“I’m a workaholic,” said Mayim Bialik—who is 50 years old, and has been famous for about 40 of those—when we sat down to film an episode of my podcast in Los Angeles. “My grandparents were immigrants, so I have that thing of hustle, hustle, hustle.”
Bialik has been in not one, but two, massive sitcoms—Blossom in the ’90s, in which she played the teenage title character, and then The Big Bang Theory, in which she played Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler. The latter ran for more than a decade, until 2019, and at a few different points was the biggest show in the country, drawing in 20 million viewers a week. Since then, Bialik’s made her directorial debut with As They Made Us—a movie about a divorced mom of two, which is one way to describe Bialik—and spent time as a host on Jeopardy! “I loved hosting Jeopardy!, I miss hosting Jeopardy!,” Bialik told me of that time. “When I was not asked back, I wasn’t all right—I wept.”
On the day she and I talked, Bialik had spent the morning recording her own show, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown, where she puts her neuroscience PhD to use exploring big questions about the brain, spirituality, and consciousness. She showed up drinking a green concoction from a glass jar: “lunch,” she deadpanned. She was wearing a long skirt, because later she’d be heading to synagogue for Yiddish night—another one of Bialik’s many passions.
So, are Bialik’s intense and wide-ranging interests—I can’t think of any other actors in Hollywood who are, like Bialik, certified lactation educators—her way of staying grounded? A strategy for keeping normal in Tinseltown?
“I wouldn’t consider myself normal,” she told me. “I think a lot of it does come down to personal neuroses, fears, anxiety, and insecurity. I hate to say it, but those are some of the things that keep you normal, because you don’t have that expanded sense of ‘I’m amazing’ or ‘I deserve this,’ or ‘Give me those drugs.’ ”
That’s another example of Bialik’s odd place in the famously fickle and unforgiving entertainment world: Even though she was a wildly successful child actress, she never had embarrassing public meltdowns. She never flamed out.
There’s been a rash lately of skeptical looks back on stardom, and the costs of it, from Lena Dunham’s memoir Famesick to the docuseries exposing the toxic working conditions on the set of America’s Next Top Model. I wondered if Bialik saw any of her own experiences mirrored in this trend at all.
Bialik told me: yes and no. She said she experienced misogyny, body-shaming, and unfair pay as she was coming up. But she “wasn’t part of the party scene,” thanks in part, she said, to her strict parents—no-nonsense educators who were “very fastidious about me not getting a swelled head.”
“I wouldn’t consider myself normal,” Bialik said.
Her own parenting has been the stuff of internet legend; she advocated for a no-diaper policy, instead using a more primal method called elimination communication, and extended breastfeeding. “What I was doing was not novel with the friends that I had; I was just one of the hippies,” she said, before observing: “I was the only hippie that was on TV.”
And yet, despite the crunchy parenting—she reports that 10 or so years later, her kids are “more obedient than a lot of people would assume”—and the fame, Mayim Bialik is, in the end, oddly relatable.
There are the out-there pursuits, and seeming contradictions—she is a spiritually inclined scientist, a socially conservative famous person—and yet Bialik is firm in her core values. When it comes to money, she believes it’s for giving away, and for teaching your children about the world. “I’m one of those people who believes there should be a cap on how much you can earn, and it should be a lot less than what it is,” she told me. She also believes in, and is vocal about, feminism, criminal justice reform, and Israel’s right to exist and defend itself. So politically, she told me, “I don’t even know what I am anymore.”
You can listen to my entire conversation with Mayim Bialik—we covered a lot of territory—or watch it below:
Also, one housekeeping note: I’ll be taking off next week for the Fourth of July, so there will be no new episode of Second Thought. We’ll be back the week after, and we’re already booking guests for the fall. I’d love to know who you’d like me to interview and what topics you’d like me to cover. So please tell me, in the comments below!
Here’s What Else I’m Thinking About:
In honor of Pride Month, much to the chagrin of Free Press readers, I came out as a fan of Lil Peep, who, yes, I consider a Great American. But for those worried that I only listen to emo rap on repeat (I do), I wanted to offer another recommendation if that’s not really your thing. It’s a new album from the Yiddish singing duo called the Shvesters. Free Presser Polina Fradkin is one of the singers; and, yes, I’m biased, but they’re glorious.
Who doesn’t love a pivot? I’m always happy to see that the girlbosses of the 2010s (and before) can’t be kept down. Cases in point: Bobbi Brown’s new makeup company; Audrey Gelman’s new inn. Gelman also has a home goods store, and recently licensed a historic Jewish German textile company’s signature patterns for a new line of pillows and dresses.
Madonna’s new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II, is out next week. She told Interview magazine that the “mood” of the album is “the girl in high school, me, that never got invited to any dances because I scared everybody, boys. I’d go to dances by myself, go crazy, and do whatever I wanted.“ And about her biopic, Julie Garner was set to play her, but it was shut down, apparently because no one would cough up enough cash: “I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget.”
We’ve reported extensively on the parents betting big on tech for their kids. But some parents are starting to fight back, claiming that their local school’s device policies have thwarted their domestic lives. “These electronics have ruined parenting,” one father said. “I was in tears,” commented another, who watched his daughter zone out in front of her screen. “It’s like the computer stole her.” Read the full report for a glimpse into the analog rebellion in Philadelphia.
This week, The Atlantic declared that the hot new place for singles isn’t dating apps, or even that one World Cup bar in your city. Instead, the spot to land a hot new date is Substack. Across the platform, “newsletter writers are playing Cupid with their like-minded readers,” Anna Holmes writes. I couldn’t agree more. Here at The Free Press, we’d like to remind you that we aren’t just playing at being Cupid; we’ve been at it for years. You can find your soulmate by clicking here, or offer up your own ad by emailing Cupid@TheFP.com.
You lost me at the no diaper policy. Best of luck.
I met my fiancé via Substack. So grateful.