Stephen Presents: Yo-Yo Ma (Extended)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stephen Presents: Yo-Yo Ma (Extended)

The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert
Air Date: February 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special extended episode features a conversation with the legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who joins Stephen Colbert and his team to discuss the transformative power of music, his podcast “Our Common Nature,” his connection with live audiences, and his creative projects—including communicating with whales. The episode combines thoughtful insights, warmth, humor, and memorable anecdotes, all in Yo-Yo Ma’s signature joyful spirit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Art of Captivating an Audience

[02:11–03:27]

• Becca shares how Yo-Yo Ma’s performance left the audience transfixed, especially during his transition from Bach’s Prelude to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
  • Becca: “I’ve rarely seen that rapt attention in that way… to actually hold them as much as he had.” [02:20]
• Yo-Yo Ma attributes this to the atmosphere and kindness of The Late Show’s staff:
  • Yo-Yo Ma (as recounted by Becca): “It has to do with the entire spirit of everyone who works in that building… every single person I meet is wonderful. And everyone there is to help you and to make it a better experience for you.” [02:57]

The Warmth of Yo-Yo Ma

[03:27–04:09]

• The hosts reflect on the privilege and joy of working with artists like Yo-Yo Ma.
  • Stephen (Podcast Host): "It’s a pretty cool job… at the end of the day, go downstairs and see Yo Yo Ma perform." [03:42]
• Becca describes how the staff and producers were emotionally moved during the live performance.
  • Becca: “We were all crying in the wings. It was beautiful.” [04:07]

Yo-Yo Ma’s Philosophy of Music and Connection

[04:26–05:21]

• Stephen Colbert greets Yo-Yo Ma warmly, noting his ever-present energy and joy.
  • Stephen Colbert: “You always have enormous energy. You’re always ready to spread joy, have joy, ready to laugh.” [04:46]
• Yo-Yo Ma’s perspective on laughter in music:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “Lots of things make me laugh. Music is funny.” [05:02]
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “Whenever I make a mistake, it’s funny.” [05:08]
  • Haydn is cited as a “funny” composer.

‘Our Common Nature’: Bringing Music Into the World

[05:32–07:11]

• Colbert introduces Yo-Yo Ma’s podcast, Our Common Nature, about taking music outdoors and merging it with the world’s natural wonders.
  • Yo-Yo Ma: "Our common nature is not just about us humans, our common nature. Because we are part of nature. Do you agree?" [05:56]
  • Yo-Yo Ma: "Nature... is so awesome, unbelievably creative, but also utterly destructive. It's both. And guess what? We are that also..." [06:12]
• He speaks about the creative and destructive tendencies in both nature and humans, and the importance of choosing creativity.

Playing to Whales: Nature, Curiosity, and Innovation

[07:27–09:26]

• Colbert and Yo-Yo Ma discuss a photograph of Yo-Yo Ma playing a cello at sea, attempting to communicate with whales using a carbon fiber cello.
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “The cello has a mic attached to it, and it goes into the water because I've been listening to the sounds of whales...they communicate over hundreds, thousands of miles, and they always know where they’re going. They have their own GPS and they have their own language and they’re social animals.” [07:39–08:24]
• Yo-Yo Ma is fascinated by the overlap between whale songs and cello sounds and seeks to learn their “language.”

What’s Music For?

[11:45–12:19]

• Colbert asks Yo-Yo Ma about his evolving perspective on the purpose of music, referencing Ma's own reflection at age 60.
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “First of all, I think music is energy, period. It's just energy. And music is energy. And we are energy. And you can never destroy energy. Einstein says that. So it's part of us. It is part of all of us.” [11:45]
  • Stephen Colbert: “And then we absorb that energy by hearing it. And that music stays with us.” [12:10]

The Meaning of “Over the Rainbow”

[12:20–13:23]

• Colbert points out that Yo-Yo Ma will be performing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Yo-Yo Ma explains why this piece is so significant to him:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “It’s one of the most poignant songs, so full of yearning and hope, written during the darkest time during World War II… it addresses some of the deepest parts of our humanness.” [12:33]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Audience Connection:
  • Becca: “I’ve rarely seen that rapt attention in that way… to actually hold them as much as he had.” [02:20]
• On Show Environment:
  • Yo-Yo Ma (as told by Becca): “Every single person I meet is wonderful. And everyone there is to help you and to make it a better experience for you.” [02:57]
• On Humor and Music:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “Whenever I make a mistake, it’s funny.” [05:08]
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “Haydn is really funny.” [05:14]
• On Nature and Creativity:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “The seeds of creativity and destruction are within us and we have a choice. We have a choice to go one way or the other.” [06:26]
• On Human-Nature Connection:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “If we agree that we’re also destructive, it makes us blame the other a little less.” [06:24]
• On Whales and Music:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “I’ve been listening to the sounds of whales… they communicate over hundreds, thousands of miles, and they always know where they're going.” [08:24]
• On the Essence of Music:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “First of all, I think music is energy, period. It’s just energy… Einstein says that. So it's part of us.” [11:45]
• On “Over the Rainbow”:
  • Yo-Yo Ma: “...It’s one of the most poignant songs, so full of yearning and hope, written during the darkest time during World War II…” [12:33]

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Memorable Segments & Timestamps

• [02:11–03:27] – Becca’s moving description of the audience’s reaction to Yo-Yo Ma’s performance.
• [05:56–07:11] – Yo-Yo Ma discusses the core theme of his podcast and the philosophical link between music, humans, and nature.
• [07:27–09:26] – Yo-Yo Ma’s story of playing cello to whales and why he’s fascinated by their songs.
• [11:45–12:19] – Reflection on the fundamental nature of music as energy.
• [12:28–13:23] – The meaning and emotional weight of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

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Tone and Atmosphere

• The conversation is joyful, sincere, and rich with humor and curiosity—characteristic of both Yo-Yo Ma’s and Stephen Colbert’s personalities.
• There are moments of deep reflection, playful banter, and genuine admiration for the transcendent power of music.

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Takeaway

This episode is a heartfelt exploration of what it means to be human—how music connects us not just to each other, but also to the world around us. Yo-Yo Ma’s wisdom, humility, and playfulness shine through, making this a must-listen for lovers of music, nature, and thoughtful conversation.

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Yo-Yo Ma]

Hey, Sal.

[Hank]

Hank. What's going on? We haven't worked a case in years. I just bought my car at Carvana.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

And it was so easy. Too easy.

[Hank]

Think something's up?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

You tell me.

[Hank]

They got thousands of options, found a great car at a great price. Uh huh. And it got delivered the next day. It sounds like Carvana just makes it easy to buy your car, Hank. Yeah, you're right. Case closed.

[Commercial Voice]

Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Hey everybody. You're listening to the Late Show Pod Show. I'm here with Stephen, your friend and mine. Hi, Steven.

[Becca]

I'm here with Becca, your friend and mine.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

You know Becca.

[Becca]

Hey.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Hello. Hello. We have a quick podcast I want to put on the air this week. This is a musician we recently had on.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay.

[Becca]

Spoke to him.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

You spoke to him and he performed. And you got dinner with him after. I heard. And you had a lovely time.

[Becca]

Not Tweety.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

No.

[Becca]

Not Jeff Tweedy. Not Elvis Costello.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Wow, you're having some cool dinners.

[Becca]

Okay, where do we have dinner? I had dinner with somebody right afterwards. I'm so tired. I'm so very tired.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

You're almost making the move of what his stance is when he is on stage.

[Becca]

Oh, oh, yeah. With Yo Yo.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Yes.

[Becca]

Yeah, we had wonderful dinner. Me and Ev went out. I know Yo Yo Ma. We're friends because he's dear friends with Evie's family.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Oh, I know.

[Becca]

It's through Evie's family that, I mean, I know yo yo my own now, but I originally got to know yo yo through Evie's folks.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Really sweet, man. I love what he said to you about the staff and everything he said.

[Becca]

One of the things he said was, I want you to know that because I had said how much the audience was holding their breath through the end of his Bach prelude into Somewhere over the Rainbow. Like going from Bach into, you know, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg was just this beautiful turn that he does and that his. Why, oh, why can't I that the final double draw on Boeing on his cello. I remember thinking, will they stay quiet? Will they let him finish? Because at any moment they could burst into applause here. And he completed, lifted the bow off, and then with just the perfect breath, then they just gave and gave to Yo Yo. And I said, it was. I've rarely seen that rapt attention in that way. I've seen people who are very successful, but to actually hold them as much as he had. And he goes, well, you have a very good audience in that way. And I goes, I really do think it has to do. And the audience will not know this, but it has to do with the entire spirit of everyone who works in that building is that when I come in, from the moment I come in, every single person I meet is wonderful. And everyone there is to help you and to make it a better experience for you. And there's no greater compliment that he gave the show.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

It was really, really beautiful. Really sweet, man, and beautiful performance. You gotta check it on YouTube. This is Yo Yo Ma on Lecho Pod Show. And I gotta say, it's a pretty cool job. And I don't think I've ever heard a job like this again. When I. I can be working all day with jokes about how a truck full of chicken nuggets spilled all over the highway, and then at the end of the day, go downstairs and see Yo Yo Ma perform. You know, that's a pretty cool job.

[Becca]

One of the things is that Sarvel Komerson, our dear friend, who is one of the producers here and guest producers, she said, I've never seen Yoyoma. I've heard him. I've never seen him live. I'm like, oh, just you wait.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, no, I.

[Becca]

We were all crying in the wings. It was beautiful.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

It's beautiful. All right, well, this is Yo Yo Ma. Thanks for listening to the Late show POD Show. Happy Valentine's Day.

[Becca]

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

[Stephen Colbert]

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Late show, folks. My next guest is an unparalleled musician and human being. He's a true treasure. Please welcome back to the Late show, the one and only Yo Yo Ma. Nice to see you again.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Yo Yo.

[Stephen Colbert]

Look at you, seven years old, bounding onto the stage like that.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

I can still stand.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, good. My knees are great. It's always great to see you. You always have enormous energy. You always are ready to spread joy, have joy, ready to laugh. I'm Just curious. Does music. Does any kind of music make you laugh?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Lots of things make me laugh. Music is funny.

[Stephen Colbert]

What is funny about music?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Whenever I make a mistake, it's funny.

[Stephen Colbert]

Is there a composer who you think is funny?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Yeah, Haydn is really funny.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, obviously, Haydn is funny.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Well, because seeking is funny, too.

[Becca]

Who?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Haydn and seeking.

[Stephen Colbert]

Please welcome the new host of the Late Show Funny. You've done everything. You've done everything, obviously. So now you have to have a podcast. It's called Our Common Nature, and it's about your quest to bring music outside. Why is it important for you to bring the art that you do and the other musicians and bring it out into the natural world?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Well, first of all, our common nature is not just about us humans, our common nature. It's our common nature because we are part of nature. Do you agree?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes. Too often we divorce ourselves from that.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

And so if we agree that we were part of nature, then we see nature as something that is so awesome, unbelievably creative, but also utterly destructive. It's both. And guess what? We are that also that's really important because if we agree that we're also destructive, it makes us blame the other a little less. And to agree that actually the seeds of creativity and destruction are within us and we have a choice. We have a choice to go one way or the other. And guess what? I think you've been doing this to go towards the creative all your life, and that is what makes this show so great.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, thank you.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Let's love it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, certainly I get to share the stage with amazing people and work with amazing people. Okay, I want to ask what is happening in this photo right here, please. Yo, yo.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Well, I have shorts on, you know, there's you.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, there's you right there. You're out on the ocean, clearly.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

And I'm playing a carbon fiber cello.

[Stephen Colbert]

So the humidity doesn't get through.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

The cello has a mic attached to it, and it goes into the water because I've been listening to the sounds of whales. Now, this was. And I was in Hawaii a while before, and many of the people that came and these folk have been sailing around the Pacific Ocean without instruments, just looking at waves and the stars. And they have been sailing because it's an ancient technique that they have actually figured out and passed on. And so but whales was our common interest, and we were looking for the sounds and the songs that the whales have. They communicate over hundreds, thousands of miles, and they always know where they're going. They have their own GPS and they have their own language and they're social animals.

[Stephen Colbert]

And I'm told we actually. We have. Don't play it yet, please. But we have a recording of some whales here. And were you playing to these whales? Were you playing to the west?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Trying to. Trying to attract them and trying to. And because, you know, people are trying to figure out what their language is, because obviously they have a language and we don't know yet. And one of the things that was attractive to me is that their songs are very much within the range of the cello. And so I thought this would be. It's like saying, hey, hi. And I'm gonna keep doing that and work with other people who are actually figuring out much smarter than me, who are actually know much more. But I want to try and figure that out.

[Stephen Colbert]

Have you had a chance? Did you actually ever get into a duo with a whale yet?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Not yet. I'm waiting for you to come with me.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, I would love to. Well, we have the recording right here.

[Stephen (Podcast Host)]

Let's.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Let's listen.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wow.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Right?

[Stephen Colbert]

You don't know what you're saying to him exactly.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

It could be something that's, you know. Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Forbidden. Could be a little. It could be a little fresh. It could be coming on to somebody who's already in a relationship, shall we say?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

A whale can come and slap my pants.

[Hank]

Easily.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, easily.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Have you seen whales in the wild?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

I've seen them off the coast of Cape Cod. You know, I've seen them a little bit off in California and in Hawaii also.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's extraordinary.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Have you?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Many times. Many times.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Isn't it awesome?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, it's extraordinary. I've actually had. I've been out sailing and had to, like, fall off the wind several times so I wouldn't hit a pod of whales. I've seen sperm whales, like, breaching off the side of the boat and everything. Just extraordinary.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

And do you. Do you realize. Do you feel that they recognize the boat?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, actually, one night they. Well, they were certainly curious about the boat.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Like, they. I remember one time we were becalmed and a whale just came up and just circled the boat all night long. And we were afraid it was just gonna nudge us to say, like, who are you? Cause the hull wouldn't be able to handle that. And we were worried because she was with her calf, and the fear was that the boat would become between her and her calf and she would freak out, which happened several times. And she didn't freak out, but we freaked out thinking that she was going to Freak out. Back when you turned 60, you mentioned in an interview that you've been asking yourself, quote, what is music for? And I'm curious, 10 years later, have you come up with any new answers? What is music for? Yo, yo, Ma.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

First of all, I think music is energy, period. It's just energy. And music is energy. And we are energy. And you can never destroy energy. Einstein says that. So it's part of us. It is part of all of us.

[Stephen Colbert]

And then we absorb that energy by hearing it. And that music stays with us.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

It's just part of us.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, you're going to play some energy for us tonight.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Play some energy.

[Stephen Colbert]

You're going to play some of over the Rainbow for us tonight. It seems like a favorite of yours. Why is this a staple of your repertoire?

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Well, first of all, I heard you sing it with a rabbi once.

[Stephen Colbert]

With Angela Buchdahl. Yeah.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

Yes, exactly. But that's one reason. But another reason is that this is a song, you know, the blue bird flies over the rainbow why can't we. It's one of the most poignant songs, so full of yearning and hope, written during the darkest time during World War II. And it's one of the most iconic American songs. Right? So think of all of that. And when I listen to it, when I hear it, it's like it's one of the most moving pieces because it addresses some of the deepest parts of our humanness.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, yo yo, thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to hear it. 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.

[Hank]

There's a world where legends race across city skylines. Romance blossoms in glittering ballrooms. And there's magic around every corner. It's a world known to many as Great Britain. You've seen the action on screen. Now visit the real star of the show. Visit Great Britain. To discover more, go to tripadvisor.com Great.

[Commercial Voice]

Britain it is my great honor to welcome you all to Starfleet Academy.

[Hank]

There's never been a better time to enroll in Star Trek.

[Commercial Voice]

It's our job to prepare you for the unimaginable.

[Stephen Colbert]

To the Night Cadet.

[Commercial Voice]

In high pressure situations, positive reinforcement is crucial to one's success. You're doing a great job.

[Yo-Yo Ma]

This is what we train for.

[Hank]

These friends of mine, they all live for something bigger than themselves, and that's Starfleet. Starfleet Academy new series now streaming on Paramount.