The Daily Show: Ears Edition - After the Cut 2026 | Jon Stewart and The News Team Take Audience Questions

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Jon Stewart and the Best Damn News Team field questions from the audience after the cameras are "supposed" to stop rolling. Jon responds to demands he runs for office, suggests all pizza is better if you aren't in Chicago, and discusses the most rewarding parts of his job. Ronny Chieng talks controlling, or at least monetizing, his rage. Desi Lydic gets into the transition from correspondent to host, yes ands her old improv group, and talks the origins of her Foxsplains segment. Jordan Klepper fields tips on preparing for a colonoscopy. -- Dose - New customers can save 35% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/TDS or entering TDS at checkout. -- The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Stream full episodes on Paramount+ Follow TDS: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Comedy Central. I'm not considering running for an office. I cannot tell you how wild it is to have people even think that having the power over their lives is something they would appreciate that you have. But I do know, like, all the folks in the media like this, like Stephen, like Jimmy, we get this. This is a question that comes up a lot. And I think it speaks to, if I may, and I don't know the motivation, it speaks to this desperate. and dissatisfaction that we have with the status quo. And so then you see somebody on television

who's saying some of the things that resonate with you and you think, well, fuck it. It really is, I think you should be president, is the line that comes right after, fuck it. Because most people go like, I'm watching this, I'm doing this, these guys aren't doing that. You know what?

Fuck it. This guy should, he's on TV. It's almost like you're cursing me with like a twilight. I don't like, make him! But it is, like, I so understand the feeling, like, I think what's happening right now with all of us, myself included, because having the ability to have a catharsis or talk about it or work with people every day is emotionally sustaining.

But I think we have a shared feeling of helplessness. Because we're all watching the same thing and going, this is, some of the show. the show tonight is sort of like, you're here at a good night. Who are you going to believe you or your lion eyes? And where we're at is in sort of that, how are we going to slow this down? But I'm telling you, the one thing that I will say

is the institutions may be wanting and may be failing, but the people aren't. People keep saying, oh, this guy's Hitler. No, he's not. And I'll tell you why he's not. Hitler was popular. This guy's not. Because the people, and I'm talking about people like,

I live in a town where like a lot of people went that way. Like, they give me a lot of shit in the deli. Like, I walk in the deli and it's like, hey, hey, how's that auto pen? That's Biden's autopin. I walk in the deli now and they're like, what would you like on your sandwich? Like, it ain't flying in a lot of places

where you think it might be flying. So the one institution, that I think has been the bulwark in a way that nothing else has, has been the people. And that's been really heartening to me. Navigating cholesterol wellness is a major reality for the average American today, but taking proactive care of the body should not feel like a daily chore. Many people delay addressing their health because they are hesitant to start traditional health care options that require taking capsules that they are uncomfortable taking indefinitely.

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every day. New customers can save 35% on your first month of subscription by going to daily dose.co slash TDS or entering TDS at checkout. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y dot CO slash T-D-S for 35% off your first month's subscription. Yes, sir. have the rage, we have our private lives, and we can express it, but you're in the public eye. How do you in the public eye just control

that rage of everything that's going on now? Oh. How do you take your compulsion? I don't. No, but, sir, I think, I'm a stand-up comic, so I take my rage very publicly. I just go out and just start yelling,

and people give me money, and I'm like, okay. So I guess my answer is I monetize it. I don't know. But I think the broader point you're trying to, to say, if I may be so presumptuous, sir, who has a few decades on me, I think the rage thing is I travel around America doing stand-up comedy a lot. Last weekend, I was in Rochester, Albany, I'm not saying I go to nice places. I'm just saying I go around. Sometimes I go around,

not just New York State, I go around, I'm lucky to travel America and do stand-up comedy, which is a very direct art form to people. I got to tell you, man, people face it. face in America are very nice, very nice to me face to face. And there's something online that is not very good. And I think we all go online. We see comment section. We see things. We go, everyone is fucking insane and stupid and crazy.

But we don't realize that we are literally looking at an asylum, which is the internet. And we're judging the world based on our view of this asylum. But when you come outside in day-to-day life, people in America face-to-face, very civil. You know, whatever is going on in here, you know. So I think that to answer your broader question, I think that this rage we feel might be more not an accurate representation of reality. And I think the answer is probably, as you probably do, is to stay off the internet a bit more and be face to face.

And yeah, so I don't know. But I don't know. Thank you. Piece of food I can get in New York. That's a great question. Now, where are you from? I'm from Chicago. Oh, then I would say anywhere.

I would say anywhere you go because if you are coming from Chicago you are coming from the bottom of the pizza barrel so no matter what and I say this by the way let me say this I say this respectfully you don't have pizza

you have marinarra-filled swimming pools that keep like a cheese tarp over the top so that if a rat does get in there, it definitely will drown. So I would say go anywhere in the city and it will blow your fucking mind. Because here's what we don't do with our pizza. We don't get a giant meat cleaver to cut it and then lift it up to show people, look, you'll die by eating just one slice.

That's terrible. I know it's terrible. I know. I know. I know. It's terrible. been to now being at the host versus how you were just a correspondent? Did you know you were going to be a host? There was an opportunity or you... Mostly, I just enjoy throwing around my power. Just really demanding things, left and right, not making eye contact with any staff members, just being a real, real diva. No, I will, I will say it's, they're two totally different. things in terms of like performance and and like the way to approach it as a correspondent you're very much in character even though we go by our our own names it's it's very arch and it's highly satirical and you're kind of playing a

character so there's like a safety and all of that you can take these excuse me talking about myself how dare you oh god okay I'll start at the beginning again I'm from Louisville Kentucky no as a correspondent you're you're you're You're in character, so there was sort of a safety in that. And being a host is a much more, and John talked to us about this in the beginning, it's a much more vulnerable experience because you are being yourself and you're saying,

this is what I think, and you have a lot of autonomy over choosing what jokes and what stories you wanna do. But it is, it is just so much fun. And the team that we get to work with every day, our writers, our producers, our showrunner, Jen Flans, is just everyone is so, we're in such good hands. So even on the days where we come in and go,

oh my God, how are we gonna make this funny? We always do because the team is just so good. So I feel very lucky to get to do that. Rewarding and fun part about this job. I guess it's the audience questions. Sorry, I told myself I wasn't gonna do this. It's very weird because I don't think you evaluate it in that way. It's not like, I don't go home and, you know, I'm like, what a satisfying day of work.

I think it's like any job. Like you, when you're living in it, you don't really have the perspective. I think you're happy. Like, I think we do, what I feel best about is when we execute to the highest of our intention. Because we always have an intention. And sometimes we execute it in the manner. So there may be a show where some people are like, oh, that was really funny. And we're like, you know, I miss that.

But it's like anything, like where you try and hold yourself to a really high standard, and so you can be, you can frustrate yourself. But then there are other days where you feel like, oh, we got coached. But you can never, what's nice about this show is it's very humbling. Like, no matter how many times I've done it, and I've done thousands of these, I can still fuck them up hugely. And not get it right and do the thing. And so you can never get complacent and never want to.

In fact, it's sort of why I left, like in 2015, where I was like, oh, I'm not as engaged as this show doesn't deserve anybody not giving everything to what they're doing. And now I feel like, oh, I've got enough in me to do that once. But yeah, that's how you sort of feel. Yeah. Wait a minute, the audience has follow-ups? Mr. Sto, to the question there, I just, I want to ask.

retort. One question, one criticism, if I could. Yeah, go ahead. So you want to, the problem with these shows, like anything else, is you have to build them for, like, redundancy and resilience. Like, you have to build a system that can get to achieve a high level, but has to be repeatable. So the, like, people think, like, man, you guys, you probably come in here, what, like 11, and you spend the first hour just fucking around, because the jokes are right. themselves. But you're like, we run like, a show. Like, Jen Flans runs a ship. Like, she's got, Jen Flans, our executive producer, who's been here, by the way, longer than I have been here. But, like, and she and I are always talking, like, I love talking process. So we're

always talking about ways to make the day more efficient. And, like, five, you know, we always say, like, five minutes at 9 a.m. is 45 minutes at 5 p.m. So we're always trying to, so, but you have to then also build it with enough space in it, that you can have enough room for inspiration. It's very interesting. Are any of you in creative pursuits by any other than you be like in the arts or anything like that? Okay. Oh, so you are. So what do you do? Oh, all right. Wait, do you already know what she does? Should I even ask? Hold on. What does she do? So you are in a creative pursuit and you don't raw dog nothing like you fail your time. Like when they say nothing, It's not like this, like, well, time to go to work.

You can stay out your window. The weird counterintuitive paradox of creative industries is that structure is what allows you to be creative. If you don't have structure, you've got nothing to tether yourself to. So the more structure we create, the more easily we can deviate from it because we know we're going to land somewhere of substance and all that. And you can, I think, take that to your job. So what I'm saying is if you're going to do now,

nothing. Do it at 9 a.m. every morning. Do you write it? Oh, yes. I write every word and I film myself and I do it all and I edit it and then I put it out. No, I do uh, no, we have an incredible team of writers here at the show and we have like a tight team that works on that, on that segment. Our digital team is phenomenal. Um, and that that Foxx Plains, the idea for Foxx Plains actually came up kind of out of necessity because we were filming from home during the pandemic, and we didn't have access to the studio. We had this idea to do kind of like a heightened,

what would happen if I watched, you know, 10,000 hours of Fox News, what would come out of my mouth? And I had no choice but to film it on my phone, and it kind of added something to it because it was like, this woman can't even take the time to go to a professional studio. She's got to get this out to the public immediately. So we, yeah, we started doing it.

way and we've done it the same way ever since it's so much fun we love doing it she's best in small doses i would say yeah yeah are you a fan of fox news not either the 2026 Chevrolet tracks is the stylish SUV for those on the move and with the standard Chevy safety assist package you have the backup to handle every turn with confidence the 2026 tracks start your build at Chevrolet.ca. Whether life serves you an ace or an unexpected backhand, the high-protein yogurt, Oikos Pro, is there to feed your strength and help you turn every challenge into a smash.

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No, I'm too young. Okay, okay. Oh, yeah, okay. Time comes for us all, man, all right? Is that a thing to play music during the colonoscopy? I hear that is... You're knocked out, right? You're knocked out, right?

And people say, like, it's a good sleep, though, is what I hear. Yeah. Yeah, raise your hand if you've had a colonoscopy in this room. Look at this. Give yourself a round of applause. Yeah. So I'm going to go, I'm going to go On Natural, except for all of the drugs they pump into me,

get that good sleep, lose a couple pounds, live my life. Yes. Any other questions? Colonoscopy specific, yes. You don't have colonoscopy cocktails now, right? What does that mean? All the stuff you have to take before as a cocktail. So you take yourself a mocktail with the drugs in it.

Oh my God. And then you just like pretend like you're getting drunk, but it's just 64 ounces of laxative. This is, I tried it. Three months ago, I was supposed to have a colonoscopy, and this is, I know some of you, you're with me here, and some of you are like, get me the fuck out of this tape. But I had an allergic reaction halfway through,

and so I'm drinking all of this stuff, and I start itching all over, and it was a mess. So I'm having to go like the old school 1990s cocktail over. What's that? Go lightly. Go lightly. Is that a brand? Yeah.

That's what you're using. Gold stuff. Is that what you? Did you do go lightly? Yeah. Oh, good. Okay. Okay.

All right. Any other questions? Yes. What were your moments of Zenby during the colonoscopy? That's a great question. What moment of Zen be during the... I mean, I think it would just be an image of like a cheeseburger, right? I have to imagine the meal after the colonoscopy is like a beautiful meal.

So yeah. That is the question. And you have to get picked up by a loved one there too, which is another whole thing of like, whole thing of like, now my wife is having to organize picking me up from the hospital because of colonoscopy, because somebody has a camera in my ass and then I'm going to want to go eat. But can you eat afterwards? Is that a thing for people that? Yes. Or to go home. Are you like, yeah. Go lightly. Go lightly. Go lightly. This is good. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Three days? Three days before it'll make the whole

cleansing out process. It's how we're talking quantity. Go lightly on the quantity. three days before? And don't do like salads or anything, no. Why no salads? I just say that. They say no salads. Why no salads? Roughage is bad.

And no seeds? Seeds are no good either? Okay. You can eat like, close. Or eggs and avocado. Okay. Okay, this is good. This is good.

And yes, what do you got for me? Oh, a cut reveal party? Like. Yeah, you get a DVD bit now. You do? Yeah. They show you the cooperation and where they sniff and they pull it.

They'll give you the whole video. They'll change. That's going to be our moment of Zen. You're going to see it. We're not going to give any context, but you guys will be here and you'll know you'll be like, oh, he's clean, apparently, yes. You do, are you an actor?

I work at a comedy theater. No way. What comedy theater? Second City. Oh, yeah, I've heard of it. You do improv? Well, let's do it. No, I'm just kidding.

Yeah, when's your show? What's the name of your team? Alternative medicine. Oh, that's good. Excuse me, RFK Jr. Prov team one time, and our team name was the foster kids, and we could not keep the same group. We just kept like, so we kind of lived up to our name.

Anyway, that's why I quit. That's awesome. Well, keep it. What do you want to do? Sketch comedy. Yeah? You want to, like, host a late night show or something? All right, take it easy.

Take it easy. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.