E442 Rainn Wilson

34:26So yeah, maybe this is just one just pit stop on the way of the development of planet earth. What do you think? 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 because i think in some ego way i want to feel more important than that or i want my time period to feel more important than that 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 and the things that you talk about in your book i feel like i still struggle to combat those even though i try to use things like prayer meditation um you know i'm in recovery so i go to those yeah me too so i'm a part of that group so which promotes a lot of that sort of stuff so i i'm an ear for brothers that are that struggle with stuff sometimes and um but even then it's like it's really hard to not feel like you're just uh on the conveyor belt sometimes but that you maybe we used to have a We used to dance on the conveyor belt and like whistle and do marshmallows and stuff.

35:35And now we're just kind of like sitting on the conveyor belt on our phones. You know, I don't know. I don't want to sound too dour. What's your biggest struggle? My struggle was. What is your biggest struggle now?

35:50Probably affection.

35:54Probably love and affection, that type of stuff. I want to hug you right now. Well, I wouldn't. Okay. Thank you, though. I mean, I'll definitely take it to go. I'll take it to go. I'm going to wait to the end of the podcast. Okay. I'll give you a big one. Big bear hug. Some guy said in a meeting one day to me, he goes, you know what, man? You're hard to pet. Hard to pet? Yeah. And I kind of valued that. It kind of taught me something about myself. Like, you know, you're right, man. I am hard to pet. Uh-huh. I don't. It's hard for me to let people pet me. That's a great way of putting it. It was just an interesting insight.

36:32so affection do you mean like intimacy yeah I think like that with good friends and with like relationships and girlfriends and what not yeah I think probably like commitment like that kind of stuff intimacy like really dropping in to connecting with somebody I think it's kind of tough I know it's kind of tough for me you know but I don't want to talk too much about myself you know what about yourself

37:03I mean, obviously a lot in your book and a lot in your show, you know, that you're in a searching space. Yeah, I, you know, I'm in recovery. I have a lot of anxiety. I've dealt with a lot of depression before, a lot of loneliness. I've been through some really dark times. and you know so for me like part of this spiritual search and why I'm writing about it and talking about it and thinking about it so much is I need tools to help me cope with my anxiety and help me find peace and serenity and as I undertake that journey so I view kind of my anxiety disorder as something almost akin to diabetes where you have friends with diabetes and every day they got to take their blood right monitor give them an apple or something they fall over right exactly shovel some applesauce in their mouth real quick and yeah we had this one dude we'd always freaking just put one of them twix in him bro anally uh-uh i mean i never did that you ever anal twix i haven't but they kind of shape perfectly right uh so but i have to do the same thing with anxiety.

38:21Like I have to, I have to, nothing is not anal, but I have to monitor it every day and I can live with it and I do okay, but I do have to, I have to meditate, I have to work out, I have to pray, I have to surrender, I have to stay connected with people. I can isolate pretty easily. Yeah. So, but that has led me on the search. So I would say my biggest struggle is with my own, is with my anxiety and with my ego too. you know yeah ego is so scary isn't it i must be i mean i've been at it for a long time and i struggled a lot more with ego like early on in the success of the office and stuff but it must be hard for you like you were you're toiling away in obscurity doing like chuckles comedy hut in oklahoma city and then all of a sudden like just the last like four years like you've just like blown up and like you're practically going to be put on mount rushmore It's a crazy amount of fame for an itchy hillbilly such as yourself.

39:25You're right, dude. That's a good call. Yeah, I think, oh, well, it scared me. That has to be a struggle, too. Oh, the first thing was sheer fear. I thought, this was crazy, I thought God has some, this was the worst part that happened. And I thought God has some special purpose for me and that there's something special that he needs me to do. He does. And that may be true. But he has that for everyone, I think. Right. Yeah. But now you have a platform. And so, you know. I feel like I have some responsibility. With increased power comes increased responsibility. Yeah. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, bro.

40:02Yeah. And you're almost wearing the podcast crown. Yeah. Well, they called me the rat king, you know, and I didn't even pick it out. You know, it was just the king of rats. But that was real scary. Is it like Ant-Man you can order rats around? Do you have a psychic connection to rats? By the way, I think about Ant-Man, like that pitch meeting at Marvel. All right. Okay, Ant-Man, what's his power? Yeah. He can turn tiny. You picture them like, it's pretty good. I mean, that could be fun. We don't have a shrinking guy, but it's not quite enough. We need something more. He has a psychic power to be able to call ants to help him out.

40:48So he can shrink and communicate with ants. We'll call him Ant-Man. But the two powers really aren't related at all. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I think it's great. Superman's power is he has strength and he can fly and he can also read books backwards. Yeah. You know what I mean? Right, right. And he can also weigh a Christmas ham with his eyes. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think, I don't know if, well, I think Hollywood has done a, they've done a disservice to imagination because it's been, I think it used to be a novel place where more people came. They came out in their wagons from Kalamazoo with their bag of ideas on their back.

41:34Yep. And now I think it's just, you know, someone's son or grandson, they're in the seventh generation of their studio or film. They haven't had a new idea that isn't based on an algorithm walking the door in 12 years. And they wouldn't know something novel and unique unless it beat them upside the head. I think a lot of times. Now, that might be a very narrow view of Hollywood. But by why you guys like Bert and you and Tom, I'm sure there's others, but those are the main three that I watched. Like you don't have, you don't have to pitch anything. You can just make your own shit and hundreds of thousands of people or millions of people are going to watch it and you get to do your own.

42:18Like Bert's got a whole enterprise over there. He's got movies going and. Oh yeah. He's got a family cooking. Me and David Spade just wrote a movie together. Who was my, my, my, one of my childhood heroes. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, and you didn't need to go into Sony and pitch it or anything. You just kind of did it. Yeah, just kept, yeah. And it'll sell, but is it Joe Dirt 2? I wish it was damn Joe Dirt 7. They made Joe Dirt 2. Oh. I didn't know either. I didn't know that. I mean, I knew, but nobody was saying that they knew. But it was something like, this one's about busboys, like the last busboys.

42:54you know and we think if we become waiters and everything in our life will change you know but we just it's just a misguided thought isn't that so true i remember i was very always struggling as an actor and then like oh once i get on the tv show then i'll be happy and guess what i'm on the office and then it was just like well how do i get to be a movie star now I'm a TV star and like the second I'm a TV star I can't even like enjoy it for like a month I'm on to like how do I get to how do I get to be a movie star and guess what it didn't work out so well for me trying to do movies you mean? yeah my movies never people never really liked or saw my movies very much one day you'll probably make a really neat movie that people will see well I think a lot of them were neat and people tell me they like them now like The Rocker and stuff like that but like that was my big I don't know if you remember that movie The Rocker so you don't even know it existed yeah I'm sorry you know about it I saw it in theaters you saw it in the theater hell yeah bro thanks Zach for holding the team together wow that was 14 years ago how old were you uh it must have been 16 or something like that there he is there it is and Bradley Cooper and the oh yeah I remember seeing the average yeah oh I thought this was John uh what's his name Barry.

44:19Bill Hader? Yeah. Yeah, I used to kind of look like Bill Hader when I was a little better looking and younger. You still seem like a handsome guy. Oh, stop you. But anyways, this was like, oh, I'm putting all my eggs in this basket, The Rocker. This is my chance, my starring role in a comedy movie. And it was one of the biggest bombs in Fox history. Yeah. it opened on like, there's this thing called per screen average. I mean, truth be told, they moved the launch date like five times. They pushed it to a release after like Labor Day, like literally like the worst weekend. Everyone's getting ready to go to school.

45:02Yeah. That's the worst. It came out like three weeks after Tropics Thunder and two weeks after Step Brothers. So there were all these amazing comedies in the theater already. We just, and like the, came out on like 2 ,000 or 3 ,000 screens. And like the per screen average was like$203 or something like that. And it's like, it was brutal. I put, I worked so hard on it. I promoted the hell out of it. And no one wanted to see the Rainn Wilson starring vehicle. And it was devastating. But why, you know, why was I in such a place back then? And I think I'm in a different place now where it's like you say about the bus boy.

45:42like oh if only i can get to be a waiter then my life will be made um but oh if only i can be i'm a tv star if only i can be a movie star then i will be happy yeah you know but but then you want to walk on the hollywood walk of fame or then you want you know your kid to be a movie star you don't mean anything i you know yes i think that search for different things never really ends but i think we have to try and monitor where does that search come from right and what are exactly we searching for and that's the kind of thing honestly not to go back to your book but i think that's kind of the some of the stuff that it's touching on it's like where some of these motivations coming from not only for me as a person but where's our motivation coming from as a species and as a human if we want external validation if we want to find happiness extrinsically that's outside of ourselves um you know we're never we're never going to be satisfied we have to find that deep, soul-rich satisfaction of being alive in the garden of our hearts, tending to what fulfills us and brings us joy.

46:52And talk about being in the moment. That's such a key part of it. It's hard. And then when we're able to cultivate that, then we're able to spread that and give that to others. And one of the things that you get to do, and I think your great divine and solemn responsibility and I put the rat king crown on your head and anoint you king rat and I say to you, you are a spreader of joy. You make people laugh. You spread joy. You spread ideas. You uplift people. There's probably some really depressed guy right now sitting in a trailer park in Mobile, Alabama taking a shit and he doesn't know where he's going to pay the next month's rent and he's listening right now to this as he's watching and he's chortling all of your analogies and your verbal sense of humor and your humble demeanor, and he's uplifted, and that is a divine power.

47:49That is your ant man powers is to uplift and inspire, not just summon rats. Or summon decent rats. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's really the best hope to be is just be a decent rat. Be a decent rat. I like that. I kind of like that too, man. Is that going to be on your merch page now? It could be. We can put it on there. We can put a decent. Can you put my little face on it? Little rat. What's your name again? Alex. Zach. My brother's name's Alex. You can name him Zach or Alex. You can name him Alex. Zach, it's nice to have him there because he smiles when it's funny. Yep. There's not really an audience.

48:34Right. There isn't. you also have to recognize his sense of humor may not be the same as yours so sometimes you might be being funny and he doesn't he's deadpan stonewall he doesn't fake it really for you which I like yeah it feels authentic it feels legit I think that but I've already I've worked I got a couple giggles out of Zach yeah I try I'm honest with it he is honest with it he's out of Cincinnati and he's honest with it I would say that that's about him Was he from Cincinnati? That's what I said about bathrooms in Cincinnati. WKRP, right? How random is that? The turkeys from the sky. Remember that?

49:12Oh, they shot turkeys out of the air? They threw turkeys out of the sky in that show. That's the only thing I remember. I never saw those before. WKRP in Cincinnati. You ever saw that show? Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, I used to watch that in the 70s. Golden Age of the sitcom. All in the Family. I loved it. God, he was good. Carol O 'Connor. I've been to his grave seven times. You've been to Carol O 'Connor's grave seven times? Yep. That is a devotion and dedication. Where is his grave? In my backyard. That's why I was mowing the lawn every time I mowed the lawn. See, Carol O 'Connor. He's buried in my heart.

49:44Where's his grave? He's buried in Westwood. There's a cemetery in Westwood. Okay. Right by UCLA? Yep. I thought that's the one with like a thousand soldiers in it. Nope. Oh, there's that one, but there's another little one. It's like a quarter of a block. It's behind some business buildings. You never think it's there. Hugh Hefner is in there. Marilyn Monroe. Carol O 'Connor. Who's the guy from, who are the two old guys from the Angry Grandpas? Where they're in the boat and they're hitting them. Walter Matthau? Yep. Walter Matthau. It's pretty good I got that. Yeah, it's good. Who the angry old guy?

50:21And Jerry, no. And the last one is the other guy, Jack. Lemon. Lemon. Both of Grumpy Old Men were buried there? All buried there in the same cemetery. Wow. And the first guy that ever played, Robin Hood. Kevin Costner? I thought he was still alive. Oh, no. Tarzan. Or Robin Hood. We're Googling this shit. Someone.

50:55Maybe it could have been him. Could have been Pierce Brosnan, too. He's still alive. oh then not him congrats pierce well done pierce um yeah amazing have you ever subscribed to something and forgot about it i have i did i was part of a scarf annual and i send you a scarf every month thank god your neck just can't handle it dang i was getting dang hives just because i had you know by may i had on three scarves and i just people couldn't even recognize me it's getting dangerous too couldn't see over the top one well rocket money can help you cancel a subscription one that you forgot about rocket money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions monitors your spending and helps you lower your bills all in one place over 80 of people have subscriptions they've forgotten about like that stars app that you bought just one time to watch a show or that free gaming trial that you never used all of them rocket money will quickly and easily find your subscriptions for you and for any you don't want to pay for anymore just hit cancel and rocket money will cancel it for you it's that easy stop throwing your money away cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com slash T-H-E-O.

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55:01Head to tryfume.com and use code Theo to save 10 % off when you get the journey pack today. That's T-R-Y-F-U-M.com and use code Theo to save an additional 10 % off your order today. I know you talk some about in your book about how like, so some of the things, something that we struggle with is, or one thing that you like to take note of, because I don't want to say like you're being accusatory towards society, because it's more like you're saying, hey, let's all look at some of this stuff. Do you think that's a fair statement? Yes. It's just education, like the education, what we educate youth on at all, really.

55:44To me, a lot of it is asinine. I talk about, later on in the book, I talk a lot about how systems are broken. so this is where I get a little I wax a little philosophical I'm like so many systems are broken anyone who works in any system will tell you how broken it is you ever notice that like you talk to someone who's like a bus driver like what's it like being a bus driver is like well it's gone to shit yeah I'll tell you why they're making us work 14 hours and not enough people and we don't get to park the buses downtown and it's byob yeah and you get yeah you got to wipe down the seats yourself We used to have guys that wiped down the seats.

56:25And every system is broken down because everything's based on greed. Everything's based on aggression and greed and one-upsmanship and competition and health care and agriculture. And education is one of those systems. 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 like take education and I talk about when they poll people and they're like hey what do you want to learn in school people will be like gardening you know or how to have a friendship or how to take rejection or how to work on a car engine or how to pay bills, right?

57:18And have like a banking account. All this stuff that people say they want, you don't ever spend, you don't learn shit about that. You spend, my son is 18. Like some of this stuff, like his math class, it's like, give me a break. Like he's not gonna be a mathematician and he's in like this. It's so hard and it's so pointless. And you get something out of math. Like it exercises your brain, right? It's like advanced Sudoku, right? Which is good for brain growth. Oh, yeah. But it's not practical at all. And like he took this history class and his entire history class, like European history, was just about who won what battle.

58:00In 1707, the French beat the Polish. And in 1842, the English beat the Dutch. Yeah, and the Dutch beat the gays. and you're like, what is this? This is - Hey, where's this going? Like, who's writing this? Yeah. Yeah, I agree, man. But who cares about that? Like, who cares who won the Battle of Shish Kebab in 1684, you know? Yeah, 100%. I'd much rather learn how to, you know, if I was 17, to have a checking account or how to grow a cabbage. Yeah. Oh, it'd be sick, dude. You saw some freaking hot chick with a balanced checkbook and two heads of lettuce you know what i'm saying buddy i'm in bro but dude yeah i agree there should be class like i always thought there should be classes on like um like we had spelling every week right three kids did the best 16 kids did medium four kids could not spell ever yeah and it was the same for the whole like after four weeks let's just say we get we know what's gonna to happen yeah let's move on like i think just let the four kids yes just duke it out among themselves yeah i was always in the medium yeah i was a good speller you were a good speller yeah did you ever make it to some kind of finals i made it almost but i missed on inconvenience right that's inconvenient yeah i wrote that line on the in the office um uh i lost the spelling bee I misspelled the word failure.

59:33And I actually wrote that line. I felt kind of proud of that. Hey, Zach. Yeah. Give us a tough word. Let's have a little spelling bee. All right. Renaissance. Me or him. The fair or the motel? The fair. All right. R-E-N-A-I-S-S-A-N-C-E No Renaissance R-E-N-N-A-I-S-S-A-N-C-E Just one N He's right You got it Well it's also You have two N's in your name So you probably were It's like I was sure it was two N's I was so sure Two S's Okay let's do best two out of three then And I'll pick a category too Outdoors Just Google Google spelling bee words Okay, I won't pick a category then I'll take my category back These are all easy These are verbatim Look up harder spelling bee words High school Senior year.

1:00:43Community college, yeah. gesticulate oh g-e-s-t i-c-u-l-a-t-e pretty easy that's talking with your hands being italian even doing that too yeah i think here's a class you should have right rain eye contact what a great class the first week it's all eye contact how you doing Betty, you know? What about the second week? Then you move up, you do nodding. So why don't you just say like interpersonal communication? Yeah, you can. And then I contact as week one. You put that, you're scaring off a lot of folks. That's okay. Let them be scared. Kids need it. People need it right now. You know, you look on college campuses and some of the most popular classes, like the most popular class at USC is on friendship.

1:01:41Like how to have friendship. Yeah. Well, I mean, because look at what we do. Yeah, I think you do eye contact, nodding. If you do well in nodding, you get to move into the handshakers union, right? And then you're there. You're doing real handshakes in real time with people, right? Right. But you're learning, yeah, how to communicate, how to take rejection. Like you said, that'd be great. Oh, damn, you suck. Oh, man. All right, bro. but I'm still good at this, right? But we teach, it's like, we go straight from like dinosaurs to sex ed. It's like, you believe in Tyrannosaurus Rex? Let's fuck, you know?

1:02:16Like, that's crazy, bro. Yeah, that is. There's so much, right? None of it is based on. No one has ever fucked a dinosaur. Oh, I believe. No, because they never overlapped. Humans and dinosaurs never overlapped. It was like a million a year after the last dinosaur died before humans existed. There's no pictures of humans and dinosaurs at the same time. Well, there's no pictures before 1880. There's paintings, but yeah, there's no wall carving. Woolly mammoths. Yeah. It could be that someone fucked a woolly mammoth. Oh, yeah. In the plasticine. The brunettes, they called them back then? Yeah. In a heartbeat, dude.

1:02:56They're so woolly. Yeah. Whoa, especially on a cold night. Oh, sure. Oh. Oh, sure. I would braid that tail, buddy. You could sleep in that vagina. It's like a rucksack. You know? A little baby, don't say a word. Oh, I bet if they had a newborn baby, if they're riding on a woolly mammoth, they just plop that thing. Right in there. Yeah. Why not? That's the only sound that they hear is they do. All aboard. Train's leaving the station. But they don't fuck dinosaurs. But that's it. I think, yeah, getting back to being human, sometimes I will romanticize Native American and tribal people and the connection that they had to the earth.

1:03:41Do you do that? I do, very much. 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. And the thing I think about with a lot of indigenous peoples and their spiritual practices is that spirituality wasn't separate from nature. And when you think about that, it can be very inspiring. You know what I mean? Like this mountain is holy. This river is the river of our ancestors. This is where our ancestors are buried in this forest, and that's holy. Let's pray to the spirit of the mountain or to the spirit of the river or the spirit of the forest.

1:04:20And so it isn't this idea of God as this kind of dude or like a deity, like with superpowers up on a cloud. It's merged into the natural world, the beauty, the majesty, the wonder, the mystery of the natural world, the winds, the four directions. And when you read about Native American spirituality, I think it can be very uplifting. uplifting. 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. So even the word for God, instead of, maybe we should all do that, is throw away the word God.

1:05:10It's such a loaded word, right? Except for Michael Landon, his highway to heaven. but that, and just substitute the great mystery. Like, oh, did you pray to the great mystery today? Right. Oh, thank the great mystery, or ask the great mystery for help, or like, great mystery, damn it. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. But I really love that idea, and that was very resonant for me as a young person because I was really struggling with God and higher power, and I didn't know what that meant to me. And my parents were religious, but I didn't have the same conception that they did. 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.

1:05:57It is in physical reality and in nature and yet part of it and also above it at the same time. And the idea, I love, I was going to say I love mysteries, but I don't mean like I love mystery podcasts. I mean, I love, you know, I just love as an artist, I love the idea of life being this mystery. 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. 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.

1:06:40agreed i mean i think we i think we're start 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 yeah um but i can imagine yeah i'm not gonna litter if i think that the ground has some semblance of sacredness. Of course not. Right. It's kind of things are going to have so much more value to me. Yeah. I'm not going to strip mine that mountain. Right. And cause an ecological disaster. You know, there's all these floods that have been happening in West Virginia and they, they call it when they were doing all the strip mining in the seventies and eighties, 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 and then when it rains and floods you know you just you're you're fucked yeah um but if those mountains were sacred the people wouldn't tolerate it you know because you can have both you can have jobs and you can have sacred land 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 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 um and especially before we get so trapped into the digital universe that you can't even come out i mean there a smile might be in a museum one day.

1:08:26You might have to go to a museum to see a smile. I like the museum of smiles. But that'd be so crazy. Yeah, remember Rick? You'd be right up there. Yeah, remember when Eddie got his first orgasm? Yeah, remember when Eddie got his first orgasm? He's just like... It's not quite a smile. Okay, okay. 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. Like, hey, it's our biggest attraction, buddy. All right, calm down. That's Eddie's first day. That's my orgasm. I think, too, like we're – you know, we talked about people in the future looking back at this time.

1:09:06We talked about phones and distractions and boredom. But 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 how deadlocked it is and how much fighting there is. And it's really, it's so sad because we have so many problems that need fixing, you know. 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. 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.

1:09:51And it's like, why aren't we helping each other? Like, why is partisanship become the de facto way to kind of do business? Like, 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. You know, I was thinking about debates. And isn't it funny? Like, you watch a political debate, and then immediately there's articles. like an hour later, like who won the debate? 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.

1:10:39Could you imagine you're running for class president as a senior in high school? And like, you know, it's Bobby and Darren, and like Bobby's like, well, Darren's got 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 now what's your policy position how are you going to help the school right how are you going to fix darren's teeth how are you how are we going to have a fundraiser for braces for darren and his poor overbite 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?

1:11:19I feel like my parents and your parents probably felt like the news had a general interest in the wellness of their viewer. Yeah. And now it does not, it feels like the news wants to be like a nicotine for their viewer. Right. And that 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. People like, they always end like the end of the news show. Like, after the commercial, you won't believe what this kid did to this man's face with a baseball bat.

1:12:01After these messages. This guy hit a two-run double on this senior citizen. You're like, Jesus. Wow. Yeah. That's a terrible baseball analogy. Some guy's dead. Yeah. Man's head found locally. We'll be back, right? After this. Still alive. And you're like, what? Jesus. Show a picture. Yeah, it makes you. But then you feel like there's a swing to everything. So it's like, are we just hopefully at this point of the pin, 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. Because I wonder if people have thought this way in the past as well. if people have felt as nervous about the future.

1:12:47Well, Civil War. Oh, that had to be definitely, huh? Yeah. I mean, that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, right? You ever hit any of the reenactments or anything? Probably not where you're from. You're from the Northwest, right? From Seattle, yeah. We didn't have reenactments, but you'd fit right in that crowd. Dude, we'd be out there at the CWRs, bro, freaking chilling, bro. What is the CWR? Civil War reenactment. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, just. Did you all, being from the South, be like, okay, we're going to need 20 Yankees? And like, no. Oh, pick people? Yeah, Theo, you've got to be Yankee.

1:13:27I don't want to be a fucking Yankee. The South will rise again. Everyone wanted to be a Southerner. Well, people played a lot of Southern music and shit, because the party was better for the South than before. It was like the breakfast or whatever, the big breakfast they would do before the fight or whatever was definitely, because the South loses every time. There was one day where they kind of won, but it was like, you know, historically they've lost. 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. Oh, you'd have Yankee reenactors come down and do the Southern reenactors?

1:14:02It's like a Renaissance fair kind of of sorts. But they would know that they were going to win, so they'd be like, fuck y 'all. 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 and people would come over and everybody try to like bang some chick from the renaissance fair or something they're buxom oh man right god did they i'll say this about the renaissance fair dude hot chicks no no chicks civil war reenactors right zilch none a lot of masturbation a lot of people drawing cooter in the dirt and stuff yeah you know fucking woolly mammoth carcasses yeah right and left yeah yeah A lot of people writing girl on their buddy's butt, you know, a lot of like, a lot of obtuse ideas out there.

1:14:46Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, oh, Renaissance Fair. God, I could see you at a Renaissance Fair. I could. Be honest. Yeah. Have you been to some? I have been. I'm a huge fan. I actually wrote a pretty hysterical script called Renaissance Men, that comedy that took place at a Renaissance Fair. Of course. We tried to sell it for years. We tried to get it going, but it didn't really take off. It's very funny. Do you want to, would you like to be in it? Yeah. Could you find someone else to be in that? Yeah. Man or woman, you think. It's a buddy comedy, two guys. Yeah. You could find someone else to be in it?

1:15:23Yep. What kind of guy does the other guy have to be? 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 seducing the ladies and doesn't take it as seriously. I think he'd be the player guy. Yeah, who wants to throw an axe into my butt. You know what I'm saying? I don't know what you're saying. I literally don't know what you mean. Get your motor running. Yeah. So maybe the music would be a little bit from a different era, though. Yeah, that's not the right.

1:15:56Okay. It would be like a madrigal. Okay. Like, let me go get Rapunzel. Like Greensleeves. Alas, my love, you do me wrong To have cast me out so disdainfully God Something beautiful about that 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 It sounds good, man I'm serious, I'm going to send you the script Yeah, I'd love to read it I really would That'd be an honor, actually Because you guys, this new, you young 'uns, your young podcast generation, you and Bert could do it. Oh, well, Bert just did a movie, too. Yeah. He just did a movie about the machine, about being the machine.

1:16:42Yeah. Yeah. You talk about faith in your book. Yeah. What's that been like for you? 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 good you should but it's very uh i don't know you know i like faith i like having something other than myself in the world i need it yeah i do too yeah um yeah it's 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.

1:17:30But 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. 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. 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 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.

1:18:14He's also weird, that guy who plays Dwight, but then he talks about spiritual topics and stuff. Well, The Gods Must Be Crazy 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. It's a South African movie about the... About the Coke bottle? 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.

1:18:49I 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. 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. Yeah. Yeah, Family Man. Oh, the one where the guy, Quaid, talks with his, through the radio. Through the radio, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I loved that movie. Yeah. Right, that was good. The Ghost of His Father, like through the radio. God, that was powerful. That was good. Frequency. Frequency. God, that was good. Yeah. I mean, that hit me right in the frickin' heart nuts, man.

1:19:26um but you were talking about god and faith and um yeah i don't think it turns people off i think people are desperate for it well it's it's a different day now it's a different age and it's funny because i just did bert bert's podcast and uh his is a lot bigger than yours like in what studio size no like numbers like he's his his is huge oh you're making that up i'm just I was trying to incite something. And you are. A little bit. And you are, and I like it, dude. Yeah, I was getting it. I like it. I have no idea. That hurt. I just know that you guys are very, very popular. But it was so great because Bert, it was so refreshing because he's like, oh, you wrote a book on spirituality.

1:20:11That's so cool. What do you talk about? 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 and it was like that sound 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 and i think because things aren't working out so well and we see big problems and people are turning and and this is what soul boom is about i want it up on that shelf one of these days. You know what? I'll put it up. Actually, you know what? I'll put it in front of this book for a while.

1:20:51You put it in front of Jordan Peterson? Yeah, I'd be glad to. Oh, thank you. I really enjoy the 50 pages that I read. All right. I hope you'll read the next 50. I think there's a lot of things we talk about in here. But I think people are more open to spiritual ideas because the other political solutions and economic and legislative kind of... It's not working. It's not working. Things are breaking down and people feel that. Right. It's let us down. You know, I think it's, you know, people used to feel a sense of purpose more. We were talking about this a few weeks ago with the school shootings and stuff.

1:21:23I think some of the reasons why you get these folks is you have people that have no sense of purpose, right? They don't get it through their job anymore because it's a lot of big companies. There's not the place in your town that makes, like, you know, your favorite shoes. My dad works at the shoe company, and we wear the shoes my dad makes. And there's a sense of pride that, like, a place was connected to a product, you know? And part of your personality was in it. You went into work because you knew your kid was going to be wearing the thing, and you wanted to fucking get home and have a sense of something in the home when you got there.

1:21:56And just like there's no sense of purpose through work, a lot of people don't have a family. They're not in love or loved. And so you don't have a sense through love of purpose. But let me add to that, okay? And this has to do with religion. Like so much of America has turned away from religion, and so many young people have. And for a good reason, there's a lot of shitty things about organized religion. Oh, a lot of pervs out there, a lot of big dogs touching kiddos and being molesters. Yeah, yeah. And also church can be very judgmental of people, gays and lesbians and whatnot, and it can cause a lot of disunity in ways.

1:22:41But people have also lost purpose as they've lost their sense of the community that religious faith can give. Because what does religion give you? It gives you community, a shared sense of purpose, transcendence, love, service, like service projects. I have friends that are part of churches or in my own Baha 'i faith going out and doing service projects on the weekend together, working together side by side, praying together, common prayer, singing together, right? Potlucks. Like just like there's, we've jettisoned everything having to do with religion, but there are a lot of positives that come from that world.

1:23:24Oh, potlucks alone. Pretend, having to pretend somebody's casserole is good to their face, dude. Yeah. Yeah. And the good casseroles are taken like right off the bat. Oh, yeah. Like someone comes in with like a tater tot and cheese casserole with ground beef. and it's like the pan is dry. As soon as it turns 18, brother, it is off the table. But someone else brought the green bean salad like soaked in vinegar. Yeah, in vinegar. And it's like, there's plenty of that left. Why don't you have some of the green bean salad? The tater tots are gone, but dig in. There's a bird, there's like a walk, not even eating it, just walking on it.

1:24:03Like, oh, this is bad. But no, I agree, a sense of community. Those are things that I love about church. You see a sense of community. Kids get to see each other on the weekends, things like that. You get that in 12-step meetings? Yeah. Oh, a ton of it. It's why I go, man. Camaraderie. It's why I go. I see people that care about me and that I care about. I forget. I have a forgetter in me that my heart has a quick forgetter in it. It forgets that I care about people in a way, and I got to see them. you know but the second i walk into an a meeting i see like oh jimmy's getting a year chip today and man and i've seen him in 50 meetings and i'm fucking it's like i'm his like i'm his actual blood brother and i couldn't be more happy for him you know yeah there's just something about it you know being in a place like that there's things like a and recovery meetings that make that make me feel hopeful about society right right you know and that and i love the way that 12-step meetings are run.

1:25:03There's no leaders. There's no clergy. There's no one in charge. There's no kings or presidents or anything. It's just the inmates running the asylum. And you elect them every couple months, and someone's in charge of the phone list, and someone's in charge of the book table. It's beautiful. You're like, oh, we're all... There are no leaders that are only trusted servants. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And stuff like that gives you hope for the future, you know. But it's interesting. And I don't want this to be like a conversation that's like dour, you know, because also you have your show that is kind of a search for happiness kind of.

1:25:45And I found it to be real charming kind of, you know, like here's a guy going to see where people are happy and why. Yeah. So. Do you want to talk about that at all? I would love to talk about that. Okay. So The Geography of Bliss is a travel show coming out in late May on a Peacock network, which is where The Office is, where it lives and breathes and doesn't die. It just keeps on chugging along. I think it ever could. Apparently. We thought it was dead upon arrival. But anyways, it keeps chugging along. But The Geography of Bliss is, and I never thought I'd have a better show than The Office.

1:26:23Really? because nine seasons 200 episodes everyone got along made a big impact was funny as hell it's great character great money like fun fun people everywhere oh yeah i saw kevin scoping chicks at a club once did you you know it's like the best time ever so cool yeah um but didn't you almost have a show right before the office that didn't go through yes that's good good memory Yeah. I was supposed to be on this Janine Garofalo TV show and we did it. And on the way to the table read for it, I ran into this TV executive and he's like, oh, I'm so excited. We're going to do the American version of The Office.

1:27:11And I had seen the English version. I loved it. And I was like, I was outside. I was like, oh, that's great. Inside. I was like, fuck, I want to be on that. like okay you got to go to the table read for this janine and janine's lovely it's not about her but the pilot was very good we read the pilot bob odenkirk was in it me and bob odenkirk nice man um and uh mark maron oh yeah yeah and it went so the read through went so bad they pulled the plug on the spot by the time i got home they were like they're not shooting it they closed the donuts up And I was like, inside, I was like, I get to audition for The Office.

1:27:50Sure enough, a month later, auditioned for The Office and got Dwight a few months after that. So had I gotten, so you never know, kiddies. Sometimes a rejection and a disappointment is a good thing, and it just is a path forward where other doors can open. Oh, yeah. What they say, sucks to lose a limb until you're in a one-legged contest. Are there a lot of one-legged contests? I'm not sure. Can you Google that? Bob, uh, Kid Rock has a one-legged brother. And every time I see him, I say, man, you'd think with all the money you have, you'd buy your brother another fucking leg. A prosthetic leg, yeah.

1:28:34Or an android leg. Yeah, yeah, Jesus. You know, like a bionic thing. Yeah, like a leg saber. Do you remember the bionic man? Mm-mm. A leg saber. You never saw the bionic man? Uh-uh. Oh, it was great. I loved Little House on the Prairie. We loved a lot of Michael Lannis stuff. We loved a lot of... Bonanza? No. Going way back. After Bonanza. Post Bonanza? Mm-hmm. I did like All in the Family because... And I like the Jeffersons. I like Good Times. Temporary layoff. Good times. Is it great to rip off? Good times. Yeah. I love that. so the geography of bliss is a show where i travel around the world and i look for happiness in other cultures so it's like anthony bourdain but it's for about happiness not food and we went to iceland bulgaria ghana west africa thailand and then back here in los angeles and it's so fun man i love these kind of conversations having deep meaningful but fun and silly conversations and it's a terrific show.

1:29:40It's really uplifting. It's inspiring and hopeful. People need some hope these days. Remember I told you that's your divine responsibility. I appreciate that. It's yours too. I think it's why we're even having this conversation because we're curious about hope, you know? Yeah. People need hope. It's a precious and depleted resource and there's a lot of pessimism out there and we gotta turn that pessimism around and make people believe that there is a bright day, there is a Star Trek future for humanity where we can all get along and work together and solve problems and make the world a better place.

1:30:17We do it, we start small, we start on a podcast, you start in a family, you start in a cul-de-sac, and you spread out from there, and then you bring it to your workplace. But we're not gonna do it with the way the current media system is, and we're not gonna do it with the way that the current political partisan politics system works in our country. It's killing us. It's killing us. Well, some of it could be changed. I mean, one thing that even podcast started was because people felt like they couldn't get through into like sitcoms. Talented comedians felt like they couldn't get opportunities.

1:30:50You know, I'm not saying just me, but even like predecessors in podcasting, they wanted to have a place to have a voice, right? Yeah. Because even acting is just a way you want to be able to have a place to put yourself in the world. Yeah. you want to be able to have a voice even if it's a physical voice yeah you know um so that's why that started and that's made conversations more long form and been able to get uh people's points across like i remember seeing bernie sanders on joe rogan right and i've always been of the ilk that i think they should have to have one candidate you shouldn't be able to pick up if you're republican you shouldn't be able to pick a republican vice president you should have to have a Democratic vice president.

1:31:34Right. And vice versa. So that that way, you're always in contention of idea. Yeah. So you have to figure out the best idea between the two of you in order to get it enacted or move it forward, right? Yeah, kind of force people to work together. Right. Like, I would have loved probably a Trump-Bernie ticket, right? That would be interesting. Right, you're going to see two totally - They would have throttle each other. They would have been at each other. I agree. Trump would have crushed him like a stick insect. And that would have just cost them the possibility of maybe getting elected, but you would have had to see two guys that were different have to figure it out together, right?

1:32:11But yeah, but I remember listening to Bernie Sanders on Joe Rogan. It was the first time I got to hear him in a long form. I didn't hear a clip that the media, I didn't hear like a two minute rebuttal on a - It was Joe Rogan, it's four and a half hours long, so you got to hear him all day. Oh, dude, yeah, you were there. All day, yeah. You put it on when you go to sleep and you wake up and it's still on. You'd love being in there, man. Have you ever been on there? No, man. It would be, you guys would have a really neat conversation. I don't smoke pot. I don't do ayahuasca. That's a good point.

1:32:36Does that disqualify me? No, he doesn't do ayahuasca either, but you just have to say, I don't smoke pot. And I don't wrestle. Oh, no, it doesn't disqualify you. I don't, I mean, I try to wrestle for a year, but I kept getting hurt so badly. And then I don't smoke pot. And then I'll do ayahuasca, but I don't know. I mean, some people consider that different, you know, have different thoughts about sobriety and that, you know. but I haven't done it in over a year but I would maybe do it again I found it to be really really helpful and really ties you back to nature in a lot of ways oh interesting but yeah I think what were we talking about Bernie Sanders podcasts different voice and I would listen to the whole thing and at first I would have been like maybe would I listen to Bernie Sanders I don't know but I was like oh this is he has some great ideas I was like I get to know this guy whether you like his idea or whatever It's just like, oh, I feel like I get to know this guy.

1:33:37Where did you find some of the best happiness, you think, in the places you've been? Was there one place or anything you noticed over the course of the places you went? I saw happiness all over, which was great. I it's so funny because happiness when I saw it when I saw like real profound blissful joy it was always about connection with other people it was always about connection you talk about the 12 step meetings it was in a family or in a community or with some kind of service project or it's people connecting you know and that's why covid was so devastating like it isolated us all we need connection we thrive in connection you know and uh but the happiest place and it's my favorite place on the planet is iceland i fucking love iceland have you been there it's so cool i mean everyone goes there i mean it's very popular um you had a bright light people go see the bright lights, right?

1:34:45Yeah. The people at night. Yeah. The Aurora Borealis. Oh, yeah. I saw those. I went to Greenland and I got to see those. But it's like watching Mother Nature. Iceland is. Iceland is just do like image search. You're on image search. Can you scroll through them? Can you just go through? Oh, look at that. Oh, look at those children in Iceland. Go look at them. Look at them. Look at those. Look how happy they are. God, they're happy. Visit Iceland. Official tourist info for Iceland. But there's a pretty Icelandic woman. Yeah. Wait, let's look at travel to Iceland with diabetes. Oh, yeah. Down one more.

1:35:25Down one more. That's not something I thought I would see is traveling to Iceland with diabetes. Let's go there, brother. Can you click on it?

1:35:36Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, that's cool. I haven't seen that. So I've been five times to Iceland. five times it's so beautiful you can't even believe it black sand beaches glaciers volcanoes waterfalls I remember one time I took my family we went camping there like in a camper van and then we were like driving down the road and we're like oh my god look at that waterfall and we're like eh and I realized we just drove by a 200 foot waterfall and we were like meh because we've seen 1 ,000 foot water waterfalls, you know? And it's so gorgeous. The people are wonderful. The food is expensive as hell. Really?

1:36:21Oh yeah. I had a pizza, I think it cost like 80 bucks once. Does it cost a lot to warm it up or something? Well, when we were in the camper van, it was great because we would go to the grocery stores and we would get like ramen and spaghetti and oatmeal and make salads and we would just kind of eat and then maybe once a day we'd get like an expensive meal. the fish is fantastic there, but it's so beautiful. There's whale watching. It's, I can't say enough good things about it, but the people are happy there. One of the reasons the people are happy is, and I don't know if a lot of your viewers are going to like this or not, but they trust their government.

1:37:01They believe in their government and there's a social safety net because you pay a shit ton of taxes, but education is first rate. There's the healthcare is through the roof. They will take care of you when you're sick. Mental health, the roads, the bridges, everything is taken care of. And it just works, you know? And so you have, and in talking to Icelanders, like there was this trust that feel like, oh, I can, if I get sick, I can take some time off and then I'm protected by regulations. I'll be able to get my job back. And this net of government is there for us. They believed like it was there for them.

1:37:44And we've sensed the Vietnam War, and over the last several decades, our trust in government has gone down. And truth be told, our government is not working in huge ways. I mean, it's kind of taking care of our highways and potholes and maybe our streetlights, but not a whole lot more than that. and it's yeah i mean even the u.s postal system even the one person from the government that stopped by your house every day yeah you could give a cookie to or get a pat on the head yeah and it wasn't even molesting people you never heard postal people molesting yeah never you can even pull down their pants and write girl on their back and they yeah you don't ever hear somebody licking a stamp and put it on some kid's wiener you know what i'm saying you just never it never happened.

1:38:27And they messed the postal systems going back. It's just, yes, we've let the government really... I try to be really nice to the postal workers. Oh, same. Yeah. God bless you. You're working so hard for like just above minimum wage. And you were Santa to us when I was a kid. It was like, oh, here he goes. Now it's like, who cares? Oh, the postman's here. Who cares? The Amazon guy's here. Oh, new headphones. And the postman is just like that ex-girlfriend, man. in the arms just walking back to tori amos's house somewhere god it hurts man but yeah it's like there were institutions that we had that we had some pride do you what do you think happened with our government you know um what do you think happened like you said like after vietnam war i know there was like a lot of contention like between americans that thought it was good and bad to be there you know i remember seeing forrest scum but i blame it on partisanship really i really do and what does that mean when you say partisanship i'm not sure what it is um um that's uh the kind of uh republican versus democrat okay me saying me versus you me versus you seeking power above all um would rather see i'll never forget like when obama got elected and rush limbaugh was like i hope he fails wow i hope he fails because I'm against his policies and I want him to not succeed.

1:39:56And I was like, wow, you want, because I want, even if Trump get elected and I wasn't a huge fan, but Trump, I wanted him to succeed. I didn't want him to fail. I wanted him to make lives better and to help fix things. And I was kind of hoping, oh, maybe he'll fix some broken things. But think about every election cycle, Theo. Think about this. How much money is spent on campaign ads? it's insane banner ads like and where's all that money going it's going into the coffers of msnbc and fox news and cnn and all of these media outlets that we don't trust because they're so partisan and they have such an agenda and they're getting rich from it and they're going to stay polarized because they're making so much money from it but what if you just took all of that hundreds of millions of dollars what if you had no campaign finance you had government campaign financing.

1:40:48You weren't able to kind of like raise and spend money willy-nilly. And you took all that money and put it towards fixing things. Schools and hospitals and whatnot. Environmental teachers a raise. Giving nurses a raise. Exactly. You had an announcement one day. It was like, hey, we're going to give every nurse a$2 ,000 raise this year. Or every teacher a$2 ,000. You know how excited everybody would be? It'd be great.

1:41:16The The first aid, actually, can I take a pee break? Let's pee, and then we'll wrap up, actually. All right, great. Yeah, I've got to pack. I've got to leave tomorrow morning for a two-and-a-half-week book tour. Really? Yeah. Whew. It's exciting. All over. Have you written a book? Do you have, like, a comedy book? I never have. I've written a lot of chapters for a book about growing up and some comedy stories about different experiences and stuff. Yeah. Your book would do really well. Thanks, man. it's really awesome to sit here with you man oh it's my it's awesome for me man i love your stories about growing up and your stories about kids at school like we had a kid in our in our school you always have those oh yeah that's great well the first asian kid we ever had or allegedly had you know we had um remember how pizza huts had those unique rooftops on them yeah you know what i'm talking about yeah of course yeah like yeah yeah diamond shape yes well one of those burnt down right in Slottel, Louisiana, right?

1:42:15Okay. And so, and the, the roof had fallen flat on the ground kind of like at a little bit of an angle. Right. And people like said Asian people live there, you know? Okay. So we heard about it. Yeah. And we got a taxi over there to go look and it was just a, um. You literally called a taxi? Yeah. We saved up money. We saved$17 to take a taxi there. That's them. Yeah. God. And you looked for Asian people inside of it? We'd never seen it before, yeah. burned down when it's on the ground flush on the ground it has a very kind of look of the orient do you know how they cook pizzas at pizza hut have you ever seen that last time i went in there it's all automated oh it's a they just take they unwrap it from the plastic and they put it on a thing it's like at one of those like hotels and it just goes through the oven on the conveyor belt and it comes out done oh yeah that's how that's how they used to do it i think did they always do it that way it was like a little rolling thing it was just like kind of like these things and it just kept moving forward yeah but used to be a pretty long oven is it really short now or something there's a long oven yeah i love the pizza was good when i was young it was the real it was a we used to go to the one on ballinger way look up the pizza hut on ballinger way lake forest park washington i don't know if it's still there i think it's a thai restaurant now speaking of asian people oh yeah oh they'll start a restaurant in any ballinger way asian people They'll start a restaurant in anything.

1:43:45No. A lot of beautiful Asian people up in Washington. Yeah. Is there one on Ballinger Way? No. Oh, it's closed down. God, but you know what? Just look under images and see if they have any. Let's get an old image of it. Somebody took a snapshot of it. There. There you go. On the left. That's probably it right there. Yeah. oh and there's my mom's ford festiva out front she used to drive that deal yeah god it was so small three cylinders oh and one of the cylinders was just us in the back seat going and she could beat us from that like the front seat was so close to she could beat everybody like she was playing the drums dude why don't they have cars with pedals like flintstones kind of but like just to get like a two-cylinder car yeah but then everyone in the back seat is doing this just to help it along.

1:44:39Kind of. And you get your workout. We're also fat. Yes. Americans like, right? Win-win. Well, that's almost an example of everything that we've been talking about like are some of the stuff that would help. Solutions. Humanity. Okay. Is if we, every, there was some sense of a need for a vested interest and if people felt like they were contributing, you know? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's tough with this broken political system. I think in my faith traditions called the Baha 'i faith, there are elections, and it's kind of like a 12-step meeting. It's a little different, but you elect what's called a local spiritual assembly to guide the affairs of your local community, and every year you do that, and you write down names, silent ballot, And you pray and meditate and you think, who's the wisest, most mature people to kind of help steer forward the Baha 'i community here in Los Angeles or whatever.

1:45:46You ponder it and there's maybe a master list of everyone who lives there. And you write them down. There's no campaigning. There's no yard signs. There's no money spent. No one says, I think I would make a good assembly member and here's why. It's all done silently. And then you put them in the envelope and then the tellers count them. and then nine people are elected. Like, why couldn't you do that in a small town? Could you do that in Covington, Louisiana? Yeah. Could you have people like, no campaigning, no one, no proselytizing, no aggrandizing, no one saying like, I should be the mayor or what have you and just have people gather at the local high school football stadium and write down who they think would best serve the affairs of the people of Covington, Louisiana.

1:46:29Yeah, I think that that could happen. You know, I think it's probably and obviously it's, you know, it's hypothetical because you look at, you know, obviously America is much bigger. But, yeah, you start to think what system could be different. I think a lot of people are wondering now what system could be different. I think a lot of people think that it's the system we have is isn't helping us. You know, I think. Yeah, you start to wonder how could it be? Because I'm glad you're saying that because it's it really is like we keep slapping band-aids on a broken system. And if the system is broken, it's no good.

1:47:03It's like, well, we'll change this policy. We'll pass this bill or we'll get an increased funding for this. And it's just like slapping Band-Aids on a boat full of buckshot. Well, I think you have to have guys maybe possibly – you have to have someone – you hear anyway that electing an independent candidate, getting one of them into the runoff would shake up the way that the funds are distributed. You also have some interesting guys now like Bobby Kennedy Jr., right? So he is a Democrat, but he has his - He's anti-vaccine. I know that. Yeah, he's like, yeah, he's anti-vaxxer. I think so. He raised a lot of questions about - He's raised a ton of concern about the vaccine.

1:47:47But I think he was anti-vaxxed before COVID. I think he's like - He's an environmentalist. So he's always been about the environment. He's always been about let's test things before we move them forward, right? I mean, he has a book. He was against Dr. Fauci. you know so it's like he's definitely in that world right um but it's interesting because he's going to run the democratic ticket right i think you're starting to get hopefully you're going to start to get candidates that are different it's got to start to expand at some point because it feels very railroaded but isn't and that's true like if if we open it up and you had like let's say you had joe rogan run or you had mark cuban run or you know some really interesting kind of thought leaders or businessmen or entrepreneurs.

1:48:26That's cool. But the system is still, I want the power. I'm going to raise a shit ton of money. I'm going to go around doing all these fundraising dinners. I'm going to be spending all these money on these media outlets because I want the power for me and my coterie. And we're going to try and put down you and your little coterie of friends. We're still in that mode where we're not really in the mode of public service. They're public servants they should be serving the public so how do we just get out of that whole campaigning thing all together is what i say now maybe i'm being naive and people are probably rolling their eyes and like oh you hippie you know but uh but no it's okay to have that's a great it's a i agree because people are sick of all the wasted money the fucking bullshit the desperation by these parties to get your vote the pandering to poor people with fear videos and all of this and using classes and cultures as uh puppets and keeping people in certain places just so they'll continue to vote for you like i think everyone's exhausted i think the heart of the world is you know has arteriosclerosis you know it feels that way and that's okay look if that's okay if you and i are sitting and talking about that and i like that your book makes me think about that yeah you know and not just the negative sides of it or the problems yeah but um but i talk at the end of my book i have a chapter called seven pillars for a spiritual revolution and i offer some tangible solutions some things and one of them is what we talked about before which is hope and i said foster joy and squash cynicism because as long as we stay cynical and pessimistic nothing gets done if everyone's sitting back just like oh it's a pile of shit it'll never work then nothing will change and it's just gonna get worse actually.

1:50:19So that's a really deadly trap and it's super important that we, we as entertainers, as storytellers, we try and foster joy in people, give them hope and don't let ourselves get cynical too. You get cynical sometimes? You fight against cynicism? Oh yeah. I battle the dark arts. I battle self-pity sometimes which is a unique way that cynicism kind of sneaks into you, I find. Yeah. You know, it's me just, you know. So I just have to stay on top of it. Yeah. You know, and. It's a misery brigade. Yeah, it does. And it does get to be there, you know. Get to me and, yeah. Yeah. But there's a lot of people doing good stuff out there.

1:51:01And that's another way to look at things and to wake up and think, hey. You know, there was a guy, I wrote about this guy in my book. this guy named Callum Greaves. And he works with Greta Thunberg and a lot of youth ambassadors for climate change. And whatever you think about Greta Thunberg, putting that aside, really brilliant guy. And he said to me, you know, I work on clean air because everyone can agree on clean air. Some people on this side of the political spectrum might not think that man-made CO2 is causing climate change or that people are being extremist and whatnot. and people on this side have different opinions, but clean air is something everyone can get behind.

1:51:47You don't want kids to get asthma, right? You want your grandkids to have clean air when you go to the grave. And that is a precious point of unity from both sides. And then it's win-win because CO2 does get reduced, but you're also really focusing on the human story, which is making air cleaner for kids. so that's a way to look at like solving a solution like climate change like if we all just work together on clean air like we would fix climate change right letting these kids lung up and feel comfortable and happy yeah yeah i like it man i can't i don't know if i'll finish the whole book but i'm gonna try at least go to the seven pillars at the end i appreciate that i'm gonna uh if you ever want me to read it to you like a bedtime story or something like that i can do that as well facetime yeah just put me on your pillow and i'll read it to you i'll love that you can Snuggle up.

1:52:39It's been a pleasure lunging up with you. I like that lung up. Yeah, man. I'm such a big fan. I love your stuff and so funny and weird and wonderful and I think you're doing great things and it's just a pleasure to be in this room with you and your friend. Yeah, the Zachary Alex. Yeah. Thank you, man. And thank you for all the years of entertainment and also now all the years of thought that you're, you know, it's like the second organ inside you know it's like you got our brains now you're going after our hearts and our brains you know oh thank you man I appreciate that I like it man Rainn Wilson man anytime man and we'll get the book and we'll put it up right here I love it thank you soul bloom guys it'll be boom sorry soul boom guys it's available now or it'll be available soon and Rainn Wilson now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be Cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it in my bones But it's gonna take