Trevor and Friends: Our Weirdest Thought Experiments
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I have an idea, which I know some people may think is ridiculous. Let me just say this. If I ruled the world,

Imagine that. You would never have an arranged marriage for your kids. Listen, Trevor, you want me to risk bringing madness into my family? You would never. I'd free all my sons. I'd love them. Love a baby. Black diamonds and pearls. What would you do if you found out your parents weren't your parents? Let's say like if life gives you lemons. If life brings the worst to you, try and make something good out of it. Wouldn't it be great if we had like a teacher's NFT type fund?

Trevor, that's insane. Happy podcast day. Don't wait for a response from Josh and Christiana. It's just me, Trevor Noah. This episode of the podcast, it's a little different. Why? Well, this week, I am on a trip to a country that I've been told may not have the ability for me to record live.

So while I'm traveling, I thought I want to make a special episode that I'm actually really excited for, you know, because we just hit the halfway point of the first season of What Now? And first and foremost, I'd like to say thank you so much for listening to everyone who has listened. Thank you very much.

If you're listening to this as your first episode, I would recommend that you stop right now and go listen to the other ones because you'll think that this is the podcast, but it's not the podcast. It'll be part of the podcast, but it isn't an accurate representation. Basically, you're meeting me on a night out and I'm very drunk and this is not who I am at all times.

The point is, the point is, I've been thinking a lot about what we set out to do here on the podcast. And the one thing that keeps popping up in my head is, for me, and for our guests and our friends, it's the Thought Experiments. We have a special episode today. This is a collection, greatest hits collection, of some of the most ridiculous thought experiments I've asked people. Like, if I ruled the world, what would I do?

And also some thoughtful thought experiments. Some of the things you haven't heard, some of the things you have. So I really hope you enjoy it. What's up, everybody in the background? Hey, team, how you all doing? Testing one, two, three. Hello, hello, hello. I'm giving megabytes over here. This is What Now? with Trevor Noah. This episode is presented by Lululemon.

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Visit lululemon.com for everything you need to bring it tomorrow. Rest day is the best day. Okay, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you both this. If you had to pick a parent of yours, or not even a parent, let's say any older relative, grandparent, parent, anyone, who's the person you would trust most to pick a spouse for you? And who's the person you would trust least to pick a spouse for you? Ooh.

Let Josh go first. I would trust my mom to pick. Okay. Because I think not only does my mom have good taste in people, but my mom has that thing that all moms have where she has that feeling, right? She has that feeling of like, ah, this person, there's something wrong. My mom has successfully picked out almost every person in my life that turned out to be crazy. Like, my mom...

I would be, because my mom is sweet. So a lot of people don't think that my mom doesn't think anybody else is sweet. So then with me, I'll be talking to somebody just even casually as a friend, you know what I mean? And my mom will meet them and she'll be like, watch him. And I'm like, but what? And he will have not done anything crazy, right? And then sure enough, like six months later, he'll like be crazy or he'll like be on drugs or something. So my mom's got good intuition. And then I think the least...

The least I would say, my uncle. My uncle, if he picked someone for me, they would be my demise. Ha ha ha!

my uncle would manage to pick someone be like no no she good she good she good she good she got a good heart it's like yeah but she has a pistol in her purse she has a pistol in her purse and she has a pistol in her holster like why do you need an extra pistol who's coming for this woman and he's like no no no you know she got she gonna keep you safe from the ops it's like what do you know about ops oh man christiana who would you pick

Okay, this is so hard because then the family members are going to listen and, you know, Nigerians like to fight. My family group chat's already a mess because all we do in there is fight. That's how we express love, through anger. So, oh my God, this is hard. I would say, could I pick two to pick? No, no, one. Who's the one you trust the most and who's the one you trust the least to pick your spouse for you? Oh, okay, I'll pick someone dead so no one can be offended. My maternal grandma. Oh, that's smart.

Because she was very difficult. I feel like she was Kris Jenner before Kris Jenner. Like if my grandma was born in America, she would have turned my mom and her siblings into the Kardashians. Like, my God. Because my grandma would have made sure he was rich and good looking and I could beat him up.

So it would have just been like a good combination. She didn't care about anything. She didn't care if he went to church. She didn't care if he drank. She used to be like, oh, if he cheats, it's fine. As long as he doesn't hit you. She just was like, the things you need, this man will do. And she picked well in my granddad. And she always liked my dad, even though he didn't smoke or drink and he went to church too much for her. And he wasn't rich, but she was like, well, maybe one day he will be.

So I'd say my maternal grandma, because no one can be offended because she's dead, you know? Smart move. Who do you trust the least now? Oh, my God. Dead card has already played. I know. Oh, Trevor, you're trying to get me in trouble here. Oh, I don't know.

Probably, you know, I can't say. I'm going to get in trouble. I can't say it. You don't have to say the name. You can just say who it would be. I mean, that's big enough. I think that it would be one of my aunts because I don't know if they pick men well and I will leave it as that. Damn. Shots fired. Shots fired. But.

Yes. But I'm not saying which aunt or what side of the family. I'm just saying, yeah, I don't necessarily like their choices, but they work with what they've got, which is all you can do in life. Let the Hunger Games begin. And Trevor, your turn, since you put us on the spot.

Oh, this is easy for me. This is easy. If I was picking who would I trust the most, I would trust my mom because I think she has a good balance of understanding what is right for me and what I want as well. Do you know what I mean? So like a simple example, when I was in South Africa...

I had jet lag and then I had a whole bunch of things I had to do meetings etc and I was supposed to see her and then I texted her and I said hey I'm really busy but I'm going to try and rush to and she texted me one sentence that settled my heart she said she said relax baby I'm always here sometimes the world needs you more and I was like oh this woman knows me do you know what I mean she just knows me so I was like she would she would pick well

And also like my mom always appreciated a woman's body. Like, you know, she would always, she would always like when a woman would walk past, sometimes she would be like, must be jelly because jam don't jump like that. And I remember I was like five years old and I didn't know what that meant because I like jelly and I like jam. And I didn't know where she was seeing these things, but she would just say that. She would always compliment women on when they like carried themselves and looked beautiful. My mom was always proud of that. So I would choose my mom for that. Who would I trust the least with?

would probably be my uncle. Yeah, Josh, I'm very similar to you. Yeah. Yeah, uncles, hey, man.

Yeah, no. Especially uncles that are not dads. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He the world's uncle. He's just uncle. He's a professional uncle. Yeah, no. Uncle would be the same thing. My uncle, I feel like, would just be like, Trevor, what about this one? And you'd be like, okay, why did you pick her? Then she was like, she was here. That's not a choice. That's not a...

Yeah, no, that's not how it works. So, okay, all right, I'll see, I'll see. So what we need to do is we need to call Patricia and say, Patricia, can you pick a wife for Trevor? So if you follow the show, you probably know that Christiana is always trying to find me a wife. But you know what? What I think she really wants from me is to have kids.

And look, I love kids. I love thinking, you know, about the way kids see the world, you know, the way my friends reflect on their own childhoods. And that was probably one of my favorite parts about speaking to Quinta Brunson, the creator and the star of the TV show Abbott Elementary.

You can listen to that whole episode in our feed, by the way. You know, she's really thoughtful and really funny. And as Christiana, Josh, and I were talking before Quinta got on, I started thinking about what it actually takes to be a teacher. I'm like, well, that thought led me to this idea. I have an idea, which I know some people may think is ridiculous, but it was inspired by the NFT craze. I was thinking...

Like the one thing I loved about NFTs, if you get away from all the crypto browness, was I love the idea that you could create something that in perpetuity could get you some sort of revenue because you had created it, right? And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if we did that with teachers? If we had like a teacher's NFT type fund where teachers are entitled to, and I mean a fraction, I mean like they're entitled to like 0.001 of your like income

for like, let's say 20 years after you leave school. Trevor, that's insane. You are trying to tax kids? No, wait, wait, Christiana.

This is a tax. It's not a tax. It's not a tax, guys. This is an incentive. This is not a tax. I would pay 0.0001 of what I have to the teachers who made me who I am today. I don't think it's that crazy. Trevor, people don't even want to pay that to their parents, let alone to teachers. Yeah, but what have your parents done for you? My parents are just the most amazing parents, even though they don't listen to this podcast. But just in case they are listening, they're amazing. Yeah.

I don't know. I think it would keep us having good teachers. And yeah, every time I think back in my life to everything that has made me who I am, I can only distill it down to two groups. I go, it's my mom. And then it is the teachers in the school that I was lucky enough to go to. That's it. Everyone else, you were a waste of my time in life. I'm just going to put it out there. But Trevor, don't you worry that your system will just push every teacher to push every kid to be a surgeon?

Like, as soon as they're in school, it's like, man, you got some real surgeon energy. I think you could really do it because they're thinking ahead. Man, you know, Josh, you really need to do a 23andMe. I feel like you've got Nigerian blood in you somewhere. Listen, we all want our kids to be doctors.

I wonder what it would be like to be a teacher. I often think about this. I think I would enjoy being a teacher if I only had to interact with children. I think parents are the things that would make me quit being a teacher. Yeah. Yeah. So I come from a family of educators. My mom was a school principal. No, seriously? Yeah. My mom was a school principal. For a brief period, I actually went to the same school where my mom was teaching at. No ways. Yeah. Yeah.

The thing about watching Abbott and why I think it's such a realistic depiction, it shows like how the teachers are always grappling with, like, you're trying to raise this child and help this child, but then you're fighting this bigger system. Yeah. That's why I'm saying my NFT system may sound like a tax.

but allow me to lobby you one more time, people. We need to keep teachers in the system. And one of the best ways to do that is to make sure that they're not fighting for their survival while they're teaching people to become like future. Think about how shitty it must be to be a teacher. Like imagine if you were like Warren Buffett's teacher.

And now you're just like living your life, driving like a terrible car and you like, you can't afford to pay for your house. And you're like, I taught Warren Buffett. I taught him. Now, do you get the 0.02 just because you taught them? Well, you said a two, I said one. Oh, okay. 0.01. My bad. I said 0.0001. There were many zeros. Do you get that if you taught them period? Because let's say I am a science teacher and

And I overhear one of my students at the end of class rapping. I'm like, oh, you should do that. Josh, you're such a scamster. You know this? I'm shocked at what a scamster you are. I thought you're like the most wholesome person I know. And I don't know what's happened to you in, I feel like in the last week, Josh. You weren't this scammy last week.

I'm not trying to scam. I'm just saying that, do you get it? So this is how I would break it down. I would say that what you do is you look at how much time each teacher has spent with each student. And because we'd make this a formalized system. And so you would go, each student has spent this much time with each teacher. And then the students would get to grade the teachers and their efficacy in their life. So you would say, who was your favorite teacher? Why? What was it? Et cetera, et cetera. This would all go into the system. We'd be using AI for all of this.

Of course, you know I love AI. So AI would be doing all of this with the students and the teachers. And then at the end, they would say to you, oh, Josh, you spent the most time with these teachers. Ergo, this teacher is entitled to this much of that 0.00001%. Got you. And if the kid turns out to be Ted Bundy, do we then take money away from the teachers? Because the premise of this is we're rewarding them if the kids do well. But what happens when the kids do badly? And let's be honest, most kids turn out to be

very terrible as adults. That's the way you say most without even flinching. Let's be honest. Most kids turn out terrible. Okay, before I answer your question, do you think

that a school is responsible for both a child's success and failure in life, or do you think their family are more important? I would consider Ted Bundy an expression of the failure of his family and wider community. Oh, okay.

Because you know what? I want to say this as a parent. You look at your kids and you kind of know what they're going to be and what they have in them. The fact is mom never looked at him and was like, you are a serial killer. The fact that she just like never was like, this one is a killer. Maybe it's because like in Nigerian culture, it's just like, yeah, that one's a doctor. That one's the loser. The fact that no one was like, this kid is going to kill. I blame the family. Because people weren't paying attention. I really love that thought experiment because

it forces us to think about our relationship with other generations you know and and that idea came up a lot in this next conversation that i had with christiana so she and i were catching up before i sat down with the amazing kerry washington actress producer and author most importantly because kerry had just come out with a new memoir and in it she tells this amazing story about the moment she learned that she and her father were not biologically related

So I asked Christiana, what would you do if you found out your parents weren't your parents? Oh my gosh. Yeah, that would unravel a lot for me because so many of the stories I've told myself is because I was like, oh, my father does this thing. I mean, I always say I took the worst of both of my parents. You know, that's why I'm a beautiful disaster. Like, it's all bad.

Funny enough, I think you're the perfect combination. I think the most secretive families I've ever come across are Africans and Brits. Well, colonialism. Colonialism, Trevor. Maybe the British will die on a... Like in their families, they do not play games. Yeah. Like British families keep everything secret. Like they won't... Parents won't tell their kids what happened between them. British families are so secretive

British dads won't even tell their sons that they love them. They'll just keep it a secret. That's true. And it's the same with African dads. Yeah, same with African dads. Same with African dads. Let an African father say, I love you. Like,

The world will stop. Or you'll be like, you never said I love you. You're like, but you knew I loved you. Do you not know that I love you? How can you? What do you think this is? And they'll just start pointing at things in the house. Look at these pants. Look at these trousers you are wearing. Is that not love? The house. Look at this house. Is that not love? What is love? What is love?

Huh? You want me to say I love you? If you are hungry, does that mean I love you? Then you're like, oh, okay. You can also say it. You're right. You can just say it. I love that. Yeah. There's something I both love and loathe about families. You know, obviously the thing I love is the obvious thing. I think it's beautiful that you are inextricably linked to people. You feel like you have this deep connection to them. You feel like there's a bond. You feel like there's this idea that you're continuing a story that began a long time before you.

But then at the same time, I sometimes think that's the curse of families. I see so many people who find themselves indebted or trapped by this idea of who these people should be in their lives and not who they actually are. And then like Kerry's book made me go like, okay, but what if they weren't? Like literally, what if you found out?

That the person in your life who you've been saying is a family member your whole life, if you found out that they were not actually your biological family, would you still put up with everything that they do? Or would you even assign some higher moral justification for it, knowing that they're not actually you?

your biological family. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I honestly don't know what I would do. But also at the same time, I think culturally there's plenty of people I call cousins who aren't cousins, aunts who aren't aunts. I know it becomes more complicated with parents, but even my conceptualization of family is like,

much broader there's people I consider family who aren't related to me I feel like that should be the thing though like if I could so if I could redesign the world my rule would be nobody is family just because you are related through blood I'd just be like that's not a thing that's not a thing it's like an opt-in service

Like parents would actually have to say, yes, this is my child. I wish for them to be my child. And then, because obviously, look, as an emperor, I would be a kind emperor. I make sure everyone's taken care of. There's like universal basic income. It's not like you're struggling. So parents would have the right to say, actually, I don't feel like this is my child. We've never really connected on anything. And kids would also be able to be like, hey, man, you don't strike me as my parent.

It's been nice coming out of you. Thank you very much. But I'm going to live my own life. And I would try and create a world where people can meet. You know, like speed dating slash meetups. People could find new parents. Parents could find new children. We could connect. We could, you know. And I think the world could be... Trevor, in a healthy world, that's called a community. Don't go anywhere because we got more What Now? after this.

And we're back. Next up, me and the pure light form of energy that is Josh Johnson sat down and asked this question. If you ruled the world, what is the one area that you would try and change overnight? And yeah, let's just say Josh and I shouldn't be in charge of anything involving money. If you ruled the world, Josh...

What's the topic and what are we doing about it? I think one of the number one things that I would do is I would set up different systems around commerce. All right? I'd make... What? Yeah, man. Okay, so we're going into commerce? Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. I thought you were going to do something fun. No, no. This will be fun. This will be fun.

All right, Josh, go in. What part of commerce? We would not have banking as we understand it. You would have to ball out on your money when you made the money. The money would evaporate if you tried to save the money. You're not passing anything on to your children. This money is all you got while you got it and you better spend it. We're not doing any of this old money type stuff.

I'll just use Bitcoin because people know Bitcoin. Imagine if Bitcoin was going to diminish in value like week to week. So then if you have one Bitcoin, right, and you try to hold on to this Bitcoin for a year, it starts to, in your specific account, dissolve in value so that you have to spend it to get the most bang for your buck. I want to know why before we break this down.

Okay. One, a lot of the anxiety around money I think would be fixed if there was just a better flow of money in the economy. Economists say that the economy is doing great right now and then you talk to people and they're like, I'm not doing great right now.

So we've clearly come up with a system that works for money that doesn't work for people. So I'm saying if you have to spend your money or you risk losing the money, you one, enjoy your life a little bit more, in my opinion. A lot more. Because also the hoarding of wealth that stops other people from rising to a level of at least being okay also stops.

- First of all, I think your society would be fun. Let me start with a positive thing, right? I'm working on this. In life, I'm working on saying positive things first to people. So Josh, I think that your world would be a lot of fun. All right, that's my compliment. Now, my question to you is,

How do you address people just like buying things then and then being rich with things but not having any bank account and any money? Because now people just have big houses, big cars, diamonds, gold. No, you can still barter. You can still be like, oh, I don't have any money right now. But then your system falls. Think about it because now you have a system where

People have the things. All you've done is replaced the bank with something else. So now, for instance, your system took away banks, but now like Pablo Escobar, he didn't have a bank for many years. He still had a lot of money. Yeah, but you can't hoard the cash.

I feel like your system would get scammed by tax people hard. We could get scammed. But I think that there's something to be said for like, you're eventually going to need things, right? And you're going to need to buy things with the money that you have. To keep the money moving. Yeah, to keep the money moving as much as possible. The hot potato Josh economy. Exactly. That's what we're going to call it. Exactly. Okay, I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you with your system. Because I think your system is going to get scammed. And I think people are going to find ways to hoard something.

So what I'm going to suggest for your system is we create some sort of tracking system that tells everybody where the resources and stuff are being hoarded in particular. Mm-hmm.

And once it triggers a certain point, then there's like a purge and everyone can go and do as they please to the hoarder. You have to disincentivize hoarding for your system to work. And the way to then do that, I think, is to release hoards on them. Wow. Yes. Yes. I will take your suggestion and write it into law. That is drastic, but I think it'll work.

All right, let me see. If I ruled the world, commerce, oh man, commerce. Okay, so this is what I would do. Everybody's bank account randomly becomes another person's bank account every few months. If you want to talk about chaos. Wow, I love this. Let's say every quarter, let's make it every season, right? Everybody's bank account completely randomizes

and it becomes somebody else's bank account. So you have $100 in your bank account today, and Elon Musk has whatever billion dollars in his bank account, literally tomorrow, because of the season would switch, bam, you would have his bank account and he would have yours. And my theory is, my theory is, if everybody knew that there's a possibility that they would end up with the bank account of somebody with no money,

Everybody in society would try to make sure that nobody has no money so that they never end up as a person with a bank account that has no money. You know where this actually came from? In society, we are more likely to care about people when we believe that they are in some way, shape, or form tied to our survival or tied to our story or our community or our whatever it is. Mm-hmm.

And so I was like, if we can make it that everybody's bank account is essentially tied to everybody's bank account, you now have a vested interest in making sure

that nobody has a terrible bank account because you know one day it might be yours. How about this? I love your idea a lot, so I want to pitch you one thing to help because I can see you getting a touch scammed. This is much harder to scam than my thing is. How would you scam mine? I want to know. The withdrawal. I think you would only be allowed to withdraw 5% of what's in your account in cash or else people would become a billionaire-

The next day, I'm withdrawing everything. And then I'm peacing out to Mars. Yeah.

And y'all can come kill me. Where are you going to go with a billion dollars in cash? First of all, you can't withdraw a billion dollars in cash. That's what I love about the modern banking system. Oh, I could try. No, in my system, there would be no cash. Oh, so you're not going to... Oh, I see, I see, I see. Okay, never mind. Do you get what I'm saying? I do get what you're saying. So to your point, you can be like, I'm buying a Bentley. You can, you can. Good luck with the car note. Yeah.

Yeah, but this is where you and I, maybe this is where you and I are agreeing in something. It's like, you know, if you reach a level of entropy, which I would hope would happen in my system, you would just get to a place where everyone would go, let's just make sure nobody has all the money and let's make sure nobody has none of the money. And then we're all going to have money. And then we just go from there. Yeah, yeah. I think that's what I would hope. I think that is more likely with yours than with mine because mine is a fire sale for your entire life.

So that is going to lead to some anxiety. Look, man, I don't even know if my system would work, Josh. I just think it would be funny. All right, next. This was recorded before my conversation with Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles. I wanted to ask her about the city's housing crisis. And I asked Josh and Christiana what they wanted to ask her. Turns out their questions revealed more about themselves than anything else.

If it comes up while you're talking about the homelessness and everything, I have two questions, if I could sneak in two. It depends on what they are, Josh, but go ahead. Okay. Well, one is about how you balance, or if you can balance, making illegal something that can inevitably happen to a person. To me, the way that we've, in America, made homelessness illegal is

is like tantamount to making becoming old illegal. And then the second thing is about if she feels the need or thinks there will be a need to override the people, uh,

in the way that a lot of LA residents end up voting against their own interests because they're worried about their property value. They don't want this piece of land becoming single family housing or whatever. But then how much is your house really worth if people are like,

pooping in the street in front of it. So then eventually someone may have to step in and be like, I know that you think you're doing what's best for you, but it's ruining everything because it's going to keep getting worse. You know, it's a it's a it's the classic case of NIMBYism, right? Not in my backyard.

Yes, exactly. And it's so easy to become that person, Trevor. Oh, it is. It is. By the way, everyone is that person. Please don't... I'm like, Lewis, who's that? Who's that walking down the street? Can you go and check? I'm like...

Who stole our lemons? Someone's been stealing my lemons from my lemon tree. We have a lemon thief. And they take them in like bundles. And I'm like speaking to the neighbors about it. And I'm like, I'm supposed to be a socialist and I'm getting furious about lemons. So yeah, the NIMBYism, it happens. It comes to all of us. It does. It does come to all of us.

It's funny, I used to steal lemons all the time. Well, not steal, actually. Let's go back on this. And you know, Christiana, you're right, your nimbyism is creeping in. They cannot steal your lemons. I used to walk around neighborhoods with my mom when I was younger, and we would find all the streets where people had fruit trees, and all we would do is just take it. It was like

blackberries, apples, lemons, limes, peaches, anything that we could find hanging. So you would steal people's fruit? We didn't even think of it as stealing. It is a tree that is growing. No, no. The thing is, they take a lot of the lemons, Trevor. They take like 10 lemons at a time. And if you ask me, I will give them to you. Wait, wait. How do you know it's one person taking 10 lemons and not 10 people taking one lemon?

That's a good point. But I, my spirit tells me it's one person taking care of a bunch of them. I just, on a spiritual level, you know, Nigerians, you know, you can feel it. You can feel something inside you. I just know it. I just know it.

Yeah. I have never thought an owner of a lemon tree cares about the lemons on it. I know. I mean, the fact that they even say like, if life gives you lemons, make lemon, like the, you know what I mean? Think about what that phrase even means. It's like, if life gives you lemons, if life brings the worst to you, try and make something good out of it. And then Christiana's there fighting like, this is my worst. I'm just, I'm just a grateful person. Can I, can I tell you what I think it also is, is,

A lot of the situations we're dealing with now in society, I think, are a byproduct of us mixing cultures in a way that is beautiful, but we also didn't consider consequence-wise, right? Because I don't know how you grew up. So I grew up in South Africa, and a lot of the time I lived in Soweto. Now, Soweto is the definition of what you'd call the hood. The one thing I remember growing up there was there was a shared culture

understanding of what was acceptable and what wasn't. So for instance, if you were throwing a birthday party or a funeral, or I don't think you don't throw a funeral, but let's say you were, you know, it was the wake of the funeral or whatever it was, you could close the street that you lived on. And everyone in your neighborhood was like, yeah, well, you've got a birthday. We get it. It's an inconvenient thing, but we get it. The one agreement was if you're blocking the street, everyone can come to your party.

One, I guess because you've in some way, shape or form, you'd put everybody out, but also because we're all in the same neighborhood. We all live in the same village. Just come in. And what I found is this had the least amount of friction. Like I've never heard a single person complaining about loud music when I lived in Soweto because the music was played at the right times. And more importantly, funnily enough,

Everyone was playing the same music or music that everybody liked. Trevor, you have just made a really strong case for anarchism and self-government. My goodness. That's what you just did. The people governed themselves. They made their own rules. They figured it out and they came to an agreement. Anarchism. You're an anarchist, Trevor. I don't know about that. Let me dig into the finer details of this before I endorse any of it.

Don't press anything. We've got more What Now? after this. Over the past few months, we've interviewed some of the most interesting and thoughtful people I can think of. And one thing I've noticed, no matter who you're talking to, what you start talking about, these conversations lead back to family almost every single time.

You know, it creates these moments that honestly just really stick with me. You know, there's been a couple where, okay, maybe they're not quite thought experiments, but I've asked guests to reflect on growing up. And right away, it's like they start dreaming up their childhood right in front of me.

One that I could not stop thinking about was with the Grammy-nominated rapper DaBaby. As we were talking about growing up in North Carolina, the family that surrounded him, the religion that was part of his life, and also the violence that was imbued within it really illuminated how these things shape our lives.

And by the way, if you want to listen to the full interview with DaBaby, you can find those in our feed. But here's a little snippet of something that has stuck with me since. You made music where people thought music videos are dead. The labels don't give you the money anymore, etc. And you made music videos

where it felt like it was alive again. - No, for sure. - People wanted to see the music. They didn't just want to hear it. Everything that had inspired you, all your creativity pops out. - Absolutely. - You know, what is music to you? Obviously there's the business side of it, but what is music to you on an emotional level? - An outlet.

- Huh. - An outlet. - Like my music, that's my release, that's my outlet, that's my go-to for self-expression. And that's where you'll see a lot of these things packaged in one place.

You may hear me one song where I just, you hear it like, it's like, where's this anger coming from? Where it like, I have so many experiences that I can easily tap back into sometimes unintentionally, a lot of times unintentionally, you know what I mean? Like, just sitting still and I don't mind is the devil's playground. It's something, you know what I mean? - Yeah, that's what my mom used to say. - It's something my mom always told us. So music, it just gave me a way to have fun with it. And that's something I learned how to do very early on.

You know, when you come from what I come from, you learn laughter is the one thing that keeps you having a good time. It's the one thing that, you know, that's our release. You know what I mean? People who, you know, come from poverty, that's their release. One thing about my mother, too, like I say all these things, but the reason why I could always go back to saying it felt like it was normal is because my mom did a great job of balancing it. Did you ever, though, you know, and maybe this is me projecting, but did you ever find yourself in a place where...

you are unable to, how can I put it? There's a paradox I find sometimes in life where, you know, like with my mom and I've had to work through a lot of this in therapy.

On the one hand, this is the woman who forged me, made me, saved me, created me, built an entire infrastructure to create the human being you see today. Absolutely. On the other hand, I didn't realize I had a part of me that blamed her for the world that she brought me into. A part of me that blamed my father for the world that he couldn't take me to. I had this thing where I was...

I was both extremely appreciative, but then also had this like, well, then who do I blame? You know, because this thing was out there. Did you ever have to deal with that? Was that ever something- And was this while you were young? You said- No, and this is only, I've only dealt with this in adulthood, to be honest. Oh, okay. I remember having a conversation with my mom recently where I said to her, this was me talking to her. I said, hey, mom, one of the things I've never done for you, which I don't realize how important it is or I never realized, was-

I never forgave you for the things that I blamed you for that weren't your fault. Right, right, right. But I still blamed you for because I was a child, you know, being in certain situations, being around certain people, being affected by violence in a certain way. And it's interesting when you start to deal with those things, I find...

there is an anger that you start to let go of that was attached to that because you feel like you're not allowed to blame anybody because they're your parents. I can't blame my mom. My mom did everything. How can I blame this person who literally sacrificed their life for me? But then you start to realize it's not about blame. It's about acknowledgement. And I wonder if you ever went through that journey as a human being. I wonder if there was ever a moment where you went, damn, for me as that baby,

For me, as the youngest in the family, this was a shitty experience to have, even though I don't blame them. Did you ever have that? Never as an adult. As a child, I had several of those moments because it's like, who do you go to? So as a child, from time to time, I'd have these moments. But like I say, she...

her love and nurturing. The second that she's done working, it always outweighed her keeping us in that church every single Sunday, you know what I mean? No matter what. But I think more so with me, especially as an adult,

I've never once blamed her for the things. I more so acknowledged and showed my appreciation for her ability to, for the job that she did at making sure that it didn't turn me into this type of person. I mean, so many people, it's like those movies in the 90s where people just fade away at the end where the music's playing. Like I've seen so many people like just fall apart completely, you know what I mean? Who were in the same environment as me. One thing with me, like I was taught to look at

The things around me from the outside looking in as opposed to being inside of them. Like I watch my mom. Like I would be the one there when I see her going through her bills knowing, okay, figuring out which one she's going to pay. Like I remember, you know, when we're lighting candles because the lights not on. There's no electricity. Absolutely. Like I remember all of it. Like I remember every single last bit of it. But one thing I always remember was she's always helping somebody else.

You give always. It was amazing how moms could do that, right? They'd have nothing, but they would help somebody who has even less. Absolutely. It's always a family, a struggling family member, sleep on the couch or whatever. She's always helping somebody, eating all the damn food. Me and my brother sitting there looking at him like this. Oh, I know that feeling too well. I know that feeling too well. Now, there's one other person on the show who's talked about family in ways I really hadn't heard before.

We already told you a little bit about our conversation, but I wanted you to hear from Kerry Washington herself. It's a moment that really stuck with me. Just as we were about to stop the recording, I asked Kerry to imagine a few things for herself.

My final question for you is a very selfish one. And it comes from a place of me genuinely admiring how you think. I've told you this. I mean, I've heard you deliver speeches. I've read your writing. I've had conversations with you. And so selfishly, that's one of the main reasons I speak to you is because I go like, I'm always going to learn and I'm always going to learn how to think. But I would love to know, what is a question that

that you would recommend everyone be asking themselves? Just a question that, you know, that we can throw out there that may not yield an answer, by the way, but reminds us to think a certain way. Because I know you're always asking questions. So what is one question that you can share with us? One Kerry question that we should all be asking ourselves every day.

Okay, I'm going to have two. Oh, I love it. Even better. So one, you kind of already know because it is the question that guided our last dinner gathering, the last time we hung out. And I didn't realize it that night, but I asked it that night because I was sitting in a room full of like really wonderful people.

And selfishly as a mom, I wanted to know what's the greatest thing that your parents did for you? I love that question. Because I am always looking for new tricks to add to my bag. But what? I feel like we all learned so much about each other with that question and about ourselves. Yeah. And I think that we are so oriented toward thinking about what our parents got wrong in our landscape today. Yeah.

So it's really precious and important, I think, to ask what they did right. And it also pours into our sense of self because what they did right is what has bloomed in us. So I think that's a really, really good question. I'm really grateful that we had that conversation. And I think the other question is a question that's like an ongoing question for me.

Yeah. Which is like, what does my little girl think? Like what, how does, how does my little inner carry my little inner child? It's so woo woo in LA, but like, I feel like that's where a lot of my work in therapy is these days is like bringing her into the room and asking her like, what do you think? What do you want to say? What do you want to do? Like asking that little girl,

I feel like that's a question we should all be asking a lot. I love that. Oh, I really do love that. I literally sometimes will like picture her in interviews with me. Like I try to like put her on my lap and because I feel like she deserves to be seen and heard and she is amazing.

Because now I have a better connection with my instincts and my sense of self. Like she's going to point me in the right direction. My ego, not so much. But she wants what's best for me. That's, yeah. You never disappoint. And that second one will stick with me. It really will. That second one will stick with me. Well, we've come to the end of the episode. Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you for being with us on this journey. I know some people have been here from episode one. Others have jumped in along the way. However you've come to this point, I appreciate you. And I appreciate everyone who's taken the time to come on and chat with us. You know, whether it's been actors or authors or politicians or you name it. It's really been wonderful having people open up and share themselves on the podcast. We've just hit the halfway mark of our first season. And...

In the spirit of the podcast, I always ask our guests the same question, what now? And because we've reached halfway, I thought, what now for us? What now for the podcast? And as I thought about it, I broke it down into a few spaces I would hope we get to navigate and explore together. Number one, we are going into one of the most contentious election years in world history.

In the US, most people are aware, obviously, of the fact that Donald J. Trump will be going up against Joe Biden for the second time. So in the next half of the podcast, I hope that we're going to get to spend more time talking about the issues that are oftentimes ignored, amplified, or distorted to help politicians move people the way they wish to. And we'll try and get to the core of the issue itself.

and stay away from the politics, which I know sounds like it's impossible for people, but I think it's very real, you know? So we'll be doing that. The second part of what I'd like for us to do is get to know people, the people behind the people, you know? Who's the artist behind your favorite artist? Who's the person behind your favorite writer? Who's the human being that creates the things that you love?

And then the third and most important thing I hope we're going to do on the second half of the podcast is invite more amazing, crazy friends of mine to talk about how they see the world. I was really lucky to have my friends on for my 40th birthday. And I know many of you wanted more of that. We'll be doing that when I get a chance. But yeah.

It'll be introducing you to some of the people who have helped shaped me and turn me into who I am and continue to shape me and turn me into the human being that I hope to be. Some of them hold me back, but I mean, that's life. Either way, it's going to be fun. It's going to be an adventure. And most importantly, I'll be doing it with you. So thank you for listening to the show. We love hearing from you. Please tell others about What Now? And we will be back with a brand new episode soon.

next week. Till then, bye. What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Spotify Studios in partnership with Day Zero Productions and Fullwell 73. The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Ben Winston, Sanaz Yamin, and Jody Avigan. Our senior producer is Jess Hackle. Marina Henke is our producer. Music, mixing, and mastering by Hannes Brown. Thank you so much for listening. Join me next Thursday for another episode of What Now. What Now?

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