Mayim Bialik Just Wants to Talk

Mayim Bialik has three decades of steady success on screens big and small, a neuroscience PhD, an adorable family with two teenaged boys, a sweet gig hosting Jeopardy! alongside Ken Jennings, and a hunky Canadian partner—both personal and professional—in Jonathan Cohen, with whom she makes her popular pandemic-born podcast, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown. She is not, however, actually having a breakdown. (As the catchy theme song by Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson goes, “She’s gonna break it down for you, ’cause you know she knows a thing or two.”)

The podcast is what we’re talking about today since the 47-year-old Blossom and Big Bang Theory star is a strong supporter of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes—last May, in fact, she was among the first celebrities to take an overt stand by declining to host Jeopardy’s new season until the writers got a fair deal. (Which they did, just this week.)

The four-time Emmy nominee could have put her head down and feet up in the meantime, but instead, she’s doubled down on Breakdown. Bialik’s guests mostly fall into one of two camps: doctors, scientists, and psychologists discussing neurobiology, mindfulness, meditation, and mental health, or Hollywood types she’s invited for a casual chat about “where they are mental health wise.” As Bialik discloses her own anxieties and traumas, so too do her guests. Ricki Lake has dished on her menstrual cycle, Nikki Glaser on losing her virginity, and Chelsea Handler on repressed grief following her brother’s death. Hard science, new age wellness, and celebrity disclosures blend together to make a show that’s like eavesdropping on someone else’s therapy session.

How does Bialik have the nerve to ask Dustin Hoffman about his distant father, or Ben Stiller about the struggles in his marriage? I called her up to discuss the unique perils of being a child actor, her fervent support of the SAG strike, and whether she ever gets starstruck.

Vanity Fair: I’m a bit nervous to chat because of the SAG strike, which I know you’re a big supporter of, so please yell if I break a rule.

Mayim Bialik: There’s a lot of complexity to this, but my general statement is always that I come from a union family. My grandparents were immigrants who worked in sweatshops, and my parents were public school teachers. While it’s not for me to personally judge anyone else’s decision, for me, I am a union supporter—pretty much all unions and what they fight for. I believe in that system even if it’s not perfect. I believe in getting educated about why people strike and what they’re striking for.

Let’s talk about the podcast. Many of your guests are child stars—Jeanette McCurdy, Mara Wilson, Jodie Sweetin, Jenna von Oy. Is this your posse in real life, or are you particularly interested in that journey?

Our initial goal was to have experts and specialists on the show. We started during Covid, when a lot of people were feeling a spike in things like anticipatory anxiety—the entire world, really, to some extent. We initially leaned on people in my circle, like Wil Wheaton, who really inspires me to be open about mental health challenges. We asked people if they’d talk to us about where they came from and where they are in terms of mental wellness. Lots of celebrities have come on the podcast and shared their struggles, which I don’t think they have because they live publicly but because living publicly tends to highlight or exacerbate the issues that we all deal with.

It is hard to convince people to come on and spill their guts?

So far, not really. We’ve had everyone from spiritual psychologist Matthew Singer to Matthew McConaughey to Ben Stiller. Leslie Jordan talked so openly about crystal meth and what it was like to come out as gay. One of the things we most hear people say is, “I’ve never told anyone this!” Maybe there’s something about the way Jonathan and I talk to people that makes them want to talk to us. We’re not trying to get dirt or be gossipy, but I think more and more people are realizing the more we talk about this, the better we’ll all be.

Maybe you missed your calling as a therapist. Is there anyone you really want to get on the podcast but can’t?

Hah, yes! I’ve been trying to get Weird Al. He says he doesn’t have anything to talk about, but my feeling is everyone has something. We’re very happy to talk to people just about their journey. To them, we say, we’re not looking to dredge up dirt or make anyone uncomfortable. But once we start talking, they are comfortable, so they trust us. When I’m vulnerable, when Jonathan’s vulnerable, people seem to open up. I’m not a therapist, but I’ve sure sat in a lot of therapist’s rooms.