Podcast Summary: The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Intro Rewind: Suleika Jaouad (Extended)
Date: August 23, 2025

Overview and Main Theme

This episode centers around the power of creative alchemy—particularly through journaling—to transform life’s most difficult moments into sources of meaning, connection, and even joy. Stephen Colbert converses with bestselling author Suleika Jaouad about her new book, The Book of Alchemy, exploring her philosophy of turning pain and challenge into art. The episode also touches on personal anecdotes of journaling, maintaining creativity as adults, and Jaouad’s unique partnership and performance tour with her husband, musician Jon Batiste.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Stephen and Becca’s Personal Updates (04:28–08:44)

• Travel & Hiking: Stephen discusses upcoming travel to Switzerland for a wedding, sharing plans for hiking with his wife, Evie, and reflecting humorously on previous hiking experiences.
  • “I’ve taken. I’m dipping my toes into our new hiking lifestyle, and we’re gonna go hiking in Switzerland.” (05:35)
• Journaling Habits: Both share their mixed histories with journaling, the difficulties of consistency, and the value of even short, low-pressure writing.
  • “I journaled over Lent this year… I put the lowest possible pressure on myself because I journaled in a…calendar…you couldn’t get in more than like five or six sentences.” (08:31)
• Sentimentality and Books: Stephen speaks on the comfort and nostalgia of keeping certain books—and an old found diary—close by:
  • “It’s not a pile of books. That’s a life raft. I have lashed those books together so in the middle of the night when I wake up, I can grab any one of them and I know what they’re giving me.” (14:03)

2. The Meaning of Names and Personal Connections (14:54–15:53)

• Mispronunciations & Respect: Stephen reveals he’d been mispronouncing Suleika’s name for 10 years, only learning the correct version right before the interview.
  • “[About her name] And later I apologize to her, and she goes, it’s fine. Both of them are fine.” (15:27)

3. Interview with Suleika Jaouad (16:19–27:51)

Creative Alchemy & Universality (16:29–19:19)

• The Book of Alchemy: Suleika explains the book’s premise of “creative alchemy”—using creative expression to transmute difficulty into meaning and beauty.
  • “The alchemy I’m writing about in this book is creative alchemy…how we can transmute a difficult passage in life through the vehicle of creative expression into something interesting and meaningful and maybe even beautiful.” — Suleika Jaouad (16:29)
• Accessibility of Creativity: She insists creativity is a natural gift for everyone, not just artists. Childhood creativity gets “injured” over time.
• Early Trauma and ‘Creative Injuries’: Shares a formative eighth-grade experience where a short story inspired by Lolita led not to praise but being sent to the school psychologist:
  • “Everyone received their assignments back. Everyone except me…summoned to meet with…the school psychologist…so humiliated…” (17:39)
  • “That sense of uninhibited freedom, of purity was gone for me. And I think that’s the case for a lot of us.” (19:17)

The Power and Purpose of Journaling (19:27–21:11)

• Journaling as Practice: Suleika advocates journaling because it’s low-pressure, private, and accessible.
  • “Journaling isn’t beautiful writing. It’s not even necessarily grammatical writing. There’s no right or wrong way to do it… to write your way back to yourself.” — Suleika (19:31)
• Journaling as Life-Saving: Chronicles how journaling became a lifeline after her leukemia diagnosis:
  • “Journaling went from being a sort of pastime and hobby to something that really felt like a lifeline…The act of externalizing those emotions on paper was transformative.” (20:12)
  • “It allowed me to be in conversation with myself and in doing that, to be able to be in conversation with the people around me.” (20:37)

Creative Community & Partnership with Jon Batiste (21:31–24:54)

• On Tour, On Stage: Suleika and Jon blended reading and live music on her book tour: “We wanted to enact the idea of creative alchemy…to show an audience what creativity can do in a communal space, how it can connect us…” (22:10)
• Origin Story: Reveals how their friendship from band camp became deeply significant, especially during her hospital stays:
  • “John challenged me at the very beginning to practice what I’m preaching in this book, which is this idea of returning to that uninhibited sense of play and experimentation that we do as kids…” (22:24)
  • Memorable Moment: Jon and bandmates surprised her with a musical visit while she was in the hospital; the music created an impromptu, joyful gathering in the corridors (23:54).
  • “I remember writing in my journal, the saints marched in today, and they played that song, too.” — Suleika (24:48)

Reading from Childhood Journal & Reflections (24:54–26:05)

• Excerpt: At Colbert’s request, Suleika reads a childhood journal entry titled “Goals and Predictions”, revealing humorous and existential youthful ambitions:
  • “Number one, be first bass in a high class orchestra. Number two, travel around writing philosophical and political messages on toilet seats under the name De Sus. Number three, die. And for a split second after, realize what I thought was, isn’t…” (25:16)

Facing Illness with Creativity and Gentleness (26:11–27:51)

• Health Update: Shares that her leukemia has returned, and candidly rejects the cliche of living every day as if it’s your last.
  • “When you learn for the third time that you have cancer, it’s easy to feel like you have a sort of Damocles hanging over you…my doctor…said you have to live every day as if it’s your last. And respectfully, I’ve come to believe that this is terrible advice.” (26:15)
  • “Instead I’ve had to shift to a gentler mindset. And I’m trying to live every day as if it’s my first…to wake up with that sense of pure, uninhibited creative freedom, that sense of wonder and curiosity that a little kid might.” (27:21)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On journaling as survival:
  “The act of externalizing those emotions on paper was transformative… it allowed me to be in conversation with myself and… with the people around me.”
  — Suleika Jaouad [20:12–20:37]

• On childlike creativity and healing:
  “I’m trying to live every day as if it’s my first…to wake up with that sense of pure, uninhibited creative freedom, that sense of wonder and curiosity that a little kid might.”
  — Suleika Jaouad [27:31]

• On creative partnership:
  “John challenged me at the very beginning to practice what I’m preaching in this book…to dust my bass off for the first time in many, many years, which was terrifying for me and so joyous…”
  — Suleika Jaouad [22:24]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Stephen/Becca Catch-Up & Journaling Chat: 04:28–14:53
• Stephen’s Anecdotes about Names, Journaling, and Books: 14:54–15:53
• Interview with Suleika Jaouad:
  • Introduction & Book premise: 16:19–19:19
  • The creative wound (eighth grade story): 17:39–19:19
  • The role of journaling: 19:27–21:11
  • Jon Batiste and the alchemy tour: 21:31–24:54
  • Reading from childhood journal: 24:54–26:05
  • Reflection on cancer and daily living: 26:11–27:51

Tone & Style

The episode maintains a warm, honest, conversational tone combining Colbert’s signature wit and curiosity with Jaouad’s deep candor and resilience. Both participants echo a sense of humility, vulnerability, and the redemptive power of creativity and community.

Further Information

• The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad features writings from Jon Batiste, Gloria Steinem, Salman Rushdie, Lena Dunham, and others.
• Listeners are encouraged to check out supplemental content on The Late Show’s YouTube channel.

For listeners seeking insight on creativity, healing, and sustaining hope through challenges, this episode delivers empathy, practical wisdom, and inspiration.