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What Now? With Trevor NoahJessica Alba Is Standing in Her Power! - What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast
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Chapter summaries
Stabbed or Shot, and an Awkward Introduction
Trevor Noah opens with a joke about whether he'd rather be stabbed or shot, then jokes his way through introducing a nervous Jessica Alba to an imaginary third person. He highlights her work founding Honest and her acting career.
- •Noah says he'd choose being stabbed over shot because of the intimate moment with the attacker
- •Alba says she hasn't done an interview in a long time and feels nervous
- •Noah's mock introduction presents her as an actor and founder of a company making hundreds of millions of dollars
- •He recalls Honest as the first time he heard about paraben-free products
Coming Back to Action and Feeling at Home on Set
Noah explains how his strict upbringing limited what he watched until he saw Alba in Dark Angel. Alba says sets feel like home and describes her love of action, her casting at 17, and why Hollywood events always felt uncomfortable.
- •Noah's religious mother restricted his TV viewing, including The Simpsons
- •Alba says sets feel like home, partly from growing up on a military base and starting acting young
- •She loved Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop but wanted the woman to be the main event
- •She trained with stunt people and had a seat in the Dark Angel writers' room at 17
- •She felt uncomfortable at Hollywood parties and lacked a community
Being Pigeonholed as a Fanboy Fantasy
Alba and Noah discuss how she was marketed to male audiences through men's magazines and how that shaped her strategy. Alba says women only warmed to her after she built a company and had children.
- •Young actresses were taught to compete with each other, which bred isolation
- •Alba says she felt she was competing against men, not women
- •Women didn't really get her until after she built a successful company and had kids
- •She balanced every men's magazine with three or four women's magazines
- •Noah notes her early interviews already mentioned wanting to produce and control her environment
Believing She Was Smart: Family History and Assimilation
Alba says it took her three years after founding Honest to embrace that she could be smart, and she let co-founders take credit for finding her. She traces this to her family's experience of racism and assimilation, including her father's shame and treatment.
- •Alba let co-founders claim they found her even though she pitched them
- •She links her self-doubt to her grandparents' pressure to assimilate in a segregated environment
- •Her father is still stopped by cops and at airports, which she raised while discussing voting
- •Therapy helped her see why she struggled to stand in her power
Childhood Lost and Rediscovered Through Her Kids
Noah shares his mother's advice to play as a boy, then asks whether early work cost Alba her childhood. Alba says she lives it through her kids and explains why acting gave her the freedom to be someone else.
- •Noah's mother encouraged him to play so he wouldn't chase a missed childhood later
- •Alba says she gives her kids the life she didn't have
- •She always felt a layer of cynicism when she was uninhibited growing up
- •Acting is cathartic and forces her to be present
- •She hopes to work only with people she loves
Trigger Warning and Why She Prefers Knives to Guns
Noah asks about her new film Trigger Warning, in which she plays a Special Forces character. Alba talks about grounded action, the Indonesian knife fighting style, and why guns feel like a cop-out.
- •Alba plays a Special Forces character who returns home after losing her father
- •She wants action grounded in a real character so the payoff feels more gratifying
- •She likes doing the kicking and punching but not accidental hits
- •The Indonesian director brought a knife technique that makes it believable for a small person to take down big men
- •Alba says guns need no skill and feel like a cop-out
Founding Honest as a Social Justice Mission
Noah asks why Alba started a business when celebrities weren't doing that. Alba describes her lifelong social justice drive, her lobbying on Capitol Hill, and her decision to build a solution that would change consumer habits.
- •Alba says there's a tape of her as a child at Disneyland calling herself a feminist
- •Her dad's military job gave the family medical care and housing on very little pay
- •After learning people were being poisoned by everyday products, she lobbied on Capitol Hill
- •She decided the way to change habits was to create a product consumers would choose
- •She first had to educate consumers, then get them to buy, and it took off quickly
Advice to Her Younger Self and Pitching to Skeptical Investors
Noah brings up Jensen Huang telling founders "don't," and asks what Alba would tell her younger self. She says to stop looking to men for validation, describing how investors demanded data, put her in a box, and how the company then had to scale.
- •Noah relays Jensen Huang's advice that he would tell someone not to start a company
- •Alba's advice to her younger self is to stop looking to men for validation
- •Investors wanted studies and data, which she says are impossible for disruptive ideas
- •Some investors said they'd go ask their wives
- •She says she'd now be more compassionate toward people who only know what they know
- •The business had to build up its team to keep up with rapid growth
Stepping Away from Honest and Identity Beyond the Title
Noah introduces Simon Sinek's idea of two yous and asks how Alba knew it was time to leave Honest. She explains wanting to leave it in good hands and likens it to sending a child to college.
- •Noah describes the gap between the person and the name-badge identity
- •Alba wanted to leave the company in a good place when it needed a more streamlined approach
- •She compares letting go to a kid leaving for college and says it's sad
- •Noah describes holding on to what you love while letting it go to its next stage
Running From Stillness and Self-Worth Beyond Achievement
Alba says she needs to sit in nothingness, and Noah recalls touring nonstop after leaving The Daily Show to avoid silence. They discuss self-worth separate from achievement, and Noah's flower analogy for existing without a point.
- •Alba feels she should sit in nothingness rather than rush into something new
- •Noah worked more the year after leaving The Daily Show than during it
- •Alba says she's learning she can be worthy of love without achieving
- •Alba asked her parents "What's my point?" as a young child
- •Noah says a flower just grows and gives and takes without needing a point
Therapy With Her Kids and Healing Family Cycles
Alba explains why she took her kids to therapy, despite being mom-shamed for it, and what she learned about holding space rather than being right. It also deepened her compassion for her parents.
- •Alba says she faced backlash for starting therapy with her kids early
- •She had a tough adolescence and a complicated relationship with her mom and wanted things to be easier with her girls
- •The therapist taught her it's not about being right but letting kids express themselves
- •Her kids pushing against her can be a relief, a sign they feel safe
- •More inner work has given her compassion for her parents, who only know what they were taught
Struggling With Stillness and Worst-Case Scenario Thinking
Alba says stillness is her biggest struggle, especially amid everyday life, and Noah shares his argument with a monk in Bhutan. Noah then explains worst-case scenario-ing and a Charlie Munger quote.
- •Alba says meditating is easier in isolation but hard in daily life with kids
- •Noah argued with a monk in Bhutan who said stillness can always be found within
- •Noah finds stillness late at night, around midnight or 1 AM
- •He asks "what's the worst that could happen?" to reduce anxiety's power
- •He cites Charlie Munger saying he just wants to know where he will die so he can never go there
What Now? Closing Question
Noah asks Alba his signature question, what now for her as a human being rather than what's next. She answers honestly that she doesn't know, and Noah calls the answer beautiful before thanking her.
- •Noah clarifies he's asking "what now," not "what's next"
- •Alba says she really doesn't know
- •Noah calls her answer beautiful and thanks her for joining
