Glenn Beck

Glenn Lee Beck is an American television personality and radio host, conservative political commentator, author, television network producer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He hosts the Glenn Beck Radio Program, a popular nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks and the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN, from January 2009 to June 2011 on the Fox News Channel and currently airs on TheBlaze. Beck has authored six New York Times–bestselling books. Beck is the founder and CEO of Mercury Radio Arts, a multimedia production company through which he produces content for radio, television, publishing, the stage, and the Internet. It was announced on April 6, 2011, that Beck would "transition off of his daily program" on Fox News later in the year but would team with Fox to "produce a slate of projects for Fox News Channel and Fox News' digital properties". Beck's last daily show on the network was June 30, 2011. In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter named Beck on its Digital Power Fifty list. Beck's supporters praise him as a constitutional stalwart defending traditional American values, while his critics contend he promotes conspiracy theories and employs incendiary rhetoric for ratings. Beck launched TheBlaze in 2011 after leaving Fox News. He currently hosts his hour-long afternoon program, The Glenn Beck Program on weekdays, and his three-hour morning radio show, both of which are broadcast on TheBlaze. Beck is also writing and producing History House, which follows the adventures of Johnny Appleseed and "Bookworm," as they travel through history's stories. Early life and education: Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington, the son of Mary Clara (née Janssen) and William Beck, who lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, at the time of their son's birth. The family later moved to Mount Vernon, Washington, where they owned and operated City Bakery in the downtown area. He is descended from German immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century. Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon. Glenn and his older sister moved with their mother to Sumner, Washington, attending a Jesuit school in Puyallup. On May 15, 1979, while out on a small boat with a male companion, Beck's mother drowned just west of Tacoma, Washington, in Puget Sound. The man who had taken her out in the boat also drowned. A Tacoma police report stated that Mary Beck "appeared to be a classic drowning victim", but a Coast Guard investigator speculated that she could have intentionally jumped overboard. Beck has described his mother's death as a suicide in interviews during television and radio broadcasts. After their mother's death, Beck and his older sister moved to their father's home in Bellingham, Washington, where Beck graduated from Sehome High School in June 1982. Beck also regularly vacationed with his maternal grandparents, Ed and Clara Janssen, in Iowa. In the aftermath of his mother's death and subsequent suicide of his stepbrother, Beck has said he used "Dr. Jack Daniel's" to cope. At 18, following his high school graduation, Beck relocated to Provo, Utah, and worked at radio station KAYK. Feeling he "didn't fit in", Beck left Utah after six months, taking a job at Washington, D.C.'s WPGC in February 1983. Personal life: While working at WPGC, Beck met his first wife, Claire. In 1983, the couple married and had two daughters, Mary and Hannah. Mary developed cerebral palsy as a result of a series of strokes at birth in 1988. The couple divorced in 1994 amid Beck's struggles with substance abuse. He is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, has said he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)." By 1994, Beck was suicidal, and imagined shooting himself to the music of Kurt Cobain. He credits Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) with helping him achieve sobriety. He said he stopped drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis in November 1994, the same month he attended his first AA meeting. Beck later said that he had gotten high every day for the previous 15 years, since the age of 16. In 1996, while working for a New Haven area radio station, Beck took a theology class at Yale University, with a written recommendation from Senator Joe Lieberman, a Yale alumnus who was a fan of Beck's show at the time. Beck enrolled in an "Early Christology" course, but soon withdrew, marking the extent of his post-secondary education. Beck then began a "spiritual quest" in which he "sought out answers in churches and bookstores". As he later recounted in his books and stage performances, Beck's first attempt at self-education involved reading the work of six wide-ranging authors, constituting what Beck jokingly calls "the library of a serial killer": Alan Dershowitz, Pope John Paul II, Adolf Hitler, Billy Graham, Carl Sagan, and Friedrich Nietzsche. During this time, Beck's Mormon friend and former radio partner Pat Gray argued in favor of the "comprehensive worldview" offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an offer that Beck rejected until a few years later. In 1999, Beck married his second wife, Tania. After they went looking for a faith on a church tour together, they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 1999, partly at the urging of his daughter Mary. Beck was baptized by his old friend, and current-day co-worker Pat Gray. Beck and his current wife Tania have had two children together, Raphe (who is adopted) and Cheyenne. Until April 2011, the couple lived in New Canaan, Connecticut, with the four children. Beck announced in July 2010 that he had been diagnosed with macular dystrophy, saying "A couple of weeks ago I went to the doctor because of my eyes, I can't focus my eyes. He did all kinds of tests and he said, 'you have macular dystrophy ... you could go blind in the next year. Or, you might not.'" The disorder can make it difficult to read, drive or recognize faces. In July 2011, Beck leased a house in the Fort Worth suburb of Westlake, Texas. In 2012, he moved his main TV and radio studios to Dallas, Texas. On November 10, 2014, Beck announced on TheBlaze that he had been suffering from a severe neurological disorder for at least the last five years. He described many strong and debilitating symptoms which made it difficult to work, and that he had "a string of health issues that quite honestly made me look crazy, and quite honestly, I have felt crazy because of them." Beck related that a chiropractor who specializes in "chiropractic neurology", Frederick Carrick, had "diagnosed him with several health issues, including an autoimmune disorder, which he didn’t name, and adrenal fatigue." Over a period of ten months he had received a series of treatments and felt better. A number of medical experts have expressed doubt about the legitimacy of Beck's diagnosis, treatment, and the credentials of the chiropractor, with Yale University neurologist Steven Novella dismissing chiropractic neurology as "pseudoscience": "Chiropractic neurology does not appear to be based on any body of research, or any accumulated scientific knowledge,.... and appears to me to be the very definition of pseudoscience."