- We've all had our fair share of bad dating experiences. And The Good Place star Jameela Jamil is hitting the airwaves to dish about her and a few famous others' bad dates. The all-new podcast series by SmartLess Media features a panel of hilarious guests sharing some of their most cringeworthy moments and proving that the worst dates can make the best stories. Take a listen. - I dated this guy. And I really liked him. One date, he said cool beans. Seriously? And I could not. - Joining us now is the host of Bad Dates, Jameela Jamil. So good to have you. In the pink and fuzz, I love it. - Yeah, I'm in a dressing gown on the news. I feel like I've peaked in unhingedness. - It's all warm and fuzzy. All the feels there. All right. So you've obviously been sharing so open with your audience for a long time, not just about dates, but also mental, physical health. Why is it that you decided, you know what? I'm just going to put it all on the table. Put it all out there. - Well, the idea that was brought to me. And I immediately loved it. Because, A, I think we're all kind of obsessed with people's date stories and dating lives. Like, they always bring hilarity and peak vulnerability. But also, it's just the great equalizer. It doesn't matter how hot, or [INDISTINCT], or funny, or cool, or rich, or famous you are. You are never exempt from a bad date. They can find you. They'll hunt you down. And I think that because of how bonding the subject is, it was a great way to get to know people that I love and admire. All these amazing comedians coming on and just baring, not just their funny stories, but their whole hearts on this podcast. It's really been an amazing ride. - So I'll tell you mine. You tell me yours. I was thinking back in the crates. I had to dig back a while. Bad date for me, there was a guy who everything I ordered, he was like, oh, do you know how many calories? That's probably like 500 calories. It's probably 1,000 calories. And I just wanted to enjoy-- - I'm going to fight this man. - [LAUGHS] I just wanted to enjoy my food. And so it was really a turn off. Because I didn't want-- if I want to have ice cream, or cheesy bread, or whatever, let me eat in peace. - I've already gone viral this week for talking about my most horrendous dating story. And so I'm going to avoid doing that to you now because it was quite shocking to everyone who was there in the room. But a friend of mine did have one of my favorite dating disasters, in which it was during COVID. A guy had come over to stay with her for the night. But then, the morning they both tested positive for COVID. So they realized they had to stay in this apartment together. Didn't know each other very well. There's only one bathroom. She got the kind of COVID that affected her bowels. And so she couldn't stop going to the toilet. But she also lost her sense of smell. So they are sharing a toilet. He has COVID, not the bowel kind. And he has got his sense of smell. And so she's going to the toilet every five minutes and having no idea how much Glade to be using. She can't smell it, which to me was one of the cruelest and unsexiest vibes I've ever heard of in my life. It's a two-week nightmare and like just hell date. Yeah, I feel like they're still kind of seeing each other. LINSEY DAVIS: Is that right? - She's hot. LINSEY DAVIS: That's love at that point. - You can be hot enough to survive that. But what a cruelty. He should have lost his sense of smell in that scenario. LINSEY DAVIS: Have you gotten any takeaways, when you hear all these bad date scenarios, is there something you're like, well, I can glean this from that. - I think it's just the fact that it can happen to anyone you shouldn't hold yourself to responsible. It just takes a while to find your person. And it's OK to be alone. Like, we fearmonger people so much about being single and having to date. Whereas actually, being alone is fantastic. And so you should only ever be with someone else-- relationships are hard. They're complicated. And so you have to make so much compromise. And so you should only ever be in a relationship if that person makes your life exponentially better. If they're not bringing something to the table, you are so much better off on your own. I loved being single. - We know that Mental Health Awareness Month is coming up. And that is a particular passion of yours. JAMEELA JAMIL: Yeah. - Tell us what you're doing for that. - We're trying to divorce the body from exercise and make exercise just about the mind, just about mental health. We're trying to revolutionize the exercise industry. So we have an event, our first event, May 7, in Los Angeles. And it's really exciting. It's going to be full of panels, and full of joyful movement, and communal movement, and bringing people together in a safe space where you're not going to be shamed. There's so much shame and the diet and exercise industry. And I'm just sick of it. And it feels like it's getting worse at the moment. We're seeing a culture of extreme thinness coming back. And I'm terribly worried about the mental health of this generation knowing how badly it hurt my mental health. I always looked at exercise as only being for weight loss and for punishing myself for that piece of bread I had the day before. And it robbed me of decades of just going for a lovely walk and not seeing the merit in that, and not seeing how much it changes me. And so that's what I'm trying to change the entire culture of marketing of the whole of exercise around the world forever. LINSEY DAVIS: Jameela Jamil, we thank you so much. And we want our viewers to know that you can catch new episodes of SmartLess Media's Bad Dates podcast with Jameela Jamil every Monday on Amazon Music and Wondery Plus.