Transcript

Rerelease: Adam Scott Returns | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

From Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 56 min · 22,203 words · 613 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Rerelease: Adam Scott Returns | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard", an episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard published December 29, 2025 (1 h 56 min, about 22,203 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Severance, Severance, Armchair Expert, Adam Scott, Back to the Future.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Adam Scott, Apple TV Plus, Armchair Expert, Back to the Future
  2. – 30:00: Temple of Doom, Armchair Expert
  3. – 40:00: Back to the Future, Grateful Dead, Severance, Severance
  4. – 50:00: Severance, Severance
  5. – 1:00:00: Dak Shepard
  6. – 1:10:00: Severance, Severance, Armchair Expert
  7. – 1:20:00: Severance, Severance, Apple TV Plus
  8. – 1:30:00: Aaron Rogers, Iawaska, Mormon, prosperia
  9. – 1:40:00: Caesar Superdome, New Orleans, Stanley Tucci, Washington Commanders
  10. – 1:50:00: Adam Scott, Armchair Expert, JJ Reick

Notable quotes from "Rerelease: Adam Scott Returns | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard"

  • Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Shepard and I'm joined by the Duchess of Duth.
    about Armchair Expert · at
  • Greatest show on television, which returns to Apple TV Plus on the 17th. Severance.
    about Severance · at
  • Them taking stabs at what will happen fashion wise in the future like I think in Back to the Future people have two ties in the future right in 2015 which by the way 2015 you would have known that already.
    about Back to the Future · at
  • That's so interesting. I was watching a behind thescenes thing on Temple of Doom and they're like Harrison really had to like bulk up for this one and it shows him at like a shitty gym just like doing bench press with those plastic.
    about Temple of Doom · at
  • Hip-hop for me it was like the dead. I got into the Grateful Dead. And why do I think you had a crazy hip-hop phase in high school?
    about Grateful Dead · at
  • But I did think, spoiler, this is sort of where I stopped, but I got some information that he was Mormon.
    about Mormon · at
  • I have no actual opinion on it, but he is he's in a 5-day silent room with no light. He's on an Iawaska trip every few months. He's if he's not playing football, he is pursuing this spiritual path he's on.
    about Iawaska · at
  • They've carved out this little prosperia I think it's called.
    about prosperia · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Adam Scott — Person · 3 mentions · first at
    Hi. our sweetest friend Adam Scott is here today.
  • Christopher Walken — Person · 3 mentions
  • John Turturro — Person · 3 mentions
  • Dak Shepard — Person · 2 mentions · first at
    Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Shepard and I'm joined by the Duchess of Duth.
  • Aaron Rogers — Person · 2 mentions · first at
    He's set up on all of these fronts to need a lot of control in his life. This overlaps nicely with the Aaron Rogers doc which I keep bringing up because he was raised in an by…
  • Spike Lee — Person · 1 mention · first at
    God, you know what I think I'm confusing is, were you obsessed with Do the Right Thing and Spike Lee and started wearing African gear? And he's 100%.
  • Stanley Tucci — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Stanley Tucci was in it. Love him so much. Double Prada, friend of the pod.
  • JJ Reick — Person · 1 mention · first at
    That's awesome. Okay, I'm right about JJ Reick. He's the head coach of the Lakers. And this is a sad thing, but I didn't know that. And I saw he popped up on my.
  • Ali Wong — Person · 1 mention
  • Ben Stiller — Person · 1 mention
  • Gwendoline Christie — Person · 1 mention
  • Merritt Wever — Person · 1 mention
  • Ralph Fiennes — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • Severance — Book · 9 mentions · first at
  • Back to the Future — Book · 3 mentions · first at
  • Temple of Doom — Book · 3 mentions · first at
  • Do the Right Thing — Book · 1 mention · first at
    And I text him and I was Oh my god, you know what I think I'm confusing is, were you obsessed with Do the Right Thing and Spike Lee and started wearing African gear? And he's 100%.

Companies & orgs

  • Severance — Company · 9 mentions · first at
    Greatest show on television, which returns to Apple TV Plus on the 17th. Severance.
  • Armchair Expert — Company · 4 mentions · first at
  • Apple TV Plus — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Greatest show on television, which returns to Apple TV Plus on the 17th. Severance.
  • Grateful Dead — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • Washington Commanders — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Yes. They're going to play the Washington Commanders.
  • Lions — Company · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Shepard and I'm joined by the Duchess of Duth.

Hi. Um, our sweetest friend Adam Scott is here today. Yeah, we discovered which I would have not guessed.

Yeah, I forget now, but in seven. Yeah, in the interview we realize he was his seventh guest.

It does feel like it's been a long time since he's come on, but not that long. No, I just didn't think he was that early. I felt like we were up and running for a while and I reached out.

Me too. But yeah. Um, so this is his second trip. Oh, this will be good cuz I remembered this. There's a point in the interview where I go, "Weren't you super into hiphop?"

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

Okay. And it hit me after this interview and I text him and I was like, "Oh my god, you know what I think I'm confusing is, were you obsessed with Do the Right Thing and Spike Lee and started wearing African gear?" And he's like, "100%."

So that's what it was. I knew he went through a phase. Oh. And he was wearing like thericolor Africa shirts and it was do the right thing.

Oh. So I'm not I wasn't totally insane. There was some connective tissue. Got it. That makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. And also lends itself to him being a cophile. Yes. Big time. Uh, Parks and Recreation, Step Brothers, Big Little Lies, Party Down, The Good Place, and Alas, arguably the greatest show on television, which returns

to Apple TV Plus on the 17th. Severance. I can't wait. So excited. God, it's so good. It's so so good. And I got to do the Severance podcast that they're doing, which is really, really fun. That's great.

Yeah. Um, I do recommend. It's been 3 years. I have a pretty good memory. I don't remember anything. It is so worth starting it from the get-go. It's so enjoyable. I had forgotten so many great things about it.

Me, too. I rewatched it as well. Oh, you did? Yeah. I mean, it's just what a show.

It's fantastic. Please enjoy Adam Scott. He's steal yourself. Is that the expression? Oh my god. Steady. Okay. Okay.

Thank god there's no buttons on your slacks like Camilo Anthony. Stop. That normally doesn't stop.

I wonder what it is I'm I'm supposed to be looking at. Yes. This is very nice. You're [ __ ] hot as hell. Hold on, Adam. You're thousand% sexy as [ __ ]

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

And I would say that's a big swing. And I think it might be a bit OF A MISS. NO, THE WHOLE THING JUST FEELS A LITTLE STUPID.

NO. ADAM, listen to me. You're You can own this. Can I hold this up? Uh, can you see that, Rob? But look at this. This is great.

You do have great hair. [ __ ] You have good hair. You're welcome. I'm stealing this from Arnette. He would call it the 40 yard stare. Like that Vietnam.

Yeah. The like middle distance stare. Yeah. Like, am I seeing a sniper in the background that you're not

right? Me and Pratt used to do it on try to make this impossible for you to figure out. Sorry, I just moved it out of the way.

Where we would let's get this [ __ ] thing out of my face. It would be about like saying something stupid to each other and then just kind of breaking into it's like what are you exactly? There is like this middle distance where it's so clear. I wasn't looking at anything. It was just look over there.

That's maybe part of why it's embarrassing. No, no, no. You're so self-deprecating. It's a gorgeous picture. I don't think it's just gorgeous.

It's absolutely gorgeous. By the way, it's so different in here than where we Oh, sure. You know, let's take a second to to process.

How long have you been in here? 3 months. Cuz I I listen to the show. I don't watch it. So, I would I don't know.

Yeah. Take it in. First of all, what do you Rob did all this? It's really nice. It's like homey and welldesigned. I know you have impeccable taste.

Thank you. But this wasn't me. This was not me. This was all Rob. It's really lovely.

Yeah. You can almost forget, right? That's the dream. It's nice. And you got the camera like sort of like hidden. It's really nice style.

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

Overs. It's so good. We've stolen. You're a director. You know these things. What if I said I'm a director at heart? Um

you That's gross. I'm a storyteller at heart. That's worse. Story's worst. I'm even scared to admit out loud how much I hate that cuz so many people I love I've heard use that term.

I know. I know. And it's true. We are story animals. Just cut it out. Since the dawn of man, we've gathered around the fire. We tell stories.

We can stop saying that. Yeah. I would like to stop. Yeah. Don't you You've seen people you love say it, right?

Of course. I'm sure I've said it. Jesus. You just for the fact check. The one the both of you saying a thousand times.

Yeah. A stream of Is there any other current? Yeah. Like Yeah. Nomenclature that's rubbing you the wrong way.

I have too much of it to the degree that I don't I'm not proud of myself. Too much of what?

I am I am hyper sensitive to words people are using in pop in pop culture. Yep. Yep. And um to the degree that I have to be a little self-reflective and go like this is the kid in high school that thought all the popular like I'm still looking for reasons that all the popular kids have their code.

Yeah. You feel left out. I think that's why it's such an acute cuz Monica will tell you I've called out words like artisal. The second artisal I said you watch that's going to be on a [ __ ] Arby's sign. It wasn't on Arby's but it was on Subway.

Sure. My current one I'm tracking is ailier. This is the new word. Wait, I don't know this one. Great. You're getting it on the ground floor.

You do know it. It's just means like a shop. You don't know it. Apothecary was like,

bubbled up a few years ago in the wrong places. Yes. Ailier, which I learned this from Monica. This is like a small bespoke handcrafted luxury item and it's the studio for it. Right. Right. which I'm fine with those Italians having their or French, whatever it is.

It's where the designer actually makes the items. It's a real word. Sure, but we don't use it to describe the sandwich shop in Beverly Hills, which is coming.

So, I I just started hearing ailier a little too much. And I was like, Monica, you watch the gap's going to have an Okay, so we have storytellers. That's rough for me.

It's rough. And again, so many people I love it. I see you. I don't think people get through an interview without saying it these days. holding space.

Yeah. Yeah. Like can't you just do that without talking about hold do you does that trigger you at all?

I've never said it. I do think it's rough. That's like I'm This is where the left is losing people. By the way,

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

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

right? It sounds a little too sanctimonious. I think I tuned that one out. So, I used one that probably people hate. I will say often my story like my story about you and I is this or my story about losing that job. That to me feels a little more honest which is like I know this is just a I'm a storyteller

and it's just it all comes back to storytelling. This is just a story. Monica's visibly uncomfortable. We thought our pants were going to explode but they retracted more belts.

Belts we look you were you wearing three belts when you walked in? I didn't notice. Isn't it funny in movies where they flash to the future and you see them taking stabs at what will happen fashion wise in the future like I think in Back to the Future people have two ties

in the future right in 2015 which by the way 2015 you would have known that already.

That's right. You know what no one's playing with, which they should be, is that as we see drugs like Ompic become ubiquitous and people will more and more have the same body shape and then you wonder what'll like. It's almost interesting think no one's projected that

in the future everyone just virtually there'll be like three versions of people.

Yes. But also with Botox and fillers and all of those Yeah. people's faces are starting to just look like one

thing. I mean, K like young teens are doing Botox and filler. I know. They're going to look so I I wish I was alive when they were 90 so I could see how perfect they look. I bet it's really

I feel like an old lady to say I'm against it. But like I am. You are. Even though you you for kids for like an 18-year-old, you don't even know what your face is yet.

But also, you're not done forming exactly and growing. My I have two teenagers, so they're always on TikTok and Instagram stuff. And yeah, there's a lot of that. There's a lot of like perfection and redefining perfection. It's all really crazy.

It's very sci-fi. It does make me Did you ever have these days when you were in elementary school? I have a I'm I'm plagued with a lot of cowicks. I don't have the head of hair you do. Back to your hair.

Cowlex like you know where your hair juts this way and then that way it's all skady and back. I have a swirl. So the middle part with a feather when you and I were kids was king.

Totally. you had to have that hair do. Bow and Luke Duke had it. And I just couldn't get it on the middle. It was like it was always off to one. It was like a 6040 split.

And so occasionally I would have a morning like in fourth grade where I would I would feather it and it would it would look great and I would make this weird promise to the deities. I would say like I commit to this hair for the rest of my life. If you can keep it looking this way.

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

Okay. Now, did you ever do any dumb thing like that in front of the mirror? That does that ring a bell?

I remember my brother had the little lead figurines for Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah.

They were made out of lead. Yeah. And as a kid, I heard lead is poison, so you need to be careful. And I remember one day I used to just steal all his [ __ ] and look at it and he's older than me. So I remember one day taking one of these little lead figures and just

sticking my tongue out and just touching it and then just being like, "What am I doing?" And I remember looking into the mirror in our living room. There was a mirror hanging there and just going, "I don't want to die." thinking that that it was imminent.

Okay. What you stumbled upon right there is called the call of the void. Do you know this term? No.

So the call of the void is when you're is very very common for people to experience this. You're on an extremely tall building. You're looking over the edge and the voice is going jump you [ __ ] [ __ ] For some reason it's taunting you.

Yeah. Right. To jump. Yes. And that's what licking that lead was. And I I would have done the exact same thing.

Like wo it's pretty powerful. Well, that's what it is. But you got to be on the other side of answering the call of the void, which is you you jump, you laugh, and it sounds like you had immediate regret.

Yeah. Oh, it was a stupid thing to do. Did you think in your mind at that time you thought you'd be dead before the days end?

I thought I would drop dead any second. Were you like like like touching your getting under the faucet,

putting a Vitamix, see? I think that's the on Instagram I'm constantly shown those, you know, those kids that are now cl climbing skyscrapers all over the world without any equipment.

What? Oh, they're just free balling it and they're running and jumping. They're not like being careful.

Oh, they're getting up to the top of literally the Empire State Building and balancing on one leg,

taking some pics. Yeah, they have their drone up there and they're just like, "What's up?"

Some toss them a beer. Crazy. Yes. And there's a documentary on a couple that do this in Eastern Europe on Netflix. And they have a their whole group of friends are traveling the world doing this and they die often

of course because they [ __ ] fall. Yes. Yes. But I'm on that algorithm on Instagram and I'm constantly being shown these because there's nothing that I enjoy more than watching these people on the edge of a [ __ ] skyscraper and I it just I love it.

Yeah. But it's also drives me crazy. It makes my hands sweat so profusely when I watch them.

I get like butterflies and and I get like an adrenal rush I think watching them. I get some crazy and then I have to just like put it down and not look anymore.

Sure. Yeah. It's weird. Look in front of the mirror and say, "I DON'T WANT TO DIE." It's like, "Well, it's just a video. You're fine."

Oh my god. You were you a really good kid? It sounds like you were a really good kid. It's like that's that's the extent of

mischief. I think I was I must have been. Yeah, I must have been a good kid. I can really relate to being the younger brother who he'd leave the house to go do something fun and I would run to his bedroom and like like a chimp just like hold his objects

100% covet them. Oh yeah, like a chimp. Your little possessions. Yeah. His idols. Like I felt like I was holding like special idols.

Yes. I remember once he came home when I was in the midst of one of my archaeological digs and I hid behind a chimney that came through the middle of his room and I just hid there for 15 20 minutes while he just sat on his bed reading a comic book or something. I was staying at my grandparents motel, roadside motel in the summertime and I had an uncle Rob who was 5 years older than my brother. So this guy was on top of the world. He had a 68 Camaro. He played the guitar very well. the coolest in the world.

Yes. And I got into his room when he was out and I found like just a treasure trove of firecrackers.

Oh [ __ ] I was like, "This motherfucker's got like major armorament in here." Firepower.

I was like, "Oh, there's 60 of these. I'm going to steal one black cats." And then later I was out in a field next to motel and I lit them off and I was like very scared and excited and I just hear, "They're loud, aren't they?"

Oh, [ __ ] And I turned around. Oh, it was Uncle Rob. Oh, man. He [ __ ] called me red-handed, man.

He's just like the cool uncle. You'd guess. He kind of He didn't mind too much.

Yeah. Yeah. He understood what was going on. The other day you told me you you've never stolen.

I've never I didn't say that. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. And then I said, "Yeah, you tried to steal a

parking meter." Parking meter. Yeah, I did steal. And then I said, "No, I did steal a parking meter."

Yeah. You said, "Then I did tried to rob 71 in a different compartment cuz I was drunk." But now here we go. It sounds like Sounds like he was in his right mind when he stole these fireworks.

It does. I was really I was pretty hammered. What is that? That's a nicotine spray. You certainly seen me use these on our yearly vacation.

Yeah, I've I've got Yeah. What are you rocking? Zins. That's right. You're a Zin man.

So stupid. What's a Zen? A Zen is like a little pouch of chemicals. It's kind of like a a bandit. a skull bandit except it's non-tobacco or maybe skull bandits are non-tobacco. No, they're tobacco. Okay, these are non tobacco. It's just nicotine.

Bandits are made in an atilier in Raleigh Durham. So are Z. They made So is one by one.

Gorgeous ailier in Terraout Indiana. Very bespoke, very artisal. And they fold each packet.

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

by the way that's a great source for trigger words is agents because agents kind of like um Silicon Valley bro Bros there's a lexicon and you got to stay a breast and political talking heads there's always a new word kind of cycling through like few years ago it was crossing the Rubicon so and so is going to cross the Rubicon into

true And you're so right. This cycle it was something else. But yeah, it's annoying.

Crossing the Rubicon. Okay. Uh now I got to go all the way back cuz when I talked about your hair. So basically we're getting into this like era where the the Fouian promise could be we're nearing a technology that at 8 I could have injected myself with something and my hair would have looked like that for the rest of my life. That's where I was going with that entire story. Like the notion of freezing your face at 16 is kind of interesting.

Yeah. Not that that's I don't have like a a moral judgment on it quite yet. Maybe your

face has gotten better over time, right? So I would have been that would have been a big mistake.

Uhhuh. Mine too. Mine too. Is yours improved? I think so. I mean I I look at photos of me when I was 30 and I'm like what's going on?

And it might just be the way you perceive yourself. It's hard to gain perspective on that. I just saw the substance. Oh, which was super interesting. So good. But that remember when the the kid in the doctor's office is like introduces her to the idea and that kid's like perfect face.

Yeah. But creepy. Very creepy. Yeah. But that that's what I immediately think of when you say everyone's going to there'll be like three different kinds of faces or if you have the power to just freeze your face. It starts everyone starts kind of morphing into a face like that. To me that looks like a YouTube tutorial face.

It's just weird and it's become this weird standard that people are are looking at on social media. Right. Is that

But again, is that it's hard to say what's better or worse. Is that better or worse than you and I thinking like, well, Brad, you got to look like Brad Pit, right? And there's no chemicals or I can't freeze my

There's nothing you can do. No. To look like So, I'm not I'm not sure if it's getting better or worse.

Yeah. Okay. But my sci-fi fantasy is this. So, there So, if we just think really quickly that your cells divide and they make perfect copies of themselves, right? So, there's this great mystery. How then does your body evolve and look differently? If it's making perfect mirror copies of each cell, what is this aging process? Like how are the cells changing? Yeah. And there's a lot of science that's getting close to figuring that out.

So, let's just say there is a future in which you you take it and then that's it. You're arrested exactly where you're at. From now on, your cells will just duplicate as they should. That's an interesting sci-fi movie where everyone is 28.

The old the wise elders are 28 and everyone is immortal. probably unless they get hit by a car or something. Yeah. Unless some kind of accident happens, their cells are just going to make perfect copies of themselves.

So, that would be an interesting sci-fi movie where everyone's 30, one guy's 130 and one guy's 30. Yes.

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

That would be really weird. Also, it would make the first 30 years of your life or 28, whatever number everyone,

you'd like be living in a bubble cuz you have to protect yourself until you get to 28.

Yes. So, you don't get some messed up or you get in an I think of that is once you get the procedure, it'll like it'll heighten your fear of accidental death.

Yes. Because you're not going to die of any diseases. It would be people would be so much more accident. Yes. And also there would probably be some sort of celebration when you hit 30 or 28 or whatever it is.

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

Is that right? Is that like the I think that's when you like kind of peak. Remember uh Looper like one of the great sci-fi movies of the last 20 years or so. Ryan Johnson.

Yeah. They they have that party when you close your loop. Mhm. They and you know your death date. Is that what it was? They throw a party for whomever's and it's a really dark weird thing. But that's the great thing about really good sci-fi is when you drop in and you see kind of the customs of this new altered environment.

Yeah. And when it's pulled off well, like in Looper, it's really kind of mindbending.

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

cultural reverberations of like if a guy that's 130 is dating a actual 30-year-old woman but they look the same. Do we throw out that whole thing you care about?

And what are the apps that would be created to catch you up on what a 30-year-old is into your [ __ ] 430?

What if Okay, we got to get back to reality after this thing. No, but listen. Dating a 430 year old. Although then it's like they're mature,

right? That's cool. I don't know what if Okay, so these these new meta glasses, they have a speaker right behind whatever the arms. I'm told that it can you could be in China and you can have the AI be translating what someone's telling you in Mandarin and you'll hear it in English.

Uhhuh. So we're like I think we're really close to the Star Trek like we're wearing glasses, a a Chinese guy's wearing glasses and we're just communicating.

That's right. So, knowing that that's that close. Now, what if the back to the 300year-old, let's call it a woman dating a 30-year-old man.

That's safer. Yeah, that's safer. We like that. And then the 30-year-old man basically goes like, "Oh my god, I I loved this new show, Tickle Crossing."

And then the old woman in her, it's a great show, buddy. It is a good one. And then the woman in her ear hears, "I'm watching this new show, Dawson's Creek." Yeah. So that the reference like the AI knows where this reference is going so they can communicate with

have the conversation different references. Do you understand what I'm saying? Sort of. But they're still living in the same world.

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

the c it's a cultural equivalent translator. You can have the same emotional interaction and just be on the same level at all times. So all cultural references become the same too.

Yes. Everything evens out. So there's nothing there are no obstacles anywhere. No, it's just emotion. I'm conveying an emotion. I have

That's right. You say you like Raiders of the Lost Arc and I hear Tron Tron 3D.

Yeah. I mean, that just made me sound so much older than I intended. These aren't real relationships. You're just hearing what you want to hear. Like if cuz what if you didn't like Taylor Swift objectively and I'm talking about Taylor Swift and you're hearing Madonna is something you do. It's just translating into what you like.

No, no, no. See, I mean my version of this trans cultural translator. Uhhuh. You're saying Taylor Swift and my equivalent of that was Madonna. Now I actually feel about Madonna however I felt then. Right. So maybe I thought she was I don't think this Well, I just think she was all uh like a a stage show. She wasn't really an artist. Yeah,

let's just say that's what I thought. We don't. We're not. That's not what I think. None of us think that.

We don't. So, we're just We don't want to say that. So, I'm hearing you talk about someone who's a a perfect comp and then I feel the way about and then I go, "She's not for me. I don't like

But but your AI would be so attuned to you that it would know if you say Taylor Swift to perfectly translate that to someone I love, Madonna. Maybe it's uh Emmy Lou Harris and and that it's attuned to you and your taste so you can if if the objective is to get along with this person you're talking to and create an emotional connection and get rid of any snags along the way. It'll just provide equilibrium for everything.

So in your version like a liberal and Democrat are wearing the glasses and the liberal goes, "I'm so afraid the earth's going to catch on fire." And the person hears, "I'm so afraid of immigration." Yeah.

And everyone's like, "I know. I know. I terrified." Which I totally agree. Yes. I'm scared, too.

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

Fluffing your pillows. I like that. Not a really common colloquial. We go on this trip every year. Yeah.

It's the funnest trip of the year for us. Yes. So fun. It's so fun. Our friend Jimmy Kimmel hosts all of us in the most generous possible. Oh my god. capacity. It's the loveliest.

And there's a lot of things you could say were the bells and whistles of it, the location, the accommodations, the activities. But for me, it's dinner every night.

Yeah. It's a giant table. An incred. How long would you say this table is? 40 ft.

Probably 50 people. 40 people, would you say? Yeah. Yeah, that feels right. Everyone is terrific. And every year there's additions and sub like people can't make it and someone else arrives and it's always just an fascinating group of people.

So you can't miss no matter who you're seated next to but and I don't want to rank. It's not polite to rank but if you and I get seated next to each other

I'm like this is going to be the greatest three-hour dinner. You're the funnest person to talk to. I love talking to you.

That is so flattering. And when you told me that, you texted that to me. Yeah. I immediately went and got Naomi and told her

because my immediate reaction when finding a seat at that dinner is if I'm sitting across from you or next to you, I'm like, I I really don't want Dax to feel like he has to talk to me, you know?

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

Same. So so much of our conversations and this is where one of my questions comes in

are we have a lot of nostalgic conversations. We have a lot of the same favorites from the 80s and 90s. We did I don't know 90 minutes on Against All Odds.

Against all odds. Oh, you had Jeff Bridges. I did. And I brought up the car chase scene and I asked how much of the driving he did. You

and questions only you and I would want answered. Yeah. Yeah. If I'm wearing the glasses I just heard

now and then maybe that's a pretty good comp. Okay. Yeah. He talked about that being the first movie he started like physically training for and how it like

created a lifetime kind of interest in exercise. That's so interesting. I was watching a behind thescenes thing on Temple of Doom and they're like Harrison really had to like bulk up for this one and it shows him at like a shitty gym just like doing

doing bench press with those plastic weights filled with sand. Yeah. Like nothing.

Yeah. Like he did some bench press. Not nothing. He's definitely exercising, but gyms have changed a lot. There's no trainer there. He's just like by himself.

No squats, no deadlifts, bench and some curls. And then a couple of beers. A couple of beers in a doobie and let's get to Saturday.

Yeah. Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare. But I guess what I was wondering is uh yeah, you have this deep nostalgia. I want an explanation for it. And I'm wondering, do you think we're just that way or is there something about childhood that was so comforting? I'm I'm just curious like you would recognize, right? You're more encyclopedic about that whole era than most people you talk to.

Yeah. You always blow me way out once we start talking. You like, yeah, you've watched the behind the scenes of Temple of Doom. I haven't.

Right. In the last three months, I've gone and looked at that. Yeah. I think I think you're right. I mean, I think it's it's it's So comforting to think about that era and I think movies in that era in particular were geared for us. Yeah. Like when I referenced Temple of Doom that is my favorite movie. I was 11 when that came out. So like that and Goonies and ET I feel I know it's it's kind of tired now because our our generation has kind of beat the nostalgia to death a little bit. Back to the Future. Those movies were like at least for me they meant everything.

I ask myself that a lot. Like why did this stuff mean so much to me? I think that at least for me that whole period of time from like 82 to 88 when I started getting interested in beer and stuff and like just a social life and you know

hip-hop for for me it was like the dead. I got into the Grateful Dead. And why do I think you had a crazy hip-hop phase in high school?

I didn't. You didn't? No. I think you're thinking of Mmore. Oh, I don't know if I am. But you were more dead Santa Cruz. The amount of death

that all the time. I know. Oh my god. That's why we wanted to do this on video and to be honest with you

to see if Mmore and I could would be cuz he's not here so you you don't know. But I think people would think it was Mmore.

Yeah. Posing as Adam probably. You're right. You're right that it's it's a particularly potent period of time.

Okay. Last thing I will say about this. Then I started watching this Brat Pack documentary. Did you do

that? Yes. Those that's another chapter of that same period of time. Those movies hit me so hard. Pretty and Pink. Oh my god.

Oh my god. Pretty and Pink and the psychedelic furs and how that was making me feel and all that. But I was I was watching the Brat Pack doc and I was having the realization like oh we also lived in a very peculiar time where five of the biggest movie stars alive were 21 years old.

Yeah. Like I think of that now and of course that would seem in crazy that there would be this cadre of enormous stars that huge

but that was a unique thing that was happening when we were kids that we didn't know was unique. They're greenlighting like 12, 15 teen movies a year,

right? And they still from that period, they still don't look that young to me. And I think it's because they were

older, six years older than me or something. They looked agreed, sophisticated, and adult.

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

right? And they were 21. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have that, Monica? Am I wrong about that? That's a unique aspect. You didn't have that when you were u 12.

Oh, the 21-year-old. Yeah, there's like a whole like crop of movies every weekend.

Then for your Zack Efron a little bit before I'm sorry. I'm not calling you a baby.

Yeah, I'm a big girl. Harry Potter stars. No, I mean I I was like the Friends era. They were young. I guess they were young too, but yes, older than me. But I was going to say nostalgia, I think, exists because it's the things that you consumed before everything got complicated.

That's right. And also before you started wanting things for real, like chasing things and deciding I want to do this with my life, it was it was just pure.

Yes. And there's only a very small amount of time you get in life of purity. Totally. And that window for us happened to be during this Spielberg era where Elliot in ET, Indiana Jones, the kids in Goonies, Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. These were heroes. These were people doing Luke Skywalker

changing the world. Yeah. And they were all like scrappy nobodyies and divorce was making its way into these movies which I like cuz again I was like

is a very divorced driven movie. I was in a, you know, divorced family on my maybe second stepdad, feeling like I want to just be in the world on my own a bit.

And all these kids, these protagonists in these movies were just kind of on their own.

Yes. The parents weren't figuring prominently into any of these things. No. And I think that was really appealing to me.

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

Cuz those kids in ET were just like, "Yeah, okay, Mom." and they would just go off on their bike.

This alien on our own. Yeah, dude. We're going to outrun the cops. So, when I um went back to consult your previous episode, I would have not guessed this. What number do you think Adam was

early? I think really early, maybe 32, right? I would have gone 40s. What would you say?

First five. Seventh. Seventh. Stop. Wow. Seventh guest that you had. Yes. I remember it being early, but I was kind of taking a flyer by saying five.

Seven. Yeah. Seven. Not only seven, but Monica, as I listen to it, the the episode starts with housekeeping and it's me explaining. Monica's a part of the show. She's going to talk. She's not interrupting. Like I read in comments, she's not she's a integral part of the show. Like it's me explaining.

So funny. Sweaty. Yeah. I got sweaty listening to the whole thing. Yes. Wow. How long ago was that?

7 years ago in February. Wow. Yeah. Congratulations you guys. But obviously so much has happened since then.

Yeah. 7 years. What I learned in a a bunch of interviews I listened to of you today. One was I heard you on Fresh Air saying, which I thought was really funny, that you were just obsessed singularly on TVs and movies.

Yeah. And that's all you thought about. Yeah. And I was thinking if you go into acting that was a great use of time.

Yeah. But if you're just an average person that says, "No, all I've ever thought about and obsess about was TV and movies. Somehow that sounds like a losery endeavor."

Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I was thinking like just by the fact that you landed in it

means that it was totally justified. And what a great thing to be focused on your whole life. I think in the low points of trying to do this, I've that certainly crossed my mind like what have I done with my life because it's all I thought about and talked about

99% screen time, right? And here I am with nothing to show for it. Yeah. Yeah. And no practical skills of any kind,

right? So, you know, there was a real low point in like 2000 when I had not gotten six feet under. I tested for that with Michael C. Hall.

Yeah. Who Thank God he got it cuz he was incredible. And I was not ready to do that. But he he's

Oh, that's heartbreaking. And then you're watching it. That was a hefty role. A hefty role and a hefty show. And

you lover ultimately, didn't you? Yeah, I did play his his boyfriend for a couple episodes.

They brought you back. That's Yeah, they did. But when that before it was even on TV and when I did not get the role, it was after a series of blows work-wise, just not having worked in 6 months or, you know, one of those. We all went through it and I was nowhere like I had been at it at that point for like

seven years or something and was at square one because every when you when you're living like guest spot to guest spot and indie movie you never hear from those people again

to indie mo you know to remind people you and I were in one of those together hair shirt

too smooth too smooth this is when you were volunteer I was volunteer But do you know what his role was? I didn't I don't know if you knew your role the last time at bar.

Fan at bar. Fan almost worse than guy at bar. It's far more humiliating. I think you and I have the two best.

And who were you? Vomiter at party. What does vomiter mean? Someone who vomits at a party.

Are you on camera vomiting? Yeah, I think so. Oh, man. I hope so. That's what was promised.

I've never seen too smooth hair shirt. Have you seen it? I've seen it. Yeah. I don't want to get bogged down in that, but I You want to know who else was in that movie that I don't I doubt you know was in it?

Rebecca Gayart. Rebecca Gayard. Nev Campbell, of course. And then our two leads, which I looked at the poster this morning. Our poor two leads are in the deep, deep background. And Nev and Rebecca are front and center.

Yeah. And they maybe had like, I don't know, three scenes. Nev was playing like a big star, right?

Yeah. Hence you being a fan fan at bar. At bar. Yeah. and me being volunteer at the party.

That's right. Alfonso Coron was in that movie. What? I remember he and Dean were good buddies.

Yeah, he played a director in the movie. That is so wild. So, you and I have been in a film with Alfonso Corron.

Absolutely. We are colleagues of Alonso Coroner. Uh we are peers with Alfonso Coron. That's really really funny. So obviously since then you have done a ton of stuff but um severance is like the most spectacular thing and as you know cuz Chris and I sent you voicemails.

Yes. Almost after every episode. Yes. I'd like to play a couple of these. Oh. Hey. So we're in bed and we just had a quick question.

Hi. We just had a quick question. Are you guys [ __ ] drawing this new season? Is that what's taking so long? What in the godamn hell is taking so long?

These are the kind of messages you would receive after every You son of a [ __ ] You wanted the compliments. Well, here comes the [ __ ] complaints. Belle and I just sat here on the edge of our seat waiting to find out what happens when you guys come to

You [ __ ] prick. You piece of [ __ ] prick. And that goes for Ben, too. Losers.

Oh, buddy. Are we [ __ ] pissed that this episode just ended when the switches were thrown? So, you wanted the [ __ ] cake and now you got to take the rat poison, too. You piece of [ __ ]

Okay, so that's kind of an hour. Was that for the finale? It was I think one before.

Oh, the one right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I just got to This ended up being three.

Oh, another thing. It's going to be a long [ __ ] week for us and for you. Yeah, cuz we're waiting. So, either block my number or get used to this [ __ ]

[ __ ] you. You piece of [ __ ] Okay. And then the last one. Quick update you'd probably find funny. My wife just ran through a plate glass window off the second story of our home and was rushed to the hospital. You probably want to know if she's still alive. I will tell you next week.

I have all those on my phone as well. Um, I want to play your response just uh one of your responses which is is so good.

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

You're so [ __ ] Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's cute. But you went into severance and I learned this from you. I don't know if this is secret or not, but you were like you were involved and then maybe you weren't involved for a minute and then you were involved.

So like doesn't start on the firmst footy maybe or I don't know what you go through before you end up there,

but you go right at really what what point in the pandemic? Well, we were scheduled to start the end of March. Yeah. End of March 2020.

Yeah. or beginning of April, something like that. And actually went and did a table read at the like March 7th or something. And then it was I was going to go home and then get all my [ __ ] and come out.

And uh at the table read every we they passed uh Purell around. We were like this pandemic thing is thinking this is weird. Yeah.

And then as I was there just for like 2 days, [ __ ] like was contracting in New York and I was like maybe I should go get some like Lysol wipes for my room. Like what's going on?

And then I flew home and and then everything happened. So we didn't start shooting till October. But even that was like in the midst of every we were one of the only shows actually shooting. So we were shooting in the, you know, obviously the a lot of shows were doing this where you have a mask, a plastic thing in front of your face and all that [ __ ]

where for the actors the only time we saw people's entire faces was when camera was rolling. We would rehearse with all that stuff and there was a special person with a with your own box to put your mask and all your equipment in for it was wild. So the isol all that to say the isolation from each other and in general was cuz I would wake up like in my apartment go down to the van that took me to set that had a plastic sheet between me and the driver go then go to my room where you weren't allowed to like have anyone in your room. So suffice it to say the only real human contact was after action. Right. So it kind of fed into the show. I didn't notice that your mom had died as well right before I guess it would have been that table read.

Two days before the table read. Oh my god. Two days before the table read. I think the most interesting part of this is so then the the the the memorial gets kicked all the way to December or something.

December of 21. Okay. So very far away. Yeah. But what immediately happens after she dies is you go into quarantine with your family.

Yeah. And it's like groovy, right? You're like with your family. I think in particularly a time like that where it's like there's the loss of this person, but at least you're connected to the fact that the whole thing just carries on.

Yes. And that's comforting and maybe misleading. Yes. And then you get completely by yourself in an apartment in New York.

In this very lonely situation already. Yeah. And I'm imagining everything kind of must hit the fan at that point.

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

Yeah. And so I hate to say it was a good coincidence, but by God, if you have to go through this,

the fact that you got to play someone who's grieving the loss of somebody. Yeah.

And you're lonely as [ __ ] in real life. Yes. Yeah. You don't have to act really.

It was It was kind of a just gliding right into it and very directly just letting it out and processing it in the show. Yeah. There's a scene in the show actually where we were on the side of the road at the site of my wife's car accident. Yeah. In like the seventh episode and just by sheer coincidence because we shot the whole season at once. It was on the one year anniversary of my mom dying.

Oh wow. Which was completely and I didn't realize it till that day. And so there were things like that where I could pretty directly just

let out how you were feeling. Yeah. And process. When you shut the door to the apartment and you go,

"Yeah, we got some dealing to do." Are you overcome with fear for that process or what's your reaction to knowing

that? Like, oh, we're going to go through some stuff now and we're going to be by ourselves.

Yeah. And we're going to get into this. I think that I'm a person who tries to compartmentalize and push things to a later date.

Yeah. And so I think I busied myself with the getting ready for the show and the election was about to happen and so I was preoccupied with that and and so I closed that door and was like, "Oh shit." and really felt the the loss right there like, "Oh, there is a giant elephant in in this room with me. But it'll be there. I'm here for 8 months or whatever. I'll be fine." And eventually after a few weeks and just hours of alone time because no one was socializing really

and restaurants, you know, it was so weird that I uh that I really did have to uh figure it out there. And I didn't talk to a therapist while I was there and I really should have. I did kind of in a way sort of come to terms with it and come to terms with the fact that grief is something that is a flat circle in one way or the other. It it stays with you and sometimes it feels like it happened 10 minutes ago and sometimes it feels like it happened 50 years ago.

Yeah. And sometimes it's surreal that that person is no longer in your life. It's just like unbelievable. It's really hard to imagine someone exists and they don't. As dumb and simple as that is to say, it is so weird that you can exist and then not exist.

Yeah. and someone that is so instrumental in who you are. You know, I one thing I did kind of realize is that as you know, this thing that that I'm doing for a living, um, one thing I realized is that when she was gone, I I realized that part of the reason I was doing this in the first place was for her to see it.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, of course. Yeah. And so when that was gone, I was sort of like, well, who am I who am I going to impress?

Yeah. You know? Yeah. So, I had to straighten that out and and and sort of come to terms with the fact that these feelings and this love that you have for a person and their love for you is, you know, doesn't go anywhere. It's it's still it's still here.

Yeah. It's kind of what you're made of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the structure of you is that.

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

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

and so we were in this relationship supporting him. Yeah. So, unfortunately, a lot of our conversations over those last few years were like, I need this or can it's just not a great dynamic.

And then, you know, I lived with my mom primarily my whole life. Yeah. And he when he was dying, it was a lot of work for me. So, I had this conflicting I felt a sense of relief when he died.

Yeah. And I was like, "Okay, this battle's over. We got him through it without too much carnage. That's that's a win." And so I think I had like I had a misleading sense of relief for a few months

and then opened up the door to like, oh, I'm never going to chat with him again or I'm never going he's not going to see anything I do, you know? But

through all of that, I was like, also, thank God it's not my mom. Yeah. Cuz my mom for me is the thing you're talking about. Like Dax wants to live in the woods and [ __ ] be annihilated drunk all day. anything I've ever done positive was cuz my mom believed in enough

that I was a good boy and I needed to make her happy. And so I've often thought like if she's not around for me to even think, what would she think? That feels like a very scary place for me to be in.

Yeah. I really rely on her to almost be my super ego. Yeah. just like in the back of your head. Your mom is uh this very unique station that

it's so [ __ ] thankless. Like, do you watch Naomi and I watch Kristen? My god, what Jesus Christ?

And meanwhile, I'm walking around like, you know, I know. They're like, "Dad, I know. You know that Nick Crawl special where he's just like,

yes, moms are annoying." And they are. Why? It's so unfair. because they know you well

in a way that no one else does. Not your dad, no one. They just know they were in your body.

Well, they're who you are able to be scared in front of, vulnerable. Yeah. I mean, even as an adult, you know, something would happen.

Yeah. I would call her and no matter how embarrassing, you know, that that call is there.

Yes. You know, to your point, guaranteed I'm feeling better when I Yeah. get off the phone with my mom.

100%. She'd somehow find the silver lining in this horrific and give you the kernel of advice, whatever it is.

Yeah. And I think part of a, at least for me, part of a son's journey, and I'm sure it's the same for no matter what gender you are, there is a period of time where you need to peel away and show that you don't need the your mom. You've you've got this. You're good. You know like

Yeah. Yeah. And um you're a big boy mom. Yeah, that's right. And I already know anything you're going to say anyway cuz I'm a grown-up now. But thinking back on that stuff is is painful. But I think also just being a parent now, you just know like you don't care.

No. Anytime my kids are shitty to me. Yeah. I'm like ultimately I don't really give a [ __ ]

I almost good for you. The Yeah. Sometimes like when they tell me off I'm like good for you. You got some backbone.

Yeah. Not bad. Not bad. You're You're supposed to hate me from time to time. Yeah. Like it would be weird if you didn't roll your eyes and slam the door right now.

Yes. That's the unconditional like you get two if you're lucky you get two sources of unconditional love and then when they start when that starts going away it's so scary. It's like there's not there's what's left.

That's scary. We have the great luxury and gift of I think what you do with that is you you you just turn it on your kids. It's like I don't have that thing. I miss that thing. I'm never going to have that thing, but I have this thing.

Yeah. Imagine when you don't have kids and you go through the loss of a parent. It's got to be really destabilizing. You're kind of now

Oh, you're not tethered to really anything. I can't imagine. Monica, do you are both of your parents with us?

Yes, they are. They are. But I'm I live with like so much fear of something happening to them. I think part of it is that it

I don't really have a place to channel it, but in some ways I think not that it's a copout, but like you said, you can in the pandemic, you could sort of channel it with your family and you can have that. But when you're we're all ultimately by ourselves really and so when you when you really sit with it, you are going to have to process it anyway

at some point. Yeah. At some point. And the kids aren't really going to be the answer to that. And they probably they probably don't deserve to be the answer to that.

They're going to bail like every other kid does. My son's in his senior year in high school and like that's going to happen, you know,

in less than a year. Yeah, that's awful. Oh my god, it's so awful. Why? Why is life structured like this? It's crazy.

That's so wild. And you were so kind to how he came over and and interviewed you for his film class. And boy oh boy was that a feather in his um doing a doc little mini dock on cars. And Dak Shepard's in his [ __ ] show

and he's a just a brilliant he's so smart and such a kind lovely person and and into like really cool stuff. It it's it's the best. It really is. But it's going to be incredibly sad when he [ __ ] leaves.

Oh god. Yeah. Jesus. Well, yeah. You shut the door to an apartment in New York and that had some justification. But the notion that you'll be shutting your own door to your home when Frankie leaves and you'll go, "Oh yeah,

we've got we're going to have to deal with this." Yeah. Now we just have each other.

Yes. Jesus. Should we adopt? Maybe they'll come back. My brother went back home for a while

for really like after after college or Okay, he just recently left. Yeah. Wow. So, you never know. You know,

good for him. And I actually I was panicking for my mom cuz that's even worse. It's like then you have a really long time. You get I think you probably trick yourself into this is forever. Like great, he'll live here. This is just the way it's going to go. And she gets to make sandwiches for him every day. And now he's really gone. So, did she have to go through the grieving all over again?

She went to YouTube instead. She likes YouTube. I think she's mean just watching YouTube.

She's dealt with a ton of [ __ ] and she's figured it out. And her figuring it out is just

Where do they live? Georgia. In Georgia. So, anyway, I was like, "Oh no." And also, she just lost her dad. And I was like, "Oh my god, my brother's leaving and that's happening. This is a disaster." But she's

well, you know what the when that happens sometimes the second time they leave there it's kind of like

yeah instead of this middle ground maybe it's like okay I remember when I came back in between years at school I had only been gone for 8 months or whatever school year and I remember moving back into my mom's house and she was a little like huh okay yeah you're you're here now that's she had she process in

already moved on. So there was some adjusting to happen. The baby boomers did it quicker. They were Yeah. They knew how to get through something really fast.

That's right. Okay. Now, back to Seance. So th those those are kind of unique circumstance in which you were filming the first one. And so here's what happened. As you know, it's my favorite show. Told you non-stop.

Um we got six screeners for the upcoming season. Oh, you did? Which we were ecstatic about. I came in and I lord these few things I get over because Kristen has access to everything in the world. So it's never I'm never offering something cool. Yeah.

And I'm like, uh, guess who's got six episodes of next season? So excited. Sign in to watch them. And I go, let's watch the recap. Have you done this? I wonder if you've done the same thing. had the same crisis of morality uh

where I was like I I want to so bad but I don't think I should and mainly actually because I want to be watching it while the world is watching it. There's something about that the you being like we have to wait a week that's makes it really fun.

But that's not why I didn't watch the new ones. I watched the recap and I was like, "Hun, are you remembering this?"

Yeah. And she's like, "Not as much as normal." And Kristen can really remember a TV show. M will tell you. We come back from Game of Thrones. She still reme.

So I was like, I I'm inclined to start over. Yeah. Which I've done. Yeah. I can't recommend this enough to people. People should re you should start right now in anticipation for

we are I'm doing the same thing cuz Ben and I are hosting a podcast which I hope to be on

where we Yes. where we go through every episode of the first season. Then we'll be doing a weekly thing for season two. I love that

and re-watching the show. I hadn't seen it in a long time and it's been 3 years so maybe it So we're encouraging people to rewatch the whole season. But I can't believe how much I forgot about it. And I can't believe how much I'm enjoying re-watching. I think more than I've ever enjoyed re-watching it. There's a lot of it that feels like I'm watching it for the first time.

Oh, that's great. I think because of the gap between seasons. Yeah. Long time. But then also the density of it and the subtlety of it. And it's interesting watching it, knowing more about it. I think you get more from it. But anyways, all that to say, I didn't watch any of the new season cuz now I'm on episode four. Yeah.

Kristen went out of town. I already decided, um, [ __ ] her. I'm going on without her, which is another rare. I don't do that.

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

Yeah. Three viewings before we Yeah, that's right. That's right. Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare. I guess my fear because I love the show so much is like what do you do with a second season,

right? How long did that take for them to crack that? Also, Dan, is that the writer creator's name?

Yeah. The only thing he had ever written for before this was LipSync Battle. Yeah, man.

Do you know this story? He wrote for LipSync Battle. He sent the pilot for Severance as a writing sample to Red Hour. Yeah. And uh Nikki Weintock and Jackie Conn at Red Hour kind of read the script and thought it was great and brought it to Ben and and so so yeah, it was more of a sample like, "Hey, I'm a writer. You know,

I have one." And they were like, "What about this as a actual thing?" And yeah, Dan was working at a door factory when that sample was sent to Red.

Really? Yeah. In what state? In California somewhere. Good for us. We're manufacturing doors. I thought that was more of a Wiscon. Yeah. So, he was working in a door factory.

Yeah. Yeah. and he's just the the coolest guy and the brilliant obviously and and so he and Ben just started working on this and developing it and and Jackie and Nikki I'm sure that's what Dan was kind of scooped up from nowhere having no

real credits like talking to him about the show and kind of where it can go and stuff and he has it all in his head and and also when he's thinking of something new it's really fun to hear him sort of go, "Oh, yeah, that's cool." And then little like culde-sacs and roads he goes down, he always takes an unexpected strange direction. But also as far as the kind of language of Lumen and there is no one who can really crack it and write it like he can't like it's a really particular thing that he invented and has a real direct line to is the just sort of strange phrasing and nomenclature of human and K and this whole world. Yeah,

it's it's really fun. How much of Ben's fingerprint is on it diretorially? Because, and I'll admit this, I had not seen Escape from Danamore.

Uhhuh. Or I saw the first one. I don't know why I didn't continue, but we just watched it, I don't know, 3 weeks ago.

Yeah. And [ __ ] loved it. It's amazing. It's I just rewatched it, too. Did you?

Yeah. Just like last week. And did you see the parallels? Yes. Yes. It's a similar thing. You're like trapped in a world. You don't have your autonomy. You're trying to escape. I don't know. It's interesting.

Yes. I And the I was I really zeroed in on this this time watching Danamura how art figured into their lives,

right? Because Irv and John John Tutoro and Christopher Watkins characters are really particularly John Irv is his his life is really connected to art and the paintings and the rules of the and and all of the sort of culture of the world is really important to him and the guys in Danamora uh Benio Del Toro and Paul do's characters you know when you have very little your your sort of stimuli is really cut off, these things become really important.

And in severance, it almost seems dangerous. Like you're looking at all those hallways, they're stark white. It, you know, they're meaningless. And then what the painting that he hangs up,

it's like the most exciting. It's like the [ __ ] um sphere in Vegas. Totally. In that world.

Totally. And when Christopher Watkins delivering the new tote bags for the manual, that's a huge deal.

It's really it's an event. Could you see all this stuff when you read the script?

Not like this. No, the tone of it was really found during that the the first season. And I think something that really kind of worked in our fa cuz you know usually when you go back and watch the first season of any show that you know and love the first few episodes it's like okay they don't know who that they're figuring it out. Since we shot the season all at once we were still shooting the first episode 10 months in. Right. So we something that worked in our favor is us finding our sea legs was spread out over the season. Right.

There's no moment you can detect that. And that's to to Ben and Dan's credit. Were you guys worried? Were you like maybe we should put masks on and maybe we should redo the co experience while we shoot season 2 to keep

right to keep our to keep our isolation cuz that was magic. And that's scary. Yeah, it was. It I mean it's scary going back to to anything that worked or works. As much love I have for the show as I have anxiety about how we perpetuate this world in a way that ends up being satisfying.

Yeah. Logically. Yeah. It's a big endeavor. You know, when we started season 2, it was like, okay, like we there is this steep mountain in front of us that, you know, holy [ __ ] Okay, let's let's go.

Doing pulp fiction, too, dude. Yeah. and just the enormity of it. It's so much to do and I love that. I love getting in and chipping away and I love working with Ben. Something we have in common is we don't want to stop until we get it right.

Yes. And I completely trust his taste and his eye. And that's something that you have to have in a director is complete trust. And how often is that?

Yeah. Um but I do with him. I have no business saying this, evaluating his career in this way, but I'm going to.

Yeah. So, it's like he did Tropic Thunder. He made that movie so big and glossy and actiony, which is cool. You know, he showed he could do that. I was watching Danmore. I was like, okay, so this is

him saying like, I don't have to [ __ ] with comedy. I know exactly how to do drama. And I feel like Severance is the beneficiary of him having proved he can do everything and now letting in some of the comedy and the weirdness that this to me just feels like the total synergy of all the previous work.

That's really interesting. There's just like a confidence to be it can be anything cuz the show's often hysterical. Yeah.

I think. Yeah. And it's just all things now. Yeah. Okay. Walking into Turo. Yeah. You doesn't sound like you got to bond with them in season one too much because you guys weren't in lockdown

with Turo. I did because we had so much time together on so so many scenes together with with Walkin. I'm I don't actually in season one didn't really have all that much

time with him. I had a couple scenes and it was incredible to just be anywhere near Christopher Walk and I couldn't [ __ ] believe it. Yeah.

Um, actually on my first day shooting with both of them, it was like 6 weeks into the shoot and they both were starting on the same day and I was so excited and actually took a picture of the call sheet and sent it to my my friend Ste was like, "Guess who I'm working with tomorrow, bro."

It's so fun to still be that excited. Great. I was so excited but couldn't get to sleep because I was so excited. Stay stayed up till like 4.

Oh boy. Woke up not because of my alarm but because of pounding on my door. I was supposed to get in the car at probably 6:00 a.m. and it was 8:30.

Oh no. Oh my god. 2 and 1/2 hours sleeping. Set was an hour away. Oh no. And now it's rush hour. My assistant was pounding on the door, which means he had time to drive from set all the way down to Tribeca and pound on my door.

This was the first day with John Tuturo and Christopher Walker. You'd bragged to your buddy the night before.

Yes. Which is the kiss of death, right? You're showing up feeling great about yourself.

Oh my god. I got up, let him in, and was running around the apartment crying trying to get all my [ __ ] together cuz usually I wake up with at least an hour of just time to drink coffee and read the [ __ ] whatever.

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

I just had to go apologize. You did? Yeah. And what did you say? I said, "I am so sorry. I

I just flew in from China." The thing is, the thing that really sucked about it is that I knew that no matter what I say, it's going to sound like [ __ ] No matter what I say.

Yeah. You're a guy who just slept in two and a half hours. I now have put myself in a position where I have to earn it back with these two guys who I don't know. And I've been working on this first impression now for a while.

And I am starting at a deficit. A serious deficit. Yeah, you're in a hole. No matter what I say, no matter how gracious they are, they're going to be like "Fucking

dick, the the number one on the call sheet ends up being an asshole." I might have been tempted. I don't know if this manipulative or also just dead honest. I would I I probably said to them, "You're to blame. I was so excited to work with both of you that I couldn't go to sleep till 4 a.m.

That would have been a good move. Maybe bury it in some flattery, but also that might have sounded they like, "God, this guy's a pathological liar on top of being this guy's a drug addict."

Probably. That's what it is. They go just immediately went to Is that what you immediately think everyone is thinking about you is this guy's a drug addict.

This guy relapsed. Turo was just like, "Oh, happens to everybody. Happened to me." Like, you know, it told me a story about Yeah. Right. I have so much curiosity about both those gentlemen. They're in a similar category for me where there's this group of actors where I'm like they're so intrinsically interesting and unique and different that I almost can't believe they can also act.

Yeah. Right. Like they're so genuinely authentic. I can't believe that Christopher Walkan like finishes work and then goes home and like makes himself something to eat and watches television and goes to sleep. Yes.

Like what? or he's behind a guy at the um parking garage arm who can't get his credit card to work and he's just there for 12 minutes.

Should I get out and try to help him? He's dealing with that. Christopher Walkin.

No. So to see him like in the makeup chair like looking at his phone, I'm like, "Oh my god." Yeah. Tuturo is similar for me. I I remember I I went to see his directorial debut opening night in 92. Mac, I think it was '92. Anyway, I held all that back till I got to know him a little bit

and then eventually kind of unleashed it all on him. And did he like it? Yeah, he's great. He's the coolest and so such a sweet

Oh, is he? He would be such a great person to have on a fascinating guy and one of the great actors that we have. I mean, he is a beautiful actor. Yeah,

that's another word I feel is overused. Uh, more so like 10 years ago, but beautiful. Everything's beautiful.

I like you describing him as beautiful. And I have often described that that whole storyline on Severance to me.

It's hard to imagine that show without it. I know. It's It's really the heart of the show.

It really really is. It's It's beautiful. It is [ __ ] beautiful. They're both beautiful. The way they play it is just impossibly perfect. They're really close friends and have been for a long time. And it was John's idea to have Christopher Christopher Walkan play that part.

You can just see the love there that they have for each other. And very special.

He was really taking care of Chris on set. Not that he needs to be taken care of, but he would come in for a scene every few weeks or whatever. And John was it it was just so sweet and lovely. And that's a rare thing to have someone who is that kind of embedded in our consciousness.

I'm going to put you in that category, which is I think the most impressive thing about those two from the outside, not knowing them at all, is just going, "Yeah, man. These two are still [ __ ] starving to make art." Like they're still dying to express themselves. I don't have that as much um sadly, but I see that you have that a ton. I think that'll be you as long as you want it to be you.

That's very kind of you. I'll close on this. But you're doing that here. I'm doing a different version, I guess. Yes.

No, we're all storytellers. I mean, we're just There should be a fire right here, you guys.

Uh, the last thing I'll I'll I'll close with is just an interesting conversation that we had this summer, and I've played it back in my head a few times to double check it. It didn't at all offend you, but we were talking about the people that recognize you. I don't know if you remember this conversation. And there is an enthusiasm people have towards you that you have a hard time accepting. I think as we all do, but I was trying to explain to you why I understand it very much so in regards to you, which is I think you are for people what Nicholas Cage was for me, which is this guy isn't the high school quarterback. He's one of us. Yeah.

And he and he did it. He got invited to the big party and he's the star of the big show and I see myself in him

and I think that's a rad space to occupy and I don't know how you took that but I I know that's how people feel about you. That's how I feel about you. I'm like, "Oh yeah, the dude I was making jokes with in the classroom about the popular people there, he somehow is there." I keep thinking about Nicholas Cage watch walking out on that talk show and doing those kicks.

Oh yeah. Yeah. That's on Instagram all the time. Have you gone down the full YouTube rabbit hole of his compilations of talk show appearances?

No, I should. He's number one of all time. The best. I'm just going to tell you he's talking to Letterman about, you know, Dave, you know, I have this I have a a King Cobra. It's Daryl or whatever his name is. You know, I just love getting back. you know, I go get home from work and I go over to see how Daryl is and I I put up the sheet and Daryl just kind of like he looks at me and he's saying hi and then all of a sudden he just says [ __ ] YOU CAGE.

He just starts screaming at what he's doing this cobra attacking the cage and you're like

the fact that you thought he was attainable is Yeah, that's amazing. I thought I could get that wild on TV. could see the direct line from Dax to that Nicholas Gage and I'm sure Letterman loved that. Like that's what you could do back is go on Letterman and do that.

Yes. Yes. Well, I'll say that that is so kind of you to say and I'll accept it just as much as I did this summer when you said it to me, which is not really at all,

but I appreciate it. And you're you're kind and lovely to say so. And I think that this show as a fan is so great and and it is where you're able to funnel and express yourself a in a really direct important way. And I think you being so kind of actualized and really kind of like the journaling every morning is a really important thing. And the fact that there are as many people listening to this as there are hearing that healthy behavior from you because listening to you talk about that makes me want to do it. I'm like, "Yeah, that makes sense." and and without being like preachy or self-helpy about it, you're just talking about yourself and how you're living your life. And I think that that is incredibly important. And you're doing a lot of good just by sharing yourself in a more direct way than you would have been able to by acting. You're really kind of sharing your insides here. And that's that's

really hard to do. So, I'm grateful that you're that you're doing this. Well, thank you, Adam.

Yeah. And I'm grateful that you're doing this Monica. From episode 7 to episode 807, what a gap.

807. 807. That would be incredible. Rob, what would it be? Oh, damn. Oh my god.

That's a lot of episodes. So, I just don't I don't want you to let 837 or 832 episodes go by between

for sure next visit. Wow, that's a lot. All right, everybody see. It comes out on Apple TV Plus on January 17th and the podcast comes out on January 7th. Two episodes initially

and then weekly as the show unveils. Yeah, two episodes initially and then one episode per day until season 2 premieres on the 17th and then season two will have one episode per week.

Okay, wonderful. That's a complicated schedule. I just got to say uh this new season we also add Aliia Shaw Catat who we are obsessed with.

Love her. Merritt Weaver who I loved on Nurse Jackie. Gwendalyn Christy Brienne of Tarth.

Oh wow. Oh this is so exciting. These casting choices are as good as it gets. Yep.

All right. That's all. I love you. Can't wait for our next chitchat. Thank you.

Everyone watch severance. Thank you Monica. Thank you. He is an arm care expert but he makes mistakes all the time. Thank god Monica's here. She's got to let him have the facts.

New shirt. Old shirt. New attitude. Oh boy. Oh wow. I got a new Who's rocking? Uh motocross racer.

Oh, was that you, Rob? Oh, okay. Did you take a little fall? I think it's almost

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

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

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

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

Well, remember it's Max's New Year's resolution to do the splits. Yeah. And you said I don't think he can because if you don't learn by a certain time.

Yeah. I think there's an anatomic reality to all this. But maybe according to Don't Die Guy Brian Johnson.

That's nice you remembered his name. I didn't think I had it, but I do. For people who don't know, it's a doc about a guy who has sold an internet company and has some $400 million or something and is spending $2.5 million a year to reverse his aging and try to live as long as possible.

Yeah. He's doing it with this company where they have steps and it's all in like it's wild. His diet, the exercise, it's it's his whole life. It's just devoted to that.

Yeah. And um I didn't finish. Oh, you didn't finish? No, I got Okay. I got to a part that was a critical part of the story where I think it explains a lot of his backstory and perhaps

what led him here. But then I stopped and then I forgot to pick it back up and then I remembered we were probably going to talk about it. So I thought, "Oh, I should finish it." But then I watched Conclave instead.

I did too. Not in that order, but I did see Conclave last weekend, which is not the type of movie I'm going to run towards cuz it's the Catholic Church.

Sure. But I'm going to get derailed by that. I'm a little bummed you didn't finish because again, there's so many knee-jerk immediate things you want to say about this. And um I was just kind of waiting through those and trying to resist that urge. And you're watching all these pundits who just they have vitriol for this man, like hatred. They're so mad at this man for doing it, which I who who cares ultimately life. Yeah, he made this money. He can spend it any way he wants. If anything, he's dumping it right back into the economy. So maybe they should be delighted about that. But um

there's some obvious things. Uh first and foremost, you're right. It it appears at least from the doc that is it's his entire day.

Yeah. And then so yeah, the first question begged for me is like, well, what's the point of being alive if the only thing you do while you're alive is try to stay alive,

which I think is semi-relevant, but then also, no, that implies there's some qualitative way to measure how one's spending their time. I'm choosing to spend my time one way. That would not be pleasurable for me to do it his way. So

yeah, for me that would be a bad cost benefit, but for him I I think he like he's very very lonely.

The doc is kind of sad and his sweet and sweet and his house looks like he's so nice, but it looks empty

and cold and cold. It's very modern. It's probably supposed to be cold cuz I think you're supposed to keep your body kind of cold.

Sure. And you probably shouldn't have too much color cuz maybe that's bad for your eyes or something.

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

Yeah, that's daddy's dialed. It is. But then for what? Then you don't the energy you're saving is used to just like do the rep therapy and yeah, however anyone wants to live their life if it's not causing harm to somebody else is fine. Yeah.

But I did think, spoiler, this is sort of where I stopped, but I got some information that he was Mormon.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. You weren't really towards the end. I think you're about halfway through.

Yeah, that's probably right. He was raised Mormon and had a Mormon family before he left the church.

Yes. And his mom and dad got divorced and the dad was um had his own struggles. He loved Coke, which made me like the dad right away.

Sure. and was in jail, was a drinker. You know, he's set up on all of these fronts to need a lot of control in his life. This overlaps nicely with the um Aaron Rogers doc which I keep bringing up because he was raised in an by his account a very very constrictive dogmatic version of Christianity that he found very very uh cumbersome and um you weren't allowed to question things and all the normal push back. But there does seem to be a little bit of a pattern where people who are raised in that and escape it find their way back into another version of it just missing the deity.

Yeah, of course. It's a discipline. You don't shed your personality that much. I mean that this is like such a dumb antecdote, but when I was home, my brother is like always sick at the holidays and he was staying at the house and he like came downstairs and he was like, I feel that thing in my throat where I'm definitely about to be sick.

Yeah. And we were like, and I was like, maybe not, you know, maybe it's just a little scratch. You're probably fine. And then he was like, "Well, I know. I know what this feeling is." And then he went, "But whatever." The next morning, I came downstairs and I asked my mom. I was like, "Is he sick?" And she was like, "You'd know if he was sick." And I was like, "What? What do you mean?" And he was she was just saying like, "He's just very vocal when he's sick. He talks a lot about it. He needs a lot. He needs" And she said, "You have never been like that. You just went to sleep always since you were little. if you were sick, you just went away and just went to sleep.

Right. And I was like, "Huh, I guess I still kind of do that when I'm sick." And she was like, "Yeah, people don't change that much."

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. And like a mom can see from day one till whatever. You could do fast math if

365* 36. That's a biggie. 37. 37. 13,5. Thank you. That's No, it's more than that. 365 * 37

is only what? 13,55. That seems light. It's not that many. I did it in my head, so I might be wrong.

Did it in my head. That's some Aaron Rogers can do insane amounts of math in his head.

Oh, whoa. Yeah. Like his one kink is he can square anything real time. You can throw any number and he can square it,

which is cool. But at any rate, he has a very militant and some would applaud and I have no actual opinion on it, but he is he's in a 5-day silent room with no light. He's on an Iawaska trip every few months. He's

if he's not playing football, he is pursuing this spiritual path he's on. Oh. But with a veracity that just feels very still religious.

Yeah. And then I of course am like, yeah, I don't believe there's a guy in the sky. I understand why you're rejecting that. But then there's also a lot of angles of this Iawaska thing because you get to see him practice it a lot where it's, you know, to me it's just as uh, you know, you got to play drums and do the whole thing and the incense and the and I'm like, well, you're just out in another on another ledge.

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

Yeah. I guess you really just community is the the religion. Community is the superpower, the magic power, the deity. And you think when people get together and they agree on something and practice in a way, it's whatever.

Yeah. So, back to the dude. So, yes, he was raised Mormon. And so, in some ways that he brings that same diligence and work ethic to this pursuit.

Yeah. But what gets really sweet and sad about it is he's very, very lonely. He, you know, he had this really bad experience with this one woman after he had been divorced.

Oh. Who he broke up with when she had cancer. Oh. And um she sued him and said he should support her forever cuz he's rich. And you know, I'm like, you don't get a severance package when you date someone. It's just not even if the person's rich. That's not how dating works. You're not You don't get a severance package.

You're not owed. Yeah. So the guy very publicly got sued by this woman. And of course, people just because he's rich, he's the oppressor and she's the oppressed. Forget the other stuff.

But also because she had cancer. That's a tricky That's tricky for I think for anyone to hear that is a little like

you left for during that. Well, again, you assume they left cuz the person had cancer.

Well, no, but the problem is when you leave someone in their time of need, regardless of how bad they are personality. I mean, this get just gets it gets complicated.

It's a bad look. It's a bad look. But you can imagine you've been with someone for a year. You you're already on the verge of breaking up and then they get a cancer diagnosis. You're like, I was already out. There's no way I have the capacity to now care for you for 2 years when I I was already not wanting to be with you. I don't know. Anyways, let's not get that. He's lonely and he has this boy and his son and him are so so close. And his son also had left the religion. So, he's dealing with the same. They can relate on that. and the kid's going to go to college and you can tell he's really really scared about losing his buddy.

Yeah. And all that's really touching and by the end I liked the guy I guess is what I'm saying.

That's nice. Yeah. Yeah. So he does have a company that's helping him but he also he's going down to this little you know there's a smidgen it's called like opportunity land or something down in Honduras. They've carved out this little prosperia

I think it's called. Jeez. the government granted this little area on a peninsula and basically total free market everything. You don't have there's no FDA. There's so there's a lot of experimental medicine happening down there. There's a lot of like cryptoy weird financial stuff happening. It's just um

free-for-all. It's a free-for-all. Wow. And he goes down there and he gets this gene therapy which is just not allowed anywhere but prosperia.

So it's like he is got a company and a protocol, but he also he's going rogue a little. He goes rogue. And then when you enter a path like this, I I don't know if you can help but go rogue cuz yeah, I'm on the ladder somewhere. Like I'm I'm doing things with the goal of living a long time to see my grandkids

and I'm doing a lot more things than other people do. Y and they likely think I'm spending too much time doing that or whatever.

Yeah. And for me, it feels completely normal and it's not taking over my life. Yeah. Again, I think whatever people are doing for themselves to get through life, uh, if it's not hurting anyone, it's fine.

I think people, maybe rightly so, maybe not. I don't know. It's a scale of luxury, right? Like this guy gets to because of his work. Like, you know, he created this thing and he made this money.

Yeah. Got divorced over work non-stop. because of that, he has the luxury to devote his life to living forever. And I think for a lot of people who watch that, they might say like, "Oh, that's crazy." But there's probably an element of,

"Well, why does he get to devote his time to living forever and I don't? I have grandkids or, you know, I want to live to see my grandkids and I have to work a 9 to5. I could never do that." And so there's just it just gets hard. I would like to do something very self- serving, but I don't really know how else to get the message out. I desperately need a tattoo artist in LA.

Oh, I don't want to fly anywhere. I don't want anyone to have to fly here. Um, I want a a good tattoo artist who is open to, this is a total transaction, going in and altering all of my tattoos enough that it is now an original piece of work and then sign me over the rights to that

and I will pay for that so that I own my art and can go short sleeve and commercials again.

Got it. Is someone experiencing cover-ups? Okay, that's a good way. Experienced in coverups. Yeah, if you could um hit me in the comments of this episode and I'll I'll find you, but I I definitely need to sit down and have someone go through and and alter every single thing so I can have my arm back. That was self- serving, but I've been meaning to I don't know how else to solve that.

Yeah. Great. Okay. Anything else? You any appeals to the audience you want to put out there? You looking for any specialists in any categories?

No. No, not Conclave. What a movie. Conclave was great. Um please see it. I think it's like Yeah. a hard cell just based on the genre. It's it's a pope movie kind kind of. It's really not. It's about the process of electing.

Is that evening um a pope? Yeah. And it's so much more complicated and human. It's so human.

Yeah. At the end of the day, even though it's supposed to be godly and um you know above us, it's not. It's people making these decisions. There's ambition and power.

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

Shout out to Tucci. He was phenomenal. Stanley Tucci was in it. Love him so much. Double Prada, friend of the pod.

Yes. Ray Fines is good, too. Oh my god, he's so good. Can you explain to me why Ralph Fines is Ray Fines? That still is a big mystery to me.

I'm just not sure. Okay, but his name is R A L P H Fines. Yes. And you pronounced that Ray Fines.

Yeah, that's a huge mystery to me. Yeah, I guess maybe his parents made that up. I don't know. Um cuz you know his brother Joseph

his brother I think is is Ralph Fine spelled R A Y. It's apparently a a UK tradition.

Is it? Oh pronounced Ralph as Rafe Rafe. Strange English quirk where something is pronounced entirely different than how it's spelled.

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

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

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

Yeah, that's probably true. I mean, again, it's back to the don't die. Like, I think that's fine. Like, that's their decision.

Yeah. I actually think it's a fairly noble one. Whether it's possible or not, I think the person can ask what's noble about it. Why is it good to not have had sex with a woman?

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

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

it's a weird one to pick. Speaking of giving up your life for your sacrif, you know sacrificing.

I remembered during the fire, you know, the fires are still happening, but they're getting contain more and more contained, which is really good.

My hot professor Yeah. he was a firefighter before he was a professor. Yes. And I just it just like occurred to me when I was

walking and I was like, "Oh, yeah. Of course, Scotty had it all." I know. He had the brains. He had the brawn. He had the firefighting skills.

He had it all. By the time this airs, I'll have gone to see the Lions play. Oh, fun.

Which I'm so excited about. Oh, that's great. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is it a playoff game?

Yeah. Nice. They had a by-week, so they got to sit out the first round of the playoffs and now we commence.

That's very exciting. Yes. They're going to play the Washington Commanders. Commanders. Yeah.

Okay. Were they not? So they were the Washington Redskins, correct? Which is a no no for obvious reasons. So they they got rid of that name. But weren't they for several years, Rob, just called like Washington football team or something?

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of sports there's like a hockey team like that right now, too. That's just the hockey team.

Oh, that's kind of cool. They take a little while to name and brand everything. So there's like two or three seasons occasionally where they're not a real team yet.

It's just so funny. Um, are you gonna go to the the Washington football team game?

Doesn't have a great Utah hockey club right now. The Utah Hockey Club. That sounds so AAA or It does sounds really far down. It doesn't sound like NHL.

Yeah, that's true. Hockey Club. Hockey Friends. Detroit Hockey Friends. Well, that's very exciting.

Yes. And I'm taking my boyfriend Aaron. Fun. Oh, that'll be great. We also get to be on the field during warm-up and stuff.

Oh, cool. Yeah, that's very fun. Oh, I'm very excited. You're going to be like the MCA.

I mean, I a I don't deserve to be the MCA. Nobody can be the MCA, but of course I would love to be the MCC. And I haven't earned being the MCC. McConna has not missed uh Longhorn's game, I think, in 30 years.

He has left vacations. You know that incredible story I told that Kutcher told me that he heard him partying very late at night in the Bahamas at 4 in the morning. Then when he woke up at 9:00 and turned on the football game, MC was magically standing on the field.

He knows how to teleport. He's the only one. Yeah. So I just I don't even deserve that. But um and I'm also wondering if I'll bump into other Detroititers like will I see Sam Richardson, you know, will I see any of these folks?

That's very funny. Well, I see Eminem, who I've never met. If they go to the Super Bowl, are you going to go?

No. Where is the Super Bowl? New Orleans. New Orleans. New Orleans at the Caesar Superdome.

You've been to the Super Bowl? I've been twice um for work. I went once for Ellen and once to promote chips. Yep.

And as I said, it's the only ts in my life I've been nervous somewhere. Yeah. I just don't like what kind of uh target it. I I don't know. I just start ruminating. And then I enjoyed the Super Bowl so much being at home and eating the snacks and being able to actually follow the game. This was even a decision when I was like, do I go to one of the early playoff games or, you know, God willing, they'll go all the way. Do I go to a later one? And I was like, "No, as it's getting more and more intense, I actually need to be at my house watching playbyplay with a closeup and hearing the calls and all this stuff because I can't follow things all that well in person."

Yeah. I'm not great at that. A little distracted. I feel like football's a newer interest and that's fun.

Yeah. It's not my sport. I'll watch two or three games throughout the year tops.

Yeah. But I do generally watch the playoffs cuz I want to be very excited about the Super Bowl cuz I love the Super Bowl just as a holiday

and I feel like I can amplify it if I actually know the stakes and who went through what to get there.

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

I know. I think it's fun to have a new new interest as we get older. For sure. Yeah. Yeah, I think you got to fight the um inclination to stop being interested in anything. I think that's the natural arc of life. We just get interested in less and less things.

Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare. Have you seen the coach Dan Campbell?

Uhuh. Dan Campbell's bigger than all of the players. He is an enormous He's an ex player.

Oh, cool. And he just has an enormous head and neck and shoulders. And it's really encouraging for your leader to look bigger than the players.

Yeah. Like yet at any moment he might pat up. I like a coach that knows the game,

walks the personally. Like at Waffle House when they have to work at a Waffle House in order to be the CEO.

Oh, they do. They have to They have to serve some time. Yeah. Walk do the do all the jobs.

Uh-huh. Break up a couple thousand fights at 2 a.m. Exactly. Okay. JJ Reic, the Lakers coach.

Okay. Isn't he? We're putting Rob to the test. You know, the funny thing is Rob knows fantasy football. Is that fair to say, Rob?

Yeah. Yeah. like he doesn't have any coach on his roster in fantasy, so there's no reason for

I still expect you to know all of it. I did win Charlie's league this season. You had you had Gibbs, though, right?

Uh yeah, I had Gibbs and a lot of Bengals players. So, the running back right now for the Detroit Lions is absolutely insanely talented and he got four touchdowns in the Viking games, which was a Lions record. I mean, he is young, very tiny, and unstoppable.

That's awesome. Okay, I'm right about JJ Reick. He's the head coach of the Lakers. And this is a sad thing, but I I didn't know that. And I saw he popped up on my Instagram because he lost his home.

Okay. But I was looking at him and I was like, "This is the coach. He looks so young."

Oh, okay. This is now the age bracket you've entered. Yes. Now I'm at this point where I'm like, "What is going on?" But he is 40. He which is better. I thought I thought he was younger than me when I saw and I got very

well unnerved. I think you can measure your age in this very predictable way where it's like for a long long time all the players are older than you. Then you have a moment in your early 30s where you go, "Oh gez, I'm older than all the professional athletes." And that's startling.

Yeah. But then you still have the coaches. Yeah. Yeah. And now I am at the age, Monica, where I am older than quite a few of the NFL coaches, which seems impossible. Those growing up those were all old men. And

is part of it also that they are hiring younger? I think they are. They are. Okay. Phew.

Yeah. Speaking of age, cuz we were really trying to figure it out while we were watching it. Nate and I had an impromptu dinner last night.

Fun. At Morton's, our home base. Mhm. M he was saying how much he liked watching the clips of Brolan.

Oh. And just how masculine Brolan is. He just kept talking about how could there be anyone more masculine. Then we were talking about No Country for Old Men. And then I was like, "We got to watch that [ __ ] We still watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood together." And then I just had this moment of of recklessness and I go, "Should we go right now and watch No Country on a School night?"

Wow. And we did. We came back here and we watched No Country for Old Men last night. Damn near. He left at like 11:30 at night on a week night. But Brolan is 38 in that movie.

Oh, but he carries himself like he's a little over 40. We concluded. Okay. You know, he looks like a man that's been around for a while. And then Javier Bardam,

love him. What a performance. I mean, he won the Academy Award for it. That was in 2007.

2007. That's so long ago. It's so long ago. Woody Harelson's very young in it. Brolan's 38. Great movie. Very unsatisfying ending, but great movie.

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

Interesting. Okay. Tom Cruz and Spielberg. Yeah, I'm going to watch it tonight. Need to remember to watch it tonight. Well, this is We're talking about movies because Adam Scott loves movies.

He's a movie file. A cophile. A cinnaphile. Yeah. Oh, also we talked about words that have entered the zeicist that people atilier, you know, things people are saying too much. Really? There's a new one.

Oh, there is. Yeah. I learned um I learned that elevated is out. People say elevated a lot. Like

Yeah, it's it's this but elevated. It's highend. It means highend. Yeah. But no one says that now.

No, we're not. People say it too much. Oh. Oh. Oh. Well, I was thinking you were saying it was cancelled and I couldn't wait to hear the connective tissue between elevated.

It's like a it's like everyone's just saying it, but I don't think so. Elevated's already a little pedestrian though.

What do you mean? It's not foreign. Elevator elevator ailier and a an artisal. Those have the, you know, appeal of being foreign and very exclusive. We were just talking in general about words that are just overused. He even said beautiful when people are like gh like it's so be like using beautiful a ton.

Yeah. And elevate I learned it's somebody said they were so annoyed by that word and I was like I do hear it a lot.

My trigger isn't Did you say about glimmer? Glimmer. That was a thing that came up in comments a while back when we were saying there should be a positive version of triggered. Oh,

and a lot of people wrote, "Oh, there is a term for it and it's glimmer." Huh. Yeah. It's when you're activated, like if you're triggered, you're activated, right,

by a word. Yeah. In a negative way, generally. But a glimmer is something that activates you, but in a very positive way.

Oh. Cuz some fact checks ago, I was talking about being triggered in a really good way.

Oh, right. But I was like, the word feels wrong. And then I learned there is a term and it's glimmer or glimmered. And I like that. Yeah. Um but my specific trigger about ailier and um artisal

artisal is it feels eliteist. It feels like it's someone trying really hard to sound super sophisticated. And so that's my trigger. It it reeks to me of of being a snob.

Whereas elevated doesn't do that for me. Sure. You know, I get it. Yeah, I get that. But they're ironically they're not trying to be a snob. They're trying to be elevated.

Sure. Which is a little bit of snobbery. All right. Where are where's Skull manufactured?

Raleigh Durham. Its corporate headquarters are located in Richmond, Virginia, and it maintains factories in Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, Franklin Park, Illinois, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Copenhagen and Skull are the company's bestselling brands and each represents more than1 billion dollars per year in retail sales.

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

Yeah. Minutes old. You could get it minutes old. Brings me back to the time we put the roof on the hot dog and hamburger bun factory in Detroit and we got to have hot dog buns that came right out of the conveyor belt and they were one of the most delicious things I've ever had in my life. You can't imagine how good they are a second after they're made.

Are they or part But is it It's so hard to know what's mental. It's really hard to know,

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

Yeah. Remember when when we went to the Hawaiian sweet roll? Hawaiian sweet roll back Hawaiian sweet that

and we got them straight off the bell. And what do you think? How did those taste?

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

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

You know, butter sculptures are a thing now. No. Yeah, people are getting into butter sculptures.

Oh, so they should use that big butter and make it into some sort of Yes. Chisel away every part that's not David.

Okay. Now, okay. Is 27 the age you start going downhill between 25 and 30? Physically, physical peak.

Physical peak between 25 and 30. That's not to say you shouldn't keep working on your exercise and your physique. As you said, you've never been in better shape.

Yes. I'm I think I'm superior to my 27year-old. Yeah. Four 7-Eleven chili dogs a day and a 12-pack of beer at night and pack and a half of camel lights.

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

I this morning when journaling I'm like I what is going on? Like I couldn't sleep for longer an hour last night.

I woke up with a headache and my body's so sore and I'm like what? Nothing happened to me.

Sprinting's not helping for sure. Yeah. And the air is bad. I mean, we all have headaches.

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

Sure. Cuz I'm curious. You want to see. I want to know how much that weighs. And I have been doing that for a year or two.

What's the biggest? It's never above a pound and a half. Okay. There are times I look and I go, "Well, buckle up. We're going to This is Okay.

Okay. Never been a more than a pound and a half." I swear to God, this was four mornings ago, three mornings ago. I couldn't even finish journaling. I had to go evac. And it had been I didn't have a couple good days prior to that.

Oh, okay. The first round was robust. Then I was doing some posting, then round round round round.

Are you going back and forth or you just sit? Yeah. I'm in there for probably 30.

I just read I just read that's really really bad. People hate that. Yeah. They're convinced I'm going to get hemorrhoids.

Yeah. But which you've had and they can have a good laugh if I get them, but I haven't. Yeah.

I thought you've had them. No, never had a hemorrhoid. Thank goodness. Had anal fissure.

Anal fissure. Yeah. I wouldn't believe this if I told if someone told it to me. I got on the scale. I was 197.8. I was on there for a half hour. This is like an experience I never had in my life. Got on 193.8.

No. Yes. Is part of it water though? No. Cuz I'd already peed a bunch. But did you have

barely little pee came out? Was there diarrhea? What do we call diarrhea? It was like

water. It wasn't water, but but it was mud. Then there's water in there. Whatever the case.

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

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

That is a lot. It was wild. Did you feel much lighter after? I felt so much better. I had woke up that morning cranky, headachy, body achy,

got all the poison out and Yeah, I felt good. I then I did my sprints that day.

Were you much faster? There's no way for me to know. I just run as fast as I can. I'm just clicking my

clicker. My clicker. So, John Terturo, he said Mac first movie 1992. Now, in the wonder plus, I said he was wrong and he's not wrong.

Oh, interesting. This is really I actually think speaks to the how hard it is to get facts right.

No, I actually think if we go back. So, I said he's right. Mac 1992. Oh, wait. He's wrong. Like I read the same thing I'm reading.

Yeah. But I think my brain Well, definitely wasn't working that day, but I was like, "No, it's Illuminata 1998."

So I think in my head 1998 was before 1992. Okay. But 6 years after, but actually

upon reflection. Yeah. Yeah. So So he's right. He's right. Mac 1992. First film he directed.

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

I agree. I was surprised that he was wrong. And turns out we didn't need to be surprised cuz he was right.

Yeah. What's the name of Nicholas Cage's King Cobra? He has two Sheba and Moby.

Great names. They're really good names for a king cobra. Yeah. I already can't compute. Let's get some of the animals that live outside to live inside our house. Although I caveat to that, there are three birds

that going on now 4 months. It used to drive me a little crazy cuz I'll be in bed journaling. I hear wapping on the window.

Yeah, sure. They fly out of the tree and then they try to sit on a little piece of the window.

There's a little green guy. He's a little guy. He's about this big and he's green and he sits there and he like pecks at the window and he flaps his wings. Then he goes back in the bush and he comes back out. Then we have these two larger birds with a big red crest and long tail feathers. They are also on this one. There's something about this window into the bathroom and I can't decide if they want to come in or they're just curious or they're confused. I don't know what's going on, but we have

a veritable uh aviary just outside the window. Now that's exciting. Are you putting out food and stuff?

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

It's a life lesson. Hard to get. Play hard to get. Yeah. No one wants availability.

They don't. No. Jesus. All right, that's it. That's everything. Yep. That's it for Adam.

Well, I sure do love that boy. What a lovely man. He is. He is the loveliest man. I'm just delighted I got to meet him.

And we're sorry that the crickets came in the middle of his sweet moment. Was it audible in

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

Love you.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Rerelease: Adam Scott Returns | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard"?

In order: 0:00 Adam Scott, Apple TV Plus, Armchair Expert, Back to the Future; 20:00 Temple of Doom, Armchair Expert; 30:00 Back to the Future, Grateful Dead, Severance, Severance; 40:00 Severance, Severance; 50:00 Dak Shepard; 1:00:00 Severance, Severance, Armchair Expert; 1:10:00 Severance, Severance, Apple TV Plus; 1:20:00 Aaron Rogers, Iawaska, Mormon, prosperia; 1:30:00 Caesar Superdome, New Orleans, Stanley Tucci, Washington Commanders; 1:40:00 Adam Scott, Armchair Expert, JJ Reick.

What is mentioned in this Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Severance, Severance, Armchair Expert, Adam Scott, Back to the Future, Temple of Doom. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Rerelease: Adam Scott Returns | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard"?

The episode runs 1 h 56 min; the transcript is about 22,203 words in 613 timestamped sections.

More from Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 10, 2026.