Speaker 1: The following episode was recorded before the WGA sag Aftra
Speaker 1: strikes of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Hey folks, we're going to deal with politics today and voting,
Speaker 2: which is something that is extremely extremely close to my heart.
Speaker 2: My mother was an activist in Philadelphia where we grew up.
Speaker 2: There was a kind of understanding in our family that
Speaker 2: you had to vote and that you had to use
Speaker 2: that power.
Speaker 3: That the day that.
Speaker 2: You went to get to the polls, to cast your
Speaker 2: vote and to make your specific opinions known were very,
Speaker 2: very integral to what it meant to not only be
Speaker 2: an American or in our case of Philadelphia, but also
Speaker 2: to be a human being. I think that there's more
Speaker 2: and more young people these days who are a voting age,
Speaker 2: and we need more and more young people not only,
Speaker 2: i think, to vote, but also to hold office. It's
Speaker 2: great that this episode today is airing on November seventh. Now,
Speaker 2: this is an off year election. It's got gubernatorial and
Speaker 2: state elections in a few states, but they are very
Speaker 2: very important. There's a lot that you can do with
Speaker 2: the polls. This is why today is the perfect day
Speaker 2: to share my interview with a lot of Glazer and
Speaker 2: her organization generator collective, fascinating discussion, and she's great and
Speaker 2: a lot of fun and very very politically active, so leaning,
Speaker 2: I'm very excited that we have a lot of Glazer
Speaker 2: with us, who, as I'm sure all of you know,
Speaker 2: was a co creator and star of broad City, which
Speaker 2: was a giant, giant hit for so many years and
Speaker 2: an awesome show and hilarious and great and uh, she's
Speaker 2: also done a whole ton of other stuff. And we're
Speaker 2: so excited that you're here today on this on this show.
Speaker 2: It's so nice to meet you.
Speaker 3: You too, Kevin, thanks so much on that talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, weirdly, I'm always I'm always surprised when I
Speaker 2: actually meet somebody who's path I haven't actually crossed. As
Speaker 2: far as I know, we haven't met this or worked
Speaker 2: together or been in the same thing together even.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, not yet. But life is long.
Speaker 2: Life is long. Life is long. It's getting shorter for me,
Speaker 2: but it is definitely still we still have some time,
Speaker 2: I hope. Yeah, I'm I I'm so fascinated about your
Speaker 2: specific journey because I feel like it was kind of
Speaker 2: like a harbinger of things to come, and has us
Speaker 2: had had a certain uh, you know, you were kind
Speaker 2: of early to a lot of stuff, it seemed like
Speaker 2: to me. So tell me about this this. Well, first off,
Speaker 2: you grew up in New York.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I grew up on Long Island, in uh eastern
Speaker 3: Long Island, in a real uh Jewish part of Long
Speaker 3: Island of Jewish. But this was like more Italian sopranos
Speaker 3: dial Long Island. That was really the culture there. And uh,
Speaker 3: I always was looking toward the city. I kind of
Speaker 3: always knew I was gonna come here and or just
Speaker 3: always wanted to.
Speaker 2: Did you visit when you were a little girl? Did
Speaker 2: you come their parents take care?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah. My brother and I were really into musicals
Speaker 3: and plays and writing and acting and performing and my parents,
Speaker 3: my parents were too. They are a lover of the arts,
Speaker 3: so that was that was like our exciting thing.
Speaker 2: They weren't in the arts though, they were, They were
Speaker 2: just fans.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. They both are creative spirits, but never pursued
Speaker 3: it in a professional capacity. My dad's an amazing piano player.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so like their their creativity really stoked our
Speaker 3: agency over our creativity.
Speaker 2: And what's the age between you and.
Speaker 3: Your bro He's he's four years older than me. And
Speaker 3: he's also a comedian and he played my brother in
Speaker 3: Broad City. Yeah I know that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: That's what do you feel about working with family? I
Speaker 2: bring this up because, uh, my wife is an actress,
Speaker 2: my daughter is an actress. My son's a musician, and
Speaker 2: I also play music, so I I work with him
Speaker 2: sometimes on music stuff. And I have worked with my daughter,
Speaker 2: and I've worked with my wife. My wife's worked with
Speaker 2: my daughter, my my wife, heires my son the score
Speaker 2: of things. So what do you what's your feeling about
Speaker 2: family and making creating together.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it makes it's it's easier in some
Speaker 3: ways and harder in other ways. The sort of like
Speaker 3: private culture of family makes the shortcut language really accessible.
Speaker 3: But then I think for me, so far, I think
Speaker 3: I'm like doing enough therapy that we're turning to doing
Speaker 3: work with my brother. I would probably be a more
Speaker 3: functional partner than I have been in the past. But
Speaker 3: you know, you carry that history with you and you're
Speaker 3: dynamics of being the first born or second born. It's
Speaker 3: not it's so so deep in your spine. Can I
Speaker 3: curse in this? It's so deep in your fucking spine
Speaker 3: that it's like, you know, I think there's it's like
Speaker 3: an interesting marker that you bring it up now where
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, I think if we returned, I would
Speaker 3: be a little bit. I would be able to have
Speaker 3: a little more fun. I think, like on Bread City
Speaker 3: sometimes I was tense in certain ways.
Speaker 2: Was on all five seasons, he was I.
Speaker 3: Think we started introducing our families in the second season,
Speaker 3: So four seasons, and he wrote on the fifth season, Kevin,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm thinking of right now, your movie
Speaker 3: The woods Men, which yeah, you and Kira and Karia
Speaker 3: speaking of working with family, that was so intense to
Speaker 3: work with your partner on Oh my god that I mean,
Speaker 3: it's so dark. That movie is so dark, but it's
Speaker 3: like one of my favorite movies of all time because
Speaker 3: it was just so I don't know how. I don't
Speaker 3: know how you did that, but working with family that's
Speaker 3: like different than music and jamming.
Speaker 2: That was like, that was oh yeah, oh yeah. It
Speaker 2: was also also just even if we weren't in it
Speaker 2: together just to be parents. And you know, it's a
Speaker 2: movie for people that don't know about a child molester
Speaker 2: and and and Kira plays a woman that he has
Speaker 2: a relationship with And what's interesting about it is that
Speaker 2: she was if I can just digress with a little
Speaker 2: story about me for a second, she she was she
Speaker 2: was cast uh the director uh Nicole Cassell wanted here
Speaker 2: from the beginning and had never even thought about me
Speaker 2: for for for the other part.
Speaker 4: Wow, And the.
Speaker 2: Script ended up weirdly in my lap, and so I said,
Speaker 2: you know, well, let's do this together. And Kira was
Speaker 2: really really resistant because she felt really strongly that it
Speaker 2: was going to somehow take people out of the movie
Speaker 2: if they saw that that, you know, because they have
Speaker 2: a sort of like an idea about us as a
Speaker 2: as a couple that wasn't you know, applicable to that relationship.
Speaker 2: And she actually pulled out of the movie about two
Speaker 2: weeks before we start shooting. And I was the producer
Speaker 2: on the movie, and I said, sorry, pal, but you
Speaker 2: can't leave now because we can't find anybody else in
Speaker 2: two weeks. It's going to play this part.
Speaker 5: And I so get it because the material and the
Speaker 5: way you were approaching it was so heavy, you know,
Speaker 5: it was so heavy and diving into it. Yeah, like
Speaker 5: I don't like just the way that movie stuck with
Speaker 5: me and most depth performance or yesin Bay his name
Speaker 5: is now was so deep.
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised. And of course, as parents, you're right,
Speaker 3: that is ooh, that's heavy. So it makes me laugh
Speaker 3: because it's not just oh, a comedy and you know,
Speaker 3: my neurosis around doing a joke, with doing a joke
Speaker 3: that way that was so deep and looked like it
Speaker 3: must have been hard.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Well you know it was, you know, but
Speaker 2: it was worth it. And tell me the genesis. To me,
Speaker 2: the genesis of broad City is really fascinated, So maybe
Speaker 2: just explain to people how that kind of came together.
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny also that you say a harbinger of
Speaker 3: things to come. I mean maybe our viewpoints were because
Speaker 3: of I mean, well, yeah, maybe our viewpoints were. But
Speaker 3: it feels to me now so old to have a
Speaker 3: TV show that you would say it's on on Wednesdays
Speaker 3: at ten thirty, like you know, like it's just like
Speaker 3: the I feel like we were I mean, we were
Speaker 3: in the last wave of TV kind of as TV
Speaker 3: used to be as an event to gather around. So
Speaker 3: it feels of an older world to me now.
Speaker 2: And I guess I meant that it came out of
Speaker 2: YouTube that you you know, you kin'd that you kind
Speaker 2: of there there's a real di I y quality to it,
Speaker 2: which which I think a lot of people are kind
Speaker 2: of moving towards these days, you know, shortened kind of contact,
Speaker 2: you know, the stuff that goes down to like you know,
Speaker 2: TikTok and you know, ye start that way. But the
Speaker 2: fact that you found somebody and and correct me if
Speaker 2: I'm wrong, made friends, and yeah, it started riffing and
Speaker 2: then you know, went on YouTube. I mean it's like,
Speaker 2: I think that I can't think of anything else really
Speaker 2: that maybe there are, but what's really happening in that
Speaker 2: way at that time, and it seems like that's what
Speaker 2: I kind of meant by that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of feels like just like a band
Speaker 3: that got together. Now, like you know, like this like
Speaker 3: sort of og classic genesis of of a of art
Speaker 3: that I haven't seen in a while. So my brother
Speaker 3: had like entered you know, from my point of view,
Speaker 3: my brother had uh gotten to college four years ahead
Speaker 3: of me in New York City and was scoping out
Speaker 3: the scene and told me about you know, the scene
Speaker 3: that was emerging that at the time was like all
Speaker 3: comedy that you know, remember like mumblecore and like, you know,
Speaker 3: just awkwardness or whatever. So he was like scoping out
Speaker 3: the scene. And when I got to the city myself
Speaker 3: for college, we got into the improv sketch and stand
Speaker 3: up scene. Improv centered around the Upright Citizens were Daid
Speaker 3: founded by Amy Poehler.
Speaker 2: An amazing amazing Yeah, just Kara did their one of
Speaker 2: their courses. Oh yeah, yeah, I forget what it's called.
Speaker 2: It's like a like an intensive, like a two week
Speaker 2: intens or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's like I never went to my like
Speaker 3: my college experience was. I went to like this general
Speaker 3: studies program at NYU. I wasn't like acting. I couldn't
Speaker 3: get beyond that barrier.
Speaker 2: General studies, general study.
Speaker 3: It is literally like four kids who went to public school,
Speaker 3: like everybody else had got better education. I literally was
Speaker 3: like the classics, what do you mean the classics? You know,
Speaker 3: I did not, I mean my schooling. I went to
Speaker 3: high school with three thousand kids, So it was like,
Speaker 3: you know, a gateway for public school kids, and for me,
Speaker 3: college was this gateway to the comedy scene. And I
Speaker 3: was like sort of planning it since because I was
Speaker 3: like keeping my eye on it. From middle school. I
Speaker 3: was just like, such an element.
Speaker 2: You're focused on comedy, you were right from middle school.
Speaker 2: You were pretty clear that that's what that was going
Speaker 2: to be, what you were going to do.
Speaker 3: Actually, like even earlier, my brother and I made sketch videos.
Speaker 3: Just that was like our childhood making sketch videos and
Speaker 3: then seeing like plays in the city think you were.
Speaker 2: Funny when you when you and your brother would do
Speaker 2: stuff did they were they were? They a good audience.
Speaker 3: They thought we were hysterical. They could not believe what
Speaker 3: we were totally, totally. They were a very receptive audience.
Speaker 3: So yeah, So we entered the scene and just were
Speaker 3: trying everything, you know, and for us, I mean sketched
Speaker 3: with kind of landing. And then when I met Abby
Speaker 3: Jacobson in uh the improv scene, she and I like
Speaker 3: got to this point where we just had a similar
Speaker 3: work ethic and a similar hunger and a similar point
Speaker 3: of view, and we both wanted to make something that's stuck,
Speaker 3: something that could be shared with our parents. We always
Speaker 3: we always say like we wanted to show our parents
Speaker 3: what we were doing to say, I did an improv
Speaker 3: show last night, and they're like, what, like last night
Speaker 3: I actually did a stand up show and my parents
Speaker 3: are visiting and helping out with my kiddo while my
Speaker 3: husband's away, and my dad came to my stand up
Speaker 3: show and I was just doing a set, just like
Speaker 3: running material because I'm going on tour this week, and
Speaker 3: I was like, this is so weird, Like he doesn't
Speaker 3: see this and to see me working it out, or
Speaker 3: he just doesn't see it that often. But I'm living
Speaker 3: my life and assume that they understand. But you know,
Speaker 3: that's what we wanted them to do. We were spending
Speaker 3: five or six nights a week in the comedy scene.
Speaker 3: Wanted them to understand. So we started filming little bits
Speaker 3: and bobs, and the community at the time, everybody was
Speaker 3: looking for experience, directing, editing, you know, producing, So there
Speaker 3: were all hands on deck and we were all you know,
Speaker 3: most of us were in our twenties and had this
Speaker 3: energy to just try and go for it and fail
Speaker 3: and try again. And we found ourselves with like almost
Speaker 3: eighteen little webisodes in the beginning, and we this part
Speaker 3: is like a little more.
Speaker 2: More nuanceda how did you finance them? How did you
Speaker 2: shoot them and finance them? And how did you how
Speaker 2: did you pull that together. It's it's it's it's so
Speaker 2: like I said, it's just so d I y that
Speaker 2: I I find that just like I'm so impressed by
Speaker 2: that there was. It was when I was starting out.
Speaker 2: There was almost nothing that you could do that would
Speaker 2: be like.
Speaker 3: You know, babysitting and waitressing.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And we worked at a bakery and you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, I was a friendly waitress. Pretty good.
Speaker 2: Well that's a good start. That's a good start.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty good. I'm I'm a natural server. I still
Speaker 3: feel like a waitress sometimes in TV and film I
Speaker 3: was pretty good, pretty good, and uh yeah, that's how
Speaker 3: we financed them, and you know, just hustling and it
Speaker 3: was fun, you know, like paying rank and paying and
Speaker 3: then running out to shows and getting drink tickets or whatever.
Speaker 3: It was just it was like to remember that time
Speaker 3: now so it feels like the eighties, but it wasn't.
Speaker 3: You know, it feels like so long ago. For the
Speaker 3: way the world is now, people doing like TikTok and
Speaker 3: like corporate sponsorship. I don't even know how shit works.
Speaker 2: You know, Oh it is, That's what I'm saying. It's
Speaker 2: it seems like it seems so like invention of the
Speaker 2: wheel type type thing and not that long ago, you know,
Speaker 2: that's what's so interesting about it. But but I do
Speaker 2: think that you were really kind of like ahead of
Speaker 2: the curve in that whole show and then to have it,
Speaker 2: you know, blow up in the way that it did.
Speaker 2: And obviously those two women and that friendship between them
Speaker 2: and the stuff that you were dealing with and your
Speaker 2: point of view you know, spoke to a lot of
Speaker 2: young women and a lot of young people, I think, you.
Speaker 6: Know, yeah, yeah, for us, like this thing of like
Speaker 6: we found ourselves with eighteen webisodes and we were like,
Speaker 6: let's call that a season, and let's make a season two.
Speaker 3: And we had a party at the end of season
Speaker 3: one of the nine to two hy and a party
Speaker 3: at the end of season two, and that agency to
Speaker 3: contain our work, name it and claim it. To me
Speaker 3: actually saying this right now, it's something that I want
Speaker 3: to like take with my day. Like, you know, there
Speaker 3: was something in that agency and something in that selfhood,
Speaker 3: that personhood that I don't know fueled us forward, that
Speaker 3: pushed us forward. It wasn't just like something out here
Speaker 3: and something out there. We learned from season one to
Speaker 3: season two of our web series to make a release
Speaker 3: schedule so people would anticipate it, and it really mimicked
Speaker 3: the TV show where you know, then we always had that. Well,
Speaker 3: we ended up thirty five short films in two years
Speaker 3: we made for the web series, and we always had that,
Speaker 3: and then we made fifty episodes of television and yeah,
Speaker 3: five seasons, ten episodes each. We show around head wrote,
Speaker 3: start and ship out of it. Yeah, yeah, we did.
Speaker 3: It's now it's like it's so tender. It's like it's
Speaker 3: it's painful actually, you know, to think about the pain
Speaker 3: of all that creation and the strain on our relationship.
Speaker 3: It was impossible to be all the things all at once,
Speaker 3: you know, and at the time, I think it was
Speaker 3: hard to admit, you know, impressed. It was like I
Speaker 3: have friends, I have a friends, and it was like yeah,
Speaker 3: and we were we were partners and married and business sisters, you.
Speaker 2: Know, like I mean, yeah, running a business is different
Speaker 2: than running a friendship in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3: You know, definitely, definitely that.
Speaker 2: That can be confusing when you put that element in.
Speaker 2: But I also think that, you know, the other thing
Speaker 2: is being two young women and having complete agency over
Speaker 2: what you were doing. Is is just you know, so
Speaker 2: impressive and and and and even now when when we
Speaker 2: feel like we're trying to you know, move forward. You know,
Speaker 2: you look at the when you look at the numbers,
Speaker 2: and it's just unusual that you're that you know that
Speaker 2: that uh, you know, a woman is going to actually
Speaker 2: write and produce and show run and you know, do
Speaker 2: the whole thing. I mean, I think the the exceptions
Speaker 2: to the rule become so uh it's kind of famous
Speaker 2: for having done that, But but the numbers are still
Speaker 2: not very strong, so I thought, so I yeah, claudiate,
Speaker 2: I claudge you for both of you for being able
Speaker 2: to do that and also being able to sustain you know,
Speaker 2: any kind of friendship at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, thanks, I appreciate that. And like the gain
Speaker 3: in our friendship and this softness since Bread City ended,
Speaker 3: it's it's been you know, it was like ten years
Speaker 3: of our life from when we started the web series
Speaker 3: until we ended the show. Show and I ended the show,
Speaker 3: it was like I had been a third of my life.
Speaker 3: And it's been such a it's been so interesting, so
Speaker 3: much more of a feminine spirit. The softness, openness, and
Speaker 3: nuance since Bread City ended, it was so it's a
Speaker 3: natural unnecessary harshness to it. To create so much and
Speaker 3: be in charge of so much, it was it was
Speaker 3: really hard, but damn it was. It was a miraculous show,
Speaker 3: you know, the way like content, the way so much
Speaker 3: is becoming so divisive now and polarizing, like there's not
Speaker 3: Broad City could only have been made when it was
Speaker 3: made how it was made, And I'm so proud of
Speaker 3: it and obvious too. It's we're so it's it's miraculous
Speaker 3: to look to still be friends and to look back
Speaker 3: and be like, damn, I am so proud of that.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, it's nice to find things in your
Speaker 2: life that you're proud of. Sometimes I don't think I
Speaker 2: know for myself, it's it's a that's not something that
Speaker 2: you kind of like automatically lean into, you know, because
Speaker 2: I think there's sometimes we get these messages where you
Speaker 2: don't want to be too prideful, don't be too prideful,
Speaker 2: you know. But yeah, and you can have that perspective
Speaker 2: to look back and actually feel proud of something that
Speaker 2: you should feel proud of. I think that's awesome. Tell
Speaker 2: me about the the you said you're just going out
Speaker 2: on a tour. Is that a version of your special
Speaker 2: Your Planet is Burning?
Speaker 3: It's like my next hour. I was it was so funny.
Speaker 3: I was out in I was out doing stand up.
Speaker 3: My next tour after The Planets Burning came out, was
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty in March. So I got a bunch
Speaker 3: of dates, a bunch of dates up before it lockdown
Speaker 3: happened and the tour was canceled and we stopped. So
Speaker 3: and then I kept doing stand up for a couple
Speaker 3: of years during COVID and so now and then I
Speaker 3: had a baby, and so now my.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, I got a new hour.
Speaker 3: Thanks, I got a new hour. Then I'm bringing around
Speaker 3: the country this year and early next year, and yeah,
Speaker 3: it's my.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 3: Now I have maybe like fourteen or sixteen dates up,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to get fall dates up soon, like another.
Speaker 2: Sixteen because I play in a band and tour. I
Speaker 2: have to ask you, how do you feel about the road.
Speaker 2: It's a different kind of road than the than the
Speaker 2: road of an actor.
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, I actually like the road as a
Speaker 3: comedian more than as an actor. I like control and
Speaker 3: I love like knowing. I love controlling my time. So
Speaker 3: for me, stand up is uh, I feel more in
Speaker 3: control of my time and I get so excited. That's
Speaker 3: a different thing too, Like as an actor, you like
Speaker 3: explore a location through a project. But I really and honestly,
Speaker 3: I have less experience on the road as an actor
Speaker 3: as a stand up So maybe I prefer just because
Speaker 3: I know it. But what I love about stand up
Speaker 3: is that I get to see the people of the area,
Speaker 3: Like it's so charged. It's so it's such a privilege
Speaker 3: for me to like go and just get that like
Speaker 3: sort of whiff and that energy and that sense of
Speaker 3: a city is so cool. And you know, I guess
Speaker 3: like type of people like, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2: I was just going to say, it gives us a
Speaker 2: kind of perspective too, and if we're if we're coastal elites,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean to.
Speaker 3: I was just going to say, like the kind of
Speaker 3: people I draw, like, you know, I have this and
Speaker 3: I mean it's so funny like my we'll be talking
Speaker 3: about Generator later, but.
Speaker 7: Like my.
Speaker 3: Advocacy organization like has been my sort of stage to
Speaker 3: crystallize my own political views, which are and we touched
Speaker 3: on this. I have a real gene ed general education,
Speaker 3: Like I went to high school with three thousand kids
Speaker 3: on Long Island, Like you know, to me, school is
Speaker 3: about social education and learning because I went to public
Speaker 3: school for me and like schools where I learned how
Speaker 3: the system works, you know. And that's how I know
Speaker 3: how the world works now because of you know, a
Speaker 3: few people in power that you're like, are you sure
Speaker 3: you know whatever? You got to speak up whatever. So
Speaker 3: for me and the people that I draw, I'm always
Speaker 3: blown away by how progressive but not necessarily partisan. You know.
Speaker 3: I'm not like go democrats, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 3: I'm just like I love when people are loving, open
Speaker 3: hearted and believe that their neighbors deserve basic human rights.
Speaker 3: And when I go out and meet people around the country,
Speaker 3: that's the sense I get that most Americans want their
Speaker 3: fellow Americans to have clean water and access to healthcare
Speaker 3: and don't give a shit what they do in their bedrooms,
Speaker 3: how they dress, you know what I mean, what their
Speaker 3: expression is of their own body. And it's for me,
Speaker 3: it's so hopeful to go out on the road and
Speaker 3: see and connect with open hearted, open minded people who
Speaker 3: just want to laugh together. It's fucking spiritual.
Speaker 2: And and are you going to bring you your baby.
Speaker 3: No, So this is another thing about my like like
Speaker 3: why I love stand up traveling for stand up is
Speaker 3: like I'm going to just go two nights mass at
Speaker 3: a time and I can control that, and I don't
Speaker 3: want to bring my baby. It's like I like splitting
Speaker 3: my attention. I find it really hard. It's much easier
Speaker 3: for me to work when I go away, go to
Speaker 3: the office. I'm so I feel so like my heart
Speaker 3: is like on the outside of my chest when I'm
Speaker 3: around her. So it's it's better if I just go myself,
Speaker 3: do my thing and come back.
Speaker 2: I totally respect that. That's that's that's cool. That's cool.
Speaker 2: Like how old? How old is the baby?
Speaker 3: She's too?
Speaker 7: Now?
Speaker 2: Having heard that, did that? I mean I know that. Uh,
Speaker 2: I didn't really think that. Let's see, how can I
Speaker 2: put this. I mean when I was when I was
Speaker 2: real young, I was a little bit interested in things
Speaker 2: of a political nature when I was like twelve and thirteen.
Speaker 2: But once I really started my own career, I got
Speaker 2: I got very interesting things in a Kevin Bacon nature,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I was like so focused
Speaker 2: on making it and you know, being a star and
Speaker 2: you know the you know, like acquiring stuff and all
Speaker 2: those things. But after oh no, it's totally true. After
Speaker 2: my son was born, I think. And also I got
Speaker 2: married and had a kid, like within about a year,
Speaker 2: and oh wow. And Kira was already, you know, really
Speaker 2: focused when we met on climate which in those days
Speaker 2: was called global warming, and also having the child, I
Speaker 2: think both of us. She was already there. But I
Speaker 2: sort of had to say, Okay, I'm gonna step out
Speaker 2: of my own self a little bit and start, you know,
Speaker 2: reading the fucking paper, you know, at least aside from
Speaker 2: the Hollywood Reporter and and and so that was a
Speaker 2: pretty profound thing. But it sounds to me like you
Speaker 2: were already pretty politically and societally motivated before the birth
Speaker 2: of your child.
Speaker 3: You know. It's like I used to like put like
Speaker 3: reasons on it outside of my just the person that
Speaker 3: I am. Oh you know, I was. I was a
Speaker 3: minority growing up white, a white minority, and there and
Speaker 3: you know, there were brown and black and Asian people
Speaker 3: in my town who were a minority and had a
Speaker 3: much more challenging minority experience. But because I was a
Speaker 3: minority growing up, I have this you know point of view,
Speaker 3: or because I'm a woman, or because Long Island is
Speaker 3: really conservative, but it is just who I am to
Speaker 3: have that. I've always uh been drawn to basic human
Speaker 3: rights basically just like fairness for people to be treated
Speaker 3: appropriately and respectfully. But I did not I did not
Speaker 3: know that it was like political really until Broad City
Speaker 3: when the web series. When we were doing the web
Speaker 3: series and we were starting to get press as a
Speaker 3: web series, there was this one article by a writer
Speaker 3: named Megan Angelo who were with the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 3: and she said broad City is meek attack feminism. And
Speaker 3: I've used that phrase one thousand times ever since. But
Speaker 3: it's it was the feminist part that was arresting to
Speaker 3: Abby and I. We genuinely didn't know it was feminist, genuinely.
Speaker 3: It was just we were just being we were fish
Speaker 3: swimming in the water.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the big the more visible that the project got
Speaker 3: and the more reflection, I mean, it's it's it is
Speaker 3: such a privilege to me to be reflected in this way.
Speaker 3: People are like her characters by and I'm like, oh, really,
Speaker 3: I thought I was just queer and into different kinds
Speaker 3: of people and just into sex, sex positivity. You know,
Speaker 3: these phrases that are like these labels. Like so it's
Speaker 3: like so funny, you know, to be reflected in this
Speaker 3: way as part of a category or a thought leader
Speaker 3: what you know, Like I'm just like doing my thing
Speaker 3: and comedy in the old days, my god, Like really
Speaker 3: the old days when there were no smartphones to capture
Speaker 3: anything and people were being super fucking naughty on stage.
Speaker 3: A lot of it was shitty. A lot of it
Speaker 3: was misogyny. That's not that's not a joke. That's racist,
Speaker 3: that's not a joke, that's just sexist. But also like
Speaker 3: funny shit that was trans that was that was women
Speaker 3: doing naughty shit, that was men making fun of misogyny,
Speaker 3: you know. Like so like it was just this different
Speaker 3: time where there was less uh literally less looking at
Speaker 3: ourselves all day, looking at her own pictures all day.
Speaker 3: It is that is not natural for the brain, you know.
Speaker 3: So I feel like my coming to this consciousness is
Speaker 3: analogue at this point. But yeah, I've been told it's political.
Speaker 3: I've come to the understanding of how it's political come
Speaker 3: to harness that political charged, that political charge for activation.
Speaker 3: But in my personal life and even actually in my
Speaker 3: advocacy work, I'm now like coming back to a place
Speaker 3: where I'm like, it's not fucking political. It's not political
Speaker 3: to not hate.
Speaker 5: You know, we've actually used hate as a political tool.
Speaker 3: Like, I don't buy it. If you want to talk
Speaker 3: about the way that.
Speaker 5: We approach inflation, okay, that's politics.
Speaker 3: I don't want to do that paperwork. I'm actually that's
Speaker 3: what that's above my pay grade. But hate, you know,
Speaker 3: you're uncomfortable with your own with your own gender inside
Speaker 3: of you, so you want to take that out as
Speaker 3: violence on children who are expressing their gender freely. No,
Speaker 3: that's not politics, that's violence. That's cool, that's you know.
Speaker 3: And climate, the climate crisis. You want to deny the
Speaker 3: climate crisis. This isn't even reality, you know, Like I'm
Speaker 3: very like to me, it's like kind of about, uh,
Speaker 3: who on this planet is still operating within reality? That
Speaker 3: honestly is the majority? To me, that's the majority because
Speaker 3: such a small minority are actually benefiting from this twisted
Speaker 3: lie version of the world that I really I I do.
Speaker 3: I do have this like natural hope that most people,
Speaker 3: the majority of people are living in reality and want
Speaker 3: to Well, you.
Speaker 2: Mentioned that that's what you're kind of seeing out on
Speaker 2: the road, and so that's that that I think is
Speaker 2: is is one of the great benefits of being on
Speaker 2: the road. And you know, you you can really get
Speaker 2: get wound up in this idea that that that they're
Speaker 2: that the that the majority of people and the majority
Speaker 2: of what you're reading it really is hate based. And
Speaker 2: I agree with you that I just don't think.
Speaker 3: And that's part of the oppressive tool. That's the minority
Speaker 3: saying no, no, no will say you like, no, you won't.
Speaker 3: You're taking healthcare away from women, away from children, away
Speaker 3: from teenagers, the most vulnerable, Like that's part of the
Speaker 3: tool to make us scared, to make us paranoid and
Speaker 3: look at our neighbors fearfully. And it's not true, it's
Speaker 3: not true. That's a privilege. Also, I think of living
Speaker 3: in a place with a lot of people, that energy
Speaker 3: of you know, whether it's going on the road and
Speaker 3: speaking a lot of people or naturally stepping out onto
Speaker 3: the street and walking by a lot of people, like
Speaker 3: human nature. While hate is a part of human nature,
Speaker 3: that primal instinct of fear or wariness of people not
Speaker 3: like you, that's a human thing. It's not like that
Speaker 3: was made up and separate from our humanity. But this disproportionate,
Speaker 3: sort of like you know, costco amazoning of hate, the
Speaker 3: math produced cookie cutter version of hate. It's just it's unnatural.
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Speaker 2: Well, I think this is a good segue to bring
Speaker 2: Glennis out. Glennis Bahar, who you start a generator collective with? Well,
Speaker 2: before we speak about the organization and what you do,
Speaker 2: how did the two of you meet and how did
Speaker 2: you come up with this idea?
Speaker 3: Okay, so Glennis and I have a mutual best friend,
Speaker 3: our friend Matt, and when the election happened in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 3: we found ourselves saying how did this happen? How did
Speaker 3: this happen? Glennis had worked in DC and because of
Speaker 3: that I assumed she understood how she works in politics,
Speaker 3: and she was like, no, I have no fucking idea.
Speaker 3: And we found in our in We found that in
Speaker 3: talking our mutual indignance at how the system is made
Speaker 3: purposely elusive to make us feel like we are too
Speaker 3: dumb to be able to access it and make use
Speaker 3: of it. So we started the Generator Collective and it
Speaker 3: was it was a s faith to gather and talk
Speaker 3: about politics without shame for not knowing how shit works.
Speaker 3: You know, as a comedian, I have I am down
Speaker 3: for people to laugh at me, so I bite the
Speaker 3: bullet for the audience and say, I actually don't know
Speaker 3: how that simple thing works. I've heard about it a
Speaker 3: million times and I just don't know. And we started
Speaker 3: as like an online community, but moved in to a
Speaker 3: live event form where I interviewed activists and politicians and
Speaker 3: elected officials to ask them simple fucking questions. And also
Speaker 3: like ideally one hinges from one to the other. You know,
Speaker 3: Shirley Chisholm, the first Laft congresswoman, she was a community
Speaker 3: organizer first and then became a congress person. And that's
Speaker 3: the ideal politician to me. And then we uh in
Speaker 3: twenty two, then we started these dance parties where we
Speaker 3: host just like fifth dance parties, but we take breaks
Speaker 3: every thirty minutes to have an elected official come on
Speaker 3: stage and tell the audience about the next election, and
Speaker 3: to create a cheat sheet for the people who came
Speaker 3: so that you know, it's fucking hard. You have to
Speaker 3: like do research to find who to vote for, and
Speaker 3: sometimes you vote for you know, Okay, I'm voting along
Speaker 3: party lines, but actually this person might be a Democrat
Speaker 3: but they're whack. So to vote for the right people
Speaker 3: and to create a cheat sheet for the voting booth.
Speaker 8: So in twenty twenty, we had a hybrid tour where
Speaker 8: I was going on stand up and I was like,
Speaker 8: let's take Jenny socials on the road too, And when
Speaker 8: that got lockdown, we pivoted our Jenny social messaging to
Speaker 8: digital and created an online series called cheat Sheet for.
Speaker 3: The Voting Booth. We've been making digital messaging for to
Speaker 3: create cheat sheets in key states for elections from twenty
Speaker 3: twenty to twenty twenty two. That's my spiel, Glennis, Did
Speaker 3: I miss anything? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think there's just there's two kind of core tenants
Speaker 4: of Generator. I think Alana and I, you know, Alana
Speaker 4: assumed because I worked in DC. I worked for the
Speaker 4: Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, where I learned a
Speaker 4: lot very quickly. I was a fundraiser. I think I
Speaker 4: was twenty three or twenty four. I was working for
Speaker 4: Priorities USA Option, which was one of the first Democratic
Speaker 4: super PACs, and Democrats had created super PACs in response
Speaker 4: to Republicans creating super PACs. And I remember I think
Speaker 4: I had like one million dollars on my person walking
Speaker 4: back from the po box and I thought, this is
Speaker 4: disgusting corporate finance. Everything's awful. I'm going to go into
Speaker 4: the private sector. That was its own world right of
Speaker 4: six years and Alana and I were at the Cinner Party,
Speaker 4: and we woke up in a country that we felt
Speaker 4: like we didn't understand. And there's a reason for that,
Speaker 4: because politics government was made purposely elusive, and we wanted
Speaker 4: to create something that we felt there was a real
Speaker 4: need for, which was a space to feel that you
Speaker 4: could learn and not feel shame around learning, with the
Speaker 4: hopes of ultimately engaging more as a citizen. Because we're
Speaker 4: seeing how polarizing this hyperpartisan world is that we operate in,
Speaker 4: and that's not good for anyone. It's not good for
Speaker 4: how you feel, it's not good for human rights, it's
Speaker 4: not good for democracy. So, you know, post COVID and
Speaker 4: pivoting to digital media, we have really tried to use
Speaker 4: our social media platform to help more people engage with
Speaker 4: politics and in government in a way that does not polarizing.
Speaker 2: It's awesome. It's awesome. I loved in the materials when
Speaker 2: you talked about, you know, feeling kind of politically dumb.
Speaker 2: I could really kind of relate to that because I
Speaker 2: can tell you that, you know, I read the paper,
Speaker 2: and I have strong views about a lot of different things.
Speaker 2: But I really find myself terrified to enter into any
Speaker 2: kind of actual political discussions with anybody that I think
Speaker 2: is not in line with my way of thinking. And
Speaker 2: part of the reason is is because these days it
Speaker 2: seems like people will throw facts at you, and unless
Speaker 2: you've had the the unless you're someone that can hold
Speaker 2: on the facts, which I am not, I can't hold
Speaker 2: onto it. I can't hold on to anything factual. I
Speaker 2: can hold on the feelings. I can hold on to
Speaker 2: experiences or or or you know, I can drive to
Speaker 2: the store today, see that the sun is covered with
Speaker 2: smoke from Canada. But but to actually get into an
Speaker 2: argument about whether or not that's just a natural occurrence
Speaker 2: or is actually, uh, you know, a result of human
Speaker 2: climate change is like something that I find really kind
Speaker 2: of terrifying, I think, And I don't think I'm alone
Speaker 2: in that, and I certainly don't think I'm alone in
Speaker 2: that in terms of like young people in the country.
Speaker 2: And so I think that that's you know, when you
Speaker 2: when you when you focus on that, I find that
Speaker 2: really really interesting and.
Speaker 3: The exact thing feeling that's what like generator is. I
Speaker 3: think that's like the space that we're entering, like feeling politics.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't have to know facts to argue whether something
Speaker 3: is scientifically real or not. You know, Like I think
Speaker 3: that that the like news cycle and the divisive algorithms
Speaker 3: have made it such that we feel like we have.
Speaker 7: To have a book report to argue our our views,
Speaker 7: and it's it's just you're exactly dead on about the feeling,
Speaker 7: like yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And just to add to that, Alana and I
Speaker 4: talk a lot about these, you know, the political system
Speaker 4: being physically disenfranchising, like literally I think this year alone,
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty voter suppression laws have been you know,
Speaker 4: put out in state legislature, so you know that's physically happening,
Speaker 4: and then culturally, so many young people feel wildly disenfranchised
Speaker 4: because the system makes it impossible, to your point, Kevin,
Speaker 4: to engage with it. Because if you don't know one
Speaker 4: talking point, or someone else knows ten more talking points
Speaker 4: than you, why are you going to go into that conversation.
Speaker 4: You're gonna feel demoralized put down when really you just
Speaker 4: want to stand up for what's right. So a generator,
Speaker 4: we try and embrace that that energy of I want
Speaker 4: to vote for my neighbor in a way that is
Speaker 4: going to be centered in human rights and just doing
Speaker 4: more good for this country. And you know we do
Speaker 4: that mainly through digital media and just creating a culture
Speaker 4: by what you feel like you can share on your
Speaker 4: social media. Everyone has influence. Everyone has a platform, whether
Speaker 4: you have thirty followers or three point formula and like
Speaker 4: you have on TikTok I follow it's great. You know
Speaker 4: you have a voice and you should feel confident in
Speaker 4: using it to stand up for what you believe is right.
Speaker 2: On a personal noteletus, how did you sort of come
Speaker 2: to you know, want to do this with your life.
Speaker 4: You know, a great question. I got to bed every
Speaker 4: night wondering. Not really now, I don't know. I think
Speaker 4: just growing up, I've always this is going to sound
Speaker 4: so maybe immature, but you know, I love animals, I
Speaker 4: love people, and I've always, even at a young age,
Speaker 4: like standing up for what was right in a way
Speaker 4: that I was capable of doing was something that was
Speaker 4: important to me. When I first graduated, I went to
Speaker 4: school at EVM University of Vermont, where there's a very
Speaker 4: liberal leaning, you know, community based ideology, very you know, hippie.
Speaker 4: I went and I worked in DC and I thought,
Speaker 4: this is how I'm going to manifest that in my
Speaker 4: life by working in public policy and raising money for
Speaker 4: people that I think should be elected, and then kind
Speaker 4: of flifting the hood on that and seeing how the
Speaker 4: sausage is made. I said, no, not for me. But then,
Speaker 4: you know, being friends with Ilana, we had a real
Speaker 4: opportunity to use our strengths and create this thing that
Speaker 4: now I hope makes people feel more engaged and welcome into,
Speaker 4: like the democratic system.
Speaker 2: And am I wrong that you grew up on one
Speaker 2: of the stops on the Paoli Local.
Speaker 4: What's it Paoli local.
Speaker 2: Did you grow up on the main line?
Speaker 3: No, I don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh Abby, oh, Abby, Oh my god.
Speaker 3: I have to ask her if it's mine. Is so funny.
Speaker 4: I have friends you have, But I'm from Upstate New York.
Speaker 2: I'm from there, from upstate Yeah, oh that's okay, which
Speaker 2: which you know, it's interesting because Upstate New York correct
Speaker 2: me if I'm wrong is a pretty red area generally, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm from a town called Niskoona, which, strangely enough, G. E,
Speaker 4: R and D is headquartered in So we had a
Speaker 4: very diverse high school in terms of a lot of
Speaker 4: different nationalities, et cetera. But you know, living I live
Speaker 4: in New York City. In New York City is very much
Speaker 4: a coastal elye blue bubble, although we have a very
Speaker 4: very low voter turnout. I think in our last election
Speaker 4: made to seventeen percent voter turnout. And I always say,
Speaker 4: if you're in New Yorker and you have an opinion
Speaker 4: but you don't vote, you can't have the opinion because
Speaker 4: that's the only way you can show up to I know.
Speaker 4: It's truly truly insane.
Speaker 2: I think everybody just assumes it's gonna it's gonna go
Speaker 2: one way, and so they don't really you know, make
Speaker 2: their voice heard. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: But then you go on Twitter and everyone's saying something
Speaker 4: about their elected official when there is a primary. There's
Speaker 4: actually a primary June twenty sixth or twenty seventh, I.
Speaker 2: Know, but I've sent my ballove is on the way.
Speaker 4: I love it. We love to see it, yes, but yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean the state itself. My family has a farm
Speaker 4: in Cambridge, New York, which is the New York Vermont border.
Speaker 4: And you know, there's different wants and needs of a
Speaker 4: voter in overall county than there is in you know,
Speaker 4: a city. So and I think you spit in a
Speaker 4: lot of states across the country that the cities are
Speaker 4: these hubs for more progressive ideologies for whatever reason, and
Speaker 4: then you go on to the states and there's different realities.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm always I always think it's admirable when and
Speaker 2: you know, the strange thing about that I always think
Speaker 2: about politics is that, you know, in its best incarnation,
Speaker 2: you get into it because you want to affect some
Speaker 2: kind of positive change, and time and time again we
Speaker 2: see that that doesn't always end up being the case.
Speaker 2: You know, you people get into it that once they're there,
Speaker 2: it really becomes more about holding onto a gig than
Speaker 2: than about actually, you know, staying talking about something that
Speaker 2: you believe in. So I think that working in a
Speaker 2: way on the fringes of it not being an elected official,
Speaker 2: not that I wouldn't vote for you, a Glennis, but
Speaker 2: that both of you are starting doing this thing, which
Speaker 2: is you know, outside of the actual uh elected position,
Speaker 2: I think is a really positive, positive thing and you know,
Speaker 2: can be very powerful. What's what's up next for for
Speaker 2: what is what is the future for for Generator Collective?
Speaker 2: But what's the what's the what's the game plan?
Speaker 4: Well, we're always fundraising. That's the one thing about running
Speaker 4: a nonprofit is you're always fundraising by how.
Speaker 2: Do you find how do you find that piece of it?
Speaker 2: Let me just ask you that is it?
Speaker 4: How do I find that piece? I flip a lot
Speaker 4: of mattresses. Now you ask a lot of high net
Speaker 4: worth individuals who are committed to the cause for contributions,
Speaker 4: family foundations, different foundations. It's a lot of meetings, a
Speaker 4: lot of phone calls, a lot of cold calls, cold emails,
Speaker 4: and just selling the dream right, you know, what you say,
Speaker 4: being on the fringes is uh refreshing, and it's sometimes
Speaker 4: I think Alana Night, we laugh and we we think
Speaker 4: we're delusional because we just keep pushing and pushing and pushing,
Speaker 4: because we believe in what we're doing and what we're building,
Speaker 4: even after so many no's. I imagine it's not on
Speaker 4: like being in the entertainment space where you're consistently auditioning
Speaker 4: or you know, trying to get roles or projects launched
Speaker 4: and you get no, no, no. But you know, we
Speaker 4: believe in it, and we also think that for our
Speaker 4: audience it's important that we hold no. We don't know.
Speaker 4: We don't want to run for office. We were not academics,
Speaker 4: but we're not policy wonks or experts. We're here to
Speaker 4: help you learn alongside with us. Not we're going to
Speaker 4: talk at you about a certain thing, but and that
Speaker 4: to that end, we're currently working on a new web
Speaker 4: series called microdos Democracy, which, if funded and produced, would
Speaker 4: be a policy focused digital web series. I will live
Speaker 4: on social media, so on TikTok, on Instagram in short
Speaker 4: size bits, you know, true to the name microdosing these
Speaker 4: different things that we can all do as citizens to
Speaker 4: help strengthen our democracy, looking at how our democracy functions,
Speaker 4: some issues there may be. So that's ideally what's next.
Speaker 3: We kind of want a microdose for gen Z and
Speaker 3: millennials the election coming up, rather than have being screened
Speaker 3: at last minute before the election and such a volatile
Speaker 3: experience as an American every four years to be screamed at.
Speaker 3: And yeah, just kind of prepare everyone to do some
Speaker 3: minimals of a engagement to activate. You don't have to
Speaker 3: sign up and become some full time volunteer, but yeah,
Speaker 3: education and minimal activation.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that. That sounds absolutely great.
Speaker 2: I think it's amazing what you've done in this partnership.
Speaker 2: I'm very, very in awe of it. Is there a
Speaker 2: call to action, a website, a spot where people can
Speaker 2: can can get the information or get involved or donate
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, people can follow us on social media. Instagram is
Speaker 4: our main and communication tool. We are at Generator Collective
Speaker 4: so that people can find us there. We have a
Speaker 4: sign up for emails. We never email people because everyone
Speaker 4: gets twenty thousand emails a day, but you can see
Speaker 4: any news or information on our Instagram.
Speaker 2: What else is there on the Instagram? What else are
Speaker 2: we going to see news information?
Speaker 4: Are there bits news information? You'll see our past web series.
Speaker 4: So we did cheat sheet for the midterms for twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two, cheat sheet for the voting booth to see
Speaker 4: the type of content that we create. A lot of memes,
Speaker 4: a lot of memes, a lot of TikTok voiceovers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we really feel like, you know, the the
Speaker 3: side that is like using fear and hate as a
Speaker 3: tool is actually like winning these culture wars. And what
Speaker 3: we'd like to see is, you know, human rights politics
Speaker 3: start to use media and culture more effective, playing to
Speaker 3: point people to actually organizing around electoral work. So you know,
Speaker 3: that's what we're is, that's what we're focused on, is
Speaker 3: changing the culture.
Speaker 2: I love it changing the culture. Well, Elana Glazer, Glennis Mahart,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2: This has been both extremely fascinating, educational and entertaining and.
Speaker 3: I really appreciate it such a pleasure talking. Thanks for
Speaker 3: having us.
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of six
Speaker 2: Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn more
Speaker 2: about Generator Collective and all the good work that they
Speaker 2: are up to, head to their website at generator Collective
Speaker 2: dot com. You can find all the links in our
Speaker 2: show notes and remember.
Speaker 9: Get out there, participate in democracy by voting today, get
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