In this episode of The Antidote, Amy and Grace connect with Sasheer Zamata about matching tattoos, estate sales, and tapping into energy. 

Amy and Grace share their bummer news of the week –  flight attendants warn not to drink any water on planes, and it’s getting harder to get a passport. They also share their antidotes - giving back to the community, and going to a plant nursery.

This week’s Creative Tap-In: 

Art is never finished, only abandoned - Leonardo da Vinci 

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Amy The world is a dumpster fire. I'm Amy.

Grace And I'm Grace.

Amy And we want to help.

Grace As a reflex to the f---ing madness on the news, we're keeping it positive, uplifting, but opinionated.

Amy We talk about cultural moments we love.

Grace Talk to people we adore.

Amy Crushes we have.

Grace And self-care we stand.

Amy During these trying times. We all need a show that focuses on joy.

Grace This is The Antidote. Hi, everybody. Welcome. Oh, my God. Can you believe it's like the most of the year's over in that crazy.

Amy What's it is?

Grace Most of the year is over.

Amy You're right. Oh, we're in the second half - we're officially in the second half. It's my birthday month.

Grace Yeah. Holla holla holla.

Amy Yeah.

Grace It just seems like just the other day that me, you and Iman were at that Malibu hotel, like, you know, the first day of the year.

Amy Oh, my God.

Grace Seems like just-

Amy That was so long ago.

Grace It was, but.

Amy Yeah, when we went on that hike, when I pretended I was someone who hikes and then y'all were like, You want to do this again? I was like, Nah.

Grace Literally, guys, this is Amy. This is Amy. I was just like, Oh my God, I need to hike more. And then Iman is just like, Yeah, I hike all the time. And Amy's just like, I don't like hiking. I loved being here with you guys. I just want you to know that I don't like what I'm doing right now. 

Amy Yeah. I was like, this was fun. Never again. Love the views. Fly me there like Kylie Jenner and her jet fly me. 3 minutes to the top. Oh, let me take a look and I'll go back down. Literally nuts. And we know Beyonce finally dropped her album. I can't.

Grace Yeah.

Amy I can't believe we we haven't talked about it on here.

Grace I mean, listen, we you know, we love it. You know we love it. I mean, the thing is, we've talked about it a lot on here. We talked about.

Amy No, I can't even I don't want to cry today.

Grace We talked about the vinyl like we talked about so many things already about this glorious album. And you know that the queen has gifted us with something and you know, we receive it. I mean, you know we love it. So, you know, we're going to give you a little break from the Beyonce content for a minute.

Amy Literally, we're too much we're literally too much for our own friends groups.

Grace I mean that we stand to heart literally in our group chat I she, she- you know how Beyonce put out that firstTikTok where she like cut together her fans dancing and singing, break my soul. Like I literally cried about it.

Amy That's the level we're at, that's the key we're on.

Grace That's where we are. So we're going to just leave that there. And just know that we are staning hard.

Amy Yeah. So moving on, what are you up to this weekend, Grace? I'm sad. I feel like I'm not going to see you.

Grace Oh, yeah? Well, I'm going to get a facial.

Amy Wait, what?

Grace Tomorrow. A facial.

Amy Wait, what? I'm going a facial tomorrow. What time is your appointment?

Grace Oh, my appointment is at noon.

Amy Oh, my God. I'm right before you. I'm 1030.

Grace Oh, my God. We can. We can. High five in the-.

Amy High five.

Grace We'll, high five on your way out, my way in. In fact, I will park in that one space that they have in the back. You know what I'm saying, Like.

Amy Okay, I always park on the street. I get lucky. I don't know why I always park on the street.

Grace No, I always do it in the back.

Amy Right in front. Like, literally, I'll be pulling up in a car pulls out, and I'm like, let me just boop boop right in there.

Grace No, I do the little-

Amy But I have a little car, so.

Grace Yeah, yeah. You got that little baby little baby thing that can fit into a lot of places. Mine is a sedan, you know what I'm saying? Like. A sedan.

Amy A full-size sedan.

Grace You know.

Amy A grown woman sedan.

Grace A grown woman sedan. So, you know, I can't.

Amy Oh my God. We're going to look so good.

Grace I can't. I can't. Yeah, we're going to be, like, glowing. Like, you will leave glowing and I'm going to be all dull. And I was just like but I'll be glowing later. I'll be glowing soon.

Amy I'll be glowing soon. Don't worry about me. The glow is coming.

Grace It's coming.

Amy Oh, my God.

Grace Yeah. We have the same facialist because me and Amy are what? Gross. Like we just, we share a lot of things.

Amy I prefer the word adorable.

Grace Yeah, that's good. Yeah, we're pretty cute. That's what it is. Well, we wouldn't need the antidote if you didn't have something to get an antidote from.

Amy That's right. Starting now. Top with our bummer news of the week. Well, first up, this is so weird. As if air travel wasn't already annoying as it is. A Tiktok star named Cierra Mistt has a video that's gone viral and it's already surpassed - Hmm?

Grace Sierra Mist? Like the, like the?

Amy Like the drink from the nineties. You're correct, but her name is. C, it's spelt like Cierra. Like Cierra. Like you C-I-E-R-R-A. Actually, that's not even how Ciara spells it. It's just wrong. Yeah, this is wrong. Yeah. Her TikTok name is Cierra Mistt. Which is hilarious to me, but she has surpassed a whopping 7 million views and left viewers conflicted after she admitted why she never drinks tea or coffee on a plane. She says that you shouldn't drink coffee, tea or water on your flights because the airlines hardly ever clean the water that's used for their drinks. Yuck. And this I know to be true because I have a friend from high school who went to flight school and she said the only part of the plane that is not regulated by the TSA to clean is the ice container. So guess what they do. They don't clean it. And that is why you should never get ice in your drinks. Devastating.

Grace Devastating. I had heard about this. I had heard about this a while ago. I don't know if you told me or if someone else told me, but I'd heard. And don't get coffee or tea, don't get ice. So there has been many a time where I have just thoughtlessly ordered a cocktail on the plane and they come and they bring it with ice in it. And then I just let it sit Then they're like, did you not like it?

Amy Are you serious? You don't drink it?

Grace No. Because I remember. I remember. And then I'll be like, Oh, I. Sorry, I didn't like it. Can I actually just get a glass of wine? Because that's never with ice in it. So I have to keep remembering, reminding myself to only drink wine on the plane because there's no way there's ice in it. And I am a tea fanatic. I loved tea so much. And so I always want some tea, you know, especially if, like, there's a meal on the plane and they're bringing you like a little dessert moment. I always want, like some mint tea or something or some green tea to go with it, but I ain't doing that. They don't clean their water, so. No, thank you.

Amy Yeah. No, no, that's nasty. That's nasty. But the bummer news doesn't stop there. Okay. Do you know another travel related bit of bummer news? It's getting harder to get a passport these days.

Grace And why is that?

Amy Basically, the price to get or renew a passport has gone up as of January of this past year. A first time adult passport now costs a total of $165, including the $35 acceptance fee. A renewed adult passport costs $130 and a passport for a minor cost, a total of 135. It's an increase of $20 from 2021. Like it's gone up 20 bucks in a year. It's going to skyrocket. And this makes me mad because the wait time to get a passport is already long, it's already been bad, and Americans are so under traveled. In fact, Americans don't travel enough. It's something like there's an organization called YouGov, which is a UK based international research data group, and they said that only a third of American adults, about 37%, actually have valid, unexpired U.S. passports. So we're not well traveled as it is. And I know for an opinion that the more you travel and the more you immerse yourself in other cultures, the more you become like a citizen of the world and become open minded and not as closed minded. So I feel like if it's hard to travel, it's going to make Americans more prone to stay uncultured and a little ignorant. Which makes me sad.

Grace Well, I mean, I just want to holler at Joe Byron.

Amy I mean, Biden is trying. Okay? He signed an executive order in December. We saw this- mandating the creation of an online passport renewal system. But, you know, it's not up and running yet. It should be by the end of the year. But he's trying.

Grace Yeah, he is trying. And, you know, we make fun of him, but honestly, he's who we got. And I'm really happy that January six did not take like.

Amy Oh, god, that got dark for me.

Grace I know, you know. But, you know, it could have gone a different way that day. Thank God it didn't and that Joe Biden is our president. So we will give him credit where credit is due. He's trying to fix this. So hopefully he can soon. To be honest. You know, when I hear $20, I'm just like, if I'm being real, I'm just like a ticket for a plane. Costs so much more to go overseas than the $20 difference. But I do agree that, you know, we should be trying to make a passport as accessible as possible. I think that, you know, I'm even thinking about school and stuff like, you know, encouraging kids to go get their passport and like be curious about other lands. Because I do think that travel, if you can afford it, is such an enriching thing in my life. I mean, all the trips that I've taken have taught me so much about myself and my abilities. And traveling by myself has been always very moving. So I hope that people are still able to go through all the rigmarole of getting their passports, because I really do think it is worth it. In the end, we need to make passports more accessible to more people.

Amy I need Joe Biden to figure that out because he ain't figure much out. I don't mean to be critical of that man. He very old. He's trying to put one foot in front of the other.

Grace He's just trying. Like also, I feel like the things that the Democrats and Joe Biden are doing, like they just need to get better at messaging and letting people know what they actually are doing because they have done some stuff. It's just, you know, the Republicans are really good at messaging and us liberals are not.

Amy They sure are.

Grace Yeah. We got to-

Amy Oh, my gosh. Oh, man. Thinking about politics makes me feel not so great. How do you feel, Grace?

Grace Not great either.

Amy I honestly feel like I want to take a trip after hearing this- out of America. But can I get a passport in time? We don't know.

Grace Okay, let's get into the antidote.

Amy So this is the segment where we tell you about the culture we consumed and things we did this week that made us feel better about the bummer news. Tell me, Grace, what was your antidote this week?

Grace Well, my antidote so was I gave a little talk, a little, little question answer segment at this amazing organization called Black Girl Film School this week.

Amy Oh, cool.

Grace And it was so nice. It's my friend Jada who actually runs the organization, and I'm so proud of her. Yeah, I went to film school with her, you know, back in the day. So their mission statement is the mission of Black Girl Film School is to increase the number of Black women working and leading in the film, TV and media industries by designing inclusive learning experience for girls 13 to 17 to learn filmmaking and technical skills from behind the camera. So of course, like I saw her at an event recently and I literally she did not ask me. She, I was just like, hey, you know, if you want me to talk, I could talk. I was just like-

Amy Oh, my God, this is incredible.

Grace Yeah. I'm so inspired by what she's done that I like, literally just offered myself up because I was just like, there is of course, I am very personally interested in having more young women realize that this is a career path and that there's so many paths like they teach the kids about editing, cinematography, like all aspects of filmmaking. So, you know. Right. And early so that they can, you know, maybe choose to go to college for that or at least sort of keep up their film education in college. And they they just get to explore that. And we talked about my episode in the last season of Insecure Episode 506, and it was cute. They picked two scenes that they wanted me to talk about and it was just so nice to hear their, like, young, sweet little voices like. So it really just lit up my day to, to know that this organization is a thing and that they're Black women, young Black women who are curious about our industry and knowing that it can provide opportunities for them to express their stories some day. So it was just a really lovely afternoon to chatting with those young queens. So that was definitely my antidote this week.

Amy I love that. Oh my God, I want to get involved. I'm going to donate.

Grace I'm sure Jada would love for you to come speak to them as well.

Amy Of course, anytime.

Grace So what was your antidote this week, Amy?

Amy While you were spending time molding young minds. And I was spending time also at a nursery.

Grace Nursery?

Amy I'm trying to make a segway. I'm sorry. You were- these children are aged. I know. It was not a good segway. All I'm saying is I went to a nursery.

Grace Oh, so you are molding young plants.

Amy So you were at a school. Okay, I'll say you were helping people at a school, and I was helping at another school, a nursery. And it was a nursery, a wholesale nursery filled with plants. This is not a great segway. I'm sorry. It was very clunky. My antidote this week was going to a nursery and it was going plant shopping with my florist friend, Brooke. Brooke Wetzel. You can find her on Instagram at ThePlumDahlia. She I've spoken about her so many times. Exactly. She always fits out my house with really great flowers. She got me into my flower arranging hobby. She she dumps flowers on my porch. And I arrange them. And it's like literally the best part of my week. Like every couple of weeks she does this. So I went strolling through this nursery, looking at plants, and it was really relaxing. It was very hot because it was a fully outdoor nursery and it was huge. It like spans like a block and we literally walked almost the whole way. It had to be like half a mile the length of this nursery. I really love plants, but I'm very like not good at high maintenance plants. So getting some that go outdoors that I can just have something nice to look at when I look out my window was really the priority for me, so I'm looking forward to when they get delivered. It'll probably be next week because we got to find parts for these plants. Looking forward to it.

Grace Yeah, I love plants shopping because like it feels like a little bit of decor because, you know, I. I moved into a new apartment during 2020. It was, like, my pandemic hobby. And then for months, I was just having so much fun, like, decorating everything, but, like, now I'm done, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, it's always fun when you can, like, add a little bit of decor because, you know, you need to.

Amy Yeah. Spice it up. Yeah. So I'm excited. I'm excited for that. And once I get it poppin, once I get my plant party poppin, I will invite you over so you can see the new patio.

Grace Yea, we'll meet your new children.

Amy Yes, yes. That's what I should have said. We were both helping children. You real ones. Me plant ones.

Grace Plant babies. Yeah.

Amy Exactly. Well, anyway, we'll be back after the break. Welcome back to The Antidote. We have a special guest today. Who is it, Grace?

Grace Well, our guest today is a hilarious, stunning actor, podcaster, comedian and writer who has made you laugh on Saturday Night Live, Woke, and Home Economics just to name a few. She also voices some of your favorite animated baddies on shows like Tuca and Bertie and the upcoming Marvel series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She believes in the healing power of Christmas and really thinks it's time for everyone to get on board with bidets. Please welcome the incredible Sasheer Zamata.

Sasheer Zamata Yay. Hey, thank you.

Amy Well, this year you are very, very, very impressive. Okay. But we aren't here to talk about your many, many accomplishments, okay? We're here to get deep.

Grace So let's check in first. How are you feeling today? Like, for real? For real? Like, not small talk. Is there anything weighing on you or is there anything bringing you joy today?

Sasheer Zamata I feel like. Good. I'm like in a general lackadaisical, chill mode right now.

Amy Ooh, nice.

Sasheer Zamata I go back to shooting home economics at the end of the month. And I've just had kind of a month to do nothing. And I really have been doing nothing, and it's nice.

Grace Teach me your ways.

Amy That's nice. Yeah. We never get to do nothing. Tell us what that's like. Like tell us the nothings that you do, please. In the morning, you wake up and sit?

Sasheer Zamata Yeah. Yeah. I've been sitting. I've been sitting in my bed for a long time.

Grace Yeah, Amy really needs to know, because nothing is not something that she's ever done.

Amy I don't know what that is. But I'm obsessed with it. I'm not even jealous. I'm just happy another Black woman gets to experience it. I'm just thrilled.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah. Like, yeah. I mean, I am trying to remind myself it's okay to do this because of course there's the voice in my head that's like, you should be digging up space somewhere. You should be doing a thing, writing a thing, creating a thing. Why are you using valuable time? Just like, chill, but it's like already spent time doing that earlier. And I'm going to keep doing that later.

Grace You're going to keep doing it later.

Sasheer Zamata It's okay.

Grace Yeah, it's really okay.

Amy Exactly, yeah. You're literally on multiple shows on television at any given moment. You're allowed to sit down.

Grace Yeah, yeah. I'm like, Yeah, it's so important to decompress and have those moments because yeah. You about, you about to have a busy rest of your year shooting your show.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah, exactly.

Amy Well, let's keep those good vibes going. Okay, we need that right now. This show is called The Antidote because life is hard and we all need different antidotes to deal with the bullsh--. So tell us, what's your antidote? In other words, what's something non-work related that's bringing you joy this week or this month?

Sasheer Zamata Um. I was told by a clairvoyant that I need to dig deeper into the moon and. I already knew that because I have a planner that literally tells me what the moon's doing every single day and what you could be doing to tap into that energy. And I have a moon phase book on my coffee table. I have the moon calendar app on my phone. So I've already been called to the moon in different ways. And then someone was like, you needed to actually dig deeper. And I was like, okay, you're I believe you. And yeah, I just been like getting a lot of joy and all kinds of emotions from the moon in general and just excited to, like, know more about it.

Amy Okay, wait, so this is now moon talk with Sasheer Zamata because I'm like, please explain what this moon journalist is telling you to do.

Grace Yea, I'm so curious. Yes.

Amy What does it mean to get deeper into the moon?

Sasheer Zamata I mean, there's a lot it's like dense, which is why I haven't gotten.

Amy We got time, girl. We got- you here to talk so talk.

Sasheer Zamata But it's like why I haven't gotten that deep into it because here we have it next to me like this book. This book tells you, like, what plants to plant if you want like.

Amy Like if you want healing from the moon? Is that?

Sasheer Zamata Healing from the moon. Or it'll be like if the moon's in a fire sign today, maybe you should be exercising. Or if it's like in a water sign, maybe you need to relax more. And then you can also even go according to your personal signs and see, like, what you need personally from the moon, huh? Yeah. I took a moon class.

Amy Wait, wait. Where did you take a moon class?

Grace In Los Angeles, I assume in Los Angeles.

Sasheer Zamata Of course.

Amy Of course. What was the moon class and also who was teaching it? I need to know. An astronaut? No.

Sasheer Zamata An astronaut? Of course not an astronaut.

Amy No, no, no. It's like Chani Nichols or someone, right?

Sasheer Zamata Yeah. It was someone. An astrologer, astronomy person. It was during lockdown. So I did it from my home, vi Zoom and same same deal. Just like what the moon does, what you could be using it for. And it's actually wild because while I took that class, I was looking for a house to buy and the teacher was like at the end of class, like, is anyone going through something big right now? And they want to know what the moon's doing? And I was like, I'm actually house hunting right now. And she like, you know, did some stuff on her computer and she was like, Oh, it looks like a Taurus Moon is actually the perfect time to buy a house because it's like being grounded and rooted, putting roots down. And she's like, There's going to be a Taurs Moon this Friday, I was like, Okay, cool. So by this Friday I'm going to get a house. Cool. And at that time I had already put an offer in for a house I put in the highest bid. The listing agent called all the cash offers and asked if they would match my number. Someone did so. So the house went away. I mourned it for two weeks. It was sad. I was like, I guess let's keep looking so that the class I took was on a Monday. I was going see a house on Wednesday and I was like, Maybe this house I'm going to see on Wednesday will be the house. And then I get a phone call before I see the house. It's like that house that you had initially put an offer on, the cash offer fell through.

Amy Oh, my God.

Sasheer Zamata You're next in line if you want to, it's yours.

Amy But you got to come on Friday.

Sasheer Zamata I mean, we we did. We were we started the process on Friday.

Grace Oh, my God.

Grace And I am currently sitting in my house.

Amy Wow, guys, and the house is beautiful. Like, I see. What? I see.

Grace Paneling. Pink walls. 

Amy I see sconces like literally the house is gorgeous. So you won.

Grace I see a raffia furniture. It's very lovely. And it came on Friday like the lady said.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah, the moon helped me get this house.

Amy And you're the voice of Moon Girl in Devil Dinosaur. No wonder you're like you are. You are a moon girl.

Grace You're a moon girl.

Sasheer Zamata I mean, yeah, I am the mother of Moon Girl. Moon Girl is played by Diamond White and I play her mother and it's such a cool show. I'm so excited to be a part of it.

Amy I'm really excited about it. I read the book. The comic books. Yeah.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah, yeah. I would have loved to have had a show like this when I was a kid.

Grace Oh, yeah. I think about that all the time. Like all the shows that are coming out now that I would have loved to have. Also, I looked at the IMDB. The cast is incredible. It's like Laurence Fishburne and folks like that.

Sasheer Zamata Jermaine Fowler, Gary Anthony Williams, Alfre Woodward.

Amy Is he your husband? I don't know why I asked that.

Sasheer Zamata Jermaine's my husband. Yes. Yes.

Amy I just wanted to know because he's real cute.

Sasheer Zamata He's real cute.

Grace Well, you got to wait till the moon is ripe, Amy, and then you can go find him.

Amy Oh wait. I'm going to shoot my shot right now. Yeah. Let me wait till the moon says so, okay.

Sasheer Zamata But yeah, I love seeing a Black cartoon family and then like a teenage Black superhero. And we run a roller skating rink in New York City. Which is, like, very cool.

Amy It's like, made for you because you skate.

Sasheer Zamata It really is. It really feels like they just, like, found a Venn diagram of everything I like. And now it's like, a perfect circle.

Amy Yeah.

Sasheer Zamata It's. It's truly for me.

Amy That's so exciting to have those opportunities come your way where you're like, Well, mine to lose. Like, this is for me.

Sasheer Zamata Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I feel so, like, honored to be a part of it and and glad that I can bring the story to people.

Grace So speaking of skating, I you know, we are both friends with the lovely Nicole Byer. And I know that you guys had a skate gang during the pandemic.

Sasheer Zamata Skate gang.

Grace Pandemonium. I mean.

Sasheer Zamata We were full gang.

Grace It's still the pandemonium. We we I have to acknowledge that the pandemonium is still going on. But do you still skate at all outdoors?

Sasheer Zamata Not really. Yeah. So since things have opened back up, everyone got busy, thank goodness.

Grace Yeah. Yeah. All y'all working hard.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah, yeah. But yeah, there was a nice, beautiful moment in time where we had Tuesdays available and like every Tuesday at 6 p.m., we would go to the park and roller skate and I felt like being a kid. It was just like like we were literally playing outside. It was so fun. I remember  telling Nicole. I was like, This is a really beautiful thing you put together. Like, you didn't have to do this. She just like texted so many random friends and was like, Do you want to skate? And then we all said, yes. And now I have like new friends I didn't know before. And she was like, Yeah, I didn't know I was going to do that, but I'm glad people said, Yeah, yeah, it's very cool. And we still text each other and we still like talk about skating, but we just haven't met up in a very long time. Maybe one day, we'll figure it out.

Amy Yeah. It's like an old improv troupe.

Sasheer Zamata Absolutely. Yes.

Amy Well, we're all on a text thread.

Grace Well, you know, I'm sure that you and Nicole be best friends until you're old and gray. So maybe. You can do it like after you retire or just reconstitute skate gang. Just a bunch of cute old ladies skating in the park. That is very adorable.

Sasheer Zamata Aww. That's very it's a great idea. It'll be our modern version of, like, walking through the mall.

Grace Yeah, yeah.

Sasheer Zamata Skating in the park.

Amy All these kids are terrified of you. They're like, here come the grannies like I can't stop.

Grace Oh, I got to skate with my walker.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah. Nicole's great at picking activities and forcing me to do them.

Grace Oh, yeah. Poling, too, right?

Sasheer Zamata Pole dancing. Yeah, we were doing that for like two years and she didn't ever stop. She now has two poles at her house and she's just like, she's great. I mean, I was good by the time I stopped, but I haven't done it since the pandemic started, so I'm a little rusty. But yeah, Nicole is dedicated.

Amy You need that friend. Like Grace is that friends to me, we went and got aura photography done and like literally we went and got our auras photographed and we learned about our auras and it's something I would not have done. I'd heard of it. But you need that friend who's just like, just do it. Come on, let's do it. Yeah.

Grace And then we found out that. That we have similar colors and our auras.

Amy Surprise, surprise.

Grace Yeah. So, yeah, we like. I got it done with my friend back in New York years ago and the person there said, Oh, friends often have similar aura colors. And I was like, that's like, I don't know, maybe me and Amy won't have similar color. But then we did.

Amy What? Of course we did.

Sasheer Zamata  What would have happened if you guys had opposites?

Amy She would have ended the friendship.

Grace I should have never been friends with her. I would have just been like, You know what, cancel the podcast.

Amy You got to go our auras aren't compatible.

Grace So sorry.

Amy That would have made me so sad. I always wonder because you know, people read like astrology and stuff and you hear about compatible signs. I always wonder if someone would ever just like literally end a relationship because it said that their signs were not compatible. I've always been like.

Sasheer Zamata I mean, I just literally saw an Instagram video where some lady was like, I would rather sweep the ocean floor than ever date an aries are like people like, Oh, they automatically write people off.

Amy Oh, Sasheer.

Sasheer Zamata Oh, no.

Grace I mean, you know, there's, there's, there's things about us that are.

Amy And also people be saying that about Virgos, too. I'm a lot I get it.

Sasheer Zamata I think that every sign, of course there's bad qualities about people. And people have signs like it just- this person cut me off. They must be a cancer, you know, like it doesn't matter.

Grace Yeah. And then also I feel like if you really like the person you just sort of because I like, I think I'm very incompatible with like Leos or some sh--. And then I remember I was dating one and I was just like, Well, that doesn't have to mean that we're not compatible. I think it's all malleable. So whatever you decide to, to what meaning you decide to give it.

Amy Yeah, yeah. You got it. You got try it.

Sasheer Zamata I dated a Virgo, and after we broke up, I just wanted to, like, check on him to make sure he was okay, but I didn't want to talk to him, so I'd read his horoscope. Like, for him to be like, how is he doing it? What is the unvierse saying right now. Yeah.

Amy I'm going to say thank you on behalf of him because I'm a Virgo and I want someone to check on me sometimes. I'm channeling my emotions into making lists and critiquing others, but really, I'm hurting. Okay. Okay, I'm hurting. I want to hear about the matching tattoo you have with your bestie, Nicole.

Sasheer Zamata Oh, yes. Yeah, Nicole and I both have. Good night world tattooed on us. Mine's on my calf. Hers is on her tricep. And there was like maybe, let's see, maybe six years where we didn't live in the same city. She was in L.A.. I was in New York and. We met in New York and she left. And it was very devastating to both of us. And so we would call each other on the phone. Every night. And talk to each other for hours. And at the end of our conversations, we'd be like, okay, goodnight world. Goodnight, Sasheer. Good night world. Good night, Nicole.

Amy Oh, my God.

Sasheer Zamata And then we were in Austin at the same time together. And so we just went into a random tattoo shop and got Goodnight World tattooed on us and also then stopped saying that to each other completely after we got the tattoo.

Amy I love that you're like that chapter is over.

Sasheer Zamata And now that's done. It's an incident time we don't need. Say it again. I got a tattoo recently with Nicole. It wasn't a matching tattoo, but we both got tattoos at the same time. It's been years since the last time I got a tattoo and I forgot how painful they were. And I've got this Wicker Peacock chair tattooed on me, which I love chairs in general.

Amy I love chairs. I love that as a personality trait. Oh, you know, Sasheer, that chair lover.

Sasheer Zamata It really is a personality trait for people who listen to the podcast will like send me a DM me pictures of chairs, which I love. It's welcome. I love that.

Grace Is there a particular kind of chairs that your favorite kind of chair like? Are you a couch person? Do you like a high stool? Do you like a accent chair? Like what? What kind of chairs?

Amy An ottoman? A futon. A chair and a half.

Sasheer Zamata These are great questions. I own all of these. I love a day bed, which is not exactly chair, but I have multiple. I have three in my home currently.

Grace It's for lounging.

Sasheer Zamata I love to fully spread out. Fully lounge. Yes, but the tattoo I have is a peacock chair and that's the first chair I bought with my own money, like when I was in college. I felt very proud of that and also just feels very like Afrocentric and seventies, which I love, but I forgot how many lines it has, like as a picture. So when she started tattooing me, I was like, Oh my God, what did I do to myself? This is going to be forever and so painful. Just like a million tiny lines going back and forth just to get all the details. Looks beautiful. But I was like, Oh no.

Grace Oh, no. Oh, no.

Amy No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah.

Grace I feel like that's what that would be, me getting a tattoo. I'd be like, Ow. Ow. Okay. Are you done? No. Oh, ow.

Amy We've just begun. Wait. So tell us more about your love of crystals, because you've taught me a lot about moons, and I know that Jade is really healing and that you really like Jade. So I just want to hear some some crystal talk. Yes.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah, I like Jade. I have one by my bed. I would encourage you to do the same thing.

Amy It's the green one. I have a little green jade stone by my bed as well. I don't know why. Tell me what it means. I just did it because someone told me to. What do I have to?

Sasheer Zamata I mean same. Same. Someone said it. It sounded nice. And now I do it. I can't remember all the qualities of Jade. But I do know that it does help you dream. And I love dreaming. And I have had very vivid dreams since I was like a pre-teen. And sometimes they reflect something that's going on in my subconscious or something that might be bothering me. Sometimes they're a little prophetic and might tell me like, what might happen. Yeah. And I feel like just like rubbing the jade a little bit and being like, tonight I'm going to dream about something will help that.

Grace Yeah. You know, I kind of got into crystals a bit. My friend Azie Dungey. Hi, Azie. I used to work with her on Kimmy Schmidt, and the offices of Kimmy Schmidt were in Greenpoint and they had like this crystal shop around the corner. So a lot of times we were like during lunch, like after we finished lunch we would just go and like Azie knows a ton about crystals. So I have so many crystals from that time because like Azie'd be like you need this one or like she would tell me about the different properties of the different ones. And my brother actually is super into crystals too. He like, oh, he has like amulets and stuff that he wears around his neck or he keeps certain things in his pockets for protection. And yeah, I really do believe that, you know, the earth like where they get the crystals from, they have a positive or negative charge. And I think I think it can help even if it's just like mind over matter. I like having them around me.

Amy Yeah, yeah.

Sasheer Zamata I think with all this stuff, it's like it may be bullsh--. I don't know. But if I feel like I'm putting my intentions in the right spot, I think it does help. Like, I feel like if I believe this is helping me, it's going to help. So, yeah, I may as well just do it.

Amy Well, you know what? Sasheer, we feel so much better now that we've talked to you. This has been wonderful.

Sasheer Zamata Oh, good. It's making me feel good, too.

Grace Yes. The world is still the worlding. 2022 is still 2020ing. But it sucks a little less because we talked to you.

Amy Yes. Do you have anything coming up you want to tell us about? Anything you'd like to plug? It can even be something you love that you didn't work on.

Sasheer Zamata Home Economics season three is going to happen sometime this fall. Yeah, and you can watch Woke on Hulu and Moon Girl Devil Dinosaur is coming out sometime next year. And I'm in Tuca and Bertie, season three. It's out right now.

Amy Nice.

Sasheer Zamata You can watch that on adult swim and then HBO Max. And I just started reading bell hooks all about love. And that is nice.

Amy Me too. It's, like, queued up on my. I haven't started it yet, but I just downloaded it, like, three days ago. So.

Sasheer Zamata Yeah, it's I'm like, I also just started it. But, you know, the intro, it's very intriguing, the idea that we're kind of in a state of being where people are cynical about love in general and it's like cool to not think that love is important and it actually is very important. And then there's also just like many kinds of love. Isn't that just like romantic love is the most important. We got to remember about friendship and family, etc.. So yeah, I would, I would tell you to read that.

Amy And where can people find you on the internet?

Sasheer Zamata Um, my website's sasheer.com. I will post like live shows and other things there. And my Twitter, instagram is at thesheertruth and I'm on Tik Tok for some reason and it's just Sasheer Zamata. I don't postmuch. I just post like my standup videos.

Amy I'm going on it.

Sasheer Zamata But yeah, they are there if you want to watch them.

Amy Great. I do. Thank you. Thank you so much, Sasheer. This has been awesome.

Grace Thank you.

Sasheer Zamata Yes, thank you for having me. It's so great to talk to you guys.

Amy Bye.

Grace Bye. Okay to close this out. We are doing our creative tap in, which is our segment about creativity. Amy, are you ready for this week's quote?

Amy Yes, I am.

Grace All right. Here we go. "Art is never finished, only abandoned." Leonardo da Vinci.

Amy Great quote. I started kind of I already was kind of finishing it in my head because in film school, our professors used to say that a good script is never finished, only abandoned. And to me, what that means is, like sometimes as an artist, you just have to step away. Like, you're always going to want to make alterations or little edits or micro like changes. And yet because you want to continually improve it and every day you live your life, you actually become a better artist because by living you become a better artist. And so you're always going to want to make changes, but eventually you just have to stop. And not so much call it finish, but it is complete. I mean, and also to hear this coming from a man like Leonardo da Vinci, like didn't he do Mona Lisa? Didn't he do The Last Supper? Like they some of the paintings in life that I celebrated is the best art of all time, at least the best white art. We don't know all Black art. Most of it is like under the rocks and has been stolen, but like literally some of the best white art of all time. And even he had to just step away. He had to say, it's. It's finished. I'm done.

Grace Yeah. And then, you know, he he abandoned it. And it was so good that Beyoncé and Jay-Z did a video in front of it, you know?

Amy Right. Right. And he probably if he were alive today, he'd be like, why are they in front of my ruined my my art piece that is so ugly? Like, he wouldn't even be appreciative because great artists want to keep on tinkering, but you really do have to abandon it to get to a place where the world can appreciate and joy, absorb and experience it. That's what it is to be an artist, to abandon your work to the world. What does the quote make you think?

Grace Similarly, as I've thought about it, because I was just thinking about all my old scripts, you know, like all my old scripts from the first one I wrote about a celebrity like a dog walker that wants to become a celebrity, too. You know, the last one I wrote, which is probably my pilot that I'm developing right now. So I feel like, yeah, you can always go back. When you go back and you look at those early attempts, you're just like, Wow, this could use a whole lot more work and you could potentially go back and do it. But you're just like, No, I am on to the next. I'm on to a new challenge. I am on to a new thing because the work can always evolve. It's sort of like being human. Like you, your work lives in a way, as has your characters have their own life and they have their own thing. And there's always more that you can evolve into. So it's always challenging as a writer to know when you're done. Sometimes the script that you are working on is just never going to get to the level that you wanted to be. But you are still sitting and dreaming and imagining and feeling like, okay, if I just keep working on it, then maybe someday I'll figure out how to like close this story whole or like make this character make sense. But sometimes you just can't. So it's sort of like it reminds me of the the struggle of, like, figuring out what to abandon and what not to abandon. Because sometimes when I talk to, like my mentees or people who seek advice from me about like breaking into writing, sometimes somebody will come to me and they'll be like, I have ten scripts and I'm just like, No. Like, you know, say.

Amy You probably have half of one..

Grace You know, so maybe they need to work on one of those scripts longer and to keep refining it and making it the best they could be. Or maybe that one idea needed to be abandoned and go on to the next one. So I think that it's that's the challenge of being an artist. You have to figure out like, when is it truly done? Like, when does it feel truly done? I think the thing is, is that your ideas, even if you have an idea from the past, sometimes you're just like, oh, I could spend time doing this. But I think that my taste and everything has sort of evolved. So you need to let that evolution happen, like you said earlier, that you need to abandon things either to put them out into the world or just realize that that idea that you had ten years ago probably no longer works in the current iteration of you as an artist. So that's what it made me think. Okay. Thanks for listening to The Antidote. We hope this injected a little bit of joy into your week. I know it did mine. How bout you, Amy?

Amy I feel good, girl. We should do this again sometime. Oh, we'll be here next week.

Grace And in the meantime, if you'd like to follow us on social, follow me. Grace. At Gracyact. That's G-R-A-C-Y-A-C-T.

Amy And follow me at AmyAniboi. That's A-M-Y-A-N-I-O-B-I. And follow the show at theeantidotepod.

Grace That's thee with two E's.

Amy If you like feeling good about yourself, please subscribe at Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Grace Goodbye.

Amy You know, and go jump in that pool. The Antidote is hosted by us Amy Aniobi and Grace Edwards. The show's production team includes Marcel Malekebu and associate producer Taylor Polydore.

Grace Our executive producer is Erica Kraus and our editor is Erika Janik. Sound Mixing by Derek Ramirez.

Amy Digital Production by Mijoe Sahiouni. Talent Booking by Mariannne Ways. Our theme music was composed and produced by TT the Artist and Cosmo The Truth.

Grace APM Studio executives in charge are Chandra Kavati, Alex Schaffert and Joanne Griffith. Concept created by Amy Aniobi and Grace Edwards.

Amy Send us your antidotes at antidoteshow.org

Grace The Antidote is a production of American Public Media.

Amy Too-da-loo.