Video summary
In this milestone episode 1,000 of *Modern Wisdom*, Matthew McConaughey reflects on his journey from an agnostic self-reliant individual to a man who found faith through personal responsibility and divine applause for taking control of one's own life. He explores the concept that history rhymes because new technologies often balance out old cultural losses, suggesting that while labels change, fundamental truths remain constant. McConaughey discusses his perspective on coincidence as evidence of fate or karma, noting that science is essentially a practical pursuit of God where belief and faith are required for what cannot be proven. He emphasizes the importance of self-reliance not as rejecting divine help, but as accepting responsibility to keep one's hands on the wheel, arguing that true forgiveness requires more than just asking; it demands active repentance and a commitment never to repeat the offense so that the offender does not become a "repeat offender" who burdens others with constant apologies. The conversation delves into the nature of courage, which McConaughey defines as having the conviction to stop making the same mistakes rather than persistently enduring them without learning. He shares his decision to leave Hollywood and turn down a $14.5 million offer after realizing that his work was becoming more vital than his actual life, illustrating how he wrote himself a one-way ticket out of fame to pursue documentary filmmaking and personal growth. This shift required immense courage as it alienated many friends who thought he had made a "major malfunction," but ultimately allowed him to live authentically rather than following the book or societal expectations. He also touches on his experiences with directors like Guy Ritchie, highlighting how their improvisational styles can be frustrating yet rewarding when they lead to better performances in the moment, and discusses the changing landscape of storytelling where Act One is increasingly abbreviated due to shorter attention spans. McConaughey addresses the role of humor as a vital tool for navigating crises without diminishing them or being insensitive, advocating for finding ways to giggle through difficulties rather than ignoring pain entirely. He shares his love for *Candy Crush*, using it as an example of how simple games can teach valuable lessons about persistence and strategy that he passes on to his children. Regarding confidence, he asserts that it stems from belief in one's ability to pull something off after preparation and action, not merely hope or wishful thinking. He redefines humility by adopting Jordan Peterson’s definition—admitting we have more to learn rather than feeling humiliated—and vulnerability as saying one's truth despite scary consequences. These concepts are framed as "cheat codes" that allow individuals to step forward into growth without retreating, transforming perceived weaknesses like shyness or fear of judgment into strengths through a shift in perspective and incentives. Throughout the discussion, McConaughey stresses that time is on our side rather than an enemy against which we must race frantically, urging people to dance with life at their own pace instead of rushing ahead only for death's sake. He warns against becoming obsessed with longevity metrics like years lived or biomarkers if it detracts from the quality and meaning of current experiences, suggesting that true success involves investing in oneself today for a better return tomorrow while enjoying the present moment. The episode concludes with McConaughey promoting his book *Points of Prayers*, which he describes as containing belief systems necessary to combat doubt, and reflects on his time living out of an Airstream trailer, where he traded fish eyes for salmon with Indigenous communities in Canada. He thanks his audience for supporting the show over seven and a half years, expressing that despite complaints about fatigue or difficult schedules, he would not change this labor of love for anything else as it allows him to connect deeply with smart people and explore spiritual themes therapeutically before heading out on tour with musicians playing scores behind his readings.
Read the full video transcript
So, I mentioned to you that this is
episode 1,000.
>> Yeah.
>> It's been 7 and a half years. Uh, we
just crossed a billion views the other
day as well.
>> Congrats, man.
>> And as a little surprise to you, we
wanted to take you back to an
environment that you probably know at
least a little bit well.
Ah,
Cooper's Place, Alberta, Canada, where
we shot it. We planted production
planted all those corn fields too.
They're as far as yeah I could see.
And this is the road Cooper drives up on
the way out. And that's that Han Zimmer
countdown. 10 9 8 Leaving children to
follow dream
liftoff.
>> I love how quick that is. That
transition from from leaving to going. I
think that's so cool. Yeah, I think it
was, you know, Chris's version of tying
the human
drama. What would you do? A father
leaving children to go do what they know
they were meant to do.
>> Mhm.
>> And leave this earth and then from there
on time changes. And yeah, at the end of
this
shoot, when
it was wrapped and it was clear, we had
no more shots, no more scenes on this
location,
my family and I were in my Airstream on
the set is where we lived. We got uh um
at the edge of base camp, we turned our
Airstream to face out to the mountains
and right behind us is your medical and
your food, whatever you need from
production. But we stayed extra few days
and just hiked it and stuff. And one of
the things that was fun is I let my son
probably I don't know what believe I was
seven, eight at the time.
>> We got in my truck and I let him
drive through these corn fields as fast
as he wanted.
And he was going 360 all around cuz I
had checked. I was like they go, "No,
it's it's for as far as you can see.
It's just like the salt flats. Hit it."
And I've got some video of that and some
pictures. It was top. Yeah.
>> Unreal. Why'd you say life rhymes?
>> I think Mark Twain said that first,
didn't he? A version of that. History
rhymes.
Um
seems for as much as we go,
our generation's so different than the
last one. And there's never been
anything like this. The es and the
flows, the debits and the assets. And
for every new technology and old there's
a debit in an old culture and
uh
it seems like it always is right there
somewhat
equalized and balanced. And then there's
a rhyme in that that sort of
ecclesiastical.
You know, there's a time for everything
and for every you reap that will you
sow. There's a time to kill. There's a
time to live. There's a time to plant.
There's a time to gather. There's a time
to spread. It's very immersonian
too,
you know. And uh for every new
technology we lose an old culture, you
know, and these these things that we
think are contradictory, heaven and
hell, hate and love that we think are
like this an imbalance for the truth of
them, I think, is in that third eye
where they overlap. And they all do
overlap. They all sort of balance
themselves out. And I don't know how
much new under the sun we actually are
doing. I think we call it different
names. Think we change the labels. I
think you get some things that are extra
strength and some things that are unled.
>> But I think they all pretty much balance
pretty much balance out and there's
rhyme and balance.
>> What's your perspective on coincidence
in life?
>> Yeah.
>> Serendipity.
>> Yeah, man.
Well, first time I have it is deja vu
and you have it twice. I call it vu
deja.
Let's flip that thing around upside and
backwards. Both sides of the coin. Um,
look, in some ways it's the beginning of
an argument
for God, a divine plan, u fate, karma.
In other ways, I don't mean that's fun
to start doing that math to try and
prove our way there, but
it also feels like those are the swing
backs. Oh, I've been here before. H I
was here before.
This
life it doesn't have the the period at
the end of it. I mean, who knows how
many, you know, many lives, many
masters. I don't know if that's true. It
just sure makes it sure feels like it is
sometimes. Um, that's a rhyme. That's a
real nice a real time when life does
rhyme and you look and you look for the
math and you look for the science added
up and it ain't there
in that way. I do think science is the
practical pursuit of God of which we'll
never prove
and that's the point. So there you have
belief and faith for that which can't be
proven. But the pursuit of that is also
why I think God loves an atheist
scientist. It's like yes, keep it up.
>> Pursuit of that is why I think in my
agnostic years
where I said self-reliance, it's on me,
man. Forget faith. I'm not relying on
God. I ain't praying for nothing. It's
on me. Responsibility, self-reliance. I
believe that when I came back to my
faith that I heard God applauding.
Thank you for having your hands on the
wheel.
>> Thank you for taking the self-reliance
and saying it is on you cuz you know
what? I need that.
>> Well, it's that wonderful idea that God
doesn't want to do everything. Some of
it's up to you.
>> Amen. And though free will and faith
and self-reliance and faith, they can
seem contradictory, but I don't I don't
I don't I think they're the I think they
do rhyme.
>> And you need both. And we Yes, there's a
time for it. Inshalah, God willing,
there's a time for Well, if it's
supposed to be, it will be.
>> Yeah. Usually right after it happens,
>> you know.
>> Yeah. Uh, I think George Jenko says,
"Every man knows God when he's at his
lowest, that there are reliable times
when people turn toward faith."
>> And how many people turn at the end of
their life?
And I wonder, you know, if there is a
God, is that in the same way that, you
know, Catholicism could say sin all
week, but if you read if you meet it and
you ask for forgiveness on Sunday,
you're washed clean. Well, I see some
people use that as a crutch and go right
back to repeat offending. I've got a
appointment here going to forgive me
father for I know what I do. And I'm I'm
curious like is that okay to just
>> what's that mean?
>> Meaning there's the forgive me father
for I know not what I do.
>> And and I'm writing about well forgive
me father. There's times I know exactly
what I'm doing and I do it anyway.
>> Yeah. That was an error of valition not
accident.
>> A choice I made.
>> Yeah.
>> Now if I'm going to keep making that
choice and be a repeat offender.
I'm not ready to go. Yeah. But if I ask
for forgiveness on Sunday I'm all clean.
We can do it all over again. I'm not
ready to I'm going. No, no, no. Hang on.
The buck's got to stop here, man. If
you're a repeat offender, God's going,
"Yeah, you're not going to sit there and
>> tom foolery with me here, bud."
>> Um, and I don't want to do that with
myself.
Just as if I steal from you
and I come to you and I go, "I'm sorry."
That was I was I don't know where I was.
I was at horrible choice. I'm sorry.
Sorry. I'm asking for your forgiveness.
If you forgive me
cuz you take the my sincere want of
reconciliation, the first thing on the
docket between us should be me starting
to do anything and everything I can not
to have to come to you and say I'm sorry
for the same damn thing again.
If I do it
once, twice, I'm a repeat offender and I
stole from you three times, I think, and
I'm hoping you'll still forgive me, but
I wouldn't trust me,
you know. Um,
yeah. I think that's something that we
forget sometimes is that once you do the
forgiving, which let's go, let's the the
spite move out of us so we don't get
sick with that. The first thing
responsibility is on the one who's
asking for forgiveness to do everything
they can not to have to come to ask for
forgiveness or say I'm sorry again.
>> And I think we forget that. That's
that's on that's that's the debit.
That's that's what's owed by
>> Mhm.
>> the offender first.
You gave the grace to say I forgive you.
So he called we that doesn't mean it's
even money. That means I got work to do
>> to make sure I'm not coming back to ask
for it again.
>> As opposed again as opposed to there is
no amount of work that you can do that
will ever get you back to even keel.
It's someone saying
>> right the ledger is still imbalanced but
the door's open to the bank. the door
and and and it's on me to go
>> come and repay.
>> Look, I wish rehabilitation like the
jail system. I wish it was such that
once someone's out,
>> they're like you and me going to apply
for a job. They're not.
>> Scarlet Letter's on them. Well, that
means our our system of rehabilitation
isn't working
>> cuz if it works, you should get out. I
paid my penance. Now it's even money.
>> Yeah. Yeah. How do you think about
forgiving betrayal?
I've
think of when I've been betrayed.
When it's clearly betrayal, I know it's
betrayal and that person can look and
go, "Yeah, that's what I did." Um, I've
been asked for forgiveness for that
before. And I've been also seen people
go, "Yeah, that's what I did." And
they're not asking for forgiveness.
They're going, "Yeah,
that's what I did."
First response is, "Well, [ __ ] you." The
second one is, "If that's on my mind, if
that's keeping me up at night, that so
or whatever that is,
I got to I got I got to I got to flush
that. I got to wonder why is that on my
mind? I got to forgive that deed,
that person for that deed." And again,
not necessarily trust him, but do my
best to forgive him. And that can take
me a while. And I think that what takes
me the most time to to to forgive the
betrayal is
me when and if I betray myself, forgiven
myself.
Because you know how it is, man. We
forgive too quickly. We dust resilient.
We hop up and dust oursel off and go,
"Forgive you. Let's do it again." We do
become repeat offenders because we
didn't take the time to put oursel or
feel the guilt of the wrongdoing and pay
a little penance to look at and go, I
don't want to feel this again. I don't
want to do that action again to make
myself feel this way. I don't it doesn't
it doesn't feel like me. I don't want to
I don't want that person to have that
sadness or anger with me again or the
world to have that sadness and anger
from this. I don't want to feel that
again. And that takes some pause
to then go now I forgive myself. Let's
carry on and trust and be ready to do
the work to say we're not going to we're
not going to just let that slide
anymore.
>> It's not there's going to be a way to
hold myself to the highest end.
>> Yeah.
>> Because it didn't pay off because the
repercussions sucked. There is a
unique sort of circle of hell that is
reserved for when you keep on making the
same mistake over and over again that
you've done it. You've had to pay the
penance. Yeah.
>> Say that you're sorry
and then arrive straight back at the
same place.
>> Yeah. I think there's a hell in the
mirror.
Then I think it can become a living
hell.
Like I I got that poem in there,
Daymares.
>> I love that one.
>> I do too. You know, night nightmares
suck, but at least you wake up
>> and they're over. It's the ones that
stick with you when you wake up and go
through your day that are right there.
Those are the ones. That's the living
hell.
>> I think that's what you're what you're
talking about.
>> And you you repeat offend enough.
Word gets out, the circles gets out. You
people doubt you on your approach.
You're like, "Yeah, but don't do this
for this." I mean, all of a sudden,
you're going places and you got to look
over your shoulder. You got to see who's
there that I didn't pay back, who do I
owe? What bridge did I burn? What person
did I betray to get where I am? That's a
life. That's a living hell.
>> Well, forget that. That
in the modern world, you can move from
city to city. uh at least you can in
some regard leave your reputation
behind. This was one of the issues of
the west, right? This was how the snake
oil salesmen were able to keep going cuz
they would bounce from town to town,
>> right?
>> However, if you lose your reputation
with yourself,
if you no longer trust you,
>> yep,
>> I don't keep my own word. I know that
I'm not a trustworthy person. I keep
making promises to myself and to other
people and I keep on breaking them. I
keep doing something that hurts other
people or the same person.
They don't trust me anymore and oh, I
don't trust me anymore. And you're 100%
right. It all comes back to being a very
personal act. And what some people would
say, oh, that person's acting selfishly.
No, they're actually being incredibly
unselfish. I think cuz they're pinning
themsel in a living hell and having to
look in the mirror and going, I don't
trust you. I don't respect you. Now, how
long? And I know some people that can
sleep quite well with that existence.
>> I don't know how long they can do it.
Sound bound to be some come up. It's the
world's got to get small. They got to
get dizzy somewhere. But,
you know, where's that come from?
Where's that come from for
an agnostic, an atheist?
Where's that come from? From someone in
power that could easily damage somebody
but chooses not to be cruel and they
could so easily. Why not? Where's that?
What What is What's that moral compass
of some sort of fairness or integrity
that keeps someone
having that kind of character even
though they may not believe in God or
religion? That's why I'm saying in this,
is it about belief? Yeah, the book's
about belief. That's what I'm pedling
here. I need more of it. I personally
believe in God but the whole thing is
not for if people that just believe in
God. You believe believe in trying to
pursue your better self transcendent
self. If you believe in the future, you
believe in your kids, you believe in the
past, something don't know what that is,
ask yourself what you die for. Start
there. Everyone kind of believes in
something. There's an argument that even
Nile believe has nothing. Nothing's even
something, you know. Um I don't know how
you double down on nothing, but
>> double nothing.
>> Yeah. There's a an opposite end to this
scale as well that continuing to sort of
betray yourself. Uh sometimes you can do
everything right and still not get the
result that you wanted and that seems
like a really tough pill to swallow for
people. I think that's why people become
uncomfortable with fully feeling their
emotions.
>> Yeah.
>> So
where do you go? What do you think when
I really I I gave it my all there. I bed
myself and I still got kicked in the
nuts.
>> Yeah.
>> Not only did I feel like I deserve it, I
feel like I earned it and I still didn't
get it.
>> Wait a minute. But you said that's the
playbook and I followed the playbook.
You said these were the rules and the
regulations. I followed it and I was
good at it. I still didn't get it.
Well, suppose that's why we have
entrepreneurs and criminals and
I mean
I have to I think I I naturally come
back and look I I I hustle. I'm a
hustler. I I I'm not puritanical. I'm
not making not I'm not trying to preach
a absolute straight and narrow way to go
things. I bullshitted my way into things
and faked my way into making things.
pulled off stunts,
but
I I I I've never been able to really
live with by hook or by crook, I'll get
it how I can get it. I'll lie, cheat,
and steal to get it. I got the prize and
I'm still okay. I got it. My own shadow
chases me down in the middle of the
night. And those nightmares do become my
own daymares. Now they're getting going
for it and not getting it which we see a
lot now right now. I think we're living
in times where one of the indirect
examples we'll see seeing from leaders
some leadership is
who's got the power? The winner.
Okay. So what are the ethics? Well,
whatever the winner does. Yeah, but the
winner like pillaged and lied and
cheated and told him get the prize. But
he won.
Wait a minute. you moved the goalpost
while I had that. The ball is in the
air, man. Is that okay? They won. And to
I'm not buying to say I'm not ready to
purchase that. Okay, that's just how it
is. Um
and
I'm in no way foolish enough to think
that everybody out there is on their
best behavior. No, me neither.
Uh, but I'm not ready for just hey,
however you can pull it off and however
many people you crumple along the way,
there ain't no rules, regulations. Oh,
and actually, if you do follow the
rules, you're a sucker.
[ __ ] you. What's the game for then?
We're going to get dizzy on that. That's
going to self-implode. That's going to
be That's not the Wild Wild West. That's
more than that. That's upside down and
backwards and the foot's on the other
shoe. That's not going to last. that
that that that that that doesn't have
any RO long-term ROI for us personally
or collectively as humanity. I don't
think so. We got to police that
ourselves,
>> you know, and I think that's my hunch is
that we start with that. Everyone, no
matter how much they're thinking
globally or collectively, it all starts
with something very very personal. And
that that's where a revolution
will could begin. and a revolution of
evolution would begin that each person
goes, "I've got to go one step further."
As I talk about to salvage my character
or one step further before I pull the
parachute, quit.
I think that would that's how
you could really inch forward and evolve
in a way. Before we continue, you are
probably not eating enough fruit and
vegetables and you know it and this is
going to help. Good news. AG1 just
released their nextgen formula. It's a
more advanced, clinically backed version
of the product that I've been drinking
every day for years, delivering more
than 75 ingredients, including a
multivitamin, pre and probiotics,
superfoods, greens, and more. And for
the first time ever, they've now added
flavors. Tropical, citrus, and berry,
available in the US and Canada. So, you
still get the same one scoop ritual, but
now with an even more thoughtful
formulation, flavors, and four clinical
trials behind it. Designed with
absorption and maximum efficacy in mind,
AG1's been evolving since 2010,
continuously improving along with the
latest research, and AG1 NextGen is the
result. It's clinically shown to help
fill common nutrient gaps and support
gut health, even in people who already
eat well. In one study, it boosted
healthy bacteria in the gut by 10 times.
And if you're still not sure, they've
got a 90-day money back guarantee. So,
you can buy it and try it every single
day for 3 months. And if you don't like
it, they will give you your money back.
Right now, you can get a year's free
supply of vitamin D3, K2, free AG1
travel packs, and that 90-day money back
guarantee by going to the link in the
description below or heading to drink
ag.com/modernwisdism.
That's drinkagg.com/modern
wisdom. Let's say someone has been
kicked in the nuts a good bit by life.
How do you advise them to sort of become
the hero of their own story again?
Man,
>> that's a tough one.
I got a
I'm going to pull in here called Heaven
or Not and try and find it and uh see if
this kind of half answers that that
question
and uh you know I don't have
that answer. A lot of times these uh
here it is heaven or not you know
tomorrow is not today's measurement when
the misery is bad enough right these
people don't have to the suffering
consideration
is a it's a privilege man I'm trying to
put food on the table right now and pay
my rent tonight you want to talk to me
about investing in my future
and I say and that's part of what faith
and religion are for to help those in
misery hang on to a hope that will most
likely not be served serve them in this
life to sell them belief and faith that
they will be served in the next. And
what if there is nothing there, man?
What if there's nothing to hope for?
What if there's no next?
I don't know.
But either way, in misery here or
without a heaven there, not having any
hope or faith in anything is a certain
way to remain where you are forever.
But if you can find something that you
can keep going,
something that no matter how small to
look forward to and continually have
faith in and chase, well then your life
here is going to be better now,
heaven or not.
That's a great question. You know, I sit
here with a life where I have the the
luxury to project, to ask myself and ask
others, no, make a sacrifice today.
Sacrifice a plastic ring today for a
gold crown tomorrow. Sacrifice something
today for more freedom tomorrow.
Sacrifice something today for a possible
healthier future for your kids. I
understand that's a luxurious position.
I'm not going to apologize that I'm in
I'm in it. But I understand to someone
in misery, they're going,
"Good for you, man.
I'm trying to feed the family tonight.
I'm not thinking past that. I can't
think past that."
what he asked them to do. Yeah. My
indirect thing I would say and
understand is well if you don't have the
hope or believe in something you're
going to end up you're going to
definitely going to remain where you
are. And if you have hope and faith in
something, I'm not saying it's 100% get
out of jail. You're going to absolutely
get out. But you got the best chance to
>> peace is a gift of God and grace. To
reach it mean we must rage. age. Yep.
Yeah. I'm going to close my show that
I'm doing when on this little bit with
the tour with this with that
cuz
hey man kumbaya
um I get it. I don't think that's how
peace is coming. I think that's a great
place to hope for, but to get there
or closer to there
is going to take punk rock
a rage.
It's going to take getting wild.
It's not going to be necessarily
logical. It's not going to be tame. It's
not going to be whispered. I don't think
it's going to take nothing. No emotion
gets more [ __ ] done than rage for for
good or for bad. Seems like rage really
moves the needle. You know what I mean?
>> And I think that that emotion and that
approach shouldn't be thrown out when
you're talking about a pursuit of peace
or contentment. I mean, it it takes
sweat equity. It it would take blood
being drawn.
I don't believe that we are as evolved
enough species
to as to just behave as we
intellectually can agree we should be.
I don't see it happening.
We can all agree with it
in an open forum. Enough of us go back
on our own and what we're doing.
You know,
it's a good idea,
but boy, when it's we're cornered and
what we got being possibly trespassed on
be very primal. Some lines need to be
drawn. I I believe so. Wonder whether we
uh overpraise balance
>> when when greatness might demand
imbalance.
>> That's an interesting one. That's a fun
one, man. Do we over praise balance?
Yeah, I think my first reaction would be
we do overpraise balance a bit. It's a
great pursuit.
I think a better pursuit is try and find
the rhyme in the inbalance.
>> Well, let me give you what I think is
the justification for why balance gets
overpraised.
Most of the people who have a platform
which is sufficiently big with enough
credibility for others to listen on mass
>> have been through the rage and now burst
out the top to reach exit velocity.
>> Okay.
>> And what that means is
they're in a very different position now
to what they were at the beginning.
Yeah.
>> And the summary is uh model the rise not
the result.
>> I like that. model the rise, not the
result. Because the result is where
they're at now. Do not ask Warren
Buffett about how long he spends reading
the newspaper and pouring over old
books. That guy was a hustler. He was a
hustler when he was young. What did you
do when you were at the stage that I am
at? Not what do you do now? Because I
want to get to where you are. That means
I don't do what you do now. I do what
you did to get there.
>> Yay.
>> Model the rise, not the result.
>> Love that. The approach.
>> Okay. I'm all over. I'm all for that and
the way especially the way you just
explained it and and let's just talk
about overall the and I haven't thought
of it when thinking about aspirations
with people and things but the result
which we know there isn't really one and
we cannot imitate someone else's exact
result. We're going to have our own
thing way to get there. Um
the the approach is all I think that's
that's that's the best our life can get
is one constant approach or and with
many different approaches but knowing we
never there is no result.
>> That's when I always say the metaphor
life's a verb. Um but that's that's
really fun to go no no no no don't study
the result. What was the person doing
when they got there? And everybody who's
achieved something great was some sort
of outlaw.
>> Yep.
>> Some sort of hustler. Out of balance,
out of whack, dark times. Woo.
>> Astream.
>> Still wakes up in the middle of the
night and glad there went a mouthguard
cuz they'd have chipped all their teeth
through that [ __ ] nightmare they were
having about those things they did back
then.
>> I'm one of those. Well, another question
would be, what virtue is there in
balance if there was no such thing as
imbalance to fight against?
>> True.
>> Yeah.
>> Oh, I just reached equinimity,
>> right?
>> You know, I walked out onto this tight
rope. Yeah. Exactly. And I I don't know.
It just I didn't wobble once. Well, now
we're going into I have that I got that
thing there. I said, what what's better?
Take eight. Take eight eight big risk in
life. Sin once, miss the mark once, but
get seven. Achieve seven. Seven out of
eight. or take a hundred risk and
achieve eight of them.
My hunch is that
there's a God. He's saying go for the
hundred and get eight
>> rather than eight and get seven.
>> Mhm.
>> If you're not take if you're not taking
enough risk
>> to sin or miss the mark, which is what
sin means to fail,
then
>> what are you doing, man? Don't come back
with even money. go back with a safe bet
which that can become a sort of
recessive
peace and namaste. No, it's a it's a
it's almost a it's I don't think it's
what the mystics meant when they were
like be disattached.
>> Mhm.
>> I mean go embrace but
for highs and lows and pains and
pleasures understand that those outward
things are not the things to be attached
to for your own identity. It's got to be
inward first. Enjoy those, partake, but
don't become attached to those for your
measure.
>> There's a an idea from Isaiah Berlin
called the inner citadel. He says, uh,
when the world denies us that which we
want, we retreat into ourselves in a
kind of spiritual depth into a sort of
inner citadel. Basically, if you can't
get what you want, you teach yourself to
want what you can get.
>> Okay? Uh so for instance um you damage
your leg in a battle and you can try to
fix the leg in which case you're fine or
if you fail you chop your leg off and
announce that the desire for legs is
misguided and must be subdued.
>> Right? This is a retreat in spiritual
death. This is uh aestheticism on
steroids.
>> Um I by not trying to play the game
there is no risk of failure. Right.
>> And I think that the not making any
bets. Um I I I see this a lot. I've been
very obsessed with emotions. Since we
last spoke a year ago, I've been very
obsessed with emotions, with feeling
feelings or trying to. And
I get the sense that feelings are one of
these strange bets. Emotions, investing
ourselves, not holding a bit back, not
putting one foot out, like putting it on
the line, opening up.
>> Yeah.
>> Exposing ourselves. And
that feels like uh a retreat in kind,
but one that's plausibly deniable. When
we just have one foot out, I didn't
fully commit myself to this this
project, this relationship, this
friendship, this this uh self
transformation. I kept one foot back.
Well, you know, I might I might not be
able to do that right now because I got
this this challenge or this this
restriction from before, this
relationship. Like, I'm going to hold a
bit back. I'm going to keep a bit for
me.
>> This is my bit.
>> And it means that if failure comes
along, it doesn't hurt as much. But it
also means that success is less likely.
And if success comes along, you know
that you didn't really earn it. You
didn't really win it because you played
the game. And that's fine in some areas
of pursuit. And at some stages of life,
>> right?
>> Early in life,
>> I don't think you can be left as
culpable. You're 12 years old, you don't
know what you're doing.
>> In business, the outcome really is what
matters. That is what you're optimizing
for. Some people business is a a a
personal transformation vehicle
masquerading as a wealth-making pursuit.
But for the most part, you're there to
do the business.
>> Yeah.
>> But in relationships, in friendships, in
the way that you show up for yourself,
in your personal transformation, in your
relationship to whatever you believe in,
>> I don't think that we should be having
our inner citadel really play any
>> hard to pull off. Um, but
I it's believe it's similar to what I
write about when I talk about a owner's
mentality versus a renters's mentality.
So many people have the renters's
mentality. Relationships, businesses,
transactional, you flip it, get it, flip
it.
And they never give the relationship the
chance to possibly be a friendship, to
possibly be a long-term relationship, to
possibly be a great mate, great partner.
They never give the real estate, the
house a chance to actually maybe become
a home.
And that's
I think it's the words better that to go
in with an owner's mentality.
Meaning, have you ever hired someone
that you were like
probably just need you for a few months.
You have?
>> Okay. You have. See, I I have only hired
or
people that I was like I'm hoping this
is going to be a lifer.
>> Mhm.
>> I'm hoping you're going to provide what
I need and I'm going to get you're going
to get for me what you need that this
could work out forever.
Barely any of them do. Got a couple
>> a few.
>> But that's how you entered the
relationship. But a one I wouldn't have
known or I wouldn't have got out of them
and they wouldn't have got out of me and
if as much if we wouldn't have gone into
it with an owner's mentality.
>> People can tell this is transactional or
transient.
>> Let me ask you this though. Isn't all
right basically every I know it's
transactional transformational those
seem to be the two transaction
every relationship is transactional
>> but not only transactional some
transactional relationships could become
transformational but I mean we're all
using each other in a way that I can get
this from you give this to me my wife
gives this to me I give this to her it's
a transformational relationship but
we're always transacting so I don't have
the problem with the transaction I have
the pro I I I have I have the the whole
back when It's like, "Oh, it's merely
for transaction.
>> Oh, it's merely for use." And
how many people don't even try to hide
that?
They're just straight up going like,
"That's that's that's all it's for. What
are you talking about?"
>> Yeah.
>> I mean, I see it in in in in uh Palo
Alto, man. They raise all kinds of the
startups are everywhere and everyone
invests. You flip and it falls down and
no and they don't even blink. Yeah. and
you work for somebody and you become
their CEO and they fire you and d and
hammer you and see it in politics and
they hammer your name and drag you
through the mud and like dude that's
just that's how it is. No problem. Hey
Bob, how you doing? Like that's the guy.
No, that's fine. It's just business.
It's just politics. I'm like hang on a
minute. So that was that transactional
that that's water off the duck's back
for you? And for so many it is. I'm
amazed at how people do it. They're
built different in the same way as
doctors and nurses and firefighters,
>> people that need to deal with trauma,
>> right?
>> Uh you are dealing with interpersonal
trauma. You are you are a a soldier on
the field of interpersonal battle if
you're in politics or if you're in
business.
>> Yeah. You also don't necessarily do what
you believe.
>> You do what's expedient or successful or
efficacious.
>> You efficacious. What's that mean?
>> Uh effective. Okay. Yeah. Um,
you betray
a lot of people, a lot of ideals,
including yourself.
That doesn't sound like very much fun to
me. Not that betrayal part.
I wonder if it's inherent or if that's
me reading it from the outside and
saying, "No, that could be different."
I wonder how much of that is people
optimizing for the wrong outcome and
only getting to see a very narrow
aperture of other people's outcomes,
too. Or this person seemed to step on
some toes and and break a couple of arms
on their way up.
They were okay. Everyone seems to be all
right with this,
>> right? You go, you don't know what the
texture of that person's mind's like
when they go to bed at night. They might
not have spoken to their father in 5
years,
>> right?
>> They might never feel peace.
>> Yeah.
>> They might permanently be anxious. They
might hate themselves. Might not be able
to get an erection,
>> right?
>> You want that. You really want that. But
you want this. You want the outside
success.
The price that people pay to be somebody
that you admire is one of the most
fascinating questions I think.
Yeah.
Trying to think. I'm going through my
head right now. Where have I sacrificed
my own character
to get ahead so then to be perceived
>> as? And I know I've done it many times.
part of that
hustling part I said I've done, you
know, and I
>> That's the rise, you know. Yeah. And
being a marketeteer, too, you know,
gotten away with stuff, played games and
da da da da da. Kiss the fire and walk
away whistling. A little uh Icorus
light.
>> Yeah.
>> Did we talk about Icarus last time?
>> No.
>> No. I think I think we're more in need
of Icarus in reverse.
Meaning I I think, you know, oh, don't
get too close to the sun. It's getting
hot. It's gonna melt that wax. I think
most of us are turning back and it's 45
degrees Fahrenheit without bees on. I
was like, dude, what where do you go?
Where do we get the arrogance to think
that it's actually getting hot?
>> We're not even close, man.
>> Not even close to getting hot. I mean,
that close to the sun is way up there.
Arrogant pricks you are thinking that
you're that close. You didn't make it
near as far as you thought you did
>> or as you could go.
I wish more people I'm going to flip the
word were more involved with themselves.
>> Embrace your
>> instead of self-involved. That has a bad
term. I wish people were more involved
with themselves. Yeah.
>> I think that's where we're more
deficient.
Believe in yourself or invest in
yourself. Do more of what you can to be
great at a craft or vocation or to get
what you want. In other news, if you
thought that lemonade couldn't get
better, it just did. Element has taken
the classic taste of lemonade and
actually made it useful and functional,
giving your body back the sodium,
potassium, and magnesium. It actually
loses when you sweat. No sugar, no junk,
just the stuff that works. And that's
why I'm such a huge fan. That was
horrendous. You're nowhere near me. Uh
lemonade in an ice cold glass of water.
Just Okay, that was better. Hits
different. Hits different. And they back
it with the best policy for money back
that I've ever seen. No questions asked,
unlimited duration. If you don't like
it, they will give you your money back.
And you don't even need to return the
box. That's how confident they are that
you'll love it. I keep hopping on about
it because it genuinely makes a
difference. When I use it, I feel the
difference. And proper hydration is not
just about drinking enough water. It's
about having the electrolytes to allow
your body to use those fluids. And they
offer free shipping within the US. Plus,
right now you can get a free sample pack
of Element's most popular flavors with
your first purchase and that money back
guarantee by going to the link in the
description below or heading to
drinklnt.com/modernwisdom.
That's drinklnt.com/modern
wisdom right in the face. Yeah. You
thought you could hide back there,
didn't you? No, no, no. I see you, man.
You know the story of Seisphus? I don't
>> man that was cursed to roll the boulder
up a hill for the rest of time by the
gods.
>> Uh
this man gets cursed, I think he was a
demigod, gets cursed to roll a boulder
up a hill. It's heavy, heavy boulder. He
rolls it uphill and just as he gets to
the very top,
he stumbles and it falls down and
crushes him and he needs to walk back to
the bottom,
>> turn around, pick it back up. And
Albeckamu's famous line is we must
imagine Cisphus happy that this
pointless pursuit uh that he finds joy
in the process of doing it.
>> Um I wonder if we can imagine Icarus
happy.
I wonder if we can imagine the guy that
is flying toward the sun as well.
He had a view that nobody else got from
up there and he only did it once and the
wings melted. But
>> right,
>> what if you'd run that experiment a few
a few times and what if you had a little
parachute that could have sort of
brought him down?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> You might have realized that that was
just a one-off and actually I think you
can get closer.
>> Right. Right.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We must imagine Icarus
happy, I think, is a cool a cool idea.
>> Yeah. And you know, he regulated his
breathing as it got so hot and sweaty
and
>> he learned
>> somebody swung by and he had a backpack
with water on him the next time.
>> Yeah. He used the stronger glue, more
feathers.
>> Yeah. Yeah. He stitched it. You know
what I mean?
>> Came down a little more tan than the
time before.
>> I've always relied on logic to make
sense of myself and the world. I've been
finding that tougher to do lately. Seems
to me the facts have become unreliably
overrated.
How so?
What is a fact? Where do we go for the
facts?
What's the truth? What's where to go for
that? That's probably a bigger question
than what's a fact. I think a fact I
think the facts are an underdog right
now. And I'm not sure where to go to
find them.
The math doesn't seem to be adding up.
I'm not looking around so much. And part
of the reason I wrote this for my own
spiritual therapy, I was going I found
myself getting cynical
looking down my nose.
not giving people the benefit of the
doubt, stereotyping, objectifying full
group people in groups.
And then the scary part was I started to
entertain the idea of, yeah,
it may just be how it is now.
And that scared me.
And then I got angry at that. And I'm
still in the midst of some anger with
that
which is a bit of that rage thing which
make me act upon it and go [ __ ] Mm-
not conceding and I don't think anyone
really wants to concede that that's just
the way it is. And if it is the way it
is
and the reality is not enough to get off
to
let's go to the dream. Let's flip that
script. I always have gone from
non-fiction to say let's make that the
dream. Just keep living. Art emulates
life. And that's in the recent years has
started to pay me back less. How much is
that to do with my own eyes?
Probably quite a bit. But whatever it
is, still seeing it and uh
I want to fight against it. So I flipped
it and said, "Let's go to dreams. Let's
go to pray poems, prayers. These are
pursuits of an ideal beauty. These are
in between the lines. This is in between
the math. This is not academic. This is
not intellectual. These are ideals that
we pursue. The beginner's mind that we
have as a child before we know worse.
And I don't want to be ignorant. I don't
want to be foolishly optimistic. Let's
look to those and believe that we can
still make those real.
Let that bring rhyme to the reason
instead of looking to the reason to find
the rhyme. Mhm. That's
it. The rhyme communicating with the
reason
because
life around us is all like reason
reason. Neck up, man.
>> So, I want to pull some weeds here on
this pathway. Open up that this one lane
dirt top road with potholes and it's a
oneway going the opposite way which way
I want it to go. It's going away from
the heart. And to clean that up a little
bit and go, let's get you two
communicating a little bit. Uhhuh.
>> You're not going to win every time, bud.
Cuz we got we we we like our reason. We
want to mind oursel. But we make a
decision, we have any kind of certainty
or we make a judgment. Let's let's have
this let's have our heart be a
two-factor authenticator before we make
that decision.
>> Um
and uh that goes for the compassionate
side. That also goes for
the consequences and and of saying the
buck stops here with ourselves and
others. How do you advise perennial
overthinkers to get below the neck a
little bit?
>> Perennial overthinkers get below the
neck.
>> Record themselves
all overinking. Have a listen back. I do
it. I overthink a lot. And when I've
heard myself back, I'm like going,
"Dude,
you're kind of
seeing so much significance
that none of that shit's significant."
Every detailed frame have You're giving
it a proper name.
Oh, if everything's significant, there's
no significance at all, man. Some shit's
just like I don't have the capacity to
deal with it. I don't really care. It's
just how it is. Don't some of the
inevitables and sometimes you got to let
those ride. I'm not trying. That's just
how it is. I'm going to deal with that
now. I'm going to deal with what I can
deal with. I I get the middle agitations
on that. And I listen to myself back and
I'm like going, "Whoa, you need to get
some sleep.
You need to have a drink.
>> You need to relax. You need to, you
know, I got this uh uh funny appointment
here. It's called barbituate logic.
Where's barbituate logic? Can I find
this for a second?
Uh,
there it is. I need to calm my brain to
have half the thoughts per hour.
50% of the neural fragments and
therefore twice the power and one doubly
meaningful story with half the words.
>> You know, sometimes it the snaps it's
just it's too much. It's all treble. And
if everything is significant,
you're like, you miss the main thing. I
I'm missing so focused on the drop. I
didn't realize it was raining. It's the
force for the tree thing. So that's the
overthinking. When I've recorded myself,
I can hear that there is some
lanyop
etc. in my
talk and some of it is babble. Some of
it may be succinctly fine-tuned and
wonderful. Then I have to go, is that
useful to my understanding? Is it useful
to the story I can tell? Is it useful to
my application in life? And a lot of
times I'm like, no, it's clever. It's
like smart [ __ ] I don't want to spend
too much time in that head because that
sounds like, you know, you broke a sweat
in places you weren't really getting
exercise mentally, spiritually, or
physically. Um, so that could sometimes
listening listening back has helped me
baseline some things and kind slow the
brain down. Man,
you're missing me give more meaning. And
you hear the smartest people, man. I
love hearing the wisest people. Their
stuff's short, bro. It's quick and you
go, "Oh." And you're like waiting for
more and you're looking around and
they're like looking at you like that's
it. And you're like, "Perfect." my dad
telling me when I wanted to go to film
school instead of law school and I
thought he was going to go you want to
what him taking that pause and says is
that what you want to do and I said yes
him going
well don't half ass it
was waiting for so much more that was it
and there's no that was it nothing
better he could have told me yeah
>> at that time
>> yeah it's also I think remembering when
we overthink things or overexlain
things. You're stealing a lot of times
in in moments that you think maybe
you're teaching even ourselves,
especially others. You're stealing the
the dignity of leaving the truth in the
askers's kitchen,
like saying letting someone come up with
the have a conversation, but you're
letting them come up with
>> the answer. It's like what the best
directors do in films. They don't tell
you what to do. They talk about and get
you to go, "Oh, oh yeah." So, and you go
it is as you say,
>> then we got ownership and that's our
idea whether we were manipulated into it
or not. We're got going thank you.
>> It's mine. Now we got fire. Now we got
purpose. Now that you get the great
performance in front of the camera and I
think in in life more too when person
feels like they came up with the idea. I
always tell directors, man, I'm easy to
direct. Just don't tell me what to do.
And if you can trick me into thinking,
"All right, all this shit's my idea."
>> Yeah. You know,
>> yeah, there's a
wonderful insight about why we like
people that's similar to that. So, uh,
inverse charisma. Uh, a lot of the time
we think that we want to be more
charismatic because that would make us
more likable. We want our stories to be
engaging and our aura to be electrifying
and our presence to be magnetic and for
us to walk into a room and for everybody
to sort of look up
>> be compelled.
>> And then I looked at the friends that I
liked spending time around the most.
And they're interesting, but that wasn't
really the common denominator.
Some people are interesting
and some people make you feel
interesting.
>> And there's this wonderful story about
Jenny Jerome, Winston Churchill's
mother, and she gets to meet uh Benjamin
Israeli and William Gladstone on
consecutive nights for dinner. And she
leaves the first dinner, says uh I left
that feeling like he was the cleverest
man in all of England.
She goes to the second one. She says, "I
left that dinner feeling like I was the
cleverest woman."
And this wonderful idea that some people
are interesting, some people make us
feel interesting.
>> And and kind of the same with with this
idea here that uh
>> allowing
allowing the conclusion to be arrived
at.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh is often the best solution.
>> Yeah. I I have to continue to watch it.
I love being in the know.
>> I I love giving
advice. I love sermonizing. My kids will
be like, "Can you give something a TED
talk?" Dad, like, "Yeah, shut
>> sit down." No, no, no, no. I've got
slides.
>> Listen,
I let them find it. And you know, I
heard a cool trick and it was just so
simple.
But uh one in
talking and
sharing something that you've learned
that you think may be applicable to
other people. The use of I, you or we to
use the we
>> like you is dangerous because people be
you're talking at me. You're telling me
what to do. I is safe because
>> well that's you're that's your
experience. Maybe you invite maybe
people see themselves or not. to say we
it's a it's it's closer to platitudinal
because you're going like are you
speaking for all of us? But it does
welcome everybody in. And it says that
and I always like to say this when I'm
talking about things with people. I'm
like when I when I say we, I'm I'm
including me. All right. Because I'm not
>> we includes me.
>> Yeah. We includes me. I'm not I'm
working on this [ __ ] too, man. you know,
um, and trying to and like I have to be
reminded don't don't be afraid to ask
the question that I'm asking for myself
that can open up someone else to go,
well, I got an answer to that.
What do you got?
>> Did with the similar with the kids last
night. Instead of saying
VA Levi Livingston, how are you doing?
It's a tough answer, tough question to
answer. I said, and my friend gave me
this note, said, "Hey, what's what's the
life of a teenager like these days?"
They took off and talked and shared all
kinds of stuff
>> cuz I wasn't putting them on the spot or
they didn't take it as put on I found
out so much more about how they're
feeling by asking
>> It's broad question.
>> Broad question.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> You know,
>> Yeah. It's funny how we need license for
that.
>> Yeah.
>> In a strange way.
>> Yeah.
to be able to talk about is a lot of
times how we best talk about ourselves.
>> Yeah.
>> But couched with enough distance.
>> Yeah.
>> I have noticed I have seen it. It's the
I'm asking for a friend. Uh
justification.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> What do you think about the role of
courage in life? You know, we've talked
so far about
the balance of doing it and not doing
it.
>> We've talked about dreaming big and
maybe dreaming even further. And then
we've also had this idea of uh a little
bit of relinquishing of control.
>> Yeah.
>> As well as we got to apply the effort,
we got to have the vision, but we've
also got to know when when we're going
to let let go a little bit.
>> Yeah. It seems to me like courage,
the ability to feel our convictions and
>> commit to them is a little bit of a
common thread that sort of runs through
those.
>> Yeah.
>> So
I grew up only knowing sort of the
courage of the persistent. Be resilient,
endure, get up, dust yourself off, go.
The problem with that, the Achilles heel
with that is if you get up and you have
the courage to keep on going every time
and get up and dust yourself off, you
make the same mistakes each time around
cuz you never backed up.
To have what I've now learned and still
learning is the courage to go, "No, I'm
going to let some people pass me in the
race right now cuz I'm going to look at
why I keep stepping in that damn same
pothole and twisting my ankle. The same
spot.
why I keep failing when I try to get
that next spot in this relationship or
failing in this place to get this
product of my craft to the next.
>> Would that be uh the relinquishing of
the romcom era in in a a small part for
you?
>> Small part. Yeah. Uh yeah, that that was
one. It also has to do with when I got
married. my,
you know, son comes to me at four years
old and says, "Why isn't Mama McConnah?"
I'm going through my head. You're
[ __ ] four, dude.
I sat there. I was like, "God,
>> did your mom put you with this?"
>> It's a great question, but I mean, we're
not because we're not married. When you
get married, you switch your name. Okay.
And then he just got listened and all of
a sudden he goes,
>> "Are you scared?"
I'm [ __ ] four years old, dude. And I
was like, "Yeah,
I guess I am." I remember going to a
pastor and talking to a lot of different
elder men who had had long-term
relationships, were married for decades
and stuff, and and and my pastor goes,
"Let me just ask you this, Mr. Risk
Taker. What's the bigger risk?
Carrying on like you're going, it's
going well." or taking the deeper dive
into the sacrament covenant of marriage
which should be a covenant between you
and her and God. The trilogy will go
forward. That will be a whole new vent
adventure in itself. Are you what?
What's a bigger risk? I was like, "Oh,
the getting married's a bigger risk." He
was like,
he didn't say another word.
That was part of why I made the
affirmative action and was what I was
looking for as a way to play offense
with that choice. I didn't want to do it
because that's what you're supposed to
do. It's time. We've been dating for
this long. We got engaged. I didn't want
to do it by the book. and I was looking
for the authent
being able to do the work I was doing
and offer the roles I was getting the
romcoms
was eating at me
because I felt like I could life is good
man I make good Honey,
feel like I can roll out of bed and do
one of these tomorrow morning. Well,
that's cool,
man. I'm kind of number one. I'm I'm I'm
the I'm the go-to guy for this.
But I wasn't I was countered by I had
met Camila, fallen in love, she's now
pregnant with her first child. So that
my life was extremely vital and I was
alive, cried harder, laughed louder,
felt more joy, all those things. about
my work was like all right and I was
like well I wish my work could be as
challenging or as vital as my life and I
remember looking in the mirror going
well be glad right now appreciate that
it's not the other way around but can I
have my work challenge my lifestyle in
this vitality
yeah if I do some dramas I want to do
well those aren't coming all right if I
can't do what I want to do quit do what
I was doing now that was
I think yeah it was definitely
courageous I did I honestly
think I'd written myself a one-way
ticket out of Hollywood.
People close to me. Basically, almost
everybody besides my wife was like,
"What is your major malfunction, little
brother? You got it made. Why Why are
you throwing a jack knife in this?
You're tripping yourself running
downhill, man. You You You did it.
And I had my wife and myself to remind
myself of that 4:00 a.m. clarity that I
had in tears when I was like, "No,
I'm I'm I'm I'm rolling the dice. I'm
sticking with it."
>> And
yeah, man. I did think I wrote myself a
ticket out of Hollywood. I did look at
other vocations, become a teacher,
a wildlife guide. I serious seriously
look at those things.
Um
but over time and it was about 20 months
it was gone long enough had found
anonymity enough was not in your living
room in a theater in a romcom. You
didn't see me on a beat shirtless
where is he
and then I think I told you the story
turning down the $14.5 million offer
made people go oh [ __ ] what's he up to?
They don't just you don't just step out
of Hollywood and then unless you get you
turn that down because you got a plan.
you got somewhere you want to go and I
think that made me more
attractive as a new novel idea. But that
was yeah that wrist took a I think it's
fair to say that took a fair amount of
courage from me. A quick aside if you've
been feeling a bit sluggish your
testosterone levels might be the
problem. They play a huge role in your
energy, focus, and performance. But most
people have no idea where those are or
what to do if something's off. which is
why I partnered with Function because I
wanted a smarter and more comprehensive
way to understand what's actually
happening inside of my body. Twice a
year, they run lab tests that monitor
over a 100 biomarkers and they've got a
team of expert physicians that analyze
the data and give you actionable advice
to improve your health and lifespan.
Seeing your testosterone levels and
dozens of other biomarkers charted over
the course of a year with actionable
insights to actually improve them
genuinely gives you a clear path to
making your life better. And getting
your blood work drawn and analyzed like
this would usually be a nightmare and
cost thousands. But with function, it's
just $499. And right now, you can get an
additional hundred bucks off, bringing
it down to $399.
So get the exact same blood panels that
I get and save a h 100red bucks by going
to the link in the description below or
heading to
functionhealth.com/modernwisdom.
That's functionhealth.com/modernwisdism.
For a lot of people, their work feels
more vital than their life.
>> Yeah.
>> Is that a a shiny object mirage that
they need to rid themselves of?
If you can and you're willing to. Yeah.
Look, that's part of why I started
writing.
The script flipped on me 5 years ago.
I was like I was feeling like my work
was more vital than my life. I felt like
I was going through the motions more in
my life, but I was really getting major
life experiences and through my work.
And I had the same question. I was like,
well,
let's see where I can challenge myself
more in the documentary, the one life
I'm living rather than the characters
I'm going to play that somebody else
wrote, someone else directing, someone
else is lensing through their camera and
editing. What are we doing on
this one take that we've had since the
day we were born and will be cut the day
we die. And so that was a challenge to
myself which
led to the the writing which was a more
direct experience kind of put a word
down without it's my script and without
my performance on it without music
without pictures and uh
so that was an inward journey that I'm
that I'm still on and now I think I'm
trying to want to do both of them. I
just did a couple movies. Jeez, I was
reminded how much I love it. M
>> it felt like freaking vacation going to
act again to have a singular obsession
like that was like it was a it was a
vacation
>> for me and I did good work I don't mean
like it was laying back with the pina
colada I would getting what I wanted
done each day and collaborating with
somebody that I like to collaborate with
and building this thing and building a
character within the movie and being
done I was like that was so much fun
that felt like a vacation much more so
than the two months I just spent in
Europe it felt like more of a vacation
than that
which has led me to question myself.
Maybe I need to learn how to vacation
differently.
>> That's also a skill. Yeah, I hear uh
True Detective season two maybe coming
back.
>> That would be season probably five. I've
>> season two with you.
>> Oh, well Nick's got an idea. Pitch a lot
of the creator and he's brought it up to
Woody and I we've talked about it and he
says he's got a line on it and we both
said,
"Awesome.
show us.
Um, that's as far as this has gone. Um,
I think we've talked about that. I I I I
missed that. I loved that series. It was
my favorite thing to watch on TV and I
happen to be in it, but I just was I
loved it. I watched it every Sunday
night like everybody else.
>> Um,
and
in a series, it was the first time,
especially now, because things are
getting abbreviated. The first acts of
stories are getting abbreviated more and
more I'm finding and I don't know if
this is because oh people's attention
span are shorter just introduce
characters and let's get on with the
conflict but act two starts on page 12.
It used to start on page 37 38 and now
it starts on page 12. And I'm like man
the actor's favorite part is act one
because that's where we're going okay
maybe you've seen it before but you
hadn't seen it with me. You hadn't gone
on this journey with this character. Let
me introduce you before the conflict
arises to this world and this character
and my behavior and my relationship so
you can go on a journey with us with me
like you've never gone through this
before.
>> Well, those are getting reduced. The
series of True Detective, eight series,
eight hour episodes, man. I got three
hours. I got I got 190 pages of an act
one.
Um
that's a luxury and a beautiful thing to
have to sit there and go okay you don't
and it takes took me a lot of patience
cuz I almost made some choices. I was I
remember sitting there after a month in
thinking like I think what I'm doing may
be really boring and I was like no trust
trust when when rust becomes crash it's
going to flip. Trust getting there. But
I was sitting there going and I was
going to Nick and Carrie on is this
boring what I'm doing? And they were
like, "No, stick with it." I was like,
"Okay." I go, "You're you see stuff
bubbling underneath." They're like,
"Yeah." I was like, "Okay." Cuz I'm
getting anty, you know.
>> So, if that came along and it was the
right script, be a great collaboration
again. Tell you who I had on the show
last week in London, Bugsy Malone, and
uh he was telling me a few stories about
what he learned working with Guy Richie.
>> Yeah. What have you learned working with
Guy?
Guy
is great in the moment, but you ask guy
to work on anything
or talk about what we lump for dinner
tonight and it may be six o'clock.
That's too far in the future.
That son of a gun. He wrote he he he
wrote the script and I go in and I my
character had great monologues and great
things to say and it takes a lot of work
to work on those things and working to
understand them and I'd show up on the
day and he we'd always sit down let's
hear it and he'd be over there listening
and all of a sudden be like oh god what
did you say gez what was that line there
oh god that's rubbish who wrote that
well you did like oh god that's [ __ ] you
know what and he starts spitting out
different lines and he's rewriting on
the day like right before you're
supposed to do the scene not the morning
of and definitely not on a Sunday before
the week. I'd ask him to meet me on
Sunday to go to the script. He stood me
up every time, every time. But you get
on set and now he's in it. And the stuff
he comes up with live
where I went from frustration to like,
oh, because 95% of the stuff he comes up
with live is better
>> than what was there. And so I started to
go, okay, it's a meter. It's it's a
musical meter of speech patterns that
he's hearing. Pop pop pop. And there's
no ums in any of his stuff. It's sharp.
You know, it's it's it's it's noun verb,
non-verb, noun, verb, maybe an
adjective, adverb in there somewhere.
Period. Bam. Pop pop. And he hears it on
the in the moment. And again, he's
funny. He'll call out something that
you'll think I thought was some of this
genius stuff he wrote. And you'd be
like, "Oh god, that's [ __ ] Who wrote
that?" Like, "Well, you did." He's like,
"Well, that's rubbish. Throw it out."
He's like the uh he's like the freestyle
rapper of the director world.
>> Yeah. And I I loved after I got past
frustration. I I mean I enjoyed him and
working with enjoyed him before I
enjoyed working with him. And then I
understood the way he worked and
continued to enjoy him and enjoyed
working with him.
>> I really enjoyed working with the guy
and the way his mind works, his
attention when it's live, when it's
time. Now we're in it. Now we're at the
table. We are all here to shoot the
scene. Let's sit down now and read
through this how it sounds. But you want
to do this an hour before? You want to
do this back in the trailer? Uh-uh.
>> Uh-uh.
That's exciting. That's like a
tightroppe.
>> Yeah.
So, I had to go between, you know,
what's worth learning anything in the
damn script to No, no, no, no, no. You
know, there's certain things. Of course,
you're reading this thing the night
before thinking, I know 50% of this is
going to be thrown out tomorrow.
>> 60%. You know, um, but like I said, when
you look and you hear it and you go in
the moment, you go,
"That is better." Yeah. And the hard
part is right after you hear it's better
and you agree it's better, it's like,
"Okay, let's shoot it." And like, well,
hang on. I I need to It was a lot. Let
me have a look at it. You know what I
mean? Let me try and at least memorize
some of it.
>> Yeah.
>> Apparently, you've shot at Stray Vista
before. Did you have a cactus? Did you
have a
>> uh I had many cactuses in many places
that had a cactus. I was telling a story
to someone a couple days ago. I think
it's the picture on the back of the book
where my Airstream is there. I believe
that's in Utah. Mhm.
>> And I remember that place because I
pulled off the side of the road about
5:00 p.m. one afternoon and I went on
this dirt road through this camp that
was crystal meth. They were hacking it
up and the the the the wandering eyes
and the twitches, they were all out
there watching me pull in. And I'd
learned from being on the road enough
that it was me and my dog that when you
go and you know some possible uh um uh
danger in the people that are around.
You got to watch how you get out. You
got to watch how you drive. You got to
watch how deliberately you back that
thing up. You got to watch how you get
out of the car, how you walk deliberate,
how you got your shoulders back.
>> And you also, it's a good idea to grab
the baseball bat and do some stretches
with it with your shirt, you know, and
your dogs out. And while you know
they're over there a half mile away with
the binoculars, you just enough to
hopefully have them go,
>> "Well, maybe let's pick the next guy."
You know what I mean? And that night, I
slept there and went to bed and I woke
up at 4:00 a.m. to this sound. And of
course, I already had on my mind if in
case they come to break it, it wasn't
them. I, unbeknownst to me, had pulled
up 6 ft away from a a
rail train rail and a train came by at 4
in the freaking morning and and I was 6
feet from it and that's what I woke up
from in that spot.
>> So, you do feel at home. We just need a
train going by.
>> Train would be right on the backside.
Yeah, right on the backside. Um, in
deserts, you know, you got me in the
desert. This is my This is where I I
feel most at home in deserts.
>> Um, I don't know what it is. Deserts are
like cats. They're so feline, you know.
Everything's incredibly clean. There's
no mildew. There's no uh uh the
moisture's not there. If something rots,
it dries.
>> It doesn't. There's no bacteria. And I
just love the cleanliness of a of a
desert. I get a lot of energy in the
desert.
>> What's the difference between a nice guy
and a good man?
>> Yeah.
um you know, right about that and there,
but a nice guy has is about some a nice
guy gets along. Yeah, do that. Yeah,
I'll do that. They don't necessarily
have discernment or judgment. Not sure
what they stand for or stand against.
It's like, yes, yes, yes, sure. Yeah.
Hey, a good man has ideals that they
stand for and they'll stand against and
when they're tested,
a good man is not a nice guy. Um that's
in the chapter of Manning Up.
You know, that's I was that time when I
was doing the romcoms and that's all I
could do. I was feeling like my work was
just me as a nice guy. And in life, I
was not just a nice guy. Like I said,
Camila's pregnant. I got a child coming.
I was I was feral with masculinity.
and and
my work. Maybe I was feeling a bit
neutered.
>> And I was like, well, I'm I'm I'm I'm
a good guy and a good man in life, but
I'm just a nice guy at work. Can I be a
roles that can be a a good man?
>> And that was dramas. Cuz in dramas, you
can stand for or stand against
something. Your ceiling for pleasure and
your basement for fame are up to you.
How do you feel about it? And no
direction can go that's too much or
that's not enough.
You got too angry there. Oh, you meant
that too much. Those that that didn't
come in a drama. Those come in a romcom,
right? Cuz the emotions and how you feel
are compressed to be in a buoyant level
in a threshold that's up bouncing from
cloud to cloud only. Dramas are as much
pain, as much evil as you want to go, as
deep dark you want to go. Get there.
Let's see how far you go.
how high you want to fly, how close to
that sun you get before you before you
get burned, go see how far you go.
That's what you get in drama. Much more
like real life. Um, and so,
you know, good guys, being a good good
being a good man's a lot harder
for good reason. Not going to be most
popular, not going to be always most
affable.
Um, it also doesn't mean you got to be a
dick or an [ __ ] Just means sometimes
you got to go, I believe in this, is
this for me, this is for me, and that is
not for me. And because that is not for
me, if you do trespass
>> into my space upon me and my family,
there will be I will do my best to cause
consequences.
And I'm going to let you know that. I
want I hope that's apparent because I'm
not going to intrude on you, but if you
trespass that I mean I'm
I'm going to stand up for it and that we
can talk our way out of that. Great.
No, it doesn't always work that way.
You know, a good man's not looking for
trouble,
you know. Um, but if it comes and if he
or something he cares about unless we're
susceptible
to being trusted on but trespassed on by
trouble, a good man
does what he can to do to stop that. So
Aaron Bugsy um
tells this story. He famously had his
house robbery attempt occurred on his
very nice house in Manchester.
Manchester's got some spicy individuals
in it from the gang culture and there is
a CCTV video of him. Now by this point,
this is I think 21 or 22. So he's been
in the first movie. He has had multiple
huge albums, world tour rapping, done
all the things. Most played fire in the
booth, freestyle in history, all of this
stuff, right? Uh so you might think even
though he came from below the streets
sort of he came from the sewers uh as a
kid
he has a public image to keep up. Maybe
he's got soft the sort of velvet prison
silk pajamas problem.
>> And he told me this story and uh his
girlfriend rings. She's in the house.
These men are trying to break in.
There's a barricade. So he's driving
back with his sister in the car. He's
driving back and there's a guy by the
side of the road and he can see he's got
a brick in his hand. So, uh, Aaron stops
the car, opens the door, and immediately
says, "Mate, is that you? Blue shirt.
That's such a nice blue shirt." And as
he's moving toward him, he puts his
hands in the air like this. He's moving
towards him. He's moving towards he's
moved to Hits this guy. Brick drops,
finishes him off, gets back in the car,
and this bit's captured on CCTV and
somebody overlaid it with the call to
the police. So, there's a 999 call going
on.
>> Yay. from I think his mom who's in the
house. These men are trying to break in
and you see him pull up in this
Mercedes. This guy been in movies and
all the rest of it and it's a van of
dudes. It's a van of men
>> trying to break in.
>> Yes. Yeah. You're trying to rob his
house and see he's rich. He's got
something that we want.
>> He's already dealt with one of them.
Think he might have dealt with another
one of them as well. And he pulls in in
this fancy Mercedes. You see this guy
who has got kind of world at his feet
opens the door to his Mercedes, pulls
his shirt off and just sprints at this
van. And he it was [ __ ] electric. He
told me this story is so electric.
>> And that's on CCTV.
>> That's great. There's best video he ever
made right there, huh?
>> So hardcore. It's so hardcore.
>> Um but yeah, that's you know, good man,
not a nice guy.
We'll get back to talking in one minute,
but first, Momentous make the highest
quality supplements on the planet, and I
have fallen in love with their whey
protein powder. It is grass-fed, and
each batch is exclusively sourced from
EU dairy farmers whose cows are free of
hormones, steroids, and all of the other
junk. So, if you have been struggling to
hit your protein goals, which let's face
it is everybody, Momen's grass-fed way
is a super convenient way to get super
convenient way to get extra protein into
your diet. Lean muscle mass, muscle
growth, supports recovery, post
exercise, etc. But it's also NSF
certified for sport, meaning that even
Olympians can use it, and there is a
30-day money back guarantee. So, you can
buy either or both of these, try them,
and if you don't like it for any reason,
you will get your money back. Plus, they
ship internationally. Right now, you can
get 35% off your first subscription and
that 30-day money back guarantee by
going to the link in the description
below or heading to livemus.com/modern
wisdom and using the code modernwisdom a
checkout. That's l i v m o m n
o.com/modernwisdom
and modernwisdom
a checkout.
I I guess are there any principles or
have you learned when it comes to the
masculinity thing, are there any
principles that you refuse to compromise
on?
Let's define let's let's have fun trying
to define masculinity here. I think
we've
rightfully so
come out of the chasm that macho is
masculinity.
I think
through
certain perceived and not perceived and
realistic overcompensations of say a me
too movement
that
some men felt
shamed to be masculine.
Good men felt that way. I know for a
fact and again I want to say to all the
women out there this has nothing to do
with being exclusive of the rise of uh
the rights and power of women but in
that over conversation there are a lot
of men that I know who were looking for
that definition that feel like
>> I've been told what it's not
>> and now I don't know what it is and
[ __ ] I just opened the door for her.
[ __ ] I'm done. Well, it certain and and
and and I bring that up and sometimes
friends like, "Oh, that's frivolous."
No, but it's it's part of it. It's one
example of of like that's not what
that's not what me too meant
in the over conversation, especially
when they said come one, come all
and Azizeri got thrown up there with
Harvey Weinstein is the same crime.
You're going no that's not the same.
Hang on a minute. Not
>> the same.
There are a lot of men trying to
understand what that is. And like
anybody, they're not going to go down,
you know, anything to be corrected.
Everyone overcompensates.
You know what I mean? And but that
there's men looking for a redefinition
of what masculinity is.
And
there is a difference. There are some
wonderful, beautiful differences between
men and women, thankfully,
>> biologically.
um not always exclusive of each other,
you know, not and but there's nothing
that I see this cuz is is right up there
at the top of what's one of the best
thing for women all over the world is
more good men
and
a masculine
truly masculine man is not an oppressor.
Truly masculine man is not macho. It's
not chauvinist,
but he's damn sure masculine. Most
masculine I've ever felt
after the birth of my first child.
Never were my head, heart, and loins in
such synchronicity. And the power that I
had was I mean it's probably the best
husband ever at that time, too.
Men want to be, and I don't know if this
is biological because I'm not saying
women don't, but men want to and are
looking for
ways to be relied upon.
And so we say, "Yeah, but you always
want to be the savior and you always
want the solution." Okay,
cool.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to
find the solution to things.
>> Great. Let's work with that.
Thank you women for saying glad you got
the solution, but just listen to me for
a second, Lauren, cuz I'm not looking
for a solution. Actually, I just want to
talk this out and I'll probably answer
my own question. You know what I mean?
Doesn't mean don't be the male side of
you that wants to find the solution or
wants to be relied upon.
It's being redefined now. And uh there's
a lot of uh I talked to him and a lot of
young men and middle-aged men that are
looking, you know, part of this role I
got to play in this last film, The Lost
Bus. It was not, you know, visible to me
that I was also representing a large
group of men who were middle-aged who
woke up and looked around. I'm like, "Oh
[ __ ]
this isn't where I thought I'd be. Oh
[ __ ] I haven't built anything."
failed marriages, failed jobs. Some of
them did it all right, too. A lot of
them when things got tough, they snuck
out the back door.
>> Got the divorce, didn't go one step
further, didn't show up, and that caught
up with them. Uh, but that's also a
large group of the demographic of men
going like, "Well, what does masculinity
mean? How and where can I be relied
upon? That gives me dignity to be
relied. That gives me significance.
Call it what you want, but if you think
that's true, and I do, there's nothing
wrong with that.
So,
what is masculinity?
You know, I'm not going to, you know,
let's get past the what are some of your
definitions of or understandings of what
masculinity is? If we were going to say,
"Men, here's something that you should
expect of yourself and pursue
as a biological male."
>> Mhm.
>> You know, it seems like a lot of the
definitions converge on similar sorts of
traits. Um,
emotional composure tends to be one of
them. Uh, competence
tends to be another.
um the ability to be decisive.
>> Yeah.
>> Is another of those.
>> So, we're starting to build this sort of
suite of traits,
>> right,
>> that it is. Uh but
as soon as you start to try and alter
the edge cases, so well I mean you know
going to have somebody who's
uh got emotional control
or that uh even slightly at its extreme
is a denial of emotions and no
vulnerability,
>> right?
>> Sort of uh all the bad bits of stoicism
with none of the good bits,
>> right?
>> Uh and then okay, you want uh sort of
competence. Well, that very quickly sort
of turns into uh single-minded progress
at all costs regardless of what anybody
else thinks.
>> And uh decisiveness turns into being
doineering
>> and certain.
>> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't need to listen
I don't need to listen to you. Um, so I
think
it is a a very delicate balance and I I
I think it's a good point to say um me
too was an important rebalance to men
being able to use their positions of
power to get access to women in ways
that they shouldn't have done.
>> Mhm.
>> And the goal of me too was to sanitize
the toxic elements of men's behavior,
but instead it just sterilized all of
them. It sterilized all of the elements
of its behavior. I think it
>> and I think it's when it became so many
movements are are right on when it's a
rifle, but as soon as they become
general admission.
>> Yeah.
>> It becomes the shotgun spread and it's
like, well, we got to Yeah. Come on.
>> Yeah.
>> I don't know. You telling the truth? Oh,
it doesn't matter. Yeah.
>> That's it. stops being the opportunity
to uh rebalance something and it starts
being an opportunity to grind an axe and
continue to sort of put your foot on the
neck of of somebody else. So I think um
yeah you end up with this
>> this strange situation especially around
me too. This is a pattern I mentioned to
you last time about uh type A people
with type B problems and type B people
with type A problems. And the theme of
that is
advice that's given on mass
is uh sometimes right even for the
majority but will be um absorbed
asymmetrically. If you uh give everybody
the same supplements, some people will
be hyperresponders and some people will
not respond at all. And sometimes the
hyperresponders are the people who
didn't need it already,
>> right?
>> So an example when it comes to the me
too thing is the men who
really needed to heed don't be pushy are
precisely the men that that message will
not work on. And the men who are most
likely to take it to heart,
>> right,
>> are the ones who probably needed a
little bit more encouragement to go up
to that girl in the bar. So if you're
the type of guy who's who's a little bit
more insular and a little bit more
concerned and you didn't want to make
her feel uncomfortable and you had
approach anxiety and then like believe
all women do not the toxic male gays you
do not need to do the thing you're going
to think oh I knew I knew all along that
that was the case I must not I must not
do this thing whereas if you're the sort
of guy who was already being way too
pushy
>> unfortunately this advice is there are
hyperresponders and those that aren't.
And unfortunately, a lot of the time the
people that are most likely to respond
to bits of advice. And this is the same
thing when it comes to men should be
vulnerable.
Men should show their emotions more. Out
of the paniply, the full spectrum of
men. Who do you think is most likely to
take on board the message? Men should be
more vulnerable.
Men who are already
>> already vulnerable.
>> They've got a disposition to be more
vulnerable. the guys that have got the
denial of emotions, you know, boomer
absent father
[ __ ] generational trauma passed down
thing. They're not taking their own
board. And uh it's just I I think it's a
fascinating challenge that we face when
you say
the people who most need to hear a
message are often the ones that are
least likely to hear it. And when you
scatter gun it across everyone,
>> you can actually not reduce down the in
the bad incidents you're trying to get
rid of.
>> Yeah.
>> And further reduce down the good that
you were hoping to hold on to. It's a
solvent that works in reverse and it
strips away the stuff that you were
trying to keep,
>> right?
>> And doesn't get rid of the bad stuff you
wanted to
>> evacuate. So what can we
all learn?
What can men learn and what can women
learn? In fact, okay, what do we learn
from that heavy me too era where it was
a toxic access that was you were getting
away with it and all of a sudden? Uh-uh.
And I agree,
but not to emasculate the good men or
not have the ones that maybe were not
offenders, but boy, right? you know, a
little bit more macho to have them not
puff the chest out more and go, "Well,
I'm going to double down on the macho to
push that back."
>> Cuz I I probably see it as a little more
progressive of a of a of a time in the
way that I agree the ones that maybe
were shy trying to recede, we're now
going, "Holy [ __ ] I was right." But I
also do think that it did
>> Oh, for chopped down tree and reminded a
lot that you go, you better back off.
Better back down, boy.
>> 100%.
>> Yeah,
>> 100%. It wasn't, that's not me saying
it's all bad, obviously. Um, but it's uh
>> thinking about the asymmetry of
absorption uh when it comes to stuff
like that. Uh
>> yeah,
>> I think
one of the things that I would hope
we've learned from that situation
is, you know, the idea of Chesterton's
fence.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So, uh GK Chesterton talks about
um a liberal and a conservative come
across a a fence post. Two two fence
posts in the field
>> here right in front of us. Is there a
fence here? And I don't have a fence,
but you can imagine there's a fence
here. Yeah. Yeah. Two fence post with a
little bit of like wire between them.
And the liberal would say, "I see no
reason for this fence. We should break
it down." Conservative would say, "Hey,
hey, hey, hold on a second.
Someone put that there. Maybe it is
there for a reason." and the tension
between uh innovation, novelty,
adventurousness, openness
and uh respect for tradition, stasis,
status quo. Uh on the other side, this
is the perennial push and pull. How much
should we throw out these old traditions
and how much should we and I think
we
learned a lesson
to maybe temper the throttle a little
bit to just sort of feather it as
opposed to um
whitewashing. And
I you made a great point which is women
want eligible men.
And this is why a zero sum view of
empathy. Uh that if you give a degree of
empathy toward the plightes of men
despite the fact that for most of human
history they had some benefits that
women didn't apart from like the war and
the death and the homelessness and the
drug addiction and the you know so on
and so forth. Um,
if you say we can't give empathy to
these people because it'll take away
empathy, which is not how empathy works.
>> No, it's not exclusive of the other,
that's that's
>> it's not zero sum. It's not a limited
resource that we have. Um
if you say uh boohoo poor patriarchy sad
complaining
in the same breath
uh men do not deserve sympathy. They've
had it good for so long. We don't need
to raise them up. And in the next
sentence saying where are all of the
good men at?
>> Yeah. is mating logic. Sepuku. Yeah.
Right.
>> Uh and yeah, I just I get the sense if
any group has an issue,
almost any group in society, we spend
billions of money in taxpayer funded
dollars to set up surveys and
initiatives.
We don't tell them to pull themselves up
by their bootstraps. If men have a
problem, it is treated in a very, very
unique way. anybody else on the planet
has a problem, we say, "What can we do
to fix society?" But if men have a
problem, we say, "What is it men are
doing where they don't fix themselves?"
>> And this is just a price that we need to
pay. As guys, it's a price we need to
pay. I've kind of given up on fighting
against it.
>> But I certainly think after the last few
years, maybe we can
>> dust settle here.
>> Okay, we've exercised that demon. Let's
[ __ ] start a new,
>> right? Yeah. I'm with you. You know, I I
one of the things I was questioning a
lot of my
friends of mine and some many of them
females that were around the leadership
from the Me Too movement was
when are you going to start inviting
good men, you know, to these gatherings?
Well, come on. That's it's not you're
not it's not a at the end it's not a
battle of the sexes. It's in a behavior
that you're getting saying, "Hey, no
more of that."
>> That the male was doing great. Now that
that's understood, there's a lot of men
that agree.
>> I I I remember, you know, it was like
a lot of people in my industry, men I
knew were like
would tweet out when it first happened
after the wine seed stuff, well, I just
want to go on record and let you know I
don't I I don't believe in Rick either.
And I was like, what are you doing,
dude? You're kind of setting it up like
was that questionable before?
And then it was if you didn't write that
or something like that. It was like
>> was the the black square of me. I was
never
>> Yeah. The black square of me too. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
>> I was never I was I I I wasn't on the
fence about it before, you know. Um and
that, you know, that that was not was
was more than different than just funny,
but I remember that being an odd
reaction. Um yeah. So yeah, I hope the
dust settles and I believe it is
settling
>> now because I know um uh
that uh
a lot of people and women included that
are friends of mine that were a large
part of the me too movement would I
think in some part agree with what we're
saying going we don't want to we're not
talking about cancelling men. You know
what I That's not that was cancelling
masculinity and that would be not a good
thing to do for men or women.
>> Correct. It's creating the exact earth
of eligible male partners that they say
that they're looking for.
>> Yeah. Uh you've got this great line
where you say so many people are
obsessed with how to live longer instead
of how to live better.
>> Yeah.
>> How do you come to think about that?
>> Quantity
success without the profit.
Oh, how much more can I get?
It's I I'm I'm I'm for it. The
longevity, I'm I'm for it. But in in the
pursuit of it, are we measuring quality
of life on along the way? Some people
aren't. And I I personally don't want to
have the highest number, but then go
that wasn't any fun or I didn't enjoy
that or I didn't
that sucked.
I'm just trying to remind everyone that
just like in business when I say success
without the profit, we have plenty of
people that succeed. If you got the most
money, the most toys, you succeed. And
we talked about those people earlier
that have at the end of the day have
problems in with relationships or they
can't sleep or they can't get the dick
up, whatever. They didn't profit.
They're not profiting with their
success. Profit measures quality with
the quantity. So I'm saying real success
is when you have profit. Well, really
great longevity would be for those
quality years, quality time left in this
life. Um, I also say that because while
I'm not looking forward to it, I'm not
really afraid of death or dying. Not
looking forward to it.
Shaking my boots if I'm face to face
with that great white, you know what I
mean? I'm not looking forward to it.
>> But
I see it as a obviously it's inevitable
and obviously I I personally see it as a
hopefully a comma,
>> you know, not a period.
So
the number the higher number
I don't know
just I think we got just watch being
obsessed with that at the expense of
quality of life.
>> Is it the trade-off or do the two work
in tandem
>> is what the trade-off obsessed with how
to live longer than how to live better.
Do do you think it detracts?
>> No, I don't think it I don't think it
necessarily detracts,
>> but it can. I do think
inevitably you might be if you're so
obsessed with the projection length that
you're going to miss
>> a couple of really really worthwhile
parties now
where you may learn something have a the
great love of life take a certain risk
that oh you may not make it out of that
but we're going to do it anyway.
Um and I'm all for projection. It's a
lot of what my g my it's a lot of my
jam. How far can we project in the
future? Boy, the further we can project
the further I think we can see in the
past. The more we have the ability to
invest in ourselves today to get that
more ROI tomorrow. I just think an
obsession with the number can sometimes
get in the way of seeing
more of an obsession with the quality
and the meaning of what what we're doing
right here. What's now and tomorrow?
>> Is there something you do to remind
yourself to inject more fun into your
life?
Uh, I mean, I've got some simple tricks,
you know, if I'm not sure how to
respond, try to make the default to
motion, humor.
>> Mhm.
>> And I'm a big fan big fan of of of
humor. And I wish we had more of it. Um,
and I think it's how we're going to get
through a lot of these things that we
have. Um, is we're going to have to all
giggle at a few things and go, "Yeah."
And also at ourselves to be able to I'm
still learning and getting better. I try
not to giggle at myself when I bogey.
>> You know what I mean? Just go,
>> "Yep." And and and to not be afraid of
that failure, to be able to fess up and
go, "Yep, that was me." Oh, good gez,
that didn't work. Um
laughter. I think we we we we it's taken
as being
discompassionate sometimes or it's being
insensitive
>> and flippant.
>> Yeah. like you're making you're making
the crisis benign. You're not giving the
crisis credit. No, I'm giving the crisis
credit, but I'm saying the crisis has
happened and now we got to deal with
getting through this son of a [ __ ] So,
it's going to be tough. So, let can we
giggle our way through untying this
knot? I'm not patronizing the crisis at
all. I just want to go ahead and have a
you know it's why you know uh um um uh
the greatest comedians you know
Chappelle he says stuff while the wounds
people go you can't say that now the
wound wound's too fresh it's why he's so
smart and why he's so funny because he
says it beforehand and calls it out
>> Jimmy Car's got a bit about that where I
think he says uh saying that there is a
topic too sensitive to joke about is
like saying there is a disease too
serious to
Okay. Okay. I like that. Wow. Yeah. You
know. Yeah. What uh uh uh and humor as
well with a is as a learning and a
teaching tool and and and and a and a
true humility with our own selves
of what we can learn and how we can
learn what we know and in written what
we don't know. Um, and it's a uh it's
it's a great way to
not convert. It's a great way to help
someone understand.
>> It makes it it's why I'm rhyming in
here. It's why some of these are
diddies. It's why I'm saying let's sell
Sunday morning like a Saturday night.
Let's let's let's let's have a beer on
the way to the temple. You know what I
mean? It's it's more digestible. We can
dance to it. And the broccoli actually
does more than taste like candy. It is
the candy.
>> What's that? Uh, you got a poem called
Life and Candy Crush. Is there a
parallel between the two?
>> I love that game. I love Candy Crush,
guys. I said it.
>> Yeah.
>> You're out there. Send me some free
lives or some a whole bunch of those
prizes in there. Yeah. I I my kids
always bust me for playing Candy Crush.
I'm like, "This is a great game." And
let me tell you why. So, I decided to
put in there what I've shared with my
children, what I've noticed.
>> You've learned from the great game of
Candy Crush.
>> I've learned from the great game of
Candy Crush. Yeah,
>> that's funny. Um, I'm interested in
where confidence comes from as far as
you're concerned.
>> Yeah.
Well,
it definitely comes
from belief,
not hope.
It comes from
pulling something off.
Comes from, oh, I I I I I think I got an
ability to do that. Let me work on that.
Let me prepare to do that. Oh, [ __ ] I'm
not sure. Bam. I'm in the game. Action,
cut, life or movie.
>> Ah,
I did it. I felt it, too. I know I did
it. And you, who were the observer go,
you did it. I got confidence. I
personally felt it and it translated.
Subjectively, I felt it. And
objectively, you went, "Yep."
Confidence. I make a big plan. I write
something out. A plan for the day, the
week, an an event, a circumstance, a
scene. I write out all this stuff, what
my incentive or what I want to do, what
I hope comes from this. And I shut that
and a year later I do that scene or I'm
at that event and someone comes up
afterwards and goes, "You know what that
was, man? That was"
And I'm like, "Yeah, that's exactly what
I wrote
a year ago."
>> Yeah.
>> It's what I wanted to do.
Pulled it off without saying one of
those words.
>> That's what you got from it?
>> Yes.
confidence, identity,
testing it out and it can work.
Confidence to go, I'm going to try and
pull this off. Maybe get away with it,
maybe it won't work.
Pulling things off, translating without
saying
the word or without manipulation.
feeling when I in something that we have
and I have an innate ability for
something that I believe I have the
innate ability and I learn to the reason
behind that instinct and how to how to
where's the right time timing. Oh, and
it'll work I think right here. Who's the
audience I'm talking to? Oh yeah, I'm
going to make a plan
>> for that sale if it's all sales for that
transaction or whatever. And bam, it
hits and it lands like I wanted it to.
Dogs damn it. Was that deja vu? It
happened. That's how I saw it. That I
get confidence from that.
Um,
I've still working on and and and you
know
now I think even more
in this I'm not going to say second half
whatever the 50s
humility while still maintaining
confidence. I had a really tough
relationship with humility, the
definition,
until I heard
um I think it was Jordan Peterson's
definition. Humility is admitting we
have more to learn and I was like, "Oh,
whoa. I'm in.
>> I can get on board with that.
>> Let me sign up." Because before that,
humility to be humbled, to be
humiliated. My shoulders would sink. I
would be small
>> passive and wouldn't speak up or there's
the opportunity
and I miss it
and I was like man I don't think that's
what it means but I don't know how to
get around it.
>> It funny how we need the definition of
words to change a little bit like that
some and that could be just a that can
be a 180.
>> You know what I heard the other day? I
heard a fantastic new definition of
vulnerability.
>> What was it? said, "Vulnerability
is saying your truth in spite of the
consequences, especially when they're
scary."
>> Oh, see, that sounds fun.
>> Get on board with that.
>> That sounds fun. That's a That That's a
different kind of surrender.
>> Yeah. Say what's true in spite of the
consequences.
>> In spite of the consequences.
>> Especially when it's scary.
>> I'll be damned. Especially when it's
scary.
>> Yeah. Especially when it's scary.
>> Ah, I like that. It's got offense to it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'm on the
front foot.
>> Yeah.
>> Mhm. I feel like it's something that's
noble.
>> Yeah.
>> Right. And it's the same with this
rework or perhaps the original work of
humility.
>> Yeah.
>> Brilliant. I can I can step forward into
this.
>> Not stepping back
>> away from it. And I think specifically
uh with men,
>> I think uh
>> it's a a perhaps a a very smart way to
do a super secret squirrel technique,
you know, Jedi mind trick to go,
>> so this is not a step back. It's
actually ically Brazilian jiu-jitsu this
thing into you're going forward now.
>> Um
but yeah, I I I think
>> and and and and
dare I say women out there, did you hear
that?
>> Manipulate us to feel that way. Oh yeah,
go for it. Manipulated all day into that
and call us childish for wanting and
needing that. Play it, man. We'll we'll
take it.
>> These are the these are the cheat codes.
Let Let us lay them out in front of you.
>> Yeah. You know, one of the best uh best
bits of advice that I heard this sort of
reframe that's similar to that. Um this
guy was talking about he was in a
relationship with a lady and he had to
be clean shaven through the week and
would leave his facial hair to grow over
the weekend. By Sunday evening, you
know, he's got enough stubble to really
scratch. And his exartner would say, "I
just hate on a Sunday where your face is
scratching me in my mouth. I'm I'm so
red and and and raw and it's so
annoying. And uh needless to say, that
relationship didn't work. And then he
moved into another relationship and this
new partner had the exact same
preference, but said to him, "Honey, I
find it so sexy when you're clean
shaven.
>> I think that's just the hottest thing in
the world.
>> Incentives. Incentives. Follow the
incentives."
>> Oh, just lay out that little breadcrumb
in front of us. We will chase that
carrot, man. It's it's it's we're lead
pipe cent. It's so easy.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um without
complacency, trust that time is on your
side.
>> What do you mean that?
>> Yeah, man. Don't get ahead behind it. I
can get in a rush and I haven't found
Look and I know how to hustle and let's
go. The clock's ticking. We're all
behind. All hands on deck. We got to
bust ass. No time for pause. There's no
sleep, no nothing. Get the caffeine out.
Let's go. Mhm.
>> Sometimes we got to do that, but that is
usually because an unforeseen
circumstance has happened that there's a
crisis we got to deal with or we've uh
procrastinated and I put myself in that
position where I got we got to cram.
>> Mhm.
>> But
it's not those two circumstances. We got
to watch oursel getting ahead of time
and it's on your side. It's a little
what I mean about the living longer and
living more quality. Time's on our side
and we're forced to think and feel
especially today with how fast things
move that more productivity, faster
pace, more information, faster pace,
it's better. We're we're ahead of we're
ahead of of time a lot and but time's
still moving at the same speed and
they're not given more than 24 hours a
day. Even though me, like a lot of
people are looking for more.
>> There just not there's not there not any
more unless you just want to change your
workday and some people do. me, I need
my 9 and a half hours sleep. If I want
to say I'm getting four hours sleep and
get five and a half miles more of a
workday to be more productive, I would.
But not to making that trade-off.
>> It's on our side. And when we're feeling
like we're dancing with time,
I know I'm usually getting as much or
I'm getting more done at the same pace
>> than if I'm It's the John Wooden, a
great basketball coach for UCLA. Be
quick, but don't be in a hurry. That was
his note to the his basketball players
like be quick but don't be in a hurry.
You will miss things. Um
you know it's it's it's it's it's the
Lego set, man. And you sit there and you
get in a rush. You don't read the
directions. You get to the end and
you've got 12 pieces left and you're
like [ __ ] Because you got in a hurry.
You got ahead of time instead of just
that feeling of I've checked out what I
need to do and it's all adding up and
this thing's built right and the
foundation right and boom, there's the
last piece. It fits. Voila. Was with
time. time's on our side. It's not an
enemy. The end, death is not the enemy.
I do believe that part of, you know, not
in a rush to get there and we can stave
it. We want to stave it off sometimes
and that it can be a screaming fight and
partially denial can help us get there.
I understand that. But still, it's on
our side. It's going to happen. And
since it's going to happen
and there's that's non-negotiable,
might as well go
Well, I'm not going to rush to try and
make more of it than there is. I want to
try and spend the time I got as well as
I can produce,
succeed, achieve, whatever those things
are, but also
at a pace that
I'm me that I that I that I like I like
the dance to. I I like the give and the
take. I like the reverb. I like the the
the the cause and effect of how things
are happening at this pace.
How are we orienting ourselves now since
time is speeding up so much faster with
AI? I want to ask you this with AI and I
mean this this is an objective question
with AI with all these podcasts with all
these wealth of information that people
can get at all times and no one's
listening to music anymore. They're
listening to everybody talk about this
and reading up in this and they're
finding out the answers and in 10
seconds that would have taken them 10
days to get before.
Do people sound smarter to you?
No,
>> me neither.
It'll sound dumber.
I do think so. We're talking about sign.
If everything's significant, nothing's
significant at all. I do think that I I
I talked to people that feel like
they're hyperly punching their
information. Absolutely [ __ ] great.
Just splashing out, but I'm going walk,
dude. What What was the theme there? Did
you have a bass guitar in your band? You
need a bass guitar or at least somebody
on percussion hold it down because I
didn't hear the theme. I didn't hear the
thread. It was digits.
Where was the soul in that story? Which
goes back to the quality with the
quantity, the quantity of information.
But can we have the soul in it to where
ah I hear the rhyme. Ah, there's rhyme
to that those digits. There's rhyme to
those facts. Oh, I see how they add up.
Oh, but what if you put them in this
order? Ah, they add up to another thing.
Or actually, they may add up to the same
damn thing. Interesting. Now I've got a
rhyme. Now there's a song. That happens
when time's on your side and you're
looking at it. And I still offer I open
that up without complacency. Like start
now. That doesn't mean time's on my
side. Yeah, dude. Inchah.
>> When it happens, it'll happen. No. Like,
wake up.
Clock's ticking. It's on your side now.
Just move with it. Dance with it. Put
some soul with the the facts.
Matthew McConnA. Ladies and gentlemen,
dude, you're great. You're so fantastic.
Super fun talking to you. Do it for
hours. Did we just do that for an hour
or so?
>> Uh, two in a bit.
>> Did we really? Yeah. Again, it flies. It
flies when you're having fun. Uh, new
book,
>> Points of Prayers.
>> That's it. Some belief, not just belief
in God, but think it's in short supply.
And I think more of us need it. And if
we don't have more of it, doubt's going
to win. If doubt wins, we're all going
to lose. And uh, we got stuff out there
to believe in. I think people are
looking for it. I know I am. And uh uh I
think it's a something we need. I know
something I need. And then I'm enjoying
talking about it. I'm kind of saying
this is sort of therapeutic, spiritual
therapy for me cuz I'm getting to talk
about it. I'm getting to talk with smart
people about it. I'm getting questioned
about it. I'm getting to repeat some of
it. So it's even becoming mantric for
me.
>> Um and then I'm going to go put a lot of
this to music when I hit the road. Got
some great musicians coming out to join
me on stage and they're playing scores
behind some of my reads. It's going to
be fun. Unreal.
>> Yeah.
thousand episodes. Thank you for joining
me. It's a really special one.
>> You're welcome. My pleasure.
>> So,
you're a Astrian connoisseur. Yeah.
>> So, the originals, this is the first
time that I know of that that they
partnered.
>> I think it was somebody based out of San
Francisco and they said, "Hey, let's
modernize it up just a hair." So, these
were new. This was a new design.
Um just a little waiter. This is the one
original one I had. I called it the
canoe.
And that's the one that I managed on the
road for about 3 years.
>> When I think it was early 2000s,
>> okay,
>> it was me and my dog just traveling
around. And if you and I are meeting a
director or someone to work to meet, I'd
be like,
>> "What? Next Tuesday? Let me see. Man,
I'm heading Albuquerque. I'm kind of
moving this direction, too. flying to
Albuquerque airport. I'll pick you up at
9:00 in the morning. And then how about
if I'm driving that direction, I'll drop
you off in Lincoln, Nebraska. How about,
you know, 6:00 that night, you get the
6:00 out of Lincoln. We'd have our
meeting on the road while I was pulling
the Airstream.
>> And every one of those meetings was a
great meeting.
>> It was like, yeah. And everybody was
like, some people stayed the night and
all my meetings. That's when we had a
Blackberry, not not the phones you have
now, but I was all over North America in
this. And I took this out, built my own
table in Louisiana with a carpenter.
I got given a paddle. The reason it's
called a canoe is I had this I stayed
with the Indian Squamish Nation Indian
Reservation in Vancouver working on a
film too for the money.
And on that reservation
there was a paparazzi that had moved in
>> and he was like, you know, hiding behind
trees on in the in the trailer park. And
it's the Squamish Nation in your
reservation is their private property.
The chief's name, no [ __ ] was Mike
Hunt. Chief Mike Hunt went to and his
brothers went to this guy and said, "You
are not welcome here." He's like, "It's
free contract. Stay away." Goes, "No,
no, no. If you're disturbing someone in
our tribe or making them any way
uncomfortable, you're out." They kicked
him out. The guy got the boot for just
taking pictures. And I would they would
catch I had ribe eyes, right? And they
would catch their co- salmon in shopping
carts down the river, set up the rocks
where it would funnel the salmon into
the shopping cart. They'd come up with
the fresh salmon and I would trade them
cooked ribe eyes for their salmon. It
was our barter. And he gave me the
paddle when I left. He said, "In our
nation, as we travel the rivers, the ore
>> is the the compass,
>> the rudder for our canoe, and as you
travel the rivers, highway rivers of
North America, may this keep you in your
powerful."
>> Yeah,
>> that's sick. Uh, well, you might not
have noticed, but there's uh balloons
because this is episode 1,000 today.
>> Oh, all right.
>> You are episode 1,000 on this show.
>> Come on.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. Yeah,
>> look at that.
>> I know. But let's get going. Let's get
started.
>> Love it.
>> Yeah, man.
>> Thank you very much for tuning in.
Usually I have something to sell you uh
typically another episode uh at the end
of episodes. Uh but that is 1,000
episodes of Modern Wisdom, the end of
the first millennium.
And uh getting to do it again with
Matthew here on this video wall thing is
uh really cool and beautiful and it's
very meaningful to me. And doing a
thousand episodes of anything, doing a
thousand of anything at all is a pretty
big ask. Um if it wasn't for the fact
that they were all numbered and I'd
recorded them, I would have imagined
that it was closer to 300 or 400. So
I've just compressed down time over the
last 7 and a half years. Uh, but I want
to say thank you very much for uh
following me, for supporting the show.
Uh, obviously this has been a labor of
love. So, as much as I whine and
complain um about how tired I am, uh I
wouldn't change it for anything else. I
don't want to do anything at 2:23 p.m.
on a Thursday in the middle of Texas,
then sit down and have this
conversation. So, thank you for joining
me and uh here's to another thousand.
All right.
See you next time.