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Some have known what they wanted to do at a very early age, and sometimes it was kind of by accident that these celebrities ended up where they're at. My guess this week is the lead Washington anchor for CNN and host the weekly television news show, The Lead, with Jake Tapper. We'll find out more about his early life, what he originally aspired to do for a career, the moment that changed everything for him, and his first job. He's been involved in a little bit of controversy earlier this year, with his book Original Sin President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and his disastrous choice to run again, which actually came out after his very public defensive comments. On behalf of the former president regarding his mental acuity while in office, and we'll talk about his latest book Race Against Terror, Chasing an Al-Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War. CNN journalist Jake Tapper is my guess this week on Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five-star rating, and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find it. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? We're about to find out. Jake, you're here to talk about a new book just after you put out a book about the former president. I had no idea you wrote this much. Well, this one I had, I've been working on for three years. And I started writing it three years ago. So this one was pretty much the first draft was done last year. And then the Biden book I wrote original sin that I co-wrote with Alex Thompson, that was a crash from November to March. So it's the illusion of churning out a book every six months, but that's not really what happened. Is this something that you enjoy doing? Because when I hear people are writing books for whatever reason, it gives me anxiety. I'm like, wow, I mean, it's something that I would love to be able to do. But for some reason, like it does, it gives me anxiety when I hear, oh, this so-and-so is writing a book. I love it. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. I mean, I don't need to do it. It's fun. I mean, it's usually some topic that I really want to dive deeper in than I can do in daily journalism. And, you know, there is like nobody in daily journalism, like you're not going to cover in daily journalism a story like this because it's not, it didn't, you know, it starts and the story starts in 2003 and ends in 2018, you know, so it's not new. But you can go deeper. And this story was so interesting to me because it was just about the detective work that these prosecutors did to lock up this all kind of terrorist. And if they didn't do it, he was basically going to be freed by the Italians. And then he would go on and kill as many Americans as possible. So when I first heard the story, I was like, this is incredible. This is like the best episode of CSI ever. And so that's what made it so fun for me. Have you seen the Tucker Carlson video or documentary, whatever that is? Have you watched any of that? Which one? The one about 9-11? Yeah, the one about 9-11. I've seen clips of it. What's your take? What was your take on it? Well, I mean, I can't really give an assessment of the whole thing because I haven't seen the whole thing. But I, you know, he seems to, well, you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do him the service of like saying I should see the whole thing before I assess it. He says a lot of things that I don't think are backed up by facts. I'll just put it that way. Okay. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. Celebrity Jobber. Take me back, Jake, all the way back. You're growing up. When did you want to get into media? And when you were younger, what exact direction were you looking to get into? Oh, I didn't want to become a journalist. I didn't, it's weird, actually, because I did a, I did a like a neighborhood newspaper when I was a kid, like eight or whatever. And I did, and I was the editor of my high school newspaper, but I didn't decide I wanted to go into journalism until I was in my 20s. And I started writing freelance stories. And it was kind of like in a, I didn't know what I wanted to do for a living. And I just was doing public relations just to pay the bills. Right. And then I started writing freelance freelance stories. And that's when I got really interested in journalism. So what did you, what was your major in college? History. I was a history major. History major. I loved because it was just, and you know, and I think there's a lot of truth. And people say that, you know, journalism is the first draft of history. I think there's a lot of truth to that. And what was your original plan with being a history major? Did you plan on being a professor or what were you thinking you were going to do with the degree? I wanted to be a cartoonist. Really? I wanted to be a political cartoon. Yeah, I wanted to be like the next Doonesbury. I wanted to do, I wanted to be like Gary Trudeau. I wanted to do like a political and socially relevant comic strip cartoons. And I got close once. I had a comic strip and I would talk to somebody with a universal press syndicate in Kansas City. But it didn't ultimately happen. And that's when I took a job in PR because I just, I needed to pay the bills. So I wasn't, my parents weren't going to let me live in the basement for the rest of my life. So I just started doing that. And while I was doing that, I started, you know, I was, I was writing, I was cartooning and eventually freelance journalism became something I really liked. And then I got hired as a full time journalist by a local free weekly in D.C. called Washington City. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Cito. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Cito. Was there a story or a book or something, a big break, if you will, or a moment in your career that kind of changed your, your life's trajectory? Yeah, I mean, I was, I think it was just that I was doing so much freelance work for city paper. I had been trying to pitch stuff and get hired by the Washington Post, but it never, I mean, I did, I sold them freelance stories, but they never really were interested in hiring me. And then I just kept on writing and writing and writing, and then city paper started assigning me stories. So it wasn't just ideas I brought them. And, but I mean, if I had to pick one, there was one time I went to a party and the people at this party had this really interesting story where it turned out, I mean, the long story short of it is that it turned out that they lived in a former Bordello. And there were all these things in the house that suggested a Bordello and all these people that would come by the house that suggested a Bordello. And so I pitched it to, it ended up being a story in the Washington city paper, I think it was the first story I wrote for Washington city paper, because it was just like a funny kind of weird story about a local house. And that probably was, that probably was a huge break. And actually, interestingly enough, this book, Race Against Terror, that is out, that started also with me at a party hearing a story from somebody. And I just said to myself, oh, that's an incredible story. Has anybody, has anybody ever written that story down? Has that been covered? And that was the story of a prosecutor being told of an Al Qaeda terrorist. And basically, the US had to prove the case against this terrorist. And then before the Italians would let the US take him to the US to prosecute him. And so it was just this incredible story of sleuthing of fingerprints and witness testimony and counter terrorism and secret documents. And that story was so interesting. And it's now this book, Race Against Terror. So the lesson is, if you're at a party, listen to the story, because maybe you can maybe you can turn it into a book. Right. You can be a part of this person's history. What about what about your very first job, Jake? Can you tell me what your very, very first paycheck was? Baskin Robbins. I worked at Baskin Robbins starting in 10th grade, scooping ice cream, making waffles for waffle cones, making Sundays, watching people destroy their delicious milkshakes by putting malted in it. And, and yeah, that was I did that for about 10, I say 10th grade, 11th grade, for almost three years, I did that. And that was that was a great experience. Rode my rode my bike three miles to the Baskin Robbins and then ride my bike back. Kind of can't believe that, but this is a different era, right? This is the 80s as opposed to today. Right. Kind of can't believe that my parents let you do it. Bike three miles. Yeah. Yeah. I was just saying the other day, you know, closing time. Yeah. I was just saying the other day, I can't believe my parents at 16 years old, let me drive across country during spring break. I cannot believe it's a different world though. It's a different world. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know if it's better or worse. I mean, I'm trying to think, I mean, I guess because I'm 56, how old are you? 50. Okay. I guess because our parents are from a generation that they were, you know, within a few years of the depression and World War II, right? That the idea of driving across country when you're 16 or riding a bike three miles in the dark close to midnight, from your ice cream job, that you know, that I guess that didn't sound so rough. Right. But I don't think I would ever let my kids do that. Ride a bike three miles in the dark. Definitely not. No way. Definitely not. The Celebrity Jobber Podcast with Jeff Seeto. Race Against Terror chasing an alkydic killer at the dawn of the forever war. Jake Tapper, are you optimistic about where we are today as a country or what are your thoughts? I'm concerned about a lot of things having to do with the country, but I'm optimistic long term because this is the United States of America. And I do think we have a set of ideals that distinguish us from other countries, ideals that have to do with democracy and freedom. But I am concerned about some of the things going on. And I am very concerned about how divided we all seem for sure. I agree. Race Against Terror chasing an alkydic killer at the dawn of the forever war. Jake Tapper, thank you so much. Really appreciate the talk. Thank you. Jake Tapper, born in New York City, raised in Philadelphia. His mother, a psychiatric nurse at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. And his father, originally from Chicago, graduate from Jake's alma mater, Dartmouth, and also Harvard Medical School went on to serve as the president of South Philadelphia Pediatrics and associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Jefferson Medical College. So both parents in the medical field. Jake's original plan was to become a political cartoonist, which I thought was interesting. But he notes that his big break was a story that he wrote for the Washington City paper about a house he was in at a party that used to be a brothel and says that story got published and kind of catapulted his career. A similar story Jake wrote about going to a party and a quote unquote first date with Monica Lewinsky just weeks before the scandal with former president Bill Clinton broke. Wonder if that story was actually his real big break. And Jake's first job along with a number of other past guests on the celebrity jobber podcast, including Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, just so happened to be at a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop. That was Jake's first job again, a very popular first job scoop an ice cream. New York Times bestselling author, CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper. Information about his latest book Race Against Terror and more on his website, JakeTapper.com. Hey, he could have been a political cartoonist, if not for that one date with Monica Lewinsky. Thank you so much for checking out another episode of the celebrity jobber podcast. You can follow on Instagram celebrity underscore jobber underscore podcast or the YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com slash the at sign celebrity jobber streaming on Apple podcast, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe. We love a five star rating. And please leave a review. And again, past guests and episodes are online at celebrity jobber.com. Once again, I thank you so much for listening to another episode of the celebrity jobber podcast. And until next week, I'll see you then. I'm Jeff Zito.
