Speaker 1: Pushkin girl. If I hadn't gone through all the stuff
Speaker 1: that I've been through, I would not be funny at all.
Speaker 1: Like if you think about it, like everything that I
Speaker 1: am capable of, that how am I able to access
Speaker 1: it comes from all of the tragedy. That's Tiffany Hattish.
Speaker 1: She's a badass comedian who's won an Emmy for her
Speaker 1: performance hosting Saturday Night Live. Her Netflix special won her
Speaker 1: a Grammy for Best Comedy Album, and she's also been
Speaker 1: in the hit blockbuster movies Bad Trip and Girls Trip.
Speaker 1: This movie had made history, had made a one hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars plus, okay, and I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: where is maka of that money because I have this
Speaker 1: sing it at all? Yeah, And all my friends are
Speaker 1: telling me, Tiffany, you will start now, you big time.
Speaker 1: You're bawling out of control, and I'm looking at my
Speaker 1: bank account. Like I love Tiffany's irreverence. She is really,
Speaker 1: really funny. But the reason I wanted to talk to
Speaker 1: Tiffany is not because she's funny. It's because of how
Speaker 1: she uses funny, how she's turned her comedy into a
Speaker 1: superpower to navigate the profound changes She's confronted in her life.
Speaker 1: Comedy isn't just something Tiffany does on stage, it's how
Speaker 1: she survives. I'm maya Shunker. I study how and why
Speaker 1: we change, and my work as a cognitive scientist has
Speaker 1: taken me all over, including the Obama White House. All
Speaker 1: season long, I'll have intimate conversations with folks who've navigated
Speaker 1: remarkable change in their lives, and hopefully it'll get us
Speaker 1: to think differently about change in our own lives. This
Speaker 1: is a slight change of plants. I want to introduce myself.
Speaker 1: I googled you. Okay, I'm a cognitive scientist. No, I
Speaker 1: read that you was the Obama psychic. I came here
Speaker 1: to get a reading. No, I'm just flying. Your future
Speaker 1: is looking right, okay. Um, look, Tiffany. The reason I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to interview you is because you have one
Speaker 1: of the most radiant personalities, and I think that it's
Speaker 1: easy for people to forget just how challenging your childhood was. Um,
Speaker 1: so you don't mind, I'm just going to jump right in.
Speaker 1: That's mom My mom worked the graveyard shift at the
Speaker 1: post office. She gets something from working like six five
Speaker 1: in the morning or whatever. I was probably like six.
Speaker 1: I used to make these mudpies. I used to take
Speaker 1: all these spices and seasons that I could get to
Speaker 1: in the cabinet and I would mix everything together and
Speaker 1: make her like a patty. But I wake her up
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, thieves are for you, mommy, and
Speaker 1: she would go, oh, thank you. And I'd be like,
Speaker 1: because you work so hard, then you're the best working
Speaker 1: mommy ever. And she would go, oh, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Now let working mommy sleep. And then I go, okay,
Speaker 1: I let her sleep. And then me and my sister
Speaker 1: will be playing and I would be trying to clean
Speaker 1: up the kitchen and she come in and she's seen
Speaker 1: me trying to clean up, and then she would pick
Speaker 1: me up. She gave me the best. She used to
Speaker 1: have the best, the best hugs. Sometimes I dream about
Speaker 1: those hugs, Like those hugs that's like you just feel
Speaker 1: like you're in that person's body, like you're in the
Speaker 1: safest place, like just so warm. You feel like the
Speaker 1: back of you can't even be seen. All their meat
Speaker 1: has just sucked you in. You can take a deep
Speaker 1: breath and just let all your pain out in their chest.
Speaker 1: That version of Tiffany's childhood changes in an instant. Your
Speaker 1: mom got into a terrible car accident when you were eight.
Speaker 1: Do you mind sharing how that changed your relationship with her? Oh?
Speaker 1: My goodness. Okay, so that changed the entire dynamic. It
Speaker 1: flipped it in a way. Okay, So my mom had
Speaker 1: the accident. She was in the hospital for like three months, right,
Speaker 1: And during that three month process were with my grandmother
Speaker 1: and my aunties. And when my mom came out of
Speaker 1: the hospital, and mind you, she had to learn how
Speaker 1: to talk, walk, eat, everything all over again. And I
Speaker 1: remember the day we went to go get her. The
Speaker 1: doctor said, you're gonna have to be your mom's biggest helper.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to grow up now. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to be right there for all the time. And I
Speaker 1: remember telling him, no problem. I love her. She's whatever
Speaker 1: she needs, I'm gonna do it right. So I'm doing
Speaker 1: these things everything. I mean, she taught me how to
Speaker 1: tie my shoe. Now I'm teaching her how to tie
Speaker 1: her shoe. She taught me how to make hot dogs.
Speaker 1: Now I'm teaching her how to make hot docts. Everything
Speaker 1: that she taught me, like, I'm teaching her, and then
Speaker 1: it was so many things that because it was hard
Speaker 1: for her to communicate, like my mom was like an
Speaker 1: excellent communicator. She had this crazy vernacular and now she
Speaker 1: barely has any words and she couldn't express herself, so
Speaker 1: she started to become violent. So it became this relationship
Speaker 1: of the person that I loved the most less planning,
Speaker 1: the first person I ever loved like she was my
Speaker 1: God is now my tormentor. And she was so mean.
Speaker 1: She was set of meaning shit in the world, like
Speaker 1: crush your spirit type stuff, and it made me start
Speaker 1: to resent her and hate her. Right. Not until I
Speaker 1: got older did I realize like she had she had
Speaker 1: brain damage. And I mean, the doctor explain that to me,
Speaker 1: but that does not register as a child when I
Speaker 1: just think about like I could feel how I felt them,
Speaker 1: just like constant fear trying to figure out how not
Speaker 1: to get my neck broke or another tooth knocked out
Speaker 1: my head, or you know, just constantly trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how do I make this person happy enough to
Speaker 1: not hurt me. Is that when you realize, like, hey,
Speaker 1: wait a second, I think my humor has power, Like
Speaker 1: I can use it to get out of dangerous situations
Speaker 1: or help get me what I want. Yeah, humor is
Speaker 1: definitely a power, and I definitely realized that as a kid.
Speaker 1: It got me hit less or make her forget to
Speaker 1: lay her thought of what she's gonna do, and then
Speaker 1: I was able to I was using that in school
Speaker 1: because I was getting bullied in school because I didn't
Speaker 1: have the best clothes, my hair wasn't done the best
Speaker 1: like I was because I was raising I was raising
Speaker 1: me and my brothers and sisters, working to try to
Speaker 1: make sure my sisters and brothers eating, that they have
Speaker 1: clothes and that they're clean, and that you know, like
Speaker 1: in getting those food stamps in the mail and helping
Speaker 1: my mom get the groceries and all this stuff, like
Speaker 1: and it's so crazy because I couldn't even barely read, right,
Speaker 1: I'm doing all this grown mom's stuff. Tiffany's mom doesn't improve,
Speaker 1: and eventually she becomes so unwell Tiffany and her siblings
Speaker 1: are forced to enter the foster care system. She's thirteen.
Speaker 1: She moves from foster home to foster home, lugging her
Speaker 1: stuff around with her in a garbage bag. Throughout all
Speaker 1: of this, her one constant is humor. I would try
Speaker 1: to make like my foster parents and the like group
Speaker 1: palm leaders and stuff, try to make them so they
Speaker 1: could keep me around, so they want me around. And
Speaker 1: you know, for a while, I was feeling like, dang,
Speaker 1: am I not good enough? Nobody wants me. They don't
Speaker 1: love me, they don't like me. Like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be nice, I'm trying to make them laughs. I don't
Speaker 1: understand they laughing at all my jokes, but I don't
Speaker 1: understand what's wrong. And later on I learned that that's
Speaker 1: not always up to them, and so a lot of
Speaker 1: times up to the court system, you know, the age
Speaker 1: limits and blah blah blah, so many things that have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with you. Yeah, that thing to do
Speaker 1: with you, but doesn't mean that it did not affect
Speaker 1: me mentally absolutely, But my comedy, it also catapulted me
Speaker 1: and it got me help in school. Like like I said,
Speaker 1: I couldn't read that good, but I had a really
Speaker 1: great memory. So I would get like I would make
Speaker 1: somebody laugh, a guy laugh that had a cool deep voice,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, can you read this to me?
Speaker 1: And I memorize everything he said, and I'll be able
Speaker 1: to regurgitate that verbatim in class. By the time Tiffany
Speaker 1: gets to high school, she's getting into trouble a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot. It gets to the point where Tiffany's social
Speaker 1: worker is so tired of showing up to school she
Speaker 1: gives Tiffany an ultimatum. She was like, Okay, Tiffany, you
Speaker 1: got two choices this summer. You can go to the
Speaker 1: Laugh Factory comedy camp, and you can go to psychiatric
Speaker 1: therapy because something is wrong with you. You're not normal.
Speaker 1: And I was like, which one got drugs? And she said,
Speaker 1: You're definitely gonna be on drugs if you go to therapy.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'll be damned. I don't want that.
Speaker 1: I don't want those drugs, So I'll go to the
Speaker 1: comedy camp. I'm trying to imagine what it was like
Speaker 1: on that first day of comedy camp. They sent the
Speaker 1: paper right that says you've been accepted to comedy camp
Speaker 1: and there'll be a lunch provided please be prepared to
Speaker 1: talk for three minutes and we will have there will
Speaker 1: be comedians there to help you grow in public speaking
Speaker 1: and comedy. Right. So on the way there, I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna have lunch today on a Saturday. Normally
Speaker 1: you don't. We don't eat lu Saturday. As you get breakfast,
Speaker 1: you kind of play all day, do whatever all day,
Speaker 1: and then you get dinner. So I'm excited. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get three meals today. All right, Saturday boom, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get lunch. Then I'm like, I'm thinking of all the
Speaker 1: like little monologues that I know in my head I
Speaker 1: can do, and I'll just like make a fart noise
Speaker 1: or do a funny pose or something to make it great.
Speaker 1: Comedy Camp is a summer program hosted by well known
Speaker 1: comedians like Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, and Charles Fleischer. And
Speaker 1: this is where Tiffany finally gets to showcase her comedic
Speaker 1: powers to the world. I get there and Charles Fleischer
Speaker 1: is there. I don't really I know the name, but
Speaker 1: I'm don't recognize him. And he gets on stage and
Speaker 1: he introduced it. He says, welcome to the Life Factory
Speaker 1: Comedy Camp. Everybody, my name is Charles Fleischer. You may
Speaker 1: recognize my voice from movies like Who Frame Roger Rabbit.
Speaker 1: My philosophy is this, if you don't have a good
Speaker 1: sense of humor. Yeah better, I'm dead. I start screaming
Speaker 1: at the top of my lines, like and everybody's looking
Speaker 1: at me, like what, And I was like, I love
Speaker 1: Roger Rabbit. That's why I'm funny because of Roger Rabbit.
Speaker 1: I got I love Roger Rabbit. And he goes, what
Speaker 1: do you love about Roger Robbit? And I tell him
Speaker 1: about the scene in the movie when the detective says
Speaker 1: to the rabbit, why are these people doing these nice
Speaker 1: things for you? And the rabbit says, because I make
Speaker 1: them laugh, Eddie, If you make people laugh, they'll do
Speaker 1: anything for you. And I said, that's what I've been
Speaker 1: doing all these years. You know. That's how I've been
Speaker 1: able to get people to help me read. That's how
Speaker 1: I get people to let me cheat on their homework.
Speaker 1: You know. That's how I get like an extra coffeecake
Speaker 1: and breakfast. And when I went to that comedy camp,
Speaker 1: it changed everything because it was the first time I
Speaker 1: felt and they told me I'm smart. I'm like me,
Speaker 1: I'm smart, Like, oh, you're talented, meet me, I'm talented.
Speaker 1: That was a feeling I never felt before. I felt safe.
Speaker 1: This camp proves to be a real up ortunity. For
Speaker 1: Tiffany and she gets to be on TV for the
Speaker 1: first time in her life. Channel two News in LA
Speaker 1: wants to do a story on her. Tiffany is thrilled,
Speaker 1: but she's a minor, so she needs a parent or
Speaker 1: guardian to sign a media release form, and because she's
Speaker 1: in the foster care system, the government has to play
Speaker 1: this role. So she goes to the LA Family Court
Speaker 1: to get in front of a judge, and in typical
Speaker 1: Tiffany fashion, she is on a mission. So the first day,
Speaker 1: I go to that courtroom and I'm sitting there. I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there, and I'm sitting there and nobody's really paying
Speaker 1: me any attention. I'm sitting there, sitting there, and I'm
Speaker 1: listening to all these other cases, these kids things. Nobody's
Speaker 1: paying me any freaking attention at all. And in the
Speaker 1: day the court day's over. Before I left the courtroom,
Speaker 1: I saw that there was a sign I said no gun,
Speaker 1: no food, no drinks, no magazines, no this, all these nos.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I'm gonna guess those tomorrow. So
Speaker 1: I come back the next day. Right to come back
Speaker 1: the next day, I brought up magazines, walk man, you
Speaker 1: know food, I had soda everything right, yep. First I
Speaker 1: break out the magazine and I start chewing the gun
Speaker 1: that star drinking the dream. The judgment was like, who
Speaker 1: are you? I'm like, I'm Tiffany Hottish, and I need
Speaker 1: you to sign the release forms for me? Like what
Speaker 1: they get my case? Has me come up there? Asked me,
Speaker 1: what do you need a release forms signed for a why?
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. I tell them why because I want
Speaker 1: to be a comedian. I'm gonna be like one of
Speaker 1: the greatest comedians in the world. And he was laughing
Speaker 1: and smiling. He looked like the quake gir olds man
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know what, if you are half
Speaker 1: as funny on stages you are right now, then you
Speaker 1: deserve it. And signed a release and I was able
Speaker 1: to go on the news. So what was it like
Speaker 1: seeing yourself on TV? Well, girl, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: First of all, I did not get to see myself
Speaker 1: right away because Princess Diana died and got me bumped. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got bumped, and then it was like not till
Speaker 1: the fall. I didn't get to see it because I
Speaker 1: was at like track practice or something. By the time
Speaker 1: I got home it was like already off. So I
Speaker 1: called the news station and got the video and then
Speaker 1: I saw it. I like for people to see me
Speaker 1: and laughed. I don't care if you're laughing at me
Speaker 1: or with me, as long as you're laughing right. And
Speaker 1: I was like beaming from ear to ear, like wow,
Speaker 1: I thought I looked pretty. I thought I looked a
Speaker 1: little weird, but it was really cool. When Tiffany turns eighteen,
Speaker 1: she's out of the foster care system and on her own.
Speaker 1: She's got nowhere to go, so she starts living out
Speaker 1: of her car, a car she's now immortalized in her
Speaker 1: stand up routine. And I used to be my little
Speaker 1: Geo Metro. That ship was packed out, but I was
Speaker 1: class with mine. I slept in real nice places. I
Speaker 1: lived in Beverly Hills Beach, kept it classic. Police will
Speaker 1: come every morning about seven. They would make me move.
Speaker 1: It was like an alarm clocket. Was cool. I was like,
Speaker 1: that's why I pay taxes, Thank you police. I'd only
Speaker 1: ever heard the stand up version of Tiffany's story about
Speaker 1: being homeless. I wanted to hear the real life one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get emancipated and I get homeless. And I have
Speaker 1: to figure out how I'm gonna survive. So I was
Speaker 1: doing the Bermitsist, but that wasn't really paying. I'm just
Speaker 1: doing comedy shows, but that's like twenty dollars to ten
Speaker 1: dollars a show. That's not really enough to survive one.
Speaker 1: So I got a job working in customer service at
Speaker 1: an airline, and then I kind of moved around from
Speaker 1: airline the airline, and I was there for some years,
Speaker 1: and then I got depressed and I ended up in
Speaker 1: psychiatric therapy because I had stopped doing stand up altogether.
Speaker 1: And my therapist was like, what makes you happy? What
Speaker 1: makes you feel good? And I'm like, hearing people laugh,
Speaker 1: seeing people's smiles, that makes me feel good. And she's like,
Speaker 1: why don't you get back into stand up as like
Speaker 1: a hobby? You know the psychiatrist story. I almost feel
Speaker 1: like you're underselling it because you're telling these stories to
Speaker 1: your psychiatrist and she cannot shop cracking up. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: she made me sum. She wouldn't laugh at everything exactly,
Speaker 1: laughing at everything, like you are so funny that a
Speaker 1: trained mental health professional who's trying to give you counsel
Speaker 1: cannot keep her shit together. I mean, it's a show
Speaker 1: not tell situation. It's like, Tiffany, I don't need to
Speaker 1: tell you to become a comedian at this point. Right,
Speaker 1: she was right? So you so you have this big
Speaker 1: turning point. Right, So the psychiatrist says, hey, this is
Speaker 1: you know, this is what you love. Just give it
Speaker 1: a try. What is it about being on stage and
Speaker 1: performing that really speaks to you while I feel safe? Right?
Speaker 1: And it's like, if anybody's gonna try to hurt you,
Speaker 1: they can't because you have witnesses. That's what you have, witnesses. Right,
Speaker 1: If somebody tries to do something, at least one person
Speaker 1: in that room will be like, that's not right, stop it,
Speaker 1: or I got your back, tipp for me. I'll confess
Speaker 1: for you. It is really striking, and I think it
Speaker 1: says everything about your story that you sought physical safety
Speaker 1: on stage, right. I mean you hear all these performers
Speaker 1: say being on stage, that's right, comfort zone, and that's
Speaker 1: where I feel most at home. I used to say
Speaker 1: things like that, but we always mean it in a
Speaker 1: metaphorical sense, and I think you know you meet it
Speaker 1: in a physical sense. Yeah, you know you're not alone.
Speaker 1: The immediate, like gratification that I see you, I'm here
Speaker 1: with you, We're present, right, Like, that's why I love
Speaker 1: doing live shows. That laughter, it comes right out of
Speaker 1: people's mouths directly to your ears, may bounce off the
Speaker 1: walls and amplify you feel it through your whole soul,
Speaker 1: Like it is the most wonderful drug. For me. It's
Speaker 1: how I get high. It soothed me, and I don't
Speaker 1: know why. That's my soothing thing, even like if I
Speaker 1: get really depressed, that's my medicine. You're not that question.
Speaker 1: I said, if you can have any superpower, what would
Speaker 1: it be. I have it. I have a superpower, and
Speaker 1: it's to control people's happiness. Right. If I could control
Speaker 1: people's happiness, like if I step in a room and
Speaker 1: everybody lights up, everybody gets joyous, that's a really good thing.
Speaker 1: And then you could I feel like you could dominate
Speaker 1: the whole world with that, Like you could rule the world.
Speaker 1: And so am I a superhero? Yes? That's why. After
Speaker 1: the break, Tiffany talks about processing all the change she's
Speaker 1: been through. We'll be right back with a slight change
Speaker 1: of plans. I'm maya Shunker and we're back with a
Speaker 1: slight change of plants, and as a heads up, we're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about sexual assault at a moment.
Speaker 1: Tiffany's gone through so many changes in her life, using
Speaker 1: comedy as a tool over and over again to survive.
Speaker 1: But are there times where comedy's fallen short for her
Speaker 1: when life is simply too dark to laugh about. For example,
Speaker 1: when Tiffany was twenty, she said her stepfather told her
Speaker 1: he had cut the break lines on her mom's car
Speaker 1: before the accident in order to try and kill her
Speaker 1: family and collect life insurance. You learned as an adult
Speaker 1: that your mom's car accident may not have actually been
Speaker 1: an accident after all. Can you tell me more about that?
Speaker 1: I just I g it makes that makes me so
Speaker 1: mad when I think, like, I get really upset about it.
Speaker 1: But at the same time I can find a funny
Speaker 1: any Like this guy was a sniper. He was in
Speaker 1: the you know, he was in a military. His job
Speaker 1: was to kill people. That's such a job and he
Speaker 1: wasn't obviously wasn't that good at it. Because we're still
Speaker 1: all alive, Like, you know what, I can't find the
Speaker 1: funny what I have still yet to be able to
Speaker 1: find to be able to make funny. And I have
Speaker 1: tried many times, and I just I'm not capable of
Speaker 1: it because I feel like there's it's kind of impossible,
Speaker 1: but maybe it's but anything it's possible. But I can't
Speaker 1: find being raped. Yeah, I tried. I try to tell
Speaker 1: like I tried to tell myself when it happened to me,
Speaker 1: Like I tried to tell myself what it means. That
Speaker 1: means you're sexy, you're beautiful, you're irresistible. Girl, look at
Speaker 1: shit Like That's not funny though, but that is how
Speaker 1: I was able to process it. There's nothing I can't
Speaker 1: find nothing about like I was robbed and there's no
Speaker 1: redemption in it. There's no recovery of what was right,
Speaker 1: Like you can never get that back. I would like
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to make it funny so
Speaker 1: people can heal from it. And I'm so grateful to
Speaker 1: people that are willing to share their stories, because when
Speaker 1: you share your experience in your story, you have no
Speaker 1: idea who you are healing, who you are helping, who
Speaker 1: you are uplifting. Another thing that struck me about your
Speaker 1: life is that you've lived two starkly different lives in
Speaker 1: one lifetime. Right. So as a child, you're neglected, you're undervalued,
Speaker 1: and now you live in a world where even strangers
Speaker 1: will run up to you and say, oh my god, Tiffany,
Speaker 1: I love you so much. They want to hug you.
Speaker 1: And like, what is it like to have lived both
Speaker 1: of these lives within one lifetime? Yeah, but both lives
Speaker 1: are the same in a fucked up way, like right,
Speaker 1: Like so like here I am an adult and and
Speaker 1: people are telling me they love me, which is what
Speaker 1: I wanted as a kid. I wanted that love as
Speaker 1: a child. Did I want the whole world's love? No? Right,
Speaker 1: I wanted my father's love. I want my grandmother's love.
Speaker 1: I want my mom's love. Is your mom better today?
Speaker 1: So we um? Well, I got my money together, I
Speaker 1: got her out of the mental institution. I got her
Speaker 1: the best doctors, best therapist, psychiatric therapists, and like when
Speaker 1: she comes to my house, the it's like the communication
Speaker 1: is so much better. That first year that she was
Speaker 1: out of the institution, it was a little shaky there
Speaker 1: and there was a little bit of or I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna find my mom again going on, and what
Speaker 1: you have to realize what I realized now, it is
Speaker 1: an adult is when people are hurting. If they're hurt,
Speaker 1: you can only give them. It doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: give them your whole soul. They have to heal on
Speaker 1: their own and maybe just a little bit. The little
Speaker 1: laugh that you give them is a little it's enough.
Speaker 1: But they're going to continue to hurt others until they
Speaker 1: stop hurting, and you can't always take that hurt away.
Speaker 1: That's something they have to do. But it's been like
Speaker 1: three years now, so much better. So it's just a
Speaker 1: huge difference. And it's there's glimpses like I could see
Speaker 1: glimpses of my mom pre accident. Wow, Mom, pre accident.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like, um, getting those glimpses today changes
Speaker 1: the way that you think back on your childhood, Like
Speaker 1: does it make those memories pre nine years old feel
Speaker 1: more salient to you? Well? Yeah, they're less like a
Speaker 1: dream or like a fantasy and more like, oh, that
Speaker 1: really did happen. And it's funny because I'll bring up
Speaker 1: certain things and some stuff she remembers, because some stuff
Speaker 1: I think is a dream and she's like, no, that that,
Speaker 1: I think that happened too. I remember that. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: have you gotten that hug? Even one time in the
Speaker 1: last few years. I mean, we hug, we hug that hug.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll ever get that hug from her again,
Speaker 1: that that hug of gratitude, that hug of like, I'm
Speaker 1: proud of you trying, that hug of your my baby,
Speaker 1: that hug of like it she used to be saying it.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you try. Like these are the things
Speaker 1: that play in my mind. You know, Um, that's not
Speaker 1: a dream. You've willed so much remarkable stuff to happen
Speaker 1: in your life, but you've been thrown so much shit, right, Um,
Speaker 1: what would be your advice for people who are listening
Speaker 1: who are just feeling totally overwhelmed by change? Okay, so
Speaker 1: embrace it. Embrace the change. It is uncomfortable, but even
Speaker 1: if you got to do it kicking and screaming, kick
Speaker 1: and scream and embrace it and find the good in it.
Speaker 1: Like you said, like, I've been throwing so much shit. Girl.
Speaker 1: If I hadn't gone through all the stuff that I've
Speaker 1: been through, I would not be funny at all. I
Speaker 1: would just be a pretty face with a talent. Like
Speaker 1: if you think about it, like everything that I am
Speaker 1: capable of that how am I able to access it
Speaker 1: comes from all of the tragedy. When I'm able to
Speaker 1: talk to foster youth and connect with them and inspire
Speaker 1: them to achieve their goals, and they start sending me
Speaker 1: messages about there's education that they're getting or their business
Speaker 1: that they're starting, or whatever that's I'm not able to
Speaker 1: communicate with them the way that I am because you know,
Speaker 1: life was easy, or because I don't understand hurt. Our
Speaker 1: souls are able to connect. I'm tickling their spirit. I'm
Speaker 1: inspiring them because their soul can hear my soul. The
Speaker 1: heart speaks to the heart like we could be speaking
Speaker 1: two completely different languages, and just by the tone of
Speaker 1: the voice, the tone of it, you'll feel it. Like
Speaker 1: you can't see me right now. I got my camera off,
Speaker 1: but I know you're feeling me right now. I am.
Speaker 1: I know you are, yeah, because I can feel you.
Speaker 1: And when everybody hears us talk, they're gonna feel it too.
Speaker 1: It's just wonderful to feel connected to people that you've
Speaker 1: never even met before. Thank you for saying that. That's
Speaker 1: just you just put the cheese on my face any day,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you got pretty teeth and that's my
Speaker 1: favorite part, but your smile. Hey, thanks for listening. See
Speaker 1: you next week for my conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Speaker 1: We talk about how the public's been asking her to
Speaker 1: change for decades and how she's handled that pressure. It
Speaker 1: is a constant balancing act. It's everything from how you
Speaker 1: dress and you know what your hairstyle is, to how
Speaker 1: loudly you speak or how loudly you laugh, or you
Speaker 1: know who you are seen with or I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just a constant judgment. A Slight Change of Plans is
Speaker 1: created an executive produced by me Maya Shankar Speak. Thanks
Speaker 1: to everyone it pushed in industries, including our producer Mola Board,
Speaker 1: associate producers David ja and Julia Goodman, executive producers Mia
Speaker 1: Lavelle and Justine Lange, senior editor Jen Guera, and sound
Speaker 1: design and mixed engineers Ben Holliday and Jason Gambrel. Thanks
Speaker 1: also to Louise Gara who wrote our theme song, and
Speaker 1: Ginger Smith who helped arrange the vocals, incidental music from
Speaker 1: Epidemic Sound, and of course a very special thanks to
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lee. You can follow A Slight Change of Plans
Speaker 1: on Instagram. At doctor Maya Schenker. You know your life
Speaker 1: has been filled with startling amounts of change. Do you
Speaker 1: feel sometimes like, man, if I could get through that,
Speaker 1: I mean I can get through anything. Motherfucking yeah.