Lena Waithe
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Umbrella
4.6 • 69.9K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 122 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lena Waithe (The Chi, Queen & Slim, Master of None) is an Emmy-winning writer, producer, actor, and playwright. Lena joins Armchair Expert to discuss being a talkative kid in the South Side of Chicago, discovering television through her grandmother, and realizing she was a writer before the industry knew where to place her. Lena and Dax talk about the changing definition of celebrity, the hard-won evolution of The Chi, and her fairy godmothers in the business. Lena explains how identity can become mistaken for activism, how aging can be a privilege instead of a fear, and why the best conversations require listening instead of assuming.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert. |
| 0:02.5 | I'm Dan Shepard. |
| 0:03.2 | I'm joined by Lily Padman. |
| 0:05.1 | And today we have Lena Waif. |
| 0:07.9 | Mm-hmm. |
| 0:08.7 | Oh, I love Lena Waith. |
| 0:10.4 | She's an actor, a producer, and a screenwriter. |
| 0:12.8 | She created The Shy. |
| 0:14.1 | She was on Master of None. |
| 0:15.7 | We loved that show. |
| 0:16.9 | Yes, Queen and Slim, Boomerang, Them. |
| 0:20.1 | This is the final season of the shy, now streaming on Paramount Plus. |
| 0:25.3 | You know, Lena, you're going to really fall in love with her if you've never heard her chat. |
| 0:29.8 | She's just as sweet and wonderful as they get. |
| 0:32.6 | That's right. |
| 0:33.3 | Yeah. |
| 0:33.5 | Please enjoy Lena Waith. |
| 0:35.4 | This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. |
| 0:38.5 | I feel like Spring always does this thing where you realize you've been thinking about something for a long time. |
| 0:43.4 | And suddenly it feels like, okay, maybe I actually do something with it. |
| 0:47.6 | Totally. It's less pressure, but more like readiness. |
| 0:50.9 | Yeah, like you've been sitting on an idea or a project or even just a perspective |
... |
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