Brian Lehrer: Listeners, our phones are open for a few things for you on this Thanksgiving day. Call in with a person, place, or thing you would like to thank for helping you through this intense year of 2020. Call in and tell us how you're doing Thanksgiving compared to normal years. If you changed your holiday plans at the last minute, as a bunch of people did, call in and tell us what you're fantasizing about doing when you feel like it's safe, after enough of the pandemic has lifted.

Everybody gets a bonus question of what's on your Thanksgiving plate? (646)-435-7280, (646)-435-7280, or you can tweet your answer to any of those questions @BrianLehrer. We'll watch the Twitter go by. As your calls are coming in for the second hour, with us now for a few minutes to help us get our attitude adjusted to gratitude is Imam Khalid Latif, NYU public administration professor, and chaplain at the NYU Islamic Center, who among the many things he does is that he is steeped in the practice of gratitude, even in the face of 2020 level adversity.

Imam, it's always great to have you on. Thank you for some time on this of all days. Welcome back to WNYC. Do I have this right? The very first word in the Koran means something having to do with gratitude?

Khalid Latif: The very first word is Al-hamd, which means praise. The full construct says, Alhamdulillah, all praise is for God. It's rooting a relationship with the divine through this positive framework. It's letting people know that our perspectives with anything are heavily going to be impacted through vision modifiers. You want to choose gratitude as a vision modifier, so it helps you see what's there, as opposed to chasing after what's not there, and enabling you to find that much more meaning and contentment through appreciation as a vehicle.

Brian: It sounds like people use the word in all kinds of routine situations, not just when there's some extreme situation to be thankful to someone or something for.

Khalid: Every day we're in a place where if we really sit down and we think about it--, I have a five-year-old and a seven-year-old and I was telling them as they were eating their eggs to really think how many people had to be put into movement for that egg to even just get on their plate and not us breaking it and cooking it ourselves, but from people who transported it, people who are taking care of the chickens that they are harvested from, people who shipped it, people who cartoned it, people at the shopping market.

I mean, you're talking about hundreds, if not more people who are put into action every day to do things so that we can have the things that we have, and to think about that, not in the sense of a burdensome mode of introspection, but in a way that is rooted in something that elevates oneself. Gratitude is what does that for us, to have thanks that even in the midst of so much that's going on, there are still things that we can look at that are they're helpful to us and beneficial.

Brian: Now, you said Islam teaches three levels or dimensions of gratitude. I was looking over these last night. I'm not familiar with them myself previously, but even non-Muslims can learn from this. Can you go over those three dimensions of gratitude briefly?

Khalid: Well, there's no value or ethics that any religion would own themselves. I think where there's a deep dimension in appreciation and gratitude for us to gain from and learn from, is something that is a human characteristic and a trait. I think one of the things that becomes challenging is that when we're in a consumer-driven society that tells us that our sense of happiness and contentment is rooted in what it is that we're being sold quite often. If we don't possess it, then we won't be in a state of happiness, so to speak.

Whereas what Islam teaches is that if you can fundamentally root yourself and this prism of deliberate appreciation that allows for you to see what it is that you have, and to find meaning in it, to bear connection with it, you're going to realize that your wants are not really what you want to chase after gaining complacency for, but your contentment is going to really be at the fulfillment of your basic needs.

To have a thankfulness with God, a sense of thankfulness with people, with God's creation, as well as to have a sense of thankfulness within one's own self to let yourself be in a place where you're increasing through deliberate introspection, your contentment by engaging in reflection on appreciation.

Brian: One level is to experience the feeling of gratitude, another is to take the step of expressing that gratitude verbally, as I understand you. The third is to express gratitude by doing righteous deeds. I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about that last one, because maybe we think of doing righteous deeds out of civic duty or personal responsibility or a moral code or generosity of spirit, perhaps, but doing righteous deeds out of gratitude, what's the connection?

Khalid: Intention. There's deep impact on what an act will yield. If you do something out of a burden and some sense of obligation, then that's what you're going to bring to the action. But if you bring a sense of energy, a sense of contentment, a sense of just vitality, that saying, "I'm not doing this because I have to do it. I'm doing this because I want to do it," and gratitude can be that catalyst that you're feeling good, and your goodness then dominates into a sense of it emanating more goodness around you.

We have a verse in the quote on that says how to Hal jaza ul ihsan illal ihsan, that is the reward for beauty and goodness, anything other than beauty or goodness. that when you put out an act of kindness, that's going to yield more kindness. Bringing that sense that starts with one's own self of reflection on what it is that you are appreciative of, and it then energizes the rest of you to want to just go out and do for others simply because you have the desire to do it.

There is a well-known Muslim scholar whose name was Rabia Al Basri, who her relationship with God she identified as one that was based off of principles of love and gratitude and appreciation. She lived many centuries ago, but she once famously said that, "I will not serve God as a laborer in expectation of my wages," that her doing for God wasn't because she expected something in return, but she just did it because she wanted to do it.

I feel like so much of our routines these days are rooted in doing things that become mechanical and monotonous because they bear a heavy weight of responsibility and obligation, or we feel as if, it's what we're "supposed to do". When you can transition to that nuance of wanting to do it, it now yields benefit for the recipient of what you're giving, but it also comes back to you in a way where it still increases that level of balance and contentment that you have in [unintelligible 00:08:13].

Brian: Nicely said. Before you go, I'm curious if you, as a chaplain at NYU have had to adapt your ministering around gratitude for the NYU community in the face of all the grief this year, whether it's grief for someone who we may have lost or be separated from because of COVID or grief or George Floyd, and Brianna Taylor and Daniel Prude, and Ahmaud Arbery, and tragically, I could go on? That speaks to a grief and horror reaction, even if we didn't know the people personally. Does gratitude find its way into any of that?

Khalid: I think so. People are not homogenous in their experience by any means. We've had a very difficult year. We see over and over evidence from all kinds of systems that the country is built on that does not honor Black life. The names of Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many others are testaments to that. We see five and a half million people lose their healthcare in the midst of global pandemic somehow. Whereas even beyond that, insurance and health coverage is something that in comparison to other countries, we're way behind.

40 million people lose their jobs. Statistics and other things we can continue to go deeper and deeper. We have essential workers who even on this day of Thanksgiving are at their job, bringing food, drink, groceries to people's homes. Many of them don't have the choice, whether they will work or not. They are doing it because their choice is whether they will put food on their table or not because they get paid when they work. Many of those essential workers or people who are undocumented, they aren't even considered human enough to receive a stimulus check.

How gratitude interjects itself into these broader conversations and what we did at our center at NYU was both prior to and during the course of remind people in the prison of gratitude that we have narrations in our tradition that say that your faith will not be complete until you love for people what you love for yourself, or until you love one another. Using that prism of gratitude to then catalyze that sense of love and compassion. We connect people on ethics and values.

Our community at the Islamic center at NYU mobilized about 50,000 people through this prism of interconnectedness and appreciation for so many who are going through difficulty, including members of our community. We had in about the three or four months after social distancing was put in place in March, it raised close to $3 million to provide cash grants and relief to people mostly in New York, but in some other parts of the country who were going through difficulty and facing financial hardship.

That was a lot of people coming together through a prism of, we have the ability to be a reason that people have hope in the world. We understand that there are so many reasons right now that people might dread it, but we're going to choose to be a catalyst of positivity and we're going to remember what it is that dictates our sense of ethic and value and be with people during their struggles, so that we can then, in turn, be a reason that they also can feel that sense of appreciation.

Brian: Imam Khalid Latif, NYU public administration professor and chaplain of the NYU Islamic Center, who, as you hear among many other things he does, is to be steeped in the practice of gratitude, even in the face of 2020 level adversity. Thank you, Imam, for a few inspiring minutes, and happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Khalid: You too as well. Thank you so much.

Brian: Back to your calls with the person, place, or thing that you're grateful for today on this Thanksgiving or how you're doing the holiday differently this year. Denise in Chelsea, you're on WNYC. Hi, Denise. Happy Thanksgiving.

Denise: Thank you, Brian. A long time listener, first-time caller, so grateful for your show. Thank you so much.

Brian: Thank you.

Denise: I'm calling because I'm grateful today for my employer. I'm an essential worker. I work in a grocery store and I've had full-time employment throughout the whole COVID. I'm also grateful to New Yorkers who patronize the store and provide me with employment.

Brian: That's pretty direct. Are you grateful-- I think people who are not essential workers probably wonder a lot, are you more grateful for having a job when so many people are laid off or are you more, I don't know, what the word is, resentful, or what the right emotion is exactly, for having to go out there as an essential worker and therefore putting yourself at some risk?

Denise: Oh no. I love my work. I'm very grateful for my work. I enjoy it. It's a pleasure to go to work. It makes me happy and my employer has taken extreme measures to protect all of us from COVID as far as safety measures within the store so I feel very happy.

Brian: That's great. I hope your customers express gratitude to you.

Denise: They do. I hear it a lot. It's great. I'm happy to have access to the outside world and food and just being out in the world at a time when many people don't have that luxury.

Brian: Denise, thank you so much, and happy Thanksgiving. Nicole in Kew Gardens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Nicole.

Nicole: Hey, Brian, happy Thanksgiving. Longtime listener, not a first-time caller. I'm really glad I got through because, hey Whit, come here, the second of my four little turkeys turns 11 today and he was born on Thanksgiving 11 years ago and it falls on Thanksgiving every once in a while. It's like a built-in party because we [inaudible 00:14:42] go to our family in Long Island and celebrate and of course, that's not happening this year. I wanted to do something a little special and give him a shout out for his 11th birthday on the radio.

Brian: That is great. Is he paying attention? Or like an 11-year-old is he like, "Ma, I don't care."

Nicole: No, he's sitting right next to me and he actually just said hello and he wants to say what he's thankful for, if that's okay.

Brian: Please. What's his name?

Nicole: His name is Whittaker.

Brian: Hey, Whit.

Nicole: What are you most thankful for this year?

Whittaker: I'm thankful for a lot of things. I'm thankful that none of us got the virus.

Truman: That's what I was going to say.

Nicole: You can think of something else, Truman, go ahead.

Whittaker: I'm thankful for our family and I'm just thankful that Biden got elected personally. [laughs]

Brian: You have a political 11-year-- Whittaker you're politicized at 11.

Nicole: Now all my other kids want to say-- I only have four, so it won't take too long. They want to say what they're thankful for. Dashiell is 12. Dash what are you thankful for?

Dashiell: I'm thankful that we have a new president that cares about the environment. That's a bigger crisis than COVID, because COVID--

Nicole: -will go away at some point.

Dashiell: Yes, COVID will go away at some point. [unintelligible 00:16:06]

Nicole: That's Dashiell, he's 12.

Brian: Whittaker and Dashiell.

Nicole: Dashiell and Whittaker, and now we have Truman who just turned nine. Truby, what are you thankful for?

Truman: I'm thankful that no matter what COVID does, it's still [unintelligible 00:16:19]

Nicole: Enduring. Then our final installment was a little girl named Cordelia. She's seven. CC, what are you thankful for?

Cordelia: Animals.

Nicole: Animals.

Cordelia: Especially horses.

Nicole: Pictures of horses have gotten her through the last nine months.

Brian: That's a good one, pictures of horses. I like that. Nobody yet has thanked art. We had a call earlier who thanked nature, but thanking art or any of the arts, Cordelia raises a window on a whole other realm of things to be thankful for. I know people are listening and thinking, "Those are some pretty unusual first names for your kids." How did you come up with them? Except Cordelia.

Nicole: I would be remiss if I didn't say the thing that I'm most thankful for, other than Whit's birthday, is my husband Julian, who is just my everything. He has been such an awesome partner during this moment. He's a professor and has been working from home and helping with online schooling for four children in a small apartment and he's just rad.

He and I, when he picked up the name Dashiell we decided to go with a literary theme because we were both nerds in that way. Dashiell is Dashiell Hammett. Whittaker is Whittaker Chambers, Truman is Truman Capote and twofer because of the president, and Cordelia was the good daughter who took her of her father when he was old and infirm, so my husband said he was planning ahead.

Brian: Raising engaged, literate and art appreciating children. Thank you for being you and thank you for calling, Nicole.

Nicole: Thank you for blessing us and thank you for letting us share our hearts with you. Happy Thanksgiving.

Brian: Thank you to all of you. Happy Thanksgiving, whole family. All right. Here's a ringer of sorts. Calling in a former Brian Lehrer Show producer, I think, named Paige in Brooklyn. Are you that Paige?

Paige Cowett: Yes, I am. Longtime producer first-time caller. How are you, Brian?

Brian: Good. For people who don't know Paige Cowett, maybe you remember hearing her name in the credits. She was such an integral part of the show for what? Like six years, right?

Paige: Something like that.

Brian: Why'd you call it today? I don't think you've ever been on before.

Paige: No I haven't.

Brian: You never got on as a producer to make a little cameo about something you were working on or something.

Paige: I don't think so, no.

Brian: To what do I owe this?

Paige: I called to express to my midwife. I don't know if you know this, but I had a baby right at the very beginning of the pandemic. She's almost nine months old. Not only did my midwives Catherine Clark and Chris McCloskey get me through the birth, but through the next few months where I was real freaked out, because I had a newborn in a pandemic, so I was just calling to express my gratitude for them and for all the midwives.

Brian: You and Tanzina Vega. Tanzina Vega, as she's talked about on the air, also had a baby right around the beginning of the pandemic and so has had to deal with all the isolation rules and stuff in addition to being a newborn, and when she came back to work after maternity, juggling all of those big three pieces and whatever else. How has it affected you the most, having a baby in the pandemic?

Paige: This is my second and I was so hopeful that it would be easier the second time and the first couple of weeks, it was like-- it did seem easier and we were so happy and then the lockdown happened and the baby stopped nursing well and didn't sleep. We were worried that we were going to get COVID. I think it was just a level of anxiety and just being freaked out about our own mortality, honestly, and having such a vulnerable human in our care and living in a tiny apartment--

Brian: It's so sad in a way because when you have a newborn, a new life that has just come into the world and into your home, it's not the time we're supposed to be the most focused on our mortality in a certain respect. You got that laid on you. All right, Paige. What's on your Thanksgiving plate?

Paige: Oh, I'm making duck instead of turkey. I'm making Chinese style duck. I'm making sticky rice stuffing and I'm making apple tart, which I've never done before.

Brian: I wish I was at your house. Paige, happy Thanksgiving.

Paige: Happy Thanksgiving, Brian, and the whole team.

Brian: Ben in Union County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ben. Ben, are you there? Happy Thanksgiving, Ben in Union County.

Ben: I'm here. Can you hear me?

Brian: Now, I can hear you. How are you doing? Who would you like to give thanks to? I see that you're calling to give thanks to some people, right? I think we don't have the best connection with Ben. Let's see. Do we have the next surprise ready to go? Mary, can you tell me if the next surprise pair is ready to go or if I need to wait for that for another couple of minutes? All right. I think we need to wait for that for another couple of minutes. Let's go to Bernice in Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls. Bernice, you're on WNYC. Happy Thanksgiving.

Bernice: Happy Thanksgiving to you. I wanted to express my thanks to the people who run Seabrook because we are all fairly elderly and they have made this pandemic something we could manage and we are very carefully taken care of. I'm very grateful for it every day. I thought I'd call in and say that.

Brian: That's great. I hope some of the workers there are listening to hear it. We talk so much in the media about people in nursing homes to take another example, the residents and how vulnerable that they've been to COVID. I think that a lot of people don't stop and think about, and talk about, and we certainly tried to do it on this show. I don't know if enough, the people who work in the homes and wherever. For you at Seabrook Village, you're thanking the staff who's out and around the complex all the time doing the work?

Bernice: Absolutely. Absolutely. They're here today and every day. They've set up rules so that we can be sure that we're handling ourselves properly and they've set it up so that living here is really wonderful, even though we're in the middle of a pandemic and even though we are all of us very much possibly going to get, but we're not getting it. None of us have had it. We're very lucky and that's why I called.

Brian: What's on your Thanksgiving plate, Bernice?

Bernice: Probably the same turkey that's on everybody else's plate. They'll probably be some other courses offered, but I'll probably have turkey. l'll probably enjoy the day, even though I won't be with my family, but I'll be with some friends.

Brian: Thank you for calling, Bernice. Happy Thanksgiving.

Bernice: Happy Thanksgiving to you and thank you for having a wonderful show that I listen to very often.

Brian: Thank you very, very much. It's The Brian Lehrer Show live on Thanksgiving, taking your calls with a person, a place or a thing you would like to thank, or how are you doing Thanksgiving compared to normal years, or what's on your Thanksgiving plate.

Right now to the second of our Thanksgiving day is surprise thank you calls. As some of you know, we invited listeners to email us yesterday if you want to give a surprise thank you on the air, on the radio, to someone you're grateful for this year. The listeners who were doing this gave us the name and contact info of the person they want to thank. We have one of those people on the air right now. It's Nora in Queens. Hi, Nora. I'm sure this is a little weird to be on the air on Thanksgiving for something like this. Thanks for coming out to play with us.

Nora: Hi, Brian. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for this beautiful show, by the way. We've been listening all morning and it's been so nice. We also listen every day like so many people and it's really helped us get through these crazy nine months or I guess I could say crazy four years.

Brian: Thank you, thank you. The callers have been amazing today. No surprise to me. Have you figured out who the person might be who asked us to include you in this and who's about to come on the line and thank you for something?

Nora: I was very surprised and excited when I got a message from your producer and I had no idea who could really be since I really just see the same three people every day, but as my husband ran into another room and closed the door, I have a sneaking suspicion it might be him.

Brian: Hi, David from Queens.

David: Hey, how are you? Hi, Nora.

Nora: Hi, David in the other room?

David: I know this is strange. The past eight or nine months have been outrageous, but the silver lining to this is that we've been able to spend so much time together. While I've always been in awe of you, to see every minute of every day as a professional, as a mom, as a teacher, I just wanted to say thank you because I'm so in awe of who you are as an individual.

I don't think there's enough time or enough opportunity to really say how much I appreciate the fact that you've turned into a superheroine in the past nine months and been able to hold down everything and been the glue of our family. I love you. I just wanted to say thank you. It's like one of those weird things where I sent this email to The Brian Lehrer Show and they called. I just want to shout from the rooftops that you are fantastic.

I know this goes for a lot of the moms and dads that are holding down a lot more responsibility and craziness than they thought they would when this year started, but Nora Gomez, I love you very much and I'm forever indebted to you for this year and every other year.

Nora: I'm crying on the radio, it's so embarrassing.

Brian: That's okay. Why don't you, Nora, get yourself together a little bit, and David, the things that you listed to us when you responded, the number of things, I don't even know if you've done it justice yet. There's the homeschooling of the kids during virtual learning. Did she get elected a Democratic County Committee member or something like that?

David: Yes. When Trump won the election, we made a commitment to each other that we would be more involved in our democracy. Nora, in the midst of this, ran for the Queens County Democratic Committee and won. I thought that was remarkable. Add to that the fact that while our two-year-old and six-year-old were running around the house, she found time to include them in phone banking and text banking for various elected officials.

On top of that, I think we all know what a hard time this has been for everybody, but the arts and cultural community really took the past eight or nine months on the chin. Nora worked in that realm and was able to somehow ramp up her professional life while doing all these other things. They're working for the Public Art Fund and doing a lot of the digital communications, which was a way for people to stay engaged.

I think we all have an unbelievable amount of admiration for the people we choose to spend our time with, but until you see it to the extent that we've all seen it when we're with folks that we really care about every minute of every day, it's a constant reminder.

Brian: It's so beautiful. Nora, when a guy sets up something like this for his wife, I don't know if he's trying to get out of the doghouse for something or whatever, but he sounds like he really means it.

Nora: Yes, David is a very wonderful partner and I feel so lucky to be in this strange, difficult, challenging situation with him. I will also say, David is also really an elected member of the Democratic County Committee. We ran on a slate ticket together.

Brian: I don't know if it's sweet or if it makes me want to-- I don't know, at least you're not like James Carville and Mary Matalin who are from the other parties and have to fight every night over dinner about politics.

Nora: That would not work out here.

Brian: Do you want to pay it forward, Nora, and thank anyone outside your household in a word while you have the floor? I realize I'm putting you on the spot.

Nora: Obviously, I'm really thankful to my husband and my two kids. It's been so challenging to be a family in this situation, but it's also been the most rewarding part of all of it to get to be with them and spend so much time and just, I'm thankful for love because love is what has been able to-- made us get up in the morning and get through the hardest days and most difficult moments.

Brian: That we can't get any bigger and probably better than that being thankful for love, for love itself. David and Nora, obviously the two of you have that in your household and that was expressed through this almost surprise. David, she's obviously watching you closely because she knew that you went into another room and-

David: There's no escape.

Brian: -thank you for making it work. Nora and David from Queens. Happy Thanksgiving.

Nora: Happy Thanksgiving, Brian, thank you.

David: You too, Brian. Thank you, everybody.

Brian: Paula in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Paula. Happy Thanksgiving.

Paula: Happy Thanksgiving. Aside from being so grateful to you, Brian, and your show, that keeps us in New York City all connected, I want to send out a love letter to The Frick Collection because they're weekly streaming shows, Cocktails with the Curator and Travels with the Curator, especially the former where they look at a particular work at the Frick, the two curators discuss these works and as an art lover these programs have meant much to me and kept me connected with one of my favorite museums.

Also want to give a shout-out to the New York City museums that have reopened. They've brought such joy back into my life and a sense of normalcy seeing art in person. I also want to thank the Budapest Festival Orchestra for their quarantine soirees every weekday really gave me a routine every morning at about eleven o'clock.

I would sit for an hour-and-a-half and watch their concerts from their rehearsal hall so they really grounded me and all of the art lectures from all the different museums around the world that I was able to watch through YouTube and through Facebook, that really helped me get through this and continue to help me get through this.

Brian: I love this call. I'm so glad you called with this Paula and frankly, it relates to one of mine because I'm a music lover of different genres and I'd go to live music and obviously hadn't been able to do that during the pandemic. I've also had fun streaming live music from different music venues that figured out that they could stream live and charge a little bit for tickets.

I'm actually amazed how little these places have been charging for tickets for their live streams, like $10 and $15. I'm grateful to WQXR, for our sister classical station for inviting me a few weeks ago to fill in for Terrance McKnight for one hour. That got me going down a rabbit hole of looking for music with wind instruments featured which happens to be a musical interest of mine.

Once you get going on YouTube music and Spotify and whatever site you use, you can discover so many things that are so different. If we can't go out to see music and art in person, at least at home, there are places like the ones you've mentioned and some of the ones that I'd been frequenting where we can still have the arts and it's an amazing loss. It took a child, the youngest of the four children in that family before. Did you hear that family from Kew Gardens?

Paula: I did.

Brian: The youngest child, Cordelia said-- Everybody was talking about people and politics, and she said, "I'm thankful for art," so I'm glad we got grown up on that beat too.

Paula: Thank you. Those things mean so much to me. Also, we're talking about classical music also for me any kind of dance, but especially contemporary dance and even more so ballet. I've been watching the free streams for the New York City ballet. I took several little classes, music history classes through the School of American Ballet, and those were subsidized at $25 for, I think it was like an hour-and-a-half or two hours talk.

Brian: You took like a zoom ballet class dancing in your home by yourself?

Paula: Not doing, they would interview former ballet dancers, retired ballet dancers about Balanchine, about Robbins and present day dancers.

Brian: Oh yes, that's so interesting and really gratitude to all the artists of all kinds of performing arts genres who are suffering so much now. I'm suffering as a music fan much less than the musicians, because I can find these streams and these things are out there a little bit like we've been discussing, but they can't really make a living. They can't be out there doing what they do and same thing with people in theater and everything else.

Paula: Sure. That's why if you can, whatever anybody can spare, even if it's a $5 or a dollar to give to the Actor's Fund or TDF, if you love theater, the dance company of your choice, wherever.

Brian: Exactly. I know that some of our elected officials too, knowing the concentration of the arts and people who work in the arts in New York are trying to get it into the next COVID relief bill. Some dedicated lines for people in performing arts who were really long-term out of work and not everybody in Congress from around the country gets it or cares or thinks they're not going to get blowback from their people and wherever they are, where there aren't as many making a living on that but that's another political thing. I'm trying to stay off politics mostly today but-

Paula: To your point, look at great performances on PBS, that brings world-class performances into homes all over, into rural America and so if those orchestras and dance companies and theater, if they don't get some subsidy or help, people who will-

Brian: That's right. Thank you. Paula, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you so much. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for bringing up the arts. Now to the third and final of our Thanksgiving Day surprise "thank you" calls. One more time. We invited listeners to email us yesterday. If you want to give a surprise "thank you" on the air, on the radio, to someone you're grateful for this year. Whe listeners who were doing this gave us the name and contact info of the person they want to thank and we have one of those people on the air right now. We'll just identify her as Katie. Katie, I'm sure it's a little strange to get a call like this out of the blue and find yourself on the radio on Thanksgiving morning, but hi, and welcome to WNYC.

Katie: Thank you.

Brian: Have you figured out who you think might be the person who's going to come on the phone with us here to thank you for something?

Katie: Maybe, but I'm not really sure. I'm pretty surprised.

Brian: In that case, also with us now is Brian Lehrer Show listener, Christine. Hi, Christine and say hello to Katie.

Christine: Hi Brian. Hi Katie.

Katie: Hi.

Christine: Brian, I just wanted to say, I love this idea and I actually loved that last call. It was just a great reminder of what a special place New York City really is. Thank you for your show. I just wanted to give thanks to one of my best buds, Katie.

Brian: For what?

Christine: I've been in New York since the beginning of the pandemic and I live alone. I've been quarantining solo. I've lived in New York for the last decade or so, but my parents live in Northern California. My dad died in May in San Francisco and I couldn't travel to be with him because of COVID and he actually died alone, which was really hard for me, but after he died, my friend Katie who lives in LA and how the super demanding job launching pop-up grocery stores, she started calling me every single day just to give me some company and I make sure I was doing okay.

Our calls become this daily ritual and she's really become a virtual roommate for me. She really helped me to navigate through that initial shock and grief, but then also encouraged me to launch a new business and helped me to redecorate my apartment. She consulted on FaceTime, down to like the teeny tiniest details. Now the calls are mostly, I'd say like hot takes on the Queen's Gambit and The Bachelorette, but I wanted to say that Katie, your thumbprint on my life is really incalculable, and without you, I don't think I would be okay. You're so funny, generous, and talented. You've really made such a difference in my life.

Brian: Aww. Katie, you okay? Katie, while you get it together--

Katie: I knew there was a very strong possibility that I would just be crying the whole time. I had a feeling that it was you that called and it's funny because I could say the same thing about you. We've had very different years, but I so cherish our times together and I really don't know what I would do without you. You've also really helped me get through a really difficult year. I'm so, so thankful for you.

I can't believe that we've known each other for 12 years, but I know that we're not done traveling the world together and growing old together and taking meticulous notes on shows like The Bachelorette and comparing them and starting new adventures together. I do, I love you so much. It didn't take a radio show for me to know how you felt, but I'm so grateful that you thought of me to say thank you on a radio show.

Brian: A lot of people will express their condolences to their friends when their friends lose someone, but to be there for Christine this much in the way she described and in a COVID safe way, how did you come to take on that role?

Katie: She and I have been really close for a long, long time, but for a big part of that we've lived across the country from each other. As she mentioned, I did have a really demanding job and because of COVID, I was able to take a little bit more time for myself and I was able to fill it with seeing her and her just being home and she's also super busy. Being able to set aside that time where we could be going out to get a drink with friends or whatever. It's like, it's given us the opportunity to come together and spend time with each other that way.

I know the amount of hurt that she was going through and to be alone and be in that situation. When you love somebody you're going to do anything you can to be there for them and to try to make it better. That's one of the only ways I knew I could do that.

Brian: That is so great.

Katie: Like I said, it's given me as much as she's gotten out of it, you know what I mean?

Brian: Amazing. We will leave it there. You're our last callers. Such a great way to end with this level of friendship and even from afar. Katie and Christine, thank you for being part of our show today, and happy Thanksgiving to you both.

Katie: Thank you, Brian, Happy Thanksgiving.

Christine: Thank you, Brian, Happy Thanksgiving.

Brian: That's almost it for this Thanksgiving Day live edition of The Brian Lehrer Show. Thank you listeners in the five boroughs. Thank you, listeners, in Nassau and Suffolk and Rockland and Westchester and Bergen and Hudson and Union and Essex and Middlesex and Maurice and Somerset and Monmouth and Passaic and Ocean, and any other counties in New Jersey where you can hear us, and in what they used to call Fairfield County in Connecticut before they did away with that level of government.

Tomorrow we will be taking the day off, but we've put together a special edition of rebroadcasts all with historians who've appeared on the show, from Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lincoln putting together his cabinet to Kevin Young on the history of the hoax in American culture. We're not done with that era yet, are we? Even an interview we did way back in 2003 with the legendary oral historian Studs Terkel. That's on tomorrow's show. Then we'll be back, live on Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. Two more thank yous. People in our master control room who never get thanked on the air, but who come in live to work like Chase Culpon who's there on this Thanksgiving Day, and Kevin Lela, who does it too. Thank you, guys.

 

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