Molly Jong-Fast

[Music] for your wedding you had a guest book where you asked people to write messages to you which that's normal wedding Behavior but of course because I'm nosy I looked at everyone's messages because like I want to get the benefit of the messages too and you had written in your own wedding guest book I love too yes it's certainly possible I do love to [Music] I don't know what I'm doing but I'm doing my [Music] best I can hear you now okay good yay yay hi where are you I'm in Los Angeles in our house oh the past are you're in the city yeah in New York City yes where it's very hot and every yes and everybody's in a bad mood and mad at me who your whole family everybody just because there's always something somebody's disappointed about I mean just I can't it's like I've almost hit Peak disappointment like you know it's the ballot of the American mother that's right how have I disappointed you today so where is byy byy is is she's just taken a little Hiatus her kid is home from boarding school I think she didn't want to be like uh I have to go do my podcast at any point while she was home that's good that's I think that's smart it's smart I'm sure I'm sure you've dealt with the same and by the way if there's anything that like I ask about or that you say that you're like on second thought I wish I didn't say that just let me know no don't worry I I'm so it's not that's not going to there's literally nothing where like I'm so at this point I'm so I am so careful that like you know my husband ask me how I am and I'm like what can I say publicly here you know I mean I'm just like so uh but yes I I mean I uh with the kids stuff my kids are conflicted about it like they like they are interested in politics and they're interested in like what America like right now and what it will look like and the consequences of that yeah but they also are conflicted but they're a little older too like do you have to do it mom does it have to be you well I think they kind of like like they're two things like I can get really good restaurant reservations amazing and that like the Polo Bar they really are impressed with the Polo Bar because the food's really good like sometimes famous people so that they're very very impressed with so that so that wins me some points but otherwise yeah I mean not so impressed not so impressed okay not so impressed guys we are very excited today because I have a very special guest who probably many of you already know but I actually know her know her in real life because she went to school with my husband LOL grad school so that's how we grad school yeah late in life grad school and uh so that's how we first met but we've known each other for years I have adored her for years she is a star on the political news scene and she's just a star writer and also like one of my favorite most funniest people Molly Jong fast is here yay I I wish we had an audience to clap for you oh well that's okay I'll clap for myself um thank you for having me I really appreciate it it's really it was really fun when you asked me I was delighted oh my gosh thanks for filling in for bsy while by's still on vacay with her family um I'm so excited to just get to see you I'm excited whenever I get to see you I have to say I don't know if we've ever talked about this but when my husband first applied to grad school he applied to a number of schools he got into all of them not to brag because he's a talented writer and uh you are as well and so when he chose to go to Bennington which is where you two went to school together uh at some point they sent a list of like who the classmates were going to be and he was excited by that just like reading the names but I of course immediately like Googled every person on the list and I was like oh my God this like uh they got fined by their town because they let their horse [ __ ] in someone and he was like stop he was like stop Googling who my classmates are going to be and so of course I Googled you and I was like oh she's amazing her mom's amazing I I've read her mom's book blah blah blah and he was like I'm begging you to please stop Googling but then when he went to that first seminar because it was like a low Residency program which is uh it's kind of interesting instead of like going to school regularly you kind of go away for like a not a retreat it's almost like boot camp like riding boot camp at a college yeah for 10 days and um then you come back and you do your work independently and like send it by Pony Express back to your professors and uh that first time he came back after meeting you he was like oh my God you're going to love her you're going to she's like your kind of person you're going to love her so anyway I'm so happy to know you I'm always shocked when anyone likes me and very delighted but ah thank you he's a very lovely guy too and your kids have grown up since I've known you they really have because they were just little little ones and you were just and I just had one baby yes I mean you were just well I mean I'm sure you don't mind me saying we were guests at your wedding and that's right so was your baby so was your your oldest kid was was definitely there in thaty was definitely there yes that's right was my so I did I had a I had a I have a 20-year-old so oh my I can't believe it was 20 years ago but you have like what 26 25 and 22 now they are yeah yeah and they always little grownups they speak so fondly of your in-laws because in-laws lived in the same town that we lived in in Connecticut and they were so gracious to us always like inviting the kids over to play in their big yard and swim in their pool and and my kids got involved in politics locally and so they they had so much uh contact with your in-laws yeah Connecticut is a is a great state for local politicians and and they have some great Senators too for real for real so lucky yeah so the kids always speak very very fondly of you and your in-laws and we always talk on this podcast about pivots and like you a pivot is like your whole thing I feel like yeah I mean yeah where you are to right now and the career that you've made let's talk about it let's like run it back a little bit Yeah so I mean I would say you know it's funny cuz it's like some what happened to me was that I had all these children and it like completely derailed my career I mean I just want to like real talk like yeah and I'm glad it did and I'm glad I had the opportunity you know my husband and I always talk about like privilege and how much privilege we have yeah because we both came from really uh very comfortable families we had a lot of advantages and we always talk about this because um it it's so hard like I know how hard it was for I know how hard it is for me and I have like every single privilege you could have right and I had so many things that made it so that I could you know fail and come back and have different chances and and I think so much about you know people like there's an activist I'm friends with who mother was homeless lived in her car did her High School while living in her car got a scholarship went to an Ivy League college is now you know a political activist it's like there are people who do like I've done considering how much Advantage I've had I've done fine but like you know there are people who are literally like living in their car going to high school getting you know and and getting into IV League colleges just I mean they're not as many as there should be like pel grants which are available to people in the sort of lowest income bracket are like the great miracle of American life because they make it so you can go to college yes I was a P Grant recipient yes right and it's the greatest thing ever like if you know it's so funny because it's like when you think about this uh Republican party right now and and what Trump wants to with project 2025 which he has disavowed but is written by numerous cabinet secretaries of his and people from his administration and he's disavowed a lot of things over the years by the way that have turned out to be 100% all him yes yeah exactly but and H his name is mentioned 300 times one of the things that the sort of nut of project 2025 the sort of nut of this if he gets reelected his administration will be disassembling things things like the Department of Education right and the you know and like pel grants and the things that are you know the sort of foundation of this post FDR America will go away so I always you know I know how hard it is for me having had every Advantage so I can't even sort of in my head wrap my head around how hard it is for and and I think it's an interesting point like when we talk about KLA Harris because she had you know she had two academic parents right she grew up in Oakland she you know her mother was a researcher her father was an economist but they had but you know still not you know still had to make it went to Howard went to grad went to law school worked at McDonald worked at McDonald's during the summer and then you have Tim Walls who's a similar you know had a father who died when he was young used the GI Bill another incredible FDR style social Pro prog that made it so you could go into the surface and pay for college and then ended up living these American Dreams so I do think that when you think about when I think about my story I I just am like in awe of people who can do what I did and it's 10 times harder right so you know but I but I have had like a lot of privilege and I also got married when I was very young so I had a lot of support there yeah and um so I was lucky you know I wrote novels I started writing novels then I had all these children and I sort of was like I don't know what I'm doing in my life my novels didn't sell and then I started writing uh little pieces little political pieces for a place that I had written for the Jewish daily forward when I was 13 and I mean the the I would say like my story is basically that if you're willing to be humble and like go back to where you started you can change the trajectory of your life so like I wrote these little pieces they weren't particularly great and I just kept writing them every week and I got better and better at doing it because I kept doing it and then I got asked to write for a slightly better place and then a slightly better place and then a you know it was just like uh you know I just did what they told me to do and I wasn't about my ego or anything and it and it worked out for me but I I think that is the message I have to say which is like I was humble and I was I don't know if I was humble but I I did I worked I did humble work and got better at what I was doing yeah I feel like you had something to say and you were going to say it wherever they were going to let you say it and you really found this thing that you were passionate about and smart about and you said that your writing wasn't so great at first but clearly there was something about what you were saying that was resonating with people and getting people to notice and so like the writing comes along you know like for well obviously like we wouldn't go to grad school for writing if it wasn't something that you could learn to be better at you know um but what has made me so happy watching you and so joyful watching you is that you really found your thing that like you excel at and you know politics I I'm going to say better than mostly everyone out there better than anyone I now I mean I have like a very limited skill set I mean there are I would say there so there are people like uh steuart stevens or campaign people Jen Paul Mar is a great example yeah where they have real insight uh Jens saki too insight into the into The Campaign World which I don't have cuz I never worked on a campaign so there are certain things or you know they were a US senator so that's quite interesting I have uh I come from a sort of different world so I have a different view I think what helps what serves me is that I because this is like TR truly a kind of crazy thing to say but like I grew up with all these like weird old writers like goral who nobody gives a [ __ ] about anymore can I curse you can curse all you want yeah he's not like he was like very famous when I was a kid he is not F nobody even gives like G all like nobody even knows who he is anymore but he was This brilliant writer and very crazy and he had this whole theory of American politics and it was that nobody remembers anything we are the United States of Amnesia because we REM we remember nothing we we learn nothing we never adapt and grow and so one of the things that I have been I you know because I feel like I don't know if it's low self-esteem or if it's just that I feel like I don't have as much experience as a lot of people I'm always trying to kind of like listen to people and see what they're saying and so uh you know I've learned a lot from just listening to people and and Gord Vidal is a great example of that because it one of the things I see a lot when we talk about politics is that we don't necessarily hit the very recent past right so so you'll be talking about 2024 and not thinking about 2022 or 2020 which would which should inform you know recent history is really helpful so so in that way I think it's really helpful one of the things that I have been like in my head working on I mean part of it is we have we're in a situation where we feel like we at least I feel that there's not the kind of transparency we probably need to make to to make educated guesses so like a good example is polls I there's a lot of polling methodology that's not that's not transparent that's kind of opaque right stuff like trying to account for the Trump electorate and that means that sometimes the top of the ticket looks different than the bottom of the ticket right and that was something we saw during when Biden was in the race still where you would see like the bottom of the ticket you'd have the Democrat think like Tammy Baldwin she'd be up five or six in Wisconsin and then you'd have down too and and and that would that sort of didn't make any sense to me because so you have people who are leaving the top of the ticket blank or voting for Trump and then voting for Tammy Baldwin like and so we don't know again we're not going to know till till November what that methodology is and whether or not it's right but that always H hit me as a little hinky I've tried to ask pollsters about that and they seem not either unable or unwilling to explain it to me um but that's you know like so many of the things that we're dealing with right now there's just not a ton of the information we might need to S to to really feel comfortable making guesses and and that's how I feel about polls and also how I feel about social media hey Biz we have a new sponsor this week what if you could bottle a runner's high or tap into that feeling of low State on demand every day enter Ketone IQ sometimes my brain is so foggy and I don't know if that's from menopause or her daughter Perry menopause but every day if I sit on that sofa then I start tell myself it might be okay to take a little nap and I just I really can't we can't get into afternoon napping we're still we're still too young so I've really been looking for something to just clear away that brain fog you're probably thinking does Ketone IQ have to do with the keto diet no not really it's not a keto diet company they just believe that everyone can improve their metabolic Health by spending more time with elevated ketones they're a macronutrient that can cross the bloodb brain barrier and increase brain energy and efficiency who doesn't need that so when have you been taking Ketone IQ I've been doing a quick little shot in the afternoon instead of my afternoon gigantic bucket of iced coffee and I'm going to be honest it's not great it's not the best tasting thing that I've ever tasted in the world so I just either shotgun it real quick swallow it back or I uh mix it in a little juice I mix it in my afternoon element and the reason why I love it is it just wakes me up and I'm able to tackle the second half of my day get everything done that I need to get done and just kick some ass it makes me feel awake without feeling jittery and listen it's it's not just us who are into Ketone IQ some professional and Olympic athletes have been working with them Sam ladow Iron Man world champion I I don't know what is in an Iron Man company competition but it sounds very hard so anyway we think you should give Ketone IQ a try you can save 30% off your first subscription order plus receive a free sixpack of keton IQ by visiting Ketone doomsy that's Ketone domcom busy for 30% off your first subscription order and a free [Music] six-pack I just placed my hungry roote order so helpful to be able to have that one task taken care of no I know and I've been having such a hard time 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they know we sent you well polls and social media kind of go hand in hand right because what I've learned over the years and you correct me if I'm wrong on anything that you know I'm wrong on is that one thing people just look at a poll and it's like you're looking at laundry detergent on the Shelf you're like this one's more expensive this one comes in a blue bottle I like the smell of this one you know it's just kind of like it gives people a visceral reaction when we see it but really what's really important is to look at the ingredients and the performance of the laundry detergent and what we are often not readily given and it's not readily explained to us is the quality of the polls that are being put out like for example if CNN just puts a poll on Twitter and says like are you voting for kamla Harris or Donald Trump and then they're like 99% of people it's not Twitter anymore it's X if 99% of people said they're voting for Donald Trump on this it's it's not scientific that quality of that poll which it's not even a poll really it's like a survey whatever like you can do it on your Instagram as well you can put a poll on your Instagram and then you can be like well 99% of my friends say they're voting for KLA Harris yes that's amazing and it makes you feel a certain way it makes you feel bad or good but it's not you couldn't call it a high quality poll so what I'm learning is about how you have to read into the ingredients of the poll to try to determine what the quality is but that's increasingly difficult and you know and then on top of that there's all kinds of wildness like they say people don't answer landlines anymore and they're not calling cell phones and young people don't answer polls and so they're not a real accurate anything like the quality of the polls are low and we're just using them as a sort of like you know Panacea or like snacks or whatever they're garbage and then there's a reason why they are seem to be coming less and less accurate as time goes on and so what they say is true like the only accurate poll is what happens at The Ballot Box that's you know that's the only thing we can go on really right well and I would and I would say it's like there is this uh political scientist who said that polls are pseudo events so we in the mainstream media tend to treat them as events but they're not actually events they are snapshots at a mo of a moment in time I've written about this for my B Fair column and it's and but I Vanity Fair everyone in case you didn't know but I bet you did know but in case you didn't I know but but um you what what I think is is interesting about this is that I think you can see trajectories and that's useful yeah so you can see um what that trajectory look like now I one of my like least favorite poll stories is in Wisconsin there was the senate race in 2022 and I always talk about this cuz it makes me so angry uh was a guy called Mandela Barnes he had been the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin under T Tony Ivers at iers and he was uh really good really solid candidate um running against ranan Johnson who is a conspiracy theorist a complete lunatic right and um Mandela Barnes like the polls just showed him behind six eight points you know and everyone said oh Wisconsin isn't ready for a black Senator and I was like well that is kind of racist and I I kept being like I think Wisconsin is ready for Mandela Barnes he's great yeah and everyone's like no no you're wrong so then the DSC the Democratic Senate committee abandoned him because his polls were so bad and he lost by one point he was close one point because and if and if nobody had listened to polls he would be a United States Senator right now and took their foot off the gas right and Ron Johnson would be selling ior meon on Fox News so that's why polls can be really you shouldn't trust some that's my well they are their manipulation in in some ways depending on you know depending on all those factors that we were talking about they are kind of election interference at times if they make you overconfident if they make you apathetic and there's States like Wisconsin where Wisconsin Michigan Pennsylvania Arizona where we know it's going to be tight right and so and maybe it won't be tight maybe she'll blow it out I mean that's not impossible but like to give up on a state like that on a race in a state like that is bad sorry I'm just feeling like we can't be overconfident and so here's how I feel about polling in general like like we said all the reasons why you have to take it with a whole spoonful of the saltiest salt uh by the same token when you can't believe polls that say we're behind you shouldn't necessarily believe the good news when a poll says that we're 10 points ahead take it all with all the salt that you can handle and vote like where behind and like your vote is the vote that's going to make the difference between a win and a loss so that come what may you can know that you did your part because like it would just be such a shame to have anyone like a situation like you were just saying say like I don't know the polls said that it was a lost cause so I didn't show up and then it turns out that he lost by 1% in my state this you know person that was running that could have turned the state could have changed the state how bad would that feel to be saying that about yeah about this uh this presidential election so I just feel like we can't let up we can't take our foot off the gas we can't listen to all of these polls listen I'm saying we can't listen to all of these polls do I look at them all yes obviously obviously I do it's like like I I know that celebrity gossip is wrong does it stop me from reading it no of course not of course not but I also I also pay a lot of attention to where um donations are flowing to I take that as an indicator of enthusiasm um you know uh small firsttime donations um re voter registrations I pay a lot of attention to volunteer numbers I pay a lot of attention to and you know those rallies look good too yeah and since Harris has gotten into the rise act blue has raised $300 million that's incredible is incredible so I mean one of the things that I think is a lesson to women everywhere is that um a lot of people said she couldn't do it and said that she there was she was perhaps one of the most underestimated candidates in political history and I think that it's worth you know she what she has done it has been one of the most seamless roll outs probably ever she's United the party on the stump she's so good she has so much command she speaks so well she's loud enough which a lot of women have trouble with but doesn't yell and again she's had it's not like this is her first time out right she was a DA an attorney's general for the largest state you know for a for a state that's like a small country she was the second female black senator ever first East Asian she was the first vice president ever so she has experience and you know she was a prosecutor before that but a sex crimes prosecutor but um she has hit that sweet spot of being able to communicate and also just have command of an auditorium of 10,000 plus people and that is not that is not nothing and a lot of people can't do that no matter how competent they are right right it's just something that like she's got it and I'm not going to lie I was so scared when Joe Biden said that he was stepping down from the race not because I ever doubted that she could do it I doubted that we could do it I doubted that we could get our [ __ ] together enough to have her back the way that we'd need to have her back and so to everyone that I doubted I do apologize it has been the joy of my life to see people get honestly get their [ __ ] together and to see people saying like I understand the assignment this time I understand because we have failed to do that for our candidates in the past and I get it I get it yeah people have the the things that are their issues that they they that mean a lot to them and they want to make sure that they're addressed in the ways that they want them addressed and I have respect for that that's democracy I mean I also think it's one of the things that's been really good you know I would say that I think that the Hillary Clinton run actually has helped Harris step into this because we have seen a woman candidate before and I also think that being vice president is it is quite I would say it it set her up for for Success actually I have written about her a bunch and what I saw was that about two years into her vice presidency she got a new Chief of Staff yeah who was very very very good and then she got she sort of did a bunch of small things different speech writer got more involved she went to the Munich you know she had been to the Munich security conference before but she became a star got a real relationship with the president of Mexico ubor he's not the president anymore but he's sort of the president still not so great um but he loves her like she just was able to kind of get in her power as a legislator and then I also think Nancy Pelosi is is probably the most powerful woman in American politics yeah and in some or was before Harris became the vice president and in some ways she also helped set the table for that yeah because she has been kind of seamless and even though she's a Democrat and Republicans don't necessarily like her people respect her they respect the yeah let me rephrase that they know what she's capable of I wasn't going to say cuz I don't think like I don't think a lot of Republicans like her but they knew what she's capable of and I think that Pelosi sort of showed us that uh woman could be as capable as a another person who I don't particularly fond of but who is a who is a killer is Mitch McConnell and I think Pelosi is a is sort of that level of political operative in a way that is that we we hadn't seen women like that so I think she did set the table a 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anyway guys highly recommend Bland we love them and blueland has a special offer for our listeners right now get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com you don't want to miss it blueland.com for 15% off that's blueland.com to get 15% off I look forward to the day when we're able to tell the whole story of how this all happened what history will reflect about how this all happened and uh and so grateful to Joe Biden for he's really he's doing it talk about not taking your foot off the gas he hasn't taken his foot off the gas even though everybody got mad that he went to the beach for a day I think he should yeah I mean I just have to say like he did he negotiated the largest most complicated hostage release deal ever right certainly since certainly in modern history yeah that involved multiple countries multiple hostages Russia who is not you know they were not excited to give I mean I think getting Evan gersitz out of a Russian uh whatever prison whatever it was was really a big deal so I think he should go to the beach yeah he deserves I would like him to go he deserves a day at the beach and all the ice cream he his heart desires the man is 81 and you know he did that and then he did a bunch of inter interviews and uh I you know in my mind I think good for him yeah and he's he's gonna be out there campaigning for vice president Harris when you ask the campaign the people in the campaign and when you talk to them what they say they all have this same message which is Biden says if you want to honor me make her president and that's such a difference from like LBJ right the times when a vice president when a president has stepped back for a vice president and after one term and not supported them this is totally different right he endorses her immediately he doesn't say you know there was this crazy document going around about a crazy primary a snap primary that involved Oprah like Oprah wanted to do that she did not like we're calling you back for mono so that you can do this incredibly stupid idea yeah Oprah's doing fine she's not she would have jumped in by now if she yeah she's not on her to-do list but but um he endorsed right away he he gave her the operation they had this handoff phone call where they talked to it was very htor yeah yeah I just think that history will remember him I hope very well listen I I was a little kid but I remember Jimmy Carter's presidency and how rough the United States was on Jimmy Carter at the time yeah and so to see how beloved he is now I'm so I'm grateful I'm grateful that people see him that way and and speak of him that way and uh I'm sorry that he had to live to be over a hundred years old to see it to see the love um but anyway so I'm hoping that that history will remember Joe Biden as as fondly as I think he deserves to be remembered uh a lot a lot faster than we saw that with with Jimmy Carter and knock on wood really rooting for Jimmy Carter to make it to vote for a comma because he said that's his wish yeah and and you know the man has been in hospice for what a year do not bet against Jimmy Carter oh my God but one other thing sorry to interrupt you again do it about the hostage release is that carer had these hostages he was trying to get released you'll remember and he couldn't get them released and then they got released to Reagan and I think it's important to realize that that shows just how diminished Trump's power is because Trump had said he was going to get gers he was going to get Evan gersz released and he was unable so I think you know he was GNA he was sort of hoping that Putin would hold gers goods for him right and so I think that's just an important data point to show how diminished he is on the world stage yeah no he's he's diminished on every stage I feel like and whenever I saw that clip of him at one of his rallies just saying like I'm sick of protecting you people like I'm surprised that that didn't get more play because I was like then quit like you know that would be that you'd save a ton of money but obviously we know he's like running and hoping to win and hoping to do whatever he can to keep himself out of prison and enrich himself let me ask you this as someone who's super smart about politics he's not doing any campaigning he said until after the DNC what is he doing with all that money well so I so he is running like a $100 million worth of sing State ads I just read that so that's a lot of ads um I think I mean who knows like that's his campaign saying it so again we won't know until we see the FDC filings the federal campaign filings to know how much he actually spent which I think is important I would say like don't take the Trump campaign at their world at their word if that makes sense yeah they time right so um but they are so but that's a lot but you know he's 78 you know like it's you know he's run for president against three different people 2016 20204 so there's like a reason that people don't keep doing it it's cuz it's exhausting not doing [ __ ] and I have you know he has a quarter Century on me I right and yeah wouldn't be able to do it yeah so I think I mean I remember in 2016 one of the things Trump did which is why he won was that he was in Wisconsin all the time he was in Wisconsin and Michigan and back and forth and and uh I was listening to a walls Harris uh rally and walls was saying W was saying you know we because they had in Nevada it was so hot they closed the stadium and like 10,000 people got in but 4,000 people were sent home which is a lot of people yeah and he was like you know um we'll be back yeah in Nevada and I'm like yeah they will be back in Nevada CU they're going to be back and forth to Nevada endlessly and that's what campaigns are it's a lot of flying to you know to Wisconsin and Michigan and and you know it's a lot of campaign I mean I feel like when Hillary Clinton was running and I know people have their qualms about where she didn't go but like I know that the kids were so into campaigning for Hillary Clinton and we we met her like three times and that's one of the reasons in addition to the fact that it was her work that made sure that my kids had health insurance in a time when we were health insurance insecure I also love her because we went to a giant rally we got separated from the kids then they texted us to let us know that they were literally right behind Hillary Clinton and then when she was walking out they she saw them take a selfie like trying to take a selfie you know how you do and you try to catch someone in the background and she said that's not a very good picture and she took their phone from them and took a selfie herself with them and I was just like I mean in addition to the health and insurance that was pretty sweet and cool but that is cool the my point is my kids got three opportunities during that campaign to interface with Hillary Clinton I feel like when Elizabeth Warren has been running she has endless energy I feel like everyone I know has a picture with Elizabeth Warren because they met her when she was on the trail so the fact that Harris walls are out there and they're turning people away from these massive rallies it does not surprise me I hope everybody that wants a chance to see them speak and to be part of history and be part of that energy gets a chance to I have faith it seems like they're really listening to people and yeah and you know just doing what they got to do so I have I have faith that they'll be coming to a state near you I I think so this is August they have plenty of time to go how many days this this will be coming out by the way on three or 84 yeah 83 days 84 days okay boy oh boy do I love Thrive people ask me what Mas I'm using you've turned on a number of professional makeup artists to this mascara very true people are OB sus and here's why I like Thrive because I tried it because I tried it and it worked better than anything I had ever tried before the 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off your first order at Thrive cosmetics.com best that's Thrive Cosmetics c a m t cs.com sbest for 10% off your first order this show is brought to you by better help listen we've talked about it before talk about it again one thing that is very important in our lives is therapy you know I'm a big fan of uh therapy in fact I think that therapy is so useful for everyone because all of us are going to be faced with difficult times in our lives right you know me if there's any barrier to entry for something that's what I'll use as an excuse cuz getting started is always the hardest part for me and so better help has made it so easy for me to get on there and just make that appointment therapy can be a place where you work through challenges and relationships it can be helpful for learning coping skills how to set boundaries you also might be doing okay but need some of these skills to cope when things come up and that's where better help really comes in handy for me yeah I think if you're thinking of starting therapy better help is a great place to try it's entirely online it's designed to be convenient and flexible and suited to your schedule better help wants to make therapy accessible and easy for anyone who wants to give it a go you fill out a brief questionnaire they will match you with a licensed therapist you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge you may not ever want to and that's amazing too so never skip therapy day with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com busy to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp hp.com SL busy so this comes out on Wednesday but Molly and I are talking on Monday morning so like 48 hours hours so as we know so much can happen it happens every time byy and I talk about something and then like it's already answered any question that we have is already answered what do we think is going on with this leak to Politico from Trump's campaign so I don't know I mean I think hack they're saying a hack but then Donald Trump used the word leak cuz a hack would be foreign powers doing that and leak would be somebody from within both are possible um I think we'll know more will know more imminently but I don't I I think what's been smart is that mainstream media has covered it as they don't know yet because it's not you can't take the campaigns word for it right so you need to have it substantiated by but I'm sure that they you know the FBI or actually that's the CIA um I'm sure that the CIA will eventually brief us or put something out about it for sure I I would be shocked if they didn't oh my gosh it just seems like we're living through a list of like someone's checking off all of the things that could possibly happen in in an election like they're writing a movie like yeah I mean it's not as bad like it's bad or let me rephrase that it it there's a lot going on but it's actually in some ways a much more stable time than in the 60s yes there's not the same you know there certainly is a lot to worry about and no and and I think the goal job one needs to be that everyone who has any kind of public forum says that the worst thing that can possibly happen is political violence and everyone needs to disavow political violence period parag and one of the things I saw Harris do which I thought was really smart was the uh at a rally people were chanting lock him up and she said nope we said we're going to pursue the right channels and that kind of stuff is really good for democracy right too because you don't want what you don't want is the feeling that locking up your political opponent is normal cuz it's not right and it also could affect any eventual try or you know so she just beat him at the B and she's a prosecutor too so she knows the sanctity of the courts right and I mean that's the thing is like as hard as it is for us to see Donald Trump get away with a lot of illegality I think it's harder for lawyers because they really have so much faith in the legal system and I think that's very tough for them right right yeah know oh my gosh it's been I mean [ __ ] watching westwing we're we're just like living we're living a TV show and a movie but yes it's been making me happy how joyful I saw something that you actually shared where you were like I have something in my eye where she was talking to a young teenage girl I know they asked will you remember will you remember me she and she was like look me in my eye I want to tell you something and it just was so sweet and so emotional if you haven't seen that clip definitely look it up that it's just a a teenage girl I think a teenage she has to be who can tell if anyone's a teenager anymore but she did seem young to me just saying how much she looked up to kamla Harris and vice president Harris was telling her like you can do anything and you know nothing nothing that we haven't heard before but you know sometimes it you need someone to tell you individually that you can do anything and uh to hear it from her would be uh something that I hope that young woman remembers forever and I think it is important like to to sort of appreciate the kind of like historic nature of this and what it says to women and girls yes you know and the sort of message that they can you know have this meteoric rise in American politics yeah I mean it's just one of those things that well it's like a lot of things that we've waited for our whole lives and we've wanted to happen our whole lives and we we know that once it happens once we get over this like just this little Tipping Point how good it could be you know I I think of like I think of the moment that gay marriage was legalized in the United States and I happen to work for a person who is gay at the time and just like his State of Shock that like saying like this is something I've waited my whole life for and then it just happened in a second like I didn't expect it to happen and how lifechanging that was for him and also just all of the feelings and it has been so good for so many people in our country it has changed their lives for the better and it has harmed no one yeah you know gay marriage is a great example of how Congress can codify things if they want to yes and not if they don't right so they codify gay marriage and then refuse to protect birth control and IVF so I'm glad that they codified gay marriage because it's the [ __ ] least they could do but they should also codify IVF and birth control 100% 100% so hopefully this is all just stuff that will get done in the course of electing vice president Kamala Harris as president I love Tim Walls because he's from Minnesota which is like my adopted home state even though I have no right to lay claim to it other than just loving Minnesota um it's very ex it's a great state the state fair is coming up go see the butter sculptures try all the fun foods Minnesota loves you I'll be visiting Minnesota soon myself cute um let's talk about what you're up to where people can find you we already said you have a column in Vanity Fair MH I have a common bny fair I am to Rick Wilson and I are doing two tour dates one in Los Angeles one in San Francisco the dates are we have 27 is LA and 26 is San Francisco and you guys should all uh come to either one and uh they are going to be great and I mean I don't know how great they're going to be but I think they'll be fun we have fun and we have a fun special guest for LA and we will at some point find a fun special guest for San Francisco a little harder and uh yeah so we're going to do that which I think will be good then you have your podcast podcast fast politics with mly economy yes and you have all my incredible guests on the podcast a lot of uh we actually did something really cool that I want to brag about do it in 2023 we had every we had all we had so many members of the Virginia House of delegates and the Virginia state senate because it was this off your election you had Glenn yunan who is was this sort of dream he he sort of trumpism without the Trump a little bit more mainstream wears a red vest not you know very rich but not as racist and he was uh trying to flip the Virginia state house so he was trying to flip both houses so that he could ban abortion in the state and do a lot of DeSantis style craziness right and so we had literally like every member of the Virginia House of delegates and I mean not every single one but a lot a lot and I am not taking credit for this for sure because they these people were killing themselves to get elected but either way yunan was unable to flip the state houses he remains Governor right but but he's term limited out so he'll be up in 25 but um he was he did not flip the houses he was not able to run to Santa estate he has checks and balances and uh you know it was a really impressive showing on the part of Democrats and a lot of hard on the ground work there so that was really cool well you did something you did your you did your part you did what you could do who knows who knows but I but I was happy to be involved you know that's incredible in anyway we do a lot and they were pretty boring I mean I'm just kidding they were great they were so great like what's your favorite food oh my god well the one question that we always ask on this podcast is what did you do your best at this week um what did I do my best at well that's a good question I mean I did my best to trying to stay up past 9:00 at night that ain't easy that I'm telling you like by 8:45 I'm like no one has ever stayed up this late ever I'm like this is too late it's 8:45 and I'm like it's too late I have to go to bed I'm always just dying to retire to my quarters even if I'm not going right to sleep I want to be in my bed in my bedroom having like a cool drink and a snack watching television by eight o'clock watching television we both love Molly I know you still love television you love television as much I watched the de camaron it was really good I highly recommend it on Netflix I watch it I like snuck away from my children I was like I'll be back in 7even hours I have to watch this series I will never this is how much Molly loves television I hope you don't mind me telling this yes pleas but I grew up with television we all we were all raised by television but I feel like is this true or am I making this up I'm getting I know some of the details are true but I think for your wedding you had a guest book where you ask people to write messages to you which that's normal wedding Behavior but of course because I'm nosy I looked at everyone's messages because like I want to get the benefit of the messages too you had written in your own wedding guest book I love to yes it's certainly possible I do love to I mean now we're so old that too nobody even knows it's thing like too was just invented it was like the hottest thing 20 years ago you could fast forward commercials and we couldn't even believe you know 80% of my childhood was spent watching commercials and all of a sudden you could just fast forward through them it was like thing ever and I was like on this day where she's committing herself to her husband forever she's also committing myself to television to television and her love of too you I mean the best yeah too was great I miss the noises I'm I'm a big Roku fan now I love I love Roku city is like my favorite my favorite city on Earth but uh yes a cute little city yeah I'd live there cuz then we'd live in the television be great Roku City lately has been very exciting for me because bus's and my show busy this week QVC plus is it it has been living in Roku City and they just had our episode with B Midler was passing by on a billboard very exciting for me can I ask you a question yes do you get a free stuff they do dress us they dress us and I mean I got a lot of um QVC foods that they sell were always in my dressing room which was very nice wow and I did get a lot of makeup that I was then allowed to bring home because once they use it on you you get to keep it so yeah so I did get um yes some clothing and yeah some and yeah yeah yeah yeah some good clothing and uh oh and also uh one of the executives there gave me um I had a l crus pot that went missing somewhere in my I don't know how it went missing like if someone borrowed it and didn't return it or whatever a small Lake crus pot that was shaped like a pepper and uh one one executive that we worked with at QVC really went out of his way to get that pepper pot uh for me a replacement and gave it to me as a gift for my birthday which was very kind that is really nice thank you Adam that is really cool I will never forget it it's on top of my stove where I can see it at every second it can never be taken away from me again um I want to tell our friends what I have been doing my best at this week I haven't really done my best at it my son Eli has done his best at it but I've I've been supportive and that's what I did my best at is that Molly you won't know anything about this but but uh Eli finally got his ctio all set up and built so that his cat Sunny can uh leave his room and go outside on her ctio and uh once we clean it up back there I'll take pictures of it and put them on Instagram and everyone can see pictures of beautiful sunny out in the California Sunshine but the the the building the the retrieving of Sunny the cat and the building of the ctio has been a long uh Saga that our our podcast listeners have been following for some time so I know they would want an update and the update is that Sunny has full access to the CIO now um I'm happy to hear that is very good that is very good that's good news anytime a cat anytime a cat is given something it needs I'm very happy it's a good life for that cat it's a cat Mansion it's not like not to put too many expectations on it but I think when you when you see it you'll all agree that it's a cat Mansion Sunny deserves it she's been through a lot and uh it looks great and she looks great out there and we can see her from every angle of the house now so it's it's good and more importantly you're a grandmother yes our grand cat yes your grand cat so congratulations to all who celebrate thank you Molly thank you any thank you for making time to come on the podcast and to pinch it for busy while she's out and everybody read Molly's colum and Vanity Fair subscribe to her podcast fast politics if you're in LA or San Francisco this month go see her and Rick Wilson on their little mini tour live That's so exciting and also you're on everything you're on Instagram you're on threads all the things everybody joined threads this week because they've had enough of the other place but you're also you're on the other place too right I well I wish I weren't but I am yeah I mean yeah well we never know what these things are going to become so it makes sense to like sort of hold your place and you know who knows who knows what's going to happen but you can find Molly all over social media follow her she'll keep you super informed she'll keep you feeling sane she'll let you know what you can be paying attention to what you can be doing if you had one last thing to tell people that are like interested in this election but they don't know where to start what would you say uh I would say that if you you local I mean on the local level there are a lot of really important elections happening from the school board to the dog catcher to the I mean this we are now in a moment where local elections matter more than have ever mattered so school boards dog catcher city council first Selectmen all the way you know uh Republicans have brought a lot of crazy ideas to some of these uh little jobs that should just be nonpartisan AC acties like dog catcher uh or school board and so if you want to get involved that's an easy way to get involved and not you know blow up your life and so that is my suggestion yeah and uh we're getting close so check your voter registration at the very least just to make sure you haven't been purged from the roles uh do that today you can do that today and we will talk to you soon thanks to Molly Jong fast we love love you guys bye we love you thank you for having bye and I still love too bye Molly thanks I don't know what [Music] but oh no ha