WEBVTT - David Itzkoff 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Hello, this is Craig Ferguson letting you know that I 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:05.960 am bringing the Fancy Rascal Tour to the Majestic Southwest 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:10.280 this weekend October seventh at the Wild Horse Pass Hotel 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.119 and Casino and Chandler Arizona. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:14.040 Which is in the Phoenix area. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:19.960 October the eighth at the Fox Tucson Theater and Tucson, Arizona. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.000 Which is in the Tucson area. 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.400 For tickets, go to my website, the Craig Ferguson Show 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:28.400 dot com slash sure. My name is Craig Ferguson. The 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.000 name of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interest 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:40.560 in people about what brings them happiness. Meet David Itzkoff, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.800 former culture reporter for The New York Times and now 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:49.400 just culture writer for anybody, including the New York Times. 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.080 It's very clever about the culture. 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.840 I feel like if we'd have got a second season 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.080 The Joiner Die, I've been worth watching. 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:02.880 But we were talking. 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:07.040 About how fourmats can lead you astray. Yes, and I 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.559 did a show call Join or Die after I finished 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.720 in the Late Night, which was which you were openly laughing 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:16.000 at just seconds ago. 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.720 I'm laughing at everything you do sometimes for the right reasons, 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:19.479 sometimes for. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.240 The wrong reasons. How are you, pal, I'm good. 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.240 I'm really flattered that you invited me to your little 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:25.160 chess competition. 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.680 My booth, yes, yeah, this is a booth what we do. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.600 But it's a podcast booth. Yes, I take it with 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.600 me around the country, my little booth. 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:38.720 I set it up. Nine of you. Not always luminaries 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.200 like the Culture. Are you the editor? Yeah, the New 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:42.759 York Times. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:43.959 You know, it's an interesting thing. 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.839 I am departed in the fall so that I could 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:48.560 focus on a book project. 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.080 I still write for them. I still write for other publications. 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.480 You're not actually on the payroll anymore. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.760 No, No, it was a big step and been almost 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:57.480 a year now. 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.720 You're a Republican. No, that is that what it is. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.640 It's like I no longer write for The New York 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:04.600 Times and. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:06.520 I can let my freak flags. 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.720 Yeah, but that's interesting because I think of you as 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:10.840 a New York Times guy. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:11.519 Thank you. 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:12.320 I appreciate that. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.600 I think it's it's something that will always be in 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.000 my blood. The tattoo is not coming off, for whatever 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.359 reason you have I have I do have a tattoo. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.359 You know why. You're gonna remember when I explained this 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:25.680 to you. 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.080 One of my tattoos is of sid Vicious, because you 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.360 were kind enough to introduce me to Steve Jones on 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.160 like the best day of my life. 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.640 You know, I have to say, I've known Johnsy for 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.480 a long time, and if meeting Joones is the best 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.800 day of your life, we really have to help you because. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.760 He's like, do you know what? Do you know why? 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.480 The last time I saw Yeah, we were talking about 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:54.080 the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, and he said to me, oh, yeah, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:55.519 so so Bohemian Raps. 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.480 Apparently Freddie Murky was really nice. Blog. I had no idea. 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.840 I must have went by me that it. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.720 Oh man, if I could have heard him say that live, 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:07.080 I think I would have just I would have just 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:07.919 fallen on the floor. 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:08.760 It's very funny. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.120 Have you do you still listen to Jones's Yes, yeah, 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:12.840 he's great. 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:13.600 I love him. 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.720 I just it's wild to me that like that's almost 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.000 more of his identity now than like being I mean, yes, 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.200 he'll always have his role in punk rock, but Especials. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.600 Is a pretty decent band, and to create the guitar 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:30.960 sound that he did, he really did. 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.919 But he's like an elder statesman too, and he's got 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.320 all this uh, you know, institutional knowledge and he dispenses 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:40.640 it to the next generation. That's such a fun like 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.560 that's clearly not what he imagined himself doing. 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.160 It's weird he got when I did started doing the 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.680 Puppets on Late Night. It was from Jow and Esy 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.120 because I was listening. I was driving to work one 0:03:54.200 --> 0:04:01.760 day at school. Tribes of exhibt like, fucking CBS, get. 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.480 In there, mister Ferguson and do your podcast. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:06.960 Oh no, what's the podcast? Then? What was it? Yeah, 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.839 to talk to those celebrities. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:10.720 It was like a podcast with pictures. 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.760 It kind of was badly lit podcast, but the I 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:16.320 was on the way driving it work one day and 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.120 I was listening to Jones's Jukebox, which is Steve Jones's 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:25.320 radio show in LA and he played Frank Ifield singing 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.920 she taught me to Yodel, which is a song from 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.280 the nineteen I guess nineteen fifties that she taught me 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:37.159 to yodel, And I thought, my god, that is so 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.400 messed up. Yeah, I'm going to put that on the 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.880 show tonight. And I did. I put it on the 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.400 show that night and I lett sync to it with 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.159 a puppet and anyway, that was about me. So listen, 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.480 what's the book project that you quit your definitely DC job. 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:53.839 I knew this was going to happen. 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.440 I'm kind of keeping it under wraps and it'll be 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.960 out in the world about a year from now, and 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:01.760 at that time. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:02.560 You don't want to talk about it. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.840 Yeah, I'm just you know, for various reasons. I'm also 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.320 a little superstitious, and you know, it's it's suffice to 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.920 say it was a very cool opportunity and like, I 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:15.440 just couldn't pass it up. 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:17.719 All right, Hold on a second, here's the clue that 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.480 came in that you're a little superstitious. Yeah, is it 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.799 superstitious or OCD? No, I don't think it's OCD. 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.039 But if you want to call it anxiety. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.320 Anxiety, Yeah, why are you anxious? You? 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.520 I mean you wrote I mean the first book that 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.120 I think was the first book you wrote, Cocaine's Son. 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.080 That was one of the first. Yeah, that was. But yes, 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:38.320 you were the first one I read. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.000 Yes, thank you, right, Yeah, you're kind to support me 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:42.240 in that era. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.880 Well, listen, if you were writing a book about being 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.760 raised by a cocaine addicted father. I felt like, given 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.920 the way that I had lived read about the same time, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.120 I felt it was only how are things going in 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:54.800 that department? 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:55.080 Now? 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.880 Well, you know, I mean, my dad passed away in 0:05:57.960 --> 0:05:59.440 twenty nineteen, but I have a. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:01.200 Very sad to hear that. 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.240 That's okay, I appreciate that. But he you know, my 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.000 son is eight and a half. And it's interesting because 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.120 you know, I mean, of course, like I have copies 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:11.960 of the book, you know, not like prominently displayed in 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.680 the household, but on like the family. You know, I 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:16.560 have like a bookshelf in my own room with some 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.320 of my books on it. And he, you know, for 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.160 many years, you know, he my son would walk past 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.000 the bookshelf and he would just know that those were 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.200 books of mine and had no curiosity about them. And 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:29.120 now little by little he can, like he can read 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.960 the titles on the spines, but he keeps passing that 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.920 and he thinks that the title is Canine's Son. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:36.880 And I don't. 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.400 Good idea for kids, but good idea. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:49.840 Here comes the franchise, the heartwarming story Raised by a Dog. 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.200 He became the culture reporter on the New York Times, so. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.000 He doesn't know, you know what, and first of all, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.080 he doesn't know what it really says, and he doesn't 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.680 know why. Yeah, I'm not saying that he should in 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.320 any way follow the trajectory that I did. But I 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.680 learned about my dad's addiction when I was ten, I 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.640 want to say, like, that's when it was made explicit 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.239 to me, and of course I had many other clues 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:16.760 before that. 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.720 Well, yeah, but your your son's having a very different experience. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.920 I sure hope. So yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:23.840 you know, yes it. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.400 One side effect or impact of having the upbringing that 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.320 I did is that I want to be dedicated to 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.880 him in every way possible, and it wounds me terribly 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.160 if I ever feel like I miss any kind of 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.160 you know, transitional moment in his life, or just even 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:43.680 a day that he wants me to come to school 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:45.800 to see something and oh I already had a commitment 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.600 that day, and I can't make it like it's awful 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:49.640 in the heart. 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:51.320 Yeah, I feel exactly the same. 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.520 My kids are getting older enough, so it's they're a 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.480 bit more kind of like, yeah, all right, it's okay. 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.800 Yeah, I'm on a date. I really don't need you 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.160 to be here. You don't need to be two roars 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:05.080 back at the theater. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.880 Yeah, that's right, but it is It's kind of is 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.840 an odd thing because are you a helicoptery parent? 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:12.840 Do you think? No? 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.120 I mean, I will let him give me the assessment 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.800 at some point, but I feel like I'm probably way 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.800 like I'm probably more neurotic about it and more like 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.000 tunnel focused on it than I need to be. I 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.640 think about how, even in the right ways that I 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.080 was raised growing up. You know, my parents gave me 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.080 a lot of latitude, and like, you know, I was 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.840 already writing public transportation in New York City probably by 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:36.040 the age of ten. 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:38.520 Yes see, that's not great though. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.200 I don't know that, you know. I mean, I can't 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.200 say good or ill. But that was how kids of 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.240 my generation. I mean, we were all latchkey kids. That 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.360 part was terrible, right. I don't think that that really 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.920 had any positive impact on us. But the amount of 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.640 just you know, trust and independence that we were offered 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.959 that I find like I can't even fathom it. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:02.200 I can't think about myself. 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.000 I'm trying to think of how old he's going to 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.079 be when he's allowed to cross the street by himself 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.280 could be age fifteen at this rate. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:09.800 I for my oldest boy. 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.720 I let him get on an airplane to cross the 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.520 Atlantic to see his grandpa when he was fifteen, wow, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.160 and I took him all the way. It was in glass. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.000 We were in Scotland and I went to the airport 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.360 and the lady said, you're not allowed to come behind 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.959 the barrier while I asked him the security questions. I said, 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.440 he's fifteen. She said, yes, but you can't. You can't 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.400 come behind the barrier. So there was a barrier between 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.960 me and him, like it's just like a piece of rope. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.520 So I stood right next to him and there was 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:39.880 a rope. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.439 She was asking him questions and she kept looking me, saying, 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.760 you have to maintain a distance. I'm I'm not letting 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.839 you take my kid away. And it was igo ugly. 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.760 They saw you like signaling with semaphore flag because they said, 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:53.200 none of that. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.080 We're thinking because he's fifteen, I'm embarrassing him. You know, 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:58.840 he's like dad. For God's sake. 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:00.719 Well did they think that you're going I give him 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:02.520 hints on the questions or something? 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:02.719 I know? 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.040 So they're saying, you know, did anyone pack your bags 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:13.000 for you and go, yeah, my mom, it's crazy anyway. 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:14.200 So here's the thing. 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.280 You're raising your boy now, but it's making you think 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.439 about your own childhood deliver because that's what happened to 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:20.720 me when I when my. 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.440 Boys were young. I was like, oh God. And it 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:24.600 goes back and you think back. 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:29.520 Does it help you in your perspective about your father's 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.000 problems back then? Do you do you find yourself more 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.720 or less forgiving? Do you have you have you changed 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:36.520 your perspective since the writing of the book. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:40.640 Yeah, I mean I probably not for the better, I 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.720 would have to say. You know, it's a tough thing 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.479 to reckon with, but I think I'm probably less forgiving 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:54.200 when I find myself doing just commonplace everyday dad type things. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.440 I get it literally get up in the morning and 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.679 make pancakes for my son. Right, I try to think 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.760 about would my dad have ever done this for me? 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.640 Maybe it has still been awake, but no, if. 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:08.800 He was in the apartment at all. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.600 So yeah, I mean it's it's I know it's not 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:25.000 healthy and it's not great. The pancakes are healthy and great, but. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.400 But there is a kind of nostalgia because you're a 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.040 culture guy, right, and your you report and comment and 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:32.000 investigate artistic journeys that we make as a society. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.320 Thank you, assessing men, I'm assessing you that very very lofty, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:36.800 but thank you. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:37.160 Right. 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.480 Well, you know it's I give you a little more 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.439 greens because you used to work for the. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:42.280 New York Times. 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:44.920 I can I get that for like maybe one more 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:46.880 year and the glow is gone. I get it. 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.479 But but the thing is, there's a lot of nostalgia 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.880 now for that time, that kind of stranger things type, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.800 you know, nostalgia for that period when you were little, 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:58.600 and I'm like. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:11:59.920 It wasn't so great. 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.000 Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.560 I mean, I'm trying to remember the James Gray movie 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.640 that came out last year, Armageddon Time, which was set 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.160 in New York, like right at the turn of nineteen 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.880 eighty and the kid, you know, growing up in one 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:15.720 of the outer boroughs. 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.559 I think I'm pretty sure it was Brooklyn, and you know. 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:22.720 Has a fairly like placid family life, like no you know, 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:27.360 no drug abuse, no conflict of like that degree. But 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.440 also I thought was very good at illustrating like just 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.600 the sort of the vibe of being an eighties kid 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.720 in New York and the challenges that probably anybody would 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.640 have faced growing up in the way that it would 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.959 have impacted. Yeah, I mean I I found myself kind 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.959 of yearning for that also of how like, yeah, I 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.319 mean you see the family conflict and the struggles that 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:48.719 the kid goes through, and I was like, damn, I 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.960 wish I was back there right now, right well as 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:52.920 messy as it was. 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.160 Wow, I get that. But I see, this is my theory. 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.680 But I have a theory belt low thing. This is 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.839 my theory. But when people get nostalgic for that kind 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.480 of thing, you're not really nostalgic for the time. You're 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.880 just nostalgic for being young, when your body worked differently, 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.320 when you know, when it was all in front of you. Yeah, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.559 and things were a little different because you know, when 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.920 I look back on I don't get nostalgic for Glasgow 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:25.480 in the nineteen seventies, say, I don't think anyone would 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.319 get nostalgic for that. But I in a way, yeah, yeah, 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.880 because you go, well, and when you hear particularly old comedians, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.800 right as I what back in the day, you know 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.760 way used to what you know, it was terrible, it 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:38.560 was terrible. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:39.360 Back in the day. 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.520 It's you know, and it's so interesting because like, sure, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.920 if I could like wave a wand or hop in 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.200 a time machine and see the Glasgow of your like youth. 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:49.160 Of course I would like. 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.240 I'm all I can imagine is like the grittiness and 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.400 the coolness. And I'm sure it wasn't any of those 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:55.240 things that I know. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:57.680 There was grittiness, and there was the coolness was so 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.360 it wasn't cool. I mean, but I lived in the 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.040 Lower east Side of Manhattan nineteen eighty four, right now. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.400 Maybe we crossed paths. Well let's see you boy aged 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.080 were you then? Well I would have been eight, yeah, and. 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.160 I would have been twenty, so that would have been 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:20.480 bad time. I feel like though I didn't see anyone 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.440 eight years old and the lower you know, I lived 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.440 just next to Tompkins Square Park, and I don't think 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.160 there were any children. There shouldn't have been any children 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:31.640 within about a mile. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:32.040 Of that park. 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:36.800 Then you see that park now and it's very you know, 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.000 it's mom and pop and young families. 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:40.600 And young rich families. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.520 Yes, and I think this is a weird thing because 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:49.120 it wasn't so hot then. But I kind of feel 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.840 it's missing something a little bit because of all that 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.800 danger is going away, and it's not really, it's not 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.360 missing anything, but I feel like it's just because I'm older. 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.960 Yeah, yeah, it's interesting because my wife and I before 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.240 we got married, we were living in that neighborhood, but 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.440 like early two thousands, we were living on like eleventh 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.560 in A and fourteenth in A. And you're right, I 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.120 mean that all of that the park was, you know, 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.680 as as tranquil and safe as could be. 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.200 But like we remember when like. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.920 The first seven eleven moved into the neighborhood or like 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.840 on our corner, when like they started building like a 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.160 Target department store, and that, like to us, that was 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:27.320 like the end of. 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.120 The end of the neighborhood. Yes, that's funny. 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:31.840 Now when they got rid of like the drugs and 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.080 the crime, but like when the you know, the the 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:34.920 brand names. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.440 I remember the corner of eleventh in A. 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.520 I bought cocaine off a guy who in the corner 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:43.440 there once. It's the only time I ever actually bought 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.040 cocaine on the street, because most of the time you'd 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:48.640 buy it from someone like, hey, does this guy stuff 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:50.560 like that? And I bought cocaine on the corner. It's 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.920 the only time I bought a drug and it absolutely 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.040 didn't work right. It was Saul or something. I was like, 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:00.040 oh my god, this is outrageous, and I was so 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.480 I was so annoyed, and and I went back to 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.239 complain to him, but he wasn't there, which. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.680 I'm very very happy about now that he wasn't there. 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.240 So you asked for his manager. 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.680 I was like, I want to see your supervisor because 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:15.480 it's awful. 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.080 This cocaine is so far. 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.280 Well on behalf of the industry. Let me please take 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.200 this up opportunity to apologize. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.800 Well, that's fine, you're not in the cocaine distribution industry. Yeah, no, no, 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.680 Hello everybody, this is Craig Ferguson letting you know that 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.960 my Fancy Rascal Tour continues throughout the fall of twenty 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.200 twenty three. For a full list of dates and tickets, 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.200 please go to my website, the Craig Ferguson Show dot 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:53.960 com slash Tour. So listen the culture and I'm sure 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.320 you asked this a lot, but culture is changing, is 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:57.520 evolving very rapidly. 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:58.440 It certainly is. 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.480 And do you find yourself. 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.359 Being wary when even reporting on things, because you know, 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.600 it's I speak with some experience, it is quite easy 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.960 to trip over your feet and get into trouble right now. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.760 Yeah, yeah, well, I mean I think in a very 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.000 sort of weird way, I feel like almost a kind 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.320 of relief that I'm not reporting, let's say, on this 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:24.959 sort of the day to day of you know, like 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.680 the sag Aftra and writers strike or even really you know, 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.399 I mean, just this is this is by no means 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.399 the sort of most important aspect of it. But it 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.040 has had a trickle down effect even on the coverage 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.520 of culture that somebody who was in my position a 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.280 year ago, I wouldn't. You can't get access to the 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.800 people that you need to tell your stories. You can't 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.200 write a kind of you can't write a general celebrity 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:56.200 profile really because the vast majority of them are on strike, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.880 right so, you know, but just I think the way 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.240 that the strike itself is written about, and you know, 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.919 I think there's rightfully so so much you know, I 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.000 think sympathy and understanding of what it is that the 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.320 actors and the writers are on strike for. You know, 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:14.880 I think about if I were writing a New York 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.960 Times story of course, you have to include all voices 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:19.480 you would have if you. 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.159 Talk to see there's your problem. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:22.840 Yeah, you start to get if you. 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.200 Include all voices in any piece at all. 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:28.400 Now that I feel. 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:33.080 Is a shift in cultural reporting, because it is dangerous 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:38.680 to include a contrary or opposing position. Particularly Oh look, 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:40.520 I don't want to single out the New York Times. No, 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.639 it's no worse or better than anyone else, but it 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:48.399 seems to take an editorial position that would imply no, 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:50.040 I don't know if this is said. I know nothing 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:51.680 about the inner workings of the time, so I don't 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:53.040 know if anybody ever says. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.800 We don't want to give those guys a platform. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.560 Screw those guys, right, But it is a newspaper and 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:00.840 you are kind of meant to, aren't you as a journalist. 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:02.800