- Time for my first guest, everybody.
She is such a good person.
She'd probably rescue a pig from a fire as well.
She probably has.
She's an Emmy, Grammy
and Golden Globe nominated actress, singer and songwriter.
She's killing it on "This Is Us"
and she's got two new Christmas songs out now.
I love Christmas, I cannot wait to hear them.
Please, welcome Mandy Moore, everybody.
(audience claps)
(upbeat music)
Hello, how are you?
- I'm well, how are you?
- I'm so good.
Okay, this is my thing.
I get so jealous of people that can wear turtlenecks.
'Cause you look so great.
I love people in turtlenecks but I can't,
I feel like I'm being strangled all day.
- I can't lie, I must have like some Diane Keaton
in me or something I just love a turtle neck.
- Diane Keaton, that's amazing.
Well, we were just talking to a pig farmer.
So would you ever want a farm?
I feel like you would fit in on a farm.
- That story just completely made my day.
I had to sort of stop myself
from getting too emotional listening to it.
To have a farm one day, you know, it's funny.
I'm a big hiker and I was hiking Everest Base Camp,
that trek in Nepal last year.
And the higher you get in the mountains,
you're sort of surrounded by yaks,
because they're the main source of transportation.
And a lot of like, as you get higher and higher
in the mountains, it's like their source of food as well.
And so you have a lot of like yak milk in tea
and you have yak cheese.
And I just kind of fell in love
with the taste of yak products.
And I had it set in my mind, like I should open a yak farm.
I feel like there are no yak farms.
You can't find yak products anywhere.
- I was just thinking, I've never seen a yak or, yeah.
- They're beautiful, and obviously very strong.
But yeah, you have to live
in a very cold environment to have a yak.
So those dreams were dashed for now.
But I don't know, maybe at some point
later in life I'll have a farm.
- I'm amazed, we've toured together,
like we've been around each other a little bit.
And I felt like I knew you a little bit,
like who you are, but I don't think I had a clue,
because you like full on skydive.
You don't hike, you trek up mountains.
Like you do things that people...
Those are like bucket list things.
And you do them like regularly.
Like you love it.
I didn't know you were so adventurous.
- I feel like I've like come into this
slightly more adventurous streak a little bit later in life.
I've been skydiving several times,
but the trekking and the climbing and hiking
has become a new-found obsession for me, it's incredible.
But yeah- - It seems therapeutic.
- It's so cathartic, it's so therapeutic.
I can't wait to do more of it once I pop this baby out.
- Yes, you are pregnant, that's crazy cool!
How excited are you?
- I am very excited.
- How did you break the news to your family?
'Cause this is kind of a crap year.
Like you can't really be around everybody.
Did you get to be around anybody and tell 'em?
- Not really, so my parents,
we broke the news like via Zoom,
which was lovely, but not the way
that you sort of had built up in your brain.
But my in-laws live very close to us
and it was my mother-in-law's birthday.
And we decided like,
this is the perfect birthday gift for her.
We're gonna like give her a picture of the ultrasound.
And so we gave her a gift.
and we were like open your card at the end.
And the card just said, happy birthday, grandma.
And she read the card and was like,
"Oh thanks," like a little insulted,
I think, that we were calling her grandma.
And then my husband took the picture of the ultrasound
out of his pocket and like tossed it down on the table.
And I never heard a human being
make the sound that she made.
It was like a cry and a scream and exasperation.
Like, I was very worried
that she was gonna have a heart attack.
I'm like, Kathy, you've gotta breathe.
Like it's good news, it's happy news.
She was just so beside herself with excitement.
- I love that she was insulted
'cause she was like, so you're old.
(laughs) That's my favorite part.
- Desert groupie, mom.
That's why he wanted to be in our study project.
It wasn't to be with me.
- Oh, I see.
- I feel like an idiot.
- No, don't, following your heart is a real strength, Kate.
Yeah, sometimes you end up getting hurt,
but most of the time it'll all work out.
(audience claps)
- Ah, that's nice.
We're back with Mandy Moore.
And that was a clip from her hit show "This Is Us"
which airs Tuesday nights on NBC.
So you play a mom on that show.
That was really good advice.
I think that you've got some like training
in motherhood from doing this show.
Do you feel like that?
- I do.
I mean, I've joked around that I've had experience
with like every different juncture of child
and life experience, I guess,
babies and toddlers and preteens and adults.
I obviously know it is not going to be remotely similar
to working on set with children.
But yeah, I mean, I think if nothing else,
like having spent the last five seasons now around family,
it gives you more empathy and understanding and patience.
But yeah, I love it.
It's sort of actually coincided
with this perfect time in my life as well.
Like being able to play a mother,
and then now transitioning into being a mother in real life.
Yeah, it worked out, I guess at the same time.
- Yeah, so, well "This Is Us"
is all about family coming together.
So why do you think
that's more important this year than ever?
It's funny, I think our show
has always resonated with people
because it's about connection and the idea that
there's more that unites us than divides us.
And I think that's just what we're sort of living
through at this exact moment in time.
I think it's more important now than ever.
And I'm glad that our show
is sort of a mirror, in that sense.
It forces us all to sort of look at ourselves
and the choices we've made, and sort of maybe
expand on the idea of what family is,
and sort of redefine what the idea of family is.
So I think all of us are just like unendingly proud
to be a part of a show that like has that message.
It's cathartic, it lets us feel our emotions.
All of these things, I think,
are what people need at this particular moment.
- Yeah, I mean, it's a perfect show for this moment in time.
So why did you wanna do a Christmas song this year?
My Christmas record is my favorite record I've ever made.
So I love Christmas.
Is it just 'cause you find it nostalgic?
You just wanted to..
'Cause you've never done it before, right?
- I've never done anything like holiday related.
You know, I had an album come out earlier this year.
It was my first one in a decade,
and we were days away from going on tour.
And it was my first tour
since I had been on tour with you in 2008.
So obviously, I had to grieve that loss
of not being able to go on the road with this record.
But I think that because of that,
there was so much sort of excess creative energy
that was pent-up, and wanting to find a way
to celebrate the best time of year,
and quite frankly, the time of the year
I figured people were gonna be looking forward to the most.
So we did a cover of
"It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year".
And then I was like, I really wanna write a song
that speaks to like really what the holidays are about,
and what we've all kind of garnered
over these last like eight or nine months,
is there's nothing more profound than connection,
like connecting with people and being together
and being able to celebrate together.
So I wanted a song that sort of
I guess like hits those notes,
but it's also something that you can listen to
years down the road, you're not like,
oh there's that quarantine Christmas song.
- I wanna say, I don't think it's a weird thing
or a quarantine Christmas thing either,
because I mean there's songs like
"I'll Be Home For Christmas"
that are just staples in Christmas music.
And I think that now we just really understand
the gravity of the situation of the message.
Like before we didn't get it,
or even like back in the day when Bing Crosby,
you know, they did all those songs and they were at war.
Like they felt it, they felt the difference.
I don't think our generation has really felt
like what this Christmas might be like for a lot of us.
And we'll really kind of understand those messages
in these songs that we've known since children,
and it'll have a whole new light.
So what's one of your favorite Christmas...
Like mine is "White Christmas"
once I hear "White Christmas",
I feel like Christmas has started,
like the spirit is now with me.
What's your Christmas song that kind of sticks out for you,
that you feel like this represents like nostalgia for me?
- Oh my gosh, maybe like
"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree."
That's always one that I feel like gets me
like immediately into the mood.
But I'm one of those people, and maybe you're the same,
like literally Halloween passes,
and I'm like cool, time to turn on the tunes,
time to turn on the holiday tunes.
I'm like finding that like radio station
in the car that plays it 24 hours a day.
And I think now more than ever this year in particular,
it's like all the good vibes,
anything to feel like the holidays
are around the corner, sign me up.
- Yeah, agreed.
Speaking of Christmas, what's your favorite memory
of Christmas music as a kid?
Do you have like something that stands out?
- I Remember like our family,
one of our traditions was like
finding that one street in town
that like completely went all out.
Like all the neighbors were in agreement, all the lights,
all the decorations and like a couple of the houses
it was like, you could tune into a specific radio station
and they'd have the lights like lined up
with the Christmas song that was playing.
So like just remembering those times where we'd all
like pile in the minivan together and like drive across town
to this particular street to like experience
that overwhelming display of holiday madness.
That's something that sticks in my head.
- That's so funny.
Literally, we were poor growing up,
and we'd literally pile up in the car
and we'd go to the rich people neighborhoods
'cause they'd have all their lights, they'd go all out.
And we just drive around the rich people neighborhoods.
It's like the most magical experience,
we had the same thing, I bet a lot of families did that.
But it's such a cool thing.
- Yeah, it's the best thing to do.
- I know, I don't think I realized
how special it was until like this moment.
But it was just so exciting to like put Christmas music on
in your car and go see like all the beautiful houses.
But everybody, "This Is Us" airs Tuesday nights on NBC.
And Mandy's two new Christmas songs,
"How Could This Be Christmas"
and "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" are out right now.