← Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)
Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)
W. Kamau Bell
00:54:54
Ted Danson has a ton of respect for stand-up comic and activist W. Kamau Bell and the choices he’s made in life. The “United Shades of America” host talks to Ted about his path to melding comedy and activism, dealing with those his disagrees with, discerning how best to use his voice, staying joyful in the face of the world’s sadness, working with educators, and more. To help those affected by the Southern California wildfires, make a donation to World Central Kitchen today. Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.
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- [00:02]
Ted Danson
Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Race the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply. You want those kids in all those schools to be as smart and prepared for the world as possible because they're going to be adults someday and you're going to run into them. So you want all the kids to.
- [00:41]
W. Kamau Bell
Be as smart as they possibly can be.
- [00:43]
Ted Danson
Helping those kids is a selfish act.
- [00:54]
W. Kamau Bell
Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Today I am talking with W. Kamau Bell. I have to say, it was very hard for me during this podcast not to just, you know, totally go to church around him because I have so much admiration for what he does in the world. And he makes me laugh and he astounds me with his courage. Kamau is a stand up comic, activist and TV host. He was the host of the United Shades of America, which ran for seven seasons on CNN and won five Emmys. Check out his book with K. Kate Shotz. Do the work. An anti racist activity war. Anyway, let's get into it. Meet W. Kamau Bell. All right, first off, let me just get over and we can cut this part out. Whatever. I am in awe of you. I have so much respect for what you do. So I'm a little nervous, but I'll get over that pretty quickly, I promise.
- [01:51]
Ted Danson
Now let's get over this part. You are one of the defining, like, as a kid watching television, saying, I want to do comedy, I want to be in that business. Sam Malone was one of my heroes as a kid.
- [02:06]
W. Kamau Bell
Wow.
- [02:07]
Ted Danson
So it was like, and me and my mom watched Cheer. I mean, so this for me, and I don't know how you'll feel about this, but I'm excited to. I want to call my mom at some point and be like the only other time I've ever had that was Alan Aldis. So I don't know if that makes you feel good or really good. My mom, I did a Alan Aldis podcast and I was like, I have to let my mom know that. Talk to Alan Aldis, one of my heroes. Yeah. So like, like in that era of television. Yeah, you're. Yeah, you're the best. And then the good place, it's just like. And that was like me and my wife bonded over. It's just. Yeah.
- [02:39]
W. Kamau Bell
So Are you kids old enough for the good place or not yet?
- [02:43]
Ted Danson
Oldest is about to turn 13, and I just had the thought recently of, like, yeah, you're. She watched Ted last, so I feel like that's a good segue into the good place. Yeah, definite Ted Lasso. Keeps her pretty. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A part of who I am in this business and how I am is because of, like, watching so much Ted Danson as a kid, so.
- [03:01]
W. Kamau Bell
Well, first off, thank you for just telling me that. Cause my blood pressure just went down a couple notches, and I just thought, oh, he complimented me. I'm all right. I'm fine.
- [03:11]
Ted Danson
They told me they compliment him right away, even if you don't mean it. And I was like, okay, I just googled him.
- [03:16]
W. Kamau Bell
I am the type of person that asks for a compliment, gets it, and chooses to believe it, even though I forced them to say say it. So, yeah, that works for me.
- [03:25]
Ted Danson
That's fine. That's fine.
- [03:26]
W. Kamau Bell
I. I don't know. My wife, Mary Steenbergen. I don't know if you know who.
- [03:29]
Ted Danson
She is, but did he just do that to me? Everybody back here. My wife, Mary Steenburgen. I don't know if you know who that is. I. I've read.
- [03:37]
W. Kamau Bell
Okay.
- [03:38]
Ted Danson
Tabloids. Well, as you guys are always in the tabloids.
- [03:40]
W. Kamau Bell
Yes, we are. You guys are always doing something hard.
- [03:44]
Ted Danson
Kicked out of a restaurant or starting a fight. Yeah, I followed you on page six in Perez Hilton dot com.
- [03:52]
W. Kamau Bell
Anyway, as I was leaving, she said, please give him my respect. Huge amount of respect. But then he said, he's a lovely, lovely man. Mary and I were talking about your courage. Now, I don't know if it feels courageous to you, but from where we sit, it is courageous what you do.
- [04:09]
Ted Danson
I mean, I think I'll say this. I think I get too much credit for. There are times where I do feel like, here we go. Come on, Kamau. But I think I get too much credit for that. For the most part, I'm just a super curious person. And so for me, it's like my curiosity overwhelms my common sense. I would say that. So there are things where I've done. My wife is very aware of this. I'll get halfway through a project and be like, why did I do this? And she'd be like, I told you, this is what you do. This is like, I get so far in that I can't. That I sort of need to finish it. So, like, I just. But my curiosity overwhelms my common sense. So like the famously, on the first episode, United Shades, I went to the Ku Klux Klan. There's a certain amount of courage in that. But then I also try to keep some perspective of, like, I chose to do this. So it's not like I. You know, the number of people who run into the Klan in this country when they don't choose to, like, that's real courage to deal with that situation. I'm with a camera crew, like, so I sort of try to keep some perspective. My current running joke is every time I feel like I'm being overwhelmed by my life choices, the ghost of Harriet Tubman shows up. Like, oh, is this hard? Oh, is it hard to direct and to be in television? That's hard. So I try to. I think I'm pretty good at keeping perspective. Certainly I have an ego. Certainly I wouldn't be in this business without ego. But I think even the fact that, like, I didn't sort of make it, whatever that is, until I was a little bit older, I'm more connected to the person before I made it than the person who has, quote, unquote, made it. So, yeah, I'm more like that person who. Who was like, didn't know that he would ever have a career, who was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I tell these jokes. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I want to try to make it. I want to try to make an impact, but I don't know how to do it. Like that guy. I'm still. I'm more.
- [05:48]
W. Kamau Bell
When did that I want to make an impact hit you?
- [05:52]
Ted Danson
It's funny because I. I'm the Saturday Night Live generation. So Saturday Night Live has been here not my whole life, but most of my life. I'm. I've been saying it hasn't been funny since the first cast. Like, you know, like, I'm the guy who's like, ever since Lorraine Newman left, it just hasn't been the same. So I'm like, I've been so. You know, I would have been like, I want to be like, when Eddie Murphy's on Saturday Night Live. I remember that. And he looked to be the same age as me, so that was what I wanted to do. I want to be on Saturday Night Live. At the same time, my mom is like, you know, she was born in Indiana in 1937, went to the entire civil rights movement. So when I'm born in the early 70s, that's like, black America is having, like, a what do we do now? Moment. And so I'M hearing all these conversations. I'm an only child. My mom takes me everywhere, so I hear all these grown up conversations. So there's always conversations about racism and the movement and how do we do this and da, da, da, and can we achieve our way out of it? And I'm just a kid who likes comedy, you know, and comic books, and so I just would have thought I was gonna become a comedian and whatever my mom and all that was talking about was over here. But as I got older, it's like I just got. Whatever I was doing in comedy kept pulling me back to this stuff that was like, in my house, you know, so it didn't, you know, I didn't really, like, I would have not told you when I was a kid, I would have been this kind of comedian. I would, I would not have thought I'd been some. Whatever this is. And also, I think there wasn't this kind of comedian in the same way when I was a kid. I couldn't have been like, I hope to become a comedian, get a TV show on cnn. Like, that's not, that's not. The world opened up and I just had more opportunities. But, yeah, I just wanted to be funny. I wanted to be like my comedy heroes, you know?
- [07:23]
W. Kamau Bell
Do you still consider yourself comedian first?
- [07:26]
Ted Danson
That's my, I would say that's my, like, operating system. So even if no matter what I'm doing, the operating system is, like, based on, like, being a comedian. Well, let me tell you about comedy. Acting and comedy, Ted. No, but it's about, like, building connections.
- [07:40]
W. Kamau Bell
Different.
- [07:41]
Ted Danson
Different.
- [07:41]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I work with writers who are really talented and funny. You're up there on your own, which is part of that courage thing.
- [07:49]
Ted Danson
Well, that's the thing. I think it is about, like, building connection with people. So if you're a comic and you go on stage in front of an audience, you have to build connection. So the fact that, like, no matter whatever interview I'm in or talking to somebody, I'm always trying to build connection with them. And humor is a great way to build connection. So it can relieve tension. It can let people sort of, like, have a moment of rest in the middle of a hard story. So, yeah, I think my operating system is that of a comedian. And I'm always thinking about jokes and ways to, like, make people laugh because it just sort of lubricates the conversation. So, yeah, yeah. Even though I. I started doing stand up again, I've done stand up, like, five years, and I started doing again this year because I feel like I want to be a comedian again, but we'll see.
- [08:26]
W. Kamau Bell
Okay, so you bump into a lot of you in difficult situations.
- [08:30]
Ted Danson
You.
- [08:31]
W. Kamau Bell
You bump in purposefully into people who don't think like you or seem on a. Unreasonable, unapproachable, whatever. What do you do with your anger? I mean, is there. There's gotta be.
- [08:46]
Ted Danson
There's a ton of anger. I'm laughing. Cause there's a ton of anger. No, you know, it's funny. I think it. Well, you know, I think one of the reasons that some people become comedians is to deal with their anger or their disappointment or their sadness or their shame. And so certainly there's a tremendous well of, like, sort of like, I don't even know, melancholy that's inside of me that I use comedy to sort of get out of. But when I'm in the moment with those people, I'm very actively aware that, like, this conversation isn't really about me and you. It's about me giving you the space to talk so the people over here can see what's happening. So it's not about me debating you, which people think it is. It's about me drawing you out so that the audience watching can hear things they weren't gonna hear. So it is very rare that I would be in a conversation and get angry with somebody I did see in.
- [09:37]
W. Kamau Bell
That first the KKK episode. Now, this is just purely my impression, but there was one moment when the Grand Whoopty Doo said something just, you know, just out and out. Horrible.
- [09:52]
Ted Danson
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [09:53]
W. Kamau Bell
And this is me putting myself into your shoes. There was such a sadness, and there was a moment of just. Your game face just dropped for a second. But it wasn't anger and fuck you. It was this deep sadness.
- [10:12]
Ted Danson
That episode, there's a deep sense of, like, this is really what it is. This is really what it is. And also, I don't spend a lot of time with the clan, so to see it that close up, it's more like, oh, man, I was hoping for something. Oh, man, I was hoping you had a good argument. I was hoping maybe I'd walk and be like, you've made some good points. I was hoping that there was something I could hang my hat on and be like, well, okay, I don't agree. But no, there was no. It was just like, you're really that guy. It's interesting. In that episode, one of the things that I asked to do, which we did do, was there was a kid in that episode, if you remember, and the family signed off he was like the grandson of the grand Whoopty doo. And the family signed off so that we could put his face in it. And I was like, we're blurring that kid's face. Like, I just did. Cause I was like, I don't know what that kid's gonna grow up into.
- [11:00]
W. Kamau Bell
Right.
- [11:00]
Ted Danson
This is. I feel bad for this kid. Even if his family doesn't. I'm gonna let. I'm gonna let. So I do have empathy for people, even those who don't have empathy for me a lot of times.
- [11:09]
W. Kamau Bell
Where do you think that came from? Family, kid, mother, father. Do I hear father in there? Or is it mother?
- [11:17]
Ted Danson
Mother? I mean, no. So I, I, I grew up with my mom, mostly. My dad lives, so my mom lived all over the States. My dad spent his time in Mobile, Alabama. He's from Mobile, Alabama. I would see him every summer. So my dad was in my life. I lived there for two and a half years when I was in eighth grade, in high school, freshman year, high school. But I definitely was, like, raised by my mom. I am a mama's boy. Much to my dad's chagrin. He just can't be too mad because he was actually a mama's boy, too. But so even though he would wish I wasn't, it was like, well, it's.
- [11:45]
W. Kamau Bell
Really the only way to go.
- [11:46]
Ted Danson
What are you going to do? Not be a mama's boy? Yeah. So where did the empathy come from? I think I actually think that a lot of it came from because I was with my mom and I moved around a lot. And so I sort of understood very early on that there were lots of different types of people out here. And I think traveling. And I remember talking to Bourdain about this while I was on his show. It's really a way to make you think, oh, the world's bigger than me. And people think you have to travel out of the country. I don't think in America. If you just travel around America, because we're like 50 different countries, the world's bigger than me. And the way I do things is not the way everybody does things. I think it really was like seeing lots of different people in lots of different situations. From a very early age, I just learned that, like, the world was not all about me, you know? And so. Which is what I came up.
- [12:33]
W. Kamau Bell
Wait, can you say that again slower?
- [12:34]
Ted Danson
Yes, sure.
- [12:36]
W. Kamau Bell
See, wait, it's not truly.
- [12:38]
Ted Danson
Exactly. Yeah. The world is not all of. And I think if you don't move around a lot, if you're sort of stuck in a routine. And not everybody has the privilege of traveling. You sort of just start to think your version of reality is the version of reality. Even if you don't like your reality, you think this is the way it is. And then when you hear about something over here, you're like, well, that's wrong, because that's not what I'm doing. But the more you travel around, the more you start to realize that, like, every. Everybody's on their own separate track and everybody's doing the best they can. Even the people you don't agree with generally are doing the best they can. And so.
- [13:09]
W. Kamau Bell
And CNN doesn't always have it right. CNN doesn't always have it right.
- [13:12]
Ted Danson
Which is the new slogan. Cnn, we don't always got it right. Yeah. And that there are certain things that I'm not gonna like. Certain things that. Like with the. Like when I was with those Klan members, I could see, like, I don't agree with any of your race things you say, any of the racism. But I also see a bunch of people who live in an economically deprived area who don't have access to good jobs, good education, good city services, good social services. And somebody has weaponized that into the Klan, which is.
- [13:41]
W. Kamau Bell
That's where the word evil is on the tip of my tongue.
- [13:45]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [13:45]
W. Kamau Bell
Not the people who live in hard, hard, hard times. Not the people who may look at the west coast, east coast and go, well, that's stupid. I get up at 4 and work a farm and da, da, da, da, da, da.
- [13:57]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [13:57]
W. Kamau Bell
But the people who then make use.
- [13:59]
Ted Danson
Of that fear, anger, who step into that. Step into that hole that these. That these people haven't filled and fill it with evil. So I'm not down with the evil, but I am down with the fact that, like, I do wish you had a better job, so you just had less time to be so racist. Like, I do wish you had. I. I wish your community was better so that you could. So that you could have a better life, because I think it would sort of lighten up your. Your political perspective, you know, and also living in the Bay Area when I moved to the Bay Area when I was 24, and just the Bay still, but not. Maybe not as much east because it's so expensive now, but, like, the Bay is just. There's just so many different types of people stumbling across each other, and if you take advantage of being in those positions, you just can't help but be like, wow, I've never seen that before. Okay, all right. Guess that's how the world. It's just like, you start to. It just opens. It opened up my perspective a lot. And I got to learn from that point that there were many times I'd be in conversation or in rooms of people having conversations that had nothing to do with me. And the best thing I could do was shut up and listen. So living in the Bay Area, Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, I just was always around. I was be hanging out with comedians. My girlfriend, now wife, was a modern dancer. And we'd go to these performance art shows where people are like, you know, like, literally the things you see in sketch comedy about performance art, you know, like blood and my head's a television and whatever. And then I would hang out with, like, my. With my friends who were like, you know, my East Bay lesbian friends. And they'd be talking about the patriarchy, and I'd be like, I have an opinion about. Oh, no, you're right. I should just listen. You're right. I should just probably sit this one out. And just hanging out with lots of different types of people and just learning that, like, these things, we can have disagreements, but we don't have to pull in opposite directions really helped a lot.
- [15:45]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [15:46]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [15:49]
W. Kamau Bell
I grew up. My father was an archaeologist, anthropologist. He was the director of a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona. And my best friends were hoping Navajo kids and ranchers, sons and daughters. And we lived outside of town. So I would go to the Hopi pueblos and watch where they had lived. The Hopi never went to war with the United States, so they are still in the villages that they've been in for a thousand years. And you'd see them celebrate their gods in the dirt plazas. Every weekend I'd go up and play, and I wasn't conscious or educated or you could read a book about the Hopi and probably know more than I do factually. But in my heart, I got Hopi. Then I'd go back on Sunday to the Episcopal church, and it was all the same. And my parents didn't. I don't think they encouraged it. They just lived that. That it is all the same. We all worship differently. We're all different colors and shades and cultures. And it wasn't even taught or just kind of was how I grew up. So then when you go out into the real world and you bump into people, it feels to me like, and this is a cynical thing to say, that there. All right, sorry, I'm rambling in race. I probably should be quiet and sit and talk, listen to other people talk. But I can do the same conversation with the environment, with social justice, with people who refuse to believe in climate change. And I've gotten to the point where I'm going, I don't think I should be wasting my time trying to convince somebody. I don't mean chalk them off as whatever, but don't get into the conversation to convince them that they're wrong, because I don't know that I ever could, you know, if they're that, you know, entrenched. But all right, let's go. Let's not talk about climate change. Not even say those words. But let's talk about your neighborhood that just had 400 more tornadoes ripped through it or more floods or more drought or more. What do we do? How can I help you figure out how to not suffer quite so much by what's happening with our weather?
- [18:12]
Ted Danson
Sure.
- [18:13]
W. Kamau Bell
Is there a. I don't know if there's a correlation.
- [18:16]
Ted Danson
No, no. When you say that, I think about the fact that one. I think there's a time in our lives where we are in the debate when we're like, I need to debate. And I think a lot of that is with youth. Like, I just learned this thing, and I want to tell you about this thing. And if you don't know, and I think that's. Thank God there's new young people every day to do that. And there's a time in our life where we're like, that's not my role anymore. My role, I said to somebody, my role is not to fight in the comments anymore. That's not my role anymore. And my role is to really know what is my best use of my time and my energy and just put it there and then and give myself some grace around, like, not fighting with people in the comments anymore. Because you feel like I should probably fight with that person who said that ignorant thing. And you just start to realize I am, too. I'm not that guy anymore.
- [19:01]
W. Kamau Bell
Right.
- [19:02]
Ted Danson
Somebody is that person and they can go fight in the comments. But so I think there is a connection. I think the other thing I would say about what you said is, like, when you say talking about race, I should keep my mouth shut. I think that might be true. Unless you're with a group of white people.
- [19:16]
W. Kamau Bell
Yes.
- [19:16]
Ted Danson
Then you need to be, because then you're the black guy because you know something that maybe a lot of white people don't know.
- [19:23]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [19:23]
Ted Danson
So. Yeah. So that. And that's what I would do with my friends. I would hear, like, my East Bay lesbian friends having all these conversations about, like, patriarchy and male privilege and da, da, da. And I would be quiet, and then I'd be in a conversation later with some of my male friends and be like, well, actually, then I'm that asshole. You know what I mean? So I think that's what we should learn is, like, in conversations we have where we don't know anything, listen. But if you don't take that knowledge somewhere else, then you've wasted that time. Yeah, it's not good. I'm glad I know that now. No, it's not about that. So I think you're doing the right thing. I think that.
- [19:54]
W. Kamau Bell
But then here's what happens to my brain. Oh, you have some cowardice working here. You're not being courageous. You're not. But I have to admit, I had a moment where I could have done something like, we're talking about, and I realized I'm not Jane Fonda.
- [20:14]
Ted Danson
Exactly. Yes.
- [20:15]
W. Kamau Bell
At 86, she's leaping onto the ramparts and tearing down the walls of ignorance. And I'm not her.
- [20:24]
Ted Danson
No, you're not.
- [20:25]
W. Kamau Bell
And I have to, with humility, accept that.
- [20:28]
Ted Danson
I like that. Humility. I'm humble enough to say I'm not Jane Fonda.
- [20:31]
W. Kamau Bell
That's a good thing.
- [20:32]
Ted Danson
It's a big moment for you, Ted. I'm glad we got to a breakthrough.
- [20:35]
W. Kamau Bell
She is one of my heroes.
- [20:36]
Ted Danson
No, Jane Fonda is great.
- [20:37]
W. Kamau Bell
Unbelievable.
- [20:38]
Ted Danson
But I think that we also have to understand, like, I see friends of Min who are really good at, like, engaging people in debate. And people would sometimes get mad at me at the United Shades on my CNN show that I wasn't, like, yelling at the neo Nazi. And I was like, that's not. And I'd be like, should I be doing that? But I was like, that's not my role here. I don't think that's my job skill. I'm not the debater. I'm more the listener and the poking holes in the thing, like, well, what about. Are you sure? And also, I'm the person who's there to draw you out again so other people could hear. For example, if I got on my. When I go back to Oakland on Saturday, if I get on my Southwest flight and a Klansman is sitting down next to me, I'm not going to talk to that guy because there's no TV cameras around. I'm not. I'm not, like, trying to have that conversation all the time. But if there's a productive way to have it, if it's going to be for somebody else, if it's going to be a way we can take this conversation and show it to people then I'm that guy. And I think that we get caught up in, like, I try not to get caught up in what I think I'm supposed to be doing. Well, if I was. And really get zeroed in on what am I actually supposed to be doing.
- [21:39]
W. Kamau Bell
And perhaps have some degree of effectiveness.
- [21:42]
Ted Danson
Yes. Yeah. Where is my best. Where am I? You know, we have limited resources, especially the older we get. What's the best use of my resources?
- [21:50]
W. Kamau Bell
Right.
- [21:50]
Ted Danson
And also I sometimes give myself some grace. Like, come on, don't forget you still have three daughters who are like 13, 6 and 9. Like, they need some of your time too. So you can't be like out fighting in the comments all the time.
- [22:02]
W. Kamau Bell
Are you home a lot or is your job just.
- [22:05]
Ted Danson
I mean, they think I'm gone all the time. I don't.
- [22:09]
W. Kamau Bell
Well, that's, I mean, even check that out.
- [22:12]
Ted Danson
Coming here, I was like, I gotta go for. And I said an hour, but I was, you know, it's more than an hour, but I was like, I'll be back in an hour or so. And my 6 year old was just like, no. And I'm like, you know, and so there is a narrative in my house that I'm always gone. I am gone a lot, but I'm not gone as much as like, but it means that I can't even like take a walk around the block sometimes. Right. You're leaving again. So. And I respect it and I don't want them to feel that way. So yeah, I am, I do travel a lot. But it also means that like, if I come to la, I'll, I'll go up and back in a day sometimes if I, if I can just sit so I can be home, you know?
- [22:46]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah, yeah. So you do have, you do get enough time more. I mean, not to please everybody. But you do take time.
- [22:55]
Ted Danson
Yeah, I mean, I could. I mean the, you know, the problem with sort of my career too is that I'm basically like, like with cnn, people thought I worked there full time, but I was basically a seasonal employee. So there's never time that I feel like. There's never an off time for me. So I'm always like, I'm always like ideating on the next thing because I don't know if the last thing is really, you know, it's just, you're always like, you know how it is. So it's a little bit like an actor's life, but it's even more so because I have to be the writer too. Generally. I have to be the person who comes up with the idea.
- [23:32]
W. Kamau Bell
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- [27:13]
Ted Danson
I'm a big external processor so I will like. And then because I'm a stand up comic eventually the things that stick stay in here and then I will go write it down. And I'm also surrounded by like you just met Kelly, who's my production partner. Kelly's great at like if I'm just like. She's great at like. Let me just put this down on paper for you. So yeah, but I'm not a real longhand long form writer. I'm a big Google Doc person. I like jot them in a Google Doc.
- [27:40]
W. Kamau Bell
One of the bullet points here on your catastrophizer now is that your. Did someone label you with that or is that your own kind of.
- [27:50]
Ted Danson
It sounds like something I would have done. It sounds like my use of words. I have to. I'm just trying to remember where that came from.
- [27:56]
W. Kamau Bell
But catastrophizer, I mean which means give it a definition. It's someone who doesn't away from catastrophe.
- [28:07]
Ted Danson
Someone who's always, who's always thinking through the worst case scenario and always preparing for the worst case scenario. So yeah, but I'm not a pessimist. But I am like how badly could this go?
- [28:21]
W. Kamau Bell
Right?
- [28:22]
Ted Danson
What's the worst that could happen here? There's something that I find peace in.
- [28:25]
W. Kamau Bell
That I kind of do that and because it's like is this the worst that could happen? Yes. Could you live with it?
- [28:33]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [28:33]
W. Kamau Bell
And then I can relax and go. Doesn't mean I'm planning for that or I want that. No, I don't want the worst or attracting it.
- [28:40]
Ted Danson
That's why I'm not a pessimist. I want the best that can happen. But if I sit around and think about all the great things that'll come out of something that's pretty much guaranteed to be bad news for me. If I sit around and think about all the worst things that happen, then usually those things don't happen and I can be pretty happy with the results. Oh, it didn't go as badly as it could have gone. Good job, everybody. For me, I thought I was going to be banished from society after that project, but I still live in society.
- [29:07]
W. Kamau Bell
Our little defense mechanism. At night we'll watch CNN or MSNBC or, you know, our guys until we're just, until we're just thoroughly depressed and fearful and, you know, they've done their work.
- [29:19]
Ted Danson
Yes. Because if you're not depressed, you're like, I don't think they did their job today.
- [29:24]
W. Kamau Bell
So immediately change to HGTV and watch somebody build a house and there's a big problem that they overcome and then they're all very happ. That's how we go to sleep listening to that. How, what do you, what do you do? Because you do. I, I, I'm not, I'm not trying to pick on myself here, but I do prefer to have joy and happiness and gratitude in my body because not, not to be a goody two shoes, but because my body feels better for sure that way.
- [29:55]
Ted Danson
For sure.
- [29:56]
W. Kamau Bell
But then there's the real world. There are things. There are oil companies who want to drill a hole right next to the people who have no money to fight them and their kids get cancer and.
- [30:08]
Ted Danson
On the other side, they want to build a highway on the other side of their house because they don't have.
- [30:13]
W. Kamau Bell
Enough money to fight them. In my community, we keep oil companies out because we have enough money. That's actually how I got involved, trying to keep Occidental Petroleum from digging slanted drilling into the bay here in Santa Monica. And we won. But there. Anyway, sorry, enough about me. Where was I going?
- [30:36]
Ted Danson
You were talking about who's your co producer again?
- [30:39]
W. Kamau Bell
Because she seems really good. Kelly. Could Kelly come in and remind me.
- [30:42]
Ted Danson
Where actually she's watching right now? She probably couldn't tell you exactly. If you ask too many times, she will come in here. I mean, yeah, she will. She's very good at that.
- [30:50]
W. Kamau Bell
How do you keep love, joy, hope in your heart when you're really way more than me bumping into hardcore, hardcore issues that bring so much suffering and sadness. How do you do that?
- [31:03]
Ted Danson
So one, I actually, as a, I do really enjoy, I do really enjoy joy and happiness and laughter. I think one of the reasons you become a comedian is because you want to be around that more. So I'M not a person who's, like, looking not to be around that. I do get weighed down by the issues of the day sometimes. But one thing I do, and this is something. It's important for me with my kids is before they go to sleep at night, if I'm putting them to bed, I will ask them, Tell me three things you're grateful for from today.
- [31:29]
W. Kamau Bell
That's great.
- [31:30]
Ted Danson
And it's the thing we've been doing for, like, their whole lives. And it's just a way. It's ostensibly for them, but it's for me to practice. Like, every day something good is happening. Every day something happens, you're like, ooh, I can't. That was pretty lucky. Oh, they just brought me this watermelon juice. I didn't even ask for this watermelon juice. It just shit, like, thinking about it doesn't have to be big things, but ways. I'm always trying to be aware of the little things that make life easier, that happen that I'm not responsible for. And I'll say to my kids all the time, we didn't deserve that. We just got that. So we should be grateful for it. So I'm always thinking about that. I say that my news diet is opposite of yours. I do all my heavy, sad news in the morning.
- [32:10]
W. Kamau Bell
Smart.
- [32:11]
Ted Danson
So by the end of the day, I'm in YouTube videos, watching, like, you know, somebody get their impacted ear drained or something. I'm done with new. I'm way off of that by the end of the day.
- [32:22]
W. Kamau Bell
So I'm dying to know if you ever did see an impact.
- [32:25]
Ted Danson
Oh, I've seen that.
- [32:26]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [32:26]
Ted Danson
I'm a. There's. I'm a. I talked about this Conan. Like, I'm a big YouTube person and you can find, you know, there's like YouTube videos of people in, like, other countries, like, making their. Like. It's like somebody runs like a food truck, and you'll watch them and it shows them. Show up at like three in the morning and make all the food for the food truck. And you watch it for like an hour. Hour. And it's just somebody making like, like breakfast burritos.
- [32:49]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [32:50]
Ted Danson
And they're not. There's no talking. There's no words. You just watch and you sit there like. Look at them getting that chopped up.
- [32:56]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [32:57]
Ted Danson
It's making breakfast burritos.
- [32:59]
W. Kamau Bell
It's hgtv.
- [33:00]
Ted Danson
It is. It is. It's just like. It just slows you down. It just. It just calms you down. So I'm a big fan of like random YouTube videos where, like, people cooking food or people built. Like, there's one where this guy's like, look how rusty this knife is. I'm gonna, I'm gonna clean it up. You just watch a guy clean up a rusty knife for 20 minutes.
- [33:18]
W. Kamau Bell
I, I, at 76, I'm just discovering YouTube. And my kids will look at me when I go, I don't know how to put this thing together. And they go, YouTube. No, everything is, Literally everything is.
- [33:29]
Ted Danson
Yep, everything. How do I put this together? You can just say this, and your phone will be like, I know exactly what I'm talking about. You don't have to say what it is. No, I, I told Conan I taught my daughter how to ride a bike based on a YouTube video. I was like, how to teach a kid to ride a bike quickly. And YouTube's like, here you go. So I'm a big fan of, like, I said, I was an only child by nature. I think that makes you more curious because you have more time with your thoughts. And so I'm a big following a rabbit hole to its illogical conclusion. It's just that generally that work doesn't. There's lots of things I'm interested in when it's time to do the work of my career. Those things tend to not be the ways generally how I do the work of my career. And the other thing I do is when you ask, like, how do you keep joining your life? I do try to keep perspective of, like, I made these choices. Like, I didn't. Nobody assigned me this career. It's not like I was like, man, I was so close to getting assigned Kevin Hart. Like, that didn't, you know, so when something. So if I'm ever going to go, man, I wanted to be like, on Saturday Night Live, like, Eddie Murphy. I never auditioned for Saturday Night Live. I was never in that track. So I have to be like, relax, like you were at cnn, you know, So I try to keep perspective because it can be easy to be frustrated and just. But yeah, I'm also like, spend a lot of time in therapy and I guess, and, you know, and it's time.
- [34:48]
W. Kamau Bell
Like, you've been in therapy from a young age.
- [34:51]
Ted Danson
Oh, yeah. My mom, my mom was like a Shirley MacLaine person back in the day. So I've been in therapy since high school. Yeah, like, she was, you know what I mean by, like, when Shirley MacLaine was like, past lives.
- [35:02]
W. Kamau Bell
Yes, I was right there.
- [35:03]
Ted Danson
Yeah, I was, I was right there by default because I was my mom's kid. So I've been, I haven't been in therapy. Therapy consistently since I was a teenager. But I have been in therapy.
- [35:13]
W. Kamau Bell
You know, one of the world's greatest luxuries.
- [35:16]
Ted Danson
Yeah, no, it's a super. And, and, and yet I feel like it should be, you know, I feel like one of. If we're gonna start to talk about reparations, I think black people getting free therapy would be a great, just a great place to start. It's not the end of it. I would like cash, but also that would be a great way to start. It'd be a great place to start.
- [35:33]
W. Kamau Bell
One of my go tos which sounds so sorry. I just out of the corner of my eye saw Nick's signal that my hands in my face. This is how I talk to people. This is me on television. Ted, take your hand.
- [35:50]
Ted Danson
Wait, I don't want to do Ted Danson. Yeah, everybody do the Ted Danson. I just so can.
- [35:57]
W. Kamau Bell
My go to is and then you die. Oh, Ted.
- [36:02]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [36:03]
W. Kamau Bell
So it's not like if you save the ocean single handedly that you get a immortality card or if you solve this problem or whatever. No. And then you die. So give it your best shot.
- [36:16]
Ted Danson
Give it your best shot.
- [36:17]
W. Kamau Bell
Stay happy and joyful and do as much as you can. That was a great phrase. I in Somewhere in the Good Place. Just try to do better every day.
- [36:28]
Ted Danson
Yeah, yeah. I mean that's. Yes. Yeah, that. Just try. Yeah, I, you know, I do. I mean, so yeah, there's two, there's my two versions of Ted Danson are the Cheers, which was like taught me about comedy and just taught me about good times. And then the Good Place, which really was like, how did this show get on television?
- [36:47]
W. Kamau Bell
I know.
- [36:49]
Ted Danson
How did this show get on? And it's still on and people are watching it. Yeah, yeah.
- [36:53]
W. Kamau Bell
Can you imagine the pitch to NBC?
- [36:56]
Ted Danson
Yeah, I just, I can't. I mean. Yeah, so thank you for all that. But I do think part of that show, which is what I always so appreciate it was just the fact of like life is good. I do accept life is gonna be hard. Nobody's promised. Most of us aren't promised anything. And you have to do the best with what you can. And I'm also very aware that wherever my career's at, I've attained a level of privilege that I should appreciate and then use and sometimes use means like try to make sure you're helping other people who don't have this level of privilege. And I try to engage in that a lot. And the Other part of it is like your kids want to go to Universal, email your manager and see if you can get free tickets to Universal. See if you're famous enough to get free tickets. And Universal said, we'll give you some tickets. Put post on Instagram. Fine Universal, you know, so I, by.
- [37:46]
W. Kamau Bell
The way, I got charged up the wazoo for Universal. I hadn't thought of that.
- [37:52]
Ted Danson
Damn it, you should have. I mean that's. But see, that's. I'm trying to like, I forget about the good side sometimes because like I said, I live in Oakland, so I'm not in. But even in Oakland people are like, hey, come out. People feel like they know me cause I've been there for a long time. And sometimes you get a free cup of coffee and you're like, ah, this is good living. You know what I mean? So I do try to remember that, like I did fight for this career, whatever it is. I do feel better when I am engaged in the big conversations of the country than if I'm not. And I don't begrudge other comedians who are not. I think there's all kinds of ways to live this life. But for me, I feel like if I'm not actively engaged in one of those big conversations, then I'm kind of wasting my skill. Cause that's where my skill is at, you know, so. But I would pre. I would, you know, like I saw the trailer for Beverly Hills Cop 4 and I was like, oh, I didn't know. 13 years. Yeah, yeah. I was like, 13 year old me is pretty mad at me right now that I'm not in Beverly Hills cop 4. 13 year old me doesn't want to hear about any of this other stuff.
- [38:48]
W. Kamau Bell
Maybe you didn't ask. All you had to do is ask.
- [38:51]
Ted Danson
13 year old me was like, you didn't even audition. Like you didn't even. I just would have thought I would have been Beverly Hill Scott 4. I just would have assumed if you'd said you will be a somewhat famous comedian by the year 2024 and Beverly Hills Cop 4 is coming out, I'd be like, well, clearly I'll be in Beverly Hills Cop 4. So it's funny, I have to understand that that's not the path you're on.
- [39:08]
W. Kamau Bell
Do you notice yet the water you swim in? Meaning do you the people that when people see you on the street?
- [39:15]
Ted Danson
Oh yeah.
- [39:16]
W. Kamau Bell
Do you notice the expression on their face?
- [39:19]
Ted Danson
I can see people seeing me before they realize I see them seeing me. I'm sure you have this too where you can see somebody be like. And you're not even looking. Or I can feel it. And then you sort of have to feel like, how do I engage with this? Generally I will engage with it because again, I'm more connected to the guy who wasn't famous. Whatever. Famous. I feel like sitting across from you. It's funny to call this famous, but anyway, known before I was known than the guy who was known. So I will. Yeah. My kids are sort of like, come on, dad, we gotta go. But I generally wanna engage those people.
- [39:48]
W. Kamau Bell
But is the. I mean, when I walk around, people smile at me. Cause they're remembering a funny joke that I was our moment. That I was part of or several or near even.
- [40:00]
Ted Danson
Yeah, yeah.
- [40:01]
W. Kamau Bell
I. I learned early on in Cheers, you don't have to have the joke. Just be in the two shot with the joke and you'll get all the credit in the world.
- [40:09]
Ted Danson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just be. Just be around the laughter.
- [40:11]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah, yeah, exactly. But they smile. And that's an amazing water to swim in. I'm so blessed.
- [40:21]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [40:21]
W. Kamau Bell
To walk around with that. And I'm just wondering what you feel you're swimming in.
- [40:28]
Ted Danson
I noticed it used to be there's like eras where it was like, every time I ran into somebody, be like, oh man, you're Kamau Bell. I loved. And I'd be like, don't say clan, don't say clan. Don't say that episode with the clan. And I was like, oh, man, I've done a lot of things, but that is my. I'm the Klan guy. At some point, not that I don't hear about it anymore, it shifted to thank you for your work, which I actually appreciate more. Cause it means there's like a body of work that they've engaged with. It's not just the fact that the crazy guy went and talked to the kkk. And I really appreciate. And it's very much like people will sort of say. They'll look me in the eye, they'll shake my hand, they'll lean in like, thank you. Like, it's a very sort of like. And so I really appreciate that. Cause it's hard to know where it's landing all the time. And then the thing I get which is like, thank you for your work. You need to do a story. And they start telling me what I need to do.
- [41:16]
W. Kamau Bell
I'm just like, because you can make it better.
- [41:19]
Ted Danson
Yeah, I can make. And sometimes it's about like, I think you need like a city councilman. I'm not that like, you know, we need help building this thing. And there's not in the media. And it's like, I think you've confused. I'm not that guy, you know, But. But yeah, so I'll get that. A lot. Like, you need to do a story about. Blah, blah, blah. It's like, I don't even have a job right now, but thank you for that.
- [41:38]
W. Kamau Bell
You said your mom's alive, right?
- [41:40]
Ted Danson
Yes, very much so. Yeah.
- [41:42]
W. Kamau Bell
She must be tickled pink. Come on.
- [41:45]
Ted Danson
Because there's. I mean, she loves. Well, she loves this moment. She has this moment a lot. She'll be around people and they'll be. And this especially happens in the Bay. In the Bay area. Oh, what do you do? Do this. I'm here. My granddaughters live nearby. Duh. My son. And then at some point, like, I'll come up and be like, hey, Mom. They're like, wait, that's. Why didn't you tell me? And she just like, ah, you didn't tell me that was your son. So, yeah, she loves. And like I said, it was just the two of us. My mom was my best friend when I was a kid, so she's really living her best life.
- [42:18]
W. Kamau Bell
I don't even mean the fame. I mean, you are sorry if I'm Ted Danson.
- [42:24]
Ted Danson
Don't apologize to me again.
- [42:25]
W. Kamau Bell
Okay.
- [42:25]
Ted Danson
All right, well, listen, again, I'm walking out. There's too much.
- [42:28]
W. Kamau Bell
All right, good. Good note, Good note. Seriously. But you're gonna feel that way. Your kindness. You have a kind face. You walk in and there's kindness in the room. That's what I meant about your mom. Must be really kind of proud of who she raised. Yeah.
- [42:47]
Ted Danson
Yes. 100%. Yes. I think she. That's cool. I think she. My mom always had great belief in me. She thought, you'll figure something out. But to see what has happened and to see how. And see how. Yes. She's very, like, proud of the type of person that I am and the type of dad that I am too. I think it's.
- [43:07]
W. Kamau Bell
I was about to say, do you see yourself passing that? I love that. You'll figure it out.
- [43:11]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Yeah.
- [43:12]
W. Kamau Bell
That's a wonderful thing to pass on.
- [43:14]
Ted Danson
To your kids, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think. I mean, I tell that to my kids all the time. It's very clear. Like, this is about your journey. So my teacher said, I'm not worried about that. Let's figure this out. Yeah. Yeah. We're not. I don't want you to think that I'm ever worried about what your teacher said, you know, so it's about, what do you need? So, yeah, it's really important to me that my kids. My mom was clearly like my friend now. She was my friend who paid the rent, so I had to respect her. But she was my friend, so I could tell her anything. And I knew if I said, mom, I need help with this, she was gonna be there. And it's very. With my kids, it's very important to me that they feel like if I call my dad into a situation, he's got my back.
- [43:51]
W. Kamau Bell
Right.
- [43:51]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [43:52]
W. Kamau Bell
God, I'm checking myself every time you say something. Did I do that?
- [43:58]
Ted Danson
You did it my command.
- [43:59]
W. Kamau Bell
Yes.
- [44:00]
Ted Danson
You're not. I mean, you're Ted. Be the best Ted Danson you can be. It's turned out pretty.
- [44:10]
W. Kamau Bell
Don't miss Good American Family.
- [44:12]
Ted Danson
We have a little girl here for adoption.
- [44:15]
W. Kamau Bell
She has dwarfism. Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass.
- [44:19]
Ted Danson
Something is off.
- [44:19]
W. Kamau Bell
She's just a little girl.
- [44:20]
Ted Danson
You think she's faking?
- [44:21]
W. Kamau Bell
She has adult teeth.
- [44:22]
Ted Danson
There are signs of puberty.
- [44:24]
W. Kamau Bell
Inspired by the shocking stories that tore a family apart.
- [44:27]
Ted Danson
I don't know what's going on. How old are you?
- [44:29]
W. Kamau Bell
You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl. The Hulu original series Good American Family premieres March 19th. Streaming on Hulu. TaxAct knows filing your small business taxes can be a nightmare.
- [44:45]
Ted Danson
Like the kind where you're being chased.
- [44:46]
W. Kamau Bell
By a giant W2 form and you're running and running, but you can never reach the submit button or something like that.
- [44:54]
Ted Danson
So TaxAct offers expert assist with live.
- [44:57]
W. Kamau Bell
Tax experts to make filing taxes less scary. Now you can just have pleasant dreams about being chased by other giant, non threatening paperwork.
- [45:08]
Ted Danson
Tax act.
- [45:09]
W. Kamau Bell
Let's get them over with. Are you church as a kid?
- [45:17]
Ted Danson
I was. I'm not.
- [45:19]
W. Kamau Bell
What were you, if I may? Was it Alabama church or.
- [45:22]
Ted Danson
It was a little both. Because it was like northern church with my mom and then Methodist church with my mom and then AME church with my. In the. In the south, of course.
- [45:29]
W. Kamau Bell
Much more fun.
- [45:30]
Ted Danson
Yeah, Yeah. A lot more fun. Yeah. A lot more. Yeah, yeah. A lot better choir.
- [45:34]
W. Kamau Bell
Southern church is gonna be scary as shit or joyfully astounding.
- [45:39]
Ted Danson
I mean, my grandmother's church was the kind of church where every week a big black woman would catch the Holy Spirit and pass out and have to be carried out of the church every week. And I don't know if it was the same woman, but every week there was a woman who would catch the Holy Spirit in the middle of the sermon and have to be carried out until the church.
- [45:56]
W. Kamau Bell
And how old were you when you were watching this?
- [45:58]
Ted Danson
6, 7, 8, 9, 10. You know, you just sort of like, whoa, whoa. Every week it's like. It. So, yeah, it was like very. Fire and brimstone.
- [46:08]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [46:08]
Ted Danson
You know, basement where they served fish. Fish after funerals. You know, it was very like. Yeah, it was. I'm really happy with the fact that because even. Because, you know, most of all black people in this country who are. Could trace their lineage back to time of enslavement. We came through the south, but a lot of us are disconnected from it, so we don't spend time in the South. I'm really. As much as it annoyed me when I was a kid, I'm really happy that I've spent so much time in the South. So I know how to speak Southern. I know how to be in the south, and I'm not. It's. Again, like we said earlier, I have empathy for the south in a way that, like, people who don't go to the south sort of just condescend to the South.
- [46:41]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah. From states that are far worse.
- [46:44]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [46:44]
W. Kamau Bell
I mean, Little Rock, Arkansas. Mary's from North. Little Rock. She has. The north part's important because that was called Dogtown. She was on the wrong side of the tracks, which she's very proud of. But. But because of the high school there. And that was 50s. No. But 60s. Yeah. You had to choose. There was no. No one was on the fence. You either bought it and went with it, or you at an early age went. Nope. Yeah, that's wrong. You know, she. She was about to go to first grade or second grade or something when the first kids. Black kids integrated the school.
- [47:26]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Yeah.
- [47:27]
W. Kamau Bell
And people were throwing stuff at them and yelling and she was watching TV and she would not go to school. The next day, she burst into tears. I don't want to go to school. I don't want people to throw rocks at me or something. But you didn't have a choice. And now when you go to Little Rock, it's not true all over Arkansas, obviously, but when you're in Little Rock, you're eating dinner with more black people than you do in Westwood, I'll tell you that.
- [47:53]
Ted Danson
That's exactly it.
- [47:54]
W. Kamau Bell
You know, you are side by and.
- [47:56]
Ted Danson
They, you know, there's an expression from the civil rights era or even before, and it's about. Black people would say to each other in the north, they don't care how high you get as Long as you don't get too close. In the south, they don't care how close you get as long as you don't get too high. So in the south, they're fine to eat dinner with you, but they don't want a black doctor. In the north, you could be a black doctor, but don't come over to my house.
- [48:21]
W. Kamau Bell
It's a version of you. All right, you can be my president, but I'll be God damned if I'll do what you tell me.
- [48:26]
Ted Danson
Exactly. Exactly. Yes. So it's very much like. And my daughters have spent time in the south, especially my oldest daughters, and I'm really happy that they will have had that experience so that they don't feel cut off or intimidated by the south in the way that a lot of people do.
- [48:40]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah, I know that's silly that I was sitting there when you came in reading your workbook, but I have not.
- [48:48]
Ted Danson
Prepared myself for you to have a copy of my book.
- [48:52]
W. Kamau Bell
But I think that's brilliant.
- [48:55]
Ted Danson
You know, I will take the, I will take the thank you or the compliments for the whole team of people that put that together. Especially I got to remember, remember I got to mention Kate Shots, who's my co author, who. You know, we really collaborate.
- [49:07]
W. Kamau Bell
I mean, it's a dialogue with you guys for sure.
- [49:09]
Ted Danson
For sure.
- [49:10]
W. Kamau Bell
But what's great is it doesn't matter where you are on the spectrum. If you're white, you are on the spectrum.
- [49:17]
Ted Danson
Yeah, we'll meet you where you're at. That's. We really wanted to make the book.
- [49:21]
W. Kamau Bell
And push you in a gentle, kind way. So far I haven't gotten to the end now.
- [49:27]
Ted Danson
I mean, I feel like I always thought of that book like a book that tells you, A book that tells you how to do sit ups. It's not going to help you unless you do the sit ups.
- [49:35]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [49:35]
Ted Danson
But also if you're, if you already have good abs, it's going to. You sort of just do more of the sit ups. But if you don't, you can start at a low, you know what I mean? So it's like, I really feel like it meets people where they're at and sort of like by making it interactive. We just found during 2020, after George Floyd's murder, there was just a lot of those books. A lot of the anti racist books went to the top of the bestseller list. And a lot of those are great books, but they're tomes. They're really sort of analytical and we felt like. But do people know what to do next?
- [50:01]
W. Kamau Bell
Yes.
- [50:02]
Ted Danson
Like, after you read those books, do you know how to enact what it taught you in the world? And coming from a background in the community of activism, I need you to do. I need white people to do things. I don't need people to know. I don't need you to just. If it's between knowing something or doing something, I'd rather you do something than just. I know it, you know?
- [50:19]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah. All right. I'm a racist. No, you're a racist. No, I'm not. Yes, you are.
- [50:22]
Ted Danson
No. Yeah.
- [50:23]
W. Kamau Bell
But even. Even if you solve that little conversation, the next thing is, yeah, what are you going to do?
- [50:30]
Ted Danson
There's still a public school across town that's mostly black that doesn't have enough resources.
- [50:34]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah.
- [50:35]
Ted Danson
Can you help them? Is there some way you can help them? You know, so there's.
- [50:39]
W. Kamau Bell
What is the name of the. Sorry. The.
- [50:42]
Ted Danson
Didn't I just tell him not to apologize?
- [50:43]
W. Kamau Bell
No, I didn't apologize to you. I was apologizing to Nick because.
- [50:48]
Ted Danson
All right, okay. I'll write that one down. That's one Nick apology. But you only get two. To Nick.
- [50:53]
W. Kamau Bell
What is the name of the. Not foundation, but organization.
- [50:57]
Ted Danson
Nonprofit. Donors choose.
- [50:58]
W. Kamau Bell
Donors choose. Tell me about that a little bit.
- [51:01]
Ted Danson
So donors choose an organization that helps teachers in classrooms raise money for whatever their resources they need in their classroom. It could be books. Like, we need books so the kids can read. It can be, like, hygiene supplies, because some kids don't have that stuff at home. So it could be. Or it could be a trip to D.C. or it could be musical instruments. But the way it is set up is that you can just put in a zip code. So put in your zip code and it'll tell you all the schools in your area and what they need. It's for public schools.
- [51:28]
W. Kamau Bell
Oh, that is brilliant.
- [51:29]
Ted Danson
So, yeah, it's really great because it makes you. To me, it's like a. It's like a video game that helps people because you feel fun. Like. And also, some teachers need $5,000, some teacher needs $40. So it's like. It's really like. It doesn't. You can help in whatever way you can. You can.
- [51:42]
W. Kamau Bell
It's like the micro grants.
- [51:44]
Ted Danson
Yes. Micro loans. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [51:46]
W. Kamau Bell
You can do all over the world.
- [51:47]
Ted Danson
And you can find a teacher who's like, oh, they need a Tuba. But they're $40 away from completing the tuba. I'm gonna put them over the top. And then if you want, the kids will. They'll. The teacher will have the kids send you thank you. Cards and things. And so it's you really. I think right now, especially right now, people are like, how do I help? What can I do? And I think sometimes what can I do is a check. But just. And I am with the aclu, but like, you send the ACLU a check, it just sort of like goes.
- [52:12]
W. Kamau Bell
And you tend to wash your hands, perhaps.
- [52:14]
Ted Danson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just are like, okay, I did that.
- [52:16]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah, I gave.
- [52:17]
Ted Danson
But you. But this, it's like, literally, I know that the thing I'm doing is going to impact this, which will hook you.
- [52:25]
W. Kamau Bell
To keep doing it. Tell me the name again.
- [52:27]
Ted Danson
Donors. Choose, like donor. Like someone who donates something. Donorschoose.org yeah, and it's just, I find, like, like, especially if you're having a bad. If you're like, read an article about how bad America is, you need a little dopamine, a dopamine rush to feel better. Just, just help a teacher on donor shoes. You'll be like, okay, I helped a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I crawled out of the hole.
- [52:47]
W. Kamau Bell
I don't know if everyone knows, they probably must, that most schools, the teachers are taking out of their meager paycheck to. To deliver books to the. Their children.
- [53:00]
Ted Danson
It's some. The percentage is, you know, it's. It's well over. It's well over 50% of teachers into their own pockets to get this to support the students. Like, they can't not do it because they want the kids to have what they need. I mean, it could be pencils, it could be erasers, it could be crayons. And teachers would rather go into their own pockets generally than have the kids go without. So this is a way to, like, let the teachers keep whatever meager income they're making and to get the kids something extra. Because it's also about, like, you know, public school can mean a lot depending upon your community and your zip code. Some public schools look like, basically function like private schools, and some public schools don't have enough for the kids to, like, have the supplies they need. And so this is to help until our government closes that gap, this is what we have to do.
- [53:44]
W. Kamau Bell
It's really brilliant. I'm sitting here thinking about, well, you said it. You can write a check, but the tendency is to wash your hands with this. You're going to get engaged.
- [53:54]
Ted Danson
Yes. And if you stay engaged, you'll hear from the teachers and the kids and the. And you can give to whatever school you went to when you were a kid or whatever school's in your neighborhood. That you walk past every day and don't know what's going. So it's not even about whether or not you have kids in the school district. I think it's more important for people who don't have kids in school right now to think you want those kids in all those schools to be as smart and prepared for the world as possible. Cause they're gonna be adults someday and you're gonna run into them. So you want all the kids to.
- [54:22]
W. Kamau Bell
Be as smart as they possibly can be.
- [54:24]
Ted Danson
Helping those kids is a selfish act. I think we think of this stuff as being some sort of like, I'm a good person, so. No, I want you to be smart and to be prepared and to be well fed. Because I'll be running into a happier adult.
- [54:35]
W. Kamau Bell
Yeah, I know greed is not going to go away, but there's smart greed and there's stupid greed that'll come back and bite you in the ass.
- [54:44]
Ted Danson
Yeah, no, this is the kind of greed that's like, I selfishly, I want everybody to have everything they need because then that means I have everything I need. So that I think of it that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [54:55]
W. Kamau Bell
You don't want to walk around with a bunch of people pissed off.
- [54:58]
Ted Danson
No. You don't want to walk with a bunch of uneducated, hungry people. It's not a good society.
- [55:03]
W. Kamau Bell
With each one with two or three guns.
- [55:06]
Ted Danson
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Who never learned, which is the good end, which is the bad end. So, yeah, like, I think it's important for me, this is where a lot of the activism comes from. It's like actually just selfishly, I want a better community. I want a better world, you know? And when I think about my mom, like I think about my mom's parents, the racism they suffered is pretty much unimaginable to me.
- [55:26]
W. Kamau Bell
Me, right.
- [55:27]
Ted Danson
And then when my mom tells stories, sometimes I'm like, that is almost unimaginable to me, I hope. And I think of it as a baton. So my, my grandparents handed my mom the baton. It was lighter than when they got it because their grandparents, their parents were enslaved, you know, and then you go another generation. My mom handed it to me, it was way lighter than when she got it. But now I think about my 13 year old daughter and I'm like, when I hand it to you, is the baton gonna be heavier or lighter?
- [55:51]
W. Kamau Bell
Oh, yeah.
- [55:52]
Ted Danson
Cause America's in a special place right now and that baton might get heavier because of what we're about to go through. So it's my job to do everything I can to make sure, at least hope the baton weighs the same. So that's where I sort of am at now. It's really important to me to think about. Cause whatever my kids do, I think I have done the same job my mom did where it's like, my oldest daughter wants to be a singer and is a singer, she's still gonna be engaged in this work somehow, because that's what we do.
- [56:18]
W. Kamau Bell
Do batons. You're not a baby boomer, right?
- [56:22]
Ted Danson
No, no, no.
- [56:23]
W. Kamau Bell
I'm a baby boomer. And baby boomers don't pass the baton. They just keep holding on. They. They drop it and don't realize it and keep running.
- [56:34]
Ted Danson
I'm a Gen Xer. Hey, can we get the baton, baby booter? No, I can't find it, but I don't want you to have it. No, I'm a. I'm a proud Gen Xer who was called a slacker his whole generation. And now. Now we're angry. Greek.
- [56:46]
W. Kamau Bell
Wow. This is such a cool conversation for me. I really, really appreciate it.
- [56:53]
Ted Danson
I. You know, it's. It's. It's been absolutely one of the thrills of my whole career to be able to sit across from you and have this conversation. When I got the invitation, I was like. I mean, everybody who was with me when I got it was like, yeah, of course you're doing that. Like, there was no, like. Yeah.
- [57:08]
W. Kamau Bell
So just so you know, I'm always in character. I went, why is he coming here?
- [57:13]
Ted Danson
Why. Why would you invite me?
- [57:15]
W. Kamau Bell
Why did he come here?
- [57:17]
Ted Danson
Did you know you invited me? Did somebody else? Yes. Okay. Okay. I didn't know. Sometimes people, like. It's like a blind podcast date. But no, I was super. I have been a fan from as long as I can remember. I've been invested in your career and your. And I've. I've followed you. I was so happy for every. Every time I see you, it makes me happy. We're gonna have to facetime my mom after this is over. I hope you're okay with that. Okay.
- [57:38]
W. Kamau Bell
Cause that's.
- [57:39]
Ted Danson
That's what I need to do. If I can't do that, then I take back everything I said. But, no, it's. It's. You know, and just to be clear, part of this is about the fact that, like, you are a white person in the world. White man in the world, who I see giving a shit and who I've seen give a shit and I've seen make mistakes and bounce back from them, and I've seen. Like, thank you for that. Yes, yes. And I've seen you, like, use your privilege for good. And so even if I hadn't met you, I just felt good about you and you're a talented performer and it's. And to think that, whatever, even though I did not end up in Beverly Hills Cop 4, I still get to talk to you, makes me feel like I did the right thing somehow. I haven't made too many mistakes in this career.
- [58:22]
W. Kamau Bell
Gonna have to get up and hug you again.
- [58:25]
Ted Danson
Mission accomplished.
- [58:27]
W. Kamau Bell
Thanks.
- [58:27]
Ted Danson
Thank you. Yeah.
- [58:36]
W. Kamau Bell
That was the amazing W. Kamau bell. It really means a lot to me that he was here, so thank you, Kamau. To help support Kamau's important work with schools, visit his Donors choose page@donorschoose.org Kamau. That's it for this week's show. Special thanks to our friends at Team Koko. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to a friend. Subscribe, rate and review. And you can always watch full episodes of this podcast on Team Coco's YouTube channel. If that's your thing. I'll be right back here next week where everybody knows your name.
- [59:13]
Ted Danson
See you soon. You've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Liao. They executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and myself. Sarah Fedorovich is our supervising producer. Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez, research by Alyssa Grohl, talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Genn, Mary Steenburgen and John Osborne. We'll have more for you next time. Where everybody knows your name. Sponsored by Novo Nordisk. Hola. Hey, you speak Spanish, but do you speak liver?
- [60:05]
W. Kamau Bell
Okay.
- [60:06]
Ted Danson
People with conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure could be at risk for a potentially life threatening liver disease called MASH or metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis. Whoa. I could be a RUP risk. I'll ask my doctor. You're bilingual? No, I speak liver now. I'm trilingual. Ask your doctor about your risk and if you should be screened for MASH. Learn more@speakliver.com.