Write Down the Stupid Thoughts with Jon Stewart

30:06And those are the metrics that you want to hit as you go. And that's all it was about. Any girls? Were you cute? Were you, you know? I think we all know the answer to that. Oh, no, no. I didn't meet my wife until I was 32 years old. And you didn't date before then? You were just hustling? No, I had a couple of girlfriends. See there? But the girls that you basically ended up going out with were the waitresses at the comedy cookers. That's your whole life. Yeah, yeah. You know, you don't, most girls at that time wanted to go do things. And most girls, you'd be like, so here's my day. we're going to get high to four in the morning and we're going to watch a ton of Three Stooges movies and then I'm going to sleep till around one then I'm going to disappear where I wander around trying to think of some jokes and I'll meet you I guess around three in the morning at the Kettle of Fish bar and we'll do it again and we'll do it again baby and a lot of girls as you can imagine would be like sign me up it is not a lifestyle conducive to the healthiest of those kinds of relationships.

31:21You make a good point. I never thought of it like that. Yeah, yeah. Even when I first met my wife, she had a regular job. And so she had to be up at seven and I'd roll in 2.30 in the morning. Hey, baby! And when you met her, at what stage of your career were you at? Oh, I was in, had to, I was freshly canceled. I was, I met her. I had had a talk show on MTV. Yeah. Oh, yeah, right. Famously known for its - We know about it. The talk. MTV was this known for hot talk. And it went real well. And then Arsenio retired, decided he didn't want to do his show anymore. And Paramount, who owned MTV at the time, got the great idea that what makes more sense than making me the next Arsenio?

32:11So I took that time slot. And so you can imagine the confusion Didn't work out. That's exactly right. So, and we knew it wasn't going to work out pretty quickly. You get the ratings. Yeah. So I was visiting friends who were filming things in Greenwich Village. And on one of the sets, there was a makeup artist who, when I came in, said, do you have a girlfriend? And I said, no. Of course not. She said, well, I've got this girl. And she describes this girl in ways where I'm like, this is a lie. She's the funniest, sweetest, smartest. She's the blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm like, all right. I'll go out with her.

32:53So she writes the number on a dollar bill. She gives it to me. I go home. I call, who turns out to be my wife, Tracy. And we have a long conversation. I mean, like two hours. On the phone? On the phone. Phone call. And the kind of phone that's in the wall. It's called a telephone. The kind that had a cord on it. That's right. Where you could wander around. That's right. And she's lovely, funny, smart. We're raised in sort of the same area. And I'm like, you know, I'd love to take you out some night. You know, I'll call you on Friday and I'll take you out. Well, at the time I was a pretty heavy smoker.

33:35And cigarettes cost money. And some of the money that the cigarettes cost are the ones that I had written her number on. Oh, John. Okay, okay. So I did not call her when I said I was going to call her. I get it. But the story has a happy ending. Relax. I know, but that just hurts. I mean, it's just like, ouch. So that was our original part. So what I ended up having to do was go back to that movie set because I knew they were roommates. So when I found their call sheets, I saw her, the number of the makeup artist. So I knew that was the number. So I was able to call. but it took a lot longer. Too long, too long.

34:15So when I called her again, it was a lot of like, hey, what's up? So it took a little while to get back in. Yeah, yeah.

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38:33So how was the first date? Fabulous. When I'm nervous, I talk too much. And when she's nervous, she doesn't talk at all. So we went to a little restaurant on 6th Avenue called Lupita's East LA Kitchen. Or no, Lupe's. Lupe's East LA Kitchen. We don't know the difference. And I could make up anything. You could. We went to Le Cirque. I said, this woman deserves the most expensive meal. We stopped first at Tiffany's. No, I figured first ate quesadilla. And so I sat and I ate my delicious burrito and her delicious burrito. Oh, no. And all the drinks and talked and thought, this woman cannot stand me.

39:26Oh, no. And we're walking home and I thought, we're going by this one bar that I liked. Do you mind if we'd stop in there and have a drink? Two scotches in, she comes alive. Two scotches in, she just went. She blossomed. And I was smitten. That was it. Wow. How long did you guys date? How long was it? She knows the answer to this. I believe she said it was too long. She said you dated, we dated too long. I asked her to marry me probably three and a half years in. So we've been going out for three and a half years. We lived together for a couple of years. Yeah. And had all the dogs and all those things.

40:08Oh, yeah. How long did you guys know? How long did you know? Did you know with your... Which one? The one that stuck.

40:19No, I didn't know right away because I was going through a major divorce. Oh. And we don't have enough time for me to tell my favorite story of meeting my wife. So I'll save that one for you. But when I met her, because I was going through this horrible divorce, and I moved back in to our family's apartment that we lived in growing up. And my parents had moved, my mom had moved downstairs where my aunt lived. Short of saying, he was living at home with mom. So I was back at home. Your older sister just put you in your place. It's like, what are we talking about here? So whenever I would go out anywhere, my mom would be like, you meet anybody?

41:07And I'm like, no, mom, I'm not interested in meeting anybody. So I met my current wife, Kelly, and didn't ask for her number or anything. I just met her. And I was like, after my mom asked me that when I came home, I was like, maybe I should have gotten her number. He's such a slow burn. Right. He's always that way. I understand that. You're recovering. Clueless. Clueless. I waited till Thursday because she told me where she worked. And I looked it up and I saw her phone number there. And as I'm dialing her number, she sent me an email at the exact same time. Oh, really? The kismet of the digital age.

41:52But then we dated for five years before we got married. Yeah, yeah. But it was because of me. Did you know how long before we introduced her to you? I'm bad. with time. It was probably within the first year. It was definitely the first year. Yeah, it was the first year. I mean, whenever he was ready to... Did we meet her before the kids met her? Oh, yeah. Yeah, but he probably, you know... Did you know that when you met her, did you go like, oh, yeah, this is... Well, because he was bringing somebody around. I mean, I don't... My brother is a slow burn. I mean, he's had like three girlfriends his whole life because he was a basketball player.

42:27Right? So he was always, you know... Yes, basketball players. Famous monogamous. You can't shake a stick and find a basketball player that isn't dedicated to whatever relationship he has at the moment. He was also a very monogamous young man. He's a good man. So if he was bringing somebody around, it was like, okay, how are you feeling about the state of our nation these days? I'm glad you asked me that. Thank you. I'm going to tell you something. And this is recent, and I don't know if we're making news here or not, I'm really beginning to sour on this president. I feel like, you know, you know me, I was with him.

43:13I, you know, then I remember after January 6th, watching the insurrection and watching the police being sprayed with bear spray and being beaten with poles. I remember thinking to myself, I don't love this. You know, I'm going to, I'm thinking of maybe not supporting him next time. But then obviously he won me back. But no, I mean, I don't even want to, because I imagine for you and your family and having been, that it's a surreal experience for you guys because of the effort that you put into building something up and to watch it be corrupted, to have this perversion of leadership, I imagine is especially difficult to digest.

44:06There's a surreal quality to it. Although I have to say, you guys left money on the table. A Michelle meme coin. Didn't even know it was possible. There were so many things. You guys didn't do a pump and dump. You left some money on the table. We could have had a Netflix deal a decade ago. Netflix deal? You could have had a weapons company. You could have sold missiles to yourself. Don and Eric have a drone company. I don't even know what to say. Yeah. You know, it's the level of corruption that is, in some ways, maybe it's doing a favor by making this, the current power structure and dynamic of this country untenable because of how explicitly corrupt it is.

44:58Maybe that's, I don't know. Well, it's sort of, you know, what do I say? You know, what we were saying about the rolling back of women's rights. I mean, you know, when things are okay, it's easier to take what you have for granted and to think, well, you know, there will always be somebody there who wouldn't possibly do this, you know? Right. We've never had somebody who would do this, right? And you just assume that's going to be the way it is. I think at some level we were there as a country, just a little unclear, just a little, like, maybe we can get a little more, you know? Maybe I can get more of a tax break, you know?

45:45I mean, maybe we can get richer than we are. You know, maybe we can get rights changed faster than ever before, right? Because, you know, our kids didn't witness much of the struggle at all, right? They didn't experience it. And that's, you know, that's the kind of growth you would hope for, for the country, that each generation, everything gets better and better and better. And that was actually happening, right? until we get to a point where there's a generation that didn't even remember what was wrong in the first place. Never saw it, right? I mean, you think about all the young people who only have known, only knew Barack Obama as their president.

46:31Like that was the America. There is that truth too, right? What was the feeling like? Because it is a crucible. You feel the weight of that house in every room and every piece of furniture that exists in that house. And the responsibility, I imagine, is it is a weight you bear every day that you walk through there. The day you walk out, is the experience one of liberation? Is it one of exhale? Are you now interviewing me, Jon Stewart? No, this isn't going to make it into the show. I would never be interviewing. That's not what we're here for. I was just curious. No, no. I mean, I wrote about this in Becoming.

47:24I mean, when we got on that plane after the election and the outcome and the disappointment and young people and all of it. I got on that plane and that last trip on Air Force One, and I barely remember much of anything. But the minute I walked through those doors, I burst out in tears. And I think I cried for like 30 minutes straight. And for me, that is a show of a release of, it wasn't sadness. It was, thank God we made it to the other side of that experience because it's not just the responsibility, but as a mother, I was like, okay, my kids are whole. My husband is whole. You know, it didn't, there was no guarantee that we'd get to this other side in one place.

48:23We were proud of what we did, but it was like, it was over. Yeah. It's like, whew. Right. You know, and I, you know, who would know that? There are 40 some odd people who've ever had that experience. And it is a, it's a weight because it's not about you, right? You are responsible for every emotion, every sense of a young person's being, you know? I mean, everything we were doing, we understood what we were modeling. And it's like you don't want to get it wrong. You don't want to. So you were cognizant of the effects your policies might have on the lives of others. That's so interesting. So what you're saying is in the middle of, let's say, a war, you wouldn't necessarily bring out, I don't know, the specs for a ballroom.

49:25John, let me tell you, as their brother or her brother and brother-in-law and all black people, we were, it feels like I was holding my breath for eight years. Really? Because of the magnitude of what they had in front of them and how if they had somehow accidentally or maliciously done the wrong thing, how it would have affected the entire race. Right. That's, people don't talk about that. Right. And, you know. It's the Jackie Robinson. It's the, it's the. It's like, well, that's it for. That's it. That's it for black people. That's it. All right, let's try a Jew.

50:19But, you know, so not that you asked me, but I was relieved on that at the end. Relieve all the worrying. You know, that's an interesting part of it too, is to be the family, but to not be in the house. Yes. Also, because you're not ensconced in it. you're on the outside feeling all of the outside noise. I imagine the house can somehow function as a bit of a - They're bubbled up. Right, right, right. They're bubbled up, but I'm out in the streets like a civilian, and I'm dealing with all that. Now, as the brother, was it hard to hold your powder when? Because I know, listen, noise is noise, and everybody hears it.

51:03So I would imagine. You know, I think at the time, I was still coaching. Right. So what I always said to people was that as long as I know they're in there, I know they're trying to do the best for the most people. Yeah, yeah. So the noise I was hearing wasn't that bad. Right. And plus people were telling me I couldn't coach and needed to be fired anyway. You had your own noise. No, but it, it, it, um, I had the utmost confidence in him. So I wasn't worried about the noise because it didn't mean anything. Right.

51:49I've always admired people who bet on themselves. The friend who starts roasting coffee in their garage, the side hustle cake decorator, my wife, Kelly. She loves flipping my old sports merch online. It's very fun to watch. Inevitably, anyone who wants to sell something online comes across the big question, how do I actually do this? That's where Shopify comes in. Shopify is a platform built to help people start, run, and grow a business. You own your storefront, your brand, and your customer relationships, but Shopify helps put your products in front of people wherever they're already shopping.

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53:58This back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. You know, one thing nobody prepares you for when you have kids is how quickly they go through school supplies. I cannot imagine, when I was growing up, going through backpacks as quickly as my kids do nowadays. But somehow, once a year, it's back to the store we go, or to two stores, or three. Not to mention how fast it all just manages to disappear. The school year isn't half over, and somehow we're out of pencils, erasers, notebooks, and 30 other things. That's why I really appreciate Amazon during the back-to-school season. Whether you're shopping for school supplies, backpacks, lunch gear, clothes, or all those last-minute items that I know you don't want to be running around for, Amazon has it all.

54:49You can compare brands instantly and read reviews knowing that what you buy will actually last. Basically, Amazon makes it easy to get what you need and get back to your life. So remember, with Amazon's low back-to-school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Friends, relationships, career goals, big life anxieties, we get into all of it on this show. It's become a kind of therapy for me. But just to be clear, I am a firm believer in actual therapy as well. Therapy isn't only for moments of crisis. It's for anyone who wants more support, clarity, or tools for navigating whatever life throws at them.

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56:49Did you know you would be doing what you're doing with comedy at this level? I mean, was there always a political curiosity, a passion, you know, and finding a way to incorporate it into your comedy? Well, yeah. So that's, you know, we talked earlier a little bit about like your first 15 or 20 minutes is almost always biographical. Yeah. And then you move into kind of observational. And observational can be, you know, the sort of behavioral, from the minutiae to the trivial to something more consequential about relationships or things like that. But I was never particularly interested in those dynamics.

57:30I was interested in power dynamics. I was interested in the way that the world functioned and had always been that way in school and everything else. And so that was, I think if you wanted to feel like you were being authentic, you try and write material that reflected your passions and interests. And that's sort of where that all came from. Yeah. And then how did the whole Daily Show come about? So The Daily Show came about Doug Herzog and Madeline Smithberg and Elyse Roth were these two producers. And then the head of, at the time, Comedy Central. Doug had wanted to do kind of what's the Comedy Central answer to SportsCenter?

58:19What would make this network feel like it was a sort of living entity? And so The Daily Show is what Madeline and Elise produced to that end. And they had a host, a basketball player, Craig Kilburn. Craig Kilburn, yeah. And he had decided to go off to do network. And I'd been out of work for a while. I'd written a book and done some other stuff and kicked around the clubs and done some incredibly memorable independent film roles.

58:53and yeah that wouldn't happen and and they asked me if I wanted to do it and and I had said you know let me let me think about it and and I thought about the way that that I saw that the show was and the way that I wanted to make it and and so we had discussions about I thought that it could be a vehicle to explore those themes of power and politics and the distance between. I was always really interested in the room before the room, the room where the meeting took place, and then the politicians would go out and they would give their speech. And you always wonder, okay, because as you know, everything's purposeful.

59:37Everything is intentional. So how are they designing that? And how does it used to be? Sometimes now you just have a guy wake up at three in the morning and go, I think I might be Jesus. Point is this. But that's what I wanted the show to be, to deconstruct what we see as power's reality. What's the reality behind that? And that seemed like the right forum for it. And also this surrounded by just great writers and performers. And, you know, and the list of them is endless. Speaking of, you know, we had Jessica Williams on. Oh, God, she is amazing. She's amazing. She's the best. She raved about your mentorship.

1:00:19And you should be very proud. Listen, it's like you don't want to screw that. Like, she is such a rare. I watch videotapes all day looking for talent. And, you know, and you watch them with sort of that idea. It's like scrolling on before Instagram. You're just doing this. Yeah. Going through. And then every now and again, you go, huh? That's Jessica. She, and I mean like not a produced, like some low rent, old Sony, handy can't like nothing video. And she just explodes off it. Yeah. And is, and what a lovely person. And, but a talent that, I mean, she's obviously doing, but, you know, We knew that the minute you saw her.

1:01:12And she was, I think, 20 years old, 21 years. Like, it was crazy. We couldn't even believe that. And she had never done it. Never done it. Came in and was just, she's, certain people vibrate with no delay. Like an electrical. She has like an electrical. So it's, the synapse is just fire. And she's that as a talent. And the best thing that I tried to do was try and find the most talented people I could and let them be them. I'd love to say that it was like my guidance of that. Like I was - Well, you wouldn't say that, but a lot of other people have said that about you. I mean - Well, that's very, that's kind of - You know, they have talked about you being the leader at that table.

1:02:00I mean, you know, the table that they were surrounded by, there was still your work ethic. there was still the example of your, and I'm using the words that I've heard too. Right, right. You know, it was still your work ethic. It was still the tone that you set around that table. And you know that there are tables, other comedy tables. I've been at some of the tables. Where, you know, no, it's just the opposite. It's a little rough and nobody's rooting for you. And there isn't the, you know. So I don't know whether that's a question because you won't take it. you won't say how did you do that john how did you feel but once i read some su's art of war um i think i'd been in a lot of places that were not healthy and and when i first got there i don't think it was healthy i think it was rough yeah and and quite toxic and that people's ambition was i think it's hard for people to sometimes understand and maybe in this show is that if the show's good, we all win.

1:03:06Yeah. And so if we all, the energy that it takes you to create toxicity or selfishness or to be overly combative is energy that you're not using to elevate. Listen, America, can you say that again?

1:03:31it was you know there's only a finite amount of of energy in the day so i had to learn how to parcel that energy for myself but also for the staff to understand that like we're it's in some respects it's a refinery and we're taking raw materials in the morning and we're trying to create a process that can refine those materials into something that we feel is, and I don't want to say great, not great thing, but the greatest execution of our aspiration or intention. Every day has to set an intention. And that's why for me, it's almost more fun to work on the process because the process was so crucial in creating the product.

1:04:20And that was the gift of having people around me who also really sort of dug that idea. Like, let's sit and talk about, because five minutes at 9 a.m. is 45 minutes at six o 'clock, but now there's an audience waiting there. So if we can figure out how to create a process that's repeatable, but not stifling, It was this great dynamic of challenges.

1:04:49And what I loved about it, I felt like it was the first time it used every part of anything that I thought I was able to do to its totality. Yeah. And that's why it was so nice to be able to come home to my family completely drained. Yeah. And spent so that I had nothing left for them. I think the answer here is this. Work hard. Deplete yourself. Have nothing left for others. For your family. Well, what was family life like for you before you realized that you were, you know, I mean, was Tracy patient with it? Was she getting pissed off about it? Did she understand? I think that it's hard whenever you have young children.

1:05:45Yes. And this is probably for just me, Craig. Dumb boys. Dumb boys. Dumb boys. Is when you walk into the house when there are two young children there and you've been working all day. The first thing you might not want to say is how tired you are. Yes. Yes, you can't do that. It's a no-no. Yeah. You know, and that's, you know, we should put that on a t-shirt. Don't say how tired you are. Don't. Yeah. You know, don't do it. But she's also, like, she's just a rare bird, like, incredibly supportive. But it took me a while to understand and to really understand it. how hard it was for her in those years.

1:06:38It was really hard. Yeah.

1:06:42And the person that's coming into that, that you've been in Wisconsin the whole day, is also can come into it as the amusement park. Oh, God, yeah. So you can walk in. It's been a long day of tears and limits and trying to set, you know, raise them to be responsible thing. And then this one comes in is like, who wants to ride on my back? And you, you know, you're, you're a wrecking ball. That's right. In this entire operation. And you think it's, but I don't get any time with them and I do this. Yeah. And so it, you know, dealing with all that is, it, it can be really, it can be really fraught.

1:07:22But what's so interesting is as they become autonomous and, and obviously the, you know, those old ways of raising them when they're little, you know, that it's, you know, nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice, you know. But as they get older, you're like, you know, they put fentanyl in Coke, right? Like, just, you know, be aware, right? Like, but then it's just the two of you again. Yeah. And it's a really kind of lovely, like, it's a comfort. Like, you've been through all these wars and now you're kind of just together again on the couch. And you obviously, you know, the energy and excitement of the kids being around is so incredible.

1:08:07I don't. I love them. I'm going to see them tonight for dinner. I love them. Yeah. But, you know, Barack cried when they went to college. I was like, bye, little. Goodbye. Now Friday nights aren't wrecked with terror and fear about where are you? Where are you? Right. No, I get that. I love their emancipation and growth. The thing I miss, though, is the job. Like, don't you miss? See, your kids are still in high school, so it's still a job. Yes. Like, it gave a meaning and, like, pattern to my life. I'm good. Look at all this meaning. She's different. I have a wonderful pattern. Oh, man. I love my kids' schedule.

1:08:51I love it. Yeah, there's something about the schedule. I love their schedule. I love my schedule. I have a great schedule. This is awesome. And it's all mine.

1:09:01But I think fathers can be that way because you weren't there from six and nine. And we missed a lot of it. You missed a lot of it. I mean, I've had so much quality time with my children. That's so funny. So much. Yeah, yeah. I know them inside and out. It must drive you crazy. I'm sure it must have driven my wife crazy. When I first left the show, and so it was all about then driving the kids to school and driving them home. And I'd come back with them. They were in the car and they were talking about this. They were laughing. It never occurred to me. I'm sure my wife was thinking, how lovely.

1:09:33Yeah, yeah. You just soak it all in. But we, at that time, too, we moved out of the city. So we went through a kind of a strange, I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this. But so when we were in the city, we went, they went to school in Greenwich Village called a little school called Little Red. Literally like the school Pete Seeger went to. Yeah. Every assembly ends with, you know, honey in the rock, feed all the children. We all hold hands and somehow just levitate. You know, it's all just magical. And we moved them out to Jersey. And this was 2015. I remember dropping them off at school.

1:10:07And the first bumper sticker I saw was Hillary for prison. And I was like, okay, I don't think Honey in the Rock is how this thing is going to go. But that was a big adjustment. And they, in some ways, I'm really glad that that happened because we were ensconced in something that was really eccentric and kind of cloistered. Cloistered. Yeah. Do you think comedy helps or hurts the political climate? Oh, wow. Because here's what, you know, I mean, sometimes I just can't watch anything political. Sure, sure. Right? Especially then, because it was like, is this funny? Right, right. You know? Well, it's personal.

1:11:01Or is it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But I wonder what you think, because sometimes I think, is it good that most young people are getting their news from The Daily Show? Right. Or that they want you to run for president? Right. Or, you know, I mean, we're in that position of where, you know, especially with social media. Right. It's like the funny guy. I mean, social media has, look, I think the shows that we do now, they go out on social media on the thing. But to a large extent, because we are infrastructure heavy, we are in some ways a relic of a previous era where it's sort of like I'm running a blockbuster video store inside of a Tower Records.

1:11:52You know what I mean? Like it is where people will just be like, so you sell what now? CDs? But in other ways, it has more reach because social media places it everywhere. The question is, I never confuse cultural power with power. Yeah. I learned early on that one of the frustrations of, one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked about. Like, what do you want to be as a comic? I want my personal thoughts and dreams and whatever to be filtered through whatever art form it is that I'm pushing through. Second item of it is, but it's impotent.

1:12:32And is it an opiate? Is it creating, you know, and having worked on some of those things on Capitol Hill and all that, I know the difference now, which I didn't before. The difference between activists who are in the trenches doing that day-to-day work, trying to bend that arc of the moral universe slowly towards us, not realizing there's a bunch of people trying to bend it back. And so, you know, I wish there were metrics. I'd almost, I wish there was a double blind study where you could find out like, am I hurt? Like, does this help? Does it corrode? Does it pervert? Is it something to be, is it ultra processed food that's given the country a kind of political diabetes?

1:13:22I don't know. I think I also have to step back on, it may not be an honorable thing we do, but we do it as honorably as we can in that it is not in bad faith. So the way that I try and judge it is any good faith art, material, speech, talk that goes into the universe, I feel like is a win. There's so much bad faith. Yeah. And I try to hold that, but I can't sit here and honestly answer like, it's a win for society. Like what I've done over these past 25, you know, I don't, I'd hate to think, obviously. Yeah, yeah. But there's many people on social media who would tell me that that is the case.

1:14:13And the other side of it is you have to be agnostic about you don't get close to the people. The relationships with political figures are always fraught or with media figures. I always say to people at the show, look at the people around you. When you leave here, if we do this right, these will be your only friends. Right, right. Because one of the things about the sort of media industrial complex and the political media industrial complex is the associations diminish the purpose of what some of those disciplines are. They can exist in that. And so that's hard. Yeah. You know, because you do feel there are people you really like.

1:14:56Yeah. You really admire. But you know at work, like, you're going to have to, and I'm sure for you guys, there's people you might like who do those things. and you go, I think I'd like to punch that kind of face. You know, that kind of thing. Well, and to answer my own question of you, I do think the cultural impact is important. I mean, I've always thought that, you know, that that power is, it's not the same, but it's really important. I mean, I felt that way even when I was first lady, you know, and I think our administration understood that. There was the Washington power, but it's like, if you wanted to talk to anybody, if you wanted anybody to hear you really, you needed to go at it from the culture.

1:15:45Right. Right. Where people are. Right. And not try to buck it. I mean, I didn't do one interview with Face the Nation or Meet the Press. Right. I never sat down with the New York Times editorial board. Right. But I came on The Daily Show. Right. And you never tried to have us arrested. Oh, I didn't. I didn't. Or silenced. If I knew I could have. Or taken off the air. No. No, but it's a function of a confidence in your worldview. There is nothing more, I think, fragile than someone who wields real power, who feels that that power will be diminished by satire or commentary. You know, it's kind of a shocking fragility.

1:16:34For someone who wants to, you know, project alpha male dominance and yet be so incredibly, you know, wrecked by something that happens at 1230 at night. I mean, he's made all of our shows relevant again in a weird way. Yeah. Well, I thank you. Listen, I thank you guys for coming over. It's been such a delight. Now, you know I turned this room. My book club is going to be here. It's true. Are you enjoying the podcast? The podcast space? Oh, the one that we do? Yeah, yeah. You know, the one where you should be interviewing people. Yeah, I get to talk to all kinds of different people, and I get to do it in my house, which is just— That's so cool.

1:17:23Yeah. That's so cool. And it's also a way, you know, as you guys, we talked about a little earlier, I am not the most socially inclined individual. Yeah, that was the most surprising thing when I met you. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I mean, oh, he's so shy. And he's extremely anxious about the world. Yes, that is correct. But is it true that you keep your Emmys in a box? Yes, I'm sure. I've never been attached to material or awards or any of those sorts of things. My wife found me, when she found me, I lived out of those milk crates that you used to get with all this stuff. And I'm - Barely out of those.

1:18:07Barely out of that. But no, it's lovely to talk to you guys, truly. Well, you know, we have a listener question that we need to answer that will - Very quickly, Sagittarius. You're fire, girl. I don't know where that is. I don't know what camera I'm like. I'm in surround sound over here. All right. All right. Who's our listener? Who's our listener? All right. So this is from Eric. Hi, Michelle and Craig. My dilemma is this. I am certain that fixating on politics and political conversations right now will not improve the negativity, divisiveness, and hopelessness that I have and that seems to be everywhere.

1:18:49At the same time, it can feel naive to ignore things altogether because so many things ale the world right now. The economy, loss of rights, deaths at home and in wars overseas, the environment. So where does that leave the average person like me who both wants to escape or at least ignore the nightmare of our current political landscape, yet also understands that doing nothing won't actually improve anything? What is the kind of work we can be doing and what are the conversations we should be having that might make a difference, but also allow us to keep our sanity? From Eric in Vermont. Okay, Eric.

1:19:24your listeners are deep. We do something like this on my show and it's always like, what's your Taco Bell order? Are you a Chalupa guy? Eric's going through it, man. Yeah. I don't think he's alone. Oh, wait, are you looking at me to answer this? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's right. I turned to answer. Greg's looking at me like this, like. You're the expert. Let's see what you got. We'll all jump in, but we want to be polite and let our guests go first. Action is the antidote to anxiety. And I've always felt that. Existential anxiety is something you can never get your hands around, but what you can get around are tactile.

1:20:06It's so funny that this is coming up. So I'd had this conversation with Trevor Noah about anxiety and that's why I like woodworking. I've learned how to play the drums. There are things that are, they're mechanical, they're tactile. They are rhythmic. They are repeatable. And they are grounding for me mentally. And he just sent me this, apparently Winston Churchill felt the same way. He sent me this thing about Winston Churchill used to be visited by depression. I don't have that. But he'd be visited by depression and he would call it the black dog. And when the black dog would visit, he had to do things with his hands.

1:20:50He had to make things. He had to. And so Trevor was just sending me that, you know, this is your coping mechanism put to explicit eloquence by Winston Churchill. And then I just wrote him back and said, that's so crazy. It explains why I always feel like I want to bomb the Germans.

1:21:14But I would think, you know, young people feel this way. you know in in the olden days you got rid of that with booze like that's kind of how people dealt with that existential anxiety because they couldn't talk it out yeah yeah but i don't know like that was very anybody that i think that is able to articulate it in that way can get through it yeah because that's naming it is one of the hardest things yeah yeah yeah i mean one thing i i totally totally agree because some of you just gotta work through it you gotta And I totally agree with the tactile piece. I mean, I knitted my way through COVID.

1:21:52I play tennis like three times a week. And the repetition of the thing, because you're on there, it's like, I have to run and hit that ball. I can't think about anything else while I'm doing it. I'm trying to figure out how to hit the ball better. And I can do that for 90 minutes. And that's 90 minutes of not thinking about anything except for that thing. So I completely agree with that. The other thing I often say to people is, I think we run into the challenge of thinking that all change has to be big change. I think young people think that too. When you hear about the young people doing something, well, I got a thousand people to vote or I raised this.

1:22:35I mean, it's just like they're often biting off so much. Yes. How do I end drug dealing in my neighborhood? How do I fix this huge, gigantic problem right under my nose? And the answer is you can't. You know, what you need to do, first of all, is just focus on what you can control. You know, focus on small right now, especially young people. Right in front of you. It's like right here. Right. You know, it's like, are you in school? Stay in school. Right. Do your homework. You know, that's, you know, that's some power right there. Absolutely. And it's also sort of the quiet activism of living pleasantly.

1:23:16Yes. Like in the sense of everybody that you encounter in your world, whether it's at a deli nearby or when you go to the thing, if you interact with them in a way that recognizes their shared humanity. I'm telling you, man. That's the wind. It works. It's kind of huge. It works. And it's funny that Eric is in Vermont because that goes to what I was going to say to Eric. You know, I probably never told you this, but when you all were first running, I used to be a surrogate. So I'd have practice during the week and then on Sundays they'd send me somewhere. Oh, wow. And I'd give the team off and then we'd practice late on Monday so I'd be able to travel back.

1:24:01And one of the first places I went was this small town up in Vermont, really small, right by the water. And I remember there's a small little general store that I got dropped off at to be picked up by somebody else and be taken somewhere else. And I went in the general store and I'm like in a suit and everybody's wearing flannel shirts, right? And this guy says to me, you're not from around here. And I was like, oh, you figured that out. Oh, just the suit, you think? And no, I didn't say because I was black. I said it's because I had the suit on because he knew why I was there. But he pretended that he didn't know.

1:24:50And he's like, you know, we got a lot of politicians coming up around here. You got anything to do with that? And I was like, yeah, I do. I happened to be coming up here to talk about Barack Obama. And then I went into this whole thing. He's like, well, I don't know about that guy. And I said, well, why not? He said, well, he hadn't done much. And so I went into this very calm and quiet discussion about why you have to every now and then give a chance to people who don't have the same experience that other people have because they haven't had the same opportunity. Real basic stuff. But it was quiet and it was calm and it was an hour of it.

1:25:34And by the end of it, he was, I don't know who he voted for, but he acted as if I had convinced him. Right, right. And I say this to Eric, to John's point, there's nothing like conversation with people. And to your point, Mish, it doesn't have to be with a thousand people. just hit them one person at a time. Right. And talk to them about how you feel and how you think. And if you're smart and can put a few sentences together, people will listen to you. How crazy would it be if that guy, Eric, is that guy you talked to? That would be. And he was just like, oh, I had this question I wanted to ask him in the store, but I couldn't do it.

1:26:22Now I got to wait 16 years. Yeah. I'm going to throw it in there. Eric sounds younger than the guy. Yeah, you're probably right. Well, Eric, hopefully that helps you out a little bit. And anybody else who's listening? Thank you, Jon Stewart. Thank you, guys. You're a very intelligent young man. I heard there was a PA job available. I saw the fruit. We don't pay much. I just want to point out the difference when you do a podcast with a former first lady and her brother. The fruit selection in their green room puts basic cable to such shame. I was literally marving. I was like, is that a raspberry?

1:27:01The exotic nature. It's only for the guests. No. No, it was so nice to see you again and to catch up. Thank you for having this time. It's been great. Hopefully we'll see you again soon. Beautiful.

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