Since the late 2000s, for so many of us, our weeknights have been spent with Rachel Maddow. Here’s everything to know about Rachel’s education and youth that shaped her signature political commentary style.
Who is Rachel Maddow?
Rachel Anne Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American TV and radio show host, political commentator, activist, podcaster, and author. She grew up in Castro Valley, California, and graduated high school in 1990. As of 2025, Rachel is 52 years old.
Rachel’s decades-long (and still ongoing) career actually began with a competition that she decided to enter into on a whim. WRNX, the radio station in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was searching for a second lead for its Dave in the Morning show. She won the contest and got her very first on-air job with Dave Brinnel. Dave fondly recollects seeing her for the first time and thinking she was a 14-year old boy in a pickup truck.
In addition to being a TV/ radio host, Rachel has also hosted podcasts and written several nonfiction books about American politics and history.
Rachel Maddow’s Education: Where Did She Go to School?
High School
Rachel graduated from Castro Valley High School, California, in 1990, where she was an athlete and played 3 different sports: volleyball, basketball, and swimming.
Her mother describes her as a very enthusiastic player who often got injured. When Rachel graduated high school in 1990, she left behind 6 pairs of crutches!
She was also a freshman class officer who held the position of treasurer.
Rachel’s activism also began in high school when she started sneaking off to work in an AIDS clinic in West Oakland after injuring her shoulder playing volleyball. Her dream had actually been to compete in the Olympics, but her injury closed that chapter of her book and, instead, brought her here.
Classmates® 1990 Castro Valley High School Yearbook, p. 53.
Classmates® 1990 Castro Valley High School Yearbook, p. 152.
Classmates® 1990 Castro Valley High School Yearbook, p. 39.
College Education
Rachel graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in public policy. This is where she first came out as a lesbian. At graduation, she was awarded the John Gardner Fellowship award for public service. With her degree, she flew to San Francisco and worked for AIDS advocacy in prisons with ACT-UP and the AIDS Legal Referral Panel.
The next year, she went to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship as the first publicly-out lesbian recipient of the scholarship, where she got a doctorate (DPhil) in politics in 2001. Before finishing her dissertation, she moved back home and bagged the job at WRNX despite not being a morning person at all.
What Does She Look Like Today? Rachel Maddow Then vs. Now
Rachel has changed up her style over time, especially compared to how she looked in high school. Explore photos of Rachel Maddow from the 1990s, 2000s, and present day.
Who Are Rachel Maddow’s Parents and Siblings?
Rachel was born to parents Robert B. Maddow and Elaine Gosse Maddow. She has an older brother, David Maddow. Rachel has revealed that she grew up in a very conservative area. Her parents were devout Catholics and centrists.
Rachel’s dad was a US Air Force captain. He left the forces the year before Rachel was born and went on to work as a lawyer for the East Bay Municipality Utility District. Her mother was a school program administrator.
Who is Rachel Maddow’s Partner?
Rachel’s long-term partner is Susan Mikula, aged 67, who is an artist and a photographer. The two met way back in 1999, even before Rachel got hired at WRNX. At that time, Rachel was doing odd jobs to make some money while working on her dissertation. She saw that Mikula needed a yard person and applied.
The way Rachel describes it in her interviews is that she showed up at Mikula’s house and it was love at first sight for the both of them despite their 15-year age gap. “Bluebirds and comets and stars. It was absolutely a hundred percent clear,” she says.
Their first date happened at “Ladies Day on the Range,” hosted by the National Rifle Association. The couple have been together ever since. Rachel even calls their relationship her “best accomplishment,” which is high praise, considering everything she has achieved.
Do Rachel Maddow & Susan Mikula Have Kids?
Despite rumors floating around online, Rachel has confirmed that she and her partner do NOT have kids.
Where Does Rachel Maddow Live?
Rachel splits her time between New York and Cummington, Massachusetts.
Rachel and her partner built a private cabin in the woods in Cummington to cozy up away from prying eyes. The pair apparently spent $605,000 for the massive two-story farmhouse that now serves as their private retreat.
Mapping Rachel Maddow’s Career
Radio
After Rachel’s first ever radio stint at WRNX, she hosted Big Breakfast on WRSI in Northampton, Massachusetts — another morning show.
After a couple of years, she left to join the then-fledgling Air America network in 2004 after a friend sent Rachel’s audition tapes to them. Here, she hosted Unfiltered, along with Chuck D, an American rapper belonging to the hip-hop group Public Enemy, and Lizzy Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show.
After Unfiltered was cancelled, Rachel began hosting her hours-long radio show called The Rachel Maddow Show.
Television
Rachel is most known for The Rachel Maddow Show, hosted by MSNBC, Mondays to Fridays 9 p.m. ET since 2008. As an anchor, she stated that her mission was to “increase the amount of useful information in the world.”
She has also appeared in documentaries such as Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Evins (2019) and Last Flight Home (2022).
If you’ve watched Red, White, and Royal Blue (2023), a movie based on a book with the same name, you might also have caught Rachel’s cameo appearance as herself! Or maybe you saw her in the famous House of Cards.
Podcasts
Rachel has two podcasts under her belt. Bagman (2018) was produced with MSNBC and tackled the 1973 scandal surrounding Vice President Spiro Angew. In 2022, she launched another podcast — again with MSNBC — called Ultra. This one was about US right-wing extremism during the 1940s, including World War II.
Awards
If you’ve been watching Rachel for the last 20 years, you know she’s deserving of awards! Rachel’s many accomplishments have been recognized through a long list of awards and prizes. Here are the most notable ones:
- Hillman Prize Award for Broadcast Journalism: 2023 for Ultra, marking the first time a podcast has won in this category
- Best Spoken Word Album: 2021 Grammy Award for Blowout
- Silver Baton: 2020 duPont-Columbia Award for Bagman
- Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis: News and Documentary Emmy Awards. She won this multiple times: in 2011, and twice in 2017
- Outstanding Host – News/ Non-Fiction: 2012 Gracie Allen Awards
Does Rachel Maddow Have a Website & Social Media?
As a prominent public figure, Rachel uses her social media accounts to post updates about the goings-on in America.
You can find her online at:
- Instagram (1.1 M followers as of October 2025. It’s also worth noting that this account is actually run by MSNBC and is purely about her show)
- Threads (376K followers)
- X/ Twitter (9.7 M followers)
- BlueSky (1.1 M followers)
- Facebook (2.6 M followers)
- Official personal website
- The Rachel Maddow Blog
See Celebrity Yearbook Photos
Ever wondered what your favorite celebrities looked like in high school? Did they have awkward haircuts, too? Here’s your chance to find out! Who knows, maybe you’ll also spot an old friend or two.
The Classmates® yearbooks archive has over 40,000 yearbook photos spanning back decades.
Sign up for free and step into the past.
Sources:
- https://time.com/collection/firsts/4898605/rachel-maddow-firsts/
- https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/2013/innovations-issue/#/?part=rachelmaddow#/?part=rachelmaddow&forceredirect=yes
- https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Bay-Area-s-Maddow-is-cable-talk-s-newest-star-3195294.php
- https://web.archive.org/web/20090613065601/http://www.newsweek.com/id/170385/page/3
- https://web.archive.org/web/20121209123953/http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/newsweek/2012/03/11/rachel-maddow-on-being-outed-by-her-college-newspaper.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080619062016/http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/v-print/story/661526.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080918215122/http://www.sovo.com/2005/1-28/arts/feature/lwords.cfm
- https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/msnbc-promo-describes-rachel-maddow-as-a-news-anchor/
- https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/rachel_maddow
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1882629/
- https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/rachel-maddow-msnbc-podcast-documentary-1203030550/
- https://deadline.com/2022/10/rachel-maddow-podcast-msnbc-world-war-ii-1235133662/
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1882629/awards/
- https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/rachel-maddows-world-war-ii-era-themed-podcast-wins-hillman-prize-for-broadcast-journalism/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/rachel-maddow-bio-rhodes-scholar-news-anchor-activist-2019-9
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rachel_Maddow_(2018).jpg
- Paul Schultz, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- MSNBC, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- Then – Classmates® 1990 Castro Valley High School Yearbook, p. 39. https://www.classmates.com/siteui/yearbooks/4182891100?page=43
- Now – PhilipRomanoPhoto, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RachelMaddow-byPhilipRomano.jpg
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