Bad Dates with Jameela Jamil - Speed Dates: Gen Z Woman In Stem (w/ Liz Feldman and Jessi Klein)

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

On a new episode of Bad Dates, host Joel Kim Booster welcomes the hosts of the new podcast Here To Make Friends, Liz Feldman and Jessi Klein, to discuss making new friends, squinting to make When Harry Met Sally relate to you, and how Bridget Jones isn’t even vaguely plus-size. Big takeaway this week: Some Kind Of Wonderful is a good movie, check it out. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video clips.Merch available at SiriusXMStore.com/BadDates. Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual, Fire Island, Loot Season 2Liz Feldman: @thelizfeldman on InstaJessi Klein: @youracquaintancejessiklein on Insta Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Bad Dates ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another edition of Speed Dates, the little snack in between episodes of Bad Dates, the main podcast, where we just, you know, we settle down and we get deep into our guests POV on love in general. Not everybody has a bad date story they're willing to share. These two guests are so lovely that I don't know if they've ever had a bad date period. I don't know if anyone would ever treat either of these women poorly.

They are so iconic people. I'm so excited to talk to you today. One is a writer, actress, producer, and comedian from shows like Inside Amy Schumer, Big Mouth, and Dead to Me. She is also an author. I love her book. Get it immediately. It's Jesse Klein.

Hi. Jesse Klein. Thank you so much for having me. Jesse Klein, you are like part of the reason I do what I do. Stop it. I'm not shitting you. I'm not shitting you. Stop it right now.

And this also kind of goes for this next person that I'm introducing. We have a comedian, writer, and director, and producer on No Good Deed, One Big Happy, and Dead to Me. It's Liz Feldman. Welcome, Liz. Hi, I'm so happy to be here. Liz, love Dead to Me and love especially No Good Deed.

A show you cast all of my best friends in. Yes that's right and and did not I did not get a call It's okay, but it's okay. It's okay. You you were busy. I was told yeah, you were unavail and Now the balls now the you're being accused of being technically unavail the balls. Now the player trips to me. You're being accused of being technically unavailable. Yeah, he was tech unavailable LA. No, but definitely check out No Good Deed if you haven't yet. It is such a fun show and I blazed through it. Thank you.

Just in one weekend. That's a great show. Thanks guys. Yeah, we all, our resumes right now on this Zoom call, it's off the charts. OK, we're all real. What I mean, honestly, what are we even doing here? Let's get what you're doing here actually is to promote the next iteration of your your professional life, which is a podcast for a headgum called We're Here to Make Friends, where you celebrate

long lasting friendships and attempt to make new ones. You guys just launched. How is the podcast game treating you? Jesse, do you want to answer at the same time on a count of three? Okay. One, two, three. Great. Great. Liz, Liz, you came in so late. What happened? You're the one who pitched doing the count. If this is the kind of coordination that we can come to expect from We're Here to Make Friends, I don't know. I mean, I think what you're going to get from

Here to Make Friends is we're going to keep you on your toes. And we're going to set things up and then we're not going to knock them down. When Liz zigs, I love to zag. And when I zag, sometimes Liz will also zag. Sometimes I zag. Unpredictable and unpredictable pod. And obviously the main reason we did it was we knew that the world needed only one more podcast. One more podcast.

Only one more. Just one more. Listen, I understand. I had a lot of moral reservations about doing this podcast too. I said, does the landscape need it? And I heard the call and I answered it. Yeah. You prayed on it. You prayed to Jesus. And they came back. So your podcast is about long lasting friendships. How long have you guys been friends? So your podcast is about long lasting friendships. How long have you guys been friends? Well, our podcast is also about making new friends in adulthood and that is sort of where we come in.

Yes, it's kind of all the whole podcast is a little bit of a long con, although I don't know, it's not that long. Maybe it's a short con. No, it's a short con. It's a short con. It's a short con. Well, we met in the writer's room

of Liz's other amazing show, Dead to Me. So I'm gonna say that was 2019. Yes. Now, if you're waiting for me to do the math between this year and that year, She can't. You're gonna be disappointed, honey. Yeah, you're gonna be waiting forever.

No, cause also like, we're not counting the pandemic. Yeah, well that year was five years. So we were good friends for about 20 years. That'll really accelerate some relationships. It will and it did. And it did because we were actually, we were in the writer's room for season three of Dead to Me during the pandemic. And so we just spend a lot of time just like this on a Zoom. I could not do handle the Zoom room life. I was still on Big Mouth when

the pandemic started and we transitioned to Zoom room and it was before people figured out that actually you don't need to spend eight hours on Zoom. You can't. You don't. You shouldn't. It was actually like, oh in this way of doing things, you can be a little more productive and a little less like just sitting around. Because I mean, that is one of the best things about being in a physical room is the snacks and the chat and the wasting of time. But that is when you're at home and Zoom, you don't need to chat. You know, I don't care what you watched over the weekend or what you did.

Well, you got to tap it. There's a certain't care what you watched over the weekend or what you did. Well, you gotta cap it. There's a certain number of hours you can be staring at a screen before you do start to feel your eyes kind of bleeding out. Not to be graphic, but yeah. I think we generally cap that in about four or five hours. Four feels right. Yeah, four feels right.

That feels correct. Yeah, we can get everything we need done. It's diminishing returns after that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I wanna get into a little bit of, you're both personal stories. Just give me a little context

of where you both stand love life wise. I know Liz, you were just rescued by your wife. IT savvy wife. Yes I was. For the setup. Yes I was. I'm using my wife wife for the setup. So I- Did Rachel have to step in for this arrangement? I have no wonder, look at, that's why you look so great and so professional.

I'm like at the end of Titanic hanging on to a technical iceberg. You are not married to a member of the Geek Squad, Jessie? Basically, yeah, no, she didn't. She should. I wish. We're looking, we're looking for her. I am happily, I'm a happily married gay in HMG. Yeah, no, she didn't. She should. I wish. We're looking. We're looking for her. Actively looking.

I'm a happily married gay in HMG. Wow. And I'm actually in my wife's office using her very professional setup. She's a musician, in case you couldn't tell from the multiple guitars and keyboard behind me. Yeah. But I have been with my wife for 16 years and married for 12. Oh my gosh. And she's the best and we really like each other.

And I, I, it is important. The liking. Yeah, the liking is one of the keys. Yes. And I did kiss a lot of froggets before. Froggets. Froggets. Yeah, I never heard that word, but I know that I'm gonna use it 20 times today. I can't wait, I can't wait. And Jessie, how about you?

What's going on in Ms. Klein's corner? So glad you asked. I am a divorced single working mom. Wow. But no, I'm on like an app journey. I'm, yeah. I'm like looking for her. You are living Bridget Jones's diary

at your freezer right now. Exactly. I am glad that you brought it up because I will be talking about it later. Sweet days. Sweet days. So, let's just get into it a little bit because you're both in such different places lovewise, and so it's going to be fun to talk to you about this. But we always on Speed Dates talk first about sort of like, what is your favorite pop culture

depiction of love? about sort of like what is your favorite pop culture depiction of love? Like what is like an example, it can be a book, a movie, television show, a song, anything that comes to mind that you remember as like sort of a flection point in like how it shaped your view of love and falling in love and romance and things like that.

I mean, it's funny when you first say that what comes to mind is that I wish there were more for me that actually resonated with me on a level that I could relate to on a real level and not in like, oh yeah, if I kind of close my eyes and really stretch who I am, twist myself into a knot, I could, yeah, I mean, I think Jesse and I both share when Harry met Sally as a pretty seminal, you know, film we talk about a lot, very, I mean, I think Jesse and I both share when Harry met Sally as a pretty seminal,

you know, we talk about a lot, very, you know, the idea that friendship can turn into love. My wife and I were friends for eight months. So, you know, eventually we sort of turned that corner into like, you know, is this gonna be weird and inappropriate to tell her I love her? And then, you know, is this going to be weird and inappropriate to tell her I love her? And then, you know, the rest is, um, her story. Are you about to say her story? Get it right.

There we go. There we go. It also comes to mind as a movie called some kind of wonderful, uh, which is, uh, before you were born. So you don't have to pretend like, you know what it is and that's fine, but it's, uh, Mary Stuart Masterson and Eric Stoltz playing platonic best friends, but she really, really looked like a lesbian. And she really did.

She was very, very lesbian forward, very short hair, kind of, you know, but she outfits and like these are all, you know, but she outfits. And like, these are all, you know, very reductive things I'm saying, but in 1988 or whenever the hell it was, that's all we had. So, you know, they were best friends, but she was secretly in love with him. And it was like, you know,

kind of too painful for her to talk about. So there was a, you know, we know all about that. We do know all about that. So there was this familiar feeling of like being secretly in love with a best friend except maybe mine wasn't a boy, it was a girl. Yeah.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I'm not gonna tell you, so you'll just have to guess. Oh, the secrets and lies. But yeah, so I would say those two are what come to mind immediately. And that, yeah.

Jesse, I turn to you and point the question at you which is you know over the course of your pop culture consumption over the years what was a reflection point in what was the relationship you saw or a romance story you saw? Well you know you already kind of brought it out and I'm gonna and I know this is such a basic bitch answer and I'm gonna be a real basic bitch today I guess but Bridget Jones diary is one of my favorite favorite movies yes I'm talking about the first one and I just feel like the moment when Colin Firth says I like you just the way you are it just really

means it just went right into that Death Star and penetrated all the way to the center of my little romantic brain. I don't know. And then I, cause I guess I don't remember exactly how old I was in that movie, but in that movie, when that movie came out, but I was, I was dating. And I remember I made a list of qualities that I felt like were, you know,

not what's the opposite of a deal breaker, necessary. There were five things. Green flags, yeah. Green flags. Green flags. A green flag. And it was kindness, funniness, being physically attracted to the person.

Importance. Them being like a mensch and then also just having like a Colin Firth quality. Yeah, that's British. And we all actually, it is like what that Supreme Court justice said about porn. I could not define it for you, but I know it when I see it. I know it when I see it. I know it when I see it. And I feel like there were a couple of times

where I had like boyfriends that I would take around and meet, you know, my jury. And people would be like, I don't think he's your Colin Firth. Yeah. We just all held, like that felt like the standard. Yeah. He ruined a lot of women's lives, I think.

Between the original Pride and Prejudice and then Bridget Jones, which we know is an adaptation. He just loves her. She's a chaotic little spazzy little mass and he just loves her. It's funny, I watched that movie as an adult much later than I probably should have, only a few years ago. The one thing that sticks out to me about that movie that is like so disturbing is

the how they all think she's fat. It's it is it is. It's dystopian. It's dystopian. Psycho. Thank God we're past it and the problem is solved. Well, before I let you go, I have one last question for both of you, which is, what is making you believe in love lately? And this is really an open answer. We've gotten really a wide range of things.

It's like seeing a baby in a park or, you know, like something you heard on the radio. It can be anything. And, you know, if you're feeling sort of cynical, too, you can be honest about that. Don't be a hero. No, we don't need another hero famously as the song goes. I mean, I can say because and Jesse knows about this because it's the joy of my life right now, but I have a two year old daughter named Eze. And she has recently made her first friend, named Eze. And she has recently made her first friend, whose name is George. And I found out they were friends because the teacher, as I was picking Eze up from school, said, you know, you should make a play date with George. And, you know, I was like, I didn't

even know who this kid was. I had barely heard of him. And he starts describing their relationship that is this like full blown relationship, where they sit together and they eat together and quote unquote, they hold hands more than they don't. Oh, I know. That was my reaction when Liz told me that sentence really just got me right in the guts. And I was so floored. But I was also so proud of my little kid for having a heart that was open enough

to bring in another person. And of course they're just friends. It's not, they're two. I mean, what it was. They don't understand. They don't understand, but they love each other. They send each other videos saying, I miss you. You didn't tell me about the videos, Liz.

I hope this is lifelong. Me too, Liz. I hope this is lifelong. Me too. Gosh, I hope this is. Even if it's just like, you know, if it's platonic and if we end up being gay best friends, like whatever version of it it is, it has definitely made me believe in love because it was completely organic, unforced,

just two little beings who found each other, and so sweet. Jesse Klein, what is making you believe in love right now? Any of these gentlemen from the apps or? Definitely not that, no. Again, I'm bringing my most basic bitch self to the pod today and I've been trying to think of a cooler answer, but I can't,

I'm just gonna say that right now a relationship that is like always coming up on the algorithm, that just makes me happy to see. I'm embarrassed to say this, but Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, I think seem very truly happy together. I don't know either of them personally, but like, I will say that that young man is saying all the right stuff. He is. He really is. He's saying all the right stuff.

I like what he's leading with. And I think he is setting an example for all the little freedom incels out there. Like, here is a man who's just like showing up as a as a fucking man and loving Selena and they make me happy, am I wrong? Are we? No, you're not wrong. Love her work or don't love her work, she's been through a lot.

She's been through a lot, she's got some stuff going on. I do want happiness for her. Absolutely. And it is a nice feeling when, even with strangers, you know, that we have parasitical relationships with, seeing them happy and at least like feeling it as a genuine happiness. Like, sometimes it doesn't read. Yeah, and again, obviously, I know nothing. I don't know anything of them and I recognize that. It is a vibe when I see them together where I'm like, she did not go for the obvious Ken doll choice and he seems to genuinely be cherishing

and showing up for her. I don't know. Again, this is basic, basic stuff. I'll just be here doodling on my notebook, putting my name with theirs. I actually think it's very cool. I think it's very cool that you are so up on Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez's relationship in a way that-

I mean, how could you not be? They're adorable. Yeah, they're showing up. It's like, are you Gen Z? I think. I think famously, Jessie is Gen Z. Gen Z woman in STEM, that's how I know. Gen Z woman in STEM, title of that.

Title of that. Um, it was so great having both of you on That's how I know. Gen Z Women in STEM, title of that. Title of that. It was so great having both of you on and talking love and relationships and pop culture and all of these things. What day does Here to Make Friends come out? Thanks for asking. Thank you. Our podcast, Here to Make Friends comes out every Friday and tomorrow you can check us

out having a wonderful, poignantignant hilarious conversation with Nick Kroll. Oh, one of my favorite bosses I've ever had in my entire life. No, no. What a good boy. Talk about Mensch. Talk about Mensch. Mensch. We will and we do. Mensch, Mensch. Incredible. Where can the people find you both if they're looking for you?

I am on Instagram at your acquaintance Jesse Klein Just commenting Putting little pictures up doing stuff That's where I am And I am at the Liz Feldman. I'm at the Liz Feldman on Instagram and I'm just putting up very Aggressive Instagram and I'm just putting up very aggressive left-wing stuff about. Love it, love it.

Stuff people should care about but also about our podcast and other things. You gotta be on it, you gotta be on the gram. All right, Jesse Klein, Liz Feldman, thank you so much again for joining me on a speed date. I wish we could have, honestly I wish it was like a sleepover situation. I wish it was like a whole weekend retreat. I mean, maybe that's our next pod. Maybe that's it. Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe. Thank you for joining us. There will be another speed date coming

out soon and another full episode of Bad Dates. Goodbye. Bad Dates is a production of Smartless Media created by Robert Cohen, executive producers are Richard Corson, and Bernie Kaminsky. We will be back for more Bad Dates Smart

Blast Neon. Smart. Less. Neon.