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Why The Legacy of The Late Show Must Be Preserved and One Leg up On News With Luxxle 7-19-25 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:01
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garret.
0:08
Speaker 2: All right, Well, before I get to my interview with
0:10
Speaker 2: Luxel and Molly Koch, the communications director of Luxel, I
0:15
Speaker 2: want to get to the story for me of the week,
0:18
Speaker 2: which is which is that Stephen Colbert and the Late
0:24
Speaker 2: Show with Stephen Colbert is being canceled after May six.
0:31
Speaker 2: Why does this matter to me? Because the Late Show
0:36
Speaker 2: itself is a brand, no matter who's in that chair,
0:39
Speaker 2: and Stephen Colbert this week and announcing its cancelation also
0:44
Speaker 2: made this glaring announcement.
0:48
Speaker 3: Oh hey everybody, we got a great show for you tonight.
0:51
Speaker 3: Senator Adam Schiff was my guest. We harmonized on seven
0:55
Speaker 3: Bridges Road. What a voice, I cried. But before we
0:59
Speaker 3: start the show, I want to let you know something
1:01
Speaker 3: that I found out just last night. Next year will
1:04
Speaker 3: be our last season. The network will be ending the
1:07
Speaker 3: Late Show in May. And yeah, I share your feelings.
1:19
Speaker 3: It's not just the end of our show, but it's
1:22
Speaker 3: the end of the Late Show on CBS. I'm not
1:24
Speaker 3: being replaced, this is all just going away. And I
1:29
Speaker 3: do want to say I do want to say that
1:32
Speaker 3: the folks at CBS have been great partners. I'm so
1:35
Speaker 3: grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair
1:38
Speaker 3: and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course
1:41
Speaker 3: I'm grateful to you the audience who have joined.
1:45
Speaker 4: Us every night in here, out there, all around the world,
1:55
Speaker 4: and Missus America and all the ships at sea.
1:57
Speaker 3: I'm grateful to share the stage with this band, these
1:59
Speaker 3: artists over here every night. And I am extraordinarily deeply
2:08
Speaker 3: grateful to the two hundred people who work here. We
2:12
Speaker 3: get to do this show. We get to do this
2:17
Speaker 3: show for each other every day, all day. And I've
2:20
Speaker 3: had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we
2:23
Speaker 3: do every day with you in front of this camera
2:25
Speaker 3: for the last ten years. And let me tell you,
2:27
Speaker 3: it is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was
2:30
Speaker 3: getting it.
2:31
Speaker 2: So the Late Show as a brand for a paramount
2:33
Speaker 2: will be no more for CBS, will be no more.
2:37
Speaker 2: What about the work of David Letterman to build up
2:42
Speaker 2: that show for like forty years up until twenty fifteen.
2:46
Speaker 2: And what about the man before Letterman whose name is
2:49
Speaker 2: on that theater, Ed Sullivan, who built up the nightly
2:53
Speaker 2: show audience and built up CBS's talk show format with
2:59
Speaker 2: the Ed Sullivan Show. Oh what about continuing that legacy?
3:04
Speaker 2: Why end it completely after Stephen Colbert, who, by the way,
3:08
Speaker 2: I thought, handled this announcement much more gracefully than he
3:12
Speaker 2: did the settlement with paramount and Trump. Why would you
3:16
Speaker 2: go after your own parent company, Stephen Colbert, that was
3:19
Speaker 2: your downfall. Everybody's now blaming Trump. And don't get me
3:23
Speaker 2: started about the nine billion or so cut to NPR
3:29
Speaker 2: and outlets like CBS. I mean, look, the defunding of
3:33
Speaker 2: media is dangerous. I'm not gonna sugarcoat that.
3:37
Speaker 5: But this is totally separate.
3:39
Speaker 2: Because Stephen Colbert took it about himself to criticize heavily
3:44
Speaker 2: his bosses settlement with President Trump over the sixty minutes
3:50
Speaker 2: ended Kamala Harris interview. That has nothing to do with
3:54
Speaker 2: Trump himself. It has to do with Colbert criticizing that
3:59
Speaker 2: settlement and two days later they cancel him. That doesn't
4:05
Speaker 2: surprise me. But don't blame President Trump. Blame Colbert for
4:09
Speaker 2: calling out his parent company in a forceful way that
4:15
Speaker 2: I would not have advised if I was Colbert's producer
4:19
Speaker 2: on that Monday night. Two days later, after that criticism,
4:22
Speaker 2: he's announcing the cancelation of the show, and not just
4:25
Speaker 2: his show, but the Late Show as a brand. Why
4:31
Speaker 2: the Late Show is a legacy, is a staple of
4:34
Speaker 2: American television. And I really wonder what's going through David
4:38
Speaker 2: Letterman's head as ten years ago he handed it off
4:41
Speaker 2: to Colbert. Now ten years later it's announced, oh, brand,
4:45
Speaker 2: the Late Show is canceled. I don't know. Colbert got
4:50
Speaker 2: my mom and I and so many through that pandemic.
4:52
Speaker 2: He was so chilled out during the pandemic and rather
4:55
Speaker 2: entertaining to watch not the political stick we usually get,
4:59
Speaker 2: but just a really inviting, a really welcoming show every
5:03
Speaker 2: night during that pandemic. Made you feel less alone, if
5:06
Speaker 2: you will that. When he got back on the stage,
5:08
Speaker 2: it was politics again and again. And I admire his
5:11
Speaker 2: enjoyment and his following of politics. I think that's so
5:14
Speaker 2: important for late shows to also cover and make comedy
5:19
Speaker 2: of at times. But to the extent he did, he
5:23
Speaker 2: did to go overboard with all of that.
5:24
Speaker 1: I will say that.
5:27
Speaker 2: I will say that, but because of his slant against Trump,
5:32
Speaker 2: I would say he was a very biased talk show host.
5:35
Speaker 2: He was not always criticizing the Democrats, although during the
5:38
Speaker 2: Biding years he did throw on the Biden shades and
5:41
Speaker 2: impersonate him. That was pretty damn funny if you ask me,
5:44
Speaker 2: But sometimes it was too far biased. And that's where
5:48
Speaker 2: I want to segue, because comedy or not, whenever you're
5:53
Speaker 2: talking news and you have a slant, I always point
5:56
Speaker 2: people to Luxel because they have no slant. In fact,
5:59
Speaker 2: they show both sides of the story. And that's why
6:04
Speaker 2: I want Tom Molly Koch back on to give us
6:06
Speaker 2: both sides of the recent passing of the Big Beautiful
6:09
Speaker 2: Bill and what Luxel is curating when it comes to
6:13
Speaker 2: the Texas floods and so much more. And we mean
6:18
Speaker 2: to Molly's career as a journalist, but see Luxel, unlike
6:21
Speaker 2: Colbert and other late night hosts, never give you both
6:24
Speaker 2: sides of the story. But Luxel does, and that's why
6:28
Speaker 2: they have one leg up on the news cycle every
6:31
Speaker 2: damn day. Mollie, thanks for joining once again.
6:34
Speaker 5: Exactly, Alex, it's so great to be back with you
6:36
Speaker 5: here on your podcast. And you know, whether we're talking
6:39
Speaker 5: about the Bill or we're talking about the flooding, it's
6:42
Speaker 5: really no different in the way that Luxel handles these
6:45
Speaker 5: big news stories. And it's what sets Luxel apart. And
6:49
Speaker 5: so if you're looking for information on either of these
6:53
Speaker 5: stories or any big news story, what you're going to
6:55
Speaker 5: find on Luxel is just far more access to information
6:58
Speaker 5: than you'll find anywhere else, and you're going to find
7:01
Speaker 5: it from a variety of perspectives. It's not like if
7:03
Speaker 5: you search for a big news story, you're only going
7:06
Speaker 5: to get these five sources, which we know is you
7:09
Speaker 5: know generally the case on the bigger search engines like Google.
7:13
Speaker 5: On Luxel, you're going to get a variety of political leanings,
7:16
Speaker 5: political perspectives, and also a variety of size in publications.
7:20
Speaker 5: So you know your reason and your town hall are
7:23
Speaker 5: going and your Salem media publications are going to be
7:26
Speaker 5: right up there in our top story section with a
7:29
Speaker 5: CNN or a Fox News or a NEWSMAX or an ABC.
7:33
Speaker 6: Talk about the how you guys source these stories, I mean,
7:36
Speaker 6: do they email you guys then you just put it
7:38
Speaker 6: up or how does the search engines work?
7:39
Speaker 5: No, So we're a search engine, so we're constantly crawling
7:42
Speaker 5: the Internet. Our system is set up to constantly crawl
7:44
Speaker 5: the Internet for the information. And so one of the
7:46
Speaker 5: things that's really great about Luxel is we are a
7:48
Speaker 5: fully full featured search engine, and so it's not like
7:51
Speaker 5: it's it's just this small operation and we're getting these
7:55
Speaker 5: news stories days later. That's not the case at all.
7:57
Speaker 5: So as soon as these news stories are going up
7:59
Speaker 5: and they're coming, they're coming into Luxel and you can
8:01
Speaker 5: access them there. You just can access a lot a
8:05
Speaker 5: much larger variety.
8:06
Speaker 6: Since we last talk, has there been a more of
8:08
Speaker 6: a movement for Luxel? Are they getting more people to
8:11
Speaker 6: migrate over?
8:12
Speaker 5: So what we find with Luxel is every time that
8:14
Speaker 5: we go on whether it's your podcast or we're mentioned
8:17
Speaker 5: in an article, that means that people are learning about Luxel,
8:21
Speaker 5: often for the first time. Right Because what we know
8:24
Speaker 5: is that Google owns ninety percent of the market share
8:27
Speaker 5: in search, and so most people are still using Google.
8:30
Speaker 5: That doesn't necessarily mean that they're all happy with their experience.
8:34
Speaker 5: They don't know that there are other better options like
8:36
Speaker 5: Luxel out there. And so what we find is that
8:39
Speaker 5: every single time that we are in a different publication
8:42
Speaker 5: or on a podcast and gain exposure or user numbers
8:45
Speaker 5: shoot up and they don't go back down. So people
8:48
Speaker 5: come to Luxel when they learn about us, and they
8:50
Speaker 5: don't leave, and we're happy about that.
8:52
Speaker 6: I love the last time when you had shown me
8:54
Speaker 6: the screen of how it works. You have the sort
8:55
Speaker 6: of the conservative view than the liberal view. Is there
8:59
Speaker 6: pre and are you finding is LuxI find people leaning
9:02
Speaker 6: on the conservative side the liberal side of the news.
9:05
Speaker 5: You know, that's a good question one that I would
9:07
Speaker 5: have to look into a little bit. But one of
9:08
Speaker 5: the things that luxhil really does really well is protect
9:12
Speaker 5: our users' privacy, and so we do not track our users,
9:17
Speaker 5: we do not sell their data, and so we're not
9:19
Speaker 5: super interested in every little thing that someone is searching
9:23
Speaker 5: so that we can monetize that. In fact, we take
9:25
Speaker 5: it a step further and encourage people to use a
9:27
Speaker 5: privacy conscious browser and a VPN because we want people
9:31
Speaker 5: to have an incredible search experience and we don't want
9:34
Speaker 5: to interfere that in any way.
9:36
Speaker 6: Now, when it comes to these big stories, are you finding,
9:39
Speaker 6: people reach out to say, hey, thank god you guys
9:41
Speaker 6: are there, because now I get the whole picture.
9:42
Speaker 1: Have you gotten testimonials on that?
9:44
Speaker 5: Yeah, we do. We get it all the time on
9:46
Speaker 5: social media. People are just so excited once they learn
9:50
Speaker 5: that luxil exists, and once they get to play around
9:52
Speaker 5: with our lenses feature, which for any of your listeners
9:54
Speaker 5: who don't know, we should back up a little bit
9:56
Speaker 5: and just kind of explain that. So one of the
9:58
Speaker 5: defining features of luxel what sets us apart really is
10:01
Speaker 5: the fact that we have sorting in a filtering tool
10:05
Speaker 5: called lenses, and so you can decide you can say, hey,
10:08
Speaker 5: I only want to view results from sources that lean
10:12
Speaker 5: right or results from sources that lead left. You also
10:14
Speaker 5: can have an even mix, and then from there you
10:17
Speaker 5: can decide how you want to sort them, so it's
10:19
Speaker 5: with our algorithm alphabetically or by freshness. What this does
10:22
Speaker 5: is it gives the user so much more control over
10:25
Speaker 5: their results to eliminate that search engine bias.
10:28
Speaker 6: Wow, that's a lot, And I love the lenses feature
10:31
Speaker 6: and I've actually installed it on a couple of my
10:34
Speaker 6: computer so I've been utilizing Luxule even more since we
10:37
Speaker 6: last talked. You know, Molly, I have to say, why is.
10:42
Speaker 2: I mean, big beautiful bill on it. It's out, but
10:44
Speaker 2: why is the flooding getting puloseed sized? From your personal opinion,
10:46
Speaker 2: that's ridiculous to me that this.
10:48
Speaker 1: Has become like a political thing. Not trying to help
10:51
Speaker 1: human beings here.
10:52
Speaker 5: Sure, I mean I think that it's twenty twenty five
10:55
Speaker 5: and everything is going to become a political story, you know,
10:59
Speaker 5: So it's difficult to say exactly how we got here,
11:01
Speaker 5: how we got to this climate. But the guarantee that
11:03
Speaker 5: we can give you from Luxel is that Luxel is
11:05
Speaker 5: not going to interfere at all, and so we're not
11:08
Speaker 5: going to take a stance on any of these stories
11:11
Speaker 5: or anything that you're seeing in the news, which is
11:14
Speaker 5: what you want from your search engine. You don't want
11:15
Speaker 5: your search engine to tell you how to think. You
11:17
Speaker 5: want your search engine to give you access to as
11:20
Speaker 5: much information as possible and then respect your right to
11:22
Speaker 5: independent thought. And that's what we do at Luxel. So
11:25
Speaker 5: it doesn't matter what the story is, We're not going
11:27
Speaker 5: to get involved.
11:28
Speaker 6: Well, I think a lot of years perked up when
11:30
Speaker 6: Google started to hide a lot of stories, and I
11:32
Speaker 6: know lux was to do that, but is that what
11:34
Speaker 6: an impetus was for you guys to start up because
11:37
Speaker 6: you saw Google was hiding stories and not giving you
11:39
Speaker 6: the full picture.
11:40
Speaker 5: You know, Really it was we had a group of
11:42
Speaker 5: tech entrepreneurs who wanted to bring a fresh perspective to search,
11:45
Speaker 5: and so you know, when search engines first came out,
11:48
Speaker 5: it was this new innovative thing. There hasn't been that
11:50
Speaker 5: much positive innovation in years, and so our founders wanted
11:55
Speaker 5: to change that, and they definitely have.
11:57
Speaker 6: I love that luxel as an emotional component too, because
12:00
Speaker 6: I feel like in a time of craziness, people just
12:02
Speaker 6: breathe and try and find both sides through luck. So
12:05
Speaker 6: it can help with the trip, the trauma, or the
12:08
Speaker 6: emotional state of mind that goes into all of these
12:10
Speaker 6: news stories exactly.
12:11
Speaker 5: You know, if you say I lean in one direction
12:15
Speaker 5: and you only want to read news stories from outlets
12:18
Speaker 5: that also are aligned with those views, you can do that.
12:22
Speaker 5: But it also provides a really great tool and a
12:25
Speaker 5: very easy way to say, hey, these are my thoughts.
12:27
Speaker 5: I'm curious to know what the other side thinks or
12:30
Speaker 5: I heard that the other side thinks this, but I
12:32
Speaker 5: don't understand how they could ever think that. This is
12:34
Speaker 5: a great way to help you navigate through all of
12:37
Speaker 5: that information very easily.
12:40
Speaker 1: Molly.
12:40
Speaker 6: Since we last talked, I know that you've kind of
12:42
Speaker 6: grown in within the role as the comms person there
12:45
Speaker 6: are you finding yourself on different shows even more since
12:47
Speaker 6: we last sure.
12:48
Speaker 5: So you know, what's one thing that's been very interesting
12:51
Speaker 5: is just in the last couple of months, there have
12:54
Speaker 5: been so so many crazy news stories that have really
12:58
Speaker 5: dominated the headlines. And so we're trying to bring Luxel
13:02
Speaker 5: back into the forefront of the news cycle because we
13:06
Speaker 5: know that once people learn about Luxel, they love it,
13:08
Speaker 5: they don't switch back. We've already talked about that, but
13:11
Speaker 5: it's getting the word out is really our biggest challenge
13:13
Speaker 5: getting people to like Luxel that I don't have to
13:15
Speaker 5: do anything there. Once people check it out, they're like,
13:18
Speaker 5: I'm not going back to the other one. But it's
13:21
Speaker 5: just it's just making sure that people know about us.
13:24
Speaker 5: It's definitely our biggest challenge.
13:26
Speaker 6: And now, can my listeners help you get on the
13:28
Speaker 6: map more if you will? Is it sharing the show?
13:30
Speaker 6: Is it subscribing more? Is it just putting Luxel on
13:33
Speaker 6: the as an extension?
13:34
Speaker 1: What is it exactly?
13:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we do have a browser extension. We also
13:37
Speaker 5: have an app, so you're we would love it if
13:40
Speaker 5: people would, you know, download the browser extension, download the app,
13:43
Speaker 5: just to have the best user experience possible and then
13:45
Speaker 5: also just you know, share us on social media, Share
13:48
Speaker 5: this show you know, tweet at us, share us on
13:52
Speaker 5: social on different social platforms. We also have Facebook and LinkedIn,
13:56
Speaker 5: and so just help spread the words. Spread the word
13:58
Speaker 5: to your friends. If you're out at a barbecue, you
14:00
Speaker 5: you know, say and someone says, oh, let me google this,
14:03
Speaker 5: correct them and remind them that Google is not a
14:06
Speaker 5: verb and that there are better ways to search.
14:09
Speaker 6: Well, I love that Google is not a verb, all right,
14:12
Speaker 6: you know, I don't know, we talked about this last time.
14:14
Speaker 1: But the AI component to all this. Everybody seems to
14:18
Speaker 1: be relying on AI.
14:19
Speaker 6: And does AI play a role or is it all
14:22
Speaker 6: natural for you guys?
14:24
Speaker 1: No?
14:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, So we are working on developing a couple of
14:27
Speaker 5: different new AI features. We have some out already and
14:32
Speaker 5: that is in development, and I can't say a ton
14:35
Speaker 5: on it right now, but I can promise you that
14:38
Speaker 5: when I do have more news about our AI to announce,
14:43
Speaker 5: we absolutely can come back. But what you can understand
14:47
Speaker 5: right now about Luxel and AI is that already on
14:50
Speaker 5: our site, within our AI, you have the option to
14:53
Speaker 5: add lenses to AI, and so we're working to eliminate
14:56
Speaker 5: bias in AI already, and some of our new AI
15:01
Speaker 5: developments will be able to announce later on this summer.
15:04
Speaker 6: How do you guys do this without requiring a subscription
15:08
Speaker 6: to Luxel to be part of the club of people?
15:10
Speaker 6: How do you make sure everybody's involved without you charging?
15:14
Speaker 5: So Luxel makes money off of clicked ads, and right
15:18
Speaker 5: now we are partially privately funded and working on around
15:21
Speaker 5: of fundraising.
15:23
Speaker 1: And when investors come, I'm sure it's a moment of celebration,
15:26
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah?
15:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know, like the everyone when they see
15:30
Speaker 5: Luxel for the first time, they're excited because when was
15:33
Speaker 5: the last time that you felt like, hey, this is
15:35
Speaker 5: truly innovative in the search engine industry.
15:38
Speaker 6: Tell me about that part, like why are people investing?
15:42
Speaker 6: And I feel like there's the same reason people aren't consuming,
15:44
Speaker 6: because Luxel has on mission that both buyers and consumers
15:47
Speaker 6: are looking into right now.
15:49
Speaker 5: Sure, so people are ready for change, and so when
15:52
Speaker 5: we're talking about our users, they're so excited when they
15:55
Speaker 5: learn that there's a better option out there, because I
15:57
Speaker 5: think a lot of people are unhappy with the search
15:59
Speaker 5: engines that they know about to use, whether that is
16:02
Speaker 5: for issues of bias, issues of privacy, or just the
16:06
Speaker 5: general results that they're getting. And so when people learn
16:10
Speaker 5: that there actually is a full featured search engine that
16:12
Speaker 5: can do what is going what the other search engines
16:15
Speaker 5: are doing, but so much better and so much more,
16:18
Speaker 5: with so many more customization options and control, they just
16:23
Speaker 5: get really excited about it.
16:25
Speaker 1: All. Right, let me ask you this, because.
16:28
Speaker 6: I do feel like everybody can have a news feature, right,
16:31
Speaker 6: But how do you guys stay current? How do you
16:33
Speaker 6: make sure the news that people are getting are almost
16:35
Speaker 6: to the minute, if you will?
16:37
Speaker 5: Sure? So, our systems are just really good, So they're
16:39
Speaker 5: constantly out there calling the Internet for all of the
16:42
Speaker 5: latest and update date information. We have our own search index,
16:46
Speaker 5: and so there's a.
16:47
Speaker 6: Ranking system, right, And I'm saying, last time I saw
16:49
Speaker 6: one two three four five, is that still a thing
16:51
Speaker 6: on luxul or what is?
16:52
Speaker 5: So it's not one two three four five, But what
16:54
Speaker 5: it is is when there's a big news story that
16:56
Speaker 5: would prompt lenses. Right, So, if you search tacos near me,
16:59
Speaker 5: you're not going to get the split of right leaning
17:01
Speaker 5: and left leaning sources because you're just looking for tacos, right,
17:05
Speaker 5: But if you're searching for a big news story, you'll
17:07
Speaker 5: see in the top story section there is an even
17:09
Speaker 5: split of typically three sources from left leaning publications, three
17:14
Speaker 5: sources from right leaning publications in our top story section,
17:17
Speaker 5: and then from there they alternate a right leaning source,
17:20
Speaker 5: a left leaning source, a right leaning source, and a
17:22
Speaker 5: left leading source, showing that we're not giving preference to
17:25
Speaker 5: any side here.
17:26
Speaker 6: And that's also behind the scenes, because I know you
17:28
Speaker 6: mentioned that the people that start this aren't exactly a
17:30
Speaker 6: conservative either, tired of the mainstream. They're just people that
17:34
Speaker 6: want to make a difference. And yes they have to
17:36
Speaker 6: be democrat also.
17:37
Speaker 5: So here's the thing, and I love this about Luxel.
17:41
Speaker 5: I don't know what the political leanings are of the
17:45
Speaker 5: folks who have started Luxel, and that is how we
17:49
Speaker 5: should keep things. When it comes to your search engine.
17:52
Speaker 5: You shouldn't want you shouldn't be able to sense a
17:55
Speaker 5: political leaning from your search engine. To make this clear,
17:58
Speaker 5: Luxel is not a conservative search engine. We are not
18:00
Speaker 5: a liberal search engine. We are strictly neutral, and that's
18:03
Speaker 5: exactly how you should want it. You shouldn't want any
18:05
Speaker 5: sort of interference in that way.
18:07
Speaker 6: You know, when my first talk, I feel like it
18:08
Speaker 6: was still like not an upcoming thing, but it was
18:10
Speaker 6: still really and it's infancy. Have you seen in those
18:14
Speaker 6: few months it turned from infancy to toddler if you will?
18:16
Speaker 1: Like real growth here.
18:18
Speaker 5: We're definitely seeing consistent growth, which we're happy about. But
18:21
Speaker 5: the biggest way for us to grow is just to
18:22
Speaker 5: get the word out. So we so appreciate you having
18:25
Speaker 5: me on to I could talk about Luxel all day.
18:28
Speaker 2: Can people email, you know, people at lux will saying hey,
18:31
Speaker 2: I got this story, can you put it up there?
18:32
Speaker 1: How does that work? Or does that work the moment?
18:35
Speaker 5: So our systems are actually out crawling calling the web,
18:38
Speaker 5: so it's they're coming in automatically through ours.
18:42
Speaker 2: And I guess if you Google, if you Luxel, sorry,
18:44
Speaker 2: if you lux of someone, their name will pop up
18:48
Speaker 2: and show every story or how does that work if
18:50
Speaker 2: you look for a certain columnists and all that.
18:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that is one thing that you know, especially
18:56
Speaker 5: smaller publications, we've heard from different writers and different journalists
19:01
Speaker 5: that they can't find their stories on Google. Well, they
19:04
Speaker 5: don't run into that issue on luxeil. If you look
19:07
Speaker 5: for a story that you know you wrote, you generally
19:10
Speaker 5: know the headline or the topic, and then you search
19:11
Speaker 5: your name, it's much easier to find it. On Loxil
19:13
Speaker 5: than it would be on Google.
19:14
Speaker 2: And I appreciate the shadow of sale in media because
19:16
Speaker 2: I feel like they're ones that do get buried on
19:17
Speaker 2: the mainstream world, you know, so thank god they can
19:21
Speaker 2: find our columns there.
19:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really easy to find sale and media content
19:25
Speaker 5: on luxel.
19:26
Speaker 1: And that that is awesome. Well, since we last off,
19:28
Speaker 1: anything you wanted to add, since we last.
19:30
Speaker 2: Chated, I feel like we left it all at a
19:32
Speaker 2: point where we got to just keep building this right.
19:34
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, you know, we do have some exciting announcements
19:37
Speaker 5: coming hopefully at the end of the summer, and so
19:40
Speaker 5: we'll keep you posted on those. But you know, I
19:42
Speaker 5: think one thing that I'd just like to also talk
19:45
Speaker 5: about is, you know, Luxeil is not just a search
19:47
Speaker 5: engine for news content. News content. The way that we
19:51
Speaker 5: handle news content is really what sets us apart. But
19:54
Speaker 5: we also do a great job with like if you're
19:59
Speaker 5: looking for a new restaurant, or you're looking for just
20:01
Speaker 5: general web content or information about a historical event, it's
20:05
Speaker 5: really easy to find an access information on loxel. We
20:08
Speaker 5: also make it really easy to navigate different video options.
20:11
Speaker 5: So let's say you're searching for videos of a game
20:16
Speaker 5: that you really like to play. On our video tab,
20:18
Speaker 5: we will break it out into different video platforms. So
20:21
Speaker 5: maybe you could find those videos on Rumble, or you
20:24
Speaker 5: could find those videos on YouTube, and there are a
20:28
Speaker 5: couple of different options as well, and so it's just
20:30
Speaker 5: a lot easier to sort it and navigate that content.
20:34
Speaker 6: Are you shocked by the censorship that does go on
20:36
Speaker 6: by these different websites I claim to be for the people,
20:39
Speaker 6: It is shocking.
20:39
Speaker 1: I mean YouTube also sensors as well.
20:41
Speaker 5: Sure, I mean it's tough to say. You know what
20:45
Speaker 5: shocks me. I was a journalist for ten years. Not
20:48
Speaker 5: a whole lot really shocks me. But it is just
20:51
Speaker 5: so refreshing to see a search engine like loxel taking
20:56
Speaker 5: this approach of unbiased and giving our users greater access
21:03
Speaker 5: to information so that they can make their own decisions.
21:05
Speaker 5: It's just incredibly refreshing because there's not another search engine
21:09
Speaker 5: out there doing anything like this.
21:11
Speaker 6: And I remember now where we want to pick out
21:12
Speaker 6: about your journalism, Kirk, because we barely covered that last time.
21:15
Speaker 1: So how did you go from journalism?
21:17
Speaker 6: And I know you talked about how you wished you
21:19
Speaker 6: had luck, so when you were a journalist. But how
21:21
Speaker 6: did you go from that world to where you are now?
21:24
Speaker 5: Yeah? So I was in news for almost a decade.
21:26
Speaker 5: I started off I was a writer at a station
21:28
Speaker 5: in Boston, and then I moved to the ABC affiliate
21:31
Speaker 5: WAOW in central Wisconsin. Was there for four years as
21:35
Speaker 5: a reporter and then an anchor, and then I moved
21:36
Speaker 5: to WHIO, the CBS affiliate in Dayton, Ohio. Started off
21:40
Speaker 5: as a reporter and then moved to like a fifty
21:42
Speaker 5: to fifty split reporting and anchoring. And I loved news.
21:46
Speaker 5: I loved being a journalist so much. I loved sharing information,
21:50
Speaker 5: I loved storytelling, I loved investigative work, and I loved writing.
21:54
Speaker 5: And so what I didn't love, though, is working nights
21:58
Speaker 5: and sometimes weekends and most holidays. So I was so
22:02
Speaker 5: lucky when I decided to leave news that I found
22:06
Speaker 5: a company to work for that has a lot of
22:08
Speaker 5: the same journalistic values that I held true to. So,
22:12
Speaker 5: you know, remaining unbiased, presenting all sides of a story,
22:16
Speaker 5: and letting people make their own decisions and have their
22:18
Speaker 5: own thoughts without search engine influence.
22:21
Speaker 1: There's the journalism today.
22:22
Speaker 6: And I know I knock every journalist I do believe
22:25
Speaker 6: in journalists, you know, but the idea of journalism does
22:28
Speaker 6: seem to be swaying a certain way. Does that ever
22:30
Speaker 6: make you want to roll your sleeves back up and say,
22:32
Speaker 6: I'm going to go back into this fielding correct what
22:34
Speaker 6: I'm seeing.
22:34
Speaker 5: Is wrong here, you know, not not correct what I'm
22:37
Speaker 5: seeing is wrong, or anything like that. Sometimes I do,
22:40
Speaker 5: you know, miss you know, being on a beat cracking
22:44
Speaker 5: open a big story. I miss some of that excitement
22:47
Speaker 5: and things like that. But I also get to be
22:49
Speaker 5: part of a company that has really consistent, exciting new
22:52
Speaker 5: developments to discuss. And so while I'm not telling stories
22:56
Speaker 5: about city commissions and fires and you know, sometimes a
23:02
Speaker 5: big high school sports victory, I am telling really exciting
23:05
Speaker 5: stories about all the exciting developments at Luxel And so it's,
23:08
Speaker 5: you know, been a great transition for me.
23:11
Speaker 1: We've lost the art of local news. I feel like,
23:13
Speaker 1: though it's not as revered as.
23:14
Speaker 5: It used to be, I don't think that we've lost
23:17
Speaker 5: the art of local news. I think that people aren't
23:19
Speaker 5: paying attention to local news as much as they should.
23:22
Speaker 5: I have a lot of friends who are still in
23:24
Speaker 5: the industry, incredibly incredibly talented journalists who really care about
23:29
Speaker 5: their local communities and what it is that they're doing
23:33
Speaker 5: and what's going on locally in your community has such
23:37
Speaker 5: a huge impact on your day to day life, and
23:39
Speaker 5: I think people often forget that and forget that local
23:43
Speaker 5: news exists when they really should be paying much much
23:46
Speaker 5: closer attention to it.
23:48
Speaker 6: So the journalists, journalists that are up and coming today,
23:51
Speaker 6: what's your message?
23:51
Speaker 5: Then?
23:51
Speaker 1: Do you never talk to journalists that want to that
23:54
Speaker 1: are aspiring journalized?
23:55
Speaker 5: I should say, sure, you're not going to get rich,
23:58
Speaker 5: but you are going to have a very very fulfilling career. Also,
24:04
Speaker 5: you're got to miss a good amount of holidays. But
24:08
Speaker 5: then when you have a random day off on a Tuesday,
24:11
Speaker 5: flights are a lot cheaper, which is great.
24:13
Speaker 6: If I may ask, when you were on the way
24:15
Speaker 6: out of journalism, was the newsroom becoming more balanced or
24:18
Speaker 6: was it more male dominated?
24:19
Speaker 1: Like how was the newsroom ratio when you when you.
24:21
Speaker 5: Left from a male to female perspective. Yes, that's a
24:24
Speaker 5: good question, I would say, and I think i've i
24:31
Speaker 5: throughout my career I worked in fairly balanced newsrooms. They
24:39
Speaker 5: my first my newsroom in Wisconsin at one point may
24:44
Speaker 5: have I think probably skewed more female. But the last
24:50
Speaker 5: newsroom I that I worked in, I would say was
24:52
Speaker 5: probably about a fifty to fifty split. And you know,
24:55
Speaker 5: news is still fairly traditional in the sense that often
25:00
Speaker 5: anchor pairings are male female and so I always had
25:03
Speaker 5: a male co anchor throughout my career.
25:05
Speaker 6: As you know, New York City just had its big
25:08
Speaker 6: good Night and Good Luck run with Edwin D.
25:09
Speaker 1: Mureau and George Cloonia that moreau. Did you watch the
25:12
Speaker 1: special on that at all or have you followed that
25:14
Speaker 1: whole show because it was a movie you know originally?
25:19
Speaker 5: No, I didn't. It's been, you know, something I probably
25:21
Speaker 5: should be watching, but I haven't seen that one yet.
25:24
Speaker 1: Because he's just who's the journalist you looked up to
25:27
Speaker 1: when you were growing up.
25:29
Speaker 5: When I was growing up, I was a big Savannah
25:31
Speaker 5: Guthrie fan, and honestly I still am. You know, her
25:36
Speaker 5: ability to storytell and to grill someone in an incredibly
25:44
Speaker 5: impactful and poignant interview one minute and then be talking
25:49
Speaker 5: about a children's book that she wrote herself the next
25:53
Speaker 5: minute is is just incredible. Yeah, She's someone I definitely
25:57
Speaker 5: look at.
25:58
Speaker 2: And she also travel a lot at the Today's I mean,
26:00
Speaker 2: she's always traveling to different places.
26:02
Speaker 5: Watch Yeah, you know, she bounces around everywhere. And you
26:05
Speaker 5: know other journalists that I look up to her names,
26:08
Speaker 5: you know, in that your New York audience might not
26:11
Speaker 5: know so well. But you know some of the anchors
26:14
Speaker 5: that I worked with, especially at my most recent station,
26:17
Speaker 5: James Brown, Cheryl McHenry, Jimbodi just incredibly talented journalists who
26:24
Speaker 5: are able to investigate and dig for facts and really
26:28
Speaker 5: shape me into the journalists that I ended up becoming.
26:31
Speaker 6: You mentioned X And I do feel like there is
26:33
Speaker 6: a rush for journalists to have that one leg up
26:36
Speaker 6: to break the story.
26:37
Speaker 1: But they don't always break it accurately. Are you find
26:39
Speaker 1: that too?
26:40
Speaker 6: Like there's this rush to be number one, and now
26:42
Speaker 6: social media's let you post anything, so it could be
26:44
Speaker 6: inaccurate and it makes you look bad at times.
26:47
Speaker 5: So good journalists will will be second to the story
26:53
Speaker 5: if it means that they get the information right. There
26:56
Speaker 5: were times when I wasn't first on the air with something,
26:58
Speaker 5: and I'm okay with that because I was doing it
27:01
Speaker 5: to guarantee accuracy. And so, just like in any industry,
27:06
Speaker 5: right there are some journalists who are better than others,
27:09
Speaker 5: and so you know, watch and read journalists and and
27:13
Speaker 5: get a sense of you know, their accuracy and their credibility.
27:18
Speaker 5: You know, they've got to earn your trust, so you
27:22
Speaker 5: read their content, watch their content, and let them earn
27:25
Speaker 5: your trust. But there are obviously some who are better
27:28
Speaker 5: than others.
27:29
Speaker 6: Were you in the local did you do local news
27:32
Speaker 6: writing as well or was it mainly in TV and
27:34
Speaker 6: radio and.
27:35
Speaker 5: All that or both and and a little bit of radio, Yeah,
27:40
Speaker 5: just just a little bit. You know, Radio I always
27:42
Speaker 5: enjoyed because I was never in charge. When I was
27:44
Speaker 5: doing radio. I would I would go on a couple
27:46
Speaker 5: of evening shows, more feature style shows, and they were
27:51
Speaker 5: always a good time, you know, but I didn't have
27:55
Speaker 5: to pay super close attention because we were talking about
27:58
Speaker 5: fun things on the news side of things, the TV side.
28:00
Speaker 5: One thing that people, I don't think realize is that
28:03
Speaker 5: most anchors are incredibly involved in the process, and reporters
28:08
Speaker 5: definitely are of creating story or of writing stories. And
28:12
Speaker 5: so when I was out in the field, I was
28:16
Speaker 5: fully writing all of my own stories. So it's not
28:19
Speaker 5: like you just go out in front of a camera
28:20
Speaker 5: and speak on TV and that's your whole job. I
28:23
Speaker 5: was doing the interviews, I was researching the documents, I
28:26
Speaker 5: was putting in records requests, and then I was writing
28:29
Speaker 5: those stories. And then while I was on the desk,
28:31
Speaker 5: you know, I would read every script before it would
28:34
Speaker 5: I would go on TV because I didn't want something
28:36
Speaker 5: coming out of my mouth if I didn't understand it,
28:38
Speaker 5: or if I didn't you know, I think that it
28:41
Speaker 5: was accurate. And so there's a lot of editorial conversations
28:44
Speaker 5: that go on in a newsroom beyond just the big,
28:47
Speaker 5: fancy presentation on TV.
28:49
Speaker 6: You know, I will also say this, I often find
28:51
Speaker 6: that local networks need the funding. I don't know if
28:54
Speaker 6: you've had budget issues over the years when you were there,
28:56
Speaker 6: but it is important to fund local journalism, isn't it.
28:59
Speaker 5: It definitely is. This is, you know, something that's impacting
29:03
Speaker 5: newsrooms all across the country. It's why you're seeing some
29:06
Speaker 5: local newsrooms shut down. It's why you're seeing them dramatically
29:09
Speaker 5: reduced headcount. It's why you're seeing, you know, maybe maybe
29:14
Speaker 5: your local news is now coming out of the state
29:18
Speaker 5: capitol instead of coming out of your hometown. And it's
29:21
Speaker 5: all because of budget cuts and the different mergers and
29:24
Speaker 5: acquisitions that have happened in the journalism world, and especially
29:27
Speaker 5: in the TV space, but also on the print side
29:30
Speaker 5: in the last you know, fifteen to twenty years.
29:32
Speaker 1: You know, the daily news.
29:33
Speaker 6: You look at the papers, they are very different. The
29:35
Speaker 6: daily news a little thinner than the post. Yeah, and
29:38
Speaker 6: that's a little sad to me because it means how
29:39
Speaker 6: much that newsroom got impacted.
29:42
Speaker 5: Right right, Yeah, you know, I don't know if I've
29:44
Speaker 5: ever worked in a newsroom that hasn't been through a
29:46
Speaker 5: round of cuts. And it's tough because you have these journalists,
29:50
Speaker 5: they're young, they're not making a ton of money, and
29:52
Speaker 5: it's sort of a do more with less, so they
29:55
Speaker 5: still have the same amount, if not more time to
29:58
Speaker 5: fill On TV. They're being told, okay, well now you
30:01
Speaker 5: don't have a photographer to work with, so you have
30:03
Speaker 5: to shoot your own story and edit it. Or you know,
30:06
Speaker 5: you used to do one story a day, now you're
30:08
Speaker 5: doing three stories a day, and so it's it can
30:11
Speaker 5: be tough. So you know, hold journalists accountable for their credibility.
30:17
Speaker 5: If their hair looks a little off one day, cut
30:19
Speaker 5: them some slack.
30:21
Speaker 1: Mollie.
30:21
Speaker 6: When I was about tenth grade or so, or even
30:24
Speaker 6: younger because my mom I was born and bred into journalism.
30:27
Speaker 1: My mom's journalists for.
30:28
Speaker 6: Thirty plus years. Forty plus years really, and so I've
30:31
Speaker 6: kind of been in that vein forever. But when did
30:33
Speaker 6: you know you want to really get into these mediums?
30:36
Speaker 6: I knew it in tenth grade. I don't know about
30:38
Speaker 6: you if it was that early on or what not,
30:40
Speaker 6: but it was a nice.
30:41
Speaker 1: School for me.
30:41
Speaker 5: Okay, so not to storytop you, but I'm going to
30:43
Speaker 5: go back a little bit earlier. I was thirteen and
30:47
Speaker 5: I started watching Oprah after school just because you know,
30:50
Speaker 5: Oprah was on and her ability to connect with people
30:54
Speaker 5: and share share stories, just the way that she could
30:57
Speaker 5: interview people. Oftentimes these were or you know, more adult
31:01
Speaker 5: topics that were going right over my head, but her
31:03
Speaker 5: ability to interview people and capture a story was something
31:06
Speaker 5: that I just fell in love with, and so I
31:08
Speaker 5: knew that I wanted to do that. So I studied
31:10
Speaker 5: broadcast journalism while I was at school at Boston University,
31:16
Speaker 5: and around my freshman year is when I started watching
31:18
Speaker 5: the Today Show, and you know, fell in love with
31:20
Speaker 5: the harder news angles and just took it from there.
31:25
Speaker 1: Were you always and on how these reporters and anchors
31:28
Speaker 1: will always just leave the desk and cover the news
31:31
Speaker 1: in the field.
31:31
Speaker 2: I always find that the most interesting thing is when
31:34
Speaker 2: you could bring your thoughts to the field and make
31:36
Speaker 2: it happen out there too.
31:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think what people don't realize is that
31:40
Speaker 5: often the majority of the time, when you see an
31:43
Speaker 5: anchor in the field, they don't have a teleprompter. They're
31:46
Speaker 5: really really high up anchors. If they're just kind of
31:48
Speaker 5: standing there staring at a camera and talking for thirty
31:51
Speaker 5: minutes straight and it feels very scripted, good chance they
31:54
Speaker 5: have a teleprompter. Your reporters who are out in the field,
31:56
Speaker 5: they're not working with a teleprompter. And so it's an
31:59
Speaker 5: incredible skill to have to be able to be live
32:02
Speaker 5: on TV and speak in a conversational but informational and
32:05
Speaker 5: accurate way.
32:06
Speaker 1: I remembering the luxel in one minute.
32:07
Speaker 6: Just to top all this off, but craziest story or
32:11
Speaker 6: most intriguing adrenaline because.
32:13
Speaker 1: Covering your story in the fields adrenaline rush. Okay, what
32:16
Speaker 1: was the adrenaline rush moment for you? What story gave
32:18
Speaker 1: you the most rush?
32:20
Speaker 5: That's a great question. That story gave me the most rush.
32:27
Speaker 5: You know, any election night is exciting. Watching results roll in,
32:32
Speaker 5: no matter what the results are is exciting. Knowing that
32:36
Speaker 5: that is going to change the candidate's life and knowing
32:41
Speaker 5: that it's going to have a very direct impact on
32:43
Speaker 5: local communities was always really really exciting, all right to
32:51
Speaker 5: say this.
32:51
Speaker 1: When when you see youngsters and young females come up
32:54
Speaker 1: to hey, I saw you on TV? Is that as
32:57
Speaker 1: the saying the meme today? Is that the point that
32:59
Speaker 1: your inspiring others or what? What? What brought you the
33:03
Speaker 1: most joy when you were in journalism.
33:05
Speaker 5: When I was in news, it wasn't about being on TV,
33:07
Speaker 5: being recognized or anything like that. And while I did
33:10
Speaker 5: enjoy mentorship that I was able to do for some
33:13
Speaker 5: younger producers and some younger reporters, the thing that brought
33:16
Speaker 5: me the most joy was how I could expose information
33:22
Speaker 5: that would impact people in local communities and so and
33:26
Speaker 5: the way that I could storytell in a way that
33:28
Speaker 5: was impactful for people in local communities was really what
33:32
Speaker 5: did it for me. Sometimes people go through something very
33:35
Speaker 5: difficult and being able to share their story after the
33:40
Speaker 5: loss of a loved one, being able to share how
33:44
Speaker 5: a new city law is going to impact them and
33:48
Speaker 5: put a human face behind you know, some of these
33:51
Speaker 5: procedures and legislation is was really rewarding for me.
33:56
Speaker 1: One of the.
33:57
Speaker 6: Taglines that you said before, the one I got, Moniker,
33:59
Speaker 6: was you know, making stories trend that should be trending,
34:02
Speaker 6: meaning we got to get more highlight, more things highlight.
34:05
Speaker 6: And I feel like you and I have that same
34:07
Speaker 6: connection there, that same passion to get those.
34:09
Speaker 1: Stories highlighted, like Luxel getting Luxel highlight.
34:12
Speaker 5: Right, It's like why is you know, sort of the
34:14
Speaker 5: why is no one talking about this? Well, here we are,
34:16
Speaker 5: we're talking about it. Let's get more people talking about it.
34:19
Speaker 1: Amen.
34:20
Speaker 6: Well Molly to that point, I feel like, now I
34:22
Speaker 6: understand why Luxile brought you in that you have the
34:24
Speaker 6: journalism mindset, the instincts to make this run.
34:28
Speaker 1: You know, you have the news side of it, if you.
34:30
Speaker 5: Will, yes, yes, exactly. And I love the news side
34:33
Speaker 5: of it also, just you know, being a former new
34:37
Speaker 5: z having a search engine that handles news content in
34:40
Speaker 5: such a responsible and fair way is really valuable. So
34:44
Speaker 5: really fortunate to work for such a great company. And
34:47
Speaker 5: hope you guys all check it out and.
34:48
Speaker 2: I'm going to check in with you on this again.
34:50
Speaker 2: But I asked your last time do you still google things?
34:52
Speaker 2: Are you full on Luxel? Like do you slip at
34:54
Speaker 2: times or what?
34:55
Speaker 5: No, I'm full on Luxel, but I you know, it's
34:58
Speaker 5: always good to keep an eye the competition and so,
35:01
Speaker 5: you know, like before this call, I looked at a
35:04
Speaker 5: few things on Google to see how our results compare,
35:07
Speaker 5: and it was just there was no comparison. Luxel had
35:10
Speaker 5: just a way way bigger variety of political perspectives, sources
35:14
Speaker 5: of all sizes. Google had well what you would expect
35:17
Speaker 5: from Google.
35:18
Speaker 6: Which is a little disappoint because they're supposed to be
35:19
Speaker 6: the leading yet they're not all there.
35:21
Speaker 5: If you will so, I would say that they are
35:23
Speaker 5: leading in user numbers, but not leading in quality.
35:28
Speaker 1: Now that's a catchphrase right there.
35:29
Speaker 2: Well, Mollie, you have the great you know line sound
35:33
Speaker 2: bites and I will share a lot of this with
35:34
Speaker 2: my audience and in clips and all that, and then
35:37
Speaker 2: of course the full interview you can find at all
35:39
Speaker 2: my podcast on my blog. Thanks so much for joining me,
35:42
Speaker 2: Molly of Luxel.
35:43
Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having us. Can't wait to check
35:45
Speaker 5: back in in a couple of months.
35:47
Speaker 1: A man, thank you so much,