Average smart people step aside: Rachel Maddow has outdone you, first with her Stanford B.A., and secondly, with her Oxford Ph.D. … not to mention her break-out hit of an MSNBC series, The Rachel Maddow Show. When the amiable, former Air America host arrived on the network in 2008, it was the most successful program launch in the network’s history, and made Maddow a household name nearly overnight—to the chagrin of conservatives nationwide.