Chris Pratt Stays on April 9 Podcast to Question Ben Sasse
chris pratt stayed on the April 9 NOT DEAD YET podcast after the planned interview was nearly over and turned the spotlight back on Ben Sasse. Pratt asked the former senator what is broken in the world and what still gives him hope, turning a celebrity appearance into a direct exchange about faith, mortality, and legacy.
April 9 on NOT DEAD YET
Pratt told Sasse, “Ben, the world is gonna miss you, and I’m gonna to miss you. I’m gonna miss your voice and your intelligence,” before adding, “I think that you stand for something that is just so rare that we can’t afford to lose it.” Those lines matter because they framed the interview as more than promotion: Pratt made the guest the point of the segment.
He also said, “The reason I did this [podcast] was not to talk about myself but was to actually shine a light on your legacy, Ben,” and then asked, “What’s broken right now in this world, and is there anything that still gives you hope?” For listeners, that shifted the call from a standard guest spot into a public conversation about belief and what endures when a career is winding down.
Ben Sasse and the podcast
NOT DEAD YET is cohosted by Sasse and political analyst Chris Stirewalt, and its name alludes to Sasse’s battle with terminal cancer. The audio-only format also tracked with Sasse’s treatment, which compels him to throw up regularly. That setup gives the podcast a very different frame from the usual interview show: the condition is not a footnote, it is part of the structure.
All three men are Christians, and Pratt said he had been praying earlier in the day, asking, “God…what can I say? Will you give me the right words?” He also told Sasse, “You love your country. You love the potential of your country, at least, I feel,” which placed the exchange in the overlap between personal faith and public service rather than celebrity branding.
Stirewalt's weed joke
Sasse then broke the mood with a joke about Pratt’s earlier remark that he was trying to stay off the weed. “First of all, a few minutes ago you said that you were trying to stay off the weed,” he said, before adding that the podcast would become a “carefrontation” about Pratt’s new drug addiction. The joke cut through the solemnity without changing the subject: Sasse is still talking from inside a terminal diagnosis, and Pratt stayed long enough to let that reality lead the interview.
That is the real value of the April 9 appearance. It was not a celebrity stopover that ended when the host cue card said so; it became a direct public exchange about what Sasse leaves behind, what Pratt thinks is worth preserving, and why a show named for terminal illness can still produce something watchable when someone stays on the line and asks the harder question.
