The Daily Beast Podcast - Hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy Answer 20 Hilariously Stupid Questions

Episode Date: December 26, 2021

Andy Levy has officially joined The Daily Beast podcast family as the new co-host for The New Abnormal, alongside Twitter sweetheart Molly Jong-Fast. We know that he likes to chat politics (duh) and that he used to work for Fox and actually liked Tucker Carlson back then (true story, but he doesn’t anymore.) But we wanted our listeners to get to know the guy gracing their favorite podcast even more. So in this post-Christmas bonus episode of TNA, Molly and producer Jesse Cannon ask Andy 20 random, interesting, and stupid questions, and his answers did not disappoint. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we have a fun post-Christmas episode for you all to get to know our new co-host, Andy Levy, a bit better. So we're going to do 20 questions with them today. Andy Levy. Molly, John Fest. I'm going to interview you and find out all of your secrets today and tell them to our listening audience. Oh, boy. Well, it's been nice working with you. This is the kind of thing you really enjoy because I always think of you as like a big joiner.

So this is you, man. I'm constantly tweeting personal things. That's right. So we're going to start with the question that I feel like was crafted for you. Uh-huh. Describe yourself in a hashtag. So mine is blessed. Oh, that was going to be mine.

Damn it. It is hashtag Freit He Nip Play. I'm scared that I asked. Twitter or Instagram? It's Twitter. I am I am Zucker free. I deleted my Instagram account last year, along with my WhatsApp account, and I haven't, I deleted my Facebook account like 10 years ago. No Zucker in my life.

Anti-Semitism, right? Why do you hate the Jews? No Zuckerberg in my life. Actually, he's a, I believe he's Episcopalian. Yeah, that's what keyword or account do you have blocked on Twitter? I have, I look this up, I have 2,755 accounts blocked, and 1731 accounts muted. Yeah. Am I muted?

Tell me the truth. You are neither muted nor blocked Molly Johnfest. I interact with you on Twitter. How could you think you were muted? But who is the person you have blocked where you're like, this has made my experience on the internet better? Oh, all of them. If I've blocked you, it's made my life on the internet better.

Right. It's true. That is a good point. Who is the best, worst person who has blocked you on Twitter? I think I'd have to say Alec Baldwin. Oh, that's like everybody's blocked by him, though. I'm not blocked by him, though. Well, but the thing is, he blocked me for, for, it wasn't even, like, I didn't say anything.

Like, he tweeted something, this was years ago, he tweeted something that was like JFK conspiracy related. and I guess I quote tweeted it and I was like, oh no, what are you doing or something like that? But it was something benign, you know, it wasn't like bad. But then a bunch of my dumber followers at the time started tweeting at me and him and saying nasty stuff. So he just went ahead and blocked me. So I can't blame him for that. But it wasn't like I said anything about him, even though he is a horrible person.

So, you know, I'm not upset about it. My best block is Molly Hemingway. Oh. And, you know, my... Yeah, she doesn't have me blocked. Sean Davis has me blocked. Sean Davis has everyone blocked. Yeah.

Define your political point of view in three words. I think it's just be good. Mine is be like Mitch. Isn't that the same as be best? It is, but it has a third word. If you ran for president, who would you pick as your VP? Molly Jongfest. Oh, fuck yeah.

I would pick you. No, you wouldn't. You lie. Megan McCain. Oh, God. It's good because we're going to run on an all-nepetism ticket. Who's your father? Who's your mother?

My father's more famous than your mother. Free the neps. You know, that's right. Free the neps. What's your favorite podcast besides this podcast? Let's give free promotion to someone who's not us. I don't listen to podcasts. I have a life.

God. No, that's so bad. My favorite podcast is this podcast. I am kidding, of course. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts, and I honestly do not listen to any other. I don't really listen to a lot of political podcasts, but the podcast I enjoy more movie-based. There's, it's Christmas Town, which is a podcast about Hallmark movies done by Jeb Lund and David Roth, which is a really fun listen. There's the King cast,

which is a podcast about Stephen King stuff. Each episode has a guest and they talk about a different Stephen King thing. Yeah, Stephen King hasn't had enough success. But he's not involved with the podcast. It's just, it's, it gets into, you know, anyway, stuff like that is what I tend to listen to when I listen to podcasts. I just, you know, I don't, I just don't listen to a lot of political podcasts. I have not like, like for instance, the Daily Beast podcast that Swin does. Yes, fever dreams. Yeah, I've heard he is absolutely terrible.

Yeah, he's the worst. But Will Somer's okay. No, Will is fine. Will is very engaging, you know, very likable, but you know, you try to listen to that. And every time Swin talks, you're like, oh my gosh, shut the fuck up. My favorite of all podcast genres is busting on Swin.

What actor would you want to play you in a movie of your life? I don't really think I have a chance. choice because apparently I look a lot like Jeremy Renner. I literally hear this every day. I heard this once when I was in an emergency room. One of the nurses was like, did anyone ever tell you you look like that Avenger? And I'm like, yeah, that's not why I'm here, though, you know? But so anyway, I don't have a choice.

It would just be Jeremy Renner. It's a good one. Dogs or cat? I have nothing against dogs. I had a great dog as a kid. I think dogs are fantastic, but it's cats by a mile. Wrong. Nope.

It's dogs. 100% correct cats. Things are not working out with us. Cats, see, the thing is the people who like dogs better, because dogs will love anyone, you know, they sort of just give you unconditional love. Cats, you actually have to be, you know, you have to earn that love. And I, you know, I think people like you, Molly, who prefer dogs, know, you're a little worried you wouldn't be able to earn the love of a cat.

And so I think that's what's going on. Wait, do I have, can I fire him or do I have to run it for a change? I mean, you are really upset, setting the rest of the podcast. I mean, I have three dogs, Spartacus, Serbrus and Leonidas. I literally said I had a great dog as a kid. I love dogs. I just prefer cats. Matt Greenfield, my long-suffering spouse is like, should we get a fourth dog?

Oh, my God. In our apartment? One of my kids was like, there's not a room in this apartment that doesn't smell like dog. I was like, you're welcome. What's one book? You think everyone should read. I would say the Bible, since there's a decent chance, it's going to be our new constitution soon. And I think people should familiarize themselves with the law of the land.

But only the New Testament. Only the real wacky stuff. So I would say brush up on your commandments and, you know, make sure you're living right as per the Bible. Because pretty soon, if you're not, you will be stoned to death. Yeah. I mean, unless you're Trump or his kids, in which case. Right. What is the most used emoji on your phone right now? This seems like a question you would hate. I'm pretty sure it's the shrug emoji. I think that's the one I tend to use the most. I refuse to use any of the laughing emojis. I'm with Gen Z on this one.

Like I was so happy to hear that Gen Z hates that cry laugh emoji because I have always hated it. And so once you throw those out, it's probably, I think the shrug emoji, the only other ones that would probably come close are the thumbs up and the, you. sort of prayer hands. Prayer hands is a great emoji. Yeah. Because it's never presumptuous, right? Like if someone says a compliment to you, you can do prayer hands. Whatever the fuck that means, nobody knows. But you know it's not hostile.

Right. It's like, yes, I'm praying for you to compliment me. No idea. If you could ban one overused word from all future political speech commentary, which would it be? Woke. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, that to me is just, I mean, and by that, I mean, the way it's, you know, been co-opted by people on the right. Every form of it now annoys the living hell out of me, you know, and the way they use it, like the wokeocracy and the, it's just shut up.

Like, stop co-opting words. Get your own words, you stupid people. And mine would be Dinesh D'Souza. What is the worst edictory? advice you've ever received. Remember, you need to be nice to me here. Probably don't be a podcast co-host. Aw. That turned out to be really bad advice that you gave me, Molly.

And I am, you know, I am very, very happy to be here. And I'm very happy to find that that was bad advice. Oh, thank you. It might go bad. I feel like Sex of the City reboot is really debasig the status of podcasters and society. I'm trying to make Matt Greenfield watch the podcast. the sex of the city because it's so bad, it's bad. What is your most frequent shower thought?

This is mildly embarrassing. Oh, really? I can't imagine. Well, not in any, not in any naughty way or anything like that. I tend to brush my teeth in the shower, you know, in the morning, as some people do. But so, as Molly likes to point out, I'm getting on in years. And I will literally, like, I found myself, like, I will literally be in the shower, and I've washed my body, I've washed my hair. And then I start brushing my teeth.

And I'm like, did I wash my face? And I honestly can't remember because my short-term memory has become a sieve. So what I did was I developed a little mnemonic device, which is a song, which I will not sing because I can't sing. But you know the monkey song, I'm a believer. Uh-huh. So the lyrics to that song are, then I saw her face, now I'm a believer or whatever. So my lyrics are, first I wash my face, now I'm a teeth brusher. So I always know that I have to brush, I.

I have to wash my face first. And then that way I know if I'm brushing my teeth, I know I have already washed my face. So that is an incredibly embarrassing story, but it's 100% true. And it's welcome to my life, people. Ladies, ladies, call me. He's single. Are you single? Yeah.

Yeah, he's single, ladies. It's hard to believe with stories like that, but. What's your number one song? There's a band called The Warning, which are these three sisters from Mexico who play like this sort of of really, really good, hard rock. And I have been listening to them, like, nonstop and actually bought tickets to see them in February, in New York, if the city is still, you know, it's not a pile of smoldering ashes by then. So I would say that's what I've been listening to a lot, this band called The Warning.

I highly recommend them. Can I make a confession year? Sure. Mm-hmm. I really like Phil Collins. Thank you. I'm on your team here. Really?

I came around to Phil Collins. Collins later in life. I hated it as a I really Phil Collins. You're not going there? I'm... Seussu's a great song. Yeah, he has a couple of songs. No, like in the air tonight

will always be an amazing song. Yeah. Yeah, it's just his ballads that I generally find really treakily and like against all odds or whatever. Oh yeah, that is a leaving the bar song for me. What is one conspiracy theory that you think might actually

be true? And why is it JFK. See, here's the thing. I used to be really into conspiracy theories, not believing them, but fascinated by them. And I've read tons of books on them. You know, I would scour websites, go down rabbit holes. All of that to me is not fun anymore. And I hate that. And because of these stupid Q people and, you know, everything else where it's like all this shit is now actively harmful instead of just being like a few nuts who wanted to talk about chemtrails and harp and Archangel and stuff like that. I don't think there's any that I actually believe are true.

The only ones I would say are the ones that actually did turn out to be true, like MK. Ultra and the CIA using LSD in experiments and stuff like that, and all of that did turn out to be true. So I can't overstate how much I hate that conspiracy theories are no longer fun for me. It's a great point. I think that mine is flat earth. It's definitely true. 100%.

That one is still fun because it's just so bizarre. I can hear Delhi Beast HR department calling me for some reason. I don't know what it is. If you could go back in time to witness one historical event in person, what would it be? Kennedy assassination. Oh, yeah, that's fun. Who do you think you would catch doing it then? Lee Harvey Oswald.

That's a hot take right there. Who would you name 2021 person of the year? I would name the novel coronavirus as the person of the year. Yeah, that makes sense. I was going to go with Elon Mosh.

Yeah. No, just kidding. I would have made it the, like the COVID scientists. Or anyone else besides Elon Mosh. Yeah, I would have made it the people who developed the vaccines, and I don't mean like the execs

at, you know, at the companies, I mean, like, the actual scientists who did, like, created this miracle in the unbelievable, you know, short, an unbelievably short period of time, like, hands down. What's your biggest irrational fear? Being trapped or paralyzed. Which sort of go together, I guess. Yeah, I guess. What much, like, boxing hell and I remember that movie? Yeah, I couldn't want, would never, could never watch that movie. What much less love thing do you rank as overrated?

I'm going to get shit from this for this. If film Twitter hears it, but the big Lobowski. Wow. Whoa. Just because it's boring or is there another reason? It just doesn't do anything for me. Yeah, I wish it did because so many people whose opinions I highly respect love that movie. And it just doesn't do anything for me.

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