Robby Hoffman thinks comics can ‘say anything’ — and she does

I didn't know anything of PC. I didn't know where my line about hurting people or not was, but then later on I've been able to look at that and also realize it's offensive and it also sucks to be poor. I just feel like as somebody who's clearly in the queer space who cut my tits off, who could be they them drop of a hat. I like to cope and explore through jokes and I feel like I should be more able to do that than some of my counterparts, I don't know, I feel like, and I can't talk about it, who can? This is Newsmakers, NPR's biggest interviews. I'm Steve Enskew. We question some of the most influential people of our time. New episodes drop whenever they're available and the best way to stay caught up is to follow or subscribe to this show on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you watch or listen. You can also find us in the NPR app. Today, NPR's "Wanna Summers" is your host. Comedian Robbie Hoffman has come a long way in her life, speaking of her truth to power and to fans on stage with roles and hit shows like Hacks, Rooster, and Dying for Sex. We talked about a lot of moments in her still-assendant career, what she's worried about, and what she's not. Do you remember, still, your first time that you ever formally did stand out? Yes. Where was it? When was it? Tell us about it. It was very bad, brutal. It wasn't a formal setting. I went to a club in where I was living. I said, "Where's the best place to bomb?" The best place to bomb. Yeah, because I didn't even, or was, I maybe didn't even know that word yet, but where's the best place to just not, you know, to try this or something. And they said there was this loft, this comedy loft, which sounded more professional than it was. It was some dude's apartment, is what it was. And it was a loft, a very, what we would call a hard loft, okay? What do you mean by that? I don't know if it was legally livable, if there were facilities. I don't know. I don't know if there was a bathroom functioning, not if it was a warehouse, what it was. Just dude found himself here. That was the first place I got up. I went there. I thought at the time that everybody was like a thousand. They were like thirty, thirty-five. But I went with my friends and we were kind of sheltered and kind of good. I was kind of like a studious kid and we went and you know, people were smoking. And again, smoking indoors was illegal. But this was just some dude's apartment. So we each took a shot. We sat there. It was very smoky. I got up. I was okay for like one minute and then I felt dizzy, nauseous, nervous, all of it from the cigarette from the shot, from the nerves. You know, have you ever, I used to when I was first getting my period, I would faint. Have you ever had like where you're like, you're like, it's going like, black, black, black. I have to sit. You have to sit right away. That happened to me. So I had that feeling once before with my, so I was like, I have to sit down. I can't let myself fall. Like that was a bad scene. So I sat down, then my friends were like, let's go outside. Like the smoke, like we were not adjusting well to this very grown up, denish loft. So we went outside. It was middle of winter, Canada, great fresh air. And we came back up and I was feeling good as new. So I went up to the host, Morgan O'Shea at the time. And I said, Hey Morgan, like, can I, I feel so much better? Like I think I was just nervous and the smoke. I'm going to get used to it. But can I finish, you know, I have four of them. It's like, no, I said, why I have, I only do one minute of my time and everybody gets five. I still have four. I said, no, it's not how it works. Like you just come back next week and I kept going back and it was great from that second week on. What was it that made you keep coming back? Because I can imagine a lot of people only doing that one minute, not getting to finish the four. They don't come back to that stage. What brought you back? I just, it was good, even the one minute I did. It was really a medical, I removed myself from medical reasons. Yeah. It's kind of like a boxer when the doctor comes in and they take him out of the fight. They check the eyes. No, he can't fight anymore. It's not like he's not a great boxer, but it was a medical, you know, so that's the way I saw it early on, I, you know, I don't know. I didn't think that, I didn't, yeah, I think to quit. You've said that you think that sometimes people misinterpret a number of your jokes and I wonder, especially at this point in your career, do you feel a responsibility for how audiences interpret the jokes that you make, the remarks that you make? No, I don't. I guess it bothers me, they interpret it and it also doesn't bother me. I'm also like open to them, like, because sometimes I don't even want the jokes I have, but I just know about this stuff. Like, you know, I've talked about it before, but it's like, you know, I have a joke about pedophilia, you know, in my, in my special on Netflix, like, now I wish I never knew about pedophilia. You know, the only reason I have a joke about it is because this is happening. And now I have a thought about it. So I'm thinking about it. I don't want to think about these things, sure. So sometimes I don't even want, you know what I mean? Sometimes I feel like I just have to not lie. Like if I had the thought and I think it's funny, I'll do it. But it might not be something like, I'm not happy that I know about these topics necessarily. You know, there are a way to cope with some of the topics that we know about. I wouldn't, so I'm always annoyed, my guttural reactions, people misinterpret, but also my guttural reaction is like, yeah, they're allowed to feel that too. You know what I mean? So, because I have the same thing watching different things and sometimes something hits me personally or somebody says something about my people or who I am or whatever. And I have the instinct to take a personal and I do take a personal and that's fine too. You can take things personal, but sometimes you'll laugh and stuff like that. I allow myself, I don't know, I allow myself to enjoy other bits of people to really laugh and also to be like, I don't like that bit. I do the same thing, you know, or that personally offends me. I just allow myself to have all the experiences that I think other people have when they're watching me. It bothers me, but I also get it. For you personally, there are any topics that are off the table? I don't know yet. I don't know. I feel like I couldn't name one, but I'm sure there are things that I'm just not naturally gravitated to. I mean, essentially speaking, there's comics who talk about all kinds of things I've probably never touched on. And vice-first of those people, there's, I talk about stuff that a comic has never even been in his real house to talk about. So maybe we see things differently, we catch different things. So I'm sure there's so many topics, some are probably not even controversial, just that I don't have material on, you know, or I don't talk about beach balls. I don't have anything on beach balls, you know what I mean, but I'm sure that somebody does. I wouldn't say it's off limits beach balls, but I just, nothing has, it hasn't struck me, but I'm sure that somebody's got a great bit about it. But there's some difference between beach balls and pedophilia, I mean, I know I had to think about it because it was right front and center, but I'm sure if you grow up in San Diego or on a beach beach balls are a lot more, you know, maybe front and center. I live in a city with news the way it is, you know, and beach balls is obviously, yes, a very far example, but I don't know what might be, some people have business, you know, be your work as a, you know, they were a lawyer or something and they know, they know more financial crimes or something like that. I don't know what is off limits yet. I wouldn't say, you know, I'm, I'm not like nothing's off limits either because there's lots of stuff I don't touch. I just, I don't know what it, I couldn't give you the topics. Yeah. Has there ever been a joke you've told that you realize in the moment, hey, this didn't land the way I wanted to? Oh, yeah. Okay, give us an example. One of my early bits, my little sister was working at, she worked at the Starbucks that was open till at least midnight and my little sister, I was worried about her. She would take the subway, the last subway home or she would walk home really late from, you know, she would either walk from the shop, take the subway late, you know, it's, it's really a rough walk, even if, even if you have to take the subway and it takes you a few blocks from your house, I would say those few blocks are a really sketchy few blocks. Sure. So she would do things that will crack me up, they were heartbreaking at the time. She, she demonstrated to me and I don't even want to do it here and it's so funny I'm doing a, an 88 podcast after this. So this is a brutal story to share, but I must be honest, we're on the NPR and it's not My best moment, and you're asking about it. But-- She walked home, imitating a physical disability. But in my head, you do what you do to keep safe. And she would either mock or imitate, also mock, a physical disability to go home for those two blocks, or she would make a crazy mental illness where she would have an umbrella, rain or shine. So I re-told that. I re-jig that as a joke, walking home or whatever. And I wouldn't do that now. At the time, I didn't know anything of PC. I didn't know where my line about hurting people or not was, still figuring it out. But then later on, I've been able to look at that and also realize it's offensive and it's also sucks to be poor. - Yeah, there's like, it sucks to have like, to think of like the weirdest things to be saved, but it's also offensive, it was like meeting up like this. - How do you navigate that line though between what is offensive and what is funny, because especially now in today's assignment, that feels like something that would be really challenging for a comedian. - It's somehow not for me, like things like that. Okay, those were, I felt the way about it. I stopped doing it. I can't tell you that there's a science to it, but I felt the way to it. - Sticking on this a little bit, I mean, your life has changed in so many dramatic ways. It's not any poverty, to relative comfort, someone who is unknown to someone who is a household name and the closet to being outed, very publicly single, to very publicly married. Is there any one of those shifts in those changes that's changed you, challenge you the most? - Just to keep at it, like, you know, I don't think that there's one thing, but it was everything, you know, I have never, I've never been the overnight sensation, overnight success. I've always been the slow one steady, just keep at it. I think a lot of that tenacity comes from a person like my mother who, like, was, you know, put upon to have 10 kids, you know, whether she wanted us or not, I don't think was really a consideration in the lifestyle my parents were living in in a very religious lifestyle. And bringing us back to her native Canada and taking us alone, and depending on whatever support she had, my great uncle, my grandfather, and this sort of thing, but her just, every day being there, you know, alone, basically. But another thing she did was like, my grandfather would come over and say, like, to my mom, like, you know, you should, you should do something for you, like, once a week. So she went back to school, university, and she started taking a class once a week. And then 12 years later, my mother was graduating. Like by the great, like, painstakingly over 12 years every semester through the summer, once a week, she just kept at it. - What did watching her do that? - I think it was a silent example. Like my mother was not somebody to give us a talk, you know, if anything, she told us she didn't know anything. Let's say you had a boyfriend or something. She'd be like, I don't know nothing about, you know, I don't know, I can't help you kids with that, you know, or if you had a social problem at school, she'd be like, you know, I didn't grow up with many friends. So you're gonna have to fight your own battles and look out for each other, you know? Like she just wasn't like emotionally available, but she was, my little sister, my other little sister says, she's the definition of putting one foot in front of the other. She just subtly did, I don't even think it was intentional for her to be this example, but rain or shine, she was there in the worst circumstances, you know? And yes, she had no choice, but she also kept at it. And I felt like once I discovered I'm doing this, like, oh, I might be good at this. I was like, oh, no, I really might have to do this. And it just felt like a long slog, and it was, and it's been, but it's, I don't know, you find yourself in the slog, and I just kept at it, I just kept at it. What's your relationship with money like today as someone who came from that background and is now incredibly successful? It's, I mean, it's complicated always, I love money. I'm very driven by money. I feel like I'm at the, I became a victim of like, you know, growing up, growing up, growing up, all you under money, money, they put it to us, like things are good, and cars, and money, and jewelry, and all this stuff. And I'm like, you got me, I like it. I'm like, did sales, but it worked, the marketing worked on me. From such a little kid, I was taught to glorify whether, whether on purpose or not, just in society, the glorification of material, and money, and the need for it too. Not only did I glorify it, but when you're lacking, you also need it first before you can even want it. Before you can aspire to what the other thing is, yeah. So now I'm like, big, and I'm like, love it. I'm like, it's as good as I thought it would be, and better. Like, you know what I mean? Let's like, sold, like, so I feel both those things. I feel like I really enjoy it a lot. I'm nervous to lose it. I still have, like, I'm extremely worried about one thing. Even at this point in your career, very. I'm always worried, because life, you know, it starts to cost a little more, right? Then, you know, then it's like, I want to help, you know, I want to share it a little bit more. So those feel not that the responsibilities, but their joys, like for me to, you know, be in a position whether, you know, we're sharing my family, my family, so helpful to each other and other ways too. People take people in when they need a spot or whatever. So it's just managing it at that level. I'm being like, do I have the skill set like to, you know, your horror stories? Like, I want to be good with it. I want to enjoy it. I want to be giving with it. I want to do all the things. And without, like, it could be taken away at any time, which has happened to me many, many times when you're poor, you know, you're on your last 100 bucks a lot. And you think, you know, so, so it becomes that. So Robbie, I want to ask you about something that happened a while ago. It was back in 2023. And this was at that writer's Guild of America meeting. And at the time, you described it as traumatizing. So I wonder if you could just like tell us what happened. And then I want to follow up. The problem for me, largely, is that many of the systems that we have faith in were created by systems that did not deserve our faith, OK? Initially started with very good intentions for writers to have, you know, and I think they do a lot of that. But what I've skeptical of is when, when, is, is people, it getting corrupted, just like we've seen every other system. The more I learned about the world, the more I learned that, oh, my God, so many things that should be aren't. I don't know. I was a new writer to the, to writer's guild. I'm paying these dues 1.5% on everything. I had a little accounting experience from my stint as an accountant. And I decided to like get involved with the guild. They're like, you're paying 1.5%. I was like, OK, this is my organization. This is good. They had a Q&A. I had some questions. I printed their statements. And I wanted to know about the guild salaries. There were like 67 people sat on this board. And they had $1,000,000 salaries. And in my head, it didn't like clock because I'm like, isn't it an unfair profit? Why isn't it a volunteer position? I get that there's some work. But why are they making millions when we're like now striking? And then I looked more and more into it. So this was what question I had, shut down. Now I could be wrong. I could be, but tell me, like, it was just crazy that I was, you need to sit down. Like, I had a genuine question. I had a question about why they owned so many real estate buildings for writers. You know, working on your laptop and your apartment, like me, I was like confused. We were there working, like I'm like, what's in the buildings? Like, I have a lot of paranoia. I have a lot of skepticism. And that's because of the world that I grow up. And there are a lot of things aren't what they say they are. What was the reaction when you started kind of peppering them with these questions about these things that you deserve? Dare you question our supreme leader? And he's like a white rich dude. And he's like, you need to sit down. Like, as if I'm a child, when we're all grownups there. And he's like, scolding me. Like, you need to sit down. Of course, I started crying inside. It's very intimidating when somebody is like, you need to sit down, you know? And like, scolding and punishing you kind of publicly. Because I really cared about the writers. I wanted to know where our money was going. And I could be wrong. You could say, oh, the building is this or this. You could answer the question. And I really was concerned for us, the writers. What was the reaction of the writers? So when he said you need to sit down, they start booing. They agree with him right away without questioning. Group thought, we're going to sit down. my friend Carmen God bless was like, we need to get out of here. He gets me out of there. You know, I wish I had the kind of language that would have spoke to the room at the time. We got so wrapped up and stuff. I wish I would have said something like, you know, so you mean, you know, a room that would have, and maybe your NPR audience could appreciate this, but, you know, a room of very, you know, I think self-described progressives, a room, you know, that I felt comfortable in. I wish I would have said something like, so you mean to tell me, you know, when you're after you're really crying, you're like, I should have said this, I should have said that. I said, 20, 20, yeah, you know, what I should have said. And I was like, I should have said, you mean to tell me a rich cis white straight man is telling a young queer girl to sit down when she's got a question, but I didn't have the wherewithal for all those identities, you know what I mean, but maybe I could have hit him with that. But bottom line, everybody booed. And my final question about it was that we were striking. And I thought striking was a last line of defense, okay, and our last defense is ourselves. We throw ourselves to the fight. And I felt like the guild at the time, like I hadn't heard us in court, right? And I had the guild was against huge studios who tell us their sharks. You know, I'm sure that Sony and these studios have the greatest Stanford educated lawyers. So I'm thinking, why aren't we taking all the money that we're taking from the guild? Instead of giving it to these guys, why don't we buy the best Stanford law lawyers that ever were and fight, like it felt like we were showing up with like writers and going up against studio lawyers. It was like bringing a knife to a gun fight. So that's it. I asked if we could exhaust all the tigeous efforts before we were striking. I was shut down. I was booed months later. And as is the case with many Robbie Hoffman stories, many people started circling back. So for months, I'm moping around. Well, this is what I want to ask you about, right? Because you seem to be a person who at least outwardly doesn't internalize a lot of the criticism that you get publicly, a lot of rejection. And in this moment, this seemed to be something that was brutal, something that started. And I wonder, is that an outlier? Or is that something that happens often? That was an outlier. That was like a big thing because yeah, those meetings don't really happen a lot. And I feel like the people are always with me. And I'm often like with the people, like I'm at the comedy store or stuff like that. I'm never with like the industry like that or powerful people. I was one of my first experiences like like to power that I'm like, oh, I'm going to ask a question to people who like sit on a board. You normal out with everybody probably listening to this. And we kind of speak a more similar language. So I don't know that it's a that seemed a bit like an out. That was a very scary time. But of course, it came around. People in the DMs like, hey, you were talking about this. That does seem like to me. Where did you find that information? I'd be like, it's right on the website here or the statements. And as the strike went on and on, people started questioning what I had early question, what are we doing? And I would say it's it's hard to be right early. And it's hard to question things and possibly be wrong. Like there's not room for question. I'm open that I'm still wrong on many things I just said. But I'm not like, it's not the worst thing to be wrong. I'm not an expert. I just have questions. And yeah. So you have noted elsewhere how different identities and communities have claimed you Jewish, the LGBTQ community, women, New Yorkers, Canadians. Do you feel a responsibility in how you represent any particular identity? No. I just feel like I have to be me when I look at myself as when I look at the purpose of my life or whatever. And again, I use God broadly. It could be the universe. It could be whatever is greater than us. I feel like I was given one little person. And it's my responsibility to figure out this person and to get this person to be the best version that it could be. I take it very seriously. I always look back at the little kid in me who's got roaches and is really impatient and wants to get out of here and how we're going to figure out money and how we're going to figure out. And I go like, Lil Rob, I'm trying to get you there. Hey, Lil Rob, I see you. You got to trust me. I am getting us there as fast as humanly possible. You don't know what I'm dealing with out here. You don't know the systems and the rich and the netbows and everything. It is crazy. You would never understand. You're too young to understand right now. But I'm trying to get you there. And I feel like every year, every day, I'm trying to be more me and think less about how I'm being, how I'm sitting, how I'm talking. I just try and like just relax a little into me. I do want to ask you about one specific piece of criticism. Despite your own queer identity, you've been criticized for using remarks that joke about people who use non-binary, they then pronounce. And for some of those critics, when I see the discourse, it's not that they're just offended. Some people say they feel like those kinds of comments are dangerous. Do you see it that way? Well, I have a different definition of dangerous. I consider dangerous like violence. But I think yeah, they could be dangerous. And maybe there is a more philosophical interpretation of dangerous. So maybe I'm open to that. I just feel like as somebody who's clearly in that space, in the queer space who cut my tits off, who could be they them drop of a hat. I should be able to, I like to cope and explore through jokes. And I feel like I should be more able to do that than say some of my counterparts and shout out, you know, to Joe Rogan and people who it's no dig, you know, but lots of people who talk about it and have no experience. What it is to, you know, be whatever the hell I am. So I don't know, I feel like if I can't talk about it, who can? Like it's totally within my my milieu to speak on those things and to joke about them. And for me, it's a cope. If you're offended by it, then that's your experience of it too. You're, you're, you're, you know, I think that's fine too. You're, you're a lot to be you. I'm a lot to be me. You could say what you want. I could say what, what I want. When people go, she says this, I encourage, so go. If you want to say something, say something. I think go work 15, 20 years. Keep at it. Get onto this stage and say whatever the hell you want to say. I, you know, I, so, so I, I don't, I think it's, I think it's fair if they're mad about it. I also think it's fair for many of us who laugh at it. And I feel like I, I, I, I want to talk to the stuff that I know and experience day to day. I mean, Robbie, your life has changed so much since you're growing up in that Hasidic community, living in Crown Heights. I wonder we've been talking about Little Rob a little bit. What do you think that younger self would say if Little Rob, the younger version of you could see who you are today? We were so happy. I honestly, that question could make me cry. I were so grateful by the grace of God and all of you, everybody who's, this has been a tremendous group effort. I take it seriously that you guys have propped me that I do. And I, I, I, I, I'm so excited. I think that when you just your prior question about me getting in trouble with this, I'm, I'm also the same me. That was the same me in third grade, you know, I've, you know, peers getting in trouble because I said something that I shouldn't say. And you know what, baby, we've monetized it. It's not a bad thing. I say things. That's what I do. And I've refined it. And we actually are not getting in trouble as much for it anymore. And we're like being embraced for who we are. I'm the grown-up version of the kid. I'm like, exactly who you would have thought. So, you know, I'm so comfortable. Like, when you're asking me about the event, like, this has been my whole life. Like the principal and the this and you got to raise your hand to talk. No, I don't have to raise my hand to talk. I am cold on stage. It is just me talking. Okay. And it's like the great, it's like, so I don't know, I've been getting in trouble my whole life. I'm very comfortable getting in trouble. It's never my intention. I think people come around to me. I've seen this cycle a lot. And it's happening just on a larger scale. And I'm, I'm so, so grateful. It honestly makes me cry. I wasn't sure that we would get here, but I had a feeling. I did have a feeling. Yeah. But I had a small feeling. I wasn't, oh, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay. My line, Lord. You want me to, let me pick up because what if it is something crazy? Hello. Hello. Hi. You can go. I had a flash and going, turn your shower on for a bit. - Well, I'm not home now, I'm doing something. - Is Robbie home? - Well, it's me, it's Robbie. You wanna go in and turn on the shower and see if the toilet works? - I'm sure it does. I found the where the problem was. - Okay. - And the mouse eyes terrible. - Okay, so it wasn't the tampon. - Well, there was the tampon in the line. - Yeah, right. - When we pulled that out. - Yeah, right. Well, I'm sorry about that. - Okay, well thank you for fixing it. I'll report back when I'm home in a bit, okay? - Yeah, go ahead and just call me and tell me everything we're fine. - Okay. - I send you a shower at night, I don't know. - No, I'll shower in the morning, but my wife and my shower tonight. We'll report back. Thank you. - Okay, very good. - Okay, thanks, Lauren, bye. - Bye. - It's important information to have. - Yeah, no, because you know what? We can't do number two in the bathroom right now, but now we can, it seems. And I am not the one flushing tampons. - For the record. - For the record. - Great work. - For the record. - Okay. Last thing, Robbie, I would just wonder, what is something about yourself today, your current identity that you're still trying to unpack and understand? - Nothing. I don't know. I'm just trying to, I'm not trying it. I just like, I'm just allowing myself to be freer and freer if I can, if, you know, within reason, I don't, you know, but yeah, I know it. But it's not, yeah. I don't know. I don't know if there's one thing that I'm trying. You know, maybe more body positivity, maybe, you know, I think like I, I don't love my teeth trying to be accepting of that or, you know, like things that like, oh, when I was a kid, I wanted braces because of, you know, kids got to fix their teeth. My teeth, I'm wearing that bad, you know, thank God, but I never did get braces. And now I'm like, at an age where I'm like, should I just do it? You could. But then I'm gonna be braces growing up. Like it's like, you see, it never leaves you the part. Like it creates a problem even here. Now I gotta be the person, it's like, oh, we, I knew she obviously came into money. Like, you know, when somebody came into some money when they had the braces that, you know, so I don't know. I don't know. There's things like that, but on a larger scale, I don't know, I couldn't list you something. - There's been a lot of conversation about the culture of comedy right now. And I've heard some of your peers talk about the fact that they don't feel as free, that they feel concerned about what they can say or what they can't say and the consequences of that. You've talked about feeling freer. I wonder, do you take on any of that concern about baggage that some of your colleagues are expressing? - No, I don't know. I mean, if they feel that they feel that, they must, you know, I feel like you could say anything, but you're also at the like, so could other people. So it's like, well, if you're talking about like, oh, Chappelle or this older like, guard of comedy, you can't say anything anymore, you know? Bro, you just did. But other people had a reaction to it. You did, they're saying it. You can't say anything, you're saying it and you're seeing, but other, it's like when somebody, when I say a joke, it's like, we love anybody. That also can happen. I just, yeah, I don't, I think you can say anything, but people can also say anything. - I mean, there's been obviously some political consequences for some comedians in our current climate coming from the Trump administration. - Oh, I hate that. That's like ridiculous. That's like, no, I think that's awful. I also think Jimmy Kimmel works for a company, a corporation. So I think that he hasn't been free probably since he started his show. You know, I don't know the ins and outs of that, like, you know, that sort of network. - Would you ever host a network late night show? - I would love to. I'd be excellent at it. I'd be excellent, call me. You know, I can't say that they wouldn't pull me from the air and I would do better with the company than he did. You know, I really can't, you know, I'm incapable of reading a teleprompter, you know, a, my vision, and b, I just, I go off. I'm not, you know, but if there's a space that allows me to just, you know, I would say record me and leave room for edits. I would say that if you're gonna hire me, like, it's at your own risk. - Okay, I'm not always thinking about what I'm saying. I'm trying to learn that sense of kid that I've been told my whole life. Think before you speak, I'm trying more, I can't guarantee that I can get there. I gotta be honest with you. I don't always think before I speak. Many times I do. And many times I don't. What's neck, what do you, you've had so much success. What's next for you? - You have so much I can't talk about it. - No, I don't like talking to you. - I don't like talking to you. I don't want you to talk about everything, but guys stick with me. And the people who are with me from the beginning, I also wanna say this, some people, and I love that you were here from the beginning, but embrace the new people here. Show 'em around. Don't say, oh, I was here first. This is mine. Show 'em around. Welcome to Robby Hoffman. Have you seen this? That, like, show 'em around. Let's be hospitable. If you've been here from day one, if you've been here from five years, from 10 years, from 15 years, thank you. And if you're just joining us now, welcome aboard. - Robby Hoffman, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure. - Thank you, guys, so much. (upbeat music) - The news does not keep a schedule and neither do we. New episodes of Newsmakers publish as soon as they're available any day of the week. The best way to stay caught up is to follow or subscribe to this show on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you watch or listen. Newsmakers relies on supporters who value independent journalism and a free press. You can join NPR Plus today to support our work and get perks from the podcasts you trust. Just go to plus.npr.org. I'm Steve Enskeap. Thanks for listening to NPR's Newsmakers. (upbeat music)