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SMNTY Classics: SMNTY Interviews Lizz Winstead · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I don't go to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: stuff on your toil re protection of I Heart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: So there's been a lot of news about abortion in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the United States lately, and we have been scrambling to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: cover it and to grapple with it ourselves on a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: personal level. Uh. And I know that for a lot
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of you listening that's scary UM. And I know for
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: people outside the United States, we've we've talked about um
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in Poland, for instance. It's scary. And we've been talking
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: about abortion for a long time on this show. And
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: so we were thinking about an episode we could rerun
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: for a classic, and we thought we could bring back
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: this one we did with Liz Winstead and it was
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: awesome powerhouse And if you're not following her, you should
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: be because right now, as we are getting a lot
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of news and a lot of things that are changing,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I will say, herself as well as her organization, which
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: you will hear about, have been doing a lot of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: work on the ground between protests and making sure you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: know about the organizations that we should support. Definitely follow,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Definitely follow, But in the meantime, please enjoy this classic episode. Hey,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: this is Annie and Samantha, I don't have to stuff
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I've never told to your production of I Heart Radio.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And today we are so thrilled. We are so so
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: so excited to be joined by a very special guest,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Liz Winstead. Hi, Liz, Hi, guys, we are so happy
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to have you here. This is such an exciting time.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I've already talked about the fact
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that I'm a fan girling a little bit. I'm a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: little bit nerve us and our listeners know when I
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: fan girl, I get really stuttery, So go ahead and
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: put that at the beginning of the episode, because, like
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm a fan. I've seen your shows, I've
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: seen your stand up. So I'm having a moment and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: now I'm back. Well, We're so glad you're with us,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and thank you for coming on, thank you for having me.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I'm super stoked. I love your pod and I just
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: any chance to honestly connect with other women. I'm just like, please,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I'm hungering for it, like like a thirst trap, just
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: for like female people. I love that we are too,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: So you're in the right place. So Liz, could you
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: tell the audience a little bit about yourself? Sure. So
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I am a comedian and a writer and a producer.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Most folks know me from being the creator and head
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: writer of the Daily Show, and we're in it's the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: twentie anniversary this year of the Daily Show, which is
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: wild to me. We have a baby and now it's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: twenty five. And then I went on to launch Air
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: America Radio and I had this wild ass radio show
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: with Rachel Maddow and Chuck d from Public Enemy for
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of years. And then I've done a series
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of TV shows and I wrote a book, and all
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of that sort of led me to turning fifty and
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: realizing that I wanted to do my passion project, which
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: was taking humor and taking dragging hypocrites for filth, using
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: humor and trying to make a difference and centering reproductive
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: health rights and justice because sadly, y'all, for those of
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you that care about these issues, we just even within
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: people who are claimed to be pro choice or are
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: forward thinking on politics, they often try to silo abortion
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and act like it's a woman's issue, act like it's
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: too controversial, we can't talk about it, or are men
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: gonna care? You know, And to have to thrust those
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: things or hear those things from people who are supposedly
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: on our side. It's like our humanities at stake and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: everyone should care. And so I really wanted to try
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to recenter the conversation around the humanity of access to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: reproductive care, to normalize reproductive care, to put it into
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: back into the place of like an option that somebody
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: might have when they are in their reproductive lifetime, you know,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: reframing it as a moral choice. So that's what I'm
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: doing now. And I'm still out of the road doing
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: stand up. I'm still writing, but I run a reproductive
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: rights nonprofit that I started with a whole bunch of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: comedians and activists and producers called Abortion Access Front. And yeah,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: like I said, I'm a huge fan. We actually had
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Channel Ali come onto the show as well. This was
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: pre COVID, remember that any when we were actually in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the studio, when y'all were in Atlanta performing at the Earl,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I ran over because I was at that show. It's like,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: shouldn't you're amazing? Can you come on our show? And
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: she was so kind and so amazing, and she came
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and did our show again pre COVID. It feels like
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: ten thousand years ago, and I know it's not, but
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: it feels like it in my head. Chanel Ali is
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: so funny. She's one of the writers that have worsened
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Access Front, one of our performers and um, in fact,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: she was just I just saw her. I don't know
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: if you've been watching Pause with Sam j Rather on HBO,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and she was just done that and that was really exciting.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Which it's a plug for that show. I think it's great, right,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: it wasn't Joel on that as well, because I remember
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the first time. Yes, yes, all y'all are so famous.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I just I just can't handle it. I'm like, how
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: do I meet? And I will say my whole beginning
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: of starting the podcast or being on the podcast, like
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to make all new friends. So I feel
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: like it's working. Isn't working? I think I feel like
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: you're doing great, you know, just don't do it in
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the way. I don't know if you guys read There
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: was a New York Times article recently that talked about
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: how to purge the people out of your life during COVID.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It wasn't helpful, like do a reassessment of people who
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: bring value and like, who was really helpful? What did
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you learn? It was like get rid of losers? And
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: like it literally said get rid of fat people. It
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: was so this It was so gross and so cruel.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It felt like scientology or something where it's like you
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: can't like move up the ladder around their own they're weak,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: get rid of them. The article was such a mess.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Twitter dragged it, which was great, but it just felt
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: like I understand, like I think we've all kind of
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: like been through this year of COVID and realized like
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: what am I now? What? What am I? What am
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I going to be? How am I going to be?
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I'm somebody who is I really realized I'm an introvert extrovert,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and that really came to be now that I'm trying
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to tap my toe back out into the world. You know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: It's like I walked the dog outside and people are like, oh,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that's a cute dog. I'm like, I didn't sign up
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: for this. I didn't sign up to have a conversation
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: with you. I feel the same way when I come
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: outside and I see people and now, well, I don't
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: know if you know about Atlanta and Georgia, and obviously
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: we have a very controversial government in place. I have
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: no idea how to else to say this. And then
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the fact that the mass mandates have not been really
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a big thing here in Georgia, so for the most part,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: any and I've just been secluded, like we have stayed
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: in except for maybe going out once every seven to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: ten days to get the groceries and leave again. But
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: as I'm going back into the world and people have
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: been out in the world, I'm like, why, what is
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: wrong with you? This is why I don't trust you today.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I don't trust that you're okay. So true, I know
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you guys been hit hard in Georgia, just with the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: anti maskers. I also love to it's the same anti
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: maskers that are screaming my body, my choice, and then
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the outside of a clinic where people can access abortion,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: screaming you can't have a choice. I'm like, do you
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: understand that you can't catch pregnancy from six ft away?
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Like right right? Your your lack of biology information makes
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: me just I can't. I saw a woman, this was unbelievable,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: holding a sign. She was very, very caringy, very adamant.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: She was holding a sign that said I will not
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: mask my unborn child, and I was like, um, lady,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: you're wearing pants in a womb. Yeah, they're literally in
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: case by your body, so they're like a pod. Just
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: so you know, Wow, I have a feeling that might
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: be from Georgia because the anti abortion protesters are out
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: in mass which just had one in Atlanta. I saw
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: people trying to figure out how best to combat this.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know how else to say. You know, it's right,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and you know, during the pandemic, especially like we're moving,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: access to any kind of care is terrible. You know,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: we just saw so much scariness. And to think about
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: somebody who's having to make the decision, you know, to
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: terminate a pregnancy during the pandemic and have to take
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: all those precautions and then have to go to a
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: clinic where there's unmasked people just screaming judgment at you.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: On top of everything else, it was it was really
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: heartbreaking to hear from clinics that, like, we were helping
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: throughout the pandemic. We started a big mutual aid program
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: because clinics were not allowed to apply for pp you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: they couldn't get any grants, that couldn't get any stuff
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: because right wing governments a lot of times wouldn't allow
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: them to get any of the stuff they needed. So
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: we were getting the masks and getting them stuff and
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and just trying to help any way we could, because
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it was a mess. It's just a mass.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Any way they can like pulld us down, they'll certainly try,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and taking advantage of a pandemic to do so. Just
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: see my next level of cruelty. So so gross. But
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to go back because you do
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: talk about the fact that you decided, as you we're
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a comedian a writer, that this is how you're going
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: to go down in fighting for justice. Let's start at
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the beginning. How did you even decide to be a
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: part of this comedic world, especially going big into co writing,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: co creating one of the now one of the bigger shows,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: especially when it comes to comedic conversations in such ugly
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: political climate. I don't even It's got a little better,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: but not too much better. Let's just be real honest,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: But how did you even get started? You know, I
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: got started on a dare when I was literally in college. Also,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I'm the youngest of five kids from a really loud
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Catholic family. And so if I had any thoughts or
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: positions that diverted from what I was told, those were
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the silenced. Also, ain't nobody get time for the youngest
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: of five kids to say anything? And so somebody dared
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: me to do stand up in college, and I was like,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I am kind of a class cynic. And also I
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: think that if I step on stage, that will give
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: me five minutes of uninterrupted time where I can have
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: something to say. And so I did. But the hilarious
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: part is, like I initially, when I was a kid,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I've always just wanted to be able to say some things,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and not necessarily even like profound things, just complete a
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: sentence where I wasn't man explained or interrupted. And so
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: when you look towards like where can that happen for me?
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: When you brought up Catholic priest was the first thing
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, that priest. He's up there every
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Sunday and everybody thinks what he has to say is
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: really interesting, and quite frankly, I'm bored at the time,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: but people love him, so it doesn't seem that hard
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to public speak. And so I just really did it
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: on a dare because I just really wanted to have
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: something to say, and then, you know, so I would
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: write jokes that I didn't start out political, really, I
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: kind of just started out talking about my life and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. But then it was interesting. I was
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: on stage and doing some same old material observational jokes,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you know, things like I really think, you know, male
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: grade Dane should have to wear underwear in public, which
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: is silly thing it ever noticed when ball guys play Monopoly,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: they always picked the hat. I mean really like not
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: that great and also just like very observational. But then
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: like if but they would get a laugh, you know,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I could, I could get solid laughs. And then all
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, I noticed that the audience wasn't responding
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to the same material that it worked a bunch. So
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I started recording myself and I listened back, and I
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: realized that I had done a word switch in my
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: jokes where instead of saying ever noticed, I started saying
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I think. And when I started saying I think, the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: audience was rejecting what I was saying, and it was
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: it was literally fascinating to me because then I was like,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: if I can't even make opinion jokes that have zero
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: weight and just say the word, I think I might
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: as well say some things I think, like if if
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: it was alts be different, I might as well start
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: talking about what I think. So I started talking about,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you know, issues of like body image and how people
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: were presented in in media and in magazines and and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: sort of across the word feminist issues. And then I
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: really decided that it was when the first golf War happened,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and it's a story. Do you want to hear it? Okay?
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: So I always had politics, but I just didn't bring
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: to stage. So when I moved to New York, somebody
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: set me up on a blind date. Remember those blind dates.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: It was a thing where your friend would know I
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: know a guy, and always it was like never a
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: good guy. It dead was never great. So but I'm
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: from Minnesota, so I was like, okay, I'll see yeah,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: because you're trying to do a nice thing, and I'll
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: do it. So the guy calls me and I was like,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I really want to see a dulce Vita, great Italian film.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: They were showing it on a single old, single screen
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: thing and I've never seen it. So I stayed with
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the guy, I really want to see Adolsia. Each other
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: showing it at the film Forum, and he was like pause,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and then he goes, isn't that in black and white?
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, kill me. Now, I've committed to go
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on a date with this guy, but I mean, I
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: got through it because I'm from Minnesota. So I meet
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: him outside the theater and the dude is wearing a
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Yankee hat and one of those satin Yankee jackets. And
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I have a theory that if a guy is wearing
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: more than one piece of sports memorabili at the same time,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: he won't go down on you, just a theory. So
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: immediately then I'm just repulsed. And so we go into
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the movie and then he's falling asleep through this like
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: incredible movie, and I'm like, how is this happening? How
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: is this happening? And I get more and more angry,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and so I'm more and more angry. And he's sleeping,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and I have a bucket of popcorn and a greasy
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: hand and I accidentally, on purpose, wake him up with
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: my greasy hand and I leave a stain on his
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: jacket and it felt good for a second, and then
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I felt terrible. So I instantly go, oh my god,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Can I take you for your drink?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I'll pay for your jacket? And he goes, okay, I
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: know sports bar. Of course he does. Down the street.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: The story is leaving someone. So we go to the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: sports bar and he's like, orders to drink. We look
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: up at the TV and there's no sports on TV.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: It is the first night of the war and it's
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: CNN and it's like graphics and a theme song in
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: all these super hot reporters on top of buildings with
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: that green light. And I thought to myself, with no
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: intention whatsoever, just observation, are they reporting on a war
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: or trying to sell me a war? And two minutes
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: later my date goes, this is so awesome, and I
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: was like, holy moly, this is terrifying me because this
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: is what they're trying to do. And if there was
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: ever such thing as like an epiphany or a wake
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: up call for me, was that moment. And from that
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: moment on, I just started writing jokes to you know,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to ask folks to don't believe the media. You know,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: look at your government. Look what they're trying to sell us.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: They think we're stupid. And it really took off from
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: that point. So I guess I have to thank the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: satin jacketed monster for propelling me into the world of this,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and so my act totally changed. I had to reinvent
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: myself my audience. Like it was like, I don't want
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: to hear politics from you, and then I like that,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: and so it was like this whole different reinvention. But
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: then eventually people knew me as the person who responded
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to the world that was doing political jokes and social humor,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and then that sort of led to me working on
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the John Stewart Talk Show. And then when that show
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: got canceled, are my bosses went over to Comedy Central
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and they wanted to create a show that was on
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: every day. So my brilliant said, why don't we call
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: it the Daily Show? And the rest is history. I
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: love that is amazing. Yeah, yeah, I wonder what that
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: guy's up to now. I wonder if he knows the story.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: My guess is that I hopefully he found some girl
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: who really really enjoys sports, getting him his little six
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: back while he sits on Sunday's watching his sports and
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I often wonder, like, why my friend set me up
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: with him? That's a good question. She knew this was
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: going to begin your career, your lifelong dedication. Yeah, yeah,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I remember saying, well, I think I think he's really funny,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and it's like, that is so subjective. You know, there's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: many people people are very funny that I do not
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: think are funny, and that is really humor, right. You know,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it's interesting because when I hear so much about cancel culture,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and by the way, I've ever noticed that every guy
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: who complains about cancel culture is doing it in front
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: of a microphone and it's a massive audience. Right. I
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: just don't believe that there's cancel culture. I believe that
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: there is a marketplace of ideas, and if your ideas
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: are no longer valued by the marketplace, they're going to
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: be like, nah, I don't think so. You know, I
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: run an abortion rights organization and I'm a comedian, Like
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I'm set up to be canceled, and I don't expect
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: everyone to like me and to such privilege to have
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: that right, to have this expectation that you are to
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: be interpreted exactly how you want to be and that
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you should be adored by everyone. It's like, are you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: mad that everyone doesn't like your jokes? Like, do you
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: think you deserve that? Like, I don't know what word
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: that is. Women have never experienced a world where everyone
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: likes you or everyone like literally people were mad that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I actually had an opinion on stage, or that I
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: actually thought that I was entitled to be on stage
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: right right, So the thought of that stuff it drives
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: me wild. It just drives me wild. It's like, why
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: are you complaining you have a big audience. They're Neanderthals
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: that you don't want to hang out with. I secretly
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: think that's why you're mad, because like some people just
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: are like no, I don't think so, and then people
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: listen to those people too bad? Right, I know there's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: two different comedians. Cat Williams as well as Seth Rogan
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: kind of finally addressed it was like, hey, this is
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: not cancela culture. It's just you're out of date or
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: you are out of place, so therefore just accepted to
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: move on and change or don't come back, which is
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: kind of all of comedy, which is in general, most
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: of comedy is based on ever is current events, So
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: why if that changes? Why wouldn't what is accepted and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: what is said change? Why are you so hell bent
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: in being right all the time, which we know, uh,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: you know, the biggest podcaster. He has been complaining quite
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: loudly a lot about being canceled and making millions and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars and having the highest rating. You're like,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that's not cancel culture. That's not I don't think you're
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: using that word correctly, as well as the fact we
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: have things like Kevin Spacey who has been gone for
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: three or four years but coming back, and you're like that,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: that is the level of cancel culture we have, and
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the people who are most likely impacted are women and
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: marginalized communities in general, because you have things like Karen's
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: who come in saying I'm angry because you didn't give
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: me this, and that would be a different level of like, wow, really,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: y'all want to talk about who is actually being penalized
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: in this conversation. But yeah, what you're talking about it
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: as you're talking about the fact that you have responded
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: like your comedy is a response to the world. Why
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: do you think comedy is so important and influencing the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: bigger conversation? I think that comedians can be the most
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: reliable narrators because if you're true everybody who either has
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: power and bumbles it or uses it for evil should
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: be your target, even if you like that person. You know.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: It's like I remember I would get like hate tweets
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: from when I would tweet about like Obama wanting to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: use drones or hiring like people who from the financial
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: industry who I thought were crooks. You know, Like I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: just looked for hypocrisy where I could pick it out
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and then make jokes around it. Right, And so if
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: people are mad at you for different reasons on both sides, um,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I think you're kind of doing your good job. So
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I think that's part of it. I also think too,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: that being able to live comedy, especially you know, if
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you're you know, hopefully you're always punching up, hopefully you're
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: really being somebody who is taking on, you know, the powerful.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: It gives folks an opportunity to gather and feel like
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: you're not alone. You know. When you look at the media,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the landscape, and you look at where information comes in,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: oftentimes it's really hard to find spaces where there's like strong,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: funny feminist voices out there, like speaking this other kind
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: of truth. Which is why I'm super excited that we
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: are launching YouTube show in the fall, Could Feminist Buzzkills Live,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Where it's gonna be this really fun show that kind
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of talks about everything that's going on around misogyny and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: patriarchy and and abortion access and reproductive rates access, and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: then having guests that come on and experts and comics
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and musicians. It's gonna be kind of like The View
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: if it didn't have Megan McCaine and it was a
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: little funny and so, you know, but things like that
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: you just don't see, you know, the landscape, just like
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: talk radio in and of itself. Like when they asked
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: me to launch Air America Radio, I didn't know much
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: about radio, but I really love like, I love this,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I love podcasting mediums, I love radio mediums. It just
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: feels so connective. Right, But when I found out that
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: four per cent of all talk radio was conservative leaning
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: or extreme conservative leaning and six percent was liberal or
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: just neutral, it was so astonishing to me. But then
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: it also explained a whole ton about like, you know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: think back, and this was in two thousand and three,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: you know, think about It's like when why you need infrastructure, right,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: there wasn't broadband there wasn't a whole lot of ways
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: for people to get information, and they had a M
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: radio and a lot of that was just like the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: bombastic rush. Limbaugh was the thing that carried through on
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: whatever you know, terrestrial radio you could you could get
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And so when we launched and we got to some
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a M stations in some of these areas, people would
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: call us crying saying, this is the first time I've
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: ever heard this information. I can't believe it. I'm I
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: feel free, like you know, I mean, you just forget
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: about like we're all queer people and all this stuff
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: who are just sort of living with their own selves
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: with no information. So and I think that using humor,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: it just funny, brings you together in a way that
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: other things can't. And also you can't fake joy and laughter, right,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: So if somebody makes you laugh, if you even ideologically
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: disagree with them, you for even if it was just
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: that second, liked that person because they brought you joy.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And so it brings a humanity back into the conversation
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: that I think is not present in so much of
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the way we live our lives now. Right, it's very
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: easy to deem and I polarized other and and really
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: just it's I don't know when it came that having
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: a different point of view made you an evil person
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: who does not deserve respect and humanity. Like that's a
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: just terrifying place that I often see in this landscape
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that we're living in. So yeah, I'm a long window.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I just like you asked a question that
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I know, this is what we love. We want the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: full explanation, give it yes, And that really resonates with
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: me because I did. I grew up in a small
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: town most smanthan I did, grew up in small conservative
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: towns and you did as well, correct me Minneapolis, so nod.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I grew up with really conservative parents who didn't know
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: what to do that I was exposed to the liberal garbage.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: My dad used to call it the people's Republic of Minnesota,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: like he couldn't take it. Definitely not we than what
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: my parents said. So my dad said some other step
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: too that wasn't great. Because my dad was from Philadelphia, Mississippi,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: which if you've never heard of Philadelphia, Mississippi, it's where
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the Mississippi Burning murders happened. So that's the town that
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: my dad grew up in and then my mom was
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: from the Twin Cities and they met in Washington, d C.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: During World War two, and so she dragged him to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: this socialist hellscape. And yeah, but the connecting with people
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: over humor, and I guess when the Daily Show was
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: getting started and really taking off, that was right around
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: like that goal for thing CNN and that twenty four
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: hour cable news was taking off. And for me personally,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I loved the Daily Show because the news was so
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: hard for me to consume often. But if I could
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: get it through a comedic form, even if sometimes it
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: was still really painful or like scary, it was just
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: so much easier for me to watch it. And I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: am someone who thinks it is important to stay informed,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: so I'm so happy that that was an option. And
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it did make me feel us alone because I did
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: grow up in a really conservative space, and sometimes I
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: would think, is there literally anyone else who agreed like
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: as having these thoughts of these feelings. Is it just
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: me that thinks that this is messed up? And it
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: was so comforting to have that and see you're not alone,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and other people are laughing at that, and you're laughing
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: at that, and you are connecting over it. And so
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: through your time as being at the forefront of political satire,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: have you seen has it changed? Have you seen it change?
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I've seen it change in the sense of what used
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: to be clear satire is now it's very hard to
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: satirize when you have movements that believe Hillary Clinton was
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: running a pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza parliament,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: for example, and you had literally right, and so how
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: do you satirize that? Like I literally wrote a joke
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: about the Georgia voting legislation where I was like, you know,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: part of the charge of voting laws is that you
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: can't just vote, you have to you have to walk
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: through checkpoint Charlie Daniels. And people were like, is that true?
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: And I was like, no, it's that, but I know,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: like I know that it seems like it could be right.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So part of it has been satirizing this is which
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: has been really hard. The other part that's been really
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: interesting is watching people who like late night shows, would
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: always do really banal kind of political jokes, if they
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: would do any at all, And when Trump happened, a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: lot of armchair folks jumped in and became Trumpian and
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: did Trump material and called the political satire right. I
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: used to be able to do like material around like
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: when Obama was creating Obamacare, Like there was a myriad
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of things around that, and I could tell the story
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: of the evolution of Obamacare, and I could talk about
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the haters who are like useless and all the death
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: panel stuff, and then I could talk about the rollout
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: of Obamacare and just laugh about all of the crazy
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: things that happened and really do like ten minutes on
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: explaining something that was an issue that you can hit
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: all the parts of it. And it's really hard now
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: because you have people kind of doing serfacing material that's
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: you know about his Trump wearing a diaper. I don't care,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: He's just drawing democracy, you know what I mean. And
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: so having fancy comedians doing hacky political material has been
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit hard when you're trying to do something
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to say smarter, but at least
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: that makes a point and gets people to think because
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: you're pointing out the hypocrisy and asking questions. So that's
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: been a big change around, you know, the landscape in general.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: The good news is because of women and queer folks
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: coming forward, and because of Twitter and because of social
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: media where agency was given to folks who never had
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: it before and having opinions real issues are being able
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: to talk about. I don't have to prove that sexual
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: harassment and sexual assault is happening anymore, you know, like
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: like I can like now just go in without explanation,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: because for years that was it. Oh you're exaggerating. Oh
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: that's not really true that you know. And so to
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: have a different kind of baseline at least has been
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: also kind of helpful in the landscape of like what's
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: been good and what's been bad about it? Having people
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: believe us for the first time ever is huge, and
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I really I feel like part of incorporate that into
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: my comedy. It's just massively important to honor though who
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: never got a shake and who got RT, you know,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: talking about cancel, who got canceled, people who came forward
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: when they were harassed and destroyed by simply asking to
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: not be harmed at work or on a date. Right,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: So when I hear about this crying of cancel culture,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, again, would you please stop? Because you
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: have been a pully forever and it's been rewarded, and
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: those who are victims of your bulliness are the ones
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: who actually we don't know where they are. You know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: anytime there's an actor you liked from the seventies or
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: eighties or nineties, you're like, what happened to them? I
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: love them? Probably they called out some garbage human and
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: we're never heard from again, which is very upsetting because
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: then you think of all the stuff we've lost, all
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: of this comedy we don't have, and it does become
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: like I have to check in with myself a lot
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: to not almost look at the larger picture of that,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: because what gets me up every j is the fact
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: that I am able to do that. And I'm sixty.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I turned sixty in August, and all of these avenues
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: have allowed me to be as relevant as I choose,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and I feel like that's really cool. And to be
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: able to have abortion access front and work in an
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: environment where I could be the parents of everyone, the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: grandparents of some, or as I say to them, I
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: kind of terminated all of you, so you know, I'd
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: like to keep them on their shoes. But so, you know,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: it's like to be able to elevate those voices and
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: to sort of bring my age and wisdom in sort
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: of like this Auntie role. And it's been really cool
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and it's really nice to be able to the show
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: that we're doing. Feminist Buzzkills Live in the Fall is
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: going to be really fun because it's it's I'm sixty. Um,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: there's an African American woman who is in the early forties,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and then a South Asian woman who's in her early thirties,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: and so generally, and then we'll have guests on who
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: are like in their twenties, right, so generationally and culturally
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: coming to this issue from really different experiences and having
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: two out of those three experiences not be the experience
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that is mine, which everybody sort of knows mine, right,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: And so to be able to take a back seat
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and and have these voices uplifted, I feel really excited
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: about because and we're seeing so much of that now,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: which is really great. You know when people are like,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: what are your favorite comics, and I just think of,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: like all these great people and that it's not just
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: a litany of white male comedians anymore than you list
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: off right. You can just go down the line of
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Joe L. Johnson, Jenny Yang, Helen Ho, Jeanie Ashera, Sam Jay.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: You know, like you can just go on and on
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and on and you're like, oh my god, there's so
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: many it's so cool. I will say I connected with
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Helen a little too much when she was on stage,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: just like stop it, stop it doing an hour special. Um,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: she's taking it more special soon, Yes, through the Tribeca
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Film Festival, which I'm really really really excited about. I'm
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: such a big fan. She's been also out on the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: road with us a whole bunch. That's how I got
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: introduced to her was because when I came to the
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: show and I was like, oh my god, and then
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: I saw our new girls like Helen, I know who that. Yeah.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I think that's an amazing conversation because yeah, like I said,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I was introduced to your show, your comedy show, specifically
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: through what you're doing with abortion Access Front and it's amazing.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: And you have you have such a way of obviously
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: mentoring the new up andcoming because every time I've only
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: gone to the show twice, but you've always brought on
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: newer people, younger kids. I say kids. They're not kids.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: They're not twenty years younger than me, So I say kids.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: You know, I hit that gap. She's early thirties and
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: early forties, so we hit those gaps too, but younger
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: generations that are doing comedy better because I'm not gonna lie.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: For the longest time, I couldn't watch stand up. Watching
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: comedy shows always made me cringe because I was afraid
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: of what they're going to say next. And then coming
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: to this, I guess generation this time frame, when you
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: actually get to see good comedy that's not at the
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: expense of women are marginalized communities, You're like, what, what
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: is this new thing? And I love seeing that, but
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: also I love that you do it with a purpose.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: You have the whole reason abortion Access Front is not
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: about just the comedy, but again helping, like you are
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: going to these individual clinics and helping assisting, whether it's
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I said Chanelle went to actually put up chairs and paint.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: At one point she was like, I gotta go and
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: do this thing because I gotta go. And I was like, Wow,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: you're actually going in and being a part of that
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: family and restoring some kind of just being told thank
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: you for what you're doing instead of being screamed at
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: for the first time in a very long time, probably
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: how did you even come to this point? How did
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: this organization began? How did you come to this point?
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: So what happened was I was finishing up my book
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: and I had come back to Minnesota because the book
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: is a series of essays about my sort of life,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: how I found my voice, how that voice landed on stage,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: and then how that voice evolved from comedy just straight
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: up comedy into having this purpose and then where it led. Right.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: So I was finishing up my book and I didn't
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: know what I was going to do next, and didn't
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I was like trying to integrate another show,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: like what I want to do, And it was right
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: when all of those abortion laws were happening right around.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: And you'll remember, Wendy Davis is kind of the touch
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: tone for everybody standing there in Texas and filibustering. And
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: what people didn't realize was Texas was one of twenty
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: seven states that had that exact bill dumped on them.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: But the other twenty six states didn't have a Wendy Davis,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: so people didn't know. And so I was like watching
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Texas and I was tweeting about it, and then other
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: clinics were kind of tweeting at me, saying that our
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: legislature just did this too and not and people were
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: activists and p full work from around the country. We're like,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: this is going on all over. So then I was like,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: oh my god, what am I gonna do? So I
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: was going to go back to Brooklyn. So I had
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: my two dogs and I rented a van and I
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: did comedy fundraisers to get back to Brooklyn for these clinics.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And I went to go visit the clinics. And what
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: happened was every clinic I would go visit, the staff
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: was literally shocked and said, you know, in the saddest way,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: thank you for coming. People don't come here to visit us.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And I thought, how are we to keep access to
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: care If you feel so defeated and marginalized and other
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: you're not going to keep staffs. So when I got
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: back to New York, I threw a giant dinner for comedians, writers,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: everybody I knew that worked in my field, that I
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: knew was feminist, that I knew cared about issues. And
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I was like, we all are here because we had
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: access to birth control and some of us had access
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: to abortion. We need to get out there and show
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: people love. And the other thing that I had found
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: out from the clinics was if you provide abortion, especially
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: in areas that are hostile towards it, you can't get
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: someone to mow your momt paint your hallways, fix your roof,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: do anything, because people will boycott those companies. So we
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: talked and we decided we were going to create a
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: nonprofit that made videos like Funnier Die videos that would
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: expose the issues, and then we were going to kind
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: of do this USO cross with Habitats for Humanity and
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: travel around the country do comedy shows that we're comedy
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: variety shows, so you'll have some comedy, you'll have a
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: conversation with the activists in the community and the clinic,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: and then you'll have maybe a musician also, so that
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: our audiences could learn what's at stake, how they could help,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and sign up with the local folks on the ground
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and then carry on the work. You know, we have
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: people tabling, so you could watch the show here from
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: the people go sign up right down at the table,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and then we go to the clinics and we will
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: find out what they need. So we will do the gardening.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: We will mow their lawn, will do that, and when
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: we know what they need, will bring that up in
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the show. So it'll be like we'll do a little
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: work ahead of time, right, And so then what's cool.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget. I was in Oklahoma City and we
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: were just talking about what they needed in Oklahoma City,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and this guy raises his hand and he's like, you're
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: telling me the activism is I sign up and say
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I'll be your landscaping company. You pay me, and I'm
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: an activist. And I was like yes, because the act
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: of parking your van in front of that clinic say
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: you support these people is an act of defiance and
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: an act of support. And so people really when they
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: start to hear that, and when we can go to
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: every city and and know in advance what they're having
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: a hard time getting services for and put it out
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: to the audience, we're always getting people to sign up
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: and say I'm happy to be that person. But people
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: don't know. And part of I think what's so important
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: when you're looking at where you want to be helpful
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: or how you want to do your activism is making
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: sure you're not replicating work you know is their organizations
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: already doing this and being better at it. And usually
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: there are and they're and they're usually bipop led organizations
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: that like white people don't know about so they're gonna
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: start a thing, so, you know, elevating the organization is
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: already doing it on the ground, but nobody was doing
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the work of making sure that the clinics and that
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: the activists on the ground, we're getting the support that
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: they needed because they're great, they're doing the work, but
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: they always need Everybody always needs a little pr right,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: everybody always needs a little platform to talk about how
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: great they are. And for us to be able to
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: gather folks who like our comedy and do that and
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: then explain to them what's at stake. I felt like
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: a really good lane that I could be in that
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: there and and carve out when there wasn't a lane before.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: So that part of it is so rewarding. And during
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: COVID it was really hard because we couldn't get on
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: on the road and do that. So we were doing
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: zoom conversations and we were and and and sort of
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: doing it sort of virtually, and then starting this big
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: mutual aid program so that people could really take care
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: of folks and then training the folks who were already
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: on the ground how to use humor to just marginalize
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: and shame all those protesters out there too, So that
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: was part of our thing as well. So hoping to
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: get back out on the road in with the organization,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: but I myself, I'm going to be out doing some
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: stand up gigs starting in late summer and into the
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: fall as well, so hopefully I'll get to Atlanta. I'm
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: trying too, because I want to Atlanta, Asheville, Raleigh run
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: and so um that's kind of what I'm hoping to
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: get for hopefully in the late folish or early winter,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: so I'll be seeing you. Yes, I love that so
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: much because I think that is something people struggle with,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: is not necessarily understanding the needs and where they can
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: help and what activism can look like. So I think
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: that is fantastic. As far as I feel like this
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: conversation is upsetting because it's like everything with Rob Wade,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: it's just is always a fight. It's always a battle
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: never ends. Are there things that we should be looking
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: out for that are going on right now? Yeah? I
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: mean one thing that I would say is part of
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: the reason that we got here is because we we
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: talked so much about we don't look at things to
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: stop them early in their in their situations. Right, like
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: the maddening people who are like both candidates are the
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: same or above. Elections don't matter. It's like we with
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, we build up a lower court and a
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Supreme court hostile towards abortion rights, were rights, you know,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: all the things that actually expand humanities, valuing humans, and
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: so you know, and I think a lot of folks
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: don't realize that when we talk about these abortion laws.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: The way that they happen is that big giant like
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: organizations that are in Washington, d c. Anti abortion organizations,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: they write legislation and then they hand it over to
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: legislatures that are hustle to abortion. They get it through
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: that place, and they specifically target states that have a
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: legislatures that will pass it and be that are located
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: in a lower court district so that if it gets challenge,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: it can go to the lower court and get to
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. Right. So, the one thing that we
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: desperately need to do is figure out who is in
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: our state senates and our state legislatures and work to
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: get them out so that these laws aren't being proposed
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: to begin with. That's one thing, because then it's the
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: same people proposing the anti ABDQ laws, the voter suppression laws,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: gotten laws like, it's all the same people, right, There's
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: just a cabal. There's intersectional hatred going on that's really profound.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: So having said that, you know, if a law gets
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: passed in Kentucky and makes it all the way to
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, that you don't live in Kentucky, but
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you're reproductive rights could be effective forever.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: So what's happening is Mississippi passed a law of fifteen
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: weeks abortion ban. Rob Wade states that abortion is legal
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: in all fifty states up to twenty four weeks or
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the viability of the fetus. Everybody's entitled to that abortion
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: is legal in all fifty states right now. A lot
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: of these laws that we've seen recently have challenged access
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: to abortion, but haven't directly challenged that tenant of Roby Wade.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: So we've seen things like you need to be have
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: admitting privileges to a hospital if you're going to perform abortions,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: or twenty for our waiting periods. Those are curving access,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: but not overturning Roe v. Wait this particular Mississippi law.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: And this is what's really interesting about it is that
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: normally the Supreme Court will take up a case when
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: the lower courts have been divided or conflicted on whether
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: or not the law is unconstitutional. In this case, to
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: lower courts, and conservative lower courts have said a fifteen
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: week ban is unconstitutional because Roe w. Waite says twenty
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: four weeks, and this is fifteen weeks. Two times, the
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: state of Mississippi said no, we're still going to try
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: to go anyway, and they petitioned the Supreme Court directly,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: and the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented move, took a
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: case that every court degree was unconstitutional, took it to
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: hear it anyway, which should scare folks. So they're gonna
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: hear it in the fall. If the Supreme Court rules
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: that it is constitutional for you to block abortion after
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: fifteen weeks, that means Roe w. Wade has been overturned.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: And there are eleven states that right now have in
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: place something that's called a trigger, and what that means
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: is within twenty four hours, eleven states will outright ban
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: abortion in all cases. My fear is that because the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court has taken on this case, it's a signal
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: to other states who are hostile to abortion, who have
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: not yet put in trigger bands yet to do so,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: and so we could wind up with a very real
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: possibility that Roe v. Wade will end as we know it.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: So that's what's happening right now. We will be which
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about, will be going to d C, will
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: be working as hard as we can to support the
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: activists in Mississippi and the activists around it and raising awareness.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Our Twitter feed at Abortion Front is a really good
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: hub of information. If you're not getting information around the
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: laws and everything, we are really good about doing that
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: and really putting stuff up there and driving you to
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: places where you can read more the people who are
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: working locally on the ground, so that if you see
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: something in your upset and you want to help, you're
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: not just making a blanket donation to X large organization.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: You will be able to tell you in Kentucky, here's
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the place that you might want to give. You know,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: we we oftentimes I love planned parenthood They're incredible, but
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: at oftentimes there's not planned parenthoods in a state that
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: is being affected, and so you want to know who
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the clinic is, who the activists are, stuff like that. Yeah,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: speaking of abortion actions front Twitter, just recently, I've noticed
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: this whole conversation about the fact that a current administration
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: who is technically pro choice technically still has a hard
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: time using the word abortion. I know that that was
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: a big conversation to the point that not only are
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: you know your side as well as other actives are
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: like hey, abortion, like trying to spell it out like
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: it's not a bad word. I think it's such a
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: weird idea, especially today, this day and age, why it's
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: so hard to understand just normalizing that term actually helps
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: part of this fight. Can you talk on that a
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, And I would say it's the single
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: most important thing that we can do to get us
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: on a path of reproductive equality, because we for so
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: long have been overrun with the anti abortion playbook, even
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: to the point where we've allowed themselves to refer to
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: themselves as pro life when they're the ones who are
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: not considering the life of someone who's pregnant, blowing up
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: abortion clinics, threatening doctors. There's nothing pro life about denying
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: somebody else life saving healthcare. So you know, we've even
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: seated that right, we've seated this moral ground where we
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: feel like we need to have caveats when we defend it.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: We have to say, well, nobody's pro abortion. I actually am.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: I will actually say that in pro abortion because I
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: feel like if somebody needs to make that choice, it
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: is not my decision or it is not my right
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: to judge them for why they're making it. If they've
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: decided they want to do that, I believe them, and
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: they're making a moral, ethical choice for themselves. And so
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: unless we get to a point where we can say it,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: and we can say it with with dignity and respect
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: and giving it, it's it's moral claim. We can't defend it.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: How can you defend something you can't say why is it?
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: And and really asking folks the question, why is it
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: that you have to say I'm pro choice and not abortion.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I'm for abortion, but only in the in the cases
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: of rape and incests, sort of setting up this narrative
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: that there's good abortions and there's bad abortions. Right, there's
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: no good abad abortion. There's only the abortion that you need.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: And we really need to be actively supporting when someone
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: says they need that, because I'm unclear of the of
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: how the hypocrites get away with being anti birth control,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: anti abortion. It's like, what what what world of abstinence
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: and unicorns are you living in? You know, s happened
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: forever and since forever, and abortions have happened forever, since forever,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: you know, since the history of We've realized how fun
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: sex is and that it's free, Like those are giant
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: things in the world. That means it's gonna keep happening.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: It's the most fun you can have, and it also
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: costs nothing, so we should probably make sure people are
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: having it safely and without shame and stigma. That's all right, right, yes,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: well we could talk forever because I'm just like feeling
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: rage and all these like interconnected issues built up in
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: me where I it's like, well, you men want to
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: have sex with women and they think it's all right,
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: but they can't have birth control and they can't have abortions,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: and it's just like all of this punishment and stigma
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and weirdness around women controlling their bodies and female sexual pleasure.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: And also like I love how conservatives are all you know,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: I want my individual rights. Don't tread on me. But
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: but also you can tread on earth though I know.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: And also just the patriarchal set up of the value
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: of women in society, and that is creating these hyper
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: sexualized beings and giving them worth and then and then
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: when they act on that, when we act on it, patriarchy.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: You know, there is nothing better than when you really
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: just like shed you sloth your skin of any interest
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: in the male gaze. It is the most freeing thing
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: in the world. You know. Forever, I never realized why
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: women in their fifties started becoming so powerful and why
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: they were marginalized at the same time. And it's because
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: they do not give a flying f about what people think,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: only what they desire and what they want for the
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: greater good. And in turn that terrifies the white supremacy
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: power structure. So you have to marginalize the older women
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: because they have a ton of power. So when you
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: watch that convergence and you realize that's the plan, it
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: only makes you even more emboldened, and that's kind of
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: a good feeling. So for you young uns out there,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: and then I'm talking to the two of you know,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: under and that you're coming into your power profoundly and
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: it's really rewarding that that's awesome. Yes, So could you
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: talk about the Hide Act because I know you all
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: recently did a video explaining it. Yeah. So it's um
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: for forty seven years, ever since, you know, like Robie
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Wade was passed in nineteen and three years later a
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Congressman from Illinois named Henry Hyde, who was by the
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: way while get to a sister a minute, wanted to
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: curb abortion and ban abortion anyway he could, and he
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: actually said in a quote, I would like to ban
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: tax dollars from paying for abortions. I'd like to ban
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: all abortions. And since I can't stop rich women from
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: having abortions, I'm going to punish poor women from having wortion.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Actually said this outlaud, not even saying the quiet part
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: out loud, saying the loud part outlaud. So he and
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: aacted something called the High Amendment, which is attached to
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: the annual budget bill every year. It has for forty
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: seven years, and what it says is federal tax dollars
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: will not fund abortion in any way, shape or form,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: and that means for people who get their health care
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: from Medicaid. That means folks who work for the government,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: That means folks who are in the military can't access
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: their own health care for abortions. It's caused an incredible
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: financial rift, as you can imagine, if somebody is seeking
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: abortion is either low income, uses Medicaid or is working
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: for the federal government. So and it's just racist, it's
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: just garbage, it's racist, it's classes, it's everything. For forty
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: seven years, every president, even the ones you love, have
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: the high Amendment has ended up in the budget and
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: they have just let it be there. Now odd lead,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: this is the first time this year Joe Biden, the
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: lukewarm pro choice, won't say abortion person left hide out
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: of the budget. So we will see if we can
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: literally and hide, because what that would mean is low
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: income folks seeking abortion care wouldn't struggle to find the
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: funds to access care. They wouldn't have to wait as long.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes people have to cross several state lines. They are
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: trying to raise the funds to get their care, so
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: they end up further in their pregnancy and that abortion
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: costs even more money. It's a reproductive emancipation for black
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: and brown folks. And for low income folks. And I
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: just feel like it would be really incredible if we
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: And there's a great short film it just came out
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: and it's called Abortion Helpline. This is Least. That's a
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: short film that came out in one early that follows
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: an abortion fund, which there's a volunteer lad fund there
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: all over the country that folks can call an access
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: to see if they can get funds to help them.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: And it shows the effects of the High Amendment, explains
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: the High Amendment and really shows how the High Amentment
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: really affects people. It's a fourteen minute tour film, but
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: it is devastating and it's really really it's it's it's
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: a it's a really good explainer to learn about hide.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: So with any hope at all, we've made progress and
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: through our razor thin Congress, I don't know if we
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: can get it in the Senate, but it would be
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: really nice to have a budget that did not have
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: reproductive oppression in it. Um Or go to All above All.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: They are a really great nonprofit that has been leading
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: the charge on ending the High Amendment. They have been
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: so great, So All above All dot org and you
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: can find out how you can fight back and how
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: you can be helpful there. So yeah, So honestly, even
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: though I had been a part of social work, so
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: that's that was my career before I started podcasting, as
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: well as having friends who we are all very feminist forward,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: I actually didn't know much about the Hidemim until I
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: came to your first show and the video was beautiful.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, what is happening and
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: this is what we're talking about. I never really knew
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: what it was or how it really affected our community
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: and especially yes, marginalized communities, how it's really going after
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: poor people on top of the fact that they're not
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: assisting when they do have kids, and oftentimes I would
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: end up working with those kids and not having any
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: funds to help them access medical help or mental health
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: help or any of that stuff. And that's kind of
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: that big conversation of what is this really about? What
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: is honestly like, it's kind of about punishing people who
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: don't have money, people of color in general, and just
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: are not even able to understand how to access any
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: kind of help. Because, let's be honest, even if the
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Heidem Minute was to be dismissed, the likelihood of all
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: of the loopholes that each state could find. I could
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: just imagine Georgia and trying to access those funds will
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: be incredibly difficult. Let's talk about the fact that Kemp
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: is already holding out money that is being offered us
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: because he doesn't want any help from federal government and
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: want to blame the current administration and saying that we
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: didn't get help when there's millions of dollars on the
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: table that he refuses to take. So I'm already upset
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: and angry about what's happening here down on their anger
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: part of the other thing that's happening right now. You know,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that we don't know because
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: we're not told, and it's really massively pressing. But you know,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: throughout the country there are religiously set up fake abortion
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: clinics that look like a regular clinic, advertise like a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: regular clinic, and they're not actually clinics. They're actually places
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: that are designed to lure folks in and convince them
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: not to have abortions, and make promises and lie to patients.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: And they're not run by doctors. There's people who literally
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: were lab codes who are not doctors who will lie
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: to you about abortion, lie to you about birth control,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: lie to you about primarial sex, lie to about everything.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Just this week we found out that ten states are
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: diverting TANNIS funds, that's that's welfare for those that don't know,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: welfare funds with SAM funds to fund these fake clinics,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: So taking away the help for low income families and
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: putting that funds to fake clinics that are trying to
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: convince people not to have abortions and have kids, while
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: bullsufully telling them that there's all these government programs that
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: will help them if they decide to have their kids.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: But those government programs, as they speak, are being cut
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: to fund their lives. So with me to this crazy circle.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: And it's just another level of this of this game
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: of oppression where if you keep poor people poor and vulnerable,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: they'll never have agencies, they'll never understand they have agency.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: And again, what survives my pain? Three arc and White
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Branda say right, right and absolutely, and it again shows
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: why it is a pro birth movement. End of story.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: We actually did have someone who researched the Pregnancy Crisis
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: Center come in and talk to us about what was
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: happening around the country and the level, but the fact
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: that they're looking like nurses or professionals, but in actuality,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: they probably just came in from the church and was
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: told to be a good citizen by making these people
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: have babies and not giving them an absolute choice, any
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: kind of choice. But yeah, actually, as a worker for
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: the government in the state of Georgia, I did not
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: know what these pregnancy crisis centers were, and I really
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: thought they would help give young girls a choice, and
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: realizing later, oh my god, I sent them to a
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: really fake and I feel horrible, like hypocritical state of like, oh,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that the pregnancy crisis center was this. Now,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. For the people who are like,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: oh I need car seats, I was like, yeah, go there,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: but half of the times they couldn't even access that.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: It just got pamphlets about how you apply for things,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: which still was like, what is the point, yes, of
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: anything that you're doing. Yeah, and also like folks need
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: to understand just for for like sort of perspective on it.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: There are actually around seven eighty legitimate clinics that provide
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: comprehensive care, including abortion. There is close to four thousands
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: of these fake clinics, so you're and and owning the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: narrative on Google and that you know, when you Google
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: looking for an abortion, oftentimes they have rigged the s
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: c O, which is, you know, the algorithm to have
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: them pop up first. And so when you are looking
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: for your abortion and you see an add the pops
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: up that says pregnant need help, free, free tests, choices, options,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: You're gonna go there, and they don't advertise. And this
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: is the part where where we have done our advocacy.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: We have created an entire website called Exposed by Clinics
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: dot com where you can go learn about the insidious
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: nature of them and how you can fight back, like
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: giving them bad reviews, you know, things like that where
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: you can really be helpful in doing that. But it's, um,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: it's really scary to think that folks go there. And
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: the thing that what I was gonna say was they
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: hide the fact that that's who they are. And our
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: whole issue is if you are an anti abortion pregnancy
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: center that is trying to get people to keep their pregnancies,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: then say that's who you are. Say that's who you are,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: but you don't you high it from people. And the
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: interesting thing is a case went all the way to
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court challenging the efficacy of these fake clinics.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: And here's the part that I'd like everybody to just
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: buckle up, because I'm about to tell you something that's
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: gonna make your real mad. The Supreme Court ruled that
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: if you're a fake clinic and you're not providing actual care, you,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: under the First Amendment, get to pretend you're a doctor
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: as long as you're not administering medicine. Yes, Yes, rule
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: that it's constitutional to set up a kind of look
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: alike place and put on a lab coat and say
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: sort of some vaguely medically sounding things. You're allowed to
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: lie to people under the First Amendment as long as
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: you're not providing the care. That kiuld i forgot his name,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: who posed for a doctor forever? Shouldn't he been lyrid
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: because he didn't technically, I feel like he should be offen.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: He was federally charged. He kind of came around and
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: pretended like he knew things and then sit a nursing
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: So I don't understand. Oh lord, okay, I'm gonna I'm
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: I feel when I come on too podcast that I
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: just like, I'm like, you know, saw on or just
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: like bring all the Doom. I'm just like, oh that
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Liz Winston, here she comes. She's just gonna bum me. No.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: But that's the thing is, like we've talked about this before,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: how we need to start really embracing anger as women
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: and marginalized people, because this is what it looks like.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: It doesn't happen until we get firing ready to go.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: It doesn't happen until passion is inflamed and you're like, oh,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: this is what this is about. So no, we love it.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: This is what we live for, putting a fire and
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: someone to ask. And I also just want to remind
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: folks that, like, that's what I love about our organization
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: so much, is so often when it gets to the
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: point where the news is reporting on it, it's too
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: far down the line for us to do anything about it.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: So when we follow our social media, sign up for
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: our mailing list, we get on it early because we're
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: in constant conversation with the activists on the ground and
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: what they're doing. So when they're like X state is
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: proposing this thing, we're like on top of it immediately,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: so that we can tell folks in the aisle like
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: shut this garbage down, like and here's how you can
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: do it. And so that's that's the thing that is
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: really I think helpful. Since the media doesn't help us,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: we have to be the people who are reporting on
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: the media a lot. We're talking a lot. Like I said,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: I've seen a few of your interviews where you kind
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: of talk about the fact that, especially with the last
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: administration in the last year, just everything being dark, it's
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: so dark. I think you said that you needed to
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: be able to shed light and talk about it and
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: bring it about to the world and talk about it
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: to everyone so we do acknowledge what's going on, don't
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: just move on in our pretty little lives. And we
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: sort of started maybe seeing some light. There's a few
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: things that helped. You know, Trump is out. I don't
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: even like saying his name. I don't want to hear
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: about him. I just realsh I can forget him. But
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: he's not gonna be forgotten, as Georgia has plainly shown
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: in their recent GOP conference and saying they're gonna align
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: behind his ideology still. But you know, we're in the
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: current new administration, we're starting to kind of come out
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: of COVID. I have now come out of my house,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: uh since thingful vaccinated. Still not trusting people though, still
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: not trusting people, but with that and it's slowly changing,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: hopefully for the better. With everything else outside of me
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: us being vacts, you know, living that VACS life. What
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: else seems like with everything else that seems like it's
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: going to hell? Right now? What are you trying to
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: push forward? How are you coming out? Because I see
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: you're ready. You're ready, like you were ready last year
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: when you were like, I have to put on a show.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I don't get what everybody else is doing. We're gonna
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: do a social distance in the nineteen degree weather. We're
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: doing it, So you're ready. I see it's coming forward.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: So there's a couple of things coming forward that I'm
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: really excited about, and that is getting people back to events,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: which is really cool. So one thing that I'm really
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: psyched about is on July nineteen, the original cast of
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: The Daily Show and met Elizbeisberg and who is my
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: co creator, are getting together to do a conversation around
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: the origins of The Daily Show, the early days, how
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: it came to be. It's really gonna be fun because
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: it's the first time we've all gotten together and we're
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: the only folks who really know, like those early days,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: how we came up with the idea, all the pitfalls
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: we had doing this show with no budget, and the
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: scrappy correspondence who actually created help you know, the entire genre.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: So that's gonna be really fun. And it's a fundraise
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: of for Abortion Access Front, so I highly that'll be
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: on rush Ticks and that's really cool, and if you
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: sign up for our mailing list you'll get all the
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: information about that. That's gonna be really fun. We are
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: going out on the road to UM confront some bad
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: guys and that's like a secret that we can't tell
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: you right now, but we can tell you soon. But
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: the bad guys are having their annual convention of anti
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: abortion bad guys, and we have some really cool counter
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: protesting activism plans around that that's happening in June. One
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: of the things we wanted to do is not lump
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: anti abortion activists into the same brush, because they come
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: from different factions, they're inspired by different weird religious beliefs.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: So we've created a website called Hypocrites Unmasked, where we
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: break up and really explain the different factions of the
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: anti abortion movement, their tactics, sort of where they're located,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: and who their leadership are. One thing that's been really
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: interesting is and we're continuing to develop, so it kind
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: of falls into your category. But what's next is since
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: we've been on the road for all these years meeting
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: all these local activists, we've also heard from them who
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: their local anti abortion extremists are, and we created a
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: database of everything that everybody has told us in their findings,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: and we have found cross connection that some anti abortion
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: activists are working together across state platforms. And in the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: course of forming this database learning this information, we started
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: some fake secret accounts on Facebook. We've infiltrated a little
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: bit watching them, and when the insurrection happened in g Annuary,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: we were able to identify thirty people from the anti
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: abortion movement in the insurrection and report them to the FBI.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: So that's an ongoing secret like thing that we've got
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: going on. But we just also have really cool events
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: coming up to in the fall. We have an event
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: called do Re Me Too, which is the third year
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: of us doing it, where we get the most righteous
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: performers who sing reimagine sexist songs just to let folks know, like,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: we live in a culture that defines women so profoundly
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: awfully in our pop culture, and often we enable it
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: by singing along. And it's really great. And so you know,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: we have Sandra Bernhardt, we have now in from the
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: get Down, Stay Down, we have Amana Palmer. We've got
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: some really good folks who have signed up already to
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: be at it. We're announcing our line up in July,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: so if you want to know more about that show,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: that's going to be a virtual show too, so you
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: can watch it from anywhere. People are recording their own
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: music videos. It's gonna be a riot. And then we're
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: gonna just continue with our out reach for mutual aid.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: We're gonna be exposing fake clinics, so and we have
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: these exposed fake clinics events that are really fun and
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: talking about these fake abortion clinics that we're talking about.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: There's a whole lot in the pipeline we have going on.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be touring personally, um, which will be really
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: really fun and you know, I feel like if you
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: want to find out more the best thing to do
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: is to sign up for our mailing list, the Abortion
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: Access Front. If you go to a a front dot
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: org and sign up for our mailing list, you'll get
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: all the updates on the cool stuff. And we don't
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: send out a bunch of just boring emails um that
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: don't like donate to us. We send you out emails
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: that give you like information, stuff to do, ways that
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: you can take action. They're really helpful emails that aren't
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: just about send us money or sign a petition. It's like,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: get involved the present, join our community, because we really
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: want to build community through our activism. Oh that's exciting. Actually,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: right before COVID, I had Caroline and I the one
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: from end lady like who introduced me. We're planning to
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: do uh some volunteer work with abortion clinics, mean es,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: courts are such, and then everything shut down without nope, nope,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: hiding the way. But I'm gonna have to find well,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: I am already subscribed to the newsletter, duh, so I'm
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: definitely gonna keep up with that. Yes, and this has
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: been an absolute pleasure and delight. Liz, thank you so
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: much for having me and blatting with me. Oh, we
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: could talk forever. Yes, yes, um, and we'll definitely check
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: you out when you're in Atlanta. Any other things you
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: want to plug before we wrap up here? Where can
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the listeners find you? Um, listeners can find me. I'm
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: on all the social platforms at Liz Winstead and I
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: spell my name with two z's, so you can find
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: me there, and you can find me just out and about,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm sometimes I'm MSNBC show my mug around town,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: but mostly you know, just find me on all the
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: socials and then you'll find me on the other places
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: as well. But I would also say subscribe to our
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel now so that you can get informed on
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: our show launches, because you're not gonna want to miss
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: this show. It's gonna be just a weekly show full
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: of just bad comedy and information and like just like
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: feminist talk and righteousness that you don't want to miss.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: So sign up subscribe on YouTube abortion access prompt doing it? Yes, yes,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: definitely do that, listeners. Thanks again for being with us,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Liz Oh, thank you such a pleasure. It's been amazing. Yes,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: And if you would like to find us, listeners, you
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: can you can email us at stuff Idea mom stuff
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: at I heart me dot com. You can find us
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: on Twitter at Mom's a Podcast, or on Instagram and
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: stuff One Never Told You. Thanks, It's always sart of
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: super producer Christina, Thank you. Thanks to you for listening
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: stuff One Never Told You his production of iHeart Radio.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: For more, podcast from my Heart Radio is at the
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: ihart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows