Hopeful Pessimist or Doom and Gloom? (with Jen Statsky)

Choice Words with Samantha Bee

Lemonada Media

Comedy

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writer, executive-producer, and co-creator of Hacks Jen Statsky joins Sam to discuss her particular brand of hopeful pessimism, and their shared obsession with Jean Smart, who she says is one of the greatest nappers of all time. Jen explains that she is decisive if it’s a decision that only involves herself, but as soon as she brings in other people, there’s a big problem. Which is why she’s fortunate to have two amazing co-showrunners of Hacks, because they make most of the decisions together and she loves it—from hiring to writing assignments to what kind of office birthday cake to buy. They lament the lack of respect male comedians have traditionally held for female comedians who have come before them, and why six years may not sound like a lot but it’s an eternity in TV years. comedians have written off way more successful female comedians for eternity. They talk about what it’s like to go from being a staff-writer to being in charge of all the writers, and how the late night landscape has changed to be almost unrecognizable since Hacks began and how Jen kind of wants to leave her career to become a couples therapist.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Why do we do what we do? What makes life meaningful? My name is Elise Lunan and I'm the author of
0:07.1	On Our Best Behavior and the host of the podcast, Pulling the Thread. I'm pulling the thread. I explore
0:12.9	life's big questions with thought leaders who help us better understand ourselves, others, and the world
0:18.5	around us. I hope these conversations bring you moments of resonance, hope, and growth.
0:23.8	Listen to pulling the thread from Lemonada Media wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.5	Lemonada.
0:35.0	I can't watch the news for more than three minutes these days without having a complete and total rage aneurysm.
0:43.0	Sometimes I think if I spend another minute looking directly at Caroline Levitt's winding White Cross, I might just have a real aneurysm too, but I need something to do between podcasts and my daily 30-second interstitials of news binging, which is why I have some serious choice words for the TV execs and empty suits who are gutting networks in canceling legacy TV shows and taking over news broadcasts and installing bias monitors
1:13.6	and merging and acquisitioning left and right.
1:16.9	So there won't even be any TV left a goddamn watch.
1:20.3	Would you please leave us our TV?
1:23.7	It's all we have left in this world.
1:27.4	I feel like I can actually speak directly to this issue because I myself was a casualty. It's all we have left in this world.
1:32.5	I feel like I can actually speak directly to this issue because I myself was a casualty of a network merger. And after seven incredible years, my show was canceled by a guy and a fleece vest and a cup of whatever.
1:39.7	Soilent, I don't know.
1:40.9	So that come December, he and his minions could get a multi-million dollar bonus and
1:45.6	yad away to Capri. Don't worry. Don't worry at the time. My time slot was filled for, you know,
1:54.0	for continuity with the show called Power Slap. So it wasn't a total, it wasn't a total loss. I mean,
2:00.4	power slop was pretty great.
2:02.8	Dana White is incredible at making television content.
2:07.5	Oh, Lord.
2:23.2	Yeah. This is Joyce Words.
	...

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