W. Kamau Bell on CNN, Fox News, Trump and More

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Stand-up comedian W. Kamau Bell has been hosting ‘United Shades of America’ on CNN since before Donald Trump was elected. With its fifth season premiere on Sunday, July 19th, the show gives Bell a chance to talk to people from every corner of the country about issues like guns, race and religion. He tells us how he learned to listen to people on the opposite end of the political spectrum, why he would never go on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, why he doesn’t mind performing for “woke” college students and a lot more.

Twitter: @wkamaubell and @mattwilstein | Instagram @wkamaubell and @lastlaughpod

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This episode was originally published on May 7th, 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and we have a treat for you today.
0:11.0	To celebrate the 4th of July, we are replaying an episode I recorded with comedian and host of CNN's United Shades of America, W. Kamau Bell, back in May of last year.
0:21.4	We joke about it at the top of the episode, but Kamau was, and I believe still is, the only comedian
0:27.0	to directly reach out to me on Twitter about being a guest on the show, and I still love him for
0:32.0	that. Kamau has always found unexpected ways to somehow make issues like racial justice funny. Given the ongoing movement
0:39.6	in this country against police brutality, our discussion is more timely than ever, and I wanted to
0:44.7	share it with all of our new listeners who didn't catch it the first time around. And look out for
0:49.1	the fifth season of United Shades, premiering on CNN Sunday, July 19th. Hope you enjoy this episode and are having a great holiday week.
0:57.6	We'll be back with an all-new episode next Tuesday with Richard Kind.
1:01.8	All right, now let's listen back to my conversation with W. Kamau Bell.
1:09.2	Kamau, thank you for making the trip down from the Bay Area.
1:13.0	Well, thank you for letting me bully you into putting me on your point.
1:15.2	Yeah, I think you're probably the first and only comic to reach out to me directly on Twitter requesting to be a guest.
1:20.7	So thank you for that.
1:21.6	Really?
1:22.0	That makes you feel like people aren't doing their jobs.
1:24.1	Yeah, me too.
1:25.7	Comics not wanting attention?
1:27.1	Comics not wanting to talk on podcasts isn't that
1:29.1	what we do so yeah united shades of america is back on cnn for season four i can't really believe
1:34.8	it's season four already can you i mean i can feel every episode in my bones so i do believe it
1:39.7	but i do understand that it seems like it's not season four because it's only eight episodes
	...

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