Stephen & Evie Colbert Share The Taste Of Home

Summary

Fresh Air Episode Summary: Stephen & Evie Colbert Share The Taste Of Home

Release Date: December 12, 2024
Host: Terry Gross
Guests: Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert
Topic: Discussion of their new cookbook, personal histories, faith, career insights, and favorite comfort foods.

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Introduction to the Cookbook

Terry Gross welcomes Stephen Colbert and his wife, Evie McGee Colbert, to discuss their collaboratively authored cookbook, "Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves." The book intricately weaves personal narratives with cherished family recipes, offering readers not just culinary instructions but also heartfelt stories behind each dish.

Terry Gross [00:14]: "Each recipe in the book is preceded by the story behind it and memories associated with it, so you actually learn about Stephen and Evie as you read the recipes."

The Joy and Challenge of Cooking Together

Stephen shares his passion for cooking as a relaxing pastime, contrasting it with Evie's more pragmatic approach in the kitchen. While Stephen enjoys the creative process of experimenting with new recipes, Evie often becomes the taste-tester.

Stephen Colbert [01:55]: "I love process. I love one thing becoming another thing. Well, it's kind of like doing the show."
Evie McGee Colbert [02:32]: "You're not cooking to make food for yourself. You're just cooking to make a process."

Childhood Food Memories

The couple delves into their early experiences with food, recounting both beloved and less favorable meals from their childhoods. Stephen reminisces about the abundance of Mrs. Paul's fish sticks and the make-do with Campbell's condensed tomato soup as a "delicious remoulade."

Stephen Colbert [05:13]: "Mrs. Paul's fish sticks growing up... It would take a can of Campbell's condensed tomato soup, and you would just heat up the condensed soup and ladle that over the fish sticks as the sauce."

Evie shares her aversion to local delicacies like shad roe, contrasting with Stephen’s nostalgia for red rice, a staple from their South Carolina upbringing.

Evie McGee Colbert [05:49]: "We ate a lot of Charlestonians love shad roe, which I hated."

Stephen Colbert [42:35]: "I got so many in there. It's probably the red rice... it has its roots in Jollof rice of West Africa, but it's super jammy and a little spicy and salty."

Stephen's Appendicitis and Resilience

A significant portion of the conversation centers around Stephen's recent battle with appendicitis. He recounts performing two shows while suffering from a burst appendix, describing the intense pain and his determination to uphold his commitment to his audience.

Stephen Colbert [07:10]: "I thought I was indigestion of just the highest possible quality... somebody was leaning on a broomstick and just jamming the end of the broomstick into my gut."

Evie played a crucial role in ensuring Stephen received necessary medical attention, underscoring the strength of their partnership.

Evie McGee Colbert [08:52]: "He wanted to go home and go to sleep. I bypassed Stephen and called Pablo to meet him at the emergency room."

Upbringing and Family Influence

The Colberts reflect on their family backgrounds, highlighting the significant influence their parents had on their lives. Stephen discusses the legacy of his father, a prominent academic and his absence due to his early passing.

Stephen Colbert [25:01]: "I did it to myself because of the person I perceived my father to be."

Evie shares her admiration for her parents' community involvement and the profound impact of her father's recent passing.

Evie McGee Colbert [25:01]: "I admired my father so much that I always wanted to try to live up to be the person he was."

Balancing Career and Family

Evie discusses the sacrifices she made to support Stephen's burgeoning career, choosing to focus on their children and forego her own acting ambitions. The couple emphasizes the blessings of maintaining a close-knit family despite the demands of show business.

Evie McGee Colbert [17:37]: "I ended up spending a lot of my time as a stay-at-home mother, which I had never expected to do. But we were always together as a family."

Stephen adds that the nature of his job allows for a certain level of stability, with predictable hours that help in planning family life.

Stephen Colbert [18:52]: "The business that I'm in, this is one of the more normative jobs you can have because you know where you're going and you know when you're coming home."

Evolution of Television and Career Insights

Stephen reflects on the changes in the television landscape since he began working on "The Daily Show" in 1997. He discusses the shift towards streaming platforms and the challenges traditional networks face in retaining viewership.

Stephen Colbert [27:38]: "TV is a completely different place... cable will go away completely because streaming now fills that position."

Despite industry shifts, Stephen remains optimistic about the enduring appeal of live, same-day programming like late-night shows.

Stephen Colbert [28:03]: "Live, same day... they still have an appointment audience on a daily basis."

Faith and Meeting the Pope

A notable highlight of the interview is Stephen’s recounting of his invitation to meet the Pope at the Vatican. He describes the surreal experience of being among 110 comedians and the Pope’s appreciation for comedy as a social lubricant.

Stephen Colbert [33:45]: "The Pope gave a beautiful speech about comedy... easing people's day and making them feel better."

He also details his personal interaction with the Pope, who blessed their rosaries and acknowledged his work.

Stephen Colbert [37:43]: "I did meet the Pope one on one... He gave me a rosary."

Religious Background and Interfaith Dynamics

Evie discusses her Presbyterian upbringing and the dynamics of their interdenominational marriage. While she maintains her Presbyterian faith, she ensures their children are raised in the Catholic Church, fostering a harmonious religious environment.

Evie McGee Colbert [38:54]: "I grew up Presbyterian, and we were religious, but decidedly not Catholic... we raised our children in the Catholic Church."

Stephen shares his deep-rooted Catholic faith and the influence of his parents' religious dedication on his own spirituality.

Stephen Colbert [25:01]: "I have a faith... I just am integrally Catholic, if you know what I mean."

Favorite Comfort Foods and Emotional Connections

The Colberts discuss their favorite comfort foods from the cookbook, emphasizing the emotional connections these recipes hold. Evie highlights her mother's cheese biscuits as a source of comfort, while Stephen cherishes red rice for its nostalgic value.

Evie McGee Colbert [42:41]: "My favorite recipe in the book is my mother's cheese biscuits because... I feel like she's with me."

Stephen Colbert [42:35]: "Red rice... just barrels of it being cooked every day by those lunch ladies."

The Cookbook Writing Process

Both Stephen and Evie elaborate on the meticulous process of creating their cookbook, from recipe testing to fact-checking. They acknowledge the challenges of ensuring accuracy and consistency, with assistance from their niece and a professional test kitchen.

Stephen Colbert [45:27]: "It makes a difference... three years to do this."

Evie McGee Colbert [45:45]: "Yes. By lottery."

Conclusion and Reflections

In wrapping up, Terry Gross praises the engaging and heartfelt nature of the Colberts' cookbook, appreciating the blend of recipes and personal stories. The couple expresses their gratitude for the opportunity to share their experiences and creations.

Terry Gross [47:18]: "The book definitely survived that... it's very entertaining."

Stephen Colbert [48:00]: "I love talking to you so much... I'm so glad to talk to you after 10 years."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Stephen Colbert [01:55]: "Evie will tell you it's relaxing for me."
• Evie McGee Colbert [02:32]: "You're not cooking to make food for yourself. You're just cooking to make a process."
• Stephen Colbert [05:13]: "Mrs. Paul's fish sticks growing up... ladle that over the fish sticks as the sauce."
• Stephen Colbert [07:10]: "Somebody was leaning on a broomstick and just jamming the end of the broomstick into my gut."
• Evie McGee Colbert [08:52]: "I bypassed Stephen and called Pablo to meet him at the emergency room."
• Stephen Colbert [25:01]: "I did it to myself because of the person I perceived my father to be."
• Evie McGee Colbert [17:37]: "I ended up spending a lot of my time as a stay-at-home mother."
• Stephen Colbert [27:38]: "TV is a completely different place... cable will go away completely."
• Stephen Colbert [33:45]: "The Pope gave a beautiful speech about comedy."
• Evie McGee Colbert [38:54]: "We raised our children in the Catholic Church."
• Stephen Colbert [42:35]: "Red rice... just barrels of it being cooked every day."
• Evie McGee Colbert [42:41]: "My favorite recipe in the book is my mother's cheese biscuits."
• Stephen Colbert [48:00]: "I'm so glad to talk to you after 10 years."

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This episode offers an intimate glimpse into the Colberts' lives, blending personal anecdotes with professional insights. Their shared love for food, family, and faith underscores the depth of their collaboration, resulting in a cookbook that resonates on multiple levels.

Transcript

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[Terry Gross]

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They're partners in their marriage as well as in their production company, and she makes regular appearances on his CBS show, the Late show with Stephen Colbert. During the COVID lockdown, when he hosted the Late show from their home. She was his partner on the show, acting as a producer, sound engineer and serving as an audience of one. I loved hearing her laughing at his jokes. They're typically not partners in the kitchen because they have different approaches to cooking, but now they have a new cookbook they co authored with the great title, does this Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves Shrimp are well represented in the book because Stephen and Evie grew up in coastal South Carolina, where they still have a home. Each recipe in the book is preceded by the story behind it and memories associated with it, so you actually learn about Stephen and Evie as you read the recipes. If you watch Colbert's show, you know he likes a good drink. The book has a whole chapter on drinks. Each episode of the Late show opens with a monologue typically satirizing a major event in the news. Colbert doesn't pull his punches, especially when it comes to threats against democracy. Stephen, Evie, welcome to FRESH air. It's such a pleasure to have you back on the show, Stephen, and to talk to you. Evie, thank you. Thanks, Terry.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I'm so excited to be here.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's been too long.

[Terry Gross]

Oh, yeah. So first question to you, Stephen, how do you find time to cook? I can't believe that you find time. I don't have time to cook and I don't have half the job that you do. I make like omelets and heat roasted chicken.

[Stephen Colbert]

Evie will tell you it's relaxing for me. That's what I want to do on a Saturday afternoon if I've got a moment and I've got it to myself, especially if there's a farmer's market in town or something like that. I want to go get a pork belly and just start marinating that or start, you know what? I've got some brioche. I've got eggs. I've never done an almond bread pudding before. Let's try that with maybe the crispy top. Ooh. I'll make a car cartouche on the top and sort of steam it in a bain marie first, then I'll take it off and. Ooh, what about a bourbon caramel salt? Like, I get and I don't. What drives Evie crazy sometimes is that then I don't eat it.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, you're not cooking to make food for yourself. You're just cooking to make a process.

[Stephen Colbert]

Right. I just. I love process. I love one thing becoming another thing. Well, it's kind of like doing the show. You get there in the morning, and there's, I don't know, maybe nine stories that are generally dominating the conversation over the last 24 hours. We have good pitches on six of them, and three of them then dominate the monologue because we've boiled it all down. We've taken. That's why I like the show chopped, because they take. You know, you have these baskets at the beginning of the show where there's, like, you have octopus and licorice, and you have smoked salt here. Making entree or whatever. That's what doing the show is like. And kind of you have to love process to do a show on a daily basis. And that's related to food. For me, one thing becomes another thing with a little care, a little love, and a little imagination. And I find it incredibly smoothing. I mean, smoothing.

[Terry Gross]

It's also smoothing.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's also bloating, but it's also incredibly, incredibly soothing to me. And then I'll just try to go give the food away.

[Terry Gross]

So, Evie, if Colbert is doing all this cooking but doesn't eat it, do you get to eat it? And do you do a lot of the cooking that you actually both eat?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Well, I do get to eat what he makes, which is often delicious. Always.

[Terry Gross]

Often.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Often. I would say often.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, I'm experimenting. I'm imagining what it's going to be like. And, you know, sometimes it doesn't work. Things don't always work out, Terry.

[Terry Gross]

You know, when I was growing up, my mother wasn't much of a cook, but she had two, like, fantastic dishes that she made, and I always looked forward to those. But Monday nights, I'd almost be in tears because Mondays are bad enough when you're going to school. Yeah. And she'd sometimes make broiled mackerel, which is a very bitter fish, especially when you're a kid. Yeah. With, like, canned string beans. Oh, God, I know. And lettuce with no dressing on it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Sure.

[Terry Gross]

Iceberg. And I'd nearly be in tears. But later in the week, the food got better. So I'm wondering with each of you, the recipes in your book look absolutely sumptuous. But were there meals that you had that nearly brought you to tears when you were growing up?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, my God.

[Terry Gross]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

When I was a kid, my. You know, again, 11 kids and also Catholic, so, you know, no meat on Fridays. We had so many Mrs. Paul's or, like, Gorton's fish sticks. I think it was Mrs. Paul's fish sticks growing up. And my mother, her idea of. Of making you fancy. And I'm sure she saw this suggestion, the serving suggestion on, like, on the back of the package with some partnership with Campbell. Cause it would take a can of Campbell's condensed tomato soup, and you would just heat up the condensed soup and ladle that over the fish sticks as the sauce.

[Terry Gross]

Oh, like, no, water. You're supposed to add a can of water.

[Stephen Colbert]

No, that's if you're making soup, not if you're making a delicious remoulade.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Imagine the salt content.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly, exactly. I'm a creature of pure sodium by the time I was. But you know, that also, this was the thing that even I, as a child, who just would eat anything he put in front of me. Spaghetti with ketchup.

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Oh, my God.

[Terry Gross]

Oh, I had that once at my aunt's house.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, my God. We got that. All the. My brothers and sisters loved it. I'm like, I don't understand what's happening. But I would, of course, have to eat it.

[Terry Gross]

Were you ever brought to tears anticipating something? Your mother was answering for dinner.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, my parents, you know, everything was very local, so we ate. I think a lot of Charlestonians love. This is shad roe, which is really hard to get. It's, you know, the roe of a shad fish, and I hated that.

[Stephen Colbert]

But it would be steamed with vinegar.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

They would have that all the time, too.

[Stephen Colbert]

Seasonally.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Seasonally, yeah. Yeah.

[Terry Gross]

Stephen, you had appendicitis not too long ago.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Not only did you have appendicitis, I was dumb enough to do two shows with a burst appendix.

[Terry Gross]

Two shows? I thought it was just one.

[Stephen Colbert]

It was one night, but we did two shows that night.

[Terry Gross]

Oh, no.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yes, exactly.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's how dumb I am.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, no.

[Terry Gross]

Did you have to change your diet after that? Because the recipes have some, you know, pretty rich.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

He solved it by just having the appendix taken right away.

[Stephen Colbert]

Just popped right out of my body and. No, not really. I mean, I didn't really want to eat anything for a long time. It's a great. You know, appendicitis is the new Ozempic, in my opinion.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

No, no, no.

[Stephen Colbert]

Because I lost 17 pounds. I looked pretty hot there for a while. Pale and hot. I looked like a vampire. I have tried, like, to be healthy over the years. Like, I was vegan for seven months. That was fine.

[Terry Gross]

Was that Jon Stewart's influence?

[Stephen Colbert]

No, no, no. I lost a bet with someone, a friend of mine who's a vegan, since.

[Terry Gross]

I asked about appendicitis. And you did two shows. Like, did you know what was wrong? Did you realize something really terrible was happening?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Here we go. I'm so glad you asked this question.

[Stephen Colbert]

My wife wasn't with me.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

No, I was in New Jersey, and he was at the theater. And I kept saying, you know, how are you feeling? Because I knew he wasn't feeling well. So I'd say, how's it going? And he wouldn't answer my calls well, because I couldn't.

[Stephen Colbert]

I couldn't talk. I was in so much pain. I thought I was indigestion of just, like, the highest possible quality and. But it felt like somebody was leaning on a broomstick and just jamming the end of the broomstick into my gut. And as the day went on, just lean it in a heavier way. And I just said to my assistant, I said, let. No one can talk to me. I'm just gonna go to rehearsal. And that's the only time I'm gonna talk today. And I had to do rehearsal essentially sitting down. And I rewrote the show afterwards, lying down on a couch. And I would just hold up my thumb if I approved the joke. Or thumb down if I didn't approve the joke. Then I would have to talk. Cause I would have to say, this is how I wanna rewrite it. We managed to get through rewriting two shows. But between acts of the show, I would burst into tears. Cause I was in so much pain. And I never feel sick on stage. I always feel fine. Because the adrenaline kicks in and there's a relationship with the audience. And I've never had it affect me on stage. When I get off, you know, about a half an hour later, when the adrenaline's gone, it'll kick in. But this was the first time ever, I couldn't actually get through it on stage and, like, put it behind me. But I was committed. You know, I had Bradley Cooper on there for Maestro, and I had Jose Andres on there. And I had lots of other lovely people. And when I got through the show, when all the adrenaline was gone, I started to get a thing called the rigors, which is every muscle in your body goes into spasm, which is from blood poisoning. And I just wanted to go to bed.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah. This is what he said to me, which is so funny to me.

[Stephen Colbert]

She calls me and goes, you need to go to the hospital. I said, you need to go to the hospital.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

He said, no, I just want to go home and go to sleep. And I said, what do you think I can do for you? What do you think I could possibly do for you at home that would make you feel better?

[Stephen Colbert]

No, nothing. I just need to go to bed. And I have a driver that I've had for many years. And you called?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, I bypassed Stephen completely and called Pablo and said, just, I'll meet you at the emergency room. Don't even tell him where you're going. Just go to the emergency room. I'll meet you there. He's out of the picture now. He has no voice.

[Stephen Colbert]

And thank God, because at home we don't have morphine. But at the emergency room, they did.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah. Shout out to nurses. We had great, great nursing care. They were wonderful, really.

[Terry Gross]

Evie, you saved his life.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, yeah, kind of did.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I mean. Or Stephen was foolish enough to risk his life. We could look at it that way, too.

[Terry Gross]

We could look at it both ways.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, I didn't know that I was dying.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

No. I think you probably thought you had a kidney stone or something like that.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, that was the level of pain.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, but, you know, you raise children or you just become a functioning adult. Sometimes we know when one's supposed to go to the hospital.

[Stephen Colbert]

And also there's the old, you know, the show must go on.

[Terry Gross]

Yeah, but.

[Stephen Colbert]

But.

[Terry Gross]

But.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Exactly, Terry. But. But, Stephen.

[Stephen Colbert]

But think about that. If you say, but, but, then the show will.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Sometimes you're gonna hurt the show by going on.

[Stephen Colbert]

It was a pretty good show. There's two pretty good shows that night. I gotta say, if you look back, you won't know that I'm dying. And the thing is that the show must go on to me is not like there's someone over you with a whip saying, you must do the show. The show must go on is because that's what you do. I've gone on and done shows under terrible conditions, and the show always makes it better. And that's why I went on. Not because I felt an obligation to the CBS Corporation. It's because you do have, though.

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You do.

[Stephen Colbert]

I do have an obligation to the CVS Corporation and really Paramount and very soon, David Ellison. Welcome aboard, David. But I just. That's what makes me feel better. This is. I'm a performer. My default is to go on stage.

[Terry Gross]

Did you feel at some point that you were actually close to death? And medically, how close were you?

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, they found out when they finally actually did the MRI, which was at 11, and we got the results at 1 or something like that. They knew it was my appendicitis, and they scheduled me for surgery the next day at 6am and they didn't think it had burst, but when they finally. When I finally came out of it, the first thing the doctor said was, boy, it was a mess in there.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, it had burst and it was. And that led to the blood poisoning. Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

And sepsis. And it was bad. I don't know. I don't want to say like I was on death's door, but it was the sort of thing that if you don't treat. Yes. That it's.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Well, thank God for good medical care. Right. Because we had, you know, we had great care and we got you. We had to go every day for.

[Stephen Colbert]

Antibiotics for, like, 21 days. It was so bad, I had, like, this neutron bomb drip to try to wipe it out because it was in my bloodstream.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

And again, can we get back to the morphine for a second? Because I was so shaking. I was in so much pain. Like, I could not communicate at all. Like, I couldn't speak because my teeth were also chattering because of the blood. Poisoning causes spasms all over your body. And I got that line in me.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, God, it was fun.

[Stephen Colbert]

That morphine dripping.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

She had been asking. The nurse had been asking all kinds of questions, you know, when was the last time you did this? What about this? And you were just like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And then she said, okay, we're gonna give you a little morphine. You're like, really? Okay, fine, if you think that's necessary, you know. And then not 30 seconds later, Steven looks over to the nurse. He's like, hi, what's your story?

[Stephen Colbert]

I think her name was Nancy. I go, nancy, what's your story?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

And Nancy looks at me, you know, I'm afraid you're not the first person who's had morphine. Love for Nancy. And she looks with this laughing eye. She's like, oh, I see. I think the morphine's acting. I think you're feeling better.

[Stephen Colbert]

And I'm like, what are you talking about? I just want to know what Nancy's story is. She seems like a nice person. So, Nancy, are you from around here?

[Terry Gross]

Evie, were you ever worried that he was going to die?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I don't think that he was going to die. I was worried that he could be sick for a very, very long time. You know, I was just worried that if it really turned into sepsis and, you know, that there could be catastrophic impacts of that. So I guess I was worried for a while there. Yeah, you learn a lot.

[Stephen Colbert]

I wasn't worried until later when I found out how bad it was.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Well, a lot of things, like, a lot of things that happen in life, you learn a lot on the fly, right. I didn't know much about that, but we have friends. We had a lot of people. I called and said, what do you think? What do you think? I got a lot of great advice. We got, as I said, wonderful medical care. And you sort of immediately learn how scary things can become so quickly. You know, I think we take our health for. I know I take my health for granted a lot. And, you know, we're all just one bad thing away from something happening. Right.

[Stephen Colbert]

Have a great show, everybody. At any moment, Terry, your appendix could break. You could be gone any second.

[Terry Gross]

You grew up very close to each other. Maybe a block away.

[Stephen Colbert]

I think you said one street away. Yeah, one street away.

[Terry Gross]

But you didn't know each other until you met, like, after you'd moved away from home, after each of you had moved away from home. And you met at a music festival, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston in 1990. And Evie, you lived next door to a theater where, I guess some of the performances were at the music festival. And I guess, Stephen, you lived a block away. And both places became homes where the musicians hung out every year. Your mother used to cook for the musicians a lot.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

That's right.

[Terry Gross]

But I'm wondering if being so close to a theater and meeting people who performed in the theater made you each feel like acting show business was an attainable idea.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Absolutely. Absolutely for me. So we lived next door to the Dock Street Theater in Charleston when I was a little girl. And I took acting classes all through my sort of middle school, high school years. And I did a lot of community theater, and I was already doing a lot of acting. But I'd never thought, oh, I could maybe think about doing this until I met people who were professional actors at the Spoleto Festival. You know, it changed my perspective of what a life in the arts could be like, for sure.

[Stephen Colbert]

And I hadn't done any acting and performing of any kind, really. And I secretly wanted to. And it sort of came from my mother, who had trained to be an actress. But my senior year, I finally auditioned for something. And I'd gotten a couple of plays at school, and the Spoleto Festival was bringing a play by Giancarlo Manotti to Charleston called the Leper. And there was a role for teenage boy, and that boy had been cast out of New York, and he had dropped out last minute for reasons I don't know. And they called my choir director, Ben Hutto, at school and said, do you know anybody who might be right for this part? Send them over to audition. And he said, you should go over, and you did a good job in Annie get yout Gun or whatever I'd done, because you should go over there. And I auditioned for Maestromanotti and these professionals from New York, and I got the job. And somebody in the company said, you're good. You could do this if you wanted to. Oh, wow. And I husbanded that knowledge for the next two years, because then I went off to college and I was a philosophy major for the next two years. And then two years in, I went, you know, I actually. I want to go do that. And so that's why I transferred to Northwestern University's theater school. But it made a huge difference in my life, besides the fact that my mother also, like, threw parties and that sort of thing. And I got to meet the artists and the actors and the dancers and the opera singers. And my mother and I used to be super numeraries in the opera, where we'd go in there and, like, dress up. I'd be a spear carrier for Antony and Cleopatra or something. And. But that exposure and just someone giving you any encouragement, that just little spark saying, you are good at something.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I can remember being at a Spoleto performance and Merce Cunningham came out on stage. I think John Cage had done the music and Merce Cunningham was dancing, but he was really old at this point, and he stood center stage and sort of, like, moved his arm around, and people in the audience started booing. And I thought it was fantastic. I was like, not only do I find what he's doing interesting, but I love that the audience hates it because it was such an. It felt so guttural. You know, they were just like, no, I don't want you to do that. And this kind of interaction between an.

[Stephen Colbert]

Artist and the audience, and he maintains.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

His intention, he keeps going. And it was just. It was a really interesting example of art. And just react to it the way you want to react to it, you know?

[Terry Gross]

Yeah. Evie, are there things you had to sacrifice in your life? When Stephen became famous and had this kind of consuming career. And you had children.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Wow. Yeah, Yeah, I think so. I mean, I decided it was. Listen, I think I'm incredibly lucky to have been able to be home with our children, but Stephen's hours were really long and difficult and I felt that I just wanted to be home with them when I could. So I ended up spending a lot of my time as a stay at home mother, which I had never expected to do. And it was a real privilege. Yeah, I think there were sacrifices. I had trained to be an actress and I decided not to be an actress even before we got married. But then later in life I had opportunities to do some performing, which I chose frequently not to do because it would take me out of town. And I felt that our family needed somebody at home. I mean, I don't in any way want to suggest I ever felt cheated because it was such a privilege to be able to have the life I had. I feel incredibly lucky that I was with my children. And I mean, even though Stephen had a busy job, he wasn't gone. He just came home late. So we were always together as a family. And that's in show business. That's super unusual, you know. So I think we've had an incredibly lucky time, frankly. Very blessed.

[Stephen Colbert]

I can't speak to your experience because that's your experience, but certainly for the business that I'm in, this is one of the more normative jobs you can have because you know where you're going and you know when you're coming home. And the hours may be long, but at least you can plan your life right?

[Terry Gross]

And you're going to be home. I mean, you're not traveling, shooting Game.

[Stephen Colbert]

Of Thrones unless they want to cast me. And then to hell with all of this TV stuff. I'm a star.

[Terry Gross]

To hell with the family. Yeah.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I had someone say to me once, Terry, that I think is so funny when mar. I guess you'd been doing the Colbert pour for a year or two, Stephen and I was chairing a book fair in our kids school and there was an author who said that she wanted to meet me because I was Stephen's wife. And I remember saying to my friend, my life is just getting really weird. This is just weird. And she turned to me and said, the life you ordered has arrived. And I thought it was such a funny way, but it is true. It all comes as a package, right? If you want to be a performer or if you want to be an artist. And with fame comes attention, comes opportunity, but also comes sacrifice of some way.

[Terry Gross]

The thing is, sometimes when you're married to somebody who's famous and is in the public eye and very recognizable, people want to meet the famous person and look right past the spouse.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah.

[Terry Gross]

It's like the spouse doesn't really exist.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's a real thing.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

That's a real thing.

[Terry Gross]

And that's hard to deal with.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah. Yeah, it is hard to deal with.

[Stephen Colbert]

Except now it's Evie they want to meet.

[Terry Gross]

Well, that's the thing, Evie. Like now you have a honest to.

[Stephen Colbert]

God, people go, you're nice and everything, but I love her.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, that's funny.

[Terry Gross]

We need to take another short break here, so let me reintroduce you. If you're just joining us, my guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They co wrote a new cookbook called does this Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves. We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

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[Stephen Colbert]

On the spectrum of brat to demure.

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[Terry Gross]

You're both from prominent families. Stephen, your father died when you were 10. But before that, he'd been a director of a program at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and he worked at the National Institutes of Health. And then the family moved to South Carolina and he became the First Vice President for Academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina. That was in 1969.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Terry Gross]

And Evie, your father was a prominent civil litigator. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives for three terms. He was a Democrat. Because your fathers were prominent, were you expected to be model children?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Huh?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

I don't think because our. Or I'll just speak for me, I don't think because of who my father was, was I expected to be a model child. I think the same. I mean, first of all, I think we were all 11 children in the family. I think we were all held to the same standard. I. I think I had a slightly different relationship with my dad than my other brothers and sisters did because I was the last. They used to say, I can't believe dad took you to the carnival. Like dad hates carnivals, or I can't believe dad went to the beach with you, or something like that. But my father had a sense that, you know, this is his last bite at the apple. And to do those fatherly things with me, because my father died when I was young, it's not so much I was held to a standard that I had to match him is that when your parent dies when you're young, they become Olympian, or there's something much larger than life, which of course is how a child sees their parent. But you never get to move beyond that. So as you get older, they also get larger. So as your view of the world or what you believe is asked of you to be an adult, at least for me, my father inflated ahead of me and became even grander in a way. And so if there was any standard placed on me, it was placed on me by myself. My mother was not asking me to be a certain person because of who my father was. I did it to myself because of the person I perceived my father to be. And I actually don't think I'm very far off. I think he was an extraordinary man, but I think that's self imposed on my part.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Probably on mine too, actually. I mean, I was lucky enough to have had my father for a long time. He just passed away this past April. And at his funeral, when I delivered the eulogy, I mentioned how as a little girl, I used to like to put my feet in my father's footprints on the sand. And I think metaphorically, that's how I felt about him. I admired my father so much that I always wanted to try to live up to be the person he was. And the same for my mother. I hit the jackpot with my parents. I really love them. And I think for me, it wasn't being a model child. It was being a person who cared about the community they lived in and gave of themselves and their time to make the world a better place in whatever way they could. And my parents were both selfless, community active. They did a lot in the town of Charleston.

[Stephen Colbert]

And for me, because I wanted to know my father, even though I was robbed, that ability to move beyond the childhood view of him, because I wanted to know him, I grabbed onto the little things that I did know about him. For instance, my father's idea of. Of fun was to read philosophy. He really would enjoy sitting down with Jacques Maritain or Leon Blois or other French Christian humanists. And so that's what I read. I read a lot of books. I knew that he had lived a life of the mind. So that's what I wanted to do. It was important to be smart. My father was a dean, an assistant dean at Yale Medical when he was 29. He was a full dean at 31 at St. Louis. And so he was this academic superstar, which I never was, but he was this academic superstar and a deep thinker, and I aspired for that in hopes of knowing him. And often it was religiously based. You know, he was Jesuit educated. But my mother and my father both profoundly dedicated to their Catholic faith in different ways. My father more intellectually and my mother more sort of mystically in a way, though she also read a great deal, but more Dorothy Day. And I think I was most influenced by the little bit I knew that I used as a thread to pull on to try to understand him.

[Terry Gross]

How do you think TV has changed since you started working on the Daily Show? What year was that?

[Stephen Colbert]

I think it was spring of 97. So what is that, 27, 28 years.

[Terry Gross]

And TV is a completely different. If you count streaming, it's a completely different place than it was. And, you know, networks are losing viewers, streamers are losing viewers, YouTube is gaining viewers. So it's a whole different world. And how has that affected you and your career?

[Stephen Colbert]

Hmm. Well, what I do is a little odd. And the shows that I've been involved in are a little odd. They're a little bit outside of the normal title shifts of the rest of the industry. I think people often say, like, oh, do you have a lot of famous friends? Like, no, because I've kind of worked the same place. You really become friends with other people when you do a whole bunch of different projects. But over the last 25 years, I've done three projects, essentially. I've worked on the Daily Show, I've done the Colbert Report, I've done the Late show, and there have been a few side things, but those over the last 25 years, which is a pretty long time to be working essentially without a break, and those kind of shows still flourish, generally speaking, relative to the rest of the industry. Live, same day. And I'm not saying viewership hasn't gotten enough for tv, but things like sports news and late night shows, which are kind of dependent upon watching it that day because they're like unrefrigerated shrimp, they're no good tomorrow. So they still have like, what is it called, like an appointment audience on a daily basis. So what I do right now, the Late show, and you and I have never. I don't think we've ever spoken about the Late Show, Terry. But one of the things that I.

[Terry Gross]

Discovered when I did it, that is definitely not true.

[Stephen Colbert]

Have we spoken in the last 10 years?

[Terry Gross]

You're kidding me, right?

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, here's the thing, Terri. I miss you so much that it feels like even a day feels like 10 years. I apologize. I feel terrible. I don't know why I felt that way.

[Terry Gross]

Do I know you?

[Stephen Colbert]

I don't know. I'm sorry. That's my brain these days.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

But this is my first time.

[Stephen Colbert]

It is. That's why. No, please accept my apology. But what I guess the reason why is I don't think we ever discussed this part of it, which is when I took this job, I originally thought, well, I want to do this different than anyone's ever done it before. The same way that when I did the Colbert pour, I wanted to do something nobody had done before. And besides trying to find your feet when you're first starting a show like that, I eventually realized, oh, I actually like the form that pre exists and I just have to fill it with my wine. You know, it's an old bottle. I just fill it with my wine. And that is to answer your question, I live in such an old medium, in such an old stadium, which is cbs, in an old theater, which is the Ed Sullivan. And I'm doing a form that has still got literally an old audience, but also an audience that is coming for an old reason, which is this thing happened today when we're making jokes about it. So, yeah, TV has changed enormously. And I think that it's highly likely that cable will go away completely because streaming now fills that position. If you want something specific, you don't need to go to A and E or Comedy Central or bet. Like, all of that exists in a very siloed and very specific way in various apps. So I think there's going to be an enormous change, which has been coming slowly, and I think it'll come quite rapidly. You see how NBC or Comcast has decided to sell off all their cable assets. I think that's a harbinger of what's to come. But strangely, CBS is doing really well, like the network is doing really well. So while I perceive it in the landscape, oddly, we're there's a little bit of dry land left, even though the audience isn't what it was for, like Johnny Carson, there's an odd stability in our little pocket of the business.

[Terry Gross]

If you're just joining us, my guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They wrote a new book together called does this Taste? Recipes Our Family Loves. We'll be right back. This is FRESH air.

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[Terry Gross]

Stephen, I've known about your deep faith and Catholicism since the Daily show, when you were kind of like the religion correspondent. And you had a regular feature called this Week in God.

[Stephen Colbert]

This is the God Machine.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Beep, boop, boop, beep, beep.

[Terry Gross]

Yes. And you know, you still, you know, talk about religion on the Late show. And you satirize religion. You satirize Catholicism. You satirized the pope. So I was really surprised when the pope invited you to the Vatican as part of a larger event. And I Don't remember what the event was, but Jim Gaffigan was there. I think David Sedaris was there.

[Stephen Colbert]

Sher Conan was there. Jimmy Fallon was there. Chris Rock was there.

[Terry Gross]

What was this about?

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, first, if I could just back up just slightly here, I'm willing to talk about my own faith if my guest asks me about it. I don't like to proselytize, and I'll make any jokes about the Catholic Church. You know, I don't. They deserve a lot of them. And I am deeply Catholic in that it is combed into my being, but I don't know how deeply devout I am. I know people who are really deeply devout, and I wouldn't want to put myself in their league. I just am integrally Catholic, if you know what I mean. And I do love my church, and I still go to church, and I do have a faith. I just don't want to confuse myself with someone who is a very devoted Catholic. Devout, I mean. But I have become friends with Father Jim Martin over the years, who's sort of like the Broadway priest in New York, and he's the editor of America magazine, and he was the chaplain of the Colbert Report on the old show. And, you know, we've become dear friends over the years. And he just wrote me one day. I actually got the email right before I went on stage at the Late show one night saying, hey, the Vatican is at. Asked me to put together a list of like 20 comedians because the Pope wants to meet with some comedians. Would you mind helping with that? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I put a list together of 40 comedians. They sent me back a list of 15 or 20, something like that. Like, they'd made their selects of my selects and with a few of their own. And Jim Gaffigan and I called everybody on the list and we said, hey, we don't really know what this is about, but the Pope wants to meet comedians because he thinks that comedians do something valuable in society. And he just wants to meet us now. I thought we were going to go to Rome and, like, hang with the Pope. I don't know why I thought that. I thought that maybe we'd, like, sit there and we'd have coffee or tea with the Pope and he would ask us some questions. Then we would get a photo and leave. It turns out that these were comedians from all over the world. It was like, from 60 countries. And the Pope had a meeting in the Apostolic palace with us. There was, I think, altogether was like 110 comedians, and we all didn't know what was going on. And we all sat there and the Pope came in and he gave a beautiful speech about comedy that we did not understand at all, that we read later. That was about how. Because it was in Italian, it was in Solomon Italiano. And it was about how comedy, I think, eases people's day. And it is like the social lubricant. And it's okay to make fun of God and the Church and the Pope and all that kind of stuff, as long as you do it with a smile and there's something, some intention to make people feel better. And what struck me was, it's like your philosophy. Yeah, I would like to think so. And what struck me is that we're in this room, which is about the size of the Sistine Chapel, and it's actually just down the hall from the Sistine Chapel, and it's more rococo than it is, you know, late Renaissance, but it's beautiful. It's like you're in another Sistine Chapel and we're all sitting there in our Sunday best, as it were, waiting for the Pope to come in. But comedians are all iconoclasts. We're all people who have a pretty jaundiced view of authority. And I know that some of the people there weren't Catholic or weren't meaningfully Catholic, at least by their own description anymore. And the minute the Pope came in, we all leapt to our feet like the iconoclasm went out the door. We all just leapt to our feet and started applauding and screaming. I thought, wow, that's the effect the Pope has on 110 comedians. Like, it was almost like an autonomic response because you've spent all this. It's like the location. It's the red shoes, it's the white outfit. It's all, like, the guys with the sashes around you, the Pope's gentlemen, who all look like butlers and everything. I was sort of shocked that we all kind of gave into it immediately.

[Terry Gross]

Did you get to meet the Pope one on one?

[Stephen Colbert]

I did. I did. I memorized something in Italian. I went up and I said, you know, sancte Padre, you know, Holy Father, my name is Stephen Colbert, and I am the reciting. I'm the revocia recitante. I'm the reciting voice for your memoir Life. Because he had released a memoir of his life in the spring, and I had gotten a call from my manager to say, baby doll, you're not going to believe. Who wants you to do their audiobook. And I'm like, who? And he goes, just guess. I'm like, I don't know. Barbra Streisand? No. And he goes, the Pope? And I go, does it pay? And he goes, you better believe so anyway, so he negotiates with the Vatican for my contract. And I read the Pope. So I just said, I read your book. You know, I thank so much. I was a reciting voice for your book. And he said, ah. And I kind of used his hand to guide me to the side. So that was it. That's all I got. It wasn't that. It was very nice. And he gave me a rosary. We all got rosaries blessed by the Pope.

[Terry Gross]

Evie, did you grow up Catholic, and was your family religious?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I grew up Presbyterian, and we were religious, but decidedly not Catholic.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly. One of the hallmarks of Presbyterian is we are not Catholic.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

We are not Catholic. You know, my family. I think it's a Protestant thing. Maybe church was an event, right. We had to all get dressed up every Sunday, and it was a social event and all of that. And as I got older, I sort of moved away from that aspect of my faith, you know, But I still consider my faith very strong part of my life. And we raised our children in the Catholic Church, so I've been going to the Catholic Church since we've been married, but I never have become Catholic, so I'm still Presbyterian.

[Terry Gross]

Did it matter to either of you that you were. Both of, you know the Christian faith, but of different denominations?

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, I will miss Evie in heaven.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I was nervous about Stephen's mother because of all 11 children, I'm the only spouse who did not convert to Catholicism. But you're the baby, and I think she didn't. She let you get away with it.

[Stephen Colbert]

I also didn't ask you to.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

You didn't ask you to?

[Stephen Colbert]

I didn't ask you to. And I remember when I told my mom I was going to ask Evie to marry me. I had told my mom the night before that I was going to ask Evie to marry me the next day. And I said, and I'm not going to ask her to convert. And she looked at me for a while and she goes, I think your dad would be okay with that. Which was a big thing for her to say. And it. You know, I love my church, and I love Evie's church, too. There are priests in Chicago. A guy named Father Jack Wall, who's a wonderful priest in Chicago. He used to be at Old St. Pat's I don't know where wall is now. But he said, you know, you're going to have to be a Presby Catholic and you're going to have to become a Catholic. And I have, you know, I've, you know, I read Protestant theologians as well.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Right.

[Stephen Colbert]

And all I care is that our children have a relationship that feeds them in ways that my ancestors gave me.

[Terry Gross]

If you're just joining us, my guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They wrote a new book together called does this taste Recipes our family Loves. We'll be right back. This is FRESH air.

[NPR]

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[Evie McGee Colbert]

I cannot believe I'm about to tell.

[NPR]

This breakup story and expose myself like.

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[Terry Gross]

I'd like you each to leave us with your favorite comfort food.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, most of the book is comfort food. It is a lot of butter. Yeah.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, I don't know. I mean, my favorite recipe in the book is the one that we start with, my mother's cheese biscuits, because those were things that she made always. And so now when I make them, I feel like she's with me. And it makes it's comforting. And I love them. They're wonderful to give and they're delicious and fattening. I think comfort food should be fattening.

[Stephen Colbert]

I got so many in there. It's probably the red rice. You know, growing up on the coast of South Carolina, just anywhere in the south, there's so much red rice, and it has its roots in Jollof rice of West Africa, but it's super jammy and a little spicy and salty And I had it almost every day growing up at Stiles Point Elementary School on Michael Drive on James Island, South Carolina, which it's still there. And there were just barrels of it being cooked every day by those lunch ladies. And I never got tired of it. And for. Right before this book, I actually found a way to make it based on an Allison Roman recipe that I said, ooh, that sauce she's making for the pasta actually has the flavor I remember as a child from this red rice. And I tried it, and it worked. And that was that. That discovery of being able to get that flavor back from my childhood, those carefree years, is what that rice gives me.

[Terry Gross]

When you say carefree years, do you mean before your father died?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes. Yes.

[Terry Gross]

Yeah. Yeah. Taste is powerful.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

It's true.

[Terry Gross]

Small is powerful.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I think we both enjoyed that rediscovery of recipes that we'd grown up with, which we, you know, we maybe had, you know, made them in our adulthood, but not really spent time with them the way we spent time with them writing this book.

[Stephen Colbert]

And that's what Covid did. We were back there in Charleston on that island with our families, with the people who had taught us to make these and made these for us when we were children, and with those ingredients from that field and that creek, and. And it was a terrible time that had in it this gift to us for us to slow down, go home, and remember.

[Terry Gross]

And also working. It sounds like working together so closely on the show worked out okay.

[Stephen Colbert]

Which we had been so afraid to do, or at least I had been afraid to do because I was so nervous the first time Evie was on that she wouldn't have a good time. It's actually made it to air. Her going, oh, my God, you're trembling. I'm like, I'm afraid this is going to be a bad experience for you, because I didn't. Because I'm. I'm bossy.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

No, no, no. But we have had fun, you know, and this whole process has been a.

[Stephen Colbert]

Lot of fun and an enormous amount of work, and I just could not be more. I could not have more admiration for the people who do this for a living, because we had no idea what a huge undertaking is to do this.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

There's a lot of detail in a cookbook.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, my God. Three years to do this.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

You have to be right about whether it's a teaspoon or a tablespoon.

[Stephen Colbert]

You really do. It makes a difference.

[Terry Gross]

Were you a recipe? Fact check?

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yes. By lottery.

[Stephen Colbert]

Six ways to Sunday. It went through us. We'd make it many times. And then through our niece Lucy.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Our niece, Lucy Wickman, was fabulous. She helped tested everything.

[Stephen Colbert]

And then all of that would go on to Chris Styler, who was a professional test kitchen, essentially. And he would say, is this what it's supposed to look and taste like? And we'd go, no. And then he would say, then you need to rewrite this recipe.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

And, you know, sometimes there were mistakes that, you know, we only caught at the last minute. I think it was last Thanksgiving, Stephen, I asked one of our children to make one of the pies in the.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, they had to make everything because I had a ruptured appendix.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, that's right. We were in the hospital. That's right. So the kids saved Thanksgiving last year completely. They made everything but one of this pie recipe that was my mother's recipe for a chocolate pecan pie came out wrong. And I looked at it and I was like, that's why that's too much flour. And they said, well, we used the recipe that you gave us, which I just sent them, and that had too.

[Stephen Colbert]

Much flour in it, had three times too much flour.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

We had to go back and change it.

[Stephen Colbert]

We had to go through and read every recipe.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, it was scary. We thought, what else could have gotten wrong? So we had to go back and look at everything again.

[Terry Gross]

You know, I hadn't thought about this, that Stephen, you were trying to recover from appendicitis and not having any appetite, not really wanting to eat, but still you had to, like, probably reread the recipes and read memories of food and how delicious food is.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes.

[Terry Gross]

And meanwhile, you have no appetite. Yes, that's true.

[Santa]

Yeah.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Yeah, we managed.

[Terry Gross]

Well, the book definitely survived that. It's very entertaining. I don't cook fancy things or ambitious things, but I enjoyed seeing the recipes. I enjoyed all the anecdotes. So I'm so glad we got to talk.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Oh, this has been lovely.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm so glad to talk to you after 10 years.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

I remember, Stephen, I don't know.

[Stephen Colbert]

I don't know where that comes from. I love talking to you so much that I guess I felt like I've been denied or something like that.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Well, I remember the first time I was listening when you and Terri had your first conversation. And when you came to this point of the interview, Stephen said, terri, I've been thinking so long about how I would say, oh, I remember that, or.

[Stephen Colbert]

Like, this has been so wonderful.

[Terry Gross]

I've really enjoyed it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Thank you so much.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

So I feel like that myself right now. Thank you so much. Terri this has been such a wonderful experience.

[Terry Gross]

Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert have a new book called does this Taste? Recipes Our Family Loves. FRESH air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorok, Annmarie Boldonato, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Teresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Yakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Sivinespo. Thea Challoner directed today's show. Our co host is Tonya Moseley. I'm Terry Gross.

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NPR Politics podcast, we're talking about a big question.

How much can one guy change?

[Terry Gross]

They want change.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

What will change?

[NPR]

Look, life or energy?

[Stephen Colbert]

Drill, baby, drill schools. Take the Department of Education. Close it. Healthcare, better and less expensive.

[NPR]

Follow coverage of a changing country.

[Evie McGee Colbert]

Promises made, promises kept.

[Stephen Colbert]

We're going to keep our promises on.

[NPR]

The NPR Politics podcast. Have you ever been on a date with someone and suddenly found yourself disgusted by something they did? Well, you might have gotten the ick on It's Been a Minute. We're asking the big questions about dating, like what's actually happening when we get the ick and is it about them or about you? To find out, listen now to the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR.