The Rachel Maddow Show (radio) - Regular Features

Regular Features

• Top Headlines — The top of the show (as well as the top of the second hour) started with Maddow delivering "News from Iraq and life during wartime". The only exceptions to this start were breaking news, a special high-profile guest or when the show completely breaks format in order to tackle an urgent news story for the duration of the show. After the Iraq news, Maddow continued to report on other top stories of the day.

• Ask Doctor Maddow — This segment, which usually aired at the end of the first hour, consisted of Maddow, answering a question from a listener who either sent it through email or phoned it in on the "Ask Dr. Maddow" hotline. While she holds a D.Phil, Maddow is not a medical doctor, thus the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer ("Rachel Maddow is a doctor...just not that kind of doctor"). The questions covered random topics, from the origins of a word to natural science mysteries.

Before his departure, Kent Jones would introduce the segment by saying that Maddow was "the world's leading expert on...", then usually add something in based on what was discussed in the prior segment. After Jones left the segment was co-hosted by show producer Vanessa Silverton-Peel, who encouraged viewers to send questions that they were "just too lazy to Google" themselves.

One of the questions each week was selected randomly during the Friday segment, and Maddow rewarded the listener with a prize package that always consisted of a glossy autographed photo of Kent Jones (still given away despite his leaving the show) and something from her desk (usually a book written by a previous day's guest and anything else she could find that is worthy of giving away).

• Burying the Lede — Maddow reported on a story that she believed should have received more attention than it did. This segment always followed Ask Doctor Maddow, and sometimes aired later in the show if there were multiple stories being "buried".

• Rachel's Front Page — Maddow critiqued how mainstream media outlets were reporting a major news item.

• Underbelly — Maddow explored right-wing political tactics and the possible motives behind them (described as "poking a sharp stick into the soft white underbelly of the rrrrright wing scheme machine", always with a trilled "r"). Previously a daily segment, Underbelly didn't appear as often in the rotation (hence Maddow's inclination to add "Every day...or so" to her introduction of the segment).

• Pet Story — Typically the final segment of the show. Both Maddow and Jones delighted in this segment and took to introducing it with a monkey chirping sound effect, followed by the two of them yelling "MONKEY!". After Jones' departure, Maddow didn't typically introduce the segment with the same fervor because "it makes (her) feel sad," although she has occasionally yelled "monkey" after the sound effect. The story could (and usually did) revolve around anything, but animals were involved more often than not. In more recent times, the Pet Story did not air at all, with Maddow instead using the final minutes of the show to plug whatever she was doing on television later that night (usually an appearance on Countdown with Keith Olbermann or Verdict with Dan Abrams on MSNBC), as well as using the remaining time as filler material.