Shawn Farash is bringing his brand of conservative commentary to a bigger stage, and this time, he’s doing it alongside the man who inspired him to pick up a microphone in the first place. Dan Bongino’s Silverloch Media has tapped Farash to headline a new program, and the podcast host will debut Shawn Farash Live on Monday, August 17th at 1 PM ET.
Farash’s path to Silverloch started years before the deal came together, tracing back to a holiday drive that changed the course of his career. He described that moment in detail when asked about joining Bongino’s lineup.
“Um, well, it was extremely exciting,” Farash said. “I looked up to Dan Bongino for years. He’s the reason why I got inspired to engage in local activism when I lived in New York. I was sitting in traffic on the Tappan Zee Bridge, going upstate, a Memorial Day weekend in 2018. I heard one of Dan’s episodes about the Russia hoax and a lot of the inner workings behind the deep state and all that. At first I thought he was crazy. I said, ‘What is this guy talking about?’ But then he brought receipts. And I said, ‘This guy seems to be backing up what he’s saying. I like this.'”
That single episode set off an obsession that hasn’t let up since, and Farash explained how quickly it consumed him.
“So after that Memorial Day weekend, I got home, and I started going back and listening to every episode from then. I have not missed an episode since,” Farash said. “And I believe that he approaches the content creation and commentary space the right way. He is grounded by the North Star of Truth. He’s not about sensationalism or any click-driven garbage that the rest of the internet is filled with.”
From Listener to Colleague
Farash’s own grassroots work eventually grew into a media career of its own, and he traced that evolution back to the same blueprint Bongino had given him.
“From when I launched our grassroots organization on Long Island, and we ourselves launched the podcast, we kind of took the same approach, kind of copied and pasted his formula,” Farash said. “You know what we’re going to say? We’re going to back it up. And that podcast grew into something that landed me a show on a network known as LFA TV on Rumble. And then Dan and Silverloch came and asked me to join their lineup, to which I was very excited to accept. I’m extremely excited for August 17th to launch Shawn Farash Live with them. It’s gonna be fun.”
Asked whether he could have pictured this outcome back when he first tuned in, Farash didn’t hesitate with his answer.
“I always wanted to meet him. I met him at a book signing. But I never thought in a million years that I’d have the opportunity to have a national podcast for a network and a lineup that was founded by Dan Bongino. I never thought it would happen. But it’s been a long time coming.”
Getting to this point took years of trial and error across radio and podcasting, and Farash pointed to one station in particular as the turning point.
“There’s definitely been trials and error and crazy schedules and things,” Farash said. “I had my first fill-in opportunity from the great 1210 WPHT out of Philadelphia. I’ve done a ton of work with them. Without that station taking a chance on me as a fill-in guy, I don’t know if I would be in the position that I’m in right now. And obviously LFA TV has given me the opportunity to get a podcast going with them over the last almost four years at this point.”
That stretch at LFA TV became a proving ground, and Farash described the mindset that carried him through it.
“It gave me the opportunity over the course of that amount of time to get better at what I was trying to do,” the podcast host shared. “And that’s the way I looked at it over the course of those four years. It was just do a better show than the day before. And sometimes I didn’t do that,” he said with a laugh. “But sometimes we did! And overall, we moved in the right direction. Sometimes you take two steps forward and then a step back, and you reassess.”
The Trump Impersonation That Started It All
Long before the national platform, Farash built his following on a Trump impersonation bit, and he explained where the idea first came from.
“That helped a lot. And that was obviously one of the reasons why I really leaned into it,” Farash said. “When I was knocking on doors doing political activism in New York, a friend of mine said, ‘You got to do that Trump thing on TikTok.’ And I said, I don’t want to go on TikTok. It’s owned by China. But he said, ‘No, if you do it, it’ll go viral. You can get a bunch of eyeballs to what we’re doing in New York.’ And I said, ‘You know what? That’s a reason to do it.'”
Farash was careful to note that virality was never really the point for him, even as the bit took off.
“It’s always been about converting those views into meaningful metrics on the campaign trail,” Farash said. “Can we get candidates across the finish line? Can we bring more people to my show? And can we bring more people to the network that I’m streaming for? So I leaned into it because it’s a fun thing. People like it. Then they follow me and go ‘Hey, he’s got a podcast. He’s got a lot of interesting things to say.’ We don’t always agree on everything, but that was my thing.”
Asked what he hopes his audience ultimately takes away from his work, Farash returned to the same principle that first drew him to Bongino’s show.
“I want people to actually look for the truth, verifiable facts, and let the facts guide you to make your opinions,” Farash said. “I want people to take away the idea of doing proper diligence before formulating an opinion on something. Or if you have a problem, don’t just talk about the problem, but also talk about the solution. How we’re going to fix these problems, and keep building momentum to make the change that we want in the country.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.