Matt Walsh

Matt Walsh (born June 18, 1986) is an American far-right political commentator, podcast host, and author. He hosts The Matt Walsh Show podcast and regularly appears on the American conservative website The Daily Wire. Walsh has authored four books and starred in The Daily Wire documentary films What Is a Woman? and Am I Racist?.

Walsh began his career in 2010 as a talk radio host for two stations in Delaware, before moving to Kentucky and launching his own website in 2012. He left WLAP in Kentucky when his show was canceled in December 2013 and joined Blaze Media in 2014. He joined The Daily Wire in 2017, and began hosting The Matt Walsh Show in 2018. Walsh has appeared on nationally syndicated shows.

Walsh opposes transgender rights and has campaigned in opposition to groups providing or encouraging transgender health care, particularly for minors. He has campaigned against several hospitals, comparing the transgender healthcare they provide to child sexual abuse, genital mutilation, and rape.

In 2022, Walsh released Johnny the Walrus, a children's book in which he compared being transgender to pretending to be a walrus, and What Is a Woman?, a documentary film about gender identity in the United States.

Life and career

Walsh was born and raised in Baltimore County, Maryland.

He began his media career in 2010 as a talk radio co-host of The Matt and Crank Program on WZBH 93.5 FM in Georgetown, Delaware. In August 2011, he moved to WGMD 92.7 FM in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he worked for less than a year. In 2012, Walsh relocated to Lexington, Kentucky, where he joined NewsRadio 630 WLAP and launched a website, The Matt Walsh Blog, where he wrote on political and cultural issues from a conservative perspective. In December 2013, he announced he was "leaving radio forever" following the cancellation of his show to focus on blogging.

In October 2014, Walsh joined Blaze Media. He has also contributed to HuffPost and began writing for The Daily Wire in October 2017. Walsh has appeared on television programs including Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle, Fox & Friends, Dr. Phil, and on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

Walsh began hosting The Matt Walsh Show on YouTube in April 2018 as a weekday program approximately one hour in length. In April 2023, he announced that the show would move to The Daily Wire platform after his YouTube channel was demonetized for violating platform policies related to gender identity content regarding Dylan Mulvaney.

Walsh's work has received support from public figures including Elon Musk and some Republican legislators. Author J. K. Rowling commented favorably on What Is a Woman?, stating that it "exposed" the "incoherence of gender identity."

Johnny the Walrus

On March 29, 2022, Daily Wire's DW Books published Walsh's children's book Johnny the Walrus, which compares being trans to identifying as a walrus.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the book "hilarious". Conservative news website TheBlaze called the book "an effort to push back against radical gender ideology which defies biological reality". LGBTQ Nation denounced the book, calling it "anti-transgender" and a mockery of transgender youth, while PinkNews referred to it as "hateful" and "transphobic". It was listed as the bestselling LGBT+-related book on Amazon in December 2021 before Amazon recategorized it to Political and Social Commentary. Walsh called the recategorization "an unconscionable attack on gay rights and a horrific example of homophobia and gay erasure". Target removed the book from its online bookstore on the same day.

What Is a Woman?

Walsh's online documentary, What Is a Woman? was released by The Daily Wire on June 1, 2022, at the start of Pride Month. In the film, Walsh asks various people the question, "What is a woman?" while presenting his own views on the topic. Walsh had asked the same question in other appearances, including a Dr. Phil show on January 19, 2022, with transgender and non-binary people. On June 14, Walsh published a book based on the documentary, entitled What Is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation through DW Books.

The documentary received a divided reception from critics and political commentators. Critics, such as AJ Erkert of Science-Based Medicine, Erin Rook of LGBTQ Nation, and academics, argued the film was "propaganda", spread "transphobic lies", and was "science denying", seeking to ridicule the medical experts interviewed if they did not agree with Walsh's position. Erkert compared the documentary to the antiscience films Vaxxed and Expelled. Conservative commentators, such as Rich Lowry and Rod Dreher, praised the film as "mesmerizing" and "excellent". Dimitrije Vojnov of Radio Television of Serbia said that Walsh could become the American right's equivalent of Michael Moore, and just as biased.

Eventbrite banned screenings of the documentary due to the service not permitting content that promotes "hate, violence, or harassment towards others and/or oneself". Walsh denied that the documentary was hate speech and accused Eventbrite of hypocrisy for permitting the screening of drag shows that allow children in attendance, which Walsh considers a form of grooming.

In February 2022, Eli Erlick, a transgender activist, alleged that Walsh had invited dozens of people to participate in the documentary under false pretenses. Kataluna Enriquez, Fallon Fox, and other transgender public figures corroborated the account. Walsh created a group called the Gender Unity Project, which the individuals said attempted to lure them into participating in the film. The Gender Unity Project's Twitter account and website were taken down shortly after the allegations went public. Erlick claimed there were at least 50 other recruited interviewees, including a 14-year-old transgender girl.

Walsh's What Is a Woman? college tour attracted protests of his appearances for screenings at University of Houston and the University of Wisconsin.