W. Kamau Bell has the most practical ‘most indispensable tool’

The comedian, activist, podcast host, author, and dad won’t leave his phone behind.

The comedian, activist, podcast host, author, and dad won’t leave his phone behind.

W. Kamau Bell is one of those people who has always just seemed to be there. From Totally Biased , to Politically Re-Active , United Shades of America , and We Need to Talk About Cosby , his blend of comedy, social commentary, and political activism has helped him stand out. He’s won a Peabody and four Emmys, been a Celebrity Jeopardy! champion, received honors from the ACLU, and been crowned the Ambassador of Fishbone by founding member Chris Dowd. Bell is, if nothing else, a busy man.

So we’re very grateful that he took time between episodes of his podcast Who’s With Me , his comedy tour, and Substack of the same name, promoting his upcoming children’s book Rock Paper Scissors Cheese (out October 27th), and, of course, being a dad, to answer our weekly questionnaire.

I probably use the map app every day. I wish MapQuest’s app was better, so I didn’t have to use the Trump Billionaire guys’ apps. You know who I’m talking about. The map apps that have the Gulf of Mexico listed as the Gulf of America. SOOOOOOOOO EMBARRASSING!!!

It’s been a long, loooong time since I had a phone that didn’t just transfer my old apps over, but I would guess that if I had a clean phone with only the basic apps on it, I would quickly install YouTube. What do you expect me to do? Just think my own thoughts all day? I need somebody constantly telling me something about something. Or singing me something about something.

Just come in a hard case with that piece of plastic that claims it stops your screen from cracking already on the phone. I just bought it. I don’t need a project, and I’m not comfortable asking the person at the cellphone place to do it for me. Also, I’m sure it is a scam, but I just put it on there anyway.

I have 17 windows open across two different browser windows. That’s light work. When I’m writing a Substack article, I can get to 30 windows… easy. I only close them when I hit “publish” on an article. I have to earn the right to close a window.

I really want to thank Elon Musk for breaking my addiction to Twitter. It wasn’t healthy, so I can say that he really improved my life by ruining Twitter. These days, I’m an Instagram and Threads guy. Not that Zuckerberg is significantly better than Elon, but as a public-facing person, I do need these platforms. But Zuckerberg better be careful. My generation isn’t afraid to leave social media platforms. We left MySpace and Friendster, just like I left Twitter.

Watching the latest Japanese video on YouTube or watching Lionfield videos with my 8-year-old on Instagram

A brush that claimed it could effectively comb Afros. I bought it because of Shark Tank . But I think my hair is just too long. Or the X-ray specs they used to sell in comic books.

It is a tie between Civilization on the PC and NBA Live on Sega Genesis. I’m talking like NBA Live ‘95 . I’M SOOOOO OLD!

Flappy Bird. But I would have let it rock instead of deleting it. Maybe because I have three kids, I can’t look a gift app in the mouth like that.