Choices We Made: Caretaker or Comedian? (with Cristela Alonzo)

Choice Words with Samantha Bee

Lemonada Media

Comedy

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Comedian Cristela Alonzo joins Sam to talk about her new Netflix special Upper Classy, and how before her career took off she made the life-changing decision to leave LA to become her mom’s full-time end of life caretaker. She explains that she started standup as a way of dealing with the grief of losing her mom, and how she didn’t even know it could be a real job before then. Cristela talks about how when you grow up below the poverty line you learn that part of privilege is having the power to get people’s attention and how you might as well make the decision you’re faced with because tomorrow is coming either way. They gush over a shared love of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and “very special episodes” and learning to ride bikes later in life, and why it’s never too late to learn to experience joy.

Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Have you heard of Gold Belly? It's this amazing site that I order from all the time, where you can get the most iconic famous foods from restaurants all across the U.S., and they will ship it anywhere across the country.
0:14.3	Gold Belly will ship you iconic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza from Lou Malnatties or New York's most famous cheesecake from juniors.
0:22.7	If you're craving a barbecue, they ship the legendary Franklin's barbecue straight from Texas to your door.
0:28.0	And you really do have to try the one and only world-renowned stone crab delivered from Joe's in Miami.
0:33.8	Whether it's a dish from that one-of-a-kind restaurant or meals from world-famous chefs like Ina Garten,
0:39.8	Daniel Bouloud, or Jose Andres, gold belly has you covered.
0:44.1	Okay, I'm serious.
0:46.4	I love ordering food online.
0:49.3	It's like one of my favorite things.
0:51.1	And I just got Ina Gartens, coconut cake. And I got to tell you, it delivered.
0:59.0	Like literally got delivered, but also delivered everything I wanted from the experience. I felt
1:05.6	like Ina was in my kitchen and she personally made me a coconut cake. I love coconut cake.
1:11.8	But it seems like a lot of problems for me. So I want someone else to make it and I want it to look iconic and it did.
1:17.5	So, if you are looking for that perfect gift or you want to impress your friends and family
1:24.2	with an epic meal the next time you host, go to goldbelly.com and get 20% off
1:29.1	your first order with promo code choice words that's goldbelly.com code choice words for 20% off
1:36.9	your first order. It's morning in New York.
1:41.5	Oh, God.
1:44.9	Hey everybody.
1:46.0	I'm Mandy Patinkin.
1:47.3	And I'm Catherine Grady.
1:48.5	And we have a new podcast.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lemonada Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lemonada Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.