Robyn

Robyn loves to lie down on the floor. Amy hangs with the Swedish pop star and talks about dadaist theater, how to stay out longer at the club, and her favorite Swedish holidays. Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Zara Larsson and RobynExecutive producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-BermanFor Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, and supervising producer Joel LovellFor The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson and Aleya Zenieris; audio producer Kaya McMullen; social producer Bridget Geerlings; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and bookers Kat Spillane and Paige GarbariniOriginal music: Amy Miles Explore unique hotels and unexpected stays https://www.hilton.com/en/p/new-ways-to-stay/ Make the switch today at https://www. Visible.com. For a limited time plans start at $19/mo guaranteed for one year. Use promo code HOLIDAYHACK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:24Amy Poehler?

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• 0:30Amy Poehler?

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• 1:08Amy Poehler?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Good Hang. We have an incredible musical artist here today. We have Robyn with us, and we're going to talk about so many things today. We're going to talk about her huge monster dance hits and how they continue to be relevant 15, 20 years later. We're going to talk about growing up in Sweden with very artistic parents. We're going to talk about how fun it is to be embarrassed. We're going to talk about how good it feels to lie on the floor. We're going to get into so many good things today. And we are, we are very, very excited to have Robyn. She's a supreme talent and a really cool, interesting person. And we, we're going to do the thing we always like to do here at Good Hang.

• 1:48Amy Poehler?

  We're going to talk to somebody who knows our guest, who is friends with our guest or a fan of our guest. And they're going to give us a good question to ask our guest. And we have another Swedish uber talent, the incredible, beautiful, funny, and super, super talented Zara Larsson here today. So, Zara, we are talking to you, I believe, from a very fancy beach. At least that's what your background looks like. So, hi.

• 2:22Amy Poehler?

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• 2:55Speaker 02

  Hi. Wait, what? Hey.

• 3:01Speaker 02

  I appeared at the beach.

• 3:03Amy Poehler?

  Zara has got a background of a beautiful palm tree and... Look at you.

• 3:10Speaker 02

  And I put this, I put this blazer on for you. So I'm kind of wanting backing out to show, to show what it looks like.

• 3:16Amy Poehler?

  Incredible. Stunning. Zara, I'm so impressed because you are not only an incredible musician and performer, but you dance hard through all of your songs. I mean, that is not easy. Like, the breath control alone of having to move and not be out of breath.

• 3:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, it's true. I feel like it's such a big part of my show and what I do because I love... How do you make it stop zooming in and out like this?

• 3:44Amy Poehler?

  Okay, what's happening right now for people that are listening, which is amazing. We might need to keep it because this proves my point that you never stop moving.

• 3:52Amy Poehler?

  But right now, the zoom is zooming in and out, and it's taking Zara closer to the water.

• 4:01Amy Poehler?

  It looks like the waves are taking you in and out.

• 4:03Speaker 02

  It's beautiful. Okay, okay, we'll keep it.

• 4:05Amy Poehler?

  Okay, we got it.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  I just don't want to get distracted by it. But I've been moving, I have been moving. Oh, I know, very.

• 4:16Speaker 02

  I've been, I've been moving a lot. I really have. Physically, like onstage and in the world. But it's a big part of who I am as a person and as an artist. Growing up, like Beyonce was just my biggest inspiration and idol, and still is. And I think also, growing up, I did so much dancing. I went to the Royal Swedish Ballet School. I took all these, like, classes after school. And I feel like it's an amazing way, just like singing, to express yourself. And I think, like singing, dancing is something that everyone should be doing. It doesn't matter if you're really, really good at it or not. It just feels so good, and it makes you happy.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  So even if I'm sad one day or feel a bit anxious, I know when I have finished my show, or even two songs in, I just, I just know I will have a good time after the show is wrapped because I will have moved my body, I will have been singing for an hour and a half, and my spirit is just lifted.

• 5:20Amy Poehler?

  Yes, I so feel you. I mean, this is kind of strange to hear from somebody who hosts a podcast, but I would much rather dance than talk.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, we can do both.

• 5:29Amy Poehler?

  I do feel, though, that, like, moving and dancing expels, to your point, like, any, any anxious energy. It helps get rid of it in a way that few things do. Yeah.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Especially when you do it together with people. It's something to that. That's why having concerts, performing live, is so powerful. And it's my favorite thing in the whole world to do because it just literally brings people together. And it just makes you feel like very human, like everyone's connected.

• 6:02Amy Poehler?

  Well, you do that in your shows. You, you make sure that people feel, like, the audience feels like they're part of your show. You bring people up a lot, right?

• 6:11Speaker 02

  I do. I think that's such an important part of my show. It's my favorite part. And you never really know what's going to happen because everyone has, you know, different personalities, and they bring something different, and that's what's fun about it. And I think also I had, I think one of my favorite shows that I've ever done was this summer. And it was this festival, and everyone just started lifting up their friends because I have one dance move where my dancers lift me up in the air. So when I did that song, I do, my song Midnight Sun, I do it twice. So when I did the song again, by the end of my set, it was, it was hundreds of people in the air lifted up by their friends. And I just couldn't believe my eyes, like, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.

• 6:53Amy Poehler?

  By the way, thank you for playing Midnight Sun twice because I all... When I go to a show, I really want to hear the hits, and I want to hear them more than once.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  Yes, and especially at festivals. Because I'm like, you know how it is. You go and see someone that you really want to see, and then you're like, oh, shoot, I missed the first three songs of the set that I wanted to see. And I'm like, don't worry, I got you.

• 7:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we're going to come back around, and you're all going to lift up your friends. Well, we're talking to somebody today who I can imagine is a huge influence on you.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 7:28Amy Poehler?

  And speaking of hits, like, has so many, and...

• 7:32Speaker 02

  I know, it's crazy.

• 7:33Amy Poehler?

  I can't wait to talk to Robyn, and I know she's going to be thrilled that we talk first. When did you first meet Robyn?

• 7:40Speaker 02

  I first met her at a dinner in Sweden. And it was really chill. We didn't sit next to each other, unfortunately. But I remember I wanted to go in for a hug, but this was peak COVID times. And she was like, ah, stay away. But also, she was going through her IVF journey, and I didn't know that at this point. So I was like, oh, she was serious about that. But she was actually very nice. She was very sweet. And I didn't get to hug her. But then I got to hug her again when I met her. And we did our song, or her song, that I joined, Talk to Me. And she did the remix for my song, Puss Puss. And she is just so lovely and sweet.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  And you're right, she's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. She's had hits in every decade and on every album that she ever released. And she's been such a big inspiration, probably the biggest inspiration, especially from someone coming from Sweden and wanting to be a pop star. Because she really embodied that solo artist, cool, tough girl, pop star. Always herself, very unapologetic, had amazing songs. I feel like I'm kind of in this updo that I'm wearing right now with the little side bang. I feel like it's giving, like, early-era Robyn.

• 9:02Amy Poehler?

  You're right. It looks like the shaved side.

• 9:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:06Amy Poehler?

  And the fact that she, like, wore a hoodie in her videos, it was like... She doesn't care that much about the male gaze.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  No, I love that. We had a shoot together not too long ago, and she was sitting, like, in a skirt, legs wide, like, just spreading. And they were like, um, excuse me, um, we can see your panties. So she was like, yeah, that's the point. And it wasn't because of the sexy gaze or that she wanted to, you know, like, look at my panties. It was like, yeah, I know, and I'm taking up space, and you can see my panties, and so what? I was just like, oh, that's cool. Like, she's just so cool. She's very, she just embodies, in a way, like, what it means to be a woman to me also.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Because she's so assured. And maybe she's not, you know, I don't know what's going on in her head. But what she exudes is this confidence and this, like, security in who she is and what she wants to say. And I find that so inspiring.

• 10:16Amy Poehler?

  So Robyn is going to be coming in, and I was wondering if you have a question that you think I could ask her?

• 10:22Speaker 02

  I have so many questions. But I was thinking a lot about the fact that she's been doing this for her whole life, like, the big majority of her life. I wonder, because sometimes I feel like, what's going to inspire me when I'm older? Because I hope to do this forever, because it's a part of who I am. So I wanted to know, when she makes an album, does she just make the next album because it's who she is and the fact that she has been doing it? So it's sort of automatic? Or does she do anything specifically to make her stay and feel inspired?

• 10:55Amy Poehler?

  That's a great question because she does have some big spaces between records, like, eight years. It's so true. Sometimes you're like, I'm ready to make something because I have an idea. Or like, it's time to make something, let me be inspired just by going and doing it. It's a good question.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  Like, because I feel like I get inspired by doing it. But also, to be honest, in my life, I have never not worked...

• 11:20Speaker 02

  And released music all the time. Anyway, actually, when I did have a break for four, for four years between an album, but that was like, I was really going through it and I didn't really feel good.

• 11:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 11:30Speaker 02

  Not putting out music and, and it sort of stopped me. So now I'm gonna try this thing of, of actually very intentionally be inspired. Like after this tour is done, I'm gonna take some time off and I'm gonna go and live my life and, and be inspired. I'm gonna watch things, I'm gonna travel to, to, uh, have things in my life that I can then write about, but I've probably really done that. Uh, and I wonder if she does it like intentionally or if she just sort of like lives her life and then goes into the studio and, and creates these songs. And that's what inspires her. Cause I also know she's working with the same people.

• 12:11Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  Forever. So is that something that's like inspiring and, and fun and nice because they know her so well?

• 12:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  Or is it hard because how do you evolve in that?

• 12:23Amy Poehler?

  Great question and such a question that an artist would ask another artist, like, what is your process?

• 12:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:31Amy Poehler?

  And then she's, and then Zara just gets sucked into the ocean.

• 12:38Amy Poehler?

  What I wish in your background, which is palm trees and ocean, I wish at one point like a giant bird would come down and like, and pick you up and take you. That's how you'd get off the Zoom.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  Cinema right there.

• 12:51Amy Poehler?

  That's such a good question and I think she'll love it. And I, you know, I just have to say, you know, you are such an inspiration for so many people watching you, Zara, and there's people like young, uh, women and men, not only in Sweden, but all over watching you. And I'm sure that 20 years from now, they'll be asking you the same question. How are you still making stuff that resonates with us? But congratulations on, on just so, so much great, deserved success. You're very loved and we love you here.

• 13:22Speaker 02

  I love you right back.

• 13:23Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much for doing this.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  Have the best conversation with Robin. You're amazing and I hope to, uh, see you again soon.

• 13:30Amy Poehler?

  Hopefully we can get you into the studio and we'll recreate that background for you so you'll feel comfortable.

• 13:36Speaker 02

  Love that.

• 13:37Amy Poehler?

  Okay. Thank you so much.

• 13:42Amy Poehler?

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• 14:20Amy Poehler?

  I'm so glad you're here.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  I'm so glad I'm here.

• 14:23Amy Poehler?

  Thank you for coming.

• 14:24Speaker 03

  I, I've been listening to your podcast all week and it's so fun and great.

• 14:28Amy Poehler?

  Which ones are you even listening to?

• 14:29Speaker 03

  Uh, well, Martin Short is my dream man, so that I've listened to that.

• 14:34Amy Poehler?

  Get in line, Robin. He's, he's everybody's dream man.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  I know.

• 14:38Amy Poehler?

  Isn't he so, let's talk about Martin Short for a second.

• 14:40Speaker 03

  Let's talk about him.

• 14:44Amy Poehler?

  What do you love about Martin Short?

• 14:45Speaker 03

  That he just, like he, that he's up to something.

• 14:49Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:50Speaker 03

  And there's like this thing in his eye, like.

• 14:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 14:53Speaker 03

  Is he trolling you? Like, what is he doing? And he's always been that way.

• 14:57Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 14:57Speaker 03

  And there's not a lot of people that do. There's a few, but he's like maybe the, my, yeah, my favorite one, just that you don't really know what he's thinking. And then when you do get to find out how he feels about things, you understand he's a very kind person.

• 15:11Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  And I think the combination of that, that there's like a darkness there, you know? But it lands always like in a kind heart or something.

• 15:19Amy Poehler?

  Totally. He's like a trickster, but he doesn't seem, he's not a mean person.

• 15:23Speaker 03

  No.

• 15:23Amy Poehler?

  But he goes for it.

• 15:24Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:25Amy Poehler?

  He's so funny.

• 15:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:27Amy Poehler?

  Did you meet him when you were at, did you, the last time I saw you, we were meeting for the first time, Robin is here, everybody.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:33Amy Poehler?

  We're meeting for the first time, but I feel like, I, I, you know, like most people, I feel like I know you even though I don't, but I got to see you in person last time at the SNL 50th, which, you know, the big music show you performed, who did you perform with and what did you do?

• 15:48Speaker 03

  With David Byrne, yeah.

• 15:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. And how did that come together?

• 15:50Speaker 03

  Well, David asked me.

• 15:52Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  Um, because he was asked to perform and he wanted to do it with me. Like, what? Like, I don't know what he was thinking, but that's how he felt. And, um, he asked me to do Dancing on My Own with him. So it was his idea.

• 16:08Amy Poehler?

  Did you, had you met before or ever performed together before?

• 16:10Speaker 03

  No, we have mutual friends, but never met in person. I just grew up with his music.

• 16:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  So I brought my mom as well because she's such a fan.

• 16:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  It was a very full circle moment.

• 16:22Amy Poehler?

  You performed at SNL back in like 2011.

• 16:26Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:27Amy Poehler?

  And what was that like, uh, that time? And how was it different than being on stage with David Byrne in a completely different way? Like it's a, that's, it feels like yesterday, 2011, but it's not.

• 16:39Speaker 03

  Yeah. No, I just look back at that time as a very specific experience because I've been, I've been working so hard for like 12, 12, 15 years, just working, working, working.

• 16:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  I started so young and, um, I think when you are at that speed, at that age, with all that, like all that time kind of in your back and you, you get to this point where you, you can trust your intuition. And that's how I, that's how I wrote Dancing on My Own very much. Not all songs come that way, but Dancing on My Own was very direct, took a short time to write it. And it just, that song just meant so much to my career or whatever. And I think doing SNL was one of those like things I look back on. I just can't believe, you know, that, all that happened.

• 17:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:32Amy Poehler?

  I, I mean, I want to talk to you about your music, all of your music, but, but specifically when you mentioned Dancing on My Own, I think about that viral video in New York. Did you ever see it in the subway?

• 17:43Speaker 03

  In the subway, yes.

• 17:44Amy Poehler?

  So for people who hadn't seen it, it's after one of your shows and it's in New York subway and it's people packed in and everybody starts singing and it's like such a, a, an incredible moment, cause it really also, I think, uh, highlights what, what your music does. Your music really brings people together. They feel very seen by it. They feel very connected to each other.

• 18:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:07Amy Poehler?

  And that was such an incredible moment.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  It was crazy. I saw it on the news. I saw it on like the local New York channel, the day after, and I didn't even know it had hap, I didn't know it had happened. So I turned on the TV and I just saw people singing Dancing on My Own in, in the subway, on the local channel, which was really cool.

• 18:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 03

  On TV, you know, it felt like very old school, like, oh, I'm on TV.

• 18:31Amy Poehler?

  For those listening, there used to be this thing called TV.

• 18:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:34Amy Poehler?

  If you remember.

• 18:35Speaker 03

  And it was in a box.

• 18:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 18:38Speaker 03

  I mean, even then I thought it was like unusual, but I, I think now it's definitely the end, but just very real moment. I thought, well, also when people come together in, in real life, like they were there together in the subway and it happened spontaneously.

• 18:53Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 18:53Speaker 03

  It's such a beautiful thing.

• 18:55Amy Poehler?

  That's so, um, unusual for even people to be in crowds anymore. Like it's, like clubs and concerts are still places where people gather and I, knowing and learning about you, like I know those places are, have always been very important to you.

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. I grew up with people that worked, uh, my, my parents were, uh, in theater. And so I grew up with, you know, this community of people doing things together, building things together, rehearsing, you know, big children pretending to be grownups. And I always, I was brought up in, you know, in that belief system that that's how things happen. So for me, it's always been important.

• 19:35Amy Poehler?

  I love hearing about your parents, reading about your parents. Gia Tolentino wrote a great article in The New Yorker and we learned a lot about your family and you're two, you're the, you're the daughter of two really interesting artists.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:47Amy Poehler?

  And, and you're, and, and you grew up in like a very, your, your dad ran an independent theater company?

• 19:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, together with my mom.

• 19:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. And both of them came, and you kind of were on the road with them.

• 19:59Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 20:00Amy Poehler?

  Did you perform in shows with them?

• 20:01Speaker 03

  No. I did, they did a, a, a dad-ized poetry evening. That was like their biggest hit at the end before, before the whole theater collapsed. And, uh, it started with my mom and five other actors just picking their noses. And.

• 20:21Amy Poehler?

  Oh my God.

• 20:22Speaker 03

  The only thing that I ever got to do in the theater was to hand out the, you know, the program.

• 20:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:28Speaker 03

  In that particular, um.

• 20:31Amy Poehler?

  Did it, was there anyone ever in the audience that was like, this is ridiculous?

• 20:35Speaker 03

  I mean, I think that was actually their hit. I think a lot of, a lot of, a lot of other things they did were much weirder.

• 20:45Amy Poehler?

  Really? Like what other weird stuff did they do?

• 20:47Speaker 03

  They were really into, you know, the Russian theater, uh, tradition. So they, they did these very nerdy things, like they recreated, um, Stanislavski's like, or not Stanislavski, um, Meyerhold's like biomechanic choreography that he used to do for the parades.

• 21:08Amy Poehler?

  Um, in, in that New Yorker article, I loved your, your brother, the story about your brother dancing and then wanting to have an office job and then your parents were like begging him to not have an office job.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Yeah. They had an intervention with him. They were like, you're gonna be unhappy. We don't think you should do this. What? You need to, you need money for retirement? That's not important in life. We're worried about you. Don't take this job.

• 21:35Amy Poehler?

  Did he take it? And is he still a dancer?

• 21:37Speaker 03

  He didn't take it.

• 21:38Amy Poehler?

  Did he stay with dancing?

• 21:39Speaker 03

  No, because what's smart about what he did was that he, dancers retire so early.

• 21:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:44Speaker 03

  And he was like, I'm not gonna retire when I'm 45. I better do it now. Cause he was like 35. So he got an education and now he's choreographing video games.

• 21:53Amy Poehler?

  Whoa.

• 21:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:55Amy Poehler?

  That's cool.

• 21:56Speaker 03

  It is cool.

• 21:57Amy Poehler?

  I feel like, you know, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about today, because I, I, I feel like you have, like you said, you have been in the business for a long time. Me too.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  I know.

• 22:11Amy Poehler?

  And me too. And I feel like women like us, I'm gonna keep comparing us today.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  Please.

• 22:19Amy Poehler?

  But like, I think that like, there's something very exciting about realizing that the work and creativity doesn't stop, it just changes. But there's a lot of stuff you learn along the way.

• 22:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:31Amy Poehler?

  And I, first of all, I cannot believe, Robin, when I was, when I was learning about you, that you started so young.

• 22:39Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:39Amy Poehler?

  Because when we met you, you already felt very self-possessed. There was a feeling that you were in control of how you presented yourself to us.

• 22:49Speaker 03

  I was not.

• 22:51Amy Poehler?

  But I'm happy.

• 22:53Amy Poehler?

  So we projected that on you.

• 22:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. No, but I think I was just young and very self-confident in a way.

• 23:00Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  But then also insecure in a lot of other ways, but.

• 23:03Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah. But we felt this confidence, and you're right. I mean, we probably were projecting. But I just remember you were, you are then and remain unusual in a business that really does, you know, sometimes chew people, especially women, up and spit them out. You really stood for and like, hung in at a time when it was not easy to do that.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  That's such a compliment. Thank you for saying that.

• 23:29Amy Poehler?

  You really, you really kept checking in with yourself and being like, do I want to do this? Do I want to wear this?

• 23:35Speaker 03

  It's true. No, I do. And I, I did. And I think that's really because of my mom, and I think it's because of my parents, and that they kind of just protected me. They gave me this like, spell, you know, that I was exposed to all these other things that had nothing to do with commercial interests when I was younger. And so that was like what I, you know, I was like, okay, cool, let's go tour in America, play for some people. Like, you know, I thought it was like, what I was gonna, what I did with my parents, you know, like, we were in like Volkswagen buses, like, staying in our friends' houses, like, playing at like, theater festivals in Europe. And I was on tour with like Backstreet Boys and Destiny's Child, and like, doing radio shows in like, big stadiums. You know, it was just nothing, like, the worlds, the worlds were very

• 24:20Speaker 03

  separate. And I was so naive, like, I didn't realize what I was getting into, which I think was great, you know, in a sense.

• 24:28Amy Poehler?

  All those radio, no, no offense to, well, a little offense, to back then, to those radio guys. They're vicious. They were vicious. I can remember in my early career, having to do radio thing, and it was like, that would not fly now.

• 24:42Speaker 03

  Totally. They were weird and creepy and ill-informed and like, mean, and they'd make you do pranks. Yes. They made you do, say weird things, just kind of like, you know, make you look stupid, basically.

• 24:57Amy Poehler?

  They were like, they would hand you a piece of paper and say, say this weird thing, and be like, what does this mean? And be like, don't worry about it.

• 25:02Speaker 03

  You're not my big brother. Like, that's like something like, older kids would do to you when you were in school or something. So like, a very weird culture.

• 25:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's, and for a young person being thrown in there, it was intense.

• 25:13Speaker 03

  And also a new culture, like a, a country that I obviously, you know, was so interested in, all the culture that I grew up, all the music I listened to was from here. But it was still something, I was still lost in translation.

• 25:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 25:27Speaker 03

  And I think it's even easier to, when you kind of recognize the culture, but it's still so different.

• 25:33Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 25:33Speaker 03

  So it was a lot of like, signaling that I had to get through, but also how happy I am that it happened and that I got to do all those things so early.

• 25:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 25:43Speaker 03

  And then kind of break it down and realize what it was that I wanted to keep and what I, what I didn't want at all.

• 25:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. Well, for people who don't know, I mean, you grew up in Sweden, you came over to tour. And you know what I found out about you that was so great? I was listening to you on Less Culture Easies, I love those boys, and, um, men, let's call them men.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  Men, grown men.

• 26:04Amy Poehler?

  They're grown, grown men.

• 26:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:06Amy Poehler?

  Um, I love that you love Nana Cherry.

• 26:09Speaker 03

  Yes. Do you like Nana Cherry?

• 26:11Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 26:11Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 26:12Amy Poehler?

  Love.

• 26:13Speaker 03

  Tell me.

• 26:14Amy Poehler?

  And, um, I didn't know she was Swedish. I learned from you.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:19Amy Poehler?

  And I've been listening to her for 50 years, basically. I mean, and my 50th birthday Buffalo Dance was like my song.

• 26:26Speaker 03

  So good.

• 26:26Amy Poehler?

  You have to listen to it right now.

• 26:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:27Amy Poehler?

  And, um, and I was listening to you on Less Culture Easies, and I said, are you, I had no idea that Nana was Swedish.

• 26:36Speaker 03

  No, she's, she's really Swedish.

• 26:38Amy Poehler?

  For people who don't remember Nana Cherry, how, how, let's talk about Buffalo Dance for a second.

• 26:44Speaker 03

  I think her other last name is Carlsson, like me.

• 26:47Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  And her mom is Swedish and her dad is African, and then her stepdad was a beautiful jazz musician called Don Cherry, and that's how she got her last name. She grew up in Sweden, and in London, and in New York, and you know, she's, she was all over the place.

• 27:05Amy Poehler?

  She was just the co, I'm sorry, I gotta get rid of my commercials.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  It's hard, it's hard. Look how cool she is. It's, it's too much.

• 27:17Speaker 03

  Jigolo, huh, sucker?

• 27:20Amy Poehler?

  Hey, I mean, she, I see, I can see how she was an influence, because your music is like that. It's like, there's no rules to where it's gonna go.

• 27:30Speaker 03

  No, and she's having fun, and there was this, you know, just like, chaos of influences.

• 27:37Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 27:38Speaker 03

  And the fact that she was Swedish was just like, mind-blowing to me.

• 27:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I mean, the, there's a, a feeling about like, her music, that, and your music, where it's, and in your career in general, Robin, which is that you are like, I'm going to be, I'm gonna be an example of somebody who's doing what I like, and I hope you like it.

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Yes, exactly. No, it's so true. It's so true. I think, I think that's how it works. But I think, again, it's this thing of like, believing, I don't know, I feel like, I was just thinking about what you said, how you, you know, you've done this for a long time, and so have I. And I find myself also in this new space now, where it's like, I'm the embarrassing mom. And I think, I just want to say, it's very narrow now, what is cringe, and just being like, human and being silly, and being, um, unfiltered is, is not as easy as it used to be. And I think

• 28:47Speaker 03

  for, for younger people, it's very hard.

• 28:49Amy Poehler?

  I think you're really right.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  And I think that's bad for the world.

• 28:51Amy Poehler?

  I think you're right, because, and I think you're, you're, you're also kindly, like, pointing out that it's not as easy as it used to be. Because I think we're like, just, don't be embarrassed, and do your thing, and be yourself. And it's like, young people are like, okay, okay, it's, it's hard.

• 29:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:08Amy Poehler?

  It's much harder than it was. But that is the secret. That is the secret. If you, if you, if you do things, even if they're embarrassing, you're cool. But, but, but worrying about being embarrassing is like a lifelong journey.

• 29:24Speaker 03

  Totally. No, and you, and I think we did, anyway, even if there wasn't like Instagram or whatever.

• 29:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  So that's like inherent in all young people.

• 29:34Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:35Speaker 03

  But it's, it's dangerous to be, to censor yourself too much. Because like that, I feel like that's what Martin Short is to me, like, that there's not a lot of censoring going on in his head, you know what I mean?

• 29:48Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 29:49Speaker 03

  And that's, he might stop himself. Maybe there's a lot of things he doesn't say, but why, the things that come out feel like they have like a very wide base.

• 29:59Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 30:00Speaker 03

  And the range of that is so important. And I think that's what she had, that's what Nana had to me as well.

• 30:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:07Speaker 03

  That the, I could just, like, I didn't know, I didn't understand it. I just knew that the range of input that she had had was so interesting.

• 30:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, so many influences. And then also, Robin, you start your own label?

• 30:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:23Amy Poehler?

  At 24?

• 30:24Speaker 03

  Yeah. I know.

• 30:26Amy Poehler?

  So cool.

• 30:27Speaker 03

  I know. I thought I was like, gonna, you know, retire in like, two years. No, seriously, I was really old.

• 30:35Amy Poehler?

  Here we go, you know what, I'm gonna put up.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  I'm just gonna do it. We'll see what happens, and you know. Um, no, but I remember definitely being like, you know, I'm watching, coming back to Sweden, watching like, MTV, like, seeing Britney Spears, doing like, Slave For You, like, this amazing record she made with Pharrell Williams. And I was just like, I'm not gonna be able to do that. Like, I can't, I can't, I wish I could, but I can't, you know? And she and I started out at the same time, we worked with the same people.

• 31:05Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  You know, I have the utmost respect for her, and I was in this position where I was so close, I could almost grab it, you know, if I just pushed myself a little, but I just couldn't. And I went back to Sweden, and I just decided to like, just redo my whole life and make music in a different way. And I had no idea if it was gonna work, but.

• 31:32Amy Poehler?

  It's incredible. I mean, the, the foresight and the insight during that time, because, you know, for people who don't know, Max Martin, an uber producer, and writer, who's basically just written every song that you love. I don't know how else to explain him. Incredible Swede. And, and you worked with Max, and Britney worked with Max, and you guys were doing stuff at the same time. And it's really, it's so true. In that moment, it felt like, you've spoken about it, you made a conscious choice to decide, like, I'm going to try to be the artist that I am, rather than the artist that maybe other people want me to be, or that I think I'm supposed to be.

• 32:11Speaker 03

  Right.

• 32:12Amy Poehler?

  That's, that's a really, that is such a, like, a road-diverge moment in your life.

• 32:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  I mean, I was also in a good position. I'd made a little bit of money, had people to support me. And I didn't do it in like, total like, darkness, but it was, it was still very scary at the time.

• 32:33Amy Poehler?

  Yes, of course.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  And I didn't really know other people to really look at, no, pop music was still a very specific genre for young people, which is weird, because like, David Byrne, and like, I grew up with pop music that was just very different, but.

• 32:49Amy Poehler?

  But let's be honest, you know, for women, it was, there was just, I mean, I, I think you and I did have, I think about this a lot, like, there, I think about the women that I saw growing up in, I don't, I don't know if you would say pop music, but in music, and there was like Annie Lennox, and Chrissy Hind, and like, you know.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 33:06Amy Poehler?

  You know, Missy, all these people that were doing their own thing.

• 33:09Speaker 03

  Aliyah.

• 33:10Amy Poehler?

  Yes, Aliyah, that's right. You loved Aliyah.

• 33:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:14Amy Poehler?

  Where did you guys meet?

• 33:15Speaker 03

  We just met working and sometimes staying in the same hotels. And she was just super sweet.

• 33:23Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Like a really, really lovely person.

• 33:25Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah. That's, she's what a talent.

• 33:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:31Amy Poehler?

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• 34:13Amy Poehler?

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• 34:57Amy Poehler?

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• 35:41Amy Poehler?

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• 35:54Amy Poehler?

  I want to talk to you about your hair.

• 35:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:57Amy Poehler?

  The politics of your hair.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:59Amy Poehler?

  Because I'm obsessed with hair.

• 36:00Speaker 03

  Cool.

• 36:01Amy Poehler?

  You have great hair.

• 36:02Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 36:03Amy Poehler?

  I think that having short hair during that time,

• 36:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:08Amy Poehler?

  I bet was like, you thought it was like, who cares? And I bet it was, I bet you had a lot of talks about your hair.

• 36:15Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah, you're totally right. This is such a good observation. No, it was a big thing back then.

• 36:23Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 36:23Speaker 03

  There wasn't, you know, there weren't any comments to read. But yeah, people were talking and asking a lot about my hair. And the most usual question was like, how do you, how did you find the courage to cut off your hair?

• 36:37Amy Poehler?

  The courage!

• 36:38Speaker 03

  I was just like, I always, like, I always had short hair. My, also, Robin is a boy's name in Sweden. And my mom was, had, it was this person, she was this person that thought, if I just cut her hair short, it would grow back thicker, which is not real.

• 36:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 36:56Speaker 03

  It's just one of those things that moms do. So I had really short hair, my name was Robin. And I, it was kind of like that, you know, Johnny Cash song called "Boynimsoo." It was kind of like that, like, it made me tougher in a way.

• 37:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  But it was kind of rough. So I, but I was already past that. Like, it already, for me, wasn't a big thing. And it wasn't a big thing in Sweden. But it was a big thing here, and that's interesting.

• 37:19Amy Poehler?

  I bet it was a big thing here.

• 37:20Speaker 03

  Why?

• 37:21Amy Poehler?

  And I bet you had, well, because, look, if we're going to compare you as in Sweden all day, like, I mean, and I'm happy to, you know? Because I think honestly, especially during that time, there was this expectation of like, just, I mean, let's get real. It was like, people wanted the women, especially their pop stars, to be like, little girls.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  No, it's true.

• 37:46Amy Poehler?

  Like little doll girls.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, that was, it was, it was a rough time.

• 37:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. And, and they wanted this like idea of femininity that like would make everybody instantly understand what they were being sold.

• 37:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:59Amy Poehler?

  And anything different than that, in the best way, perked up everybody's ears. But it also felt like you were making some kind of gigantic statement.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  Statements? I think was the hilarious thing. I was like, cool, I don't know what this means. Like, I was really trying to figure it out.

• 38:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:16Speaker 03

  But it stirred things up.

• 38:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  It's, yeah, it was an easy thing to do, to get attention. I mean, cutting off your hair is not, but it still is, I think, in a way.

• 38:28Amy Poehler?

  I agree.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  I don't think that it's really gone away.

• 38:30Amy Poehler?

  I think you're right. And I think also what that probably did, you know, at the same time that it maybe was making like, you know, early executives in the 90s nervous, it also was like a little signal to people, especially like gay young men and women, that you were like, there was some kind of signal that you were an artist for them. Like, I think without even meaning to. It was, you were separating yourself from that idea of the pressure of that, the construct of that.

• 38:58Speaker 03

  They should have met my friends back home. I was just like, I'm really contained teenager, I think, compared to them. But I think, I think the, the, the, the cool thing about it is that you can signal things with the way you look. And I think that's what, that's what music does too. You can send these secret messages and that people understand. It's like, you don't really know even exactly what it means, but you can feel it.

• 39:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  And it's such a beautiful thing about popular culture. It's so powerful.

• 39:37Amy Poehler?

  It's what I love about pop music.

• 39:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:39Amy Poehler?

  It's so hard to write a great pop song. People don't understand. And you've written so many of them. You have done so many good songs. Let's whisper, let's whisper.

• 39:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:50Amy Poehler?

  Let's do it. But I mean, you put out, you put out, Robin, your first record, you put out "Body Talk." We've talked about "Dancing on My Own." "Call Your Girlfriend" is on every dance floor 20, 15 years later. You have made songs that have stood the test of time.

• 40:04Speaker 03

  I know.

• 40:05Amy Poehler?

  And, and it's, that's so, good job.

• 40:13Amy Poehler?

  Good job.

• 40:14Speaker 03

  I feel good about that.

• 40:15Amy Poehler?

  What do you, how do you feel when people call, like, when people say you make like sad bangers?

• 40:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:21Amy Poehler?

  It's such a funny, I mean, I know what they're trying to say, but, I mean, and dance, and let's just say "Dancing on My Own," for example, is such a good example of a huge feeling in a pop song. And emotional vulnerability and like connection and all that stuff. And people scream it and sing it because they're feeling something. Do you like that description when people say that? When they say you make those kinds of songs?

• 40:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I used to hate it. I used to feel really embarrassed.

• 40:48Amy Poehler?

  Hmm, ooh, embarrassed again, here we are.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  By like the fact that I could only write really sad love songs like, you know, like "Grow Up," like, you know, like get over it.

• 40:59Amy Poehler?

  Like a happy love song? What a nightmare.

• 41:02Speaker 03

  No, I know.

• 41:03Amy Poehler?

  Like, I'm so in love, he loves me so much, we're so great, we're perfect for each other?

• 41:07Speaker 03

  No, but you can write other things, I guess.

• 41:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 41:09Speaker 03

  But I think, I think life is embarrassing, and I think that it's something I've embraced. I always loved, you know, I always loved "Dancing on My Own." I always loved all of those songs. I was, I never regretted any of it. It was just more like I found myself just being sad bangers, like just gravitating to that all the time. But then I also feel like that's what, that's what life is, and the vulnerability. I think "Dancing on My Own" is really this, it's written from this place where it's like, it's a place that is very real to me,

• 41:48Speaker 03

  and it makes me do things that are pretty good sometimes, but it's not a comfortable place, it's a sad place. And it's like where I have nowhere else to go. And when there's nowhere to go, I have to find myself out of this sticky situation with like my own machine. And that's what that song is about, like reveling in this feeling of loneliness and like finding power in it. And I think when I had a child on my own, I found myself, even if I had made up with the sad little girl that wrote that song, I found myself in that situation again. And I started looking at "Dancing on My Own" very differently. Like, that's actually a really good skill to have, you know?

• 42:33Speaker 03

  So I'm, I'm happy that I knew how to do that. I knew how to turn something that felt very heavy into like a good thing.

• 42:44Amy Poehler?

  It's what music does, I think, in its best ways. It like, it helps you tolerate a feeling.

• 42:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:52Amy Poehler?

  And

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 42:53Amy Poehler?

  And then you just get a little bit better at staying in those uncomfortable spaces.

• 42:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:59Amy Poehler?

  And also, how great if you get to feel that with other people.

• 43:03Speaker 03

  Yeah. No, you're so right. That's exactly, exactly what it is.

• 43:07Amy Poehler?

  You know, I'm obsessed with your club, love of clubs.

• 43:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:13Amy Poehler?

  And the reason why I'm obsessed is because I'm so, I love bedtime, and I love to go to sleep, and I get, I get worried about how late everything is.

• 43:24Amy Poehler?

  When you're on tour or something, you're like, I'm going to go to the club. Do you take a nap?

• 43:30Amy Poehler?

  Like, how do you? Because it starts so late, Robin.

• 43:34Speaker 03

  I mean, it's true. I do, I might take a nap.

• 43:36Amy Poehler?

  Okay, good.

• 43:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. A party nap is great. No, that's, that's one of the best things you could do. Yeah, definitely.

• 43:43Amy Poehler?

  What time do you get to the club?

• 43:44Speaker 03

  But you know, it's also like, if you stay up, if you happen to stay up for 30 hours, that's just, you know.

• 43:50Amy Poehler?

  A nightmare?

• 43:51Speaker 03

  No, no, like, I think it became much better to do that when, once I became a mom, because I'm like, I'm not gonna feel guilty about this.

• 43:59Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 43:59Speaker 03

  If I'm super hungover, I'm not gonna beat myself up about it, because it's not gonna happen again for another year or so.

• 44:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 44:05Speaker 03

  And.

• 44:05Amy Poehler?

  Just go for it.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  Just go for it.

• 44:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 44:09Speaker 03

  Do whatever it takes to have a good time.

• 44:12Amy Poehler?

  Well, I love, I love how you've spoken very openly about your journey IVF and having your child and having a child as a single mom and the way that's changed you. I mean, in Sex, um, on Sex Sessential.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 44:25Amy Poehler?

  Um, you talk so, it's so cool to hear music about where you're at and speaking to people who are going through the same things in their life or might, might just relate to it on a completely different level, if it's not like specific.

• 44:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:41Amy Poehler?

  And when you made the decision, when you said, okay, I'm gonna do it my way, like you've done for most of your life, you've done things your way, what was the best part about doing it that way?

• 44:52Speaker 03

  Really facing my biggest fear.

• 44:54Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 44:54Speaker 03

  I think that was the biggest fear, um, really being on my own as a mother. Like, my mom was a single, not a single mom. My dad was there, but he was not really there for a while. And then, I mean, he was. And then, he definitely is now. We went to therapy and my dad is amazing.

• 45:15Amy Poehler?

  I've read that you and your dad went to therapy.

• 45:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, he really is amazing, my dad.

• 45:18Amy Poehler?

  A lot of people can, couldn't even imagine going to therapy with their dad.

• 45:21Speaker 03

  I know.

• 45:22Amy Poehler?

  Really cool.

• 45:22Speaker 03

  I know.

• 45:23Amy Poehler?

  And Swedish, too.

• 45:24Speaker 03

  I know.

• 45:24Amy Poehler?

  Swedes do not go to therapy.

• 45:26Speaker 03

  No, Swedish therapist. Do they even exist?

• 45:29Amy Poehler?

  It's so hard to find. I know, I've talked to my Swedish.

• 45:32Speaker 03

  We don't talk.

• 45:33Amy Poehler?

  I know, I've talked to my Swedish relatives about therapy and they're like, oh, you have Swedish relatives? Well, by marriage, my brother lives in Stockholm.

• 45:41Speaker 03

  Oh, cool.

• 45:41Amy Poehler?

  Or Stockholm, excuse me, he would want me to.

• 45:43Speaker 03

  Stockholm, yeah, that's a different place.

• 45:44Amy Poehler?

  And he's been in, um, he's been there like 20 years.

• 45:47Speaker 03

  Cool.

• 45:47Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and, uh, and my, I have, so I have a Swedish sister-in-law. Lotta.

• 45:52Speaker 03

  Lotta, yes.

• 45:54Amy Poehler?

  Um, and, uh.

• 45:55Speaker 03

  Ja.

• 45:56Amy Poehler?

  Ja, Lotta.

• 45:57Speaker 03

  Hey, Lotta.

• 45:58Amy Poehler?

  Hey, Lotta.

• 45:59Speaker 03

  Hoppas att du må bra.

• 46:07Amy Poehler?

  And, and, yeah, anyway, and therapy is not, nobody goes to therapy.

• 46:13Speaker 03

  It's true, not compared to here. Everybody goes to therapy here.

• 46:16Amy Poehler?

  People love therapy here.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  It's true, when I stopped, when I stopped therapy, my psychoanalysis, she was like, well, because I was like, I wanna keep going. I don't, I wanna see you my whole life. She was like, you're crazy. Okay, but we can, we can do it. It could be like an American therapist. That's what she said to me. So sure, she looked at, you know, she looked at some, you know, American TV series about psychiatrists or, yeah, analysis.

• 46:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's, I mean, sorry, but I interrupted you. When you were, when you were saying that, like, being a single mother.

• 46:49Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 46:49Amy Poehler?

  Was a fear until you faced it and you realized, oh.

• 46:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not a biggie.

• 46:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:55Speaker 03

  I mean, it, I think that was, yeah, that was like my, my number one. Like, oh, I don't wanna be a single mom, you know? That was the, that was the big thing for me.

• 47:04Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:05Speaker 03

  And I think it has to do, you know, now that we're in, talking about therapy, I think it has to do that, you know, my dad left my mom.

• 47:10Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:10Speaker 03

  So that was like a very inherent, like, fear.

• 47:14Amy Poehler?

  And you were like, I don't wanna repeat this pattern.

• 47:16Speaker 03

  Very shameful place to be.

• 47:17Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 47:18Speaker 03

  And I think, um, yeah, just got over it. It was like, totally fine. It wasn't a big thing at all. And I think it was also, I had so many, like, really sweet, uh, two, I mean, a lot of people that I spoke to, but two of my best friends, women, they were like, you will actually enjoy this more than having a baby with someone else? And not specifically like a man, but they were like, you can decide everything yourself. There's a lot of upsides to being a single person, parent as well, actually.

• 47:54Amy Poehler?

  Yes, yes.

• 47:55Speaker 03

  I'm not saying that's the best way. I don't think that is necessarily the best way. I think it's great for children to have many close relationships. But you can have, um, that also.

• 48:06Amy Poehler?

  Yes, yes.

• 48:07Speaker 03

  And this was news to me.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  I don't know what it is, but like those things that you're very scared of, it takes a long time to really understand.

• 48:14Amy Poehler?

  It does. And I, and I would say, Robin, I think it's confusing for people like yourself who consider themselves very, you know, like I said, like very independent, very open-minded. It gets confusing when you're like, why am I worried about this? I, you know, people wouldn't even think that I would care.

• 48:32Speaker 03

  No.

• 48:33Amy Poehler?

  You know?

• 48:33Speaker 03

  It's true.

• 48:34Amy Poehler?

  It's very confusing because people, you know, I'm sure what's projected on you is that you're just a badass and you'll do anything and you don't give a fuck. And, you know, and you're like, I'm a human in the world, just like everybody else, with the same kind of weird programming and I have the same fears and desires as everybody else.

• 48:49Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 48:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 48:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 48:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, I found, uh, yeah, myself to be like an orthodox person all of a sudden in that. Yeah, but it was fine.

• 48:59Amy Poehler?

  And I think what women do for each other, I think this is what your music does, is they tell other women when they feel that way and then everybody feels like less alone.

• 49:09Speaker 03

  It's true.

• 49:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 49:11Speaker 03

  But the, the cool thing about writing, writing about that, that period before I had my son was that it was, it was, um,

• 49:23Speaker 03

  it was all these very contrasting emotions, right? It was like feeling like a machine, doing IVF, like counting, you know, doing my shots and then thinking about like, ooh, very, very, very, like, abstract existential things at the same time, like having. In Sweden, it's funny, because you know, you don't choose the donor yourself.

• 49:44Speaker 03

  It's very interesting.

• 49:45Amy Poehler?

  Whoa, say more.

• 49:47Speaker 03

  And the doctor chooses for you and they choose, it's very Swedish. It's very like, you know, all children are the same. We're not gonna choose eye color, we're gonna, you know.

• 49:55Amy Poehler?

  Right, of course.

• 49:56Speaker 03

  We're gonna be as neutral as we can about it.

• 49:59Amy Poehler?

  Janterlåg.

• 49:59Speaker 03

  Janterlåg, which I think actually has, you know, it comes from a good place, but it's, it's strange to, I think, someone from America to, to hear that. You know, in Sweden, the, the donor was chosen for me by the, by the doctor and they do it so that the, the kid looks like you, basically. That's the, that's the only.

• 50:17Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:17Speaker 03

  But then, of course, you have to have a doctor that you trust.

• 50:20Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 50:21Speaker 03

  And so me and, and my doctor was really funny. She really, it's in the song I wrote about, um, wrote about it called Sex Sessential. And she, she told, she's like, who's your dream donor, Robin? I'm like, I don't know, who's your dream donor? This is a really interesting conversation.

• 50:34Amy Poehler?

  Interesting conversation, because do you go for smarts? Do you go for looks? Do you go for height? I mean, the Swedes, everyone's tall.

• 50:41Speaker 03

  Exactly. And it says a lot about someone.

• 50:44Amy Poehler?

  It, it does.

• 50:45Speaker 03

  You know, who their dream donor is. And hers was the singer in one of our biggest rock and roll bands. So I was like, okay, cool, we can have it, we can have this conversation. We're gonna have it for real, you know?

• 50:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:55Speaker 03

  So I was like, okay, cool. Well, what could it be? Like, I don't know, I was just like thinking, wouldn't my dad look? Not that I wanna have a kid with my dad, but like, what is my family look like? Like, what, you know, what would be like the natural thing? And then I was like, I don't know, like Adam Driver, like a, like a big nose. Like, he's great, you know? And she was like, cool, great. And she, you know, she made the choice. I got pregnant and then, you know, we talked a little, she was like, yeah, and you, you know, you said you like Adam Sandler, so that, and I was like, which is also a great, and first I freaked out, like, oh, no, I'm gonna have a baby with Adam Sandler? Like, what does that mean? Did she not listen to me? I'm like, what is this? What if I made the wrong choice for my child? Like, is she gonna, you know?

• 51:39Amy Poehler?

  He's gonna wear shorts all the time.

• 51:41Speaker 03

  Yeah. And then, and then, and then I was like, well, there's no Adam Driver or Adam Sandler in the sperm bank, so I can just let go of that fear.

• 51:49Amy Poehler?

  Right, and also, may we be so lucky to have babies with Adam Sandler?

• 51:53Speaker 03

  It's interesting how you get stuck on this idea of that you're able to like choose your child with the partner you have. Also, which was very sobering, like, you basically have to let go of a lot of control. And that, that was, that was, that's what the song is about, really. And maybe that's what the album is about, too.

• 52:12Amy Poehler?

  I think that's the beautiful first lesson, even just when you're gonna have your kid. Like, I can remember, I was doing SNL and I was like, well, my last show was on Saturday and I'm due on Sunday, so I'll have the baby maybe Monday or Tuesday.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  Cool, I'll go back to work and, yeah.

• 52:25Amy Poehler?

  And then, and maybe Wednesday, if he's a little late. And then, you know, like, as if I had any control over when I was gonna give birth, which, and, um, it was the first of a million lessons that your kid arrives as their own person.

• 52:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:38Amy Poehler?

  And is there, you know, you get the kid, you know, it's like there's some divine way in which you and your kid meet each other.

• 52:45Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:46Amy Poehler?

  I wanna talk to you about your dancing and your relationship to your body, because I think that, like, watching you perform is really, really interesting and awesome because of, and kind of what you spoke of earlier, like you were introduced to the idea that the body was another way to express yourself. And your dancing is so, um, uh, connected to how you're feeling. Like, you really feel like a, like you're an artist dancing rather than, um, a dancer doing dance moves.

• 53:18Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 53:19Amy Poehler?

  Do you make up your own moves? Do you have, are they choreographed?

• 53:22Speaker 03

  Both.

• 53:23Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 53:24Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, both. I, I feel like a lot of it is actually improvising and doing it over and over again. And, um, having almost like a library, like a, you know, different places you know you can go. But then I also work with choreographers. I worked with a girl named Decida for a long time. We did all the Body Talk stuff together. And now I'm working with an amazing choreographer from Canada. His name is Eric Christiansen. He also works with Charli XCX, he did her tour. There is something magical about the image, right? And the way to be so direct in how you communicate. And so having both a process, because I love process, I love process. And also someone that looks at it from this very indirect way.

• 54:08Speaker 03

  Having those two things going at the same time, I think, is really interesting when you work with, with dance.

• 54:14Amy Poehler?

  You like to get on the floor a lot.

• 54:16Speaker 03

  I like to get on the floor.

• 54:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, babe.

• 54:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, babe.

• 54:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, babe. And it feels, I, I love to lie on the floor.

• 54:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:23Amy Poehler?

  And I love to, I do, I really do get to, I love the feeling of being on the floor.

• 54:28Speaker 03

  I know what you mean.

• 54:28Amy Poehler?

  What do you like about getting on the floor? In this case, the stage or the, you know, what do you like about getting down there?

• 54:35Speaker 03

  Well, there's something about, uh, just what it, when you're old also, what it does to your spine, actually laying down, like, it may crack your back just by laying down, basically.

• 54:46Amy Poehler?

  Yes, it feels so good to lay down.

• 54:50Amy Poehler?

  And but you're right, it just it just takes the the pressure off in many different ways.

• 54:57Speaker 03

  Yes, I have a friend, she showed me the other day, she likes to dance while laying down.

• 55:02Amy Poehler?

  Ooh.

• 55:02Speaker 03

  Sometimes when she's tired, you know, she'll be just like dancing, laying down. You can try that.

• 55:07Amy Poehler?

  I will try that.

• 55:08Speaker 03

  See how it feels.

• 55:08Amy Poehler?

  At the club.

• 55:09Speaker 03

  Yeah. I've done that at the club.

• 55:12Amy Poehler?

  Yes, accidentally.

• 55:13Speaker 03

  More, more, more natural than doing it at home, like just laying down at home, dancing. But, um, yeah, she does that.

• 55:21Amy Poehler?

  There's something about getting down on the ground just feels like as we get older, there's this feeling like we used to have to live way up in the sky.

• 55:32Speaker 03

  Yes, because and also we don't know if we can get up.

• 55:38Speaker 03

  It's exciting.

• 55:38Amy Poehler?

  Have you done any of those tests? I've done a couple of those tests, like, you know, do these five things, like, you know, in your 50s and then you're and you're just like, oh, jeez, great. And one of them, can you get up without your hands?

• 55:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, I bet you can.

• 55:52Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God, please, no.

• 55:55Speaker 03

  I mean, actually, right now, I think I can, because I have to do it on tour.

• 55:58Amy Poehler?

  That's hard to get up from a lying position.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  I know.

• 56:01Amy Poehler?

  Without your hands.

• 56:02Speaker 03

  But there are several of the others that I cannot do.

• 56:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yet.

• 56:05Speaker 03

  Yet.

• 56:07Amy Poehler?

  Yet, yet, we're gonna, in your 70s, they're gonna be like, oh, my God, I can't.

• 56:11Speaker 03

  That's all we'll be doing.

• 56:13Amy Poehler?

  But it's true, and it is true, like, you know, you read some article and you're like, sit down in your chair five times a day, and you're like, jeez. And you're like, wait, this is a little harder than I thought.

• 56:24Amy Poehler?

  But you have a masseuse on tour?

• 56:25Speaker 03

  Um, I wish I did, but I do.

• 56:27Amy Poehler?

  Okay, we need to get you a masseuse.

• 56:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, we do need to get me a masseuse. And I think that the that is, yeah, one of the big pleasures in life.

• 56:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 56:37Speaker 03

  Getting a massage.

• 56:38Amy Poehler?

  Agree.

• 56:39Speaker 03

  Isn't it the best?

• 56:40Amy Poehler?

  I I feel like it's like I feel embodied, because it's a lot of my work is just like, what I said earlier, like, it just to actually feel my body.

• 56:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:51Amy Poehler?

  And dancing does that for me. I've said this before, but like, I'd rather dance than talk a lot of times. Like, I just feel like I have to remind myself that I have a physical body.

• 56:59Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 57:00Amy Poehler?

  And massage is like, you have a body, babe.

• 57:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 57:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 57:04Speaker 03

  And it's so trippy, like, it can really take you places, and very intimate.

• 57:08Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 57:09Speaker 03

  It's almost erotic sometimes.

• 57:10Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 57:11Speaker 03

  You know what I mean?

• 57:11Amy Poehler?

  Sometimes, often.

• 57:12Speaker 03

  Often, I think, more often than not.

• 57:16Amy Poehler?

  Now, let me find out a little bit more about you. If you're getting massages that's not great, like, it's okay, do you say something?

• 57:23Speaker 03

  Yes, I do.

• 57:24Amy Poehler?

  Me too. What do you say?

• 57:28Speaker 03

  What do you say? I say, well.

• 57:29Amy Poehler?

  Take me to, I'm a masseuse.

• 57:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 57:31Amy Poehler?

  And we're, and also, I'm also, I'm gonna give you another thing, I'm a little chatty.

• 57:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:35Amy Poehler?

  Okay?

• 57:35Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 57:36Amy Poehler?

  Fine, cool, but I'm chatting.

• 57:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:37Amy Poehler?

  And I'm doing it, and I'm just kind of, you're, I'm, you're not, it's not really, I'm not doing it the way you'd like it.

• 57:43Speaker 03

  I'm just gonna say, can you please add a little bit more pressure? That's the first thing I say.

• 57:48Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 57:49Speaker 03

  If they don't understand, I say it maybe one more time. You can go even harder.

• 57:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 57:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:59Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 57:59Speaker 03

  And then, and then, you know, it has happened that I'm like, you know what? I think I'm done.

• 58:04Amy Poehler?

  Incredible.

• 58:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 58:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, let's not waste time.

• 58:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, because just putting lotion on my body is not something I can do.

• 58:11Amy Poehler?

  Absolutely.

• 58:12Speaker 03

  By myself.

• 58:12Amy Poehler?

  And gentle, nice, respectful feedback?

• 58:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 58:16Amy Poehler?

  I mean, that is the thing about being, I think, about being in your 50s, is you're like, may I, may I give you a little thing?

• 58:24Speaker 03

  You might be interested in what I have to say.

• 58:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 58:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 58:28Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's so true.

• 58:29Speaker 03

  No, it's important to not waste time.

• 58:32Amy Poehler?

  You talked about process. I want to talk to you about process, and someone else had a question for you about process. So we do this thing on the podcast where we talk to people who know our guests, are fans of our guests, who, um, like, has a question for me, and we talk to Zara Larson. Another sweet, another beautiful sweet.

• 58:51Speaker 03

  She's so amazing, I love her.

• 58:53Amy Poehler?

  Tell me about what you love about her.

• 58:54Speaker 03

  I love that, what what I'm most impressed by, which I think is a good thing about the young, the younger generation, is that they are very clear on what they think. And she, I actually met her recently, we did something together, and I asked her, like, how are you so sure about your political views? Like, how are you, how did you get there? And she said, I had a blog, and, you know, a lot of people, you know, were really angry at me, and I had to answer a lot of trolling comments, and it really made me have to think about what it is that I think, how I feel.

• 59:35Speaker 03

  And and she has this very natural way of, like, just expressing herself, and she knows what it is that's important to her, it has to feel good for her. It has, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be rooted in something that feels honest for her.

• 59:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 59:50Speaker 03

  And she knows how to to communicate that in a way that's really inspiring, I think.

• 59:54Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 59:55Speaker 03

  And she's funny, she's really funny, she makes me laugh, and she's, um, kind.

• 1:00:01Amy Poehler?

  Well, she, you are a hero of hers.

• 1:00:03Speaker 03

  I love her.

• 1:00:04Amy Poehler?

  And her question was, do you kind of wait to be inspired to make another record? Or do you make another record and know that you'll be inspired? Like, process, like.

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:15Amy Poehler?

  And which I think is an interesting question, especially for an artist, like, who's, you know, who's been making things for a long time.

• 1:00:21Speaker 03

  Totally. I mean, it's really interesting, it's an interesting question, because it it also is about the mystery of inspiration. I feel like, I listened to your interview with Billy Elliot, and she said, I live to laugh, which I think was such a great thing, but I feel like you can add, like, I live to be inspired in that.

• 1:00:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:41Speaker 03

  And it's like, it's like a little fire, and you have to keep it going, and sometimes you do get inspired to do something, but it's usually very hard to know where the line goes between feeling inspired and getting inspired just by doing something. And I think with the close collaborators that I have, Claus being one of them, it's really about us just getting into the studio and start like, me, me, me, yapping at each other, and like, making jokes, and, and, and, uh, talking about, like, really stupid things, and then, uh, maybe make something. And a lot of times, it's not even fun.

• 1:01:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:01:20Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? Like, it can be kind of frustrating and boring, and like, you don't even know what you're doing, and then after a while, it starts crystallizing anyway. So I would, I would say I'm more of a process person than than the intuitive, like, thing.

• 1:01:34Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that's really interesting, I know what you mean. It's kind of like learning to be just kind to yourself during the process, like, not giving up or being too hard on the first, second, third drafts of things.

• 1:01:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I think, I mean, I think me and Zara spoke about that, that it's, it's not a necessarily a sign that it's gonna be bad, just because you feel uncomfortable doing it. And it's almost like we're in a time now where we are so also politically correct that any environment that doesn't feel safe.

• 1:02:05Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:05Speaker 03

  Can sometimes be a place where you you're not, you don't think you're supposed to be there. But learning how to kind of sit through that uncomfortableness, it's like, almost like a, uh, an endurance sport, in a way, right? Like, if you can sit, the person who can sit with the uncomfortable feeling the longer can probably write the more interesting song, I think.

• 1:02:28Amy Poehler?

  Yes, that's so true.

• 1:02:30Speaker 03

  But it's nice when you do it with people that you feel good with, but it's not always gonna be pleasant.

• 1:02:35Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I want to end our talk today with some Swedish questions, questions about Sweden.

• 1:02:40Speaker 03

  Cool.

• 1:02:41Amy Poehler?

  So, like I said, my brother, Greg, um, he lives in, um, in Sweden, has for, I mean, almost 20 years now. Can you please rank Swedish holidays? Midsummer.

• 1:02:52Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:02:52Amy Poehler?

  Why so scary? Is it because of the movie?

• 1:02:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think so.

• 1:02:57Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 1:02:58Speaker 03

  What, do you find it scary?

• 1:02:59Amy Poehler?

  It's a little weird, it's a bit culty. There is a ball of hand-holding and circling and.

• 1:03:05Speaker 03

  And, um, dancing, pretending you're a frog, have you done that one? Smogirudanah?

• 1:03:09Amy Poehler?

  No, what's that one?

• 1:03:11Speaker 03

  You should, I mean, it's, it's this thing, you, we dance around the midsummer pole.

• 1:03:15Amy Poehler?

  Yes, creepy.

• 1:03:16Speaker 03

  Which is, yeah, a little bit creepy, a little bit vulgar, I mean, it is a palace, and it's like, you know, there's the two balls, and it's like you're dancing around. But the weird thing about it is that we're, the, the biggest hit of midsummer is Smogirudanah, it means little frogs, little frogs, they're so cute, dancing around, yeah, so you're like, jumping around the pole as a frog. I don't know why, like, it is, it is strange. It's also really lovely, it's like the lightest day of the year, if you have sex on midsummer, if you're still a virgin. Maybe that will change your mind.

• 1:03:53Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God, ladies, did you hear that?

• 1:03:59Amy Poehler?

  Who knew?

• 1:04:01Amy Poehler?

  What about crayfish party?

• 1:04:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't like crayfish.

• 1:04:04Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so you would put that third.

• 1:04:06Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 1:04:06Amy Poehler?

  Because the other one is Lucia.

• 1:04:08Speaker 03

  Love Lucia.

• 1:04:09Amy Poehler?

  So Lucia is beautiful.

• 1:04:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:11Amy Poehler?

  And for people who don't know what that Swedish holiday looks like, what does Lucia look like?

• 1:04:15Speaker 03

  It's the 13th of December, it's one of the darkest days of the year, and in the middle of the day, because the sun goes down at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Lucia shows up, and she has candles, lit candles in her crown, and she sings beautifully. And I think it's actually an Italian saint that we just made our own.

• 1:04:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:39Speaker 03

  There's all these weird, but it, I think it's on one of our, like, pageant, old, like, holidays as well, so it's all mixed up. But it's a Christian, um, pre-Christmas.

• 1:04:50Amy Poehler?

  I didn't, I didn't even think about that, that the lights and the candles are like cutting through what is a very dark Swedish winter.

• 1:04:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:57Amy Poehler?

  Very cool.

• 1:04:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, it is cool.

• 1:05:00Amy Poehler?

  And then, um, my brother would also like me to ask you, um, Eurovision.

• 1:05:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:05Amy Poehler?

  Why is it so big there? And it doesn't.

• 1:05:12Amy Poehler?

  The Swedes love Eurovision.

• 1:05:13Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oof, yeah.

• 1:05:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:17Speaker 03

  I mean, we don't have ABBA anymore, so I don't really watch Eurovision.

• 1:05:21Amy Poehler?

  ABBA was discovered on Eurovision?

• 1:05:22Speaker 03

  They were one of the first people to win the whole thing for us.

• 1:05:26Amy Poehler?

  I see, I should have known that.

• 1:05:27Speaker 03

  With Waterloo.

• 1:05:28Amy Poehler?

  Wow, that's hard to, I mean, where do you go from there?

• 1:05:31Speaker 03

  Yeah. Then we had Karola. Who is, you know, both me and Zara grew up listening to her. Uh, amazing artist, and then, now it's just shit, I would say.

• 1:05:46Speaker 03

  I have American fans that I watch it with, and they have this, my friend Bert, he has a blanket that he pulls up over his eyes when we're watching it, because it's so embarrassing. And it really is embarrassing, and after I've watched it, I feel really just overstimulated and in a bad way.

• 1:06:06Speaker 03

  I was looking for words, I'm not gonna say, but, but, uh, the, yeah, I don't like it.

• 1:06:15Amy Poehler?

  Great. And lastly, Kale, the caviar, the caviar in the tube? I mean, the Swedish breakfast, I, I love a Swedish breakfast because it's, I'm a salt girl. I'm not a, I'm not a sweet person. And so the way that you guys do like a cheese and a fish at breakfast is perfect.

• 1:06:35Speaker 03

  I agree.

• 1:06:36Amy Poehler?

  But the caviar in the thing.

• 1:06:38Speaker 03

  No, I know. I'm sorry.

• 1:06:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we're gonna say no to that.

• 1:06:40Speaker 03

  We're gonna say no to that. And I think a lot of people would say you're not Swedish if you don't eat it.

• 1:06:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Speaker 03

  It's true. Like, it's that, it's that of a big thing in our culture, but I really don't like it.

• 1:06:52Amy Poehler?

  And, and, you know, because I'm an American, I have to finish my Swedish questions with an American question, but because God forbid, we don't talk about America for more than five minutes. But what is the thing about over here, whether it be the crowds, or like the way of life or something, that you've like adopted and incorporated in your life, synthesized in your life that you like?

• 1:07:13Speaker 03

  Well, to be honest, I love this country. I mean, I've come here for more than half of my life.

• 1:07:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:20Speaker 03

  My biggest audience is here, and the music I grew up listening to, and even the Swedish artists I grew up listening to, listen to American music. I mean, it's just so, such been so important to me to have this culture. And I think, you know, Los Angeles is extremely ugly, but it's because you have this kind of thing that you can do whatever you want. And it creates beautiful things that don't exist anywhere else. And, and that's really incredible. But I do feel like sometimes I'm really like, you know, capitalizing on the fact that you have such a bad president, because I come here and I play for people,

• 1:08:00Speaker 03

  and they are just letting themselves go. And it's just beautiful to see how much you give of yourselves in those moments. And so that's really amazing for me.

• 1:08:15Amy Poehler?

  I think people have been turning to you, Robin, for a lot of that feeling of like wanting to express big feelings that they have, and uncomfortable moments that they're living in and living through.

• 1:08:27Speaker 03

  And I'm so thankful for that.

• 1:08:29Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so I always ask my guests at the very end, is there anything you're listening to, reading, watching, a video, a TV show, anything that's making you laugh these days?

• 1:08:39Speaker 03

  Well...

• 1:08:40Amy Poehler?

  Other than Martin Short and his body of work?

• 1:08:42Speaker 03

  Other than your interview with Martin Short. You were both really, really funny. No, I think maybe it's not a funny thing, though, but it did make me laugh.

• 1:08:51Amy Poehler?

  That's okay.

• 1:08:52Speaker 03

  It's a book called, Is It Ever Just Sex?

• 1:08:55Amy Poehler?

  Okay, stand by, look it up.

• 1:08:57Speaker 03

  And I can't remember the writer now, but he's a psychoanalyst. And he wrote a book about sex.

• 1:09:05Amy Poehler?

  Ooh.

• 1:09:06Speaker 03

  And talking about the...

• 1:09:07Amy Poehler?

  Okay, Darian Leder is the psychoanalyst who wrote the book.

• 1:09:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. And it's about, you know, just human beings and their sexual habits and why. And it's from the, like, a psychoanalysis perspective. It's really interesting.

• 1:09:20Amy Poehler?

  I mean, America's such a prudish country.

• 1:09:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, you are.

• 1:09:23Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:24Speaker 03

  That's one thing. Definitely you have a problem with that.

• 1:09:28Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:29Speaker 03

  Yeah. But I, I don't, I don't know, like, yeah, it's weird. You can't be naked, too. It's like...

• 1:09:34Amy Poehler?

  Well, Swedes love to be naked.

• 1:09:36Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:09:37Amy Poehler?

  I mean, everyone is naked. And, and there's nothing, and, and obviously, being, being naked isn't, doesn't mean you're being sexual.

• 1:09:43Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 1:09:44Amy Poehler?

  But it is funny, like, it is...

• 1:09:47Speaker 03

  It's like, ta ta!

• 1:09:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, like, yeah. Hi, so how are you? Like, yeah.

• 1:09:52Speaker 03

  No, it's very relaxed with the nakedness.

• 1:09:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, very, very relaxed. And you're right, there's something where we still, I mean, we're just so juvenile. We think it's so stupid and funny when people are naked, and Swedes are like, who cares?

• 1:10:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, who cares? It's true. My brother's girlfriend is American, and, yeah, she gets a little bit uncomfortable when we're all swimming naked in the summers. She's like, I'm just gonna go behind this tree and put on my bathing suits. And we're like, you do that.

• 1:10:22Amy Poehler?

  I love her.

• 1:10:22Speaker 03

  Okay, I'm gonna read this book.

• 1:10:24Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I loved our conversation.

• 1:10:26Speaker 03

  Me too.

• 1:10:26Amy Poehler?

  I'm so happy that you did this.

• 1:10:28Speaker 03

  I'm so glad I'm here. I'm so glad you asked me. Thank you.

• 1:10:31Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much for doing this.

• 1:10:32Speaker 03

  I loved it.

• 1:10:33Amy Poehler?

  Robin, everybody!

• 1:10:38Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much, Robin. That was so great. I loved our conversation. You're such a talented, interesting, cool artist. And thanks for just being so frank and funny and real. And, you know, we talked about a lot of things, but we did mention that Americans can be very prudish. And so for this polar plunge, I just want every person right now listening to take their clothes off.

• 1:11:04Amy Poehler?

  Just wherever you are, if you're driving, unless you're somewhere inappropriate. But you know what? If you're at work, you know what? Who cares? Take your clothes off. We're such prudes. I'm so sick of it. And so is Robin. I mean, why are we so weird about it? You know, just remember back in the day when you could just be cool with everything and sex and take your clothes off. So, you know what I mean? Just, just...

• 1:11:32Amy Poehler?

  I mean, don't do it because I said so. Do it because you want to. And if anyone gives you a hard time, just say, I heard it on a podcast. Robin, thank you for being here. Thanks for checking out Good Hang. And hey, have a good one.

• 1:11:51Amy Poehler?

  You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaia McMullin, Aleia Zaneras, Bridget Gierlings, Paige Garberini, Belle Roman, and Drew Van Steenburgen. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:12:21Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Sephora. Holiday gifting can be a tough gig. You're frantically searching, second guessing everything, and accidentally buying your dad eye cream he's never gonna use. Thankfully, Sephora is here to save us from ourselves. Whether you're shopping for a total beauty guru, or someone whose whole routine is hand soap, Sephora has the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And if you're still lost, don't panic. Their beauty advisors can guide you to safety. This holiday season, we all Sephora. Shop gifts at Sephora and give something beautiful.

• 1:12:52Speaker 04

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