Weekend Plans With Dave Rubin, The ‘Gateway Drug’ To Conservatism

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 

This weekend, former comedian and political commentator Dave Rubin spends time with The Daily Wire just before going off the grid for a month. A former co-host of the left-wing news show “The Young Turks,” the New York Times-bestselling author and entrepreneur “left the left” to launch his podcast “The Rubin Report” (along with his award-winning tequila brand Copal 22). He shares his tricks to aging well and staying young at heart, and he offers a playful jab at Daily Wire host Michael Knowles. Here’s why everything he touches turns to gold.

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Properly fit and tan for life in Miami, Dave Rubin reaches for a pair of reading glasses, telling me, “I just turned 50 this year and I can’t see anything, out of nowhere.” They say you should never meet your heroes, but if Dave had anything to do with honing your critical thinking chops (and having fun doing it), rest assured that he’s just as cool in real life as he is on his show. 

“I am the gateway drug,” he says with a smile. I don’t have the exact stats, but he’s probably converted more people to conservatism — and Florida — than most of his peers.

A good friend introduced me to “The Rubin Report” when Dave was still living in Los Angeles. I was too. His sparkling take on dark stuff such as lockdowns and BLM felt like manna from heaven. He’d spent years in entertainment working as a comedian and commentator (maybe you saw him on tour with Jordan Peterson), effortlessly infusing the cultural current with common sense.

These days, Dave’s living free in the Sunshine State. “I don’t miss anything about LA,” he says. “The only thing that would even remotely pop into my mind at this point is … Boa Steakhouse on Sunset. Actually it’s not as great as it used to be.” 

He moved to the City of Angels back in 2013 when it was thriving, and he eventually built the house of his dreams in Sherman Oaks. But after a year of battling “COVID craziness,” he called time of death on the SoCal experiment on which he built his successful career. “There’s just no magic to it anymore … There’s very little hope.” 

In the great state of Florida, Dave says, “I can fight for something as opposed to relentlessly fighting against something that seemingly is always getting worse.”

Rise and really shine

“I wake up at about 7 o’clock. I keep my Oura Ring on so I know how much I slept,” Dave tells me. A little later, if he’s not swamped with news hits and show prep, he catches a few extra winks. “One of my great pleasures is a 20-minute nap. I find it to be the best thing mentally and physically, and to stay sharp.”

Dave’s other little helper comes in the form of a mug. “I drink a lot of coffee, probably too much,” he admits. “I usually have two to three coffees before the show — one when I wake up, one if I’m working out — and then I often have coffee in the mug during the show.” Until now, I assumed it was tequila. He laughs, “Well, it depends on the day.”

The kids are alright

Family life revolves around keeping up with Dave and his husband David Janet’s two young boys. But it’s a bonus that Dave gets to play with the same toys he loved back in the day. “The kids are really into Transformers, and I was obsessed with Transformers when I was a kid,” Dave shares. “Now they know more of the names of the characters than I do. I still get down on the floor and get into that crazy imaginative world … It’s just absolutely incredible.”

To keep those growing minds fired up, screen time is limited. “We do a little bit of ‘Bluey,’” he admits. “I’m not gonna say I’ve never shown them a little bit of my old ‘Transformers,’ and a little bit of ‘Spider-Man.’” Screen time is every parent’s challenge with young kids. “I know parents just want a little peace and quiet,” Dave admits. He doesn’t judge anyone else. “I just think once you open that Pandora’s box, you can never close it.”

Right now it’s soccer practice for the boys if they’re not splashing around in the pool, but Dave has high hopes for their future in sports. “Obviously I want to angle them to basketball, but it’s Miami — we’re doing soccer at the moment. One thing at a time.”

Cocktails with conservatives

It was only a matter of time before Dave turned his happy-hour ritual into a portfolio asset. And just a year into its existence, his 100% blue agave tequila brand Copal 22 has won every competition it’s entered. 

“I try not to talk too much smack about Clase Azul because that’s what got me into tequila,” he says, talking some smack about the additives from the brand with the bell-top. “Everyone thinks that tequila is having shots of Jose Cuervo and jumping in a pool in college … We’ve just made something much more elegant and exquisite with Copal.”

Of course, tequila’s a bit of an outlier in the whiskey-soaked landscape of conservative media. Dave, you’ve got a tight five. Go.

“All my conservative friends — such as Michael Knowles and many others who I like a lot — they all drink whiskey and bourbon because they think that’s what men drink,” Dave jokes. “A man drinks it, and he has a cigar, and that means he’s a man, and he’s never put his arm around another man. But, they don’t really like it. They’re only drinking it to prove that they’re straight. Meanwhile, if you give them a little bit of tequila, they won’t become gay, but they will enjoy it a little bit more.”

So how does Dave knock one back? “Just pour it over one rock and swirl it for about 30 seconds,” he says. “If you want a little more flavor, or to feel like you’re drinking more of a cocktail, you could add a tiny splash of watermelon juice — or literally a piece of fruit. Mangoes are particularly good down here in Florida.” 

Touching grass

Dave is 10 years into his annual digital detox. Pressing pause on filming and going phone-free, he avoids the news for the entire month of August. He says the tradition has always kept him sane in the commentator space. But this time around, it’s particularly important. 

“I am going to disappear and not pay attention to anything, and not be infected by this endless algorithmic lunacy,” he confirms.

“This year, I think because of Charlie [Kirk’s] assassination, and then watching people that are my contemporaries — and some of whom were my friends — go completely insane, just how awful some of the nastiness has been on the Right when we should be so united against the crazy commies coming on the Left … It’s been a grating year in a way that I never really felt before,” Dave says. “I don’t think any of us realized how much of a dam Charlie was for craziness.”

“When I first did Off the Grid, I think [Ben Shapiro] might have been the first guy that brought me back. I was talking to him about it, and he goes, ‘Dave, you know, you really don’t need a whole month. The Jews have something called Shabbat once a week, you can try that first. This is a little extreme.’”

The rest of the year, Dave honors the Jewish day of rest with his family, a little challah, and some wine. He goes lighter on the devices, adding, “I’m not doing it 100% perfectly.”

Only getting better with time

Dave’s clearly Benjamin Button-ing with each passing year, but he’s vague on the anti-aging details. “I got my girl in Miami Beach. She does some kind of laser twice a year. I don’t know what it is … I feel like some burning on my face, and a lot of creams and stuff, and there’s some heat.”

“I run around a lot, and I eat right, and I don’t really eat sugar, and I eat a lot of red meat,” he says. He recently switched from tomahawks to filets to maybe lose a pound or two. “I don’t drink a ton, actually, but I exercise every day. And I’m also chasing two 3-year-olds around here. That’ll keep you young.”

He used to hit the basketball court for nine hours a week in the Florida heat, burning 1,500 calories during each three-hour session. But he’s nursing an injury at the moment. “I crushed my shoulder playing basketball, so I’m in the middle of physical therapy,” he says. Along with the sun and camaraderie, these workouts soothe his mind. “I’ve missed it more mentally in a weird way than physically. It’s the only time that I stopped thinking about all of this lunacy that we’re talking about.” 

No matter what, he finds a way to get moving. “Taking a walk in the morning is probably the most important thing,” he says. His dog Clyde is happy to accompany him. “Sometimes it’s humid as hell here and the mosquitoes are out. It’s not the most pleasant thing in the summer, but I think just moving a little bit in the morning is vitally important.”

Advice from the pod guy next door

Dave talks a lot about his experience touring with Jordan Peterson, watching others transform through his teachings as well as himself. He calls his own insight “Jordan Peterson-esque.” 

“Figure out what your adventure is in life and go do it,” Dave says. “It might mean that you want to put all your energy in your career, it might mean you want to put all your energy into your family, it might mean you split those two things.”

Whatever it is, he suggests lighting a flare to mark your path. “Always put something on the horizon,” he explains. “You always have to have things to look forward to. A lot of people that I know that are lost or confused, it’s because they’re not looking forward to anything. They just wake up … job’s not great, you’re just doing it over and over and over, and then you just kind of slowly disintegrate.”

“If you’re doing something that you love, or at least angling towards it, then you have things that you’re looking forward to in the future.”

You may want to reserve a court time for Dave’s next venture. “I really, really want an indoor basketball court, and I’m gonna get it one day,” he assures me. “I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, and it’s gonna be a hell of a thing to get property down here in this area that you can afford.” The challenge doesn’t sway him. 

“Do something worthwhile,” he says, “and people will find you.”