Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 12. Sam Jay: America’s Next Big Comedy Star

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

Sam Jay is a comedian and writer for SNL who may be on the verge of superstardom. Her new special “3 in the Morning” is filled with jokes and stories that are funny and fearless and dare the audience not to laugh. In this episode Sam teases new ideas she’s kicking around for her next hour. The conversation ranges from Sam’s cousin eating pie on the toilet to growing up black in America when you’re not given “the stuff.” Please consider donating to: Black Trans Lives Matter Youth Fund https://gf.me/u/yjmr4p

Hey everybody, it's Mike. Once again, our presenting sponsor is Samuel Adams. They got summer ale. We all love the summer ale when it's summer. It's got summer taste. We all know what summer taste is. Sam Adams is doing a great thing right now. Along with the non-profit Greg Hill Foundation, they created the Restaurant Strong Fund to support restaurant workers. This is a nonprofit that is close to my heart. They launched this fund, but they need your help. You can support the effort by donating to the Restaurant Strong Fund at SamuelAdams.com. And now the show. And now the show. Welcome back to Working It Out.

We have another episode this week with one of my favorites, Sam Jay. She is a writer and a comedian. She writes for Saturday Night Live. And she has a new special called Three in the Morning on Netflix. I think you're going to like this one. Sam Jay. The way that you and I met is a story that I tell people already long before you became a Netflix comedy star, which is that you came up to me at the comedy cellar. We didn't know each other. Do you remember? Yeah, I know what you want to say. You tell me your version. You tell me your version because

I've told a lot of people mine. I mean, I just I just feel like I don't I don't remember exactly how the chase started, but I do remember telling you, like, I didn't, I used to not like your shit, but I like your shit. Oh, my God. So you came up to me and you go like, hey, I just want you to know, I didn't like your other specials. I don't get it. I've never gotten the whole one-man specials. I don't get it. I've never gotten the whole one-man show thing.

I don't get it. But thank God for jokes is great. It's brilliant. It made me so happy. And then I saw your special a few weeks ago, and it's so funny, Sam. And it's so just like edgy in the most real way. And you take a lot of chances.

You actually do this one bit, this bit sort of about Aziz Ansari. I'm just going to play this clip of it so people know what we're talking about. I was done with it when it landed on Aziz Ansari. That's when I was really like, fuck this. When it got to Aziz, I said, I can't do this anymore. Really?

And it's not because I'm defending Aziz. I wasn't there. I'm not saying he did or didn't do. That has nothing to do with it. What I am saying is there's not a woman in here who doesn't think she could beat that nigga's ass. That's what I'm defending Aziz. I wasn't there. I'm not saying he did or didn't do. That has nothing to do with it. What I am saying is there's not a woman in here who doesn't think she could beat that nigga's ass. That's what I'm saying. That was goofy to me. That is going to ruffle feathers. Yeah, man. Yeah, man, probably. I'm here to mess with your sensibilities and like and make you a little uncomfortable and like play with the idea of thought and what we're allowed to think about and what angles we're allowed to think about it from. You know, like I'm not a fact reporter. I'm not. I'm not the news. You know, I'm not the standard of behavior or any of those things.

You know what I mean? So like, yeah, you know, it's kind of like one of those like take know what I mean so like yeah you know it's kind of like when it was like take it or leave it things like and I feel like the special is balanced in that way where it's probably going to offend everybody at some point which definitely it definitely will and which is good it's stuff that I'm thinking and it's stuff that I think about you know what I mean so it's like and I really do try not to propose anything that won't move the conversation. Yeah. I definitely think about that. Like, how does this help the dialogue?

Does this add? Does this help move it? Or is this just something to be said that everybody's saying, you know? And I do consider that. So in those terms, I'm very cool with whatever happens because I thought about it a lot. Okay, so this is called The Slow Round. It's a series of questions, but mostly memories.

Like, do you have a memory from your childhood that's like on a loop, but it doesn't fit into like a story per se? I just always have this image of my little cousin Gerard sitting on the toilet eating pecan pie. Because he used to eat on the toilet, like especially around Thanksgiving. That's so funny, Sam. He would eat pie and stuff. And I could just see him biting it and then putting it on the counter

of the bathroom and being like disgusted and be like that's so nasty he's like i don't care and his legs were just swinging and i i think about that often just randomly was he eating in the bathroom because that's how he could get away with eating more pie? I don't know if it was that or he just didn't want to detach from the pie to use the bathroom. That's crazy. I don't know. That's crazy. I don't know. He was a weird kid.

He would also do stuff like, he was just weird. Like he would, he would not, he hated showering, but he was one of those kids who would work really hard to act like he showered. Like he pulled the towel in and out of the steam. He would, you know, he would do the whole dance and we'd just be like, just shower, dude. Oh, my God. Just wash your butt. Why do you think he was afraid of showering? I just think he liked being nasty.

I just think he was a little nasty boy and he just liked being nasty. He was like pig pen. Yeah. I think he, it was a part of his identity to be like funky and nasty for a while. Did you have a lot of cousins around as a kid? Yeah, I grew up a big family. My grandmother had 11 kids. Um, and you know, they all had about three kids each. You know what I mean? No kidding. There was a lot of us, a lot of us, a lot of us. Who was the craziest cousin? Probably my cousin Gerald, who was also like my best friend. What was the craziest thing you did as a kid that your parents still don't know about?

Dang, so many things. We used to do a lot of bad things. Probably the thing that my mom would have flipped out if she ever would have found out about is we used to, and I was just thinking about this the other day randomly. We used to, he lived in Back Bay. Yeah, sure. And the South End, when they had first made those housing developments back there.

So like literally right behind Copley Mall. And we would go along the side of, we would go to the Bass Pike. And they had these, like, doorways to, like, get into the pike for the service workers. We would break into them and we would dare our friends to ride their bikes through the bass pike to the other end and it was like see how far you can make it before you feel like you're gonna pass out from all the like monoxide no way and madness that was in the thing dude that's crazy it's insane and we used to like pop that door and it would be like our friend savio and his bike we'd be like go you know we just see how far and then he'd be like and then he'd like have to turn around holy cow would be like our friend Savio and his bike. And we'd be like, go! You know, and we'd just see how far.

And then he'd be like, and then he'd like have to turn around. Holy cow. Wait, so you're talking about in the tunnel? Yeah, yeah. You'd ride your bike in that tunnel? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I feel like you could get arrested doing that.

Probably. We used to do stuff like that. But I would just be following my big cousin. Like, I didn't know the level of danger, but probably. Probably. We used to do stuff like that. But I would just be following my big cousin. I didn't know the level of danger, but probably. Probably. I'm sure we weren't supposed to be doing it. Did you ever get in fights when you were a kid? I used to get bullied, man. I can't even lie. Me too. I've been smacked before but i didn't fight i just got smacked i was i was actually doing an episode with uh melissa via senor who you work with at snl and she and i both went to catholic school growing up and and we both gotten some

fights and then uh i just thought of this joke which is like i you know uh i used to get in fights in catholic school or as i call it, the ninth grade crusade. And I was just like, I don't know. It's like a funny one-off joke that came from goofing around. I went to Catholic school too, man. Oh, did you? Yes, sir. Did you believe it at the time?

Because I was like 50-50 in terms of cheating. No. I used to just mess with those people's sensibilities all day. Because I thought it was like so weird. And like, I just didn't get a lot of it. So I used to question a lot of stuff. Yeah. And I used to do stuff like go in the church and when we would go in for mass,

I would dip my hand in the holy water and act like it burnt me. I was just like... I was just messing with those people. I don't know. It was crazy. At one point, my mother just sat me down because they would call her all the time, and she would have to go up to the school. And at one point, she just sat me down, and she was like, Samaria, for me, please stop messing with these people. She was like, why are you doing this? And I'm like, I don't know. It's fun. I was like, it's funny.

I'm like, I don't know. It's fun. I was like, it's funny. She's like, please, for me, stop. Just leave him alone. I was like, OK, but I did. My mom wasn't like super religious. She really sent me to that school just to get like a better education. And she thought it was safer than public school. But she was like, you know did she did like have a catholic upbringing to some degree you know but she wasn't like a super duper religious person i feel like and i i can't put my finger on this but i feel like your relationship with your mom seems really deep yeah yeah yeah yeah i was very uh a kid very uh close to their mom and and I don't know if like in her getting ill if that deepened the bond because I was with her most of the time and and a lot of times I had to like help take care of her you know yeah and I was young how when you my gosh. But I just really thought my mom was the entire world.

I kind of would, like, just soak up anything she gave me for a while. I totally relate to that. I feel like I totally and completely relate to that and like is it's like sometimes my reputation in comedy which is like a dangerous reputation to have is that i'm nice it's almost like the meanest thing you can say to a comedian is that they're nice usually means they're not funny right um but i think that that's straight from my mom my mom was like it's like she's such a kind person she still is she's such a kind person and i really like i really aspired to that i still do i think whenever i'm i'm trying to be kind to strangers like it's it's straight from my mom yeah me too like i'm very like uh

she was my mom was just one of those people like you treat everybody with dignity and respect it doesn't matter who they are and like you know like I was like a kid who I would like hate sharing and I had a lot of toys and like sometimes my cousins who didn't have as much toys would come over and I wouldn't like I don't play with stuff or I would be like that's why you don't have this and my mom ever heard me talking like that like she would take the toy from me she would be like you don't treat people that way you don't you know so it was like she was just like really like one of those type of people. And a lot of those lessons really landed on me in a major way. Are your cousins, because you have all these cousins, like are they shocked that you're a comedy star?

Yeah, I think they are. I mean, I'm like the first person in my like immediate family that's in any type of entertainment has done anything like this. So I think they're more just like, holy shit, this bitch really went and did it. How did you know you could? you could man i just really believed i could i don't know i can't i don't like if i'm being for real i don't even have a real answer i just believed it i just believed it that's one of the things about your special that's so emotional too is that even in the credits which i'm i'm a really credits obsessed person and there's uh because there's a there because there's a dedication at the end. And it says, Yaya, can you believe we made it from the purple couch to wherever we want to go? One, four, three. And yeah, I don't know who Yaya is, but.

My girlfriend, man. Yeah, because she was one of the first people like, when I was, you know, kind of in Atlanta, just flitting my life away in a lot of ways, you know. And I had all these friend groups, but none of them, like, you know, kind of really knew me. They knew me, but they didn't know me, you know. And my girl, she asked me what I wanted to be. And I told her I wanted to be a comedian. Yeah. And she was like, really?

And I was like, yeah. And then she kind of was like, why don't you do it? And I was just like, I'm afraid, you know. And, you know, so for her to still be in my life after all the turns it took. And it's like, wow, we're here at this moment. You know, it's crazy. What's like the craziest thing you ever witnessed that you weren't a part of, but you saw it happen?

Growing up in like the inner city of Boston, it's like, I saw so much crazy stuff. So it's like, what kind of crazy you talk about? I remember seeing a riot break out on Talbot Ave because a guy threw a bottle off a bus and hit a lady. And then it just turned into chaos and people were jumping off the bus, fighting. I remember a car blowing up on my street when I was a kid. So when I got parked, I stole a car on my street and lit it on fire. And as I was coming home from school, that bitch just blew up.

Whoa. I saw my cousin get beat up by an old man before. I was with him. And we had basically, we bumped into one of my cousin's girlfriends, my older cousin, Brandon. We bumped into his girlfriend

and she was like, we used to call her woman because that's what Brandon used to call her. So we were like, hey, woman. And she was like, what's up? And we were like, where are you going? And we were on Newbury Street. And she was like, oh, I'm just shopping and stuff. And we was like, oh, cool.

And we was like, hey, we want to pull this prank. We're going to steal your purse. Because we used to just go up and down Newbury Street playing pranks. We would go to the prank store. We would buy all this stuff, the dollar snatcher, stick bombs, all this little goofy stuff. And it was fun for us to go from his house in Back Bay down to mess with the rich people on Newberry Street while they were just being rich. So that was like our entertainment. So we were like, hey, we want to do this thing.

It was like, you walk ahead of us and put your purse on your side. And we're going to run by and act like we stole your purse. And when we steal it, just, you know, throw a fit and it'll be fine. So she was like, cool. She was an adult and probably should have told us no, but she was a young adult. So she was like down. And she walked ahead and my cousin Gerald runs by. We all run by and Gerald snatches the purse and he's running. She's like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. At the same time, this dude was like valet parking his Corvette. And he is all the guy, he had to be like 50, 55. So he hops out and he grabs Gerald. But Gerald doesn't even realize he's in the air. His legs are still moving, but he's in the air. And then Gerald

turns around and sees that someone's and he just screams and then the dude threw him up against a tree and just started punching him and then he and then he snatched the bag back and by the time the guy looked up he's seeing that me my homie craig and woman we were all dying laughing like oh my god we didn't expect any of this and then the guy got pissed and he threw the purse on the ground. And he was like, really funny fucking joke. And then he went into his restaurant. And then we made funny joke for getting beat up by an old man for the rest of the day.

Wow. That is like an episode of Punk'd gone wrong. So this is sort of the working it out section of the show. Is there any bit that you're working on or even just like anything that's been on your mind? I just been thinking about like the irony and the stupidity of all that's happening. And I've been on this like people are so stupid. Just wear your mask. Just stay home. Like, what the hell is wrong with you? Right? But I was talking to my cousin the other day. She was talking about my younger cousin and how he just won't, you know, comply. He still

wants to run. He's young, you know, he wants to go with his friends and he doesn't think he's going to get it and like all that kind of young people stuff. And she was like very frustrated with him. And at first I was on her side. But then I was like, really, like the world is giving him mixed messages, you know, because he also works at Krispy Kreme and they make him go to work. And it's like, it's like, how can you tell a kid that you force him to give out donuts during the day? Like, it's too safe for you. It's too dangerous for you to be outside.

Like, we're letting him serve donuts. It's such a mixed. That's funny as hell. Like, you know what I mean? It's just like, I'm like, how? Like, he's actually absolutely right to be like, he's already out. We've already sent him into the world that we're telling him it's dangerous to give people hot and fresh donuts. And the people that have to go to work, it's that we need we don't need mcdonald's so you're like okay the

kid who's working at mcdonald's who's getting his little check now he can't go nowhere and spend it right that's a really good point it's like it doesn't make any sense yeah so that's one thing i've been pondering in my little brain i think that's good and then the other thing i was thinking about was like i was watching the jeffrey epstein doc oh yeah you know i always have to go somewhere crazy so i made i only made it one episode in i just could i couldn't do it after a while i was watching it and i'm just like whoa this dude was just like on this highest level like this new y York, like $10 million place. And he's got this island and all these famous people, you know, and, you know, presidents.

And like he's flying people on jets and like all this. Like, it's insane. It's insane. And like all of this, he just built up to have this ring where he could just molest children. It was just all just a thing so that he could like orchestrate this wild shit that he was doing. And it got me to think about like R. Kelly. And I was like, wow, that's kind of the same maniacal like wheels turning.

Sure. But even in like pedo shit, black people have a ceiling because he wasn't like, like R. Kelly didn't even think that far like i could have an island you know i'm saying he he was just like i could just transport these ladies from ritz-carlton to ritz-carlton and and i could go to the mcdonald's that i you know what i mean his brain never went to like i could have an island dedicated to this but then like epstein's like no i gotta molest people with the president. You know what I'm saying? That is so dark and so astute. It is both of those things.

Right. There's like a ceiling. For where his imagination would go with it. Right. Even in pedophilia, there's classism. Yes. Even in the most heinous of crimes, you need to know your place. Yes.

And Aunt Kelly knew. Like, I can't get no island. Yeah. But I can't finesse this McDonald's, you know? And that's crazy. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know that. I didn't see that one.

Oh, you got to watch it. Well, you don't. Actually, don't enter that into your brain. You don't need to watch it. But, yeah. It was just very interesting to me. Like, I don't know if that lives anywhere because it is super dark, but I did think about it. Like, that's crazy. Here's a bit that I've been working on, which is, I don't really believe in the

polling that we're watching in the news right now. And like, it's like one of the theories behind polling is if you survey a hundred people, you get the same results as if you surveyed 100,000 people. But have you ever thought that maybe the guy who came up with that theory is the same guy whose job it was to call 100,000 people? He's like, I got to call 100,000 people or I have to be really confident about my theory. Yeah, because it also seems like a thing where it doesn't really make sense. people or I have to be really confident about my theory. Yeah. Cause it also seems like a thing where it doesn't really make sense. Yeah. I'm working on a voting special.

Well, you know, you know, I was doing before the pandemic, I was planning to spend the month of April at colleges doing one of these standup and vote shows, which you were on one of the stand-up and vote shows that we did out in Long Island in 2018.

And I was doing a whole month of those before this went down. And so I'm just thinking about doing an episode of Working It Out where it's just voting-themed stuff. And so the polling one is there. And then also, like, one of my jokes is, like, I never used to care about voting. And lately I'm like, when can we vote again?

You know, just I'm walking into high school gymnasiums at random, just pulling levers, you know, pulling fire alarms because it's an emergency. And yeah. I was talking to my girl and I was like,

it's really starting to trip you out because you know i think everyone's kind of thinking about the whole democratic process right now yeah of course and i was like what's super trippy is that we haven't adjusted the constitution at all to say like you have to have some experience in politics to do this job yes the idea there's no requirements the idea that there's no requirements for the most important job. Yes. And that he can literally just walk in off the street,

never have done, which you can't do at a Starbucks. You can't do it anywhere. If I don't have any barista experience, they might not consider me. And if they do, I have to train and be on a probationary period. It's like there's none of that.

You can't sell donuts if you haven't sold donuts. Bro, how? How can you be the president and you've never worked in politics? And they didn't even put him on like a, well, let's give it 30 days. And if you if you bad at it, we'll get you out of here. No, it's almost like they should have done a trial offer with this president. And he's just in there. And it's like, even on his first day, he didn't even want to be debriefed. Remember? No.

That's like the training. That's like you said, I'm not going to training. So he just, he was like, no, I don't need to know how to do the job. I don't care. He let us know from day one. I don't care how to do it. I'm going to do it the way I want and it's like this is wild

they should really change that these are a couple short ones but it's interesting what you remember about past relationships like my last ex-girlfriend I still remember her phone number by heart and I think it's because I call it every day and hang up.

It's so stupid. Honestly, it's one of those jokes. Do you ever have this? You write a joke and you go, it's a funny line, but it's like, I'm never going to do that in a special. I'll never do it in a special. It's almost like I should give it to someone who it fits more with. I definitely had jokes like that. I definitely had these jokes where who it fits more with. Mm-hmm.

I've definitely had jokes like that. I've definitely had these jokes where I'm like, that's not for me. Yeah. And then I wrote this one. This one I think is a little better. My mom volunteers for Big Brothers and Big Sisters, but I want to start my own charity called Distant Cousins Annoying Uncles. And we show up every once in a while and we borrow money and we make critical comments about your weight and then we leave that's fun it's yeah it's fun and then i

have this other quick bit which is that i feel like mouse traps are obvious even for mice like i i don't have proof of this but i think i think the mice who go for it are the slightly overweight mice like the mike berbiglia of mice they're like i know it's a trap but i just like cheese i definitely agree with that i definitely think any mouse that's getting the cheese is just like on some fucking shit yes they're just like whatever dude i'm gonna Yeah. I ain't seen cheese in a minute. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to see what I can make it do. You know what I'm saying?

Maybe I'll get out of here. Maybe I won't. They're like the, if I catch corona, I catch corona kid. No, I know. You're right. You're right. What do you think, like, thematically, like, the next special will end up being about,

like, in a rough way? I really don't know. It's like, I change my mind about it all the time. At one point, I wanted to do this really America-focused thing because I have all these ideas about just the birth of this country and the Constitution and just all this stuff. And I was like, oh, maybe I want that to be the thing. And I want to kind of center it around that.

But I'm also starting to think about just like my whole life experience in the sense of like just the disparities that are. And I've just been thinking about like growing up poor, but like growing up poor in the inner city which is such a different thing and just like the things that like like i was just talking to david boyer the other day and he was saying like you know he grew up poor but he grew up poor in like utah or something right sure and he was like yeah it was crazy because we had like three different computer labs and they were by color of iMac. Yeah. And I was like, that's, that is like the thing people don't understand. It's like even white poor is different.

Sam, that's really funny line. We weren't, we weren't getting that at my school. You know what I'm saying? That iMac detail is phenomenal. Like we weren't getting three. He was like, it was either the blue one and all the iMacs were blue or it was the orange. And it's like, there was nothing like that going on. Yeah.

At New Mission High School in Roxbury. You know what I'm saying? Like, not at all. And so it's just even like that access, it's just interesting to me. I've been thinking about it. It seems like the perfect time to tell that story because in a lot of ways like you're you're a great authority to tell that story because

you defeated the odds of what you should have been able to do like you didn't have the imac you didn't have all the stuff. And then you transcended that. Yeah. And it's this weird thing where it's like, but you, but it's like, but that shit is still mad whack. And I think people tell stories like that. Like, well, I transcend it. But the real story I want to tell is just like, what could I have been with the stuff? I'm more aggravated with that.

I hear you. What could I have been with the stuff? I'm more aggravated with that. I hear you. I'm like, if I figured this out with none of the stuff, what could I have been doing with the stuff? Like, for real. That's how it feels. And I feel like so many kids who grew up like I grew up feel that way. Especially when you do transcend the situation and people just give you praise for that.

But they're not like, damn, you shouldn't have to, you know? And I think that's where we are getting as a country where like people of color across the board, especially black people are just like, no, I shouldn't have to. Like the problem is that I have to do it that way. That's the issue. Yeah. And I think that's a narrative that I want to do it that way. That's the issue. Yeah. And I think that's a narrative

that I want to push more than like sitting in interviews and being like, yeah, man, I'm blessed, man. I overcame and da-da-da, blah-blah-blah. Like, no, man.

What would happen if I had the stuff, man? Yeah. Right? Let's talk about that because that's the real, the real problem, I think. Yeah, yeah. I think that is a problem but

also it's like i believe that and i and i i believe it and i don't i do when i talk to people that are from my community and kids are from my community i for sure tell them that i'm not special and that i'm no different than them and that it was just a series of decisions that I made. And then you do ultimately control your life and you control your destiny. And that these things are definitely hurdles that make it harder. But you could decide to allow them to determine what you're going to be. Or you could decide that they'll just be part of your story. You know what I mean? So if you allow that to be the determinant factor, you can never take power back.

You know? At some point, it's kind of like that Matrix shit. So if you allow that to be the determinant factor, you can never take power back, you know? Yeah. At some point, it's kind of like that Matrix shit. Like, you got to stop trying to bend the spoon and bend your mind around the spoon, you know? Yeah, I think that's a great point. And, I mean, circling back to something you said earlier, like, for me, like, I was someone who grew up with the stuff.

Like, our computer lab had the iMacs and everything. And I mean, sometimes people's criticism of me and my comedy will be like, you're just like a mediocre white guy that anybody could do what you're doing. I'm always like, oh, you're basically saying what's in my subconscious? Like literally, you're describing

what I think of myself all the time on my worst days and i've always thought i should do that as a bit but i don't know exactly how to how to land it i mean you should just start saying it just like that yeah just throw just throw it up on stage and see what it is yeah just like say it see how it feels yeah i've been thinking of this overall concept that like you can to some degree explain like black and white people in america by looking at like elmer fudd and bugs bunny okay and it says it's like i think that's why black people love bugs bunny because he was like a finesser. It was like, here come this dumb motherfucker. And he thinks that I'm just some dumb ass rambit, but he's really the dumb motherfucker.

And you know what I mean? I got to kind of play the game and then flip the game on him. But it's like, I already know what he thinks of me. I know his expectations of me and I know what I'm capable of, and I know that he's not aware. But, like, I know exactly what this dumb motherfucker's about. Because he comes with the hat and the gun, and, like, I know what he's about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, all that stuff sounds so good. I'm really excited for your next hour, because I feel like you have a big story to tell and it's just a matter of like, how do you want to frame that story? So we end with a segment called Working Out for a Cause. Is there like a nonprofit or a group

that you want to shine a light on that you feel like is doing good work right now? I do. It's called Black Trans Lives Matter Youth Fund. It is out of New York City, and they give money and help trans youth find homes and shelter and foods and things of that nature.

That's great. That's great. So thanks, Sam. So I'm going to contribute to them. I'm going to link to them i'm going to link to them in the show notes and thanks for doing this i hope this is the first of many conversations like this because uh i love talking stuff through with you yeah this was fun dude and thank you for watching the special that's cool oh yeah it's incredible thank you ma'am

that does it for another episode of working it out with sam jay she is a star on the rise you can find that special on netflix our producers are peter salamone and Joseph Birbiglia. Consulting producer, Seth Barish. Sound mix by Kate Balinski. Assistant editor, Mabel Lewis. Thanks to my consigliere, Mike Berkowitz, as well as Marissa Hurwitz. Always thank you to Jack Antonoff for our music. And a very special thanks to my wife, J. Hope Stein.

Our book, The New One, is in your local bookstore. We are appearing this week virtually at Phoenix Books in Vermont, Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., McNally Jackson in New York, Books are Magic in Brooklyn, Powell's Books in Portland, and the Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn. Support local bookstores. Sign up for my mailing list on Burbiggs.com for updates.

And always a thanks to my daughter Una, who created a radio fort with the help of our friends at One Fresh Pillow. Once again, our thanks to Sam Adams, who is presenting the Restaurant Strong Fund to support restaurant workers. Join them today at SamuelAdams.com. And most of all, thanks to you restaurant workers. Join them today at SamuelAdams.com. And most of all, thanks to you who listened, you who are telling your friends, you who are telling your enemies. We are working it out. See you next time.