Antoni Porowski
Appearances
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And there's not this, not an active in terms of like trying to like one up each other, but there's like a competitiveness and like you have to be able to like speak up in a way, but not yell so that you can be heard and share your voice. And I tend to be more quiet. And so there are certain scenes like at the end of at the end of every episode, that's when we had like our big goodbyes to the hero.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And we like go over like what they helped us learn about ourselves. And the hero tells us what they learned from each of us. It's like a weird emotional jerk off of like compliments until like you have to say goodbye. And and I used to kind of like get quiet in those moments because it was sort of like, oh.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I'm not going to say anything that's like unique or different than what anybody else is saying. And I would like really, I would dread that day so much. I thrive in scenes one-on-one.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
When I'm with the person, I get to ask the questions that I want to. I get to connect with them through food, use that as a vehicle for storytelling. And like, I am like fully in my element and I can do that with my eyes closed. Yeah. Um, but when I'm like in a group, it just makes it, it definitely makes it more challenging, but I've kind of learned to accept that.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Like that just kind of takes time. It's like, I don't know what it's like for you on, on, on housewives, but it's like in, in those big group settings. Cause I've done it in the past where I've seen edits and I'm like, I just literally said that. And it's like kind of dumb and it doesn't even make any sense. I didn't want to, I just noticed that everyone else had spoken.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
That one probably, oh, that one was a little better or like that person touched on something that I wanted to bring. That's hard. And then I've learned to just be like, you know what? Like law of abundance, everyone has their moment. If I don't have anything to say, that's fine. I could just be quiet and just like, don't look vacant.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Cause I have this thing where sometimes if I'm like really pensive, I kind of like look to the side and I get a little aloof. It was a series of a lot of tweets where it was like, we got to save Ant, like original press junkets for Queer Eye, where they were like, I think Ant's been kidnapped by the Fab Five and he doesn't really want to be there.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Completely disassociating. But I'm actually very in tune. I'm just like thinking about something like that's my aloofness. And then it's the other insecurity that kicks in of like, my biggest insecurity is that people think I'm dumb. When I say something dumb and it's sort of like, no, I'm aloof. Like I can get really distracted.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Not the collective we.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And that's when I feel this like inner voice to be like, no, like I have a bachelor's and I've like seen the world. I speak multiple. And it's just like, shut up, shut up. Like it's fine. No, some people can think you're really dumb and that's okay. And sometimes when they do, you can play with that too. I've learned to like have fun with it.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
You're very, you are excellent at that.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Who was I Pre-Queer Eye? I was a lot more shy and a lot more reserved. I mean, I think I've always been, I've always been a passionate person, but I was definitely, I was in like the New York hustle. Like I arrived here as a student. I just got my undergrad in psych in Montreal.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Because you know who you are.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Music. Same. Music still definitely gets me. That's my number one.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And then if I'm like overworked and I'm really tired, I can be like easily primed. And the smallest little thing can make me cry. Like if it's beautiful or if it's really sad.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Like, when is it going to go away? See, my mind immediately went to like, oh, I'm experiencing this. And like, this is such a stark contrast to a lot of things that I experienced in my life previously.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I guess I was in like my early mid twenties.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
The joy is almost shocking and your body doesn't know what to do. Yeah.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
There can be tears of joy. That's like totally a thing.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
It's like watching a Dodo video about dog. Do you follow the Dodo?
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And then I applied for the neighborhood playhouse because I wanted to be an actor. So I figured like my parents are physicians. We have a lot of physicians in the family. And I decided psychology was like a good bridge between like the arts and the sciences. And as soon as I had that, I was like, okay, I'm going to go be an actor and like pursue my dream.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
It's these crazy stories about like a dog that was chained to a fence and weighed like minus five pounds and had like giardia and all this stuff. I can't watch that show. And then they bring it back to health and the dog is socialized and it's really happy.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
There's a lot of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
It's like the ultimate hope core. I love it.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Yeah, like the ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan, Canadian icon and legend. Yes, absolutely.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Maybe it's a different kind of love.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
is very cute.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
You can rename Neon to like... I kept it because the name was so weird and it was her shelter given name that I decided to keep it and it confuses the hell out of people. I was at like a housing works the other day and... I was helping my friend with a mirror that she got. And this woman comes up and she's like, oh, you have a beautiful dog. What's her name? I'm like, Neon. She's like, what? Neon.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
She's like, oh, like the noble gas. And I'm like, brilliant. That's what I'm going to tell everybody now. I'm like, she's Neon, like the noble gas. Like it's so weird and quirky and so is she.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Noble gases, like periodic table, let's go.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
But they're, I don't know, they just bring so much joy. I don't, I feel like, do you feel like you judge yourself for not loving her as much?
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And so I came here and it was just like the hustle. And like, I don't know, like it is for so many people when they moved to New York, you're like broke and trying to like figure shit out.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I guess the calming formula might help.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
It's a weird thing with dog humping. She doesn't do it to me as much, but when Brian, her dog camp guy who we were talking about a lot, and I'm going to put you in touch with because he's amazing, when he picks her up every morning, he's her favorite person in the world, even more than me, and I'm okay with it.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And when he shows up and he starts like putting her coat on and her collar and gives her like her first little treat, she immediately goes for the hump. And I'm like, why are you letting her do that? He was like, I let her get it out of her system. It lasts about like a minute and a half. And then she moves on and she doesn't do it again for the rest of the day.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Right? Yeah.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Just for a little bit. Just get it out of your system.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Otherwise it's repressed and it's going to be there. But it's like, I still don't understand the root of it though. Like why does she do it? Is it a control thing? No, so. Is it like a weird reflex?
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Oh, so it's a display of, well, that makes sense that she does it to him.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And it's a bestiality. It's okay. People said worse.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Oh my gosh. I think what's the worst thing that anyone's ever said about me? I'm trying to think.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Right. Like it was so ridiculous that it just kind of didn't make any sense. I would, I think it would have to do with like, so I don't look at comments anymore. I've become like very good. I have very firm boundaries with not reading articles and looking at like literally anything. Cause if I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it'll just devastate me. I'm just not strong enough for that. Same.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Um, but I, I would say it's like at the beginning when I really cared so much and I just wanted to do well on Queer Eye and like, just be good and like get praise and like attention and love and all that kind of stuff. When it was like a lot more important to me, it still is, but I have a very different relationship with it now.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
When anyone would criticize like the simplicity of what I was making and be like, it's so basic, like you're teaching this person how to make a sandwich. Yeah.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
When I knew inside, it was sort of like, yeah, this person's been eating out of cans and they've never like cut open a fresh fucking fruit before in their lives. And I knew the truth. But at the same time, I cared so deeply about what people kind of said. So it was like little things like that.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
No privacy. No privacy.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I mean, I think that people are going to see what they want to see. And if they, if there's a story that's perpetuated, that's like entertaining or exciting to them in some way, they're going to kind of like create their own truth based on that narrative that they already have.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
There are some people that, you know, are very understanding of like, oh wow, like it's incredible that you go there and you don't try to like intimidate the person with something that they're never going to recreate before and make them feel like shit and make them feel less than.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
That would be an awesome show.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Today we're making a crook on Boosh.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
But then there are other people who are sort of like, oh, like you're doing this like simple, basic thing. And so it's like the messaging there and like the lesson for it, it's always like, what's the take, the personal takeaway so that I can sleep better at night is sort of like, you got to channel out the good and the bad.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And it's like, if you're going to pay attention to the positive stuff, then you got to pay attention to the negative. And I choose negative.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
to try to like limit myself of both because it's like neither of them are really healthy no neither of them are healthy when they praise you and they love you or when they rip you down neither of them is like focus on the work and be truthful with the person that you're with and figure out how i can best be of service in a very limited amount of time that we're in yeah that turns into a four minute segment yeah you know like it's a crazy thing what's the dumbest shit that you've said
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
So that's where I got, I adore her. She's our showrunner, Jen Lane. She fucked me in that moment. She was doing my little confessional and we were sitting and we were helping a farmer create a farm to table experience for his guests. And so she's like, so what are we doing this week? I'm like, we're doing a farm to table dinner. Super classic, super traditional.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And like some of us don't understand what farm to table is. So like explain what it is.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
There's like no intermediary and that's it. And that's what the editors decided to keep. And it's like, Those simple, I don't think it was like her intention to have like a gotcha or anything. It was just like a very simple, because at the end of the day, like the truth to that is you can never assume what somebody does or doesn't know.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And if you start speaking in kind of like an elitist way and using certain words, you're going to exclude some people. For sure. But if you oversimplify it, people are going to think you're a little dumb, dumb.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And so it's like, it's just, it's a, it's a tricky situation. And you're like, but that's with me. It's like all of my viral moments. Like I've learned to laugh. I used to take it personally. Cause it's like, I'm either the one who like gets really emotional and just like has a guttural cry about something. Or I have a little scene where I'm shirtless or I say some really dumb shit.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Yeah, mine was like a fourth floor walk up in like Greenpoint with like four people and someone sleeping on the couch.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And it's fun. I've learned to just kind of like lean into it and be like, at the end of the day, it's like, I'm not here to save lives. I'm here to have connections with people and to have fun and to enjoy myself.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I love granny grazing it's the best you get to get home you hang out with your dog you have your little nighttime cocktail after it's great yeah and we were sitting there and it's like we kind of like pivoted from and I'd only seen you on the show but I was obsessed with you and then we met each other at the gym yeah and you went from like you do your like extremely like you somehow balance uh I think that people fall into two categories charm and charisma
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
You manage to have both because people who are charming, I think like they put in the effort, not in like a bad way. And then charisma is just something that you kind of have or you don't. And you're able to kind of play with both. But then you can immediately pivot to like, your voice goes down an octave.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And we're talking about like a real life situation or something that we both shared, like an experience that we had from growing up or whatever it is. And it's like, you're able to like do all of that. And you're more complicated. You're a lot more complex and rich. Way more complicated. And we all are, right?
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Anybody is, but it's like on TV, it's sort of like people want to put you in a category because it's easier to understand. It's like, that's the point of casting is to put you in a box.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And then you... Yeah, and then basically the show happened and my life went from, you know, before that it was as an aspiring actor and working like two jobs part time. my life was basically like stapling my headshot to a resume and like sending it out to people. So it was all kind of outgoing. And then suddenly Queer Eye happens and it was this, like a pretty big hit.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
All of the above.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I mean, pre-pandemic people were very touchy. I think it's a very emotional show. I have friends of mine who were actors and it's like when they stopped them on the street,
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
they know them as a concept as a character that they played and there's a certain boundary in a distance or like a reverence if they're like a marvel superhero then it's like for sure there's a bit of like a fear and a respect with us it's like i've like snot cried in every episode and laughed hysterically and like grabbing tan's tank as we're like running down the hall and like just being silly and goofy and so they touch you when they grab and like i have days where i'm like a little more sensitive and i'm a little more introverted and i kind of like tense up and get uncomfortable
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
um and then i have days when i'm not but i i always try to remind myself like they're seeing like a certain like i'm a concept to them even though i showed showed them a very real very honest true part of myself that is a sliver of who i am right yeah it's true i need to write that down i need to get like a tattoo because that's how i feel yeah yeah like some of them maybe just only attach themselves to like sexy silly irreverent brin sure but like
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
You are deeply emotionally intelligent. You can have like a real conversation. You're like a truth teller. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think like you see things with like a really good lens of like objectivity and you understand how the world works.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Like when you walk into a room and for some people, it's just like they're not interested or they're not ready or they're just not capable of seeing that part. And they just kind of hyper focus on one specific part. Yeah. So to some people, I'm like silly and goofy. To other people, I'm deeply emotional. Yeah.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And other people just like assume that like, I'm just ready to like make out with them and give them a hug. You know what I mean? Which is like, I can be all of those things.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
When I was saying goodbye to someone once.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Yeah, but it wasn't like a makeout. It was like a kiss.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Long, long, long time ago.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I'm already in love with you, so you're good, but go ahead.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Like a little Marina Abramovich, the artist's present exercise. Which is funny.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
When the ex came.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And then suddenly all the attention was incoming. So like the whole like energetic, like all the energetic forces just kind of like shifted. And then suddenly I was being asked like, what's going to make you happy? What inspires you? And so it was like, This, like, confidence-building exercise that kind of happened in a weird way overnight. Yeah.
Please See Below with Brynn Whitfield
Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Very emotional. Love a bath. And I've learned. Yeah. I've yeah. I'm like slowly starting to like, cause I also read that thing that like people who follow astrology have a lower IQ. So I was like, Oh, here's hoping. Yeah.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
But that's not a psychic. So it's like, why am I being a hypocrite?
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
No, I don't really, I don't, I don't really.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I mean, I've, I've, I've met. Yeah. I've been with all kinds of different signs. I just, I don't know enough about them. Maybe I'm more selfish. I just know more about myself. That's not selfish. Like I'm someone who like loves very deeply, but I've also learned that if you wrong me or if you like really disrespect me.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I can be surgical.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And like putting my walls up.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Yeah. Oh, great little medical term. Yeah. I didn't think of that. But yeah, I can like, I can love very deeply and like really give my all. But if I'm, if I'm hurt, then it's like my walls go up and they are not coming down.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Surgical. You will not have any access to me. I will not hear. I'm not going to know anything about you. You won't know anything. I have like, I'm crazy with boundaries.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Just to sort of like gradually.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
That's an interesting one because I've been... In time, I forgive, maybe. There was a TikTok that came up. I don't post, but I have a very disturbing algorithm. But some of it's really beautiful. And there was something that Taylor was writing about. She's like, no, you don't always have to. It was an interview on some Sunday morning show. And she was like, you don't always have to forgive.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
It was just kind of, like, very explosive and overwhelming and always also really beautiful in some ways. But I actually got to start thinking, like, oh, like, what do I want to do? It wasn't sort of, like, the me reaching out to people and, like, begging them for work, basically.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
sometimes it's like, you can move on and be fine and be at peace and go through like all of, she didn't say it exactly, but that's how I interpreted it. Like go through like the DABDA, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross denial anger, or even bargaining depression acceptance. Like you can go through all of that and not forgive the person and just kind of like move on.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And it's, it's like an interesting thing to think about. I don't know if it's something that I can adopt in my own life, but I got very curious about it. And I've started thinking about it because it's like, you do all of this, you know, with me, it's typically with, it's actually in, in, in all three in family relationships and friendships where I never want to have any enemies.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I never want to cross the street when I like see anybody. It's always like, I always want to be civil. But then it's like, it takes time to get there. And I think it's just like being gentle with yourself.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
But I think it's like you can also make that thing your friend. It's kind of like, going back to what we were talking a little earlier, it's like, I used to be a little embarrassed about my vulnerability and I've learned to like make it my friend. It's like, well, it's not fucking going anywhere and I'm going to be like this forever.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
So like, why not figure out how to just make it work for me or even like my anxiety or my stress or like even sadness. It's like my therapist always tells me and just dealing with like literally anything. It's sort of like, I'm always trying to like, what can I be doing better to like fix myself? Like what's the vitamin drip or like the,
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
um, the infrared thing or like how much longer can I sit in a cold plunge or what kind of healing can I do or journaling? And it's sort of like, yeah, sometimes it's just like, except the fact that you woke up in the morning and that dark ass cloud is going to be following you around all day and it's okay. It's like, it's okay to not be okay.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Which I've heard so many times, but I feel like I'm only starting to understand this now at this stage of my life.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
The 60s have come and gone.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I'm going to quote Ina Garten, not in a culinary way that I thought, like I typically do, but like, what's the name of her memoir?
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Like wait until the magic happens.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Obsessed with her. But like even that title, it's like you kind of have to wait for like everything is going to make sense in time. And even with, you know, when I look at like the pain of like losing, there are people that I lost like pretty like early in life. In ways now when I kind of like look back through a lot of work and more importantly through time and just like letting it all pass.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I've learned that like with that loss, I wouldn't have been able to like open my heart up to like other opportunities. And that can be personal. That can be professional. Like it only makes sense if you actually allow time to do its thing.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And with any type of healing from any type of trauma, I've also learned is like my new obsession is like, I always remind myself like this is a cold. You can take echinacea. You can take ginger. You can go for a run. You can sit your ass on the couch and like not move. You can alleviate some of the symptoms, but at the end of the day, a cold is going to run its course on its own fucking time.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And then one day you're going to wake up and you're like, oh, my voice isn't scratching anymore. And suddenly it's like, I'm not as congested. And then out of nowhere, you're like, Oh, I feel really great again. And I feel like a human. Yeah. And then like eight months later, it's like winter again. And then you're like, Oh fuck, the cold is back. And it's like, Oh, I forgot how bad that was.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
good and i don't know but did you it's not good or bad but i think there are pros and cons that come with both right because you get to go in with like a blank slate if you haven't seen it and if you've seen it you've done your homework like you know how it operates you kind of know what to expect even though they're always curveballs but i think with with the original queer i like my sisters definitely watched it it wasn't something that i mean i was a kid so i was like still watching like transformers and he-man and stuff when it was out
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
And you're going to have that moment where you step outside and you're like, oh, I see the sun and I see like the wonder and like.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
I agree. But that understanding that you have, I think only comes from the ability and being proactive and just basically actively working on yourself. It's like the three A's for me.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
Having awareness, acceptance, and action. Once you're like aware of it and then you accept it, then you're able to. And the action sometimes is sort of like, oh, I've been through this before. Yeah. Like I feel really shitty, but I know that there's something on the other side. Like there is, it is going to get better. It actually does. Like this isn't the first time that it's happened.
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I'm not terminally unique. Others have gone through it. I've gone through it. Like I'm not going to be okay. I'm really shitty right now. And that's okay too.
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I thought that's why I came over here.
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It makes sense. Sexing can be a verb. Would you ever do the sex, right? Yeah. It's still correct.
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and Star Wars naturally. Um, but it was something that I was very familiar with. I thought it was very funny. I thought at the time when I was a kid, I was like definitely into girls, but I knew that there was a possibility that I would end up with a guy.
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But that's even that is a form of flirtation. And I think like there are. So my good friend, Beth, who is a jewelry designer. Are you familiar with Foundry?
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So she talks about the seven different types of love. And there's, there's a, there's a Latin word for it, but there's like a flirtatious love. That's like, it's like a playful flirtatious, innocent love. And that's what I think of when I think of you, the people that don't get it. It's like, for me, that's on them. You know what I mean?
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And it's like, don't take away from like, there's like an innocent, silly, irreverent, like childlike quality to having that fun flirtation. That is like, you can maybe like, I don't know if it's about like changing the word or whatever it is, but it's like, I just feel like that's on them. It just kind of, it just pisses me off that it's like something that makes you, you,
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I mean, Queer Eye new season, which is really exciting. Season nine with Jeremiah, who's just been like such a pleasure to work with.
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New, fresh. So fun.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
You're going to have to show a clip of you sitting on me doing the pushup.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
You did flirt with me. I flirted back.
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Um, but, um, I have a new show called no taste like home that I'm really excited about for Nat Geo and Disney. And so it's, um, yeah, it's basically like a, a
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family history show through the lens of food so I take like a public facing person I take a famous person to the country of origin and we explore like a dish that they had when they were a kid and we learn about like the ingredients like what do they mean to their culture it's amazing and it's just it's my ultimate dream because I feel like I'm this like hybrid of like Indiana Jones meets Anthony Bourdain and it's with Nat Geo very different like Queer Eye can say things like farm to table is basically putting food from the farm to the table but with Nat Geo it's like yeah yeah yeah yeah
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So it was like that curiosity, like that, that sort of like what's behind the velvet robe thing was always there, but I wasn't like, I didn't have like this like energetic pull or anything to it, but it was interesting to kind of have that. And also I was an assistant to the original food and wine guy, Ted Allen. for a few years, way before the show was even rebooted.
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everything has to be like corroborated three times to be turned into a fact. If they're 90% sure about something, it doesn't make it into the final edit. You have to speak with the utmost certainty. Excellent. So it's a whole different piece, whole new set of challenges, but it's just very, just like the epic, beautiful shots and it's personal and it just, it checks all the boxes.
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Yeah. I mean, I think where it relates to Queer Eye is that it's sort of... I've learned that the thing that I'm really drawn to is storytelling through food, is using food as a medium to learn about someone's past and where they're heading and all of that stuff and just have that connection with somebody else.
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But having it be under the scope of... I get to show people a different side of me as well. It's like I was raised... you know, to Polish immigrants. I grew up speaking three languages simultaneously, all while learning like Italian and Spanish at the same time, like as hobbies.
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Like I am, you know, Queer Eye is just like, the way that Queer Eye, we were touching on this earlier, in that it's like, I get to show like a sliver of me. I feel like this is like a new sliver that I haven't been able to like necessarily show. because I love traveling. It's my favorite thing to do.
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And I love to do the highs and the lows, whether it's like a beautiful five-star hotel to like staying in a fun, dumpy place on like a tiny little beach town. I just want adventure.
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I love being uncomfortable with all of it. And that's what makes me light up. And that's what makes me that excited little child that you touched on at the beginning. And you get to see more of that basically.
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So basically excited little me, jet lagged and caffeinated, running around with famous people, literally around the world from the jungles of Borneo to the southernmost tip of South Korea to Northern Italy. Like we do it all.
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Yeah, and like trying delicious things and like eating wild ferns and like... I want to eat a fern with you. I'll eat a fern with you any day.
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Oh my gosh. I have nine shots. Yeah. Yeah.
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We'll do a little viewing party together.
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In my bed. In the bed.
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Neon sugar.
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Crying, Cooking and Chemistry With Antoni Porowski
What a button. Wow, you made me blush by the end. That was great.
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So I weirdly learned about the industry a little bit before I was even sort of like offered an opportunity to be part of it.
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I really, I genuinely thought, I remember there was a trip that I took with Tan, with my castmate, the fashion expert. My partner at the time wasn't able to come. So Tan came with me on a family trip to Guadalupe with my dad and my stepmom. And we were sitting there in the water and we were just kind of like looking out. And Tan was like, do you think the show is going to be a hit?
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And I was like, it was right after we were done filming seasons one and two in Atlanta. And we had like five months of nothing going on before it was going to come out. Being the quietest one, I think out of the bunch, I was nervous that I was going to, not nervous, but I was kind of expecting, I was telling my agent at the time, I was like, I don't think anyone's going to notice me.
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And I think I'm like, just going to kind of like hide in between. I think they might even recast. Like I'm a little nervous. Tan had his own version of that as well. And we were like, so we kind of prepared for the worst.
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Hoping for the best, but really preparing for the worst. And I was thinking like, what's going to be next? Do I want to work in food? Like that wasn't really part of the plan. Right. You know, like I had other dreams and other goals and things that I wanted to accomplish, but it came out and- It was this like much bigger deal than I think any of us really expected, but that we secretly hoped for.
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And then it all kind of like changed from there.
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So I'm like, you were like doing a lot of comparing and despairing.
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ever as hard as hard as is but then when it's a it's like double there's a set of expectations right you have you're like early adopters and then like the ones who like watch the show originally and then you have the new come like the newbies that kind of come along who've never even heard of it like your gen z and yeah some of like your late later millennials yeah um it's a it's a really bizarre thing because it's like we kind of have no control over it then it comes out and it's sort of like oh or like the things that stick that get people excited
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You know what I mean? Like the little moments that you have, it's kind of like, Oh wow.
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Like, Oh, that's a thing. I never knew I was so excitable.
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Like, is there any, like, what'd you learn about yourself on the show where you were like, damn, I didn't know I did that.
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But isn't it kind of cool when you get positive reinforcement or some form of public praise for something that is just like genuinely or authentically you that you might've been ostracized for or hasn't been encouraged or whatever it is.
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Especially stuff that isn't necessarily encouraged when you're a kid. Like if you're a vulnerable kid, like I've always been highly sensitive. Yeah. I can cry at art or like music or like things can make me really emotional. And when you're like a boy. Yeah. And you're kind of like in a very sort of like heteronormative straight like upbringing.
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It's like not in Canada, but it's not really cool. Like you're doing sports, you're swimming and you're doing all that kind of stuff. And suddenly you're an adult and it's like, Oh, like people seem to, and it's not that I'm going to like go and cry more, but it's sort of like, Oh, like I did all that so that I can get here. If that makes sense.
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It's sort of like, Oh, like it actually is okay to be myself on one. And like when Queer Eye first came out and I had this, a bit of like an epiphany where I realized like, Oh, I actually have to share about my personal life too.
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It's not just these people who are on the show who were trying to like make them be the best version. Yeah.
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You're not just like, and I hate unsolicited advice. So I certainly don't want to give it. I'm more, I try to approach it the way my therapist approaches it with me, where it's like ask open-ended questions and just like see where it goes and just shut up and pay attention to what the person is saying with vulnerability. It's like,
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on one end, like when it kind of dawned on me, it kind of, it was a bit of like the gates opening up and it just kind of like came out sideways. And I would just open up about everything because I learned that people connected with me when I was vulnerable on like a human level. So that made me feel like, Oh, I'm like doing a good thing. I'm connecting with people.
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But at the same time, I do have this little voice in the back of my head. That's like, as soon as I share something publicly, um, It's no longer just mine and it's no longer just my secret. And I feel like it kind of loses a bit of its power.
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And I think working a public facing job, there are parts of me that I'm always going to want to keep to myself or to my inner circle or just for like me and my family, whether it's protecting somebody or just protecting myself. I think it's tricky and I think it's very much like a case by case study.
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Cause even on camera, sometimes it's like, I want to be able to open up about certain things, but it's like, it can be disrespectful towards somebody who's in my life. Even if I talk about it, like in a general sense, it's a weird thing to even talk about because it's like, I have these personal examples and even talking about real things like grief and like loss.
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It's like, I never want to be too specific about, Because it's like, I want those parts for me. And a lot of times, like I'm still, I'm still working through it. Like I'm still going to therapy and it's like, I don't like to talk about things in terms of finiteness as if it's something that I've like accomplished or conquered because it's ongoing.
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And I think that's fine. Even like not having that awareness or that clarity. You're touching on something that's been my favorite topic of conversation and therapy for the past year is...
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the the acceptance that i can have multiple feelings going on simultaneously i can feel relieved when i talk about something but also like really scared i can be furious about something and just have like an inner rage that's going on and also have a sadness and also a sense of relief as well that's like those things can kind of coexist i can be happy and sad happy sad is my favorite set of like emotions you know what i mean it's like i'm through and through like a happy sad boy yeah literally like that but like internally yeah
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Shyness is something that still exists with me. I think it's very, it manifests itself in very different ways than it used to. But on Queer Eye, it's like at the beginning, I was basically put in with four other people who were like very type A, more extroverted and kind of like outgoing.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Yep, it's always good to have a little bit of, yep, you're absolutely right.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Yes and no. I mean, the original... Look, it's National Geographic, which for me, I've been reading the magazine since I was a kid. We had a subscription. It's like the iconic yellow rectangle. But I think once we started going down, and each episode is a little different, but once it does get personal and you kind of... Everyone's just trying to answer that question of...
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
why I am the way I am and learning that we're all standing on the shoulders of giants and we have all these like people in our lineage that we can kind of like explain why we are the way we are. I think it's sort of, so I would say it was like a mix. I think with, you know, someone like Awkwafina was very emotional because she was going back to South Korea.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
It was the first time since she'd been there since her mother passed away when she was four years old. And then we had a bit of like a bromance with Justin in Italy. So it kind of like ran the gamut a little bit.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Yeah, no, all of it. So it starts out with like a dish that shaped the guest. And it could have been something that was enjoyed during like a special family occasion or a birthday. Or for like James Marsden, it was chicken fried steak that his mom was making in Oklahoma City as a single mom just to like feed the kids. Yeah. And then we go to their country of origin.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
We explore what was going on culturally, politically, socially. And then we kind of break down the dish and the elements while introducing. It's a lot going on.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
While introducing to different key members of their family. And we meet genealogists and historians. And it's like it's a whole journey.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Because it is an emotional thing. And I mean, like, it's, you know, I go, like the most emotional episode of all of them is Awkwafina. And they're all really special for different reasons. But hers actually started out with jajangmyeon, which is a completely different dish.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
But we were making this seaweed soup that this woman who had a PhD in fermentation, which they do that in Korea because food is truly healing there and it's like UNESCO protected. Yeah. And she's making this soup and Nora Aquafina remembered this smell that her mom, it was the one smell she remembered of her mom when she was around and she was making this soup.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And we learned that in Korean history, women make this for their daughters after they're born because they're depleted of iron. It's something that's very healing. Right. And it's passed on from mother to daughter. So for her to learn like, oh my gosh, that smells literally the soup that my mother was trying to use to heal herself and also to make sure that her daughter was okay. Like it's,
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And it all, like, it's never, it's so much more than the dish. It's like when you look back on it, there's always a story, there's knowledge of history, and it's, ugh.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
I mean, you know, there are a lot weirder things that are making it to streaming services these days. So I feel like we should definitely pitch it.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
But... Was he a physician? No, he was not a physician.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
No, but genuinely, that's what I want. I want people to watch the show. And while I understand that not everyone has a National Geographic historical team that can do three to six months of research for each episode. Yeah, I want to hear about that.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
But I think it's an opportunity to start having these conversations with people in your family or maybe even the awkward uncle and learning those family stories. Because we have to pass those things on for our children, for our chosen family, for whoever it is. And sitting around the table is like being raised the way that I was raised. That's when we share those stories.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
There's a universal thread there. And I think God knows we're living in a time and place where We need to figure out how we can, like, relate to each other as opposed to the opposite.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
But it was his dad's soup, and you don't mess with it.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
That isn't complimentary of the family?
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Oh, yeah.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Well, because he was like a political activist.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
The guy was a rebel.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Right. This is. Oh, 100 percent. I mean, it's not like I love Queer Eye, but that's like a different unscripted show where I can say whatever I want. And it's a very different editing process.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Here, you know, we have every single thing that I say has to be corroborated by three independent sources, which is like kind of wild. So, yeah. We're dealing with places like Germany where, you know, they have the infrastructure and the places that you go to to get these documents. They give it to you like within the hour because the Germans have it all figured out.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
If you're in Senegal, if you're in where we went with Issa Rae, or if you're in Borneo where we went with Henry Golding, they don't have that. It's oral history. So the team has to go there a few months prior, speak to village elders. And if the three village elders are saying the exact same thing, they consider it a fact.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
If anything is like 80, I've done voiceover for narration on the show and had to go back to the studio after because our showrunner Robin was like, we're not 100% sure. We can't say it. We got to like go back.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Interestingly, so, I mean, well, the thing is, like, I'm not, like, if I eat something and it's good, I just keep on eating it. I don't have, like, I've never believed in a spit bucket. I'm just, it's not in my DNA to do that. But I was in, it didn't happen on set, but I happened to be, we were filming in Italy, and then I had 10 days off before I had to be in South Korea.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And I was like, I'm already sort of on that side of the world. So, like, why don't I go to Bali for 10 days? Like, what's the worst that could happen? Right, right. And I went to this market and there was a beautiful piece of tuna and I just wanted like a light sear on it. And I picked it out and they gave it to me. And it was like, also the food in Bali was like, it was exceptional on all fronts.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
This is not to like put any like negative beef there or tuna there. And so, They serve it to me well done, just draped in a cream sauce. And I ate it, and I felt a little weird, but I was like, I'm sure I'm fine. I ended up with double IVs at the exact same time the night before my red eye to Seoul.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And I was FaceTiming my dad, who's a physician, and he was like, why do you have two IVs at the same time? I've never seen this. There's a language barrier. I have nurses there that the hotel sent, because, like, people get this thing called Bali Belly. But the crazy thing that happened, because I'm an optimist at heart, I can eat ghost peppers now, and they don't, like, they don't kill me.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
I can eat spicy things. I'm a Polish guy.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
I can do heat now, which is great, and I hope it lasts for a long time. But I get food poisoning once or twice a year because of the things I put in my mouth. It's just, it's par for the course.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
I mean, so my parents were both Polish. My father was born in Brussels because his family fled there after the war. But I think I'm like 80% Polish. And growing up, that was the first language we spoke at home. We were only allowed to speak Polish, had all the food, cabbage rolls for lunch, the whole thing.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And then there was a period of sort of growing up when I was in my teens, like the angsty years, like Oasis, Richard Ashcroft, just to paint a picture, where I wanted nothing to do with my identity. I moved to the States. I was in West Virginia. I wanted to assimilate, change my name, the whole thing.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And then there came a point when I was in university back in Montreal and I started working at a Polish restaurant. I met like young Polish people who had... super Polish names. And I was like, wow, you're actually proud to be who you are. And it's kind of like that whole idea of like, well, like this is in my DNA, so why am I trying to fight it?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And now it's kind of inspired me, even as a result of the show, I had conversations with my dad. I was like, why do we have so much cabbage in our culture? What's the deal with pierogies? Where did those come from? And he's like, we realize there's so much that we don't know. And so it's kind of sparked conversations within my own family.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
My face just got warm. Yeah, because I think I don't know. I mean, I think it has to do with if to quote my my therapist, if it's hysterical, it's historical. And growing up in my parents, I adore them and they did the best with the tools they were given. But it was a really dysfunctional household.
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Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
And the one time where we all got along was when we were sitting at the table and gossiping and just like.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
talking shit and having like the best time and like that's when everybody had a smile on their face and so it's personal to me and it's I feel like everyone kind of has their own their own version of that like at any single gathering that my parents would have everyone always ended up in the kitchen yeah and I feel like that's the case with so many people and so it's it's it food is there for you when you're depressed when you're really happy when you're celebrating life's achievements when you're celebrating or celebrating dealing with loss sometimes people celebrate loss but I mean yeah
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
But for me, my whole family is just as obsessed, if not more than I am, about food. It's in our DNA.