Talking Points Episode 25: Martha Stewart on MSC Cruises, Uber and Her World Travels

Martha Stewart is always on the go. Since leaving Wall Street to pursue her passion, her ambition has allowed her to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Martha is now the quintessential household name. As a businesswoman, television personality, and expert author of nearly 95 books on everything from entertaining, cooking, baking, homekeeping, floral arranging, and more, there are no signs of her slowing down.

“There's so much to see. I just hope that the unrest in the world will be tempered and we can all feel free to go wherever we want to go. That's my dream, but travel is I think one of life's joys.”

Recently, she stopped by TPG to speak with Brian Kelly on his podcast, Talking Points, about her latest brand expansion — her partnership with MSC Cruises. Martha Stewart & MSC Explorer Excursions debuted June 1 with sailings from Miami to the Caribbean. “We want to send people where we would go ourselves, or where we have been ourselves and know it’s authentic,” she told TPG in April.

These shore excursions price between $115 to $199 per adult. Some of the offerings include a food and culture walking tour of San Juan, Puerto Rico; in the Cayman Islands, you could horseback ride along the beach and finish up with a tasting experience at a local restaurant.

“Cruises are a very nice way, economical way for families to take vacations, to see a lot of different ports, say, in the Caribbean or in the Mediterranean or in the Northeast.”

Stewart details how these excursions will have you seeing cultures through her own eyes, in curated culinary, historical and outdoor experiences.

“You pay for your basic cruise. Then you get on the cruise and you can choose excursions in the different ports, so you can sign up for a Martha Stewart excursion cruise. And you can go to the restaurants I like. You can go to the markets I like. Get those kinds of experiences that I find when I travel. That's what we're trying to do.”

Other fun things on this episode are Martha’s collaboration with Uber. She explains how after her disastrous first experience, partnering with the ride-sharing company to enhance the Uber Black experience was a natural next step.

Listen to the full episode above to hear about Martha Stewart’s globe-trotting adventures. She is a points and miles guru, she lists her travel necessities, and she shares why she always takes her own food on planes. Pro tip: caviar is TSA approved!

And get the inside scoop on how her good friend, Snoop Dogg, introduced her to get involved in a publicly traded cannabis company: Stay tuned for a Cannabidiol (CBD) venture from Martha.

Please subscribe, rate and review Talking Points on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple PodcastsAcast
Spotify
StitcherGoogle PodcastsOvercast
TuneIn
PocketCasts

Full Transcript:

Brian Kelly: Welcome to Talking Points. It's your host Brian Kelly. I am so excited to introduce my guest on this episode. She's one of the most iconic women in America. It's the one and only Martha Stewart. As a businesswomen, entertainer, author of almost a hundred bestselling books, she's even expanded her brand into cruising and that's what we're here to talk about today. Martha Stewart, thank you so much for joining us.

Martha Stewart: I'm very happy to be here and see your beautiful offices.

Brian Kelly: It's fun, right?

Martha Stewart: Yeah.

Brian Kelly: Well, it's kind of funny. We actually have like some high-level similarities in our story. We both worked on Wall Street and ended up pursuing our passions.

Martha Stewart: Indeed.

Brian Kelly: What was it that helped get you from that Wall Street career to doing what you really love?

Martha Stewart: Well, it was one thing, negotiated commissions. Very basic business decision. I thought, "Gee, I could probably make more money doing something else." That was not true. I could have made a lot more money just staying on Wall Street.

Brian Kelly: Do you ever think about that? Like what...

Martha Stewart: Oh, no, no. No. I would have been the CEO of a company that I hadn't started. It freed me to become the entrepreneur that I have become.

Brian Kelly: Your first foray -- was it weddings at first?

Martha Stewart: I was a caterer. After painting my house from top to bottom on extension ladders -- I'm not afraid of heights obviously -- I started a catering business and started feeding people's appetites, their culinary appetites, rather than their money-making appetites. It was kind of fun.

Brian Kelly: Was this a side hustle like while you were working...

Martha Stewart: No. No.

Brian Kelly: You left finance.

Martha Stewart: Oh, yeah. I totally left. I totally retired from Wall Street and started this catering business, which was such a folly because catering is infinitely more difficult and harder and more exhausting than any other occupation on earth except maybe digging in the coal mine.

Brian Kelly: But you loved it?

Martha Stewart: Oh, yeah. It was very fun and it taught me a lot. It taught me a lot about many, many things. Just transportation of something like food, perishables, taught me how to have a staff that had to be maintained and commandeered. Catering staffs are really hard.

Brian Kelly: You were making the food and obviously you're known for your homemaking and decorating. Was that a service that you added on or were you going into your events and being like, "No, you got to do it this way."

Martha Stewart: Oh, no, no. I did everything. I did the decorating. It was almost being an event planner for my clients. We did everything from small events to very large events at the Metropolitan Museum, at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, at Sotheby's. I was their caterer for several years at all their big openings of all the big art sales and antique sales. I had a very interesting catering career, which taught me a lot about feeding people in a restaurant that you set up every night and broke down night every night. It was very ephemeral, very hard, very hard, but it made beautiful pictures.

Brian Kelly: How many books are you at today?

Martha Stewart: I just finished the introduction. It's called the introduction, not the forward, because authors do not write forwards. They write introductions to their work.

Brian Kelly: Good to know.

Martha Stewart: 95th book.

Brian Kelly: 95th book.

Martha Stewart: Yes. Isn't that great?

Brian Kelly: What is it?

Martha Stewart: It is a book on cookies. It's called Cookie Perfection.

Brian Kelly: Your favorite cookie?

Martha Stewart: Either a really good macaroon. Not the French macaron. This is the coconut.

Brian Kelly: Coconut. I love coconut.

Martha Stewart: The chip dipped in milk chocolate or it will be a sablé, which I learned how to make in France on the Rue de Cherche Midi in a little place called Poilane. They made the best and I learned from them. I make my own out of pâte sucré. That's a really good cookie.

Brian Kelly: I can't even spell any of these things that you're saying.

Martha Stewart: I'll make them for you sometime.

Brian Kelly: By the way, if you don't follow Martha on Instagram, there's the brand account and then there's MarthaStewart48, which is like my favorite Instagram account.

Martha Stewart: Oh, good.

Brian Kelly: It is Martha --

Martha Stewart: Quintessential Martha.

Brian Kelly: Quintessential Martha, just as we need it. We flew together -- I loved flying, what was it, SAS from Newark to Oslo last year -- when we went to the Seed Vault and I have to say ... Well, first of all, you judged me for drinking wine even though it was 6pm. You kind of threw a little bit of shade at me.

Martha Stewart: You shouldn't be drinking alcohol. Is that what I said?

Brian Kelly: Something like that.

Martha Stewart: Well, I try not to drink on airplanes because they say you should be drinking a lot of water, hydrating, and sleeping if you can, but also walking around a lot. I try to follow all that.

Brian Kelly: That was such a whirlwind trip, that Seed Vault.

Martha Stewart: Oh, yeah, yeah. That was the Seed Vault up in Svalbard, Norway which is very close to the Arctic Circle or close to the North Pole. So much fun. We had such a great time. But then I went the same month -- I had already planned a trip because the Seed Vault was kind of a spontaneous trip with all you guys -- and then I went to the South Pole. I become bipolar in one month. Didn't take long. One month.

Brian Kelly: Those pictures I --

Martha Stewart: Oh, the icebergs.

Brian Kelly: It looked amazing.

Martha Stewart: Such a different landscape in the South Pole from the North Pole.

Brian Kelly: How so?

Martha Stewart: Well, because the North Pole is all snow and not a lot of ice. More snow. Remember how much snow we were in? Those early morning snowmobile rides. Did you go on those?

Brian Kelly: I didn't. I missed it.

Martha Stewart: You were sleepy. He was sleepy.

Brian Kelly: I was tired maybe because of that wine in the --

Martha Stewart: He was drinking and sleeping.

Brian Kelly: Martha is always right.

Martha Stewart: Oh, gosh. I went out on those ... It was still dark when we got up and went out on the snowmobiles across all the glaciers. We had so much fun. I saw a reindeer. We didn't see any polar bears because --

Brian Kelly: They were too far out there.

Martha Stewart: They're too far out.

Brian Kelly: It was like hours out.

Martha Stewart: But then in the South Pole, you see so much more wildlife because it's open seas and we were on the sea.

Brian Kelly: Were they calm when you were there?

Martha Stewart: Oh, no. Sometimes they were very rough, but it rained every single day and that was not good for global warming. We were down there to see about global warming, but the icebergs are the most incredible, incredible natural formations I've ever seen. I like to travel where I haven't been. That's my favorite place to go.

Brian Kelly: I think one of my favorite surprises inflight was when you gave me your baked potato with caviar.

Martha Stewart: Isn't that nice?

Brian Kelly: It was the sweetest gift I've ever gotten, ever.

Martha Stewart: You ate it.

Brian Kelly: Oh, I ate the whole thing.

Martha Stewart: You gobbled it.

Brian Kelly: I think you had hard boiled eggs as well.

Martha Stewart: From the chickens, yeah.

Brian Kelly: I remember walking down the aisle on that plane in business class. Everyone's like, "Where'd you get that baked potato with caviar?" "Oh, Martha Stewart," casually.

Martha Stewart: Well, I know.

Brian Kelly: Do you do that on a lot of flights?

Martha Stewart: Oh, yeah. Every flight I go on I try to take my own food because airline food ... It used to be more interesting. It's just not so interesting anymore. I'd rather take a snack or a small meal that I want to eat. On a trip like that where it's kind of celebratory, we're going to some place in the North Pole -- so amazing -- you want to kind of celebrate. I did have a can of caviar. A gift I guess somebody had given me.

Brian Kelly: It was a lot of caviar.

Martha Stewart: Yeah, we had a lot. Big, big can. I bring the can of caviar on an ice pack.

Brian Kelly: The caviar I guess is TSA-approved.

Martha Stewart: Yeah, it gets through the security. The baked potatoes get through the security. You can't take liquids. I mean it's the liquids. You couldn't take the bottle of vodka, but they did have vodka on the plane, I think. Did you have vodka with your potato?

Brian Kelly: I did not, no. I'm not a sot.

Martha Stewart: Oh, OK, but it's so nice to do something like that. I often take either a homemade sandwich or a salad or fruit salad that I make.

Brian Kelly: So they didn't cook the potato in the galley? I thought I saw you go into the galley. I was like, "Did Martha just commandeer the oven?"

Martha Stewart: No. No. No.

Brian Kelly: Have you ever cooked a meal in --

Martha Stewart: No. Sometimes I ask them to warm something for me and they do if it's first class. You have to be first class to do that. I enjoy traveling. I enjoy getting on an airplane actually.

Brian Kelly: I'm an optimist. I do believe we're in the golden age of travel now, in that it's cheaper relatively speaking. In the front of the plane, I mean lie-flat beds, showers. In the back, I agree, it's a little bit more grim, but it's a lot cheaper and I think more people than ever can afford to travel. So, what's your take? Do you think --

Martha Stewart: Well, more people can afford to travel because the planes are totally packed. There are many, many, many more people than 30 years ago traveling to all these remote places that we're all flocking to because we're looking for adventure, we're looking for excitement, we're looking for something new and different. It's a lot of fun for me to travel. I like traveling, but I much prefer a lovely Challenger or private Challenger, a private Global Express, G5.

Brian Kelly: Awesome. Awesome.

Martha Stewart: I don't get to be on them all the time, but it's fun to be on private aircraft.

Brian Kelly: Is that how you go when you go to Maine?

Martha Stewart: Well, yeah, because there's just not enough airplanes going to Maine. It used to be a daily or twice daily kind of flight to Bar Harbor, but now you have to go to Boston and the weather ... It's easier to just use a charter. No points, though.

Brian Kelly: Well, actually most private jet companies don't let you put it on. But actually since our last discussion, I knew you had a lot of Amex points. Are you better about your points or you're still hoarding?

Martha Stewart: Well, Tasmania was pretty much free.

Brian Kelly: Oh, did you use them all?

Martha Stewart: Yeah, to go to Australia, to Sydney and then all the way down to Hobart. First class for the whole family. It was great.

Brian Kelly: Oh good because I was worried the last time because you were hoarding them and then you were like, "Maybe I'll just use them for Florida trips." I'm like, "No, do the big ones."

Martha Stewart: I did the big ones.

Brian Kelly: Good.

Martha Stewart: It was very economical to do that. You also taught me about charging on my credit card any big expenses. Making sure that it was all done that way. Don't write checks. Charge.

Brian Kelly: But Tasmania was fabulous? I've never been.

Martha Stewart: It's an amazing country. It is a green country. Very food-savvy. Everybody's growing things. Everybody's making the most delicious wines. I was told while I was there that the French are even shuddering in their boots because the champagne is really good. So I tasted it. It is really good.

Brian Kelly: Interesting.

Martha Stewart: The red wines and the white wine are superb. The best thing I had in all of Tasmania, the cherries and the peaches and the apricots. I couldn't believe it. They were so much better than anything I had --

Brian Kelly: Really?

Martha Stewart: Oh, and blackberries. I had never had a blackberry that I really liked. They were so good.

Brian Kelly: Did you see any devils?

Martha Stewart: Oh, yeah. We saw Tasmanian devils.

Brian Kelly: Are they as crazy as they're made out?

Martha Stewart: They're sad little creatures. They're sick. They have an illness.

Brian Kelly: All of them?

Martha Stewart: Yeah, all the Tasmanian devils are infected with some sort of horrible virus that doesn't make them very pretty.

Brian Kelly: So sad. Poor devils.

Martha Stewart: They're trying to find the cure for the illness, but they're cute. They're cute little rodential-looking little things.

Brian Kelly: Cute little things.

Martha Stewart: Yeah. The terrain is extremely beautiful too. It goes from very mountainous and lake in the southwest where you can only walk. The only way to get around is by helicopter or walking.

Brian Kelly: Really?

Martha Stewart: Yup. That's the only way, and kayak. You can go kayak in the ocean, but there are no roads.

Brian Kelly: Interesting.

Martha Stewart: It's trekking.

Brian Kelly: Do you like helicopters?

Martha Stewart: Oh, I love heli ... It's my favorite way to travel. Very, very much.

Brian Kelly: They have the BLADE Bounce now. It's like six minutes from the West Side to JFK. It's so convenient.

Martha Stewart: No, it's my favorite way.

Brian Kelly: Cruising. So you just teamed with MSC Cruises?

Martha Stewart: Yeah.

Brian Kelly: Martha hits the high seas.

Martha Stewart: For me, cruises are a very nice way, economical way for families to take vacations, to see a lot of different ports, say, in the Caribbean or in the Mediterranean or in the Northeast. There are cruise ships coming right by my house in Seal Harbor, Maine, now.

Brian Kelly: I've always wanted to do one of those Canadian ones, like up to Nova Scotia.

Martha Stewart: We're going to do it all. We're all going on one, an MSC Cruise, in October. All my friends want to go.

Brian Kelly: Oh, fun.

Martha Stewart: So we're all going and we're going from Bar Harbor to Nova Scotia. Way up. We're going as far as we can go. I cannot wait.

Brian Kelly: It'll be amazing.

Martha Stewart: It's going to be fun.

Brian Kelly: You are curating experiences.

Martha Stewart: Yes.

Brian Kelly: This must have been a fun job to actually go and test things out and put your Martha stamp of approval.

Martha Stewart: Yes. What we're doing is ... Mine are culinary and nature-related excursions. So, one way, you pay for your basic cruise. Then you get on the cruise and you can choose excursions in the different ports, so you can sign up for a Martha Stewart excursion cruise. And you can go to the restaurants I like. You can go to the markets I like. Get those kinds of experiences that I find when I travel. That's what we're trying to do. Puerto Rico, I love Puerto Rico.

Brian Kelly: You were just there for the opening of Dorado, right?

Martha Stewart: We were. We were.

Brian Kelly: How was that? I've never been to Dorado.

Martha Stewart: It's the most beautiful resort. Dorado Beach, I used to go there when I was a stockbroker. We would take clients there. We had an apartment right in Dorado Beach, a condo. We would stay there with our clients and golf and do whatever, play tennis and stuff, because it's such an easy trip from New York.

Brian Kelly: It is so easy.

Martha Stewart: They've rebuilt the entire place. It's one of the first really luxurious resorts rebuilt after the terrible hurricane. The interior of the island is still suffering terribly. José Andrés is down there. He was there at the opening of the Dorado, but he also took me to some of his projects where they are trying to teach the farmers more sustainable ways of farming and growing things because they need help. They have --

Brian Kelly: Once the whole farm gets wiped out.

Martha Stewart: -- no raw materials.

Brian Kelly: The infrastructure is still --

Martha Stewart: Horrible. Horrible. But I like to see what's going on and I love to go to, since I started these trips, these amazing trips with my nieces and nephews and some of my friends and we would go about a group of about 12 of us or 14 of us would go. We went one year to Egypt where we had Professor Weeks, who taught at Yale, took us on a 10-day trip through Egypt. I had six nieces and nephews with me, ranging from like 7 to 16. Then we went to the Amazon and we took a boat way up the Amazon. Then we went to Machu Picchu.

Brian Kelly: You go with these guides who give you all the history?

Martha Stewart: Oh, yeah. We figure out a really, really great trip ahead of time of course and we have it all set up. They have worked so beautifully. The Galapagos 22 years ago was one of the most incredible trips I've ever been on and then we went back. I wanted my grandchildren to see it, so we went back two and a half years ago. What a different place.

Brian Kelly: Oh, really?

Martha Stewart: We saw maybe one-fifth of the number of animals that we had seen on the previous trip.

Brian Kelly: Even in Machu Picchu ... I'm taking my parents this summer, but --

Martha Stewart: To Machu Picchu?

Brian Kelly: Yeah, but overtourism ... and now they actually want to do an airport at the top of Machu Picchu. Of course, all the archaeologists are like, "What the heck are you doing?"

Martha Stewart: Oh, no, no, no. They can't. The stones will get ruined.

Brian Kelly: Overtourism is a problem. I mean you see now in Europe, Barcelona and Amsterdam are like turning people away. They're like --

Martha Stewart: I feel so fortunate that I've seen so many of these places pre-overtourism. But yet, there's so many other places to see.

Brian Kelly: So, what's on your list?

Martha Stewart: A friend of mine is an archaeologist and she's leading a tour to Western Mongolia.

Brian Kelly: Oh wow.

Martha Stewart: That's a very exciting trip and, especially with an archaeologist who has government support, and I want to go to ... I've been to several wonderful places in Africa. That's still an amazing place to see.

Brian Kelly: Have you done the gorillas in Rwanda?

Martha Stewart: No, I haven't.

Brian Kelly: They're so, so amazing.

Martha Stewart: I haven't done that. I'm a little frightened to do that because of the poaching and the killing there.

Brian Kelly: I know. It's sad. On the Congo side, there's a lot of ... But Rwanda's done a really good job of like --

Martha Stewart: I met the president of Rwanda.

Brian Kelly: Kagame.

Martha Stewart: Yeah, he's been doing a very good job.

Brian Kelly: It's smart. They turned the poachers ... Instead of like punishing them, it's like they gave them jobs as tour guides. Now the poachers, who knew the lands better than anyone else, are like the perfect tour guides.

Martha Stewart: And knew where all the gorillas were.

Brian Kelly: Exactly.

Martha Stewart: There's so much to see. I just hope that the unrest in the world will be tempered and we can all feel free to go wherever we want to go. That's my dream, but travel is I think one of life's joys. The more we can travel ... Oh, I'm going to Turkey this summer too.

Brian Kelly: Oh, nice.

Martha Stewart: Yeah. I love Turkey. I've waited and waited because of the unrest there.

Brian Kelly: Have you done Cappadocia?

Martha Stewart: Oh, yes.

Brian Kelly: I love the hot-air balloons.

Martha Stewart: Of course.

Brian Kelly: I've never done Bodrum. There's all these --

Martha Stewart: Bodrum is so beautiful and Ephesus. I've been to a lot of places in Turkey, but we're going to be doing the foods of Turkey, the different districts.

Brian Kelly: Are you going to do a book on it?

Martha Stewart: No. I hope I'm doing a PBS show. That will be very fun if that happens. I will know a lot more about Turkish cooking.

Brian Kelly: I love international places, but there's so many places in the US. Like you love Maine. What are some of the other hidden secrets in the US that you would encourage people to explore?

Martha Stewart: Well, the Everglades. The Everglades are beautiful and they need our attention because of the flooding of the Everglades, the rising sea. But that's a good place to start if you're going to be domestic. The Everglades is very beautiful. Maine is extremely beautiful. All over Maine. The lady who started Burt's Bees, she has bought up thousands and thousands of acres near by Baxter State Park and she wants to just encourage more people to enjoy the wilderness. I think that that's such a great thing to do. The climate on Maine is very nice and it's one of the few states in the nation that is going to be tolerable if global warming doesn't --

Brian Kelly: I remember going to your farm years ago for Thanksgiving and I remember seeing your Friesian horses. Just amazing. I actually bought 40 acres in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.

Martha Stewart: Oh, good. Oh, good.

Brian Kelly: It's going to be a several-year process.

Martha Stewart: What town?

Brian Kelly: In New Hope.

Martha Stewart: Oh, lovely. It's so beautiful. Did you get an old house?

Brian Kelly: No. I have a plot of land and I'm going to build a new house. There's so many houses from the 17-1800s, but since I'm 6'7'', it just doesn't work.

Martha Stewart: You don't want to get hunched over.

Brian Kelly: They're fun to look at, but for me to live in, I want to --

Martha Stewart: A big glass house enjoying your property.

Brian Kelly: Living in New York, you got to have that balance at least. It drives me crazy.

Martha Stewart: I agree with you.

Brian Kelly: Let's just talk travel items. I'm curious. Do you know the whole craze with CBD? Everyone is talking about CBD oils. What is your take on that?

Martha Stewart: Well, I'm working with Canopy, which is the largest producer of CBD.

Brian Kelly: I knew you'd have your hands on the ... fingers on the pulse of CBD.

Martha Stewart: Oh, yes. I'm going up to the cannabis conference in Canada.

Brian Kelly: Did Snoop make that introduction for you?

Martha Stewart: He did, actually. Yeah, he did. He's an early investor in Canopy, but I am on the advisory board for developing CBD-infused foods for animals, for dogs and cats.

Brian Kelly: I've posted about CBD and everyone is saying, "My dog had seizures."

Martha Stewart: Arthritis, yes. We are still in our research, but we're finding interesting things. You have such a nice dog-free office here. Dog welcome. You have a dog-friendly office. I hope we can find things ... I have horses also.

Brian Kelly: You still have the Friesians?

Martha Stewart: Oh, yes. I have six Friesians.

Brian Kelly: Are they good to ride?

Martha Stewart: Oh, they're beautiful. I ride every week. I have donkeys. I just got two more Sicilian donkeys this Sunday.

Brian Kelly: From Sicily?

Martha Stewart: Just what I need. Now I have five.

Brian Kelly: How many animals do you have?

Martha Stewart: A couple hundred.

Brian Kelly: Just a couple.

Martha Stewart: Just a couple hundred. That includes chickens and poultry and geese. I've been breeding geese. Crazy geese. They're very fun. I just got black chickens today. They're called Ayam Cemani and they're all black. They're black inside, as well as outside, and their flesh is black.

Brian Kelly: Do people eat them?

Martha Stewart: Yes. They're considered --

Brian Kelly: Are you going to raise them to --

Martha Stewart: No, I'm raising them for their eggs because their eggs are black.

Brian Kelly: What?

Martha Stewart: The shells are black as coal. They look like coal.

Brian Kelly: The yolk's not black though, is it?

Martha Stewart: No, although I don't know because I haven't opened one.

Brian Kelly: Actually I'm good friends with Eric Edge at Postmates.

Martha Stewart: Oh, you are?

Brian Kelly: I love your commercials with them. What's the craziest item that you have Postmated?

Martha Stewart: Well, you know, the East Coast --

Brian Kelly: I'm sure when you hang out with Snoop, the Postmates orders --

Martha Stewart: The East Coast isn't so ... We're growing in the East Coast and the awareness of Postmates that you can pretty much Postmate anything. But the little promotional spots that we did that were there on MarthaStewart48, they're going to be all over the place, are very funny. That's a fast-growing company. Really conducting very nice services for all of us.

Brian Kelly: I use it all the time, especially when staying in hotels. Room service is so blah.

Martha Stewart: Kurumazushi? Do you know Kurumazushi?

Brian Kelly: Uh-uh.

Martha Stewart: That's my favorite Japanese restaurant in New York.

Brian Kelly: Oh, actually I think --

Martha Stewart: It's upstairs on 47th Street.

Brian Kelly: The chef was at your house at Thanksgiving?

Martha Stewart: No, not that one. No, that was another one [inaudible 00:21:06] Another favorite restaurant, but Kurumazushi Postmates.

Brian Kelly: Is on Postmates.

Martha Stewart: I didn't know that until just recently.

Brian Kelly: You're going to be earning those points.

Martha Stewart: I'm going to be in big trouble because that's very expensive, but it's very delicious. We're doing that. I'm also doing some fabulous promotional things for Uber.

Brian Kelly: Oh, right. Let me ask about the Uber because I follow you on Instagram. You had your Uber ride that was not so perfect.

Martha Stewart: My initial ride.

Brian Kelly: The MarthaStewart48 Instagram take down of Uber was hysterical. The floor mats were dirty.

Martha Stewart: I got into a car full of leaves and bottles half full of water.

Brian Kelly: Don't you like leaves? You're a country girl.

Martha Stewart: Well, I didn't expect it in a city Uber.

Brian Kelly: On 57th Street.

Martha Stewart: But that was my first time on an Uber.

Brian Kelly: Did they reach out to you?

Martha Stewart: Yeah, because I was very nice. At the end of my rant, I said that I certainly hope they get it together because I'm a big fan and it's such a wonderful service, so they liked that. And they came and they wanted me to promote the UberBLACK, which is, you can have temperature control. You can have silence.

Brian Kelly: It just asked me that yesterday.

Martha Stewart: Yes. Isn't it fun?

Brian Kelly: Yeah. With Black, you can just --

Martha Stewart: You just say you want it silent. You want temperature control. You want luggage help. A very creative team and I think it's a very good service. I mean it's hard to do all that stuff in a yellow cab. You can't do it.

Brian Kelly: I remember those days in New York when there were no Ubers in the rain, battling with people across the street to get to a taxi. It was like a sport.

Martha Stewart: To me, in a lot of the cabs, it's like sitting in a police car in the backseat. Have you ever been in one of those? Oh my god.

Brian Kelly: I think I have actually.

Martha Stewart: With the divider?

Brian Kelly: Yeah, yeah. Well, my knees don't fit in the back of a taxi.

Martha Stewart: No. I had to sit this way. We had an accident. I had to sit in the back with four dogs.

Brian Kelly: Oh my god. Not the chows?

Martha Stewart: Our car had gone into a ditch in the snow and we had to sit ... The police --

Brian Kelly: Not the big dogs.

Martha Stewart: Yes. Two chows, two Frenchies, a driver and me in the backseat of a police car.

Brian Kelly: Tell me there's a photo of this somewhere. That needs to be a Throwback Thursday on your account. Remember when?

Martha Stewart: Oh, brother.

Brian Kelly: Well, Martha, it's been fabulous talking. My final question is are you a window or aisle seat?

Martha Stewart: Oh, I am definitely a window seat.

Brian Kelly: Yes. Team window.

Martha Stewart: Because windows allow you to put your head next to the window. Your head can ... If you fall asleep, you can nod off to the window. You can put a pillow there or your neck pillow, which you should always travel with.

Brian Kelly: OK.

Martha Stewart: Always.

Brian Kelly: I'm a huge fan of neck pillows. I'll buy them in the airport, but I put them away because sometimes I'm embarrassed to have them.

Martha Stewart: Oh, no. Don't ever be embarrassed. They're so good for your neck.

Brian Kelly: Even in first class, first class really isn't that much different than coach.

Martha Stewart: Many first classes do not have pillows any longer and those pillows are so --

Brian Kelly: Are nasty.

Martha Stewart: They're not plump.

Brian Kelly: It's like a postage stamp.

Martha Stewart: They're not plump. Muji has the best neck pillows. Do you know that?

Brian Kelly: Yeah. I never had one.

Martha Stewart: Muji. They're gray and they're nondescript.

Brian Kelly: Are they like foamy?

Martha Stewart: They're nice. They're nice stuff. They really do offer the support you need. They're covered with a nice jersey-like material instead of fattener.

Brian Kelly: The squishy ones.

Martha Stewart: Yeah.

Brian Kelly: Well, I wish you the safest and most comfortable travels.

Martha Stewart: Thank you.

Brian Kelly: Eat all of the food in Turkey for me.

Martha Stewart: OK. Everybody, take tours on MSC.

Brian Kelly: MSC. Take an Uber to your --

Martha Stewart: Great value.

Brian Kelly: -- to your travel agent to book an MSC tour. While you're waiting, get some Postmates.

Martha Stewart: And read Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

Brian Kelly: No one can promote Martha like she can. Anything else?

Martha Stewart: No. No. It's really a joy to talk to you. Listeners haven't been to this beautiful office full of very exciting things. It's great.

Brian Kelly: It's fun to think that this was just like a little idea I had. I sat on this idea. People are like, "The world doesn't need another travel blogger. What do you have to add?" Blah, blah, blah.

Martha Stewart: Yes, they do. They do. They need ideas.

Brian Kelly: Everyone can be a points guy or points girl, even Martha Stewart.

Martha Stewart: Excellent. Thank you.

Brian Kelly: Thank you, Martha. That's all for this episode. Thanks again to our wonderful guest Martha Stewart and thanks to my podcast team, Margaret Kelley and Caroline Schagrin. And of course, special thanks to my amazing executive assistant, Christie Matsui. Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. I'm Brian Kelly and this is Talking Points. Safe travels.