I'm so happy you're here.
Congratulations on the show being nominated for an Emmy.
And it's really, really good.
So explain the show to everybody.
OK it's called I Love You, America.
And it is just really an attempt to be open and connect
with unlike minded people.
And it's still, I believe in speaking truth to power.
But when it comes-- to me I differentiate between the liars
and the lied too.
And I love the lied to.
They're guilty of believing lies.
And in my mind, and maybe this is how they see me,
but I do find that one on one, I love them and they love me.
And so I think we need a little more of that in the country.
And it's a show that is about that.
But it also mixes in aggressively dumb, silly humor,
which is my sweet spot.
And you know, so nothing is served--
dumb and filling?
Yes.
Their sweet spot too.
I feel like it was just preachy, you
would kind of watch it and be like, you know, screw you.
But it's very, very silly and doesn't take itself seriously.
But you have strong opinions and you
express them and I thought especially in the first one,
it was right before the Kavanaugh hearings,
well, it was right after.
But it was before he was confirmed.
And it was, I just thought everything
that you said was so, so good, so well expressed.
And I was just blown away by it.
Portia and I just were watching it, going, she is so smart.
Like, it was-- it's great.
It's really good.
And the set is kind of--
is it, would I say Mr. Rogers inspired?
Oh, I love that.
Yeah, I mean, you know the set is
like, it's a lot of stuff just from my apartment
and it's kind of very homey and uh, yeah,
that blanket is from my bed.
And there's a picture of me and my dad and I, my dad and me.
I just grammared myself.
Yeah.
It's kind of very eclectic and yes, the show for me
is very inspired by Mr. Rogers, who is one of my top heroes.
And he just, you know, he told me that there's no one else
in the world like me but me.
I mean, it was through the TV when I was little,
but I took it to heart, you know.
And it really is true.
There is nobody that could be you that is more
qualified to be you than you.
And you deserve love exactly how you are.
And these are lessons that we might shrug off as corny.
But I feel like they're more important now than ever.
And that, yes, we're adults.
But we are just children plus time, right, you know?
And unless we all kind of learn, especially as comedians,
we learn survival skills that get us through childhood.
And those skills help us survive,
but they aren't necessarily good for us in the adult world.
We have to then try to unlearn those things.
You know?
I mean, you've been through therapy, I'm guessing.
And it really is all about that.
And if we look at our president, if I were a guessing man,
and I am, I would say something critical
happened to him around the age of eight.
Genuinely.
I mean, I say that with compassion.
Yeah.
If I didn't feel he was really hurting people,
and literally, I would have great-- my heart breaks
for him and his pathology because he's very stunted.
He's in a sandbox mentality, and it's a little heartbreaking.
Yeah.
I see it in people and in all of us.
And part of connecting with people who are maybe
unlike minded or than myself, a lefty,
it's not that hard to see ourselves in each other.
It's not about-- one thing I learned is, people don't--
their minds aren't changed by going, this fact, this fact,
this fact, Ellen.
You know, I mean like, it just makes
your porcupine needles go up.
And people end up clinging to what they believe even more so.
Facts, poll numbers, none of those things change our minds.
What changes our minds are feelings, how we feel.
So to me, I would rather bond with someone about you
watch Walking Dead?
Oh, my god, me too!
I used to hate Carol.
Now she's my world.
You know, whatever.
I don't know if you watch Walking Dead.
But you know, it's so--
we have things in common, all of us,
and we have to get back to remembering that.
Because as soon as we see people as not people,
we can do terrible things to them.
And I see that happening a lot.
And we have to recognize that in ourselves
sometimes too, when we say they, they, they.
Yeah, exactly.
That's so true.