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Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade.
Jimmy, Jimmy, what are you doing? I'm packing. Packing? Are you going on vacation? No, I'm not going on vacation. I'm leaving the country.
Well... It happened... again. After a bizarre and vicious campaign fueled by a desperate need not to go to jail, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election. Donald Trump has won the 2024 election and he'll be president again for four more years or eight or twelve or whatever. So that is a little late night television. You recognize Jimmy Kimmel, biggest hater of Donald Trump. Not even funny, just goes out to hit him.
And then Stephen Colbert lives off it. And one thing he said in his cold open tells the whole story. He's not embarrassed by it. He goes, if you're watching this show, you probably are as upset as I am. So he's saying to our audience, I have no interest.
If you don't agree with me politically, I know you're not watching me. And then you saw what happened with Seth Meyers, who they took his band away. So he's a little guilty. He feels a little bad. But they did renew him.
And of course, they feel this way. You know, a lot of people would say this is great for me doing stand up because Donald Trump is so different. He provides a lot of energy. But I guess not.
Not in today's lineup. With me right now is one of the hottest comedians in the country, Zana Garg, one of our great guests. Who thankfully comes back as an Indian American standup comedian and screenwriter, host of Zana Garg Family Podcast, streaming on the YouTube, Apple and Spotify.
And I'd plug your live events, but they're all sold out. I apologize. Hi, Brian. Great to see you. So excited to be back.
Yes, good to be here. Were you surprised by that reaction on Election Day where you could have tons of fun? That that answer is simply mourning and anger?
I'm not surprised by that reaction. I mean, you've been on all those shows, right? I've been on all those shows and I know what they're thinking. And there's clearly a big disconnect in the country. One half of the country believes something and then there's another half that just doesn't see them at all.
So and I've been seeing it as a touring comic. I'm all over the country. I'm in big towns, small towns. I've been seeing meeting people live and hearing all the things that we heard Donald Trump say, because he's reflecting the views of cities and states that don't make it to these TV shows.
So I was not surprised, but I'm not surprised that a lot of these these hosts have no idea that these people exist and feel this way. Did you grow up? When did you come here? I came here at 16 and I lived in Ohio for many years. Shout out to Ohio. Great state.
I got my college degree and my law degree in Ohio. So people were writing you. What were they saying after this election result? They are writing me that I'm going to get deported because in their eyes we're all illegal. Immigrants are all one category and we're all illegal. And, you know, as an Indian immigrant, especially, you know, my people, the only way we can come here is by following the process to the T. We have to wait in line for years and years, myself included, you know, years.
It took about 18 years to get it done right. Really? Yeah, of course. So did you do it in India to come here? OK. Once you came as a student, got a job, then left when I fell in love, which was a stupid move because why fall in love when you're about to move to America? But it happens. OK. And you don't blame yourself. I blame myself for the falling in love part, you know, for a minute.
My head started spinning and I was like, oh, this is a good idea. But got back in line after that. When that happened, stopped everything, left America, thought I was done with America. Life happens, then came back, got back in line at the back of the line, started all over again, 18 years from beginning to end to the path of green card and citizenship.
And that's not just me. That's millions and millions of us immigrants who come here, including my Latin friends and including my Hispanic friends, European friends. The assumption that every immigrant and illegal and legal is all the same.
How do you feel about people taking shortcuts? How do you feel about we had seven point eight million people just go through the border? I have a lot of empathy for them, as I do for a lot of people everywhere in the world. I mean, I have empathy for people in the Middle East going through what they're going. I have empathy for my own relatives back home who have no chance of coming here.
So I understand. But there needs to be a system. It is not fair that there is no system and that some people can walk in when others are waiting in line for years and years. That doesn't feel fair. And that is the number one issue.
The thing is, if I asked you that eight years ago, it'd be like, well, Brian's a little harsh. Most of the people are a little upset because they see us in every city. Texas and Arizona say, yo, by the way, you're going to feel our problem. Yeah.
Big heart. But do you want him taken over your streets? And sadly, a lot of criminals are coming through.
Yeah. I mean, it's just it's it is what it is, because those pathways into America are so treacherous that it's it's not the weak who can make it through those walking roads and days and days. The really strong people who know how to survive those. The Indians wouldn't survive. We eat too many carbs.
We would never be able to walk really. That's why you have to do it the right way. Thank God. We know how to code. Thank God. That's true.
It's honest. So you're trying to say is the Indians are the right way because they don't really they eat too much carbs and they will never be able to do the board values and ethics. We would not survive swimming through an ocean when those people were not cut out for. Listen, the Indians were colonized for 200 years, right? We we didn't even fight in the end.
The British didn't leave because we won a war. They left because they got exhausted of us. They're like these guys.
There's nothing happening here. You know, we we're not fighters that are when we're really angry. Do you know what a really angry person does? They declare a hunger strike. That's true.
That's like how every Upper East Side mom is living right now. That is that is true. I mean, we grew up hearing about Gandhi. He was one of the top five all time guys. He was upset. So he would he marched. He encouraged the whole country to get out there and march 10,000 steps.
He was the original. Right. And that was before the iPhone, as far as you know, even though I'm surprised. But you know, you say that a lot of people in India want to get out. They paint India as one of the most the fastest growing with the greatest potential democracy in the world. Are they not is everyone not feeling that progress in India?
No, no, they certainly are. And I know a lot of people in America who've gone back to India, started businesses there. But it's a big country.
So there are a lot of people who want to live there and build there, who want to come here and build here. Their families that have been split apart, like in my case, my husband and I, both our families are back home. Now me personally, I'm looking for who in the Trump administration can put my mother in law on the no fly list, hopefully reach out to your colleagues. Whoever can do that, I will do whatever they want for that. Right.
But so she can stay in India. But there are other people in our families who we would love to bring here if we could be just to finish up the late night topic. You heard that. That's late night television. Here's Jay Leno.
Yeah, one of the last fair brokers out there who an equal opportunity offender cut 31. In my day, you kind of made fun of both sides. And I would get missing on you and your Republican friends. Well, Mr. Leno, you and your Democratic buddies. So you get angry letters from both sides and you go, oh, it's 10 more this or five more that.
So now you kind of have to take a side and yeah, it's a little bit a little bit different. But he was even being judgmental then here's more cut 32. The nice thing about this election is it was fair. It was honest. I was not a fan, but that's OK. It's president of the United States.
Let's all get together. Thank you very much. It was done perfect. There was no cheating.
Everybody says it was honest. I mean, it's a good a great day for democracy. Not bad, right?
I mean, so far, so far we survive for you, for you personally. Tell everyone your journey, how you ended up to stand up. This was not a likely profession for you.
Yeah. My children dared me. It was a dare from my kids because you were hysterical at home. Well, I wasn't trying to be hysterical. I was just being me.
They found it hysterical. I yell at everybody at all times about what they're studying, what job they plan to have. You know, listen, our generation, my generation worried about like, how are you going to make a living more than anything else? Right. And you seeing that, I mean, I think it was my generation, Gen X, that voted in large numbers at this election, which makes sense because we are getting crushed on both sides. We're taking care of our elderly parents and we're taking care of our adult kids who are too busy worrying about I don't know what they're worried about. These kids are like everything is a hill they're going to die on, except the hill of having a job. Right. But yeah, careers was an obsession. There's not an obsession with that in their 20s, right?
No, not at all. They all feel like it's optional because mom and dad are going to step in and you know, they're not, they're not. I'm letting my own kids know we are not stepping in.
You need to get out there and get a job. But they dared me to get on a comedy stage and then here I am. Well, how many years ago was that? That was five, six years ago. Six years ago you walked up there with, did you have material? No, no.
I had no material. And the lady who ran the open mic said, why don't you just talk about whatever you find funny? And I figured, let me just trash my mother-in-law because who doesn't think that's funny? Right.
Except the mother-in-law. Yeah. Well, she's coming around to it. You know how she came around to it? She thinks she's going to get a cut out of the money I make and then she's okay.
Right. And so now she like kind of looks forward to it. She's become a character.
Well, yeah. And she sends me jokes. You know, she'd be like, talk about my sister. Do you know what my friend did? What my neighbor did? Talk about all these people.
So she's helping you with material. Yeah. So when did you realize you could, could really do this? There was there any doubt? Did you have any doubt?
No, it was instant. The first day I was on that stage, I knew, I was like, you want this? I was like, oh my God, I've been doing this for 20 years for free because I was the person who was holding the mic at every Indian wedding reception, keynote speech.
They would just hand me a mic and say, say something funny. I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know people would pay money for it. Right. I left millions of dollars on the table. Yeah.
You never charged a fee for those weddings. So so you write constantly, so you put out a lot of content. Yes. So how do you do it? I mean, I'm seeing like working 24 seven the way everybody who builds something build builds.
You have to be obsessed, possessed and drowning in it. And that's my life. I write constantly if I'm on an airplane, I'm writing.
If I'm not writing, I'm watching a YouTube show on how to learn something new. I'm constantly at it. Right. And you have a YouTube show right now. Yeah. I have with your family on it.
Yeah. I have a family podcast, the Zarna Garg family podcast. It's a first of its kind where we banter as a family because we have three kids.
I'm Indian, very on brand, lots of kids. I have a 21 year old, I have an 18 year old, I have a 12 year old and I want to know what they're thinking. We've actually done an episode on what kids know about politics, things like just what do you know?
Right. Because we don't know what our kids know. Is it conversation or you feel compelled to be funny? No, it's conversational. It becomes funny because I'm part of it and that just goes.
And my kids also think they're funny. And everybody who watches my podcast seems to be rooting for my husband, which is which is how the patriarchy wins. Every time people stop voting for him, because at the end of every podcast, we ask our viewers to vote for who they thought gets the A grade. Right. And my husband somehow he does nothing. He just sits there.
He smiles and he gets an A grade. Right. But he still likes you.
Well, I mean, like is a big word. I don't want to jump in. From the Fox News Podcasts Network, I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the transom dot com daily newsletter, and I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to Fox News podcast dot com. Have you heard you can listen to your favorite news podcasts ad free?
Good news. With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to Amazon dot com slash ad free news podcasts. That's Amazon dot com slash ad free news podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Did you go to the White House?
Yes. We covered it as a podcast. All five of us were invited. We showcased the Diwali celebration at the White House. We put together a podcast episode, really gorilla style like we we can do so much with so little. We went with our five phones. We captured the vibe, the decor, the food, President Biden's speech, all the other speeches. We came out of the White House and recorded the episode right outside the White House and prepped it and edited it and released it the next day.
I had to go over so well. I mean, the world should know that in America, the American president invited Indians to celebrate Diwali. I think I think the world should know that holiday. What is it? It's the Indian New Year.
It's the equivalent to our Christmas or Rosh Hashanah. And they did it so beautifully. And we did it as as a labor of love.
There's no money, of course, in that. And my kids flew in from all over. But we really thought it was a moment. It's a moment that highlights America at its very best.
Is this a good time? I mean, for Indian-Americans, you have Kamala Harris, the vice president, and they got Usha Vance. The guy is going to be the second lady.
Yeah. Does that matter over in India and here? Of course, it matters.
And of course, it matters to me personally and Usha, we have high hopes. She looks very elegant. I think she's going to be a big voice in this. She's brilliant.
She's brilliant. Even though she did a history college major, we'll forgive her for that. You don't like those majors. I don't like those majors.
You want something very practical. I want STEM, but she figured out her way in life. So we won't hold it against her. Usha, even Nikki Haley, she's another one. There's so many Indian women. Kamala Harris. It's almost too many. Oh, oh, no such thing.
Are you kidding? We're in it. And I believe Kamala Harris will be around and she will be a force to reckon with. She ran an amazing campaign.
And you know, I think she's going to be a voice. And I encourage all of them to speak on behalf of our people. Do you find that they tell you your relatives are in India?
Do they cover it more when there's someone of Indian heritage running or? Yeah, of course, because they're just curious and they're curious about the simple things the same way they were curious about my podcast episode. What was the food like here?
They're less consumed by the politics of it. And more like, what was the vibe like? What was she wearing? And you know, it's a lot of that stuff. So even with, for example, Usha Vance, a lot of it is like, will her South Indian food be served at her residence wherever they live when he takes office, right? And people are so curious about little everyday basic facts, and she has little kids. So everybody wants to know, is she speaking Telugu because she's of Telugu South Indian heritage?
Are her kids speaking the language are they Indian people in India are just happy to see that they're being represented on this global stage? Because it's anything that happens in America is not just America, it affects the world. Right. That's what a lot of people don't understand. Oh, I mean, America sneezes and the world catches a cold. They used to say that about Canada, but I think it's true for the whole world.
Now we have the pandemic and now we do believe that everyone does get sick when China sneezes. Yes. We'll see. When's the next time people can see you, but you're sold out. I'm sold out, but I do a lot on social media. I'm very active at Zarna Garg everywhere on every platform. And my YouTube shows, Zarna Garg Family Podcast, join us as a family. I encourage everybody to watch our episodes as a family.
I'm being told that that's what happens. What time is it? Are you live?
I don't go live. The episode drops every Monday at noon. Every Monday at noon, we drop an episode about whatever is the topic of the hour. And we do have an episode about what kids know about politics, which was eye opening for us.
For me and my husband. Don't you mean what your kids know? Well, my kids, but they talked a lot about what they teach in school, the books they use. Like we didn't know.
We didn't know what kind of messaging they're getting in school. So it was interesting to learn. You could follow her everywhere. Zarna Garg, thanks so much for coming in. Truly appreciate it.
You can find her at Z-A-R-N-A G-A-R-G. Zarna, great to see you continue success. Great. Thank you for having me. Thank you to all your listeners. And thank you, Brian. And you can say she's legal.
Everyone leave her alone. We're not deporting. From the Fox News Podcast Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four term U.S. congressman from South Carolina brings you a one of a kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to Fox News podcast dot com. Listen to the show ad free on Fox News podcast plus on Apple podcast Amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you next time.
