Speaker 1: M how many things are different since we met, since
Speaker 1: before the pandemic, how my life has changed, and how
Speaker 1: a lot of people's life and how things that you
Speaker 1: didn't realize were so important really the important thing, right,
Speaker 1: it's not just your career, and it's not just you know,
Speaker 1: how you show up at work. It's just it's really
Speaker 1: the words that come out of your mouth and how
Speaker 1: you live your life. I'm so excited to talk to
Speaker 1: Amy Snyder. I can't even tell you. I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about this all day, all week. I can't believe she
Speaker 1: said yes. And uh, I have so many questions for her.
Speaker 1: I know you you have answers for her. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna we should do the entire interview and answer
Speaker 1: format that's very funny, and see if she can come
Speaker 1: up with the questions that we are giving her the
Speaker 1: answers to. I bet she can. Yeah. You know, when
Speaker 1: I first saw Amy on the show, I didn't think
Speaker 1: about it. I just thought about who is this person
Speaker 1: that is winning every single night? I mean, she's literally
Speaker 1: a human Google. Yeah. She always made that face like
Speaker 1: she didn't know what she was doing or she didn't
Speaker 1: know the answer, and she pulled it out how would
Speaker 1: she know these things? But she did, so you know
Speaker 1: how I actually got to her is I followed her
Speaker 1: on Instagram, and as only I would, I DMed her
Speaker 1: and said can I send you some Jones Road? And
Speaker 1: she answered me and gave me her address and that
Speaker 1: was cool. And when she lost it was a shocker.
Speaker 1: And you know, I just checked in to see how
Speaker 1: she was doing, and it's not the same without her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I have to admit I can't watch Jeopardy
Speaker 1: because it really stresses me out for the combatitors, and
Speaker 1: also because there's nothing in the world that will make
Speaker 1: me feel more dumb and watching Jeopardy because I don't
Speaker 1: think I ever know other questions. I never ever ever
Speaker 1: know them or the answers. You might know that I'm
Speaker 1: really good at the popular one ye any like seventy eighties,
Speaker 1: you know, television, pop culture music, I'm on those. But
Speaker 1: everything else, like, I have no idea bridges in India,
Speaker 1: I don't know how do you know those things? Rivers bridges? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I might have been to get a couple of those. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those you can get, you know, I think I can
Speaker 1: get the Kulaski Skyway or whatever that is that's about
Speaker 1: it exactly. So stay tuned everyone. Here's our conversation with
Speaker 1: Amy Snyder. Hi. Amy, it's Bobby, so nice to meet you. Likewise,
Speaker 1: I know it's crazy and a Julie have you. This
Speaker 1: is my co host, a Julie Hill. It is such
Speaker 1: an honor to meet you. I have so many answers
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, not me, I only have questions. But
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say I was telling these guys
Speaker 1: earlier that I've I've interviewed so many well known people
Speaker 1: and so many you know, like just people that you'd
Speaker 1: be like, wow, you got to talk to them. But
Speaker 1: I'm overly excited to talk to you. And people cannot
Speaker 1: believe that I actually connected with you and you're going
Speaker 1: to be on this podcast. So I'm really excited. Bobby
Speaker 1: slid into your d M as the kids would say,
Speaker 1: yeah I did, I did, and I was you know
Speaker 1: when when I first like said, can I send you makeup?
Speaker 1: I mean you must get all these weird d M s. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the weirdest. What I think was that we
Speaker 1: just got like new tell Us and us something New
Speaker 1: tell Us and it was just like, you know, fine,
Speaker 1: happy enough to get it. But like, why did you
Speaker 1: do that? I mean, that's an awesome gift. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know how it works. There's some cool person sitting
Speaker 1: on the influencers side didn't tell us, said oh, that'd
Speaker 1: be so cool if Amy you know, shouts it out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, uh well, I'm it's just first of all,
Speaker 1: we were also talking about how much fun we're not
Speaker 1: having watching the show without and I know you've heard
Speaker 1: that from a lot of people. I certainly have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like, come on, everybody, let's give him
Speaker 1: a chance. But yeah, I understand. Well, you brought an
Speaker 1: energy to the show that I think was really missing,
Speaker 1: and a kindness. I keep reading that and I feel
Speaker 1: like we all witnessed it, and I think unfortunately in
Speaker 1: these times, it really stood out how kind of you work.
Speaker 1: But it was really it was just amazing just to
Speaker 1: see the graciousness that you connected yourself with over the
Speaker 1: forty episodes. It was really cool. And also you're just
Speaker 1: you know everything, But because that's what we don't understand.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of really smart people, but it
Speaker 1: was like you would make this face like you had
Speaker 1: no idea and you would just answer it, like time
Speaker 1: and time again, you know that amy face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it was funny. I had no idea that I did
Speaker 1: that kind of like half smile things so much until
Speaker 1: I saw myself on TV. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: that looks weird. Is that really what I do? Every
Speaker 1: But it's like, yeah, it looks great. We love it.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Okay, well you were just yourself
Speaker 1: and I think that, you know, that's kind of the secret,
Speaker 1: like the more you're yourself. But have you always been
Speaker 1: a brainiac? Yeah? I, uh, you know, just I was
Speaker 1: just born with a good memory. I mean that's the
Speaker 1: main thing, you know, so like when when I learned something,
Speaker 1: it it tends to stick in my brain more than
Speaker 1: it does for most people. Um. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I was also like raised in a household that like
Speaker 1: encourage learning and education and all that, so you know,
Speaker 1: that was definitely then, you know, sort of nurtured and
Speaker 1: like rewarded and that sort of thing. And how many
Speaker 1: kids in your family? Like growing up what was your
Speaker 1: house like? Uh? So I have a younger brother, I
Speaker 1: have well I also you know, and I always want
Speaker 1: to make sure I mentioned her, the an older sister
Speaker 1: who died. She was born premature and died after a
Speaker 1: few days. So it was never in my life, but
Speaker 1: you know, I always want to make sure I acknowledge her.
Speaker 1: And what did your mom do? Was she like a teacher?
Speaker 1: She was? She was a math professor? Yeah, math professors.
Speaker 1: See that now it's coming together, Amy, You're you're making
Speaker 1: it like I just read a lot as a kid. No. No,
Speaker 1: And how about dad? He was a computer programmer, a
Speaker 1: software engineer, was a programmer back when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: They call it engineer now. But yeah, And are they
Speaker 1: both still around? My dad, unfortunately is not. It's about
Speaker 1: six or seven years ago, passed away. But my mom's
Speaker 1: still live us. Yeah, And how is she dealing with
Speaker 1: this new found fame of her daughter. You know, she's
Speaker 1: she's happy about it. She's you know, she's she's enjoying it.
Speaker 1: I know she's been enjoying watching the games. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you know, she's she's having a tough time
Speaker 1: right now. She last summer I had to move into
Speaker 1: assisted living because she's you know, like it's still like
Speaker 1: mostly able to get around, but just like not quite
Speaker 1: enough to still live on her own. And that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's been hard for her understandably. But yeah, like so
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely been nice to have this as as
Speaker 1: something to talk about when when I'm calling home. I
Speaker 1: would love to understand a little bit about the process.
Speaker 1: I know you've talked about it in a ton, but
Speaker 1: just did a high level even I didn't realize how
Speaker 1: involved it was that you were taping up to five
Speaker 1: episodes a day. Is that right? Yep five episodes every day.
Speaker 1: They take Mondays and Tuesdays and do a week a
Speaker 1: week of episodes each on each one, so it was
Speaker 1: generally like a ten eleven hour day. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: you're just are you just on a roll at that
Speaker 1: point or is it just exhausting? I mean, it must
Speaker 1: be really tiring. It's really tiring. Yeah. I you know,
Speaker 1: like I would when I was done for the day,
Speaker 1: I was just like go back to either my hotel
Speaker 1: or the airport if I was flying back that night,
Speaker 1: and just like sit there and like not like not
Speaker 1: even be thinking, not reading, just like spacing, you know,
Speaker 1: just letting my mind not do anything for a bit.
Speaker 1: It was really, you know, just being so focused for
Speaker 1: for so much of the day. And I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: like during the game itself. You know, I didn't really
Speaker 1: notice it, like you're just it's going too fast and
Speaker 1: you're just sort of involved in the game. But like
Speaker 1: every time the cameras stopped, I would be like leaning
Speaker 1: on the podium and like just feeling exhausted, and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's get back up, you know. And yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I feel that we have or back back zoom calls
Speaker 1: I kind of fashion being like on like that, like
Speaker 1: if I have to engage that much, that be just
Speaker 1: too much. So it's really impressive. Yeah, And I have
Speaker 1: to say, like, you know, I was always impressed by
Speaker 1: by Ken Jennings streak, but now that I've been through it,
Speaker 1: I find it almost unfathomable that he was able to
Speaker 1: go almost twice as long as I did, which felt
Speaker 1: like years for me, and even like the last long
Speaker 1: streak Madamoio, because I was flying back and forth from Oakland,
Speaker 1: which was a drag, but he was flying back and
Speaker 1: forth from from New Haven and dealing with the time
Speaker 1: shift and so like, I definitely have some more appreciation
Speaker 1: for how hard this stuff is and what is it
Speaker 1: like for you now going out in public because you're
Speaker 1: so recognizable and you've kind of blown up, not even
Speaker 1: I mean outside of Jeopardy, which will talk about that.
Speaker 1: But how is it for you? Uh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like I'm yeah, definitely recognized, you know, pretty often. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, it hasn't been anything too too oppressive
Speaker 1: or or anything like that. You know. Just yesterday I
Speaker 1: was coming in my building and the FedEx guy was
Speaker 1: there and he was like, oh, hey, you're you were
Speaker 1: on TV right, And I was like yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, I've been telling people I delivered
Speaker 1: her a package. Yeah, don't tell him my address please.
Speaker 1: That's really funny. And you have an agent now and
Speaker 1: you're with a big age. Yeah, yeah, I am. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's been you know, I've I've said so many
Speaker 1: times in the last couple of weeks, like you know,
Speaker 1: I'll check with my agent or you know, send that
Speaker 1: over to my agent or things like that. Every time
Speaker 1: I'm like, who am I? This is crazy? You're so fancy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's I don't know. I'm someone who's a visionary
Speaker 1: and I see so much opportunity for people like I
Speaker 1: see so many different partnerships, like even the clothes on
Speaker 1: your Instagram, you know, every night you kind of shouted
Speaker 1: out the clothes and you know, I think it was
Speaker 1: so amazing And your pearls are you wearing them? Now?
Speaker 1: I am not? No, you know, like I'm you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm here with Genevieve. I I don't need the
Speaker 1: room ender, but you know there's yeah, yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: those are just like the things that you put on
Speaker 1: when you want to feel fancy. Yeah, and you know
Speaker 1: it's and I mean mostly at that, but they do
Speaker 1: also like they don't have to be fancy. And that's
Speaker 1: what I sort of didn't realize about them, and what
Speaker 1: I like about them is there's almost literally not an
Speaker 1: outfit you can't wear them with. Well that it became
Speaker 1: like a talisman for you too. It was like something
Speaker 1: that everybody wanted to see every day that will invidrid
Speaker 1: you with their pearls. Yeah, and you know, just by
Speaker 1: you being on TV, I have to say, has just
Speaker 1: done so much for awareness for transgender people and just
Speaker 1: so like interesting that on our pre conversation both myself
Speaker 1: and a Julie have nieces and nephews that are transgender.
Speaker 1: And you know, growing up I never heard the word yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know, I know you've talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: your experience, but what could you tell the people that
Speaker 1: are listening? Uh? You know, I think that when I transitioned,
Speaker 1: you know, you you know, I was a scary time
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of things I was afraid of, um,
Speaker 1: but you know, one of the big ones was that
Speaker 1: I was sort of putting myself in this sort of
Speaker 1: disadvantaged position of of being trans and our society and
Speaker 1: that you know, like that I was choosing by choosing
Speaker 1: that I would be closing myself off from other things.
Speaker 1: And that's just not turned out to be the case
Speaker 1: at all. And I think, you know, as as like
Speaker 1: I've just shown in a like very big public way,
Speaker 1: but like even beyond that, in you know, my professional
Speaker 1: life before that and in my personal life and everything else.
Speaker 1: It just there hasn't been anything I felt unable to
Speaker 1: do because I'm trans. Uh you know, once once I
Speaker 1: got into it, and once I'd gotten used to it,
Speaker 1: it's amazing because I agree. I mean, Bobby and I
Speaker 1: grew up both in Chicago as that of Chicago for me,
Speaker 1: and um, I didn't know of anyone who was trans
Speaker 1: growing up until I got to New York. And then
Speaker 1: I feel like you know, close friends or folks that
Speaker 1: I worked with, um, And it was until my nephew
Speaker 1: came out. UM, And it's been incredible to see the
Speaker 1: shift and the acceptance. But obviously it's still really difficult.
Speaker 1: I mean, even if he lives in a big city
Speaker 1: and is in a work environment that's super supportive and
Speaker 1: our family has been really supportive and loving, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It just breaks my heart whenever I hear the stories
Speaker 1: when it's not like that. And I know you you
Speaker 1: dealt with a lot of online trolls. I would love
Speaker 1: to hear about how you dealt with that. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: so like a few things. One of the things that
Speaker 1: just made it easiest was that I anticipated worse and
Speaker 1: I anticipated more. Um, you know, like you know, because
Speaker 1: to me, like the change in the last five years,
Speaker 1: ten years is so dramatic, um that like you know,
Speaker 1: definitely there's you know, stuff out that that worries me
Speaker 1: and that I'm sad about and all that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: but like it's so much easier for me to see that,
Speaker 1: you know, trans people have a position in society that
Speaker 1: I would have thought impossible, uh, not that long ago. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, that that doesn't mean that there
Speaker 1: weren't some people that felt the need to share their
Speaker 1: opinions with me. Um, And you know, I did my
Speaker 1: best not to, you know, I mean, not to not
Speaker 1: to read it too much, not to you know, not
Speaker 1: to go in the common sections of of anything and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But it's still, you know, that
Speaker 1: was hard, and it's hard not to take it personally
Speaker 1: and be affected by it. I just had to find
Speaker 1: ways to make peace with it, I guess, and to
Speaker 1: give myself the permission to filter that out and just
Speaker 1: just focus on the positive stuff that I was getting.
Speaker 1: I've heard you talk a little bit just about beauty
Speaker 1: and how you feel about yourself and how you become
Speaker 1: more comfortable with yourself. Can you share that with everybody? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, one of the biggest fears transitioning
Speaker 1: is you know, looking ugly, looking like a man in address,
Speaker 1: you know, all that sort of like dysphori and and
Speaker 1: discomfort with yourself. And so definitely, at that time, in
Speaker 1: the immediate aftermath, I didn't try out for Jeopardy and
Speaker 1: wasn't considering it because I couldn't imagine, you know, wanting
Speaker 1: to be on TV in that way. But that phase
Speaker 1: lasted for a while, um, you know, And I remember
Speaker 1: like one time in particular, so I was being really like,
Speaker 1: I can't leave the house without makeup because like that's
Speaker 1: just part of my arm and part of how I
Speaker 1: make sure I'm I'm signaling femininity to everyone. And one
Speaker 1: time I had gone to a spin class with a
Speaker 1: coworker before work, and you were in the locker room
Speaker 1: afterwards and I was I was going to put my
Speaker 1: makeup on. She was like, Oh, you don't really need it,
Speaker 1: and I was like oh, And like that moment like
Speaker 1: maybe kind of look at myself and be like I
Speaker 1: really don't. I still like I don't dislike the way
Speaker 1: I look without makeups, So like that was definitely a
Speaker 1: sort of key moment and starting to like let that
Speaker 1: all go. And how is it seeing yourself on TV?
Speaker 1: Were you happy with what you saw? Eventually? It was
Speaker 1: hard at first? Um it was you know, I'd say,
Speaker 1: like the first you know, three or four episodes, like
Speaker 1: it was it was uncomfortable. Um, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: like it, Like, like I said, I thought I I
Speaker 1: thought I was making a weird phase or just another stuff.
Speaker 1: And and this is I was anticipating this as well.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, you know, I'm not gonna like this
Speaker 1: at first, but like this is going to like force
Speaker 1: me through that discomfort and forced me to to come
Speaker 1: to make peace with this, and so you know, getting
Speaker 1: used to it, and also just like seeing the you know,
Speaker 1: the positive response and not hearing that criticism that in
Speaker 1: that in my mind I was expecting to hear on
Speaker 1: some level, And so it definitely did really put me
Speaker 1: into a place about how I feel about myself and
Speaker 1: my appearance that that I kind of didn't think i'd
Speaker 1: ever get to. It's amazing of all the things have
Speaker 1: come out of this, I think that's been the most
Speaker 1: unexpected and positive. I mean, yeah, it's honestly. I the
Speaker 1: secret I tell people all the time being confident is
Speaker 1: being comfortable in your skin and realizing you are you
Speaker 1: and you can't look like anyone else, so you might
Speaker 1: as well, you know, self love and and and enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Like how do you practice self love? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's I feel like more my practice is
Speaker 1: more like stopping the self hate, you know. Um, And
Speaker 1: like you know, definitely a key part of that has
Speaker 1: been years and years of their therapy. I really love
Speaker 1: my therapist, and she's you know, taking me a long
Speaker 1: way with that um and so just you know those
Speaker 1: constant like self doubt, self criticism, imposter syndrome type things,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Just trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: tone those voices down, not not give them so much power.
Speaker 1: That's that's been I think the main thing that that
Speaker 1: I've been doing for for the last decade or so.
Speaker 1: And how about any beauty rituals do you you know,
Speaker 1: do do spa days? Do you you know, treat yourself
Speaker 1: that way? Uh? Yeah, So I don't really do spa days.
Speaker 1: I'm I've done it once or twice. But I like
Speaker 1: a lot of the beauty rituals that I had to
Speaker 1: have disappeared since COVID, you know, like not leaving the
Speaker 1: house and you know, just getting out of the habit.
Speaker 1: But I definitely used to. One thing I remember is
Speaker 1: just every morning before work, waking up and lying in
Speaker 1: bed and like planning out my outfit and really like
Speaker 1: just enjoying that and like feeling the pleasure I had
Speaker 1: and doing that and then putting on on makeup. That's
Speaker 1: another thing I've I've started to get back into that
Speaker 1: you know, in the last couple of months, you know,
Speaker 1: partly just you know, being on TV and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and and also seeing myself, you know, with makeup on
Speaker 1: Jeopardy and just remembering how how much I used to
Speaker 1: enjoy it now that I'm out of the habit. On
Speaker 1: any given morning, it's like, how I could spend that
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty minutes doing something else, and I like, don't
Speaker 1: do it, but like every time I do, I'm glad
Speaker 1: I did. Well. I'm going to teach you how to
Speaker 1: do it in five minutes, so that that is my goal.
Speaker 1: So so you know, not that anyone that's listening is
Speaker 1: going to see it, but I'm really excited about my
Speaker 1: virtual makeup lesson. I'm going to give Amy and Genevieve
Speaker 1: love it. So I'm looking I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: Oh so am I. So the name of this podcast
Speaker 1: is the Important Things, because you know, so much has
Speaker 1: changed during COVID. I know, for me, I've taken everything
Speaker 1: down and match I used to have a big corporate job,
Speaker 1: you know, I did, everything was different. So right now
Speaker 1: the different things that I do is I dressed differently.
Speaker 1: I certainly, you know, haven't put a pair of high
Speaker 1: heels on in five years. I'm just curious, like, what
Speaker 1: are the important things to you? What has really changed
Speaker 1: during COVID. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: I definitely, you know, before the Jeopardy thing, was really feeling, um,
Speaker 1: like like so many people just like lost and realizing
Speaker 1: that my job wasn't fulfilling the way it used to be,
Speaker 1: you know. And so there's you know a couple of
Speaker 1: parts to that. One is that I need to have
Speaker 1: of I need to be being creative in some way. Uh.
Speaker 1: For much of my life that was pretty consistently theater
Speaker 1: that I would be. You know, any time I hadn't
Speaker 1: been in a play for a few months, I would
Speaker 1: like get itchy and I was like, I gotta got
Speaker 1: an audition again for something. And then like as I
Speaker 1: as I got older, that like the time commitment just
Speaker 1: not became not really manageable for me. Um. And that's
Speaker 1: why I got into computers in the first place. You know,
Speaker 1: my my parents were not going to stand for me
Speaker 1: majoring in theater or creative writing or something like that. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I needed to find something that would be
Speaker 1: you know, secure and like stable and also have something
Speaker 1: to fulfill that part of me and writing software. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's still writing, You're still starting with nothing and
Speaker 1: making something. And for a long time that was that
Speaker 1: was sufficient for me. And then for a while I
Speaker 1: got into managing people and managing you know, small teams
Speaker 1: and was able to find fulfillment in that. At that point,
Speaker 1: that was a new and gratifying thing to be. Like
Speaker 1: I could see that, you know, when I was doing
Speaker 1: a good job, I could see that I was making
Speaker 1: their lives easier, and so I could get that like
Speaker 1: you know, immediate feedback. But ultimately, like I lost that
Speaker 1: with COVID, and I also just came to realize that
Speaker 1: I don't care about computers anymore and there you know,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't interest me. And a lot of that
Speaker 1: has been coming, Like I found out that I'm a
Speaker 1: much different person than I thought I was since I transitioned.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought that I was I didn't think
Speaker 1: I was a social person. I thought I was very
Speaker 1: introverted and things like that. When it turns out that
Speaker 1: you know, all that was just you know, I was
Speaker 1: suppressing my gender identity and like a bunch of stuff
Speaker 1: got suppressed with it kind of as collateral damage, and
Speaker 1: so I, you know, it was definitely struggling with this
Speaker 1: is not the professional life I want to have anymore.
Speaker 1: So what's it going to be then? And you know,
Speaker 1: I've definitely been considering some different options, some career changes.
Speaker 1: But you know, it turns out like the ideal thing
Speaker 1: was to win forty games on Jeopardy and become an
Speaker 1: actually famous uh, and that that was your pivot, your
Speaker 1: pivot check. Some people go to business school and he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go win a million dollars on Jeopardy
Speaker 1: and then figure out what I'm gonna do. That. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. And so I think the the important things
Speaker 1: to me and they're linked our creativity, you know, having
Speaker 1: that as an aspect of my life, and now, um,
Speaker 1: you know, authenticity, being true to myself, being open and
Speaker 1: present to the world, open to receiving what the world
Speaker 1: is giving me, open to giving myself all of myself
Speaker 1: to the world, having gone so long with not that
Speaker 1: being so inauthentic, like that's I never want to go back.
Speaker 1: I want to just keep exploring more of myself and
Speaker 1: showing more of myself. It's so beautiful and I think
Speaker 1: what you've seen. I mean again just with the data
Speaker 1: set of so I can use that this set of
Speaker 1: Jeopardy is you know that when you showed up as
Speaker 1: your authentic self, like, it was received really really well
Speaker 1: and so people ADOREO and you you know, you just
Speaker 1: had resonated so deeply with a really wide audience and
Speaker 1: um and so all about love that you are getting
Speaker 1: I think is is because you were shut up as
Speaker 1: your authentic song. Yeah, and I you know, and I agree,
Speaker 1: and I'm so there was a part of me that
Speaker 1: was uncomfortable and deciding how I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: be on TV um you know, and I've talked about
Speaker 1: like one of them being like do I want to
Speaker 1: try to you know, put myself in a more feminine
Speaker 1: register in my voice, um or other things like that.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't really until like a couple of days
Speaker 1: before taping that I just like kind of had the
Speaker 1: like inside of like, no, be it just be natural,
Speaker 1: be yourself because then even if the reaction, whatever the
Speaker 1: reaction is, it won't bother me that much. I know
Speaker 1: that plenty of people will like me because in my
Speaker 1: personal life, when I'm being myself, people seem to like me,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't necessarily have to understand it
Speaker 1: or or believe it or whatever, but like, that's that's
Speaker 1: the experience I've had. So let's let's just keep keep
Speaker 1: keep with that. I read about the voice. How could
Speaker 1: you even like change the voice and let go of?
Speaker 1: I mean, I couldn't even imagine having to stay with
Speaker 1: a voice while you're doing that, because then you can't
Speaker 1: be yourself. You wouldn't have won all those times exactly
Speaker 1: for forty episodes to keep that going. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's absolutely true, you know, I mean, and it is
Speaker 1: like it's it's something you can do with sustained practice,
Speaker 1: like you know, some trans women in particular like do.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I I got some sort of
Speaker 1: like vocal training at one point on on sort of
Speaker 1: how to do that, which was you know, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it in terms of learning more about you know,
Speaker 1: beyond just pitch like kind of you know, like sentence,
Speaker 1: cadence and sort of like how much you're supporting with
Speaker 1: your your diaphragm and things like that. But I quote this,
Speaker 1: there's a tweet um from a trans woman I love
Speaker 1: that was like how to how to do feminine voice
Speaker 1: training one, try to cry, three, cry a lot more
Speaker 1: for give up. And you know, that was pretty much
Speaker 1: pretty much my experience us with it too, Like it's
Speaker 1: I know, I can do it like on demand if
Speaker 1: I want to, but like to sustain it enough to
Speaker 1: get to the point where it starts to become my
Speaker 1: actual natural voice. That just wasn't something I was ever.
Speaker 1: You know, I felt like I just didn't want to
Speaker 1: do that. And what are you what are your big
Speaker 1: giant dreams and hopes? Like what what are you hoping?
Speaker 1: Because I mean things are probably flying at you every
Speaker 1: single day, Like what was like one of those things
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh my god, like you know, the
Speaker 1: New York Times, Like, what were one of those things
Speaker 1: in your inbox? Yeah? Um, well, I mean I think
Speaker 1: the most exciting thing this happened to me was was
Speaker 1: Podma loached me, like complimenting me on Twitter. I think
Speaker 1: that that may have been the single biggest like moment um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, in terms of like I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of like exciting stuff and interesting
Speaker 1: stuff that's you know, all very preliminary and I don't
Speaker 1: know about but I've realized that the thing that you know,
Speaker 1: out of all of that that I'm most excited about
Speaker 1: is is the one thing that is you know, sort
Speaker 1: of farthest along, which is writing a book. Because all
Speaker 1: this other stuff is is great and it's interesting, but
Speaker 1: it's all collaborative and I'd just be part of a
Speaker 1: bunch of people contributing ideas and that's the fun environment
Speaker 1: to be in. Like, you know, I've done theater and
Speaker 1: things like that, but like this book is really a
Speaker 1: place where it's in my control and I can really
Speaker 1: you know, I've had I've been I've been thinking my
Speaker 1: whole life, and I have all these like ideas and
Speaker 1: thoughts and and I'm going to get the chance to
Speaker 1: put them out there for for people to read. And
Speaker 1: that's that I think is going to be you know,
Speaker 1: if I if I pull it off, I think will
Speaker 1: be probably the most gratifying thing that I do. Well. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to see all the different things. And
Speaker 1: I know this is just the beginning because you've been
Speaker 1: how long has it been, you know, since you've been
Speaker 1: off the show, like a week? Two weeks? Like yeah,
Speaker 1: a little over a week, I don't even know anymore,
Speaker 1: But not long, not long by the time this episode airs,
Speaker 1: it will have been longer, so you'll be Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we might have to add like you know, some things
Speaker 1: and now Amy is doing this, but that's also a
Speaker 1: position that a thing that I'm working with now and
Speaker 1: like trying to learn from. Uh, you know, I have
Speaker 1: no idea what I'm going to be doing this fall,
Speaker 1: like you know or like I I just don't know
Speaker 1: what the next few years of my life look like.
Speaker 1: In a way that like is more true now than
Speaker 1: it's It's hardly ever been in my life, at least
Speaker 1: as an adult. Um and so I'm really trying to
Speaker 1: like keep that feeling as excitement and not fear and
Speaker 1: you know, stay stay on top of it. But it's definitely,
Speaker 1: like you know, it's it's not the most comfortable thing
Speaker 1: for me, and I'm I'm definitely I'm working with that.
Speaker 1: And so no, it's so cool, you know, being open,
Speaker 1: I think is kind of the secret like being Okay,
Speaker 1: what's gonna what's gonna happen. So it's it's really cool.
Speaker 1: But I have one final thought that I ask all
Speaker 1: the guests. I wish I could, you know, give you
Speaker 1: the answer and ask you the question. But I didn't think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to do and I didn't think
Speaker 1: about that, you know. Oh but by the way, I was.
Speaker 1: I was actually once a question on Jeopardy. Oh I was,
Speaker 1: I I was. I took a screen it was Celebrity Jeopardy,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't really count anyways. So the question I
Speaker 1: have for you, if you could tell someone listening the
Speaker 1: one thing that could change the course of their life
Speaker 1: for the better, what could it be? Like one thing
Speaker 1: advice from Amy Snyder. Uh, I think it would be curiosity.
Speaker 1: And you know, appaired with that that that's key is
Speaker 1: comfort with being wrong. Um, wanting in fact, wanting to
Speaker 1: be wrong, you know, because like if if I realize
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, that tells me great, I've learned something. I'm
Speaker 1: better now. Um. You know, if I look back on
Speaker 1: my past self, I should think, boy, that that she
Speaker 1: was an idiot back then or whatever, because otherwise I
Speaker 1: haven't learned anything. Um. And I think that that opens
Speaker 1: up everything else because otherwise you can never advance from
Speaker 1: where you are if you're not willing to discard old things.
Speaker 1: That we're either wrong at the time or just wrong
Speaker 1: for you. Now. You know, I grew up as a
Speaker 1: conservative Republican and you know boy uh in Ohio and
Speaker 1: I'm none of those things now and like I had
Speaker 1: like I had to, you know, like re examine kind
Speaker 1: of everything in my life at one time or another.
Speaker 1: And I think it's been great for me. And it's
Speaker 1: it's something I recommend. I love that. Wow. Wow that wow. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's so good. I feel like I want to print
Speaker 1: that out on a T shirt. It'd be a very
Speaker 1: large T shirt, but put that on my daughter's wall
Speaker 1: or something. What a great leathing for all of us
Speaker 1: to learn. I've loved having you on this podcast. I'm honestly,
Speaker 1: I I am such a big fan. I hope we
Speaker 1: keep in touch because I do want to hear everything
Speaker 1: you're doing. I'll be cheering you on. Yeah, absolutely no,
Speaker 1: this is this is really good. This is I enjoyed this.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. Amy. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: slide into your d M S two just like Bobby,
Speaker 1: but I have no useful skills to offer you nothing.
Speaker 1: Let's see you like a contract read I could do that,
Speaker 1: but that's better. Well, we'll just see you never know
Speaker 1: what's going to come up. You're not kidding, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: big things I had no doubt ut be fin