Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as a basic bitch.
Speaker 3: One of my favorite interests is travel. It's right after living, laughing,
Speaker 3: and loving. So when I had the opportunity to interview
Speaker 3: Transportation Secretary Pete Buddha Judge, I took it. Check out
Speaker 3: my interview with him at the DOT Operations Center. So sorry,
Speaker 3: Secretary Buddha Judge, thank you so much. I apologize for
Speaker 3: being late. I took amtrak. Okay, Secretary Buddha Judge. We
Speaker 3: are here at the Department of Transportation, which is the hub,
Speaker 3: the central nervous system of America's infrastructure. Yet America is
Speaker 3: a divided nation, So how do you bring us all
Speaker 3: together with projects that literally bring us together?
Speaker 4: Well, I think everybody loves a good transportation project, you know,
Speaker 4: even though not everyone voted for the Infrastructure Law, I
Speaker 4: have yet to meet anybody who is upset when we're
Speaker 4: fixing an airport terminal, upgrading a bridge so that we
Speaker 4: can have a better, safer, more convenient experience getting around
Speaker 4: this country.
Speaker 3: What have been the biggest accomplishments at the DOT since
Speaker 3: you took over?
Speaker 4: So when we got here, first of all, the biggest
Speaker 4: question back in twenty twenty one about our airlines was
Speaker 4: whether they were going to go out of business. But
Speaker 4: then as the demand returned, we started finding new tools
Speaker 4: to hold those airlines accountable for how they treat passengers.
Speaker 3: What are some of the areas that you think that
Speaker 3: the DOT could improve upon?
Speaker 2: Have you hit any roadblocks?
Speaker 1: See what you did there?
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: You know, we're doing a lot right now to hold
Speaker 4: freight railroad companies accountable for their safety practices.
Speaker 1: But right now the fines are capped.
Speaker 4: For example, if we catch a railroad company in an
Speaker 4: egregious violation involving hazardous material to get somebody killed, the
Speaker 4: highest toughest fine under the law that we can assess
Speaker 4: it's about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That is
Speaker 4: not enough in my view to get the attention of
Speaker 4: a multi billion dollar railroad company like in Norfolk Southern.
Speaker 4: Right now, there's a bipartisan proposal in the Senate. It's
Speaker 4: called the Railway Safety Act, and it would do a
Speaker 4: number of things that I've been calling for.
Speaker 1: That I think would make a big difference.
Speaker 4: Right now, we're dealing with some not all, but some
Speaker 4: Republicans on Capitol Hill who are saying well, we don't
Speaker 4: want to do too much too fast when it comes
Speaker 4: to getting tough on the railroad companies.
Speaker 1: In my view, we need to act now.
Speaker 3: Why do you think some Republicans are stalling on this?
Speaker 3: Is it because they're too busy focused on starting culture wars.
Speaker 4: Well, I do think the culture wars are getting in
Speaker 4: the way sometimes. I mean, just the other day I
Speaker 4: was testifying in the Appropriation Subcommittee explaining how our budget
Speaker 4: was going to help with things like railroad safety, air
Speaker 4: traffic control, and other transportation needs, and we had to
Speaker 4: take a break so that they could all go and
Speaker 4: vote on a bill to kick transgender teenagers off of
Speaker 4: sports teams.
Speaker 1: That was the priority for the House goop that day.
Speaker 4: So these things really are getting in the way of
Speaker 4: our ability to get work done.
Speaker 1: We're literally building.
Speaker 4: Bridges and they're literally banning books.
Speaker 2: Is the Department of Transportation going woke?
Speaker 4: I don't think it's woke to build good infrastructure.
Speaker 1: I just saw Fox News.
Speaker 4: Taking a run of me for the work that we're
Speaker 4: doing on safety, including the use of crash test dummies
Speaker 4: that simulate men, women, and children, And somehow this is
Speaker 4: considered a woke priority to have female crash test dummies.
Speaker 4: Even though not something that has been around for.
Speaker 3: A very long time, Fox News has made loads of
Speaker 3: false statements about you over the years. What do you
Speaker 3: think you think it's lawsuit time cash in on some
Speaker 3: of that seven hundred and eighty seven million coin.
Speaker 4: It does sound like there's a lot of money in it,
Speaker 4: but I think that'd probably be a bit of a
Speaker 4: distraction in my case.
Speaker 3: Possibly, But you know, I mean it could help fund
Speaker 3: some of these projects.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I prefer to go through the appropriations process.
Speaker 4: But the amount of money in that lawsuit is as
Speaker 4: much as some of our nationwide transportation infrastructure programs.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean that could repair at least hundreds
Speaker 3: of feet a tunnel.
Speaker 1: It's depending on the tunnel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Secretary of Boot Judge, thank you for chatting with us,
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us real quick before I go, can
Speaker 3: I just get a quick reimbursement for the train that
Speaker 3: I took out here? I was literally on the train
Speaker 3: for about twelve hours.
Speaker 1: Straight, sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2: And this was the Aesla. This was like the best
Speaker 2: train that America has to offer. So if I can just.
Speaker 3: Get a little little refund, you're.
Speaker 1: Gonna have to take that up with Amtrak.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you'll turn it in.
Speaker 1: You know, sure, have you to sign it along for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. I think you could use your stamp
Speaker 2: of approval.
Speaker 1: We don't actually use stamps.
Speaker 2: Anymore here, but oh hey, thanks for looking up. Thank
Speaker 2: you secretary. It really was an honor. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yes, enjoy the trip.
Speaker 2: Oh this is incredible. Do you mind if I just
Speaker 2: take a spin around?
Speaker 4: Welcome to around a little bit o great? Or I
Speaker 4: could just describe things to you.
Speaker 2: That's okay. Now I'll just sneak into some of these desks.
Speaker 2: What does this do?
Speaker 1: Well? Please don't touch that. This don't touch you or
Speaker 1: really any of any of that. Yeah, just could just yeah, just.
Speaker 2: A little operator the future us. Yeah, how do I
Speaker 2: turn this on?
Speaker 1: Again? Please? Don't touch that?
Speaker 2: What you doing over here? Can I borrow your badge?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Just quick, I'll give it back.
Speaker 1: Well. Day.
Speaker 3: So my guest tonight is an actor an activist who
Speaker 3: will be starring in London's popular West End production two
Speaker 3: twenty two A Ghost Story, beginning May fourteenth. Please welcome
Speaker 3: Sophia bush Hi, who.
Speaker 2: Is so nice, feels good? Right, power at it.
Speaker 5: Yes, just ladies running the daily show said very into this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now guess this week that's what we got. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's great to see. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Hi everybody you.
Speaker 3: You've been busy on many things, but one of them
Speaker 3: is your very popular podcast, Drama Queens Yes, which is
Speaker 3: basically a rewatch podcast of One Tree Hill, Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: We realized that the nine years of that show that
Speaker 5: we made were sort of a blur, and people at
Speaker 5: these lovely events always ask us, oh.
Speaker 2: You remember when, and we were like, we don't. I'm
Speaker 2: so sorry, I don't remember.
Speaker 5: And our sort of COVID project was launching this podcast,
Speaker 5: and it's actually been really special to relive it. And
Speaker 5: every so often we're all just sitting on zoom sobbing,
Speaker 5: and we're.
Speaker 2: Like, we get it. It's really good. This is super.
Speaker 3: Emotional, very therapeutic, I would imagine, because when you started
Speaker 3: that show you were really young.
Speaker 2: You were like twenty years old.
Speaker 5: I had just turned twenty one. Hillary Burton and I
Speaker 5: actually our birthdays are one week apart. We had both
Speaker 5: just shredded our fake id's I'm so sorry mom, and
Speaker 5: we were like.
Speaker 2: We can get into bars now, we are so grown up.
Speaker 5: Turns out, at twenty one you are still absolutely a child,
Speaker 5: and it's really weird to look back and see.
Speaker 3: Well, there are so many documentaries that have come out
Speaker 3: recently about women entering the entertainment industry at that time
Speaker 3: in the early two thousands, Paris Hilton, Britney spears Pamela
Speaker 3: Anderson and hearing their side of the story.
Speaker 2: What was that like going in to the industry that young?
Speaker 5: You know that famous adage. It was the best of
Speaker 5: times and the worst of times. It was that, you know,
Speaker 5: it's so special to go and do what you love
Speaker 5: and to get to do art for a living. And
Speaker 5: we worked for a total pig and that was awful,
Speaker 5: and so it was very confusing. I mean, I'm like,
Speaker 5: women are laughing, I'm like, you know what I'm talking
Speaker 5: about where you're like, I love my job, but.
Speaker 2: I was really hated here.
Speaker 3: Ooh, I don't know any pigs at this job.
Speaker 1: I love this job.
Speaker 2: We love this job.
Speaker 1: Love it's a lot.
Speaker 2: This is different. This is different, This truly is different.
Speaker 2: It is and you know when it is.
Speaker 5: I worked on this amazing show in Toronto last year
Speaker 5: that was different. And you know, when I look at
Speaker 5: sort of what's on my resume, almost everything has been amazing.
Speaker 5: It just sucks in the things that you've done the
Speaker 5: longest have been sort of toxic and awful.
Speaker 3: But how amazing that you talk about it with your
Speaker 3: castmates because having those conversations and I want to believe
Speaker 3: that things are different now. Women still struggle with these things,
Speaker 3: but by you talking about it, it makes other women
Speaker 3: not feel alone.
Speaker 5: That's been the really special part of it. And when
Speaker 5: people ask women like why are you so obsessed with this,
Speaker 5: it's like, why were you never paying attention?
Speaker 2: Why when we were all crying for help? Did you
Speaker 2: go like, it's not that bad, You're lucky.
Speaker 5: That's weird, But.
Speaker 2: You know, I think for us.
Speaker 5: It's been really the unexpected side effect of this podcast
Speaker 5: job is that it's been really healing, and it's been
Speaker 5: really empowering. And what's been really beautiful is the sort
Speaker 5: of connections that we've been making with listeners, with other
Speaker 5: women in our industry, with women who were directing on
Speaker 5: our show back then, who listen to an episode reach
Speaker 5: out and say that was totally going on. I heard that,
Speaker 5: or I was told this. It's been really affirming, and
Speaker 5: so I don't really care who's mad about it. We're
Speaker 5: here to heel and we are very much reclaiming our territory.
Speaker 2: Feel's nice.
Speaker 3: So much of what you do is you do so
Speaker 3: much activism. You are extremely vocal about issues that you
Speaker 3: care about, gun reform, voting rights, women's reproductive health. You
Speaker 3: were just honored yesterday by the National Institution of Reproductive
Speaker 3: Health for your work.
Speaker 2: How do I feel?
Speaker 1: For gradually wild?
Speaker 5: It was so vild and they gave me this like big, gorgeous,
Speaker 5: heavy award, and I was like, wonderful. I can leave
Speaker 5: here and feel very special and also have a weapon
Speaker 5: just in case, because that is being a woman in
Speaker 5: the world, you know.
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't have to carry my keys today.
Speaker 2: I got this.
Speaker 5: Jokes aside, though it was it was very special, and
Speaker 5: I think having a platform is a privilege. And I
Speaker 5: don't expect anybody to do what I do or believe
Speaker 5: what I believe, necessarily, but I do think for me,
Speaker 5: knowing that this is a megaphone means that what I've
Speaker 5: been privileged enough to have access to, you know, study education,
Speaker 5: the words of women like Gloria Steinhem and Brittany Pacnett
Speaker 5: Cunningham and my friends who run the media are like
Speaker 5: I get to listen to incredible leaders and to amplify
Speaker 5: those voices and to talk about equity, whether it's in
Speaker 5: reproductive justice or justice for women of color, or black
Speaker 5: maternal mortality rates, or gun reform, because gun violence touches
Speaker 5: all of us.
Speaker 2: That's that's my work.
Speaker 5: And you know, in the same way that we as
Speaker 5: women need men to talk about sexual violence because like
Speaker 5: it can't just be us.
Speaker 2: We're like, please help us then talk to each other,
Speaker 2: my god.
Speaker 5: Like it's the same way that I feel about as
Speaker 5: women when we look at the diversity within you know,
Speaker 5: our gender group, and then we look outward at how
Speaker 5: we need to stand up for our trans friends and
Speaker 5: folks like you know, all of the beautiful black women
Speaker 5: I see in this audience, Like racial justice among in
Speaker 5: feminism can't be your.
Speaker 2: Job, Like that's our job, women who look I us
Speaker 2: of the problem.
Speaker 5: So for me, what has been you know, a privilege
Speaker 5: and an awakening and hard and inspiring, has been getting
Speaker 5: really fired up about an injustice and then starting to
Speaker 5: pull the thread and going, oh my god, it's all connected.
Speaker 5: It's systemic everywhere. We have work to do, but I
Speaker 5: do think we can do it together. Organizations like the
Speaker 5: anir H are doing incredible work. They're proactive for us
Speaker 5: and our and our freedoms and our rights. And it's
Speaker 5: those sorts of groups, and obviously this group, because y'all
Speaker 5: are fabulous.
Speaker 1: But I want to hang out with.
Speaker 3: You're about to start a play in London called twenty
Speaker 3: two a Ghost Story.
Speaker 2: Till I get that right, twenty two a ghost Story?
Speaker 3: Are you excited to go work in a country where
Speaker 3: they have access to healthcare?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: That might be nice. I realized it was.
Speaker 5: It was a really big deal when I had to
Speaker 5: apply for my work visa and they were like, have
Speaker 5: you ever tried to sneak into the United Kingdom to
Speaker 5: access healthcare? And I was like, oh, yeah, we have
Speaker 5: to do that. I guess that's weird.
Speaker 2: No that. But while I'm doing this.
Speaker 5: Job, can I go to the doctor that's so cool.
Speaker 2: And tell us what the play is about.
Speaker 3: It's a supernatural story, right, and in Volt's Ghosts.
Speaker 5: It is so I don't want to give it away.
Speaker 5: But the thing we all loved about friends was watching
Speaker 5: a group of people in an apartment hang out, right,
Speaker 5: so imagine it's four instead of six friends, and when
Speaker 5: their dinner party gets like a little bit lit, people
Speaker 5: start up conversation essentially of who does and doesn't believe
Speaker 5: in ghosts, And suddenly we're talking about belief and faith
Speaker 5: and upbringing and education and what's bigger than us?
Speaker 2: And it's very spicy.
Speaker 3: Fun and I love a good ghost story. Did you
Speaker 3: research for this role? Did you just go visit the Senate?
Speaker 5: I know I should have. Yeah, Okay, I'm sorry, Yeah
Speaker 5: I should have.
Speaker 2: Who's the first time we were doing theater?
Speaker 5: It is a West End. Will be my stage debut,
Speaker 5: unless you count our.
Speaker 2: Town in the eighth grade. Same tame, same, SAME's same, same.
Speaker 2: You're gonna You're gonna be brilliant. You're gonna be brilliant.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see you in this.
Speaker 5: I'm really excited and completely terrified. And then I have
Speaker 5: these moments where I'm like, Okay, we're doing eight shows
Speaker 5: a week in front of people.
Speaker 2: What if someone has a bad day? Like what? I
Speaker 2: don't know?
Speaker 5: And then it was actually one of my girlfriends from
Speaker 5: the podcast, Hillary said, Dude, when you do a TV show.
Speaker 5: You're on set for like fourteen to seventeen hours a day.
Speaker 5: This will literally be the least amount of hours you've
Speaker 5: ever worked in a week. And I'm went like, oh, yeah, okay,
Speaker 5: I get it. Oh right, maybe I can read more
Speaker 5: books or something downtime.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great, okay, please with an audience. This is well,
Speaker 2: they're lovely.
Speaker 3: You once said that you weren't interested in a in
Speaker 3: working in politics back in twenty thirteen. You said this,
Speaker 3: but you said, ask me in ten years, so what's up?
Speaker 2: What do you think?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 5: So interesting. So many people for the last number of years.
Speaker 2: Uh, have said to me like please run.
Speaker 5: And then Nancy Pelosi is what a weird thing I'm
Speaker 5: about to say to you? Nancy Pelosi said to me
Speaker 5: one day like it'll all be better when you're a president,
Speaker 5: and I went, I bet you say that to all
Speaker 5: the girls.
Speaker 2: But thank you so much. Hey, that is an endorsement.
Speaker 2: It was so it was so deep flattering.
Speaker 5: And then I went like, well, I guess if we're
Speaker 5: electing people from TV, anyone who knows anything about public
Speaker 5: policy or public health or education or like women would
Speaker 5: be cool.
Speaker 2: I'll get stringing sentence together.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, articulate humans who like other people instead
Speaker 5: of wish ill upon their lives, it would be nice.
Speaker 5: I think, as I've as I've learned so much over
Speaker 5: the last ten years, I don't know what it's going
Speaker 5: to look like. I don't know where I'm supposed to
Speaker 5: go yet, because I want to do what.
Speaker 2: Is the most useful.
Speaker 5: And I think a lot of people, whether they want
Speaker 5: to run for office or run a company, do it
Speaker 5: because they want to center themselves in the experience. If
Speaker 5: I could be most useful serving an elected office, great.
Speaker 2: If I can be most useful raising.
Speaker 5: Money for incredible C four candidates across the country and
Speaker 5: making sure we flip state houses so we're not you know,
Speaker 5: thrown back to the our age is into it, like literally,
Speaker 5: just tell me how to help, and I'm down.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I so appreciate we so appreciate all the work that
Speaker 3: you do, and I really appreciate you coming on too.
Speaker 2: You are a delight. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I got to.
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