February 12, 2024 • 49 mins
Isaac Mizrahi chats with humanitarian and New York Times bestselling author, Alyssa Milano, about the moment that changed her life when she was 15, why she’s sworn off Botox and fillers, the most terrifying thing she’s ever done and so much much more.
Follow Hello Isaac on @helloisaacpodcast on Instagram and TikTok, Isaac @imisaacmizrahi on Instagram and TikTok and Alyssa Milano @milano_alyssa.
(Recorded on January 18, 2024)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't think anyone doesn't struggle with motherhood. I think
it is the most horrifying, terrifying thing I have ever
done in my life, and I fail at it multiple
times a day, but I'm committed to it. I mean,
I had such bad anxiety after Milo, I mean, you
remember it. There were days that I would come into
(00:23):
work and I'd be like, I was in the hospital
last night with a panic attack. I do remember that, now,
that's right, yes, And that was all about motherhood.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Wow, Okay, yes, it.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Is a really scary thing.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
This is Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Isaac, my podcast about the idea of success and how
failure affects it.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm Isaac Musrahi, and in this.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Episode, I talked to actor, activist and New York Times
best selling author Alissa Milano.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hello, Isaac, it's Alyssa Milano and I miss you so
much and I love you and I cannot wait to
talk to you.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Alyssa Milano is one of the most famous people that
I know. I feel like, not only is she famous,
but I feel like everybody in the world knows her personally.
You know, I met her a number of years ago
when we were working together on Project Runway All Stars.
(01:26):
She was the host and I was a sort of
a judge every week, and we became quite friendly and
very close. And what I love about Alyssa is that
everyone who meets her just adores her. And she's more
than just a really good actor. She's a really smart
political activist and a great writer and a really good
(01:49):
kind of like an entrepreneur. You know, she just does
so many things. I have so many fond memories, including
being backstage with her at Project Runway All Star and
kind of opening up to her. And you know, she's
such a great listener. That's the thing about Alyssa. And
one thing I think I'm going to try to do
(02:10):
is to turn the tables on her and listen to
her and ask her some really good questions. So here
we go, Alyssa Milano. Hame on, it's been a minute, darling.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
How long has it been? It's been well, Bella's nine.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, then that's how long it's been, because we literally
it's been like eight years.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
First of all, you look so great. It's not you, honestly, darling,
but you look like you're twelve years old.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Look like who's the boss or something. I swear to God,
guess what.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm definitely not twelve.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Years old, right, No, I know that.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Wait a minute, by the way, let me just check this.
Are you still she her? Yes, I don't know, could be.
And also your kids, Milo and Elizabella.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
What are their pronouns?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Do you know they are?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I do? Actually he him she her?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Okay, right? Interesting, so interesting. You know, it's so funny
because I know you as a mom. And later in
the podcast, I want to get to talk about that
just a little bit because I think it's a key
to your personality that a lot of the listeners would
love to kind of delve into. But let's start with
a little history. Where are you from? Originally, Alyssa, I was.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Born in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, and they got up. You
knew that, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, they don't. They don't make this in La.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What the hell brought you to La? How did you go?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay? So everything, So I'll go back all the way back.
So when I was four years old, it was during
the race riots in Brooklyn and benson Hurst, and someone
got shot in my front yard and the bullet came
through the house and my parents said, okay, we're gonna
move to give her a better life, and we moved
(04:02):
to Staten Island, pretty and I lived in Staten Island
and I don't know, like, I just loved to sing
and dance. And my mom was a fashion designer at
the time, which we've talked about, and she used to
do these fashion shows. It would be at like Magique
or Studio fifty four after fashion shows and like as
(04:25):
a party, and she had dancers wear her clothes. And
one of our dear family friends had her equity card,
which is the Union for theater, and she's the babysitting
me all the time. And so do you see where
this is going? She?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I do ish, But I guess it's a big leap, darling.
It's a big league from liking to sing and dance
and having a friend to being you like, on a
set at your tiny little age of twelve.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
You know, I was eight when I auditioned. Eight. Yeah,
I auditioned for Annie. It was it was an open
anti audition. There were fifteen hundred kids there and four
were picked and I was one of the four. And
so I toured around with the second National Touring Company
and then got off the road and auditioned for a
pilot called You're the Boss. Ah, and I didn't really
(05:18):
know what any of it meant, but I did know
that the cute guy from Taxi was going to play
my dad. I was ten. I was ten years old,
and I got the pilot and we flew to LA
to shoot the pilot and then I went home and
I that was was we. It was me and my
(05:38):
dad at the time because my mom had this thriving business,
and then we went back to New York and just
you know, that was fun whatever. And then about seven
months later we found out that You're the Boss was
picked up and it was now called Who's the Boss. Wow,
and so but then, you know, there was a conundrum
(06:00):
because my mom was like, I'm not moving to Los Angeles.
So my dad and I the whole first season of
Who's the Boss we lived in LA which was this
is like a whole other series. We lived in La alone.
It kind of mirrored what Sam and Tony were going through, right,
(06:21):
And then, you know, because my mom was like, I'm
not moving to Los Angeles. TV shows don't work, and
then we're gonna have to move back. My brother was
one at the time. She's like, I'm not gonna move
the whole family to My parents are still married, by
the way, it's been fifty six years or something like that.
(06:43):
This was also a time when you know, there were
Nielsen ratings and there were only three networks right there
wasn't even Fox yet, so if a network believed in
a show, they were very likely to figure out how
to get viewers. I'm very unlike now, you know, where
they just pull you after three episodes. And we were
(07:07):
like last in the Nielsen ratings the first year, really
like dead last because we were against family Ties. This
is how long ago that was, jeez. And then season
two ABC said, you know what, We're going to put
you on after Happy Days again. This is how long
ago that was, Jason. Yeah, and we became a top
(07:29):
ten show and we were on the air for eight years,
so I was eleven to nineteen years old.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Darling.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I've always wanted to ask you this, and you answer
it however, you see fit okay, because I know a
lot of people who started as children in this industry.
You know, I know Natalie Portman since she's twelve, and
it's amazing how some of you kind of escape that unscathed.
(07:57):
Or relatively unscathed, and some of them don't make it.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Is there something you attribute to having made it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And too being such a not just a good adult,
but like a fucking exemplary adult, you know, like like
a role model for so many people.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Like how did you do that? How did you escape
all of that?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I don't know that I escaped it. I think a
few things. One. I think that the industry, when you're
a kid, it's very hard, but it magnifies the person
that you would be regardless. And what I mean by
that is like, if you come from a hard family
(08:40):
and an unhappy childhood, the industry because of everything that
it enables you to be, for better or for worse,
and all of the yes people and all of the
people that tell you you're great, it will magnify.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I believe that the kids who have a hard time
in the industry would have had a hard time no
matter what they were doing. I really believe that. And
because I believe that, I have to give so much
credit to my family and my support system, who consistently
and always reminded me what was important in life and
(09:26):
what the responsibility was to be a public figure, and
how that's really such a blessing. That is a blessing.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Eleven though, Darling at eleven correct, you know, I mean
it is a blessing. And you talk about a kid
having a hard time otherwise, right, I totally get that.
And what you're saying is that it's a magnifying glass,
right correct. I also talked to Brooks Shields a couple
of weeks ago, right, and she was talking about a
kind of work ethic that we grew up with, Like,
(09:56):
you know, I think about Elizabella, like, how do you
feel about her doing what you did as a young kid.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
She's doing musical theater right now, she's actually rehearsing Annie
and she's doing The Little Mermaid. And the way I
kind of feel about it is, well, first of all,
kids come out who they are and they love what
they love, right, and you can't change that. And I
got to the point where, you know, she wanted to
do musical theater. We had taken her to see Wicked,
(10:23):
and I got to the point where I was like,
who better than me to have a child who wants
to explore this part of their creativity and so she
finds great.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
You said, Judy about Liza, but you know, go.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
On a sorry, she finds great individuality and great confidence
in it. Now, mind you, she's also really great at math,
and she plays soccer and all the things, which I
think is very important to expose kids to, all the
things that they show an inclination to. Words, But who
(11:02):
am I to get in a child's way as long
as they're not being hurtful or hurting themselves. I need
to allow my children to explore who they are and
what that means for them in the future, who they
want to be in the future.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
When you were doing that job, it was many seasons,
seven or eight seasons, right, like a really long time.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, I was eleven eleven to nineteen eleven.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
To nineteen wow, so that's like almost ten years of
your life.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I mean, and those were years job.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Right When you were doing that job, it was a
different world, Darling. I mean, they would work you a
little bit more than they might today. Do you think
that's true? Was it more comfortable for you?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I think the business actually was very good for me
at that age because I was diagnosed with dyslexia, so
I don't know that being in a normal school would
have actually been okay for me. I think that being
tutored on a set enabled me to have the best
(12:07):
education I probably could have ever had or dreamed of
because of my learning difference. And also I feel like,
I mean, you know these people Judith light Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I love you were so lucky.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That was I was really lucky.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
You were lucky. She is one of the great people.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I mean when you think about how many people I
could have been stuck with.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
In the eighties, right, and then there's Tony Dazl was
also such a gem of a god. Amazing human one
or two times I've met him.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, amazing human.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I'm true. You lucked out. You lucked out.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I lucked out with my own family and being born
into this incredible family, but also I lucked out with
my TV family, who maybe not equally shaped the person
that I am, but had a big part and contributing
to who I am and accepting.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, I can only conclude that it is about your family,
the family that you come from. Like you know, you
started the whole thing by saying, the kid's going to
be who the kid is as an adult, regardless, and
if they're troubled as a kid, it doesn't matter if
show business happens or doesn't happen. I agree with that,
And I remember Natalie's parents, you know, Natalie Portant's parents
(13:24):
were really really like solicitous and diligent about caring for her,
you know what I mean, and making it okay for her,
you know. And then I think about you and your
like openness to this kind of otherness otherness? Is there
a word such as otherness? And I think Isabella me too,
(13:46):
I like it too. I'm thinking of you looking at
my lot el Isabella and going, you know what, whoever
these kids are.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
That's why I.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Asked you at their pronouns at the top too, because
I feel like motherhood is not for everybody, you know,
because I think feel like I knew you when Milo
is a tiny tiny yeahbe too. I feel like it
was right at the top of that like you had
just said Milo.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And Milo is less than a year old when we first.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Met, exactly, Well, there you go, and so and I
don't think you ever struggled with motherhood, did you, Oh, darling,
I don't know what this means.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Tell me everything. What is it? Name? What is it name?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I don't think anyone doesn't struggle with motherhood. I think
it is the most horrifying, terrifying thing I have ever
done in my life, and I fail at it multiple
times a day. But I'm committed to it and I
feel like it's what you put into it, what you
get out of it. And but yeah, I mean I
(14:52):
had such bad anxiety after Milo. I mean, you remember
there were there were days that I would come into
work and I'd be like I was in the hospit
last night with a panic attack.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I do remember that, now, that's right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yes, And that was all about motherhood.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Wow, Okay, yes.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
It is a really scary thing.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
And how old is Milo now?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
He's twelve?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
He's only twelve? God, thank god, Thank god you didn't
say he just graduated college, because I would have believed you.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah. Well, I mean it's only five years away that
he goes to college, which I'm so aware of.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
But you know, I often wonder about the modern concept
of motherhood because we were raised by women who also
had anxiety. You know, my mother had a huge amount
of anxiety. And you know how close I am to
my mom, and you know how important she was in
my life. Yes, and I was perplexed, bewildered, you know,
(15:49):
a little hurt by her anxiety. I never knew what
to make of your anxiety, and I think maybe it's better.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Like, did you ever talk to Milo about it?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Oh? Both my kids are fully aware, yes, because you know,
they're fully downloaded because we you and I are from
a time when you didn't talk about it. And first
of all, I'm sure you've seen all the reports there
is a rise in anxiety and depression and young people.
And so I just got to this point where I
(16:20):
wanted mental health to be as important as and as
common as going to the dentist for them. Like we
have someone that we talk to as a family, I
call them the feelings doctor, And I think it's really
important that for me and my history and anxiety, that
(16:43):
my kids are raised with this idea that if you're
going to go to the dentist, if you're going to
take care of all of your vaccinations, and if you're
going to take care of your heart, then you also
have to take care of your mind. And so I
don't know if that it's gonna make them more neurotic
or less neurotic, but I do know that that ignoring
(17:07):
it for me didn't help me at all, and it,
you know, just got to the point where the only
way out was in or through. And I think when
you are not healed entirely from your own childhood, and
this has little to do with being a child actor
and more to do with just, you know, growing up
(17:28):
as hard. I think when you have your first child,
you're healing the little child inside of you at the
same time you're raising this child that is outside of you.
And I think it became for me that my own
childhood insecurities I was projecting onto my children, and so
(17:50):
I needed to heal the little girl inside of me
so that I could let that go and just really
have a foundation to build on for my children. And
so that's what I've tried to do. I mean, we'll
see what happens. I don't fucking know.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Right, Right, that's the only smart thing to say, right,
That's the only smart thing to say. And the other
thing I'm going to observe is that you know, for you,
it was an important step, right, like motherhood was at
fore con conclusion, Like you wanted to be a mom, right,
there wasn't a question about that. Whereas for me, I
wonder if I'll ever heal the little boy in me
(18:30):
or the little whatever in me whatever, because I'm not
going to have You know, I never had kids, I
never went through.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
The I can tell you would be an amazing father.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Well, I guess I would if I could get over like,
how fucking selfish I am? I'm serious? And yet, Darling,
we know people in show business who are such narcissists,
like unchecked. We have been witnessed to unchecked narcissism, and
I don't think either of us are. I mean, look,
(19:01):
at least I admit that I'm too selfish to have
a kid. Not even too selfish, I'm too crazy. I
think I would make this kid insane.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know I disagree, But go on, Well what do.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
You think because according to the story, you didn't really
have a stage mom, I didn't you know? And so
what was there at the core of your little girlhood
that you're healing?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Do you know what it is?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh? Yeah, feeling othered going through puberty on TV in
front of millions of people. Because again, at that time
there was there were only three stations, so when you
were a top ten show, it meant there were you know,
thirty million people watching you every people every week. And
(19:47):
I have childhood sexual trauma and so, and you know,
having that then raising a little girl who is my
mini me, and every time I look at her, especially
at this age, I am reminded of that trauma. Yeah,
(20:09):
I mean it's it's it's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And then also like this thing of feeling like I
didn't choose this path, it chose me. And I never
really figured that out, and I never really thought about
if there is anything else that I wanted to do
in life, and so, you know, I got to a
certain point where I was like, Okay, not the young
(20:36):
Ingenoux anymore, right, Like after Charmed was over, I'm not
I'm not the young ingenu anymore. I'm going to start aging,
Like do I want to be in this business as
someone who's trying to hold on to a youthfulness that
that isn't fooling anybody? Like how like how how do
I want to enter this second half of my life
(21:01):
as a woman and feel fulfilled? Because I've been working
now since I was seven so and I'm fifty one.
So so yeah, you know, we all go through ups
and downs, and I think that I'm just one of
those people who's really into just dissecting the human psyche
(21:26):
and learning and growing and evolving and wanting to make
sense of myself and humanity.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Well, I mean I have to say, getting back to
what you were saying about, what do you do now
that you're not an angenu right in show business, which
is such a punishing, punishing business.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Really, especially for women acually for women. Yeah, dido jinx
on you.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, but you know, I don't want to use this
sort of hackneyed old phrase of self reinvention because I
don't see you as having reinvented yourself. You know, you're
a really good actor. You're an amazing darling. You were
an amazing activist like I follow you on social media.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Darling. You don't shut your mouth, Hony, you say what
needs to be said, I think, right. And you're an entrepreneurs.
I remember you were doing that amazing collection of sports
where it does that still exists.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It doesn't actually, because okay, all of the major companies
are doing their own amazing versions of sports where they are.
But I still find so much pride in the fact
that I gave female sports fans the first fashion forward
fan apparel, you know, because at that time it was
just about pink it and shrinket.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I think you have a very full life as a
woman and as an entrepreneur and as an actor. So
talk about this for a minute. First of all, you
identify as a right reader now more than an actor.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I really love writing and producing. I don't know that
I identify as as one thing. I'm sort of career fluid.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Right, What do you like to do? What do you
like the best?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I really like to write. I think writing suits my
personality the most because I have social anxiety. So it's
funny because during the pandemic, I was thriving because because
I was at home and I was taking all these
classes over at the internet and writing so much like
(23:35):
I wrote my book of essays during the pandemic. And
you know, I remember this feeling of like why am
I thriving right now? And I realized it was because
everybody else was in this state of total hysteria and
it matched how I normally am, and so I could
look at people.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And go like, I know I felt the same.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Right, like, see I told you everything's fucked up. See
now you believe me? Right now? I believe So I
just felt like I could explore parts that had I
been like on a set and working, I couldn't really
explore about my creativity. Like I taught myself how to
water color paint, I took feminism classes. I did a
(24:16):
bunch of things for me that I never would have
done before. So I don't know, I don't know that
I identify as one thing. I do know, Isaac, that to
go on a set would have to be a very
special project, you know, Like the only thing I've really
done since the pandemic was Brazen, which was the Netflix movie, right,
(24:40):
And I think part of that was because they were like,
we will homeschool your kids in Canada. We will rent
you a house on the water. You know, your husband
can come. And it just felt like, okay, well, if
we're going to be quarantined, we might as well all
go to Canada and make it an experience and so.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Comfortable and fun. Yeah, Alyssa.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
The other thing about you, even though you're really into
clothes and you like looking kind of put together and
really chic, and you care a lot about hair and
makeup and all that, but being pretty right, like you
are so pretty right, like you are pretty. I'm just
saying it because it's a fact, and yet you go
do I hold on to this thing that everybody can tell, Like,
(25:23):
do I go out there and continue to try to
and everybody can google and know how old I am anyway?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You know, it's like, why did that occur to you?
Like did you see acting as a detour or something?
It's so funny to me.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
No, I just think that I got to a point
where I realized that so much of beauty and womanhood
was about feeding on insecurities. And I felt like if
I was going to be okay with aging, because guess what,
it's all happening to everyone darling, I was going to
(26:00):
have to not try to look like I'm not aging.
And believe me, I did like the boat talks and
the filler and I haven't done anything in two and
a half years because I just felt like I didn't
look like I was younger. I look like I was
just doing shit to my face, right.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
And just what everybody looks like. I haven't done anything
at all. I've never had boattocks, I've never had filler.
I've never had anything lifted or talked or anything. And
I feel like I look ridiculously old. But that's just
my choice.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, See, I think you look ridiculously young. And it's
the people that do all the stuff that they come
across older, because there's also this weird uniform thing that's
going on with the face because injections you can only
put into certain parts of your face, so there's like
this uniform look of like the cheeks or the lips.
(26:54):
And guess what, you're not fooling anyone.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You're not fooling you don't look any young.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Or you just look like you got shit done to
your face.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Right, and you may look a little smoother and a
little taught, you know, more taut, and like sometimes like
way way way in the beginning. And I'm not talking
about like thirty year olds, because I don't believe people
in their thirties should start with that shit. But it's like,
you know, I have a few friends who, like in
their late fifties, they decided to do extremely, extremely minimal,
(27:24):
judicious little things and they look slightly better.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
They do.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
They look a little fresher, and you can't really tell
that they've done anything. But it's a slippery slope, and
within minutes everybody is on their second procedure. And by
the second procedure, there's where it just goes wrong and
I am I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I have nothing against other people doing it. I just
felt for me in my life either by the way,
my own sanity, yeah, my own insecurities, that it was
not going to be beneficial for me to be chasing
away to look it was probably going to lead to
(28:03):
more anxiety or depression or apps or insecurity or so.
So yeah, so that's.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
It always does, Darling, It always does. So back to
you and who you are, you are pretty much a
social media star and that is really something to covet
now because it makes for some modicum, like some bit
of power. When you have a large social media following,
you can do a lot of stuff because you can
(28:32):
promote it quickly, right.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I think that's the thing about it is is that
like it enables you to control your identity because you're
putting stuff out there that you want out there. You know,
Like when we were growing up, like in order to
control an image, you had to be asked to be
interviewed and you had to say smart things and all
(28:54):
the things. And now it's like you can control your
image based on your time and what you want out there.
And so I think that that's interesting I think it
makes it hard for people who aren't consistent in their
belief system and their core because there's a lot of
(29:16):
contradiction that happens. And so I feel as though it
can be helpful to some people and hurtful to some people.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I mean, the reason I am wary of it, a
little wary of it because it's not the real world,
you know, it's the virtual world. And I know you
have to deal with the bad sides of it too,
like trolls, you know, and people who hate you. Tell
me a little about that. Does it hurt you?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Now? Do you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It does hurt me? You know, I've put it in
this weird perspective, and I don't know if this is
going to make any sense, but I'm going to just
give you a little insight into my thought process on
the trolls. I mean, I've had hate mail my entire life,
you know, starting with Ryan White, right, Like I just,
I have always felt that my activism was going to
bring on some right, some versions of hate, and I
(30:08):
made that decision at a very young age to not
let that impact the change that I could do. But
you know, a weird thing happened with the whole Trump presidency,
which was it appeared that the trolling was all being
written from the same like talking points, and they were
(30:29):
all sort of they all have the same agenda, but
also like it was very specific to who I was,
and they were trying to be hurtful. And I kind
of got to this point where I was like, there's
some troll form in some foreign country that is putting
this all forward, and whether or not that was true,
(30:50):
I just convinced myself that it wasn't real people.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
No, it's not personal. It can't be personal, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And by doing that again, whether it's not it's true,
whether it was real people, or whether there was some
troll farm creating these, it felt as though it made
it easier for me to go through. Kind of like
you know, when you're in the car and someone cuts
you off, you can have one of two reactions. You
(31:17):
could go, you're a horrible driver and fuck you and
that just makes you upset and brings your blood pressure
up and maybe makes you a little anxious. Or you
could go, ooh, I hope they're okay. Maybe their wife
is in the backseat in labor and that's why they're
driving crazy, and so I sort of had this, I
had this switch of like just trying to make it
(31:41):
easier on myself. And so that's kind of the way
I've been able to.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Deal with it whenever possible, Darling, that's how you deal
with it. But sometimes it does really hurt, right like,
because I, even in my small way, I do have trolls,
and I do have people who attack and say stupid,
mean things about.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
What's your trigger point?
Speaker 3 (32:02):
You know, it's like people who resurrect things from the
past about me that are so kind of unfair, or
something about something I said out of context or something
I did out of context. And so like when I
think about you, and I think about your Instagram, because
I follow you on Instagram, I don't really look at Twitter.
(32:23):
I find that just to be too too just cock of.
It's just too cock of for me. I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
It's a lot for me.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's a lot.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
But Instagram can sometimes be very wonderful and helpful and gorgeous,
you know. And I look at you and I say,
this woman is like putting herself out there, like she's
practically like confiding in us as though we're like family.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Mans. It's amazing. You know, it's a pretty great thing
that you can do. And then to see the way
people react in such a hateful way, it's almost like
that is what they are in their DNA. So it's
largely about farms, like you said, right, But also there
is a part of our population that is really nasty
(33:09):
and they just sit around thinking of nasty, awful things
to do, and not just like mass murderers or something,
or terrible criminals, but also just lousy, mean, awful people
who aren't exactly criminals, but what they do I feel
is close to criminal.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
You know, well, harassment, right, Like yeah, if they were
screaming those things in your face, you know, that would
be against the law. You would be able to press charges.
But because it's on the internet, and I do feel
like women get a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Of oh boy di wow keep saying that.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
But I think about like what you do on Instagram
now and what you do in the social world right now,
and what your kids are going to inherit in terms
of the virtual world versus the real world. Does that
ever freak you out just a little bit?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Well, yeah, and especially the rise in anxiety and depression
with kids. I don't think it's a coincidence that it
coincides with the creation of social media, especially for young
girls feeling like they're not enough, feeling like they need
the seventy dollars Stanley to validate who they are. They
need the Lululemon and the ugs and all the things
(34:23):
and all the skincare phase that these young women are
going through. So yeah, but I also think that we're
going into it with a lot more awareness than we
did ten fifteen years ago. So I try to do
whatever I can to protect the kids. But I know
that they're gonna wind up on my Instagram at some
(34:45):
point and look back at posts and see someone calling
me a baby killer because I've admitted to having a boy.
See that's my trigger point, Yes, I see. Is not
so much about taking things out of context or any
of that or bringing things up from the past. My
trigger point is when people are just that hurtful about
(35:07):
the like big things.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Big things, big things, something that is so difficult for
a woman to begin with, right, and then they make
it so much more difficult and so just impossible to control.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, it's just it's hard. And I've been very vocal
about having abortions because you know, we saw this writing
on the wall when Trump was elected, So you know,
I wanted to use my own experience with needing health
care as a way to allow women to speak up
and to fight against what we all saw was going
(35:44):
to happen. It wound up happening anyway, but I you know,
to have that part of my past be used against
me and for people to not think about what that
might do to my kids, Yeah, it hurts, Darling.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I would be remiss if I didn't bring this up,
because I talk about this a lot on this podcast,
which is failure. You know, was there some failure in
your life and how you learned from that.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'll just tell you what popped into my head. I
don't think it answers specifically the question of one moment,
but it's many moments.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well, I love that being.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
An activist is ninety eight percent failure. There are so
few wins in the fight for justice and equality and equity,
and so what has that taught me? When I look
at people like Elis Paul, who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment,
(36:55):
which would guarantee that women would have the samely legal
protections as men or child bearing people as men, and
that would be forever carved out in our constitution, which
most people don't even realize that women are not protected
in the constitution. She died before she was able to
(37:16):
see that happen. And it's something that I fight for.
And I realized I might not see that in my lifetime.
And what does that mean? And what I realized is like,
especially through women like Alice Paul or any of our
great feminists, you can't be attached to the outcome. That
(37:41):
it's got to be about the process. And I have
taken that little thing that I have learned from being
an activist and I've put it towards everything that I do,
because if you think about you can't be attached to
the outcome. You have to be committed to the process.
It means everything. It's parenting, it's a business endeavor, it's
(38:06):
a design, it's painting for me, it's learning more, it's therapy,
it's evolution. It's whether or not a tree grows when
you plant the seed.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
You know what I got to tell you, Darling, something
is dawning on me. I was thinking about it before,
you know, the weeks before night when we booked the
interview with you and everything, and I was thinking, I
look at you as some kind of crazy goddess or something,
because I always see you as being so confident. Like
I know you were in the hospital with panic attacks,
I know all of that, but like when I see
(38:42):
you in action on social media or working with you
every day, it was like watching some kind of giant
And I think it's what you're talking about. I think
it's this idea that you're giving way, the whole idea
of success and failure, and you're going, this is what
it is. I just have to keep on working and
(39:02):
moving forward, progressing forward. It was an inspiration being around
you for that many years and watching that in action,
and now, like, what I want to do is kind
of turn this around a little bit. You were saying
activism is ninety eight percent failure. Is there one moment
that you just were like so happy that something that
you did, Like, was there ever any fruit?
Speaker 1 (39:26):
I think my first real commitment to activism was with
Ryan White, and I think that that bore the most fruit.
And I think because I had a taste of what
it meant to support someone, to shine a light, to
use my fame to change a narrative. Because we were
(39:49):
successful in doing that right. I think it's something that
I can always go back to and be, like, you
know what, I know what success feels like in being
committed to humanity.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Can you share that story just a little bit? Sure.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
When I was fifteen years old and on Who's the Boss,
Elton John called me and told me about a boy
named Ryan White, who is HIV positive, who was thrown
out of school and fought for the right to go
back to school, who had spoken in front of Congress,
and he wanted to meet me because he was a
big fan of the show. And so I met him
and we became friends. And I think, like what you
(40:26):
were saying before, it was because we connected because we
were both othered. We were both made to feel like
we were different and we weren't the same. And we
became good friends. And through that friendship, he asked me
if I would go on TV to kiss him to
prove that you couldn't get HIV AIDS from casual contact.
(40:48):
And I was fifteen, the height of Who's the Boss,
and I did it. And that single moment where I
was using my fame for something other than what I
had seen other people use it for changed my life.
It also changed the way in which I was motivated
(41:10):
to continue working because it wasn't just about me. It
was about continuing to have a voice so that I
could impact positive change. And through that, I mean, I
became an ambassador for UNISEF. And yes, there have been
many moments that have been very gratifying as an ambassador,
as I have traveled to a lot of countries and
(41:33):
seen the devastation of humanity. But I think the thing
that I hang my hat on is this idea that
and I think people like Natalie Portman and other celebrities
who have started as child actors, because a lot of
us are activists if you think about it, a lot
of child actors who grow up in the industry who've
(41:55):
continued to work, Jane Fonda. I mean, there's so many
of us. I think the thing that we all kind
of share and are able to hang our hat on
is this idea of hope and hope for brighter tomorrow,
hope no matter who you are and where you come from.
(42:16):
The kids that I met in Angola, Africa only two
years after peace treaty was signed, Ryan White, all of
the women that I have helped.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Encountered, encountered. But I have to hope.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Like Alyssa, hope is a very very big word, because
the thing I want to do with this podcast in
the next coming months is I want to kind of
make it about the lives we live and the terror
of what we're facing, you know, like really the intense
craziness that's going on. But what about it brings you
(42:52):
happiness or joy or pleasure? What is that and does
it always fall back for you onto the word hope.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I think that we are hardwired or pre required to
have a certain level of hope. I think humanity would
cease to exist if we didn't have hope for a
brighter tomorrow. I just feel as though there is so
much darkness, and there is so much pain, and there
(43:20):
is so much struggle. Why would anybody continue to keep
going if there wasn't hope? And I feel like I
have been blessed enough to be surrounded by people who
have it super hard. I've witnessed the struggles of how
(43:41):
bad humanity can be. But the thing that connects all
of us is this ability to hope, wow right, and
to be to be able to fight another day and
fight for a brighter tomorrow, and that we all have
that capacity to dream of that.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
To overcome and think about the next thing that might
be better. Tomorrow might be better.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
And believe me, if the children of Van Gola can
do it, or the children of Kosovo or any of
the places that I've been through unicf if those children
can have hope, we can have hope.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
We can have hope. Darling, you know I'm obsessed with obits?
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Like every single morning, it's the first thing I wake
up about reading What is your obits? When is in
twenty thousand years, forty years from now?
Speaker 2 (44:29):
What is this?
Speaker 1 (44:29):
I've never been asked this question.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
What would you like it to say?
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Just that I woke up every morning thinking about how
I could make the world a better place. And is
the suffering of others great? Simple?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Great? So good?
Speaker 3 (44:46):
That's a beautiful thought. Is there something you want to
promote on this podcast?
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Peace, Well, leave it to you. Darling. You are like
some kind of like shaw man, something you have like
a religious energy.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
It worked really hard to get to this point.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Is like extensions.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
They're good, right, really good? Yeah, they're really good bangs.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
It's cute. They're your bangs.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, they're my bangs. I mean a lot of this
is mine. It's just this that's mine.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
I see it looks really good.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Thank you. I also have a podcast. I have a
podcast called sorry not sorry, please come on, but but
we we highlight citizen activists doing amazing work throughout the world.
And uh yeah, that's the only thing I'd like to
promote besides peace.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Besides world peace. And you are literally the best person
I know.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I love you so much. And you're the best person
I know. And I miss you. I miss sitting next
to you, and I miss all of your quips and
your sound bites and judgment.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
You miss my judgment.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
I do, I do. I miss I miss your judgment,
and I miss you letting me into your archives to
where all of your fashions whenever I wanted to. That
was very special for me.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Well they're still here, okay, I will, I will please.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I'm just so thankful that our paths crossed because I
love you very much.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Wow. You're the best. You're the best. Wow.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
That went by. First of all, in a flash. I
did not believe when my producer told me I had
five minutes left. I could have gone on and on
and on. And here's the thing, about Alyssa. I kind
of was really hell bent on like listening and listening listening,
and I did, boy, I really listened. One of the
things that really struck me in listening was about how
(46:51):
she kind of handles motherhood, you know. And one thing
I feel is different about well, her generation as mothers
versus my mother's generation and how I experienced being someone's child.
I feel like there's a greater deal now of honesty
(47:12):
or something about the subjects of anxiety of otherness, you know.
And that's what's beautiful about her. She does not shirk
away from talking about those things. That's really a beautiful trait. Anyway,
thank you so much for taking the time to listen
to this podcast. Until next time, darlings. If you enjoyed
(47:35):
this episode, do me a favor and tell someone, Tell
a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin, tell everyone
you know.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Okay, and be sure to rate the show. I love
rating stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Go on and rate and review the show on Apple
Podcasts so more people can hear about it. It makes
such a gigantic difference and like it takes a second, so.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Go on and do it.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
We want more fun content videos and posts of all kinds.
Follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac
podcast and by the way, check me out on Instagram
and TikTok at I Am Isaac musrati. This is Isaac Misrahi,
Thank you, I love you and I never thought I'd
(48:22):
say this, but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by
Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia.
The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi. Hello Isaac
is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse
(48:43):
Burton and John Assanti. Vis Executive produced by Ron Howard,
Brian Grazer, Carral Welker, and Nathan kloke At Imagine Audio,
Production management from Katie Hodges, Sound design and mixing by
Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson. A special
thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanak and I AM Entertainment.
I don't think anyone doesn't struggle with motherhood. I think
it is the most horrifying, terrifying thing I have ever
done in my life, and I fail at it multiple
times a day, but I'm committed to it. I mean,
I had such bad anxiety after Milo, I mean, you
remember it. There were days that I would come into
(00:23):
work and I'd be like, I was in the hospital
last night with a panic attack. I do remember that, now,
that's right, yes, And that was all about motherhood.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Wow, Okay, yes, it.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Is a really scary thing.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
This is Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Isaac, my podcast about the idea of success and how
failure affects it.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm Isaac Musrahi, and in this.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Episode, I talked to actor, activist and New York Times
best selling author Alissa Milano.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hello, Isaac, it's Alyssa Milano and I miss you so
much and I love you and I cannot wait to
talk to you.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Alyssa Milano is one of the most famous people that
I know. I feel like, not only is she famous,
but I feel like everybody in the world knows her personally.
You know, I met her a number of years ago
when we were working together on Project Runway All Stars.
(01:26):
She was the host and I was a sort of
a judge every week, and we became quite friendly and
very close. And what I love about Alyssa is that
everyone who meets her just adores her. And she's more
than just a really good actor. She's a really smart
political activist and a great writer and a really good
(01:49):
kind of like an entrepreneur. You know, she just does
so many things. I have so many fond memories, including
being backstage with her at Project Runway All Star and
kind of opening up to her. And you know, she's
such a great listener. That's the thing about Alyssa. And
one thing I think I'm going to try to do
(02:10):
is to turn the tables on her and listen to
her and ask her some really good questions. So here
we go, Alyssa Milano. Hame on, it's been a minute, darling.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
How long has it been? It's been well, Bella's nine.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, then that's how long it's been, because we literally
it's been like eight years.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
First of all, you look so great. It's not you, honestly, darling,
but you look like you're twelve years old.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Look like who's the boss or something. I swear to God,
guess what.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm definitely not twelve.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Years old, right, No, I know that.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Wait a minute, by the way, let me just check this.
Are you still she her? Yes, I don't know, could be.
And also your kids, Milo and Elizabella.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
What are their pronouns?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Do you know they are?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I do? Actually he him she her?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Okay, right? Interesting, so interesting. You know, it's so funny
because I know you as a mom. And later in
the podcast, I want to get to talk about that
just a little bit because I think it's a key
to your personality that a lot of the listeners would
love to kind of delve into. But let's start with
a little history. Where are you from? Originally, Alyssa, I was.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Born in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, and they got up. You
knew that, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, they don't. They don't make this in La.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What the hell brought you to La? How did you go?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay? So everything, So I'll go back all the way back.
So when I was four years old, it was during
the race riots in Brooklyn and benson Hurst, and someone
got shot in my front yard and the bullet came
through the house and my parents said, okay, we're gonna
move to give her a better life, and we moved
(04:02):
to Staten Island, pretty and I lived in Staten Island
and I don't know, like, I just loved to sing
and dance. And my mom was a fashion designer at
the time, which we've talked about, and she used to
do these fashion shows. It would be at like Magique
or Studio fifty four after fashion shows and like as
(04:25):
a party, and she had dancers wear her clothes. And
one of our dear family friends had her equity card,
which is the Union for theater, and she's the babysitting
me all the time. And so do you see where
this is going? She?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I do ish, But I guess it's a big leap, darling.
It's a big league from liking to sing and dance
and having a friend to being you like, on a
set at your tiny little age of twelve.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
You know, I was eight when I auditioned. Eight. Yeah,
I auditioned for Annie. It was it was an open
anti audition. There were fifteen hundred kids there and four
were picked and I was one of the four. And
so I toured around with the second National Touring Company
and then got off the road and auditioned for a
pilot called You're the Boss. Ah, and I didn't really
(05:18):
know what any of it meant, but I did know
that the cute guy from Taxi was going to play
my dad. I was ten. I was ten years old,
and I got the pilot and we flew to LA
to shoot the pilot and then I went home and
I that was was we. It was me and my
(05:38):
dad at the time because my mom had this thriving business,
and then we went back to New York and just
you know, that was fun whatever. And then about seven
months later we found out that You're the Boss was
picked up and it was now called Who's the Boss. Wow,
and so but then, you know, there was a conundrum
(06:00):
because my mom was like, I'm not moving to Los Angeles.
So my dad and I the whole first season of
Who's the Boss we lived in LA which was this
is like a whole other series. We lived in La alone.
It kind of mirrored what Sam and Tony were going through, right,
(06:21):
And then, you know, because my mom was like, I'm
not moving to Los Angeles. TV shows don't work, and
then we're gonna have to move back. My brother was
one at the time. She's like, I'm not gonna move
the whole family to My parents are still married, by
the way, it's been fifty six years or something like that.
(06:43):
This was also a time when you know, there were
Nielsen ratings and there were only three networks right there
wasn't even Fox yet, so if a network believed in
a show, they were very likely to figure out how
to get viewers. I'm very unlike now, you know, where
they just pull you after three episodes. And we were
(07:07):
like last in the Nielsen ratings the first year, really
like dead last because we were against family Ties. This
is how long ago that was, jeez. And then season
two ABC said, you know what, We're going to put
you on after Happy Days again. This is how long
ago that was, Jason. Yeah, and we became a top
(07:29):
ten show and we were on the air for eight years,
so I was eleven to nineteen years old.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Darling.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I've always wanted to ask you this, and you answer
it however, you see fit okay, because I know a
lot of people who started as children in this industry.
You know, I know Natalie Portman since she's twelve, and
it's amazing how some of you kind of escape that unscathed.
(07:57):
Or relatively unscathed, and some of them don't make it.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Is there something you attribute to having made it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And too being such a not just a good adult,
but like a fucking exemplary adult, you know, like like
a role model for so many people.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Like how did you do that? How did you escape
all of that?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I don't know that I escaped it. I think a
few things. One. I think that the industry, when you're
a kid, it's very hard, but it magnifies the person
that you would be regardless. And what I mean by
that is like, if you come from a hard family
(08:40):
and an unhappy childhood, the industry because of everything that
it enables you to be, for better or for worse,
and all of the yes people and all of the
people that tell you you're great, it will magnify.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I believe that the kids who have a hard time
in the industry would have had a hard time no
matter what they were doing. I really believe that. And
because I believe that, I have to give so much
credit to my family and my support system, who consistently
and always reminded me what was important in life and
(09:26):
what the responsibility was to be a public figure, and
how that's really such a blessing. That is a blessing.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Eleven though, Darling at eleven correct, you know, I mean
it is a blessing. And you talk about a kid
having a hard time otherwise, right, I totally get that.
And what you're saying is that it's a magnifying glass,
right correct. I also talked to Brooks Shields a couple
of weeks ago, right, and she was talking about a
kind of work ethic that we grew up with, Like,
(09:56):
you know, I think about Elizabella, like, how do you
feel about her doing what you did as a young kid.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
She's doing musical theater right now, she's actually rehearsing Annie
and she's doing The Little Mermaid. And the way I
kind of feel about it is, well, first of all,
kids come out who they are and they love what
they love, right, and you can't change that. And I
got to the point where, you know, she wanted to
do musical theater. We had taken her to see Wicked,
(10:23):
and I got to the point where I was like,
who better than me to have a child who wants
to explore this part of their creativity and so she
finds great.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
You said, Judy about Liza, but you know, go.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
On a sorry, she finds great individuality and great confidence
in it. Now, mind you, she's also really great at math,
and she plays soccer and all the things, which I
think is very important to expose kids to, all the
things that they show an inclination to. Words, But who
(11:02):
am I to get in a child's way as long
as they're not being hurtful or hurting themselves. I need
to allow my children to explore who they are and
what that means for them in the future, who they
want to be in the future.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
When you were doing that job, it was many seasons,
seven or eight seasons, right, like a really long time.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, I was eleven eleven to nineteen eleven.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
To nineteen wow, so that's like almost ten years of
your life.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I mean, and those were years job.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Right When you were doing that job, it was a
different world, Darling. I mean, they would work you a
little bit more than they might today. Do you think
that's true? Was it more comfortable for you?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I think the business actually was very good for me
at that age because I was diagnosed with dyslexia, so
I don't know that being in a normal school would
have actually been okay for me. I think that being
tutored on a set enabled me to have the best
(12:07):
education I probably could have ever had or dreamed of
because of my learning difference. And also I feel like,
I mean, you know these people Judith light Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I love you were so lucky.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That was I was really lucky.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
You were lucky. She is one of the great people.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I mean when you think about how many people I
could have been stuck with.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
In the eighties, right, and then there's Tony Dazl was
also such a gem of a god. Amazing human one
or two times I've met him.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, amazing human.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I'm true. You lucked out. You lucked out.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I lucked out with my own family and being born
into this incredible family, but also I lucked out with
my TV family, who maybe not equally shaped the person
that I am, but had a big part and contributing
to who I am and accepting.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, I can only conclude that it is about your family,
the family that you come from. Like you know, you
started the whole thing by saying, the kid's going to
be who the kid is as an adult, regardless, and
if they're troubled as a kid, it doesn't matter if
show business happens or doesn't happen. I agree with that,
And I remember Natalie's parents, you know, Natalie Portant's parents
(13:24):
were really really like solicitous and diligent about caring for her,
you know what I mean, and making it okay for her,
you know. And then I think about you and your
like openness to this kind of otherness otherness? Is there
a word such as otherness? And I think Isabella me too,
(13:46):
I like it too. I'm thinking of you looking at
my lot el Isabella and going, you know what, whoever
these kids are.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
That's why I.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Asked you at their pronouns at the top too, because
I feel like motherhood is not for everybody, you know,
because I think feel like I knew you when Milo
is a tiny tiny yeahbe too. I feel like it
was right at the top of that like you had
just said Milo.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And Milo is less than a year old when we first.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Met, exactly, Well, there you go, and so and I
don't think you ever struggled with motherhood, did you, Oh, darling,
I don't know what this means.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Tell me everything. What is it? Name? What is it name?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I don't think anyone doesn't struggle with motherhood. I think
it is the most horrifying, terrifying thing I have ever
done in my life, and I fail at it multiple
times a day. But I'm committed to it and I
feel like it's what you put into it, what you
get out of it. And but yeah, I mean I
(14:52):
had such bad anxiety after Milo. I mean, you remember
there were there were days that I would come into
work and I'd be like I was in the hospit
last night with a panic attack.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I do remember that, now, that's right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yes, And that was all about motherhood.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Wow, Okay, yes.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
It is a really scary thing.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
And how old is Milo now?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
He's twelve?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
He's only twelve? God, thank god, Thank god you didn't
say he just graduated college, because I would have believed you.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah. Well, I mean it's only five years away that
he goes to college, which I'm so aware of.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
But you know, I often wonder about the modern concept
of motherhood because we were raised by women who also
had anxiety. You know, my mother had a huge amount
of anxiety. And you know how close I am to
my mom, and you know how important she was in
my life. Yes, and I was perplexed, bewildered, you know,
(15:49):
a little hurt by her anxiety. I never knew what
to make of your anxiety, and I think maybe it's better.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Like, did you ever talk to Milo about it?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Oh? Both my kids are fully aware, yes, because you know,
they're fully downloaded because we you and I are from
a time when you didn't talk about it. And first
of all, I'm sure you've seen all the reports there
is a rise in anxiety and depression and young people.
And so I just got to this point where I
(16:20):
wanted mental health to be as important as and as
common as going to the dentist for them. Like we
have someone that we talk to as a family, I
call them the feelings doctor, And I think it's really
important that for me and my history and anxiety, that
(16:43):
my kids are raised with this idea that if you're
going to go to the dentist, if you're going to
take care of all of your vaccinations, and if you're
going to take care of your heart, then you also
have to take care of your mind. And so I
don't know if that it's gonna make them more neurotic
or less neurotic, but I do know that that ignoring
(17:07):
it for me didn't help me at all, and it,
you know, just got to the point where the only
way out was in or through. And I think when
you are not healed entirely from your own childhood, and
this has little to do with being a child actor
and more to do with just, you know, growing up
(17:28):
as hard. I think when you have your first child,
you're healing the little child inside of you at the
same time you're raising this child that is outside of you.
And I think it became for me that my own
childhood insecurities I was projecting onto my children, and so
(17:50):
I needed to heal the little girl inside of me
so that I could let that go and just really
have a foundation to build on for my children. And
so that's what I've tried to do. I mean, we'll
see what happens. I don't fucking know.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Right, Right, that's the only smart thing to say, right,
That's the only smart thing to say. And the other
thing I'm going to observe is that you know, for you,
it was an important step, right, like motherhood was at
fore con conclusion, Like you wanted to be a mom, right,
there wasn't a question about that. Whereas for me, I
wonder if I'll ever heal the little boy in me
(18:30):
or the little whatever in me whatever, because I'm not
going to have You know, I never had kids, I
never went through.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
The I can tell you would be an amazing father.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Well, I guess I would if I could get over like,
how fucking selfish I am? I'm serious? And yet, Darling,
we know people in show business who are such narcissists,
like unchecked. We have been witnessed to unchecked narcissism, and
I don't think either of us are. I mean, look,
(19:01):
at least I admit that I'm too selfish to have
a kid. Not even too selfish, I'm too crazy. I
think I would make this kid insane.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know I disagree, But go on, Well what do.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
You think because according to the story, you didn't really
have a stage mom, I didn't you know? And so
what was there at the core of your little girlhood
that you're healing?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Do you know what it is?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh? Yeah, feeling othered going through puberty on TV in
front of millions of people. Because again, at that time
there was there were only three stations, so when you
were a top ten show, it meant there were you know,
thirty million people watching you every people every week. And
(19:47):
I have childhood sexual trauma and so, and you know,
having that then raising a little girl who is my
mini me, and every time I look at her, especially
at this age, I am reminded of that trauma. Yeah,
(20:09):
I mean it's it's it's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And then also like this thing of feeling like I
didn't choose this path, it chose me. And I never
really figured that out, and I never really thought about
if there is anything else that I wanted to do
in life, and so, you know, I got to a
certain point where I was like, Okay, not the young
(20:36):
Ingenoux anymore, right, Like after Charmed was over, I'm not
I'm not the young ingenu anymore. I'm going to start aging,
Like do I want to be in this business as
someone who's trying to hold on to a youthfulness that
that isn't fooling anybody? Like how like how how do
I want to enter this second half of my life
(21:01):
as a woman and feel fulfilled? Because I've been working
now since I was seven so and I'm fifty one.
So so yeah, you know, we all go through ups
and downs, and I think that I'm just one of
those people who's really into just dissecting the human psyche
(21:26):
and learning and growing and evolving and wanting to make
sense of myself and humanity.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Well, I mean I have to say, getting back to
what you were saying about, what do you do now
that you're not an angenu right in show business, which
is such a punishing, punishing business.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Really, especially for women acually for women. Yeah, dido jinx
on you.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, but you know, I don't want to use this
sort of hackneyed old phrase of self reinvention because I
don't see you as having reinvented yourself. You know, you're
a really good actor. You're an amazing darling. You were
an amazing activist like I follow you on social media.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Darling. You don't shut your mouth, Hony, you say what
needs to be said, I think, right. And you're an entrepreneurs.
I remember you were doing that amazing collection of sports
where it does that still exists.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It doesn't actually, because okay, all of the major companies
are doing their own amazing versions of sports where they are.
But I still find so much pride in the fact
that I gave female sports fans the first fashion forward
fan apparel, you know, because at that time it was
just about pink it and shrinket.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I think you have a very full life as a
woman and as an entrepreneur and as an actor. So
talk about this for a minute. First of all, you
identify as a right reader now more than an actor.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I really love writing and producing. I don't know that
I identify as as one thing. I'm sort of career fluid.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Right, What do you like to do? What do you
like the best?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I really like to write. I think writing suits my
personality the most because I have social anxiety. So it's
funny because during the pandemic, I was thriving because because
I was at home and I was taking all these
classes over at the internet and writing so much like
(23:35):
I wrote my book of essays during the pandemic. And
you know, I remember this feeling of like why am
I thriving right now? And I realized it was because
everybody else was in this state of total hysteria and
it matched how I normally am, and so I could
look at people.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And go like, I know I felt the same.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Right, like, see I told you everything's fucked up. See
now you believe me? Right now? I believe So I
just felt like I could explore parts that had I
been like on a set and working, I couldn't really
explore about my creativity. Like I taught myself how to
water color paint, I took feminism classes. I did a
(24:16):
bunch of things for me that I never would have
done before. So I don't know, I don't know that
I identify as one thing. I do know, Isaac, that to
go on a set would have to be a very
special project, you know, Like the only thing I've really
done since the pandemic was Brazen, which was the Netflix movie, right,
(24:40):
And I think part of that was because they were like,
we will homeschool your kids in Canada. We will rent
you a house on the water. You know, your husband
can come. And it just felt like, okay, well, if
we're going to be quarantined, we might as well all
go to Canada and make it an experience and so.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Comfortable and fun. Yeah, Alyssa.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
The other thing about you, even though you're really into
clothes and you like looking kind of put together and
really chic, and you care a lot about hair and
makeup and all that, but being pretty right, like you
are so pretty right, like you are pretty. I'm just
saying it because it's a fact, and yet you go
do I hold on to this thing that everybody can tell, Like,
(25:23):
do I go out there and continue to try to
and everybody can google and know how old I am anyway?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You know, it's like, why did that occur to you?
Like did you see acting as a detour or something?
It's so funny to me.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
No, I just think that I got to a point
where I realized that so much of beauty and womanhood
was about feeding on insecurities. And I felt like if
I was going to be okay with aging, because guess what,
it's all happening to everyone darling, I was going to
(26:00):
have to not try to look like I'm not aging.
And believe me, I did like the boat talks and
the filler and I haven't done anything in two and
a half years because I just felt like I didn't
look like I was younger. I look like I was
just doing shit to my face, right.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
And just what everybody looks like. I haven't done anything
at all. I've never had boattocks, I've never had filler.
I've never had anything lifted or talked or anything. And
I feel like I look ridiculously old. But that's just
my choice.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, See, I think you look ridiculously young. And it's
the people that do all the stuff that they come
across older, because there's also this weird uniform thing that's
going on with the face because injections you can only
put into certain parts of your face, so there's like
this uniform look of like the cheeks or the lips.
(26:54):
And guess what, you're not fooling anyone.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You're not fooling you don't look any young.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Or you just look like you got shit done to
your face.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Right, and you may look a little smoother and a
little taught, you know, more taut, and like sometimes like
way way way in the beginning. And I'm not talking
about like thirty year olds, because I don't believe people
in their thirties should start with that shit. But it's like,
you know, I have a few friends who, like in
their late fifties, they decided to do extremely, extremely minimal,
(27:24):
judicious little things and they look slightly better.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
They do.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
They look a little fresher, and you can't really tell
that they've done anything. But it's a slippery slope, and
within minutes everybody is on their second procedure. And by
the second procedure, there's where it just goes wrong and
I am I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I have nothing against other people doing it. I just
felt for me in my life either by the way,
my own sanity, yeah, my own insecurities, that it was
not going to be beneficial for me to be chasing
away to look it was probably going to lead to
(28:03):
more anxiety or depression or apps or insecurity or so.
So yeah, so that's.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
It always does, Darling, It always does. So back to
you and who you are, you are pretty much a
social media star and that is really something to covet
now because it makes for some modicum, like some bit
of power. When you have a large social media following,
you can do a lot of stuff because you can
(28:32):
promote it quickly, right.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I think that's the thing about it is is that
like it enables you to control your identity because you're
putting stuff out there that you want out there. You know,
Like when we were growing up, like in order to
control an image, you had to be asked to be
interviewed and you had to say smart things and all
(28:54):
the things. And now it's like you can control your
image based on your time and what you want out there.
And so I think that that's interesting I think it
makes it hard for people who aren't consistent in their
belief system and their core because there's a lot of
(29:16):
contradiction that happens. And so I feel as though it
can be helpful to some people and hurtful to some people.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I mean, the reason I am wary of it, a
little wary of it because it's not the real world,
you know, it's the virtual world. And I know you
have to deal with the bad sides of it too,
like trolls, you know, and people who hate you. Tell
me a little about that. Does it hurt you?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Now? Do you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It does hurt me? You know, I've put it in
this weird perspective, and I don't know if this is
going to make any sense, but I'm going to just
give you a little insight into my thought process on
the trolls. I mean, I've had hate mail my entire life,
you know, starting with Ryan White, right, Like I just,
I have always felt that my activism was going to
bring on some right, some versions of hate, and I
(30:08):
made that decision at a very young age to not
let that impact the change that I could do. But
you know, a weird thing happened with the whole Trump presidency,
which was it appeared that the trolling was all being
written from the same like talking points, and they were
(30:29):
all sort of they all have the same agenda, but
also like it was very specific to who I was,
and they were trying to be hurtful. And I kind
of got to this point where I was like, there's
some troll form in some foreign country that is putting
this all forward, and whether or not that was true,
(30:50):
I just convinced myself that it wasn't real people.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
No, it's not personal. It can't be personal, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And by doing that again, whether it's not it's true,
whether it was real people, or whether there was some
troll farm creating these, it felt as though it made
it easier for me to go through. Kind of like
you know, when you're in the car and someone cuts
you off, you can have one of two reactions. You
(31:17):
could go, you're a horrible driver and fuck you and
that just makes you upset and brings your blood pressure
up and maybe makes you a little anxious. Or you
could go, ooh, I hope they're okay. Maybe their wife
is in the backseat in labor and that's why they're
driving crazy, and so I sort of had this, I
had this switch of like just trying to make it
(31:41):
easier on myself. And so that's kind of the way
I've been able to.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Deal with it whenever possible, Darling, that's how you deal
with it. But sometimes it does really hurt, right like,
because I, even in my small way, I do have trolls,
and I do have people who attack and say stupid,
mean things about.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
What's your trigger point?
Speaker 3 (32:02):
You know, it's like people who resurrect things from the
past about me that are so kind of unfair, or
something about something I said out of context or something
I did out of context. And so like when I
think about you, and I think about your Instagram, because
I follow you on Instagram, I don't really look at Twitter.
(32:23):
I find that just to be too too just cock of.
It's just too cock of for me. I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
It's a lot for me.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's a lot.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
But Instagram can sometimes be very wonderful and helpful and gorgeous,
you know. And I look at you and I say,
this woman is like putting herself out there, like she's
practically like confiding in us as though we're like family.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Mans. It's amazing. You know, it's a pretty great thing
that you can do. And then to see the way
people react in such a hateful way, it's almost like
that is what they are in their DNA. So it's
largely about farms, like you said, right, But also there
is a part of our population that is really nasty
(33:09):
and they just sit around thinking of nasty, awful things
to do, and not just like mass murderers or something,
or terrible criminals, but also just lousy, mean, awful people
who aren't exactly criminals, but what they do I feel
is close to criminal.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
You know, well, harassment, right, Like yeah, if they were
screaming those things in your face, you know, that would
be against the law. You would be able to press charges.
But because it's on the internet, and I do feel
like women get a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Of oh boy di wow keep saying that.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
But I think about like what you do on Instagram
now and what you do in the social world right now,
and what your kids are going to inherit in terms
of the virtual world versus the real world. Does that
ever freak you out just a little bit?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Well, yeah, and especially the rise in anxiety and depression
with kids. I don't think it's a coincidence that it
coincides with the creation of social media, especially for young
girls feeling like they're not enough, feeling like they need
the seventy dollars Stanley to validate who they are. They
need the Lululemon and the ugs and all the things
(34:23):
and all the skincare phase that these young women are
going through. So yeah, but I also think that we're
going into it with a lot more awareness than we
did ten fifteen years ago. So I try to do
whatever I can to protect the kids. But I know
that they're gonna wind up on my Instagram at some
(34:45):
point and look back at posts and see someone calling
me a baby killer because I've admitted to having a boy.
See that's my trigger point, Yes, I see. Is not
so much about taking things out of context or any
of that or bringing things up from the past. My
trigger point is when people are just that hurtful about
(35:07):
the like big things.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Big things, big things, something that is so difficult for
a woman to begin with, right, and then they make
it so much more difficult and so just impossible to control.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, it's just it's hard. And I've been very vocal
about having abortions because you know, we saw this writing
on the wall when Trump was elected, So you know,
I wanted to use my own experience with needing health
care as a way to allow women to speak up
and to fight against what we all saw was going
(35:44):
to happen. It wound up happening anyway, but I you know,
to have that part of my past be used against
me and for people to not think about what that
might do to my kids, Yeah, it hurts, Darling.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I would be remiss if I didn't bring this up,
because I talk about this a lot on this podcast,
which is failure. You know, was there some failure in
your life and how you learned from that.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'll just tell you what popped into my head. I
don't think it answers specifically the question of one moment,
but it's many moments.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well, I love that being.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
An activist is ninety eight percent failure. There are so
few wins in the fight for justice and equality and equity,
and so what has that taught me? When I look
at people like Elis Paul, who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment,
(36:55):
which would guarantee that women would have the samely legal
protections as men or child bearing people as men, and
that would be forever carved out in our constitution, which
most people don't even realize that women are not protected
in the constitution. She died before she was able to
(37:16):
see that happen. And it's something that I fight for.
And I realized I might not see that in my lifetime.
And what does that mean? And what I realized is like,
especially through women like Alice Paul or any of our
great feminists, you can't be attached to the outcome. That
(37:41):
it's got to be about the process. And I have
taken that little thing that I have learned from being
an activist and I've put it towards everything that I do,
because if you think about you can't be attached to
the outcome. You have to be committed to the process.
It means everything. It's parenting, it's a business endeavor, it's
(38:06):
a design, it's painting for me, it's learning more, it's therapy,
it's evolution. It's whether or not a tree grows when
you plant the seed.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
You know what I got to tell you, Darling, something
is dawning on me. I was thinking about it before,
you know, the weeks before night when we booked the
interview with you and everything, and I was thinking, I
look at you as some kind of crazy goddess or something,
because I always see you as being so confident. Like
I know you were in the hospital with panic attacks,
I know all of that, but like when I see
(38:42):
you in action on social media or working with you
every day, it was like watching some kind of giant
And I think it's what you're talking about. I think
it's this idea that you're giving way, the whole idea
of success and failure, and you're going, this is what
it is. I just have to keep on working and
(39:02):
moving forward, progressing forward. It was an inspiration being around
you for that many years and watching that in action,
and now, like, what I want to do is kind
of turn this around a little bit. You were saying
activism is ninety eight percent failure. Is there one moment
that you just were like so happy that something that
you did, Like, was there ever any fruit?
Speaker 1 (39:26):
I think my first real commitment to activism was with
Ryan White, and I think that that bore the most fruit.
And I think because I had a taste of what
it meant to support someone, to shine a light, to
use my fame to change a narrative. Because we were
(39:49):
successful in doing that right. I think it's something that
I can always go back to and be, like, you
know what, I know what success feels like in being
committed to humanity.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Can you share that story just a little bit? Sure.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
When I was fifteen years old and on Who's the Boss,
Elton John called me and told me about a boy
named Ryan White, who is HIV positive, who was thrown
out of school and fought for the right to go
back to school, who had spoken in front of Congress,
and he wanted to meet me because he was a
big fan of the show. And so I met him
and we became friends. And I think, like what you
(40:26):
were saying before, it was because we connected because we
were both othered. We were both made to feel like
we were different and we weren't the same. And we
became good friends. And through that friendship, he asked me
if I would go on TV to kiss him to
prove that you couldn't get HIV AIDS from casual contact.
(40:48):
And I was fifteen, the height of Who's the Boss,
and I did it. And that single moment where I
was using my fame for something other than what I
had seen other people use it for changed my life.
It also changed the way in which I was motivated
(41:10):
to continue working because it wasn't just about me. It
was about continuing to have a voice so that I
could impact positive change. And through that, I mean, I
became an ambassador for UNISEF. And yes, there have been
many moments that have been very gratifying as an ambassador,
as I have traveled to a lot of countries and
(41:33):
seen the devastation of humanity. But I think the thing
that I hang my hat on is this idea that
and I think people like Natalie Portman and other celebrities
who have started as child actors, because a lot of
us are activists if you think about it, a lot
of child actors who grow up in the industry who've
(41:55):
continued to work, Jane Fonda. I mean, there's so many
of us. I think the thing that we all kind
of share and are able to hang our hat on
is this idea of hope and hope for brighter tomorrow,
hope no matter who you are and where you come from.
(42:16):
The kids that I met in Angola, Africa only two
years after peace treaty was signed, Ryan White, all of
the women that I have helped.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Encountered, encountered. But I have to hope.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Like Alyssa, hope is a very very big word, because
the thing I want to do with this podcast in
the next coming months is I want to kind of
make it about the lives we live and the terror
of what we're facing, you know, like really the intense
craziness that's going on. But what about it brings you
(42:52):
happiness or joy or pleasure? What is that and does
it always fall back for you onto the word hope.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I think that we are hardwired or pre required to
have a certain level of hope. I think humanity would
cease to exist if we didn't have hope for a
brighter tomorrow. I just feel as though there is so
much darkness, and there is so much pain, and there
(43:20):
is so much struggle. Why would anybody continue to keep
going if there wasn't hope? And I feel like I
have been blessed enough to be surrounded by people who
have it super hard. I've witnessed the struggles of how
(43:41):
bad humanity can be. But the thing that connects all
of us is this ability to hope, wow right, and
to be to be able to fight another day and
fight for a brighter tomorrow, and that we all have
that capacity to dream of that.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
To overcome and think about the next thing that might
be better. Tomorrow might be better.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
And believe me, if the children of Van Gola can
do it, or the children of Kosovo or any of
the places that I've been through unicf if those children
can have hope, we can have hope.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
We can have hope. Darling, you know I'm obsessed with obits?
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Like every single morning, it's the first thing I wake
up about reading What is your obits? When is in
twenty thousand years, forty years from now?
Speaker 2 (44:29):
What is this?
Speaker 1 (44:29):
I've never been asked this question.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
What would you like it to say?
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Just that I woke up every morning thinking about how
I could make the world a better place. And is
the suffering of others great? Simple?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Great? So good?
Speaker 3 (44:46):
That's a beautiful thought. Is there something you want to
promote on this podcast?
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Peace, Well, leave it to you. Darling. You are like
some kind of like shaw man, something you have like
a religious energy.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
It worked really hard to get to this point.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Is like extensions.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
They're good, right, really good? Yeah, they're really good bangs.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
It's cute. They're your bangs.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, they're my bangs. I mean a lot of this
is mine. It's just this that's mine.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
I see it looks really good.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Thank you. I also have a podcast. I have a
podcast called sorry not sorry, please come on, but but
we we highlight citizen activists doing amazing work throughout the world.
And uh yeah, that's the only thing I'd like to
promote besides peace.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Besides world peace. And you are literally the best person
I know.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I love you so much. And you're the best person
I know. And I miss you. I miss sitting next
to you, and I miss all of your quips and
your sound bites and judgment.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
You miss my judgment.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
I do, I do. I miss I miss your judgment,
and I miss you letting me into your archives to
where all of your fashions whenever I wanted to. That
was very special for me.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Well they're still here, okay, I will, I will please.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I'm just so thankful that our paths crossed because I
love you very much.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Wow. You're the best. You're the best. Wow.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
That went by. First of all, in a flash. I
did not believe when my producer told me I had
five minutes left. I could have gone on and on
and on. And here's the thing, about Alyssa. I kind
of was really hell bent on like listening and listening listening,
and I did, boy, I really listened. One of the
things that really struck me in listening was about how
(46:51):
she kind of handles motherhood, you know. And one thing
I feel is different about well, her generation as mothers
versus my mother's generation and how I experienced being someone's child.
I feel like there's a greater deal now of honesty
(47:12):
or something about the subjects of anxiety of otherness, you know.
And that's what's beautiful about her. She does not shirk
away from talking about those things. That's really a beautiful trait. Anyway,
thank you so much for taking the time to listen
to this podcast. Until next time, darlings. If you enjoyed
(47:35):
this episode, do me a favor and tell someone, Tell
a friend, tell your mother, tell your cousin, tell everyone
you know.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Okay, and be sure to rate the show. I love
rating stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Go on and rate and review the show on Apple
Podcasts so more people can hear about it. It makes
such a gigantic difference and like it takes a second, so.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Go on and do it.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
We want more fun content videos and posts of all kinds.
Follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac
podcast and by the way, check me out on Instagram
and TikTok at I Am Isaac musrati. This is Isaac Misrahi,
Thank you, I love you and I never thought I'd
(48:22):
say this, but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by
Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia.
The series is hosted by Me Isaac Msrahi. Hello Isaac
is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse
(48:43):
Burton and John Assanti. Vis Executive produced by Ron Howard,
Brian Grazer, Carral Welker, and Nathan kloke At Imagine Audio,
Production management from Katie Hodges, Sound design and mixing by
Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Wilson. A special
thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanak and I AM Entertainment.
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