Lovett or Leave It - Pride Plus Some Wrath (200th episode!)

Episode Date: June 12, 2021

Guy Branum joins to break down the week's news. Lovett quizzes Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor to mark 200 episodes of Lovett or Leave It. Tara Houska talks about the end of Keystone XL and the fight against Line 3 in Minnesota. And it's a very special (and shattering) Rant Wheel as Akilah Hughes, Emily Heller, Travis Helwig, Elisa Gutierrez, and Emily "Jeff Ross" Favreau get too honest about this very podcast.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, please visit crooked.com/lovettorleaveit. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome to Love It or Leave It, Vaxxed to the Future. front What did 45 do to that guy that he's so anti-viral-ent? Woo-hoo, Pfizer, Moderna Woo-hoo, AstraZeneca Woo-hoo, vax to the future! Ooh-wee-ooh, I look just like Dr. Fauci Oh oh, and hydroxy is no more I don't care, going to drink some bleach now anyway Like Bob and Amorlis stack Marjorie Greene, my hydroxychloroquine Some say that she needs help Her Twitter is twisted, her lasers are lit Q is her guardian

Ooh-ooh, Lyser, Moderna Ooh-ooh, AstraZeneca Woo-hoo, Max to the beautiful chair A, B, L, I'm at the door T for thugs, R for more O, no, common core Don't look now, but I voted for Socialism, communism, cancel culture more Vaccination, microchips, cold doors Sleep into a cum, allow carbon too

Stick that leftist juice in your boob That incredible song, that was amazing. I love that. That was by Dash, like the sun in the Incredibles. And we are in the market for a new kind of theme because this Pride Month, we are going back on stage for a Pride show we're calling Out of the Closets Into the Streets on June 24th.

Join me and a lineup of your favorite LGBTQ plus acts as we bring the celebration to you. Out of the Closets, Into the Streets will be streamed live on June 24th at 4 p.m. Pacific time. Join the fun on Crooked Media's YouTube and Twitch pages. If you want to write our

Out of the Closets, Into the Streets theme song, send it to us at leaveitatcrooked.com and please let us know if you're in LA because we might ask you to play live at our Pride event. And I am very excited to keep using these theme songs because we are going to be returning to all live shows very, very soon. Also, we have some big news.

Crooked has partnered with our friends at QCode to bring you a brand new scripted comedy podcast called Edith. It is starring Rosamund Pike as Edith Wilson. It explores the untold, true-uish story of America's secret first female president after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in the White House. Edith Wilson acted as a de facto unelected president. She signed documents, fired people, even caused international incidents. And along the way, enemies inched closer to finding out her secret. Edith was created and written by, you know them, you love them, Travis Helwig and Gonzalo Cordova.

They did an incredible job. It is so funny. The trailer is out right now, so please check it out. The first episode premieres on June 21st. New episodes every Thursday. Listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you pod. But really, check it out. Travis did an incredible job.

Gonzalo did an incredible job. Rosamund leads an amazing cast. Way more famous than I expected. They're really good. Gonzalo did an incredible job. Rosamund leads an amazing cast, way more famous than I expected. They're really good. And you will love the show. So please, please, please subscribe. On the show this week, we mark 200 episodes of Love It or Leave It.

I cannot believe how many episodes of this show we have made. John and Tommy helped me turn 200 with grace and poise. The ghosts of my past joined for a very special rant wheel. But first, he's the patron saint of love it or leave it. There's no one I'd rather turn 200 with. Please welcome back returning champion Guy Branum. Thank you so much for having me. I've always aspired to sainthood.

And comedy political podcast is one of the best things to be patron saint of. I do think Judaism could use saints. I don't, it seems like a great thing to start. Like there's no reason we can't start now, you know? I mean, while I understand we are against having icons and venerating human beings above one another. Also, I love Zaz. And I mean, I love Zaz. And I mean, I love Zaz. I love many gods.

I wrote a book about goddesses. So clearly I got to love saints. And it's not like, I mean, look, I guess there is that kind of tilt against that kind of celebration of icons. But they still print people's names on trees of life if they donate to the synagogue, you know? It's very true. So saints are just a supersized version of if they donate to the synagogue, you know? It's very true. So saints are just a supersized version of that in a lot of ways. I mean, it's very true. We can say that we don't venerate people up to like God, but every time I watched the

Chabad Talithon when Alan King was still alive, Alan King was there, and I would say that that was a little bit venerating Alan King. I agree with that. I agree with that. Let's get into it. What a week. What a week. What a week. On Wednesday,

the developer behind the Keystone XL pipeline officially canceled the project shortly after President Biden revoked a key permit necessary for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project. Following the cancellation,

the pipeline announced a tour with Joe Rogan and Adam Carolla this fall. Very exciting. Because it got canceled. It got canceled. It's moving to Austin. It's going to do its stand-up there and it's going to say whatever it It got canceled. It's moving to Austin. It's going to do its stand up there and it's going to say whatever it wants to say.

It's going to finally, it's not going to be curtailed by these woke anti-pipeline crusaders. It's going to say its piece. I'm going to say this is all because of Rutherford Falls on Peacock. I would say for a very long time, we've behaved as though Native Americans don't exist anymore. And I think having a good, funny show where we show the real today lives of Native Americans helps us understand, oh, they're human beings. That means they probably need to drink water that does not have petroleum products in it. Yeah, I think that's I think. Yeah, you're probably right. It's probably the peacock that the peacock shows. Peacock's huge. Peacock's huge. It's happening. It's happening. It's 1600 pen on peacock that the peacock shows did it peacock's huge there's peacock peacock's huge it's happening

it's happening it's 1600 pen on peacock uh i wouldn't let him have it i drew a line in the sand it's like no i well no it wouldn't be on peacock because 1600 pen was a 20th show which means it is under the disney ages oh okay in this new world of ours i think so one day i'm gonna get done with a mandalorian and it's just going to be like, want to watch 1600 Penn? Pop up. Yeah. You might find this surprising.

No one has come knocking on my door to ask about getting the single season of 1600 Penn on their streaming platform yet. I want a streaming platform that is just for things that were one season long. As it is right now, I have to watch them on YouTube, but I love shows that didn't happen.

I mean, wasn't that Quibi? Wasn't every show on Quibi one season long? Yes. Meanwhile, as the press plane for Biden's first trip to Europe as president began its departure Tuesday night, its engine was flooded with cicadas, grounding the plane for hours. Yes. You didn't know that. No. They just shut it down. Stopping journalists for a few hours Said a spokesperson for Alden Global Capital

There's no money in that I like that our national security And international relations Are now going to have to purchase some hungry birds Like that's the thing Standing between us Every 17 years Being able to heal our relationship with Europe is just some hungry birds.

We're going to have to stand the charm back a little. The jet engine sucked in several thousand cicadas. That is disgusting. That is a gross thing. Just spraying cicada innards against the windows. That's how I imagine it's very gross i'm from the west coast i've never had to experience the cicada thing we had huge bugs that just live all the time they don't wait 17 years to come back in new york where you

were were there cicadas i do remember cicadas at various points i i have a i have memories of a cicada moment um like deep in my mind um but uh i was trying to think who's somebody that pops up every 17 years in new york that's what i was trying to think of i was like i don't know i don't have anything who still pops up every 17 years in new york for some reason, I want to say Bernie Getz, but that doesn't make any sense. Halston? I don't know. Have you watched Halston? Not yet. Not yet. I mean, come on. I'll watch it. I'll watch it. I'm still

got hacks to watch. I got a lot of content to get through. I'm briefly in hacks. You haven't watched hacks? I saw you. Oh, my God. Did I not? First of all, I loved you in hacks. I saw you in hacks, and God. Did I not? First of all, first of all, I loved you in Hacks. I saw you in Hacks. And I feel I actually think that if we if we could check the records, you will find that one of my most recent texts to you proposing dinner did not mention that I had just seen you in Hacks. Yes, good. Well, thank you to Lucienne Yellow, to Paul Downs, and to Jen Statsky, and of course, Jean. To Jean.

Is Jean Smart part of the House of Medici in 15th century Italy? Because she's having one hell of a renaissance. Also in Europe, two people were arrested after a man slapped emmanuel macron while the french president was meeting with a crowd in southeastern france well guy one was arrested for the slapping the other was arrested for creating an invisible wall between macron and his security detail because this is a joke about a mime um no news story has ever thrilled me quite as much um i love emmanuel macron i love his wife who was his teacher um but i think he is just a little bit of like a school boy about these things and i would point you toett. Yeah. Do you remember when a person from a crowd attempted to slap Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien?

I don't, but say more. as best as mining town of Shawinigan and not unfamiliar with what a human hand striking him would be like grabbed him by the throat and choked him to the ground. I like that. And what was politely referred to as a Shawinigan handshake. And so, you know, metropolitan France can talk shit at Quebecois accents all they like,

but the French boys up there know how to handle a rough crowd. You choke them out. That is an interesting distinction between Quebec and France. I do see that. I do see that making some intuitive sense. Also, this week in entertainment news, I could not miss this sentence. The Southern Poverty Law Center has signed with the talent agency UTA for representation. Now, Guy, here's what you have to understand.

Guy did not know this either. He's lost it. Guy, you have to understand. The Southern Poverty Law Center had like a very tough final meeting with its agent at Hinoki and the Bird and was like, I look around and I see the ACLU with cases that should be my cases. And you know what? No, no, no.

Don't interrupt me. It's not even that the ACLU got that case. That's not the issue. I'm not going to get every case. That's the business. It's tough. I've been, I get that. I've been around a long time.

It's that I didn't even know about the case. You didn't call me to tell me that that case was even a possibility. You didn't fucking tell me, and that's your job. This was a discrimination case. I am the Southern Poverty Law Center. This was a discrimination case in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I was put on this earth to do that case. That's what I am.

That's what I do. People know that. That's what I'm supposed to be. That's why I hired you. Oh, you always say that. Hulu's interested. None of this shit goes anywhere. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We'll always be friends, but I'm moving on. I'm moving on.

That was a play I call The Southern Poverty Law Center Fires CAA at Hinoki and the Bird. Thank you. I blanch at how much I have had that exact conversation with every manager or agent. I'm also excited that the Southern Poverty Law Center is looking to get into comedy clearly. Like UTA.

I mean, it's where all of your biggest names in comedy are. Is everyone going to make content? Is it going to be like, if you want to catch that, you got to check out Amber Alert Plus for, you know, like what, what, what are we doing here? I am fascinated to see what we get on the Southern Poverty Law Center streaming channel. You know, what sort of content are they going to pick up?

That is very ridiculous. I respect them so much. Like, honestly, if I were going to think of an organization that is like, no frills, like, of course, when you're thinking about like organizations that are supposed to be public interests and are the most thrills, your mind immediately goes to the human rights campaign, which has never done a thing for a person and only exists so that older, wealthy gay guys have somewhere to take their younger boyfriend in a tuxedo. But if I were to go to sort of like meat and potatoes.

Guys, exactly. Obviously, just for the record before I just said it, obviously, Guy is in jet. You know, he appreciates a lot of the work of the human rights campaign. I appreciate a lot of the work of the human rights campaign. It's Pride Month. It's Pride. I'm poking my own community. I'm calling them in.

I am challenging them to do more work that benefits our society and not just giving awards to Sharon Stone. Sharon Stone has a lot of awards. But like Southern Poverty Law Center, I'm pretty sure they're just working on trying to make sure that there are civil rights south of the Mason-Dixon. Here's what I thought. Is there an IP play here? Like, what are we talking about? I'm interested. We'll see where it goes. We'll see where it goes. And if you're somehow associated with the Southern Poverty Law Center and you don't appreciate how I've represented this UTA deal, you can let me know. But I have to say, it's just a surprising sentence to see in the world. Also this week, the FBI was able

to recover ransom money paid to the Russian hacker group DarkSide by gaining access to one of the gang's Bitcoin wallets. But that story was going around. But on closer inspection, it looks like DarkSide got to keep 100% of their cut because, and I didn't understand this, DarkSide is actually a ransomware developer, and they use an operating model called ransomware as a service. So DarkSide gets a 15% cut for the malware they created, and the rest goes to the customer who is responsible for actually infecting the computers with it and negotiating the ransom and doing the actual crime.

So what happens is, basically, if you have the interest in attacking somebody with ransomware, but you don't have the know-how, you can basically rent. It's like Amazon cloud services for ransomware. But so anyway, since the authority sees 85 percent of the ransom from a single Bitcoin address, it suggests that DarkSide got its cut. But the actual hire of DarkSide didn't. Isn't that interesting?

I love a swindle. I think this is why we should have unregulated markets, because, you know, if there's a demand, there will be a supply. Good for you, capitalism. You're really solving this problem. Also, was really excited by the boom and now bust that we have in Bitcoin. I think nothing could be better for our economy than pointless bubbles of value that are pushed along by canceled comedians in, um, Austin. Not to mention billionaire electric vehicle tycoons. It is, um, it does seem as though like,

Hey, I have this idea and it's for a currency, uh, that requires the energy, uh, of the nation of France. Uh, and it is basically only really useful for criminals. Like, OK, I don't know. I'm not sure. I think that's a very good idea. Guy, now it's time for gay news. The Biden Justice Department says it could vigorously defend a federal law allowing religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students. That created quite a kerfuffle online. But as Mark Joseph Stern writes in Slate,

the DOJ looks to be taking up the case in order to prevent discrimination from getting even worse because an anti-civil rights group called the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities asked a judge to let it take over the defense of the law on the grounds that it didn't believe

the DOJ would vigorously defend it because the Biden administration can't get enough guy-on-guy action. Elsewhere, that group argued for a more expansive interpretation of religious schools' legal right to discriminate. So if the DOJ doesn't defend in this case, the other organization could try to give a conservative Supreme Court an opportunity to expand the existing religious exemption even further, which is a reminder,

if you read the news on Twitter, you actually didn't. Guy, what do you think about this? It's nuanced. It's like on the one hand, they're saying they're going to vigorously defend something they, maybe not on legal terms, but certainly on moral terms, find wrong under the basic idea that the administration must defend the law, that that's a sort of basic precept of how our system works. Well, it's such an interesting situation. It came up a lot when you had challenges to gay marriage cases. There were a lot of people, I think when Kamala Harris

was Attorney General of California, wasn't she the Attorney General? When San Francisco was handing out marriage licenses, she said that she would not apply the California law to the situation. But there is danger of a Justice Department just saying, we're not going to defend this law that was passed by our government because it does allow hardline people to come along and be like,

we'll be the ones to defend it. I don't think that the Justice Department is going to be wink-wink, like, enforcing this. We need to respect that, like, that's the Justice Department's job. And I think Twitter going batshit because, oh no, Biden's not the perfect liberal we need. Like his justice department is going to defend laws that are already in place is a rough situation. There are lawsuits ongoing all the time and the government is, it's always assumed that the government will defend

a law. And if the president, if an administration can change hands, let's say one that goes from passing the Affordable Care Act to opposing the Affordable Care Act, and then decides, we just are not going to defend that law in court, you're basically giving a new administration the ability to invalidate a law. You're basically saying, well, they're not going to defend it. And so it is a difficult issue. Well, but it's also something, us believing that we should solve problems this way through either administrative channels or through judicial channels. And those are the two options we have here. We have people challenging it in court, trying to use judicial, and then we have people trying to nullify that through the administrative branch by saying, maybe we're not going to

defend this as hard as we should. It's all getting around the fact that the legislative process doesn't happen anymore. We have created a situation where the legislative process doesn't happen, and it's really dangerous. And, you know, my answer to this question is get rid of the filibuster. And, you know, my answer to this question is get rid of the filibuster, like get rid of the filibuster and make a new state or two, because we need to do something so that there can be legislation in this country so that our laws will reflect the will of a majority of this country, which currently there's some shit in the way of. Speaking of the will of the majority, support for same sex marriage has reached reached an all-time high, with 70% of Americans supporting its legal recognition. The data came from a scientific study of the roughly 3,000 people who have asked me

when my fucking wedding is. And we don't know, guy. That's the answer, all right? When are you and Ronan getting married? We don't know yet. We're trying to figure it out. It's been, it's hard. I don't know. I think it's, I'm glad that i don't know i think it's i'm glad that you guys are queering marriage i think that too many people uh think that it is their

job as queer people to comport with heteronormative ideas of what marriage is and i think you guys being engaged forever is a great queering of gay marriage first of all, fuck you. Forever. My mother listens to this. It's not been that long, Fran. Second point, no one has made me more anxious about this, the planning of this wedding than Guy Branum. Let me tell you why. And I was going to save this for our dinner, but I'll say it here. I wasn't really. I'm hyping it up for this. it up for this. You were like, oh, that's so exciting. Gay people have the opportunity to reinvent heteronormative institutions in ways that may define them moving forward, because this is a generation that will be among the first to have gay weddings. And you can redefine and figure out customs that could potentially help shape what marriage becomes. And obviously, that's pretty heady. All right? I just want to have a party with some abs and some toasts about how great I am. You know?

I mean, it's wonderful. It's dangerous when you have too many performers, though, because, like, sometimes it can become a lot. But let me tell you. Yeah, we've all been there. Here's why America is more supportive of gay weddings now than they were before. Because when this first became an idea that was on people's minds, everyone was like, oh, gay guys will have good weddings. Lesbians will have bad weddings. They'll wear

cargo shorts. There won't be dogs there. And everyone ignored the fact that lesbians are also extremely competitive. And every lesbian wedding I have ever been to is the most beautiful event I have participated in my life up until that point like they are killing it slaying left and right and you know if you haven't been to a lesbian wedding yet or a femme of centered queer wedding um please make some new friends get on that list because they're really doing i mean like they're doing some amazing stuff it's very. It's very exciting. It's very exciting what's happening out there. Guy, I have a pitch for you.

Yes. All right. LGBTQ. Yes. In terms of mouthfeel, it's tough. It's not a smooth sounding phrase. Here's my pitch. What have we started saying Laquavita?

I love Laquavita. As in L-A-G-Q. So the G and the Q together so you can kind of hear both sounds. Yeah. U-A-B-I-T-A. Laquabeta. Laquabeta. Like Laquabeta Americans.

I'm a Laquabetan. I love it a lot. It's so much Laquabeta. We're Laquabeta. We're not. I'm just, the letters are tough. It feels bureaucratic. It feels 90s. It feels, it feels bureaucratic. It feels nineties.

It feels like we were. Don't you come for the nineties, John. We did important good work that moved your rights ahead. We're contemporaries, guys. Come on. We're contemporaries. All right. Nice try.

La Coveta sounds lovely. It sounds like a valley where you get orange wine from in Portugal. I love, I love. It's a vintage from the Laquabeta Valley. From the Laquabeta Valley. Laquabeta. I'm just, I'm just throwing it out there into the world. I enjoy being an LGBTQ American, but I'd even,

I'd enjoy even more being a Laquabeta American. But I also think there's something about so, like so many voices have been ignored for so long that I think there has been this real fight to create space and to create more representation of inclusion. And I think as that representation becomes realer, the fight over letters will become less significant.

You know, I mean, already, I mean, a lot of people just like queer, queer works for a lot of people or whatever it is, whatever form it takes. I just look forward to this beautiful La Covita community that we are part of. Well, I agree. That's part of my... And produce good orange wines. Sorry. That's what I totally agree. I totally agree. Well, I think part of this is I think La Covita to me achieves two things at once, which recognizes that the further we get in this fight, the more the barriers between,

you know, the G and the B and the T, they start to, and the Q, they start to kind of, the L, the L is strong, but the, I mean, obviously L bleeds into B, but hard to get from L to G, you know, it's just, but there's just a, there's a, There's a mixing of the borders. The L's produce many of our B's. We weren't allowed to talk about it for a really long time, but they do very good work keeping our B's populated. That's absolutely true. I got to tell you, one of my favorites

is when the L's go so far they get to T, then come out the other end to G. Those motherfuckers are fun. This is why I'm saying we need Laquavita. And I'm also including, yeah, that's true. Some more gay news. I'm counting this for some reason.

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Are they still that? You know what? I'm not calling them that anymore. Harry and Meghan announced the birth of their second child on Sunday, Lilibet Diana, paying tribute to both Queen Elizabeth and the late Princess Diana. Will the baby also be traumatized by being connected to the royal family? Probably a little bit. Yeah. Did you listen to the interview that he did with Dax Shepard? No. Tell me about it. It was just fascinating because it was fascinating to hear unfiltered Harry.

Like he was dumb about some interesting things, but I found the whole thing charming. I'm so excited for it. I will always use a title for anyone who has a title. I welcome, and I'm excited to have Lady Lilibet in this world. I also think it was such a California spin. I don't know that I entirely approve of it, but naming her Lilibet instead of Elizabeth really is a very American answer to British tradition.

And for such a long time, the weird second sons or third sons or whatever of the royal family have just been like stuck in some palace in Kensington getting married to racist ladies. been like stuck in some palace in kensington getting married to racist ladies and the notion that like oh we're not going to need you for like our national symbolism go just be celebrities in hollywood that just seems reasonable to me like yes lilibet will probably at some point in time host a house flipping show good that is a much better use for her than just like being married to a rich guy who's probably a little bit of a gangster. And that's gay news. Guy Branum, thank you so much for being here on our 200th episode. Can you believe that? Congratulations on Mazel Tov.

I'm very excited for you and Pundit. To 200 more. To 200 more. To 200 more. Next year in Jerusalemusalem next year in west hollywood next year in west hollywood for sure next year live in west hollywood yes thank you so much to guide random for joining us when we come back john favreau tommy vitor are here we played a very funny game basically a newlywed game foot but for uh say uh three friends who

started a podcast and a media company, uh, stick around. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of love it or leave it coming up. Congratulations. John love it on 200 episodes. Truly an amazing fate.

It's marvelous, isn't it? 200 episodes. What is this? Everybody loves Raymond. My God, put it away. Hang it up.

200 episodes of Lovett doing his stand-up routine. Yeah, I'm worn out. Congratulations, Lovett. I think you did it by now. I think we've gotten to the heart of this stand-up thing. Let's move it along. You've developed an hour. You have an hour. Record the hour. Let's get it out.

Give the show over to Rononin that's what we want right yeah john love it's gonna transition into his complex sneaker show this is all work up until that uh-huh slowly all he wears is new balance new balance say get it right that is the gag now like timothy chalamet the girls are wearing new balance so love it was behind the curve but now he is the curve. Anyway, congrats, John Lovett. Congratulations, John Lovett. Yeah, congratulations.

I actually love you, you wonderful human being. 200 episodes. That's wild. Wow. Congratulations, John Lovett, on 200 episodes of Love It or Leave It. One of my most memorable

Crooked Media experiences happened as a result of Love It or Leave It. We did a live show in Minneapolis about three years ago. There was a massive blizzard. People came to the show anyway on skis and snowshoes. And then after the show, we all went out to eat at the only place in town that was open and serving food. And while we were moving the tables around, two of the tables pinched a piece of my leg

in between them, and I still have a scar from it. So congratulations on that and many more scars for many more Crooked Media hosts. And we're back. This is an emotional day for me. It isn't. Ever since I was a little boy, I dreamed of leaving my position as a speechwriter for the most powerful person in the world for a job where I could sell mail order ED medication while wearing branded merch with my name on it. In honor of a dream come true and a job well done, I've invited my two dear friends, Jonathan Favreau and Thomas Vitor, to come on Crooked Media's flagship program, Love It or Leave It,

in celebration of platonic love like no other. As someone who has listened to every episode of The Wilderness and Pod Save the World, it means a lot that they are willing to prove their devotion to me, crooked, and love it or leave it by proving that they listen to and retain everything we say in a game we call the Newly Pod Game, a.k.a. Yes Homo. Here's how it works. I'll ask a question about one of us, and the three of us will write down an answer. Whoever's answer is closest to the one written down by the one whose question it is about,

you get it, gets the point. Are question it is about, you get it. Gets the point. Are you ready? Yes. I think so. I think so. Question. The rules were said really quickly, but. Question number one.

What is John looking forward to most about being back in the Crooked Media office? John L. or John Favreau? John Favreau. John Favreau. John Favreau. In fairness to the game, I did not think about my answers to these in advance. Why did I write so small? That was stupid.

It'll be fine. It's a podcast. All right. Let's see. Tommy, what's your answer? Avoid parenting. That's good. That's good.

I said recording in person. I went straight with it. What'd you say? Recording PSA. Yeah, that's right. A point for me. A point for me, though. Tommy said recording in person. I went straight with it. What'd you say? Recording PSA. Yeah, that's right. A point for me. A point for me, though. Tommy gets the comedy points.

He remembered the ultimate goal of this program. The deeper goal. Next question. If Tommy had to be stuck on a desert island with Stephen Miller, Mike Pence, or Kellyanne Conway, who would he choose? God, that's hard. I think I got it. I've already read your mind. Okay. John, what was your answer?

Pence I said he would let the ocean take him I said Kellyanne She's awful but she's vicious funny Mike Pence would just bore you to death That's a good point Kellyanne Conway is a survivor Maybe you guys would find something in common, and it would be like a buddy comedy.

Right. Hey, it's just last two left, you know? I don't know if she's technically single, but emotionally she seems single. You're not wrong. Next question, what is my Starbucks order? Oh. Tommy?

I said double shot espresso on ice, and then you pour free milk on it. Pretty close, John. I said some dumb shit that saves you like 50 cents on a normal iced latte. That is, you're both pretty close. Triple espresso on extra ice in a grande cup with four pumps sugar-free vanilla and a splash of half and half is like the correct answer. But I'm going to give it to both of you. I'm going to give it to both of you.

Oh, Brian Semel guessed in the text. Triple espresso on ice in a grande cup, three pumps sugar-free vanilla with a splash of half and half. Brian, you won this one in text in the Google Doc. Next question for the two of you. Brian's saying to himself, guessed. I used to be my job to get those. Yeah, I know to be my child, but get those. Next question. What Twitter

fight still gets me worked up? Oh, oh, oh. I'm excited to see what you write. Got it. Tommy, are you ready? Close enough. I'll give you a hint. I do believe that this can be answered with a hashtag. Yes, I got it. John, what'd you guess? K-Hive! That's right. It's the K-Hive. Tommy, what'd you say? I was going to say any

criticism from a resistance wine mom in your mentions that you never check. Yeah, that's right. That's pretty good too. That's close enough. Same thing, really. Same thing. I will say, and just shout out to the K-Hive, much love to the K-Hive. There are trees in the rainforest, older than human society, with shorter memories than the K-Hive. For those of you listening who aren't part of the K-Hive, if you just start tweeting that this happened at the K-Hive, that would be the best way. Please don't alert the K-Hive. All right. Please don't alert the K-Hive. Love to the K-Hive.

Please, K-Hive, all right? Please don't alert the K-Hive. Love to the K-Hive. Please, K-Hive. I surrender. Next question. What is Tommy's most prominent vocal tick when we are recording? Oh my God, that's so bad. It's an interesting question. It's an interesting question.

I hate all of them. I don't know how to narrow it down. I know. It's a tough one. Tommy's pretty good at it. I have my answer. I got mine. John,

what'd you say? Um? I said foreign policy. My answer, my answer is like using words over and over again that are sort of like

75% correct in context, but not the one you would have chosen if you'd thought about it. Okay. I do that all the time. Yeah, of course. All right, well, it brings us to our next question.

What is John's most prominent vocal tick? Oh, God. Oh, there's so many. Tommy, what was your answer? I wrote fuck like 80 times, so it was very prominent. That's good. That's good. I wrote neoliberalism.

I was going to say like a classic male podcast host verbal tick. Right? Yes. Right. You do. Right. Right. It's actually, I'm not the only one. I think I've cut down on it. Yeah, it's tough. Well, there's two versions of right. There's the, it's a, it's a statement than an actual like, please respond to me. Right. And then there's the like, kind of's a statement than an actual like please respond to me right and then there's the like kind of like like uh faux humble and you don't do this as much as like a faux humble like you make a point that you think is true but you throw a right on the end as if it's a question like like but i'm approachable i'm approachable that's called the that's called the full iglesias

next what is my most prominent vocal tick? Oh, that's easy. It's easy. Oh, no, I don't think it was. Tommy, what was your answer? It goes something like this. Pause. Sort of snicker.

Sideways smirk. You know, we've talked about this before we said this before fuck john something about the culture oh that's good too that's good that's good i actually wrote down tommy i'm giving you the point because i wrote down a pause as if i'm thinking of what to say but really i'm about to say something i've said like a million times before. It's the third take. It's the third take. Oh, that's right. That's good, NAR.

Yeah. NAR chimed in with, I think that's right. I think that's right. I think that's right. Final question. What was the hardest part about working from home for John? This time, I want to see what John said. Well, let's see what Tommy said first.

I went with balance. Because he broke his shoulder. Good point. Good point. John, what did you write? I wrote, is this where you pre-butt Emily's rant with a mean joke? Yeah, I will. What was the hardest part about working for Home for John?

Emily's Instagram. I knew it. I was going to say marriage. Wait, wait. This just in. It is time for a lightning round. Here's how it works. Tommy, as the Shrek to our Fiona and Donkey,

the Bowser to our Mario and Luigi, the Good to our Bad and Ugly, the Snap to our Crackle and Poppers, we have a round just for you. Here's how it works. You have to simply say, which John? Are you ready?

Oh. Had dinner with Bo Burnham once, not sure if he made an impression. Love it. Correct. Spoke at college graduation. John F. Both of us. Fuck. Who did some light Jared Kushner cosplay? Love it. Favreau. Favreau

for Halloween. Remember? Dressed up as Jared Kushner. I thought it was like an impression. Sorry. Who said the West Wing was an incredible, inspiring show and one of the reasons I wanted to be a speechwriter? Fabbro. You'd think it was. Somehow I said that. I said that.

It was during 1600 pen promotion and I didn't want to say anything. You get it. Who liked shopping with Emily Moore? Love it? Yeah. Okay.

Because John hates it. Who dressed up as a trash can as a volunteer for the Gene Shaheen campaign? Favreau. Favreau. And I just want everyone out there to know that somewhere in the world, there's footage at a local affiliate

of John Favreau dressed up as a trash can. I think, what was the logic of the trash can, John? That someone's trash. There were some Republican attacks on Jeanne Shaheen, and we wanted to, the New Hampshire Democratic Party, we wanted to call them Republican trash attacks. And so I dressed in a full trash bag, and someone from WMUR just filmed me running behind a dumpster.

This was on the local news. No one can find the tape. No one can find the tape. Yeah, the tape has been canceled. I went to a Liddy Dole, now then became Senator Dole event when we were trying to run against her when I was working for Erskine Bowles

for a few weeks. And we held up signs that said, there are holes in the Dole plan. And we cut holes in our shirts and we got on the local news. And then a 90-year-old man shivved me with his forearm on the way out of the event.

Very violent. Whoa. Wow. Sort of precursor to some of the politics we've seen as of late. Interesting. Foreboding. Foreboding. Good take. Good to some of the politics we've seen as of late. Interesting. Foreboding. Foreboding.

Good take. Good take. Tommy Vitor, Jon Favreau, thank you so much for joining us for this 200th episode. Spectacular. When we come back, I had a really interesting conversation with Tara Hauska. She is protesting Line 3. We talked about the cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline and what this fight means for indigenous rights, for the fight against climate change, and how she stays hopeful in such a difficult and long battle. It was a great conversation.

Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. Hey, it's Akilah Hughes. And it's Gideon Resnick here. Hey. And we are congratulating Love It or Leave It for 200 episodes. Welcome to the 200 Club. We've been waiting for you here, man.

Where you been? Yeah, we actually got a trophy for when we did it, and we'll happily pass it on as a keepsake for you now. Yeah, we thought we would just be sharing it, but you're finally here. Congrats. Keep going. Yeah, you got this.

You'll get there. You'll get to 300 one day. Totally. And we're back. She is a tribal attorney, a land defender, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. Please welcome Tara Hauska. Tara, thanks for being here. Yeah, for sure. So, Tara, before we get to anything else, you are leading these protests against Line 3. What is Line 3? Why is this important? And what are you hoping to achieve? On its face, Line 3 is a nearly million barrel per day tar sands line coming out of Alberta, down through hundreds of our watersheds to the shore of Lake Superior. To me, it's an extension

of colonial violence. It's the expansion of an industry that we know is killing us and all life that as we know it it flies in the face of climate science and flies in the face of human rights and it flies in the face of racial justice and environmental justice it is a continuation of greed and violence on our lands and on our people it's the same old same same old, and that narrative of colonization that needs to change. So on Wednesday, more than 10 years after it was first proposed, developers canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. Years of protests and legal battles led to the Biden administration canceling the permit, effectively killing the project. This is an incredible victory, but in light of the ongoing fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Line 3 Pipeline, which you are currently leading efforts to stop, what lessons do you take from the Keystone fight that you're trying to apply now?

I certainly think one of them is that it took us well over a decade of social and political pressure to finally see this terrible project that should have never been approved come to a close. finally see this terrible project that should have never been approved come to a close. But I think the pieces, especially around requiring an emissions test and to ensuring a full environmental review seem to be absolutely critical to actually stopping the Keystone XL pipeline because it couldn't pass a climate test. Line three doesn't either. So we're using those same tactics of going to a democratic administration and saying, hey, this is no different. It's the emissions equivalent of 50 coal fire plants. It doesn't pass any semblance of respecting tribal cultural resources. The many wild rice beds that are protected by treaties with the United States, it won't pass an environmental review.

So stop the pipeline. It won't pass an environmental review. So stop the pipeline. I want to ask about like sort of I just want to hear your thoughts on the sort of two kind of talking points you hear on the other side just to get your response to them. One is that this is not a new pipeline. It's just replacing an old leaky pipeline. So why wouldn't you want to have a better pipeline that's not as dangerous and not as risky?

Yeah, that's something we hear all of the time. Yeah. Like what's wrong with you guys? Do you really want the old one to keep leaking? thing we hear all of the time. Like what's wrong with you guys? Like, do you really want the old one to keep leaking? What we want is the old ones to be pulled out of the ground, the mess to be cleaned up and for us to transition away from fossil fuels. The solution to an old aging pipeline is not to build a brand new pipeline in a new place that's untouched by pipelines so it can leak somewhere else. It's clean up your old mess and get out of our territory. It's time to move on to a green economy.

Yeah, no, it's interesting because even people have said to you, oh, well, it just moves along the same. So just for people listening at home, line three, ostensibly it's replacing a pipeline and it does track the root of the pipeline for parts of it, but then there's whole swaths of it

where it's basically just a new pipeline that's going to be in completely sort of untouched areas, right? Yeah, it's in a pristine area with 800 wetlands, 200 bodies of water. It's northern Minnesota. It's the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the shore of Lake Superior. That's the Great Lakes. It's the fifth of the world's freshwater that's at risk. The other argument you hear, which was made around Keystone, it's made around Dakota Access, it's that environmentalists are concerned about how this will affect climate change. But if the pipeline isn't built,

Enbridge, the company behind it, will still move the oil. They'll still move it by cars, trucks, whatever. They'll still move it, which is less efficient and will create more emissions. They say that building Line 3 doesn't therefore worsen climate change. What's your response to that talking point?

Well, one, Line 3 is a 10% expansion of the tar sands. That's totally not factual. Two, they have the existing pipeline infrastructure to continue to move their oil. They don't actually need this line. That's part of the reason why Minnesota's Department of Commerce is suing Minnesota's Public Utility Commission. So the state's actually suing itself because Enbridge couldn't justify its oil forecast. There's just not the need for the amount of product they want to move. And lastly, I mean, I think, you know, the writing is on the wall. We're moving away from fossil fuels in a big way. We see that with the move to electric vehicles and all that, right?

Like the transition is happening, whether or not the oil industry wants to admit it. And they've pulled out far more than they can use. And it sits in giant storage containers all over Canada and other places. When I started looking at this, my first sort of reaction is like, oh, this feels sort of like hopeless. You're fighting these multinational corporations. There's money in this stuff. There's money in the ground. There's money in this oil. There's money in these fossil fuels. And they will get that money no matter what you do, right? Like, in part, this Enbridge project is trying to get the oil down this way because they had to abandon another direction

due to other protests. Like they are trying everything they can to get the money out of this. But one thing that you point out in some of your messaging is they are in a race against the clock to get these fossil fuels to the market before fossil fuels become obsolete.

Do you really feel like this is on that time frame that like, that there really is hope that even in just stopping line three, you're going to actually make a difference in, in their ability to actually use these fossil fuels? I think there's a couple different things. One is, you know, a lot of these tar sands that they're planning on transporting or trying to transport through our beautiful homelands is, you know, it's meant for foreign market. It's actually not meant for energy independence, like the United States has actually more than it needs. And so it's trying to expand that dependency on fossil fuels to the rest of the world. But in the meantime, like most of westernized society is moving towards green economy and they are racing against the clock. Their industry has

been deeply impacted, in particular tar sands, because it is the most expensive and most carbon intensive form of extraction. It requires an enormous amount of energy just to pull it out and then to transport that sludge through the pipes. Enbridge and TC Energy and all these tar sands companies have really been hit hard with that reality, which is, you know, Northern Gateway was canceled. Energy East was canceled. Keystone XL was canceled. Just left is Line 3 and Trans Mountain Pipeline, both of which have very strong indigenous resistance and have for almost a decade at this point. On indigenous resistance. So putting climate change aside,

this is also a fight about just the rights over the use of this land. And one thing I've heard you say is that it is clear as day that this project is illegal. It just simply is a violation of the law. Can you say more about that? Like what, what is it that makes this pipeline so clearly illegal? How has it been that, that the financial interests have made it so easy for authorities to ignore those legal restrictions? So treaties are in the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land. It's been a long-standing policy and understanding, I think, of the general public and of the judiciary that that is not absolute. There's a long history of dispossessing and disenfranchising and dismissing indigenous

rights and indigenous peoples. That said, I think, you know, there's been a lot of moves in the Supreme Court recently that have kind of started to reverse course, right? Like, so recognizing that the eastern half of Oklahoma is actually indigenous territory, upholding the right to off-reservation hunting, fishing, and gathering rights. One of the big seminal cases is actually here in Minnesota. It's called Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band, in which they reiterated and reinforced, yes, you have the absolute right to off-reservation treaty territory to hunt, fish, and gather, which is what's at issue here. So in the treaties with the United States, with Ojibwe nations, wild rice is so important to our people. It is so central to our culture and to us that it's the only grain

mentioned in a treaty with the United States. And that's protected and that's what we're talking about. That's what's at issue here. So for something to put that at risk, which is not just a spill, but the actual dredging and filling and construction of the line, that is a direct violation of the law. And due to a long standing process of fossil fuel influence and corruption, it's kind of been the standard of law enforcement agencies to become either directly employed or partially employed or influenced by these industries, like here in Minnesota, where they've created a public safety escrow account in which Enbridge is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars to incentivize police to harass and surveil us. And that's exactly what's been happening. They filled almost

three quarters of a million dollars to Enbridge for costs associated with the line three demonstrations. But I think it also, like it speaks volumes that when I bring up, okay, so you got line five, it's operating illegally over in Michigan right now. Like the Michigan governor said no, right? But when you bring up like, so our law enforcement then going to go out and start tear gassing and batoning pipeline workers, the or the response is inevitably, oh my god, they would never do that, you know, but like, they do that to us, right? Saying that we're violating the law when they're actually in this case, very clearly in violation of the state law, at least, right? Like the governor said no, tribal nations say no all the time. Just so people understand. I'm sorry,

I just want to I want to make sure people understand that. So basically, line five is in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has basically said ordered it to be shut down, right? But they're actually still operating it in violation of that order. And that's playing out in the courts. Whereas protests are trying to shut down line three, and receiving an incredible response from the police that is not happening in Michigan, despite it being countervailing the direct instruction of that government. Right. Do you see like Michigan law enforcement out tear gassing and using LRADs on pipeline workers?

No, even though they are directly violating the law. But that's the response, right? Of course not. When it comes to us who are upholding our rights that are foundational to the existence of this country and to the state of Minnesota, it's like, oh, well, that's just, you know, that's really too bad. You know, like that's been the way things that, you know how things go. And I personally, I didn't totally understand that myself, that it really is like it's a deploying of state violence purely based

on cultural expectations. Like if you're violating the law in this way, in violation of these corporate prerogatives and this and those that corporation can basically fund the police and they're directly funding the police in in Minnesota. They're literally they have a bank account. They put the money in to cover the costs of the police doing the work of clearing out the protests. Then that's OK. But the reverse is like, of course, that doesn't happen.

Of course, you don't deploy against the corporate entity. Before I let you go, and thanks for taking the time, like, you know, there have been successes, shutting down the Keystone pipeline, others that you mentioned, yet at the same time, like, when I think of these protests, just being honest, sometimes I think like, it's like trying to hold back a river with your hands. It's like, you're fighting some of the most powerful and well-funded corporate interests on planet Earth. You are up against these corporations that are very sophisticated in that they know that these legal battles will play out for years. The pipelines can be completed and the work can be done far faster than that. They have, in many cases, the assumed

or direct backing of local governments and a history of victories against treaties, against basically everything you can throw at them. How do you stay in this fight? How do you feel committed? How do you get up every day and keep doing it? Well, I think when you look at an opponent, you look at what they are most afraid of. they are most afraid of. What I see from the fossil fuel industry, from either the fight against Dakota Access or Keystone or Trans Mountain or Enbridge with Line 3 and Line 5, they are absolutely terrified of the people finding their agency and their power. They do entire campaigns and PR strategy and influence of local governments, of state governments,

of federal governments, of all governments, of federal governments, of all kinds of different levels to criminalize protest, to try to pacify and quell resistance, because they know those pieces are something that they can't quite control outright. They can't influence outright. So they try to do their very, very best to get to people's hearts and say like, there's nothing you can do. Just sign up for a job, get in line, sign up, get your job and let it go. Life takes energy. That's their motto, right? Versus like it's actually energy is taking life. Like their form of energy is literally taking life. I mean, I think the things that keep me going are not only observing their reactions and like this immense response from this company and from others like it

to Indigenous-led resistance, but also seeing what happens when people come together. Minnesota is the place where George Floyd was murdered last summer. And seeing what happened to a national conversation on race when millions of people were marching in the streets. I see the same things here in smaller doses, but it's still the same things here and, you know, in, in, in smaller doses. Right. But it's still the same. It's like black, brown, queer, indigenous, young people. And then some older folks too. And Jane Fonda. And Jane Fonda who are saying, no,

like this isn't how it's going to continue to be right. Like we're not going to allow this to keep happening. And as that movement grows and becomes really powerful, I mean, that's how you get the meeting with Gina McCarthy, where they're really, they're expressing major concerns about a DAPL like situation, right? Like they don't want that on their watch because that piece of people power truly is incredible. And it's something that they can't control and they can't buy. So that's what keeps me going, you know, out there. Well, Tara Hauska, thank you so much for your time.

And good luck in the fight. Thank you so much to Tara Hauska for joining us. When we come back, it's time for the rant wheel. And it's really, it was tough. It was tough for me. And we're back. As Carly Simon once sang, I'm so vain, I probably think this show is about me. Since I have been doing this for too fucking long, this week's rant wheel will be a little

different. Instead of deciding what we'll be complained about, the wheel will decide who gets to do the complaining about a single topic, this show. single topic, this show. This week on The Wheel, we have Aaron Sorkin, Akilah, Demi Lovato, Emily Heller, Lachlan Murdoch, Alisa, Emily Favreau, and we have Travis. Let's spin The Wheel. it has landed on akilah yeah wow i'll take it away um well congratulations john on doing the show for too damn long uh iconic and truly what we all hope to achieve in life is doing something for too long uh yeah my biggest gripe this week i feel like is that, you know, we just don't see enough of you. I feel like, look, you're on Pod Save.

You're on Love It or Leave It. That's fine. But you're not on the Internet, like posting pictures of your face. What's the point of having curly hair if you're not going to share it with the world? Like, we're just supposed to remember what you look like from five years ago. This is too nice. I mean, look, I could also be roasting you online if you posted pictures. I can't just roast your ideas about Joe Biden.

That's not interesting for anybody. You know, I just I feel like there's no way to interact. And it's just sort of like a waste of time. So, yeah, I think you should cancel the show and just get back on Instagram. OK, I'll think about that. I'll think about that. Travis, you have something you want to say? Just absolutely tonally 180 degrees from what I'm going to do. Travis, you have something you want to say? Just absolutely tonally 180 degrees from

what I'm going to do. Great. Great. I love that. I like to set the bar very low for Travis to just dunk on it. This is going to be, I'm glad we started there because I think these are going to get too mean. Let's spin it again. Yeah. I think, I think I misunderstood the assignment. I just, I'm, I tried my best. That's good. You're easing him into it. It has landed on Travis. Oh, great.

Go. Say whatever you're going to say. Thank you so much, John. First of all, make sure you follow Edith, the podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, my new podcast. I have a promo at the beginning of this episode. Oh, well, then I'm sure you also mentioned in your promo that I have a Twitch show where I drink wine. Nope, we don't. Twitch.tv slash Tug Hellwig if you want to drink some.

Bleep it. I'm serious now. Bleep the fucking wine show. Google my Twitch. Bleep the wine show. John, it means so much that you included me on this um it's such an honor to be here on a podcast of someone who knows tommy vitor you should get shoulders like him i think uh sure who wouldn't want shoulders like him keep going look it means so much that you would have me on so soon after i left it's just really nice um to listen to the

show every saturday and sure i've noticed a small drop in quality but i'm confident i'm confident you'll be able to turn the ship around no problem just like you did after season one of 1600 pen um so when i was asked to come on for the 200 episode extravaganza i knew it would be a moment of celebration like like you know these milestones you want to reflect right a new year's birthday sometimes you want to hear some constructive criticism some roses and some thorns right is that okay with you if i say some roses and thorns? Yeah, go. I wrote a whole segment, John. Rose, I think this show really has broken down some barriers of creativity. I don't think people knew it was possible you could make an entire career stealing from Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thorne, I'm really sad you wouldn't let me book Andy Borowitz because you would always say that he would outshine you

and I don't think that's true, John. I think you are my generation's Andy Borowitz and you have to stop selling yourself short. Rose, doing one show a week is an intense and massive undertaking and judging by the outcome, I can tell you learned a lot working for the Hillary campaign. Thorne, no one ever gave you credit for coming up with Pokemon Go to the outcome. I can tell you learned a lot working for the Hillary campaign. Thorne, no one ever gave you credit for coming up with Pokemon Go to the polls.

I think that was just chilling in Cedar Rapids, genius joke writing. I knew your career would flourish. Rose, you mobilized and engaged thousands of people who had never been in politics before to elect Joe Biden. Thorne, you mobilized and engaged thousands of people who had never been in politics before to elect Joe Biden. Thorne, you mobilized and engaged thousands of people who had never been in politics before to elect Joe Biden. All right. There is a rose. That's a rose. That's a red rose.

John, that's all I got for my segment. Thank you so much for making us laugh every week. It's genuinely very impressive that you did 200 episodes. You should be proud. I love you. I miss you. And I'm proud to have been a part of this show. You're doing a great job. And, you know, I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do next, because I'm sure you're going to do something else once the show gets canceled. Okay. Thank you, Travis. That's very nice. That's very good. Travis Helwig, everybody. Twitch.tv slash Tug Helwig if you want to learn about. I know you still listen to this show because you use it as a place to find guests for your fucking wine show.

Let's spin it again. I'm so nervous. Emily Favreau has a look on her face. It has landed on Emily Heller. Okay. I feel like it's not going to land on me, so. That's such a good idea. Wow.

So I'm going to be perfectly honest. I did skim the email. I just saw, like like commemorating milestone episodes, what the show means to you, beloved, getting a bunch of favorites together. I assumed you wanted me to come talk about the friends reunion. So I had actually prepared a rant on that. Okay.

And I actually don't know what the rest of you guys are talking about um but can we talk about they spent so much money on getting them together they couldn't put a little bit aside for an editor what was what was david beckham doing there why is james corden there why is justin bieber there why is james corden there what's wrong with jamesorden being there? Why is Cara Delevingne there? Why is James Corden hosting that Accomplish the Unthinkable, which is he got me to say this would be better without Malala. I didn't think anything was going to make me say that in my life. I don't understand why it's him.

He's not on NBC. He didn't interview any of those stars when the show was on. He wasn't even in the country. And unlike Mal Malala he expressed no personal connection to the show the entire time like I get why they had like Reese Witherspoon on you know and uh I get why they had some of these big people on to try and say like oh the show had such a huge impact on the whole world but we know that that's why we're watching. It's an hour and 44 minutes long. That's enough time to get you from Ross proposing to Emily to him saying, I take thee, Rachel.

That's how long that reunion was. And I just felt like James Corden was an interloper. And John, tell me if you can understand why I feel this way. I just feel like we all showed up for the Friends. James Corden being there, it's like like that's not why we're tuning in. You know, he's making it about himself. And I just think as a performer, I personally think that that's like a rude thing to do. So showing up and either trying to take over the show or doing something that you weren't supposed to be doing,

you're kind of just sort of like taking you away from what the whole thing was about. Yeah, I just. Whether like a segment or like even in a rant wheel be doing. You're kind of just sort of like taking you away from what the whole thing was about. Yeah, I just. Whether like a segment or like even in a rant wheel, like not following the thing and just sort of making it about you, making about what you want to talk about. Yeah, I just think it's I just think it's despicable. I just think no one. Like if you have a hobby or something, if you have like a hobby or something and all of a sudden you're constantly bringing that up, even though nobody cares or asks you about

it. Right. It's like I get that you're friends with David Beckham or whatever, but like this is the friends reunion, you know, like it's. Yeah. It's like. So it's like a special supposed to be about friends, but you make it about something else that you make it about something else.

And I just I just find that rude. And I just really want to thank you for giving me the space to come into your 200th episode and and talk about that. to come into your 200th episode and talk about that. I know that I don't really have a history of going off script with you, so I appreciate you indulging me Let's spin it again.

this one time. Let's spin it again. It should have been Aisha Tyler. That's all I'm saying, is it should have been Aisha Tyler. That's all I'm saying is it should have been Aisha Tyler. She was on the show. Yeah, we were all wondering. Where was Aisha Tyler? It should have been Beyonce talking about how James Corden won that Emmy when he shouldn't have.

But it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It is landed on Alisa. Yes. And most people probably don't know who that is.

Yes, they do. They know. do they know explain it's a lisa gutierrez thank you the longtime producer of this show yes who left yes so yeah i was love it or leave its producer for a while there i was your assistant for. And I don't really have a rant. I just wrote down some memories that I have from my time with you. It starts when I was your assistant. And at some point, I think you told me I was emailing you too much as your assistant. So what a note I took that opportunity. And the next time a company wanted to send you guys some things, I sent it straight to Tommy, to Favreau, and that's it. Oh, yeah. And when their things came, I think you came out of your office and you were like, it's because I said too many emails.

So I'm grateful that you took that in humor and still let me work on your show um another thing I wanted to mention was that every time I have driven in a car with you I was scared for my life and didn't feel like I could say that before now but you're not my boss I can say it um another thing I another thing I really miss I don't miss the driving thing I really miss our orders at the improv where we would get an assortment of appetizers really healthy delicious appetizers and um we shared a similar palette for food and occasionally I would get a text from you that said it's one of those nights and I would immediately order a spinach dip. And we would share that together before the show.

And I genuinely miss the spinach dip and I miss the appetizers. And finally, I do just want to say that I also really just liked working with you. And I learned a lot. And you would always listen to my ideas and suggestions, love it. And you would want to talk about difficult things before they were on the show.

So I learned a lot from you. Thank you. And congrats on 200 shows. That's so nice. Hey, Lisa, that was nice. You miss appetizers. Let's spin it again. I also just want to say,

Lisa left the show for the New York Times and I left to do a Twitch show. We all make choices. Oh, it has landed on Emily Favreau, much to her surprise. It's my moment. Hi, John. Okay.

So in a recent Pods of America ad, you said that I drank vodka soda in my bottle as a baby. You called me aunt Lydia. And you said that according to my Instagram, I believe there is no such thing as bad PR. According to your Instagram, there's no such thing as a flattering t-shirt. So thanks for having me on your show. Here is my rant. I think it's begun. Shopping with you is like shopping with J-Lo. I sit in the dressing room while you force two salespeople to pull every sequined tux jacket at Neiman Marcus.

You buy three, then you get too nervous to wear any of them and you still end up looking like someone called AV support for the party. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be mean about your personal aesthetic. I should be mean about your interior design aesthetic. I think you got all of your tips from the Pinterest board label guy who took acid at West Elm. I mean, honestly, I'm not nervous about traveling with my 10-month-old because I've traveled before with you and Ronan, and it's definitely worse. You both arrive 10 minutes before takeoff, and somehow one or both of you manages to lose a passport, a boarding pass, and or a piece of luggage before even getting on the plane. Ronan can pull it off because he has a Pulitzer. You have, what's the opposite of a Pulitzer?

A podcast. So I don't want to say that you don't respect other people. But you have never RSVP'd to an event I've hosted, including my wedding. So I guess I do want to say that you don't respect other people. Excuse me, this is my moment. Please don't speak over me. So two weeks ago, I asked if you were coming to John's birthday because you were the last person to RSVP.

And you said, of course I'm coming. What else would I be doing? I don't know. Certainly not your hair. A straight up rose. What is this? I've heard you often say that Pundit is an angel. Did you get a room together?

These are actual roast jokes. Does that mean that everyone who shits in the house and barks all day goes to heaven? Okay, I'm sorry. All joking aside, congratulations on 200 episodes. It's actually actually impressive i will try to catch one of the next 200 um but in the meantime i'll be watching travis's wine show because it's funnier um anyway in conclusion please stop talking shit about me on your podcast i'm not i'm not there to protect myself um and if you don't, I will get back on here and tell them the good stuff. I love you. I mean it.

Oh, my God. I'm so terrified. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I think we heard him. I know. He's really quiet. Well, he didn't want to hear from me when I said the nice stuff.

So I think you get what you get. You don't get to hear from me when I said the nice stuff. So I think you get what you get. You don't get to quit, quite frankly. I really appreciate it. There you go. I think that I'm really glad Akilah's rant was nice. Because it turns out that that's going to have been important to getting me through the next couple of hours. I think about that one the most.

I'll send you the jokes that John told me were too mean. What was it? Just like a picture of my face with a swastika on it? Jesus. What didn't make the cut? Emily Favreau, that was wonderful. I love you. I love you too. Thank you to everybody here for being part of this incredible rant wheel that went

just as well as I could have hoped. Emily Heller, Travis Helwig, Akilah Hughes, Emily Favreau, Elisa Gutierrez, thank you so much. When we come back, we'll end on a high note. And we're back because I needed this week. Here it is. I guess there's more people

congratulating us on 200 episodes. Terrific. Hey, John Lovett and everybody at Lovett or Leave It. It's Michaela Watkins. And I just want to say happy 200th episode. I was on your first episode. I could have cratered it right then and there. But the fact that you went on to make 199 more is really a testament to you, your impeccable comedy, your humor, the ridiculously talented guests that you've continued to have on,

and all the glorious ways that you've connected everybody through humor through such a horrible, dark time. And continue to, and educate us. You're the best. I love you so much. Bye-bye. 200 magical episodes. 200 times to shine, 200 opportunities to educate. That is the John Lovett experience. So that's just something I think that you should put at the top of this episode slash all your episodes to come. I'm willing to serve as

that vocal energy for you. Okay, John Lovett, I support you. I support your work. I support your gorgeous curls. And I hope that you are proud of yourself because I am. I am. I've been saying for years, let the white men speak. And every time you do, my faith is renewed. Bye. And every time you do, my faith is renewed. Bye. Hey, y'all. It's me, Langston Kerman. And I'm calling this radio station to wish John Lovett and all the folks that love it or leave it a happy 200.

That's insane. That's 161 more episodes than Flavor of Love. And we all remember how great Flavor of Love was. Remember Hoops? Remember Tiffany Pollard? Remember that lady who shit on the floor because they wouldn't let them use the bathroom for hours at a time? Classic television. And you guys beat it.

You deserve it. I'm honored to have been a part of it. So proud of you. And I hope you get a thousand more Flavor of Loves. You've done it. Hey, John Lovett. congratulations on your 200th episode of Love It or Leave It. This is Josh Gad. And while your crowning achievement as a human being was the one season of 1600 Pet that you co-created with me, I still think that Love It or Leave It is a really close second.

You know, you're doing some great work, like trying to preserve democracy, and that's great. Love you. Thank you to Guy Branum, Tara Hauska, John and Tommy, and everyone who tore me apart on my very own show. There are 514 days until the 2022 midterm elections. Thanks so much for listening over 200 episodes. Thanks for sticking with us through very long four years from a transition from a live show to a Zoom show for the songs and the coming to the live shows and seeing us on tour. I am so grateful. I feel so fortunate that I get to make this show every week. It is one of the great surprises of my life. And I don't think I would have been able to get through the last four and a half, five years without you. So thank you for listening.

And I am so excited to make, you know, roughly 200 more. We'll see. We'll see. And have a great weekend, everybody. Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett and Lee Eisenberg.

Jocelyn Kaufman, Polivi Gunalan and Peter Miller are our writers. Our associate producer is Brian Semel. Bill Lance is our editor and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Jamie Semel. Bill Lance is our editor and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Jamie Skeel for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast.

And to our digital producers, Narmal Konian, Milo Kim, Mia Kelman, and Matt DeGroote for filming and editing video each week so you can.