Ira and Louis discuss the final days of the U.S. Election, Quincy Jones’ legacy, Martha Stewart’s new documentary Martha, JD Vance’s alleged gay voters, and Tom Cruise’s filmography. Janelle James joins to discuss the new season of Abbott Elementary, her love of Nancy Meyers films, and more.

Subscribe to Keep It on YouTube to catch full episodes, exclusive content, and other community events. Find us there at YouTube.com/@KeepItPodcast

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

Ira Madison III And we’re back for an all new episode of Keep It. It’s Election Day and I’m Ira Madison, the third.

 

Louis Virtel I’m Louis Virtel and yes, I opted to cut through the drama on my belt. Using my Pamela, I wrote it out. You saw SNL this weekend. You saw Kamala Harris on it. Pretty good comic performance, honestly. I mean, like, I guess there’s not much wiggle room to do anything eccentric, but it was like perfectly enjoyable, her doing a little tete a tete with Maya Rudolph.

 

Ira Madison III They were ready to is borrow from that. The giggling started immediately. And honestly, I would have been doing the exact same thing I saw last night online that she was knocking on doors in Pennsylvania. And there are some tweets from someone that was like a matching You’ve taken an edible for the night. And then Kamala Harris is at your door.

 

Louis Virtel Which I’m sure happened once or twice.

 

Ira Madison III I would be cracking up just seeing her in general. We’d be laughing for 30 minutes. And then it’s like, what are you here for, girl?

 

Louis Virtel I also just want to say, like, you know, people talk about that. She’s giggling a lot. Laughing a lot. Honestly, it is a terrific look for her laughing. I mean, she should be in like a Neutrogena commercial. It like, absolutely works for her as an esthetic. Now, I was going to start on a grim note, which is to say a question for you, a bit of an essay question for you.

 

Ira Madison III Is this about Katy Perry?

 

Louis Virtel Not yet. That’s not a question. We got a definitive answer on that one. The question is, from a taste perspective, what is the most Republican thing about you?

 

Ira Madison III Taste wise?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Like, what? Do you kind of stand that unfortunately puts you in the MAGA community? And I know you’re MAGA secretly, so it’s not a big deal.

 

Ira Madison III Don’t tell people that. I mean. Well, listen, we. I do miss Aida at her Joe Rogan list and ways, all right?

 

Louis Virtel I forgot that component of her. You know, the word chaotic is overused, but I think we safely if you look into the OED, you’ll see Aida cackling under chaotic.

 

Ira Madison III You know what I think mine is probably like CBS network procedurals.

 

Louis Virtel Sure. That’s a great answer because you’re absolutely tapped into like the Kansas and Missouri community with that.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. What about you?

 

Louis Virtel Well, I love Pat Sajak. And as you know, if you take one second to Google what he thinks about anything, good luck. You’re in a vortex and you can’t buy enough vowels to get out of it. Otherwise, I will say maybe this is kind of maga ask of me I am a sucker for because I think MAGA kind of means you’re you’re yearning for the 50s and 60s, right? Like wholesome, wholesome America. And I will say I am taken with entertainment from that time and about that time. So put me into a far from heaven. Put me into, you know, like the movie Rear Window or something. But the movie, Carol. So I love the grisly underpinnings of suburbia, things like that.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I do like whites only bubblers now.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a sweeter somehow, I don’t know.

 

Ira Madison III Bring back segregation. And that’s what I really love.

 

Louis Virtel We used to have such a good time at a Woolworth’s. Please.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. No, I brought up Katy Perry, by the way, because obviously, you know, the election bonanza is here this week. And if you’re listening to this episode, maybe the election’s been decided.

 

Louis Virtel I hate that we have to tape this moment. I hate it. I want to just be tomorrow. Sorry, everybody. We’re back here.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, Sorry. We’re out. Pod save America. We don’t. We don’t get. Let’s do it. Live updates, hear it, keep it.

 

Louis Virtel I love comparing them to Bill O’Reilly as they prefer.

 

Ira Madison III But I was watching, you know, the last thrust of Election Day coverage that was happening last night before today. And obviously Lady Gaga and Katy Perry did dueling performances at rallies and one and putting aside Katy Perry and the singing.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Which is already a lot. You’ve been very liberal with us.

 

Ira Madison III You know what? There are some songs that she could have done. Okay. She chose to do The Greatest Love of All.

 

Louis Virtel Which, as you know, is not a Katy Perry song. Yeah, it’s actually by an artist named Whitney Houston. And I know you know this about this song. She hits a high note in the song, and the high note is on the words My dignity. So when Katy chose that.

 

Ira Madison III Mama, she was singing off key on the record called the stage. And if you are a Buffy fan, it reminded me of Carpenter in Season one, singing that song for the talent show in the episode Puppet Show. And it sounded just like that. Where? Choice.

 

Louis Virtel It was a horse note She hit.

 

Ira Madison III A dark horse note.

 

Louis Virtel And the ketamine couldn’t have hit me fast enough. That’s the dark horse I wanted to be in that moment.

 

Ira Madison III I get that when it’s election time, when you are getting on that stage, particularly when you are. On the Democrat side, if you’re at a Republican thing, it’s sort of like it’s a free for all, you know. Right. She goes on Peacock.

 

Louis Virtel I know you do. The devil went down to Georgia to play the violin yourself. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III But when you get up there and it’s for, you know, unity, stronger together, you know, that was the Hillary slogan. And, you know, we are not going back, etc.. You always have to do something that’s a little moving. But Katy, you have moving songs.

 

Louis Virtel Right? I was moving out of the arena when she sang that, which I don’t believe was the intention.

 

Ira Madison III Also, as a superstitious person, I don’t know how I feel about asking Katy to perform right before the election, as she did for Hillary.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me. I was watching a news clip randomly and Erin Burnett was asking somebody, well, you know, some people are reminded of the fact that Katy Perry performed for Hillary eight years ago and there was a sense of inevitability about Hillary’s win. And then we all know what happened. Excuse me. The news was on to her as an albatross.

 

Ira Madison III And better performance as Lady Gaga came out at her rally and she did two performances. First, she did God Bless America. She has maggot tendencies. Okay. She’s very jingoistic.

 

Louis Virtel No. And she loves again, her whole thing is I’ve heard of old music and that could be anybody’s act, you know, dubious or otherwise.

 

Ira Madison III The vibe I have in common with her is also a MAGA thing that I have. I love a dive bar. I love a miller High life. Like I love a shitty beer.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Know your middle name is also Joanne and you want to play. You want to put your grandma on the record talking about that.

 

Ira Madison III And so she performed God Bless America. I thought it was lovely. And then Carmelo came out and spoke and then she ended the rally with the Edge of Glory.

 

Louis Virtel Nice choice. Yeah. Something epic sweeping that she can definitely sing. Am I misremembering? I don’t remember any Lady Gaga performance that she really I don’t want to even say botched, but like we all came out being like, that was weird.

 

Ira Madison III No, but someone was sharing a clip online of when she performed at an event that Bill Clinton was at and did sing. Government hooker.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Sometimes I’m worried she’s not funny anymore. What does that bring back? Not really a song I need to hear live. You know, it’s like a pretty, like, studio produced track.

 

Ira Madison III It’s it’s kind of. It’s kind of iconic and, like, techno live. I love it.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Well, that restored some faith. I actually didn’t know it needed to be replenished.

 

Ira Madison III Speaking of Gaga, though, last week we talked about how much we liked disease and the return to form with the song. And then the video came out that night after we recorded. So what do you think of the disease video?

 

Louis Virtel Well, as I said, I love a gross underpinnings of suburbia moment. And that’s exactly what we got in the video. I appreciate the video. Really liked the video. Just short of love for me. I don’t know. It’s not something I’m seeking out as a return. I think maybe her performance in the video is something I’ve seen from her before. Just as the song is something I’ve heard from her before. I don’t find myself replaying the song. Really. What do you think?

 

Ira Madison III I am replaying the song. Actually, a bit. I quite like the song. The video. It feels almost not gaga enough. It feels too short in a way, because I get this, the underpinnings of suburbia thing. I get that her fighting with herself, she wrote this long essay on Instagram about how, you know, she’s fought with herself and etc. when whatever she gets into like theater kid mode and is writing essays on Instagram, we’re cookin. So I love that. But I don’t know. Going back to the Mary Tonight video, which was also long Barry Thriller Ask apropos because we’re going to be talking about Quincy Jones Lady Gaga episode, but the thriller ness of that video, it felt like we should have gotten the sort of theme of the video. And then like, where were the dance moves? Like, I wanted the dance part of the video to happen.

 

Louis Virtel I think the best of Lady Gaga, namely from the Born This Way era, is the sort of like supercharged Red Bull feeling. And I feel like we’re missing some sort of classic Gaga urgency here, even though she does get into the grotesque thing she loves to do.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But otherwise, I’m pleasantly surprised. And I’m on board for the new era.

 

Louis Virtel We don’t have any updates on when we’re getting that album yet, do we?

 

Ira Madison III No, but I feel like it’s coming soon.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I feel like she’ll surprise us and hit us with it. Right. Or is that just something she does for the albums? She doesn’t like that she releases like that joke or show.

 

Ira Madison III What couple of wins she’ll be like, Here, have it.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. You know what? Honestly, you might be on to something, so.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. If not. She’s going to vanish and we’ll never hear from her again.

 

Louis Virtel Until she, like, lands the next headache medicine deal or whatever.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. All right. So I already said that we’re discussing Quincy Jones this week. He passed on Sunday. I mean, every time we hear about a celebrity death, it always hits like a surprise. Even though this one didn’t really hit like a gut punch. Mostly because he’s in his 90s. Yes. And I just remembered his old documentary, Quincy, which takes place around 2015 when he was in sort of a diabetic coma for a few days and came out of it. And there is this moment in the documentary where he tells his daughter, Rashida Jones, who directed the documentary and who we just had on Keep It really a few weeks ago, that there was a moment where he was gone and he was, you know, reflecting on his life. And then he came back and he was like, it’s not time for me to go. But when I’m ready to go, I’m going to go.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I mean, that’s sort of in tune with like the nature of his musical output, just like he always did what he wanted to do. Really, like when you listen to his music in any form, whether it’s something he produced or something he’s directly a part of, it’s him responding exactly to that moment. You know, he never felt like he was chasing something old, even if he was bringing old influences in. We’ll get into this. And yeah, I was, of course, thinking about our interview with Rashida Jones because she also has a brilliant recollection of his entire career. So go back and listen to that if you want even more insights on him. But we’ll get to all that momentarily.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And I mean going when you want to go. Right. The day before the election. Yeah. Good choice.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right. I hear you. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I’m not taking any chances. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s been good. Let’s cut it off here.

 

Ira Madison III Also, we’re going to talk about another American icon this week. Martha Stewart’s documentary dropped on Netflix this week. And it was nice to revisit Martha Stewart’s history as well. You know, she’s like a big piece of American popular culture. On the opposite side of music. And, you know, revisiting the trial when she went to prison and just sort of her rise in general. It was nice to see Martha story just sort of laid out there in the documentary.

 

Louis Virtel And also, like Quincy Jones, she’s somebody who emerged like fully complete, like the Martha Stewart, you know, now was exactly what was presented when she was releasing a book called Entertaining all these years ago. And she was this brand. Immediately, it was cool to revisit. There’s another CNN documentary months and months ago that we talked about a little bit. But this one she’s interviewed on tape. And, of course, Martha has quibbles herself with this documentary, which we’ll get into also.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And our guest this week is an American icon in the making.

 

Louis Virtel Quite.

 

Ira Madison III We have the fantastic Janelle James from Abbott Elementary as our guest this week.

 

Louis Virtel I was already a fan of hers, but last year she hosted the WGA Awards and she obviously operates mainly as a stand up comic in addition to being an actress. And it’s such a pleasure to see her work a room. We were in the palm of her hand. So we’ll get into that, too.

 

Ira Madison III All right. We will be right back with more Keep It.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Ira Madison III Every week we try to walk into the studio and talk about something other than a celebrity’s death. But mamma mia, here we go again. Which, you know what? If you taught me he produced for ABBA, I would believe you if you told me Quincy Jones produced an album.

 

Louis Virtel Please. I would look up an interview where he was, like, unafraid. Was that bitch in the studio you would when she gets on the night? Anita, when she hits that high note, I’m kind of got my first. Never had a high note, but okay.

 

Ira Madison III The legend we’ve lost this time is Quincy Jones, who died Sunday night at the age of 91 as one of, if not the most prolific producers of his generation. His legacy is too vast to dissect in just this episode, but we’re going to get into as much of it as we can.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, he may have the definitive entertainment career. I mean, going back, this is somebody who was an avid performer, a successful performer in the 1950s. This is somebody who collaborated with Amy Winehouse before her death on a cover of It’s My Party, I Believe, which, of course, he produced the original. He was Lesley Gore’s producer in the 60s. So already you should be tripped out by the bevy of abilities he had and interests he had. He was a jazz performer. He, of course, produced Thriller and Off the Wall with Michael Jackson in Bad. And then he himself was a well-known performer. And he has an album called Back on the Block from the late 80s that won the album of the year Grammy. And I would start there if you’re trying to get into the career of Quincy Jones as it pertains to just him not producing other people because all of his interests are compiled on this one album, he collaborates with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Big Daddy Kane to 13 year old Taven Campbell. So everything is there. And also it’s the late 80s, so you get production that sort of sounds like The Rhythm Nation or Control era. Janet Jackson, too. But plenty of songs on that album, like including which I brought up with Rashida Jones One Man Woman, which is a song he did with Sarah Garrett, who you probably know from working with Michael Jackson. She co-wrote Man in the Mirror. Start there. There’s a lot going on, including a cover of the Brothers Johnson’s I’ll Be Good to You, which in this case has Ray Charles and Chaka Khan on it. It is a just a fabulous song. I love country Jones the most when he’s making party music, when he’s in a party mood.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you brought up It’s My Party by Lesley Gore, which a lot of people always reference when they talk about music that he did in the 50s. But let us not forget, one of his other songs with Lesley Gore is also You Don’t Own Me, which is both of those songs are just big millennial songs. It’s my party popularized for us probably in the Problem Child films.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. My God, you’re right. I try not to associate it with that. The idea this is what you buy, you have to keep it so that I can tell you that Quincy Jones is directly responsible for problem child.

 

Ira Madison III And then, of course, you don’t own me, which is the big climax in First Wives Club.

 

Louis Virtel And additionally, Cate Blanchett one time went to Stonewall and lip synched. You don’t own me as a drag performer alongside drag artist. She just came out as Cate Blanchett. This is a moment in popular culture that needs to be brought up way more often. Why don’t people people say, people are so nice to me when they are keep it fans. They come up to me and talk about anything. Why not this? Bring this up when you find me. Because I’m still unpacking it mentally. This was about 2016. I think she was a performer at Stonewall and was, of course, fabulous. I mean, imagine Cate Blanchett on stage not being insane.

 

Ira Madison III Well, you could have talked to her a bit more about that. You know, if you weren’t just talking about notes on a scandal with her.

 

Louis Virtel Well, as you know and as she diagnosed, I have an obsession.

 

Ira Madison III Of this, Lesley Gore and then obviously Frank Sinatra.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Peggy Lee. Jesus Christ. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I was so interesting because as I was watching the documentary from a few years ago, Quincy and we you talk about someone who has just had the definitive career. It is Frank Sinatra. There’s a clip where Frank introduces him and he says, here’s this young man, Quincy Jones, that I’m working with who’s like sort of a he’s going to be a big star in orchestrations. And it’s like, imagine if that was the only thing that he had ever done.

 

Louis Virtel Right? No, exactly. No, He’s like a Barbra Streisand person. If you limited his output to just the first ten years of his career, he would already be Kennedy Center worthy before he even got to working with Michael Jackson. And let’s just talk about the kind of music that produced. Off the wall first. I’ve brought this up before. Don’t stop til you get enough. When they’re making that song, how were they not thinking, Well, here it is, the best dad song ever. I mean, nothing up to that point in Disco alone matched the verve of that song. The drive of that song, the sexuality of that song. It mixed with that kind of Michael Jackson whimsical ality that we associate from the Jackson five. That album in general has also that album has a lot of the ballad feel that Quincy Jones loves. Little bit later in the 80s, he had a couple of charting tracks with James Ingram, one of the great ballad singers. Look those up to fabulous sort of contemplative ballads. But anyway, Off the Wall, I think start to finish, maybe tells you everything you need to know about Quincy Jones as a producer.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I love that album. It’s also a Michael Jackson album that is perfect from start to finish. Which Thriller is not.

 

Louis Virtel You must be referencing The Lady in My Life, which is a song. She’s not the lady in my life. Maybe somebody else’s.

 

Ira Madison III Life. It’s not even the Saga by playlist.

 

Louis Virtel No, Also The Girl Is Mine is on that album, which has him and Paul McCartney. And first of all, obviously, if you want those two people to collaborate, you want to listen to say say, which was a huge hit. But the girl in my life, not only a Bad song, a bad first single from Thriller. The idea that that would springboard the biggest album of all time is so mind boggling.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. You brought up Chaka Khan.

 

Louis Virtel Likely thing for me to do. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Sure. You’re actually the intro to I Feel for You. If you say Chaka Khan in the background.

 

Louis Virtel Is me just muttering it. They compiled it from a bunch of keep a podcast.

 

Ira Madison III About what that was just like what you heard what she walked into Daddy’s home.

 

Louis Virtel Great. I’m sure you still can arrange that. Go to Long Beach Bride. She’s there right.

 

Ira Madison III Now, but he worked on the album Master Jam, Frantz on Khan and Rufus. The song Body Heat is fantastic. And Quincy Jones also has an album called Body Heat from the 70s. I think it was probably after the documentary, but I got into a lot of his jazz records, and I had never really been much of a jazz person, but I think it was like an intro to him and then like some old Ella albums that like it became writing music for me, and now I’m a big jazz person. So Body Heat is great. And of course, you have to mention big band Bossa Nova, which was his foray into Brazilian music. And also one of the singles from it is the Austin Powers theme song, which is crazy.

 

Louis Virtel They just took that music and then put it into Austin Powers. It’s bizarre, but also it gets into the fact that he was such a prolific film score composer, too. He in the 60s sort of elevated his career working on movies, and he has seven competitive Oscar nominations. He never won any, but he did get the Jean Hersholt humanitarian later in his career. But he yeah, he wrote scores for, among other things, the movie The Pawnbroker, which stars Rod Steiger. But that was always a key part. Like I think that’s something that’s interesting about him. Like when you hear something like, he’s a great jazz musician, that doesn’t always mean that your music applies to the masses and when. But then you hear that he’s he’s a film score and I feel like that means he was always keyed into what the public didn’t know it wanted to hear.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean, there is Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice.

 

Louis Virtel Is one of my favorite movies in the 60s. If you’ve not seen it with Natalie Wood and Dyan Cannon, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould. It’s about sexual musical chairs. It has sort of a hippie dippy message at the end, but it is a great movie with a great performance from Dyan Cannon and Jesus Christ. Natalie Wood had amazing hair.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And in the Heat of the Night, the original The Italian Job. I love both Italian jazz, but the music in the original down drop is fantastic. If you’re talking about someone who was scoring soundtracks at the time and sort of really just influencing the culture and what movie should sound like. I feel like the only person really doing that currently is our Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch.

 

Louis Virtel Please. I still put on the challenger’s soundtrack from time to time when I’m doing anything. If you want to, if you want to make yourself believe your there’s a big occasion coming like, I’m going to the polls, put on the Challenger soundtrack and it will make you feel like a sexual warlord as you head there.

 

Ira Madison III I want to talk about an artist that a lot of people might not know that he produced for, but date Summer.

 

Louis Virtel A timeless music. Music I refuse to put away.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Quincy worked with her on her 82 album, which was self-titled Donna Summer, and this came after her previous album, The Wanderer did not really sell because she primarily worked with Giorgio Moroder, but they were the duo. And so David Geffen at the time did not like the sales. That previous album. So he made her work with Quincy Jones on this album. She was pregnant at the time, so she sort of like, doesn’t love that period from making the album. But Quincy Jones is on that album. She has the song protection that Bruce Springsteen wrote is on that album. It’s a really, really underrated Donna Summer album. That sounds fantastic.

 

Louis Virtel Were you also not disappointed when Donald Trump was like playing with that microphone over the weekend and, you know, miming blowing it and nobody brought up. Stop ripping off Donna Summer bitch. That is her game. When she’s at the mic, she’s for lightning.

 

Ira Madison III I don’t want to think of 17 minutes of Donald Trump moaning.

 

Louis Virtel My God. I would love if he for one time. I mean, not that she. But okay. Well, you never know with Donna Summer, but if you could play anything but YMCA legally. So if he did play Love to Love You, baby, you know, am I interject some necessary sexuality into the Republican Party or what’s left of it?

 

Ira Madison III Well, she’s dead.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. His favorite kind of. His favorite kind of artist. Because they can interject. I mean, we must talk about Thriller also, as Rashida Jones brought up, this is an album he produced when he was 50 years old. I imagine being that tapped in and ahead of the game years and years after you’ve had this career, after you’ve had every kind of career, you know, a film score, a jazz musician, a solo artist in your own right. Thriller. We’ve talked about the tracks we don’t like on it. What would you say is your favorite track on Thriller?

 

Ira Madison III My favorite track on Thriller is.

 

Louis Virtel I’m Going to Guess. I’m going to guess. Is that human nature?

 

Ira Madison III You know what? I do love that song. But honestly, I think it’s beat it. I just love the opening chorus of that song.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Well, also, the classic thing for Quincy Jones to do, just inserting an Eddie Van Halen guitar riff in the middle of it. You know, I think he’s he’s so restless, he can’t help but put two genres together a lot of the time. As I said, referring to his album of the year, winning Back on the Block. There’s a lot of jazz pop on that album, like in jazz, like jazz fuzed with things like rap. I think when you have a career that that’s, that’s that long and that prolific, you can’t help but make hybridization of things you love.

 

Ira Madison III Right. I was listening to this podcast Doomscrolling recently with Matty Healy from the 1975, and this is sort of talking about how producing music now it’s a lot of people sort of borrowing from the past, but not really borrowing from the past and sort of giving you pastiche.

 

Louis Virtel Like Michelle into Tokyo cello said about Bruno Mars. Yes. Yes, I remember that interview. Yes, I remember.

 

Ira Madison III But yeah, Bruno Mars, you know, even Amy Winehouse at the time, Adele, you know, he was just talking about how when you listen to decades of music in the past, you’re you immediately know what decade it is. Right. But now, you know, past maybe like 2009, you’re listening to music and the popular music of the time. You would not know. It’s like the 20 tens or the 2020s because it is all music that is made to sound like music we already have. And I think that one thing that Quincy Jones did was he borrowed from the past, but he didn’t replicate it like borrowing an Eddie Van Halen guitar riff into, you know, a pop R&B song is doing something different. It wasn’t just, I’m going to remake a Van Halen song. It was, no, I’m going to mix these elements together into something new. And the fact that he was 50 when he did this, I think is just a testament to the fact that despite the industry’s music, Hollywood whatevers sort of obsession with youth culture, it’s that if you’re talented and you’re older, it really doesn’t matter what fucking age you are if you’re tapped into the culture.

 

Louis Virtel He was determined to make music that belonged to that moment, like where we’re living here now and it belongs here. I’ve heard of all this other shit and I can bring it in, but I’m going to make sure you know that this is from this particular moment. We should also bring up his skills as an interviewer, because if you have not read the virtual interview and obviously people are like handing out these quotes left and right, like recalling how funny and blunt he was, namely later in his career. But some of these quotes are so funny. I mean, like he has a story about telling Ringo Starr to go get a sandwich so he can bring in a real drummer on a track and finish it off. I mean, it’s just it’s so casually insulting.

 

Ira Madison III And then also everything that he had to say about Marlon Brando fucking and everybody left and right.

 

Louis Virtel He’s fucking James Baldwin. He’s. I mean, he just dropped the names.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. No, I think everyone was sharing quotes from that interview. It was. That was David March’s who did that interview. Every single quote. And that’s a banker.

 

Louis Virtel No, he again, it’s the sense of somebody who refuses to be bored, which I think is what we get out of our best artists. You know, people who. Monotony is not an option. I actually usually say this about gay men. Something that unites unites us as a community, seemingly. You know the reason why it’s always party after party on party weekends and like we’re going to go to this destination is going to take forever to get there and have to take a train and a bus and or whatever, a refusal to be bored. There is something that unites, I think, maybe all queer people, but I seem to notice that among the crack eyed gays.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I mean, also just the best interviews are always going to get is from someone who’s been in the game for a minute. And that’s why I loved Stevie Nicks as a recent interview on Rolling Stone.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Well, let me tell you something about Stevie Nicks. She was the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel yesterday. And I went to the rehearsal and I stood as close as I could. I mean, I would describe my behavior as creepy. It was not.

 

Ira Madison III Normal.

 

Louis Virtel I’ll give you one guest who was to us who was on my show. That would be Christine McVie, her best friend. And she performed The Lighthouse, which is the song she also did on SNL a couple of weeks ago. And then she did stand back, which is exactly what I didn’t do. I moved forward. I moved forward to dance, to stand back.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, people don’t often compare, you know, Stevie Nicks and Michael Jackson. But, you know, if you’re thinking about the music from that era and music that you still want to listen to now from the early 80s, it is that dance music that feels timeless because it doesn’t. You like. It’s music that is trying to be the 80s. You know it’s not is on the album from the Romantics. no. Not to Knock the Romantics or.

 

Louis Virtel Depeche Mode or whomever. Yeah, right.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I don’t know. I I’m throwing strains at them now, which, by the way, the Killer just released a fantastic new album, like 15 years after their last one.

 

Louis Virtel I believe they just performed also a camel. I had I didn’t see their performance I will key and I mean Friday on I’m In Love is one of the great pop songs.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah and it’s unlike their previous other music, you know so they’re also moving forward like all artists should do.

 

Louis Virtel I just want to shout out one other song that I brought up in our interview with Rashida, which is stuff like that, a song from the late 70s that involves Ashford and Simpson, very underrated musical duo, I’m sure you all know. Solid as a rock. I think the song is just called Solid and also Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, maybe Michael Jackson aside, the greatest Quincy Jones collaborator and also Chaka Khan. Come on, keep it. While you can’t be recording all these interview skills from us. I’m sorry. When she said Joan Baez can’t write honestly, she can’t sing. Say that here.

 

Ira Madison III Another jazz artist that I want to just highlight before we depart is Sarah Vaughan.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. She’s also I’m back on the block, which is crazy.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Sweet and sassy, Sarah Vaughan.

 

Ira Madison III Her voice is fucking phenomenal. And she worked with Quincy on Believe It Like she Sings the Mancini songbook and then, like, another one like Vaughan and violins. But you are never going to go wrong listening to a Sarah Vaughan album. And when I was getting into jazz, like with Sarah Vaughan was just someone I immediately sort of gravitated to.

 

Louis Virtel We talk about monoculture and how, like certain things from the past aren’t delivered to people anymore, you know, like people have no inroads to hear, to hear certain music or see certain TV shows. I am so sorry to say this. This is why Starbucks is important, because you walk into one and maybe as it was yesterday, Sarah Vaughan is playing. I don’t know where else you’re going to hear that. You know, like we don’t have many linens emporiums anymore. I don’t know where you’re going to hear this music.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And also, I want to say that we know how he felt about the Beatles. He didn’t work on this album with her, but Sarah Vaughan has an album where she does Beatles covers. And, you know, he preferred that to any song The Beatles probably ever did.

 

Louis Virtel No, precisely. And also, I believe in one interview, the same one from Vulture, he claimed to know who shot Kennedy. So he went to the grave with some secrets. We’ll never know.

 

Ira Madison III All right. I think that’s a good introduction for Quincy Jones if you are not that familiar with him. But yeah, listen to our Rashida Jones interview. We talk a bit about her mother, Peggy Lipton, as well. So even getting into that relationship, there is so much to talk about to.

 

Louis Virtel A fabulous Hollywood family.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, and I mentioned this earlier in the episode, you know, revisiting the Quincy documentary, he talks about how, you know, when he was ready to go, he would know it. And I think one of the bittersweet things about that documentary is he just talks about how Ray Charles is gone. Lesley Gore is gone. Michael is gone. And I think that for someone who has had such a prolific career for so long, everyone he’s worked with and everyone he’s been friends with is dead.

 

Louis Virtel So I think about that all the time. Like when when I get to interact with Jane Fonda from time to time, literally almost everybody she made a movie with through the 60s has gone like she is the sole survivor of all these movies. I think that must be a crazy feeling.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. So, you know, if you are a religious person and you believe in the afterlife, I’m sure that you feel that Quincy Jones is probably much happier being reunited with people that he used to work with.

 

Louis Virtel I hope they didn’t greet him with We Are the World, you know, like I think he’s made better music, but like, what else are they all going to sing together, you know?

 

Ira Madison III You know what? I hope that there is an afterlife where all of them are just in the studio waiting for Quincy Jones to arrive. And then he gets there and he says, All right, we’re going to fix this song once and for all and and send him.

 

Louis Virtel And Cyndi Lauper is not here yet to mess it up with her jewelry.

 

Ira Madison III Should we wait for it now? Well, all right. Well, we are back. We will be joined by General James from Abbott Elementary. This week’s guest has turned the principal’s office into a comedian’s playground, delivering one of the best comedic performances in today’s TV lineup. You know her best as Ava Coleman on Abbott Elementary. But she’s also spent over a decade as a standup and as a writer. So you’ve probably been laughing with her long before you signed up for Hulu. So here to talk about the latest season of ABC’s Abbott Elementary, please welcome to Keep It Janelle James.

 

Janelle James Yay, that’s me.

 

Louis Virtel So season four, I mean, you’ve given such a consistent, great performance all the all these years, nominated every single time for the Emmy. When you get into season four, do you think, well, I’ve got to change it up or I’ve got to do something different? What’s the energy when you get to the fourth season of a TV show?

 

Janelle James Change it up. No, we just getting angrier. I feel like this when you settle in. You went 30 cruise into the PCH. I just learned that highway anyway. So, no, you know, I don’t feel like I need to change anything about my performance. I’m definitely more relaxed and more in in the whole ensemble is in tune with each other. This is when it starts to be fun and we get out of our heads and, and as far as like not my performance, but the character itself has been steadily changes in season one. And so I find out just a little bit before to viewers what happens whenever I don’t really I try to on my business stay out the writer’s room. And so because I trust them and what they’ve been doing with her so far. And so I can rest assured that this season will show even more layers to her character. So I’m excited about it.

 

Ira Madison III I want to talk a bit about you as a comedy writer, too, because I loved first of all, I loved Black Monday. Thank you. And that was such a fantastic show. And, you know, we’re in a few episodes of that as well. And you’ve done that for Central Park before, where you also did voice for that. What is it like being on Abbott Elementary where you are not part of the writer’s room and do you sometimes want to be part.

 

Janelle James Of I mean, this is the first time in my life I think I haven’t had more than one job at a time. This is like my one solid. This is the job o’clock, 8:00 hour. So I’ve been loving that. I’ve been loving that. And as far as wanting to be in the writers room again, like there’s nothing that’s happened so far with me or the show itself where I’m like, Damn, if I was in there. That’s usually when I want to change something or I want to get it done. And you know, as we go on, I, I on set, you know, is, is is great, especially if Quentin’s in a scene with me so suggest things. But I always do do what’s on paper first and then after you know after we get that then like maybe maybe what about this or Tom I’m joking and it’s fun to see whether they’ll. They’ve kept my idea or not, but I’m not I respect I respect them and what they’re doing. And I because I’ve worked on Black Monday and those kinds of shows ain’t nothing worse than an actor coming up in a writer’s room. Like I think like nobody cares which they’re rarely adding anything and and they’ve already mapped out where the character is going. And all of that is just to step on their toes like that were my were my ideas is is is not a goal. And yeah, I love having one job.

 

Louis Virtel As I mentioned early in the episode, I saw you host the WGA Awards last year, which was an opportunity to be really topical up to the moment. I believe we were striking during that time. Yeah.

 

Janelle James So we Can I have time to do it?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I bet.

 

Louis Virtel Do you have an ideal just venue to do stand up? Like, do you have a preferred audience when you go up to perform? Is it just a general stand up audience or do you like being at a particular occasion or a kind of event where you get to do what you do?

 

Janelle James You know, I go back and forth because I love a small room. I’m a, you know, I’m a stand up at heart. I love a brick wall, a low ceiling, Hey, put your phones away and then regale your friends with this with the story after type environment. And then also just recently was that this year what is time anyway? I think this year I did the Hollywood Bowl and and I was like, whoa, I want to I’d love to do an hour here. That was like amazing to do as part of Seth Rogen night that he put together and a sold out. I think that’s 17,000 people. And just it was amazing. So I think I want to do everything which is how I answer every question. So no preferred of course, it’s always great to do a performance to an audience of your fans who already know you as a comedian. My new newer fan base is people who know me as this character, so they might be surprised by what I say as myself, you know? But part of being a stand up is winning people over. So I enjoy that too, you know, And I always say, I’ll take your money. What? You know, you got to come back, you know. And it’s. No, it’s no, no love lost if you don’t. But yeah, stand up is about finding your people, and everyone’s not going to find you funny in that way. But you, you, you build your audience. So I enjoy all of it.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. So talking about standup and traveling, I was reading your interview and Interview magazine and I cracked. When you were asked about Philadelphia, you said you’ve only been there once. But you know, Philly is like, this is us. And it’s not like Chicago, where there’s this inferiority complex with New York. So what’s your experience been in in like visiting Chicago for stand up? And also, what are your favorite cities to travel to in the US?

 

Janelle James That answer was born from being around Chicago comedians, which is such a small subset, but they just always talk about the comparison to New York and I’m like, Get over it. So it seems like a, you know, a small town complex, whereas I’ve just never heard that from anyone from Philly. They like, Hey, Philly. So that’s the way that, you know, we have our own thing, they do their own thing. So but as far as travel and places to travel to, to do stand up, Chicago is amazing. So Chicago’s an amazing comedy town, Chicago’s amazing performance town period. They have so many theaters. And I also feel like they’re not as spoiled as New York, where there’s so much going on and people are seem to want to be a critic, you know, and, you know, and the cargo they dress up is the night out. They’ve come to to enjoy these shows. Always love performing there.

 

Louis Virtel I don’t know if it was the same interview, but you said that when you’re shooting Abbott Elementary all day, you tend to stay in character all day or like you kind of stay in this one mode. And I was wondering, what does that mean to you? Like, how are you different than you are normally, I guess, while you are shooting these long days?

 

Janelle James Yeah. I mean, Eva has way more energy than I do. I’m exhausted at the end of the day, she’s not. She’s ready to perform. She’s waving. And part of that is like, we have these tour trolleys that come around a lot. And so as I’m going back and forth from set to my dressing room, I’m dressed as a boy and they’re looking to see a famous person that’s like one of the things they want on it. So I’ll stop, I’ll wave. Hello? And, you know, that’s that’s not Janelle. Janelle keeps the move in and out, ready to go home. Ava loves to be on. Yeah, And I’m not as dedicated to the game as she is.

 

Louis Virtel Actually, Tours are a little weird in that way. Normally, when I think of, like, giving a Hollywood tour, it’s like, here’s the set of something, but it’s not shooting right now. The idea that like, actual people would see you on the job is crazy.

 

Janelle James I often think, Wow, this must be so boring for them because a lot of times they don’t even get to go on is that they just see it from outside, you know, like where they. Yeah. So to see me, I’m like, I got to give them something to see me. Must be such, you know, like, whoa, this is what I was hoping for. As I try to try to try to give the people what they want, you know. So but that’s what that means. And also just on set, trying to keep my energy up, trying to be even though she is, you know, mean as hell, she’s a bubbly personality. So just trying to engage with everyone and often feel like I’m the battery for the for the crew. Like if I’m having a bad day, everybody’s worried, you know, So I keep myself up and that keeps the energy of the set up and all of those things. So that’s what I mean.

 

Ira Madison III For someone who is consistently just sort of one of my favorite parts of Abbott every week. Because you’re so funny, what makes you laugh? Like, what do you find funny? Like what has inspired you and your comedy and what do you just like watch currently that you’re like, This makes me laugh. I’m enjoying this.

 

Janelle James What makes me laugh currently? Well, I will say I’m an easy laugh. My boyfriend just said that about me and I thought I took that as a compliment because a lot of comedians are haters. And, you know, I’ll watch stand up and I’m laughing aloud. It’s like, if it’s funny, I’m giving you the laugh. I’m not like, that’s funny, you know, and and hating in my heart. I love to laugh. I think it’s now I sound like my like a dating profile, but I love to laugh. And so, yeah, if I’m not laughing, you got to really be a stinker. I just love silliness and comedy, period. What am I watching? It makes me laugh. Like most comedians, I don’t watch many comedic shows. I’m watching like, dramas and and why people mess. That’s that’s my favorite genre.

 

Ira Madison III What? White people matter. You love her.

 

Janelle James I just love all the all the white lotuses and the new Nicole Kidman thing on Netflix. My favorite like, calm down movie is It’s complicated. What a world with like Meryl Streep and Alec. Like, just it’s just seems so idyllic. Like nothing. Then the biggest problem is you can’t get a stairway in or a kitchen or something like that. I just love it.

 

Janelle James I just love super white. I can make fun of this all the time. But it’s just so is so calming. And I love those. Is that Nora Ephron?

 

Ira Madison III Nancy Meyers. Both of them. Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron, Like those movies, are always. I love stepping into that world.

 

Janelle James What I like about them, too, you never they never try to just throw in an ethnic person just cause that just takes the whole vibe out. Okay. You’re not friends with black people. I totally get it. Like, I know that happens in like this. Let’s keep it that way. So no random black friend and all of that stuff. It’s just a big kitchen and laughs and Thanksgiving. I just love it.

 

Ira Madison III So which made it funny when y’all added. Finally, the white student on the season this year. I love that character. And I was like, But that made sense. A white character joining this public school, you know, the parents trying to put him in there and be progressive, you know, moving there because of the golf course.

 

Janelle James What I loved most about that was just seeing people realize that they hadn’t seen a white student yet.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I actually when I first saw that episode, I was like, Wait, there hasn’t been a white student on the show.

 

Janelle James Yeah, I mean, I just like, love that. Like, there can be a world the same where I’m watching these ultra white movies. They can be a world with all, with a whole, a full black student body. And it’s not a big deal. And that’s less a representation of how it happens in that that part of Philly, it wasn’t mainly a joke. It is how it happens. There are four schools where you might not see you might not have a white student until you’re in high school or something like that. And so that’s one thing I really like about this show, is that she keeps it as much as this comedy and it can be broad comedy is very rooted in reality and what’s actually happening in Philly. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Speaking of this show, I was fascinated with an answer you gave about award shows and how they’re not your favorite, because.

 

Ira Madison III I kind of that.

 

Louis Virtel You talked about how you’ve been nominated for three Emmys and losing on camera is not fun. And well, I’m going to jump in here and say I also was nominated for an Emmy this year and lost. And let me tell you something. What to do with yourself after that moment is like a crazy feeling. Like it’s like the reason you’re there is over, etc.. How do you deal with that moment?

 

Janelle James The camera is literally a foot from your face like this. Respectfully close, so that I want you to react. I want to react. So I guess the pleasant smile not because you’re upset that someone else won. You upset because you lost and you’re not supposed to be, I guess. Which is just a real weird world for me to be in all of a sudden. Like I don’t dress up to lose. And it’s been a three time experience at this point. And so how do I get ready? Well, this year was cool because I was sitting next to Robert Downey Jr. I was like, Hey, Robert. I kept talking to him like we knew each other. But I said, Hey, Robert, like, how do you get used to losing? And he said something like, it builds character and it and it makes you stronger. And then the next category was him, and he lost. I was like, you’re getting so strong this year. Like, I thought I was like, this is cool. I get to talk to Robert Downey Jr and as we go on with with the award shows, I’m trying to find more and more reasons to enjoy it. Instead of being a sourpuss and complaining all night like I do. So this year was that like, I got to shoot the shit with this super famous, very rich man. And and that’s what we talked about. Like, at the end of the day, he’s super rich.

 

Ira Madison III So yeah.

 

Janelle James But yeah, it’s, it’s just like everything in Hollywood. I’m finding it’s not as glamorous as it seems. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Going back a bit to, you know, the, the school stuff that we were talking about with Philly too. I enjoyed also in Interview magazine where you were like, you know, Donald Trump stopped being funny a long time ago and you stop laughing, you know, has he’s talked, you know, a bit about wanting to get rid of the Department of Education and you working on this show for four years. Have has it taught you anything new about just teaching in this country and sort of like how hard it is for people and, you know, sort of like how we can continue to, I guess, support teachers?

 

Janelle James Has it taught me anything new? No. What it has reminded me is that it really sucks that these conversations need to happen. I feel like so many things are like no brainers, like people should be educated. Teachers are important. These are not only the people teaching your kids lessons, but they’re with them for the majority of their day like this. These are people that should be taken care of, like so that they can take care of your kids. And I just hate that It then turns to me a comedic actor or a comedian to comment on education in the country. Like, does it need to be axed by somebody like me? I’m just playing a principal. I’m not a principal. And so I kind of like I mean, I guess this goes into the politics thing of, you know, now all the all the celebrities are online telling people to vote. I hate that that needs to happen. Why do I need to tell you that? You’re an adult. Are you not paying attention? So I’m of that mind, just celebrity in general is just we’re forward facing people. And so we part of our job is to speak on issues because we’re so visible. But a lot of issues just seem to be, I should I, I shouldn’t have to say this to you. A person with children or without even if you don’t have children, why would you want an uneducated populace to surround you like we’re seeing as time goes on? What that means to just have dumb people all around, you know, it’s not the ideal society. So it makes me sad. That’s what it what it I haven’t learned anything new, I think is common sense to know that education is important. And we’ve known for a long time that teachers we’re losing many of them every year. They’re leaving the profession, the good ones. And I don’t know what else I can say as a fictional character on this show to make people realize that it’s important.

 

Louis Virtel I guess my last question is and I’m curious about this because I remember Jack area had an answer about this that was so interesting. One of the funniest people who ever lived. Yes. She said if she could play any real life figure, she would play Leontyne Price, which was a crazy answer to me. And then I thought about it was like, no, wait, I see it. I could see that happening. If you had to play a real life person in a biopic, who would you play?

 

Janelle James I want to do all the divas like me. Just want to answer. Not Diana, not Lola Falana, like all those broads.

 

Louis Virtel Well, first of all, the name Lola Falana should be brought up way more often, so thank you.

 

Janelle James Yeah. Like you said, she. She should be brought up in a biopic played by me. But after watching her, her documentary just recently, I was like, Can I do Martha Stewart? Because I love her.

 

Louis Virtel And we just we just talked about that documentary two seconds ago. Why do you love Martha Stewart?

 

Janelle James What a babe. It’s a little bit of it. That’s what I have in common with a like, she’s a bad bitch. And that’s why I identified with her from the first time I read the pilot. And she just lives life on her own terms. That’s what I’ve done with my life thus far. Unapologetic about this. And she’s done. And when I say that, I don’t mean like bad bitches in a bitch. I don’t mean unapologetic to the people that she hurt, but unapologetic to the public in general. I don’t you know, she doesn’t need to apologize to strangers. It’s how I feel for how she’s lived her life. And I love women that are that move like that. I love her. Yeah. People that I’ve been told I should play Wendy Williams. That sounds fun.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I think we can all see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we both know that.

 

Janelle James I love the Donna Summer, even though they got Kelly Rowland in line for that. But I love I love her story. Betty Davis, all of those. Yeah. I love the 70s era broads. Doing it?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I’m stuck on the Martha Stewart thing I’m thinking of. Look at Todd Haynes. I got Todd Haynes. I’m not there. Like, yeah, you play it. That’s just the biopic. It’s just you playing her and that we don’t say anything else about it. Why not?

 

Janelle James Is it not 20/20 long break.

 

Ira Madison III You know, before I let you go, I do have to let our listeners down cause they can’t see it. But I love that throughout the whole interview you have had displayed behind you on the wall. It’s the largest when I get Home album.

 

Janelle James Yeah. Well, it’s not even really I mean, it is this Blake, but it’s the last one I listened to. I have a bunch of albums. Yeah. But yeah, that’s. That’s probably why I consume less television than I do music. You know? So that’s kind of my thing. Medium.

 

Ira Madison III What’s your favorite vinyl that you own?

 

Janelle James Now, that’s a hard question. Hold on.

 

Louis Virtel She has gotten up from the chair and is now searching her vinyls.

 

Janelle James Let me find out what just happened in my. Upcoming selections. I’m going to play after I get off of this podcast because it’s my my one day off. So yeah, we got this a large was this this is Bjork. Who are.

 

Louis Virtel that’s Vesper teen.

 

Janelle James Yes. my God. Hit and plays are anyway great song.

 

Louis Virtel I love the tracks three, four and five on that album Cocoon and it’s not up to you and Pagan poetry. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Janelle James DMC Classic. Start to finish.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. Okay. I was recently revisiting Mgmt for.

 

Janelle James Of course, Mel Davis Milestone. This is like, I really love jazz. It makes my brain feel.

 

Ira Madison III That it doesn’t make sense.

 

Janelle James I feel my brain moving when I when I listen to it. Anyway, LCD Soundsystem, who I just recently saw and was amazing.

 

Ira Madison III Love LCD.

 

Janelle James Yamin. They are. Damn. And then I’m your man, Clive. Okay. That’s a good representation of stuff I listen to just now.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. Expansive taste.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Also, we were just talking about some bossa nova this week. We talked about Quincy Jones, his big band, Bossa Nova album.

 

Janelle James I also have here, too. Yes, I also have. Maybe I’ll listen to that today. Yeah. Bubblegum is they all fellas?

 

Ira Madison III Well, it is so nice to meet you, Joe. And you have exquisite taste in music.

 

Janelle James This is. This is cool. Thank you so much, guys. And thanks for having me.

 

Louis Virtel Thank you so much for being here. Is such a pleasure.

 

Janelle James I appreciate it. See you guys. Have a great day.

 

Ira Madison III Martha Stewart has been an unavoidable figure in popular culture since the 90s. And now, after one divorce, three lightning strikes, four convictions and hundreds of recipes, she’s telling her side of things in the new Netflix documentary, Martha. And we must say, this documentary, it’s a good thing.

 

Louis Virtel No, I love it. She was creepy with that phrase. Like she always says it to you conspiratorially. And I also don’t really know what it means. It’s so bland. It’s so elliptical.

 

Ira Madison III What I want to say about this documentary and you mentioned it when you compare to her to Quincy Jones, we talked about in this episode just how they both arrived on the scene fully formed. Yeah, I think that when you are familiar with Martha Stewart from sort of the mid to late 90s forward, especially if you’re our age and you’re not immediately aware of you know, the first book entertaining. And when you look at that cover and look at young Martha Stewart just looking like, you know, random rich white wasp. Yeah it’s crazy.

 

Louis Virtel With a perfect smile. Like it’s just the most perfect photo that’s out. I want to say something about the word perfect, which comes up a million times in this documentary. I feel like the word perfect is a trope that filmmakers rely on to sell stories about women. Like, it all looks so perfect from the outside. She did everything so perfect. You know, it’s very Princess Diana, or I was just in a documentary about Karen Carpenter perfection. The word I word constantly applied to her and her presentation. I find it to be a bit simplistic and also not entirely accurate. Like, I’m not saying when Martha Stewart put out a book or did a TV segment, there wasn’t an element of that. But I think the word you’re really looking for with her is exquisite. Martha Stewart was exquisite from the jump, and she wanted to sell exquisite to everybody. And something that I also think was lacking from the documentary. Watch. First of all, dynamite quotes from Martha Stewart. I wish we just had more of those period. She seemed very tight lipped during the entire thing. But also, like, I wish they keyed into the specific taste Martha Stewart has. They didn’t really describe it, which is to say it was old fashioned and always using traditional ingredients and a very homey feeling. But when displayed a certain way, conveyed power, I think her whole thing was if you had exquisite taste, you could be a powerful person as opposed to just a good homemaker. Like like nothing about her was really like, this will really please your husband. This whole thing was and you will be filled with a sense of authority if you do this. So I think there was like a kind of there’s no other way to put it. Conti thing she put into homemaking that wasn’t there before.

 

Ira Madison III I really get that aspect of it. When she talks about how she came up with the concept of entertaining and how she was catering a party and she was asked to make a book and they wanted it to just be a black and white recipe book, which was standard for the time. But she wanted to be full color and she wanted it not to be just recipes. She wanted to be tips on throwing a fucking party in your home. But she wanted to teach regular women how to kill it at a party, you know. Now you read things from Alice in Roman or you read other sort of entertainers who like. It’s sort of it’s a whole industry now of teaching people just like how to throw parties, you know, like, that’s what Bon Appetit exists for it, you know? And I think that she was basically the first person who was like that fancy shit you see on Dynasty. You know, the rich people that maybe you work for and maybe you only go to their fancy parties when it’s a work function. Like you can do that at home?

 

Louis Virtel Yes. No. The artfulness of being within a domestic space. Something I was curious about with her is she talks about being inspired by her mother, who always had a sense of know how and like adding something to a table or adding something to a party. At any given moment, it always seemed to occur somewhat spontaneously and whimsically, and she wanted to replicate that. But as she says, there wasn’t much modeling for how to be this kind of fabulous and pristine homemaker. But I do feel like movies and TV at the time did have an element of that. I am curious if there was any like pop culture that inspired her in this way. Like she’s somebody who was tapped into things like Audrey Hepburn or like Grace Kelly or whatever, because there’s an there’s an aspect of like Hollywood level pristine that always went into what she did. And when she says that, like her presentation of things like fruit in this book, entertaining are inspired by Dutch masters, you know, like but these people who would, you know, make strawberries like unbelievable or whatever you believe in like this is somebody who took. Classical influences and infuse them into everyday lives of people.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I keep going back to the thing you said about the we didn’t really learn a lot about her taste in this documentary, and I think that one thing that really helps you understand an artist is understanding their influences right? And understanding just like the things that they love. And they’re no one really taps into those questions in the documentary is what I was sort of disappointed, you know. You know that she’s perfect. You know that she’s upset about the way like a teacup looks on a cover. But it’s how does she want it to look? You know, it’s sort of like, what is it like when she steps into the room and it’s almost like a CBS procedural, you know, like her mind goes to the moment of this is how it’s supposed to look. And I think that is what I was missing from the documentary. And I also think that we learned quite a bit about her life leading up to prison. And then I thought that the stuff with the trial was fantastic. That was, I think, the best part. Revisiting the trial, revisiting her anger at Heidi Singer from The New York Post, the woman that she said, well, she’s to write awful things about me and I’m glad she’s dead. Now, that was hilarious. Just revisiting that was fine. But then I feel like the prison staff immediately jumped in to I bonded with these women in prison, and then I came out a better person. And then all of a sudden, you know, I had to sell my company. And then I did the Justin Bieber roast and I got my career back and I became friends with Snoop Dogg. And then that was it, you know? And I feel like I wanted to know more about what she was doing. Post-prison before this comeback, you know, like, where was she? What was she doing? What was he thinking? But that’s always going to happen when, you know the subject is a part of the documentary process, right?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. I wanted to know if after prison she even felt that her old brand was possible anymore because she, you know, like a spoon at a party was tarnished, you know, And if if people could kind of take her seriously as somebody who was an authority anymore. But you’re right. I feel like the even though obviously the documentary was going to get into the prison sentence and stuff, it just felt to me like it was an answer to this premise the movie was setting up, which is because she’s so obsessed with perfection. She must be psychotic and there must be some sort of downfall associated with that. You know, it felt like a build them up, tear them down sort of thing. That is just not that interesting to me ultimately, because they keep projecting on to us like we think she’s so perfect. It’s like I don’t I just think she’s amazing at what she does, you know? So it’s like I’m not thinking like, there must be a just punishment for bringing exquisite presentation into the lives of people.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. The thing that I found actually the most interesting and the titans of the New York Post. Right. And sort of the fervor that the media had for wanting to take her down was, you know, made into this whole like they’re taking down a woman thing in the trial. That was their defense. And that is how the documentary sort of presents it. But what it really is, is she was in New York and she was a part of New York society and everyone knew that she was a bitch to people who worked for her. Right. And so when there was a public opportunity to sort of take her down and get revenge on her, the media jumped on it. And I think I’m more interested in this idea of New York society and how you can sort of be one way and not present that way to the public. But everybody knows how you are and, you know, sort of what system was in place to let Martha Stewart continue to be the person that she was as long as people were making money. But once, you know, it seemed like the ship was going to go down, then people turned on her.

 

Louis Virtel Well, also, does anybody really needed explain to them that if you are from Connecticut and you were a diaphanous flowing linen shirt every day, you are probably a bit curt in your everyday life? I don’t know. It’s just not that novel to me. And the fact that I would knock people’s socks off like watching, of course, male interviewers be like, It appears you’re a bit of a perfectionist. How do you plead? And it’s like, What are we doing here? Like, why does that matter to you? Obviously? And also they get into we discussed this with the CNN documentary before, but the quote unquote insider trading, which she was not charged with. She was charged with lying about information. She had heard that mistake. She made the selling her shares when she had only saved her like $45,000, which is so interesting. You know, you would think insider trading like, she’s a billionaire, she’s going to lose everything. But that was not the case with that.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I think if you want another insight into Martha Stewart in the recent book, let me tell you what I mean by Joan Didion. It collects her 2000 piece on Martha Stewart that was published in The New Yorker, which.

 

Louis Virtel I have not read yet. It is a part of this documentary they talk about. Joan Didion has a couple of really fabulous lines about her that you can revisit, but so they get. Into this reboot she does when she roast Justin Bieber at the Comedy Central Roast. And I have to say, in retrospect, I don’t know who wrote those jokes. They don’t really give you the impression of who’s behind. Yeah. This like comeback for her because she definitely did not write them.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And you could see her reading a teleprompter. Right. And the way that it’s presented in the documentary, it’s as if she came up with these jokes herself, as if it’s off the cuff or something. And the way that they interview people about like her, come back and then show the Twitter responses from the public saying, Martha Stewart’s a savage, etc.. It’s obvious the public would not generally know that someone writes that shit for people you know right now.

 

Louis Virtel It always is interesting to me when people compare these roast artists because a lot of the time there’ll be a staff of writers who write on all of these people. Usually maybe, maybe someone like Nikki Glaser brings in specific people to write just for her. But, you know, like when you hear these jokes, I mean, they’re crude in a way where there’s no way she could have come up with that. Like the joke she says to Kevin Hart in that special, I don’t think the phrase is African American rich. I mean, she’s not writing that joke herself. So I was a bit curious about that, too.

 

Ira Madison III Right. There were no black people at Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Okay. So, yeah, let her hear that phrase in the first place. Also, revisiting the Bieber roast just sort of reminded me of when we cared about roast a bit more. I guess the Tom Brady one just sort of happened. But that launched Martha into the stratosphere and the Tom Brady roast just launched somebody to being the warm up act at a Trump rally. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Right. No, we will be getting Nikki Glaser as the host of the Golden Globes, which is actually exactly right. You know, a place where people can be wasted and, you know, lambasted for being who they are. Hopefully we’ll get shades of the Tina Emmy Golden Globes of your which remain the gold standard for that award show. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And obviously, the documentary isn’t going to get into this and not something that you would write sort of in an essay or just sort of like some other investigative documentary about that time period. Like if we’re I love the tweets. Right. But when they get to her relationship with Snoop Dogg and even, you know, the joke about, you know, being like African-American rich, like we’re Kevin Hart, You know, I think there’s this interesting thing in Martha Stewart’s comeback where. We hinge a lot of it on the fact that, yes, he was revealed to be a bitch. You know, she was a con and then prison humbled her and she came out a different person, you know, which could very much be true. You know, I’m sure she’s a much softer person than she was in prison. You know, it didn’t turn her into big red. From Orange is the New Black. You know, she was running the mafia inside prison, but. What really seemed to happen with Martha Stewart when she left prison was that she was this woman on the cover of Entertaining. You know, she was from Connecticut. She was this very exquisite white woman who looked like a glamorous white woman, wore white a lot, looked like she belonged at clam bags in the Hamptons, etc.. And that was very much the culture at the time. You know, And I think that what happened is, you know, when she tried to make a comeback to with like the Mark Burnett Show, they gloss over the fact that she did a season of The Apprentice. Yeah, they didn’t mention it. They didn’t mention it at all. She did that before she did, you know, the Martha show, which was daily. But she talks about like she hated doing that because, you know, she wanted to work with people who actually knew what they were doing in the kitchen. She didn’t want to be teaching celebrities how to cook, you know.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III But I think that the period that she had existed in before didn’t really exist anymore. And culture had been sort of diversified. There were more black people in culture, for instance, and they ran companies and, you know, sort of with social media, you know, you had more people who were younger with a voice when it came to, you know, driving culture themselves. And I think it was very smart for her to be a part of the Bieber roast. And then despite their very genuine friendship, it seems, you know, but it’s also very smart for her to link up with Snoop Dogg and sort of tap into black culture, hip hop culture, and sort of this vibe of, look, I’m a white woman hanging out with like, you know, Snoop Dogg. That’s a very sort of calculated rebrand that I think is more why she’s currently successful than it is. She became nice after prison.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Also in her criticisms of this documentary, which were plentiful, she gave a whole long interview about it with The New York Times. She talks about how she’s upset with the music they use. She goes, I’m nothing about me is classical music. And they use soft strings throughout this because it should have been rap music. And I’m like, okay, should it have been? I don’t know about that. But I read this interview with Brooks Brooks Barnes because first of all, she runs the interview with just her ranting for 30 minutes. And he literally says, I just got out of her way. But you see her instinct to run the whole show. You know, if she’s a part of an operation, she wants to call it everything from the big picture to the smallest details. And she’s like, I hated the footage of me gardening at the end looking like a little old lady. I had just ruptured my Achilles tendon. I’m limping a bit. You know, the the esthetics of her literally just processing through a garden are bothering her enough that she’s pissed. You know, it reminds me of Barbra Streisand, you know. Yeah. Somebody who, like, she can’t help but register something that doesn’t look right to her as a monumental failing.

 

Ira Madison III Well, it’s interesting that you bring up Barbra Streisand, you know, because she’s writing an autobiography in her own words. And I sort of think, you know, books are bad and that is where you really want to hear from Martha. You know, we loved Barbara’s memoir. We loved Mariah’s. We loved listening to the audio books. And I think that for a woman who loves control, a book is where you’re going to have the most control versus a documentary that has too many other cooks in the kitchen. When it’s a book, it’s just you and the editor. You’re the only fucking girl.

 

Louis Virtel And also, I trust her when it comes to presentation, you know? Yeah. So, like, hearing it from her, I’m not saying you’re going to get the definitive story or one sided stories or whatever, but it’s going to feel good going down, you know what I mean? It’s a good thing. L.O.L.

 

Ira Madison III And you know, if you have a very good editor, your book is going to sound like you, you know? Mariah Carey, this book sounds like her. It’s funny. She’s singing. She’s telling you goofy, crazy stories. It feels very Mariah. Barbra Streisand’s memoir feels very much like her. It’s very much focused on details and things that she loves. And just going off on these random tangents about, you know, like living in Brooklyn. And, you know, it’s I think that’s what you really want from Martha story. So the documentary was an amuse. Bush But I’m ready for the full meal.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, precisely. Can I say something quickly about Mariah Carey? I was reminded recently over the weekend in Palm Springs, watching endless YouTube videos, my friend David Lee literally sits with the remote next to me and tells me about music. I’m not caring about enough. Like it’s always Nicki Minaj, what I like and I like Nicki Minaj. I don’t need this education, but he’s helping.

 

Ira Madison III Pop up in the Sri Lanka.

 

Louis Virtel That came up a couple of times, the Mariah song where she says something about the Harvard graduating class of 2010.

 

Ira Madison III We were to Lego blocks, even the Harvard graduating class of 2010. Could it put us back together again? Yeah. Maniac What a maniacal Iraq. That is why Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is in my top Mariah albums. Its top. For sure.

 

Louis Virtel It’s just a crazy lyric. Anyway, I enjoy Mariah Carey.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Underrated album. Go and listen to that one. All right. When we’re back. Keep it. And we are back with our favorite segment of the episode. It is Keep It. Let me tell you something, Lewis. When I went to deliver my ballot, which I had to mail, but I wanted the sticker. So of course, I get myself get myself a little sticker. I was drinking a soy lotto. I was checking out the bodies and the room was full of hotties. And, you know, I was satisfied.

 

Louis Virtel You’re living in American life.

 

Ira Madison III I want to let everyone know if you if you are ever on the fence about just getting to your polling place. There are hot people who are voting.

 

Louis Virtel That was the takeaway from this. Okay. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, sure. Does this, you know, like swipe right at the polls?

 

Louis Virtel Once you’re in the booth or out of the booth or whatever? Yeah. Got it?

 

Ira Madison III Yes. What is your keep it this week?

 

Louis Virtel I thought this was going to be about Madonna’s 23 artistry and her career as a rapper, but. All right, I’ll take it.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, I am always listening to the American Life album. If you want to talk about underrated albums from people, that album has actually some of my favorite Madonna songs. I love Love Profusion.

 

Louis Virtel I love that song. There are mid-tier Madonna songs.

 

Ira Madison III Nobody knows me. Right.

 

Louis Virtel Petulant. It’s okay. Anyway, my keep it. Why not do something? Election themed. A name I don’t believe we have brought up very much on this podcast. J.D. Vance said.

 

Ira Madison III My favorite author.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Of Yes, he’s lovely. He wrote an elegy for Hillbillies that if you haven’t heard it, it’s one of the best in that genre. Glen and Amy, I’m still so fucking mad at them. And actually I’m most mad at Ron Howard, who, as you know, he needs to get back on track, just period. But anyway, J.D. Vance said he wouldn’t be surprised if the normal gays or something voted for he and Donald Trump. Where did he get that idea? You know where that campaign was going, right? For a long time, keeping our names out of their mouths. Girl, I know you haven’t heard of. I’ve been to Indiana and I know why I go there, and that is to buy fireworks. It is not to make fireworks with other gay men. So stop pretending like you know anything about gay people, what they do, their proclivities, who they’re voting for, why they would vote for you. This man is like the opposite of somebody gay people care about. Tacky, like maybe the greatest flip flopper in American politics history, somebody who literally called Trump Hitler and then said, actually, I want to live in the White House and I’m going to work under him. He has no inroads to connecting with gay people. And it was just a joke that he would bring us up all together. So before this election, where I do believe he’ll go down, I’m saying keep it to him.

 

Ira Madison III You know what? Stanning horrible people is very gay. Now.

 

Louis Virtel Even after you’ve claimed you hate them.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, Right. I cannot believe she said that. Anyway, I bought tickets to the Azealia Banks concert and I was there on Halloween.

 

Louis Virtel I’m almost a little disappointed with her reason for voting for Kamala Harris, which is she’s concerned that Elon Musk will get too close to politics now. Okay. That’s okay. But it was like she obviously has a past. Knowing him, there was that whole story where she was stuck in his basement or something. And my misremembering this.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. She’s a former houseguest.

 

Louis Virtel Precisely. I’ll take it. I will say about Azealia Banks. I don’t know that I love even a quarter of her opinions. I do love some of them. But the thing that must be stated about her is she’s one of the few people using Twitter correctly. It is an opinion. Bard put the opinions out there, be raucous, get into people’s quote tweets, get quote, tweets about you. Generally speaking, we’re having a fun time when she’s not, you know, calling people fagots, which also gay people kind of love. So anyway.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, let’s just talk about the Jay-Z, Chelsea of it all with hair. Someone came up to him and called his brother Travis a fagot for dating Taylor Swift. Interesting. Taylor Swift. Sure. Yeah. Attending the press tour multiple times, I called many of my friends fagots for that. I don’t know. Dating with and sleeping with Taylor Swift doesn’t seem like a gay thing.

 

Louis Virtel No, not at all. I can’t say that’s a topic of conversation that comes up at my afters.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, but this guy was filming him, and then he threw the guy’s phone and then, you know, like the guy saw her back and he was like, who’s the fagot now? And the amount of people who had to jump online and say, well, Jason Kelsey can say fagot. And I was like, we have got to get over this kink, that gay people have to still be in high school bullied by the jock and called a fagot. Like, what turns you on about that?

 

Louis Virtel No. Right, though who’s the fagot now? Should be a multicam sitcom. Lots of opportunities for my friends to write on that.

 

Ira Madison III Or a game show. Who’s a fagot? Now.

 

Louis Virtel Sort of a Let’s Make a Deal situation where there’s three people behind doors and one of them’s the real fagot.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I would absolutely love that. You know, we spoke about celebrity endorsements where Janelle James and I would say the Azalea one is one that falls into the category of a celebrity endorsement that actually feels like interesting to hear. Most celebrities, you either know who they’re going to vote for or who cares? But this was like this was interesting.

 

Louis Virtel She could have fallen either way, too. You know what I mean? Like, she whatever she chooses, she goes really hard in that direction. Except you don’t know what the direction is going to be.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Also, Rihanna was using the Internet correctly again today, too. It was a little throwback to all the Rihanna. I don’t know if you saw she posted on social media a thing about how she was, you know, going to try and sneak into the polling place and vote for Kamala because she’s not actually an American citizen. And there were angry people in the comments talking about illegals voting and etc.. And she was giving it to the girls like she used to. Like she used to some of these quotes. Illegal voting is a crime. Maybe she should be arrested for trying. Shut up, Katherine.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Right there.

 

Ira Madison III America is the land of the free. That’s true. All we ask is that you use the damn door. Why are so many against that? This is why celebrities shouldn’t be posting their political opinions. Stick to music, sis. And she wrote. Where were you in January 6th? Sis? Stick to your discounted crotch. We’re out here fighting for its rights.

 

Louis Virtel My God. I miss her being this funny.

 

Ira Madison III And my favorite. Well, there’s a bunch more. But, you know, someone said, ironically enough, she can vote as she had set up her paper for voting as a migrant. If she doesn’t have a US citizenship, I guess someone has been rejected by the system or acts like it for the majority. And Rihanna responded, I love my Bajan passport. I came here to work and pay taxes. You’re welcome. No.

 

Louis Virtel It’s giving throwback to a time when she made. Yes. Music.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. All right.

 

Louis Virtel Let that hang in there.

 

Ira Madison III My Keep it this week goes to a tweet that went viral. It’s already been deleted.

 

Louis Virtel Like all graduates.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. But some people were arguing with the sentiment on both sides. And it was a response to Glen Powell saying that he asked Tom Cruise how to have a career like his and Cruise told him to guess. And Glen Powell said you choose great roles. And then Tom said, no, I choose great movies and then I make the roles great. And then which. Okay, Tom, I think yeah, we’ll get to that quote in a minute. But someone quote tweeted that with, mind you, Tom Cruise’s filmography outside of Mission Impossible is a horrible excuse.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Ira Madison III That’s not right. Excuse me. That is flagrantly wrong and stupid. And they continued by saying, you know what, I’ll give you risky business and I’ll give you Top Gun and I’ll give you Edge of tomorrow. But his movies, even in the last ten years, are garbage. And I was like, well, maybe as a Tomorrow and Top Gun Maverick. I like the only other films he made in the past ten years, aside from American Made, which is also a great film and has a very high critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. So what are we talking about here? Except for The Mummy? I would say that most of his films are actually great.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I can think of like some sort of minor or not. But there are bombs here and there, but like. But like Far and away is like not a great movie. It’s sort of overblown his performance in it isn’t that amazing? But for the most part, he has chosen pretty wisely because I’m sure he is the first person offered a lot of these movies. So like Born on the 4th of July, which he was nominated for an Oscar for Magnolia. An amazing performance from Tom Cruise and from most people in that movie. Has John Grisham passed? I don’t think Jack Reacher is even that bad of a movie. Vanilla Sky. That’s a controversial film of his. But and of course, Eyes Wide Shut. What is this person talking about?

 

Ira Madison III Right. And if you’re talking about Magnolia, a film that he I would posit he should have won an Oscar for. To be honest, over.

 

Louis Virtel Mr. Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I hate that movie. No.

 

Louis Virtel You also got Jude Law and talented Mr. Ripley. That rare? Yeah, that year, too. So.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, but, you know, then Jude Law was doing Alfie and 9000 other movies a few years later. But I would have taken away the Oscar if he’d won it and given at the time. Anyway, so I’m going to stick with Tom. And also, he might be back in the Oscars race maybe because he is doing an injury to film.

 

Louis Virtel So Tom Cruise’s.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. And the cast is Jesse Plemons, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sandra Haller, Risa Med, Sophie Wilde.

 

Louis Virtel Both a lot of Coen brothers magic going on there, a lot of general prestige also. It’s so weird to me that John Goodman has never been nominated for anything before. Like he was he was in The Artist, a movie that won Best Picture, but like, he’s never really had the big cinematic moment, even though everybody agrees he’s an amazing actor. So maybe this will score something for him. Remember when you put him on the Conners, What does that like, a 16 year contract or something?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, that’s the prison Martha was in. Right. So I’m going to circle back just finally to that quote from Tom Cruise. Pick a great movie and then I make the roles great. Tom. Sure.

 

Louis Virtel It’s also like, are you saying that the roll isn’t great and then you. I don’t know. It’s a bit of a cutting remark, like I’m the smart one involved in all of this and not the writers. But anyway.

 

Ira Madison III Like, I could pick any script. I guess he does say a great movie, but if the movie is great, then wouldn’t the characters in it be good already?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s sort of mysterious and going for hidden depth and coming up with vague.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, which sounds like Scientology.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Which, as you know, he is rumored to be a part of.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. I cannot confirm or deny.

 

Louis Virtel He doesn’t seem that avid about it. Who knows?

 

Ira Madison III All right. That is our show this week.

 

Louis Virtel Good luck out there.

 

Ira Madison III We talk about a lot of American icons this week.

 

Louis Virtel That’s true. And we had one with us. Thank you, Janelle James, for being here. Yeah. And thank you, Martha Stewart, for putting out a beautiful platter of berries and saying this is how it’s done, bitch.

 

Ira Madison III We’ll see you next week and we’ll find out who the president is.

 

Louis Virtel Wahoo.

 

Ira Madison III Don’t forget to follow Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

 

Louis Virtel You can also subscribe to keep it on YouTube for access to full episodes and other exclusive content. And if you’re as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review.

 

Ira Madison III Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our producers are Chris Lord and Kennedy Hill. Our executive producers are Ira Madison III, Louis Virtel, and Kendra James.

 

Louis Virtel Our digital team is Megan Patsel, Claudia Shang and Rachel Gaieski. This episode was recorded and mixed by Evan Sutton. Thank you to Matt DeGroot, David Toles, Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landes for production support every week.