Stephen Presents: Suleika Jaouad (Extended)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Stephen Presents: Suleika Jaouad (Extended)
Release Date: May 30, 2025
Host: CBS (Stephen Colbert)
Guest: Suleika Jaouad, Bestselling Author

---

Introduction and Pre-Interview Banter

Timestamp: 01:36 - 13:06

The episode begins with Stephen Colbert and his co-host Becca engaging in light-hearted conversation about their personal lives, including plans for Memorial Day weekend and hiking adventures. They discuss the challenges and joys of hiking, favorite snacks, and personal anecdotes, setting a relaxed and personable tone for the show.

Notable Quote:
Becca: "We're gonna go hiking in Switzerland for a friend's wedding in the French Alps." (02:55)

Guest Introduction: Suleika Jaouad

Timestamp: 13:06 - 13:27

Stephen introduces the guest, Suleika Jaouad, highlighting her bestselling books, including Between Two Life Interrupted, The Isolation Journals, and her latest work, The Book of Alchemy. He warmly welcomes her to the show.

---

Main Interview with Suleika Jaouad

Creative Alchemy and Its Significance

Timestamp: 13:27 - 18:39

Suleika delves into the concept of "creative alchemy," describing it as a philosophy that transforms difficult life passages through creative expression into something meaningful and beautiful. She emphasizes that creativity is an innate gift accessible to everyone, which often diminishes due to "creative injuries" experienced in adulthood.

Notable Quote:
Suleika Jaouad: "Creativity is a gift that we all have access to as kids... it gets knocked out of us as adults." (14:05)

The Power of Journaling

Timestamp: 16:34 - 24:59

Suleika discusses her lifelong relationship with journaling, recounting a pivotal moment in eighth grade when her extensive creative writing was met with unexpected criticism, leading to a loss of uninhibited creative freedom. Despite this setback, journaling remained a vital outlet for her, especially after her leukemia diagnosis at age 22. She describes journaling as a lifeline that allowed her to process intense emotions and maintain a dialogue with herself and others.

Notable Quote:
Suleika Jaouad: "Journaling saved my life... It was a first massive interruption for me, and the act of externalizing those emotions on paper was transformative." (17:20)

Collaborative Creative Practices and Support Systems

Timestamp: 18:39 - 23:20

Suleika shares insights into her collaborative efforts with her husband, John Batiste, during her book tour. She highlights how their musical partnership embodies creative alchemy, transforming challenging experiences into joyous and meaningful moments. Suleika recounts a poignant memory of John and the band bringing music to her hospital room during a difficult cancer treatment phase, illustrating the healing power of community and creativity.

Notable Quote:
Suleika Jaouad: "They alchemized what was one of the hardest, most frightening days of my life into the most joyous of second lines." (21:01)

Personal Reflections and Resilience

Timestamp: 23:20 - 26:05

Addressing her leukemia diagnosis's recurrence, Suleika reflects on the overwhelming uncertainty it brings. Rejecting the common advice to "live every day as if it's your last," she adopts a gentler approach, striving to live with a sense of creative freedom and curiosity akin to childhood. This mindset shift allows her to navigate her illness with resilience and maintain her creative spirit.

Notable Quote:
Suleika Jaouad: "I'm trying to live every day as if it's my first to wake up with that sense of pure, uninhibited creative freedom." (24:59)

---

Conclusion and Book Promotion

Timestamp: 26:05 - End

Stephen and Becca wrap up the interview by promoting Suleika's new book, The Book of Alchemy, highlighting its themes and contributors, including notable figures like Gloria Steinem and Salman Rushdie. They encourage listeners to explore more content on The Late Show YouTube channel and provide information on where to purchase Suleika's book.

Notable Quote:
Becca: "The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad is out and available now." (25:29)

---

Key Takeaways

1. Creative Alchemy as a Therapeutic Tool: Suleika Jaouad introduces the concept of creative alchemy, emphasizing its role in transforming personal and challenging experiences into meaningful creative expressions.

2. The Lifeline of Journaling: Journaling serves as a crucial practice for Suleika, helping her process emotions and maintain a connection with herself and her community, especially during her battle with leukemia.

3. The Importance of Support Systems: Collaborative creative endeavors, particularly with her husband John Batiste, highlight the healing and transformative power of relationships and community support.

4. Resilience Through a Creative Mindset: Suleika advocates for living with a sense of creative freedom and curiosity, which aids in navigating the uncertainties and challenges of her health journey.

5. Promotion of The Book of Alchemy: Suleika's latest work encapsulates her philosophy and experiences, offering readers insights into the transformative power of creativity.

---

This episode offers an inspiring exploration of how creativity and supportive relationships can serve as powerful tools for healing and personal growth. Suleika Jaouad's candid discussion provides valuable insights for anyone seeking to navigate life's challenges through creative expression.

Transcript

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[Stephen Colbert]

Hey everybody. You're listening to the Late Show Pod show with Stephen Colbert. Hi, Stephen.

[Becca]

I'm doing good. How are you doing, Becca?

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm doing great. I'm happy to be here. It's break. We're having a nice time.

[Becca]

We are on break. What are you doing? You got any plans?

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm going to Asbury Park, New Jersey.

[Becca]

Oh, fantastic.

[Stephen Colbert]

For the Memorial Day weekend. Never been there before.

[Becca]

You're going to see Bruce.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, is Bruce. Oh, I don't. I don't know.

[Becca]

Welcome to Asbury Park. That album.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Becca]

I'm actually going hiking over this.

[Stephen Colbert]

Hiking.

[Becca]

My wife Evie, you may be familiar with her work.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes.

[Becca]

My wife Evie has been kind of warning me, but also informing me that we're gonna be hiking in the future. That as we now we're in our 60s. There's gonna be a lot of hiking.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

Cause it's fairly low impact, but strenuous. And she's so much healthier than I am on so many levels. Mentally, spiritually, physically, cardiovascularly, everything. Probably endocrine on every level. She's like, elite. And I try to keep up with her. And so I've taken. I'm dipping my toes into our new hiking lifestyle, and we're gonna go hiking in Switzerland.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, in Switzerland. Yeah.

[Becca]

We have a wedding. A friend's daughter is getting married in the French Alps.

[Stephen Colbert]

Cool.

[Becca]

And so we're gonna go over to Switzerland and do some hiking.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay. Because I was gonna ask, when people are like, how do we feel about hiking? When going on a trip somewhere, people.

[Becca]

Say, how do we feel about hiking?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. And the question is, what kind of hiking are we talking about? Are we talking about there's a backpack on and you're maybe camping while on the hike, or are we talking about going a beautiful nature walk that involves, you know, some terrain? But it's not.

[Becca]

We are. I think we're doing a combo platter here. I think. I think we're doing a day of like, hey, let's go out and walk this beautiful valley and maybe get into some heights. Get up in those pine trees over there.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Beautiful.

[Becca]

But then we're. But then at the end of the day, it's like 400 thread count sheets.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Yeah. That's the ideal.

[Becca]

That is exactly the ideal.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

And like, I would be a pilgrim in, like, the Middle Ages, like, walking to Santiago de Capostello if I could have those 400 thread count sheets, you know, just like Jesus did.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

And. But. And then the. I think the second hike we're doing is going to be a serious one. It was hiking into Italy.

[Stephen Colbert]

Whoa.

[Becca]

So that's going to be. That's going to be backpacks and stuff like that.

[Stephen Colbert]

You have boots you're breaking into.

[Becca]

I got. I already broke them in. I do. We do some. We've done a few. We did. We did. We hiked Sedona last year.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, wow.

[Becca]

It's a lot of fun.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay. This is going to be beautiful.

[Becca]

It's going to be. It's going to be fantastic. I think it's going to destroy me, but other than that.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, but you're. I mean, it's nice.

[Becca]

On our honeymoon, we went hiking. We hiked in Waimea Canyon. And I had to stop coming out of Waimea Canyon. And I thought, she is gonna divorce me. She just. She could ask for an annulment right now because I can't even get out of this damn canyon. How am I gonna, like pick up grandkids?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, man. I mean, walking. Sometimes there's the end of the road. Sometimes there's the end of the road. You gotta sit down. But you do. Any good hiking snacks? Any good hike snacks?

[Becca]

I'm a gorp man.

[Stephen Colbert]

Gorp. Gorp core.

[Becca]

Yeah, Gorp core.

[Stephen Colbert]

Gorp core.

[Becca]

Is that a. Is that a musical genre I don't know about?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, something like that. Something like Gore Tex.

[Becca]

Yeah, I like, I like a. Give me a good old cliff bar. Yeah, you know, yeah, I'll take a cliff. I'll take trail mix. As long as I'm on a trail.

[Stephen Colbert]

Nice.

[Becca]

It's one of the few times I drink water.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, you gotta stay hydrated. You gotta stay hydrated when you're doing the big walks. Okay, well, beautiful, beautiful hiking time. And this is a nice podcast to listen to on a hike. This is a friend of the show. Dear friend of the show. First time on the show, but knows you very well. Knows members of the band extremely well. Was just on. She's a lovely. She just put out a book called the Book of Alchemy.

[Becca]

Oh, Soul Lake. Yes, sure.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, this is Soulaika. So wonderful. Such a lovely interview. Wanted to put it on the pod.

[Becca]

Perfect.

[Stephen Colbert]

Do you do any journaling? That was something I wanted to ask.

[Becca]

I journaled over Lent this year. I've tried to journal many times. Like when I travel, I sometimes journal.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

Like when I was a kid. Kid meaning like in my 20s and I'd hiking around Europe, I journaled. I filled a whole journal that summer and that's the last time I seriously journaled. And I'm 61 now. I was probably 24 or 25 then. And I started journaling again over Lent and I really enjoyed it. And I put the lowest possible pressure on myself because I journaled in a. Someone had given me a beautiful leather bound calendar, old fashioned, like analog calendar. And I went, well, every day he's got entries that just go all across both pages, like the butterfly of both pages. And I went, okay, I'll just fill just that one day. And you couldn't get in more than like five or six sentences. Oh, that's so good. And I'll just like, what was the highlight of the day? What the day mean to me? And then think about Lent.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

And I. I forgot it when we went on our last break. And so there was a whole week missing. And then I went dad. Hell with it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah.

[Becca]

And I stopped, but I got a couple of weeks in there.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. No, that's really nice.

[Becca]

I feel the value. I swear, I feel the value of it. I envy people who have. Like David Sedaris. He's been journaling since he was a child every day for his entire life. That's great. You can look back.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm the same way. The discipline of it is, like, if I can get in a groove, that's great. But yeah, as soon as there's blank pages, I feel like, well, I already blew it. But the more you do, that's like a bullet point.

[Becca]

Mindy Kaling gave me a journal. Beautiful leather bound journal with, like, gold embossing everything when I got this gig.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

And it is my journey to the late show, given to Stephen Colbert by Mindy Kaling. Is what it says on the COVID Very important for her to, like, be part of the story.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Becca]

I started that when we first started. When we first started the show, I journaled.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, that's nice.

[Becca]

I journaled for a while.

[Stephen Colbert]

Cool. Yeah.

[Becca]

I've gone back to read it. No great pearls of wisdom.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

That's the danger of journaling. You go back and go like, ooh, what was I now in perspective? I can see what that was like. What was I taking from the day? Almost nothing.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, totally. Oh, I found an old high school diary over the last break. So hard to read. So hard to read.

[Becca]

When my mom passed, I. I took her diary.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, nice.

[Becca]

And she diaried late in her life. And it's beautiful. It's mostly about us kids.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

On the street once in New York, when we used to live on 86th Street, I was walking to the subway and there was a pile of books just on the side of the road. Like, I think they might have been meant for the trash can, but the trash can was full. So somebody just put a pile of books next to the trash can. And they were old books, so I looked through them. There was nothing much that interested me. But the top book was this beautiful green leather book, like a daily diary. And on the front of it, it had this symbol, this golden bird, stylized bird on the front, which I realized is the symbol of the Bird's Eye Frozen Food Corporation. And it was a diary of a man who worked for Bird's Eye frozen food. Like in the early 50s.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

When Bird's Eye was new. Like, frozen food was this new because you had to have frozen shipping containers and stuff like that. Or like Truckers and stuff like that. You had a continuous chain of freezing the entire way. And there's this guy, he was some. I don't know, I couldn't tell whether he was in sales or some sort of administration or accountancy or something within the Bird's Eye Corporation. And it's his life in, like, 1952 New York. And I picked it up right before we left the city and moved out to New Jersey. And he had friends in the Journal who lived on our street in New Jersey.

[Stephen Colbert]

Whoa.

[Becca]

And I've always wanted to. I've never taken the time to go, okay, I wonder if I could find this family. Do they still live out there? But it's talking about, like, trying to. It's all about trying to convince people. Like, it's his daily diary about just his life and everything. But also, like, the challenges of getting people to buy into the new frozen food world.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's so interesting.

[Becca]

It's something we take for granted.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

And then one day, one journal entry is like, stop by the Havishams for drinks with Barbara. Great night. Or whatever like that. And then it's all him walking home from his office in midtown to their Upper east side place. And then the next day, it says, went to the dentist. Seven teeth to be pulled.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, gosh.

[Becca]

Lower than a snake. Meaning, like, his emotion. Like, you know, it's great. And it's just this guy's life. And I've thought, like, I wonder if I could create, like, a theater piece out of this. I just have this man's life from 1952.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wow. That's really special.

[Becca]

Yeah. And I still have it. It's still. I think it's actually presently on my bedside table. I always. I don't know why. There are certain things I was just like, I just keep nearby.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

Like, I keep 100 selected poems by E.E. cummings nearby.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

I keep, like, either Franny or Zoe or Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour Introduction or nine stories nearby. You know, I keep a copy of the New Testament, Proverbs and Psalms. I keep it nearby. It's just always kind of there. One of my favorite sci fi books in case. From my childhood, in case I need to read it to calm myself down. Cause certain books are just Xanax for me. And Evie's always complaining, like, what are you gonna do with that pile of books? I'd be like, it's not a pile of books. That's a life raft.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Becca]

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.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes.

[Becca]

And one of them is this guy's diary.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. This would be. I wonder if there's a way that, like, the last 10 seconds of the good night act, you could just, like.

[Becca]

Read a quick page on this date?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, this date.

[Becca]

Oh, that'd be funny.

[Stephen Colbert]

And then see if anyone, like, calls in with, like, I know who this guy is.

[Becca]

Do you know who this guy is? And then I read. I read something just, like, a page. Like, it's the last act before I say good night. Like, all right, let's go to this guy's diary. And I read. I read something from 70 years ago.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[IXL Representative]

In New York.

[Stephen Colbert]

I think it's really cool.

[Becca]

All right, we'll try it.

[Stephen Colbert]

We'll try it.

[Becca]

We'll try it. We'll talk to Tom.

[Stephen Colbert]

Great.

[Becca]

You got to sell it.

[Stephen Colbert]

I will. I'll pitch. I'll be ready.

[Becca]

All right, great.

[Stephen Colbert]

All right. Well, speaking of journaling, this is Suleika Joad. And this is the late Cho Padro.

[Becca]

And by the way, I'm just gonna jump in here. I have known Sulaika for 10 years.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

And I call her Sulaika.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay.

[Becca]

And I, right before she came on the band said, it's Suleika. I said, what? It's Suleika. I said, it's Sulaika. Nope, it's Sulayka. And I said, I've been calling her Sulaika for 10 years. And they said, cause she's married to John Batiste.

[Stephen Colbert]

She's famously married to John Batiste.

[Becca]

Yeah. And they go, that's what John calls her. I said, wait, what? So John calls her by the wrong name. And so later I apologize to her. And she goes, it's fine. Both of them are.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

But I just felt. I felt terrible. I'm a. Not only a friend, but I'm a fan.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Becca]

All right, all right. Just ask your friends what their actual names are.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes.

[Becca]

By the way, it's Steve Buscemi.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Becca]

I thought it was Buscemi. It's Buscemi.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Becca]

All right.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Becca]

Yes.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay. This is the POD Show. Thanks, Stephen. Always a pleasure.

[Becca]

Bye.

[Stephen Colbert]

Bye.

[Becca]

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Late show, folks. My next guest is a best selling author whose writing includes Between Two Life Interrupted and the Isolation Journals. Her new book is the Book of Alchemy. Please welcome to the Late Show. Sulaika Jawad.

[Suleika Joad]

It's so good to see you.

[Becca]

The new book is here, as I said, the book of Alchemy. Suleika, what kind of alchemy are we talking about here?

[Suleika Joad]

The alchemy I'm writing about in this book is creative alchemy. And it has become a kind of philosophy of life for me, which is how we can transmute a difficult passage in life through the vehicle of creative expression into something interesting and meaningful and maybe even beautiful.

[Becca]

And is that an invitation to everyone, or do you have to be a lifelong artist to do this?

[Suleika Joad]

So I'm of the opinion that creativity is a gift that we all have access to as kids. We have such an organic relationship to our creativity. We play make believe, we tap into our imagination, and that starts to change as we get creative injuries and it gets knocked out of us as adults. And I can remember the moment that that happened for me in the eighth grade. I was a kid who had this kind of uninhibited freedom when it came to creating creative expression. I played the bass, I painted. And my first great love, which was keeping the journal, was where I found a sense of refuge and belonging. And in the eighth grade, my English teacher invited our entire class to write a creative short story over spring break. And I was thrilled about this, given my love of writing. And I spent that entire spring break filling up an entire 40 page yellow legal pad with a whole novella. Now, I didn't have quite the same vault of life experiences to draw upon for inspiration, and I had been reading Nabokov Lolita at the time. And so when I handed in this short story, which ended up being about 40 pages long, I was awaiting praise from my teacher. I was awaiting possibly a literary agent, maybe even widespread publication. But instead, everyone received their assignments back. Everyone except me. And I was summoned to meet with a very different figure, the school psychologist. And, you know, I can laugh about this now, but I was so humiliated. And this beloved English teacher of mine never said a word to me about my short story. And it would take many, many years before I dared show my writing to anyone. And I still journaled relentlessly because there are parts of yourself that you just can't shut down. But that sense of uninhibited freedom, of purity was gone for me. And I think that's the case for a lot of us as adults.

[Becca]

Has your journaling always been for other people or is it completely private?

[Suleika Joad]

So I, you know, this book is about the value of cultivating a daily creative practice. And the creative practice that to me feels the most successful, has always been journaling. Because journaling isn't beautiful writing. It's not even necessarily grammatical writing. There's no right or wrong way to do it. You show up as you are, you take a few minutes, or however much time you can spare, to write your way back to yourself. And so for me, journaling has been a touch point. It doesn't require fancy equipment. It doesn't require any technical prowess.

[Becca]

You say it saved your life.

[Suleika Joad]

It saved my life. How so? When I turned 22, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. And even though I had been journaling for my entire life, journaling went from being a sort of pastime and hobby to something that really felt like a lifeline. It was a first massive interruption for me, and I had so much sadness and so much anger, and I felt so deeply isolated, and I didn't know how to carry all of those feelings inside of me. And so the act of externalizing those emotions on paper was transformative. But what surprised me, I think, more than anything, is that 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. And that, to me, is the power of a creative practice like journaling. It allows us to alchemize what may feel painful into something.

[Becca]

Well, one of the people around you is our old friend John Batiste, who is your husband. And on your book tour, it wasn't just you. John went out with you on the book tour and played piano while you actually read from your book. And it's not every book tour that also sees a double bass on stage. That's you and John playing on stage. What was the vision for this?

[Suleika Joad]

So John and I met at band camp when I was about 12 years old and John was 13.

[Becca]

Yep.

[Suleika Joad]

And from the very beginning, this book is dedicated to him. He is, I think, my first teacher, in a sense, in this notion of creative alchemy. And 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 to one another, how it can leave you feeling transformed. And 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 without worrying about if we're a good artist or a bad artist, and to dust my bass off for the first time in many, many years, which was terrifying for me and so joyous. I'm returning home from this tour, wanting to take bass lessons. Not for any reason other than that. It was so much fun. But it also, in a way, was a reenactment of this sort of creative alchemy that John first embodied for me, along with some of the members of this band when I was 22. Yeah, let's give a shout out to the band. I found myself here in New York City in the hospital where I'd been for many, many weeks. And things were not going well for me, cancer treatment wise. None of the chemotherapy was working and I was going into bone marrow failure. And the day that I received that news was the day that John learned that I was sick and stuck in the hospital and showed up.

[Becca]

You guys were not a couple at the time?

[Suleika Joad]

We were not a couple. We were just old friends from, you know, band camp. Band camp showed up with the band unannounced at my hospital room door. And as the sound of John's balotica and Joe's tambourine and abandas tuba and Eddie Sachs began to float out into the hallway, patients and doctors and nurses started to filter out of their rooms. And right there in the hospital corridors, everyone began to clap and dance and sing. And they alchemized what was one of the hardest, most frightening days of my life at that point into the most joyous of second lines. And I remember writing in my journal, the saints marched in today, and they played that song too.

[Becca]

Well, we gotta get going here, but could you read? Could you read. I'd love if you could read a little bit of your journal from when you were 12 years old. OK, this is a little bit. This is the journalist who got shut down by the teacher who sent her to the therapist. Yes.

[Suleika Joad]

Okay, so I wrote this entry the summer that I met John, and it is titled Goals and predictions. And these are my goals and predictions for the rest of my life. So, 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. I think I was just beginning my foray into existentialism that summer. Feeling a lot of big feelings. And the last one, create a base suit by cutting eye and leg holes in my double base case. So.

[Becca]

So much left to Achie. How are you feeling now? How are you feeling now? How is your leukemia now? Has it returned?

[Suleika Joad]

So I learned a year ago that my leukemia was back. And 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. It's easy to feel like you're drowning in an ocean of uncertainty. And when I expressed this to my doctor, he gave me the advice that a lot of people give you when you find yourself in a situation like mine. And he 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. It is exhausting to try to make every family dinner as meaningful as possible and to carpe diem the crap out of every moment. And I think that if we were all living every day as if it were our last, our world would be chaos. We'd be cheating on our spouses and emptying our savings account and declaring bankruptcy. And so 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. And the way that I do that is through my own tiny acts of creative alchemy.

[Becca]

Well, the book is the Book of Alchemy. It's your writing. It's John Baptiste is written in here. Gloria Steinem, Salman Rushdie, Lena Dunham, other contributors. It is out and available now. The Book of Alchemy. The writer Soleka Jawad, everybody. 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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[Becca]

Clock is running.

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[Becca]

9116. Emergency.

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[Becca]

Somebody killed two girls.

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My grandbaby and my friend. They're dead.

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[Becca]

She wants to find more young women for him to kill.

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[Becca]

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