The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump Meddles in USA World Cup Game & America's 250th Takes a Nosedive | Author Ann M. Martin

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Ronny Chieng covers America’s 250th birthday festivities, which included Trump rattling off a list of U.S. inventions and a skydiver crashing to the music of "God Bless the U.S.A." Plus, the president couldn’t help but meddle in the FIFA World Cup, where he personally intervened to challenge a red card against the U.S., accidentally defended birthright citizenship in the process, and got mocked by Belgian players doing his infamous "YMCA" dance. Grace Kuhlenschmidt plugs into the biggest headlines in tech: A robotic dog comes equipped with a flamethrower, a self-scooting robo toilet lets you go while on the go, a new delivery app delivers nothing but dopamine, and "actor" Tilly Norwood lands a feature role in an AI coming-of-age film. Author Ann M. Martin sits down with “The Baby-sitters Club” superfan, Ronny, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her iconic series and the new book, “The Baby-Sitters Club Fan Edition: Baby-Sitter Summer.” Ronny shares how his older sister would read him the books as a kid, and finally asks his most anticipated questions about the series that were left unanswered. They also discuss her secret to getting kids to read, and the “Baby-sitter’s Club” musical in the works with music by KPop Demon Hunters’ Mark Sonnenblick. -- To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit ⁠https://Hims.com/dailyshow⁠ --Go to https://Quince.com/dailyshow for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. -- Head to ⁠https://Superpower.com⁠ and use code TDS at checkout for $20 off your membership. Unlock your new health intelligence. 100+ biomarkers. Every year. Detect early signs of 1,000+ conditions. #superpowerpod -- CarShield is offering our listeners 20% off with the code TDS at https://CarShield.com/TDS -- 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

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it's America's only source for news. This is the deal. with your host, Ronnie. We got so much to talk about tonight. America got sloppy at her birthday party. Trump learns just enough about soccer to cheat at it. And did you ever wish your toilet had AI? No?

Well, tough shit is happening. So let's get into the headlines. First off, how was everyone's Fourth of July weekend? Yeah? Did you do all the normal stuff, like barbecue, or go to the beach, or get married at Madison Square Garden? Well, I didn't do shit. because it was a billion degrees outside.

My AC was working harder than Grand Platonor's PR team. It was so hard my balls declared independence from my penis. But even with the heat, people managed to get outside and celebrate in ways that did not in any way feel like a metaphor for where America's at right now. Again, that was not a metaphor for America. Because that guy is completely okay. Seriously, the skydiver is fine, and actually fine, not like Mitch McConnell fine. Just kidding, Mitch is doing great, he's doing great.

And he can't wait to get back. But you know who did not piss himself or flying through a sky this weekend? President Trump, he spent the holiday reflecting on why America is the hottest country in the world. We are the nation that dreamed and created the modern world and invented the light bulb, the telephone, the airplane, the assembly line, the television, the microchip, the personal computer, the internet,

the GPS, the smartphone, and almost everything else that has ever been invented. Invented everything that's ever been invented. And also everything that hasn't been invented yet. We also invented because I just invented the idea of inventing all your inventions. It's called prevention. And I just invented that word. We invented all that shit. All right, Trump, give us another one.

We invented it all. We charted the human genome to cure diseases. Wait, what? What do you mean genome? Why is he pronouncing it like as an old school rapper? My top three, JZ, GZ, and genome. But Trump hasn't just been learning about the human genome. He's also been learning about the sport of succor.

because America has been hosting the World Cup. Very American to not share the World Cup. And up to the last week, the U.S. team was doing much better than expected, in large part thanks to his leading scorer for Lauren Ballogan. Nothing could stop this guy. I mean nothing. One of the star players on the U.S. men's soccer team getting hit with the red card and forced to skip next week's big game.

Leading scorer, Fallon Balligan, given a red card for a hard foul. high-level penalty, resulting in the player's immediate ejection from the current game and suspension from the very next game they play. Oh, what? You're going to give a Logan a red card because it looks like maybe he snapped the guy's ankle in slow motion? Yo, everything looks worse in slow motion. You ever seen a guy get hit by a car in slow motion?

It looks horrible. It looks like murder. But if you watch it in reverse, it looks like my car revived him. Anyway, for Lauren Balogans, getting a red card meant that he wasn't allowed to play the next game against Belgium. But you know what? That's what's beautiful about sports, okay?

Not everything goes your way. What matters is how you rise to the occasion and dig deep to find a way to win. And that's exactly what America did. President Trump revealing he intervened, calling FIFA's president to protest Balgan's red card as unfair. FIFA now clearing the way for a balligan to play.

Scyke, this is America, bitch. The land of the Karen. And when life hands us lemons, we call life's manager and say, take these lemons back and let Belogen play. And of course, the rest of the world started complaining, say it wasn't fair, asking why President Trump gets to pull strings.

Well, there's a good reason why. And I'm a person that loves sports, and was a good athlete. And I understand sports really well, really well. really well and that wasn't a foul you heard it from him you heard it from him that wasn't a foul

President Trump understands sports okay it's in his genome deep sports is deep in his dene so I think he knows what a red card is I didn't know what the hell a red card was

when I found out I said you gotta be kidding son didn't know what a red card is but you know what he did know how to get a guy a pardon. Yeah. And if you're thinking this is corrupt, well, fuck yeah, it is. Because that's America's style of play. You think we're going to obey soccer rules? We don't even listen to the Geneva Convention. And there's something else about this case that's even more American. Filaran Balagan, who is this star player, is also a birthright citizen. He was born in New York, but he was only born in the U.S.,

because his mother was denied the ability to fly home after being on vacation in the U.S. because she was too pregnant to get on the plane. What a twist. Last week, Trump was at the Supreme Court trying to end everyone's birthright citizenship. This week, he personally intervened to protect one specific birthright citizen,

previously known as a citizen. And you might think that's hypocritical, but real Americans know, this is actually the most American immigration policy ever. Okay? The policy is this. F*** all immigrants. Conceptually. Just not the specific immigrants we need to do the jobs we don't want to do, okay?

Like picking crops or creating vaccines or playing soccer. And maybe you don't like that about America. And maybe you don't like how we bend the rules when it's in our interests or exploit all the advantages of immigrants while we're not. vilifying them. But that's what makes you guys haters on the sidelines while we stay winning. And the dream is over for the team USA in the World Cup. Monday night, they lost to Belgium by a final score of 4 to 1. What the f***? 4 to 1? Borgand get the f*** out of my country, all right? This is the worst thing a person pardoned by Trump has ever done.

Four to one. For those Americans watching at home who don't understand soccer, four to one is a humiliating score. The Belgians took the red card we canceled and shoved it up our goalpost. And if you don't think the Belgian players had that in mind

when they took to the field against us, just look at how they celebrated afterwards. The Belgian players were doing the Trump YMCA dance to mock him. Using our president's own jerk off dance against him. They're not even good at it. Look, the dicks are supposed to be up here. They're not down here.

You guys look like idiots doing it like this. But Trump only has himself to blame because thanks to him, we went from being the heroes of our own Disney sports movie to being the villain in some weird European film. I mean, up until last week, America was the scrappy underdog again. But then Trump's intervention galvanized Belgium and the entire world to defeat Team Team of. USA for the integrity of the game.

And just like everything else he tried to fix, he made it worse and ruined our reputation in the process. Before Trump, before Trump, we were a shining eagle, soaring through a sky. And now were this. Oh shit, that was a metaphor.

All right. When we come back, Grace Koolen-Smith will give us the latest in tech news, so don't go away. If bedroom performance has been a source of concern lately, it's worth recognizing that erectile dysfunction is far more common than most men openly discuss. Millions of individuals experience these changes at some point in life, yet a large percentage delay seeking assistance due to social discomfort. Fortunately, the landscape has changed.

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and my gastroenterologist. What's up, Dr. Rosenbaum? That guy does with a tiny camera while I'm asleep. I'm Grace Coolidgement, or as they call me on Roblox, USB, C, you next Tuesday. And this is Techia, where I tell CPU all about the biggest stories in tech. Let's kick things off with the biggest question in technology.

Does it sound like a good idea to mount guns or flamethrowers onto AI-controlled robots? It doesn't sound like a good idea. It sounds like a great idea. But let me guess, this cool new toy is only available to the military. An Ohio company is now advertising this flame-throwing robot available for purchase at near $9,000. The manufacturer says the flame-throwing dog could help with wildfire control, agriculture management, or snow and ice removal. Oh shit, add two cart.

Wanted a dog that can sit, roll over, and make a baked Alaska. I can't tell you how many dogs I've had to re-home because they can't f***. Techno combo was great. This next one will blow your sweet little mind and sweet little colon. A Chinese company is banking. You're going to pay $13,000 for this robo toilet. Robo toilet comes to you. Using an AI 3D obstacle avoidance system, this commode can dodge.

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It just lays there while I do all the work. And thanks to this moving toilet, now we won't have to awkwardly leave the conversation at a dinner party to do my business. I can just say, don't mind me, guys, just speak up a little. Think of next, a tampon that can jump inside you?

What would that even look like? I guess it would look like, you know, a tampon with feet and arms and a face and my hair and it can talk, and it's my new best friend, and I tell it all my secrets, which it absorbs super well because it's a tampon, and we race toilets down the highway together. She's my maid of honor. I'm just spitballing. But if that cute little robot toilet didn't make you feel good, there's a new app that will. An app is going viral and it's part of a bigger trend of so-called dopamine sites.

This app lets people pretend to order food, but then nothing happens. These dopamine sites give people the buzz of actually buying something without actually spending any money. They said the most useless part of these food delivery apps is the food. The best part is watching a delivery guy get closer. And then farther, and then closer. And then it says delivered, but your food is nowhere to be found. And you say, did my neighbor Donna steal my food again? You just ate your last mu-gu guy pain, Donna?

Just wait till I get my flame-throwing dog. You are so f***ing, Donna. Your warning, these dopamine apps can be addicting. Last night, I had to send myself 5,000 orders of pad tide just to feel something. Sorry masturbation. I found a new way to disgust myself. And finally, an update on my favorite actress, Tilly Norwood.

After months of anticipation, she's finally coming to the silver screen. Hi, Tilly Norwood here. She's the controversial AI actress. And this morning, she's officially set to star in her first feature film, set to take place in the so-called Tillyverse, titled Missaligned, a coming-of-age story about Tilly trying to become more human. A coming of age story for artificial intelligence?

Hell yeah. I hope they include her awkward puberty phase where she had 11 fingers and one really long leg. Growing up can be so tough. So let me be the first to say, congratulations, Tilly Norwood. You're like Gal Godot, but lifelike. And get this,

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Do us a favor if you could and tell them the Daily Show Ears Edition sent you to support the show. Welcome back to The Daily Show. My guest tonight is an award-winning author and creator of the landmark book series, The Babysitters Club, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The new spin-off fan edition book is called, Babysitter Summer, guys, please welcome my favorite person in the entire world, Ann M. Martin. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

I'm so excited to meet you. 40th anniversary of the Babysitters Club, 40 years. Everything about the books when they came out, when you wrote the first one, Christy Thomas, Christie's great idea, number one, Babysciss Club, number one. Everything about it was like perfect. Thank you. the way it's written, the story, the issues addressed,

the little cursive writing at the top of the chapters. When you were making the book, where you're putting it together, were you holding the first manuscript and being like, I am going to be f***ing rich? Did you know you had lightning in a bottle when you were holding that first thing and you're piecing it together? No, but my editors and publisher,

we all thought that it was very exciting. We had had fun working together. You all bought yachts. Immediately you bought boats. You were like, we can't finance all of this. It's happening, guys. Well, there were going to be four books originally. That was it.

And then I think after the fourth book was published, the books hit a spot on what was then the Walden bestseller list. And so Scholastic decided they would sign up. up two more books. Right. And then two more books. And then the money just kept falling. And then the money came.

Money just got raining down. It was like ridiculous. Because, and did you, like, were you trying to fill a hole in the book industry at the time? Did you feel like you're trying to make a book that wasn't made or were you just trying to make as much money as you could? You're right. Let me just, let me just, let me just, let me just kill the game right now. I'm going to release four epic books and just...

No, but I wanted to, um, to create stories. create stories about young women, mostly, who were very strong and independent and worked well together, entrepreneurial. I don't think anybody, including me, knew where it was all going to go, but it was a lot of fun to create it. Right. And so there was obviously books about girls and whatever, not to hop on the topic, but like, were you feeling something was missing or was this book based on your life? I don't know if I felt something was missing,

but I felt that I wanted to create stories that would appeal to all kinds of readers. I wanted a diverse group of friends, friends who worked well together but had fights. I wanted them to seem realistic. But I also wanted any reader who came across the books to find themselves represented somehow in the pages. Right.

You want to be woke. You were trying to be woke. I was trying to be woke. Yeah, it was trying to be woke. And it was like... And when you were making this at the time, was there like some... Was there any backlash to this?

Like, what people are like this woke crap needs to, you know, burn these books off our shelves, these babysitters? No. No, but no one pushed back on it. Because you had some stuff in this stuff that was... I mean, back in the day, controversial. You had a black person in it, which was... frowned upon in the late age.

You had the Asian person who probably not much more of a smile given to, you know, so you had all these. And one of the things in each of the books, which, by the way, you guys didn't even, you guys didn't even know, okay? I am such a huge fan of this book series. My, when I was a kid, my sister would, when I was four years old, my sister, who was three years older than me, she would read the books to me so that I would. She would read it to me at night. She's holding the super special We Love New York book. In case for those of you who don't know your babysitters club. You can tell by the back cover.

My dad illustrated that book. Oh, your dad illustrated that one? Man, it was, yeah. It was, she would read it to me, and because it was at night, she would read to me at night, I would fall asleep to her reading it to me. And she was so angry that I fell asleep to it. She was like, I'm not going to read to you anymore because you keep falling asleep.

So I just said, I'm going to read myself. So that's how I started reading. I read all the books first. I read all the books first. I was like, yeah. So I learned to read from all the Babysiders Club books. So I know all the ins and outs of all of these people. And one of the things that was in the books at the time,

these were essentially the first books I read. So I didn't know it was weird. But in the books that was like, you know, Stacey had diabetes, Mallory got mono, Mary Ann's father, like Christy's father left her, a biological father left her and they didn't really stay in touch. And then Marianne's parents got divorced and then remarried, mixed families. And Claudia was bad at school and Jesse was black.

And, you know, there was all these real world issues in then that you kind of, it wasn't even that you snuck in, you just put it in there. Like Stacey had diabetes and it was like a huge thing. thing in the story. Everyone had to figure out what it was and learned to manage it. So you were really addressing these real world issues, which I don't know if any other book was doing at the time.

I'm not sure either. I think in the 80s when the series first began, it was just a little bit kinder, a little bit gentler. I mean the world or? Well, everything. Right. The world, the real world. the real world.

Yeah. And I don't know that I necessarily felt like I was filling a gap. I just wanted to write maybe the kinds of books that I wished I could have read when I was a kid. I mean, I was an avid reader and I liked fantasy. But I think if there had been a book about a kid, a shy kid, you know, I think I would have felt a little bit more seen. And that's what I was hoping that this diverse group of characters would do for the readers. Right. And you're saying you weren't really trying to address real-world issues.

You're just trying to make a story that everyone could relate to. But you addressed the most real-world issues. Every book had a real-world issue almost. So, like, stop lying. I guess your background was, like, as a child psychologist, Yeah. Well, what? Was your background like in a,

were you like, because you were putting in stuff that I guess kids needed to learn about, so. Right. I mean, I did study psychology in college, and I was a teacher for a year. This is an easy crowd. So that kind of informed, anyway, I'm just trying to say that you talk about real world this.

I did talk about it. Yeah. And when you did do it, you were talking about the late 80s. And I feel like maybe I have nostalgia bias, but I do feel that late 80s in America was, I was lucky to be in America like 89 to 93. And then my family, we went back to, we were like good immigrants.

We came, and then we left. We didn't take anyone's jobs. We didn't eat anyone's cats or dogs. We didn't eat anyone's cats or dogs. We just saw what I went there, and we left. So I was there during this 89 to 93 period. And it was like, I don't know, it was like the golden age of being a kid in America almost,

because you had Ninja Turtles, you had Mr. Rogers, you had Sesame Street, you had three to one contact, you had lambchaws play along, you had Barney, and you had babysitters club. Yeah, and my point is that the books kind of reflect that a little bit. There's this, I don't know, there's this kind of warm feeling in it. I don't know whether that's my nostalgia bias,

or do you feel with the benefit of your kind of decades of hindsight, was it better in the late 80s, or am I just? I don't know if it was actually better, but I certainly wanted readers to find something comforting in these books at the same time that they were reading about real-life problems. And yeah.

Yeah, and like, do you feel like that, age is lost now, that kind of, you know, all these kids seem so dumb now. Like, do they even read? Like, these dumb kids don't even read anymore. So, like, are we beyond that period? Are these kids dumb now? No, I mean... These stupid-ass kids who don't read, like, how do we... Are kids stupider now? Maybe that's too much for you to say, okay, is...

How do we get kids to read more? It's like, I have to... It's like a reverse cross-examination. I have to, like, phrase. it in a better way so that you don't incriminate yourself. How do we get these smart kids to read more? Well, first of all, I think there are a lot of different kinds of books being published now. When I was growing up, there was fantasy, there was Roll Doll and there was Dr. Doolittle and that

sort of thing, but there's more real, hardcore fantasy being published at the middle grade level as well as young adult level. And I think that's really appealing to kids. And I think graphic novels are a great way to pull kids into reading other kinds. But I get lots of letters from parents saying that their kids started off reading the graphic novels and then went on to read not only the original Babysitters Club books, but other kinds of books as well. Right.

So you're saying the way to get kids to read more is to make all these books in the books. the comics? Well, I think you have to find something that pulls kids in. Right. But do you feel it's harder now? Is that fair to say? Well, I don't know, honestly, but I think that there are certainly more distractions. There is social media.

Kids are on their phones. But I have a project, which is near and dear to my heart, which is a not-for-profit organization called the Lisa Libraries that I started. to bring brand new books to kids in underserved, to areas, to kids in the foster care system. And I really think that the best way to get kids reading is to get good books into their hands. Yeah, no, no duh.

Yeah, we need good books. I mean, that's what I read, again, what I really love at the Babyseters Club. It was like lightning in a bottle. I don't know if anything captures that. It was like there was these kids, they were doing babysitters. but they were babysitting so they were like helping the community, but they were making money doing it. And then they were organized,

and they all had different personalities. And, you know, it's just something that, I don't know if anything has ever been the equivalent for me. You know, none of these, you know, raw, dull, dumb-ass, you know, that ever hit that. So I don't know, I just feel like it's, I don't know if anything is like that anymore, you know?

I don't know if we can have these books in present days, what I'm trying to say, you know? Like, would you, would you, Could you have seen these books if you had to, don't ever do this, but if you had to reboot it, do not do this. Yes. But if you had to reboot it, like,

could you introduce these social issues that we're facing now into these kind of books, you know? I think that people can find a way to do that, absolutely. You said people. Yeah. Could you do it? Because it's gotten worse now, I feel like, you know. It has.

And I think it would be difficult, but necessary, first of all. I think that, yeah, I don't. I don't know, I hadn't thought about writing about the kids now, but I think it would be an important thing to do. Okay, well, I took the liberty of coming up with some book ideas. So this is if the Babysitters Club was rebooted to 2026. And then you just have to, you can elaborate, but you can also just give me a thumbs down that now.

Okay. So this is me pitching to you, Scholastic Editor. Yeah. Legendary Ann and Martin. Here's some books. So, the first book I have is Stacy's mom is MAGA. So the premise is after her mom goes down a right-wing Twitter rabbit hole, Stacy must learn how to deal with her mom's new political brainwashing.

Hashtag so cringe. Is this a... We don't need to hear about MAGA. Yeah, okay. No, you guys are cheering the wrong thing here. She's like, we need to address these issues. This is real. Okay, the second book idea is COVID Claudia.

So Claudia gets blamed for COVID pandemic, and her real friends are unmasked. Too sad. Yeah, you think Mallory Pike getting mono wasn't sad? That's sad too. Okay, you think Dawn moving to California was not sad? That's all so sad, okay? Sometimes the world is sad.

And we need to deal with it. Okay, so this... Yes, no. It's too sad. What? Because she's getting blamed for it. Yeah. Then you write the happy ending

where everyone comes together and be like, you know, we're not blaming Claudia for COVID. Yeah. Okay. You go and then everyone stops Asian hate and then it pretends like that, you know, they're not racist in Connecticut and then we can...

Yeah. Maybe. That's a maybe. I got maybe on the COVID Claudia. Okay. Okay, next one is D.I. Jesse. So Jesse, guys, come on. These kids need to talk about these. Jesse is number one in her class, but is told she only got into ballet school because she's black. Okay, that's a thumbs up because we can, we'll address that. And, yeah. Okay, so thumbs up on D.E.I. Jesse.

discussing, okay, right. Because she was like a world class, on her way to becoming a world class ballerina in the stories. I know. I actually read the books, you guys. I don't know what you guys are doing. Okay, so that's a relevant issue we should discuss, DEI and who better than just.

Okay, this might be cut from the whole program depending on your reaction. This is, Christy comes out. So at softball practice, Christy doesn't have an eye on the ball. She's got it on something else. Obvious social issues to discuss in this. Okay. Okay, yeah, yeah.

I notice you thumbs up every race except for Asians. So that's a bit, you know, work on that. Work on, uh, maybe you should write a little newsletter about that. Okay, last one, last one. This is a little sister book. Okay. It's called Karen's Screen Time. Karen develops a parisocial relationship with an AI chatbot

and her friends have to get her back to reality before she fully disassociates. Um, no. You don't know. You're too kind for this world. You gotta, that's a thumbs up. That's a kick. Yeah, that's a thumbs up.

The people want it. What they want. I know you're beyond money now, but, you know. Okay, so as an actual fair, of Babysseys Club, I have the Tokian of the Babysses Club in front of me right now. I'd love to give us some, if you could give us some canonical endings, or at least canonical answers to some of the questions I have in this series. Unanswered, they're not even like loose plot holes, I just wondered what happened here.

Okay. Okay, so first of all, why is Christy Thomas' dad so rich? What does he do? I don't know what he does. but I wanted Christy to face some challenges in her life. Oh, so her dad is rich, her stepdad is rich? Okay. The stepdad is rich.

Yeah. What a challenge, whoa. That she had to move from her old neighborhood and her old friends. To her mansion. To a mansion where her friends were not present. Where her friends were not in her mansion? So sorry for her. Her friends were around the block, yeah.

So no answer on what her dad does. what her dad does. Corporate Raider, late 80s, probably Wall Street Raider. Sure. Corporate loyal raider. Okay. He's a raider? Okay, you heard it here first. I kind of need you to say it for the Internet to make this canonical. So can you say Christy Thomas' dad was a corporate raider? Christy Thomas's dad was a corporate raider. Okay, great. Okay. So Marianne and Logan, everyone's favorite couple. He, they broke up just before high school. Did they get back together?

I don't believe they did. I think that was maybe the end of it. That's the end of it? Maybe. Any reason why? They were too young. They're too young. No, but later, like when they...

No, I... Okay. Well, um... You know, they meet after college at a reunion and then... Okay. Get it going in the car... Okay, they can do that.

They can do that? Okay, so... The canonical answer is they met up at a reunion, like, 20 years later, And got it on the car park. Yes. OK. OK. Good.

Good. OK. This was switching to the babysitters club mystery series, which I don't know if you unread Villagers know, there was a mystery series of the babysitters club where they just got mystery. I feel like the kind of unofficial spin-off was the Don's Ghost book. I feel like even though that was in the main series,

I read that and I felt like, oh, this is, it kind of became like a, and that's what spawned the mystery thing? Yes. Okay, cool, so I'm right. Yes. Okay. By the way, in Dawn's ghost, they discover, like, a back passage, right?

So Don thinks she has a ghost because she hears these knocks at night because they move into the stupid, you know, farmhouse that's, like Richard Spir, Marianne's dad's house. It was, no, they moved into Dawn's house. Oh, Don's, yeah, okay. So they moved into Don's house. Yes.

And Don thought she had a ghost because it's like an old Connecticut house. And then they find out that there was a passage behind that was part of the Underground Railroad. Well. And you put that in a kid's book. Yes. I didn't know what an underground,

I had to find out what the Underground Railroad was. Well, I think that's important to find it out. In a kid's book. Sure. Okay. Yes. Because I thought it was like a... And you don't, you don't like,

you don't dance around it either. you say Underground Railroad. You don't go like, there was a place, but it was like Underground Railroad stop. First time I read it, I thought it was like a subway stop. Like, there was an actual railway. I had to go find out what that was. So thank you for that.

Anyway, the mystery series of books. Yes. Lots of mysteries. There was like real estate fraud, the babysitters discovered, uncovered lots of crime, was Stony Brook, Connecticut, a hot bed of white-collar crime? Yes.

It was. Oh, my God. Okay. Wow. As an adult reading it, it really puts a twist on it. So in Keep Out Claudia number 56, where surprise, surprise, people are racist to Claudia and Jesse, the family that was racist to them was called the Lowell's. What happened to this racist family? I don't even really want to think about it. I just was hoping that the girls, the characters,

would learn some lessons about kindness and acceptance, that sort of thing. And I didn't even want to think about the Lowell's anymore. About the racist family that cost a much division. They're probably, they're probably Secretary of Health right now. The Laws became the Secretary of Labor. We'll give them Secretary of Labor. Secretary of Labor.

Yeah. Yes. Harmless but important, but yeah, okay. Janine Kishi, Claudia Kishi's older sister, was into computers, she was coding, she was pretty advanced with computers for her age at that time in the late 80s. Her age and what she was interested in,

in the late 80s, which was computers, makes me feel like she was primed to take advantage of that 90s.com boom. So Claudia's older sister became a Silicon valid billionaire and then subsequently in 2026 became a mega woman. She became a tech billionaire and used her money for good things. Good things like stopping vaccines and influencing elections. So she did become a billionaire?

Yes, she did. Okay, okay, great. Why did alternate officer Shannon Kilbourne only get one book? Yeah, I don't know. She's like one of the most interesting characters. She was super rich and she was an overachiever. And she only got one book. So all these super rich overachieving kids did not feel seen in this series.

Why didn't you, you know, it was... I don't know. She was introduced too late in this series. I didn't have a great affinity for her, I guess. So you just don't care about these rich, overachieving kids. It's not very nice. And you are writing all these books,

and at any point where you like, fuck these kids, I'm sick of this? It's a lot of books. It was a lot of books. They only aged one year in the 15 years that the books came out. I got a little tired of that. So I was the one who suggested that it might be time to bring the series to an end.

Okay. Yeah. You felt it. You felt it when you were. One of my last questions here is like, well, you can't answer. I was going to ask you, when did you know it's the time to end it? But I also feel like the ending was almost, almost faded from the first book, Chrissy's good idea because of Christy Thomas' personality type.

She was so kind of domineering and so rule-based, almost to a, in some instances, it's almost like cult-like, I would say, because she would go after, remember when Stacy came back and thought they were all immature, and then Chrissy Thomas followed her around, organized people to follow her around for that, to find out why was Stacy acting so weird, but really Stacy had just outgrown the rest of a babysitter's club.

So like, do you feel like that personality type of Christy Thomas was like, it was always faded that she was gonna be, impose too much rules on the rest of the gang and break up the club? I don't know. You've thought about this way more than I did. Lady, this is all I've thought about for 40 years now. This is all I remember from America

I was reading it was a club. But yeah, it was sad when you made them, the ending, the official ending was you have these, them get together, decide to end it, and they made a time capsule, and they put all this stuff inside. One of it was a letter from Charlotte who wrote about what a good person, Stacey, was, and how much she affected her life, and she put the essay in there, and there was some other bullshit in there.

It's probably like a Game Boy in there. It's probably like a lot of money because of shit. And then in the book, it says that we agreed to meet again in 12 years. And obviously, that's where the book ended. So in your head, in the last 40 years, have you thought of what happened when they met up 12 years later and hopefully what would happen when they met up, you know, in 2026? But let's do with the 12 years first. Oh, with the 12. Okay.

I think that they meet up. They are 12 years wiser. I think that they're still friends, but perhaps different kinds of friends. I don't know how much they stayed in touch just because that's what tends to happen. But I think that they all sort of fall back into their roles and their friendships as they had been 12 years earlier.

And I think there's a musical coming out. There is. Like to break some news? Yes. Yep. There's going to be a musical produced by theater works that's coming out next year. don't have any hard date yet but and it actually or the last version of the script that I read

it starts with the time capsule and the characters coming together to yeah can you say does it does it shift into a gritty reimagining of babysitting club where I've foria it becomes euphoria can you say where it goes or I don't know Honestly, at this point, the script is still, I've only seen one version of it. Okay, but the musical picks up at the, as far as I know, it starts up, yeah, out with the opening of the time capsule.

Okay, when that musical comes out, I'm gonna be the first one in that theater, all right? The songs are by Mark Sonnenblik of K-pop Demon Hunters, so that's very exciting. Okay, great. No, I'm super excited for it. I could talk to you forever. Everyone is getting annoyed at me because I won't stop talking to.

But you're the best. I used to read a book. I used to see your photo at the end of every book. This isn't the real one I read. But the actual books, your photos at the last page of every book. So every time I read the book, it'll be your face at the end. And I get to see you in person. You're the best.

Thanks for writing a book. Thank you for a fan edition. Babysitter of Summer is out now. NM.M.N., everybody. Back after this. Picture this. It's the middle of summer, the third. family is packed into the car for a road trip, and about two hours into the middle of nowhere,

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