W. Kamau Bell

Yeah, sexy.

So, yeah, it's interesting.

When we started the show, Barack Obama was in his last year in office.

And at that point, there was this idea that he was about to hand off the presidency to a woman named Hillary Clinton.

That it was going to be a smooth transition.

Because how could Donald Trump ever win?

And I remember being at a kid's birthday party with one of my kid's friends in Berkeley, California.

And this old hippie guy was like, yeah, we thought Reagan was a joke, too.

We thought there was no way Ronald Reagan would ever be governor of California, let alone president of the United States.

And that really was like, click.

And then we did an episode of United Shades where we did two episodes in the same season.

I think it was the same season.

One was on the south side of Chicago with men who were in gangs and black men who were in gangs on the south side and west side of Chicago.

And then we did an episode in Appalachia with white ex-coal miners.

And I remember thinking these two people would say they are in different ends of the political spectrum, or they would say, I don't believe in whatever the other party is.

Chicago is a very democratic city.

Appalachia is a very red state.

And yet they all want the same things.

They want better jobs.

They want higher wages.