You're listening to Comedy Central.
He welcome AX the Daily Show. My guests and I.
Just returned from the Paris Olympics after winning three gold medals for Team USA. Congratulations, you must be over the moon, good lord. Three gold medals, one gold in the two hundred meter sprint, another goal in the four by one hundred relay, another gold in the full.
X four hundred relays.
I feel like I just ran a marathon just getting through all of your accolades.
This is amazing. Congratulations, Thank you.
Honestly very relieved to be back in America. I was overseas for about a month and just so grateful.
I really am. This is years in the making.
I've been training for this moment for five years, and so to have it all turn out this way is truly incredible for me.
Oh you two Tamras.
We just saw you win the two hundred meter race. You were so far ahead everyone else, Like, what was the moment that you realized, Oh my god, I'm going to.
Win the gold.
So truthfully, I had been envisioning myself winning that race over and over again the entire time that I was in Paris, and so in my head when I got into the starting blocks, I had already won the race. I had believed that I was an Olympic champion. The true moment that I realized I had one was coming off the curve. Anyone who watches my track career knows that I finished my races really strongly, and the last
hundred meters is my bread and butter. And so if I can come off the first hundred meters ahead, I kind of I know I've won the race.
So thank you.
You essentially manifested this for yourself. Is there anything you can do about the upcoming election? Acting for a friend? One of my favorite moments and all of this was getting to see your mom's reaction the moment that you won. Can you talk about how instrumental she's been throughout your journey?
Oh my goodness.
I can go on and on about my mom and her support. So I grew up with them. Yeah, I give it up.
I know.
I mean, my mom has believed in me since since I've been born. I grew up with a single mom. I grew up with her and my twin brother, and she has done everything for us from you know, she started as a waitress and then worked her way and now as a professor of an endowed Chairman professorship at the University of Michigan, and so I watched her. I've watched her my entire life work really hard for something
and to make her dream happen. And she's always instilled in me the importance of not only education, but going after your dreams and giving back to your community. And so she was the best role model that I could have ever imagined having. And she told me I will never forget when I was nine, maybe ten years old, that I had a light in me and that I was going to shine very brightly and that it was my purpose to do so and give it back to
the world. And I will never forget that conversation. But just constantly having that type of validation, having that type of a role model to look up to me to where I am.
Training for the Olympics is clearly an enormous amount of physical training and exertion, But what about the mental aspect of it, all of the pressure of feeling like you have to perform in this moment, in this moment in time. Do you have coping mechanisms that you deal with, because I pretty much have a mental breakdown within the first four minutes of hot yoga.
How do you manage all of Oh gosh, yeah, a lot of people don't realize that our sport half of it is mental. You can prepare physically every day and be so physically prepared, but if you're mentally not there, you just you're not going to be great. You know
you can be good, but you can't be great. And I remember telling all of my loved ones before I competed at the Olympics, I don't know how I could have prepared for this moment, because there is nothing like walking out into that stadium and seeing eighty thousand people on top of you, millions of people watching at home and in track and field. It's just you out there. You don't have a team to rely on. There are
no do overs, there's no next play. This is it and this is your moment, and if you don't do it in that moment, then it's over. And gosh, for me, that was a lot of pressure to take on. But I was as prepared as I could have been. I do a lot of meditation exercises, I did my visualizations of the race, I did all of my positive self talk, and I just have a healthy relationship with the.
Sport and myself and the sport.
So while I did believe that I could win the gold medal, I also knew that it was okay if I didn't. All I had to do was put my best self forward and be the best athlete that I could be.
So you're saying no burden, no no burdn no burken birth.
Well, as though it's not enough to be a three time gold medalist medalist, you also graduated from Harvard with the bachelor's in neurobiology.
You have you have a mass years in public health.
Do you use your neurobiology education and to help inform the way that you train?
I think so.
So.
I think I actually had a bit of an advantage studying neurobiology when I was an undergrad because I grew to have a very deep understanding of how the brain could actually help you athletically and what was important. For example, recovery is huge in our sport. It is almost as important as the actual racing and the actual practicing. And understanding neuroplasticity and the neural pathways and how they change when you're doing certain things for your recovery was really important.
Understanding how sleep was very important. If you're not getting enough sleep every day, how that can detrimentally affect your training, How can it affect how you compete? And just really having that understanding for it, Understanding how going through training and the repetition, the muscle memory, all of that is integral to to being successful in track and field. So actually understanding that and appreciating it, I think really helped me.
Different from your coach just telling you, you know, go get eight hours of sleep, you really need it, But I really appreciated it.
You as though it's not enough. All that you do, you're endlessly impressive. You dedicate a lot of your time towards volunteer work with a health clinic in Texas, providing medical care for people who don't have health insurance. Why is this kind of work so important to you?
Mainly because I believe everybody deserves equal access to health care.
Thank you, simply.
But when I was in school studying neurobiology, I started taking a few sociology courses as well to complement it, and I realized that there were a lot of things we don't learn about the healthcare system in our regular curriculum, and I was being exposed to it, and I drew a passion for studying and gaining a foundation and racial disparities in healthcare, and it just really struck me to my core, especially being a black woman in America, and now that I'm actually seeing it in real time in
Austin at the volunteer health Care Clinic, there are just so many things that we can do better. I mean, these are people who really don't have access to health care otherwise, I don't know where they would turn to, and we are people. It's a volunteer based clinic, so these are people who are dedicating time out of their day to give just primary care, preventive care education. And it's unfathomable to me that these people would have nowhere else to turn to if this clinic didn't exist.
And it's just so simple.
It's a simple concept, right. We could increase funding for it and people can have access to health care so easily, and that's what we do with the clinic. And it's really just near and dear to my heart because everybody deserves that.
It's so inspired. Refuse to ask the question what will you do next? Because, for the love of God, you just won three gold medals.
You should celebrate it and enjoy it.
So what I'm curious about is, how are you celebrating this incredible moment.
Well, I'm just really excited to go back home to Austin, Texas to be honest, and spend time with my puppy, Rico, get.
Back into my morning routine.
I'm going to my local coffee shop, go see my friends and family and get to celebrate with them just in our home setting, and then maybe plan a vacation after that. But I just can't wait to get back to my normal life.
I'd say you were in a pretty nice vacation. Thank you, Thank you.
Ny. Tell anyone, well, my guests tonight is now.
Who is currently nominated for an Emmy for his work on the Apple TV Plus series The Morning Show.
Please welcome Mark Duclaus.
They love yeah oh much?
Did you pay for that way?
Not a dime?
Not a dime?
Baby?
Congratulations, Emmy nominated. This is your second nomination, uh for The Morning Show, and this time you're alongside other YOU'R co stars Billy Crudup and John Hamm. Tell us why you feel you're you deserve the award more than them?
Well, there's a there's a couple of things, the versus a smaller thing. But it's just my talent.
Sure, yes, obviously.
That's generally it. Yeah, then it's like a Hollywood thing like to talk about it. A lot do go on, but there's a there's a penisize issue as well. Yes, so hands down, you know, like so to speak, they do these you know, these aren't their real names.
You know.
It's like John Ham so maybe that insinuate like Billy crewed up up, you know, and I'm just like, I'll just go do plas like I don't need to brag you.
You know, I love it. This is you you.
It is well deserved, very well deserved. Congratulations. I imagine being on the Morning show, you have to do a lot of research by watching all the other morning shows. Do you have a favorite, and keep in mind Gail King does watch the Daily Show, so careful what you say.
I like Gail King's show.
That's it.
That's it.
I like Gail King's I like Gail King's show.
Yes, we love you, Gail.
It's the best of all the shows.
You know what.
I'm not like a big research actor like I'm kind of I would say Chip is like a twenty to thirty percent more stressed out version of me and how I am. But what I did discover when I was talking to people about this show is how freaking stressful the live news thing is. Because I produce independent films and I'm like, I know what it's like to work on time constraints and budget constraints. But the live thing,
I really kind of got a sense of that. I was like, Oh, that's real, like shit your pants material. Oh yeah, that's that's where it goes down. Oh for sure, I'm sure right now you're sitting in a hole.
Oh there's there's a whole shit your pants situation happening your ear.
I thought I smelled it.
Yeah, I mean I can't avoid it. I got a whole whole stock of diapers down here.
Listen, I'm right there with all the old bourbon, I got all the all the tools.
It's so funny because in season one, your character Chip goes in and it feels like he's kind of the audience in a way like we see ourselves in Chip. He has great journalistic integrity, he's level headed, he's the everyman. And throughout season three we get to watch your character unravel completely and.
Ship gets messy. He does. He gets a little messing sloppy, a little sloppy.
Well, here's a great thing about Chip in my opinion why he's so fun to play, Because you're right, he was essentially the moral center of the show. He was the bastion of journalistic integrity. But he's got this wonderful Achilles heel, which is that he is completely codependent upon and obsessed with Alex Leevey, which is also easy to play because I'm completely obsessed with Jennifer Anniston, you know, so with it?
Who is it?
Who is so?
Like?
Yeah, really hard getting into character on that one. Yeah, But that's the great thing about Chip is he's got it all right until it comes to his relationship with Alex, and that really is kind of his uh, his his his downfall.
You you're getting ready to start up on season four. Yeah, we're a.
Few weeks into shooting. I know some stuff about plotting.
What can you tell us?
I feel like if I said something, I can even like really try to say it, And I feel like Apple is like inside of that camera that and I think we might both get zapped.
That's probably true.
So do you have zappers appers?
Yeah?
Once you sign those terms and conditions. We go straight to zapping. Do you guys have the new eyesapp?
It's amazing think that you need a new charger.
I know, but you can kill people from across the street.
It is really really something. Don't worry, Apple, we'll edit this part out.
Oh my god, you're not only such a talented actor, but you're an insanely talented writer and producer and director. You and your brother Jay essentially defined an entire subgenre of indie.
Film, and that's really important to you.
Still, So why is championing those projects indie film and TV so important?
Even with that, with that sweet Apple.
Cash, Well, here here comes. I'm gonna be like Chip on the Morning Show. I might get up on my high horse now because like that stuff is going away, okay, Like our business model is failing. The streamers are reducing and when that happens, all they're going to do is make the big stuff like the Game of Thrones that they know can work, and the really exciting things like I May Destroy You and Baby Reindeer. They're just cutting
that stuff away. So what I'm doing right now is like taking the money I make from the Morning Show, and I'm just going to go and invest in make my own TV series independently. I made a show recently called Penelope that's really close to my heart because it's about a sixteen year old girl who leaves behind sort of the trappings of her modern life to go live
in the woods. And I did it because I have teenage daughters who deal with mental health issues, and I deal with mental health issues, and like, our technology and the way we're living is kind of destroying us right now. I don't know if you guys have read The Anxious Generation. It's an incredible book.
You should read it.
We had him on, Yeah, it's incredible, and so I really wanted to make something that could contribute to that story. And the only way I can do it now is like get rich on the morning show and go.
Blowing on my stuff. So, yeah, that's it.
It's so awesome that you do that.
Now, you mentioned that you've talked very openly about struggling with anxiety and depression.
How did that feel to share that? Did that? Were you surprised by the reaction that you got?
One hundred percent surprise? And here's the thing, it didn't feel weird to share because I live in Los Angeles amongst a group of artists where this is just dinner table conversations. We're all anxious and depress and we're always talking about it all the time. We're trading therapists.
Yeah, what medications?
My therapist is right under the set on call.
Yeah, and so it's like, what medication are you on? I'm switching over to Selexa. Now you know it's these are our conversations. But what I didn't realize is that you know as you well know, because I don't know if you guys know, DESI was with me on the League like ten years ago as a guest Start amazing, but it's a great it's a great show, and a lot of the men who watch that show are not the men who are comfortable with talking about their mental
health because the football dudes and whatnot. And so when I started going on my social media, I got this outpouring, particularly for men, just being like, I can't believe you're saying this out loud, And it makes me feel really good to know that someone that I view as somewhat successful is still on their feet despite this, and it offers hope.
In that way.
So I never really planned on being some sort of mouthpiece for it. I was just sort of whining on social media and then it kind of had this effect. So I'm like, oh, well, this is something so.
Not only brave, but it's a generous thing for you to do to help support others. So it's really meaningful that you did that. I have one final question, yes the Morning Show. Is there any thought about spinning it off into doing a behind the scenes late night show.
I'm just curious.
So there's this one little thing that we've been pitching. Okay, it's about a woman who Fine, I'll do it.
I'll do it, yes, yes, yes, Okay, I excess, I excess.
The only thing is the title. It's called diarrhea. Diarrhea, diarrhea.
Say no more good contracts already signed. I'm in party plus everyone.
All episodes of a Morning Shout Monkey You will be available.
To sat explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven.
Ten Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount plus.
Paramount Podcasts