Ira Madison III (born July 28, 1986) is an American television writer and

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

. He is the main host of the

Crooked Media Crooked Media is an American progressive political media company. It was founded in 2017 by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, all former top Barack Obama staffers and co-hosts of the '' Keepin' It 1600'' podcast. Dan Pfeiffer, also a ...

podcast ''Keep It!'' He is a former critic at ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'', '' GQ'' and other publications.

Early life

Madison attended

Marquette University High School Marquette University High School (MUHS) is a private, all-male, Jesuit school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, an accreditation division of Co ...

, then attended

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...

as an undergraduate, then

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

for a master's degree in Dramatic Writing.

Career

Madison worked as a writer for

MTV News MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...

and

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

in the early 2010s. He has since written for various publications, including ''Variety'', ''

GQ Magazine ''GQ'' (short for ''Gentlemen's Quarterly'' and previously known as ''Apparel Arts'') is an international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though ...

'', and ''

''. Madison was named one of the "most reliably hilarious and incisive cultural critics writing now" by ''Nylon'' in 2016. ''Nylon'' also named Madison to its 2016 list of "The 25 Best Things We Read Online In 2016" for his essay on Donald Trump's political rise. Madison co-hosted a podcast at MTV News with

Doreen St. Félix Doreen St. Félix (born 1992) is a Haitian-American writer. She is a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and was formerly editor-at-large for ''Lenny Letter'', a newsletter from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner. Early life St. Félix attended Bro ...

in 2016 called ''Speed Dial with Ira and Doreen'', that focused on music, pop culture, and race. In April 2017, Madison was featured in the documentary ''The Culture of Proximity.'' In January 2018,

launched the podcast ''Keep It!'', a show about pop culture and politics, which Madison currently hosts with

Louis Virtel Louis Virtel (; born August 4, 1986) is an American television writer, comedian, pop culture commentator, and podcast host. He first rose to prominence after appearing on a 2015 episode of ''Jeopardy!'', where a clip of him answering a clue while ...

. The show is named for a phrase that Madison coined on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, which refers to trends, news stories, and other pop cultural phenomena he'd rather not exist. Madison was a writer on the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

series '' Daybreak'' and ''

Q-Force ''Q-Force'' is an American adult animated comedy television series created by Gabe Liedman for Netflix. In April 2019, Netflix ordered 10 episodes of the series, with Liedman as a showrunner, along with Sean Hayes, Michael Schur, Todd Milline ...

''. He has also written for the show ''

Uncoupled ''Uncoupled'' is an American romantic comedy television series created by Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman that premiered on Netflix on July 29, 2022. The series was featured in the Netflix "Top 10" list at number six for one week. In January 20 ...

'' and the

Quibi Quibi ( ) was an American short-form streaming platform that generated content for viewing on mobile devices. It was founded in Los Angeles in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg and was led by Meg Whitman as CEO. The service raised $ ...

original series ''Nikki Fre$h''. In 2024, Madison appeared in the

Brat Pack ''Brat Pack'' is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. The term ''Brat Pack'', a play on ''Rat Pack'' from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularized in a ...

-themed documentary '' Brats''. Madison's debut essay collection, ''Pure Innocent Fun'', was released by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

on February 4, 2025. The book covers various pieces of pop culture from Madison's

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...

in the 1990s and 2000s. The title is a reference to a quote from

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

star

NeNe Leakes Linnethia Monique "NeNe" Leakes (; née Johnson; born December 13, 1967) is an American television personality, actress, presenter, businesswoman, author, and fashion designer. She first rose to prominence after becoming the breakout star on B ...

that has since become a

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

: "It’s unfortunate that people can change something that was just pure innocent fun into drama."

Twitter suspension

In November 2020, Madison pranked

by changing his name to

Beto O'Rourke Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke ( , ; ; born September 26, 1972) is an American politician who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States) ...

and writing "I'll drop my nudes if Texas goes blue". He was campaigning for

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

in the

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

. He went on to tweet "es grande". Madison was suspended from Twitter for impersonating O'Rourke.

Personal life

Madison identifies as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

, and has been referred to as the "King of Gay Twitter" by ''

Milwaukee Magazine ''Milwaukee Magazine'' is a monthly city magazine serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area in Wisconsin, United States. It bills itself as "Southeastern Wisconsin's most authoritative source for Events and Dining," and reports a readership of 2 ...

''.

References

External links

*
Keep It!
episode archive
Interview with Ira Madison III
on

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...

(December 13, 2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Madison, Ira III 1986 births Living people Writers from Milwaukee 21st-century American non-fiction writers New York University alumni American music critics MTV News 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Marquette University High School alumni American political podcasters African-American writers American LGBTQ writers