Latest / Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler / Larry King Will Be at Both of Our Funerals with Natasha Lyonne
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Chelsea Handler. Welcome to Life Will Be the
- 0:03Speaker 1: Death of Me, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
- 0:06Speaker 1: back in Studio, Chelsea. Oh well, thank you, Brandon, thank
- 0:09Speaker 1: you for having me back in studio. You're very welcome.
- 0:11Speaker 1: It's just nice when I get to see you, because
- 0:12Speaker 1: if you're out on tour so much. I like the
- 0:14Speaker 1: story schedule. It's great. Like I did St. Louis on Friday,
- 0:17Speaker 1: which was so much fun, and then Saturday was Minneapolis
- 0:20Speaker 1: two nights a week. Like on the weekends, I could
- 0:22Speaker 1: get down with this kind of schedule. You're really into
- 0:24Speaker 1: the Midwest towns, lad I do, because they're so grateful.
- 0:27Speaker 1: They keep thanking you for coming. They just say thank
- 0:29Speaker 1: you so much for coming that you even did, like
- 0:31Speaker 1: you went through the art, you did some touristy stuff
- 0:33Speaker 1: while I was humid, though I had to come back
- 0:35Speaker 1: from that walk and change land wear. You can only
- 0:37Speaker 1: be outside. You got thirty minutes St. Louis, and I
- 0:39Speaker 1: know because that's where I'm from. It was, Oh that's right, Brandon.
- 0:42Speaker 1: You know what. I never even put two and two together.
- 0:44Speaker 1: That's how self absorbed I am. I forgot that you're
- 0:46Speaker 1: from St. Louis. I always think of you as a
- 0:48Speaker 1: North Dakodin self. Dad doesn't really matter. That's it called
- 0:54Speaker 1: a double whoopsie doodle. What does matter is this episode
- 0:58Speaker 1: with Natasha Leone. Yes, I was very excited, very sad
- 1:01Speaker 1: that I didn't get to go, but excited to hear it. Well.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Natasha and I did two shows in New York on
- 1:05Speaker 1: the same night, so enjoy. We'll be back after the break.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Before I get started and bring out my friend. This
- 1:13Speaker 1: is um a pretty serious chapter. It's called Marijuana keeps
- 1:17Speaker 1: families together. Some people are not built for drugs and alcohol.
- 1:25Speaker 1: I believe that I am. I believe that I am
- 1:29Speaker 1: built for the apocalypse. I reconnected with marijuana in my
- 1:33Speaker 1: late thirties. As I previously shared, I'm open to most
- 1:36Speaker 1: drugs as long as they don't leave you with a
- 1:38Speaker 1: hole in your arm or staring through a keyhole of
- 1:40Speaker 1: an apartment door looking out for drunes. At this stage
- 1:44Speaker 1: of my life, I find it prudent to avoid apartments altogether.
- 1:48Speaker 1: I love pot. When I first discovered it in high school,
- 1:51Speaker 1: or pretended I did because it made me look I
- 1:53Speaker 1: thought it made me look cool. But after a few
- 1:55Speaker 1: years of recreational abuse, it just ended up leaving me
- 1:58Speaker 1: paranoid and self conscious, and in one instance, getting up
- 2:02Speaker 1: to leave the theater when a movie ended, only to
- 2:05Speaker 1: realize I was on an airplane. Then one year, my
- 2:17Speaker 1: family and I were on our annual Christmas ski trip
- 2:20Speaker 1: to Whistler, Canada, and our chef made and that's relatable, right,
- 2:24Speaker 1: Our chef made us special adult cookies. Every night. My
- 2:30Speaker 1: brothers and sisters would line up in the kitchen on
- 2:32Speaker 1: our way to dinner, and I would doll out at
- 2:34Speaker 1: half a cookie to each of them, And if any
- 2:36Speaker 1: of my nieces and nephew stole any without me seeing,
- 2:39Speaker 1: it was none of my business. Our family thrived that year.
- 2:47Speaker 1: Our family doesn't really fight because we're all so exhausted
- 2:50Speaker 1: from our childhoods, but it definitely marked the new beginning
- 2:54Speaker 1: of a new era for the Handler family. The legalization
- 2:58Speaker 1: of marijuana and caliph orna raised standards at dispensaries. The
- 3:02Speaker 1: educative component that was lacking for so many years was
- 3:05Speaker 1: now available on all store bought weed. The labeling of strains,
- 3:09Speaker 1: along with the labying of th HC versus CBD ratios,
- 3:13Speaker 1: was all right there in black and white. With the
- 3:15Speaker 1: advent of a medicinal grade controlled micro dosing. There aren't
- 3:19Speaker 1: a lot of people I wouldn't recommend cannabis too. I've
- 3:21Speaker 1: turned straight arrow people into people I can actually spend
- 3:24Speaker 1: time with. I've gotten friends who have never done any drugs,
- 3:28Speaker 1: friends who have had terrible experiences with edibles, my Mormon
- 3:32Speaker 1: sister who's here tonight, People's parents, people's parents, Muslims, and
- 3:39Speaker 1: one nun to imbibe about the people I've introduced to
- 3:44Speaker 1: marijuana are now frequent users. I take a lot of
- 3:47Speaker 1: pride in that. I take a lot of pride in
- 3:51Speaker 1: being an enabler or a charm. I'd like to coin
- 3:53Speaker 1: a pharmacological intuitive, one who instinctually knows the exact to
- 4:00Speaker 1: write dosage for each consumer. After Trump was elected, I
- 4:06Speaker 1: came the closest I'd ever been too depressed. My anger
- 4:09Speaker 1: rose to the surface rather than simmering just beneath it.
- 4:12Speaker 1: I had something identifiable to be angry about, so instead
- 4:15Speaker 1: of masking it, I treated it. That's when the news
- 4:19Speaker 1: started to get fun. Kelly Anne Conway Stone is a
- 4:23Speaker 1: good time. It's right up there with Eddie Murphy, raw
- 4:28Speaker 1: Sam for Sarah's Suckaby Sanders. One day, Sarah Suckaby Sanders
- 4:33Speaker 1: came out for her breastpriefing with emerald green eyes shadow
- 4:36Speaker 1: shrouding one eye and zero eyeshadow on the other eye.
- 4:45Speaker 1: I was like, this is a whole new world. I'd
- 4:52Speaker 1: find myself laughing when Chris Matthews would interrupt his guests
- 4:55Speaker 1: while spitting all over them, and I started to see
- 4:58Speaker 1: the news for what it really was, a twenty four
- 5:00Speaker 1: hours spin cycle filled with conjecture and speculation about whatever
- 5:04Speaker 1: idiotic or racist comment Trump had tweeted that day. I
- 5:07Speaker 1: realized that I had allowed this administration to rob me
- 5:10Speaker 1: of one year of my life, and I wasn't going
- 5:12Speaker 1: to give them another. I needed a channel change. The
- 5:21Speaker 1: thing that non cannabis users failed to recognize is the
- 5:25Speaker 1: way cannabis bends your frame of mind. It allows access
- 5:29Speaker 1: to a recess part of your brain that I particularly
- 5:31Speaker 1: was deeply uh needing to engage. How to be less reactive,
- 5:36Speaker 1: how to stand down the edges. Those were things I
- 5:38Speaker 1: had been working on with my psychiatrist Dan. As a result,
- 5:43Speaker 1: things became slightly more poetic less final end of an empire.
- 5:48Speaker 1: My sleep got better, my moods got better, even my
- 5:51Speaker 1: dreams got better. I stopped watching the news on a loop,
- 5:53Speaker 1: and I even started waking up laughing some mornings pot
- 5:57Speaker 1: politics and Dan summed up tooth I was in eighteen
- 6:00Speaker 1: for me, the year I had to fall apart in
- 6:02Speaker 1: order to come back together. I was sitting in Dan's
- 6:10Speaker 1: office one Monday morning telling him how passionate I have
- 6:14Speaker 1: become about this new marijuana renaissance. My opinions have always
- 6:18Speaker 1: felt fully formed, I told Dan with Pott, it feels
- 6:21Speaker 1: like they are finally like unfurling. Every canvas is blank.
- 6:25Speaker 1: Everyone is so much less annoying, and everything is a
- 6:29Speaker 1: little more tolerable when I'm a little bit stoned, and
- 6:34Speaker 1: I said, I also don't feel compelled to talk as much,
- 6:36Speaker 1: and with my voice. That's a fucking bonus. In what
- 6:41Speaker 1: way is everyone's so annoying? It was always funny to
- 6:44Speaker 1: hear Dan repeat phrases I used, or use the word
- 6:47Speaker 1: annoying in a sentence. Annoying seemed like a word that
- 6:49Speaker 1: expires after adolescence, like conceded. I'd like that I was
- 6:53Speaker 1: finally rubbing off on Dan the thing I'm realizing Dan,
- 6:57Speaker 1: I told him, leaning on one elbum but missing the
- 7:00Speaker 1: arm of the chair and falling into my own lap.
- 7:04Speaker 1: Is that I'm the one that's annoying. I'm just now
- 7:09Speaker 1: finding out that this whole time, I've been the annoying one.
- 7:12Speaker 1: Dan stared straight at me, and it was hard to
- 7:14Speaker 1: discern his take on my new hobby. I went on,
- 7:17Speaker 1: I used to think that something was wrong with every
- 7:19Speaker 1: person in this world, and now I know I'm the
- 7:21Speaker 1: one with the problem. Everyone seems so much more interesting.
- 7:24Speaker 1: I explained to him. I don't think you should judge
- 7:27Speaker 1: yourself so harshly, Dan said. This is a phrase Dan
- 7:30Speaker 1: repeated to me frequently, and one I've never quite gotten
- 7:32Speaker 1: on board with. I do, I told him, I feel
- 7:35Speaker 1: like that's what's been missing this whole time, circling around
- 7:39Speaker 1: other people and in order to avoid myself, I deserve
- 7:42Speaker 1: to be on the receiving end of my own judgment.
- 7:44Speaker 1: It's my come uppance. And it's like this little porthole
- 7:48Speaker 1: into a whole new world has opened up. When I'm stoned,
- 7:51Speaker 1: I can find joy and shaving my legs. This was
- 7:54Speaker 1: what I realized. I was stoned. I had popped a
- 7:58Speaker 1: chocolate covered Kiva blueberry on my way out the door
- 8:01Speaker 1: that morning. I don't usually take them in the morning,
- 8:03Speaker 1: but I had therapy and thought, fuck it. That's my
- 8:07Speaker 1: favorite thing about edibles. Forgetting you've taken any and then
- 8:12Speaker 1: you feel this little psychological twinkle and suddenly things get
- 8:15Speaker 1: just a wee bit more dynamic. We'd lit up my
- 8:19Speaker 1: curiosity and things I hadn't been interested in for years.
- 8:23Speaker 1: That's what I was missing, getting lost in life a
- 8:25Speaker 1: little bit more. Dan told me that if I could
- 8:28Speaker 1: access that state of mind when I was high, it
- 8:30Speaker 1: was already part of my psyche, which meant that I
- 8:32Speaker 1: could access it without anything at all or through meditation.
- 8:35Speaker 1: I'm not there yet, I told him, I'm gonna stick
- 8:39Speaker 1: with the weed right now. I'd been trying to for
- 8:42Speaker 1: months to meditate, and it was going nowhere fast. I
- 8:46Speaker 1: could only do forced meditation when I was with Dan.
- 8:49Speaker 1: He made me short recordings and meditations and long recordings
- 8:52Speaker 1: and meditations, and I tried to do it for a
- 8:54Speaker 1: few days at home, and then I'd forget, or I'd
- 8:57Speaker 1: remember and then forget. Not only is it easier for
- 9:01Speaker 1: me to be around other people, I told him, it's
- 9:03Speaker 1: definitely easier for people to be around me. I'm able
- 9:06Speaker 1: to have conversations with people. I never had the patience
- 9:08Speaker 1: to listen to before. I'm so much less judge. Everything
- 9:12Speaker 1: becomes a little bit softer, a little bit less apocalyptic.
- 9:15Speaker 1: No black and white, more middle, more pleasant. Well that's great,
- 9:20Speaker 1: he said, I don't have a problem with you taking edibles.
- 9:23Speaker 1: And I said, the other good news is it's cutting
- 9:24Speaker 1: my drinking in half. This was a sentence I thought
- 9:28Speaker 1: would never come out of my mouth. So I want
- 9:32Speaker 1: to be very very clear this. I have no intention
- 9:35Speaker 1: now or in any future of giving up alcohol. Thank
- 9:42Speaker 1: you for your support. Okay, this is not a book
- 9:47Speaker 1: where I get sober at the end. However, cutting my
- 9:53Speaker 1: drinking in a half was an unexpected perk, and that
- 9:57Speaker 1: is when I started to get serious about cannabis. I've
- 10:01Speaker 1: been approached by various weed companies to start my own
- 10:04Speaker 1: line of cannabis products, but I didn't want to jump
- 10:06Speaker 1: on the bandwagon until I had done due diligence and
- 10:08Speaker 1: fully investigated what was available on the market. This meant
- 10:11Speaker 1: that it had became my job to know everything about
- 10:15Speaker 1: every available oil, weed, candy, bath, salt, herb, and food
- 10:18Speaker 1: item that contained cannabis. I was sitting around my house
- 10:22Speaker 1: in Los Angeles one weekend with my brother's Glen and
- 10:24Speaker 1: my sister Shawna, who are in the audience tonight doling
- 10:32Speaker 1: out the new edibles that I wanted them to try. Chelsea,
- 10:36Speaker 1: Glenn asked me, dripping in sarcasm, would you consider yourself
- 10:39Speaker 1: a medical practitioner. No, I think of myself as more
- 10:43Speaker 1: of a pharmacological intuitive, I said, testing out the term
- 10:46Speaker 1: in everyday usage. I have a history of helping people, Glenn,
- 10:51Speaker 1: yourself included, So why don't you shut the funk up
- 10:53Speaker 1: and take this edible? Glenn and I both suffer from
- 10:57Speaker 1: psoriasis on our skin, but only one of us had
- 11:00Speaker 1: clear skin until I shared with Glenn the prescription that
- 11:02Speaker 1: had knocked it out of my system to ducksy cycling
- 11:05Speaker 1: twice a day, ten days, never on an empty stomach.
- 11:09Speaker 1: I gave the very same prescription to my hairstylist when
- 11:11Speaker 1: she had a terrible bout of acne, twice a day,
- 11:13Speaker 1: ten days, never on an empty stomach. Glenn no longer
- 11:16Speaker 1: has ariasis, and my hair stylist no longer has acne.
- 11:20Speaker 1: And there are several African villagers who now have the
- 11:23Speaker 1: cure to malaria. My sister Simona is required to give
- 11:28Speaker 1: formal presentations at work, which makes her nervous. Her anxiety
- 11:32Speaker 1: causes dry mouth, so I gave her a bottle of propanalol,
- 11:34Speaker 1: which is a beta blocker that cuts off the signal
- 11:36Speaker 1: from your neurotransmitters that tells your brain it's anxious. Thank
- 11:42Speaker 1: god we have a doctor in the family. Simone set
- 11:44Speaker 1: after a second promotion. My area of expertise isn't only
- 11:51Speaker 1: limited to cannabis and pharmaceuticals. I have had a hundred
- 11:53Speaker 1: percent success rate helping many women friends who prior to
- 11:57Speaker 1: my intervention hadn't gone number two in years become regular.
- 12:03Speaker 1: Women in particular struggle with regularity, so it is important
- 12:06Speaker 1: to have bowel movement advocates out there. There are over
- 12:10Speaker 1: the counter calcium magnesium pills called mag O seven from
- 12:14Speaker 1: Aerobic Life, and if you start with four each night,
- 12:16Speaker 1: typically by day three, you will start to have regular
- 12:18Speaker 1: bowel movements. They do not pay me. This is a
- 12:22Speaker 1: public service announcement. At that point, once you start going regularly,
- 12:30Speaker 1: I usually advise patients to reduce their intake to three
- 12:32Speaker 1: pills in order to avoid morning diarrhea, breast inflammation before
- 12:37Speaker 1: your period. Rose hips once a day for a month.
- 12:40Speaker 1: My cousin Molly told me that one hangovers to etcetern
- 12:43Speaker 1: and the headache will be gone in less than ten minutes.
- 12:45Speaker 1: Caffeine is the antidote to headaches caused by alcohol, and
- 12:48Speaker 1: Excedrin contains caffeine. I would like them to pay me
- 12:51Speaker 1: to promote them, because that's something I would do. If
- 12:54Speaker 1: you've been drinking milk thistle helps if you take it
- 12:56Speaker 1: before you go to bed, but it's hard to remember
- 12:58Speaker 1: to take something when your ship face. All in all,
- 13:02Speaker 1: my point is I've had an incredible track record with
- 13:04Speaker 1: curing people, and the only mistakes I make are usually
- 13:06Speaker 1: with myself, Like the time I swallowed a yeast infection
- 13:10Speaker 1: pill that was supposed to be administered vaginally after speaking
- 13:22Speaker 1: with my doctor on the phone. I waited expectantly in
- 13:24Speaker 1: the forty eight hours that followed for a loaf of
- 13:26Speaker 1: bread to pop out of my mouth. I know if
- 13:39Speaker 1: people have the personality for zan X or if they
- 13:41Speaker 1: will do better on a lighter sleeping pill like Sonata
- 13:43Speaker 1: generic brand is a leplan. I also know that zan
- 13:47Speaker 1: X isn't a sleeping pill, but that's what I used
- 13:48Speaker 1: it for. Adderall is good for some people, but too
- 13:52Speaker 1: much for certain personality types. High energy people like me
- 13:55Speaker 1: do not need adderall, no matter how tired you are,
- 13:57Speaker 1: unless you want to wake up in the middle of
- 13:58Speaker 1: the night cracking your fucking goals. But if you do
- 14:03Speaker 1: like adderall, what's even better is Provigil or new Vigil.
- 14:07Speaker 1: That's what people in the government, in the military use
- 14:09Speaker 1: when they travel through different time zones. Provigil is the
- 14:11Speaker 1: best thing I've ever taken for jet lag or if
- 14:14Speaker 1: I really need to focus on something. But again, if
- 14:16Speaker 1: you have a knuckle cracking problem, which everyone in my
- 14:19Speaker 1: family has, just start with a half. There's nothing I
- 14:26Speaker 1: love more than hopping on an international flight, popping a
- 14:30Speaker 1: Xanex and sleeping for twelve hours straight. But I've become
- 14:32Speaker 1: so disgusted with the pharmaceutical industry in this country that
- 14:35Speaker 1: I have redirected that passion and dedication into the healthier
- 14:38Speaker 1: alternative cannabis. Chelsea Glenn said, putting his fork down. You
- 14:46Speaker 1: should be a late stage companion. That's something you could
- 14:49Speaker 1: do your fun, something activity based, so you can, you know,
- 14:58Speaker 1: be moving somewhere by the mountains or a pool. Older
- 15:04Speaker 1: men seem to be drawn to you. You'd get hired
- 15:06Speaker 1: all the time. Who's in the late stage? I asked him,
- 15:10Speaker 1: me or the companion. The companion, shann Has said, always
- 15:15Speaker 1: the companion. You have a lot in common with older people.
- 15:17Speaker 1: He's got a good idea. Then my brother said, this
- 15:21Speaker 1: can be the perfect foil for your identity crisis, Chelsea.
- 15:23Speaker 1: Since you can no longer date older guys, this is
- 15:25Speaker 1: the way you can still hang out with them all
- 15:27Speaker 1: the time. The reason I can't date older guys is
- 15:30Speaker 1: because now they're too fucking old and forty four. So
- 15:32Speaker 1: I got to lower the margin and get in my
- 15:34Speaker 1: own age group, which is tough. Glenn wiped his mouth
- 15:38Speaker 1: and took a sip of Mike's Hard Lemonade, which he
- 15:40Speaker 1: had brought to my house. Glenn and I are a
- 15:54Speaker 1: lot of like we find something we like and then
- 15:56Speaker 1: we abuse it for two months, and then we're onto
- 15:58Speaker 1: the next thing. Glenn was having a Mike's Hard Lemonade renaissance,
- 16:01Speaker 1: and although I was repulsed, I understood it, Chelsea. Glenn said,
- 16:07Speaker 1: and you're in your professional opinion. What procedure do you
- 16:11Speaker 1: think Donald Trump is getting to make his face look
- 16:13Speaker 1: like it does? What do you mean, I asked, I
- 16:19Speaker 1: don't think he's actually getting work done to look that bad.
- 16:22Speaker 1: I mean, what he should be doing is resurfacing the
- 16:24Speaker 1: texture of his skin, at the very least, getting the
- 16:26Speaker 1: fat sucked out from underneath his eyes, and maybe light
- 16:29Speaker 1: bo But he obviously can't even see clearly. If he
- 16:31Speaker 1: thinks that's what he's presenting, is even presentable. I mean,
- 16:35Speaker 1: obviously we're not going to get through to this guy.
- 16:37Speaker 1: His asses the size of my dog Berts, So I
- 16:41Speaker 1: think that should be on the first thing on his
- 16:43Speaker 1: to do list. You don't think he's doing stuff to
- 16:46Speaker 1: his mouth, Glenn asked, He was being serious, so I
- 16:57Speaker 1: looked up. Yeah, Like, what is there some sort of
- 17:05Speaker 1: surgical procedure or face treatment that makes your mouth look
- 17:09Speaker 1: more like an anis? I had to think about that
- 17:18Speaker 1: when my brother asked me that question. I don't know
- 17:21Speaker 1: anything about a procedure to make your mouth smaller or
- 17:29Speaker 1: face treatment that makes your mouth look more like an
- 17:31Speaker 1: anis or anus. Like, I'm not sure what the vernacular
- 17:34Speaker 1: is here. He may think it looks good, Chelsea, Glenn
- 17:39Speaker 1: reminded me, it's as if his mouth keeps getting tighter
- 17:42Speaker 1: and tighter and smaller and smaller. I liked the idea
- 17:46Speaker 1: of Donald Trump sewing his mouth closed, one surgical procedure
- 17:49Speaker 1: at a time. This country has had a rough year,
- 18:02Speaker 1: Glenn's side. Men have had a rough year, Shauna said,
- 18:05Speaker 1: and you fucking deserve it. It sounds like I said,
- 18:08Speaker 1: you only have yourselves to blame. It's a wrap on
- 18:10Speaker 1: old white men. Well, not all old white men, just
- 18:16Speaker 1: a bunch of them, Yeah, Shauna said, walking back to
- 18:19Speaker 1: the table with a frozen ham in her hands. She
- 18:23Speaker 1: wanted to know if I was saving the ham for
- 18:24Speaker 1: a special occasion. Occasion she was definitely stoned if she
- 18:27Speaker 1: wanted to cook a ham. So I redirected my attention
- 18:30Speaker 1: back to the only male in the room. Let me
- 18:32Speaker 1: tell you a little story about men, Glenn. Okay, every
- 18:35Speaker 1: week I go to the nail salon where I get
- 18:37Speaker 1: a massage on my forearms after my manicure, and that
- 18:41Speaker 1: is the closest I have ever in my life come
- 18:43Speaker 1: to understand what it feels like to get a hand shop.
- 18:49Speaker 1: I want a climax in that salon. I want to
- 18:51Speaker 1: let loose and just let them rubby and just let
- 18:54Speaker 1: it rip. I want that, but I don't do it
- 18:58Speaker 1: because I'm not a fucking pig. That's the difference between
- 19:08Speaker 1: men and women. We are more prone to controlling ourselves. Yes,
- 19:12Speaker 1: Glenna Green, most women are, but I would place you
- 19:14Speaker 1: in the category of people who have trouble controlling themselves.
- 19:17Speaker 1: It's a very good thing you weren't born with male
- 19:19Speaker 1: genitaliat I can guarantee that if I were, you would
- 19:23Speaker 1: still never find me jerking off into a fucking plant.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Who did that? He asked, I don't know. One of
- 19:31Speaker 1: these guys, Louis c. K or Harvey Weinstein, one of
- 19:33Speaker 1: them jerked off into a plant. I mean, seriously, when
- 19:36Speaker 1: does it come to that. I'm stone high, drunken stone,
- 19:43Speaker 1: Shanna said, with a frozen ham tucked into her armpit.
- 19:47Speaker 1: You're not drunk, I reassured her, and guided her upstairs
- 19:50Speaker 1: to my bathroom. I placed the frozen ham on the
- 19:52Speaker 1: floor of the infrared sonora and told Sean it would
- 19:55Speaker 1: be ready first thing in the morning. Is that thing
- 20:04Speaker 1: even on? She asked, yes, I told her, as I
- 20:06Speaker 1: guided her to my bed. How do you feel, I said,
- 20:09Speaker 1: as we climbed into bed, super warm and fuzzy, she
- 20:11Speaker 1: told me. I got out my medical journal journal and
- 20:14Speaker 1: I made a note of her condition. Are you hungry?
- 20:19Speaker 1: I asked her. I had been working tirelessly on isolating
- 20:22Speaker 1: the right strain of marijuana that doesn't give you the
- 20:25Speaker 1: munch sheets. I'm not hungry, she said. The ham just
- 20:32Speaker 1: reminded me of something Mom would have made us a Christmas.
- 20:35Speaker 1: I said, Oh, do you feel sad? I took out
- 20:37Speaker 1: my medical notebook again. No, just warm and fuzzy. We
- 20:43Speaker 1: lay in my bed, holding hands, looking out of the backyard,
- 20:46Speaker 1: lit by the lanterns hanging into my trees. I felt
- 20:48Speaker 1: grateful in that moment that I was lying next to
- 20:50Speaker 1: my sister, and for all the gifts that life had
- 20:52Speaker 1: given me, and for all the girls life had given me.
- 20:55Speaker 1: I just want everything to go on forever, I told Shannah,
- 20:58Speaker 1: and then I stuck my finger in her butt. When
- 21:11Speaker 1: are we gonna be too old to act like this?
- 21:14Speaker 1: She asked me, giggling. Will never be too old to
- 21:17Speaker 1: act like this? I told her. Then she yawned and said,
- 21:23Speaker 1: just because I get colon X doesn't mean you can
- 21:26Speaker 1: treat me like ship. And then she rolled over and
- 21:30Speaker 1: fell asleep. Thank you. M hm. Okay, we're gonna take
- 21:39Speaker 1: a quick break and we'll be right back. MH. I'm
- 21:43Speaker 1: very grateful to my friend. That's who I've known for
- 21:46Speaker 1: many years, and she's always been somebody that I've watched
- 21:51Speaker 1: because you could watch her for hours. And she just
- 21:55Speaker 1: had a very very successful run with her new show,
- 21:58Speaker 1: Russian Dal, which I know everybody knows about. So please
- 22:01Speaker 1: welcome Natasha Leone. I'm in business business attire. Thank you
- 22:11Speaker 1: for dressing so professionally. You know. The tables have tuned, Chelsea,
- 22:17Speaker 1: and so this is gonna be my big Larry King
- 22:21Speaker 1: come out party, is how I see it. And I
- 22:24Speaker 1: want to watch you individually peel each one of these oranges,
- 22:29Speaker 1: and we're gonna be here for seven hours. The book
- 22:32Speaker 1: is great. I've read the book. Thank you for reading
- 22:36Speaker 1: the book, and I've come prepared. I'm gonna put these
- 22:40Speaker 1: on even though I'm actually nearsighted, but I'm looking forward
- 22:44Speaker 1: to becoming far sighted because then you can do this move,
- 22:47Speaker 1: which I think always makes people seem smart and old,
- 22:51Speaker 1: and then they can kind of do this. But I
- 22:54Speaker 1: just want to remind you I can see perfectly at
- 22:56Speaker 1: this distance. It's up there. I would need it for
- 22:59Speaker 1: So I've prepared some flash cards and I've told you
- 23:03Speaker 1: about the Rotunda, which is a game we're gonna be
- 23:05Speaker 1: playing later. Okay, so Chelsea, I'm saying it right. Yeah, No,
- 23:10Speaker 1: it's it's Tracy. It's oh, it's what's tracy but spelled
- 23:15Speaker 1: with a Yes. That's interesting. Why an apostrophe at the end. Yeah,
- 23:21Speaker 1: I'm not surprised because I've heard a lot about your childhood.
- 23:24Speaker 1: This is it's a it's hard having a childhood, isn't it.
- 23:28Speaker 1: It's hard. It's hard. It's hard at spending your adulthood
- 23:31Speaker 1: getting over your childhood for sure. Now this is my
- 23:34Speaker 1: sort of big beef with therapy. This is not on
- 23:38Speaker 1: the flash cards. Um, but I'm like, Jesus, what do
- 23:43Speaker 1: you want for me? Like my entire life is going
- 23:45Speaker 1: to be unpacking this fucking yeah ten year event? What
- 23:52Speaker 1: a bummer? Why is this my problem? I didn't do it? Yeah?
- 23:57Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? I know what I mean.
- 23:59Speaker 1: Are talking about the ten years being your childhood? Oh
- 24:02Speaker 1: so well you had a short childhood. Yeah, so it's
- 24:07Speaker 1: even easier to get over I guess. I guess like that. Yeah,
- 24:10Speaker 1: by eleven, you know what I mean? The workforce and
- 24:15Speaker 1: Fax machines, that's where they have you know, Fax machines
- 24:18Speaker 1: and up very quick where you were on TV and stuff, yes,
- 24:23Speaker 1: but also running an office and office supply chain store,
- 24:27Speaker 1: which I it's you know, more common. People talk about, oh,
- 24:31Speaker 1: you're a child acting. Nobody talks about my time at
- 24:33Speaker 1: Staples as a kid. Yeah. No, I didn't know about Staples,
- 24:38Speaker 1: thank you. It's not as glamorous, but it was important
- 24:40Speaker 1: to me and that's where I first fell in love
- 24:43Speaker 1: with paper clips. I'm gonna remove this one in honor. Okay,
- 24:49Speaker 1: let me have a separate h Now, do you really
- 24:53Speaker 1: have two hundred and fifty grands set aside for a funeral?
- 24:59Speaker 1: And that's big money. I set two hundred and fifty
- 25:02Speaker 1: thousand dollars aside for my funeral a long time ago,
- 25:04Speaker 1: just because I wanted to have a great funeral and
- 25:06Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure it was done well, and
- 25:08Speaker 1: I wanted it to be a celebration. And I took
- 25:13Speaker 1: it seriously because so many people don't think about that,
- 25:15Speaker 1: and I thought if I could, if I died tragically,
- 25:17Speaker 1: which is a possibility, I want to be prepared and
- 25:20Speaker 1: I don't want to stress out my family, and I want,
- 25:23Speaker 1: you know, I want to invite all the people that
- 25:25Speaker 1: loved me and all the people who didn't. I want
- 25:27Speaker 1: everyone to go to this party. I want little people.
- 25:30Speaker 1: I want mushrooms. I want little people on mushrooms. I
- 25:34Speaker 1: just want a big blowout. But now that I've become
- 25:36Speaker 1: a little bit more awakened or I don't know that
- 25:40Speaker 1: word sounds still, I have a trouble without word a
- 25:42Speaker 1: little bit. Even though that's kind of how I feel.
- 25:45Speaker 1: I feel like that money should probably go to the
- 25:47Speaker 1: Double A CP or something instead of having another blowout party.
- 25:52Speaker 1: Just a thought or both, is that they have my
- 25:56Speaker 1: party at the Double A C P tie. I'm allowing
- 26:00Speaker 1: and uh, you know you opposed to dwelling some of
- 26:06Speaker 1: that cash my way? Maybe a joint funeral. We could
- 26:10Speaker 1: have a joint funeral. That would be fun. I mean
- 26:12Speaker 1: we'd have Yeah, I don't see why that okay, now,
- 26:15Speaker 1: so how does that work? We have to coordinate our deaths,
- 26:18Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking now, or with a kind gesture
- 26:22Speaker 1: therapeutically speaking, the empathetic gesture. Whoever dies first, the other
- 26:28Speaker 1: person waits and holds the funeral however long. Yeah, you know,
- 26:33Speaker 1: fifteen years or one minutes right right? That seems fair. Yeah, okay,
- 26:37Speaker 1: ideas ideas you know who else did? If I die?
- 26:40Speaker 1: First you plan my funeral? And then do you get
- 26:42Speaker 1: where's the money with your money? So what's the most
- 26:45Speaker 1: important here is the money? And I think we shouldn't
- 26:47Speaker 1: lose sight of that. You know who else did that?
- 26:50Speaker 1: The late great Nora Ephron did she Uh well, I
- 26:53Speaker 1: don't know how much she spent, how much money she
- 26:55Speaker 1: put aside, but she had a file going her whole
- 26:57Speaker 1: life and it was like, it's got a great name.
- 27:01Speaker 1: It's sort of like the Final something Yeah, final movie finale.
- 27:08Speaker 1: It was pretty better than that, right, the last movie,
- 27:12Speaker 1: which is actually maybe a Dennis Happer sort of a
- 27:15Speaker 1: terry Southern movie, but we won't get into that. Well,
- 27:18Speaker 1: this we've covered. It's a series of additional funeral questions.
- 27:23Speaker 1: DJ's destination funerals and so on. Do you have a
- 27:27Speaker 1: DJ you'd like to use at your wedding? I mean funeral?
- 27:31Speaker 1: I actually am planning a wedding funeral, so it's not
- 27:34Speaker 1: even uh, you know, a Freudian slips. So that's when
- 27:38Speaker 1: I'm getting married, is uh on my deathbed. It's going
- 27:41Speaker 1: to be very romantic and there will be a DJ. Yes, um,
- 27:48Speaker 1: it's important to know. Is there anyone you know besides
- 27:51Speaker 1: Donald Trump who I don't care to insult clearly that
- 27:55Speaker 1: you don't want a funeral your funeral? Yes, Like, if
- 28:00Speaker 1: you would like to name names of some other people
- 28:03Speaker 1: that are on your list, but you don't have to,
- 28:07Speaker 1: and I won't murder them, is I would not? I'm not.
- 28:11Speaker 1: I'm not actually like a soprano. I just talk tough,
- 28:15Speaker 1: and it's an important distinction. But if there's anybody that
- 28:18Speaker 1: you don't want your funeral, you know what I'm saying.
- 28:21Speaker 1: You just let me know and I'll make sure then
- 28:23Speaker 1: that it's your funeral. Okay, are aren't you pissed that
- 28:28Speaker 1: you weren't on the Sopranos. I'm at all times pissed
- 28:32Speaker 1: that I'm like, where's my mafia picture? Because I'm so
- 28:36Speaker 1: so ready. I don't know. I don't hate anybody that much.
- 28:39Speaker 1: I don't care about hating people as much as I
- 28:40Speaker 1: used to. So it's a I'm trying out a new
- 28:43Speaker 1: philosophy where even if someone doesn't like me, I like them. Yeah,
- 28:47Speaker 1: And that's a that's a fun game to play, that
- 28:49Speaker 1: is truly enlightened. It's like, oh, that's truly. Yeah. Yeah,
- 28:53Speaker 1: I'm trying it out and I like it. Do you
- 28:55Speaker 1: think you're gonna die young? Sort of left field? Hut,
- 29:00Speaker 1: it's just slipping it in. It's just the tip. We're okay,
- 29:08Speaker 1: you can't get pregnant from just the tip. We all
- 29:12Speaker 1: know that. Tell your kids. That's right, Yeah, that's correct, everybody.
- 29:17Speaker 1: Do you think so? No, you don't know you can
- 29:20Speaker 1: get pregnant from the tip? Yeah, well you really. You
- 29:23Speaker 1: were pregnant at sixteen. I was pregnant a couple of
- 29:25Speaker 1: times at sixteen, Yeah, more than once, more than once. Yeah,
- 29:29Speaker 1: same guy, different Yeah. I had a black boyfriend in
- 29:32Speaker 1: high school. His name was ty Sewan. He's actually my
- 29:35Speaker 1: new documentary that's coming out about white privilege, um my
- 29:39Speaker 1: own specifically. And I always thought, like I always thought
- 29:43Speaker 1: white privilege meant, you know, you were from like a family,
- 29:46Speaker 1: like you had trust funds, and you were from the
- 29:48Speaker 1: Rockefeller family and you went to Harvard like I identified
- 29:51Speaker 1: white privilege like that. And it wasn't until after the
- 29:55Speaker 1: election that I really just started to think about my
- 29:59Speaker 1: own privilege in a way that I hadn't noted, like,
- 30:01Speaker 1: hadn't understood before. And I was embarrassed because of all
- 30:04Speaker 1: the success I've had and how easily it came to me. Yeah,
- 30:07Speaker 1: I worked hard, and we all worked hard, but it
- 30:09Speaker 1: was I got rewarded for a lot of bad behavior,
- 30:11Speaker 1: and that wouldn't have happened to somebody who didn't look
- 30:13Speaker 1: like me. So so I went and revisited Tayshawn for
- 30:21Speaker 1: this documentary because we got arrested three or times while
- 30:25Speaker 1: we were together. For what. I didn't get arrested. He
- 30:28Speaker 1: got arrested for a dime bag of pot he got.
- 30:31Speaker 1: Every time he got caught. I was not every time
- 30:34Speaker 1: who knows how many other times, but three times I
- 30:36Speaker 1: was with him. Each time the police officer said, okay,
- 30:39Speaker 1: miss you get out of this neighborhood and go home,
- 30:41Speaker 1: and and then he was arrested. So he had a
- 30:44Speaker 1: full scholarship to u n l V University to play basketball,
- 30:47Speaker 1: and he was not able to go because of those
- 30:50Speaker 1: three infractions, which were stupid, but I mean, a white
- 30:54Speaker 1: person gets away with that. I got away with it,
- 30:56Speaker 1: and it then spent fourteen years incarcerated, and his whole
- 31:00Speaker 1: life was ruined. And so I saw him in the documentary.
- 31:03Speaker 1: I really like re visit his family and get his
- 31:06Speaker 1: story and hear about it, because I just walked out
- 31:08Speaker 1: of his world and was like, Okay, I'm done with
- 31:10Speaker 1: this phase in my life. I'm done. I'm done with
- 31:11Speaker 1: my black face. I'm gonna go back to my family,
- 31:13Speaker 1: you know. And I just left and I could. And
- 31:17Speaker 1: I never thought about that until the election. I didn't
- 31:20Speaker 1: think about a lot of things until the election. You know.
- 31:22Speaker 1: I thought, oh, we elected Barack Obama, Great racism is over.
- 31:27Speaker 1: And I thought we were gonna let Hillary Clinton. And
- 31:30Speaker 1: I thought, great feminism is That's a fight we don't
- 31:32Speaker 1: have to do much of anymore. So when those two
- 31:36Speaker 1: things backfired, I woke up and I started to look
- 31:41Speaker 1: around and all asked the questions. And it was embarrassed
- 31:44Speaker 1: that it took me this long to get here. But
- 31:45Speaker 1: I'm happy to be late to the party than to
- 31:48Speaker 1: never show up at all. And and I think that
- 31:56Speaker 1: we all have to wake up. The world's only getting
- 31:58Speaker 1: browner and gayer, so you better fucking hop on board
- 32:01Speaker 1: before you missed the bus. Indeed, mm hmm, yeah, I
- 32:15Speaker 1: think about that. I think about a lot, you know,
- 32:18Speaker 1: especially because um the prison show. I'm on. Uh, I'm
- 32:24Speaker 1: not making it about me. But you know it's early
- 32:31Speaker 1: on I think I would really identify. I was like,
- 32:34Speaker 1: oh yeah, I know how to be on this show
- 32:35Speaker 1: because I've like spent time and various holding cells and
- 32:40Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like you know, I mean,
- 32:42Speaker 1: did you got to rest a lot in your real life?
- 32:44Speaker 1: You know, more than once, less than the more times,
- 32:49Speaker 1: the ten less less um? Yeah, expunged um. So uh
- 32:56Speaker 1: that cut to the end of the story. Uh without details.
- 33:01Speaker 1: You know, I too spend a great deal of time,
- 33:05Speaker 1: you know, thinking. You know, it's it's like you know,
- 33:07Speaker 1: people say, and we went on this documentary, went to
- 33:09Speaker 1: the South and you know all the places where you
- 33:11Speaker 1: find races and um and which are everywhere in every city,
- 33:14Speaker 1: and you know, it ended up being in my own backyard.
- 33:16Speaker 1: L A is the most segregated city in the world.
- 33:18Speaker 1: I live in bel Air. Like, who am I? What
- 33:20Speaker 1: am I thinking that I'm diverse? I live in the
- 33:22Speaker 1: whitest place in the country. I mean, I don't know
- 33:25Speaker 1: if there's a whiter place, maybe Winter parlto something very
- 33:28Speaker 1: Jewish what bell Air? Oh well, I'm not hanging out
- 33:31Speaker 1: with the Jews. But yeah, it's very Jewish and very white.
- 33:35Speaker 1: But you know, you don't look around, you don't think
- 33:37Speaker 1: about that. When I was doing this documentary and people
- 33:39Speaker 1: were asking me about that, I was like, oh, yeah,
- 33:41Speaker 1: I went to Santa Monica from New Jersey where I
- 33:44Speaker 1: had one black kid in my school, and then I
- 33:46Speaker 1: moved to Santa Monica and then Brentwood, and then I
- 33:49Speaker 1: moved to bell Air. So you know, you think you
- 33:53Speaker 1: know what privileges, or you know what you're who you're
- 33:57Speaker 1: surrounding yourself with, or I'm not guilty of that. I
- 34:00Speaker 1: not guilty of that. We're all a little bit guilty
- 34:02Speaker 1: of not being better allies and advocates to people of color.
- 34:05Speaker 1: We're all a little bit we can all do better.
- 34:08Speaker 1: And so that's a big you know, that's a good
- 34:11Speaker 1: thing to know when you're moving forward in something in
- 34:13Speaker 1: your life and my work especially, that needs to be
- 34:17Speaker 1: you know, front and center because I'm there because I've
- 34:21Speaker 1: been spoiled and I realized, well, yeah, you know, uh
- 34:26Speaker 1: strong a great Chelsea Strong agree, um, but but genuinely
- 34:32Speaker 1: and and uh yeah, I hate it all. I hate um.
- 34:36Speaker 1: I hate tokenism. I hate the more subtle forms of
- 34:40Speaker 1: white supremacy that we see. I hate seeing it in
- 34:45Speaker 1: movies I I fucking hated that's a well done. Okay,
- 34:49Speaker 1: well this sounds like a good time to take a break.
- 34:55Speaker 1: What is the most interesting place that you have traveled to? Africa?
- 35:01Speaker 1: I mean, Africa really feels like you're on another planet.
- 35:03Speaker 1: You get there and you're like, holy shit. Iceland too,
- 35:09Speaker 1: I've been, Yeah, is what? Well? It feels very much
- 35:12Speaker 1: like another planet in a very Spaceland feels more like
- 35:15Speaker 1: Game of Thrones. They have shark on the menu and whale.
- 35:19Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't think so, buddy. Yeah, yeah, food
- 35:23Speaker 1: is bad in Iceland. Where in Africa? Have you been?
- 35:26Speaker 1: Been on Safari? Like three times? And I've been um
- 35:30Speaker 1: to Botswana, South Africa, I think both times. Yeah, I
- 35:36Speaker 1: went back to South Africa and then the last time.
- 35:38Speaker 1: I think that was one of those trips where you
- 35:40Speaker 1: just can't you can't believe what you're looking at. You're
- 35:43Speaker 1: just like, oh my god, and you just go on.
- 35:46Speaker 1: I mean, you could watch a lion for ten hours straight.
- 35:48Speaker 1: I'm not I love my dogs, but I'm not like
- 35:50Speaker 1: this animal activist, you know what I mean? Like, I
- 35:52Speaker 1: don't I'm not gonna hurt an animal, but like I'm
- 35:54Speaker 1: not going nuts about it. Would you define yourself as
- 35:56Speaker 1: a hunter? J k um So, I just got back.
- 36:06Speaker 1: I was in Nigeria, I was in Ghana. Fucking great. Really,
- 36:13Speaker 1: how was Ghana? What what went down there? So it's
- 36:17Speaker 1: so first of all, aesthetically speaking, Uh, the filmmaker's eye,
- 36:23Speaker 1: which is what I have, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, It's
- 36:26Speaker 1: is so fucking good looking because it's just like sort
- 36:31Speaker 1: of it's very like sixties sort of low buildings. It
- 36:35Speaker 1: almost has a kind of a Cuba vibe. It's very
- 36:38Speaker 1: very gorgeous. It's like a European city. Uh. And we
- 36:43Speaker 1: went to the quam A Museum, which is so good looking.
- 36:47Speaker 1: Uh and uh then in across we went to the
- 36:53Speaker 1: slave castles. And this is a very very heavy journey
- 36:58Speaker 1: to go down. Um and I really understand in ways
- 37:04Speaker 1: you're talking about, you know, the weight of the world
- 37:09Speaker 1: that we're actually living in. You know, they have this
- 37:12Speaker 1: museum there and you kind of see all these all
- 37:16Speaker 1: the heavyweights to there. It's Marcus Garvey and uh, you know,
- 37:19Speaker 1: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and and you see
- 37:23Speaker 1: the way in which America, the world at large, time
- 37:26Speaker 1: and time again just fucking shut it down and Uh,
- 37:31Speaker 1: it's harrowing. And to understand that, you know, it's almost
- 37:37Speaker 1: uh feels like there's the idea of the ongoing crime
- 37:40Speaker 1: that is our current prison system. UM is is very
- 37:45Speaker 1: tough to take. Who did you take that trip with? Um?
- 37:47Speaker 1: I went with Uzoa Duba from Oranges and New Black
- 37:51Speaker 1: and UM, I know you were with Laura prepon last
- 37:55Speaker 1: night and then you said Taylor last week, I've been
- 37:57Speaker 1: having a renaissance Oranges the New Yeah, and uh as
- 38:02Speaker 1: if I constantly. But it's less of renaissance, it's more
- 38:04Speaker 1: of in existence. Let's say, Uh, you're also on the
- 38:07Speaker 1: show and um and so we went and you know,
- 38:12Speaker 1: and Usos Nigerian, so we went a Legos. So it's great.
- 38:15Speaker 1: There's so much great art happening. There's a thriving filmmaking
- 38:18Speaker 1: scene out there. And we also did some Global Citizens
- 38:21Speaker 1: stuff that she's involved in. And um, but yeah, like
- 38:25Speaker 1: but this Ghana and the slave castles and and coming
- 38:28Speaker 1: back to UH America, landing at JFK and going like,
- 38:32Speaker 1: you know, getting your this sort of Hamilton's bills out
- 38:36Speaker 1: of the fucking a t M machine, You're like, what
- 38:38Speaker 1: is this fucking scumbag? Um it's very uh, you know,
- 38:44Speaker 1: crystallizing and also just gorgeous, but then also like, oh,
- 38:48Speaker 1: that's right. That's why they called it the Ivory Coast
- 38:50Speaker 1: of the Gold Coast. It's it's very it's a heavy,
- 38:54Speaker 1: it's an important sounds like it. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
- 39:03Speaker 1: I think when you are open up to all these things,
- 39:05Speaker 1: you know, and part of like the last couple of years,
- 39:07Speaker 1: for me, it's like once you're awake to everything that's
- 39:10Speaker 1: going on around you, first of all, it's an opportunity
- 39:12Speaker 1: to be more grounded and to be more still and
- 39:14Speaker 1: to actually pay attention instead of filling up. For me,
- 39:16Speaker 1: my issue is filling everything up with noise. You know,
- 39:19Speaker 1: if anything is too serious, I'll make the joke. If
- 39:21Speaker 1: somebody stops talking, I'll start, you know. And that kind
- 39:24Speaker 1: of cycle, and that perpetual motion, which is kinetic motion,
- 39:28Speaker 1: which really never allows you to look around. There's too many,
- 39:31Speaker 1: you know, there's too many important trips and and moments
- 39:35Speaker 1: like that that you have to really not only just
- 39:37Speaker 1: be there for and be aware of in the moment,
- 39:39Speaker 1: but after the fact to reflect upon what you've learned
- 39:41Speaker 1: and to see what you can do as a human
- 39:43Speaker 1: being to make a contribution that's going to be valuable.
- 39:47Speaker 1: So I am all for taking those trips multiple times,
- 39:50Speaker 1: you know well. And I love that early in the
- 39:52Speaker 1: book you reference one of my favorite books of all time,
- 39:55Speaker 1: the only book I walked into the Russian Dale Writer's
- 39:58Speaker 1: Room with, which is Victor Frankel A Man's Search for Meaning. Um,
- 40:04Speaker 1: but I mean, what a great what a great book,
- 40:07Speaker 1: and what a great sice material for writing comedy. There
- 40:10Speaker 1: was there was There was a line in the book
- 40:12Speaker 1: that I referenced in my book and in Victor Frankel's
- 40:15Speaker 1: book called demand Search for Meeting that when I read it,
- 40:17Speaker 1: it made me like look up at the sky and think,
- 40:20Speaker 1: WHOA what the funk am I doing with my life?
- 40:22Speaker 1: And it was stop asking what you expect out of
- 40:25Speaker 1: life and start asking what life expects out of you.
- 40:29Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, I had to read that
- 40:34Speaker 1: to think it, you know, I was like, how lost
- 40:36Speaker 1: am I if I've never even thought about what anyone's
- 40:39Speaker 1: expecting out of me? I was thinking about what I'm
- 40:41Speaker 1: going to get, you know, like take take, which I
- 40:44Speaker 1: think is fair and normal and kind of like happens
- 40:47Speaker 1: for each of us in its right time, right like
- 40:49Speaker 1: the truth is is you know, there's even an underlying
- 40:52Speaker 1: sort of lucky stroke to having the opportunity to kind
- 40:56Speaker 1: of investigate itself. You know, I think that that's privileged
- 40:59Speaker 1: a psychio tes for years. But you know, when it
- 41:02Speaker 1: is um a hand to mouth in mouth existence, I
- 41:05Speaker 1: think it's harder to really take this time. But you know,
- 41:08Speaker 1: but but if for Victor Frankelfort, for context, of course,
- 41:11Speaker 1: he's a I think an Alshwitz survivor to the Holocaust,
- 41:15Speaker 1: and uh, he then sort of got out of there
- 41:19Speaker 1: alive and started had to rethink his life in terms
- 41:22Speaker 1: of what how do I sort of string a life
- 41:26Speaker 1: back together after what I just saw and want human
- 41:30Speaker 1: beings are capable of? And he came up with a
- 41:31Speaker 1: system called logo therapy that was this idea of trying
- 41:35Speaker 1: to sort of you know, that man is doomed to
- 41:38Speaker 1: a sort of existential morass of endless horror internally unless
- 41:43Speaker 1: they can kind of pinpoint this thing, um, which is
- 41:47Speaker 1: great and important. Now you cent your dogs, um Bert
- 41:51Speaker 1: and Bernice, Um oh my two big fat fox. Yeah,
- 41:58Speaker 1: I have a dog now that it's so fat it's
- 42:00Speaker 1: like if you could turn him chewy into a dog
- 42:02Speaker 1: that's what I would have turned him into. They so
- 42:05Speaker 1: his body has all these different pockets of meat, Like
- 42:08Speaker 1: just when you think there's no more fat left, there's
- 42:10Speaker 1: something under his thigh, you know. And he's one of
- 42:12Speaker 1: those dogs. I had to shave when I got him
- 42:14Speaker 1: because I had to see what I was dealing with.
- 42:15Speaker 1: I was like, let's get down to business with this body.
- 42:18Speaker 1: And I was very excited about what I found. Yeah,
- 42:21Speaker 1: that's what I felt when I met divine. Um, you
- 42:24Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I do. I don't
- 42:26Speaker 1: have a child, but I imagine that if I didn't,
- 42:29Speaker 1: there was a nanny. Uh, I would I would resent
- 42:33Speaker 1: the nanny and I would say, I'm your mother. I
- 42:39Speaker 1: I want you to because I think it's very important
- 42:41Speaker 1: for women, all women. Now that women are thinking about
- 42:44Speaker 1: having children instead of just having them, that's good. It's
- 42:48Speaker 1: good to say to people about why you don't want
- 42:51Speaker 1: to have because I'll tell you why. I'll tell you.
- 42:53Speaker 1: I'll give you a whole list. Yeah no, I me.
- 42:58Speaker 1: I actually think that children should be the great anomaly.
- 43:02Speaker 1: It should be this kind of like shocking round, like,
- 43:06Speaker 1: holy fuck, did you hear that Ben had a kid?
- 43:11Speaker 1: What the fuck this guy. Oh my god, yes, with
- 43:15Speaker 1: the Ben and Tina they made up good for them.
- 43:19Speaker 1: What a bunch of freaks like they, I mean, they
- 43:23Speaker 1: really must want to do this thing instead. I think
- 43:25Speaker 1: we have this bizarre epidemic happening where uh everybody's like
- 43:30Speaker 1: hell bent on Oh congratulations, you know you're over twenty five?
- 43:36Speaker 1: Where's uh so, where's this partner? Oh good, you found
- 43:39Speaker 1: this partner. Now when's the marriage? Oh good? Now you
- 43:42Speaker 1: got to where's the baby? It's like what when? And
- 43:45Speaker 1: then you see the statistics, It's like where's the divorce?
- 43:48Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And where's the children that
- 43:50Speaker 1: are like, you know, out there being like can somebody
- 43:54Speaker 1: look out for me? Because I'm a fucking person and
- 43:59Speaker 1: you have all the sort of unqualified I I just
- 44:02Speaker 1: think for the sake of the children, and nobody loves
- 44:06Speaker 1: children more th sake of the children, don't have them,
- 44:09Speaker 1: is what you're saying. I you know, I think that
- 44:12Speaker 1: some people should totally Like I have some friends and
- 44:15Speaker 1: I'm like, holy shit, your fucking destiny was to be
- 44:19Speaker 1: a mother. You should clearly be procreating, do you know
- 44:22Speaker 1: what I mean? Like it was so much a fabric
- 44:25Speaker 1: of their lifeblood, and then I see, you know, sometimes
- 44:29Speaker 1: other people who are just sort of like lost or
- 44:32Speaker 1: more relevant to the moment that we're in, which is
- 44:35Speaker 1: this nightmare of kind of uh you know, um men
- 44:39Speaker 1: dictating when or when not women should be allowed to
- 44:44Speaker 1: have their own sort of personal freedoms and existence in
- 44:48Speaker 1: this life, so that I find wildly problematic. Of course,
- 44:54Speaker 1: um you know, I think it should be a very
- 44:57Speaker 1: a choice with great intent and a series of like
- 45:01Speaker 1: accidents in an effort to be like maybe we should
- 45:04Speaker 1: break up or have a kid. Like I think that
- 45:06Speaker 1: that's fucking weird, and I think, uh, people do that
- 45:10Speaker 1: all the time, or people get pregnant. Like my girlfriend
- 45:13Speaker 1: was like, oh, she was forty, and she's like, I'm pregnant.
- 45:15Speaker 1: I guess I have to have it now. And I'm
- 45:17Speaker 1: like why and she's like, because I'm forty. How can
- 45:20Speaker 1: I get an abortion at forty? I'm like, it's better
- 45:22Speaker 1: than being a bad parent, So you forget one. What
- 45:24Speaker 1: do you mean, like, if you don't want the baby,
- 45:26Speaker 1: don't have a baby. If you don't want desperately to
- 45:29Speaker 1: have a baby. I mean that's a thing. It's like
- 45:32Speaker 1: I want them to have kids when they really fucking
- 45:34Speaker 1: want it, but like it's a big It's not a
- 45:36Speaker 1: pair of shoes, you know what I'm saying. It's not
- 45:38Speaker 1: like change my mind and I can't walk in them.
- 45:41Speaker 1: It's like, the funk are you doing? And Delia, I
- 45:45Speaker 1: remember one centime I was like, yeah, you know, I
- 45:46Speaker 1: got this boyfriend, I'm on the show and no no,
- 45:49Speaker 1: and I think I want to start a production coming.
- 45:51Speaker 1: I want to be a director. I think I'm gonna
- 45:52Speaker 1: like write stuff and and I was like, but fuck, Delia,
- 45:55Speaker 1: do you think I should like make embryos or what
- 45:56Speaker 1: should I do? Because like I got to figure that out,
- 45:59Speaker 1: and she was like whoa, you know, she was like,
- 46:02Speaker 1: not everybody has to do everything. You know, um that
- 46:06Speaker 1: there's this kind of hang up around for women that
- 46:09Speaker 1: there's almost like this additional burden of okay, I've got
- 46:13Speaker 1: x y Z kind of dream and also I'm gonna
- 46:16Speaker 1: take on this other full time job, which is to
- 46:19Speaker 1: do this thing. And just the idea of like I
- 46:22Speaker 1: don't know, maybe someday I will sort of decide to
- 46:24Speaker 1: have a kid in some variation adoptic. I don't know
- 46:27Speaker 1: what the future holds, but this idea that it was
- 46:30Speaker 1: this burden on my thirties of decision that had to
- 46:35Speaker 1: be made. When meantime, you know, I had a boyfriend
- 46:37Speaker 1: in his forties who was not stressing about it at all.
- 46:40Speaker 1: Felt like a very unfair albatross to be carrying around.
- 46:44Speaker 1: So I think in general, I just sort of let
- 46:47Speaker 1: go of it and sort of felt like, this is
- 46:49Speaker 1: something that will sort of be a mora, will be
- 46:51Speaker 1: revealed and it can kind of you know, let that
- 46:53Speaker 1: child find me, good luck find me. You can adopt
- 46:58Speaker 1: kids in different countries now saying there's a lot you
- 47:01Speaker 1: can be involved, like I like to do that. It's
- 47:03Speaker 1: better that I'm not present with the kid. It's better
- 47:05Speaker 1: that I'm just paying for things. You know, I know
- 47:08Speaker 1: what my strengths and weaknesses are. But you feel concretely
- 47:11Speaker 1: like you like, no babies for this baby. No, No,
- 47:15Speaker 1: I don't want I'm not interested in that at all.
- 47:17Speaker 1: It's never been interest to me. I come from a
- 47:19Speaker 1: big family, and I thought I was gonna have one kid.
- 47:21Speaker 1: I'd want six, just like I grew up with. And
- 47:24Speaker 1: um no, I just know it's not a good use
- 47:26Speaker 1: of my time. I'm better better without that. I have
- 47:30Speaker 1: come to grips with the fact that it's okay to
- 47:32Speaker 1: say I want to be in a relationship like that's
- 47:34Speaker 1: my mature, that's my thing. Like, oh, I worked so
- 47:37Speaker 1: hard for so long trying to be so independent and
- 47:41Speaker 1: so fierce and so tough. And I didn't know that
- 47:43Speaker 1: that was a direct had a direct correlation to my childhood,
- 47:46Speaker 1: to the fact that my brother died when I was
- 47:48Speaker 1: nine years old and looked me in the eye and said,
- 47:49Speaker 1: I'll be back, don't worry, I'll never leave you with
- 47:52Speaker 1: these people, and and died. So my feeling about relying
- 47:57Speaker 1: on another person from a very young age, I didn't
- 48:00Speaker 1: give it enough credit because I was nine. I didn't
- 48:03Speaker 1: know anything. It may seem obvious discussing it or looking
- 48:08Speaker 1: at someone else's story and going, obviously, that's why she's
- 48:10Speaker 1: pooked up, But it's when you're in it, you don't
- 48:12Speaker 1: know it. And I let it rip in a way
- 48:16Speaker 1: that I had never been able to do in my
- 48:18Speaker 1: entire life. I was never able to tell somebody that
- 48:20Speaker 1: I was in pain. I couldn't be in pain because
- 48:22Speaker 1: I was too strong to be in pain. And for
- 48:25Speaker 1: someone like me, you know, when you get you know,
- 48:27Speaker 1: you don't think you have a right to complain. You
- 48:30Speaker 1: have access to anything you need. You're successful. I have
- 48:33Speaker 1: a TV show in my name, I have books in
- 48:35Speaker 1: my name. I didn't think I had a right to
- 48:37Speaker 1: be in pain, and I didn't think I had a
- 48:39Speaker 1: right to complain. And what I learned by going and
- 48:44Speaker 1: and stopping my work and doing everything I can to
- 48:47Speaker 1: get myself into a healthy place that you are of
- 48:49Speaker 1: no use to anyone until you're fucking healthy. And that's
- 48:53Speaker 1: when you're like, oh, oh, I can be a good
- 48:56Speaker 1: friend now, I can look out for empathy. Now, I
- 49:00Speaker 1: can get my ship together now, and all the patterns
- 49:03Speaker 1: of behavior that are from that period and time period
- 49:06Speaker 1: of time in your life, you know, the scorching earth.
- 49:09Speaker 1: If somebody pisces me off, I'm like, they're out, They're out.
- 49:12Speaker 1: Like I had this pattern of ruining friendships or ending
- 49:16Speaker 1: friendships on a dime. And when I told Dan about that,
- 49:19Speaker 1: I said, you know, I don't know why I do this.
- 49:22Speaker 1: I can't forgive anybody. And he said, because this is
- 49:24Speaker 1: your blueprint of how a relationship ends. Your brother told
- 49:26Speaker 1: you he was coming back, and he left, So he
- 49:29Speaker 1: was alive one day and he was gone tomorrow. That's
- 49:31Speaker 1: what you think, that's how you think relationships end. And
- 49:36Speaker 1: I was like, holy sh it, that is what I'm doing.
- 49:39Speaker 1: That is what I'm doing. I'm just that's my blueprint.
- 49:42Speaker 1: That's how I think. So Dan was able to show
- 49:44Speaker 1: me a blueprint, like about patients, about going into an
- 49:48Speaker 1: airport and paying for things in a normal way, not
- 49:53Speaker 1: shoplifting and giving them the money under the table or whatever,
- 49:57Speaker 1: about making eye contact with every stranger that talk to
- 50:00Speaker 1: me or you know that I see, and not rushing
- 50:02Speaker 1: through life and and not taking a shortcut through your
- 50:05Speaker 1: grief because the only way through it is sucking through it,
- 50:08Speaker 1: and there's no hop scotching around it and there's no
- 50:11Speaker 1: way to get around it. So for me, it was
- 50:13Speaker 1: so so strengthening to have a man sit across from
- 50:17Speaker 1: me that I could cry in front of a and
- 50:20Speaker 1: you know, and then I got really good at crying.
- 50:21Speaker 1: I was like, I was just crying all the time,
- 50:24Speaker 1: and I was writing this book, and I was in
- 50:25Speaker 1: airports crying just in public, and people would come over
- 50:29Speaker 1: and be like, are you okay. I'm like my brother
- 50:31Speaker 1: and I'm writing a book. Fuck, leave me alone. Yes,
- 50:36Speaker 1: I'm gonna be okay. And because tharcist that came along
- 50:39Speaker 1: with it was just I had to share it because
- 50:43Speaker 1: I'm a different person and I feel and I was
- 50:46Speaker 1: my friends like, this is like an apology tour. I'm like, no, no,
- 50:50Speaker 1: but I feel like, you know, so vibrant in a
- 50:53Speaker 1: way that I had it for so long and taking
- 50:55Speaker 1: that a talk about an albatross around your neck, taking
- 50:58Speaker 1: something that you've had, didn't injury for that they've had
- 51:01Speaker 1: for so long, and being able to release it and
- 51:05Speaker 1: not be mad at my brother for dying. He goes,
- 51:07Speaker 1: You're mad. You're you were rejected because you felt rejected,
- 51:10Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, but he died. It wasn't an accident,
- 51:13Speaker 1: he goes, But not to your nine year old brain.
- 51:14Speaker 1: You're nine year old brain interprets that as somebody being
- 51:18Speaker 1: bored with you, or leaving you, or choosing another family
- 51:21Speaker 1: because they have a sister, a little sister that's cuter
- 51:24Speaker 1: or more fun to be around. So it was a
- 51:26Speaker 1: big lesson and it was a big um. You know.
- 51:29Speaker 1: It was a big moment for me to write. Since
- 51:31Speaker 1: I've made a career of oversharing so many things, I thought,
- 51:35Speaker 1: why not over share something positive and good? So uh
- 51:41Speaker 1: to circle back, so the baby component of it. At
- 51:45Speaker 1: the end of it, I was like, because everything comes
- 51:47Speaker 1: back to my brother Chet, you know, in therapy, whenever
- 51:49Speaker 1: we talk, I'd be like, like, this guy's shoes, I
- 51:51Speaker 1: can't date him the fucking shoes to And I said
- 51:54Speaker 1: about the baby. I go, am, I is this all?
- 51:57Speaker 1: What about the baby thing? And he's like, no, I
- 51:58Speaker 1: genuinely think you don't like children. So so once I
- 52:03Speaker 1: got his step of approval, I was like, all right,
- 52:05Speaker 1: I'm on my way out. That seemed like such a
- 52:08Speaker 1: relief to get. Like if I have to get pregnant
- 52:11Speaker 1: now too, I'm gonna be so bummed and pregnant. We
- 52:15Speaker 1: have to wrap up, but I'm gonna read a little thing.
- 52:17Speaker 1: These bracelets they're selling out front or I decide bracelets
- 52:20Speaker 1: and they sell T shirts too, because there's something I
- 52:22Speaker 1: want to read from the book, uh that this organization
- 52:28Speaker 1: one of these. A guy that read this book wrote
- 52:31Speaker 1: me and and said that this meant a lot to
- 52:34Speaker 1: him because he had somebody in his family that died,
- 52:36Speaker 1: And so we made these T shirts and his honor
- 52:40Speaker 1: and and all the proceeds go to l g B
- 52:42Speaker 1: t q I A and all the proceeds from the bracelets.
- 52:45Speaker 1: But I'm gonna get up to read this. Sorry if
- 52:48Speaker 1: I have camel toe. I didn't know then that my
- 52:58Speaker 1: brother's death was defining me. I didn't know that I
- 53:01Speaker 1: had the ability to say no to being defined by death.
- 53:04Speaker 1: Now I was with a person Dan, who could help
- 53:06Speaker 1: me process what happened and turn the parts of me
- 53:09Speaker 1: that acted like a nine year old into a self
- 53:11Speaker 1: actualized adult who had come to a better understanding of
- 53:15Speaker 1: what it means to dig deep and admit that you
- 53:17Speaker 1: are in pain, thereby beginning the process of relinquishing that pain.
- 53:21Speaker 1: I was in a place where my brother dying no
- 53:24Speaker 1: longer had to define my existence. It is part of
- 53:27Speaker 1: who I am, perhaps the biggest part, and it may
- 53:30Speaker 1: have helped steer me in a certain direction, but it
- 53:32Speaker 1: is not all of me. I defined me. No event
- 53:36Speaker 1: or person does this. I define me. I decide who
- 53:40Speaker 1: I am, and I decide how I'm going to behave,
- 53:43Speaker 1: and I choose to do better, to look more carefully,
- 53:47Speaker 1: to trudge deeper, to think about other people's pasts, and
- 53:51Speaker 1: not judge someone for doing or handling something differently than
- 53:54Speaker 1: I would. To understand my limitations and my shortcomings. That
- 53:59Speaker 1: is my growth. I decide to be better. We all
- 54:02Speaker 1: can be better. Thank you guys, Thank you New York
- 54:05Speaker 1: City for coming out, and thank you to Natasha Leon
- 54:09Speaker 1: for your very professional Did you enjoy that episode, Brandon,
- 54:16Speaker 1: You're not gonna like all the complience, but I like that.
- 54:18Speaker 1: The tour has been a mix of like social issues
- 54:21Speaker 1: and comedy. Yeah, and while listeners are listening, I mean,
- 54:25Speaker 1: you know, we're trying to have as little repetition as possible,
- 54:28Speaker 1: which is hard because we're covering the same topics, but
- 54:30Speaker 1: we're managing to do it. So thank you for bearing
- 54:33Speaker 1: with us on that front. If you hear like a
- 54:34Speaker 1: theme or topic more than once, you know, stuck on it.
- 54:39Speaker 1: Speaking of social issues, there are a couple of things
- 54:41Speaker 1: that you might want people to check in on, like
- 54:42Speaker 1: you're countable. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I have Accountable page,
- 54:45Speaker 1: which kind of puts up articles of things that are
- 54:47Speaker 1: happening and ways to kind of help or get involved
- 54:51Speaker 1: with causes that you care about. Um, and I've joined
- 54:55Speaker 1: I'm still partners with Emily's List, so I if you
- 54:58Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter, if you're looking for candid, it's
- 55:00Speaker 1: always promoting Emily's list. You should follow Emily's list too,
- 55:03Speaker 1: because they always are looking for progressive women to run
- 55:08Speaker 1: all across the country and they keep you a prize
- 55:11Speaker 1: of all the exciting women that come into the field
- 55:13Speaker 1: and people who run for the very first time. You
- 55:16Speaker 1: know to two people have rand before anyway, So Emily's
- 55:19Speaker 1: list is good. I have accountable page and and I'm
- 55:21Speaker 1: coming to Nashville, New Orleans, New Nashville Friday night and
- 55:24Speaker 1: New Orleans Saturday night and you can get your tickets
- 55:28Speaker 1: at live nation dot com. And then I'm coming to
- 55:29Speaker 1: Australian in October and New Zealand. I'm coming to Auckland,
- 55:33Speaker 1: New Zealand October nine, and I will be adding more dates.
- 55:37Speaker 1: Canadian dates are coming. I just I'm trying to get
- 55:39Speaker 1: my schedule. And uh yeah, thank you guys for listening.
- 55:44Speaker 1: And Brandon, thank you for being so um o god.
- 55:48Speaker 1: What is the word? Okay? Thank you. Tune in next
- 55:52Speaker 1: week when we find out the word to describe Brandon
- 55:55Speaker 1: life will be the Death of Me. As a production
- 55:57Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
- 55:59Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
- 56:02Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.