“The American Resolution” with Ilana Glazer

Ilana rings in the new year with a fresh look at America’s ongoing pursuit of liberty (FOR ALL!) and the right resolutions to keep us fresh and fightin’ this year.

Host: Ilana Glazer
Producers: David Rooklin, Annika Carlson, Madeline Kim, Kelsie Kiley, Glennis Meagher
Video Producers: Lexa Krebs, Louise Nessralla
Audio Producers: Nicole Maupin, Rachel Suffian
Lighting Director: Kevin Deming
Editor: Tovah Leibowitz
Graphics: Raymo Ventura
Outro Music: Don Hur

All Things It’s Open: linktr.ee/itsopenpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsopenpod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsopenpod
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@itsopenpod

Transcript

0:00

Happy New Years. Do you say that? Happy New Year's. No. Happy New Year. Welcome to It's Open with Ilana Glazer Happy New Year Day. And it's like whose year? You know what I mean? Where's the apostrophe in that? It's not New Year's. It's one year that we're looking, staring down the barrel of, but Happy New Year. So the James Talarico episode. Oh my God. Wasn't that exciting? That was incredible. Oh my God. I was just lit up after it. And I will tell you, we emailed Jasmine Crockett first before either of them. Were running for Senate. Actually. We are scheduling Jasmine Crockett. I cannot wait to hear from her. We really want her in person is the thing, and she's available virtually right now, but ooh, I want that magic in person if I can get it. Ooh. I mean, two geniuses running to unseat this Texan Republican. I'm so excited about this race. The whole Democratic Party should just be watching learning, and if they can't be a part of what's happening right now, they should step the fuck aside. I am just so, so thrilled about this race and was so honored to interview James and really can't wait to interview Jasmine. Her announcement video was incredible. It's so funny. President Donald Trump talks down to women constantly. I mean, it's psychotic. It's psychotic to it's crazy. He called that reporter Quiet Piggy. I haven't watched the video, I just can't. But I saw him say, are you a stupid person? You're a stupid person to a woman. I mean crazy. The way he talks to women and the way that she used his voice talking about her shows that he is scared, shows that these Republicans are scared of women, of black women, of black women who are geniuses. It showed the fear. No other reason would he talk down about this person, her low iq. It's sick. It's sick. It was so effective, and I'm so grateful that she's running and that both of them are running. It's brave. It's scary. As we discussed in the James interview, the racism and misogyny that she will face and has already faced. I mean, it is so brave of her to be in the position that she's in and keep marching forward about it. So that's getting me lit up just like everyone else. And their mother. I'm watching the Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt docu series, the American Revolution. It's so funny how it's not funny, but Ken Burns and his team are so they just cut their finger on the fucking pulse. It's like something about it. It's history of centuries, and yet there's something that feels like as current as Sabrina Carpenter tweeting back at the White House. There's just something so of the moment about it where it's like, first of all, I love getting into my middle aged, and honestly, it feels more elderly. The vibe of just watching that doc and my husband and I mean, it's like riveting. We're pausing and discussing and pausing again and going back and did I hear that right? All that stuff. And it's just fucking slow zooms on pictures. But the meaning of them as it slowly zooms takes shape in your mind. It's incredible. And the, I don't know, man, and the B-roll is incredible. And the thing about the B-roll is it's like, yeah, the thing about Massachusetts and you're seeing these old tempered glass windows and all that stuff, but a lot of it is just of the land. It's of American land, which is the real, I don't know, the real fertile ground for all of this and what we're all doing this for and what we have been all doing this for and what the fight continues to be for. Damn, it's good. It's exciting. The thing that strikes me is how human consciousness was less evolved then, or I shouldn't even say less, but where it was in its point of evolution at that point, I think of evolution, consciousness, evolution changing drastically after World War ii and you, I mean, it's crazy right now, but at that point, the concept of liberty was new, a new idea. And I picture these loyalists who are loyal to the queen. I was like, who's the loyalist? Who's the patriot? I was having trouble knowing. But the loyalists, they all sound like such little bitches, such little baby bitches who are so uncreative and have no concept of a new world, and they're like, mom, they're calling mom when their brother is acting up and trying to be independent. It's reminding me of the rabbit in Alice Wonderland and he's like the queen. We're going to be late for the queen. And that's what all the loyalists are. They're like, you can't do this to the queen. You have to be linked to the queen. And once you're over here and how long does it fucking take to get here a month or something by boat, really? You're thinking about the fucking queen. You loser for what? To make their family rich. It's so stupid. I don't know. I never understood the respect for the royal system, and it just makes them seem like such lame losers. It's really funny. And then the Patriots, there is a sense of pride where it's like they are creative, they have this new idea and they have the skills and they are brave enough to fight back and organized enough to communicate with each other without instant, instantaneous forms of communication. But they're just running. They're galloping by horseback to go get the message out to the next town. And they fucking did it, man. They fucking did it. It is inspiring and it really shows that anything is possible, that our national narrative is open to us to write. This thing about this doc is that it misses the perspective of black people who had been captured in Africa and forced here via torture, via raping and pillaging of I guess English colonizers. And once they were here, how fucking crazy that was. These people who are patriots, I guess it was different from Massachusetts to Virginia, but the truth still stands that this country was born on the bodies and minds of people who had been captured, kidnapped and forced here to work for no money through torture, through torture. And I am currently listening to the 1619 project on audiobook at the same time that I'm watching the American Revolution, and it's really a whole picture. I'm in the second episode in the American Revolution, but in the first episode, it's like you get excited about these patriots like corralling their people and fighting for a new creative idea, liberty here. But what it also requires to do is, well, actually it doesn't require it, but in our history, what they did was enslaved people and forced them to do everything with their ingenuity, innovation, and bodies again through torture. So these patriots, they're murdering loyalists and it's like, first of all, wow, this is fucking violent, but you're also get 'em bitch. But then on the other hand, that capacity for blood thirst is also what is powering a system of enslavement here. It's eerie. It's fucking eerie. I never learned about this stuff. I learned about, I grew up on Long Island and I learned about brave settlers. Brave settlers, and never learned about the relationship between the settlers and the Native Americans, and certainly never fucking learned about the settlers, settlers and enslaved people from Africa who were becoming Americans through some fucking bastardized process in the same way that the oil companies, the oil companies created propaganda to make the American consumer take accountability for recycling this, that they had these, your carbon footprint. They're not taxed these oil companies for destroying the planet. If they were taxed, human beings would figure out how to take that money and perhaps undo the damage or block the damage or find a new way to do it that isn't so damaging. But they instead told us that we have to start recycling. Is it real? Where does it go? Does it get reused? I don't know. I hope it does. I'm still cleaning out my yogurt fucking containers to be accountable for my own plastic usage. But when I do that and I rinse it out and I put it in the clear plastic bags, where's it going? In the same way that the oil companies, who should be the ones who are taxed for all the damage they're doing to the planet, put the onus of recycling on the individual consumer in the same way the onus is on the individual American citizen to educate ourselves. Jane Elliot, funny little white lady who did race education, maybe you saw her on Oprah and she's separated people, green eyes and blue eyes and the white people who are in the other group Art Fis and cannot put the pieces together of the exercise that's happening. They think it's really happening to them. It's so funny, Jane Elliot would say, education is indoctrination, and it's so true. I have to take it upon myself to learn about true history in the country. I wasn't taught any of it because I don't think my fucking teachers knew. So I'm going to show you two books I'm reading right now. I just named one. It's is that in Focus? So the 1619 project I'm listening to, which I highly recommend because Nicole Hannah Jones has a voice like velvet. It's just the full history of America. It's not black history. It is the history of how this country was made and it makes sense of everything right now and everything is related to this moment. All the same tactics, all the same tactics. In fact, like the Nazis used American enslavement tactics and American segregation tactics when they devised up their little fucking plan between World War I and World War II to create the Holocaust. Everything that is happening right now is related to every paragraph in this book and make sense of it and then rooted. This is so crazy. I mean, I have to tell you, I'm a slow reader. I'm there. It's taken me months. I mean, I hope it's been less than a year. I am friends through Instagram with Bria Baker, the author here, and I wrote her to tell her, I'm taking my time in reading this. It is taking me so long because it is so painful. White fragility is not just about talking about race, it's also about learning about race. My skin is getting thicker as I read these books. It is so painful and shocking and to learn about a lot of these things that the first time at age 38 is by design. So as I learn, as I'm reading and listening to 1619 Project and Rooted and the American Revolution doc, I'm really seeing about, I'm thinking about consciousness and this collective consciousness we have, and the fascists here in the United States have Project 2026. They're very organized that I will give to them. They are very fucking organized. But the progressive movement within the Democratic Party is finally catching up and you can't really get, they're not going to be put back in a box. So the Democrats are organizing Project 2028 and it's starting to happen. Thank God, bitch, put it on paper, send out the email. You know what I mean? I have a newsletter coming at you soon. I got to send one out in the new year. But send out a fucking newsletter, have an agenda, have a briefing, get on the same page. And I think it's happening, especially within the progressives, these establishment Dems. I mean, oh my God, can I bring up one of the worst moments in white history is Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer wearing Kenzie cloth. I mean that is one, honestly, it's violent. It's violence. It's an unintended fucking mockery. Jesus Christ and the money they've made from insider trading, it's like, get out. Get out. We don't want you. We actually need you to go away. That was the kindest thing Nancy Pelosi did because she got all the lemonade she needed from Congress for her personal wealth. But Chuck Schumer, please get out. Kristin Gillibrand, get out girl, get out girl. Voting for Trump. Shit. Voting against the planet Earth for Trump. Shit. Get out. And also you've made your personal wealth. Get out. You can do speaking engagements. You can do political consulting for either side. You know what I mean? Get out. The progressives are organizing. That's why I'm so excited. I love both James Teleco and Jasmine Crockett so much. They are so smart and such effective communicators. Let's just make this exciting. You know what I mean? Let's just get going and let's, as a mom, I know that I have a personal capacity. I'm a comedian too. I just love to take in a lot of people and a lot of stuff about humanity more than perhaps the average person and more than the average mom perhaps. But a lot of moms my age are like, I can't even watch the news. I know. I totally know. I would suggest reading these books or listening to these books. And the final thing I have to shout out is indivisible, and I may say this a hundred times, simply know your local indivisible group. Indivisible is the most organized and widest reaching collective of local grassroots human rights groups all around the United States. All you got to do is go to indivisible.org. If it's not that, we'll put the correct thing up and type your zip code and then just know the local group and follow that group's Instagram. Just know about 'em. I'm not telling you to do anything else. Just know about 'em. You're not alone. There's actually, this is the thing as a white person, as it is on white to the white supremacist system that upholds it. That's why education is indoctrination so that we stay indoctrinated and don't know that there's a whole movement fighting for human rights. That started as the abolitionist movement by captured enslaved people here in the United States. It's like this thing to discover, oh my God, activism like human rights, unless your parents took it upon themselves to know about activism. I didn't fucking know about activism until I got to the city on my own and even into my thirties. It's taking me time to have my brain be able to hold the history to know enough, but there is a whole backdrop. That is the reasons we have any rights in this country. Any human rights is because of the abolitionist movement, the labor union movement, the reason that we don't have children working in factories legally anyway, is because of this movement. The reason that we don't work seven days a fucking week is because of this movement. So know about Indivisible, just know about these things if you don't already, and I'm not telling you to do anything more. Okay, so New Year's, like New Year's resolutions. It's so sad in nineties to think about being like, now I'm going to get skinny in the dead of winter. That's what a New Year's resolution used to be. People do dry January. I totally get that, but I'm going to share my stuff that I'm excited about for the new year when the sun goes down. No more social media for me. I am scared and my brain is mushy at night. So dark, chuckle bird's evil algorithm is seeping into my brain more. You're not getting a poke baby. You're not allowed in. Not at night and not on the weekends. I turn my phone off to go to sleep. I turn my phone off for Shabbat, and if I'm a good girl, I keep it off for 24 hours. Sunrise, sunset, sunset from Friday nights to Saturday night. I'm just modeling. I'm not even inviting you to do the same. I'm just letting you know it's possible. And no social media all weekend. Why? For what? I'm loving the gym. Went to the gym yesterday with my husband. It is one of my favorite things. I love it. It's so fun. We worked some personal stuff out on the treadmill. It was very productive, and instead of me being like fuck and frustrated and shit sitting still, I was walking. I was like, okay, I'm turning the speed up, turning the incline up to work through some shit. That was great. Weightlifting is feeling good. That's one way to take in the news for me, is to lift weights while I do so filled with anxiety and terror as is intended. That helps. That's really nice. I love a weed drink. I love a gummy. I just love smoking. I just always have and always will. I just love it. The act of it is, it's like this little bit of fire. I just love it. It's let you hold fire. I love it. I really love it. We eat over-Drinking is just forever in my heart. Drinking makes me sad, makes me sad. Let's remember together to drink water while we still have it. Yikes. To drink our water, to stay hydrated, to focus on sleep, to just center sleep as a basic fucking need so that we can do all the stuff so that we can engage in the system, activate and make this world the place we want to live in. We are connected. We are global citizens. Whether we like it or not, we know what the fuck is happening on the other side of the fucking world. And everybody, most people want each other to have basic human rights. We should have a global standard for basic human rights, and that standard should include sleeping well and drinking a lot of fresh water and eating good food. So do that for yourself because that then creates that standard. You know what I mean? So yeah, got some vanilla oat milk up in my fridge. My husband surprised me with some vanilla oat milk this weekend. It's been a nice little treat. I love the little things in life. I love a baby bell. I'm peeling that wax off, that little cheese, my little tiny little personal wheel of cheese. I love it. I love cheese. I love cottage cheese. My mother-in-law, her one personal standup bit is eggs. Are they good for you or bad for you? The news one day tell you they're bad, and the next day they tell you it's good. I feel the same way about cottage cheese. They're like, it's fat. You fat. Fuck. Don't eat it. You fat fuck. And then they're like, it's filled with protein. You better get on that cottage Cheese. I don't care either way. I love fucking cottage cheese. I don't care what you tell me it is for me. I'm eating cottage cheese with fucking see salt. Love it. Fucking love it. So that's it. That's it for me. That's it for me. I'm recording this before the holidays, trying to get all this stuff scheduled ahead of time so that me and my lean mean team of people can be really off for two weeks. And I hope for you that you get time to unplug from this mentally colonized system that we find ourselves in. I hope that you get time to remember the body you're in and how capable it is, however capable that is. I hope you, youer and listener, take pleasure being in your body. Oh, how I hope that over this holiday break, no matter how cold it is, where you are, God, you're more beautiful than you've been told. No matter who you are, you've been told something about you is wrong or ugly. It's a bizarre scheme to get us to buy shit. You're more beautiful and brilliant than most of the messaging you've ingested, and I hope you enjoy that this holiday. I hope you enjoy that in the new year and happy holidays and happy New Year, and thanks for joining me on. Its Open with Alana Glazer. I'm so excited and motivated and inspired and energized by you and our interaction in this new venture. And yeah, thanks for joining me. Happy New Year, and I love you. Bye. Thanks so much for joining me here at It's Open with Alana Glazer. I did not do this alone. This has been a star picks production. I want to thank my creative producers, Annika Carlson, David Rooklin, Madeline Kim, Glennis Meagher, and Kelsie, Kiley, Oprah voice for Kelsie Kiley. I want to thank my editor, our editor, Tovah Lebowitz. You're killing it, dog. I want to thank the people who made this video podcast look so good and sound so good. For looks, we're talking Lexa Krebs and Kevin Deming and for Sound, we're talking Nicole Maupin and the graphics are so gorgeous. This branding and the opening musical sting by Raymo Ventura and this outro music by the band Don Hur. Thank you so much. I'm going to say it. God bless you and I love you. Bye.