Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Leslie Odom, Jr. on ‘Hamilton’ Broadway Comeback, Fatherhood and Finding Joy

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

Leslie Odom, Jr., who was Willie Geist’s very first Sunday Sitdown guest nearly a decade ago, is returning to Broadway to reprise his Tony and Grammy Award-winning role as Aaron Burr in Hamilton. In this conversation, Odom reflects on why stepping back into the role ten years later feels like a homecoming and how the standing ovations take him back to his 17-year-old self who dreamt of being part of Broadway. He also opens up about life beyond the stage as an author, singer and father, sharing how joy, healing, and intention continue to guide his latest chapter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I've got a very, very special interview for you this week with a man who was the very first guest on our show Sunday today, nearly 10 years ago. Our show premiered in April of 2016, and our first guest was one of the actors at the center of the hottest show on Broadway, maybe in the history of Broadway, Hamilton. Right in the heat of Hamilton mania, Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr to Lynn Manuel Miranda's Hamilton in that Broadway musical, came on our show. Couldn't have been a bigger musical, couldn't have been a bigger pop culture thing at that time. And he came on as our very first guest. Didn't even have the podcast back then, so that you can't go back and listen to the original.

It's been lost to the ages. Archaeologists will find it someday if they decide to start looking for podcasts. Leslie now back because he's. is back in Hamilton reprising the role of Aaron Burr, 10 years after it premier. The show is now 10 years old. He was in it until summer of 2016, has gone on to big things in the decade since. Of course, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in One Night in Miami. He's released four albums. He's had two children since then. He's written up New York Times bestselling book, been in a bunch of TV shows and movies, has kind of launched off of the success of

Hamilton. And now a short run back as Aaron Burr on that stage. So we thought, what better place to get together than in the Richard Rogers Theater on Broadway, where they've been putting on Hamilton for a decade now. We sat together on the stage, same place we walked together 10 years ago and chatted as he was in the middle of that first run. And now, kind of on the other side of He talks about the differences in playing Aaron Burr this time as opposed to 10 years ago. The audience knows all the songs. They're singing along. It's become an iconic album where they know all the words.

And when he comes out for those first several nights, he's the first song of the show. Generally has to pause for a little bit because of the ovation he gets. So so fun to be back together with Leslie. Both of us a decade older and marginally wiser, I guess you could say, such a smart, and thoughtful guy. I think you'll enjoy my conversation. Once again, 10 years later, with Leslie Odom Jr.

on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Leslie Odom, it is great to see you. Good to see you. This is a crazy moment. As I was telling you, you are kind of one of the founding fathers of our show.

You were the first guest on this show almost nine and a half years ago. We talk about you all the time, and it's so happy to see you again. What an honor. But I don't know, what a wild thing. It's hard for me to imagine that somebody would have chosen me as their first guest. Well, we chose widely.

And the show's still here, so you were a good luck charm. That's right. And it almost lines up with this milestone for you 10 years later at Hamilton. And here you are again. What is it like to be back on this stage playing Aaron Burr? healing it's tremendous it's just a wonderful i'm having a wonderful little odyssey up here with this new cast of people revisiting this material at this time in my life um i'm having a great time when you walked out on your first night back the ovation was so loud you kind of had to pause a

little bit i'm sure after 10 years you had some of the butterflies yeah What did that feel like in that moment? You know, anybody that's familiar with talk therapy, you know, eventually you're going to get around to your childhood self and reconnecting with that younger you. And I was just thinking about that 17-year-old kid that came to New York City. I got invited to join a Broadway show,

a hit Broadway show at the time that meant so much to me. And this was the center of the universe for him. You know, Broadway was not a means to an end for him. He was not doing a Broadway show because he wanted to be in a movie or because he wanted to be on a TV show. This was the TV show.

This was the end all be all for that guy, for that kid. And he had a pure heart. And so on that night, I just imagined him looking to his left and his right and behind. And he just would have asked, are they clapping for you?

And he's with me now. And so, like, in my conversation with him, I've told him they're clapping for you. they're clapping for you. He was, he made a way for me to do this. He studied, he prepared, he loved this thing. You know, he had a persistence and a diligence that has made away from me. And so I'm very thankful to him.

I was just really thinking about him. Is it true? You still have pictures up in the dressing room here of that 17-year-old who came. And by the way, you're being humble. It was rent that you were, not just any, show. Just to stay in touch with that kid while you're out here now? Do I have any pictures of him? You know, I don't have any pictures of him in my dressing room right now, but then I carry him with me, I mean, 10 years ago, I was, there was, I hadn't

even begun to really think of anything like that, integrating my adult self with my childhood self and, you know, the handshake between grown-up me and childhood. me. So that's taken some work. But in my, at home, I have lots of pictures of him. And that's been the work. That's been one of the, one of them, I think what I come back here with, um, to the, to the Richard Rogers. I'm lighter and, um, a more joyful version of myself. And, um, And I make no, I have no judgments about the way the guy did it 10 years ago. That version of me, he also, you know, did the very best that he could and he made away from me in his way as well. But yeah, I've been just thinking about the kid a lot.

That's interesting, too, that you're comparing this performance to the one originally 10 years ago. How are they different as you see it? Um, well, I mean, Lynn kind of said it after the Tonys. It's like, I don't remember the exact quote that he said, but, you know, there's, the only thing that's left is love, you know, so anything that's left of it. It's, it's all any, the pressure is washed away, the worry, the fear, are people going to like it? Are they going to like me in it? Are we going to be around? Are we going to be around? Are we going to have careers after? Are we going to stay in touch? Are we going to be friends? Are we going to lose touch with, you know? Is that going to be, you know, what was that?

Was that real? You know, the film, in the middle of the pandemic, the film, you know, Disney Plus and the producers made the choice to make it available to people on streaming, which was more. wonderful for so many people we know, but it was kind of a bummer for us because we had dreamed of like, oh man, you know, we're going to get to get together and celebrate that thing one day, but we, you know, we were watching it at home.

Will we get to celebrate that altogether? Well, we have that moment, right? So all of those questions now 10 years later have been answered, and they've been answered affirmatively. I'm celebrating this show now most nights with 1,400 people that love this thing as much as I do, if not more. That wasn't the experience the first time around, right?

You know, there was a tension, a good tension. But, you know, it was mostly brand new audiences that we had to, that were kind of with their hands folded, you know, that we had to prove, but it was just a different thing. And that was what it was in that season, and what it is in this season is this, you know, celebratory party, this healing cherry on a delicious cake that I've been eating little by itself for the last 10 years. So what brought you back, Leslie? Because I'm thinking on the one head,

I get while you're back. This is the biggest show ever. And it's so much fun to do. And you're an established star and a character that people love. On the other hand, you did it. And you did it really well. And that has its place in the history of Broadway. And that has its place in the history of Broadway. in the history of art, really. So what were the early conversations like when, whether it was Lynn or someone else who approached you and said, hey, I got an idea. Well, I've kind of been,

ever since that first invitation that I got to come to New York, I feel like I've been collecting experiences. You know, how many new experiences can I have? How many new perspectives can I have on this thing that I love so much? And so, joining a phenomenon,

my question was, I wonder what it's like. I hope someday I get to be a part of something like this from the ground floor. I remember when I was in college studying and I was like, who gets to do a Broadway play? A play on Broadway. Okay, there's a musical, which I had done by the time I got into college,

but if you're in a play on Broadway, I mean, my God, who gets to do that? You must be the greatest actor in the world only get to do plays on Broadway. And so two seasons ago, you know, coming back to Broadway with Pearly Victorious that you guys let me come on the show. Of course, yeah. So, so coming back with this Asi Davis masterpiece, this American classic hadn't been on broad, done on Broadway in 62 years, but it was a play, right? Where I got to, um, the only singing I did was through that language. Um, I had to find that.

the melody and the, you know, in the rhythms and the rhymes of the text only. So I got to have that experience. I've gotten my Broadway flop. Warren Light and I did a, we did a show called Leap of Faith, which ran for two and a half weeks on Broadway. So I've had that. I don't need any more. There you go.

Okay. I think we're on the wall. We're on the wall. There's a famous restaurant in town that has a wall of Broadway flops. The only posters of major failures go on the wall. Wow. And Leap of Faith is up there. Okay.

They're not going to let you forget it. So we got that. But this thing, when do you get to do this? When do you get to, I mean, wonderful, successful, amazing shows open every year. You'd be hard pressed to circle the block and find. I mean, to spin the block 10 years later and to find that show occupying the same real estate, it's a very, very rare thing.

This is a most likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and experience that I get to have to reconnect with this work that was so dear to me 10 years ago and really has only deepened its relationship with people in the last 10 years and it's still here and I can kind of still do it. It's not the 20 year anniversary, you know, I can kind of still do it. And so, I mean, when else would I get to do this, you know, the next show that I do that runs a decade?

I don't know, you know. That's not something you can take for granted. So it was kind of like now or never, really. Is there a physical aspect of it? Like, do you have to get ready for this in a way maybe you didn't have to 10 years ago? For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

a very wise mentor of mine. She warned me, before I was in the swing of it, she's been performing for a very long time, and she's been able to maintain a certain level of excellence for all this time. And she said, it's not the same body. And it was. Don't

think or forget that it is not the same body. You have to take care of yourself. And so preemptively, I just decided to take that as wisdom and listen to her. And so I've been taken care of myself and I definitely feel the difference. But in the same way, there's things that I can do now that I couldn't do then, you know, that I have access to parts of my instrument that I just didn't have, I didn't have them before. So yeah, there's a kind of a warm up and a cool down that I have to do that I wasn't. so concerned about 10 years ago, but I can also do, I have access to things that that guy

really was only playing out. He was only dreaming about. Right, right. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Leslie Odom Jr. right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Leslie Odom Jr. The idea of homecoming is interesting. You've called this kind of a homecoming, which it is, obviously. back on this stage. Sometimes you go back to homecoming at your high school, and the building's the same, but the teachers are different,

the kids are different. Yeah. What has it been like to come back here, but Lynn's not there, and Navid's not here, and Chris isn't here, and Renee and Philippa, and that original cast.

Did that take some getting used to for you? Well, the nature of this show, the nature of the way Lynn decided to tell this story is, you know, it's really a conjuring of burrs. You know, he's conjuring these memories of these people that have been with him throughout his life. And so it's already a haunting. There's ghosts everywhere you look.

And, you know, wait for it. I kind of think of almost as, I mean, he's kind of singing in a graveyard. about his grandfather, the fire and rimstone preacher, and his mother, the genius. You know, everyone who, he says, everyone who loves me has died.

I'm willing to wait for it. So those ghosts, I think that the experience has deepened for me and that they're just more ghosts. here. You know, it's not only, it's not only Alexander and Burr and Washington and Eliza and Angelica, but it's also, yeah, my, thank God, there's still with us. I know what you're saying. You know what I'm saying. Yeah. But there's, there's, there's, there's spirits are here even when I,

you know, David is here. You know, he left something. We, we, we endeavored to leave something of ourselves here so that it would go on so that people would be able to pull from it. I mean, take it. It's yours. You know, this new, when we celebrated here on the sixth, there were dozens now of people. There's probably, I don't know, 50, 50 to 100 guys that have played Byrd now. There was a time, there was only one or two of us, you know. So tomorrow there will be more of us. So anyway, this experience for me now is about how much of all of that I can hold with me. It's about courage, really. Because, yeah, how much of the, you know, joy is a hard thing to take, too. A mentor of mine talks about people that are capacity strapped. You know,

Some people that kind of can't find the place even for the joy. You talk about the opening, that's a lot of joy to take, to make room for that. I didn't quite know how to do that 10 years ago. I know how to do, I have more space now. I have more room in my life for joy now. And I've made room for the sorrow. I've had my, you know, I've had my heartbroken now a time or two. I've got these babies now

that they're with me they're in my mind you know so anyway it's just they're all here and if I can make space for all of them and all of it

then I'm making good use of this time that's a great way to put it do you hear from your former castmates have they seen it yet? Oh yeah None of them have been yet. A lot of them are going to, I wanted them to wait. Like, let me figure out what I'm doing first. But, you know, I hear from them all the time.

Yeah. We've never lost touch. We're in touch all the time. I was texting with Philippa this morning and Renee and I talk all the time. David and I talk all the time. Oak, Anthony, Lynn. Yeah. They were excited about this for you?

They were, yeah. I'm sure. They were. I'm sure. It's funny. You're so right that sitting at, out there a few nights ago, different than it was when I saw it 10 years ago is, these are fans.

Right. They know this music. That's an iconic album now for 10 years. People have lived with it. They know the songs back to front. When you hear the first bars of wait for it, the whole go, oh, I love this one. You know? Yeah.

And so I guess you're right. It is a little bit of a different experience, I'm sure, for you even up here. Because out there, we all know every word to every song. It's like going to see your favorite band or something, you know? Yes, so we can, we jam on it together. We can love it together. I was sharing something that I love. You know, there was something about, I speak of my mentors all the time, you know.

One of my mentors says, he talks about the thing that you do in your life, beyond what your business card says. He has this idea that, you know, some of us are educators. A teacher is a teacher as a teacher. And so while at one point you were a teacher and then you were an administrator and then maybe you went into sales and then maybe you started your own business, right? But a lot of times you might find when you really look back, you're kind of still teaching. Yeah.

Like that's what your heart. That's what you're meant to do. And that concept really blew my mind when I thought about this because I think, I think about myself that quite possibly may be one of the things that I'm meant to do here is to host. I'm talking to one of the great hosts. I don't necessarily mean like you, but I just mean, I'll say this when I was like, so, Shortly before Hamilton, when I was going to quit the business, when I was looking for something else to do, I was thinking, you know, what do my skills?

What might I apply that to? What can I do with this, you know, what do do beyond singing and acting? And I went to, I went to hotels. I was applying to work in the hospitality industry. I thought I would start at the front desk. And then in a few years, I'd be running this hotel. Yeah. Because I care about the guest experience.

Yeah. If you are in front of me, if you are in my space, I just care deeply about the experience that you have, that you feel seen, that you feel valued, that you feel listened to. And I want to take care of your experience, right? And so when I think of that, and I thought about my responsibility in this show,

about Burr's responsibility in this show, that really I host this evening. It's my responsibility to introduce you to my friend, Alexander Hamilton, played by my friend, my brilliant friend, Lin-Manuel Miranda. I have to introduce you to Davy Diggs. Everyone giving up for America's favorite fighting French, man. I took great pride in that.

Great pride in that. in introducing these people that I had such tremendous respect for. And really, the show felt like a friend to me. The show felt like how do you introduce someone that you really care about to a room full of new people? That kind of care, that kind of, I want to prepare the way for you to meet. One second, I got to tell you about them first, right? And so, yeah, the fact that I've gotten all this affirmation and confirmation about who I am and what I can bring to this community, the fact that it's tied to hosting, you know, it's like been, it's been clarifying.

Right. Listening to that framing, it's so interesting because with a cast that by and large is new to the audience, right? they have those other voices in their head from the soundtrack. You are sort of the anchor. Okay, there's Leslie. There's Burr. I know him. And you're doing that, aren't you?

You're so, trust me. This guy's good. Just you wait. Just you wait. Yeah, that's exactly what you're doing. That's so interesting. The other thing that struck me sitting out there is thinking about how kind of different the context of the show is 10 years later, which is, I'm thinking about 2015 and 16.

Our country has changed a little bit since then. Do you feel any of that just in terms of American ideals and the Constitution and immigrants, we get the job done and all those moments that those themes were always important but feel even more so here in 2025? Sure. Yes. I think that, I mean, yeah, we definitely feel the audience. I mean, I'm new background. I just got here. But we definitely feel there's some lines

that hit differently than hit 10 years ago. But the wonderful thing about this show, and I had this experience, I saw the show from the mezzanine for the first time. While I was doing Purley, a friend of mine was playing Burr, and he really wanted me to come see him. So I came, I hadn't seen the show in a long time,

and I'd never seen it from the mezzanine. Yeah. And it just struck me about how this particular show is about all of us. This shows about all of us. You know, it is about the idea of America. And so there's no one that isn't welcome here. And we ponder it together. We turn it over and we look at it and we look at the things we've done right,

the things we can do better. But yeah, that's what struck me in the mezzanine. Sitting higher up, I had this, you know, more of a bird's eye of you. You know, because down here, you're in it, swirling around. Yeah. That was what I didn't have 10 years ago. I didn't have any perspective of it. Right.

None. Right. You're in it. Yeah, what do they like? Do you guys like this? Okay. You know? Yeah, this getting to sit back and getting to watch it at home in the pandemic.

and then coming out of the pandemic and seeing people at the airport and how they react to it and then seeing it up from the mezzanine it's like, oh yeah. What Lynn does so beautifully in this show is it starts and it's really about all of us. It's really about the founding of a nation,

really about any nation, about the American Revolution, but any revolution. And then an act. Act two, it's about one man and one life and one marriage and one heartbreak and one mistake, one tragedy, one death, right? So it just gets, it gets tighter and more and more personal, more and more and more personal, that really the greatest thing we can do, that there's some. something that we're doing collectively in this American experiment. There's something that we're

doing altogether. Um, and ultimately, as time goes on, maybe the best thing you can do for the experiment is to heal yourself. Hmm. It's to look at what's going on inside you, to look at where what inside you is needs fixing, needs washing, needs tenderness, needs loving, right? Yeah. Because what is in one is in the whole. And so coming back here, a more healed version of myself, I'm more useful.

As we sit down at the table across from each other, more mature, more healed versions of ourselves. There's more we can get done. Amen to that. It starts here. Yeah, for sure. And you go wide with it. That's right.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Leslie Odom, Jr., right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Leslie Odom Jr. One of the things I was watching our interview from nine years ago, and one of the things I asked you was, are you scared about the end of this? because you don't know what's on the other side of it. If this thing is so big, how do you follow that up? And you immediately said, no, I'm not. I know what this is. It's a once in a lifetime experience,

but I'm excited for what comes after it. And boy, were you right. You know what I mean? I mentioned Pearly. You got a couple more Tony nominations. You got an Academy Award nomination. You released three albums. You had a New York Times bestseller.

You had two beautiful children. My babies. Right? I mean, Yeah. So did you really feel that way that day, or were you worried about what was on the other side of Hamilton? I really felt that way. Yeah.

Yeah. Even this time around, it's 12 weeks only. And I'm aware of that. Every show, that's the nature of the theater. It is a thing that we are letting go the whole time that we have it. That's what so wonderful about what Tommy did with this film. You know, with this gorgeous preservation we have of this record of us here, we're going to always be young. Tavit's going to always be jumping off that table.

We're going to always be the way we were. But normally, the theater is a thing that you're letting go. Even while you're sitting in your seat, it's just this thing that's happening once. one good time. So, no, that's just, that's part of the bargain. It's part of the magic of it. It is what it is. And I'm, I am not afraid again to let it go in 12 weeks.

It will become someone else's. But professionally, you've done as well as you possibly could have hoped. I mean, when I talk about Academy Award nominations, I mean, it's gone really well post-Hamilton. That's for sure. For all of us. That's for sure. The world was waiting with open arms for us.

The world really embraced us. And not just the entertainment world. I mean, we were embraced all over the world by people who love this thing. And not to put too fine a point on it, but it had, it was its own little revolution. You know, it had things about it that were new. and made a difference. You know, it made a mark. It changed the way people thought.

It inspired and challenged, you know, about, challenged people about what they thought was possible. So it was its own little mini revolution in this show about a revolution. So it also taught, which is, talk about making history sexy. You got rap battles and R&B songs and Leslie Odom and Lynn Manuel Miranda. I mean, I'm not just talking about kids either.

Adults are like, wait, what happened with federalism? Oh, right, that was in the rap battle. I mean, it really, like... Yes, for sure. At least open the door to a lot of people to go read more and study and be invested and interested, for sure. Absolutely.

And, you know, giving credit where it's due to the great Ron Chernow, You know, who did it first, right? He highlighted all of that humanity, all of that, all of the foibles and the sexuality and the virility and the virility and the ridiculousness. And the, right? He did it first in the book. And that's what inspires Lynn. Well, this has to sing.

Yeah. Yeah. So, but yes, it, that was the, that was the first layer of it for me. I remember, yeah, wow, they've really taken these, Ron Chernobyl and Linman Well, have really, like, taken these statues that are everywhere all around, you know, and they've really just pulled them down off the pedestal and reminded us that they were human beings, that they had blood pumping through their veins, and they some of them were slaveholders and some of them were

flawed, deeply. Deeply flawed. But aren't we all? And and look at what they did. Even still, look at what they did. And so, what can you do?

I mean, even Burr, you know, people, I know he's the, you know, he's the villain in this story for, we need a villain, you know, so he's, but what he accomplished in a day would, would, really, he would be, um, astonished at how little some of us do, considering we walk around with computers in our pockets, you know, that he had to go to, you know, they were, they were, Alexander Hamilton was, was, was making, law, you know, textbooks that people still use, they didn't exist. Like he was pulling case law and compiling books for himself so that he could reference when he would try cases, you know, that lawyers still use.

I mean, they were writing the books. They were writing the books, writing the history. So my guy, Burr, you know, on certain days, you know, even Burr, I can allow to inspire me. You know, there's more you can do today. Without question. We have that line about the Federalist Papers that Hamilton wrote the other 51. That's right.

And he's just in there. They were prolific. They were prolific. They knew what they wanted. That's for sure. So with 10 years of perspective on that phenomenon, you look back on it. How do you explain the way it exploded,

the way it blew up, the way it changed your life, Because sometimes you've got to get far enough away from it to look back. Like you just said a minute ago, what was that? How do you look back on that version of it 10 years ago now and just the swirl of these streets being full of fans? I mean, they still are, by the way. But just that explosion at the beginning when people couldn't believe what they were seeing.

I don't try to explain it. I just say thank you. I heard this. I wish I could remember who said it. Somebody look it up, tell me, said it. I heard somebody say that God, the G-O-D, you know, like, you know, that word has been used to abuse and just been politicized and right.

That the word, and it's just a word, it doesn't even get at the thing that we're talking about. You know, maybe we should set the, word aside for a while and just refer to it as the holy mystery. And so there's some things that are a holy mystery. There's some things that, because if, if I knew, we could just do it again and again. We could just repeat it again, right? We can tell them, oh, this is how we've been. Right. Here's the formula. There'd be Hamilton's up and down the street, but there's not. It is, It's divine.

It was inspired. And we've been blessed for 10 years and it's still going. You were talking about the 17-year-old version of yourself. A kid growing up in Philly, performing arts. You get this phone call at like 16 or 17 years old. I think you said an actual phone rang in your house, right, like we had back in the day. You could never, ever have imagined being on this stage or getting that kind of ovation. But what was the dream for that kid?

What did he think was possible? Oh, he knew that he was supposed to be a part of this community. So it didn't matter to him if he was pulling the curtain or if he was shining a spotlight or if he was helping to build the sets. He knew that these were his people. He knew that those were his friends. And he just wanted a place among them. And you got a lot more than that now.

He didn't get a lot more than that. That's for sure. I know you got a show tonight, so I don't want to keep it. What does your routine look like these days? Because I know back in the day, you kind of roll in real hot right before the show. Do you imagine? He was nuts.

I used to get dressed five minutes. minutes before the, and I know what that was about back then, you know, like I sort of, you know, yeah, it was this thing of like, yeah, I just didn't want to sit in it too long. Like, I wanted to like, get dressed, go. Like, let's hit it. Yeah, I get that. Weird. Not weird. That was what he was doing. Are you kidding me? I get here like an hour before, 45 minutes before. I'm warming it up. Checking the notes. See if I have them, massaging the knees. Yeah, no, it's, you know the hypervolt? Yes.

Bro. Yes. The Hypervolt is the MVP. That is like me and the Hypervalt are doing this run together. So, no, it is a longer preparation. And I also am only here for 12 weeks. And so there is something of like, I'm so, even the preparation, like, lengthens my time in the building, you know.

I'm not just running in and running out. I want to stay a while. Live in it a little bit. Yeah. Feel it. As long as you got the hypervote. Those attachments? Oh my gosh.

I'm using all the attachments, bro. There's like, yeah, there's the deep tissue one. There's the light one, the light touch one. Yeah, just a little. Where you can do, like, I can do my shins and I can do my jaw. Oh, my God. You get it up here? Yes, bro.

The light touch. You can do your face. This is not the conversation we had 10 years ago. A couple of old guys comparing notes on the hyper vault. That's true. When you finish here, you're going back out on tour, right? That's amazing that you're... Yeah, the thing that I hear the most about after Hamilton, believe or not, is these Christmas albums.

Yeah. And so, yeah, we... This is our second annual Christmas tour. I hope that I'm able to do some version of it every year, but last year it sold really well, people really flipped for it, so we're going to go out again. You've got a good holiday sound and energy.

It's smooth and soothing and all that. You've become a staple. Yeah, we hope that we can make, I mean, Christmas, that's perennial, and it happens all over the world, so we hoped it would be something that you would like, as you trim the tree, that it would be something you pulled out every year

and share it with your family. and so far as good. That intention matters, I think, you know. Like if there's anything that I can take from Hamilton, I don't always have Lim and Well, you know, writing my material. So I can't take Limin Well with me. But what I can take are some things about this process. That I can repeat.

And a strong intention like that, that goes a long way. A strong intention buried in the foundation. of the work, buried in the foundation of something you're building, putting the idea of freedom. You know, took a while for America to make good on that idea, you know, but the idea of freedom is buried in the foundation. And so that's a good idea to bury in your foundation.

You know, people can come and they can and have helped us make good, help America make good on those, on those ideals, on those promises. But yeah, that's what I can take with me. So I bury a strong intention when I'm starting a new project. I create an environment where everybody feels seen and heard and valued. You make sure the writing, that the written word, because words build worlds. Those are documents. These are founding documents that made them.

this nation. Every night we come here, we read from a document that Lin-Manuel gave us. And so there are things that I can take with me that we can all take with us from this success and do our best to replicate parts of it that we can. Live up to the ideal. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's so fun to see you back out here. It's so fun to watch you thrive over these last 10 years and so good to see you again. Almost 10 years later. too, man. Congratulations. Ten years, that's no, no small thing. Congratulations to you. Thank you, Leslie. I appreciate it. You started it. Good luck, Charm. Thank you. Ten more. Yes, to ten more. Let's do it. At least. You too. See in ten years. Talk about the Hyperville. Oh, yeah. My big thanks to Leslie for a great conversation. Always, always wonderful to spend time with him. If you are lucky enough to lock down a ticket, you can catch Leslie as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, now through, November 26th. My thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear our conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't

forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews in full living color. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sitdown podcast.