David Sussillo (on foster care and neuroscience)

David Sussillo (Emergence: A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mysteries of Mind) is a technologist, neuroscientist, and professor at Stanford University. David joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up with two parents that were addicts, experiencing extreme poverty throughout his childhood, and the joy of finding a best friend during that time. David and Dax talk about how the immersion and rules of video games amid the chaos of his life became the precursor to his research today, ending up in a series of group foster homes for several years, and his dream of going to college functioning as a protective shield for his future self. David explains being orphaned by the living while in foster care, the elation of receiving a full ride to Carnegie Mellon to study computer science, and the deep learning neural network research he now leads at Stanford. Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://www.allstate.com/ Head to turbotax.com to find a store location near you and get matched with a TurboTax expert — with real-time updates in the iOS app. This episode is sponsored by AppleTV. Learn more at: https://tinyurl.com/mr2caw2c See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dax Shepard?

  Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert. I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Hi.

• 0:06Dax Shepard?

  Today, we have David Cicillo. He is a neuroscientist, a technologist, and an author. But don't let that sway you. This isn't a tech-heavy.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  No.

• 0:18Dax Shepard?

  This is a very personal story.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Correct, and a very moving one.

• 0:21Dax Shepard?

  Incredibly moving one about really growing up in a lot of public housing or

• 0:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:28Dax Shepard?

  boy homes and

• 0:29Speaker 01

  Homes.

• 0:29Dax Shepard?

  Homes, yeah.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  It's very connected to the episode we had on foster care.

• 0:36Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  He mentions that a lot. He felt very seen by that episode. And this is kind of like, that episode, a personal story.

• 0:43Dax Shepard?

  Yes, mixed with turning out to be a neuroscientist.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 0:46Dax Shepard?

  Uh, he has a book out, uh, it's a memoir. It's called Emergence. A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mystery of Mine. It's, uh, quite an incredible story. I was riveted. It's very moving and touching. Please enjoy David Cicillo. This episode of Armchair Expert is presented by Apple TV, the new US home of Formula One. Starting March 7th, you can watch complete, all-access, live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints, all in one place. Watch every race live, only on Apple TV. We get support from Quince.

• 1:24Speaker 01

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• 1:33Dax Shepard?

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• 1:56Speaker 01

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• 2:14Dax Shepard?

  The 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters for me are it. When I look at Steve McQueen, this man owned a couple of sweaters he wore all the time and he looks iconic.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  It's a uniform.

• 2:24Dax Shepard?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:25Speaker 01

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• 2:42Dax Shepard?

  Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Armchair Expert. It's the best way to support the show.

• 3:19Speaker 02

  I just want to say, I watched that episode with Claudia Rau. Oh, the foster. Yeah, with the foster kid. What a great episode.

• 3:25Dax Shepard?

  I'm so glad you watched that because that's gonna come up.

• 3:28Speaker 02

  I felt so seen. I was like, you go, girl. Oh, good. No one had really just all put it in one place. I was like, wow. So props to you. Thank you. No, props to her. She is incredible and we're so happy that we were helpful in telling that story.

• 3:43Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, her two kind of novel things for me that blew my mind is one, that poverty looks a lot like neglect. Half the kids, by her count, are in there probably when they're just poor. So that's really troubling.

• 3:57Speaker 02

  That's really troubling. I agree.

• 3:59Dax Shepard?

  And then what we know, yeah, about brain development and knowing we can't get the result we need with this system, just acknowledging that.

• 4:07Speaker 02

  It's a great framing. It's simple, too. It's a very straightforward thing to say. This is pathological because X, Y, Z. Yeah.

• 4:13Dax Shepard?

  It almost can't get a different outcome. And if you do, it's gonna be an anomaly.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  That's right, yeah.

• 4:20Dax Shepard?

  So David, where do you live normally?

• 4:22Speaker 02

  I live in the Bay Area. I live right near Stanford University.

• 4:25Dax Shepard?

  How do you like it up there? How many years have you been there?

• 4:27Speaker 02

  I've been there since 2010. I moved out for a postdoc at Stanford University. My wife and I had been in New York City, in Manhattan, for the last 10 or 12 years, and she really didn't want to go. But we went out and you'd have to drag me kicking and screaming.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Oh, you love it.

• 4:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. First off, it's California. But you know, it's a place that's filled with innovation, filled with smart people. You don't have to apologize to be a nerd. It's multicultural in its own sort of technical way. So I really like it there.

• 4:55Dax Shepard?

  So you and I are both children of 1975?

• 4:57Speaker 02

  I saw that. Yes, that's right.

• 4:59Dax Shepard?

  What month?

• 5:00Speaker 02

  March 26. You precede me by two and a half.

• 5:02Dax Shepard?

  I'm your elder and I expect to be treated as such. You beat me on the height.

• 5:06Speaker 02

  How have you done with turning 50? I have to admit, it hasn't been great for me psychologically.

• 5:10Dax Shepard?

  Tell me.

• 5:11Speaker 02

  Well, just feeling like you see the end. I want to be measured here because I'm not 70. But for all of that, you know the fantasy you live in about life going on forever. You can't have that at 50.

• 5:22Dax Shepard?

  There's something really, really troubling about knowing in the best case scenario, which I doubt I'll make it to 100 or more than halfway there.

• 5:28Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 5:28Dax Shepard?

  That's a bummer. You were an adjunct professor? You're still an adjunct?

• 5:32Speaker 02

  I'm still an adjunct professor.

• 5:33Dax Shepard?

  What is an adjunct?

• 5:34Speaker 02

  An adjunct professor just means you're affiliated with the university. It's a credential. So in my case, there's a dean or even a provost that had to actually sign off on it. But you're not a tenure line professor. So professors in today's academic world are largely leading research groups based off of money they get from the government through grants and also through private foundations. And so as an adjunct, I cannot lead those.

• 5:58Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 5:58Speaker 02

  I can be on them and I can participate, and that's largely what I do. Everyone thinks I teach. I don't teach. I lead research.

• 6:03Dax Shepard?

  Okay. So you'll join an existing grant?

• 6:06Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 6:06Dax Shepard?

  And then your professional work was Google Brain and is now Meta?

• 6:10Speaker 02

  That's right. At Google Brain, this was like the early skunk works of neural networks. Then it became deep learning and now it's called AI. Maybe we'll get into some of that. I'm not sure where you want to take the conversation, but that was for about six years. And then I joined Meta Reality Labs. You've seen these classes that they have. The new version has this wristband, and that wristband reads out your Muscle signals. It's basically like controlling a device just by gesturing or like writing.

• 6:34Speaker 01

  So you can text with your fingers?

• 6:36Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Whoa, that's wild.

• 6:38Dax Shepard?

  That doesn't seem on prima facie that hard in that we know what signals are going to get sent to the messages to move the hands in some way. Conceptually, it doesn't seem that abstract.

• 6:49Speaker 02

  Conceptually, if the signals are there, you can machine learn them and pull it out. There are reasons it's hard, but first let me meet you on the conceptually. No, it's not. It's not like doing brain machine interfaces where you have no idea what's going on.

• 7:00Dax Shepard?

  Right, because it's very like end of river.

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Exactly right. It is true that your motor cortex projects to your spine, the spine projects to your wrist. The muscle is driven by electricity when you move and that's an aggregate signal of neurons. Those are the cells in your brain that fire electrically and cause you to be you. But to meet your point, what's coming down the line here is not your pancakes that you had for breakfast. It's the stuff that you do to move your hand.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  And so in that sense, it's an applied problem.

• 7:25Dax Shepard?

  The body has simplified it quite a bit by the time we get to the wrist.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  That's right. The challenges of it are how do you get something to work on every single person when they put it on the first time? That's a really hard application problem.

• 7:37Dax Shepard?

  Because it has been determined that people won't have the tolerance to let it learn from it for some period. The consumer doesn't want a learning phase?

• 7:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, we call that personalization. So we so far have not gone down that road. We've just have a general model. You put it on and it works. And what that means is you have to collect quite a bit of data. We wrote a paper, actually published it in Nature about some of this work. And so what we learned was that if you get a bunch of people come in and you have them do the gestures and you machine learn the hell out of it, then with a lot of effort and clever engineering, you can make it work.

• 8:06Dax Shepard?

  So what probability, like what percentage would you say it's accurate?

• 8:10Speaker 02

  For the things that we've released, it's very, very accurate.

• 8:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, the 99 something.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  Oh, yes. I don't actually know what the numbers are, but they're very high because you want to have something out there that's quality.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:19Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  When is this getting released?

• 8:21Speaker 02

  It is released.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  What?

• 8:22Speaker 02

  It was released in the fall. So the Ray-Ban Metas, the glasses that have been around a while, and the Meta Ray-Ban displays, they actually have a little display in there, right? So you control that with a wristband that comes with it. I think it's sold out now, but I think it's out there.

• 8:35Dax Shepard?

  You've landed in all these places and it's quite improbable and. Your story is heartbreaking and hopeful and wonderful, and I enjoyed it so much. When I was listening, do you say it verbally? You were on some kind of a Zoom in 2022.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  That's right, yeah. Growing up in science lecture, Professor at NYU, Weiwei Ma, started this. And so lots of people are out there telling their stories about how they got into science, and I was invited to do one of them.

• 8:59Dax Shepard?

  But, okay, so mom and dad are both addicts.

• 9:01Speaker 02

  Yes, that's right.

• 9:02Dax Shepard?

  So maybe I guess we start with you at probably five. At that point, they're still married. You guys live in Albuquerque?

• 9:07Speaker 02

  So my parents were both Christian hippies. They may have actually lived on like a Christian commune.

• 9:11Dax Shepard?

  They took the only fun part out, free love, I guess.

• 9:14Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 9:15Dax Shepard?

  It's just dirty. It's just all you got left is the dirt.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  By the time I'm coming online, I only know this in hindsight, they're using drugs regularly. They're crashing drugstores and stealing, grab and run type of stuff. If there's heroin, they're taking it. If there's painkillers, they're taking them. They were just legit addicts.

• 9:35Dax Shepard?

  In a pinch, they're making your older sister pretend she has a cough so we can get a prescription for Cody.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 9:40Dax Shepard?

  And is he second generation Albuquerque? Your mother is.

• 9:43Speaker 02

  My mother, she was actually born in Bakersfield. She grew up in Albuquerque.

• 9:46Dax Shepard?

  Her parents, your grandparents, live there?

• 9:48Speaker 02

  My father is from Brooklyn. There's definitely tragedy on his side of the family. My grandfather, I think he was a captain in the Navy, and he died in a plane accident over Phoenix in the 50s. My grandfather, on my father's side, and my grandmother, these are serious practicing Catholics. So they had a family of five kids, very serious. He passes away, and now my grandmother is left with five kids aged seven through three months.

• 10:13Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Woof, right? Holy moly. So she hauls back to where she's from, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and that's where my aunts and uncles and my father grew up. Father, the middle child, bigger pain. So basically, what happened is the two oldest were sort of saddled with, hey, you need to help me raise this family. And the two youngest were very young, and so my father, as middle kids do, fell through the cracks.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:35Speaker 02

  So, you know, my father was 100% messing around with heroin by the age of 13.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  I am certain, based on talking to my aunts and uncles, he was addicted to heroin at 15. It's really early, right? And so I grew up in the 80s. There was this War on drugs. We can talk about that from a political point of view, but it succeeded in helping me understand that there are places and things you don't want to go and things you don't want to do.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  And I don't know if my father had access to that information. And so he got busted with an ounce of marijuana at seventeen. They told him to go to juvie. He said, screw that, I'm out. And he split to New Mexico, never to return.

• 11:10Dax Shepard?

  OK, so he was absconding from justice.

• 11:13Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 11:13Dax Shepard?

  When you're five, there's an incident?

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Yes, so briefly with my mother. My mother's story is a mystery. I don't know why she ended up as she did. The one story I have came from my sister was that they used to have a jar of pills at school. Keep in mind, this is the sixties. I don't mean free love by that. I mean a sense of ignorance about how powerful pharmaceutical drugs are. They'd just have a jar and they would go take them out of the jar. Fuck that, right? That's crazy. So to the degree that that story is true, you can point at something. But largely speaking, I don't know why my mother ended up with the problems that she had. By the time I'm five, my father already tried to kill himself. He gets really, really high. And he threatens to set the place on fire, the apartment on fire.

• 11:53Dax Shepard?

  Breaks a bottle, is bleeding out. Cops have to come, the ambulance comes.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  Do you remember it?

• 11:58Speaker 02

  I don't remember it well, but I have vague memories of it.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  And you have an older sister?

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, I have an older sister.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  So she probably remembers more.

• 12:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. So what happened there is the whole thing fell apart because my father is like, I'm gonna burn the place down. My mother is like, we're out. And so that resulted in a divorce. So I ended up living alone with my mother, near my grandparents for that year. And I never really lived with my father again, although he would come in and out of my life here and there.

• 12:21Dax Shepard?

  Right. Mom decides she's gonna start the nursing program up in Santa Fe. And then you guys up and moved to Santa Fe. And you're in extreme poverty at this point.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  The way I would say it is, we weren't like Albania in the sixties poor. But for the United States, we were poor on a level that many people have a hard time relating to.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:39Speaker 02

  Where like, there's a constant gnawing corrosive worry about making ends meet, about eating.

• 12:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, all day consumed by this anxiety.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's right.

• 12:50Dax Shepard?

  And then your buddy Shiloh, who you meet, they don't have water at home.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  Right, so I meet my buddy Shiloh, who is like immediately my best friend. In the book, very briefly, I talk about my experiences in. At some length, because it was this period of just pure, perfect childhood. I had one year of childhood, right? And that was this year when I'm in second grade and I have this buddy Shiloh. He's my best friend. You can look at like all the things that happened to me. You know, Dave, what are the interventions? It's a complicated question, but surely making a best friend when I'm at such a young and shapable age was one of the major things in my life to happen to me. So, you know, we're out there just cutting up and just being crazy.

• 13:25Dax Shepard?

  Well, what I would argue, because I'm a big proponent of best friendship. Because I think when you have that buddy and things are tough, the way that you can elicit joy and ride joy and how much that's a needed medicine. It's really quintessential to. And you think he really learned to ring joy out of things in a very specific way.

• 13:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, I agree with that.

• 13:48Dax Shepard?

  And your guys' was video games, yeah?

• 13:50Speaker 02

  We were obsessed with video games. So my age here is really relevant. I'm born in seventy five. So I'm five years old when Pac-Man is coming out.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Which means I'm seven years old, roughly speaking, when Ms. Pac-Man is coming out. Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, all these absolute gem video games. We were poor, we couldn't afford them, but you know, we'd scrounge up quarters and try to get quarters, just do crazy things. But we were obsessed with video games. And as I talk about in the book, video games became this escape from all the things that were happening in my life. You know, and I could just always just space out and go try to drum up a quarter to go play a video game.

• 14:26Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:27Dax Shepard?

  Have you thought about what the appeal is? I know, I'm sure you have a lot of connection between the technical aspect, which you became enthralled with your whole life. But just the notion that in this little box, the rules were the same all the time.

• 14:40Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:41Dax Shepard?

  They were immovable. I know the rules and then if I'm clever enough, I can outsmart this is very satisfying in a world of a lot of variables.

• 14:48Speaker 02

  I totally agree with that. When you're seven, you're not thinking that, right?

• 14:50Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  But it is still a thing. And so just to list it off there quickly, deep concentration, nothing else exists. You're right here for as long as you can make that quarter last. The fun of it, the challenge, ecstasy through sensory overload. You know, I'm a researcher, right? Like, I actually think, when did I start researching? How to play video games better? How to make a quarter? Last longer. That whole spectrum is how I think about it now. When I was doing those things as a kid.

• 15:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  Was your mom still struggling during this whole time with drugs?

• 15:17Speaker 02

  Yes, because of divorce. She went to try to get a nursing degree and really pull herself together. She really gave it a shot. And you know, the whole thing was sort of financed at a very low level by my grandparents. She went there and it started off all right. It didn't really go very well. You know, honestly, she met Shiloh's mother and they would just go get high together. It just kind of fell apart.

• 15:35Dax Shepard?

  You move back to Albuquerque, though, at seven or?

• 15:38Speaker 02

  Just before third grade. So we moved back to Albuquerque. We moved to a neighborhood that is formerly on the map called La Mesa. In the colloquial like rebranding, it's the international district. And everybody in Albuquerque calls it the war zone.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  We're talking about a very, very bad neighborhood. I don't even have the words.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  It's dangerous. People are murdered there. In fairness to Albuquerque, it's one of those large, spread out towns where it just depends on where you live.

• 16:04Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it's also got wonderful, incredible areas.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  I'm not in one of those wonderful, incredible areas. And so it felt unsafe and it was unsafe. And during that time, my mother's mental health was really falling apart. Turns out she was really suffering from severe depression. It's so bad, she doesn't even enroll us for school. So we get these teachers coming, you know, you gotta enroll your kids in school. And so we ended up going to school and that fall, we had somebody come take care of us. I think her name was Karen. Why isn't my mother here? She's taking a break.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 16:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, so what happened was I was not used to Karen's care, which was frankly excellent.

• 16:39Dax Shepard?

  And like, I didn't know how to handle that.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:43Speaker 02

  I didn't know how to handle it. So I'm getting into trouble. For me, neglect is the thing here. I legitimately believe both my parents loved me and my sister. These people are serious drug users and that comes with major spectrum of problems. I decide to run away after getting in trouble. I had no plans of actually running away. I was just trying to piss this woman off.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:02Speaker 02

  But she freaks out and she calls my grandparents. And the next thing you know, both my sister and I, Esther, are in a car, our clothing in a trash bag, going to the Albuquerque Christian Children's Home.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 17:14Dax Shepard?

  Now, so I had a question here. What is your judgment of your grandparents? When I read that they were called and their solution, or their combined thought was, well, let's get them in this home. And they lived in Albuquerque.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Instead of taking you guys in.

• 17:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know. It's hard not to look at their behavior as, at the very least negligent.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Abandonment.

• 17:35Speaker 02

  Abandonment, and if there are villains in that book, it's hard not to point that out.

• 17:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and then also maybe it explains a bit of why mom had problems. If that's the vibe that existed at that point.

• 17:47Speaker 02

  That's right. The only thing I could say is, when you retirees, I've shared this book now with the early readers, right? And like, to a person, any woman of grandmotherly age has said, fuck that, I would have taken you.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's hard to swallow.

• 18:02Speaker 02

  So there's that.

• 18:02Dax Shepard?

  That is my knee jerk. And I can't imagine my children would have children and I would say, yes, and I'm off to a home. Also, I have means. Also, I've not been dealing with a troubled child for 11 years.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:14Dax Shepard?

  Which they probably were. So I don't know their fatigue and their.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  Capacity.

• 18:19Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, how overwhelmed they felt with just the first kid. And now this kid has got two other kids.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  It's hard to know where their mind state was at.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  So was Karen a foster?

• 18:29Speaker 02

  Karen was just a friend, a friend of my mother who came to visit.

• 18:32Dax Shepard?

  And did the best she could. But I think David is honest, admirably so. You were also a shithead. You never had rules or anything. You were a feral kid.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  I was feral.

• 18:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  Two things can be true. I felt like I was good at heart, and yet, behaviorally speaking, a total piece of shit.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, your context, how could you not be?

• 18:51Speaker 02

  One of the things I resonated in the conversation with Claudia Rau was these kids, I include myself here, right? Maybe not to the same degree as some of the people she was talking about. They're coming with major, major problems.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 19:03Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, they're not the easy kids to deal with.

• 19:05Speaker 02

  No, but to say it that way isn't giving it the truth. When people sign up to do foster care, they're not signing up to like, have their daily lives induced with constant, nonstop stress for 10 years. It's just very hard. And so when I try to forgive my grandparents, it's in that light.

• 19:22Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 19:23Speaker 01

  But it's a huge undertaking.

• 19:25Dax Shepard?

  Now, I don't know if you related at all to this, but I also think at a very young age, as social primates, we are justice machines. We look around and why did they get that and I didn't get this? That is how the whole system functions. You're monitoring who's getting what. And my status entitles me to this. And so I think even when you're young and you're looking around, like, some kids have all this shit. And I don't. I think you feel deputized to get what's yours.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I was not blessed with that thing. And I should say I was not cursed with that thing.

• 19:58Dax Shepard?

  Cursed, yeah, yeah.

• 19:59Speaker 02

  Because I just had my head down. I was just too young and dumb, or too into the video games, or whatever it is that little boys of eight years old are. My sister, especially as we got a little bit older into middle school, we were going to a public middle school, and she would look at these girls, and way before the word "privilege" became this word, she was like, "These girls are privileged."

• 20:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  "They have these things. I want to be a pretty girl. I want to have these things."

• 20:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 20:23Speaker 02

  And so for her, this constant comparison, this justice machine thing, I think was a huge, huge problem.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  I mean, middle school is hard enough.

• 20:33Dax Shepard?

  If you've got all the shit.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  If you have everything, like, ugh.

• 20:36Dax Shepard?

  So, yeah, you go to this Christian home, you make an incredible analogy. Try to remember the feeling of being lost at the mall as a kid.

• 20:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:45Dax Shepard?

  And if that went on for an hour, how absolutely dysregulating and uncomfortable that was. Now imagine that goes on for two days.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 20:53Dax Shepard?

  And imagine that goes on for a week, in two weeks, in two years. And you were there for five years?

• 21:00Speaker 02

  I was there for five years.

• 21:01Dax Shepard?

  Oh, man. David, I am so sorry.

• 21:03Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 21:04Dax Shepard?

  That's fucking rough to feel.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  Lost, I mean, that's a great word for it.

• 21:08Dax Shepard?

  Completely lonely and scared, and who's coming?

• 21:12Speaker 02

  How do you even write about neglect? Because it's all the things that aren't happening. It's all the things that didn't happen, you know, you just fill ten pages with, "And then I stared at the wall. And then I stared at the wall again."

• 21:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  So what happens is you deal, right? And part of that is you work within the little social system that you have there, which is you make friends if you can, figure out what the house parents are all about, right? Part of it is your emotions begin to change in ways that even an adult, I don't think, would fully understand what was happening to them. The other thing that's hard to relate to is you're a child. So you don't know what's happening.

• 21:47Dax Shepard?

  You have zero say in any of this. You can't construct a plan that's gonna get you out of this.

• 21:51Speaker 02

  No, but we would, though. I ended up meeting a kid named Omar, a few years older than me, Mexican-American.

• 21:56Dax Shepard?

  He was Miguel at one point?

• 21:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I got his permission.

• 21:59Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 22:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Omar is from downtown Albuquerque, also a very bad neighborhood. As an adult, he would say, you know, I was just a scared 12 year old and I was doing the things that I would needed to do to survive. But the perception that I had of him was this like fucking gangster who would literally kick the shit out of me and happened many times. But through all of that, we became friends. Speaking of being powerless or how do you think you can get out of it? We would think about this. At this point, he's probably 13, I'm 10. I really planned my escape at 10 years old. We would just sit down, well, you know, Dave, smart kid, maybe you could go to college. I'm like, college? Oh, you know, what's college? You can get money for college. The funny thing about the ACCH or volunteerism in general is people do it for a short amount of time. So for about a month, we had this karate instructor come and teach us a few moves of karate.

• 22:45Speaker 02

  He went to college on the GI Bill.

• 22:47Dax Shepard?

  That karate instructor had.

• 22:48Speaker 02

  Karate instructor had, yeah. You can get scholarships is the upshot. And so from that moment on, the way I describe it is it's like in Harry Potter, the Patronus spell. I had like a shield. Yeah. I did a future guide, a sense of self pride, dare I say self love about this thing, my intelligence. From that moment on, I was gonna make it no matter what, come hell, come high water. You know, this idea of like having a future or of thinking about what the future could mean for you, I think is a big differentiation in some of the kids. This came up in that other interview.

• 23:23Dax Shepard?

  The frontal lobe stuff.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  And I was like, yes, this is exactly right.

• 23:26Dax Shepard?

  Like some inability to model the future seems to be the outcome. Why would you? It gets atrophied. Why model out the future? Nothing's gonna happen. I'm gonna sit in this fucking Christian home for the next seven years. I'm not planning whether I start racing BMX or I try to do this or that.

• 23:40Speaker 02

  Just a quick caveat about the ACCH and also it goes the same way for Milton Hershey School, which I was in in high school. These institutions, if you read my story, they don't come off particularly well. But these are basically practicing Christians doing very, very difficult work. I would've been on the street otherwise.

• 23:57Dax Shepard?

  Self-funded involuntarily.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just a little bit of nuance there.

• 24:01Dax Shepard?

  What you need is a sense of permanence with a caregiver. There's one dude first six Sixteen kids and one woman for sixteen kids and three houses of sixteen kids.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  And the house parents turn over. We thought, I don't know if it's true, but we had the idea that we would have loved to be in foster care. That we thought that was a better outcome than the situation that we were in. So sixteen kids, very depending, but a lot. And the house parents come and go because the job is impossible. It's too much. It's too hard.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  It's just built for failure.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  It's just built for failure. So when I was there, maybe seven or eight different sets of house parents in five years. And so this sense of impermanence and the ACH, I don't know what it's like now, but in the eighties, it was not meant to be a permanent living facility. It was meant to be a transitory care.

• 24:46Dax Shepard?

  Well, mom got done resting.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  Exactly, yeah, exactly. But for some of us, we were there longer than the admin staff was there. Nobody knows what your situation is, right? Like, literally, nobody knows that in the second grade, you freaked out in the middle of the night because you thought some person was going to come kill you. And then in the third grade, you were in a fight. Nobody knows any of this.

• 25:08Dax Shepard?

  And I think deeper than no one knows, no one cares.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  That's the fear.

• 25:11Dax Shepard?

  That's the heartbreaking part.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  The people working there care.

• 25:14Dax Shepard?

  But I'm saying when they leave and you're there and no one present knows anything about your history, I think the conclusion you make as a kid is like, yeah, no one cares at all about me.

• 25:24Speaker 01

  And how is your sister faring?

• 25:26Speaker 02

  She's passed away.

• 25:27Speaker 01

  Oh, she has?

• 25:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm sorry, you're asking the past tense, but so she's since passed away. No, she's doing terribly at the time. One of the major outcomes of the kind of neglect that she and I suffered from is emotional dysregulation. For me, that became anger. For her, ice or hot. She loves you or she hates you. It's very hard for her to regulate her emotions in and around other people.

• 25:49Dax Shepard?

  Kind of like borderline personality.

• 25:50Speaker 02

  Kind of like borderline personality type.

• 25:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, terrified, everyone's going to leave her, overly attracted to people immediately.

• 25:56Speaker 02

  That's right, it's all of that. I'm just not making the diagnosis.

• 25:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, leave that to me.

• 26:03Dax Shepard?

  You were asked to tutor.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  I was, yeah.

• 26:05Dax Shepard?

  And it's insane what that can do to your life trajectory.

• 26:08Speaker 02

  So basically through school, in a number of different ways, I was invited to the gifted and talented program. I was asked to be a tutor here and there. I became known as the smart kid. And so I sort of have this simplistic psychology that all these kids in these circumstances have their survival strategy. Omar was the tough kid. My sister Esther was like the pretty girl and so on and so forth. And you know, what ends up happening is you take those behaviors into adulthood and some are more or less adaptive than others.

• 26:35Dax Shepard?

  Yes. You must have looked forward to going to school.

• 26:39Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, yes.

• 26:39Dax Shepard?

  Right? Like, that's the sanctuary.

• 26:41Speaker 02

  I was good at it. I actually enjoy knowledge. It did not come hard to me. I got a kick out of it. I got attention.

• 26:47Dax Shepard?

  You had self-esteem.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Positive self-esteem. And so, you know, I was one of these loud mouths who never shut up. So I'm sure my teachers really couldn't stand me. But I was personally getting a lot out of it.

• 26:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, again, we should add, you had behavioral issues.

• 26:58Speaker 02

  I had major behavioral issues.

• 26:59Dax Shepard?

  How'd you get on with other boys?

• 27:01Speaker 02

  Well, the way that usually worked was we'd have a fight. I would lose.

• 27:07Speaker 02

  And then we'd either be friends or we wouldn't be friends. I was not a fight in my life that I couldn't lose.

• 27:17Dax Shepard?

  And you were tall, so I got to imagine like, were you always tall?

• 27:20Speaker 02

  No.

• 27:20Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you weren't.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  One of the great curses of my life, I didn't start growing until I was 17.

• 27:25Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 27:25Speaker 02

  17.

• 27:26Dax Shepard?

  Wow.

• 27:27Speaker 02

  The math teacher in high school, he's the basketball coach, and I'm a senior in high school. It's like, if I had known you were going to be this tall, I would have coached you in ninth grade. I'm like, yeah, it's too late. Come on.

• 27:39Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so around this time to, well, let's say 7th grade, your mom dies.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 27:44Dax Shepard?

  You've gotten a got even now yet another round of some sense of permanent loneliness on your plate.

• 27:50Speaker 02

  When my mother passes away, it's a huge catastrophe for me. And what's interesting about that is like, if you would have asked me at that time, I'm like, I don't give a shit about my mother. She's not my life. She's been in my life for five years. She would take us out on weekends here and there. There is a sense of connection there. It's a very thin tether, but it's a tether. And that has a couple of knock on effects. Number one is turns out I really loved my mother. And so she dies. Like, where's my emotional space at this point? I have no way of relating to this. So I basically start having minor panic attacks. I just don't even know what's going on. I have no one to talk to. Therapy would have been completely culturally untenable at the ACH in the 80s. Not that they could have afforded it in the first place. I am just completely out of control.

• 28:33Dax Shepard?

  You're now on an island by yourself.

• 28:34Speaker 02

  My sister and I didn't really get along. That possibility was not really there. But the only person I was talking to, though not about my mother, was Omar, my buddy and my roommate. So she passes away and it's a good thing in some sense. This is the tether. I have this phrase, it's not my phrase, but I use it, orphaned by the living. In any functional sense, my sister and I and many of the kids in the ACH were orphans, except that our parents were alive.

• 28:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  But functionally, they were unable to take care of us or unwilling to take care of us, be it mental illness, drug addiction, incarceration, you name it, right? So she passes away. All of a sudden, my aunts and uncles feel like they can get involved. These are my father's brothers and sisters.

• 29:14Dax Shepard?

  Who didn't want to intervene with mom, who express goal was to have them. But now she's out of the picture.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  In hindsight, I can't help but wonder, again, I'm sort of casting shade on my grandparents. If the situation was reversed, if we were not kept around on the hopes of making my mother better. But one way or the other, there was a symbiosis there that's severed. And so my aunt and uncle Elliot and Moira, they had come out a couple of years earlier. Seventh grade is when my mother dies. I'm backtracking to say fourth, fifth grade. They come to check us out. They're like, ah.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  This isn't good.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  This ain't great. An adult could easily observe our sort of intellectual and emotional stagnation. They start lobbying then over the summers for my sister and I to come out to the East Coast, basically centered in and around New York City, where all of my father's siblings live. So we start doing that in the summer times. This happens a couple of times before then my mother passes away. So because of this, some of my aunts and uncles, I guess all of them have, I've gotten to know. And I pretty well. So my mother passes away and my uncle James, he was one of the older kids who was tapped to raise his siblings. He took responsibility seriously as an adult. He joined the Navy. He's like, I'm doing this.

• 30:25Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 30:25Dax Shepard?

  And you're already 12.

• 30:27Speaker 02

  And on top of that, he's a newlywed.

• 30:28Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. Okay.

• 30:29Dax Shepard?

  Tell his brand new wife, hey, so my brother.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  I know, but it's also hard because I'm also like, why didn't they do that sooner?

• 30:36Dax Shepard?

  But the mom was

• 30:37Speaker 01

  I know.

• 30:38Dax Shepard?

  In theory wanting her children.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  When you saw your mom on the weekends, was there all these promises of like, I'm gonna get you guys out of here soon?

• 30:47Speaker 02

  I think that stopped. My mother was very ill and I think she knew it. She was in and out of a psych ward. I came to know as an adult that she was basically under constant suicidal ideation.

• 30:56Dax Shepard?

  She's probably medicated the fucking hill.

• 30:58Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. That's ultimately what she died from is a mix up of methadone and whatever she was on.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 31:11Dax Shepard?

  Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Apple TV, the new US home of Formula One. You can now watch complete all access live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying and sprints all in one place. I will be consuming all of those things, Monica.

• 31:26Speaker 01

  I know you will.

• 31:27Dax Shepard?

  I kill for Friday to start watching practice one, following it in on a sprint weekend. Oh my gosh, two races. And this season brings a ton of new energy to the sport. New teams like Cadillac and Audi just joining the grid. New drivers stepping into major seats. Lando Norris defending his first World Drivers Championship. And all eyes on Lewis Hamilton in his second season with Ferrari and a brand new circuit in Madrid. Plus a new US home for Formula One. You can watch every race live only on Apple TV. Watch on Apple devices, Android devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, gaming consoles, or on the web at tv.apple.com. All part of one Apple TV subscription alongside hundreds of exclusive shows and movies.

• 32:09Dax Shepard?

  Watch the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix live on Sunday, March 29th at 1 a.m. Eastern. Or watch race replays on demand anytime only on Apple TV, the new US home of F1. We are supported by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. That's smart. Not checking your phone's battery before heading out? That'll get you every time. Of course, your phone dies on the way to meet someone, leaving you wandering around quietly panicking about being in the wrong spot. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate North America Insurance Co. and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois.

• 32:53Dax Shepard?

  We are supported by Intuit TurboTax. April 15th is coming up fast, and if you're like most people, you're probably dreading the whole tax thing. You know the old way, sitting in some waiting room for hours or sending over your tax docs and waiting and waiting for any kind of update. You want something modern and tech-forward, but you also want that human connection. And this year brings a major upgrade. Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can walk into a tech-enabled TurboTax location near you and meet face-to-face with a real tax expert. Drop off your documents in the store and see them uploaded to your TurboTax app instantly. Just like that, you're done.

• 33:35Dax Shepard?

  Your new TurboTax expert stays back and works tirelessly to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. Honestly, it feels like someone finally figured out what we've all been wanting. It's not some sterile tax office from 1987, and it's not just an app where you're on your own. It's both. The human expertise with smart, modern tech. You drop off your stuff, go about your day, and get real-time updates as your expert works through everything. That's the upgrade. Head to TurboTax.com to find a store location near you and get matched with a TurboTax expert with real-time updates and iOS app. This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow.

• 34:17Dax Shepard?

  Look, I have my dream job. I get to talk to folks I admire like crazy and ask them virtually any question that I want to. I can't imagine a better way to spend my time, but even dream jobs have some not so dreamy parts, the stuff that gets in the way of the actual work. Now that's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it, start to finish, cases closed, requests handled, no extra work for you. So you and your team can focus on what matters most, which for me is, are they obsessed with male bodies on the same level as I am?

• 34:55Speaker 01

  They never are.

• 34:56Dax Shepard?

  To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.

• 35:07Dax Shepard?

  When I hear your story, my first thought without knowing more about Esther is, I can't believe they just took you.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 35:15Dax Shepard?

  That seems cruel.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  I'll go into that.

• 35:17Dax Shepard?

  But now then I'm hearing a little bit more about Esther, maybe that was just more than they thought they could handle.

• 35:22Speaker 02

  I'm 12. I've got, I would say, moderate behavioral problems. My sister, on the surface, looks fine. On a closer examination, is beginning to have major behavioral problems in and around her relationships with other people. She regularly threatened suicide. She's one of those people who would just go, I will ruin my life to ruin yours.

• 35:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  To hurt you. She's 14. So Sophie's Choice type of thing. Who can we help here? And so my aunt and uncle chose to take me in. I still bear guilt over that.

• 35:52Dax Shepard?

  I was gonna say, you didn't get along with her great, but did you still have guilt?

• 35:56Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 35:57Dax Shepard?

  But they had a solution for her. They sent her to a boarding school.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, so there's a number of aunts and uncles flying around here. Just view them sort of collectively as finding a solution for the two of us.

• 36:06Dax Shepard?

  You can imagine them all having family dinner and they got together to discuss this.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  Can you imagine that? So she ends up at a boarding school called the Darrow School, which is actually a really nice school. It's a private school. It was funded by Elliot and Moira, I believe. It's just a boarding school. It has nothing to do with financial instability, or kids at risk, or however you want to say it. So I go to live with my aunt and uncle. It's an immediate disaster.

• 36:28Dax Shepard?

  What kind of things were you doing that made it hard for them?

• 36:31Speaker 02

  I was obsessed with no longer being poor. We got toys from like going to the retirement home and we'd get handouts from the retirees. It was Poor. And so I'm in Virginia. I'm like, there's a pool here. There's a fitness center over there. There's a community garden. So I kind of won't shut up about it. And so I think that just kind of irritated them. They're short to anger. My uncle has never raised children before.

• 36:58Dax Shepard?

  Right, right.

• 36:59Speaker 02

  So it didn't quite work out. The other strange thing that happened was he was a go getter. He went to school, PTA meetings, like, OK, David should have 20 minutes of homework every night. Except I didn't need it. I do my homework in school. So all of a sudden, there's a major lie. I'm lying to them about this thing.

• 37:15Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 37:15Speaker 02

  So he settles that I should sit at the table for an hour a night to do my homework. It's just one anecdote, except it happened all year long. So it was this constant source of tension between us.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:25Dax Shepard?

  Well, I can say for me, not having a dad around and then intermittently having step dads, I just fucking hated men. I hated mal authority. I was so stubborn and I would die over these power struggles. I just hated outside mal authority. Were you having any issues now with having an authoritarian father figure?

• 37:45Speaker 02

  I think of it more as me needing more from my aunt. She was not my blood, wasn't her family. You know, my mother has just passed away.

• 37:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 37:54Speaker 02

  And she agreed to do it, but did she really sign up for that? I think that's where a lot of the tension that I felt came from.

• 37:59Dax Shepard?

  That makes sense. Yeah, you were probably expecting something that that wasn't coming.

• 38:03Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  Also, you would just come from a situation where you had way too much independence.

• 38:09Speaker 02

  It's funny because I didn't know how to live alone. I was always around other kids.

• 38:13Speaker 01

  Oh, that's interesting.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  So all of a sudden, I'm I'm living alone by myself. I have a bedroom. I mean, paper sounds great, but like I'm used to bunking with three other boys.

• 38:21Dax Shepard?

  Lonely as fucking there.

• 38:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally.

• 38:23Speaker 01

  It's the opposite of everything you've.

• 38:24Speaker 02

  It's the opposite of everything I've ever known. So it was really difficult.

• 38:27Dax Shepard?

  They send you to the Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

• 38:33Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 38:33Dax Shepard?

  I like the history of this. This is lovely.

• 38:36Speaker 02

  So this is the. In some sense, the Hogwarts you're looking for.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  Oh, it is?

• 38:41Speaker 02

  For the listeners, Dax made a point like, hey, maybe all these foster kids should have a place like Hogwarts that they can go and be nurtured.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  So great.

• 38:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, so there's almost a lore to this at this point. Milton Hershey, the chocolatier, became very successful, stupendously wealthy, and discovered that he and his wife couldn't have children. So they start an orphanage, I believe it's 1906, called the Hershey Industrial School. By 1909, he's left effectively all his money to this school, which back then, I believe, was $60 million, which today is about $17 billion.

• 39:13Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 39:13Dax Shepard?

  And he's that currently has a $15 billion endowment.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, exactly. Frankly, they're so wealthy, they don't know what to do with the money.

• 39:19Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. They still want me to get in there and start Hogwarts-ing up the place.

• 39:23Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 39:25Speaker 02

  Give me my wand. So that's the backstory there, and it just grew from that through the 60s. Basically, black kids were let in and girls.

• 39:33Dax Shepard?

  There's like about 2,000 kids that are there?

• 39:35Speaker 02

  That's right, yeah. No, there's 2,000 kids there. When I was there, it was more like 1,000. But yeah, it's a big place. It dominates the town of Hershey. There's basically the chocolate factory and Milton Hershey School.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 39:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. This is all very Willy Wonka.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  I know, it is.

• 39:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally.

• 39:47Dax Shepard?

  It's crazy how fucking rich the candy folks were, like the Mars family, the M&M's, and the Wrigley's, and they had these mansions in Pasadena. Like, there was so much money in candy at the beginning of the 1900s.

• 39:58Speaker 02

  And Milton Hershey left his money to kids.

• 40:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that's really sweet, but it wasn't a sweet place. Alas.

• 40:05Speaker 02

  No, so again, I want to be nuanced here. It's a huge school. There are lots of experiences. It's almost like when you work at a company, your experience is almost purely dictated by your manager. At a place like Milton Hershey School, your experience is almost purely dictated by your house parents. And my house father was a true piece of work. He was a control freak. You know, now that I'm an adult, I look at it like, you know, what happened in his life as a child that made him the way he was.

• 40:32Dax Shepard?

  Why did he want to control a bunch of young men?

• 40:34Speaker 02

  That's right. He was universally despised by the boys. So because he was so difficult, there was this weird sort of spiral where all the worst kids in school, keep in mind, this is aggregating over all of the northeast corridor. All the basically fucked up families, right?

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:51Speaker 02

  So you take all the worst kids and you put them into one student home because you know the house father can handle it.

• 40:57Dax Shepard?

  He's a warden.

• 40:58Speaker 02

  Yes, he's a true piece of work.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  How old are you at this point?

• 41:01Speaker 02

  I'm there from early in my freshman year until I graduate high school. Yeah, so it was a very bad place. I was beaten badly. I was beaten multiple times by many boys, you know, like full on gang beating type of stuff, without the racial connotations there, just multiple boys kicking the shit out of me.

• 41:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 41:18Speaker 02

  So it was not a great place. I checked out.

• 41:21Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you start really kind of disassociating now.

• 41:23Speaker 02

  Disassociation is a big word. I would say I was just medicating. So keep in mind, I had an idea that I was going to college. I found the classes at Milton Hershey School to be quite easy. I didn't work at them and I only got all As, so I'm just waiting it out. In all honesty, I feel like the best outcome would have been for me in a perfect world, just to send me up to college at 16.

• 41:43Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:46Dax Shepard?

  Get you away from all those boys.

• 41:47Speaker 02

  That's right. God, they can be so rough.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  So this controlling man wasn't good at his job either then, if you're getting beat up all the time?

• 41:54Speaker 02

  Well, so, I mean, he basically sicced these boys on me once.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  Oh!

• 41:57Speaker 02

  At Albuquerque Christian Children's Home, there were four kids per room. At MHS, there were two kids per room, and the standard rule was you could not enter anyone's room ever. My house father felt like that was too strict, so he allowed his own ad hoc room privilege, where if you could, on their permission, one kid go in. Three all in, right? So one day after church, I'm like farting around and like I'm leaning against the door jams and my tie is going into the room and he busts, that's right, he walked his beat about once every hour. So he catches me leaning into the room. A technical sense, I was certainly violating his rule. In a spiritual sense, I was definitely obeying the spirit of this rule.

• 42:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:34Speaker 02

  And so through what he considered to be a little bit of backtalk, he cancels the room privilege for everybody. It was a sort of group punishment for one person's actions.

• 42:44Dax Shepard?

  Setting up a code red, basically.

• 42:45Speaker 02

  Exactly. And so then, I'll never forget it. We had these student home meetings, truly boring. He's like, you know, you guys should teach him a lesson. So that night I woke up to half the student home kicking the ever living shit out of me.

• 42:56Speaker 01

  Oh my God.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  And that's what that place was like for me, especially the first two years. It got easier in the second two years.

• 43:00Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I watched a lot of kids get bullied into oblivion. Now, there seems to be some predictable outcomes. A lot of kids try to make themselves invisible. And then another branch of kids weirdly become agitators.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  Yes, that was me.

• 43:14Dax Shepard?

  I had a hunch.

• 43:15Speaker 02

  So my roommate, Bob, you know, he was this really heavy kid. He had no chance of competing in the social hierarchy. He just didn't do it. In hindsight, I'm looking at that. I'm like, that is really noble. That is one way to go, but it wasn't in my personality. I was raised around kids my whole life. So I became a suck up to exactly these fuckers who had kicked the shit out of me. And that's who I was in high school, just not even close to the kid I was beforehand. The last year or two definitely got a little easier, but it was really, really tough spot.

• 43:45Dax Shepard?

  You're doing a lot of dust off.

• 43:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:47Dax Shepard?

  And for people who haven't done dust off, this is where I'm going to extend great compassion to you. It's a terrible high.

• 43:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 43:52Dax Shepard?

  You have to have a really shitty resting state of consciousness for that to be an improvement.

• 43:57Speaker 02

  The air duster, yes. My memory is not fabulous and I look back at some of those experiences.

• 44:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you blast it and then all of a sudden you get a wall.

• 44:05Speaker 01

  Blast what? Sorry, I know nothing about.

• 44:06Dax Shepard?

  Dust off, you know, when you clean like a keyboard.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  Oh, like the aerosol.

• 44:11Speaker 02

  Turns out now they're hip to it. So they add a bitterant so you can't do it. But in the nineties, now this is 91, 92, something like this, you could just.

• 44:18Speaker 01

  Inhale it.

• 44:19Dax Shepard?

  And it's a little bit like a nitrous eye, but not nearly as nice. And you're just, all of a sudden you're getting into like the wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. You've left your current time and space, which is what the relief is.

• 44:29Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 44:30Dax Shepard?

  But then the headache that ensues after a dust off bench is excruciating. Cost benefit on dust off is terrible.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  Just terrible. I'll tell you why I stopped doing it. I did so much of it, I passed out and I fell off my bed. I laugh now because I survived. So this is a process that makes the can cooler.

• 44:48Dax Shepard?

  Or like it gets ice on the outside.

• 44:50Speaker 02

  It's spraying on my leg and I freeze my leg solid, basically like frozen chicken.

• 44:55Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 44:56Dax Shepard?

  Flash freeze it.

• 44:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, and like, okay, I'm out.

• 44:58Dax Shepard?

  End of my dust off career. Okay, so again, you're still hell bent on this college fantasy, which is great. And you are specifically hell bent on MIT.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  I had read all these magazines, basically Caltech, Stanford and MIT end up as like almost characters in these stories about these scientists who do all these amazing things. I viewed programming and coding and physics and chemistry and biology.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  And math as basically magic. This was a form of power through some grace of God that I was given the ability to comprehend.

• 45:33Dax Shepard?

  It's the Prometheus.

• 45:34Speaker 02

  And I'm going for it, right? So from a very early age, I hear about this place called MIT. And I'm like, I'm going to MIT. Newsflash, I did not get into MIT.

• 45:42Speaker 01

  Oh, MIT, dumb for them.

• 45:45Dax Shepard?

  You have your first experience and there's waves of realizing this. There's a big gap between intelligence and preparation.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  The first thing I noticed is when I'm applying, I'm in the academic system now. I know how this stuff works. I just went and took my SAT. I had no idea that people prepared for an SAT. No one had ever told me this.

• 46:03Dax Shepard?

  Monica had like four or five workshops.

• 46:06Speaker 01

  I did go to a class, a Kaplan class.

• 46:10Speaker 02

  And you should. Or the application, I just like ballpoint pen right there, just started writing about like swimming.

• 46:16Dax Shepard?

  No outline, no.

• 46:17Speaker 02

  Nothing, no outline, no nothing.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, no one's telling you.

• 46:20Speaker 02

  I had no idea. It was completely lost on me that my own experiences in my childhood might reflect well on me if I explain them in the right.

• 46:28Dax Shepard?

  You've been in a fucking group home for the last nine years.

• 46:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:31Dax Shepard?

  That could help, but you're gonna focus on your swimming.

• 46:33Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Did you do well on the SATs?

• 46:36Speaker 02

  Did okay.

• 46:36Dax Shepard?

  Thirteen, twenty.

• 46:37Speaker 02

  Thirteen, ten, yeah, good.

• 46:38Speaker 01

  Thirteen, ten, going in blind is really good.

• 46:41Dax Shepard?

  Six, ten in English.

• 46:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 46:44Dax Shepard?

  But people at MIT have fifteen hundred.

• 46:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, it's not even in the ballpark.

• 46:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're not getting it.

• 46:48Speaker 02

  I'm not getting into ten. So I was accepted to Carnegie Mellon, which it turns out to be a fabulous school. I worked probably a little too hard, but it was this moment for me of just absolute freedom, self-realization. I had a really hard time my first semester.

• 47:03Dax Shepard?

  Let's first, though, talk about the euphoria. I think it's really rad. You get put in a dorm, you have a cafeteria to eat at, you're allowed to sit on the roof of your dorm.

• 47:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:12Dax Shepard?

  And you just sit up there and you get to gaze upon this campus that you're now a part of and you're out of prison.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 47:19Dax Shepard?

  That is so profound. I can't even imagine the elation you felt.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  My first buddy, Sport, I think he walked by me. He's a lifelong friend. I met him the first day of college and I'm like sitting, I'm cackling. Like, I'm like, oh my god. I don't know how to explain it, like pee after a five hour car ride, right? Just like this huge sense of relief.

• 47:41Dax Shepard?

  You hadn't even let yourself fantasize that you could now have it as good as you currently have it. That's quite a unique feeling.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  That's a unique feeling and it was amazing. I was going to make the best of that circumstance, right?

• 47:53Speaker 01

  And you had a scholarship, I assume?

• 47:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, full ride.

• 47:55Dax Shepard?

  For swimming?

• 47:58Speaker 02

  I was the worst swimmer in high school. I couldn't stand it. I was terrible at it. My uncle takes me to Penn State just to look around. It's a prospective school and we sit down with a financial aid advisor who clearly had some very broad authority. So this guy starts asking me about my life and he's kind of dumpster diving through my childhood, but I tell him all this stuff. You get independent status. Now, I'm no longer associated with my family from the perspective of the government. So I'm going to get the maximal amount of financial aid from the government. I'm going to get the maximal financial aid from Carnegie Mellon. And when I say full ride, that's what I mean.

• 48:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you go there with the original intention of doing physics, but quickly you get into computer science.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 48:39Dax Shepard?

  You've timed this kind of nicely.

• 48:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. Tell me if you can relate to this. We're the same age. I feel like my whole life has been riding on the crest of a technological wave. I'm five years old when personal computers come out. Before personal computers, working with a computer was a colossal pain in the ass.

• 48:54Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 48:55Speaker 02

  Right? Then the video games come out and then all of a sudden you can tinker with basic programs. And then there's Pascal and then I get to college and there's the internet.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:04Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, you weren't ever playing catch up.

• 49:06Speaker 02

  No.

• 49:07Dax Shepard?

  You were learning at the same time everyone else was.

• 49:09Speaker 02

  It was always just happening.

• 49:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that's a huge advantage. I imagine now if you're 17 and you imagine entering this thing and you've now got 40 years to catch up on.

• 49:18Speaker 02

  Well, now with AI, maybe not.

• 49:20Dax Shepard?

  Maybe not, yeah. Up until 18 months ago, it was incumbent upon you to catch up and that must have felt a little overwhelming.

• 49:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:27Dax Shepard?

  You're already right at the precipice. So a new thing comes out and you're interested in that and you already kind of understand the preceding thing. And so you're like really well positioned for this.

• 49:35Speaker 02

  So I'm taking my classes really seriously. Now, computer science classes, just mind bending, just awesome. Now, what starts to happen is That the negative side of my childhood survival strategy starts to show itself. Basically, when I'm 10 years old, to survive these truly desperate circumstances, I'm telling myself I'm a fucking genius. So there's a fine line between self-love and narcissism, right? And so I get to Carnegie Mellon and I'm like, wait a minute. There's a lot of very smart kids. And I mean, like even after the first semester where I sort of acculturate and begin to figure out how to get things done. I'm just like, okay, I was big fish, small pond, that whole thing. And now I'm in the big pond. So I begin to go into self-prove mode.

• 50:19Speaker 02

  I'm certainly not going to fail my classes. I have to convince like no matter what group I'm in, I'm the smartest and all this just weird like pathological stuff.

• 50:26Dax Shepard?

  Hard to be around maybe a little bit.

• 50:27Speaker 02

  I'd like to think I wasn't too hard to be around, but I was definitely intense.

• 50:30Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 50:30Speaker 02

  The thing about living in group homes, you learn how to be around people.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, adapt.

• 50:35Speaker 02

  Like right now, what's going on between the three of us? I know you guys are picking up, I watched a bunch of your episodes. I'm also doing that.

• 50:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:41Speaker 02

  And so that's keeping me from being a complete jerk.

• 50:45Speaker 01

  That's a good skill.

• 50:47Dax Shepard?

  A A says it best, like alcoholics are megalomaniacs with an inferiority complex. Or the piece of shit that the world revolves around. Like I can very much relate to these dramatic swings in my ego. Like I'm either worthless or now I'm promiscuous.

• 51:02Speaker 02

  Totally, yes.

• 51:03Dax Shepard?

  And I think it's like to buff it and get you out of this other cycle. I just think this weird bipolarity of it is a little predictable.

• 51:11Speaker 02

  You're describing my experience perfectly. And I'm guessing quite a few people's given social media and all the other things that are going on.

• 51:17Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's one or the other. I'm the worst or the best.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 51:21Dax Shepard?

  There's no middle ground whatsoever.

• 51:23Speaker 02

  Gotta try.

• 51:25Dax Shepard?

  So as these things start bubbling up, how are you coping the fact that you're not an addict? Or you're not a sex addict, or you're not a gambling addict? The well-worn modulators of these feelings, you're not really using.

• 51:37Speaker 02

  To be perfectly clear, in college, I did a lot of drinking. Maybe just because my parents were heroin addicts, but the word addict to me has very specific meaning.

• 51:44Dax Shepard?

  Very extreme definition for you.

• 51:46Speaker 02

  Well, you know, I'm drinking on Friday and Saturday night.

• 51:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, but that's like, you're in college.

• 51:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm not binging or anything. So I had a couple of friends. To hang out. And the other thing that I was doing was I'm busy all the time.

• 51:58Dax Shepard?

  There we go. So you're kind of maybe regulating with kind of a work addiction. Something's.

• 52:03Speaker 02

  That's right. Yes. Yeah, no, that's insightful. Because, you know, when I stopped going to college, things really fell apart.

• 52:08Dax Shepard?

  Right, because you're in discomfort and humans don't sit in discomfort forever. They figure out something to alleviate that. And so obviously, when you were killing yourself working. And then you meet somebody and this is a match made in heaven, right? You have a professor that very much from your perspective, you're developing kind of a father-son.

• 52:28Speaker 02

  That's right. So the beginning of my junior year, and it is there. And now people are starting to think about how can we do stuff with this? He had this at the time, what I thought was a brilliant idea. In hindsight, it would never have worked. It's like a social media company for exchanging information where like you ask a question. And if anyone in the world knows it, then through your social network, you'd potentially get an answer and everyone along the chain would get a cut. Very clever idea, never ever going to work. We didn't know it at the time.

• 52:55Speaker 01

  Kind of Reddit.

• 52:57Speaker 02

  Really?

• 52:57Speaker 01

  I mean, don't you think it's sort of like Reddit now?

• 52:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you could even say Wikipedia in some fashion.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  That's true. That's true.

• 53:04Dax Shepard?

  Self-generated knowledge.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:06Speaker 02

  I put down my math, closed my textbooks and I go to the computer lab. We start building this thing out. It becomes a company and I'm like the tech lead.

• 53:15Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wait, Cham.

• 53:16Speaker 02

  Home. All of a sudden, I'm like the big man on campus. I cannot tell you how great like to have money. My classes were paid for and like I could go to the cafeteria to eat, but I was truly scrimping by.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:27Dax Shepard?

  And you've never had money.

• 53:28Speaker 02

  And I've never in my life had money.

• 53:30Dax Shepard?

  You're like a basketball player.

• 53:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, all of a sudden, like no idea what's going on like, ah. So Pittsburgh is a beautiful and very inexpensive city. I don't even have to spend my money. My classes, like I'm just like buying pianos.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 53:44Dax Shepard?

  Catching up.

• 53:45Speaker 02

  Just doing it all. So.

• 53:47Dax Shepard?

  That's Freudian, because your mother drug a piano around everywhere she went.

• 53:50Speaker 02

  So that was the experience, and I started burning out after two years of this.

• 53:54Dax Shepard?

  And this relationship was not what you were hoping it was really gonna be additionally, right?

• 53:58Speaker 02

  That's right. So I think this is probably very common. I found this person to be like a father figure. And I don't know where his mental state on that or emotional state on that was. He was a hotshot in computer science. And he had pivoted from like a theory career to a more applied career. So we're building out this company. It turns out that he did not, I believe, have this same sense of mentoring me. Father figure is a funny word. There was clearly some kind of transference on my part of feelings that were not really meant for him.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  Right.

• 54:30Speaker 02

  But I was giving them to him.

• 54:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 54:32Dax Shepard?

  And then unwittingly forming expectations of how that would be reciprocated, I'm sure.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  And when it wasn't, I felt hurt, and the company is, you know, very stressful. I mean, it was a very empowering experience.

• 54:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:45Dax Shepard?

  You had a team of like 20 kids working under you?

• 54:47Speaker 02

  15 kids under me. I'm 22, 23.

• 54:50Dax Shepard?

  What kind of money are you making? I need to know.

• 54:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, by that point, I'm making 50,000 bucks.

• 54:54Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my God, in college in 96? That's insane.

• 54:56Speaker 02

  It's so much money.

• 54:57Dax Shepard?

  That's like 200 grand a year right now.

• 54:59Speaker 02

  It's so much money, yeah, totally. I get burnt out and I rage quit. And it was the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. Because now I still have to take classes, but I'm past my senior year, so I gotta pay for it myself.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 55:11Speaker 02

  How do I pay for it? All my grants are gone. Before, when I was making that 50K, I could swing it, no problem. But now I can't swing it. So in a very rash and dumb move, in exactly the kind of shit you wouldn't do if you had parents to talk to. People don't understand, these kids, me, I'm not talking to someone.

• 55:27Dax Shepard?

  You get to come up with every dumb idea you have.

• 55:29Speaker 02

  And execute it. So I moved to Boston, four credits short of graduating.

• 55:35Dax Shepard?

  After this whole life goal of I'm gonna graduate, isn't this heartbreaking? It's so predictable.

• 55:39Speaker 02

  I know. I had educated myself, right? I didn't actually care about the degree per se. So in my mind, I had viewed it as basically done.

• 55:46Dax Shepard?

  Because you were employable now.

• 55:48Speaker 02

  I was employable now, yes. And I followed a AI and video game company to Boston. They wanted to relocate from Pittsburgh to there. And so I followed them up, and I had... Without a doubt, the worst year of my life.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 56:00Speaker 02

  I discovered that there is hell on earth. So I'm living alone for the first time. I think a lot of this, again, I just want to emphasize, was so avoidable. And if I had anyone to talk to, I'm not in therapy at this point. I'm not talking to any of my aunts and uncles. Obviously, no parents. I'm just raw dogging the entire experience.

• 56:19Dax Shepard?

  Well, by the way, for me, my ego would have been saying like, you know what? I didn't need any of you. I'm here now. I didn't get a fucking chance and no one was here. And now I'm doing it all on my own. That would have been fuel for me. You didn't have that.

• 56:30Speaker 01

  It doesn't seem like your personality.

• 56:32Speaker 02

  It was that way my whole childhood. That was just ingrained in who I was. It wasn't like saucy. It was just like, yeah, I'm gonna go do it myself.

• 56:39Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 56:39Speaker 01

  Right. But you knew you needed people because you also grew up doing that.

• 56:44Speaker 02

  So I discovered in Boston. And so when you go to college, even in the 90s, there's orientation. They set you up. Here are your friends. My still best friend in life is my first buddy from my first day of college. So they really work hard to make these environments successful, right? Socially successful. I moved to Boston. I'm living in a suburb by myself for the first time ever. At like a truly nerdy 12-person company. I'm not really relating to anyone there. The job is without a doubt the hardest thing technically I've ever done.

• 57:16Dax Shepard?

  What do they call the thing you were building?

• 57:17Speaker 02

  Compiler.

• 57:18Dax Shepard?

  A compiler.

• 57:18Speaker 02

  So a compiler translates the high-level human code. 10, print Monica is cool. 20, go to 10, run Monica is cool, Monica is cool, Monica is cool. Turn that into machine code that runs.

• 57:29Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 57:29Speaker 02

  That's a very difficult program to write or reason about. And so I ended up working as the junior guy with one of these like fucking geniuses who had written this thing. So I have to learn what he did. He's gonna go off to become an assistant professor. He's a PhD. So I have to learn all of this. I'm basically just well beyond my abilities here. And so within three or four months, my life just starts falling apart. I start having panic attacks. This is one of those things you've either experienced it or you haven't. Because you can't explain to people what a panic attack is if they've never had one. They won't get it. This is a thing that happens where it has the prominence of overwhelming pain. Whatever you were thinking about before, you don't care about that anymore. It's like you're being tortured, except it's coming from inside of you.

• 58:14Speaker 02

  And you don't know why you're having it. For me, it lasted anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. And then after that's done, you sort of have this overwhelming exhaustion because your body is just like Fatigue.

• 58:24Speaker 01

  On overdrive.

• 58:25Speaker 02

  Complete freak out. And so I started having these panic attacks once a day.

• 58:30Dax Shepard?

  Well, then you talk about the cycle of your fear of having one.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, I've had them. And that's the worst part. It's like, when's it coming today?

• 58:38Speaker 02

  You know it, like, oh, my God. So I'm alone. I don't have any support whatsoever. I don't even know what to do. Like, should I go to a hospital? But what I learned is that I don't need to go to a hospital. I can just keep going and keep going. And as the year progresses, I moved there in early fall. And now it's maybe spring or so. My panic, I start doing like this, completely uncontrollable.

• 58:58Dax Shepard?

  You're short circuiting.

• 58:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, right on the edge of being able to function in society.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 59:02Speaker 02

  So I go up to the top of the roof, another roof story, and I'm smelling the trees and the flowers in bloom. I'm like, look over the edge. I'm like, I could do this.

• 59:12Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 59:13Speaker 02

  And I immediately realized I have a problem.

• 59:16Dax Shepard?

  Oh, we're here now.

• 59:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did not have suicidal ideation forever and ever. I had it once, and I was like, this means something. I'm fucking smart. I'm gonna take this seriously.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:27Speaker 02

  Right? Because I'm just miserable. And I'm thinking, if I throw myself over the roof, I'm gonna cease this pain.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 59:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, the suffering will stop.

• 59:34Speaker 02

  Couple of things I try. Try a little bit of acupuncture, which is actually fairly helpful in the short term. I ultimately reach out to my Uncle Elliot, who's a therapist. Uncle Elliot, my Aunt Moira, they were the first people to come check out with a situation for my sister and I at the Albuquerque Christian Children's Home. They're therapists. They knew right away. They were like, you need to get into therapy. And I really didn't want to get into therapy.

• 59:56Dax Shepard?

  Can you remember your reservation or the story you had about it?

• 59:59Speaker 02

  Some combination of I knew it wouldn't be much fun. I was just in so much pain. But because I am, I am gonna do this. This guy, Dr. LaCuaixa, one of my Uncle Elliot's close collaborators. So I give this guy a call, and he agrees to see me. And so that really is like The chapter because everything that happens afterwards. My life just starts taking off. And so the first thing that happens, it takes a while, actually six months to about a year. It's the cessation of this absolutely unbearable panic. I quit that job and I moved to New York. This is where my aunt and uncle live. I'm just trying to be close to anybody. I am full on tail between my legs. I don't know what's wrong with my life. Something's messed up. I need to figure this out.

• 1:00:44Dax Shepard?

  Also, can I say you have no more stories? So you had a story that was getting you through the previous 15 years, which is I'm gonna go to college and I'm gonna acquire this knowledge and that is going to liberate me. And now you have it. You have the solution, which is kind of the scariest point. When you have the solution and yet things are at their worst point. It's, I would say, triply scary. This is a moment in an addict's life when you have all the medicine you're supposed to have and it's no longer fixing the thing is very, very, very discouraging.

• 1:01:12Speaker 02

  You nailed it. This is exactly right. I'm in Boston. I'm done. I did the thing. I know I had four classes left, but in my mind, I've achieved the goal. And it turns out that it was the having the goal was the solution. So now I just have lots of goals.

• 1:01:30Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  So I moved down to Manhattan and a couple of things happened. I start going to therapy on a weekly basis. That's very, very helpful. I tried a little bit of Prozac, didn't like how it made me feel, so I discontinued that. But right around the same time, I started running. I was a nerd. I never really got into fitness. And all of a sudden, I'm like, hey, I felt really good after running.

• 1:02:04Dax Shepard?

  It buys me three, four hours of feeling good.

• 1:02:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I discuss it with my therapist. We agree, we should probably turn this into a habit. So between exercise and this therapy and being closer to family, I start to pull myself out of a very, very dark place. And things really start going much better for me after that.

• 1:02:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you start a master's program at Columbia.

• 1:02:24Speaker 02

  A scholarship.

• 1:02:25Dax Shepard?

  What were you doing over there for three? Because you weren't accomplishing anything towards your PhD. I know that.

• 1:02:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I have to finish up my degree. Got to get those four classes. Luckily, my student advisor at Carnegie Mellon was helpful with that. So I get the degree a couple of years later. Now, I actually did a chief technology officer. It was a grossly overblown title. But anyways, we were building some dot com thing. That blows up in the dot com bubble. So now, like everyone else, I got to go back to school. I want to go back to school. I go up to Columbia University and I get a job as a Unix systems administrator, just fixing the computers. And they'll pay me a living wage and they'll let you take free classes.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 1:03:01Speaker 02

  Great gig. Be an administrator on a university campus, get a free master's degree. It's a very good way to go. So that's just what I was doing. I then apply for a PhD program in neuroscience.

• 1:03:12Dax Shepard?

  The breakthrough hasn't happened yet, right? To remind people, we had the godmother of AI.

• 1:03:16Speaker 01

  Fei-Fei Lee.

• 1:03:17Dax Shepard?

  Fei-Fei Lee.

• 1:03:18Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, sure.

• 1:03:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and AI had all these stutter stops. It had like big periods of progress, then total stagnation for years. But the last big breakthrough, which we're on the shoulders of, is starting to design AI in the same way a neural network works in the brain.

• 1:03:31Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 1:03:32Dax Shepard?

  Had that happened yet?

• 1:03:33Speaker 02

  No, it's all earlier than that.

• 1:03:35Dax Shepard?

  But again, convenient you get interested in neurology.

• 1:03:37Speaker 02

  It all goes back to, I want to do something that helps the world. That sounds a little cliche, but damn it, I'm earnest.

• 1:03:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:44Speaker 02

  This is what I want to do. And well, what are my gifts? I'm technical. So there's this branch of neuroscience called computational neuroscience, which is sort of like the math of how brains work. The brain is a complicated thing, and so it's an organ. It actually builds itself. It grows. So there's all kinds of things that happen as like a purely sort of organ. But there's this other thing, this view, I can say, hey, Monica, count to 10. You can do it.

• 1:04:06Speaker 01

  Some days.

• 1:04:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally. We can figure out the rules of Scrabble together. So and so this arbitrary ability to reason about new things that you've never, ever thought about before, that sure sounds like a computer. So I was interested in getting into that kind of work.

• 1:04:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, maybe. Did you have the realization like, oh, yeah, it's a big gooey biological entity, but it is in fact very mechanized. It's a machine. It runs on electricity. We know the parts of the electrical circuits. It's actually more mechanical than I think. You grew up thinking of the brain.

• 1:04:38Speaker 02

  So I think that's right. I'd say there is a machine in there. It's an electrical machine.

• 1:04:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:42Speaker 02

  But how does that work is one of the great mysteries of our time, and I want to think about it. I think that's super interesting, and maybe it'll help. Maybe mental illnesses, maybe drug addictions are, we would say, like a networkopathy. That is to say, even though some of these things change because of molecules, how the neural network function breaks and the pathology is at the network. So if that's really true, of course, you can go try to fix the molecules, but you could also try to understand what's broken about the network.

• 1:05:09Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  Sort of how the machine is no longer functioning.

• 1:05:12Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:05:13Speaker 02

  Right. So I found that very interesting. I applied to a bunch of schools. I got into Columbia. Columbia, it turns out, has a truly world-class neuroscience program.

• 1:05:22Dax Shepard?

  It's now called the neural.

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  Right. So it's a big program. They have a sub-program called the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.

• 1:05:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is now very reputable.

• 1:05:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's very, very reputable. It was started by my mentor, my PhD advisor.

• 1:05:35Dax Shepard?

  Larry?

• 1:05:35Speaker 02

  Larry Abbott, yes, and another researcher, Ken Miller. And so they start this. By now, we're in 2003, 2004. I join, and this is just the best thing ever. And the Fulbright was part of that.

• 1:05:46Dax Shepard?

  Okay. So then you get your PhD. You start working with Larry, who you guys hit it off famously. You had another advisor that you guys did not work out so well.

• 1:05:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:58Dax Shepard?

  And then you leave, and then you go and you work at Google Brain. But you have a desire still to be in academia.

• 1:06:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:05Dax Shepard?

  How do we figure out how to go from Google Brain back to academia?

• 1:06:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. So to answer that, I want to just back up a little bit and talk about where is the state of AI in neural networks?

• 1:06:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, let's do that.

• 1:06:16Speaker 02

  The broad consensus moment for when people thought that neural networks are here. There was a neural network that had a name. We gave it a name. It's called AlexNet after Alex Kraszewski. Ilya Sutskevich gave her Jeff Hinton. Anyways, they built this network that beat hand-designed networks at a really hard image recognition task. This is 2012.

• 1:06:36Dax Shepard?

  This is ImageNet?

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  This is ImageNet. Fei-Fei Lee, her lab, collected that data.

• 1:06:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:40Speaker 02

  Right. So this hugely impactful thing she did really drove all of this work in neuroscience. So that happened in 2000. But the real moment, something called a restricted Boltzmann machine. This is like 2006, 2007, 2008. Again, out of Jeff Hinton's lab, I believe. Apologies if I don't have that exactly right. Nowadays, we don't use any of those approaches. But it was this moment where like, OK, when you combine these simple systems, these simple neurons together, an artificial neuron is really simple. It takes inputs, adds them up. And if they're above a certain value, it emits a one. And if they're below a certain value, it emits a zero. And so that's a very simple computational device. When you connect a gajillion of them together in just the right way, it turns out you can compute anything that is computable.

• 1:07:24Speaker 02

  That's what our brains are doing on some abstract level. And so that's where it's all coming from. I'm finishing my PhD and this restricted Boltzmann machine happens. And I'm thinking about what are called recurrent neural networks, which had feedback loops. Feedback loops are important because that's actually how your brain is working. Instead of a feed forward processing of like an assembly line of information processing, it's people talking back at each other and all this really complex chaotic.

• 1:07:46Dax Shepard?

  Could you give like a literal example of how it works?

• 1:07:49Speaker 02

  If I wanted to make a system that could flexibly pick up my soda, that is going to be a recurrent system. We call it a dynamical system where what's happening as I lift this can is coming back through so-called proprioception, through signals that are telling my brain what's actually happening as well as my vision. So that's all one big feedback.

• 1:08:12Dax Shepard?

  It's like self-correcting at all time. The information's flowing both directions.

• 1:08:16Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:08:16Dax Shepard?

  So it's sending info and it's receiving info and it's making adjustments real time.

• 1:08:21Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:08:21Dax Shepard?

  It doesn't send like the full blueprint down to the hand to accomplish that task. It's going to check in all the time to see how we're doing.

• 1:08:28Speaker 02

  Exactly. So this is the kind of thing that I'm thinking about right as these networks are starting to become prominent. So I then apply those approaches in a postdoc at Stanford and then I go to Google Brain. And in Google Brain. This is when people with money, it was because of AlexNet, now we're like 2012. The top brass at Google figured out that neural networks.

• 1:08:47Dax Shepard?

  We gotta be in this.

• 1:08:48Speaker 02

  Number one, are going to work. There's been this long, many decades history of promise with no delivery. That is changing. They knew that then. They basically purchased all the talent on the planet, give or take. They get all these researchers together and just like, go do what you want. Develop these neural networks. Neural networks, because we started stacking these networks together, it became known as deep learning, deep neural networks. That was the catchphrase from like 2015 to 2020.

• 1:09:15Dax Shepard?

  Deep Mind was one.

• 1:09:16Speaker 02

  And Deep Mind was all built off of deep networks. So, sorry, the naming is playing off of that cachet.

• 1:09:21Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:21Speaker 02

  I'm part of that scene. And now coming finally back to your question, I wanted to apply all of these neural networks approaches to understand actually how brains work. I care about the brain.

• 1:09:33Dax Shepard?

  Now, we're in this weird zone currently, right? Where it's like, we were trying to understand the brain to design the machine, but now the machine's kind of working in a way that we might be able to answer some of the ways that the brain work.

• 1:09:41Speaker 02

  That's exactly right. Modern AI, AI is sort of the rebranding of deep networks. There's some technical changes there. Applied to language. Because the big surprise was that, it's a really interesting thing, actually. If you ask a neural network to spit out the next word in English and you do that for all of the text on the internet, it learns something about the world. You can think about it in terms of context. Like, I'm going to the... Now, asking to fill in the next blank could be fridge, bathroom, store. But if you said, I need some milk, I'm going to the... Then you know it's going to be the fridge or store. Now, you just expand that out to a full thing.

• 1:10:18Dax Shepard?

  And the computer has the capacity to go through every single written word in the world and come up with the most probabilistic next word in that sentence. Whereas a human can't scan the known written language. But the computer can.

• 1:10:30Speaker 02

  We don't learn anything like this. But this is how the computers are learning, is just to predict one step ahead. That's really the magic of large language models. And that's where we've now rebranded to AI because it turns out doing this makes these things intelligent in some way.

• 1:10:43Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:43Speaker 02

  So, coming back to your point, the origins of AI really go back... Back to studying the brain, all the way back to McCulloch and Pitts. They made this artificial neuron in the 40s. And they showed that if you connected them, you could build an arbitrarily powerful computer. And it was revolutionary because no one had ever figured out. They abstracted away the details, but these squishy neurons in your brain could actually behave like a computer. It was just a revolutionary idea. And that began decades of research to study that ultimately, through neuroscience results, sort of led to different types of networks and so on and so forth. So where are we today? It's exactly what you said, it's the opposite.

• 1:11:22Speaker 02

  I'm a huge proponent of using artificial intelligence for science discovery. And it's much broader than neuroscience. My particular love is neuroscience. I think we're in for some huge and positive changes here. If you look at it that way, there's a whole other conversation to be had.

• 1:11:39Dax Shepard?

  We built a device that can help us understand our own intelligence.

• 1:11:41Speaker 02

  That's right, yes. So now forecasting in the future, which is always dangerous but super fun. You could imagine that, once we know how the brains work, we begin to actually include even more detail to align these AI models to more how we think.

• 1:11:54Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, because there was a single thing I read I wanted to bring up to you, which is, I do think people misunderstand AI a little bit. And maybe I'm wrong about this, but I read this interesting thing they did. It doesn't think. They're not going to create, they're going to predict. So the example that this article I read was is that they trained an AI model on all of the known scientific literature of the 1300s. And then they asked the AI, do we revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the planet? Is it a heliocentric or a geocentric model of the universe?

• 1:12:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:12:27Dax Shepard?

  And the AI said, it's geocentric, the sun revolves around us. So in that way, it's not super intelligent. It can't be Galileo. If you give it the information that was known at that day, it's going to give you the highest probability prediction of that information. But it can't be Galileo. It can't think beyond what it knows, at least currently.

• 1:12:46Speaker 01

  For now, yeah.

• 1:12:47Dax Shepard?

  So what do we think about that? Like, how do we define thinking? And then is that just one category within intelligence? And how do we account for that?

• 1:12:54Speaker 02

  I have a different opinion. So I want to be really nuanced here because I can't stand AI freak out and I don't want to be a part of that.

• 1:13:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:13:01Speaker 02

  But I don't think these AIs are alive. I don't think they're conscious. So to the degree that this makes any sense, I do think they're thinking. I think they're like the first example of like Descartes being dead wrong in that sense of like, I think, therefore I am. These things are thinking in a reductive sense of manipulating language for the purposes of reasoning and conceptualizing. I think they're doing it, but there's nothing behind the machine.

• 1:13:24Dax Shepard?

  Correct.

• 1:13:25Speaker 02

  There's just automated process.

• 1:13:26Dax Shepard?

  But how can they go forward, I guess is my question, unless we command them in a certain way? It's our original thought that was creative in what I would put in quotes, thinking. And then we'll now use this device as a great pattern recognition machine to substantiate this creative thing we had, but on its own, it can't come up with the heliocentric.

• 1:13:44Speaker 02

  I acknowledge your example. That's a very hard example. But if we pull back, I do think that there is quite a bit of novelty that these things are capable of generating. But I agree with you that there are unsolved problems in and around that kind of scientific progress. So this is an enormous conversation.

• 1:14:01Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:14:02Speaker 02

  But what I would say is it's in the air right now that like something has changed in AI. I don't know if you caught wind of this, right? Like in the last, say, three or four months, all of a sudden, these things are coding much better. And all of a sudden, there's this sense that the top brass at major tech companies are taking it much more seriously. Again, I'm hesitant to make predictions, but what's happening is that these tools are becoming much, much better, but there's still a real sense of supervision of these tools.

• 1:14:26Dax Shepard?

  They're compounding, though, is the point, right?

• 1:14:28Speaker 02

  Exactly. So the question is, if you believe that, you know, they've moved on from single token prediction to other more technical methods involving reinforcement learning, it's another conversation. But the idea is that if they're self-improving, at what pace and so on and so forth.

• 1:14:43Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:14:44Speaker 02

  And what we've seen, at least in early 2026, they are getting better. And that I think a lot of the discussion that's happening is really more about people adjusting to this idea than it is the technology itself.

• 1:14:57Dax Shepard?

  What is your signpost you look at? So for me, obviously, egocentrically, I'm really tracking AI's progress through what I see that is digitally created. We just had an ad nauseam talk about getting sent videos and should you tell the person, hey, I think that's AI or not?

• 1:15:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, totally.

• 1:15:15Dax Shepard?

  Because they're at the level where two people in film and television.

• 1:15:18Speaker 01

  Can't tell.

• 1:15:19Dax Shepard?

  Can't tell. And so that bridge has been crossed. Now, I still think they don't have the human voices when they do dialogue and they try to do the cadence of humans speak. That, to me, is still the giveaway. But fuck, the visuals, there's no more six fingers. That's my layman's version of tracking where we're at, just what I'm seeing done visually, digitally. What are the things you look at?

• 1:15:39Speaker 02

  In my world, it's all coding.

• 1:15:41Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:15:42Speaker 02

  So if there is just interface, like, I'm gonna go build a little web browser to go make a little video game. AI is just gonna do that for you.

• 1:15:49Dax Shepard?

  In a second.

• 1:15:50Speaker 02

  In a second, yeah, a couple of minutes.

• 1:15:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:52Speaker 02

  Right, so where these things, I think, are still struggling is if it's, we would say, technically out of distribution. If it's not something it's seen a lot of before, if it's integrated into a much, much larger code base, is what you see at these large companies. But it's getting better at those things, too. And so we're still, I think, in this mode where, like, the human and the computer together, the human and the AI together, are really the best.

• 1:16:15Speaker 01

  The good call, yeah.

• 1:16:16Speaker 02

  And so what I would look for, in your shoes, very similar in my shoes, actually, is when does that clip become a movie? For me, it's when does that chunk of UI code, user interface code, become the whole program?

• 1:16:30Dax Shepard?

  And a product.

• 1:16:31Speaker 02

  Exactly. And to be honest with you, I just don't see humans leaving that process anytime soon. I think that's a risky opinion.

• 1:16:37Dax Shepard?

  Well, there's a lot of money been bet on the fact that they will get more efficient.

• 1:16:41Speaker 02

  There's a lot of hype out there. But in some sense, you have to take it seriously because these tools are getting much, much better. And, you know, what I'd say to any of your listeners is, like, if you're not checking these things out, you absolutely should be. I really mean it.

• 1:16:54Dax Shepard?

  You can't sit it out.

• 1:16:55Speaker 02

  In a positive way.

• 1:16:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:57Speaker 02

  Like, imagine all the things that you could do with these kinds of creation tools. For me, in my science career, so there's this thing called Google Scholars, where academics have their papers listed. Just go read every one of my papers and tell me what you think I should work on next.

• 1:17:11Dax Shepard?

  Wow.

• 1:17:12Speaker 02

  I shit you not, it gave me the same idea that I had.

• 1:17:14Speaker 01

  Whoa.

• 1:17:15Dax Shepard?

  Really?

• 1:17:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, really.

• 1:17:17Dax Shepard?

  Now, I don't wanna be disagreeable, but...

• 1:17:20Speaker 02

  Go ahead.

• 1:17:20Dax Shepard?

  Therein lies also an Achilles' of it.

• 1:17:23Speaker 02

  Which is?

• 1:17:24Dax Shepard?

  Which is, it came to the same conclusion you came to.

• 1:17:27Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 1:17:29Dax Shepard?

  Because it made a probabilistic prediction about you, which it can do well.

• 1:17:35Speaker 02

  I gotta say, I find it pretty impress. I don't view that as a fair.

• 1:17:38Dax Shepard?

  Well, but.

• 1:17:39Speaker 02

  Because it had to be that way. It was like the only thing it could have done, right?

• 1:17:41Dax Shepard?

  Well, no, no, that's not actually my concern is that, I'll make it more artistic. So yeah, go read the 35 scripts I've written. What should I write next? All that that would ensure is that I stay within my creative pattern. And in fact, what I probably need to do isn't the thing that was obvious to me. I mean, this is very philosophical.

• 1:18:02Speaker 02

  I accept that critique.

• 1:18:03Dax Shepard?

  But you know what I'm saying?

• 1:18:04Speaker 02

  I see where you're coming from.

• 1:18:04Dax Shepard?

  What it can do is advise on more of the same in some sense. And depending on what your career is, if your career is to disrupt yourself and your work should constantly be trying to 180 at all times, oh fuck, well, let's jump way over here for this perspective and see what I can bring with that and come up with a new thing. And that way, I think it can be stunting for progress.

• 1:18:23Speaker 02

  I see. In science, jumping around 180 too many times is not fabulous because it's one step to the next.

• 1:18:29Dax Shepard?

  You lose your reputation.

• 1:18:29Speaker 02

  It's hard. It's hard, right?

• 1:18:31Speaker 01

  I mean, same in art too. We don't like to think of it like that, but we have skills.

• 1:18:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:37Speaker 01

  We have things we're better at than others. And what it's doing is saying, you're best at this, so maybe you should do more of that. I think that's not a bad idea.

• 1:18:46Dax Shepard?

  I might be able to articulate it better by saying, I fear that it could be a reproduction instead of an iteration. Does that make sense?

• 1:18:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, it makes sense.

• 1:18:53Dax Shepard?

  Does it get us out of the true creative mindset?

• 1:18:56Speaker 02

  Right. I'll tell you the one thing that I am aligned with, with people who are thinking about this more deeply than I am is, I think the world is in for some very large changes.

• 1:19:04Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:19:05Speaker 02

  And especially like the science discovery optimization process, business to business applications.

• 1:19:11Dax Shepard?

  It's all on the table.

• 1:19:12Speaker 02

  It's all on the table.

• 1:19:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:19:14Speaker 01

  We had a guy on, David Faganbaum, he has a foundation where they're repurposing drugs that are already out on the market for other cures. He cured himself with this disease and it's an incredible story. And they're using AI, obviously, to like process all these drugs and see exactly what they do. And they just got like a huge. Grant, he emailed me.

• 1:19:34Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wonderful.

• 1:19:35Speaker 01

  That's so amazing. Well, cured diseases that cannot be cured based on this. It's happening. It's not like something in the future. It's currently going on. It's awesome.

• 1:19:46Dax Shepard?

  We're going to see this experiment play out. Like it or not, that's what's gonna happen. So I don't even sit around, well, what if, what if? I'm like, well, let's see. Allow myself to be as optimistic as I would be pessimistic. We don't fucking know. So why am I gonna have an opinion on something that none of us really know?

• 1:20:02Speaker 02

  It's true. Nobody knows.

• 1:20:03Dax Shepard?

  You know what's so fun? We're gonna see.

• 1:20:05Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:20:06Dax Shepard?

  We happen to have been born in a period of time where we're going to see.

• 1:20:10Speaker 02

  That's my mentality for sure.

• 1:20:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Well, David, this was lovely.

• 1:20:13Speaker 02

  Thank you for having me.

• 1:20:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I think it's obviously so important.

• 1:20:18Speaker 02

  I appreciate that. Thank you for hearing it.

• 1:20:21Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Such a pleasure. Anyone ever tell you you look like James Hatfield?

• 1:20:24Speaker 02

  These days, probably once every three months.

• 1:20:27Dax Shepard?

  There we go.

• 1:20:28Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 1:20:28Dax Shepard?

  Great. I would be flattered.

• 1:20:30Speaker 02

  I think it's the beard. I actually took a close look. We don't actually look anything alike.

• 1:20:36Dax Shepard?

  Well, every three months, some people disagree.

• 1:20:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a thing. I'm like, yeah, man, let's shred.

• 1:20:41Dax Shepard?

  David's book, please, please read it. It's beautifully written and very, very honest. It's called Emergence: A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mysteries of the Mind. Be well, David.

• 1:20:52Speaker 02

  Thank you very much.

• 1:20:55Speaker 04

  Stay tuned for the fact check. It's where the party's at.

• 1:21:02Speaker 01

  Um, did you get my text?

• 1:21:04Dax Shepard?

  Which one?

• 1:21:05Speaker 01

  I just sent you a very important text.

• 1:21:07Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my goodness. No.

• 1:21:08Speaker 01

  About five minutes ago.

• 1:21:09Dax Shepard?

  Oh. I don't think that was me.

• 1:21:12Speaker 01

  Rob, was it Rob? Were you in, not in the clubhouse?

• 1:21:15Dax Shepard?

  I was in the clubhouse.

• 1:21:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I could hear you.

• 1:21:17Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wow. I don't even remember. If anything, my current assessment is I haven't been blowing my nose much.

• 1:21:25Speaker 05

  Oh, I heard that too. There was a loud one at the end there.

• 1:21:27Dax Shepard?

  There was a big one?

• 1:21:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, it really.

• 1:21:28Speaker 05

  It sounded like you might have died.

• 1:21:29Speaker 01

  Exactly. So the text I sent was, are you okay?

• 1:21:33Dax Shepard?

  I hear your extreme throat clearing. More extreme than normal.

• 1:21:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, I can confirm.

• 1:21:40Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:21:41Dax Shepard?

  Okay. Because I subconsciously.

• 1:21:43Speaker 01

  It was real.

• 1:21:44Dax Shepard?

  It's hard to be me.

• 1:21:45Speaker 01

  It was, it was scary sounding.

• 1:21:47Dax Shepard?

  Oh, really? Like you thought you might need to come perform the Heimlich maneuver?

• 1:21:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, it sounded like something was stuck in there.

• 1:21:52Speaker 05

  It's like you're wrestling a bear, maybe.

• 1:21:54Dax Shepard?

  Okay, okay.

• 1:21:55Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 1:21:56Dax Shepard?

  So it's really.

• 1:21:56Speaker 01

  But he would poke his, he would put his finger in his butt and poke their eyes out.

• 1:22:00Dax Shepard?

  I had that fantasy at the airport in New Orleans. At this restaurant, I heard a woman coughing slash choking.

• 1:22:09Speaker 01

  Someone to need the Heimlich?

• 1:22:10Dax Shepard?

  I don't want that. But I heard this.

• 1:22:13Speaker 01

  Lady.

• 1:22:13Dax Shepard?

  I didn't know if it was choking or coughing. It was like three tables over.

• 1:22:17Speaker 01

  Uh oh.

• 1:22:18Dax Shepard?

  And I just thought, I bet no one in here is gonna be willing to do it. Like, that was just my first thought. Not that I want to, just like, I got a hunch. If I look over and I see that she's choking.

• 1:22:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:22:29Dax Shepard?

  I think her female companion she's dining with isn't gonna jump behind her and start.

• 1:22:35Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:22:36Dax Shepard?

  Ratcheting her diaphragm.

• 1:22:38Speaker 01

  She just didn't give a fuck?

• 1:22:39Dax Shepard?

  Well, I looked over and she had a, like, paralyzed look on her face.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Wait, which one? The coffer or the friend?

• 1:22:46Dax Shepard?

  The associate.

• 1:22:47Speaker 01

  Oh, shit. Okay.

• 1:22:49Dax Shepard?

  So I was like, she ain't getting up. And then I found myself just trying to evaluate, like, is this a cough or a choke?

• 1:22:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:22:57Dax Shepard?

  And then it passed.

• 1:22:58Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:22:59Dax Shepard?

  But I did have a whole thing. I was just like, you know, your mind thinks so fast. It's like, I saw that. Is that that? That's her from, she not gonna help. Look around the restaurant. I don't see anyone, like, else paying attention. Fuck. If this is, this is a joke, I gotta get on the move.

• 1:23:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. I will say, I'm grateful that there are people like you. I really am in, in the world and at restaurants. Because, um, I don't know what happens to me, but I, like.

• 1:23:26Dax Shepard?

  You wanna disappear.

• 1:23:27Speaker 01

  I do. I really don't wanna act. It's like when I hear what I think is a car crash.

• 1:23:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:33Speaker 01

  And you, of course, run towards, as a lot of people do, and you should. You should go check and.

• 1:23:39Dax Shepard?

  Well, it's not everyone's nature.

• 1:23:41Speaker 01

  But I'm like, I'm just like. Praying some, but what if no one's, I have to. I could be the only one. It's like bad.

• 1:23:49Dax Shepard?

  You do have to assess, cuz look, I'm thrilled if a doctor stands. Up inhale. I don't know that I know how to do the hymn like I know some attempt at it'll be better than nothing. That's all I think.

• 1:24:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:02Speaker 01

  You do know, okay, I can relate to being the friend.

• 1:24:05Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh, okay.

• 1:24:06Speaker 01

  It's so.

• 1:24:07Dax Shepard?

  Was this like running into that store that time with Callie?

• 1:24:11Speaker 01

  Oh, that was horrible.

• 1:24:12Dax Shepard?

  Assaulting people?

• 1:24:13Speaker 01

  He was assault, he was, she was coming towards us and screaming at us and I.

• 1:24:16Dax Shepard?

  And you left her.

• 1:24:17Speaker 01

  Well. No, she was supposed to come with me.

• 1:24:21Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I just thought that might be the example you were thinking.

• 1:24:23Speaker 01

  No, no, thanks for bringing that up.

• 1:24:24Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:24:24Speaker 01

  No, I, I.

• 1:24:26Dax Shepard?

  There's more than one occasion.

• 1:24:28Speaker 01

  Everyone can relate to this when you're at dinner with somebody and then they get like the water down the wrong pipe.

• 1:24:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh, sure, sure, sure.

• 1:24:34Speaker 01

  And then the coughing and then like they can't stop and. And you wanna, you don't wanna make a big deal cuz you know that I get very codependent. I'm like, they feel so embarrassed.

• 1:24:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:45Speaker 01

  So I'm just gonna act like I don't even notice and I'm gonna keep talking and like, I'm not even.

• 1:24:50Dax Shepard?

  That's a good, I like, I approve of that technique.

• 1:24:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then, cuz when it happens to me and then people are like, are you okay? I hate that.

• 1:24:57Dax Shepard?

  It's worse, yeah.

• 1:24:58Speaker 01

  And then it gets worse and you have to say, yeah, like you're like dying and you're saying, yeah.

• 1:25:05Dax Shepard?

  Really quick question, it just popped into my mind. Do you think that? I would turn blue before you would because you're brown and I'm white. Do you think like?

• 1:25:14Speaker 01

  Fuck.

• 1:25:14Dax Shepard?

  I have some evolutionary advantage in a choking situation where it would be obvious. More obvious that I'm, no, I have an airway obstruction.

• 1:25:23Speaker 01

  Um, maybe.

• 1:25:25Dax Shepard?

  Do brown people turn blue?

• 1:25:26Speaker 01

  Well, of course. I mean, if there's no blood. Oh, no. Oh, my God, ever.

• 1:25:35Dax Shepard?

  Hey, is your chat getting to know you in a way that like? You like? Without any effort, like here's an example.

• 1:25:43Speaker 01

  What is Sam?

• 1:25:44Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you wanted to talk about something just like that?

• 1:25:46Speaker 01

  Something written down.

• 1:25:47Dax Shepard?

  Okay, then I'll save it. Oh, earmark it, I won't put a pin in it.

• 1:25:50Speaker 01

  For the listener, we have a, we have a difference of opinion of what those two mean.

• 1:25:55Dax Shepard?

  We have different interpretations.

• 1:25:56Speaker 01

  Um, hold on, I think we should put a pin in the blue skin and go to.

• 1:26:02Speaker 05

  It says no.

• 1:26:04Dax Shepard?

  No, what? They can't turn blue or?

• 1:26:05Speaker 05

  Uh, they do not turn blue.

• 1:26:06Speaker 01

  No, that's not what it says.

• 1:26:08Dax Shepard?

  You got two different answers?

• 1:26:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:10Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my God. His white, his chat knows he's white. Yours knows you're brown.

• 1:26:14Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. It says brown skin people can turn blue or grayish blue due to a.

• 1:26:18Dax Shepard?

  They just have to be dead.

• 1:26:20Speaker 05

  Uh, I searched Indian people specifically and it told me Indian people do not turn.

• 1:26:25Speaker 01

  You're lying.

• 1:26:26Speaker 05

  I can, I'll put it on my screen.

• 1:26:29Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. Literally.

• 1:26:31Dax Shepard?

  Is it on white nationalist.com?

• 1:26:32Speaker 01

  It says it occurs when blood is low and I, yeah, get off that site.

• 1:26:36Dax Shepard?

  Oh, this is just the, uh, Google AI.

• 1:26:39Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:26:39Dax Shepard?

  Indian people do not turn blue with no blood as a natural or racial trait. Well, certain Hindu deities like Krishna or Shiva are famously depicted with blue skin to symbolize divine cosmic nature or the absorption of poison. This is not a representation of a living biological condition. However, there are rare medical conditions that can cause anyone, regardless of race, to appear bluish.

• 1:27:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:27:04Dax Shepard?

  Argaria, a rare skin condition caused by silver buildup. Yes, we've seen this. Too much silver. There was this, there was a movement. I feel like it was primarily in the deep right where people were drinking colloidal silver.

• 1:27:18Speaker 01

  Oh, I remember that.

• 1:27:19Dax Shepard?

  Right? It was like, it was real heavy in the right.

• 1:27:21Speaker 01

  It was during COVID.

• 1:27:22Dax Shepard?

  I just love how these medicines are political.

• 1:27:25Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:27:26Dax Shepard?

  Right? Like if you, anyways.

• 1:27:27Speaker 01

  Okay, but wait, hold on. Then now there's pins everywhere. Okay?

• 1:27:32Dax Shepard?

  No, there's bookmarks everywhere.

• 1:27:33Speaker 01

  Earmarks.

• 1:27:34Dax Shepard?

  Earmarks.

• 1:27:36Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, this says, yes, brown skin people can turn blue or grayish blue due to a medical condition known as cyanosis. That was on there.

• 1:27:44Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:27:45Speaker 01

  Which occurs when blood is low in oxygen.

• 1:27:47Dax Shepard?

  Hmm.

• 1:27:48Speaker 01

  So that's what's happening when you're choking.

• 1:27:50Dax Shepard?

  Blood is low in oxygen.

• 1:27:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, so same sitch.

• 1:27:54Speaker 01

  Oh, Rob, your AI is literally racist.

• 1:27:57Dax Shepard?

  I think your lips also can turn blue if you have too much oxygen.

• 1:28:02Speaker 01

  Let me look it up.

• 1:28:04Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, okay.

• 1:28:05Speaker 01

  Do brown people's lips?

• 1:28:06Dax Shepard?

  Brown. Do lips turn blue?

• 1:28:10Speaker 05

  Your AI knows you.

• 1:28:11Dax Shepard?

  That's right.

• 1:28:11Speaker 01

  Well, mine's telling me, don't worry, like, you can turn blue, like, don't.

• 1:28:15Dax Shepard?

  Good news.

• 1:28:17Speaker 01

  Turn lips turn blue with too much.

• 1:28:20Dax Shepard?

  Oxygen.

• 1:28:21Speaker 01

  Blue lips can result from a lack of oxygen in the blood. This may happen when we're at a high altitude, or if you are choking. Or chronic underlying condition. Bringing up cyanosis again.

• 1:28:33Dax Shepard?

  Have you ever seen cyanosis? That's a recurrent?

• 1:28:35Speaker 01

  I'm not seeing much about, um.

• 1:28:37Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:28:38Speaker 01

  Too much. Okay, back to.

• 1:28:40Dax Shepard?

  Your AI knowing you.

• 1:28:42Speaker 01

  Yes, that was so simple that you brought it up because today I used email AI for the first time.

• 1:28:49Dax Shepard?

  Oh, how does that work?

• 1:28:51Speaker 01

  You don't have this yet? Like, when you compose, when you're responding to an email, it gives you an email response?

• 1:28:56Dax Shepard?

  Oh, suggests an entire email?

• 1:28:58Speaker 01

  Yes, and by the way, I don't know how to turn it off, and I actually hate it. Because then I keep having to delete it.

• 1:29:04Dax Shepard?

  This little button, Monica?

• 1:29:05Speaker 01

  You, that's where you can turn it off?

• 1:29:07Speaker 05

  That's the AI thing. So if you click that, it should give you settings for it.

• 1:29:10Dax Shepard?

  Oh, oh.

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah, because.

• 1:29:12Dax Shepard?

  God, I'm so good with computers.

• 1:29:13Speaker 01

  I know, he is very good at computers. Normally, I hate it, I delete it, and it adds a step, and I'm already like rushing emails, so I'm mad at it. But today, the email was perfect.

• 1:29:23Dax Shepard?

  Perfect, yeah.

• 1:29:24Speaker 01

  And so I sent it.

• 1:29:26Dax Shepard?

  Oh, here's an, okay, God, the earmarks are flying. So we had a real life experience that was hilarious in this exact space, which is. I wrote to you, Amy and Ryan. A night in the Seven Kingdoms at 7:00 PM tomorrow. Stu, question mark?

• 1:29:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:29:45Dax Shepard?

  You wrote back, yes, please. Ryan wrote back, by trumpets calling clashing goblets, we shall attend the revelries. Cheer mightily for the valiant knight of the Seven Kingdoms and partake joyfully of the most noble and steamy stew.

• 1:30:03Dax Shepard?

  I mean, I want to see the delay here. Okay, so he wrote that it's okay. I wasted no time. That's came in at 6:56 PM and at 6:56 PM said, did AI write that? It's a masterpiece.

• 1:30:15Speaker 01

  It was so clearly.

• 1:30:16Dax Shepard?

  And you go, I was just about to ask that. And I love Ryan Hansen. He wrote absolutely.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:24Dax Shepard?

  And then we got into why you for you was most notable and steamy stew is the giveaway. And I said, I thought revelries was the smoking gun.

• 1:30:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:36Dax Shepard?

  But that's the first time I caught someone cold blooded.

• 1:30:39Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:30:39Dax Shepard?

  It was so good. I mean, he's so clever, but it was too fast and good.

• 1:30:44Speaker 01

  It was too fa- it was too old timey words. He would have had to take time to look up a lot of those words.

• 1:30:50Dax Shepard?

  I didn't think he knows how to use the word revelries.

• 1:30:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, and whatever I said.

• 1:30:55Dax Shepard?

  I I'm I'm not I don't I wouldn't throw out around revelries.

• 1:30:59Speaker 01

  You would want to look it up first.

• 1:31:01Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'd have some hesitation.

• 1:31:03Speaker 01

  I did think that was so funny.

• 1:31:04Dax Shepard?

  Different AI issues, but okay.

• 1:31:06Speaker 01

  Exactly. So you do need to make sure it's something you could have done.

• 1:31:12Dax Shepard?

  If you're trying to fool people.

• 1:31:13Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:31:16Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 1:31:28Dax Shepard?

  And then you're being asked to assess how other people assess you. This is this is this is theory of mind and metacognition. I can think about how you think about how I think. Ooh.

• 1:31:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:38Dax Shepard?

  And so you better be good at that if you're gonna try to sneak one by us.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  You know what was kind of interesting? So it's signed by name with a lowercase m.

• 1:31:46Dax Shepard?

  Oh, cool.

• 1:31:48Speaker 01

  Which I don't do.

• 1:31:49Dax Shepard?

  Okay, yeah.

• 1:31:50Speaker 01

  But I am pretty willy nilly about my sign offs. Sometimes I'll sign MP. Sometimes maybe just M, sometimes no sign off. So maybe it was trying to mimic being casual.

• 1:32:03Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I think so. Look, it's good. There's no question about it.

• 1:32:08Speaker 01

  It's like, yeah.

• 1:32:09Dax Shepard?

  But here's what I loved. Um, I, I, I, I'm gonna screw up the details precisely, but it went something like this. Lincoln and I were looking at a map of Italy.

• 1:32:17Speaker 01

  Hmm, mhm.

• 1:32:19Dax Shepard?

  And we stumbled upon, and I'm so embarrassed, I've already forgotten the name of it. But there is a country inside of Italy. Do you know this?

• 1:32:27Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know.

• 1:32:27Dax Shepard?

  And it's like forty-eight square miles. Other than the Vatican. So you have the Vatican, which is its own country inside of Italy. But then you have this other country, like Santa Maria or something.

• 1:32:37Speaker 05

  San Marino.

• 1:32:38Dax Shepard?

  San Marino.

• 1:32:39Speaker 01

  Marino?

• 1:32:40Dax Shepard?

  San Marino.

• 1:32:41Speaker 05

  Republic of San Marino.

• 1:32:42Dax Shepard?

  We're like looking at places to visit and then there's like, you know on a map where it says Italy on one side, it says Italia? And then it says San Marino, but it looks like a city. And I'm like, why is the city, we're both like, what is the city? And she's like, I think it's a country. I'm like, I don't think there's a two-mile-long country in the middle.

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:32:57Dax Shepard?

  And so we look it up. Sure enough, it's a country. It had been a country since the thirteen hundreds. And Italy only became a country in the eighteen hundreds. And they had all these diplomatic relationships, so they never absorbed it. They always honored it. So there's this tiny little country.

• 1:33:10Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:33:11Dax Shepard?

  So then we got interested in what are the five tiniest countries in the world?

• 1:33:16Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:33:17Dax Shepard?

  And the Vatican's, of course, it's less than a square mile. San Marino, I think, was fourth.

• 1:33:22Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:33:23Dax Shepard?

  Uh, Liechtenstein is in there.

• 1:33:25Speaker 01

  Really? It's that small?

• 1:33:26Dax Shepard?

  It's very, very, very small. And, um, Monaco, of course.

• 1:33:29Speaker 01

  Oh, sure. Been there.

• 1:33:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that's a tiny little country. And then, once it had that list, it said, knowing how much you like F1, would you like me to tell you what drivers live in Monaco?

• 1:33:41Speaker 01

  Oh, no. And you weren't even talking about F1?

• 1:33:44Dax Shepard?

  No, but I loved that, because that could have been a next search. So it's like, it wasn't just answering my question, it was encouraging me to learn more, but it knows my interests. I loved that.

• 1:33:56Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 1:33:57Dax Shepard?

  You don't like that?

• 1:33:58Speaker 01

  Well, because it's like, it's like, it's, it's telling you what to think. Oh, now you're gonna think about F1 right now.

• 1:34:04Dax Shepard?

  No, it's, it's trying to predict what I'll be interested in, and it's doing a good job.

• 1:34:08Speaker 01

  What if it didn't know that you had a New Year's resolution, Lunar New Year's resolution?

• 1:34:13Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 1:34:13Speaker 01

  To never think about. F1 ever again. It was destroying your life. You were addicted and

• 1:34:19Dax Shepard?

  Then it would have said, why did you ask what the schedule was yesterday for the F1?

• 1:34:23Speaker 01

  Cause you slipped off the wagon, but you're trying to get back on.

• 1:34:26Dax Shepard?

  I could tell it, hey, I'm trying to quit my obsession with F1. It would immediately adjust.

• 1:34:30Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:34:31Dax Shepard?

  And it carries out whatever your desires are.

• 1:34:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, but your desire versus your, your need versus your want might be different.

• 1:34:39Dax Shepard?

  Your first order versus your second order priorities.

• 1:34:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. Wow.

• 1:34:44Dax Shepard?

  Wowzers. What else did we put up?

• 1:34:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, there are a few pins.

• 1:34:48Dax Shepard?

  You're freaking out when people cough. Uh, you go invisible. Yeah. So your friend was coughing and you kept asking questions.

• 1:34:58Speaker 01

  Oh, just if.

• 1:34:59Dax Shepard?

  Could you turn blue?

• 1:35:01Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:35:02Dax Shepard?

  And we're not, and we haven't determined.

• 1:35:03Speaker 01

  But also, you know, if you're choking choking for real choking, need the Heimlich choking. There's no air through your path.

• 1:35:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:13Speaker 01

  Um, and so you can't cough. So you could still be in a lot of distress.

• 1:35:17Dax Shepard?

  I also think you could have reduced air. I think you could have 80% blockage, 90, 100.

• 1:35:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, but if you have 100, then you need the Heimlich, right? If you have 50, there are other things you can do to get the thing out and you don't need the Heimlich. Cause you can still get oxygen.

• 1:35:33Dax Shepard?

  Do you, when you hear Heimlich, do you not think about how close it is to Heinlich?

• 1:35:39Speaker 01

  No, I don't.

• 1:35:39Dax Shepard?

  Do you, Rob?

• 1:35:40Speaker 05

  No, like a, like a buttlick?

• 1:35:42Speaker 01

  What even is that?

• 1:35:43Speaker 05

  Like a Heine lick?

• 1:35:44Dax Shepard?

  Like licking someone's Heine.

• 1:35:45Speaker 01

  What? No.

• 1:35:46Dax Shepard?

  The Heinlich maneuver. Type in Heinlich maneuver, see how many results there are.

• 1:35:55Speaker 01

  Okay. First of all, I've never heard it called Hind. Only Heine. Heine is not a hind.

• 1:36:01Dax Shepard?

  You're hindquarters. You've heard that?

• 1:36:03Speaker 01

  I thought that was H I N D.

• 1:36:06Dax Shepard?

  You're hindquarters?

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. Okay. Well, Heine is H E I N E Y or something like that.

• 1:36:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. I don't know a lot about Heine, but I, I know hindquarters. And so hind lick maneuver sounds like in that someone's choking you quickly lick their Heine, which freaks them out. And then they spit out the cube. I always picture a cube of steak in someone's throat. Do you have a, do you go to a specific item?

• 1:36:31Speaker 01

  Oh, food? Oh, that's funny. No, I don't really think specifically, but yeah, in the movies, it's always steak.

• 1:36:36Dax Shepard?

  A big cube of steak.

• 1:36:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:36:37Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, or chicken or something.

• 1:36:40Speaker 01

  Um. Wow, Hein.

• 1:36:43Dax Shepard?

  Heinlich. The Heinlich maneuver. I should patent that.

• 1:36:49Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. Um, oh, guess what?

• 1:36:52Dax Shepard?

  What?

• 1:36:53Speaker 01

  Chicken butt.

• 1:36:56Speaker 01

  I started creatine last night.

• 1:36:59Dax Shepard?

  You did?

• 1:36:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:00Dax Shepard?

  Oh, tell me more.

• 1:37:01Speaker 01

  How do you think I look?

• 1:37:04Dax Shepard?

  Like you have a lot of water in your muscles and in your brain.

• 1:37:07Speaker 01

  Oh, it brings water there?

• 1:37:09Dax Shepard?

  That's what it does.

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  Well, fuck, that's antithetical to my water drinking.

• 1:37:16Dax Shepard?

  No, I would argue with your reduced water consumption, you should have something helping you keep water in your muscles.

• 1:37:23Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:37:24Dax Shepard?

  And then I don't know the function of how it has all these huge impacts on your brain, which

• 1:37:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

• 1:37:31Dax Shepard?

  tons of data about it, but I don't know if the mechanism is also allowing more water to be in your brain cells or not. But I do know that that's why it works for muscles.

• 1:37:41Speaker 01

  Do I have like big muscles today?

• 1:37:44Dax Shepard?

  Did you lift? You can't just take it. I am curious how much you've used your gym. Because Monica's a nice gym now.

• 1:37:51Speaker 01

  I know, I want to use it.

• 1:37:53Dax Shepard?

  Want to.

• 1:37:54Speaker 01

  I've only lived there a month. Give me a break.

• 1:37:57Dax Shepard?

  You haven't like thought, oh, I should wander down there.

• 1:37:59Speaker 01

  All the time. I just don't do it.

• 1:38:02Dax Shepard?

  You don't do it?

• 1:38:03Speaker 01

  My dad used it.

• 1:38:04Dax Shepard?

  He did?

• 1:38:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:05Dax Shepard?

  Oh, great. Did he get a good pump in?

• 1:38:07Speaker 01

  He used the treadmill.

• 1:38:08Dax Shepard?

  He used the treadmill.

• 1:38:09Speaker 01

  So I took it last night after my long walk.

• 1:38:13Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:38:14Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:38:14Dax Shepard?

  You were feeling like you're now you're on a virtuous cycle.

• 1:38:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:18Dax Shepard?

  A upward trajectory.

• 1:38:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. And also it's mainly

• 1:38:22Dax Shepard?

  How long was the walk?

• 1:38:23Speaker 01

  It wasn't that long. Oh, why are you doing this?

• 1:38:25Dax Shepard?

  I didn't know.

• 1:38:26Speaker 01

  You're poking holes in my virtuous cycle.

• 1:38:28Dax Shepard?

  That is, that presumes that I think it was low. That's not my position.

• 1:38:33Speaker 01

  I felt like it was not a long enough walk.

• 1:38:35Dax Shepard?

  Okay, did you walk in the neighborhood?

• 1:38:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:38Dax Shepard?

  Oh, fun, right?

• 1:38:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love it.

• 1:38:40Dax Shepard?

  Oh, what a blessing.

• 1:38:42Speaker 01

  It was really hot out last night, but it was great. I walked for 35 minutes.

• 1:38:48Dax Shepard?

  You did? That's great.

• 1:38:49Speaker 01

  It's not my Normal. I like to go an hour, but I was getting too hot.

• 1:38:54Dax Shepard?

  So it's been very warm here in California.

• 1:38:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:56Dax Shepard?

  And so we have taken two walks this last five days in down to Hillhurst to have dinner.

• 1:39:04Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 1:39:05Dax Shepard?

  Which is shockingly fun.

• 1:39:07Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, it's it's easy.

• 1:39:09Dax Shepard?

  It's shockingly fun. And on the way home two nights ago, you know, all I do is scan for threats. And one of the threats I scan for is like paparazzi. I don't want any pictures of our kids. So I'm constantly looking, oh, that dude got a camera. Is that right? A little bit of a preoccupation. So I said to the family, we're all walking. I said, gang, okay, here is the game plan. If I spot a paparazzi ahead of us, I'm gonna scream, baby duck formation.

• 1:39:38Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:39:39Dax Shepard?

  And then mom gets directly behind me. Lincoln, you get behind mom. Delta, you get behind Lincoln. And all the photographer will see is a picture of me walking down the street. I said to them, which is valueless.

• 1:39:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:39:51Dax Shepard?

  So there no one's gonna buy a picture.

• 1:39:53Speaker 01

  What about from the side?

• 1:39:54Dax Shepard?

  So we baby duck formation can just pivot to wherever the photographer tries to go.

• 1:40:00Speaker 01

  Okay, got it.

• 1:40:01Dax Shepard?

  So that became this hilarious game. They wanted me to run drills. So it just became me screaming baby duck formation. A lot. And everyone scampering to get in position. And it didn't go well. I'm glad we ran drills.

• 1:40:14Speaker 01

  Oh shit.

• 1:40:15Dax Shepard?

  Lincoln constantly was, you know, she wanted to be directly behind me, I think.

• 1:40:18Speaker 01

  Oh, she wanted to be his number two in the line?

• 1:40:20Dax Shepard?

  Yes, he's like, he's a first place finisher type of person. So it's like, whatever. I'm supposed, you know.

• 1:40:27Dax Shepard?

  And then I forget why we had to do a reverse baby back baby duck.

• 1:40:30Speaker 01

  Reverse back?

• 1:40:31Dax Shepard?

  Reverse baby duck formation.

• 1:40:33Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:40:34Dax Shepard?

  That one doesn't make any sense, but we had to run it just to get good at the drill.

• 1:40:38Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, you gotta practice lots of iterations because you just don't know what will happen.

• 1:40:41Dax Shepard?

  It was very fun.

• 1:40:42Speaker 01

  Anyway, I love walks and I took, so I took my walk, my hot walk. It was about thirty five minutes. And then I got back and I did, I was like, I'm tired. And then I was like, ugh, like I'm really have not been moving my body enough. If I if I feel tired.

• 1:40:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:58Speaker 01

  Um, and then I took a hot bath.

• 1:41:00Dax Shepard?

  Oh my gosh, went the other direction.

• 1:41:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, cause I wanted to continue my sweat.

• 1:41:06Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:41:06Speaker 01

  So I took a hot bath, which is really nice, also shorter than I wanted.

• 1:41:11Dax Shepard?

  Because?

• 1:41:12Speaker 01

  I was hot.

• 1:41:13Dax Shepard?

  Too hot.

• 1:41:13Speaker 01

  And then I took my creatine.

• 1:41:15Dax Shepard?

  To remind the listener also, you don't ever feel hot.

• 1:41:17Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:41:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:20Dax Shepard?

  If I were you and I was feeling hot, I might have like health concerns.

• 1:41:22Speaker 01

  Well, I, yeah. So I took, um, my creatine.

• 1:41:30Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh, to cool yourself down.

• 1:41:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:32Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 1:41:33Speaker 01

  And I'm, I guess I'm taking it for my brain.

• 1:41:36Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:36Speaker 01

  More than my body. So I can take it without lifting. I should still lift.

• 1:41:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it's great for your brain regardless.

• 1:41:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's what I want to do. And for perimenopause.

• 1:41:46Dax Shepard?

  But, um, you should definitely start lifting.

• 1:41:48Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:41:49Dax Shepard?

  It's in your house.

• 1:41:50Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:41:52Dax Shepard?

  I'm sorry.

• 1:41:53Speaker 01

  I know. Okay.

• 1:41:56Dax Shepard?

  Okay. I want to start seeing some like, some guns.

• 1:42:00Speaker 01

  Look.

• 1:42:02Dax Shepard?

  I want to be like, oh wow, Monty's got some fucking guns.

• 1:42:06Speaker 01

  Oh, I have a new freckle. Ugh. I probably got it last night because it was hot out. Pissed. Um, okay.

• 1:42:14Dax Shepard?

  Want to do some facts?

• 1:42:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're gonna do some facts now.

• 1:42:17Dax Shepard?

  Now you don't know if I'm looking at your hair or your shoulder.

• 1:42:23Speaker 01

  You're looking in neither.

• 1:42:25Dax Shepard?

  You passed the test. I was looking in you directly in the eyes.

• 1:42:28Speaker 01

  Yep. You can see more than you think.

• 1:42:31Dax Shepard?

  It's not as fun as I want it to be. I need some mirror. I need some like cop mirror sunglasses.

• 1:42:36Speaker 01

  Okay. This was another huge sim. Unexpected. This really is doppelganger month. At the end of this episode, you said, does anyone ever tell you you get James Hatfield?

• 1:42:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh my god.

• 1:42:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, once every three weeks.

• 1:42:53Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you're right. God, I hope it continues.

• 1:42:57Speaker 01

  Me too. And that was a pop out. I mean.

• 1:43:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:43:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:03Dax Shepard?

  Speaking of which, I already told you that Metallica's going to the Sphere?

• 1:43:07Speaker 01

  That's exciting.

• 1:43:07Dax Shepard?

  Oh my god, me, Erin and Erin.

• 1:43:10Speaker 01

  You're gonna go?

• 1:43:11Dax Shepard?

  Oh, fuck yes. I can't imagine a funner night to be had than the three of us at Metallica.

• 1:43:17Speaker 01

  That's a great plan.

• 1:43:18Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I can't wait. I gotta wait all the way to November.

• 1:43:21Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:43:22Dax Shepard?

  Or October. I think they're there like October through something.

• 1:43:25Speaker 01

  Okay. That's so fun.

• 1:43:27Dax Shepard?

  You didn't happen to see him, it wouldn't be in your algorithm. The announcement when they did it, when they made the outside of the globe Metallica.

• 1:43:33Speaker 01

  Oh, that's cool.

• 1:43:34Dax Shepard?

  Oh, and the song they played. Oh, it's so cool.

• 1:43:36Speaker 01

  I'm trying to think, like, what band would I see there? That would like get me there.

• 1:43:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I mean, you should go be willing to see anybody there.

• 1:43:44Speaker 01

  I know, but.

• 1:43:45Dax Shepard?

  Cause, cause, cause I went to see U2.

• 1:43:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:43:47Dax Shepard?

  And although I was a great U2 fan in my youth, I wouldn't necessarily go see them in concert.

• 1:43:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:43:52Dax Shepard?

  But I was like, well, I want to go to the Sphere, and the Sphere makes it.

• 1:43:55Speaker 01

  I know, I'm just like, the Sphere makes.

• 1:43:58Dax Shepard?

  Oh, look at that.

• 1:44:01Speaker 01

  That'll be really fun.

• 1:44:02Dax Shepard?

  That's so cool, isn't it?

• 1:44:04Speaker 01

  It is. I just feel anxious about the Sphere for some reason.

• 1:44:08Dax Shepard?

  Lot of stimuli.

• 1:44:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm a little nervous I'll have a seizure, I think.

• 1:44:12Dax Shepard?

  That's a fair, maybe you should.

• 1:44:15Speaker 01

  Rob!

• 1:44:15Dax Shepard?

  You should do mushrooms or acid to help with that.

• 1:44:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe. Um, so, I would, I would maybe see Coldplay there.

• 1:44:26Dax Shepard?

  There you go.

• 1:44:26Speaker 01

  I love Coldplay. You know what? Everyone wants to shit on Coldplay.

• 1:44:30Dax Shepard?

  Who does?

• 1:44:31Speaker 01

  As if like, they didn't also love Coldplay.

• 1:44:34Dax Shepard?

  Who doesn't like Coldplay?

• 1:44:35Speaker 01

  You'll just hear when people talk about it, like, they're the type of person that likes Coldplay. And I'm like, oh my god.

• 1:44:42Dax Shepard?

  So you're, they're every type of person?

• 1:44:44Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:44:44Dax Shepard?

  The only knock on Coldplay I've ever heard is from like, super music nerds that are like, they're just radio, they just ripped off Radiohead, right, Rob?

• 1:44:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:44:54Dax Shepard?

  That's the complaint against Coldplay in the music geek world.

• 1:44:58Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:44:59Dax Shepard?

  But I'm like, get real, everybody.

• 1:45:00Speaker 01

  Whatever. I'm here to say I love Coldplay.

• 1:45:03Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I love Coldplay. I would say, as a group, they have had more songs that have ended up on repeat for me for months on end.

• 1:45:12Speaker 01

  Same. Um, okay, well, anyway, so if Coldplay goes, then maybe I'll go.

• 1:45:18Dax Shepard?

  You'll be there.

• 1:45:19Speaker 05

  Taylor Swift you'd see there, right?

• 1:45:20Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yep. Um, okay, the Hershey School, Milton Hershey School.

• 1:45:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:26Speaker 01

  Cost-free boarding school for low-income children is supported by a massive endowment exceeding seventeen billion dollars.

• 1:45:33Dax Shepard?

  Oof.

• 1:45:33Speaker 01

  Funded by a controlling stake in the Hershey Company, established in nineteen oh nine. The trust holds approximately 28% of the company's stock, generating immense wealth for the school's operations. It's really cool. I mean, I know it was complicated, but man.

• 1:45:48Dax Shepard?

  He had a bad experience, but I think he was also good about saying there are other experiences to have there.

• 1:45:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I thought that was really great.

• 1:45:56Dax Shepard?

  Although I don't know why it's not Hogwarts. It sounds like it's funded enough to be straight up Hogwarts. But the experience didn't sound Hogwarts.

• 1:46:02Speaker 01

  Well, his guy.

• 1:46:04Dax Shepard?

  Maybe like way more advisors. But that kind of money, wouldn't we get like, you know, a buddy for every four kids or something?

• 1:46:10Speaker 01

  Well, in Hogwarts, they have a headmaster, you know, they have like a house per lady or whatever. Sometimes they're bad, even in Hogwarts.

• 1:46:21Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:46:21Speaker 01

  Remember that bag, Umbridge? Remember Umbridge?

• 1:46:24Dax Shepard?

  Totally. That's all I think about is Umbridge.

• 1:46:28Speaker 01

  That's all I think about. Um, you talked about how rich the candy like entrepreneurs were, yeah.

• 1:46:34Dax Shepard?

  Wrigley's.

• 1:46:35Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:46:36Dax Shepard?

  Mars.

• 1:46:36Speaker 01

  Mars is still, the Mars are the second richest family in America.

• 1:46:42Dax Shepard?

  Family.

• 1:46:43Speaker 01

  Family, yeah, not person, but family. That's from Business Insider.

• 1:46:49Dax Shepard?

  Behind the Waltons, right?

• 1:46:50Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:46:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, the Walmart dynasty?

• 1:46:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know that.

• 1:46:54Dax Shepard?

  Okay, sorry I brought it up.

• 1:46:55Speaker 01

  I already know that, but I don't know if that's the one, but it probably is.

• 1:46:58Dax Shepard?

  They always make like, when there's a top 100 billionaire, there's like five Waltons on the list.

• 1:47:04Speaker 01

  Oh, here are the 25 richest families in the US. This is from Yahoo Finance. This is 2021. A lot's changed.

• 1:47:09Dax Shepard?

  Sure.

• 1:47:10Speaker 01

  Okay, I'm gonna go to the front here. I gotta go from 25, it won't, the Ga- Gallo.

• 1:47:16Dax Shepard?

  Oh, Ernest Gallo Wine.

• 1:47:17Speaker 01

  Ja- Joseph Gallo.

• 1:47:19Dax Shepard?

  Wine people, right?

• 1:47:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, wine business drink prohibition. That was good. How'd you know that?

• 1:47:24Dax Shepard?

  Thank you. Ernest Gallo.

• 1:47:25Speaker 01

  It says Joseph Gallo.

• 1:47:27Dax Shepard?

  I know, but the brand is Ernest Gallo.

• 1:47:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, Ernest, yeah.

• 1:47:32Speaker 01

  Cutting that, you shouldn't, you should know more about wine than me. Um, the Rollins family, do you know what that is?

• 1:47:41Dax Shepard?

  Rollins?

• 1:47:42Speaker 01

  Or Rollins, maybe?

• 1:47:43Dax Shepard?

  Rollins family? No.

• 1:47:45Speaker 01

  Rollins broadcasting.

• 1:47:47Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:47:48Speaker 01

  A radio and TV biz.

• 1:47:49Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:47:50Speaker 01

  Okay, then the Goldman family.

• 1:47:53Dax Shepard?

  Goldman Sachs?

• 1:47:54Speaker 01

  I'm guessing, yes, Sol Goldman. Stryker family, they're from Michigan.

• 1:47:59Dax Shepard?

  Are they an automotive supply company?

• 1:48:01Speaker 01

  No, this makes no sense.

• 1:48:03Dax Shepard?

  Lear seating?

• 1:48:03Speaker 01

  An orthopedic surgeon? Oh, decided to invent his own medical devices to meet his parents', his parents', his patients' needs. One of them is the mobile hospital bed.

• 1:48:14Dax Shepard?

  Oh, boy.

• 1:48:16Speaker 01

  That's like when the people made the Ziploc bag, you know?

• 1:48:19Dax Shepard?

  Or the Styrofoam cup that drops down in a coffee machine?

• 1:48:22Speaker 01

  Oh, that's cool. Okay, the Kathy family, Chick-fil-A.

• 1:48:28Dax Shepard?

  Ah.

• 1:48:29Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:48:30Dax Shepard?

  Great.

• 1:48:31Speaker 01

  Ziff family, media conglomerate Ziff Davis LLC.

• 1:48:36Dax Shepard?

  Hmm.

• 1:48:36Speaker 01

  Okay, Dorance family, do you know what this is?

• 1:48:40Dax Shepard?

  Dorance?

• 1:48:41Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:48:42Dax Shepard?

  No?

• 1:48:42Speaker 01

  Condensed soup.

• 1:48:43Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay, but not Campbell's? Campbell's? Oh, sure.

• 1:48:48Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 1:48:48Dax Shepard?

  Trusted fucking brand.

• 1:48:50Speaker 01

  Very.

• 1:48:50Dax Shepard?

  The most trusted.

• 1:48:51Speaker 01

  Um, Hunt, the Hunt family.

• 1:48:55Dax Shepard?

  Family?

• 1:48:56Speaker 01

  Actually, Cotton Trader, let's see, Oil.

• 1:49:00Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:49:00Speaker 01

  This is a different Hunt.

• 1:49:01Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:49:02Speaker 01

  Ah, DuPont.

• 1:49:04Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:05Speaker 01

  We know that.

• 1:49:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, 3M.

• 1:49:08Speaker 01

  Ooh, scary.

• 1:49:08Dax Shepard?

  Bell Laboratories.

• 1:49:10Speaker 01

  What was it called again?

• 1:49:11Dax Shepard?

  Foxcatcher.

• 1:49:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, great.

• 1:49:14Speaker 01

  Steve Carell, Channing Tatum.

• 1:49:15Dax Shepard?

  Beautiful film. Oh, Mark Ruffalo, bringing all the heart.

• 1:49:19Speaker 01

  God, I know. Okay, Bush family.

• 1:49:22Dax Shepard?

  Beer, ding ding ding ding ding.

• 1:49:24Speaker 01

  That's right, Anheuser-Busch. Oh, no, Butt family, B U T T. He invented farts.

• 1:49:30Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wow, those are free, aren't they? I'm rich if they're, if you can charge for them.

• 1:49:37Speaker 01

  I guess it's a grocery store.

• 1:49:39Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:49:40Speaker 01

  But like, I've never heard of it.

• 1:49:42Dax Shepard?

  Maybe they own like, they own Kroger or something.

• 1:49:44Speaker 01

  I know, but it doesn't say that. Um, yeah, it says H E B, celebrated as one of America's top grocery chains.

• 1:49:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah. H E B, that's a southern chain.

• 1:49:52Speaker 01

  Never heard of it.

• 1:49:53Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:49:53Speaker 01

  I've never seen one.

• 1:49:55Dax Shepard?

  You haven't seen a H E B?

• 1:49:56Speaker 05

  I think it's Texas.

• 1:49:58Speaker 01

  Oh, that makes sense. Uh, Marshall Family, Marshall's the discount store.

• 1:50:05Dax Shepard?

  Well, originally a department.

• 1:50:07Speaker 01

  It's not that.

• 1:50:08Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:50:08Speaker 01

  Brown Family.

• 1:50:10Dax Shepard?

  You, what if it's UPS?

• 1:50:16Speaker 01

  Jo- uh, Brown Foreman Corp. Kentucky-based spirits and wine producer that gave us Jack Daniels, Finlandia.

• 1:50:25Dax Shepard?

  Ooh.

• 1:50:26Speaker 01

  Um, that's cool. And George Foreman is involved, or you know, is part of that. Hearst.

• 1:50:31Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:50:32Speaker 01

  Duncan Family.

• 1:50:34Dax Shepard?

  Not Dunkin' Donuts.

• 1:50:35Speaker 01

  No. Pipeline Giant Enterprise Products Partners.

• 1:50:39Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:50:41Speaker 01

  Newhouse Family.

• 1:50:43Dax Shepard?

  Oh, clue.

• 1:50:43Speaker 01

  Advanced Publications, a publishing company that owns Condonast.

• 1:50:47Dax Shepard?

  Hmm.

• 1:50:48Speaker 01

  That's cool. Pritzker.

• 1:50:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I feel like I should know that one.

• 1:50:52Speaker 01

  Hyatt, created the Hyatt.

• 1:50:54Dax Shepard?

  Hyatt Regency chain?

• 1:50:55Speaker 01

  And it invested in industrial holding company Marmon Group.

• 1:50:59Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I don't know.

• 1:51:00Speaker 01

  Cox Family.

• 1:51:01Dax Shepard?

  Cable.

• 1:51:02Speaker 01

  Evening News, yeah. Johnson Family.

• 1:51:06Dax Shepard?

  Fucking Johnson, yeah. Very trusted brand. Cotton Swabs.

• 1:51:10Speaker 01

  Well, I don't, I don't know if this is Johnson and Johnson, because it's, the Johnsons own half, almost half of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments.

• 1:51:18Dax Shepard?

  Okay, not those Johnsons.

• 1:51:19Speaker 01

  Huh. Oh, S C Johnson is next.

• 1:51:22Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wonderful.

• 1:51:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. Windex, Glass, Ziploc, oh.

• 1:51:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, they're basically Procter and Gamble size.

• 1:51:31Speaker 01

  Thirty-seven Bill.

• 1:51:32Dax Shepard?

  Bill.

• 1:51:33Speaker 01

  Thirty-seven Bill.

• 1:51:34Dax Shepard?

  Bill.

• 1:51:34Speaker 01

  Lotter. Estee Lauder.

• 1:51:38Dax Shepard?

  Nice.

• 1:51:38Speaker 01

  Cargill McMillan Family.

• 1:51:42Speaker 01

  Grain storage business in Iowa.

• 1:51:45Dax Shepard?

  Of course.

• 1:51:45Speaker 01

  Wow. Um, Mars family number three, we got there.

• 1:51:50Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:51Speaker 01

  Ninety-four billion.

• 1:51:52Dax Shepard?

  Nice. Congratulations, guys.

• 1:51:55Speaker 01

  Two, the Koch family. Hundred, hundred billion.

• 1:51:58Dax Shepard?

  Mmm.

• 1:51:59Speaker 01

  Wow. Number one, you got it. Walton family, two-hundred-and-forty-seven billion.

• 1:52:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:07Speaker 01

  I wish the Costco family, um, had more. Cause they're a really upstanding place.

• 1:52:14Dax Shepard?

  They are. They're great. They're great.

• 1:52:16Speaker 01

  Um, alright, let's see. That was unexpected. Didn't mean to do that.

• 1:52:21Dax Shepard?

  I'll add a cool thing to Waltons, too.

• 1:52:23Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:52:24Dax Shepard?

  To get their inheritance.

• 1:52:26Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:52:27Dax Shepard?

  They have to do a public works project in Bentonville.

• 1:52:30Speaker 01

  Mmm.

• 1:52:31Dax Shepard?

  Where they're headquartered. So Bentonville has all this impossibly great stuff because of this weird.

• 1:52:36Speaker 01

  Oh, that's funny.

• 1:52:37Dax Shepard?

  So they have like a crazy good museum with like an impossibly good art collection.

• 1:52:41Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:52:42Dax Shepard?

  They have a crazy public parks bicycle network. Like, they have a bunch of cool things. Because they have to take on a public works project to get their money. I like that.

• 1:52:54Speaker 01

  That's cool.

• 1:52:55Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:55Speaker 01

  I wish it could be countrywide. And not just in Bentonville.

• 1:53:01Dax Shepard?

  Well, you know, that's a conservative liberal thing where conservatives

• 1:53:06Dax Shepard?

  believe you make your community good. And if everyone makes their community good, the whole place will be good.

• 1:53:11Speaker 01

  Well, not everyone can make it good because we don't have two-hundred-and-forty-seven billion dollars.

• 1:53:16Dax Shepard?

  Well, then you gotta move to Bentonville.

• 1:53:17Speaker 01

  Oh, my god. Okay, how much was fifty thousand dollars? That's what he was making in ninety-six.

• 1:53:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said like two-hundred, maybe?

• 1:53:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, a hundred and three thousand, six-hundred-and-forty-nine dollars.

• 1:53:28Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:53:29Speaker 01

  Okay, well, look what we haven't done in a while. Bitcoin.

• 1:53:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah. Well, we missed a huge cliff.

• 1:53:36Speaker 01

  Oh, and we missed, I know.

• 1:53:38Dax Shepard?

  Around the Super Bowl, it lost like half of its value and we did not report on that. Which is probably smart. It's too, too sensitive at that time.

• 1:53:45Speaker 01

  Oh, well, it's up today.

• 1:53:47Dax Shepard?

  What's it at?

• 1:53:48Speaker 01

  It's at seventy thousand, three-hundred-and-ninety-two.

• 1:53:50Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:53:51Speaker 01

  But when we were talking.

• 1:53:51Dax Shepard?

  It was like one-oh-six or one-twelve or something?

• 1:53:53Speaker 01

  Okay, um, the restricted Boltzmann machine. He said he thought it was out of Jeff Hinton's lab, but wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he is right.

• 1:54:01Dax Shepard?

  Oh, good.

• 1:54:02Speaker 01

  Um, but I'm gonna give credit to Paul Smolensky.

• 1:54:07Speaker 01

  He rose to prominence after Geoffrey Hinton and collaborators used fast learning algorithms for them in the mid 2000s. Okay, and then, that's it.

• 1:54:17Dax Shepard?

  That's everything.

• 1:54:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, the last one was doppelgangers, but I already talked about it.

• 1:54:21Dax Shepard?

  Covered, he covered that.

• 1:54:22Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:54:22Dax Shepard?

  Okay, great.

• 1:54:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, really good stuff.

• 1:54:24Dax Shepard?

  Love you.

• 1:54:25Speaker 01

  Love you.