Rich Fury/Invision/AP
On this week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, host Jamilah King hands over interviewing duties to a surprise guest: co-creator and star of Comedy Central sitcom Broad City, Ilana Glazer.
This show was recorded at a live event in October hosted by Generator Collective, a group Glazer co-founded that puts interesting people in front of crowds to talk about policy and politics, among other campaigns to educate voters about pressing national issues.
At this event, part of a series focused on getting out the vote, Glazer interviewed our very own voting rights reporter, Ari Berman, onstage in front of an audience at Brooklyn’s Murmrr Theatre, about the dark history and current absurdities of voter suppression in America—and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s toilet habits. It also starts with a cute story about how Ari and Ilana first met.
The event series would, just days later, make national headlines: Glazer shut down a scheduled appearance when the venue, Brooklyn’s Union Temple Synagogue, was vandalized with anti-Semitic slurs in the wake of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life massacre. Violent and threatening messages were scrawled on the hallways of the historic building. Glazer said she couldn’t put her audience at risk. “I can’t put these 200 people, who came to listen in a safe space—I can’t put them in that danger,” she told Democracy Now. “It was too freaky. It was too freaky to hold it.”
We’re revisiting this series for our special holiday set of conversations on the Mother Jones Podcast, including discussions with musician David Byrne and Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson. Thanks to Ilana, and to Generator Collective for permission to re-broadcast the event. The next conversations in Generator Collective’s events will take place January 28 and 29 in New York City at the Greene Space. You can follow Generator Collective on Instagram for updates and tickets closer to the date.
Listen to the whole show below:
You can also subscribe using any of the following services:
