Interview with Rikki Schlott
Rikki Schlott is a writer. She is a columnist with the New York Post.
Timeblocking
Contents
Max Raskin: You’re a college dropout, right?
Rikki Schlott: I guess technically. My nuance is that I do have a deposit in at Columbia. I might do one class and then drop out to be an Ivy dropout. But I dropped out of NYU.
I don't want to make my brand as a college dropout and then don't. So I'm pretty much dropped out.
MR: I think this means you’re having to answer a question a lot of people defer until years after college: How do you actually want to spend your day — professionally and personally?
RS: I'm probably working a 60-plus hour work week at the moment. I'm a columnist at the New York Post, and I do that two days a week. I do a podcast, and I'm there three days a week. I'm also a fellow at FIRE, so I read on my own time and do research for them. And I'm writing a book.
I've become a timeblocker, actually.
MR: What's a timeblocker?
RS: It goes way back — Benjamin Franklin used this method for specifically setting each house as what he was going to do. Some days I'll literally plan out that this is the 30 minutes that I will eat something. It’s really neurotic and I wouldn't normally do that in other circumstances. But now that I'm doing eight jobs at once and just sort of freewheeling it, that's the only way that I can structure my day.
MR: What software or technology do you use to actually to run your day?
RS: I have a physical planner. I'm old fashioned. It's somewhere, but it's a literal graph, hour by hour thing.
4.0 Dropout
MR: Are you future-oriented or do you just try to enjoy what you're doing now?
RS: So I had a 4.0 at NYU and I was going to law school. It was the practical path. I could make a decent wage. I wasn't that excited about it, but I had the skill set for that and had blinders on. A very linear life plan — the most practical thing.
And then the pandemic happened when I was a sophomore, and it just was earth shattering to me that everything could just stop and my plans could just be completely derailed at such a fundamental point in my life. I remember when I decided to take a leave of absence because I decided I wasn’t going to pay NYU tuition to be on Zoom.
My mom was like, "Go for it. I will finance you through one semester — just do something meaningful." And then I realized that I'd been sitting on this desire to be in the political discourse, but I never really thought it was practical. I think I was also scared of the repercussions, being center-right. And so I went totally off the rails. I think I started with the Daily Wire — with Ben Shapiro — they asked me for a writing sample. I originally didn’t want my name on it, but eventually I gave them permission to publish my writing sample because I was like, "I'll just do it, whatever."
And then one thing just led to the next and I have no idea what I'm doing or what my career plan is and it changes all the time. All of a sudden there's a book deal. And then Bill Maher calls. It's totally in flux.
Just A Standard, Republican, New Jersey Family
MR: You said you had this interest in politics — what was your earliest political memory or where did the interest come from?
RS: I'm from a conservative family, not super crazy conservative. My dad’s much older — he’s a Reagan Republican — just a standard Republican, New Jersey family.
But in the lead up to the 2016 election, when I was in high school, my high school campus was very, very political. I’m hearing stuff like “Everyone who supports Trump is a terrible person and a racist.” I know my parents, I know their character — and I know that they're both going to vote for him, and I know that they're both good people and they have their reasons.
And so I think my whole political consciousness has been in this very divisive era where I think I am probably a more moderate voice in the right than most people who are in the media circuit.
MR: Are there any books or thinkers who had a big impact on your political thinking?
RS: Thomas Sowell is up there. Reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind totally changed my mindset. It set me on a path of wanting to be a person who someone on the Left could have a conversation with and feel like it was in good faith.
I’m writing a book now with Greg Lukianoff, who is a lifelong liberal Democrat — we're writing about the common ground issues.
MR: If someone has never read any of your work before, what would be the first thing, you would tell them to read or watch?
RS: I think it depends on the person and the context. I wrote this article recently that I was so nervous about publishing — a longform article on de-transitioners, which is obviously the third rail issue of the moment right now. I was sure that my life was going to be over, as a result of it, and so that was a test case for me of trying to approach the most sensitive cultural issues with an open mind and presenting it in a way so as not to get any backlash. Reporting-wise, that's probably my favorite.
YouTuber
MR: What app do you click on the most?
RS: I hate Instagram — I'm definitely not an Instagram girl. I would say Twitter.
MR: Do you know what your screen time is?
RS: Okay, it says six hours. That doesn't feel possible. But two hours and 17 minutes of each day has been music.
But I'm a click-straight-to-YouTube kind of person. I've always been a YouTube person over any social media.
MR: What's the last YouTube video you watched?
RS: Gosh, this is probably going to be revealing. The last YouTube video I watched was a CNBC short on “Why Charter Schools Make Americans So Angry.”
Podcasts
MR: Where's your favorite place to eat in New York?
RS: I don't know, local Chinese. I just moved so I don't have my special places yet. But Pete's Tavern was a favorite. I used to live in that neighborhood and my dad is very old school and so every time he'd come in, we would go to Pete’s.
MR: You said your dad was old. How old is he?
RS: 85, I think.
MR: Why did he have you so late?
RS: My mom's the third wife and she wanted a kid.
MR: Oh wow.
RS: So I'm my mom's only child, but I have much older half brothers.
MR: What do you do for exercise?
RS: I run and I hate it. I hate exercising. It's just for the sake of doing it and staying healthy. I just hate physical activity.
MR: Do you listen to music when you work out?
RS: If it's high-intensity, I have to listen to music. If I'm just on the elliptical, I'll listen to podcasts.
MR: What's the last thing on your phone that you listened to?
RS: I was listening to a podcast when I was walking.
MR: What podcast?
RS: I like The Hill’s show, Rising. Robby Soave's on there. He is a friend through Reason — I often disagree with some of the hosts' takes, like Briahna Joy Gray’s, but I feel like everyone in that show, are using good faith. So I love that show.
MR: What's the last music you listened to?
RS: The last song I listened to is “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. while I was running.
MR: I know that song.
RS: It's a good running song.
MR: How long will you run for?
RS: Three miles is as much as I can do. I'm really unathletic, like painfully unathletic.
MR: What’s must-read for you?
RS: I usually stay on top of whatever Reason comes out with just because I'm more libertarian-oriented. I'm at work usually by 8:00 AM, and I always walk to work, so I just want to listen to something while I'm walking. Reason Round Table is up there. Fifth Column. Mike and Kelly. If she comes out with something, I live for Bari Weiss' podcast. They are few and far between, but they're always so good.
Not The First Amendment
MR: Are you religious?
RS: I am Christian and not super actively Christian, but it's an identity point for me. But I don't go to church on a regular basis.
MR: Do you pray or meditate?
RS: I pray occasionally, but not on any regular basis, no.
MR: Are you into guns?
RS: No, I'm really scared of guns. I'm pro-Second Amendment, but I wasn't raised around them and, during the pandemic, especially living alone, I felt like I should have one. I asked my dad to help me set up going shooting with a friend of his, and I cried when I shot a gun for the first time. Just something about the gravity of how powerful they are, and that I could theoretically kill someone with it — I was overcome by that. This is despite the fact that I'm very vocally pro Second Amendment and gun rights.
MR: I'm trying to understand. What about shooting a gun made you cry?
RS: Something about the power of holding something that I was only holding because I felt like I might need to use it at some point in time. Not that I actively felt that way, but I was living alone. We had a few issues in my building with people sleeping and had got broken through the door multiple times in my building. And I felt like there was a need for self-defense and something about the fact that I was in a position where I was holding something that I could kill someone with, and the only reason I wanted to hold that, was because I felt like I wasn't being protected in the city that I was living in alone and stuff.
MR: Do you feel safe in New York right now?
RS: No.
MR: What do you do in your free time?
RS: I don't have a ton of free time right now, so what I do have, I'm being very intentional in making sure that my non-work relationships are holding up. Which I think for a while, I slipped in. I have friends from my NYU chapter who I fear I neglected a little bit when I was really underwater and working in the pandemic and everything.
Bill Maher
MR: Do you think your life changed after Bill Maher?
RS: No. The week following it was so bizarre, and even being recognized by people was super foreign to me.
MR: Did you get recognized a lot?
RS: Yeah, it happened a lot. It was really weird. When I got back to New York it was probably a dozen people stopping me on the street. But I have no desire to be a public figure.
MR: Were you nervous before Bill Maher?
RS: Honestly, weirdly, no. I'd been talking to their producers for a year, so it had been a thing in the back of my mind for quite a while.
MR: Who reached out to you?
RS: One of his producers reached out to me. She saw one of my first articles I ever wrote, which was an op-ed about free speech at NYU. I had no track record, at all. She just followed me through the year and weekly updates. I’d just give her a weekly update on what I was up to. And then one time it just worked out that there was a slot. But I would say it changed my life definitely in terms of credibility.
MR: Did you bring your mom to the show?
RS: I brought my mom and my best friend. The night after she stayed with me and they put me up in a nice hotel. And she stayed with me and woke up at 2:00 AM, and I was scrolling on Twitter and she was like, "No, I'm taking your phone." I need someone to do that.
MR: What do you do to plug out and relax?
RS: Nothing really. I should probably do something.
MR: Do you drink?
RS: Socially, lightly. Not really.
MR: Do you have any bad habits?
RS: I think just not turning off, ever. If I'm on a walk, I'm listening to a podcast. I think AirPods enable me a little more than they should. I'm not normally a 2:00 AM Twitter person, but after I went on the show, I was curious, and then I learned my lesson.