David Sedaris is Mostly Bark, Some Bite

27:55Oh, you should read that story. It was pretty exciting. The first non-binary Biden administration executive was stealing suitcases and then wearing the clothes from inside of the suitcases. And it was amazing. It was not a good look. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. Speaking of, now you struggle with the word queer and how the language around being gay has evolved. Have you heard from people on the road about this that call themselves queer, from sort of Gen Z, that use different terms? Where are you at now? Because you got some backlash for what you said. I love asking people about it. I love it.

28:33And I find that generally it's a generational thing. Like a lot of times when I meet young women, I say, where do you stand on the word lesbian? and a lot of them are just so insulted I even used that word. They reject the word lesbian and they don't want to be put in a box. And I said, well, I'm still putting you in a box, but this one has irritating person written on the side of it. And I find my problem with the word queer, I have two problems. One, it doesn't tell me anything. right and two it's the third time in my life I've been rebranded and it just it'll happen to you too when you get older like people keep changing your name and nobody ever asks you no one ever asks your opinion it's like oh you're this now and then when people come up to me and say oh you're a queer writer and it's like no I'm no I don't and again it doesn't have anything to do with the word formally being an insult.

29:40I appreciate that it's short, you know, but that's all that I really appreciate about it. But I love asking people about it. And usually the people, you know, younger people, they like having their own word. You know, this is a young word and so they feel like it reflects them. But I feel, I guess I don't know, you know, a woman came up to me and said, oh, you're a queer writer. She said, my daughter's queer. My 12-year-old daughter is queer. And I said, how? And she said, she's asexual. I said, isn't that what you want in a 12-year-old? I mean, maybe she's just 12. Yeah. Well, that's in this sort of edge case.

30:24Well, I remember when I was a speechwriter and I struggled with this because I, you know, when I was growing up, there was gay and there was straight. And we all kind of bisexual was a joke, right? If a girl was bisexual, she was really straight. If a guy was bisexual, he was really gay. And we didn't really talk about trans. We didn't know about, we didn't talk about non-binary gender wasn't really as much a part of it. And when I became a speechwriter, I remember watching as we would say, like, you know, we're proud to celebrate gay rights. and then it was like, well, you can't just say gay rights.

31:01You have to say there's also trans people. And then we started including in speeches LGBT. And I remember as a writer feeling offended by LGBT because it felt so mechanical. It felt like it was from a manual about gay rights. It felt technical as opposed to, you know, we're so proud to have achieved so much for gays and lesbians or the gay community saying lgbt felt just lyric just felt it had a bad sound right um and that to me so then then you go to queer and that's meant to be a catch-all but i had the same feeling that i think you have like wait this word doesn't feel exactly right but i wonder how much of that like what is it about the word that doesn't feel that it's not just that it was a slur, right?

31:55There's something where it doesn't feel like it captures who I am and I wouldn't use it, but it is a useful word to have a catch-all. And I'm wondering if you've thought about what is that feeling? Because if it was just that it wasn't, you have a bad feeling about the word. It's not just that it's not as good as gay. You don't want it. So why? Well, again, part of it too is that I just feel that it's unspecific. It doesn't tell me. Often when I think of queer, I think of somebody who is in a heterosexual relationship, but is open to the idea of a three-way and has a septum ring. And that's a thing, right?

32:40And so if that's your identity, you can be, that's, you're queer. Have it, please. And I'll call you queer and everything, but I'm not. I'm not queer. So I'm gay and you can be queer and, and that's fine. But I don't, when the word queer is used on me by well-meaning people who think, well, that's the word now, that's a word they like us to use, you know, that person, I cringe, you know and I don't and but again when you said something earlier as a writer okay I mean as a writer yeah language is what I deal it was what I the the tools that I work with so when people say it's just a language thing well yeah it's it's what I'm working with right like the New Yorker like I can't say prostitute and the New Yorker.

33:35I have to say sex worker. To me, a sex worker, like if you lost both your arms in an accident, a sex worker would come to your house and teach you how to pleasure yourself by rubbing against a doorframe. That's a sex worker, right? For sure. Yeah, yeah. But then there's a prostitute. So I will never write about a prostitute and the New Yorker because I don't want to use the word sex worker. I don't like the word. Right. You know? And the same way, if I was in a situation and they said, well, you have to use the word queer, I would say, okay, well, I won't write anything for you. Or I won't write about that if I know I have to use that word.

34:12I don't want the word. I don't want to use it. I don't like the way it sounds. I don't like, I don't want to see it on paper. You know, I don't want to type it. so and that's I don't know that that has I don't know if that's an old thing you know just from being old or I mean there are it's not like I any new word I don't want anything to do with I mean sometimes well there are a lot of them that I don't want anything to do with

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36:35the sex worker thing is interesting because here's what i worry about for like why am i reluctant and is it because it's because i don't want to be associated with the style of writing that uses words like queer and sex worker right that if you're describing a sex worker it is a kind of there's a kind of uh uh performative obtuseness and kind of a performative progressivism that feels artificial and so i am am i rebelling against that artificiality not because the word itself but because i don't like the way other people use it and the kind of writing and thinking it's associated with you know i'm saying yeah exactly yeah a sex worker took one college course, okay, is a prostitute who took one course in college.

37:26Like, I think if you went to the streets and you, and someone was offering blowjobs and you say, what do you like to be called? I think, I don't know how many people would say sex worker. Yeah. Sort of like how I would never make an ALE. Maybe the thing to do would be to say to them, what would you like to be addressing? What would you like to be called? Yeah. You know. Well, because we went through a round of this when people were saying kind of Latinx. Yeah. And it turned out, you know, that that's sort of an artificially produced sort of activism-based word that wasn't really used outside of those spaces.

37:59And then kind of went through a cycle of how people were using that word. And then eventually we're not using that word anymore. And it's like, OK, great. We're back to Latino, Latina. Well, I think about it sort of for me, right, because I identify I'm gay. but at the same time I'm I became comfortable with that at a time when I didn't have another option right and I'm now 43 I am married to a trans person I like I choose to call myself gay even though truthfully I am the word queer probably more appropriately defines what I am but as but I choose to be gay because I think being gay is a choice nobody's gonna take that away from me Well, I, like, when I was, I remember the word gay coming into use, right?

38:50The term was homosexual. And so I remember the term gay. And maybe because I was 18 years old, I thought, great, because it fit, you know. And so maybe there were people who felt like gay was unspecific. Or, you know, they just didn't like the sound of it. I mean, homosexual, I'm fine with. It's just longer. You know, like for some reason we just keep making words longer.

39:19So again, anything one syllable, but an LGBTQ and then it became QQIA and then it was a plus was added. And I agree. It was a lot. Well, this is where it's like, it's about persuasion too, which is like, hey, like if nobody who's not paying very close attention is going to master LGBTQIA +, like it's stupid. It's just like at some point we're allowed to have sort of aesthetic judgments. Like, I'm sorry, but that's stupid. It is stupid to go around saying so many letters in a row and to keep adding new letters to it. It's just aesthetically unpleasing. We're allowed to have taste, right? two. You couldn't blame people for making fun of LGBTQIA+.

40:05No, it's funny. It's funny. Yeah. Now, you've also been advocating for wearing skirts, people about how comfortable skirts are. We are both people that have worn skirts at our live show and have become proponents of skirts. What do you think men are afraid of with these skirts? You know, I don't want to be stared at and I don't want to be a woman and I don't want to have breasts and I don't want to wear makeup. But a skirt just looks good. I don't know. Half the world wears skirts and they don't make any big deal about it. I mean, I went to Fiji and, you know, all the guys are wearing skirts and you go, gee, I mean, again, you go to the Middle East and you see people in basically dresses.

40:54I remember I went to Morocco when I was in high school with my Spanish class. And I bought, I don't know what it's called, but it's like a floor-length robe, you know? And I wore it to high school when I got back. And I remember thinking, I look good. And just being made fun of like so roundly. And I just remember thinking like, why is it a big deal? Like, why? It's got one hole instead of two. Really? And you're going to get that upset about it? But, yeah, I have a bunch of skirts and I'm happy to, you know, I don't have mini skirts and stuff. But I have, you know, usually they go, you know, to the floor or, you know, almost to the floor.

41:40And I just think they look great. I do think that when conservatives get upset about trans people, on some level, what they're upset about is the ways in which they're holding on to these sort of traditional definitions of like the right way to be a man and how small a definition they want for that. and I think as someone that has been publicly gay since you were writing so long ago you never really came out you were just gay from the first moment I've heard of you you were gay the whole time you never came out you never had your moment of going on television being like I'm gay but at the same time I was lucky enough to come around at a time I can write about my relationship and people just It's about trying to make a life with another person, right?

42:36That the world could see that. The world wasn't like, oh, it's gay. Never mind. It's not for me because he's gay. And that was, you know, if I'd done it 10 years earlier, then that would have been a completely different story. So I was just fortunate to come along, you know, that so much had happened before I arrived, I suppose. But the reason I bring it up is because it does seem like what's happening now. So being gay as a sort of an abstract identity, right? Like I'm a gay person, that means I date and want to marry someone of the same gender, whatever. It seems like the part that we're now grappling with is everything around it, like wanting to wear skirts, being more feminine, right?

43:24And defying other aspects of what it means to be a true, like sort of masculine man. And I know as I think about what when I was made fun of when I was a kid, right? Like I was called gay a million times. I was a little bit effeminate. But it was becoming okay to be gay. But it wasn't okay to be a mincing little queen, right? And it does seem like right now there's a real kind of pushback from the right about defying the gender norms. Like they're okay with a Scott Besant being the secretary of the treasury, but they worry a lot about what happens if, say, a man shows up in makeup and a skirt.

44:08And I wonder how you think about that as somebody that has like sort of been publicly identified as gay for so long. well I mean I feel I remember uh when I was young and like I moved I lived in San Francisco for one summer right and I remember it was like a pride parade there in San Francisco and it must have been it was like summer of 1976 or something right but I remember there were drag queens at the beginning of the parade and I remember being embarrassed you know and thinking oh I don't want people to think that that's what gay people are like, right? And now I just, now I think the opposite.

44:55When I see somebody being like a massive like sissy or something, it just warms my heart, you know, and I'm just so happy that they just be in themselves. And I can see how, you know, it can make someone uncomfortable because you're not sure, you know, like when I'm signing books, like you don't know sometimes, you know, how you maybe should address somebody or if somebody gives you a book and then it's got, well, especially like a name like Zia on it, you know, and then is that Zia? Is Zia somebody else? You know, so I always say, who's Zia? And then sometimes people are like, I am. And I say, well, I'm asking because it could be your cousin.

45:40It could be, you know, it could be anyone. So I have a nice out that way that you don't necessarily have in day-to-day life. But I think it just makes people uncomfortable. Like, if I'm wearing a skirt, I don't see any reason for anyone to call me ma 'am or she. It's just a skirt. I don't have any makeup on. I have a sport coat on. And, you know, I guess I don't care if they're uncomfortable. I suppose that's a difference. Right. But I do think part of it, I'm interested in like, what is that discomfort, right? Like, And you'll turn on Fox News and there'll be somebody saying like, you know, real men don't sing happy birthday.

46:17Real men don't drink soup. Real men don't have straws. Right. Like constraining, constraining what it means to be a man to this really, really narrow box. And I wonder how much of that discomfort people feel is in the same way someone understands that voting for Trump might be wrong in some way that like they're like, I spent a long time building this prison. Like, how dare you? How dare you try to escape? Like, this is where I live. I feel safe here. Well, in a lot of ways, and I think a lot of people would be surprised by that, but I feel sorry for straight guys. You know, I feel sorry that they're in their prison.

46:55And I feel sorry that sometimes I feel like they don't know how to talk to people. You know, like if you're listening in conversation on a plane and there are two guys in front of you who, you know, strangers who are talking. I just feel bad. I feel bad that they don't, again, that their confines are so narrow. Yeah, I remember realizing that I was a worse friend to my straight male friends because I was less effeminate. And what came with being effeminate was being thoughtful, asking people about their day. There's a way gay men are that is more feminine. And part of it is just being, I don't know, thoughtful, considerate, sweet, right?

47:46And I remember realizing like, oh, when I'm with my straight male friends, I act more like them. And I'm much worse in basically every respect, right? Like I would never think to be like, if I'm kind of in that straight mode, you're kind of like, you would never be like, so how's your mother doing? Like, you know, is she getting better from her fall? Like you wouldn't say anything like that. It just doesn't come up in straight world. I was in an elevator and I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago. And I'm going down for breakfast and this guy gets on the elevator. And I said, oh, I saw you on my plane last night.

48:19I said, I noticed your shoes, you know. And that's such a thing that would be so scary, like to a straight guy. Right. A, you remembered them. And B, that you were looking at his shoes, you know. What was the reaction? How did it go? Well, he was wearing shoes without a back to them. So, of course, he was gay. Oh, right. So it all worked out. Yeah, there's sort of that. Sorry, I just ended up making sure you were talking to another gay man.

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50:22You referred to Hugh as your boyfriend. He's your husband. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Uh-huh. Still uncomfortable. I don't like the word. Yeah. He's the man I married. Right. What's the problem? He's your husband. I don't like the word. But you got married. Yeah. Just for financial reasons. It was a shotgun wedding arranged by my banker. And I don't want to marry anybody else. It didn't mean anything to me to be married. I didn't choke up. I didn't... I don't – it was just a legal thing to me. I just got married. Any advice for a long and successful relationship? Yeah, I do. Hugh and I have been together for 36 years.

51:15Never talk about your relationship to that other person. Ever. Never talk about it. Never talk about it. Because that just, it doesn't bear the harsh light of scrutiny. You can talk about it with other people. Right. You can complain about them, but don't talk about it with that person. Right. It's sort of like talking about happiness. If you're talking about it, you aren't it. Don't talk about your relationship. That's pretty good. Now, I noticed something else in one of these essays. You also are deeply uncomfortable talking about your bowel movements in front of you. Oh, my God. No, I've never had one and he's never had one.

51:53What is that? What is what? So I don't know what you're talking about. But so what is it about feminine mystique? I don't know what you're talking about. So I like I notice I definitely feel like there's two kinds of relationships. I don't think there's a middle ground. There are couples for whom the bathroom is just a room with a sink and a shower. Yeah. And that's it. And then there are couples that are just fully in it about every detail. I'm in that category. We talk about everything. We go into great detail and it brings us closer together. Don't you want to – your leave. I like the mystery.

52:28But how can you know a person? A big part of every day, David, is the part of the day where you had either a good shit or a bad shit. It's a big – I wouldn't know. Come on. You know. I have no idea what you're talking about. So you come home from a long trip and Hugh is in a bad mood. He's just a bit upset and you don't know why. it might be because he's having stomach trouble but you'll just never know that you'll never know that he's been he's been oh i was sorry he'd never know that about me but then it's it's but then you're strangers to me no there's plenty of other stuff we know it's nice to have a little window of mystery you know like i know people couples who like fart in front of each other and do things no you're not farting in front of each other what are you getting up and going that has It never happened.

53:19Come on. What are you talking about? If somebody has an accident every now and then, it's never acknowledged, never mentioned. Never, ever, ever, ever. And you know what? I'm really glad because both of us are like that. So if just one person was like that, then it would be pretty hard. Well, I don't think those people make it. I think that's what divorce is. I think it's people finding out that they're with the wrong person because they want to talk about it and the other person doesn't. It's like you can't build a life with someone like that. Yeah, no, Hugh and I, nope, never been discussed.

53:51I don't know what it would be. Now, if I get colon cancer, rectal cancer, he will never know. I will go. I will say I have to go to the hospital for a few weeks. I will say. Why even tell him that? I have a little trip I need to take. So, well, you know, you're getting, you went right to the right, you went, your mind went to correct, I know where your mind went, which is to the fact that you have an aging body, as we all do. And you're in one of the stories, you basically are repulsed by the fact that he needs for a time after hip surgery to have one of those cushy higher toilet seats, which you compare to a coffin.

54:38you both have human bodies that will slowly fail over time. And the best case scenario is that you're holding someone's hand as they lose control of their body, but you're together in the end. There's no avoiding the fact that you have a corpus and it will decay before each other, right? Isn't that the goal? Yeah, but I don't see the need to put him on the toilet now to prepare for putting him on the toilet 20 years from now. 20 years from now, if I have to do it, I'll do it. But I doubt that. But now all of a sudden at the very end of your relationship, you're going to finally have to talk about this thing that you've been avoiding your whole life.

55:14We'll never talk about it. We'll never talk about it. We'll never talk about it. Never. If he was like in his 90s and he soils himself, we will never talk about it. Ever, ever, ever talk about it. Are you thinking about what these, look, your document, you know, you've been writing in your diary. Did you write in your diary today yet? Yeah. You've been writing in your diary every day. Do you think about what those last entries are going to be like? I think it's easier to conceive of our death than it is of our decrepitude. You know, and the thought of being in an assisted living center in one room, your life reduced to one room like my dad's was.

55:57and all your friends are dead and you're defecating in your pants maybe or you're unable to get up from your bed. Being dead, I can think, sure, yeah, but that is just to know that that's coming or to think. So Hugh and I, we were going to throw ourselves off the terrace of our apartment building, but then he didn't want to make a mess. And so we're going to put ourselves in body bags first and then throw ourselves off the terrace. Well, that is considerate. That is considerate. You know, you got to, I would say double wrap it because who knows what kind of splat that, you know, you're going to make a lot of impact and then boom, you're coming out the sides.

56:40I spent 10 days at the medical examiner's office in Phoenix. So I know, I know what it looks like. And I know that's why you're right. Double body bags is a really good idea. All right. So something good came out of this conversation. Well, here's the thing I would say too. But like, isn't a part of you like ready? Like you will have an interesting perspective on what it's like to slowly decline in one room as all your friends die. Isn't that the final? Aren't those the stories we need you to write? Because it'll be helpful to other people that are going through it. Isn't there something beautiful about getting that last experience, which is so common for people?

57:21Yeah, I think the thing is, though, Calvin Tompkins died recently, the art critic for The New Yorker. And he was, was he 100 or was he? But the thing, too, is that you can, his eyes were really failing him at the end. So you could be in a situation where you couldn't write. You know, when you're really sick, you can't sit up, you know, like if you were. so you'd it's a nice idea that you could write until the day you die but you have no control over it you know so maybe if gee if hugh's mother right huge reader i've never known anyone who reads more than her and uh now she can't read and she's 95 and she's just sort of parked in front of a TV, her worst nightmare.

58:13And she can't read a book. And even if you gave her an audio book, she can't focus on anything. So again, I don't necessarily have control. I'd like to be able to write until the end of my life. And I don't mean that to write in order to put a book out, but just, you know, I've done it every single day of my life for the last 50 years. So I don't know who I would be without it, regardless of it being published or not. I just don't know how I would know who I am, I suppose.

58:56So I said maybe it's the kind of thing where you wait for the kind of double wrapped phase. You can age into decrepitude, but then when you finally can't write, then you do the double bagging right maybe sort of let's just hold off let's put a pin in the double bagging until but i think it's unfair and i haven't i think it's unfair that you can't you know your insurance policy your life insurance won't pay off if you've if you kill yourself i don't i mean i understand the problems with changing that but i just don't think it's fair to expect people to put up with that amount of misery and, you know, like if you're defecating in your pants and somebody's clean you up and then you're just like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

59:42And you're not even having a good time. You know, like the rest of your day is not going to be any better than that. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to kill yourself. I have this idea for Canyon Day. And you put logs around the Grand Canyon, right, just along the lip of the Grand Canyon. And you take people there at night. And then so if they trip over a log and fall into the Grand Canyon, that's just the way it goes. So it's like a little loophole you developed where it's called like – so to get the insurance to pay out that it's just a lot of people tripping on the Grand Canyon. Yeah, it would be called Canyon Day.

1:00:27And then if you wanted to participate in Canyon Day, you would be allowed to. Well, I think that's a great idea. I'm not sure the insurance companies are going to catch wise to it pretty quickly. Suddenly, hey, we've seen a huge uptake in accidental deaths on the Arizona side of the Grand Canyon. But hey, it's a great thought. You know, I shared it with somebody and they said, what if you don't die? Don't you hate people like that? Never. I mean, it's a pretty long fall. I know it. There's no way you're in. Plus, you're going to be decrepit to begin with. Why are you even saying that? What if you don't die?

1:00:59You're going to die. You're going to die. That's not the problem with it. Listen, I want you to know something. There's a lot of problems with that plan. All right? That's not one of them. It's a big fall down there. It's a big canyon. It's Grant. It's Grant. That's why they named the burger after it. Before we let you go, I want to get just a rapid fire a few things, see where your head's at. People saying no problem instead of you're welcome. them. That doesn't bother me. Really? Yeah. But you don't like perfect when people say perfect. Oh, I hate perfect. Perfect. I was at a hotel the other day and the woman said perfect five times before I even sat down at the table.

1:01:39And they're told in hotels, like if you say wonderful or terrific, that's not positive enough. So you have to say perfect, but no problem. I know people who are bothered by no problem. It doesn't. I know people too who are bothered by, of course, could I have another coffee? Of course. And there are people who don't like, of course, I have no problem with it. Okay. Emojis. I used one one time. Just an eggplant? No, it was a, it was a huge sister and I don't remember what it was. I don't like to text. Okay. College professors assigning fewer books and more excerpts because their students have lower attention spans.

1:02:23Gosh, that makes me sad, you know. But that said, if I were in college and then I had to read Moby Dick by tomorrow, I'd be like, fuck, I got to read Moby Dick by tomorrow. You can skip the whaling chapters. Yeah, that's the key thing with reading Moby Dick. People need to know that. There's a lot of whaling chapters in there with detailed information about the technique. You don't need those chapters. Well, I wrote something one time about, I was writing for Esquire and they did an issue, what every man should do before the age of whatever. And so I said, read Moby Dick. So I started reading it and I was like, oh no, this is really boring.

1:03:01It's so boring. So I told myself I could not shave, brush my teeth, take a shower or wash my hair until I I finished it. And then on the second day, I helped the neighbor clean out her chicken coop. And so, you know, I had those little mites all over me. But I couldn't take a shower. I couldn't do anything. I had to read Moby Dick first. There's an audiobook version of Moby Dick read by Burt Reynolds. It seems like he had to do it at gunpoint or something. Really? He reads it? It's atrocious. I highly recommend. Go find it. he does a sailor's accent but he can't maintain it so it like you you hit plan this thing and it's burt reynolds being like call me ishmael but he but by the end of every chapter he's kind of back into classic burt reynolds and then the new the next chapter begins and it's back with the whale was out there you know he does a voice it's crazy it's crazy and he doesn't do any of the whaling chapters so you can just it's a breeze it's a breeze he's writing it down that's good We got a lot of good ideas out of this session.

1:04:03Really happy about that. Last thing, do you hold grudges? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. I don't necessarily act on them, but my brother said a couple weeks ago, I saw my brother, and we were talking about cleaning. And he said, man, you got to be, you know, I got to be mad to clean. And whenever I start cleaning, I go back to my grudge drawer and I pull something out. And it just fuels me when I clean. It's like feeding the steam engine while I clean. And then I finish and I'm fine. What's your oldest grudge right now? Mrs. Arsenu, 1968. Ice cream creations. After a christening, we went to ice cream creations, people from the church, Greek Orthodox Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1:04:48And I was sitting there with my mom, having a lovely time. And Mrs. Arsenu came and said, you go over there and sit with the boys. No 12-year-old boy should be sitting with his mother. and I was having such a nice time with my mother. And I thought, what business is it of yours where I sit? Do you know what I mean? Like my mother wasn't complaining about having me there. And my mother's dead and I think she robbed me, Mrs. Arsenio robbed me of like an extra half hour with my mother. And no one back there said, bitch, are you telling me where to sit? Like nobody would have done that. You just did what she said.

1:05:25I just did what she said and I think about it. I've held a grudge since then. And she's long dead. Yeah, for sure. But I, yeah, that's probably my oldest grudge. And see, now the kids would talk back, something that you find repulsive because the kids aren't listening to their parents anymore. But that was a case where had you talked back to your teacher, you might have had more time with your mother. There was a guy in my high school who, we had a math teacher. And he was also a coach. and he was a dick and he was chewing out this student, this female student, and she started crying and he kept at it.

1:06:07And this guy in the class stood up and said, you need to back off to the teacher. And nobody did things like that. And he got in so much trouble, but it was somebody needed to do it you know and I'm so proud because he was gay there's no way I mean he wasn't talked about back then but there's no way this guy wasn't gay and and I thought about it over the years and I thought wow it was a gay person I mean it wasn't this gay person but it was a gay person who and he wasn't he didn't threaten the teacher or anything he did it in really the perfect way. And when I think about that, he's probably forgotten about it, this guy.

1:06:47But gee, it was huge to me. I think about it quite often. David Sedaris, thank you so much for being here. Everybody, latest collection of essays, David Sedaris, The Land and Its People. Thanks for coming by. Good to meet you. Good to talk to you. Oh, you too. Thanks so much.

1:07:13Thank you, David Sedaris, for joining us. John, Tommy, and I will be back in your feeds on Tuesday morning, and that's it. Pods of America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Farrah Safaris with Reed Juerlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hefcoat, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kirill Pellaviv, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Singel. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.