About

Jena Friedman is a comedian who cares about journalism. She is an Academy Award-nominated writer and comedian. She is the creator of SOFT FOCUS on Adult Swim and TRUE CRIME STORY: INDEFENSIBLE on AMC+. Her credits include writing on BORAT 2: Subsequent Movie Film, GOOD SPORTS WITH KEVIN HART AND KENAN THOMPSON on Amazon, NOBODY WANTS THIS on Netflix, THE CONNERS on ABC and THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN.

She was also a producer on THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, through the end of his tenure in 2015, where she wrote and directed field segments.

​She's a contributing writer to THE NEW YORKER and her first book, NOT FUNNY: ESSAYS ON LIFE, COMEDY, CULTURE, ETC., published by Simon & Schuster, is a national bestseller. Additionally, she has appeared on THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT, CONAN on TBS, THE NIGHTLY SHOW WITH LARRY WILMORE, and in the Sundance hit movie PALM SPRINGS, now on Hulu. Here's Jena's Ted Talk on THE JOKES AI WON'T TELL.

Elise Hu is a journalist who appreciates comedy. She's a reporter, podcast host and author who spent more than a decade at NPR as a correspondent and host, and worked as a television correspondent for VICE News Tonight. Today, in addition to this show, she’s the host of TED Talks Daily, one of the world’s most listened-to podcasts, Raising Us, a parenting podcast from A Kids Co, and a co-host of Forever35, a women’s focused show about the ways we take care of ourselves.

As an international correspondent, Elise reported from more than a dozen countries and opened NPR’s first-ever Seoul bureau in 2015. Her experiences in Seoul inspired her debut non-fiction book, Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital.

Prior to NPR, Elise helped found the nonprofit digital startup, The Texas Tribune, and spent more than a decade as a television news reporter. Her work has won the national Edward R. Murrow, Gracie, Webby, Signal, and duPont Columbia awards, among others. She’s an alum of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Journalism school.