Conservative podcaster Michael Knowles is creating a firestorm on the right for what he says he will never do: Publicly condemn his friend and former colleague at the Daily Wire Candace Owens.

Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September, Knowles, 36, has navigated his share of minefields as many in the conservative podcast sphere tear each other apart.

Owens left the Daily Wire in 2024 and launched her own personal media venture that has drawn a massive audience, in part, by provoking outrage. 

Owens has publicly criticized Kirk's widow Erika Kirk after she took over as CEO of the behemoth political organizing group Turning Point USA. Owens has even gone as far as implying that Erika may have been involved in her husband's death.

Knowles is right in the middle of the controversy. 

He was a friend of Charlie Kirk and is close to Owens and her husband George Farmer. He's godfather of one of their daughters and after Owens converted to Catholicism in April 2024, she and her family began attending the same Catholic church as Knowles in Nashville, Tennessee.

Knowles is also a friend and supporter of Erika Kirk and he frequently appears at Turning Point USA events. 

Now in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Knowles said that as the conflicts between prominent conservatives escalate, he is trying to maintain his friendships with everyone.

Though his intentions, he argues, are practical, not platonic.

'I guess my tactical observation on this is you're not going to get a podcaster to stop talking about something, stop stating an opinion, or a desire, or whatever by yelling at them all the time on your own podcast,' he said.

The new media ecosystem, he explained, 'thrives on attention' and that feeding into that would have a 'paradoxical effect' on their efforts.

Knowles, a graduate of Yale, moved into political podcasting at the Daily Wire in 2017. Amidst the rise of angry, uncensored, and conspiratorial podcasters, Knowles is unique for his urgent but friendly demeanor. He's a cigar aficionado who also posts videos where he plays a mandolin for his audience. 

'I'm not going to dance like a puppet for the podcast wars,' he famously told Ben Shapiro in an argument with his Daily Wire colleagues, when they urged him to publicly condemn Owens.

Knowles also told the Daily Mail he has nothing but sympathy and support for Charlie Kirk's widow Erika, whom he considers a friend.

'Erika is a national hero, not just a wonderful person, but a national hero who deserves all of our sympathy and support,' he said. 'She has suffered and demonstrated grace in a way that I'm not sure I've really seen anyone do in my lifetime.'

At the same time, he wishes Owens would stop attacking her.

'People, and obviously Candace, have gone after Erika quite a lot on her podcast. The reasoning for that, I obviously don't agree with, and I very much wish she would not do that,' he said.

Meanwhile, Owens continues to attack Erika Kirk and criticize Turning Point USA leadership, drawing more controversy and more attention.

'I've been in the minority view,' Knowles told the Daily Mail. 'Just about everyone else has done the opposite, and their strategies haven't worked. So I would humbly suggest again that we take a second gander at my strategy.'

Part of Knowles' understanding of the issue, he explained, was the way that Charlie Kirk handled personality driven disputes behind the scenes.

He recalled that Kirk would tirelessly communicate with people behind the scenes, encouraging them to put aside their differences to hold the coalition together.

'I was involved in some of it. I got a number of calls and texts from Charlie, because he was so hands-on, I mean, on every issue, on every event,' he said.

Knowles has also refused to criticize another provocative right-wing personality: Tucker Carlson.

Carlson recently disavowed President Trump, accusing him of betraying his voters by waging war against Iran.

'I think reasonable minds on the right, principled conservatives, can disagree over the action in Iran and so I certainly wish that this was not the sole issue that pushed Tucker out of supporting the president, with whom he's been friends for a long time,' said Knowles. 'But, Tucker's his own man and if that's his decision, clearly my views failed to persuade.'

Knowles' careful positioning has earned him growing support in the conservative movement. 

In October, he testified at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on political violence. In March, he was invited to give a speech at the Conservative Political Action conference.

Several young people attending the conference told the Daily Mail they made the trip to Dallas just to see Knowles speak.

'I've been a big fan for a long time,' Luke, 20, a student from Cincinnati Ohio said in an interview. 'I think he's a more serious person. I think people in conservative media tend to get too crazy sometimes and caught up in conspiracy theories.'

Knowles told the Daily Mail he wants to keep up Kirk's legacy of communicating openly with young people.

Together with fellow Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, he appeared at a Turning Point USA event in Idaho last week to speak with students and take their questions as Kirk once did.

He was delighted with the results. The crowd was packed with young people and students from all over the country drove from hundreds of miles away to participate. 

'I'm so pleased to say there was such a seriousness of purpose, there was such a wonderful, hopeful attitude in the venue at Idaho,' he said. 'The questions that were being asked during a very lengthy Q&A were serious, they were substantive, they mattered. They weren't cheap or frivolous.'

Knowles told the Daily Mail he came away from the event with new optimism that the online banter and chatter that consumed his social media feeds daily is only a sideshow.

'I conclude the kids are all right and the country is looking up and there really is a chance that the general coalition that came together, that elected President Trump with a popular vote, and that populated every TPSA event, is not going anywhere, and in fact, could grow,' he said.