Super Soul Special: Stephen Colbert: Finding Your Stride

Summary

Oprah’s Super Soul Special: Stephen Colbert – Finding Your Stride

Podcast: Oprah's Super Soul
Host: Oprah Winfrey
Guest: Stephen Colbert
Date: November 26, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this heartfelt and candid episode, Oprah sits down with Stephen Colbert to explore the deeper layers behind his success, struggles, faith, and enduring optimism. Together, they delve into topics of responsibility, ego, authenticity, the importance of facts, faith in tumultuous times, and leading with love—both on and off screen. The conversation offers wisdom for anyone searching for meaning and comfort in today's world, seasoned with Colbert’s trademark warmth and wit.

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Key Discussion Points

The Power and Purpose of Comedy in Troubled Times

• Responsibility of Late Night Hosts
  • Colbert discusses how hosting a late-night show during consequential times can be both demanding and invigorating, because it enables him to foster a sense of community with his audience.

    "The opposite of, like, it getting you down, it actually fires you up... because you want to talk about it, you want to get it out. You want to have a sense of community..." (02:05)

• Role in Reflecting the Day Back to the Audience
  • The show’s aim is not to break news, but to reflect and process what the audience has experienced, providing comic relief and connection.

    "People come to the show at the very end of the day... and we go, yeah, we've been thinking about it too. Here's what we think." (03:56)

• Finding His Stride on The Late Show
  • Colbert reflects on the struggle to carve out a unique identity after David Letterman.

    "You have to do this with humility, because... you're trying to find something that you don't know how to do yet in front of millions of people... That's humbling because you have to admit, okay, I haven't found it yet." (05:27)

  • The pivotal moment came during the 2016 election, particularly after producer Chris Licht joined the team and encouraged focus on the day’s events.

    "You're really great about making jokes about what just happened today. Just do that, and I'll take everything else off your plate." (06:49)

Navigating Public Life and Ego

• The Ephemeral Nature of Fame
  • Colbert keeps his ego in check through his family and by remembering his identity before fame.

    "Fame is a tool that allows you to work more. That's the value of it. All we want to do is work." (14:44)

• Honest Feedback and Avoiding the Hype
  • Relies on long-standing relationships for accountability.

    "My wife tells me the truth. My kids tell me the truth. Chris Licht tells me the truth. I've worked with the same agent and... publicist for... 13 and 20 years." (17:40)

• On Reading Press and Criticism
  • Avoids reading about himself, recognizing the dangers of internalizing both praise and criticism.

    "You can't think about thinking, you can't think about breathing. You'll choke on your own tongue. So I just do my best." (18:19)

Facts, Truth, and Discernment in a "Post-Truth" Era

• The Fragility of Facts
  • Colbert, who coined "truthiness," emphasizes the urgent need to cling to objective reality in the age of "fake news."

    "We stand on this island called reality... I will not believe your lies no matter how many times you repeat them." (12:39)

• Comedy as a Tool Against Fear
  • For Colbert, making people laugh is an antidote to fear and a way to empower critical thought.

    "Fear is the mind killer. But if you're laughing, you can't be afraid. And so if you laugh, I know you can think." (10:42)

Faith as Sustenance and Perspective

• Living Catholicism and Facing Anxieties
  • Colbert shares a personal and moving account of how scripture restored his faith during a dark time in Chicago.

    "It was the first time that I had read the Bible or anything that I understood the phrase. It spoke to me because I wasn't reading it. It just spoke off the page and the words of Christ are that for me..." (26:44)

• Parental Wisdom
  • Invokes his mother’s lesson: look at hardships in the light of eternity and practice acceptance, humility, and love.

    "You can't love something until you can accept it." (26:35)

Hope, Love, and Connection in Divisive Times

• Hope for the Nation
  • Despite turmoil, Colbert expresses steadfast hope and faith in America's core ideals.

    "Our country remains the last best hope of mankind and it is already great." (28:43) "There will be good presidents and there will be bad presidents... But if we can all agree on that thing, then America will always be the last best hope of mankind." (29:01)

• Setting an Intention of Love
  • Shares that the original and ongoing intention for his show is to be about love, even amid satire and criticism.

    "I don't know how to do a nightly comedy show that's also about love, but I'd like it in some way to be about love." (31:49)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |-----------|--------|--------------| | 02:05 | "The opposite of, like, it getting you down, it actually fires you up... because you want to talk about it, you want to get it out. You want to have a sense of community..." | Stephen Colbert | | 05:27 | "You have to do this with humility, because... you're trying to find something that you don't know how to do yet in front of millions of people... That's humbling because you have to admit, okay, I haven't found it yet." | Stephen Colbert | | 10:42 | "Fear is the mind killer. But if you're laughing, you can't be afraid. And so if you laugh, I know you can think." | Stephen Colbert | | 12:39 | "We stand on this island called reality... I will not believe your lies no matter how many times you repeat them." | Stephen Colbert | | 14:44 | "Fame is a tool that allows you to work more. That's the value of it. All we want to do is work." | Stephen Colbert | | 17:40 | "My wife tells me the truth. My kids tell me the truth. Chris Licht tells me the truth. I've worked with the same agent and... publicist for... 13 and 20 years." | Stephen Colbert | | 18:19 | "You can't think about thinking, you can't think about breathing. You'll choke on your own tongue. So I just do my best." | Stephen Colbert | | 26:35 | "You can't love something until you can accept it." | Stephen Colbert | | 28:43 | "Our country remains the last best hope of mankind and it is already great." | Stephen Colbert | | 29:01 | "There will be good presidents and there will be bad presidents... But if we can all agree on that thing, then America will always be the last best hope of mankind." | Stephen Colbert | | 31:49 | "I don't know how to do a nightly comedy show that's also about love, but I'd like it in some way to be about love." | Stephen Colbert | | 33:26 | "That's the challenge, the last challenge is to love the people you disagree with the most..." | Stephen Colbert | | 33:46 | "That means you have to find a path to love Donald Trump." | Oprah Winfrey |

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:05] Colbert on community and laughter in lonely times
• [05:27] On humility and finding his stride after Letterman
• [10:42] Comedy as fear’s antidote; laughter as empowerment
• [12:39] Committing to facts and reality in the “post-truth” era
• [14:44] Colbert’s take on fame and purpose
• [17:40] Who keeps him grounded and tells him the truth
• [18:19] The dangers of reading press about oneself
• [26:35] Love, acceptance, and faith during hardship
• [28:43] Patriotism and hope for America
• [31:49] Intention for a comedy show centered on love
• [33:26] The harrowing challenge: loving those you disagree with

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Tone and Final Reflections

The conversation is intimate, open-hearted, and gently humorous. Colbert is candid about his doubts and failures, wise on the necessity of truth and love, and deeply optimistic about America and humanity. Oprah’s probing yet affectionate presence brings Colbert’s reflective side to the fore, creating a memorable dialogue about authenticity, discernment, faith, and connection.

Listeners are left with a message of hope: Light wins, laughter heals, and love—especially toward those we disagree with—is the ultimate, ongoing challenge.

Transcript

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[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time, taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. Stephen Colbert. Hey. Hey.

[Trevor Noah]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Thanks for saying yes.

[Trevor Noah]

Thank you very much.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Thanks for saying yes. You, I did not think would say yes. How.

[Trevor Noah]

I can't say no.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes. I thought you were gonna, you know.

[Trevor Noah]

You don't say no to. Oh, I was so excited. And it's been six years since you. I've sat down for an interview that you're conducting. Yes. I miss it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes. I came down to your home and did that. But this is the interesting thing when you're doing a Daily Show. Yeah, I understand that. It's kind of hard to take a break in the middle of that day.

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No.

[Trevor Noah]

You don't even leave to have lunch.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You don't even leave your desk at all. So why'd you say yes?

[Trevor Noah]

I want to know what you want to ask me. I don't know, because I'm tired of me. But if you're interested.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm very interested.

[Trevor Noah]

I feel better about myself.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm very interested in you. And we had a great conversation once before, but I just wanted to say that I think you're better than ever. I think something happened to you.

[Trevor Noah]

This is why I came up. This is why I came up today. I'm good. Thank you very much. You're the best. I think we just peaked. I don't wanna. All right, well, thank. Well, we're having a really good time. You know, we're to do a Daily show, you gotta care about it, you know, to do the grind, do 200 hours a day. Absolutely right. You gotta care about what you're talking about. And we are living in consequential times. And that. The opposite of, like, it getting you down, it actually fires you up. Cause you wanna talk about it, you wanna get it out. You wanna have a sense of community with the audience. That's what we want more than anything else is, like, we want to tell jokes and thereby build a community of people who can all share their feelings with each other. I get to say all the words, but we're sharing our feelings with each other because they're laughing back, you know, because you don't want to be alone. It's a lonely time. This feels like a lonely time right now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. And you're usually the last voice we hear before we go off to sleep. And so do you feel like.

[Trevor Noah]

Makes me sound like a daily executioner.

[Oprah Winfrey]

No. Do. Do you feel. Does that come with a responsibility or you're not thinking about the responsibility?

[Trevor Noah]

Responsibility is to make jokes on whatever the conversation today was like. We try not to ever, like, break news for the audience. We want to keep aware of what the national conversation is today and then give our opinion about it. Because jokes are opinions.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Cause if you're breaking news, this is an interesting thing. If you're breaking news and I'm just hearing the news from you.

[Trevor Noah]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm gonna have the reaction of somebody who's just hearing the news. It's hard if you're breaking the news to make that break funny.

[Trevor Noah]

Right, right. Depending on what the news is. But there's not a lot of funny news these days. Yeah, no, you want the audience. What we wanna do is we wanna be an addition, a catalyst to what they've been thinking all day. People come to the show at the very end of the day. They've been thinking about something that happened all day, and we go, yeah, we've been thinking about it too. Here's what we think. You know, we kind of present their day back to them with some jokes, and it makes that day better, hopefully.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay. So, you know, Super Soul conversations are all about looking inside yourself, finding the best of your being and all of that. You know, so when you first. You know, it's a big thing stepping into that role where David Letterman was in that theater. Were you. Can you honestly tell me, was there a part of you that was a little scared?

[Trevor Noah]

Oh, of course. If you're not nervous, you're not trying. I didn't know everybody went, oh, yes, Tweetable moment. No, you should sweat a little bit. You should sweat a little bit. Yeah, of course.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I don't mean just nervous. I mean like a real. Like, am I up to that?

[Trevor Noah]

Well, there was certainly. Certainly in the first few months of the show, I was so exhausted by the effort that we were throwing into it. It kind of wasted effort in some ways that we're putting into it that I wasn't sure whether I could keep the energy level up, necessary to find it, because we were trying to find what the show was going to be, and we had to do it because.

[Oprah Winfrey]

It couldn't be what the other show was.

[Trevor Noah]

Couldn't be what the other show was. It couldn't be what Dave's show had been.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right. Because he already had that gig.

[Trevor Noah]

He already had that gig. And so what was hardest, I won't say scared, but the thing that actually took the calcium out of your bones was you have to do this with humility, because you're doing it. You're trying to find something that you don't know how to do yet in front of millions of people. You have to do it publicly. And that's humbling because you have to admit, okay, I haven't found it yet.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. And so the thing about it, for those of you who don't have public jobs, the thing about when you have a public job and you're trying to find it, every mistake you made is a public mistake. Right, Right. So you make an error, everybody else knows it.

[Trevor Noah]

There's no rehearsal.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

People are always seeing your first attempt at that thing.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. So do you think that you found your stride after the 2016 election? Do you think you found it?

[Trevor Noah]

I think we found it internally. I think we found it before the election actually happened during the election, because we had, you know, my executive producer, Chris Lick.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I love Chris Lick.

[Trevor Noah]

Chris came over from CBS this Morning because we didn't have a showrunner. I was the showrunner, which was not a great idea because I'm a control freak. And if you let me, I will touch everything on the show. Everything I'm allowed to. And.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Very good. With permission.

[Trevor Noah]

With permission.

[Oprah Winfrey]

With permission.

[Trevor Noah]

Consent. And. And Chris came in and says, well, you're really good at this thing. You're really great about making jokes about what just happened today. Just do that, and I'll take everything else off your plate. That was in April of 2016. And so we did that, and we figured out, how fast can we do that? And to do that, we did live shows. I think we did 15 live shows.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I actually think Chris Lick. I'm gonna give y' all don't know Chris Lick. So I'm just gonna say this. I think there's a little bit of genius producer in him.

[Trevor Noah]

Oh, yeah, without a doubt.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Without a doubt. Cause he actually had the idea also for. First of all, he did found Morning.

[Trevor Noah]

Joe, created Morning Joe, created Morning Joe and the new CBS this Morning and.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Then the new CBS this Morning. And he had the idea for Gayle to go on that show with Charlie. And when Gayle first said to me she was gonna do that, I said, that is the worst idea I ever heard. What makes you think that show's gonna work? And she goes, well, Chris said. And he was absolutely right. Absolutely right.

[Trevor Noah]

Well, I immediately thought that he was a good idea.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, you did.

[Trevor Noah]

I merely thought he was a good idea. Because running a morning show, I think, is a lot like running a night. You know, it's mostly. It's the grind. The thing about doing one of these shows that it's hard to explain is I love doing the show for the audience. You know, 51% of my joy is what you see. 49% of the joy is what did it take to get there? That's the process. I love process. You know, I love seeing how things are put together. That's why I love. I love cooking shows. I love Chopped because, like, you know, three secret ingredients that you don't get to see until you start cooking at the end of it. You have to have a meal. That's what every day is like on a nightly comedy show. These are the three stories. Those are your three ingredients that you didn't find out until you walked in that morning. And you have to make a meal for the audience that night. You have to curate it. You have to cook this thing up for them. And that requires a very tight process. You need to know how to do. Everyone needs to know how to do their job, stay in their lane. And he made that happen for us so that we were ready for Donald Trump to happen. Because if we hadn't done that work, you know, if we hadn't done all those live shows, if we hadn't seen how fast we could cook, then we wouldn't have been ready for a president who changes the news every 15 minutes. Yeah, and it's not a. That's not an exaggeration. He changes the news every 15 minutes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Aren't you amazed at how the country has become kind of obsessed about it, though?

[Trevor Noah]

I'm amazed at the speed. I'm not amazed with the obsession because. Because he a. Wants the attention, knows how to get it? He's a very good showman and everything he does is of consequence. He is the most important man on the planet, so we should be amazed.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. And so I don't want to spend our great time here just talking about Trump, but I will say that every time he does something, do you all, as a team, you get together, you sit and you talk, you think, how are we going to use this?

[Trevor Noah]

Well, a, we're never not together. We're always together. Yeah, it's always. We're always. We're listen. We all follow his Twitter feed. Yeah. And we're all watching the news all the time. And the moment anything happens. I already know that my head writers, Opus Moreski and Jay Katzir, my creative executive producer, Tom Purcell, they're already working on it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

But you told me years ago that you, you didn't think it was your job to influence people. So you're not trying to influence people, or have you changed that?

[Trevor Noah]

I'm there to influence how they feel. Feel okay. Because I'm telling them how I think and I'm getting a laugh out of them. I want to make them feel better. You know, they already have their own thoughts about today's news. Then I give them my thoughts about today's news, and then hopefully the best thing I can do is make them feel better about it, make them not be afraid. That's what my goal is, to make the audience not be afraid, because then they'll know what they actually think. Because when you're afraid, you can't think the fear. As Frank Herbert says in Dune, fear is the mind killer. But if you're laughing, you can't be afraid. And so if you laugh, I know you can think. And I'm here to help you think about what happened today by making you laugh.

[Oprah Winfrey]

If you laugh, we know you can think. I think that's fantastic.

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[Oprah Winfrey]

Fantastic. You coined the word truthiness, you know.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes, I did.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You did. And now we're living in the era of fake news and the post truth era. We are. What do we do without the facts?

[Trevor Noah]

Your own research. Because the facts will always matter. The facts will always matter. You know, one of the things that happened when we saw Donald Trump, you know, become elected. I had a conversation with one of my head writers, Jay Katzeer. We were talking about where do we stand? And I said, we stand on this island called reality. We just stand on this island of reality and we refuse to be budged from it. I will not believe your lies no matter how many times you repeat them. You know, the apple ad on CNN is kind of the same idea. This is an apple. No matter how many times people call it a banana. You have to hold on to facts.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's a really good ad.

[Trevor Noah]

If you surrender facts, that's one definition of insanity is choosing your own reality.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right, Right.

[Trevor Noah]

And so Donald Trump and his cohort are trying to constantly gaslight you to say that the thing you see, the thing you know isn't true. And the amazing thing about Donald Trump is everything you learned about him, everything you thought about him was when you find out the truth turns out to have been true. There's nothing in Michael Wolf's book Fire and Fury, there's nothing in there that surprised us. The most surprising thing was that, oh, we were right when we saw was right in front of us the entire time.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So, okay, I'm gonna move on from Trump.

[Trevor Noah]

Hold on to facts.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Hold on to facts. You do a daily show, you're the number one late night show. That's.

[Trevor Noah]

Thank you very Much. Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

On television, your name is on the side of the building. It is.

[Trevor Noah]

It is.

[Oprah Winfrey]

How do you keep that ego in check?

[Trevor Noah]

Wow. That assumes that I do. How do you keep the ego and check? Oh, I married a wonderful woman, Evie McGee, who married me when I wasn't famous, and she's just as happy with that guy. And I had my children in my 30s, and I didn't get famous till I was in my 40s or have sort of show business success. So I don't think they perceive of me as a famous person. I mean, I remember when I was younger, one of my kids asking me, dad, will you always be famous? And I'm like, no, it could go away tomorrow. I could say the wrong thing, and it just all evaporates. And I said, but it doesn't really matter. Fame is a way to. Fame is a tool that allows you to work more. That's the value of it. All we want to do is work. I just want to go to work every day and do what I love to do. Fame allows you to do that thing. So keep that in mind that the fame is not important in any way other than I keep the gig.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, I keep the gig. Do you like it, though? Do you like it? Do you like the fame?

[Trevor Noah]

I like the fame when I'm going to buy, like, mulch at the garden store and one of the college kids whose summer job is to, like, load mulch out to your car will bring it all the way out to my car. Like, without. Without me having to ask him, like, that's the level of fame. That is useful. Everything above that is like, I'm very happy. I'm. I'm just so happy to meet fans and everything. I'm happy to do photos or signatures or anything like that. And even, like, press attention, you know, they're. They're just doing their job. But I think it would be. It could be gone tomorrow and I'd get over it pretty quickly.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Do you feel the same when you're number one as when you're number two? Nop. Thanks for being truthful about it.

[Trevor Noah]

That's right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You just don't, do you?

[Trevor Noah]

No, it feels a little better. It feels a little better. It feels a little better.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Yeah, it's really great. Cause it's just one less thing to have to.

[Trevor Noah]

You don't have to worry about it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Don't have to worry about that.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, there's really, like. What I found out is, like, I worked in cable for years and ratings didn't really matter that much. In cable, it was like, how much press you got, you know what was being written about you? Maybe to a certain extent, but they only showed my ratings literally once a year when I was at Comedy Central. Yeah. And it's a different beast when I went to network, which I learned. It's like, no, it's really important. That was something I had to learn.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You know, so it's much better being number one.

[Trevor Noah]

There's only one answer, which is the only way to get it off your back is to be number one.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That is true. Okay, let me ask you this. Who tells you the truth? I had a conversation with you, Henry Kravis, once. This is just when I was starting out and I was learning to ski. And for some reason I ended up in Henry Kravis, who was a very famous businessman with a lot of money. And he said, you need to be careful because when you're in positions of power, I'll never forget this. He said, pretty women and rich men and powerful men never hear the truth. So you have to surround yourself with people who are willing to tell you the truth. The truth. So who are your truth tellers?

[Trevor Noah]

Has Henry Kravitz ever talked to Donald Trump? Because that would be a good conversation for him to have.

[Oprah Winfrey]

But no. You?

[Trevor Noah]

My wife tells me the truth. My kids tell me the truth. Chris Licht tells me the truth. I've worked with the same agent and the same publicist for, respectively, like 13 and 20 years. So they've all known me forever. So here's the thing. Maybe I have a lot of people not telling me the truth around me, but I don't know that they're not truth. I don't know that they're not telling me the truth because they all seem like honest people to me. And they've certainly told me things I don't want to hear.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay, and do you take that well?

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, I think I take it pretty well. I tell you what I don't do is I don't read press about myself. I stopped doing that after the correspondence dinner in 2006.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Really?

[Trevor Noah]

Because there was so much written about that. I mean, my wife saved it all. There were like books and books of it. And I read one good review and one bad review and I'm like, all right, that's fine, that's enough. Because you can't win. Because if you read press about yourself, I know I will. I'm self reflective enough that I will take that criticism and internalize it and then never let it go. I'll always be thinking about the way I do things. And it's like, you can't think about thinking, you can't think about breathing. You'll choke on your own tongue. So I just do my best. And then people tell me, like, hey, things are great.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Well, and the other thing is, if you believe the positive, you also have to believe the negative. So that's a good reason.

[Trevor Noah]

Twitter is dangerous in that regard.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes. So with all the anger and the chaos and the division that we're experiencing, I still have a sense that what people are really looking for, are searching for is connection and some form of meaning and discernment. And you seem to be a voice of discernment from all the noise. Do you feel that from your audience that. That you're sort of the discerner? You're sort of the filter trying to give us a perspective on what all of the news is saying?

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, I think so. I think a little bit. So I think it's part of the job is to. Again, what happened in the news today? What have people been talking about all day long that you've seen on your Twitter feed, you've seen online, you've seen in the news, you've read in the papers? Which of those do we think are actually the important stories? Which of the ones affected us when we saw them, and what did we think about them? And that slight curation of today's news where we try to filter out some of the noise, and if it is just sort of PR as opposed to news, you know, the old definition of news is news is what someone else doesn't want you to print. Everything else is pr. And so we try to discern between the news and the pr. And then if it is pr, we call it that in so many words. But then when we talk about the news that people have been thinking about all day, what we're really, as I said before, trying to do is just establish a sense of connection and community to say to the people out there. And this goes back to, like, there are such things as facts to say, hey, that thing you're thinking, you're not crazy to think it. Don't let people tell you that the world is not the way you perceive it, because there are objective truths, there are objective reality. And we are presently living in and administration that wants to convince you that you're crazy. And so the sense of community is, you're not crazy. What you think is happening is.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So do you feel that I've sensed this from your show? Do you feel that a voice such as yours and other people who have these platforms are more central than ever, that your role has been elevated to something more than being the late night comedian.

[Trevor Noah]

I don't. I don't know if it's been elevated. That's up for the audience to perceive. It's all in the audience's eyes. But like I had a friend who once said, you can't say you don't influence people.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Because that's up for them, the audience, to say. You can't take away if you are influencing them. So that's. That's fine if people feel that there's some elevated level to what we do. But we're still using the same tools and we still have the same objective, which is to make comedy about something that we care about. And the news is about important subjects. But it doesn't mean that our work is more important than ever. It's just that the news is more compelling than ever right now because we're in a time of tremendous change and you feel an urgency to talk about it every day. And writing with urgency, it just makes for better work. So I think people are eager for someone to explain their day back to them with the same emotional urgency that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

They experience, which is exactly what I feel when I'm watching your show that you got the day explained back to me with a level of discernment. So thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for that. You know, I had an interview with Norman Lear not too long ago, and he said something that I'd never thought of in this way. He said watching an audience laugh is a lot like an offering of prayer. He said he used to stand behind audiences during the taping of his shows. And when they laugh. Notice this now we all do this. That when the audience laughs, they rise together and there's a movement where they lean forward in their seats and bend down and then they kind of rise up again. And he said that that offering based on whatever you're saying is like gratitude. Is like gratitude.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, sure. No, that makes sense. I wish I'd said that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Do you sense that, though, when you were looking at your audiences, when somebody.

[Trevor Noah]

Says something that sounds true to you and makes you laugh, there is a sense of like, thank you. Yes, thank you for saying that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Because you can't laugh. I know you've said you can't laugh and be afraid at the same time. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right.

[Trevor Noah]

And our present president was elected on the back of fear, so that's. That's a particularly useful tool to have.

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[Oprah Winfrey]

Now. So you are a practicing Catholic.

[Trevor Noah]

Yep.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And how does your faith sustain you is what I want to know.

[Trevor Noah]

Not many Catholics here tonight, or if there are, they're not willing to admit it. Yeah. How does my faith sustain me?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Well, my mother used to say that in hardships in your life, try to look at this moment in the light of eternity. You know, let's try to see this how God might see it, which is we can't see it as fully as God might see this moment, this now, as opposed to the past or the future, which we can't affect in any way. But you can try to see this present moment, if it's good or bad, any hardship or victory, with humility, with acceptance, and with love. You can't love something until you can accept it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That is correct. That is correct.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So people, a lot of people are calling this the age of Fear. How do you counteract that? I know your favorite Bible verse is Matthew the don't worry one.

[Trevor Noah]

It is. So I say to you, do not worry. For who among you by worrying could change a single hair on his head or add a single cubit to the span of his life, you know, and then it goes on from there and, you know, sufficient un. My father used to say, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Tomorrow will worry about itself. That was. I was a young man actually walking down the street in Chicago. It was a very, very cold day, as common in Chicago. And there were Gideons giving out Bibles. They're handing out the New Testament, Proverbs and Psalms. And it was so cold that I had to like crack it over my knee because it had kind of frozen. The humidity had frozen it in place. And I opened it to that passage and it changed my life because I had lost my faith. And I opened it to that passage in Matthew and I was so wracked with anxiety. And it was the first time that I had read the Bible or anything that I understood the phrase. It spoke to me because I wasn't reading it. It just spoke off the page and the words of Christ are that for me, the words of Christ speak off the page. There's no effort for me to read them. And they just. It's like he's talking directly to us now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Wow.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So when you.

[Trevor Noah]

With a harrowing challenge.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Which is to love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's the one. The love enemies. Okay. So at the beginning of this event, Super Soul conversations, I was saying to the audience, first of all, how surprised I was that you'd said yes and that you were going to leave your show in the middle of the day and that we're going to have this, you know, uplifting these cultural conversations and not to worry. So in the privacy of your own heart, if you would open it up a little bit and share with us. Are you more afraid for this country right now or more hopeful for this country right now?

[Trevor Noah]

I'm always hopeful for this country because.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I told you it's going to be all right.

[Trevor Noah]

No. Our country remains the last best hope of mankind and it is already great. This is a great country. This was a great country in the heart of the Depression.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

This was a great country when we were torn apart by the Civil War. It was a great country because we are based on civil war and civil rights. Civil war and civil rights were based on an idea that we imperfectly. A harrowing idea, a harrowing challenge that we imperfectly embody at all times, which is that all men are created equal and then they have equal access to justice and to prosperity. And as long as that idea does not disappear, as long as our Constitution is not changed from that idea. And of course, the non constitutional inspirational document like the Declaration of Independence, as long as we always keep that. There will be good presidents and there will be bad presidents. There will be good congresses and backgrounds. There will be good judiciary and bad judiciary. But if we can all agree on that thing, then America will always be the last best hope of mankind.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Wow. I love that.

[Trevor Noah]

For America because every bit of darkness is only for now. The light always wins.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's exactly what I say in A Wrinkle in Time.

[Trevor Noah]

Oh, really?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes. Which I'm coming on your show to talk about.

[Trevor Noah]

I am so excited. I remember reading that book when I was in third grade. Oh, really? Scared the hell out of me.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Really?

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

The movie's not gonna scare you, though.

[Trevor Noah]

It's not?

[Oprah Winfrey]

No. It's not gonna scare you at all.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So I wanna know what you're most hopeful for.

[Trevor Noah]

What am I most hopeful for? What do I want to have Happen. Or what am I most. What do I think's gonna happen that makes me most hopeful? Or what already exists that gives me most hope? Cause those are three different things. What do I want to have happen?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. What are you most hopeful for?

[Trevor Noah]

That didn't change at all the second time you said it. No, I was hoping you were going to explain your question. But you know what? I know what would give me hope, and what, to a certain extent, does give me hope is that I, for years, was wondering what happened to socially conscious music. And I missed songs like top 40 songs like, come on, people now, smile on each other, everybody get together, try to love one another right now. That love is not a bad word that we can say love, or I love you, or love is the every. Only God like to say that love is the most important thing and to mean it without embarrassment. I mean, I. Six months before my show started, Spike Jones, the great director and pretty good actor, too, he came by. He just said, do you need any help starting your show? And I'm like, sure, let's talk. So he just came by and he interviewed me six months before my show went on the air about what I wanted the show to be. And after we'd been on the air for a while, and he actually sent it to me this past year, he sent those notes back to me to say, I want to remind you what your intention was. And one of the things he said that he sort of circled or pointed out in it was, I don't know how to do a nightly comedy show that's also about love, but I'd like it in some way to be about love. And there's so many different ways to express that, I suppose. And that's always.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's what you had said.

[Trevor Noah]

That's what I said to him in the interview, which he showed back to me as a reminder. And when I look at the show that we're doing right now, I hope that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I think it's interesting that you set an intention for it.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah. Yes.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I live through that. I live that. I live that.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, yeah. And then you start and you don't know how to find it. And that. That gives you all kinds of.

[Oprah Winfrey]

But wasn't that helpful? Not knowing the way helped you find the way.

[Trevor Noah]

Right. Because anything is possible. And it was ridiculous for me to think it wasn't going to be agonizing to do in public, which it was.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Because you. You want to know what you're doing. You know, I'm an improviser by heart. That's how I started in comedy. But still you want everything you do to be successful, successful, but you can't be. And it's always going to be painful to make a transition or a change like that. But, you know, the thing anyway, the hope for love. The hope for love, and I think now we found, is that I love my country, I love science, I love facts, I love people regardless of their race or their gender identity. And the challenge now is to love the people who don't seem to have that value in their heart, or at least how it's politically expressed. I don't know what's in their heart, how it's politically expressed. Even the people I disagree most with, if I sat down, had this conversation with them, we might leave the conversation hand in hand. But when we're making jokes about people's political action, it's very hard to see them as more than their ideas. And you cannot love their ideas. You can only love their selves.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

And so that's the challenge, the last challenge is to love the people you disagree with the most, to love the.

[Oprah Winfrey]

People you disagree with the most.

[Trevor Noah]

Right. But that's the harrowing challenge that Christ sets forth. To love the people you disagree with most. Because loving the people you agree with, anybody can do that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That's right.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah. Anybody can do that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That means you have to find a path to love Donald Trump.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, that's. I didn't say I was a good Catholic. I'm bad Catholic.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So. Thank you for doing a show about love every night. Thank you for being here.

[Trevor Noah]

Oh, thank you. You too. Thank you.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. You can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. Rate and review this podcast. Join me next week for another Super Soul conversation. Thank you for listening.

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