This Sunday meet the moment conversations with people who are having an impact in Washington and beyond I never thought my fifties that I would be sitting in that chair doing that job. I mean how could that be possible for today show co anchor hoda copy on stepping away from studio one a and how she's finding meaning in her next chapter. I'm learning how to sleep again I had done that in decades. I'm learning new skills, I feel like it's my whole kind of be a beginner again era plus let them you don't change other people by trying to change them change other people around you by changing yourself that's selling author and podcast host Mel Robbins went from hitting rock bottom to having one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
It's emotional for you this is yes, it's very personal for me. I do not take it lightly that teachers and nurses and EMTs and you know are finding time to listen to something that reminds you of what matters to you and full plate for me searching for my Ethiopian identity through through the place of living in Harlem, New York City. What would that taste of award winning chef Marcus Samuelson on his journey as an immigrant in America. Do you think the American dream is still available immigrants today in the way that it was for you when you first got here.
I think the American dream is a lie you just have to fight and battle for it more than ever and a fine gravity even though it's a fight to access into a human experience was it feel like when you believe so deep when you love so deep when you sacrifice everything John M Chiu director of the blockbuster wicked movies on how he's working to amplify Asian American voices in Hollywood. What is the movie that I can only make what's the thing that scares me the most. The scary most fight control identity crisis talking about being an Asian American welcome to Sunday and a special edition of me the press. The NBC news in Washington the longest running show in television history.
This is a special edition of the press with Kristen welcome. Good Sunday morning on this special edition of meet the press we are bringing you for of our meet the moment conversations shining a spotlight on people making an impact in Washington and beyond. Hoda copy for today's show anchor best-selling author and podcast host Mel Robbins world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelson and John Chiu the director of wicked and wicked for good for decades Hoda copy has been a force on your television screen reporting from war zones with date line to toasting life's lighter moments with Kathy Leon today at 53 years old Hoda shattered barriers making history alongside Savannah Guthrie as the first all female anchor duo in the show's history. But earlier this year after 26 years at NBC news Hoda shock the world with her decision to step away from the anchor desk I caught up with her for a meet the moment conversation about why she left and what she's discovered about embracing change in every season of life.
I just want to get caught up with you made this monumental decision to step away from the today show one of the most coveted roles in all of broadcast news you've been at NBC for 26 years how are you doing what is life like right now. First of all my time at NBC like lives in me you know certain things you carry for the rest of your life and I get to carry that so for 26 years I did similar things every single day and one day Kristen in January I woke up my alarm didn't go off at 3 30 and I went downstairs to my office in Haley ran down and she looked at me and she said at 5 a.m. she said you really are here and I think in that tiny moment I was like this decision was right on so many levels and post today show look I've lived my life on one track and I realize that when you switch chapters you can be a beginner all over again I'm learning how to sleep again I had done that in decades I'm learning new skills I'm learning how to be a mom who's there. Almost all of the time I'm learning all these things in my 60's and I feel like it's my whole kind of be a beginner again era like start all over.
Well I want to talk about the next thing but before we get there have to talk about the extraordinary career that you had in the way that you got started you've talked about you've written about the fact that when you were just beginning. You got you had this big dream to be a broadcast journalist and you got rejected 27. Yeah, my face, but you didn't give up on us so many people would have given up it would have rattled so many people when that first news director gave you a shot at the city what was that I just I wept man you did I cried because he looked me in the eye and he said something I'll never forget after watching my tape he see look at the tape and he said I was like nobody likes this you liked it like I couldn't believe it I mean imagine having 27 guys tell you know when you're asking them to dance and the last guy says yes you're like what so this guy said yes to me and I knew in that moment like I was going to work my tail off I was going to prove he was right I was going to prove those others were wrong like I was going to work at work at work at and I wasn't the best I wasn't I was green I didn't know what I was doing but nobody was going to work me well and you put in years of work in local news and then you finally got a big shot at NBC 1998 of course on the day yeah shocking right which is extraordinary did you feel like I've made it I felt like I got the job and I wasn't ready like I got the job and everybody was better I got the job and everyone was a better writer I got the job and everyone was a better interviewer and I wasn't wrong I was new so I had made it but I was terrified and I wondered if I was going to float or if I was going to sink but you floated in a sword yeah and then you you faced really what was the biggest challenge of your life in 2007 diagnosed with breast cancer. How did you push through that and and what did you learn about your own strength in that moment.
I think in the beginning if you I was terrified I thought that was it. I thought I don't know what's going to happen after this and then something happened. After I got through the surgery and did all the stuff I was in my house and I literally had this like forward epiphany I popped up and I got you can't scare me I got this weird crazy courage that came after I was like this I was I was like I felt like more confident than I had ever felt before. Why because my life now had a beginning and end and I got to decide in this time like what am I going to do how am I going to live this life how what am I going to do going forward and so in that moment I made a big decision that changed the course of my life here at NBC you asked for the today show that hour girl I asked for I never asked for anything here I was always like working hard they'll see me I'm still here they're going to give me a raise it doesn't work like that and you made history in 2018 along with the savannah gothary we are kicking off the year right because hoda is officially the co-anchor of today.
That moment feel like to rewrite the history books yeah, it was incredible to realize that it had an impact on women mattered and to another lady said to me my little girl now knows that when she turns on the television looks for two people and doesn't always have to be the one with the authority who's bringing her the news it can be women to two women in fact and it just it felt empowering and amazing and magical and also it was good journalism and good television and it just worked on a regular level I never thought my fifties that I would be sitting in that chair doing that job I mean how could that be possible but now we're showing that you know women doesn't matter how old you are because what's inside you the spirit part of you is there and it'll come out the matter. And the greatest blessing I would assume in your life also happened in the fifties which is that you became a mom adopted your two beautiful girls. Haley and hope what was that like the first time you held the baby. I remember it so clearly.
We're at the adoption agency and I heard her first they open up these big doors and a woman is carrying your child who's a month old and when they placed Haley in my arm she was right here it bit like a puzzle piece fits in life. I thought it was home probably for the first time. And you have all of these lessons in your life and you've also known incredible heartache and that you lost your father suddenly to a heart attack. What do you think you would say looking at your life right now how full it is full of love and success and now your chart of the new course what would he say.
I always wanted to hear the words from him. I'm proud of you. I think now looking at what I built based on the foundation he built for me like this is all because he and my mom built this for me this foundation. I think he'd be incredibly proud of me as a mother like I did that I think he would be super proud of me that I took a risk and you know in my professional life to try something new because that's what he did he took risks.
I think he'd be proud to know that. And you know I talked to him sometimes about it like this sounds weird but all my last day of work. When I look at that morning. I heard.
Sound like him say everything just fine and I literally jumped up from my bed because it was weird and I was like oh my god he here watching over me and I think he is. He's probably watching over what you're doing now with men's excitement in addition to all of that ride and this wellness that you have embarked on to help people have better fear more joyful lives joy 101 yeah is what it's called and I was looking at this app that you have which is so powerful there's so many resources on it. What drew you to this space. I feel like we women need something we're tired I feel it's like everyone's hunched over and they don't and they're walking around like that it's like take off the backpack you don't even know you're hunched over to be walking like that for years and let's figure out how we can make each other feel better.
It's like 10 minutes 15 minutes and you're done that's it like that to me it's like a magic one well the thread throughout your whole life is that you face your fears and you don't let it stop you what is next for you what's next what's next is what's next is walking my kids to school in the morning and holding your hands what's next is sitting in the bleachers at a Friday night high school football game with my kids and going to concessions and what's next is building this fun business brick by breaking helping women what's next is tomorrow. I think short term now and I like it I like having that short vision that's all I want is what's happening next and it's all it's all filled with goodness. And when we come back my conversation with best-selling author and podcast host Mel Robbins. I think that the thing that stands in people's way is discouragement this sense that it's hopeless this sense that there's nothing I can do that is a lie that you have either been sold or that you're telling yourself.
Welcome back Mel Robbins will be the first to tell you she's not a therapist but she has made it her mission to give people simple practical tools to live better lives whether it's through the Mel Robbins podcast one of the most popular podcasts in the world through viral online videos reaching more than 35 million viewers are best-selling books like the let them theory a deceptively simple idea that's changing the way millions of people think and live. I sat down with Mel Robbins for me the moment conversation about how she turned her own darkest moment into a self-help movement. How would you in the most simple terms describe what the let them theory is the let them theories are simple if you stop trying to control and change other people suddenly you have more time energy and power in your own life to focus on yourself and improving it that's it that releasing control gives you so much control and he's back it's not let it go because you follow let them with let me yes why is that important component yes so there's two parts to the theory the first one is let them and that's for everybody loves because right now life is overwhelming and let's face it other people are super annoying they're very frustrating you can go through your day and from traffic and you're gripping the wheel or people walking slow or talking closer the meetings that are scheduled at 6 o'clock on a Friday the guilt trips like it is going to drain all of your energy and other people are the number one stress in your life that here's what the let them theory taught me they don't have to be so you get to decide how much somebody else affects you you get to decide how much brain space they take you get to decide whether traffic or inconsiderate behavior or the headlines stress you out and so let them is where you recognize and it's so so you don't have to read the book you can start using it after a conversation the moment you're stressed out or frustrated or whatever you just let them and you'll notice you're always stressed by other people and the second you say let them you recognize okay I can't control this person. So why am I going to bother me and then you say let me and let me is where you take your power back and you remind yourself and this is a very old idea.
The let them there is a modern take on ancient wisdom 41 years old yes you say you hit rock bottom. Yes, you are out of a job your husband was struggling as well professionally you very candidly discuss the fact that you think you were drinking too much. During this period. What was that moment like and why was it so pivotal for you what happened to me is that when my husband's restaurant business started to go under and it was taking it took our life savings leans at the house we've got 3 kids under the age of 10 I was my job.
I had never envisioned a life where I would face bankruptcy I would be an alcoholic I would be on the verge of divorce that I would be losing everything that I cared about and what's interesting about rock bottom moments is you hit something solid inside you that's how you know it's bottom and what you hit is the resolve to change see you can either wait for things to get worse before they get better or you wake up one day and say I don't want this to get worse nobody's coming and if this is going to change I have to take responsibility for changing myself and so what that moment taught me is that the heart the simplest things were so hard getting out of bed. The bills I had open my bills in 6 months. I hadn't asked out for help I had to stop drinking I hadn't looked for a job I would wake up every morning and lay in bed like a human pot roast feeling sorry for myself staring at the ceiling going I hate my life I hate my husband I myself and it felt easier to just avoid the things that I knew I needed to do and I think this is one of the core things that I try to teach which is you already know what you need to do and if you don't go to a I and just put in your problem in the 10 things to do the problems going to be that you're going to wait to feel ready and I got news for you motivation is garbage it's never there when you need it you have to teach yourself this life-changing skill and here's the life-changing skill you have to train yourself to do things that you don't feel like doing and for me that started with teaching myself to get out of bed on those mornings that I didn't want to with the 5-second rule this is transforming yes so I was watching TV and I saw this rocket ship launch across a TV screen and it gave me this like at the time stupid idea okay I know what to do tomorrow morning I'm going to launch myself out of bed like a rocket and my thinking was I'll move fast enough so I won't be in the bed with anxiety and the depression and the overwhelmed pins me there and the very next morning the alarm ring and I'm going to show you something in life there is a 5-second moment to find your life. It's this moment between inspiration and discouragement confidence and self-doubt courage and fear if you notice that you can know what you need to do but then you make a fatal mistake and you stop and you hesitate and you think about how you feel about it and within 5 seconds of thinking about something you no longer do it.
Psychologists have lots of fancy terms for this like a biased or thinking about a story action all I knew is that I was stuck in this habit of hesitating and that morning for whatever reason as the alarm and I remembered the dumb rocket launch idea and I started thinking I don't want to it's called this is a Tuesday morning in February 2008 I was just going to help I hate my husband I have started reaching for this news button something I've done for 6 months in a row. I think that's our 4-5 times more kids miss the bus to be waking me up that's how you know you're failing a parenting when your kids are waking you up after they miss the bus wow but for whatever reason I just started counting backwards 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and I stood up and worked and you know what's interesting is it felt like a victory and it was it was the first time in 6 months that the procrastination the anxiety the fear the shamed and when I did the better part of me the knowing part of me did and this is the important thing fear kills action but action kills here and to me what's exciting about whether you're using let them let me or you're using 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 or any of the things that you know I talk about social media or a share on the mel Robbins podcast what's exciting is that you are so much more powerful than you think and you have so much capacity to change your life for the better. You talk about your podcast and it's one of the most listened to podcasts. In the country time magazine the world time that time in the world time magazine said about you quote what Robin cells is not just advice she's offering her listeners a reason to believe in themselves is that how you see your work and what you're doing yeah like I.
I think that the thing that stands in people's way is discouragement the sense that it's hopeless the sense that there's nothing I can do that is a lie that you have either been sold or that you're telling yourself and if you have all the information like again if you can create a list today of all the things you could do to ruin your life. You can create a list of all the simple things you could do to improve it. It's emotional for you this is very personal for me because I see it we have anywhere between 9 and 11 million people that listen to the show every week. And we are a moment in time where people do not have time for themselves so it does not I do not take it lightly.
That teachers and nurses and EMTs and you know you are finding time to listen to something that reminds you of what matters to you that reminds you that you do have power that reminds you that your relationships and being a good friend or important and that matters. You have also talked about your concerns about social media has more than 35 million followers. It's just remarkable. The best things about the success it came late in life when you have an experience in your 40's we almost lose everything that matters to you don't forget that I know what it feels like to have grocery scan and I know that I don't have money and I'm hoping there's some glitch in the check card and somehow it's going to go through.
And it doesn't and you have to grab your 3 kids and walk out of there. That is a moment that you never forget and so I am grateful that all of this happened later because I have not forgotten what matters and what matters to me is my family what matters to me is my friendships was matters to me is that I wake up every day and I'm proud of the person that I am and I know that I'm doing the best that I can and fast to apologize when I screw things up and my hope is that by sharing some of the things I'm learning sharing openly about the mistakes that I've made as a parent as a spouse as a human being I can save anybody else the headache and heartache and cause myself and other people because I just didn't know who I didn't know I didn't know how to do better than that to me is a life well lived. And when we come back award winning chef Marcus Samuelson when are the farms in the restaurant getting rated we have to deal with that not just as something that we see on social media something that is actually it's really motion. Welcome back throughout his 30 years in America chef Marcus Samuelson has made a name for himself in the kitchen and on your TV screen from his prestigious James Beard Awards to helming the first state dinner of the Obama administration Samuelson has been a key voice in bringing African and black cuisine to the forefront in America.
I sat down with Samuelson in his brand new restaurant Marcus DC right here in the nation's capital in our meet the moment conversation I talked to him about his journey from being born in a hot in Ethiopia to becoming one of the most pronounced chefs in the world. Marcus Samuelson welcome to meet the press. Welcome to my DC. Thank you it is such an honor to be here and to be sitting with you you have an absolutely extraordinary story you came to the United States 30 years ago.
You were born in 30 years ago. Yes, yes. When you hear that it really hits you right you were born in Ethiopia in the middle of a civil war you're adopted by parents in Sweden you grew up there you have now become a renowned chef who really puts a focus on black and African cooking. Why has it been so important to you to build on that goal of showcasing African and black food to the world.
I think it's an evolution you know sometimes when you are adopted my experience of being adopted is almost like you're going to you can live it backwards right and when I was when I decided to be chef was really from a Swedish grandmother hell yeah, she raised us all around good cooking and I fell in love with it. The the deliciousness of cooking also the story telling when I became chef there was only one person in the world that was the people told us was important was French cooking and as a young black chef I never saw anyone looking like I found more identity around black excellence whether it was Prince or whether it was yeah or whether it was incredible American pop culture right. So I study these French books I travel work in Japan I was Switzerland or to 3 star in French in France and have to learn several different languages and everywhere I was I was only person of color and I had a lot of questions around that what do I fit in what was my restaurant look like do I cook African food I could see this would like French food but the black experience is obviously not monolithic you can be black from Haiti can be back from Jamaica you can be black from American from Africa and for me searching for my Ethiopian identity food through the place of living in Harlem in New York City what would that taste like that was a journey from you speak with such pride about being an immigrant and you've said one of your most memorable experiences of all of these remarkable experiences you had as the day that you were sworn in the US citizen why was that so meaningful for you and why is that so much a part of what you bring to every dish every restaurant. I would say besides my kids with kids being born and they we got married I would say that's the most important day in my life because it was also a sign of a journey that I do belong I have a place because I wanted you know immigrants choose to come to America especially for me I could live in a very comfortable country and I love Sweden as well but in America I was allowed to hold on to my Ethiopian identity my Swedish culture but also at the same time being American and I as a chef I can cook from all of these experience.
Do you think the American dream is still available to immigrants today in the way that it was for you when you first got here. I think the American dream is a lie you just have to fight and battle for it more than ever and I know we will because the American dream it's not a four-year cycle. It's much larger than that it's something that you know the imperfection of the perfection of the my American journey doesn't have an end to it you know my kids of one raised in Harlem they are truly born in America they equally proud of the Swedish and Ethiopian background and that's what it means to be American. Let's talk about this beautiful space where we're sitting right now Marcus DC.
How do you hope people feel after they eat one of your meals here. I don't hope I know people for great fantastic because yes, our restaurant very privileged and very excited about how busy we are in these very difficult times right I know a lot of restaurants was not just in DC. Working extremely hard and you know the restaurant community we always have to respond to what happens around us right. When the unknown of cost of goods we have to deal with that when the labor market goes up and down we have to deal with that.
When are the farms in the restaurant are getting rated we have to deal with that not just as something that we see on social media something that is actually it's really motion we know people in our community in our industry and the cooks and the servers are not the ones that are creating issues are hard working people with extremely passionate or extremely passionate about being Americans contributing the cooks the gardener the server the person who makes the bad that this will tell they're not the ones creating issues are actually one of adding to the American experience. And when we come back or meet the moment conversation with the director of the blockbuster wicked movies John M. Chu welcome back we know this show is the place where elected officials come to face tough questions but for its 1950 Christmas broadcast me the press flipped the script Democratic senator Paul Douglas was invited to sit in the moderators chair and for one day the reporters found themselves on the receiving end of the questions they usually asked. Greetings ladies and gentlemen members of the press panel and senator Douglas during 1950 meet the press has been very fortunate in having on its press panel some of the outstanding reporters on Capitol Hill through their sharp question you meet the press has kept you a breath of the news in fact it has made you a newspaper man cannot report on the men and women formulate our national international policies without the background to interpret the information which he gathered we have had many letters from you viewers asking about the news people who appear on me to press what they think and what they are like today we're going to give you a chance to hear for yourself senator Douglas has been promised the opportunity to question our reporters today and for this time only our press panel will be on the receiving end the reporters will do the answering and then to Douglas if you run out of question I'll meet the press panel always at the good reserve and they will take over in the meantime you are on your own as long as you can think of questions to ask.
So let's have a first question. Well Mr. Roundtree first may I say that it is a novel experience for a politician to have the chance to question the members of the press until this afternoon the shoe has always been on the other foot previously the politicians who have been unwary enough to accept the invitation to appear on this program have been thrust into the light line light have been quickly stripped of their clothes and then might think semi-univolt exposed to the whitting of owls some of the poison which comes from the crop falls with the men and women of the press. It is a tribute to the healing powers of Christmas that it has led the directors of this program to reverse the roles and permit a member of that most abuse of American classes a public official to question his tormentor.
This is as unusual as it would be for a man to bite it off but I shall not aim any poison narrow. In the first place I have no grudges to pay off since I've been treated better by the press when I deserve and secondly I also believe it or not and affected by the spirit of Christmas myself and hence I would like to keep the discussion on a day and friendly basis. Just remarkable that was Christmas Eve 1950 and you can watch the full episode from 1950 with the reporter's answers on the press dot com when we come back my conversation with filmmaker John M. Chu.
But to change culture it takes time you cannot force people to do that we can have a debate and just say everyone agrees with that I'm sick of having a debate in conversation about just do it and prove it. Welcome back Hollywood director John M. Chu has built a career on turning stories about outsiders into celebrations of belonging from his groundbreaking hit crazy rich Asians to the vibrant cinematic world of women well Miranda's in the Heights now to is taking on his most ambitious project yet we can for good the second chapter in his epic adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical take a look. I sat down with chew for a meet the moment conversation about following his own yellow brick road and finding strength in every twist and turn.
Wicked has become a cultural phenomenon. It's the most profitable Broadway film adaptation of all time it was nominated for 10 Oscars including best picture was named one of the top 10 films of 2024 by the American film Institute. What does that mean to you personally. My whole life of trying to try to prove myself.
I can be here that I can be in this business. And I think I was always searching for that kind of validation. But through the process of making movies and doing over. I had a whole long career before ever doing wicked.
I think I got killed many times. I felt like I couldn't go on many times. I felt like maybe I don't deserve to be here many times. But I think the process of making this movie I've learned so much from Elphaba and Glinda and from Cynthia and Ariana.
I think I've got to let go of that idea of proving yourself it was we were too in it was too long to wait for validation. So we had to give ourselves that to learn to trust yourself. Absolutely well when you were 23 years old you're just starting out you actually gotten two movie deals. And then they fell through.
Did you think John in those years that you were going to give up that you couldn't make it in this business. Absolutely there were days where I was like am I fool. Those were times when I would go into USC to ask me to speak at USC because this is the guy that just came out of college got a deal and we pull in and I dropped my friend off to school there and I sit in the loading dock and I'm watching all these kids like excited about making a movie and I feel like nothing. I feel like I just started to be there's maybe the first time I cried in 20 years or something at that point.
I was like these people think I'm a complete I'm a complete fake. And then came crazy rich Asians. How did that change your life. So I had to learn every movie I was doing and there's certain points where I remember I was making now you see me to Mark Ruffalo and Michael Kane and Morgan Freeman and I hit my 10,000 hours like they say you know it but I felt it and it's the first time I felt like I don't have to prove my I know I can hang with these people and I was looking at what I was doing I was like okay anyone could make this movie.
What is the movie that I can only make. What's the thing that scares me the most and the thing that scared me the most is my cultural identity crisis talking about being an Asian American my whole life even my parents sort of saying make sure people don't even think about that value so that you fit it. So to actually put a spotlight on it. People are saying me how to me they're going to send me Asian scripts all the time to see me as a director.
So go back was really difficult but at the same time it felt like it was the thing I had to do. And so I found this book crazy rich Asians about Asian American girl going to Asia for the first time I understood that story. The romantic comedy part of it sure whatever the well part of it sure whatever self-worth about somebody of this generation figuring out their cultural identity of both American and Asian to me that was something I could tell. And Asian Americans are under represented still.
Yeah in Hollywood and film and TV what do you think needs to happen to change that having wrestled with all of those really complex emotions that you have. I think we just need more. I think I'm crazy was great because it cracked the door open or showed a path for the other people who needed to invest money in this. I'm not sure if it was for us I think it was for everyone else to say oh.
These actors have value in my mind that was just an avenue to open up. What other people look at us now is all of our turns to like all right let's own our stories until every version of our story could so that not nothing was was was dependent on just one movie. And so I think we're in that process I think we have to be careful to expect too big of a change too quickly of course we want that. But to change culture it takes time you cannot force people to do that we can have a debate and just say everyone agrees with that I'm sick of having a debate in conversation about it just do it and prove it.
You're talking about kind of where the future of filmmaking goes and obviously part of that is the technology it's a I as well taxi driver screenwriter Paul Schrader said that he thinks Hollywood is quote only two years away from the first a feature and he's ready to make it. What do you make of that and would you make a film that had a I actors. Listen I grew up around technology technology gave me a lot of opportunities technology is the great democratizer of access to being able to tell stories otherwise the people who own the cameras are the ones or the X exhibitors are the ones that are allowed to tell you whether you get to say have space in this place that's no longer the case because of technology and I've been through all the debates of you can't go digital you can't do this you can't do that and always you can't stop. The change of technology the evolution of that these are tools that empower us.
I think we're looking at the wrong thing. I think I is a distraction. I think. I is many things but I think I as a generator is a distraction to have a category of that whatever whatever what the most dangerous part is that I is being used in the algorithm that is capturing and cultivating our brains like when you go on we've always say follow your curiosity.
It makes you feel curious go there that's been our guiding light instincts will fall at all. But our incentives have changed and now they have figured out how to get capture a curiosity rage hate. Whatever violence that's going to capture us. And so now we can trust our curiosity because this AI creation that's like invading what we look at so much like we live in a analog days and the digital age so we can kind of have a perspective when I look at my kids they don't know we can say algorithm but they don't know the before time so they don't know the freedom of what that is.
I think that I think the AI in this algorithm is way more way more poisonous and the fact is our business is our whole industry economy is built around capturing the minds of us now we should be talking about that how do we change the incentive from like just provoking people in one line thing that could be totally fake it doesn't matter we're paying people to get those clicks. So we can talk about gender of AI we can do all that stuff and that debate will be happening you know the original stand of capturing all these other creative things and mining that of course. But oh my god we have to pay attention to this thing that's right that we have maybe this much of a window to at least get in control of because we won't know the difference after certain period of time. You talked about the magic of going to a movie theater do you worry that part of that is being lost because of streaming which is a platform that obviously you are on as well but but you love that experience of being in a movie theater.
I think movies are one of our last analog spaces. It's a space that we have to protect when you go into movies you have to make a choice to go in you have to leave your phone. You have to go into the dark effort and then you have to sit back in the dark and watch the two hours through someone else's perspective. That is maybe one of the last spaces we have to do that.
It is a part of our culture we built it in to be a place where we can question the things we're going through or ask questions or come or spread some sort of joy or hope. And in a time where I think the vision of who we are is sort of lost in the news now it's all over like we're getting such hard things coming at us that we can't I mean that's why I love this segment. It gives you light in this crazy information age that I feel like in a in a movie if you actually are forced to have that to have that space so I think it's more than just entertainment I think it's when we don't have a vision for who we are the loudest strongest person in the room out in the airwaves gets the power and not many people can get that kind of power but you know what movies can movies can't movies can be louder and so if you can spread the idea that this is who we can be and that's why that's a fair tale access into a human experience was it feel like when you believe so deeply when you love so deeply when you sacrifice everything that we still have the capacity to do that it makes you believe that we can still do that I believe that fully it's what my parents taught me it's what America has taught in the space in the movies are the thing that set a rise in life for all of us to be able to know that that still exists for us. So I think that space is very important.
And our huge thanks to all of our guests you can watch the full interviews with all of my the moment guests at the press dot com and we look forward to bringing you more meet the moment conversations in 2026 that is all for today thank you so much for watching have a very happy new year we'll be back next week because if it's Sunday it's the press.