His mother, Jean, worked as a library media specialist at Anna Reynolds Elementary School in Newington, Connecticut.

Barbaro, with classmate and future New York Times colleague Ross Douthat, also co-founded and ran the school's underground newspaper, La Verité.

[21] In January 2021, Barbaro apologized after privately pressuring some journalists to pull back criticism of the New York Times podcast Caliphate.

[4][24][25][26][20] His success with The Daily and distinct appearance also led many to compare him to Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life.

He has made sold-out public appearances around the country,[28] and a wide range of media outlets have interviewed him about The Daily, journalism, and politics.

He has been featured on television shows such as Late Night with Seth Meyers,[29] CBS This Morning,[30] and PBS NewsHour.

[13] Additionally, he has been featured at South by Southwest (SXSW),[31] Vox's Recode Decode podcast,[3] and NPR's talk show 1A.

"[4] A Vanity Fair article in November 2021 suggested that The Daily had "vault[ed] Barbaro from a respected reporter to a full-fledged media celebrity.

Levin, who is eight years Barbaro's senior, founded Bespoke Education, a tutoring and test prep company.

In a June 2019 interview with Evening Standard, Barbaro mentioned that it "wasn't a coincidence" that he and his husband broke up shortly after The Daily launched.

[39] Barbaro's friendship with socially conservative Times columnist Ross Douthat has received media attention.