How Does Alex Clark Write POPlitics?
It is a labor of love, let me tell you. I get asked this question ALL THE TIME. How do I decide what to write about? How long does it take? How far in advance do you film an episode?
Here’s the conservaTEA: we film a day ahead. So we film Thursday’s show on Wednesday for example.
It takes ALL DAY continually being plugged into news and checking what is trending and what stories are coming out pretty much 15 hours a day. I am reading, watching, and listening to EVERYTHING that comes out. Then I pick what I think are the very JUICIEST stories for the show or ones that I know I have a lot to say about. Maybe it’s a hot take, or I’m upset about the story, or I have something really funny to say, and I know it will inspire a lot of jokes.
Then I work for a few hours on each section of the show. Finding clips, coming up with jokes, and researching. OH, THE RESEARCH. Especially if it’s a detailed dramatic story, I have to read even more articles about this one thing to make sure I understand all the moving pieces and convey them to YOU! If it’s a political story, it’s even more critical I double and triple check everything to make sure it’s accurate.
In total, I probably spend easily 6-8 hours writing a script and the rest of the day finding the stories. Even longer if there is an hour podcast or YouTube video that comes out that I know you’ll want me to talk about! It is fun, though, knowing all of that is considered work.
This doesn’t include any breaks I need to take to give my brain a rest, drive, and make food, or run an errand. I sleep very little, but it is worth it when I get sweet DMs from conservatives that tell me POPlitics gives them a sense of belonging and a community they’ve never had before. A family doesn’t run itself!
Speaking of, gotta go! Still writing tomorrow’s show 🙂
Xoxo,
Mom
