Michael Knowles... what he's talking about

Best known for the Daily Wire show bearing his name, actor and author Michael Knowles, 31, has been described by fellow podcaster Patrick Coffin as one of the few media commentators who is both an unabashed Catholic and accepts all the Church’s teachings. A Yale University graduate who expertly challenges opposing views with reason, charm, and wit, Knowles has lectured on college campuses around the country, appeared on the Fox News Channel and other major networks, and has been a guest host for the late Rush Limbaugh. He talks here about his faith and his work.

How did you become a faithful Catholic at a time when many Catholics do not believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist, and openly disagree with other key teachings?

I was raised Catholic, and we practiced with varying degrees of seriousness throughout my childhood. By the age of 13, I fell away from the faith. The publishing fad of the “New Atheists” along with the liturgical confusion of that era and my own teenage hubris convinced me that I was far more intelligent and better educated on matters of metaphysics than, say, St. Thomas Aquinas, and I considered myself an atheist or agnostic for another decade or so. I began to revert during my freshman year of college when my randomly – or perhaps providentially – assigned roommate introduced me to the Calvinist philosopher Alvin Plantinga’s modal ontological argument for the existence of God. I next began reading C.S. Lewis, then G.K. Chesterton, then others. Only after I became convinced of God’s existence as an intellectual matter did I begin to take notice of numinous experience. A chance – or, again, providential – encounter with the peerless Fr. George Rutler around the age of 23 solidified this process of reversion.

What does your new book, Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds, have to say to those advancing political correctness and to those struggling with life in a cancel culture?

The central idea of the book is that the Left understands free speech much better than conservatives do. The leftists are wrong about what sort of speech should be permitted and what should be disallowed. But when they say that there’s no such thing as totally “free” speech, free from all constraints, they’re right – not just in the American tradition but in all speech regimes. They’ve led conservatives into a trap, whereby we either go along with the new standards or disavow standards altogether. Either way, political correctness advances because what the Left seeks is the destruction of traditional standards – in Marx’s words, “the ruthless criticism of all that exists.” Put simply, “free speech” does not suffice as a political vision because that abstraction means nothing to those who have nothing to say.

How has your acting background influenced your work as a podcast host and political commentator?

When asked how an actor could be a politician, President Reagan famously responded by asking how a politician could not be an actor. A dim view of acting and politics holds that the two fields are similar because both actors and politicians are vain liars. But at their best, actors and politicians must love both people and the truth. Politics and acting seek to understand the truth of human nature. To act is to act truthfully in imaginary circumstances. And if you don’t enjoy people, neither acting nor politics is the job for you. Actors spend their lives studying people – how they behave, what motivates them – and then portraying them with empathy. Politicians spend their lives talking to people, studying them in much the same way in order to understand how best to govern in a way oriented toward their flourishing.

What spiritual figure has most influenced your life as a Catholic? Do you have a devotion to a particular saint? Who are your favorite spiritual authors?

My Confirmation saint is Thomas the Apostle. Actually, I cannot quite recall whether I intended to choose Thomas the Apostle or Thomas Aquinas as my Confirmation saint, but since Thomas means “twin,” perhaps I can presume to call on both. Caravaggio’s “Incredulity of St. Thomas” was long the background image on my cell phone until my newborn son supplanted the painting. St. Jerome also offers great inspiration, and Caravaggio’s rendering of him translating the Bible remains my desktop background. My favorite spiritual authors include characters as varied as C.S. Lewis – not quite Catholic, but close – Chesterton, Belloc, St. Athanasius, St. John Henry Newman, Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, Cardinal Manning, Pope Benedict XVI, the radio host Patrick Madrid, and of course Fr. Rutler, among others. But pride of place on that list must go to the divine poet Dante.

With the death of Rush Limbaugh, for whom you were a guest host in 2020, where do you see talk radio headed?

Rush Limbaugh invented conservative talk radio, and no one will ever match his mastery of, or popularity in the medium. It was a great honor to guest host his radio show in its final days, and my only regret is that the announcement of my own show’s syndication to radio prevented me from hosting more frequently in those last weeks as we had intended. He had it all: keen insight, unmatched humor, and courage – a virtue all too often lacking on the Right. One hopes that our generation can continue his legacy in the new media that now constitute the battlefield of our culture war.

You married in 2018 and recently became a father. How have marriage and fatherhood changed you?

Life is better in every way. I only wish I had done both sooner!  

JUDY ROBERTS is a Legatus magazine staff writer.