What has political journalism to do with music? Well, quite a lot.
My guest today is Matt K Lewis from West Virginia, a political columnist for the daily beast, former CNN contributor, TV commentator for MSNBC’s morning show, a podcaster on Matt Lewis and the News (pun intended) and musician.

Matt shares with us that he started his career, or better, the foundation of his later career, in the basement rehearsing with his band. Years later, when already a political journalist, he reflected on his music years and wrote an essay about the lessons he learned from playing in bands and how they helped him to understand his work in political journalism today.

We talk about his musical upbringing, country music, steel and slide guitars. And make many analogies between music and journalism.

Here are the five lessons from his article that he explains in the show:

1. Having an audience of “followers” is vital.

2. Music, like TV commentary, involves performing.

3. Playing music (and being a political commentator) isn’t nearly as glamorous as people think.

4. Not every song (or blog post or column) is a hit.

5. Collaboration is key.

Show notes

Connect with Matt on Twitter: @mattklewis
Matt Lewis & the News Podcast: https://www.mattklewis.com/
Matt’s article: https://dailycaller.com/2016/11/22/what-music-taught-me-about-political-journalism/

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The Faith of Rabbis and Philosophers (2nd Sunday after Pentecost)