Thenthe comedians phone begins to ring.
Get your f*cking act together.
I blew it, Bee, hanging her head in faux shame, replies.
This is so gross.
OK, this interview is not aboutmyextermination problem.
They havent stopped communicating since.
Below, Bustle enters the chat.
Bee:Now that you mention it, they’re just bra cups gently falling from the sky.
Theyre supposed to be peonies, Joanna, but thank you.
Coles:Its hard to tell on Zoom.
But it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Bee:Yes, I change my wallpaper every Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
It costs about $500,000 a year, just continuously changing my wallpaper.
Coles:Totally worth it.
This Zoom is off to a good start.
Were going to be pirates.
Are you bringing that same energy to the podcast?
But she’s a very good co-captain.
Bee:There’s nothing I like more than things that are scrappy.
And there are different kinds of pirates.
There are scary ones and then cartoony ones, and I think we’re somewhere in the middle.
Coles:Well, it wasn’t just me.
It was Ben Sherwood, [too].
And we both just love news.
Those are our passions, and people want to read about them.
We want to write about them in short, fast, sometimes funny ways.
And I just thought, I can’t keep reading this.
Bee:[Off-camera, the exterminator arrives.]
The whole family came running, and I had trapped it under a glass.
And since then, the exterminator has been coming on the reg just to confirm.
Coles:Why isn’t Susan Collins, your cat, doing anything?
Bee:She wasnt here.
We all absconded for a month.
So the roaches were like, Let’s explore.
What’s going on in this apartment?
I did not expect that would be the substance [of this interview].
Ionlywant to talk about that for the next 14 minutes.
Coles:Sam Bee has a cat calledSusan Collins, named after the Republican senator from Maine.
Bee:I do.
And it gives us tremendous pleasure.
What attracted you both to the idea of working together?
Bee:For me, it was pretty simple.
I like that pirate energy, and Joanna is just fun to be around and knows everybody.
She has, like, the spiciest, funnest life.
Coles:Well, I like that you think its true.
Youve both been involved in media and politics for decades.
What have been the most seismic shifts you’ve observed in your careers?
Bee:The loss of public trust.
In government, in journalism, in facts and truth.
And a reinterpretation of what a fact is.
Imagining that a fact can be bent to your own belief system?
You feel it everywhere you look now.
We are so siloed within our own truth spheres now, and those silos feel somewhat impenetrable.
Bee:Are you going to kick me off the podcast?
Coles:That was really insightful.
I agree with all of that.
It’s clearly addictive.
And theres this craving to be completely up to date.
I have no interest in a tweet that was posted two hours ago.
I’m like, Who cares?
That was ancient history.
What does that do to our brains?
How are we able to keep up?
The dopamine addiction, the outrage addiction.
I feel like I’m news addicted.
Bee:I am news addicted, totally.
Although I do perceive in my children my youngest is 14 a slight turning away from that.
I would not have said that a year ago.
For a long time, Sam,The Daily Showwas themost trustednews source in America.
I was watchingthe videoof your tearful goodbye.
And Joanna, what was that job for you?
Bee:Change is hard.
Hosting my own show, that was a hard job to leave.
Whether its an artistic endeavor I cannot walk away from, or this new partnership.
I’m not out here trying to, like, sell lawn mowers.
Nobody is asking me to, and that’s totally fine with me.
I only want to do things that are just tickling my fancy.
So hopefully, when Joanna finally fires me, Iwillcry.
I watched that happen just now.
Bee:My [Zoom screen] box just went dark.
Coles:I don’t cry, so I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
She’s gonna grow to love me, and then it’s gonna get so personal.
Coles:Do you know what she did yesterday?
She suggested she might get me an ostrich head to sleep in.
Bee:Those sleep pods.
They look likeostrich heads.
Its a fabric bulb.
I don’t require one myself.
But it encapsulates your head in bunting, and you have a breathing hole, obviously.
It silences ambient noise, like on an airplane.
It’s supposed to conk you out.
Coles:It’s literally a huge thing that you put on your head.
Sam said shed seen Gwyneth wearing it.
So we were like, Well, if Gwyneth has it, we want one.
[A Toblerone comes flying into the frame at Coles, tossed by an off-camera colleague.
Coles catches it.]
Coles:That’s what I’m talking about.
Bee:You know what?
I dropped a Halloween-size Twix bar today, and it cut my toe.
Coles:You cut your toe with a Twix?
Bee:Yes, the angle of the foil wrapper cut my toe.
That is my life.
There’s a lot happening here.
Is that your snack?
Coles:Im very interested in the ergonomics of chewing a Toblerone, because it’s quite difficult.
That triangle, it’s not the usual shape.
Bee:Itisa chocolate bar that you look at and go, Is it worth it?
Coles:It’s like a Rubiks Cube in your mouth.
Ive personally been wondering, how did you both weave motherhood into these extraordinary careers youve built?
And how did you side-step the crazy?
Bee:Ah, I went crazy.
It was worth it, but I overworked and did absolutely everything.
I had a job that made it possible.
And we just didn’t have personal lives for a really long time.
Coles:I would say it’s teamwork.
I had a very supportive ex.
The truth is, babies can sleep in a drawer, you know?
You dont have to have the perfect handwoven-by-virgins-in-Brazil basket for your child to sleep in.
Bee:My children did sleep in a drawer.
We lived in a one-bedroom condo.
It was like 550 square feet.
People online were like, Look, she’s bought a condo for her nanny.
And I was like, No, we live in it.
We co-slept with our firstborn.
And we were like, This is stressful.
We could use a little more space.
Then I got pregnant a third time, and I was like, We’re moving tomorrow.
Coles:That’s an amazing story that she slept in a drawer under your bed.
Did you not worry the bed would collapse?
Bee:No, because we pulled it out from under the bed, like a trundle.
It was like a large drawer that you could fit a toddler mattress in.
We didnt, like, put her to bed and kill the drawer.
I would love to hear you talk about theOlivia Nuzzi, RFK Jr. storyand the way its being covered.
Not from a gossipy point of view.
Im just trying to understand how this could have happened.
I guess theres a lot that’s unknowable.
Bee:I dont know much about it on a personal level, and I dont know the players.
I assume that anytime RFK Jr. opens his mouth, hes lying.
It’s hard for me to talk about or level a judgment about.
You look so thoughtful, Joanna.
Coles:I think Olivia is a very good writer.
He wasnt a serious candidate for president.
So I think RFK Jr., the minute you get involved with him, you’re circling the drain.
Him playing the victim card is quite rich.
Do you have more time, or do you have to go?
Bee:I actually have to depart.
Im going to go let my exterminator in now.
Ive been keeping him at bay.
Be careful of the candy bars.
Bee:Maybe I have a cockroach because I have Twix bar wrappers laying all around.
Coles:Its possible I could choke on a Toblerone.
That would not be a good way to die.
She died on her own, choking on a Toblerone.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
