The Enduring Legacy of Whoopi's Writing

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One more way Uber is putting safety at every turn. Learn more on the Uber app Republican Review after the president blows up a bipartisan bill to offer Americans affordable housing. He tries to put a positive spin on a closed door meeting with Senate Republicans about the Iran war that devolved into a shouting match . I think we had a really great meeting. I don't like a few people, but that's okay. I think you know who they are. Is Republican resistance growing? Or have they already fallen back into party lines? Plus former President Obama is responding to being one of our current president's biggest targets . I obviously, you know, have a room in his rent free. A sweet. Then Carrie Washington , Whitney White, Cara Young, and Danielle Pinoch talk about joining forces to reimagine Whoopy's legendary One Woman show for a new generation with the Whoopy monolog ues . Here come hot topics with Woopy . Sarah Haines , Joy Behar , Anna Navarro , Sunny Hausten and Alyssa Fair of dripping . Now let's get things started Whoa . Yeah . Wow . Alright well , so let us tell you what's been going on because it just you can't make this up . In a rare move these days, Republicans and Democrats came together to support a bill that offers Americans affordable housing Together they did it. Together . Don't clap it too soon yeah . And then you know who said he wasn't going to sign it. Right . He also shrugged off a closed door meeting with Senate Republicans about the Iran war that turned into a shouting match, apparently. Take a look. I think we had a really great meeting , and we're very proud of the party. We like our leader. We like everybody really in the room. I don't like a few people, but that's okay. I think you know who they are. I'm not signing the housing bill. I want to see what happens with Sam. Look, the housing bill is housing I made billions of dollars with housing. I know housing better than anybody maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates. You can have all the housing you want . But you have to understand, I don't want to hurt people that own houses too. Despite that, we're doing well with housing . But where we're really doing well is oil is plum meting and costs are coming down affordability . We're doing great . What He doesn't make any sense. He doesn't make any sense . You know what? He torpedoed the bill because he wants another bill signed. Yeah . Right . And it seems to me no one wants to sign this bill. It doesn't have the votes. It doesn't have the votes. And so he's trying to push it and do all kinds it's ridiculous. He it's the bill that would force people to have ID when they come to vote. They will save America Act, which is ironic because it's not it's really saving his behind . Yeah . Save the Donald Trump behind act . There are probably cautious of the save American act could pass, but the bill itself has does not have the votes in it. It basically suppresses the vote because when people vote, Democrat in big numbers, Democrats win. So what's their little trick is to make sure that you come with your birth cert ificate . Which you could have my birth certificate says Josephine Okudo , not Joy Behar . So what does that mean? I can't vote or a passport which I happen to have because I have some money and I've been able to travel or a real ID. And if you don't have those things, they won't let you vote. That's what he wants. And I think something like fifty percent or more of Americans don't have passports. Yes. But he's trying to stay out of the slammer. That's what he's trying to do. Well, listen, this housing bill is a rare success in Washington . And president is wrong. It's not yeah, it's not interest rates that make lowering interest rates, yes, would help make housing more affordable. We need more inventory. So this lifts a bunch of hurdles to be able to build more affordable housing. Republicans and Democrats came together to do it. Zillow right now, this analysis found that the average starter home in two hundred forty American cities is one million dollars. Right. That is unattainable for so many Americans . The good news is this bill can still pass. If for ten days he doesn't veto it, it becomes law, or he still could himself sign it. It also likely would have a vet o proof majority if it went back to Congress . But this is why so many Republicans on Capitol Hill and I know so many of them publicly are like, We love this president. He's amazing and privately they bash him. He hurts their agenda. They're going into the midterms with nothing to brag about. This would have been something to tell their constituents they did, and he pulled the rug out front of them. Just real quick, Caroline Lovett, the White House press secretary, called this bill one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history. Now he's taking it twenty four he really doesn't care about affordability. He really doesn't care what's happening to real Americans. He doesn't care about the healthcare crisis. He doesn't care that people can't afford eggs. He doesn't care that people can't fill their gas tanks. He simply doesn't care. He said the quiet out , the quiet part out loud. He said he didn't care and he really doesn't. And the other part of this housing bill that I think is extremely important is that it limits the purchases of single family homes by institutional investors . So you have these single family homes that are passed down from family to family, and sometimes the younger generation can't afford to pay property taxes. And so they're offered a lot of money by these big corporations like Black Rock and other corporations. And then these huge McMansions get built up in these communities and the communities then have millionaires and billionaires moving in. This would prevent that from happening. It would keep actually wealth within communities, especially Black and Latino communities that haven't been able to buy purchase homes. So this is it's just wrong on so many levels and I actually don't know that Congress will stay in session long enough so that it doesn't get that is part of the question breakdown. In January, he told reporters he wants to quote drive housing prices up for current homeowners rather than lower them for somebody who didn't work very hard . So his son can't buy a house, apparently. And then he said he told Mike Johnson, that other one a few months ago, no one gives a blank about housing . So America, come on, wake up . Yeah, but you know what? It's what we've always said. So the elected officials in D. C., the Republicans bent the knee to Donald Trump as if that was their boss. What we said all along is there will be a reckoning day where they have to turn to their actual boss, which is the voters in the midterms. So now they're turning back to this man they sold their souls for and he's mad because he not only doesn't care about American affordability , he does only care about himself and the loyalty he didn't get with the bill for Iran. So as a temper tantr um, he turns around and says this thing that was not only bipartisan and popular in DC would be popular for Americans because it does hinge on that affordability. We said he's never addressed since he got there. And he would rather throw that out , shoot him in his own foot because someone wasn't loyal to him. That's all it was always about was Donald Trump is for Donald Trump, period. This sadness The craziest thing is that he could have utilized this . Yeah , he could have utilized this . And for his legacy, for his, you know, he is chock full of like self afflict self inflicted wound inflicted wounds. Yeah, you know, he keeps he says things and then he throws it out and then he asks millions of people what they think. And it's kind of like he even if he had a thought in his head , which he doesn't , he wouldn't be able to he wouldn't be able to make it articulate because he doesn't trust it. He just says stuff and hopes that it makes sense. This makes no sense to anybody, kind of like not being able to have access to the Epstein files. It doesn't make sense like why did you why is the green stuff growing ? Why isn't the green stuff that's grown in there any good for anybody? You know what I mean? Did you see that wicked meme of Cynthia Revo and it said, Yes, I swam in the reflection board . I received, you know? I mean, it's so good. It is really , you know, a thought would die of loneliness in his head. Well , But the bottom line to all of this is, you know , as annoying as this is , it's no longer relevant to what we all have to do. That's right. If you're a Republican, if you're a real Republican who has Republican thoughts and wants to see what the party remind yourself what the party is, then get out there and find that Republican who you know is not going to be loyal to that man, but who is going to be loyal to the people who put him in. Do the same with the Democrats. Don't just vote because somebody else voted that way. Do your homework and get out there and make sure that you are voting for the country you want to be in . You know, and we have because we have to teach young folks also that we have to learn how to vote for each other voting for one thing doesn't work. We all get left out in the call. So this is a joint effort. So make sure you get out there and vote. I'm sorry what? I just want to say last I checked, Republicans buy houses also. Yes, yes , yes . Yes, they do , and we'll be right back So welcome back . So former President Obama was on the All the Smoke podcast. Yeah . I don't know why I couldn't read it. I kept thinking it was like, Where's the smoke? How? All the smoke. And he was asked about still casting a huge shadow over the White House. Take a look. The leader of this current administration is still very fascinated with you and your family constantly bringing you guys up and you've been out office nearly ten years now. How do you continue to keep your cool and take the high road, so to speak? Because we ask Michelle and Michelle said we don't have to take the high road nomore. We just have to be strategic in our approach. You got to ask him what it is that the obsession the obsession. I know it was Yeah, it worked. I obviously, you know, have a room in his head rent free. You do everything a suite. The last thing I had time to do was worry about what somebody said . Somebody said or what the predecessor . They're gone. I've got work to do. Yeah . Yeah . I mean yeah Yeah . Wow. So why can't he quit Obama? Cannie? Why don't you? Because you know, Obama is like, and you look in the dictionary now next to the word cool. Obama's pictures there. Yeah. The guy is so cool and not for nothing, but you know, Trump is about as cool as Mitch McConnell. Yeah . Yeah. You know what I mean? He ain't cool at all. And he's green with envy, and it's hard to be that green when you're orange . But I don't know . I think Trump . Trump deeply wants to be beloved. Like I think he 's gonna say a black man. No I. couldn't say he was He wants to be adored like and he wants to be loved. And if he can't get it because he can't in how he operates in his world in life , he will fear you into doing it. He'll build his own arches. He'll build his own statues. You will love me. And I think that bothers him that the Obamas naturally get that love. Whether you agree with him policy or not. You're not an ob vious person. But you respect and see the appeal of the Obamas . They are unifying. They are the old school diplomacy, civility used to be highroad. All that's called it's all class, but I think that's what bothers him. One thing that they noted in the book that Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swand did is there's an in regime change . They speak of an assistant, Natalie Hart. Yes that just goes around leaving really just encouraging love notes of positivity to Donald Trump. That's her one job to go around saying how much she means to the how much I love you, how much when you hire someone to literally personally hype you on post it notes , we have reached a new marriage I mean my husband does it for me, yeah. I mean clearly I didn't marry up high enough . I do not get those love notes, but it does speak to the end aside from the comedy of it all , it does speak to his deeply hungry need to be loved . And I just think that that is what really irks him. Michelle when he tries to get her hand, Michelle doesn't go like that. She Melania is like yeah. There was also a lot of video coming out of the Obama library opening and seeing President George Bush, Laura Bush, seeing the Clintons, Bidens all there together. I love this relationship that George Bush and Michelle Obama have very huge policy, totally disagree, but they have a genuine friendship. I like teared up watching videos from that because it felt like a different era. It feels like a different lifetime ago that they could set aside their differences , but we love each other as people. We respect the hell out of each other as people weren't truckens. Trump wasn't even lies invited to the Obama president. He wasn't even invited. You know what? He was sad. Let me tell you why I think it's sad. I think I told you guys a while ago. There's a wonderful book and I want to I'm going to paraphrase the name of it, but it's called the Club . And it's about the president because they are in this club . Yep. Yeah, that only they know these things. Right , right . He has never they have reached out to him. He's probably never he has he doesn't ever want to be in the he doesn't want to be in the club. He doesn't but it's it's not good. It's not makes he knows better. You learn from each other. He 's stuff the self inflicted wounds wounds that he has created for himself. So many of them were avoidable if he had just talked about unquote talked in the Strait of Hormuz. Obama could have told him that Iran was going to do that if he was part of the Can I just say that I just wrote a way Mike Pence to talk to used Joe Biden regularly as a former VPN Al Gore, different parties, but they covered the same issues, and they were confidants to him. I just want to say I loved that at one point, Michelle Obama was saying, When they go low we, go high. I am very happy that we're now on the same page. When they go low, we go to the Earth's crust. Okay, we come small like an ant , and we meet their energy. And I'm just, I'm really happy that Michelle Welcome to the crawbard, Michelle. Yeah, Michelle and I are now on the same page. Okay , we'll be right back The business leaders behind Powerhouse brands are working for you on a special edition of View Your Deal by offering exclusive savings of at least half of. Get shopping now at Virdeal. com welcome back a woman recently went viral at the New York Nick's Victory Parade for dumping out city trash in a painted trash can. It was painted the Nick's colors and taking it with her, she left with it. She got a lot of blowback on social media, was fined, and may have lost her job at JP Morgan because of it. So she definitely got carried away No, no, no, you no, just carried it away . And I think had she not dumped the garbage , she would have been fine. Yeah. But I mean , they're asking, does the punishment fit the crime? Well, we do we know that she lost her job or we don't know. I think she did. It's been repeated. She's no longer with the company. It's being reported. She's no longer with the company. Two fold. That is so dirty. A New York City trash can. I would not touch it. Why are you touching it? I' know youre in the problem. Taking gloves, but then no, and then the littering. That bothers me because you got to be a good neighbor. That's not fair to us all already. She just oh, it's so dirty . Don't forget in your home. But what I'm saying does is it fit the punishment? To that question, does it fit? I believe in community service, she needs to get a job at the sanitation department. Yes. Yes. Probably everybody. Yeah. So she paid the fine . She's, you know, I think rather than fire . This city got so swept up in the man is making everybody crazy. Everyone crazy mixing five dumping orange dumping dump like that, you know, dumping that 's exactly like cra fting on your own. Yeah. Because if you love the city, you wouldn't dump garbage, that you would put it in a garbage . Yeah. Well, and you have to assume nowadays that when you're in public, you're probably gonna be caught on that. Yeah. Her face was everywhere. Everyone ever did you would get a call from Brian. Brian would be like, okay, what do you do? We don't care . But you know what? Brian, yes, of course we would care . Did you know that our Pride Month celebration is continuing? Yes . Bye. Yes , by celebrating the highest ranking openly transgender line officer in the US Navy . Emily Hawking Schilling, Sarah. Yes, Emily Schilling completed sixty combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq spanning two decades . All driven by the Navy's former motto she embraced wholehearted ly, a global force for good . She stood by that pledge in twenty nineteen, defying the ban on transgender service members by coming out to her superiors. The Navy moved to force her out until President Biden reversed the policy in twenty twenty one , but that ban was reinstated when President Trump returned to the White House in twenty twenty five . She says she was forced to retire but isn't going without a fight. As the lead plaintiff in Chilling versus United States, a federal appeals court ruled the ban unconstitutional earlier this month, and her next battleground can be the Supreme Court . Despite an uncertain future, Chilling quote finds hope in simply still being here, able to speak the truth out loud and says, When we have stayed loud and connected and human, we have never lost. Yeah, so much Hopefully keep, you keep fighting, Emily. We're gonna keep fighting too. The courts needs to happen. We'll be back This is my long luxurious plan here . Ain't it pretty ? I could put it in a ponytail one to see . No . You do? Okay, let me get off my shoulder way. See, look, see and look, now it's in my eyes Yeah , back in nineteen eighty four, I performed my One Woman show on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater . So I'm excited that for the first time it's being reimagined as the whoop ologi Mueson at Lincoln Center by a talented group of women who will be joining us right now. So please welcome Carrie Washington , Whitney White, Carrie Young, and Danielle Pinoch They brought you flowers , they brought me flowers . We're just giving you your flower. That's what this whole thing is about can I give them to somebody? Yeah , yeah, yeah. Look at this Brian. Look at this yeah They're beautiful. Y'all. Don't keep that though. They're beautiful . So I guess have Okay, so Carrie, it was your idea to reimagine Whoopi's monologue. Yeah . So how did seeing Whoopi's One Woman show influence you as a kid? Because we've talked about that before why. did And you want to bring it back to the stage? It's a huge endeavor. It is a huge endeavor because Whoopi has been such a groundbreaker and a trailblazer and an inspiration for so many of us. And throughout my career , it became a bonding place with other actresses. I would meet other actresses black, white, all in between , and we would talk about how this show impacted us and our idea of what was possible, how you could really affect someone's heart and mind through theater storytelling, yes. And I watched Whoopi as a child be everybody. I was like, she can do anything and it made me feel like I could do anything . Yeah. Well, I have to ask Willipta, this is a huge part of your legacy. What made you say yes to Carrie? Oh gosh . Yeah . A couple of things . Her parents . Oh yeah, because Carrie's parents allowed her to see my show. And I was very young. And she was very young . And she was allowed to sing my opening song as long as she was doing it as the character. And when she said, I would like to do this, and I thought, Okay , you know , and she's magnificent. So how do you say no to somebody who you know can rock the hell out of stuff? But I knew I knew and I think this is a great segue to the other incredible women up here. I knew that I couldn't do this alone because there is only one whoopy Goldberg. And what you did was well , you're so special . And so it's taking five actresses to embody the work that you did as one woman. And it's so fun to join together and you do that as a sister .. It's so much Yeah. Yeah, but look at the actresses. It's not like a wait to see it. Each of them could do the whole thing by themselves. That's the beauty of this cast. It's fantastic. Anyway, go ahead. Well, let me ask you Wh,itney because you're directing the show You've cast five different actors who will each do one of Whoopi's monologues. And how are you reimagining the show for this new audience? And what do you want them to take away from it? Because as Karrie just said, so many it means so many things to so many different people. What's so incredible about this piece of theater is you don't need to reimagine it because the writing is so brilliant, it's so current. The themes deal with the same things that we're dealing with today. And so it was less about reimagining for me and just opening it up . And we have these five women that represent different communities that look different . And I think these five women will reflect the audience and the world in a beautiful way because this one brilliant woman made a pathway for us all and all I'm hoping the audience to take away is the desire to keep telling whoop y's stories because I think it's a great American work that should be done everywhere every year just like death of a salesman should be done everywhere. So that's my great hope. Well, Kara, you're gonna be doing fontaine in this show. Woopi's monologue about a drug addict with a PhD. And you said that you grew up he's a junkie. Let's just say it's important to say that he's a junkie guy . He's a junkie who also happens to be a PhD. So you're playing a junkie. Yes . You said that you grew up around a lot of fontaines here in New York. What are you hoping comes across in Fontaine's story? Oh man, so many I hope so many things comes across in Fontaine's story, but you know, ultimately the humanity that Fontaine wal ks with and the nerding out how Fontaine nerds out on history and how like there's just there's so much. I think we're digging into the work right now and it's and it's very like it's very alive and it feels like I'm looking at people that I grew up with . And people that I said good morning, good afternoon, good night to no , no matter what their circumstances were . So it's one of those roles that I feel like it's paying homage to a lot of the people who go unseen , unheard , and people that don't look at these people in the world and we're all humans . And I think that that's the crux of Fontaine is humanity and the humanity within all of us and that we have to pay attention to everyone . Yes , please . Can I wait to see this play , Danielle? Now you're going to be doing the Jamaican lady monologue Now you said that you heard about this production a year ago and you have been praying. Oh yeah, a role in the show ever since. Oh , so tell us how it all happened and why being in this show in particular is sort of full circle for you. Well, Whoopi Goldberg, you are my North Star , and the light that you've shown for all of us the path that you've laid is literally the groundwork as to why a lot of us have become artists. There was a lot of times where I felt like there was no place for me and watching your career has inspired me to say, okay and has kept me encouraged to say keep going . And I used to when I was in high school, I used to take the one hundred sixty seven Quass from Tina New Jersey to Port Authority and go to the Lincoln Center Library and watch this one woman show single weekend to keep me encouraged as an artist. And so to be at the Lincoln Center feels so full circle, but playing this character, I'm first generation Jamaican American born to very proud Jamaican immigrants . Okay . And so I think a lot of times immigrants are reduced to politics and headlines. This monologue gives a human face to those immigrant stories. It's a story of my grandmother coming here for the first time. My mother, my father, and it is so damn funny. It is so funny. And I'm telling you, I've hired my coaches, my mama Joan. Okay. My mother, Joan, and also legend from Jamaica, Oliver Samuels, who is one of the best comedians in the Caribbean, and he's flown to New York, so I get those cultural specificity . And so I'm with the direction of Whitney White and this incredible cast. I just am so excited for you to see it. I'm excited You know, all these people live in my head and have lived in here for however long it was since I've done this. But the one thing I'm going to have you ever heard the commercial? Oh yeah. . We were grew up with that. I'm telling you, do y'all remember this commercial? If you're from New York, you just come on in twenty seconds. It felt like come back to Jamaica. What's my hearing be this beautiful man walking around the place. You know, just that's where that so that's where that all came from. That's where that all came from. So yeah. Unveiling the inspiration. But Carrie, you'll be doing the Surfer Girl monologue, which Whoopi did in her iconic Valley Girl voice that she still does on the show . Look at that . And Whoopi has said one of the reasons she created her One Woman show was because didn't, she was tired of people in the industry telling her she didn't fit and that there wasn't a place for her. So she just made her own path . Is that something you can relate to because you kind of address that as the inspiration behind watching this as someone coming up in the arts. Yeah, I have to say for me, I love acting, but I also really love producing. And this is something that I'm very proud. My company Simpson Street is producing with Lincoln Center. And producing brings me joy because I get to not just create opportunities for myself to chase excellence, but create communities where we chase excellence together. So in addition to the women up here, we also have Dominique Fishback and Kisha Lewis. It's an incredible cast and we're all playing these characters that are so important because this kind of gets to something Kara said, all of these characters you feel like you know them , you already know them and that's why they so easily slide into your heart when you're watching them . But then what Whoopi does with the writing is she surprises you . She uncovers something about somebody that you think you know and reminds you that there's even more in there that you didn't understand. And that bridging of hearts, that inviting people to step into each other's shoes to understand each other on a deeper level, that's the power of theater. That's what you've taught us. And that for me, that's why I love to be able to create opportunities where we can keep telling stories , keep creating community, keep trying to understand each other and build bridges and get other people to do the same. Yeah , because this , you know, I'd go audition for stuff and they'd be like, Oh no, you're not there . Not you. And you created and I thought, well, I know how to do this. I'm just trying to and who nobody knew any of the nobody knew I had written these monologues because they thought they were from all these plays I had done. Wow. So wow. So that's what I would say to people, oh yeah, this is a monologue. You know, I did it like in nineteen seventy and inheritance. And then I would do a monologue . And they'd go, Oh my god, where's that from? It's like, this is a show I didn't. Yeah . Well, we're also including a monologue from the two thousands. So the show in the eighties and the two thousands. So it's really her whole life's work we got around . Well, we have more when we come back. July fourth, twenty four hours nonstop live all across the country . We are all a part of this history, and when the country comes together to celebrate, this is where it happens. Disney celebrates America two hundred and fifty , a live American event two hundred and fifty years in the making. It's America's two hundred fiftieth birthday party. No one throws a party like Disney. Disney celebrates America to fifty two hundred fifty years of America more than twenty four hours on the air. This is going to be one extraordinary event. We're back with the guest and the director of the Whoopy Monologue. Sonny has the next question. I do. Whoopi, I've had the honor of sitting with you for ten years. And you have been such an influence in my life, in my career , the lives of my kids . And it doesn't amaze me anymore how many actors come on and say you were their North Star, you influenced them so much because I've been influenced in that way . And I thank you for that . And so my question is and you know, Whoopi doesn't like to take her flowers has been my experience. How does TikTok? How does it feel? But how does it make you feel when you hear so many actors, so many women come to you and men and say , You are the reason why they're doing what they do That I love that. I love that because there's so many people who influenced me , you know, to do what I do and who I believed saying to me, hey, come over here. We're your people . So I like that . But the thing that really sort of gets to me that I've that I've not experienced before is hearing people talk about the writing. Yeah, yeah, you know, I've never , you know, because I've not experienced it , you know, so I'm looking forward to this because it's I did it for a very specific reason and that was to say , listen, damn it, I'm here . Yeah, here I am . And at some point, you're going to have to see me . And Mike Nichols said, Okay, well , here you go. And he put me right here . So I was the magic of that. You saying I'm here that we have gotten to say and now get to say we are here that this community of artists that we're all and lifting up your writing that is so interesting. I mean, you know, you know it's great writing when it's so when it's easier to learn. You know that when you're learning a piece and it's really hard to learn you're like this doesn't make any sense this doesn't work, but your writing, it just lives in us. I'll also add to that the writing, these people that you've written , there is like an overwhelming resilience of of Whitney , our incredible leader , has really opened the world up for us when we're looking at people putting one foot in front of the other and saying, I'm going to get up and I'm going to face the day , you know? Yeah . She's amazing. I mean, Whitney is off the hook and brilliant and nominated all the guys Thank you all for coming. You can see the whoopy monologues at the Mitsi E New House Theater at Lincoln Center. Previews begin on july seventh. Yay . Do yourself a favor. I think it's worthwhile, so I'm invite you all come see our show. Yeah. We'll be right back