Work in Progress: Cristela Alonzo

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Work in Progress: Cristela Alonzo"

Podcast: Work in Progress with Sophia Bush
Host: Sophia Bush
Guest: Cristela Alonzo
Air Date: September 18, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this inspiring and heartfelt episode, actress and activist Sophia Bush sits down with comedian, writer, actress, and trailblazer Cristela Alonzo. Together, they dive deep into Cristela’s journey from a challenging childhood in a Texas border town to making Hollywood history as the first Latina to create, write, produce, and star in her own primetime sitcom. The conversation balances humor with vulnerability as the two discuss identity, class, representation, mental health, activism, the joy of childhood passions (yes, including LEGOs!), and how laughter fuels social change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Childhood and Creative Identity

• Nurturing Joy Through Nostalgia

  • Cristela and Sophia instantly bond over their shared love of LEGO and nerdy TV idols (“mid century Pee Wee’s Playhouse” - Cristela, 07:10).

  • Cristela explains how returning to childhood joys—like playing video games or building LEGO sets—helps her manage anxiety and depression, serving as a “reset” for happiness (Cristela, 19:47).

    “Every time I get sad or stressed out, I have always gone back to do something that I did when I was a little kid because it reminds me of how happy I was.”
    —Cristela (18:51)

• Influence of Television and Journalism

  • Both women credit TV shows like Murphy Brown and Mary Tyler Moore for shaping their storytelling and activist impulses (12:02–13:08).
  • Cristela discusses translating the news for her mother as a child, blending journalism and theater from a young age and nurturing her sense of social justice (13:08–16:13).

Breaking Barriers in Comedy and Representation

• Hollywood Firsts and the Power of Specific Storytelling

  • Sophia praises Cristela for being “the first Latina ever to create, write, produce, and star in your own primetime sitcom” (28:59).

  • Cristela explains the surprising universality of ultra-specific stories: her jokes about blue-collar life and “expiration dates as suggestions” deeply resonated with diverse audiences across Wisconsin and more (29:58–32:04).

    “By being specific, you’re actually being very universal. Great storytelling makes everybody feel like they had the same life or similar experience.”
    —Cristela (31:09)

• Challenging Industry Norms About Age and Women

  • The conversation highlights the lack of nuanced TV roles for women over 40 and the diversity of ages on beloved shows from their childhoods (26:09–27:56).

    “I want to see shows about us. We’re so fun in our 40s. Where are our TV shows?”
    —Sophia (26:10)

Poverty, Class, and Family

• Growing Up With Joy Amid Hardship

  • Cristela movingly relates her family’s experience squatting in an abandoned diner, using extension cords for power and singing around a radio at night. Despite their poverty, her childhood was defined by laughter, not by lack (32:50–34:35).

• Realizing Socioeconomic Differences as an Adult

  • Only in her 20s, when relating stories to others, did Cristela recognize the extent of her family’s poverty—and how much it’s misunderstood by those who haven’t experienced it (35:27–37:53).

    “You think your life is like everybody else’s life, and then when you go out into the real world... you realize everybody has a different life.”
    —Cristela (37:24)

Activism Rooted in Laughter and Community

• Activism Inspired by Family and History

  • Growing up in a border town and witnessing ICE raids as a child, Cristela feels unable to ignore injustice: “For me, there is no way that I couldn’t be active.” (48:13)

  • Her activism is fueled by a strong sense of responsibility, shaped further by mentorship from labor legend Dolores Huerta.

    “Dolores was like, ‘This is the first time your country's broken your heart? It’s not going to be the last time... you cry, you feel furious... then the next day, you wake up and you fight.’”
    —Cristela (54:28)

• Room Temperature Shows & Collective Power

  • Cristela details her “Room Temperature Shows,” stand-up events that raise money for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center—$30 tickets, $30,000+ raised so far (58:55–60:11).

  • She uses these events as living proof of the power of small individual contributions to create significant change, comparing the effect to a choir:

    “One voice is needed with another voice and together you make beautiful music. And that’s what we can do with change.”
    —Cristela (60:19)

• Using Joy as Resistance

  • The new special centers on finding joy in struggle: “When we lose the joy, they win... The problem isn’t that you don’t work hard enough. The problem is you work too much and you don’t allow yourself the chance to enjoy happiness.”
    —Cristela (57:43–58:13)
  • Sophia underscores this theme: “Joy is the light... whatever thing brings you hope... Laughing anyway.” (58:27)

Representation, Solidarity, and the Illusion of Hollywood Glamor

• Hollywood Reality Check

  • Both women call out the “illusion” that TV success means wealth and ease, emphasizing how most actors struggle and rely on unions for basic benefits (66:00–68:13).

• Social Media and “Realness”

  • The two deconstruct the superficiality of social media, especially beauty standards, advocating instead for vulnerability and authenticity as acts of resistance (69:09–70:27).

    “Everybody’s cosplaying everyone... Can we be vulnerable? Is it okay to show people what we really look like, what we really do?”
    —Cristela (70:18)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Comedy and Anxiety:
  “It, like, took me a little while to figure out my particular brand of just, like, neuro spiciness... gives me crippling anxiety, but also can make me sort of funny... anxiety comics, yes, yes.”
  —Sophia (11:10)

• On the Experience of Growing Up Poor: “We used to have this little radio from Radio Shack... we would pick up stations from, like, Mexico that she knew. And on a clear night, we would just sit around in the dark, just singing... it almost seems so scripted, this family moment... but it was so happy that I didn’t realize we had no electricity.”
  —Cristela (33:14)

• Dolores Huerta’s Wisdom:
  “This is the first time your country’s broken your heart? This is not going to be the last time… you feel angry, you feel furious, live with those moments. And then the next day, you wake up and you fight. Every time that you think, every time it gets hard, you remember those moments that you were sad and furious and use it to continue the fight. Because change is possible.”
  —Dolores Huerta (as recounted by Cristela, 54:26)

• On Joy as Defiance:
  “When we lose the joy, they win…The problem isn’t that you don’t work hard enough. The problem is you work too much… and you don’t allow yourself the chance to enjoy happiness.”
  —Cristela (57:43–58:13)

• On Aging and Happiness:
  “Turns out happiness looks good on people.”
  —Sophia (71:06)

• On the Power of Collective Small Actions:
  “That just shows you your $30 raised $12,000... change can happen at very small increments.”
  —Cristela (60:11)

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Major Timestamps

• 00:00–06:59: [Skipped Adverts, Show Intro]
• 07:10–12:44: Comedy bonding, LEGOs, and old TV hero worship
• 13:08–16:11: Theater and news, child of immigrants, activism roots
• 17:03–21:27: Childhood passions, reset rituals, challenging cultural expectations
• 25:10–27:56: The power of aging, missing authentic 40s+ representation on TV
• 29:58–32:04: Storytelling, specificity, blue-collar jokes as universal connection
• 32:16–38:29: Childhood poverty, joy in hardship, growing awareness of systemic class issues
• 47:03–51:41: Room Temperature Shows, activism with comedy, immigrant rights
• 54:26–57:43: Election heartbreak, mentorship from Dolores Huerta, using pain as fuel
• 58:55–60:37: Collective power, $30 tickets, choir metaphor for change
• 62:19–63:05: Open to running for office, commitment to service and inclusion
• 69:09–72:39: Social media illusions & beauty standards, vulnerability, joy in aging
• 72:39–73:41: (Outro, Ads - skipped)

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Final Reflection: Work in Progress

The episode closes with Sophia asking Cristela what her “work in progress” is. Cristela answers that she’s increasingly called to be of service to others and is open to evolving her advocacy, possibly even through political office:

“The older I get, I realized I really do feel that I want to be in service to others... I would be open to running for office in the future if it was something that was good for the community.”
—Cristela (62:19)

But for now, the focus remains on finding joy, deepening solidarity, and using every tool—especially laughter—to build a kinder, more just world. As Sophia puts it:

“Maybe the work in progress is just to get more gorgeous as we age because we get happier.”
—Sophia (71:22)

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A warm, wise, and laughter-filled episode full of practical activism, sisterhood, and hope.

Transcript

[Cristela Alonso]

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[Sophia]

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[Sophia]

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[Cristela Alonso]

I always tell people that my aesthetic is like mid century Pee Wee's Playhouse.

[Sophia]

Perfect.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, it's a lot. I'm a big plant person, but I love color. I love it. They don't have Legos. I'm a big LEGO person.

[Sophia]

Oh, my God, me too. Shut up. I won LEGO Masters last year.

[Cristela Alonso]

Shut up. I am so jealous of you. I am so jealous of you.

[Sophia]

It was the absolute time of my life and I looked at Will Arnett and I was like, you have the best job in the world. Like, bro, I don't. I'm not going to like, push you down the stairs to steal your job. But I'm thinking about it.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know that the rumor was that he wasn't doing the next season. So they're actually. They're looking for people. Or they were. They were looking for people.

[Sophia]

And so what you're saying is we should be the co hosts of LEGO Masters.

[Cristela Alonso]

I. I've actually talked to my manager about trying to see if we could do it in Mexico just so I'm like, I'll speak in Spanish. To do that would be so sick. I. I'm like, in love. I'm so jealous. I cannot believe, like, not only did you. Not only are you into Legos, but you won LEGO Masters. Like, that's next level.

[Sophia]

And I gotta be honest, like, after the first two builds, I was like, we are not going to win. And I don't know what happened. We just like, oh, me and Corey, we just like, stepped up our game and we did it. We did it. There were animatronics involved. It was Christmas themed.

[Cristela Alonso]

That is impressive. And you know what people don't. We don't talk about enough in the LEGO world is how your fingers hurt after, like, the blocks and stuff.

[Sophia]

It's really cool. It's also like, it's like learning to play the guitar, but it never gets better.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

Yeah. Oh, my God. Aren't you so excited you came on this podcast to talk about LEGO today?

[Cristela Alonso]

Honestly, it's probably one of my favorite podcasts.

[Sophia]

So stoked. This is it. This is it. But this is how. This is how it happens.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes. Well, because also with podcasts, it's like, look, I was born in the same state every podcast and stuff. But it's like when you get the little, when you get something different, you're like, let's do this.

[Sophia]

And here I was going to be like, well, we clearly have to go to the Rose bowl together because I'm a mid century junkie. But seriously, that actually reminds me of the point I didn't finish before we discovered this happy coincidence, which is, remember that rumor Raider account that started during COVID Because everyone, I'm one of the top 10. I knew it. I was like, you must be a 10 out of 10 on room reader.

[Cristela Alonso]

I was actually, it's actually in my old, in my old place because I, I. When the pandemic started, I went crazy. I'm like, let's wallpaper. Let's just go. Let's go to town. I started doing renovations, like, but I was, I was renting, but I did this mid century, kind of like aqua, you know, pattern. And then I had these paintings, which I knew people would love. And, you know, once I got the 10 out of 10 and I was doing a lot of stuff with MSNBC at that time, and people would always recommend me to the room Raiders. And they're like, look, she's hall of famer now because. And I'm such a plant person that I always had different plants because I was playing with.

[Sophia]

Oh, my God, I love it. It's like. And this week on msnbc, I've upgraded to a Japanese maple. I love it. I have to admit, this is going so great for me because to make a comedian that I love as much as I love you laugh, I'm like, I'm crushing. Obviously, you.

[Cristela Alonso]

You have a new career. Like, wonderful. Oh, my God.

[Sophia]

I really appreciate it.

[Cristela Alonso]

A type 5, you're opening for me.

[Sophia]

Like, it, like, took me a little while to figure out that my particular brand of just like, neuro spiciness, yes, gives me crippling anxiety, but also can make me sort of funny. And then I was like, oh, I think I've found my lane. And then my mom was like, yeah. Why do you think you were so obsessed with, like, Jerry Seinfeld and Murphy Brown and like you love Larry David. I was like, anxiety comics. Yes, yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

Have really bad anxiety and people don't understand.

[Sophia]

Like, you just see, you are for me.

[Cristela Alonso]

Like, you're so for me. You said Seinfeld. When I was in high school, I used to love, like I was the person, like he had that book, sign language, which was just all of his stand up. And I was like, hey, I'm so cool. I'm just going to go here while you guys are hanging out and read about comedy. But Murphy Brown is one of my favorite shows.

[Sophia]

Oh, my favorite show of all time.

[Cristela Alonso]

It's. I talk about it all the time. I talk about the Mary Tyler Moore show and Leslie Brown and like the evolution of women.

[Sophia]

Me too. And I really think, even when I, like when I started to really know, I wanted to focus on theater training, I think half the reason I wound up when I got to college and I was like, oh, all these actors are like actors. And I was like, oh, I don't know if these are like really my people. I want to like tell stories, but this seems like a lot. And I shifted out of the BFA program to do a double major in theater and journalism. And I'm telling you, I'm like, oh, it's because I wanted to be Murphy Brown.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sophia]

Like, cool, cool, cool. But this is actually something. And I want to, I want to get to this part, but it's, it's something I've thought a lot about, you know, becoming a fan of your comedy and then learning about your story. I'm like, oh, there's gotta be something about having women in journalism idols as young women that primes you to be a storyteller and an activist.

[Cristela Alonso]

Absolutely. And actually, you know, I think it's really interesting. I loved theater growing up. I loved it. I wanted to be on Broadway, you know. Oh, it was my dream. And I remember, you know, I'm in my 40s and it used to be that growing up, every night families would come kind of pick a network and they would just watch the whole network. Like that was just. And CBS was like my Sunday. Because I loved Murder She Wrote.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

Same loved Murder She Wrote.

[Sophia]

Oh my God. A cute little old lady solving a murder mystery.

[Cristela Alonso]

Oh my God, sign me up. And she's just so perfect. And she can't drive. Like she's actually, if you think about it, she's almost like TLC scrubs. But like, as a woman because she's just always in the passenger side on your best Incredible. Incredible.

[Sophia]

She's. She's a scrub. But also, we don't deserve Angela Lansbury. I'm like, what do you do with that?

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

It totally.

[Cristela Alonso]

It's, like, ridiculous. I used to watch Murder Shearer, and then one night they didn't show it, and they showed the Tony Awards. And I was like, what is this? What is. What are all these colors? What is this? And I remember it was the year that Miss Saigon was new and Jonathan Price was performing. He was doing the engineer in Miss Saigon, which would now be. So not get cast because he's a white guy playing an Asian guy. But he did a song called American Dream, and he's describing American. The American dream, colors and costumes and everything. And, you know, being the kid of immigrants, I was just like, what is this? This is like. He's talking about, like, the country that we're in, and he's talking about how great this country is, and he's singing and dancing like, I want to do that. And I started theater, but my mom couldn't speak English, so I used to have to translate the news to her. So as a kid, really into journalism, because my mom was into the news. She was really into events. So I had to. I had to translate the news to her. So it was a really weird kismet of, like, journalism theater that I grew up in. Then in high school, I started doing oratory. I started writing speeches and, like, did debate and theater and all that. And, you know, it sticks with you. It stays with you. And then I remember, I like, look, I love. I love to perform. I love to act. But once I knew the activism, the storytelling, once I knew that side and I knew what it could be, it became bigger. It became a bigger part for me. It was like, I love this. I love. And it's just. What? You know, I hate social media, and I love social media because it's, like.

[Sophia]

Same when I was a kid.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah. It's like, when I was a kid, I couldn't imagine being so connected. And, you know, when the Internet started, I was like, oh, my God, we're gonna be so smart. Like. Like, you know, it's like, remember encyclopedias? They used. They used to be dated. If you had to check one out some, there's a chance that somebody checked it out or somebody stole it. And you just didn't know about, like, Japan. If you had to find out about Japan. Yeah.

[Sophia]

You're like, oh, that issue is gone. Cool.

[Cristela Alonso]

And then the Internet started, and I love that this space can exist. Spaces like this where you can actually talk about your interests and you can talk about what works and what doesn't and yes, talk about what's happening in the world, both good and bad. Because we both, we need to know. Both good and bad.

[Sophia]

Yes, all of it. Well, and it's really interesting because, you know, we obviously really segued first and foremost over our shared fandom of building blocks. But the question I normally like to ask people first because like you've got the specials and the shows and the thing, like people know your work, I'm always curious about you. And if, and if you got to go back and hang out with your 8 year old self, would you recognize yourself in her? Like, would you see the woman you are today and the creative person you are today in that little girl? And now given what I know for the first 14 minutes, I'm like, hell yeah, you would.

[Cristela Alonso]

Right? I'm the same person, you know, and it's that thing where I think, you know, I think that subconsciously I always did want to become, I always wanted to become the, the person I wanted to be when I was a little kid. And I never let it go. And it's weird because it's a hard thing because life gets in the way and then you start forgetting things that you loved, which in turn changes who you are. The things that you love, the little hobbies, the things that you get into, they all create who you are. And if you stop, if you just stop doing one thing, it slowly becomes this domino effect that, that changes you. But when I was a kid, I used to love Legos. And it's like, it really is this thing. One thing that I think I've constantly done in my life is because I have almost crippling anxiety, you know, and I struggle with depression. It's like every time that I get sad or stressed out, I have always gone back to do something that I did when I was a little kid because it reminds me of how happy I was. And it's that thing that I love, you know, it's like it's a reset.

[Sophia]

Yes. What are some of those things for you?

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, I love, like the LEGO thing is really big for me. I actually like, sometimes my brothers used to, like, we used to play video games. We used to play like the Nintendo, like the original Nintendo. So I have the original Nintendo and I will play the games that I played when I was a kid. And I love it because the old systems, you can't restart. Once you die, you die. The game's gotta start. All over. And for some reason, it brings that part of your brain that reminds you of when you were 10, 11, when life was simpler.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

And it's one of those things where you realize that I can get annoyed about losing the progress of a game, but I also remember how cool it was that this technology existed when I was a kid. And it makes me so happy. You just have to go back sometimes to. To capture the joy. And I think that as adults, we're horrible at doing that. And it's something that I talk about in the special that's coming out because it's this idea that we are taught how to live the wrong way. We are taught that you have to grow up. You know, so many of us get told you go to college, you graduate, you get married, you have the family, you know, blah, blah, blah, you get the job. And then I always started thinking, like, what if you don't want to? What happens if you don't want to? You know, like, but this is life. It's like, but what if it isn't?

[Sophia]

But why?

[Cristela Alonso]

Right? It's like, what if you do the thing that you want to do? Like, yes, say that I didn't have kids. And everybody said, but you have to have kids. It's like, but no, you don't. What if you don't? Yeah, what if you don't want them? You know, it's like, well, but why don't you want kids? It's like, because I already raised children. I helped my sister raise her kids. So if I don't have the urge to raise children, what if I don't? And it's asking those questions that you realize, yeah, you don't have to.

[Sophia]

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[Sophia]

Everybody knows that getting kids to do math, let alone be excited about math, can be pretty tough. I mean guys, let's be honest. It's pretty hard as an adult to get excited about math. We just have to figure out a way to hack the problem, as it were. If that sounds like what you're dealing with at home, you need to check out Prodigy. It is the online math game kids and actually want to play, teaching the same math that they learn in class. Prodigy is trusted by over 800,000 teachers and voted number one by kids. It's helped over 22 million students and 91% of parents say their kids enjoy it. Head to prodigy.com and get up to 50% off a parent membership. Learning can be joyful and this. This is proof.

[Cristela Alonso]

When I turned 40, I realized that I had gotten to the point where, if I'm lucky, I still have the exact amount of time that I have lived left.

[Sophia]

Yes. It's like being a newborn but with a bank account and taste. It's so cool. 40. And I was like, well, 40 was a rough year for me, but 41 was, like, the best birthday of my life. And I literally was like, I've. Honestly, I don't think I've ever been hotter. I've never been funnier. I've never been smarter.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

Weirdly, I've channeled so much anger at up in the World into emotional tenderness. Like, how's that for a magic trick? Like, I'm great. And it's so weird. It's like I look around and, you know, no shade to a teen TV show. I literally grew up on one. But I'm like, I want to see shows about us.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes. Yes.

[Sophia]

Like, I. I love this stage, and it is really weird. There's something missing. It's like you either have a One Tree Hill or you have, like, an 80 for Brady. And don't get me wrong, like, I die for a Jane Fonda movie. I love Grace and Frankie, but I'm like, we're so fun in our 40s. Where are our TV shows? That's why we all miss Sex in the City so much.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

It's why we miss Seinfeld. You're right.

[Cristela Alonso]

And it's weird because it is this weird thing where, you know, there's. I remember when, you know, when I had my TV show, I had created it, I was writing it, we were auditioning people to play my sister. And the. Every time that an actress would come in that was over 40, they would say, wow, she's. She can't. She's. She's older. And I'm like, well, because my sister is older, so I would love an older actress to play an older sister.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

And they were trying to steer young and it's like, no, no. Because the most popular shows of our time.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

All have older people in it. Frasier is an older cast. Golden Girls is an older cast.

[Sophia]

Everybody Loves Raymond.

[Cristela Alonso]

Everybody Loves Raymond.

[Sophia]

Like, everybody.

[Cristela Alonso]

The Jeffersons, like, you know, Mary Tyler Moore, Murphy, all of them. They all had people that were older. That. Yes. You never thought, man, as a kid. As a kid, I could watch One Tree Hill and Frasier, and I didn't think, well, why am I watching Frasier? This isn't my show. It was just a funny show.

[Sophia]

Yes. It's that just, like Murphy Brown.

[Cristela Alonso]

Absolutely. It's like, why am I watching Murphy Brown as a kid. Right. And loving it? Because it's a good show, and that's what people don't understand. It's like, if it's good, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's in it. It doesn't matter what the story is. You know, I say this all the time. As a Latino, I didn't have a lot of Latino representation on tv. And I found the things that spoke to me because I was looking for connection. And the connections, you know, you find them in places that you never thought, you know, and it's because of the story. That's why story is so important. I say this all the time. As different as we all may be, we're all very much alike. If you can find a stranger from another culture, you can find so many things in common about everyday life. And that is why those stories are important.

[Sophia]

Yes. And you said something about this when you were talking about your show, which for our audience at home, you made your own history. You. It was 2014. You became the first Latina ever to create, write, produce, and star in your own primetime sitcom. Casual. Just like, dust your, you know, dust your shoulders off a little bit. Cash, like. But one of the things I think is so interesting about it is, you know, you talked about how your childhood experience, your lived experience was so specific to you, but that actually, the more specific you could be in the storytelling, the more every kind of viewer could relate to it. And I love. I love that because it's kind of like. It's almost like two things that are opposite are true, that the more unique your story is, the more relatable it is. Even though you'd think the more unique it is, the less people.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know. It's funny, when I started doing standup, I was really popular in the college circuit. I was like, one of the most booked college comics of all time. And, you know, it's the number one state that I performed at was Wisconsin. Wisconsin. I mean, I know Wisconsin. I love Wisconsin. And it was this thing where people would think, well, why do you get booked in Wisconsin? I didn't know there were Latinos there. And I was like, well, you know, it's just. It's where I get booked, right? But also, when I. You know, I remember one of the appeals was that I would always talk about growing up blue collar. You know, it's like, you don't have to be Latino to grow up blue collar. You know, and it was there used to Be a joke that I did about how in my family, expiration dates were just suggestions, right? And it's just like, women, like family with money. The day the milk expires, you throw it out. My family, it's like, oh, my God. Like, you gotta taste it. Taste the milk.

[Sophia]

You know, my family, it was always, well, smell it first.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah, yeah. Does it smell okay? Yeah. Yes. You know, it's like. And it's. It's very specific because I. The joke, I kind of explain how as the youngest, I was always the person that had to taste everything, you know, and it's like this thing where it. But it. You know, family, like, people would love, like, that joke a lot because it was relatable to them. It was very specific. And I would paint this picture of how I would do it. But they had similar things in their families, too. And that just shows you that by being specific, you're actually being very universal. Totally great storytelling. You know, great storytelling makes everybody feel like they could, like. Like they had the same life or similar experience.

[Sophia]

Yeah, well. And one of the things I really appreciate about the way you move your stories through the world is you've talked a lot about how you grew up. Like, you didn't have an easy time.

[Cristela Alonso]

No.

[Sophia]

And I'm curious, you know, reflecting back on experiences with poverty on the time that your mom was undocumented. Like, things that we understand in real laz are sharp focus right now are so scary for families in our country. Do you think you realized how tough it was then or have has it come to really be clarified for you in your adulthood? And that's part of what you would say fuels your activism for similar families now?

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, I think that when I was a kid, my. I was the youngest of four, and we're. They're all, like, older, so they're like 11, 13, and 15 years older than I am. And when I was a kid, they really did such a great job of shielding me from a lot of bad. A lot of the bad that I remember my childhood being so happy. I remember so much laughing, so much joy. You know, when I was born, we lived in this abandoned diner. We squatted in an abandoned diner for the first seven years of my life. And we didn't have money. And my mom used to borrow electricity from this house that was next to the diner, and they would let us use the. An extension cord, and we would power our diner with the extension court, and she would give them some money every month. And there were times that we had no electricity and we used to have this little radio from Radio Shack, and we. At night, it was so dark, my mom would play the radio and we would pick up stations from, like, Mexico that she knew. And on a clear night, and we would just sit around in the dark, just singing and, like, really kind of having like a. A very sitcom Y almost. It almost seems so scripted, this family moment. Yeah. But it was so happy that I didn't realize that we had no electricity.

[Sophia]

Right.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, but it's that thing. There were moments I knew that we were poor and the kids at school made sure that you. That you knew that they knew you were poor. You know, and there's a moment where I knew, but I was happy and I did, you know, I. I worked with what I had. But there is a moment in my 20s when I was telling a story of how I grew up. I was. I had just moved to la, I can't remember, but there used to be a diner around, like, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, where the servers were so rude on purpose.

[Sophia]

At Dubevix, they would throw French fries at you. Yes. Yeah, that was the whole shtick. You'd go in to get yelled at and berated. It was a performance and they would, like, take a dance break on the tables.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah, I was there. And I'm telling the story about my childhood. And this one guy's like, you were poor. And the way. And like. Like, it was insane. It was this moment where that specific story could not understand. He couldn't understand because he would have never guessed that I had grown up so poor. You know, it's this assumption that because you're well spoken, because you're smart, you know, people think, well, it's weird how class, this idea of class is so embedded into our society that they think that this class system that is kind of invisible but exists is connected to education.

[Sophia]

Well, they assume it's connected to your. To intellect and worth.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

Which is so, so weird. Yes, to me.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah. Because sometimes people will treat you like. Because you had no money, you didn't learn the same Alphabet, the same math, the same thing that anybody else did. It's really weird.

[Sophia]

You're like, I didn't have to pay per letter in school.

[Cristela Alonso]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Sophia]

Okay.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes. You know, and it. But it was that moment in my 20s at that story, at that moment that I realized the level of poverty that I lived in wasn't everybody's experience and.

[Sophia]

Right.

[Cristela Alonso]

It's weird because I wasn't allowed to go hang out at my friend's houses when I was My mom was very strict. And, you know, as a kid, you only know your life.

[Sophia]

Exactly.

[Cristela Alonso]

So you think, you assume that your life is like everybody else's life, and then when you go out into the real world and you meet other people, you realize everybody has a different life. Right. When I went to college, I remember there was a guy in my year that was writing out a check for his tuition. Like, just flat out, all of it. And I had never seen anyone write.

[Sophia]

A check for that much money.

[Cristela Alonso]

And it was. And it was so nothing to him. And I realized, like, oh, wow, like, there are people that can do that. And it was such a weird moment that you realize, like, I have work study, I have the Pell Grant. I have, like, the. The seoj, the lower income. It was so different. And. But then you remember that you're both in the same spot.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

And that's when I think. I think a lot of us forget that regardless of where we came from, we find ourselves in the same spot, you know, so it's like, he can afford it, I couldn't. And we were both at the same college. And that showed you that. That showed you that there are certain equalizers in life, you know, but it is this thing where, you know. Yeah. Realizing what I've been able to accomplish despite, because of also the way that I was raised and how I grew up, I also realized that the narrative that was being shown about my community was so badly written and people were going with it.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

It was this thing where you. You wanted to be the outlier and show people this humanity, because that is the thing we're very good at. Vilifying what we don't know.

[Sophia]

Oh, yeah. With any community, we don't know it.

[Cristela Alonso]

So it's like we vilify it because what are we going to do? Get to know them. It's easier to vilify them, which is crazy to me.

[Sophia]

I'm like, I literally started a podcast so I could hang out with people I think are interesting who I otherwise wouldn't meet. Like, I've given myself the job of getting to know people because it's. It's the best job I've ever had. And we're just, like, out here acting like we don't need our neighbors. It's so weird to me. And now for our sponsors. Degree Advanced, the world's number one antiperspirant, provides up to 72 hours of protection against sweat and odor that comes with life. Degree is the wake up workout Antiperspirant, the dashing, darting carpool honking get the kids off to school Antiperspirant the work from home and do the laundry Grocery shop on your lunch hour never take a break Antiperspirant so do what you need to do Work how you need to work. Sweat moves you forward degree is here to make sure it doesn't hold you back degree here for sweat Stop settling for weak sound.

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[Sophia]

Knows that getting kids to do math, let alone be excited about math, can be pretty tough. I mean guys, let's be honest. It's pretty hard as an adult to get excited about math. We just have to figure out a way to hack the problem, as it were. If that sounds like what you're dealing with at home, you need to check out Prodigy. It is the online math game kids, kids actually want to play, teaching the same math that they learn in class. Prodigy is trusted by over 800,000 teachers and voted number one by kids. It's helped over 22 million students and 91% of parents say their kids enjoy it. Head to prodigy.com and get up to 50% off a parent membership. Learning can be joyful. And this, this is proof. I think part of it for me is, look, I understand the privilege I was born with. Being born in la, when I was looking like, I look like I, I can kind of pass anywhere. You know, you don't get to not be Latina unless you're like, you know, eating in one of those. By the way, ironically, the way you talk about growing up, I'm like, yeah, now there's like Michelin star restaurants where you eat in the dark and you're just supposed to trust the chefs, like, okay. But it's like, for me, I, I sort of have this really interesting experience stretched across two communities because my dad is an immigrant who didn't become a citizen until I was 13. My mother was born here, but my mother's mother immigrated with her family through Ellis island. And they experienced in that generation the backlash against, you know, the Italians and the Irish people, that is, that was swiftly swept under the rug because the really WASPy white people were like, okay, well, we'll collect anyone who looks white and let them be part of our community so we can complain about all the other communities. And I'm like, really? We still haven't gotten the point. So, you know, I grew up pretty secure, like, very lucky. My dad's a wonderful entrepreneur and artist, but my mom spent a large part of her childhood in a housing project in the Bronx, like eating salt sandwiches when there was no food.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

So I understand our relative comfort and I, and I very much understood my whole life and work to still the, the absolute lack of comfort that so many people come from and experience every day. And I remember going to college thinking like, you know, I have like a pretty nice life.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

You know, we, when I was 13, we like moved into a house with an extra bedroom. Like, and I got to USC and I was like, oh, there are, there are 18 year old girls who take a credit card their dad pays for to Gucci and spend $10,000 and don't get murdered by their families. Like, I would see to live on the planet.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

You know, I was like, oh, I have, like, a meal plan card that my parents got me for the semester. Like, I'm pretty lucky. And I went, oh. And that's really where I saw, like, there's every kind of life.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

What's crazy to me is that generation after generation of families with stories like, my mom's with my grandparents and yours with your parents, we are still doing the thing where we look at our neighbors like they're not our neighbors. Like they're not. Like they're the problem. Instead of a literal, you know, ruling class trying to become an oligarchy that uses everyone else as their underpaid workforce.

[Cristela Alonso]

You pull up the ladder.

[Sophia]

Yeah. And I don't get it. And for you, I really want to thank you, because not only have you broken barriers in your community, you've broken barriers for women in our industry. Like, when you win, it makes it easier for me to win.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

And you're taking your work and you're really creating something out of it. You're doing these room temperature shows. You're supporting the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Like, you are out on a comedy circuit making people laugh. And you're also managing to make that activism. And I want to talk about it because I think so many people view activism as, like, hard, intellectual, sad, angry work, and they miss that. It can be the most creative, most generative, most affirming, like, community experience. And I think you're. You're, like, showing that out loud and on the road right now. And I just, Just. I don't know. I want to give you your flowers and I want to talk about it.

[Cristela Alonso]

No, I think that, you know, there's. There's two kinds of people. I think that the people that we're talking about that do pull up the ladder, you know, it's. People forget that they were once where the other people are, that they now do not want to support, do not, you know, that. That they.

[Sophia]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

Right. It's. And it's weird. But then there's also the people that come from it, and it is so embedded in them that you cannot ignore what is happening. And I'm that person, you know, and it's growing up in a border town in the 80s. I grew up with. With the. I grew up with the immigration raids from the border patrol. So what is happening in our country right now is old news to me.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, and I know that people. I. I like when people get invested in it. I would love if people, One of The reasons that we find ourselves where we're at is because people do not know their history. If we knew our history, we would not repeat it, Right?

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

That's the saying. Right? We are. Those that don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

[Sophia]

You know, and let's be clear. That's why they're trying to defund education.

[Cristela Alonso]

Absolutely.

[Sophia]

So they can keep doing this to people.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes, absolutely. And it's. It's this weird thing where, for me, there is no way that I couldn't be active because, like, with what is happening right now with ICE coming in, taking people, kidnapping people, I start thinking, that's my mother.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

And not only that, but, like, right now, my brothers and my sister, they all live in Texas. And it's weird to live in a time where you don't know if they're okay even though they're citizens.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

My oldest brother became a citizen in 2016, and we were talking about how we should check into getting our Mexican citizenship and become dual citizens. And it's just. It's this thing where you're like, this is where we're at.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

Anyway, I think that for me, because I'm so specific in my standup, and when I had my show, it brought in. When I started doing clubs after the show, I started bringing in this demo that the clubs never didn't really see, which was a lot of, like, Latinas, a lot of, like, college educated, like. Like a lot of college, like, educated, like, recent graduates, or, like, because the sitcom I wrote was about me finishing law school, that there were a lot of lawyers, a lot of professionals that were coming into the clubs that never went to comedy clubs. They didn't know they existed. So they went to the clubs because the girl from the show was at the clubs. And when I started talking about how I grew up, it resonated with so many people that saw me, because that was their story, too. And they liked that I was showing this smart character that was really trying to better themselves and, like. And wasn't, you know, wasn't wearing it, wasn't being very tropey, wasn't being stereotypical. You know, it was, you know, in the show, I. I was a big nerd, you know, and I liked being a nerd. And then after I shot my first Netflix special in 2016 in August.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

And I. It was right before. Right before the election, and I thought, well, you know, we're gonna be fine. You know, we're gonna be fine. And I tell this story a lot, but, like, Dolores Huerta is my mentor, so I've learned a lot from Dolores. A lot of community work, everything. All the activism, I really learned from her. And we were together on the night of the election, and when, you know, I was moderating a panel and I was supposed to moderate a panel the day after the election about the power of women in and the ability to maintain because we thought Hillary was going to win, obviously. And when she didn't, I was crying so much.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

It was like that thing where it was the cry that was so out of the blue that, you know, sometimes when you start crying, you know it's coming.

[Sophia]

And it just.

[Cristela Alonso]

It was that moment that just hit.

[Sophia]

And came and play lightning.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah. It was so weird. It was just devastation that you couldn't put into words, and it was overwhelming. And I remember the next day, I had to go. They got me to go moderate the panel. We were on a boat, and so we couldn't go.

[Sophia]

Oh, my God, that must have felt so dystopian and crazy.

[Cristela Alonso]

It was insane. We had nowhere to go. And there were people that were. Were celebrating that he won on the boat. So it was, like, totally different. It was. It was a social justice cruise.

[Sophia]

Oh, my God. I. I could. Then you can't. This. This is an episode of a sitcom.

[Cristela Alonso]

Like, it was a social justice cruise. All of the people of color were on the boat. We were doing workshops and panels for. For rich white people that were celebrating that he won.

[Sophia]

I could not have done it. I don't know how you did it. I could not have done it.

[Cristela Alonso]

We were in the middle of nowhere. Like, what? You know, like, it was like. And look. And there were people that. That were. There were people that were all that. That were devastated as well, that were rich, but there were a lot of people that were partying. And I get taken into the room, into the green room. We're gonna start this panel. And Dolores sees me, and my eyes are so swollen. She's like, like, what's wrong? And I was like, well, you know, like, I've been crying. She's like, why would happened, you know? And in my mind, I'm like, oh, my God. Like, she doesn't know, you know? And she was like. She was like, oh. She's like, this is the first time your country's broken your heart.

[Sophia]

Oh, my God. That makes me want to sob.

[Cristela Alonso]

She's like, this is not going to be the last time.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, and she looks over to the other panelists, Sonia Sanchez, this badass black poet, and she looks at her, and she's like, you remember Nixon? And they start laughing, Right? And Dolores is like, cristella, you can be sad, you can be angry. You go to bed, you cry, you feel angry, you feel furious. Live with those moments. And then the next day, you wake up and you fight. Every time that you think, every time it gets hard, you remember those moments that you were sad and furious and use it to continue the fight, because change is possible. And I remember after that, in 2016, that election night, it changed my trajectory forever. And it was this thing where I took it to heart to the point that I realized that I needed to figure out what my life was, because I didn't know what was coming, but I knew that it wasn't going to be good for a lot of people.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

And once it started with, like, the Muslim ban, and I started seeing just so many minorities struggling, I started thinking, I can't do stand up right now. And I remember I emailed my people and I said, I don't want to work. I don't. I don't. I need to step away, because I don't feel like I can be funny right now. And also, there weren't a lot of shows people were trying to cater to this right. Leaning super conservative, like, yeah, that didn't fit me. It's like, why do I want to be part of this world? I'm like, I'm gonna sit it out. And I didn't. And I. I, you know, took me about. God, I would say about a year and a half, I started working in the community. I started doing grassroots. I started working with non profits. I started trying to raise money. You know, I started thinking, what. What am I good at? And I'm like, I'm fluent in Spanish. I love talking about voter outreach. I want to make sure that everybody that I can help, which. And the community that I'm from, which is Latino, but more importantly, lower income.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

I wanted to make sure that lower income people knew that government, like, programs existed. I wanted.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

The problem is, is that we need access. And it was like this thing where the next couple years, I came back, I shot the second special, and then with everything happening now, the third special that I wrote, I've been doing. And it's about. It's about how in times of struggle, we need to find joy. And how even in time, and how when we don't, when we lose the joy, they win.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

And you cannot have them win because they want to see you miserable. And you will not be miserable because life has already taught you that you should be miserable. You're expected to be miserable. And I tell people this at every show. The problem isn't that you don't work hard enough. The problem is you work too much.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

Work too much. And you don't allow yourself the chance to enjoy happiness.

[Sophia]

Yes. Yes. You have to. Because the joy, Joy is the light.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

Like when you think about the teachings of, of people like Dolores.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

Gloria Steinem, Dr. King, like the light in the dark is joy. It is community. It is being in love. It is getting married anyway. It is being with your family anyway. It is laughing anyway. It's like whatever thing brings you hope and you're on the road doing the job you do. You've launched, launched these companion shows to raise. I mean, you've raised like over $30,000 at this point.

[Cristela Alonso]

With these room temperature shows at $30 a ticket. It's all like raised. It's all. But it's all community raised.

[Sophia]

And yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

I actually do it as an example. To me, it's a long term plan to show people. It's actually, it's weird. It's like to me this is part of the outreach to teach people how much they matter. You see the president going into cities that he didn't win.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, it's like. And that's a, it's important.

[Sophia]

That's the commonality, isn't it? And there are cities with black mayors too. Yep.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, we have to keep saying that part out loud. It's the cities that he didn't win that supposedly need so much help.

[Sophia]

Oh, they're just out of control. The lowest crime rates in 30 years.

[Cristela Alonso]

The lowest crime rate. So it's this thing where with one $30 ticket mixed with other $30 tickets. The first show we raised $12,500.

[Sophia]

It's incredible at 30 bucks a pop.

[Cristela Alonso]

$30.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

And that just shows you that your $30 raised $12,000.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

$30,000 comes from $30 a ticket. That shows you that change can happen.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

At very small increments. And that is what happens when you vote. If you actually show up your vote with other votes. I, I try to describe it as a choir. One voice is needed with another voice and together you make beautiful music. And that's what we can do with change.

[Sophia]

What's so cool to see you building an example of collective power through joy.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

I think that kind of joy, that becomes a source for creativity, that becomes a source for purpose. That's so much bigger than just your career. That. That is about identity and self. Like, as you cultivate that as. As you push this third special into the world for us and things, you. We need it desperately. So what feels like your work in progress? What. What are you focusing on next?

[Cristela Alonso]

I actually. It's funny, I actually have always said that the older I've gotten, I realized that I really do feel that I want to be in service to others. I feel like it is just. It's something that I think is bigger than a lot of things. And I've. You know, when I was a kid in fourth grade, I told, you know, we made a little makeshift yearbook in my class, and they asked all of us what we wanted to be when. When we grew up. And I said I wanted to be president of the United States. And everyone made fun of me. And there were people that were like, how are you gonna be it? And it was this thing. I was such a. I was a nerd. I love politics, everything. And, like, as a little kid, and I was like, yeah, you're right. Like, I. I listened to people and I didn't even follow it. And I've always said. It's like, I've always said that I would be open to running for office.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

In the future if it was something that was good for the community.

[Sophia]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

Because having worked on elections and I work on all the elections, you know, it's like, you see how. You see what is needed and you see, you know, what the work that needs to be done and trying to find a way of, like, figuring out what is the most effective way that I can use what I'm good at.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Cristela Alonso]

Make change.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Cristela Alonso]

When we talk about politics, we always talk middle class. It's like, we need to talk about the people that are in poverty, too.

[Sophia]

Everybody.

[Cristela Alonso]

Everybody. We need to be inclusive because the people in poverty also vote. You know, we make it seem like they don't, and it's like, that's why they. A lot of people don't.

[Sophia]

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[Sophia]

Friends, if you are a parent, an auntie, an uncle, if you have kids in your life in any fashion, you know getting them to do math can be exhausting. And we get it even as adults. We wish we had to do less math. But the thing is, it's important. It's central to everything about our lives and our businesses and how we function in the world. We want to give those tools to our kids, right? But it can be really hard to get them to get excited about math. Luckily, there's something making a real difference for families. Prodigy. It's the online math platform that turns learning into a game. Yes, a game that kids actually want to play. And it's not fluff. Prodigy teaches the same math they're learning in class and it's trusted by over 800,000 teachers. It was voted the number one game based learning tool by kids themselves, which says a lot. Last year more than 22 million students used it and 91% of parents said their kids genuinely enjoy it. If you are looking to make math feel less like a battle and more like an advantage adventure, go to prodigy.com right now you can get up to 50% off a parent membership so your kids can start learning for less than $5 a month. Affordable, effective, where learning can be joyful again. Go to prodigy.com and check it out. You won't be disappointed. And one of the things I, I, I think is so important is beginning to figure out how to demystify the kind of reality a little bit for people. Because like I try to tell people all the time, I'm like, look very similarly to you. I'm like, you know me from TV, you think I'm living like, I don't know, JLo. I'm not. Almost nobody is. Almost everyone in our union has to have a side hustle or a second job or whatever. And by the way, to be clear, I only have health care because I'm in a union. You guys, like, it's the only reason I can go to the doctor.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

And I think not only do we need to be more inclusive of language in terms of people that are on the suffering and the, the risk end of the spectrum, we also have to be clear that like the other end of the spectrum doesn't really look like what you think. Like everybody's not really doing better than you. No, everybody's having a hard time. And if we all got together and bargained better collectively, everybody's lives would be a little easier. It wouldn't be that somebody was like getting one over on you. It would just be that maybe we could build a larger middle class again, maybe we could build more upward mobility for more people and people could live in dignified ways, which seemed much more possible two generations ago, but that's because the wealth disparity wasn't so bad.

[Cristela Alonso]

Absolutely. You know, and I think, and it's weird because, because going back to like a social media, because it is the way that so many of us see Life. Right. You know, it's like, yeah, it's weird to have this illusion being presented in social media.

[Sophia]

It's the worst.

[Cristela Alonso]

You know, like, sometimes it's funny how the algorithm knows I'm in my 40s, so they try to sneak in what they think, think I would like. And it's always like, every now and then, it's women with their skin care, Right. Oh, so much skincare, so many products that you're just like, I can't. I do not have the time to do all of these steps.

[Sophia]

I'm just like, I don't even know what that is.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes. It's like basic. You know, it's like, I. But also, like, you see makeup and you see. I'll see women that, you know and men that, like, they'll spill a whole bottle of foundation on their face for drama. And I'm thinking, that expensive bottle. Yeah.

[Sophia]

You know, I'm like, that better have been pr, because even if it was, it's wasteful.

[Cristela Alonso]

It's the illusion that, oh, this is. Everybody has money. Look at us. We live in this penthouse and we.

[Sophia]

Everybody's cosplaying everyone.

[Cristela Alonso]

And it's just like, can we be. Can we be vulnerable? Is it okay to show people what. What we really look like, what we really do? You know, people will always tell me, they always accuse me of getting work done, Right. And it's like this thing, because the assumption is that in my. At my age, I'm always getting work done.

[Sophia]

Yeah. And you're like, no, actually, 40 is hot.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes, it's.

[Sophia]

I hate to break it to you guys, like, 40 is not.

[Cristela Alonso]

Like, there are people that look older in their 20s.

[Sophia]

Oh, yeah. By the way, I look better. I look better in my 40s than I looked in my 30s for sure. In my 30s, I was mad depressed. I was in, like a bad sitch. I. And you could see it on my face. And like, it turns out happiness looks good on people.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yes.

[Sophia]

Maybe that's the work in progress. Maybe the work in progress is just to get more gorgeous as we age because we get happier.

[Cristela Alonso]

Actually, that's. Actually. Look, I'm. I'll sign up for it, I'll subscribe. I mean, because it's true. It's like, honestly, when. When you think about, like, the Golden Girls and how they're in their 50s.

[Sophia]

Insane. I'm like, those are. Those are 70 year old women.

[Cristela Alonso]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

Like, what are we talking about?

[Cristela Alonso]

Maybe 80.

[Sophia]

Sophia, my namesake, 80. She was in her 80s. That tiny. That tiny, adorable little woman was like, someone's great grandma. What are we talking about?

[Cristela Alonso]

Which by the way I always tell people Sophia was an immigrant and we never talked about, we never bastardized her immigrant journey anything because it didn't have.

[Sophia]

To be central to her identity. It wasn't the only interesting fact about her.

[Cristela Alonso]

We knew personality, we knew who she was and everything. It just so happens that she was an immigrant. And that's another thing I want to tell everybody. I want to remind everybody. We get a lot of bad news, we get a lot of bad taken in. We need to focus on movement of good too. We need to small wins too. And being hot in our 40s is a good thing.

[Sophia]

Just saying let's fight fascism and look great while doing it. I am like sign me up. Well thank you so much for today.

[Cristela Alonso]

Thank you so much you sweet soul.

[Sophia]

You too. Does friendly have a taste? I think it does and if it.

[Cristela Alonso]

Does it, it probably is like hello's.

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[Sophia]

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[Sophia]

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[Sophia]

Lexus is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard. For me, a standard that matters to me is being a friend, being a person, being a co worker who shows up. The standard Lexus has set for themselves is to experience amazing. Lexus's benchmarks are feelings, things like exhilaration and joy. And amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. It's feeling like your car was designed and built just for you. A machine that makes you feel more human. Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. So experience amazing at your lexisteelor. Oh, friends, if you are a parent, an auntie, an uncle, if you have kids in your life in any fashion, you know getting them to do math can be exhausting. And we get it. Even as adults, we wish we had to do less math. But the thing is, it's important. It's central to everything about our lives and our businesses and how we function in the world. We want to give those tools to our kids, right? But it can be really hard to get them to get excited about math. Luckily, there's something making a real difference for families. Prodigy. It's the online math platform that turns learning into a game. Yes, a game that kids actually want to play. And it's not fluff. Prodigy teaches the same math they're learning in class and it's trusted by over 800,000 teachers. It was voted the number one game based learning tool by kids themselves, which says a lot. Last year, more than 22 million students used it and 91% of parents said their kids genuinely enjoy it. If you are looking to make math feel less like a battle and more like an adventure adventure, go to prodigy.com right now you can get up to 50% off a parent membership. So your kids can start learning for less than $5 a month. Affordable, effective, where learning can be joyful again. Go to prodigy.com and check it out. You won't be disappointed.

[Cristela Alonso]

This is an I Heart podcast.