The Daily Beast Podcast - 20 Questions With Danielle Moodie & Andy Levy

Episode Date: November 27, 2022

In today's episode we get to know hosts Danielle Moodie & Andy Levy a bit better by hearing about some of their first political memories and some of their favorite things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Andy Levy, former Fox News and CNN-HLN guy, and current cable news conscientious objector. I'm a former libertarian who now sits pretty comfortably on the left. Hi, I'm Danielle Moody, former educator and recovering lobbyist. But today, I'm an unapologetic, woke commentator on America's threats to democracy. And I'm producer Jesse Cannon, and I'm here to make sure things don't go too far off the rails. We're here to have fun, smart conversations with some of the most knowledgeable and entertaining people in politics, media, and beyond. goal is to try and make sense of our current crazy world, our new abnormal, and hopefully even make you laugh through the tears. Hello and welcome to another Sunday bonus episode of The New

Abnormal. We thank you so much for joining us. Today we want you to get to know our new co-host, Danielle Moody, just a little bit better. So I've prepared some questions that hopefully will help the audience understand our hosts just a little bit better. All right, you ready for this audience to get to know you too better? I think so. I got what I hope is an easy one for you, too. What's the first thing you remember being mad about politically? The first thing I remember being mad about politically was Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. I was so absolutely disgusted by Republicans then.

And I just remember thinking, okay, so he got a blowjob and he lied about it. And what else? Like, how does this affect anyone's day-to-day life? And so I was just absolutely annoyed by the circus that the Republicans created, which was, you know, funny enough, foreshadowing. For me, I guess it was the Teapot Dome scandal. I know I'm aging myself here. But I just, no, it wasn't that. I'm not quite that old.

My earliest political memory, and this is going to age me too. And also, I don't know if it's true only because I'm the only person that has a memory of it is. something was happening in the 1872, Democratic primaries. And I remember my parents coming home, and I was staying with my grandmother and grandfather, I think, or something like that. My parents came home, and I announced

to them that George McGovern had beaten Richard Nixon. And I don't know what happened to make me think that. I don't know if it was like he had just gotten the Democratic nomination or something like that. But my mom has absolutely no memory of me doing this.

like you're insane. You never said that. I don't even know what would have made you say that or where you would have been. But I don't know why. It's like it's literally one of the earliest memories of my life and it may not even be true. So I'm mad about that politically. That your mother won't cooperate your own story. My own mother is calling me a liar to my face. Not a good character witness there. That's amazing. What keyword or account do you have blocked on Twitter? There's not anyone major that I have blocked. Like, I just block white supremac as they come through. Yeah, there's no one. I don't have anybody blocked. Like, I didn't block Donald Trump.

I didn't block Elon Musk. I mean, they're blocked in my mind, right? But they're not actually blocked on Twitter. I'm pretty wide open there. I blocked Trump and Yeh in the last couple days when they came back. I can't deal. I don't have my phone next to me where it, or at least it used to tell you. how many people you had blocked, and I'm well into the thousands.

I just, I have no patience anymore. Danielle, like with you, I, you know, as they come through. You're going to block me, Andy? No, no, no, no. I'm saying, like you, as they come through my mentions, you know, spouting anti-Semitic shit or racist shit or whatever, it's just instant block. Like, I just don't have the time or the patience to deal with them. I remember somebody saying, well, why do you give them the satisfaction of blocking them?

Then they go around and they say, oh, you. He blocked me. And I was like, if that's like a huge thing in their life, they have such big problems that I can't even get into. So go with God. But yeah, I blocked Trump and I blocked Yeh. And I blocked Elon to make it sort of a sweep of that House Judiciary tweet. And then I unblocked Elon only because I sort of have to see what he's saying right now. So unfortunately, I unblocked him.

That won't last, I think. Okay. If you could banish one person from our politics who's not Donald Trump, who would it be? Like never to be heard from again? They are in the realms of history only. They've been locked away in Gitmo and now they cannot be a part of our politics. Wow. Oh, God.

There's just so many. Yeah, man. I'm second-guessing myself, even as I say it. But I think I'll go Ted Cruz just because I don't want to see his smarmy face anymore. I think I'm going to go with Mitch McConnell, the evil duck bill platypus. I don't want to see his face either, but he has just done so much damage to our democracy, to our institutions, to the courts. Yes, if I never had to hear from see or experience the influence of that man, I would be happy. What's your favorite podcast? That's not this one.

One of my favorite podcasts that I feel like Columbus to is spiritual shit, the down and dirty of modern spirituality. I'm enjoying that podcast. I, yeah, I have said this before and I feel really bad saying it. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts. And the ones I do tend not to be like political or anything like that. And the ones that I find myself listening to to the most are the king cast, which is, or just kingcast, I can't remember if there's a the, which I think I said last time we did. this, but it's still true, which is just a podcast around Stephen King books and adaptations, which the hosts are great. And it's just, it's super entertaining. And then there's a podcast called The Gitmo Boys, which is actually the podcast is called Ear and Loathing, which some friends of mine have. And it's, it's just really fun. And I listen to it while I'm in the shower. If the next president had to be another TV personality, who would you pick? It's a toss up for me. It's like, Part of me wants to say Michelle Obama, but I know better.

And then the other part of me wants to say John Stewart. I think John Stewart would be a good president. I think that he's funny. I think he's likable. But then he's a white man. So I'm like, be better, Danielle. Be better. Well, he's Jewish.

It's okay. You're right. You're right. Okay. Yeah. I'll stick. Yeah. Okay.

That's it. It's funny that you said, Stuart, only because my pick is daily show related to. And I'll, you know, I'll confess, I don't really watch the Daily Show much these days. Not my thing, but I've been really getting into the stuff that Roy Wood Jr. does on that show lately. And I think he's unbelievably funny. And I also just really think his comedy is super smart.

And I think he would be, if nothing else, he would be an absolutely fun president. So I'm going to go with Roy Wood Jr. He's the comedian I most want to go see live soon. Okay. Dogs or Cats. Real easy one. Oh, so this is hard. I am a godmother to a very cute little puppy, who's a year old.

But I grew up as a cat person. So, yeah, good tie there, you know, between cat and dog. I don't even have to answer that, do I? We all know you're a cat person because you post the cutest cat on the world, your cat. Yes. Shout out to Knicks. That's right.

What one book do you think everyone should read? I will say the one book that everybody should read is Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. Oh, that's a great book. Everybody should read that book. It is a blueprint to the times that we live in, and she wrote it in 1993. So she was basically a soothsayer to the Christian nationalist takeover of America through the lens of science fiction. I don't have a good answer for that. I think people should read more books, period.

Okay, I'm going to give you guys an easy one because you can look it up, but then you have to not lie. What's the most used emoji in your phone right now? I don't have my phone with me right now, but I know it's the eye roll or the shrug. That sounds right for you. Yeah, oh, no, those are the two that I almost exclusively use. I use the black fist emoji. Well, it's black for me. I guess it's a yellow fist for others.

I don't know. The fist emoji and then the. The one that has the face that's just like, what the fuck? That's the one I use all the time. It's the upside down smile smirk face. Yeah. It's basically me. It's basically a picture of my face.

As long as it's not the laugh cry emoji. I mean, that's on heavy rotation. Andy's such a zoomer. He hates that one. I really do. The fact that Musk uses it constantly now on Twitter just makes it even worse. My most frequent is the hand in the face because, you know, that's life dealing with everything these days.

That's true. That's the one you send to me the most, that's for sure. Okay, what's the worst advice you've received? To not take up too much space. I wholeheartedly disagree on that. I like that. Mine was probably to take up more space. Okay.

Most played song on Spotify. Mine is energy, Beyonce on Renaissance. Oddly enough, for a long time, it was definitely something from the score of the Batman. I was really getting into that for some reason. I don't know if that counts. But as far as songs go, I don't, at least recently, I don't tend to play things over and over again.

I'm just kind of jumping all over the place. I don't have a good answer for that. I'm sorry. Andy hates music. I love music and everybody who knows me, if anything, I love music too much. 50% of Andy and I's conversations is music, maybe like 33.

But, okay, don't think too long and hard. most enjoyable movie you've watched recently. I mean, for me, the most just flat out enjoyable movie of the year is Top Gun Maverick. I mean, I've seen a bunch of movies since then, but just in terms of straight up, holy shit, that was entertaining, it would be that. I really like the Al Yajikovic movie. Weird? Yeah, great movie.

That was fun as hell, and I saw that recently. As of this, I have not seen Wakanda forever yet, so I'm going to assume that that would be one of my favorites because Black Panther was. But as of late, what did I just rewatch the other day, which was amazing in an actual movie theater was Clue. Oh, nice. Oh, hell yeah. Clue. Yeah. Of course. Oh, my God. It was playing at a cinema draft house and I got to see it on the big screen for the first time. And it was amazing. That movie, if people do not remember it, go back and watch Clue. It's funny as fuck. It's so much fun. And it's so much better. than when it came out what people said about it.

Yes. It's just become like an unbelievably great cult movie. And it's, yeah, it's never not fun. Okay, TV now. Same premise. The best show on TV right now, and I feel weird saying this, it's is Andor the Star Wars show, which is I would never have said about a Star Wars show,

but this is overseen by Tony Gilroy, who wrote so many good movies, Michael Clayton, among others. And it's just, it's literally like one of the best shows about revolution that I've ever seen and what revolution does to people and how people become revolutionaries. And it's so much weightier than anything that's ever been done, I think, on screen in the Star Wars universe. It's a show that I would fully recommend to people who do not give a shit at all about Star Wars because it just doesn't matter. It's just a phenomenal show. Okay. I've recently been enjoying reasonable doubt, which is on Hulu and Kerry Washington is executive producing it. And it's a story about a very, like, savvy criminal

attorney, black woman who gets involved in a murder case. And so it's one of those. It starts out with like, oh my God, what will happen to her? And then the entire series is about building up to this aha, big moment. So I've been enjoying that when I don't despair over the news. How well do you think you would do on Survivor? I think I die. Do people die on that show? They do now. Seamus, do people die on Survivor?

No, they don't. He says a guy died on Shabas is the world's foremost expert on Survivor. Oh, okay. Oh, wow. I mean, you're not meant to. Yeah, you're not to. I don't think that's the premise. It's not Hunger Games.

But it pretty much was, it's Hunger Games without the death. So I would not survive. I would not be a Survivor on Survivor. No. Yeah, three years ago, I think I would have done, actually maybe pretty well because I was in like the best shape of my life and I'm just naturally

loved wherever I go. So I think I would have survived most of the councils. Now I wouldn't last five minutes. Okay. If the Trump era was made into an Oscar movie, what character wins an award and who plays them? Oh, geez. Oh no, he can't say that.

Wait, because she did such a good job as him, but I'm like, would it be Oscar Worthy? Unclear. I was going to say Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer was probably

the best the frigging best skits I had honestly ever seen done. I don't. So many bad

Trump parodies that one stands out as so good. Oh, God. It was so good. I am going to say it would be James Woods

as Mike Pence. Oh, I like that. I have no idea why I said that. But I kind of like it. It's good. It's good. Okay. Our final question at Thanksgiving, are you a fighter or a peacemaker? No, peacemaker. Well, I don't have to fight or peacemaker because my family isn't crazy. There is no, what about your Trump-loving uncle? Right. That is not happening in my household. Yeah, I don't have that either. So, I mean, I just, if I were going to be one of those two, I would be a peacemaker. But yeah, there's no call for it at my family stuff. And if I was going to be one of those two, I'd be the fighter.

You ain't getting out of this table alive. You know what I'm saying? I'm coming for you and the turkey wing. As someone who knows you both, that tracks. And whereas I would say I'm a triangulating general who's murdering all sides. Wow. That's why they call him the whiz, kid. Okay, we're done.

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