Stephen & Evie | Late Show Book Club

Summary

The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Stephen & Evie | Late Show Book Club

Date: December 8, 2025
Main Theme:
A heartfelt and engaging installment of the Late Show Book Club, Stephen Colbert and his wife Evie discuss Niall Williams’ novel This Is Happiness, their lifelong love of reading, the books that shaped their lives, and the meaning of happiness and gratitude. Blending gentle humor, real-life anecdotes, and literary passion, the episode serves both as a thoughtful book club conversation and an intimate look at the Colberts’ relationship.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Why This Is Happiness?

[04:04–05:25]

• Evie’s Reason for Choosing the Book:
  • Drawn to Irish books and the vivid sense of time and place, particularly Faha, Ireland, in 1958.
  • The novel touches on themes of love, friendship, and coming of age.
  • “But it really is, I think also it’s a book about place and time, but it’s also a book about love and friendship and a coming of age story.” – Evie Colbert [04:25]
• Stephen’s Response:
  • He wanted to share Evie’s joy and needed a reason (via the Book Club) to make time for reading it amidst his work schedule.
  • “Unless I made it part of work, I wouldn’t read it. And so that’s why I said this... So I would read it because I saw how much you were enjoying it, and I was... more than a little jealous.” – Stephen Colbert [04:54–05:12]

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2. Reading Together: Their Relationship & Books

[05:25–06:15, 10:45–12:02]

• Early in their relationship, Stephen used to read novels to Evie during dates and even over the phone.
  • “When we first started dating, I would read you books.” – Stephen [05:30]
• Evie jokes about whether Stephen knew she could read, calling early book-sharing “a period of initiation” or “hazing.”
• Shared reading continued into marriage; Evie found Stephen reading to her “comfort food” and describes a playful bedtime routine where Stephen added nonsensical events to test if she was listening.
  • “As I would feel your breathing get steady again, I would throw in things like, ‘And then the volcano erupted, and then Idi Amin showed up and served everyone a roast turkey.’” – Stephen [11:29]

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3. Books & Music in Their Family

[06:15–08:43]

• The Power of Music in Relationships:
  • Their wedding song: "Sometimes" by Sweet Honey in the Rock – a unique, slow choice they fondly remember.
    • “It’s not a great song to pick for your wedding because no one had ever heard it. And it’s really slow... but you wouldn’t have heard it on American Bandstand.” – Evie Colbert [06:33]
• Favorite Children’s Books:
  • Among their children’s favorites: Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, A.A. Milne’s House at Pooh Corner, and Richard Scarry books.
• Advice to Parents:
  • Demonstrate your own love of reading.
    • “Read to your children.” – Stephen [07:51]
    • “Let them see you reading... Sometimes it’s, you have to demonstrate behavior.” – Evie [07:52]
  • Memories of “reading hour” and the comfort/family tradition of everyone reading together.

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4. Desert Island Books

[08:50–10:41]

• If stranded, Stephen would pick something substantial he hasn't yet read, like Moby Dick, for possible survival tips and sheer length.
  • “Maybe if we’re stuck on an island, maybe Moby Dick, because there might be some lessons in there about seamanship or something. I’ve never read it.” – Stephen [09:02]
• Evie would choose Ulysses by James Joyce, which she admits never finishing, recalling a challenging class they took together.
  • “I would bring, I think, James Joyce’s Ulysses because I’ve never been able to finish it. And it’s really... I think you could spend a lifetime trying to finish it.” – Evie [09:26]
• They reminisce about a night-school course on Ulysses, the struggle of keeping up, and falling behind – “No questions!” [09:35–10:22]

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5. Thoughts on Happiness (Reflecting on the Book’s Title)

[12:02–14:13]

• Defining Happiness:
  • Stephen echoes Williams: Happiness is freedom from fear, being fully present.
    • “If it’s in those moments when you are free of fear, it’s freedom from fear. That’s happiness. Because happiness is you using your mind and your heart, appreciate the things around you.” – Stephen [12:25]
• Community as Happiness:
  • Evie connects the book’s sense of community to her own hometown, Charleston.
  • She values “understanding other people as they are, not who you want them to be.”
    • “That’s what I think is the joy of life. And that’s what the book captures so beautifully to me.” – Evie [13:37]

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6. Gratitude and Family

[14:13–14:49]

• The Colberts express gratitude for their happy children, their large Thanksgiving gathering, and the “many people that we know and love in our lives,” including their work colleagues.
  • “That we get to make things together. That’s beautiful.” – Stephen [14:45]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “It reminds me of our hometown, Charleston... It is being with people present and understanding who they are... That’s what I think is the joy of life.” – Evie Colbert [13:02–13:37]
• “I think I would agree with him. If it’s in those moments when you are free of fear, it’s freedom from fear. That’s happiness.” – Stephen Colbert [12:25]
• “We’ve got a lot of books.” – Stephen Colbert [10:43]
• “As I would feel your breathing get steady again, I would throw in things like... Idi Amin showed up and served everyone a roast turkey.” – Stephen Colbert [11:29]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Choosing the Book & Book Club Setup: [04:04–05:25]
• Reading Together as a Couple: [05:25–06:15], [10:45–12:02]
• Music and Marriage Reflections: [06:15–06:46]
• Favorite Children’s Books & Reading with Kids: [07:07–08:43]
• Desert Island Books: [08:50–10:41]
• Defining Happiness: [12:02–13:37]
• Gratitude & Thanksgiving: [14:13–14:49]

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Overall Tone & Takeaway

This episode’s tone is warm, affectionate, candid, and sprinkled with Stephen’s signature humor. It’s a celebration of stories—how they shape family, relationships, and identity. The Colberts open up about their marriage, parenting, and what makes them truly happy, all anchored in their shared love of books. Their reflections on happiness and gratitude are especially resonant during the holidays, delivering comfort and insight for listeners and readers alike.

Transcript

[Stephen Colbert]

Hey, everybody. Stephen Colbert here about to read the copy for our sponsor. This is from our friends at Wonderful Pistachios. And I was the wonderful pistachio spokesman for years. Yeah, I have a real close association with nut meat. Okay. You know what they say when they reach for a snack? Don't hold back. And that's exactly the approach with Wonderful Pistachios. The don't hold back snack. These little wonders are so tasty, it feels like getting away with something. But surprise. Each serving has 6 grams of protein and 0 grams of regret. That's right. No guilt. Just glory, glory in our nuts. Whether it's a satisfying crack of in shell pistachios, and that's capitalized in shell, or the smooth, instant gratification of no shells. No judgment. That's just it. Just eat. No judgment. I take issue with one thing. It's instant gratification. It's super tasty smooth.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

It's a hard nut smooth.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly. I mean, even out of the shell, it's still a nut.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

We can't disparage the nuts.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

You.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm not disparaging the nut. I'm describing the nut.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

Don't disparage any flavors.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm not. I am celebrating the pistachio right now. I'm on board. I love pistachios. I love. I love crushed pistachio. Like a pistachio crusted trout. Oh, unbelievable. Instead of a trout amandine, a trout pistachio. Fantastic. Enough butter? Who cares?

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

Very good.

[Stephen Colbert]

And I love pistachio ice cream.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

Have you had the sea salt and vinegar? Wonderful pistachio. It's delicious. I get em.

[Stephen Colbert]

I didn't even know I get them.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

Before the softball games.

[Stephen Colbert]

But that's. You see, it's been a while since I've been the spokesman for wonderful pistachios. I didn't realize we'd achieved new pistachio technology.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

Yeah.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Wow.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wonderful pistachios has every snack style covered. Right now. There's an obsession with jalapeno lime. There is an obsession session.

It's almost a disorder. It's spicy, it's zesty. It's basically a flavor roller coaster in a nut.

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[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

That was a wonderful.

[Stephen Colbert]

I wonder what more there is to learn.

We just told them so much. We just told them so much about pistachios. But evidently there's a whole other world. There's an unexplored vista.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

They got a bunch of flavors. They got dill pickle, jalapeno lime, as we learned, smoky barbecue. There's a lot of different flavors.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wow. And I would not disparage any of them.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

No, no, no.

[Stephen Colbert]

Bring it on.

[Guest or Co-host (possibly a friend or colleague)]

Nothing bad to say.

[Stephen Colbert]

Nut me, nut. Nut me with nut meat.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

We're nut.

[Stephen Colbert]

No, we got nothing but nut. Nutty, nutty, nutty, nutty. Talk about.

Talk about, talk about, talk about nutty. Good.

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It'S the late Show Poncho.

[Pandora Jewelry Announcer]

With Stephen Colbert.

[Stephen Colbert]

Standing by. And whenever you're ready. All right.

[Evie Colbert]

May the best reader win.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, that's gonna be you then. I've already lost.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

So this month, Stephen and Evie, you picked a book from a couple years back that you both loved. This is Happiness by Niall Williams. Evie, you read this Is Happiness first. What did you love about this book so much that you wanted to share it with the Late Show Book Club?

[Evie Colbert]

Oh, gosh, so many things. I think. Well, I'm a sucker for Irish books. And, you know, he sets the location so beautifully because it's in this town Faja in 1958. So I was drawn into the mood and the location, but it really is, I think also it's a book about place and time, but it's also a book about love and friendship and a coming of age story. There was just so many things I loved about it and I knew you would love it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes. And I knew I would love it too. But I knew that work takes so much of my brain that unless I made it part of work, I wouldn't read it. And so that's why I said this.

[Evie Colbert]

Was a ploy to make you.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, this is. So I would read it because I saw how much you were enjoying it, and I was.

[Evie Colbert]

It had to be homework.

[Stephen Colbert]

I was happy for you, but more than a little jealous. That thing over there, she was like, oh, this is. Oh, I wish you could find out how to do this. And so when we had the opportunity to pick one of the books, I went, well, let's pick this as happiness, because that will make me read it, and I have no regrets.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Do you too often share books? If one of you reads a book that you love, do you have.

[Evie Colbert]

We used to. We used to.

[Stephen Colbert]

Much more. I mean. Oh, God, I used to read. When we first started dating, I would read you books.

[Evie Colbert]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Like, I read you everything by books.

[Evie Colbert]

I'm not sure he knew I could read. I'm not sure.

[Stephen Colbert]

You'Re the English major.

[Evie Colbert]

There was a period.

[Stephen Colbert]

I was the theater major.

[Evie Colbert]

There was a period of initiation, and I think the relationship would have d. I'd. Let's say, if I hadn't enjoyed certain books. So.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Yeah, I think it would have.

[Evie Colbert]

I think it would have hazing, we could call it.

[Stephen Colbert]

No.

Brainwashing, I think is better.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

You know. This is a story about love in many forms. First crushes, familial love, lost love. And music plays a big role, often expressing things for the characters when they don't have the words to. What is a song that means a lot to the two of you?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, there's so many.

[Evie Colbert]

I know.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, my gosh. I mean.

[Evie Colbert]

It was funny. Our first dance at our wedding was a song called Sometimes by Sweet Honey.

[Stephen Colbert]

In the Rock, which is a acapella group of African American women from Wilmington, North Carolina.

[Evie Colbert]

It's not a great song to pick for your wedding because no one had ever heard it. And it's really slow.

[Stephen Colbert]

And it's hard to dance too.

[Evie Colbert]

It was kind of weird, but you wouldn't have heard it on American Band St. That's nice. Look at that.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, someday Sometimes day breaks in my life yeah, someday the rocks seem to roll from my way is like one of the lines. The chorus is yous are my sometimes.

[Evie Colbert]

That's beautiful.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Now you have three kids who seem to have picked up your love of books. What was your favorite children's book to read to them when they were little?

[Evie Colbert]

Oh, so many.

[Stephen Colbert]

I mean, it's really hard to get better.

[Evie Colbert]

At what age?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. I mean, but children's books, like, there was that moment when they. I remember there was a moment when they took it away because they want to wait for me to get home.

[Evie Colbert]

Right, right.

[Stephen Colbert]

Like we were in the middle of Harry Potter, and they took it away.

[Evie Colbert]

So we have a daughter and two boys. The boys. It was Mike Mulligan in the Steam Shovel. I love that book.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's an old one for all three of them. It was.

A.A. milne.

[Evie Colbert]

Oh, yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Like House of Pooh Corner.

[Evie Colbert]

Now we are six and all the Richard Scarry. You know, the ones with the lowly worm. Yes.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Yeah.

[Evie Colbert]

So fun.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

What is your advice for parents now who want to foster a love of reading and books in their kids?

[Stephen Colbert]

Read to your children.

[Evie Colbert]

Well, and read to yourself. Let them see you reading. I can remember one time saying to the kids, we were all having reading hour, you know, and so I picked up a book and I was reading. And I remember our daughter, like, tiptoed, and she was like, is reading time over? And I was still reading. She was like, oh, it's not over. And she kept reading. So I think sometimes it's. You have to demonstrate behavior.

[Stephen Colbert]

Sure. Yeah. I mean, that's what was in our families growing up, is that our family were big readers. And so that was just what you did, especially on a Sunday afternoon. Especially on a couch. Especially if you had a moment to put the book over your face so you could go to sleep.

[Evie Colbert]

Because that was called sleeping, not reading.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, but you read your way into sleep. So you had the best possible dreams and the narcotic effect of, like, an old pulp, like, pages on your face.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Mmm.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's how I want to go.

[Evie Colbert]

It's better than a sock. You sometimes use a sock.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's just to block out the. Now you sound like I'm huffing. I'm huffing some chemical. Yes.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

A question that we ask everyone who sits in that chair. If you two were stuck on an island, you could bring one book. Each of you can bring one book. Which would you each choose?

[Evie Colbert]

Oh, boy.

[Stephen Colbert]

I would probably take something I have not read, but is.

Long. Maybe if we're stuck on an island, maybe Moby Dick, because there might be some lessons in there about seamanship or something. Queequeg might say something about sailing. The Pequod, which. I've never read it. I've read parodies of Moby Dick, but I've never read Moby Dick.

[Evie Colbert]

Well, then you should definitely bring it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay.

[Evie Colbert]

I would bring, I think, James Joyce's Ulysses because I've never been able to finish it. And it's really. I think you could spend a lifetime trying to finish it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Sure.

[Evie Colbert]

We took a class.

[Stephen Colbert]

Remember that we did when we first got married.

[Evie Colbert]

Were we married or just.

[Stephen Colbert]

We were married.

[Evie Colbert]

We took a class together on.

[Stephen Colbert]

We took a 10 week course at the Newberry Library in Chicago where every week you read 70 pages of Ulysses. And when you got to class the next week, you did not discuss what you just read. There was no discussion. There will be no discussion. I'm going to try to tell you the next 70 pages you're going to read so you have any chance of understanding them. Please, for the love of God, read it out loud when you read it or you won't understand. I had one question. No questions. And he would just lecture for an hour about what we were about to read, and then we fell behind.

[Evie Colbert]

That's what happened.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, I don't know about you. Did you keep going? Because I got hired for a TV show in New York and I had to leave.

[Evie Colbert]

Oh, is that when it was.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's why we did seven weeks in the last three weeks. It was years before I read, you know, the last 50 pages, which are like Molly's monologue.

[Evie Colbert]

Well, those are the best pages.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well. And yes, and yes, I said yes, I will. Yes, sure. I'm not saying that it doesn't get pretty spicy in there, but there's some pretty good space. There's pretty good. Like, who was Gertie? That's pretty good.

[Evie Colbert]

But how much fun we would have on our island if we had this book.

[Stephen Colbert]

We like books. We like books. We've got a lot of books.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

It seems like books played a really big role in your courtship.

[Stephen Colbert]

100%.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

100%. I would read to you over the phone.

[Evie Colbert]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

And even when we were married, I would read to you and you would endure it. You would fall asleep. No, no. You like it. You would like it. But you would fall asleep because that was your narcotic. Was me reading to you. Still to this day, if I, like, really want to put you down, I'll read you like raised hide the roof beam carpenters or something like that. Cause it's, you know, it's comfort food.

[Evie Colbert]

That's another good one for the island, by the way.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Evie Colbert]

Any salad?

[Stephen Colbert]

He should have published more. I could blow through everything he wrote in a day. I need something that's going to last for a while, is that you would fall asleep and you would claim you were not asleep. And so she was like, how did.

[Evie Colbert]

I claim I was not asleep if I was asleep?

[Stephen Colbert]

No, no, no, no. Just go back half a page. Go back half a page. And so I would go back half a page, and then as I would feel your breathing get steady again, I would throw in things like. And then the volcano erupted, and then IDI Amin showed up and served everyone a roast turkey.

And then after a while, I'd say, are you listening? And you're like, mm, I got it.

[Evie Colbert]

I got it.

[Stephen Colbert]

I got it all.

[Evie Colbert]

It's a strange kind of, like, manipulation.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, no, just I was laying a trap for you.

[Evie Colbert]

Exactly.

[Stephen Colbert]

And then after a while, you caught on and you go like, I don't know. You said something about Edi. I mean, I'm in. I'm in.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

So let's talk about the title of this book. This is Happiness. Williams writes, you could stop at not all, but most of the moments in your life stop for one heartbeat. And no matter the state of your head or heart, say, this is happiness because of the simple truth that you are alive to say it. Oh, how do you define happiness?

[Stephen Colbert]

I think mostly I think I would agree with him. If it's in those moments when you are free of fear, it's freedom from fear. That's happiness. Because happiness is you using your mind and your heart, appreciate the things around you. And fear, as a book tells us, is the mind killer. And so when you're. That's one of the great problems of fear is that it itself is, in a way, not a feeling. It's not even a thought. It's something that chokes off those two things. And so.

Ah, the simplicity and the beauty of faja is there's not a lot of fear.

[Evie Colbert]

I think also it's a One of the things I love about the book. It reminds me of our hometown, Charleston. Not so much when we grew up, but maybe when my parents were there.

[Stephen Colbert]

Which was, oh, I don't know, James Island. I grew up on a dirt road.

[Evie Colbert]

Which is a small community. And not a lot. Not a lot happens. I mean, the big event is that electricity's coming. It's 1958, but.

[Stephen Colbert]

And where we grew up, everybody was still, like, living in the house that their great grandparents built.

[Evie Colbert]

Right. And so I think it's about the relationships in the book and to me, the way they.

Start to understand each other, all the different characters observing and understanding the other characters. I think Niall Williams said something about the book as a fable between raindrops, which I love And I think if you were going to pick happiness, I think it is being with people present and understanding who they are, whether they're a friend or a family or a loved one. Seeing each other for who they are. That's what I think is the joy of life. And that's what the book captures so beautifully to me is understanding other people as they are, not who you want them to be, but as they are.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

I mean, because this is a book about family and gratitude and it's the week of Thanksgiving. What is one thing each of you is grateful for this year?

[Stephen Colbert]

Our kids are happy, as far as we can tell.

[Evie Colbert]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

We're having 27 people coming to dinner.

[Evie Colbert]

Which will be so fun.

[Stephen Colbert]

That'll be fun. Gotta get that turkey brined.

[Evie Colbert]

I feel grateful. We have so many people that we know and love in our lives and includes everybody in this building.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. That we get to make things together. That's beautiful.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Well, thanks for chatting, Steven and Evie. If you haven't already, check out this is Happiness by Niall Williams. Available everywhere books are sold. For Late show book club updates, follow our Instagram olberellateshow.

[Stephen Colbert]

I can recommend any book highly whose opening chapters once ends chapter one. It had stopped raining. You're already a chapter in.

Thank you for listening to the Late Show POD show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing. If you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives.

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[Evie Colbert]

Can you believe it's finally Christmas.

[Stephen Colbert]

We waited forever to sing this song. The paw patrol is on a roll to the North Pole. Until it all goes downhill Christmas is mine. No Santa needs our help. Can these paws save Santa Claus?

[Evie Colbert]

We're not gonna let Santa down on our watch.

[Stephen Colbert]

Find out in the brand new special of Paw Patrol Christmas, now streaming on Paramount plus.