In the final episode of Season 3 of Wiser Than Me, Julia sits down with 84-year-old House Speaker Emerita and U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi. Nancy shares her love for the Grateful Dead, discusses the power of public sentiment, and fields Julia’s offer to help with a Saturday Night Live audition. Julia also asks Nancy about her pioneering mom, the recent presidential election, and the roots of the current vitriol in politics. Plus, Julia's 90-year old mom Judith reflects on the myriad ways Nancy is inspiring future generations – including Judith’s granddaughter Fia – and gets an incredibly unhelpful suggestion from Siri. Follow Wiser Than Me on Instagram and TikTok @wiserthanme and on Facebook at facebook.com/wiserthanmepodcast. Keep up with Nancy Pelosi @speakerpelosi on Instagram. Find out more about other shows on our network at @lemonadamedia on all social platforms. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium. Wiser Than Me is sponsored by ZOE. Visit ZOE.com to find out what ZOE Membership could do for you and use the exclusive code WISER10 to get 10% off membership. For exclusive discount codes and more information about our sponsors, visit https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Full Episode
Well, hello there. It's me, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I'm so happy to be back with Season 3 of Wiser Than Me. And to celebrate that, I am so excited to share that we have partnered with Lingua Franca, a New York City-based luxury and sustainable clothing brand, to offer our listeners Wiser Than Me-specific hand-embroidered sweaters, sweatshirts, and more. LEMONADA LEMONADA
It's hilarious to me how often a conversation with somebody in their 50s or 60s or even 70s will start with the words, well, when I was in high school. We never get over high school, do we? Seriously. I mean, as my own kids get older, I see constant proof, for good or ill, that these high school years are critical and formative.
Wow.
My high school was so different, but just as foundational. My high school and elementary school was a private all-girls school. I went there for 10 years. And then, my God, my father, I do not know why, he wanted me to go to an all-girls college, which I definitely did not want to do. He absolutely insisted that we go tour Wellesley College.
So we did, and we ended up having this huge fight about the school while walking across the quad. And all of a sudden, a bee flies up my skirt and stings me on the ass. This is a true story, you guys. No kidding. And I started screaming in front of the whole tour group like a crazy person. The good news is I didn't have to go on the rest of the tour. So that was excellent.
But anyway, back to my all-girls high school. My school has a roster of wildly successful female alums, and maybe that's because at a school like mine, everyone who is the captain of a team or the star of a play or president of the class or the valedictorian or whatever is a woman.
And when you look at lists of successful women, CEOs, members of Congress, musicians, journalists, the percentage that went to all-girls schools is considerable. Kind of stunning. I mean, everybody from Pink to Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin to Ambassador Susan Rice and Melinda Gates to, I don't know, the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton. Yes, it's true.
They all went to all-girls schools. So am I making a pitch for all-girls education? Well, no, not exactly. I'm making a pitch for putting women in charge.
It's a pitch for an even playing field because I bet the powerful and successful women who did not go to all-girls schools were also at some point in positions where their leadership was allowed or maybe they powerfully insisted it be allowed to flourish. Success followed. Of course, not everyone is a leader, obviously. But when women lead, everyone benefits, men included.
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