Jimmy Kimmel & Molly McNearney: What Really Happened

Speaker 0 Oh

Speaker 0 wow.

Speaker 1 The reason we're celebrating in this strange way is that

Speaker 1 we just finished the most

Speaker 2 delightful,

Speaker 3 hopeful,

Speaker 1 honest, funny, hilarious conversations conversation with our friends and neighbors

Speaker 1 and two people who have been,

Speaker 1 well, in the news lately.

Speaker 1 And their names are

Speaker 1 Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNerney. And you all just, you're going to learn everything in this interview.
They talk about the day everything went down with the show

Speaker 1 cancellation, where they were, how it all felt.

Speaker 2 Which we were supposed to be recording this conversation exactly at the time where that

Speaker 2 day and that time where the news broke. And

Speaker 2 couldn't obviously for obvious reasons, but that was wild to hear all about that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I actually that morning got a text from Molly that said,

Speaker 1 hey, I think everything's going to be fine for this afternoon, but just so you know, things are a little weird. And then several hours later, I got another text that just said, not fine.

Speaker 1 Things are not fine.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 1 all the news came out. So this is just a beautiful conversation with two people who we adore and respect and appreciate so much.
And I think it's going to help this conversation.

Speaker 1 I think the way they're getting through

Speaker 1 has a lot to teach us about how to get through and how to be brave and how to be steady and how to love our people and love our country and love each other through this time.

Speaker 1 So we give you Jimmy and Molly.

Speaker 1 Hi, guys.

Speaker 3 Hi. There they are.

Speaker 1 How's it going?

Speaker 5 Hi, guys. How you doing?

Speaker 3 Good.

Speaker 3 I might cry.

Speaker 3 Just seeing your faces.

Speaker 5 You cry on every podcast.

Speaker 3 That's what I do.

Speaker 1 I already don't feel special.

Speaker 3 It's not. Can you cry hardest today, Molly?

Speaker 4 I will definitely cry the hardest here to see Sissy. Oh, my God.
This is so exciting.

Speaker 3 Thank you, y'all.

Speaker 1 It's so good to see you guys. We were just talking before about the day that we were supposed to record this podcast.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if you remember, Molly, because you had a few other things going on that day.

Speaker 6 But I got

Speaker 1 a text from you like late morning, and it was just like, things are getting weird, but I think it's going to be fine. And then I was like, okay.

Speaker 1 Then several hours later, I got one that just said, not fine.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's an understatement.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that is definitely an understatement. I love that you were in that with us that day.

Speaker 3 Me too.

Speaker 4 It's crazy. I remember you in the morning connecting with me first.
You're like, hey, I'm so excited for tonight.

Speaker 4 If there's anything you want to talk about or not talk about, let me know. I'm like, oh, we're great.

Speaker 3 We'll talk about anything.

Speaker 5 Do we have anything to talk about?

Speaker 4 I'm like, what are we going to talk about?

Speaker 5 And then we had a lot to talk about all of a sudden.

Speaker 4 Yes, and then we had helicopters over our home.

Speaker 1 Guys, what was that like? Tell us what you can or want to.

Speaker 5 I liked it. I enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 You did.

Speaker 1 It was.

Speaker 2 Finally, the attention you deserve around you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 5 I don't know. I guess it felt like, I think it maybe it felt like

Speaker 5 OJ during the chase.

Speaker 4 That's what it felt like.

Speaker 4 We were OJ.

Speaker 5 Yeah, we were OJ and headed home and helicopters and everybody and then we were on TV

Speaker 5 24 hours a day for like three days in a row. And I had the realization that

Speaker 5 had I died, there would be nowhere near this much coverage.

Speaker 3 Oh, my God.

Speaker 4 It felt like you had died. Like we, it was wild.
We were at work doing our thing, and then midday we learn we are no longer doing our thing.

Speaker 5 Well, when you say it felt like I had died, what Molly, I think, is saying is.

Speaker 5 is I'm only alive to her as long as I'm on television.

Speaker 3 Yes, and then you're dead.

Speaker 5 Yes. And then I don't even exist.

Speaker 4 Saturday and Sunday, don't even see you.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Yeah, you're dead.

Speaker 4 It was a really crazy day. And then we went home.
We sat here for a while. We learned the show had been suspended.

Speaker 4 Moments after we learned, I believe that's when I texted you, Glenn and was like, well, we may have to cancel the podcast tonight.

Speaker 5 I wanted to do it anyway. You did.

Speaker 3 Jimmy wanted to get us all in more trouble.

Speaker 5 Like, listen, we got business to attend to.

Speaker 4 And then we just sat here.

Speaker 5 The name of the podcast is We Can Do Hard Things, and we backed out on you.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 3 Because we couldn't.

Speaker 5 We can't do hard things.

Speaker 3 We can't.

Speaker 4 We've tried. It's not for us.

Speaker 5 If they're even moderately uncomfortable, we won't do them.

Speaker 4 That's so

Speaker 4 true. We canceled on We Can Do Hard Things.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Wow, I never thought too hard.

Speaker 3 So then, hold on, I'm taking us back on track.

Speaker 4 So then we go home, which felt very strange because it felt weird to leave.

Speaker 5 Because we went to the wrong house.

Speaker 5 Stop it. And the people who lived there were disturbed.

Speaker 6 Stop it.

Speaker 5 And we just sat there in their living room and looked at them. And it was weird.
And eventually they got up and left. And we just claimed the home.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's our home now. And we live there now.

Speaker 2 We can do hard things.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Look at us. Okay.

Speaker 4 So back, let's just stay on track for one second. We go home.
I know you guys will appreciate this as mothers.

Speaker 4 Like, we go home and our kids are there, and we realize they have no idea what's going on. And

Speaker 4 we had to do that thing that parents do so well, which is just immediately put on a mask.

Speaker 4 And we did very well. And asked them, How was soccer today? And what's the funniest thing you heard at school today? And we were just trying to make conversation with our children.

Speaker 4 But meanwhile, our phones are just bz

Speaker 4 the whole time in our pockets. And

Speaker 4 there's helicopters over our house and madness outside. And

Speaker 4 Jimmy said, well, we're going to have to tell them because our daughter's in fifth grade and kids talk. And so we sat them down on the couch and we told them.
We said,

Speaker 4 I believe Jimmy started the conversation.

Speaker 4 And we realized in that moment that any other time we've sat them down to talk about something, I guess it's been good because Jimmy said, we want to talk to you guys about something.

Speaker 4 And Jane, our 11-year-old, went, oh my gosh Julie they have to talk to us about something and she's like get in here get in here and I think the last time we had done that we surprised them with Disneyland or something

Speaker 3 so

Speaker 4 they seemed like it was gonna be good and it occurred to me oh boy this is not gonna be good and and Jimmy let them know he said our show is my show has been suspended and our daughter immediately burst into tears and she said

Speaker 4 I'll sell my laboo boos

Speaker 4 and we told her yeah you should no we did not we told her no you don't need to do that you don't need to sell labo boos and our son asked um if the president had done this

Speaker 4 and uh we looked at each other and we didn't quite know how to answer that question i think i said yes we did we actually both said yes at the exact same time um we said yes um he did and it's weird you know because you don't want your kids to it's certainly not an experience i had with my parents

Speaker 2 in las vegas having to sell your laboobus you mean mean

Speaker 5 you know, I didn't even have any, you know, we had a dirty cabbage patch kid. That was it.

Speaker 5 I think it was bought used.

Speaker 2 That's so weird, though, because your kids are like, the president is targeting our family.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's funny though, because my our daughter has this idea that when I retire, she's going to take over the show. We've never said this to her.
We don't know where she got it.

Speaker 5 She has three other siblings. Two of them are actually adults.

Speaker 4 If one of of them works here. Yeah.

Speaker 5 More qualified to take over if it was indeed a family business that you could hand down to your kids.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it's like, yes, she was losing her show.

Speaker 5 She felt as if she'd been somehow suspended. Yes.
I'd ruined it. I'd ruined it for her.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 She was very disappointed. And then

Speaker 4 to calm her down, you know, we said, we're okay. We're going to be fine.

Speaker 4 It's going to be okay. This does not change your life.
It doesn't change your friends. It doesn't change the memories you make.
We're going to be okay.

Speaker 4 And we really, Jimmy and I think really both believed that night the show was never coming back. And

Speaker 5 then I so we were lying. So we were lying.

Speaker 3 But it does.

Speaker 5 And then I went over to the pantry and ate everything in it.

Speaker 3 That's also true.

Speaker 4 And I said to Jane, I said,

Speaker 4 and Billy, I said, I want you guys to know that it's really important you remember this moment. And I want you to remember this, that your dad and his show are on the right side of history.

Speaker 4 I want you to remember that. And my daughter very earnestly paused and she said, I thought we were on the left.

Speaker 5 They're very literal children.

Speaker 3 Very literal children.

Speaker 4 And I said, well, we can be both. We can be on the right side of history and also on the left.
And that was a confusing explanation. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And then the next several days were truly the wildest of our lives, I think.

Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah.

Speaker 5 It was up there.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it was up there. It was up and down.
It was all over the place. But I think what what really got us through were,

Speaker 4 well, people like you who constantly reached out with support and love. And then to watch the support of strangers was the most

Speaker 4 touching, I think.

Speaker 5 And weed also.

Speaker 3 A lot of weed. Weed do hard things.
Yes. Weed do hard things.

Speaker 6 I don't do weed hard things.

Speaker 5 We do hard things by chewing soft things.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 3 You guys, what were those other?

Speaker 1 What were the following days like? And was it as heartwarming to see the entire world?

Speaker 1 That was amazing, the support.

Speaker 1 I cried. I cried day after day after day just reading the stories and the support.
Did that sink in?

Speaker 1 Must have been the best of times and the worst of times.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it was, it was nice. It was great.
It was also so strange that it was hard to even process, I think.

Speaker 5 It's just weird. You know, the whole thing is weird.
You know, just being on television is weird, and having people you don't know think they know you is weird.

Speaker 5 And it's all like something that we've become accustomed to, but it's not normal and it doesn't make any sense really. But you understand it because, you know, you feel that same way about it.

Speaker 5 I may have felt that same way about David Letterman when I was a kid. But to,

Speaker 5 you know, what it is, I focus, I tend to focus on the negative.

Speaker 5 For me, I felt like

Speaker 5 we'd lost the brakes on a 16-wheeler and we're headed downhill and I was just trying to not drive it off the road. So there were a lot of telephone calls and there was a lot of

Speaker 5 kind of strategizing and

Speaker 5 just general nervousness.

Speaker 5 I don't even like being on the phone. That alone was a big negative for me.

Speaker 5 But it was great to get

Speaker 5 support, but you just didn't know what the next kind of chapter was going to be. So like looking back, it was like, okay, well, you know what? That worked out okay.

Speaker 5 And I feel like it was the most important thing, I think, is it was like a win for free speech, you know, and I feel like that had been a long time in coming since we'd had a win of any kind.

Speaker 5 And I think it, it, I think it, it reminded people that we can win every once in a while and that it is good to keep fighting. But just personally, it was

Speaker 5 very confusing. You know, we've got a lot of people that we work with, and we wanted to,

Speaker 5 you know, they have to work, they have to have jobs, and everybody wanted to know what was going on, and they had a right to know what was going on, but there were certain things that we couldn't tell them.

Speaker 5 And it was, it worked out great in the end. But while it was happening, it was, it's, you know, it's always different when it's happening.

Speaker 5 And when it was happening, it was very, very stressful.

Speaker 4 Very. I will say it did feel

Speaker 4 overwhelming to see the outpour of love love and support. And I really think that that's like when Jimmy said it felt like a 16-wheeler without the brakes, it did feel that way for a long time.

Speaker 4 And then it suddenly felt like, whoa, we're being lifted on a wave now. And

Speaker 4 this is kind of out of our control. And I felt good about riding the wave.
I felt good about the way it was going to land. And I think that's all because of the the outpouring of love from people.

Speaker 4 It was, but it was also a very isolating experience. I mean, I did not speak to a single other human outside of Jimmy for four or five days.

Speaker 4 Even my big brother called me and then I just burst into tears. I was like, like I hadn't talked to another person because I was just scared.
I didn't know what to say.

Speaker 4 I didn't know what was happening and I didn't want to say the wrong thing.

Speaker 4 I didn't want to mislead anybody. I didn't want to scare people.
I didn't know what to say. So I was just talking.

Speaker 4 We were in our little foxhole together, which it was a good place to be, but it was definitely isolating. And it felt weird to literally hear from every single person that we knew and have known.

Speaker 4 I mean, Jimmy was getting texts. I didn't realize how many people you gave your phone number to, by the way.

Speaker 4 Like, every person who's ever driven us to the airport and like drivers, like a guy in Nashville, like people, I'm like, you gave your phone number to all, you gave your phone number to way too many people.

Speaker 4 But like, he was getting texts from, I mean, I had like a thousand text messages. He had like 10,000.
I mean, it was really fun.

Speaker 5 It was funny when I get a

Speaker 5 text from somebody and then I'd have to go, all right, well, let me read these other texts and see how I know this person. And like, honestly, there were probably

Speaker 5 a dozen drivers that I've had in various cities that

Speaker 6 that is so sweet.

Speaker 5 But it's nice, you know, it was nice.

Speaker 4 Can I tell you a funny, a little side note about that night? It's a sweet thing that we haven't even talked about. So

Speaker 4 that night, there was a man sitting in the audience. His name is Moises.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, Moises, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 We, it sinks, he didn't get to see the show. Jimmy connects with everybody everywhere he goes and we were in Mexico once

Speaker 4 and once again he gave his phone number to the waiter at the restaurant at this

Speaker 4 restaurant, right?

Speaker 5 He started as the waiter and then we complimented him to the owner of the hotel and the next time we came back he was the manager.

Speaker 4 Right. Moises.
Moises. Yes.
And then Moises was looking for some help for getting a work visa in the United States. Right.

Speaker 4 And he asked.

Speaker 5 I wrote Moises a letter. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yes. You wrote a letter on his behalf.

Speaker 5 Which now wouldn't necessarily help him.

Speaker 5 That's right. At the time.

Speaker 4 It would not help him at all, actually.

Speaker 5 No. Now it would probably rule him out entirely.
But at the time,

Speaker 1 fewer people are asking for letters from Jimmy right now for the United States.

Speaker 5 That's the one. The silver lining is I don't have to write as many letters.

Speaker 3 Definitely not.

Speaker 4 But as I was running between Jimmy's office, I he had just given the news, and I was running to the theater to let our audience department know you need to release the audience and then we need to let the guests go, I see a familiar face standing there, and it's Moises.

Speaker 4 And I was like, what? Hi, what's happening? And I had forgotten Jimmy told me, he's like, oh, he's coming. He wants to.
Thank us for writing the letter.

Speaker 4 He got into the United States and he was coming to the show that night.

Speaker 3 And then he couldn't,

Speaker 4 he couldn't, of course, of course he couldn't come to our show, right?

Speaker 4 But there's just a lot of moments like that that were

Speaker 5 a lot of moisist moments.

Speaker 4 But a lot of moments where you've given your phone number to way too many people.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Anyway. Yeah.

Speaker 6 I just think it's actually so important to note that we didn't know at the time like what was going to happen.

Speaker 6 You were probably planning

Speaker 7 the

Speaker 6 potential of needing to sue

Speaker 4 everybody.

Speaker 6 And I just like want to say that like even like the representation, like the symbol of what you and Molly and the entire crew of yours is for the world, I can imagine how stressful that must have been wondering, well, what if they don't let my show back on the air?

Speaker 6 What are the repercussions? And like I just want to say and like...

Speaker 6 hold space because we live in California and that's what we say in California for you and Molly for like carrying the possibility of needing to stand up and speak the truth that needs to be spoken.

Speaker 6 Like granted, it like worked itself out without needing to go nuclear.

Speaker 1 How do you guys handle things differently? Like I just, how do your nervous systems?

Speaker 1 I just, I need you to understand.

Speaker 1 If there's like eight comments that are mad at me, I can't fucking sleep for a night. Like, how?

Speaker 1 Do you have amazing therapists? Is it weed? Like, how do you...

Speaker 1 You've been doing this. Like, what everyone needs to know is also, you guys have been, this did not just start that day.
You all have been a symbol for MAGA to go after.

Speaker 1 You have been some of the only people who are holding the line for sanity and truth publicly for a long time. So, what is that like on a daily basis? And how do you handle it differently?

Speaker 5 Well, we do handle it very differently. I'm kind of like,

Speaker 5 you know, when a police officer has seen a lot of dead bodies and eventually he becomes desensitized to it.

Speaker 5 So I'm not quite as, you know, I get a lot of negativity thrown my way and I try not to, unless it's somebody I respect, I don't sweat it. You know, I don't let it get to me.

Speaker 5 I don't love it, but I just, I just brush it aside and I don't seek it out, certainly. Being, not being on Twitter has been a big help because I find that

Speaker 5 the people on Instagram and YouTube are a much kinder bunch in general. So being off Twitter has been very helpful, but I just take a very practical approach to situations like this.

Speaker 5 I'm like, all right, what do we have to do? Who do I have to talk to? What do I have to check in with? And

Speaker 5 how are we going to handle this? I think Molly's more emotional. Would you say that's fair?

Speaker 4 Yeah, definitely. I'm more emotional.

Speaker 4 I'm definitely more.

Speaker 5 She gets madder.

Speaker 4 I get really mad. I get emotional.
I get easily rattled. But I will say, this, I, this experience, I don't want to compare the two.
It feels weird too. It's not, they're not the same.

Speaker 4 But similar to our son having an open heart surgery when he was three days old, it was like we're in it together, which just brought an immediate calm for me.

Speaker 4 That we had each other and we were going to get through it together differently, but together. And

Speaker 4 there's a like something about that just made me feel really calm, like having, being in the trenches with you.

Speaker 5 That was much worse.

Speaker 4 What?

Speaker 3 That one. Of course.

Speaker 4 No, of course. Of course.

Speaker 4 I don't mean to be comparing the two, you know, tragic events, but they each had the same

Speaker 4 comfort for me in partnership. And

Speaker 4 that helped get me through. But I'm definitely more emotional.
I get my feelings hurt much easier. I get angry.
But

Speaker 4 I've gotten thicker, thicker, thicker skin each time, which almost makes me sad.

Speaker 4 You know, like I don't want to be desensitized by these things.

Speaker 4 But you kind of have to to survive.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 1 Amanda, can you tell them what you were telling me about all the comedians in all the countries? That smart stuff you were saying before.

Speaker 2 I'm just so interested in how

Speaker 2 power consolidators who want to go after free speech always start with the comedians. You know, in 1939,

Speaker 2 the Nazis kicked out the five most, just expelled them, the five most popular comedians at the time. In, you know,

Speaker 2 Putin incarcerated the most popular comedians and gave the network over to a pro-Putin oligarch. Hoover's FBI exiled, forced Charlie Chaplin into exile.
And it's just like kind of a go-to move. And so

Speaker 2 I've just been so curious what your take is on what is so powerful about comedy that power comes to it first and for it first?

Speaker 5 Well, I think nobody likes to be laughed at. And I think that being laughed at,

Speaker 5 it's the hardest thing for people like Donald Trump to deal with because it shows that

Speaker 5 you're not taking them seriously.

Speaker 5 you're pushing their buttons and you're not scared of them, even if you are scared of them a little bit. But I think that

Speaker 5 it's also i think a big mistake i think it's

Speaker 5 for a dictator not that i want to give him any tips people really

Speaker 5 if there's one thing we understand on both sides if you want to put it that way in this country it's that i mean i think donald trump got elected in large part because

Speaker 5 people

Speaker 5 felt that comedians were being pressured and censored and it was kind of like, hey, hey, I think this is funny, and you're making me feel like a jerk, and you're saying that this comedian that I like can't say this.

Speaker 5 That makes me laugh. And it really hits home with people in a very

Speaker 5 in a deeply personal way. And I think in a historical way as well.

Speaker 5 You know, we have, we all grew up hearing these stories about Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor and George Carlin and Howard Stern more recently, where the government got involved in their comedy, and just nobody likes that.

Speaker 5 It doesn't matter which side you're on. Nobody likes that.
And I'd always wondered, because I anticipated that this day would

Speaker 5 come. And I always wondered and hoped that my colleagues on the right would

Speaker 5 defend the principle. If not, you know,

Speaker 5 some people like me, some people don't, whatever. But I think that

Speaker 5 being a comedian, there's a bond there for sure.

Speaker 5 And it may even be a stronger bond than being an American in a lot of ways because

Speaker 5 you do understand each other. You know how hard it is to walk out on a stage by yourself and make people laugh.
And no matter what you're doing, it's hard.

Speaker 5 Even if you're doing it in the cheapest possible way, it's not easy. And if it was,

Speaker 5 you'd see a lot more comedians than there are. So I was heartened to

Speaker 5 get support from people that I don't usually get support from. And I always felt that if the situation was reversed, I would feel the same way.

Speaker 5 And I think a lot of false comparisons have been made to other situations,

Speaker 5 other comedians, high-profile comedians who've been canceled, if you want to use that word, whether it's a literal or figurative word. But it's not the same thing.

Speaker 5 It's in no way the same thing as the head of the FCC threatening the broadcasters who put your show on the air, threaten them and suggest that they might pull their licenses in a very overt way, in the stupidest possible way, on television, on camera, for all to see.

Speaker 5 It's just

Speaker 5 remarkable that this person even still has his job. It's just crazy to me.
When you have Ted Cruz on your side, you know they've screwed up.

Speaker 2 Did any part of you, did any part of you, and I understand you have the whole crew and it's beyond yourselves and your sense of responsibility, but when they came back and wanted you to put, wanted you to come back, did any part of you want to tell them to pound sand?

Speaker 2 Like a little part of you?

Speaker 5 Absolutely. I mean, listen, if, if, if I'd not been allowed back on the air, you know,

Speaker 5 I'd be a martyr. You know,

Speaker 5 it's not a terrible position to be in as a comedian. You know,

Speaker 5 It's not the position I wanted to be in. And it's also not the way I wanted the show.

Speaker 5 I've been doing this show for almost 23 years. It'll be 23 years in January.
And

Speaker 5 I want to end the show on my terms. I want to end it in a graceful way.

Speaker 5 I want to have...

Speaker 5 farewell party with our staff. I want to do all those things that,

Speaker 5 I want to to say the things that I want to say to people and to just have it happen abruptly and unjustly would have been

Speaker 5 awful. You know, it's just not how you want it to go.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that was an interesting

Speaker 4 wave.

Speaker 4 I think we both felt was mourning, like right after, because we felt like we weren't coming back and we didn't have a shot to write our ending the way we wanted to.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and to say goodbye, really.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And we left her. We didn't know if we were going to see people again.
It was a very strange feeling.

Speaker 5 And the audience, too, not just our staff, but also like the people who watched the show.

Speaker 5 It's like one day you're on and the next day you're not. And that's not what I imagined or wanted.
So I was hoping that

Speaker 5 we would come back. And I think that

Speaker 5 I think that was...

Speaker 5 Probably the intention the whole time. You know, I mean, we weren't fired.
We were, you know, we were suspended. And

Speaker 5 I think suspended means come back, but it just didn't feel like that to me at the time.

Speaker 4 But I will say also, I really

Speaker 2 love

Speaker 4 getting under his skin.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And no,

Speaker 4 I know you agree in that, taking a little bit of pleasure in it. When we see that it's bothering him,

Speaker 4 it brings us a little bit of joy because

Speaker 4 it feels like we're one of the only ones who are getting in there and uh and it he hates it so much that he has to respond and i love that it's so childish to respond

Speaker 4 it's like just complain privately like i it's so like you we don't need to know every thought you have about us and it's it's kind of wonderful that he shares that i mean it's dangerous for us but it also to me means we're doing the job well and it's almost romantic yeah yeah he's like really into you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, totally.

Speaker 1 And now it's time to thank the companies who allow you to listen to We Can Do Hard Things for free.

Speaker 2 Here's something I've learned about love. It's not always about the grand gestures.
Most of the time, it's the small, thoughtful moments that hold everything together. That's why I love Zell.

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Speaker 6 Okay, let's talk about the performance jogger because I am officially in a a committed relationship with mine. I have them on right now.

Speaker 6 I put them on just to be comfy around the house and then, you know, somehow they end up coming with me everywhere on walks to school drop-offs, errands, and even occasionally, actually almost all the time flights.

Speaker 6 They're just that good.

Speaker 3 And here's why.

Speaker 6 They're ridiculously soft. So, like they're buttery soft, like cloud soft, but they also look put together enough that I don't feel like I'm wearing pajamas in public.

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Speaker 2 Molly, what is it?

Speaker 1 This is random, but I think about it all the time with you guys. Like, you come from a pretty conservative family.

Speaker 3 Yes. Right?

Speaker 3 I just

Speaker 3 not me, but Molly.

Speaker 1 No, not you. And

Speaker 1 I just wonder, like, what is Thanksgiving? It's one thing to come from a conservative family and just sort of, you know, deprogram yourself and go along your life.

Speaker 1 But what is it like to come from a conservative family and then become like the mocking Jay of the other side?

Speaker 4 Well, it's definitely been challenging.

Speaker 4 Thankfully, my immediate family all, they did not vote for Donald Trump. They did the first time, a few of them.

Speaker 4 flipped them the second time.

Speaker 4 It's weird.

Speaker 4 When Donald Trump was first elected, I was so upset. We all were.
But I remember thinking, I understand it because I grew up in a very conservative Republican house.

Speaker 4 I mean, I bought my dad a rush limba tie in high school.

Speaker 4 I voted Republican straight ticket, and that's what I was told to do. And then I left

Speaker 4 St. Louis, Missouri, and I met people from different backgrounds, and I started to understand different things and different needs and different people.

Speaker 4 And so there's like a little bit of sympathy I have for people in my family that I feel are kind of being deliberately misinformed every day. And they've

Speaker 3 kind of.

Speaker 4 They are deliberately being misinformed every day and they believe it. But it hurts me so much because

Speaker 4 of the personal relationship I now have where my husband is out there fighting this man. And to me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family.

Speaker 4 And I I I unfortunately have kind of lost relationships with people in my family because of it.

Speaker 4 It's like it this is not just Republican versus Democrat for me anymore. It is to me, it's family values.

Speaker 4 And it's it's really hard for me because I grew up believing in these Christian ideals of taking care of the sick and taking care of the poor.

Speaker 4 And I don't see that happening with this Republican Party. And so it's I feel like I'm kind of in constant conflict and I'm angry all the time, which isn't healthy at all.

Speaker 4 But I like personalize everything now. When I see these terrible stories every day, I'm immediately mad at certain aunts, uncles, cousins who put him in power.
And it's really hard.

Speaker 4 I wish I could like deprogram myself in some way, but I get really angry. And I've sent many emails to family like right before the election saying, I'm begging you.

Speaker 4 Here's the 10 reasons not to vote for this guy. Please don't.
And I either got ignored by 90% of them or got truly insane responses from a few. It's definitely caused a strain.

Speaker 4 I've definitely pulled in closer with the family that I feel more aligned with. And I hate that this has happened.
You know, it feels silly.

Speaker 4 You know, the heart of me goes, don't let politics get in the way. But to me, this isn't politics.

Speaker 4 It's truly values. And we just, we're not aligned anymore.

Speaker 1 That's so honest. And I feel like no one has ever said, at least to me directly, the thing that, because because that happens to me too,

Speaker 1 when a headline comes about a certain thing, I get mad at personal people too.

Speaker 1 Really? Yes. Like if there's an anti-queer thing that comes out,

Speaker 1 it's like our brains have to focus on people because otherwise it's just this big boogeyman thing. And so my mind will go to like the four people I know who don't support.

Speaker 2 I get that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I do it. I visualize seven people that I grew up with loving, like sisters,

Speaker 4 and I'm immediately mad at them, and it makes me sad.

Speaker 5 I have a different way of looking at it.

Speaker 4 I know. Here he's going to, guys, just so you know, this is the, he's going to study this.
He's going to make me feel kind of bad about it. He's going to be right.

Speaker 4 Just so we know.

Speaker 4 He's going to be right, but I'm not going to want to hear it. But go ahead.

Speaker 5 I just think they're being fed a constant stream of lies. And I think that we live in a country where we were programmed to believe the middle-aged white guy on television telling us the news.

Speaker 5 And fortunately for us, for most of our lives, we had good people in those positions. You know,

Speaker 5 Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather and Ted Coppel and Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw, who you could genuinely trust and who

Speaker 5 seem to be

Speaker 5 educated and honest people. And now they're kind of, there's this cosplay version of it that we see now on Fox News and all these other wannabe Fox News channels that are telling lies for profit.

Speaker 5 They know what pushes people's buttons. It used to be AM Talk Radio and now it's television.
And it looks like the news and they call it the news and it's not the news.

Speaker 5 It's not fair. It's not balanced.
And these people are ingesting it. And when you ingest enough of it, you start to believe it.
And

Speaker 5 maybe they touch upon some of your biases and they push certain buttons in you, things that you believe to be true. And before you know it, you believe everything that you're hearing.

Speaker 5 And I don't know that, you know, I just feel like if those outlets didn't exist, we wouldn't have this.

Speaker 3 I think people would

Speaker 5 evaluate things based on facts, but it's just.

Speaker 4 They have cousin Molly's Instagram, and I give them facts every day, and they just seem to be ignoring them. And that's what bothers me.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 4 So they can watch, they can watch Fox News all day, but the hard part for me, this is, it's a strange position to be in, is like you personally know two humans in your life you're related to.

Speaker 4 Our jobs here, we don't tell lies. We tell jokes, but we are literally scouring the news every day,

Speaker 4 presenting people the facts followed by jokes. And if you can't, why are you, to me, I go, why are you trusting that guy over me? This is cousin Molly here, guys.
Like, I wouldn't lie to you.

Speaker 3 He's not a good person.

Speaker 5 It's the same thing that we think. It's like, oh, she's in Hollywood.
She's hearing all this stuff. She means well, but she's not, you know, she's not right.
She's wrong.

Speaker 5 And she's, she's, you know, she's one of these.

Speaker 3 Hollywood liberals. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 I had an aunt

Speaker 4 when I moved to L.A. who.
gave me a Bible and in the inside said, don't stay in LA long. That's where the devil lives.
So that's what I'm dealing with.

Speaker 3 She's not wrong.

Speaker 4 She's not around.

Speaker 4 And And now I'm sitting on a couch with him.

Speaker 3 Do you guys,

Speaker 1 when you have conversations about this, because I'm sure it's endless,

Speaker 1 where's the hope? Do you see any, how does this end? Where does this go? What's the hope here?

Speaker 5 I think that

Speaker 5 these ideas, this, you know, listen,

Speaker 5 this is all

Speaker 5 a con. The whole thing is a con.
I mean, you turn on TV and you see the president selling watches, selling cheap watches that don't seem to actually be made in the USA. And

Speaker 5 you have to, at some point, when that watch arrives and it's a piece of junk, and when he tells you he's going to lower all the prices and only he can solve this problem and that problem and how much better your life is going to be, I think that at a certain point,

Speaker 5 you look around. I think I feel like

Speaker 5 it has arrived because his approval ratings are very historically low. No matter what he said, people are starting to realize, like, oh, I think I might have been conned here.
I think, like,

Speaker 5 these things that I was told

Speaker 5 were going to happen, aren't happening. You know,

Speaker 5 I mean, we just saw it with

Speaker 5 the soybean farmers. It's like, suddenly China's not buying any soybeans from.
They're like, hey, what the heck? We voted for you, and now we're not selling any soybeans.

Speaker 5 And he's like, don't worry i'm gonna go i'm gonna fix this and he makes a deal and they're now back to selling the same amount of soybeans which wasn't enough to start with and i think that people are you know as as confused as they may be as bamboozled as they may be ultimately they have to go to the supermarket and buy eggs and i think that

Speaker 5 the the lies only go so far i don't hear a lot of hope there well the hope well you know sadly the hope is that um you know it's like a drug addict.

Speaker 3 We're going to have to hit rock bottom.

Speaker 4 I felt like we already did.

Speaker 4 I feel like every time we hit rock bottom, it's like, oh, there's more bottom.

Speaker 3 Oh, wow, there's another floor. Holy shit.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And then they're like, oh, now there's an escalator down. Oh, now we're on an elevator down.

Speaker 5 But there's got to be a bottom eventually, right?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I guess. I feel like we keep hitting it.

Speaker 4 But I will say this experience of this show being... suspended and then put back on gave me extreme hope for the first time in a long time.

Speaker 3 Same, same.

Speaker 4 And it really felt good. And I feel like I felt united with people and I felt like, okay, we're getting back to the basic rights that we, let's start here and then let's keep cracking.

Speaker 5 I love the protests. You know what I like most of all? I like the

Speaker 5 just sporadic protests. Like we're just driving home on Sunday and there are 40 people with signs standing on the street corner.
It's like, oh, this isn't even the No Kings march.

Speaker 5 These people were just mad and decided to go out on the on the street today in LA where almost everyone agrees with them in the first place.

Speaker 5 I just think that like that kind of action is really indicative that

Speaker 5 that people are

Speaker 5 are ready to

Speaker 5 you know, we're we anesthetize ourselves with all the the things that we have to look at.

Speaker 5 And, you know, sometimes like you feel like hitting the like button is that's your that's your political activity for the day. But when people go, hey, I'm going to make a sign and go out

Speaker 5 in front of my supermarket and march. That's a big deal.
That's, I mean, that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 Did you see,

Speaker 1 the pictures from No Kings were amazing. Of course, there wasn't as much coverage as there should have been.
Just millions and millions and millions of people everywhere.

Speaker 1 But the one that made me so emotional, did you guys see the one woman, I think, in South Carolina, in this very small town? She did, she was by herself.

Speaker 1 Yeah. She did her own No Kings protest at an anti-fascism poster, and she was like heckled all day, and she just stood there by herself with her little sign.

Speaker 1 It makes me emotional every time I think about it.

Speaker 4 I love that.

Speaker 4 It was a very powerful image.

Speaker 5 I didn't see that, but I love that idea.

Speaker 4 So beautiful. People like that give us hope, right?

Speaker 5 I love meeting a really old person who's very mad.

Speaker 5 I love that.

Speaker 4 I like meeting a young person who's really mad.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's good too.

Speaker 4 That's also really good.

Speaker 3 Those things are real good.

Speaker 2 The middle-aged mad, I'm like,

Speaker 3 get rid of them.

Speaker 3 God, old men,

Speaker 3 and young men people. You're right.

Speaker 1 That's so inspiring. Both of those.

Speaker 2 I think it's going to take, I think, why it was so hopeful is exactly what you said, Jimmy.

Speaker 2 It's like the people over here who will disagree with you 99 times out of 10, and the people over here who love you were both like, this is fucked up. Like,

Speaker 2 there's, I feel like there's whatever, you know, that, that comedy thread of we have principles that go deeper than opinions and we have values that go deeper than opinions.

Speaker 2 It's like, if we could reestablish that

Speaker 2 for American values, for family values, for like, though, this is deeper than opinions. This is like, where is the thing that's, that,

Speaker 2 that we can hold on to?

Speaker 2 And that's why it was so hopeful because it was like, you know, maybe I don't like that guy, guy, but I will stand up and say that this is horseshit and he should be allowed to say what he wants.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 it's that piece that we're missing.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5 And it's. We touched the third rail finally.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 4 That's what's frustrating for me, too, is because when I think about my family members who voted for Trump, I know for a fact that we agree on 80% of the issues. I know that.

Speaker 4 I know that they think women should have reproductive freedom. And I know that they think that we shouldn't have access to AR-15s.

Speaker 4 I know they know they agree with me, but then they don't vote in the same way because they've been told that we are voting for this party is something that it's not.

Speaker 4 And we've been perhaps told voting for that party is something that it's not. But I feel like we're not actually

Speaker 4 like our vote is not matching what we really want for this country. I really believe, I firmly believe that.

Speaker 4 Like you look at 80% of the country wants the same stuff when it comes to universal health care, gun safety, and reproductive freedom. But yet we're electing people who aren't representing our voice.

Speaker 5 Well, yeah, it's because

Speaker 5 these corporations have, there's no limit to how much money they can pump into a candidate. And you see all these guys, all these cowards,

Speaker 5 these CEOs, these famous people who are all over Biden. And then as soon as Biden wasn't president anymore, they're all over Trump.

Speaker 5 And they'll be back to the other side when the other side is in charge. And it's just, it's all, it's a ruse to

Speaker 5 make as much money as they possibly can. And eventually I think that's going to come back to bite them in the ass also.

Speaker 5 I just don't think people are thinking in the long term and that the greater good is more important than individual good for the individual.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 5 we even just we look at what we do to the climate.

Speaker 5 It's like, hey,

Speaker 5 I can make a little bit more money if i um i burn as much fossil fuel as i possibly can it's like oh that's great um it's gonna be really hot and it's you're not gonna have water like you know trick-or-treating in a bikini your grandchildren are going to be living in a hellscape because you made a little bit more money this year and i just don't i i think that we're going to there we're as a society going to look back at this time and we're going to be really angry at the people that made those decisions All of us,

Speaker 5 not just the left.

Speaker 5 All of us are going to look back and go, What the hell did these people do to us?

Speaker 5 Things were going pretty good on this planet, and now look at where we are. Yeah, it's really, it's, you know, it's hard not to feel defeated.
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Speaker 1 I have to imagine that you do this because Abby and I do this nightly and I just think, do you guys dream of a life like of setting off into this?

Speaker 1 Like we dream every night of like we're going to buy a farm or a ranch and we're going to be a million miles away from everyone.

Speaker 2 Tell them what you're going to call your ranch.

Speaker 1 The homostead.

Speaker 3 Love it.

Speaker 1 Obviously we don't know how to like do animals or flowers or whatever.

Speaker 4 People learn.

Speaker 6 But But

Speaker 1 the point is.

Speaker 3 Flowers.

Speaker 4 Crops.

Speaker 3 Vegetables. Yeah.

Speaker 2 A lot of heavy-duty ranchers out there with their flowers.

Speaker 3 Their peonies.

Speaker 1 My point is,

Speaker 1 do you, what do you, what's your fantasy for getting the fuck out of the situation you're in now?

Speaker 5 I'm not for getting the fuck out. I'm for fighting.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah. I don't, I don't,

Speaker 5 I just don't think that way. I like I put up a flag on the 4th of July at my house.

Speaker 4 He also wears Crocs. They have American flags and a tank top with an American flag.

Speaker 5 Oh my God, I love that. I'm not giving that up.
That's not theirs. It's all of ours.

Speaker 4 Yeah, he is not a runner at all.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it was funny because I got Italian citizenship. And of course

Speaker 5 the narrative and the news was that I was fleeing the country. And, you know, of course, everybody had a thought and opinion on that.
And none of it was true.

Speaker 5 My mom got Italian citizenship, and then as a result, her children and grandchildren got Italian citizenship.

Speaker 5 But, you know, the narrative is the narrative is like, oh, these liberals

Speaker 5 fleeing the country or whatever. I will never flee the country.
That's, you know, that's the very last thing that I will do.

Speaker 5 I'm not interested in

Speaker 5 giving up.

Speaker 4 Yeah. I mean, I do have a fantasy of not ingesting such toxic

Speaker 4 information all day, every day.

Speaker 5 You guys know how hard it is to run a farm in a ranch, though. I mean,

Speaker 5 it seems like a vacation, and anyone who actually has a ranch or a farm would be like, are you fucking kidding me?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I watched Yellowstone, and then I changed my mind.

Speaker 3 It's sort of fun.

Speaker 2 Those people are very good-looking, though.

Speaker 3 They want to visit.

Speaker 5 You have to know how to fix barbed wire.

Speaker 3 Anyway, I did notice that. Thanks.

Speaker 3 no thanks it wasn't a perfect plan jimmy i prefer a lake

Speaker 2 a lake yeah that's an isolator okay a ranch of water of still water i think that's nice start at a lake house i love that jimmy because i think that is

Speaker 2 like

Speaker 2 you can get it's so depressing

Speaker 2 and then when i think about how depressing the vast majority of American history has been, it's uplifting because it's it's like, look, this has always been a shit show.

Speaker 2 It just depends where you were sitting. And if the people in, you know, the people on the trail of tears, guess what? They're still here.

Speaker 2 They are still here. They are still fighting.
They are still doing their part.

Speaker 2 The people who are at the lunch counters and who fought in the Union Army for their rights and then were disenfranchised right after,

Speaker 2 that sucked. And they're still here and they're still fighting.

Speaker 4 They're just americans and it just feels like it's our turn this is our turn this is what we do no show up and do your part i'm too weak and you know what i just i i'm mad i get mad because i go it this is why because this is optional all of this is like optional and it doesn't have to be like this that's what i that's what really bothers me yeah and every time like inflicting harm on our

Speaker 4 like we don't have to be like we have enough problems right that we need to solve without real like let's let's solve pediatric cancer. Let's figure out the climate.

Speaker 4 We're fighting over whether women can have rights. Like, what are we doing? Like, that should be a given.

Speaker 5 Remember when we were mad about those lime scooters?

Speaker 3 Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 5 It's just funny to think about some of the things that we thought, like, oh, people taking selfies was like, oh, these goddamn selfies.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Like, 10 years ago, our problems were.

Speaker 5 I guess it's important to remember that and to appreciate how silly our, you know, we can get worked up about anything, I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 4 But now we have to get worked up about things that are real things, but also they don't have to be there.

Speaker 4 Like, every time I go to a fundraiser and we do a lot of fundraising and donating to candidates and causes, I go, of course, I'm going to give this, but I'd rather be giving it to children's hospital right now.

Speaker 4 Which, like, why? And I'm giving money so I can make sure this woman who should definitely be elected gets elected. Like, what are we, duh, duh? Of course, this woman should win.

Speaker 4 Why are we voting for this clown? And I get resentful of the amount of energy we all have to push forward so we don't keep falling back. Or, I'm like, Can we just keep going this way?

Speaker 4 And we just keep getting yanked back and yanked back. And I get really resentful of people in my life that I feel like put us there.
And that's where I need to work on my anger.

Speaker 1 Molly, I hope you don't work on it too much because I just feel like, as much as Jimmy's steadiness is comforting and helpful,

Speaker 1 your Molly mad

Speaker 3 Molly is equally

Speaker 3 comforting.

Speaker 4 Okay, good. Well, I'm here for you.
Anytime you need Mad Molly, you just go.

Speaker 5 You're the Mad Molly and Jimmy the sarcastic asshole.

Speaker 3 Exactly.

Speaker 1 And you guys think that.

Speaker 4 Jimmy the steady.

Speaker 1 I don't know why we were talking about this. Why did you, when you guys were neighbors, and when you moved here, you DM'd us.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 4 You first of all, hold on one sec.

Speaker 4 Let's just go back. Before the DM happened, I had a full freak out seeing both of you guys outside.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 Oh, yes.

Speaker 4 It was, this was quite an really embarrassing. Now, I want to remind you that I've worked at the show for 23 years, and we have, I've, I think, met every possible celebrity and political figure

Speaker 4 unfaced. I am on a walk.
I see you two. And I just became undone.
I didn't know what to do. I went, oh, hi, Lennon, Abby, hi, hi.

Speaker 4 And then I did a thing that I never do, which I identified myself as Jimmy's wife, which is so gross.

Speaker 5 I prefer it.

Speaker 4 I said, hi, I'm Molly. And then you're like, who the hell is Molly? And I'm Jimmy Kimmel's wife.
And I wanted to die.

Speaker 4 And then I said, and then I said, I can see your house from my house.

Speaker 4 And then I was like, whoa, stop talking. And then I came running home to you.
And I said, oh my God, I just saw you.

Speaker 5 I made an idiot out of myself.

Speaker 4 Glennon and Abby, I made an idiot.

Speaker 4 You have to fix this. DM them on Twitter or whatever it was.
I was like, you have to fix this. And so he reached out to you.
I made him reach out to you guys. I'm like, I've ruined it.

Speaker 4 I said I could see their house. I was like,

Speaker 4 I was a disaster. I was scary as that.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Totally.

Speaker 4 How was that bagel this morning? Yeah. And

Speaker 3 he DM'd you.

Speaker 6 Steady Jimmy DM'd us out of like, just wanting to get to know us.

Speaker 3 I just didn't believe that.

Speaker 4 No, Steady Jimmy was like, I'll fix this. I'll fix this.
And so he DM'd you guys, and you were so nice. So now take it from there.

Speaker 4 Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I needed to give you the backstory in the DM.

Speaker 3 No, no, no. I'm so glad.

Speaker 1 Okay, so that makes sense. So then Jimmy DM'd us, and he said, and I think, I hope I'm getting this right, but he said, You are.

Speaker 3 Right? He said, Hey, it's Jimmy Kimmel.

Speaker 5 We could look it up for sure.

Speaker 3 For sure,

Speaker 1 it's Jimmy Kimmel.

Speaker 1 We're your new neighbors.

Speaker 1 So we can find you. Can you hang a purple sheet outside of your door? Which was fucking weird, but

Speaker 1 we had just moved to LA. Everything was weird.
Okay, I had people sending me their dietary restrictions coming to my house. I wasn't even going to feed them.
I had people

Speaker 1 just things were happening that were weird.

Speaker 5 So I just thought, this is why the crowd back in St. Louis won't vote for

Speaker 3 that right.

Speaker 4 Totally.

Speaker 3 Dietary restrictions.

Speaker 2 Totally. The devil lives there, so you have to put out a purple sheet.

Speaker 5 Devil, that was a very good thing.

Speaker 4 Yes, Jimmy, you need to explain yourself.

Speaker 5 I was just joking. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I know I was joking.
And

Speaker 5 also, our view of your house is not of your front door. It's from the back of your house.
So when you then did indeed hang out, which I didn't know until you told me,

Speaker 5 we didn't even see it, and it must have made it even more confusing.

Speaker 4 How weird for them.

Speaker 5 I will also add while we're embarrassing Molly, that

Speaker 5 I have suggested that we invite you over for dinner about 40 times, and each time she's not ready for it.

Speaker 5 And then finally, on the 4th of July, I think

Speaker 5 I caught her at a weak moment.

Speaker 3 For America.

Speaker 5 Yeah. But

Speaker 5 yeah,

Speaker 5 it was like each time it was like,

Speaker 4 like the house wasn't clean enough, or there was some reason why it couldn't happen yeah he's right i also know i never want to you know what it is i never want to put people out i like i know how busy you guys are and i can only imagine the amount of invitations and stuff you get and i also hear glenn and you talk a lot sometimes about you don't like to do stuff and i was like i don't ever want to make them feel like they have to do something to be our friends so i try to keep the asks at a minimum Yeah, it's not really an ask.

Speaker 5 It's an invitation. Yeah.

Speaker 6 That's different.

Speaker 3 That's not an ask.

Speaker 6 Like an ask is like, hey, I have this thing. A buddy of mine, he wants it signed.
Like, that's an ask, which, by the way, will never do.

Speaker 1 Molly, I understand so much.

Speaker 7 But I always come over for dinner is different.

Speaker 1 No, I get it. I feel so stressed to invite people over.
I always feel like I should treat people how I want to be treated, so I should just never talk to them.

Speaker 1 The more I like them, the more I like them, the more I should definitely not ever contact them.

Speaker 5 It sounds like just Abby and I should have dinner.

Speaker 3 Probably.

Speaker 4 You two can cook, too, so you guys can have a nice meal.

Speaker 1 Well, we did go to your house on the 4th of July, and it was just, you guys surround yourself with so many wonderful, beautiful people. Like, you have a real,

Speaker 1 I mean, if you guys, I'm trying to explain this to the pod squad. There were like 75 people there, all who knew Jimmy and Molly for decades.
They were all like family or friends forever.

Speaker 1 Jimmy was like cooking 7 trillion chickens by himself, like just doing it. And there was food everywhere and kids everywhere and love everywhere.

Speaker 6 There was a famous chef also that came and was cutting up meat. And I was like, must be kind of intense and intimidating cooking for one of the most famous chefs in the world.

Speaker 6 Jimmy just does it and he's fine. And it was delicious.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you were so.

Speaker 3 Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 4 You have no idea. That's the only thing he heard this entire podcast.

Speaker 6 I'm not kidding. It was delicious.

Speaker 4 He will go home and he'll be like, did you hear hear Abby?

Speaker 5 I'm very critical of my cooking. Those chickens came out pretty good.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they were good. They sure as hell did.

Speaker 6 I had every single piece of meat you cooked.

Speaker 5 I made ribs as well, I think.

Speaker 4 That makes me so happy. Every single house.
Jimmy is an incredible host. He really is.

Speaker 5 The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday, too, so I like to really go big on the Fourth of July.

Speaker 4 Yeah, including the attire.

Speaker 3 Including the attire.

Speaker 4 He loves a tank top.

Speaker 6 He doesn't love a tank top.

Speaker 5 I don't love tank tops. I just like wearing them because they drive you crazy.

Speaker 4 Yeah, an American flag tank top. So hot.

Speaker 2 That's what she thought she was getting with this deal.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I have another thing that I'm obsessed with y'all on is the pranks. And I'm just wondering, my personal obsession was the one where you had the guy that worked with you

Speaker 2 and you were, you were, you got his ring camera so you knew what he was wearing every day. And then you had the other guy

Speaker 2 okay can you either tell that story or tell us what your most recent prank is because this is a new thing i want to bring into my life to well this is have more fun

Speaker 5 i have a continuation of that prank which now um unfortunately is a guy named danny we work with and he knows about the prank but it turns out that like i've taken a page from donald trump like this prank where what what we've done is there's a guy named danny and a guy named josh and danny told josh that he needs to dress better for work so what I did is I

Speaker 5 got

Speaker 5 an exhaustive list of all of Danny's clothes photographed all of it and then ordered duplicates of everything and then Josh would come into work he'd he'd check Danny's ring camera and he'd come into work dressed just like Danny and it started Danny's like what What's going on?

Speaker 5 He knew something was wrong. Almost immediately he knew something was wrong, but we just kept doing it and acting like it was nothing.

Speaker 4 It was making him crazy.

Speaker 5 It was making him absolutely crazy. So what's happening now,

Speaker 5 just so you know, we're taping this the night before Halloween, right? Yes. Okay.

Speaker 5 So on Halloween tomorrow,

Speaker 5 we have colluded to find out what Danny's Halloween costume is.

Speaker 5 Josh has purchased the same Halloween costume and went over to his house to take a picture with Danny's children. I know.

Speaker 5 So Josh is then then going to post that on Instagram and let Danny find it.

Speaker 3 Oh, that's weird. Danny's going to lose his mind.

Speaker 4 This is what Jimmy does with his very, very, very, very little time.

Speaker 5 You have to make time for things like this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we do. This is how we make it through.
Somehow, this is how we make it through.

Speaker 3 This kind of absurdity. I think you're right.

Speaker 5 I love it. It makes me so happy.
It really does. No matter what's going on, no matter how bad it is, it's just when there's something like this happening, when somebody's mad, I'm

Speaker 4 happy. Jimmy got a personalized.
Okay, I wanted to get the black license plate, you know, in Los Angeles. I had a black car, it just looks better than the white one that I didn't know you.

Speaker 5 It was California style.

Speaker 4 Yeah, and I really wanted, and I just don't have, I don't know how. I was like, Jimmy, he's like, I'll take care of that for you.
I'm like, great, thank you so much. I'll order you a plate.
Great.

Speaker 4 And then several months later, I was like, where is this plate? It's not coming. It's not coming.

Speaker 3 It's not coming. It took a long time.

Speaker 4 It took a long time.

Speaker 4 And months later, I walk out to my car one night, and his shoulders are just like doing this gentle wiggle I'm like oh no no no what's going on and I look and my license plate is now a personalized plate screwed on that says weeby jamming

Speaker 4 but also so proud of him at the same time and also just like the headache of how do I get rid of this I don't know any idea how to get rid of this and I said this is for real he's like yeah it's for real it's real like this is my license plate this is my this is my official license never forget it dropped the kids off at school with a weebie jamming license plate

Speaker 4 so mad

Speaker 5 it has a history because every once in a while I would get on Molly's phone and comment on all her friends posts I'd write hashtag weebie jamming weeby jammin' out of nowhere

Speaker 5 and then they

Speaker 3 started to learn people would like have like posts about like i lost my grandmother no 10 years ago today and like hashtag weeby jammin' it's not true true.

Speaker 4 You did. I don't know.

Speaker 4 Yes, no, I didn't.

Speaker 5 Oh, if I did do it, it was an accident.

Speaker 3 I was cutting and pasting.

Speaker 4 Yeah, now people knew. They're like, anytime you see Weeby Jamming, you know, Jimmy has gotten on my phone.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I like her in my car.

Speaker 4 We don't even know where that came from.

Speaker 5 I do. It came from the song,

Speaker 3 Weeby Jamming. Weeby Jammin'.
Yeah, yeah, Jammin.

Speaker 3 I like Jamming. Weeby Jammit.

Speaker 5 It was from, you know, that.

Speaker 4 I know the song.

Speaker 4 We be jamming.

Speaker 3 Bump, got it.

Speaker 4 Yep, got it.

Speaker 3 Forever.

Speaker 2 You guys.

Speaker 3 Oh, God.

Speaker 1 We love you so much. We want you now to go back to your kids, to your life.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 See, that's her way of saying, don't call us. No,

Speaker 3 we love you.

Speaker 4 We love you now. Go back to your life.

Speaker 1 No, I want you to invite us over. Can you please invite us over to dinner?

Speaker 3 We will.

Speaker 5 We will. You see us go the other way.

Speaker 5 You've now bullied us into dinner.

Speaker 4 By the way, the last time we invited you over, the only time, which was 4th of July, Glennon made cookies, brought them, and then brought them home.

Speaker 2 Is that correct?

Speaker 6 Yes, but there's a story behind that.

Speaker 3 You guys, I'm so embarrassed. We went over this.
No,

Speaker 3 because I was so embarrassed of them.

Speaker 1 I hid them. I brought them to their house because I felt like you are a grown-up, Glennon, and grown-ups bring things to other grown-ups' houses.
So I said to my daughter, can you please help me?

Speaker 1 I've never baked cookies before.

Speaker 3 Can you please? They're pretty great on the farm.

Speaker 1 Can you help me? And then she abandoned me that day. So I had to try to make them myself.
And they were disgusting and black on the bottom and so burnt. But I still brought them and then I hid them.

Speaker 3 Well, at the cards.

Speaker 1 I hid them. Because?

Speaker 3 Why?

Speaker 6 Like when you walk in, there's just like food.

Speaker 3 It was

Speaker 3 gorgeous.

Speaker 6 And it's all beautifully like curated and looking and

Speaker 3 edible.

Speaker 1 It was a kid's plate with like aluminum foil over it.

Speaker 3 Whatever happened to a bottle of wine?

Speaker 7 That's what adults do. We brought that too.
I was thinking that we

Speaker 6 brought wine also. She just wanted to do something with like a personal touch.

Speaker 3 Well, you guys,

Speaker 3 Molly is a little bit more.

Speaker 4 It was a personal touch.

Speaker 1 It was better than when my first neighborhood potluck when they sent out a fucking thing where you were supposed to sign up for something and it said some people should bring dessert and some people should bring a dish.

Speaker 2 and so I just brought a dish.

Speaker 3 No!

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 5 That's very literal.

Speaker 3 You know what?

Speaker 1 Give people some more information.

Speaker 1 If you want a dish with stuff on it, say that.

Speaker 5 Who did you hand it to?

Speaker 1 The person who was having it. And it just.

Speaker 5 What was the reaction?

Speaker 1 It wasn't great, Jimmy.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you what, it was better than her other thing once she learned to make

Speaker 1 cucumber rolls.

Speaker 2 asparagus rolls asparagus rolls but then she brought asparagus rolls to every single thing for five years we had to do a family intervention and be like

Speaker 2 no more asparagus rolls

Speaker 3 that's funny

Speaker 6 it's a good title for a book no more asparagus when we were leaving your guys' july 4th party She looks at me and she goes, I got to take these.

Speaker 3 I can't leave this.

Speaker 6 I can't leave these here for somebody to eat and be like, oh, what are those?

Speaker 6 And so I took a video because I was like, this is ridiculous. And I took a video of Glennon taking them with her.

Speaker 1 I think your mom was there, Jimmy. And she was like, what are you doing? And I was like, I just trust you.
I'm just going to tell you.

Speaker 4 Oh, that's great.

Speaker 5 My mother's a cookie lunatic.

Speaker 4 She is an incredible baker. So that's even funnier.

Speaker 3 She watches.

Speaker 4 Anyway, we'll do better than you.

Speaker 3 She checked her cookies up.

Speaker 2 She's like, if they wanted me to leave the cookies, they should have been more generous.

Speaker 4 I say play to your strengths. Don't bake if you can't.
You know, just bring your personality. Asparagus rolls.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 We do.

Speaker 3 She would roll out that white bread, cut out the dress, put some asparagus in there, roll those bad boys up. I took a class for one left.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 1 I did. I took a night class to learn.

Speaker 2 No, that's not true. That can't be true.

Speaker 1 Amanda, your mom and I, my mom and took a class

Speaker 1 to learn how to make something to bring to a party, and we learned asparagus rolls.

Speaker 3 That's why I did that for 10 years. Oh, that's great.

Speaker 3 Got your money's worth out of that class. Anyway,

Speaker 3 I don't think so.

Speaker 1 Love to you both.

Speaker 3 We will see you next time.

Speaker 1 I promise not to bring anything.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 3 Don't.

Speaker 1 Thank you for getting us through. Your family is so beautiful and so brave, and we're grateful for you every day.

Speaker 5 Well, thank you guys for being, for your beautiful words and your kindness. We are

Speaker 5 delighted to be your neighbors.

Speaker 4 Yes, put that purple sheet up. We love you.

Speaker 1 All right. Bye, Pod Squad.

Speaker 1 We Can Do Hard Things is an independent production podcast brought to you by Treat Media. Treat Media makes art for humans who want to stay human.

Speaker 1 And you can follow us at We Can Do Hard Things on Instagram and at We Can Do Hard Things Show on TikTok.