The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Tom Hanks | Fed Up
Date: November 4, 2025
Guest: Tom Hanks
Host: Stephen Colbert

Episode Overview

This episode centers around Tom Hanks’ new co-written and starring role in the play This World of Tomorrow at The Shed in New York, as well as lively discussions on Broadway theater, life in New York, and memorable reflections on Tom Hanks’ legendary career. Colbert weaves in topical humor about government shutdowns, food insecurity, and technology with his trademark wit, before diving into an engaging, personal, and frequently hilarious conversation with Hanks.

Major Topics & Insights

1. Current Events Satire & Social Commentary

• Government Shutdown and Food Aid (03:35–06:00)
  • Colbert lampoons the then-ongoing government shutdown and its impacts on SNAP/food stamp benefits.
  • Skewers the Trump administration:

    “Trump and food is like JFK and sex. Or Thomas Jefferson and sex. Or Lincoln and his hat, which he had sex with.” – Colbert (03:46)

  • Advocates not weaponizing food insecurity and promotes QR codes to support “Feeding America, Give Directly, Meals on Wheels, and World Central Kitchen.”
• Trump’s “Great Gatsby” Halloween Party (06:20–07:15)
  • Satirizes poor optics amidst national hardship (“I keep thinking Donald Trump is incapable of shocking me, and then he does something outrageous, like implying that he’s read a book.” – Colbert, 06:38)

2. Tech Humor: Home Robots & Privacy (09:37–12:02)

• Colbert covers the $20,000 laundry robot “Neo,” ridicules its function, and jokes about human workers pulling the strings remotely:

  “You may be wondering, Steve, how is this technological wonder able to do all this by itself? The answer—it is not. Because there is some guy from the company out there wearing VR goggles using Neo to fold your laundry, like a big puppet.” – Colbert (11:46)

• “Big Brother is washing!” (12:00)

3. Tom Hanks Interview Segment

A. Life in New York and Incognito Subway Adventures (14:13–16:28)

• Hanks shares observations about fall in Central Park and his difficulties remaining unrecognized on the subway, despite health-motivated attempts at disguises:

  “I’m not just trying to hide my profile. I’ve had Covid enough in my life. I don’t need to do that again.” – Tom Hanks (16:00)

• Considers moving from a scarf to a cravat, tries out a ball cap:

  “I don’t think anybody will be able to make me if I just show up on the subway like this.” – Tom Hanks (17:17)

B. Doing Good: His Veteran-Focused Coffee Charity (17:30–17:47)

• Hanks plugs his coffee brand, with proceeds going to the veterans' community:

  “You need legal addictive stimulants, you come to me.” – Hanks (17:47)

C. The New Play: “This World of Tomorrow” at The Shed

• Play Synopsis & Mechanics (21:04–22:59)
  • Inspired by co-writer Jim Glossman’s short stories, unified by a time travel conceit: a hotel room in NYC allows 12-hour jumps to the 1939 World’s Fair.
  • Hanks explains playful “rules” of time travel used as a family game:

    “You get to go to any time in the past you want to for 12 hours... homicide is not allowed.” (21:54)

  • On time travel paradoxes:

    “You don’t just get to appear magical. You’ll have to eat the food and go to the bathroom and take a shower. And if you break a leg, you’ll have a broken leg.” – Hanks (22:43)

• Thematic Depth (23:03–24:02)
  • The play investigates nostalgia, the flow of time, and the challenge of living in the present:

    “The present is but an instant between an infinite past and a hurrying future. And if you think about it, that’s a great theme... you cannot do anything about our infinite past—gone, baby, gone. Right? And the future is coming down the pike, who knows what’s going to happen?” – Hanks (23:20)

D. New York Nostalgia & Personal Anecdotes

• Colbert and Hanks swap stories about NYC in 1939, family traditions, and the evolution of the city (coffee deliveries to Tiffany’s, the "Hills Brothers Coffee" aroma over Manhattan, now replaced by “weed”). (24:34–26:08)
• Hanks recalls his early acting days, high school theater, and his first professional jobs with the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival:

  “This is school getting up and monkeying around in front of people. Sign me up for that. I’ve been doing that since I came out of the womb, for God’s sake.” – Hanks (29:13)

• Shares hilarious struggles with the worst roles in Shakespeare (Fabian in Twelfth Night):

  “Notoriously, the worst role in all of Shakespeare, which is why I was cast in that role.” – Hanks (34:13)

E. On Writing and Performing One’s Own Play (26:57–28:56)

• Hanks relishes the thrill and terror of playwright/actor double duty:

  “They are going to have a real hard time firing me if I screw up.” – Hanks (27:01) “Having being one of the co-writers is just… a pleasure and a joy, but it is also the most terrifying experience I’ve ever, ever had.” – Hanks (28:27)

F. Behind the Scenes: Toy Story Origins & New Sequel (34:28–37:03)

• Touches on the now-legendary origins of Toy Story, revealing much of the original version was rewritten following a failed wisecracking, improv-based script:

  “We recorded a Toy Story movie… about 80 minutes of it… completely thrown out.” – Hanks (34:34) “It wasn’t Toy Story. It wasn’t what Pixar was going for.” (35:05)

• Confirms Toy Story 5 is happening.

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the ironies of political leadership:
  "Trump and food is like JFK and sex. Or Thomas Jefferson and sex. Or Lincoln and his hat, which he had sex with."
  — Stephen Colbert (03:46)

• On the fleeting moment of the present:
  “The present is but an instant between an infinite past and a hurrying future.”
  — Tom Hanks (23:21, citing a World’s Fair slogan)

• On surviving NYC’s subways incognito:
  “I’m not just trying to hide my profile. I’ve had Covid enough in my life. I don’t need to do that again.”
  — Tom Hanks (16:00)

• On time travel rules in the play:
  “You don’t just get to appear magical... if you break a leg, you’ll have a broken leg.”
  — Tom Hanks (22:43)

• On writing his own play:
  “They are going to have a real hard time firing me if I screw up.”
  — Tom Hanks (27:01)
  “It is also as terrifying experience I’ve ever, ever had.”
  — Tom Hanks (28:27)

• On early acting inspiration:
  “This is school getting up and monkeying around in front of people. Sign me up for that… since I came out of the womb, for God’s sake.”
  — Tom Hanks (29:13)

• On Toy Story’s rocky start:
  “We recorded a Toy Story movie… about 80 minutes of it… completely thrown out.”
  — Tom Hanks (34:34)

• Final confirmation:
  “There’s gonna be a fifth Toy Story.”
  — Tom Hanks (37:02)

Memorable Comic Exchanges

• Colbert, after soaking the interview chair:
  "Is your back getting wet?...I did something I have never, ever done on the show before, is that I knocked an entire cup of water onto this."
  — Colbert (30:05) "Oh, my God, it’s sopping wet."
  — Hanks (30:24)

• Refrain for The Shed’s location (frequent gag throughout):
  "The Shed off the High Line by the Vessel in Hudson Yards."
  — Tom Hanks (19:06; 19:43; 37:17; 37:34)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Satirizing the government shutdown and food aid:
  03:35–06:00

• Trump’s Halloween and bathroom renovation jokes:
  06:20–09:37

• Robot “Neo” tech humor and privacy riff:
  09:37–12:02

• Tom Hanks interview begins:
  14:13

• Subway stories and incognito attempts:
  15:13–17:28

• Hanks’ coffee for veterans:
  17:30

• Introducing 'This World of Tomorrow':
  18:11–24:02

• New York nostalgia and family memories:
  24:07–26:08

• Theater writing and performing insights:
  26:28–28:56

• Early theater and Shakespeare festival stories:
  28:56–34:13

• Toy Story production history and sequel confirmation:
  34:28–37:03

Conclusion

This episode is a vibrant blend of political satire, showbiz behind-the-scenes, and warm, off-beat reminiscence. Tom Hanks charms with comic candor about both career milestones and new adventures in playwriting, while Colbert’s quick-fire humor keeps everything brisk and entertaining.

Fans get not only an invitation to see Hanks’ new play This World of Tomorrow–“at The Shed, by the vessel, off the High Line, in Hudson Yards”–but also the inside scoop on a beloved performer’s enduring curiosity, humility, and joy for storytelling. Woody and Buzz may be heading into new adventures, but so is Tom Hanks, and listeners are left rooting for him every step of the way.