Lewis Howes | Club Random
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Well, first of all, we don't know that. What we do know, I mean, I think there's a place here where we are going to agree. You train ducks? Sort of. They walk around the pool and they never go in. How do you train a duck not to swim? Flying by the seat of the pants at this place. Hi. How are you, man? Thanks for having me. How are you? It's an awesome spot. Thanks for having me. Thanks. Nice to meet you. Great to meet you. Well, that's a great space.

It is a great space. I tell you, about five years ago, we had fires, horrible fires here, and it blocked out the sun for a week. And I actually thought about moving to Miami. And then I stopped being super high, and I realized...

First of all, I'm just too dug in, too old to move. If I moved anywhere, I'd always feel like, when am I going to go home? And California, I'm going down with the ship. You know what I mean? It's got its bad shit. But you're right. It's a great spot. And I'm never going to find a place where I'm more comfortable. This particular place has such a vibe to it.

I'd never find a place like that. So, yeah. Where do you live? In Studio City. Yeah. Oh. But you've always been out here? 13 years ago, I moved out here. Yeah, from Ohio. Yeah. And why did you come to LA? Why do you need to be here? Well, I originally came for a girl I was dating that didn't work out. And then I ended up staying and it worked out.

I didn't want to be in LA. I never wanted to live in LA. I moved to New York for like a year and a half after college days. And I loved the energy in New York for whatever reason. Maybe it was because I was in my late 20s. But then the first year here, I thought it was kind of more superficial and less real. But then I met my people and I met the communities I was involved in. And I was like, oh, this is awesome. New York is...

I always used to say, you know, at least we're honest about being phony. New York, you know, please. I mean, yes. You lived there, right? Twice. Yeah. And I'm from the area. You know, I lived across the river. We were New York-centric. My father worked at the center of Manhattan every day. We were just, you know, some New York teams, New York attitude. That's why I get along well with East Coast people, you know, and West Coast people, and

But, you know, New York is still so phony. I mean, not the perhaps the glitterati. I mean, the litterati, but the glitterati. Yes, it's it's the home of like, you can't come in. You'll bang brown.

You know, like, we don't get started until 1 a.m. Right, right, right. My friend used to always say, there's so many beautiful girls in New York. None of them will talk to you. Right, right, right. You know, it's like any other city. I mean, the people are not, it's just not a...

just a plethora of intellectuals. It has that, but it's just, you know, it's also very, uh, just like everywhere else, except, you know, you have to put up with bad weather, uh, rudeness, overcrowding, trash everywhere. I don't like living in a building. Yeah. Do you? I used to, but then when I got, you know, in the right relationship, I was like, oh, I want space now.

Being married, I'm like, I love having a bigger space and a yard and all this stuff. You need a yard when you're married, huh? Exactly. I don't even know what that means. It sounds like it must be true. It's more just other than a two-bedroom condo until like two and a half years ago.

I mean, not the same one, but essentially I was living in two, three-bedroom condos for the last 15 years. Are you a newlywed? Yeah, two months ago. Two months ago? Yeah. Wow. We were living together for a few years, but got the home a couple years ago, but just got married. Here's a question, Mr. Life Coach. So when you're living...

like with someone for a couple of years and then you have the wedding day. What do you do on the wedding night to like make it like... You have a lot of fun. I know, but... You have a lot of fun. But how can you... But like in the old days... This was the night. I mean, a lot of the world still operates that way. You know, I'm sure the wedding night in Karachi, Pakistan is still the wedding night. You know, I don't think there's a lot of premarital going on. Yeah.

But I think for me, you know, I was when I met her I was what 38 or 39 I'm 42 now So it's where different seasons of life, you know, we've lived life a little bit longer and got married this age So is she age appropriate? She's same age as me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She's not like 20 years younger or something Yeah, nothing wrong with that dude What you gotta be kidding? um

Yeah, she's great. Well, I'm sure you married her. That's awesome. So two months, and they said it wouldn't last, huh? You know, two months. It's still going. It's still going strong. Cheers to that, right? Unbelievable. There you go. Well, did you always want to get married, or did you just meet somebody? I was terrified of marriage for a long time, probably because I grew up with my parents. It felt like they were always fighting, and they were stressed out, and I was the youngest of four, and it just felt like...

There wasn't a good model of marriage love. It was like, seemed like stress and chaos. It's one of the reasons why I left home at 13. What did they fight about? Money, stress, who knows? I was also young, so no one would tell me what was going on. You know, they've studied this. And the number one thing people fight about, and there's not a close second, is money. Yeah.

You'd think it would be, you know, fucking or, you know, you don't fuck. In-laws or something, yeah. You don't fuck me anymore. I would guess that would have been like a high on the list, but it's kids, of course, but no, it's, and all those things matter and many other things, but it's money. Yeah. They got married when they were 19. They had a kid at 19. I just don't think they had the emotional tools on how to

communicate effectively and really know what they wanted. You know, it's just a different time. So I don't blame for it. Emotional tools. I may not have emotional. I got to look at my tools. What do you think is the... I don't know, but like that's one of those sayings. I've never heard that exact one, but I bet you they... Emotional tools. I bet you use it a lot. I do. I think understanding how to navigate emotions is one of the most powerful skills. Yeah. So how did you become an expert in it?

I think by being a failure at it for a long time, you know, just making mistakes over and over again, constantly feeling like I was never enough, constantly doubting myself. Right. And saying, I don't want to live this way anymore. How do I overcome this insecurity, self-doubt, this feeling of not enough, this feeling of unlovable, unworthy, all these things? So it's totally an autodidact, right?

I don't even know what that is. Like, as opposed to going to school, self-taught. Self-taught, because school, this is everything. I had to learn after school how to live life because school didn't give me life skills. It taught me, I was dyslexic growing up. I was in the bottom of my class every year. They used to grade us on our report cards, and I was always in the bottom four. And I pretty much cheated my way through tests and homework and things just to get by. So for me...

School didn't give me life skills, and that's what I wanted to learn after school was really like, how do I live a better life? Did you use drugs as a crutch? I've never been drunk, never been high in my life. Oh.

Would you like to start? That was your problem. You've never, you got to have moderation, I always say. Well, I have sugar. You know, I have coffee. I do other things. I'm not perfect. But that's not, but you know, without sugar,

looking into places in your mind that you can't get to without drugs. I would say that that is walling off part of the self-discovery process, which I know you're so invested in, in ways that you can, you know, just certain ways you can't get to a place without, well, I know a guy. Have you ever done like deep fasting for many days? Oh, I fast every year.

For like... Five days. Five days. Yeah. Would you say that your mind opens up in certain ways when you fast? Not really. I mean, there are times when you feel more clear. Yes. I mean, if I fasted for...

30 days, maybe, you know, that kind of thing. I mean, you really are nuts. Or similarly, Keith Richards used to talk about they would purposely stay up and not sleep for like three days. Right. Because, again, you are accessing. You're hallucinating. Yeah. You're accessing a kind of delirium. Uh-huh. Exactly. Yeah.

I ain't going to do that. I remember coming down from taking speed in college, and you couldn't get to sleep for at least, it was just terrible. But drugs, you know,

Aldous Huxley wrote a book called The Doors of Perception. That's where the rock group The Doors got their name. That was his metaphor for it. This is a door to perception that you can't otherwise get. I mean, I'm not trying to, well, it sounds like I am trying to convince you to do this, but I'm really not. But I'm just interested if you're never curious about seeing that part of your head.

I've never had a desire. I mean, maybe I thought about what would that look like, but I... Oh, you think you know everything? No, I don't know everything. And I think that's why I keep learning and keep trying to grow. But I feel like... You know, when I was eight years old, my brother went to prison for selling drugs to an undercover cop. And I read that you...

You got by in college by selling like pot. Pot, yeah. Well, we had whatever our dealer had. Yeah, exactly. Let's put it that way. And it's kind of helped you get by. Also, my first couple of years living in New York in comedy, I was a pot dealer. There you go. And he got in a sting with like an undercover cop and it sent him six to 25 years in prison. So I was an eight-year-old. I was the youngest of four. He was 11 years older than me. He was 18, 19 when he went in.

He got out in four and a half years on good behavior, but it was the war against drugs in the 90s. It was the whole thing, and it was devastating for our family. It was like crippling for our family, and it's what caused a lot of pain, a lot of shame, a lot of guilt. It was a lot. And that led to, you know, I saw that early on, what drugs can do with the destruction of a family. I mean, you could say I saw a fire.

And so what that destruction can do, and so I'm never going to use fire. And of course you want to use fire for certain things. I also think that, you know, for me, I've just learned that drugs or an alcohol are a toxin or are a poison. And it's like, as an athlete growing up, my whole vision was sports because school was, I was horrible in. And I was like, oh, guys are getting drunk on the weekend. And then on Monday practice, they're slower. This is an edge.

So it wasn't like I wasn't exploring, like maybe I'd go do this or maybe check this out. But I was like, oh, this is going to slow me down or hurt me with my skill set. Maybe with you as a creative writer or a comedian or, you know, it's like opening and expanding your capabilities. But I was like, this is going to hurt me. Well, there's also performance enhancing drugs.

Which I've never done. I know, but athletes do. Guys in college were doing it and shooting up steroids, coming back 20 pounds bigger with freaks of nature. And I was like, I thought about that. In college, I thought about it because if I was two tenths faster in the 40-yard dash, I probably would have gone to the NFL. And I was just like, I couldn't live with myself knowing if I would have done it illegally based on society's terms and based on where sports was at.

I was just like, I can't do it. You dodged a bullet, man. Because if you had played in the NFL, you'd be broken now. Your body would be hit by a train. I played arena football for one year and I broke my wrist and had to have surgery. It's just like so physically demanding. Demanding is a kind word for it. It's just punishing. It's a train wreck every day. It's just destroying you. So.

So it was a blessing. It ended every year, but I got to live a dream and pursue that and

experience it, but... But you must feel a tremendous responsibility to people who, like, can't afford to shrink or, you know, they don't have a best friend and they're like, what should I do? And I was like, well, what would Jesus do? And then you, right after Jesus. Or, you know... Well, I don't think of myself as that. Well, you're very successful in the industry of telling people what the fuck to do that, you know, you'd think...

The responsibility would be high. Well, for me, the reason I started my show, it's been every week for 12 years. It's called The School of Greatness. The reason I started it, I didn't call it The Lewis Howe Show because I knew I was getting into a world of expertise around personal development, growth, health, wellness, mindset, therapy,

money, all these topics. And I was like, I don't know any of this. I know a little bit of a lot, but I really am not the expert at anything. Let me go find these experts and elevate those voices. So that's been, but by doing it over 12 years, you pick it up, you learn, you grow, you know.

Yeah, you immerse yourself. It's the old 10,000 hours thing. Exactly. You've spent 10,000 hours or whatever the number is with the experts and the people. And then I've made a ton of mistakes and I've implemented how to overcome it. What do you do when the experts disagree with each other?

I bring them together and I say, let's talk it out and let people decide. You know, it's kind of like what you've done for a long time. It's like, hey, bringing the experts in and then maybe no one has the answer or maybe this research paper is combating with this research paper and every, if it's around health and wellness, everyone's got to have a different process and try things. I mean, this theme comes up a lot here and I guess on my other show and probably at dinner too much, but, you know, I am...

less of a believer than most people in how advanced we are medically. I think this is a big difference between how I see things and they see things. I mean, they call me like an anti-vaxxer. I'm certainly not. I say it a billion times. Vaccines, one of the greatest tools

Physical tools we ever came up with but I think I have way search way more skepticism and questions about it because I have way more about everything and like if you ask me like of all the things we possibly could know about Wellness in the human body. What percentage do you think we know now most people would probably say oh, we're probably at like 90% I mean like yeah, of course 100 years ago. We didn't know much but and I would say

Maybe more like 20. Yeah, maybe. I mean, like, cure cancer and then tell me you really have even the fucking faintest clue.

Because there's just lots of shit that they don't know. And I'm not blaming them for it or saying it's because of corruption. I'm just saying we're just where we are in history. We're in the year 2025. We're not quite living in the future. I hope we get there soon and AI gets us there and I never have to die. But as long as I have to die, I feel like we're pretty much...

We're not at the infancy, of course. We know what a German and Adam is, but we're just not where people think we are, and that gives them a faith in what the experts say. And my thing is always, but the experts don't agree with each other. That's why they say get a second opinion, because that tells you, one, it's an opinion, which isn't a fact, and two, you need a second one.

And that often doesn't jive with the first one. And then what do you do? Then you go with your instincts, your gut, what feels right to you, what aligns with you, especially if it's like a health or medical condition and you're like, one doctor says there's no cure and another doctor says, oh, have you tried this yet? Maybe you're going to feel more open-minded to seeing how the energy was or what the research shows and feel more open to it. I actually have someone I've hired for many years now

you know, an actual job that is pretty much just to referee what doctors say. Interesting. Like when they disagree, you do a deep dive and you tell, give me the, give me an opinion. Now I may disagree with the ref too, but like there's no other way to do it. And it is funny you say that a minute ago about what I do similar. Yes. It's like

refereeing or trying to keep it right there and with just the truth between like the two political parties it's it does remind me of like when I mean because I have had diagnoses from doctors that are just diametrically opposite and sometimes it's just factual you know like

Free PSA, the higher number, the better. No, the lower. It's a fact. You mean we can't just look it up? Well, we can. Stuff like that. I don't know. This podcast is brought to you by Aura. Imagine waking up to find your bank account drained, bills for loans you never took out, a warrant for your arrest, all because someone committed a crime in your name. It sounds like a nightmare, but

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I mean, you mentioned, how old do you want to live till? You mentioned you would love to live forever. Well, until I'm not enjoying it anymore. But I'm enjoying it right now. Yeah. Is there a number, though? Is there like an age that you would love to reach? I feel like once you've gone down that road, you're fucked. You know, like, I only look forward. I'm not a backward-looking person. But...

I can't look too far. I mean, it's like tomorrow, you know? Tomorrow has to be a good day.

What makes it a good day for you at the end of every day when you look back and you say, that was a good day? Versus that's not a good day. That's a good question. Does one thing have to go off for it to be not a good day? Is it a few things? Does it have to be you felt good? You created something? You were with people you enjoyed? It starts with sleep. Mostly I get the right amount of sleep and wake up refreshed. Certainly at my age, if you don't sleep well...

You're going to feel like shit. But even when I was younger, your age, even, you know, I always remember if I didn't have enough sleep, I just didn't feel, I just felt like shit. You know, nothing is quite great. And so that would certainly, that can throw a wrench into any day. I mean, a feeling of accomplishment is always great. You know, I mean, I'm not. At this level, you've done so much creative work. You've had so much success.

What do you have to go that much greater to feel accomplished or could it be like oh I did something small and it was accomplishment today Do not I mean you've got so much accomplished. I mean, thank you But I mean, you know, it is amazing in the way when you start out the littlest thing is like a big win a big yes, I

I got a callback. I got this. I remember when I first in the clubs and there was a guy and he got a sitcom. And then his picture was in TV Guide. And I was like, wow, I know a guy whose picture is in TV Guide. And now, you know, like, you know, I can have, oh, I'm not going to name drop. But like there are nights when I'm like, wow, I can't believe the people who I was with tonight. And they accepted me as their peer, you know, and we're.

And the next day, I mean, it's like, yeah, I'm not even thinking about it. Whereas the guy in TV Guide, I thought about it for a month. It's just like your perspective changes. What do you think has shifted? But I don't want to ever be jaded, and I don't think I ever am. I mean, I am acutely aware. I make myself. I enjoy being aware of how far I've come and how much I cherish what I have. And I'm not a...

materialistic person, really. I mean, I had a break-in here recently

about six months ago and they didn't take anything. They looked everywhere. They didn't find anything. There's nothing here but sentimental shit. I mean, you want my fucking yellow submarine poster? You know, go nuts, bro, because like it means a lot to me, but you nothing. And you know, I just don't have cars and watches and, you know, the crazy shit that people have. You've got nice property. I mean, you've got land. It's hard to steal the property. Yeah, you can't take that with you. You

You were talking about peers, though. You're with around a lot of inspiring people lately. I saw some great clips of you with Trump. And I wanted to ask you about that. I'm curious about what that was like because I saw the before clips of

I did a 12-minute piece on my show describing the whole thing in great detail because there was intense interest for me to do it. You watch that. I will send it to you. The 12 minutes, did you see it? I don't know if I watched all of it. I watched clips of that. I watched some clips of that. You're going to have to knock yourself out and devote 12 minutes. I'll watch it. Because I'll give you the headlines of it, but basically, you know,

By the way, there was a big fight over this sort of within, I would say, within the Democratic Party.

Why? You can't hang out with someone? Well, exactly. And, you know, look, I don't want to like make this a bigger thing than it was, but I do think I won this one. Tell me. Just because, I mean, the number of people I heard from, you know, even the intro, yes, the people who, the 10% who hated me before this just found another reason to hate me.

But I do think that it was not a hard case to make. One, if you want to break it down,

Should you go if you're invited to have a private dinner with the president? Yes, of course You'd be crazy not to to see there see in person get that - then you're you have to describe it Should you lie? No to me. That's also a no-brainer But obviously a lot of people wanted me to but no I'm not a liar and then three after this do you go back to just doing exam before this I never took a break and

from exactly doing what I've always done with Trump, which was keep it real. It's not like I went MAGA, you know. If that had happened, they would have a case and they have no case and they know it because I went right back to tearing him a new asshole the week after. I did it the week before. He even complained about it to me like, oh, you hit me hard last week. You hit me hard.

And yes, that's my job. I can separate the two. It's funny how these people who think of themselves as the most intellectual, they violate the very first rule of being an intellectual, which is keeping two disparate thoughts in your mind at the same time. It's like page one.

But they apparently couldn't do that. But, you know... What was the big... It was easy to make the case. I don't want to, like, keep doing it forever. But, yeah. What was the biggest takeaway from you from the whole experience? Well, I mean, that the haters and clickbaiters are always going to be there. But, you know, if you just tell the truth...

People really appreciate that, whatever it is. And then there's this other segment, the haters and clickbaiters,

who hate the truth, unless it's their truth. They even use that term a lot. I'm sure this comes up in your world. My truth. This is my truth. Well, there's your truth and my truth and the truth. The truth, yeah, yeah. And people gravitate, I think, to what I do because they feel like, well, I don't always agree. Possibly many people do agree most of the time.

Doesn't matter. I feel like this guy is telling me what he really thinks and what really happened. And he'll let the chips fall where they may. And he'll take the fans who like that and be okay with the fans who leave the room because they can't take that. And that is exactly right. That's exactly what I'm doing. Did your perspective of him shift afterwards? Knowing that also... Well, I mean, it wasn't a total shock. Every person I've ever known

who has met him privately, including big liberals like, I believe, Keith Olbermann once was telling me, maybe on the air, that he lived in the same building as Trump for a while. No, that couldn't be. Trump lives in, well, whatever, that he saw him and, uh,

Yeah, same thing, charming in person. So it wasn't like a shock that he was different. It was surprising that he was more self-aware, let's put it that way, that he lets on in public. He was more self-aware. Yeah, watch the piece. You'll see. But also that I said lots of things to him that liberals should love that a guy got in there and said to him to his face.

And I think they hated it that I also reported it when I did that. He was okay with it. He never, like, went ballistic like he does publicly. You know, if these things had been said to him publicly, he would have been like, you're a terrible person, you're disgusting. But obviously...

He's two different people. Interesting. But that's complicated, and people don't like things in life that are complicated. I'm sure you deal with this all the time. And I'm so sorry that I complicated your life with the truth, but that's what I'm going to do. And if you can't hang with that, I get it. But I noticed we're like the number one show, my rerun of my show, the number one show on CNN.

And I feel like CNN is the place where people at least used to go for like down the middle. Like, let's just, just tell me what the fuck happened. Don't fucking give me your slant. Or if you do just be honest about your slant. Just tell me what you really think. So I feel like that's a good sign that people are watching it also on CNN. That's cool. Yeah. That's great. You talk about truth. What is, uh, I'm asking you the questions now, but, um,

I'm curious, with all the experience that you've had, you know, the success, the ups and downs, what is the truth for you? About what? About what you've learned. About what? It's so broad. About life. About life. Life? Yeah, what's the truth for you? You're going to have to narrow this down. I mean, life is a very broad topic. If you could give three truths about all of your experiences. Three truths. Three truths.

You know, like advice to people? Okay, I would, first of all, don't be a jack of all trades and a master of none, as the old saying went. Figure out what you're naturally good at and develop that. Because if you try to do something that you're not naturally awesome at to begin with, from the get-go, given to you,

you will fail because there are people who are. The people who just have the God-given, God, you know, I'm kidding, ability in something, they're just going to always be that far ahead. And, you know, like the athletes is a perfect example. You know, if you're, you can have the greatest basketball skills, and I do,

But if you're 5'8", you're never going to play in the NBA. You know, just don't waste your time. You have to be awesome at it. And, I mean, even guards are 6'6 and up. I know. Michael Jordan was 6'6". Magic Johnson was 6'9". Luka is 6'7". He's hulking. And LeBron basically plays point guard, point forward. He's 6' whatever. You know, it's just not for you if you're not big and tall.

So don't like work on that. Work on what you are already great at. And sometimes that's hard for people to figure out. And I imagine sometimes it's, you know, something that's not that great.

Yeah. You know? Okay. That's one truth. So that's very important in life, I feel like, is develop what you're good at. But you still play basketball, even though you'll never make it. Yeah, but I play it for fun. Yeah. You know, I play with girls because I can beat them. I do. Yeah.

I'm 70. I mean, girls are good. They are. They're not bad. I just can beat them. I mean, you can't beat WNBA players. No. I didn't say that. You can beat a 12-year-old girl. Not a 12-year-old girl. Girl, good girl. But, you know, I was never in the pros. Yeah. I mean, but.

So that's truth number one. Okay, so that's one.

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Be a decent human for the sake of it and don't think that there's some like ulterior reward or the devil is poking you with a pitchfork if you're bad or you're going to get this, go to paradise if you're good. Just accept that, you know, you'll feel better about yourself. It actually helps you.

all of humanity, which comes back to help you. Don't look for a giant reason to not be an asshole. Just don't be, just don't fucking be an asshole. Just, you know, be, and, and, um, that's a lot, that's a hard one for a lot of people to take because they do need that motivation to stay in line or to, you know. Why do you feel you don't need that?

I mean, maybe I did when I was younger or, you know, I don't know. It's just something you come to. I mean, I would make the case that atheists and agnostics are usually more ethically aligned than religious people. Of course, because religious people...

very often do the most horrendous things. I mean, a lot of wars, a lot of beheadings, torturings, burning people at the stake, lots of stuff that happens because you think the most important thing is that your God is the God and that you're so invested in that, that it's not really the kind of thing where when another person says, "No,

think my God is the God. You can just kind of let it go. You have to either kind of convert this person or kill them. That is the view that has been... Those are extremists in the religions though, right? It's not like... Okay. But there are times in history when extremists ruled the religions. They ruled the religions in Christianity in the 16th century. I think I was talking to somebody here. I don't know why we got onto this, but...

I was saying that Columbus discovered America in 1492, and then the next we hear about it is the first colony at Jamestown, 1607. What happened for that whole century? Why didn't they go back? Because they were killing each other in Europe first.

Because some of them are Protestants and some of them were Catholics. And the entire 16th century was just fucking killing you over whether you think I need to go to a priest or I don't, or whether Jesus' foreskin ascended with them or it didn't. This is bullshit that people fight about. So...

Why do you think atheists or non-religious individuals are more ethical? Because it's not about this bullshit. The first four commandments in the Bible are all about God's ego. Atheists don't give a shit about this. We don't care about praying to other gods and this nonsense. And, oh, God, don't let them hear you praying in the other room. Hey, you got another god in there? Bitch! Fucking... Okay, you know...

But why be ethical?

Because if you're absent all the bullshit and the spiritual shit and the nonsense where you're really invested in who's the God and how we worship him and your wisdom comes from books that were written 2,000 years ago that don't even condemn slavery, if that's where your wisdom comes from, yes, your morality is going to be fucked up. Mine isn't because it doesn't come from books like that.

It just comes from logic. Where do you get logic from if it doesn't come from wisdom of the past? No, just say wisdom of the past in general. It's a priori. It's just from living life. It's just from what makes logical sense and

But why live an integrous life at all? Why not just, ah, I'm going to do what I want to do and say what I want to say and live my life and I don't care what people think? Well, I mean, you can. First of all, um...

you can likely get arrested for doing the things that that would lead you to do. - Right. - You know, that's, I mean, not always. You could get away with being a serial killer. They have. Usually they find them after a while. Now they never really have them anymore because the forensics are so great. - That's pretty good. - That they really have, it's a shame.

Please, give to the serial killer foundation. Give whatever you can because there are so many serial killers who'd like to be doing it, but they just can't do it anymore. Do you think atheists live with more integrity because of logic versus... Yes. I mean, all we have is morality. We don't have the belligerence

bells and whistles and the nonsense about who's the God. And, and it's, I mean, it's not about faith. And the definition of faith is the purposeful suspension of critical thinking. That's what you do when, when you are a person of faith, they brag about it like it's a good thing. It's not a good thing. Stupid. You're a human being. You have the ability to reason, use it. Uh,

But it's so much... Can't you do both, though, if you have critical thinking? Not really. Not really. And then if you can't find a solution in your mind, and there's no research or science to a solution to something that you're trying to solve... Well, what... Solution like to what? I don't know. Healing? You know, if you feel like, oh, there's a disease and no doctor can help me cure, and then... Right, and neither will Christian science. Well, it might. Faith might. Faith might heal you? Yeah. Belief. Belief.

Wow, and people listen to you? I'm kidding. Well, people have miracle healings all the time of their body, their sickness, their something in the name. Well, first of all, we don't know that. What we do know, I mean, I think there's a place here where we are going to agree, but I wouldn't necessarily...

call it faith, although yes, you're correct. Some of it is that, which is that there is a mind-body connection that I think is another reason why I'm skeptical of Western medicine because I don't think they take that into account as nearly as much as they should. It's why placebos work very often at the same rate as the pharmaceutical drug. It's not better sometimes, yeah.

Sometimes better. You know, somewhere I read this, some guy made a great point. He said, you know, 200 years ago, all they had was placebo because the doctors, of course, doctors, you know, these fucking- Here's an herb. It's going to help you. Herb. You were lucky. I mean, they would do things that were like- Sticks and water. Well, they would put dirt on things. And, you know, they would do the opposite of what would help very often. But because the person thought-

that it was helping. Isn't that interesting? So in that sense, you are correct. The way we think something influences the body to heal. Right. Unfortunately, I can't- And where does the thought come from? Right. Where is mind? Where is our mind? You know, when we're thinking, we have a brain and then we have a mind. Where is that all happening?

Are we able to, with science, discover and understand all of it 100% yet? No. This is what neuroscientists are always working on. Exactly. Where does that... This is what I'm fascinated by. Oh, really? I love having neuroscientists on to understand the emotional charge, the physical charge in the body, the mind, the way of thinking, influencing the brain chemistry, influencing the body to either be healthy or be out of alignment and create more cancer cells. Right.

And how can we create a thought process, a thinking environment that is more elevated, that is more in harmony with health versus out of harmony with health? And I think if you're thinking in faith or if you're thinking, you know, whatever else that's allowing you to think in harmony and to be more peaceful thinking rather than chaos thinking, your body typically is going to align to that. Not always, you know, it's not like it's 100%.

But there's definitely been so many instances in my life where I'm thinking negatively and I'm thinking chaotically and my body responds in a similar fashion. And then I think more harmoniously. I think more peacefully. I think more forgiveness. And the body feels better. And so where is that coming from? You know, why is that happening? And it's just, you know, I don't have all the answers.

And I think that's where critical thinking, you can also be a critical thinker and search for answers. But are you suggesting that comes from a god? I'm suggesting that... It could. It could. We don't know. It could. People think atheists believe dogmatically. No, all we're saying is we don't know and we don't believe in it. It's just atheism. We don't believe in it. That's

If you don't believe it also, I mean, it could be a possibility. The truth is we're apathetic about it. Our view is we don't know. We can never know. So we're not going to just waste time worrying about it or thinking about it. We don't know. And you just have to accept that. But it seems unlikely that...

The virgin birth and whatever. A lot of things seem unlikely. Well, not to that degree. Sure. Well, I mean, how did the world get here? Do we really know the answer to how we're here? Well, we know how the world got here. We don't know how the universe started. We know when. Do we know exact day, time? We know generally, yes. We know the Big Bang was big. We think we know. No, no, no, no. That they know.

That they know. They know, and that's not even the key question. We know that there was a Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. What we don't know is why what was before then happened.

If there's some sort of universal mover, why did he choose this way to start the universe? You know, it just seems weird. But, of course, it's on a level that we could never quite understand. But, yeah, there are lots of questions like that. We certainly know when our world came here. It's about, I mean, our sun is about 4 billion years old. We're about, I think, 3.5 billion years.

you know, the moon was a piece of the earth that broke off. You know, these are not hard things. What's hard is like, why did it all begin? Why is there anything? And if there was nothing, wouldn't that be something? These are the kind of questions that just hurt your head. - 100%. But that's also, you can have, I like to think about and try to explore those conversations. And when I don't have an answer, I try to keep going deeper. And at the end of the day,

For me, whether it's 4 billion or 10 years ago or 20 billion years ago, that doesn't actually matter to me. What matters to me is

Can I live a peaceful, harmonious life? Can I live a life full of love, joy, abundance, inner freedom, and have great experiences? But isn't that what I said? Just do it for the sake. 100%. Not because you're worried about a punishment or a reward, which is just something they made up. I think you should do it for the sake no matter what. It doesn't mean there's not a God that we can still be grateful for our existence and

Grateful. Are you grateful you're here? I am, but I've got a cushy life. I know a lot of people who aren't so grateful. Right. You know, where's God there? Do you feel like it's a responsibility if we do have a cushy life to give and serve in greater levels? Yeah. To try to lift others up who are struggling? Yeah. And by the way, some of that is forced upon us, which I'm okay with. But when I say forced upon us... Taxes or... Yes. I mean that...

I don't remember the last year when I paid less than half. I mean, what I'm trying to say is I pay more than half. They take more than half. Especially here in California. I'm told, I'm like, you know, if you were like a billionaire, it would be way better because they have ways of getting away from it and corporations. But if you're just a mega millionaire, you're screwed. Here in life, it's horrible. It sucks. It's not horrible. But don't tell me I don't pay taxes.

I'm not saying that. No, no, but people do. You know, like the rich don't pay taxes. You pay a lot of taxes. More than half. Okay, that's between the state and the, I live in California. Federal, state, everything. Yeah, but if you just add up state and federal, it's already over 50 and then there's sales tax. It doesn't feel good. Yeah, it doesn't feel good. But don't tell me that I'm not already. Contributing.

Yes, there are lots of people going to the free clinic and places. And good, I'm not, again, I'm not complaining about it. Just don't tell me it's not happening. And beyond that, of course, I also give to charities, the ones that, I mean. You care about? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course. A lot of it's animals.

Yeah. People like really hate that. They're like, you know, the humans, I do, I like humans too, but I like animals more. I'm sorry. And they're more innocent. And I don't know, it just pulls on my heartstrings and that's, and you know, fuck it. Do you have a lot of pets? Well, I have two dogs. Somebody offered me a tortoise the other day.

the other day. He was 98 years old. You got the land for it. I do. I'm thinking about it strongly. I'll have a 98-year-old tortoise. That'd be cool. I mean, can you believe 98 years old? Incredible. I know. I wonder if he's lived a good life. 98?

I wonder if something good, you see it a lot probably. I wonder what it's like. Well, I mean, they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I'm hoping to get him out of his shell. Good night, everybody. No, but wouldn't that be cool to have a, I mean, 98 years old, this fucking thing. You should adopt it. No, I'm thinking about it seriously. You should.

I mean, what's holding you back from taking? I just got the message yesterday. Okay. It's like he comes with his own house and his own heat lamp. That turtle lived like a king back here. You know, you got the gardens back there. Yeah. It's got grass. It's got carrots or whatever. Yeah. I have two ducks.

Incredible. They used to go in the pool. I let them for a while, which was a big mistake. Now I've trained them. You train ducks? Sort of. They walk around the pool and they never go in. How do you train a duck not to swim? When they get... Because for a while, when they were getting back in the pool, I would take one of the lemon. I would...

a pick of the lemons off the lemon tree and I would throw it right near them. I never hit them. And of course it would scare them the fuck off and they would fly away. And then after a while I hit it and I threw the thing in the water and they just, they didn't fly away. They just got out of the pool and they were like, okay, I get it. And now I never see them go in the pool.

But they live here? They have learned. They don't live here, but they come here every day. They like to walk around there. It must be a safe place. Just safe space. Got a lot of acres here. Watch the turtle kill them. It'd be sweet if the ducks rode the turtle, you know, and stood on top of it. I got to get that picture. That'd be amazing.

That's cool. What would it take to get the turtle then? What makes you decide to do something or not? I don't know. Well, first of all, you've got to live with it for a minute. You know, you don't just get a 98-year-old turtle. Why not? You've got to think about it. Come on. What's there to think about? It seems like an amazing...

experience, life experience. It does. You care about animals. It's a big responsibility. It's just going to sit back there. I know, but like... You got a team, you got staff, you got people going to help out, right? I mean... I don't want it to die on my watch. Oh my gosh. You know, I mean... But no, I will give him, I mean...

I was going to say, doesn't he need a mate? But I'm like, oh, 98? No, he's not getting that thing up. I don't know anything about turtles. Maybe he made for life. Tortoise. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. How big is this thing? It's like a massive. I saw the picture. It was not that big. But all I know is it's a big decision. And when you're going to get a tortoise, you've got to think about it slowly. OK. That's it.

Yeah, but I mean, I see butterflies here. I mean, when I was a kid, the world was teeming with nature-like butterflies. And now it's like, oh, if you see one, you're so excited. I know. I mean, we're just killing everything. It's horrible. Well, in the face of that, what excites you at this season of life then the most? Again, you've achieved and accomplished so much. You've met everyone. Now that you've met Trump, you've met everyone.

You've been invited to the White House. Isn't that interesting that you were never invited to the White House? No, I was. I was there, but I was there because I was doing the correspondence dinner in the 90s. Yeah, but that's not the same. It's not the same, but I do remember being in the White House because I have the picture of me and my mother and Clinton. That was exciting. But none of them invited you. No, exactly. Isn't that weird that you're in this world for so long and they never invited you?

Yeah, well, Obama, who is my basically favorite president, but he was not very helpful as far as like he never did my show when he did every other show. Why not? Well, I had to go on the air and beg him.

on my 60th birthday in his eighth year in office and shame him into it basically. And he finally did. But, you know, it was at the White House. It was in the interview room. It wasn't fun. It wasn't a real. Yeah. It wasn't in front of an audience. I mean, it could have been fun and funny if he came and did my show in the studio like he did many other shows.

But he must have had someone around him saying, you know, I'm a very dangerous person, Lewis. That's the thing. I'm a dangerous person who no one can trust because I might tell the truth about something or ask a hard question. Interesting. So, you know, they avoided me for all that time. So you're right. And I said that in the piece when I did it about, you know, and I know...

Again, they don't like the truth, but that's the truth. It's like, as far as like just feeling free to just speak exactly how I feel, yes, I felt freer to do that with Trump than Obama or Clinton. And that's emblematic of the way the two parties have kind of switched as far as which one has the stick up their ass. Now, this doesn't say that the Democrats don't have better policy ideas. They do, but...

but just on that level, and people vote on this level all the time, like it used to be when I started in the 90s on that show, Politically Incorrect. It was always the Pat Robertsons and the, you know, the Reagans and these kind of people who had to stick up their ass, the Moral Majority and the Jerry Falwells. And then it switched, and the people with the stick up their ass changed.

became the left. They were the ones who were the police on language and the police on how dare you not, you know, and so. And you're all not free speech. Trump is a kind of, I'm sorry, but in person, he's definitely the kind of guy, you know, you just feel like you can say anything and you don't have to like censor it. And I didn't. I didn't. Would he let you interview him here or on another show? He definitely wouldn't here because I smoked pot.

And he's just like you. He had a brother. He's never been drunk, right? He's never had a drink because also a brother. Yeah. That's interesting. Also a brother. The brother died of alcoholism. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Would you ever interview him on TV, you think, if he met you? Yeah, of course. He's the president of the United States. Are you crazy? I mean, he, of course you would. Did you ask him if he would? Well, no, but, you know. Now you have his team. You can talk to his team and ask and see. I can talk to him. Wow, there you go. You have a cell? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Has he been friendly since then, even though you kind of like attached him a little here and there? Or has he been... Look, we're not having a bromance here. You're not? No. It's funny. It's funny.

Kid Rock brought me there. I know. I heard that. I saw that. He's the one who brought me. Okay. So like a week before. He seems like a nice guy. I love him. You know what? I have no patience for people who just can't find friendship with people who don't agree with them. It's just a way to civil war, and I'm not going down that road. But like a week before we were going, he texts me, Kid Rock, and he says,

He shows me this picture. I may have told this story, but he shows this picture of a vintage guitar, kind of like that thing. And he's like, I got this for POTUS. Why don't we give it to him as a gift? And I texted back, Bob, I'm not at the gift-giving stage yet. OK, let's see how the first date goes. Right, the first five minutes. And that's, no.

And, and, but, you know, to their credit, they both understood that, yeah, we're going to have this dinner, partly the perfect choice because I was the hardest one on him. And I was the one who said he was never going to leave office. Great, you know, graceful. So like I had this standing, um,

But they both understood, yeah, when the dinner's over, Bill goes back to his day job. And what I think they like about me is that what other people like and some people don't is that I don't pull my punches. I'm going to call it as I see it. And I do it without malice, you know, but you're not going to like turn me into something. I, you know...

I went to that dinner, had a good time, and then I kept my honor. That's the truth. Wow. I kept my honor. That's great. And, you know, I'm kind of over it now. Yeah.

But he is a guy who, like everything with him, I think, especially from his upbringing and his work in New York and real estate and stuff, it's really always a lot about personal relationships. Right. I mean, to a degree, every president or leader, I guess, that's true. You know, if

if, you know, I remember George Bush used to love, or Reagan was a loved late Margaret Thatcher in England. And, you know, okay, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were buddies and you can be buddies and,

But this guy, I think, more than most. Like, you've got to... It's in his DNA to be about relationships. It kind of is. So I just feel like it's better to have relationships with people than not. And some people, you know, just think, you know, well, let's just run out of the room screaming, I'm not talking to you. That doesn't solve anything. It really doesn't. I mean, I'm sure you get lots of...

Interfamily issues. I mean do you ever get? People asking you about my husband voted for Trump and I didn't and we can't get along We can't get over that. I mean, I'm not a therapist or anything, but it's like does that come up? Yeah, I mean people ask well I'll bring an expert in to kind of talk about that and I'm I'm more about

How can we be our most authentic selves and come from a loving, compassionate way and say, listen, I want to hear what you're talking about, what your political views are, whatever. And I don't even talk politics because I don't understand it. I'm thinking about how can I live the most free, harmonious life and create that within my community? How can I set my health up? How can I set my mind up to feel free on a daily basis and not be worried about what is happening or what the latest drama is?

Things I can't control today. But I do know I can wake up and I can eat well and I can move my body and I can go to bed at a good time and I can say nice things and I can do things. But you must concede that politics is always going to intrude on some of this. Because this is a- If you allow it. But a lot of this country, everything is politics. I mean, there are people hearing this now who are saying, well, that's easier for you. You're white. Mm-hmm.

That's politics. That gets into politics. There's always going to be people that are going to attack you for whatever reason. They don't like you or say, you have money. You don't understand what it's like. That too, yes. Whatever it might be. You have money. You have a TV show you should have nothing to complain about, whatever it is.

But I dealt with sexual abuse when I was a kid. You know, I experienced that. It was one of my first memories being abused by a man that I didn't know sexually. My brother went to prison. How old were you? Five. I was a five-year-old. And you have that memory? Every day since that day, I've had that memory in my mind. I can relive that moment. How long did it go on for?

It's probably 20 minutes. No, I mean over time. It's just one time. Just one time. It's one time. Probably like a 20-minute experience over one time. An uncle? No, it was a babysitter's son. He was probably about 16, 17-year-old. I was five. Really? What did he do? Stuff. Yeah, stuff that, I mean, I don't want to talk about it publicly. I've shared that I've been sexually abused, but I don't want to relive the whole story.

Um, but that was my, one of my first memories as a child. No matter how much success in sports I gained, it was like, huh, but why is something still off? And when I started to turn around and face, you know, those dark parts of me and start to heal through workshops and therapy and processes and meditation and just anything I can find, um, I started to create harmony through healing and it took a long time.

And it's a journey. But that harmony is something that I think I was always seeking. And it doesn't mean every day I'm perfect and I don't go through challenges and I don't get stressed and, you know, get angry still. But it is a more consistent baseline of peace. And I think that's what most people want. Whether they're broke and have no resources, they want to feel free, abundant, and peaceful.

And you probably know a lot of millionaires, billionaires, people in political power, athletes, celebrities who have it all.

but are miserable or still are not free. The guy on, did you ever watch Succession on HBO? Yeah. It was so great. Great show. Logan Roy. Great show, yeah. The patriarch. Yeah, of course. Who they're trying to succeed. And he's a billionaire and he's got everything. He's just so angry. How long are we going to be circling? He's in a private plane and they're circling. I know. His blood pressure's going through the roof. And it's like,

You asked me the truth. You know a lot of these people. Truths. I maybe never got to the third one. Yeah, I'm sure I could. What is the third one? Many more. But one of them would be, I don't know if it would be three, but if you have 99%

of what you could possibly want. Don't obsess about the 1% you don't. That's good. That's good. And there are so many people, there are so many Logan Roys, and I've met them. Did you know them? And there are other ones who are not. I know Jeff Bezos a bit.

He's a happy warrior. Seems pretty peaceful. Not just peaceful. He loves his girl. You know, that's a real thing. And, you know, he's just, he's like the nerd who got a hot chick and now worked, like, you know, very hard. And he still works a lot, she tells me.

But like, he's just, he's happy. But that's the way to do it. Yeah. But there's a lot of people we know. But there are Logan Roy's who just. It's never enough. It's, it's the, they seem to be only happy when they're unhappy. That's it. And. Because that's familiar. Yeah.

That's sort of also what I always thought about to go back to what we were talking about in New York and LA. I always thought that that was kind of very characteristic of New Yorkers. You're not really happy unless you're unhappy. You know, when you think about... And it's what's familiar. And when we go into, even when we go into peace, it's so unfamiliar. If we go from chaotic relationship to chaotic relationship into a healthy relationship...

it almost feels like something's wrong because you've never felt health. You've never felt peace. You've never felt someone accepting you or just being okay with your flaws and not making you change or not getting angry at you if you're not doing something for them all the time. And you're like, wait, something wrong? Because it's peaceful. I got to send you a song. I'm sure you're too young to know, but you know who Paul Simon is. Yes. Simon and Garfunkel. Yes. Amazing solo career. He wrote a song called Something So Right.

He recorded it, Barbra Streisand recorded it. If something goes wrong, I'm the first to admit it. The first one to admit it and the last one to know.

If something goes right, it's liable to lose me, apt to confuse me. It's such an unusual sight. Interesting. It's a great song about this exact subject, you know. That's a guy who's dealt with trauma, you know, or confusion or struggle or stress. And it doesn't mean you're not living in a nice home. You can still have inner struggle and inner trauma.

Even though you're provided for and even though you have money and you have nice things, you could be living in a psychological war. That's a conundrum a lot of people have who are...

enjoying a good life and then they're unhappy for some reason and they feel guilty about feeling unhappy because they know there are people who have it even worse. Yes. And you have to find a middle ground there between, yes, people have it worse and also your pain is real too. Yeah. If you feel like shit...

Yeah. Does it help to have money when you feel like shit? Yes. I can absolutely throw the flag on this one because I've lived both. I've been poor and unhappy and I've been rich and unhappy and being rich and unhappy is way better. Better than being poor. It just is.

It just is. But it also amplifies things. It amplifies challenges, stress, problems by having more. Well, yeah, but you can go out to dinner and- Of course. I'm not a retail therapy person really, but people do that. But at the end of the day, no matter how much you spend or buy, it still doesn't make you happy with what's going on. So it's almost like a bigger mindfuck because you're like, I should be happier with this money and I'm still not. Yeah.

But while you're going through something, like a breakup or something, it's better to have money than not to. It's better to have money for everything. But unless you abuse it and you're like, I'm going to go buy drugs and alcohol and just destroy myself, then you're like, what am I doing?

So it depends on how you learn to manage your stress. I know, but we're back to that, that you can't really organize life around what the dumbest people will do with something. That's true. Yes, there are people who will abuse anything, but that doesn't mean you should prohibit it from the people who know how to use. It's a free world. Do what you want, you know? But it's like, how can we... And my whole thing goes back to how can we create inner harmony, inner freedom, inner peace of mind, right?

when we're dealt with stress, chaos, overwhelm, breakups, trauma, bankruptcies, whatever it might be. Like we're all gonna go through different stuff, but how do we get back to a centered, grounded place of harmony? And how do we influence that in the people we love and care about the best way we can? A lot of people who work on your side of the street say meditation. Yeah. Like that's a big thing. I love meditation. I love prayer, meditation, whatever allows you to get back into centered peace. All right.

Prayer and meditation, you say they're in the same breath. I love prayer and meditation. I've been meditating for a long time, and I've been praying for a long time. They're different. But I look at meditation, I don't know what you say prayer is. I look at prayer as more of gratitude for me. It's not about like, help me, God, fix some problem. It's that for me, prayer has not solved my problem. For me, prayer is I'm grateful and I trust.

I'm grateful and I trust. And I'm going to be taking the action steps to see what unfolds, to get back to a place of harmony or figure out the problem that I'm dealing with in the material world or my inner world. I'm going to get back to a place. And meditation is more about...

not thinking about really God or anything. For me, it's more about breathing and being connected to self and kind of calming nervous system and really allowing myself to feel peace so that I can make a clear decision in my life or just feel more peaceful. Because I think a lot of people don't feel peace. And meditation is a place where I think it can support the process. Are you able to, when you meditate, like clear your mind of all thoughts?

Not every time, but I think there's times where I can do that for moments, but then thoughts come back in. And it's not about clearing of all thoughts. I think it's really about calming thoughts, like calming the chaotic thoughts and feeling more...

peace. That's what it is. And I think when we can make decisions from a more peaceful place or a calmer place, as opposed to angry, resentful, scarce place, we tend to make better decisions. And if we make better decisions, we live a better life.

Well, maybe I'm meditating wrong. I don't know. I don't really meditate. A lot of atheists meditate. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I think it's a great thing, but I just think... Sam Harris has got a great podcast about meditation. Yes, no, no. Meditation's a real thing. I just think some people are easier...

It's a practice. It didn't happen naturally to me. Practitioners of it. I mean, I wasn't like, oh, I'm gifted at this in the first week. But some people's minds, I think it's connected to the way some people can be hypnotized.

And some people cannot. I was once... Have you been hypnotized? Well... I've never been hypnotized. When we were... I was making this movie, Religious, in 2007. And one of the bits we were going to put in the movie but did not was I really... They had a guy to hypnotize me. And I really wanted to be hypnotized. You couldn't do it. Some people just can't. They just have a mind that doesn't go there. Yeah, I've never been able to do it either. But I think you can be self-hypnotized. I think you can hypnotize yourself more.

Really? Yes. I've done, and I think it's not the way it looks where it's like, "Oh, I'm going to go to sleep and the hypnotist stick." It's more of a, I'm going to visualize and become more hypnotic towards a belief that I have, a vision that I have, something I want to create in my life. I've created different- Like manifesting? Yeah, just creating what you want. You believe in that? I believe in manifesting. Really?

I mean, it depends what the definition of manifesting is. I don't know. I always thought it was just something chicks say. I think you've manifested everything in your life. Everything in this building is a manifestation of a thought that you've had.

You thought, I want to have a home one day. And you were once in New York and then you moved to LA and then you went and said, I want to look at something. I have a vision. I wanted to have space and it would like to be five acres. And I'd like to have property where there's no noise. And you said, oh, and then you found this place based on a thought and an intention and you showed up and the realtor showed it to you or whatever it was.

And you said, this is mine. And you worked hard for the money you made to get this physical space. That's a manifestation of an idea. I don't know about that. I don't, I don't, I could be, I don't remember ever picturing anything like this. This, this property came to me because somebody was moving because the husband had gotten too old to take the stairs. And

They knew my manager and said this place would be perfect for Bill. I think they manifested it. I don't think it was me. They did. Because it was a house that was perfect for one person. It was a nice house. But you did tons of movies and your TV shows. I definitely have not done tons of movies. All the movie posters around here are fake. Yeah.

But you've had a vision for your show. You've had a vision for the guest you want to have on and what you want to ask them and any moments you want to create in the segments. You think about it. I've always... You intend it and then you create it. That's manifesting in my mind. I never got married because I'm married to my work. Yeah. And, you know, that's okay. You know, that's not for everybody. But I also must say I've read a number of health books where...

They're listing all the things that are good for your health. And I kind of resent it. Being married or not being married. When number 47 is, you know, get married and find the, it's like for you, for you, that would make you happier and healthier. It's like, don't put it in the fucking book.

on how everybody can be happier and healthier. I'm not saying to ship up. Sure, sure, sure, sure. I don't know why I'm yelling at you. You're not the guy who did this, but I've read that in more than one place. You know, like, okay, that's for you. We're all so different. Absolutely. We are all very idiosyncratic human beings. Yeah. That's why I don't want one for all vaccines or one for all anything. I agree with you. Okay. I agree with you there. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's... Do you get shit about that? About what? Vaccines.

I don't really talk about it myself. I mean, I have different doctors on and experts on to talk about those things. For me, it's more about what makes sense for me. You know, I grew up not getting vaccinated through my religion, Christian science. I didn't have any shots until I was like,

And I went to Mexico and got like a shot to go, you know, and I've been to Ghana and I've had to take different shots and things like that. How did you live? How did you survive? Effortlessly, you know. How can you still be here? Oh my God. I had no medications. You must be the luckiest person in the world. I had no medications. I had no shots. Oh no. You mean you used the human immune system?

Just developed it, you know? And I also got chicken pox. Like, there was chicken pox or measles outbreaks. So did I. We all had them when I was a kid. They used to try to give them to the kids. Right, yeah. My sisters got them. They gave it to me. They had me sitting there with them. And I understand that there can be harmful effects from getting the measles. 100%. Yeah. I think whatever's been tested for a long time, and if it's something that's, you know, recommended. Like, for me, I wasn't going to go to Africa because.

and not get a shot or just don't go. But I wanted to go, I was building schools for kids and I wanted to be there. And it was like, I knew the risks that I could get sick, so I needed to take the shots and hopefully prevent that. - You know, as long as we're on this, my view on measles, for example, is, 'cause people get very upset about the measles issue, is, you know, when I was a kid,

We all got the measles and nobody worried about it. And that's because when I was a kid, we didn't eat processed foods and we weren't basically unhealthy. So everybody got through the measles. It just wasn't a thing. Fast forward to today, I get it why parents are worried that kids aren't going to get the measles and have some deleterious effect. Because you're unhealthy to begin with. Yes. Because you've had...

Too much processed foods and possibly too many vaccines. And you don't have a robust immune system. I don't know. I'm not saying that for sure. I'm saying it's a possibility. And don't try to word me off saying that that's a possibility because it is. Everything's a possibility. And we are just...

basically more unhealthy than we used to be, a lot. Everything that's in the air and the water, what we breathe, the plastics, the fucking fungus, every fucking thing is worse than it used to be. So something like measles comes along and you're already compromised or COVID. When you're already compromised, this is just common sense kind of medicine, then things like that are opportunistic.

They want to win. And in a normal human immune system, they don't. But the way we are today, yeah. But what's the answer to that? To go more down the road?

To get healthier first. I think so. To get healthier first. What's your health program, like your physical health program? Because I just had dinner two nights ago with Brian Johnson. Oh, how was that? Who also was here. And I like Brian a lot. It was a very fascinating dinner. More of what we talked about here. If you don't know, Brian's the guy who's 47, but he's... Wants to live to 200 or never die. Well, I mean, he claims to be, and I don't think he's lying. I think he's a very...

smart and honest guy, certainly about this. He's studying it the most. Shit about his personal life, but that's his personal life. But he wants to be the healthiest person ever, and so he lives an incredibly regimented, what I would find to be a ridiculous kind of unreachable life, but he does it, goes to bed at 8 o'clock at night, it only eats one meal or whatever, and it's only lentils. I mean, it's just crazy.

and monitors his health. - 24/7 all day, yeah. - I mean this guy, and I said to him-- - How was the dinner, was it good? - It was awesome, and I like Brian. I said to him here and I said to him there, "Look, we can't do this, but I'm glad you're doing it "because you're on the forefront of finding out

what we can do with the human body and what if we did do, you know, we could live more and longer and better and more healthy. And, you know, he monitors himself at an incredible level. He was telling us, you know,

My liver is 18 years old and my dick is 12 and my heart is 19. And I'm sure he's right. Yeah. You know? But who could live that life? Well, Brian can. He can. So I'm glad he can. I mean, again, going back to, I keep thinking,

interviewing these people, people like Brian as well. And I keep trying to seek more information to find ways to stay in a beautiful relationship with the world. And that starts with a beautiful relationship with myself, feeling good about myself, a beautiful, learning how to be in relationship with others, I think makes me healthier as opposed to horrible relationships doesn't help my health.

And so relationship is an important thing. My relationship to money, relationship to my wife, relationship to my body, relationship to food, like relationship is important and having a healthy interaction with those relationships. So I think about, for me, I'm more of an 80-20 guy. You know, I think I'm probably, you know, not with like weed or whatever, but I'm more like in moderation of food and things like this. I still want to travel and adventure and try things out.

Um, but I really like getting seven, eight hours of sleep. I think sleep is the greatest way to heal your body. It is. That's not an opinion. And I'm, I'm all about trying to eat 80% of whole foods, healthy foods, non-processed, minimally processed foods. I just think that's the way to go. My vice has always been sugar. So it's like, I still have sugar and I eat candy and things like that. It's the worst.

But it's one of the worst things for me. So it's... I'm never going to be perfect, but it's like an 80-20 type of thing. And I don't drink alcohol. Yeah, you got to live. Yeah. So I don't drink alcohol. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't do these things. I'm glad Brian's doing what he's doing. Yeah, he's doing great. But it's just not... I mean, he must have... What I was saying earlier in the day, earlier in the show about...

develop what your natural big thing is. He's great at that. His natural big thing is self-discipline. He obviously has, somebody asked him at the dinner, you only eat this meal,

maybe he has two, but he gets up at 4.30 in the morning, probably because you're healthier the less you eat later. So he probably has his last meal so many hours before. At noon or something. Yeah, exactly. And they said, what do you do when you get hungry? And his answer was,

I feel good about it. You know, I feel good about being hungry because I know I'm doing the right thing. And I'm like, like most people are not born with that level of discipline. And, you know, again, I don't even want to be. When he was here, I said, Brian, like how many years have you shaved off your life living like this? And I think he said six. And I was like,

I'm saved three and I'm smoking pot all day. No, I'm not doing it all day. Right, right, right. But you know, it's like, what good is a Ferrari if it's always in the garage? It's interesting. You know?

I mean, your body is a Ferrari, but what the fuck? But if you can't run it, you can't like rev it up and let it go. Let it take it. And of course, he would. I saw that he went to like, he like went to a dance party or something and hurt himself. And now he's like, I don't dance anymore or something like that. But it's like, if you can't enjoy it at the highest level. I mean, he does enjoy his life because he gets up in the morning. Yeah. And like does a lot of physical activities with his kid. Yeah, it's enjoyable for him. Yeah, for him. Exactly. Yeah.

You know, just let us all be us. And I can also learn from him. There's a lot of wisdom that he gained. That's what I mostly love about Brian Johnson is that, like, he is a font of wisdom. And, you know, it's, again, a personal relationship I have now. I can text him and say, you know, Brian...

Is this really true about hyperbaric chambers? I hear they're really good. I know Michael Jackson had one, and when has he made a bad decision? Oh, man. Speaking of all the people you've met over the years, if you could put three people in a room, three of the most interesting people in a room. I can't answer this question. Who would you put in a room? I can't. Just to see what the conversation would be.

Lewis, that's like the ultimate like. The three most unique people are five. I can't. Come on. I can't. I can't answer that question. If you name some people, I'll give you my opinion on it. Uh-huh. But I'm not going to say, okay, Jesus, Shakespeare, and Hitler. No, people you've met. People you've met. People you know. People on your phone, let's say. People you've met or hung out with. Well, first of all, I'm never going to answer that question because the people I don't mention. Oh.

call me the next day and say, why aren't I on the list? That's a trap question. Oh, man. But, you know. More for like, what would be the most crazy conversation to have? Not the most like fun conversation of like, oh, my three friends that all think the same.

But like Trump and then someone else, who would it be? That's what I do for a living, bro. Why do you want to get Trump on this? I mean, look, I don't even think it's that interesting anymore because, I mean, he's the headline in the news every day, whatever he does. I mean, that was, again, one of my arguments.

against the crazy people who thought don't go there i'm like really this guy has dominated dominated whether you like him or hate him dominated american life for 10 years in a way i don't remember anybody ever dominating life you wouldn't want to have dinner with him you wouldn't want to see that up close really really then you're just not a curious person yeah and uh

So, you know, it wouldn't be him. We know what he's up to. Look, the reason I love this podcast is because I get to talk to you, who I never would have been able to do that probably. It just happens that...

I have a day job at HBO. I don't have time to work on this. I just told them I will show up here at 5:30 on Wednesday and have somebody interesting for me to talk to. And God bless them, they almost never fail. Now, also, I can talk to anybody. I mean, I've done shows with children. I can talk to 10-year-olds and have a good time.

You get a joint in me and a couple of drinks. I really could. You'll talk to anyone. But I also like to talk to somebody like you who I can have an intellectual conversation. It's just on a different level. Can I talk to the hawk to a girl? Yes, and I did. And it was great and fun and funny. But this is, you know, I obviously, you know, the...

the more you get on in life, the more you can have interesting intellectual conversations. And I think that's mostly what my audience wants to hear. I got a question for you. I don't know if you've ever thought something like this. You probably have because you think about everything. But how old are you about to be? Are you just turning? You had a birthday a couple months ago. I'm going to be 70. So I'm saying now I am because I feel like it takes a year to get used to a new decade. Wow. Okay. So I'm interested in this question. But I really don't give a shit.

anymore because it's not how old you are. It's how old you act and how old the people you're with. I'll just leave that out there. Okay. You know. Well, here's my question for you. That's what I'm curious about. You know, you've got a lot of wisdom and tons of experience. I'm curious if you ever think about like when you hit 70, if you ever think about what you'll think at 80, like what's your 80 year old self will be

Think about or what advice your 80-year-old self would give you. If you can think about now of when you turned 60, you know, almost 10 years ago, where you were then and where you are now, would you have given yourself advice with the wisdom you have now from 70 to 60 versus what 80-year-old you would give at 70? I mean, you know, life is walking down a very dark tunnel where everything behind you is well lit because you've been there.

And everything ahead of you is pretty dark. And you're walking like this because you can't see it. And then, oh, yeah, that's well lit. I know what happened. So I feel like each decade you get a little better at that. You get a little better at seeing what's ahead. But you still just don't know. Really? You don't know.

What excites you about the new decade, though? I mean, again, I live day by day. You're not thinking that far ahead. I really don't. Because we could be here. I could not be here. I mean, really. I mean, the world could not be here. Or it could be all solved. You know, AI could... The robots could take over. And we were all so afraid of them, but they're really very benign, and they keep me living forever, and they solved all the problems. You know, I mean, what I've learned...

is that it's almost a fool's errand to predict 10 years ahead because no human can. And almost all those predictions are wrong, very few. The one guy who got a few things right, Ray Kurzweil, you know him, Ray Kurzweil? He wrote the book, The Singularity, and he predicted that humans and humans

machines would become sort of interdependent in 2028. He looks like he's almost right on the money. Wow, it's getting close. He predicted when the Soviet Union would fall. I mean, this is a really smart guy. Is there anything you predicted when you hit 60 in the last decade? Like things you wanted to create for your life, not talking about the world, but like, I want to create this and I'm going to do this. I already had what I wanted at 60.

Which was the best job in the world. Doing what I do on HBO, best job in the world. That I can every week talk exactly how I feel to a very loyal audience, get well paid for it, make it funny.

I mean... Enjoy it. And I love the process of putting the show together. I'm a process person, you know. So I love Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you know, that it gets better, better, better until I go out there and deliver it. And I love making my audience happy. I love them expecting me to do a certain thing and me...

producing and giving that to them. That is my ultimate joy probably in life. That's cool. So I just want to keep doing that. I mean, I don't really have ambitions. I was on the road for 40 years and just this year stopped doing that.

Really haven't missed it that much. Wow. Because you do change when you go through life. And I miss performing. I miss being on stage. I miss getting the laughs from the real live audience. But I have a show every week. I do a monologue every week. I get that fix anyway. It wasn't worth the travel. And it takes a lot to maintain an act. A lot of energy.

When you're 70, mostly what you're thinking about is how do I keep my health? Because life is better than it was when I was young. When I was young, I was stupid and poor and lots of bad things. Life is better, but of course you have to worry more than you did when you were 20. Your health, yeah. That something shit's going to happen. What's missing for you at this age? Nothing. Nothing's missing.

Nothing you want or no relationship or this? No. I've got, I mean... You've got the properties. You've got the career. I don't care about properties. You've got the turtle coming maybe. I've got the turtle. The 98-year-old. You'll have something older than you here to be great. No. I mean, I don't want to... There's nothing that's missing in your life. No, I don't. Let's not knock. Let's knock wood and not say...

There's a movie you probably also haven't seen called Broadcast News. It's great. James Brooks did it, and the news guy in it, William Hurd, he says at one point, what do you do when your dreams exceed your expectations? And Albert Brooks says, shut up about it.

you know, don't tempt fate. You know, things are going good. I've seen it too many times where it turns. The Ferris wheel always comes around to the bottom, you know. So just don't, like, I'm not greedy. I'm not a greedy person. You know, I don't need more than I have. I have a good lot. I'm super lucky. I'm very philosophical about everything.

what I have, some people say, well, you worked for it. I did, but I'm also born the person who would work for it. Some person, people are just not born that way. So when you say I worked for it, yes, but it's also sort of, it was- It's in your DNA. It is. It was built into the cake to begin with. And I was lucky to get that. Not everybody is. Not everybody can.

Not everybody, as we were saying before, has some great thing they can develop. Like I did know when I was...

less than 10 years old that I was going to be a comedian. Interesting. You know, I knew this is what I wanted to do. That's lucky. Most, I know kids who are in their twenties and still can't, they're not stupid. They have talents, but they just don't know where to direct them. Right. I was lucky. I was always going to like, even when I was in college, I was like, what the fuck am I doing here?

What the fuck am I doing here? I'm going to be a comedian. This is not helping me. I remember having that anxiety a lot sitting in my dorm room at Cornell. Like, what the fuck? I'm taking Greek history. It's great. I'm enjoying it. I like academia. And of course, as it turned out, it was great to get a good education because it did help me ultimately with my job.

But at the time, I was like, no, I know what I want to do. That's a key thing. Is there anything you regret from the last few decades that you missed out on or you did a thousand things? Really? I never understand these people who say, I have no regrets. What's your top two that you think of off the top of your mind? Oh, for fuck's sake. I mean, we could spend all night talking about this. Just one or two then.

From how long ago? Last couple decades. Yeah. From 50 to 69. I'm not going to get specific about this. Yeah. But the life I started to live at 60, I wish I started to live at 50. And I'm just going to leave it at that. You'll leave it at that. Okay. But I do beat myself up about that. I could have enjoyed my 50s a lot more if I had just realized, oh, I could live like this now. Yeah.

But you can't beat yourself up about how dumb you were before you got smart. You just were, and it just is. I'm not the smartest person in the world. I'd be the first to admit it. And I'm also someone who often, it takes a while to get me there. I'm not the quickest study. Slow learner. But once I get there, boy, do I get it. You're all in now. You're like, let's go. Once I have it locked in. Would you never get married?

Well, come on. Why would you at 70? I mean, that's kind of crazy. Well, would you never have a life partner and say like, hey, we are in a union and we're living together like we're married? Maybe not legally married, but would you have a life partner? I'm in love. I believe in love. That's all. Everything else is just bureaucratic bullshit. What does that mean? Would you have a partner, though? A life partner? Like a relationship long-term that you'd be in, you think? I'm good right now. I'm...

I'm good right now. Would you be open to the possibility if it was like, it felt like the right thing for you? I'm open to the reality. I'm good with the reality. It's just like, why are we bringing the government into my private life? Oh, I understand the government, yeah. You know, now if I wanted to have kids, but you know, who's having kids? At 70? What? That's first of all, who had kids recently? Yeah, De'Aro and Pacino. Why wouldn't you? Yeah,

Well, first of all, I haven't been in any of the Godfathers. Also... You have no desire for kids? I've never had a desire for kids, and so I don't think that's going to change. Yeah. And... What if you got someone pregnant? Well, I'd text everybody I know. No. What if that was someone you were dating who was like, oh, I'm pregnant? What would you say? Uh...

And you were like, you better be a father whether you like it or not. Well, now you've really thrown the gauntlet down. I got a little chuckle in the back. There's someone laughing in the background listening. People from all over the world are laughing right now. What would happen if someone was like, oh, I'm going to have a child in six months? Well, first of all, it's not going to happen because I wouldn't. I mean, anything's possible. You know?

If you're having relationships. Yeah, I guess that's true. I mean, you know. Hypothetically. If you're careful. Yeah, of course. Yeah, but you're right. I mean, even condoms are 99%. Yeah. You know. Well, it's interesting. I don't think it would be an issue. But, you know. What would you... I certainly...

You know, you can't, if someone wants to have a, it's just not going to happen. Come on, Bill. It's not going to happen. If it did, what do you think? How would you respond, do you think? I'll cross that baby when I get to it. But it's just not going to happen. But if it did, what type of father do you think you'd be? Well, I'm not going to strangle it in the crib. Yes, I mean, if I had to have a baby, of course. I'd hire 10 nannies and, you know, see it like Nick Cannon. I don't know what the fuck I'd do. It's just like, it's not going to happen.

It's not going to happen. I'm going to get this clip in a year and a half. And then you say, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's having a repeat. Someone's going to make a techno song. Hold on a second. I've just got to get the bottle in the mouth. What type of dad do you think you would be? Terrible.

I mean, I don't want to be a dad. I want to be a daddy. That's why you have five properties next to you. I'm just saying, I was never really cast right when I was a boyfriend. I was never, because I never really wanted to be married or have kids or, you know, go down that path of, you know. Occasionally I would meet somebody who was so amazing that I would like, you know,

get serious with them. And then I've had many girlfriends, but, you know, it never really, it never obviously resulted in marriage because it just wasn't who I was. And I'm glad it didn't because it would have been ended in more tears than it did. And that's okay. You know, you can be that person. I feel like that was a sign. That was a sign from God.

But, you know, kids, I totally understand how people feel about their kids because, of course, I know everybody and most of the people I know have kids. You don't get to 70 without most of the people you grew up with having kids. But all these parents that you know are in their 60s and 70s who have kids...

- What are their views? - We're in 50s and 40s. - Yeah, what are their views on having kids that they share with you? What do you see, is there a benefit or you just don't see the benefit? - I mean, the ones who have kids who are teenagers and in their 20s do nothing but bitch to me about how their life is miserable because their kids are super woke and they're driving them insane with their out of control uber wokeness. Everything is like, "Mom, you don't get it.

Mom, it's old thinking. And the parents are like, and these are liberal people. These are not like conservatives. And they can't deal with their own kids. And I'm like, it's your own fault. You spoiled them. The way you raised them, they're not well educated. They're America-hating, ahistorical hysterics.

who don't know how lucky they are. Their whole life is based on how terrible privilege is. Well, it's supported by ultimate privilege. Why do you think so many kids are hating America? Because they're not educated. Because we don't teach them anything that would give them any perspective about America.

So they think they live at the worst time in history in the worst country when they actually live at the best time in history, undoubtedly the best time in history, and probably still the best country. How could you explain it to someone in simple terms where they would actually understand that when they think you're completely... You can't. You have to have a more broad education. You have to understand Western civilization and Western history.

As well as if you want to throw in the history of the other parts of the world, and they probably didn't teach that to people in my generation as much. But I'm sorry, the most important things didn't happen there. They happened where people developed ideas like the rule of law and democracy and scientific inquiry. These things are not inconsequential. They're what make our lives valuable today.

I wish they had happened all over the world in equal measure. They didn't. What about capitalism? They happened in Athens and Rome and Philadelphia and London and Paris. That's where they happened.

What about capitalism? A lot of kids don't like capitalism, right? Yeah, because they're stupid and they don't understand what communism was. If they had the slightest idea how horrible life was under communism, they would run screaming and begging to live in a capitalist society. Please, go live in East Germany in the 1970s.

See how you like it. Or every third citizen is informing on the other two and no one can get ahead in life because the government takes 90% of your earnings. It's ridiculous. Communism was an enormous failure. And the fact that we don't teach that, that we leave that as an open question,

Good luck. I mean, we already, they think we, you know, we should be socialist. We already have a very socialist society. I'm not even complaining about it. But when they take that much of your taxes, that's socialism. When they redistribute wealth, Medicare, Social Security, the Marine Corps, these are socialist programs. This is the government doing things that private enterprise doesn't do, and they should.

To a degree. We're just talking about what that degree is. But to think that we're not socialist is just, they just don't know things.

They don't know things. Is that the schooling system? Is that colleges? Yes. What is that? That's schools. Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, you're going to have kids soon, right? That's the plan. That's the hope. Well, we know. Science knows what causes it now. I think you'll be fine. Are you trying right away? Yeah, we're trying. Yeah. Hopefully. It's fun to try. I mean, that's the intention. Yeah. That's the intention. All right. That was fun. All right.

I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you. I'm glad I got to know you. Yeah, I appreciate you. The beginning and not the end. Yeah, we connected now. Thanks, man. Thank you. That's what I love about this. Good to connect. Congrats on everything. Thank you. You too. Oh my God, you're killing it out there.

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