SmartLess

I’m just going to own it, right here and now: I’m a late adopter. 

I was perfectly content with my iPhone 8 for the past six years, finally retiring it when it could no longer run more than one app at a time. Just a few days in, I wonder how I ever managed without the iPhone 14 Pro — the big screen! the more sophisticated camera! the faster processor! It’s a serious machine. Is this what it feels like to be a luxury car owner?

 

Last month I took advantage of Prime Day and got my first pair of wireless headphones. Today I listened to a podcast while out walking, completely untethered. I kinda knew it would be amazing. That’s what all the reviewers said. And I see tons of people out in the world wearing them. I just needed all these good people to road test them first.

So it should come as no surprise that my new favorite podcast is SmartLess. Yes, SmartLess, which debuted in the early days of the pandemic. I’m sure you know that for three years now, Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes have been talking with a different celebrity each week. If they know the guest already, they try to learn something new about her while also rehashing good times. If they don’t know them, they seem to want to have made a new friend by the end of the episode.

There’s a lot to love about SmartLess. You can’t help but feel that these guys are your buddies, too. They’re funny, they know a lot about one another, and you just want to be in on it. They seem like really nice people. They go out of their way to cheer on their guests, tell them how great they are, and express a lot of true admiration of their work. They hone in on their unique gift and praise them for it. They made a big point of telling us how nice a person Jimmy Kimmel is, noting that there are celebrities whose true personality is quite different from the nice face they put on for the public. I get the sense they’re the same way — kindness really seems to matter to them. 

Despite the name of the pod and all the self-deprecating jokes about their lack of intelligence, they’re (obviously) really gifted. They’re students of the industry they work in who demonstrate a true appreciation for and curiosity about the craft of making film and television. Today I listened to an early episode where they totally geeked out about classical music with Gustavo Dudamel. I get the sense that they love having this new space for deepening their understanding of creative expression and of the human experience. I’m grateful to be along for the ride. And to have a rich library of episodes to dig into!