Billy Eichner
speaker
1,207 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 28 Jun
Billy Eichner’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
We weren't coming out at 12 years old, you know, but but it was still pretty evident to my parents that I was a gay kid begging them to take me to see Barbra Streisand concerts when I was literally 13 years old. And, and, and, and bless them. They did, you know, like they were so, so supportive.
So I just assumed every place was like New York city, you know, and then I got out into the world and realized like, Oh, I wasn't in the real world. You know, I, I was maybe in an ideal world, at least one that I think of as an ideal world, but I wasn't in the world. Most people So it's always a wake-up call to me. I'm like, wow, this is still happening. We're still here?
It's kind of shocking, and yet we're here. But the one hopeful thing I'll say is the pendulum swings back and forth. You know, no one thought, you know, when George Bush was running, when when George Bush beat John Kerry in 04, no one thought the person to come and save the Democratic Party would be a young black man from Chicago politics. Right. Right. was, you know, and no one.
And on the flip side, if you had asked Republicans in 2012 when Obama beat Romney, you know, if Donald Trump was the person who was going to come along and save their party, they would have they would have been shocked, too. Full disclosure, I'm quoting Ezra Klein here. I'm not that smart. But it's true.
And I'm only quoting it because it gives you a little bit of hope in what feels like a hopeless time. I'm not the biggest Joe Rogan fan, but there was a time when Joe Rogan supported Bernie Sanders not too long ago. And that's why. Why did he support Bernie Sanders? Why did we have all those Bernie bros? And you could be annoyed at the Bernie bros, but they were there.
And I'd rather have Bernie bros than Trump bros any day of the week. And you know why? It's because, say what you will, Bernie speaks in a very unfiltered, raw, authentic way that touches people viscerally. the way that Trump does. And I'm not saying Bernie's the answer to all of our questions. And I don't think it's Bernie himself.
I think his time is, you know, probably past us in terms of being president, you know, but I think there are lessons to be drawn there, you know, and just in terms of being a communicator, you know, and speaking again, it's about being visceral.
It is. It's really scary. And again, the women in my life talk about this all the time.
I have one of my dear friends since college, my friend Diane, who lives in Jersey right outside of New York City, has three daughters under the age of 13, but is close enough to Pennsylvania where she went and canvassed not once, not twice, not three times, but four times between September and October before the election. So we can't blame Diane for losing Pennsylvania.
And so but she was knocking on doors in like, you know, suburban areas and more rural areas. And she said to me, like back in early October, September, she said, you know, the women are the women seem hopeful about Kamala winning. You know, they're easier to talk to. She said, Billy, the young men are not OK. They are not okay, and it is scary.
I know a woman I went to high school with back in New York City many, many years ago who now has a teenage son. This woman is like the epitome of like liberal New York Jewish, like Brooklyn, you know, raising a teenage boy who's been raised in New York City. And even she said to a mutual friend of ours recently, she said, I don't understand.
He's coming home and saying some weird shit, like some weird kind of alt-right stuff. It's not exactly pro-Trump. He's not going that far. But it's strange. And he was like, he didn't grow up hearing this stuff in my liberal Brooklyn apartment or growing up going to high school in New York City. He's getting it from social media. He's getting it from these podcasts.
Yeah, she the young men are not OK. And I don't I'm I don't know. That's above my pay grade. How to you know, Joe Rogan gets 90 million listeners. I don't know. But and it is strange because he was a Bernie supporter. He was an Obama supporter. Exactly. So. I don't know, that kind of gives me hope. Maybe it's a bit more malleable than we think it is. You know, maybe they're not lost for good.
And we just kind of need to everyone needs to take a deep breath and kind of like meet everyone where they are and try to be adults and have an adult conversation and hear everyone out about what. what they fear. We have to listen to each other and then decide later how we react. But if we just completely shut each other off, we're not going to get anywhere. It's harder to do.
It's easier said than done. And I live in a bubble and I love my bubble. Thank God for my bubble. But I don't know. You got to get out of the bubble.
Because if I were to listen... Oh, I haven't heard a thing you've said this entire time. I haven't listened. No, I'm kidding.
I know. And I don't want a kumbaya. And that's we're not having a kumbaya anytime soon. I don't.
I hear you. I'm with you, too. And I'm a New Yorker. I'm gay. My instinct is always to say, fuck you, even to think who agrees with me. I mean, I made a career out of saying, fuck you and storming off when someone didn't agree with me. And so I don't know. I think we need to take a deep breath and take it a day at a time, I guess. I don't know. I sound like some, like, two-bit therapist.
But, like... Yeah, it's a tricky one. We're in this country together, for better or worse. It's not changing. I don't know. We can either all choose to live in our little bubble. But what starts to panic me a little bit...
or it's not even panic, it's really sadness, is that when you see Trump's numbers ticking up in New York City, which happened this time, I don't want to see things moving in that direction. That I know. So at the very least, we need to keep our bubbles secure. Because that's all I have. And I know you guys don't live in the bubble, which makes me admire you so much. I could never do it.
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