Trash Tuesday w/ Esther Povitsky & Khalyla Kuhn - Soul (Boom) Searching w/ Rainn Wilson

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

The delightful Rainn Wilson comes into the stu & everything suddenly feels like it’s going to be OK. He regails us with past stories about life, love & a horrifying testical surgery to keep ...things on brand. Rainn tells us why he prefers Gen Z over Millennials, thoughts on the new Office Reboot (CLIP) and why everyone should cuddle a donkey.  THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: *DRAFTKINGS - New players, start playing with just FIVE BUCKS and get ONE HUNDRED BACK INSTANTLY in Casino Credits. Download the app and use code TRASHTUESDAY to book your one-way ticket to fun with DraftKings Casino! The crown is yours. More Rainn Wilson Soul Boom YouTube: ‪@SoulBoom‬  Instagram:   / rainnwilson     00:00 Welcome Rainn Wilson to Trash Tuesday! 01:00 Rainn Wilson is Here & Talks About The Office! 04:00 Rainn Understands Trash Tuesday is Not High Brow 05:00 Rainn’s Sweet Farm & Sweet Animals  10:30 Rainn Wilson’s Testicical Surgery (in Detail)  15:00 Rainn & His Wife Growing Together, Not Apart 25:00 Is There Something to be Said for Just Accepting Life? 36:00 Khalyla Tells Dwight Schrute about Her Murderous Uncle(s) 42:00 Rainn & The Midwest 45:00 We Discuss Malls  50:00 Rainn Wilson’s Feelngs About Millennials  57:30 Maybe We Should Be Watching & Learning from Gen Z FOLLOW US: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itstrashtuesday Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itstrashtuesday   Listen to Trash: Trash Tuesday Podcast iTunes Audio Feed: https://bit.ly/TrashTuesdayPod Trash Tuesday Podcast Spotify Audio Feed: https://bit.ly/TTPodAudio   More Esther: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@esthermonster Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esthermonster More Khalyla:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khalamityk Tigerbelly Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@TigerBelly   Production: Stella Young: https://www.instagram.com/estellayoung Tiny Legends, LLC: https://www.instagram.com/tinylegends.prod   Shot and Edited By:  Guy Robinson: https://www.instagram.com/grobfps Sean Wanless: https://www.instagram.com/soundandshutter   Art Direction and Social Media: Ariel Moreno: https://www.instagram.com/jade.rabbit.cce   Branding & Music: Branding & Logo: https://www.instagram.com/jason_cryer Theme Song: https://www.instagram.com/bobbyleelive Banana Break Song by: Can Nguyen: https://www.candyedits.com

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 After years of fine print contracts and getting ripped off by overpriced wireless providers, if we've learned anything, it's that there's always a catch. So when I heard that for a limited time all Mint Mobile wireless plans are $15 a month when you purchase a three-month plan, I thought, where's the catch? But after talking to them, it all made sense. There isn't one. Mint Mobile's secret sauce is that they sell wireless services online. They don't have retail stores or salespeople. Instead, they deliver premium phone plans directly to you. As you guys know, our friend Rick Glassman, he uses Mint Mobile. I learned about Mint Mobile through George Kimmel.
Starting point is 00:00:33 George is a busy guy. He takes the most business calls. And the fact that not a single call is ever dropped. And you can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all of your existing contacts. Say goodbye to your overpriced wireless plans. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with plans starting at $15 a month. And all plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. That is such a steal. To get this new customer
Starting point is 00:00:58 offer and your new three-month unlimited wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.com slash Tuesday. That's mintmobile.com slash Tuesday. Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month at mintmobile.com slash Tuesday. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on first three month plan only. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply statement mobile for details it's fine it's trash tuesday we can talk about whatever we want you want to talk about like i want to talk about cysts or noodles or yes that that i know whatever you know we'll get we'll get to the cysts but i wanted to ask you about your animals because i'm really i'm kind of we can talk about my ball operation. Oh yeah, let's talk about your ball operation. Say more. Today's guest is the host of the Soul Boom podcast, the writer of the Soul Boom book.
Starting point is 00:01:54 And you may know him from The Office and many other hilarious TV and film projects. We welcome Rainn Wilson. I feel welcome. I feel welcome. Do you have any hot thoughts on the Office reboot? Yeah, I do, and this is what you're gonna clip. And this will get like 17 million views because I'm talking about the Office. I did not mean that.
Starting point is 00:02:20 Yeah, I think it's awesome. I think it's awesome. I think that, listen, Greg Daniels, who created The Office, he's like as big a mensch as you'll ever want to meet. Like just nicest guy, always reachable, no ego, you know, really creative, collaborative. And, you know, they, yes, we stumbled onto something with The Amazing Cast and Dunder Mifflin and stuff like that. But the idea of doing comedy in that way where it's a mockumentary, which has been done before. There's plenty of mockumentaries like Spinal Tap and, you know, so many other shows. But the idea of doing a workplace mockumentary and at a different kind of workplace with a different cast with the same tone.
Starting point is 00:03:09 Yeah. I think it's great. Like what, there's no harm in it. And why not have five different workplaces that you're documenting and the dysfunction and the awkward silences and the lunacy, but it also kind of reflects contemporary culture in a way. So I'm a fan.
Starting point is 00:03:32 I think it's great. I don't think that Dwight Schrute would ever show up to this. I think they're talking about a paper company in the Midwest. Like, why would he go? Like part of the office is like, it's really like we try and keep it
Starting point is 00:03:44 like as much like the real world as possible. Some zany things's really like we try and keep it like as much like the real world as possible as some zany things happen but we you know try and keep it like grounded grounded yeah exactly so dwight showing up to the midwest doesn't really doesn't make sense but no i'm excited for it though i i feel like it'll be exciting to see a new version but from that taste and that tone, like you said. Yeah. And I think they'll have a lot of comparisons to The Office. Oh, it's not as funny as The Office.
Starting point is 00:04:12 That's okay. It doesn't have to be. If it's two thirds as funny as The Office, it's still going to be funnier than anything else on TV. Sorry. I agree. Sorry. I agree.
Starting point is 00:04:21 Sorry. Rain, you're a very profound human being and you have a lot of deep, amazing, wonderful thoughts about the world and spirituality. But this show, we're a little bit dumb. It's trash Tuesday. We can talk about whatever we want. Do you want to talk about like cysts or noodles or whatever? We'll get to the cysts. But I wanted to ask you about your animals because I'm really, I'm kind of.
Starting point is 00:04:54 We can talk about my ball operation. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about your ball operation. Say more. I had an operation on my balls once. And I don't know why that came to mind. I'm just sitting here. You're being it's trash Tuesday. We're not going to mind. I'm just sitting here. Just us.
Starting point is 00:05:05 You're being, it's trash Tuesday. We're not going to be profound. You want to ask about my pigs. I do. I love pot-bellied pigs is why. We have two pot-bellied pigs. That's what I heard, yeah. My wife is really super into animals, and it's just been her dream to have a menagerie.
Starting point is 00:05:21 And, you know, when you make a lot of money in TV, you get to buy your wife a menagerie of animals oh that's so sweet that's like the best use of tv money i've ever heard so we have two pigs um the baron von snortington and amy okay and they're both about 200 pound vietnamese pot-bellied pigs so they're they're pretty big. Amy is like exactly like her name sounds. She's sweet and adorable. And she comes up and she kind of prances. And she's dainty. And you can pet her. And she lies down.
Starting point is 00:05:55 And like you could tie ribbons in her hair and it would work. And Snorty is just like his name sounds. He's just like a bull in a china shop. And he'll charge you sometimes. And he'll like snort. And he does this thing where he clicks. If he doesn't like something, he goes. And I'm like, snorty, stop snarfing at me.
Starting point is 00:06:21 And then they live with a little peahen, a female peacock that my wife rescued that was just showed up living at her horse barn. And so she brought it over. So the pigs and then she bullies the pigs. So Alma, the peahen, will land and like take their food. And if they go, if Snorty goes like that, then she'll just like poke at his eyes. Okay, now I have to ask, what came first? Like you being a farmer or Schrute Farms?
Starting point is 00:06:54 Was that written based on your interests? No, when I was cast on The Office, I think I was living in Van Nuys. Okay, okay, okay. The mattress capital of the world. Yeah, yeah, the auto mattress capital of the world. Yeah, yeah. The auto glass capital of the world. If you need your window changed out
Starting point is 00:07:11 and you need a futon, head to scenic Van Nuys, California. No, there wasn't a zero farming going on. I had some farmers in my background. So when I first met with Greg and the writers of The Office, we just keep bringing it back to The Office, don't you? I didn't mean to, but you're doing it.
Starting point is 00:07:27 Then I brought in all these photos of like my family and I had a lot of my Norwegian immigrant families from Wisconsin and Minnesota and showed them pictures of them and stuff like that. Wait, I have family. My family is all from Minnesota too. We're Finnish. Oh yeah?
Starting point is 00:07:43 Yeah. Okay, so you brought in pictures of your norwegian family and they're farmers yeah and they were farmers and that got that kind of triggered the idea of maybe dwight having a farming background greg's great grandparents were farmers in poland and actually grew beets so he brought that in and um but then this was later my wife has always loved animals and we have a little bit of land out in our kind of little town in California where we live. And she also rides horses. But then the big surprise is that we also have a rescued donkey named Chili Beans.
Starting point is 00:08:21 I've been going down a donkey rabbit hole. You mean a donkey hole a donkey hole and i have not my entire algorithm right now is just pure donkey dude dude i'm with you donkeys are precious they're like proof of the existence of god because they are so adorable they're loyal loyal. They're smart. And they're emotional too. Yeah. You just kind of hug the out of them.
Starting point is 00:08:50 They're the best. You can cuddle a donkey. Oh, you can cuddle a donkey. And after they tell you how they feel. What? Yeah. It's like they have, it's just, it's just, I, please get on the donkey algorithm. Like it'll change your life. So chili beans, braids for for my wife like my wife pulls up
Starting point is 00:09:06 it's like and then my wife is leaving and then he she braise till that she's leaving like mournful like she cries yeah oh that's so cute and they have the big pot belly they They got like the round pot belly. You just go. Just their proportions are like comical and so endearing. Just donkeys are everything. They're really good. Yeah, they're really good. I think Shrek gave them a bad rap. You think? In all the Prospector movies.
Starting point is 00:09:36 But the, yeah. So, and then we also have a zonkey, which is a half zebra, half donkey. You can do that. Are they sterile too? Is that legal? legal you can do that they're sterile yeah they can't breed other zonkeys because they were manufactured in a zonkey lab are all hybrid animals sterile typically like i think so i think mules are too yeah yeah well i should announce that um my well last week i had a i was rehab a raven, my second raven that I was rehabbing and he flew away. This week I had a song sparrow and sad news, he passed this morning.
Starting point is 00:10:16 I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's okay. That's really hard. I know. Is it one that had like flown into your window and then you took him in a shoebox and fed him milk or something? Bobby called me frantically three days ago and was like, there's a dead bird in the back. I was like, if it's dead, you know, do something about it. Give it a funeral.
Starting point is 00:10:35 He did. And he was like, no, you have to come collect a dead body for me. And got there. It wasn't dead. And so. Why would Bobby call you to collect a dead body? Because that's what Bobby does. That's literally all I know.
Starting point is 00:10:49 It sounds like that's what you do. You collect dead bodies. But I feel like that's my only use in this life right now is just collecting, you know, scraps. Is your farm like only for purposes of just loving and appreciating animals? Are you like growing food? Is there any sort of...
Starting point is 00:11:05 We have an orchard and we have macadamia nut trees on it. We didn't plant it. We bought this place about four years ago. And then for some reason, they didn't produce any nuts last year. So, but then we, they're really hard to process macadamia nuts. So we just give them to friends.
Starting point is 00:11:24 You know, we just give bags of nuts to friends yeah because what do you if you process them that would mean what you'd have to take them to a processing facility cracking a macadamia nut is like impossible and then you have to like dry roast them and all that stuff so we're not we're not really uh doing that okay so we can get to the deeper stuff now i had some we real questions for him. We don't have to get deep. We really don't. We can't stick with donkeys and macadamia all day. We didn't even go to my ball operation.
Starting point is 00:11:51 We just completely skipped by that. Balls, balls, balls, balls. Was this young? What age was this? Recent? Young. So I was out of acting school, and I was doing this Shakespeare bus and truck tour.
Starting point is 00:12:06 And it was when I first got together with my wife and I was 24 at the time. And I noticed that one of my scrotal spheres was slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, ever, ever, ever, ever ever ever so slowly growing in size just one of the two scrotals because there's two oh okay so testicles are what's in the scrotal sack right one of my scrotal sacks was just getting ever so slightly bigger larger yeah yeah and and i'm like oh, what's going on? And then like, we're doing this bus and truck tour. So we're always changing costumes and stuff. And a couple of the guys in the cast like saw my ball and they're like, you've got one big ball. It wasn't like that big. It was like, you know, one was like normal size and one was bigger than normal
Starting point is 00:13:01 size. They have that natural appearance of like hanging, like kind of one lower than normal size. But don't they have that natural appearance of like hanging like kind of one lower than the other anyway? So you would. I mean, you're really. I mean, that's how I've seen them hang. One was like, usually one hangs a little lower for guys. But one was like a golf ball
Starting point is 00:13:18 and one was like a wiffle ball. Oh. Size. So twice it had, no, very, very slowly. So that's the weird thing. You're kind of like, is that getting bigger? And like, yeah, it is. So I go into the urologist and like,
Starting point is 00:13:32 you have this thing called a hydroseal, which is this membrane inside the scrotum sac is leaky. It's just leaky and water's coming in and not going out. So I had to, they took a needle and he's like, I can drain it, but it's just going to fill up again. And I was like, well, let's go ahead and drain it. And he took this needle and put it in and went like that and took out this liquid that had been in there. Oh, this is satisfying for me to hear. Is it?
Starting point is 00:14:09 Yeah, I got my titty drained. I'll tell you about draining my titties in a bit. Okay. This is trashy. And then he put it like, he had like a bedpan and he like went like, and it like, I never forget the sound of like my scrotal fluid echoing in this bedpan how much did they take out i forget how many it was like eight ounces or something like that
Starting point is 00:14:31 it was a lot it was like a beer yeah it was and and then um they uh um and then they uh took it away and then i saw two of the nurses talk and they were like you could tell they were going like that was so disgusting I could see them like whispering like kind of pointing at me and like I'm like I'm 24 really self conscious and like just had a needle in my balls and I was like
Starting point is 00:14:57 and anyways I had to it filled up again I'm like oh shit so I had to schedule a surgery I had ball surgery it's awful is it like a cyst where you actually have to remove this, the whole sack then? Or so that it doesn't like refill up? Yeah, they had to, they had to slice it open and take, take out the membrane itself. The casing of it. Yes, the casing of it, the inner membrane.
Starting point is 00:15:18 And then after that, everything has been a hundred percent fine. No problem. But boy, going out of the hospitals, because they've operated on there, it was like grapefruits. And I had to walk like this out of, now you can use the wide shot, out of the hospital into a wheelchair and get wheeled out.
Starting point is 00:15:41 And I had to sleep like this and for a couple days it was it was awful and my wife who's still with me and went through this with me was at my side and bringing me soup and this is early this is the early 90s yeah this is when we first got together you guys have been together so long so long before you were born absolutely 100. A hundred percent, 29, 34 years we've been together. What is that? Like, how do you do that? What's your advice on that? Well, it's, it hasn't been easy and it's been very challenging. I would say it's the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life is try and keep a marriage together. Really? That's actually, I'm so delighted to hear that because it, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:16:29 it's just nice that you can make it happen and it's not like, oh, it's perfect. It's like, no, it takes work. Yeah. That's inspiring. Yeah, it's super hard. You know, you change, they change, circumstances change.
Starting point is 00:16:47 You know, one of the hardest times we went through as a couple was uh you know we had in close succession i booked the office and like a year before the office like i don't know if you remember this but back this was like 20 years ago when you got your credit card bill, they would enclose a check so you could write a check and it would go onto your credit card. Oh, so I was paying my rent and putting my rent on credit cards because I was so broke. Like that's so, I feel like that's so dangerous. I think they did make it illegal or something because I haven't seen those since. But I, you know, thankfully, my wife is very she's very into
Starting point is 00:17:29 we're both into improving ourselves and into therapy. We're both deeply curious about how we tick. We're we're curious about spirituality. And, you know, we connect on a lot of different levels. We don't just play with animals together. We, we meditate together and we work on a nonprofit together and we travel together and, you know, it's a real, it's a real partnership. And I'm so, I'm so grateful for that. But, you know, it, every, every couple of years, there's going to be a new set of hurdles for not just you as a person, but the relationship, you know? I can really relate to this. I mean, I wasn't with Bobby for 34 years, but we were together for an entire decade. And when we first met, we were living in a two bedroom apartment. We had six animals. Everything was crowded, very uncomfortable. And I, and I remember the moment when he was like, oh, I've now made enough for
Starting point is 00:18:26 us to move and buy this great home. And I, I think both of us were under this delusion that somehow like the little like fragmented parts or fractured parts of our relationship would improve by the time we moved into this new space. Now the animals had a yard. Now we weren't in this cramped area and the podcast was doing better and we were actually making money and his career was going where he wanted it to go. And that's honestly where the beginning, that's where it started to end for us.
Starting point is 00:19:01 It was, it was almost as if like the smallness of our lives sort of kept us really close emotionally and always interacting and engaging and the bigness of the new house like there was more of like this i don't know this distance and kind of this like cold draft that kind of entered our relationship there's a whole new set of pressures too, isn't there? Like he's touring more, there's more endorsements, more is being asked of him and asked of you and you become more famous as well. And then, yeah. And by the way, for the listeners,
Starting point is 00:19:36 like I'm not complaining about fame or money. It's just a reality that it has its own pressures. It's a change. It's just a change. More than pressures. I think it's like, reality that it has its own pressures. It's a change. It's just a change. I think it's like, I, okay. I'm not going to pretend like,
Starting point is 00:19:50 Oh, I don't want to be rich and famous and like hot. But I also think that those things are a little bit of a curse. They come with problems. You know, like we've talked before about like the girl who's just always been really beautiful it's like well then that that has problems too yeah then like every guy wants you and like wow that sucks no but like it just comes with its own problems and I think it wasn't until
Starting point is 00:20:17 being in this business that I realized like oh I mean this is the most cliche thing but it's like oh I always thought that like success would solve all my problems and then you like get the things you wanted and then you realize you're still you and you still have all the same problems and so that is like a whole explosion that you have to realize and deal with like that's you know that was more like a solo thing for me not within my relationship but and also just to hear like that you guys have been together so long and there's you change and you grow and that makes things harder here and easier here and whatever. Like, I think that's so cool because a lot of the conversation is if it's not working, move on or like if it doesn't serve you. Yeah, that's and that is that is a really dangerous way of thinking about a relationship. Like if you're in, it's, it's so, it's such a tricky balance, right? Cause if you're in a toxic relationship and it's really holding you down and
Starting point is 00:21:09 making adversely affecting you and your self esteem and your health, like of course get out of it. But there is a kind of a contemporary kind of thing like, Hey, it's not working for me. I'm not feeling this right now. You've got a kid or two, you've been together five or six years. There's been a death in the family. There's some financial difficulties and people just, it's easy to bail. But guess what? You'll just get in another relationship and then you're going to meet Matt with the same set of circumstances.
Starting point is 00:21:35 So you might as well work through it the first time, you know? Yeah, I absolutely. Like, I feel like I saw a lot of people in COVID break up and then I saw them get back together, which I thought was sort of sweet. Like, oh, I'm glad to see people go out and realize, like you said, it's like, I don't know, your problems follow you everywhere. I also love the idea, though, that like I think there, you know, it is threatening when people grow and change and you're like, who did I marry? And I like this idea of like, okay, if you live this lifelong thing with someone, you can be six different versions of yourself, this ever evolving thing. And to sort of like accept that change without feeling so threatened about this like new version of your partner. Yeah. Well change every, every two, three, four years we go through different shifts, right? Like you're probably very different now than you were three or four years ago. And then three or four years before that you were kind of different. So how do you do that in a coupleship, in a partnership? And how do you continue to stay curious and get, continue to want to get to know
Starting point is 00:22:40 your partner? Well, that's a great question. And it's, in fact, I was just talking to my friend Mark about that this morning. I was like, and, and realize, cause you know, part of, part of what I, is a benefit for me is I'm in 12 steps and that kind of forces you to dig a little bit deeper about maybe why you do the things you do and how things, what things trigger you and what things have traumatized you. And, and, but I've just always had this really deep curiosity about like rain. Why do you do the things you do? Like, why are you doing that? Why do you always do this?
Starting point is 00:23:23 Why are these patterns happening? How did your mom leaving, you know you doing that? Why do you always do this? Why are these patterns happening? How did your mom leaving, you know, when you were to affect you, how did your relationship with your dad? Like, well, you know, I just have this like hunger to excavate that stuff. Some people are very content to just not dig deep and, and that's great, but I've always been in, in, I haven't always been in therapy, but I've, especially the last like 15, 18 years been really digging in therapy. I've done intensives and retreats and, and 12 step. And I just, I just really want to, I want to improve myself and I want to get to know myself better. Um, not improve myself in like a, you know, uh, what's that guy, David Goggins, who's like runs 47 miles every morning.
Starting point is 00:24:11 Um, what is it? Kill your inner bitch guy. Yeah. And then, and like, not in like a Tony Robbins kind of like, you can use it with your willpower. You can overcome. I'm not talking about that, but just in, just in a, a deep curiosity to get to know myself and it goes more to uh the soul boom podcast in the soul boom book which is it was it's always been even bigger for me just for me i don't know why but i've always been that i've i was the nerdy kid it was like what's the meaning of life you know like i was the pimply 12 year old, like, is there a God? How do we know?
Starting point is 00:24:46 And, um, you know, um, so I've, I've all always had a, a hunger for digging deeper into just the human condition as well, um, as, as my own. So I've, I'm fortunate that I found a partner that shares that same passion in holiday. This podcast is sponsored by DraftKings. Kalilah, in a world of slot reels and blackjack deals, comes the must-play event of the summer from DraftKings Casino, featuring non-stop action and an all-star cast of games, including A-Lister, Loki's Luck, the summer blockbuster is one you won't want to miss.
Starting point is 00:25:26 We love DraftKings. Plus, new players can get $100 instantly in casino credits with just a $1 wager and all players get a blockbuster bonus every week. So sign up with code TRASHTUESDAY and grab your popcorn. It's showtime on DraftKings casino gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or in West Virginia visit www.1800gambler.net in Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org please play responsibly 21 plus physically present in Connecticut Michigan New Jersey Pennsylvania Westia only void in ontario eligibility and other restrictions apply new customers only one dollar wager to earn 100 in non-withdrawable casino credits that expire in 168 hours terms at casino.draftkings.com slash blockbuster i have this question that i don't necessarily know like how to frame because
Starting point is 00:26:19 i grew up in the philippines and you know it's a third world country very much like oppressed by just colonization for 400 years or so right and there's a specific feeling not to say that the Philippines doesn't come with its own problems or that but there's a specific feeling of joy that I kind of see among people there And sometimes I attribute it to the not seeking and the not asking. I attribute it to a very like simple acceptance, which, by the way, a lot of historical concept, a lot of the historical context of that is like not good because they see Filipino people is like, yeah, we accept everything, even like foreign invasion, whatever. There's a lot of it to that. But there is a simple joy when I see like even their optimism,
Starting point is 00:27:12 even in the face of like abject poverty. A lot of my family still live in abject poverty. And when I ask them, when they see someone like me who is constantly seeking to be better, who is always full of questions, they don't understand it and they view me as a very like broken person. Yeah. That's a good question. I think that's, I think that's a very valid question. You know,
Starting point is 00:27:40 if you meet people that kind of maybe live a simpler life, they're just content with what they have. And, you know, and maybe God is large in their life and nature is large in their life and family is large in their life. And that's enough. It's like God and nature and family. And, you know, they have enough to eat and, you know, they don't need to kind of maybe maybe my wiring is a specific cultural Western American thing that I'm kind of like motivated to excavate and you know I'm sure that there have been and I know that there have been times in my life that has made me more miserable but I think I think for me I'm talking about myself a lot,
Starting point is 00:28:27 but you know what? I'm on a guest on a podcast. Yeah. That's the time. That's the time. The great thing is, is like, I'm really pretty happy. And I wasn't happy for most of my life. But the last like 10 years, 10, 12, 14, 15 years, whatever, I've been really pretty blissfully
Starting point is 00:28:48 happy. And so something's working, you know? And yeah. What does that feel like? I know. What is, I'm so curious. Cause it's like, I feel fleeting moments of like, I like myself. I like my life.
Starting point is 00:29:08 Yeah. But then it all comes crashing down the next day. And I'm having, you know, a very, you know, depressed couple weeks after that. Like, what does it feel like to live in a sustained, like, feeling of, okay, I like this? That's a great question. And I think what you feel is entirely normal. And I will say that it hasn't been necessarily sustained. I will say that it's like four or five days out of the week,
Starting point is 00:29:39 but I'll take that. That's really good. It's an improvement. It's a good ratio. And so like yesterday I woke up and I was just a cranky bitch from the get go. And I don't know why there was nothing that had come up that had like triggered me. I'm, I'm healthy. My wife's healthy. My son's healthy. We have a lovely place to live, I've got enough money, I've got interesting creative projects to work on,
Starting point is 00:30:08 and things are good, and I just, and this goes back to soul boom a little bit, and in the book I talk about the Buddha, one of the, the number one teaching of the Buddha is that life is suffering, or that in life there is suffering. And the word they used, he used for suffering back then of the Buddha is that life is suffering or that in life there is suffering. And the word he used for suffering back then
Starting point is 00:30:28 was dukkha in the Sanskrit, which basically means it translates most closely to anxious discontent. So life is anxious discontent. And that's what it was. And so what I got to do is wake up in the morning and like, God, I'm just so cranky and unhappy and dissatisfied with everything. You know, I got a really cool acting job. I'm going away in a few weeks to go do a cool acting job with some really great actors.
Starting point is 00:30:53 And this is awesome. This is awesome news. And yet yesterday I'm like, like I'm, I'm just, I'm anxiously discontent. So what I get to do is notice it and go, oh, OK, there it is. There it is. My old friend, anxious, discontent. There's the Dukkha life. This is part of life.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Just see it, name it, own it, greet it. Hi, friend. How are you? Anxious, discontent. And then through that, you know, I I, you know, I went swimming and then I kind of meditated and I read a little bit and then, you know, did some other stuff and it was, and had a very, ultimately had a very positive day. Um, and that's just, that's part of, that's part of the journey. Um, but it's, uh, yeah, that's all I got. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:42 I mean, no, that's, that's all I got. Yeah, I mean, no, that's a lot. That's a lot because I think what I'm hearing is that you cannot push away any of these spontaneous moments of feeling pretty cruddy in general, but that you can learn to name it, learn to identify it, and just kind of roll with it and be nice to yourself about it. I love the ring of that anxious discontent. I'm like, yeah, that sums up a lot for me. Not to shout out Woody Allen, but in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, there's this one line where Penelope Cruz calls it like chronic dissatisfaction. And yeah, I think that that that is the root cause of a lot of like my younger feeling of like turmoil where I'm like why can't I just I have this now why can't I just be like happy with this now the scientist uh a social scientist
Starting point is 00:32:31 happiness expert Arthur Brooks talks about like it's not about like how it's like how can I be happy how can I find happiness it's like you can have you can be happy seer, you know, you just, you can be a little bit happier. You can learn about what makes you unhappy and just make little adjustments. And then it's just incrementally, you can just get a little bit happier here and a little bit happier there. There isn't kind of a thing of like, can you imagine the human existence where just like living and like constant, like bliss and joy, like hardship, difficulty, sorrow, displeasure, discontent, disappointment, these are a part of the human condition.
Starting point is 00:33:11 And it's only experiencing those that we experience joy. You know what I mean? Like it's not about like eliminating dissatisfaction and disappointment and sorrow and heartbreak, you know, oh, I'm in sorrow, I'm in heartbreak, like accept it and then that allows you to, oh, I'm in sorrow, I'm in heartbreak, like accept it. And then that allows you to feel the joy on the other side. So part of like living a more blissful life
Starting point is 00:33:33 filled with wellbeing is embracing both sides of the spectrum. The more you can embrace the natural difficulty and heartbreak of just being a human being, then the more experience with kind of joy and bliss you can have. I had such a deep, hard lesson in this area, which I'm realizing recently, but basically three years ago I had a pregnancy loss. And after that, I don't know if it's like my anxious avoidant attachment manifesting or what it was, but I was like, maybe I don't want kids.
Starting point is 00:34:07 And I was so afraid to ever say out loud that I wanted kids after that. And it wasn't until I just had a baby a few months ago where I'm like, oh, my God, I was able to face the truth, which was I did want to have a baby. And I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to and so I didn't let myself want it and my lesson after years of fine print contracts and getting ripped off by overpriced wireless providers if we've learned anything it's that there's always a catch so when I heard that for a limited time all mint mobile wireless plans are $15 a month when you purchase a three-month plan, I thought, where's the catch? But after talking to them, it all made sense. There isn't one. Mint Mobile's
Starting point is 00:34:50 secret sauce is that they sell wireless services online. They don't have retail stores or sales people. Instead, they deliver premium phone plans directly to you. As you guys know, our friend Rick Glassman, he uses Mint Mobile. I learned about Mint Mobile through George Kimmel. George is a busy guy. he takes the most business calls and the fact that not a single call is ever dropped and you can use your own phone with any mint mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all of your existing contacts say goodbye to your overpriced wireless plans mint mobile is here to rescue you with plans starting at 15 bucks a month and all plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered
Starting point is 00:35:24 on the nation's largest 5g network that is such a steal to get this new customer offer and your new three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month go to mintmobile.com slash tuesday that's mintmobile.com slash tuesday cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash tuesday 45 up front payment required equivalent to 15 a month new mintmobile.com slash Tuesday. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 a month new customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply statement mobile for details. There is, I think, which I think my lesson is like, hey, Esther, it's okay to want things that you might not get. It's that's okay. And so I I want to take that with me through my life moving forward.
Starting point is 00:36:08 But I don't know. It makes me so sad to think that I was so afraid that I couldn't be like, I want a kid. Or to even announce it to yourself. Yeah. And by the way, having had several friends who've had miscarriages and had to abort fetuses for various reasons, like it's something culturally people don't put enough attention to, like how heartbreaking
Starting point is 00:36:32 that is, you know, how difficult that is. We kind of, we don't, we don't talk about it. I totally agree. And I feel like almost I was part of that. Even when I would talk about it, I was like, it's common. And so I would try to not poo was like it's common and so I would try to not poo it or something yeah it's so common you throw the stat of one in four yes yeah and I thought even the way you described it to me you're like I know it happens to a lot of people
Starting point is 00:36:56 it's like you were already kind of dismissing your own experience yeah because I didn't want to be I have this thing where I don't want to be a victim I don't want to be the recipient of trauma and so I'll just be like everything's fine this bad thing happened but so here's why it's totally fine but now I'm like oh no I was really struggling with that and like what's why why couldn't I just struggle with it I don't know but you are right that it's not I think a pregnancy loss is harder than I made it out to be. That's, I guess my statement on it. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like women like suppress a lot of times suffering, like, and I know we talked about this, like when my mom was pregnant too, like she had to hide her, she felt like she had to hide it. And it was like this embarrassing thing and didn't talk about the
Starting point is 00:37:41 pain. And I feel like that's changing, but suppress suppressing pain and I feel like that's changing but suppress suppressing pain I feel like it's just something that culturally we've always done yeah beyond culture even I think it's just you're programmed from a very young age to just withstand a certain level of like suffering and be okay with it because if you don't you are just less than. I mean, even in my culture, in Filipino culture and stuff, which I wanted to ask you, you are of the Baha'i faith. And I know you, it's sort of like, the way I understand Baha'i is that you pick up from a lot of different religions and spiritualities. a lot of different religions and spiritualities. Um, I grew up, um, in a very, very Catholic household, but that household was also where I endured the most trauma, everything from sexual trauma to emotional trauma to physical abuse. And, um, what would like, what advice can you give to someone like me who is so turned off by the idea of spirituality and religion?
Starting point is 00:38:49 And is there a way for me to sort of see the goodness in it without relating it back to like my horrible upbringing? And to give you an example, my uncle was in the Philippines during like a holy week. They crucify real people too. I can't handle this one. This one I can't. But in the Philippines during holy week, they pick people in their community. They don't actually put a nail through their hands. They do.
Starting point is 00:39:16 They put a nail through their actual hands? Yeah, yeah. They don't just like tie them to a cross? No. Some they tie. Some they actually crucify. And it's a reenactment of, you know, some they actually crucify. It's a reenactment of,
Starting point is 00:39:27 you know, Jesus and the whole thing. My uncle was that guy every year who got crucified, but he is also a murderer. So he also killed his brother in broad daylight and like severed his spinal cord with a machete. You have to tell this to Dwight Schrute. What camera should I be looking at right now? I'm just going to be looking deadpan at the camera.
Starting point is 00:39:45 Go ahead. He has since been released from prison. I send him money every month because he has a family to support. It's a whole thing. You send your murderer uncle money every month, and he was crucified. He was crucified. He was also Jesus. Yeah. Does he have scars on his hands from what he-
Starting point is 00:40:01 He does, yeah. Yeah. Does he have- Okay. The more you talk to her, the more it's like my childhood was such like a very like giant contradiction of everything. And that's where I experienced the most like hurt and pain. So anytime I hear I almost bristle at the idea.
Starting point is 00:40:19 You've kind of been crucified in the court of social media. Oh, my God. Thank you for saying that. I brought that all together. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Wow. how I brought that all together? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 00:40:27 Why is there a woman with three bananas? We do this thing here called a banana break. You don't have to eat it, but it's a potassium re-up when emotions get high. But you totally just, it's too much for him right now. This is my religion. Banana is my religion. It's a little for him right now. This is my religion. Banana is my religion. It's a little bit phallic. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:40:51 But thank you for acknowledging that because I think that, you know, a lot of my current pain relates. It feels similar, right? It's bringing back all of the young stuff when I am just fucking just rinsed by the internet right yeah well I have a few things to say number one religious trauma is very real and a lot of people that recoil from religion
Starting point is 00:41:19 have been traumatized by it in some way even just being made to go to church or being told that if you masturbate, you're going to go to hell or, you know, shamed for, for having premarital sex or being gay or whatever. Like there's a lot of, there's a lot of that. And so culturally we're dealing with a lot of religious trauma. We had a, someone on the soul boom podcast, Dr. Dima Bryant. And she said, you know, for a lot of people, spirituality is the richest, most wonderful thing they'll have, they have in their life. And for a lot of people, spirituality is the thing that has caused them the most pain in their life. So it's really difficult
Starting point is 00:41:56 to talk about spiritual topics because you don't know where someone stands with that. And that's, it's, I'm so glad you shared that with me. I think it's really important. Number one, to separate religion from spirituality. Right. So even if you just look at Jesus and like stories of Jesus, like there's never been like a better human being than Jesus, like just, just, uh, serving the poor, washing the feet of prostitutes, like giving everything he owned away, just teaching, just love, love, love everywhere he went. And the difference between the reality of Jesus and what so many sects of Christianity
Starting point is 00:42:40 kind of practice and preach is just that dichotomy is mind boggling. Um, and there's, there's an enormous bifurcation, but if you go back to like the life and work and teachings and sayings of, of Jesus, there's really beautiful and they contain a lot of great spiritual truths that don't have to do with any kind of church. They don't have to do with heaven and hell or when you eat a wafer or when you, how you're baptized. I've had many wafers. They don't taste great. I always wanted to try the wafer.
Starting point is 00:43:12 Oh, I bet you'd like them. They're very bland. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Wow. Was that a diss? It was. So, but I think it's important to differentiate the two because spirituality is simply So but I think it's important to differentiate the two because spirituality is simply the real our human reality that isn't part of our physical and material selves. That's all emotions, heart, feelings, connection, transcendence, art, love. You know, all of these things are related to the body and we experience them neurochemically, but at the same time, they're, they're what I've called for lack of a better term, like the higher part of ourselves, you know, the more angelic part of ourselves, that's spirituality.
Starting point is 00:43:54 You don't need rituals, you know, to, to be a part of that. And that's something that, and more and more young people are putting their focus on and the fastest growing religion in the Western world is spiritual but not religious. And so I think that's a place to start. I think from the Baha'i perspective, it's that all of these wonderful divine teachers, Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad, and Baha'is believe in a new divine teacher called Baha'u'llah
Starting point is 00:44:23 that their message is essentially pure and it's all about love and connection and unity. And then humanity creates all of these administrations and rituals around those teachings that become more and more corrupt. Cause that's just who we are. So for me, I feel really grateful that I get to look at just kind of the spiritual truths of those amazing spiritual teachers. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:56 Have you ever been to the Baha'i Temple in Illinois? Oh, yeah. I used to work there. You did? I was a security guard there. Wait, why were you living there? Because I grew up in seattle but my last two years of high school we moved to north of chicago because my parents
Starting point is 00:45:10 where i grew up in skokie skokie wow brought to you by hubs of skokie yeah hello hubs um wait where did you live well met oh my god did you go to newtrier yes oh my god did you go to skokie west or east i went to niles north niles north across the street from old orchard mall okay but Oh my God. Did you go to New Trier? Yes. Oh my God. Did you go to Skokie West or East? I went to Niles North. Niles North? Across the street from Old Orchard Mall. Okay. I used to go to Old Orchard all the time.
Starting point is 00:45:30 I had a feeling. Yeah. So I grew up in Skokie, but I danced in Wilmette. So all my friends went to New Trier. I didn't go there though. But yeah. Oh my God. That's crazy.
Starting point is 00:45:42 You danced in Wilmette? Yeah. You just like went down like Lake Street kind of like frolicking? No, there was a really good dance studio there, Fisher Dance Center on Ridge, 807 Ridge. Yeah. That's right in downtown Womack. Yes. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:45:54 By the Walker Brothers Pancake House. Yes. Oh, my God. Wait, that's crazy. You lived there two years? Two years. Yeah. Did your family move there because of the temple?
Starting point is 00:46:02 Yeah. They moved there not because of the temple, but near the temple is the Baha'i administrative centers and they they both worked at the Baha'i administrative center they were like super Baha'is and I was I was a nerdy skinny weird looking big-headed pimply security guard after my senior year of high school walking around the the the grounds of the Baha'i Temple, you know, kicking skateboarders out. Oh, no, not the skateboarders. And drinking Mountain Dew. Did you go to NYU?
Starting point is 00:46:31 Yeah, after that, I went to college in Boston, at Tufts for a year. Then I went to University of Washington in Seattle. And then I ended up at NYU. So it was later that I ended up at NYU. Okay. I was wondering if there was like Northwestern or something, because you're right there.
Starting point is 00:46:45 Yeah, I love Northwestern. But you have the vibes like you went there though to me for some reason. Thanks. Not a compliment. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, yeah. That's cool.
Starting point is 00:46:55 Wait, yeah, that's crazy. Do you remember what you did at Old Richard Mall or where you went? God, I went there a lot. I don't remember. I remember there was a Joseph A. Bank Clothiers, but I don't know that I ever got something there. There was a restaurant that had like Irish green
Starting point is 00:47:15 and brass theme. Okay. Something like O'Flannery's or O'Flatterhans or O'Patrick O'Houlihans or something like that. Houlihands. Oh my God. Was it Houlihands? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:26 That's been gone for so long. Oh my God. That was so. That was in the 80s. So. No, but that, it was there like in the early 2000s still. Oh, okay. They had really good potato soup.
Starting point is 00:47:36 What are the hits of Old Orchard Malls? It's changed. It changes so much throughout the years. I miss malls. Remember malls? I know. Like actual malls. It's so sad.
Starting point is 00:47:44 Did you see the Brat Pack documentary? No, I need to. You have to see it. You know the Brat Pack, right? Yes. They just said the documentary. Well, I don't know, Philippines and you're young. I don't know. There are a few things that made it to the Philippines. That and Gary
Starting point is 00:48:00 Shandling. Andrew McCarthy did this Brat Pack documentary and I'm so glad he did. It was such an interesting excavation of that time and that very particular set of movie stars. But Hollywood figured out in the early 80s, like, oh, the biggest audience for our movies are, you know, are young people. And they want to see other young people on the screen. They want to see them dating like in 16 Candles. And they want to see them in college like St. Elmo's Fire and Risky Business.
Starting point is 00:48:27 Oh, St. Elmo's Fire. But that team of actors, a lot of which got labeled the Brat Pack, then they really suffered because of it because they had that label stuck to them that they're these spoiled Hollywood brats and not actual actors and it
Starting point is 00:48:43 fucked them up. I did always wonder that about Andrew McCarthy, though, because he was just in every single he was the hot boy in every single one. For like six years or something, he was in everything. So it's really interesting. But but it also goes with mall culture because kids would go to the mall and they'd go see a movie and they'd want to go see Pretty in Pink at the mall with their young friends at the mall and they'd go see a movie and they'd want to go see pretty and pink at the mall with their young friends at the mall. And, and it was something kind of like glorious. And you can go on YouTube and watch all these videos of, you know, what a mall was like in 1987 and stuff.
Starting point is 00:49:17 And they just kind of carry a camera through and it's like, it was so innocent and kind of fun. And everyone's going to Orange Julius. What do you think changed? Why did, why do we not have that same kind of like warm feeling about the mall anymore? Even the younger generation, it's like, yeah, they will go to the mall, but it is very just, you're not there to really hang anymore. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's like, it's like internet and retail suffers financially.
Starting point is 00:49:46 It's like all those horrible things. Is it like the Walmarts and Costcos kind of took over for the actual shopping needs? Maybe, yeah. Maybe you're right. Online shopping started. That's right. That's right. Let's investigate the death of the American mall.
Starting point is 00:49:58 I know. But beyond that, I mean, there are still- Also strip malls. I love strip malls. See, this is the problem. If you love strip malls, you can't love regular malls. You can. You can also strip malls. Like the idea. See, that's the problem. If you love strip malls, you can't love regular malls. No, you can. You can love all malls.
Starting point is 00:50:09 No, because if it's too easy to get in and there's like seven stores and you go and then you go, it might be convenient. But the mall was like it was it took commitment. Like I'm going to park. Like I'm going to go in. There's four. There's Nordstrom's and there's Macy's. And there you know what I mean? And yeah, there's a food court.
Starting point is 00:50:27 You get a corn dog. Do they still have a lot of, do all malls still have a movie theater attached to it? Or is that something that's sort of like, where do we watch our movies now? Like I don't go to, when I was younger, it was always at the mall. Yeah. But I don't do that anymore. Maybe Blockbuster was part of it too. And people like renting videos.
Starting point is 00:50:44 So you wouldn't go to the theater. You would get a video and go home and watch it. We can't blame poor Blockbuster for this. But I'm trying to like tie it through the decades. I see like chain reactions. Maybe. I just feel so bad for Blockbuster. And it's also though, this is just the sign of like us being old, right?
Starting point is 00:51:02 It's like, oh, the thing we used to have, it was so good. it's gone and everything you are not old you'd be surprised i am i am old i'm crazy old you're 50 1 52 50 55 no way there's no way there's no way. There's no way. No. Comedy keeps us all young. 58 and a half. You're 58. Yeah. That's crazy. Do we do we seem like babies to you? I'm almost 40. Change the conversation. Yeah, your top-notch producer there just Googles things. The decline of the American mall has left just 700 standing. Soon there may be just 150 malls left in the United States. Oh, my God. Oh, down from 2,500 in the 80s. Well, working in a mall completely shattered my dreams
Starting point is 00:52:01 or my warm feelings towards the mall. I worked at Abercrombie for a couple years. Which, by the way, have you heard? Well, there's a documentary on how toxic Abercrombie is. I mean, that's the worst of the worst. You understand, they're like the hottest stock on Wall Street right now. Abercrombie came back in a way that no one could have ever expected. Okay, so here's an interesting thing about Abercrombie when I worked there,
Starting point is 00:52:24 is that they didn't have anything past a size like six or eight. Someone would walk in. So no fatties. No fatties. I noticed you go, someone would walk in at me. Someone. And then they would ask for their size. We would pretend to search for
Starting point is 00:52:40 it in the back and just be like, you know, because we didn't want to be rude and say, no, we don't carry those sizes. Also, another thing is they never sold lemon do the same thing no black no nothing was they never sold anything black right so it was always and even when you work there you so no goths were welcome no goths no fatties um and when we worked there we couldn't really wear like heavy makeup we had to be sort of like this like natural looking thing and um it's so brand new before all sizes right they i don't know how they came back from that one documentary but they did and now they're all into this whole inclusive thing so and their jeans are good oh they are they are? I think their 90s jeans really made, you know, brought them back, I think.
Starting point is 00:53:29 Yeah. I also, I feel similar about Gap. I'm like, okay, Gap, I'll always trust their jeans. Really? Yeah. Yeah, girl. Oh my God, I almost choked on my banana. That's what she said.
Starting point is 00:53:41 But speaking of, the Gap at Old Orchard Mall closed recently, and it's been really hard for my family. I'm sorry. Thank you. I knew you'd have compassion for that and understanding. I did want to ask you a little bit about your young life. You know that I'm old and a man, right? I'm so not in your demo of like 32-year 32 old women in Brooklyn who are marketing social media experts. But you're wise papa.
Starting point is 00:54:08 We need it. We need the guidance. Please don't call me wise papa. It's so degrading. Oh my God. I've never been called wise papa before. No. Oh, get me out of this.
Starting point is 00:54:23 Get me out of this podcast. I feel like people must call you for advice. You seem like an advice guy. No one calls me advice. First of all, millennials don't take advice. That's funny. They don't. They don't take advice.
Starting point is 00:54:37 They don't see. When I was younger, there was a thing of mentors. And you'd find people that were older and successful. And you would go to them and say, Hey, I'm struggling with this. And at this crossroad, what do you think I should do? But millennials won't do that. And if you try and like talk to a millennial and say, well, in my experience, you might want to think about X, Y, and Z. They'll be like, yeah, I don't, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:55:00 I wouldn't do that. And, and then they'll give you advice. And this has happened to me with several millennials where they're like giving me advice and I'm like, okay, all right. I mean, I don't know. And I know I'm grandpa boomer here, but I'm actually not a boomer. I'm Gen X. I think that Gen Z might be cause Gen Z roasts millennials all day long. Millennials are the worst. They're worse than Gen Z. You guys all day long. Millennials are the worst. They're worse than Gen Z. No.
Starting point is 00:55:26 You think we're worse. You guys are so much worse. Why? What's, what? Let me count the ways. Help me out. What's your name? Stella.
Starting point is 00:55:37 Stella. As a millennial, I feel like we hate, we feel that way about Gen Z the way that you feel about millennials. Yeah, it's like we all hate you feel about millennials like whenever i tell them advice they don't listen to me or anything i say that's just part of it's cyclical it happens with every generation no i do think that millennials got the shit end of everything though no gen z have a worse shit end of everything than millennials and at least gen z are like rebellious and are kind of like i'm'm not going to follow in any of the
Starting point is 00:56:07 rules that have been set down. Like I'm going to question gender and sexuality. I'm going to question capitalism. I'm going to question having social media and, and why do we even need it? I'm going to question everything I've been taught about mental health or getting an education. Like, why should I go to college? Although please go to college although please go to college it's a really good idea but you know i mean like there's a but millennials were just
Starting point is 00:56:29 kind of like i just want my chai latte and my avocado toast and and uh and just leave me alone and they're not like engaged in like changing the world i'm getting so many hate comments right now in the youtube my um millennial demographic i think we were put in a very um specific like gen z can live a life of like not in a shame cycle almost i think with millennial we're we were caught in this kind of get finally understanding mental health mental illness but not being able to quite like grasp it in the same way that gen z is as so open about it like they really are talking about this stuff in a way that has no stigma at all and we were sort of that last group where there was still shame around not being well needing help needing community all of these things you get that as especially as it concerns mental
Starting point is 00:57:31 health but like which generation is going to change the world because the way things are going well because the way things are going are is you know we're heading to a shit spiral. Sorry, just climate change, politics, the upcoming election, like economics, you know, racism, income inequality, the healthcare system, like stuff is bad and we can't just kind of like be scrolling and having chai oat milk lattes all the time. But can't we place a blame on the people responsible for that?
Starting point is 00:58:06 Yeah, but they're not going to change it. I mean, it's kind of like too late. Yeah. Yeah, we can blame, you can, you live your whole, yeah, it's too late. You can blame the boomers all you want, but. I believe in the alphas,
Starting point is 00:58:19 that after Gen Z, I feel like the alphas are. Those are people that are like seven years old right now? Yeah, I believe in them. I think they might be able to save the world. Every Alpha I've met is cool. I believe in no one, just to be clear.
Starting point is 00:58:30 None of the religions, none of the generations. I don't believe in any of you. Wow, you're just a nihilist and a skeptic. It always repeats, you know? I just don't think anything ever... I don't know. You don't think anything ever can get better no wow that's so pessimistic thank you so so what's gonna happen like with climate change
Starting point is 00:58:53 what's gonna happen we're just gonna like roast ourselves no i think with that my my personal hope is that like it will become financially beneficial to whoever can solve it and so then all the money hungry people will like put money into it and then they'll like try to get rich off of climate change and then that's how it'll get fixed so you believe that ultimately the the basest human impulses towards greed and lust and selfishness are just gonna always run humanity absolutely because those are the ones that are the most motivated, the most like go get them tigers.
Starting point is 00:59:28 Like they're the ones, they've always been in control. Yeah, this is why I have a problem with millennials. Because they don't have a hope for change. They've, you've bought them. But we were like the Obama change. You drank the Kool-Aid, you drank the Kool-Aid of cynicism of like the world can never change. Human nature is greedy and selfish. That's just the way it is and will never get better.
Starting point is 00:59:53 And so you sit on your couch and you don't do anything except drink chai oat milk lattes. But that is evidence. Nothing personal. You are delightful and wonderful. But I do think that if collectively, if people really believe nothing's ever going to get better and it's just a, it's a shit storm, unless we figure out a way to make it profitable,
Starting point is 01:00:14 then that we don't believe in the element of, we don't believe in human altruism and like, and self-sacrifice for one's sacrificing one's personal good for the benefit of others or for the wellbeing of others. If you don't believe that that exists and that can be cultivated and nurtured and inspire a revolution, then I feel really sad about, about that. I mean, I feel sad for you feeling that way because no, because I feel sad about being that cynical. I really do. And it's very common by do. Well, maybe it's very common, by the way.
Starting point is 01:00:45 It's very, very common. No, totally. I mean, I think like I think you're right. And I do believe in altruism. I just don't. But I'm you know what it is. It's like we've gotten our heart broken so many times where the bad things keep happening. And I just I always think about like recycling and like I recycle.
Starting point is 01:01:02 But then like everything I hear is like recycling is fake recycling is bullshit so it's like i do that yeah but i do it we were sold a bill of goods i i bought into it too the oil companies were really like literally like everyone should recycle and then we're all busy recycling and meanwhile we're excavating coal and dumping all this like methane and co2 into the atmosphere and people are like sorting their yogurt lids yeah yeah rinsing the cup out and there's coal factories going and you know it's it's bull it's bullshit but i bought it too yeah i played recyclops after all oh my god yeah and i so i and i also think maybe this is part of like that thing I'm talking about
Starting point is 01:01:47 my own personality earlier, which is like, it's hard for me to want something that I don't believe can happen. And maybe I do need to be like, okay, maybe it'll, maybe it's like the baby when, when you lost the first baby. I'm so sorry for that. And then you, you didn't even, you felt like, oh, I can't let myself want another baby. But then you did and then you have a baby and it's brought you so much joy. Maybe you can allow yourself to want humanity to thrive and not.
Starting point is 01:02:18 Yeah, we got a chorus of millennials cheering on the change of Esther's heart. Full Esther. Yeah, maybe. I mean, this was one of the reasons, like one of the last guys that I dated, one of the reasons that I ultimately could not stay with him is because he was really just a cynic. And I remember initially just being like deeply attracted to him and all the things about him. But every day it was this heavy load on me that I wasn't clocking in the beginning that later on, like a couple months
Starting point is 01:02:50 in, I was like, Oh, like this dude is so hopeless about everything that I, it was difficult to be around. And I don't want to live a life like without hoping that things could, you know, like, or the next day could be, or things could generally move in a better direction. But where does that hopelessness come from? Because I think it does come from trauma. It's easier to stay cynical and pessimistic. And it's like with relationships.
Starting point is 01:03:17 Like if someone has had their heart broken a bunch of times and they're just like, oh, it'll never work out. I'll never find a relationship. Men suck or women suck or, you know, whatever gender sucks and contemporary dating sucks and I'll never find love. And it's kind of an easy fallback position, but it usually comes from some kind of pain that they've gone through. Like with you, I imagine like hoping, like maybe things will get better and it just gets worse and maybe, and it gets worse and you get your heart broken and
Starting point is 01:03:43 it's, it's easy to, it's easy to to fall into that position so you're saying millennials are just heartbroken repeatedly heartbroken heartbroken and traumatized and um and they've kind of just they've bought the party line kind of i think they've just kind of like they accept society the way it is we need to rebrand millennials yeah we need to do disagree i think no one likes a child milk latte better than a gen z like i think that's a little like have you seen those macho girls on tiktok like that's their whole personality which i have been there i there was there was a time where no milk latte was my entire personality for sure. But I just want to say, like, I don't think that's, I think everybody's, everybody likes their drinks.
Starting point is 01:04:32 Guilty. Oh my gosh, Rain, this has been so fun. Matcha. Matcha. Iced tea, green tea. Yeah. Iced. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:43 Like, this costs like $17. You're one of the girlies. I'm a matcha girl. And listen, hi everyone who's watching. I know that I'm getting, I'm going to get a lot of hate comments about dissing on millennials. I'm just,
Starting point is 01:04:56 I'm trying to poke the bee's nest a little bit here. Like I'm being a little bit, um, we're having fun. No, this is great to kind of stir things up. Cause I do think, I think it's an interesting conversation
Starting point is 01:05:07 and I think the millennial Gen Z battle is an interesting, sitting on the sidelines. Gen X is the one that's been left out. Everyone hates on boomers because they are, they're the worst. That's so true.
Starting point is 01:05:17 But Gen X kind of just sits kind of in the middle. You guys are like the lost generation. No one talks about you guys. I know. You're just quietly existing. We skirt through, yeah. This is so true.
Starting point is 01:05:28 They're just quietly acquiring farms and being happy four out of the seven days of the week. We just quietly created all of Silicon Valley. Right. It was a Gen X kind of thing, you know? The good and the bad, and it's mostly bad, sorry. After the promise of good. Yeah, see we just need those bad guys
Starting point is 01:05:51 to want to solve climate change and then I swear we'll be looking good. The bad guys are going to save us. Eyes are on you, Gen X. Well, thank you so much, Rain. I know, this was so much fun. I'm sorry that was so chaotic for you. It was good.
Starting point is 01:06:04 The banana break was good. I'm the only one who chaotic for you. It was good. The banana break was good. I'm the only one who ate my banana. No, I always eat my banana. That was a nice idea. And this was really fun. And you guys are awesome. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:06:14 And it's so nice to be here. And everyone needs to check out Rain's podcast, Soul Boom, which I've been listening to. I loved the episode with Arthur Brooks. I love the Neil Brennan episode. Oh, thanks. Yeah, it's so good. We have an interesting combination of standups and, you know, contemporary youth kind of influencers.
Starting point is 01:06:30 And then we kind of some old school, uh, psychologists and spiritual thinkers and authors and stuff like that. So it's, we kind of, it's a little bit schizophrenic cause it's going back and forth between, you know, some young comic and then,
Starting point is 01:06:44 you know, we'll have like Bobby Lee and then we'll have Dr. Joe Dispenza. So, you know, some young comic and then, you know, we'll have like Bobby Lee and then we'll have Dr. Joe Dispenza. So, you know, it's a good mix for life. I feel like that's the, that's the best combo. Cause while a Joe Dispenza is very, you know, knowledgeable, valuable, I do think Bobby in his chaotic, in his most chaotic state has the most profound things to say in your hair. He does, yeah, he is.
Starting point is 01:07:06 And he's a guy who has been out of sobriety. He's a guy who comes from extreme childhood trauma. And I do think that even though he front loads with a lot of funny and a lot of trying to get away from the serious stuff, when you do kind of nail him down, he is so wise and clear and is able to give like really good guidance. And that's what I've always loved about him.
Starting point is 01:07:32 And I think you really brought that out of him in that episode. And I don't think it's easy to do that. Did you have to add extra therapy the week you had Rick Glassman on? That's what I have to do when I'm with Rick. No, I found Rick to be delightful. He is delightful.
Starting point is 01:07:50 Maybe because I'm like Grandpa Television, you know, and he admires The Office and stuff. I don't know. But he's the best. Rick is a regular on this show. Does he make fun of you guys a lot? All day. That's all he does.
Starting point is 01:08:03 Yeah, he just drags us. But? All day. That's all he does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He just drags us. But we love it. We love Rick for that. I always say like I never have more fun with anyone than when I'm with Rick. But when I know I have to see him, I have a migraine. So I don't know what that means. But anyways, you guys go check out Soul Boom.
Starting point is 01:08:21 And thank you. And I know you guys have a new sub stack. I'm excited to read that. And yeah, we'll see you guys next week with a brand new episode thank you rain wilson thanks for having me thank you

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.