Announcer tonight, on late night with seth myers Stacey Abrams. Creator of david byrnes america utopia, david byrne and all new closer look. And all new closer look. Featuring the 8g band with sonny emory. Now, Seth Meyers Seth good evening. Im seth myers and this is late night. I hope everyone is doing well tonight. And lets get to the news. Well just this week we learned that women received unnecessary hysterectomies at an i. C. E. Detention facility the attorney general called for demonstrators to be charged with sedition and the white house wanted to use a heat ray on Peaceful Protesters to clear the way for a photoop i think at this point even queue is an undecided voter. Thats right federals officials reportedly considered deploying a socalled heat ray that makes targets skin feel like its burning, in preparation for clearing a peaceful protest across from the white house in june. Apparently, they decided the ray was too much after testing it on steve bannon looks like the heat ray was accidently set to Jimmy Buffett super fan. Multiple white house staffers reportedly tested positive yesterday for the coronavirus except for Steven Miller who thankfully wears a mask. Thats right multiple white house staffers reportedly tested positive yesterday for the coronavirus. But dont worry, theyre downplaying it so he doesnt panic. Former president barack obama announced today that the 768 page first volume of his memoir will be titled the promised land. Seems really long. But remember, most of that is pauses chapter one President Trump spoke today at the white house conference on American History this years theme was doomed to repeat itself. Barbados announced this week that it will remove Britains Queen elizabeth as head of state and become a republic by next year and the British Press has already figured out who to blame. According to a new report, leafy Green Produce has been linked to 40 serious e. Coli outbreaks from 2009 to 2018 wow, that stuff could really kale you i guess eating leafy greens, escarole of the dice look, if you ate some, just romaine calm and lettuce hope it doesnt happen again also sorry if this joke gave you an arugula heartbeat you know, when i get the jokes, i get the name of who wrote them that was written by two writers. Ian and bryan had to collaborate on that. Im assuming at a whole foods. Keep up the great work, guys i really miss seeing your faces. Finally finally, the owners of chuck e. Cheese have petitioned a Texas Bankruptcy Court to allow them to destroy more than 7 billion prize tickets that have piled up in its supply chain amid the coronavirus pandemic 7 billion tickets or if you convert that to prizes, one large bear and that was a monologue, everybody. We have got a great show for you tonight. One of our favorites, Stacey Abrams will be here to tell us about her new documentary all in for the fight for democracy. Also, we will have one of our other favorites, the great david byrne is dropping by i was lucky enough to see his musical american utopia before broadway shut down and now the film is coming to hbo and hbo max. I cant wait to talk to him about that but before we get to all of our wonderful guests, well, were at the point now where the word sedition and heat ray are in the news at the same time. Oh and, president cagilua falsely blamed what he called blue states for the coronavirus death toll for more on this, its time for a closer look. Seth been another week in our ongoing John Carpenter hellscape, you know where the thing to escape from new york only to move to dc to become the prince of darkness now theres big trouble in little well, everywhere dont believe me the president lied repeatedly about the timeline for a Covid Vaccine and falsely blamed blue states for the coronavirus death toll while his attorney general suggested charging protesters and political opponents, including the mayor of seattle with sedition and compared coronavirus lockdowns to slavery. The Justice Department looked into filing charges against officials in portland and we found out that military police had stockpiled ammunition and a heat ray to use against Peaceful Protesters in the nations capitol. The Washington Post reports a military whistleblower says federal official stockpiled ammunition and sought unusual crowd control devices before clearing protesters across the white house in june. Defense officials asked the d. C. National guard if it had a heat ray device the device makes people feel like their skin is on fire seth just a reminder, we did a closer look yesterday meaning this is all new [bleep]. This isnt a monthly catchup. You used to have to go in a coma for this much to happen, now you just need to take a nap. Things are so insane, were skipping past multiple layers of news at once we dont have time to process the fact that the government has a [ bleep ] heat ray because weve already moved on to the fact that they considered using it against using it against Peaceful Protesters. Thats the same weapon the martians used in war of the worlds. Nothing is fiction anymore we should all start studying the schematics of the death star now just in case and while youre at it, you know, study the schematics for the second death star from jedi and then Starkiller Base from force awakens, which lets be honest, its just a third death star look, i know its nine movies, but you guys should probably come up with some new weapons. Huh, seems like their weaknesses are the same i mean, i guess you know, its bigger, so thats something. And if you dont believe me, heres the president talking about forest fires in europe, they have forest cities you look at you look at countries, austria you look at so many countries. E they live in the forest. Theyre considered forest cities seth okay, so hes definitely confusing austria with endor i talked to the president of austria and he told me something ill never forget. He said to me, yub nub. And youre hearing it more and more. But i mean honestly, whats next the headline in the New York Times it says, Trump Administration considers using powerful moon laser to destroy seattle . The government has a moon laser . Yeah, man try to keep up. I took a nap. Yeah, well thats when the [ bleep ] happens. But as shocking as the news about the heat ray is, the truly disturbing thing here is that our government was stockpiling weapons, including a heat ray. Defense officials were searching for crowd control technology deemed too unpredictable to use in warzones, including the heat ray, which uses Millimeter Wave Technology to essentially heat the skin of people targeted by its invisible ray. And makes anyone within their range feel like their skin is on fire well first of all, i felt like my skin is on fire for almost four years so thank you, president heat ray. I mean, he does look like a guy who when his mouth is closed is working up a fireball to launch and second, this is so bond villain. If trump did have a heat ray, he probably would have explained this plan before he used it. Its a heat ray, james. And once i use it on the crowd, the rest of the plan is simple i will walk to a church and wave a bible in the air. But whats your end game, trump . Uh, i dont know. I dont know, just to like look godly. I dont know, really i dont think my plans through. Think about how insane this is they wanted to use weapons including a heat way against Peaceful Protesters in america, all so the president could wave around a bible in front of a church like someone on a Scavenger Hunt guys, i found it. Now all we need is the signed head shot of Steve Gutenberg and were all done. This is what happens when an unhinged Political Movement talks about Peaceful Protesters and political opponents like theyre enemies of the state trump and his allies and rightwing media have been using the language if war to describe people who challenge his authority. As protests broke out over the summer he called for overwhelming force and said you have to dominate the streets. Just this weekend, he used the word insurrection and called for retribution. In an interview on fox news, he has repeatedly warned that shadowy figures are coming to destroy cities and suburbs. Even making up psychotic lies about anarchists flying Cross Country in planes. We had somebody get on a certain plane from a certain city this weekend and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. And there were like seven people on the plane like this person. And then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage the person was on a plane said that there were about six people like that person moreorless, and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, the rioters, people that obviously were looking for trouble. This was a first hand account of a plane going from washington to wherever seth im sorry so your story is a bunch of people were mad at the government and wanted to riot and loot so they went on kayak. Com the night before, booked a flight away from the nations capitol, somehow got six seats together and then went to an airport full of security cameras, showed their ids to several people and quietly watched what trolls on their seatbacks until they got to wherever that was a first hand account . That they were flying to wherever you might want to get a secondhand in there to help with the details trump would make such a terrible witness for Police Sketch artist well, they had a head and beneath the head, there was sort of a skin covered tube that connected the head to the sort of the shoulder area. A neck . Oh, so you know the guy . Also, shadowy groups as a rule dont give their operators uniforms and sit them together on the plane in one big group. Youre thinking of ashleys Bachelorette Party we think we know who the leader is and she was wearing a tiara besides, we all know the only anarchists on flights are the people who crash the gate before their boarding group is called those people are the real threat to law and order hey, better get up here in case this is one of those planes where 37d is up in the front. Now, that happen a few weeks ago, but the important thing here is trump was not alone in spreading this insane rumor. It appears to have originated with a viral Facebook Post from a few months ago gop congressman devin nunes claims he personally witnessed the group of protesters on a flight you remember old nunes over here, right . The guy who always looks like he didnt write anything down during final jeopardy and then sues alex trebeck about it then the head of customs and Border Protection went on fox news and repeated the lie. Even though the agency had to later admit that there was no information to support his claim. In fact, last week a whistleblower accused the department of Homeland Security of distorting intelligence to support trumps lies about antifa and then last night yet another bombshell story that trumps deranged attorney general bill barr suggested charging violent protesters with sedition and accused them of trying to overthrow the government tonight, there are reports the attorney general has told federal prosecutors to consider charging violent protesters with conspiring to overthrow our government wall street journal was first to report that bill barr, quote, encouraged the prosecutors to seek a number of federal charges, including under a rarely used sedition law. Seth man, things are bad but i never thought id ever hear the words sedition and heat ray in the same news cycle our politics is now half founding fathers, half power rangers. Bill barr, you know, hes just trump with a law degree. All you have to do is imagine him with trump hair and circles around his eyes standing next to some weirdo blist scam artist, like the demon sperm doctor or the my pillow guy. This is all this is all the culmination of an increasingly unhinged and abhorrent right Ring Movement that sees its political opponents as illegitimate and seeks to punish them thats why trump very obviously does not care what happens to People Living in socalled blue states during the coronavirus pandemic he basically said as much yesterday. If you look at what weve done and all the lives that weve saved. And im gonna ask that a graph be put up. And now, its up this was right at the beginning. This was our prediction that if we do a really good job, well be about 100,000 to 240,000 deaths and were below that substantially and well see what comes out but that would be if we did a good job, and thats despite the fact that the blue states had tremendous death rates if you take the blue states out, were at a level that i dont think anybody in the world would be at. Were really at a very low level. Seth wow, okay so by that logic, the more blue states we have the better the job you did on this virus. I think were about to see fox anchors telling viewers to help the president by voting for biden. Good news for President Trump, as florida has been called for joe biden, thats putting the blood on his hands also as someone who lives in one of those states and knows people affected by this virus, i would but sure, if you just take out all the people that died, then you did a great job, dude. By the same token if you take out all his albums, kid rock has had a fantastic career this has to be one of the most grotesque things the president has ever said. Im sure trumps not our first sociopath president , but the hes definitely the first one whos open about it. Hes the kid who lights ants on fire for fun and when you catch him doing it, he says, its thats not what you think. Torturing living things gives me joy. But its also the most honest articulation of trumps beliefs if you cant empower or enrich him personally, he doesnt care about you. Thats the same ideology that treats protesters as traitors and calls for political opponents to be charged with sedition and by the way, the only way they can get away with this stuff is because we have an ass backwards Electoral College system that lets republican vampires write off anyone who doesnt live of like a dozen swing states if we had a National Popular vote, trump and gop would have to campaign in places like portland, new york city and i personally would love to see him try to pander to portlanders by growing a mustache and riding a Penny Farthing to an artisanal pickle store and this is this is a lot for a pickle theres better be those are pretty expensive. And this isnt the first its a good im just saying its a lot its a lot for a pickle. This isnt the first time trump has made it clear he doesnt care about americans who live in states he didnt win remember, he also wanted to cut federal aid to california during the wildfires last year and a former Homeland Security official said trump demanded fema pull funding because california didnt support him. Just a few weeks ago, he ordered federal agencies to cut funding to what he called anarchist jurisdictions like new york, seattle, and washington d. C. Trump only cares about the health and safety of americans when it can help him politically. Which why, for example, hes repeatedly claimed a Covid Vaccine is right around the corner, even though experts say thats not true. We remain on track to deliver a vaccine before the end of the year and maybe even before november 1st we think we can probably have it sometime during the month of october. This could have taken two or three years. And instead, its going to be its gonna be done in a very short period of time could even have it during the month of october were gonna have a vaccine in a matter of a matter of weeks it could be four weeks it could be eight weeks. Seth could be four weeks, could be eight weeks he talks about a life saving vaccine the way he probably talked to the electrician who wanted to get paid for wiring trump tower. Mr. Trump, we sent you the invoice months ago. And im gonna pay you, tony could be four weeks, could be eight weeks. Also experts have repeatedly said its highly unlikely a vaccine could be available by october. I think trump might be confusing a Coronavirus Vaccine with dqs pumpkin pie blizzard were very close, very close to having having a vaccine the scientists a t be topped wi cream, which dr. Fauci, i believe you were saying, would provide an extra layer of protection against the virus hes covering his face that is scientist for yes. So yesterday, the cdc director, dr. Robert redfield went before congress and made clear that even if a vaccine is available for healthcare workers and at risk groups by the end of the year, it wont be broadly available to the public at large until summer or fall of 2021 i think there will be a vaccine that initially will be available sometime between november and december, but very limited supply and will have to be prioritized if youre asking me when is it going to be available to the American Public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think were probably looking at third late second quarter, Third Quarter 2021 seth oh, man, now i got to rescind all those invitations i sent out for a december celebratory postcovid orgy. Still, you know, its probably better to do it in the second or Third Quarter next year. You know, tax reasons. Anyway, the point is experts agree a safe effective vaccine will very likely arrive. And we have to be realistic about the fact that things arent just going to instantly revert to normal before then or even after theres a vaccine we still need to practice Public Health measures, like handwashing, social distancing, avoiding large crowds and especially, mask wearing we know universal mask wearing can be extremely effective as redfield made clear in his testimony, which why it sucks that we have a president who says stuff like this a lot of people dont want to wear masks there are a lot of people who think that masks are not good. And there are a lot of people that as an example who are those people . Ill tell you who those people are waiters, they come over and they serve you and they have a mask and i saw it the other day were they were serving me and theyre playing with a mask. Im not blaming them, im just saying what happens. Theyre playing with a mask and so the mask is over and theyre touching it and then theyre touching the plate that cant be good the concept of a mask is good but it also does youre constantly touching it youre touching your face. Youre touching plates there are people that dont think masks are good seth all right, first of all, the only people who dont think masks are good are ass [bleep] who think theyre standing up for freedom by giving a teenager a hard time at costco dont tread on me, madison second, you think waiters dont want to wear masks im pretty sure they would wear masks even without a pandemic, then you wouldnt see all their facial expressions when people ask for substitutions. Can i get the greek salad, feta on the side, add quinoa, a tiny replace the cucumbers with carrots, and then switch them back to cucumbers and add the grilled chicken. But instead of grilled, can it be baked and instead of chicken, can it be tofu, but can you shape it into a chicken thank you, madison. What the president said about discounting deaths and socalled blue states was not just another trump gaffe, it was an honest articulation of his beliefs and beliefs of the movements he leads. The same goes for barr, comparing lockdowns to slavery and wanting to charge people with sedition. Its an unhinged Political Movement that sees anyone who doesnt support them as illegitimate and wants to dismantle democracy. And if that happens, well have to move to europe to escape the trump heat ray and live with the ewoks in one of those forest cities seth yubnub yubnub. This has been a closer look. Well be right back with more late night, everybody. Announcer for more of seths closer looks, be sure to subscribe to late night on youtube. Elp new homeowners who have turned into their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. 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Crest. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums with tums smoothies. We believe in good we can all afford sing it, yeah, yeah from coffee that opens more eyes to black business. All gold to me to a hundred shades of beautiful. Yeah, good to me young woman dont worry about it, grandma thisll be fun. young woman two chocolate milkshakes, please. grandmother make it three. young woman three . grandmother did you get his number . young woman no, grandma grandma grandmother excuse me young woman vo some relationships get better with time. Thats why i got a crosstrek. avo ninetyseven percent of Subaru Vehicles sold in the last ten years are still on the road. grandmother im so glad you got a subaru. young woman i wonder who gave me the idea . avo love. Its what makes subaru, subaru. Seth welcome back, everybody. The nfl season kicked off last thursday night with a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans and while it was great to see football again, there was a moment that left many people confused when fans started booing during a pregame moment of unity, protests against racism after the incident, one of the players shared his thoughts. People seem to be confused about why we did what we did we feel as though with everything thats going on in the world today we couldnt help but to take a stand. We may be athletes, but at the end of the day, we are all human beings to do, to take a knee against racism [ booing ] but, but, we also realize that taking a stance like that may have made some people feel uncomfortable. So instead of taking a knee, from now on, we will be wearing black lives matter tshirts. [ booing ] okay, thats a no go on the tshirts okay, okay instead of a tshirt, we will be wearing black lives matter bracelets. [ booing ] dang okay, okay i get it, you guys dont like bracelets. And thats why we will each have small sticker on the back of our [ d damn, i really thought the sticker would work okay, okay how about we wear black lives matter tshirts [ booing ] well hear me out first, dang okay so the black lives matters tshirts, but it will be under our jerseys so you wont be able to see them. But we would know that we [ booing ] you cant even see them. Okay how about black lives matter [ booing ] you aint even let me finish black lives [ booing ] hold on. Let me see something black. Black. How are you guys going to boo any time anything black . And you guys sure you didnt like the bracelet idea no thats unfortunate. My wife was really excited about making them. Anyways, instead of a knee or a tshirt well just stand in protest against racism what at this point, what do you guys want us to do . Well just do nothing. But well know and youll know its a stance against racism [ booing ] wait are you guys pro racism . That makes sense seth well be right back with Stacey Abrams newscaster coogans is closing in 4 months. The restaurant and watering hole that catered to so many including the staff. announcer mr. Peter walsh. Peter. peter walsh people came and they met and they felt comfortable. Its what we did with coogans. You felt safe and, if you were safe, you could be joyful. And, if you were joyful, then you could really go home with the dream that you had. woman 1 really, really fun times. man 1 you just end up there for hours. woman 2 its like the heart of the community. man 2 coogans is a special place for me. peter walsh everybody has a coogans. And in the next three months, almost half those small businesses, they could close if people dont do something. We have to keep our communities together. Thats how we get through this. How is tidy cats breeze changing the litter game . 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But how can we say its more than super fast . Boost mobiles upgraded network its eeeeeyooouuuuuuuu fast curious how do you spell eeeeeyouuuuuuuuu . . . Get boost mobiles shrink it plan, and watch your bill shrink to 35 month after just 6 ontime payments. Plus get a free Samsung Galaxy a11 when you switch, all on our new, upgraded network. Seth all this week weve had an incredible musician sitting in with the 8g band. Hes played with everyone from earth, wind and fire, to the b52s and is currently working with rock icon eric clapton. His new album, full tilt featuring sonny emory, is available now. On drums, sonny emory is here. Thank you for a great week, sonny. Our first guest tonight was the 2018 democratic nominee for governor of georgia and is the founder of the Voting Rights organization, fair fight. Her documentary all in the fight for democracy is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, starting september 18th. Please welcome back to the show, our friend, Stacey Abrams. Seth hi, stacey, how are you . I am well how are you, seth . Im doing very well we last spoke here in the studio in february, the night of the New Hampshire primary. Certainly a lot has changed since then we still have a country though seth yeah. You know what, it was a coin flip for a while, but we still have a country and certainly, one of the most important things to a country like this, is everyones free and fair right to vote you made a documentary about Voter Suppression over the years up to and including your Gubernatorial Election in georgia in 2018. Was this something you ever saw yourself doing, making a documentary . No, not at all. I had actually been approached by a few filmmakers who were interested in doing a documear i was there, i had no interest in reliving it but it gave me the ia of doing a documentary that didnt focus on me as a politician, but really focused on the voters, and understanding the history of Voter Suppression, so we can understand its current impact and we could mitigate its future effect and so i actually went shopping. I found an amazing producer slash film making partner in liz garbus and dan cogan they brought on board lisa cortes. I got out of the way, and they made this extraordinary documentary, and tricked me into being in it anyway, but i think they did a great job seth one of the things the documentary tries to lay out, is that what happened in 2018, whats happening now, this is not new, a lot of it was born out of jim crow. Did you find that this was something people were educated about or do you think it was new to a lot of people i think its not only new, but its necessary reconnection in the sort of dna of america, we had to understand that Voter Suppression was baked into how our country was started. But what really cemented it for me was a conversation with one of my young staffers we were talking after the 2018 election about what had happened, and we were talking about what was going on in florida with Desmond Meade and his attempt to restore Voting Rights for exoffenders and returning citizens and she said, well, why do they keep using the phrase poll tax isnt there a sexier way to describe it . And it hit me like a ton of bricks, she had no idea that poll taxes were legitimately taxes that were imposed on others and the more we talked, the more i remembered im the daughter of civil rights activists if youre a millennial, if you are a gen z, youve only ever lived with the Voting Rights act being in place and you may have seen eyes on the prize in class, but you havent really been steeped in the story of how hard it has been to first, expand the right to vote, and now to defend it. Seth you mentioned obviously your parents helped connect you to the history but it seems that you have always been pretty connected to the history up to and including, you spoke at the 30th anniversary of the march on washington. You were only 19 years old i imagine at that age, at any age, theres a lot of pressure at a speaking engagement like that how did it feel . I dont remember it im fairly certain i blanked out. Thats a lot of people seth yeah. And so, i remember getting out of the car, going, you know, through the process, getting up there, and i looked out over the reflecting pool and saw all of those thousands of people, and then i remember being done my mom actually we talked that night, this was before cell phones, so i had to wait until i got back to the hotel and call her from a landline. And she said, how did it go . Im like, i dont know. I dont remember seth well, you know, trial by fire. Its very important, obviously, early on to learn what its like being in front of a group of people you know, obviously, a lot of people are talking about how this election will be conducted, the level of fairness involved it seems like the president is doing a lot of work to sew doubt about things like mailin voting, obviously making it harder for the post office to do their job. Do you feel as though people should be panicked, or do you feel theres a way to approach this in the coming, you know, month and a half to make sure we do have a Fair Election . We can do nothing about the the white house. We cant control what he says or what he does but we can control our response and our power. And so, first, dont panic we know theyre going to keep doing things we know that he is going to try his best to bully and cheat us out of an election, but it cant so, first, dont panic, because when we panic we miss things and we make mistakes number two, make a plan to vote, and make it early. In 80 of the states in our country, you can vote by mail with no excuses. And you can start applying for it now we have this amazing website called allinforvoting. Com. Its a project that we did through the film and in partnership with amazon. It is an amazing set of resources and tools. You can do everything from register to get your vote by mail application to find out your early voting rules and your polling location so, plan to vote by mail if that doesnt work, plan to vote early in person and if that doesnt work have a backup to your backup plan and know where to go and vote on election day so, one, dont panic two, make a plan to vote early and three, dont do it alone we need to make certain that everyone we know has a plan to vote, that they tell you what it is dont let them say, oh yeah, im going to make my plan. Make them tell you what it is, make them write it down. Because, if we can overwhelm the system with our presence, we will win seth you know, obviously, you had a very close election in 2018 you know, theres a chance that maybe all of a sudden, you know, georgia is a swing state how are you feeling about ce prs as were 40 some days out . I think he can win here weve got 16 electoral votes were willing to send his way. Weve got two senate seats that are up for grabs jon ossoff running against david purdue, Raphael Warnock running against kelly loeffler, and with the right investment and the right turnout, we can pull both of those senate seats over to the democratic column. We can also send lucy mcbath back and send her friend in Carolyn Bourdeaux in the seventh. And we can flip 16 house seats and take the house for democrats. These are all within reach, because in 2018 without trying, we flipped 16 seats in the General Assembly we can do it again were a narrow state its a very close election, with the secretary of state controlling everything, he barely eked out a 55,000 vote victory. Weve had 750,000 new people register to vote since 2018. 45 are under the age of 30, 49 are people of color, and weve got really good progressive white folks in the state of georgia joining together, and we have the ability to win this election and deliver georgia as a blue state seth thats nice optimism to hear i do want to close i know youre busy i know youve got a million things going on. But as an accomplished author tv and films, what have you been doing these last six months to unwind anything good we should know about . So i just discovered a show, body of proof. I really like crime dramas i just finished rewatching all of elementary and discovered, because hulu recommended it for me, body of proof. Its a pretty good show. Seth alright, body of proof. Thats all were looking for is recommendations of one, good crime shows, two, how to save democracy. There you go. Seth and you always provide us both. So good to see you, stacy. Always a pleasure. 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Seth our next guest is an Academy Award winning composer, grammy Award Winning musician, rockn roll hall of fame inductee and the former front man of talking heads the film of his spectacular musical, david byrnes american utopia premieres on october 17th on hbo and hbo max. Lets take a look. James baldwin said, i still believe that we can do with this country something that has not been done before seth please welcome back to the show, david byrne. David, its so lovely to see you. Hi, seth myers. Good to be here. [ light laughter ] youre on a real set youre on your set, unless you remodeled your house seth no, this is the real set now. Yeah week two of trying to pretend like things are normal [ light laughter ] okay. An odd thing happened to me just now. Im in my office, and i realized, youre going to be on tv in a few minutes. So i went to i thought, oh, my god, i better, like, spruce up. I went to the bathroom and sprayed my armpits with, you know, that air freshener stuff seth yeah, yeah, yeah. That we keep in the bathroom, and i thought, oh, thats good. Im going to smell okay on television. [ laughter ] seth we dont have that technology yet, but i would love to if we could get smell through zoom technology, that would help yes yes. Seth david, your show was the last broadway show i saw before everything shut down. And it is an incredibly optimistic uplifting show that felt very necessary for that time it seems even more necessary now. Is it a show that you hope to get back on stage again . Yeah, yeah, we hope to get it back on stage. I think its gonna be realistically, i think its going to be about a year i mean, theres the vaccine and theres how long it takes the vaccine to get out there, and how long for people to feel comfortable, even with masks on, sitting right next to strangers, because, you know, the broadway thing is you cant do a broadway theater with 25 capacity. Seth of course it has to be like 80 . Yeah that might take a while. Thats okay. Weve got this movie coming in the meantime seth now, so this is you have this production filmed, and you had it filmed by none other than spike lee how does that collaboration come about . I texted spike. [ light laughter ] yes. Text is a wonderful thing. So, we crossed paths a few times, and so i had his text number, and i there was there were stirrings that somebody might want to make a movie of this show, so i texted him and said, theres somebody might make a movie of this, you want to come see it . Check this out so, he came to boston. It was a two show day. We do two shows on saturdays and by the second show, afterwards he came to my dressing room and said, i want to do this. So then it was like okay, get the money in place, and all that kind of stuff it was kind of a scramble to get it all together, and it worked i was thrilled, very, very happy with the way it came out seth i was wondering, for someone like you, that, obviously, youre on stage its not something that you im assuming in rehearsals you step back and watch things are you someone who can enjoy watching yourself . Like when you is it nice to have this sort of now timestamped moment of when you were doing this show i realized when i saw the first cut that spike and the editor showed me, that its the first time ive seen the show. And i thought, oh my god, ive been doing this a couple years now and i had never seen it. Of course, im looking and going, look what theyre doing back there look what those other musicians are doing back there i had no idea they were doing that. But also, in general, though, im a little older than i used to be. I dont take as much pleasure looking at myself as i used to [ light laughter ] seth it should be noted there are a lot of other musicians on stage for you to look at. Theres very handsome and beautiful musicians on stage, yes. Seth i wonder, you for my money and for a lot of peoples money, you made the greatest concert film of all time, stop making sense, and i wonder if anything there was anything from that, that you brought into this insofar as what you wanted to be grasped from a live because, this does have such energy, the same sort of energy i felt when i was in the audience we stopped making sense oh gosh. I know i know i know its a tough bar jonathan raised the bar pretty far, and so did we, the band but, i think were up to it. I think were up to it there was a moment during the filming where spike, who was good friends with jonathan, kind of looked up to the ceiling and goes, jonathan, how we doing . How we doing how we doing . I think were doing pretty good here [ laughter ] seth thats fantastic. We also talked, you have a magazine, reasons to be cheerful. And youre starting a new, i guess, maybe you can describe it to us, the we are not divided, is sort of a project that is again, has this same sort of optimism, that in this time were you to watch cable news most of the day you would think theres two halves of this country but you sort of have found that maybe people are more similar than were willing to let on so i have this kind of Solutions Journalism website magazine that we look for. Well, evidence of people who have Found Solutions to things that we think maybe are intractable. And my colleague suggested that well, kind of in the run up to the election, that we do a series called, we are not divided, where we report on instances where people are actually bridging the gaps between themselves and finding that were not maybe as divided as we are led to think we are. I know when they first proposed this, i responded and said, are you kidding . You know, i mean, i wake up in the morning, i read the papers, and i think were all ready to kill one another and they said, can you show me some examples . Which they did, which they did and i said, this is really great. So lets do this were going to do this for i dont know what it is, like, six weeks or so, up until the election and hope that it will make people realize that maybe were not as divided as we think we are. Seth i will leave it on that, because as always, i am in a better mood after i see you than i was before. That is true whether we talk or whether i see your show. And im so glad that those who werent lucky enough to see it on stage can see it on hbo and its just always a delight, david. Thank you. Thank you very much good to see you again. Seth david byrnes american utopia premieres saturday, october 17th on hbo and hbo max. Well be right back with more late night. M curiosity. 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Seth come back next week for new shows and new closer looks well have guests anthony anderson, keith urban, rachel dratch, alicia vikander, and sarah paulson. And this weekend, take a minute to sign up for nbcs new streaming service peacock, because Late Night Writer amber ruffin will have her own late night show there. It starts in one week on friday, september 25th, and shes gonna shoot it right here in this studio so sign up for peacock, which is free well be right back. Seth i want to thank my guests, Stacey Abrams and david byrne. I want to thank sonny emory and the 8g band. Stay tuned for lilly singh stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. We love you