Politicians, in turn, had to watch their backs. That was good for their political futures and good for the country, too. Now, we have a new generation of political figures charitably described as comedy gold. Hunter Biden. AOC. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. And, of course, Platner. The problem? They’re all Democrats, and the current comedy zeitgeist won’t lay a glove on them. Meanwhile, every Republican in the public arena is mercilessly mocked for both real and imagined flaws. Night after night after night. It’s something mystery author novelist Daniel Friedman called out on X. This is not harmless and this is not meaningless. Democrats have successfully incepted the idea into voters’ heads that Republicans are absurd, clownish and unqualified and the one-sided mockery in entertainment media has helped to spread this lie when the Democrats are actually a collection of hideous weirdos and circus freaks that media has somehow convinced you are normal. Why would comedians ignore political targets just because they align with their world view? Call it the Palin Effect. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was new to the national scene when Sen. John McCain selected her as his running mate in 2008. “SNL” tasked cast member Tina Fey to portray Palin as a bumpkin, a rube who told the audience she could see Russia from her house. The impression, to Fey’s credit, was solid gold. And it stuck in the public psyche. Some actually believed the real Palin uttered that “Russia” quote. The moment showed the comedy community that their skits and yuks can impact public opinion. It’s no accident “SNL” took a hard-Left turn following that election cycle. Even “SNL” cast member Jay Pharoah, who portrayed President Barack Obama on the show, later admitted the show’s brain trust “gave up on the Obama thing,” meaning it pulled its punches on a sitting president. Why? He wasn’t a Republican. Both parties have their fair share of political embarrassments. Colorado Republicans just nominated Victor Marx, a man who told an interviewer that it doesn’t matter how many people he’s killed, to be the next governor. That’s just the tip of the unhinged Marx iceberg. Marx’s ramblings already snagged the attention of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “The Daily Show,” and “Last Week Tonight.” That’s both appropriate and predictable. Expect more national ribbing in the weeks to come. And, as Desi Lydic did on her “Daily Show” skewering, they might tie Marx to the GOP brand. Heck, you can bank on that. Late-night hosts typically ignore Democrats behaving badly. When Jimmy Kimmel finally gave Platner a full-bodied mention, he used the alleged rapist to somehow smear the GOP. That’s the level of dishonesty in comedy circles today. That’s the same Kimmel who threw softballs at First Son Hunter Biden during his 2021 book tour. Meanwhile, the cultural Right has done little to balance the scales. Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” may be a late-night ratings winner, but it’s essentially a panel show aimed at a pre-sold conservative crowd. The show doesn’t do comedy sketches that might go viral and engage those who might otherwise watch “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” or the left-leaning “Tonight Show.” The right-leaning Babylon Bee has done some solid sketch comedy in recent years, but the site relegates its toughest political gags to its fake news stories, not its YouTube channel. Social media fills some of the gaps, with amateur late-night hosts cracking wise or creating memes that deconstruct Democrats. The platforms’ algorithms likely keep those funny bits to one side of the aisle only. The comic gold, meanwhile, will only get richer. Consider the stunning rise of Democratic socialists and their tried-and-failed policies. Not to mention all the antisemitism. Colorado Democrat Melat Kiros is so far Left that she couldn’t call the Boulder thug who firebombed a Jewish gathering an antisemite. New York City Mayor Mamdani embraces socialism while enjoying prime viewing seats at the World Cup (and other perks). That might be worth a gag or two. (But we’ll never see it.) This may read as a conservative complaint. And it is. Partially. There’s a larger, bipartisan issue in play. Comedians, at their best, hold politicians accountable and keep them on the straight and narrow. When a gaggle of Democrats betrayed the nation’s COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, they should have been mocked so aggressively that they loosened those protocols. The country would have been freer and equally safe from the virus, as we later learned. Instead, they kept up the charade because Kimmel & co. didn’t lay a glove on them. Plus, if a Platner-style candidate got raked over the comedy coals in the early days of his senatorial push, he might have dropped out months ago. His campaign may never have gained that early head of steam. Instead, he dragged his party down with him as more scandals emerged, hurting both the Democrat brand and the country. Our Court Jester Class has let us down. And the future holds little hope of any improvement. *** Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. He’s also the host of The Hollywood in Toto Podcast. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto. 

Vikings landed on the shores of the United States in early June, and while their numbers are few, they’re dominating American pop culture this summer. Team Norway and its biggest star, 6-foot-5 Erling Haaland, are having an outsize impact on American hearts — and World Cup soccer — as they dazzle fans with their on- and off-the-field antics. Haaland has been a breakout star of the World Cup as he led Norway to historic success. The world has enjoyed watching Haaland and his Norway teammates gather on the field after a win and lead fans in their viral post-game celebration, the Viking row. The celebration has been such a sensation that Google created a celebratory animation of rowing Vikings that pop up when you search “Erling Haaland.” Norway’s men’s soccer team went viral before the World Cup began when they released a team photo titled “The Vikings Are Coming,” captured by renowned British Photographer David Yarrow, in early June. The team is dressed like Vikings in the photo and posed in front of a fjord filled with Viking longships, holding ancient weapons as if they were going into battle. The image is serious but playful, and it foreshadowed things to come: Norway’s players were going to war on the soccer pitch, and they were going to have a great time doing it. Haaland reportedly played a substantial role in making the team Viking photo happen. He also played a substantial role in securing Norway’s first World Cup appearance in 28 years and has already scored seven goals since tournament play began. Haaland, who has over 60 million Instagram followers, is a worldwide soccer legend at age 25. In his first season with his club team, Manchester City, he helped win a prestigious treble of soccer titles, the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, in a single season. He’s been awarded the Premier League Golden Boot, for scoring the most goals of any striker in the league, three times. When Norway unexpectedly beat legendary soccer favorite Brazil to reach its first World Cup quarterfinal match in the nation’s history, Haaland seemed genuinely shocked by the win in a post-match vlog posted on his YouTube channel. He told his fans, “This still doesn’t feel real because it’s just so far off. I could never think of this happening, which also make its so crazy in my head that we actually managed to beat Brazil and go through.” While many professional athletes are known for their ego and arrogance, Haaland comes across as humble, grateful, and playful amid astonishing success. His happy-go-lucky attitude is a part of what makes Haaland such a likable player and person. “We just played football and enjoyed it,” Haaland said about the Brazil match in the vlog. “I remember I said it right before the game started, ‘Guys, no matter what happens, just smile and enjoy it.’” No one is enjoying the World Cup as much as Haaland, who has been documenting his experiences in America on his YouTube channel. A video titled “Haaland takes over America!” shows him loving American culture as he tries out a southern accent, using the phrase “Y’all,” and has a blast attending a professional ice hockey game with his teammates. “The national anthem was incredible. Amazing. I had goosebumps all over,” Haaland said in the video. “I never, ever expected this. Atmosphere is unreal.” After scoring the winning goal against the Ivory Coast in Norway’s first knockout round game, Haaland headed to Wild Bill’s Western Store in Dallas to buy himself a cowboy hat and boots. He posted a 10-minute video of the excursion, showing him and colleagues endearingly enjoying Texas hospitality and culture. Before leaving the Texas store, Haaland purchased a shirt that says “Y’all Can Kiss My Dallas” and posted a photo of himself wearing the shirt along with a cowboy hat and boots on Instagram, with the simple caption “Howdy!” The picture went viral, and Americans loved seeing Haaland’s embrace of local culture. The image is now the front image on Wild Bill’s Western Store, which thanked Haaland for the visit in a social media post, writing, “As a family-owned business, moments like these mean the world to us. Thank you for stopping by and spending time with our team.” My son, who is a huge soccer fan, has been watching every video Haaland posts. I think he’s a fantastic example for him of what it looks like to work hard and be successful while not taking yourself too seriously. In the online world that is often full of narcissism and despair, Haaland’s positivity and joy are refreshing to see. They remind us all that the pursuit of excellence doesn’t have to be devoid of joy. A June social media post from Haaland showed he was largely unrecognized while walking around New York City. If Norway miraculously makes it back to the area for the World Cup final, that anonymity will be impossible to replicate. Soccer-shy Americans have embraced Haaland and his team of Vikings to the extent that fans are clamoring to buy the hair ties he uses. Regardless of the outcome of their quarterfinal game against England, Norway players are already winners. They have one of the best and most likable soccer players on their side, have exceeded their own expectations, and have secured the Viking row as one of soccer’s GOAT celebrations. They’ve shown the world that Vikings are still warriors today — and they’re also a lot of fun. *** This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture.  This weekend, former Newsweek deputy opinion editor, bestselling author, and host of NewsNation’s “Batya!” show Batya Ungar-Sargon, sits down with The Daily Wire to dish the soundtrack to her $22 fitness routine, make a case for a romantasy fan’s Shabbat, give every other “wine down” a run for its money, and reveal why only love can save America. *** Batya Ungar-Sargon has her Ph.D. in English literature, but she doesn’t annoy society by describing herself as a doctor. Spending time with her feels like grabbing a cocktail with a good friend, leaning in over a votive candle on the bar top as she surgically critiques culture to uncover the truth. I live for the secondhand buzz of her hot takes. “I’m definitely more embraced by the Right,” she notes of the space where she’s most free to think for herself. “On the Left, the second I said, ‘Hey, are we really going to be antisemites? I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ They were like, ‘Out to the Gulag!’” She’s fresh off filming TV hits for the day, penning her Substack, and promoting her latest bestseller, “The Jews and the Left,” following her previous release, “Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women.” “It’s so bound up with my love of America and my need to be part of the thing that’s restoring it,” Batya says of her advocacy for working-class Americans and her ongoing crusade against antisemitism. “Our best days are not behind us, but are to come. We don’t have to accept our decline.”  “American Founding Fathers saw Jews as partners in the creation of this great nation,” Batya says. “There’s never been an America without Jews. We were never seen as an oppressed immigrant minority; we were seen as heritage Americans. That has been erased because it’s inconvenient to both sides. I was like, I have to tell this story.” Currently a political free agent, Batya doesn’t see herself as having left the Left. Instead, she says she was ejected. “They kicked me out over refusing to stop condemning antisemitism from leftists like Ilhan Omar.” It wasn’t long before she questioned everything else she was taking at face value. Still, she knows she seems like a total lib. “People will sit next to me in bars and say the craziest things and assume that I agree with them,” she explains. “I think because I’m not blonde, and because I wear second-hand clothes, they’re like, ‘Oh, obviously this person is on my side,’ and they’ll sit down and just start trashing Trump. I just look at them like, ‘Is he really that bad?’” Batya laughs, unleashing her humor. “Just the expression on their faces, the shock, the horror, like, ‘Oh my God, I cannot believe I was flirting with this woman; she’s so evil.’” I tell Batya her name sounds like a warrior from the Bible. It turns out, I wasn’t too far off. “So, the name Batya comes from the Midrash. The Midrash was the sort of secondary commentary on the Bible, and it’s the name that was given to Pharaoh’s daughter, who rescued Moses,” Batya explains. “God was so grateful to her for rescuing Moses and saving the Jewish people that he renamed her from ‘daughter of Pharaoh’ to ‘daughter of God,’ which is what Batya means.” Also her grandmother’s name, it suits her. “It’s kind of an old-fashioned Jewish name right now, so if you go to Israel, you meet, like, grandmothers or great-grandmothers named Batya.”  But of course Batya is a fearless fighter; she’s originally from Philly. She keeps much of her private life on lock. Which, since she’s known for stirring the pot, means the internet just makes it up. “There’s a lot of misinformation about me online because some Indian website created an AI-generated bio of me,” Batya notes. “It said that I was born in Gaza … There are no Jews in Gaza. It said that I’m worth $3 million … I wish. It also said that I was married to the very dashing Welsh character actor Ioan Gruffudd.” Happily married to the real love of her life, Batya still takes it personally that interviewers only focus on her fake net worth and sketchy alleged origins. “Nobody once asked me what it was like being married to Ioan Gruffudd.” Schvitzing and kibbitzing Batya’s day begins with a sweat at her local gym. “I work out every morning,” she says. “I wake up around 6:30 a.m., I have a cup of coffee, find out what the headlines are, think about what I’m going to write about, and from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m., I go to the gym.” She loves a HIIT sesh, weightlifting, and resistance training, but she isn’t as thrilled about the aerobic stuff. “I do cardio twice a week, but I hate it,” she jokes. “It’s a tiny little gym, $22 a month. Everybody in the neighborhood goes there and you see the same people every morning, kibbitz with them, talk to them, say hi.” To summon the adrenaline, she cranks up the tunes, describing her playlist with: “Jewish religious groups take Bible verses and put music to them. I find that really inspirational, especially when I’m working out.” I’m suddenly imagining myself listening to “How Great Thou Art” for 45 minutes on the stair climber. “I also love classic rock. I really like Florence and the Machine and Fleetwood Mac.” (Phew.) She also brushes up on daily news via “The Huddle” podcast just before leaving the gym. “They are so good at laying out what the top five stories are. So, by the time I get home and I’ve showered, I know what stories I want to cover on my debate show.” A holy tradition Batya works Sundays but honors the Jewish Shabbat every Saturday. When I ask about the difference between on- and off-camera life, she says, “You mean something beyond just, like, the fake eyelashes?” “I go to synagogue every Saturday morning,” Batya confirms, cherishing the experience of reading the same 2,000-year-old Hebrew manuscript shared by Jews around the world. “It’s like having an outlet and you’re plugging in. Instead of an electrical current, it’s eternity. It’s the most incredible thing, and it never gets old.” Preserving this day of rest requires some doing. “I get home from work on Friday around 3 p.m., and then it’s a mad dash getting ready for Shabbat,” Batya explains. “By sunset everything has to be logged off; all the food has to be cooked. We usually host a lot of people for a big meal either Friday night or Shabbat afternoon, so all that has to be prepared.” She skips the news cycle for an entire day, which appears to be her secret to a balanced life. I’m almost converted to Judaism, just drinking in the details. “It’s just 24 hours of eating, drinking with friends, sleeping, reading books, praying, and listening to the Torah, so it’s just the most amazing, wonderful reprieve.” Citing Charlie Kirk’s advocacy for the Christian Sabbath, Batya recommends dipping a toe into this type of spiritual rejuvenation. “Put the phone in the bedroom and make a meal for your friends, have everybody put their phones away. It’s incredible.” Soon enough, of course, she’s back to business. “As soon as Shabbat ends, I gotta get back on the phone. I turn on the TV, I gotta find out what I missed.” A relaxing dinner fit for two Having cooked for the weekend, Batya and her husband enjoy leftovers before they hit the mid-week takeout routine. Calling dinner with her hubby her happy place, Batya appreciates their sparkling conversation even after being together for 15 years. “Friday night, he wanted to tell me about the Roman Empire,” she says with a smile. “I know that sounds like a real cliché.”  But sacrifices must be made, especially if you disagree with your dinner companion on nigiri. “I think sushi is disgusting. It’s my most cancellable opinion,” she laughs. “The texture is horrible. It tastes like nothing. People say, ‘Well, that’s what the sauce is for,’ and I’m like, but you can put sauce on anything. Why don’t you put a sauce on something that already tastes good?” Luckily, Batya secures a workaround. “I love sake, so we have a compromise.”  Speaking of something to take the edge off, she’ll take something in a stem glass. “I do enjoy a glass of wine or two with dinner at night. If I can’t have it with dinner because I’m on TV at 7 or 8 p.m., I’ll definitely have that glass of wine at 9.”  She’s speaking my language on the vino. “I love a sparkling wine. I love an orange wine, obviously a nice chardonnay in the summer, but I love a Syrah. I love something that’s a little bit more tannic, a little bit rough around the edges. I’m not into big fruit; I’m into something that sort of holds back a little bit — this sounds so pretentious.” We joke that she’s outing herself as a wine snob. “If it’s been a really tough day, I’ll have a gin and tonic, or sometimes a Negroni. People talk about not drinking. I’m like, how do you turn it off at night? How do you relax? Like, how do you stop working?” Getting lost in the story Batya regularly takes in the news, but when she’s reading for pleasure, she’s all about escaping reality. “I read all kinds of fiction,” she confirms. “Spy novels, mystery novels, romance novels, historical fiction, classics. Right now I’m rereading ‘Daniel Deronda’ by George Eliot.”  “I’ll go back and reread all of Jane Austen in a year,” she confirms. “I know a book is good if Shabbat ends and I don’t get up to go check my phone. I’m like, wait a minute, one more chapter, one more chapter.” With shoutouts to authors Sarah J. Maas and John le Carré, she confesses she’s down for a good romantasy. “It’s hard for me to read at night, but on Shabbat I could be on the couch for 67 hours just in a book and in my bliss. I love, love, love to just lose myself.” Deep thoughts for better living Unsurprisingly, Batya’s always striving to improve. She’s also one of those people who inspires others toward greatness, too. “I think a lot about how to be a better Jew, a better American, and a better wife, but also how to help people who don’t agree with me see what I see.” She offers the solution to the challenge. “The only way you can convince anybody of anything is if you convince them that you love them, and that’s very hard when one side of the political aisle is trying to kill us. It’s tough. I think about that a lot.” If you’re hoping for a few words of wisdom from the front lines, you’ve come to the right place. “Never read anything anybody says about you,” Batya advises. “People have written really mean articles about me. My husband loves reading the comments on videos that I’m in. Sometimes he’ll be like, ‘Babe, babe, I got one that you’ll love.’ I’ll be like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘This one says she’s so hot and so evil.’” Batya can’t help but laugh. “I answer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and if you spend too much time reading comments about yourself, you start to answer to that.” “It’s very hard to go out there and say what you think, especially when it’s not popular,” she says. “One thing that really helps is if you know with 100% certainty that if you’re wrong, you’ll admit it. That gives you a lot of confidence because you don’t have to worry, ‘What if I’m wrong?’ If I’m wrong, I’ll admit it … and then I will be right.”