Announcer tonight on late night with seth meyers, jim belushi. Star of hbos succession, actress sarah snook. Author of must i go, yiyun li. Featuring the 8g band with fred armisen and no Seth Meyers Seth welcome to late night. Hows everybody doing tonight . My parents are visiting me right now. So im doing great even though im apparently a little skinny and i curse too much and isnt it a little early for a cocktail, seth and anyway, lets get to the news during a press conference yesterday, President Trump claimed that the 1918 spanish flu probably ended world war ii. Are you kidding . They were more than two decades apart. I know you dont think thats a big difference, but it is. It is. Thats right, President Trump claimed that the 1918 spanish flu probably ended world war ii despite the two events happening more than two decades apart. Look, i get it its confusing were in the year 2020 and somehow the only band on tour right now is smash mouth i mean, the years start coming and they dont stop comings to s speech accepting the republican nomination from either the white house or the battlefield of gettysburg, pennsylvania okay, do you really want your speech getting compared to the gettysburg address its like announcing youre going to film the next american pie movie on the same set as citizen kane. According to a new report 75 of americans can vote by mail in the upcoming president ial election so good news the fate of our democracy depends on people remembering where they put their stamps. Oh, no. Oh, no oh, oh no. The head of the federal Elections Commission said yesterday that there is a substantial chance we wont know the results on Election Night. Oh, buddy. Im not even going to know my own name on Election Night russian president Vladimir Putin announced today that his countrys health care regulators have approved the worlds first Coronavirus Vaccine despite the drug not undergoing Clinical Trials though its definitely not the first time putin has skipped the trial. Guilty. Take him to roof. Organizers of the Upcoming Democratic National Convention announced today that new york congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez will speak at next weeks event and that nancy pelosi will take the stage to let us know what she meant to say organizers of the Upcoming Democratic National Convention announced today that former president obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will headline two nights of next weeks event. So the dnc will remind us of happier days while the rnc will just remind us about happy days. Amazon is reportedly in negotiations to use former jcpenneys and Sears Department stores for Fulfillment Centers which is better than theirt useo skater levels. According to the latest numbers, facebook ceo Mark Zuckerbergs net worth has increased to more than 100 billion. 100 billion isnt cool. You know whats cool no, no, no not facebook thats for sure. And finally, a new jersey man was arrested yesterday after throwing a pool party earlier this month for more than 400 people amid the coronavirus pandemic thats right, 400 people or as theyre known in new jersey, cousins. That is the monologue, everybody. Weve got a great show for you tonight. Jim belushi will be here to tell us about his new series growing belushi. Plus from the hit hbo show succession, sarah snook will zoom in from australia and we love authors here at late night. And im going to be talking to awardwinning novelist yiyun li about her latest book. But first, a closer look seth hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Captains Quarters if you watched last nights closer look, you may have noticed that my parents were visiting and it was the first time my father and the sea captain were in the same room, which was awkward as my dad is on the record as not being a fan of the captain to be fair, larry also doesnt like the beatles seth that is a true fact about my dad he doesnt like the beatles. But we made time for my father and the sea captain to hash it out and at the end of tonights episode, were going to show you that exclusive conversation. Our discourse, like the sea, got a bit rocky. Seth speaking of rocky waters forced segue seth the president knows he cant win in november with a majority of votes, so instead, hes trying to undermine the integrity of the election by sabotaging the post office for more on this, its time for a closer look. Seth throughout the entirety of his term, donald trump has consistently been the most unpopular president in history its easy to forget but hes been widely disliked since day one of his campaign. People might have thought they liked the character of donald trump on the apprentice, but thats a little like enjoying buzz lightyear when youre watching toy story and then meeting the buzz lightyear in times square to infinity and lets get this picture over with. Ive got to take a dump, kid it takes like 15 minutes to get this suit off. Trump has never once cracked 50 approval in the Gallup Daily Tracking poll, which is unprecedented. Even the cats movie has a 53 audience score on Rotten Tomatoes although, i guess unlike the cats movie, the white house cant just digitally blur out the [ bleep ]. Trump and the Republican Party have largely given up on the idea of persuading a majority of voters to side with them the way you normally would in a healthy democracy. The modern conservative movement is a fundamentally antimajoritarian Movement Based on excluding people, not including them its not a coincidence that their paragon owns private golf clubs. The Republican Party motto should be sorry, youre not on the list. Their only hope of gaining and holding on to power is through tactics like gerrymandering, voter suppression, the electoral college, stacking the courts or colluding with foreign governments, which is why trump has spent the last four years cold calling random countries asking them to help him cheat. Hello, peru, do you have any dirt on joe biden . Joe. Biden. Loves trains looks super cool on a bicycle. Now, trump got impeached for that of course so hes moved on to his next scheme, sabotaging the post office new today, the Washington Post reporting a sweeping overhaul of the u. S. Postal service. It was announced in a memo late friday from postmaster general louis dejoy. The post writes, the move displaced two top executives overseeing daytoday operationsrats are calling for an investigation into dejoy and his operating measures that some say have slowed Mail Delivery Service seth thats right. Late on friday, the Postal Service announced a massive restructuring that Centers Power around the postmaster general, louis dejoy, a trump loyalist who donated over 360,000 to the Trump Campaign and Republican National committee and right off the bat, you know its shady because they did it late on a friday night nothing good ever happens late on a friday night. Friday nights are for eating cereal at 2 00 a. M. And watching reruns of that cop show starring the guy who sells reverse mortgages. Youre not gonna fool me by pretending to be a cop i know youre here to take my house. Also, its incredibly suspicious to have a rightwing businessman and mega donor in charge of a nonpartisan agency like the Postal Service you think of postal workers as charming friends and neighbors straight out of mayberry this is like if your town ice cream man was replaced by karl rove. Here you go, kid, one bullet pop, that will be 6,000 theyre made by raytheon. On top of that, dejoy, the former ceo of a logistics company, also has a massive conflict of interest according to his financial disclosure, he has anywhere from 30 to 75 Million Dollars in assets invested in competitors to the post office, which is thats like finding out the new president of peta is the colonel. Your chickens will be safe with me oh, these legs and tcy not f eating. Now, trump and dejoy say the changes are necessary because the post office is losing money. In fact, youve probably heard trump complain about it at one of his fake news conferences theyve lost so much money over the decades nobodys ever nothing loses money like the post office its been losing massive amounts of money over the last number of decades. Massive amounts of money this is not something new. This is something thats been taking place for a long time it loses a tremendous amount of money. Seth okay, first of all, thats wrong the Postal Service turned a profit as recently as 2006 second, youre the last person on earth who should be complaining about someone else losing money you lost a billion, one billion dollars, in the 80s and 90s, which was more than any single taxpayer in the i mean, casinos rake in cash last time i went to a casino, iu threw your chips into and when you ran out it just screamed feed me. Also it makes no sense to say the post office loses money. Its a public service. You never hear people say the Fire Department loses money, we should start charging 50 per cat rescued from a tree. Of course, most owners i know, most cat owners would also pay 50 if you left it in the tree shell come down when shes hungry but i would love for her to learn a lesson now, trump is not the only republican politician to complain that the post office loses money. Its been a rightwing talking point for years, especially among those who want to privatize the Postal Service the Trump Administration itself rolled out a pat in 2018 and ri billionaire charles koch has been campaigning to privatize the Postal Service for decades, which is shocking and craven given that the Postal Service is literally in the constitution. In fact, its as old as the republic itself. So there was already a yearslong rightwing effort to privatize one of americas most cherished public institutions, the Postal Service then came trump and he was joined in his crusade by a bunch of soulless rightwing husks who want to turn every post office into one of those combination fast food restaurants. Yeah, ill take ten stamps and a doritos locos taco supreme and look, its absolutely true that the post office is struggling right now thanks in large part to the pandemic and a decrease in firstclass mail volume. Even though package deliveries have surged. But theres another reason the post office loses money. And its actually the fault of the very same republicans who are now complaining that the post office loses money. In 2006, the Republicanled Congress did pass a law that affected the uspss bottom line. It required the Postal Service to prefund Health Benefits for future retirees. We talked to experts who said that because of this law, usps had to pay more than 6 billion that it really wasnt ready for. So before the law, usps paid out these benefits as they came due. And they point out that no other agency has these restrictions. So without the law, the Postal Service would definitely be better off seth thats right. In 2006, republicans forced the post office to pay 75 years of health fund benefits in advance. Which is insane. Who knows what will even look like in 75 years. It might just be a chip in your brain and youll check the mail by winking oh, damn it, my student loan officer found me im really bad at winking. [ laughter ] so without that law i cant get my mail anymore. So without that law, its very likely the post office could have been operating at a profit before the pandemic. In fact, from 2003 to 2006, the Postal Service actually did operate at a profit. Until the 2006 law wrecked their finances from 2003 through 2006, usps recorded a total 9. 3 billion profit that all changed at the end of 2006. Enter the postal accountability and enhancement act, which was passed by the Republicancontrolled Congress and signed into law by president george w. Bush pension and Health Care Costs for the next 75 years including for people it hadnt even hired yet and put away enough over the next ten years to cover them to put this into perspective, that would be like you only working from age 18 to 28 and then expecting you to live on that income until you were 103 years old. Seth yeah, exactly imagine working for ten years then living off that until youre 103 the only person whos ever done it is rudy giuliani. Without this law, the Postal Service would have actually recorded operating profits in the last six years instead, its now in a dire financial situation thanks to a requirement that virtually no other Government Agency or company has to deal with there is congressional legislation that required them to prefund their pension liabilities in a way that basically no one else has to, which has created an enormous burden on their balance sheet. Theyre definitely in trouble. And what you mentioned, the prefunding requiremeterally hav or set aside money for the workers that havent even been born yet that will be coming in 75 years down the road is the primary reason prior to the pandemic seth just think about that they had to pay for Retirement Benefits for workers who hadnt even been born yet thats like going out on a first date and saying i had a great time tonight, what do you say we go back to my place and open up a 529 College Savings plan for our eventual children . It made no sense and it weakened the Postal Service dramatically now the post office desperately needs a bailout of as much as 25 billion from congress. Which if you ask me we should immediately do 25 billion is nothing compared to the 740 billion pentagon budget youre telling me you cant find a billionaire to buy an f15 or two . Richard branson definitely has the vibe of a guy who wants the wind to blow through his hair at 1800 miles per hour. And yes, i say that joke knowing my hair is getting more bransony by the day and yet, rather than spend the money needed to shore her up, one of his countrys most vital and cherished institutions, trump and the gop are using the financial situation as an opportunity to destroy the post office for their own political gain just this weekend, politico reported that trumps aides are everything from directing the Postal Service to not deliver l local officials from counting them after election day. That is chilling the president thinks he can just decide which votes count and which ones dont soon, hes going to start crossing out ballots himself and well all know because hell sign them himself. And whether or not trump actually succeeds in stopping mailin voting is almost beside the point. Either way, hes sowing confusion, setting up Lengthy Court battles and laying the groundwork to claim the results are disputed even if theyre not. Hes made that as clear as possible i dont want to see an election, you know, so many years ive been watching elections and they say the projected winner or the winner of the election. I dont want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd or a month or frankly with litigation and Everything Else that can happen, years. Years. Or you never even know who won the election i want to have the result around for weeks and months and literally potentially if you really did it right years because youll never know. I want to have the election. But i also dont want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesnt mean anything. Thats whats going to happen. Seth its only going to happen if you make it happen trumps like a loan shark telling you id hate to see your thumbs get broken. We can have a safe, successful election if we just adequately fund and protect the post office you wont have to wait years for results. But even if you did, why are you complaining . Waiting around is like the one thing youre good at your favorite sport is 98 waiting around you spend most of your days sitting in your bedroom watching tv and loitering on the white house lawn like youre waiting for a crosstown bus. You should be smoking a cigarette saying, i should have taken i should have taken the m66 i couldnt decide how to hold my cigarette. What do you think, trump like this or trump like this . Either way trump is openly trying to disrupt Timely Delivery of the mail ahead of a november election that will almost certainly rely on an unprecedented surge in mailin balloting because of the deadly plague he failed to stop dejoy has already announced major operational changes last month including slower mail delivery, post offices have been slashing hours, local Union Leaders and carriers saying mail is piling up in offices unscanned and unsorted its gotten so bad a democratic senator is finally opening an investigation into the delays. We have folks who rely on the Postal Service for our checks, Social Security checks, paychecks, prescription medicines that are coming in im hearing from folks, letter are saying theyre seeing piles of mail that theyve never seen before in their post offices seth thats insane mails not supposed to pile up in post offices. Its supposed to pile up on your kitchen table. Till one day a mustachioed stranger comes to take your house away time to pay the piper, old friend but you said you werent going to take my house i fibbed i distracted you with my mustache and i fibbed. And letting mail pile up is heresy for postal workers who pride themselves on timely mail delivery remember their motto, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night thats why trump would have been a terrible mailman he would have seen one cloud on the horizon and dumped his mailbag in the east river and headed for the otb theyll never catch me. Oh, no oh, no, since when does paper float . This is all trump has left he and the Republican Party have given up on fairly winning a majority of votes so now theyre trying to undermine the election itself because trump knows that if we have a safe and Fair Election in which everyone can easily participate, he has no chance of being the projected winner or the winner of the election seth this has been a closer look. Weve been talking about city harvest since covid began and now more than ever, they need your help feeding new york families theres a website below to donate well be right back with jim belushi. Announcer for more of seths closer looks, be sure to subscribe to late night on youtube. Hey, can i. Hold on one second. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. Safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him hes here. Hes right here. Hi hi. Hey thats totally him. Its him thats totally the guy. Safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. Safe drivers do save 40 . All in this together family were taking a chance family like birds of a feather family take off your shoes and dance verizon knows how to build jd power has named the mosth k awarded for Network Quality 25 times in a row. 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Seth our first guest tonight is a talented actor and comedian you know from such shows as according to jim and saturday night live. His new series growing belushi premieres on the Discovery Channel on august 19th heres my conversation with jim belushi. Seth hey, jim. Welcome to the show. Well, good afternoon, seth. Thank you. Its good to be here seth so i want to ask about the show yeah. Seth which is about your foray into cannabis farming. But i want to start by asking how did you decide to become a cannabis farmer . Totally by accident i got this really sweet little property on the rogue river in southern oregon. And the property behind me is an 80acre farm and it came up for sale. I bought it. And i was like, uh, now what uh, hay, alfalfa, corn, cattle of oregon just that year and i went, well, got a couple guys one captain jack who used to be the weed dealer at snl in the early 70s seth thats great. Yeah. [ laughter ] seth thats really exciting because i do think you worry that with the legalization of cannabis that it might become a little corporate its really nice to know youre working with a guy named captain jack captain jack. Well, there are no corporate guys in the field. Theyre all oldtime growers old spiritual creatures. Agriculturalists really natural, natural ingredients. The corporate guys kind of came in to see where the money is, but seth and now i and now ive become one of them seth well you look, i will say, you do not laying eyes on you, i have not in any way worried that youve gone corporate. You look very [ laughter ] you look way more like a guy whod be hanging out with captain jack than [ laughter ] yeah. Seth do you name do you help name the different strains, jim well, i have one strain we have about six, seven strains. And one is captain jacks, of course we call it the smell of snl. [ laughter ] because thats what he was known as back then, the smell of snl. because it was the hallways, you know, in the early 70s. Seth sure, sure. I have one called cherry pie that i really like, seth, because its a very low thc, its like 18 . But it has like 3 terpenes, which is the flavor and the smell. And with a little bit of cbd the three of them create what they call an entourage effect, which is just kind of this calming, theres no anxiety and theres no paranoia. You can still be chill and sweet. Actually, i named it because i would come downstairs at night and my wife would go, are you hungry . Id go, yeah. And she goes, lets go out to eat. Okay, what do you have a taste for, shed say . I went, well, im from chicago, i want a cheeseburger. She goes, oh, jim, its a little heavy for me. Anything else . [ laughter ] well, how about some sushi . Oh, i had sushi with my mom last night anything else . Well, how about if we go to a natural food cilantro, cilantro, cilantro. They put cilantro on everything. I go, what are you wasting my time for you know were going to eat where you want to eat, and eat what you want to eat [ laughter ] so now, i take one little hit because im a microdoser i only take one little bit seth yeah. I come downstairs and she says, are you hungry . Yeah. You want to go out to eat . Sure, where do you want to go . I go baby, we can go to taco bell as long as youre sitting across from me. Seth aww see and shes like seth what a great advertisement. Arent you being charming . [ laughter ] right . So i call that strain the marriage counselor. Seth oh, the marriage counselor. That is thats what id want. I told that story in oregon, seth, and it sold out in two months i cant keep it in [ laughter ] seth very good marketing they come into the dispensaries and say, you know, wheres that marriage counselor . He needs some. And on the other end i have a thing called Black Diamond, which the veterans really like because it helps with the ptsd, and pain and sleep, especially the ptsd and one of my friends is paralyzed from the chest down and his legs go into spasms. And this Black Diamond stops those spasms and so its really theres a lot of Medicinal Properties to this and i call that one assisted living. Seth that is youre obviously providing a service there. Youre also, real world philanthropic. You know what, i should say, efforts. Can you talk a little bit about the last Prisoner Project . Because i think its a really Great Organization thats taking into account that what used to be illegal is now not, and yet theres still plenty of people serving jail time for marijuana. Seth, theres 40,000 prisoners that are serving jail time for nonviolent Cannabis Consumption or possession. Theres a guy named Michael Thompson in michigan i hope the governor of michigan is watching this please release him he got sentenced to 40 to 60 years for having three pounds of cannabis hes been in for 25 years. He is now we wanted to get him out because we were scared for him to get covid he has covid hes in the hospital and this should not be a death sentence for something that is legal, its medicine, its nonviolent, and theres thousands of prisoners Steve Dangelo and myself, and a few other people are on the board and were trying to get these people out of prison and its always its always been communities of color subject to the disappropriateness of this kind of practices and its so im part of that. Yeah seth thats great that youre doing that. This is such a fun show. Its really cool to show you behind the scenes of this farm and the travels you make to colombia among other places. And thanks so much for making oh, yeah. I went to colombia for nine days with cameras and improvised the whole time and its probably the middle part of our three episodes its on discovery coming up on wednesday the 19th seth well, i cant wait. And thank you so much for making time for us, jim always a pleasure to see you you know, seth, its always a pleasure to see you and thank you so much for your time. Seth well be right back with sarah snook rst pipe in denmark. If you look close. Rst pipe in denmark. Jamie, are there any interesting photos from your trip . Ouch, okay. Huh, boring, boring, you dont need to see that. Oh, here we go. Can you believe my client steig had never heard of a home and auto bundle or that renters could bundle . Wait, youre a lawyer . Only licensed in stockholm. What is happening . Jamie anyway, game show, kumite, cinderella story. You know karate . No, alan, i practice muay thai, completely different skillset. Upbeat music shes doing it again. No coverup spray here. 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And tmobile doesnt just have a bigger network, ask your doctor about nucala at home. But a better one than ever before, with scam protection built into its core. Introducing, scamshield, free from tmobile. Get fewer scam calls. Period. With tmobiles supercharged network, you can say goodbye to annoying scam calls, and feel free to answer your phone again. Hello im jimmy dean, and only one like this any nicer. Ning a hearty, hefty, good tasting breakfast. With eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese and taters. And when you finish, you know you had something to eat. Seth sarah snook is a talented actress who was recently nominated for her first emmy, for her portrayal of shiv roy in hbos succession. Sarah is in australia. Because of the time difference, we had to record her late last night. So if youre wondering why my hair looks so different, thats what five extra hours of humidity does to it. Heres my conversation with the wonderful sarah snook. Seth sarah, how are you . Hi. Good yeah thanks how are you doing . Seth im doing well. This is the longest distance interview we have done since social distancing started. Youre in australia right now. Thank you for waking up so early to do this i am. I am its not too bad its like 9 00 a. M its fine. Its a regular workday [ light laughter ] seth it is a regular workday. And i should i want to congratulate you for your emmy nomination for succession, but because of the time difference middle of the night for you. Are you the kind of person who sets an alarm to find out if this happened . No. I totally my manager asked if i wanted to be woken up. I was like, no its like 2 00 in the morning. Ill sleep either ive been nominated or i havent. Its not going to change whether i wake up or not no, i got woken up by my friend who im living with at the moment in lockdown and they ran into the room and pulled the pillow off my head and said youve been nominated for an emmy and, uh, yeah. It was a pretty good way to find out. Seth thats a great way to find out you know, i was talking to Matthew Macfadyen he was on the show he obviously is fantastic playing your husband tom and he was saying one of the disappointing things, the depressing things, one of the many depressing things, but you guys wont be able to celebrate together at a virtual emmys. Is that a bummer yeah, it is it is, because i miss everybody. And you know, i want to be working again. You know, everyones in the same boat globally no matter the industry Everyone Wants to get back to work to be social and with their friends. But i feel like weve got such a great team and have such a great chemistry on and off screen, that yeah, its a shame not to be able to do that all together, particularly for so many of us being nominated at the emmys its wild. Seth i also want to point out that i was lucky enough to meet you last year at like the night before party and the whole succession cast, not just yourself, but all of you, you guys were like the hot people that everybody wanted to talk to. [ laughter ] everybody wanted to come up because i felt like right as the emmys was hitting last year was when everyone had finally caught up to the show it was cresting just at the right time it was pretty in some ways confronting, i guess, for me, because i really didnt expect to go to the emmys last year and like slip under the radar and not be seen, just work out what its all about okay, thats a very famous person, theres another one, im from australia, just be cool, chill out. But then when they all started coming up to me and going, hey, i love your work, yeah, that [ laughter ] seth i do feel like now everybody is, you know, thirsting for a third season, whereas the Second Season maybe caught people a little by surprise obviously, youre thirsting for a third season as well is there i mean, you hear whispers that its maybe going to start in the winter yes i mean, i want to get back as soon as possible and in a couple months time that will happen. But i think everything changes so fast at the moment, that you can say, its october and it will end up being sometime later, because, you know, we dont know whats going to happen seth its good that you guys as a cast are taking the pandemic seriously, because i dont think a single character on the show would. No. Not in the way of like constantly hand sanitizing and just isolating themselves way ahead of any advice to isolate theyve would you know, and theyve got their summer palace. Theyve got they wouldnt even have to isolate together. They could all have a house to themselves seth theyd be all right yeah. But they probably would want to isolate together in some ways, just in case somebody made some moves or positioning seth right just to keep eyes on them. Has the show taken off in australia . Because some might even say its based on australians it has taken off in a way that i feel its still like what first season was in america. Like, theres still a bit of word of mouth going on its on a tv channel like its on foxtel and on binge now, i think. So its there. But its still simmering, which is nice. Yeah seth you did find out on halloween that it was slightly more popular than you had known. I did, yes. I kept being tagged in photographs that sort of jarred me a little to go, oh, thats not me thats not me. Thats a terrible red wig. But its meant to be me. Okay thats just paper bag pants and a turtleneck with a gold chain thats you didnt know you would be going to this Halloween Party tonight, and you just found that in your closet and you made a costume. My favorite was seth but it was funny to hear that and realize, oh, yeah, shiv does have a very iconic style that you could also not have to do a ton of planning for, but also nail the shiv look but this is a style you sort of brought to the i mean, i wear highwaisted pants and sort of a wider leg pant, i guess. But theres no way in which that i am stylish as sarah. [ laughter ] any style i brought to the character was cherrypicked from other things and then put together by michelle, far more than it was me yeah seth i do want to provide you this opportunity before we go to clear up an internet rumor about your birthday. Oh, yes please im a proud sagittarian. I am not born july 28th. My birthdays the 1st of december someone made a Wikipedia Page up for me, and they just decided that 28th of july was me and so, for a couple of years now ive been getting happy unbirthdays from friends, and even my agent actually wished me a happy birthday once a couple years ago. Seth its nice, though i feel like its a good way to distinguish your real friends from your friends who just sort of are living off Internet Knowledge of you oh, 100 . Yeah whenever i get a happy birthday from somebody whos maybe not in the know, im like okay, well, we need to work on this friendship i need to let you in a little closer maybe its my fault that i havet to im thinking of, like, planting a poison pill fake birthday just so i can like separate, you know, the posers from the real deal yeah. I mean, its lucky that im only six months out but i feel like if i was going to fake my own birthday i should have gone, you know, three, four years, five years earlier. Seth yeah, thats true thats i guess how we know you didnt do it yeah, its true yeah yeah seth uh, congratulations again on the nomination. Thank you. Again, its 9 00 a. M. , but for a lot of actors thats a big, big deal so we will say thank you and, uh im going back to bed, to be honest [ laughter ] seth always great to see you, sarah good to see you seth see different hair well be right back with yiyun li did is now offering an extra 15 credit on car and motorcycle policies . Wow. Ok thats 15 on top of what geico could already save you. So what are you waiting for . Idina menzel to sing your own theme song . Tara, tara, look at her go with a fresh cup of joe. Gettin down to work early following her dreams into taxidermy oh, its. Tax attorney. I read that wrong, oh yeeaaaah geico. Save an extra 15 percent when you switch by october 7th. Give it up for tara no uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. Crunchy oat clusters with a hotouch of honey. 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Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat, standing and score. Follow the teams you love. And, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. So youll never miss an update. With the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Seth our next guest is an awardwinning writer whose latest novel must i go is available now wherever books are sold but now is a great time to support independent bookstores heres my conversation with yiyun li seth hello, yiyun. How are you . Good. Hello, seth. How are you . Seth im well. We were just talking we had not met before, but we were at a pen literary awards march 2nd, in new york city. You won an award for your book and thats the last time either of us went out in public thats right. I was very happy to receive the award from you and then i went into the lockdown mode after that night [ laughter ] seth so i wanted to ask you about this you did not set out to be a writer you were actually studying to be a scientist, an immunologist no less what happened that made you decide that you were on the wrong career path . What happened so i came i came from china, i came to this country to pursue a ph. D in immunology. And i think partly science was easy for me and i was good at science. Little bored. So, i always say i had an early all of a sudden i realized i couldnt stay in science anymore. So, i wanted to try Something Different and challenging. And what could be more challenging than writing seth was it true that you were only taking writing classes to try to teach yourself english in the beginning yeah. So, i took a Community Writing class, you know, sixweek, one night a week, and i was by far the youngest student there, and everybody else was like over 60. I was trying to learn english. [ laughter ] seth and did you do you feel like your approach to writing insofar that youre disciplined is helped by the fact you had a background in science . Very much so. I think, you know, there are two things i brought from science to writing. One is as you said, discipline you know, in science i dont think you sit at home waiting for inspiration. You just go into your lab and you do the bench work. And if it fails you do it again. So thats pretty much how i and the other thing is, in science, we never say we are 100 certain about something. We always have hypotheses and we do experiment to explore these hypotheses and were proven right or wrong in fiction writing i dont think i can ever say i know a character with 100 certainty. Mostly i write to explore the characters seth was it helpful to have a background in immunology when this pandemic began . Well, it very much helped i think science to me i mean, science makes me a realist i look at facts. I look at the world with facts and also i feel like really science just gives you common sense. You know, you go out to the world, you wear a face mask. Thats common sense. Except i think sometimes people have common i call them common nonsense when they go out into the World Without masks. So, i think, you know, science really teaches me this is life, this is reality, and we live with that. Seth well, im never going to forget the term common nonsense because i will say nonsense has become very common. So, your latest novel must i go, you were working on and you actually stepped away from to write, where reasons end, which is the book that you won your award for earlier this year and then you returned to write must i go. What was that process like of, one, walking away from one book and then time passing and coming back to it yes so i was working on must i go for a couple years and in the novel, lilia, the main character lost a child when she was 44 and then, you know, i think sometimes life is strange. Life follows fictions footprint. And my life ran into the same situation. I lost a child when i was 44 and this overlapping of my biography and the characters biography, i think i was unsettled. So i left that book and i wrote where reasons end, which is more autobiographical. And i came back, and i didnt want to come back. And lilia, however, is such a bossy character. I think in the novel she bosses everybody around she also bosses me around. Must i go from the novel i must not so she actually insists that i come back to write her story seth that is very nice when characters have that pull on the creator. I think that then shows up on the page yeah. Seth there are two books ive read that you reread every year those books are war and peace and moby dick. Can you talk about what you get from rereading those two classic works of literature . Yes so i read those novels, you know, six months of moby dick, six months of war and peace a year, every year so war and peace is the most realistic fiction. You know, the epitome of realism. And moby dick is the opposite. Its all metaphorical writing. So i enjoy just going from realistic setting to metaphorical setting and back and forth just so my life has that good rhythm seth i read war and peace in college and i never would have read it, except it was assigned and we had the most wonderful teacher, professor weil and you have actually shared the experience of reading this book with people. You basically had an Online Book Club where you invited people to read a little bit of war and peace every day because it can be daunting but as you noted, it is, you know, it is rooted in realism. Its actually not that hard of a book to read yes so it just happened that at the beginning of the pandemic i realized i was due for my annual reading of war and peace and i had this idea of just inviting people to participate, to join me for a readalong. And surprisingly, i thought 10 people would show up and 3,000 people from around the world showed up. And i mean, we got all six continents, but for antarctica they sent tweets in 24 7, in all languages. And i realized it gave people a good structure of their life during the pandemic, especially at the beginning of the pandemic everybody you know, some people read with their Morning Coffee some read with their, you know, cocktail and a lot of older parents reading with grownup children i have heard at least, you know, from five, six families theyre reading together so seth well, it is always wonderful to that collective joy of reading, and its really nice that you shared that with people congratulations on the book. Its so nice to see you again, albeit virtually thank you so much seth get a copy of yiyuns book must i go at your local bookstore. Well be right back. However you go back walmarts got your back. However you go back walmarts got your back. All in this together family were taking a chance family like birds of a feather family take off your shoes and dance verizon knows how to build unlimited right. You start with the network jd power has named the most awarded for Network Quality 25 times in a row. Then, give people more plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. Verizons unlimited plan is so reasonable, they can stay on for the rest of their lives. Include the best in entertainment and offer it all plus, 700 off our best phones when you switch. Because everyone deserves the best. The is unlimited built right. Only on verizon. Still driving the old [royal model huh . Nt trumpets] ive been looking but i just need someone to tell me what a good price is. Just use autotrader, its the only one with kelley blue book. Tells you if the price is good. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Acc scratch that,ss baby, im grateful. Got to say its really been a while but now i got back that smile. Smile. Check everything off the list with lower prices and hundreds of deals. Get ready for school at target. Lily everyone in the house is online and i cant get enough bandwidth to video chat with my book club. Try 1 gig internet with at t fiber. You get more bandwidth and hb so, everyone stays entertained. So i can just watch the show instead of reading the book . You know, if you turn on your subtitles. Thats almost reading. Get 1 gig internet with at t fiber for 49. 99a month for a year. No annualcontract. And now get hbo max included. Limited availability in select areas. Call 1. 877. Only. Att well then chill your reeses, dessyoull eat it slower. Ast . I wouldnt know i swallow mine whole like a duck. Not sorry. Reeses. Theres a reason 1 serum is sold every minute revitalift hyaluronic acid serum. With our highest concentration of hyaluronic acid. Visibly replumps skin. And reduces wrinkles. Revitalift hyaluronic acid serum from loreal. Seth come back tomorrow when our guests will be jeff goldblum, and from schitts creek, annie murphy plus sam jay, a terrific comedian and saturday night live writer with a wonderful new netflix special. Then on thursday, the hilarious paula pell and john lutz will be here plus we have closer looks and amber ruffin so make sure you tune in well be right back. 360 smart bed, on sale now, . Er gently warming your feet. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. And now, save up to 500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. Plus no interest until january 2023 on all smart beds. Ends wednesday its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] seth i want to thank jim belushi, sarah snook, and yiyun li i want to thank fred armisen and the 8g band. Stay tuned for lilly singh