The Reality of Fiction with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie [VIDEO]

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I always go like, Nigerians were the first Africans who taught me to believe in myself. Do you know what I mean? Like every other African that I met always had like a certain level of like, how are you doing? It was like, ah, I'm okay.
You know, I'm fine. Like, you know, we even say in South Africa, we'd be like, ah, which means like, I'm almost like I'm begging.
I'm begging my way through. I, you know, I'm getting by.

I try, you know.

And Nigerians, I remember like literally were the first ones who were like, you're not trying, you're doing.

You're doing it.

What do you mean you're trying?

Are you not winning?

And I was like, I mean, yeah.

I mean, they're like, no, you're winning.

Don't say you're trying when you're doing it.

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NEA's Read Across America campaign celebrates a nation of diverse readers with recommended books, authors, and teaching resources that promote diversity and inclusion. However, certain politicians are banning books with characters representing diverse perspectives and experiences, including books about Martin Luther King and The Trail of Tears.
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for all of America's students. Learn more? You don't look tired.
You look great. You look fantastic.
But wait, wait. Tired from life or tired from from No, I always feel like you should ask people Because sometimes we ask people, how are you? Then they'll say tired You think they mean they haven't slept But what they mean is I'm exhausted They're about to take their own life No, no, no, why are we Don't think of it like that No, I'm on book tour, I've been traveling That's what I mean I just assumed would know that that's what I meant.
I don't assume anything when people tell me how they are. Some people find it invigorating, like going on the road, talking about their work.
Okay, alright. Really? No! It's true actually.
We have people here that are like, I love it. No, some people are, they're just like, they are they're like, I love getting out there and meeting the people.
I do, do. I mean, but after five days of doing that when you haven't really slept, and I don't sleep well when I'm traveling.
I don't sleep well in strange places and in hotel rooms. I left Seattle at 4.30 this morning.
Oh, okay. Then you should be tired.
Yeah. So I'm not at all suggesting that I don't like meeting my fans because I actually do.
But no, it's a good problem to have. Sometimes I think the phrase good problem robs us of our ability to feel what we feel.
You know what I mean? Sometimes people will say it to you almost like you're not allowed to feel something because of the position you're in relative to another position. You have to be grateful for the problem.
Yeah, people are like, wow, but these are good problems. Then I'm like, no, no, no, it's just a problem.
Just say it sucks. I don't think it needs to be a good one.
And I mean this for me. I'm just completely projecting, by the way.
But I think it depends on the context, though. I think for me, it's a way of saying it is a problem.
Yes. But I kind of like that I have the problem.
Okay. Which is to say that I kind of like that people are interested in the book.
Yeah. Right? If they weren't, I would not be traveling for the book.
So, but I don't think, well, yeah. But I think when you say a good problem, you're already saying the problem part, no? I think if somebody said that to me, I would not take it well.
Okay. You do not get to decide for me what my good problem is.
Then we're on the same page. Okay, no, no, no.
As long as you're defined, because sometimes there's like this, you have to embrace humility. You have to like coach, couch everything you say.
Yes. It's this, but I'm grateful.
You know, that thing that you have to do. But sometimes you'll be like, traveling sucks.
I hate hotels. I don't like the food.
I miss my family. I don't do that thick.
Oh, by the way, we'll put you a fresh one if you want it. Thank you.
Right now we put it. It's up to you.
I got this from Seth Meyers. Oh! Christiana and I were chatting earlier about, first of all name and the fact that You are I think in many ways A dying breed You said it beautifully You said a literary giant You just go Chimamanda and people are like Oh wow It's like being Beyonce But in the world of books Do you know what I i mean there's no denying any type of art that comes with fame then comes with the pressure and in a weird way i feel like art for the most part not to be highfalutin about it but like art is almost supposed to be like bumping up against things all the time it's sort of it's accepted but not accepted challenging but you know but still accessible it's like it's like in this weird space How do you feel about your fame relative to what you're doing? Do you feel it hinders you or do you feel like it liberates you? Neither But hold on So are you suggesting that fame means somehow that fame corrupts art? So I think what happens oftentimes is fame interferes with how art can be perceived.
That's what I think it does, right? So I'll speak through the lens of, let's say, stand-up comedy alone. Any comedian who's worth their salt will tell you the difference in how an audience perceives a perspective or a joke when the person, when the comedian is famous is very because now they're not listening to what you're saying they're trying to listen to to it through the lens of them having a perception or an idea of who you are and where you are in relation to them so they don't go funny not funny insightful not insightful they'll go that's that's stupid for you and i'm like what do you mean that's stupid for me if i told i would have told that joke 10 years ago Although I like that style of joke And they'd be like Yeah but Come on You're Trevor Noah You And I'm like No no you see That's where I feel like You're making the mistakes Like if you make a joke About traffic People are like Well you can get a helicopter Which I often say Exactly You love saying that You love saying that No but I mean I think of it like You know And sometimes we only afford this to artists, for instance, let's say actual painters when they're dead.

I love how much Gravitas is awarded to, let's say, Picasso for a random napkin sketch.

People are like, oh, look at this.

Picasso sketch.

And you're like, guys, it's like a stick figure.

Yes, but even in it, you can see it harkens to his view of the world.

I'm like, guys, the guy was just sketching on a napkin.

Yes, but it was Picasso sketch.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

So how do you feel about it about fame i i don't think about it really i mean but here's why i think of fame and it's such a strange thing i don't even know what to do with my face. And I'm saying, I think of face.
It's kind of like, I don't want to just think of, but it's just, I don't think of, when I think that when I'm writing fiction, because that's, for me, there are distinctions in what I do and in how much they mean to me. So fiction is the thing I love.
Like, I really think it's my vocation. I think it's the reason I'm here.
I really believe that. I really believe that I have an ancestral gift.
So with fiction, nothing else matters. When I'm writing, I'm not, I'm not, I don't remember that I'm supposed to be this famous person when I'm writing fiction.
When I'm done writing fiction and I'm editing it and someone else is sort of, you know, there's an editor looking over it, that's when I sometimes have to think about audience. But even then, I almost never change anything.
Because for me, fiction is almost, it's sacrosanct. I don't think about my audience.
It's truly almost magical, honestly. But the other things, I can tell when people are bullshitting me, when people say, I love your walk.
And I'm thinking, no, you don't. You actually don't.
Have you told anyone that? Some, yes. Good, I love that.
Oh, wow. I love that.
That is the most Nigerian thing I've ever come across. She's a real Ibo woman.
No, I mean, I'm sitting next to, this is like, wow. Is it too much for them? No, I mean, this is amazing.
But I think it can be a good thing, right? For someone, and usually it's my wonderful Nigerians. Oh, Chimamanda, I love your work.
And so I said to him once, I was like, which one have you read? He said, I've read them. I said, which one have you read? He's like, the one about Biafra.
I said, okay, what happened? So he starts laughing. So he starts laughing.
And then he tells me, I'll read it, I'll read that. And then when it's non-Nigerians, you know, usually I can tell, but then I'm slightly gentler because, you know, sometimes non-Nigerians don't know how to handle the sort of Nigerian directness.
But I think in general, because I wanted to be read, I've always wanted to be read. And I really do feel very grateful.
You know how you said people have to say that. But I am actually quite grateful to be read.
But I think fame was never a thing that I sought. And in some ways also, because I'm not on social media, because sometimes I'm still surprised.
I'm just like, oh, so that person actually knows me. So I'm not, yeah, it doesn't occupy me.
Was that an intentional choice to not be on social media? Yes, yes. What was it? Self-preservation.
So not in a high-minded way, by the way. Just because I know that I will get into fights with people.

And it will not end well.

So I thought... So you're the person you would reply.

If somebody acts to you and says something...

Oh, I would find where you lived and come to your house.

You know, that's how we met.

Yeah.

Wait, what?

That's how Christiana and I'm...

It's crazy.

When Trevor first got his job at The Daily Show, He had a guest on That I didn't agree with That I thought he shouldn't have had it I stand by that Does this guest have a name perhaps? Yeah Tommy Loren Yeah And it was like a super viral interview And there was lots of reactions And credit to Trevor He came across tweets Where I was critical of him In a very respectful way, I think. I was kind of...
How you were critical? Not critical. I was just discussing...
Oh, yeah. I was discussing the fact that he'd had this guest on his show and because he disagreed with me, he followed me.
He was just like, I don't think she's right because he stands by why he had the interview, which I love about him. And someone reached out to me.
He was like, oh, Trevor Noah's a fan. Do you want to? Well, we thought about working at the show.
And the Nigerian in me was like, ah, this man is trying to trick me. And tell me off.
That's the first thing I told my parents. I was like, I've got this email.
I think this man is trying to trick me. And he's holding a grudge.
Because I said he should have that girl in charge. have that girlfriend.
But there was like that. No, but I see why though.
Yeah. But it was, but we engaged in a few conversations where he was like, you know, you've made me think I don't necessarily agree.
We had a few exchanges, not disrespectful ones, but like Trevor's very kumbaya. But I'm a child of Biafra, so I always want to fight.
So there is that, I think there's that, not tension, but we bring different things to how we approach things. It's completely great.
I think like what I connected with you on was most important for me is like, I, and you know this, even till this day, I don't care about agreeing with people, but I love a well-structured argument. I love an idea that makes me think.
Yeah. And then something for me to butt up again.
I actually find it boring when people all hang out in a group and agree with each other i personally think we're losing a lot of that yep you know yeah like we we live in a world now where we go i don't agree with you so it's finished yeah and i'm like no but guys if i was to get rid of everyone in my life who i didn't agree with on an issue i would have no one in my life yeah know what I mean? Yes. This is a gospel that needs to be preached more in America.
You think in America particularly? Yes. This is not the case in Nigeria, for example, and I would argue in most of Africa.
People know that you can disagree with a person and still have a relationship with them. I think what's happening in the U.S.
is a kind of, you know, this kind of practice of purity, this kind of, you know, you have to have these particular views otherwise, and then the moralizing of opinion. So somebody feels a certain way about something.
It's not just that you think they're wrong, it's that you think that they're bad people. And I think that that moralizing then means like, because you think this way, you're a a bad person and i cannot talk to you and you cannot be in my life yeah i think it's a particularly american thing i really think so and it's and it's quite contemporary i mean it's it's recent i came to the u.s in 97 i don't think america was like that when i came to the u.s i think it's recent do you find it like that? Well, I came to America in 2014 and I say this a lot and maybe I'm coming from like a Western lens of being in the UK and communicating with my friends in the UK.
I think in the UK also, people are wearing their politics more or whatever their label of, whatever you identify as, whether Republican, Democrat, socialist, whatever. And that is being at the front of a conversation in a way that is tainting how you can experience a person in real life.
Yeah. In a way that I didn't feel when I first came to America.
When you first came. When I first came.
Yeah. Because remember, I came when Obama was still in power.
No, no, you're not wrong, actually. Yeah, when I came at the tail end of Obama,

everyone assumed Hillary would win.

And to be a Trump voter was a very quiet thing.

I mean, we only discovered there were so many voters when the guy won.

Because everyone was,

it was just those red hat people over there.

You never thought it was the people around you.

And I think there became this scrutiny after Trump won.

Did you vote for him?

Did you vote for him?

I think you voted for him. Like that suspicion for people who weren't in active mourning that Hillary wasn't president.
And then it changed the timber of our interactions in a way that I don't think we've recovered from or gone back to. And I think that's even deepened now in his second term.
And, you know, I always try and grapple with this. I try and figure out, especially now because I spend more time in south africa than i've done over the past 10 years so when i was doing the daily show most of my life was just in america and in the u.s i couldn't really leave much and now i get to spend more time going back to south africa and traveling around and one of the biggest things i've realized is in america more than most places i've been to, people wear their politics as their culture.

But where I'm from, your culture is your culture.

Do you know what I mean?

So no one would dare say where I'm from, I am a Republican or I am.

No, no, no.

I'm Xhosa.

I'm Zulu.

I'm Tswana.

I'm Peri.

But that's also because our politics in Africa is not ideological, though.

Oh, what do you mean by that?

But it's not, though.

I mean, is there in South Africa a party that you could see is on the left and on the right and in the center based on their policies you know now i know it sounds crazy but because of trump they're emerging in some ways but previously there wasn't let's put it this way all the major parties in south africa will have very similar um promises or ideals they just have differences on how they believe they're going to get there so most of them wouldn't argue that health care is a right they all go like no no we everyone should have health care and there should be free education and but then they'll argue about the permutations of how to get there to and I think that, you know, in agreeing with what you're saying. Yeah, but I'm just thinking about what, I think that this kind of polarization, even that word I don't like, I think it preceded Trump.
Interesting. I think Trump made it worse, but do you, I mean.
I think it was, I felt it with Trump. Yeah.
Maybe, maybe, maybe that's a result of like the bubble I was in myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just think we're in a time where people feel really defensive about what they believe. And there's not much step base for negotiation.
I felt a lot of that reading your book. Which we actually read, by the way.
You did read it. I loved it.
I loved it so much. Oh, I loved your work.
Your book was fantastic. I loved it.
I love that one you just did. No, I read it.
Cover to cover. This is how much I read it.
I remember the first, maybe like the first 50 pages. I thought it was like a memoir.
I know this is crazy to you. Please don't get me wrong.
I opened and I was like, oh, is this like your nickname? And are you telling me your real story? No, I'm being serious. And then I- He thought you were Chia.
I started Googling your father. I was like, oh, I knew he did statistics.
I didn't know that he was this mega rich person. And I was like- She's owed money.
I was like, yeah. I was like, why do I not know about this person that is now changing how I see this and I'm reading the book and nothing that I'm Googling is coming together.
No, because I think in the way that it's written, it really felt like a personal account. You know, from how, like most of the time when I read a novel, it is told sort of third person.
Then she went and did this. Then they were.
This felt like a me story from the beginning. Yeah, you're immersed into this world of COVID.
Yes. COVID.
And the people arguing on on families I'm so amused That you then went to Google Wait this doesn't sound right No I was I was But I would love to know What inspired Or like Because you live in a world of fiction You can go anywhere Yes Trevor you do know That there is such a thing As the first person No no I do I understand this I understand this completely But what I'm saying Often times the first person narration Isn't so closely tied to the author I love that you find this so amusing No I'm just saying for me But also it's a wonderful compliment Can I just say that Because it means that you still believed this world that I created. Only for the first 50 pages.
By the time we got, once we started getting to like Zekora's story and once we were in like, you know what I mean, Kadiatu's story, I was like, okay, I knew what was happening. Give me some credit.
But I'm just saying for the first 50, I was like, this is a very... I even was planning, my first question to you was going to be like,

how do your friends feel about the stories you've revealed about them?

The things you've said about their sex lives.

I was like, wow, I mean, Africans are generally conservative.

How can you...

Africans are so private.

I was like, you've told your closest friends the sex that she's having with her husband.

Oh, wow.

And the fact that he ravaged her in a way that she had never been ravaged I was like damn this is wow he said that it felt like sneaking into a diary entry it really did feel like that initially so I would love to know the why because you talk about the world we're in now and you mentioned it as well how much of the world we're in now influences or influence this book? You know, in you going, I think, like, why is the book set in and around COVID? It takes place right before COVID and then into COVID and then sort of out of COVID. Why does it take place then? Why does it take place, you know, at liberal American universities? Why does it take place in this moment in time is what I'd love to know.
Because I'm interested in this moment because I think, well, COVID, COVID is, I think for a writer, COVID is gold. Because especially lockdown, lockdown was so surreal, so unique, so original that you cannot but use it.
It's like perfect material because you can do anything with

lockdown. And I think people reacted to lockdown in such different ways.
So you kind of start with

lockdown was your canvas and you can really do anything with it. So I remember, I'm not sure,

I didn't set out to, I don't even think of it as a COVID novel. I think of it as, because COVID in

some ways is only a, so you want a character who's looking back. You want a character who

I'm very interested in looking back. I'm very, I'm almost addicted to nostalgia.
I'm kind of always, you know, and a kind of melancholy as well. COVID just felt to me the perfect setting to have that character look back.
So she's locked down. She's alone in her house.
And she looks back. So I think if COVID hadn't happened, I suppose maybe I would have made her fall sick and then be in hospital.
Okay, you wanted to isolate her to look back on her life. Yes.
Okay. Yes.
It's not that I think that COVID had any... Well, it's up to the reader.
I was going to say, I don't think COVID has any particular meaning in the novel. But I think it's to say that the sort of authorial intent was not to make COVID a character, really, but to make COVID backdrop.
Because I think that COVID, I don't think I've i've written if i this is not the covid novel because i think there's just so much more that would have

to be in it to make it the covid novel if that makes sense yeah what what novel would you say it is then?

Love, dreams, a certain kind of melancholy, longing.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think it's my most grown-up novel, which is to say that it's the novel in which I'm most willing to acknowledge, even embrace uncertainty.
and I don't need to have all the answers and I don't need to, I don't need to, you know, have it all together. I feel like I had a sense of responsibility with Half of a Yellow Sun, for example.
And with Americana, I was setting myself free from being the good daughter of literature. I was like, I'm just going to do what I want and I'm going to...
And now I feel like I've grown up. So dream counts.
Yeah. I mean, of course, it's also my diary, as Trevor said.
It feels like it to me. It really does.
That's the best thing I've heard in all time. No, it really is.
I find it so adorable. To me, it feels...
And you know why it feels like a diary Is to what you're saying about love Every single one of the stories In the book I think are in many ways An honest reflection of how We experience love in our lives Funny enough, men and women I was honestly intrigued By that part of the book i was going was it in was it an intentional choice that you made to sort of keep us blind from how the men were experiencing the love and only have it be how the women were thinking that the men were experiencing the love because i i don't know how the men were experiencing it wait what do you mean by that because it's a book about women's lives so you and that's interesting Because like Darnell and you know All of these horrible men in the book Their interior lives I found that It's my reading I found a lot of them horrible Oh come on What did you find the most horrible? Oh my god, well you guys know I'm anti-men in general. Yes, yes.
It was. Yeah.
You know, my life is just filled with brilliant women. Yeah, well, okay.
Because I have some pretty good men in my life, and I don't know that I could have that rule. Are they like brothers, family members? Friends.
Yeah, I just speak to them during the night between 9 to 5. So, but really, back to Trevor's question.
Who did you? Yes, we know that you're. Okay, so in terms of who disturbed my spirit the most that like left me vibrating a bit, Kwame.
And that's because I'm postpartum myself. And those scenes of Zikora, like knowing her mother in a new way because of the vacuum of that man not being there was really beautiful to me.

Because me and my friends talk about all the time, like, it took us becoming mothers to actually see our mothers as girls.

It's a dialogue we're constantly having.

Kwame, because of how he behaved and how his family behaved, that created a resentment.

I'm like, that's not an honorable person. So to me, that's like a horrible man.
That's lovely. You know, I love that you're thinking about such things as being an honorable person.
Yeah. Yeah, I think the whole idea of being in love is that you are not, in fact, sophisticated.
I mean, there's a kind of lowering of your, just every imaginable barrier and guard that you have when love happens I think and Kwame okay I mean could we have some empathy for Kwame I don't know oh interesting tell me can you go into that a bit I would I would love no I'm now intrigued yeah no I don't know I don't know I mean I know what happened. But on the empathy point, when people listen to this after they read the book.
Yes. Why would, what would evoke empathy? I mean, I think, I think the question with Kwame would be why? I mean, what do you think happened? Something, I just feel like something must have happened to him.
Speaking of trauma and trauma response, maybe it was a kind of exaggerated trauma response this is what i felt while reading the book as as a man okay i felt like it was and i'd love to know your perspective as the author but it's like everyone sees love from their point of view you know yeah everyone in every story that they tell makes sense from their point of view so whenever someone's telling me their love story i have met very few people who tell me the love story where they are the villains in it i meet very few people who are aware of the elements that they contributed and i i'm always intrigued by that i'm always intrigued by how people will tell you a love story where they've just been slighted. The world has done them wrong.
They just keep bumping into these wrong characters. And I'm like, yeah, I know this may be true.
But that's only one half of the story. But is this, do you mean women and men? Yeah.
Yeah, completely. You don't agree? No, I'm just curious.
So men tell love stories about how they were… Completely. I think the difference with men for the most part is because we aren't really comfortable with our emotions and naming them and we don't spend as much time in them, especially with our friends.
We may, I think we will water them down or we'll compress them into a simple feeling like anger. I'm angry.
We'll very seldom say like, I felt ashamed. We'll very seldom say like, I felt inadequate.
I felt, no, it's just angry. It's a simple one.
But I think men will tell very similar stories. Similar stories to the ones that I found in your book where I'll say to a man, friend, what happened? Yeah, she was this and she was that and it wasn't gonna, it wasn't gonna, and I go like, okay, but what, I understand you, but what was the we, right? Because every love story has to have a we.
In the same- Yes, Trevor, but I'm just worried that we're sort of going into the both sides territory. I think that there are some relationships where one person is an asshole.
Oh, completely. Yeah, that's completely true.
And that asshole may not acknowledge that they were the asshole, but it doesn't mean that they're not. I just feel as though reading this book that's about women's stories about men, I'm struck by how it's been out, I don't know, two weeks.
I'm struck by how many people have said to me, what about the men? What about the men's stories? Which is what Trevor is doing. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I didn't say that. We can rewind the tape.
I didn't say that. I did not say that.
You did. Don't you dare get me.
You did. No, no, no.
Don't put me out like that. You said, how do the men? No, you said something about what about the men's point of view? I didn't say what about the men's point of view i would never say that what i was asking you because remember you're the author you're omnipotent so what i was asking you was if you chose to keep it opaque on purpose so you didn't give us the answers about why that happened the answer doesn't have to do with like the man's point of view but it's the answer nonetheless so many of the characters they don't know why it happened they they the person disappears but they never get the closure they never get the answer they they left with this ghost that haunts them and so what i was asking is like if you did that on purpose i don't i don't want to know like oh but what was his version of it i'm more intrigued by why you left us with characters that were sort of unresolved in the answer that they were looking for that's what like i found i found like a hook does that make sense and i think there's a difference between the two no there isn't oh okay that was very cleverly done but no because but anyway it doesn't matter because i'm i'm it just struck me because i think that there is a kind of expectation we have, I think, that in reading that we, maybe even unconsciously, that we still look for the men, if that makes sense.
I think if it were a book about men telling their stories that I don't think as many people would have asked me, well, what did the women think? Hmm. I would have.
Not that. Yeah, no yeah no you definitely would have but we all know that you're different but anyway so trevor what else do you want to know no i want to know everything i would actually like to know as well like you know and maybe it's because of christiana's like i mean just presence in my life as a person i think you were other than my mom probably the woman who's given me the most insight into the like just like the nitty-gritty of like like ugly womanhood if i if i'd call it that you know as in eloquently as it's unvarnished completely and this book in a really weird way for me felt like an extension of the conversations I've had with Christiana like when we're talking about the inner workings of a woman's body and and how it's quote-unquote betraying her in some ways and how it's not doing what it's supposed to do for her and and then like even the frustration you know there's there's one there's one line which I'll misquote but it was essentially something to of how, I forget which character was saying this, but they were basically saying there was almost like a resentment in the fact that their future and the dream and the life they were looking for was tied to men.
They couldn't achieve that dream without the man being attached to them. Yeah, one of my favorite lines is the character that basically says, when you get you get married they leave you alone even if you divorce them I was like this is such brilliant Nigerian logic but it's the truth because like so many my friend just said I just got married for freedom freedom from the question from the judgment oh because your family leaves you alone yeah now you're in your husband's house I'm not even going to complain about the things you do Because you're under his dominion So to speak And often you're actually not But it's a perception people have So you're in your husband's house Nobody knows what you're doing What sort of life you actually have So for many women it's a kind of freedom Really, in a strange kind of way In a perverse kind.
Obviously, we want to live in a world where a woman doesn't need to do that to achieve freedom. But if you live in a society that imposes that kind of thing on you.
It would be nice to be in a society that doesn't impose that. But that's the reality.
Yes, which is why it can then be a kind of strange freedom. Which is so unvarnished because that's not necessarily a thing, even as direct and honest as Nigerian women are, is what we'd say in a forum that is not private.

You know what I mean?

It was just like, I felt like in moments you're in the inner sanctum of the things women say to each other that they don't tell other people that I sometimes tell Trevor.

I felt like that about a lot of it.

And I actually had that as a question as well was, you know, it's strange when it's a novel i feel like when it's non-fiction it sort of has a very direct approach with with fiction like most art it's at the discretion of the artist how much are they revealing to you and how much are they not how much of the book are you intending as a direct commentary on society and how much are you allowing to live in a in a complete fantasy like are these are these rich africans on purpose are they interacting with like white liberals on like and and if because i think you're very intentional i'd love to know like the why like what are you what are you hoping to reveal to us through those things like you know it becomes so much more complex but why do you choose it i I don't know. I really don't know.
This is the thing about writing fiction. I don't like the why questions.
Because there's a lot that's not... I am intentional, I hate that word, about lectures and essays.
I can tell you what I had in mind for The Danger of a Single Story, for example. But with fiction, it's different.
So Rich African, because it's true. I mean, because I'm interested in, so I think I write about things that I'm interested in, obviously.
So when you talk about academia, American academia, I'm interested in that. It's also a world I kind of know because I've spent time there.
And so I can write about it with a kind of authority and authenticity, I think. But it's also because I'm interested in all of the permutations of American academia.
I think dream count, I don't like the why questions. I think you could say that dream count is, I think in some ways it's part satire, especially the bits that are about academia.
Okay. Right.
But I think as satire always does, there's truth there. Like I'm kind of holding up a slightly mocking mirror to certain things that happen.
But I mean, there's also obviously I'm writing realism. And so it's kind of, you know, when you say the people who read Dickens and there's a sense in which you could say reading Dickens can give you a clearer sense of London at the time, clearer than reading history.
i know exactly what you mean yeah so i kind of like to think that that's what i am doing with my fiction which is i'm creating art but there is of course also a kind of um social and political component to it yeah yeah yeah but i'm not i don't out to, I like to think that my points are more blurred in my fiction.

So in other words, if I had to write an essay about American academia, I think it would be very blunt.

We're going to continue this conversation right after this short break.

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I'm interested because we kind of started this where we're talking about, you know,

you don't look at the fame, you don't think about audience.

For fiction.

For fiction. Are there moments when you're writing fiction when you're like, that feels, I can't go there? Never.
Never? Nope. So it's kind of, there's a fearlessness that comes with the fiction.
Yeah. I call it a radical honesty.
Okay. And that's the only way that I can feel happy.
Fiction really makes me happy when it's going well. It really makes me happy.
And I can tell when, you know, there are a few times in my life when I've held back in my fiction and I can tell. You know, I can tell that I am, in some ways it's like letting yourself down.
I can tell. Can you say when you felt you held back? In some of the stories and the thing around your neck, I think that I, you know, I held back in a way.
Why did you? I know you don't like the why questions, but why did you? No, this is a different kind of why question. I guess because I just felt like maybe I just shouldn't go there.
Maybe I shouldn't be as honest as I think. Maybe I shouldn't let this character be its full self in a way um his or her full self i don't know but anyway the point is i think if i learned anything from doing that it's that it just doesn't make me happy it doesn't feel true it doesn't feel authentic so some of those short stories i don't like actually but no dream count no i i don't hold back i i go where the character takes me.
It's a revelation. You have some very direct characters.
From above. Yes.
But I also think, I feel so strongly about literature and about fiction. I think it's our last frontier.
It's only in literature that we can learn things that we cannot learn anywhere else. So journalism cannot tell us about human motivation.
Journalism cannot go deep into the terrain of the human heart, which I think is really key for almost everything in the world. I really think the psychology of people can explain so much about the world.
I mean, just the psychology of the people who are in leadership positions, I think, you know, Jonathan can do that. Politics doesn't do that.
To write nonfiction, especially about other people's lives, is to be constrained by certain things that you cannot possibly know. But I think fiction lets you just, it's the essential thing, I think, that we need when it's done well.
As was done in this case. Yeah.
And I was going to say that brings us to one of the characters in the book is based on a woman who exists in real life. Can you tell us a bit more? So, yes, inspired by her.
The legal department of my publishers. Inspired by.
Yeah, we need to use the right language. Inspired by.
Okay.

Yeah, so inspired by.

So I remember when I, did you follow the story of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?

I didn't actually.

Really? No, I now went and read up on it backwards.

It wasn't, I don't think it was really that big in South Africa when this was happening.

It was big in the UK.

It was big in Europe.

Yes, and in the US.

I mean, until the case was dropped.

So this woman who was from Guinea and who walked as a hotel housekeeper accused him of raping her. So she walks into the room to clean it and there's a naked white man running toward her.
And I remember when I first heard about it, I was just riveted by it. And it was also very melodramatic.
He was arrested. He was already inside the plane about to fly to Paris, where he would then have started his campaign for president.
It was almost a done deal that he was going to be the next French president. And so he's arrested.
And Americans, as is their want, did this very dramatic thing of parading him in front of journalists, which I hate. The Pope walk.
I think it's a terrible thing. Why? Why do you think that? Because I think, especially when it comes to the sexual assault cases, we really have to be very careful to get it right.
Because the world is so deeply immersed in misogyny that there are people looking for the smallest reason to discredit a sexual assault case.

And so you imagine the misogynist just aching to say things like,

see, this is wrong.

We don't know if he did it or not.

You're already parading him.

I wish they had kept it very quiet.

I wish they had gone to court.

I wish they had found him guilty.

I wish they had publicized the evidence.

That would have made me very happy. Because then I think the story would have ended differently.
But anyway, so he's arrested and he's let out on bail. And then we're all kind of looking forward to the trial.
And then at some point the case is dropped and the case is dropped because they said she had lied on her asylum application. And I just remember thinking, I was just shocked.

I really was.

I almost couldn't believe it.

And also just the way that his lawyers talked about her.

They just kept repeating liar and lied, lied, liar.

And for the average person watching this,

your assumption is going to be that she lied about what had happened.

And I think this was also very, I think they deliberately did that. But in fact, they said she lied about her asylum.
And my thinking is, what we're saying to women is, if you ever expect to get justice for sexual assault, then you better be perfect. You better be sinless, which therefore means you better not be human because we're all flawed i found it it really i i felt hurt actually and also very angry so i wrote this very angry essay um non-fiction very blunt which was you know my point was this is bad and i think i framed it in a kind of america is not like our you know not not like nigeria not like Guinea.
In Guinea and Nigeria, the big man would probably not be arrested at all. So that America did this was wonderful.
I felt very heartened by it. But America has disappointed me and in some ways has failed this woman.
But I didn't think I would write fiction about her. I didn't plan to.
So when I started writing this novel, again, a character came to me. And so I think it means that even without knowing it, I carried her with me.
And then suddenly, something drops into your life and changes it forever. For me, there was just a great sadness there.
I felt so upset on her behalf. But anyway, so I wrote this character who is not really her because I've invented this character's past life.
I've invented this character's interior life. But I have kept the one story about Nafisatu Jallu, that's her name.
The story that Nafisatu tajalo tells about what happened in that hotel room i've kept as close as possible to that version because i just think that um it's in some ways i think it's a way of paying tribute to her but also it's about so many women like her it's about you know women who are powerless and who are not allowed to have dignity The way she was and the way they talked about her just it it it wounded my african spirit my parents were all in water it just it wounded it wounded me because i just thought this is so wrong and even the interviews that that i mean i i kind of fictionalized it in the novel but there's an interview where I'm watching and I'm thinking, they haven't done this right. English is not her native language.
Right. And so you're asking her about something so intimate and so difficult in a language that she doesn't really speak well.
It cannot go well. In some ways, you're setting her up to look as though she's lying.
And I remember a friend of mine who said to me at the time that she had watched the interview and she said, oh, I don't believe her because she was so dramatic. She was using her hands too much.
And that made me very angry as well. I thought, first of all, you don't understand.
There's an African world in which that is not dramatic. We gesticulate all the time.
the norm but also this woman was trying was she was put in a position where she had to make up for

what she lacked in her ability to express herself. So anyway, all of that is to say this character is inspired by Nafisa Tujelu, but isn't her.
You know, it's interesting that you say the thing about the public trials and all of it. I don't know if this is still true, but I believe in Germany, when a case is happening, when you're being investigated, the press isn't allowed to report on it.
And they have a very strict system that tries to prevent the press from sensationalizing the case in any way so it's supposed to be the way you're saying which actually i actually think would be good for everyone involved because i think number one there's nothing worse than a public trial because it does not have any of the respect nor the expertise of a trial right the most recent example let's say like the diddy thing the amount of random stuff that now comes up doesn't help anything so what happens is someone can put up a fake piece of a fake you know deposition or whatever it might be and it sullies somebody's case that's not involved with that do you know what i mean but it's just the spectacle of it all it just creates noise and it creates another example is Luigi Mangioni. Oh, but we like to see Luigi.
Yeah, but what I was saying is, but I was going like, you tell me how you have that trial when publicly they've already said, you know, the shooter and when he shot. And how do you now then have a trial of somebody when that's already been done? And you see, it's interesting when you say that and you talk about the perp walk, I can think of maybe at least 10 examples in the book where the fiction of this book still comments on the realness of America.
And it's like a critique on it. So, you know, American academia, how people are discussing issues in and around the world and how they feel they can and cannot have the discussions.
The justice system. The character says, in America, money is justice.
Yes. Which was very powerful to me because you just sue.
Yeah. You know, that's like it.
Yeah, and I should say that I agree with the character in my just utter horror. I remember when I came to the US and they would say things like, oh, something terrible happened.
But the family got money. You know, somebody was shot maybe and then somebody would be like, oh, the family got money.
And I'm thinking, yeah, but why are you talking about it? Like that's sort of, I mean, somebody died, you know? Yeah, but fundamentally, that's what America was based on. And I think every culture thinks that justice is the thing that the culture most values.
You don't think so? Think about like, okay, if I think about like some parts of South Africa, I remember talking to Kaya about this like friend of mine from South Africa. And his dad was, his grandfather was a chief in the village.
And if they found someone, very seldom, but if somebody stole something or if they did something wrong you just get beaten right you would you know you would you wouldn't get arrested you wouldn't get put away you wouldn't you just get beaten and then they would talk to you and say please don't do that again that's all it was and him and i were joking about it saying it's interesting how in that setting in particular in like a village you know where many of our grandparents grew up that was the thing that you like so what was valued violence no no no it was the other way around our culture valued non-violence and our culture valued like the culture itself it was like a very like that's not the thing that that we want do you understand what i'm saying if so if the violence the violence takes away from you the thing that the culture holds, I find. So in some parts of the world, time is the thing that they really look at.
Other places in the world think that shame is a more powerful tool. So their sentences may not be as long, but how they handle the case is worse.
But I feel like in America, because money, whether we like it or not money is like almost the foundation of america yeah they go then if we give you money you have been made whole and the other person lost money so they've really been punished and also now money being speech yeah i mean in this country i mean oh completely citizens united but anyway let's talk about dream counts just But I feel like Dream Count is everything. I agree with you.
Like, for instance, academia. Let's talk a little bit about that.
Yeah. It felt like the book was making a criticism of how America's liberal academia treats discussions.
Contrarians. Contrarians, arguments, etc.
and I found myself reading it going like i was like oh i wonder how much of this chimamanda thinks or is it just the character that's thinking like what what do you think of the current state of america's academia and how students are taught to think or not think i think that's fairly obvious. No, is it though?

I think it's a fair read. And actually, it's a reading that I agree with, which is that, yes, the book is clearly not enthusiastic about the form and even the function of American academia today.
I mean, obviously. But so you have a woman who's Nigerian and who doesn't know anything about that whole thing.

Yeah.

Who comes looking for something better than she is, right? So she's come from a life in Nigeria that she thinks she kind of wants to atone for, in a way. And so America becomes this, I want to find something noble and beautiful and good and honorable.
Because America is aspirational still, even to people who know that it's a very complicated place. There's still an aspirational element to America.
And so she comes and she wants to do a master's and she wants to study pornography. I think we should be able to say that.
You can say that. Okay.
So, pornography, pornography.

And she, so it's interesting for me,

as the writer, to look at this world

from the point of view of a person

who just does not know it

and is not familiar with it.

So this person is just taken aback, surprised.

She's like, do you know what is going on?

And also then she becomes so disillusioned by it.

I think if someone wants to read that as a cautionary tale,

I'm not opposed to it.

I mean, this is what can happen,

which is you can make people lose that thing in them

that wants to be better and dream and aspire. You know, there's something actually, I think, quite cynical about, and it's not an obvious cynicism, but there's something quite cynical about the way that academia operates.
It doesn't feel to me, I don't know, There's something, there are beautiful things that are lacking so it's not just about it's not just about letting our imaginations be free and we should be able to exchange ideas it's also just more fundamental things like compassion do you know and I don't even like to use kindness because that word is so overused and always by people who are spectacularly unkind. So I will not use kindness, but compassion.
Do you? No, I'm with you. Empathy.
Yes. The ability to understand that there are multiple points of view in the world it's a very strange thing because and I'm a person who grew up on a university campus so academia has always been part of my life like it's my I get into a university campus anywhere in the world and I'm already at home like it's just I feel comfortable and you will think and this is what it was like in Asuka when I was growing up.
It was a place of many-ness, of, you know, it was multi. Ideas, people.
And that's not the case in America. It's not the case at all.
And sometimes it's difficult to talk about because I, you know, you don't want to, sometimes one doesn't want to agree with one's enemies.

So there are people.

And who are your enemies?

That's amazing.

There are people on the political rights in this country who I think just espouse the most ridiculous ideas, but who also criticize American academia.

And I think there's truth there.

But acknowledging that, I just think, oh my Lord, I don't agree with these people.

But my feelings come from a different place.

It comes from love.

It comes from wanting this thing that I love to be better.

Thank you. But my feelings come from a different place Comes from love Comes from wanting this thing that I love

To be better

That's where it comes from

How or what would your advice be

If

Let's say there's an aspiring author

Or even just like a student who loves your work out there

Somebody who is in academia right now

They come to you and they say

Chimamanda I hear what you're saying about empathy

And seeing another person's point of view But but i feel like this person who i disagree with the thing that i disagree with them on is the fundamental humanity or existence of another human being per se because that's what i've heard a lot of people say they'll go no no no it's this is not a difference between 30 tax and 20 tax i'm i'm disagreeing with somebody who fundamentally believes that black people should not get this or that this group should not get that. You know what I mean? How would you encourage them then? But I don't even agree that that's the case.
You don't agree that that's the case? No, because I think that we have... Wait, that they're feeling that? Or which part are you not agreeing with? No, I'm sure that they feel that.
Okay. But that you feel something doesn't mean it's true it doesn't and i think that when you widen the definition of something so this is somebody who believes that black people should not have maybe that person just feels maybe that person supports school choice okay but and this is an exact example actually i know somebody who is very upset because somebody supports school choice and Okay.
And this is an exact example, actually. I know somebody who is very upset because somebody supports school choice.
And then the very strange conclusion was that this person who supports school choice doesn't like black people. That's not, I mean, you could feel that, but that's not necessarily rational thinking.
So I guess my point is, it's either people have become incredibly terrible in the past 20 years, or something has changed in the way in our capacity to have compassion, to be more broad-minded, to think in more complex ways. My point being that 20 years ago, I don't think this was happening.
In other words, universities were places where you could still exchange ideas. You weren't terrified of saying something because you'd be blacklisted for saying the wrong thing.
So which is it? Is it that there are many more people now who fundamentally just have these really

odious beliefs about other human beings.

You said that you said something about wearing,

wearing our politics more closely.

Is that what it is?

And has it then tainted the way we look and the way we judge and,

and the conclusions that we draw?

So as I say,

often I have a very dim view of human nature is very Hobbesian. so i've always thought people are terrible and i still think they're terrible i don't think that's true i really ask this guy christiana works on it's guilty until proven innocence that's how she works with all humans talk about generational trauma i always say to my like my father and his two brothers miraculously survived biafra.
And considering what they've gone through, they are such good and compassionate and empathetic and non-suspicious people. You would think I went through the war.
But then what I tell my therapist is that the generational trauma is that I'm hypervigilant. I'm probably speaking nonsense.
But what I do say is some people have a more dim view of human nature. And if that is true, because I always say, you know, there are racists, racists need their outlets, sometimes their Twitter.
Like there are some people who have odious points of view. There's people that do not see my humanity.
How do we go from there? Because I think maybe there's an in-between. Yeah, but I don't think that those are the people we're talking about, though.
That's my point. Oh, okay.
So, I mean, in these circles, so people on university campuses who don't feel comfortable saying what they think are not the crazy racists on Twitter. The crazy racists on Twitter do not interest me because I don't think it's even worth, I mean, there's some people that you shouldn't even bother engaging with or trying to change their minds.
So you're not talking about the fringe? No, no. You're talking about maybe the masses, the collective in the middle.
Yes, and I think it's important to say that because sometimes I think that instead of talking about that, we then sort of reach for the fringes as examples. As a justification.
Yeah, it's kind of also like saying that people who think that women, there are in this country, many people who still, I mean, there are people in this government who think that just by virtue of being a woman, you're somehow incapable of certain things, right? I mean, I don't mean those people. So the atmosphere on university campuses today in this country just seems to me.
And so when Trevor says and someone says, well, I can't speak to them because fundamentally they believe something that is so and so that's my point I'm thinking did

many people suddenly turn or did our own perception change because these people that somehow have become sober that you can never speak to them again they're kind of in your circle I mean they were there 20 years ago right I mean they're not in the fringes of on Twitter um they're in your community yeah yeah and so what is it that has happened it just feels to me a kind of um confusing extremeness of of um of reaction and perhaps maybe of opinion and i i not i don't fully understand it but i don't trust it so i don't Okay Yeah I get it Okay so I'll This is how I think about it One I think social media Dramatically changed Our perception Of where people sit In reality Right It gave us a flattened View of people Because that's what Gets the algorithm It's what ropes us in So I will see the worst you. Because the worst of you is what inflames me the most.
Or I'll only see the best of you because it attaches me to you. But the nuance is boring.
And they show you this with the algorithms. Like if you sit down with the engineers, they'll show you.
If somebody writes, it's a lovely day outside. It'll go nowhere.
If you say best day ever, it goes somewhere. nowhere if you say best day ever it goes somewhere and if you say worst day ever it goes somewhere but if you use adjectives and descriptors that are like they don't evoke something extreme it doesn't really do anything if you wrote a little tweet about a president and you said you know this president's not great but they're also not the worst and i guess everyone has their flaws it's not going to go anywhere you go this president is destroying this country they are the they're the worst thing and i think that started to filter into the discourse in american politics and i think politicians i genuinely put a lot of blame at their feet because i think american politicians spent a lot of time using the language that really only wrestlers should use about their opponents.
You know? So they would come out there and they would say things like, I remember, you weren't there at the Daily Show yet, but in our first few years, we went to New Hampshire for the primaries. And I remember being so shocked at how Lindsey Graham's team was buddy-bud buddy buddy with hillary clinton's team and lindsey graham would send hillary clinton Birthday messages and talk about her family when you saw these people on a stage speaking about each other They they didn't even mince words.
They would say this person is going to destroy this country They are killing this country that you know I've spoken to people who are far smarter than me in the world of politics and they say it all started with clinton around the monica

lewinsky they say that's when american politics became personal and like quote-unquote evil not

evil you know this it was created by newt gingrich yeah yeah but i think that's where it became a

thing so if your leaders are saying you see now this is where now we come back to other politics

one of the things i've loved about going back to south africa frequently is realizing

Thank you. So if your leaders are saying, you see, now this is where now we come back to other politics.
One of the things I've loved about going back to South Africa frequently is realizing that even in the doldrums of fighting in politics, I've never heard a politician say the other person is a devil or they're destroying the country. They don't agree with how they're doing it.
They'll say they're incompetent at their job they haven't met service delivery they but i i really i'm maybe my memory kind of those those attacks with the thing think of the things that people have said right about other politicians and then think of how incongruous that is with them and how they are with each other they have lunch together they have dinner together. Right? What then happens is their fans then adopt a thing that they don't believe in.

But now the fans are the ones who control the theater of it all, the spectacle.

And I don't know if you, there's a really amazing documentary I watched about Vince McMahon.

It's fascinating.

Even if you don't like wrestling, I recommend everybody watch this thing. I was going to say, say Who is Vince McMahon Vince McMahon is the man Who basically made Wrestling what it is today Right I promise you now Don't you It's even better If you don't like wrestling In fact Go and watch it And one of the most revealing Trevor Life is so short Oh Let me tell you So much I want to watch I would not recommend this to you If I did not believe It would give you an insight into America that very few documentaries can right because one of the main things it shows you is how like there's a point where long story short the wrestling federations are splitting and the wrestlers decide before these like a few of the wrestlers leave they decide they're going to give each other a big hug On the stage And they're going to They'll basically drop

The facade

And you should see the crowd

And the way they react

The crowd

I was like

But surely they know

That it's not real

Wait so the crowd

Got very angry

The crowd got

They were furious

They were like

How could you

How could Shawn Michaels

Hug

You know

Triple H

How

It was

And I was like

Oh yeah

This is

This in many ways

Is what I think has happened

With American politics

This is a production of the U. How, how it was.
And I was like, oh yeah, this is, this in many ways is what I think has happened with American politics. And to your point, the discourse, the leaders said, these are my, these are our enemies.
People then adopted that. How do you now discuss with your enemy? I think we're, I think we're putting too much blame on politicians.
Oh no, I'm not putting all of it.. And not enough responsibility on...
On individuals? Yeah, and also, I mean, which came first? What you said about social media, I agree more with, which is... I mean, this whole politician thing.
You think everybody watches politicians? I think everybody's affected by them. I think Donald Trump has shifted...
Yeah, but he's running a cult. No, but still.
Aren't they all in some way, shape, or form? The Democrats is a bad cult. No, but it's still, but I'm saying like, let's take the Democrats away.
Let's look at people. Because the Republicans also weren't great.
Obama, Trump. Yeah, culty.
Right? We talked about it with Josh where he said, that's why he calls him white Obama. He says, and people get angry and I understand why.
But on that episode when we talk about it with Josh, it's because- Calls Trump white Obama. So he says what Obama represented to so many people, especially black people, Trump represents to like so many white people where they go, ah, this is our moment.
This is our, the sort of lost dream, the lost idea. And it's a comedy premise, but he's not going, these are the same people.
He's just saying for them, that is their promise. One speaks to the darkness, the other speaks to the light.
There's an overlap in their voters. And they both speak to some aspirations, but in different ways.
That's the ugly. It's hope, but in different directions.
Okay. Obama goes hope.

You're not sold.

I love it.

No, no, I'm not.

I mean, Chimamana's not sold on anything, though.

I like it.

No, I mean, this is... No, this is not true.

That's good.

This is true.

The same way Christiana's not sold on...

I don't expect to sell you on something.

No, I am sold on something.

No, I'm just thinking about it.

Whatever. It's not interesting to me.
So, yeah, so I will say this. I think it's a lot harder.
I understand where a student or any person comes. And to talk of empathy, I understand it in in all ways to be honest with you I can see somebody who goes no this this country we we have to completely change this and it's gone to the dogs quote unquote but then I also understand somebody who says a lot of the language you're using or a lot of these ideas you don't even know where they came from so you may be thinking of it just through the lens of school choice but for many many people who have dug into the trenches of where ideas come from, you start to realize that some of the ideas are innocuous in their sound, but where they were written, you know what I mean? Yeah, and that's fair.
That's fair. But the person who supports school choice does not know.
I agree with that. It's history.
I agree with that completely. There's the assumption that that person should know.
And then that person is judged on that. And then that person is ignored and blacklisted.
But that person does not know. Yes.
And it's also this new world where you're not even allowed. I mean, curiosity is dead.
And I, you know, as a person who just, I love learning. And I just keep thinking, what have we lost in this new sort of world where people don't even, even to ask a question, you're uncomfortable.
I remember when I spoke at an Ivy League university, which will be unnamed. And so I had a few of the students in a sort of private meeting where I just, because I like to know what young people are really thinking away from the grownups.
And so we started talking and then I said, you know, I knew if you're like uncomfortable to say what you really think. Everyone was like, no.
And then one person goes, yeah, but sometimes, and suddenly all of them were like, yeah, sometimes. And even that struck me because I remember thinking we've gone from that kind of almost forced conformity to suddenly thinking, okay, maybe I can actually say what I'm really thinking.
And there was something about it that just made me sad because I thought they were graduating. And I thought, what have they lost out on learning in the four years they've been here? Because they've been too unsure, uncomfortable about asking questions.
And again, so what I mean about these, these kids are not the fringe on Twitter. Do you know what I mean? But they already know that I better be careful.
Otherwise somebody will think that I'm a person who hates black people. Yeah, yeah.
Do you see what I mean? Yeah. And so I don't know.
It just made me so sad. Do you think that's a byproduct of who actually holds the power in universities? You know, like you see funding being pulled.
You see rich donors saying, if you teach that, then I'm pulling my funding. I think a large part of America's academia problem is money.

There's just so much money.

I mean, even the entitlement of the students is about money.

I mean, the school fees are high.

They're high, right?

They are high.

And so students feel like, well, I've bought this.

I mean, when I taught creative writing at Princeton when I was doing a fellowship,

I remember a student coming to me and saying, you gave me a C.

I've never had. I mean, when I taught creative writing at Princeton when I was doing a fellowship, I remember a student coming to me and saying, you gave me a C.
I've never gotten a C in my life. And I was like, huh? How is that my problem? I said, I can show you why.
I mean, so I thought if the student had come to me to say, I want to prove to you that you've kind of, you know, here's why I should not get the C. Here's the thing on my paper.
But no, the student said, I have never had a C in my life. This is my first C.
And so I want you to change it. And so my first thought was, you know, I don't blame you.
Maybe your father gave money to Princeton. But my dear, this is your grade because this is what you wrote in your paper.
And we can discuss your paper. But you know, I feel like, so it's money, money, no really.
And then, you know, they have so much money and the endowments, but there's, you know, people are giving them money and so they have special dinners for them. And so money, I think is a major problem.
And that's happening so much more. This whole, you know, I'm going to, I will withhold my promised grant if you don't do.
And then I think Israel, Palestine has really made that so much more, you know, whether like if you're doing that, therefore. And I just think, I also just wish that universities were not so beholden to people who have money.
Because then I think they would be more courageous. I think there's very little courage left in the public space.
That's what I mean about longing for. I'm like a melo in Dream Count.
I want, I'm longing for what is noble, what is beautiful. I want heroes.
I want people I can look up to and admire and learn from. I think there's a large part of me that is disillusioned, disappointed, even heartbroken.
I hide it in sarcasm, but it's all there. Don't go anywhere because we got more What Now after this.
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Do you think there's a part of you that not wishes or I wonder if, you know, this happens to everyone in the public space you and i were talking about this i've experienced this almost everyone has there will be a moment where it feels like you are a hero and then it feels like the natural part of that journey is to now be the villain or to have like you know and i don't know if it's art imitating life Or vice versa So like Your place high up That the only Yeah Like Come down You know Like I think about how If you and I Had a conversation I remember our first conversation It was like I was speaking to Jesus Not really That's how people They're like Wow you're gonna speak to Chim Oh wow I her how how but it was it was such a in a beautiful way but it was really but people were like wow oh i and you know your words were gospel and this whole thing and then i remember saying now to people i was like oh i'm gonna speak to chimamana and they were like whoa yeah it gets you in trouble just so you know you might get in a little trouble there might be and i i like interesting to know yeah no i well i mean you're not on social media i guess but i don't know if it's because people wish for it to be the natural progression or if sort of going to what we started with your fame sort of metastasizes for some people where they wish for you to be they create an idea of everything that you must think And if you deviate at any point From what they think you think Then they go the whole thing must come down Does that make sense? That's interesting How would it get you in trouble though? How would what get me in trouble? Talking to me Well everyone has a different opinion on why Some people will be like Oh you're going to talk to her She's anti-trans I mean are you you going to talk to a transphobic and i'm like i don't think chimamanda's transphobic and they're like oh oh oh you better check then someone else will go oh she's um right-wing leaning i'm like i'm pretty certain chimamanda's not right-wing leaning then they're like no you see what she says about anti-cancel culture and and then i go, okay, now this is me as Trevor. What I always try and do for myself is I try and at all costs form my own opinion on something and then allow the world to in some way, shape or form bump up against that opinion because I don't live in isolation.
But when I read your piece on how we, it wasn't cancel culture. You said something was beautiful.
It was about, was it purity or, forgive me. I remember the message, but not all the words.
But it was, I remember reading it thinking, damn, this is a really insightful, messy, and honest view on how we're dealing with conversations in society. You're failing a purity test and we're writing people off.
And you know, I've said this to you a thousand times, Christiana, I go, guys, it's not sustainable to lose your whole family because your uncle said this thing. I was like, politicians will come and go.
Topics will come and go. The people in your life hopefully won't.
I'm a big fan of that, right? This is the reason I'm not on social media. I come for it from a different perspective.
I think I hate how in America it's like, you're right, you're left, you're right. Because I think people contain multiple ideological positions.
On some issues, on some, like, right-wing leaning on what? Left-wing, there is no one. Yes, but it's buffet politics.
I don't know. What are right-wing ideas? I mean, even that has shifted, right? Even that has shifted.
Yeah, that's true. Which is why it's not about, and I agree with you that nobody, we're not pure.
I mean, you know, and especially when you're a person who comes from, you know, the reasonable regions of the world, that is Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East,

you kind of understand, you know, you have uncles who, I mean, I have relatives who still think that women really should not be walking outside the home. And, you know, and then there's me.
And we still happen to get along. And I think that there are certain views that,

some of my views have changed as I've become older.

Even I think in some ways my feminism has changed.

I think, for example, when I was younger, I didn't want to talk about women's bodies

because I felt that this is how they stigmatize women.

I felt like, no, nobody should talk about PMS

because they use that to justify excluding women. They'll say things like, how can a woman be president when she has PMS? She's going to press the button, right? But now I realize actually men press the button without PMS as an excuse.
So maybe women are still the better choice, right? Because if we can just get their hormones stable, then we're fine. But men, my God, no PMS and they're just doing crazy things.

But that has changed for me.

I can list people in every field.

Comedians who say,

I mean, now I say a thing that's a joke.

It used to be agreed that this was a joke.

We all knew that this wasn't real.

It's fiction.

I do not want to kill my mother-in-law.

And now someone goes,

oh, for you to be furthering the idea of violence.

You're like, no, no, no, no, no. You know, like Jimmy Carr says it really beautifully, the British comedian.
He had this thing that he used to play at the beginning of his shows in response to this. And he'd have a message that would come on and it would say, hello, I'm Jimmy Carr and I'm a comedian.
I want you to know that I'm going to be making some jokes about terrible things tonight. But remember, these are jokes about the terrible things.
These are not the terrible things. The jokes are not making the terrible things and the jokes are not changing the terrible things.
But these are the jokes about the things. So have a good time.
these are jokes about the terrible things. These are not the terrible things.
The jokes are not making the terrible things and the jokes are not changing the terrible things,

but these are the jokes about the things.

So have a good time.

These are jokes.

But I was amazed that even he had to put that in his show.

Do you get what I'm saying?

But I do think, though, that I can tell you

that certain jokes I will not laugh at,

that certain things I refuse to laugh about.

But that's fine.

That's comedy.

It's like there's some people who don't like spicy food.

I judge them, but I don't mind that they do it. No, I don't think that's a good analogy.
Why not? Because when I say I won't laugh, it's not like, oh, it's just my taste. It's more that I think, in some ways similar to what you said about school choice.
About how the people who know that maybe deep down in the language or in the foundation of that idea, there something that's actually quite you know toxic or something pernicious yeah so that's what i mean about the certain jokes i won't laugh about because i just i think that there's certain jokes that are not just jokes i think sometimes people are not laughing with you they're laughing at you ah but i think this is A dangerous road to go down Because you're You're a fiction writer

So someone could say to you

Chimamanda

Your book

This cannot exist in

Because it is not

It is

No no

Not cannot exist

So here's the difference

Yeah

I will not laugh at that joke

But I'm not going to say

You cannot say that joke

Okay

No no no

But that's what I mean by it

That's why I'm saying

It is taste

So comedians

And we love even doing this

As comedians

We'll be in a show

We'll watch a comedian

Tell a very racist joke

We'll go

Thank you. But that's what I mean by it.
That's why I'm saying it is taste. So comedians, and we love even doing this as comedians,

we'll be in a show.

We'll watch a comedian tell a very racist joke.

We'll go.

That's funny.

And it's racist.

And as comedians, we say,

the craft of what the person is doing in terms of making a thing funny, they've done.

But we're also acknowledging the roots of it.

It is racist.

The same way I can look at food. Yeah, and I go like, this food is poisonous, but it's delicious.
Do you know what I mean? And so I think we're on the same page there. I'm not saying people should laugh at everything the same way I don't think people should enjoy every book or every point of view, etc.
However, that's why I think, you know, we're actually saying the same thing. But Trevor, I want to go back to you.
You asked me a question about making a decision sort of almost solo on your own. Yes.
And I don't think of it as that kind of clear-cut dichotomy because I don't think it's even possible. I wasn't saying clear-cut.
I was saying more like how do you find the balance? Like what do you think the responsibility is? Because I don't think it's clear- cut, but you exist somewhere on that spectrum.

I exist on the, I'm sort of leaning, I lean, right wing leaning, I lean towards thinking.

Okay.

I really believe in sort of lucid thinking.

Yeah.

And I like clarity.

And I, you know, I'm a writer.

I also like words to mean what they mean.

I like clarity of language. I like clarity.
And, you know, I'm a writer. I also like words to mean what they mean.
I like clarity of language. I like clarity of thought.
I like thinking about things. And, you know, from the time I was a little girl, I just was never a person who went along with what I was supposed to do or believe.
I've always kind of wanted to do it. I want to sit with this for a while and think about it.

But also I want to make decisions

based on knowledge and information.

So I'm very keen on learning.

Like if there's a subject and some,

I want to go read about it.

So AI, I've been reading books about AI

because I don't know what the hell that's about.

So now I know things like this generative AI,

this predictive AI.

And did you know about the training models? But so when I say make up my own mind, it's not that I just sit there with nothing. I want to gather information and then I want to process it for myself.
You're a student. Yes, I'm a student.
And I always want to be a student. But what I can tell you is that I'm never going to be swayed by criticism.
Never. That's never going to happen.
I am the daughter of James and Grace Adichie, and it's not going to happen. That's it.
I have my opinions. And I can have conversations with you about why I have those opinions.
And I'm also very keen to know why you disagree, if you're a person who can actually make coherent sentences about why you disagree. So yeah.
So you encourage the discourse and the dialogue, but it has to be grounded in, I guess, intellectual curiosity. And it seems like from reading your essays and your work, a mutual respect.
Yes. Because the affront to you is just like, don't be disrespectful, which is how I would, don't disrespect me or I'm going to leave.
Exactly. Yes.
If there's disrespect, I will not take it.

I'm just not going to.

And I think also, I mean, I remember once saying to somebody, you know, I was loved.

And I am loved.

I had the best parents in the world.

So I do not need to campaign for your love.

You know, I don't need to do, I don't need to change myself for you.

If you like me, I'm happy that you like me.

If you don't like me, I'm still me. And I wish that it was easier for more people, especially women.
There's a line in the book where one of your characters is basically talking about, I think, how the world is shaped. And they basically say something to the effect of, it's almost like America doesn't know that the world isn't America.
Yes. Only America is America.
Yeah. And I remember having this discussion with a friend of mine who was taken aback because they really felt offended and I understood why.
Trevor, is there anything you do not understand? No, I try to understand most things, genuinely. That, by the way, was a joke.
Oh, everything is understandable, but I'm just like, agreeing is different, I think. So, I remember...
You would make a good fiction writer. This is actually how we're supposed to see...
You know, you're supposed to kind of understand everybody's point of view without necessarily agreeing because he's biracial and he was born in apartheid i think i think so anywhere so he had to i think so in many ways i think the different i've been forced i've been trained from my birth to be that way as a person so i had no one way of eating food i had no one way of celebrating a christmas i had no one way of speaking a language i had no one way of my hair looking my face looking i had no one way of celebrating a Christmas. I had no one way of speaking a language.
I had no one way of my hair looking, my face looking. I had no one way of my country being.
So I've never believed that there is a one way. You get what I'm saying? So I remember like one of the first ones that came to me was, I remember I told this as a joke in one of my shows long ago, but I said, I always found it interesting that people would mock someone with another accent.
But I go, who has an accent it means that they're fluent in another language and that that was something that so for me when you talk about understand i would always go yeah if somebody has a funny accent it can be funny but don't ever forget that it means that they speak another language fluently that's why they have the accent and so when when i when i think of these things i i was i was doing shows in the middle east and my friend said to me hey man i mean i don't aren't you conflicted you go to the middle east and you do shows and and i said what what do you want me to be conflicted about and they said well i mean you know that their views on gay marriage and i said it's interesting that you asked me this because america's on gay marriage are not as old as you think. Like this is a now thing.
Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, but we have to remember homophobia is alive and well in America. But what I'm saying is what got me with that was I was saying I'm not dismissing it.
Far from it. You know what I mean? But what I'm saying is It's interesting how for me When America has finished with an issue

Or has decided a place It then now goes That is correct now For the world So before gay marriage Is accepted in America Americans go like No gay marriage is No God Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve Come on We all agree on this America says gay marriage And then America goes On a conquest around the world, pointing at every country to be like, where's your gay marriage? And then I go, guys, how old is the UAE as a place? Like as an actual country, how old is it? And I go, if you look at the advancements they've made in the time that they've been a country versus how long it took America to get to those places, it's actually pretty impressive. Now you want them to do it overnight Because you've already agreed upon it

But you're not giving them their time to get to it

Which I think we all do as people

Why have you not found Jesus yet?

I found Jesus

Then you're like, yeah, but there was a time when you hadn't found Jesus

Yes, but now that I found him

Why don't you find Jesus?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yeah, when you say we all do it

I don't think we all do it

But anyway

Oh, maybe you'd I don't Yeah, no, but I think when I say all I mean the collective, you know But you know what I'm saying? Yeah, when you say we all do it, I don't think we all do it. But anyway.
Oh, maybe you do. I don't.
Yeah, no, but I think when I say all, I mean the collective, you know. But you know what's interesting? And it's true.
It's true about Americans. And I think it comes from, I mean, just listening to you and, you know, this person says to you, aren't you conflicted? Then you're saying, you know, let's look at the UAE.
How old how old is it? And I'm just thinking, you know, that American point of view often comes from a place of just not knowing very much about the world. And also not, I sometimes feel that arguments in this country are not rooted in information and knowledge.
it's not just that often they can feel like performances, but it would be nice if someone said, why aren't you conflicted? And someone else says, no, I'm not conflicted. Well, people like jokes, and so I'm going to go where people like jokes.
I think that's kind of what you would often hear in America. Rather than, how old is the UAE? How long does it take a society to evolve? What are the changes that have happened that speak to a certain kind of hopeful progressivism? That doesn't happen.
So Trevor, you need to start classes. I mean, this is the class.
No, but really, I'm just thinking, and I think it is true about really a lot of things.

You know, I just wish that sometimes if there was a huge issue of the day, outrage of the day,

that people would be like, I'm not going to have an opinion until I've read a book about it.

You know, Trevor's the king of that.

Not the book, but remember at the show, the Daily Show, I think it was Jussie Smollett.

An example always comes to mind.

Jussie Smollett, the incident happened where he said he was assaulted by these Trump people. We're doing the meeting, we're watching the videos, and, you know, people are like, oh, this is so outrageous, this is so sad.
Myself, who's like Trotsky on the far left, and another writer who I won't name but is pretty right-wing, we both said, there's something not right. And Trevor said, you see these two people? They never agree.
I did say that. And he's like, guys, let's pause.
Trevor said, we're not going to cover this. We're not going to go for like MAGA racist.
And we had all the roles because it's like it's a big production to get all these clips. We had all the roles.
People had the take. People had made jokes about how it was.
And Trevor was like, let's take a beat. And this was like on the Monday or Tuesday, Wednesday, more's coming in.
You know, people are saying justice for justice. Justice Smollett, like Kamala Harris, everyone's tweeting.
Trevor's still like, let's take a beat. I think it wasn't until like Wednesday or Thursday, it emerges that, you know, the story wasn't what he was professing it to be.
And Trevor was like, okay, now we're ready. And I always think about that when a story breaks or there's some hot button issue.
Because I'm, listen, I'm always like, I'm quite fiery, as you may have gathered. I used to be of the view of like, this is my opinion.
But Trevor's very good at, let's take a beat. Let's read more.
I used to get frustrated because I'd be like This happened to these people They're dying And Trevor said Well people die every day We can't like We have to have an informed response To what's happening I feel the same way But I So here's where I have a compassion for people I think it's unfair For us to expect that of people Because they are living in the world That they are living in Yeah You know? No. No, I honestly, it's unfair to expect it of everyone?

Yes.

I think I'll tell you.

I'll tell you what.

No, no, I'm sorry.

Yeah, you can disagree, but let me explain.

People have a certain responsibility.

It's unfair to expect it of people who are deep inside something.

So, for example, to say, if you said to me, it's unfair to expect people in Gaza, or it's

unfair to expect people who live through what happened in Israel to be rational or objective. I agree with that.
But the average person, no. Okay.
We have a responsibility. So are you Jesus then? Are you above everyone else? How come you? No, but really.
No, let me explain. How come you? Let me explain why.
Okay, let me explain why. Because this argument, I'm going to say that the foundation of it is very self-aggrandizing.
I'll tell you why. Okay, I love it.
So here's what I think. I think we all have areas where we are able to see what others cannot see.
It might present itself differently. I think LeBron James sees things on a court that most human beings cannot.
That just happens to be his area where he sees it. There'll be things that I see that other people cannot.
You can choose a field, you can choose a world. There are people who see things that others cannot.
I think in society, once we created institutions, we basically outsourced that expertise to institutions in a very good way. And that became a lot of what advanced society, right? And so So let's think of of it this way Let's look at a nutrition label On a box of something Or food When they would say healthy or whatever People are relying on the fact That that food has been inspected And so it is healthy And so they will ingest it Yeah but that's kind of different though No but why Different from There's a new of the day.
Like this story that you told of the guy who said someone had mugged him. Yes.
And suddenly people have opinions. My thing is, often people don't.
But there's no book to read on that. What do you want them to do? But I think we're not disagreeing all the way.
Are you talking about the reflexive urge to take a side? Yes. And you want people to take a beat? Yes.
I'm with you completely on this. And so I often also say, go to the primary source.
So sometimes someone will forward something to me, is this true? And I'm just like, where did you get this from? But Chimamon, I think you are overestimating people's ability to even know what the source should be. Like I went to journalism school and sometimes I've been tricked.
I've been tricked myself. In what way? In what way? You know, there's sometimes it's just like there, there was an, I think it was an AI thing.
I was sent something recently and I was momentarily duped until I dug a bit deeper and I was like, oh, this is not true. This is manufactured.
And I think we assume people to be a lot more literate than they are. And that's not coming from an arrogant place.
I think we're just flooded with information. And I tell you, I'm like, sometimes I get WhatsApp forwards from my auntie.
I'm like, auntie, where did you, especially during COVID, chew ginger. And I was like, auntie, but she was like, no, don't get the vaccine, chew ginger and you'll be fine.
Right? And to task that person with finding the truth, a lot of people don't know where to start, especially where we are being flooded with misinformation. So I think Trevor's saying maybe we should have a bit more grace because not everyone is able to maneuver in the same way.
I'm saying that we should not take for granted the fact that the systems have been corrupted in such a way that the people who are looking for the thing are often the ones who are duped the most. A perfect example is vaccines, right? Most of the parents who don't want to get their kids vaccinated read more than the parents who get their kids vaccinated.
They go out there and they say, I want to do the research. I want to learn.
I want to inform myself. What is a vaccine? What's going into my child? What's happening? And because of that and the information that they then get their hands on, they then make the decision to not vaccinate their child because they think that they have been able to do, quote unquote, more research than an institution or than a body of science or medicine.
And so in the same way, like you've gone and you've read a book on artificial intelligence, that's what I a lot of people are doing and i'm not saying you are doing this by the way but then someone might go no i've read a book on artificial intelligence ergo i i now know it for myself and it's like no no no no trust me a data scientist and an engineer who's actually coded that they know it more than you do the book has tried to give you some sort of introduction to it but the expert is still the expert of it and so i think what i mean by all of this is yeah we like america is an example i used to think that a lot of america's decisions were from like a lack of knowledge and i think it is in many ways but i also think it's like it's like the history of the place right look at what america was when it becomes this world power it's a coming together it's a university of everyone the brightest thinkers you know the smartest from eastern europe the the most brilliant from from like the uk the it's just this melting pot of the most brilliant human beings who've come together and you could argue at some point america is the bastion of like science and freedom and ideas and thinking and the schools are different etc etc etc and I think like most systems or even like most people you can think that that will just maintain itself but you might be stuck in time and so I think America still thinks that it is ahead of the world in everything because it may have been at a time but i i i have i have a lot of compassion for people who are in that system because i go you know it's plato's cave if you're in the cave how can you know that you're in the cave if the cave is telling you that it's not a cave it's the only world you've ever been in so how do i give you that responsibility i think we should put the responsibility at the The same way, I don't think it's our responsibility to recycle. I think it's the government's responsibility to make sure that the things that need to be recycled aren't even made in the first place.
So I think both things can be true, though. I'm with you.
They're my sister, 100%. No, they're 100%.
I really do believe in the idea of experts. I really do.
Like, I want, and this is also the thing I often say, I want a president who knows more than I do. Like, you know, I want someone in every country that I, but anyway, that's not the case.

But yes, we want experts.

And yes, misinformation is increasingly a problem.

But I think there is still,

and what you said about people who read about vaccines,

I mean, I take your point.

But I think that those people,

is it fair to say that they have already started with a kind of conspiracy theory point of view which will then I think shape where they read because if we are talking about experts maybe they should go to the CDC website.

But they don't.

To that point, though, I think there is no center right now.

You know, when we're talking about the... So that's the point.

That's what I mean about even the idea of experts has become corrupted.

That's what I mean.

Because don't forget, the CDC were the same ones who told people not to wear masks.

Because they actually just wanted to make sure masks didn't get run out. Like weren't taken away from the doctors but they lied to the people you see so now imagine somebody going wait they lied yeah and they go yeah but we lied for good reasons the same way like any child therapist will tell you your kid doesn't care why you lied they just know that you lied and now they know that lying is allowed even though mommy or daddy says lying is not allowed because they've watched your actions and i think that's what i mean is like if somebody has been lied to by the cdc about maybe they had good intentions but they've been lied to how do they now then trust that same cdc versus now the account that told them something else and then that account happened to be true and you just need like a few truths to start sprinkling in the rest of the lies right if the if your baseline but that's cdc action how do we feel about it i mean can we really not make a distinction between i think it was terrible so do i yes but does it cause you to then distrust everything the cdc says no i think for most rational people it doesn't but we're in a heightened time where there is just like a lot of institutional distrust.
I mean, my husband thinks I'm susceptible to cults. No, but I think everyone is.
I think everyone is. Not just what the algorithm feeds you, but it's been a destabilizing few years.
I think everyone's asking themselves this question, what is true? And what do I believe? What am I? And that's why we're, because of the fear, we're going to all these extremes. And for a lot of people, they're just like, the CDC did this one thing wrong.
Forget the CDC. Do you know what I mean? Whether that's right or not, I can't really judge.
But I think there's just so much mistrust. You know, honestly, that's probably one of the biggest reasons I do love fiction.
One of the biggest reasons I love fiction is because I do not have to question whether it's real or not. And then I'm more susceptible to the message that it's giving me.
I mean this, honestly. You said it's the last frontier.
Because when it is fact, who said this? What's the data? What's the information? We do episodes on this all the time. We talk about these things.
The data is flawed. The study was flawed.
The people flawed the people running but with fiction i just go this is the world you've created it i don't have to question its realness but the messages i can completely accept disagree with respond to because in a weird way fiction creates i miss the most real reality does. It does.
You couldn't have said it better. Bravo! People should read more novels and short stories.
I agree. And sometimes even the old ones, because there's just lovely wisdom in them, I think.
I mean, do you have any favorites you'd recommend? Old or recent? No, old. Yeah, old.
I really like Middlemarch. I think it's very long, but it's very wise and just really, I was going to say it teaches you, but actually it does.
Yeah. You know, in a way that you're having fun, but you're also learning and you're in the hands of a very wise writer.
There's a wonderful writer from Poland who wrote this book called The Beautiful

Mrs. And I cannot pronounce the name, Sidon Man.
But if you just go The Beautiful Mrs.,

I'm sure Google will feel okay. It will come up.
I also just find it very wise. I love realism.
I don't really like speculative fiction. I'm not interested in science fiction.
And I just feel I I learned the most from novels because I learned about human beings. And I think it helps me understand the world and helps me.
Oh, there's something I forgot to say, which I have to say. So I increasingly am fascinated by how what people think is sophisticated is in fact not at all.
I mean, there's a sense in which the arguments and the positions are really incredibly simple and simplistic. But the people who talk about them think that they're very sophisticated.
Yes. And I'm thinking about that because of what you said about a certain kind of, maybe an insufficient self-knowledge.
So in other words, the way that America thinks that it is still leading the world is the same way that I think certain people in America think that they're incredibly sophisticated in their thinking. But actually, it's very provincial and simple.
Yes, that I can agree with. On that note, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. This was too much fun for me.
So Miss Trotsky, tell me. Thank you very much.
is our producer. Music, mixing, and mastering by Hannes Brown.
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