Samantha Ronson, Celebrity DJ, Singer and Songwriter as well as human rights activist, stops by Chanel in the City to chat with host, Chanel Omari, on all things music, entertainment and what it's like to be a Jewish Entertainer in 2024.
Samantha opens up about her obstacles in the media industry being part of the LGBTQ Community and being Jewish wasn't the easiest for this talented Artist.
Samantha is advocating for human rights, including Jewish and Israeli and Palestinian rights and is expressing how peace and love is what's going to put an end to the Israeli-Hamas war. She shares her thoughts on it.
Samantha shares what it was like growing up with her successful siblings, Marc Ronson and Charlotte Ronson, both music and fashion artists.
Make sure to follow Samantha Ronson @SamanthaRonson on all social media platforms for more info.
Samantha opens up about her obstacles in the media industry being part of the LGBTQ Community and being Jewish wasn't the easiest for this talented Artist.
Samantha is advocating for human rights, including Jewish and Israeli and Palestinian rights and is expressing how peace and love is what's going to put an end to the Israeli-Hamas war. She shares her thoughts on it.
Samantha shares what it was like growing up with her successful siblings, Marc Ronson and Charlotte Ronson, both music and fashion artists.
Make sure to follow Samantha Ronson @SamanthaRonson on all social media platforms for more info.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hey, everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Chanel in the City on
iHeartRadio. I am your host,Shanel A. Mauri. I have a
very special guest here today. She'snot only a dear friend, she is
super talented, super influential. She'sone. I think she's a legend,
one of the best DJs in thislifetime singer, songwriter, producer. Please
(00:25):
help me welcome the beautiful, thetalented, the amazing, and the funny
Samantha Ronson. Everybody, How areI'm good? That was That's quite a
that's quite an introduction. I feelI know, I feel like I'm your
Jewish mother. Hey, everybody,let me tell you, Let me tell
you. Let me tell you abouthow cook it? How cook it is?
(00:49):
Wait, did I miss anything?Because I feel like there's so much
more you've done cooking lately. Soyeah, yeah, let's talk let's talk
about that a little bit because cooking, and we're going to talk about you
being Jewish as well. And you'vedone a lot for the Jewish community,
You've done a lot for Israel.You've been posting, you've been supporting.
So first of all, thank youfor that, because we're going to get
(01:10):
into into how difficult of a timeit's been, and for influencers and celebrities
to really go out there and talkabout it as hard and you you know
you're making a difference. But besides, I think people are nervous because everything
gets misconstrued and everything's like clickbait andit's only interesting if it's getting someone canceled.
And it's just like, you know, Scooter Braun just posted something really
(01:33):
interesting today where he's talking about likeif you can't, like we should all
be able to give a shit aboutthe lives that are being destroyed on both
sides of this fucking line, right, you know, English, Yeah you
can cus. Okay, so you'vegot all these children, and you've got
(01:57):
not even just children. Everyone's likethe children, the children. Any life
lost is a tragedy. So youhave all these children being killed, and
you can hold space for both,you know. I think people have a
really hard time as seeing people asboth victims and victimizers, as oppressed and
(02:19):
oppressors. I think you can beboth. I think you can look at
Israel. Listen, I'm not speakingfor the Israeli government. The Israeli government
are a awful yahoo not a fan, right and By the way, a
lot of Israelis have that issue.It's not like right, like you said,
there were almost a civil war.There was almost a recently, you
(02:40):
know what I mean. I havecousins that live in Israel who are just
like, we hate Natanya who heis an animal. He's like basically like
Trump, but if possible worse right, I don't support the Israeli government.
I don't support a bazillion things.I'm also a New York Jew. I
don't fuck you know what the hellis going on. I'm not I'm not
(03:02):
a Middle East historian. Nobody knows. All of us who are learning this
information on TikTok and Instagram should shutthe fuck up. Like half the time,
I'm just like, shut the fuckup, Shut the fuck up,
Shut the fuck up, Shut thefuck up. You know they say God
gave us two ears in one mouth. Listen, how about we all just
(03:23):
listen? Because I don't know.All I know is that I don't right.
I know enough that I have compassion. I know that Hamas is a
terrorist group that is the governing forcein that region, right, right,
So we should all be trying tofree Palestine from Hamas. Everybody I don't
(03:46):
understand how anybody is pro Hamas well, That's what I was gonna ask you,
like from your what do you thinkwhy do you feel that because there's
two words, right, it wasIsrael versus Hamas. We never said Israel
versus Palestine. Then I understand,and then we have a heart for the
innocent Palestinians. But I think becauseHamas is their government, I don't understand
(04:06):
when the world didn't like they weren'ton our side about it, you know
they were just that's where anti Semitismgrew further, because why do you think
there shouldn't Besides, right, thereshouldn't be sides. I agree with terrorists,
right, And then there's people alsoYou've got like accredited news organizations quoting
(04:31):
Hamas as if Hamas is sitting thereand being like, let's make sure we
get our facts straight. They area terrorist organization. Their only goal is
to eradicate Israel and Jews and theneverybody else, right, And it's so
hard for the world to I don'tunderstand why it's so hard for them to.
It's so hard for them to understandit because it's it's it's unfathomable,
(04:58):
right, the kind of the kindof just desensitized malice. Aggression isn't something
that we could ever possibly comprehend.So we're like, this can't be it.
They can't really mean it, theycan't really be doing this. They
don't really mean what they're saying.They're just saying that, and it's like
(05:20):
no, no, no, AsMiami lu said, when people show you
who they are, believe them thefirst time. And it's like these the
Hamas spokespeople are literally saying, wewant to kill all Jews, we want
to erase Israel, and then wewant to kill anybody who's not is is
(05:43):
who's not down with their goals,their religion, their their way of life.
And it's just so confusing because I'mjust like, I know, I
don't I don't think people are idiots. I don't think people are mean.
I don't think people realize that alot of this is anti Semitism. And
it's just like, you can't youcannot, like deface a synagogue in America
(06:11):
and say that that's anti Israel becauseit's not. Because the difference is Jews
are a race and a religion,and that's I think a thing that people
don't really understand like I can standwith the people of Israel and not stand
with the government right I had alike I didn't want to post an Israeli
flag when everyone was posting an Israeliflag because I stand with yes. I
(06:35):
believe Israel has a right to exist. I believe everybody has a right to
exist. I believe in a twostate solution. I believe that there's room
for everybody. I do not believein the right wing government that is in
control right now, and I thinkthat there are a large part of why
we're here. Do you think ifwe had different leaders in Israel and now
(06:57):
Lison? We also know that Israel'slimited in a sense where I think they
get a lot of blame because You'reright, there are things times they are
not They're doing it their own wayand not everybody agrees with it. There's
other ways that we can hopefully saveinnocent civilians. They they claim that we
have to kill all of Hamas.Do you think Hamas the terrorist groups go
after us because of the leadership wehave in Israel? Like? Is that
(07:18):
what needs to change? I don'tknow enough about the government, and I'm
not even gonna meet me too.I don't either I just know that Hamas
isn't it's not like one guy.It's a belief, right, Yes,
so you like, it's like whacka mole, Right, you're not going
(07:41):
to eradicate it because it's it's it'sa belief system. It's it's you know,
you get one person, there's goingto be another because they're indoctrinated and
they fully believe it, and it'sI don't I don't think it has anything
to do with necessarily who's in powerright now. I just think the response
(08:01):
and the way Israel has been handlingthings with their government, it makes it
really hard for people outside to understandwhat the fuck is going on. Yeah,
it's very easy to sit there andbe like Palestinians are oppressed because they
(08:22):
are. It's not it comes right, it's not Israel's fut. I don't
think people realize it's Hamas. Ithink it's been I think I think everyone
is to blame. I don't thinkyou can say that Israel's hands are clean.
I don't think you can say anybody'shands are clean. But the world
(08:43):
that they're living in, the andthe fear that they're living in, and
I don't even know how to putit, but we can't fathom it.
So why are we weighing in right? Right? And I agree with you
on that, walling on doing thisbecause I was just like, I don't
know what the fuck I'm talking about. I know that I that seeing the
(09:07):
anti Semitism rise and knowing that likechildren have to pretend they're not Jewish,
and I have like best friends changingtheir name in like delivery apps or anything
that like ubers or things, justbecause like there's like crazy rumors that go
around that like oh they're this thatthe other, like that day of Rage
(09:30):
and the Day of Jahad and allthat. You know, it's just terrifying
because we don't understand what that worldis like. But when you've got kids
chanting to kill the Jews, that'sthat's not about that's not about Israel,
that's not about Palestine, and that'snot about land, right, That's what
I'm saying, And that's about that'sabout extreme radicalism of people that truly hate
(09:54):
Jewish people. And that's what I'vebeen trying to explain to everyone by you
know, bringing and also sticking together. Everyone always says, why did you
stick together? This is the reason, why do you one of the reasons,
why do you stick together? Right? Like, why the fuck do
we have to explain? And whydo we have to explain? Zero?
We're a point zero two percent ofthe population. There are what fourteen fifteen
(10:18):
million Jews worldwide? Most were inIsrael? Yes, but why am I
apologizing for sticking together? Right?That's the thing is, and that's what
I was gonna ask you, Like, do you did you ever feel anti
semitism throughout your career before this Octoberseventh happened? Have you felt because I
felt it semitism my whole life.I'm anti Semitic. I know that's not
(10:39):
it's not supposed to be funny.I'm a comedian. It's like everything's funny.
But I know what you mean becauselike, yeah, anybody tells you
they're not, they're fucking lying becauseit's so ingrained in all of us,
down to like in Tom Sawyer FaganLike not Tom Sawyer, fucking Oliver Twist.
It's right, it's been embedded inus, even as why the money
(11:03):
guys got the big nose and thething, and it's always there, you
know, And it's just like I'malways like feeling like I need to pay
for dinner for everyone, so nobody'slike, you know, right, she's
cheap or I totally get that becauseI do that too. The cheap people
I know aren't Jewish, the cheapestrichest people everyone. By the way,
the one percent is like the Catholicnon jew wasps with all due respect that
(11:26):
literally will not pay for dinner andwill pay for exactly. It'll be like
a five hundred dinner. They'll belike, I ordered one martini and one
salad, and I'd be, really, you're going to do that in front
of a whole like I just Iwould. I'm broke. Yeah, that's
how we were raised. See whatpeople don't realize. Jews were raised to
pay for the whole bill, whetherthey have money or not. Now I
wish that narrative I could, butyeah, go on, because that's what
(11:50):
I'm saying. I've been. That'sinteresting that I just feel like it's just
like, you know, like we'vejust been. It's just been built into
us, you know, I mean, and we're you know, my grandfather
escaped Austria when Hitler invaded, youknow, like it's in our dna to
(12:15):
be afraid. You know, Igrew up in London and then New York
and the headmistress was the headmstress atmy school was fucking an ex nun,
do you know what I mean?Like you always had to like a school,
so I always felt like other,you know, I always feel the
need to like let people know aheadof time that I'm Jewish because like so
(12:37):
they don't make any nasty remark orwhatever. And it's not because I feel
like victimized or or you know anything. I just know that people make jokes,
and like I'm gonna make it first, right, Right, You're not
gonna let somebody else trash our people, right. They think jokes are jokes.
(13:01):
But there's a difference between Like inthe comedy space, I see how
some of the non Jews will makejokes at jews expense, and then you
see the Jewish comics making the Jewishjokes. They're very different. It's a
little bit more sensitive towards the Jewishpeople. You know, like if you're
not Jewish, you really can't bein a position making, you know,
that many jokes about the Jewish people, because that that is confusing, That
becomes anti Semitism, that becomes aspread the amount of things of Google lately
(13:24):
be like it's so and so Jewish, so and so Jewish, but I'm
like on social media looking at shitand it's just like I'm just like,
I was just really disappointed. I'mreally sad that the politics overtook the humanity
of the situation. And I understandthat what's happening in Gaza West Bank,
(13:48):
It's been happening for a very longtime, but like, where the fuck
were all you all? Then?Right? Right? And also I always
tell people if they really want togo see what's going on in Israel and
Gaza, they should go down andinstead. A lot of the times,
there's a lot of these Americans thatfeel close to Palestinians or the Muslims.
And by the way, Jewish peoplelove their Muslim brother we all love our
Muslim brothers and sisters. There's Muslims, Arabs everything in Israel. But I
(14:13):
don't know. The thing is,it's like it's not like I think they
just want I think it's before thisresearch I've done, I feel it feels
like they just want it all.It's almost like a selfish kid who just
wants to throw a tantrum and wantseverything, and you're like, no,
you can only have one candy andyour brother can have another candy, and
we're going to share, you know, because I think that might be difficult
(14:35):
to thin there. I'm sorry,yes, but that's the only analogy I
could think of. It's mo hormouth, it's worth I just think it's a
really, really fradial, delicate situationthat we know really nothing about. I
haven't been to Israel since I wasfifteen. You know, I have a
(14:56):
cousin. My cousin, her sonis in the army, and like her,
my cousin's two kids were called back, you know, October eighth,
Wow, and they're you know,in their late twenties. And my cousin,
the girl Sydney, she's actually beenlike said back she can go back
(15:16):
to school because she's a medical school. And my other cousin is there.
You know. He just got afew days leave to propose to his girlfriend.
Now it's fiance and by the way, nice to see some love and
all of this. But you know, he's back a soldier again. I
think they're they're both captains. He'snot, he's not on the front lines
(15:39):
or anything. But still it's justlike he's still he tells me. He's
like, I promise you what they'remaking us out to be is not what
we are. You know, there'scasualties, but we do our best.
And it's like, listen, Israel'snot making it easy killing their own hostages
with the white flag up. Youknow a lot of these kids, these
(16:00):
are kids, These are kids outthere who were just scared, have no
idea what's happening. Like they're justevery child and their children has to go
into the army. So you've gotthese kids and now all of a sudden,
like everyone's getting called up and they'reforced to fight in this like super
emotional, terrifying moment, and they'refucking children. At eighteen, I was
(16:26):
doing whippets on a bench and soso like, like what a life we
had? What a hard life?Right? We didn't think about being drafted
into an army or fighting for ourcountry or even now as Jews. I
feel like I'm sure you do too, Like we feel a little bit responsible
to talk about it, and that'sfearful in itself, and that gives me
(16:47):
anxiety to like be a spokesperson fora whole nation because I don't have all
the facts. I don't have allthe information, you know, and you
know, I could sit here andinstead of like scrolling recipes on TikTok,
I could like go take a lesson. But like from who and what's you
(17:07):
know? You've got these like thesecollege campuses getting all this funding dark money
that they're not admitting to whatever.And as long as you do this or
you do that, and you've gotthis, you know, we don't live
in a time where our news sourcesare fat checked right until later. So
(17:33):
like when when Hamas fired a rocketthat hit their own hospital, like everyone
like quick to put it up onsocial media's Israel attacking hospitals, but like
nobody put up like, oh mybad, that was Hamas, Right,
that's what I'm that's what I andI saw that, And that's what I'm
saying is like they don't realize theirown casualties are being done by Hamas as
(17:55):
a terrorist group. And by theway, it's not just Hamas, it's
Jahad, it's uh has Blad,They're all extreme terrorist groups that want to
kill off not only like you said, the Jews, but also Israel and
then after like Americans and Christian everythinggay, which is crazy to me because
the lgbt we progress so like theLGBTQ community has progressed so much, I
(18:15):
would it just I can't believe we'rein this time like that to me is
crazy, Like you know, you'relooking at things where these women who were
held hostage were raped again and againwhile they were being held hostage, and
where's where's the compassion for these people? Right? And I understand it's like
(18:40):
this twenty four hour news cycle whereeverything gets whatever, you know, from
one thing to like Barbie to likeyou know, every heads are fucking spinning.
But I just I just don't understandwhy there's no compassion at this same
time, Like I am mortified foreverybody who's dying. Same yeah, And
(19:07):
you have the right answer. Seethat's where we need to we need to
live in this space. What you'resaying is why don't we all have compassion
for everyone dying, whether whatever racethey are, whatever color, whatever culture.
But especially because Jewish people have beenhaving it hard. These are to
Muslim establishments and right causing damage topeople's homes. They're putting up stars of
(19:33):
David and swastikas and Jewish businesses they'renot as Raeli businesses. It's not the
Israeli consulate, right, some Jewishladies have, you know, it's just
like it's the ignorance that they don'twrite, they don't understand that Jewish someone
being Jewish is different than an IsraeliJew or Middle Eastern Jew or an Eshkanaze
(19:53):
Jew, you know what I mean. Or then they wonder why Jews feel
the need to have our own state, because where the fuck are we supposed
to go? And you know whenyou're feeling, you know, I was
in New York when it was thatday of Jihad, and and I was
(20:14):
terrifying, Like I was like Iwas like shopping like it was like first
day of COVID again because I waslike, oh, I'm never leaving my
house again. Right. I lovespaghettios, speikios. I fucking love spaghetios.
They are great. But that isI get where you're saying, Like
I've hit to that point where Ihad to order a bunch of fucking spaghettios
(20:37):
and like oat me all, Likewe shouldn't have to feel. But that's
what I'm saying, Like even thoughthat's amazing, it's like you should have
to feel that we should have tofeel that way, to be stuck and
Order twenty three four. It's andit's and it's just like and and I
just think it's really sad because like, I don't think it helps to cancel
people for for supporting. I don'tknow. I think there's so much of
(21:04):
like for your h there has tobe room for people to I remember talking
to Lena Wait once about this anothersituation like years ago, and she was
like, it's got to be counsel, not cancel. Oh. I like
that got to like help people likeKanye can go fuck himself. Yeah,
(21:29):
because I was to say, we'regonna get into that, because I was
gonna say I was, I agreewith you, like you have to counsel.
I even started getting angry and Iwould I would catch myself captioning and
on social I'm like, wait aminute, I can't come from an angry
place. I got to be thebetter person and try to educate to make
change. You're right, like tohelp these people understand. Wait a minute,
the Jews aren't so we're not badpeople. We're really not bad people.
(21:52):
We're actually great people and a greatnation. And we, by the
way, we're not all great.Yeah, you're right, not everybody.
I mean, yeah, I'm everybodyright, yeah, and and and that's
okay, like we shouldn't. Butbecause there's so I was thinking about it.
It's like there's so few of usthat any sort of interaction that most
(22:15):
people have with the Jew will standout because there's you know outside of like
New York or Miami, you know, and that's that could spread a lot
more anti Semitism. Like I wishwe just all came together and said,
okay, you know the Jews havewe love the Jews no matter what,
We're going to stand by them likethey stand by us. But every group
(22:37):
of people have flaws. Not noneof us are perfect. I just can't
imagine if you had entered any otherminority community into like the mad lived version
of what's happening right now. Oh, they wouldn't accept it, no way,
no one would tolerate it, noteven anyone for them. And it's
like, okay, so there's likethat's the other thing where like like the
(23:02):
Kanye kind of uh, Like thething that Kanye is saying is like that
like Jews are all powerful and theycontrol everything, and it's like, yo,
if we control the media, shitwould be so different oh honey,
if we could tell the media,I'd be like the next Barber streisand and
getting everything I wanted in acting work. But also like, look at,
(23:23):
look at look at what's happening onTwitter, on everything on the New York
Times, CNN, you name it, like we don't control shit, all
right, and and and that's thething. It's like, Okay, so
Jews are like filthy money handlers whatever, cheap money grabbers, right, but
(23:45):
we're also in control, right,Like which which is it? Right?
So it's whicheverone fits your line ofthinking or your insult at the time.
I don't know. It's just likeI'm and how do you feel about that?
Not only being a Jew, butalso being you're you've been successful.
You are successful in the music industry, but you also worked your ass off
(24:07):
for it. See, I don'tthink they realized Jews also, we really
work hard, and we do dothe I don't want to say the dirty
work. We just took the entertainmentjobs at the time because it was the
only thing we had when they saidJewish Jews were getting kicked out from the
Holocaust and like fleeting to other countriesat the time, nobody begas that nobody
else wanted right, no one elsewanted right considered it was considered like being
(24:27):
an entertainer. Being that was consideredlike being a whore, you know what
I mean, Like these were thejobs that we get right, and we
kind of made it. We triedto make it classy. Yeah, but
it's just I don't know. Iyou know, I grew up you know,
my grandfather was in school studying tobe a doctor when he had to
(24:52):
leave Vienna and start all over again. And you know, my mother grew
up one of five. Her motherdied when she was young, so she
taught like he was school to blindkids. Like you know, those are
very very straight upbringing, which shethen had with us, if we want,
under our allowance, in the summertime, we had to get a job
and you know, every year.But like, I'm not going to pretend
(25:12):
I didn't grow up privileged. Igrew up right. We did very And
yes, I've worked really hard andI've treated my career like a job.
You know, I show up ontime more early, and I do the
thing and whatever. But I don'tthink my religion has ever ever played a
(25:33):
part except when I did that UnitedHat Sala yes, which you were amazing.
That was amazing. What a greatevent for United Htsala, which by
the way, they raised not onlymoney for medical services for Jews and Israelis,
they also do it for Muslims andChristians. Like, we don't discriminate
as Jews with other people. That'swhy I'm hurt. I feel like others
have been discriminating. But like yousaid, maybe it's lack of education,
(25:56):
maybe it's lack of news facts.I just think that people, well,
there's just so few of us thatit's that people. You know, we
make judgments based on we see thingsas we are, not as right.
So everybody seeing things through their owneyes, their own personal point of view
(26:19):
that's built by their life experiences,and so to expect anybody to think alike
would be insane, But to expectlarge groups of people to think alike is
just unfathomable. And I just thinkthat we are in a time where emotions
are heightened and everything is click andthis and that, and I can talk
(26:44):
to anybody I want, and Ican type whatever I want, and I
fire this off and then I'm gonnago fucking turn on the microwave or this
and go watch TV show, andeverything is so comes to us so quickly
now that there's not it's not alot of gravity or that we hold things
with. So you fire off atweet, you don't think where that's going
(27:07):
to go, or who's going tohear that, or how they're going to
hear that. And that's just that'sjust where we are as a society.
And I think a lot of peopleif they really stopped to think about who
was hurting and how their words werebeing received, people would probably act differently.
(27:33):
But we live in we're like basicallylike Ready Player one, We're in
our own augmented reality. And youknow, after COVID, everyone's kind of
still as much as we're out andabout, we're still kind of living in
this fear of disease, of theunknown. And now we've got this and
(27:56):
everyone's just like, I've got tosay the right thing, by the way,
Yeah, nobody has to say anything, and you know, I'm getting
and it's annoying when people are like, why hasn't so and so spoken up?
It's like because of you, Ihaven't spoken up, because the people
like you, because it's fucking terrifying. I'm happier saying that because you're right.
(28:17):
It's it's almost like everyone's playing police, like who should be standing at
push And now I'm not saying noone should be listen, I'm not saying
that in a time like this,the Jews a lot of us should be
saying we have but you're right,nobody should be policing because it is fucking
terrifying. I don't need to knowwhat Taylor Swift thinks about this. I
don't. I don't. Maybe shecan come out with a song, but
like other than that about it,but or like support listen with Kanye West,
(28:41):
like what did you think about thatrap that he came out with the
song and he called us the Jews. I just think a Jewish girl broke
his heart. And this is whereit's all coming from. Either a Jewish
man or a Jewish woman break theirheart and they take it all out on
the nation. It's like I thinkwith Kanye, I'm I think he is
(29:03):
angry and looking for a scapegoat,and in the entertainment world, unfortunately,
Jews seemed to be easily grabbed fourlow hanging fruit and I think he is
(29:26):
an anti Semitic asshole. That's whatit comes down to, and I used
to be friends with him. Iwas gonna say this, Yeah, I
knew that, and so we weresigned to. Didn't work with him too?
Did you work with him? Iworked with And I also like took
him out shopping so he could likedressed like me, because he was like,
you know, you dressed kind oflike guy, you dress a little
(29:48):
masculine. I dressed a little feminine. I feel like it would work,
and like, you know, Ilike took him to a bunch of stores
in LA and whatever else. Butyou know, I've known him and I
worked with him when his jaw waswired shut. Well Max, what bothers
me? And he knows you're Jewishand that's such a generous thing for you
to do, so like to takeit out. That's the thing. Like,
I don't think he like I don'tthink he hates individuals. I think
(30:17):
you know, I think right nowhe's just like mad his he's kind of
But you know, I was listeningto this piece of the daily, the
New York Times thing, and theywere talking about Adidas relationship with Kanye and
he was like doing fucked up shipway before drunk swastikas on sneakers and things
like that, I don't like thatand you know, doing inappropriate ship and
(30:38):
so I don't know what the fuckis wrong with this guy, but like
he certainly wasn't like he certainly knewI was Jewish. A track who was
his DJ for years very Jewish,you know, and like listen, like
(31:00):
I said, like I introduced myselffirst basically as Jewish, you know,
and so it's like it's not likeit's not like I was like not like
you don't know if you're hanging outwith me if I'm Jewish or not.
You know, like you're very veryproud and loud about it. Like I
mean, have you ever had tostop someone though, if they were saying
something inappropriate about Jews in front ofyou, even though you said it first,
(31:21):
Like yeah, oh you've been justdumb shit all the time. Like
you know, I can say thatbecause like we're bros. And it's like,
you know, you cannot say that. Ever, that's good that you
say that. People just say,yeah, I mean, I'm definitely not
one to like dance around it.I'll be like, shut the fuck up.
(31:44):
Everybody just needs to walk around withthe bag and shut the fuck ups
and just be like this one's foryou, and this one's for you,
and this one's for you at thispoint, and and for me too,
do you know what I mean?Like me too. I mean I'm navigating
its long kept like kind of beinglike I don't need to do this.
I don't need to talk about this. I don't. But by the way,
I just want to say, it'snot all about that too. But
of course it's because I think you, like you said, like you're proud
(32:07):
to be Jewish first, so it'sinfluential coming from a Jewish like creative artist
to say, hey, hear mythoughts about this, so that people can
get educated a little bit from atleast what you know, what I know,
you know what people should do iswhat do you think people to somebody
they don't agree with. That's good. Every conversation should have like a dissenting
(32:30):
opinion. Every Like I'm on acouple of these group chats where it's just
another echo chamber and it's just like, Noah, there's got to be you
got to have one at least onefrom the other team. Yeah, if
I have a real conversation and it'syou know, there's just like so many
people that are just like so lostand confused right now, and just like
(32:54):
you know people with big platforms whoare just like, I don't know how
I feel, So why do Ihave to say anything? Right? I
remember what with the Dixie Jakes whenthey said that they were embarrassed to me
from Texas and everyone was just likeshut up and sing And now and now
people are like, why isn't anyWhy aren't you speaking up? Why aren't
(33:15):
And it's just like you cannot win. There's no winning in this game.
And and I just feel like peoplejust people are so emotional and fired up,
and it's so devastating. You know, we've still got so many people
held hostage, children, women,elderly men. They're saying the men don't
(33:42):
count because they were soldiers or theywill be soldiers or whatever the fuck they're
saying. But like, where's Kafirthat little baby? Like right, we're
always asking us to bring hostages home. We're not asking tit for tat or
why you did this or why wedo this. It's like, just have
compassion. I'll get madisont Avenue theother day and there was a woman it's
(34:04):
like horrified, an older woman horrifiedby the signs being ripped down. And
I stopped when I was looking ather, and she was like drawing stars
of David on the thing, andand she looked like nervous. That I
saw her, I was like,no, no, no, thank you.
Every little bit counts, you know. But imagine if I ran around
Terry Jones signs of somebody's lost cat. Well, I was going to tell
(34:27):
you right there was there's a post. I was helping them put up the
signs of the kidnap posters. Theyripped it down an hour later they post
about a dog and the big posterabout the fucking lost dog. Listen.
I have compassion for cats and dogsand any animals and humans, but that's
staying up and not no. Iwas saying that behind every one of those
kidnapped posters there should be a mirror. When they tear down the mirror,
(34:51):
they have to look at themselves.That's a smart and that's very smart,
Like that's genius, Like how canyou this is you turned on the and
it's just it's just like who arewe as a culture that we're so divided?
And I just I don't think.I don't think humans is going to
(35:12):
be around for much longer because Iwas going to ask, right, I
mean, how do you think antiSemitism will last forever like it has or
do you think we'll see some change? Like do you think eventually? Yeah?
I think it's I think racism,all of it is just so deeply
ingrained. I think with education wecan at least admit it and unlearn it.
(35:37):
Mm hmm. But I ah,I'm hopeful, right, I mean,
if these ivory leagues get it together. And I don't mean joke,
man, I mean I would expect. Much of it is just so confusing,
like queers for Palestine, but thenmeanwhile they don't realize that, yes,
(36:00):
Palestinians that are innocent will accept queers, but not Hamas who governed it.
Meaning right, That's what I'm scaredfor, Like because a lot of
my best friends, you know,are lesbians, are gays, and like
I've advocated, and it's just imaginethey go in and they're under Hamas's rained
and they everything they've worked for toprogress is now taken away from them.
(36:20):
The same way the only place youcan be gay in the Middle East is
why doesn't anyone get that? I'mlike, I'm like, does anyone understand
this. Like I was literally watchingthese kids march and I was just like,
God, bless you because you believein this and you're you're doing it
and you're doing what you believe in. And I'm always a big fan of
that, you know, whether itbe an insane outfit or president you're trying
(36:46):
to get elected, whatever do youBut like what like it just it's just
like a non It just like doesn'tcompute to me, because like if I
went to Gaza with another woman andwe were holding hands, like we'd be
(37:10):
thrown off a fucking roof and right, and why should that and that should
not happen that you don't deserve that? Why because of sex, you know,
sexual preference that's accepted. That shouldjust be accepted. Love is love
for me, you know. Andthey don't want that, they want their
own rain. But meanwhile it wouldbe gay on the side. That's the
funniest part. It's like they makethese rules, but then everything's a secret.
(37:34):
It's like why can't we just haveeverything out in the open, Like
why does everything have to be underas certain control because we live in a
puritanical society. Oh that's the word. Yes, that's smart. Ah,
and I don't like that. Clearly, how we control people is with God
religion, but I don't know allof it is just so it's just so
mind blowing to me because it's justlike the society where women are treated as
(38:00):
possessions. Gay is just like alegal Like why aren't we all rooting for
Palestine to get out from under Hamas? Great? I agree with that.
That's one thing I'm trying to pushto as well, like why aren't we
just from Hamas? Right? Youknow, I have this this Orthodox friend
(38:23):
in La and when I first methim, I wasn't really I didn't really
I was pretty far from from anysort of practice, you know, because
it's hard because like growing up,it's like I don't know which God I
put to it. But like,you know, gay is bad, right,
(38:44):
So I was kind of like,okay, so God hates me because
I'm gay, Like ya, thatdoesn't feel good, you know. And
then you know, I'm sober.I'm a sober member of Alcoholics NOMS.
Congrats and thank you it's almost tenyears now, and and so you know
there's like the higher power of Godin that and that God loves you.
(39:05):
And I was like, so confusedbetween all these fucking gods. And this
is way before I was sober,but you know, uh, my friend
was just like, what do youdo for Passover or where do you celebrate
the holidays? And I was like, oh, I don't. My family's
in New York, in London,I don't and he so he would just
invite me to his house for thesethings, and he was he kind of
had all the strays and like youknow, random Jews. I would know
(39:30):
it would always pop up there.And every year he would just be like,
when on Yom Kapor, if IDJ'ed or whatever, I just feel
bad. He's like, just dobetter than you did last year, right,
And every year, like one yearI just didn't drink or and then
the next year I didn't smoke,and then the next year I didn't eat,
do you know what I mean?Like, but like every year I
(39:50):
just got like a little better.And I think that's just like to ask
people to change overnight is insane,and to really make any real change,
it's it's personal. We all needto just strive to be better people every
single day, and it's hard becauseyou have to you have to look at
(40:10):
your faults and you have to seelike, oh, I don't like I
don't, I don't. I don'tlike that part of me. But like,
it's okay as long as you're strivingto be better, it's okay to
admit that you're not perfect, becausewe're not. We're human and like I
said, we see things as weare, not as they are, and
(40:34):
all these life experiences that have broughtus to where we are today. And
you know, sometimes terrible experiences makeyou dislike a whole person, a whole
people because you were wronged by oneand that's maybe the only one that you've
ever had any interaction with. Right, No, like I got I got
(40:59):
attacked by a chicken when I wasa kid, and I still have a
still have a mark on my hand. And like, as far as I'm
concerned, chickens are assholes. Right, you're traumatized. Yeah, I have
not spent any more time with anychickens to know that there's one good chicken
except for eating them. Are youa vegetarian or do you eat? I
was gonna make a joke like exceptfor eating a good chicken. But you
(41:22):
know, I get that, Iget that though, I get that that
could be traumatizing though, and it'sjust like when I didn't grow up on
a farm, so like I haveno other interactions with chicken other than in
my soup and in my chicken fingersand everything else. But like, yeah,
it's just like absurd to think that. Like it's not like I'm like,
(41:45):
Okay, I'm going to really workon my relationships chickens, you know,
like it's something where you we're busydoing other things. Yeah, I
mean talking so and then not likeswitching gears a little bit because you so
I grew up in a modern OrthodoxJewish fmily too, But then I feel
like I was more like you whereI couldn't wrap my head around like I
(42:05):
was proud of being Jewish, butI couldn't wrap my head about religion,
like telling me what I can dowho I am, like if I wanted
to be for me, like it'snot about straight or by or like if
I want to be with someone,I want to be with them. And
I didn't understand like the pressure likeyou have to get married to a man
and have a kid. And Ijust didn't want to be about the rules,
you know what I mean, orabout the standards. Yeah, I
(42:28):
mean, how did you find yourindividuality? Like how did you? I
mean, my sister and I gotthrown out of Hebrew School for calling our
rabbi sexist because I like you stoodup at a young age, right,
well, because we went to likewe went to San Diego or the men
and the women sat separately and allthat jazz, and so we were just
(42:49):
like what but we also went tosingle sex schools where like girls could do
anything. Right, So we gofrom like our schools during the day to
Hebrew School after school. Were likeno, no, no, no,
this doesn't track. But what wasthe question? Sorry? Like when did
you when did you find your individuality? Like when were you like at that
(43:09):
point? Where were you Like,I know, I want to be a
DJ I know my sexuality. Iknow who I am regardless of what the
Jewish religion teaches or what my whatI was raised with. Did you know
at a certain point when like kabbalakind of became mainstream. I guess we're
(43:29):
just sentants of of Jitsuk glory.Lauria so my my mother's mother's maiden name
is Laurie. Oh wow, okay, and they came over from Russia,
I think Lithuania, and you know, her family care at the end of
(43:49):
the eighteen hundreds, and so weirddirect descendants of him of his So the
there was like a rabbi aton andall these like bill a rabbis that like
found my mom and so they wouldgo over to our house and just like
talk. And so I love thespirituality of it, the side of it
(44:09):
that was that's just like the philosophyand the beauty of that. And I
you know, mostly I love howJudaism brings people together, like you know,
the holidays, and it's really itreally feels like family to me.
And the humbleness I think of theholidays like reteaching that we can be slaves
(44:30):
again or we should feel privileged andgrateful. There's a purity of it,
you know, there's no I don'tfeel like there's no eat right Like,
there's no how do you say it? Like an interaction of you know,
tit for tat. It's just pure, you know, like an eye for
an eye, an eye for aneye. I can't speak English today.
I'm sorry. Well, I meanI haven't been able to find words since
(44:53):
the eighties. But I feel likeI feel like there's this other thing in
AA where it's you look for thesimilarities, not the differences. And so
I think I think if we alljust looked for the things that brought us
(45:13):
together instead of focus on the thingsthat separate us, we'd all be just
the world would definitely be a betterplace. And so you know, with
religion, I just look for thethings that lift me up, make me
feel better about myself, that makeme feel good in general, and I
leave the rest. Do you knowwhat I mean? Like, you want
(45:34):
to tell me that the dinosaurs andevolution happened in another earth and then God
destroyed that and then had Adam andEve. Like sure, I cant Spider
Man or Superman movie. I cando. It's just like suspension of disbelief
because the ultimately at the end ofthe day, like it's it's beautiful.
(46:05):
There's beautiful things, and there's thingsthat make me feel warm and loved and
safe, and then there's things aboutit that don't. And I'm just like,
you can keep that part. Youcan believe whatever you want to believe.
But I'm going to take this andI don't think. I don't think
any of this was written. Imean, I think along it was written
to control people. But you know, you just have to remember that the
(46:30):
Bible was written by man, right, not God, some guy I wrote
it, do you know what Imean? I forget that, right they
wrote it? And yeah, aslong as you have like a good mind,
whole thing is, as long asyou're a good person or try to
be the better person ever, likekarma or whatever it is that you believe
in that makes you like, youknow, think before you push an old
(46:52):
lady into a car like or Ithink before you rip down a post or
of any innocent person kidnap, youknow what I mean? Like, and
I just like watching the videos ofpeople tearing on the posters so righteously indignant,
and you're just like, what,like, right they they Israel does
(47:16):
that all the time. It's like, no, they don't. And by
the way, if they do,let's put up those posters too, right,
I don't be the first to helpyou, right, like showing you're
you're right about the showing right everyside of it all and then coming from
love and not hate. That's reallythe goal being human about all this.
That's what I think is frustrating allpeople with families like I just you know,
(47:44):
you see the interviews with the familiesand I'm just like, like,
I like shake thinking about like ifthe if that was happening to my family,
same I feel the same way.I'm like, what do I do
to help more so that that nevergot like if the other foot was around,
I can't imagine what I would door what would happen. And I
hope I never have to find andI hope nobody else ever has to find
(48:07):
that out. I hope this isit exactly. I mean, have there
been any celebrities that you've worked within your career that you were shocked by
or you kind of like are stillfrom this wholeting thing in general? Or
in general? There anyone in theindustry where you're like, you can't make
it because you're a Jew or noteven a Jew, just as an artist.
(48:29):
You know how hard it is tomake it in this industry, Like,
have there any be any coping mechanismswith that? Or you just don't
give a shit about what people think. I'm like, you probably had that
attitude, like I don't care.When I started DJing, there weren't a
lot of girls doing it right youstop, like, how did you do
that too? With all this?These boys are like fishes the boys Club.
(48:49):
I don't know. I didn't.I never tried to join it.
Ah. It wasn't like I waslike I just didn't. I just didn't
me you know. Yeah, Ithink it's just like naive. It was
just my brother was a DJ,so it didn't seem like something I couldn't
do. Right. I right,you did grow up with your brother Mark
Ronson right DJing soap and which isreally cool that like you had somebody to
(49:15):
have an example. Also watch yourback, you know, but your whole
family's creative. Your sister's also anamazing fashion designer, which I get.
I got to see you DJ toowhen she held her party with Corey.
Hey, that was a long timeago. But like when you DJ,
like I just can't explain it,there's a vibe in the room that like
moves through your body and that's whenyou know the DJ is amazing. It's
(49:36):
like creating that right, that feeling. I can't articulate it, but just
where you're like in another world andyou're escaped, and that's what's so cool
that you you love what you doand you do it well and you don't
care what others think. How youkind of like overcame what women want to
overcome in general in the indut Icare what people think you do. Definitely.
(49:57):
I'm definitely a people pleaser. Okay, me too. But what's is
there's a tip not to be becauseI'm like, does that help you or
does that hurt you? In Hollywoodthough, I mean as a DJ,
your job is to entertain people,so right, a good thing, but
just have to remember you can't pleaseall the people all the time. Like
(50:20):
somebody is always going to come overand be like, I don't like this
record, I need you to changethe record. Is it fun? Yeah?
Yeah, okay, all right,I gotta wrap this up. Yeah,
well we want to talk about whatwere you say the tips are for
success in general to be like asuccessful DJ. If someone wants to be
(50:43):
a successful DJ, I think,don't worry about what everybody else is doing.
I think play the music that youlove and what makes you happy,
because there's an audience for that,and when you're trying to hard to please
everyone, no one's going to behappy, you know. I find that
(51:05):
like when I play songs that Ilike, there's just a different energy in
the room. And if I'm playingsongs that I think other people might like.
It's just oh god, it nevergoes well. So just do you
just and and if you build it, they will come. I love that.
And one more, one more placeon the city. Audience wants to
know in New York City. Anythingyou can suggest for us to check out,
(51:29):
like a favorite food restaurant you love, or just a place to escape.
Two I mean tea and sympathy.The English restaurant in the West Village
is great and they do really Ilove that place. I go there all
the time, and where else I'mon the spot. That's that's enough.
(51:53):
That's a one. I know.You have to wrap it up some firing
questions. Do you anything are workingon that you want to share with us?
You start doing I'm going to startdoing a little cooking, a little
cooking thing on my on my Instagramsoon. I love that. I think
that's cool. I go to otherchefs so they can teach me. Is
(52:15):
there something that you love cooking themost, like something that you've been cooking
that you love to cook for peopleyourself or something sific. I just like
learning new things. I love thatlearning new things. I like that.
All right, well, this isamazing. This thank you, first of
all for this interview. This hasbeen such an honor, such an amazing
(52:35):
interview. I'm a big fan,as you know, of your music,
of your career, and you've beena good friend. You've been so kind.
I want people to learn from youthat you got to be kind and
not change who you are, nomatter how successful you are, no matter
who you are, you know whatI mean. That's disgusting. Otherwise,
Okay, hey, it's s Mattdo ronson. Listen to me on the
(52:55):
Chanelle and the City podcast on iHeartRadio. Before her quod xpend
Hey, everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Chanel in the City on
iHeartRadio. I am your host,Shanel A. Mauri. I have a
very special guest here today. She'snot only a dear friend, she is
super talented, super influential. She'sone. I think she's a legend,
one of the best DJs in thislifetime singer, songwriter, producer. Please
(00:25):
help me welcome the beautiful, thetalented, the amazing, and the funny
Samantha Ronson. Everybody, How areI'm good? That was That's quite a
that's quite an introduction. I feelI know, I feel like I'm your
Jewish mother. Hey, everybody,let me tell you, Let me tell
you. Let me tell you abouthow cook it? How cook it is?
(00:49):
Wait, did I miss anything?Because I feel like there's so much
more you've done cooking lately. Soyeah, yeah, let's talk let's talk
about that a little bit because cooking, and we're going to talk about you
being Jewish as well. And you'vedone a lot for the Jewish community,
You've done a lot for Israel.You've been posting, you've been supporting.
So first of all, thank youfor that, because we're going to get
(01:10):
into into how difficult of a timeit's been, and for influencers and celebrities
to really go out there and talkabout it as hard and you you know
you're making a difference. But besides, I think people are nervous because everything
gets misconstrued and everything's like clickbait andit's only interesting if it's getting someone canceled.
And it's just like, you know, Scooter Braun just posted something really
(01:33):
interesting today where he's talking about likeif you can't, like we should all
be able to give a shit aboutthe lives that are being destroyed on both
sides of this fucking line, right, you know, English, Yeah you
can cus. Okay, so you'vegot all these children, and you've got
(01:57):
not even just children. Everyone's likethe children, the children. Any life
lost is a tragedy. So youhave all these children being killed, and
you can hold space for both,you know. I think people have a
really hard time as seeing people asboth victims and victimizers, as oppressed and
(02:19):
oppressors. I think you can beboth. I think you can look at
Israel. Listen, I'm not speakingfor the Israeli government. The Israeli government
are a awful yahoo not a fan, right and By the way, a
lot of Israelis have that issue.It's not like right, like you said,
there were almost a civil war.There was almost a recently, you
(02:40):
know what I mean. I havecousins that live in Israel who are just
like, we hate Natanya who heis an animal. He's like basically like
Trump, but if possible worse right, I don't support the Israeli government.
I don't support a bazillion things.I'm also a New York Jew. I
don't fuck you know what the hellis going on. I'm not I'm not
(03:02):
a Middle East historian. Nobody knows. All of us who are learning this
information on TikTok and Instagram should shutthe fuck up. Like half the time,
I'm just like, shut the fuckup, Shut the fuck up,
Shut the fuck up, Shut thefuck up. You know they say God
gave us two ears in one mouth. Listen, how about we all just
(03:23):
listen? Because I don't know.All I know is that I don't right.
I know enough that I have compassion. I know that Hamas is a
terrorist group that is the governing forcein that region, right, right,
So we should all be trying tofree Palestine from Hamas. Everybody I don't
(03:46):
understand how anybody is pro Hamas well, That's what I was gonna ask you,
like from your what do you thinkwhy do you feel that because there's
two words, right, it wasIsrael versus Hamas. We never said Israel
versus Palestine. Then I understand,and then we have a heart for the
innocent Palestinians. But I think becauseHamas is their government, I don't understand
(04:06):
when the world didn't like they weren'ton our side about it, you know
they were just that's where anti Semitismgrew further, because why do you think
there shouldn't Besides, right, thereshouldn't be sides. I agree with terrorists,
right, And then there's people alsoYou've got like accredited news organizations quoting
(04:31):
Hamas as if Hamas is sitting thereand being like, let's make sure we
get our facts straight. They area terrorist organization. Their only goal is
to eradicate Israel and Jews and theneverybody else, right, And it's so
hard for the world to I don'tunderstand why it's so hard for them to.
It's so hard for them to understandit because it's it's it's unfathomable,
(04:58):
right, the kind of the kindof just desensitized malice. Aggression isn't something
that we could ever possibly comprehend.So we're like, this can't be it.
They can't really mean it, theycan't really be doing this. They
don't really mean what they're saying.They're just saying that, and it's like
(05:20):
no, no, no, AsMiami lu said, when people show you
who they are, believe them thefirst time. And it's like these the
Hamas spokespeople are literally saying, wewant to kill all Jews, we want
to erase Israel, and then wewant to kill anybody who's not is is
(05:43):
who's not down with their goals,their religion, their their way of life.
And it's just so confusing because I'mjust like, I know, I
don't I don't think people are idiots. I don't think people are mean.
I don't think people realize that alot of this is anti Semitism. And
it's just like, you can't youcannot, like deface a synagogue in America
(06:11):
and say that that's anti Israel becauseit's not. Because the difference is Jews
are a race and a religion,and that's I think a thing that people
don't really understand like I can standwith the people of Israel and not stand
with the government right I had alike I didn't want to post an Israeli
flag when everyone was posting an Israeliflag because I stand with yes. I
(06:35):
believe Israel has a right to exist. I believe everybody has a right to
exist. I believe in a twostate solution. I believe that there's room
for everybody. I do not believein the right wing government that is in
control right now, and I thinkthat there are a large part of why
we're here. Do you think ifwe had different leaders in Israel and now
(06:57):
Lison? We also know that Israel'slimited in a sense where I think they
get a lot of blame because You'reright, there are things times they are
not They're doing it their own wayand not everybody agrees with it. There's
other ways that we can hopefully saveinnocent civilians. They they claim that we
have to kill all of Hamas.Do you think Hamas the terrorist groups go
after us because of the leadership wehave in Israel? Like? Is that
(07:18):
what needs to change? I don'tknow enough about the government, and I'm
not even gonna meet me too.I don't either I just know that Hamas
isn't it's not like one guy.It's a belief, right, Yes,
so you like, it's like whacka mole, Right, you're not going
(07:41):
to eradicate it because it's it's it'sa belief system. It's it's you know,
you get one person, there's goingto be another because they're indoctrinated and
they fully believe it, and it'sI don't I don't think it has anything
to do with necessarily who's in powerright now. I just think the response
(08:01):
and the way Israel has been handlingthings with their government, it makes it
really hard for people outside to understandwhat the fuck is going on. Yeah,
it's very easy to sit there andbe like Palestinians are oppressed because they
(08:22):
are. It's not it comes right, it's not Israel's fut. I don't
think people realize it's Hamas. Ithink it's been I think I think everyone
is to blame. I don't thinkyou can say that Israel's hands are clean.
I don't think you can say anybody'shands are clean. But the world
(08:43):
that they're living in, the andthe fear that they're living in, and
I don't even know how to putit, but we can't fathom it.
So why are we weighing in right? Right? And I agree with you
on that, walling on doing thisbecause I was just like, I don't
know what the fuck I'm talking about. I know that I that seeing the
(09:07):
anti Semitism rise and knowing that likechildren have to pretend they're not Jewish,
and I have like best friends changingtheir name in like delivery apps or anything
that like ubers or things, justbecause like there's like crazy rumors that go
around that like oh they're this thatthe other, like that day of Rage
(09:30):
and the Day of Jahad and allthat. You know, it's just terrifying
because we don't understand what that worldis like. But when you've got kids
chanting to kill the Jews, that'sthat's not about that's not about Israel,
that's not about Palestine, and that'snot about land, right, That's what
I'm saying, And that's about that'sabout extreme radicalism of people that truly hate
(09:54):
Jewish people. And that's what I'vebeen trying to explain to everyone by you
know, bringing and also sticking together. Everyone always says, why did you
stick together? This is the reason, why do you one of the reasons,
why do you stick together? Right? Like, why the fuck do
we have to explain? And whydo we have to explain? Zero?
We're a point zero two percent ofthe population. There are what fourteen fifteen
(10:18):
million Jews worldwide? Most were inIsrael? Yes, but why am I
apologizing for sticking together? Right?That's the thing is, and that's what
I was gonna ask you, Like, do you did you ever feel anti
semitism throughout your career before this Octoberseventh happened? Have you felt because I
felt it semitism my whole life.I'm anti Semitic. I know that's not
(10:39):
it's not supposed to be funny.I'm a comedian. It's like everything's funny.
But I know what you mean becauselike, yeah, anybody tells you
they're not, they're fucking lying becauseit's so ingrained in all of us,
down to like in Tom Sawyer FaganLike not Tom Sawyer, fucking Oliver Twist.
It's right, it's been embedded inus, even as why the money
(11:03):
guys got the big nose and thething, and it's always there, you
know, And it's just like I'malways like feeling like I need to pay
for dinner for everyone, so nobody'slike, you know, right, she's
cheap or I totally get that becauseI do that too. The cheap people
I know aren't Jewish, the cheapestrichest people everyone. By the way,
the one percent is like the Catholicnon jew wasps with all due respect that
(11:26):
literally will not pay for dinner andwill pay for exactly. It'll be like
a five hundred dinner. They'll belike, I ordered one martini and one
salad, and I'd be, really, you're going to do that in front
of a whole like I just Iwould. I'm broke. Yeah, that's
how we were raised. See whatpeople don't realize. Jews were raised to
pay for the whole bill, whetherthey have money or not. Now I
wish that narrative I could, butyeah, go on, because that's what
(11:50):
I'm saying. I've been. That'sinteresting that I just feel like it's just
like, you know, like we'vejust been. It's just been built into
us, you know, I mean, and we're you know, my grandfather
escaped Austria when Hitler invaded, youknow, like it's in our dna to
(12:15):
be afraid. You know, Igrew up in London and then New York
and the headmistress was the headmstress atmy school was fucking an ex nun,
do you know what I mean?Like you always had to like a school,
so I always felt like other,you know, I always feel the
need to like let people know aheadof time that I'm Jewish because like so
(12:37):
they don't make any nasty remark orwhatever. And it's not because I feel
like victimized or or you know anything. I just know that people make jokes,
and like I'm gonna make it first, right, Right, You're not
gonna let somebody else trash our people, right. They think jokes are jokes.
(13:01):
But there's a difference between Like inthe comedy space, I see how
some of the non Jews will makejokes at jews expense, and then you
see the Jewish comics making the Jewishjokes. They're very different. It's a
little bit more sensitive towards the Jewishpeople. You know, like if you're
not Jewish, you really can't bein a position making, you know,
that many jokes about the Jewish people, because that that is confusing, That
becomes anti Semitism, that becomes aspread the amount of things of Google lately
(13:24):
be like it's so and so Jewish, so and so Jewish, but I'm
like on social media looking at shitand it's just like I'm just like,
I was just really disappointed. I'mreally sad that the politics overtook the humanity
of the situation. And I understandthat what's happening in Gaza West Bank,
(13:48):
It's been happening for a very longtime, but like, where the fuck
were all you all? Then?Right? Right? And also I always
tell people if they really want togo see what's going on in Israel and
Gaza, they should go down andinstead. A lot of the times,
there's a lot of these Americans thatfeel close to Palestinians or the Muslims.
And by the way, Jewish peoplelove their Muslim brother we all love our
Muslim brothers and sisters. There's Muslims, Arabs everything in Israel. But I
(14:13):
don't know. The thing is,it's like it's not like I think they
just want I think it's before thisresearch I've done, I feel it feels
like they just want it all.It's almost like a selfish kid who just
wants to throw a tantrum and wantseverything, and you're like, no,
you can only have one candy andyour brother can have another candy, and
we're going to share, you know, because I think that might be difficult
(14:35):
to thin there. I'm sorry,yes, but that's the only analogy I
could think of. It's mo hormouth, it's worth I just think it's a
really, really fradial, delicate situationthat we know really nothing about. I
haven't been to Israel since I wasfifteen. You know, I have a
(14:56):
cousin. My cousin, her sonis in the army, and like her,
my cousin's two kids were called back, you know, October eighth,
Wow, and they're you know,in their late twenties. And my cousin,
the girl Sydney, she's actually beenlike said back she can go back
(15:16):
to school because she's a medical school. And my other cousin is there.
You know. He just got afew days leave to propose to his girlfriend.
Now it's fiance and by the way, nice to see some love and
all of this. But you know, he's back a soldier again. I
think they're they're both captains. He'snot, he's not on the front lines
(15:39):
or anything. But still it's justlike he's still he tells me. He's
like, I promise you what they'remaking us out to be is not what
we are. You know, there'scasualties, but we do our best.
And it's like, listen, Israel'snot making it easy killing their own hostages
with the white flag up. Youknow a lot of these kids, these
(16:00):
are kids, These are kids outthere who were just scared, have no
idea what's happening. Like they're justevery child and their children has to go
into the army. So you've gotthese kids and now all of a sudden,
like everyone's getting called up and they'reforced to fight in this like super
emotional, terrifying moment, and they'refucking children. At eighteen, I was
(16:26):
doing whippets on a bench and soso like, like what a life we
had? What a hard life?Right? We didn't think about being drafted
into an army or fighting for ourcountry or even now as Jews. I
feel like I'm sure you do too, Like we feel a little bit responsible
to talk about it, and that'sfearful in itself, and that gives me
(16:47):
anxiety to like be a spokesperson fora whole nation because I don't have all
the facts. I don't have allthe information, you know, and you
know, I could sit here andinstead of like scrolling recipes on TikTok,
I could like go take a lesson. But like from who and what's you
(17:07):
know? You've got these like thesecollege campuses getting all this funding dark money
that they're not admitting to whatever.And as long as you do this or
you do that, and you've gotthis, you know, we don't live
in a time where our news sourcesare fat checked right until later. So
(17:33):
like when when Hamas fired a rocketthat hit their own hospital, like everyone
like quick to put it up onsocial media's Israel attacking hospitals, but like
nobody put up like, oh mybad, that was Hamas, Right,
that's what I'm that's what I andI saw that, And that's what I'm
saying is like they don't realize theirown casualties are being done by Hamas as
(17:55):
a terrorist group. And by theway, it's not just Hamas, it's
Jahad, it's uh has Blad,They're all extreme terrorist groups that want to
kill off not only like you said, the Jews, but also Israel and
then after like Americans and Christian everythinggay, which is crazy to me because
the lgbt we progress so like theLGBTQ community has progressed so much, I
(18:15):
would it just I can't believe we'rein this time like that to me is
crazy, Like you know, you'relooking at things where these women who were
held hostage were raped again and againwhile they were being held hostage, and
where's where's the compassion for these people? Right? And I understand it's like
(18:40):
this twenty four hour news cycle whereeverything gets whatever, you know, from
one thing to like Barbie to likeyou know, every heads are fucking spinning.
But I just I just don't understandwhy there's no compassion at this same
time, Like I am mortified foreverybody who's dying. Same yeah, And
(19:07):
you have the right answer. Seethat's where we need to we need to
live in this space. What you'resaying is why don't we all have compassion
for everyone dying, whether whatever racethey are, whatever color, whatever culture.
But especially because Jewish people have beenhaving it hard. These are to
Muslim establishments and right causing damage topeople's homes. They're putting up stars of
(19:33):
David and swastikas and Jewish businesses they'renot as Raeli businesses. It's not the
Israeli consulate, right, some Jewishladies have, you know, it's just
like it's the ignorance that they don'twrite, they don't understand that Jewish someone
being Jewish is different than an IsraeliJew or Middle Eastern Jew or an Eshkanaze
(19:53):
Jew, you know what I mean. Or then they wonder why Jews feel
the need to have our own state, because where the fuck are we supposed
to go? And you know whenyou're feeling, you know, I was
in New York when it was thatday of Jihad, and and I was
(20:14):
terrifying, Like I was like Iwas like shopping like it was like first
day of COVID again because I waslike, oh, I'm never leaving my
house again. Right. I lovespaghettios, speikios. I fucking love spaghetios.
They are great. But that isI get where you're saying, Like
I've hit to that point where Ihad to order a bunch of fucking spaghettios
(20:37):
and like oat me all, Likewe shouldn't have to feel. But that's
what I'm saying, Like even thoughthat's amazing, it's like you should have
to feel that we should have tofeel that way, to be stuck and
Order twenty three four. It's andit's and it's just like and and I
just think it's really sad because like, I don't think it helps to cancel
people for for supporting. I don'tknow. I think there's so much of
(21:04):
like for your h there has tobe room for people to I remember talking
to Lena Wait once about this anothersituation like years ago, and she was
like, it's got to be counsel, not cancel. Oh. I like
that got to like help people likeKanye can go fuck himself. Yeah,
(21:29):
because I was to say, we'regonna get into that, because I was
gonna say I was, I agreewith you, like you have to counsel.
I even started getting angry and Iwould I would catch myself captioning and
on social I'm like, wait aminute, I can't come from an angry
place. I got to be thebetter person and try to educate to make
change. You're right, like tohelp these people understand. Wait a minute,
the Jews aren't so we're not badpeople. We're really not bad people.
(21:52):
We're actually great people and a greatnation. And we, by the
way, we're not all great.Yeah, you're right, not everybody.
I mean, yeah, I'm everybodyright, yeah, and and and that's
okay, like we shouldn't. Butbecause there's so I was thinking about it.
It's like there's so few of usthat any sort of interaction that most
(22:15):
people have with the Jew will standout because there's you know outside of like
New York or Miami, you know, and that's that could spread a lot
more anti Semitism. Like I wishwe just all came together and said,
okay, you know the Jews havewe love the Jews no matter what,
We're going to stand by them likethey stand by us. But every group
(22:37):
of people have flaws. Not noneof us are perfect. I just can't
imagine if you had entered any otherminority community into like the mad lived version
of what's happening right now. Oh, they wouldn't accept it, no way,
no one would tolerate it, noteven anyone for them. And it's
like, okay, so there's likethat's the other thing where like like the
(23:02):
Kanye kind of uh, Like thething that Kanye is saying is like that
like Jews are all powerful and theycontrol everything, and it's like, yo,
if we control the media, shitwould be so different oh honey,
if we could tell the media,I'd be like the next Barber streisand and
getting everything I wanted in acting work. But also like, look at,
(23:23):
look at look at what's happening onTwitter, on everything on the New York
Times, CNN, you name it, like we don't control shit, all
right, and and and that's thething. It's like, Okay, so
Jews are like filthy money handlers whatever, cheap money grabbers, right, but
(23:45):
we're also in control, right,Like which which is it? Right?
So it's whicheverone fits your line ofthinking or your insult at the time.
I don't know. It's just likeI'm and how do you feel about that?
Not only being a Jew, butalso being you're you've been successful.
You are successful in the music industry, but you also worked your ass off
(24:07):
for it. See, I don'tthink they realized Jews also, we really
work hard, and we do dothe I don't want to say the dirty
work. We just took the entertainmentjobs at the time because it was the
only thing we had when they saidJewish Jews were getting kicked out from the
Holocaust and like fleeting to other countriesat the time, nobody begas that nobody
else wanted right, no one elsewanted right considered it was considered like being
(24:27):
an entertainer. Being that was consideredlike being a whore, you know what
I mean, Like these were thejobs that we get right, and we
kind of made it. We triedto make it classy. Yeah, but
it's just I don't know. Iyou know, I grew up you know,
my grandfather was in school studying tobe a doctor when he had to
(24:52):
leave Vienna and start all over again. And you know, my mother grew
up one of five. Her motherdied when she was young, so she
taught like he was school to blindkids. Like you know, those are
very very straight upbringing, which shethen had with us, if we want,
under our allowance, in the summertime, we had to get a job
and you know, every year.But like, I'm not going to pretend
(25:12):
I didn't grow up privileged. Igrew up right. We did very And
yes, I've worked really hard andI've treated my career like a job.
You know, I show up ontime more early, and I do the
thing and whatever. But I don'tthink my religion has ever ever played a
(25:33):
part except when I did that UnitedHat Sala yes, which you were amazing.
That was amazing. What a greatevent for United Htsala, which by
the way, they raised not onlymoney for medical services for Jews and Israelis,
they also do it for Muslims andChristians. Like, we don't discriminate
as Jews with other people. That'swhy I'm hurt. I feel like others
have been discriminating. But like yousaid, maybe it's lack of education,
(25:56):
maybe it's lack of news facts.I just think that people, well,
there's just so few of us thatit's that people. You know, we
make judgments based on we see thingsas we are, not as right.
So everybody seeing things through their owneyes, their own personal point of view
(26:19):
that's built by their life experiences,and so to expect anybody to think alike
would be insane, But to expectlarge groups of people to think alike is
just unfathomable. And I just thinkthat we are in a time where emotions
are heightened and everything is click andthis and that, and I can talk
(26:44):
to anybody I want, and Ican type whatever I want, and I
fire this off and then I'm gonnago fucking turn on the microwave or this
and go watch TV show, andeverything is so comes to us so quickly
now that there's not it's not alot of gravity or that we hold things
with. So you fire off atweet, you don't think where that's going
(27:07):
to go, or who's going tohear that, or how they're going to
hear that. And that's just that'sjust where we are as a society.
And I think a lot of peopleif they really stopped to think about who
was hurting and how their words werebeing received, people would probably act differently.
(27:33):
But we live in we're like basicallylike Ready Player one, We're in
our own augmented reality. And youknow, after COVID, everyone's kind of
still as much as we're out andabout, we're still kind of living in
this fear of disease, of theunknown. And now we've got this and
(27:56):
everyone's just like, I've got tosay the right thing, by the way,
Yeah, nobody has to say anything, and you know, I'm getting
and it's annoying when people are like, why hasn't so and so spoken up?
It's like because of you, Ihaven't spoken up, because the people
like you, because it's fucking terrifying. I'm happier saying that because you're right.
(28:17):
It's it's almost like everyone's playing police, like who should be standing at
push And now I'm not saying noone should be listen, I'm not saying
that in a time like this,the Jews a lot of us should be
saying we have but you're right,nobody should be policing because it is fucking
terrifying. I don't need to knowwhat Taylor Swift thinks about this. I
don't. I don't. Maybe shecan come out with a song, but
like other than that about it,but or like support listen with Kanye West,
(28:41):
like what did you think about thatrap that he came out with the
song and he called us the Jews. I just think a Jewish girl broke
his heart. And this is whereit's all coming from. Either a Jewish
man or a Jewish woman break theirheart and they take it all out on
the nation. It's like I thinkwith Kanye, I'm I think he is
(29:03):
angry and looking for a scapegoat,and in the entertainment world, unfortunately,
Jews seemed to be easily grabbed fourlow hanging fruit and I think he is
(29:26):
an anti Semitic asshole. That's whatit comes down to, and I used
to be friends with him. Iwas gonna say this, Yeah, I
knew that, and so we weresigned to. Didn't work with him too?
Did you work with him? Iworked with And I also like took
him out shopping so he could likedressed like me, because he was like,
you know, you dressed kind oflike guy, you dress a little
(29:48):
masculine. I dressed a little feminine. I feel like it would work,
and like, you know, Ilike took him to a bunch of stores
in LA and whatever else. Butyou know, I've known him and I
worked with him when his jaw waswired shut. Well Max, what bothers
me? And he knows you're Jewishand that's such a generous thing for you
to do, so like to takeit out. That's the thing. Like,
I don't think he like I don'tthink he hates individuals. I think
(30:17):
you know, I think right nowhe's just like mad his he's kind of
But you know, I was listeningto this piece of the daily, the
New York Times thing, and theywere talking about Adidas relationship with Kanye and
he was like doing fucked up shipway before drunk swastikas on sneakers and things
like that, I don't like thatand you know, doing inappropriate ship and
(30:38):
so I don't know what the fuckis wrong with this guy, but like
he certainly wasn't like he certainly knewI was Jewish. A track who was
his DJ for years very Jewish,you know, and like listen, like
(31:00):
I said, like I introduced myselffirst basically as Jewish, you know,
and so it's like it's not likeit's not like I was like not like
you don't know if you're hanging outwith me if I'm Jewish or not.
You know, like you're very veryproud and loud about it. Like I
mean, have you ever had tostop someone though, if they were saying
something inappropriate about Jews in front ofyou, even though you said it first,
(31:21):
Like yeah, oh you've been justdumb shit all the time. Like
you know, I can say thatbecause like we're bros. And it's like,
you know, you cannot say that. Ever, that's good that you
say that. People just say,yeah, I mean, I'm definitely not
one to like dance around it.I'll be like, shut the fuck up.
(31:44):
Everybody just needs to walk around withthe bag and shut the fuck ups
and just be like this one's foryou, and this one's for you,
and this one's for you at thispoint, and and for me too,
do you know what I mean?Like me too. I mean I'm navigating
its long kept like kind of beinglike I don't need to do this.
I don't need to talk about this. I don't. But by the way,
I just want to say, it'snot all about that too. But
of course it's because I think you, like you said, like you're proud
(32:07):
to be Jewish first, so it'sinfluential coming from a Jewish like creative artist
to say, hey, hear mythoughts about this, so that people can
get educated a little bit from atleast what you know, what I know,
you know what people should do iswhat do you think people to somebody
they don't agree with. That's good. Every conversation should have like a dissenting
(32:30):
opinion. Every Like I'm on acouple of these group chats where it's just
another echo chamber and it's just like, Noah, there's got to be you
got to have one at least onefrom the other team. Yeah, if
I have a real conversation and it'syou know, there's just like so many
people that are just like so lostand confused right now, and just like
(32:54):
you know people with big platforms whoare just like, I don't know how
I feel, So why do Ihave to say anything? Right? I
remember what with the Dixie Jakes whenthey said that they were embarrassed to me
from Texas and everyone was just likeshut up and sing And now and now
people are like, why isn't anyWhy aren't you speaking up? Why aren't
(33:15):
And it's just like you cannot win. There's no winning in this game.
And and I just feel like peoplejust people are so emotional and fired up,
and it's so devastating. You know, we've still got so many people
held hostage, children, women,elderly men. They're saying the men don't
(33:42):
count because they were soldiers or theywill be soldiers or whatever the fuck they're
saying. But like, where's Kafirthat little baby? Like right, we're
always asking us to bring hostages home. We're not asking tit for tat or
why you did this or why wedo this. It's like, just have
compassion. I'll get madisont Avenue theother day and there was a woman it's
(34:04):
like horrified, an older woman horrifiedby the signs being ripped down. And
I stopped when I was looking ather, and she was like drawing stars
of David on the thing, andand she looked like nervous. That I
saw her, I was like,no, no, no, thank you.
Every little bit counts, you know. But imagine if I ran around
Terry Jones signs of somebody's lost cat. Well, I was going to tell
(34:27):
you right there was there's a post. I was helping them put up the
signs of the kidnap posters. Theyripped it down an hour later they post
about a dog and the big posterabout the fucking lost dog. Listen.
I have compassion for cats and dogsand any animals and humans, but that's
staying up and not no. Iwas saying that behind every one of those
kidnapped posters there should be a mirror. When they tear down the mirror,
(34:51):
they have to look at themselves.That's a smart and that's very smart,
Like that's genius, Like how canyou this is you turned on the and
it's just it's just like who arewe as a culture that we're so divided?
And I just I don't think.I don't think humans is going to
(35:12):
be around for much longer because Iwas going to ask, right, I
mean, how do you think antiSemitism will last forever like it has or
do you think we'll see some change? Like do you think eventually? Yeah?
I think it's I think racism,all of it is just so deeply
ingrained. I think with education wecan at least admit it and unlearn it.
(35:37):
Mm hmm. But I ah,I'm hopeful, right, I mean,
if these ivory leagues get it together. And I don't mean joke,
man, I mean I would expect. Much of it is just so confusing,
like queers for Palestine, but thenmeanwhile they don't realize that, yes,
(36:00):
Palestinians that are innocent will accept queers, but not Hamas who governed it.
Meaning right, That's what I'm scaredfor, Like because a lot of
my best friends, you know,are lesbians, are gays, and like
I've advocated, and it's just imaginethey go in and they're under Hamas's rained
and they everything they've worked for toprogress is now taken away from them.
(36:20):
The same way the only place youcan be gay in the Middle East is
why doesn't anyone get that? I'mlike, I'm like, does anyone understand
this. Like I was literally watchingthese kids march and I was just like,
God, bless you because you believein this and you're you're doing it
and you're doing what you believe in. And I'm always a big fan of
that, you know, whether itbe an insane outfit or president you're trying
(36:46):
to get elected, whatever do youBut like what like it just it's just
like a non It just like doesn'tcompute to me, because like if I
went to Gaza with another woman andwe were holding hands, like we'd be
(37:10):
thrown off a fucking roof and right, and why should that and that should
not happen that you don't deserve that? Why because of sex, you know,
sexual preference that's accepted. That shouldjust be accepted. Love is love
for me, you know. Andthey don't want that, they want their
own rain. But meanwhile it wouldbe gay on the side. That's the
funniest part. It's like they makethese rules, but then everything's a secret.
(37:34):
It's like why can't we just haveeverything out in the open, Like
why does everything have to be underas certain control because we live in a
puritanical society. Oh that's the word. Yes, that's smart. Ah,
and I don't like that. Clearly, how we control people is with God
religion, but I don't know allof it is just so it's just so
mind blowing to me because it's justlike the society where women are treated as
(38:00):
possessions. Gay is just like alegal Like why aren't we all rooting for
Palestine to get out from under Hamas? Great? I agree with that.
That's one thing I'm trying to pushto as well, like why aren't we
just from Hamas? Right? Youknow, I have this this Orthodox friend
(38:23):
in La and when I first methim, I wasn't really I didn't really
I was pretty far from from anysort of practice, you know, because
it's hard because like growing up,it's like I don't know which God I
put to it. But like,you know, gay is bad, right,
(38:44):
So I was kind of like,okay, so God hates me because
I'm gay, Like ya, thatdoesn't feel good, you know. And
then you know, I'm sober.I'm a sober member of Alcoholics NOMS.
Congrats and thank you it's almost tenyears now, and and so you know
there's like the higher power of Godin that and that God loves you.
(39:05):
And I was like, so confusedbetween all these fucking gods. And this
is way before I was sober,but you know, uh, my friend
was just like, what do youdo for Passover or where do you celebrate
the holidays? And I was like, oh, I don't. My family's
in New York, in London,I don't and he so he would just
invite me to his house for thesethings, and he was he kind of
had all the strays and like youknow, random Jews. I would know
(39:30):
it would always pop up there.And every year he would just be like,
when on Yom Kapor, if IDJ'ed or whatever, I just feel
bad. He's like, just dobetter than you did last year, right,
And every year, like one yearI just didn't drink or and then
the next year I didn't smoke,and then the next year I didn't eat,
do you know what I mean?Like, but like every year I
(39:50):
just got like a little better.And I think that's just like to ask
people to change overnight is insane,and to really make any real change,
it's it's personal. We all needto just strive to be better people every
single day, and it's hard becauseyou have to you have to look at
(40:10):
your faults and you have to seelike, oh, I don't like I
don't, I don't. I don'tlike that part of me. But like,
it's okay as long as you're strivingto be better, it's okay to
admit that you're not perfect, becausewe're not. We're human and like I
said, we see things as weare, not as they are, and
(40:34):
all these life experiences that have broughtus to where we are today. And
you know, sometimes terrible experiences makeyou dislike a whole person, a whole
people because you were wronged by oneand that's maybe the only one that you've
ever had any interaction with. Right, No, like I got I got
(40:59):
attacked by a chicken when I wasa kid, and I still have a
still have a mark on my hand. And like, as far as I'm
concerned, chickens are assholes. Right, you're traumatized. Yeah, I have
not spent any more time with anychickens to know that there's one good chicken
except for eating them. Are youa vegetarian or do you eat? I
was gonna make a joke like exceptfor eating a good chicken. But you
(41:22):
know, I get that, Iget that though, I get that that
could be traumatizing though, and it'sjust like when I didn't grow up on
a farm, so like I haveno other interactions with chicken other than in
my soup and in my chicken fingersand everything else. But like, yeah,
it's just like absurd to think that. Like it's not like I'm like,
(41:45):
Okay, I'm going to really workon my relationships chickens, you know,
like it's something where you we're busydoing other things. Yeah, I
mean talking so and then not likeswitching gears a little bit because you so
I grew up in a modern OrthodoxJewish fmily too, But then I feel
like I was more like you whereI couldn't wrap my head around like I
(42:05):
was proud of being Jewish, butI couldn't wrap my head about religion,
like telling me what I can dowho I am, like if I wanted
to be for me, like it'snot about straight or by or like if
I want to be with someone,I want to be with them. And
I didn't understand like the pressure likeyou have to get married to a man
and have a kid. And Ijust didn't want to be about the rules,
you know what I mean, orabout the standards. Yeah, I
(42:28):
mean, how did you find yourindividuality? Like how did you? I
mean, my sister and I gotthrown out of Hebrew School for calling our
rabbi sexist because I like you stoodup at a young age, right,
well, because we went to likewe went to San Diego or the men
and the women sat separately and allthat jazz, and so we were just
(42:49):
like what but we also went tosingle sex schools where like girls could do
anything. Right, So we gofrom like our schools during the day to
Hebrew School after school. Were likeno, no, no, no,
this doesn't track. But what wasthe question? Sorry? Like when did
you when did you find your individuality? Like when were you like at that
(43:09):
point? Where were you Like,I know, I want to be a
DJ I know my sexuality. Iknow who I am regardless of what the
Jewish religion teaches or what my whatI was raised with. Did you know
at a certain point when like kabbalakind of became mainstream. I guess we're
(43:29):
just sentants of of Jitsuk glory.Lauria so my my mother's mother's maiden name
is Laurie. Oh wow, okay, and they came over from Russia,
I think Lithuania, and you know, her family care at the end of
(43:49):
the eighteen hundreds, and so weirddirect descendants of him of his So the
there was like a rabbi aton andall these like bill a rabbis that like
found my mom and so they wouldgo over to our house and just like
talk. And so I love thespirituality of it, the side of it
(44:09):
that was that's just like the philosophyand the beauty of that. And I
you know, mostly I love howJudaism brings people together, like you know,
the holidays, and it's really itreally feels like family to me.
And the humbleness I think of theholidays like reteaching that we can be slaves
(44:30):
again or we should feel privileged andgrateful. There's a purity of it,
you know, there's no I don'tfeel like there's no eat right Like,
there's no how do you say it? Like an interaction of you know,
tit for tat. It's just pure, you know, like an eye for
an eye, an eye for aneye. I can't speak English today.
I'm sorry. Well, I meanI haven't been able to find words since
(44:53):
the eighties. But I feel likeI feel like there's this other thing in
AA where it's you look for thesimilarities, not the differences. And so
I think I think if we alljust looked for the things that brought us
(45:13):
together instead of focus on the thingsthat separate us, we'd all be just
the world would definitely be a betterplace. And so you know, with
religion, I just look for thethings that lift me up, make me
feel better about myself, that makeme feel good in general, and I
leave the rest. Do you knowwhat I mean? Like, you want
(45:34):
to tell me that the dinosaurs andevolution happened in another earth and then God
destroyed that and then had Adam andEve. Like sure, I cant Spider
Man or Superman movie. I cando. It's just like suspension of disbelief
because the ultimately at the end ofthe day, like it's it's beautiful.
(46:05):
There's beautiful things, and there's thingsthat make me feel warm and loved and
safe, and then there's things aboutit that don't. And I'm just like,
you can keep that part. Youcan believe whatever you want to believe.
But I'm going to take this andI don't think. I don't think
any of this was written. Imean, I think along it was written
to control people. But you know, you just have to remember that the
(46:30):
Bible was written by man, right, not God, some guy I wrote
it, do you know what Imean? I forget that, right they
wrote it? And yeah, aslong as you have like a good mind,
whole thing is, as long asyou're a good person or try to
be the better person ever, likekarma or whatever it is that you believe
in that makes you like, youknow, think before you push an old
(46:52):
lady into a car like or Ithink before you rip down a post or
of any innocent person kidnap, youknow what I mean? Like, and
I just like watching the videos ofpeople tearing on the posters so righteously indignant,
and you're just like, what,like, right they they Israel does
(47:16):
that all the time. It's like, no, they don't. And by
the way, if they do,let's put up those posters too, right,
I don't be the first to helpyou, right, like showing you're
you're right about the showing right everyside of it all and then coming from
love and not hate. That's reallythe goal being human about all this.
That's what I think is frustrating allpeople with families like I just you know,
(47:44):
you see the interviews with the familiesand I'm just like, like,
I like shake thinking about like ifthe if that was happening to my family,
same I feel the same way.I'm like, what do I do
to help more so that that nevergot like if the other foot was around,
I can't imagine what I would door what would happen. And I
hope I never have to find andI hope nobody else ever has to find
(48:07):
that out. I hope this isit exactly. I mean, have there
been any celebrities that you've worked within your career that you were shocked by
or you kind of like are stillfrom this wholeting thing in general? Or
in general? There anyone in theindustry where you're like, you can't make
it because you're a Jew or noteven a Jew, just as an artist.
(48:29):
You know how hard it is tomake it in this industry, Like,
have there any be any coping mechanismswith that? Or you just don't
give a shit about what people think. I'm like, you probably had that
attitude, like I don't care.When I started DJing, there weren't a
lot of girls doing it right youstop, like, how did you do
that too? With all this?These boys are like fishes the boys Club.
(48:49):
I don't know. I didn't.I never tried to join it.
Ah. It wasn't like I waslike I just didn't. I just didn't
me you know. Yeah, Ithink it's just like naive. It was
just my brother was a DJ,so it didn't seem like something I couldn't
do. Right. I right,you did grow up with your brother Mark
Ronson right DJing soap and which isreally cool that like you had somebody to
(49:15):
have an example. Also watch yourback, you know, but your whole
family's creative. Your sister's also anamazing fashion designer, which I get.
I got to see you DJ toowhen she held her party with Corey.
Hey, that was a long timeago. But like when you DJ,
like I just can't explain it,there's a vibe in the room that like
moves through your body and that's whenyou know the DJ is amazing. It's
(49:36):
like creating that right, that feeling. I can't articulate it, but just
where you're like in another world andyou're escaped, and that's what's so cool
that you you love what you doand you do it well and you don't
care what others think. How youkind of like overcame what women want to
overcome in general in the indut Icare what people think you do. Definitely.
(49:57):
I'm definitely a people pleaser. Okay, me too. But what's is
there's a tip not to be becauseI'm like, does that help you or
does that hurt you? In Hollywoodthough, I mean as a DJ,
your job is to entertain people,so right, a good thing, but
just have to remember you can't pleaseall the people all the time. Like
(50:20):
somebody is always going to come overand be like, I don't like this
record, I need you to changethe record. Is it fun? Yeah?
Yeah, okay, all right,I gotta wrap this up. Yeah,
well we want to talk about whatwere you say the tips are for
success in general to be like asuccessful DJ. If someone wants to be
(50:43):
a successful DJ, I think,don't worry about what everybody else is doing.
I think play the music that youlove and what makes you happy,
because there's an audience for that,and when you're trying to hard to please
everyone, no one's going to behappy, you know. I find that
(51:05):
like when I play songs that Ilike, there's just a different energy in
the room. And if I'm playingsongs that I think other people might like.
It's just oh god, it nevergoes well. So just do you
just and and if you build it, they will come. I love that.
And one more, one more placeon the city. Audience wants to
know in New York City. Anythingyou can suggest for us to check out,
(51:29):
like a favorite food restaurant you love, or just a place to escape.
Two I mean tea and sympathy.The English restaurant in the West Village
is great and they do really Ilove that place. I go there all
the time, and where else I'mon the spot. That's that's enough.
(51:53):
That's a one. I know.You have to wrap it up some firing
questions. Do you anything are workingon that you want to share with us?
You start doing I'm going to startdoing a little cooking, a little
cooking thing on my on my Instagramsoon. I love that. I think
that's cool. I go to otherchefs so they can teach me. Is
(52:15):
there something that you love cooking themost, like something that you've been cooking
that you love to cook for peopleyourself or something sific. I just like
learning new things. I love thatlearning new things. I like that.
All right, well, this isamazing. This thank you, first of
all for this interview. This hasbeen such an honor, such an amazing
(52:35):
interview. I'm a big fan,as you know, of your music,
of your career, and you've beena good friend. You've been so kind.
I want people to learn from youthat you got to be kind and
not change who you are, nomatter how successful you are, no matter
who you are, you know whatI mean. That's disgusting. Otherwise,
Okay, hey, it's s Mattdo ronson. Listen to me on the
(52:55):
Chanelle and the City podcast on iHeartRadio. Before her quod xpend
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.