Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated (encore)

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 992 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we're revisiting our episode with comedian Bowen Yang. The "SNL" cast member and "Las Culturistas" podcast co-host had a big year between being in the film adaptation of "Wicked" and the "Saturday Night Live" 50th anniversary special. He talked with Rachel last spring about living too much in the present, the risks of being real and why the afterlife will definitely have roller coasters.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:16.2	Hey there, it's Rachel.
0:17.5	And this week we're bringing one of my favorite conversations back to the top of
0:21.4	your feed. It's with a guy who seems to be everywhere right now. Maybe you saw him in the Saturday
0:27.1	Night Live 50th anniversary special, or alongside Ariana Grande in Wicked, Bowen Yang is riding high right now
0:35.2	and having a damn good time in the process.
0:42.7	I talked with him this past spring in a moment when he was trying to figure out how to navigate his new level of fame and all the expectations that come with it.
0:47.1	He was thoughtful and so lovely, and I think you're going to dig it.
0:50.8	Take a listen.
0:55.8	How do you get in your own way?
0:57.5	Hmm. I get in my own way by like overprivileging the present.
1:05.5	That's so interesting because everyone wants to be in the present. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like
1:10.0	that's overrated. I feel like being present is overrated.
1:13.5	I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard.
1:16.3	The game where cards control the conversation.
1:21.8	Each week, my guest answers questions about their life.
1:25.2	Questions pulled from a deck of cards.
1:28.4	They're allowed to skip one question and to flip one question back on me. Not that I'm like permanently camped out at the
1:35.6	present, but I do forget about the past. I forget that I have like been through tough things
1:42.6	before. So I got to tell you, I take research very seriously.
	...

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