This Past Weekend with Theo Von

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00:00:30.000 If you have an upcoming summer trip abroad, my go-to travel hack is Babbel.

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00:01:04.760 I have a new tour date to announce.

00:01:07.360 I just got back from Phoenix, but I'm announcing right now Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

00:01:13.440 on July 14th at Kinsman Park, the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival.

00:01:20.540 That'll be interesting.

00:01:21.560 It's outdoors, and so I'm real curious about that.

00:01:25.300 We will be putting up other shows in Canada as well over time, but we are excited to make

00:01:31.000 that work July 14th.

00:01:33.740 Get tickets starting Wednesday, May 3rd at 10 a.m. Mountain Time with code RATKING.

00:01:40.040 General on sale starts Friday, May 5th at 10 a.m. Mountain Time.

00:01:45.940 I will also be coming to Guilford, New Hampshire, July 20th.

00:01:49.920 Windsor, Ontario, August 18th.

00:01:53.400 Niagara Falls, Ontario on August 20th.

00:01:58.720 And Toronto, Ontario on August 27th.

00:02:02.920 Those are Canada.

00:02:05.180 Get all your tickets at TheoVaughn.com slash T-O-U-R for your best price on tickets.

00:02:13.280 We now have Be Good to Yourself crewnecks available in light blue, maroon, and cement.

00:02:19.500 That embankment gang color, you know it.

00:02:21.960 Check these out along with the new windbreaker at TheoVaughnStore.com.

00:02:27.140 And thank you for your support.

00:02:28.320 Today's guest is a multi-talented man.

00:02:32.880 He's a buffet of talent.

00:02:34.860 He's the meat.

00:02:35.800 He's the salad.

00:02:36.620 He's the pudding.

00:02:37.720 He's the tots.

00:02:38.860 He's got it all.

00:02:40.620 He's an actor.

00:02:41.440 He's a creator.

00:02:43.500 You may know him from his iconic role on The Office.

00:02:46.700 He has a new book out called Soul Boom, Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.

00:02:54.700 He also has a new travel show that will be coming out soon.

00:02:58.020 You can check that out called The Geography of Bliss.

00:03:00.940 He made me laugh and just made me happy so many times in my life.

00:03:06.300 I'm grateful to sit and talk with him today.

00:03:09.060 Today's guest is Rainn Wilson.

00:03:11.180 I think you look pretty nice here.

00:03:40.460 Oh, I think I look great.

00:03:41.840 I look great.

00:03:42.320 I got a lot of beverages.

00:03:44.020 Am I okay to have this on camera?

00:03:46.880 Yeah.

00:03:47.280 Will they sue you?

00:03:48.320 Nope.

00:03:48.760 You'll be fine.

00:03:49.340 Hey, man.

00:03:53.120 In all truth, it's such a pleasure to meet you, and I've been just dying at your stuff for years.

00:04:00.080 I know you get this all the time, but in all truth, I was so surprised.

00:04:04.600 Theo Vaughn wants you in the show.

00:04:05.680 I was like, what?

00:04:06.080 I'm a huge, huge fan.

00:04:09.520 Really?

00:04:09.780 Oh, man.

00:04:10.940 I have just chortled at your ridiculous brain for many years, and for real.

00:04:19.360 Wow, man.

00:04:20.220 That's awesome, bro.

00:04:21.580 No, for real.

00:04:22.200 No, I'm honestly trying to genuinely drop in and hear that.

00:04:26.960 And take it in.

00:04:27.580 Yeah.

00:04:28.000 Yeah.

00:04:28.380 It's really nice of you to say.

00:04:29.600 Yeah.

00:04:30.020 I just did Burt Kreischer's.

00:04:31.940 Oops.

00:04:32.500 I just did Burt Kreischer's the other day, and it's like you and Burt and Tom, the whole

00:04:40.180 gang you got going on have cornered this whole section of comedy and social media.

00:04:45.980 I'm a huge fan, anyways.

00:04:49.780 It's a universe, man.

00:04:51.220 Yeah.

00:04:51.780 It's a real little universe.

00:04:52.920 That's really nice of you to say, man.

00:04:55.340 Obviously, you've made people laugh.

00:04:58.540 You almost have to take a second when you sit with you to get to just be with you, to get

00:05:03.620 past the-

00:05:04.700 You see a lot of Dwight going on or something like that?

00:05:06.980 No.

00:05:07.680 No, I'm seeing you, I feel like.

00:05:08.900 But I think there's just, you have to let kind of like the, you just have to let the

00:05:14.480 premonitions fall by the wayside a bit, you know, or the fog that's in before you that

00:05:21.020 you can't even help of like, just because of your life and your talent and how visible

00:05:26.560 you've been.

00:05:28.020 I think there's a little bit of it sometimes with people probably.

00:05:31.020 Yeah.

00:05:31.540 Yeah.

00:05:32.000 You know?

00:05:32.460 But I feel like I'm just sitting here with you.

00:05:34.080 All right.

00:05:34.320 Cool.

00:05:34.720 Yeah.

00:05:34.960 Cool.

00:05:35.460 Awesome.

00:05:36.140 And thanks, man.

00:05:37.080 I read the first 50 pages of your book.

00:05:39.400 Damn, that's pretty good.

00:05:40.680 Thank you.

00:05:41.120 I thought, I figured this is-

00:05:42.120 It's a hell of a lot better than Burt Kreischer.

00:05:43.440 He didn't read page one.

00:05:44.720 Oh, man.

00:05:46.660 Asshole.

00:05:46.940 Dude, I bet if you'd have written it on the inside of a 12-pack, he'd have read it.

00:05:50.820 Yeah, not he would have.

00:05:52.100 Not he would have.

00:05:53.400 Oh, he's going to read his own epitaph soon, dude.

00:05:57.720 Wow.

00:05:58.280 Talk about premonitions.

00:05:59.740 That was a little cold.

00:06:00.700 That got a little dark.

00:06:02.060 That was a little cold.

00:06:02.760 Sorry, Burt.

00:06:03.960 Want you to be alive.

00:06:05.000 But I thought it was interesting.

00:06:07.780 I thought it was kind of a perfect reflection of where a lot of people are at in their lives

00:06:12.820 right now, I think just as a society, as a species, in this kind of, not only a quest

00:06:21.500 maybe for spirituality, but an examination of spirituality, what spirituality means, all

00:06:28.660 kind of stuff like that.

00:06:29.680 But, so I thought it was, and we can get into it, but, yeah, I know you said that there

00:06:34.700 was, it's hard for people, why do they lock up the pissers in the office buildings was

00:06:38.560 interesting, why they lock them.

00:06:40.700 So, do you want to go from my book on spirituality to locking up restrooms?

00:06:47.780 Is that the transition?

00:06:49.420 Yeah, I do on everything at once, kind of, you know.

00:06:51.340 Okay, yeah, so I have this problem, and I think it's a problem, I don't know that it

00:06:56.580 exists in other cities, but in LA, it's this kind of thing where every single bathroom needs

00:07:01.300 a key.

00:07:02.100 And, like, what the hell?

00:07:02.980 Like, just let them be open.

00:07:04.980 Like, I understand if you've got a building, like, on Skid Row downtown, like, maybe you

00:07:10.220 just don't want someone setting up a tent in there and moving in or something like that.

00:07:14.100 Like, I get that.

00:07:14.940 But, you'd be like, we're out here in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, what do

00:07:19.040 they think?

00:07:19.520 Like, someone's going to wander into this building off the street and, like, come in

00:07:23.900 and, like, do something nefarious, shoot up drugs in the restroom?

00:07:28.160 Why do you need keys?

00:07:30.280 Well, they should give you a certain, if you do well enough, you should get a general,

00:07:35.520 a key to at least so many bathrooms.

00:07:37.860 That's a good idea.

00:07:39.200 There could be, like, an app.

00:07:40.500 You unlock it.

00:07:41.240 It's like a game.

00:07:42.240 It's like Candy Crush, and you play it enough.

00:07:45.200 You're a responsible enough citizen.

00:07:47.240 With your app, you get into bathrooms, wherever.

00:07:50.300 You could take a shit wherever you're like, oh, I'm going down the valley.

00:07:53.280 I'm not going to name what stop off the 101 you're at, but, you know, you're down the

00:07:56.820 101, like, oh, man, I really need to go.

00:07:58.740 And, like, you have an app.

00:08:00.660 It's like when you have an app that searches for, you know, charging stations for your electric

00:08:06.500 car, you know, you've got an app with a little map on it, and then this allows you to

00:08:10.240 come in and take a dookie somewhere.

00:08:13.220 You're privileged.

00:08:13.820 I can shit off of Victory Boulevard now.

00:08:16.940 And it opens up.

00:08:19.180 I don't know.

00:08:19.920 The key thing has got to end.

00:08:21.900 It's a very L.A. thing.

00:08:23.020 I don't imagine they do that in Cincinnati.

00:08:24.800 I imagine in Cincinnati, like, you just park, and you can just go in and, like, take a crap

00:08:29.380 somewhere with that key.

00:08:31.080 Yeah.

00:08:31.180 And people recognize that people have to take craps.

00:08:33.780 I think it's like here they almost want to pretend like, oh, God, you weirdo, with your

00:08:40.820 body, with your bowels and your old-fashioned urethra or whatever.

00:08:46.340 You have to go and do urine or whatever.

00:08:48.840 Like, oh, you peasant.

00:08:50.580 You know?

00:08:51.040 Like, yeah.

00:08:51.660 Come get a key.

00:08:52.600 Like, they almost make it like it's an outhouse, but it's inside kind of.

00:08:56.260 Right.

00:08:56.600 Right.

00:08:57.200 It's elitist.

00:08:58.420 Like, L.A. is so elitist.

00:08:59.760 Yeah.

00:08:59.920 Even the bathrooms are elitist.

00:09:01.820 Yes.

00:09:02.100 So you got to go.

00:09:02.700 Sometimes, you know what it's like.

00:09:04.160 Sometimes you got appointments around town and you really got to go.

00:09:07.120 What are you going to do?

00:09:08.040 Like, Starbucks is really the only place that's open.

00:09:10.520 Grocery stores are pretty good.

00:09:12.060 Do you notice that?

00:09:12.860 Yeah.

00:09:13.260 There's always a bathroom in a grocery store.

00:09:15.140 You never think that that's, like, the land of accessible bathrooms.

00:09:19.620 It's a long hike.

00:09:20.840 You got to get back in there.

00:09:22.000 I'm not going to lie.

00:09:23.960 You pull into a Ralph's or an A&P, you got to traverse a couple hundred yards before you get

00:09:29.320 back to that thing.

00:09:30.300 And the frozen food aisle, you notice if you traverse down that one, it feels longer than

00:09:34.120 the other aisles for some reason.

00:09:35.400 Does it really?

00:09:36.020 Yeah.

00:09:36.100 I think so.

00:09:36.740 It feels because there's, it just feels brighter and, like, kind of vibrant, like someone could

00:09:40.600 have had to be doing a party in a couple hours.

00:09:43.820 It's that.

00:09:44.440 It's also maybe an optical illusion.

00:09:46.460 Yeah.

00:09:46.840 And it's kind of like Luke Skywalker flying the TIE fighter through.

00:09:51.800 Yes.

00:09:52.220 Down those long alleys.

00:09:54.640 You're right.

00:09:54.980 It all feels the same.

00:09:56.000 So I think there's this weird thing in your head where it doesn't feel new for a few seconds.

00:09:59.180 Yeah.

00:09:59.660 So it's just like, am I stuck in a corridor?

00:10:01.500 Whereas on a regular aisle, it's like, these are the red chips.

00:10:03.900 These are the brown, you know, little cookies.

00:10:06.960 So it keeps changing and it's like.

00:10:08.880 Do you ever go back in the back of a grocery store and like, you got to use the bathroom

00:10:14.540 and then you go through the employees swinging doors, like employees only, but you have to

00:10:19.040 go back there.

00:10:19.720 There's a whole world back there.

00:10:21.940 It's a magical world back there.

00:10:23.620 Well, there's usually somebody's kind of crying a little bit.

00:10:26.600 Somebody has a hairnet, right?

00:10:28.260 Sure.

00:10:28.860 When you see that out of the gate, you know.

00:10:31.120 Yeah.

00:10:31.460 And then somebody has their hands on somebody else's back and they're consoling them, but

00:10:34.980 the hands are covered with.

00:10:37.740 Potato salad.

00:10:40.020 Blood.

00:10:40.840 Where are you going with this?

00:10:41.940 I don't know.

00:10:42.800 Those plastic.

00:10:44.340 The plastic gloves.

00:10:45.580 Yeah.

00:10:45.880 The deli gloves.

00:10:46.840 But then potato salad and blood on the outside of those.

00:10:49.200 Why?

00:10:49.960 So there was obviously.

00:10:51.100 Why do grocery stores always have the same things in the deli section?

00:10:56.160 Do you ever notice that?

00:10:57.000 You go in, you go shopping, it's like coleslaw, potato salad, like a broccoli salad just smothered

00:11:05.480 in mayonnaise.

00:11:06.340 Yeah.

00:11:06.780 You got your deli meats and cheeses, but then like, it's like a shrimp salad.

00:11:10.860 You don't know how old it is.

00:11:12.080 It's like, again, smothered in mayonnaise.

00:11:14.240 Yes.

00:11:15.540 Why don't they mix it up back there in the deli cases of grocery stores?

00:11:20.340 You know what I mean?

00:11:20.700 It's 2023, Theo.

00:11:22.180 I think it would create a little bit of novelty if you thought I'm going to go see what new

00:11:26.820 they have there.

00:11:27.940 Yeah.

00:11:28.780 Let those chefs in the hairnets with the plastic gloves, like let them.

00:11:32.360 Let them be creative.

00:11:33.040 Let them be creative.

00:11:34.040 Let them be art.

00:11:34.700 Let them be the artists that they are, the artisans.

00:11:37.980 They don't do that.

00:11:38.980 You don't feel a lot of creativity when you wander into that area of the store.

00:11:43.660 Yeah.

00:11:45.380 That's the saddest section of any grocery store.

00:11:48.420 Yeah.

00:11:48.840 Because it's cold too.

00:11:49.860 You're like, oh, why'd they put, you know, they could at least give them some heat.

00:11:53.780 That's right.

00:11:54.780 That's right.

00:11:55.780 And the guy, everybody looks like non-binary kind of because of the hairnets.

00:12:00.660 I think everybody has sort of this, you know, everybody is running a meat slicer.

00:12:05.260 It does a lot going on.

00:12:06.520 It's very Game of Thrones-y right there.

00:12:09.680 Yeah.

00:12:09.940 You think so?

00:12:10.900 There's a lot of like, do you mean it in terms of like people killing each other or?

00:12:15.020 It has an archaic sort of guillotine-y kind of.

00:12:19.540 Because you're talking about the slicer.

00:12:21.300 Yeah, with the slicer.

00:12:22.600 And then there's, sometimes there's like a meat hanging, you know?

00:12:25.400 Yeah.

00:12:25.660 Just like a one like wiener of meat, like hanging from the thing.

00:12:28.040 That's true.

00:12:28.700 There can be a wiener chain.

00:12:30.380 Oh.

00:12:31.180 Yeah.

00:12:31.400 So it's just, yeah, I think that makes you, if you're a kid and your mom takes you by

00:12:35.000 there, you're like, oh, this isn't for us.

00:12:36.820 Yeah.

00:12:38.000 It's where an appetite goes to die, really, you know?

00:12:41.800 And you don't really need to get the meats sliced.

00:12:44.660 And they have like a nice like head of like pastrami or whatever.

00:12:50.260 And then you say, I want a pound of that.

00:12:51.880 Yeah.

00:12:52.360 But they don't open that one up.

00:12:53.640 They've got another old one that's already been pre-opened and they slice that one up.

00:12:58.880 Yeah, yeah.

00:12:59.460 You kind of pick out the orphan you want, but they bring in the other orphan, you know?

00:13:02.800 Oh, here's little Ricky, you know?

00:13:05.300 He's got shingles, but he's just as good as his brother.

00:13:07.840 And you're like, oh, come on.

00:13:09.400 You'll never know the difference.

00:13:12.680 You know, I worked at a grocery.

00:13:13.920 Did you ever work at one?

00:13:14.620 I never worked at a grocery store.

00:13:15.620 I had a lot of shitty jobs in my day, but never worked in a grocery store.

00:13:19.400 Yeah.

00:13:19.520 What was that like?

00:13:20.460 Did you stock shelves or bag?

00:13:22.000 Yeah, I did stocking and I got promoted up to eventually to cashier.

00:13:26.120 I was associate cashier and then cashier.

00:13:29.040 What's an associate cashier?

00:13:30.420 I didn't know that was a position.

00:13:32.440 Yeah, you just stand by the cashier bagging.

00:13:35.140 Oh, okay.

00:13:35.740 But they called us associate cashiers.

00:13:37.660 It's a bag boy.

00:13:38.740 It was.

00:13:39.100 Yeah.

00:13:40.020 It was, dude.

00:13:40.840 And you didn't, at the first like two weeks, you're like, oh, but then you realize you're

00:13:44.700 not even doing it, you know, you're a bag boy.

00:13:46.920 So you went from stock room to associate cashier and you're like, oh, I'm an associate

00:13:49.900 cashier.

00:13:50.440 And then it's like, I want you to just put the groceries in the bag.

00:13:53.760 And you're like, oh, yeah.

00:13:54.820 You're like, all right.

00:13:56.080 You see the truth.

00:13:57.220 That's one of the tough things about life sometimes is seeing the truths.

00:14:00.260 You know, it's one of the tough things about moving to Los Angeles.

00:14:02.900 You know, you love your favorite TV shows.

00:14:04.800 You love Highway to Heaven.

00:14:06.240 You love Michael Landon.

00:14:07.680 And you get out here, you realize it's, you know, it just, they filmed it, you know,

00:14:14.020 right outside of Burbank somewhere.

00:14:15.400 I don't know what Highway to Heaven is.

00:14:17.320 And I see that box over your head.

00:14:19.280 Oh, yeah.

00:14:20.040 I've never even heard of it before.

00:14:21.960 Is that a TV show?

00:14:22.860 It was a Michael Landon TV show.

00:14:24.240 Yeah.

00:14:24.620 Where he helped people get to heaven.

00:14:25.980 It was like he showed up and.

00:14:27.500 Was it like touched by an angel only with a dude?

00:14:29.660 Yeah.

00:14:30.020 And Victor French was in it.

00:14:33.080 Oh, you brought, you brought it up on the.

00:14:35.980 Wait.

00:14:36.460 Yeah.

00:14:36.640 Who's that?

00:14:37.400 Who's that guy?

00:14:38.460 That's Victor French right there.

00:14:39.660 If you click on the one with him and Victor on it.

00:14:41.700 Yeah.

00:14:41.820 Now, is it.

00:14:44.320 Is it.

00:14:45.120 I don't mean this in any derogatory way, but he looks very Jewish.

00:14:48.240 Did they, did they want to kind of have a Jewish presence since it's about like angels?

00:14:53.260 Let me see if he was jayed up or not.

00:14:55.020 Let's look up Victor French and see if Victor French, if you can get a wiki on him.

00:14:59.480 Wait.

00:15:00.020 Was this a nineties thing?

00:15:01.300 Oh, he does look Jewish.

00:15:02.380 I didn't realize that.

00:15:03.940 Yeah.

00:15:05.580 Santa Barbara, California.

00:15:06.440 Oh, he was also in Little House of the Prairies.

00:15:08.040 They worked together a lot.

00:15:09.080 Yeah.

00:15:09.300 Yeah.

00:15:10.240 They had a kind of a thing going.

00:15:12.000 Oh yeah.

00:15:12.540 He was in Little House, man.

00:15:13.440 He was awesome.

00:15:14.400 Oh, does it say early life?

00:15:15.460 Maybe early career.

00:15:17.120 It doesn't specify.

00:15:18.340 Oh.

00:15:19.160 Yeah.

00:15:19.700 Yeah.

00:15:20.020 I guess he does look kind of.

00:15:21.060 Yeah.

00:15:21.220 He does look a little bit Jewish.

00:15:23.000 Victor Edwin French.

00:15:24.120 And nothing wrong with that.

00:15:25.340 The great.

00:15:25.680 No, not at all.

00:15:26.420 We're just saying.

00:15:26.920 Oh, look, there he is.

00:15:27.580 His spouse was named Shenz.

00:15:29.740 So he might've married a Jewish woman.

00:15:31.360 It sounds like.

00:15:33.820 And what decade this, were you talking about nineties here?

00:15:36.660 Yeah.

00:15:36.900 Eighties, eighties and early nineties.

00:15:39.120 But anyway, I was a huge fan, but yeah.

00:15:41.160 You should do a podcast where you watch episodes and like, kind of like Office Ladies, Only

00:15:45.980 Highway to Heaven, bros.

00:15:47.800 Is Office Ladies watching your, watching The Office?

00:15:49.540 Yeah, that's like a top 10 podcast.

00:15:52.480 They get like 2 million downloads a week and they just watch Office episodes and comment

00:15:57.220 on them.

00:15:57.600 And they're like, oh, it was really funny in this episode that, you know, Dwight fell

00:16:01.140 down the stairs.

00:16:01.760 And I remember when we were filming that, that kind of thing.

00:16:04.100 Yeah.

00:16:04.460 I mean, they're lovely and delightful, Jenna and Angela, but it's huge.

00:16:07.760 But those, those watching shows, watching fan shows are good.

00:16:11.860 You could do a Highway to Heaven.

00:16:13.520 Yeah.

00:16:13.740 I could do David Spade and Dana Carvey do one where they talk to people that came on SNL.

00:16:17.680 Oh, yeah.

00:16:18.900 Uh-huh.

00:16:19.260 And they have a Sopranos one.

00:16:20.740 Mm-hmm.

00:16:21.180 You know, that one.

00:16:22.360 Yeah.

00:16:22.840 Something like that could be interesting.

00:16:23.960 I would do, you read the first part of my book, so I would do Kung Fu.

00:16:27.920 Yeah.

00:16:28.300 I love, I love Kung Fu.

00:16:29.260 You could tell that you did.

00:16:30.280 Yeah.

00:16:30.900 You could tell.

00:16:31.620 You watched all three seasons you said in there.

00:16:33.380 Oh, man.

00:16:34.100 Multiple, multiple times.

00:16:35.620 And bring that up, Kung Fu.

00:16:37.860 With KCC, he was the leader in it.

00:16:40.040 He was the-

00:16:40.740 Kwai Chang Kane, yeah.

00:16:41.740 Yeah.

00:16:44.500 It's, uh, 1970s.

00:16:45.900 Because I'm not familiar with it.

00:16:47.060 Sorry, go ahead.

00:16:47.680 It's 1970s.

00:16:48.560 Three seasons.

00:16:49.980 The original idea for Kung Fu was created by Bruce Lee.

00:16:55.880 He tried to sell it.

00:16:57.600 They were too racist to have-

00:17:00.480 There it is.

00:17:01.760 Yeah, there's David Carradine.

00:17:02.760 So they got a white guy to play a Chinese guy, David Carradine.

00:17:06.520 And he was brilliant, but it was a very racist choice by the TV networks.

00:17:12.820 Was it racist at the time?

00:17:15.740 Well, you shouldn't have a white guy playing a Chinese guy.

00:17:18.960 Like, I don't care what decade it's in.

00:17:21.580 Like, it's-

00:17:22.080 Right.

00:17:22.200 I mean, it was more done back then.

00:17:23.920 I mean, they would have, like, black stunt guys that would have white stunt guys wearing

00:17:27.620 blackface.

00:17:28.500 Wow.

00:17:28.760 Literally.

00:17:29.160 You could see movies where, you know.

00:17:31.780 Because sometimes, you know what it could have been too?

00:17:34.040 Sometimes the audience wouldn't accept if it was an Asian guy.

00:17:37.020 They wouldn't have watched it as much, but maybe not, huh?

00:17:39.780 I think that was their fear.

00:17:41.800 That's their fear, right?

00:17:42.760 Their fear would be that people wouldn't watch it.

00:17:44.800 But anyways, it's a brilliant show.

00:17:46.480 He is studying Kung Fu in a Shaolin monastery in China.

00:17:52.000 And, you know, he's the master there.

00:17:54.040 We see a couple of his Kung Fu masters teaching him the wisdom of the East, as well as some

00:18:00.500 martial arts, sick martial arts moves.

00:18:02.800 And then he gets kicked out of the monastery and goes to the Old West in the 1880s.

00:18:09.160 He's wandering around the cowboy lands and fighting crime.

00:18:14.720 Not really fighting crime.

00:18:16.420 Righting wrongs, shall we say.

00:18:19.580 But bringing his benevolent Eastern wisdom to bear on every interaction that he has.

00:18:27.860 They encounter a lot of racist cowboys out there.

00:18:30.700 Oh, yeah.

00:18:31.080 Like, oh, you China man, you know, spit.

00:18:34.140 And then, of course, there's a couple of fights.

00:18:36.480 This chopstick's got bullets in it, stuff like that.

00:18:39.740 That would have been good.

00:18:41.460 They didn't have lines quite that smart, but that would have worked.

00:18:45.320 But anyways, I talk about it in my book because I feel like it's a metaphor for spirituality

00:18:53.180 because in spirituality we're walking around the crazy, chaotic Old West that's aggressive

00:19:01.880 and violent, and we're bringing to bear our wisdom and our vision.

00:19:09.700 We're trying to create peace, bring people together.

00:19:12.700 He's always got really beautiful, wise things to say to try and heal people.

00:19:19.340 But there's always, like, some drunken racist cowboy there that you got to, at the end of

00:19:23.400 the day, you got to pony up, you know.

00:19:25.760 Yeah, I'm going to make orange chicken out of you or something like that.

00:19:28.200 Yeah, that's good.

00:19:29.700 That's good.

00:19:30.160 You should have been a staff writer for them.

00:19:33.020 Maybe.

00:19:33.320 That could have been good, yeah.

00:19:34.260 That's good.

00:19:35.040 But, yeah.

00:19:36.740 Well, like, but so go on.

00:19:38.420 So you think, so it's like, it's kind of like, we need that now.

00:19:42.320 We can use that.

00:19:43.660 I mean, we can use that always.

00:19:45.020 But that's what I kind of derived from the beginning of your book.

00:19:48.040 Like the, I think I read, like, 23% of it, maybe.

00:19:51.620 That's good.

00:19:52.360 But that we, how do we get to where we start to look at ourselves?

00:19:58.620 You want us to look at more as ourselves as a group and not just as individuals.

00:20:03.520 Well, that's, see, and that's the point.

00:20:06.080 I bring up kung fu because, to me, a lot of people, when they think about spirituality,

00:20:10.860 they think about something.

00:20:13.140 I mean, there's folks that think of spirituality as synonymous with church, right?

00:20:19.580 So they, like, they go to church on Sunday and that's where they get their spirituality

00:20:22.520 and they hear a sermon.

00:20:24.300 But I'm talking about, like, many people feel like spirituality is something that,

00:20:29.700 you know, they pray or they meditate or they read a spiritual book or the Bible or a philosopher

00:20:35.220 or something like that.

00:20:36.580 And they go to the yoga class or something like that.

00:20:38.720 But that spirituality is something internal that we kind of process and develop inside

00:20:45.380 of ourselves.

00:20:46.800 And I bring up kung fu because I compare and contrast it to Star Trek, which is, for me,

00:20:55.020 a different way of looking at spirituality because Star Trek is about the journey of humanity

00:21:00.660 itself, like the bigger picture.

00:21:03.660 Now, true, Star Trek's more about, like, technology and whatnot.

00:21:08.180 But it's, in the planet, on Star Trek, humanity has had a big war.

00:21:15.640 This is before the original series starts.

00:21:18.960 We've overcome racism out of that war.

00:21:22.200 We're getting along.

00:21:23.400 Everyone's getting along.

00:21:25.040 We've solved, like, sexism.

00:21:26.420 We've solved income inequality.

00:21:27.780 There's, like, you know, great peace and justice and tranquility on planet Earth, which allows

00:21:34.220 us to build all these spaceships and go flying around the universe, seeking out strange new

00:21:39.040 life and new civilizations and whatnot.

00:21:42.060 But there is a spiritual maturity.

00:21:46.080 There is a progression of humanity toward this mature spiritual end.

00:21:52.000 And so I bring, I contrast those two because I think that sometimes people lose sight of

00:21:57.200 the fact that there can be a spiritual transformation and maturation of us, 7 billion of us, on the

00:22:05.860 planet.

00:22:07.140 And that's just something important to talk about and think about.

00:22:11.600 Because it doesn't get, it doesn't really get brought up or discussed that much.

00:22:14.960 It doesn't, a lot of things focus on the now.

00:22:18.440 We get a little bit further out when we look at things like, um, like our own lives and

00:22:25.460 stuff like that, like the limitation of our own lives, what will happen in our lifetime.

00:22:29.200 But rarely do you start to think, what can I, if there's an overall goal that there's

00:22:36.660 like a destination as a people or a populace, um, that.

00:22:41.780 And isn't that, and isn't that Theo, isn't that world peace really?

00:22:44.420 Like, do you remember, I mean, you're a lot younger than me, but you're no spring chicken.

00:22:51.240 You've been around the block.

00:22:52.840 Do you remember when people used to talk about world peace?

00:22:55.440 Like as a, as a thing, as like a goal?

00:22:57.360 Yeah, dude.

00:22:58.200 Yeah.

00:22:58.740 I mean, I remember Ronald Reagan.

00:23:00.480 Yeah.

00:23:01.040 Yeah.

00:23:01.520 You know?

00:23:02.300 Yeah.

00:23:02.940 I remember Ronald Reagan, man.

00:23:05.420 Um, but yeah, I remember world peace.

00:23:08.200 We are the world.

00:23:09.180 I remember people were excited about it.

00:23:11.220 They were like, we're mailing hams to Africa where everything's going to change.

00:23:15.140 We got this, you know, David Bowie, I think was doing it.

00:23:18.040 They should mail all those deli meats and cheeses and the potato salad and the shrimp

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00:23:23.220 No one, no one's eaten that crap, by the way.

00:23:26.180 It's, yeah, I agree.

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00:26:08.760 You know, it's like, well, this is one thing I thought about when I was kind of delving into your work was that, yeah, it's like you feel this.

00:26:22.900 Do you feel compelled to kind of look at this?

00:26:25.020 It's like, I guess you're saying it's a nice, somebody needs to bring this to the forefront of conversation that, hey, we're all here.

00:26:32.800 Is there some bigger reason why we're all here?

00:26:35.140 Can we all start to look at that again?

00:26:36.820 Like, that we can have a goal as a species that maybe, you know, Mother Nature and Father Time have a goal for us.

00:26:44.660 And we've gotten very off track with our own society.

00:26:47.680 Sometimes I think American society, we may a thousand years from now look back and be like, man, what a detour we took with a lot of the directions we had.

00:26:56.560 Oh, my God, I think it's such a crazy, I was saying that to my friend Aaron the other day, like, we're just in this time, I think that 50, 100 years from now, we'll look back and be like, man, what a crazy fucked up time we were in.

00:27:12.900 Like, first of all, here's what we did is we created these mini computers, right, with any distraction you could possibly think of, every game, unlimited porn, social media, you can connect with anyone, you can download any piece of information you'd ever possibly want.

00:27:32.260 And we just sprinkle it out like candy among the citizenry, you know, just like, here, here y'all go, you know, have these devices that.

00:27:40.740 And then you've got kids growing up and they're, they're never, well, I remember when I was young, like, you remember being bored?

00:27:48.300 Yeah.

00:27:49.120 I was bored so much as a kid.

00:27:52.120 I was bored.

00:27:52.940 My dad was like, you're coming with me.

00:27:55.080 Why?

00:27:55.680 I have to go to the dentist.

00:27:58.260 Why do I need to go?

00:27:59.280 Well, I don't want you sitting at home.

00:28:01.380 You know, it's going to take a couple hours and I got to swing by the hardware store or whatever.

00:28:06.220 Yeah.

00:28:06.680 So, okay.

00:28:08.240 I'll get you two feet of rope or something like, all right, I'm in.

00:28:11.680 Exactly.

00:28:12.100 You know, I'll get you a candy.

00:28:13.600 We'll stop by the bank, my mom would say.

00:28:15.800 Yeah.

00:28:16.100 We'll stop by the bank and you get the little candy at the, at the, in the aisle.

00:28:19.080 All right, I'll go.

00:28:20.040 Okay.

00:28:20.760 So I brought a comic book and like, you just sit there and like, you'd hear, he'd be in

00:28:24.760 the dentist and you're just in the waiting room and there's like a people magazine or maybe

00:28:30.120 you brought your comic book, but you've already read it.

00:28:31.860 So you read it again and there's just a lot of sitting around now.

00:28:34.860 Kids aren't getting bored, but I'm getting off track.

00:28:37.140 No, you're not because it's all part of the same thing.

00:28:39.540 I think your general disposition, your general thought is like, I mean, we can talk about

00:28:45.200 boredom.

00:28:45.480 I talk about the moment doesn't exist anymore.

00:28:47.980 I talk about, um, my niece thought imagination was an app on your phone.

00:28:54.040 Um, you said like, use your imagination and she's like, what, where is that?

00:28:58.080 I don't have that downloaded.

00:28:59.320 Yeah.

00:29:00.480 Wow.

00:29:00.980 And it blew my mind.

00:29:02.080 I was like, yeah, because boredom was a chance.

00:29:04.760 It's like, that's where you came up with your, that's where your jeunesse came from, you

00:29:09.740 know?

00:29:10.200 Excellent French.

00:29:11.220 Yes.

00:29:11.540 That's where your brain showed its balls off, you know?

00:29:14.800 Yeah.

00:29:14.960 It was like, that's where like your, uh, that's where Bob, uh, who's the guy with the curly

00:29:21.180 hair that did all the painting?

00:29:22.220 Bob Ross.

00:29:22.800 That's where Bob Ross showed up, you know, out of the nowhere in your fricking amygdala or

00:29:27.380 whatever, you know?

00:29:28.040 Your inner Bob Ross.

00:29:29.060 Yeah.

00:29:29.460 Yeah.

00:29:30.020 And you had to like, you'd go up to the counter, your dad's in the back getting drilled on

00:29:33.560 and you like peek over the counter at the lady working right there.

00:29:36.820 And you're like, you have no idea.

00:29:39.260 Like that used to be an email.

00:29:41.240 You know what I'm saying?

00:29:41.680 And you used to, and you think like, what's her life like?

00:29:44.060 Yeah.

00:29:44.780 Yeah.

00:29:45.080 Does she have any chocolates?

00:29:46.260 I wonder, I wonder what she goes home to.

00:29:48.780 Yeah.

00:29:49.260 Yeah.

00:29:50.020 It was.

00:29:50.520 What's she wearing under that nurse's outfit?

00:29:52.640 Yeah, dude.

00:29:53.560 Yeah.

00:29:53.740 And one time I remember one lady used to give me her shoe, dude.

00:29:56.080 And let me just play around with it in the lobby right there, dude.

00:30:00.680 You had a shoe as a toy?

00:30:02.160 Yeah.

00:30:02.420 My mom would take me to this place.

00:30:04.180 I think it was like a hair cutter or something.

00:30:06.060 And the lady in the front would give me her heels and let me kind of think she was, you

00:30:09.720 know, open to people being whoever they wanted to be or whatever at that time.

00:30:13.000 And she let me walk around in her heels in the lobby of the, it's called the Looking

00:30:17.140 Glass.

00:30:17.700 It was like the hair salon in our town.

00:30:18.940 What town was that?

00:30:20.040 Covington, Louisiana.

00:30:21.300 Okay.

00:30:22.860 Yeah.

00:30:23.180 But yeah, I remember that and you don't have-

00:30:25.220 I went to college with a guy from Covington, Louisiana.

00:30:26.840 Did you?

00:30:27.380 Yeah.

00:30:28.200 Jed Diamond is his name.

00:30:29.480 He's an acting teacher now in Tennessee.

00:30:31.400 Oh.

00:30:32.020 Yeah.

00:30:32.840 Jed Diamond.

00:30:33.920 Yeah.

00:30:34.380 Did he teach in Nashville?

00:30:37.100 Knoxville.

00:30:37.560 Knoxville.

00:30:38.040 Okay.

00:30:38.640 He might work at the university too or no?

00:30:40.560 Yeah.

00:30:40.860 Yeah.

00:30:41.000 He teaches at the university.

00:30:42.360 Wow.

00:30:42.620 That's amazing.

00:30:43.200 Yeah.

00:30:44.540 Interesting.

00:30:45.040 I don't know him, which is, because it's kind of a small-

00:30:46.900 The Diamonds, they had a big clan, but he was, there he is.

00:30:50.740 Look at that.

00:30:51.340 I love that.

00:30:52.120 We used to, I played Hamlet in acting school and he played Horatio next to my Hamlet.

00:30:56.760 Yeah.

00:30:57.320 Good balls, man.

00:30:57.840 That's a handsome photo.

00:31:00.400 He's not as good looking in real life as that photo.

00:31:02.720 He's looking, those piercing blue eyes.

00:31:05.260 Really nice guy.

00:31:06.460 Very nice guy.

00:31:07.440 Very smart guy.

00:31:08.580 Jed Diamond out of Covington, Louisiana.

00:31:10.260 That's cool.

00:31:11.120 Yeah.

00:31:11.740 Yeah.

00:31:12.220 We actually had the tallest statue of Ronald Reagan in our town.

00:31:15.080 Oh, that's nice.

00:31:15.940 Which is interesting.

00:31:16.860 Yeah.

00:31:17.040 And, um, yeah, that's about it.

00:31:21.280 But the-

00:31:22.360 Oh, Lee Harvey Oswald went to our middle school for a little while.

00:31:24.960 Oh, that's good.

00:31:26.400 All right.

00:31:26.800 So you would hear that growing up, things like that, like small town lore and stuff.

00:31:30.420 Yeah.

00:31:30.780 I loved that growing up.

00:31:32.160 But yeah, boredom, you didn't have it.

00:31:33.500 So your brain got to think and contemplate.

00:31:35.580 You felt like you needed a wish into the air if you wanted anything to happen.

00:31:41.060 Right.

00:31:41.140 Like you had to have some connection with the world because you needed to, like, set all

00:31:47.100 your hopes on the scales of time and that you would, whatever your dreams were, you were

00:31:52.380 going to make them happen somehow and you felt it inside of you.

00:31:56.300 And now all of so much of that and, like, our praying, our moments, our peace, it all gets-

00:32:04.360 There's an app for that.

00:32:05.800 And it gets, yeah.

00:32:07.140 It gets appified.

00:32:09.720 And it gets sucked in to that.

00:32:11.380 And comedy, too, like, I'm not a comedian.

00:32:14.880 Like, I wouldn't know how to write an hour and a half worth of jokes and stories.

00:32:19.600 Like, I just wouldn't know.

00:32:20.820 I would hire someone for that, I guess, if you're available.

00:32:24.320 But we spent so much time bored together, too.

00:32:29.900 So, and my friend, John and I, especially, we would play Kung Fu.

00:32:33.920 We would act out scenes from Kung Fu.

00:32:35.620 We loved that.

00:32:36.580 But then you're just, like, walking home from the school bus.

00:32:39.540 You're not checking your phones.

00:32:40.920 You're throwing pine cones at each other and at the passing cars.

00:32:44.200 And then, you know, you see a robin take a shit and then you talk about, like, oh, bird's

00:32:49.380 shit, I guess.

00:32:50.260 You know, how much, I wonder how much bird's shit.

00:32:52.100 And you just muse on that for 45 minutes.

00:32:54.860 Yeah.

00:32:55.160 So you can catch a bird shit.

00:32:56.520 You try for an hour.

00:32:57.400 Yeah.

00:32:58.420 Throw a pine cone, try and catch it right as it's shitting.

00:33:01.900 Yeah.

00:33:02.460 And then you go home.

00:33:04.720 But that's a little cauldron.

00:33:06.520 It's a little Petri dish of comedy.

00:33:08.400 Because you're just observing things and bumping up into each other.

00:33:12.560 And I think it must be harder for young folks these days.

00:33:19.200 Because my son is 18 years old and he gets together with his friends and they just mostly

00:33:24.900 just look at their phones the whole time they're together.

00:33:28.200 Yeah.

00:33:29.180 So, I don't know.

00:33:30.800 Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

00:33:31.820 Do I sound like a grumpy old man?

00:33:33.020 I don't think you do.

00:33:33.980 I think you sound, I mean, it's the same thing that I think.

00:33:36.840 It's like, is it that we're becoming grumpy old men or is it that we have some concern for

00:33:43.920 the intrinsic value of what it seems like to us, what it means to be human, you know?

00:33:52.780 And I don't know if we are like, or does nature and the gods, do they have some longer destiny

00:34:00.220 for us to end up as robots?

00:34:02.180 And these are like the shell.

00:34:03.640 We are like just the snails before they get the shell, you know?

00:34:07.040 It's like, we don't know where we are in the chain of time, you know?

00:34:10.720 Sure.

00:34:10.920 There was a book, a science fiction book I read, I used to read a lot of science fiction,

00:34:15.100 it was called City, it was by Clifford D. Simak.

00:34:18.780 And every section of the book took you through eons and Earth's development.

00:34:26.720 And like there's, after the humans expired on planet Earth, then it was the dogs.

00:34:33.020 So then it's like a whole chapter about dogs ruling the Earth.

00:34:36.760 And then it's the ants, and then the ants ruled the Earth.

00:34:39.800 And then I think at the end it's like the dolphins or something like that.

00:34:42.420 So it's stories, you know, set thousands of years apart.

00:34:47.600 And the dogs are living in the ruins of humanity.

00:34:50.000 So there's these shells of these cities, but they're these talking dogs,

00:34:52.860 and they're talking about life and love and stuff like that.

00:34:56.600 So, yeah, maybe this is just one just pit stop on the way of the development of planet Earth.

00:35:02.200 What do you think?

00:35:04.780 It makes, I don't know if it makes me, I think there's some part of me that laments that or makes me feel sad about it,

00:35:11.980 because I think in some ego way I want to feel more important than that,

00:35:16.380 or I want my time period to feel more important than that.

00:35:21.040 I often feel like it's very, even though I feel like I'm aware of some of the things that you kind of think about

00:35:25.980 and the things that you talk about in your book, I feel like I still struggle to combat those,

00:35:30.560 even though I try to use things like prayer, meditation.

00:35:35.040 You know, I'm in recovery, so I go to those.

00:35:37.400 Yeah, me too.

00:35:38.140 So I'm a part of that group, which promotes a lot of that sort of stuff.

00:35:41.980 So I'm an ear for brothers that struggle with stuff sometimes.

00:35:47.760 But even then, it's like, it's really hard to not feel like you're just on the conveyor belt sometimes,

00:35:58.120 but that maybe we used to have a, we used to dance on the conveyor belt and like whistle and do marshmallows and stuff,

00:36:05.520 and now we're just kind of like sitting on the conveyor belt on our phones, you know?

00:36:09.480 I don't know.

00:36:10.040 I don't want to sound too dour.

00:36:11.520 What's your biggest struggle?

00:36:13.920 My struggle was...

00:36:15.800 What is your biggest struggle now?

00:36:20.600 Probably affection.

00:36:24.780 Probably love and affection, that type of stuff.

00:36:27.100 I want to hug you right now.

00:36:28.440 Well, I wouldn't.

00:36:30.660 Okay.

00:36:31.900 Thank you, though.

00:36:32.740 I mean, I'll definitely take it to go.

00:36:34.440 I'll take it to go.

00:36:35.360 I'm going to wait to the end of the podcast.

00:36:37.160 Okay.

00:36:37.380 I'll give you a big one, big bear hug.

00:36:39.000 Some guy said in a meeting one day to me, he goes, you know what, man?

00:36:42.160 You're hard to pet.

00:36:44.340 Hard to pet?

00:36:45.180 Yeah.

00:36:46.700 And I kind of, I valued that.

00:36:48.740 It kind of taught me something about myself.

00:36:50.660 Like, you know, you're right, man.

00:36:51.860 I am hard to pet.

00:36:53.020 Uh-huh.

00:36:53.240 I don't, it's hard for me to let people pet me.

00:36:57.420 That's a great way of putting it.

00:36:59.080 It was just an interesting insight.

00:37:02.200 So affection, do you mean like intimacy?

00:37:05.260 Yeah, I think like that.

00:37:06.120 Like with good friends and with like relationships and girlfriends and whatnot?

00:37:10.340 Yeah, I think probably like commitment and like that kind of stuff.

00:37:14.240 Intimacy, like really dropping in to connecting with somebody.

00:37:17.540 Um, I think it's kind of tough.

00:37:21.400 Uh, I know it's kind of tough for me.

00:37:23.320 Yeah.

00:37:23.700 You know, but I don't want to talk too much about myself, you know?

00:37:27.920 Okay.

00:37:28.740 What about yourself?

00:37:33.280 Um.

00:37:33.900 I mean, obviously a lot in your book and a lot in your show, you know, that you're search,

00:37:38.480 you're in a searching space.

00:37:39.820 Yeah.

00:37:40.120 I, you know, I'm in recovery.

00:37:42.420 Um, I have a lot of anxiety.

00:37:45.300 I've dealt with a lot of depression before.

00:37:48.040 Uh, a lot of loneliness.

00:37:49.660 Um, I've been through some really dark times.

00:37:53.200 Um, and, uh, you know, so for me, like part of this spiritual search and why I'm writing

00:38:02.300 about it and talking about it and thinking about it so much is I need tools to help me

00:38:09.660 cope with my anxiety and help me find, uh, peace and, and serenity.

00:38:15.220 And, and as I undertake that journey, so I view kind of my anxiety disorder as something

00:38:23.360 almost akin to diabetes where you have friends with diabetes and every day they got to take

00:38:29.600 their blood, right?

00:38:31.040 Monitor.

00:38:31.620 Give them an apple or something if they fall over.

00:38:33.220 Right.

00:38:33.580 Exactly.

00:38:34.220 Shovel some applesauce in their mouth real quick.

00:38:36.320 And yeah, we had this one dude, we'd always fricking just put one of them Twix in him,

00:38:39.580 bro.

00:38:40.260 Anally?

00:38:41.100 Uh, I mean, I never did that.

00:38:42.920 Have you ever had anal Twix?

00:38:44.120 I haven't, but they kind of shape perfectly.

00:38:46.180 Right.

00:38:47.540 Uh, so, but I have to do the same thing with anxiety.

00:38:50.940 Like I have to, uh, I have to not, nothing is not anal, but I have to monitor it every

00:38:57.560 day and I can live with it and I do.

00:38:59.780 Okay.

00:38:59.920 But I do have, I have to meditate.

00:39:01.440 I have to work out.

00:39:02.800 I have to pray.

00:39:04.020 I have to surrender.

00:39:05.060 I have to stay connected with people.

00:39:06.600 I can isolate pretty easily.

00:39:08.360 Yeah.

00:39:08.900 So, um, but that has led me on, on the search.

00:39:13.620 So I, I would say my biggest struggle is with my own, as with my anxiety and with my ego

00:39:18.940 too, you know?

00:39:20.840 Yeah.

00:39:21.240 Ego is so scary, isn't it?

00:39:22.700 I must be, I mean, I've been at it for a long time and I struggled a lot more with

00:39:28.540 ego, like early on in the success of the office and stuff, but it must be hard for you.

00:39:33.020 Like you were, you're toiling away in obscurity doing like chuckles comedy hut in Oklahoma city.

00:39:38.840 And then all of a sudden, like just the last, like four years, like you've just like blown

00:39:45.060 up and like, you're practically going to be put on Mount Rushmore.

00:39:48.000 I mean, it's a crazy amount of fame for a, you know, a itchy hillbilly such as yourself.

00:39:54.380 Yeah.

00:39:55.380 You're right, dude.

00:39:57.300 That's a good call.

00:39:58.740 Yeah.

00:39:59.060 I think, uh, oh, well it scared me.

00:40:01.300 That has to have been a, that has to be a struggle too.

00:40:04.000 Oh, it's the first thing was a sheer fear.

00:40:06.620 I thought this was a, this was crazy.

00:40:08.860 I thought God has some, this was the worst part that happened.

00:40:12.540 And I thought God has some special purpose for me and that there's something special

00:40:17.100 that he needs me to do, but he does.

00:40:19.260 And, and that may be true.

00:40:20.380 But he has that for everyone, I think.

00:40:22.020 Right.

00:40:22.480 Yeah.

00:40:23.020 But I, now you have a platform.

00:40:24.540 And so, you know, I feel like I have some responsibility with increased power comes increased

00:40:28.920 responsibility.

00:40:29.660 Yeah.

00:40:30.120 Heavy is the head that wears the crown, bro.

00:40:32.040 Yeah.

00:40:32.700 And you almost wearing the podcast crown.

00:40:35.200 Yeah.

00:40:35.600 Well, they called me the rat king, you know, and I didn't even pick it out.

00:40:38.320 You know, it was just the king of rats.

00:40:40.420 But, um, but that was real scary.

00:40:42.420 Is it like Ant-Man?

00:40:43.200 You can order rats around?

00:40:45.840 Do you have a psychic connection to rats?

00:40:47.760 By the way, I think like, think about Ant-Man, like that pitch meeting at Marvel.

00:40:52.760 Like, all right.

00:40:54.260 Okay.

00:40:54.560 Ant-Man.

00:40:55.200 Mm-hmm.

00:40:55.900 What's his power?

00:40:57.020 Yeah.

00:40:57.260 He can turn tiny.

00:40:59.960 You picture them like, eh, it's pretty good.

00:41:04.520 I mean, that could be fun.

00:41:05.660 We don't have a shrinking guy, but it's not quite enough.

00:41:08.500 We need something more.

00:41:11.160 He has a psychic power to be able to call ants to help him out.

00:41:17.180 Mm-hmm.

00:41:18.180 Also, he can shrink and communicate with ants.

00:41:22.120 We'll call him Ant-Man, but the two powers really aren't related at all.

00:41:27.720 Do you know what I mean?

00:41:28.280 Yeah, I think it's great.

00:41:29.520 It would be like Superman's power is he has strength and he can fly and he can also read

00:41:34.500 books backwards.

00:41:35.900 Yeah.

00:41:36.200 You know what I mean?

00:41:36.540 Like, it doesn't-

00:41:37.240 Right, right.

00:41:38.100 And he can also weigh a Christmas ham with his eyes.

00:41:41.120 Yeah.

00:41:41.160 Right, right.

00:41:42.440 Yeah.

00:41:43.120 Yeah.

00:41:43.520 Yeah, that's-

00:41:44.160 Yeah, I think-

00:41:44.860 I don't know if-

00:41:45.860 Well, I think Hollywood has done a-

00:41:49.160 They've done a disservice to imagination because it's been-

00:41:52.960 Now, I think it used to be a novel place where more people came, they came out in their wagons

00:41:58.960 from Kalamazoo with their bag of ideas on their back.

00:42:04.740 Yep.

00:42:04.940 And now I think it's just, you know, so-and-so's son or grandson, they're in the seventh generation

00:42:11.020 of their studio or film.

00:42:12.900 They haven't had a new idea that isn't based on an algorithm walking the door in 12 years

00:42:18.120 and they wouldn't know something novel and unique unless it beat them upside the head,

00:42:24.560 I think, a lot of times.

00:42:25.940 Now, that might be a very narrow view of Hollywood.

00:42:28.740 But while you guys, like Bert and you and Tom, I'm sure there's others, but those are

00:42:35.040 the main three that I watch, like, you don't have to pitch anything.

00:42:40.340 Nope.

00:42:40.460 You can just make your own shit and hundreds of thousands of people or millions of people

00:42:45.580 are going to watch it and you get to do your own.

00:42:48.020 Like, Bert's got a whole enterprise over there.

00:42:49.680 He's got movies going and-

00:42:51.520 Oh, yeah.

00:42:51.780 He's got a family.

00:42:52.480 Cooking shows.

00:42:53.140 Me and David Spade just wrote a movie together, who was one of my childhood heroes.

00:42:57.840 That's amazing.

00:42:59.040 Yeah.

00:42:59.500 Yeah.

00:42:59.740 And you didn't need to go into Sony and, like, pitch it or anything.

00:43:02.640 Like, you just kind of did it.

00:43:03.980 Yeah.

00:43:04.440 Just kept-

00:43:04.840 And it'll sell, but is it Joe Dirt 2?

00:43:07.780 I wish it was damn Joe Dirt 7.

00:43:09.720 They made Joe Dirt 2.

00:43:11.040 Oh.

00:43:11.720 I didn't know either.

00:43:12.700 I didn't know that.

00:43:13.500 I mean, I knew, but I didn't want, you know, nobody was saying that they knew.

00:43:17.320 But it was something like, this one's about busboys, like the last busboys, you know?

00:43:25.260 And we think if we become waiters, then everything in our life will change, you know?

00:43:29.220 But we just, it's just a misguided thought.

00:43:31.760 Isn't that so true?

00:43:33.800 I remember I was very, you know, always struggling as an actor.

00:43:39.240 And then, like, oh, once I get on a TV show, then I'll be happy.

00:43:43.560 And guess what?

00:43:44.960 I'm on The Office.

00:43:47.180 And then it was just like, well, how do I get to be a movie star?

00:43:51.620 Now I'm a TV star.

00:43:52.980 And, like, the second I'm a TV star, I can't even, like, enjoy it.

00:43:56.920 Yeah.

00:43:57.240 For, like, a month, I'm on to, like, how do I get to be a movie star?

00:44:02.960 And guess what?

00:44:03.440 It didn't work out so well for me.

00:44:05.180 Trying to do movies, you mean?

00:44:06.200 Yeah, the movies, my movies never, people never really liked or saw my movies very much.

00:44:10.420 One day you'll probably make a really neat movie that people will see.

00:44:15.020 Well, I think a lot of them were neat.

00:44:16.900 And people tell me they like them now, like The Rocker and stuff like that.

00:44:20.540 But, like, that was my big, I don't know if you remember that movie, The Rocker?

00:44:23.720 So you don't even know it existed.

00:44:25.280 Yeah, I'm sorry.

00:44:26.300 What about you? You know about it.

00:44:27.000 I saw it in theaters.

00:44:28.080 You saw it in the theater?

00:44:29.200 Hell, yeah.

00:44:30.140 Bro.

00:44:30.540 Thanks, Zach, for holding the team together.

00:44:32.700 Wow.

00:44:33.340 That was 14 years ago.

00:44:34.920 How old were you?

00:44:36.440 I must have been 16 or something like that.

00:44:39.280 There he is.

00:44:40.860 There it is.

00:44:41.880 And Bradley Cooper.

00:44:43.060 Oh, yeah, I remember seeing the adverts.

00:44:45.000 Yeah.

00:44:45.240 Oh, I thought this was John, what's his name?

00:44:47.880 Barry.

00:44:49.360 Bill Hader?

00:44:50.080 Yeah.

00:44:50.780 Yeah, I used to kind of look like Bill Hader when I was a little better looking and younger.

00:44:55.420 You still seem like a handsome guy.

00:44:57.240 Oh, stop you.

00:44:58.600 But anyways, this was like, oh, I'm putting all my eggs in this basket, The Rocker.

00:45:07.000 This is my chance, my starring role in a comedy movie.

00:45:09.700 And it was one of the biggest bombs in Fox history.

00:45:16.160 It opened on like, there's this thing called Per Screen Average.

00:45:21.020 I mean, truth be told, they moved the launch date like five times.

00:45:24.220 They pushed it to a release after like Labor Day, like literally like the worst weekend.

00:45:30.520 Everyone's getting ready to go to school.

00:45:32.280 Yeah.

00:45:32.860 Oh, that's the worst.

00:45:34.060 It came out like three weeks after Tropics Thunder and two weeks after Step Brothers.

00:45:39.200 So there were all these amazing comedies in the theater already.

00:45:44.220 And we just, and like the, it came out on like 2,000 or 3,000 screens.

00:45:48.880 And like the per screen average was like $203 or something like that.

00:45:54.980 And it's like, it was brutal.

00:45:57.340 I put, I worked so hard on it.

00:45:59.120 I promoted the hell out of it.

00:46:01.020 And no one wanted to see the Rainn Wilson starring vehicle.

00:46:05.120 And it was devastating.

00:46:06.520 But why, you know, why was I in such a place back then?

00:46:09.200 And I think I'm in a different place now where it's like you say about the busboy.

00:46:12.380 Like, oh, if only I can get to be a waiter, then my life will be made.

00:46:16.960 But, oh, if only I can be, I'm a TV star.

00:46:20.460 If only I can be a movie star, then I will be happy.

00:46:23.180 Yeah.

00:46:23.720 You know, but.

00:46:24.820 But then you want to walk on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

00:46:27.300 Or then you want, you know, your kid to be a movie star.

00:46:30.500 You don't mean anything.

00:46:31.320 You know, yes, I think that search for different things never really ends.

00:46:35.640 But I think we have to try and monitor where does that search come from, right?

00:46:39.900 And what are exactly we searching for?

00:46:42.400 And that's the kind of thing, honestly, not to go back to your book, but I think that's

00:46:46.280 kind of the sum of the stuff that it's touching on.

00:46:48.140 It's like where some of these motivations coming from, not only for me as a person,

00:46:53.660 but where's our motivation coming from as a specie and as a human?

00:46:58.600 Well, if we want external validation, if we want to find happiness extrinsically, that's

00:47:04.640 outside of ourselves, you know, we're never going to be satisfied.

00:47:09.580 We have to find that deep, soul-rich satisfaction of being alive, you know, in the garden of our

00:47:16.940 hearts, you know, tending to, you know, what fulfills us and brings us joy and talk about

00:47:22.940 being in the moment, you know, that's such a key part of it.

00:47:26.060 It's hard.

00:47:27.260 And then when we're able to cultivate that, then we're able to spread that and give that

00:47:31.200 to others, you know?

00:47:32.440 And one of the things that you get to do, and I think your great divine and solemn responsibility,

00:47:39.840 and I put the rat king crown on your head and anoint you, king rat, and I say to you,

00:47:46.440 you are a spreader of joy.

00:47:49.000 You make people laugh.

00:47:50.140 You spread joy.

00:47:50.880 You spread ideas.

00:47:52.120 You uplift people.

00:47:53.400 There's probably some really depressed guy right now sitting in a trailer park in Mobile,

00:47:57.920 Alabama, taking a shit, and he doesn't know where he's going to pay the next month's rent,

00:48:01.940 and he's listening right now to this as he's watching, and he's chortling all of your analogies

00:48:08.020 and your verbal sense of humor and your humble demeanor, and he's uplifted.

00:48:15.260 And that is a divine power.

00:48:19.040 That is your Ant-Man powers is to uplift and inspire, not just summon rats.

00:48:27.460 Or summon decent rats.

00:48:30.200 Yeah.

00:48:31.340 Yeah.

00:48:32.040 Because that's really the best hope to be is just, you know, be a decent rat.

00:48:35.900 Be a decent rat.

00:48:37.180 I like that.

00:48:38.260 I kind of like that too, man.

00:48:39.620 Is that going to be on your merch page now?

00:48:41.220 It could be.

00:48:41.980 We can put it on there.

00:48:43.080 Yeah.

00:48:43.680 We can put a decent rat.

00:48:44.620 Can you put my little face there on it?

00:48:46.220 Yeah.

00:48:46.280 Yeah, we will.

00:48:48.000 Little rat.

00:48:50.720 What's your name again?

00:48:52.380 Alex.

00:48:53.020 Zach.

00:48:53.480 My brother's name's Alex.

00:48:54.540 You can name him Zach or Alex.

00:48:57.280 You can name him Alex.

00:48:58.320 Zach, it's nice to have him there because he smiles when it's funny.

00:49:02.480 Yep.

00:49:02.840 There's not really an audience.

00:49:04.840 Right.

00:49:05.080 There isn't.

00:49:05.520 You also have to recognize his sense of humor may not be the same as yours.

00:49:09.980 So sometimes you might be being funny and he doesn't, he.

00:49:14.400 He's deadpan, stonewall.

00:49:16.080 He doesn't fake it really for you, which I like.

00:49:18.500 Yeah.

00:49:19.320 It feels authentic.

00:49:20.360 It feels legit.

00:49:21.260 I think he, I think that.

00:49:22.820 But I've already, I've worked, I got a couple giggles out of Zach.

00:49:25.580 Yeah, I try.

00:49:26.680 I'm honest with it.

00:49:28.200 He is honest with it.

00:49:29.240 I like that.

00:49:29.680 He's out of Cincinnati and he's honest with it.

00:49:32.160 I would say that that's about him.

00:49:33.620 Was he from Cincinnati?

00:49:34.560 Mm-hmm.

00:49:35.000 That's what I said about bathrooms in Cincinnati.

00:49:37.180 WKRP, right?

00:49:38.720 How random is that?

00:49:39.700 The turkeys from the sky.

00:49:41.500 Remember them?

00:49:42.400 Oh, they shot turkeys out of the air?

00:49:43.720 They threw turkeys out of the sky in that show.

00:49:45.380 That's what, that's the only thing I remember.

00:49:46.460 I never saw those before.

00:49:47.660 WKRP in Cincinnati, you ever saw that show?

00:49:49.420 Yeah, I saw that.

00:49:49.940 Yeah, I used to watch that in the 70s.

00:49:51.700 Golden age of the sitcom.

00:49:53.340 All in the family.

00:49:54.420 I loved it.

00:49:55.200 God, he was good.

00:49:56.080 Carol O'Connor, I've been to his grave seven times.

00:49:59.120 You've been to Carol O'Connor's grave seven times?

00:50:01.500 Yep.

00:50:02.240 That is a devotion and dedication.

00:50:04.420 Where is his grave?

00:50:05.820 In my backyard.

00:50:07.160 Yeah.

00:50:07.680 That's why I was mowing the lawn every time I mowed the lawn.

00:50:10.580 That'll be Carol O'Connor.

00:50:11.560 He's buried in my heart.

00:50:14.340 Where's his grave?

00:50:15.220 He's buried in Westwood.

00:50:16.280 There's a cemetery in Westwood.

00:50:18.000 Okay.

00:50:18.940 Right by UCLA?

00:50:20.040 Yep.

00:50:20.400 I thought that's the one with like a thousand soldiers in it.

00:50:22.760 Nope.

00:50:23.260 Oh, there's that one, but there's another little one.

00:50:25.140 It's like a quarter of a block.

00:50:26.900 Okay.

00:50:27.100 It's behind some business buildings.

00:50:28.760 You never think it's there.

00:50:30.620 Hugh Hefner is in there.

00:50:32.820 Okay.

00:50:33.060 Marilyn Monroe.

00:50:35.200 Carol O'Connor.

00:50:38.980 Who's the guy from,

00:50:39.960 who are the two old guys from the Angry Grandpas?

00:50:42.960 Where they're in the boat and they're hitting him with the-

00:50:44.440 Walter Matthau?

00:50:45.120 Yep.

00:50:45.840 Walter Matthau.

00:50:47.160 Isn't it a,

00:50:47.520 it's pretty good I got that.

00:50:48.700 Yeah, it's good.

00:50:49.240 You're like,

00:50:49.300 who the angry old guy?

00:50:50.680 Walter.

00:50:51.540 And Jerry Matthau,

00:50:52.860 no.

00:50:53.420 And the last one is the other guy,

00:50:55.960 Jack-

00:50:56.680 Lemon.

00:50:57.860 Lemon.

00:51:00.060 Both of Grumpy Old Men were buried there?

00:51:01.980 All buried there in the same cemetery.

00:51:03.960 Wow.

00:51:04.220 And the first guy that ever played,

00:51:08.200 Robin Hood.

00:51:11.540 Kevin Costner?

00:51:12.600 I thought he was still alive.

00:51:13.860 Oh no,

00:51:14.360 Tarzan.

00:51:17.720 Or Robin Hood.

00:51:20.100 We're Googling this shit.

00:51:21.500 Someone.

00:51:25.380 Maybe it could have been him.

00:51:26.640 Could have been Pierce Brosnan too.

00:51:28.580 He's still alive.

00:51:30.420 Oh,

00:51:30.780 then not him.

00:51:31.740 Congrats,

00:51:32.320 Pierce.

00:51:33.220 Well done,

00:51:34.000 Pierce.

00:51:34.400 Still looks amazing.

00:51:36.520 Have you ever subscribed to something and forgot about it?

00:51:39.920 I have.

00:51:41.120 I did.

00:51:41.780 I was part of a scarf annual.

00:51:44.540 And I send you a scarf every month.

00:51:47.220 Thank God.

00:51:47.860 Your neck just can't handle it.

00:51:49.180 Dang.

00:51:50.420 I was getting dang hives just because I had,

00:51:53.260 you know,

00:51:53.520 by May I had on three scarves and I just,

00:51:55.720 people couldn't even recognize me.

00:51:57.860 It's getting dangerous too.

00:51:58.880 Couldn't see over the top one.

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00:56:17.720 I know you talk some about it in your book about how, like, so some of the things,

00:56:21.640 something that we struggle with is, or one thing that you like to take note of,

00:56:26.500 because I don't want to say like you're being accusatory towards society,

00:56:29.460 because it's more like you're saying, hey, let's all look at some of this stuff.

00:56:33.580 Do you think that's a fair statement?

00:56:35.700 Yes.

00:56:36.060 It's just education, like the education's what we educate youth on at all, really.

00:56:44.540 To me, a lot of it is asinine.

00:56:47.200 I talk about, later on in the book, I talk a lot about how systems are broken.

00:56:57.580 So this is where I get a little, I wax a little philosophical.

00:57:00.500 I'm like, so many systems are broken.

00:57:04.160 Anyone who works in any system will tell you how broken it is.

00:57:06.740 You ever notice that?

00:57:07.480 Like you talk to someone who's like a bus driver and like, what's it like being a bus driver?

00:57:10.520 He's like, well, it's gone to shit.

00:57:11.880 Yeah.

00:57:12.280 I'll tell you why.

00:57:13.100 They're making us work 14 hours and not enough people, and we don't get to park the buses downtown.

00:57:18.400 And it's BYOB.

00:57:19.860 Yeah.

00:57:20.700 And you get, yeah, you got to wipe down the seats yourself.

00:57:23.280 We used to have guys that wiped down the seats.

00:57:25.180 And, you know, every system is broken down because it's, everything's based on greed.

00:57:30.760 You know, everything's based on aggression and greed and one-upsmanship and competition and, you know,

00:57:37.200 and healthcare and agriculture and education is one of those systems.

00:57:43.960 And the reason I bring all this up is not to be like negative Nelly, but to kind of say like we need to realize that they're based on faulty systems.

00:57:56.740 Like take education.

00:57:57.620 And I talk about when they pull people and they're like, hey, what do you want to learn in school?

00:58:03.480 People will be like gardening, you know, or how to have a friendship or how to take rejection or how to, you know, work on a car engine or how to pay bills.

00:58:17.620 Right.

00:58:18.060 And, and have like a banking account, you know, all this stuff that they, people say they want, you don't ever spend, you don't learn shit about that.

00:58:26.060 You spend, my son is 18, like some of the stuff, like his math class, it's like, give me a break.

00:58:32.300 Like, he's not going to be a mathematician and he's in like this, it's so hard and it's so pointless.

00:58:40.160 And, and you get something out of math, like you, it, it exercises your brain, right?

00:58:45.420 It's like advanced Sudoku, right?

00:58:48.160 Um, which is good for brain growth, but it's not practical at all.

00:58:53.240 And like, he took this history class and his entire history class, like European history was just about who won what battle, you know?

00:59:00.520 In 1707, the French beat the Polish.

00:59:02.720 And in 1842, the English beat the Dutch.

00:59:06.720 And yeah.

00:59:07.020 And the Dutch beat the gays.

00:59:08.720 And you're like, what is this?

00:59:09.740 This is, hey, where's this going?

00:59:13.100 Like who's writing this?

00:59:14.740 Yeah.

00:59:15.300 Yeah.

00:59:15.700 I agree, man.

00:59:16.540 But who cares about that?

00:59:17.700 Like who, who cares who won the battle of shish kebab and, you know, in 1684, you know?

00:59:24.760 Yeah.

00:59:25.000 A hundred percent.

00:59:25.860 I'd much rather learn how to, how to, you know, if I was 17 to have a checking account or how to grow a cabbage.

00:59:32.240 Yeah.

00:59:33.000 Oh, it'd be sick, dude.

00:59:34.480 You saw some fricking hot chick with a balanced checkbook and two heads of lettuce.

00:59:38.700 You know what I'm saying, buddy?

00:59:39.700 I'm in, bro.

00:59:41.820 But dude, yeah, I agree.

00:59:43.180 There should be class.

00:59:44.040 Like I always thought there should be classes on like, like we had spelling every week, right?

00:59:51.000 Three kids did the best.

00:59:53.260 16 kids did medium.

00:59:55.160 Four kids could not spell ever.

00:59:57.280 Yeah.

00:59:57.500 And it was the same for the whole, like after four weeks, let's just say we get, we know what's going to happen.

01:00:05.700 Yeah.

01:00:05.820 Let's move on.

01:00:06.400 Like I think just let the four kids just duke it out among themselves.

01:00:12.460 I was always in the medium.

01:00:14.500 Yeah.

01:00:15.080 I was a good speller.

01:00:16.040 You were a good speller.

01:00:17.060 Yeah.

01:00:17.260 Did you ever make it to some kind of finals?

01:00:18.820 I made it almost, but I missed on inconvenience, right?

01:00:22.480 That's inconvenient.

01:00:23.620 Yeah.

01:00:24.040 I wrote that line on the, in the office.

01:00:27.760 I lost the spelling bee.

01:00:29.840 I misspelled the word failure.

01:00:33.240 And I actually wrote that line.

01:00:35.600 I felt kind of proud of that.

01:00:37.660 Hey, Zach.

01:00:39.400 Yeah.

01:00:40.100 Give us a tough word.

01:00:41.600 Let's have a little spelling bee.

01:00:42.880 All right.

01:00:46.140 Renaissance.

01:00:49.580 Me or him.

01:00:52.380 The fair or the motel?

01:00:55.300 The fair.

01:00:57.140 All right.

01:00:57.540 R-E-N-A-I-S-S-A-N-C-E.

01:01:01.200 No.

01:01:02.900 Renaissance.

01:01:04.140 R-E-N-N-A-I-S-S-A-N-C-E.

01:01:09.360 Just one N.

01:01:10.320 He's right.

01:01:11.120 You got it.

01:01:12.460 Well, it's also, you have two N's in your name, so you probably were, it's like.

01:01:15.280 I was sure it was two N's.

01:01:16.440 I was so sure.

01:01:17.600 Two S's.

01:01:18.660 Okay.

01:01:19.020 Let's do best two out of three then.

01:01:21.440 And I'll pick a category two outdoors.

01:01:23.440 Just Google, Google spelling bee words.

01:01:28.140 Okay.

01:01:28.620 I won't pick a category then.

01:01:30.040 I'll take my category back.

01:01:33.620 These are all easy.

01:01:34.860 These are verbatim.

01:01:35.760 Hold on.

01:01:36.340 Look up harder spelling bee words.

01:01:38.240 I did.

01:01:38.900 High school.

01:01:41.860 Senior year.

01:01:42.860 Community college.

01:01:43.600 Yeah.

01:01:45.220 Gesticulate.

01:01:46.700 Oh, G-E-S-T-I-C-U-L-A-T-E.

01:01:52.260 Pretty easy.

01:01:54.280 Talking with your hands, being Italian, even doing that.

01:01:58.320 Yeah.

01:01:58.820 I think here's a class you should have, right, Rain?

01:02:01.380 Eye contact.

01:02:04.360 What a great class.

01:02:06.360 The first week, it's all eye contact.

01:02:08.340 How you doing, Betty?

01:02:10.440 You know?

01:02:10.740 What do you, what about the second week?

01:02:13.940 Then you move up, you do nodding.

01:02:17.360 So why don't you just say like interpersonal communication?

01:02:20.760 Yeah, you can.

01:02:21.520 You're going to scare off a lot of people, though.

01:02:23.360 Then eye contact is week one.

01:02:24.200 Yeah.

01:02:24.560 You put that, you're scaring off a lot of folks.

01:02:26.380 That's okay.

01:02:27.260 Let them be scared.

01:02:28.480 Okay.

01:02:28.740 Kids need it.

01:02:29.440 People need it right now.

01:02:30.940 You know, you look on college campuses and some of the most popular classes, like the

01:02:35.100 most popular class at USC is on friendship.

01:02:41.220 Like how to have friendship.

01:02:42.820 Yeah.

01:02:43.600 Well, I mean, because look at what we do.

01:02:45.260 Yeah, I think you do eye contact, nodding.

01:02:47.860 You, if you, you, you do well in nodding, you get to, you get to move into the handshakers

01:02:52.460 union.

01:02:52.840 Right.

01:02:53.320 And then you're there, you're doing real handshakes in real time with people.

01:02:57.140 Right.

01:02:57.520 Right.

01:02:57.700 But you're learning.

01:02:58.400 Yeah.

01:02:58.560 How to communicate, how to take rejection.

01:03:00.540 Like you said, that'd be great.

01:03:01.920 Oh, damn.

01:03:02.600 You suck.

01:03:03.280 Oh man.

01:03:04.020 All right, bro.

01:03:04.760 But I'm still good at this.

01:03:06.080 Right.

01:03:06.740 But we teach.

01:03:07.500 It's like, we go straight from like dinosaurs to sex ed.

01:03:11.240 It's like, you believe in Tyrannosaurus Rex, let's fuck, you know, like that's crazy,

01:03:17.260 bro.

01:03:17.680 Yeah.

01:03:18.260 That is.

01:03:18.680 We, there's so much as, right.

01:03:20.620 None of it is based on.

01:03:22.360 No one has ever fucked a dinosaur.

01:03:25.480 Oh, I, I believe.

01:03:26.460 No, cause they, they never overlapped.

01:03:28.260 Humans and dinosaurs never overlapped.

01:03:29.700 It was like a million a year after the last dinosaur died before humans.

01:03:33.120 There's no pictures of humans and dinosaurs at the same time.

01:03:35.580 Well, there's no, there's no pictures before 1880.

01:03:41.400 There's paintings, but yeah, there was no, there's no wall carving.

01:03:45.280 Wooly mammoths.

01:03:46.380 Yeah.

01:03:46.820 It could be that someone fucked a wooly mammoth.

01:03:49.280 Oh yeah.

01:03:49.760 In the plasticine.

01:03:51.160 The brunettes they called them back then.

01:03:54.700 Yeah.

01:03:55.420 In a heartbeat.

01:03:56.280 They're so wooly.

01:03:57.560 Yeah.

01:03:57.660 Oh, especially on a cold night.

01:04:00.700 Yeah.

01:04:01.200 Oh, sure.

01:04:02.180 Oh.

01:04:02.600 Oh, sure.

01:04:03.040 I would braid that tail, buddy.

01:04:04.300 You could sleep in that vagina.

01:04:05.400 You know, it's like a rucksack, you know?

01:04:07.880 Oh, little baby, don't say a word.

01:04:11.900 Oh, I bet if they had a newborn baby, if they're riding on a woolly mammoth, they just plop that thing.

01:04:16.140 Right in there.

01:04:16.840 Yeah.

01:04:17.320 Yeah.

01:04:17.720 Why not?

01:04:21.020 That's the only sound that they hear is they do.

01:04:24.060 All aboard.

01:04:25.240 Train's leaving the station.

01:04:26.720 But they don't fuck dinosaurs.

01:04:29.980 But that's it.

01:04:30.880 You know, I think, yeah, like getting back to being human.

01:04:33.340 And do you – sometimes I will romanticize Native American and tribal people and the connection that they had to the earth.

01:04:40.680 Do you do that?

01:04:41.320 I do very much.

01:04:42.200 I really believe that we have a lot to learn from Native American folk, the way that, by and large, they lived in harmony with the natural world.

01:04:52.940 And the thing I think about with a lot of indigenous peoples and their spiritual practices is that spirituality wasn't separate from nature.

01:05:01.620 And when you think about that, it can be very inspiring.

01:05:05.180 You know what I mean?

01:05:05.720 Like this mountain is holy.

01:05:08.240 You know, this river is the river of our ancestors.

01:05:11.000 This is where our ancestors are buried in this forest and that's holy.

01:05:14.680 Let's pray to the spirit of the mountain or to the spirit of the river or the spirit of the forest.

01:05:20.520 And so it isn't this idea of God as this kind of dude or like a deity, like with superpowers.

01:05:28.620 Right.

01:05:28.960 You know, up on a cloud.

01:05:30.260 Yeah.

01:05:30.420 It's merged into the natural world, the beauty, the majesty, the wonder, the mystery of the natural world, you know, the winds, the four directions.

01:05:41.920 And when you read about Native American spirituality, I think it can be very uplifting.

01:05:46.640 And it was very helpful to me because I was reading some stuff about in the Lakota Sioux tradition, the god of the Lakota Sioux is called, is referred to as Wakantanka, which means the great mystery.

01:06:04.480 So even the word for God, instead of, maybe we should all do that, is throw away the word God.

01:06:10.120 It's such a loaded word, right?

01:06:11.960 Except for Michael Landon, his highway to heaven.

01:06:13.980 But that, and just substitute the great mystery, like, you know, oh, did you pray to the great mystery today?

01:06:22.480 Right.

01:06:22.900 Or, oh, thank the great mystery, or ask the great mystery for help.

01:06:26.560 Or like, you know, great mystery, damn it.

01:06:29.960 Yeah.

01:06:30.220 I don't know.

01:06:30.780 Yeah.

01:06:31.340 But I really love that idea.

01:06:33.180 And that was very resonant for me as a young person because I was really struggling with God and higher power.

01:06:38.140 And I didn't know what that meant to me.

01:06:40.560 And, you know, my parents were religious, but I didn't have the same conception that they did.

01:06:45.720 And that really allowed me to kind of have a different vision for what a higher power could be, which was something that is not separate from nature and something that is not separate from physical reality.

01:06:57.360 It is in physical reality and in nature and yet part of it and also above it at the same time.

01:07:04.800 And the idea, I love, I was going to say I love mysteries, but I don't mean like I love mystery podcasts.

01:07:10.560 I mean, I love, you know, I just love, as an artist, I love the idea of life being this mystery.

01:07:18.920 And so I found that very helpful and I think we could get real humble and we really screwed over Native Americans in this country.

01:07:27.520 And we should go back to the reservation and help them out and learn from them and not, you know, tell them what to do and when to do it, but actually be humble and learn from them because they might have something to teach us.

01:07:38.580 Agreed. I mean, I think we, I think we're starting, there's a lot of people that are trying to get back to those spaces now, I think in a lot of ways, you know, you see it with like a lot of ayahuasca use and people getting back to the jungle and having experiences that really bring them closer to nature.

01:07:56.960 Yeah.

01:07:57.840 But I can imagine, yeah, I'm not going to litter if I think that the ground has some semblance.

01:08:03.560 Of sacredness.

01:08:04.320 Of course not. Right. It's kind of, things are going to have so much more value to me.

01:08:09.180 Yeah. I'm not going to strip mine that mountain.

01:08:12.100 Right.

01:08:12.480 And cause an ecological disaster. You know, there's all these floods that have been happening in West Virginia and they, they called it when they were doing all the strip mining in the 70s and 80s.

01:08:22.520 They're like, this is going to be an ecological disaster because you're wiping out all these trees and you're just digging these trenches and digging up the coal, you know, from these mountainsides.

01:08:31.040 And then when it rains and floods, you know, you're just, you're, you're fucked.

01:08:35.580 Yeah.

01:08:35.900 You know, but if those mountains were sacred, the people wouldn't tolerate it, you know, cause you can have both, you can have jobs and you can have sacred land.

01:08:47.020 Yeah. We kind of sold our, I mean, I think about that a lot, like, especially in the U S did we like sell ourselves out or did we, how did we get on this wrong path?

01:08:57.140 Where, um, or are we on a wrong path? You don't know, but it feels like there's some, there must be something more if so many people are looking for meaning, I think, and feeling, you know, something real.

01:09:13.320 Um, and especially before we get so trapped into the digital universe that you can't even come out.

01:09:23.120 I mean, there, a smile might be in a museum one day. You might have to go to a museum to see a smile.

01:09:27.840 I like the museum of smiles, but that'd be so crazy. Yeah. Remember Rick?

01:09:35.300 You'd be right up there.

01:09:36.460 Yeah. Remember when Eddie got his first, remember when Eddie's first orgasm?

01:09:39.780 Yeah. Remember when Eddie got his first orgasm? He's just like, it's not quite a smile.

01:09:45.200 Okay. Like, uh, you go to the curator, like that's not technically a smile. It's a grimace of ecstasy, but it's not quite a smile.

01:09:53.380 Like, Hey, it's our biggest attraction, buddy. All right. Calm down.

01:09:58.140 I think too, like we're at, you know, we talked about people in the future, looking back at this time, we talked about phones and distractions and boredom, but

01:10:09.480 the other thing too, is like the amount of disunity and the fact that America is so divided 49% on each side, Democrat and Republican and this partisanship and the, how deadlocked it is and how much fighting there is.

01:10:24.100 Um, and it's, and it's really, it's so sad because we've so many problems that need fixing, you know?

01:10:32.360 And, you know, like Republicans might criticize Democrats like, Oh, they're running their cities terribly and there's all this homelessness and they kind of mock it right on Fox news.

01:10:43.640 And then the left does the same thing. They'll be like to find some other problem in Republican states and like, and then make fun of that. And it's like, why aren't we helping each other? Like, why, why is partisanship become the de facto way to kind of do business?

01:10:59.020 Like it doesn't, it doesn't make sense. It's not practical. It doesn't get shit done and it's not helping anyone. And we really need to move past it. I, you know, I was thinking about, um, debates and, um, isn't it funny on, on a, like you watch a political debate and then immediately there's articles like an hour later, like who won the debate?

01:11:25.100 And the reason that they say that they won the debate is they got more zingers in on the other person. And then that's who we elect is the person who is able to get more zingers in on the other person as if that's a leadership skill.

01:11:38.700 Could you imagine you're running for class president as a senior in high school? And like, you know, it's, it's, it's Bobby and Darren and like Bobby's like, well, Darren's got a, such an overbite. You know, he looks like a woodchuck. Ha ha ha ha. Let's vote for him. Like, no, the teachers would never allow that. Like, so now what's your policy position? How are you going to help the school?

01:12:01.040 Right. How are you going to fix Darren's teeth?

01:12:02.460 How are you, how are we going to have a fundraiser for braces for Darren and his poor overbite?

01:12:08.100 Yeah. Like I agree, but yeah, it's, that is, well, the news, something happened when the news fell off. It used to feel like, and we talk about this sometimes on here that you could rely on the news, right?

01:12:18.900 Yeah.

01:12:19.360 I feel like my parents and your parents probably felt like the news, uh, had a general interest in the wellness of their viewer.

01:12:26.840 Yeah. And now it does not, it feels like the news wants to be like a nicotine for their viewer. Um, right. And that, uh, outrage keeps you watching. And if you read, if you look through like Yahoo news feed online, I'm not talking about like cable news, but it works in cable news too. If they keep you outraged, they keep you coming back.

01:12:48.960 Oh, people like, they always end like the end of the new show. Like after the commercial, you won't believe what this kid did to this man's face with a baseball bat.

01:13:01.200 Yeah. After these messages, this guy hit a two run double on this senior citizen. You're like, Jesus.

01:13:07.800 Wow.

01:13:08.480 Yeah. That's a terrible baseball analogy. Some guy's dead.

01:13:12.140 Yeah. Man's head found locally. We'll be back. Right. After this, still alive. And it'll say, and you're like, what did you use it?

01:13:22.140 Let's show a picture.

01:13:24.120 Yeah. It makes you, but then like there, you feel like there's a swing to everything. So it's like, are we just hopefully at this point of the pin it, you know, we're at the out. And then there's a turn that we can't see that's coming or that maybe we hope for, you know?

01:13:40.140 Cause I wonder if people have thought this way in the past as well. If people have felt as nervous about the future.

01:13:47.600 Well, civil war.

01:13:48.840 Oh, that had to be definitely, huh?

01:13:50.460 Yeah. I mean, that was, that, that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, right?

01:13:55.380 You ever hit any of the reenactments or anything? Probably not where you're from. You're from the Northwest, right?

01:13:59.860 From Seattle. Yeah. We didn't have reenactments, but.

01:14:02.240 You got to go to probably, you probably want, you'd fit right in. Oh, we crowd.

01:14:06.780 Dude, we'd be out there at the CWRs, bro. Frickin chilling, bro.

01:14:11.160 What is the CWR? Civil War reenactment.

01:14:13.400 Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, just.

01:14:17.500 Did you, did you all being from the South be like, okay, we're going to need 20 Yankees.

01:14:22.660 And like, no. Yeah. Theo, yeah. Theo, you're going to be Yankee. I don't want to be a fucking Yankee. Like the South will rise again. Like everyone wanted to be.

01:14:32.320 Well, people kept Southerner.

01:14:33.760 People played a lot of like Southern music and shit, you know, because the party was better for the South and before that, like it was like the breakfast or whatever, the big breakfast they would do before the fight or whatever was definitely.

01:14:44.300 Cause the South loses every time, you know, there was one day where they kind of won, but it was like, um, you know, historically they've lost.

01:14:52.660 And so, yeah, sometimes you'd have groups from the North that would come and they would do it. It was like a big deal.

01:14:58.740 Oh, you'd have Yankee reenactors come down and Southern reenactors.

01:15:02.000 It's like a Renaissance fair kind of.

01:15:03.100 But they would know that they were going to win. So they'd be like, fuck y'all.

01:15:05.880 Yeah. There was a lot of that, but there was also like, you know, afterwards, everybody would have, you know, have a Michelobro Schlitz, you know, and try to like, sometimes they would do it around the same time as a Renaissance fair.

01:15:14.640 And people would come over and everybody try to like bang some chick from the Renaissance fair.

01:15:18.680 Cause they're buxom.

01:15:19.720 Oh man.

01:15:20.940 Right.

01:15:21.180 God, did they, I'll say this about the Renaissance fair, dude, hot chicks, no, no chicks, civil war reenactors, right?

01:15:29.400 Zilch.

01:15:29.800 None.

01:15:30.340 A lot of masturbation. A lot of people drawing cooter in the dirt and stuff, you know, and fucking woolly mammoth carcasses.

01:15:37.080 Yeah.

01:15:37.280 Right and left.

01:15:38.120 Yeah. Yeah.

01:15:38.580 A lot of people writing girl on their buddy's butt, you know, a lot of like, a lot of obtuse ideas out there, but, uh, Oh, Renaissance fair.

01:15:48.200 God. Oh yeah. I could see you at a Renaissance fair. I could be honest. Yeah. Have you been to some?

01:15:53.880 I have been, I'm a huge fan. I actually wrote, uh, uh, a pretty hysterical script called Renaissance men, that comedy that took place at a Renaissance fair horse.

01:16:05.520 Um, we tried to sell it for years. We tried to get it going. Um, but it didn't really take off. It's very funny. Do you want to, would you like to be in it?

01:16:13.020 Yeah.

01:16:13.980 Could you find someone else to, to be in that?

01:16:16.540 Yeah. Man or woman. You think man, it's a buddy comedy to guys.

01:16:21.020 Yeah.

01:16:21.660 You could find someone else to be in it.

01:16:23.780 Yep. What kind of God does the other guy have to be?

01:16:25.620 Well, I don't know. So there's one guy that's really intense and takes a Renaissance fair, like really seriously. He's a little bit more of a Dwight character. And the other guy's more of a player and like seducing the ladies and like, doesn't take it as seriously.

01:16:40.640 Yeah.

01:16:41.220 I think you'd be the player guy.

01:16:42.320 Yeah. Who wants to throw an ax into my butt? You know what I'm saying?

01:16:46.020 I don't know what you're saying. I literally, I don't know what you mean.

01:16:49.440 Get your motor running. Yeah. So maybe the music would be a little bit like from a different era though.

01:16:54.840 Yeah. That's, that's not the right. Okay.

01:16:56.620 It would be like a Madrigal. Okay. Like Rapunzel. Like, let me go get Rapunzel.

01:17:00.860 Like Greensleeves.

01:17:02.540 Hmm.

01:17:03.880 Alas, my love, you do me wrong to have cast me out so disdainfully. God.

01:17:14.120 Something beautiful about that.

01:17:15.300 And I have loved you so long. I fare thee well with my hair so free. I don't know the rest of it, but.

01:17:25.640 It sounds good, man.

01:17:27.000 I'm serious. I'm going to send you the script.

01:17:28.300 Yeah. I'd love to read it. I really would. That'd be an honor actually.

01:17:31.360 Because you guys, this new, you youngins, your young podcast generation, you and Bert could do it.

01:17:37.680 Oh, well, Bert just did a movie too.

01:17:39.400 Yeah.

01:17:39.880 He just did a movie about the machine, about being the machine.

01:17:42.520 Yeah.

01:17:42.720 Yeah. Yeah.

01:17:44.460 You talk about, you talk about faith in your book.

01:17:51.460 Yeah.

01:17:52.680 What's that been like for you? And like, I know, and Hollywood a lot of times seems like there's not a lot of faith in it. I mean, it's a very business world, you know? And maybe the world is overall. I don't want to just, I pick on Hollywood a lot.

01:18:04.000 Good. You should.

01:18:04.940 But it's very, I don't know. You know, I like faith. I like having something other than myself in the world. I need it.

01:18:13.860 Yeah. I do too.

01:18:15.320 Yeah.

01:18:15.600 Yeah. I'll tell you something. I was thinking about this the other day. Like, there's a lot of weirdos in the comedy world in Hollywood. And everyone kind of prides themselves on being like, oh, I'm eccentric and I'm weird and this and that.

01:18:30.180 And, but for me, it was always a little weird because I'd always want to talk about faith and God and the soul and life after death and kind of big concepts and whatnot.

01:18:38.640 And the comedy world just did not know what to do with me. Like, who is this guy who's talking about God? It's the unsexiest, uncoolest thing to talk about anywhere. But especially like in the too cool for school comedy world.

01:18:55.760 So you've got all these eccentrics and misfits and losers as they describe themselves, but then they also want to be cool. They want to be like the cool kids in the lunchroom, right? The cool kids table. So it was, it was always hard for me because I always wanted to talk about that stuff and people just didn't know what to do with that guy. He's also weird, that guy who plays Dwight, but then he talks about spiritual topics and stuff.

01:19:19.300 Well, the gods must be crazy. It was a huge movie, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it was. I remember somebody snuck that in our apartment when I was a kid and we watched it. That's a South African movie about the, about the Coke bottle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That fell down from the sky. Yeah. I was like, what is this even about? But we watched it probably 30 times. Family Man. Have you seen that? Yeah. With Nicolas Cage. God, is it good, huh? Yeah. I love that movie. Dude, I love that movie. I'm a big Family Man guy. I've never met another Family Man fan.

01:19:48.260 I think it's terrific and it kind of came and went. I think it's a Christmas classic. Me too. I played it for a girl at Christmas recently. Yeah. She didn't pay attention, fell asleep during it. Oh. And we don't date anymore. Good. Good. And that was it for me, brother. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Family Man. Oh, the one where the guy, Quaid, talks with his, through the radio. Through the radio. Yeah. Yeah. I loved that movie. Yeah. Right. That was good. The ghost of his father, like through the radio. Yes. God, that was powerful. That was good.

01:20:18.260 Frequency. Frequency. Frequency. God, that was good. Yeah. I mean, that hit me right in the freaking heart nuts, man. But you were talking about God and faith and. Yeah. I don't think it turns people off. I think people are desperate for it. Well, it's a different day now. It's a different age. And it's funny because I just did Bert's podcast. And his is a lot bigger than yours.

01:20:44.820 Like in what? Studio size? No. Like numbers. Like he's, his, his is huge. Oh, you're making that up. I'm just trying. I'm just trying to. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I was trying to incite something. You are. And you are. A little bit. And you are. And I like it, dude. I was getting, yeah, I was getting it. I like it. I have no idea. That hurt. I just know that you guys are very, very popular. No. But it was so great because Bert, it was so refreshing because he's like, oh, you wrote a book on spirituality. That's so cool.

01:21:14.820 I'm like, oh, I talk about God. And he's like, I love God. God is awesome. I totally believe in God. I love God. You know, and he's like, and it was like, it was, it was so cool to hear that from like a top comedy guy who was just able to just say, you know, it's a different, it's a different time right now.

01:21:35.400 And I think because things aren't working out so well and we see big problems and people are turning. And this is what Soul Boom is about. I want it up on that shelf one of these days.

01:21:47.840 You know what? I'll put it up. Actually, you know what? I'll put it in front of this book for a while.

01:21:50.860 You put it in front of Jordan Peterson?

01:21:52.200 Yeah, I'd be glad to.

01:21:53.080 Oh, thank you.

01:21:53.640 I really, I really enjoyed the 50 pages that I read.

01:21:56.300 All right. I hope you'll read the next 50.

01:21:58.520 I think there's a lot of things we talk about it in here.

01:22:00.560 But I think people are more open to spiritual ideas because the other, you know, political solutions and economic and legislative kind of, it's not working.

01:22:12.300 You know, it's not working. Things are breaking down and people feel that.

01:22:15.140 Right. It's let us down. You know, I think it's, you know, people used to feel a sense of purpose more.

01:22:19.560 We were talking about this a few weeks ago with the school shootings and stuff.

01:22:23.260 I think some of the reasons why you get these folks is you have people that have no sense of purpose, right?

01:22:27.300 They don't get it through their job anymore because it's a lot of big companies and there's not the place in your town that makes like, you know, your favorite shoes.

01:22:35.400 My dad works at the shoe company and we wear the shoes my dad makes.

01:22:38.160 And there's a sense of pride that like a place was connected to a product, you know, and it was in your part of your personality was in it.

01:22:45.440 You went into work because you knew your kid was going to be wearing the thing and you wanted to have a, you wanted to fucking get home and have a sense of something in the home when you got there, you know?

01:22:54.300 Yeah. And just like there's no sense of purpose through work.

01:22:58.180 A lot of people don't have a family. They're not in love or loved.

01:23:01.620 And so you don't have a sense through love of purpose.

01:23:05.040 But let me add to that. OK. And this is has to do with religion.

01:23:09.420 Like so much of America has turned away from religion and so many young people have.

01:23:13.720 And for a good reason, there's been there's a lot of shitty things about organized religion.

01:23:19.040 Oh, a lot of pervs out there, a lot of, you know, a lot of big dogs, you know, touching kiddos and, you know, being molesters, you know?

01:23:27.360 Yeah. Yeah. And also like church can be very judgmental, you know, of people, you know, gays and lesbians and and whatnot.

01:23:35.660 And they can it can it can, you know, cause a lot of disunity in ways.

01:23:41.400 But we people have also lost purpose as they've lost their sense of of the community that religious faith can give, you know, because what does religion give you?

01:23:52.120 It gives you community, a shared sense of purpose, you know, transcendence, love, like service, like service projects.

01:24:01.320 You know, I have friends that are part of churches or in my own Baha'i faith, you know, going out and doing service projects on the weekend together, working together, side by side, praying together, common prayer, singing together.

01:24:13.360 Right. Potlucks, like just like there's we've we've jettisoned everything having to do with religion.

01:24:20.200 But there are a lot of positives that come from that world.

01:24:24.620 Oh, potlucks alone. Pretendants having to pretend somebody's casserole is good to their face, dude.

01:24:28.940 Yeah. Yeah. And the good casseroles are taken like right off the bat.

01:24:34.200 Oh, yeah. Like someone comes in with like a tater tot and cheese casserole with ground beef.

01:24:37.840 Oh. And it's like the pan is dry.

01:24:40.180 As soon as it turns 18, brother, it is off the table.

01:24:43.480 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

01:24:44.700 And then but someone else brought, you know, the green bean salad, like with jello in it.

01:24:49.720 Yeah. And vinegar. And and it's like there's plenty of that left.

01:24:54.300 Why don't you have some of the green bean salad? The tater tots are gone, but dig in.

01:24:59.220 There's a bird. There's like a walk, not even eating it, just walking on it.

01:25:03.040 Like, oh, this is bad. But no, I agree. A sense of community.

01:25:06.920 Those are things that I love about church. You see a sense of community, you know,

01:25:10.480 kids get to see each other on the weekend. It's things like that. Yeah.

01:25:13.800 You get that in 12 step meetings.

01:25:15.240 Yeah. Oh, a ton of it.

01:25:16.280 Yeah. It's why I go, man.

01:25:18.020 Maraderie and it's why I go.

01:25:19.820 Yeah.

01:25:20.000 I see people that care about me and that I care about. I forget there's a I have a forgetter

01:25:26.020 in me that my heart has a quick forgetter in it. You know, it forgets that I care about

01:25:32.620 people in a way and I got to see them, you know. But the second I walk into an A meeting,

01:25:36.460 I see like, oh, Jimmy's getting a year chip today. And man, and I've seen him in 50 meetings

01:25:41.740 and I'm fucking, it's like I'm his, like I'm his actual blood brother and I couldn't

01:25:47.080 be more happy for him, you know. That's beautiful. Yeah. There's just something about it, you

01:25:50.680 know, being in a place like that. There's things like AA and recovery meetings that make, that

01:25:55.780 make me feel hopeful about society. Right. Right. You know, and that, and I love the way

01:26:01.260 that 12 step meetings are run. Like there's no leaders. Yeah. There's no clergy. There's

01:26:06.040 no one in charge. There's no kings or presidents or anything. There's, it's just the inmates

01:26:14.280 running the asylum, you know, and you elect them every couple months and someone's in

01:26:18.900 charge of the phone list and someone's in charge of the book table. And, you know, it's

01:26:24.080 beautiful. You're like, oh, we're all, you know, there's no leaders that are only trusted

01:26:28.640 servants. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And stuff like that gives you hope for the future, you know.

01:26:33.920 Um, but it's interesting and I don't want this to be like a conversation that's like

01:26:38.740 dour, you know, because also you have your show that is kind of a search for happiness

01:26:44.060 kind of. And I found it to be a real charming kind of, you know, like here's a guy going

01:26:49.660 to see where people are happy and why. Yeah. So, um, do you want to talk about that at

01:26:55.640 all? I would love to talk about that. Okay. So the geography of bliss is a travel show

01:27:01.380 coming out in late May on a peacock network, which is where the office is, where it lives

01:27:07.960 and breathes, uh, and doesn't die. It just keeps on chugging along. Apparently we, we

01:27:14.720 thought it was dead upon arrival, but anyways, it keeps chugging along and, but the geography

01:27:20.000 of bliss is, um, and I never thought I'd have a better show than the office. I really

01:27:23.760 really cause nine seasons, 200 episodes, everyone got along, made a big impact. It was funny

01:27:31.020 as hell. It's great character, great money, like fun, fun people everywhere. Oh yeah. I

01:27:37.500 saw Kevin scoping chicks at a club once. Did you? You know, it was like the best time

01:27:41.360 ever. So cool. Yeah. Um, but you almost have a show right before the office that didn't go

01:27:49.520 through. Yes. That's good. Good memory. Yeah. I was supposed to be on this Janine Garofalo,

01:27:56.940 uh, TV show and we did it. And on the way to the table read for it, I ran into this TV executive

01:28:06.220 and he's like, Oh, I'm so excited. We're going to do the American version of the office.

01:28:11.500 And I had seen the English version. I loved it. And I was like, I was outside. I was like,

01:28:16.980 Oh, that's great. Inside. I was like, fuck, I want to be on that. Like, okay, you got to go

01:28:21.460 to the table read for this Janine and Janine's lovely. It's not about her, but the pilot was

01:28:25.440 very good. We read the pilot. Bob Odenkirk was in it. Me and Bob Odenkirk. Nice man. Um,

01:28:32.820 and, uh, Mark Maron. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it went so, the read through went so bad. They pulled

01:28:40.120 the plug on the spot. By the time I got home, they were like, they're not shooting. They closed

01:28:44.820 the donuts up even. And I was like, inside, I was like, I get to audition for the office.

01:28:50.240 Sure enough, month later, audition for the office and got, and got Dwight a few months

01:28:55.380 after that. So had I gotten, so you never know, kiddies. Yeah. Sometimes a rejection

01:29:01.940 and a disappointment is a good thing. And it just is a, a path forward where other doors

01:29:07.840 can open. Oh yeah. What they say sucks to lose a limb until you're in a, um, one-legged

01:29:13.580 contest. Are there a lot of one-legged contests? I'm not sure. Can you Google

01:29:19.760 that? Bob, uh,

01:29:24.340 Kid Rock has a one-legged brother.

01:29:28.520 And every time I see him, I say, man, you'd think with all the money you have, you'd buy

01:29:31.560 your brother another fucking leg. A prosthetic leg, yeah. Or an Android leg. Yeah, yeah.

01:29:36.020 Jesus. You know, like a bionic thing. Yeah, like a leg saber. Do you remember the bionic

01:29:40.140 man? Mm-mm. I like a saber. You never saw the bionic man? Uh-uh. Oh, it was great.

01:29:46.120 I loved Little House in the Prairie. We loved a lot of Michael Landon's stuff. We loved a

01:29:49.320 lot of, um...

01:29:51.240 Bonanza? No.

01:29:52.740 Way back.

01:29:53.540 After Bonanza.

01:29:54.880 Post-Bonanza?

01:29:55.880 Mm-hmm. I did like All in the Family because, and I like the Jeffersons. I like Good Times.

01:30:01.320 Temporary layoff. Good times. Is it great to rip off? Sometimes.

01:30:07.540 Yeah. I love that. So the Geography of Bliss is a show where I travel around the world and

01:30:15.560 I look for happiness in other cultures. So it's like Anthony Bourdain, but it's about

01:30:20.080 happiness, not food. And we went to Iceland, Bulgaria, Ghana, West Africa, Thailand, and

01:30:27.380 then back here in Los Angeles. And it's so fun, man. I love these kind of conversations,

01:30:33.580 having deep, meaningful, but fun, and silly conversations. And it's a terrific show. It's

01:30:40.020 really uplifting. It's inspiring and hopeful. People need some hope these days. Remember I

01:30:47.440 told you that's your divine responsibility?

01:30:49.060 Mm-hmm. I appreciate that.

01:30:50.340 It's yours, too. I think it's why we're even having this conversation because we're curious

01:30:53.460 about hope, you know?

01:30:54.320 Yeah. People need hope. It's a precious and depleted resource. And there's a lot of pessimism

01:31:01.640 out there. And we got to turn that pessimism around and make people believe that there is

01:31:08.300 a bright day. There is a Star Trek future for humanity where we can all get along and work

01:31:13.660 together and solve problems and make the world a better place. We do it. We start small.

01:31:19.100 We start on a podcast. You start in a family. You start in a cul-de-sac. And you spread out

01:31:23.440 from there. And then you bring it to your workplace. But we're not going to do it with

01:31:27.840 the way the current media system is. And we're not going to do it with the way that the current

01:31:32.200 political, partisan politics system works in our country. It's killing us. It's killing

01:31:38.180 us.

01:31:38.900 Well, some of it could be changed. I mean, one thing that even podcasts started was because

01:31:43.360 people felt like they couldn't get through into sitcoms. Talented comedians felt like they

01:31:48.840 couldn't get opportunities. I'm not saying just me, but even predecessors in podcasts.

01:31:53.440 Sure.

01:31:54.040 They wanted to have a place to have a voice, right?

01:31:56.640 Yeah.

01:31:56.960 Because even acting is just a way you want to be able to have a place to put yourself in

01:32:03.180 the world.

01:32:03.920 Yeah.

01:32:04.420 You want to be able to have a voice, even if it's a physical voice.

01:32:09.280 Yeah.

01:32:09.880 You know? So that's why that started. And that's made conversations more long form and

01:32:16.060 been able to get people's points across. Like I remember seeing Bernie Sanders on Joe Rogan,

01:32:21.080 right? And I've always been of the ilk that I think they should have to have one candidate.

01:32:28.180 You shouldn't be able to pick up. If you're a Republican, you shouldn't be able to pick

01:32:31.000 a Republican vice president. You should have to have a Democratic vice president.

01:32:34.060 Right.

01:32:34.360 And vice versa. So that that way you're always in contention of idea.

01:32:39.040 Yeah.

01:32:39.220 So you have to figure out the best idea between the two of you in order to get it enacted or

01:32:44.280 move it forward, right?

01:32:44.940 Kind of force people to work together.

01:32:46.500 Right. Like I would have loved probably a Trump-Bernie ticket, right?

01:32:52.300 Because-

01:32:52.920 That would have been interesting.

01:32:53.400 Right. You're going to see two totally-

01:32:54.740 They would have throttled each other. They would have been at each other.

01:32:57.000 I agree.

01:32:57.700 Trump would have crushed him like a stick insect.

01:33:00.380 And that would have just cost them the possibility of maybe getting elected, but you would have

01:33:04.360 had to see two guys that were different have to figure it out together, right?

01:33:10.000 But yeah, but I remember listening to Bernie Sanders on Joe Rogan. It was the first time

01:33:14.020 I got to hear him in a long form. I didn't hear a clip that the media had said, I didn't

01:33:16.800 hear like a two-minute rebuttal on a-

01:33:20.000 It was Joe Rogan. It's four and a half hours long.

01:33:21.780 So you got to hear him like-

01:33:22.380 Oh, dude. Yeah.

01:33:23.020 You were there.

01:33:23.600 All day.

01:33:23.980 Yeah.

01:33:24.380 You put it on when you go to sleep and you wake up and it's still on.

01:33:27.300 You'd love being in there, man. Have you ever been on there?

01:33:29.060 No, man.

01:33:30.100 It would be, you guys would have a really neat conversation.

01:33:32.120 I don't, I don't smoke pot. I don't do ayahuasca.

01:33:34.820 That's a good point.

01:33:36.560 Does that disqualify me?

01:33:38.200 No, he doesn't do ayahuasca either, but he, you just have to say, I don't smoke pot.

01:33:40.720 And I don't wrestle.

01:33:42.560 Oh, no, it doesn't disqualify you. I don't, I mean, I tried to wrestle for a year, but

01:33:46.880 I kept getting hurt so badly. And then I don't smoke pot and then I'll do ayahuasca, but

01:33:52.820 I don't know. I mean, some people consider that different, you know, have different thoughts

01:33:57.260 about sobriety and that, you know.

01:33:58.560 Yeah.

01:33:59.060 Um, but I haven't done it in over a year, but I would maybe do it again. I found it

01:34:02.760 to be really, really helpful and really ties you back to nature in a lot of ways.

01:34:06.900 Oh, interesting.

01:34:07.960 Um, but yeah, I think, uh, what were we talking about?

01:34:11.980 Bernie Sanders podcasts.

01:34:13.860 But I got to hear him.

01:34:14.660 Different voice. Yeah.

01:34:15.740 And I listened to the whole thing. And at first I would have been like, maybe would I

01:34:18.000 listen to Bernie Sanders? I don't know. But I, I was like, oh, this is.

01:34:21.280 He has some great ideas.

01:34:22.300 It's like, I get to know this guy. Yeah.

01:34:24.620 Right. Whether you like his idea or whatever, it's just like, oh, I feel like I get to know

01:34:28.900 this guy. Yeah.

01:34:30.080 You know? Um, but what's been, uh, what was like, where did you find some of the best

01:34:39.780 happiness you think in the places you've been? Was there one place that kind of, or anything

01:34:43.900 you noticed over the course of, uh, the places you went?

01:34:46.420 I, I, I saw happiness all over, which was great. I, it's so funny because happiness and

01:34:57.120 I, when I saw it, when I saw like real profound blissful joy, it was always about connection

01:35:05.400 with other people. It was always about connection. Like you talk about the 12 step meetings, like

01:35:09.620 it was in a family or in a community or, uh, with some kind of service project or it's, it's

01:35:18.460 people connecting, you know? And that's why COVID was so devastating. Like it isolated us

01:35:23.420 all. We need connection. We thrive in connection, you know? And, uh, but the happiest place and

01:35:30.320 it's my favorite place on the planet is Iceland. I fucking love Iceland. Have you been there?

01:35:34.800 It's so cool. I mean, everyone goes there. I mean, it's very popular. Um, you had a bright

01:35:42.740 light. People go see the bright lights, right? Yeah. The, the, the people at night. Yeah. The,

01:35:47.560 the, the, the Aurora Borealis. Oh yeah. I saw those. I went to Greenland and I got to see

01:35:53.420 those, but it's like watching mother nature. Iceland is, um, Iceland is just do like image search.

01:36:01.400 You're on image search. Can you scroll through them? Can you just go through?

01:36:05.700 Ooh, look at that. Um, Oh, look at those children in Iceland. Go look at them.

01:36:12.040 Look at them. Look at those. Look how happy they are. God, they're happy.

01:36:15.500 Visit Iceland, official tourist info for Iceland. But there's a pretty Icelandic woman.

01:36:20.260 Yeah. Wait, let's look at travel to Iceland with diabetes.

01:36:24.220 Oh yeah. Down one more, down one more.

01:36:26.060 That's not something I thought I would see is traveling to Iceland with diabetes.

01:36:31.520 Let's go there, brother. Can you click on it?

01:36:36.040 Yeah. Oh, wow.

01:36:37.580 Oh, that's cool. I haven't seen that. So I've been five times to Iceland.

01:36:43.260 Five times. It's so beautiful. You can't even believe it. Black sand beaches, glaciers,

01:36:50.580 volcanoes, uh, waterfalls everywhere. I remember one time I took my family and we went camping

01:36:56.040 there like in a camper van and then we were like driving on the road and we're like, oh

01:37:01.720 my God, look at that waterfall. And we're like, eh. And I realized like, we just drove

01:37:05.980 by a 200 foot waterfall and we were like, meh. Cause we've seen 1000 foot waterfalls, you

01:37:12.660 know? And, uh, it's so gorgeous. Uh, the people are, are wonderful. Uh, the food is expensive

01:37:19.700 as hell. Really? Oh yeah. I had a, I had a pizza. I think it cost like 80 bucks. Does

01:37:25.080 it cost a lot to warm it up or something? Well, we, when we were in the camper van, it

01:37:29.700 was great. Cause we would go to the grocery stores and we would get like ramen and spaghetti

01:37:34.580 and oatmeal and make salads. And, and we would just kind of eat and, and, and then maybe once

01:37:39.440 a day we'd get like an expensive meal. The fish is fantastic there, but it's so beautiful.

01:37:44.420 There's whale watching. Um, it it's, I can't say enough good things about it, but the people

01:37:50.980 are happy there. One of the reasons the people are happy is, and I don't know if a lot of

01:37:57.200 your viewers are going to like this or not, but they trust their government. They believe

01:38:02.120 in their government and there's a social safety net because you pay a shit ton of taxes, but

01:38:07.740 the education is first rate. There's the healthcare is through the roof. They will take care of you

01:38:14.080 when you're sick, mental health, um, the roads, the bridges, everything is taken care of and

01:38:20.160 it just works, you know? And so you have, and in talking to Icelanders, like there was this

01:38:28.040 trust that feel like, Oh, I can, if I get sick, I can take some time off and then I'm protected

01:38:33.140 by, by regulations. I'll be able to get my job back. And I, the, the, there's this, this

01:38:39.120 net of government is there for, they believed like it was there for them. Right. You know,

01:38:44.500 and we're, we've since the Vietnam war and over the last several decades, our trust in government

01:38:48.800 has gone down and, you know, truth be told, our government is not working in, in, in huge ways.

01:38:54.620 I mean, it's, it's kind of taking care of our highways and potholes and, and, you know,

01:38:58.860 maybe our streetlights, but not a whole lot more than that. And it's, yeah. I mean, even the U S

01:39:03.400 postal system, even the one person from the government that stopped by your house every

01:39:07.020 day. Yeah. You could give a cookie to, or get a pat on the head. Yeah. And it wasn't

01:39:11.980 even molesting people. You never heard postal people molesting. Yeah. Never. You can even

01:39:16.400 pull down their pants and write girl on their back. Yeah. You don't ever hear somebody licking

01:39:22.480 a stamp and put it on some kid's wiener. You know what I'm saying? You just never, it never

01:39:26.820 happened. Yeah. And they, and they, and, uh, Amazon or they messed the postal systems going

01:39:31.500 back. It's just, yes, we've let the government really, I try to be really nice to the postal

01:39:36.280 workers. Oh, same. Yeah. God bless you. You're working so hard for like just above minimum

01:39:41.680 wage. And you were Santa to us when I was a kid. It was like, Oh, here he goes. Now

01:39:47.400 it's like, who cares? Oh, the postman's here. Who cares? The Amazon guy's here. Oh, new

01:39:51.900 headphones. And the postman is just like that ex-girlfriend, man. In the arms, just walking

01:39:59.340 back to Tori Amos's house somewhere. God, it hurts, man. But yeah, it's like there were

01:40:07.460 institutions that we had, that we had some pride. Do you, what do you think happened with

01:40:11.980 our government? You know, um, what do you think happened? Like you said, like after Vietnam

01:40:17.120 war, I know there was like a lot of contention, like between Americans that thought it was good

01:40:22.500 and bad to be there. You know, I remember seeing Forrest Gump, but what do you?

01:40:26.960 I blame it on partisanship. Really? I really do. And what does that mean when you say

01:40:30.340 partisanship? I'm not sure what it is. Um, um, that's, uh, the kind of, uh, Republican

01:40:36.020 versus Democrat. Okay. Me saying me versus you, me versus you seeking power above all,

01:40:42.520 um, would rather see, I'll never forget like when Obama got elected and Rush Limbaugh was

01:40:49.020 like, I hope he fails. Wow. I hope he fails because I'm against his policies and I want him to

01:40:55.660 not succeed. And I was like, wow, you want, cause I want, even if Trump get elected and I'm

01:41:00.620 wasn't a huge fan, but Trump, I wanted him to succeed. Yeah. I didn't want him to fail. I wanted

01:41:06.900 him to make lives better and to help fix things. And I was kind of hoping, oh, maybe he'll fix some

01:41:12.700 broken things. Uh, but think about every election cycle, Theo, think about this. How much money is

01:41:19.500 spent on campaign ads. It's insane. Banner ads like, and where's all that money going? It's going

01:41:25.480 into the coffers of MSNBC and Fox news and CNN and all of these media outlets that we don't trust

01:41:32.020 because they're so partisan and they have such an agenda and they're getting rich from it and

01:41:37.960 they're going to stay polarized because they're making so much money from it. But what if you just

01:41:42.300 took all of that hundreds of millions of dollars? What if you had no campaign finance,

01:41:45.940 you had government campaign financing, right? You weren't able to kind of like raise and spend

01:41:50.800 money willy nilly. And you took all that money and put it towards, you know, fixing things,

01:41:56.580 you know, schools and hospitals and, and whatnot. Environmental clean up.

01:42:00.780 Giving nurses a raise. Giving nurses a raise.

01:42:01.980 Exactly.

01:42:03.020 You had an announcement one day. It was like, hey, we're going to give every nurse a $2,000 raise

01:42:07.780 this year or every teacher a $2,000. You know how excited everybody would be? It'd be great.

01:42:13.100 The, um, the, uh, the first aid, um, actually, can I take a pee break?

01:42:21.260 Let's pee and then we'll wrap up actually.

01:42:23.500 All right. Great. Yeah. Yeah. I got to, uh, I got to pack. I got to leave tomorrow morning

01:42:27.320 for a two and a half week book tour.

01:42:29.800 Really?

01:42:30.320 Yeah.

01:42:31.860 Whew. It's exciting.

01:42:33.340 All over. Have you written a book? You have like a comedy book?

01:42:35.680 I never have. I've written some, a lot of chapters for a book about growing up and, uh,

01:42:39.760 some comedy stories about different experiences and stuff.

01:42:42.920 Yeah.

01:42:43.340 You know, your book would do, you would do really well.

01:42:45.500 Thanks, man.

01:42:46.380 It's really awesome to sit here with you, man.

01:42:48.300 Oh, it's my, it's, it's awesome for me, man. I love your stories about growing up and

01:42:52.280 your stories about kids at school. Like we had a kid in our, in our school. You always have those.

01:42:57.440 Oh yeah.

01:42:58.140 Those great.

01:42:58.660 Well, the first Asian kid we ever had or allegedly had, you know, we had, um, remember how pizza

01:43:05.260 huts had those unique rooftops on them?

01:43:07.180 Yeah.

01:43:07.680 You know what I'm talking about?

01:43:08.680 Yeah, of course. Yeah. Like, yeah.

01:43:09.880 Yeah.

01:43:10.220 Diamond shaped.

01:43:11.080 Yes. Well, one of those burnt down right in Slottel, Louisiana. Right. And so, and the,

01:43:16.260 uh, the roof had fallen flat on the ground, kind of like at a little bit of an angle.

01:43:20.760 Right.

01:43:21.420 And people like said, Asian people live there, you know?

01:43:24.740 Okay.

01:43:25.100 So we heard about it.

01:43:26.620 Yeah.

01:43:26.920 And we got a taxi over there to go look. And it was just, uh, um,

01:43:31.080 You literally called a taxi?

01:43:32.920 Yeah. Well, you saved up money. We saved $17 to take a taxi there. That's them.

01:43:37.300 Yeah.

01:43:38.140 God.

01:43:38.860 And you looked for Asian people inside of it?

01:43:40.520 We'd never seen it before. Yeah. Burned down. When it's on the ground, flush on the ground,

01:43:44.320 it has a very kind of look of the Orient.

01:43:47.260 Do you know how they cook pizzas at Pizza Hut? Have you ever seen that? Last time I went in there,

01:43:51.180 it's all automated.

01:43:52.560 Oh.

01:43:53.480 It's a, they just take, they unwrap it from the plastic and they put it on a thing. It's like at

01:43:59.700 one of those like hotels and it just goes through the oven on the conveyor belt and it comes out

01:44:06.780 done.

01:44:07.440 Oh yeah. That's how the, that's how they used to do it. I think.

01:44:10.540 Did they always do it that way?

01:44:11.820 It was like a little rolling thing. It was just like, kind of like these things and it just kept

01:44:15.360 moving forward.

01:44:16.120 Yeah.

01:44:16.480 But it used to be a pretty long oven. Is it really short now or something?

01:44:19.840 I think it was a long oven. Yeah.

01:44:21.740 I love the pizza hut was good when I was young. It was the real, it was a.

01:44:25.240 We used to go to the one on Ballinger way. Look up the pizza hut on Ballinger way, Lake Forest

01:44:29.180 Park, Washington. I don't know if it's still there. I think it's a Thai restaurant now. Speaking

01:44:34.120 of Asian people.

01:44:35.540 Oh yeah. Oh, they'll start a restaurant in anything.

01:44:38.140 Ballinger way.

01:44:39.200 Asian people could, they'll start a restaurant in anything.

01:44:45.180 No.

01:44:45.540 A lot of beautiful Asian people up in, uh, Washington.

01:44:50.740 Yeah.

01:44:53.400 Um.

01:44:53.820 Is there one on Ballinger way? No.

01:44:56.660 Oh, it's closed down.

01:44:58.000 God. But you know what? Just look under images and see if they have any. Let's get an old image

01:45:01.300 of it. Somebody took a snapshot of it. There.

01:45:04.300 There you go. On the left.

01:45:05.460 That's probably it right there.

01:45:08.020 Yeah.

01:45:09.520 Oh, and there's my mom's Ford Festiva out front. She used to drive that deal.

01:45:13.180 Oh. Yeah.

01:45:14.780 God, it was so small.

01:45:16.220 Got like three cylinders.

01:45:17.320 Oh. And one of the cylinders was just us in the backseat going.

01:45:22.040 And she could beat us from that. Like the front seat was so close to, she could beat everybody

01:45:26.180 like she was playing the drums, dude.

01:45:27.580 Why don't they have cars with pedals? Like Flintstones kind of, but like just to get like

01:45:33.120 a two cylinder car.

01:45:34.620 Yeah.

01:45:34.880 But then everyone in the backseat is doing this just to help it along. Kind of. And you

01:45:40.000 get your workout. We're also fat.

01:45:41.960 Yeah.

01:45:42.280 As Americans. Like, right? Win-win.

01:45:46.080 Well, that's almost an example of everything that we've been talking about. Like are some

01:45:49.800 of the stuff that would help.

01:45:51.340 Solutions.

01:45:52.260 Humanity.

01:45:52.860 Okay.

01:45:53.140 As if we, every, there was some sense of a need for a vested interest. And if people

01:45:59.080 felt like they were contributing, you know?

01:46:02.640 Right. Right on. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's tough, you know, with this broken political

01:46:10.280 system. I think, you know, in my faith traditions called the Baha'i faith, there are elections

01:46:19.060 and it's kind of like a 12 step meeting. It's a little different, but you elect what's called

01:46:25.620 a local spiritual assembly to guide the affairs of your local community. And every year you

01:46:31.440 do that and you write down names, it's silent ballot. And you pray and meditate and you think,

01:46:36.720 who's the wisest, most mature people to kind of help steer forward the Baha'i community here

01:46:44.200 in Los Angeles or whatever. You ponder it and there's maybe a master list of everyone who lives

01:46:48.880 there. And you write them down and there's no campaigning. There's no yard signs. There's

01:46:52.900 no money spent. No one says, I think I would make a good assembly member and here's why.

01:46:57.420 Um, it's all done silently. And then you put them in the envelope and then the tellers count

01:47:02.660 them. And then nine people are elected. Like, why couldn't you do that in a small town? Could

01:47:07.660 you do that in Covington, Louisiana? Yeah. Could you have people like no campaigning, no one,

01:47:12.920 no proselytizing, no aggrandizing, no one saying like, I should be the mayor or what have

01:47:18.660 you? And, and just have people gather at the local high school football stadium and, uh, write down

01:47:24.000 who they think would best serve the affairs of the people of Covington, Louisiana.

01:47:29.440 Yeah. I think that, that, that could happen. You know, I think it's probably, and obviously it's,

01:47:34.260 you know, it's hypothetical because you look at a, you know, obviously America is much bigger,

01:47:38.700 but yeah, you start to think what system could be different. I think a lot of people are wondering

01:47:43.200 now what system could be different. I think a lot of people think that it's the system we have is,

01:47:47.720 isn't helping us, you know? Um, I think, yeah, you start to wonder how could it be better?

01:47:55.700 Because I'm glad you're saying that because it's, it really is like, we keep slapping band-aids on a

01:47:59.980 broken system and if the system is broken, it's, it's no good. You know, it's like, well, we'll change

01:48:05.140 this policy. We'll pass this bill or we'll get an increased funding for this. And it's just like

01:48:09.920 slapping band-aids on, you know, on a, on a boat full of buckshot.

01:48:13.960 Well, I think you have to have guys, maybe possibly you have to have someone, they always,

01:48:18.000 you hear anyway, that electing an independent candidate, getting one of them into the runoff

01:48:22.460 would shake up the, the way that the funds are distributed. You also have some interesting

01:48:27.840 guys now like Bobby Kennedy Jr. Right. So he's, um, he is a Democrat, but he has his,

01:48:35.280 he's anti-vaccine, but he's anti, yeah, he's like, uh, yeah, he's anti,

01:48:39.640 is he an anti-vaxxer? He is. He, he raised a lot of questions. He's raised a ton of concern

01:48:46.500 about, but I think he was anti-vax before COVID. I think he's like, he's an environmentalist. So

01:48:50.800 he's always been about the environment. He's always been about, let's test things before

01:48:53.920 we move them forward. Right. Um, I mean, he has a book he was against Dr. Fauci, you know,

01:48:58.460 so it's like, he's definitely in that world. Right. Um, but it's interesting because he's going

01:49:04.140 to run the democratic ticket, right? I think you're starting to get, hopefully you're going to start

01:49:08.580 to get candidates that are different. It's got to start to expand at some point because it feels

01:49:13.660 very railroaded. But isn't, and that's true. Like if, if we opened it up and you had like,

01:49:19.280 let's say you had Joe Rogan run or you had Mark Cuban run or, you know, some really interesting

01:49:23.640 kind of thought leaders or businessmen or entrepreneurs, that's cool. But the system is

01:49:29.320 still, I want the power. I'm going to raise a shit ton of money. I'm going to go around doing all

01:49:34.700 these fundraising dinners. I'm going to be spending all these money on these media outlets

01:49:38.260 because I want the power for me and my coterie. And we're going to try and put down you and your

01:49:43.680 little coterie of friends. We're still in that mode where we're not really in the mode of public

01:49:49.760 service. You know, they're public servants. They should be serving the public. So how do we just

01:49:54.340 get out of that whole campaigning thing altogether is what I say. Now, maybe I'm being naive and people

01:50:00.520 are probably rolling their eyes and like, Oh, you hippie, you know, but, uh, but no, it's okay to

01:50:07.240 have, that's a great, it's a, I agree. Cause people are sick of all the wasted money, the fucking

01:50:12.660 bullshit, the desperation by these parties to get your vote, the pandering to poor people with fear

01:50:19.360 videos and all of this and using classes and cultures as a puppets and keeping people in certain

01:50:26.100 places just so they'll continue to vote for you. Like, I think everyone's exhausted. I think the

01:50:31.940 heart of the world is, you know, has arteriosclerosis, you know, it feels that way. And that's okay.

01:50:40.420 Look, if that's okay, if you and I are sitting and talking about that and I like that your book makes

01:50:44.480 me think about that, you know, and not just the negative sides of it or the problems, but, um,

01:50:50.740 but I talk at the end of my book, I have a chapter called seven pillars for a spiritual

01:50:54.720 revolution and I offer some tangible solutions, some things. And one of them is what we talked

01:51:02.220 about before, which is hope. And I said, foster joy and squash cynicism. Cause as long as we stay

01:51:07.880 cynical and pessimistic, nothing gets done. If everyone's sitting back, just like, Oh, it's a

01:51:12.700 pile of shit. It'll never work. Like the nothing will change and it's just going to get worse

01:51:18.580 actually. So that's a really deadly trap. And it's, it's super important that we, you know,

01:51:24.600 we as entertainers, as storytellers, you know, we try and foster joy and people give them

01:51:31.300 hope and, uh, and don't let ourselves get cynical. You get cynical. Sometimes you fight

01:51:37.460 on, you fight against cynicism.

01:51:38.600 Oh yeah. I battle the dark arts. I battle self-pity sometimes, which is a unique way that,

01:51:43.460 uh, cynicism kind of sneaks into you. I find, you know, is me just that, you know, um, so I

01:51:49.880 just have to stay, stay, stay on top of it, you know, and it's a misery brigade.

01:51:55.280 Yeah, it does. And it does get to be there, you know, to me and yeah. Yeah. But there's

01:51:59.840 a lot of people doing good stuff out there and that's another way to look at things and

01:52:03.220 to wake up and think, Hey, uh, you know, there was a guy I wrote about this guy in my book.

01:52:09.720 Um, this guy named Callum Greaves and he works with Greta Thunberg and a lot of youth ambassadors

01:52:17.260 for climate change. And whatever you think about Greta Thunberg, putting that aside,

01:52:20.600 really brilliant guy. And he said to me, you know, I work on clean air because everyone can

01:52:29.320 agree on clean air. Some people on this side of the political spectrum might not think that

01:52:33.280 man-made CO2 is causing climate change or that people are being extremist and whatnot. And people

01:52:40.080 on this side, you know, have different opinions, but clean air is something everyone can get behind.

01:52:45.940 You know, you reduce, you don't want kids to get asthma, right? You want your grandkids to have

01:52:51.580 clean air, you know, when you, when you go to the grave and that is a precious point of unity

01:52:58.300 from both sides. And then it's win-win because CO2 does get reduced, but you're also really

01:53:04.860 focusing on the human story, which is making air cleaner for kids. So that's a way to look at like

01:53:09.800 solving a solution like climate change. Like if we all just work together on clean air,

01:53:14.020 like we would fix climate change.

01:53:16.060 Right. Letting these kids long up and feel comfortable and happy.

01:53:19.220 Yeah. Yeah. I like it, man. I can't, I don't know if I'll finish the whole book,

01:53:23.960 but I'm going to try at least go to the seven pillars at the end.

01:53:26.020 I appreciate that. I'm going to, if you ever want me to read it to you,

01:53:29.620 like a bedtime story or something like that, I can do that as well. FaceTime.

01:53:33.940 Yeah.

01:53:34.320 Just put me on your pillow and I'll read it to you.

01:53:36.200 I would love that.

01:53:37.260 You can snuggle up.

01:53:39.640 It's been a pleasure lunging up with you. I like that lung up.

01:53:42.340 Yeah, man.

01:53:44.020 I'm such a big fan. I love your stuff and so funny and weird and wonderful. And I think you're doing

01:53:51.580 great things and it's just a pleasure to be in this room with you and your friend.

01:53:56.020 Yep. The Zachary Alex.

01:53:57.600 Yeah.

01:53:59.420 Thank you, man. And thank you for all the years of entertainment. And also now all the years of

01:54:02.760 thought, you know, that you're, you know, it's like the second organ inside, you know,

01:54:07.780 it's like you got our brains. Now you're going after our hearts and our brains, you know?

01:54:12.500 Oh, thank you, man. I appreciate that.

01:54:14.100 I like it, man. Rainn Wilson, man. Anytime, man. And we'll get the book and we'll put it up right here.

01:54:18.620 I love it. Thank you.

01:54:19.800 Soul Bloom, guys. It'll be- Boom. Boom.

01:54:22.180 Sorry. Soul Boom, guys. It's available now or it'll be available soon. And Rainn Wilson.

01:54:27.740 Now I'm just floating on the breeze And I feel I'm falling like these leaves

01:54:34.680 I must be cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground

01:54:42.580 I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it in my bones

01:54:48.900 But it's gonna take a living

01:54:54.000 Thank you.

This Past Weekend with Theo Von - May 02, 2023

E442 Rainn Wilson

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