Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello there, you're about to
Speaker 1: watch an episode of the Daily Show. That means there's
Speaker 1: some news and some jokes on the way. So if
Speaker 1: you like laughing and news, you're in the right place. Honey,
Speaker 1: coming to you from New York City, people me city
Speaker 1: in America. It's the Daily shown at the races. My
Speaker 1: tax day is weird, and you're now money. He's the
Speaker 1: Daily Show with Trevor Day Show on TV. Thank your show,
Speaker 1: what for tuning in, Thank you for coming out and packing.
Speaker 1: Good to see get to see a Francis pop your faces.
Speaker 1: All right, take a seat, everybody, We've got a fun
Speaker 1: show for you today. Ronnie Chang is gonna be telling
Speaker 1: you why you're doing your taxes all wrong. So it's
Speaker 1: gonna be just like the I R S but funny.
Speaker 1: Plus the amazing Janelle Monet is joining us on the show,
Speaker 1: and this time not from music or a new book. No,
Speaker 1: she just released a book of short stories, yeah, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. Right. Yeah, And in case you're confused, it's
Speaker 1: not stories about short things, but rather short stories about things. Right.
Speaker 1: The things can be long, but the stories are always short. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I've said enough let's jump straight into today's headlines. Okay, people,
Speaker 1: let's kick things off with the big education news. By now,
Speaker 1: you've all heard about how school systems across the US
Speaker 1: are banning critical race theory RED and if you're still
Speaker 1: not sure what critical race theory is, don't worry. Neither
Speaker 1: other people banning it now. The States of Florida has
Speaker 1: announced that it's officially begun its purge of all things CRT,
Speaker 1: but some of the targets have taken people by surprise.
Speaker 1: The Florida Department of Education is making ways after rejecting
Speaker 1: forty one percent of submitted math that textbooks because of
Speaker 1: touching and prohibited subjects. The state says more than fifty
Speaker 1: of those books include references to critical race theory among
Speaker 1: other things like common core, and therefore are prohibited under
Speaker 1: the new standards CRT teachings. They were banned from Florida's
Speaker 1: classrooms last year. Orange County Classroom Teachers Association President Wendy
Speaker 1: Dormal says she's baffled. I can't imagine what is in
Speaker 1: a math textbook that would indoctrinate a child. I really
Speaker 1: love to see some of these rejected books and see
Speaker 1: what they highlighted. Yeah, so would I, because I mean
Speaker 1: this makes Alorida is banning math textbooks because the States
Speaker 1: says that they teach critical race theory. And I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I don't even understand how that works. I don't like,
Speaker 1: I get finding critical race theory in history books or
Speaker 1: social studies, but math, how how well? Think about it, Trevor,
Speaker 1: Algebra is just a bunch of numbers that rejected their
Speaker 1: slave names and now go by X. How yeah, Trevor. Also,
Speaker 1: numbers can be very triggering for white people. Think about it.
Speaker 1: Whenever a black man dunks on a white man watch
Speaker 1: on his shirt. That's right, numbers. And don't get me
Speaker 1: started on the violence inherent in math. I'll never forget
Speaker 1: the Day nine scarred me for life. I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: but I don't know what Florida is trying to do here.
Speaker 1: But any sane person can't agree. This is getting out
Speaker 1: of control. I mean, it was bad before, but this
Speaker 1: is getting out of control all because now it just
Speaker 1: feels like the States sees critical race theory everywhere in everything.
Speaker 1: You know, it was like a like a hypochondria. It's
Speaker 1: like this milkshake is critical race theory. What. Yeah, Look,
Speaker 1: it's trying to tell us that the white part is
Speaker 1: keeping the brown man down. Or maybe the chocolate just
Speaker 1: stationed to work harder. Maybe you need to relax, my man.
Speaker 1: Also think about this. Let's let's let's play with the logic.
Speaker 1: If they were trying to sneak CRT into the schools,
Speaker 1: why would they do it with math? Math textbooks would
Speaker 1: be the worst place to do it, because who remembers
Speaker 1: anything they learned in math? Huh? Do you remember how
Speaker 1: to use the High Parton News? Do you if I said,
Speaker 1: nobody leaves the studio, no one until you show me
Speaker 1: how hip Parton used works. We're dying here, people well dead,
Speaker 1: they're gonna find corpses. Nobody remembers math from school. Nobody
Speaker 1: even Liam Neeson, his particular set of skills, did nothing
Speaker 1: High Parton News. Yeah, he was like, I will find
Speaker 1: you and I will kill you. They're like, well, first
Speaker 1: you have to solve a mouth problem. Uh, it's fine,
Speaker 1: and I'll find another daughter. You know, I actually wish,
Speaker 1: I actually wish there was CRT and math textbooks. I
Speaker 1: actually do yeah, because then we could have solved racism
Speaker 1: by now, just by cheating and going to the back
Speaker 1: of the book with all the answers in it, you know,
Speaker 1: just be at the back of me, like, what is
Speaker 1: a black batman? Oh? My god? Why didn't I think
Speaker 1: of that? All right, but let's move on from that
Speaker 1: madness in Florida to something that's affecting all of us inflation.
Speaker 1: Thanks to inflation, practically every company is raising their prices
Speaker 1: right now. For instance, here in New York, a lot
Speaker 1: of dollar pizza places are now charging a dollar Yeah, no, no,
Speaker 1: you you you think it's mina, but it's actually a
Speaker 1: nightmare because now you either have to carry around an
Speaker 1: extra quarter with you or you gotta give the guy
Speaker 1: two dollars. And now you're carrying around three quarters old day.
Speaker 1: What am I supposed to do with that? Huh? Do
Speaker 1: you see slot machines out of the streets in New York?
Speaker 1: You're killing me. But everyone's raising prices, everyone, even Amazon.
Speaker 1: They just announced that they're charging an extra five inflation
Speaker 1: fee to its merchants, who will presumably pass that extra
Speaker 1: cost onto the customers, which I'm sorry, people, is bullshit,
Speaker 1: right because Amazon made thirty three billion dollars in profit
Speaker 1: last year. If there's any company that can do just
Speaker 1: a little too absorb the cost of inflation. It's them,
Speaker 1: you know, Amazon, If you're trying to save money, Next
Speaker 1: time I buy a toothbrush, maybe don't package it in
Speaker 1: a cardboard box the size of a minivan. Maybe something
Speaker 1: you could say something you see the size of the boxing.
Speaker 1: It's gonna get a giant box or anything. Now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take time off to fold it put in my recycling,
Speaker 1: and I'm sad because I've got someone brought me a car. Now.
Speaker 1: Now get this, According to a new report, and this
Speaker 1: is really sinister, man, some companies aren't just raising prices
Speaker 1: to keep up with inflation. No, these slick assholes are
Speaker 1: using inflation as an excuse to gouge their customers and
Speaker 1: make even more profits than before, because you see, they
Speaker 1: know they can get away with it. Right now, think
Speaker 1: about it a year ago, if you saw that the
Speaker 1: price of something shot up out of noware you getting
Speaker 1: mad at the company? But now, when you're paying a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars for detergent, you just think it's inflation and
Speaker 1: you curse Joe Biden. It's brilliant. It's brilliant. And here's
Speaker 1: how you know. Here's how you know that companies don't
Speaker 1: have to raise their prices. They don't have to because
Speaker 1: one company is refusing to and they're still getting rich.
Speaker 1: You go to the supermarket you hooked us around, and
Speaker 1: you know that nearly all products are getting more expensive
Speaker 1: except Arizona ice tape. The beverage is staying a bottle
Speaker 1: regardless of the rising inflation costs. The company's founder and
Speaker 1: chairman says he is not budging on price on principle
Speaker 1: the company is privately owned. The owner is absorbing the
Speaker 1: higher costs of everything, including the aluminum that they can,
Speaker 1: that the ice t is in, and they're making it's
Speaker 1: in other areas. Don Baltaggio, Arizona, seventy year old founder
Speaker 1: and chairman, told the Los Angeles Times, quote, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do what the bread guys and the gas
Speaker 1: guys and everybody else are doing. Consumers don't need another
Speaker 1: price increase from a guy like me. Yeah. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm talking about. You see, you don't have
Speaker 1: to squeeze and every lost dollar out of your customers.
Speaker 1: This guy is keeping his products despite inflation, and he
Speaker 1: even puts it on the can so the store can
Speaker 1: mark it up. Yeah, as opposed to Florida Iced Tea,
Speaker 1: which does not put its price on the can, because
Speaker 1: those numbers are critical race theory. And you know, like
Speaker 1: it's so rare to see a company that's just like,
Speaker 1: you know what, we make enough money, Yeah, we don't
Speaker 1: need our customers to suffer. I bet Snapple could do
Speaker 1: that too. I didn't waste so much money researching those
Speaker 1: dumb facts. I'm here to fill my body with a
Speaker 1: month's worth of sugar, not to learn put information on
Speaker 1: the inside. I gotta sugar higher. And let me tell
Speaker 1: you something. If this Arizona Iced Tea company can do this,
Speaker 1: then a company like Amazon has no excuse. Yeah. In fact,
Speaker 1: you know what I think, You know what I think.
Speaker 1: I think we should all boycott Amazon. Yeah, and only order,
Speaker 1: only order like three things and they instead of five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: make that feel the pay And obviously if you need something,
Speaker 1: if you need something, you should still order it. I mean,
Speaker 1: no matter what, Like no, I mean there's no need
Speaker 1: to run out of like bubble bubb bombs. That goes
Speaker 1: without saying. But aside from that total boycott of more
Speaker 1: than three things per day, yeah, I should put activists
Speaker 1: in my bio all right, And finally, this was a
Speaker 1: big weekend, a really big weekend for a lot of
Speaker 1: people all over the world, because you see, you had Easter, Passover,
Speaker 1: and Ramadan all at the same time. It was basically
Speaker 1: the Coachella of religion. And if you celebrate Easter, you
Speaker 1: probably know that it marks the end of length Affords Day,
Speaker 1: period when many Christians give up a personal pleasure or
Speaker 1: a luxury as a form of spiritual devotion. And typically
Speaker 1: people who observe lent like they give up something like
Speaker 1: sweets or alcohol. But this year one church came up
Speaker 1: with a much more innovative form of sacrifice. Church in
Speaker 1: Illinois fasting from whiteness to observe lent. Lent, of course,
Speaker 1: a Christian tradition that involves giving up something for forty
Speaker 1: days ahead of Easter, and First United Church of Oak
Speaker 1: Park chose to give up white music, meaning they aren't
Speaker 1: playing any music written by white people. The church released
Speaker 1: a statement saying that the goal was to lay aside
Speaker 1: usual frames of reference and open the Florida voices of
Speaker 1: black people, indigenous people, and people of color. This has
Speaker 1: been a season of the best church that I can remember.
Speaker 1: You can see these feess like the best ever of
Speaker 1: that's right, reverend. Of course this was the best season.
Speaker 1: You guys were rocking out to black music this whole time.
Speaker 1: Of course it wasn't. Yo. What seems like a more
Speaker 1: fun church service this this? See? Do you feel the
Speaker 1: spirit right now? You know they say they're doing this
Speaker 1: for lent, but you realize now that they have discovered this,
Speaker 1: they don't have to go back to boring songs, right, No,
Speaker 1: you don't have to. They said it was the best.
Speaker 1: The reverend said, this is the best service they could remember,
Speaker 1: So why change it? Make all your music black music? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, just be careful, though, just be careful. Not
Speaker 1: every black song works in church. Gobbled Me, Swanno Me,
Speaker 1: You're Gone, the side of Me, Wop wop wop wop school. See.
Speaker 1: And while we're talking about church music, there's a video
Speaker 1: you probably saw it that went viral this weekend. Right.
Speaker 1: It's of a youth pasta who's on a flight and
Speaker 1: he decided, with like I guess, his band members, to
Speaker 1: surprise everyone on the flight with an impromptu performance. This
Speaker 1: in flight video is getting a lot of attention on
Speaker 1: social media, with commenters wondering if other passengers were okay
Speaker 1: with the performance. Watch this. A youth pastor shared this
Speaker 1: video of a group of people singing Christian songs earlier
Speaker 1: this month, obviously on a plane. Of course, everybody zeroed
Speaker 1: in on this one dude. Let man, oh man, that
Speaker 1: dude was not having a good time. Do you see
Speaker 1: his face. That's the look of someone thinking, where has
Speaker 1: been latting when you need him? Oh Man. He's not
Speaker 1: the only one who felt that way. A lot of
Speaker 1: people online are saying that it is inappropriate for a
Speaker 1: group to randomly start playing music in the middle of
Speaker 1: a flight, and some people, some people were even more
Speaker 1: angry that it was religious music. They're saying, you can't
Speaker 1: do that, you can't just bring religion for everybody on
Speaker 1: the plane. But guys, honestly, in my opinion, I think
Speaker 1: the most logical place for religious songs is on a plane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't care who you are. That's why you need God,
Speaker 1: Because who the hell knows how to fly planes? Huh?
Speaker 1: Who even knows how planes work? There's only like two
Speaker 1: people on the entire plane who know how that thing works.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, no two people if they get that real.
Speaker 1: At the same time, we're all dead gone. Yeah. On
Speaker 1: the ground, you can believe whatever you want to believe.
Speaker 1: But in the sky we're all religious, all of I
Speaker 1: don't care who you. I've seen people checking as atheists.
Speaker 1: Oh they got all the swag at the checking hound
Speaker 1: believe in God. Then in the end the right turbulence
Speaker 1: hits and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh Jesus,
Speaker 1: oh please Jesus, please Jesus please, I'll never masturbate ever again.
Speaker 1: Please please. You know who you are. All right, that's
Speaker 1: it for the headlines. But before we go to a break,
Speaker 1: let's check in on the stock market. Without very own
Speaker 1: Michael cost to everybody to seem like it's, uh, it's
Speaker 1: been crazy out there. What's going on with the markets? Dude?
Speaker 1: I am crushing the market. I mean and I am
Speaker 1: crushing the market. I got a hot tip for you,
Speaker 1: and I got a head tip for all you as well.
Speaker 1: I don't usually share it, but I hot tipped for you.
Speaker 1: But first I want to talk to you. That music
Speaker 1: on the airplane, right, I mean, how did that guy
Speaker 1: even get a full guitar back there as his carry on?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I'm not even allowed to
Speaker 1: have a six ounds bottle of Desani water and he's
Speaker 1: got a whole gun to Maybe I should start putting
Speaker 1: my water in the guitar, you know? Is that what
Speaker 1: coaches like back there? Okay, Look as a warning to everybody,
Speaker 1: we don't want what happens on the subway to start
Speaker 1: happening on the airplane. Right, People play music on the subway,
Speaker 1: We shouldn't have that on the airplane. People start breakdancing
Speaker 1: on the subway. We don't need that on the airplane.
Speaker 1: People hold the door open for their friend. You got
Speaker 1: an airplane, we're all gonna get sucked out of thirty feet.
Speaker 1: Look right. And here's the other thing about that Amazon story, Trevor, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna raise art prices. Here's an idea for Amazon.
Speaker 1: Why don't instead of delivering all our goods to each
Speaker 1: of us, put it all in one central location and
Speaker 1: then we'll all go to that central location. Okay, bring
Speaker 1: the whole family. Maybe put a movie theater there. You
Speaker 1: have different types of food and and and they would
Speaker 1: battle it out for our business. We would be like
Speaker 1: a food court, so to speak. I think that's a
Speaker 1: male a mall. That's a great name. So because because
Speaker 1: it's got a mall right there, that's why you get
Speaker 1: to sit down. I got it, I got it. It's
Speaker 1: a good name. Just tell us what's happening in the market.
Speaker 1: Look look, I'm I'm crushing the market. Okay, all right?
Speaker 1: So um now, my high school cut a lot of
Speaker 1: its math programs and math books. So to me, this
Speaker 1: is just a lot of letters on a chart. But
Speaker 1: there is something I'm seeing. You see this right here?
Speaker 1: This SNP. Okay, that means salt and pepper. All right,
Speaker 1: everyone's uses salt and pepper. Everyone's gonna continue to use
Speaker 1: salt and pepper. So I would buy SNP salt and
Speaker 1: pepper big time. There you go, chef, that's the hot tip.
Speaker 1: I'm not some money. You're welcome, Thank you, Michael. Welcome.
Speaker 1: Like I'm starting to wonder about the expertise. All right,
Speaker 1: when we come back, Ronnie Chang is gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about money. You don't want to miss its. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Daily Show. Income Tax it's the reason they
Speaker 1: threw blade in jail. Today's tax day here in the
Speaker 1: United States and the I R S deadline has Ronnie
Speaker 1: Chang thinking about America's weird relationship with money in Love
Speaker 1: installments of America. WTF. I love America. It's the only
Speaker 1: country where you can get a burger and a Lipolos
Speaker 1: section at the same drive through. But that's all. Who's
Speaker 1: also lived all around the world. I feel a responsibility
Speaker 1: to let America know that a lot of the things
Speaker 1: it does are super weird to the rest of us,
Speaker 1: and all of those things is how America does money.
Speaker 1: It's tax season, which right off the bat is a
Speaker 1: sign that something is wrong, okay, because taxes shouldn't have
Speaker 1: a whole season. Seasons are supposed to be for exciting
Speaker 1: stuff like baseball season, or wedding season or season two
Speaker 1: of Bridges and I can't wait to see which British
Speaker 1: person is jeezing on who this time. But America decided
Speaker 1: that filing taxes should be as quick and painless as
Speaker 1: getting a root canal at the DMB. I mean, you
Speaker 1: got your ten n you got your Form ten forties,
Speaker 1: you got your scheduled sees, you got your R two
Speaker 1: D twos, you got your blink one twos. You spend
Speaker 1: days trying to figure out what you owe the government,
Speaker 1: and then the government tells you if you're right, because
Speaker 1: apparently they knew the whole freaking time. It's like the
Speaker 1: world's most pointless game show, aside from the prices, right, obviously,
Speaker 1: because nobody should get a new car for knowing how
Speaker 1: much Ketchup costs. Look, I hate to break it to you, guys,
Speaker 1: but in a lot of other countries, the government does
Speaker 1: all that filing for you. Yeah, they do the math,
Speaker 1: they send your statement, and if it looks good, you're
Speaker 1: click okay, and then you're done. It's so easy a
Speaker 1: baby could do it. But they don't have to because
Speaker 1: they're lazy freeloaders who don't pay taxes. It's not just
Speaker 1: your income taxes. All taxes in America are weird. In
Speaker 1: a lot of other countries, you see a price on
Speaker 1: something and that's how much it costs, because that's the
Speaker 1: whole point of a goddamn price. But no, not in America.
Speaker 1: When you pay for something in America, they hit you
Speaker 1: with the surprise sales tax. They're basically cat fishing you.
Speaker 1: I know that six hundred dollar TV looks good, but
Speaker 1: it's lying it's six fifty and it has a secret family.
Speaker 1: But don't get me wrong, taxes are filed from America.
Speaker 1: Is only insane money issue. Okay, I know you guys
Speaker 1: are used to it, but I need you to realize
Speaker 1: that the way you tip in this country is not
Speaker 1: normal everywhere. A tip is a show of appreciation, not
Speaker 1: a go fund me for someone who doesn't earn a
Speaker 1: living wage, a way his ability to pay rent. It't
Speaker 1: depend on how generous Becky feels after three martinis. And
Speaker 1: the real issue is how arbitrary you're tipping is. You
Speaker 1: tip the guy who dedlives your food, but not the
Speaker 1: guy who delivers your packages. And you tip the person
Speaker 1: who made your coffee but not the person who made
Speaker 1: your big mac. And don't even get me started on
Speaker 1: tip jaws. Okay, you don't have to put money in,
Speaker 1: but if you do, you gotta make a big show
Speaker 1: of it. I like to shoot my cash into the
Speaker 1: jaw like a basketball or shouting he tips, he scores.
Speaker 1: If you can get off the cashier, they usually notice.
Speaker 1: But as weird as taxes and tipping are in America,
Speaker 1: let's not forget about the actual money itself. Because American
Speaker 1: physical currency sucks. I don't know if you know this,
Speaker 1: but in other countries, every denomination is a different size
Speaker 1: because it makes it easier to tell them a part,
Speaker 1: especially if you're blind. But apparently blind people don't need
Speaker 1: to use money in America because look at this ship,
Speaker 1: simonsac size all of it. You gotta look over each individual,
Speaker 1: build a figure out which slave owner the handover. And
Speaker 1: while we're talking about your strange money, who decided a pyramid?
Speaker 1: For freaking I was a normal thing to put on
Speaker 1: the dollar? Hey, rule a thumb, America. If Nick Cage
Speaker 1: can make a movie about your money, you're doing it wrong.
Speaker 1: Not to mention the pennies, Like why did these still
Speaker 1: exist when everyone's just trying to get rid of them?
Speaker 1: Even convenience stores have that take a penny, leave a
Speaker 1: penny dish. It's like an animal shelter for unwanted money.
Speaker 1: Did you know that America actually loses money making pennies.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna have a hobby that loses your money,
Speaker 1: get a gambling addiction like a normal person. Okay, listen,
Speaker 1: your whole financial system stupid and I hate it all right,
Speaker 1: the money, the tipping, the taxes. That's why I found
Speaker 1: a way to avoid dealing with it all together, all right.
Speaker 1: The secret is they can't tax you if they don't
Speaker 1: know you have it oh so much easier robbing a
Speaker 1: bank in Europe. Thank you so much for that, Ronnie Chang.
Speaker 1: All right, when we come back, the one and only
Speaker 1: iconic Janelle Monae is hunning up on the show's so Yeah,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Day Show. My guest tonight is
Speaker 1: Grammy nominatord artist, actor and author Janelle Money. She's here
Speaker 1: to talk about her debut book, The Memory Librarian. Please
Speaker 1: welcome Janelle Monet. Welcome back to the Daily Show. Wow,
Speaker 1: That's what I said every time I see you. This
Speaker 1: is huge, this is fun, this is fun. We're back
Speaker 1: you know the people, and I'm happy to have you
Speaker 1: here because, like when I talked to you over Zoom,
Speaker 1: I don't get like for those who don't know Jenelle,
Speaker 1: when I always looks like this, like just always know
Speaker 1: you are easily one of the most like glamorous, stylish
Speaker 1: people I have ever come across in my life. Like
Speaker 1: you looked like how we're just supposed to dress as
Speaker 1: a thing. You are so kind. I totally paid him
Speaker 1: to say, you know, we're in the pandemic. He was
Speaker 1: trying to make some extra money. I was my side.
Speaker 1: Hustle was complimenting Genee Money. Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: How how is life? How's how's everything treating it? Because
Speaker 1: you are one of the few people I know who
Speaker 1: just seems to excel in everything you do. Music, you excel,
Speaker 1: and it's your own type of music, it's your own vibe.
Speaker 1: It's different. It's not easy. You know. In the movies
Speaker 1: you excel everything hidden figures. I mean, now you're gonna
Speaker 1: be in The New Knives out. It's just like your
Speaker 1: life is a dream. And now a book that's already
Speaker 1: got start reviews, Well, tell it to my therapist because clearly,
Speaker 1: clearly there's a lot of things that I have to
Speaker 1: fix according to them. Um, I'm amazing. Yeah, I'm amazing, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that. And I would say this. I
Speaker 1: used to kind of just say that, you know, because
Speaker 1: is it how are you doing? What I'm doing? Great?
Speaker 1: How you do? But I am doing I am like
Speaker 1: in the most I don't have to prove anything space
Speaker 1: that I've ever been in in my life. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: And it took me a while to get there because
Speaker 1: you know, as public people, we try to inspire people
Speaker 1: with our words. But I don't feel like I was
Speaker 1: really living what I was saying. Oh, I like that.
Speaker 1: I wasn't really believing in it myself. I was saying
Speaker 1: it it was hell other people. But I had to
Speaker 1: do some deep healing during the pandemic. I was dealing
Speaker 1: with a lot of rejection and abandonment issues just from
Speaker 1: like my childhood, things that I had just kind of
Speaker 1: kept in me, and they were just coming to the service.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that the pandemic
Speaker 1: has done is forced us all to go in state. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I'm I'm at this place where like I'm
Speaker 1: ready to celebrate. If we're not talking about vacations, I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk. If we're not planning a vacation,
Speaker 1: I don't It's just like, what are we doing. We
Speaker 1: are supposed to be living our best lives. I'm young,
Speaker 1: I'm creative, No, seriously, like we're supposed to be living
Speaker 1: our Earth's experience in the best possible way. And I
Speaker 1: think when I first started my career, I was really serious,
Speaker 1: like I have to prove a point. I have to
Speaker 1: prove that just because I looked like this, I could
Speaker 1: do this type of news music, I can, I can
Speaker 1: say these things. I can talk about science fiction. I
Speaker 1: had a lot to prove um, but now man, I'm floating.
Speaker 1: We feel it. I love that. What's beautiful, you know
Speaker 1: what it's It's interesting because you start to feel that
Speaker 1: with artists when they hit that groove, you know, because
Speaker 1: I think everyone goes through a phase of you have
Speaker 1: to prove you know, because that definitely because because initially
Speaker 1: you're going will I keep the job? Do I belong here?
Speaker 1: There's impostor syndrome. Over time you develop a trust yourself,
Speaker 1: the audience, your experience is. The book feels like the
Speaker 1: perfect representation of that for me because I knew that
Speaker 1: you liked science fiction, you know, I mean like you know,
Speaker 1: your your your albums for instance, your music videos. You
Speaker 1: You've never been afraid to say, like I I like
Speaker 1: science fiction. But now you wrote a book of short
Speaker 1: stories and I was like, oh no, Jennelman loves science fiction.
Speaker 1: Could you co wrote with with some amazing authors. Let's
Speaker 1: let's start with that. How did you even begin this
Speaker 1: process of going, you know what, I want to write
Speaker 1: like a future book? So this um short story collection
Speaker 1: is from the soul oil of Dirty Computer, my album
Speaker 1: that came out and I released a film with that,
Speaker 1: and I knew I had more to say. Sat down
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Excuse me, look at me. Don't even know
Speaker 1: how dates. I'm from the future. Sorry, I sat down
Speaker 1: in the pandemic and I finally said that there's more.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, I was on mushrooms and I
Speaker 1: just came up with all of these thought experiments, you
Speaker 1: know where I was like, what if there was this
Speaker 1: black woman, she was the memory keeper of the city.
Speaker 1: She knew all of the people's memories before they were cleaned,
Speaker 1: before their identities were wiped clean, and she wants to
Speaker 1: fall in love. What does that mean? When you want
Speaker 1: to fall in love but you know everybody's secrets? That
Speaker 1: the one does that mean? So that's the first one
Speaker 1: is called the memory the first imagine that. First you
Speaker 1: already like first story, Yeah, and then and then what
Speaker 1: if you live in New York and there was a
Speaker 1: room that you could go into you didn't even know existed,
Speaker 1: but when you went into this room, time stopped. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so you could it kind of speaks to time poverty,
Speaker 1: since you know, black and brown folks, we've been spending
Speaker 1: our life fighting right to be included all these things.
Speaker 1: What if you had an opportunity to steal time to
Speaker 1: get time back? Would you rest? Would you show the
Speaker 1: community this place? How? How would you if you could
Speaker 1: get time back? How would you use it? I love
Speaker 1: how you've used the stories in the book to delve
Speaker 1: into topics that sometimes are too dense or to like,
Speaker 1: you know, they fraught with politics and they don't let
Speaker 1: us just think about them. For instance, the first story
Speaker 1: you talked about, it's in the future. This is woman,
Speaker 1: She's got all these memories. How does she trust people?
Speaker 1: How does she know people? Or I found myself thinking
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I feel like that's what social
Speaker 1: media is slowly slipping us into. Is people have now
Speaker 1: lived the entire life online. Now in a generation where
Speaker 1: people have gone from my baby steps all the way through,
Speaker 1: I have existed online. So now do I have any anonymity?
Speaker 1: Can I? Can I write my own story without other
Speaker 1: people writing it from my posts? Yeah? I mean I
Speaker 1: think that. You know, social media is a virtual reality.
Speaker 1: It's a whole another world. Like people create and we
Speaker 1: curate the type of people that we are. I think
Speaker 1: being human, in my opinion, is performative. I'm performing a
Speaker 1: version of what I think Janelle on a should be.
Speaker 1: I told you I'm from the future. So it gets deep,
Speaker 1: it gets deep. It's all feedback. We're getting feedback from
Speaker 1: how we should be, how what we've seen we didn't like.
Speaker 1: And it's like, ah, now i'm this person because of
Speaker 1: that information. But that's a whole another story. Um. I
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think that there is some gathering
Speaker 1: done there with our memories. And with this book, I'm
Speaker 1: just challenging everybody to be their own memory librarian. Like
Speaker 1: I started to look at my life and I started
Speaker 1: to think about, man I was I didn't, I wasn't
Speaker 1: in the moment in so any ways, I was so
Speaker 1: in the future here for like the majority of my career,
Speaker 1: I was in the future. And so how can I
Speaker 1: create memories now? Like our memories are the things that
Speaker 1: determine the quality of our life. Without them, who are we?
Speaker 1: You know, when you take away somebody's identity and who
Speaker 1: they are, it's just like that that was their life's experience,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And I want to shout out Elijah
Speaker 1: Don Johnson. I wrote The Memory Librarian with her, and
Speaker 1: I wrote this this entire collection, each short story I
Speaker 1: partnered with a writer that I friends who were writers,
Speaker 1: because I knew, like, okay, with there's a story called
Speaker 1: never Mind and there is uh an incredible writer by
Speaker 1: the name of Danny Lore and non binary, and they
Speaker 1: are just really really good when it comes to action,
Speaker 1: Like they're doing some stuff with this James H. Bond
Speaker 1: graphic novel and I was like, Okay, Danny would be
Speaker 1: great for that. And then Eve l Ewing of the
Speaker 1: Time Box with um Shari Renee Thomas. I did Timebox
Speaker 1: Altered with Johanka Delgado. I did Save Changes. Imagine if
Speaker 1: you could go back and there was this device and
Speaker 1: you wanted to just like, I don't want to give
Speaker 1: too much away, but these stories are just incredible. And then, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I said, Alia down, John said, I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure I shout them out because this
Speaker 1: is a super innovative way of releasing a book. It
Speaker 1: really is. You know, you know what I enjoyed about
Speaker 1: it is when you go from story to story, what
Speaker 1: you've done is there is the common thread of Janelle Money.
Speaker 1: I can feel the future you in all these stories
Speaker 1: and the way you think. But then it's infused with
Speaker 1: like different elements from all of the different writes, you know,
Speaker 1: if you if you know Eve's writing and her style,
Speaker 1: you can feel it in some of the dialogue and
Speaker 1: some of the moments. If you know, the author becomes
Speaker 1: so it's almost like you've created the first book that
Speaker 1: has like features on it. Yeah, it's like a it's
Speaker 1: like a compilation, it's like a mixtape. It's phenomenal. So
Speaker 1: they feel so different from story to story, and yet
Speaker 1: they have a common thread. I can see why it's
Speaker 1: getting rave reviews. I can see like, now the question
Speaker 1: is are you going to turn this into I know
Speaker 1: it started with the album that's a movie, and then
Speaker 1: now there's a book. But now this book seems like
Speaker 1: it's begging to be turned into a TV show. You
Speaker 1: think so? Do you think it could be a TV show?
Speaker 1: Every time I was reading this, I was like, Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: everybody watching, listen, I'm gonna do it. We need to
Speaker 1: make you look, let's make it. We're gonna make it happen.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, you have to everybody. Copper We
Speaker 1: Live Hearing will be available April nineteen. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: a quick break, but we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 1: We'll us our shot to Tike, Thank you so much
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