Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central coming to you from New
Speaker 1: York City, the only city in America. It's the Daily
Speaker 1: Show tonight. The high cost of gas, the high cost
Speaker 1: of wedding, andrew a garment. It's the Daily Show with
Speaker 1: driver Noel. What's come about? Everybody looking to the day
Speaker 1: shot travel no Thank you so much for shooting it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming out of home, Thank you for
Speaker 1: coming and join and take a sea. Let's do it
Speaker 1: you We're the rarely fun show for you Tonight. President
Speaker 1: Biden is stepping on the gas. Louis Black is getting
Speaker 1: ready for a wedding season, and call Risk has agreed
Speaker 1: on gun reforms that are somehow a huge deal and
Speaker 1: a huge disappointment at the same time. So let's do
Speaker 1: this people, Let's jump straight into today's headlines art. Let's
Speaker 1: kick things off with gasoline or a scientists call it
Speaker 1: dinosaur pep. Over the past few months, global demand for
Speaker 1: oil has kept rising faster than the supply, to the
Speaker 1: point where the price of gas in the United States
Speaker 1: is now six babillion dollars a gallant, So drivers are hurting.
Speaker 1: The good news is that, as always, President Biden wants
Speaker 1: to help the bad news is that, as always, it
Speaker 1: doesn't look like he can. The President this afternoon called
Speaker 1: on Congress the temporarily suspend the federal gas tax, which
Speaker 1: is right now about eighteen Santa Gallen. It's a move
Speaker 1: President Biden has resisted until today, given that it is
Speaker 1: unlikely to pass Congress. Will officials say a gas tax
Speaker 1: holiday is worth considering. There is a cost. Those funds
Speaker 1: are used for repairing roads and infrastructure, important priorities across
Speaker 1: the country. What the President wants is a three month
Speaker 1: gas tax holiday on both regular gas and diesel going
Speaker 1: into September. You also want states to pass their similar
Speaker 1: versions of that gas tax holiday. The President also had
Speaker 1: a word specifically here for the oil companies. Here's what
Speaker 1: he said, Bring down the press you are charging at
Speaker 1: the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for
Speaker 1: the product. Do it now? Do it today? Why are
Speaker 1: you talking about that? Is this a secret? Should the
Speaker 1: rest of us be listening? Where does he do that thing?
Speaker 1: It's so strange, like Joe Biden is the only president
Speaker 1: whose vibe shifts in the middle of a sentence. Oil companies,
Speaker 1: you better lower the prices, please use I'm begging you.
Speaker 1: If your presidents. You just gotta say things otherwise it
Speaker 1: makes you look weak. You know, you can't be like
Speaker 1: Mr Garbage chev turn down this wall if you get
Speaker 1: around to it. It's such an ugly wall, or at
Speaker 1: least painted. Come on, you know. I feel like this
Speaker 1: is the big difference between Trump and Biden. You know,
Speaker 1: it's how they use their power. Because with Trumpet was
Speaker 1: always like ship is he gonna use his power? And
Speaker 1: with Biden it's like a ship is he gonna use
Speaker 1: his power? Also, whoever decided to call it a gas
Speaker 1: tax holiday? That person should be fired. It's not a holiday.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? It's a gas tax holiday? No,
Speaker 1: it's just be like, we're not charging gas a gas
Speaker 1: tax holiday. That's the worst holiday of all time? Or
Speaker 1: do you save eighteen cents off of gas and I
Speaker 1: still have to go to work? Are you shipping me?
Speaker 1: Even a day is better than that ship? And this
Speaker 1: is what always confuses me about this country. Right everywhere
Speaker 1: in the world, governments managed to protect their populations from
Speaker 1: corporate greed, Right like South Africa will limit how high
Speaker 1: bread prices can go. The EU will be like you
Speaker 1: cannot pump chickens with the same hormones they use in
Speaker 1: the Hulk in China, they're like Crypto has done and
Speaker 1: no more dancing on TikTok, only homework. But whenever the
Speaker 1: American government has to deal with corporations, they've got about
Speaker 1: as much power as a tortoise that's stuck on its back.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just like, come on, oil companies, come on,
Speaker 1: pass on your savings. Drug companies don't over judge, but
Speaker 1: life saving drugs, please clear. But still, this is good
Speaker 1: news for Americans. Instead of the gas tax going to
Speaker 1: maintaining roads and infrastructure, drivers will now save eighteen cents
Speaker 1: per gallon, and then you can use those savings to
Speaker 1: buy a new car after yours get swallowed up by
Speaker 1: a pothole. But let's move on to a different problem
Speaker 1: facing practically everyone in America. Gun violence. There have been
Speaker 1: many mass shootings in America over the past couple of decades,
Speaker 1: and after each one, people have always said, maybe this
Speaker 1: time will be different, maybe Congress will do something about this,
Speaker 1: And every time Congress was like no. Ever since the
Speaker 1: mass shooting in Buffalo and you've aldi lost month, a
Speaker 1: group of sentences from both parties have been working together
Speaker 1: to see if they can find any common ground on
Speaker 1: gun reform. And it turns out this time is different,
Speaker 1: ever so slightly. This morning, after decades of partisan gridlock,
Speaker 1: a major breakthrough in Congress, fourteen Republicans joining all fifty
Speaker 1: Democrats to advance a new compromise on gun restrictions. This
Speaker 1: is a breakthrough, and more importantly, it's a bipartisan breakthrough.
Speaker 1: The deal includes enhanced background checks for people between eighteen
Speaker 1: and twenty one, closing the so called boyfriend loophole, preventing
Speaker 1: romantic partners convicted of domestic violence from buying guns, directing
Speaker 1: more money for states to implement their own plans to
Speaker 1: address gun violence, and billions for school security upgrades and
Speaker 1: mental health services. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls
Speaker 1: the deal a common sense package of popular steps that
Speaker 1: will helped make these horrifying incidents less likely. Will fully
Speaker 1: upholding the Second Amendment. Oh, I agree with, sending Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 1: Thank god, the prescious Second Amendment has been preserved. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm all for protecting kids, but the Second Amendment?
Speaker 1: Oh have you seen that little face? Have you seen it? Who?
Speaker 1: Checking Amendment? Are you? Who? Checking Amendment? Are you you do?
Speaker 1: You're durable? Sometimes I feel like Americans want to protect
Speaker 1: the Constitution more than they want to protect the Americans
Speaker 1: the Constitution is supposed to protect. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad we could protect the Second Amendment. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you know, if the Second Amendment was in that
Speaker 1: classroom in your valley, the cops would have bust the
Speaker 1: door down, with Mitch McConnell right behind them. Her ah,
Speaker 1: And I will say, Look, I know for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, it can be hard to know how to
Speaker 1: feel about this deal because it doesn't include a lot
Speaker 1: of things that people want. You know, it doesn't ban
Speaker 1: assault rifles, it doesn't raise age limits. It doesn't even
Speaker 1: do universal background checks, which is the most basic thing imaginable.
Speaker 1: So for some of this kind of thing, you know,
Speaker 1: it feels like trying to stop Godzilla by dropping a
Speaker 1: few mouse traps around the city. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, after three decades of nothing happening,
Speaker 1: this deal is something. Please remember that it is something.
Speaker 1: It's not going to solve everything, but it's something, and
Speaker 1: something is always better than nothing. That's the entire philosophy
Speaker 1: behind the hand job. All right, let's move on. And
Speaker 1: you've been out to New York City over the past
Speaker 1: few years, especially pandemic, and through it you've probably noticed
Speaker 1: a wild new phenomenon. And no, I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: how the stuff dripping from air conditions doesn't taste as
Speaker 1: good as is used to, which you know it really
Speaker 1: bothers me. Do you sound like a flavor? It had
Speaker 1: a tang when it was like falling your mouth. No,
Speaker 1: the problem I'm talking about is the squads of dirt
Speaker 1: bikes and a t vs flooding the streets inside walks
Speaker 1: like Trump supporters trying to find Mike Pence. Well, now,
Speaker 1: the Mayor of New York City has decided to crush
Speaker 1: this problem literally today, having machinery crushed to illegal a
Speaker 1: t v s, dirt bikes and motorcycles confiscated by the NYPD,
Speaker 1: Mayor Eric Adams waved checkered flag and work began. He
Speaker 1: said this effort was to ensure these vehicles cannot ever
Speaker 1: terrorize the city again. The NYPD says that it has
Speaker 1: ceased more than two thousand of these vehicle citywide, an
Speaker 1: increase of more than eight percent from this time last year.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, baby crushed those blacks. That's what I want
Speaker 1: from my city government. Yeah, I don't even care about
Speaker 1: the undefunded schools anymore because this ship rocks. By the way,
Speaker 1: why is he waving a checkered flag at the beginning
Speaker 1: of a race? Does he not understand how a race works?
Speaker 1: Kind of truck is like, I've I've finished already. Now look,
Speaker 1: I will admit as a New Yorker humble bragg. Maybe
Speaker 1: this isn't the biggest problem the city is facing right now.
Speaker 1: You know, rents are driving people out of their homes,
Speaker 1: Traffic is always bad, and the subways are always shutting
Speaker 1: down because I think we have trains that are scared
Speaker 1: of the dock or something. Yeah, yeah, no, I think
Speaker 1: that's what it is in New York, you see, because
Speaker 1: they find and then they go into a tunnel and
Speaker 1: then they're just like, ah, you guys should walk. I
Speaker 1: don't know what there is a scary In fact, instead
Speaker 1: of crushing these bikes, maybe the city could have used
Speaker 1: them to solve some of the city's problems, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, this could have been a solution to the
Speaker 1: subway problem. Instead of those trains that always breaking down.
Speaker 1: Just drop a bunch of dirt bikes into the tunnel.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, let people we need to work, or
Speaker 1: give them to the police so they don't have to
Speaker 1: ride horses anymore. What are you doing stopping criming the
Speaker 1: eighteen fifties, there are cattle russells on Broadway or just higher.
Speaker 1: The dirt bike used to ride around neighborhoods where the
Speaker 1: rents have gotten unaffordable. Helped keep the prices down. The
Speaker 1: studio apartment with no back room. You want it, you
Speaker 1: want it. It costs six thousand dollars a month one dinging.
Speaker 1: All right, give me fifty bucks. You can have it.
Speaker 1: And finally, if you want of those people who really
Speaker 1: likes to vape, first of all, congratulations on being basic.
Speaker 1: A Second of all, you might want to stock up
Speaker 1: because your supply is about to run out. One of
Speaker 1: the largest makers of e cigarettes may soon be forced
Speaker 1: to stop selling its products in this country. The Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal says the FDA could order Jewel e cigarettes
Speaker 1: off the market as soon as today. The FDA is
Speaker 1: criticized Jewel for gearing its products towards young people, and
Speaker 1: already barred the sale of fruity and sweet eat cigarette cartridges,
Speaker 1: Jewel and hoped to continue selling tobacco flavors. It can
Speaker 1: appeal if the FDA does hand down that band as expected.
Speaker 1: That's right, people, Jewel et cigarettes are about to be banned.
Speaker 1: So your days of going around looking like you're blowing
Speaker 1: R two D two are over. But this is a
Speaker 1: big move by the FDA because you realize Jewel is
Speaker 1: the iconic vaping brand. So by them doing this, it's
Speaker 1: like going off the soda by banning coke, or going
Speaker 1: off to coke by banning Don Junior. All right, that's
Speaker 1: it for the headlines, but before we go, let's check
Speaker 1: it on the traffic without very own Royal Junior. Everybody
Speaker 1: what to see me again? We're going good? Yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 1: I'm good now. I know we want to get to
Speaker 1: the traffic man. But that that brings up a good point.
Speaker 1: Am I am? I supposed to be excited about eight
Speaker 1: teens that off the gas? I guess they want you
Speaker 1: to be excited. I don't know. I don't feel like
Speaker 1: that's a lot. I'm sure eighteen sent off. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's a lot of gas where you from. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's like a lot of gas because I'm from Africa.
Speaker 1: You said it, not me like I feel like eighteens.
Speaker 1: It's like it's a nice gesture, but it ain't really
Speaker 1: doing nothing. Expart when your grandma still give you ten
Speaker 1: dollars for your birthday and I'm like, I'm forty three,
Speaker 1: What amnna do with these ten dollars? This ain't even
Speaker 1: a sandwich, ain't even Oh you're looking at you want
Speaker 1: to do the traffic? You know what to fix this traffic?
Speaker 1: Because like perfect thing about the gas right? All right,
Speaker 1: so gases up because everybody consuming gas? Right, people consume
Speaker 1: gas because they stuck in traffic. They ain't really moving.
Speaker 1: What gives you good gas mileage? Motion the car moving.
Speaker 1: So the way you get to fix the traffic. All
Speaker 1: green lights, every light, every intersection of America, green lights,
Speaker 1: same time traffic moved. I think that would create another problem, though,
Speaker 1: what's the problem. What because it's all the green lights,
Speaker 1: than like the cause are probably gonna smash into each
Speaker 1: other even better, even better car smash your car. Don't
Speaker 1: run now you're walking saving gas? You understanding it's that hurt?
Speaker 1: Mean all grew lights. Look at all these motorcycles. Why
Speaker 1: we didn't just sell motorcycles to these people. What what
Speaker 1: countries that even I don't know, a country with traffic,
Speaker 1: I don't understand. Why Why would the city of New
Speaker 1: York not just sell the bikes? Police love to put
Speaker 1: stuff out and then just tear it up. Man, you
Speaker 1: could have sold them bikes for parts. You could have
Speaker 1: took them to another country or some ship. Man, why
Speaker 1: would you get rid of the I bet you they
Speaker 1: ain't even siph in the gas off the bikes before
Speaker 1: they crashed the start. Man, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I'm from Alabama, man, I'm from Alabama. The police down
Speaker 1: there they do something called the police auction. The police
Speaker 1: take your ship and then once everything too three times
Speaker 1: a year they just have a yard sale and they
Speaker 1: just sell everybody's stuff. And that's how you make a
Speaker 1: little bit of bread. You don't burn the stuff up, man,
Speaker 1: Like would they be burning into the drugs. They'd be
Speaker 1: burning up the drugs. Why would you burn that cocaine?
Speaker 1: Oh that good cocaine. Maybe you can bag that up.
Speaker 1: You can take that down to Knoxville. Holliday, big mix.
Speaker 1: He got two plugs from the Salvadorian As. When you
Speaker 1: get that and shift where if you cut it the
Speaker 1: right way, you can get a couple of extra dollars
Speaker 1: and stretch that you're gonna incriminate yourself that say, let's
Speaker 1: jump to the traffic. That's bad to the traffic. You
Speaker 1: know what the jewels people have been stuff the jewel
Speaker 1: the jewels cigarette people. They may try too hard to
Speaker 1: sell the children. You can't just go right at the children.
Speaker 1: That's what happened to Joe Campbell. That's why they got
Speaker 1: Joe Camel out of here. You remember Joe Cambell. You
Speaker 1: remember the camel cigarettes They had to dude. I remember
Speaker 1: the sixth grade. Everybody either wanted to be Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: or Joe Cammel. That's who you wanted to be. It
Speaker 1: was a camel. He had shades, he had a leather
Speaker 1: jacket on, he had a white woman on his own.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's the man. Also, also that the
Speaker 1: thing with jewel man, it's the people who smoke the six.
Speaker 1: This they fault y'all had all this time to normalize
Speaker 1: the six. But every time you ever seen somebody pulling
Speaker 1: e c out, they look weird. They we you know,
Speaker 1: in the Kilton. Then they put it back down. Then
Speaker 1: they look at the floor when they're hitting it. While
Speaker 1: you looking at the floor, look up at me. That's
Speaker 1: a that's addiction behavior. You don't look down. Smokers look
Speaker 1: you in the eyes. Smoking. Also, when people smoke a cigarette,
Speaker 1: they don't smoke in the center. They're like, you gotta
Speaker 1: this is cool. You gotta smoke in the corner of
Speaker 1: your mouth. You don't smoke nothing. This is a crack pipe.
Speaker 1: Let's just crack pipe. This is cool. This is meth
Speaker 1: and that's why people be tripping on them jewel cigarettes. Back.
Speaker 1: You can't be you won't look cool. You're smoke around
Speaker 1: the corner. I hear you that, man, I hear that.
Speaker 1: I'm just man, it's a nice traffic, man. What do
Speaker 1: you What do you want me to say about the traffic?
Speaker 1: Let's people people like every wing because people, what do
Speaker 1: you want me to say? People like want to know
Speaker 1: what roads to drive on, not this one. Don't drop
Speaker 1: on this one. You know what I think? Thank you little.
Speaker 1: When we come back now it's black, we'll be talking
Speaker 1: about weddings, So don't go away. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: day show. When a news story falls through the cracks,
Speaker 1: Lewis Black catches it for a segment we called back
Speaker 1: in Black. Wedding season is here, everyone, my favorite time
Speaker 1: of year. The brides and radiant and grooms are terrified,
Speaker 1: and I'm in the photo booth letting my artistic side out.
Speaker 1: My nipple rings really pop in a wedding album. And
Speaker 1: it's a great time for someone who loves love as
Speaker 1: much as I do. Because this year there are more
Speaker 1: weddings than ever. Two is going to be a record year.
Speaker 1: They're talking about two point five million weddings set to
Speaker 1: take place, the biggest number since numbers up by six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. One out of every five weddings last year
Speaker 1: was rescheduled for this year, which means everything from dresses
Speaker 1: to venues to hotel rooms are in high demand. Planning
Speaker 1: to marry then get ready to rumble. You can kiss
Speaker 1: the romantic venues goodbye because the only one left is
Speaker 1: the octagon, and you're gonna have to choke someone out
Speaker 1: for it. And I guess that's America for you. It's
Speaker 1: easier to get a shotgun than it is to get
Speaker 1: a shotgun wedding. But at least post pandemic marriages are
Speaker 1: gonna be strong. After all, most of these couples have
Speaker 1: been through lockdown together, they already know they can spend
Speaker 1: hours in the same room watching TV without speaking to
Speaker 1: each other until one of them falls asleep and the
Speaker 1: other one can finally masturbate in peace, you know. Marriage.
Speaker 1: Of course, even if you manage to find an aisle
Speaker 1: to walk down this year, guess what it's gonna cost you,
Speaker 1: and the cost of tie the knot astronomical. All of
Speaker 1: the vendors really didn't have any sort of income for
Speaker 1: almost two years, so they are really trying to make
Speaker 1: up for that lost revenue that, coupled with supply chain
Speaker 1: issues and inflation, have sent prices soaring. Couples will spend
Speaker 1: an average of more than twenty four thousand dollars on
Speaker 1: their wedding this year, up nearly two thousand dollars from
Speaker 1: last year. But it's not just the bride and groom.
Speaker 1: Guests should expect to spend more to as a record
Speaker 1: travel season boost demand for flights, hotel rooms, and rental cars.
Speaker 1: That's Matt Tressler from Louisville, Kentucky, and this is his
Speaker 1: tenth wet so far this summer. Weekend after weekend he's
Speaker 1: showing out for gifts, gas, hotels and more. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say any exact number, but let's just say
Speaker 1: it was like four digits. Have had to buy a
Speaker 1: lot of suits for weddings and hate to brag. I'm
Speaker 1: a professional wedding guests on the Wedding King. Wedding King
Speaker 1: is Yiddish for schmuck funny funny. Four thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: a wedding me hard. But that price you won't have
Speaker 1: anything left for the divorce lawyer. And thanks to the
Speaker 1: price of gas, even get getting to a wedding costs
Speaker 1: and arm and a leg. Guess is so expensive you
Speaker 1: can bring it as a wedding gift and make sure
Speaker 1: you hold on to it, though your grandkids can sell
Speaker 1: it to a warlord for water. So with all the
Speaker 1: logistical and financial challenges, it's no wonder that some couples
Speaker 1: are finding creative ways to save money. Weddings can cost fortune.
Speaker 1: The national average close to thirty grand and in Kira
Speaker 1: and Joel's home state of California, the average is even higher.
Speaker 1: Dress is check. So how did Kiera pull it off?
Speaker 1: She started with the dress, which costs just forty seven dollars.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to spend a lot of money on
Speaker 1: a dress because I had the mindset, I'm gonna wear
Speaker 1: this one time for a few hours. Then she found
Speaker 1: the perfect location right off the freeway. Keyword being free.
Speaker 1: A wedding by the freeway genius. I found love on
Speaker 1: the side of the road loads of times, and never
Speaker 1: once did I think to invite a photographer, and I
Speaker 1: definitely wouldn't have invited my grandmother. But even if you
Speaker 1: beat the costs in the crowds, there's one more thing
Speaker 1: you need to worry about, the COVID one nelliwa couple
Speaker 1: didn't want to reschedule their already postponed wedding. Understandable, there
Speaker 1: was option with the groom tested positive for COVID. It
Speaker 1: happened just three days before, so the bride still attended
Speaker 1: the wedding, but took this cardboard cutout of her groom instead.
Speaker 1: The couple says it was their way of making the
Speaker 1: best of a very disappointing situation after their numptials had
Speaker 1: already been rescheduled several times throughout the course of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, though, the groom didn't completely miss out on
Speaker 1: all the fun and festivities it did show up on
Speaker 1: screen in the ballroom as a surprise to his bride. Look,
Speaker 1: if you find yourself dancing with a cutout, you're certifiably insane.
Speaker 1: And what does it say about the groom? Then he
Speaker 1: can be replaced by a cardboard cutout and nobody seems
Speaker 1: the care and the bride is in for a rude
Speaker 1: awakening because there's no way the husband is ever gonna
Speaker 1: live up to that cutout. It's well dressed, it listens,
Speaker 1: and it has a flat stomach. It's a total package. Now,
Speaker 1: if you'll excuse me, Trevor, I've got a wedding to
Speaker 1: get to. Some assholes getting married to a woman he
Speaker 1: doesn't even like. Those idiots have decided to make it
Speaker 1: a destination wedding. Oh wow, Louis who who's getting married?
Speaker 1: I am? And I gotta pick up my bride at Kenko's.
Speaker 1: Who is black? Everyone back? Welcome back to the Data Show.
Speaker 1: My guest tonight is best selling author Angela Gobbess. She's
Speaker 1: here to talk about her new book, Essential Labor, which
Speaker 1: reflects on the state of caregiving in America and explores
Speaker 1: mothering as a means of social change. So please welcome
Speaker 1: Angela Gobbess to say, people, welcome to the show. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you Trevor for having Are you kidding me? Thank
Speaker 1: you for writing one of the most fascinating books on
Speaker 1: a topic that I I love delving into because I
Speaker 1: feel like it is the roots of everything, and that
Speaker 1: is mothering. I'm glad that you see that we share vibe. Right,
Speaker 1: But let's let's start with with the you know, the
Speaker 1: title of the book, essential Labor. You wrote this book,
Speaker 1: you know, based on an article that got acclaim from everyone,
Speaker 1: I mean mothers all over the country. Ready, some people
Speaker 1: around the world, really, even people like Melinda Gates and
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren chimed and said, yeah, this is this is
Speaker 1: spot on. What do you think people have been missing
Speaker 1: about mothering for so long? Sure? I mean I wrote
Speaker 1: this book, you know. Part of it came out of
Speaker 1: the grief and loss that I felt at the start
Speaker 1: of the pandemic um As a writer, I had sort
Speaker 1: of nebulous deadlines and I didn't get a regular paycheck
Speaker 1: or health insurance. But my husband's job gave us that,
Speaker 1: so I basically stopped writing. And because child Our Centers closed,
Speaker 1: I was taking care of my kids and I knew
Speaker 1: that that was the most important work I could be doing. Um,
Speaker 1: But it also I felt like I wasn't getting any
Speaker 1: recognition for it. We were hearing about essential workers, healthcare workers,
Speaker 1: sanitation workers, who are yes, essential, but we were never
Speaker 1: hearing about parents who were working twenty four seven, trying
Speaker 1: to take care of their families, trying to keep communities safe. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's really where like, this is what I like,
Speaker 1: what I know you understand is that domestic work, mothering. Um,
Speaker 1: we do it to ourselves every day, feeding ourselves, taking
Speaker 1: a shower without care. Work and domestic labor, you know,
Speaker 1: this is the work that makes all other work possible.
Speaker 1: The idea that domestic labor is somehow less valuable than
Speaker 1: quote unquote professional work. I just think it's a myth.
Speaker 1: You don't, you don't what you what you tap into
Speaker 1: in this book is so powerful because it even goes
Speaker 1: to let's say somebody's like a rampant capitalist. They go like,
Speaker 1: the country is to make money. We gotta get people
Speaker 1: out there, we gotta and yet they don't want the
Speaker 1: policies that support mothers in doing that. So you see mothers,
Speaker 1: you know, you talk about in the book way they
Speaker 1: have to choose, am I going to be a mom?
Speaker 1: Or am I going to find somebody to be a
Speaker 1: mom to my child? I can't afford them. This is
Speaker 1: so many you know, we talked about this care crisis
Speaker 1: that was exposed in the pandemic. Right when childcare centers
Speaker 1: and schools closed down. We were lost. People didn't know
Speaker 1: what to do. But many of us have always known that,
Speaker 1: you know, until your child is aged six in America,
Speaker 1: you're really on your own. And there are many people
Speaker 1: who are choosing between should I put my child in
Speaker 1: daycare or should I work? Because it's really about the
Speaker 1: same amount of money, right But so studies have been done.
Speaker 1: So ox Fan has a study that if women in
Speaker 1: America were paid minimum wage for the amount of domestic
Speaker 1: labor that they do unpaid right now, it would be
Speaker 1: worth one point nine trillion dollars per year. So that's
Speaker 1: talk about putting you know, a value on that like
Speaker 1: that is part of our economy and that's a thing
Speaker 1: that we just have not reckoned with in this country.
Speaker 1: Our country, American capital them realize just as much on
Speaker 1: the labor that happens in the home as any other
Speaker 1: labor that happens in the office or on a job site.
Speaker 1: And other countries have have done that in many ways.
Speaker 1: You know, when you see countries like Sweden, countries like Switzerland,
Speaker 1: et cetera, they've got different methods of doing it, but
Speaker 1: they'll say this is so valuable to the country that
Speaker 1: we will pay a mother, will make sure that the
Speaker 1: government is supporting a mother, because you know, you talk
Speaker 1: about this in the book, and it's really fascinating to
Speaker 1: get into. Is like everything that we struggle with in society,
Speaker 1: whether it's crime, you know, whether it's poverty, whether it's
Speaker 1: mental issues, etcetera. You can link so many of those things. Absolutely, yes,
Speaker 1: when you invest. So I believe that raising children, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a choice that people make to have kids or
Speaker 1: not have kids, and I think we should all Unfortunately
Speaker 1: this is not guaranteed in our country. We should all
Speaker 1: be allowed to make that choice for ourselves, right, But
Speaker 1: whether or not you have children, you know, raising kids
Speaker 1: is a social responsibility. And when we invest, like, no
Speaker 1: one gets to adulthood without someone taking care of them,
Speaker 1: and that's their parents. It's also beloved Auntie is it's
Speaker 1: a preschool teacher, the teacher, right there's so many people
Speaker 1: who are part of that. And when we invest in
Speaker 1: children and families and mothers, it's investing in public health.
Speaker 1: It's investing in the very future and health of our society.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that you also wrote this not just as
Speaker 1: a mom but you I enjoyed how many prisons you
Speaker 1: look through, you know, like at the issue through you know,
Speaker 1: you wrote about it as a mom um, you wrote
Speaker 1: about it as a worker and as a writer, and
Speaker 1: you also wrote about it through the lens of being
Speaker 1: an immigrants or family of immigrants, but specifically Filipino, which
Speaker 1: I which I really enjoyed because you talked about how
Speaker 1: key giving and mothering seems almost like it's it's part
Speaker 1: of the fabric of being Filipino. I'd love to know
Speaker 1: where you think that came from or or why that's
Speaker 1: so important to um. I'm so glad you asked. Thank you.
Speaker 1: So I didn't set out to write about my Filipino
Speaker 1: American family. I do think that Filippino X American history
Speaker 1: is something that is underrepresented, you know, within the Asian
Speaker 1: American community. Sometimes I'm like, what about us? What about right?
Speaker 1: But so they're my mom is a nurse and Um,
Speaker 1: I won't go into the whole long history of American
Speaker 1: imperialism in the United States, but the reason why my
Speaker 1: parents immigrated here is because my parents um spoke English
Speaker 1: because of American education system that was created by American colonialism.
Speaker 1: And when there was a health worker shortage, the United
Speaker 1: States allowed highly skilled immigrants like my mother and father
Speaker 1: to come. And when I was thinking about the history
Speaker 1: of caregiving in this country, you know, you have to
Speaker 1: really reckon with the reason why we devalue care work,
Speaker 1: which is performed mostly by women of color. It's because
Speaker 1: of slavery, right, this is why we accept women of
Speaker 1: color working in the home for free or for low wages.
Speaker 1: So I was trying to wrestle with like how do
Speaker 1: I take this on? But there is a statistic that
Speaker 1: came out during COVID that, um, we'll never leave my body,
Speaker 1: and it is that Philippino x nurses are four percent
Speaker 1: of the nursing workforce in the United States. They are
Speaker 1: thirty of COVID related nursing doves. Wow, yeah, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: And that to me, I was like, this could be
Speaker 1: my mother, this could be my children's grandmother. And it's
Speaker 1: because when Philippine X nurses came over. They tell me
Speaker 1: this is a familiar trope with immigrants here in the
Speaker 1: United States. They took jobs that white workers didn't want.
Speaker 1: They took I see you in critical care jobs that
Speaker 1: were more intimate with patients bodies. And since that means
Speaker 1: they've been caring for COVID patients and so they're dying
Speaker 1: in disproportionate numbers. And that's really where I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, Like I don't there are so many
Speaker 1: ways into this story of caregiving in America, right, But
Speaker 1: this I realized I could tell my family story, and
Speaker 1: it's all of the same forces that are happening. It's capitalism,
Speaker 1: it's colonialism, it's exploitation, right, it's white supremacy. Um, these
Speaker 1: are the things that we are living with now, and
Speaker 1: I see it in my family, and I see it
Speaker 1: reflected in this crisis that we're dealing with, which is
Speaker 1: going to outlast the pandemic if we don't figure out
Speaker 1: how to care for each other. How do we moved
Speaker 1: towards a situation where women are not in a position
Speaker 1: where as mothers or and you know, you talk about
Speaker 1: in the book how mothering extends beyond just the cliche
Speaker 1: idea of what a mother is. You know, we talk
Speaker 1: about communities, we talk about the ants, the grandmother, the
Speaker 1: old mothering in some way. Do you see any viable solution?
Speaker 1: Do you see a world that we can get to
Speaker 1: where we say, oh, this is where the government could help,
Speaker 1: this is what we could do, this where companies could
Speaker 1: help ex Yes, yes, well so I mean companies I
Speaker 1: want at this point, I want the government to be
Speaker 1: part of this, because we've privatized everything, right like I
Speaker 1: don't think that employees and employers and corporations are going
Speaker 1: to save us at this point. We privatize all human
Speaker 1: rights in America, right like universal healthcare, right like education.
Speaker 1: We've we've made all of those things like it's time
Speaker 1: for government support. And I've gone through phases of being
Speaker 1: really angry and really disillusioned. But right now, my friend
Speaker 1: I Gen Poo, who's the director of the National Domestic
Speaker 1: Workers Alliance, who's part of a coalition called Care Can't Wait,
Speaker 1: and they formed during COVID to deal with this care crisis,
Speaker 1: there is actually right now, senators are doing budget reconciliation
Speaker 1: on a bill that would put money into child care,
Speaker 1: home care, and elder care. And so in this moment,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for something to do, if you've been
Speaker 1: affected by care, and I know all of us have been,
Speaker 1: you can call your senators right now and tell them
Speaker 1: to fun care. And this is not an opportunity that
Speaker 1: comes up all the time. So I feel hopeful, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's an actionable item that we can do. I
Speaker 1: also feel hopeful because in the pandemic, what I saw
Speaker 1: when people formed pods, right when people started having these
Speaker 1: play dates, that was people saying, I can't do this alone. Right.
Speaker 1: We are not meant to take care of children, to
Speaker 1: take care of our elders, to take care of the disabled,
Speaker 1: the care care of the sick. We're not meant to
Speaker 1: do that in isolation. We can't. And I saw so
Speaker 1: many examples in the pandemic, like, we are surviving this
Speaker 1: not because the government sent us eight tests. We're surviving
Speaker 1: this because we took care of each other. And I
Speaker 1: see that all around me, and I think if we
Speaker 1: lean into that and continue, I don't want that to
Speaker 1: go away as we like, as the pandemic moves more
Speaker 1: into the your view mirror, want more and part of it.
Speaker 1: More community, more looking after each other and more honoring mothering.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate the
Speaker 1: essential labor. A fascinating book is available. Now We're gonna
Speaker 1: take a quick veraightfoll be right back after this. Thank
Speaker 1: you again. We lous our stove for tonight, but before
Speaker 1: we go. Before we go, please consider donating to the
Speaker 1: National Black Justice Coalition. Since two thousand and three, they
Speaker 1: have been America's leading national civil rights organization, advocating for
Speaker 1: federal policies that fights against racism and homophobia. So if
Speaker 1: you can, please donate to the link below to help
Speaker 1: them reach their vision of a world where all people
Speaker 1: are fully empowered to participate safely, openly, and honestly in family,
Speaker 1: faith community, regardless of their race, their class, their gender identity,
Speaker 1: or their sexual orientation. It's a really great organization. Until tomorrow,
Speaker 1: stay safe out there, and remember, if you can't solve
Speaker 1: the real problems in your life, just get a bulldoze
Speaker 1: on across somebody's bike. What's the Daily Show weeknights at
Speaker 1: eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes
Speaker 1: any time on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy
Speaker 1: Central podcast