Michael Barbaro
Annie Brown, Kevin Roose , and Michael Barbaro (left to right) in 2018
Born	( 1979-10-12 ) October 12, 1979 (age 44) New Haven, Connecticut , U.S.
Education	Yale University ( BA )
Occupation(s)	Journalist, podcast host
Years active	2002?present
Employer	The New York Times
Known for	Host of The Daily
Spouses	Timothy Levin ​ ​ ( m.  2014; div.  2018) ​ Lisa Tobin ​ ( m.  2020) ​
Children	2

Michael Barbaro (born October 12, 1979) ^{[1] [2]} is an American journalist and host of The New York Times news podcast The Daily , one of the most popular podcasts in the United States. ^{[3] [4]}

Early life [ edit ]

Barbaro grew up in North Haven, Connecticut . His mother, Jean, worked as a library media specialist at Anna Reynolds Elementary School in Newington, Connecticut . His father, Frank, was a New Haven, Connecticut city firefighter. ^[1] His mother is Jewish and Barbaro identifies as Jewish. ^{[5] [6] [7]} Barbaro's sister, Tracy Barbaro, works at Harvard University as a research lab coordinator. ^{[1] [8]} In middle school, he and his sister delivered the New Haven Register every weekday at 6am. ^[3] Both attended Hamden Hall Country Day School in Hamden, Connecticut . ^[9]

High school and college journalism [ edit ]

In high school, Barbaro wrote for Hamden Hall's official newspaper, The Advent. Barbaro, with classmate and future New York Times colleague Ross Douthat , also co-founded and ran the school's underground newspaper, La Verite. ^[9] As a teenager, he aspired to be the Times ' Jerusalem Bureau Chief. ^[6]

He graduated from Yale University in 2002 with a degree in history. ^[10] While at Yale, he reported for the Yale Daily News and later became its editor-in-chief, overseeing a staff of nearly 100 student writers. ^[9]

Career [ edit ]

2002?2016: Reporter [ edit ]

After his college graduation, Barbaro joined The Washington Post as a reporter covering the biotechnology industry. ^[10] In 2005, he joined The New York Times , where he first covered Walmart extensively until 2007 for the Times' business section. Next, he reported on New York City Hall and the American retail industry. ^{[9] [11] [12]} Later, he became a national political correspondent for the Times . ^[13] During the 2016 United States presidential election , Barbaro frequently wrote front-page articles on the topic and became one of the most prominent Times reporters covering the election. ^[12]

2016?present: Podcast host [ edit ]

The Run-Up [ edit ]

In August 2016, The New York Times launched The Run-Up , a twice-a-week political podcast that Barbaro hosted. The podcast ran until the presidential election in November 2016. ^[14]

The Daily [ edit ]

In February 2017, Barbaro began hosting The Daily , the Times ' first podcast to air five days a week. ^[15] In its first year, The Daily attracted an audience of one million listeners a day. ^[16] The podcast, which has episodes that typically are 30 minutes long, has experienced tremendous success and was the #1 podcast in the United States for every month of 2019. ^{[4] [17]} The Daily was the most popular U.S. news podcast for both Spotify and Apple listeners in 2020 and the #2 podcast in the United States. ^{[18] [19]} Although the Times ' has various other podcasts, most of its audio revenue in mid-2019 was from The Daily . ^[12]

The Daily has seen even greater success during the COVID-19 pandemic . ^[19] TIME said: "Barbaro and his team at the Times have established themselves as the most trusted voices in podcasting at a time when we as a country are desperate for information." ^[20] In August 2020, the newspaper's president and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien noted that at the time, The Daily had more than 3.5 million subscribers every day, a "vastly larger" audience than both the Times' daily and Sunday paper. ^[21]

In January 2021, Barbaro apologized after privately pressuring some journalists to pull back criticism of the New York Times podcast Caliphate . ^[22]

Public image [ edit ]

Barbaro is known for his distinctive voice, ^[23] frequently described as "dulcet", and his "staccato" speech style. ^{[4] [24] [25] [26] [20]} His success with The Daily and distinct appearance also led many to compare him to Ira Glass , host and producer of This American Life . ^{[12] [4]} When Barbaro was growing up, his grandfather would criticize him for using "um" or "you know," so he often pauses when speaking to avoid using filler words. ^[27]

Since The Daily launched, Barbaro has received significant media coverage. He has made sold-out public appearances around the country, ^[28] and a wide range of media outlets have interviewed him about The Daily , journalism, and politics. He has been featured on television shows such as Late Night with Seth Meyers , ^[29] CBS This Morning , ^[30] and PBS NewsHour . ^[13] Additionally, he has been featured at South by Southwest (SXSW) , ^[31] Vox's Recode Decode podcast, ^[3] and NPR 's talk show 1A . ^[32]

Six months after The Daily launched, The New Yorker wrote an article about Barbaro entitled "An Appreciation of Michael Barbaro and The Daily ." ^[33] In January 2020, a New York Magazine profile on him called him "the voice of a generation." ^[4] A Vanity Fair article in November 2021 suggested that The Daily had "vault[ed] Barbaro from a respected reporter to a full-fledged media celebrity." ^[34]

In November 2018, Liev Schreiber portrayed Barbaro on Saturday Night Live . ^[35]

Awards and honors [ edit ]

In 2018, Barbaro won a duPont-Columbia University Award , one of the most prestigious awards in journalism, for his work on The Daily . ^[36] Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism , which administers the award, called The Daily "one of the signature achievements in podcasting this year," and said that the podcast is "raising the journalistic bar and inspiring a wave of imitators." ^[37]

Personal life [ edit ]

In October 2014, Barbaro married Timothy Levin, a fellow Yale graduate. Levin, who is eight years Barbaro's senior, founded Bespoke Education, a tutoring and test prep company. ^[1] In July 2018, it was reported that Barbaro and Levin had since divorced. In a June 2019 interview with Evening Standard , Barbaro mentioned that it "wasn't a coincidence" that he and his husband broke up shortly after The Daily launched. He said: "[The show] was a massive change, and it exposed things to me about my life. It made me reflect on who I was. Anytime you go through a major life change it tests every relationship." ^[38]

After his divorce, Barbaro began a relationship with The Daily executive producer Lisa Tobin. ^[4] A New York profile on Barbaro from January 2020 reported that Barbaro and Times colleague Lisa Tobin bought an apartment together in Brooklyn in 2019 and were engaged. ^[4] They have a daughter. ^[39]

Barbaro's friendship with socially conservative Times columnist Ross Douthat has received media attention. ^[40] In an interview with the New Yorker , Barbaro reflected on how Douthat's conservative views on same-sex marriage affected the pair's friendship: "I’ve been on a long journey that I know Ross generally approves of," Barbaro said, in reference to ending his own same-sex marriage and later entering a heterosexual one. "It’s no secret that [Douthat] wants people to have children and to enter into monogamous heterosexual relationships." ^[41]

References [ edit ]