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I am so excited about this episode. All year long, people have been asking me the same question, who's been my favorite interview? And all year long, I've had the same answer, that there's been something interesting in every conversation. But who doesn't love a good compilation episode? So here at Reclaiming, we called together what we considered to be some of the most memorable moments of 2025 from the show. The I hope you enjoy. And up first is MILEY Cyrus. My 2013 is your 1998, because that was the time where I just got. Just hit so hard, and I was so embarrassed. And you were mentioning your family, too. I mean, there was even a time where my brother and sister didn't want to go to school because of how humiliated they were to be related to me. And I remember even, you know, my brother at one point, he was saying, I don't judge you, but you could understand how hard it is for me to go to school and you be my sister. Yeah. And that really, you know, I was a hard sibling to have as a little girl. So I was like, all right, we're even. Like, you know, but it was really hard for me in 2013, and I. I lost everything during that time in my personal life because of the choices I was making professionally. You know, if I kept dressing or acting a certain way, my relationships fell apart. No one want wanted to date me because they didn't want to be with a woman. That sexual expression part was not for them. It was, like, shared with the world. So, like, guys, when I would try to date, when I was dating or who I was engaged at the time, that didn't work out because I was sharing a part of myself that men wanted to be saved for them only. And the fact that I would, you know, pose nude or dance in very little clothes or show my body was making them feel like I was taking something away that was meant to be for them. So I would have really hard times dating. And it was just. It was really hard. It was really hard for me to go home and see my dad and, like, look him in the eyes and not feel super embarrassed. Yeah. So. Yeah. So having that and going home and seeing my grandparents was just mortifying, you know, or Thanksgiving. I felt that way when the star report came out where it was just like, it had been bad enough with men in general, but in particular my dad and my brother and my stepdad of, you know, just that all these things were out there. And my dad's a doctor, and he still went to work every day. And my brother was in college. It's just hard. Yeah. I still. I don't know how you feel. I still feel guilt. I. I still sometimes carry guilt around about that. I did EMDR about guilt and shame, and it kind of deleted some of that stuff. It changed me. I mean, I did two sessions and I feel like it kind of deleted the. A folder of my mind that. The guilt and shame folder. So I haven't really dealt with that for probably about four years. But up until I did that emdr, I had a lot of guilt about how hard it would have been to be my sibling or my parent and how embarrassing and, you know, all those things. So I definitely feel, you know, our experiences were different, but they were parallel in a lot of ways. Right. And Alan Cummings, confronting your abuser is a really powerful and necessary, if you can, if they're alive and if you have the power and the strength to do so. So I. So I did that. I went and my brother came with me. We went to confront my dad and we. And, you know, he was still living in the house that we'd grown up in and had been, you know, some terrible things had happened in it, violence and stuff. And we told him we were going to see him. We hadn't seen him for years at this point. Years. And it was terrifying. I mean, we were both terrified. And I thought my dad was going to hit me at one point. I really thought he was gonna hit me. He had a stick, like a kind of, you know, not a walking, but like a staff that, you know, you use when you're hiking sort of thing. And he had these boots. And I remember his boots were making this sort of the little tacks and they were making this crunchy noise on the road as we were walking along. And he was sort of whack the stick against the side of his boot, this kind of thing. And I. A couple of the things I said, like, I remember when I sort of. I want. I said, I want to ask you about your childhood. I'm curious about if. If this kind of abuse happened to you and if there's some sort of lineage to this that I'm trying to make sense of this. You know, I was. I was. And I. I was aware. I was trying not to do too much therapy speak, but obviously I was, but. And he said when. I remember at that point, he said that nothing happened to him in his childhood. And, you know, he got really angry when I tried to bring that up. And I thought he was going to hit me. Then I was really trying to make sense of it. And of course, that I realize now is a foolish thing, because you're never going to get sense. You're never going to get logic from someone who is mentally ill or. I know me, I'm like, well, maybe, but, you know, so it was incredibly empowering because we said all these things, and we said, it's up to you now if you, you know, this happened. We were giving it back to you. I mean, I was obviously doing loads of therapy talk, now that I think about it, but we're giving it back to you. I don't want to carry this anymore. I don't want to carry this. I don't want to feel ashamed of it. I don't want to protect you. I am telling you this so that I can move forward. Here's Chelsea Handler. I mean, there's this. This experience with Dan Siegel. There was one day where I wasn't. He wanted to talk about. He kept asking about my brother, you know, And I was like, that's not what this is about. Like, let's talk about. I have. I have a short temper. I have no patience. Everyone annoys me. Let's talk about that. I love you. And he was like, okay, well, we need to get a little deeper. And I'm like, no, no, no. These are just newer problems. Like, I'm hitting a crescendo where, like, I'm blasting off on people for no reason. And he couldn't get me to cry. You know, he couldn't. I just would be, like, steely, and I would come close. And then one day, he handed me an orange. He walked in his office, and he's like, oh. And we were in a different office that day, so it was a little bit out of. I was. You know, and he. We were sitting at a table instead of in two chairs, and he walked in, and he handed me an orange, and he goes, I grabbed this from my tree. I thought you might want an orange. And I immediately just was like. And everything came up, you know, every. All of it. And I. Because he had done something so nice, you know, like, an orange to me is like, the best memory I have of my childhood is orange juice and oranges. Like, I love oranges. And it was cold. Like, he knew that I liked. I think he had refrigerated it or something. So it was like all the nice things a man could do to you or do for you, not do to you. And. And he handed it to me, and that's when I just broke down. And as I was peeling it. I was, like, trying to. Obviously, I was, like, trying to hide my face with the orange peels. I was like, oh, God, here I go. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm losing my shit right now. And tears. And tears are coming down my face. And he's just sitting back, like, finally, like, okay, we can't fix you until you break down. You know what I mean? And that's what you learn about children, too. That's what I learned in my parenting class. Even when someone's obstinate and they're rebellious, if they can still cry, they're still vulnerable and you can still get to them. Wow, that's really important to remember with. Like. That's really interesting. Wait, say that again. That's really interesting. If you. If you can. Like, if a girl's really rebellious and she's a. She's a bitch every night when she gets home, and she's hormonal and she's going through puberty, and she's mean to her mother and she's mean to her father, and she's not gone if she can still cry, if she can still be vulnerable. And this goes for boys, too. But obviously, I want more women in my life. As long as you can get to them, if someone can break down, then you have access to try to heal them. Next up, actress Jurnee Smollett. I think something we have in common is we're both really interested in the idea around transgenerational trauma and epigenetics. And I think you were talking about how that, like, you're feeling, your DNA has the memory of your ancestors of both. Right. Like your mom, who's black and from the south, and your dad, who was Jewish. And so I'm curious as to, you know, how you figured that out for yourself, that you're, you know, looking at all this transgenerational memory that's come through from all these vast experiences and how that impacts what you're bringing to the screen. Oh, I love that question. I don't know that I've ever been asked it in that way before. Yes, I am very fascinated by memory, blood memory, how our DNA holds instructions. And there's so much research out there about that now. That's really, really fascinating. And, yes, I sit at the intersection of multiple identities. I raised, you know, by a black woman. And my dad passed away a few years ago, but he. Ashkenazi. Yeah. And so growing up, my mom really made such an effort to give us guidance in knowing that. Okay, you have this very eclectic background. And you come from multiple cultures, but you don't have to be one of those people that's just like walking through life lost, Right. Like, she really wanted us to just. It was just about embracing our whole self. And yes, I am a black woman, and I know how the world sees me, and I know the limitations the world wants to put on me. And I think, you know, really embracing my history has helped me be able to own the entirety of who I am, unapologetically. And so, yes, it is something that I bring to the screen. It's something I bring to different characters. People often joke on me of, like, I do a lot of historical period pieces, you know, And I don't think that's coincidental. I think I am drawn to this idea of inspecting my history and wanting to understand it more. I played years ago, there was a character, Rosalie, in a TV show called Underground. And it was about this group of folks who were enslaved on a plantation, and they rose up and ran away and what that journey looked like. Right. And I went into that project a month after my dad passed. And in the project, my character Rosalie is the product of a black woman and unfortunately, the product of what is referred to in the show as the slave massa. And I just remember feeling, in different scenes we shot on an actual plantation, wow. And feeling like, you know, I don't entirely know how I'm going to actually execute this scene. There's a scene in the pilot of Underground in which my character is being whipped. And we know the historical context of that, right. And Misha Green, the creator, the co. Creator and co showrunner of Underground, she also created Lovecraft Country, Right. She and I initially really butt heads on how to do this scene. And in hindsight, I realized the pressure we were both under, like we didn't want to participate in any sort of trauma porn, you know, but you also want to get it right and you want to historically pay tribute to the truth and be a vessel for truth. And I remember us just like, debating and arguing about how we were going to shoot this scene. To the point where I just said the night before we were going to shoot the scene, I said to the director, Anthony Hemingway, I don't want to talk about this scene tomorrow. Don't talk to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't say nothing. All I want you to do, just let the cameras roll. And I just ask that you shoot everyone else. And when you get to me, I just ask. Don't let me hear the sound of the whip until the camera is rolling. Because I don't really know how I'm gonna do this tomorrow. Like, wow. I remember being on set and I was standing near this oak tree, and I just looked up and I thought of, like, oh, all of the things that this oak tree has seen. It has been here for over 200 years. And I heard Billie Holiday, strange fruit. And I thought of all the beautiful bodies who have seen this tree as their last image. And all I did was I prayed for the ancestors to use me as a vessel. And we did the scene, and he just kept the cameras rolling. We did it a few takes, and I remember I felt completely taken over by spirit. I felt completely taken over by something higher than myself. And that blood memory, that connection to the memory, both the triumph and the tragedy of my folks, of my history, of my people, does reverberate in moments that are important. And here's Gabrielle Union. I am sort of a junkie when it comes to self exploration. I hope you don't mind jumping into when you turned 50. Yeah. So, like, many people have parties or plastic surgery, and you did a really unique thing of. You went to Africa, right? Four countries in Africa, and you made a documentary. Right. And it's Gabrielle Union, my journey to 50. Is that right? Okay, good. And so what were you hoping to explore and find there with that? Every time I set foot in the continent, I. I re. Emerge. I am reborn. And I get little. Little pieces of myself. I reclaim them. And I wanted my friends and my family to experience that same thing. And so I gathered, you know, some of the closest people to me that were able to, you know, fly. Fly to Africa. And we started in Tanzania, and we kicked off the big, like, one of the big party celebrations there with the Maasai, and then we went to Ghana, and I wanted to take my family to Elmina Castle, which was the last place our enslaved ancestors were held before they were put on ships. Oh, wow. During the Middle Passage. Okay. Onto their enslavement in various parts of the Americas. For me, it is a very haunted, occupied space that is incredibly sacred. And if you're quiet enough, you can hear our ancestors speaking to us. And sometimes it feels like a warning. Sometimes it feels like protection. Sometimes it feels like encouragement. But they're speaking to us, and too many of us aren't listening. And I wanted my family and my friends to be able to have the opportunity to listen. And when you can hear them, you can really, truly be in touch with yourself. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, it's amazing. It's so interesting what you're saying, too. Journey Smollett was on just a couple weeks ago. Me too. And we were talking about sort of transgenerational trauma and that, you know, and she was talking about where that. That connection to ancestry comes in for her in her work. And I just think what a beautiful thing that you did about. And the way you talk about it, too, of just the listening. And my mom, you know, my mom had never been to Africa, and my mom's sister, my Aunt Katie, and we were. We were in Ghana at the river of no Return, where they would, you know, after basically marching our ancestors the distance from New York to Florida, they would put them in. In this river to clean them up and they, you know, lather them in. In grease to. To create the appearance of. Of good health, to. To get the highest dollar. And as we were walking down towards this river, my mom falls out. And my mom is late 70s, and I'm thinking, oh, is it. Oh, my mom. My mom. My mom just died. And everyone's any. And this is all they, you know, the cameras are rolling, so this is all being caught. Oh, my gosh. And very clearly, I heard my grandmother's voice who's been gone many, many years, and she's all right. She's all right. And she, you know, she took a. She took a break. She came back. She came to. They brought her numbers, you know, within. Back to. Within reason. And she was like, take me to the river. Oh, wow. And it was like, at that point, I'm. I'm already crying. We're not even at the river yet. And we get into the river and everyone's kind of in their own sort of spot, meditating, praying, thinking, whatever each individual was sort of doing in that moment. And I kind of had lost track of where my husband was, and I just. And it was this beautiful sunny day. It was hot, beautiful sunny day. And my husband's in the river, and I just hear him scream. And I look over and his arms are outstretched like. Like Christ. And the sky opens up and it is downpour out of nowhere. And it was the most cleansing. It was like something out of a movie. And, I mean, luckily we caught it. And he's just standing there and he's being, like, cleansed, if you will. But everyone was very, very emotional, and it felt otherworldly. But again, it's like when you listen the ancestors and you call upon them, they show up. Yeah, I'm just really intrigued in my. In myself right now, because I'm feeling So much emotion from this. And this is not my history. And I don't know if it's just because, you know, just a couple weeks ago really in it were journey, but it just is. I just, I. I feel grateful for. And I don't even know you, that like we've just had that great connection and text and stuff, but I just. I feel grateful for you and your family that you were able to do that. And I'm just also. I'm so sorry for that history. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's just. I'm Jewish and so there's. It's a very different history, but there's a transgenerational history that we carry of being othered and being devalued. And so it's. That's not what I'm just sort of feeling here. It's because there. There is such a shared history of oppression. Yeah. And degradation and violence and what the ancestors have endured. I feel the spirit that I feel it truly is no more. No more. No more, no more. They want so much better and more for us. They want us to know peace. And it was just the trip of a lifetime. And each spot brought our family closer, my friends, my friendships closer. And it was exactly what I wanted for my 50th to reclaim myself. We love this moment with Mark Duplass. Do you. Do you're talking what you were saying about scanning your body? So have you done somatic work? I haven't done that now. Okay. Oh, interesting. Am I going to go do that right after I leave here? Well, you might already. Are you going to hand me a pamphlet? You come to the cult? No, I. I mean, it's something I started doing during the pandemic. My. My therapist, who's a trauma psychiatrist, she was like, okay, I think we need to add someone else to the many. The many people on my team. And. And it was really interesting to even just start to realize how disconnected from my body I was. I think that that's the major source. That's what my therapist would tell me is the major source of. Where a lot of that begins for me is the disconnection. And, you know, you talked about it earlier as being a bit of a depletion. I call it the soul points, which is basically like your reserves of what you have. And some things you do, you know, are at the same time they're outputting, they're actually inputting, you know, either getting equal or even more. You know, you're helping a friend move who really needs you, and they Appreciate you and you appreciate them. And while that is like putting some stuff out, you're actually refilling it at the same time. But. But when those reserves are. Are low, I tend to get in some sort of little fight or flight mode, and I start to get. Starts to hover above my body and start to lose myself. And that really is the beginning of the woog most of the time for me. And can you explain in detail what the woog is? The woog for me is a completely made up word. And. But I like to make up words a lot. I come from that kind of a family. We have ditto. We have all these words, by the way, that, like, have been part of my children's vernacular. And then they show up at preschool and start saying all these things and no one knows what they're talking about. I'm like, I forgot to tell you that this is just our language. But how about. How about just your own experience of the times as a kid where you use the words and then you realize, like, mom, how come nobody else knows? You know? This is a pooza. Yes. Like, it's the greatest. My little Molly, when she was 5, she went to kindergarten and, you know, or actually, I think it was preschool. And in our family, if you got a poop, you got to make boopas. Poopers is the word. Okay. Bupus. I'm like, all right. So she's saying this, you know, and she's telling me how she's trying to tell her teacher she's gonna make boobas. Teacher doesn't know what's going on. She brings it home. And I said, molly, I forgot to tell you that, like, that's just a word that we use in the family for needing to go to the bathroom. She goes, wait, bathroom's one of our words too. I've been saying that to everybody. I was like, no, no, no, that. That's a different one. Oh, my God. Yeah, our family. It was. I can't believe I'm going to say this in a podcast, but it was like a gassy. Yeah, I hate the F word for that, so I don't use it. But was a puck pook baby always. Yeah, it was like, who cooked? You know? You know what? The hard K at the end of that is good, too, because it's got a nice little book. Exactly. It's an onomatopoeia, actually. It sounds like what it is. Anyway, back to the woog, which is not an onomatopoeia. It's just a word I made up, which you know, I have found that depression and anxiety, in my case, tend to be two different sides of the same coin. You know, for me, it feels like the depression was first and foremost, and my intense desire to fight that, my intense desire to not allow it to be there and muscle it into something else, started to create an anxiety. So it's almost like in the Type A personality, the depression can manifest as anxiety. That's just my own sort of feeling about it. So I just like to encompass it all in this one word that I call the woog. And I can be woogie, can be woog in that day, or the woog itself can come get you, like the boogeyman. I also like to diminish it with a childlike nickname so that its power won't reign supreme over me. Now, Sarah Paulson, I mean, I remember my mom saying things to me, like, when I was on the phone with different friends. She's like, I can always tell who you're on the phone with based on how you sound. Oh, wow. She was like, it was always changing. So it's like, on the one hand, I'm like, does that make me a sociopath? Or does, like, does that make me totally crazy? Or is it that thing that, like, you know, I was left alone a lot as a child. I was raised by a single mom and I. My sister and I were separated for a time, and she was living with my dad in Maryland and Florida and then in Maryland, and I was living with my mom, and I was alone a lot. So, like, a way in which I think I survived the fear, the terror I felt as a young person was to constantly sort of be whatever anybody needed me to be in any scenario so that I could always somehow create safety for myself. And so, like, I really feel the incredible consequence of this is that it has made me, as an actor, I think, capable of shape shifting a little bit more than your average person. Maybe not more than your average actor, but maybe more than your average person, which lends itself to some of my creative impulses, choices, and willingnesses to do something so vastly different from myself. Because I can go there. Because I've had to go there in different environments with different people and become whatever I thought they wanted me to be. Are you also saying, though, that you sort of soothed yourself when you were scared and alone by different, I mean, versions or your imagination? My imagination was always incredibly fertile, really. But, like, I would play games. This is really. I mean, I'm gonna go there with you. But, like, if I'd Come home from school and I was like jumping over the cracks in the sidewalk. And you know the whole thing about it, you step on a crack, you break your own back, whatever. But I would play these games, like if I, if I can get on the. This is probably like very ocd maybe, maybe not. Where I would, like, if I could jump over all the cracks and not step on anything. My mom would be home for dinner if I could. There's like a lot of wishful, magical thinking. So it was like a lot of my stuff was like around trying to create safety. And so it's sort of interesting to me that I would go into a profession where like, I'm never in the same place. I'm always with new people. You know, it's like I haven't been on a, like even on American Horror Story. It's like I was on the show for many years, but different stories, different characters, some of the same actors, some not, you know, like, so there was this, this constant change, you know, and I like it, I like it that way. And sometimes I think you like the thing you're familiar with, not necessarily because it serves or suits your nervous system. Yeah. Enter my dating. Enter your dating life, which I would really love to talk about too at some point. That's for later. We grew up in a time where anxiety was not a word. That's right, like, and it was. You could express emotion, you could cry because you were upset because you didn't get something or you skin your knee or whatever, but there was just. Language didn't exist for those certain kinds of things. And then also I think our parents didn't have, There was no, you know, it was like, oh, you didn't win, you didn't win. You know, that kind of a thing. And not saying they were neglectful at all, but it was just not part of the parental vernacular. I think my mom was 22 when she had me, 24 when she had my sister. So she was just ill equipped. She just wasn't even a person yet. So like on a lot of. When you talk about forgiveness and things like, I think about this a lot with my mom, who, you know, I love very dearly and who is. I have enormous respect for. And I cannot believe that she like picked up from Florida in this incredibly conservative community and with conservative parents and like picked up and moved to New York to be a writer and you know, had, at 27, had a three year old and a five year old and. Or whatever the math is on that. Never been in my sponsor don't ask me. You know, she picked up and moved to New York and started a life there. And like, I'm able to live my life the way I live my life now because of some of the choices that she made that were absolutely self serving because she was looking for her own survival. But the consequences of having such a young parent and her doing something like that meant she was working a lot of jobs, she was doing a lot of things. And so I was by myself a lot. And so it wasn't exactly conducive to like great parenting, but it was what she needed to do. So I have a lot of, you know, sympathy for it. And the same time I have a lot of, I would say, battle scars from just trying to survive it. And here's Alice and Janney. It's interesting because I was thinking about, you know, I did not watch the West Wing until just a few years ago after I got to know Aaron, I think because it came out right after 1998 and I was like, no more White House. And always terrified that, you know, there might be an intern joke in there or something, which there wasn't. So. But it was. I think the character of C.J. craig is one of the best women characters he's drawn. And I was curious around because you were in your late 30s, early 40s, like, and you're sort of, you're baked as a person in many ways at that point. Do you feel like you influenced who C.J. craig was or CJ influenced you? Because I feel there's like, when you're with you, it's so easy to remember that character that you've played. Yeah, yeah. You know, that's interesting. I think Aaron liked to be around the people he was writing for to get a sense of who they were. And I would always try to hide from him. Cause I was like, I didn't want him to know what an idiot I was wrestling with. But no, I mean, but politics. I'm like, I grew up in a family. You didn't discuss politics. You know, pass the peas, you know, pass the bread, whatever. We didn't talk about social issues or politics, anything like that. So I just wasn't steeped in it. I grew up during Watergate era and it was like, you don't trust politicians, you don't, you know, and well, yeah, really, what a simple time that was now. Yeah. So I just, I wasn't comfortable speaking. I didn't. But I think that he. A lot of CJ's humor and femininity and vulnerability was from me. And her smarts came from Aaron, you know, that kind being able to. You know what I mean? Fairly. Cause I'm not that I'm not smart, but CJ could. Could throw down and with the facts, with the. They were all out there. She was nowhere near menopause or peri. Her mind was sharp and as sharp as attack. And that was so much fun for me to get to play. It was just like catnip. Catnip for. As an actress to get to play a woman like that, you know, I'm sure. Yeah. Up now is activist Tarana Burke. In your memoir In Unbound, you talked about this thing, and I was so fascinated by. Of that you called it cover sin when you were a kid. And I was like, this is some interesting trauma math. I know my own version is. So will you talk a little about that? People love that. It's so funny. And it's. And the funny thing about it is how many people have told me their own versions of it. Yeah, exactly. So when I was a kid, Catholic, I used to. You know, in Catholic school, you go to confession. Yep. And so I was so tr. I was being. Was going through molestation from 9 to 12 years old. I was so traumatized by what was happening, and I was so deeply shamed by what was happening that I felt like one. I felt complicit in my own abuse. So I didn't understand that what was happening to me wasn't my fault at all. I didn't get that understanding until years later. So when I would go to confess, I wanted to confess what I was doing wrong, but it felt like it was so bad that I couldn't tell God. So I would make up a cover sin to confess in confession so that I could get. And something that I felt was not equally bad, but bad enough to get enough, you know, back from the priest to, like, pray for so I wouldn't have to tell. So I would go in and be like, I said all of these curse words. I didn't do my homework. I was just. Which was weird because you're lying, right? Like, you're lying to the priest, but he'd make a good lawyer. Exactly. You know, But I felt like those sins, because I didn't actually do them, it wasn't so bad. They were just cover sins for my actual sin, which was really, really, really, really, really bad. And that the priest would give me, like, he would be like, oh, my gosh, you need to do like 50 Hail Marys, do the Apostles Creed 10 times you know, like, and then I would take those. I felt like I just needed the priest to give me direction and so he would give me the direction for my cover sins. And then I would go back out into the pews and I would do all these risks. The mind of a child is so bizarre. But also the gymnastics that we have to do with trauma as a kid. And I think that idea of not really understanding, not understanding what's happened at all, we don't have a whole lot of learned structures for how to put them into place. Right. Like good and bad, Good and bad is there. So it's really easy. And it's so much easier to blame yourself 100%. And you're navigating it alone. Yeah. So you have just your like 11 year old brain that says. And so I was given all of this information by my priest and you know, and again in the church. And I was in the church and in the school. And so our pastor, Father o', Donnell, would come around every week with the good news. You know, every Friday we'd get the good news and he'd come around and he'd talk about your sins. And this is something, what I'm talking about in my new book about grace and mercy. And I never thought that I would, I qualify for God's grace. Right. Because it was unmerited. But I always prayed for God's mercy because God's mercy was like, It's so messed up. It's just the mental gymnastics. God's mercy was for those who were bad. But if you prayed hard enough, God would grant you mercy. And so every week I would pray for God's mercy because I was such a bad kid. And really I was, I was. I mean, I probably did little things, but I was, I tried to be as good as possible. I got all good grades. I did. I ran track and I played my sports and I was always on the honor roll. I tried to do everything else right because this part of my life was so bad. And I thought God is gonna kill me one day. Cause this is just if I keep doing all this bad stuff, you know. And so part of what the book is about is examining grace and how I just feel like grace is utilitarian in so many ways and we just don't use it right. And the people who need grace the most often get it the least and who are asked to give it the most. Right. Wow. Yeah, that's a really interesting point. Yeah. But you think about how grace is disseminated, even if not in the Christian sense, because I'm not. I'm not writing book from a Christian standpoint. It's talking about the idea of grace, whether it's secular or non secular. The people who are asked to give grace the most, usually the people who need it more. And I think especially when we talk about movements and liberation, even in this time period. Right. It's just I don't believe that we can have a politic of liberation without a politic of grace. And I use the word politic deliberately because I think we throw around words like hope and love and even grace as like throwaway words. Right. But I think they are drivers in our life. This was a moment with John Oliver. What are you thinking about? One of the only other people I've ever interviewed other than you is the Dalai Lama. Oh, well, you know, the Dalai Lama in me. I mean, I was. The only reason I wanted to. Not the only reason, but the main reason I wanted to talk to him was that he's funny, which you would not think. No, no, but he's really funny. Likes. And I'd read really likes making people laugh. So I thought, oh, I think we might be able to have a conversation then. And that was in my head all the way through two flights to get to Dharamsala in India and then a long drive up a mountain and then you see more and more monks walking up the hill to see him. And I did start to get that sense of, oh, no, I've just flown around the world to fuck with this guy. I hope this is going to be received in the way that I would like it to be received because this could be real bad. And when he came, I remember that day, a group of people had walked from Tibet to come see him. And so he was late for the interview because he wanted to talk to all of them. And all they were saying was, please don't die. He can't even fathom the pressure he's under. I'm watching this happen, thinking, like, had a bunch of questions like this. I went out there. Oh, some of this feels like it's in questionable taste right now. But the first thing he did when he came in was he grabbed the sound guy's nose. He said, you got a big nose. Grabbed him like a parent. And then he looked at me and tickled me. And I think it's all a little odd, but I think he was trying to do a little what we were talking about, breaking down. Like people are treating him like a deity and he needs to get rid of that context. To be able to have a conversation. I was still pretty nervy. It took me like 20 minutes to calm down. The first. We didn't use anything from the first. Oh, really? It was only when I made him laugh that the whole thing seemed to actually make sense. But I was. You. Okay. So in that moment, did you start scrapping material? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Because it was. Oh, actually I can just. I can just make fun of you. He is a. This is going to sound very offensive. Right. But he is. It is a ridiculous figure. Like to it. To be on the receiving end of that much worship is absurd for a human being. One could argue. And so to be able to speak to him like two human beings, you have to kind of crack that. And so only through making fun of him. Relatively off color jokes. I say relatively because I'm talking to the Dalla fucking llama. He may have sworn as well in his. Did you keep that in. I can't remember. Okay. But I do remember. Think it. But it was the only. The only way that conversation made any sense was when we were joking and joking about hard things like how the Chinese government felt about him when he was gonna die. Like dark things. But the only way to have that conversation in a way that felt like it was gonna illuminate anything was gallows humor. Yeah. Do you. It's interesting. Did he talk at all about that? He used his humor to connect. Not in that interview, but I had seen him talk about it in another one, which is where I thought, if. I think I've got cover. If that's how you feel, we'll be fine. If it's not how you feel, it's something you said, we're in big fucking trouble. Right, Right. Right. I mean, I've actually caused the national incident. Yeah. Did he. Did he say why he said yes? I don't know why he said yes at all. But it was quite fun with him. Yeah, it was. And it felt like the best way to tell the story that we were going to tell to make him seem like a human being because he is a deity is. I mean. Right. Right. I guess. Yes. But. But if he really were inhuman, then he wouldn't die. Exactly. So it's. And he's gonna die. And the Chinese government really want that to happen. And that is both really dark and darkly funny. Next, comedian Margaret Cho. You're so fascinating. And you know, I think for me your dark humor is like exactly my kind of humor. Yeah. Yeah. And so that I think there's. This feels so weird to say but there's that great story about when you were gonna try to. When you tried to attempt suicide. Oh, yeah, I. This is what happened. Well, I tried to commit suicide, but I was like. I hung myself from my shower curtain rod, but then the rod started bending and I was like, like, oh, shit, I'm too fat to kill myself. So I got down and I'm like, okay, I'll try again when I reach my goal weight. Which means I'm never gonna kill myself. But I mean, how depressing. Like, but that's so. That's what healing is like. When you can actually laugh at, like, the most terrible thing. It's all true. That's all real. Yeah. When you can laugh at it, it's like, I'm gonna live. Like, laughing is an unexpected breath that you take that ensures your life for the next 15 seconds or whatever. So laughing is like longevity. Laughing is life affirming in a very, very granular, basic way. I mean, I laugh so hard when I hear. Because that's a. That's the. That's the kind of thing. I mean, I had. I had laser eye surgery a thousand years ago, and it was after LASIK had come out, but the eye doctor was like, oh, well, you have to have the old fashioned PRK because you have thin corneas. And I was like, so the only thin thing on my body is bad, you know, that way. But I survived. So even though it was terrorizing like Clockwork Orange, being able to see that it was so bad, they didn't give me Xanax. So. Yeah. So scary. It was so bad. But, I mean, do you feel, in many ways. Because I am someone who. I think if you can't laugh in your worst moments, you're so fucked. And my family and I survived on Gallo's Humor. Do you feel like humor has saved your life in that sense? All the time, Every day. Here's Molly Ringwald. I was in the seventh grade and Matt was in the ninth grade. And that's really sort of when we became friends and went steady. Although Matt is and has always been gay, but he wasn't out at that time. Your best dressed boyfriend? Yes. But, yeah, so he. Which is one of the reasons why I always say that Ducky's gay, because based on Matt, Matt came to visit me while I was filming the Breakfast Club. And John Hughes had taken us. He would always take us, you know, kids, me, Michael Anthony, Michael hall, and to Kingston Mines, which is an old. You know, which I think is still there, you know, to see Junior Wells, these great blues performers. Anyway, there was this. This band, and they were playing Rollover Beethoven. And it was this. And I was dancing with Matt, but it was this extended version that went on for 20 minutes. And Matt kept saying, like, can we stop? And I was like, no, no, no. It was like a pride thing. We had to dance all the way through. And then based on the interaction of me and Matt on the dance floor, that's what made John write Pretty in Pink. Oh, my God. And that character. Yeah. Wow. And he also wrote 16 candles based on. Is it like just seeing your headshot? Yeah, he wrote that just based on a headshot. He had moved agencies briefly from CAA to icm, which I believe is one agent. I mean, they buy them now, but at the time they were very separate. And as a new client, they gave him headshots of all their clients. And I was. Yeah, I was at ICM after my first movie, which was Tempest, and over Fourth of July weekend, he put that up on his bulletin board above his computer station. And, you know, because he was an early adopter, computer. And. Yeah, it was. And he wrote this movie. And so when it came time to cast it, and they said, you know, who do you want? He said, the girl that I wrote this about. And so we met. And. Yeah, that's an extraordinary story. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty wild. And did you know that at the time, like, going into the film, were you aware of that? Of just sort of the impact that you had on someone as a muse, like, to be that young and you inspired this entire film? I mean, he did tell me the story when we first met, but, you know, when you're that age, I mean, I had nothing really to compare it to. I hadn't done. I mean, I'd done more movies actually, but I was still only 15 years old, so I didn't have a lot of life experience, and so I didn't have a lot to. You know, it didn't seem that strange to me. I mean, now it does, right? Like, strange still complimentary or strange weird, creepy in any way? It's. Yeah, it's peculiar. It's complimentary. I mean, it always felt incredibly complimentary. But, yeah, looking back on it, there was something a little peculiar. It's interesting to become. I found for me, in my experiences, to sort of reach an age that other people were at when they were doing certain things. And you just think, in a million fucking years, I would never, like, I wouldn't want to have a relationship with a 24 year old or 22 year old, you know, or, you know, it's sort of that idea of writing something and you think about the things that are in Sixteen Candles. And when you look at it as an adult through the prism of someone staring at your photo. Yeah. So, I mean, look, I know he's such an important person in your life, and so I don't want to disparage. It's definitely complex and I'm all, you know, and it's something that I turn over in my head a lot and try to figure out how that all affected me. And I still have. I feel like I'm still processing all of that, and I probably will until the day I die. And now, actor Adam Scott. Okay, I have a wackadoodle question to lead into the severance part of the discussion. So this is semi personal, which is, are you in therapy? And if you are, like, does your therapist try to find out what's going on with severance? Or do you ever feel like you have to like, oh, I want to say this thing about work, but I can't talk about it. Right. Well, I mean, I know they're bound, but if I was in therapy right now, which I'm not, which I probably should be, but if I was, they would be sworn to secrecy no matter what I said. So I can say whatever I want. Yes. And they could be the one person who knows everything. Exactly. And they wouldn't be allowed to say anything. Yeah. Maybe there's like an episode of Shrinking where they can have the person who's. That's a great idea. Someone from a TV show. Yeah. Now I want to get a therapist just so I have someone to say all this stuff to. Do you feel like you can exhale now? As I exhale? Yeah. No, it doesn't feel to me kind of like it doesn't really feel all that different than when I was 20 and doing background work. It's still. I think that that is kind of etched in stone. Whatever the feeling was when you started out, you're sort of always there a bit. Do you feel like I should go back into therapy after saying that? Okay, so I know I. It doesn't act. An acting career is the kind I remember hearing stories about. Hearing a story about Robert Redford, RIP the incredible Robert Redford, about him making Havana or some movie which was deep into his career as he was the biggest movie star on the planet and he was still worrying about what his next job was going to be or maybe indecent proposals, something along the way of One of his huge movies. I don't think it ever really goes away. So an exhale. I think if I worry if I exhaled, then it would all come crashing down and I wouldn't get another job. Up next, actress Olivia Munn. I mean, aside from just as a woman, but also as your friend. Just being grateful to you and so proud of you in how you have stepped forward in talking about this. I think you've brought so much awareness around the issue and the bravery of talking about your mastectomy, too. But then this whole other thing happened. Another. It was like another layer of really kind of to say owning your story feels. Feels cheap in this instance. And I can't think of the right phraseology. But you were doing a skims ad, right? Or Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Right, skims. And the Susan G. Komen foundation wanted to do a campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Right. And so you. You went and. Because they ended, you went in with a plan of one thing and came out with a plan of another. Right. So we were. My makeup artist was there, and, you know, she had touched up my mastectomy scars previously for, like, the Academy Awards events that I had gone to, which is right before I had spoken about it, about my breast cancer. And so she was on set touching them up, and it just was like, it takes a long time. And the lighting, it was just. And then it just hit me that I was just. I was tired of being insecure about them because I was really insecure. There are some other spots that I'm insecure about. There are some, like, where they had to really dig out some tumors. It's just concaved in some spots, but the mastectomy scar is the big one. And I was like, you know what? I. I was thinking about all the other women who have the same scars, and that I was probably insecure about them because it's something that so many women are insecure of and that had kind of gone into my subconscious. And I just thought, I'm not. This is. This is. This is going to be proof of how hard I fought. And I'm. I'm proud that I fought hard. I fought really hard to be here, and I fought hard for my. My baby. And I. I came out the other side dropping a lot of emotional baggage and being kinder to myself. And this was just another moment that I said, I'm not going to carry any more emotional baggage if I have. If I. If I have the strength to. Because it is strength to let go of that emotional baggage. And I wanted to do that for other women who had this, and I wanted to send them so much love. And. And the response. Yeah, so you was incredible. For the maybe one person listening who didn't see it, the campaign was you proudly letting your. Your scar show. And again, that was not. That was not the. That was never on. There was any plan. That was never on any of the. The creative boards that they had. And I actually, I thought of it and I. I said to them, I think I'd like to do this. And there was just such peace and the other women around, really understanding what it's like for me, even if they didn't go through it, they understand what it's like to have your breasts taken off of you and. And then have scars on your body. And. And it was just. It was just such a. A caring, loving environment. This one guy came, came up to me at the grocery store, and he's. And he had seen it, and he said, you know, my mom has those scars. And I showed her the photo, and it made her feel really good. He goes. But he goes, it made me always sad to see those scars on my mom, and now I don't feel sad for her. And I was like, oh, yeah, here's Beanie Feldstein. I think if there's one thing that all five Feldsteins share. So my mom, my dad, my oldest brother Jordan, who died, and then Jonah, and then me, is insane work ethic. We all work fiercely. And a lot of generosity that was, like, really instilled in us from our parents. Like, you have to give back, and you have to find the thing that really propels you in giving back. And my whole adult life, I always was kind of searching for that thing that would really capture my heart and make me want to, you know, dive in. And so my brother, Jordy Jordan died when I was 24. And it was extremely sudden and horrible. And that obviously shook my whole world, shook my whole family's world. Thank you. And two years ago, I was on Tick Tock, which I don't have anymore, but I was on then. And, you know, videos are just given to you on talk. You don't look for them. And this video popped up of a little boy, and he was talking about how his father had died of a heart attack. He was maybe nine or ten. And that camp made him feel so much more comfortable talking about it and that all of his friends at camp understood. And I was like, what am I watching right now? Like, I also went to camp for 10 years, like, summer camp. Yeah, I was gonna say your wedding. There was a whole. Your camp friend table. Exactly. And my parents met at summer camp as teenagers. So camp is a huge part, maybe hard work, generosity. Camp is like a huge part of the Feldstein way. And so I was like, camp and grief and children. Like, what am I watching right now? And it was from an account called Experience Camps. And I immediately did like the deepest dive, you know, and I watched this short documentary they have on their website. I did like a deep throw dive of the website. And basically the organization is a non profit that sends children that have experienced the death of a parent or a sibling or a primary caregiver to camp for one week completely, no cost. And every child there has experienced that as well. And so not only are you getting people out of their kids, not people out of their environment, and putting on an amazing one week, you know, activity for them, but they are surrounded by people that get that and understand that. And it's Monica. It makes me want to cry. Like it is the most special week of my year. The way that we are able to exist in joy and grief at the same time is something that I wish all of our society could feel and could get to when it comes to grief. And I think a big part of Experience Camps is changing the narrative around loss and grief for these kids so that they can grow up in a society that's better than the one we currently have. When it comes to talking about death, is there sort of almost your own language of sort of a grief language that people that you see, maybe with the kids or with the adults there, that there's just a way of talking or talking about something. It's a great question. So, yeah, I skipped this part, which is that I reached out to the organization and they were like, you should come volunteer. And so I go once a year for a week. I live in the bunk with the kids. I'm like, everything at camp counts. Kids are so lucky. Oh my gosh. I'm the lucky one. But, you know, it's a full on, like true summer camp experience. My girls were in sixth grade and seventh grade the past two summers that I've done it. Oh my gosh. And you know, 11 and 12 year old girls. And to answer your question, the biggest thing, I was actually just talking to our clinical director this morning. The biggest thing that she instills in us as volunteers and hopefully in order to trickle down to the kids is using clear and specific language. Huh. So specifically for kids. And I'm not a Clinician. I'm not a therapist, but this is what I've learned. Kids, developmentally, depending on how old they are, they. They don't understand euphemism. They don't understand abstract thoughts. Everything is quite concrete. Okay. And so when you say things like crossed over or no longer with us, that doesn't mean anything to them. That's quite confusing. Wow. And so they really instill in us to say died, to say death, to say words and use language that is very clear. Yeah. And for a lot of people, they bristle. Right. Especially the Jew. Or is the Jew. Like, it's very. It's so not the way. And it's even hard for me. And even I practice it in this conversation of, like, when my brother died. And that's. It's very hard to say. But the kids have taught me it's such a. You know, through learning how to care for them, that that language is actually quite helpful because they don't. They don't like or understand or a mixture of both. And neither do we, really, as an adult, like, in a better place. One of my campers said, if my dad was in a better place, he'd be sitting right next to me right now. What are you talking about? Right. And they are angry because that language is so frustrating. He's not in a better place. Thought of this, and he never would have thought of this if he was in a better place to be sitting next to. To me right now. I wouldn't be at grief camp, you know, And I think, like, instead, it's that your. Your dad died and he's not here and he's not going to come back. It's fucking brutal to say, but it helps it sink in, and it helps them. And those phrases, I think, for adults as well, would probably agree. They're very frustrating. And it's really more to make the other person feel more comfortable than it is the person who is experiencing the loss now. Director John Chu. I had snuck into the Oscars in 2000, so when I lived. When they had it at the Shrine Auditorium, I lived across the street, and I made a fake badge, and I put my little thing, and I did it in Photoshop. I laminated it at Kinko's and I put it on a lanyard, and I walked in pretending to be on the phone, and I got all the way to the red carpet, and then they found me. They kicked me off, but I was there for a while, and then they confiscated the pass. So I went home, reprinted the pass. Oh, my gosh and re laminated it. And I was like, I'm going through the back. So I go all the way to the back and get in through, like three layers of security. This is like 2,000. So security is a little different back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I get in there and I get backstage. I'm in the first publicity area. And I watched the whole show back there. And these camera guys were back there. They're like, what are you doing here? And we talked and they loved the story. Like, here, take our badge. So now they're like, you're official. Oh, my God. Just write, you know, whoever. Whoever star comes in here, just write their name down and you work for us now. I was like, great. So I went there. I went to the Governor's Ball. So that was my first experience. Oh, my gosh. So to be there now, legally. Yeah, yeah. And having a seat there is pretty amazing. Well, I guess you've just always belonged there, John. I guess. I guess so. This is skateboarder Tony Hawk. I had a taste of fame in my late teens, kind of early 20s, in the 80s, when skating was a fad. I mean, that's pretty much how I could sum it up. Like, it was in Back to the Future, and suddenly there was an interest in skating. There were skate parks opening. I was on the bones brigade, which was considered the elite team. Oh, yeah. And, you know, we're on tour all the time, and we're in our late teens, and girls suddenly are giving you attention. And, you know, all that was, was very intoxicating. But it all fell off very quickly. And I found myself age 24, with a child on the way, two mortgages, my income just taking a nosedive every month because it was all based on royalties. So I kind of, you know, I lived through the lean years. I did what I could to make ends meet. And then X Games came around. You know, we had our video game, a lot of success. We did a huge tour. That's when I'm in my early 30s and I was riding that wave and. And it felt kind of surreal, but also I was so fixated on. On the actual skating that I kind of lost sight of relationships. Like, personal relationships, truly. Because suddenly it was like all this. All my life that I've devoted to this skating is suddenly appreciated on a scale that I never would have imagined. When you say sort of not paying attention to relationships, what does that look like? It's just a lack of intimacy and Emotional. Emotional, yeah. And then I don't want to blame. I'm not going to blame my upbringing, but that was the example that I was, that I saw growing up. So I didn't really have any other example to emulate. But regardless, like I could have, you know, I could have paused and maybe tried to figure all that out, but I was on this rocket ship of success and I, I chased that. And then at some point the fame aspect of it, you know, I never got into skateboarding to be rich or famous. You couldn't be rich or famous. Get skateboarding when I was kid. Right. No one was. Yeah. Right. So when it suddenly came, it was like, oh, this is, this is what I'm supposed to do now. I'm supposed to do the famous things and go to the events and you know, probably places we saw each other. Yeah. Where it was like, I'm invited, I should go. Right. Like what do. I don't belong in these situations. And I know fame's not the worst drug. Right, Right. We know there are plenty of drugs that are true killers. And so I mistakenly said that at some point. But it's bad and if you keep chasing it, it's not gonna come well. And it's, I think it is in a way, it's actually a gateway drug. Right. Sure. So I mean, I think it is sort of in terms of the endorphins and the excitement. Yeah. And I think it can. You try to try to fulfill that in other ways. Right. And it can lead to, as we see with so many well known people, it can lead to, to, to them taking their own lives. So I mean it is, it can have that same. Yeah. That consequence. And as I kind of got wrapped up in that and, and definitely could recognize something in myself that I didn't like in terms of the choices I was making and I just didn't have the tools to make better choices. And I just, I knew I had to do something about. I just knew like I was headed for disaster. And in a lot of ways I already was in a disaster because I was just ruining relationships left and right and you know, wasn't connecting with my kids on a level that I felt I should have been or was capable or that where they really wanted to share with me. And so yeah, I sought help and I got very lucky in that. My wife Kathy, she, you know, she was my beacon of hope the whole time. And it was like, if I can get to this and I can just through the discipline I've learned from skating, if I can redirect and truly connect emotionally and if I can have a Life with her and our children like that is the biggest prize I could ever ask for. And lastly, authors Elise Loonan and Courtney Smith. There's this quote of yours, at least that, that I really connected to. For I think it'll be obvious reasons, but you said reputational harm for women is dangerous, if not deadly. All you have to say is that a woman is bad. An unreliable friend, a cold mother, a toxic co worker or boss, and she's done. Women will disappear themselves when these assaults on their goodness come. Cue every celebrity take down, the removal of female founders and so on. Our culture is a graveyard of women's reputations, and we are our own gravediggers. Yes. Now, I know some of that you referenced earlier on, but that just felt really resonant for me in my. In my own experiences. And I think you know what we see. Oh, everywhere. Right. You are one. I mean, your story is both universal, as Courtney mentioned, and it's also archetypal. You have a singular story that we all grew up on as sort of like, look at what can happen to you. Right. Yeah. And many, I'm sure many people, including myself, there's some, like Schadenfreude are like, oh, look what. Look what she did. Right. That happens all the time, sort of in the culture where we celebrate people until we decide they've had enough, women in particular, and then we need to put them in their place. Right. Tall Poppy Syndrome is another name for it, but you see it all over. It's just invariably. I think Taylor Swift is one. I know people have tried to take her down, but her army protects her. So we, as a woman, to be really public, you need an army, literally, of fans who will cut you and dox you if you go for her. But when I think about your story, which echoes so many other people's stories in smaller ways. That's it. Right. There's no real infraction. No infraction? Well, that's. Well, I wouldn't say there's no infraction. You know, I think in terms of, you know, like, being involved with someone that, you know, is married now, it happens all the time, but I think it's engaging in a behavior that can cause other people pain. Sure. So, yeah, we could draw a triangle and you can play the victim and you can play the villain. Sure. Yes. And I'd say what happened to you is unparalleled, and I would agree. Yeah. And maybe not appropriate or fair, considering the circumstances. I would agree. And yet there's like, a culture. It Was part of an unconscious mob action, like a cultural story that I think taught all of us a lot about who we are. Even though you have had to carry it. Right. And you know us at reclaiming, we couldn't resist some moments that made us crack up over the year. So here's Miley Cyrus, Sarah Silverman, Andrew Rannells, and of course, John Oliver. Wait, I don't know what it's about. Are we telling Monica Lewinsky what WAP is? Is about? Die teller. Guys, I'm a loser. It stands for wet ass pussy. And then I made myself laugh because I was like, oh, this is great. I have now learned about the Stranger from Sarah Silverman and Miley Cyrus taught me what WAP was. Yeah. So I was like, I've not heard. But that is. I did not know that that giving a hand job with your non dominant hand is called the stranger. So masturbating. Masturbating. Oh, okay. I love you. Lessons on lessons on lessons high. We're at reclaiming with my exactly how to learn how to give a hand job. Well, this is. I mean, this is a terrible story, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. We can cut it later if you change your mind. I worked with this girl who was like, born again Christian, who admitted to us one night, this is on Broadway. We're Broadway actors at this point. And she said that she was still a virgin because she had only been doing anal with her fiance. God. Now, this quickly gave her the nickname the up the butt girl of Broadway. But we were like, hun. We have a different relationship to the C word. Oh, okay. Yes. And I have been sent, like, keyrings or, you know, things with that word on it that as they became able. That is the word we're talking about. We're gonna say cunt. We're gonna be talking about. There is. And I do. I will never forget. I at least have a key ring with the word. It was from, you know, it was from the woman who runs do you know that place Tea and sympathy in the West Village? Yes, yes, of course. She's. I walked in to get some Christmas crackers from there one year and she said, I got something that is absolutely. Makes me think of you every time I see it. And she handed me this keyring with the word cunt written it in wood. So I loved it, put it on my desk at home. And it was. I realized that they were getting better at reading when one of them walked up and said, dada, where's this cut? Oh, shit. Oh, there's another one. Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky is hosted and executive produced by me, Monica Lewinsky Production services by WTF Media Studios. Our theme song is by Ben Benjamin and our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez. Our story producer is Elna Baker and our senior producer is Megan Donis for Wondery. Eliza Mills is the development producer. Our managing producer is Taylor Sniffin. Nick Ryan is our senior managing producer. Senior producers are Candace Manriquez, Wren and Emily Feldbrake and executive producers are Dave Easton, Erin o' Flaherty and Marshall Louie.