Rachel Maddow

Rachel Anne Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American radio personality and liberal political pundit. She is the host of The Rachel Maddow Show on Air America Radio and an MSNBC political analyst.

Education
A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, Maddow later obtained a degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. She then received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1995 and used it to obtain a D.Phil. in political science from Lincoln College, Oxford University. Her political activism has focused on AIDS and prisoners' rights, especially the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS in prisons. She is gay, and is an outspoken advocate for gay and progressive issues.

Radio career
Maddow got her first radio hosting job at WRNX (101.9 FM, Amherst, Massachusetts) when the station held a contest for a new on-air personality. She was hired on the spot. She later went on to host Big Breakfast on WRSI, in Northampton, Massachusetts, for two years. She left the show to join the newly created Air America in March 2004. There she hosted Unfiltered along with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead until its cancellation on March 31, 2005. Two weeks later (April 14), her own two-hour-long program, The Rachel Maddow Show, began airing; it was expanded to three hours on March 10, 2008. It currently airs live from New York from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET on weekdays, with David Bender filling in the third hour for the call-in section, when Maddow is on TV assignment.

Television career
Maddow was a regular panelist on MSNBC's Tucker. During and after the November 2006 election, she was a frequent guest on CNN's Paula Zahn Now. In January 2008, Maddow was given the position of MSNBC political analyst and is now a regular panelist MSNBC's Race for the White House with David Gregory and MSNBC's election coverage, as well as a frequent contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

On April 4, 2008, Maddow was the substitute host for Countdown with Keith Olbermann, her first time hosting a news program on MSNBC. Maddow described herself on air as "nervous," but Olbermann complimented her work and she was brought back to host "Countdown" on May 16, 2008; that day, Countdown was the highest rated news program in the key 25–54 year old demographic. For her success, Olbermann awarded Maddow the 3rd ranking in his regular segment, "World's Best Persons" on the following Monday, calling her "World's Best Pinch-Hitter." On June 16, Maddow filled in for David Gregory as host of MSNBC's Race for the White House.

Personal life
She lives in Manhattan and Cummington, Massachusetts, with her partner of many years, Susan Mikula.