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Disney Cruise Line
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Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible cleaning items from ALL and Cotton L and dinner essentials from Daisy, Skippy, Hellman's and Barilla plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.
Lowe's
At Lowe's our members get more with the Myloes rewards programs. You can shop member only deals for your home and business every week. Plus members earn points on eligible purchases. So what are you waiting for? Join for free Today Lowe's we help you save loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowe's.com Terms subject to change. Free standard shipping not available in Alaska and Hawaii. Exclusions and more terms apply.
Cleveland Clinic
When it comes to your health and well being, the right care can change everything. That's why Cleveland Clinic has been elevating world class patient care for over a century. From the latest in heart, neurology and cancer care to advanced diagnostics and beyond, Cleveland Clinic is here for every care in the world. Explore a wide variety of health and wellness info by visiting clevelandclinic.org today.
Craig Ferguson
This is me, Craig Ferguson. I'm inviting you to come and see my brand new comedy hour. Well, it's actually it's about an hour and a half and I don't have an opener because these guys cost money. But what I'm saying is I'll be on stage for a while anyway. Come and see me live on the Pants on Fire tour in your region. Tickets are on sale now and we'll be adding more as the Tour continues throughout 2025 and beyond. For a full list of dates, go to the craigfergusonshow.com see you on the road my dears. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interesting people about what brings them happiness. Hello everybody. So let me begin with an old fashioned but traditional way of of starting out anything I do. It's a great day for America everybody. I don't say That a ton right now. Because everybody gets mad. Everybody gets mad if I say it's a great day for America. People who think it's not a great day for America, and they argue with people that do think it's a great day for America. But it's just the thing I say because, you know, anyway, look, here's the thing. This is the Joy podcast, and normally I talk to people who I want to talk to, or sometimes, and I'll be honest with you, I don't really want to talk to at all. But I think, oh, I'll talk to them because see if I can find any common ground. Because that's kind of what I look to do when I'm talking to someone is find some common ground. Now, that's not hugely popular right now because common ground and agreement isn't clickbait friendly. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of like no one wants to see people agreeing about things. So. And not that. No, I mean, look, not that I do this for people to see it, to be honest. I do it because it kind of interests me to talk to people about anything, whether they be celebrities or not, if they're just interesting walks of life. And that was the whole idea of doing this podcast, was to talk to interesting people about stuff that they. They do. Now, interesting doesn't mean I agree with them. It just means interesting. I'm like, oh, well, tell me why you think that. But it was suggested to me and I kind of liked the idea of. Because one of the most popular bits we did on the old late night show was the tweets and emails segment when I would get tweets and emails from people who would just send them in and I never looked at them before and I would like get the tweet and email and I would just talk to them. I would answer the tweet or the email and figure out what was going on from there. And somebody said, why don't you try that on the Joy podcast? So the upshot of it is we are going to try that today. So the guest on the Joy podcast today is you. Is you. Is you. Cause I like the idea. I like the idea of trying it out. So what I have here is a bunch of tweets and emails that people have sent in via the social media and such. Now look, full disclosure, I'm not really on that social media much. You know, the Instagram and the Twitter X account or Twix account that I have or Facebook or any of the things or YouTube or anything. I don't really look at that too much because not for any kind of. It used to be, I think, a snobby thing. But really, really what it's about is about mental health. It drives me crazy if I dig into that, you know, it makes me depressed, so I kind of stay away from it. But Tomas, who I work with, who produces this, Tomas Zakopal, who is a lovely man from the Czech Republic, or as we must learn to call it now, Czechia, although he doesn't like saying that, but he monitors the social media and he looks at it and he put together the questions for you to ask me today. So written here on is a selection of tweets and emails that people have sent in. Now I'm going to answer them and we'll see where we go from there. So let's see. This is from email, an email from Stuart McMillan. Can you name the bars you worked in in London and Glasgow and how many still exist? Well, it's a very easy one that. Because I never worked in. In any bars in London at all. I only drank. I drank in some bars in London and I was thrown out. Thrown out at some bars in London. Some pretty. Pretty good ones, too, but I never worked in any of them. I was really interested in supplying. I was more interested in, you know, consuming. I did work in one bar in Glasgow. I was actually. I loved that job. It was in a. It was the upstairs bar of a restaurant called the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow. That was the name of the. It's a very fancy restaurant, actually. It's very popular. It's still there. And if you're going to Glasgow, please spend your increasingly devalued American dollar there. It's a very fancy restaurant. And upstairs they had a bar where they sold a beer called Furstenberg. Furstenberg is a German lager beer which they sold on tap. I think you can get it in more places now, but in the time when I worked there, it would be the mid to late 80s. That was the only place that I knew of, certainly in Scotland, that I knew of, that you could buy Furstenberg lager beer on tap. Now, this stuff is very, very strong. And the bar itself was very close to Glasgow University. And Glasgow University academics used to come in and say, I'll take a lager beer, because that's how academics talk. And I would say, well, okay, you can have one, but you can't have any more than. You can't have any more than two. And they would have two of them. And they'd be like, what are you talking about? And they'd have four. And then we'd have to call the police. It's a very strong beer is what I'm saying. Fustenberg Lager beer. And I worked in that bar. I loved that job. Working in that bar, I think was the best training ever for what I ended up doing later on, like doing standup and doing the late night show and interview shows and stuff, and even game shows. Because it was very improvisational. You were dealing with a lot of noise and a lot of different stimulus, a lot of different people all trying to get your attention. And you had to improvise. You had to improvise a great deal. And improvisation is fun. It was kind of like the way you see young comics now. They do crowd work in clubs and they film themselves doing crowd work and then they put it up on the Internet. And I think that's fine. I'm glad I didn't do that though, because crowd work, which basically working in a bar like that kind of is crowd work, you know, you just kind of like, hey, where are you from? You're dumb. Or wherever. The thing is that I don't know how much I would want that recorded for later. It's one of the things I think about, you know, with younger people now, particularly younger performers. I think it's great that they have access to so much media so quickly. But I also think there's a downside to it, which is, and many have run into this already, that a lot of the stuff you do when you're starting out isn't perhaps your best stuff or your most sensitive stuff or your more thought out stuff, your more considered stuff. And you end up, it comes back and gets you later on. I mean, look, it doesn't have to be that. There seems to be a real thrust right now in all forms of particularly entertainment media, which is, I mean, really, what is that? But to try and find, to catch somebody out at some point in their career and you know, and shame, shame them for a clumsy thing they said or a silly thing they said. It's happened to me, it's happened to everybody, I think. I think it's mean spirited. And mean spirited, of course, gets clicks. There was a project that my son, my younger son was given in school. The teacher gave them. He said that you have 20 minutes, 20 minutes to find a piece of good news on conventional media. Go out and find a piece of good news. And they really struggled to find it because when you watch the news back in the day when TV was a thing, there would be all the terrible news about what was going on. But the end, it was always a parrot that could ride a skateboard or a pig that could sing Dixie or something. And. And it cheered everybody up towards the end of the news. Now, of course, that impulse is taken over by, I guess, Tick tock and Instagram, where you see pirates that can do skateboards or. Or dogs that can juggle or. Or stuff like that. But. But I think it's kind of a lot of it is you can get too much of it. You know what I mean? I don't mean you can get too much good news. I mean, you can get too much of that stuff. It just. It doesn't do anything anyway. What the hell was I talking about? Oh, yeah. What I'm saying is I don't know if it's a great idea for young performers to have everything out there right away, but, you know, the genie's out of the bottle, that's gonna happen. I'm glad it didn't happen to me. So I worked in one bar in Glasgow, which I really loved working there, you know, if I wasn't an alcoholic who was sober. And I am still sober, by the way, thanks, Internet rumors, but I've been sober for 33 years now. Over 30. It's funny how you get the sense some people would really be delighted if I. If I wasn't sober. I don't know if I'm imagining that if I'm paranoid or something. You get the idea that people be like, oh, yeah, see, it doesn't work. It works if you work it. The. But the idea of, you know, having stuff out there when you're young, I don't know. But this is always the problem I've had with performance. I like to perform live because when it's done, it's done, it's over and, and it's finished and everybody goes away. And you remember the way you remember it, whether you liked it or you didn't like it, it's up to you. But. But now, you know, the struggle I, the, the kind of tension I feel was I don't really like it. I've never really enjoyed visibility. I like, obviously I. You need to have it. I want people to come to the show and so they need to know who I am and they need to know where I'm playing and what I'm doing. And I want to entertain people. I like doing it, I love doing it. It's my thing. But at the same time, I struggle with the idea of visibility because, I don't know, it makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel like maybe I'm just. I think it's probably want to have your cake and eat it. Which is a phrase I've never understood anyway. I mean, what's the point of having a cake and not eating it? It's like, oh, he wants to have his cake and eat it. Well, what else are you going to do with a fucking cake? I mean, it doesn't make any sense to me anyway. The short answer to the question hang on, my nose is running a bit. That's probably the cocaine. The short answer to the question can you name the bars you worked in? I worked in one. It's called the ubiquitous chip in Glasgow. Gosh. I mean, I better try and cut these answers down a little bit or we're gonna be here all day and we're not.
Cleveland Clinic
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Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up Savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible snacks like lays chips, garden veggie straws and planters nuts or sweet treats from M&M's and Oreo, plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.
LifeLock
It's tax season and by now I know we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's an important one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Here's another 20%. That's the overall increase in identity theft related to tax fraud in 2024 alone. But it's not all grim news. Here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second if your identity is stolen. LifeLock's US based restoration specialists will fix it, backed by another good number, the million dollar protection plan. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock Identity theft protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off terms apply.
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Craig Ferguson
Is Craig Ferguson and I want to let you know I have a brand new stand up comedy special out now on YouTube. It's called I'm so happy and I would be so happy if you checked it out. To watch the special, just go to my YouTube channel. He Craig Ferguson show and it's just right there. Just click it and play it and it's free. I can't. Look, I'm not going to come around your house and show you how to do it. If you can't do it, then you can't have it. But if you can figure it out, it's yours. This is from Moss Whelan. That's a lovely name, isn't it? Moss Whelan. It sounds like a, like a village in the middle of England somewhere. Welcome to Moss Whelan. Enjoy the cricket. Moss says, would you ever make a puppet show for kids? The rabbit on your own show always seemed joyful. Yeah. Nah, nah, I don't want to do a puppet show for kids. Yeah, that's a nice short answer. I don't want to do a, don't want to really do a puppet show for anything. I loved doing the puppets on the late night show but the reason we did the puppets on the late night show and I think I've talked about this before but it was really because we had no money. I don't know. If you go and look back at the countless millions of pirated clips of my old late night show on YouTube, on the Internet, everywhere, you'll see that the show that I was making at the time we were making five shows a week and we had really honestly no money to make the show. We were making it. We had no band, we had very few writers, we had very few resources. A lot of the times, particularly in the first eight years of the show. In the last two years we got a slightly bigger studio. But in the first eight years of the show the studio was so small that if we had a guest band on, like, I don't know, Adele was on or the Damned or the Sex Pistols or the Buzzcocks or whoever it was on Echo and the Bunnyman. Ok, go, whatever. You understand what a band is. But when they were on the show we had to record the band first, let them play their music and then we had to move all their equipment off so we could get the late night equipment on. And then I would do the show and at the end of the show when the band would be on, I would pretend to introduce the band and then we would edit the band in. But I'd already seen them and so had everyone else. It wasn't ideal, but it worked for us anyway. The puppet thing was we just saw some puppets lying around the office. We all try that. And it resonated with people. People do love puppets, I think, because puppets can say things that humans aren't allowed to say. That's the convention, isn't it? And I think that's true. The best example of that, of course, is a former guest on the show is Triumph the insult comedy Insult Dog. It was a fabulous puppet. But I don't think I would do a puppet show for kids or for anyone else. But you know, I never say never. This is from Swagar Ghosts. I think I'm pronouncing that properly. Swakar Ghos G H O S E. It might be Gossie. I don't know. Swakar. It's very. It's a nice name. Sounds maybe in the end. I don't know. I've probably annoyed a bunch of people by even suggesting that it might not be. I don't know, wherever it's from. Anyway, it's an innocent mistake, but Swagar says I'm getting married in November this year. Any advice for a healthy married life now? Actually, I think I might have some advice for healthy married life. And it's to do with this. This is coffee and look, I won't lie to you. I was married a couple of times. The three. To be honest. I was married once in the 80s for a couple of years. That was a. I mean, look, nothing about the lovely woman I was married to. But we were both drinking a lot, you know, and it wasn't a marriage as I understand it now. And then I was married. In 1998, I got married again. And that was, you know, it was what it was and it didn't work out. But we had a lovely son who is obviously still my son, and. And who I love very much. So that was great, and the boon from that. But I've been married now since 2008, and here's what I would say. It's coffee, coffee time. Because every morning, whether I'm on the road and away from home or at home, we have coffee time. Every morning we sit down, we have a cup of very good coffee, and we talk. And a lot of the times, I'd say maybe like 80% of the time, I don't talk that much. I listen to a lot of things and a lot of, you know, my wife is very. Is very plugged into news and current events and politics. She pays a great deal of attention to all of that. I. I actually don't. I feel like something big is going to happen. I'll hear about it probably from her. And that's kind of where I get my news. It's a trusted source. So we have coffee time. Because news now. And this is one of the conflicts I have about even doing this, what I'm doing right now, which is everything in media, all media is social media. There's nothing but social media. When they talk about legacy media, you go, what are you talking about? Everything's a fucking website. Everything is, you know, everything. Everybody's got their tweets and their, you know, their Instagrams and their social media. Everyone's looking for traffic on their site, which, you know, fine, but it's. But that's what it is. And I find that. And I don't know if you guys know this, but I find the hyperbolic nature of reporting to be exhausting. Really, honestly, honest to goodness, exhausting. And I find it depressing. It's like, you go, this is a really big thing that's gonna happen and we should all be worried. And then nothing happens, or something does happen. But what the fuck did the worrying do? Did that help? I don't know. I mean, I know a lot of people disagree with me. Like, no, you gotta stay connected to what's going on. But I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if I really fucking do. I mean, especially now that I'm married to someone who is connected to what's going on. I'll hear it from her. And that's a trusted source for me. When she says, oh, guess what's going on in Washington? And then she tells me, like, oh, my God. And then I. The trick is to have really good coffee, is what I'm saying. Because then whenever you're listening to something and you go. And then you taste the coffee, you're like, oh, my God, that's delicious. And then you can hear things. And I'm not saying. I'm not listening. Of course I'm listening. But. But I'm also really enjoying the coffee, and I think that's what it is for me. So a healthy married life. Coffee. Now, there are considerations here. Obviously, there may be cultural or religious implications for you that require you not to drink coffee. Perhaps coffee isn't something you enjoy, or do you but find a coffee substitute? Perhaps water, perhaps, I don't know, Scotch, whatever you enjoy drinking in the morning. I used to enjoy drinking. I used to. When people say, I'm not an alcoholic, because I didn't realize I was an alcoholic till I drank in the morning. And I certainly. When I was drinking, which is a long time ago, I did drink in the morning. And what people don't tell you about drinking in the morning, I'm not advocating this, but I will say this. If you're an alcoholic, drinking in the morning, it's the best bet. That's the best bet. That's the only bet that's good at the end of it. This is like, oh, thank God. If you can hold it down, which is tricky a lot of the time. All right, this is from. So the key to a good marriage. Coffee or coffee equivalent. This is from Christine. How many tattoos do you have now? And what are the stories behind some of your favorites? There's an interesting thing about tattoos. I think tattoos are a bit like sex or murder. I think the, you know, the first one's the most difficult. Then after that, they get kind of easier. And the truth is, the way I feel about tattoos now is not the same as I felt when I got my first tattoo. And I think most people who have tattoos now kind of feel this way. I think the ones I talk to, you get one, and it's very significant. Oh, this is a tribal marking for my favorite saying, or this is my mom's sister's blouse. That was very important to me, or whatever it is you get tattooed in your body, and that's very important. And then the next one's important, but maybe slightly Less important, what happens is I got my first tattoo after my father died. My father hated tattoos. And after he died, I thought, oh, gosh, what's the best way to commemorate a man who hated tattoos? Celtic paradox. Get a tattoo. So I got a tattoo for my father, and I only got one, and then I forgot about it for a couple of years. Then about three years later, sadly, my mother died. And, you know, sad, of course, obviously. And then about a year after my mother died, I heard this kind of voice in my head. It was kind of like, oh, you get a tattoo for your father, but, oh, nothing for your mother. So I thought, all right. So I got my mother's family crest. I got my father's family crest tattooed. Then I got my mother's family crest tattooed. Interestingly, father's tattoo, the family crest of the Fergusons went on in about, I don't know, hour and a half, two hours. Hardly any pain at all. Mother's family crest, two days, agonizing. I don't know if that's significant or not, or maybe it says something about me. So I got those tattoos, but then I was talking to the guy who was doing the tattoo at the time, and he said, well, you know, it's bad luck to have an even number of tattoos. I was like, is it? And I'm very. I'm a control freak, so you tell me anything that I could possibly throw a bit of OCD onto and, like, bad luck. And I'm like, oh, I kind of have bad luck. So I had to have a third tattoo, and I had recently become an American citizen, so I got, you know, the join or die Benjamin Franklin, you know, tattoo put there, and that was the third tattoo. But after that, you kind of just get tattoos. To be honest, I don't really know how many I have now because it's like, does that count as one? Or, you know, what about. This is definitely one. But then these little bits were added later, and, you know, there's a bit around there, and that guy. And it becomes. I think it's just something that you do or something that you have, and it. It's not that it becomes less important. It just becomes less dramatic, maybe like a marriage, you know, or a relationship of any kind, you know, a friendship, you know, that over time, it becomes less dramatic and a little more comfortable, and it leaves a mark, and sometimes it stings, and sometimes you wish. I should probably get rid of that, but you know what? I would never get rid of a tattoo, and I'll tell you why. Because I feel like it's part of your history, you know, it's part of the. Whatever marks you picked up along the way. I feel that I have a scar on my hand. I don't know if you can see that there, there's a little, a scar across the back of my hand there I go. When I, I was drunk, when I was about 19 or 20 years old, I, I punched a window and some great idea I had about punching a window and I punched the window and I, you know, I, I got a scar in the back of my hand. It was very painful at the time and there's a lot of blood and very dramatic. But you know, I'm 62 years old now and I got a scar in my hand. I barely. But every now and again I see it and I go, I'm not blame you. What an. Or I just, you know, I have affection for, you know, whatever that young man was going through at the time. And it has a certain sweetness to it for me even. Although I, I'd rather not have done it. But I did it. And tattoos are a bit like that. I, I sometimes think grief is a bit like that. I was talking with someone last night at a show after my stand up shows now I do a lot of meet and greets and I was talking to a woman after the show and she was talking about she'd been bereaved recently and she felt bad and she'd come to the show to have a laugh and I had a laugh and that was great. And I was talking to her a bit about grief and I think grief is a little like a scar, you know, it really, I mean, my God, it's so painful and it never goes away, but it becomes something that's part of you. And in remembering someone, like a scar, it kind of becomes like there's a sweetness to a memory if you've loved someone and lost them. That's what I thought. I don't know why I got into that, but it's from tattoos, I guess because I got my first tattoo through grief. You know, that was what my father had died. I was bereft. I loved that man. I loved my mother too. And so the scar that I inflicted upon myself was a physical manifestation of the scar that I had in my soul from the grief. So the scar itself is the tattoo and every tattoo is a scar. I guess in a way. One of the things I will say one that kind of makes me laugh or maybe it's an indication, but here's a story right there. I don't know if you can see, I have the planet Saturn. That's where I wear my watch. Planet Saturn. Now Saturn, of course in mythology is the bringer of old age. He also ate his children, but I don't know if he really did that. I think that's metaphorical, but also, it's also metaphorical planet, but Saturn in mythology, the idea is that Saturn is the bringer of old age. I thought, well, I'll get that where my watch is. So if I forget to wear my watch and I look to see what time it is, I'll go, oh yeah, that's what time it is.
Disney Cruise Line
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Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible snacks like lay's chips, garden veggie straws and planters nuts or sweet treats from M&M's and Oreo plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.
Greenlight
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Craig Ferguson
All right, let's see, what else have we got? We got from Robby Winstead on Instagram. Robby says, the last book you read, what was the last book you read? Now, I'm quite awed about the way I read because recently, and this is one of the things I have to say that I'm so grateful for about these things, the phones is I've become very into audiobooks. So I will read a book at one point and it might not necessarily be the book I'm listening to. It's almost like I consume more. I know it sounds kind of greedy and I suppose in the way it is, but the audiobook thing is into me because I started getting into the Greek philosophers, Greek and Roman Stoics for the most part, but also Epicureans and, you know, go back from, you know, from Seneca back to Epictetus, from Epictetus to Zeno, from Zeno to Socrates. And I become fascinated by the audiobook thing and what I was interested in. And I'll get to the last book I read in a minute because it's none of this, but it made me think of it, is that the audiobook thing, getting into the idea of Socrates in particular. A lot of these guys, Epictetus as well, they didn't write down what they were talking about. Their pupils did, their disciples did, but they didn't. So the work of Socrates is all filtered through the writing of Plato, the work of Epictetus, who was a Stoic of some renown. I'm not an expert in any of this, but all of his stuff was written down by one of his pupils because they didn't trust, I think what it was is they didn't quite trust the medium to get across the message that they wanted to get across and they wanted to see. They wanted to be in the room at the time and I feel a great kinship to that. It is an interesting thing about what we're doing right this very second, which I'm not writing any of this down. I haven't prepared anything for it. I'm sitting in a fucking hotel room in Orange county because I'm doing a standup show tonight. But there is a directness about what we're doing now. And I don't know if you guys will respond to it, but I'm kind of interested in what's happening. Not that I'm comparing myself to the great Stoic minds of Epictetus or Seneca or anything like that, but Seneca did write stuff down. But I do quite like the idea of just talking. And maybe that's an egotism, maybe I'm second guessing myself, I don't know. But I guess the bottom line is nobody makes you listen. I mean, it's one of the things that I'm doing myself now is I don't listen to the. As much as I can avoid it. The cacophony of the media of all stripes. It doesn't matter if it's left or right or red or blue or Everybody's fucking yelling all the time. And I feel like I can't hear anything when everybody's yelling. And so I've become interested in audio recordings of the writing of the great Stoics there. Now, the last book I read was a book by Robert Harris, who's a great writer. It's kind of in the same theme that he wrote a. A trilogy of books which I highly recommend. Really very entertaining and very knowledgeable about the life of the great Roman statesman and, let's be honest, Stoic Cicero. And he wrote it from the point of view of Cicero's slave, Tiro. I think that was his name. And Tiro actually apparently did write a book, but it was lost in antiquity, it was lost in history. So Robert Harris wrote three books about that, assuming the role of Tiro in the writing, which is just fabulous writer. And I think they're called Imperium, Conspirata and Dictator. I think that's the name of the three books. But you can look up Robert Harris, the Cicero Trilogy, and they are set at the time when Rome was transferring from a republic to an empire. Now, I wonder if you can see where I'm going with this. There was a great shift in the politics of Earth at the time, and Cicero was very much complicit in that. He had a point of view in it. He wasn't ultimately victorious in how he wanted it to go. But he was part of the movement of history at that time. And it was witnessed expertly through Robert Harris's character of the slave Tyrol at the time. And it's just fascinating, It's a fascinating parallels into how the world is now. Because here's what I believe when everybody says this was during the election and all that. Everybody's saying it's never been as bad as this. It kind of always has. It always has been like this. This is how it is. But what it requires of you right now is to try and sift through the noise. I think it was. Look, I'm probably misquoting this terribly, but I don't know if I'm sure I'll be checked in the comments and stuff, but luckily someone else will read them. But there is a quote, I think it's an indirect quote. Beware the man that bangs the drum of war. Beware the man that says the enemy is at the gates, because I am that man and I am Caesar. Chilling, isn't it? You know, keep the people scared of everything all the time, and then, you know, it doesn't matter what you're trying to steer them into, just keep them afraid. And by having people afraid, having people frantic, they're easier to hurt. But that being said, I also have another theory that kind of is in opposition to that when it comes to the idea of, you know. Well, what I mean is like, when I talk to my wife, she's always like, she sees. She's not a conspiracy theorist, but she sees, oh, this is what they're trying to do, or this is what these people are trying to do, or that I'm like, I don't see it that way so much because I don't think people are that competent. You know, whenever I've met high up people in the level of corporate stuff or, you know, governmental positions, and I've met some very senior people in, in both of these worlds. I'm always shocked by how fucking dumb a lot of them are. Most of them just, you know, not even dumb to scan them like. And they, they don't have that. They don't have the kind of wherewithal to put a conspiracy together. Hardly any of them can put a fucking golf game together. I mean, it's. It's not that golf is a sign of intelligence. It's absolutely not. But it's a lovely game. I feel like a lot of the time the answer is incompetence, not conspiracy. That's what I think. Of course, I could be incompetent or more frighteningly, maybe I'm part of a conspiracy, but I'm not. I can't join anything. It's one of the things that really, I learned about myself when I was doing late night. Late night is, let's be honest, a fraternity, for the most part, certainly was then of about maybe at that time, it was half a dozen guys, and I couldn't even be part of that. I'm not a great joiner. That's why I never really worked as a band member. Especially if you're the drummer in a band, which is what I was. I mean, you want the drummer to be part of things, not working on his own. If you do that, you end up with the police. Know what I'm saying? You know what I'm talking about. Sting. That guy speeds up all the time. All the time. I hear him anyway. God, how long have I been talking? Okay, so look, here's the thing. I've got a bunch of emails here. I don't know how you guys feel about this format. I'm kind of okay with it. I think it's worth exploring a little more. I'll get more specific and I'll stay on the. Keep sending the emails and the tweets and stuff, and I'll. And I'll do some more of them if you want it to happen. If you don't, it's cool. I mean, I'll be all right, is what I'm saying. Here's what I'll try and leave you with something pithy and helpful. Here's what I think is try and have good coffee. Consider the source of your information. Talk to someone you trust and consider what that means. And also listen more than you talk, which is rich coming from a guy who's just talked. You know, stop for the last half hour. And I guess I really believe this. And this is for everybody. Light the up.
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Host: Craig Ferguson
Release Date: March 11, 2025
Podcast Title: Joy
Hosted by: iHeartPodcasts
Craig Ferguson, the beloved late-night talk host, delves into the modern state of joy in the premiere episode titled “Tweets and Emails” of his podcast Joy. This episode, released on March 11, 2025, adopts an interactive format where Craig engages directly with his audience by responding to their tweets and emails. Through these interactions, Craig explores various facets of joy, personal growth, and societal observations, all while infusing his characteristic humor and introspection.
Timestamp: [01:50]
Craig opens the episode by setting the stage for his unique approach. He explains that instead of traditional interviews, he will be addressing questions and comments sent in via social media platforms like Twitter and email. This format shift aims to find common ground with a diverse array of individuals, fostering meaningful conversations about what brings happiness amidst a seemingly chaotic world.
Notable Quote:
"This is the Joy podcast, and normally I talk to people who I want to talk to, or sometimes, and I'll be honest with you, I don't really want to talk to them at all. But I think, oh, I'll talk to them because see if I can find any common ground."
— Craig Ferguson [01:50]
Timestamp: [05:00]
Craig candidly discusses his relationship with social media, admitting that he largely avoids platforms like Instagram and Twitter due to their negative impact on his mental health. He credits his producer, Tomas Zakopal from Czechia, with monitoring these channels to curate the questions for the episode. This personal revelation highlights Craig’s awareness of the mental strain that constant digital connectivity can impose.
Notable Quote:
"It drives me crazy if I dig into that, you know, it makes me depressed, so I kind of stay away from it."
— Craig Ferguson [06:15]
Timestamp: [08:00]
Craig responds to an email from Stuart McMillan asking about the bars he worked in during his time in London and Glasgow. He clarifies that while he never worked in London’s bars, he spent significant time at the upstairs bar of the renowned Ubiquitous Chip restaurant in Glasgow during the mid to late 1980s. This experience, Craig reflects, was instrumental in honing his improvisational skills, which later became a cornerstone of his comedy and hosting style.
Notable Quote:
"Working in that bar, I think was the best training ever for what I ended up doing later on, like doing standup and doing the late night show and interview shows and stuff, and even game shows."
— Craig Ferguson [10:45]
Timestamp: [12:30]
Delving deeper, Craig shares his ambivalence towards visibility and performing. He expresses a love for live performance, finding joy in the immediacy and finality of each show. However, he also admits to discomfort with the constant visibility required by modern media landscapes, drawing parallels between his experiences and the challenges faced by younger performers in the digital age.
Notable Quote:
"I like to perform live because when it's done, it's done, it's over and... But at the same time, I struggle with the idea of visibility because I don't know, it makes me feel uncomfortable."
— Craig Ferguson [14:20]
Timestamp: [20:00]
Craig answers Christine’s question about his tattoos, offering a poignant reflection on how tattoos serve as physical manifestations of personal history and grief. He recounts the emotional journeys that led him to get his first tattoos following the deaths of his parents. These stories illustrate how personal loss can transform into lasting symbols of memory and resilience.
Notable Quote:
"Tattoos are a bit like that. I sometimes think grief is a bit like that. I was talking with someone last night at a show... Grief... it really, I mean, my God, it's so painful and it never goes away, but it becomes something that's part of you."
— Craig Ferguson [22:10]
Timestamp: [25:30]
Craig offers critical insights into the modern media landscape, emphasizing the exhausting nature of hyperbolic reporting and the cacophony of constant information. He draws parallels between ancient Stoic philosophies and contemporary struggles with information overload, advocating for mindful consumption of news and reliance on trusted personal sources for information.
Notable Quote:
"I find the hyperbolic nature of reporting to be exhausting... There's nothing but social media."
— Craig Ferguson [27:50]
Timestamp: [30:00]
Intertwining personal anecdotes with philosophical musings, Craig discusses his appreciation for the directness of spontaneous conversation, akin to the Socratic dialogues of ancient philosophers. He reflects on his journey from late-night show host to podcast host, highlighting the authenticity and vulnerability that come with unscripted interactions.
Notable Quote:
"Nobody makes you listen. I mean, it's one of the things that I'm doing myself now is I don't listen to the... as much as I can avoid it."
— Craig Ferguson [31:30]
Timestamp: [40:00]
As the episode draws to a close, Craig emphasizes the importance of authentic connections and meaningful conversations in finding joy. He encourages listeners to seek out trusted sources of information, nurture personal relationships, and engage in self-reflection to cultivate a sense of happiness and fulfillment despite external challenges.
Notable Quote:
"Here's what I'll try and leave you with something pithy and helpful. Try to have good coffee. Consider the source of your information. Talk to someone you trust and consider what that means. And also listen more than you talk."
— Craig Ferguson [42:00]
Finding Common Ground: Craig emphasizes the importance of seeking common ground in conversations, especially in a polarized world.
Mental Health and Media Consumption: He advocates for mindful media consumption to safeguard mental well-being.
Personal Growth Through Adversity: Craig shares how personal hardships, such as grief, can lead to meaningful personal growth and lasting symbols like tattoos.
Authenticity in Communication: The host underscores the value of authentic, unscripted interactions in fostering genuine joy and connection.
In “Tweets and Emails,” Craig Ferguson masterfully blends humor, personal anecdotes, and thoughtful reflections to explore what constitutes joy in today’s world. By addressing listener questions directly, he fosters a sense of community and shared understanding, encouraging listeners to find joy through authentic connections and mindful living. This episode sets the tone for the Joy podcast, promising engaging discussions that delve deep into the human experience.