Transcript of Adam Scott Returns

Wndri Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcast, or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcast. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Sheppard, and I'm joined by the Duchess of the Louver. Hi. Hi. Our sweetest friend Adam Scott is here today. We discovered, which I would not guess. I forget now, but In the interview, we realized he was his seventh guest.

It does feel like it's been a long time since he's come on, but not that long.

No, I just didn't think he was that early. I felt like we were up and running for a while, and I reached out. Me too. But yeah. So this is his second trip. Oh, this will be good because I remembered this. There's a point in the interview where I go, Weren't you super into hip hop?

Yeah, you did.

And he's like, No. Yeah, Yes. And I was so discombobulated by that because I'm like, I know. I remember this.

Okay.

And it hit me after this interview, and I text him and I was like, Oh, my God, you know what I think I'm confusing is, were you obsessed with Do the Right Thing and Spike Lee and started wearing African gear? And he's like, 100 %. So that's what it was. I knew he went through a phase, and he was wearing the Tricy Color Africa shirts, and it was do the right thing. So I wasn't totally insane. There was some connective tissue.

Got it. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also lends itself to him being a cinophile.

Yes, big time. Parks and Recreation, Step Brothers, Big Little Eyes, Party Down, The Good Place, and alas, arguably, The Greatest Show on Television, which returns to Apple TV Plus on the 17th. Severance. I can't wait. So excited. It's so good. It's so, so good. And I got to do the Severance podcast that they're doing, which is really, really fun. That's great. Yeah. I do recommend... It's been three years. I have a pretty good memory. I don't remember anything. It is so worth starting it from the get-go. It's so enjoyable. I had forgotten so many great things about it. Me, too.

I rewatched it as well. Oh, you did? Yeah.

I mean, it's just what a show.

It's fantastic.

Please enjoy Adam Scott. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankerpen. In our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, we're looking at the life of the most famous Queen of France, Marie-Antoinette. Her death is seemingly more well known than her life, but her journey from the daughter of the Austrian Emperor to becoming the most hated woman in France is just as fascinating. We're going to look at the ways in which her story was distorted during the French Revolution and dig deeper into her real experiences in a troubled, difficult time. Marie-antoinette is one of the most well-recognized but least well-understood names in history. We're talking about how her death led to the way that she was spoken about in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Follow Legacy Now from wherever you get your podcasts. Or binge entire seasons early and ad-free on WNDYRI Plus.

Bunk. Bunk.

Bunk. Michael, what are you doing?

I'm saying Bunk, Vinnie. What's a Bunk?

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It's fun to say, Bunk.

Bunk.

I see. What did my bank pay? Next to nothing.

On Bunk?

2.67%, Vinnie.Paid.

Weekly.paid weekly.

Okay, Bunk. Bunk.

Hey, it is fun to say.

Bunk Ireland is regulated by the Dutch Central Bank and by the Central Bank of Ireland for Rules of Business Conduct. Terms of Conditions apply. Steal yourself. Is that the expression? Oh my God.

Okay. Steady, Okay.

Thank God there's no buttons on your slacks like Camillo Anthony.

I wonder what it is I'm supposed to be looking at.

Yes, this is very nice.

You're fucking hot as hell. It's so embarrassing. Hold on, Adam, you're a thousand % sexy as fuck.

What is this from?

I've always known you've had good hair, enviable hair, but this photo, I can't do things like... You can take big swings with your hair. Would you acknowledge that?

I would say that's a big and I think it might be a bit of a miss. No. The whole thing just feels a little stupid.

No. Adam, listen to me. You can own this. Can I hold this up? Can you see that, Rob? But look at this. This is great.

You do have great hair.

Fuck, you have good hair.

You're welcome. I'm stealing this from Arnett. He would call it the 40-yard stare, like that Vietnam.

Yeah, the middle distance stare.

Am I seeing a sniper in the background that you're not?

Right. Me and When Pratt used to do it on parks, it would be saying something stupid to each other and then just breaking into... It's like, What are you? What exactly? There is this middle distance where it's so clear I wasn't looking at anything. It was just, look over there. That's maybe part of why it's embarrassing.

No, no, no. You're so self-deprecating. It's a gorgeous picture.

It is.

I don't think I'm- It's just gorgeous.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

By the way, it's so different in than where we- I know, right?

Sure. Let's take a second to process this.

How long have you been in here? Three months? Because I listen to the show. I don't watch it, so I don't know.

Yeah, take it in. First of all, Rob did all this.

It's really nice. Can you believe- It's like homey. Yeah, it is. Thank you. Well done. I know you have impeccable taste, Monica.

Thank you, but this wasn't me. This was all Rob.

It's really lovely.

Yeah, you can almost forget, right? That's the dream.

It's nice. You got the camera hidden. It's really nice.

I want a style.

We have overs in this podcast, which people don't have over. They line up in a line.

Overs, it's so good. You're a director. You know these things.

What if I said I'm a director at heart?

That's gross.

I'm a storyteller at heart.

That's worse. I'm even scared to admit out loud how much I hate that because so many people I love, I've heard use that term. I know. It's true, we are story animals. Stop it.

Just cut it out. Since the dawn of man, we gathered around the fire. We tell We can stop saying that.

Yeah, I would like to stop.

You've seen people you love say it, right?

Of course. I'm sure I've said it. Jesus.

We're going to pull it for the fact check. Both of you saying it.

That person time.

A stream.

Is there any other current... Words that piss me off? Yeah, nomenclature that's rubbing you the wrong way?

I have too much of it to the degree that I'm not proud of myself. Too much of what? I am to words people are using in pop culture to the degree that I have to be a little self-reflective and go like, This is the kid in high school. I'm still looking for reasons that all the popular kids have their code.

You feel left out.

I got that. I think that's why it'sComing to cute. Because Monica will tell you, I've called out words like artisanal. The second artisanal, I said, You watch, that's going to be on a fucking Arby's sign. It wasn't on Arby's, but it was on subway. My current one I'm tracking is atelier. This is the new word.

Wait, I don't know this one. Great.

You're getting in on the floor.

You do know it. It just means a shop.

You don't know it. It just means a nice shop.

It's like apothecary bubbled up a few years ago in the wrong places. Yes.

Atelier, which I learned this from Monica, this is like a small bespokeed uncrafted luxury item, and it's the studio for it, which I'm fine with those Italians having their ateliers or French, whatever it is.

It's where the designer actually makes the items.

It's a real word. Sure. But we don't use it to describe the sandwich shop in Beverly Hills, which is coming.

I just started hearing atelier a little too much, and I was like, Monica, you watch The Gap is going to have an atelier. Okay, so we have storytellers. That's rough for me. It's rough. Again, so many people I love it. I see it. Sure. I don't think people get through an interview without saying it these days. Holding space. Can't you just do that without talking about it? Does that trigger you at all? I've never said it.

I do think it's rough.

This is where the left is losing people, by the way. Yeah. Stuff like that.

One hundred Because it's cultural and rhetorical. That's it. Of the two parties, there's one that actually helps out the working class, and it's not the one that won. It's the one that rhetorically and culturally don't know how to talk to them, right? Yeah. So it's shit like that, 100%. But wait, holding space means I'm just creating space for myself?

Well, I think it's more often used in like, I just want my husband to be able to hold space for me to have my emotions, or hold space for a coworker or a friend It sounds a little too sanctimonious.

I think I tuned that one out.

I use one that probably people hate. I will say often, My story, my story about you and I is this, or my story about losing that job. That to me feels a little more honest, which is, I know I'm a storyteller. It all comes back to storytelling, you guys.

This is just a story. Monica is visibly uncomfortable.

We thought our pants were going to explode, but they've retracted.

It's the opposite. It's literally the opposite. It's more belts.

Were you wearing three belts when you walked in?

I didn't notice. Isn't it funny in movies where they flash to the future and you see them taking stabs at what will happen fashion-wise in the future? I think in Back to the Future, people have two ties in the future.

In 2015, which, by the way, you would have known that already. That's right. You know what no one's playing with, which they should be, is that as we see drugs like Ozempic become ubiquitous and people will more and more have the same body shape. It's almost interesting. I think no one's projected that in the future, everyone just virtually, there'll be three versions of people.

But also with Botox and fillers and all of those things. People's faces are starting to just look like one thing. I mean, young teens are doing Botox and filler.

I know. I wish I was alive when they were 90 so I could see how perfect they looked. I bet it's really going to work out.

I feel like an old lady to say I'm against it, but I am.

You are, even though you're honest to be that.

For kids to do that.

For an 18-year-old, you don't even know what your face is yet.

But also, you're not done forming and growing. Exactly. I have two teenagers, so they're always on TikTok and Instagram stuff. Yeah, there's a lot of perfection and redefining perfection. It's all really crazy.

It's very sci-fi. It does make me think, did you ever have these days when or an elementary school? I'm plagued with a lot of cowlicks. I don't have the head of hair you do. Back to your hair. Cowlicks. You know where your hair juts this way and then that way. It's all scary and wamp. It's in the back of a swirl. The middle part with a feather when you and I were kids was Totally. You had to have that hair, Bow and Luke Duke had it, and I just couldn't get it on the middle. It was always off to one. It was like a 60, 40 split. Occasionally, I would have a morning in fourth grade where I would feather it. It would look great, and I would make this weird promise to the deities. I would say, I commit to this hair for the rest of my life if you can keep it looking this way.

If it can remain this perfect, I will keep this parted down the middle, feathered construction for the rest of my days.

Okay, now, did you ever do any dumb thing like that in front of the mirror?

I remember my brother had the little lead figurines for Dungeons and Dragons. They were made out of lead. As a kid, I heard lead is poison, so you need to be careful. I used to just steal all his shit and look at it. He's older than me. I remember one day taking one of these little lead figures and just sticking my tongue out and just touching it and then just being like, What am I What are you doing? I remember looking into the mirror in our living room, there was a mirror hanging there and just going, I don't want to die, thinking that it was imminent.

Okay, What you stumbled upon right there is called the call of the void. Do you know this term? No. The call of the void is very, very common for people to experience this. You're on an extremely tall building, you're looking over the edge, and the voice is going, jump, you fucking pussy, for some reason. It's taunting you. Yes. That's what licking that lead was. I would have done the exact same thing.

Like, whoa, it's pretty powerful.

It's powerful. That's what it is.

But you got to be on the other side of answering the call of the void, which is you laughed. I did it. It sounds like you had immediate regret.

Yeah. It was a stupid thing to do.

Did you think in your mind at that time, you thought you'd be dead before the day's end?

I thought I would drop dead any second. Were you touching your tongue and getting- Getting under the faucet. On Instagram, I'm constantly You know those kids that are now climbing skyscrapers all over the world without any equipment? What?

They're just free-balling it, and they're running and jumping. They're not being careful.

They're getting up to the top of, literally, the Empire State Building and balancing on one leg. Oh my God.

Taking some pics.

Yeah, they have their drone up there and they're just like, What's up? Some toss them a beer. It's crazy. There's a documentary on a couple that do this in Eastern Europe on Netflix. Their whole group of friends are the world doing this, and they die often because they fucking fall. Yes. But I'm on that algorithm on Instagram, and I'm constantly being shown these. But it's because there's nothing that I enjoy more than watching these people on the edge of the fucking skyscraper, and I love it.

Yeah. It makes my hands sweat so profusely.

I get butterflies, and I get an adrenal rush, I think, watching them. Then I have to just put it down and not look anymore. Sure.

We look in front of the mirror and say, I don't want to die.

It's like, Well, it's just a video. You're fine.

Were you a really good kid? It sounds like you were a really good kid. That's the extent of-Mistief?

Yeah. Yeah, I must have been a good kid.

I can really relate to being the younger brother who he'd leave the house to go do something fun, and I would run to his bedroom like a chimp, just hold his objects.

A hundred I'll go and covet them. Oh, yeah. Look at chimp, your little possessions.

His idols. I felt like I was holding special idols.

I remember once he came home when I was in the midst of one of my archeological digs, and I hid behind a chimney that came through the middle of his room, and I just hid there for 15, 20 minutes while he just sat on his bed reading a comic book or something.

I was staying at my grandparents' roadside motel in the summertime, and I had an uncle Rob, who was five years older than my brother. So This guy was on top of the world. He had a '68 Camaro. He played the guitar very well. He had a dirt bike. I got into his room when he was out, and I found just a treasure trove of fire crackers. Oh, shit. I was like, this motherfucker has got a major power moment in here. Firepower. I was like, Oh, there's 60 of these. I'm going to steal one. Black cats. Then later, I was out in a field next to the motel, and I lit them off, and I was like, very scared and excited. Then I was here, They're loud, aren't they? Oh, fuck. I turned around. It was Uncle Rob, and he fucking called me red-handed. Just like the cool uncle you'd guess, he didn't mind too much. Yeah. He understood what was going on.

Other day, you told me you've never stolen.

I didn't say that.

Yes, you did. No. Yes, you did. No. Because then I said, Yeah, you tried to steal a... Parking meter.

Parking meter. Again, I did steal. Then I said, No, I did steal a parking meter.

Yeah, you said then I did. Then I tried to Rob 711. Then I did, but I put that in a different compartment because I was drunk. But now here we go.

It sounds like he was in his right mind when he stole these It does.

I was pretty hammered.

What is that?

That's a nicotine spray. You've certainly seen me use these on our yearly vacation. Yeah. I've got. What are you rocking? Zins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. You're a zin man. So stupid. What's a zin? A zin is like a little pouch of chemicals. It's like a skull bandit.

Except it's non-tobacco, or maybe skull bandits are non-tobacco. No, they're tobacco. Okay. These are non-tobacco. It's just nicotine.

Bandits are made in an atelier in Raleigh, Durham.

So are Zins.

They were made in- So are Zins, one by one.gorgeous.

Atelier in Terrehout, Indiana.

Very bespoke, very tisinal, and they fold each packet.

Bespoke, that's another one. That one doesn't bother me. Agents started using it describing different kinds of movies and shows.

By the way, that's a great source for trigger words is agents, because agents, like Silicon Valley Bros, there's a lexicon, and you got to stay abreast.

And political talking heads. There's always a new word cycling through. A few years ago, it was crossing the Rubicon. So and so is going to cross the Rubicon into...

That's so true.

You're so right. This cycle, it was something else, but yeah, it's annoying.

Okay, now I got to go all the way back because when I talked about your hair. Basically, we're getting into this era where the Faustian promise could be... We're nearing a technology that at eight, I could have injected myself with something, and my hair would have looked like that for the rest of my life. That's where I was going with that entire story. Yeah. The notion of freezing your face at 16 is interesting. I don't have a moral judgment on it quite yet. My face has gotten better over time.

That would have been a big mistake.

Mine, too. Is yours improved?

I think so. I look at photos of me when I was 30, and I'm like, What's going on? It might just be the way you perceive yourself. It's hard to gain perspective on that. I just saw the substance, which was super interesting. So interesting. So good. But remember when the kid in the doctor's office introduces her to the idea and that kid's perfect face?

Yeah, but creepy.

Very creepy. That's what I immediately think of when you say there'll be three different kinds of is, or if you have the power to just freeze your face, everyone starts morphing into a face like that. To me, that looks like a YouTube tutorial face. It's just weird, and it's this standard that people are looking at on social media.

It's hard to say what's better or worse. Is that better or worse than you and I thinking, you got to look like Brad Pitt, and there's no chemicals or I can't freeze my face.

There's nothing you can do.

No. I'm not sure if it's getting better or worse. Yeah. Okay, but my sci-fi fantasy is this. If we just think really quickly that your cells divide and they make perfect copies of themselves. There's this great mystery, how then does your body evolve and look differently? If it's making perfect mirror copies of each cell, what is this aging process? How are the cells changing? There's a lot of science that's getting close to figuring that out. Let's just say there is a future in which you take it and then that's it. You're arrested exactly where you're at. From now on, your cells will just duplicate as they should. That's an interesting sci-fi movie where everyone is 28. The wise elders are 28.

Everyone is immortal?

Probably unless they get hit by a car, unless some accident happens, their cells are just going to make perfect copies of themselves. That would be an interesting sci-fi movie where everyone's 30.

One guy's 130 and one guy's 30, but they look exactly the same.

It just makes me wonder, status-wise and how you treat people at a grocery store and all this weird stuff. If everyone was the same age, what would that do?

That would be really weird.

Also, it would make the first 30 years of your life or 28, whatever number everyone decides, you'd be living in a bubble because you have to protect yourself until you get to 28. So you don't get messed up or die before 20.

I did think of that as once you get the procedure, it'll heighten your fear of accidental death because you're not going to die of any diseases.

People would be so much more accident phobic. Also, there would probably be some celebration when you hit 30 or 28 or whatever it is.

I bet 27. That's when they always say you just start going downhill from there.

Is that right? Is that the peak?

I think that's when you peak.

Remember Looper, one of the great sci-fi movies of the last 20 years or so, Ryan Johnson? Yeah. They have that party when you close your loop and you know your death date. Is that what it was? They throw a party, and it's a really dark, weird thing. But that's the great thing about really good sci-fi is when you drop in and you see the customs of this new altered environment. When it's pulled off well, like in Looper, it's really mind bendy.

Yeah, that's the fun stuff to think about is not the actual big, juicy tech.

Cultural reverberations of these.

If a guy that's 130 is dating an actual 30-year-old woman, but they look the same. Do we throw out that whole thing we care about?

What are the apps that would be created to catch you up on what a 30-year-old is into? You're fucking 430.

What if... Okay, we got to get back to reality. But after this, No, but listen.

Dating a 430-year-old.

Although then it's like they're mature. Right. That's cool. I don't know.

What if... Okay, so these new meta glasses, they have a speaker right behind whatever the arms. I'm told that you It could be in China and you can have the AI be translating what someone's telling you in Mandarin, and you'll hear it in English. I think we're really close to the Star Trek. We're wearing glasses, Chinese guy is wearing glasses, and we're just communicating. So knowing that that's close. Now, what if back to the 300-year-old, let's call it a woman dating a 30-year-old man. That's safer. That's safer. We like that. Then the 30-year-old man goes, I loved this new show, Tabicowee Crossing.

It's a great show, both.

It is a good one. Then the woman in ear hears. I'm watching this new show, Dawson's Creek. The AI knows where this reference is going so they can communicate.

They can have the conversation.

Different references. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Sort of, but they're still living in the same world.

You'd be talking about Taylor Swift. Let's say you and I were on a date. You'd be talking about Taylor Swift and how great she is. But I'd be hearing Madonna so that I understood.

It's a cultural equivalent.

Translator, a cultural translator.

You can have the same emotional interaction and just be on the same level at all times. So all cultural references become the same, too. Yes. Everything evens out, so there are no obstacles anywhere.

No, it's just emotion. I'm conveying an emotion I have. That's right.

You say you like Riders of the Lost Dark, and I hear-Tron. Tron 3D. I mean, that just made me sound so much older than I intended.

But then, these aren't real relationships. You're just hearing what you want to hear. Because what if you didn't like Taylor Swift, objectively, and I'm talking about Taylor Swift, and you're hearing Madonna, something you do. It's just translating into what you like.

No, no, no. See, in my version of this cultural translator, you're saying Taylor Swift, and my equivalent of that was Madonna. Now, I actually feel about Madonna however I felt then. Maybe I thought she was, I don't think this. Well, I just think she was a stage show. She wasn't really an artist. Let's just say that's what I thought. We don't. That's not what I think.

None of us think that.

We don't want to say that.

I'm hearing you talk about someone who's a perfect comp, and then I feel the way about... And then I go, She's not for me. I don't want.

But your AI would be so attuned to you that it would know, if you say Taylor Swift, to perfectly translate that to maybe it's not Madonna, maybe it's Emmylou Harris. It's attuned to you and your taste. If the objective is to get along with this person you're talking to and create an emotional connection and get rid of any snags along the way, it'll just provide equilibrium for everything.

In your version, a liberal and Democrat are wearing the glasses, and the liberal goes, I'm so afraid the Earth is going to catch on fire, and the person hears, I'm so afraid of immigration.

Everyone's like, I know, I know. Totally. I totally agree.

Yes, I'm scared, too.

That's wild.

Okay, this actually brings me to a real question. First of all, and I told you this privately, so I'm not just fluffing your pillows now that we're in public.

Fluffing your pillows, I like that.

Not a really common colloquially. We go on this trip every year. It's the funnest trip of the year for us. Yes, so fun. Our friend Jimmy Kim will host all of us in the most generous possible capacity. The loveliest. There's a lot of things you could say were the bells and whistles of it, the location, the accommodations, the activities. But for me, it's dinner every night.

Yeah. It's a giant table. How long would you say this table is? Forty feet. Probably 50 people, 40 people, would you say?

Yeah, that feels right.

Everyone is terrific. Every year, there's additions and people can't make it and someone else arrives, and it's always just a fascinating group.

You can't miss, no matter who you're seated next to. I don't want to rank, it's not polite to rank, but if you and I get seated next to each other, I'm like, This is going to be the greatest three-hour dinner. You're the funnest person to talk to. I love talking to you.

That is so flattering. When you texted that to me, I immediately went and got Naomi and told her. Because my immediate reaction when finding a seat at that dinner is if I'm sitting across from you or next to you, I'm like, I really don't want Dax to feel like he has to talk to me.

Oh, my God. I'm trying to engineer getting seated across from you.

I love sitting with you, too, because you're an inherently interested person, and you're so fun to talk to. I've always felt that way about talking to you, even when we didn't really know each other that much. You can just drop in with you and talk about stuff, and you always have something to say. You telling me was a huge deal because I also feel comfortable sitting across from you or sitting next to you. Me too. Or sitting next to you. I'm immediately at ease.

Same. So much of our conversations, and this is where one of my questions comes in, we have a lot of nostalgic conversations. We have a lot of the same favorites from the '80s and '90s. We did, I don't know, 90 minutes on Against All Ods.

Oh, you had Jeff Bridges.

I did, and I brought up the car chase scene, and I asked how much of the driving he did. Questions only you and I would want to concert. Yeah.

If I'm wearing the glasses I just heard now and then, maybe.

That's a pretty good comp.

He talked about that being the first movie he started physically training for and how it created a lifetime interest in exercise.

That's so interesting. I was watching a behind-the-scenes thing on Temple of Doum, and they're like, Harrison really had to bulk up for this one. It shows him at a shitty gym just doing bench presses.

With those plastic weights filled with sand. Yeah, like nothing. He did some bench press. Not nothing.

He's definitely exercising, but gyms have changed a lot. There's no trainer there. He's just by himself.

No squats, no deadlifts. No, no, no. Just bench and some pearls.

And then a couple of beers.

A couple of beers and a doomy, and let's get to that. But I guess what I was wondering is, you have this deep nostalgia. I want an explanation for it, and I'm wondering, do you think we're just that way, or is there something about childhood that was so comforting? You would recognize you're more encyclopedic about that whole error than most people you talk to. You always blow me way out. Once we start talking, yeah, you've watched the behind the scenes of Temple of Noom, I have. Right.

In the last three months, I've gone and looked at that. It's so comforting to think about that era. I think movies in that era, in particular, were geared for us. When I reference Temple of Dawn, that is my favorite movie. Movie. I was 11 when that came out. That and Goonies and ET. I know it's tired now because our generation has beat the nostalgia to death a little bit. Back to the Future, those movies, at least for me, they meant everything. I ask myself that a lot. Why did this stuff mean so much to me? At least for me, that whole period of time from '82 to '88, when I started getting interested in beer and just social life. Hip hop. For me, it was like the dead.

Why do I think you had a crazy hip hop phase in high school? I didn't.

I think you're thinking of Macklemore.

Oh, I don't know if I am.

If I could count the amount of times.

You get that all the time. I know.

Oh, my God.

That's why we wanted to do this on video, to be honest with you.

To see if Macklemore and I... Because he's not here, so you don't know.

But is he? But I think people would think it was Macklemore posing as Adam, probably.

You're right. It's a particularly potent period of time.

Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.

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Jack, did you know there's a scientific explanation why humans crave that surprising combo of peanut butter and chocolate?

I didn't, but it sounds delicious. It is delicious. If you're looking to get inspired and creative this year, tune in to the best idea yet. You can find us on the WNDY app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're looking for more podcasts to help you start this year off right, check out New Year, New Mindset on the WNDYR app. Who knows? Your next great idea could be an accident that you burned. This is nick. And this is Jack.

We'll see you on the best idea yet. On January fifth, 2024, an Alaska Airlines door plug tore away mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of a plane that carried 171 passengers. This heart-stopping incident was just the latest in a string of crises surrounding the aviation manufacturing giant, Boeing. In the past decade, Boeing has been involved in a series of damning scandals and deadly crashes that have chipped away at its once sterling reputation. At the center of it all, the 737 max. The latest season of business wars, explores how Boeing, once the gold standard of aviation engineering, descend it into a nightmare of safety concerns and public mistrust. The decisions, denials, and devastating consequences bringing the Titan to its knees, and what, if anything, can save the company's reputation. Now, follow business wars on the WNDYRI app or wherever you get your podcast. Us. You can binge business wars, the unraveling of Boeing early and ad-free right now on WNDRI Plus. Okay, last thing I will say about this. Then I started watching this Brat Pack documentary.

Yes, that's another chapter of that same period of time. Those movies hit me so hard. Pretty in Pink.

Oh, my God. Oh my God, Pretty in Pink, and the psychedelic furs and how that was making you feel. But I was I was seeing the Brat Pack doc, and I was having the realization like, oh, we also lived in a very peculiar time where five of the biggest movie stars alive were 21 years old. I think of that now, and of course, that would seem crazy that there would be this cadre of enormous stars. But that was a unique thing that was happening when we were kids that we didn't know was unique. They were greenlighting like 12, 15 teen movies a year.

Right. From that period, they still don't look that young to me. I think it's because they were six years older than me or something, they looked- Sophisticated and adult.

Like Of course, they were driving a Porsche, dressed nice and had a big apartment.

And they were 21. Yeah.

Did you have that, Monica? Am I wrong about that? That's a unique aspect. You didn't have that when you were 12.

Oh, the 21-year-old?

Yeah, it was like a whole crop of movies every weekend.

Who would that have been?

Zack Aferon? A little bit before. I'm sorry. A little after. I'm not calling you a baby.

Yeah, I'm a big girl.

Harry Potter stars?

No, I was like the Friends era. They were young. I guess they were young, too. But yes, older than me. But I was going to say Nostalgia, I think, exists because it's the things that you consumed before everything got complicated. That's right. Also before you started wanting things for real, chasing things and deciding, I want to do this with my life. It was just pure. And there's only a very small amount of time you get in life of purity.

Totally. That window for us happened to be during this Spielberg era where Elliot in ET, in Indiana Jones, the Kids and Goonies, Michael J. Fox, and Back to the Future. These were heroes, Luke Skywalker.

Changing the World. Yeah.

They were all scrappy noodies.

Divorce was making its way into these movies, which I like.

Et is a very divorce-driven movie.

I was in a divorce family on my maybe second step dad, feeling like I want to just be in the world on my own a bit. All these kids, these protagonists these movies were just on their own.

The parents weren't figuring prominently into any of these things. No.

I think that was really appealing.

It sure was.

Yeah. Get them out of here and let me run the show a little bit. Let's see what we can do.

Because those kids in ET were just like, Yeah, okay, mom, and they were just going up on their bike.

But we're going to deal with this alien on our own. Yeah, dude.

We're going to outrun the cops.

When I went back to consult your previous episode, I would have not guessed this. What number do you think Adam was?

Early. I think really early, maybe 32.

Right. I would have gone 40s. What would you say? First five? Seventh. Stop.

Seventh guest that you had.

Yes.

I remember it being early, but I was taking a flyer by saying five.

Seven. Yes, not only seven, but Monica, as I listened to it, the episode starts with housekeeping, and it's me explaining. Monica is a part of the show. She's going to talk, and she's not interrupting. I read in comments that she's integral part of the show. It's me explaining.

Oh, boy. That's so funny. I just got like, sweating.

I got sweating there. I got sweaty listening to the whole thing. Oh, seven?

How long ago was that?

Seven years ago in February.

Congratulations, you guys.

But obviously, so much has happened since then.

Yeah, seven years.

What I learned in a bunch of interviews I listened to of you today, one was I heard you on fresh air saying, which I thought was really funny, that you were just obsessed singularly on TVs and movies, and that's all you thought about. I was thinking, if you go into acting, that was a great use of time. But if you're just an average person, this is not all I've ever thought about and obsessed about. It was TV and movies, somehow that sounds like a loser-y endeavor. Yeah. I was thinking, just by the fact that you landed in it means that it was totally justified and what a great thing to be focused on your whole life.

I think in the low points of trying to do this, that certainly crossed my mind. What have I done with my life? Because it's all I thought about and talked about and cared about.

It was 99% screen time.

Right. Here I am with nothing to show for it and no practical skills of any kind. There was a real low point in 2000 when I had not gotten 6 feet under. I tested for that with Michael C. Hall. Really? Thank God he got it because he was incredible, and I was not ready to do that.

That's heartbreaking. Then you're watching it.

That was a hefty role.

A hefty role and a hefty show.

Yeah. But you played his Lover, ultimately, didn't you?

Yeah, I did play his Boyfriend for a couple of episodes.

So they brought you back. That's nice.

Yeah, they did. But before it was even on TV and when I did not get the role, it was after a series of blows workwise, just not having worked in six months or one of those. We all went through it, and I was nowhere. I had been at it at that point for seven years or something, and was at square one. Because when you're living like guest spot to guest spot, and indie movie, you never hear from those people again.

To remind people, you and I were in one of those together. Hairvomiteer/toos smooth.

Toos smooth.

This was when you were vomiteer?

I was vomiteer, but do you know what his role was? I don't know if you knew your role the last time we talked.

Guy in Bar?

Fan at Bar. Fan at Bar. Almost worse than Guy at Bar because it's his status. It is way worse.

It's far more humiliating. Who were you?

Vomiteer at a party.

What does vomiteer mean?

Someone who vomits at a party.

Are you on camera vomiting?

Yeah, I think so. Oh, man. I hope so. That's what was promised.

I've never seen Too Smooth- You haven't seen it. Hairshirt. Have you seen it?

I've seen it. I don't want to get bogged on in that, but you want to know who else was in that movie that I doubt you know was in that? Rebecca Gayhart. Rebecca Gayhart, Neve Campbell, of course. Then our two leads, which I looked at the poster this morning, our poor two leads are in the deep, deep background. Yeah. And Neve and Rebecca are front and center. Oh, man. And they maybe had, I don't know, three scenes.

Neve was playing a big star.

Hence, you being a fan.

Fan at bar. At bar, yeah.

And me being vomiteer at party. That's right. Alfonso Crosne was in that movie. What?

I remember he and Dean were good buddies.

Yeah, he played a director in the movie.

That is so wild.

You and I have been in a film with Alfonso Crosn.

Absolutely. We are colleagues of Alfonso Caron, clearly. We are peers with Cron, Zócaron. That's really, really funny.

Obviously, since then, you have done a ton of stuff, but Severance is the most spectacular thing. Oh, thanks. As you know, because Chris and I sent you voicemails Almost after every episode, I'd like to play a couple of them. Please. Hey, so we're in bed and we just had a quick question. Hi, we just had a quick question. Are you guys fucking drawing this new season? Is that what's taking so long?

What in the God damn hell is taking so long?

These are the messages you would receive after every- You, son of a bitch. You wanted the compliments where here comes the fucking complaints. Belle and I just sat here on the edge of our seat waiting to find out what happens when you guys come to- You fucking prick. You piece of shit prick. And that goes for Ben, too. Losers. Oh, buddy. Are we fucking pissed that this episode just ended when the switches were thrown? So you wanted the fucking cake, and now you got to take the rat poison, too, you piece of shit. That's an average.

Was that for the finale?

It was, I think, one before the finale.

Oh, the one right before, yeah.

This ended up being three. Another thing. It's going to be a long fucking week for us and for you. Yeah, because we're waiting. So either block my number or get used to this shit. Fuck you. You piece of shit. Okay, and then the last one. Big update. You'd find funny. My wife just ran through a plate glass window off the second story of our home and was rushed to the hospital. You probably want to know if she's still alive. I will tell you next week.

I have all those on my phone as well.

I want to play one of your responses, which is so good.

You can't imagine how much pleasure it gives me to have the both of you over a barrel like this. I may as well tell you now that the entire season was created just to frustrate and destroy the both of you. Eat shit.

The guy was just so fucked.

Oh, yeah. Naomi popped in.

That's cute. But you went into Severance, and I learned this from you. I don't know if this is secret or not, but you were involved, and then maybe you weren't involved for a minute, and then you were involved. It doesn't start on the firmest footing, maybe, or I don't know what you go through before you end up there. But you go right at really what point the pandemic?

Well, we were scheduled to start the end of March, 2020, or beginning of April, something like that, and actually went and did a table read, March seventh or something, and then I was going to go home, get all my shit, and come out. At the table read, they passed Purel around. We were like, This pandemic thing is fucking... This is weird. Then as I was there, just for two days, shit was contracting in New York. I was like, Maybe I should go Lysol wipes for my room. Like, what's going on? Then I flew home, and then everything happened. We didn't start shooting till October. But even that- But that was early. It was fast. We were one of the only shows actually shooting. A lot of shows were doing this where you have a mask, a plastic thing in front of your face, and all that shit. For the actors, the only time we saw people's entire faces was when the camera was rolling. We would rehearse with all that stuff, and there was a special person with your own box to put your mask and all your equipment in.

Yeah.

Oh, my God. All that to say the isolation from each other and in general. Because I would wake up in my apartment, go down to the van that took me to set, that had a plastic sheet between me and the driver. Oh my God. Then go to my room where you weren't allowed to have anyone in your room. Suffice it to say, the only real human contact was after action. It fed into the I didn't notice that your mom had died as well right before, I guess it would have been that table read. Two days before the table read.

I think the most interesting part of this is, so then the memorial gets kicked all the way to December or something.

December of '21.

Okay, so very far away. But what immediately happens after she dies is you go into quarantine with your family, and it's groovy, right? You're with your family. I think in particularly a time like that where there's the loss of this person, but at least connected to the fact that the whole thing just carries on, and that's comforting and maybe misleading. Then you get completely by yourself in an apartment in New York in this very lonely situation already. I'm imagining everything must hit the fan at that point.

Yeah, it really did. It really was from the moment I walked into the apartment and closed the door, and it was dead silent, and I was like, Oh, okay. I need to come to terms with... At that point, she had died six months before. But like you said, I was cocooned with my family, with the people who love me the most, and was insulated, which is, I guess, one of the things love is for is to make you feel better. They suffered a loss as well. But obviously, I was the one who was going to be grappling with it in a a unique way from my kids in the I'm in that apartment, and I needed to find a way towards grieving and defining what this is and what happened. I really did it through the show. I mean, I just decided, I'm going to figure this out but the show is about grief.

I hate to say it was a good coincidence, but by God, if you have to go through this, the fact that you got to place someone who's grieving the loss of somebody in your loneliest fucking real life.

Yes. You don't have to act, really.

Yeah. Just gliding right into it and very directly letting it out and processing it in the show. There's a scene in the show, actually, where we were on the side of the road at the site of my wife's car accident in the seventh episode. And just by sheer coincidence, because we shot the whole season at once, it was on the one year anniversary of my mom dying. Oh, wow. And I didn't realize it till that day. And so there were things like that where I could pretty directly process.

When you shut the door to the apartment and you go, We got some dealing to do, are you overcome with fear for that process? What's your reaction to knowing that, Oh, we're going to go through some stuff now, and we're going to be by ourselves, and we're going to get into this.

I'm a person who tries to compartmentalize and push things to a later date. And so I busied myself with getting ready for the show, and the election was about to happen, and so I was preoccupied with that. I closed that door and was like, Oh, shit, and really felt the loss right there. There is a giant elephant in this room with me, but it'll be there. I'm here for eight months or whatever. Sure, we'll get to that. It'll be there. I'll be fine. Eventually, after a few weeks and just hours of alone time because no one was socializing, really, and restaurants. It was so weird that I really did have to figure it out there. And I didn't talk to a therapist while I was there, and I really should have. I did, in a way, come to terms with it and come to terms with the fact that grief is something that is a flat circle in one way or the other. It stays with you. Sometimes it feels like it happened 10 minutes ago, and sometimes it feels like it happened 50 years ago. And Sometimes it's surreal that that person is no longer in your life.

It's just unbelievable.

It's really hard to imagine someone exists and they don't. As dumb and simple as that is to say, it is so weird that you can exist and then not that exists.

Yeah. And someone that is so instrumental in who you are, this thing that I'm doing for a living. When she was gone, I realized that part of the reason I doing this in the first place was for her to see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know?

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

And so when that was gone, I was like, Who am I going to impress? Yeah. So I had to straighten that out and come to terms with the fact that these feelings and this love that you have for a person and their love for you doesn't go anywhere. It's still here.

It's what you're made of. Yeah. The structure of you is that. That's right.

And a parent dying, it's like part of the sky going away or something. It's a big thing.

Well, it's the thing you're most tethered to. Yeah. So when my dad died, I had these conflicting feelings of, A, he had become a dependent of mine.

You were taking care of him.

Supporting him. Unfortunately, a lot of our conversations over those last few years were like, I need It's just not a great dynamic. It's hard, yeah. Then I lived with my mom, primarily, my whole life. When he was dying, it was a lot of work for me. I had this conflicting... I felt a sense of relief when he died. I was like, Okay, this battle's over. We got him through it without too much carnage. That's a win. I had a misleading sense of relief for a few months. Then opened up the door to like, Oh, I'm never going to chat with him again, or he's not going to see anything I do. But Through all of that, I was like, also, thank God it's not my mom, because my mom for me is the thing you're talking about. Dax wants to live in the woods and fucking be violated drunk all day. Anything I've ever done positive was because my mom believed enough that I was a good boy and I needed to make her happy. I've often thought, if she's not around for me to even think, what would she think? That feels like a very scary place for me to be in.

I really rely on her to almost be my super ego.

Just like in the back of your head, your mom is this very unique station.

It's so fucking thankless. Do you watch Naomi and I watch Chris? Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, I'm walking around like, I know.

They're like, Dad! You know that nick Kroll special where he's just like, Mom's are annoying? Yes. They are. Why? It's so unfair.

Because they know you so well.

That's right.

In a way that no one else does. Not your dad, no one. They just know.

They were in your body.

Well, they're who you are. You were able to be scared in front of vulnerable. Yeah.

Even as an adult, something would happen. I would call her, no matter how embarrassing, you know that that call is there.

Yes. To your point, guaranteed, I'm feeling better when I get off the phone with my mom.

100%.

She'd somehow find the silver line in this horrific and give you the kernel of whatever it is.

At least for me, part of a son's journey, and I'm sure it's the same for no matter what gender you are, there is a period of time where you need to peel away and show that you don't need your mom. You've got this. You're good. You're a big boy now. Yeah, that's right. I already know anything you're going to say anyway, because I'm a grown up now. But thinking back on that stuff is painful, but I think also just being a parent now, you just know you don't care. No. Anytime my kids are shitty to me, ultimately, I don't really give a shit.

I almost think good for you.

Yeah.

Totally. Sometimes when they tell me off, I'm like, Good for you. You got some backbomb.

Yeah, not bad.

You're supposed to hate me from time to time. That's right.

It would be weird if you didn't roll your eyes and slam the door right now. Yes.

If you're lucky, you get two sources of unconditional love. Then when that starts going away, it's so scary. What's left? It is scary.

We have the great luxury and gift of, I think what you do with that is you just turn it on your kids. It's like, I don't have that thing. I miss that thing. I'm never going to have that thing, but I have this thing. Imagine when you don't have kids and you go through the loss of a parent. It's got to be really destabilizing because you're now not tethered to really anything.

I can't imagine. Monica, are both of your parents with us?

Yes, they are. I live with so much fear of something happening to them. I think part of it is that I don't really have a place to channel it. But in some ways, I think not that it's a cop-out, but like you said, in the pandemic, you could channel it with your family. We're all ultimately by ourselves, really. And so when you really sit with it, you are going to have to process it anyway. At some point. Yeah. And the kids aren't really going to be the answer to that. They probably don't deserve to be the answer to that.

They're going to bail like every other kid does.

My His son's in his senior year in high school, and that's going to happen in less than a year.

That's awful.

Oh, my God.

It's so awful.

Why? Why is life structured like this? It's crazy.

It's so wild. And you you were so kind to. He came over and interviewed you for his film class. Boy, oh, boy, was that a feather in his neck? Doing a little mini-dock on cars and Dax Sheppard's in his fucking- That's pretty cool. Showing off his car. He's smart and such a kind, lovely person and into really cool stuff. It's the best. But it's going to be incredibly sad when he fucking leaves. Oh, God, yeah.

Jesus. Well, yeah, you shut the door to an apartment in New York, and that had some justification. But the notion that you'll be shutting your door to your home when Franky leaves, you'll go, We're going to have to deal with this. Yeah.

Now we just have each other. Yes. Jesus.

Maybe they'll come back. My My brother went back home for a while. Really?

After college? Mm-hmm. Okay.

He just recently left.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You never know. Good for him. I was panicking for my mom because that's even worse. It's like, then you have a really long time. I think you probably trick yourself into this is forever. Great. He'll live here. This is just the way it's going to go. She gets to make sandwiches for him every day, and now he's really gone.

Did she have to go through the grieving all over again?

She went to YouTube instead.

She likes YouTube.

I think she still- You mean just watching YouTube.

She's dealt with a ton of shit, and she's figured it out.

Where do they live?

Georgia. Anyway, I was like, Oh, no. Also, she just lost her dad, and I was like, Oh, my God. My brother's leaving, and that's happening, and this is a disaster. But she's somewhere, right?

Well, you know what? When that happens, sometimes the second time they leave- Instead of this middle ground, maybe it's like, okay. I remember when I came back in between years at school, I had only been gone for eight months, and I remember moving back into mom's house, and she was a little like, huh? Okay, yeah, you're here now.

She had processed and transited.

She had already moved on. There was some adjusting to happen.

The baby boomers did it quicker. They knew how to get through something really fast. That's right. Okay, now back to Those are unique circumstance in which you were filming the first. And so here's what happened. As you know, it's my favorite show, Told You Nonstop. That's so good. We got six screeners for the upcoming season. Oh, you did. Which we were ecstatic Well, I came in and I lured these few things I get over because Kristen has access to everything in the world. I'm never offering something cool. I'm like, I guess who's got six episodes of next season? So, so excited. Sign in to watch them, and I go, Let's watch the recap. I wonder if you've done the same thing.

I had the same crisis of morality where I was like, I want to so bad, but I don't think I should. And mainly because I want to be watching it while the world is watching it. There's something about you being like, We have to wait a week. That makes it really fun.

It's fun. But that's not why I didn't watch the new ones. I watched the recap, and I was like, Hon, are you remembering this? She's like, not as much as normal. Kristin can really remember a TV show. Monica will tell you. It would come back from Game of Thrones, she still remember. She does a great memory for that. I was like, I'm inclined to start over, which I've done. I can't this enough to people. You should start right now in anticipation.

I'm doing the same thing because Ben and I are hosting a podcast.

Which I hope to be on.

Yes, where we go through every episode of the first season, then we'll be doing a weekly thing for season 2. I love that. And rewatching the show. I hadn't seen it in a long time, and it's been three years. So we're encouraging people to rewatch the whole season.

I can't believe how much I forgot about it, and I can't believe how much I'm enjoying rewatching. I think more than I've ever enjoyed watching it. There's a lot of it that feels like I'm watching it for the first time. Oh, that's great. I think because of the gap between seasons. Long time. But then also the density of it and the subtlety of it. It's interesting watching it, knowing more about it. I think you get more from it. But anyways, all that to say, I didn't watch any of the news season because now I'm on episode 4. Kristen went out of town. I already decided, Fuck her. I'm going on without her, which is another rare. I don't do that.

That's a tough decision to make, whether or not you're going to be honest about it or rewatch those episodes pretending it's the first time.

Yeah, three viewings before we-Yeah, that's right. I guess my fear, because I love the show so much, is what do you do with the second season? How long did that take for them to crack that? Also, Dan, is that the writer, the creator's his name? Yeah. The only thing he had ever written for before this was Lip Sync Battle. Yeah, man. Do you know this story? He wrote for Lip Sync Battle. He sent the Pilot for Severance as a writing sample to Red Hour.

Yeah, and Nikki Weinstock and Jackie Cohn at Red Hour read the script and thought it was great and brought it to Ben. So, yeah, it was more of a sample like, Hey, I'm a writer. But they were like, What about this as an actual thing? Dan was working at a door factory when that sample was sent to Red Hour. Oh, my God.

In what state? In California?

Here somewhere.

Good for us. We're manufacturing doors.

I thought that was more of a Wisconsin thing. Listen, without doors, What are you going to do? This city would collapse. He's just the coolest guy and brilliant, obviously. He and Ben just started working on this and developing it. Jackie and Nicki, I'm sure, Dan was scooped up from nowhere, having no real credits. It's fun talking to him about the show and where it can go and stuff, and he has it all in his head. Also, when he's thinking of something new, it's really fun to hear him go, Oh, yeah, that's cool. Then little cul-de-sacs and roads, he goes down. He always takes unexpected, strange direction. But also, as far as the language of Lumen, there is no one who can really crack it and write it. He can't. It's a really particular thing that he invented and has a real direct line to is the strange phrasing and nomenclature of human and cure and this whole world. It's really fun.

How much of Ben's finger print is on it directorially? Because, and I'll admit this, I had not seen Escape from Danamor, or I saw the first one. I don't know why it didn't continue, but we just watched it, I don't know, three weeks ago and fucking loved it.

It's amazing. I just rewatched it, too. Last week.

Did you see the parallels? Yes. It's a similar thing. You're trapped in a world. You don't have your autonomy. You're trying to escape. I don't know. It's interesting. Yes.

I really zeroed in on this time watching Dan Amora, how art figured into their lives. Because John Tutturo and Christopher Walkin's characters, particularly John, Irv, his life is really connected to art and the paintings and the rules and all of the culture of the world is really important to him. The guys in Dan Amora, Benicio Del Toro and Paul Dano's characters, when you have very little, your stimuli is really cut off, these things become really important.

In Severance, it almost seems dangerous. You're looking at all those hallways, they're stark white, they're meaningless, and then the painting that he hangs up, it's like the most exciting. It's like the fucking sphere in Vegas in that world.

Totally. When Christopher Walkin's delivering the new tote bags for the manual, that's a huge deal. It's an event.

Could you see all this stuff when you read the script?

Not like this. The tone of it was really found during the first season. I think, do you know, usually when you go back and watch the first season of any show that you know and love, the first few episodes, it's like, okay, they're figuring it out. Since we shot the season all at once, we were still shooting the first episode 10 months in. So something that worked in our favor is us finding our sea legs was spread out over the season.

There's no moment you can detect that.

That's to Ben and Dan's credit.

Were you guys worried? Were you like, maybe we should put masks on and maybe we should redo the COVID experience while we shoot season to keep the calm.

To keep our isolation.

Because that was magic, and that's scary.

It's scary going back to anything that worked or works.

As much love I have for the show as I have anxiety about how we perpetuate this world in a way that ends up being satisfying, logically. It's a big endeavor.

When we started season 2, it was like, there is this steep mountain in front of us. Holy shit. Okay, let's go.

She's doing Pulp Fiction, too.

Dude, yeah. And just the The enormity of it, it's so much to do. I love that. I love getting in and chipping away. I love working with Ben. Something we have in common is we don't want to stop until we get it right. I completely trust his taste and his eye. That's something that you have to have in a director is complete trust. How often is that? But I do with him.

I have no business saying this, evaluating his career in this way, but I'm going to. It's like, he did Tropic Thunder. He made that movie so big and glossy and actiony, which is cool. He showed he could do that. I was watching Dana Mor, and I was like, okay, so this is him saying, I don't have to fuck with comedy. I know exactly how to do drama. I feel like Severance is the beneficiary of him having proved he can do everything and now letting in some of the comedy and the weirdness. This, to me, just feels like the total synergy of all the previous work.

That's really interesting. It's interesting.

There's just a confidence. It can be anything because the show's often hysterical, I think, and it's just all things now. Yeah. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare. Okay, Walkin and Toturo. It doesn't sound like you got to bond with them in season one too much because you guys were in lockdown.

With Toturo, I did because we had so many scenes together. With Walkin, in season one, I didn't really have all that much time with him. I had a couple of scenes, and it was incredible to just be anywhere near Christopher Walkin. I couldn't fucking believe it. Yeah. Actually, on my first day shooting with both of them, it was like six weeks into the shoot, and they both were starting on the same day. And I was so excited and actually took a picture of the call sheet and sent it to my friend, stew. Was like, guess who I'm working with tomorrow, bro?

It's so fun to still be that excited. Oh, my God. That's great.

I was so excited, but couldn't get to sleep because I was so excited. Stayed up to four. Oh, boy. Woke up, not because of my alarm, but because of pounding on my door. I was supposed to get in the car at probably 6:00 AM, and it was 8:30.

Oh, no. Oh, my God. Two and a half hours sleep.

Set was an hour away.

Oh, no. Now it's rush hour.

My assistant was pounding on the door, which means he had time to drive from set all the way down to Tribeca and pound on my door. This was the first day with John Tutturo and Christopher Walker.

Oh, my God. Have You'd bragged to your buddy the night before.

Yes. Which is the kiss of death, right?

You're showing up feeling great about yourself.

Oh, my God. I led him in and was running around the apartment crying, trying to get all my together. Because usually I wake up with at least an hour of just time to drink coffee and read the fucking whatever.

Okay, so you finally show up on set. Presumably, you know these two legends who you can't wait to work with. They've been told, our lead actor, we can't find him.

I just had to go apologize.

What did you say?

I said, I am so sorry.

I just flew in from China.

The thing that really sucked about it is that I knew no matter what I say, it's going to sound like bullshit, no matter what I say.

Yeah, you're a guy who just slept in two and a half hours.

I now have put myself in a position where I have to earn it back with these two guys who I don't know. I've been working on this first impression now for a while, and I am starting at a serious deficit. Yeah, you're in a hole. No matter what I say, no matter how gracious they are, they're going to be like, Fucking dick. The number one on the call sheet ends up being an asshole.

I might have been tempted. I don't know if this manipulative is also just dead honest. I probably said to them, You're to blame. I was so excited to work with both of you that I couldn't go to sleep till 4:00 AM. That would have been a good move. Maybe burying some flattery. But also that might have sounded like, God, this guy's a pathological liar on top of being... This guy's a drug addict. Probably. That's what it is. They go, Oh.

Just immediately went to... Is that what you immediately think everyone is thinking about you as this guy's a drug addict? This guy relapsed. Totoro was just like, Oh, it happens everybody. It happened to me.

In the '70s. Yeah, right. I have so much curiosity about both those gentlemen. They're in a similar category for me where there's this group of actors where I'm like, they're so intrinsically interesting and unique and different that I almost can't believe they can also act. They're so genuinely authentic.

I can't believe that Christopher Walkin finishes work and then goes home and makes himself something to eat and watches television and goes to sleep. Yeah.

What? Or he's behind a guy at the parking garage arm who can't get his credit card to work, and he's just there for 12, 15 minutes. Should I get out and try to help him? Yeah. He's dealing with that stuff.

Christopher Walkin. No. To see him in the makeup chair looking at his phone, I'm like, Oh, my God. Yeah. Toturo is similar for me. I went to see his directorial debut opening night in '92, Mac. Anyway, I held all that back until I got to know him a little bit and then eventually unleashed it all on him.

And did he like it?

Yeah, he's the coolest and such a sweet. Who is he? He would be such a great person to have on. We're trying.

I love a fascinating guy and one of the great actors that we have.

I mean, he is a beautiful actor. That's another word I feel is overused. More so like 10 years ago, but beautiful. Everything's beautiful.

I like you describing him as beautiful, and I have often described that. That whole storyline on Severance, it's hard to imagine that show without it. I know. It's really the heart of the show.

It really is. It's beautiful.

It is fucking beautiful. It is. They're both beautiful. The way they play it is just impossibly perfect.

They're really close friends and have been for a long time, and it was John's idea to have Christopher walk and play that part. You can just see the love there that they have for each other. It was very special. He was really taking care of Chris on set. Not that he needs to be taken care of, but he would come in for a scene every few weeks. It was just so sweet and lovely. That's a rare thing to have someone who is that embedded in our consciousness.

I'm going to put you in that category, which is, I think, the most impressive thing about those two from the outside, not knowing them at all, is just going, Yeah, man, these two are still fucking starving to make art. They're still dying to express themselves. I don't have as much, sadly, but I see that you have that a ton. I think that'll be you as long as you want it to be you. That's very you to say. I'll close on this.

But you're doing that here.

I'm doing a different version, I guess. Yes.

We're all storytellers.

I mean, we're It should be a fire right here, you guys.

The last thing I'll close with is just an interesting conversation that we had this summer, and I've played it back in my head a few times to double-check. It didn't at all offend you, but we were talking about the people that recognize you. I don't know if you remember this conversation. There is an enthusiasm people have towards you that you have a hard time accepting, I think as we all do. But I was trying to explain to you why I understand it very much so in regards to you, which is I think you are for people what Nicolas Cage was for me, which is this guy isn't the high school quarterback. He He's one of us, and he did it. He got invited to the big party, and he's the star of the big show, and I see myself in him. I think that's a rad space to occupy. I don't know how you took that, but I know that's how people feel about you. That's how I feel about you. I'm like, Oh, yeah. The dude I was making jokes with in the classroom about the popular people, he somehow is there.

I keep thinking about Nicolas Cage walking out on that talk and doing those kicks. Oh, yeah. That's on Instagram all the time.

Have you gone down the full YouTube rabbit hole of his compilations of talk show appearances?

No, I should.

He's number one of all time. He's the best. I'm just going to tell you he's talking to Letterman about. He goes, Dave, I have this king cobra, it's Darryl or whatever his name is. I just love getting home from work, and I go over to see how Darryl is, and I put up the sheet, and Darryl just like, he looks at me, and he's saying high, and then all of a sudden, he just says, Fuck you, Nicolas Cage. He just starts screaming at Letterman. He's doing this cobra attacking the cage.

The fact that you thought he was attainable is Yeah, that's amazing.

I thought I could get that wild on TV.

I could see the direct line from Dax to Nicolas Cage. I'm sure Letterman loved that. Yes. Well, I'll say that that is so you to say, and I'll accept it just as much as I did this summer when you said it to me, which is not really at all, but I appreciate it, and you're kind and lovely to say so. I think that this show as a fan is so great, and it is where you're able to funnel and express yourself in a really direct, important way. I think you being so actualized and you journaling every morning is a really important thing. And the fact that there are as many people listening to this as there are hearing that healthy behavior from you, because listening to you talk about that makes me want to do it. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. And without being preachy or self-helpy about it, you're just talking about yourself and how you're living your life. And I think that that is incredibly important. And you're doing a lot of good just by sharing yourself in a more in the correct way than you would have been able to by acting.

You're really sharing your insides here, and that's really hard to do. I'm grateful that you're doing this.

Well, thank you, Adam.

I'm grateful that you're doing this, Monica. Thank you.

From episode 7 to episode 807, what a gap. 807? Yeah, 807. What a gap.807?807. That would be incredible. Rob, what would it be? Oh, damn.

8:39. Oh, my God. That's a lot of episodes.

I just don't want you to let 832 episodes go by between For sure.

The next visit. Wow, that's a lot.

All right, everybody see Severance. It comes out on Apple TV Plus on January 17th, and the podcast comes out on January seventh. Two episodes initially, and then weekly as the show unveils.

Two episodes initially, and then one episode per day until season 2 premieres on the 17th, and then season 2 will have one episode per week.

Okay, wonderful.

That's a complicated schedule.

I just got to say this new season, we also add Alia Shawcat, who we are obsessed with. Love her. Merritt Weaver, who I loved on Nurse Jackie. Gwendoline Christie, Brienne of Tarth. Oh, wow.

This is so exciting.

These casting choices are as good as it gets. Yeah. All right, that's all. I love you. Can't wait for our next chit chat. Thank you. Everyone, watch Severance.

Thank you, Monica.

He is an arm care expert, but he makes mistakes all the time. Thank God, Monica's here. She's going to let him have the facts. New shirt.

She's got to let them have the facts.New shirt.

Old shirt, new attitude.

Oh, boy. Oh, wow. I got a new- Who's Rockzen?Motorcross racer.

Was that Europe? Yeah, that's me. Okay. Did you take a little fall? I think it's almost a split.

Even though you haven't done them before, apparently, you can still do them. It's your New Year's resolution.

Great segue to talk about Don't Die, that doc, because he was working so tirelessly on his splits, which I guess he had identified as something that was youthful.

Yeah. Well, limber. Limber. You want to be limber and flexible. That's important. That's why people stretch and stuff.

Yeah. It's just such a specific goal, the split. I can see myself making one like that because a lot of my goals aren't totally logical.

Well, remember, it's Max's New Year's resolution. To do this flitz. Yeah, and you said, I don't think he can because if you don't learn by a certain time- I think there's an anatomic reality to all this, but maybe I'm wrong. Not according to Don't Die guy, Brian Johnson.

That's nice. You remembered his name.

I didn't think I had it, but I do.

For people who don't know, it's a doc about a guy who has sold an internet company and has some $400 million or something and is spending two and a half million dollars a year to reverse his aging and try to live as long as possible.

Yeah, he's doing it with this company where they have steps, and it's all in. It's wild. It's diet, the exercise. It's his whole life. It's just devoted to that. I didn't finish. Oh, you didn't finish? No. Okay. I got to a part that was a critical part of the story where I think it explains a lot of his backstory and perhaps what led him here. But then I stopped stopped, and then I forgot to pick it back up. And then I remembered we were probably going to talk about it, so I thought, Oh, I should finish it. But then I watched Conclave instead.

I did, too. Not in that order, but I did see Conclave last weekend, which is not the type of movie I'm going to run towards because it's the Catholic Church. Sure. But I'm going to get derailed by that. I'm a little bummed you didn't finish because, again, there's so many knee-jerk, immediate things you want to say about this. I was just waiting through those and trying to resist that urge. You're watching all these pundits who just... They have vitriol for this man, like hatred. They're so mad at this man for doing it, which who cares ultimately? It's his life. Yeah, he made this money. He can spend it any way he wants. If anything, he's dumping it right back into the economy, so maybe they should be delighted about that. But there's some obvious things. First and foremost, you're right. It appears, at least from the doc, that it's his entire day. The first question beg for me is, What's the point of being alive if the only thing you do while you're alive is try to stay alive?

Which I think is semi-relevant, but then also, no, that implies there's some quality quantitative way to measure how one's spending their time.

I'm choosing to spend my time one way. That would not be pleasurable for me to do it his way. For me, that would be a bad cost benefit. But for him, I think he's very very lonely.

The doc is sad and his- And sweet. And sweet. And his house looks like... A lab? It's so nice, but it looks empty.

And cold.

And cold. It's very modern. It's probably supposed to be cold because I think you're supposed to keep your body cold. Sure. And you probably shouldn't have too much color because maybe that's bad for your eyes or something.

I thought about him this morning. I was like, I am incredibly envious of his 30 days in a row of a 100 sleep to score?

Yeah. That is dialed. It is. But then for what? I know. Then the energy you're saving is used to just do the red light therapy. Get a better sleep. Yeah. However anyone wants to live their life, if it's not causing harm to somebody else, is fine. But I did think, spoiler, this is where I stopped, but I got some information that he was Norman. Oh, yeah.

You weren't really towards the end.

I think you're about halfway through. Yeah, that's probably right. He was raised Norman and had a Norman family family before he left the church.

Yes. His mom and dad got divorced, and the dad had his own struggles. He loved Coke, which made me like the dad right away. Sure. And was in jail. He was a drinker. He set up on all these fronts to need a lot of control in his life. This overlaps nicely with the Aaron Rodgers doc, which I keep bringing up, because he was raised in, by his account, a very, very constrictive dog pragmatic version of Christianity that he found very cumbersome, and you weren't allowed to question things and all the normal pushback. But there does seem to be a little bit of a pattern where people who are raised in that and escape it find their way back into another version of it, just missing the deity?

Yeah, of course. It's a discipline. You don't shed your personality that much. I mean, this is like such a dumb antidote. But when I was home, my brother is always sick at the holidays, and he was staying at the house, and he came downstairs, and he was like, I feel that thing in my throat where I'm definitely about to be sick. And we were like, and I was like, Maybe not. Maybe it's just a little scratch. You're probably fine. And then he was like, well, I know. I know what this feeling is. And then he went, Whatever. The next morning, I came downstairs and I asked my mom, is he sick? And she was like, you know if he was sick. And I was like, what do you mean? And she was just saying, he's just very vocal when he's sick. He talks a lot about it. He needs a lot. And she said, You have never been like that. You just went to sleep always since you were little. If you were sick, you just went away and just went to sleep. And I was like, I guess I still do that when I'm sick.

And she was like, Yeah, people don't change that much.

Yeah, right.

A mom can see from day one till whatever. You could do fast math if you wanted.

365 times 36. That's a biggie.

37.

37. 13, 3,505.

Thank you.

That's it? No, it's more than that. 365 times 37? There's only what? 13,505.

That seems like. It's not that many.

I did it in my head, so I might be wrong. I did it in my head. That's something Aaron Rodgers can do, insane amounts of math in his head. Oh, whoa. Yeah. His one kink is he can square anything real-time. You can throw him any number and he can square it, which is cool. That is cool. But at any rate, he has a very militant and somewhat applaud, and I have no actual opinion on it, but he's in a five-day, silent room with no light. He's on an ayahuasca trip every for a few months. I didn't know that. If he's not playing football, he is pursuing the spiritual path he's on, but with a veracity that just feels very still religious. Then I, of course, I'm like, Yeah, I don't believe there's a guy in the sky. I understand why you're rejecting that. But then there's also a lot of angles of this ayahuasca thing because you get to see him practice it a lot where it's... To me, it's just as you got to play drums and do the whole thing and the incense. I'm Or you're just out on another ledge.

Yeah, and it has similar things, rituals and all of the same things that religion has.

Yeah, I guess you really just... Community is the religion. Community is the superpower, the magic power, the deity. I do think when people get together and they agree on something and practice in a way, it's whatever. Yeah. So he's back to the dude. So yes, he was raised Muslim, and so in some ways, he brings that same diligence work ethic to this pursuit. But what gets really sweet and sad about it is he's very, very lonely. He had this really bad experience with this one woman after he had been divorced who he broke up with when she had cancer. She sued him and said he should support her forever because he's rich. I'm like, you don't get a severance package when you date someone. It's just not... Even the person is rich, that's not how dating works. You're not You don't get a severance package.

You're not owed.

Yeah. The guy very publicly got sued by this woman. Of course, people just, because he's rich, he's the oppressor and she's the oppressed. Forget the other stuff.

But also because she had cancer. That's the That's tricky. I think for anyone to hear that is a little like, you left during that?

Well, again, you assume they left because the person had cancer.

Well, no. But the problem is when you leave someone in their time of need, regardless of how bad they are personality, I mean, this just gets complicated. It's a bad look.

It's a bad look. But you can't imagine you've been with someone for a year. You're already on the verge of breaking up, and then they get a cancer diagnosis. You're just like, I was already out. There's no way I have the capacity to now care for you for two years when I was already not wanting to be with you. I don't know. Anyways, let's not get him up. He's lonely and he has this boy, and his son and him are so close. His son also had left the religion, so he's dealing with the same. They can relate on that. The kid's going to go to college. You can tell he's really, really scared about losing his buddy. All that's really touching. By the end, I liked the guy, I guess is what I'm saying. That's nice. Yeah. He does have a company that's helping him, but he also he's going down to this little... There's a smidgen. It's called Opportunity Land or something down in Honduras. They've carved out this little prosparia, I think it's called. Jeez. The government granted this little area on a peninsula, and basically, total free market everything. You don't have...

There's no FDA, so there's a lot of experimental medicine happening down there. There's a lot of crypto-y weird financial stuff happening. It's just It's a free-for-all. It's a free-for-all. Wow. He goes down there and he gets this gene therapy, which is just not allowed anywhere but prosparia. It's like he has got a company in a pro-call, but he also- He's going rogue a little. He goes rogue. When you enter a path like this, I don't know if you can help but go rogue. Because I'm on the ladder somewhere. We all are. I'm doing things with the goal of living a long time to see my grandkids, and I'm doing a lot more things than other people do. And they likely think I'm spending too much time doing that or whatever. Yeah, maybe. For me, it feels completely normal, and it's not taking over my life.

Yeah. Again, I think whatever people are doing for themselves to get through life, if it's not hurting people is fine. And they're not hurting anyone at all. I think people, maybe rightly so, maybe not. I don't know. It's a scale of luxury, right? This guy gets to because of his work, he He did this thing, and he made this money.

Got divorced over, worked nonstop.

Because of that, he has the luxury to devote his life to living forever. And I think for a lot of people who watch that, they might say, Oh, that's crazy. Crazy, but there's probably an element of, well, why does he get to devote his time to living forever? And I don't. I have grandkids, or I want to live to see my grandkids, and I have to work a nine to five. I could never do that. There's just It just gets hard.

I would like to do something very self-serving, but I don't really know how else to get the message out. I desperately need a tattoo artist in LA. I don't want to fly anywhere. I don't want anyone to have to fly here. I want a good tattoo artist who is open to, this is a total transaction, going in and altering all of my tattoos enough that it is now an original piece of work, and then sign me over the rights to that, and I will pay for that so that I own my art and can go short sleeve in commercials again. Got it. Is someone experiencing cover-ups? Okay. That's a good way of saying it. Experiencing cover-ups. Yeah, if you could hit me in the comments of this episode and I'll find you. But I definitely need to sit down and have someone go through and alter every single thing so I can have my arm back. That was self-serving, but I've been meaning to... I don't know how else to solve that. Yeah. Great. Okay. Anything else? Any appeals to the audience you want to put out there? Are you looking for any specialists in any categories?

No. No. Conclave. What a movie.

Conclave was great. Please see it. I think it's a hard sell just based on the genre. It's a Pope movie, It's really not. It's about the process of electing.

Is that even the word they use? Veting, electing.

A Pope. It's so much more complicated and human. It's so human at the end of the day, even though it's supposed to be godly and above us. It's not. It's people making these decisions. There's ambition, empower.

The things I liked right away is they are encased in traditions down to the tiniest things. The way it starts and the way you take the ring off the Pope, and there's a device that already exists. You put the ring in this thing, you chisel off this one piece, and that instrument exists. And then the wax press. Every single thing has a way of doing it and an order to it and all these little devices that go along with it. I think to add and credence to the whole thing. I mean, I think it's very calculated. But there's something I loved about watching all these little weird customs that go along with this whole process.

It's really good.

Shout out to Tucci.

He was phenomenal. Stanley Tucci He was in it. Love him so much. Double Rays Prada, friend of the pod. Yes.

Ray Fines is good, too.

Oh, my God. He's so good.

Can you explain to me why Ralph Fines is Ray Fines? That still is a big mystery to me.

I'm just not sure.

Okay, but his name is R-A-L-P-H, Fines. And you pronounced that Ray Fines. Yeah. That's a huge mystery to me.

Yeah. I guess maybe his parents made that up. I don't know. Because his brother, Joseph- His brother, I think, is Ralph Fines, spelled R-A-Y.

It's apparently a UK tradition. Is it? He pronounced Ralph as Ralph.

Ralph.

Ralph. Strange. Strange English quirk where something is pronounced entirely different than how it's spelled.

Well, His brother, the actor Joseph Fines, he doesn't have a fun one like that. He doesn't get to go by Zoe.

Right.

People do sacrifice a lot for what they believe to be bigger than them. Not everyone does, but a lot of people do.

I'm a little more cynical. I think a lot of people try to do it, and then there's just cracks everywhere in pursuit of that.

Sure. Yeah, that's probably true. Again, it's back to the don't die. I think that's fine. That's decision. I actually think it's a fairly noble one, whether it's possible or not. I think the pursuit is fine.

Can I ask what's noble about it? Why is it good to not have had sex with a woman?

That's not it. It's giving up your life to the service of something else.

Got it.

Not having sex part is a piece of that that they've decided that I didn't grow up in that, so I can't speak to it. But they, whatever, have their own reasons for it.

It's a weird one to pick.

Speaking of giving up your life for your sacrificing, I remembered during the fires, they're still happening, but they're getting more and more contained, which is really good. My hot professor, he was a firefighter before he was a professor. Oh, he was? Yes. It just occurred to me when I was walking and I was like, Oh, yeah.

Of course. Of course. God, he had it all.

I know.

He had the brains. He had the brawn and the firefighting skills.

He had it all.

By the time this airs, I'll have gone to see the lions play, which I'm so excited about.

Oh, that's great.

Oh, yeah.

Is it a playoff game? Yeah.

They had a bye week, so they got to sit up the first round of the playoffs, and now we commence.

That's very exciting.

They're going to play the Washington Commanders? Commanders, yeah. Okay. Were they not... So they were the Washington and Redskins. Correct. Which is a no-no for obvious reasons, so they got rid of that name. But weren't they, for several years, Rob, just called Washington Football Team? Yeah, a lot of sports. There's a hockey team like that right out to. That's just the hockey team.

Oh, that's cool.

They take a little while to name and brand everything.

So there's two or three seasons occasionally where they're not a real team yet. It's just so funny. Are you going to go to the Washington Washington football team game?

Doesn't have a great ring to it.

There's a Utah Hockey Club right now. The Utah Hockey Club. That sounds so Triple A. It sounds really far down. It doesn't sound like NHL.

Yeah, that's true.

Hockey Club. Hockey Friends. I've employed hockey friends.

Well, that's very exciting.

Yes. I'm taking my boyfriend, Aaron.

Fun. Oh, that'll be great.

We also get to be on the field during warmup and stuff. Oh, cool. Yeah. That's very Oh, I'm very excited.

You're going to be like the McConahe?

I mean, A, I don't deserve to be the McConaher. Nobody can be the McConaher. But of course, I would love to be the McConaher. Sure. And I haven't earned to be the McConahe. Mcconahe has not missed Longhorn's game, I think in 30 years. He has left vacations. You know that incredible story I told that Kutcher told me that he heard him partying very late at night in the Bahamas at 4:00 in the morning. Then when he woke up at 9:00 and turned on the football game, Mekani was magically standing on the field in Austin.

Yeah, he knows how to teleport. He's the only one.

I don't even deserve that. I'm also wondering if I'll bump into other Detroiters. Will I see Sam Richardson? Will I see any of these folks. That's very fun. Will I see M&M, who I've never met.

If they go to the Super Bowl, are you going to go? No. Where is the Super Bowl?

New Orleans. New Orleans. New Orleans at the Caesar's Superdome.

You've been to the Super Bowl.

I've been twice for work. I went once for Ellen and once to promote chips. As I said, it's the only two times in my life I've been nervous somewhere. I just don't like what targeted. I don't know. I just start ruminating. Then I enjoy the Super Bowl so much being at home and eating the snacks and being able to actually follow the game. This was even a decision when I was like, do I go to one of the early playoff games or God willing, they'll go all the way. Do I go to a later one? And I was like, no, as it's getting more and more intense, I actually need to be at my house watching play by play with a closeup and hearing the calls and all this stuff because I can't follow things all that well in person. I'm not great at that.

I'm a little distracted. I feel like football is a newer interest, and that's fun.

Yeah, that's not my sport. I'll watch two or three games throughout the year, tops. But I do generally watch the playoffs because I want to be very excited about the Super Bowl because I love the Super Bowl just as a holiday. Yeah. And I feel like I can amplify it if I actually know the stakes and who went through what to get there.

Yeah.

So I generally will start watching it, maybe the second round of the playoffs. But the Detroit thing adds a whole new thing. I watched a ton of Detroit games. I put it as a season pass, and I actually watched all the games.

I know. I think it's fun to have a new interest as we get older.

For sure. Yeah, I think you got to fight the inclination to stop being interested in anything. I think that's the natural arc of life. We just get interested in less and less things. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare. Have you seen the coach Dan Campbell? Uh-uh. Dan Campbell is bigger than all of the players. He is an enormous... He's an ex-player. Oh, cool. And he just has an enormous head and neck and shoulders. It's really encouraging for your leader to look bigger than the players.

Yeah.

Like, yet at any moment, he might pad up.

I like a coach that knows the game. Takes the walk. Personally. Like at Waffle House, when they have to work at a Waffle House in order to be the CEO.

Oh, they do? Yeah. They have to serve some time. Yeah.

Do all the jobs.

Break up a couple of thousand fights at 2:00 AM.

Exactly. Okay, JJ Redick, the Lakers coach, isn't he?

We're putting Rob to the test. You know the funny thing is Rob knows fantasy football. Is that fair to say, Rob? Yeah. He doesn't have any coach on his roster in fantasy, so there's no reason for him not.

I still expect you to know all of it.

I did win Charlie's League this season. You had Gibbs, though, right? Yeah, I had Gibbs and a lot of bangles players. So the running back right now for the Detroit Lions is absolutely insanely talented. And he got four touch downs in the Viking Games, which was a Lion's record. I mean, he is young, very tiny, and unstable.

That's awesome. Okay, I'm right not JJ Redick. He's the head coach of the Lakers. And this is a sad thing, but I didn't know that. And he popped up on my Instagram because he lost his home. But I was looking at him and I was like, This is the coach? He looks so young.

Okay. This is now the age bracket you've entered.

Yes. Now I'm at this point where I'm like, What is going on? But he is 40, which is better. I thought he was younger than me when I saw and I got very unnerved.

I think you can measure your age in this very predictable way where it's like, for a long, long time, all the players are older than you. Then you have a moment in your early 30s where you go, Oh, jeez, I'm older than all the professional athletes, and that's startling. But then you still have the coaches. Now, I am at the age, Monica, where I am older than quite a few of the NFL coaches, which seems impossible. Growing up, those were all old, old men.

Is part of it also that they are hiring younger?

I think they are.

They are. Okay.

Speaking of age, because we were really trying to figure it out while we were watching it. Nate and I had an impromptu dinner last night at Morton's our home base. He was saying how much he liked watching the clips of Brolin and just how masculine Brolin is. We just kept talking about, Could there be anyone more masculine? Then we were talking about no country for old men. Then I was like, We got to watch that shit. We still watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood together. Then I just had this moment of recklessness, and I go, Should we go right now and watch No Country on a school night? Wow. We did. We came back here, and we watched No Country Men last night. That's fun. Sleepover? Damn near. He left at 11:30 at night on a weekday night. But Brogan is 38 in that movie. But he carries himself like he's a little over 40, we concluded.

Okay.

He looks like a man that's been around for a while. And then Javier Bardem. Love him. What a performance. I mean, he won the Academy Award for it. That was in 2007? 2007. That's so long ago. It's so long ago. Woody Harrelson is very young in it. Brolin's 38. Great movie. Very unsatisfying ending, but great movie.

I am accumulating a list of rewatches. I would like to rewatch Minority Report.

Interesting. Tom Cruise and Spielberg?

Yeah. I'm going to watch it tonight. I need to remember to watch it tonight. Well, this is where we're talking about movies because Adam Scott loves movies.

He's a movie file.

A cinophile.

A cinephile, yeah.

Also, we talked about words that have entered the zeitgeist that people, atelier, things people are saying too much, really. There's a new one. Oh, there is. Yeah, I learned. I learned that elevated is out. People say elevated a lot. It's this, but elevated- It's high-end. It means high-end.

Yeah, but- No one says that now?

No, we're not. People say it too much.

I was thinking you were saying it was canceled, and I couldn't wait to hear the connective tissue between elevated and It's like atelier.

It's like everyone's just saying it.

But I don't think... So elevated is already a little pedestrian, though. What do you mean? It's not foreign, elevator, elevated. Atelier and artisanal, those have the appeal of being foreign and very exclusive.

We were just talking in general about words that are just overused. He even said beautiful when people are like, Oh, that's so beautiful. He's using beautiful a ton. Yeah. Elevate. I learned somebody said they were so annoyed by that word, and I was like, I do hear it a lot.

My trigger isn't... Did I already say about glimmer? Glimmer? That was the thing that came up in comments a while back. We were saying there should be a positive version of triggered. And a lot of people wrote, Oh, there is a term for it, and it's glimmer. It's when you're activated. If you're triggered, you're activated by a word in a negative way, generally. But a glimmer is something that activates you, but in a very positive way. Because some fact checks ago, I was talking about being triggered in a really good way. But I was like, the word feels wrong. And then I learned there is a term, and it's glimmer, glimmered, and I like that. But my specific trigger about atelier and- Artisanal. Artisanal is it feels elitist. It feels like it's someone trying really hard to sound super sophisticated. That's my trigger. It reeks to me of being a snob, whereas elevated doesn't do that for me. Sure. I get it.

I get that. But ironically, they're not trying to be a snob. They're trying to be elevated.

Sure. Which is a little bit of snobbery.

All right. Where's Skull manufactured? Raleigh Durham. Its corporate headquarters are located in Richmond, Virginia, and it maintains factories in Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, Franklin Park, Illinois, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Copenhagen and Skoll are the company's best-selling brands, and each represents more than one billion per year in retail sales.

This is a little bit tempting for me to get back on chewing tobacco. The notion that I could be getting it fresh off the line in Nashville is very tempting. Fresh, minutes old.

You could get it minutes old.

Brings me back to the time we put the roof on the Hot Dog and Hamburger bun factory in Detroit, and we got to have Hot Dog buns that came right out of the conveyor belt, and they were one of the most delicious things I've ever had in my life. You can't imagine how good they are a second after they're made.

Are they? Yes. But it's so hard to know what's mental. It's really hard to know.

I guess. But then you're getting into placebo effect. Sure. Which is real.

Yeah. Remember when we went to the Hawaiian Sweet Roll. Hawaiian Sweet Roll factory.

Yeah, King's Hawaiian Sweet. We got them straight off the bell. What do you think? How did those taste?

Of course, they taste amazing. But I also know what I don't know, and I can't know if that's placebo or not. I mean, hot. One is just that it's hot.

But it's not even set yet. The molecules haven't even totally formed. The thing that also made that King's Hawaiian Sweetbread factory tour so awesome is that at this tasting station where we were eating them right off the conveyor belt, there was a block of butter the size of that refrigerator. I've never seen a block of butter that big in my life. It must be what they dump into the mix. And we just had these fucking spades that we were just carving off huge chunks of butter and slathering it all over.

You know, butter sculptures are a thing now? No. Yeah. People are getting into butter sculptures. Oh, No. So they should use that big butter and make it into some- Yes.

A branded- Chisel away every part that's not David.

Okay. Now, is 27 the age you start going down Hill between 25 and 30? Physically. Physical peak. Physically. Physical peak between 25 and 30. That's not to say you shouldn't keep working on your exercise and your physique. As you said, you've never been in better shape.

Yes, I think I'm superior to my 27-year-old. Yeah. Four 711 Chilly dogs a day and a twelve pack of beer at night and a pack and a half of Camel lights.

But I guess in some ways, you were at your physical peak because now if you did all that you'd die.

This morning when journaling, I'm like, What is going on? I couldn't sleep for longer an hour last night. I woke up with a headache and my body's so sore. I'm like, What? Nothing happened to me. Sprinting is not helping for sure.

Yeah, and the air is bad. I mean, we all have headaches.

I'll leave this to you to decide if this is too gross for the fact check. It likely is. But at the same time, I am proud as a peacock about this. As you know, and maybe I've shared in the past, A weird hobby of mine is I do like to weigh myself in the morning right before I go evac because I'm curious.

You want to see.

I want to know how much that weighs. Yeah. I have been doing that for a year or two.

What's the biggest It's never above a pound and a half.

There are times I look and I go, Well, buckle up. This is okay. Never been more than a pound and a half. I swear to God, this was four mornings ago, three mornings ago. I couldn't even finish journaling. I had to go EVAC, and I didn't have a couple of good days prior to that.

Oh, okay.

The first round was robust. Then I was doing some posting. Then round, round, round, round, round So back and forth, or you were just sitting?

I just stayed.

I'm in there for probably 30 plus.

I just read, that's really, really bad.

People hate that. They're convinced I'm going to get hemorrhoids. Which you've had. And they can have a good laugh if I get them. But I haven't.

I thought you've had them.

No, never had a hemorrhid. Thank goodness.

You just had an anal fissure. Anal fissure, yeah.

I wouldn't believe this if someone told it to me. I got on the scale. I was 197.8. I was on there for a half hour. It's not going to be an experience I never had in my life. Got on 193.8. No.

Yes. Is part of it water, though?

No, because I'd already peed a bunch.

But did you have diarrhea?

But barely a little pee came out.

Was there diarrhea?

What do we call diarrhea? It was It wasn't water. It wasn't water, but it was mud.

Then there's water in there.

Whatever the case. Okay. I 3Xed my previous. I thought about that every 20 minutes the whole rest of the day.

Yeah.

It's hard to compute. 4 pounds. At your body weight, that's almost 5% of your total mass in 30 minutes. I've never had an experience like that.

That is a lot. It was wild. Did you feel much lighter after?

I felt so much better. I had woke up that morning cranky, headachey, body achy, got all the poison out. Yeah, I felt good. Then I did my sprints that day.

Were you much faster?

There's no way for me to know. I just run as fast as I can. I'm just clicking my clicker.

John Turturo, he said, Mac, first movie, 1992. Now, in the Wondering Plus, I said he was wrong, and he's not wrong.

Oh, interesting. This is really speaks to how hard it is to get facts right.

No, I actually think if we go back. So I said, he's right. Mac, 1992. Oh, wait, he's wrong. I read the same thing I'm reading, but I think my brain definitely wasn't working that day. But I was like, no, it's Illuminata, 1998. I think in my head, 1998 was before 1992.

Okay, but six years after.

But actually after. Upon reflection.

Yeah. Okay. So he's right.

He's right. Mac, 1992, first film he directed.

I'm not surprised he's right, not because I think you're prone to be wrong, but just He is such a steel trap with these.

I agree. I was surprised that he was wrong, and turns out we didn't need to be surprised because he was right. What's the name of Nicolas Cage's King Cobra? He has two, Shiba and Moby. Great names. They're really good names for a King Cobra.

Yeah. I already can't compute. Let's get some of the animals that live outside to live inside our house. Although, I caveat to that. There are three birds that, going on now four months, it used to drive me a little crazy because I'll be in bed journaling, I hear this wapping on the window. Yeah, sure. They flay out of the tree, and then they try to sit on a little piece of the window. There's a little green guy. He's a little guy. He's about this big, and he's green, and he sits there, and he packs at the window, and he flaps his wings. Then he goes back in the bush, then he comes back out. Then we have these two larger birds with a big red crest and long tail feathers. They are also on And there's something about this window under the bathroom, and I can't decide if they want to come in or they're just curious or they're confused. I don't know what's going on, but we have a veritable aviary just outside the window now.

That's exciting. Are you putting out food and stuff?

No, I was laughing at that. The amount of effort I put into getting crows to woo crows to no avail, and I'm doing nothing for these three birds, and they want to get involved.

It's a life lesson, hard to get. Way hard to get, yeah. No one wants availability. They don't.

No.

Jesus. All right.

That's it. That's everything.

Yep, that's it for Adam.

Well, I sure do love that boy.

What a lovely man.

He is. He is the loveliest man. I'm just delighted I got to meet him.

We're sorry that the crickets came in the middle of his sweet moment.

Was it audible in the car?

I didn't hear it. But if you heard it, we apologize. All right. All right. Love you. Love you.

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