And I was like, but I did get my feet slapped and I and now I just want you to look at my sinuses and see what you think. And he looked and he was like, I mean, they look perfect. I'm turning on my crystal heating pad. With the p e f thing that I think is in direct opposition to whatever I'm doing right now, whatever frequency, whatever frequencies are being. Used. But I'm so lucky it has the infrared.

It's beautiful. It's really pretty. It's whatever purple stones, I guess, um. On the goup. Gift guide for people who are fancy as fuck, but this was a really extravagant birthday present from BFF Michelle Williams to me, and I think that she felt like at the time I really needed oh, no. You know, this past summer, I just needed like. To heat up my body, Russell, and just and relax, I think she felt like they needed some crystal healing on my body.

But I mean, as far as, like, what its properties are and what it purports to do and like all that stuff, like, I can't speak to any of that. It's just like a heating pad is like a giant heating pad. And I feel like if you just bought like three heating pads from Bed, Bath and Beyond and layered on top of them and then like, put some crystals around you, you the same effect would be had no shade to the mat, but, you know.

Yeah, yeah. I can vouch for the heating pad when I worked out. Watch What Happens Live. Our office was so cold that I went down to the drugstore and bought a heating pad to sit on in my chair. And I know everybody was like, oh my God, this old ass lady that works with us like all these young people. But pretty soon people were asking, can I sit on your heating pad? Wait.

Remember when I when I was like, I'm busy tonight was we were launching it and I was getting over my sinus surgery and like all that stuff. And I went to the Ayurvedic doctor lady and she was like, your butt must always be cold and my butt is always cold.

And she is. And I was like, that's so weird because it's such like a weird thing to have. No, your thing. Yes, but my ass is always frozen and she's like, and I bet you're always sweating from on your face, like from your head.

And I was like, I am always sweating on my face. And she's like, you have too much heat up top girl. Like we have to drag the heat down into your lower extremities.

And so she did a bunch of stuff and poured oil on my head for a week and gave me like a really, really hot footbaths with Ginger in them and like, slapped the bottom of my feet and like all this stuff. And for a solid, like month, my butt was not cold.

Oh, well, we should talk about all of this with our guest, Dr. Seema Yasmin, later. Oh, I know we should. Epidemiologist Dr. Seema Yasmin.

But right now, you know what we should do. Hmm? Say what this podcast is. Hi, guys. Welcome. It's busy. Phillips is doing her best and joined, as always by my dear, sweet Shinjiro Jackson and Kacey St. Onge. Yes, I just looked at your names. Hello. What's wrong with that? I didn't want to make a mistake. You wanted to double check? Honestly, the people that I fucked up their names the most are the people that I know the best.

That is my biggest fear when I introduce people. Oh, is is the terrifying. Will I. Because here's the thing. When you're close with people, you rarely say their names.

That's right. That's right. Thank you, Chantelle. You're not a narcissistic asshole. You don't say their name. If I hang out with you all the time, how often am I just being, like, busy? I would like to talk to you now. So there's nothing more terrifying for me. All right. Pee bars hanging out in the middle of them. But when I used to, like, be in bars and like, I'll be like, oh, my friends, such and such as here are me.

I like I like so near panic. My my trick was always to be like, do you guys know each other? And then they would do it themselves. I know I that's so funny.

That's such a shared trait.

I have major name Pantech. Yeah. And I feel like it's really it's a thing that a lot of people have and like do you want to know the meanest thing that they ever did to us on Cougar Town? Well. Cougar Town was, by and large the most generous, loving work environment like so fantastic. I loved it. I'm prefacing all of this because I'm what I'm about to tell you is I felt like so mean, but it was like a big network sitcom, you know?

So it had like who were you talking with, Dwayne? Last week? It was like 14 writers maybe.

And the writers room, I think it was season to season. I can't remember. They were like trying to do a thing with, like, digital content. It was like the early days of digital content for shows.

And somebody thought it would be fucking funny if they brought in all the actors and then stood all of the writers in a line and asked us to name them.

No. Yes. OK, here's I mean, I take umbrage for so many reasons, but no. One Hollywood break. Writers start working together months before actors get on set, right? Yeah. And not only are they spending most of the day talking about you and your character, like they're spending all their time with each other and blah, blah, blah. So but you're also there's also five of you or whatever, and there's like 14 of them and you're never in the room with them.

You're all set and get a script with their name on it. Writer Hollywood break. Like also depending on what level writer you are, you will never meet those actors.

I said, I will say like every set is different and we definitely, like writers were on set. They were doing their thing.

But you make it like once like a hard core meeting, like casual drive by highs for most people. Like if you're also especially like if you're just if you're just an actor on the show, if you're not like an actor producer, you know, like you're not having a ton of if you're not an actor who is like such a big deal that you go in ahead of the season and the writers all talk to you about what's happening the next season, you know, like that happens.

Hollywood breaks. Sometimes when people are really big stars, even if they're not producers, they get to, like, go in and the writers will tell them what journey their character will be up to for the next year. Right.

But anyway, they thought it would be like real fucking funny to that's real hate. But it was so fucked up, especially because I have named panic, which just in that moment, like could my brain could not have gone blanker. And and then I was like, I got like angry about it for a minute afterwards because I was like, yeah, why don't they come on set and name all of a camera operators and a camera assistants and be you know, because those are the guys like you spend all day with those people.

So, you know, as an actor, you know, all those all the people onsets name. Right. Right. Anyway, it was wild. I had major name panic and I stopped hysterically afterwards.

But I did get like I did get like ten of them. Right. Well, OK.

First set by the bell, there's like thirteen or fourteen of us and the stars of that show, we're really good about coming up and saying hi, No. One, because they knew we like wanted to fucking meet Elizabeth.

I like I wanted to meet the like I mean, like that's one thing. If it's like and then the student, they're the stars, they're. Yeah. They're stars. But then the people, the, the actors who played the students are like we call like my baby, they're like nineteen. So they were like this was some of their first shows. So they were like this is the writers room.

Like they care what's happening because they're like, this is my first show, who are you? So like, we know all of those babies and stuff.

But I think that that's really hard because we spent so much time together and we go down there for our show, like the episode you write, you'll go down there, right, for shock to them. But like like I said before this, people I've known for ten years and also, by the way, Byron covid now.

Yeah, not too bad, but like it's people I've known for ten years. And then we get in a bar, I have two whiskeys and somebody comes in that I had one class with. I'll freak out, I'll be like, oh, you guys know each other. So I couldn't imagine since we're doing so many Hollywood breaks, I should Hollywood break and say this is totally the way a sitcom works. It's totally different than a talk show because the talk show, the writers all work very closely with the star of the show.

Yeah, it's not always, though. Not always. But I've heard tales. I have heard tales. Well, you know, we all know who we're talking about. Usually it's our writers in the host's office every day and then eventually the host becomes very over it in year seven and just is like, keep those guys out of here and then never talk to them again.

I've got to get an early show to start if you want to have your name right.

Yeah. Well, busy, you always got our name right. All three of us have our names, too. So, I mean, I think that we're particularly sensitive because we have we all have unusual names. So we've been like, I don't want to say a victim of being called the wrong thing or.

Oh, yeah, one the victims. Yeah, 100 percent a victim was I my neighbors my whole entire life would call me Kelly, Stacy, Lacey, whatever. They would call me anything but Casey. And I was always really sensitive to it. But then also, like sometimes my mom would call me Tracy and I was an only child, Fanfan.

But like, that's actually insane. That's wild. That's what she was a teacher. And, you know, so it's just like and now I can honestly picture calling my own people in my family the wrong name. So I do that shit all the time.

I've only you guys know I'm boundaries, bitch. But there's only one time where someone got my name wrong and I just like, let it happen. So and it was my barber in Chicago. It was like this old black man. And I was like, I just like really getting my haircut. And then like a year in one day he was like, yeah, she netra and then I just went, I'm just gonna leave it alone and then I like I just did it correctively, cut my hair.

I said hi to him in like he just really thought my name was that for like I probably still now he cut my hair so he's probably so proud of you.

I know the person, the other person because I went and got my haircut and then like just one day I'm talking like a year. And he was like in that writing teacher. And I was like, wait, is today? Oh, no.

It's like he's really like seeing you on TV and being like they're saying Shinichi's his name wrong. I'll be like, oh, just so weird that she had to change her name to television.

Yeah. Busy like Matthew McConaughey. Coller whimsy. You know that I let Matthew McConaughey call me Remzi. It still is like Michelle still will call me women to this day. That's funny. But you guys, I have a crazy story, too, that I don't think I've ever told about when Soul Cycle, First Solar Cycle turns out, has been very controversial in not doing their best.

Turns out and I don't even know which one, but I know well, it's just like I don't know, there's just like a bunch of shit. And, you know, my assistant, Raymond Podia worked at Soul Cycle.

So occasionally when we're on the phone, he'll fill me in on whatever the Daily Mail gas is.

But when it first opened in L.A., I was like one of the first people in the door, mainly because I had gotten ten free classes from soul cycle themselves to how they get.

That's how they get. Yeah.

And I had Tekin like I didn't know any of the teachers and it was sort of like before I had found Angela, who became like my soul cycle guru, who also is like the Beyonce and Jay-Z teacher and now has her own spin training place called Army.

And she's amazing. But anyway, I would go to this one teacher that I like to watch.

She's very hyper. And it was like a whole thing. And I felt like I was going enough that I was like we were getting to know each other a little bit, you know, like a hi, how are you doing? Oh, you look good. You feel good, whatever. And one day as I was leaving class, she's like, I didn't play your song. I'm next time. And I was like, OK. I just thought she meant like a song.

I really enjoyed your reaction to yours already feeling the ending. I want to know. I'm waiting to hear that. So then a couple weeks later, however, another class. And then as I was leaving, she's like, you're looking really great.

I just have to say, like, you are just really taking to this. You look great. Are you training for tour again?

And I was like, I'm. I'm what I'm not no.

I'm doing a show here right now. Like like can I can I guess. Can I guess. OK, yes. OK. All right. I'm going to guess. Can we both get a guess. I want to go with maybe she thought you were. What does she think. You're pink. That's that was my guess.

Or Natalie Maines. And then she said, All right, well Alysha, see you later. She thought I was pink. She called me Aleesha. And then I was just like, oh, OK. By like, I never went back to her class. I just never went back. I just thought, well, I don't even know how to recover from this. And, like, she's going to be so embarrassed.

Here's the thing, though. If you don't, I get confused with somebody. I mean, she's not just somebody. I'm talking about some bodies. Body pick is a good option.

But did you clock the part where she said that I was starting to look good?

Was I back in training to go back on tour?

She clearly was like, who would have you go from those from the aerials to now?

You know, I have never, ever thought you looked like pink, ever like I never thought about that at all. Like when you just said it, I was like, there's only one person I can think of right now. Who this guy. I don't know why, but I feel really good about that. I feel really good about it for you. That's who it was. That's a fun one. I think that that's cool. I like it.

I never am offended. You know, I get a lot of people here. Romney's missing. I do get a lot of people online saying everyone tells me I look exactly like you.

Yeah. But maybe even though they don't be looking like you, they'll be like here I am like doppelganger. Too busy. Philipps I can't go two days without someone stopping me in the street and asking me if I'm busy. Philipps And I'm like, lady. Yeah, I mean busy. You can go two days without somebody asking me to tell you these people. I know I'm not kidding you, though.

Like, people really will, like, go that hard on how much they look like me. And then you look at the picture and I'm like. I mean, are you loud? Like, is that why people think that you're do you talk a lot and laugh loudly? Cause other than I can't imagine what else wealthy it is.

I'm not I'm not there yet. Right. People saying that I they look like me. But I do get confused with like any black girl with a checkmark on Twitter and a fake. They'll be like, you're this person, right? And I'll be like the Hulk. We got a whole different face. We're just a completely different shade of brown from each other. Why do you think we're the same person?

And it's really funny in regular times, just around like a TV set or whatever, people are just so eager to see someone. If you are in L.A. or they're on like a TV set or movies, that they're just so eager to see someone. When I worked for Rosie. People always were like Bobby Brown one time was like, Are you Rosie's sister?

And I was like, no, I'm not. But people ask me that a lot. And he was like, I understand why you want to keep it private.

And I was like, I think like, really, really not. We love that. Bobby was like, yo, you can keep your cool. Were you guys. But I also have been the victim, the victim of the very opposite thing. Irene Neuwirth was like witness to. So once we were on an airplane and the flight attendant was like, you just I know you do you take this Rudel. I was like, we don't know each other, do you?

I wouldn't stop, wouldn't stop, wouldn't stop.

Finally I was like, OK, well, I am I'm an actress.

And he was like, Yeah, I know you because you're famous mocking me. And I was like, I'm not saying that you would know me because you're the one who's been asking me for ten minutes. Why? Yeah. Who I like, why you know me. And like like it's easier for you to think that I just take the exact same route that you're on all the time than for me to just tell you that I might be on like in like a movie that you've probably seen or a TV show that plays on this fucking plane, like, are you kidding?

So anyway, I couldn't stop laughing because he was so mean to me about it. And and then another time was also airport related. I was on like a people mover in Washington, D.C. And this girl is like, we know each other. I think we went to college together and I was like, I don't think we did. And she's like, no, I'm I'm positive we did. Told me the college. I was like, that's not it's not because I'm from Los Angeles.

I went to LA Marymount University.

And she's like, well, then how do we know each other, know that?

And then I was like, OK, look, I you know, I've been on TV shows and stuff. I'm an actor. And she and she rolled her eyes and was like, oh, get a load of you.

And I was just like, oh yeah. You literally are asking me how you know me. I am sorry that my answer is not good enough for you. I am sorry when I first started dating my husband.

This doesn't have anything to do with being recognizable or famous. He was like, oh, I got to tell you something. And I was like, what? And he was like, I went into like the the cafeteria and I saw you at a table. So like I came up and like, squeezed your shoulders. But it wasn't you. It was this girl that's in one of our classes, Mary Beth Mooney. But in my defense, she does kind of look like you from behind.

And I was very irritated. I was very heated. And I was like, I do not like no shades, Mary Beth Mooney, but I do not look like a thing like Mary Beth Mooney. And he was like, well, I must not have looked closely. I apologize. I'm sorry. I was still like, you know, very salty about it. Later that day, we were headed to a concert in Boston.

It was like nice weather out.

We were in the car, like where the going? We were on the highway, stuck in traffic with the windows rolled down.

A jeep of full of young men rolls up next to the car. And the guys in the jeep start going, Mary Beth.

No, my husband was like, you do like.

That's so funny, you guys, I love all these look alike stories, so I think it's funny, you know, Mark has a couple doppelgangers and the most recent one was like this Italian pizza maker at a pizza place that opened in Los Angeles, R.P. Prie covid, what was the name of that place?

But he really looked like Mark. And I kept trying to surreptitiously take a picture of him in the kitchen.

And then there's another chef that looks like Mark, who I would see occasionally. And that guy is fully tatted. And that's where I got the idea that I thought Mark should probably have neck tattoos. He didn't go for it. He didn't go for it does have a chef vibe.

He makes his stuff and he like, no, well, I don't know why. It's like he he always looks like he could, like, bring out a nice app and ask you how you're doing.

I think, honest to God, I think he would be so much happier career wise if he was not like writing and directing movies and instead was cheffing.

Yeah, I mean, I would take it.

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Well, Shintaro, what are you doing here about that? What am I doing this week that I keep doing this thing where I always had an infinite where like I touch it once, like when I open an email, I, like, do the thing that the email asked me to do. Why, why, why, why I'm in.

Ah, right now I'm trying to I'm trying to finish the year out by like touching it once. When I open it I do it because what's been happening there in 2020 is I touch it and then I don't never do it.

So I had these last few weeks, I really have been diligent about open an email or whatever.

If I have a writing assignment, if I have to respond to an email, if I have to do a self tape or something that I probably won't book, I do it immediately. So I didn't feeling really good last night. I finished everything because usually I'll finish stuff and it'll be like midnight. But last night I finished everything at eight, so I'm proud of it.

I still love that.

That's amazing. What about you? Other than that, like weird Orbe next to you, the light form, it's just a light. OK, so you guys know that I've been working on this job, that it's like a job job, you know, like a regular temp job. I call them money, jobs, money, job. And but there had been a project pre pandemic that I was I was really excited about. And it kind of went away like with the pandemic and, you know, for good reason.

The reasons were good. But I still was kind of sad because I was excited to work on it. And like this week, it kind of came back. And so I was really excited to sort of try to jump into that and make it work with the other job. But what was kind of amazing is we were going to have a meeting and there was a need for me to record the meeting to make sure that I took down like everything that was being said in the meeting.

So I looked on my voice memo app on my phone, which I never, ever used. And I found like a two minute phone message from my older son, like last year or something. I don't know how it got there. I found a message from Lincoln when he was ten, which just broke my heart because it was so sweet and cute.

And then there was like a 90 minute recording on there. And I was like, what is this? What I don't even know what this is. And I pressed it wasn't labeled and I pressed play on it. And it was me interviewing Joan Rivers for a magazine.

And I didn't know that it existed.

Still, like the article came out obviously like years ago, but it was just like I didn't even listen to the whole thing. I just listened to I press play. I said, hi, Joan. She said, hi, my sweetheart. And then I just hit pause and I couldn't listen any further. But I was just so happy because it kind of like just reminded me of so many things that I was like, you know, it was kind of like a penny like, oh, I'm on the right path.

That's so cool.

Was your iCloud? Yeah, it was. It was it was like from it was a ghost penny. Yeah.

It really. Yeah it really was.

And it was so nice and like in a lot of ways it was like the original podcast for me, you know, like, I mean it wasn't a podcast, but it was like the first time I ever really interviewed anyone. And it was just this person that, like, meant so much to me. And it was like it was kind of wonderful.

That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's really special. Well, listen, if anyone ever cancels on the podcast, maybe we can just edit us asking questions to Joan into what magazine was for, like, truly, you know, how in New York sometimes, you know, like a wealthy person who's like parent is like, what do you want to do with your life?

Maybe you have a magazine like I think that. So it was like a glossy comedy issue of some magazine that was probably only one issue.

That's one thing. Yeah, it was really nice. And it just love to hear it. I will. I'll send it to you. I'm not going to lie. Very invested in Lincoln's voicemail.

I left that to you as well. I also kind of want to hear your Lincoln.

That sounds Roqia. Here's a thing no say to Joe. I fucked with her, but that is my son and I would love to hear a ten year old message from him. That sounds cute as hell.

Sorry. Sounds like it was very cute.

What is frozen? At first I thought I was frozen because that happens to me sometimes that light is really distracting.

I have to say I look like a ghost portal. It's one I'm going to take a picture of it.

So it looks like a ghost, but it's like not even a ghost. It looks like a ghost portal.

And I took. This is terrifying. Should been taken through the ghost portal.

Sorry I lost you guys go into that my portal, the ghost portal next to you. I guess I into the ghost sucked all the Internet.

I went into the light. Carolann Don't go into the light, Carolien. I did not get this reference.

What is that from? Who's carrying that poltergeist? Oh, absolutely. I would never I would never watch that. Well, I don't even think I've ever seen it. But I do know what I do know what Carol and I've known now. Now I know.

I will never watch that. Oh, no, thank you. Is that the one with the two girls in the hallway? No, that's The Shining. Not going to watch that either.

I did watch The Shining and I was in high school, but it was really just to make out with a boy and that happened.

So that's good. That means that I can't I, I don't really dream. Like, obviously everybody dreams, but like, I don't remember, like, I just like, wake up and I, like, had a room cycle. But if I watch a scary movie, I will have very vivid, detailed nightmares. So I really yeah I, I went and saw I am legend and I just thought it was going to be Will Smith, just like doing Will Smith shit and not about John Legend.

No it's not.

I don't know. Is that a horror movie though. I don't think it's not a horror movie. That's why I agreed to go to it. But there's like there is a scene in that movie where he loved his dog, runs into a building. And I'm like, it's like a bunch of like with a dog.

I'm like upset. Like the dog runs into the building. And basically, I don't remember. It's like all these like kind of basically like the zombies are like together in a in a room. And it's terrifying. Well, I don't like zombies.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that. No, no. Also, like, full disclosure, like if somebody was people almost like zombie apocalypse, what are you doing? Hopefully dying. I do not want to participate.

I want to forage for food. I don't think I would live. I don't I think I would live. I would not want to if we're just you would be, like, complaining the whole time.

I would hope to die. I will hope. I know. And that would be.

And everybody around you would just be like, this is so annoying because like, yeah, she just like live.

It's like people are like, let's drive through the zombies. Let's figure out a way to live on the ground. I want to know that shit. I want to be in the grocery store and I want to be a part of the first wave. I want to be like they come in and they kill all the people in the grocery store and then everybody, like in the back in the stockroom, like, oh, no, I want to be dead.

I want to be I think you might feel differently.

The zombies were upon you. I mean, I'm a.. Not even to be, but like, what is this?

You know, I mean, I was just going to say we are like we are in a zombie up right now.

Three masked people coming toward you being like, yeah, I want to, but in your face I'm going to spit and I'm going to spit at you and give you this. Thanks.

I know that I can't be in the zombie apocalypse right now. I could just, like, go to Krispy Kreme right now.

It's worth staying alive for. I could just go get sushi. Somebody might make me a burger.

I can go to Wendy's. I could go to Wendy's right now. Zombie apocalypse, everything that I enjoy and be on new TV. No, no. I want to die. I want to pass. I want again. We don't know the reality of the zombie apocalypse because it hasn't it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'm ask maybe Wendy's stays open, you know. I mean, I was going to say let me ask you this.

Suppose there's a zombie apocalypse, but it's not like we see in the movies. The zombies are dead and they're rotting, but they're not trying to kill you, per say.

They're just working their drive through your job at Wendy's. OK, here's the thing.

And they just know if if there's a zombie apocalypse and we figure out a way to make zombies a part of society where they have to fucking work, I hope we all die. If there's a zombie apocalypse, it should not be no more bills. If this is zombie apocalypse and I still got to pay bills. No, I'm telling you, it's got to be a fucking Bambi apocalypse. And they're still going to come after you for your college. Yeah.

Yeah. Like it's like if there's a zombie apocalypse, we all got to be debt free. Your girlfriend becomes a zombie and she's and she's like, I want to make it work.

Yeah. And she's just like still great things. But I'm not like a zombie. Guys, you guys are girlfriends. That's girlfriends questions. When it's like if I was a tree and you were a bird, would you still love me? That's a girlfriend. That's OK. Why not? So you just asked me a girlfriend question about my girlfriend, that she's crazy. All those crazy questions. Oh, OK. Just think if I'd done that, Patrick Swayze hit back and I came back as a butterfly and you were a flower, would you stay open for me?

And it's like I'm trying to go to bed.

What if I want to know, are we have a fight here?

Here's what I feel like the situation is. I feel like you want to survive that first initial wave that kills everyone and then like as the zombies are eating all those people.

But you survived because of your skills and your survival skills. I think you want to then step into the fray of zombies while you're saying I just want you to know that this is my choice.

I guess I mean, I don't I think I want it to be like a surprise because I would never, like, walk into zombie like also, we don't know what zombies actually do. I'm just going by what some man wrote in fucking was that Mila Jovovich fucking movie. I'm just going off of what some somebody thought of. But one Night of the Living Dead was like, is that the first thing I thought of a man like George Romero?

They rip you apart and eat your brain like I would rather it just be like a surprise up with zombies. I don't know. I think it's like a tale as old as time, I think.

And that's like biblical like goes back to, like, all of those. What's his name. Oh, wait. The Brothers Grimm. And they're all right. You see that movie with Matt Damon? Was it Matt and Heath?

Who was the other Brothers Grimm? I think it might have been Heath was there.

Remember those fairy tales, those whatever. All of them were just him being like, how can I kill a child?

I'm not doing my best at watching stuff. I'm going to say that at all. I'm doing my best and watching like like reality stuff that I like. There's a pottery show called The Pottery Throw Down a great writer.

A great party. Yeah. Wow. And then just like my pottery.

OK, I want to ask you guys a question. OK, so like I tried not to be too hung up on capitalism as an American, even though we are so rooted in it. But we're watching a great pottery throw down. There's three seasons and they they don't win any money. They they like when a pot like they'll be like, I get the ceramic pot and I am the pot. They throw down Champix and I'm always like, this is eight weeks.

He ain't got no money. That's how, you know, they got like universal health care at all for some shit. Because in America you can't just leave for eight weeks without getting ten thousand dollars. That's the way they have to pay them. They don't win any money, not they have to be getting paid. I mean, you got to I mean, like, that's just me. I don't know. I don't know. But I don't know, honest.

I don't know if it's just like the American in me, the the capitalistic me. But like at the end of like 20 episodes, I was like, they made all the pot he won and he don't get no money.

So I kind of amazing. That's so pure because that's like related to the Great British Bake Off right now.

And it's like a cake stand or like a Kelly trial. Yeah. After all the times they cried in that hot ass tent with their. They don't. They don't. They just want the glory of knowing that they were the best.

But isn't that ultimately what we all want?

No, I worry honey. I the money I. Well you want glory in the form of money. Yeah.

I mean I don't even need the glory. If you could check up give me the money. I would take. I would take.

Everyone knowing that I was the best and it being like universally accepted over money, it depends on what it is, I think, because, like, I think it as a writer, if I wrote something really good and I got zero credit for it, I would I think I might be sad even if I got a lot of money. But I think that there is also those instincts is like, oh, yeah, I did that for money. I don't want anybody to know.

Yeah, I actually know what that feels like because I've ghostwritten books and so like I've had the experience of hearing what people think of something that I've written and I'm just like, well that's.

But ghostwriting books for other people is a different thing than like making something yourself.

Create something that you put that you put another name, a pseudonym on because you want anonymity. That's just like those are two different things. Yes. If you are writing someone's memoir, you're supposed to like, well, first of all, you're at the mercy of their fucking stories. Secondly, you're trying to make it sound like them. Right. Right.

I mean, kind of. Yeah, but it is a weird thing to be like to be in that position, to have people either love something or hate something.

And you can't say one way or the other that you were involved with it.

But it's by the way, I do want to just say here I wrote my own fucking book, every goddamn word of that, and it was through exhausting.

And I wish that somebody had told me that I could have just hired Casey to do it because it would have saved me a lot of time in Coffee Commissary and Lipan Quotidien. Is that how you say that? Lipan Quotidien? Yeah, everything there is delicious chocolate chip cookies the size of my head.

I don't like how it's like a communal table because I hate a communal table. Get the fuck out of here with your communal table.

No one wants to share a meal. I've only been to the one in Chicago.

It was nice, but it was like everybody who work here can't afford this. Who's this for?

That is such a weird thing when you're just like, what is this like jury room? It's like nobody over here can't afford these rolls. Why are you here? Because it used to be a Boston market and I was like, that is that is the payroll of this neighborhood you got where have you ever had that experience where you, like, go to a store that you have to ask to be let in because it's like that fancy.

Yes. And then the person is like giving you, like, attitude where they're like the person's like, I know you can't afford to shop in here. And then you're like, you feel so bad for a second. But then you're like, hey, you probably can't either.

Yeah. I mean, I've never had that experience, but when I worked at Banana Republic, I could not afford those slacks.

And they were like, well, that store was really good about not making us buy clothes. But when I worked at Banana Republic, they were like, just look banana.

I love that. Just look just like bananas.

I was making like eight dollars an hour and the pants were like ninety eight dollars. Even with the discount, I was like, if I work all day I can't afford one slack. So I was looking like banana from Target.

So did you ever share information with someone like, hey, you could get this a target for I mean you want to know where you are?

I would tell people to go to is the gap. I wanted all the same company.

It was the Gap, Banana and Athleta when I was a kid, when the Gap first came out, it was like discount jeans only. And Banana Republic, I believe, was actually like safari like clothing. It was it was in case you wanted to dress like you worked at Disney World.

Yeah, it was. I remember.

Or you guys. The pinnacle of sophistication I thought was like Banana Republic linen pants. Those pants like you were going like you were going on a safari. Yeah. Yeah. Like I thought that that was like I can't even imagine the day where I wear like a linen like a beige linen button down shirt and pants there. And then I will have made it.

This is the thing that when I was younger I was like, when I'm a grown up, when I can buy this, I have made it. And it was macadamia nuts.

Oh yeah.

I like I had had them before, like at somebody's house or something. And I was like, oh my God, I've had a cashew before but what the fuck is this. So we like little balls of money.

When I went to the grocery store with my mom, I was like, I got to figure out like where these macadamia nuts were. And like, they're on the top shelf, you know, that's where they put the stuff. And it was so small. And I remember it was like nine ninety nine for literally like nine macadamia nut. And my mom was like, girl, no. So when I was younger, I was like, one day if I could just buy as many macadamia nuts as I want, I know I fucking made that is my litmus test.

Everything else is is like extra. So like, I'm at a point in my life now that, like, I can go also. I feel like they're not they are expensive. But at Trader Joe's you can get like a bag of them for eight dollars. And I remember when I went there and I bought them and I was like, I did it. I fucking hate it. I did it.

I just I'm I hope you don't think that I don't like macadamia nuts. That's good. They're expensive. Girl. I hope you I would love to weli they are, they're like a decadent but they're very decadent.

I do like that. I do like a dark chocolate covered macadamia nut. One one.

I'm like that's all you need in that twelve dollars you can but it's so oily you could probably burn it like a candle, like a lemon.

I did that in science in high school. That was a that was a thing to find out. Energy. Yeah. Hey Cowls. Yeah.

We heard you today. Kidding. We burned a macadamia. That is a new category of rich for me. If you can burn it I'll try to. OK, I got a new level. I thought it was by macadamia nut. I want to be at the level I could set one on fire burning macadamia nuts over here. What do you guys think of those monoliths that are appearing everywhere.

Oh all of those, those big metal things. Here's the thing. If it is not if it's aliens, please help us. Otherwise I don't care.

While Israel just said former Israel Israeli space security chief AM Ashed has revealed that aliens from a galactic federation have been in contact with the US and Israel for years.

But humanity is not ready. That's how we're trending right now on I believe there. I know that we are not ready. I 100 percent believe it. We are ready.

We are ready for the shit that we do down here.

It's true. So now I feel like people could get behind that.

I'm 100 percent behind whatever the aliens want to do. Please, honestly, help us. Please just help us. I don't know.

Maybe they're already here. Maybe we are them. Maybe some of us are. That's goes into my whole Terminator. I'm like, no, I don't think I'm an alien. I don't think you are either. I do love the I love the swing from shinta despising zombies. But being cool with aliens, I'm all for with aliens.

Because here's the thing. Zombies are just like people. And it's like it's one thing people do fucked up stuff when they're dead. But then, like when you die to just come back and do more fucked up stuff. I think it's like I had on a hat Aliant. I love it. I love it. Yeah, but I don't know, they might not like us if I was an alien, truly, if I was just like in outer space watching this shit show.

I would not come down here. This is the neighborhood. I would drive by, roll my windows up. I'm worried that aliens will be so logical, but that they won't see our humanity. So I'm worried that aliens will come down and be like, oh, we can 100 percent save Earth. We have to, like, euthanize three quarters of you. So get in line, you know what I mean?

Like, I'm just very worried that they would tell us some truth that we could not handle.

I have a question. OK, so we're always talking about, like, aliens and shit. So, you know, how we are in America are always like we're going to Mars.

We want to send people to Mars, like then are we therefore aliens once we land on another like, are we the aliens to the. Sure.

Oh, absolutely. So, like, we're all aliens, right?

Whether or not you're an alien depends on where you're standing. Interesting. Like, I'm standing here.

I'm an American and a citizen of earth, but if I'm standing on Mars, I'm an alien. OK, yes. You know, you're right. Well, guys, we're not going to solve all these problems today.

We never we never asked what you're doing your best.

Oh, my God. That's a real well, I don't know.

I'm having a hard time right now, but we don't need to I don't need to bring the room down. Um, so, you know, we'll we'll like that. The saddest version of Have yourself a merry little Christmas, you know.

Until then. Well, until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow. Um, if you guys don't know the saddest version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, I actually you know what?

I just fucking remembered what? Last year during Christmas, Sarah Thyer, our friend, Sarah Thyer, last year she was talking about that. The very saddest original version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and I recorded myself singing it in my closet for her, and it is so fucking sad. Here it is. I just found it. Oh, wow. I totally forgot about that until this moment. That song is real, real dark. It can be real dark.

Anyway, I think the next few weeks are going to be really hard for me. And, you know, I'm really tired. My work is really, really fun. I really like it a lot. But, you know. It's hard out here in the streets, it's hard out here in the streets. It's hard for a lot of people right now, I think. I can't even imagine, like being on another lockdown right now in L.A..

I feel so grateful that I get to, like, go to work and have a stick stuck up my nose every fucking morning and find out that I don't have to go ahead so I can go to work, but.

And work with really great people, but, you know, like there's a lot of change happening and. I don't have the time to, I guess, yeah, I guess by the time this what time of the. Oh, yeah, I mean, now like that, our house is no longer my house. Oh, why now? So. And. It was it was tough, like this past weekend was really hard and I felt like it was hard for a lot of reasons and I can't really get into it because I don't want to get sued or whatever.

But but I guess the biggest part was just like. I've been trying in the last many years like. Four plus years now to just be like really open and move toward the things that like. Come to me and even we were talking about it, we did an interview, guys, with Zoe Lister Jones, that'll be up in a couple of weeks and. We kind of talked about it in the interview. I don't know if we'll probably cut it out, but we generally like to guys we like to cut out.

When I talk about myself in the interviews, I'm not always about me, you know, I mean, um, but I really have tried to, like, be so open and move toward those things, follow my intuition and be really fearless in that respect. And sometimes you can you can do that and it can still be really fucking hard or then you'll like be like, oh, no, something will happen. You're like, oh no, maybe my intuition was off.

Maybe it fucked me because now this other set of circumstances or information is making me feel, you know, another way.

But now you've already gone down this road and like, you know, I think that when you're, like, open to that movement, that means you're no matter which way you go, you're opening yourself up to something. I think that. The only way you won't get something new to feel is if you don't do anything, which also just feels bad, too.

Yeah, and I felt really stagnant, you know, like that was part of the whole thing. Like, I have felt really stuck in a couple of ways. And and I felt really I was really worried about my kids, you know, and like really felt like they needed something different that I wasn't quite sure what it was. So I just had to, like, be open to it. And I actually like.

Especially, you know, I really think that this is exactly where my kid needs to be and like. But it doesn't change the fact that, like, because of this fucking pandemic, I'm not going to, you know, be able to like I just have to trust that like. Rapid Fire and like a lady named Tracy, can pack the shit that is important in my life and I'm never going back to this house that I've lived in. I realized yesterday longer than I've lived anywhere else else, including my childhood home, which was like such a like I didn't even think about that until yesterday, where I was like, oh, fuck, I.

Lives are there for 14 fucking years. That's not right, 13, you guys, I can't do the math. I live there for 13 years, which is still longer than I lived in my childhood home in Scottsdale, which I was so mad when my parents sold. But I don't know, I don't fucking know. It's just hard, it's been hard, it's just hard. It's really hard.

I also lived in my home in Connecticut longer than I had lived anywhere, and it was hard. So I totally feel, you know, I totally have been there where you are. But I it did get better. I hope it gets better for you.

I know. I know. And like. And I feel like everything is all up in the air for everyone, you know, and it's so uncertain, like even like I can have hope, like we can all be hopeful. We can be hopeful about this vaccine.

We can be hopeful about people being better and kinder and more empathetic. I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful for so many things. But I also like just feeling it so hard right now. And I know so many my friends are feeling so hard in L.A., especially, you know, and I think everybody is just like, when is this fucking done?

Like, wow.

It's like it's like I was like sobbing reading the thing about Guy Fieri, like raising, you know, over 50 million dollars. He put her in restaurant workers.

And then you just think about how fucking mean people are about Guy Feary and like how, you know, assholes are just like, you know, I don't know that New York Times thing. The restaurant Riviere was like, know me. But you know what?

Also hilarious.

But like also just like fuckin mean for me and say like that says everything about those people and nothing about Guy Fieri and that old hunter thing. Yeah.

You know, that's the thing is that Guy Feary, he knew everything that people were saying about him all along.

How could you avoid that? But he hung in there and he stayed Guy Feri and then when his moment to be the most himself ever came, he came and he delivered and he was like, you know, just showed what an outstanding person he is.

And he did it for doing it.

But here's the thing. Like like Guy Feary and fuckin Hosie Andrius should not have to feed the world. LeBron James should not have to overhaul education. Like this is not the thing that, like the private sector should be the ones that have to, like, take on especially, I don't know, like I just feel like especially people who it's not generational wealth. It's like things that they have like built and scraped and put together. And then these motherfuckers with all this generational wealth are like shrug emoji.

Yeah. I think that one thing that gives me hope is, yes, it's not LeBron James's responsibility to reform education. It's not Guy Fearis and Jose Andreas's responsibility to feed the hungry. But what it does demonstrate to me is that having a talent for leadership doesn't. It doesn't mean that you have to be president, it doesn't mean that you have to run for office. Also, Bethenny Frankel, I do want to say, if I can shout out to Bethenny Frankel, because, yes, she is just like rent flying airplanes and.

Yeah.

And, you know, and the more money that you have as a result of, like our capitalistic society, the more you could choose to use your leadership skills to make a positive change in the lives of many people to make a difference. And that makes me hopeful that some people do choose to do that. Yeah. Well, here's something that does bring me Joy, seriously. I really love giving gifts. I really do love it. I love giving away things.

I love giving to charities and stuff. I also like love giving to people that I love. And the other day on Instagram, I was like, do you guys should I do like a gift guide? And it was overwhelmingly, yes, I should do it.

And I do get a bunch of shit sent to me for free. So here's my question. Should I put together I don't know how to put together a gift guide, nor do I probably even have the time to do it.

But it might be a fun distraction for me to do in the next few days if I put together a gift guide.

And then there was like some way for people to win the things that I put on the gift guide. I would have to be things that I have in my possession. Yeah, yeah. That I could give away. Yeah. Well, I would buy them. I guess I could buy them.

What those influencers, you know, do is they'll always be like, go to my Instagram. Like this, like this post, leave your handle in here, I think. And then you'll be chosen at random. You'll be chosen at random as I am.

Then you can use an app like to put it into an app.

OK. And then again, this seems like a lot of work but ok, I like but make Raymond do it.

He's got honestly I'm not even kidding you like legit because I can't go back there. I mean what the fuck.

Poret Also Emily Beeby was like are there any vibrators or naked pictures that I need to go over and get out of your house so that Raymond Padia does not have to deal with it? And I was like, oh, fuck, yes, I'm aware any of that shit is I do not. Oh, well, this is my third eye. When he finds my rabbit from 2002, I fucking purchased it after that episode of Sex in the City.

You know, where you're not not only is he going to find it, you're going to see him doing an Instagram story in your house using it.

I mean, honestly, honestly, at this point, that is probably true.

All right. Well, maybe I'll figure this out.

I actually have, like, a kind of like day of work tomorrow, although it's going to be the most fun of all time. Has it been announced yet about who's playing my former boy band member husband boy guys is a real fuckin delight, and I'm so excited.

Our first day of work together is tomorrow. And I'm dying. I am dying. And I want to tell you and I don't know if I can I don't want to get in trouble because I've already gotten in trouble so much from this podcast that it's a fucking bummer. And that's the other thing. I'm just like, why is everybody trying to fucking fuck with my shit? I can't. I hate it. I just I want to just want to tell everybody everything and talk about things to be open.

And then people are like business. We can be and will be excited to hear when you're going to be so excited and then we'll have a party tonight.

It'll be really exciting.

But anyway, I'll put together a gift guide tomorrow. I'm going to include things on it, like we saw scenery and diaries of real Marco.

This is a great gift and it can be yours. I decided just now I already I already read it anyway. So write like, you know you can have it.

I'll try to come up with some other good stuff I wish I could do. Like sort of like a thing like, like a raffle thing because then we could raise money for Georgia for the runoffs.

You can ask people to tag you in their receipts from donations and then that equals their entry into it.

Oh right. Oh right. Right, right. Like I did. I've done that before. Yeah. Oh that's cool. Oh my God. Wait, you're right. Right. I have actually done that very, very thing.

OK, guys, I'm going to get I'm going to get to it. I'm going to get working on it. Here's what I want to say to all of you. I love you. We're going to make it through this time. If you're like me and you're like weepie always and just trying your best, your make it through. But first, let's talk to our friend, Dr. Seema Yasmin, like an epidemiologist and has a really soothing accent. She's cool and she's cool as hell.

Hole it. She's like she's not real. She's she's a real realist. And I think she's an alien. I think she's alien. She could be.

Yeah, she's cool. She could she does her Terminator three. Yeah. She's too good at too many things and she's beautiful and she's like perfect nana and I'll buy it.

And she's like on CNN. Totally keep. Yeah. Well when Anderson Cooper's grilling her about the pandemic. Come on.

Yeah. Come on. She's definitely a I enjoyed this interview very much. I think I did too. Very cool. And I had an ear infection right before I talked to her and she messaged me on Twitter to check on my kind of ear. So she really walks the walk. Yeah, she walks the walk. Let's just take a listen and see what health advice we can get from.

I really love personalized gifts for people, I really love being creative, I like making gifts for people. And Skillshare has these online classes. It's an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes. You want to learn how to macrame something. You can go to Skillshare and you can learn how to macrame anything that you are interested in creative pursuit. Maybe it's something having to do with fine art. Maybe it's photography. Maybe it's like I don't even know, like what's what's the thing, Casey, that you want to learn about animation, creative writing.

Maybe you want to. Sure. Maybe you want to, but maybe you're like anything you can learn from a liberal arts college. You can get to experience in these classes.

There's classes for photography and not just on the camera, on your phone, your camera phone.

There's classes for everything. Anyway, it's a really incredible way for you to learn new things. I know in this time a lot of people are at home. They're staying home until it's safe to not stay home anymore. It's also incredibly affordable, especially when you compare it to in-person classes and workshops, because an annual subscription is less than ten dollars a month. And maybe you're like, how do I keep these plants alive in my house? There's a class for that plant.

Queen teaches a class about that. I need to sign up for that class ASAP. Explore your creativity at Skillshare dotcom bust and get a free trial of a premium membership. You guys, Skillshare dot com slash best. I want to see what you make. Share it with me online. Tag me and tell me I want to see it.

Oh, later, a pretty little kitty litter, pretty litter. Anyway, we love pretty letterer œuvre if you listen to these ads, you know, I've talked about it before, Gildo and Rosy, they used to be stingy. We got sent pretty letter and I was like, never going back, never going back to any other kind of litter because two cats, it's a lot of cats, pretty litter. Is the best litter we have ever used, especially when you're staying indoors for the winter, you can't go out.

It's ultra absorbent crystals trap odor instantly. It lasts up to a month. There was a drastic difference in scent in our home. OK, let me tell you, it was a real plus. It's safer for your cat and the whole household. It a lot of conventional litters contain sort of, you know, irritants and things that can aggravate allergies and asthma. But pretty Letta's super like crystal bass minimizes mess and dust and it arrives safely at our door in a small lightweight bag.

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Well, we are so lucky to have you, Dr. Sima is a friend of Casey's, and you may know her. Maybe you've seen her on CNN giving you the facts about.

The pandemic, other things we need to know now. But, Dr. Sima, thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me. I feel like I know at least two of you through some medical crises that you have all how can I do something so nice about.

Dr. Seema is an epidemiologist. So there have been many times pre pandemic when I've hurt myself or not felt well. And Seema will always be like, oh, you at busies birthday actually busies birthday party. A couple of years ago, I cracked my leg really bad and it was like an injury like I had never seen before. And Seema was like, text me a picture. She was into it.

And so. So, yeah.

So I feel like Busy has also had like medical questions on the fly that she's been like, hey, can you ask Dr. Seema? Well, what I have I have an ear infection, so I'll talk to you.

Let me see. Let me see. Put your ear to the ground so I know that's why I get your infections, because my ears are so small when I want to go check on them.

She had to change to the children's thing to look in there.

Now I come from the land of free health care, so I am always happy to try and treat people about his ailment. But it's an interesting way to like, really get to know your friends and sometimes not even your friends, just like people adjacent to your friends. Very familiar very quickly and then start sending up interesting text messages and pictures.

And so you're really generous with you know, you're generous with your your expertise and you're really kind about it. And I know that it's not super fun to talk shop constantly. Oh, I enjoy it.

Actually, the only thing that upsets me is like three days later I'll be like texting a friend, like so like, is everything OK?

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

So probably don't really follow up with the good stuff. The good news. Please complete the story for me. Let me know. The person did not die.

I'll let you know. I'll let you know about my ear in two to three business days. So Seema, you have a new book coming out called Viral Beasts.

Yes. And Busy has very kindly shared a blurb, which I'm so excited about. Thank you so much for doing that. Busy in the midst of so much stuff going on.

If you look at my photo, you just reminded me that somebody else asked me to do a blurb and I didn't do it.

And I think it's due today. But so where am I going to write this on my form?

But I really appreciate it and have the book I started writing. This book, you never know is called Biolabs Medical Myths. Then why we fall for them. Obviously not a new topic. So there's always stuff flying around about our bodies and the environment and our health, but obviously very, very relevant right now in the age of code, it's got everything from is to the questions I get asked about all the time, whether it's to do with chem trails or vaccines or friends who have a baby and then like so I should get them to freeze dried and eat in capsules.

Right.

And I'm like, no, put that stuff in it. It's got all the stuff about the Instagram platform êtes, which you can take if you want to shit your guts out and end up with dehydration. But yeah, so it's serious. But some of the chapters are kind of like not they don't seem as serious for all of it is getting to that same issue. How are we supposed to know what to believe in a world where there's so much information and misinformation flying around?

I just was going to say that I think that one of the most interesting things about it is that a little bit, you know, we use Google medically in a way that is not to our advantage.

Now, we're like in a place where, like, can I tell you how many times my husband and or I have had terminal cancer in the last ten years look like are flying.

Doctor, Google is terrifying because your headache will go immediately. Then I'll tell you, people don't often assume about me is I am a real hypochondriac, so I am very careful. The other day I woke up in the middle of the night with pins and needles in my arm. Obviously I just slept on my arm, but I woke up and I was like, Oh my God, this is how the multiple sclerosis will stop with me. Like, that's what this is.

And I'm like, Why? Why do I do that? It's very terrifying. So I try and tell my friends that don't Google, don't approach Doctor Google.

For me it's an issue because it's my own head that goes to the worst case scenario. So headache must be a brain tumor like. No, that's more about how it works. I I've not been my friend from Googling. Anything to do with my dog, and because that is like, oh, she looks a little pale, her eyes look a little pale, and then I'll Google it and I'll be like, you know, your dog has this advanced stage of lymphoma.

And I'm like, and so now I've been banned from doing that.

So I'm like, this generally makes me feel better because you are a doctor and I am a full blown improviser. So if we're doing the same thing, I don't feel so bad.

It's like there's a saying that we teach our medical students that it has proved that it gallops.

It's a horse, not a zebra. But when it comes me and my any little twinge I have, it's not pins and needles. It's multiple sclerosis like like my brain.

Well, I mean, it's true. Like a lot of us have that inclination. I also tend to healthwise go to worst case scenario. And but that's why I think the book is so helpful. It's also because you have the degrees behind it and you're not like a person who's just got an idea about a big Instagram account.

Right. About a lot of Instagram followers who's like guys definitely don't vaccinate like I think because I study that like I study how misinformation about health and science spreads, why it goes viral.

People will just think that I would like hate the conspiracy theories or just despise the people that spread them and get it because some of them are so dangerous. But in the beginning of the book, I explain how I grew up, a conspiracy theorist. And so I completely understand why something that sounds really intensely absurd will compare, will compel you and be believable to you. Like in my case, my family, originally from India, moved to England in the 60s and 70s.

They faced intense racism. And when you look at the British Empire and some of the stats, like at one point one in four humans, I think was the subject of the British Empire. And so in our house growing up, we used to have a map on the wall that showed every single country in the world that was ever colonized by the Brits. And it was Goche. And it was so much of the world that I think when you start with some facts like that, but just ludicrous, like how does this tiny little island nation take over so much of the world and pillage so much and cause like genocides here, there and everywhere, it starts to become believable that we would listen to these tapes that would say that the royal family in England were not human.

They were shapeshifting reptiles. And you'll be like, well, yeah, Prince Charles don't look a little thing at time. So there's always like maybe a kernel of truth in these conspiracy theories that the book gets into that as well.

Right. That's the part that also is super interesting right now.

I feel like we're inundated and overloaded with conspiracy theories sort of going into the mainstream. And Zema, one thing that like people know about me, I don't know. And but it's true for U.A. as well. I know it's true for Casey, but we love like.

Crystals, crystal bitches and my love first love spiritual stuff and like I've done a lot. Yeah, there you go. Where's my I mean, I'm wearing all of mine, but I just bought a demus holding up a crystal ball and he sent me this at the beginning of the pandemic.

It's a very pretty crystal.

Like I said, it looks like a courthouse to me. Like a clear court. Yeah. What should I do with it?

Well well, you have to charge it in the full moon. Well, court is the one, the clear courts. I think I have them in my house. That's the one that's like for protection. So you put it in the corners. So I have like four. I have them all in the corner of my house. But then if you want, you could just, like, put it in your bedroom and put it in your car or in the corner.

I just leave it on my table. So pretty. Yeah.

Some say it is interprete in a room that you want, like good protective vibes.

You know, I don't think I'm going to be charging it by the light of the full moon because that is a little woo woo. But I will leave it next to my beautiful candles because it's gorgeous.

But it was also crystals are also just describe vibe.

But what I think is so interesting is with this sort of Raya's of all the conspiracy theories and the not believing in science and medical and this global pandemic that's happening, that's been happening in this country that like it has been tied to a lot of these sort of other wew beliefs, wew beliefs, which I think I don't know.

I think that there has been some sort of study about this, and I'm probably seeing it exactly wrong because I just read the headlines of things. But I think in times of great strife, superhero movies become really popular and young women turn to the occult.

That is true because it gives the illusion of control of your situation when you have done.

Yeah, I've been watching the boys, which probably isn't the best version of anything superhero. Well, honestly, I think that's the best version. That's the real one, which is great. Hollywood break. If no one's watching the boys, it's about like superheroes, but like what? They like their dating lives, like what they're doing when they're not.

Your kind of really understanding the fact that they are awful people who take drugs.

And in fact, that's what I'm saying. That's the realist version of superheroes like who they are as real people. They're terrible people, but they have good PR, which is the real estate thing I think you could ever, ever say.

I'm saying your pandemic. I think you should stick to the more idealistic ones, not the boys. Shout out Jamil Smith, who recommended I know it would be this intense, you know, like what Busi is saying about the occult or superhero films, about just trying to have that. Maybe it's a delusion of control in our life. I've been working out and eating really healthy in the last month or a two months, because to me that was one way of like here's one thing that I can control is how much protein and fiber.

And I don't know I don't know what a delusion is in that sense. But you're a doctor. I mean, the way that people eat and take care of themselves actually does affect their health. You know what I write? So exercising more like not eating as much sugar is probably a good idea when there's a global pandemic going on.

I have a real sweet tooth and I find that stuff really comforting. But of course, when you're eating sugar the way I was, you all moved in because your sugar levels are going up and down and so is your mood. So I was like, this doesn't make sense. This is not a good strategy when everything is so stressful and anxiety provoking. Why are you all doing to try and protect your energy and your mental health? And I said energy.

So you're not right.

Oh, yeah, we love that energy cema you know, when we have this SHOWBIZ Tonight, we were dying. We didn't get to stay on long enough, but we were dying to have you come on and do a segment called Should I Put This in Me next time.

So just to ask you, like all the things that we see on Instagram, like should I put this crystal in me?

Should I? Oh, it's it was like yoni eggs.

We put the egg navigational purposes and so many different items. I am. How did you join us. And you had a vagina steam. Yeah. During the pandemic. No, no. I don't know if you're trying to like decent.

There are limits to this, not during a pandemic.

I remember remember Casey to try to deal with my sinus. Oh that's right.

You said you had your vagina steam's.

Well, I had I did a bunch of different stuff, but including surgery.

I did like a combo of Western and Eastern fixes for my sinus, my long term sinus trouble.

Did anything help? Honestly, the vagina steaming, I'm not even here, I can just explain. OK, he's trying to explain the connection to me.

It was this Ayurvedic woman, so I had my surgery and basically it it was just a disaster. I loved my surgeon and everything, but. I had to fly for work to close to right after my surgery and he looked at me, I was like, Yeah, I guess it'll be OK, you'll be fine, just like, be careful, whatever. And it was in June, so I didn't do my usual. I'm flying during the winter months protective situation that I normally would do when I was flying.

Now, of course everybody does it because pandemic. But I was first anyway. That's just an aside. And I got to New York and I got a cold like on the plane and then it just like triggered this sinus infection because I had just had the surgery like three weeks earlier that I couldn't get rid of. And it was when Casey had just moved to L.A. We were trying to build the show. I was in so much pain, my head hurt so bad.

And so someone was like, you have to go do this Ayurvedic lady. Her like week program, you go every day for like seven to 10 days or something like that, and she does different weird stuff to you to fix whatever is wrong, whatever ails you. So she was like, oh, yes, yes, I see this so clearly.

The heat is just all up in your head and you have no heat in your lower body. Now, Dr. Seamount, you're going to think I'm fucking nuts, but is always cold.

OK, hold my lower extremities are like weirdly cold.

And I'm going to need I think I'm going to hold the crystal every time you want to saying something as I listen to the thing about like bringing the heat, the Peita energy away from my homeland is the vocab now.

I like it, come on it and bringing it back down so that it's more evenly dispersed, including there were the vagina of the vagina specifically.

Why not your tolerance one to play football? There were there were like really hot foot baths with Ginger and then they would like hit my feet really hard.

And a kink was very kinky.

I mean, literally, I like leaning your nose and you have a headache.

Let me you'll be like, I swear to God.

And there was a special diet that was just like very antiinflammatory diet and and like massages and drips on your head and like, it was a whole thing. And at the end of it, I felt amazing.

And I haven't had a sinus infection since. Mm.

Well, you know what though, maybe it's kind of like a little placebo.

A little bit of both. Yeah. I mean maybe it just kind of like someone taking you and doing like this process with you that like I mean if you're into like getting your feet slapped or whatever, that is a peaceful and restful.

It's almost like hiring a mom, you know what I mean? It's almost like like maybe that's a thing.

And then maybe the old will cold and sinus infection. The surgery actually did its job, right?

Well, no, I my surgeon who now actually is left practicing to become a feet slapper like this is where the money is going. Oh, yeah.

He he went to he is teaching and doing research work.

He used my sinuses as a case study because I was in your sinuses are famous because my sinuses were so presented, so oddly because I was never stuffy and I never had a lower sinus infection and it would just immediately go up into my upper and then my sphenoid, all sinuses. And so I would.

Like, be misdiagnosed a lot with because they would look at my sinuses and they'd be like, you're you have no infection. I feel like I'm crazy. And so when he saw my upper sinuses, he's like, what is happening? Like, how have you lived this long with this thing? And he's like, it's so strange. What I'm looking at in your upper sinuses is like a massive infection and there's just no sign of it anywhere but the flattening of the vagina.

But anyway, he I loved him.

And afterwards I went back and I was like, so I stopped doing the, like, steroid that you told me to do because I was losing my sense of smell, which, by the way, I really I really, truly feel for the people that that was the thing that they got and covid because that was horrible and like sort of crazy making that month that I lost my sense of smell.

It was really horrible. And I was like, but I did get my feet slapped.

And and now I just want you to look at my sinuses and see what you think.

And he looked and he was like. I mean, they look perfect. We could have hoped for and he's like, so what I kind of think is that the surgeries, the second three, but you know, if something is your thing, my wife's.

I mean, it wasn't it wasn't I didn't enjoy it. I but I could. But I did like I did actually like the vagina stem guys. It was nice.

And, you know, like I have to be careful as well, because when I was when I was growing up, that was my answer. My mother's didn't really use recipes to cook, but in the kitchen there was this one really big volume that we use on special occasions called Indian Delights and had amazing Liberia needs and coma's such good recipes right at the back because they knew no man was ever going to read this book. Right at the back. There's an illustration of a woman wearing a sari and her hair is covered and she's sitting on a chair and her story is draped over the chair.

You like what's happening here? The recipe is for the types of herbs and spices and what amounts you are supposed to put in a pot of boiling water, cut a hole in the chair and put that under her so that Hazari drapes over it and she gets her vagina steamed and they call it blue. I can you do it after childbirth. So that was the thing that I knew we did in our culture, at least some women chose to do, but there was no association with sinus infection in America.

We use herbs and spices for KFC pretty much, but they only use 11. It's not only 11 and they're secret.

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Dr. C.M.A, I want to ask you about the current situation that we are in, in this country and sort of worldwide, because it is fascinating that people can't fucking get it through their heads.

So what can we do? What is happening? What do we do next?

We need a revolution. We need to revolt now. It's just it's so maddening because, yes, a pandemic is like a natural disaster. It's like the country getting hit by hurricanes and tornadoes all across in every single state at the same time. And so you can start to feel really powerless, especially because it's an unknown virus that we didn't hadn't heard of this before, December of twenty nineteen. And then you look at Australia and you look at New Zealand and you look at Taiwan and Japan and South Korea and all these countries that got hit first before the US got hit pretty hard as well.

They made the mistake and they're now going back to normal. And if you look at our death rate from COGAT in America, it's about seven hundred deaths per million people. In South Korea, it's nine nine deaths from covid per million people. And in Vietnam, it's zero point three things like that, the gap in the death rate between the US and other nations developed and otherwise. It's such a you know, the US is always like we are.

The lead is an infectious disease. And Pence was saying that back in March as well, when the CDC tests weren't working and we were refusing to get help from the World Health Organization and get test kits from like we are number one, it's like, yeah, now you really are. We really are, because we have the highest incidence and we have the highest death rate of any country in the world. And what do we do about it? We need the thing is, it's so frustratingly simple in that you just need a really robust testing, tracing and isolating program.

Not saying that that's easy, but that we know what needs to be done. You need that and then you need really clear communication. And we've had none of that. We still haven't met our basic very baseline testing targets. We're not doing contact tracing then as much as we should have, not fast as we should and isolating people in time. And the communication I mean, don't get me started on that. We've had everything from injecting bleach to I mean, it's ridiculous, I will say.

So I went back to work shooting this TV show, and it's a big production. It's a universal right. Which is like a huge company. What they have in place is so locked down and like there are different circles of testing levels. And like some people, like, for instance, since I have to take my mask off, I get tested every single day without question. I'm tested every single day, hair, makeup and wardrobe, since there are like sort of intimately up in the actors business.

Also, every single day tested camera crew is tested three times a week and then it sort of circles out from there. Right. And then they have these people on on set that are the covid specialists and the contact tracers, the.

Like just in a hypothetical of how it would happen if someone were to test positive, they immediately like within five minutes that person gets a text. We all get our texts with our results. So the texts go to us and to H.R. and to the covid specialists. So like, as soon as the text comes in and it's like someone's positive, the text says. Please text your location and do not move, and that person then has to text their location and not move and then the covid teams shows up, they do the contact tracing for 15 minutes or whatever it takes to every person that they had come in contact with, every place that they had gone, blah, blah, blah.

That person gets sent home. All of those people that they've contact traced then are sent a text. Please stop what you're doing. You have come in contact with someone who is positive. Please go home like the way that it works and shuts down so quickly. Transmission is incredible and the entire countries have done.

I remember back in March, we were looking at video footage from South Korea where they had the drive through testing. You just put your window down. There was somebody completely covered in PPE. They did the swap. You got your result very soon. If you are positive, you got a text. It told you to be isolated and then you quickly had to say, OK, so in the last 10 to 14 days, he's who I've been in contact with.

He's where I've been. It's not rocket science in a way. It's epidemiology, which is why I can do it. Why are you just you're basically trying to stop that chain of transmission. And the way you do it is by testing frequently and as many people as possible and then jumping on those other contacts so that it doesn't get these clusters that go out of control. So exactly what you're describing is what other countries have done on a national level.

We've done nothing of the sort here. It's so fucking wild because people wait.

So you're telling me this disease comes along disproportionately, infects and kills people of color? Black people are dying three times the rate, sometimes seven times the rate, depending on what area you're looking in. And the government's not on top of that response. So you can see where all of that comes from. Then we're trying to fast track a vaccine and we have a history of doing really unethical experiments and even vaccine testing on some communities. People.

Yeah, they tried they tried to set up to do this just like they don't care because it's black people. They were like all the excuse. We'll give you free vaccines. And all the black people were like, Tuskegee, no, thank you.

So then you can see why the conspiracy theories get trial. But they were like, oh, the excuse will give you guys first dibs on the vaccine. But like America, you won't read in history books. But there's a great movie about it with Alfre Woodard in it about how they were like testing like people, black people for what is that? It's like an old timey STD stuff with syphilis.

It's still it's still very much around. Yes. But not as prevalent. But they were like giving black people syphilis to test.

That was the Tuskegee trial. So, yeah, poor black sharecroppers in Alabama up until the seventies who had syphilis and were told all you've just got bad blood. We're doing an experiment. And they were not given penicillin. So then syphilis eventually causes brain damage. Yeah. And they passed on the infection to their loved ones and their children. And that wasn't that long ago. You know, that was in the ended in the nineteen seventy two. But even since then, it's not like medical racism doesn't exist anymore.

The whole system was built off. Oh absolutely. You shouldn't have enslaved people. And so then you want to be like, oh so we're just going to test the vaccine on you of color. And it's like as a scientist I'm like actually we need to include very diverse groups in clinical trials so that we know it works on everyone. But you can't just do it like that when there's this whole terrible history and reasons for people to not trust the medical establishment.

Well, we also have America just has a history of not teaching our history. So like a bunch of black people know about Tuskegee and then we're like, oh, no, no, no, I don't really want to be a part of that. There's this narrative that we are like obviously anti Trump or anti Vax or whatever.

And it's like, no, we're just like very familiar with the history of this.

Kind of like I gave a book talk about this a couple of years ago in England, in London, and everyone was British. But there was one white American woman in the audience and she got up and argued with me about Tuskegee. And and I was like, no, there's a whole chapter on it in my book. Like, it did happen. And it did only end. She was like not having it. It was very annoying.

Oh, white woman was annoying to you. That is surprising.

You know that saying that white people get a call from black people get pneumonia. It's like very literally happening right in front of us without any acknowledgment of why that would be. And in fact, what happens in medical school. We still in twenty twenty teach race as a biological characteristic as opposed to race is a social construct. It was something that was invented to create a system of affecting people. Right. And yet so now we have these like having a moment, who knows how long it will last, talking about medical racism, that people will still talk about it like that.

People must be dying at three times the rate of white people when it comes to Kovik because of something. Is it the melanin, is it something and it's like, no, it's not something inherent in blackness, it's in the fucking system, like fix that. But yeah, it's very hard to have a conversation.

I'm cema are you are you hopeful? I have to be because otherwise I would just despair and because I do I am hopeful because I have faith in people and I feel like many of us care so deeply and want to create a world that's better that we're not we're not willing to leave it like this. And I hope that there's enough of us invested in that. Like, this is crap. It's not serving the majority. And also, I think the realization when men realize that patriarchy isn't good for them in general, either, like it's not a good idea to have a society where half the population is dismissed and not included on reading lists and not in positions of power, like that's just crap for everyone.

So I think as people start to realize that more that we will see shifts, even if it's gradual over time. So, yeah, I do have hope.

Do you how do I know I'm just done with that idea. But here's the thing. Like, I don't know, I have hope in you if that makes sense out of it. Open society. But I do have hope and there are specific people and I know. Yeah.

Well, you know, the activist Mariam Akaba, she goes by prison culture on Twitter. She's an incredible activist that she talks about hope as a practice. It's almost like a yoga practice, you know, meditation practice. It's like this thing that you cultivate. And I kind of like because even though I'm very cynical and skeptical, I need that part of me. That's like, no, it's going to get better.

Yeah, I don't believe it will get better, but I believe that you will help it be better. And I don't know if that if that makes sense, but I do I think the responsibility of somebody else.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's not my responsibility. It's white people's responsibility. I always say, especially with activism, like I'm a comedian and I do activism. But there are people who like with the school and they do the work. They are the activist. You are a doctor that I respect and you are doing the work for the people. And I have hope that. I know that the world is less likely to listen to me, but like I'll put everything I fucking got and get your voice projected and I have what I have more faith in you because I believe so much in the power of comedy, because people aren't going to see you to get educated.

Right.

We took a long time. It's all by me. It's like I've paid my fifteen dollars because I would like to be informed. But I think the most powerful shifting of our perspectives happens when someone's making us Crack-Up or making us a little uncomfortable. I don't know if Casey told you, but I've been studying comedy for just over a year, like doing improv and comedy in in the hopes. I've never going to be as good as people who are professional because I think they're starting to you being the best.

There's something there about the radical honesty that you get in comedy and the fact that if you can you know, you make people laugh, it's literally a release of tension, right? Literally, it feels good. So I don't know. I'm trying to incorporate something that I hope and UKCS I think comedy is really powerful.

I just want to say that we don't need this to be like our telling you that you should have hope.

But I do think that like the shit that you can get through with Amber on her show, the stuff that we were able to do on our show like that is actually the work like that is how society changes and how this garbage fuckin bullshit.

Like I wish to God we still had our stupid show, you know, during this fucking pandemic, in this last year comedy like I used to work in news and then I quit because I realized exactly what you said is that I always say it's like putting the pill in the cheese for a dog. It's people come because it doesn't matter what red or blue. Everybody wanted to come listen to Richard Pryor and he would just slip the the the pill and the cheese.

Right. I like that.

And I was just going to think that one of my comedy teachers has been in high profile Muslim women, not everything. She's an incredible comedian. But when I was taking classes with her and obviously the kind of person I am, I'm like, I want to be so good to be the best. You know, I fuck loving. And she's like, well, why can't you just be a mediocre comic like so many white guys out there is such a great point.

I the the personal struggles that we deal with in the way that we set the bar so fucking high as women and as women of color in particular, it's because the playing field is so not level and then someone just giving you permission. I mean, whether it was good advice or not, whether it would work or not, it just felt so liberating, like I can just try and do comedy and just be shit.

And then that's like someone who has done a lot of improv with mediocre white boys. I'll tell you right now, every best comedian I've ever come in contact with started with saying that they weren't so great. So I'm going to just let you know that you're already on your way to greatness, if not already. But because there's two things to that. I'll just I'll say this, Brown people don't get to be bad. Also, you're a doctor.

You already are fucking cooking if you're in my my last stand up comedy gig actually on Valentine's Day live in San Francisco and then a pandemic hit. So it kind of killed everything that you've given me for inspiration to get back to being CEMA.

You are I mean, you are doing so many things. So you're an epidemiologist, you're a journalist. You're also a well regarded poet. You are also and you're an author writing all different types of books and just doing like comedy in your spare time. Can you talk to us a little bit about, like, a big pivot in your life? That's what we always talk about on the podcast. And I'm interested because I have no idea. I'm sure you've had a million pivot's, but I just have no idea where where you could be going.

I would say, like, keep your mind, I've had so many pivots because I, like my career has been all over the place because I've never really followed the kind of career conveyor belt that you're supposed to. But the one pivot I think about a lot, especially nowadays, is when I I used to be a hospital doctor in England and about ten years ago, which America Americans be an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the CDC in Atlanta.

So I was doing outbreak investigations. Right. We're hearing a lot about that now and what those officers do. And if you seen the movie Contagion, I love that that Queensland character has she's an epidemic intelligence service officer. But then after a few years of doing that, I got really frustrated that whenever I was sent into a hot zone, I was like really focused on the virus that was spreading of the mystery that was spreading and having to try and stop that one.

At the same time, I was hearing all the myths, the hoaxes, all the B.S. that was spreading, that was making my job sometimes impossible. And I was thinking, it's so weird that we're just ignoring the contagion of information like the viral tweet that's making people not get vaccinated. The. You have a measles outbreak in Portland and you have a measles outbreak in Minneapolis. And so that was the point where I was like, I know this is not what we are supposed to do.

I'm going to leave the CDC. I'm going to leave the Epidemic Intelligence Service and I'm going to go to journalism school because I don't know. But there's going to be something that I think went to me. And then after I finish that degree, my journalism training, it was it was the middle of 2014 and Ebola was happening in West Africa. And I felt so guilty. I was like, why the hell did I leave the CDC? I have the exact training to be in West Africa right now trying to stop the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak.

And my friends and my peers were there. And instead I was moving to Texas, which I had never even been to Texas for my first ever job as a newspaper reporter at The Dallas Morning News. And I was like, I have made a career decision because why am I going to go write for a local newspaper when Ebola is spreading so badly? And then, of course, while I was still unpacking my boxes and still moving into Dallas, the first ever imported case of Ebola arrived in Dallas.

That man, Liberia, and he died in Dallas. And so then my world really did collide. And ever since then, of course, I've seen it more and more like the strength of having the training in epidemiology and epidemics and the training in journalism. I mean, now especially. But that was a scary time. So I was like, damn, I really messed up. I shouldn't have done that. And then, OK, the universe always prepares you.

I didn't know. I really love that you went to Jay School of High School. And I think that people who go to journalism school and then don't end up doing just straight up newspaper work are some of the best people. They make the best comedians because you learn when I was in school, the whole point media as the fourth estate, which we've been lacking a great deal in these last four years, is basically in a succinct way to make sure that the country understands what you want them to know.

And that means everybody in the country. And that's why it transitioned so well into comedy. You want the same thing, right? Journalists and comedians want the exact same thing. I want five minutes of your time and I want you to leave. Knowing exactly what I'm trying to tell you all. The first five minutes of a news show is is a tight five baby. You know exactly what you're getting. You know exactly what you're getting. You're getting all the information they leave with the hot stuff.

Right. And at the end, they give you a squirrel, monkeys with Jan to come and do a zoo with my journalism students.

I think they would love to hear that analogy.

I didn't go to journalism school, but I did work at CNN one time for three days.

I'll tell you, that's how we got by CNN at one time was like, we're going to do a comedy show like The Daily Show on CNN.

That's going to be like one of our blocks. Can you come work on it? And I was like, yeah, who's the host? And they were like, we don't know who the host is yet. Someone funny. And then they're like, OK, let's go to our first meeting on Monday. And I go to the meeting and Campbell Brown walks in and they're like, This is the host.

And I was like, Oh, Brown is not really a comedian. And the first thing she said was like, listen, I know they told a bunch of you that this is going to be a comedy show. It's not a comedy show anymore. So let's get cracking and do journalism. And I was like, how do you do?

I'll see myself out.

Know, they asked me to stay and I stayed and gave it like the old college try for three days. And then I was like, I won't be completing the week now.

They switched it up on you and so on. But I did miss the cafeteria.

It's a good cafeteria there at CNN in New York. Oh, dang.

We're not giving up on a busy show coming back, though. That's still a project that's in the works like the petition.

I had a weird epiphany today, Casey and Dr. Sima and Chinderah.

I had this weird epiphany today that, like, if the entire show's purpose was that we got some young women into the Writers Guild, we were able to give some young women promotions that maybe would have taken them a much longer time to get somebody to.

Hire them in that position and the woman who was maybe a little bit older, you know, because people are ageist and then the abortion thing, like, yeah, if that's it, like if that was why we did the whole show, then I think it's worth it.

Yeah, it is worth it. And like and that's and that can be it.

Like it was powerful and beautiful, but to me it still felt like the beginning of something it did for us.

Oh no. I'm going to cry. It did for us to do.

But but I you know, but I just feel like I don't fucking know, man. What is anything at this point?

Well, I think it was the beginning of us figuring out that where we were is a changing industry. And all these platforms are emerging in these new things. And I think some people are still stuck where they were when I started in this business. Like I remember when I first started in TV, people laughed their asses off that Fox tried to be a network. Like people were like that will never there's never going to be another network. What are you talking about?

And I mean, like, look at us now, you know? So I think it's just I think what Bizzi and I learned and, you know, in L.A. certainly, too, because she's a young comedy writer and she's out there working on shows that are on these platforms that were never even dreamed up when when we first started.

So I think I'm a peacock baby baby.

So I think we're just I think it was the beginning of us being like, where can we meet people? Where they are in this podcast is one way that, you know, kind of feels like an extension of what we were doing.

I think it's almost better because I feel like we can say whatever we want. Yeah. And also, like we I don't know, to be able to have, like, everyone's sort of input to me. It's really nice and to be able to have longer conversations, whereas everything had to be so reduced to fit the time constraints of the show, you know, so like, I don't know. I just think we are in a place culturally where we need to, like, do some fucking deep dives, you know?

Yeah. And the podcast allowed us to finally have Dr. Seema on.

Yeah, yeah. I'm really excited about your book. I think one of the things I'm really excited about, too, because you brought it up. You're talking about like how like you come from the land of free health care. And I think that we everyone in America is Googling stuff. If we could go to the doctor, we wouldn't. So I really do. If I could just go to a doctor like everybody, just go to a doctor, they would be Googling, what's wrong with the arm?

They don't want to go check with a doctor because it cost like a bazillion dollars just to have someone look at your book and your arm cema. When does your book come out?

A January 12, I want to say. And then I have a book of poems that's coming out April six.

I can't wait for that, too. I can't wait for both of them. I'll talk to you about poetry later.

I leave my office if you're listening.

Three of us here have written books. Shinta, I can't wait for yours, but the pre the preorders are kind of everything special.

Why don't why don't you just plug where where can people go to buy the book.

You have a website that go to see my askmen.com. You can see it there if you Google viral B.S. and my name comes up and I'll be an audio book as well, although I'm not sure how I'm going to be recording it in a pandemic. But yeah, you can find it online, all good booksellers and look out for the audio book as well. And then follow me on Twitter because it's on my Twitter and I'm always tweeting stuff to do with conspiracies and viral.

Yeah. So I'm at Dr. Yasmin on Twitter.

And listen, guys, make an effort. Maybe you support a local independent bookseller, black owned book seller.

Maybe that is the way that you preorder Dr. Seimas book. I think.

I love that. Yes. Support some local bookstores.

And yeah, I can't wait to see the pictures of your Inconel in the small schema we were talking about earlier that we turn to superheros in times of trouble.

And you are a real life superhero.

You're like a superhero because like I said, I believe in you. All right, guys. Well, get that book on preorder and stop Googling shit.

You're not dying to play in this podcast app now. It's such a light, such a lovely thing to listen to. You're so nice.

Talk to you soon. Bye bye. We have learned so much. I'm Dr. Seema Yasmin. We are better people. We are better people for her being in the world, hopefully. We're all going to make it through this pandemic. I think we will. I think we will. It's good to know that people like Dr. Seema are out there that are so smart and like. Awesome and yeah, it's like I working to make her and the world a better place.

Michelle. Me, too. OK, guys, we are going to do a letter of advice, but before we do, do we have a Mirch update? Dude, what's happening? I'm off. I'm off. I'm off. Emails I can't do. I can't do it.

I can't I can't even look, we have we have a merch update in that like it's still coming. But then we keep adding like, oh, can we put this in? So then it has to go back.

I just want it to be perfect. Yeah, it's OK. Yeah, it's OK. People I think are people I don't know. We'll see what happens. We'll see if people you know are patient with us and the that they find the merch worth waiting for.

People like merch. Yeah. Do they. I don't know. Yeah well I don't know shit about this. I don't know shit about anything. I will also say this.

Even if you are impatient you got to wait.

So that's just the way it should be coming soon.

And if we're done adding things then it should be sooner than ever. It should be sooner than ever. We are done adding things. No, I know, but we did just add something like yesterday. So two days ago. I was two days ago. OK, but so.

Yeah. So then if that's the last thing we add and when they send it to us and we don't add anything else, then it should be ready to go.

OK, well so guys, keep your hearts and ears and eyes open but also don't matter. You got to wait. You just got. So that's the update on the merch. I haven't I don't think Ray can handle another magic show until after he moves me out of my house. And although I really want to do.

Oh, shit, you know, what's what? I think I might be hosting a special screening of in and of itself. Oh, exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Sanjak if you guys watch my Instagram stories for a few weeks ago, I was hysterically crying after watching in and of itself. It's going to be streaming on.

I think it's Hulu, a service at the end of January, but it's so good. It's like my favorite thing that I've ever seen and I think we're going to do a special thing. And then their publicist was like, maybe Derek can be on the podcast. And I was like, maybe, maybe, maybe he can. But that's a magician. That's the magician on the show.

You have to watch it because it's really like it's really like a it's really like a very intense, beautiful one person show about it, like life and drama.

And the things is I think it's really incredible. You have me a magician. I know. I know.

I know. I know. I know. You have me. You have me a magician. I'm already in very disheartened by.

I didn't even read the article. Yeah. I haven't read anything. I haven't watched anything. I haven't read anything. Just been weeping in the corner sitting on my hot mat.

Anyway, I did see that the Magic Castle has a bunch of allegations against it. I don't even know what kind, but that's not great. That's a bummer. I love that place in L.A. It's like that, you know, all your faves are problematic, right?

Yes. No, we're not. We try really hard not to be problematic. We do. We do. I yes. But, you know, there's always whenever you open your heart to loving someone or something, you have to know that there's a chance.

But, you know, you want to know who I truly believe will never let me down. Oh, Angela Bassett.

Oh, yeah, 100 percent. She's the only person I truly Bethesda's believe in. I genuinely believe that Angela Bassett will never let me down.

I don't think she will ever let you down. I think she's always going to be there in the way that we need her to be there. Yeah. And she's really she's a real superhero. Yeah, that's that's it. And I've had people who met her before and worked on set and like they were like she knows the names. And I was like, that's how, you know, she is good.

I'm reading that, like Ryan Gosling was like, you know, a real man of the crew. And like on day two new every crew members name and like their hobbies and whatever. And then this actor that I was working with was like, oh yeah. And he taught me the best trick. This isn't Michelle, by the way, a blind item. It's not Michelle that told me this. He has someone take like get photos of all the crew members and their names and he basically like puts it up.

And then anything that he finds out about the person who writes it under there in his trailer, he writes it under there immediately so that he just can, like, look at it and know who everybody is. I don't know if that's unsubstantiated. I don't know if that's true. Actually, I've never even asked Michelle I should have because she worked with him. I'm sure she would have seen it. Yeah, but that's how he gets like. Is like immediately in with the crew and then they're like, he's so great, he remember to ask me if I had any Cheetos today.

I think he just went to his trailer to pee and saw, like, you know, Anthony grippe, likes Cheetos and came back and did that, like, you know what I mean? It's a trick. It's a magic trick.

That's really interesting. That's nice. I agree. I think that I'm all yours. What's his game? Right. What he wants to be he wants to be seen as like part of a collaborative spirit. Yeah, right. And like sometimes I think a lot of times actors want there to be like a very clear delineation that they are the star and they should be like sort of catered to in a certain way and talk to and treated in a certain way and like don't make eye contact them, like all that weird shit that people have.

You've heard those horror stories, but there's lots of actors that like want genuinely they're like they're to do something that they really love. And they know that, like the majority of the crew is also there to do something that they love. So I think that it's a way of like trying to say, look, I know that there's a disparity in the way that, like, I'm seen in the world, but when we're on the set, like we're all just in it together, I think it's nice.

I like that.

Then this cynical part of me is like, is he like a sociopath?

No, I think that is he like this is really going to mean a lot to them if I remember their name and that they like Cheetos.

Like, oh, yeah, that's interesting, you know, this is I mean, I don't know, I think they're going to love. I never heard. I never heard that part never occurred to me.

What more occurred to me was that he wanted to be like George Clooney, you know, on talk shows, guest famous people come in, they sit down, they do their interview usually sometimes they'll say like hello to you or nod to you or whatever.

David Arquette, every show that he's ever been a guest on that I've worked on, he individually goes up to every person on the staff and crew that comes into his line of vision and says, hey, I'm David, nice to meet you, what's your name? And then remembers your name and, you know, just you all night.

And I so Niasse, I love him forever for that.

He's like one of my top three. So he and I were on watch. What happens live together once. Do you remember. Yeah, he's the best. He was always he's always been so nice.

I really just get the feeling that like, oh, this guy really does want to know my name and like, say hi to me.

I don't know if that's the case, but that's how I feel. I think that's right. That translates for me. There are like, yeah, but there are also people I mean like even on our show, you know, it was wild like you. It's, you know, people most people that came in were really nice to them.

It's interesting cuz like Patti LaBelle was the nicest, the best she can say hey to everybody she gave.

Oh hi.

And you want to know who did not have to do that. Patti LaBelle. You know what I mean. Nobody would have been mad at her.

No, she just had a little bell, showed up, did nothing close the door and never said a word to us out like she is the diva, you know what I mean? But she did not. She was so nice. And it's like and that's what always hope is the people finally one or two divas that really, really did not deserve to be that way.

You know, it's like ours. It is often the person who.

Is the you know, is the highest pinnacle of icon that is just lovely, lovely, lovely, and then sometimes somebody who you're like, listen, I could take you or leave you. So, you know that that is like giving you a rough time.

I have to say, as a bitch has been doing this since she was a fuckin teenager. I really do think that's true.

I've seen a lot of people come and go and I've seen a lot of people be real fucking hot for a second, fall out of favor, like whatever.

And you always know the one thing that that person is missing, you can, like, spot it. And if you're, like, unsure, it's probably that they're an asshole. Yeah, yeah.

I not sure too, because even like it doesn't matter how long it takes, it might take 30 or 40 years that it's also they could die.

People like be like these days people will be dead and they'll be like, yeah but you know, that person was this you'd be like damn well I guess in the afterlife.

So like eventually it all catches up, it all catches up and all catches up.

All right. Do we have time for this question? People have been asking for some advice. OK, yeah. Hi there. I really admire and respect you three women a lot. I'd love to get your advice on a work situation. After several years of hustling and putting in the work, I finally landed my dream job just before covid hit. Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry. However, as I started to get to know my boss more, I quickly realized she is less than a dream.

She's a great person, but just not great at doing the things a boss should do. Her follow through is non-existent. She shows no interest in seeing any of my team's projects come to life and she is incredibly flaky. At first I blamed it on the pandemic and gave her a lot of grace without going into too much detail. It's quite clear that sounds pandemic. She would behave the exact same way. Now I'm in a place where I either speak up and ask for accountability or risk becoming really unhappy with the situation and give up everything I've worked for.

My question for you is this how do I ask my boss to be a better boss or do I need to accept her behavior and modify my expectations?

Wow, this is a great question. It's a great question. Thanks for all you do with the podcast. It means a lot to me. Love you all. All thanks to you, too.

It means a lot to us that you love me too.

Have reached out and have this I think that the two questions that you're asking here are the best. Two questions, because these really are the only questions, right? How do I if I decide to ask my boss to meet me at a place that I want them to meet me at? How do I do it or. Do I need to just accept this is who she is and do I need to modify my own expectations? This is like a wild, truly interesting.

Question. Yes, I think what is what do you think? So you've been a boss a lot? I have been. And I think the one thing that's weird that happens a lot is sometimes people get to be bosses without being trained in how to be a boss. And it's really weird because you just think like, oh, I'm good at this job. And then they promote me and now suddenly I'm in a supervisory position and I'll just naturally be good at that.

But like we were just talking about, like being a leader is a different thing.

You know, maybe that's the case with her or maybe it's not. Maybe she had, like, exceptional management training and she's just not cut out for it.

My advice is what you can control is yourself.

So I think if you go to this person and you say, listen, hey, you're like really beef in it, you're not a great boss.

That is not a place you want to be coming from. Nobody is going to respond well to that. But I think you can control is you might be able to go to her and say, listen, I'm feeling kind of rudderless in my job and I'm feeling like I don't know whether I'm meeting your expectations. I don't know if I'm meeting the company or if our team is if our team is.

So it would be helpful to me if you were to give me regular feedback on how I'm doing and if I'm doing the job that I'm here to do because I want to do a really good job for you. I just am unable to tell at this moment. And then. Maybe she will maybe that's like what will get her to be like, oh shit, like I'm in charge of this person and they're looking to me for cues on whether or not they're succeeding and I'm dropping the ball.

So I do think because, you know, BFF Emily Bebe has been in a position of boxing before. And I do think that the one thing that people should be aware of, maybe this applies to you age is I don't know how old your boss is. I don't know how old you are. But I do think that there can be somewhat of a trap of like. Like wanting positive feedback and affirmation and generationally, if a person is like Gen X, that's not necessarily and book, by the way, maybe that's the thing you need.

And if it is the thing you need, then I it's not my place to say you shouldn't have it.

But I think that that there can occasionally be a disconnect in how people view work, feedback and what is required from a boss. My experience with Emily and like I think that she had found that a lot of times there were some workers under her who were really looking for her to be sort of consistently telling them that they were doing a good job.

And she was always like, I should tell you that you're doing a good job. Just I'll tell you if something is wrong.

And I know that that's maybe that's not necessarily the right way to do it, you know what I mean?

But, like, that's how we were sort of brought up.

It's like that scene from Mad Men when Peggy's mad at Don and she's like, you never say thank you. And he yells, That's what the money's for.

That's such a great fucking scene. I have such a great fucking. Well, you have to watch Mad Men. I don't watch stuff when it's all white people.

I'm sorry to go back to Banana Republic, but when I worked there, they were doing a Mad Men clothing line. I think I remember that. And they did a thing where, like, you can win a like a like a like an extra role, like you walk in and bring on some papers.

And I was just like, do you want to enter? You can automatically enter to win this walk-On role. And I'll never forget this black girl goes and I know roles for me on that show. And I was like, you're right. You want these coupons, like, this is not a reward for you. So I've never seen Mad Men shout out to that show.

But like, I don't watch it when there's no black people are like a plant. I mean, there's like stuff that I like that doesn't have black people. But like, if that was on, like, I would watch it. But like, I'm not in the process now of being, like, actively watching one hour dramas that I'm never going to see myself reflected in. I think that this is really hard because I think it also depends on, like the job, because I, um, when I worked at some places and I was like, I could quit this job.

I need this job, I would just, like, tell my boss about themselves. But then there were instances where I like had three jobs and one of those bosses was a literal, terrible he's like a terrible man, just terrible as a human being, like a bad person. And I just, like, had to keep working there because I needed my twelve dollars. So I think there is an aspect of like. Grinning and bearing it, but like, is this a job that you plan on sticking around for a really long time?

Because if you want to, I think what Casey said was like, you owe it to yourself to at least try to make it a situation that you want to be a part of. So I don't think you would be asking this if you weren't in a situation where you felt like you could speak up. So I think that, like, I'm always one of being like, what is best for you? And if this person is going to continue being this way and you do nothing, I mean, are you eventually going to have to quit because everything's so terrible or like, do you want to at least try to make this a place that you want to be at?

And if the answer is you don't want to try, then maybe that's a different question. But if it is a thing that you want to try, I agree with Casey is like figuring out a way to not tell your boss that she's bad because we don't want someone who's in power over you being upset.

Well, I hope it all works out because it sounds like you do really like your job and you deserve to like it.

You'll to keep having it. Yeah, I think Casey's advice is probably the best one. Guys, what do you think when you think about this, like. Hanks on a banks like whatever, like that whole thing that everybody's doing, I don't want to I'm not going to do and I don't think it was funny when Garcelle did. We did. Gursel started on Órale.

Yes. I think we I don't think she did. Oh, I want to do this one. I, I don't understand what's going on. I know I saw some stuff, but I didn't do in the beginning.

Was it like did you see an elf on the shelf. But how about Garcelle on FARELL and so it's like almost like oh she photoshopped herself on Farrell's shoulder and so like it's a little bit of like a puzzle joke where you're trying to figure out what the rhyme is.

That seems fun. And then a bunch of celebrities started doing it and then I felt so bad because I was like getting sort of irritated by it. And then I was like, our celebrity is not allowed to have fun. I don't know what it was about it. That was like pushing my buttons.

Oh, wait. You are you were the you are sorry. I don't know why I doubted you. That was just a real that was a real mark move to tell you that you don't know what you're talking about.

Um, it all started when the real co-host, Garcelle Bouvier, you shared an image of a tiny version of herself with Farrall and then it became a meme and Everybody Loves Banks was next. See, I knew banks was early. Yeah, she banks on the banks, whatever. Have you heard of banks on the banks or whatever? I think I liked it at that point. Yeah. And then Greece on Greece, I guess.

Pleasured. Who did Ryan Seacrest do, I don't know who that person got the secret. I'm with Ryan. Maybe it's Ryan Ryan like Luke Bryan on Ryan or something like that. I don't know. Luke Bryan is a person, right? That's a famous person. Yes, I am country singer.

I think then I'm going to tell you that's who this is, because that's I bet you that that's I don't know who this person is, but I bet you that who does? And then Kerry Washington did. Perry on Kerry. Katy Perry, a Grinch on Mariah Carey, what? Who's that? I don't get that.

Oh, Jim Carrey, obviously maybe. Why the carry carry on?

Because that can you rhyme the same word, I guess, technically with the same word. Carry on, carry on. I think I don't think you can remember the same word, a word with the same word, Mariah can do whatever she wants. Well, that's true. That's OK. Have you ever listened to rap these days? Am I an old granny?

You can definitely rhyme the same word with the same word. Well, anyway, there are a ton of people have done it. And then I saw a girl did busy on Lizy. She tags me and I thought that was cute. But I'm not going to do it because I couldn't think of anyone to rhyme with either Phillips or Busi. I mean, Lizzie, I guess. But Lizzie is the same name essentially.

What would you be a.. I mean, probably Tiara. Probably Turon. Is there anybody out there named Mira Sorvino? Mira Sorvino. That's actually we go on there. There we go. OK, I like that one. Casey, what's yours? Casey on Tracee Ellis Ross, I was going to say Tracy Tracy on Casey, I was trying not to say Kevin Spacey.

Oh yeah, Hibat. I think Tracee Ellis Ross is a good one. She's like a good crazy yes and let you go again. Lincoln loves Tracy and you could get like a good picture of her, like squatting on your shoulder. Yeah, exactly. But what am I doing?

Like, busy on Dizzy Gillespie. There you go.

Dizzy on. Busy. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that is good. Well, now we've done it so we don't have to and we're never going to ask the teachers about it. So I'm happy I got to hear it. And we worked it out. Well, guys, we're getting close to, honestly, something I don't know what, but we're we're getting there. We're all you guys in the way we're on the way for you at home, please subscribe.

Please download, please share our podcast because. I don't fucking know is just how it works, OK, this is what we're supposed to do. You're supposed to do, I guess, are weird. This is all very strange.

We like that you want to hang out with us and we like it. Because we like hanging out with each other and actually I feel so much better now, and if you want, you can email us at busy doing her best at Gmail dot com. You can email if you want to join a group chat because we're going to do another round of those. And Laura, 17 by January 1st. Oh, wow.

That's a deadline. Boy, oh boy. Is it ever. And I'm going to work on this gift guide. Maybe I'll have it up. I'll work on, like, some sort of something. I'm going to figure it all out. I'm hungry now all of a sudden.

Yeah, I'm going to go get a Christmas tree and eat some dinner.

I honestly feel I have to go to bed because I got to work again tomorrow and I have to have a notary come over and sign the papers that say that my house doesn't belong to me anymore.

OK, guys, on that note, the. We love you. Thank you. Right now, we love you and we'll talk sending you love whatever you're going through just now. It's temporary, baby, I promise. Bye bye.