August 15, 2023 • 48 mins
Rosie's guest this week is comedian, political commentator, host, mother and old friend, Samantha Bee.
Tune in as they chat about everything under the sun, including feeling like their kids' private Uber drivers, the shocking loss of hard fought for rights, and the untold issues and insanity of menopause!
Links for Maui response:
https://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/
http://www.mauirapidresponse.org/
https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Well, hello everybody, it is me Rosie O'Donnell. How are you?
Summer is almost over? Can you even believe that? I
got back from my vacation with all my kids except Chelse,
who was not available. We had a great time. You know.
Parkers showed up for a couple days and doesn't like
the beach, so he sat in the house for most
(00:32):
of the time. But you know, we played chess, and
we played clue and scategories and we had fun. You know,
that's the kind of vacation I like, when you just
get to sit around with your family and good friends.
Jeanie and Jackie both came to I'm not used to
walking up very steep dunes in the hot sand, and
even though I'm under two hundred, you know, for the
(00:54):
first time in a long time, I still was not
able to do it. And Viv was running up in
front of me with water bottles and putting it on
the sand because I start to cry because my feet
were on fire and I couldn't get on the towel
enough And it was awful, it really was. And speaking
of awful, I can't get over what happened in line.
(01:16):
I can't get over it. I can't get over what's
going on in Hawaii. And it's very very unnerving. You know,
my aunt Minnie, my father's eldest brother James, uncle Jim
and aunt min she was royal blood at Hawaiian and
they met during Pearl Arbor and he was in the
(01:37):
Armed Forces. And we have been going there and knowing
about Kamea Maya and the history of the Hawaiian Islands.
And since I was a little girl, and I've been
there as an adult. I was there as a teenager,
and I just can't believe the sorrow that you feel
(02:00):
looking at what's happening. And every time there's a world
crisis or a national crisis for me somehow the national
ones starting with Columbine to me, and then of course
nine to eleven and Katrina and all of the horrors
that we have lived through here as a nation. We
(02:21):
all have to do what we can, we really do.
I saw some millionaires who live there, billionaires who live there. Actually,
Jeff Bezos being one, gave one hundred million dollars, which is,
you know, not a lot for Jeff Bezos, I don't think,
but good for him for doing that. And I wish
all the other billionaires of MAUI would follow suit, wouldn't
(02:44):
that be nice? It's hard to tell people what they
should do and shouldn't do, and what they should feel
or shouldn't feel. What else is going on in my
life and my world. Trump is in trouble. He's in
big trouble, and I think in order for our nation
and democracy to thrive and continue, in order for our
(03:07):
country to realize what went down with him, he needs
to be held accountable in a court of law. And
that's what's going on, and he's not liking it. He
is going to be held accountable, and that's what's happening
right now in the world. We have a wonderful guest today,
my friend Samantha b and I'm so happy that I
(03:27):
got to know her. And it was all because of
Nora Ephron. You know, Nora Efron wrote this wonderful show
with her sister Delia called Love, Loss and What I Wore,
all about women's connection to their clothing and style and fashion,
which is frankly something I don't possess. I consider that
a girl gene that I am missing. I am missing
(03:49):
the girl gene. You know, my friends have always told
me that my clothing, Joe's Basic Boy, Toddler, Love Loss,
and What I Wore was all about women and their clothes,
and it featured five of us women in the original cast,
which we were there off Broadway in New York for
a long time. And it's how I met and became
(04:10):
friends with Natasha Leone, and how I met and became
friends with Samantha b who I just think is so
brilliant and I love her as a person, I love
her as a friend, I love her as a contributor
to the national discussion about news and policy and politics
in America. I cheered her on from my couch, you know,
(04:33):
when I would watch her every night and think she's
doing it, She's saying it, and she's the only woman
out there in the game. And I'm so proud of
her and proud of what she's accomplished and who she
is and her intellect and humor and her ability to
really hit the bull's eye on a target that she's discussing.
Not easy to do, really not easy to do. I've
(04:56):
tried it. I'm not a good political pontiff because I
get too angry and too belligerent, and Samantha Be does not.
But her feelings are known and they're heard, and they're
able to be consumed in a way that is very,
very impressive. And we got to be friends when we
did that show all those years ago, and we've remained
(05:19):
friends now and I'm just happy to know her and
I got to sit down and chat with her. Hadn't
chatted with her in a while, and so it was
nice to catch up. And I think you're going to
enjoy today's podcast here. She is the one and only
you know or you love her, Samantha be Well, Hello,
(05:50):
Samantha Bee, Hi, how are you. I'm really good. It
was so fun to do your podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Thank you. I enjoyed our conversations so thoroughly. Yeah, and
I think everyone else did too.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
It was so good to talk to you. Oh, I'm glad.
I'm so glad about that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
You do.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, once you have your own you kind of want
to deliver for someone else, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, you delivered.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Thank you. I'm very glad. How is everyone in your family?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Everyone in my family is good. It's like summertime stuff.
So I feel like I don't know what your life
is like in the summer, But now I'm just driving. Yeah,
I'm just driving everybody everywhere because no one's old enough
to drive, no one has their license yet.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
What's the ages, what's the age?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So ages are thirteen and fifteen and seventeen, and so
she's learning to drive, but she doesn't have a driver's license.
So I'm doing Everybody does a lot of activities, and
that means that I'm doing no activities other than driving.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I'm just I remember those days. I remember those You
feel like you're an uber driver? You really do, No,
I am. I'm definitely an uber driver. And where we're
situated right now, everything you have to drive. You just
have to drive everywhere, and so I don't mind it.
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I'm listening to audiobooks and stuff, so it's it's okay.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Are you like in the suburbs. You're not in the city, See,
I'm in the suburbs. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And they don't want to talk to me anyway, So
it's not like we're having rich conversations.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Where leave me. I understand, Tonny, I've lived through it
four times.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I literally am like an uber driver and no one's
talking to me. I'm just like on my own listening
to my stories, right.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And that they all have their ear pods in listening
to their own thing or playing on their phone, and
they don't want to listen to my stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
They don't think my stuff is horrible and that my
music is emo and they don't want to hear it,
and so they're just they just.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
They accuse me of emo music too. They think Joni
Mitchell is emo.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, it's fair, it probably is, But why.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Are you listening to that suicide music? Like, what are
you talking about? This is some of the greatest pros
that anyone has ever written.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, first of all, I love like Freeman Embarrass
is one of my favorite songs of all time, and
I will sing it and I like to listen to
it like four times in a row. Yeah, it's horrifying
for them. And then I introduced them. I tried to
make them listen to Radiohead the other day and they
were like, this is the worst. They were like, this
(08:20):
is the worst music we've ever heard in are life hidding?
How dare you?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What was their reason? Do they have a reason?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
They're just like it's so sad. It's like this music
that you you know, it's just like are you taking hair?
Like are you on heroin? Like, are you in a
hotel by yourself? What is?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Why are you?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
How can you this isn't driving music?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
No? Now do you find as I found with my
kids when they were around that age, Yeah, that the
only way I could get them to talk to me
was when we were in the car, so I didn't
have to look at them. I kind of feel like
if you can have them either in the backseat or
in the front seat, like looking sideways out there window,
(09:02):
and then you can broach the topics that but like
face to face at the kitchen table, No, it's never
to work. That will never work.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Car is good. I also like we go for We
do go for walks, and walks are very good for
us because everybody's face it's the same, it's the same dynamic.
It's the driving dynamics. So you're facing outward, everybody's facing outward.
Everybody starts to get reflective, like their legs and arms
are moving, and I think it loosens conversation.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, I think you're right. I definitely do very helpful.
Do you have little athletes? Are you also the sports
mother as well?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
They're not, we are not. We're not a super sports family,
but they are. They do do summertime sports, so they do, like,
but the youngest daughter is really getting into volleyball, so
she's doing this like very specialized.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
She's going to this special.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Volleyball place, which is it's sort of new for us, right,
so this is all it's all a bit new. They're
doing different sports and it hasn't been a part of
our life up till now. They weren't like big soccer
kids or baseball or anything like that. We were always like,
our weekends are very precious, we can't take you to sports.
And they were like, we're fine with that.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Mommy and daddy are very tired.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Mommy and daddy are too tired, So don't you.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Want to use the Wii instead? You can stay home
and I don't have to drive you anywhere very much.
Now I read it. So I've already heard you on
a podcast talking about when you had your show and
the kind of societal pressure that you felt to kind
of deliver and and the political nature of it. Always
(10:44):
like it got very difficult for you, I think, So.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
You know, it just it was like, I mean, I
always do like to qualify it because it's still like
it's like it's still a TV job. It's a pretty
great job, and I write, you know, I appreciate all
of that, but having to comment on the news cycle
all the time, yeah, was It's very It can bring you.
You can you can fall into kind of like a
(11:10):
toxic you know, It's like going down a drain.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You feel like despair.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
You feel despair. You have to be so you have
to have a complete awareness of the news cycle at
all times, so you're very glued to like, at least
for me, I was very much glued to social media
and Twitter at the time, and just like knowing what
was going on, like in the moment, like to the second,
(11:37):
like breaking It was just like breaking news all the time, right,
because we would shift our priorities on the show based
on what was happening. And so I do feel like
I'm pretty done with that.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I don't yearn for that. I don't yearn for it.
I'm still constantly paying attention to the news, but less so,
and that feels like a mini miracle.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, you know, during the pandemic, I was doing nothing
but news and yeah, trying to find out and I
got so depressed in my house in New Jersey with
you know, one kid, and it was this big house
and all nobody could come over, and it was just
it got like overwhelmingly sad. And you know what, my
(12:21):
doctors did not only change the medication that I'm on,
but also insists that I stopped listening to the news
on like a constant cycle because I start having intrusive
thoughts in the middle of in the pool playing with
my kid, like what's happening in Afghanistan? Is Trump gonna
ever get in trouble? Like I couldn't. I couldn't stop
(12:42):
the intrusive thoughts, you know. And I find that my
mood is definitely lifted when I don't immerse myself or
marinade in the news.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That's it. That's a great word marinating, because you end
up like I found that I started to get wrinkles
in between my eyes from just like frowning all the time,
Like I have these really thick muscles in my forehead
now from just like like we scowling and like the
(13:14):
cursed facial expressions I was making, and like I think
my back was really hunched, and it was like it
was like a shot of cortisol, like just that cortisol
spike all the time. Just like spiking, spiking, sniking.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
It's so.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's very it's very unhealthy. I actually, this is not
this is probably too much. I'm sure your listeners don't
want to hear this.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I'm sure they do. Go ahead, Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I developed a huge like uterine polyp. I didn't know
what was happening, but I think that it started when
I started the show, and I was not aware of it,
but I was having all of these kind of like
physiological problems that I think were related to it. And
(14:02):
I just recently had it removed and all of those
things went away. And when they removed it, they were like,
that was huge, that was very huge, and it was benign.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So it's fine.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But I was like, oh, it's probably seven seasons of
the news cycle.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
It could have been you know what I mean, there
is a mind body connection. We all have to realize that.
You know, it's really unbelievable to think that it's all.
You know, what you consume, you become, right, so you
became a big poll up of not.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Just an invasive just like this looming like invasive creature.
I was like, when you cut it out, did you
have to like throw it across the room, did it
blow up?
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Step on it?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Did you kill it.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Like that Alien totally weaver months?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, like the face hugger from Alien.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, and you your show went off the air right
before they revoked ro Versus Wade.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, that our last episode was that literally the day before.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
How is that? I mean razing?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
The timing. It was like the weirdest parenthesis because we
were talking about them, I mean, I think from the
beginning of the show, and so the show launched in
twenty sixteen, and we were talking right out the gate
about their attempts to overturn Row and so the fact
that our last episode was the literal day before, and
(15:27):
that's what we talked about on the show because we
knew it was going to happen, obviously, but for so long,
you know, for so many years at the show, I
think people thought we were just like these this alarmist, alarmists,
this like Cassandra, just like chicken, like chicken, little chicken,
little the sky. This guy's falling. And I was like, hey,
(15:48):
you don't want to be right about these things, but
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
But you were, But I am you know right, Well,
how do you feel as a woman to think that
we have daughters who aren't going to have the same
rights that we had, who are going to have less
rights in their adulthood than we did.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You know, you want to imagine that you have children
and you make the world is a better place for
them than it was for you when you were right.
And there are certainly things have improved in some ways
for certain but I'm like, I can't believe you still
have to fight for this. I can't believe that this
has to be as much a part of your vernacular
(16:29):
as it was for and it wasn't for a lot
of us because we were like, well, you know, at
least there are some protections in play now. And now
it's like a whole brand new fight all over again.
Everybody else, the same fight, same fight again. It just
keeps going.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Louder voices on the other side. I don't think more voices.
I just think they've gotten louder. They feel kind of
emboldened to take away half the population's bodily autonomy one hundred.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
It's a lot of like, you know, the vibe is
a lot of like shrink government, make government smaller, but
also make thousands of extra rules for everybody else to
live under, except for us except for us, and we
like these roles, so you should all love them too.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Stay tuned. There's more with Samantha Bee right after this.
(17:37):
How come I thought that you were from a big family.
I thought that you had a lot of brothers and sisters,
and that your parents when you were young, you would
work selling T shirts.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I did sell T shirts, but I definitely think.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
With your brother and sister, I thought maybe I misread
what I You.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Know, my mother is an only child and my dad
only had one brother, so actually my family is very small. Wow,
there's a lot of only children in my How did.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You find that? Because now that I have Dakota, who
is ten years younger than my next child, it's almost
like having an only child because the other kids are
out of the house, and so I got the experience
of having four right in a row and then kind
of having an only child. And it's a completely different
relationship that you have with your mother.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It's very different. It's very like I feel. I mean,
I can't speak for all only children, but I was mature,
like I was had facility in adult situations because I
just was around adults all the time. And I wouldn't
say that I was, I had friends, I wasn't really lonely.
(18:45):
I now, as an adult, think it's worse. I usually
think it's worse for me as an adult because because
I would love to have a brother or a sister
to share with my own kids. I'm so thrilled that
they have this dynamic like they'll always have. I mean,
this is it's a weird thing to say, but they
(19:08):
always have each other to complain about me, like they
can know.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's so true. I've met that there's like a.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sounding board, right for someone who just like automatically understands
your circumstances, Yeah, understands your household, and I just don't
have I don't have like a sounding board in that way.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I get that so much. Although my siblings and I
kind of argue over whose version of history is most accurate? Sure,
which is difficult and difficult sibling relationships, you know, like
who's oh, you didn't go to mommy's funeral? Yes I did.
I was, now you didn't because well, wait a minute,
you know, like who's who's the custodian of all the
(19:48):
narrative truths?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Right?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
And they vary from kid to kid, course of course, and.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Each and different thing hit Everything hits you differently depending
on who you are. Like A I definitely observe my
own children and go, what are the stories they're going
to tell about us? Like what are the what are
the things that I reflect on so differently from how
they see it? Like my facial Like one thing that
(20:14):
happens a lot in our family is that my kids
will say, are you mad at me? Are you mad
at me?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Interesting?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I'm not. I have a very naturally like my mouth
is kind of like.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, hysit me too. It goes aside, Yeah, my resting face,
I look like I'm upset me too.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
It's hard, it's hard, and I'm like, I'm just no,
I'm I'm not mad at all. I'm just like thinking.
I was just like thinking, focused on something else and
they So I wonder if like in a way they're
going to grow up and go, she was really mad
at us a lot because they have they keep they
always say that, but I'm like.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
They still ask you even though every time it's been no.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Every time it's no, and every time I say no,
I'm not, I'm just my face like look at my mouth,
it's just like downturned. I can't keep it in it.
It's too much work to keep Yeah, a smile, like what.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You know when I was in my show. When I
was on my show, I was smiling a lot, Yes,
and so comparatively to when I was in Target. People
would stop me go are you okay. I'm like, yeah,
this is my normal face.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
They're like, well, it looks like something's wrong. I'm like,
you're used to seeing this and now I'm just being
this right. It was a difficult transition.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Down now I'm just shopping.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, it's just shopping four kids who were toddlers, so
with makeup.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I had a lot of makeup and a lot of
people doing stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Now, how have you felt since the ending of the show.
Did you feel like, wow, I want to go on
to something else, or I want to take a break,
or you know, let me try this podcast? What did it?
What was the procedure? Did you have an emotional reaction
to it being done?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I did?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean, of course, like I definitely, there were so
a lot goes into it. I mean, it's public. I
wasn't really surprised that the show went away. Actually felt
that that was coming for a really long time. It's
just the timing, it's more like it's like shocking but
not at all surprising. So there were you know, for
(22:20):
a lot of weeks, I was like, all right, what's next,
what are we going to do? Like you got to
try to sell it somewhere else, Like you kind of think,
there's this scramble, and I kind of want to preserve
everyone's jobs. Sure, because you worry about you end up
being very worried about the people who work for you
and who've given so much. I'm like, I want to
keep them working or.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Sure, help them or totally understand.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Let's just keep it going. And then when I had
a chance to kind of not be scrambling so much,
when the scramble kind of died down a little bit,
I was like, all right, I should really think about
what are the things that I loved from it? What
are the things that I liked about the job. It's
apparent to me that it's not just going to continue
(23:05):
somewhere else, So I now I have to really reflect
on because there were things about the job that I
didn't like and things about the job that I absolutely loved.
So what are the things I love that I would
carry forward that I would do for free that I
would do anyway, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Sure, totally.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And one of the things that I really love is
interviewing people. I love it. I just am curious. I
want to know about people. I love to learn. So
that was really the takeaway. I loved to travel, I
love to do field pieces. I like to interview and
think and great and know, and that's the I love.
(23:47):
I don't love to perform, for sure. And there are
things that I have to say in this world. So
I had to ask myself what is it that I
love and what do I think is left for me
to say? Because I've been in the world old of
politics and political comedy for at that point twenty years, right,
haven't I said it all? Like what stone? What stone
(24:11):
is left unturned?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Right? There's not a lot of issues that people would
go I wonder what Samantha Bee thinks about that. It's
because you put them out there. Yeah, bravely, courageously, so
thankfully you know, as a woman, I want to thank
you for those whole seven years to do it, because
it you know, we had a voice. I mean, and
I have to say, when Mattow went away, you were
to go to I was like Mattow, I'm still man
(24:34):
at her. I won't even watch her on Mondays now,
I'm like, what were you possibly doing as the world
is falling apart to go leave us to just Mondays?
You wnch? I really am her? Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, It's like, so what what what is la like?
What what is undiscovered country for me? Or what are
the things that I'm still passionate to talk about and
interview people about? And so those were the those are
the goals that I carried forward. And the end result
of that is actually that we created a podcast, which
(25:07):
I had a podcast at the show, but I wanted
to continue that because I actually did. I loved it.
I loved it doing it. It was I found it
very relaxing and very invigorating.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Are you a big podcast listener?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I love listening to podcasts, and I listened to a
lot of news podcasts and they really they just it's
such a It's a good way for me through osmosis
to like receive information so I don't have to scroll frantically,
so I don't have to scroll at four thirty in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I understood, wake up, understood.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
It just goes, It just goes. In like, yeah, it
was into the.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Mostess, the point of your podcast or the focus of
your podcast is what now listen. I hate when people
ask me that because mine doesn't particularly have one, but
maybe yours does.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know what It's like you end up having these
meandering conversations no matter what. But I guess the jumping
off point to choice words is the choices that you
make in life, like the big like a big choice
or a little choice that reverberates through your life, like
what's the pebble that drops into the pond and the
ripple effects in your life. I'm so I'm curious about
(26:16):
all that stuff because I feel like there are many
moments in my own life where I just made a
good choice or a bad choice and I still feel
the effects of that today. They totally They take you
on a path. You go down a path and I'm
curious about other people and you know, and then it
evolves and then it evolves into like a rolicing conversation
(26:38):
about like you and I talked about forty five different
things and it was awesome, Like I don't even yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I remember specifically what, but I know, yeah, I had
fun talking to you. That's like when when people say
you have this podcast today, I'm so excited because I
like the structure. I like to work. I like to
have something that I have to do a little bit
of re search and remind myself of what I fell
in love with this person first for, and you know,
(27:06):
renew my enthusiasm and it makes me feel alive, you know, totally.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It's like it does. I don't know, it's wonderful that
in a way, it's I don't know if you feel
this way too. Way. I mean, in a way, it's
wonderful that people listen to it and they like it too,
but it almost feels like just a conversation you would
have normally if you are together in a room, which
makes it even better.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I agree. I think it's really it's really fun and
it's something that I definitely want to continue doing. I mean, yes,
you look at somebody like Joe Rogan and you know,
stand up like I did for so many years, and
you look at his success and you think, what the hell,
you know, do you have to have conspiracy theories in
order to get to be a very famous pott. I'm
not really sure.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I don't know, Like it's like he's up for something
that I'm not up for, which is I'm not that
curious about people's shitty ideas. Yeah me either, Like I
think they're pretty shitty ideas. And I don't really need
to get into it because I'm just right. I don't
want to argue with some Well.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That's what somebody was like, Uh, could you please? Somebody
called and you know, was like inquiring, did we want
to book Bobby Kennedy. I'm like, no, I don't know, No,
don't no interest.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Can I tell you something? This guy tell me? His
campaign is is killing me inside.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
It's killing me too. It's unbelievable. How about him? Second,
I never said that about vaccinations? And then they roll
nineteen clips.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Nineteen clips? Yeah, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Did you happen to see Mitch McConnell have a mini
stroke there on the microphone?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I did. I did see that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
What were your thoughts of that? Uh?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
My thought was, even though I don't like this person,
I don't appreciate his ideas, it's still horrific to witness
someone I agree, it was terrifying. It's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I thought he was going to fall right down, you know, Like,
And I also was like isn't anybody seeing this like?
It felt like it took forever.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I feel like intervention could have come a lot sooner.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
We could ad Candy finneran in there.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Come on, let's go, let's I mean, clearly, this person
is having a medical emergency. Yea, it really went on
a long time, Yes, before anyone helped them. Yeah, I didn't.
It wasn't a joyful I didn't feel I didn't feel
good watching it. I felt like, oh, no one.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I felt so concerned about the age. You know, people
are like, I'm sick of hearing about the age of it. Listen,
if there's an age you have to be to get
in the Senate and to get it to be running
for president, there has to be an age out. There
has to be a start and an ending. Yes, you know, yes,
because when I see all these octagenarians running the country,
part of me is like, this is embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
It's not effective, And you know, we don't have to
logans run it like, we don't need to. We don't
need to shut everyone down once they turned thirty. That's
not what we're talking about here. But they're could be
and we should age out of these positions. First of
all because you want to make way for younger people,
you want to make way for new ideas. Things are
done differently, the technology is different.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Agist. I love old people. I'm not saying that there's
nothing to contribute. There are ways to contribute. But boy,
oh boy, I just don't think, you know, how can
we be having debates about AI.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
How can we be.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Having these conversations in the future. We are just like
catapulting ourselves into it's going to be incomprehensible.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
That is.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I feel like part of the reason why we move
so slowly like a cruise ship, like making a law
about something. Anticipating problems is not our strong suit. Long
game is not really where we're at.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So are you going to go do stand up anywhere?
Are you're going to go do live shows.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Doing I'm doing a live show. I'm touring it. I
just I just announced a bunch of new DA's.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Actually, is it changing ever changing the show or is
it a lockdown thing that you wrote that's like a
one woman show.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
So it's like a one woman show, so it's pretty lockdown.
I definitely did. I did about seventeen sixteen or seventeen
dates in the spring, and I loved it, and so
I'm adding the same amount of cities in the fall.
I'm great because it's basically the same. I think I'll
(31:26):
make some adjustments over the summer. You know, you end up,
I just want to refresh it for myself. And there
are areas where I was like, oh, I think I
think I can either beat this or just I love
to change the tone of it, or like alter it
a little bit, but ultimately it's I love doing it.
It's I don't know if you feel similarly, but there's
something about live performance where I just feel like, oh,
(31:48):
I feel so three dimensional.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
There's nothing like being up there with the crowd and
having to ride the wave of their enthusiasm and attention
and try to, you know, figure out where you're going
as you do it. It's something very enriching.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It's very special. It's very enriching. If people are entertained,
that's great. But I feel like there's a symbiotic relationship,
like there's I'm getting as much out of them as
they're getting out of me, Like we're together.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Right, it is. It is a reciprocal yes, joy failed
thing because yeah, there's no way to explain what that
feels like either to people. You know. I remember once
years ago, Madonna was at the O two when I
was there the week before it opened, and there was
the first night she said come here, and she was
(32:40):
backstage so nobody could see me, and you just heard
when they saw her shadow whatever, the screaming, and I
felt like I was physically moved by the energy, like
my body was put I felt a force pushing me backwards,
like how much incoming directed what not at me? At her?
And I was just in the background, you know. And
(33:03):
I thought that as a comic, it's much more intimate
than the mass adulation from the multitudes. You know, very
few comics get to play Shay Stadium or you know,
the O two arena. Right, maybe Kevin Hart, I don't
know who else, maybe Dave Chappelle, right right right, But
(33:25):
just having felt trippy.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's like I feel like on the stage, I can
feel my back and I can feel my front, and
I feel my sides. I feel like I just am
like almost like a girl who became real, like a
doll that became real in the just.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
For that stepped down the stage.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
It's very it's a very special and unique experience, and
I love the material because I'm talking about menopause and
all this stuff, and I think it's like really needs
to be said. And so that is really the truth
that I needed to uncover and say to people, is
think about our bodies and how misunderstood they are and
how fucking mad we are about that, and how it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
It's like very.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Fun to say those words and have people like scream
back because they it's just there's something so.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So real cool. If I got my menopause started at forty,
believe it or not, and i would be in the
target with the kid and I'd see an older woman
and I'd want to be like, why didn't you tell
them that? Like every older woman. I was angry at
because I thought, where's the big Nora Efron book on menopause?
(34:40):
But you know she died, but where is the irma bomback?
Like I don't know. I felt like I was very
unprepared for menipase and then very angry that it was
as bad as it was.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
It's very bad or a very It's like the conditions
of menopause or paramanimal bass are so unique and it's huge.
It's like a tsunami in your body, and but it's
also attached to all this shame, like it was like
a secret. It just was like a secret that everyone
(35:14):
kept forever, like a shameful, embarrassing secret. And I can't
keep it a secret. I love to talk about like
what it really did to me.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And Honey, do a book right after, because there needs
to be a book where people can go to and
laugh and also just cry and go, I'm going to
get through this, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yes, And like our partners need to know about it,
and like everybody needs to know about it so that
we can all so you don't have to introduce this
concept to your partner for the first time in their life.
Like it's working unfair. It's unfair to everyone. I don't
want my daughters to feel like they can't talk about
(35:58):
what's happening in their body's Like my grandmother's generation would
have never talked about it. I think even my mother's
generation would not have talked about it.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Only now are we really starting to talk about it.
And fifty percent of the world experiences it. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
It is crazy. Well listen, I think you're fantastic. I
always have. I love that we got to do that
Nora e Fron play together, so fun. That was one
of my sweet memories of getting to meet women that
I didn't know and so I did and getting to
do that wonderful show.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Every day I still think of Nora so and her
sister is just so fondly. I'm still so sad that
Noura's gone.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Especially hard sometimes I still think I'm going to see
what she thinks of a nice dite, you know, like
something political, especially you know.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Do you remember that she gave everybody her own little
self bound cookbook at the end of that Still I
use it.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
It's incredible of it. It's so crush cook but I haven't.
She was so loving and so great and I miss
her a lot too. Yeah, but I'm glad she got
us to be buddies. So there, youd, Yes she did.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I admire you so much. Thank you so much for.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Us well, honey, anytime, and I love you.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I love you too, all right, bye bye, We'll be
back with questions from you.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Hey, everybody, we're back, and now we have some wonderfully
surprising comments and questions from you the listener, And please
drop us a little message and send it to us,
and we'll see if we can get you on here.
Here's the first question from you a listener.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Hi, Rosie, this is Micah calling from Highland Park, Los
Angeles area. I just finished reading your two thousand and
two memoir Find Me, and I enjoyed it so much.
I found it so riveting, so fascinating, so vulnerable, and
I just burned through it. I work at the Music
(38:23):
Center downtown as an usher, and so I read during
the shows, and you came in saw Transparent, and I
was so bummed that I missed you because I was
working at Amansen that night. But anyway, I digress. Usually
I only read while I'm at work, but this was
so good that I was even reading it at home
when I was off. But my question is, how do
(38:44):
you feel about this book now? I mean, I loved it,
But you know, twenty years later, are you still in
touch with Melissa? Have your feelings changed about how you
felt when you were writing this book? You know, a
lot can change in twenty years, and I'm just curious
what this follow up to this book is. But yeah,
I loved it, and I love you and keep doing
(39:05):
what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Thank you, Thank you. What a sweet little memo. I
love hearing your voices. I love getting these questions and comments,
and thank you for what you said about that book
Find Me. That was the first book that I wrote
with the help of Lawrence Later, who's a friend of
mine and also a psychologist. And you know when I
went to her at first and said, here's what's happened
(39:27):
in my life in the last eight months. And it's
a riveting story. And what I want the book to
be about is who's the crazy one? Who's the crazy one?
Is that this woman in the middle of the country,
diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, who somehow connected with me
through an adoption agency phone number and wanted help for
(39:47):
her daughter who had been attacked by a youth minister
in the church in the town. And I am still
in touch with Melissa, and that's not her real name,
but I'm still in touch with with her, and we
sometimes text and we have an occasional call and check
in with each other. She has a son that I
didn't mention in the book because he was young still
(40:10):
and I worried about confidence and custody and whether the
book would affect that, so we didn't include him in
the book. Everybody in that family is doing well, and
you know, my feelings about the book haven't changed. That's
sort of who I was and where I was at
the time, doing my show in the swirl of fame
(40:30):
and showbiz and celebrity, which was new to me and
affected me in ways that I didn't really have time
to process while I was in the midst of it.
And I think now twenty years later, looking back, I
can see I was trying to, you know, maintain my
humanity and my open heart and still care as much
(40:54):
as I do about people and their world and what's happening.
And I think that the amount of interaction and the
amount of love and connection that I put into that
relationship is something that I have continued to do in
my adult life with people that I meet. I never
(41:16):
think that you meet someone by accident. I always think
when someone comes into your life and your world, there's
a reason and that's not coincidence, And there really isn't coincidence.
So you know, there was of all the people that
got through, she got through and we had a personal
connection and that's what happened in the relationship. So yes,
(41:37):
that's the answer to your questions. I think and I'm
so happy that you loved the book. So thank you
very much for this question, and thank you for caring
so much and for speaking so lovingly about a piece
of my life and work that felt very personal and
I was very nervous about putting it out there. So
(41:57):
I'm glad that you received it and that you really
liked did so thank you so much. All right, and
we've got another question now coming in for today. Let's
see what we got.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Hi, ro, this is Polly sending you a message from
the mountains of western North Carolina, just outside of Asheville.
I grew up in central New York, Stateville, and I'm
just about a year older than you, so I have
a lot of the same references that you do, such
as going into New York and seeing shows and things
like that. And I enjoy it when your callers send
(42:29):
in a message to say that they loved coming home
from school and watching your program. And for me and
I suspect you.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
It was Mike Douglas that we would watch in the
afternoon and merv Griffin that we would watch in the evening,
and I just love those shows, especially well both of them,
but Mike Douglas the way the format where he had
a famous guest host for the entire week, and then
they would get on all these other people and they
would be interviewed by both Mike Douglas and his guest host,
and some of those pairings were just absolutely wild. And
(43:00):
I'm wondering if you could share some memories of watching
those programs. And I'll start the ball rolling by telling
you about my favorite comedy and then I thought she
was the funniest person to walk the earth, the wonderful
Tody Fields. And I remember a story she told about
losing her so called diamond ring down down a toilet
on an airplane and how she had to work with
(43:24):
the airline to get that back, and it was a
historical story.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
I need to find that sometime. Maybe it's on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
I'm wondering if you could share some stories and especially
about Tody Fields. Did you love her as I did?
Were you inspired by her when you started your career?
Just curious and just wanted to share a few memories
from one sixty plus year old to another. Thanks and
I love your show.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Bye, Thank you so much. What a great, great little
memo there. I totally loved Mike Douglas like you did
and Merv Griffin. You know, I was so blown away
by Tody Fields my whole career. I never really wanted
to be a comedian, a stand up so to speak.
I really wanted to be like a Broadway actress and
(44:08):
Barbara Streis and Bette Midler, you know. I wanted to
be a harled, a backup singer for bed. I didn't
necessarily look at stand up as an art form that
I wanted to get into, you know. I wasn't that
familiar with it, and it didn't speak to me as
much as musicals did and acting did. But it was
Tody Fields who got me very interested in a woman's
(44:32):
point of view and perspective done in that genre of entertainment,
and I just fell in love with her. Tody Fields
was one of my favorites, for sure. I loved Phyllis too,
and I got to know Phyllis Diller towards the end
of her career, and she was very kind to me
and used to send me gifts from her closet, like
(44:53):
I wore this on The Tonight Show in nineteen sixty eight,
and she'd send me, you know, a purse that she
used in Vegas and It was very very lovely and
very sweet, and she sent me art to She was
a wonderful painter. I've had a really, really amazing career
where I've got to meet so many of the people
(45:15):
that I admired growing up, and it's been very fulfilling
for me. It's been very overwhelming and very much full
circle moment. So yes, Mike and MURRV I owe them everything,
and thank you for listening, Thank you for your comments. Listen.
If you want to leave us a voice memo, please,
do you got a question, you got a suggestion, you
(45:36):
got just something you got to get off your chest.
All you gotta do is go to Onward Rosie at
gmail dot com. How do you make a voice memo?
People say, well, I can only tell you. If you
have an iPhone iPhone type in voice memo, little microphone
comes up, go press the button, record it. Then it
says where to say mail Onward Rosie at gmail dot com.
(45:59):
Attach five. You're done. That's it. And if you haven't Android,
tough luck. I don't have anything to say to help you. Really,
it just got shake it. Maybe just shake it, okay,
So listen. We have a great, great guest next week.
My personal chef, an internationally renowned celebrity chef, Elizabeth Faulkner.
(46:20):
Not only is she one of the best chefs in
the country, she really is. I have to tell you,
she is a magical woman. During COVID, she was sitting
around and feeling antsy and feeling like, I don't know
what to do. All of these restaurants are closing, all
of these famous chefs that she knows are out of
work and struggling, And somehow she put together this beautiful,
(46:41):
beautiful documentary called Sorry We're Closed, and it's about what
happened to the restaurant business during COVID. So during COVID,
she went and interviewed all of her friends who are
internationally renowned chefs in their own right, and they talked
about the effect that COVID had on the lives of
these chefs who run two hundred person families by having
(47:07):
a staff and this you know, and knowing all the
staff and seeing them every day and all of a
sudden to nothing to know, work to know. And it's
a wonderful, wonderful look at the ramifications culturally and financially
and emotionally on a specific group of people whose job
(47:29):
it is to love and give and serve food to others.
It is one of my favorite documentaries I've ever seen,
and I was so moved by knowing how real it
was for me COVID and the effect it had on me,
and then seeing the effect on a specific group of people.
(47:51):
So Elizabeth Faulkner is going to be here next week
and we're going to talk about her documentary. And her
documentary is available now. Sorry, we're closed on Amazon and
Apple and iTunes, and it's available for you, and I
think you will love it. I really do. I loved
it so much. I've watched it a bunch of times,
and every time I see something or hear something different
(48:12):
from these unbelievably talented, loving chefs that she gets to
speak to Elizabeth Faulkner next week here on onward
Well, hello everybody, it is me Rosie O'Donnell. How are you?
Summer is almost over? Can you even believe that? I
got back from my vacation with all my kids except Chelse,
who was not available. We had a great time. You know.
Parkers showed up for a couple days and doesn't like
the beach, so he sat in the house for most
(00:32):
of the time. But you know, we played chess, and
we played clue and scategories and we had fun. You know,
that's the kind of vacation I like, when you just
get to sit around with your family and good friends.
Jeanie and Jackie both came to I'm not used to
walking up very steep dunes in the hot sand, and
even though I'm under two hundred, you know, for the
(00:54):
first time in a long time, I still was not
able to do it. And Viv was running up in
front of me with water bottles and putting it on
the sand because I start to cry because my feet
were on fire and I couldn't get on the towel
enough And it was awful, it really was. And speaking
of awful, I can't get over what happened in line.
(01:16):
I can't get over it. I can't get over what's
going on in Hawaii. And it's very very unnerving. You know,
my aunt Minnie, my father's eldest brother James, uncle Jim
and aunt min she was royal blood at Hawaiian and
they met during Pearl Arbor and he was in the
(01:37):
Armed Forces. And we have been going there and knowing
about Kamea Maya and the history of the Hawaiian Islands.
And since I was a little girl, and I've been
there as an adult. I was there as a teenager,
and I just can't believe the sorrow that you feel
(02:00):
looking at what's happening. And every time there's a world
crisis or a national crisis for me somehow the national
ones starting with Columbine to me, and then of course
nine to eleven and Katrina and all of the horrors
that we have lived through here as a nation. We
(02:21):
all have to do what we can, we really do.
I saw some millionaires who live there, billionaires who live there. Actually,
Jeff Bezos being one, gave one hundred million dollars, which is,
you know, not a lot for Jeff Bezos, I don't think,
but good for him for doing that. And I wish
all the other billionaires of MAUI would follow suit, wouldn't
(02:44):
that be nice? It's hard to tell people what they
should do and shouldn't do, and what they should feel
or shouldn't feel. What else is going on in my
life and my world. Trump is in trouble. He's in
big trouble, and I think in order for our nation
and democracy to thrive and continue, in order for our
(03:07):
country to realize what went down with him, he needs
to be held accountable in a court of law. And
that's what's going on, and he's not liking it. He
is going to be held accountable, and that's what's happening
right now in the world. We have a wonderful guest today,
my friend Samantha b and I'm so happy that I
(03:27):
got to know her. And it was all because of
Nora Ephron. You know, Nora Efron wrote this wonderful show
with her sister Delia called Love, Loss and What I Wore,
all about women's connection to their clothing and style and fashion,
which is frankly something I don't possess. I consider that
a girl gene that I am missing. I am missing
(03:49):
the girl gene. You know, my friends have always told
me that my clothing, Joe's Basic Boy, Toddler, Love Loss,
and What I Wore was all about women and their clothes,
and it featured five of us women in the original cast,
which we were there off Broadway in New York for
a long time. And it's how I met and became
(04:10):
friends with Natasha Leone, and how I met and became
friends with Samantha b who I just think is so
brilliant and I love her as a person, I love
her as a friend, I love her as a contributor
to the national discussion about news and policy and politics
in America. I cheered her on from my couch, you know,
(04:33):
when I would watch her every night and think she's
doing it, She's saying it, and she's the only woman
out there in the game. And I'm so proud of
her and proud of what she's accomplished and who she
is and her intellect and humor and her ability to
really hit the bull's eye on a target that she's discussing.
Not easy to do, really not easy to do. I've
(04:56):
tried it. I'm not a good political pontiff because I
get too angry and too belligerent, and Samantha Be does not.
But her feelings are known and they're heard, and they're
able to be consumed in a way that is very,
very impressive. And we got to be friends when we
did that show all those years ago, and we've remained
(05:19):
friends now and I'm just happy to know her and
I got to sit down and chat with her. Hadn't
chatted with her in a while, and so it was
nice to catch up. And I think you're going to
enjoy today's podcast here. She is the one and only
you know or you love her, Samantha be Well, Hello,
(05:50):
Samantha Bee, Hi, how are you. I'm really good. It
was so fun to do your podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Thank you. I enjoyed our conversations so thoroughly. Yeah, and
I think everyone else did too.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
It was so good to talk to you. Oh, I'm glad.
I'm so glad about that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
You do.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, once you have your own you kind of want
to deliver for someone else, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, you delivered.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Thank you. I'm very glad. How is everyone in your family?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Everyone in my family is good. It's like summertime stuff.
So I feel like I don't know what your life
is like in the summer, But now I'm just driving. Yeah,
I'm just driving everybody everywhere because no one's old enough
to drive, no one has their license yet.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
What's the ages, what's the age?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So ages are thirteen and fifteen and seventeen, and so
she's learning to drive, but she doesn't have a driver's license.
So I'm doing Everybody does a lot of activities, and
that means that I'm doing no activities other than driving.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I'm just I remember those days. I remember those You
feel like you're an uber driver? You really do, No,
I am. I'm definitely an uber driver. And where we're
situated right now, everything you have to drive. You just
have to drive everywhere, and so I don't mind it.
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I'm listening to audiobooks and stuff, so it's it's okay.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Are you like in the suburbs. You're not in the city, See,
I'm in the suburbs. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And they don't want to talk to me anyway, So
it's not like we're having rich conversations.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Where leave me. I understand, Tonny, I've lived through it
four times.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I literally am like an uber driver and no one's
talking to me. I'm just like on my own listening
to my stories, right.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And that they all have their ear pods in listening
to their own thing or playing on their phone, and
they don't want to listen to my stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
They don't think my stuff is horrible and that my
music is emo and they don't want to hear it,
and so they're just they just.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
They accuse me of emo music too. They think Joni
Mitchell is emo.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, it's fair, it probably is, But why.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Are you listening to that suicide music? Like, what are
you talking about? This is some of the greatest pros
that anyone has ever written.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, first of all, I love like Freeman Embarrass
is one of my favorite songs of all time, and
I will sing it and I like to listen to
it like four times in a row. Yeah, it's horrifying
for them. And then I introduced them. I tried to
make them listen to Radiohead the other day and they
were like, this is the worst. They were like, this
(08:20):
is the worst music we've ever heard in are life hidding?
How dare you?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What was their reason? Do they have a reason?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
They're just like it's so sad. It's like this music
that you you know, it's just like are you taking hair?
Like are you on heroin? Like, are you in a
hotel by yourself? What is?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Why are you?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
How can you this isn't driving music?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
No? Now do you find as I found with my
kids when they were around that age, Yeah, that the
only way I could get them to talk to me
was when we were in the car, so I didn't
have to look at them. I kind of feel like
if you can have them either in the backseat or
in the front seat, like looking sideways out there window,
(09:02):
and then you can broach the topics that but like
face to face at the kitchen table, No, it's never
to work. That will never work.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Car is good. I also like we go for We
do go for walks, and walks are very good for
us because everybody's face it's the same, it's the same dynamic.
It's the driving dynamics. So you're facing outward, everybody's facing outward.
Everybody starts to get reflective, like their legs and arms
are moving, and I think it loosens conversation.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, I think you're right. I definitely do very helpful.
Do you have little athletes? Are you also the sports
mother as well?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
They're not, we are not. We're not a super sports family,
but they are. They do do summertime sports, so they do, like,
but the youngest daughter is really getting into volleyball, so
she's doing this like very specialized.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
She's going to this special.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Volleyball place, which is it's sort of new for us, right,
so this is all it's all a bit new. They're
doing different sports and it hasn't been a part of
our life up till now. They weren't like big soccer
kids or baseball or anything like that. We were always like,
our weekends are very precious, we can't take you to sports.
And they were like, we're fine with that.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Mommy and daddy are very tired.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Mommy and daddy are too tired, So don't you.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Want to use the Wii instead? You can stay home
and I don't have to drive you anywhere very much.
Now I read it. So I've already heard you on
a podcast talking about when you had your show and
the kind of societal pressure that you felt to kind
of deliver and and the political nature of it. Always
(10:44):
like it got very difficult for you, I think, So.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
You know, it just it was like, I mean, I
always do like to qualify it because it's still like
it's like it's still a TV job. It's a pretty
great job, and I write, you know, I appreciate all
of that, but having to comment on the news cycle
all the time, yeah, was It's very It can bring you.
You can you can fall into kind of like a
(11:10):
toxic you know, It's like going down a drain.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You feel like despair.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
You feel despair. You have to be so you have
to have a complete awareness of the news cycle at
all times, so you're very glued to like, at least
for me, I was very much glued to social media
and Twitter at the time, and just like knowing what
was going on, like in the moment, like to the second,
(11:37):
like breaking It was just like breaking news all the time, right,
because we would shift our priorities on the show based
on what was happening. And so I do feel like
I'm pretty done with that.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I don't yearn for that. I don't yearn for it.
I'm still constantly paying attention to the news, but less so,
and that feels like a mini miracle.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, you know, during the pandemic, I was doing nothing
but news and yeah, trying to find out and I
got so depressed in my house in New Jersey with
you know, one kid, and it was this big house
and all nobody could come over, and it was just
it got like overwhelmingly sad. And you know what, my
(12:21):
doctors did not only change the medication that I'm on,
but also insists that I stopped listening to the news
on like a constant cycle because I start having intrusive
thoughts in the middle of in the pool playing with
my kid, like what's happening in Afghanistan? Is Trump gonna
ever get in trouble? Like I couldn't. I couldn't stop
(12:42):
the intrusive thoughts, you know. And I find that my
mood is definitely lifted when I don't immerse myself or
marinade in the news.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That's it. That's a great word marinating, because you end
up like I found that I started to get wrinkles
in between my eyes from just like frowning all the time,
Like I have these really thick muscles in my forehead
now from just like like we scowling and like the
(13:14):
cursed facial expressions I was making, and like I think
my back was really hunched, and it was like it
was like a shot of cortisol, like just that cortisol
spike all the time. Just like spiking, spiking, sniking.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
It's so.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's very it's very unhealthy. I actually, this is not
this is probably too much. I'm sure your listeners don't
want to hear this.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I'm sure they do. Go ahead, Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I developed a huge like uterine polyp. I didn't know
what was happening, but I think that it started when
I started the show, and I was not aware of it,
but I was having all of these kind of like
physiological problems that I think were related to it. And
(14:02):
I just recently had it removed and all of those
things went away. And when they removed it, they were like,
that was huge, that was very huge, and it was benign.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So it's fine.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But I was like, oh, it's probably seven seasons of
the news cycle.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
It could have been you know what I mean, there
is a mind body connection. We all have to realize that.
You know, it's really unbelievable to think that it's all.
You know, what you consume, you become, right, so you
became a big poll up of not.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Just an invasive just like this looming like invasive creature.
I was like, when you cut it out, did you
have to like throw it across the room, did it
blow up?
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Step on it?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Did you kill it.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Like that Alien totally weaver months?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, like the face hugger from Alien.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, and you your show went off the air right
before they revoked ro Versus Wade.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, that our last episode was that literally the day before.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
How is that? I mean razing?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
The timing. It was like the weirdest parenthesis because we
were talking about them, I mean, I think from the
beginning of the show, and so the show launched in
twenty sixteen, and we were talking right out the gate
about their attempts to overturn Row and so the fact
that our last episode was the literal day before, and
(15:27):
that's what we talked about on the show because we
knew it was going to happen, obviously, but for so long,
you know, for so many years at the show, I
think people thought we were just like these this alarmist, alarmists,
this like Cassandra, just like chicken, like chicken, little chicken,
little the sky. This guy's falling. And I was like, hey,
(15:48):
you don't want to be right about these things, but
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
But you were, But I am you know right, Well,
how do you feel as a woman to think that
we have daughters who aren't going to have the same
rights that we had, who are going to have less
rights in their adulthood than we did.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You know, you want to imagine that you have children
and you make the world is a better place for
them than it was for you when you were right.
And there are certainly things have improved in some ways
for certain but I'm like, I can't believe you still
have to fight for this. I can't believe that this
has to be as much a part of your vernacular
(16:29):
as it was for and it wasn't for a lot
of us because we were like, well, you know, at
least there are some protections in play now. And now
it's like a whole brand new fight all over again.
Everybody else, the same fight, same fight again. It just
keeps going.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Louder voices on the other side. I don't think more voices.
I just think they've gotten louder. They feel kind of
emboldened to take away half the population's bodily autonomy one hundred.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
It's a lot of like, you know, the vibe is
a lot of like shrink government, make government smaller, but
also make thousands of extra rules for everybody else to
live under, except for us except for us, and we
like these roles, so you should all love them too.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Stay tuned. There's more with Samantha Bee right after this.
(17:37):
How come I thought that you were from a big family.
I thought that you had a lot of brothers and sisters,
and that your parents when you were young, you would
work selling T shirts.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I did sell T shirts, but I definitely think.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
With your brother and sister, I thought maybe I misread
what I You.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Know, my mother is an only child and my dad
only had one brother, so actually my family is very small. Wow,
there's a lot of only children in my How did.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You find that? Because now that I have Dakota, who
is ten years younger than my next child, it's almost
like having an only child because the other kids are
out of the house, and so I got the experience
of having four right in a row and then kind
of having an only child. And it's a completely different
relationship that you have with your mother.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It's very different. It's very like I feel. I mean,
I can't speak for all only children, but I was mature,
like I was had facility in adult situations because I
just was around adults all the time. And I wouldn't
say that I was, I had friends, I wasn't really lonely.
(18:45):
I now, as an adult, think it's worse. I usually
think it's worse for me as an adult because because
I would love to have a brother or a sister
to share with my own kids. I'm so thrilled that
they have this dynamic like they'll always have. I mean,
this is it's a weird thing to say, but they
(19:08):
always have each other to complain about me, like they
can know.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's so true. I've met that there's like a.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sounding board, right for someone who just like automatically understands
your circumstances, Yeah, understands your household, and I just don't
have I don't have like a sounding board in that way.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I get that so much. Although my siblings and I
kind of argue over whose version of history is most accurate? Sure,
which is difficult and difficult sibling relationships, you know, like
who's oh, you didn't go to mommy's funeral? Yes I did.
I was, now you didn't because well, wait a minute,
you know, like who's who's the custodian of all the
(19:48):
narrative truths?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Right?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
And they vary from kid to kid, course of course, and.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Each and different thing hit Everything hits you differently depending
on who you are. Like A I definitely observe my
own children and go, what are the stories they're going
to tell about us? Like what are the what are
the things that I reflect on so differently from how
they see it? Like my facial Like one thing that
(20:14):
happens a lot in our family is that my kids
will say, are you mad at me? Are you mad
at me?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Interesting?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I'm not. I have a very naturally like my mouth
is kind of like.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, hysit me too. It goes aside, Yeah, my resting face,
I look like I'm upset me too.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
It's hard, it's hard, and I'm like, I'm just no,
I'm I'm not mad at all. I'm just like thinking.
I was just like thinking, focused on something else and
they So I wonder if like in a way they're
going to grow up and go, she was really mad
at us a lot because they have they keep they
always say that, but I'm like.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
They still ask you even though every time it's been no.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Every time it's no, and every time I say no,
I'm not, I'm just my face like look at my mouth,
it's just like downturned. I can't keep it in it.
It's too much work to keep Yeah, a smile, like what.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You know when I was in my show. When I
was on my show, I was smiling a lot, Yes,
and so comparatively to when I was in Target. People
would stop me go are you okay. I'm like, yeah,
this is my normal face.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
They're like, well, it looks like something's wrong. I'm like,
you're used to seeing this and now I'm just being
this right. It was a difficult transition.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Down now I'm just shopping.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, it's just shopping four kids who were toddlers, so
with makeup.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I had a lot of makeup and a lot of
people doing stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Now, how have you felt since the ending of the show.
Did you feel like, wow, I want to go on
to something else, or I want to take a break,
or you know, let me try this podcast? What did it?
What was the procedure? Did you have an emotional reaction
to it being done?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I did?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean, of course, like I definitely, there were so
a lot goes into it. I mean, it's public. I
wasn't really surprised that the show went away. Actually felt
that that was coming for a really long time. It's
just the timing, it's more like it's like shocking but
not at all surprising. So there were you know, for
(22:20):
a lot of weeks, I was like, all right, what's next,
what are we going to do? Like you got to
try to sell it somewhere else, Like you kind of think,
there's this scramble, and I kind of want to preserve
everyone's jobs. Sure, because you worry about you end up
being very worried about the people who work for you
and who've given so much. I'm like, I want to
keep them working or.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Sure, help them or totally understand.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Let's just keep it going. And then when I had
a chance to kind of not be scrambling so much,
when the scramble kind of died down a little bit,
I was like, all right, I should really think about
what are the things that I loved from it? What
are the things that I liked about the job. It's
apparent to me that it's not just going to continue
(23:05):
somewhere else, So I now I have to really reflect
on because there were things about the job that I
didn't like and things about the job that I absolutely loved.
So what are the things I love that I would
carry forward that I would do for free that I
would do anyway, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Sure, totally.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And one of the things that I really love is
interviewing people. I love it. I just am curious. I
want to know about people. I love to learn. So
that was really the takeaway. I loved to travel, I
love to do field pieces. I like to interview and
think and great and know, and that's the I love.
(23:47):
I don't love to perform, for sure. And there are
things that I have to say in this world. So
I had to ask myself what is it that I
love and what do I think is left for me
to say? Because I've been in the world old of
politics and political comedy for at that point twenty years, right,
haven't I said it all? Like what stone? What stone
(24:11):
is left unturned?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Right? There's not a lot of issues that people would
go I wonder what Samantha Bee thinks about that. It's
because you put them out there. Yeah, bravely, courageously, so
thankfully you know, as a woman, I want to thank
you for those whole seven years to do it, because
it you know, we had a voice. I mean, and
I have to say, when Mattow went away, you were
to go to I was like Mattow, I'm still man
(24:34):
at her. I won't even watch her on Mondays now,
I'm like, what were you possibly doing as the world
is falling apart to go leave us to just Mondays?
You wnch? I really am her? Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, It's like, so what what what is la like?
What what is undiscovered country for me? Or what are
the things that I'm still passionate to talk about and
interview people about? And so those were the those are
the goals that I carried forward. And the end result
of that is actually that we created a podcast, which
(25:07):
I had a podcast at the show, but I wanted
to continue that because I actually did. I loved it.
I loved it doing it. It was I found it
very relaxing and very invigorating.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Are you a big podcast listener?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I love listening to podcasts, and I listened to a
lot of news podcasts and they really they just it's
such a It's a good way for me through osmosis
to like receive information so I don't have to scroll frantically,
so I don't have to scroll at four thirty in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I understood, wake up, understood.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
It just goes, It just goes. In like, yeah, it
was into the.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Mostess, the point of your podcast or the focus of
your podcast is what now listen. I hate when people
ask me that because mine doesn't particularly have one, but
maybe yours does.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know what It's like you end up having these
meandering conversations no matter what. But I guess the jumping
off point to choice words is the choices that you
make in life, like the big like a big choice
or a little choice that reverberates through your life, like
what's the pebble that drops into the pond and the
ripple effects in your life. I'm so I'm curious about
(26:16):
all that stuff because I feel like there are many
moments in my own life where I just made a
good choice or a bad choice and I still feel
the effects of that today. They totally They take you
on a path. You go down a path and I'm
curious about other people and you know, and then it
evolves and then it evolves into like a rolicing conversation
(26:38):
about like you and I talked about forty five different
things and it was awesome, Like I don't even yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I remember specifically what, but I know, yeah, I had
fun talking to you. That's like when when people say
you have this podcast today, I'm so excited because I
like the structure. I like to work. I like to
have something that I have to do a little bit
of re search and remind myself of what I fell
in love with this person first for, and you know,
(27:06):
renew my enthusiasm and it makes me feel alive, you know, totally.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It's like it does. I don't know, it's wonderful that
in a way, it's I don't know if you feel
this way too. Way. I mean, in a way, it's
wonderful that people listen to it and they like it too,
but it almost feels like just a conversation you would
have normally if you are together in a room, which
makes it even better.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I agree. I think it's really it's really fun and
it's something that I definitely want to continue doing. I mean, yes,
you look at somebody like Joe Rogan and you know,
stand up like I did for so many years, and
you look at his success and you think, what the hell,
you know, do you have to have conspiracy theories in
order to get to be a very famous pott. I'm
not really sure.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I don't know, Like it's like he's up for something
that I'm not up for, which is I'm not that
curious about people's shitty ideas. Yeah me either, Like I
think they're pretty shitty ideas. And I don't really need
to get into it because I'm just right. I don't
want to argue with some Well.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That's what somebody was like, Uh, could you please? Somebody
called and you know, was like inquiring, did we want
to book Bobby Kennedy. I'm like, no, I don't know, No,
don't no interest.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Can I tell you something? This guy tell me? His
campaign is is killing me inside.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
It's killing me too. It's unbelievable. How about him? Second,
I never said that about vaccinations? And then they roll
nineteen clips.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Nineteen clips? Yeah, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Did you happen to see Mitch McConnell have a mini
stroke there on the microphone?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I did. I did see that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
What were your thoughts of that? Uh?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
My thought was, even though I don't like this person,
I don't appreciate his ideas, it's still horrific to witness
someone I agree, it was terrifying. It's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I thought he was going to fall right down, you know, Like,
And I also was like isn't anybody seeing this like?
It felt like it took forever.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I feel like intervention could have come a lot sooner.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
We could ad Candy finneran in there.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Come on, let's go, let's I mean, clearly, this person
is having a medical emergency. Yea, it really went on
a long time, Yes, before anyone helped them. Yeah, I didn't.
It wasn't a joyful I didn't feel I didn't feel
good watching it. I felt like, oh, no one.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I felt so concerned about the age. You know, people
are like, I'm sick of hearing about the age of it. Listen,
if there's an age you have to be to get
in the Senate and to get it to be running
for president, there has to be an age out. There
has to be a start and an ending. Yes, you know, yes,
because when I see all these octagenarians running the country,
part of me is like, this is embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
It's not effective, And you know, we don't have to
logans run it like, we don't need to. We don't
need to shut everyone down once they turned thirty. That's
not what we're talking about here. But they're could be
and we should age out of these positions. First of
all because you want to make way for younger people,
you want to make way for new ideas. Things are
done differently, the technology is different.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Agist. I love old people. I'm not saying that there's
nothing to contribute. There are ways to contribute. But boy,
oh boy, I just don't think, you know, how can
we be having debates about AI.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
How can we be.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Having these conversations in the future. We are just like
catapulting ourselves into it's going to be incomprehensible.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
That is.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I feel like part of the reason why we move
so slowly like a cruise ship, like making a law
about something. Anticipating problems is not our strong suit. Long
game is not really where we're at.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So are you going to go do stand up anywhere?
Are you're going to go do live shows.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Doing I'm doing a live show. I'm touring it. I
just I just announced a bunch of new DA's.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Actually, is it changing ever changing the show or is
it a lockdown thing that you wrote that's like a
one woman show.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
So it's like a one woman show, so it's pretty lockdown.
I definitely did. I did about seventeen sixteen or seventeen
dates in the spring, and I loved it, and so
I'm adding the same amount of cities in the fall.
I'm great because it's basically the same. I think I'll
(31:26):
make some adjustments over the summer. You know, you end up,
I just want to refresh it for myself. And there
are areas where I was like, oh, I think I
think I can either beat this or just I love
to change the tone of it, or like alter it
a little bit, but ultimately it's I love doing it.
It's I don't know if you feel similarly, but there's
something about live performance where I just feel like, oh,
(31:48):
I feel so three dimensional.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
There's nothing like being up there with the crowd and
having to ride the wave of their enthusiasm and attention
and try to, you know, figure out where you're going
as you do it. It's something very enriching.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It's very special. It's very enriching. If people are entertained,
that's great. But I feel like there's a symbiotic relationship,
like there's I'm getting as much out of them as
they're getting out of me, Like we're together.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Right, it is. It is a reciprocal yes, joy failed
thing because yeah, there's no way to explain what that
feels like either to people. You know. I remember once
years ago, Madonna was at the O two when I
was there the week before it opened, and there was
the first night she said come here, and she was
(32:40):
backstage so nobody could see me, and you just heard
when they saw her shadow whatever, the screaming, and I
felt like I was physically moved by the energy, like
my body was put I felt a force pushing me backwards,
like how much incoming directed what not at me? At her?
And I was just in the background, you know. And
(33:03):
I thought that as a comic, it's much more intimate
than the mass adulation from the multitudes. You know, very
few comics get to play Shay Stadium or you know,
the O two arena. Right, maybe Kevin Hart, I don't
know who else, maybe Dave Chappelle, right right right, But
(33:25):
just having felt trippy.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's like I feel like on the stage, I can
feel my back and I can feel my front, and
I feel my sides. I feel like I just am
like almost like a girl who became real, like a
doll that became real in the just.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
For that stepped down the stage.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
It's very it's a very special and unique experience, and
I love the material because I'm talking about menopause and
all this stuff, and I think it's like really needs
to be said. And so that is really the truth
that I needed to uncover and say to people, is
think about our bodies and how misunderstood they are and
how fucking mad we are about that, and how it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
It's like very.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Fun to say those words and have people like scream
back because they it's just there's something so.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So real cool. If I got my menopause started at forty,
believe it or not, and i would be in the
target with the kid and I'd see an older woman
and I'd want to be like, why didn't you tell
them that? Like every older woman. I was angry at
because I thought, where's the big Nora Efron book on menopause?
(34:40):
But you know she died, but where is the irma bomback?
Like I don't know. I felt like I was very
unprepared for menipase and then very angry that it was
as bad as it was.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
It's very bad or a very It's like the conditions
of menopause or paramanimal bass are so unique and it's huge.
It's like a tsunami in your body, and but it's
also attached to all this shame, like it was like
a secret. It just was like a secret that everyone
(35:14):
kept forever, like a shameful, embarrassing secret. And I can't
keep it a secret. I love to talk about like
what it really did to me.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And Honey, do a book right after, because there needs
to be a book where people can go to and
laugh and also just cry and go, I'm going to
get through this, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yes, And like our partners need to know about it,
and like everybody needs to know about it so that
we can all so you don't have to introduce this
concept to your partner for the first time in their life.
Like it's working unfair. It's unfair to everyone. I don't
want my daughters to feel like they can't talk about
(35:58):
what's happening in their body's Like my grandmother's generation would
have never talked about it. I think even my mother's
generation would not have talked about it.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Only now are we really starting to talk about it.
And fifty percent of the world experiences it. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
It is crazy. Well listen, I think you're fantastic. I
always have. I love that we got to do that
Nora e Fron play together, so fun. That was one
of my sweet memories of getting to meet women that
I didn't know and so I did and getting to
do that wonderful show.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Every day I still think of Nora so and her
sister is just so fondly. I'm still so sad that
Noura's gone.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Especially hard sometimes I still think I'm going to see
what she thinks of a nice dite, you know, like
something political, especially you know.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Do you remember that she gave everybody her own little
self bound cookbook at the end of that Still I
use it.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
It's incredible of it. It's so crush cook but I haven't.
She was so loving and so great and I miss
her a lot too. Yeah, but I'm glad she got
us to be buddies. So there, youd, Yes she did.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I admire you so much. Thank you so much for.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Us well, honey, anytime, and I love you.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I love you too, all right, bye bye, We'll be
back with questions from you.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Hey, everybody, we're back, and now we have some wonderfully
surprising comments and questions from you the listener, And please
drop us a little message and send it to us,
and we'll see if we can get you on here.
Here's the first question from you a listener.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Hi, Rosie, this is Micah calling from Highland Park, Los
Angeles area. I just finished reading your two thousand and
two memoir Find Me, and I enjoyed it so much.
I found it so riveting, so fascinating, so vulnerable, and
I just burned through it. I work at the Music
(38:23):
Center downtown as an usher, and so I read during
the shows, and you came in saw Transparent, and I
was so bummed that I missed you because I was
working at Amansen that night. But anyway, I digress. Usually
I only read while I'm at work, but this was
so good that I was even reading it at home
when I was off. But my question is, how do
(38:44):
you feel about this book now? I mean, I loved it,
But you know, twenty years later, are you still in
touch with Melissa? Have your feelings changed about how you
felt when you were writing this book? You know, a
lot can change in twenty years, and I'm just curious
what this follow up to this book is. But yeah,
I loved it, and I love you and keep doing
(39:05):
what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Thank you, Thank you. What a sweet little memo. I
love hearing your voices. I love getting these questions and comments,
and thank you for what you said about that book
Find Me. That was the first book that I wrote
with the help of Lawrence Later, who's a friend of
mine and also a psychologist. And you know when I
went to her at first and said, here's what's happened
(39:27):
in my life in the last eight months. And it's
a riveting story. And what I want the book to
be about is who's the crazy one? Who's the crazy one?
Is that this woman in the middle of the country,
diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, who somehow connected with me
through an adoption agency phone number and wanted help for
(39:47):
her daughter who had been attacked by a youth minister
in the church in the town. And I am still
in touch with Melissa, and that's not her real name,
but I'm still in touch with with her, and we
sometimes text and we have an occasional call and check
in with each other. She has a son that I
didn't mention in the book because he was young still
(40:10):
and I worried about confidence and custody and whether the
book would affect that, so we didn't include him in
the book. Everybody in that family is doing well, and
you know, my feelings about the book haven't changed. That's
sort of who I was and where I was at
the time, doing my show in the swirl of fame
(40:30):
and showbiz and celebrity, which was new to me and
affected me in ways that I didn't really have time
to process while I was in the midst of it.
And I think now twenty years later, looking back, I
can see I was trying to, you know, maintain my
humanity and my open heart and still care as much
(40:54):
as I do about people and their world and what's happening.
And I think that the amount of interaction and the
amount of love and connection that I put into that
relationship is something that I have continued to do in
my adult life with people that I meet. I never
(41:16):
think that you meet someone by accident. I always think
when someone comes into your life and your world, there's
a reason and that's not coincidence, And there really isn't coincidence.
So you know, there was of all the people that
got through, she got through and we had a personal
connection and that's what happened in the relationship. So yes,
(41:37):
that's the answer to your questions. I think and I'm
so happy that you loved the book. So thank you
very much for this question, and thank you for caring
so much and for speaking so lovingly about a piece
of my life and work that felt very personal and
I was very nervous about putting it out there. So
(41:57):
I'm glad that you received it and that you really
liked did so thank you so much. All right, and
we've got another question now coming in for today. Let's
see what we got.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Hi, ro, this is Polly sending you a message from
the mountains of western North Carolina, just outside of Asheville.
I grew up in central New York, Stateville, and I'm
just about a year older than you, so I have
a lot of the same references that you do, such
as going into New York and seeing shows and things
like that. And I enjoy it when your callers send
(42:29):
in a message to say that they loved coming home
from school and watching your program. And for me and
I suspect you.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
It was Mike Douglas that we would watch in the
afternoon and merv Griffin that we would watch in the evening,
and I just love those shows, especially well both of them,
but Mike Douglas the way the format where he had
a famous guest host for the entire week, and then
they would get on all these other people and they
would be interviewed by both Mike Douglas and his guest host,
and some of those pairings were just absolutely wild. And
(43:00):
I'm wondering if you could share some memories of watching
those programs. And I'll start the ball rolling by telling
you about my favorite comedy and then I thought she
was the funniest person to walk the earth, the wonderful
Tody Fields. And I remember a story she told about
losing her so called diamond ring down down a toilet
on an airplane and how she had to work with
(43:24):
the airline to get that back, and it was a
historical story.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
I need to find that sometime. Maybe it's on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
I'm wondering if you could share some stories and especially
about Tody Fields. Did you love her as I did?
Were you inspired by her when you started your career?
Just curious and just wanted to share a few memories
from one sixty plus year old to another. Thanks and
I love your show.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Bye, Thank you so much. What a great, great little
memo there. I totally loved Mike Douglas like you did
and Merv Griffin. You know, I was so blown away
by Tody Fields my whole career. I never really wanted
to be a comedian, a stand up so to speak.
I really wanted to be like a Broadway actress and
(44:08):
Barbara Streis and Bette Midler, you know. I wanted to
be a harled, a backup singer for bed. I didn't
necessarily look at stand up as an art form that
I wanted to get into, you know. I wasn't that
familiar with it, and it didn't speak to me as
much as musicals did and acting did. But it was
Tody Fields who got me very interested in a woman's
(44:32):
point of view and perspective done in that genre of entertainment,
and I just fell in love with her. Tody Fields
was one of my favorites, for sure. I loved Phyllis too,
and I got to know Phyllis Diller towards the end
of her career, and she was very kind to me
and used to send me gifts from her closet, like
(44:53):
I wore this on The Tonight Show in nineteen sixty eight,
and she'd send me, you know, a purse that she
used in Vegas and It was very very lovely and
very sweet, and she sent me art to She was
a wonderful painter. I've had a really, really amazing career
where I've got to meet so many of the people
(45:15):
that I admired growing up, and it's been very fulfilling
for me. It's been very overwhelming and very much full
circle moment. So yes, Mike and MURRV I owe them everything,
and thank you for listening, Thank you for your comments. Listen.
If you want to leave us a voice memo, please,
do you got a question, you got a suggestion, you
(45:36):
got just something you got to get off your chest.
All you gotta do is go to Onward Rosie at
gmail dot com. How do you make a voice memo?
People say, well, I can only tell you. If you
have an iPhone iPhone type in voice memo, little microphone
comes up, go press the button, record it. Then it
says where to say mail Onward Rosie at gmail dot com.
(45:59):
Attach five. You're done. That's it. And if you haven't Android,
tough luck. I don't have anything to say to help you. Really,
it just got shake it. Maybe just shake it, okay,
So listen. We have a great, great guest next week.
My personal chef, an internationally renowned celebrity chef, Elizabeth Faulkner.
(46:20):
Not only is she one of the best chefs in
the country, she really is. I have to tell you,
she is a magical woman. During COVID, she was sitting
around and feeling antsy and feeling like, I don't know
what to do. All of these restaurants are closing, all
of these famous chefs that she knows are out of
work and struggling, And somehow she put together this beautiful,
(46:41):
beautiful documentary called Sorry We're Closed, and it's about what
happened to the restaurant business during COVID. So during COVID,
she went and interviewed all of her friends who are
internationally renowned chefs in their own right, and they talked
about the effect that COVID had on the lives of
these chefs who run two hundred person families by having
(47:07):
a staff and this you know, and knowing all the
staff and seeing them every day and all of a
sudden to nothing to know, work to know. And it's
a wonderful, wonderful look at the ramifications culturally and financially
and emotionally on a specific group of people whose job
(47:29):
it is to love and give and serve food to others.
It is one of my favorite documentaries I've ever seen,
and I was so moved by knowing how real it
was for me COVID and the effect it had on me,
and then seeing the effect on a specific group of people.
(47:51):
So Elizabeth Faulkner is going to be here next week
and we're going to talk about her documentary. And her
documentary is available now. Sorry, we're closed on Amazon and
Apple and iTunes, and it's available for you, and I
think you will love it. I really do. I loved
it so much. I've watched it a bunch of times,
and every time I see something or hear something different
(48:12):
from these unbelievably talented, loving chefs that she gets to
speak to Elizabeth Faulkner next week here on onward
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