Drama Queens - The Women of Work In Progress

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Who doesn't need friendship, fierce honesty, big laughs, and some seriously unforgettable moments? In honor of International Women’s Friendship Month, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations with the women who have made Work in Progress a true labor of love. Hear from Dr. Jill Biden, Rosie O'Donnell, Laverne Cox, Leslie Jones, and Brooke Shields.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hi, friends. Did you know September is considered International Women's Friendship Month? So it feels like the perfect opportunity

to recognize and honor the incredible women in our lives and celebrate the friendships, connections, and stories that make each of them oh so special. Over the years, I have had so many talents, Fierce, inspiring, funny, just amazing women on this podcast. Their wisdom and candor, their humor and grace has stayed with me so long after each of those conversations ended. So today's episode is a special collection of some of my favorite moments and highlights from those amazing women and those very meaningful conversations. I hope you enjoy looking back with me and maybe you'll hear

something that inspires you, makes you laugh, or reminds you of an incredible woman in your own life. Obviously, part of writing a memoir is looking back, and you have such an incredible life to look back at all of your service, all of your teaching. But before that, before you were Dr. Biden or Mrs. Biden in class to someone, I'm curious about you when you were somebody's student. when you think about your life, if you could walk out in front of this building and run into yourself at 10 years old, do you think that little girl would see herself in you?

Would you see yourself in her? Well, I can, I never would have predicted how my life took. I mean, quite honestly. You know, I grew up really in an idyllic. I mean, idyllic childhood. I just had, my parents were really young. There were lots of fun. I mean, we would have tomato fights during the summer, out on the lawn.

You know, having four sisters was just so great. And I love school as, you know, when I was in those early years. By high school, I was cutting class like the rest of everybody else. She's a good time, you guys. Yeah, so sneaking out, you know, two. go eat a hoagie anyway. So, but my 10-year-old self,

I don't think I've changed all that much. I mean, I still love to read, and I love to write. And so I don't think I changed that much. No. That's pretty cool, especially given the life. Yeah. I'm curious why this felt like the time, because view from the East Wing is, it's personal, it's historic.

Did you just kind of feel ready to put it all out there, given the state of the world in 2026? You know, I was definitely ready to put it out. And when Joe got out of office, I just felt that so many people went out and wrote books. And I, you know, I read parts of many of them, and I saw things that weren't true, or had been, you know, misconstrued.

And I thought, I want to write my own reflections of how I saw things. And that encompassed, like, the whole four years. It encompassed travel, state dinners, Camp David, teaching, all the things I did. And then I included the chapters that were the really, you know, hard ones to write about Joe getting out.

But I want you to know, because many of you have not read the book, it's not a political book. It's a book about, like you're saying, an ordinary woman who was given the opportunity to live an extraordinary life.

And it's my reflections on that. If I were in the totally emotionally raw sci-fi movie of my dreams, myself today would walk on to like a playground, you know, in Manhattan and meet up with my nine-year-old self. And what would that be like? And I think it's actually so profound

that you say that that little girl might be so blown away by the possibility and maybe a little afraid of it. It's because it's one of the things I've come to wonder about why there is so much of a reaction to trans folks. And I think about this a lot, and I think, it really related to it.

I'm going to show the people at home because the book is called transcendent. And I know, you know, when this airs, it will have just been out for a few weeks. So if you don't have a copy yet, what are you doing? But when I looked at the title, I thought about it because transcendence as a concept is holy. It's very spiritual. The idea that you can transcend something is about transformation. Transformation is alchemy. Alchemy is magic.

I believe for myself, the experience of my life in our community and the blessings I have as a cis person, as a queer cis person having trans friends, is that of all of us on earth, trans people are miracles. I think people are afraid of people. trans people because limits don't exist in the same way. The stories humans have told themselves you know are not all that's true. Absolutely. And you're so in touch with the essence of humanity itself is a big concept. Freedom as a as a permission slip, not an idea. And I think for people

who are not free, that is frightening. Absolutely. A lot of the reason that there's the backlash against trans people specifically and first is because we kind of are the solution. We're the answer, right? Like if I can be assigned male at birth and told I'm male and I'm supposed to, you know, dress this way, act this way, live this way. And I say, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not true. I'm actually, I was assigned male, but I've always been a girl. And now. I'm a woman and I can make the choice to live in that truth. And after a lot of struggles, years of struggle that you read about in the book, I can get to a place where I am living in my truth and like throw off those shackles

that people have sort of put on me. I can transcend your ideas of who you think I'm supposed to be. And if I can do it, you as a cis person, Sophia, can do it. And a non-queer cis woman or man can also do. It doesn't have to look like being trans, but you don't have to subscribe to what people tell you that men and women should be and should do. And that is a threat to the patriarchal system.

And particularly in this fascist, Christian nationalist moment, it is a threat to the fascism that they're trying to sort of roll in. patriarchy is essential to fascism. And so we see, I don't think it's, it's all connected for me. I don't think it's a mistake that when we have all this anti-trans bigotry, there is the rolling back of reproductive rights, right? All these like hurdles to get to getting reproductive care.

Florida is such a great example with so much of this. But in Florida, for example, not only doctors can administer gender affirming care, when 80% of transgender Floridian receive their gender forming care from nurse practitioners. Yes. So, effectively, 80% of trans people who live in Florida can access gender from care. That's children and adults. So that's one of those sort of, you know, trap laws that they use to kind of deny its health care. And so that is not disconnected from racism, from sexism.

It's all connected. men are so embarrassing. And I would just check the fight. I wouldn't fuck you with my enemy's go away. I was just like, you know, and I would make them laugh, but like you'll never touch me.

Like you'll never, you know what I'm saying? You have to, it's just so many things that I was learning in that three months. Yeah. I remember talking to a veteran and I was like, how long is it going to take me to make it? I was like, how long is it going to take me to be like the funniest bitch?

Because I really wanted to be funny. I made a prayer to God before I saw. started, I said, if I'm not funny, then, you know, let me still be in the field. But if I, I don't want to be a comedian if I'm funny. I want to be it if I'm just pretend funny. And it's like, I'm working to it. And he told me, he was like, 10 years. He was like, you got to get all that. He was like, first three years is you telling fart jokes and jokes and jokes. He was like, that's the two or three year old, they're telling jokes. Like, you know. Right. Yeah, you have to mature as a comedian. as a storyteller.

Yeah, you got to be, you got to learn how to be on stage. You got to learn if you're going to have a drink on stage. If you're going to hold them, you got to learn all that stuff. He was like, and then your fourth and fifth year is when you start kind of making money off of you.

He said, it may be a little earlier because you are funny. He was like, but you still got to pay dues. It's just, you just got to pay them. You know, you got to go through hecklers. I went through all the stages of it, you know, so. Yeah.

And I tell comedians, when you try to skip the stage, you're not doing any good for you as an entertainer or for your audience. You're not doing anyone any good. It's always good to have a, I always think three pigs, three pigs, three pigs, the one that lived is the one that had the bricks. He had a strong foundation. Your shit can't blow away. You got to, and the only way you can have a strong foundation is to work. You don't want a doctor that just said, woke up one day and said, I'm going to be a doctor. you want a doctor that's been trained that's been in the field that knows

that's had experience when I went to go get my knee checked I remember my aunt telling me make sure that he does surgery this is not know every once in a while make sure that he has set a surgery schedule every week like you ask him

do you do surgery or is this just a case you take it on and I remember my knee doctor laughing he was like that's a good question he said I do all the left knees on Wednesday and all the right knees on Thursday. And I was just like, loved, you know what I mean? It's like that. Yeah.

And he's confident because you don't want a doctor that's going to be like, I think I'm good. You know, people tell me, you don't want that. And that's what makes me mad that when people see that type of confidence on me, I promise, Sophia, I don't know what it is. But when people see that type of confidence on me, everybody tries to break it. Well, the world hates a confident women. And frankly, people are very jealous of anyone who makes an artistic life. And so I think the envy and also the loathing from this fucking, you know, white heteronormative patriarchy we all suffer under.

I don't think it really bends people out of shape to see women embody themselves and laugh at themselves. and laugh at themselves and survive their mistakes and thrive in their careers. Like, they really get butt hurt about it. And I'm telling you, it's a thing, and you see it. Like, they go, first of all, they go, oh, this is just a, this is a fluke. This is a fluke that she's, this is getting lucky. And then they're not lucky. And then they go, oh, she's arrogant.

We need to break her down. Yeah. I'm not saying that that happened with everybody at SNL, because Lauren had much respect for me. The one thing that I loved about Lauren Michaels is that he knew exactly who I was. He knew exactly what I could do. He understood me in a way and he loved it because he loved it because he was like, oh, like, you know how to work a room, you know how to be this when it needs to be this.

You know how to be this when it needs to be this. he says you know how to work you so that's the one thing that Lord but the people some of the people that work there were just very how can I put it like you you just you just I can't explain this like you're just too you're you too what confident like I know what I want I'm sorry I know what I want I know you think you know everything and that was the thing there were people that worked there for years and they think they knew everything, which they probably did. But you don't know me, motherfucker. Yeah. Like, you should be open to learning. And now for our sponsors. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name, explosive shows. So IHart Radio is sending you

to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood flights, hotel, tickets, and a thousand dollars cash. Listen to I heart new music for 10 minutes a day on the Iheart radio app. And click enter. Every day you listen is another chance to win. Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. Well, you know, I did some reading on you because my daughter said, Oh, my God, Sophia Bush. And I was like, is she related to any of the Bush film?

Mom, she's an actress from One Tree Hill. Which I didn't watch. and now I feel horrible that I didn't watch it. You don't need to feel horrible about it. Well, I would have liked to have, you know, seen your work. But, you know, apparently everyone says you're really killing it on this podcast thing. Oh, thank you. I just, I love it, you know.

It's, um, I recently went and got to guest host your old show. I went to hang out with all the ladies on the view. How was that? It was so fun. But I said, I said, you know, The View and Oprah, like, your shows, raised me and when I think about being able to watch not just women whose work I loved, you know, professionals who like do great comedy and great things, but watching you all sit down and have conversations about what matters. You know, you really, you're like one of the

original users of a platform for good. So I have to thank you for that. That is very, very nice. Thank you for saying that. I mean, I'll tell you the God's honest truth is that when I was little and my mother was sick, I thought if Barbara Streisand's mother was sick, she would go on the tonight show with Johnny Carson and ask everyone to send $10 and everyone would and they'd get $1,000 and they'd get the mother, the medicine that they needed. So I knew there was power in celebrity. And to me, there was And it was Barbara Streisand, right? So if I wanted to be famous at all, it was because of that. Yeah.

I wanted to be in the Justice League. I thought when I achieved a level of success and financial something, we would form a women's Justice League. And it would be like, you know, Gloria Steinem and Oprah and Diane Sawyer and Katie Currick and Maya Angelou and Adela Shabazz and, you know, and I would join because I would have my own charity and I would do right and we would solve the problems of children in America. You know, that's what I fantasized was going to happen from fame. I've never heard anybody else talk about even something adjacent to what I thought as a kid.

That's so cool. Yeah. And I wonder too, you know, you say it and it's like we had all those women. women, those examples, and, you know, as much as I know the role can be reductionist in certain senses, we also grew up watching all these first ladies do good for kids and families. So you kind of figure, oh, when the women get to the upper echelon, that's what they do. They solve things for the women and the children. And that was my belief, like not just wish.

That was my belief that this would all happen. And, you know, I have that belief that there's going to be all the women bonding together, all the powerful women bonding together and saying, you know, we've had enough of this. Yeah. And this Epstein situation and this, you know, child abuse and this, listen, here, America, we don't have the choice to pretend it's not happening. Right. Right.

What a surreal thing, too, when you consider the last couple of decades, you watch, you know, we had the historic midterms. And then we began to shift the percentages of power in Congress. And you watched a version of the Justice League, right? The women launched Times Up and the Legal Defense Fund. And look at the backlash. I mean, you look at these fascists. You look at Pete Higgs' pastor on NPR yesterday saying they're going to take away women's right to vote. Look at his tattoo.

I know. God's sake. He branded himself with that. Yes. Yes. Okay, America? No more willful blindness. I know it. No more. There's trouble at the gates, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. There's trouble at the gates. And we're not talking about the border of Mexico. We're talking about the decency gates. They have a leak in them. We need to solve this crisis. And I don't get, really, Sophia, I don't get why so little has. happened with so much proof. I know it. We'll be back in just a minute after a few words from our favorite sponsors. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name, new album, and two exclusive shows. So IHart Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood Poulson Hotel tickets and $1,000 cash. Listen to IHard new music for 10 minutes a day on the IHart Radio app and click enter. Every day you Listen is another chance to win.

Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. I can't wait to send this episode to my mom, because we've been through our own version of, I think, that complicated thing when you did raise smart, independent women, and they go out in their independent world, and it's hard. And there was a period where I was doing the same and it was, I know it was tough for my mom. And also it was necessary for my life. And we are in this place now where, yes, she's my parent and I'm her daughter, but also we're more friends. Like, we're peers.

You know, I'm an adult. She's an adult. And whenever I'm home on the West Coast, we go to the flea market together every weekend. and my mom comes with me and all my friends. And my friends are like, mom's coming, you know, and it's this cool thing. And my mom is back in the space where she was,

oh my God, we have to. But like my mom's back in the space that she was in when I was, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, where she was always the mom all my friends wanted to hang out with. She was the one my friends wanted to ask advice of, which I just know is exactly you. And now she's kind of like,

mom gets invited again to the stuff. And it's so fun and it's so sweet. And I don't know. It makes me really nostalgic for her to hear you talking about the stage you're in and the journey with your girls. And it's a trip because it makes me realize how long I've known you. I will never forget. You said something when your kids were little that really solidified like this thing I talk about a lot now, which is everyone wants to cartoonify motherhood.

And I think it does such a disceract. to moms, and I will never forget. It's like, it's the most magical thing you've ever done, and it's also the hardest, and anyone who says it's not hard is a traitor. And, like, you said a thing forever ago. Somebody said, like, when did it, you know, when did you really know you were a mom and you were talking about having one of the babies, like, up in the air? And that one of them, when you had them up laughing, threw up in your mouth.

And you had to be like, okay. I can't drop the baby. I have to hold this in my mouth. I have to get the baby, you know, settled and then go clean myself up. And it has stayed with me for so long. And there was like, I traumatized you. No. I just was like no one's ever said it out loud and I'll never forget it.

It was like an S&L skit that makes an impact, but I read it. And I will never forget, you know, I don't know, what is it? Like a year or two years ago, like a stomach bugs going around. around pre-K. And I am, you know, holding Ash's hour precious little boy who's like my favorite little boy literally on the planet. And I got thrown up on in such a way that was like in my mouth, in my eyes, in my hair, down my shirt, just so. And I was like, okay, here we go. Like I have to, it's okay. Don't be scared. You're okay. And what do I do? And how do I manage this moment? And I thought about you. And I was like, it's official. It's official. Like, that's the thing. And you've shared, like, the funny things and the real things. And, you know, you talked about postpartum before anybody would. And like, you, I don't know, you've just been so generous with us for so long in ways that I think make women feel seen. And so in all the years I've known you, like, over and over again.

you do that for me. Oh, gosh, thank you. It's so cool. I've always looked up to you, and I've always really loved your brain and loved the way you treat people and obviously your talent. That just goes without saying.

But your intellect and your willingness to just, but really your willingness to sort of have convictions and speak them and enter in debate and conversation. And to me, like, that's just such a beautiful thing in to be a mom and have that. You know what I mean? And be a friend and be a wife and be a partner and be, you know, a colleague and all of those things. That what you represent is such a beautiful image for women in particular to, to own all of the complexities of being a woman.

Do you know what I mean? Yes, the beauty, but the intellect, but the sex appeal, but the strength and the vulnerability. And all of that is what makes a woman. Do you know what I mean? And to be not afraid to reveal it. And I mean, I feel like the second I met you,

I was like, oh. Yeah, I was like, and then you compounded it by having the white tattoo. And I was like, oh, God. I'm never going to be this cool. And I was just like, you know, that type of model as a female is really, and you share it too. And I'm proud to say that you're my friend, you know. Oh, I just love you, you sweet soul.

I am feeling so amped and inspired and just, oh, happy. But I'm not done. There is still far too much goodness to listen to. so we're going to pause here for today and see you back for part two. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.