#180. Reese Witherspoon and You

Hi everyone,

Having been home for nearly a week straight for the first time in a month, I think I've regained a handle on my own life. I've powered through my unread emails, getting back to Inbox (86), where only my customary seven dozen (or so) stray messages remain sealed. I've gotten back into a rhythm co-hosting The Nightly which has been really enjoyable. I'll be hosting the Friday-Sunday episodes of the show with my friend Wils for the near future at least. I've gone on lots of great dog walks with Maggie, including one with Maris where an extremely recognizable celebrity who must live nearby shouted "RIGHT ON!" at our crabby little pug who was itching for a fight with his much larger dog.

Wils and I had a cheerful conversation during a recent recording (that might not be released until next week) about how pleasant it feels to walk around New York City as spring finally thaws the last remnants of winter. They pointed out that it probably feels similar to experience spring basically anywhere, although the onset of shorts-and-sweatshirt weather might be staggered by weeks (or several months) depending on the latitude where you live. So, I hope that if you're in the northern hemisphere, you've been enjoying the increasing warmth and unfurling flora.

Last week I finished a short humor piece and read it at Zach Zimmerman and Blythe Roberson's cozy reading series at P&T Knitwear (which is a bookstore, not a sweater factory). I'm hoping to publish it somewhere, but it is way too dumb and gross for most outlets, so...we'll see! Maris and I finished watching DTF St. Louis which I loved for five episodes and liked for the final two. Did anyone else watch this show? Do you have thoughts? Opinions? Observations? We also went to a wonderful dinner party hosted by our friends Lisa and Craig, and I am NOT soliciting outside opinions on that! Sorry, readers!

I've also prepared my remarks for tonight's Authors Guild Foundation Gala which I'm hosting. Honestly, as long as none of the honorees (Percival Everett, Amy Tan, Dr. Carla Hayden) shake their heads at me in disdain, I will feel like I've done my job. With the help of my excellent friend Rosaline and brilliant designer Jack Sivan, I've secured a loaner tuxedo for the evening. My plans for the day before I have to head over to the AGF gala are to at long last open the mailberg (iceberg made of mail, not specifically a pile of Jewish mail) on my kitchen table, get a haircut (even bald guys gotta do it sometimes) and take a fat nap. Tomorrow I have to get up early to record The Gargle (new episode coming soon!) with Alice Fraser in Australia and Eleanor Morton in Scotland, and we will see how that goes.

Oh and I think it's worth mentioning here: If you're a WGA member reading this and you have any questions about the contract ratification vote that's happening now, reach out! For what it's worth, I feel strongly that voting yes is the best way (contractually) to protect writers and improve working conditions in the industry! I understand that there are some concerns and questions, which is totally reasonable! But I do think that this was the best deal available without authorizing a strike, and it will make people's lives better! (If this does NOT apply to you, you can also ask me questions, or you can ignore this paragraph entirely.)

In upcoming event news, I've got the following fun and exciting shows on deck...

• THIS FRIDAY (4/24) Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! presents Comedy Grab Bag at the Bell House in Brooklyn! I'm telling jokes and presenting a great lineup of comedy people including Peter Grosz and Maddy Kelly and Depths of Wikipedia's Annie Rauwerda. There will also be trivia and prizes for the audience, so be ready to WIN! It's going to be great! I'm in Chicago earlier this week for next weekend's Wait Wait radio recording also if you are nearby!
• NEXT FRIDAY (5/1): Fall of Freedom standup showcase co-hosted with Hari Kondabolu. It's a great lineup for a good cause spiritually (standing up against authoritarianism) and financially (beneficiary tbd).
• A Monday soon! Co-hosting Frankenstein's Baby at Union Hall with Alison Leiby! THIS WEEK the lineup is so good I'm jealous I won't be there! But I WILL be there on 5/4!
• In a month or so (5/27) I'll be back at Union Hall with John Hodgman and Jean Grae doing a fun and loose show with a couple of pals!

PEP TALK FOR REESE WITHERSPOON

Last week, Reese Witherspoon shared a video on social media wherein she encouraged women to learn more about generative artificial intelligence to avoid being "left behind." I don't disagree with her premise that it's worth learning about AI. I read several articles a week on the subject, for the same reason I Googled "summer house controversy"...to get mad at every subsequent piece of information that I took in.

Where I diverge from the star of The Morning Show (I'm sorry...a star of The Morning Show, a television program with more stars than the Big Dipper) is the assertion that because women's jobs are reportedly three times as likely to be automated, women have the obligation to increase their AI use. This doesn't track to me. If someone told me I was at a three times higher risk than the general population to be eaten by a shark, I would not take that as an imperative to start volunteering to clean the gums of great whites with gingivitis.

I don't make it a practice to tell women how to participate in feminism, and I usually steer clear of advice in general, so what I will say is: The rise of generative artificial intelligence presents a wonderful opportunity for the people who have all the money to pay human beings to do work. If you are worried about women falling behind in the workforce, hire them to do jobs. Don't just make NFTs of them! Remember NFTs? They were like pogs that you couldn't even play with.

(It felt strange that a number of extremely famous women came out with similar suggestions around AI this week, generating a lot of legitimate public criticism. But let's not lose sight of the fact that the guys in charge of Palantir basically declared a holy war on the modern world, and the world would arguably be a better place if a sinkhole opened up under their corporate headquarters after everyone went safely home for the night.)

This is not a Reese-specific gripe, but people with lots of money act like every time an opportunity arises for them to spend less cash on labor, they're required to pounce on that offer. Sure, you're allowed to spread your remaining employees thin under the conventional but largely incorrect wisdom that Claude or ChatGPT makes them more efficient at their jobs. Or you could just continue to give them salaries to be good at the things they do. Every CEO who is so horny for savings should prove that they fly coach or take a bus when they travel city to city, if they care so much about not spending money. Or, hell, have just one house. No? Not happening? Surprise! It's always other people who have to suffer when the folks at the top decide to prioritize savings.

The rise of allegedly job-eliminating technology is an extraordinary chance to do something tangible for women – or workers of any gender really – instead of suggesting that they cozy up to our new dumbass robot overlords. If you can side with your husband against a breathalyzer, you can maintain that energy and ally yourself with humans versus machines in this instance as well.

PEP TALK FOR A READER

I know a little more context for this request, so I may say a few things in my answer that may seem like big-ish assumptions on my part, but I am trying to respond as thoroughly as possible while also respecting the writer's privacy.

I have been working on a job-adjacent project that I feel strongly is for the betterment of my workplace and aligns with my values. This process has gone on for five years. It has been difficult at times, but also rewarding. At the same time, I might be coming to a fork in the road at work with my primary job, and taking the path I'm more excited about will either limit or eliminate my ability to participate in the previously mentioned project.

The project has worn on me over time. I'm building up some resentment toward others involved, and I know that's not good for anyone. I know I've already done a lot of good and necessary work on that end, and sometimes you've got to let others take something to the finish line.

Still, there is a part of me that feels that if I stop working on the project because I shift job responsibilities, I'll be letting people down and abandoning my values to some degree. I think it would be the right move for me, but I'm also having a tough time accepting that. Thoughts?
- Opportunity Sucks

Living your values is a spectrum, and it's different for each person. Inspired by my friend Emma, one way I try to align my behavior with my ideals is to take public transportation in the cities I travel to for work. Last week, I spent an extra five or ten minutes each trip taking the subway from the airport and to the Amtrak station instead of calling a rideshare. I give myself a fair C+/B- in environmentalism; I recycle, I take the train, and I try to be conscious of how much meat I eat. A couple of times a month, though, I have an intrusive thought like "ecoterrorism is the only ethical career choice" that I have to dismiss as extreme and impractical. And then I give myself a little pat on the back for not being the kind of guy who drives a giant pickup truck that gets 18 miles per gallon of fuel and never puts anything in the bed. Like, dude, you do not buy too many groceries to fit in a Honda Accord.

It's worth considering how big a values gap you're creating by taking this new opportunity. Are you leaving a job that delivers fresh produce to families in food deserts to take a position at a private equity firm that owns a company that sells untested euthanasia drugs to "fast-kill" animal shelters? That would be bad! Are you leaving a classroom teaching position for an admin role where you would not get to work directly with students? That sounds way more reasonable! This all assumes that you have generally pro-social values, which I think is a fair thing for me to claim. It is, I guess, possible for someone to write in and say they're getting a big raise but they'll no longer be able to do the meaningful work of foreclosing on children's hospitals. That person probably doesn't write in for a pep talk. They most likely find comfort in drumming the fingers of their robot hand that is also a gun against the surface of their conference table.

Sometimes, after a period of intense work and impending (or active) burnout, you need to claw back a little of your own schedule for mental health reasons. You can only give as much as you have, is a nice way I've heard that phrased in the past. It's not unheard of for people to twist that logic for their own, less-than-generous purposes. If you've spent upwards of thirty seconds total on TikTok, you've probably encountered someone with "Coach" in their handle who decided they'd heard enough of their friends describe things that their therapists had told them, and that qualified them to tell every stranger in the universe how to live their life, one straight-to-camera video at a time.

I imagine, unless you're taking the experimental cat murder financing job I proposed earlier, there's a way to bridge the gap between the work you're doing now, and the work you'll be doing in the new position. It may take some time to dig in and see where you can make the difference, or what you have the time and energy for. You can probably, knowing you're making an exit, help set your current colleagues up for long term success before you go too. The health of their office cannot be fully contingent on your staying there forever. But you are not forsaking your only opportunity to make a positive difference in a workplace by moving out of your current position. In fact, the modern condition of so many professional things feeling like absolute goat shit means that there are myriad opportunities for improvement in nearly every situation.

You are the only one walking around in your shoes all day (unless you've joined a cost-defraying "shoe share" program of some kind). You've got to do what's best for you in a way that also lets you do what's best for others. George Carlin used to end his shows by telling the audience: "Take care of yourself, and take care of somebody else." Even at this new job, you'll be able to find a way to both. Either that, or you're going to ruin a LOT of cats' lives.

PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK:
Method Man & Redman - "Tear It Off"

Method Man and Redman's Blackout album doesn't even occur to me to listen to until the weather is nice. My first spin through the record in the spring causes a rare pang of wistfulness, making me wish I had a car to ride around in while playing the whole thing through with the windows cracked just enough to feel a breeze, but not so much that nearby toddlers learn new words from my stereo.

"Tear It Off" was – if I recall correctly – the first single off of this full-length album by longtime friends, collaborators, and eventual film/television co-stars Method Man and Redman. The bass line will still pop into my head and stay there for days, almost thirty years after the song's release.

I have included the video because it is wall-to-wall late 90s aesthetics and references, most of which I didn't recall until I rewatched it. I definitely remembered the pro wrestling antics, but some of-their-time elements I had forgotten include: Klumps-style fat suits, an unacknowledged tie-in with In Too Deep the LL Cool J and Omar Epps vehicle, Verne Troyer, a somewhat-intelligible narrative thread, a second set of characters in another location that is never explained. Now that's what I call 1999!

UPCOMING SHOWS

My 2026 road schedule is shaping up, plus I've got lots of stuff in New York too! I'd love to see you at a show!

4/20: Hosting the Authors Guild Foundation Gala (New York City)

4/23: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Live Recording (Chicago)

4/24: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Presents: Comedy Grab Bag at the Bell House (Brooklyn)

4/25: Greenpoint Comedy Club (Brooklyn)

4/26: J.D. Amato's Book Launch at Books of Wonder (NYC)

5/1: Fall of Freedom w/ Hari Kondabolu at Union Hall (Brooklyn)

5/4: Co-hosting Frankenstein's Baby at Union Hall (Brooklyn)

5/5: Wild Card at Alphaville (Brooklyn)

5/27: Josh Gondelman, Jean Grae, and John Hodgman in Alphabetical Order at Union Hall (Brooklyn)

5/29-5/30: Blue Ridge Comedy Club (Bristol, TN)

6/3: Private Gig (Burlington, VT)

6/11: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Live Recording (Chicago)

7/23: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Live Recording (Chicago)

10/21: Dallas, TX (DETAILS COMING SOON)

10/22: Houston, TX (DETAILS COMING SOON)