Podcast Summary:

Pablo Torre Finds Out
Episode: "I Just Am That B*tch": Ilana Glazer on Broad City, Broadway and Bursting Bubbles
Date: October 2, 2025
Host: Pablo Torre (The Athletic)
Guest: Ilana Glazer (comedian, actor, writer)

Episode Overview

This episode features a charismatic and deeply personal conversation between Pablo Torre and Ilana Glazer, co-creator/star of Broad City and recent Broadway debutante (Good Night, and Good Luck). The discussion weaves through the quirks of New York living, the cultural impact and production journey of Broad City, reflections on fame, the evolution (and decline) of television, political polarization, tech anxieties, and Glazer’s experience on stage with George Clooney. The episode is rich with humor, candor, and cultural commentary, offering listeners a snapshot of where pop culture, media, and personal values intersect in 2025.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. NYC Roots, Shared Apartments, and Serendipity

(Timestamps: 02:00–11:00)

• New York Origin Stories: Pablo and Ilana share their mutual experience growing up in/around NYC, swapping stories about the city's transformation and what their neighborhoods represent as they age.

  • Ilana: “I was just talking to a comedian yesterday. She’s 27 years old...ready to like make the move to Brooklyn, which means, like, I’m older now to her...” (03:25)
  • Pablo describes feeling at home surrounded by both young families and the elderly, which sparks jokes about aspirational aging and neighborhood archetypes.

• Shared Apartment Discovery: Pablo recounts, with awkward enthusiasm, realizing years ago that he lived in the same East Village apartment as Ilana—an intersection only confirmed on the air when Ilana recalls seeing mail addressed to him.

  • Quote:
    “I literally...the memory of seeing Pablo Torre on [mail] and being like, ‘Well, I’ll never meet them.’ And it just hit me in recording this that I like, have seen your name since 10 years ago.” (Ilana, 52:58)
  • Both recount the infamous oversized patio/deck overlooked by hundreds of neighbors. They dubbed it “the Panopticon” for its surveilled feeling—a playful metaphor for living publicly in NYC (09:24).

2. Riding the Shooting Star: Broad City’s Breakout and Legacy

(Timestamps: 11:11–25:52)

• Humble Beginnings & Connection to Reality:

  • Ilana describes living frugally (“tuna on spinach salads,” 11:41) and sharing real-life struggles with her roommate, reflecting that she was “financially smart to be renting at that time.”
  • Despite rising fame, she insists: “I just am that bitch. I’m just the person I’ve always been and will always be.” (11:25)

• Artistic Intent & Reception:

  • Ilana expresses pride in the authentic, “female lens” of Broad City, noting that it remained “for the people who knew about it,” never fully embraced by the establishment but a phenomenon in New York and for “a certain type of thinking and feeling person.” (12:29)
  • She highlights the comedic, confining-yet-absurd societal expectations placed on women:
    “It’s a funny pickle women are in...not surprised, looking at the work of Broad City, that it was successful...” (12:32)
  • Pablo and Ilana mourn the lost “channel era” when networks could platform unique voices, as opposed to the algorithm-driven “open battlefield of content” today (29:04).

• Comedic Legacy:

  • Broad City’s place in the golden era of Comedy Central, alongside shows like Chappelle Show, Daily Show, and UCB, is discussed fondly, with realization that this “family vibe” was the “last gasp of the channel and also TV in that way.” (25:28)

3. Media, Politics, and Bubble-Bursting: New York, Elitism, and Fox News

(Timestamps: 13:22–21:34)

• Bursting the ‘Elitist’ Bubble:

  • Ilana vocally rejects the idea that NYC is simply an elitist bubble, highlighting its diversity and challenges. She sharply criticizes Fox News as the real source of manufactured elitist narratives—“The elitists are the Fox News hosts and...producers who are creating these narratives to divide the people that they consider beneath them.” (16:08)
  • She connects NYC’s visible economic struggles to post-COVID inequity, emphasizing, “We pay so much taxes to live here. Why are people starving in our faces?” (14:19)

• Fox News Anecdotes & Critique:

  • Amusing detour: Ilana shares a friend’s high school memory of Jesse Watters playing the recorder at announcements, which Pablo fact-checks on-air (Jesse “doesn’t recall the exact morning announcements,” but no denial of recorder enthusiasm) (17:13).
  • Pablo recounts his own initiation into TV on The O’Reilly Factor, reflecting on how media powerhouses cluster together in Manhattan yet purport to represent “real America.” (21:03)

4. Navigating Fame, Authenticity, and Public Perception

(Timestamps: 22:15–23:29)

• The Price of Being Seen:
  • Ilana discusses the confusion between her public persona and real self, especially as people conflated her with her Broad City character. The demand for authenticity was both exhilarating for the work and draining as a person.
  • She clarifies Broad City was tightly scripted, not improvised: “No, we’re really good writers and producers, and we’re directing this.” (22:28)

5. The End of TV As We Knew It & Creative Survival

(Timestamps: 25:28–29:34)

• Linear TV vs. Open Battlefield:

  • Both mourn TV as a shared cultural touchstone. Pablo emphasizes that “even imperfect gatekeepers” could “help and enable and platform someone they thought was good,” a dynamic lost in today’s fragmented, algorithmic landscape.

• Hope for New Voices:

  • Despite institutional stagnation, Ilana expresses hope: “What are we gonna do, Disappear? ...I practice the faith that new voices will keep speaking up and being heard.” (25:57)

6. From Sitcoms to Stage: Broadway, Good Night & Good Luck, and George Clooney

(Timestamps: 31:41–46:38)

• Broadway Leap:

  • Ilana describes the transition from standup to acting in Good Night, and Good Luck, the nerves, and the magic of live performance. She relishes seeing “every face” in the audience, likening it to a conversation (32:31).

• Historical Resonance:

  • The play focuses on Edward R. Murrow confronting McCarthyism—a time that feels “quaint” compared to contemporary threats, yet the fundamentals of “standing up for public interest” still resonate (35:33).
  • Ilana identifies with Shirley Wershba, an unsung female journalist of that era, and stresses the loss and importance of shared civic values: “With enough quiet, people really share values and share the value of freedom of speech.” (36:29)

• The Clooney Factor:

  • Both reflect on what it’s like working with (and witnessing) George Clooney up close: “He leads with his heart. He believes in what he does and what he says, and it was just so inspiring. He really is my hero.” (40:47)
  • The “Trojan horse of George Clooney” brings a cross-section of audiences to engage with issues of democracy and journalism—including conservative elite, who may be genuinely moved or challenged by the message. (41:33–43:20)

• Montage Moment:

  • The play’s dramatic ending includes a montage of U.S. broadcast history, culminating with “Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration,” which Ilana describes as “so meaningful to me as a Jewish person...afraid for Jewish safety too.” (46:16)

7. Regulation, Tech, and the Assault of Modern Life

(Timestamps: 48:30–51:25)

• Pace and Tech Anxiety:

  • Pablo (half-jokingly) proposes we revert to slow dial-up internet for sanity: “When a JPEG really meant something...you earned it.” (49:04)
  • Ilana agrees: “I think everything needs to slow down...The pace is part of the assault.” (49:16)

• Regulation and Personal Responsibility:

  • They compare individual attempts to manage digital intake to recycling—laudable, but inadequate in the absence of broader regulation.
  • Ilana: “We have to shape very carefully how [children are] gonna be taking in this or that. And screens are everywhere now....there needs to be government regulation. And right now we’re in such a crisis.“ (50:09–51:00)

8. Closing Reflections & The ‘What We Found Out’ Game

(Timestamps: 51:51–54:10)

• Pablo’s takeaway: Importance of “distinguishing between voices you want to hear and...a lonely recorder being played by a Fox News host” (51:51)
• Ilana’s takeaway: Realization that “I was getting your mail...How cool is that? That is magic, dude.” (52:34)
• Banter about smart, feeling men and the “Holy Trinity: Me, your husband, George Clooney.” (54:06)
• Lighthearted end on Sports Illustrated, football (“I would watch football more if it weren’t so scary. But their butts.” 53:42), and wrapping up their New York “full circle” moment.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

1. On Shared Space & Serendipity:

   • “I like, have seen your name since 10 years ago. How cool is that? Like, that is magic, dude.”
     – Ilana Glazer (52:59)

2. On Fame & Authenticity:

   • “I just am that bitch. I’m just the person I’ve always been and will always be.”
     – Ilana Glazer (11:25)

3. On the Female POV in Comedy:

   • “People...are starving for an honest female lens. ...the way women move through the world is absurd. We’re, like, placed in a box, and then we try to embrace the box, and then the box us, but not the way we want to be.”
     – Ilana Glazer (12:32)

4. On NYC as a Non-Elite Bubble:

   • “The elitists are the Fox News hosts and the Fox News producers who are creating these narratives to divide the people that they consider beneath them.”
     – Ilana Glazer (16:08)

5. On the Erosion of Media Institutions:

   • “Now we’re just, like, all competing in the open battlefield of content. And that’s just scary in a different way.”
     – Pablo Torre (29:10)

6. On George Clooney’s Approach:

   • “He leads with his heart. He believes in what he does and what he says, and it was just so inspiring. He really is my hero.”
     – Ilana Glazer (40:47)

7. On Generational Wisdom and Rush of Modern Life:

   • “I think everything needs to slow down...The pace is part of the assault.”
     – Ilana Glazer (49:16)
   • “When a JPEG really meant something...”
     – Pablo Torre (49:04)

8. On Meaning at the Broadway Play’s End:

   • “To see that montage end highlighting the Nazi salute was so meaningful to me...I just felt like so, so grateful to him for that.”
     – Ilana Glazer (46:16)

Important Timestamps by Segment

• 02:00 – Meet-cute about commutes, neighborhoods, and parenting
• 04:44 – Discovery of shared apartment; the “Panopticon” patio
• 11:25 – Ilana on remaining grounded/finding financial and personal sanity amid fame
• 12:32 – Candid talk on women’s perspectives in comedy
• 16:08 – Elitism, Fox News critique, and NYC as battleground
• 17:13 – Jesse Watters/recorder high school story
• 21:03 – Pablo’s O’Reilly Factor story; big media adjacency
• 22:28 – Fame, identity, confusion with Broad City characters
• 25:28 – Mourning TV’s “family channel” era
• 32:31 – Broadway nerves; comparing standup to stage
• 35:33 – McCarthyism’s “quaint” resonance and modern peril
• 40:47 – George Clooney’s leadership and values
• 41:33–43:20 – Broadway as a Trojan horse for political engagement of various audiences
• 46:16 – The emotional climax of the play, Elon Musk montage
• 49:04 – Pablo’s slow-internet solution; pace of tech life
• 51:51 – What they “found out”; full-circle NYC story

Overall Tone and Style

• Candid, intellectual, discursive, and humorous; rapid-fire personal anecdotes and sharp political/cultural critique; honest and sometimes self-deprecating.
• Ilana’s energy is wry and engaged, Pablo’s is curious and bemused, with both embracing the absurd intersections of fame, art, politics, and daily life.

Listening to this episode feels like eavesdropping on two very smart, grounded New Yorkers swapping stories about the city, art, identity, and the state of the world—with both gratitude for the past and anxieties (mixed with hope) for the future.