True story: In 2011 I had to beg Samantha Bee to set up a Twitter account. “Had to,” because it was my job as the editor of the column she co-authored with comedian and Full Frontal correspondent Allana Harkin for a popular parenting website; “beg,” because she just wasn’t into it. In my memory the conversation went like this:

“Please?” “No.” “Please?” “It’s just not what I do.”

Back then Bee was best known for delivering deadpan field pieces as a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. Why bother with 140-character missives to Troll Island? I told her what we told all writers: Twitter would help her “grow her audience,” that it wouldn’t take over her life. When she finally decided to give it a go, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Turns out she didn’t need my help growing her audience. Today, as the host of her own weekly hit show on TBS, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, in which she frequently admonishes our president, a man she once called “a failed QVC steak salesman,” Bee has cultivated her own massive following. But despite the Twitter frenzy her shows frequently incite, she says she rarely checks her mentions. “It’s just better for the psyche,” she says.

The Bee All, End All “I’ve spent decades trying to impress people, and I just don’t want to do it anymore,” Bee says. “I no longer care about being rejected.”

Sportmax coat. Mugler earrings.

I’m relieved when she tells me this. For one, it means that I did not totally ruin Samantha Bee’s life. And more important, it means that she’s taking care of herself, which is good. Because, my God, how the rest of us need her.

In this blistering political climate, Full Frontal has become a weekly necessity for many Ameri­can women, one we down like recreational meds. Crushed by the election of President Handsy? Take one morning-after monologue. Depressed by a bunch of (congress)men defunding family planning clinics? Find hope in a segment on bipartisan cooperation solving the rape-kit backlog in Georgia. Furious/disgusted/terrified over mobs of white nationalists armed with “alternative facts” and tiki torches and, oh yeah, guns? Run. And later, when you have time for the feels, find them reflected by someone who looks every bit as heartbroken as you are when she says, “America is going bonkers for 2017’s hottest summer trend: white pride! It’s back!” Purposeful beat. “Because it never left.”

That someone, of course, is Samantha Bee, a ­lightning-brained, razor-tongued front woman for our collective conscience. Beaming weekly from a set bright enough to be mistaken for the afterlife, the 48-year-old Canadian transplant delivers sermons so packed with fury and facts they often require repeat viewings. “Sam has the rare ability to make you laugh at the same time she’s stoking your outrage,” says U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.). “She’s more than a comedian—she’s an instigator and an advocate. Sam doesn’t just point out injustice; she gets people fired up. Every time I watch her show, I want to stand up and cheer.”

Senator Warren isn’t the only one: As late-night television has reemerged as a major driver of the national conversation, Full Frontal’s numbers have soared, almost doubling its average viewership. Among Bee’s (almost entirely male) competition, she’s seen the greatest post-Trump audience increase. And when she decided to honor the free press in April by highlighting their work with the Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the special garnered higher ratings than the actual White House Correspondents’ telecasts—and went on to win the Emmy for outstanding writing in a variety special.