Antoni Porowski
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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,
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
But... Was he a physician? No, he was not a physician.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
That isn't complimentary of the family?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Oh, yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
Well, because he was like a political activist.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
The guy was a rebel.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Pauses Tariffs, Crashes the Stock Market & Threatens China | Antoni Porowski
I can eat spicy things. I'm a Polish guy.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
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.