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My name is Lee Hawkins.
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I ve been a journalist for over 25 years.
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On my new podcast, What Happened in Alabama, I get answers to some of the hardest questions about how things came to be for many black Americans and the truth that must come before any reconciliation can happen.
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I investigate my family history, my upbringing in Minnesota, and my father s painful nightmares about growing up in Alabama.
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What Happened in Alabama is a new series confronting the cycles of trauma for myself, my family, and for many Black Americans.
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Listen now.
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Hi, everyone.
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Tig here.
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I wanted to open the show today with a message I got from a listener named Ruthie.
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Ruthie writes,
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Do you do shout outs to healthcare workers?
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If so, please say hi to Vanessa Guiterrez as she is at the front line in Jersey and is a big fan of yours.
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Vanessa is an extremely hardworking woman with a big heart.
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This would mean a lot to her.
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Thank you, Ruthie, for writing in, and thank you, Vanessa Gutierrez.
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And while I m thanking you personally, I d also like to send a special thank you to all the healthcare workers, nurses, doctors, therapists, COVID testers, ambulance drivers, pharmacists, all of you.
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The list goes on and on and on.
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There are so many people devoting
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their life and risking their life to help strangers.
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It s incredible.
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It s touching.
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And thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
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It s just... It s an extraordinarily difficult time for your professions.
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And we know that and appreciate it so.
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So, we re all extraordinarily grateful.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Now on with the show.
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I m not sure if you re aware, but hashtag Hot Tig was trending after my appearance in Army of the Dead this year.
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Did you like this hashtag trending?
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What did you feel when you first heard about this?
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I was very surprised and people...
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were just saying, oh, my gosh, I thought you were dead.
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I m so glad you re OK.
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Sexy Tig.
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And and I was like, what?
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I was so confused.
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I didn t think that my appearance in this movie was going to make any sort of attention.
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Certainly not for being sexy.
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I liked it when you wore the glasses.
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I brought my TIG glasses along.
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You have sunglasses just like mine.
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Those look good on you.
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Did you see Army of the Dead?
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I did.
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Did you?
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Yeah, the hashtag thing did not surprise me at all.
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I even got the glasses.
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You wear them well.
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This is Don t Ask Tig.
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I m Tig Notaro, the least trusted name in advice.
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We have a very special guest with us today.
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He s an Emmy-winning CNN chief medical correspondent, neurosurgeon, and professor, Sanjay Gupta.
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Thanks for joining me for the show today.
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I am really honored to be here.
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I ve been looking forward to this for some time.
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I told you that last time we spoke, I meant it, and I ve been very, very excitedly waiting.
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Yeah, I have too, and we made it happen.
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You have a very professional mic setup.
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Well, thank you for noticing.
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I mean, last time I saw you, you were in a closet.
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It seemed like a broom closet with not nearly the setup going on.
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What are you in a high rise in New York with a professional mic?
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I m in my hotel room here in New York, but yes, it is a professional mic, and I m proud of it because I brought it to the hotel.
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I thought about this.
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I thought, I m doing this thing with TIG.
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I want it to sound as good as possible because I love TIG.
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So I carried this thing, and it s not light.
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It s even got this bass on it.
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Oh my gosh.
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This is all for me?
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All for you.
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And then I got stopped by TSA because they re like, what is that?
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And I had to point out and then, you know, don t be embarrassed by dropped your name and all is good.
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Here I am doing, doing this podcast with you.
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I can t believe that, um, that TSA, uh, that you re kidding.
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I m, I m certain you re kidding.
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No.
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No, I told them- Come on, TSA knew me?
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Yeah, TSA knew you, and I told them I was doing your podcast, and I had this mic for that reason, so it was good.
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I mean, you know, I think you re not the type to probably drop your own name, so others have to do it for you.
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So I did it, and you should know it worked.
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This is one of those moments where I feel like, wow, I guess I ve made it.
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Because TSA just, I feel like I walk through there and they re just like, come on next, move it, move it.
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I don t ever feel like I m on their radar.
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They re definitely like that, but I don t think they really look maybe.
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So you have a distinctive name.
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So I ended up having a conversation.
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So do you.
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I do.
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I do have a distinctive name, but I will tell you that in my home country of 1.2 billion people, it s fairly common, Sanjay Gupta.
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It s not quite John Smith, maybe more like Tom Jones.
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I don t know.
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It s fairly common.
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But Tig Notaro, it s distinctive and right away gets people s attention.
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They know that name.
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Well, it s good to know.
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I wanted to ask you, you ve reported on and helped treat people during the U.S.
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invasion of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake in 2010, and of course, as a voice of medical truth in the early days of COVID.
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Thank you.
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What has been the toughest assignment
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in your career so far, and is it this podcast?
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No, definitely not this podcast.
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This is the good stuff.
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These are sort of the treats, I think, that one gets from doing the other work, being able to talk to you.
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But I do think about the tough stories a lot, and it s tough to sometimes determine that, because there s a lot of real hardship, I think you see around the world, if you re covering conflicts and natural disasters.
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I think the hardest for me was really probably covering the famine in Somalia.
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This is back in 2011, and there had been a few famines.
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We flew into Kenya, and then we crossed over the border into Somalia, and it was a famine.
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I mean, a real famine, Tig, and people use that word, but you re talking about hundreds of thousands of people who are starving.
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And it s hard to see.
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And I think about my kids.
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I think about kids like Handsome Max and Handsome Finn.
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And I think to myself,
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We gotta, if we can t get that right, like feeding children, then I don t know how we tackle the big problems.
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We can t feed children, you know, and people starve to death.
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That s really probably the hardest story.
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That one is the one that I thought about the most afterwards.
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I wrote a lot about it, I journaled about it.
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I know that s a very long answer to your question, but that was probably the hardest, I think.
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Well, no, I can t even imagine.
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I don t know how you could walk away from that and not be haunted by it.
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Yeah, but also I think that one in five, one in six children go to bed every night in the United States food insecure, meaning they re not sure when or if they will get their next meal.
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We spend $3.5 trillion on healthcare.
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We re one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
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Just how could that be?
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And at the same time, 40% of our food goes to waste, either in the fields, on the docks, in supermarkets, or in people s homes.
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That seems like a solvable problem to me.
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I feel like obviously we re nowhere near solving this issue, but it feels like people are becoming more aware of that.
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And there s these different organizations and apps that go to grocery stores and restaurants that would be planning on throwing this food away.
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And these people have come up with these incredible ideas of how to get the food to people that need it.
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One app I was reading about is called Food Rescue Hero.
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It s an app that has rescued millions of pounds of food and you can actually download it and volunteer to help rescue food.
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Yeah, they ve made a lot of progress.
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I mean, there was a law in the books for some time, as you may know, and it sort of changed first in France, that would not allow public organizations to give away food.
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Because there was a concern, you know, if there was food contamination or spoilage or something like that.
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So, you know, they ve been able to- There d be a lawsuit.
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Yeah.
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And they ve been able to get rid of some of the overly obstructionist regulation around that.
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So it s getting better.
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And you re right.
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There s a lot more awareness of it.
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But even someone like myself, a reporter, I did not realize how significant the problem was until, you know, 10, 15 years ago here in the United States.
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You know, Covid is such an example of how much bureaucracy has gone away during the pandemic.
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You know, even when you see people, restaurants setting up
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tables and chairs in the street just to keep a business open.
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Whereas before there was just insane regulation.
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And then when people are at the dire ends of every part of their lives, then the bureaucracy seems to kind of disappear.
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People push to those limits.
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I mean, you know, I think you don t have time to go through the red tape.
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You know, people are in need and you want to be able to service them.
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It s challenging, but you re right.
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It does really narrow your focus, I think, in terms of what needs to be done.
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And the COVID situation, it seems to be always changing daily.
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What advice would you give to people who want to be safe right now and are also eager to return to their regular day-to-day activities?
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I would say, first of all, it s very possible.
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What we need to do is, you know, we want to get people vaccinated because that s our best shot at getting a lot of people immunity.
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And these are really good vaccines.
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Even if you are subsequently infected, the chance that you ll get sick or severely sick is much reduced.
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I think most people realize that by now.
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But the thing I would add to that, Tig, is that
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We talk about wearing masks at the same time, right?
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And people are like, well, I don t understand why, you know, wear masks and vaccinated, I m fine.
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Right now, there s so much virus circulating through the United States that we re essentially being showered with virus.
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Now, if you re vaccinated, the chance that, you know, that shower of virus is going to break through and make you severely ill again is very low, but it s not zero.
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And the more virus that there s out there, the higher the chances become.
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But also the virus starts to, the more it spreads, the more it mutates.
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So if you re just getting a lot of virus out there in the form of this shower of virus, you re going to induce more mutations, more people are going to get sick, especially the unvaccinated and so on.
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I read a study that said if the United States for three to four weeks, if everybody just when they went out in public wore a high filtration mask, we d probably bring viral transmission down to containment mode to the point where we could actually get our arms around it.
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Three to four weeks of high filtration masking in public.
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So those are the two things, vaccination and at least for now, until we bring viral transmission down,
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being diligent about the, you know, a good quality mask whenever you go out in public.
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Yeah.
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I told you I m filming a movie in New Orleans right now.
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And when I m off from the movie, I ve been going over to see my family in Mississippi.
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And I was just at my cousin s house this morning.
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And I told him that I was going to be talking to you.
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And he was very excited.
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And he s the mayor of our town.
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And he said,
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Oh, man, Tig, will you tell Dr. Gupta to just tell the people of Mississippi to please get vaccinated?
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So how about that?
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Please get vaccinated.
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Please do it.
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There s not many times in our lives where we get to like celebrate a triumph of medical science, where we really get to celebrate that.
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People didn t know if we d have a vaccine at all by this point.
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And even if we had one, we didn t know how well it would work.
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I mean, I was one of those people who said, look, they typically take at least four years to develop.
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And yet, I mean, it s going to be a remarkable story to reflect on how these vaccines came to be.
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gosh, it just seems like a shame that after that has happened and we could really be thankful for that, that there are so many people who are still not getting it.
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But what I would say is there s all sorts of reasons people aren t taking the vaccine.
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But if the reason is that you re afraid of, you know, side effects or it was rushed or all those types of things, know now that 4 billion doses have been given of this vaccine around the world.
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And at the same time, we know that if you are vaccinated,
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You have a 99.99% chance of not ending up hospitalized or dying from this disease.
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The scientists that I talked to called it the moonshot when they first described this, and scientists usually are pretty reserved folks.
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It s really incredible.
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In 2003, you were named one of People Magazine s sexiest people alive.
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I m not sure if you re aware, but hashtag hot tig was trending after my appearance in Army of the Dead this year.
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So sex symbol to sex symbol.
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Any advice to me on managing my new status?
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I don t think that I would do that again, because I think the time that you re doing it, you think, well, I m going to get old and I m going to get decrepit and not, you know, whatever.
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And then I m going to say, hey, but at least, you know, back whenever I was a sexy guy, according to People magazine, and then I can tell my kids.
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But you know what?
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Your kids don t care.
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And not only do they not care, as I learned, they re kind of embarrassed by that sort of stuff.
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So certainly do not like put it up in any way.
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Like there was a little magazine thing that we had in my closet.
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I will add, it wasn t like, you know, in the family room or anything, but it s never what you think it is because it s mostly mockery, a lot of bewilderment by some of my friends and then flat out embarrassment for my kids.
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Your people that represent you didn t submit you for it?
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I got a call.
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Someone said, would you do it?
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It was a little bit dodgy.
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Would you do it if selected?
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So I think that they don t want to have somebody selected and then not do it, which I got.
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And I said, yeah, I d do it.
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Well, People magazine, I would happily do it.
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Please get in touch with my people.
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Hey, do you want me to submit you?
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Yes.
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Would you write a letter of recommendation?
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Yep.
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I will talk about the TSA experience.
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I will talk about the sunglasses.
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I think you re a shoe in.
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I love it.
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All right.
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Sanjay, I ve reviewed your resume and it s safe to say you re overqualified for the job of giving my listeners advice, but I m going to use you anyway.
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Our first question comes from a high school student.
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Are you ready?
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Yep.
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Shannon writes, my mom wants me to become a doctor, but I really enjoy the broadcasting class I m taking in high school right now.
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And I think I would like to pursue a future in entertainment slash broadcasting.
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How should I let her know?
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So mom wants her to be a doctor and she wants to be an entertainment broadcast journalist.
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Yeah, well.
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I mean, I say get your own show and announce it on the airwaves.
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I think that that s it.
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Yeah.
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I don t think I would recommend anyone go out and be a doctor who doesn t want to be a doctor.
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No.
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And it s a lot of work.
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You know, God forbid that this high school student then comes back and says, Dr. Gupta, you were wrong.
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You know, I hate it.
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So follow your heart.
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And if you re passionate about things at that age, don t you think, Tig, that s a really good sign.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah.
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I think passionate at any age.
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I was at the Tribeca Film Festival as a juror this year, and I got to host this evening where we screened a documentary about these two stand-up comedians that didn t get into comedy until their 80s.
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And I m not talking 80, 81.
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The guy s 87 and the woman s 89.
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And they are hilarious.
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And I just feel like it s such an example of no matter how old you are, you got to do what you re passionate about.
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Why please your mother and become a doctor?
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She ll come around.
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I mean, my stepfather, he wanted me to go to business school.
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He wanted me to be an attorney.
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He wanted all of these things.
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And now he, you know, he apologized for not being supportive all these years and he wishes he had been.
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And I think that.
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I ve been successful because I ve worked hard and I m passionate about what I do and I m happy.
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I m very happy in my career and my life.
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So I would say your mother s not gonna be upset if you re thriving and happy and passionate.
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And if she is, tell her to call me.
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I totally concur.
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Shannon, you can trust my advice.
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I m friends with a doctor.
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It s time for a break and then we ll be back with
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more questions.
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Every little town across the nation, people have shares in this.
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We lost everything.
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And to date, no one has been brought to justice.
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Somebody knows more than we know.
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The $6 billion gold scam from the BBC World Service and CBC.
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Search for the $6 billion gold scam wherever you get your podcasts.
1
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And we are back.
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Sanjay, this next question comes to us from a listener in the United Kingdom.
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Ola writes, hello Tig, how does one successfully break off from limerence of over 10 years even while married?
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My husband now knows about my ongoing limerence and is devastated and the one I am limerent about has been disrespectful in some ways, but I m still in love with both of them.
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Please help.
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Sanjay, I didn t know what limerence meant, so I looked it up.
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Do you know what it means?
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No, no, I was going to try and Google while Zooming at the same time, but I couldn t do it.
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I kind of saw you panic and get into a Google position.
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So here s the definition.
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It s a noun, and it s the state of being obsessively infatuated with someone, usually accompanied by delusions of or a desire for an intense romantic relationship with that person.
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Wow.
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Which, to be fair, a lot of people had that for us, being as sexy as we are.
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I think that, I think you re 100% right on that.
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Yeah.
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I m going to, I m definitely going to be using this word now often.
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Limerence.
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Yeah, you got to wedge it in whenever you can.
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It s good work.
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Right.
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I ve been through that before, but not in a long time.
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I feel very thankful that there s not anybody that I m thinking about or that I wish I could be with except for who I m with.
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So I think that it probably opens a conversation about
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Maybe your marriage?
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Sanjay?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I think honesty is the best policy here.
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I think it s a real serious, honest, transparent conversation about the marriage.
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But I think you have to do it because it s painful, but you have to do it.
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Not doing it will make it more painful.
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It s like the pain
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exponentially grows the longer it sort of lingers.
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But be sure, don t be like, oh, it was just a little limerence, and then that s not a big deal, is it?
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Wow, you re really overusing that word, Dr. I really like that, I really like the word.
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I haven t Googled it myself yet, so I m gonna look into all of its derivations and other uses.
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Yeah.
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That is a real word, right?
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SPEAKER_03
I m not being punked on your podcast, am I?
1
SPEAKER_01
I don t know, if you are, I am too.
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SPEAKER_01
because I m falling for it.
1
SPEAKER_01
It sounds like a real word.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you know, this person s from the UK.
1
SPEAKER_01
I feel like they, you know, I always feel like they know more words than- They use words like shag.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, shag and limerence.
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SPEAKER_01
They re all sexual.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, they are.
1
SPEAKER_01
That person needs to talk to their spouse.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yes, don t hide that.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you might have a conversation where you figure something out about yourself and you can move on from this limerence.
1
SPEAKER_01
It might not even be a conversation where you talk with your spouse and then you realize you have to part ways.
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SPEAKER_01
It might just be that the conversation opens up the problem area that you re having that s distracting you and you can tackle that.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
Ola, best of luck with your limerence, now that we know what that is.
1
SPEAKER_03
And thank you for teaching us that word.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Sanjay, this one comes from one of your future colleagues.
1
SPEAKER_01
Single in Scrubs writes, I m a perpetually single lesbian in her late 20s and a doctor in training.
1
SPEAKER_01
I came out in the middle of a super busy time in my life in med school, and now I m even busier, working 80 hours a week as a resident.
1
SPEAKER_01
I really want the companionship of a committed relationship and I ve dated here and there, but I feel like my unpredictable schedule and lack of experience in relationships honestly makes me a pretty lousy partner.
1
SPEAKER_01
How can I show the girl I just started seeing that I m committed to being a good partner when my job demands so much of my time and energy?
1
SPEAKER_01
Did you run into that?
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_03
After med school, I did seven years of training, and I did a year of fellowship.
1
SPEAKER_03
And it s 100 hours a week some of these years.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s just very challenging to have friends, let alone relationships.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s just very hard to make plans.
1
SPEAKER_03
So I would not sugarcoat what this person is asking at all.
1
SPEAKER_03
On the other hand, when I found the right person, and it was maybe later in life, I was in my mid-30s, when we finally sort of settled down and things like that.
1
SPEAKER_03
But I think you gotta find, you gotta make sure the person is very aware of your
1
SPEAKER_03
your schedule and your life and all that.
1
SPEAKER_03
And you probably, you know, want to spend time with this person.
1
SPEAKER_03
And so they see your life.
1
SPEAKER_03
You know, if you re thinking about settling down, that they really understand your life.
1
SPEAKER_03
Of course you want them to understand you, but the unpredictability of that is something that people do have to get used to.
1
SPEAKER_03
And it s not for everybody.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I think you can feel when somebody is serious and committed, even if somebody is really busy, you know, I always am amused when somebody,
1
SPEAKER_01
will be interested in an actor and they ll say, yeah, you know, I sent them a text, but I haven t heard back.
1
SPEAKER_01
But I know they re filming a movie and I and I know when I m filming a movie, I have a lot of downtime.
1
SPEAKER_01
When I m sitting in the makeup chair and getting my hair and makeup done or I m in between scenes When somebody s into you you can feel it and if they know that your life is busy when you take time to
1
SPEAKER_01
to spend the moments that you have free with this person.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think that s going to mean so much and it s going to say so much.
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SPEAKER_01
I wouldn t overthink it because they ll know.
1
SPEAKER_03
They will know.
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SPEAKER_03
Be careful about resenting the person in any way because of schedule and things like that.
1
SPEAKER_03
You don t want to feel guilty that you re going off to do your work that you think is important and you know, you don t want the person to make you feel that way or to even the person s not making you feel that way that you re allowing yourself to feel that way because that s That seems like a prescription for problems later on.
1
SPEAKER_01
Mm-hmm
1
SPEAKER_03
Yes, I met my wife when I was in my residency and it was a hundred hours a week and she was waiting tables and I was impoverished and so she had food and I was hungry and so that s it started off like that and then obviously fell in love but also recognized
1
SPEAKER_03
what our lives are likely to be.
1
SPEAKER_03
Your life, single and scrubs, will get easier probably once you finish your residency and all that.
1
SPEAKER_03
This will be some of the busiest times of your life.
1
SPEAKER_03
So if you can get through this now with this person, it s probably a good sign.
1
SPEAKER_03
So make sure it s the right person, power through it, and be honest.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think whether you re really busy becoming a doctor or you re just a person in the world that s not even that busy,
1
SPEAKER_01
It s always, I think, really good and helpful to just tell this person, listen, I m gonna have a couple of busy days coming up, but on Wednesday, I have some free time and I would love to see you.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you just communicate with, here s when I m gonna be busy, here s what s going on, and you let this person know,
1
SPEAKER_01
that you re thinking about them and trying to make space to see them.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think that s going to tell everything that needs to be said.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yep.
1
SPEAKER_01
All right.
1
SPEAKER_01
Sanjay, we ve reached our last listener question.
1
SPEAKER_01
Brittany writes,
1
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What do you do when someone you love gives you a really thoughtful gift, but you honestly just don t like it?
1
SPEAKER_01
Like they genuinely tried really hard and failed.
1
SPEAKER_01
Do you gently tell them the truth or pretend to love it?
1
SPEAKER_03
I mean, it would be helpful to know what we re talking about specifically here, but I m going to go with pretend to love it.
1
SPEAKER_03
Pretend to love it.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, and I don t think that s duplicitous really at all, frankly, because saying it s the thought that counts isn t just a nice euphemistic thing to say.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s a really thoughtful gift, right, as the person said.
1
SPEAKER_03
So the person put a lot of thought into this.
1
SPEAKER_03
they may have gotten it wrong in terms of what they think you like, or maybe they ve tapped into something about you that maybe you don t even know.
1
SPEAKER_03
Like, you know, they got you something that observing you, they think you re going to like.
1
SPEAKER_03
I would actually take it a step further, not only pretend to like it, but actually like it, like, like learn to understand why they gave it to you.
1
SPEAKER_03
Like my wife wants, she, she, um, I hate
1
SPEAKER_03
Deli sandwiches.
1
SPEAKER_03
I just I don t know what it is.
1
SPEAKER_03
I don t like the idea of I mostly don t eat meat in the first place.
1
SPEAKER_03
So like stacked meat like that on bread like I can t even It s just and then one time I was super hungry and she s like I ll get us some food and she came back with the deli sandwich and we ve been married for like 15 years at this point and I thought
1
SPEAKER_03
Does she even know me right and it s too long to get into all the reasons why she did it But it was thoughtful and she was taking care of me and I appreciated it.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, so Pretend you like it and learn to like it.
1
SPEAKER_03
What do you say?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I feel like I was just picturing like what if Stephanie bought me a ring that I Would not pick out for myself
1
SPEAKER_01
I would be so touched, I think.
1
SPEAKER_01
I would find it endearing and touching.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, by the way, you ll appreciate this, I ll just tell you really quickly, you may not know this, but the Dalai Lama, I was just going off because you re vegan, he doesn t eat meat.
1
SPEAKER_03
His whole thing is he won t eat anything that is sentient.
1
SPEAKER_03
But here s the thing, he doesn t eat anything that is sentient, that has a sense of itself, sentient beings, but
1
SPEAKER_03
And this surprised me.
1
SPEAKER_03
If he goes somewhere and is offered meat, he will eat it.
1
SPEAKER_03
And I asked him why, and he said he would do that because it s the graciousness of the host and he wants to be a good guest, which I thought was really very interesting that he put that above even his sort of pretty strict abidance by not eating sentient things.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, Brittany, we hope that helps.
1
SPEAKER_01
And Sanjay, that s all of our listener questions.
1
SPEAKER_01
But I need you to stick around for a final segment we call come back to me later.
1
SPEAKER_01
Back to me later.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_01
Dr. Gupta, everyone wishes they had the perfect response at the ready for certain social interactions.
1
SPEAKER_01
Come back to me later is the segment where we make that wish come true.
1
SPEAKER_01
Here s how it works.
1
SPEAKER_01
We re going to repeat some of the excuses unvaccinated folks have said about their reason for not getting a COVID vaccine source from the internet.
1
SPEAKER_01
Our job is to come up with the perfect response.
1
SPEAKER_03
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yep.
1
SPEAKER_03
I ll do my best.
1
SPEAKER_01
Here s what the unvaccinated said.
1
SPEAKER_01
We don t know what the long-term side effects are.
1
SPEAKER_03
Not knowing the long-term side effects is a fair question.
1
SPEAKER_03
What we know about these vaccines is that they almost entirely turn your own body into vaccine-making.
1
SPEAKER_03
So you re not changing your DNA, you re not doing anything that would cause long-term effects, doesn t affect pregnancy.
1
SPEAKER_03
Just physiologically, the way the vaccines work, they don t cause long-term impact on the body.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_01
we can deal with the side effects of COVID-19 and other health challenges through natural supplements and vitamin D and diet rather than vaccination and medicine.
1
SPEAKER_03
You know, people have been giving this argument for a long time.
1
SPEAKER_03
I mean, going back to the 1918 flu pandemic, some of what we re going through is not new, but look, 600,000 people in the United States alone have died.
1
SPEAKER_03
And it s not that all of them were, you know,
1
SPEAKER_03
in need of supplements and healthier diets.
1
SPEAKER_03
I mean, this is a bad disease.
1
SPEAKER_03
I wish it weren t the case, but it s a bad disease.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, there s always good reason to be healthy, and we know things like obesity can be a real risk factor here, but
1
SPEAKER_03
The virus doesn t care sometimes, no matter what.
1
SPEAKER_03
It can make you really sick, and in some cases, you could die.
1
SPEAKER_03
So we have this wonderful supplement in this case, the vaccine, that actually just teaches your body how to be even better at what it already does.
1
SPEAKER_03
I ve taken it.
1
SPEAKER_03
My parents have taken it.
1
SPEAKER_03
My kids have taken it.
1
SPEAKER_03
I would recommend it to you as well.
1
SPEAKER_01
I already got COVID.
1
SPEAKER_01
And just to be clear, I haven t had COVID.
1
SPEAKER_03
That was just one of the questions.
1
SPEAKER_03
When you ve had COVID, you do develop immunity.
1
SPEAKER_03
There s no question.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s kind of what the process is.
1
SPEAKER_03
You re infected and your body makes all these antibodies and other types of things that are called cells to fight off the infection.
1
SPEAKER_03
What I have learned looking at the data, and this is emerging data, is that the type of protection you get from the vaccine is much better than what you get from naturally acquired immunity.
1
SPEAKER_03
We know in countries around the world, there are people who were previously infected with COVID who are now getting reinfected and developing serious illness.
1
SPEAKER_03
The vaccine s just gonna give you broader and more durable protection.
1
SPEAKER_03
We didn t know that for sure in the beginning.
1
SPEAKER_03
Of course, we didn t even know we d have a vaccine, but a recent study came out that said you are basically twice as likely to become reinfected, at least from natural immunity, than with the vaccine.
1
SPEAKER_03
So even if you ve had it, go ahead and still get vaccinated.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Thanks for those responses, Sanjay.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hopefully that s helpful to some of our listeners out there having difficult conversations with loved ones.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hope so.
1
SPEAKER_01
We ve reached the end of the show and it s been such a pleasure to see you again and talk to you.
1
SPEAKER_03
Thank you.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I really appreciate you taking the time to be here with us and traveling with that huge microphone just for me.
1
SPEAKER_01
I can t even believe it.
1
SPEAKER_03
It was well worth it.
1
SPEAKER_03
I m happy that I did it.
1
SPEAKER_03
No regrets at all.
1
SPEAKER_01
Do you have anything you d like to promote and see your career get a massive bump by mentioning it on my podcast?
1
SPEAKER_03
No, I don t want to do that at all.
1
SPEAKER_03
Actually, I just wanted to have this conversation with you.
1
SPEAKER_03
You know, I want to do it just for no reason other than to have this pure enjoyment of chatting with you.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, really enjoyable.
1
SPEAKER_01
All right.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, it was so good to see you.
1
SPEAKER_01
Thank you again.
1
SPEAKER_03
Anytime.
1
SPEAKER_02
I wish
1
SPEAKER_01
Don t Ask Tig is hosted by me, Tig Notaro.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s produced by Thomas Ouellette, Shana Deloria, and Ryan Lohr.
1
SPEAKER_01
Our executive producer and editor is Beth Perlman.
1
SPEAKER_01
Engineering and sound mixing by Johnny Vince Evans and Eric Romani.
1
SPEAKER_01
Digital production by Christina Lopez.
1
SPEAKER_01
Talent booking by Marianne Ways.
1
SPEAKER_01
Production support from Pizza Shark and Elena C. Our theme music is Friend in Tig by Edie Burkell and Kyle Krushem, and Listen to Your Heart by Edie Burkell.
1
SPEAKER_01
Special thanks to Hunter Seidman, Lily Kim, Alex Shaffert, and Lauren D. Concept developed by Tracy Mumford.
1
SPEAKER_01
Our executive consultant is Dean Capello and Gobsmack Studios.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can always ask for advice at DontAskTig.org.
1
SPEAKER_01
Just write in with your problem or send us a voice memo.
1
SPEAKER_01
Remember to follow us on social media at DontAskTig.
1
SPEAKER_01
DontAskTig is a production of American Public Media.
1
SPEAKER_01
And as always, thanks, Dana, and I ll tell Becky.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m Christina Cauterucci, and this season on Slow Burn.
2
SPEAKER_03
stake, young people became activists.
2
SPEAKER_01
We can t let this happen in California.
2
SPEAKER_01
And activists became leaders.
2
SPEAKER_00
My name is Harvey Milk and I m here to include you.
2
SPEAKER_02
Slow Burn, Season 9.
2
SPEAKER_02
Gays Against Briggs.
2
SPEAKER_02
Out now, wherever you listen.