"Skiing, ICE in Minnesota, and Mobilizing Moms for the 2026 Midterms" with Ilana Glazer

In this solo episode of IT’S OPEN, Ilana breaks down her first encounter with “people who ski.” Omg. Then, more soberly, we reckon with the rampant and devastating ICE killings & continued violence and human rights violations in Minnesota, and plant the seeds for an emerging campaign to organize moms & neighbors nationwide to ensure fair and safe midterm elections in November 2026.

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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

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Transcript

0:00

Hello, welcome to It's Open with Ilana Glazer. It's me, Ilana Glazer. Hi, how are you? Really good. Things are so crazy. Things are so insane in our country. Oh my god, it's so crazy. So I was out of the city this weekend and I ran into this guy named Gus. He was saying, I love the podcast, and I was like, oh my God, thank you. I took both his hands like Oprah, but it's so moved because this project means so much to me, such a fucking dork. But it does. It really does, and it just feels so good. My production company, star Picks, we're like a tiny but mighty fucking team of mostly brilliant women and queer people. It feels good to have a space in which no one else is controlling the message, and it's not even me fully controlling the message. It's like my group of people. And then your feedback really means something to not just me, to all of us. So I don't know, it's fucking popping off. Just one little note, if you are enjoying this show, it's open with La Glazer. Subscribe. If you are following on the Instagram of it's open and you like these little clips, go onto the YouTube page, subscribe. Join the community, be a part of this, subscribe. I have a large scope of the world, being a working mom, being a comedian, talking to all different types of people all the time. But then also, I'm such a provincial New Yorker, I always see myself marching into Fran Lebovitz's form. It's just this sort of narrow New York bubble, but my bubble was popped and I was sliding around in a soapy puddle when I went on my first ski vacation with four other families. I had never on skiing before. I went to the mountain on a holiday weekend, which was like, it was so crazy. And it's like Jews can hinge from Jewish, Ashkenazi. Jews can hinge from Jewish to white person to Jewish to white person. I was a Jew among whites on this weekend. It was honestly scary and it was, I'll say intimidating. It was intimidating. And there were non-white people. This was a more diverse population like skiing than I expected. But when you're skiing, you're not even a race. You're a skier. It was a people. It was a people. So the whites and others under the race of skier are ascending the mountain and it's pure chaos. It's pure chaos. There's no way finding anywhere. So I'm among these skiers and they look through you to the mountain. It was so, it was intense, and I was like, imagine if this energy was applied to communal rights. So while my kiddo was having a ski lesson, I myself took a ski lesson. Yikes. Fully yikes, dude. The guy who taught me was really sweet and we had a lovely day and my personality, I'm like, are we in a date? You know what I mean? Halfway through, I'm like, we, there's a lovely date and I'm suddenly, I'm 60 as well, like this guy. So I am pretty good at the bunny hill and it's like the ski poles nonsense. You don't really use them. You use them to balance in a moment of need, but they're pretty much unnecessary chopsticks. You know what I mean? Nothing. It's like you could just be carrying chopsticks and get them in the snow. If you almost fall that far, it's like you could carry two sticks. You don't really even need ski poles. It's kind of bizarre. And I skied down that bigger bunny hill beyond the initial learning bunny hill. This is the real bad bunny hill. So I'm skiing down the bad bunny hill two or three times, and I was like, I'm pretty fucking good. Okay, I do bad Bunny hill for three times. And then he's like, you want to go in the chairlift? I'm like, fuck yeah, I want to go in the chairlift. So the chairlift is fucking bunkers violent. Chairlifts are violent, and by the way, it's like a you scary metal scooping you up fucking, you're like, whoa. And suddenly you're 10, 12, 15 feet off the ground and you have to rely on others or yourself to bring the seatbelt down. I'm chatting it up with Richard and he kind of forgets to warn me about getting off the ski lift. It's terrifying. Terrifying. He's like, okay, go, go, go. And I'm standing up, shooting up and totally out of balance, don't have my fake helpful poles ready, and I lean back and I'm going so fast. Then I crouch down. I'm zooming, crouching on skis. So then I go down a real mountain and it was really fucking scary and crazy, really crazy. I'm brave. I'll tell you this. I'm fucking brave and strong. I'm not afraid to bail. I bailed a few times just being like, I'm done. Just playing dead like a dog, playing dead. It's a holiday weekend. Skiers are zooming and these skiers are zooming. They're the beginners. I'm on a green mountain, which is the easiest. They're the beginners. I got up there and I was like, I am in too deep. I'm in too deep. This is insane. It's insane. I don't know if it's dangerous as much as it is genuinely so athletically intense. It's incredible. Skiing is incredible. If you can ski, holy fucking shit. Incredible. And skiing as an adult, learning as an adult is fucking crazy. I just haven't learned a new thing in a while. I've been doing comedy. I've been this person slowly building toward the life that I live now for 20 years. I'm 38. I came to the city at 18 and I knew I wanted to pursue comedy, which I started at age 19, and I'm just like, I really haven't learned a new thing. I don't have hobbies. I don't have fucking hobbies, and I'm so full as a comedian, my work is so fulfilling to me, but it's really like you got to do new shit sometimes to learn about yourself from a different angle. I still feel like skiing is so goyish. Although I saw some Jews on the mountain, I was like, whoa, these are some skiing Jews. But it's just the joy of it, the taking the earth in a way of it was like it blew me away. Also, multifamily vacations feels goyish to me. It feels like joyous and pleasure centric in a way that we didn't do as quiet, humble, nerdy Jews growing up. This is a group of families who were really close here in New York City and text each other about school and school's out or on or there's school, sing along or whatever, and afterschool activities are opening up for this thing. It's like we rely on each other in a particular way, but to be witnessing each other, parenting in a home setting was so interesting, and I was really nervous about it beforehand. I didn't want to be witnessed. I didn't want to be judged. But really it wasn't like others. It was more me pre-judging myself. That was another aspect of a new experience that was myself, but it's so delicious and magic the way that people just come together and fill in, oh, I'm up early, and the kids can just hang or I'll clean up. You cooked, I'll clean up. Everybody just kind of fits together seamlessly, and there's definitely communication that it requires, but it also just happens. It was really, really nice. So I could talk about dumb shit all day. I really could. It's my career, but I am now going to turn to Minnesota. Oh my God. Oh my God, it's so terrifying. Terrorizing and disturbing what's happening in Minnesota. Oh my God. It's like I'm fale. I'm weld with emotion because it's, you can see and feel the horror, the pain, the fight that American citizens in Minnesota are putting up against government agents who have masks on, who won't even reveal their faces for what they're doing. They're specifically attacking Latino immigrants, but really targeting people of color going into their houses, marching door to door videos from here in New York, from people who come from Minnesota getting videos from their neighbors. It's so much worse than what is being shown on the news. It is so scary. And some particular killings and kidnappings and cruelty of ice have pierced through the mainstream discourse. The killing of Renee Goode, a mom who was smiling moments before she was shot in the head, I believe three times in broad daylight, that being a white woman made the mainstream consciousness of this happening shift. And then Alex Pretty, who was a white man, an ICU nurse who specifically treated veterans who was legally carrying a gun. But as we can see in the footage, not brandishing it, he was holding a phone when he was killed in broad daylight. Fuck. That has shifted the conversation because then the administration and the whole hate-filled messaging machines started blaming guns, which was their whole thing. I mean, it's so twisted and it's a snake eating its own tail, which would be fine if people weren't fucking dying and being deported to countries they haven't lived in years or never lived in, or being deported to enslaved labor camps, which is what's also happening. And then Liam, there's a little five-year-old, oh my God, so horrible. I might whisper it because it's so horrible. This little boy, Liam was used as bait to bait his own family to it's impossible. It's fucking impossible. To bait his own family, to trick them to come out of their home and be taken away, disappeared by ice agents and he was sent to a detention center. Any footage from outside this detention center in, I believe it is Dilly Texas, is the stuff of nightmares. Just the stuff of nightmares. A detention center for children, a prison for children. The people of Minnesota like what they're doing, they are holding vigils. They are singing outside of a Hilton right now where ICE is staying. Hilton is housing ice agents. There was a general strike on Friday. People are doing or understanding financial boycotts against companies that are paying for ice, profiting from ice, housing, ice. These things are working and they're sending a message. So I was signed up to do this virtual Zoom with an organization I love called Moms First that is organizes for moms and families and policy to help moms. When Zoran Momani signed Universal Childcare into New York's policy and Governor Kathy Hoel, that was incredible and so exciting and the result of years and years of coalition building and Moms First was a big part of that coalition. So when I was on this call, we heard from three moms in Minnesota and to hear the actual nuts and bolts, the bones of what's happening there, the organizing that moms are doing on the ground was illuminating scary, but a different kind of scary than seeing the sobs, seeing the videos from outside the detention center in Dly, Texas and the sobs of children that God knows fucking what is happening on the inside. That's a particular type of scary that makes me feel helpless and disempowered. What I learned on this call was a scary, that helped me know and feel like I can actually help. But the picture being painted by these moms was crazy. They are working in groups to get their children to the bus safely, watching all their children get on the bus. And then some moms are receiving kids at the school or watching kids from outside the school because ICE is stalking schools in Minnesota waiting outside of schools. I'm like, for what? To put the pieces together for staff, for children to do what they did to Liam, who if you didn't see, there's pictures of him in the detention center because his lawyer and an elected official visited and were able to see him take a picture and get the word out. And he obviously is not well, looks deeply unwell. So ICE is standing outside of homes. Mom's talking about groups, organizing to make sure children are getting to and from where they need to safely to get to school in the middle of planning dinner, doing bedtime. I don't know how the fuck these people are sleeping. I really don't. While it was scary, I felt energized because I knew what I could do, which was start organizing with other moms. And this campaign that I'm starting to formulate at first was called Moms and Friends for Safe and Fair, US Midterm elections 2026. It's pointedly not sexy, it's pointedly not branded, it's pointedly specific and specifically deescalating anti-inflammatory. So it started as moms and friends, but now I'm thinking moms and neighbors. If you align with being a mom and neighbor who believes strongly that we should have a safe and fair US midterm election in November, 2026, then you fall under this category and basically it's going to be about volunteering to poll watch. I think that the one thing that we could do this year is make sure that we have safe elections where every vote is counted fairly, that we don't have masked federal agents outside of our polling places, certain polling places. That is not how we vote in this country. And we have to make sure that the votes are counted safely and fairly counted fairly because the people know what they want. The people have spoken this past November in the special elections, and this is the make or break moment of the United States of America. This is the election that decides whether we have any more elections and this administration, and I mean every level of this administration has been telling us that they don't want more elections. They don't want safe and fair voting. They don't. And this is a tenet of the United States. This is like, I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat or have considered yourself a moderate or conservative, you want to vote, right? So by the way, if you don't know what to say when you call Senate and Congress, you can just call and say, stop business as usual. We are in a crazy time. And you can also say, what are you congressperson or senator planning to do to make sure that we are voting safely and fairly in November? Moms and neighbors for safe and fair US midterm elections 2026. I've never been prouder to be so nerdy. Listen, I was the president of my class 11th and 12th grade. I'm a student council bitch. I was aiming for office in National Honor Society. Chill, you fucking nerd. I was in jazz band beach. I'm a nerd. This is the power. The power of nerds, not the power of vengeful nerds who didn't fuck as much as they wanted in college. So now they're hoarding wealth and putting it behind Gestapo like organizations to make their own wealth grow. To what? Fucking measure? No, I'm talking true ass fucking nerds. Nerds who love people and want people to be safe. We have been so separated by categories and the way that they chop it up and chop it up and chop it up. At first it was black and white, black and brown and white. Then it's, it's men and women, and then it's gay men and gay women and trans women and trans men. They just chop it up. Jews and Muslims and Christians and this and that, like these fucking checklists that sometimes the progressive side has to claim it to make it make sense. But most people on the progressive side just want to fucking live. Just want to fucking live. It's the conservative side that's making us check boxes and talk about it in this way. That's so unsexy. Just let everybody's magic swirl. But they can't. They want to capture it and own it because they can't access their own and they want our attention because attention is love. This is the only way they know how to get our attention because they're not so good at music. They're not so funny. They're not such great actors. The conservative side, if you're filled with hate, the camera sees your fucking eyes. You're not so creative. This horror, this is made up mishigas nonsense. Mic. Here's another Yiddish word for you. Just nonsense bullshit. And so we better stick together and organize for our own and each other's basic human rights. And one of those rights is the right to a safe and fair election because we deserve to be elected by people who represent us. And we deserve taxation with representation. That's what this country was founded upon. Even if you are not part of an activist group, just being a part of your community and feeling your humanity and your family's humanity and your community's humanity, that's resisting the horrible dystopia. Okay? While that is all being said, Democrats were putting forth a bill to unmask ice. If ice had to unmask, 75% of them would drop out. That is remarkable. That tells you that there is still a moral compass within these people doing terrible, violent, unthinkably destructive things to their fellow American citizens. And this tells you that human opinion, human public opinion, community, opinion matters even to these people who are anonymously hiding from their fellow Americans, while they torture their fellow Americans. It actually tells you that those people care about the people around them, care about their communities and what they think. And wouldn't do this even to strangers if they had to unmask. There is still a pulse, there is still a heart beating in the people of this planet. And while authoritarian regimes are rising up all over the world, so are the people organizing and resisting against them to live safely and freely. We have to be organized and repeat this messaging and get the narrative out that our elections are not necessarily going to be safe and fair. And if it's not already obvious for black people, for Native Americans, elections have not been safe and fair for the entire duration of this country that has been being fought for and organized for, and earned, earned. It really was already deserved. But so now we are all under this threat and that's what we have to do. Okay, so I asked on its open pod, Instagram I, any questions for me? And I'll answer them. So for Lauren at L-P-Z-A-N-I-C, LP Zanac 17, she asked in these dark times, what are some things you do that bring you joy? Lately I've been like doing like nineties phone gabbing, like 1990s. Gavin on the phone with my best friend Eden. We've been cracking up. Oh my God. And we also took a day in early January to get stoned and just take a day. We took a day to get stoned and walk around and we were cracking up. We went into a restaurant that we could not stay in. I was too damn high. Sat, got menus, and we were like, bye-bye, thank you. Just getting a little too high. And during the day, I've really been, I'm like at night, I can't be on my phone. I don't know, sometimes I can't even be stoned at night. But day, day, Stony bologna is nice. Just a little bit. Okay, Mia at Mia Tortilla. How as a person do I keep myself informed about what's happening in the world while my mom heart breaks? For the children and families I feel guilty using my privilege to ignore the reports of suffering, but I'm unable to help people who suffer. Find one thing you can do. Find one thing you can do. Send mutual aid to Minnesota, call Senate and Congress and simply say, stop doing business as usual. This is crazy. Or say, how are you going to ensure that we have safe and fair elections in November? And do something in your community. Also, help someone who's suffering in your community that you can do. Kara or Cara at Cara Roads asked, what brought you joy or wonderment this week? Whole shit. My daughter had a performance for her theater class. This theater class. For some reason, it's only her and her best friend. So the performance was a two women show. This was not a class performance. This was a two women show. And it was incredible. It was incredible. They were so good. It's like this class and they're pretending to be pop stars and they're dancing to Taylor Swift and Chapel R. And they wrote a story with the teachers. They storyboarded it. Incredible. And they were the characters they wanted to be. And it was both. It was a musical, I suppose it was acting, and then songs and dance, and her watching the teachers moves. It was like, that just brought me the most joy. We filmed it and it was like, I just keep watching this 10 minute performance every day. It was so funny and so good and so sweet. That brought me full wonder, full wonder. And finally, Sarah at Sarah Chandler asked, did you always want to be a mom or did your feelings change as you got older and got married? I always wanted to be a mom. That's just me. Everybody's different. But damn, I always wanted to be a mom. I started babysitting when I was nine years old. I was mother's helper. I do this bit in my last standup hour that I got big titties young. So I looked like I was 15, I was nine. And they were like, yeah, you could babysit my kid. I was nine years fucking old, but the mom was home but drunk. So I was fully babysitting and fully responsible for these twins anyway, but since nine years old, I've been babysitting. I just love kids. I just love them so much. I think it's so fun. And I babysat from nine to through. I was making Broad city the pilot and still nannying in the city. So to actually have experience providing childcare through the different phases of my life is a very, very important aspect of my identity to me. But then being an actual mom, and not just, but not caring, not providing childcare, but rather being a mom myself. Holy fucking shit. I see God, I see God, I see fucking God. It's like, oh my God. I'm just obsessed, obsessed, obsessed. Which if you come see me do standup, I'm building my latest hour and starting to put some dates together. I'll tell you about it soon, but I'm talking a lot about it. And I talked about becoming a mom in my last special, but I'm like, I guess this might be the framework for me for a fucking while because it's still blowing my mind. And that's it for me. Listen, take care of yourselves. We're going to stay in touch and keep organizing our human magic to propel us forward into a better world. And that's it. Okay, thanks. Talk to you next time. Thanks so much for joining me on. Its Open with Ilana Glazer. This has been a Starrpix production. I want to thank my creative producers, David Rooklin, Annika Carlson, Madeline Kim, Glennis Meagher, and Kelsie Kiley. I want to thank our editor, Tovah Liebowitz, and I want to thank the people who made this look and sound so good. Lexa Krebs, Nicole Maupin, and Kevin Deming. I also want to thank Raymo Ventura for the graphics and the branding and the intro Musical Sting as well as Don Hur. Thank you for this awesome outro music. I love your music. Subscribe to the channel, join the community, and I really look forward to seeing you next time. Take care of yourself.