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0:36

Hello and welcome to Hysteria.

0:38

I'm Erin Ryan. And I'm Alyssa

0:40

Mastromonaco. Alyssa, with

0:43

everything going on in the U.S. and around

0:45

the world, how has Jada Pinkett

0:47

Smith managed to insert herself into

0:49

this news cycle? How?

0:52

Erin, I can't escape

0:54

the woman. She is everywhere.

0:57

She is literally

1:00

in my inbox. She's on my Instagram.

1:02

She is everywhere.

1:06

American democracy is crumbling.

1:08

We've got a massive, horrible

1:10

crisis unfolding in the Middle East. And

1:13

Jada Pinkett Smith is still in

1:15

the headlines. Everywhere. Jada and Tupac. Jada

1:19

and Chris Rock.

1:22

Jada, please, if you're listening,

1:26

you should teach a college class on publicity.

1:29

Breaking through. Whatever

1:31

you're doing, it is breaking through. And I

1:33

truly

1:35

do not get it, but I

1:37

must offer reluctant

1:39

admiration for this. Fun

1:43

show this week, Alyssa. I'm really excited. It's

1:46

got a lot of pep in its step. Got

1:48

a lot of pep in its step. We've got one of

1:51

our favorite senators.

1:53

Kirsten Gillibrand, she's back. She's

1:55

got stuff to tell us about the ERA. Oh my gosh.

1:58

I was so excited.

1:59

when I heard that it might

2:02

work. It might actually work.

2:04

Fingers crossed. We're also going to

2:07

talk about the chaos in the House

2:09

GOP with the senator and

2:11

talk a little bit about what happened in

2:14

the Polish elections this week. Yeah, which

2:16

is so interesting. Super

2:18

interesting. And there are a lot

2:20

of pieces of that story that rhyme with

2:23

what's happening over here in the U.S.

2:26

So super interesting stuff. And then we get to

2:28

talk to one of my favorite comedians. Yes, definitely.

2:31

She was wonderful. Consistently

2:34

funny. Been funny for a super long

2:36

time. Aparna Nancherla joins us to

2:38

talk about being an introvert. And

2:40

we kind of discovered that we're actually all introverts

2:43

on this show. Barn burner of a conversation

2:45

for a bunch of introverts. Running. Running

2:47

our social batteries down every

2:50

single week. And then we have a really

2:52

fun sanity-kinner-sash-I-feel-petty.

2:55

So excited for all of you to hear. And

3:01

welcome back. You're listening to Hysteria, the

3:03

podcast for people who aren't afraid to say

3:05

that the last decade has raised the question. Are

3:08

men cut out to be speaker of the House? I

3:11

don't know. The only good

3:13

one has not been a man. Our guest

3:15

today needs no intro.

3:17

She's a Hysteria favorite. And she's back

3:20

to do our news segment with us. What a treat.

3:22

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Welcome

3:24

to Hysteria. Thank you so much.

3:27

We are so excited to have you. We're going to do a little bit

3:29

of a lightning round of news today. So as

3:32

of Wednesday morning, the House of Representatives still

3:34

doesn't have a speaker. That's because GOP nominee

3:36

for speaker Jim Jordan does not have the votes. Not

3:39

only does he not have the votes, he was even further

3:41

away from having the votes in the second round of voting than he was

3:43

in the first. Jordan is, to put

3:45

it in political science terms, a damn

3:48

nightmare. We'll put something out that goes

3:50

into more details about the way he's a damn nightmare

3:52

soon. But for now, let's focus on the fact

3:54

that the former All-American wrestler is getting body

3:57

slammed repeatedly by his

3:58

own party.

3:59

In recent years, Jordan has embarked

4:02

on an extraordinary rise in Congress from a

4:04

right-wing rebel on the fringe of his party, who

4:06

is described as a legislative terrorist

4:09

by former Republican Speaker John Boehner, to

4:11

being on the cusp of speakership,

4:14

aka second in line to the presidency

4:17

if he were to win. Yikes. His assent

4:19

is the clearest indicator yet of how far House

4:21

Republicans have moved to the right, and

4:23

shows the strength

4:24

of Trump's grip on the party. But

4:26

shockingly, this

4:27

is a fact we learned yesterday, Senator,

4:29

and we are just in shock, despite

4:32

Jim Jordan's practically 16 years in Congress,

4:34

he has never had a bill

4:37

signed into law,

4:38

much less passed in the House. His record is

4:40

thin, even by the standards of the modern House.

4:43

Not a very effective legislature. So,

4:46

Senator, what do you make of the anarchy

4:48

in the GOP right now? Well,

4:50

do we swear on this show? Oh, absolutely.

4:53

It's a shit show. Terrible.

4:57

It's a disaster. And they can't

5:00

seem to get

5:02

it together.

5:03

I think that both Jim Jordan and

5:06

Scalise were far too conservative

5:09

anyway, and so the moderates didn't want to vote for them,

5:11

because, I mean, Jim Jordan doesn't want to

5:13

support

5:13

Ukraine's funding, even though he

5:15

said he would, maybe. And

5:18

Scalise just doesn't have a record of bringing people together

5:21

at all, so neither was a good choice.

5:24

I hope that they'll give the authority to McHenry

5:26

to actually be an acting

5:28

speaker while they hash

5:31

out leadership elections in the future,

5:33

because then at least we could move key bills like

5:36

getting Ukrainian funding, getting Israel

5:39

funding, and getting funding for whatever

5:41

type of immigration reform we could do on a

5:43

bipartisan basis. Those seem

5:45

to be the most exigent issues. We also

5:47

have a massive child

5:48

care crisis, where

5:51

hundreds of thousands of child care centers are

5:53

going to go out of business this month or next month,

5:56

and a lot of working parents will have nowhere

5:58

to

5:59

bring their children.

5:59

for that good early childhood

6:02

education and good quality daycare

6:04

when parents need to be working. So

6:06

there's a lot of things we should be voting on right

6:08

now that are quite urgent, and them

6:11

not having a speaker is really very

6:13

problematic. There

6:15

was a quote from Politico

6:17

Playbook this morning that I thought was pretty interesting

6:20

and kind of tied into the fact

6:22

that Jim Jordan has been in Congress for almost 16

6:24

years and hasn't had a bill signed into law. The

6:27

quote from Playbook is, as the GOP

6:29

has drifted steadily right, their ranks have steadily

6:31

thinned, and their crucial role in making

6:33

Congress work has become increasingly threatened.

6:36

Being called a moderate these days isn't really

6:38

an ideological name. It's

6:41

about keeping your head down, building the relationships, and

6:43

making the compromises that have kept American democracy

6:45

on track for 247 years. So

6:47

Senator, do you think moderate, when we say moderate,

6:49

that it now means Republicans who actually try

6:52

to do their jobs?

6:53

Yeah, common

6:55

sense, moderate. It's

6:58

just someone who believes they have a responsibility

7:00

to govern. I think a lot of members

7:02

of the House get elected to be

7:06

just so extreme and

7:08

to destroy things and

7:10

to

7:12

just knock it down. It's obviously

7:15

something very detrimental to the U.S.

7:17

government and to the fact that we need to

7:20

help people and support legislation

7:23

that makes a difference. So

7:25

those electorates are very focused

7:28

on just

7:29

destroying

7:30

anything because they're unhappy and they

7:33

want to express those methods

7:35

of approval in some meaningful way, and they want their

7:37

member of Congress to shut it down. Do

7:40

you ever talk to Republican colleagues

7:43

in the Senate and have them grumble to you about

7:45

what's going on in the House? Not really. Senators

7:49

are very preoccupied on their own world and

7:51

their own things, so they're

7:53

always working on a bipartisan basis to

7:55

get meaningful things moved forward in

7:57

the hopes that we can get the House to vote

7:58

on it. The people

8:01

are pretty serious and they really believe

8:03

that they have a role to play. So I'm

8:06

working with Republicans at all times

8:08

on something meaningful. I mean, I'm working

8:10

with Josh Hawley on banning stock trading.

8:12

I'm working with Cynthia Lummis on cryptocurrency

8:14

and blockchain. I'm working with

8:18

Jody Ernst on letters with regard

8:20

to Israel and getting the hostages back.

8:23

It's a constant

8:25

effort to address things that

8:27

are serious and meaningful

8:30

and try to get votes on them. Speaking

8:33

of things that are meaningful, let's talk

8:35

about the Equal Rights Amendment.

8:38

Senator, you've been working hard this year.

8:41

Again, trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment adopted

8:43

is the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

8:46

But first, just to catch everybody up,

8:49

the first version of the ERA was

8:51

introduced in Congress in 1923

8:53

when it was meant to protect the working conditions around

8:56

women in the workforce. In the

8:58

1960s, it made a comeback and was reintroduced

9:00

in 1971, was approved

9:02

by Congress, and in 1972, the ERA

9:05

was approved by the Senate.

9:06

Then it went to the States for ratification. Congress

9:09

set a ratification deadline of 1979.

9:13

Keiji, take it from there.

9:15

What has become of the ERA between 1979 and today?

9:21

This is so interesting, and

9:23

I am excited to talk about this. The

9:26

Constitution requires two things

9:29

to make an amendment. It requires two-thirds majority

9:31

in the House and Senate and two-thirds

9:33

ratification by two-thirds

9:36

of the state. Both of those two things

9:38

have happened. The last state

9:39

that ratified was in 2020. It was

9:42

Virginia. As you mentioned, we

9:44

passed it in the House and Senate in the 70s.

9:47

People who say, well, that's not it. There

9:50

was this clause in the bill

9:52

that passed in the House and Senate about timing. The

9:55

clause was in the

9:58

preamble.

9:59

lawyer in lots of states around the country,

10:02

preambles are not relevant or dispositive.

10:05

Neither is legislative history. It's what's

10:07

in the actual text of the law. And

10:10

so we believe that if

10:12

right now the archivist of

10:14

the United States, if she would sign

10:17

the amendment and publish it, it would

10:19

be the 28th amendment period. That's all

10:21

that's left to be done. Now there

10:23

is a debate about well, under

10:26

the Trump administration, the Office of Legal

10:28

Counsel says that the preamble

10:30

was relevant and it mattered. Well,

10:33

we have taken

10:35

Office of Legal Counsel memos from previous

10:37

administration and reviewed them

10:40

and said whether they are valid or invalid in the

10:42

past. In fact, during the Obama administration,

10:44

he took some

10:47

OLC memos written by the Bush administration

10:49

about torture and invalidated

10:52

them, overruled them. And so

10:54

we could ask this Office of Legal

10:56

Counsel to say

10:57

whatever they want, whether they think it

11:00

can be

11:01

published and signed now and

11:03

whether that's

11:04

relevant, whether the preamble makes a difference

11:07

or not, or the archivist can just do it because she is

11:09

not beholden to any

11:11

OLC memo. She can do it all

11:14

by herself. And so we're trying to get

11:16

President Biden to

11:18

just

11:19

direct his archivist to sign and publish.

11:21

So, okay,

11:23

if the archivist signs and publishes,

11:26

what would the ERA

11:28

do? Who would it protect? How would

11:30

we see its impact in our daily lives?

11:33

So the ERA as written protects

11:36

everyone from bias

11:39

and inequality. So it's an equal rights amendment

11:41

for women, LGBTQ, race,

11:43

gender, gender identity. And

11:46

so it's a very well-rounded,

11:49

complete equal rights amendment. And

11:51

so as applied to

11:54

women right now, lower

11:57

courts have already found that the

11:59

anti-abortion changes

12:02

to the law that eliminate a right to privacy

12:05

in the males, in traveling,

12:08

getting medical care from

12:10

getting prescriptions in the male for

12:12

Mr. Pristone. Courts have

12:15

already ruled that that is against

12:17

an equal rights amendment of that state.

12:19

So it's saying equal rights amendments guarantee

12:22

that you're treated equally under the law and that means bodily

12:24

autonomy. It means right to privacy

12:27

with communications with your mother or your doctor

12:29

or right to the males, right

12:31

to travel. All those things would

12:34

be in my opinion and in the opinion

12:36

of some courts already that it would

12:38

be protected under an equal

12:40

rights amendment. So it's a way to very

12:42

firmly overturn

12:44

doves. So if KG

12:47

all of these

12:48

all of these court cases that are making their way

12:50

up to SCOTUS right now, specifically

12:53

all these groups that are going through

12:55

the Fifth Circuit in Texas all

12:57

trying to find their way to Judge Kaczmarek so that

12:59

they can they can challenge abortion. Those

13:02

cases, I'm not a lawyer you are, would

13:04

those be moot? Those could no longer go

13:07

forward because they'd have no standing.

13:09

We'd have amended the Constitution. Now you

13:11

could file a lawsuit arguing

13:14

that this is an invalid constitutional

13:16

amendment and it would go up to

13:18

the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court would would

13:21

render a decision arguably next October.

13:24

Well imagine if they rendered an opinion

13:26

that said this is invalid. Who

13:28

would turn out to vote? Everybody.

13:30

So it would be a G.O.T.V.

13:33

explosion.

13:35

It would be all the things. And

13:38

so we'd have a lot more people

13:40

voting and people would be furious because

13:42

this is a legitimate legal argument and

13:45

any argument against has

13:48

been disputed by precedent

13:50

so they can say things like, well

13:52

a bunch of states want to

13:54

get rid of their ratification.

13:56

That's been tried in the past. It was tried with the

13:58

14th amendment. It was tried with the... 19th

14:00

Amendment and you cannot unratify

14:03

once you've ratified. So,

14:05

some will say, well, it's taken too long. It's been decades.

14:08

Well, the 27th Amendment was written 203

14:10

years ago. And

14:13

that just passed because some smart college kid

14:15

realized they only needed one more state to ratify

14:18

and they got it done and it became

14:20

the 27th Amendment. So we will

14:23

win in a lot of these legal arguments. And if the Supreme

14:25

Court is so politicized

14:28

that it would rule that these

14:30

arguments aren't valid while the country

14:32

would respond accordingly. Yeah.

14:34

Well, speaking of countries responding accordingly

14:37

to right-wing judicial activism,

14:39

while you're here, I want to get your opinion on some international

14:42

news. So this past weekend, Poland had

14:44

an election and the far-right anti-democratic

14:46

nationalist party that had been in power for eight years

14:49

suffered a surprising upset.

14:52

The party, which is pronounced peace, but

14:55

it's spelled like piss with one S,

14:57

made many anti-democratic

14:59

totalitarian adjacent moves will empower.

15:02

One of the most famous being a draconian

15:05

abortion ban. So

15:07

voter turnout in this election was huge.

15:09

I think 73% of voters turned out. More

15:12

women turned out than men to vote and unseat

15:14

this party. Do you think

15:17

that this kind of rhymes with

15:19

what might happen in the U.S. as well?

15:22

I do. I think people

15:24

are furious that their fundamental rights

15:28

to bottle the autonomy, to make

15:30

life in-depth decisions about medical procedures,

15:33

to decide when and how many children people are

15:35

having, I think they've had it. And

15:37

you've seen this change in government

15:40

in very Catholic countries and very conservative

15:42

countries.

15:59

and published ERA, this

16:02

country would respond similarly

16:04

because people fundamentally believe in

16:06

equality and they believe that

16:09

these rights, these rights to privacy and

16:11

these rights to bodily autonomy and

16:15

basic civil rights should be protected. Yeah,

16:17

what happened in

16:19

Poland was super interesting and it is

16:22

also interesting to see that a

16:24

restriction on bodily autonomy and gender,

16:27

and like increased gender discrimination

16:30

and attempts to like clamp down on women's

16:33

rights is something that tends to go along

16:35

with totalitarianism everywhere and

16:37

I think you're right Senator, I don't think

16:39

that voters here, I mean they've been mad

16:41

for a while, we've been mad since 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022

16:47

you saw the results of that so

16:49

yeah I mean I guess

16:51

but you know if there's anything the American GOP can't learn

16:53

it's its lesson so you know. Yeah

16:56

and it doesn't, well interestingly in my

16:58

state in New York we are also going to have

17:00

an equal rights amendment on the ballot this year

17:02

and

17:02

we believe that'll drive

17:04

voter turnout that it's going to be a reason

17:07

for people who stayed home last

17:09

election for example to actually come out

17:11

to vote this time and we

17:14

will run a very grassroots oriented

17:16

campaign, we're actually doing a coordinated campaign

17:18

in New York this cycle and

17:20

that ballot initiative will really inform

17:24

get out the vote strategies so

17:26

I'm really excited about it and

17:28

you

17:28

know God forbid we have

17:30

a Republican president like Trump again

17:33

and God forbid they do

17:35

a national federal ban

17:37

we would need an equal rights amendment

17:39

in our state to protect that

17:41

right and so it's it's important

17:44

that we push all

17:46

states purple and and red

17:48

and blue just to start

17:50

doing ERA votes because we've won

17:53

all of them

17:53

so far red places like Kansas

17:55

and Montana like we are winning when

17:58

people put your freedom

18:00

on the ballot.

18:02

How can our listeners support

18:04

your efforts at the national level to ratify

18:06

and get the ERA in the Constitution? So

18:10

really be heard on it. Use social

18:12

media. Use their voices. If they are

18:14

based in New York voting there's

18:17

a not-for-profit that's been set up to do

18:19

the organizing for the ERA and nyequalrights.org.

18:22

Got it.

18:23

Cool.

18:24

They should get involved in organizing because

18:27

when every state does it it builds on the next for

18:29

the next state.

18:31

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, thank you so much

18:33

for joining us. The ERA work you're doing is

18:35

really exciting in a sort of like Montgomery

18:38

Burns like tenting my fingers excellent

18:41

sort of way. So thank

18:43

you for everything that you're doing and we

18:45

look forward to hearing more good news about this soon. Thank

18:48

you. It's my privilege and I'm

18:50

very inspired by it so it's exciting

18:52

me and it's going to get me to work

18:54

that much harder in the next election

18:56

cycle to make sure everybody votes.

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20:25

Welcome

20:30

back. You're listening to Hysteria, the podcast for people

20:33

who have at some point

20:47

or

20:52

another Googled whether or not they make those,

20:55

don't pet me, I'm working best for dogs in

20:57

people sizes. Our

20:59

guest today is a comedian, writer, and actor.

21:02

She's written for Late Night, performed on Comedy Central,

21:04

and you've heard her voice on BoJack Horseman, and

21:07

I recently discovered Frog and Toad. It

21:09

was a very pleasant surprise. I was watching it

21:11

with my daughter and I was like, hey,

21:16

I know her. Most

21:18

recently she wrote a book called Unreliable

21:20

Narrator, Me, Myself, and Imposter Syndrome,

21:23

and she has a new audio book called the Introvert

21:25

Survival Guide out now on Audible. Aparna

21:28

Nancherla, welcome to Hysteria.

21:30

Thank you for having me.

21:32

We are so excited to have you.

21:35

First of all, let's start with talking about

21:38

being an introvert. What's an introvert

21:41

and why were so many online quizzes telling

21:43

everybody that they were one back in 2015? Okay,

21:46

so I learned, I mean, I thought I

21:48

knew what one was, but I feel like I also

21:50

got swept up

21:52

in the personality quiz craze

21:56

of the aughts. But yes,

21:58

so an introvert is...

21:59

someone who, because I think we think

22:02

of extroverts as you know outgoing

22:04

life of the party always needing

22:06

to be around people and it's not that

22:08

introverts don't need to be around people they

22:10

just get their social connection

22:13

in different ways like they sort of value

22:15

you know one-on-one conversations

22:17

with like a few trusted people

22:20

versus you know a big party

22:22

or like a big mingler and

22:24

they also do can enjoy

22:27

situations like that but then they'll just need more

22:29

recharge time on the back end versus

22:32

extroverts who are actually getting their fuel

22:34

from being around other people where

22:37

their alone time is more them

22:39

like

22:42

I don't know the opposite of introverts at a party

22:44

like practicing being alone

22:47

so when did you first realize that being

22:50

around other people

22:50

drained your life force hmm

22:54

I think it was early on I don't think I had

22:56

a word for introvert but I was also a

22:58

shy kid and I think

23:00

shyness and introversion aren't the same thing

23:03

so I think for me it was kind of conflated

23:05

because I was also just very scared of talking

23:08

to other people whether

23:11

you know whether it was

23:14

from social energy or not

23:16

it was also just like another barrier

23:19

that made it hard to connect with others mm-hmm

23:21

do you do you think that introverts

23:24

are at a disadvantage

23:26

when it comes to the way that society is

23:29

set up and and how have you

23:31

found can you as an introvert

23:33

and can other introverts in general kind of overcome

23:36

that

23:36

yeah I mean I think I

23:38

think it's fair to say America is a pretty extrovert

23:42

you know skewed place in that we

23:44

really value magnetism

23:47

and charisma and people who really can can

23:49

keep other people's attention in

23:52

a sort of wrapped charming

23:55

manner and I

23:58

I don't know for me it's kind of

23:59

funny because I think I was reading some

24:02

of Susan Cain's work, she wrote this book

24:04

Quiet that was kind of a known

24:07

tome in the introvert canon. And

24:10

she, she was

24:12

saying that sort of historically, we used

24:14

to, we used to kind of value

24:17

like introversion and like quiet stoicism.

24:20

And like, I think maybe Abraham Lincoln

24:22

was like an early,

24:24

you know, figurehead of just like the

24:27

model of just someone who's like,

24:29

quiet, calm, collected, reserved,

24:31

maybe, but then they really like know what they're

24:33

doing, or they're like really a person of conviction.

24:35

And then I think weirdly enough

24:38

with just like, I don't know,

24:40

the rise of the American dream

24:42

and like this idea that you could like make something

24:45

of yourself, like we started valuing this like

24:47

kind of outward magnetism, charisma,

24:49

like the cult of personality.

24:51

So it's almost like we, it is a

24:53

social construct in a way, just like the way

24:55

we we worship extroversion

24:57

now.

24:58

But

24:59

to that to that point, I do

25:01

think now there is just more literature,

25:04

you know, on introverts versus extroverts and

25:06

just ways to make an environment

25:09

welcoming to both. But I still think

25:11

to that point, like the

25:14

the pendulum still swings more towards

25:16

extroverts overall, especially like in

25:18

the workplace and stuff where it's like, if you're

25:21

in a meeting, it's like the person who's speaking

25:23

the most or something is still going to maybe

25:25

hold the floor more than someone who later

25:28

comes up and is like, actually, I had five ideas

25:30

I thought of quietly. I

25:34

find it as you were talking about that, I was

25:36

thinking, you're totally

25:39

right about the US being a country that values

25:41

extroversion. But it also feels

25:44

like at the same time, we're not

25:46

really creating spaces that encourage

25:48

extra extraversion or that like give

25:50

extroverts a real public space to

25:53

recharge. Like, I

25:55

don't know, there aren't very many third spaces anymore, like

25:57

parks or community centers.

26:00

places where people can all go and hang out.

26:03

So it's really interesting to kind of see that tension play

26:05

out how like on one hand we're told

26:08

be an extrovert and that's how you succeed, but on the

26:10

other hand it's like the only way for extroverts

26:12

to like sharpen their tools

26:15

or to feel recharged is to like go to places

26:17

where it costs money to go. And

26:19

then meanwhile introverts are sort of like don't have

26:21

anywhere to like

26:23

go. I don't know. Yeah, it's also

26:26

I think it's interesting too with like the

26:28

internet where I feel like a lot of people

26:31

now use that as a you

26:33

know further means of expressing themselves

26:35

or their personality. And it's

26:38

funny because as an introvert I find

26:40

the internet in at least early

26:43

on when I was on social media I found it really

26:45

helpful because it felt like a way to express myself

26:48

without having to kind of compete with

26:50

attention in the same way of being necessarily

26:53

the loudest one. Like it's you're

26:55

just kind of putting out your work online.

26:58

You can kind of be loud in your own

27:00

way where you're just like the work can

27:02

speak for itself in a different way than than

27:05

necessarily having to carry it with my personality

27:07

in a room. But to

27:10

that degree I wonder I'm curious

27:12

because I'm not sure if you guys consider yourself

27:14

extroverts or introverts but like I'm

27:17

curious whether you find the

27:19

internet like

27:21

fueling like if you

27:23

are an extrovert or yeah on

27:25

the flip side if you are an introvert like how

27:27

it kind of how it

27:30

manifests in terms of your social energy.

27:34

Yeah, Alyssa, are you an introvert or an extrovert?

27:36

I bet the answer will surprise some people. Oh,

27:38

I'm an introvert.

27:40

I'm an introvert who copes

27:42

by acting extroverted. I think that's

27:45

the best way to put it. Like for

27:47

me to go to a party full of people

27:49

I don't know, my

27:51

social battery goes down to

27:53

about 10% pretty fast. Like

27:55

it really I get really anxious

27:58

about it.

28:00

It's a strange thing and like people who spend a lot

28:02

of time with me up here It's almost like

28:04

a little bit of a joke now like Alyssa. We're inviting people

28:07

you don't know and I'm like, it's okay Just like tell

28:09

me a little bit about them so I can like get it together

28:11

But it's funny because if my parents ever

28:14

listened to this, you know, I was the

28:16

one who always talked at the dinner table I

28:18

was you know always got in trouble for talking too

28:20

much in school But I think it's like how

28:22

I

28:23

dealt with feeling uncomfortable

28:25

sometimes

28:27

How about like how about

28:29

a partner's question about the internet?

28:31

Like do you think that you that have

28:33

you found that it enables you to express yourself

28:35

without draining your battery or no I

28:38

find it's the opposite. It makes me much more stressed

28:42

like I find the internet and social media like

28:44

quite Stressful and

28:47

like I think there's of course this could just this

28:49

may be a difference between like anxiety and introversion

28:52

But like that I yeah, you know

28:54

that this is That

28:56

I think that people that in so many

28:59

ways social media has just become the Wild West

29:01

It just feels like an unsafe place

29:03

in general, but I think years ago when

29:05

Twitter was still decent I did enjoy I

29:07

did enjoy Twitter and felt I never felt

29:10

fueled by it, but I don't find it as Emotionally

29:13

exhausting as I do now

29:14

Yeah, I did. I think exactly the

29:17

same for me. Like nowadays. I like

29:19

I can barely tolerate like

29:22

Any time on the platform because it is just so

29:24

much noise and yeah anxiety

29:28

and just like my introversion like fear

29:30

of like just Upsetting other

29:32

people or just like I don't know like just

29:34

kind of engaging in the wrong way I

29:37

don't know. I get like very nervous

29:39

about it and but I feel like early

29:41

on maybe it just like the

29:43

novelty of it Or just being like oh, this is

29:45

a way to put myself out there. That isn't quite

29:47

as draining as some

29:50

other Environments like and you know even just

29:52

trying to be funny in the green room with

29:54

other comedians where you're like

29:56

Oh, nobody heard my joke, but I thought

29:58

it was pretty good

29:59

I feel like the internet

30:02

now can be social media at least

30:04

can be sort of summarized as You

30:07

go on to say you love mangoes and everyone

30:09

yells at you and it's like why do you hate oranges?

30:13

What I'm not but I feel like that's it

30:16

in a in in some

30:17

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes

30:20

Yeah, it's a bad faith machine. Yeah

30:22

sure And I think and I think

30:24

that if you're somebody believe it or not most

30:27

people who? Don't know me. Well

30:29

do not believe this but I am also

30:31

an introvert, but I'm like I'm an iPhone 8

30:34

with the newest OS deliberately

30:37

draining like when I'm in social situations, I

30:39

like heat up and like Yes,

30:43

definitely because I'm like everybody's

30:45

good at people are gonna think I'm being snotty

30:48

or people are gonna think I'm being mean or I'm not

30:50

interested or somehow I'm failing to keep

30:52

this social interaction going because I think

30:55

as women sometimes were raised to feel

30:57

like we need to be the host of the conversation

31:01

Like we're responsible for everyone like asking

31:03

the questions and yes being things going

31:05

and like I mean men don't really

31:08

have to I mean I'm generalizing But

31:10

I don't think that most men are raised

31:12

that way to feel like if a

31:14

social interaction is awkward It's their

31:16

fault.

31:17

Right and so I Tend

31:19

to yeah, I'm like an overheated iPhone

31:21

just my battery going from like 77 down

31:24

to like 17 you

31:26

want to go on low-power mode within like an hour

31:28

and It I need

31:31

to be by myself

31:32

For like long periods of time. Otherwise,

31:34

I feel like

31:36

I'm gonna just start crying Yeah, you know, like

31:39

I feel completely and

31:41

and like

31:42

Aparna I wanted to talk about like anxiety

31:44

too because you've

31:45

talked a lot about it in your work You've written

31:47

about it. You've performed jokes around it and

31:50

like it seems like Being

31:53

an introvert and having anxiety

31:55

anxiety and introversion are like real good pals How

31:58

do they how do they?

31:59

interact for you?

32:01

For me, I mean, I think, I think introverts

32:05

are also geared in a way where

32:07

we process things very internally

32:10

and like, kind of live

32:12

very much in our own heads. And I think for me,

32:14

anxiety is very much the same way where I'm

32:17

like, you know, living out a million

32:19

realities in my head that may or may

32:21

not be occurring in in actuality.

32:24

Like, I think I remember someone

32:26

saying like, with anxiety,

32:28

it's like, you already have imagined

32:30

the worst thing happening. And it's like, it

32:33

your brain kind of almost can't

32:35

distinguish between the fact that it hasn't happened,

32:37

like it might as well have happened in your head.

32:41

Because you've already like gone through the

32:43

full gamut of emotions of processing

32:45

that that fear. But yeah,

32:48

I think for me, it's like things I

32:51

think what makes it tricky is sometimes I have

32:53

to be like, am I you know,

32:55

not going to this party because I'm really

32:58

anxious and I need like a recharge

33:01

day as an introvert? Or

33:03

is it just me, you know, not wanting

33:05

to engage with the world at all. And like,

33:08

it's tricky to sometimes know

33:10

the line between self care and you

33:12

know, like expressing your true

33:14

self or something. Yeah,

33:18

no, that makes sense. Alyssa, do you ever

33:20

feel like

33:21

you need to answer the same question for yourself?

33:24

Like, am I not going to this because I'm being a poop?

33:26

Or am I not going to this because? Can you

33:30

like do you remember a recent situation? That happens?

33:32

It is all the time. I have

33:34

conversations with myself. Literally.

33:37

I mean, almost not

33:40

I'm not going to say every time I leave the house. But

33:42

whenever I'm going into a social situation, 99%

33:45

of the time about 12 hours out, I'm like,

33:47

why did I agree

33:50

to this? What was I thinking?

33:53

And then sometimes I'll be like, I

33:55

will sit and I'll break it down because you also

33:58

you guys tell me if I'm wrong.

33:59

You also don't want to stop getting invited

34:02

to things because that is it work Yes, so

34:04

you don't want to be like the person who always says

34:06

no or says yes, and then flake. I hate

34:09

to flake That's another thing. It's like I

34:11

really

34:12

Try to like if I commit to doing something

34:14

I really want to see it through then you're

34:16

like maybe it'll rain and I can have an excuse

34:19

and it's like no Let's say you committed

34:21

so you're gonna go and the next time

34:23

you go ahead and you commit again But

34:26

now a lot of times I'll be like I'll talk to myself

34:28

be like, okay Like what's the worst thing that's gonna happen?

34:30

You're gonna get tired You're gonna get exhausted

34:32

by this but like everyone who's gonna

34:34

be here is nice Why are you stressing

34:37

and I try to talk myself off the ledge of it

34:39

be like? Okay, get up and get

34:41

out kind of thing But then there are sometimes

34:43

when I'm like

34:44

if I think no one's going to miss me

34:46

Like if it's a really big event and it feels

34:48

over the top and I'm like no one's gonna fucking know if I

34:51

was There or not. I will give myself permission

34:53

those times and be like I'm not going Yeah,

34:56

I feel like for me the hardest bar

34:58

is like getting myself out the door and

35:00

then a lot of times it'll be like fine

35:03

when I get there or You

35:05

know, like you said Alyssa like I'll

35:07

you know, do my hour of Like

35:10

nine conversations and then I'll be like,

35:12

okay, I clocked in and I can clock

35:15

out made an appearance. I I Hit

35:19

my minimum. Yeah, but I have had I

35:21

think the worst one I like

35:23

one time I agreed to go to like a comedian's birthday

35:26

party and I got there and the bar was just like

35:28

so Loud and there was like people spilling

35:30

out of it and I was like absolutely not

35:33

I just didn't even go inside Yeah Oh

35:37

my god, Aparna that just

35:40

gave me such a visceral Flashback

35:42

to going to comedians birthday parties

35:45

whenever there's any party

35:47

full of people who perform or communicate

35:49

for a living is like

35:52

extra reigning Extra

35:55

draining even though I'm somebody who performs

35:58

and communicates for a living. I feel Do

36:00

you feel competitive when you go there? Do you

36:02

feel like, or do you just feel

36:04

like yourself getting smaller? How do

36:06

you feel? Yeah, I don't feel competitive

36:08

with others because sometimes I just feel like I cannot

36:12

compete with the sheer

36:14

star power of your charisma.

36:17

I'm not even going to try, but it is

36:19

like, I think it's draining too because it's

36:22

like sometimes

36:23

when people do feel

36:25

the need to perform that much, they

36:28

also kind of require you to engage

36:30

a certain way. And sometimes I don't even feel capable

36:32

of doing that, you know, of just like being

36:35

this like acolyte or

36:37

something to their personality. I

36:40

wish that introverts could

36:42

have like medical alert bracelets where

36:44

you could just like identify each other at a

36:46

party and be like, do you just

36:48

want to sit here and be quiet for a minute? You

36:51

know what I mean? I think you would just think it's such a public service.

36:54

Oh, Parna, that's your merch for you. That's

36:56

my merch. Totally. I'm like

36:58

an introvert. I'm like on shark tank

37:00

and they're just like, what are you talking about? Oh

37:05

my God, please go on. I could just

37:07

pick, I can picture it. It would be so great.

37:09

Sit there, make them so uncomfortable with your silences. Just

37:11

be like here. Well, so

37:13

here it is. She's been in just slightly

37:16

silences. Just the anti-pitch.

37:19

Yeah. I mean, anti-comedy

37:21

is a thing. Why not the anti-pitch? Yes.

37:24

I went to a party one time, Parna,

37:28

it was a comedian's New Year's Eve party.

37:31

There was a point in the night where everyone,

37:33

there were a lot of stand of comedians there. There

37:36

was a point in the night where they set up a stage

37:38

and people were doing sets. No.

37:41

No. I know. Why?

37:44

I was just like, they were doing

37:46

tight fives of deliberately bad jokes

37:49

that were sort of like in jokes that

37:51

they picked up. I think that, you know, like if you go

37:53

to too many open mics and you just, eventually people

37:55

just start making jokes about what happens at an

37:57

open mic. Yeah. Anyway, it

37:59

was like. Oh my god, I can I

38:02

had a flashback to that party and I just

38:04

remember by the end of the night I was

38:06

like, I don't ever want to talk to a human

38:08

being

38:10

I

38:14

am like repelled by that I

38:16

whole idea like that I was just like why

38:18

would you do that? But then you know

38:21

There are a lot of comedians who would be into that

38:23

or would be like eager to jump on that

38:26

Soap box forever many minutes

38:28

and and I think even some of those people

38:30

would be introverts So I think that always throws

38:33

me off where I'm just like how are

38:35

you an introvert? But I think it's what

38:37

you guys are both saying where it's like a

38:39

lot of introverts develop sort of an extrovert

38:41

Persona to manage the world and

38:43

sometimes it is like does seem

38:45

like there's no way this person is an introvert

38:48

But it's just because they're like

38:50

performing extra hard to seem

38:52

not like one

38:54

Right. It's like somebody who exercises

38:56

with the wrong form where it's like

38:59

not aging your know You're

39:03

doing the exercises but you're gonna hurt your neck

39:10

Aparna is there anything about being an introvert

39:12

that like as you thought more about

39:14

it You've realized you kind of were

39:16

in denial about and you were trying to work against

39:19

but you've started to understand that you can work

39:21

with it Yeah, I mean I think

39:24

kind of what we're saying where I think early

39:26

on in comedy I really thought I had to be like

39:28

at every social event and like sort of just

39:31

hanging out as much as the next person But

39:33

I feel like especially with age. I just

39:36

like learned I have a certain capacity

39:38

for those situations And it's like sometimes

39:41

I do still beat myself up about like,

39:43

oh, why don't you stay for like the

39:45

after party or something? But now I'll

39:47

kind of meet myself halfway where

39:50

it'll be like, okay Like I'll put in an

39:52

appearance But then that that is

39:54

enough like I don't have to like stay

39:56

the whole time or like, you

39:58

know, necessarily tough to every person

40:00

I'm scared of in the room, I'll pick one.

40:03

And I'll think that like,

40:05

I yeah, just like kind of making giving

40:08

myself more room to kind of show

40:10

up as I am versus just always

40:13

trying to be like, how can you change

40:15

to be a better like ideal

40:17

version of what you think you should be? Yeah,

40:20

you know, one thing going back to the

40:22

online thing, one thing that

40:24

one way that being online has not been good

40:27

for me, as someone

40:29

who has like introverted tendencies,

40:31

is that I think

40:34

that the online, you

40:36

write something, you tweet something, and there it is, and

40:38

it can be screenshotted and shared. And

40:40

like, let's pretend there's an imaginary group

40:42

chat of people who just like hate you and find you annoying

40:45

or me annoying. They could just like

40:47

share it and pass it around. And there it is, like in

40:50

stone in screenshot, it's a you

40:52

know, it's a JPEG. And when

40:55

you have a conversation with somebody, if you

40:57

say something that doesn't quite come out, right, or that doesn't

40:59

work, or you make a comment, they can't like

41:01

screenshot that and send that around to everybody.

41:04

And I feel as though I feel

41:06

like being online and spending as much time online

41:09

as I have, has made me

41:11

sometimes think of every social

41:13

interaction almost like something that I

41:15

post or something that I like

41:18

that it's something like there's

41:20

so the stakes are really high because

41:23

if I mess up,

41:24

somebody can somebody somebody's

41:26

gonna pass it around and people will remember and

41:28

it's like, I don't know. Does that ever

41:30

happen to you? Yeah, I was just thinking

41:32

in light of like the like lockdown

41:35

and the pandemic how you know, I

41:37

still have conversations with people where we're

41:39

both like, I still don't feel like fully

41:42

like I've regained the same social

41:44

self I had before the pandemic

41:46

where I'm like having a conversation at a party and

41:48

I'm totally like, freeze

41:51

of like knowing the next thing to say like, I

41:53

don't know, there's some some sort of stamina

41:56

has still not been regained. And

41:58

and I do think of that.

41:59

thing where I'm just like, are other people

42:02

clocking this the same way as me? Are they having

42:04

this same experience of feeling like a little

42:06

bit less good at this than they

42:09

used to be? Yeah,

42:11

I just feel more hyper aware of like

42:14

social

42:15

interaction in general. And I think

42:18

like you're saying that is amplified

42:20

too by living online.

42:22

Um hmm.

42:23

Alyssa, explain your your nodding

42:26

and saying yes. COVID was terrible

42:29

for my, my, my

42:31

sad little, you know, introverted tendencies.

42:34

Because it's

42:35

like running a marathon. It's like any kind

42:37

of exercise, right? Like you lose your muscle

42:39

memory if you don't do it. And so like

42:41

the first couple of times, oh,

42:44

I was like, I don't know if I should go to this.

42:46

Has everyone tested? Like are people

42:49

gonna wear a mask? And it was. And

42:51

the worst was those first events where people were

42:54

wearing masks, because the act of trying

42:56

to make conversations through the mask was

42:58

actually physically exhausting. Like it was

43:00

actually physically exhausting.

43:02

You're like, trust me, shouldn't have done that. Look

43:04

how tired I am. I've

43:05

got a headache now. It was like, it was

43:07

like trying to talk to people

43:10

on speakerphone at a party where they were there looking

43:12

at you, because you can't see their face. And you can't

43:14

like read their lips if it's loud.

43:16

And, oh, god, parties

43:19

are the worst. And like, at the same time,

43:22

especially like I do things that I do much better

43:24

in like, let's say like groups

43:26

of 20, like a sit down dinner, it's very

43:29

civilized and everyone like my one of my

43:31

friends up here, one of my dearest friends, she

43:33

has groups over for dinner. And I've

43:35

met some of the greatest people through them.

43:37

And I'm so glad that I went to them. But

43:39

in general, if it's like over 50 people,

43:43

but you're not gonna, I will pop in, I will

43:46

have a drink and I will leave. And

43:48

that is that is where it ends.

43:50

And that was probably where my

43:52

heart was before COVID. But after COVID,

43:55

it's just a rule.

43:56

Yeah. And that's the thing

43:58

I've noticed like because

43:59

Everyone was like, oh, you must love this like

44:02

during lockdown. And I was like, no, I think I

44:04

think that's the thing with introverts. They still need

44:06

that social stimulation and like being around

44:08

other people is just in different ways, like it like

44:11

even just getting to meet up with a friend in

44:13

the park to have like a conversation I

44:16

would find so like

44:18

helpful and rejuvenating and like

44:20

I like I definitely was not

44:22

thriving, like being alone by myself.

44:27

I think even people who had partners weren't

44:29

necessarily thriving because you also

44:31

like you had like kind of the worst of both worlds

44:34

where you were like by yourself

44:36

but not by yourself. Yeah. And you never got to you

44:38

always were hanging around it was I think it was

44:40

rough on

44:41

everybody and yeah that was a bad

44:43

time. So Aparna,

44:46

what are the key things an introvert

44:48

needs to survive from your experience

44:50

as an introvert? Yeah,

44:53

for me it's kind of just like

44:55

space to recharge in

44:58

whatever way you find that

45:00

possible. Like for me it's like sometimes it just

45:03

is even like you know if I'm out

45:05

or I'm like at a meeting that's like killing

45:07

me it's just like going to the bathroom for a few

45:09

minutes and being like alone with myself

45:12

and like being able to like take a few breaths

45:14

or just like re re like establish

45:17

my like connection to myself because I feel like

45:19

I can get lost socially easily

45:22

but also just like having people who get

45:24

you and like get your speed and like

45:27

I kind of just are okay with you

45:29

you know having these needs

45:31

and maybe not being as socially

45:34

available as the next person or in the same

45:36

way. Yeah,

45:37

I mean to me

45:39

they're not huge things they're just kind of like

45:42

little shifts

45:43

that allow for your

45:46

battery to like regain

45:49

yeah fuel

45:50

that are maybe not built

45:52

into society right

45:54

now in the most like intuitive way.

45:56

Yeah,

45:57

that sounds that sounds correct.

45:59

You live in Los

46:02

Angeles now and you've lived in New

46:04

York and those are two places that

46:06

present their own sets of challenges for people

46:08

who need to recharge by themselves. So

46:10

what would your advice be to people who live in places

46:13

or in situations where it's kind of hard for them to

46:15

steal time alone? What's

46:18

your advice to someone like that to find a space

46:20

to recharge? Yeah, I mean I think

46:22

either just being deliberate about making

46:25

that space in your own life, whether that's like

46:28

going for walks or whatever

46:30

it is, like any ritual you can commit

46:33

to or find that will

46:35

help you create that boundary for creating

46:37

that space for yourself. I

46:40

think it's very hard if you live

46:42

in a very social environment where it

46:44

is maybe a little more

46:47

difficult to find that time or space

46:49

for yourself, but I think just remembering

46:52

to value that as

46:54

important as drinking enough water

46:57

or getting enough sleep where it's like a

46:59

small thing, but it actually makes a

47:01

huge difference to your ability to

47:03

live with

47:04

a little more ease,

47:06

I think. For

47:09

sure. Aparna Nancherla, thank you so much for

47:11

joining us. This is a fun conversation. A

47:13

lot of words for an introvert, I think. Yeah,

47:17

for three introverts. I

47:19

know. Well, see, my battery

47:22

is going to be at about 15% by the end of this

47:24

recording. Oh, without question. I'm going to go into

47:26

my room and lie down. Aparna's

47:28

book, Unreliable Narrator, Me, Myself, and Impostor

47:30

Syndrome, available wherever you get books. She

47:33

also has a new audio book, Introvert Survival

47:35

Guide. You can find it now. Aparna,

47:37

thank you so much for joining us. This was a lot of fun. Thank

47:39

you, Aparna. Thank you for having me. I must

47:41

go recharge.

47:59

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50:34

And welcome back. You're listening to Hysteria,

50:36

the podcast for people who give out the good candy.

50:40

Yes. I give out the best candy.

50:43

You got to. Both eyes. You

50:46

got to. I also get no trick or treater. So it always ends up

50:48

being my candy. Yeah.

50:49

You could give out like those giant

50:51

bags of candy for people who are willing to

50:54

brave the back roads. We

50:56

live on a fairly main thoroughfare and we get

50:58

a lot of trick or treaters. So I'm afraid that

51:01

giving out giant regular. You

51:03

cannot. I have seen where you live and I have seen

51:05

how you decorate. You cannot go there. You

51:07

will be bankrupt. No,

51:09

I can't do it. I got a, I got a

51:11

kid to send to college in like 16

51:14

years or whatever. Okay.

51:17

Announcements for the class. It's

51:20

spooky season. We will never let

51:22

you forget when it is spooky season.

51:25

If you saw me on the street and you said,

51:27

hi, I love your show. My response to you

51:29

would be it's spooky season. Exactly.

51:32

It's that's, it's, it's not healthy.

51:34

The level of how much we love spooky

51:37

season. Give

51:39

me witch hats. Give me bats. Honestly,

51:41

give me candy corn. It's all. Yeah.

51:44

I'm drinking a prescription pumpkin spice

51:47

latte right now. It's the only thing that works for

51:49

me. And in honor

51:51

of spooky season, we have a new T that's

51:53

perfect for horror fans. At this point, if

51:55

you like following Supreme court news,

51:58

you are a horror fan. It's

52:00

a Jaws-inspired t-shirt,

52:02

except our version is Laws. And

52:05

on the back it says, we're gonna

52:07

need a bigger court. Erin,

52:10

didn't you come up with that? I think,

52:12

yeah, this sounds pretty familiar. Although, I, the, the,

52:15

just, you know, it's, it's fine.

52:17

The, the context in which I pitched it,

52:19

it was Jack Smith

52:22

as a shark

52:23

eating a swimming Donald Trump. So,

52:25

yeah,

52:26

but it, either way, Laws, they're important,

52:28

they're gonna get ya. The

52:30

tee features a graphic of six sharks

52:32

in judicial robes, which sounds scary, but it's

52:35

definitely less scary than the six conservative

52:37

justices. You know what? Conservative

52:39

justices of the Supreme Court have almost

52:42

certainly killed more people than sharks

52:44

do every year. I think

52:46

that's probably pretty accurate. Yeah, how many

52:48

death penalty appeals have they just been like, no,

52:50

don't know,

52:51

don't know. They kill more people than sharks. Sharks. They 100%

52:54

kill more people than sharks. Sharks not really, not really hurting people.

52:56

Not really hurting people. Sharks for Supreme

52:59

Court. Sharks for Supreme Court. They

53:01

never stop growing. They're ancient,

53:04

beautiful creatures. They, it's

53:06

not true that they don't get cancer, but they

53:10

are resistant. So many teeth. Yeah, they're resistant

53:12

to cancer. Let's have a shark. Let's

53:15

replace Justice Clarence Thomas

53:17

and or Justice Sam Alito with actual

53:20

sharks. They kill fewer people than

53:22

both of those men have. Okay,

53:24

Laws, coming to a merch store near

53:26

you. Specifically crooked.com slash store.

53:29

Snag your new favorite tee today. All

53:31

right, Alyssa, are you ready to be

53:34

sane and or petty with me? Yes,

53:36

I'm both. Okay, cool.

53:39

I'm gonna go first because you've been,

53:41

you've had like a little evil grin since you

53:43

announced that the story

53:46

you chose was for me. So I'm

53:48

gonna let you, I'm gonna let you

53:50

be the closer. All right.

53:52

Are you sane or petty? This

53:54

is both, I'm both kind of. Okay. It's

53:58

not petty because it is a big deal, but it's.

53:59

petty because I'm happy that these people

54:02

that I don't like are not getting what they want. Okay.

54:05

So, and it's standing because what's happening is

54:08

the decision that has been made is good for

54:11

America and good for the earth. So Alyssa,

54:13

you're probably familiar with

54:16

the unfortunate fact that a lot

54:18

of groundwater in Arizona was

54:21

being used by farms

54:24

that were leased by Saudi Arabia.

54:26

Yup. So alfalfa

54:28

for their cows. Yeah. So

54:30

alfalfa, you know alfalfa. I know alfalfa.

54:33

Alfalfa is a crop. Everybody, I mean,

54:35

you know, are you rural? Can you even rural

54:37

if you don't know alfalfa? Alfalfa

54:40

is a, it is

54:42

a thirsty crop. It needs a lot

54:44

of water. Growing it in Arizona seems

54:46

like a very terrible idea. The

54:48

farms that the Saudis releasing, again,

54:51

so that they could feed the cows

54:53

that they use, not even that people in this

54:55

country use. Right. The farms

54:57

that they use, it's

55:00

just, they were, they had basically unfettered,

55:02

unlimited access to Arizona

55:04

groundwater. Well, now

55:06

it appears that the

55:08

lease on

55:10

the farm that has

55:13

unfettered access to Arizona

55:15

groundwater is not going to be

55:17

renewed. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs,

55:20

who has been on this show when she was running

55:22

for governor, Katie Hobbs

55:24

said that the move would, quote, protect Arizona's

55:26

water future. So that's

55:29

really exciting that they're

55:31

finally getting kicked out. There

55:34

is one lease that they're terminating immediately

55:36

and there are two or three other leases that

55:39

are going to expire in February that are not

55:41

going to be renewed to this same entity.

55:44

So that's really, first of all, that's great news.

55:48

Have you ever seen that episode of 30 Rock where

55:51

Liz's boyfriend is trying to buy an apartment

55:53

and this guy comes in and

55:55

he's like, Oh, I'll use this for my son

55:57

to store his motorcycles and just buy his own.

55:59

That's how I feel what was

56:02

happening in Arizona. Absolutely.

56:06

There are human beings who need that water in

56:08

Arizona. We shouldn't be growing alfalfa

56:11

in an environment like that, and we definitely shouldn't

56:13

be growing alfalfa in an incredibly

56:16

environmentally irresponsible way. So

56:20

I'm feeling insane that Governor

56:22

Hobbs and the

56:25

very good news that the state of Arizona is terminating

56:27

those leases, so hoping that

56:30

the next move is something that's more climate-friendly.

56:33

Agreed.

56:35

Okay, Alyssa, you're

56:36

up. All right, Erin.

56:38

So you and I both, we

56:40

watch 90 Day Fiance, right?

56:43

I haven't watched the new season. Okay. Well,

56:46

the small... Okay, you can do it. You can still

56:48

tell me. It's not a spoiler. It's not a spoiler, but it

56:50

is funny. Okay, that's funny. So right now, there

56:52

is both 90 Day Fiance and 90 Day the Other

56:54

Way that are on new episodes every

56:56

week. And Erin, each show

56:59

has a witch

57:01

or witch-adjacent

57:03

woman.

57:04

Okay? They are also

57:06

the most chaotic characters

57:09

potentially that have ever been on the show. And

57:12

there are so many questions I

57:14

have. If you are a witch,

57:17

you have magical powers in some way,

57:19

shape, or form. One, how did you

57:21

not know this whole situation was going to unfold

57:23

the way it was? How did the situation is

57:25

unfolding? How have you not cast the spell, come

57:27

up with a brew, found some sort of toad or

57:29

something to rub and fix whatever

57:32

is going on? But I have never

57:34

seen two people, one,

57:37

let's call her an oracle, the other one, she

57:39

calls herself a witch.

57:41

I have never seen such

57:44

chaos.

57:44

They should be more

57:47

in control. They should be getting what they want.

57:49

They should have the situation sorted out. They

57:52

are witches. This is what we expect of witches.

57:54

And on the one hand, I love the show. On

57:56

the other hand, Lady witches, get it together.

58:02

I would say that

58:05

at the

58:08

least Halloween-y, right? A

58:10

person who is a Wiccan or a Pagan

58:12

or who practices like modern witchcraft is

58:15

somebody who at least has a spiritual connection

58:18

with these ancient practices. And

58:20

like spirituality is supposed to

58:22

center you and help you, help you, give you

58:25

the tools to

58:28

approach life and to overcome

58:30

obstacles. We're eliminating the

58:32

bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

58:33

of it, right?

58:35

Like put forth all this effort to

58:37

study this philosophy,

58:40

this way of life, even if you don't believe

58:42

in like, you know, actual like magic wands

58:44

and stuff, you should be, it should

58:47

be empowering you in some way or

58:49

another or like helping you. And

58:51

that, yeah, there in lines,

58:54

my biggest issue is that one of the

58:56

witches was, you know,

58:58

was, okay, like you can't totally tell from the angle,

59:01

but she was sobbing uncontrollably,

59:04

ugly crying as she called it, in the car

59:07

on the way to the airport to pick

59:09

up her boo who she did not know if he had

59:11

actually made his connecting flight. She may

59:13

or may not have been FaceTiming while driving

59:16

a move I was very concerned that

59:18

TLC kept in the show, but like,

59:20

I was

59:20

like, girl, how do you not know him? Like,

59:23

first of all, take a pull over

59:25

and take a deep breath. I mean, she

59:27

was hyperventilating

59:29

by her own admission on the drive

59:31

to the airport. And all I could think

59:34

of is it like when they first told us at the beginning of

59:36

the season that she was going to be a witch, I was expecting

59:38

very different things out of it. Yeah,

59:44

yeah, that's, um, there's a lot of things

59:46

that TLC has done that I'm like, is this ethical?

59:48

Is it

59:49

ethical? Not certain.

59:52

Still watch it, but you have

59:54

questions. Yeah, yeah,

59:57

it's pretty

59:58

rough.

59:59

That's um, I am going to now

1:00:02

make a commitment to myself that after

1:00:04

we're done recording My

1:00:06

recharge time is going to be watching

1:00:08

the new. Yes season. Yes. I

1:00:10

need I Sometimes tend to lose

1:00:13

interest

1:00:14

in the people as the episodes go

1:00:16

on because I'm like you are too annoying Oh, I

1:00:18

totally am really completely agree Emily

1:00:20

from Kansas. I was like you

1:00:22

the worst I can't

1:00:25

even watch this like episodes with her on

1:00:27

it because she annoyed me The way

1:00:29

she treated her partner and I just when

1:00:31

he was just trying to learn how to muck the stalls

1:00:34

Yeah

1:00:36

Yeah, and she was like telling

1:00:38

her parents that she was just gonna keep living there and her

1:00:40

parents were like, no You know, I and they clearly

1:00:42

had no ability to tell yeah,

1:00:45

that seems correct But

1:00:48

they did do a fall photo shoot Which is the

1:00:50

number one sign that everything is great in a relationship

1:00:52

is when people do a fall photo shoot Okay,

1:00:56

that is all the time we have

1:00:58

on this week's episode of hysteria. Thank

1:01:00

you to senator Kirsten Gillibrand One

1:01:04

of our faves faves obviously. Thank

1:01:06

you to a part in on Cheerla for joining

1:01:09

us this week I want to send a special

1:01:11

thanks to our listener Polish American

1:01:13

journalist Hannah Kozlowska.

1:01:15

She's amazing She really helped a lot with

1:01:18

show prep this week Yeah I'm gonna link to a couple of her pieces

1:01:20

in show notes if people want to read up a little bit

1:01:22

more about what's going On over there and listeners

1:01:25

if you want to get in touch with us hysteria at crooked

1:01:27

comm we read all of our emails

1:01:29

We'll give you a shout out, you know, we love to apply

1:01:32

from you. Sometimes we reply you

1:01:34

never know Sometimes we don't but that's not

1:01:36

because we're not interested in sometimes It's just

1:01:38

like sent at a time when we're all

1:01:40

just

1:01:41

on the way out of the house Yeah, whatever, but please

1:01:44

we love hearing from you hysteria at crooked

1:01:46

comm there will be more history for you

1:01:48

next week

1:01:54

I

1:01:57

Sterea is a crooked media production

1:01:59

Aline Reston is our Senior Producer. Our

1:02:02

Executive Producer is me, Erin Ryan.

1:02:04

And Alyssa Mastromonaco is our Co-Producer.

1:02:07

Fiona Pastana is our Associate Producer.

1:02:10

The show is engineered and edited by Jordan

1:02:12

Kander. We get audio support from Kyle

1:02:14

Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Our

1:02:16

video producers are Rachel Gajewski

1:02:18

and Megan Paschel. And thank you

1:02:21

to Julia Beach, Ewa Okulate,

1:02:23

Amelia Montooth, Adia Hill, and

1:02:26

David Toles for production support every

1:02:28

week. Don't forget to follow us

1:02:30

at Crooked Media on Instagram and Twitter

1:02:32

for more original content, host takeovers,

1:02:35

and other community events.

1:02:46

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1:02:58

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