Hasan Minhaj on finding your gifts, being authentic, & understanding yourself | Homeroom with Sal

Hi everyone! Welcome to the Homeroom live stream! Sal here from Khan Academy. Very excited about today's guest, Hasan Minhaj. I encourage everyone watching on Facebook or YouTube, if you have questions for Husso or myself, feel free to start putting those questions in the message board below, and we'll get to as many of those as possible.

But before we jump into the conversation, I'll give my standard announcement reminder to everyone that Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization. We can only exist through donations, philanthropic donations from folks like yourself. So if you're in a position to do so, please think about going to khanacademy.org/donate.

I also want to give a special shout-out to several organizations that stepped up. You can imagine even before Covid, Khan Academy was running at a deficit, and then Covid hit. Our traffic became 300 percent of normal and we, our deficit grew even larger. A special thanks to Bank of America, Google.org, AT&T, Fastly, Novartis, Amgen Foundation, and others who've helped us close that gap. But we still have one, so any help you can provide is very much appreciated.

So, with that, I am super excited to introduce our guest, Hasan Minhaj. I think he probably doesn't need much of an introduction for a lot of folks. But, you know, I consider Husso—me and my entire family are huge fans. He’s kind of one of the actors, comedians, entertainers of our time, known for "Patriot Act," "Homecoming King." He was a correspondent on "The Daily Show." So, thanks so much for joining, Husso!

Hasan: Thanks for having me, Sal! So maybe you'll good a lot—that means a lot to your family. That was a very warm welcome.

Sal: Oh, well, it means a lot that it means a lot to you, that it means a lot to my family. But let’s just start off a little bit on—I think something that you've addressed a lot in your speeches or your comedy, but I think especially as a South Asian, I think it has a lot of resonance. I'm suspecting that we're going to have a lot of South Asians especially tuning in today. Is this what you expected you were going to do when you were a teenager or when you were younger? Did you think you were going to be an entertainer?

Hasan: No, not at all, man! Like, look, I was just like every other desi kid growing up. I was pre-med. I failed at pre-med. Then I tried to do pre-law. I took the LSAT; I lied to my parents. And then, I started doing comedy. So, no! I had no idea that I'd be able to have a career doing this, and I still don’t fully believe it.

And just to clarify some terminology: the word you just used, desi, it means, depending on the language in the Indian subcontinent—in Bengali, it means someone from your country—but it generally refers to people from the South Asian Indian from Continental Asian diaspora.

Sal: Yes, exactly! And so, what was it? You know, given that there weren't a lot of other folks from, you know, essentially the same heritage from our background going into entertainment, what was it about you, you know, that you said, "Hey, maybe this is something I can do"? Was it a talent you had? What did people say? "You're really funny; you should be a comedian," or just like, "That's the life I want"?

Hasan: No! So, look, I grew up like a lot of kids where we didn't have cable television at home, so I wasn't a pop culture junkie as a kid. But I was really into speech and debate. That was one of the things I was naturally kind of good at. I found when I was doing speech and debate tournaments and public speaking tournaments in high school, I just naturally had an inclination to either make fun of the prompt or the person that I was debating. And every time I did that, judges would give me 10 to 15 points higher because they're just parents who are bored out of their minds.

So, the fact that some skinny, basic kid is making fun of someone in a high school gym is really funny to them! I didn't realize until later when I got to college and I actually started watching stand-up comedy. It clicked for me in that moment, my freshman year. I was like, "Oh! Stand-up comedy is just funny speech and debate." And so, everything else I had really kind of failed at. I wasn't that great at it. You know, I used to work at Safeway; I got fired from Safeway. I used to work at Office Max; I got fired from Office Max. I used to work at a tech company; I got fired from that tech company. Just, I was really not good at anything else.

Sal: Well, you're a step better than me! Actually, in my first jobs, I remember I applied for both McDonald's and Wendy's, and I didn't even get the job! So at least you got your foot in the door. Did you lie on your application, or were you just like really straightforward at all?

Hasan: No! I mean, you know, I was just looking for some extra money. I don't know why I would lie on the application but, yeah, at least you got the job. I am curious: why do you think you got fired? I suspect you might be exaggerating, but why did you get fired?

Hasan: So, with Safeway, I was stressed out one day, and I just kind of snapped at work—that wasn't good. And then, at Office Max, I was supposed to sell printers. So whenever someone comes into the store, you're supposed to say, "Welcome to Office Max! How can I help you? Take it to the max!" And there used to be people from my school that would come in, and this girl that I had a huge crush on came into Office Max one day. I just didn't say it. My manager was like, "Hey, you gotta say it!" And I'm like, "I don't want to say it!" Well, you gotta say it! He really saw that as like mutiny!

And then I got one of those, "Hassan, can you come to the back, please?" It's on to the back! I was like, "Oh shoot; I'm going to have to turn in..."

[Music]

Okay, yeah! So those were legitimate firings! When I had graduated college, I had been doing stand-up for about four years at that point. From my freshman year, I'm in my early 20s, and I moved to San Francisco. They had a great comedy scene there. I worked at a tech company, and I just wasn't getting my work done. I remember my manager telling me, "You're very capable, but it seems like you want to be somewhere else." And I was like, "Yeah, I kind of want to be somewhere else."

It was a mutual thing where, you know, she was like, "This is not the right fit; you should probably go." And then, I mean, you might know the sell very well in Silicon Valley; someone walks you out of the building! So like an attorney, like some sort of HR attorney guy had to walk me out of the building down the street to the Coffee Bean in Palo Alto, and then gave me my severance check. It was really weird!

And I was like, "Why did you do that?" He’s like, "Well, sometimes when we fire employees, people go postal. We have to do this out of safety." I was kind of touched that he thought a 155-pound Indian dude would wreak havoc inside of it!

Sal: Those are the guys you gotta worry about the most!

Hasan: Yeah! I actually took it as a compliment! I'm like, "I'm looking really big in these mediums if you think that I'm a threat!" Yeah, I've never had the walk. I have definitely been in conversations where we thought about whether we had to do the walk, but then we decided that that was not appropriate. We decided we trusted the person, you know.

Sal: But, you know, on your career, you know, a lot of times when you look at someone like yourself and you're like, "Oh, he realized he was funny, he realized he had a gift, he started doing stand-up, and then he becomes Hasan Minhaj." Did it work that way, or was it a little bit difficult?

Now, let me ask you an honest question. We're from the same background: out of all your cousins and out of your entire Kandan, are you the smartest? You're definitely the most successful, but were you the smartest?

Hasan: No! I would say growing up, my sister was!

Sal: What's your sister's name?

Hasan: Farah!

Sal: So everybody's like, "Farah's so smart; Farah's the best!" Right? Did you ever feel like everything that you do, you're just diet Farah academically?

Hasan: Yeah! I would say for about the first 14 years of my life, I started getting fair parody when I was like 15, but people still didn't see it. I knew it, but they didn't see it because my brand had been defined.

Sal: Got it!

Hasan: Yeah, so for me, look, I had a lot of really, really smart, intelligent cousins. My little sister, she’s way smarter than me. She went to an Ivy League school, all of those things. I quickly realized as I was, you know, in my 20s, I can try to run this race with them, but I will always be a diet version of Aisha. I'm not going to beat her at standardized testing; I'm not going to beat her at these certain things.

I'm really good at these other things, and society didn't necessarily value them. Our community definitely didn't value them, but I found value in them. I felt like I had a natural inclination for it, the same way there are certain kids—I remember in Calculus BC—they just got it! Like math—they just got it! Verbal—they got it! They could just ingest tons of material, understand it, and then regurgitate it back out.

I had that with public speaking or thinking about a quick joke on the fly or constructing a funny story. And so, I just said, "Look, I'm gonna be the best version of myself, and I'm gonna just go all in on comedy." Really, after a while, I didn't have a high enough self-esteem, ego, or just outlook on life where I felt like anything else was going to work out for me in that way. So I just decided to kind of put med school and law school hustle into this comedy thing, and then I became very lucky! That's really what it is.

Hasan: It's not dude; it might just work. I got very lucky! But what I am curious about—when you took that leap, and as we've talked about already, it's not the standard leap, especially from folks from our community. I mean, you really are one of the pioneers here. When you started, did you have moments of doubt where you’re just like, “Oh, maybe this was a mistake; maybe my parents were right,” or whatever else?

Hasan: Yeah, so there were some seminal moments for me. I remember in 2004, I was walking around Davis—that's the town that I grew up in—and I went to UC Davis. I know there's probably people that are watching that are very disappointed—but you know, I got a 1310 on the SAT.

Sal: Amazing how many people are asking about your SATs!

Hasan: I don't know if this is a thing, but I'm trying to edit it out! And I got a 1310. We can include this in the chat. I retook it on the show just as a joke, and I did worse! It’s interesting—I mean, it tells you a lot about our community how many South Asians are asking about your SAT scores. The fact that I'm willing to admit it means that I'm a vanguard and I'm brave!

Sal: They're very like wow!

Hasan: But I was walking around downtown Davis. I see the poster for "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," and I saw John Cho and Kal Penn on that poster. I remember going into the movie theater, and people were laughing, and it was packed. It was this seminal college weed movie, which I didn't think was possible! And there were two Asian leads; they weren't stereotypical.

The movie became this cult classic, and that was one of the first times where I thought, "Oh, this is possible!" Then in 2005, my sophomore year, Russell Peters had a big video that started going viral of him doing stand-up comedy, and I had been open-miking for about a year and a half at that point. I couldn't believe it! He was coming to UCLA to perform at one of their big auditoriums, and I drove from Sacramento to LA. I've never told Russell the story, but I should tell him! I paid $88 and stood way in the back of this auditorium, and I watched him. He was wearing a white blazer—I’ll never forget this. Chris Spencer opened for him; he was wearing a white blazer. I just could not believe there were 1,800 people in this theater, and he was talking about his family and talking about his life.

It just really clicked for me in that moment that it was possible—that this kind of weird superpower that I had, it actually was valued by society; it was seen by society, and you could actually make a living doing it. And then, you know, the next 15 years of my life was just figuring out, "Am I good enough to actually make a living doing it?" But I just came to terms with I really loved the art form, and I loved the craft of it.

Sal: And you were all in! You never were, you know, there weren't moments where you’re like, "Oh, maybe I’m gonna go back to what the family wants me to do?"

Hasan: Yeah, there were a few moments. I remember when my LSAT score was expiring. That was a big deal. It was five years after I graduated college, and that was a real tough conversation with my parents that I wasn't gonna go. They made me apply and I ended up deferring my admission, and then when they asked me, "Hey, are you gonna come back or not?" I ended up turning it down. So there were, you know, these big kind of speed bumps along the way.

But, you know, I kind of disappointed my parents like through snake venom! It was about an eight-year process for the venom of disappointment to kick in and for them to give up on me and to move on to Aisha.

Sal: And, you know, you have kids, right? How many kids do you have?

Hasan: I have three kids—eleven, nine, and five and a half!

Sal: Yeah, I mean, you're gonna have to give up on one of them perhaps! Like I got two—I mean, who’s going to be the golden one?

Hasan: That’s right! That's why you need, you know, you need a little bit of a portfolio just so you know one wonderful fully disappoint you, distribute in your Roth IRA, you know what I mean?

Sal: Exactly! Exactly! What was the moment that you were kind of accepted? Was it the gig at "The Daily Show" that your parents were like, "Oh, we knew all along—we had a gifted son"?

Hasan: Yeah, so, you know, 2014, when John hired me at "The Daily Show," it was a real seminal moment for me in terms of just like respect from the community, the comedy community, my parents. Because, you know, it's very rare that you get to do things that are both funny and meaningful. Like, there are a lot of things that you do in show business that are just like sheer funny, and then there are things that are just pure philanthropy that are meaningful.

Jon Stewart kind of represented the culmination of both, and the show is an institution; it's like SNL. So getting hired to be at "The Daily Show" was this moment for especially my family to be like, "Look! He, I think, he should do this as a career!" At that point, I was already what? 10 years, one month, nine days into doing stand-up comedy! So it was what it was.

Sal: And two questions: What do you think Jon Stewart saw in you? Was he right?

Hasan: I think that is a hater? Do you mean that genuinely? Like, is it a positive possibility?

Sal: I mean a very positive way! If I was a hater, I wouldn't— you know, we wouldn't be talking right now. I think, um, I think he really loves taking perspective.

And when I knew that, you know, Michael Che had been hired to join Saturday Night Live, there was an opening at the show, and when I submitted my audition tape, I just felt like I felt very uniquely positioned. I felt like I could be on the show— I really do feel like I would be a good fit. And so I made my own audition tape. I made my own field piece, and I sent it to them. It was almost like a proof of concept, and they loved it!

They had me come in and do a screen test, and I remember from my screen test, I really wanted to swing for the fences. So I took some big chances in the screen test. I made fun of Jon! I just—I took some liberties even in the script that I had submitted them. And now that I look back on it, and maybe one day I'll put it up on YouTube or something so people can see, I'm really glad that I stuck to my guns. I made fun of the boss in front of everybody!

Sal: And you swung for the fences!

Hasan: I wasn't trying to get a single! I tried to hit this thing over the fence and get a home run!

Sal: And once you were on the show, you know, what did you learn there? What did you learn from Jon Stewart or the other folks on the show?

Hasan: I realized that take is more important than jokes. One of the things I learned early on was when Jon would walk into the 9:15 a.m. meeting, he wasn't trying to be funny. He really was distilling his opinion into two or three sentences, and then we would build the entire show around that. That's the most important thing for comedy. You're making a funny argument, but at the core, what is your argument? So, great jokes at their essence are great philosophical positions said in a funny way.

I think that is what really separated "The Daily Show" from the rest of the pack.

Sal: I mean, you know in the early 2000s, it became a lot of people started to realize that they were giving, in some ways, more truthful information than a lot of what you were getting in the rest of the media. Do you see that as part of—you know when you look, you know, 30, 40, 50 years back on your career, are you saying, "Hey, I'm going to be happy if I just entertained a bunch of folks," or are you saying, "No, I also want to change society"?

Hasan: Yeah! So look, comedy isn't medicine; medicine is medicine. So you hear a lot of debates about like, "Why didn't this song change the world?" Or "Hey, if this person was still on the air, you know, Donald Trump wouldn't be president?" None of those things are true.

I think art is a true reflection of the times, and my goal—you know, Sal, you get this! I’ll button it with this—is I use comedy as an art form to understand myself. And so the work that I do is to present my thoughts and my viewpoint of the world to people so that they feel seen and so that I feel seen, and I feel understood. I want to connect with people, and I want to explain the human condition through comedy! Ultimately, I want to say how I really feel in my heart and not be a dark book.

So if 20, 30, 40 years from now I look back on my life and I was like, "I was in a dark book and I really said it!" I really said it! And you look back on, you know, our show. I'm proud of our Saudi Arabia episode. I’m proud of our Indian elections episode. I'm proud of our student loans episode because we swung for it, you know! And that’s what it’s really about for me.

Sal: No, it's powerful! And just to translate, do more technical jargon? I'm not the most qualified person to translate Hindi, but "tarpook" means kind of scary!

[Audience laughter]

Hasan: You know, Sal, I know you’re the Khan Academy guy, but I also don’t want to explain myself! Like, I want to be the most authentic version of myself! And so I want to make the world a bigger place instead of trying to bend and try to communicate and explain my culture point of view to people. I want to bring you into my world and make people feel like that.

I think that's when the show’s at its best! Honestly, audiences are really smart and savvy; they want to have an authentic, real experience! And I’ll say, I'll just speak for myself very personally, you know, I think I grew up—they're a little bit older than you. I think I'm 9 or 10 years older than you—but in, you know, my generation, so to speak, you know, it was kind of like, "Well, I’ll just keep that to myself!"

Yeah! You know, I’ll just try my best to fit in. But, you know what? When I saw your Netflix special "Homecoming King," and obviously a lot of your episodes of "Patriot Act," there’s a little bit of me that kind of got unlocked. I’m like, "Yeah, yeah, that’s right! I shouldn’t be hiding that as much!"

Hasan: The game used to be in your generation really fought for this, where assimilation was the win. My generation, really, I’m trying to say authenticity is the win. And I think hopefully for my kids, and the younger—I see these young comics coming up—they don’t even need to introduce themselves when they walk into the room! I love that! They don’t even need to provide the backstory!

You know, I feel like a lot of what the generation before me was providing was the prequel. They had to tell the story of our parents; they had to tell the story of our community. I think now there’s a whole bunch of young kids that are out there making really cool work on the Internet where they don’t have to introduce themselves to the world; they don’t have—they don’t have to carry that baggage.

I think the art that they’re going to make is going to be even that much more interesting!

Sal: And there’s a lot of questions coming in! This is from Instagram. This is a Mooji says: "As a fellow brown Indian, how do you deal with racism during school?" And I’ll ask that in a broader context. Obviously, race is a very big topic right now in our society, and you've spoken about it in, I think, very interesting ways. Especially because, you know, a lot of the dialogue is around black versus white. Sometimes people will say "brown," but "brown" may or may not apply to South Asians or not.

How have you thought about it? And in a lot of your shows, you’ve definitely brought up race as a major—

Hasan: Yeah! You know, we did a big episode about George Floyd and the murder of George Floyd, and really like the Asian Americans community—our community’s involvement in all of that. And for the longest time, like you said, Sal, race has been seen as a black-white issue in this country, and our community has been like, "Where's our place in all of that?"

And one of the things that I wanted to explain was, you know, for a lot of us, we’re descendants of the 1965 Immigration Act. So because of that piece of legislation signed by Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr., you know, our Ammi and our Booz were able to come here in the 70s and 80s to get educational opportunities so we could be here and live in Silicon Valley and live in Fremont, Milpitas, etc. Right? And so, that was important for me to connect the dots and say, "No! We’re integrally linked to the civil rights movement in this country, and we were CC’d on that email."

So it’s our job to be actively involved in the social change that we want to see in the world.

Sal: Yeah! What I often point to family members—and you’ve often talked about even the racism that exists within our community, which is sometimes quite strong—but what I always like to remind folks in our community is that our lives would be very different if not for the civil rights movement. I think a lot of South Asians kind of say, "Yeah! We’ve assimilated, we’ve got these houses in the suburbs, we’re doctors, and we’re lawyers and engineers."

But if you did not have the very hard work of the civil rights movement, one, the Immigration Act wouldn't pass! But even if our parents were able to immigrate to this country, their lives would have been very different if not for desegregation and things like that! I’m not trying to be, I think people have these very intellectual arguments about it where they go, "Yeah! But look at what I did in my life."

Really, what a lot of the stuff—the conversation that's happening right now about different communities and people being heard—folks want to be heard! It’s an empathy argument! People are really hurting right now, man! Like, unemployment is at an all-time high; people are really suffering! What’s happening right now, both the social, and the hopefully, I think the economic reckoning that’s going to be happening, is people want to be heard! We have to be empathetic to hear the life experiences of other people!

Hasan: Yeah! Absolutely! Well, I want to make sure I get enough questions, there are so many questions coming in from YouTube! So, this is from Lizzy Omobude, and you know we talked a little bit about it. It starts off with, "Mr. Minhaj, did your parents support you?" We talked a bit about that. But if not, how did you get them to deal with it? Because I'm about to start studying medicine, and I really feel that it's not where I'm meant to be. But my parents—”

Sal: I think it didn’t complete, but my parents want me to!”

Hasan: I’m assuming is what Lizzy’s saying, right? Look, I think those tough conversations are really hard to have! But I've told this to a lot of kids and a lot of people that have turned to me for advice: when you transition into adulthood, there are probably going to be two major decisions that you have to make that may be really, really tough to talk about with your parents, who you choose to love, and what you choose to do with your profession.

Those two hills are worth dying on! I'll say that unequivocally! Everything else—just side with your parents! They want you to come there for Thanksgiving; your Challa wants you to do this; your Chachi wants you to do that—do it! Just be like, "Fine! I’ll do it!" Those two fights are worth having!

Sal: That's super powerful! And what would you say to—because I know people—even in my look, and I think we’ve—I faced it myself, you know, starting a not-for-profit caused significant cognitive dissonance! You know, becoming a—doing stuff on YouTube in 2005 created significant cognitive dissonance with my family. And they’re like, "Well, it seems academic and related to computers, so that’s good!"

But it literally says "not profit," there’s no money! There’s nobody—remember how can we flex on other people in the community? This is really bad! Like, I would like to claim that I don’t have a fragile male ego, but I remember going to dinner parties in 2005—well, actually 2009, when I quit my very acceptable job as an investment analyst at a hedge fund, right? And I’d go to dinner parties, primarily South Asian dinner parties, and, you know, I’ve heard people—I literally had this one moment where, after I explained what I did for a living—but I was living off of savings at the time—you know, the couple, I heard them in earshot saying, "Thank god his wife is training to be a physician!"

You know, that was definitely a punch in the gut!

Hasan: Yeah! But I think if Covid has exposed anything, now that we’re all just like holed up at home, who are we stunting for anyways? Like if you shape major life decisions that are going to impact your life for the next 10 to 15 years—like med school, which is a 10 to 12-year proposition plus all the time that you have to work and the debt you have—just to stunt on some random auntie in Natomas? Good God, man! That ain’t worth it!

It just ain’t worth it! And I remember, like, my freshman year when I was pre-med, I thought it wouldn’t be worth it, but it’s not! And so, I’m not saying that it doesn’t hurt! Like, you know, being made fun of in the Sacramento community—that’s not fun!

Like being told the decisions you’re making are wrong, or being told, like hearing, you know, people whisper, like, "I hope you don’t—I pray that you don’t end up like that!" You know, like that’s hurtful! But I don’t know—like, also waking up and loving what you do and feeling purpose in it also—I don’t know—it just means to me it means more to me than that!

Hasan: Yeah! Super powerful! You got one life! I mean, the time has gone by! I—we could talk for hours! But I’ll just let you on kind of a final word. There are a lot of questions about breaking into comedy—your inspiration.

Finish it however you like, but, you know, this general thing of life advice for kids: how do you pursue your passion? I mean, you’ve already touched on it a bit. You know, how do you keep that stick-to-itiveness to get to where you want to go in life and have real purpose?

Hasan: Yeah! I think a really interesting thing—I got two kids; I have a two-year-old and I have a newborn who’s five—you know, five months old now! The biggest thing that I wanted to change from the time I was a kid to now, now I’m a father, like, the Simba-Mufasa relationship is for our parents. They saw us children as property, like you are my investment, and I need to move you—I need to move you within the S&P 500 the way you need to return on investment for me.

I want to look at them less as an owner; I want to be more as somebody who guides them and pulls their talents and their gifts out of them. And it's important! If I was giving advice to, again, 16, 17, 18-year-old Hasan, I would basically say, I wouldn’t ask him what do you want to do, because people ask that all the time, “Hey, what do you want to do? What are your dreams?”

I would say, "Write down what are your gifts." Meaning, what are the things that you do, or even if you rolled out of bed, you would be better than everybody else in your class? That’s your gift! And it can be something stupid! It can be video games; it could be like two-hand touch; it could be running track. It could be any of those things!

But what is that natural alacrity that you have where you're better than everybody in your class, in your community? You can just do it in your sleep! I used to have a friend; we would play pickup basketball. He could dunk two-handed in Timberland boots while he was drinking Mountain Dew Code Red! He had a gift!

You know what I mean? Like if I had a Whopper and Mountain Dew Code Red, there’s no way I'm running line drills! But my buddy Purnell could just two-hand dunk like that— in boots and cargos, like—and he had a gift for that thing!

So I think the key is figuring out what your gifts are and then applying work ethic to that. I wasn't gifted at math; I wasn't gifted at certain subjects in school; that wasn’t my gift! I could work hard at it, but there’s a cap. So try to find what your gift is, and don’t be ashamed if it’s a weird thing!

That's super powerful! And I think there's another layer to that, which is I think there's more outlets for more gifts than maybe at any other time in history, as your story highlights, in some ways mine and many, many other folks right now.

Hasan: You know what the encouraging thing is? It’s just the beginning! Like, there are people that are on YouTube that do unboxing videos that are just, you know, savants of their craft, right? There are professional people that play video games. There are so many different ways to be unique or interesting!

I have a friend who has a great voice for podcasting, and he has an incredible podcast! Like, those are things that just didn't exist five years ago! And so, try to look at what your gifts are! Stop trying to be somebody else and figure out what those gifts are! And I think if there ever was a time to really understand what those things are, now's the time!

Sal: Yeah! Super powerful! And I think, you know, very, very wise words for everyone listening at all ages.

Husso, thanks so much for joining! This was a real treat! I hope we can do this again!

Hasan: Thanks!

Sal: Well, thanks, everyone, for joining! I thought really, you know, I never know where these conversations are going to go, but I thought there were some definite gems of wisdom from Hasan just now on, you know, just how to live your life, how do you live your life with purpose, and how do you stick to what you believe in and your gifts in the world.

So, I thought that was very powerful! I'm gonna make sure my kids hear that, and I'm gonna make sure that I, as a parent, don’t fall into some of the traps that, you know, at least both of us and I were talking about that you sometimes see.

I'm super excited about tomorrow's guest, Nicole Hannah-Jones, a journalist and author of the 1619 project. The 1619—1619 is the year that slavery came to the Americas! So, obviously, a very relevant topic to the work—the world and what’s going on in the world as we speak!

But regardless, super excited to have all of you join us, and I will see you tomorrow!