10 Questions With Journalist Rachel Maddow

by WebMD November 4, 2016

1. What’s your best health habit?

I actually love and crave exercise. I don’t have to fight myself or deal with willpower. I am eager to get to the gym. If I don’t, I get grumpy.

2. What’s your worst health habit?

I’m on the air until 10 p.m. I get home between 11 and midnight and I’m wired, so I eat really late. I eat dinner at midnight, which is a nice way to grow a potbelly and not sleep well.

3. How’s your health right now?

I would give myself a B-. In the news business, we work on this four-year cycle. When the election rolls around, you put everything else on the back burner. For 2016, I’ve sort of been living off of pizza.

4. How do you decompress?

I try really hard to take at least one day off a week. I try to be off the grid. I leave New York on the weekends and I spend all my time outdoors. Any time that I have to work through the weekend, it throws me for a loop.

5. How do you feel about aging?

My partner’s late father, who was a great guy, would say, “Aging is not for sissies.” I thought that was sort of adorable. Now, as I’m into my 40s, I believe him.

6. You’ve had recurring depression since you were a teenager. What’s it like for you?

The way I experience depression is a real closing-off from the world. It can make you really shut down physically. It can be very lonely and isolating. It turns on and turns off.

7. What helps you manage it?

My partner. She can remind me that I’m having an episode and it is temporary. And not allowing it to stop my life. I have to stick to a routine and keep working. I have to exercise.

8. What makes you happy?

I have a really good personal relationship with my partner. It’s the spine on which the rest of my skeleton hangs. We’re together 17 years now. We’ve got two giant black Labs who are giant marshmallows.

9. Have any puppy advice?

There is no such thing as too much puppy class. We had a dog who was a super handful. We just kept doing puppy class over and over. It’s in the bank for the rest of your dog’s life.

10. Do you have any new projects you’re excited about?

I go fishing a lot and I’m terrible at it. I need to get serious. 2017 is going to be my year where I finally stop being a complete 6-year-old when it comes to fishing.

WebMD Magazine – Feature Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD on August 19, 2016