Answers to Questions from New York Times Reporter Joe Bernstein

I was recently contacted by NYT writer Joe Bernstein. He informed me that he was writing a profile about me for The Times, and hoped I would talk to him. Most of you know I do not like this kind of attention, but he said the profile would be published whether I spoke to him or not. He was kind enough to agree to my request for a set of written questions - I’ve gotten myself in enough trouble with poorly worded and incomplete verbal interview answers lately - and, I want to stress, he’s been kind and forthright all along. However, having been the victim of more press smears than any other podcaster in recent years, I decided to publish my answers here and provide him with the link, just so that there is no confusion about what I said or didn’t say.

Joe, I hope you don’t mind, or, if you do mind, I hope you understand. I’ve had to calm my grandmother after she read major publications saying terrible things about me, and it’s made me more than a little shy around reporters.

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1. Can you give a brief biographical sketch? I know you've lived in California, Montana, and Idaho, but like, where are you from? How did you grow up? When we talked, Tucker said that you grew up pretty poor. Did you do college? Did you study any history? That kind of stuff.

I was born in Stockton, CA, but moved around a lot over the years. My father wasn’t around, and my mom shacked up where she could to keep a roof over our heads. I was surrounded by a lot of bad influences, but I had two little sisters looking up to me so I mostly stayed out of trouble - that is, I never cut class, cheated in school, used drugs or alcohol, or bullied kids, but I fought a lot. Usually I didn’t have a choice. I attended between 30-40 schools during K-12, sometimes moving every few months. We were poor, and I spent most of my childhood in the poorer neighborhoods of the cities we lived in. I was a bookworm as far back as I can remember, and reading became my way of maintaining some consistency as we moved from place to place. I didn’t bother getting to know anyone at many of the schools I attended, and could usually be found spending my lunch hour reading a book in the library. Every time I started at a new school, I would be placed in the honors or advanced classes - sometimes because they tested me, other times because the teachers figured out I was ahead of the other students, but sometimes I think it was because I was one of the only white kids in a gang-infested gladiator academy. Either way, I was only an average student. I would win spelling bees, math competitions, and essay contests, and ace classes when our grade depended on essays, tests, and quizzes, but I did almost no homework in twelve years of school. My home environment was too chaotic and stressful - an obstacle that can be overcome with dedicated and serious parenting, but alas… I think I got C’s in pretty much every math class I ever took, acing every quiz and test, but never doing a single homework assignment. I’d get a C- or C+ depending on whether the teacher liked me. When I was close to graduating in 1999, I was called in to a meeting with the school counselors. I had aced my ACT test, and they wanted to know how that was possible when I was graduating with a 2.something GPA. They lectured me about discipline, and properly applying myself, and asked about my college plans. It was a conversation I’d had with dozens of school officials over the years.

2. Why did you decide to enlist in the Navy? What did you do in the Navy?

My grandfather was a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, and I had always planned on joining after I was finished with school. I went to college, but I still didn’t really know which direction I ought to go after three semesters, so I cut it short and joined the Navy in January 2001. A fateful decision, because there’s no question that if I’d still been a civilian on September 11, 2001, I would have joined the Army or Marine Corps and my life would have taken a radically different course.