Steve Doocy's Story of Fate and Passion
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It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox. Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and I'm really glad that you're able to join us today because we're going to have some fun. We're going to call

up one of the happiest people you will ever meet on camera off camera it doesn't matter where he is what time of day you talk to steve ducey and you will have a smile on your face and um he's just a great wonderful guy got a beautiful family

I've had a chance through the years to kind of get to know pretty much everybody in their family. And they're just a really unique... I think people gravitate to happy people. They want to be around happy people. And especially around a guy who writes a cookbook called...

The Simply Happy Cookbook. Steve and his wife, Kathy, they wrote another cookbook that's out just in time as we kind of turn the corner. You know, we're here at Thanksgiving and then, you know, turning the corner into the holidays. He's just a great, wonderful guy. I want to hear about a little bit about him.

how he got to Fox, his life growing up, what it was like, his time in the Midwest. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. We're going to give a couple thoughts on the news, highlight the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere, and then have the conversation with Steve Doocy. So two ends of the spectrum I want to talk about in terms of the news. And there's some heavy-weighty things going on, particularly with foreign affairs, obviously with China.

Inflation and employment, you know, some of these tech companies are laying off tens of thousands of people. That hurts during the holidays. Energy prices are really high. Thanksgiving is more expensive than ever. A lot of weighty things going on, and it's hard for people. It's very hard and difficult.

But I want to talk about two things in the news, two ends of the spectrum. First is this freight rail strike. Back on September 15th or so, Joe Biden went on 60 Minutes and was really touting how... I got that really in-depth question from Scott Pelley. Tell me, Mr. President, you averted a rail strike. How did you do it? I mean, it was the most...

I mean, right before the midterms, you know, taking the credit. Oh, well, we brought people together, you know, and but you know what? That rail strike was not done. The unions had not yet ratified it. And now we're turning, you know, we'll be getting into December here and we've got a pivotal date. And a few of the unions, although the vote was close, have not yet ratified this.

So to take a victory lap and have 60 minutes touting it before the deal's actually done, I tend to think that they'll get to the finish line, that they will finish this off.

Pay attention to this one, folks, because what the rail workers are asking for is huge, massive concessions in terms of time off and pay and everything else. One of the problems that they're having in the rail industry is attracting workers and retaining those workers.

If this rail strike goes forward, we're all going to feel it. I mean, it will cost the economy, some people estimate, $2 billion a day. Now, that's a lot of money. And I got to tell you, I hope the administration is working with them, but...

Even if they did ratify it, let's pretend that they actually do it. The cost of goods and doing business in the United States is going to go up and you're all going to feel it because it's ultimately the consumers that pay for these things. I want real workers that are happy and satisfied and have good careers. But I think as it gets exposed more and more what they're asking for and

and what is reasonable, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. So, pay attention to that rail strike because that's very real and will affect all of us. On the other end of the spectrum, big news. If you've seen the picture, if you go to foxnews.com, I hope you're able to see this. The carrot, they call them. The carrot, the biggest goldfish I have ever seen. This 20-year-old fish is about 70 pounds, just under 70 pounds.

Everybody wants that goldfish. I had a goldfish when I was growing up. That was the cutest little goldfish I had.

I would go to these little school fairs with the PTA and I'd throw a ping pong ball and try to get into those wonderful little cups. Next thing I know, I had like five goldfish and I had them in these plastic bags and I had to ride my bike home and my mom would help me put them in this bowl. I always had goldfish growing up. Our daughter had a goldfish. You couldn't kill this goldfish. It lasted forever. It was unbelievable.

But that adage that the fish will only grow as big as its container, that's evidently true. Because this guy, check out the carrot. If you can't find it on foxnews.com, goldfish the carrot. You should be able to find it. Oh, my goodness. You want to see a picture of a real fish. That's the one. All right, that's it for the news. Let's bring on the stupid because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

All right, cornhole back in the news. You know, one of my favorite all-time sports. They're embroiled in a cheating scandal. And I love one of the quotes here that came out of this. Quote, now the dirty underbelly is being exposed.

Interesting. I don't know how you cheated Cornhole, but evidently somebody was, some world champion was exposed. I don't know if he's guilty, if he's innocent, if it's just an allegation. I'm just saying the world of Cornhole is in turmoil right now, and we better solve it because the world will never be in balance until Cornhole is back and fair in everything that it's done.

The next thing I want to talk about is, you know, we can almost daily put up bumbling from the president. It's kind of sad, almost really at this point, all the bumbling that he does. But what I worry about as much as anything is when Joe Biden is out there actually reading the teleprompter and when they actually send out a tweet and they get it so wrong. So the White House touted Biden's leadership to deliver the largest COLA

Remember, cost of living adjustment, COLA. Cost of living adjustment increased to those collecting Social Security. Oh yes, Mr. President, he is delivering for you by delivering you the largest COLA increase for Social Security that you could ever imagine. But as you know, Twitter was very quick to point out that Nixon in the 1970s

made the cola automatic so the cost of a living adjustment

is automatic. It's not subject to the political whims of a president. In fact, it was inflation that drove it so high. So on the one hand, Biden is trying to downplay and deny inflation. But the reason the COLA is like at such an incredibly high level is the fact that inflation is in place. And the formula that Nixon, of all people, put into place is

causes that Social Security cola to kick in at such a high level of which Joe Biden's taking credit. That, to me, is incredibly stupid. Mr. President, don't be touting something and on the other end trying to convince people that it's not real. And that is the stupid. All right, time to bring on Steve Doocy because, you know what, he's just a wonderful, wonderful guy. So let's give a ring to Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends.

Hello? Steve, Jason Chaffetz. Who? Yeah, exactly. Wait, no. Who is this? Well, I'm this guy out west. I wish I was in person with you in New York. This is the first call I've gotten in a long time that was not from vehicle services. Yeah.

Well, yeah, that says a lot about the way, yeah. Well, listen, I have a question about a recipe. Yes, sir. And I need some help. Do you have like a hotline? 1-800-Butterball. Butterball.

You know, that really does work, actually. It does. I can only imagine when they were trying to figure out, what are we going to call these turkeys and somebody said, and Butterball got up on the board, and that one stuck. It was a good choice. It was, although, you know, when you think about turkey, and a lot of people are now that we're in November, I don't think you ever think of, I want a piece of turkey that tastes buttery.

But you're absolutely right. It just works. Whoever came up with that, a butterball... Wait a minute. Was that the name of the company? Maybe that's why they called it. Well, there was a day when I kind of weighed as much as a butterball, and I'd hear that every once in a while. Those are not good friends to hang out with, just saying. Yeah, well, I don't usually get the choice on who I get to hang out with when I was a little kid, but you know. Listen...

Appreciate it. Steve, you've been on the air at Fox for quite some time now.

You're also this author of how many books is it now? Four or five books? We have written five books. The first one was about marriage. The second one was about fatherhood. And then three books, all five of them, New York Times bestsellers. But the last three have all been cookbooks. That's, I mean, it's fabulous. What you and your wife do and how you do it. And you know what I think people really appreciate about you is this. You've always got a big smile on your face.

Listen, you know, I've been on TV first thing in the morning for like 25 years. And if you turn on the television...

and you see somebody scowling, you're not going to get out of bed. So you really got to be, you got to be like, hey, encouraging. Hey, it's going to be okay. We're going to get through today. Just get up. That doesn't come naturally to everybody. And, you know, I've been with you off air probably as much as I've been with you on air. Yeah.

you just, you're perpetually happy. It's not like you plug in and then it, you know, 9 a.m. East Coast time, it just, you know, it all deflates and

It goes away. Let's go back to little Steve. Did they call you Steve? Did they call you Stevie? What did they call you when you were born? You were born out in Iowa, right? But really get credited for growing up in Kansas. Exactly. I was Steve to everybody except my grandma, Sharp,

who, when I was one or two years old, I guess probably two going on three, I could not pronounce grandma. So I pronounced it Gunga. And Gunga just stuck.

And people would hear, and I called her Gunga until the day she died. And people would hear that and they'd go, oh, he calls her Gunga. That's probably Swedish for grandma. And I'm, according to the DNA test, I'm 70% Swedish, but it was 100% because I could not pronounce grandma. And so that's why she was Gunga. But I was Steve to everybody except Gunga.

Now, did you have brothers, sisters growing up? I had no brothers, but I had four sisters. And I was the oldest, which was handy because I didn't have to wear any of their hand-me-down clothes, which would be embarrassing because my other siblings were all girls, and that would just be awkward. And what was life in Kansas like? I mean, was it like the Wizard of Oz and you're out on the plains harvesting the fields and the pigs? What was life like in Kansas?

in Kansas for you? Well, my dad was a traveling salesman, so we moved around a lot when I was really little. We lived in Hayes and Russell and Salina, and then they finally settled in the Abilene area. And as you know, Jason, being from out there where you can see people coming at you, there wasn't a lot

There were no skyscrapers, obviously. The biggest building in our town of Salina was the building down right at the apex of the town. And I think it was maybe 10 stories. And I mean, as a little kid, you'd looked at it.

And you looked at it kind of like the Empire State Building. It's like, how did they build that? It's so big. Was it a grain silo or was it an actual office building? It was an actual office building. It had doctor's offices and stuff like that. I forget what the name of it was, but it was just saw. For a little kid, it was awe-inspiring. And, you know, we lived...

You could be in the center of town and only be about two miles from the city limits. So they were all small towns. And the town I wound up leaving to go to college was Industry, Kansas, which was population 40. And seven of them were Duceys in the house that I lived at. So it was a small town. But then it was a great upbringing. I love Kansas and Texas.

When I was growing up, nobody called me Butterball. Well, you strike me as being quite fit. I mean, the whole family there is just like fit and you're obviously eating well. That's the thing. You cook all this great stuff and it's delicious. And then I got one of these cookbooks and we gave it to our daughter and she loves it. She absolutely uses it all the time. She loves it.

And you sent me a picture of them on the couch after you presented it to them. That was legit. That was not made up. And,

But, okay, so did you grow up, like, cooking? Or what was... Did you play sports? What were you doing as a kid? Well, you can do both, Jason. You can eat and you can play... Go out for football. I... My... Both my grandmas, Grandma Ducey and Grandma Sharp, were both short order cooks in Iowa back in the 50s and 60s, and Grandma Sharp in the 70s as well. And...

They were great cooks, and my mom was a good cook. And I think I was probably in fifth grade when I won a blue ribbon at the Kansas State Fair for chocolate chip cookies that I baked. And the secret recipe was the one on the side of the yellow chocolate chip cookie bag. So that was my secret back then. Wow, that's pretty, you know...

For the state fair to win the blue ribbon? That's impressive. It was very impressive. Indeed, my mom said, make that. I made it according to the bag, and then I threw in some chopped nuts. And, you know, it was essentially an ad lib. And that was, you know, back in the 60s, that was...

innovative pretty risque from kansas whoo i know throwing a few chopped nuts hey look at that you know how much those walnuts are these days holy cow uh and then when it came to sports i i was active i played uh american legion baseball uh played soccer in high school played football in high school uh i was a wrestler uh on the high school team and uh

I did that until sophomore year, and then I got a job because in the '70s, times were tough. I mean, in the '70s, that's when people are talking about, "Do you remember when mortgage rates were 18%?" That was then, and my parents could not afford to give me gas to drive to school, and we lived out about 20 miles away from the school, and I wanted to drive.

So I had to get a job, and I wound up quitting sports, and I went to work at Summers Menswear in Clay Center and learned how to sell clothes. And it's not hard. It's like, you need a shirt. Okay, they're right there. And that was selling clothes.

Hey, we have shirts. Yeah, you need shirts. You need a shirt? We have shirts. Here we are. Oh, that looks brilliant on you. We sold a lot of coveralls and overalls as well, because the guy, Bill Summers, who owned the store, was, I think, the Kansas or Midwest regional salesman for Big Smith, which was a big, could still be, a big denim store.

So we had the big Smith jeans and the coveralls and the overalls. And okay. So great. So when did you, when did you figure out that, you know, some people can write some people, most people can't write. Some people can speak in public. Most can't. So when did you figure out that, Hey, you know, I kind of like talking out loud and I'm, I'm pretty good at it and I can string some sentences together coherently. When did that all come to,

How did you gravitate to television and radio? You know, that is an excellent question. It was growing up watching my dad. I would on Saturdays, I would go with my dad on his sales calls. And at that point during my wonder years, he was selling cattle feed. So we would go out and talk to the farmers about buying triple F feeders.

And I would just go with him and I would watch him. You know, we would drive out to a farm and we'd get out of his pickup, his Ford 150. And he'd just start a conversation with people who were total strangers to me initially until, you know, I rode with him for years and just saw how a salesman operated. And he was so comfortable and he always had...

A witty saying. He always left them laughing. And I just thought, you know, I don't know what I am going to wind up doing, but I want to be like my dad. And it actually was. I mentioned that one of the towns we lived in was Abilene, Kansas, which is the boyhood home of Dwight Eisenhower, our 34th president. And I was in sixth grade.

going to a one-room schoolhouse, an actual, honest to God, one-room schoolhouse in Industry, Kansas. There were 11 kids in the whole school. And three of my sisters were in my class, which was weird because they were much younger than me. And when Eisenhower died, and I want to say it was in 1969,

Because he was just down the road, Abilene was just 15 miles from industry, the whole school, all 11 of us, went to the Eisenhower funeral. And, I mean, all of Kansas' schools were dismissed that day anyway, so people could watch it on TV. And our teacher, Mrs. Lloyd, Hazel Lloyd, she was looking for a parking place on

And she found one over by the train station. Well, we didn't realize this, but they were going to Eisenhower was arriving on a train and she's she picked a fortuitous spot where right at that spot is where all the TV, the network TV cameras were set up.

And those very familiar guys that you would see on the Walter Cronkite News at night were standing right next to where we stopped. And when the train pulled up and Eisenhower's body was taken off in the casket, I watched the...

the news reporters describing what they were seeing. And it was like, well, they're describing exactly what I'm seeing. That's kind of a cool job. And then when I went home after that, I watched the news with my mom, who was there, and my dad was out selling something somewhere. So he wasn't there. But then I told, I kind of gave my first ever report

And I told her, as we were watching the coverage from Abilene, I said, OK, and this is what happened here. And we were standing there and it was the first time I ever thought about news. And the added component was Eisenhower was his son married

president nixon's daughter so uh president nixon was there uh i think jimmy carter was there there were like three three presidents there there were because uh eisenhower led the nato uh d-day operation there were all these military leaders from europe uh who were there and it was like even though i'm in a little town of less than five thousand people it's like

The most important people in the world came to my town, and it was just cool to see them. And, you know, I think that sparked my interest in journalism and my interest in the White House, the presidency. And, you know, fast forward 50 years...

Here, you know, I've been covering the White House now for like 40 years, and now my son works at the White House. And it's pretty cool. It's full circle. He didn't watch his dad, the traveling salesman, grow up, but he did watch his dad, who was sitting on a couch drinking coffee, talking about stuff in the news all day. So I think that's why he went into that business.

You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Steve Doocy right after this. I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com.

Okay, so you're in high school, and then you go to the University of Kansas. You just applied and went, and is that your first kind of radio television job? I read that you were a disc jockey. Yeah, that's right. Before I went to college,

I think it was about the time I was in junior high into high school. The number one show on television at our house was the Bob Newhart show. Oh, I love that show. Where he was... I'm old enough to remember that show. That show is awesome. I...

I love that show. Bob Newhart is one of my favorite comedians ever. Ever. And it was a real thrill for me to be able to meet him a couple of times when he came to Fox. But when I was watching that, I just and this was the this was the show, not when he ran the bed and breakfast in Vermont or wherever. Right. Right. This is when he Chicago. Yeah. He was a psychologist in Chicago, married to Suzanne Plachette.

And he would lead group therapy sessions, and I would watch them, and I was just fascinated by...

the conversations that the psychiatrist, psychologist would have with, with his clients. And I just thought, you know what, when I grow up, I want to be a psychologist. So I thought about that until, um, about the time of Watergate. And that would have been 74. And, um, you know, it was very, I was out in Kansas watching it all happen, but you've got these, uh, and I was in high school, uh,

You've got these newspaper reporters and they were reporting the news about this break in and how high in the government it went. And ultimately, I I was interested. The whole world was fascinated by what was going on. And then the movie All the President's Men came out.

when I was a junior in high school. And that kind of did the deal. I said, when I grow up, I want to be a newspaper writer. And so I went to the university. I applied to KU and got in. And I had every intention of working on the University Daily Kansan, the UDK. But on the first day that I was on campus, my friend Gary and I were walking around campus just seeing what

what was there, uh, how exciting it was that we were there with all these other, uh, kids our age because we were, we were both from rural Kansas. I mean, literally there, there was not another house for a mile from where we lived. So it was cool to be around other people. But, um, we were walking over on West campus and there was a little building and the door was open. And right next to the door was this speaker, a great big speaker, like, uh,

by five feet. In the 70s, they did everything big with sound. And it's like, what is that music coming from? And we walked over and there was a sign that said, come on in. And we walked on in and it was the radio station. It was the college radio station. And this DJ, I mean, we literally walked from outside the

into a control room, much like where we're sitting right now, where they've got this control panel and a bunch of sliders and microphones and things like that. And this guy looks over at me and my friend Gary and he goes, are you here for the DJ job? And it's like, we're new. What DJ job? And they go, well, you know, this is a radio station and we're looking for people to be DJs. And it's like, wait a minute.

We just walked in off the street. We could be DJs? And the guy goes, absolutely. There's a clipboard right over there. Sign up for a shift. And it's like, we had never thought about being DJs, but we signed up for like the Tuesday, Thursday, 10 o'clock shift.

I said, okay, so what do we do? They go, well, because it's an actual radio station, you have to go and you've got to get a license from the FCC. And I said, what are you talking about? And he said, well, you've got to prove that you know how to run a radio station. And I said, isn't it just a switch? And they go, no, you've got to write down plate voltage and antenna stuff.

And it's like, okay, how hard would the test be? And he said, go over to the union, buy the book, and then take the test. They give the test every, I forget what day it was, like Tuesdays in Kansas City, which was 40 miles away. Got the book.

There were two parts to it, the regular part and then element nine. And element nine was all about physics, essentially. It was about plate voltage and effective radiated wattage and stuff like that, which was like speaking Greek to me because I'm not good on that. I'd never heard those things. So I passed the first part, flunked the second part. A guy goes, come back next week. Went back the next week, passed it.

Long story short, we wound up within two weeks as DJs, my friend and I. And that changed everything. You know, it is amazing. Some of these small things in life. I had a couple of those, you know, kind of, yeah, I could have gone one way or the other, right? Could have kept walking, could have turned left, could have turned right and decided, no, give it a shot. Totally changed the trajectory of my life. Yeah. I mean, had my...

Had my one-room school teacher not parked right there that day of Eisenhower's funeral, I wouldn't have gotten interested in broadcasting and stuff like that. And, you know, had we...

As it turns out, where we lived, Jason, growing up, we could only get one channel. And it was WIBW out of Topeka, was about 90 miles away. And it was a CBS affiliate. I grew up never watching ABC or NBC because they were on stations that were down in Wichita. And we couldn't get that signal where I was living in central Kansas. So, I mean...

Had I watched another channel, maybe I wouldn't have been interested in becoming a psychologist like Bob Newhart. Maybe I would have, if I were watching ABC, maybe I was interested in becoming a starship commander or something. But you're absolutely right. How do you think that would have gone, Steve? It's just one of those things. If you were...

if you're in the space force or how do you think that would have gone if you could take the wattage test twice so i think after i would make my tinfoil hat i i'm pretty sure my mom and dad would have had some sort of an intervention an intervention okay so you get the bug you're in the right spot this is what a university is supposed to do right open your eyes to the world and

teach you how to think and give you a skill set to move forward. So you're at the University of Kansas, but then you make the transition. Did you make it, was the next job radio or did you then transition to television? Well, one of my friends was, I was working at the radio station as a freshman and then my sophomore year moved into an apartment because they

You know, in an apartment, you could actually have beer. You couldn't have beer at the dorm back then. Had you had beer before you got to college, Steve? I actually had not. So this was something that I... Because it's okay to fess up now. It's okay. Listen, I made up for lost time. But in high school, no, I was not one of the beer drinkers. I just wasn't. But...

So I wound up working at the radio station for the first year. And then the second year when I was a sophomore and I started taking broadcasting classes, somebody said, you know, KTSB in Topeka is looking for a weekend weather guy.

And you'd be great at it. And they said that because I had a radio show and the radio show is popular at KU. And so I went over and auditioned and I got the job as the weekend weather guy. Really? Which paid $4 an hour. And because think about it, we only had one show on.

a day at 10 to 10 30 on a saturday night and um so if they paid me just for that i would only get at four dollars an hour i'd only get paid for half an hour so my check would be for two dollars so they said you know come in early come in about nine nine o'clock in the morning and we'll have you shoot news film

And so they gave me a film camera called a Scoopic, and I learned how to... Well, I was learning already in film class at the university how to shoot film. But what was new was, because I was the only person working at the TV station, is I had to process the film, which was new. So you would take it out of the camera, then you would run it through this processing machine, which was terrifying. And then...

once it was dry, I would have to edit it with a razor blade and tape. That's really old school. That's, yes. It's the old stuff. And with sound bites and stuff like that, there was this little magnetic strip thing

that ran along the side of the sprockets. And so it was pretty cool. So I learned how to do that. So I wound up for a couple of years until I graduated being the weekend weather guy. And then when I graduated, they said, Steve, you know, you got a degree in journalism and a minor in politics. Why don't you be the statehouse reporter? So I became the statehouse reporter for, I'd say, about another...

Six or nine months. And then I wound up going to Iowa, worked at a little station there for just a little bit. Didn't really like that, even though I'm from Iowa, because the station was owned by Iowa State University and it was the ABC affiliate. And they didn't have the cool new equipment because suddenly local stations were buying live trucks.

And things like that. And I wanted to be at a place like that. And then I wound up working in Wichita and then Kansas City. And then I went to Washington, D.C., where I did the last segment of Live at Five on the NBC-owned station every day for six years. And I just loved that. And then that's pretty much what launched me on my way.

So I got to deviate here for a second. Along the way, you met who's now your wife, right? Right. Well, that was at the station in Washington, D.C., because I was working in the news department and she was working in the sports department. And she had she was she was the first woman.

Yeah, I think that's right. She was the first woman with her own show on ESPN back in... That would be the 80s. Oh, wow. And then she went to work... What was the show about? It was called Sidelines, and...

It would be where she would talk to celebrities about how sports had impacted their lives. And so she would interview people like Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman, Robert Redford. I mean, she got all the big stars on her show, and she did very well. I met her there. I would see her in the NBC commissary in Washington, and I...

Had many conversations with her when we were standing in a line waiting for the french fries to be finished. Yeah, you just coincidentally, accidentally, oh, I'm in line. Oh, look, I'm in line with you again. My office was near... I had a kind of a view at the hall leading to the commissary, so I would know when she was heading that way. And it was always the same time anyway, every day. And so... Look, it was a cook. It was food that brought you together. That's good. Well, actually, so...

I eventually wear her down and she said, hey, I'm new in town. What are you doing New Year's? And for a variety of reasons, that did not work out because just before we were going to go out six o'clock or rather 1030. No. What am I talking about? Late local news. It would have been 1130 New Year's Eve. And we had made a date.

But then the assignment editor said, hey, Steve, they want you to do a live shot for the Johnny Carson show at 1135. You want to do that? I said, absolutely. Just make please tell Kathy from the sports department I will not be able to pick her up at that time. And she never got the news. And so I stood her up. So that's how it started. Talk the next day and.

She said, well, you know, I had bought a bottle of champagne for New Year's. Why don't you come over and I'll make lasagna? And I went over. She'd never made lasagna before, but she had a cookbook. It was a brand new apartment. She didn't realize that when she preheated the oven, the owner's manual and all that styrofoam was inside the oven. So it caught on fire.

And once the fire truck left, she started the dinner and it turned out great. And at the end of that first date, we talked for hours and I said, you know, you're going to think I'm crazy, but someday we will be married.

And she said, that's nice. You should leave. And Jason, 43 days later, I popped the question at the Palm in Washington. Yes, it's there. And like four months later, we were married in a park in Kansas City. And that was 36 years ago. Wow.

Worked out. That was some lasagna. That was some lasagna and quite the pronouncement. Pretty early in the cyst, pretty early in the... But it came to fruition. And good for you. Well, I've had a chance to meet and interact with her as well. She's just absolutely lovely. Okay, so you're there close to Fox, but Fox is...

Not on the radar yet. When Fox was starting to come on board, I mean, you were right there at the beginning, weren't you? I was. I started like a month into the broadcast back in 96 and been there ever since. How'd you get that job?

They came up and said, hey, Steve, come in and talk to us. Bring a reel and let's chat. Well, I had done a morning show before and I was doing the CBS morning news on West 57th Street in New York. So they knew who I was and they liked it. And the rest is history. Did it feel risky going to a brand new? It didn't feel like a true startup, right? I mean, it had some...

a lot of resources behind it. Did you have a comfort level of that? Or were you like, yeah, I hope it makes it for the next year or two. I think when you start something new, you always wonder, I'm sure that I'm sure the guys who were at Twitter in the beginning were like, I don't know if anybody's going to want to do this. Turns out Twitter worked out. It turns out,

Fox News was in the right place at the right time. And it all worked out. How is Fox and Friends different now than it was when you first got going? Well, you know, in the beginning, it was just the three of us. And before we would start, it would be like, what should we talk about? And it's like, well, let's talk about this, this, and this. And so that was it. You know, I would write it down on a note card. Number one, talk about...

who knows what, something in the news. Number two, a funny thing from sports. And number three, you know, something from Hollywood. And we would, it would just be conversational and away we would go. Today, we have so, we've got the resources of Fox News, the world leader in fair and balanced, accurate news. And so we've got polls, we've got video, we've got sound bites, we've got live shots, we've got all sorts of stuff that we didn't have then. So,

Content-wise, we take the news seriously. We don't take ourselves seriously a lot of the time. So we like to have fun in the morning. But at the same time, now we've got the assets of the Fox News World Headquarters.

at our beck and call, and we can make a pretty shiny show. We have a lot of cool stuff we can show folks first thing every morning. Well, look, there's a lot going on in the world, right? And so when you wake up, you want to kind of get a sense of everything that's going on, everything from...

Yeah.

Fox and Friends, for those, I mean, I've got a chance to see it up close and personal. And it is amazing. It's the one staff where literally you can call the Fox and Friends desk or wander over there on the second floor and go see it. There's somebody there 24-7. It's such incredible production.

That's what I think makes it the, in part, the best, the best show that there is in the morning is all those resources culminating and coming together. Cause that thing is hopping and moving and there is so much to talk about. And then,

And then you and Brian and Ainsley, I mean, you just kind of make it come alive with the smile on your face. And that's really hard to do because they're constantly talking in your ear. And you've got to pivot left and right. And then all of a sudden something new is breaking. It's...

To do it with the smoothness that you have through the years is quite remarkable. Well, thank you very much. But we're just having normal conversations like you would with your neighbor across the back fence or anything like that. It's like, you know, sometimes when you're talking, suddenly you are reminded of something else and you pivot and you start talking about something else. And then rap.

Right. When you start something else, then the producer might say, hey, we've got the video from Tuesday of Joe Biden saying this. And it's like, yeah. And then we'll give them about two seconds. Then we'll say, you know, do you remember when Joe Biden said that on Tuesday? And then we would just all look like, wow, look at that. Out of nowhere, that popped in. And it's because we've got great producers. And you're right. They are working all night. A lot of our staff comes to work at midnight. Right.

which is the ultimate graveyard shift. What time do you wake up in the morning to get in? Today, because of daylight savings time, I woke up at 2 o'clock. Normally, I would wake up at 3 o'clock. So it's going to take me a couple of days until I get back to 3. And what time do you go to bed? Last night, I went to bed about 10 o'clock.

Oh, so you stayed up late. Well, not on purpose, but I was on Friday. We did a live show from hearing the natives in in Hobe Sound, Florida. And so my flight back from Florida last night was a little delayed. And that's why I went to bed a little late. All right. So I do need to ask you about one of the Fox favorites is doing an incredible job.

But how surreal is it to toss to and have an interaction and watch your son reporting live from the White House? Because that's got to be just the happiest dad moment ever.

Well, I, you know, growing up as a young reporter myself, the ultimate assignment is the White House assignment. So I'm completely honest. I'm a little jealous. He got the White House gig, but he's doing such a good job at it. Oh, yeah. You know, because he asks interesting questions. And, you know, Jen Psaki, they often went viral. And same with Corrine.

Jean-Pierre. And so, you know, he asks good questions respectfully and he's doing a good job. I think one of the hardest things to do in general, but also on television, is cut to the nub of the issue of

Take a very complex thing synthesize it down And I think it's I think this is true when you chair the oversight committee in people are questioning You've only got five minutes. It's sort of like television. You better go fast You better get right after it right away But I think part of what works so well with with Peter is that with a smile on his face? not with animosity not with the meanness and

but he asked very direct, simple questions that should be fairly easy to answer. But if they can't clarify, if it's not written down in their book, they seem to struggle. And that's not Peter's fault. I applaud Peter for asking questions that nobody else in that room dare ask. And I think

How many of you think this is right? I think the others in the room don't ask that question because their editors and their producers, they're not going to run it. And so the people in the room may have those very same questions or similar questions, but their network won't air whatever those answers are. Well,

I don't know. You know, I think every news outlet has a different story they're working on that day. So they might, you know, whether it's Bloomberg or ABC or CNN, that day the story might be COVID, I don't know, or it might be international relations. And so they will often ask their reporter, hey, ask a question about COVID.

or ask a question about the Paris deal, or something like that. So they are simply trying to get some quotes for their outlet. Whereas Peter, for the most part, I don't know that...

I don't know that they ever tell him exactly what to... I don't think they ask him... I think they give him an assignment in the morning. Okay, Peter, today you're going to do Joe Biden on the economy. And so Peter will think about questions for Joe Biden on the economy and come up with something. And he makes the question simple because if you... There are a lot of people on TV...

who will ask a simple question, but they'll ask it for about a minute and a half. Right. Because it's more face time. Whereas Peter knows that the shorter the question, the harder it is to dodge. And so he will make them simple and...

ultimately sound biteable and he's able to get cleaner answers. He's really, really good at this job. And so I think it's fun to see the two of you interacting from time to time on Fox and Friends. You're listening to Jason in the House. Stay with us. We'll be right back. You've been very generous with your time, but I do need to ask you a few more questions. Sure. That's okay. Yeah. These are the rapid questions. Okay.

I don't know how many pies you've baked along the way. You're not going to be properly prepared for these. Just strap it in and here we go. Okay, ready? Yes, sir. First concert you attended. Okay, it was either Chicago or Neil Sedaka.

Those are pretty good. Those are big name acts. They were back then. That wasn't in Abilene. You had to go to, what, Chicago or Kansas City for that? That would have been at... No. You know what? I think my... Although it was not a musical group, I think my first concert...

Was Steve Martin. Doing a college tour? Yeah, wild and crazy guy. And then one of my roommates said, hey, I've got tickets for Paul McCartney and Wings. And it's like, okay, how much? And I think they were $10. And so I gave him the $10. He gave me a ticket.

Night of the show I go they go this is a forgery. It's great But I went to Chicago and Neil Sadaka about the same time so I don't remember which one I remember the Steve Martin I used to have those old cassette tapes wild and crazy guy. Yeah, I Remember traveling I played a lot of soccer growing up and we go on these trips and I remember mr. Gazoo I hope you listen to this he was down in Phoenix and

And Mr. Gazoo had the van, so we'd all pile in the van. And sort of like the Bad News Bears, we'd take off and go to the next city. And we would play that Steve Martin Wild and Crazy Guy tape, I don't know, a hundred times? I mean...

Those were fun times growing up. So what was your high school mascot? Well, that would be the Clay Center Community High School Tigers. Oh, there were a lot of tigers in Kansas. That makes immense sense. It makes a lot of sense. Very, you know, celebration of the community. Listen to you, Mr. Utah.

You know what? You're suggesting, well, it's Kansas. Why weren't you in the tumbleweeds? That's what you're saying. Well, in Utah, we have the beat diggers. Now, that's legit. The what? The beat diggers. Because the community used to dig up beats. And so, yeah, the beat diggers. That makes... Although, my kids went to a school...

that were the knights. And I don't know, there were a lot of people in armor back in the day, marching around the wilds of mountains of Utah. But in my high school, I was a middle park Panther and in Granby, Colorado. Oh, a lot of Panthers in Colorado. Actually, there are, there actually, actually, I actually had a proposal when I was the editor of the little tiny newspaper. I graduated. My graduating class was 49 people.

And we were, I'd made a proposal in the newspaper that, you know, there were probably 12 copies of this to become the penguins because we were so freezing cold. We were always like the nation's leader and being cold and,

I just thought it was good branding for where we were, the Penguins, but didn't pass. They're still the Panthers. So what is the difference between a cougar and a panther and a mountain lion? I don't know. You just don't want to get on the wrong side of them. Actually, you know what? Like, I don't think there's ever been a mountain lion attack that led to a death in Utah.

Really? They're everywhere around here. I'm looking at the San Diego Zoo website right now. What's in a name? It says mountain lion, puma, cougar, panther. This cat is known by more names than just about any other mammal. So apparently it's the same cat.

Yeah, the only one that's a pet peeve of mine is when people are going up to Yellowstone and Utah has native bison too. But when people look at a bison and then they call it by the wrong name and they say buffalo, I'm like,

There are no buffalo in North America. Sorry, I hate to tell you that. I heard it explained this way, because once I went to the up in, I want to say Grand Teton, the elk refuge, I was covering that...

Who was I working for back then? I forget. But anyway, I made that mistake. I said, look at those buffalo. And the guy goes, that's bison. I said, okay, what's the difference between, how can I tell people the difference between buffalo and bison? And he said, well, a buffalo is a large, hairy mammal in North America, and a bison is what some people wash their face in.

Oh, my goodness. No, a buffalo is in Africa. A water buffalo is one of the big five. A bison, the American bison, that's what it is. So, you know that show 1883? No. Oh, you should watch that. It's one of the best shows on television with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and

I can't remember the plays of the young lady. She's so good. That is like the best show on television, I think. And at one point they refer to him as Buffalo. And I just thought, oh, my gosh, I was so into this show. Now it's just not credible for me. Jason, I just looked it up. It's under dad jokes. What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?

Can't wash your hands in a buffalo. And they're banking on people are confusing basin with bison. So that's the... That's a really bad joke. Well, listen, it's all I got for buffalo and bison, okay? All right, let's move on. You talked about your first job. What's the Steve Doocy superpower? What can you do like, hey, I'm really good at this?

I'm really good at organizing things, and I think that's why I kind of like to write recipes, actually, because you've got to be so organized. If you ever have written down a recipe for somebody, it will drive you crazy because, like, with our—and now we've written three cookbooks. The editors want to know, okay, the size of—whatever you cook anything in, what size is it? What temperature is it?

When do you know it's done? How many minutes? Okay, you cook it until what happens? You know, the physical characteristics. How much of that do you use? You can't say a pinch of anything. You've got to have an exact number so that...

Every copy of your recipe turns out exactly the same so that when I make it in New Jersey, you know, and you make it in Utah, it's exactly the same. So it's it's just a lot of detail and it's kind of a nerdy thing, but it's fun. Oh, that and I can fly. You wait. You're a pilot.

No, you said what superpower I can fly. All right. You just strap on the Cape and boogie home. That's good. That's another dad joke. Another bad dad joke. There you go. Uh, uh, so if you could invite one person, you could say, call up your wife and say, Hey, you know what, honey, guess what? Uh, I got a special guest coming over to dinner tonight. Let's, let's, you know, bring out our best. Um,

Anybody, dead or alive, throughout history, who would that person be? Who would you want to come break bread with and have over for dinner? Well, this is an actual true story from our second cookbook. I...

My wife was reading in the Washington Times the day after I had gone to the White House and given Ronald Reagan. I had met with him because he had called and said, hey, I saw that funny story you did. Can you give me a tape? This was the White House chief photographer who asked for the tape. And I showed up and he took me into the Oval Office and I talked to President Reagan. And while I was there, you know,

As you know, you never want there to be dead air in a conversation. And, you know, I just came over to drop off a tape. And here I am talking to the guy with the nuclear codes. And at one point, you know, after President Reagan had said, you know, I watch every day and his people said he really does watch every day. I said words came out of my mouth that I later would come to regret. And that would be, you know.

I know you often drive by our house up Connecticut on the way to the Hilton or other events.

how would you like to come to our house for dinner one night? And so he said, well, that would be nice. That was gutsy. Well, it was because at that point, aside from that one lasagna my wife could make, she was still unfamiliar with what a lot of the knobs on the stove did. And so I didn't tell her.

Because I thought he'll never come. Then she reads about it in the paper the next day because somebody heard I was there and said, what did you talk about? And I said, and I invited him to dinner. And Kathy goes, when are we going to tell me you invited the president over? She said, we are table seats too. We don't have matching dishes. We don't have drapes. All true. So within the next...

few weeks, we got matching plates, we got cloth napkins, and we got curtains, just in case President Reagan came over, but ultimately he never did. But anyway, so had he come over, that would have been cool, because you know, I covered his administration when I was down in Washington, and he was a lovely man when I met him, and it would have been nice to have had him actually show up.

Yeah, I give you an A-plus for your courage, inviting the president to come break bread with you, you know, in the first two minutes that you got to interact with him. That's impressive. Look, that's what 27-year-olds do. It's like, hey, you know what? Come on over. My wife will make something. It's like, it's a little more complicated than that. We need drapes. The apparatus that needs to move in order to secure that place to have that dinner would be unbelievable. But...

That would have been fun. That would have been fun. Okay. Two big questions. You've been so generous with your time. We're about to wrap up here. Okay. Pineapple on pizza. Yes or no? Oh, I love that. Oh, Steve. You were on a roll. Judges do not like this answer. Here's the thing. If you have a... You are talking about a Hawaiian pizza, right? Well, I guess that would... Putting wet fruit on a pizza, if that makes it Hawaiian...

Well, do you put tomatoes on a pizza? Because that's wet fruit. Yeah, but it's baked. It's cooked. It's dry by the time... So is the pineapple, pal. Don't screw with me. I write cookbooks. I know. And this is where I got to change the world's thinking on this because everybody's wrong. Listen, when you have that nice Italian ham or a prosciutto or...

Canadian bacon, pepperoni. I've never had, oh, pepperoni and pineapple. That's a really good idea. It's an up and comer. You know what? You need to expand your horizons. I think you come over to the pineapple side. What is the best advice you ever got? Last question. Best advice you ever got? Get the flu shot.

All right. I did get mine this year. See? I get them most years. Yeah. I mean, I could have said something like, work hard and have fun, but that's so kind of high-minded. Do something that you can actually... You know what? Go to Walgreens. It takes literally 30 seconds. Get a flu shot. It doesn't hurt that bad. One of my kids just had the flu, and it was awful. And so that's my advice. Get the flu shot.

Good advice. Thank you again so much for joining us. And thanks for being in, I don't know, millions of people's households over the years and doing it with a smile on your face. Because, you know, a lot of moving parts in the way you just move along and inform, deal with the serious, deal with the funny. It's just...

There's a reason why you've been so successful for so long. And you just have a wonderful, beautiful, fun family. I've got a chance to interact, I think, with all of them at this point. And it's been a real joy to do so. So thanks for joining us. Jason, thank you. You know, people listen to you on the podcasting and they know you from Congress. But what you don't know is that Jason Chaffetz and his family, they are fantastic. His wife's great. He's great. Kids are great.

Tray Fitz is great. Thank you. Thank you so much. I cannot thank Steve enough. Very generous with his time. Like I said, you can see he's always got a smile on his face. You can hear it on a podcast. You can see it on Fox and Friends or wherever show he's on. Perpetually happy. And his son, Peter, and the whole rest of the family that I've gotten to know and see, and his wife, Kathy. I mean, just wonderful, wonderful people. It's good to see good people winning and doing so well. And again, it's...

Simply Happy Cookbook. I hope you're able to go out there and have a look at it. I've had his previous cookbooks. We love it. We gave it...

Gave one for one of the holidays to her daughter, and she just absolutely loves it. So anyway, Steve Doocy, can't thank you enough. Listen, I want you to know you can listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.

I would appreciate it if you could rate this, if you could like it, if you could subscribe to it. And I hope you're able to join us again next week. I really want to thank you for giving us your time and listening to the Jason in the House podcast. Again, go back and review it, like it, and join us again next week as we have another exciting guest. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.

Hi, everybody. It's Brian Kilmeade. I want you to join me weekdays at 9 a.m. East as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and, of course, what you think. Listen live or get the podcast now at BrianKilmeadeShow.com.