Lena Waithe
6/1/20262 hr 1 min
Lena Waithe (The Chi, Queen & Slim, Master of None) is an Emmy-winning writer, producer, actor, and playwright. Lena joins Armchair Expert to discuss being a talkative kid in the South Side of Chicago, discovering television through her grandmother, and realizing she was a writer before the industry knew where to place her. Lena and Dax talk about the changing definition of celebrity, the hard-won evolution of The Chi, and her fairy godmothers in the business. Lena explains how identity can become mistaken for activism, how aging can be a privilege instead of a fear, and why the best conversations require listening instead of assuming.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDax Shepard· Host0:00
Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Shepherd. I'm joined by Lily Padman. And today we have Lena Waithe.
Monica Padman· Host0:07
Mm-hmm.
Dax Shepard· Host0:08
Oh, I love Lena Waithe. She's an actor, a producer, and a screenwriter. She created The Chi. She was on Master of None.
Monica Padman· Host0:15
Ugh, we loved that show.
Dax Shepard· Host0:16
Yes. Queen & Slim, Boomerang, Them. This is the final season of The Chi, uh, now streaming on Paramount+. You know Lena, you're gonna really fall in love with her if you've never heard her chat. She's just as sweet and wonderful as they get.
Monica Padman· Host0:32
That's right.
Dax Shepard· Host0:33
Yeah. Please enjoy Lena Waithe. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. I feel like spring always does this thing where you realize you've been thinking about something for a long time, and suddenly it feels like, okay, maybe I actually do something with it.
Monica Padman· Host0:47
Totally. It's less pressure, but more like readiness.
Dax Shepard· Host0:50
Yeah, like you've been sitting on an idea or a project or even just a perspective you care about, and now you're like, "Maybe this deserves to exist somewhere outside of my own head."
Monica Padman· Host0:58
And May being Mental Health Awareness Month, there's already this broader conversation happening. People are more open, more curious, more willing to engage.
Dax Shepard· Host1:05
Which is where something like Squarespace comes in. It makes that jump from idea to actual thing feel way less overwhelming. You can build a site that looks good, works well, and actually reflects what you're trying to put out there.
Monica Padman· Host1:18
And it's not just hypothetical. Wabi Wab literally used Squarespace to build our site.
Dax Shepard· Host1:22
Yeah, and Wabi Wab is not trying to spend 40 hours figuring out web design. It just worked.
Monica Padman· Host1:27
Which is kind of the point.
Dax Shepard· Host1:29
So if you've been sitting