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In the final episode of Season 3 of Wiser Than Me, Julia sits down with 84-year-old House Speaker Emerita and U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi. Nancy shares her love for the Grateful Dead, discusses the power of public sentiment, and fields Julia’s offer to help with a Saturday Night Live audition. Julia also asks Nancy about her pioneering mom, the recent presidential election, and the roots of the current vitriol in politics. Plus, Julia’s 90-year old mom Judith reflects on the myriad ways Nancy is inspiring future generations – including Judith’s granddaughter Fia – and gets an incredibly unhelpful suggestion from Siri.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Mommy, Nancy Pelosi, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  00:00

It’s hilarious to me how often a conversation with somebody in their 50s or 60s or even 70s will start with the words, well, when I was in high school, we never get over high school, do we seriously? I mean, as my own kids get older, I see constant proof for good or ill that these high school years are critical and formative. Our sons attended one school from kindergarten through high school graduation, a very progressive co ed school in Santa Monica, California that was so liberal that my husband affectionately refers to it still as Sandinista tech my high school was so different, but just as foundational. My high school and elementary school was a private all girls school. I went there for 10 years, and then my God, my father, I do not know why he wanted me to go to an all girls College, which I definitely did not want to do, he absolutely insisted that we go tour Wellesley College. So we did, and we ended up having this huge fight about the school while walking across the quad, and all of a sudden, a bee flies up my skirt and stings me on the ass. This is a true story, you guys, no kidding, and I started screaming in front of the whole tour group like a crazy person. The good news is I didn’t have to go on the rest of the tour, so that was excellent. But anyway, back to my all girls high school. My school has a roster of wildly successful female alums, and maybe that’s because at a school like mine, everyone who is the captain of a team or the star of a play or president of the class or the valedictorian or whatever is a woman. And when you look at lists of successful women, CEOs, members of Congress, musicians, journalists. The percentage that went to all girls schools is kind of stunning. I mean, everybody from pink to Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin to Ambassador Susan Rice and Melinda Gates to, I don’t know, the Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Hamilton? Yes, it’s true. They all went to all girls schools. So am I making a pitch for all girls education? Well, no, not exactly. I’m making a pitch for putting women in charge. It’s a pitch for an even playing field. Because I bet the powerful and successful women who did not go to all girls schools were also at some point in positions where their leadership was allowed, or maybe they powerfully insisted it be allowed to flourish. Success followed. Of course, not everyone is a leader, obviously, but when women lead, everyone benefits, men included. It’s good for everybody. At my all girls high school, which was far from perfect, it had its own stupid rules and prejudices and very conservative ideology. My experience of seeing women lead without apology myself included, by the way, instilled in me an expectation of female leadership, a normalization. That’s the word, that was just how it was, and it was wonderful. And then out in the real world, my classmates and I just expected to be taken seriously, and when we weren’t, we would put up a hell of a fight. I mean, if I’ve learned one thing from wiser than me, it is that the women we have been so honored to talk to from every walk of life, they know how to put up one hell of a fight. They know how to lead. They have every one of them earned our deep, respect. So as I’ve said many times, listen to old women, motherfuckers, and we’re just scratching the surface of each of these individuals life story, the tons and tons of wisdom they can pass along to us. What a loss it has been for our country, our culture, to not hear from all of the women with brilliant ideas and tons of talent and genius, the women who have been kept from leadership, from flourishing by stupid rules, by what is now almost laughingly called the patriarchy. Well, fellas, your loss because women in leadership roles. Well, I mean, obviously we’re not 100% fabulous. I’ll grant you that. I mean, you do get your occasional insanely crappy Congresswoman, your idiot female pundit. We’re not batting 1000 but we’re batting in the high four hundreds, and even Ted Williams never did that. Well, how perfect then. Yeah, that we talked today on the last show of this season, to a fellow all girls high school graduate and one of the greatest female leaders of our time, maybe even the greatest female leader of our time, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  05:27

I’m Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and this is Wiser Than Me, the podcast where I get schooled by women who are wiser than me. Hey, folks, before we begin, we wanted to let you know that this episode was recorded before speaker Pelosi is recent accident in Luxembourg. We are keeping her in our thoughts and sending our love for a smooth and speedy recovery. It is an axiom, an undisputed truth, that in the developing world, the fastest, most effective way to bring a village, a province, a nation, out of poverty, to reduce disease, crime and violence, is to empower women. But right here, in our own rich, supposedly sophisticated nation were too stupid to apply that same axiom, we need more women in positions of power. And of course, I’m not saying men should stay away from politics. I mean, we’ve had 45 male presidents, and almost two and a half of them were great presidents, and one of those wasn’t even named Washington or Lincoln. I’ll let you guess who that was. I’m just saying, if you want to get stuff done, hire women, elect women. Case in point, Nancy Pelosi, the first and only Female Speaker of the House, and arguably, and I’m going to make the argument, the most effective speaker and leader in a century. Nancy Pelosi didn’t run for public office until she was 47 years old. Can you believe what I am saying and think of what she has done, always a fierce advocate for the unseen and unheard, starting with the AIDS crisis in the 80s, through the Affordable Care Act, which she through her magical political jujitsu, somehow worked through Congress and now ensures millions of Americans. Her stupendous tenacity has led her to become the most powerful woman in the Western world. It is no surprise that Nancy Pelosi grew up in a family that lived and breathed politics her dad, Tommy delessandro Jr, wasn’t just a visionary democratic congressman. He was also a great dancer and the mayor of Baltimore. Her mom, Big Nancy, I love that name. Was a whip smart strategist, inventor, and I’m guessing, guessing possibly the brains behind her husband and Nancy. She was little, Nancy, the shy youngest of six children, and of course, the only girl. When Nancy became a public servant, she showed us what tough, unwavering, principled persistence looks like. She leads with agility and ferocity and does it while taking zero crap. My God, the threats and real violence she has had to put up with throughout her career, the classless, insipid, dangerous way that the people who are taking power right now think they can talk about this great woman, I don’t know how she perseveres, so let’s find out. I can’t wait to talk to someone who I have been so truly lucky to work with on so many issues important to me and to her, and who is simply one of the smartest, wisest, most fascinating people will ever have the privilege of talking with on our show. My God, I am deeply honored to welcome a mother, a grandmother, a person of faith, the Speaker of the House, Emerita, the voice of the Democratic Party, a real deadhead and a woman who is completely and utterly wiser than me. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, welcome. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

 

Nancy Pelosi  09:16

Thank you, Julia. It is such a pleasure and an honor and a privilege to be with you.  I bring the greetings of so many of your friends that they didn’t know I was coming here. But I always volunteer. Isn’t she the best? Oh, that’s nice, and of course, in my own family, but just starting where you began, about the power of women to make a difference. Yes, people always ask me a speaker, because the speaker has awesome, awesome power. Yeah, if you ruled the world, what one thing would you do? And I always say the same thing, the education of women and girls periods a complete difference to us, the person, the family, the community, the society, that the country, the country. So and our expression here, and I think it applies every place, is when women succeed, America succeeds, that’s right. And the same to others as well.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  10:10

I want to just ask you some silly questions at the very top, if I may please. Are you comfortable if I ask you your real age?

 

Nancy Pelosi  10:19

Yeah.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  10:20

What is it?

 

Nancy Pelosi  10:21

Well, when you’re in politics, everybody knows your age, which is okay with me, but not always okay with my classmates.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  10:27

How old are you, Nancy?

 

Nancy Pelosi  10:29

84.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  10:29

And how old do you feel?

 

Nancy Pelosi  10:31

Oh,  I feel. I don’t have any sense of age. I don’t know. I eat a lot of chocolate ice cream, very dark. Yes, I, you know, do things like that that just.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  10:43

Get like that young girls do too. By the way, we have chocolate here for you because we heard you were a bit of a chocoholic. So that’s what it is. Yes, we have that in common, by the way, what’s the best part? Do you think about being your age when I call you Nancy? Is that right?

 

Nancy Pelosi  11:00

Let’s do that. I prefer that title. Actually, I love sounding my own name. Okay yours, Julia, I don’t know, experience teaches you a lot of things, your own, not only experience in terms of getting a job done, the experiences that you have had, the joy of your family, the sense of satisfaction of of working with other people, and so it is, I don’t ever remember feeling older.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  11:35

Yeah, I know I don’t have that. I know. I know what you mean. Well, of course, you’re so vibrant, you’re doing everything all the time, so I can understand you just have more experience under your belt, right?

 

Nancy Pelosi  11:45

Yeah, and I don’t have enough hours in the day. That’s my own problem. Regret. It’s not a regret, it’s just a comment, I wish there were more hours in the day, because there are more things I want to do, yeah, but it’s time to go to sleep at some point.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  12:00

What about are you wearing heels, right?

 

Nancy Pelosi  12:02

Oh, no, I just got off the plane, so I’m wearing boots. You’re wearing boots with heels.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  12:07

Yeah, you know, it’s funny, because when I was doing this show called Veep that was in which I played the Vice President and then the President and I was always in heels, like, like the heels that you often wear, chosen, yeah? Yeah. And we made a whole thing of me taking off my shoes once I got into the back into my office, and being barefoot. Do you take your shoes off when you’re working? Not so much. Not, my God, these heels don’t bother your back.

 

Nancy Pelosi  12:35

No, well, see, are you most the shoes I have are suede, and they’re like bedroom slippers. To me, they’re very soft. Oh, that’s nice. So, and I don’t, I’m not my office long enough to take off my shoes. You know, you don’t touch base, do whatever it is, and out the door and out the door again.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  12:51

What about food? I mean, I know you eat chocolate ice cream, but like when you’re at when you’re at work and you’re do they have good food on Capitol Hill like at the house, there? Is there any good.

 

Nancy Pelosi  13:03

Well that’s a matter of opinion. Some people think they don’t have any good food at all, I myself have never been offended by a good hot dog. Uh huh. They have hot dogs that are pretty good a lot of hot dogs. So they say chocolate ice cream for breakfast, hot dog for lunch. This is not a good.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  13:20

You are blowing my mind, I have to tell you, I was once in the I had the great pleasure of having lunch with then Vice President, Biden, in his office. And I was really nervous, because I’d never been, you know, hanging out with a like that, with the vice president before.

 

Nancy Pelosi  13:40

Even though you had served as vice president and president.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  13:43

That’s right. But when it came to the real thing, I was anxious, and we sat down to eat, and he starts to order, and I didn’t have any appetite because I was so nervous. And I said, oh, I’ll just have a salad. And he says, I’ll have that salad. And he goes, Oh, no, no, you should have the crab cakes. He goes, just bring the crab cakes too. And the next thing I know, I’ve got this huge plate of crab cakes and this massive salad, and I could, I could barely eat a thing, I’m sure, anyway, whatever, but the crap, but I did have it by the crab cakes. They’re pretty good, at least the White House crab cakes.

 

Nancy Pelosi  14:13

Yeah, that’s a different story. Well, Maryland and crab cakes are part of our staples. I know coming from Maryland.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  14:20

Totally, you graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame. It was an all girls Catholic high school in Baltimore, right? Yes, by the way, I went to an all girls school too in Bethesda, Maryland, and I have to say, there was a huge benefit to going to an all girls school. Did you like going to an all girls school? I kind of loved it.

 

Nancy Pelosi  14:40

Well, see, you’re so much younger. For me, there was no other option. It was, it was, I loved it, yes, but it wasn’t even a consideration, and then when I was going to college, my parents were very much like you will go to an all women’s, all Girls College, Catholic not too far from home. So. I went to Trinity College in Washington, DC, yes, 45 minutes from home, but it was, it was wonderful. Yeah, I wonder now, looking back, if I had real choice, but I loved it at the time and and.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  15:14

What kind of girl were you in high school? Were you a leader in high school? Or were you? No, you weren’t.

 

Nancy Pelosi  15:19

No. I mean, I was, I was a student. And I, you mean, you were a good student. You studied hard. I studied but I was, I have always kind of been into music. I was Elvis all the way when I was in high school, you know, it was Elvis Presley. And people when, when I was at one of the conventions a few years ago, the reporter said to me, do you ever try to influence the music that your children or grandchildren listen to? And I said, absolutely positively not. For example, when I was a teenager, Elvis Presley came on the scene. He was King right. He was playing, right? And he, you don’t know this, because they were young, but he was very different from the music that went because of the scribbling hips and the Whoa, yeah. And I thought if my parents ever said, Oh, I wouldn’t even paid attention to them, it would be ridiculous. So, no, I don’t want to stand in the way of anybody’s freedom of choice of the music.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  16:21

So, you know, by the way, just a little bit of gossip. We had Rita Moreno on this podcast. Wonderful. She’s wonderful. Did you know that she dated Elvis Presley, and she said he was kind of boring.

 

Nancy Pelosi  16:37

I’ve seen a long list of people that she has. Yes,[…] then she’s so absolutely wonderful. She is wonderful. She, again, is talented. When we’re talking about music and that we dance, we dance around the cock and all this.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  16:53

You’re a deadhead.

 

Nancy Pelosi  16:54

Well, that came much later.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  16:56

I know. But I mean that, I have to say that was a shock for me to hear that. I think that’s amazing.

 

Nancy Pelosi  17:04

One of the things that I love is that some years after, say, into the 90s, yeah, I saw this purse. I said, you haven’t seen that person a long time. So took it off the shelf and in it, say, maybe the beginning of the 2000s there was a button that said deadheads for Dukakis. Like 20 years later, deadheads for dukaki. I hope you saved that. I just don’t wear this right now.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  17:30

Oh, you gotta find a that’s really good, that’s so retro, sort of.

 

Nancy Pelosi  17:36

But when you think of it, was a political statement.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  17:38

Of course it was. How do you blow off steam?

 

Nancy Pelosi  17:42

I do crossway puzzles. I have been doing them forever, and I find that my zone, you know, when I’m doing the puzzle and somebody comes up to me, I’m like, really scared me. I was in my zone, right? So, yeah, do that. I do. I love any form of entertainment, live or movies, or whatever. And my husband, Paul, he loves every form of music will in any given week, will be with the Grateful Dead Cyndi Lauper or the symphony, the opera or the ballet, you know, be nice, or movies. I think the arts reason I say that. I think the arts are going to be our salvation. You know that, because you’re a mass master of this, but this is one place where people come together, whatever their differences. They enjoy a painting of Symphony, a movie, a play, whatever it is, and they forget their differences, even for a short period of time, they realize they have some common ground. They’ve laughed together, they’ve cried together, they have been inspired together. And that’s a start, yeah, that’s a start. And it is. It is really one source of hope to me. Are the arts, yes. President Lincoln, such an inspiration. Notice I mentioned a Republican President.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  19:05

Yes, I do good for you reaching across the aisle.

 

Nancy Pelosi  19:09

He said, public sentiment is everything with it, you can accomplish almost anything without it, practically nothing. You mentioned the Affordable Care Act. It was such a triumph. Yes, and that was inside maneuvering, yes, but the outside mobilization, having all the people who wanted that to happen, to be mobilizing in elections, the door to door, and the technology reaching out to people. It’s all about the outside. So any legislation, any political goal that I set out for is always about the outside mobilization, the VIPs, the volunteers in politics, the very important people are those people out there, whether they’re individuals who want to help or whether they’re part of a group, a diagnosis. Group, but this or that, they make it happen. And so that’s kind of where, I think, first, how will the people embrace what we’re trying to do, and how do we use all of our energy to engage them in this?

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  20:13

So you hit an obstacle, you know, like, well, the Affordable Care Act that was hard won, was it not? I mean, and you launched a campaign across the country to get the word out about the Affordable Care Act right to have people tell their personal stories. Were there other examples of that kind of leadership that you did Nancy before the Affordable Care Act to get legislation done?

 

Nancy Pelosi  20:39

Well, I always say that. And this wasn’t my initiation, but something that I worked with, is the fight against HIV and AIDS. When I first came to Congress, that was the first words I uttered on Congress I know here to fight against HIV and AIDS, and I pay tribute to those fighting, largely LGBTQ community, but others who were involved in that. And I thank them for their patriotism, because it was a harder fight. You know, it was fight, a tough fight to do with for Bucha, but in this case, we had to fight discrimination in addition to fighting for resources. And of course, and you’re never always teaching, you’re always learning. And we learned a lot from the anti HIV AIDS community about that outside mobilization, and I think what they did at that time to help us with the funding for care, prevention and research, plus trying to end discrimination or lesson to others and other diagnoses and all the rest, breast cancer and the rest, we all learned about that from them, and they learned from us about how it would work for us to be successful, and we were. But when the Affordable Care Act, for example, though we were on our path, it was a challenging thing, because there were those who are anti government. They don’t want a government role. There were those who just were the special interests, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the rest of that. So when we sadly lost Ted Kennedy, when he passed away, the press said to me at the next press conference, well, it’s over for you, because the Republican has been elected in his place, you no longer have 60 votes. So when they said, so that’s the end, right? I said, No, we realize that having access to affordable, quality health care is a challenge of a generation. 100 years presidents have tried to do that, starting with another Republican President, Teddy Teddy Roosevelt, yeah, he tried over the years, and they didn’t. Now we have that opportunity on the leadership of President Obama and democratic congress. We’re going to succeed, and we will not let anything stand in our way. If there’s an obstacle there, we will push open the gate. If that doesn’t work, we’ll climb the fence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will helicopter in, but we’re not letting anything stand in the way.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  23:14

There’s much more with Nancy Pelosi, in just a moment, stay right where you are.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  23:31

After the 2016 election, you described Hillary’s loss as actually physical, like a mule kicking you in the back, which, by the way, I think is very apt. I felt the same way many of us now are still feeling maybe even a bigger sting, a bigger kick. Can you give us some advice? Nancy about how we move through our feelings of not just disappointment, maybe even despair. I know you talk about. You say, don’t agonize organize, which I love, are you taking your own advice right now?

 

Nancy Pelosi  24:11

Well, it’s very hard. I have to say, every morning, when I awaken, I think, did that really happen? Oh, it did. But I see everything Julia as an opportunity, right? It’s an opportunity. Now. They’re better opportunities, I’ll grant you, right, but nonetheless, it’s all an opportunity. And just as an example, from 2016 Yes, right? Within 36 hours of that election, we formed our initiative to save the Affordable Care Act. This new president elect has said, Obamacare sucks. Forgive my language. I’m just quoting.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  24:45

No, I know you’re quoting, but also you can say whatever you want to make.

 

Nancy Pelosi  24:49

We again within 36 hours of this election, this November, initiated our health care to save the Affordable Care Act. It’s a health issue, of course, it’s. Financial health issue too, for people at their kitchen table to know they’re going to be able to afford health care, their prescription drugs, insurance and the rest of that. And we will be launching much of it as we did in 17 now and 25 so we will do that again, and it is even more so because Affordable Care Act is even more popular now than it was then.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  25:24

By the way, congratulations. You won your seat again. No surprise, but that’s so fabulous. And in an interview, you said, I’m confident in my ability to lead because I know my strengths. So my question is, what are your strengths? How do you what do you see your strengths as being?

 

Nancy Pelosi  25:42

Well, first of all, despite being attacked by them, here, there, and every from the right, from the left, and every other place, I had over a quarter of a million votes, and that was a big deal. Yes, the most have been in California, but I don’t know, and the rest of the country haven’t looked but the what I say to people is to know their strengths, to know their power, the power of you, Julia, know your power. Know your power. That’s the thing and the power of what you bring to the table. But if you’re going to be in this arena, you have to know your why. Because this is not for the faint of heart, if you want to be running for office or striving for some position in whatever field you’re in, if it’s a competition for power in any way, you will be a target.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  26:34

Have you always known your power?

 

Nancy Pelosi  26:36

See, I never really thought about running for office. Never, never thought about it. I mean, I’m a shy person, really. I Yeah, you don’t give off shy right now. That’s why I was before I loved public service, I was taught that when we were children, we were all taught public service is a noble calling, politics is a piece of that, yeah, and, and so I was chair of the California Democratic Party, which I thought was the biggest honor I could ever have, the biggest.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  27:06

Because it was, it was so huge.

 

Nancy Pelosi  27:10

I was, yeah, and I go to these meetings. I’m the chair of the biggest party in the country, but, and, but I was behind the scenes promoting the agenda at the candidates, the campaigns of the Democrats, especially the candidates. But I never thought of myself as being center stage, so that when you ask that question, it wasn’t that I know my power. I knew my why. I knew why I was doing what that was. And I always say to people, know your why, if you know your why, you can take all the slings and arrows they want to send your way because you know why you’re doing this, right? My why is the one in Thai children in America who lives in poverty and goes to sleep hungry at night. That’s what took me from housewife House member to house speaker, knowing that so when people want to be involved, I’ll say, know your power, know your strengths. And they are manifold, even if you’re not thinking that they are, understand that they are. Know the power of you, the only person in the history of the world like you. So know be you. The authenticity of you is what is a strength you may admire other people want to be like or, you know, be mentored by us all good, but be you. Okay, know your power. Be you. And then when the opportunity presents itself, and you never know when, yes, you’ll be ready.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  28:34

You do say in your book, lead by instinct, that you have to trust your judgment, have the confidence to act when the moment demands. So here I have a question about that, the question about the use of strategy versus intuition instinct, right? Because a couple of moments, for example, when the former president, the president elect, when he made that speech, that State of the Union, and you tore up the speech. Were you had you read the speech before, and did you think I’m going to tear it up? Or that was an instinct, that you had the intuition to do it in that moment?

 

Nancy Pelosi  29:13

Well, let me clarify what we’re saying here. First of all, in answer to that question, no, what happened was he came in. It was very disrespectful of the Congress, and he talked politics, all that’s this is about policy. It’s about, you know, governance. So on the first page, I thought, Oh, he’s not telling the truth there. So I make it a notch wherever he wasn’t paying a tear. The next page, the next page, the next page, the next page. So I would make a tear every place that I thought he was not telling the truth. And so I realized, as we were getting into the speech that was every page. It was every page. It was horrible. It was a manifesto of misrepresentations, in my view. So at the end I thought, I have to tear this up now. I thought my staff never, would never discuss it under any circumstances, a completely, different thing, right? So I thought they’re really going to be concerned, because I haven’t discussed this with anybody like that. I didn’t even plan it until he gave this horrible speech, but I have received, of all the things in terms of passing Affordable Care, all kinds of proud legislation that we have passed and make a difference in people’s lives. More people talk about tearing up the speech or pointing to them in the room or walking out of the White House, more people, they said You took the words right out of my mouth when you tore up that speech. Well, I mean, all over the world travel the world, people will be like this.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  30:47

Really, what was an iconic moment and your gesture? It was like, talk about blowing off steam. It was a huge relief to see you do that. It was like, oh, there’s, there’s a sane person reacting sanely.

 

Nancy Pelosi  31:00

But it was said it was now getting back to your point, though, about instinct and all of that. What I do talk about in my book, and I want women to take real pride in them for themselves, is that women have an intuition. Is we used to call it women’s intuition way back when in the day, but there’s an intuition if you’re.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  31:28

Either way, there’s no male intuition. And notice that that’s not a phrase.

 

Nancy Pelosi  31:32

Never was.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  31:33

Never, was never will be.

 

Nancy Pelosi  31:35

So when you’re a member of Congress, you act in a deductive way, you have hearings, you have public comment so when you’re there to go vote, it’s not like you have to vote in a minute. You’ve had time to absorb and learn and exchange ideas and this or that, or just be further reinforced in your point of view, in terms of your vision and your values. Yes, but when you’re an executive, for example, a speaker is an executive, right? Some things happen that are not about a vote on the floor. They’re just something that happens that requires action right away. If you’re the president, the governor, the speaker, the mayor, you have to act right away. So you have to be prepared. You have to have knowledge. So when something happens, your intuition and say, trust your gut. Don’t trust your gut unless your gut has knowledge, has strategy, has values, knows what it wants to do. Be prepared. Be prepared and act intuitively, not deductively, intuitively. And the reason that’s important is because Julia, if you were going to make a decision, you thought, well, maybe this, maybe that all the other people will exercise their how to promote their own agenda. And pretty soon your idea is greatly diminished if they know you’re going to act, they’ll respect that. And nine times out of 10, because you know you know the subject, you know the strategy, you know the path, nine times 10, you’ll be fine. And that’s a good average. That’s a really good average. Yeah, nine out of 10, it’s still an A you make it happen? You make your decision happen.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  33:27

It’s time to take another break. We’ll be right back with more wisdom from Nancy Pelosi.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  33:45

I know you’ve said you characterized yourself as being shy when you were younger. Do you recall a moment when you first entered public service? Do you remember a time where you got pushed back and you had to really steal yourself and and go.

 

Nancy Pelosi  34:03

No,  was ready. Really, I was ready. That’s why I say be ready. Just be ready.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  34:09

And having children obviously prepared you for all of this, correct?

 

Nancy Pelosi  34:14

Yeah, yes, right. But see, that’s why I say to women, know your power, know your why be ready? Be ready because you can’t miss that opportunity. Now, if I go someplace and I don’t have to speak, I’m as happy as I can be. Just relax. I went to a funeral service the other day, and I was enjoying the say what people were saying. And I thought, oh, this is so lovely. And then they introduced me. And I’m like, hey, nobody told me, but of course, I couldn’t, yeah, I had to get up and do volumes that.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  34:53

You can actually relax. And you were at a funeral.

 

Nancy Pelosi  34:55

Oh, my God, no and then they introduced and I thought, Who was he introducing? That sounds like me. Oh, my God. It is, did you have to speak? Or could you just wave? No, I had to then go. And I knew the subject very well. It didn’t, it didn’t bother me at all, but it just be ready. It is. It’s funny, because you are in the attraction business. You’re in the entertain business, the attraction business. We in politics, like to think that we are in the attraction business, but we really aren’t that good. You kind of are. I mean, we would like to think that we are, but it is. We’re not professionals on the attraction side of it.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  35:36

Well, Iwould say, I would say, see that this is why I liked so much playing Selena Meyer on deep because, and why I think I could tap into it, because there are parallels. You know, you have to stay relevant. You have to keep getting elected. You have to, as an actor, keep getting jobs, and you need to be electable. And the parallels are kind of run deep. You’re a brand, your there’s a brand of you that you’re selling, right?

 

Nancy Pelosi  36:03

Exactly, so you and you experience that in that role, yes, to what it took as that person, as the deep and the President, to do that. And you were experienced, because that’s what you do.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  36:17

You said that if your mother, big Nancy, which is the greatest name ever. You said, if she lived in my generation, or my daughter’s generations, my goodness, Lord knows, what she would have been able to accomplish. Because she was an inventor. She held a number of patents, which is extraordinary, one for esteemed facial machine. Can you talk about her and her influence?

 

Nancy Pelosi  36:39

I would say about her, as I would say, of any of the women of her generation, yeah, that they were early. You know, in other words, if they were now, for example, my children or grandchildren sell, they could take over the world, right? It really.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  36:56

What does she do for your dad as a What was she doing behind the scenes.

 

Nancy Pelosi  37:02

Volunteers in politics, the mobilization piece, yes, yes. And it was interesting to me, because they were, well, we lived in the Italian section of Baltimore, and it was very democratic. And the rest, as time went by, though, when you see along comes George McGovern, and I loved telling him this story, along comes George McGovern, who’s, well, they were progressive, yeah, but he was, you know, much more. So I loved George McGovern. It was wonderful. And I said, you know, I never been proud of my parents in politics, is when they just went all out for George McGovern.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  37:37

I remember what a good man he was. I remember when I was back in the 80s, I was on Saturday Night Live for a couple years, and he hosted when I was there.

 

Nancy Pelosi  37:47

Yeah, he did. Oh, I didn’t realize that. Yeah. You know, one of my regrets is I will never host it Saturday Night Live. I’m really funny.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  37:55

Well, Nancy, let’s go. No,it’s not […]

 

Nancy Pelosi  38:01

It’s good. I wouldn’t even think of it.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  38:04

I’m going to convince you  would [..] be fantastic.

 

Nancy Pelosi  38:07

No.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  38:07

I’m going to work on your audition with you, okay?

 

Nancy Pelosi  38:10

No, I know I have bridge.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  38:14

No, you have not crossed the bridge. Yeah, I’m going to help you with this. Speaking of your mom, this is something I found incredibly touching, that when you were first in Congress, and you would get letters from your mother whenever a woman was appointed, can you please tell us what those letters were? That is mind blowing to me. Will you tell?

 

Nancy Pelosi  38:35

When Bill Clinton became president? I have been I was in Congress since 87 he went in in 93 and every time he made an appointment of a woman, she would clip it from the paper and send it and said, Please tell her how happy it made me. Please tell her, because she really knew in her own life, really, but not in a resentful way, but just in a acknowledging way that women were so underutilized in our society and our government in every way, and that the President would be making these, um, these appointments, yes, she was such a source of joy. And I remember telling some of those women, you made my mother so happy. You didn’t know her. She didn’t know you, but you were saying, tell them, I’m praying for them, yeah? Always praying, oh, my God, that’s a part of our existence. So yeah, but it is. Here’s the thing, yeah. Again, we don’t recognize we organize women. And I speak to women all the time, and just say, I know this is hard. This is not for the faint of heart. You put yourself out there, you become a target. That’s just the way it is. But understand how necessary it is for you to do that. As you said earlier, this isn’t to take the place of men. It’s to be there at the table with that diverse.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  40:00

Absolutely yes.

 

Nancy Pelosi  40:00

And I tell them the story of when I went to my first meeting at the White House as leader, and I wasn’t nervous or anything, because I’d been the white house many times as an appropriator, as an intelligence leader, all that.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  40:14

And this was with under George W. Bush.

 

Nancy Pelosi  40:17

Bush, and so when I went, the door opened into the room. As soon as I saw the room, I knew that this was the first meeting of its kind that I had ever been to. In fact, it was the first meeting of its kind that any woman had been to, because it was the President, Vice President, the leaders, House and Senate, Democrat and Republican. It wasn’t like a Cabinet meeting, which is wonderful, but everybody is appointed by the President. There at the President’s will. I was there at the will of the House Democrats, so, two different branches of government and and so. And he recognized that. He said, Yeah, he started welcoming me. And here’s the first time we’ve ever had a woman at a meeting like this, and I know we’re going to hear some new ideas. And as he’s going on like that, I felt very crammed in in my chair. I couldn’t understand why it never happened before or since, very crammed into my chair. And all of a sudden I realized it was Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth, Katie Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner, truth, Alice Paul, everybody was on that chair with me. They were right there, and I could hear them say, at last, we have a seat at the table. Yeah. And then they were gone, and my first response was, we want more we want more women. We want more diversity and the rest. But the lesson, reason I tell the story is I’m standing on their shoulders. Imagine they started. I know such in the middle of the 19th century for women to have the right to vote. It took a long time, and it’s been a long time since I’m standing on their shoulders. All of us in Congress standing on their shoulders, and others are standing on ours. When I first went to Congress, there were 23 women, 12 Democrats, 11 Republicans out of 435 members of the house. What the hell what is this? Yeah, so we made a decision on our side that we would reach out, that we would recruit, we would fund, we would mentor, teach all the rest of that. Some people self recruited, and that was beautiful. In this Congress, we had 96 Democratic women. 96 Republicans got up to 30 something, I think. But we had three times that. We want more, yeah. And then, of course, we want to see women, whatever it is, whether it’s the military, security, whether it’s corporate America, whether it’s academia, whatever it is, entertainment, whatever it is, we want to see more women in leadership roles making those decisions.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  42:52

I know.

 

Nancy Pelosi  42:52

Think of it. This is in 2005

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  42:57

Right?

 

Nancy Pelosi  42:58

More than 150 years since they started with Yeah, right women having the right to vote.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  43:05

By the way, I’m wearing a suffragette necklace today. Yes, this is from the suffragette.

 

Nancy Pelosi  43:10

So much we do. We have them so much, and we all have a responsibility to be suffragists in our s as we move, there’s lot more we have to have to and we have, at some point, have a woman president.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  43:22

Yeah, we do, and hopefully it’ll be in our lifetime, not mine. Oh, absolutely, it’ll be in your lifetime. Nancy, just stick with the hot dogs and the chocolate ice cream. You’re gonna outlive us all. So look, I’d like to ask you about your marriage. Yeah, for the first I guess maybe 25 years. It’s it, I guess it seemed pretty traditional, I think. And he had a very demanding, successful career. How did your marriage evolve as your political career demanded more of you?

 

Nancy Pelosi  43:55

Well, first of all, the poor Paul, I mean, wonderful Paul. He this marriage was not something he bargained for, you know.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  44:05

Is this your way of giving him an out right now?

 

Nancy Pelosi  44:09

No, it’s just a laugh. We laugh about it, but see, before it was met, my thought was that I was going to law school and I was going to do this, that then I got married, had five children, six years, seven days and.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  44:22

Why five? Why didn’t you go for more? No, I’m serious, Why’d you cut off at five? Did you think you might have more, or that was it then?

 

Nancy Pelosi  44:31

No, I think five was it. I mean, there are all kinds of things that were going on at that very same time. And by the way, as I say to women, when you’re taking inventory of your accomplishments. Give yourself a gold star for being a mom, because there’s no multi tasking endeavor like that, nothing. Nothing like it, nothing like it. You’re called upon to do everything all the time, yYeah, in our first years, it was all about the kids. I didn’t even have a chance to watch my. They sometimes when you have five little children crawling around, you don’t even have time to wash your face, yeah, right. And, but you’re so hard working, I guess what? It’s so intensely involved that once they’re in school all day, you think you’re gonna save the world, yeah, you’ve been taking care of five children all day, and we had our systems and all the rest of that about how we would spend time at the park and this, and now they’re in school all day. Oh my gosh, is that when you became library Commissioner? No, they were little when I came that, so that wasn’t as demanding time as being the chair of the party or something like that, and no, they were, I show you picture one of these days of my getting sworn in, they’re crawling on the table. They’re crawling under the table. They were little kids, but so so the first years, then they were in school all day, and then I could take responsibility to do some other things. And well, here’s what happened. I was somewhat active politically, you know, for friends who were running for office, this or that, not much, but a little bit. And Jerry Brown decided that he was going to run for President of the United States. Right? This is 1976 Jerry Brown said he’s going to run for president United States. My very close friend in politics, Leo McCarthy, was the Speaker of the House at the time, Chair of Jerry Brown’s presidential campaign. I said to Leo, tell the governor, if he wants to run for president, he cannot wait until the California Primary, which is in June, very late in the process, yeah. Because by then, somebody will be the nominee for the party. They will then take control of the state, California Democratic Party, because they will be able to choose who are the delegates to the convention. All of that. That’s how it worked in those days. So there was a this may be more than you ever want to know, but as I say to people, be ready you never know. So in Maryland, they had something that the Secretary of State, the law said that if anybody is a candidate in any state, they would be on the Maryland ballot. So I said to Leo, Leo, tell the governor, get on the ballot. Stay on the ballot in Maryland, right? Stay on the ballot, and we can win this. I mean, I was a housewife, but I said, you know, I my brother had recently been mayor, my friend was a county executive there Ted venetouls, my brother, Thomas del center. We had grassroots. You have to have the grassroots organized. We had the grassroots. He’s the star. I mean, he was so fabulous. He was middle 30s. He was like 30, my God, almost a Jesuit priest too, by the way, all that. And when he came to Maryland, he was spectacular. He was spectacular. He was drawing crowds. We were breaking down walls of of hotels and everything to the street. The crowds were turning out for Jerry, and we won Maryland. And when we went back to California, people were like, what? How did that happen? And he said at this big welcoming event, Nancy Pelosi was the political director of my Maryland Campaign.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  48:20

Which is true.

 

Nancy Pelosi  48:21

Which was true, but he never usually would.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  48:24

Yes, but you were thinking outside the box, that’s kind of that’s.

 

Nancy Pelosi  48:29

And so one thing then they were like, you have to be chair of the party here. You have to do this. Yeah. So one thing led to another. So when I became the whip, which was the race, that made the difference, I just said, I’m going forward and to the leadership. And people said, Men said, who said she could run? I was like, Please light my fire. Why don’t you? Yes, I said I could run. Okay, so in any case, Jerry came for my swearing. It was a big deal. A woman was being sworn in as whip. The first time, anything like that. He said, I made this happen. No, I made you happen.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  49:08

Oh, God.

 

Nancy Pelosi  49:09

So anyway, you just never know in the course of events, how some place, your talent, your experience, or whatever it is, just takes off.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  49:21

You’ve been in Washington so long, Nancy, and you’ve you’ve been on the front lines. You’ve witnessed so much in terms of the vitriol in the discourse between sides have become, has become so toxic, it’s the most toxic I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime. Yeah, let’s eat chocolate. Absolutely have a piece. And do you think, before I ask you anymore, can I have one of these too? How’s your good? Is it worth it?

 

Nancy Pelosi  49:55

Delicious, it’s delicious.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  49:56

Oh, this is too huge. They’re big. Yeah, they’re big. Like, all right. Well, anyway, I’m gonna, I’m gonna ask you this question and then eat this. Do you think it’s ever gonna be possible to pull back from this toxicity? Do you, I mean, do you think it’s possible to sort of put the toothpaste back in the tube, in terms of public discourse, in your heart of hearts?

 

Nancy Pelosi  50:20

I will answer the way I say, everything public sentiment is everything the public has to be a public sentiment to prevail. People have to know, and they have to know where this vitriol is coming from. This people say to me, oh, you’re in a gridlock. I said we’re not gridlock. We’re in obstruction. This isn’t mutual disagreement here, this is initiated by them. Years I had been the targets, dressed like the devil horns, cloven feet, what they did to Hillary Clinton in the 90s, when she was first lady in the Clinton they have used this because they are bankrupt of ideas, and they have to take other people down, right? So I’m make no apology for saying this is not mutual. It is instigated by them, and that’s who they are and where they are. When my husband was attacked the sanctity of our home, it violated his personal safety to the point of we don’t even know if he’s going to survive. They laughed. They told jokes on their website. Leave me. I heard the governor of the Virginia, the Republican governor, Elon Musk, all of them, they thought that was really funny, right? I mean, really, how much more do people have to know? So we don’t have shared values when it comes to to to understanding the responsibility. We want people to have trust in government. We want them to best be involved in it. We don’t want them to see all that mess and think, oh, I can’t wait to be a part of that. We want them to see it as something where, since the beginning of our country, we’ve had disagreements about the role of government, the role of a central government, and that is a legitimate debate of a democracy. It is not the basis for the politics of personal destruction. But make no mistake, this is a Republican agenda. I agree with that, and I don’t know any Democrats who engage in that. I really don’t know. Maybe somebody comes to call and tell me, somebody wants that they heard. But I don’t know any Democrats who engage in.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  52:26

Yeah and I think that people are, most people are fundamentally good, and so we have to count on that and believe in that and move forward with that in our hearts and minds, right?

 

Nancy Pelosi  52:37

The goodness of the American people, I mean, the source of hope for us. That’s right, you wouldn’t do common grounds that we find in the arts gives us hope. People say, where is hope? I said, hope is sitting everywhere. It always has been, right between faith and charity, faith and the goodness of others gives people hope that we can find our common ground.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  53:03

I think I’m going to convert to Catholicism after this conversation. I don’t know I’m going to do on confession, but I may have to do it all right. We have to wind things up because you have places to go. I have quick little questions to ask you. There’s something you go back and tell yourself at 21 Nancy?

 

Nancy Pelosi  53:22

Oh, I’m glad we got same thing. Know your what? Why are you doing what you’re doing?

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  53:32

Okay, is there something you wish you’d spent less time on? Nancy?

 

Nancy Pelosi  53:37

I’d have to spend some time thinking about that. Maybe I should have spent more time. People said to me, when I was chair of the party and I’d be dragging bags up the middle of the street to the post office to get in mail in time for an election, why don’t you let somebody else do that and go home and comb your hair and fix up your face.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  54:00

So maybe you would maybe spend more time on on a little self care a little or just a shower. Yeah, exactly.

 

Nancy Pelosi  54:08

Yeah, we always just say self promotion is a terrible thing, but somebody’s got to do it.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  54:15

Is there, and last question, is there something that you would like me to know about aging?

 

Nancy Pelosi  54:20

About aging, oh, yeah, but the it’s something that has to be embraced. Hopefully it is inevitable, and it is. It can really be. It can really be a joy. For me, it has been a joy, but aging is a long way off for you.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  54:41

Well, bless your heart, but it ain’t.

 

Nancy Pelosi  54:43

Look forward to it with joy, and just remember that we have responsibilities to the future, no matter what our age is, and the experiences that we have add to that responsibility. Me, but I would say to you what I would say to somebody 21 years old, keep knowing your why be ready for whatever comes next, and know the power of you and share that with others. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Nancy Pelosi, what a treat to have you here. My pleasure. It’s my pleasure again. Let me just close by saying what fans we all are of yours. Oh, not only because of you’re a talented actress and you have the power to move us, to make us laugh and the rest, but also your personal story is such an inspiration. Thank you. And your being an inspiration gives people hope.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  55:41

Thank you.

 

Nancy Pelosi  55:43

Remember when you came to the White House for the French president with your father? Yeah, I sure do. I sure do in there, he was so proud of you. Yeah, you want his arm.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  55:52

I know it was crazy. That was amazing.

 

Nancy Pelosi  55:55

That was amazing. I’m so happy with you together, seeing you with your father, and the pride you took in you and the joy that you had being with him was such a source of joy to the rest of us.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  56:08

Well, thank you for saying that. It was my father came here. He was born in France, of course. And so for him to have the opportunity to French President, to meet the French President, to come to a state dinner like that, was pretty mind blowing. It was really an exciting that was an exciting evening, for sure.

 

Nancy Pelosi  56:24

Well, I know he must have on born in France, been excited about seeing the French president, but to the rest of us, the joy we saw was him having you on his arm coming in there. Oh, proud of his daughter.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  56:35

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. All right, we done did it?

 

Nancy Pelosi  56:40

There we go.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  56:41

You want more chocolate?

 

Nancy Pelosi  56:42

No, darling, I’m good. I still have some in my hand.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  56:47

Well, wasn’t that something else? Oh, my goodness, ladies and gentlemen, wow. Okay, so normally, of course, on this podcast, I call my mother after these conversations, and I sort of bring her up to speed on the conversation that I’ve had with the wise woman I was talking to. But in this case, my dear mom was listening because she was so excited to hear it live so she heard the conversation. We’re going to grab her on Zoom now to see what her thoughts are. Sit tight. Hi, Mommy.

 

Mommy  57:24

Hello, thank you for letting me sit in on that incredible interview, and what a moment in life for me.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  57:35

Oh, yeah, that was pretty crazy, right?

 

Mommy  57:38

Oh, I mean, I’m just so grateful. I’m so grateful to Nancy Pelosi for being there for so long, for in such a strong way, and being so right about everything. It was a great pleasure to see her and just be with her.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  57:54

Yeah, I know I felt the same, by the way. I don’t know if you know this, but my sister Lauren came to watch it live too, as did my niece, your granddaughter, Thea, and she came along as well. And so she got to meet Nancy Pelosi, which was very important and exciting. I thought that was cool.

 

Mommy  58:13

Extremely because Nancy Pelosi is very connected to the women that came before her. Yes, she feels very, completely viscerally connected to and those that are coming after. Because if you remember when she became the first woman head of the house, yeah, she had her grandchildren come.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  58:31

Well, not just her grandchildren. She brought all the children up. Well, yes so there were lots of people who had brought their kids on the opening day of Congress, and they brought their children and grandchildren to the floor, and so she invited all the children up, which is so cool of her to have done, and.

 

Mommy  58:49

They will always remember that moment. And you know, if you’re there at one of these crowning moments, it changes your life. And, you know. And our dear fear and the the girls that age, in the younger girls all have all these opportunities now thanks to people like Nancy Pelosi, who actually broke, broke into it, and boy, were they ever entitled to it.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  59:14

And also, by the way, you know what else is interesting? She has said many times that she’s doing the work she does. She’s doing it for the children. She uses that phrase a lot. I thought that was particularly interesting because I don’t know you remember, but Patti Smith, when she was on the show, she said the same thing. She’s when people ask her where she stands, she says she stands for the children. That’s an interesting framework to think about a point of view, a political point of view, to apply that lens to help you come to a conclusion or an opinion.

 

Mommy  59:49

Right, it’s a bridge, yeah, over time, and if you envision that, then that makes your work terribly important, but not just for you. It makes it for the future,

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  59:59

Yeah, mom.

 

Mommy  1:00:00

Yes, I should say I lost my calendar. I was speaking of the future I want myself on my my calendar has disappeared. And why.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:00:10

Did you get a new phone?

 

Mommy  1:00:11

No, I got the same phone, just my calendar. You know, the little thing that says 13, like today, that’s disappeared. So I, I go into, I go into Siri, and I say, Siri, find my calendar. So guess what she comes up with? I don’t know what that pops this thing that says my calendar. It’s got little roses on all kinds of little flowers and fairies and things. And then the calendar. What a pregnancy calendar. And you keep that you know, when was your last period and all these.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:00:44

Did you put in 1981?

 

Mommy  1:00:51

I can’t count backwards that well, so I decided to look for another calendar. But I thought that was a maybe, what you so? So, I mean, you can look up anything these days. You can find whatever you want to do. You can find something, a calendar to help you.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:01:07

Okay, but I think that the calendar thing is probably has to do with an update on the iPhone, and I can help you figure out the calendar. There’s a search thing that you can push.

 

Mommy  1:01:18

I know I searched that and what comes up is one day so I can find out what’s happening today, but then, but then I can’t, I don’t get my app back.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:01:28

I can help you do that.

 

Mommy  1:01:29

Okay, well, promise you will do that.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:01:31

I will, I promise. So by the way, this is, as you know, the end of season three, and I think what a perfect conversation to end on, because we can all sort of leave this season thinking about what is our why, and kind of pound down on understanding not only what our why is, but how it came to be, and then apply it to our life and move forward positively. And I mean, it sounds like this is, all of a sudden a self help podcast. I really don’t want it to be, or mean it to be, but anyway, it’s interesting, an interesting thing to consider. I’ve actually been thinking about what is my why? I’m not really sure what it is, but I’m thinking about it anyway. I just want to say that’s the end of Wiser Than Me season three, and it was a great one to go out on and bam, there you go, right?

 

Mommy  1:02:34

Oh, yeah.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:02:35

Sorry, Mommy. Had you fallen asleep?

 

Mommy  1:02:39

I didn’t know who you were talking to.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:02:41

I didn’t know who I was talking to either. I’m talking to our listeners, but I’m also talking to you, and I’m […]

 

Mommy  1:02:47

Still on here. Yes, I have to say it is. It really been a great season because of what we’ve learned about the women and how you’ve listened to them, and how important it’s been for all of us to listen to all of it and get our own energy involved with it.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:03:05

Yeah, that’s right. So it’s true. If you’ve got older women in your life, take some time to listen to them, you might learn something. And Mommy, I learned tons from you, and I love you tons.

 

Mommy  1:03:22

And I love you so much. And don’t think I’m not learning anything from you. I learned plenty.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:03:26

I know you do, yeah, and we’ve got more lessons to come, okay, I love you.

 

Mommy  1:03:36

I love you.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus  1:03:38

Bye.

 

CREDITS  1:03:48

There’s more Wiser Than Me with Lemonada Premium on Apple, you can listen to every episode of season three ad free. Subscribers also get access to exclusive bonus interview excerpts from each episode, subscribe now by clicking on the Wiser Than Me podcast logo in the Apple podcast app and then hitting the subscribe button. Make sure you’re following Wiser Than Me on social media. We’re on Instagram and Tiktok @wiserthanme, and we’re on Facebook at Wiser Than Me  Podcast. Wiser Than Me is a production of Lemonada Media. Created and hosted by me Julia Louie Dreyfus. This show is produced by Kryssy Pease, Jamela Zarha Williams, Alex McOwen, and Hoja Lopez. Brad Hall is a consulting producer, Rachel Neil is VP of new content and our SVP of weekly content and production is Steve Nelson. Executive Producers are Paula Kaplan, Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Jessica Cordova Kramer, and me. The show is mixed by Johnny Vince Evans with engineering help from James Sparber. And our music was written by Henry Hall, who you can also find on Spotify or wherever you listen to your music. Special thanks to Will Schlegel, and of course, my mother Judith Bowles. Well, believe it or not, this is the final episode of season three, and because it takes a lot of people to make a show like this, I wanted to take a moment and quickly thank all of the many wise people who helped make this podcast possible. Our incredible marketing team includes Lizzie Breyer Bowman, Jackie Westfall, Sahar Baharloo, Rose Dennis, Amber Gerardi Robinson, Grace Cohen Chen and Emily Dentinger, thanks to our friends in business development […] Ron Russ and Dana Wickens, with additional support from Autumn Dornfeld, Christina Perdomo Fernandez, Rochelle Green, Brian Castillo and Noah Smith. Follow Wiser Than Me wherever you get your podcasts, and if there’s a wise old lady in your life, listen up.