Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro is the co-founder and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, the most-listened-to conservative podcast platform in America, and the host of The Ben Shapiro Show — a daily political commentary program that regularly ranks among the top five most-downloaded podcasts in the United States, reaching millions of listeners per episode. Born January 15, 1984, in Burbank, California, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, Shapiro graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles summa cum laude at age 20 with a degree in political science and then graduated from Harvard Law School at age 23. He began publishing political commentary in his teens, producing his first book at nineteen, and by his mid-twenties had established himself as one of the most prominent conservative voices of his generation.

Shapiro is an observant Orthodox Jew — he keeps Shabbat, maintains kosher, and has been openly and consistently religious throughout his public career. His religious identity is inseparable from his advocacy for Israel, which he frames in both theological and geopolitical terms: Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, and attacking Israel is, in his framework, often a form of antisemitism dressed in political language. The Daily Wire's coverage of Israel since October 7, 2023, has been among the most consistent, detailed, and unapologetically partisan in American media. Shapiro traveled to Israel after October 7 and broadcast from there, providing coverage that reached an audience well into the tens of millions. His editorial decisions about Israel coverage have given Daily Wire — now a major competitor to legacy media in the 18-35 conservative demographic — a consistent and distinctive pro-Israel identity.

Shapiro's reach extends beyond podcast listeners: his books have sold in the millions, he speaks to capacity crowds on college campuses (where his events are regularly targeted by protest), and his X platform audience exceeds five million followers. His significance on the Iron 100 is the audience: the millions of primarily young, conservative Americans who consume pro-Israel news analysis primarily through his platform rather than through legacy media channels. At Rank 21, Shapiro is the media entrepreneur who built a new conservative media ecosystem and used it, consistently and without equivocation, to make pro-Israel commentary the defining editorial stance of that ecosystem's flagship voice.