Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Wise Women Are Everywhere (And Update on NEW Episodes Coming Soon)

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Hello listeners, get ready … because a NEW season of Wiser Than Me drops November 12th! In the meantime, we wanted to bring you something a little different: a celebration of wise women everywhere. With a special story directly from a listener, snippets of wisdom from women out and about, and a look back at some of our favorite Wiser Than Me moments, it’s proof that wisdom is all around us. You just have to listen!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's nothing like things getting done without you even asking, like someone saving you a seat or a co-worker tackling a dreaded task. Everyday moments like this are what help life run a little smoother and remind us we're not alone. Staying connected matters. That's why AT&T has connectivity you can depend on, or they'll proactively make it right. That's the AT&T guarantee. AT&T Connecting Changes Everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit ATT.com slash guarantee for details.

Lemonada You talked about when you were doing SCTV, so you are one of two women in the cast, right? Oh, I know where you're going, lady. Yes, so? Tell me. That's what's wrong with aging. You start seeing things a little too clearly. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Hi there, listeners. It's Julia Louis Dreyfuss. That was from one of our favorite episodes from last season of Wiser Than Me with Catherine O'Hara. We are back in production on a new season of this very podcast, and I simply can't wait to bring you brand new episodes starting November 12th. You know, I've been thinking a lot about something that we say at the end of every episode. If there's an old lady in your life, listen up.

And honestly, that couldn't be more true. You learned something every time like we did with the unforgettable Diane Van Furstenberg. Let's talk about aging and body changes and how to embrace all of that. Okay, first of all, the word aging, I would change the word aging and say living, right? Oh, thank you. That's perfect. Perfect. So age is life.

Yes. So instead of saying, how old are you, people should say, how long have you lived? And author Isabel Iyende, who taught us a few other things. I enjoy sex with marijuana, especially. Ah. So I get this blueberry. that have marijuana, and I take my blueberry, and it's much better than without it. But wait a minute, just to be clear, because I'm going to go get myself some of those blueberries.

I can send you some. Yeah, send you some. That really is our show in a nutshell. There are wise women all around us. Some of them have been our guests, you know, activists and artists and authors and scientists, but others are people who cross our paths every day. day, our mothers, our neighbors, our teachers. So, before we jump back to our regular programming next month with a whole new lineup of

wise and absolutely wonderful guests, we wanted to share something a little different. Some of our listeners had a few snippets of wisdom about the benefits of aging. Half-price metro card. All right. I'll say it. No hair on my legs. I'm looking forward. to turning 100.

Not just 90. I'm not going to be cheap with it. I want to be 100. 101, 102, as long as I can possibly stay here. If someone is not using my time in a way that seems beneficial to me, I just walk them over an open manhole and have them think it's their idea.

One thing I'm really proud about with Wiser than me is how it's kind of evolved from, a show into a full-on movement, a call to pay attention to the wise old ladies in our lives who have seen it all. Take Fran Leibowitz, for example. What do you mean your terrible girlfriend? Let me put you this way. I have a car that I bought in 1978. It is the only monodrome relationship of my life. That is because I love the car and because I'm never bored by the car. and I have a picture of my car in my refrigerator where other people would have a human.

I don't want to live with anyone. I've lived by myself since I was like 19 years old. And that is an incredible achievement for lesbian, let me assure you. Or Sally Field. The task as a grown-up is to realize what garment you have knit for yourself to survive as a child, the winter of your childhood. But when you're in the summer, so to speak, of your adulthood,

and you can't figure out, Why am I so fucking hot all the time? And it's because you can't take off this garment, this pattern of behavior from childhood is no longer serving you. Or Gloria Steinem. As you've gotten older, has your thinking ability changed? I have noticed changes, which has caused me to, for instance, consider manufacturing a T-shirt that says, I'm at an age when remembering something right away is as good as an orgasm. I think this would sell.

Oh, it would definitely sell. I think it would sell. Okay, so after the break, we're going to hear from a listener who set out to tell us about her grandmother and discovered something that gave her a whole new understanding of where she comes from. Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong, even when life gets busy.

Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees a network you can rely on, so you can find. focus on the moments and people that matter most. That's the AT&T guarantee. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit ATT.com slash guarantee for details. Hey, Prime members, did you know you can listen to Wiser than Me ad-free on Amazon music? Download the Amazon Music app today to start listening ad-free. So a few weeks ago, we asked listeners to introduce us to the wise women in their lives. And we heard so many fantastic stories. And I really wish we could share every single one of them. But today, we want you to meet Hex Parsons and her 74-year-old grandmother, Kim Hatton, straight from Chicago, Illinois. Can you see me? I can hear you, but I can't see you.

Are you supposed to see me? Yeah, let's see that pretty face, girl. Nana Kim is an artist, a collector-style maven, a jack-of-old trades, and her granddaughter, Hex, is a 26-year-old performer and the co-founder of an art gallery. So when we put out a call for listeners to ask some of our wiser-than-meek questions to the older women in their lives, Hex did exactly that. She turned the tables, and she asked her Nana, the same ones I usually ask our guests. Something you'd go back and tell yourself at 21.

Not to get married so soon. And you're always pressuring me to get married, girl. I ain't doing it. Yeah, but you're old now. You're 26. All right. What is something you want me to know about aging? Take care of yourself. Drink lots of water.

You're not too young to get periodic blood tests to stay ahead of what could be lurking. What is something that you learn from your own mentors, your mothers, your elders that you pass down to me and your other grandchildren? Well, that would have been your great-great-grandmother, who I think you weren't alive, but Gigi. She worked these one horrible job, but she stuck with it for years and years and years. What was her horrible job? She was a janitoris. Susie A. Bates. she sued the city of Chicago for equal rights under the equal pay.

The men were called custodians. The women were janitrists, and they made, I don't know, triple the salary. And the women were doing the same work as the men. And she won this landmark case. That's crazy. I didn't even know that. What year was this? Probably 1971, like when your mom.

was born or something. That is very badass. Totally badass. And listen, Hex didn't even know about this part of her history yet. It's the kind of story you might not ever have learned unless you took the time to ask. Hex's great-great-grandmother, Susie Bates, spent 21 years doing the same work as male janitors in Chicago City Hall, but was paid $1,000 less each year. And this was back in the 70s when $1,000 was just like, you know, a shitload of dough. You know what I mean?

And she was denied equal pensions and promotions. It is the same fight women are still fighting today. But Susie didn't back down. She filed sex discrimination charges. She rallied the union and labor leaders. And she stood up for working women everywhere, changing the rules for every woman who worked there after her. So, you know, it's a reminder that those who came before us had to fight tooth and nail to survive. And they did it because someone had to.

And I find that so hopeful. And I really need some of that these days. Stick around after this because that's exactly what we're getting more of right after this break. As we wind down, now is a great time to reach out to someone that's been on your mind because those little check-ins, they're the moments that matter. It's the, I saw this and thought of you text, or the impromptu call to a friend when you're running errands or walking your dog. Those small, I-see-you moments that tie us together. Sometimes the smallest check-in can become the biggest highlight of someone's day. So this week, don't just think about your people.

Reach out to them. Send that text. Make that call. Because community isn't just something we have. It's something we make. And AT&T is here to keep you connected for all of it. Staying connected matters. That's why in the rare event of a network outage, AT&T will proactively credit you for a full day of service. That's the AT&T guarantee. Credit for fiber downtime lasting 20 minutes or more, or for wireless downtime lasting 60 minutes or more caused by a single incident impacting 10 or more towers, must be connected to impacted tower at onset of outage. Restrictions and exclusions apply. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit ATT.com slash guarantee for details.

Okay, so here are two of my favorite, most hopeful moments from the last season of Wiser than me. The first is from our dearly beloved Jane Goodall. I was just so undone by her recent passing, but I am very grateful that I got to talk with her and that you all got to meet her because that lady was the real deal. Here's Jane talking about hope. I think people think it's wishful thinking, and actually hope is about action. Yeah. And a way I love to describe it is that humanity is at the mouth of a very, very long dark tunnel. Right at the end, it's a little star.

That's hope. But it's no good sitting at the mouth of the tunnel and wishing the star here. We've got to roll up our sleeves and climb over, crawl under, work our way around all the problems between us and the star, climate change, loss of biodiversity, poverty, industrial farming that's destroying the soil and torturing billions of animals and destroying huge areas of the environment and wasting water. Good news, there are groups of people tackling every one of those problems. Yes. Hope is about action.

Those words have been ringing in my head ever since we got the sad news that Jane had passed. And it's a sentiment that was echoed by Dolores Huerta as well. In my thinking, if I don't do it, then it's not going to happen. My mother used to say that to us growing up. If you can help someone, if you have the ability, then you have an obligation and responsibility to do that. Like my dad used to say, get up off your dead one and get going. Make it happen. Actually, I really don't think that expression makes sense, but whatever. I'm very excited to keep having conversations with more extraordinary women on our new season of Wiser Than Me. We'll talk with photographer Annie Leibovitz, New Yorker cartoonist,

Raz Chast, and we're going to kick things off with S&L legend, Jane Curtin. Now, because we know it's your favorite part of the show, let's close with a moment that I so love from Wiser than Me history. This is me and my mom, Judy, right after I spoke with Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg. She was talking about up until she was really, I think she said into her 50s, Nina Totenberg very often when she started to write a story, She felt sort of like a fraud. Like she was playing at the role of journalists as opposed to being a journalist. Have you had that experience, Mom, feeling that way, like as a writer? But first of all, I want to say, why did you use the word frog?

Well, first of all, I didn't say frog. I said fraud. I said fraud. Okay. Okay. Well, that's so, that's wonderful. All right. Well, we'll just move on for that.

Ribbit, rib it. All right. There's no way. There is no way that that isn't the funniest thing I've heard it like a week. Wait, wait, Bradd has come in here and ruining the podcast. because he heard it too and now he's lying on the floor in the hallway in clotching his stomach.

Yes, she had a story to write and she felt like she couldn't because she was a frog. Well, then she was right to not write it because fucks. Oh, fuck. That is hilarious,

The Wiser Than Me is back with all new episodes starting November 12 from Lemonada Media. Plus, we're releasing a Wiser Than Me newsletter on Substack, that same day that gives you a chance to listen to more of the wise women in your communities. Who knows what you're going to hear this time around? Go to wiser than me. substack.com and be sure to leave us your email address so you don't miss a thing. See you soon and remember if there's an old lady in your life, listen up.