MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hosted a Reddit “AMA” today, answering questions from readers of the site. Among other topics, she talked about her book Drift, Howard Stern, and her surprising admiration for Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith.

On her favorite anchor from a competing cable news channel:

I really like the way Shep Smith (at Fox News Channel) balances anchorman gravitas… with a willingness to put the artifice aside and acknowledge what it really going on. Some of us can pull off seeming like human beings on TV, some of us can pull off V.O.G. authority, but Shep is really very good at both. Better than anyone else, I think. Also, I’ve met him and he’s a nice person!

On being interviewed by Howard Stern:

Thanks! I love Howard Stern. I was intimidated to meet him just in a fangirl kind of way. But also because I knew he would ask me questions about sex that would make me blush like a cardinal. Once I realized that I could just tell him “no, i’m not answering that!” — then it was just pure fun. That was one of the best interviews I have ever been part of.