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Transcript

SMNTY Interviews Lizz Winstead · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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