Between the Seasons: Stories from a South African Childhood

Summary

What Now? with Trevor Noah

Episode: Between the Seasons: Stories from a South African Childhood

Release Date: August 28, 2025
Host: Trevor Noah
Guests: Dan, Christiane, Interviewer (unidentified), others
Theme: Trevor revisits formative experiences of his South African childhood, mining the vibrant, sometimes difficult, always revealing stories that shaped his worldview. Through memory and candid back-and-forth with friends and guests, he reflects on the roots of family, community, faith, creativity, and purpose.

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Episode Overview

In this special "Between the Seasons" episode, Trevor Noah returns to his origins, sharing stories and reflections from his childhood in South Africa. The episode is an exploration of how laughter, hardship, and the unique culture of the townships shaped Trevor’s perspective and sense of identity. Trevor and his friends examine topics like the function of prayer, third spaces, attitudes toward drugs and alcohol, body image, creative households, post-apartheid integration, and the joy of collaboration—all through the lens of Trevor’s irrepressibly curious and playful storytelling.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Ritual and Politics of Township Prayer

• Opening (00:41-02:04): Trevor dissects the South African tradition of opening gatherings with a prayer. It’s more than faith—it’s a social tool, a means to establish hierarchy and ease awkwardness.
  • Power Dynamics: Leading the prayer signifies ownership—"You can't lead a prayer at somebody else's house." (01:05)
  • Identity in Prayer: Trevor recounts how his grandmother would introduce herself to God by name and location to ensure God knew exactly who was praying.

    “My grandmother would do that. She’d be like, Francis Noah... Why do I assume he knows where I am?... That’s not fair.” (01:26)

  • Influences of missionaries led to a sense that God wasn’t inherently with black people, necessitating self-identification and a separation from “non-believers.”

2. Colonization, Religion, and Absurdity

• (02:07-03:12): Trevor humorously unpacks the contradictory way colonizers both imposed religion and blamed the natives’ suffering on their lack of conversion.
  • Notable Quote:

    “It must have been weird because the natives are like, you, you are the bad thing that’s happening to us.” (02:56)

3. Trevor’s Unique Childhood Logic

• Lost Shoes Story (03:39-05:09): Trevor recalls coming home shoeless and bagless. His reasoning: to preserve new shoes from wear (leave them at school) and shed a heavy bag. His mother and cousin were baffled, but to Trevor, this was pure logic, revealing his early divergent thinking.
  • Humorous Wisdom:

    “The bag got heavy, put it down... I literally left it on the side of the road.” (04:01)
    “So I'll leave the shoes near school and then walk home barefoot. And we went back and everything was where it was, which means my plan worked. Technically.” (04:54)

4. Community and Third Spaces in the Streets

• (05:26-08:37): Third spaces—communal gathering places—are discussed in the context of townships and contemporary urban life.
  • Block Parties and Play: Trevor laments the loss of neighborhood block parties in places like Brooklyn, arguing that public space needn’t be “constructed” if communities simply reclaim their streets.
  • Township Ingenuity:

    “We, as the kids, ran the street as if we were adults. So we would close the street with bricks...a car would need to turn. There would be kids stationed at every corner...you'd move the bricks. Everyone would clear the road...” (07:13)

  • Lesson: Sometimes collective action in the ordinary space outside your door is the answer, not elaborate infrastructure.

5. Approaching Temptation—Drugs and Alcohol, the Harm Reduction Way

• (08:53-11:10): Trevor reflects on how his mother, despite being religious and strict, proactively introduced him to cigarettes and beer at home as a form of harm reduction.
  • Subverting Taboo:

    “She said to me, listen, you're gonna encounter alcohol, you're gonna encounter cigarettes...if you're going to use it, I would rather know that...and then you use it at home. Yeah. And then I don't worry that now you're out in the world using it, you know, hiding it from me...” (09:45)

  • Result: This honest, pragmatic approach demystified substances for Trevor and contributed to his delayed (and ultimately ambivalent) experimentation.

6. Body Image: Thinness, Fatness, and Perspective

• (11:26-13:22): The discussion contrasts American (and global) thinness obsession with South African ideals, where being heavier signified prosperity and health.
  • Trevor’s Perspective:

    “You did not get made as much fun of if you were fat...all the ones for skinny people were Stixmanzanza...it was a sign there of a lack of having.” (12:34)

  • Cultural Reversal: In South Africa, gaining weight after marriage was seen as a sign of success and well-being.

7. Creativity Born from Family Arguments

• (15:49-19:37): Family disagreements nurtured creative, non-conformist thinking in Trevor’s upbringing.
  • The ‘Third Thought’ Theory:

    “There’s this elusive third thought that can only come from two different thoughts clashing…and forming a…thought that isn’t from one specific place.” (16:38)

  • Questioning Authority: Trevor’s mom would openly disagree with pastors, teaching him not to blindly accept authority—even religious authority.

8. Being the First Generation of Integration

• (20:08-22:55): Trevor and guests discuss the unique pressure and insight of being the first South African children integrated into multiracial schools post-apartheid.
  • Experiment in Integration:

    “We were literally an experiment. Our teachers had never seen a black child in front of them in a classroom before.” (20:48)

  • Perspective Swap: Black kids were familiar with white homes via domestic work, but white kids were shocked by the realities black classmates faced—multiple bus rides, lack of hot water, outdoor toilets.
  • Empathy and Awareness:

    “I'm going, how is he doing math when he woke up like that?” (22:55)

9. The Purpose of Play: The Roundabout Story

• Trevor’s Core Memory (23:12-27:01): Trevor recalls a happy memory: gathering the right kids to spin a roundabout as fast as possible.
  • Collaboration, Joy, Purpose:

    “We put people together and it matched in many ways...we had a purpose, but, man, we were having fun.” (24:43)

  • Philosophy of Life: The process, not just the goal, held the meaning. The roundabout didn't fly, but the joy came from “the together and the fun, even with the vision, that made it worth it.” (26:37)
  • Key Takeaway: Trevor realizes his purpose: building memorable, joyful collaborations—an ethos reflected in his comedy, activism, and now podcasting.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Township Prayer:

  “You can't lead a prayer at somebody else's house.” (01:05 — Trevor Noah)

• On the Colonial Religious Narrative:

  “It must have been weird because the natives are like, you, you are the bad thing that’s happening to us.” (02:56 — Trevor Noah)

• Trevor's Shoeless Logic:

  “So I'll leave the shoes near school and then walk home barefoot...my plan worked. Technically.” (04:54 — Trevor Noah)

• On Reclaiming Public Space:

  “You literally have the third space right outside your door, you just have to claim it back.” (08:35 — Trevor Noah)

• On Harm Reduction Parenting:

  “If you’re going to use it, I would rather know that you use it and then use it at home.” (09:45 — Trevor Noah)

• On Body Image:

  “If you got married and you didn’t gain weight, people would say that your marriage is not going well.” (13:22 — Trevor Noah)

• On Creativity:

  “There’s this elusive third thought that can only come from two different thoughts clashing together and forming a third thought that isn’t from one specific place…which I think is what creativity fundamentally is.” (16:38 — Trevor Noah)

• On Not Taking Authority for Granted:

  “Don't assume that the person who stands on the pulpit has, like, a monopoly on knowledge. You, too, have the book that you can read.” (19:13 — Trevor Noah)

• On Integration:

  “We were literally an experiment. Our teachers had never seen a black child in front of them in a classroom before.” (20:48 — Trevor Noah)

• On Collaboration and Purpose:

  “Where you find great joy is when you can bring the right people together to do something that matters and have a ton of fun doing it.” (25:36 — Interviewer, summarizing Trevor)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:41: Opening thoughts on prayer and family gatherings in townships
• 03:39: Trevor's story of losing his shoes and his mother’s reaction
• 05:26: Discussion on third spaces and making their own public spaces in apartheid South Africa
• 08:53: Trevor’s mother’s harm-reduction approach to alcohol and cigarettes
• 11:26: Contrasting body image ideals between South Africa and the US
• 15:49: Family arguments, “third thought,” and creative upbringings
• 20:08: Experiences as part of the first integrated school generation in South Africa
• 23:12: Trevor’s childhood memory of the roundabout and its lasting life lesson

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Tone & Style

The episode’s tone is playful, nostalgic, and probing—full of humor, honest introspection, and friendly debate. Trevor’s delivery, as ever, is both self-deprecating and wise, making big ideas about community, power, and purpose feel accessible and personal. There is a constant thread of joy in collaboration, a recognition of resilience, and a gentle push to question the structures and stories we inherit.

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Summary Takeaway:
Trevor Noah’s South African childhood was a masterclass in creativity through constraint, joy through struggle, and the constant search for belonging and purpose. From prayers in humble homes to spinning roundabouts, the episode captures universal lessons about community, questioning, identity, and collaborating for joy and meaning—reminding listeners that the most important outcomes in life may simply be the moments we share and the people we engage, not the achievements themselves.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Before the new season begins, we return to where Trevor's story was first written. South Africa. In the laughter and struggles of childhood lie the roots of who he became. These are the tales we gather. Now our journey begins where Trevor's family always began, with prayer. In the townships, prayer was more than faith. It was identity. A reminder of where you belong.

[Trevor Noah]

This is the awkward part, how you start a conversation.

It's the worst part of everything. Why don't we start with a prayer? This is actually why our grandmother started meetings with prayers. Oh, yeah, because it's to cut the awkwardness. Because now you can't just come together and be like, your son has a drug problem and your husband is cheating. If you start with a prayer, then it opens up.

But it was also a township power move, because everyone here will know whose house this is. Because you can't lead a prayer.

You can't lead a prayer at somebody else's house. No. When you pray in a South African household. Right. First of all, like, I don't know if your grandmother did this. My grandmother used to give her address and she used to give, like, where she's from and her name. No, really? My grandmother would do that. She'd be like, Francis Noah. And then she'd be like.

What a location.

Yeah. Who you are, where you're from, whatever. And I remember I asked her once, I was like, why are you doing this? And then she was like, why do I assume he knows where I am? Yeah. She said. She said, trevor, I must just assume that God is always listening to me. That's not fair. And if you think about it, most South African, like, prayer in general, I think is very, like, considerate of God. It's very much like, we know that you're doing stuff and we know that, like, you know what I mean?

Yeah. But I think because of missionaries, we never, as black people thought that God is with us. God was brought to us, so we always have to identify ourselves and also separate ourselves from the non believers.

It's funny now that you say the missionary thing.

Yeah.

I actually think a lot of that was real. Is that like. Because I always think about this. I go, like, imagine being a black person anywhere on the continent. Right? These people come with religion. Right. And then they tell you that the reason things are going bad in your life is because you don't have this. This God in particular, because there was religion. There were different religions all over the continent, all over South America, all over these places. They would force, you know, the native people that they would force them to buy goods from them that nobody else wanted to buy at predetermined prices. They would say they would do the work of like donkeys and mules and, and all of that stuff. But the main thing was they also came in with religion. So everywhere in the world I can see this, this, this vibe where people have come in with religion saying to you, hey, all these bad things that are happening to you are because you don't worship God. And then it must have been weird because the natives are like, you, you are the bad thing that's happening to us. They're like, yes, exactly. If you had prayed and you were.

Penicillin.

This wouldn't be happening to you.

But I thought you didn't need penicillin because you can pray. Go put on clothes. It's not cancer time yet.

[Narrator]

Trevor's mind moved to its own rhythm. Some sore disorder. Yet it was a gift. A gift that once left him shoeless on the side of the road on his way home.

[Trevor Noah]

My record with my mom, the story that she keeps bringing up is one day I came home from school, I had no backpack and I had no shoes. Come on. And then my mom said to me, and my cousin always tells a story as well, because he says that day I got one of the all time beatings. And he says he remembers like watching me going, but this could have been avoided. He was also a child, but he was like, he says he watched me and he thought to himself, but he could have avoided this. And what had happened was I came home and apparently my mom was like, where's all your stuff? And I said to her, I said, the bag got heavy, put it down. So I put it down. I literally left it on the side of the road.

[Dan]

Very logical to me.

[Trevor Noah]

Logical. And then she said, and what happened to the shoes? And I said, the shoes were new and I didn't want to finish them, so I left them somewhere close to school so that I don't have to wear them out on the way home. Because, you know, like, your shoes would get worn out on the sides. Right? Like we couldn't afford new shoes the same way other kids could. So I noticed kids always had like a flat heel on their shoe. Look at how observant you are, though. Yeah, exactly. And then my shoes had this slant that looked terrible. So I was like, okay, if I can preserve my shoes, then I won't get laughed at as much. So I'll leave the shoes near school and then walk home barefoot. And we went back and everything was where it was, which Means my plan worked. Technically. Technically, yeah. But she couldn't understand. And my brain, I. I remember thinking this made sense. And to me. To me, it makes complete sense.

[Christiane]

Yes.

[Narrator]

As children, Trevor and his friends turned the streets into playgrounds, claiming space where none was given. He remembers how community can be built from nothing but bricks and courage.

[Trevor Noah]

I think the truth is that we think we don't have the third spaces, but it's just because we've made every space a private space. Like, I was just thinking this, walking around, like, parts of Brooklyn the other day. I've noticed a dip in how many block parties there are. Just that was a simple event where you closed the streets.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

You agreed. Neighbor at the end. Neighbor at the end. We all agree on Saturdays, we are going to close our block, and everyone's gonna just open their door and, like, walk out. And the kids can kick a ball and can hit a ball. That's great for everyone. And I've seen a few parts of New York where they do it. Now. Like, this is, like, in Manhatt, by the way. Like, Chelsea, somewhere there. I remember driving one day, and I was irritated because I was in the car. I was trying to get to an airport, and the road was closed. But I loved the fact that, like, I saw, like, someone hitting a ball, a baseball, and then people running. The whole street was just closed. And I was like, oh, we've been tricked into thinking the thing that's right outside our door is not a third space.

[Dan]

No, but that's not a third space. Why is it not home? Third spaces are, like, actual. I'm talking about parks, libraries. They have decimated them.

[Trevor Noah]

I'm with you, and I'm telling you that when I grew up, they didn't exist. Black kids couldn't go to a library. There was no park. There was no. During apartheid. None of this exists. But I have the full childhood that you're talking about because the third space was the street. I get what you mean. Your grandmother told you, when you travel around the world, sometimes you don't see girls, but you always see boys playing in the street. Yes. The third space is the street. That's right. So you go.

[Dan]

You tell the kids, okay, we need to get rid of these SUVs. I would let my son play in the street if Americans didn't have these huge cars. I'm like, if he runs in front.

[Trevor Noah]

Of the car, that's what I mean by close the street.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah. So I go, I would love to live in a society where we go, like, we Used to do this on. I wish I could, like, take you to the picture in my brain. We, as the kids, ran the street as if we were adults. So we would close the street with bricks. Responsibility. Yeah. We would take bricks and we would put them at the beginning of each road and close each road. And then when a car would need to turn into the street. Cause this is like a road, you know, it's not a public. I'm not talking about, like, main roads. So if you're listening to this, you have no permission. I'm not talking about the highway. It's just an informal thing. Yes. I'm not talking about a highway. I'm not talking about a main road. I'm talking about, like, in your neighborhood. Yeah, your neighborhood. It was a township, but it was still a neighborhood. We'd put bricks there. A car would need to turn. There would be kids stationed at every corner. And you'd shout, you know, car. And then you'd run there together. You'd move the bricks. Everyone would clear the road. The car would drive either through where it needs to go to, or it would, like, stop at the house that it's stopping at. And then we put the bricks back on the road, and then we'd continue playing. And because I agree with you, I'm not saying, like, go play in the street, but I'm saying sometimes we look at problems in life and they. They seem insurmountable because we're looking at them the wrong way. Okay, no phones and no this and no. And where now are we going to build third space? How much is a third space? Where do you get it? How do we build a park? Do we get permits? Guys, everyone, if you are lucky enough to have a house, if you're lucky enough to be renting a space, if you. You literally have the third space right outside your door, you just have to claim it back. Yeah, you literally just have to claim it back collectively.

[Narrator]

In his home, drugs and drink were shadows, never touched. But one day, Trevor's mother offered him a cigarette and a sip, teaching him that even temptation could be faced with honesty.

[Trevor Noah]

I think about growing up and my perception of drugs. So I didn't touch weed. My whole, okay, so I'll even take it before even, like, drugs, drugs. My mom doesn't drink. My mom doesn't smoke. My dad doesn't drink. My dad doesn't smoke. Right? So I grew up in a home where that wasn't a thing. My grandmother, et cetera. And my mom said to me when I was 13, 12, 13, maybe even younger. She came to my room and she had cigarettes and she had beer. And she said to me, do you want. And I was like, oh, this is a trap. Obviously, this is a trap. And I was almost disappointed. And I was like, come on, lady, I'm not gonna fall for a trap like that. You're gonna come into my room and offer me cigarettes. And she was like, do you wanna try them? And I was like, no, because these are bad things and we should never. And then she said to me, listen, Jaime, you're gonna encounter alcohol, you're gonna encounter cigarettes and things. So if you're going to use it, I would rather know that you use it and then you use it at home. Yeah. And then I don't worry that now you're out in the world using it, you know, hiding it from me. And then getting into situations where you can't share that you're using it.

[Dan]

Harm reduction.

[Trevor Noah]

Exactly.

[Dan]

It's amazing.

[Trevor Noah]

Which is wild. I mean, my mom is. My mom is like super religious and super strict and super, very progressive. Yeah. And so then she didn't even know how to, like, light a cigarette. So we had to go to. We had to go to an uncle of mine. And then he was like, trevor, what's up? And she said, he wants to try cigarettes. And the guy was like, okay, you want to smoke? And he gave. Gave us the cigarettes. And I puffed with him. And I was like, this is trash. This is. So I was like, how is the taste in your mouth? You know what I mean? It tastes like someone's, like, eating everything disgusting and then farting it into your oral cavity. And then the alcohol. Beer just tastes like. Like old water that has, you know, dribbled down a sewer into the.

[Dan]

I'm a bad Brit. I don't like. I don't like it.

[Trevor Noah]

So I didn't like any of that. And then drugs was almost in the.

[Dan]

Same category for me because of that initial experience.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Okay.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah. In fact, drugs, the way I grew up was, you are a loser. You are gonna end your life. That's how I knew drugs.

[Dan]

That hasn't changed now. That was just when you grew up.

[Trevor Noah]

That's how I knew drugs. That's all I was told. These are the things that'll happen when you take drugs. So I didn't touch weed. I smoked weed for the first time when I was 21. Okay. That's how, like, anti drug. I used to judge people and I would look at them and I would say to them, it is a pity that you've chosen to do this with your life. I used to say that to my.

[Narrator]

Cousin in South Africa, thinness was not beauty, not at all. It was struggle. To gain weight was to be blessed. Trevor recalls how the meaning of a body can change depending on where the story is told.

[Christiane]

I think that one of the things that our whole fascination with Ozempic is based on is. And it's interesting, you know, Christiane, I wonder if you have thoughts with little kids, right? Part of beauty is thinness, as it's taught to you from a really early age. Like fatness, queerness, darkness, all of these things are, like, coded as signs of deviance. You learn as a really young child in Disney movies, in anything. Like, beauty is really coded as morality. And there's this Protestant work ethic thing, right? It's something that you should achieve through hard and punitive work and discipline, right? And when people use those epic. It's like, mm, you cheated. You skipped the hard work part, you know, and so you. You got the thing we demanded of you. But now we find this a vaguely immoral thinness, like, you worked hard to.

[Trevor Noah]

Achieve the right thing. Okay, I hear what you're saying. It's funny because I don't know how it was for you growing up, but. So I've had an interesting journey with weight and how I perceive it and fatness, et cetera, because I grew up in South Africa, genuinely growing up. This is such a weird thing to try and explain to people. In South Africa. You did not get made as much fun of if you were fat. Like, so, like a fat person, you'd just be like. I mean, I don't even remember if we had that many names, but I remember all the ones for skinny people were Stixmanzanza. It was. That was my favorite one. Styx, Manzanza, Skinny, Manili. It was like there were all these names where it was just like, you. You. You're a twig. You're thin. And it was a sign there of. Of a lack of having.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

If you got married and you didn't gain weight, people would say that your marriage is not going well. Literally, they'd be like, is your wife not treating you well? No, man. Look at you. If I would come home from the States and like, many times I would. I'd come back from America and I gain weight. And so whenever I go home, people be like, ah, you're looking good, man. You're looking good. America's treating you well. You're looking Trevor Noem, and you're looking good. Look at your cheeks. You're looking good. And then, and, and, and so where I grew up, fatness was considered like sort of a choice. Mm. And then being skinny was like, ugh, your life is not going well and you're not making the right choices for sure. So it's interesting how it flips, you know, And I'm sure it's time as well. Parents of tweens, if you're familiar with far off drop offs. Dad, stop. Stop.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

Stop right here.

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[Trevor Noah]

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[Health Announcer]

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[Christiane]

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[Narrator]

As a child, Trevor learned that even authority could be questioned around the dinner table. Disagreement, birth, new ways of seeing. He explores how questioning can spark creativity.

[Interviewer]

There's some classic research looking at families, looking at what does it take to raise a creative child. And it turns out that creative children come from families more often than not that had regular arguments and disagreements.

[Trevor Noah]

Really? Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So if you want to raise a creative kid, you can at least increase the probability. I'm not sure if it's causal, but by arguing with your spouse a little bit more.

[Trevor Noah]

What do you think that is? I have an idea, but I'd love to know what you think that is.

[Interviewer]

Well, I want to hear your hunch before I tell you what I think, because I've been thinking about this for a long time.

[Trevor Noah]

Okay, so here's what I think it is. I think the reason children who grow up in houses that are a little more argumentative might be a little more creative is because they're existing in an environment where there isn't one way to think. And so what happens is they're both stumbling on what I like to call third thought. Right. I had this, like, this idea when I was working on the Daily show with my team. And I'd say I think everyone has a thought, right? And then, like, you can have a second thought even by yourself. But I think there's this elusive third thought that can only come from two different thoughts clashing together and forming a third thought that isn't from one specific place. And so I think if you are watching people who don't agree as a child, people who you generally love or you care for, et cetera, you are listening to a person and you are agreeing with them, maybe, or just seeing their point of view. You're looking at another person agreeing with them and seeing their point of view. And then maybe you are holding both, including a third, which might be yours, which is another opinion of it. And that might force your brain to think of more things than just the things that exist, which I think is what creativity fundamentally is.

[Interviewer]

I love this. Okay, so your theory is cognitive complexity comes from seeing people argue.

[Trevor Noah]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

That you don't talk about.

[Trevor Noah]

I need to remember all the. You make, like, some of my ideas sound way smarter and fancier than they are, which I like. Cognitive complexity. Write that down. All right.

[Interviewer]

I just give you terms for things you already know.

[Trevor Noah]

Okay? Okay. Okay. Cool.

[Interviewer]

I also think you learned to be a non conformist through that same process.

[Trevor Noah]

Oh, interesting.

[Interviewer]

That instead of just defaulting or deferring to whatever an authority figure tells you, you realize, well, there are two different authorities in the room and they don't agree. And you. I think that can both lead to cognitive complexity, but it can also lead to more courage when it comes to challenging the status quo. Because there's not a right answer coming from above.

[Trevor Noah]

There's not one coming from above. Yep. You know, it's funny you say this. My mom is very religious. Extremely, extremely religious. But I also think she is one of the most progressive thinkers I've ever come across in my lifetime. And one Thing I always noticed as a child was how sometimes she would disagree with the sermon that the pastor gave when we'd leave church. And I'd be like, huh? And I'm just a kid. I'm just sitting in the passenger seat listening. And she goes, I didn't agree with that. I didn't, I didn't. I, I, I hear where the pastor was coming from, but I think he was. That story of Joseph is not about. And then she'd go into her thing, and then I'd be like, but he's the pastor. And she's like, yeah, he's a guy who reads the Bible.

[Interviewer]

He's not God.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, but he's not God. He's like, we also have the Bible. And it was an interesting way for me to view. Even religion is going like, huh. Don't assume that the person who stands on the pulpit has, like, a monopoly on knowledge. You, too, have the book that you can read. And so now that makes me wonder. Now I'm like, huh? Was that part of me? You know? Okay, I like this.

[Interviewer]

I like it, too. I mean, you can see both of those effects playing out.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

[Interviewer]

You're not just going to assume that the pastor's answer is gospel.

[Trevor Noah]

Right.

[Interviewer]

And then you're also not going to be afraid to question what somebody in power says.

[Narrator]

Travel was part of the first generation to sit in classrooms across calamities. A fragile experiment. Very fragile, if I'm to be honest with you. Shaped by apartheid's shadow. He recalls what it meant to grow up in that moment of change.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, Dale, and we were talking about how at our school they had a program where, because we were the first generation that was like, literally, you and I were the first generation. How old are you, Dan?

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

31.

[Trevor Noah]

31, yeah. So we were the first generation of kids that went to school with kids of a different race.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Literally. I sometimes think about how crazy that was when I go, like, literally the first year in my school that there were black kids, Indian kids, colored kids with white kids. That was the first time that had ever happened.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

You guys were round one. You were the first child. We were literally an experiment. Yo, Our teachers, so wrong.

[Trevor Noah]

Our teachers had never seen a black child in front of them in a classroom before.

Our parents had to wear their Sunday best. Yeah, the first drop off.

Drop off. Our parents didn't even know what a drop off was.

I mean, drop off.

Just think about that as a concept. I remember being Shocked that when I went to school, yeah. Kids were dropped off by their parents in a vehicle that they owned. Like, one child got out of one car. Meanwhile, when the black kids got there, it looked like a circus trick where like one car and they'd open a.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

Door and then like so many.

[Trevor Noah]

You're 15, you. And. And that's how we just traveled around. The back of every bucky. The back of every van was all of us. You know what I mean? But that exposure, like, our school had this program where they went, we want every kid to go and stay at another kid's house who they're friends with. They weren't even like, they weren't like a stranger.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

But they said, hey, you guys are friends. But it was a deliberate program, yo.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

It was amazing to see to talking about, like, exposure therapy. It was amazing to see how the black kids weren't particularly surprised by what they experienced because many of them had moms who were working for white people. So they had seen a glimpse of.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

A white life, made a sense of it. Yeah, for sure.

[Trevor Noah]

Let me tell you something. Every single white kid who went to go and live with a black family for a weekend, every single one of them went home and said the same thing. They said, mom and dad, do you know how black people live? And not in like a righteous way. Just as like a child, like a curious way, like a 14 year old, 15 year old. They went, yo, do you. Do you know how they live? Do you know how they come to school every day? Do you know that they have to take three buses to get here with.

Other people, with strangers?

Do you know that they don't have hot water in the morning at their house? You. You have to make a fire and then heat it up. And then they call that out, and then you have to do it again for each person and they have to, you know, they all. They don't have their own bathrooms, you know that. Their toilets outside. I go to school with this kid. I see myself as his direct, like, competition in that way. But I'm going, how is he doing math when he woke up like that?

[Narrator]

In the spinning of a simple roundabout, young Trevor found joy in bringing people together. He uncovers how that childhood game revealed the purpose guiding his life. Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay, tell me an early specific, happy childhood memory, something I can relive with you.

[Trevor Noah]

An early, specific, happy childhood memory. Childhood memory. Damn, this is an interesting one. Let me think, because there's many. How old? Give me an age and I'll tell you. I don't Care. No, but when does childhood end?

[Interviewer]

40S? Two.

[Trevor Noah]

Okay. No, no, I'm being serious, though.

[Interviewer]

When you're, you know, a child, like, under, you know, in school, like, early childhood memory.

[Trevor Noah]

One of my happiest childhood memories is me.

[Interviewer]

The only one who's ever asked me, what do you mean by childhood?

[Trevor Noah]

Yes. Because I think your memories at different ages are very definitely earliest specific childhood memories. Yeah. So, okay, when I think of young. Young. One of my favorite memories was playing on the roundabout at a park near my house.

[Interviewer]

This is something. A specific time, not just a thing you did.

[Trevor Noah]

No, no, no, this is one time.

[Interviewer]

This was a specific one.

[Trevor Noah]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, go on.

[Trevor Noah]

And we were all seeing how. We were all teaming up. I got a bunch of people together to see how fast we could make this thing spin. But, like, it was a monumental effort. Do you know what I mean? Cause everyone had to be at the right place swinging the thing at the right time to get it. Our goal was to make it fly. That was the dream. We thought if we spin it hard enough, it's gonna take off. And. And this. This was. But that was one of my. When I think back, I go like, wow, what a day. What a day.

[Interviewer]

And of all the amazing things you had happen in this magical childhood that you've talked about, what specifically was it about? This one thing that stands out so much that you want to talk about it now?

[Trevor Noah]

It's collaboration. I chose the people I was doing it with. We didn't pick the random kids who we knew had no coordination because the thing's going to smack you in the hands. Right? So we got the strongest, fastest, smartest, like, you know, most affable. We put the people together and we were like, this works. So it wasn't like. If you were the small kid, then your job might have been to be more on the inside. If you were the big kid, your job was to push. But we put people together and it matched in many ways, right? And the most important thing, funny enough, Simon Sinek, the most important thing was that we were having fun. And I mean this genuinely. We were having. We had a purpose, but, man, we were having fun.

[Interviewer]

So you. So now what I'm doing is I'm looking for the connection between those things and saying, okay, that's the common factor, right? Which is you. That where you find great joy is when you can bring the right people together to do something that matters and have a ton of fun doing it.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Okay. And that's sort of your. Your purpose in life, which is to Bring people together to do something bigger than themselves and have a good time doing it.

[Trevor Noah]

Right?

[Interviewer]

And if everything you do in your life, you can.

[Trevor Noah]

Is.

[Interviewer]

Is that. Is that. Is that.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

The roundabout.

[Trevor Noah]

Roundabout. The merry go round we also call merry go roundabout. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And everything in your life was like that roundabout.

[Friend (Dan's friend or another participant)]

You.

[Interviewer]

That is what Game on is.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And so the opportunity for you is to remind yourself of that.

[Trevor Noah]

Right?

[Interviewer]

So whether you get a Lego merry go round or a picture of a merry go round or just that merry go round.

[Trevor Noah]

Oh, this is. I like this. I like sentimental things. Right?

[Interviewer]

The merry go Round is. It's your. It's your talisman.

[Trevor Noah]

It's your.

[Interviewer]

It's your. It's the thing that reminds you of why you get out of bed today. All you want to do in life is work tirelessly to create the merry go round.

[Trevor Noah]

Right?

[Interviewer]

And the thing is, because you have vision, we're gonna make this thing fly.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay. So people go, huh? And you go, you, you, you, and you.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay. And now they're all coming in, and you're having a blast. And whether it succeeds or fails, it didn't fly.

[Trevor Noah]

It did not fly. It did not fly. It did not.

[Interviewer]

It did not fly. So it actually failed, if we're really honest with ourselves. But it didn't matter, because it was the joy of the together and the fun, even with the vision, that made it worth it. You never said at any point, and I frickin nailed it.

[Trevor Noah]

No, that's not the point.

[Narrator]

Right?

[Interviewer]

The point wasn't the result.

[Trevor Noah]

No.

[Interviewer]

The point was the people.

[Trevor Noah]

The outcome is a bonus. I always say this.

[Interviewer]

The outcome is a bonus.

[Narrator]

And so this chapter ends. Childhood stories fade, but their lessons remain, carrying us until we meet again.

[Trevor Noah]

Sam.