Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - EXTRA: A Peek Behind the Scenes

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Julia surprises the one-and-only Judith Bowles (aka her mom) with some very exciting news! And did you know her mom isn't the only one of Julia’s relatives who's part of Wiser Than Me? Julia shares some behind-the-scenes info about how the show is actually a family affair and how she is so grateful to all of you out there who have been listening to Wiser Than Me. Finally, stay tuned for season 2, which returns this spring! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lemonada Well hello, I'm Julia Louis-Dreyfus from all those shows on what we used to call television. Oh, remember television. I'm also a fancy podcaster now and I wanted to let you know that season two of my show, Wiser than me, is coming soon. I gotta tell you, we are really onto something here. It turns out that hearing from older women is an entirely new thing, which is cuck-cuck-razy, because older women are the real deal, man. They are the great, untapped natural resource.

Did you listen to season one? If not, Jesus Christ. What now is the matter with you? You miss ten of the most fabulous conversations with women like Jane Fonda. I mean, you have not lived until Jane Fonda has read T.S. Eliot to you and Carol Burnett, the frickin' queen of the variety show, who I now play Whirtle with every day. And she is so good at that game.

It just pisses me off. She gets it in two like every time. And I got to talk to Isabella Yende and Darleen Love and Fran Liebowitz and so many more unusually interesting and captivating and insightful women. Yeah, I think that the reason the show seems to resonate with so many listeners is that when these women reach a certain age, there's just less bullshit and more authenticity, you know?

And that certainly allows the conversations on this show to be genuinely revealing like a discovery. I mean, it can be really funny and actually it can be really moving too. And it sure has opened up my heart and my mind in a way that I never expected. And I'm totally shocked. Well, I'm astonished. In fact, at how many people are stopping me in the street, like in that airport at the TSA thing, or the grocery store to talk about this show,

and they want to tell me about certain little nuggets and things that these 70, 80, 85, even nine-year-old women have said that have really stuck with them in a most meaningful way. So, I am really excited. We're going to do it again. We'll have more conversations. I'll share some little pieces of my own life. And just like last year, at the end of each show, I'll run down the highlights, sort of download them with my own 89-year-old mom, Judy. In fact, here, let me play you a conversation

with my mom that you haven't heard yet, okay? Because I just got some really cool news. Not to tut the wiser than me horn or anything, but we just won show of the year on Apple Podcasts. Yeah. So anyway, when we won it, I just had to call my mom. And here's what she said. I said, we won show of the year on Apple Podcast. And now this is my mom talking. That is fantastic. Is that crazy? Oh my god, that is so great. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised because I have to tell you,

if all the things you've ever done, I've never gotten more response to. Well, that's because you're in it. Yeah, she was very happy. I mean, truth be told, my mom is really the secret sauce at the show, and I am so proud and delighted to share her insights with the world. Although, yeah, I mean, she does go off topic sometimes. And I went to put my hands in my pockets of the slacks I had on. And the pockets weren't there. And I thought, this is so strange. Oh, no. And the pockets were in the back. I had

my pants on backwards. And I was just in the midst of saying, oh, everything's so great. Ah! Ah! Okay, we may have to use this piece of the recording. Yeah. So we did use it, Mom. We used it. Why is it that me really is kind of a family affair?

I mean, obviously I got my mom, yak in a way, dropping pearls of wisdom all over the place. My son Henry composes our awesome theme music. Which I just love. My husband Brad, he remembers my childhood stories better than I do for real. And Pauline Kaplan, who I met on my very first day of college at Northwestern at age 18, is my co-producer. And the whole producing team is like a little family.

It's a great group. So yeah, welcome to my world, which you are part of now too, because none of this is possible without you guys listening and sharing this show with your friends and your families. I mean really, together we all get to meet these remarkable women who do change the way we think about living our whole lives in the most fulfilling way. It's a complete blessing, it's completely fantastic. So now, we're all back to work on season two. And this time around, I know what I'm doing.

Kind of. What am I doing? Kind of.