00:00:00.000hey y'all joe here and you are listening to under the influence so i've been re-watching
00:00:12.300a lot of shows lately like a lot of shows that are essentially meatloaf for my soul because i
00:00:17.520just need to feel hope again and i also miss sitcoms i do i miss old school sitcoms that are
00:00:23.760just delicious and fun and that i can put on and i'm gonna use a lot of mixed metaphors here just
00:00:29.920feel like I'm sinking into into a warm bubble bath, maybe while eating some meatloaf. Yeah,
00:00:37.100I watch a lot of Younger. I binge a lot of Younger on the rewatch. I've also been rewatching a lot
00:00:42.140of The Office and also one of my favorites, Parks and Rec. And that's what I want to talk about
00:00:47.700today. I want to talk I want to talk about the reason that I think a lot of people are rewatching
00:00:51.240Parks and Rec right now. And I don't think it's just because it's hilarious and fun, but also
00:00:56.280because we're so desperate to believe in each other again. This week, I'm joined by pop culture
00:01:02.200journalist and bestselling author Jennifer Armstrong, whose new book Parks and Rec,
00:01:07.220the underdog TV show that literally inspired a vision for better America, explores the unlikely
00:01:13.020legacy of a sitcom that nearly got canceled and somehow became one of the most beloved shows of
00:01:18.160our time. Oh, this conversation actually feels like sinking into a warm bath with a delicious
00:01:25.540Meatloaf. We're going to talk about why Leslie Knob feels more relevant than ever, what Parks
00:01:30.220and Rec can teach us about community in the age of loneliness, and how a relentlessly optimistic
00:01:35.400woman in local government became one of television's greatest feminist heroes. I think we all want
00:01:42.380politics to feel a little more human these days, a little more human, a lot kinder, and a lot more
00:01:49.480based in our actual communities, to be honest. So sit back, sink into a warm bath,
00:01:56.580eat some meatloaf, and re-watch Parks and Rec with Jennifer and I.0.93
00:02:07.280Jennifer Armstrong, you are my go-to when it comes to deep dives that are really, really smart
00:02:13.400into pop culture. I love all of your books, so I have a thousand questions for you today.
00:02:19.480Okay. So many. So many. But I want to start out with the show Parks and Recreation because it
00:02:26.900is something that I've been binging recently because it's kind of like meatloaf for my soul
00:02:32.680right now. It's calming. It's soothing. I can no longer binge the West Wing because it just makes
00:02:38.360me too sad. But Parks and Rec gives me hope. And I want to unpack that a little bit because I think
00:02:43.920that it gives you hope too. But I want to see why. Why do we think that this show, against all the
00:02:50.620odds, actually makes us feel hopeful about the dumpster fire of the world today? It's so interesting
00:02:57.040because, of course, I don't think, I mean, I think Mike Schur, the creator, is brilliant, but I don't
00:03:01.900really think he could have been in a lab tinkering and being like, how will I give people hope in
00:03:06.8002026 with this show that I'm making starting in 2009? I can't believe it started in 2009.
00:03:13.920Isn't it? And which is like, to me, it's almost like a farther time away than like 1983. Like, it just seems like it's so weird. It's a weird it was 2008 to 2015. And I mentioned that specifically because of a couple reasons. One is and the most important is that it literally sits right in the Obama era.
00:03:35.140It's like he took office. The show comes on. The show goes off. Trump comes down the escalator like it's right in there and it knows it.
00:03:44.760And that was part of the point of the show that it was conceived like it was inspired by what Mike Schur calls nerdily Obama incrementalism.
00:03:54.760It is not about how government is perfect. This is not about how constituents are perfect.
00:04:00.320It's about how both are imperfect, but that it gives us the belief that there are people behind the scenes working very, very hard, like Leslie Nob and her friends, to make our lives incrementally better.
00:04:13.400Like, the best you can do is just, like, make your community just a tiny bit better.0.92
00:04:18.520And we see the constituents, and a lot of them are pretty nuts.1.00
00:04:29.320and politicians are nuts and like yes this is all true right and so i think because of that and also0.65
00:04:36.120something you even mentioned which is like you know west wings are like almost too much at this0.75
00:04:41.660point right now it is right now it is yeah like um this is slightly in the weeds but trust me um like
00:04:48.160it it's so funny because we did a list we did like a listicle of the best um tv casts of the
00:04:55.320last 25 years so it was supposed to be like after 2000 on who was on it who was on it um oh i mean
00:05:02.360parks was a huge inspiration actually because it started with us being like it's weird how
00:05:06.660successful the parks people have been like it was the show that barely stayed on the air and now
00:05:11.160they're all everywhere um other others are like the wire and stuff like like friday night is
00:05:16.600incredible like they've had such a good ensemble so incredible but what the reason i brought this
00:05:22.320up is like someone said to us in the comments like what about West Wing and we were like oh but
00:05:26.380this is supposed to be of the 2000s and they were like it is and we were like oh like it doesn't
00:05:31.140even feel like the 2000s test because we were like that's such a 90s show like that's a Clintonian
00:05:36.580show and it was when we had so much hope that it's like hard to like stomach now whereas you know
00:05:44.660Parks is kind of in between it already knows it's it's very interested in bipartisanship right or
00:05:52.020partisanship, I should say. Right. It's it's to its main relationship is between Ron and Leslie,
00:05:58.460a libertarian and a clear liberal. And it wanted to show from jump that these two people can love
00:06:07.680each other and work together. Now, that was still something you could sort of posit at that time.
00:06:14.020And now you could not have a cuddly libertarian as one of your main characters.
00:06:21.120this just would not work the same way which makes me sad yeah you know it gives us like
00:06:27.400it's kind of to me what it's saying it's like a little tiny time capsule from not that long ago
00:06:31.920that's like hey this was possible not that long ago maybe we can still get back there also it's
00:06:39.640fun and funny and light and incredibly romantic and all of those other things you know on top of
00:06:46.340that. And I think because also like West Wing is also very serious. So like you don't get any of
00:06:51.120the relief of like just the crazy wacky. I mean, parks can get very wacky and you can like literally
00:06:58.020be like crying, laughing at times, even, you know, no matter what. And you can kind of forget
00:07:04.080like the politics side of it and get wrapped up in that or wrapped up in Ben and Leslie,
00:07:09.020which I always do every time I rewatch it. So I think all those things together. And this is why
00:07:14.700I wanted to write the book because I think it's so interesting.
00:07:17.200It's like the show that barely stayed on the air.
00:07:19.300People were not that into it at the time because it wasn't really cool to be like earnest and hopeful.
00:07:25.580Then this was like 30 Rock era, you know, and now we really love it and need it.
00:07:32.280And it really went from barely staying on the air to when it started streaming.
00:07:36.080It became one of the most streamed shows of our current times, like starting with basically the Trump era and into especially the pandemic.
00:10:36.740and you're freaking five years old all right that's what happened it's true it's the weirdest
00:10:43.540thing i know and now we're now we're all like oh is the office okay for a nine-year-old and i'm
00:10:47.520like literally no one asked that question in the 80s right that's that's so true they're literally
00:10:51.760killing each other on these shows killing each other everyone's sleeping together yeah bobby's
00:10:56.180in the shower exactly happening on dallas i truly don't but yeah exactly but we're fine we're fine
00:11:02.340i mean we're a little obsessed you're a lot obsessed with pop culture but you're fine
00:11:05.960you're okay oh my gosh yeah well and i mean one of the things i really want to dig into
00:11:11.700in this episode is what can parks and rec teach us about community because i think that we are
00:11:18.680all just dying to get back to a more community-centric model dare i say it i was talking
00:11:24.620to my girlfriend carla yesterday um about spencer pratt running for air of los angeles okay a thing
00:11:31.740I think we all have to take seriously. And I think he's doing a really good job of saying he'll be the mayor for all the people, that he'll represent the community, because politicians do not seem like they're members of our community any longer.
00:11:45.100That's right. And and that is what Leslie Note kind of represents. Right. I think that's, you know, again, we see her helping everyone, even people that we clearly know, you know, most of the people she helps are kind of wacky.
00:15:25.640And that includes the villains, the weirdos, you know,
00:15:29.840even Dennis Feinstein, the fragrance magnate in the end
00:15:34.420is part of this community, even though he's evil.
00:15:36.540Even, you know, Councilman Jam, who is awful, is we have to we have to figure out how to work with him, you know, and that's what we see over and over in this kind of like, I think of it as like a Simpsons like landscape in Pawnee, like, you know, all the little tiny side characters with their I mean, the media, the media alone.
00:15:58.740Don Calamezzo, PURD. You also, it's not a flattering portrait of the media in general, but it is still, we need them. It's all, everybody needs each other and everybody in the end is coexisting. And that to me is what we're seeing here.
00:16:16.440And so when I've been out on doing events and stuff, I'm really trying to create this, but it's happening anyway, which is like the events have been great because people are so excited to come out and watch.
00:16:28.220Oh, because you're building community?
00:16:32.080And that's I mean, to me, that in the end is what why we get this warm feeling from this show.
00:16:38.520Or if you think of like a Schitt's Creek or Ted Lasso, those are about friendship and community as well.
00:16:46.000And that's, I think, something we've lost so much now. And it's all we talk about, right, is that, yeah, you can kind of be in community online, but we've lost a lot of the connection of, you know, people used to go to church or to some, you know, community centers or whatever.
00:17:04.540It doesn't matter. But they had ways of interacting with groups of people. And we have less and less of that now. And you can opt out at any time because if you're online, you can just be like, nope, all right, signing off. And this is different. This is like, no, what we're supposed to be doing is living in community together. And it gives you a great feeling, even as a person who can be an introvert like me.
00:17:26.580Like, I know that at the end, when I actually force myself to go out and interact with group, I'm like, oh, no, this is great. This is this is our evolution. This is what we're supposed to be doing. And it's why humans, if I may get super deep, have survived Iraq. The reason is because we're social animals. We need this. And that is what I think in the end Parks tells us.
00:17:49.640It truly does. It truly does. We're going to take a quick break, but I'm going to leave us
00:17:54.240right now with the quote that you have at the beginning of the book, because I think it's so
00:17:57.640beautiful, from M. Scott Peck's Definition of Community. A group of individuals who have learned
00:18:02.920to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of
00:18:07.660composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to, quote, rejoice together, mourn
00:18:13.840together. And to delight in each other, making each other's conditions our own.
00:18:27.940Okay, we are back. I want to talk about Leslie Knope, because you know that I'm very passionate
00:18:34.300about strong female feminist characters. Yes. Yeah, they're my jam. They're my people.
00:18:39.080but you know on this on the surface you know leslie's a little bit wacky she's a little bit
00:18:45.920dingy and yet and yet and yet she is all of these things that you know i seek to embody in my strong
00:18:52.680female character so can you unpack leslie a little bit for me yeah absolutely i mean the first thing
00:18:58.780i will say is just a nerdy tv thing which is the first season if you watch that um is quite different
00:19:04.900from the rest of the show and they knew it and they knew they weren't quite there yet when when
00:19:09.920they were doing the first season and she's like a little wackier a little more like michael scott
00:19:14.940from the office like a little not as smart um and they really kind of turned a corner when they
00:19:21.520figured out like she has her faults but and she's can be a little delusional at times but it they
00:19:27.180turn her delusion into like something that helps her and gives her a superpower almost as it goes
00:19:31.960forward. And as and she becomes this to me, I mean, I just love her so much. I relate to her
00:19:38.060so much. She's like this hyper competent. Right. There's certain if you were one of these girls
00:19:43.360with her binders in in school, you know what I mean? It's just I actually equate her a lot with1.00
00:19:48.800like Taylor Swift and Swifties. I think she would be a Swifty. I think she's definitely a Swifty,
00:19:53.620right? Right. It's very like Taylor Swift goes to local government because it's like this super1.00
00:20:00.100like intense, hyper-competent, like, and she isn't, she's, I think intensity is her biggest thing,0.94
00:20:06.580right? Besides her organizational skills. It's like, she is not going to let go of this. And
00:20:11.880that is why she gets stuff done and other people don't. Cause they just are like, okay, fine. You
00:20:15.580do whatever you want to do. And she's so passionate. I love that about her too. She has her faults,
00:20:20.920which I actually really like that they emphasize later. Like the biggest thing is that at times
00:20:25.480she actually will not back down. And there's times when, like, Ben, her, you know, boyfriend,
00:20:31.800eventual husband, is like, you need to learn to, like, listen to what other people are
00:20:37.120saying they want. You can't just do things because you think this is the way it should be done,
00:20:42.380and there's no other way. Like, you can't do that. And that's actually a great lesson for
00:20:46.360everything we've been talking about. You have to let other people in, let other people do stuff
00:20:51.920sometimes but she's clearly the girl who would take over the group project and just do it you
00:20:57.620know which i was too um so i totally get that and i love that she kind of really starts to be like
00:21:04.680an overtly feminist hero as we go farther along like she will say it um she has pictures of0.99
00:21:11.600nothing but female um politicians in her office we understand exactly what her aspirations are1.00
00:21:18.300there's a great episode called women in garbage where she's like trying to um argue that women1.00
00:21:25.100should literally be able to do anything and that includes the you know garbage service and then0.92
00:21:30.180uh she actually ends up having to go out and do it and make it happen and then they end up with1.00
00:21:35.860this huge like refrigerator i want to say that they don't they can't lift um but then they end
00:21:41.720up using their ingenuity and getting like a local charity to come pick it up. And then they can they
00:21:49.200can also use it. So it was like a very good, you know, it was a cute little thing. But she gets
00:21:54.400really more and more feminist as it goes along. And they would even they were even using like1.00
00:21:58.660Rosie the Riveter imagery for her in some of the promos as the show went on. And it really was one
00:22:06.440of the first shows that like said it was feminist you remember how we like didn't say it for a while
00:22:12.520and then say it for a long time we didn't say the f word we didn't right and then all of a sudden0.93
00:22:16.220Beyonce put like feminist behind her at the uh VMAs and we were off to the races and then it
00:22:20.680became Beyonce made it okay yeah and but but this was one of those shows that really like
00:22:26.080wore it on its sleeve pretty early and that's another way it was sort of not cool in its time
00:22:33.280but became cool it's weird to think it's not that long ago but there was a time when you had to say
00:22:38.560like female empowered or something like that instead of feminist so female empowered yeah
00:22:44.560yeah girl power girl power that's right exactly but you wouldn't say the f word so the f word0.99
00:22:51.620a little ahead of its time in that way as well and that's really that's leslie and that i mean
00:22:56.800And that's Amy Poehler. Amy Poehler is a great advocate of women and has, you know, had like her girls at the party site for a while, like smart girls at the party.1.00
00:23:08.980She's she's always been out there kind of doing that. And I think that's part of her personality coming through.
00:23:16.120Yeah, I agree. And I want to talk about the casting of Amy Poehler, because I think she's absolutely perfect. Was she always was she always the person for this role?
00:23:45.480And he was part of developing The Office for America.
00:23:48.520And so he came to Greg Daniels, who had brought it over to America, to The Office, and said,
00:23:53.680i want a spinoff and so this really came from like he said blank check if you do a spinoff
00:23:58.680make me a show uh make me another office and um they hadn't had a lot he recruited mike sure who
00:24:06.140had been writing for uh the office and said like do you want to do something with me um and they
00:24:11.340were batting stuff back and forth and the big aha moment came during that when they heard that amy
00:24:16.680would be available she was leaving snl um and that's like i mean mike literally ran into greg's
00:24:22.660office and was like, this is it. We have it. And so it kind of started with that. Like Amy Poehler
00:24:29.020is the point now. And they were still they still didn't even know which concept they wanted. They
00:24:36.480just knew they wanted her. And when she said yes, I do think this is interesting. They were batting
00:24:42.120ideas around. And one of the ideas had actually been like still kind of spinoffy, like maybe Andy
00:24:46.560Bernard from The Office gets married and we do like a family show, you know, like a marriage and
00:24:52.340family show and the idea and it's still a mockumentary and it's a mockumentary about
00:24:55.580like the most average american family and amy said she did not want to be a tv mom
00:25:02.240oh interesting obviously her character eventually has kids on the show but i think that's very
00:25:08.660different from like starting out as someone's wife and mother as on the show and i thought that
00:25:15.120was it's so interesting particularly because she was pregnant so like it's not like she was anti
00:25:20.040kid or anti anything. You know, it was just more like she understood the limitations of that kind
00:25:27.160of role. And so she was like, I don't love that. And they had always been batting around the
00:25:31.820government idea. And it really I think that was what Shur was most interested in. And she liked
00:25:37.800that, too. So that was kind of why they started going in that direction. But really, everything
00:25:42.340built around her. And it was it was an unusual way for a show to come together at the time.
00:25:48.400Yeah, no, well, that's that's that's so good to know, too, because I think I don't think it happens as often that a show is built around a woman that's built around an actress.
00:25:57.580It happens so often about men with men. Yeah. Yeah. Especially at that time.
00:26:02.160Again, I don't mean to keep making this sound like, you know, 300 years ago, but a lot has changed in a short time on many, many fronts.
00:26:09.900And one of them really is that I mean, especially when if you think about like, sure, 30 Rock is built around Tina Fey.
00:26:16.480but that's because Tina Fey made it you know what I mean and so to to have them go like no no no
00:26:23.280they were really they knew Carell was so good Steve Carell was so good as their center of the office
00:26:28.540and they were like we don't know how we're gonna get close to that and when they heard Amy they
00:26:32.440were like and it totally makes sense when you hear that that you're like yeah I can see that they're
00:26:35.840like improv background really solid person I think that's so important for this show is that Mike
00:26:42.980Scherr, I mean, Greg Daniels, too, but Mike Scherr, who ends up really running it, and Amy are like
00:26:48.820rocks. Like, these are very extraordinary people in Hollywood. I've talked to a lot of people in
00:26:54.220Hollywood, and these people are just different. Like, they have kept it together. They are human.
00:27:00.480They are nice. They are sensitive. They listen to you. They care about other people. And they
00:27:06.340really set the tone and said, once they got together, they were like, we were going to have
00:27:10.580a no assholes policy like that was their main thing and like we're gonna make we do not believe
00:27:16.320that you need chaos to make a great creative product and those were their two tenets from
00:27:21.820like and once they like connected on all that they were like this is it this is happening we
00:27:26.960will figure all of the rest of this out yeah i love i love that so much and i just she's so
00:27:32.120perfect there's no parks and rec without leslie without amy but then tell me a little bit more
00:27:39.060about how the ensemble came together it was really weird too um because of this backward process
00:27:46.240it was a lot different from a lot of other shows at that time so a huge amount of it was them just
00:27:53.460kind of like they're they halfway have a concept they don't really have a script yet um a casting
00:28:00.300director brought them aubrey plaza she was coming into town from new york for she came to la to to
00:28:06.160read for some other roles and this casting director was like go see these guys too um so she went in
00:28:11.620i mean she was like 21 maybe maybe not even um she had no agent yet that was how new she was
00:28:19.780she was just like an improv kid and she had been like an nbc page and an assistant in new york for
00:28:26.840a while uh and then she comes out and has this meeting and she didn't even really realize like
00:28:32.880this could be an audition and they didn't have her read anything she just talked to them and
00:28:38.360she started she's an improv kid so she started pitching like oh you should have like have amy1.00
00:28:43.160have like you know this really like you know laconic uh assistant who's like super sarcastic0.61
00:28:49.660and doesn't like anything and she kind of pitched her character and they they loved it they even
00:28:57.020called her aubrey in their early drafts um she didn't and then she kind of just got the job
00:29:02.820And then she was like, I guess I need an agent. So that's how she walked into a major network show. And then they saw Aziz on Human Giant and the show, the sketch show, and just called him up and they were like, we like your work. Do you want to be on a show? And he was like, sure.
00:29:18.220And this is very funny because it is in vast contrast to what happened to Nick Offerman, who had this like epic casting story where basically he read for what was the romantic lead.
00:29:31.060It was called Josh at the time, but it ended up being Mark Brindanowitz, who was like the guy who Amy's character was sort of pining after.
00:29:39.420and um so he and adam scott both read for that role as well which i think is very funny and
00:29:46.760also shows you what little vision they had for it because if you've got adam scott and nick
00:29:52.780offerman reading for the same role that is you know very different types and then he didn't hear
00:30:01.440anything for a really long time he was pretty sure he wasn't going to get that and it took them
00:30:07.120Like they eventually ended up essentially creating a character for him, but he didn't know that was happening. Other people around town were telling him they were reading for this role. It just went on and on and on for a good like maybe year. And it was while Amy was pregnant. And then when she finally came back, he got to read with her and he got the role. But everybody else just was handed their role. But Nick Offerman really had to work for it.
00:30:31.400Wow. I love lore. I love lore. I love mythology.
00:30:35.260Let's take one more quick break. And when we get back, I do want to dive a little bit
00:30:40.240into Parks and Rec lore and mythology and just fun stories that you discovered while writing this
00:30:45.720book because you write the most fun kinds of books. Like you find a TV show that someone loves
00:30:50.340and then you tell us everything we're dying to know about it. So I just want to hear some of
00:30:54.200the juiciest bits that you uncovered. Great.
00:31:00.440okay we are back number one how fun was it to write and research this book
00:31:09.400it was actually like literally the most fun um this is my ninth book and i'm i know i shouldn't
00:31:16.940have like favorites and whatever um but i've whatever we all have favorites i have a favorite
00:31:21.880kid i think they're like kids they each have their own little personality that actually you
00:31:27.420don't know what's going to happen when you start out. And then you're like, oh, this is what's
00:31:31.260happening. And sometimes you're like, oh, you're going to kick my ass. And other times it's this.1.00
00:31:36.340This, I keep saying it, it was like a spiritual experience. I am not kidding. There's been nothing
00:31:42.800else like it for me where I literally came out of this having, feeling like I was a better person
00:31:47.020for having talked to these people. And it comes, it starts with, like I was saying, Amy and Mike
00:31:54.000are just good people and they then you know hired nothing but good people who had this great
00:32:04.060experience together and so and they all like so many of them were like I will talk to you again
00:32:09.600about that like I will like if you need more and it was because what they have saying is you know
00:32:14.300I love talking about this because it was so special so like you giving me the opportunity
00:32:20.660to reminisce about it is a treat. And that's really the ideal. You know, I mean, so many other
00:32:26.660books I've done, there's at least somebody somewhere who did not have a good time and
00:32:29.960does not want to talk. You know, this is just granted, it was definitely it was not the kind
00:32:35.760of book where you're going to uncover like juicy, like bad gossip. You know what I mean? You're not
00:32:41.720going to hear about people not getting along. All of the juicy gossip is about how much everyone
00:32:45.940got along. But there was enough other story there. They struggled against the network. They
00:32:51.680struggled a lot to stay on the air. So there's enough story there to keep it going. And these
00:32:56.700people just like, honestly, Nick Offerman to you, I really want to say that it's true of everyone
00:33:02.380that I talked to you for this book, but it's like the sort of like holy trinity of Mike Schur,
00:33:07.640Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman has been such a treat for me. And Nick and I turn out to be,
00:33:13.200We we grew up like a couple of towns over from each other in the far flung southwest suburbs of Chicago in small towns.
00:33:21.540And it's the kind of thing where like there's it's one thing to meet somebody else from the Chicago area.
00:33:26.820It's another thing for me to get on the Zoom and be like, I know where Minooka is.
00:33:31.700I have been there. And he's like, holy shit.0.99
00:33:35.340So that connection was really great.0.99
00:33:38.540But also he has just maintained his Minooka.
00:33:41.540um it's he's an extraordinary human being he he has been affected I mean I don't I didn't know0.96
00:33:47.000before maybe he was a jerk before and now he's great I don't know but he strikes me as very
00:33:50.680midwestern and I got to meet his parents um stop it how did that happen okay so he's his dad's0.99
00:33:58.520actually in the book um his dad is the mayor of Manuka and I talked to a few small oh my god yes
00:34:04.580I talked to a few small town mayors and I was like well if I'm gonna do that you know I might
00:34:10.140as well talk to to the man himself so rick offerman um the mayor of minuka i talked to him
00:34:16.620he is exactly what you want him to be he's basically like an older um ron you know um
00:34:23.020though a little you know not that politically but just like very straightforward and like
00:34:28.320uses the minimum number of words and you know that kind of thing and just salt to the very
00:34:34.060salt of the earth so um when i did an event in chicago i invited rick rick and kathy offerman
00:34:42.020came his his parents and they are like i don't even understand but they're so nice he brought
00:34:50.080me he brought me a hand carved wooden ornament that he had made oh my god i'm dying right now
00:34:56.800i'm actually dying also like why are you giving me a gift what are you doing i should be giving
00:35:02.240you a gift um but they are just they were the sweetest um kathy bought like a few copies of
00:35:08.040the book and was raving she was like you're a genius and i was like let's all calm down but
00:35:13.660thank you um and she just loved it and she bought a bunch of copies because she was like we're gonna
00:35:18.560we're buying some copies for our local library because our daughter-in-law runs the library as
00:35:23.640the head librarian so i was like if if this just gives you a picture of what's going on here this
00:35:28.720is this is what was happening. And it was just it was so beautiful to kind of like I told them I
00:35:36.500raved for like five minutes. I was like, you need to understand. I don't know if you understand what
00:35:40.180you've done with this man. But like you did a good job. You did a good job. Incredible, like
00:35:45.080incredible job that he could maintain this level of authenticity and sweetness and thoughtfulness
00:35:52.500about others. He has just been very good to me. He wrote the introduction. He wrote the forward
00:35:57.280to the book which is so good I know it's so great it's he just has been so so wonderful and I really
00:36:05.000appreciate that and also there's just something about like when you get to meet the parents it's
00:36:09.140just a completely different where you're like oh you are a real person with parents who just like
00:36:13.360go around being your parents and these parents were perfect and I just that that was that was
00:36:20.300like an extra extra special situation so he and I got to have like a little we had a little
00:36:26.080conversation at the American Writers Museum in Chicago. And it was just it was just great. And
00:36:31.720I always like to bring the books back in some way to like, how did this affect people's real lives?
00:36:37.500And even this is a good example. It's like this is a real mayor. You know, these are real people
00:36:42.360running towns who then do connect to the show, even even when they're not, you know, one of the
00:36:48.800stars parents. This is this is where the real stuff happens. And it was so fun to also hear
00:36:54.080his stories that are so much like Parks and Rec like they've got an Eagleton you know they've got
00:36:58.920Shanahan which is the ritzier town nearby that they have a little rivalry with you know like
00:37:05.060all of that stuff it's like it's very real it's very real and I can vouch for the fact that Nick
00:37:11.100Offerman is wonderful at least in my experience so I had him and Megan Mullally on Committed0.96
00:37:19.320which is such a great episode i should re-drop that in the feed because it is just a goddamn
00:37:25.560delight it truly is incredible they're incredible and they were both so wonderful and they told
00:37:31.940their engagement story and it was just it was it was like a try it was like a comedy of errors but
00:37:38.700also just like the best engagement story that i've ever heard and they were they were truly lovely
00:37:43.460like i just it's one of my favorite episodes of committed you know what i'm gonna drop it in the
00:37:47.220feed for this sunday so everyone can hear it but i think that there is truly something you know0.67
00:37:52.760this is kind of what i want us to end on i don't work with d-bags anymore okay i just refuse uh0.83
00:38:00.900you know i've got i i recently had a contract going where someone you know ended up being a d-bag and0.93
00:38:07.000i'm like no more we're not doing this anymore because life is too goddamn short and so i think0.78
00:38:12.140that there is truly something about good people coming together to create something where you can
00:38:18.520feel it you can smell it you can see it and that makes all of the difference in a product and i
00:38:24.000think it made so much of a difference here i can just feel it when i watch this show in the end i
00:38:29.060really believe this is what it was over and over they told me their greatest joy like their greatest
00:38:34.700goal every day and on that set was to make each other laugh and you go watch some of the extensive
00:38:43.140blooper reels online and you will see they will also say some terribly filthy things among other
00:38:49.180stuff but that's what i'm here there to make each other laugh they would do extra shooting just to
00:38:55.920like improv more and see what happened and make each other laugh and this goes to the guest stars
00:39:00.620Paul Rudd told me this. Everybody, you know, they were like, Adam Scott adorably got almost a little choked up and said, I would run to work every day. I would wake up and I could not wait to get to work every day. That's what it was like working on the show. And I just, it's like, this is what everybody kept saying. And what, if you can create that even once in life, you've won, you know?
00:39:24.380you truly have and they've won and you have also won with this wonderful book of yours
00:39:30.300will you tell everyone where they can find you learn more about the book and also maybe attend
00:39:36.120one of these fun events that you have where you just get to watch watch this glorious show
00:39:40.260yes um a couple things so you can find me online jenniferkarmstrong.com um my uh instagram and
00:39:48.740tiktok are both jmk armstrong i like to i've been posting like old promos from the show and footage
00:39:55.760and that kind of thing there um and actually on june 25th we're going to have an online event
00:40:02.840with my friend friend and colleague sol osterlitz who um wrote a book called how to assemble an0.98
00:40:09.600activist and we're going to talk about um what would leslie nope do right now in the world that0.92
00:40:16.240we live in. And we are still going to watch some clips and talk about it. But we're going to we're0.99
00:40:22.500going to relate it to real life and what's happening now. We're still going to have a good
00:40:27.200time. We're going to keep it light. We're going to have fun. And I'm also going to be like that's
00:40:32.980kind of the kickoff to I'm going to be leading a once a month group online where we're going to
00:40:39.140have an assigned episode and then fun i want in okay great i will put you on the list it's it's
00:40:46.740totally free i'm gonna have suggested donations to um you know different kinds of organizations
00:40:53.700that can help with this stuff but um that's you know we're gonna we're gonna kind of like have
00:40:59.580discussions um have some political actions some little political actions you can do talk about
00:41:05.200the episodes and this is i really thought like how can i build community while also and that'll
00:41:10.540go through midterm time um so i'm hoping it'll be a little way of kind of like staying active but
00:41:16.700also staying sane in that time and having having the laughter as the best medicine so that is going
00:41:24.560the june 25th event is going to be at 8 p.m eastern on um substack live via our um substack
00:41:33.320Ministry of Pop Culture. So but you can also just find me in all of those places we said and let me
00:41:39.100know if you're interested in learning more and I will get you the info. Brilliant. I love it.