Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast - Scott Evans' Mama: We Are Not The Kool Aid House

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Access Hollywood and House Guest host Scott Evans, brings us into the Indiana houses he lived in during his early years. From a young age, Scott felt that he was destined to be in showbiz. He also shared all the different ways his mother taught him tough love — by teaching him how to make better eggs and what he should NOT gift women on Christmas. Plus, we learn how to make his mama’s Lasagna.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your Mama's Kitchen is brought to you by Rivian. Where did you learn how to be such a good host? Was your mother, did she throw dinner parties? Did she like to host? It's so funny. No, my mama was not. She always would say, this is not the Koolet House. Take your friends outside.

Hello, hello. Welcome back to your mama's kitchen. This is a place where we explore how we are shaped as adults by the kitchens that we grow up in as kids. And I'm not just talking about the food. I'm talking about all the stuff that happens there. the laughter, the sibling rivalries, the secrets at the kitchen table, the help with the homework, all that stuff. I'm Michelle Norris, and you are in for a special treat today because my guest is Scott Evans. He's the host of a Webby Award-winning interview show called House Guest, where he sits down

with some pretty big celebrities in his beautiful backyard, and he gets them to open up about all kinds of things. He has a knack for pulling things out of people. that they don't always share. He recently had a conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris, and he got her to get cozy and comfortable and oh so candid. But in addition to his gig at House Guest, he's also a co-anchor on Access Hollywood. And early in his career, he was a sideline host and an emcee for the Indianapolis Pacers basketball team. That's a city where he spent much of his childhood. And we're about to find out why all of those famous celebrities are so eager to spend time with him in his backyard and we'll see if he gets comfy and cozy and candid with us. Hello, Scott.

How you doing? How you doing? It's so good to see you. I have never heard an intro like that. I will take it. Oh, good. Good. We like to butter people up. You know, listen. Butter me up. You know. Get ready for that conversation. I have been wanting to talk to you. I love house guest. I love the way that I feel like I'm one of your house guests. It's always full of laughter and it's beautifully shot. And we get to see you, your beautiful soul. So thank you very much for being with us. Seeing that. Thank you for recognizing that and mentioning it.

You know, it's a, it is a labor of love, but it feels like purpose work. And so for you to feel like that when you're watching, you are also a guest of ours, he's like the greatest compliment. Yes, I'm one of your neighbors. Yes. Hey neighbor. Hello, neighbor. Come up pull up and see what Earl is doing.

So I feel like I'm just over, you know, at the end of the table, just listening, you know, having a conversation with you. So we're going to have a conversation today. I'm going to learn a little about you. Okay. You were born in New Jersey. Spent much of your childhood in Indianapolis. I want you to describe the kitchen that you grew up in because that's the theory of the case in the show that were shaped by the kitchens that we grew up. And so tell me about the kitchen that you grew up in.

It's so interesting. through the house. Take me back into the kitchen. You know, my mom was 20 when she had me and was the second youngest to her and her family of four siblings. And so, you know, we, as she was raising me, she was being, she was raising herself. And so the kitchen was, I think, a way for, there was a place where me and my mother bonded. It, you know, there were many different configurations. One in one, it was like a small little box in the back of our apartment. And another, it was. was an L shape that had a little cut out that looked out over the dining room and a condo that

we that my mother was able to purchase. Yeah, I just, it's, there are some super, super fond memories. And then lastly, I think the place that I, that I grew up in the last home that we were in, um, so many memories of like what it meant to come to adulthood, what it meant to come to like, you know, graduating high school, getting ready for your freshman year in college. and the things, the experiences that I had in that kitchen, totally different than experiences I had in other kitchens. I'll never forget, I'll tell you the story real quick. I promise to be super fast.

Don't go ahead. It was my last, it was our last, I want to say it was my last year, the last Christmas before I would go on to college. And the microwave in the kitchen had gone out shortly before Christmas. And so I go out and I bought a microwave, this little, you know, honestly, it was, you know, my little bit of, buddy my little rinky dink you know twists um wind up kind of um microwave and my mom opens it on christmas morning i put it well i put it under the the the the because you already know where this

is Michelle you can already tell what this is going i'm i'm here for you i put it into the tree all proud excited of you know that she's going to open it we need the house needs it and we're about to be going and it's big box and she's like oh excited to open up this big box at christmas and it's a microwave It was like, this is very nice. And I remember being like, is it? She didn't, she didn't try to.

I can't really tell that it's, are you sure it's nice? I mean, we could exchange it for another one. I got some more money now. I mean, I can exchange it for another one if you, if you like. She was like, no, it's fine. So we finish all the gifts and she pulls me aside, me and my little sister's faith and Hannah.

And my mother said to me, you know, I'm going to give you a little piece of advice that I hope you keep with you when it's time to give gifts to a woman in your life that you love and that you care about. Do not gift her appliances and certainly don't gift her appliances she has not asked for or that are meant to be for the home. It is a beautiful gesture. Thank you so much. but that is not necessarily a gift for me.

And I was like, dang. Yeah, and your little feelings were hurt, weren't they? Well, to be honest with you, no, I felt my, it wasn't really my feelings about, like, me. It was like, I got this really wrong for my mom. Like, what can I go do? What can I, I got this really wrong from my, I thought I was doing something for the house. And it would help her, so she would be like, yeah, thank you.

And she was, but she was like, but Christmas, put that under the tree for the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She decided to give you a life lesson. Yeah. And that was in the kitchen. We were literally standing in the kitchen, plug it up the microwave. But there's something, too, that, Scott, I'm going to tell you a quick story. My father, my mother and father eventually got divorced, and this is not the reason that got divorced.

My father gave my mother an electric skill at once. which back then, I think I would have been like, that's a good gift. It was a good gift. I mean, it was a, you know, I don't even know what we needed electric skillets because you could just use a stove. But it was a thing. It was like, it was the air fryer of its day. Of course. It was fancy.

And similarly, she just was, you know, she was not enthused. And he was so proud of that that he had secured one because they were selling out of JC Pennings and he had had set aside. The way I walked through that store, you would have thought. I had diamonds. But can we just have a minute about when someone says, it's fine. It's not. It's not. It never is.

I mean, it's fine. It's like, hmm. No, no. Bless your heart, honey. It's not fine. It's not fine. Exactly. It's fine.

It's like, that's all I'll say for now, but we're going to circle back. Yeah, we're going to come back to that. later on. It's not fine. It's not fine. So you said you learned how to be independent in the kitchen. What you mean by that? Yeah, I remember the first thing I learned how to make in our kitchen was, you know, people talk about like making cereal. Like, you know what I mean? Like being able to make a bowl of cereal for yourself and that kind of thing. I made eggs and I would get up in the morning and I was so proud to be able to make eggs for myself and make a, you know, egg toast or an egg sandwich or that kind of thing. And I remember making eggs for my mom once. And again, my mother was a single mom. I don't say again, my mother was a single mom.

She raised me as she was raising herself truly. And I learned a lot about what it meant to not only love on a parent, but what it meant to love on a woman, right? What it meant to show love to a woman. And I don't, you know, what it meant, how you, how you, it's not just you do it. And then thank you so much for doing this for me. That's so great.

There's some nuance. There's some, you know, you can get it right. There's always some room for improvement. And I'll never forget making my mom an egg sandwich. I was so proud. And she was like, you want to really remember. You want to just stir the eggs. You don't want to keep moving them.

You want to just stir because if you just stir, you won't make them like little bitty pebbles. And so then they're easier to eat and more enjoyable to eat. And I just remember being like, okay, you got to stir. And to this day, when I crack eggs into the skillet getting ready to make scrambled eggs, you just stir. You don't have to do all of this? Yeah, yeah. You just stir.

So she gave you, you know, that's an important lesson because some people make eggs like they're mad at them. Right. And the pot looks like it. You know what I mean? It does. And the eggs then look like it. Ooh, we. Yeah. And so I remember being very proud that I was able to make certain things. I remember early, like in that same kitchen, I remember, you know, we went from like a kind of an extreme in that place going from, you know, there were, I want to say maybe even years. excuse me, maybe even years where we would literally eat out every single night.

We didn't really use the kitchen. My mom didn't really use the kitchen for cooking. We were regulars at restaurants. Like we would go in. We had a certain table. This was back when they had smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

And we wouldn't even get a menu. The server would just bring you the food, right? And then we went through a period where we ate chicken cacciatore. four nights a week. And for my mom, kitchen catatari was like a panseared chicken breast with tomato sauce on top and over rice or a noodle. And she would stretch that meal for as long as she could.

And I remember one time complaining about again. And she said to me, she said to me, and I remember, like, there was definitely anger or frustration in her voice, but she said to me, you know, I'm really doing my best. We are eating, we are eating every meal. And I need a little bit of patience from you. I need a little bit of care and how you talk about this. If you don't want to eat it, then be hungry. But this is what. what I can do for you right now. And you talk about like just moments where you kind of,

you kind of have to grow up a little bit. And you can't emulate the behaviors that you see of your friends at their house. When you go to dinner, when you eat dinner at their house, your house is not their house. My mom was really good for that phrase. Will you not at your little friend's house? Why were our friends, I already little friends? Your little friends?

Little friends. You're not at your little friend's house. No tea in the word little. You're not your little friend's house. I'm not your little friend. 100%. 100%. And so, you know, it was,

there were some like that, but even then, like chicken cacciatore is still like that chicken tomato sauce, that chicken, that those flavors are still like things that spark like big laughs at the table with me and my mom in that condo. Sobeck's Drive. They've done Sobax Drive at that point.

She drove a blue Camaro with T-Tops, electric blue Camero. She'd pull up to my school blasting like salt and pepper. In a T-top Camero? What? T-top Camero. Yeah. The password, if you picked me from school, was Mo Money. You had to be able to recite that password in the office to me in order.

in order for me to leave school with you. And sometimes she would, I'd make her recite it too, just to just, what's the password? Yeah. Your mom sounds like she was something. I mean, she obviously has style.

Mm-hmm. And she obviously had grace because you just told me two stories where she could have reacted very differently. She could have, in the second story, you know, where you were complaining about the food

that she put on the table, there could have been a flash of anger. Boy, you're talking about. Don't talk to me like that. But that's not what she gave you. She served up something different. So tell us a little bit about your mother Kelly. She sounds like she was patient and wise and obviously stylish. Stylish, for sure. It's where I get it from. She was. She was, she is. She don't know what I say was. She's alive. She lives still in Indianapolis and comes to visit pretty often. We were just in Barbados recently. I took her on a trip for

I learned that my father's heritage doesn't stop in Panama. It actually goes beyond that to Barbados. And so I took her and a couple of my brothers by him to Barbedos to experience that together. And she has always been a person who is outspoken, has always been a fierce protector of her family, her kin, her loved ones, people who she sees are being taken advantage of or being mistreated. She is not a person who stands by and is complicit to the mistreatment of others. She currently works as an administrator for a high school, one of the best high schools in the state of Indiana. And it's like the office lady advocating being the advocate between the school administration and students and families and all of that stuff. And it's no wonder that the kids of that school love her so much and that the teachers depend on her.

and the administration depends on her the way they do. She has always been a person who loves hard. She's always been a person who... What does that mean to love hard? She doesn't half step, right? Like if she's for you, she is in the way between you and what might harm you. She is one of the strongest people that I've ever known. She is one of the most resilient people that I've ever known.

She is one of the smartest, most intuitive people that I've ever known. You know, you go through things as a young person and your parents tell you about the outcome or how you need to look at that or how you need to be cautious of that or that might not be for you and you're like, okay, how do you know? Or you don't know this particular scenario and she's never been wrong. She's never been wrong. She maybe wasn't right at the time, but she's never been wrong. And yeah, she surrounded me. She made sure that I had opportunities to be surrounded by multicultural experiences, diversity before that was even the word that was used to describe rooms or experiences. You know, I feel like I had a rich dad, poor dad,

you know what I mean, experience growing up. And that, you know, I had the best and most and sometimes we had the least. You know what I mean? When it came to resources, I remember having this feeling of like, I didn't always know if we had, if we were broke or if we were rich.

but I would point to like this appliance in our kitchen. This is so funny. This appliance are our kitchen. The blender. And because we were constantly, not constantly, because we moved quite a bit, you know, there were things that we often would repurchase. And the blender was often something that had to get repurchased

because she would see it when we were about to move. It's like, I'm not taking that or whatever. And yeah, if we had a glass one, I knew we were doing, I figured we were doing all right. And if it was plastic, I felt like maybe we weren't doing something. It's funny you said that because you're often serving blended drinks on your show right now. So maybe the blender is, you know, and you probably have like a, you have an amazing blender now, don't you?

I have, what's so crazy. So this is why I would say this is so funny because I didn't even think about it. I have so, I have maybe four blenders. Three of three. Right. Three of them are glass. One of them is plastic. So I guess I'm doing all right.

Do you still pull out the plastic one? Is that for like your morning smoothie or something like that? It's funny. Things don't leave us. They just don't, you know, they stay in there. It all stays in there. Yeah, that's so funny. I never really thought about that.

That's so funny. You moved a lot. And when you're a kid and you move a lot, you have to develop both kind of an armor to protect yourself and a mask to make sure that you, you can kind of get through the world sometimes, or you just walk in a space and say, boom, I'm here, this is me, you ready for me? Yeah.

How did you handle moving over and over and over again and having to make new friends and get used to new environments? How did you deal with that? I think it was the ladder for me. I was like, if we're going to move, you got to go to a new school. The first day, what's that? I also was very clear about what I wanted to do at a really young age. It was the third grade when I knew that I wanted to work in television. Really?

Yeah, that I wanted to work. What was your North Star? Who did you see that made you think that you wanted to work in TV? Arsenio Hall. David Letterman. Craig Ferguson. Mom let you stay up late. Well, like I said, my mom was 20 when she had me, so I was watching the same stuff she was watching.

Okay. You know, we were watching New York undercover and Allie McBeal and Melrose Place and In Living Color and hard copy. Nightcourt. I knew if Nightcourt was on, I was supposed to be in bed. Okay. Nightcourt was a great show. I used to love Nightcourt. But back to the idea of you walking into a high school or junior high or an elementary school, were you always outgoing?

Yes. I think I was always, I am probably less outgoing now, if that makes any sense, if that's believable. Because then, like as a kid, it was like, you know, my father wasn't with us. He stayed in New York when we came back to Indiana. And I think I missed that attention. And so I yearned for that in other places. And I tried to get it in other places. And when I was in the third grade, my sister, I call her my sister, Stacey Pates, she was the court side reporter for the Indiana Pacers and with Fox Sports.

And she booked me on this first gig. And I was a young Reggie Miller playing against a young, Bird for the player intro videos. And I just remember being like, this is, I'm on a movie. It was one camera and one audio operator, but I felt like I was on a movie set. I remember the car ride home. I remember sitting in the car seat, in the car seat. I remember sitting in the car.

And I think it was the money talks soundtrack she was playing. And I was just like, I'm going to make this money talk on TV. Wait, I'm doing the math in my head. You're not even 10. You're probably like eight or nine if you're in the third grade. You're really young. You're really young. Yeah, so in the fifth grade was 98. So you already are like, okay, I see my future. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out how you got the first opportunity to do this when you were just in the third grade. My sister, Stacey Pates, she booked me. She was working for the Pacers then. But how did she find you? I mean, as a third grader and put you in that position.

So when I was, we were moving into this apartment and my dog, midnight, ran into her apartment. She lived across the hall. She just recently graduated high school, I mean, graduated college and was working in the business. And my dog ran into her apartment chasing her roommate's cat. And so when we got my dog, we met, she met my mom and became family. She introduced me to her younger brother who became my big brother. and we have been families linked ever since. They are literally as close to me as any family member is.

Now, you went to, you went to Purdue, and then eventually wound up moving to Los Angeles. Yeah, yep. Did she have something to do with that too? Stacey told me, you know, if you're going to leave at least the potential of an automatic scenario, You four years you get the degree for the dream, you had better show some evidence for yourself early in that process that this is the right path so that you don't get so far away from your other option that you don't ever make it back. And my uncle Scott told me, as I was packing up my car to drive across the country, he says eating an apple.

So you dropping out? I said, no, I'm not dropping out. I'm going to go to school online, but I'm going to go on school online in L.A. So I can also audition and work and stuff out there. He said, so you're going to leave an automatic thing for a dream thing? And I was like, well, don't put it that way because that sounds crazy. And so he said, all right, you go out there.

The next time I see you, you better be famous. Okay. And? And so I want to say it was probably five years later, hard, hard work, hard work. Five years later, I was, his favorite television at the time was power. And I was invited by Courtney Kemp, the show's writer and showrunner to be a part of it. And so I showed up on the screen in his favorite show. I didn't tell. him on the screen in his favorite show, and he called me dang near in tears and was like, I'll be damn. I guess you did it. I'm trying to imagine him sitting there with his bowl of popcorn. Literally that.

He was like, I had to run it back. He was like, hey, you look good. You look, you're supposed to be there. And at the time, I was already working for Access Hollywood. And I knew that he was proud of me. but I think to be able to do that that way, and it was maybe a little bit longer than that, but to be able to do that that way

and to surprise him with that, I think he knew that I had made the right choice. Every summer I make a promise to myself, figure out how to slow down and try to savor the season. Every time I make that promise to myself, it has something to do with the time that we spend in Massachusetts. It's where my family gathers every year. Everyone comes together, all my kids, all their partners, many of their cousins, several of our friends.

And it's where time does feel like it slows down, where the sunset seem to be more golden, where the laughter seems to be louder, where everything just resonates in a different way. And I know everyone in the world, if you're lucky, you have a special place like that. I know I feel very fortunate to have been able to create those kinds of memories over so many years with my family. And, you know, recently when I was watching one of the younger kids, frolicking in the beach, jumping over these little holes that they had made in the sand, it made me think, we're able to do this because we can come together in one space. And there are lots of people out there who know about Airbnb as a place to stay, but it'd be great if they also

thought about Airbnb as a place where they could use their home to host other people so they could create these kinds of memories. You see, hosting is not just about offsetting costs. That's a great thing, but it's about passing on the same sense of belonging. It's about sharing your space so someone else can find comfort and joy and something special in that space that means so much to you. another family might be able to stay in your home and enjoy the sunlight coming through the window while they're making breakfast, enjoy the laughter from board games,

enjoy the simple thing of just reading a nighttime story to someone or tucking someone in and then just walking down the hall and everyone is right there under one roof. With Airbnb, I get to share my memories when I stay with someone, but I also now fully understand that there's a possibility for other people to use their homes to allow other people to create those kinds of memories as well.

Your home might be worth more than you think. Discover the potential at Airbnb.com slash host. We all know that food waste is bad for the planet, but that doesn't mean we're ready to start a compost pile or we're okay with having a smelly fruit fly condo, compost pail on the counter. That's why I am so into the mill food recycler. The whole idea is to make keeping food out of the trash as easy as dropping it into the trash. I just add my scraps. And I mean like almost anything. I mean anything from chicken wing bones to avocado pits to cannolpe rinds.

And mill runs automatically while I sleep. I can keep filling it for weeks. And it never smells. What really surprises me is the peace of mind. I used to feel guilty every time I tossed out wilted spinach or half-eaten leftovers. Now I just drop them into the bin, open the lid, drop them in, and I know that they're going to a better place. You can use the grounds in your garden or feed them to your chickens, but me, I have mill, get them to small farms for me so farmers can grow more food. You just send those grounds off to farms in little boxes that Mill can provide. and they will turn that back into real food for real animals. That's such a good feeling.

It's a full circle moment that I didn't know that I needed. You can have your own full circle moment. Try Mill, risk-free, and get $75 off at mill.com slash YMK Podcast. That's mill.com slash YMK Podcast. I love the story behind how you created House Guests. Yeah. Because you had a first look deal with NBC. And from what I understand, you were pitching things, but your ideas weren't moving forward as fast as you had wanted them to.

You were not finding willing ears. And so you essentially decided to come up with a concept for your own show. And instead of doing it in television, that you did it online. Yeah. Which is an easier access point in terms of production, but also an easier access point. in terms of your audience. Feedback, yeah. People could find you, people could participate.

People sort of felt like they were part of the process. Can you talk a little bit about how you decided to do that? Yeah, I mean, you talk about being in the kitchen, right? So we were, we had gone through several rounds, so many rounds, so much time of developing decks, developing show ideas, developing log lines and decks and pitching and all that stuff. And we would get far. It sold a sports history doc in the room, first pitch.

to NBC, got it in development, was ready to roll out with it in, as part of the Paris Olympics programming for NBC and for Peacock. And then the executive in charge parted ways of the network, as went our project. And I learned really quickly, like if you don't get it going immediately, if it doesn't start the process immediately, you are almost doomed to this kind of development hell. and I just didn't want my time and resource to be dedicated to that. If I had this deal and this money, I wanted to be able to pull it into something that felt like a win. Going home is like a sanctuary and to be able to invite people into that space.

I know that part of the success of the show is because people feel that intention. They feel that practice, that ritual that we do. do in our home every single day. And so we pitched a show called Sunday Fun Day. And it was a similar vibe, but it was live. It was in a club. And it was supposed to, it would happen around other people. And it was like the show was happening.

And this party was happening at the same time. They loved the pitch, didn't end up going with the show. And but that, it stuck with me. And I was like, okay, well, maybe there's a way to refine that to make that much smaller and to change any of the, like, party aspects of it and make it just feel more intimate, but still have that kind of, like, you've been invited, you've invited someone over

and to your home, not to your show. Mm-hmm. And the first one we did was with Kev Fedrix, Kevin Fredericks, also known as Kev on stage. Mm-hmm. And I had met him maybe twice before. but people were like, y'all are best, I cannot believe we didn't know

that y'all were best friends. Like, this is unreal. And it went viral the first episode. And I was like, well, people are actually really hungry for content like this. Like, this is like, okay, how do we refine that? And each episode has got better and better and better. We were able to make it faster and smarter

and snappier every episode. And then, you know, it was like, I remember Cynthia Arrivo called me in maybe February. We put our first episode out in Juneteenth. And she said, I've marked every level of my career with a big conversation with you. And I don't want Wicked to be any different, whatever you want to do. And so we were like, okay, well, we have to have something worthy of that. Like, I don't want her just to come to the house.

And we're just sitting in the kitchen and like, so how was wicked? What do we, you know, what do we? And so we were working really in anticipation of the time she'd be available and wanted to be ready to receive her. And her episode was a game changer for us. When she left, she was like, I've never done anything like this. I've never done anything like this. It's so you. It's so you.

It's like being your best friend and everyone gets to be your best friend. I've never done anything like this before. And that's kind of when I started to look at this, like, wait, there's something else working. What's the secret? Is it the space? You know, you obviously are the special sauce, but what is it that all comes together? Is it also that you have food, that you drink, that it's not just an interview. It really is like, you know, brunch with Scott.

Is that what really makes it that special cocktail that gets people to just relax in a way that you, I mean, even when you see people do other kinds of interviews, you just get them to relax in a way that is really special. Yeah, I think that has been my practice over the last 20 years plus in this business. It's been, how do I invite someone to be more themselves in interaction with me? Right. So I don't know if you're familiar with this book. Danielle Laporte wrote this book called, there's a... The Fire Starter Sessions and the Desire Map.

She wrote this book called The Desire Map. And the book is like part self-awareness, self-help, self-developed, personal development, and then part workbook. And at the end of the workbook, you're supposed to be able to get a kind of like an action statement, a purpose statement for your life. The idea here was that seeking the cars, the house, the spouse, the job title, the money so that you could feel a certain way would only ensure. that when you got the thing, you'd be disappointed to know that it didn't automatically entitle you to any of those feelings for long. And that in fact, instead, if you could focus on the feeling and feeling the feeling, those other things would come more easily and you also wouldn't attribute the wrong value

to them. You'd have a truer experience of your life. And so my statement became, I am a reflection of the wrong value to them. the light and the love that has been shown to me so that people might be more comfortable in interaction with me, thereby people watching might be more curious and comfortable with themselves, because then we're all better for it. And so that's the filter that I, everything that I do goes through that phrase. everything that I'm a part of goes through that phrase, that phrase.

If it doesn't make it through, then I don't do it. If it doesn't feed that, if it doesn't affirm that, then I don't do it. And so I think that house guest works because I'm in my purpose. And I'm inviting other people to be in their own. and holding a light up to those who are. And I think that we're hungry for that kind of truth. We're hungry for that kind of experience. We are eating up all of this trash everywhere else.

And I think that we're finding ourselves in a lot of ways unsatiated by it. And so we're trying to find other things to pardon the food, you know, metaphors here. but trying to find a better source for ourselves. And I think houseguest is one of those things on a plate that when you feel, when you finish eating, you feel better, not. You feel nourished. Yeah. And we love a food metaphor here, so don't ever apologize for that. I'll take it.

I'll take the food metaphors. I think it's also not performative. I mean, a lot of what we absorb right now is really performative. You know, the food videos, the makeup videos, the, you know, there's so much of it is meant to entice and attract through the pursuit of perfection. What you do is really easy. It's not perfect. It looks like it's done with ease as opposed to trying to make everything look like it's just so. And so it just creates this really wonderful space. When did you, where did you learn how to be such a good host? Was your mother? Did she throw? dinner parties, did she like to host?

It's so funny. No, my mama was not. She always would say, this is not the Kool-Aid house. Take your friends outside. This is not the Kool-A-Hast. Because you also have to remember, like, so my mom was a single mom, so she worked, right? So she was mom and dad. So she worked. And so when I got home from school, she was like, don't bring them kids into my house when I'm not at home.

Do your homework. When I get home, you can go outside. You know what I mean? it wasn't until I got older that I could go outside before she got home. But my homework had to be done first. And so no, my mom was not the like host everybody kind of younger woman. She has since become more that source of keeping our families together. And, you know, as I was growing up, my aunt Jackie was for sure one of the people. I think that in a lot of ways I'm emulating in Houseguess.

One of the sources of some of my isms and attention to detail and improvisation, you know, being able to make a charcutory board look beautiful no matter what things you put on it. Being able to fill a house with music and smells that are familiar and the really bright points of my childhood. opportunities of seeing my family gather and get together. And it just, it, those experiences mean so much to me. And when we did our house party episode as a result of the one year anniversary for house guest, we did it like my aunt Jackie would do a party, you know, or a family gathering at her house. And when I read, when I read some of the comments on the YouTube video about people who were watching along and laughing along with us and eating along with us and drinking along with us, but also finding themselves highly emotional, stirred emotionally because they were realizing

they were missing that experience in their life that reminded them of their own childhood. I knew that we were doing something that was beyond simply a television show or a digital series or a podcast or a bit of sponsored content that we were doing something that was of cultural significance. And I didn't care about how many people watched it. I didn't care about what the press pickup was. I knew that the people who tuned in were better for the experience and that I was better for the experience. And there's a message in that, you know, sometimes, oh, I got to go to my cousin's cookout,

or, you know, I'm so busy on Saturday, I'm going to see if I can just roll by here for a minute. And you forget that, you know, look around when you have those experiences. You know, when you see someone fixing somebody a plate and the love that that shows, you know, when someone does that for you, when someone shows up, because there's always someone who shows up who's not invited. Hello? All the time. How did you even get, how did you even know we're going to be here? Exactly.

But, you know, someone goes and finds a folding chair and you just make it work. You know, all of those experiences, we sometimes take them for granted and they are treasure. Yeah. their treasure. And then later in life when you yearn for them, they're not always available to you. And so you're absolutely right. And so the idea was that the idea has been that our show, part of its identity, is to be that reminder, to be that surrogate experience. You know, we're working on experiences now. We're working on an extension of the show now where we can bring house guests directly to you where you'll be able to come to a space and experience it

live and in person. We're developing a few other ways that you can, you'll be able to deepen your experience when watching at home through a series of subscription boxes and things like that where you'll be able to get the beverage or one of the dishes and that kind of thing so that you're not having to necessarily do it on your own. If you don't want to, you got it sent to you. because we want to deepen that connection. We want to deepen that experience. And we want to remind each other that it's we're in this together. Yes.

We are in this together. And that it's not just me and a guest. It's us. And that's very important to me. And people are sometimes looking for that third space. You know, it's not work. It's not exactly home. It's where it's something communal and you can share that with people.

And we are all about that here at your mama's kitchen. And in fact, one of the things we always do is gift our listeners. with a recipe that means something to our guests, the idea that if you love Scott Evans, you can make his mama's dish. You can make this dish that means so much to him. And in this case, you brought us a recipe for your mama's homemade lasagna.

Lazzania recipe. Now, you have to remember, this is not a fancy. I need to just give you a disclaimer. A prelude. Right. This is not anybody can make this. That's what makes it wonderful.

Because, you know, lasagna, there are a couple ways you can make lasagna. You can do the layers and you can take six hours and make the bechamel sauce and make the bolognese and do all of that. But, you know, we don't have time for that. We don't always have time for that. Sometimes it don't take all that. You know, and this is so, and you can also get stoffers, but, you know, that. That's different. But this is, you know, your mama made a work.

This is her lasagna. So tell us about it. Okay. So this is a dish that, like, is a request at every thing that she hosts at the house. And when she doesn't host, if we're going to something where family members are pitching in, this is what everybody wants her to bring. And it's something that she started. I don't remember the first time she made it. But I do remember, like, again, it was something that she would make and we'd eat on it for days.

You know what I mean? And I remember her always making it with cottage cheese and being like, can you not make it this time with cottage cheese? And she was like, ricotta it is. You know what I mean? So wait, you prefer the ricotta instead of the cottage shoes? Yes, because of the curd, the size of the curd. She ended up raising one of the most picky eaters on the planet.

You're a picky eater? Oh my gosh. Yeah, well, I guess that comes through on the show, though. I mean, we know that from watching you. Yeah, like, but I'm simple. That's the thing. Like, it's very easy stuff. Like, just cook the food.

And cook it all the way through. That's one thing that you do talk about. Like, you don't want runny eggs. You don't want no run. I don't want no running nothing. And I want the sauce on the side. I want to put it on myself. You know what I mean?

I don't want it. I don't want you to pre-wet nothing I got. Just bring it with the stuff and I will put it on there. I don't like lettuce on the sandwich already. I don't like to, tomato on the sandwich already. I don't even want the whole piece of lettuce and tomato. This dish is super simple. It's something that you can put together very quickly. You can feed a large sum of people and you can use your favorites, right? So in it, my mom uses like, um, typically like a store

bought spaghetti sauce. You know what I mean? And you're, you've got your ground beef. You make that. You're, you're, you're, you're kind of stewing that meat for some time, you know, while you're doing, while you're getting the water boiled for your layers of lasagna pasta, and while you're combining your cottage cheese, two eggs, shredded mozzarella, into your cheese kind of layer sauce. It was so funny when I asked her for this recipe, I was like, Mom, there's no measurements on this. She was like, I don't ever measure.

I know what it looks like. But that's the way that they cook, right? They never gave you it. Or if it's a measurement, it's like a pinch, It's a dad. A little bit. A little bit. Again, that's like your little friend.

A little bit. Put a little bit in there. Put a little bit more. Too much. That's too much. Pour a little bit out. Don't put all that in there. And then you layer and you bake that bad boy for 45 minutes and you can eat for a week.

And do you like the piece on the edge in the corner? My favorite, okay, my favorite piece of lasagna. And I'll never forget the first time I did it. I just didn't wait. It's the middle. You like the middle. The middle. Yeah.

I like the middle. So wait, is this a story where you cut the first piece and you cut the middle? I'm going to cut a square out of the middle out of the middle. And it wasn't like it was a rectangular pan. So the square was too big. It was a little. Everybody was hot. Everybody was hot.

Oh, they were. Because also it starts to spill into the middle and it's like the... Yeah. The Grand Canyon in the middle of the lasagna band. What are you doing? I was like, I was hungry. They call you Scott Middle Peace Evans now. Scott ain't got no sense, Evan.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I have loved this conversation. I love talking to you. I am glad I am your neighbor. Oh, Michelle. Thank you so much for that. I'm about to cry in the car.

That's for sure. Well, listen, I do interviews for a living. I've done it for 30 plus years, and I know when someone walks on this earth and shows up something special, and that is you. You just, you have a gift. I love that conversation with Scott,

and I knew I would. Now, before we let you go, I want to remind you that our inbox is always open for you to record some of your memories of your mama's kitchen, maybe some recipes, maybe some thoughts on some of our previous episodes, You can record yourself on video or on audio, and you can send that to us a voice memo or a video to YMK at higherground Productions.com for a chance for your voice to be featured on a future episode or one of your videos to be featured now that we're also on YouTube.

If you want to try making the lasagna, make sure to check out the recipe on your mama's kitchen. There you can find Scott Evans' Mama's Lazzania as well as recipes for all of the previous episodes. I hope you'll come back next week because here at your mama's kitchen, we are always, always, always serving up something special. Until then, be bountiful.