Our first guest is a former Georgia State Representative
and a best-selling author who continues
to fight every day for voting rights across the country.
Please welcome the incredible Stacey Abrams.
Hi.
Hello.
I'm so happy to see you.
Thank you so much.
I know how busy you are, so thank
you so much for taking the time to talk to me.
Thank you for having me back.
Well, it's been quite a year, because last time I saw you,
I was doing the show from my house.
COVID, I think, had pretty much just started,
and it was a tough time in our country.
How are you feeling about things right now?
Are you hopeful?
I am.
I'm more determined than hopeful because the last time
we were talking about voter suppression.
We still kind of have a voter suppression problem,
but we've got proof that with hard work, determination,
prayer, magic, that we can defeat
it-- or at least mitigate it.
Well, thanks to you, in great part,
you had an incredible year.
Your voting rights work helped flip Georgia and the Senate.
So thank you so much for all the hard work--
and inspiring so many people.
I just have to remind people, if they don't know,
I mean this is just a little bit because we don't have time--
because I want to get to the book and everything else.
But you registered 800,000 new voters in Georgia.
You produced an award-winning documentary.
You wrote two books.
And you're nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
How many hours a night do you need to sleep?
Are you one of these people that sleeps like three hours?
How many hours a night do you sleep?
I'm a five hour a night person.
I strive for 7, and let's be clear,
people help with all of the above.
I did most of the writing of the books and stuff,
but the rest was a joint effort.
Yeah, well, it's pretty impressive.
And so 2021 is not an election year for most offices
in the country, but what has you the most concerned right now.
The reaction to the success we saw in 2020 and 2021.
Not just Democrats winning, but the fact
that new voters, voters of color, young people
turned out in record numbers.
Unfortunately, we're seeing laws across the country,
especially starting in the South and Southwest,
that are trying to reverse course and restrict access
to the right to vote, to suppress the vote again.
And our fight has to continue to be that every vote counts,
and that it does not matter who you
vote for, you should have the right
to vote if you're eligible.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Because this is not the time to coast.
This is not the time to think, OK, we're in a good place.
Why is this so important for people to pay attention to?
You're going to hear this as a partisan issue, Republicans
fighting Democrats, but that's not the case.
This is about Republicans versus Americans.
This is a citizenship question.
If you respond to more people voting
by making it harder to vote, if you look at their behavior
and say, hmm, they use that too much.
I'm going to take it away or make it more difficult,
then you're engaging in voter suppression.
But the problem is they may target communities of color,
or young people, but they break democracy for the rest of us.
And when they do that, we are no better off
than any other nation that struggles
to hold on to our democracy.
That's what shapes us, and we need to fight to keep it.
You're incredible.
And here you are, on the cover of June's InStyle magazine.
You look beautiful and fan--
I mean, just, you're amazing.
And then I share something in common with you,
because I also am an introvert, but you
were surprised to learn that you're an introvert.
I just thought I didn't like talking to people.
I was in college, and they had a group of us
stand up and describe our perfect weekend,
and mine was me watching Star Trek by myself with no one
around, and that was kind of a tip-off.
Yeah, is that what someone said to you?
Or did you all of a sudden put that together, or did someone
say you're an introvert?
Oh no, I was an example.
I just didn't know I was a guinea pig,
so they had three of us stand up in front of the class
or a group of people, and they asked each one of us
to describe our perfect weekend.
I wasn't going to Rio.
I wasn't going to a beach party.
I was going to watch Star Trek--
And she's like extrovert, middle of the road, introvert.
Yeah.
It's a good thing you found out.
Now you know.
It works.
You know--
It's good to have a name.
It's fine, I mean, it works if you're an introvert.
If you don't have to change that behavior if it still works.
So your parents were civil rights activists.
They started when they were teenagers, so I would imagine--
I mean, what a great influence that is.
What an impact as a kid to watch your parents--
that had to influence you to who you are today.
They are extraordinary people.
They are the best people I know.
They have always believed that it's not
about saying what you want to see,
you have the responsibility to try to make it so.
And more importantly, when you see someone
in jeopardy, when you see someone vulnerable,
your job is to help.
That has to be the way we live--
that's part of the social contract.
They read the fine print, and they decided to go over the top
and become United Methodist ministers,
so they're going to be here and into the afterlife.
I'm just focusing on the here and now.
Well your focus is on the here and now, and you're doing--
as we're talking about-- so much good for so many people,
and I'm so honored that you told me
that you would announce today that you
are going to run for Governor of Georgia in 2022.
Is that right?
I'm sorry.
There's a problem with the Zoom call.
Sorry.
Oh, darn it.
I thought that would do it.
I thought--
I think you're glitching, sorry.
Oh, no.
Darn it.
You should have froze or something.
You should have just--
All right.
I won't get that answer, but I hope you do run for governor.
We're going to take a break going.
We'll be back.
More with Stacy.
We're back with Stacy Abrams.
Stacy has a new book out.
It's called "While Justice Sleeps."
Congratulations, the reviews are fantastic.
Tell everybody about-- and it's a novel,
so tell everybody what it's about.
So it's about a Supreme Court Justice, who
is the swing vote on a very controversial case,
and he falls into a coma.
The person who has his power of attorney
and the ability to decide whether he lives or dies
is his lowly law clerk, Avery Keen,
and she has a series of clues she
has to unravel to not only save his life
but possibly save the country.
Fantastic idea.
And you started working on this a decade ago, but then nobody--
the publishers passed on it.
Why would they pass on it then?
Well it was agents who were telling me
that they didn't think publishers would buy
a book about a far-fetched president who was involved
in international intrigue and scandal, that is bombastic,
and they thought that no one really
cared about the Supreme Court because it wasn't really
relevant to American lives.
I see.
Wow.
Very--
Yeah.
Have you talked to them since then?
Have you--
No.
Oh my God.
And then, I was just asking during the break
if this was your first novel, and they
said you'd written a bunch of romance novels
under a different name.
Yes, I've written eight romance novels as Selena Montgomery.
I wrote under a pen name because I was also publishing articles
on the Operational Dissonance of the Unrelated Business Income
Tax, and I thought no one wanted to read a romance
novel by Ellen Greenspan, so I kept the identity secret.
That's incredible.
So the book is fiction, but there's a lot about politics,
so I assume you pulled from real life experiences, right?
I did.
Yeah, and do these people know who they are in the book?
There are a few people--
I like to use the names of friends.
And I warn them that, if you're in my book,
you are at my disposal.
And so, I have a friend who's the current speaker
of the house here in Georgia.
We do not agree politically.
I hope I don't get him in trouble
because he was in the book when I was I started writing it
a decade ago.
And I kept him in.
And then I have another friend who is a little put out
by her role in the book.
It wasn't quite as meaty as she hoped,
but I'm like you're not dead.
That's a thing.
You didn't kill her off, yeah.
I didn't.
Because now she could be in the TV series,
because now the book is-- they're
making it into a TV series.
Will you be in it at all?
Oh, dear God, no.
No.
Just like--
No.
--a Hitchcock moment where you just see you in the background,
where you're--
you know, he used to be in everything.
I could pull you know Hitchcock, Stanley, and just
kind of appear, but it's going to be really fast,
and I'm out of there.
I think that would be great, though, like just to--
we look for each episode where you find Stacy.
Like just in the background, or as an extra.
I think it would be a really fun thing for people
to look for you.
I will give that--
I'll give that note to the producers.
All right, thank you, just tell him Ellen said--
Hey, listen, it's always great talking to you.
You are fantastic human being.
Thank you for all that you do.
Stacey's book, "While Justice Sleeps" is available
everywhere books are sold.
We'll be back.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos, like videos
of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer.
And also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities--
if you're into that sort of thing.
Ah!
God.