Subscribe to Lemonada Premium for Bonus Content

Description

Enjoy this Best of In the Bubble episode in which Andy (and Zach) chat with actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani. They talk about the scary, early days of COVID, how the pandemic impacted Kumail’s mental health, and what it was like living with an immunocompromised person through it all. Plus, Kumail’s wife, Emily V. Gordon, stops by to tell us the couple’s top 3 “cool things to do at home.”

 

Follow Kumail on Twitter and Instagram @kumailn. Check out In the Bubble’s Twitter account @inthebubblepod.

 

Keep up with Andy in D.C. on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.

 

In the Bubble is supported in part by listeners like you. Become a member, get exclusive bonus content, ask Andy questions, and get discounted merch at http://lemonadamedia.com/inthebubble/.

 

Support the show by checking out our sponsors!

 

• Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NEJFhcReE4ejw2Kw7ba8DVJ1xQLogPwA/view

 

Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

 

• Catch Kumail and Emily on their podcast Staying In with Emily & Kumail: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/staying-in-with-emily-kumail/id1503412182
• Watch The Big Sick here: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Sick-Kumail-Nanjiani/dp/B07193L7RD

 

To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/in-the-bubble shortly after the air date.

 

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Kryssy Pease, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Slavitt, Andy Slavitt

Kryssy Pease  00:00

Welcome to IN THE BUBBLE. I’m one of the show’s producers, Kryssy Pease. Somehow it’s June. I don’t know how that happened. I blinked and it’s June. That means in two weeks, Andy returns to the show. And as I said last week, the whole team is hard at work getting ready. We’re cooking up some really fun new stuff. And we can’t wait for you to hear it. In the meantime, we thought you’d enjoy listening back to Andy’s conversation with actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani. It’s from May 2020. And when I recently listened to this again, I found it remarkable to think about how far we’ve come in a year. Also remarkable, Andy’s dad jokes. Enjoy.

Andy Slavitt 

Welcome to IN THE BUBBLE, it’s Andy Slavitt.

Zach Slavitt 

And Zach.

Andy Slavitt 

We have a great conversation today with Kumail Nanjiani, who is a comedian and an actor and he made a movie, Zone Life Story, right?

Zach Slavitt 

Yeah.

Andy Slavitt

That has striking similarities to the COVID-19 world called the Big Sick. He is a delightful guy. And we have a conversation about what life is like at home and what it’s like living with someone who is at risk for COVID-19.

Zach Slavitt 

And also Kumail has his own podcast with his wife Emily called Staying In With Emily and Kumail.

Andy Slavitt

Yeah, if you’ve listened to all of the in the bubble podcast from the beginning, then you can listen to Kumail’s. Kumail’s actually really is an entertaining guy as you can tell from this conversation. What a wonderful guy he is. And I think you’ll find it very funny as well. So here’s Kumail. Are you recording, Kumail?

Kumail Nanjiani 

I am recording. Yes.

Andy Slavitt 

Am I mispronouncing your name? It’s Kumail?

Kumail Nanjiani 

Yes, Kumail.

Andy Slavitt 

Okay. So, Zack, who’s here’s my 18-year-old son was watching Silicon Valley late into the night last night.

Kumail Nanjiani  02:02

Good. He’s got good taste.

Andy Slavitt 

He does. He does is his older brother had already watched it. And you’ve got a number of people who think you’re really funny guy in this house. We of course, loved your movie. But let me introduce you to everyone. I think most people know you at this point in time. Kumail Nanjiani, a comedian, right? Your comedian, you’ll admit to that?

Kumail Nanjiani 

I’ll admit to it, guilty.

Andy Slavitt 

He made a movie about someone who gets a virus that then spreads throughout her organs and messes with her immune system. You admit to that?

Kumail Nanjiani 

Yes. Although it turned out to not be a virus. It was an autoimmune condition.

Andy Slavitt 

It’s autoimmune condition. You’re getting very sciency. You want the podcast to be factual. I get it.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Listen, they thought it was a virus. So that’s true.

Andy Slavitt 

And then in while she was in a coma, you decided to marry her?

Kumail Nanjiani 

Well, I yeah. And then I ran it by her what she woke up.

Andy Slavitt 

Oh, yeah, that didn’t go that well, at the beginning.

Kumail Nanjiani 

The proposal was not enthusiastic.

Andy Slavitt 

Right. And you got very close to her parents beforehand, which, who in America can’t relate to this situation. It’s the most unrelatable situation on one level, you made it into a highly relatable situation. Now you’re making a podcast that really is about staying home, which is fascinating. And then part of the podcast is helping people who have trouble as a result of having to stay home. So maybe let me start there, staying home, does it have to suck?

Kumail Nanjiani 

Staying home doesn’t have to suck. However, we’re in such a weird time that the other thing that we try and communicate is, it’s okay to have days that do suck. You know, it’s don’t put too much pressure on yourself for anything. sort of feel how you’re feeling be intentional about how you’re living your life. And if you have a bad day, don’t be too hard on yourself. That’s sort of one of the main takeaways.

Andy Slavitt  04:01

So what’s the best ratio of non-suck days to suck days?

Kumail Nanjiani 

I mean, it would be you know, a million to zero or a zero to a million actually, I said it the wrong way.

Andy Slavitt 

That’s not realistic. You can’t even have that not during the Coronavirus.

Kumail Nanjiani

Exactly. Well, the other thing that’s happening to me now that happens more than it’s ever happened is not just good and bad days, but within those days having multiple, multiple good and bad days within each day, a lot of ups and downs. You know, I’m not, I’m fairly lucky in that I’m not someone who’s ever had to deal with mental illness or depression or anything like that. But these last two months are the closest I’ve gotten to knowing what that would feel like not to downplay people who have actual, who have those sort of diagnostic issues, but I sort of know that feeling of absolute powerlessness, that sort of happens every now and then.

Andy Slavitt  04:52

It’s scary. It’s scary because you think you’re turning on yourself, right? It’s almost like worse than a physical ailment because you’re like, oh my god, I’m the problem. And I don’t know how to solve it.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Well, and the issue is, there’s a couple issues. One is sort of the not knowing when this is going to end. And the other one is not feeling that you’re being taken care of. Right? Like, I sort of feel like if you’re in a society, there’s a contract, right? There are certain things that I take care of, there are certain things that the people who are in charge take care of, right? And I would think a global pandemic is not something unfortunately, that I can do very much about.

Andy Slavitt 

That wasn’t on your list.

Kumail Nanjiani 

It’s not on my list. I’m doing my part I’m staying in; I’m wearing masks, I’m doing my part. But there has to be someone with more infrastructure. Who’s taking care of this.

Andy Slavitt 

Like, who owns this thing?

Kumail Nanjiani 

I know exactly. And I just feel. So I had a pretty good week last week where I was feeling okay. And then two things sort of hit me on the same day. One was the estimate of death got doubled. And people’s reaction was just so lacks, that made me really, really sad that people like we literally doubled the number of estimated fatalities from this thing. And people were like, okay, yeah, that’s, that sounds fine. The other thing that made me sad was to start that I was like, we’ve quarantined ourselves for two months. And the whole plan was to do that. So that there would be a plan in place by the people who are actually in charge of this. And the thought that it seems like nothing or not enough has happened is disheartening.

Andy Slavitt  06:29

Apparently, your expectations are way too high, it’s like, I mean, if you told me 15 years ago, that there would be shootings in schools and in churches. And we would be like, yeah, that’s bad. That’s really shouldn’t happen. But you know, and then just kind of go on. I feel like the same things happening now. It’s like, yes, we had 1000s of people die. But you know, a lot of them are in nursing homes. And some of them are in jails, you know, some on our meatpacking plants. So it’s kind of like, their just numbers. And I don’t think that’s how we all as Americans are reacting. I think it’s like how it all comes together as a presentation.

Kumail Nanjiani

I think some of it’s gotta be a defense mechanism too because the numbers are so staggering, that it truly is no way to wrap your head around it. And at that point, there’s just no way to process what’s going on outside and how many people are affected by it.

Andy Slavitt 

But how much of it do you think is that it’s a pretty good proportion of people that people don’t feel are like them? In other words, they’re people of color. They’re older people. I don’t know how much of this plays into it or not. But like, I wonder if like this were afflicting people who own horses, you know, like, if you own a horse farm, or you know, if you have a race car, if you have three homes, this really affects you, in that scenario, would we be responding differently to even smaller numbers of deaths?

Kumail Nanjiani  08:01

I mean, I think you’re right, I think that’s a big part of it. If there’s any way somehow you can justify not being empathetic with that large number of group, I think people will find that, you know, once the number is so high, so staggering. You have two ways to go, right? One way you go is what you suggested, which is you sort of build up a wall, you say those people are not like me, this doesn’t affect me, this isn’t my issue, I have to run my business, make money all of that, comes from fear. You know, I think it still comes from prayer, I think a lot of the bad stuff we’re seeing on a large scale in our country is coming from fear. So that’s one way and then the other way is to go, Well, there’s really no way I can wrap my head around what’s going on outside, but I’m gonna attempt to be empathetic, have compassion, and do the best I can. And I think those are sort of the two ways to go.

Andy Slavitt 

Do the best you can and help a little bit is, it’s a real tonic. I’m sorry. I mean, just you can’t affect the whole situation. As you said, it has a tons of wisdom in that. But you know, what I can do is like this woman across the street who’s scared to death, or who can’t get her groceries or whatever, or you make someone laugh, you call someone on the phone you haven’t talked to in a while, and you’re like, you just done something.

Kumail Nanjiani

Honestly, honestly, Emily says this helping people can also work as a selfish act. You know, you actually feel better about yourself when you do that. And the other thing I just thought of, you know, when you were talking about people who are affected and how certain people just don’t seem to empathize with that, for me, the big divide came when we saw those kids in cages. When I saw those pictures. I was like, oh, there is no way anybody can justify this. This is a horrific sight. This is inhumane, and everybody has to agree with it. And then I saw all these interviews with people that were like, well, you know, their parents brought them here. It’s not our fault. And when people were able to justify that I was like, okay, now there’s a very, very clear we’ve just crossed a threshold. And now I can’t really expect anything anymore.

Andy Slavitt  10:02

Yeah, like, I don’t know how people are gonna look back on this era, like, you know, a couple centuries from now, like, I doubt they’re gonna call this like the enlightened days, or the Progressive Era. This is maybe an era where we like woke up to some of the things that we’ve been doing for a long, long time in this country. But it’s also a period of time when we just kind of got a little less embarrassed about doing some bad things and kind of being okay with it.

Kumail Nanjiani

I think what happened is there obviously, this is a very complicated issue. But one thing I’ve thought about a lot is, you know, you’re in this situation is me to where we all had life without the internet den, we had life with the internet, and mostly positive aspects of it. And then now we’re seeing sort of the negative sides of that, right, I think what used to happen is if somebody had sort of fringe, immoral views, I’ll say that the promise of the internet to me was or you’ll be able to talk to people with different ideas, different backgrounds, it’s going to be like a very democratic thing, everybody’s going to be able to really, really engage in conversation with people who come from a very different place.

Kumail Nanjiani

What’s happened instead is we’re just talking to people who already agree with us. So some of these things that you’re saying people are less embarrassed about some of their ideas that they’re less embarrassed about, you know, embodying or parroting? I think part of it’s because they’re finding hundreds of other people online who agree with them, and then suddenly, when you have some crazy racist ideas, and now suddenly, there’s 200 other people who are like, you’re right, you know?

Andy Slavitt 

That’s a good insight. And then you have great confirmation bias, because like, everybody I know thinks this way. Everybody I know hates immigrants, that must be the majority view, right? And then it’s like, you have a whole bunch of other people who are like, I don’t know anybody like that. What I tried to do with very mixed success, is to try to understand where people are coming from and not question their motivation. In other words, okay, you have an opinion, that might objectively sound racist. Now, I might meet you for five minutes and say, oh, that’s because you’re racist. That’s maybe easy.

Andy Slavitt  12:01

But it may be that you are supporting something that we would all maybe call structural racism, or some of us would, and yet something’s driving you that is in your experience, that that’s not poorly motivated. I feel like that’s a lot of work to do. And a lot of people would list this and say, why do you even try, but I feel like at some level, if we don’t do some of that work and stop cursing half the population is being evil intended, that it will help. It’s also just hard to go through life getting more and more amped up every day.

Kumail Nanjiani 

You know, Emily’s exactly what you’re saying. Emily is so good at that. And it can be infuriating. Well, I’ll be like railing on someone saying something. She’s like, well, actually, you know, probably they’re worried about this, this fear. I’m like, yes, I have sure that’s true. You know, I had this weird thing. This was you know, I’m 42 now, and I’ve been a people pleaser my whole life. I really care what people think I don’t want anyone to dislike me. And it was about like, 10-15 years ago, I had to stop. I was like, my first grown up change I decided to make was I was like, just because I know why someone sucks. Doesn’t mean they don’t suck.

Kumail Nanjiani 

And that was a big grown-up decision. I was like, I see this is coming from insecurity. But this person is still a jerk. So I’m not, it’s not my problem. They need to deal with their issues. I don’t need to see eye to eye with them. And that was a big grown-up thing. Boy, my epiphany could not have been poorer time is right now. I can’t, like you said you can’t live like that. You just like amp yourself up over and over.

Andy Slavitt 

Hold on. I just got a DM from the White House. Don’t go anywhere.

Andy Slavitt

You have somebody you love, who is susceptible because of her immune system to Coronavirus. So first of all, does that frighten you?

Kumail Nanjiani 

Yes. I mean, we knew about this virus back in January, right? So it was something that I had been following because we don’t have the luxury of being lax about this because of Emily. And so it’s something that I’ve been following. And then it was a few weeks before things got you know, before basically the NBA shut down and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got Coronavirus, which I see as sort of the turning point and the public perception of this thing. But a couple of weeks before that. Nobody was taking it seriously. And I’d sort of been reading interviews with epidemiologists and all this stuff.

Kumail Nanjiani  14:33

And the other thing is, you’re sort of like getting up in the morning, you know, I really made like, you sort of, you know, use your activities as a […], right, you get up, I have to do this, I have to go to the hospital, I have this schedule, I stay there, I talk to this doctor, talk to this doctor, talk to this doctor at seven, when visiting hours are over, I come back home, you put one foot in front of the other. And you sort of get through the days with this, those two weeks, I couldn’t do that I really lived in constant fear.

Kumail Nanjiani 

And I was like, oh, this thing is coming here. It’s gonna be a big deal. We have a weird few months in front of it. And right now is when we can do something to mitigate the eventual damage so, but it felt like nobody was taking it seriously. My friends weren’t taking it seriously. And those two weeks were very, very tough. I had the first panic attack I’ve ever had in my life. I was very, very, very scared and completely out of control and I’ve honestly never had a period like that, where it felt like that, like even when Emily was actually in her coma, and she was in a coma for eight days, and she was in the hospital for about a month, even during then, there is some measure of control, there’s one sense that people are working on it, people who know more than I do are taking care of it.

Kumail Nanjiani

One of the weekends, I was like, Emily, let’s go to a less populated city just for a weekend just to get away, I need to clear my head. And I had such a meltdown while we were out of town staying at this hotel. You know, I remember we were at the breakfast buffet. And this guy was walking around and he sneezed. And then as I’m touching a muffin and put it back down. And I was like, I am so sorry. We have to drive back right now. It was very, very, very scary.

Andy Slavitt  16:16

I imagine there’s a lot of people that are going through pretty close to exactly what you’re feeling, maybe not the exact circumstance, but pretty close, a loved one that they worry about whether it’s a parent, maybe it’s themselves. And they’re not only dealing with that circumstance, but they’re just enveloped in the fear and the uncertainty. And I think you said something really smart before the feeling that is anybody taking care of this? Does anybody care about me in this situation? What have you found are the best ways to cope. And to kind of address that?

Kumail Nanjiani

Well, one of the things that happened was in those days, I sort of somehow got in touch with these people I had known a little bit but a lot of other people who were in a similar situation by that I mean people who had spouses or parents or children who were immunocompromised and who are in a higher risk group. So I ended up getting in touch with a lot of those people. And we were kind of really supporting each other and really talking about it and just hearing someone else. articulate exactly what it is you’re afraid of. Exactly. your worries are their worries, that really, really helped me a lot because honestly, Emily, and I can’t talk about that we have extremely different perspectives on this. So we’re both terrified.

Kumail Nanjiani 

But it’s this thing where this has been an issue in our relationship since she got sick in 2007. And obviously, something we have to work on a lot more now is we were sort of dating for a while, and then she got sick, right? And I think I probably had, Emily says this, and I again, I don’t want to downplay people who actually have this, but I do think I have some amount of PTSD from that, right. So there are certain things that really triggered me and then I sort of can’t see straight and I think part of it is, I probably felt guilt from you know, she was sick back then I didn’t see how sick she was, if I’d done something earlier, she wouldn’t have to be in the hospital for a month.

Kumail Nanjiani  18:20

So trying to prevent that. And then it’s different, because I just feel like it’s so irrational, but I’m like, I can protect her. You know, and I know how awful this sounds, but I have this feeling where I’m like, while I’m with her, she will not get this virus. So if she goes out for a walk on her own, I don’t like that, you know, if like we get packages, we have a whole like process for how we, you know, go through packages, we leave them out for a couple days, clean them up.

Kumail Nanjiani

So when she goes out to clean them, I don’t like that, like I want to do it. I feel somehow that I can protect her. And it’s really difficult for her to have someone so heightened about something like that, you know? And obviously, it’s completely untrue. There’s nothing I could do. That’s the scary thing, right? Like no one. None of us can do anything about it. But it triggered some deep emotional part of me that at some point I’ll go to therapy for.

Andy Slavitt

Well look, like the cool thing is you love her, obviously. And you know, it’s questionable based on what you said whether she loves you back. She has to love because otherwise you just been way too difficult. But this PTSD thing like I’m not I’m not a licensed anything. But I can tell you that sounds very real. Like I do think that this idea of being in a situation where you lost control. Thank god we’re alive today when you can actually recognize that and it’s acceptable. Talk about and deal with and there are professionals that can help you deal with it and so on and anybody out there who is feeling things like this, that is so legitimate that even like really famous, funny Hollywood people, like, come out feel the same way. I think that should be encouraging, if nothing else.

Kumail Nanjiani  20:13

Well, I want to say, there’s another thing about this, that I found that that is something I’ve been thinking about a lot for the last few years that when we see these conversations online, I feel like we’re still in a place where men saying that they’re scared is considered not masculine, you know, and I see that a lot of the anti-mask people, you know, I’ll tweet about the importance of wearing masks and washing your hands and staying away from big crowds, whatever, and I have so many men responding to me as if I’m a coward, you know, as if that’s what I’m doing is not manly. And I think a lot of that is tied up in here to this idea that, you know, men are not supposed to be scared. And I think a lot of that is playing into people’s reactions here, too.

Andy Slavitt 

I think this goes back to what we’re talking about earlier, which is like, everybody should be allowed to have like, one or two, sucky days a week, and then rotate them. So like, okay, you can’t have on the same day or like society blow up. But like, then everybody knows, like, it’s like a calendar on the wall and refrigerator, where it’s like, Okay, oh, it’s Monday. It’s Kumail’s crap day. So like, everybody call him check in. But you better call me tomorrow.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Exactly, exactly. I’m doing this for you. You call me tomorrow, Emily has this thing she does called the wallow, which is she gives herself a little bit of time every day to just sit down. And really worry all those feelings that we’re sort of conditioned to push down, push away fear, sadness, whatever it is, especially during this time, she sort of sits down. It’s kind of reverse meditating, right? Instead of clearing your head. You sit down and you just let everything in and you just sit at it. I think just admitting to yourself what you’re feeling is such a big part of the process.

Andy Slavitt 

Right. And I think it’s probably so second nature for you. But I think laughter is like a huge help, at least for me, just saying funny things about unfunny situations. People who listens podcast know that I’m like, dad joking it to death here. I’m rolling their eyes half the show and be surprised.

Andy Slavitt 

I want to close with a couple of thoughts. One is, there’s this movement afoot now to say, let’s just isolate the old people and the sick people. And let’s let the rest of us get on with it. Because we have to fix the economy. I think about someone in Emily’s situation, you’re like, okay, so are you really saying that for like the next 5 years, 10 years of my life, because there’s no guarantee that someone with immune system issues can even take a vaccine. So you’re really saying we’re just gonna say we’re gonna write off a whole bunch of people, not all of whom are old, but even those who are old? Does it offend you? Does it strike you that way? Or am I hearing it differently?

Kumail Nanjiani

No, I’m hearing it too. It’s just I just find it very basic, very impractical. So are you saying that everyone over the age of 70 just can never be in contact with someone under the age of 70? Because here’s the thing. Emily’s immune compromised, she’s in that group, I’m not so then basically, I don’t leave the house either, right?

Andy Slavitt 

But you make a choice, right? You either have a life where you can be with her.

Kumail Nanjiani 

It’s just completely impractical. I just don’t see how it works. I actually have friends who will like text me and be like, Alright, enough, we should just like cordoned off to people quarantine the people who are sick, who are in a high-risk group. How do you do that? There’s no way to do that. It makes no sense to me.

Andy Slavitt

It’s also just like, if we think all people are created equal, and I you know, there’s this great quote, I used to work in the Department of Health and Human Services. And Hubert Humphrey has this quote the wall, which has the effect of our society to find out how we treat people on the margins, the older, the sick, or the people with disabilities. And that’s like, I don’t want to forget that.

Kumail Nanjiani  24:02

Exactly. I mean, that’s even the most European into like a basic sense of humanity, which if that’s something we can count on right now, but looking at retirement homes, right, there are older people there but the people who work there aren’t older people. So now are you saying that those people can’t go home and see their families? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Andy Slavitt

Yes, well, I think the summation of all that is let’s not act out of fear. We all have that fearful side of us for sure we all have that self-inside of us. But if we can get through this period and make decisions calling on the best of us, because like we all have that inside us will do much better. I final question for you. And then I will let you go. This has been so much fun talking to you.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Yeah, this was great. Thank you for talking to me. I you know, your threads have been very, very helpful to me because what I don’t like as I said earlier, is the not knowing and the people in charge just sort of placating and you can tell that actual information is not on the agenda there. So your threads have really, really helped me even though you know, a lot of times it’s not news that’s necessarily, it’s not stuff you want to hear, but it still helps because I’d rather be informed than not.

Andy Slavitt 

I appreciate it. I appreciate having you talking about my Twitter threads on my sewing.

Kumail Nanjiani 

I don’t think your sewing thread making anybody feel better.

Kumail Nanjiani 

So let me finish on this. What are three things people may not have thought of? That are cool things to do at home.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Wow. So okay, sit in a new chair. This is what we’ve been doing. Just like just like sitting a new chair. You know, like we cuz we are always on the same exact couch. And then sometimes she’s like, I’ll come in and she’ll be sitting on like, the green chair. That’s only for guests, I’m like, Emily, what are you doing? She’s like, things just look different from here. What are you gonna do?

Andy Slavitt 

I gotta ask the judge. Actually, we count that as one. Zach says, yes, that’s acceptable for one.

Kumail Nanjiani 

All right. All right. I mean, the other thing is, I know a lot of people have been like rearranging their furniture. I don’t know if that’s helping people.

Andy Slavitt  26:07

That’s very close than the first. Very close. Zach, do we count that independently, is that independent idea? Zach thinks it’s the same idea.

Kumail Nanjiani 

One sec. Let me ask Hey, Emily. Emily, can you give me two real quick things that people can do that they haven’t thought to do around the house? I already said sitting in a new chair. Oh, Emily says can you take a shower in your sink?

Andy Slavitt 

Does she think you’re talking to your mother?

Kumail Nanjiani

She thinks I’m telling my mom to shower in the sink. Emily, one more. Have you been under your bed lately?

Kumail Nanjiani

And she’s put her headphones back kit as if she’s like, sure of the success of this.

Andy Slavitt 

I think you’ve given the audience some things to do. Just a great list.

Kumail Nanjiani 

I will tell you what I am doing. You know, back like earlier, I bought a bunch of like DVDs and blu rays that are sort of like aspirational DVDs. You know, you buy like some Swedish show three seasons, because you’re like, Oh, yeah, I’m cultured. And I’m trying to watch those now. And a lot of that stuff is actually really good.

Andy Slavitt 

Do watch it from under your bed. Well, thank you so much Kumail. This was really fun. And I really appreciate what you guys are going through and you shared it. And let’s all get through this thing together, man.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your Twitter threads. Very, very good.

Andy Slavitt 

You got it.

Kumail Nanjiani 

All right.

Andy Slavitt 

Take care.

Kumail Nanjiani 

Bye.

Andy Slavitt 

I want to thank Kumail for that conversation. And Emily for those really terrific contributions at the end. Very, very helpful. So he has a new show coming out, right? What’s it Zach?

Zach Slavitt  28:01

He has a new show on Netflix coming up May 22, called the Lovebirds.

Andy Slavitt 

Well, after that conversation, I’d watch anything he does actually before the conversation.

Zach Slavitt

Also, remember to check out his podcast, Staying In With Emily and Kumail.

Andy Slavitt 

Check out his podcast after you’ve listened to all of our podcasts coming up on Wednesday. We’ve got a great podcast for you. It is with Chelsea Clinton, who among other things, runs the Clinton Foundation. She has a couple of very famous parents. She is a person who does not do a lot of interviews in media, so I think it’s gonna be quite interesting. She’s really terrific person. I think you’ll enjoy it. Stay tuned. We’ll see you Wednesday.

CREDITS

IN THE BUBBLE is a production of Lemonada Media.[…] is our producer, and Ivan Kuraev is our editor. Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs executive produced show. Zach Slavitt is my co-host and onsite producer music is by Dan Molad and Oliver Hill. You can find out more about our show on social media at @Lemonada Media. And you can find me at @aslavitt on twitter and at @AndySlavitt on Instagram. If you liked what you heard today, tell your friends but tell them from a distance for now. Stay safe, share some joy. We’ll get through this together and hashtag stay home.