414: Rob Lowe was Here… Literally!

The '80s brat-pack teen idol drops by to share tales from his amazing life in film and TV and explain why he loves doing his gameshow The Floor and his podcast Literally!

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

• 0:04Mike Rowe?

  Well, hello there. It's The Way I Heard It. I'm Mike Rowe. And guess who this next voice belongs to?

• 0:08Speaker 01

  Chuck Klausmeyer.

• 0:09Mike Rowe?

  There you go, man. The voice you're going to hear in mere moments, as you may have gleaned from the title, is the one and only Rob Lowe. Because Rob Lowe is here, literally.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Literally here, right there. He sat right across from you. I watched the whole thing. I took a picture.

• 0:24Mike Rowe?

  I hope you're happy, man. I know you do enjoy these little celebrity, these brushes with celebrity.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  I only do it for the ladies, Mike. I do it for the ladies. The ladies appreciate a Rob Lowe every now and then.

• 0:36Mike Rowe?

  He's referring to the ladies in the office. Although I'm sure some of the ladies listening, and I gotta say...

• 0:42Speaker 01

  He's easy on the eyes.

• 0:43Mike Rowe?

  I mean, he's well-preserved.

• 0:44Speaker 01

  Good-looking fella.

• 0:45Mike Rowe?

  Was he wearing makeup? I couldn't tell.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, but he came from someplace else where I think makeup was a required thing. Unless he just puts it on in the morning. I don't know. I don't think so.

• 0:53Mike Rowe?

  No, there's no way he does that. But it is plausible, like when you're out promoting stuff. If you're Rob Lowe, you're constantly promoting something, or you're constantly shooting something.

• 1:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:04Mike Rowe?

  How many projects does he have going on?

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Gosh, I don't know. He's got that show Unstable with his son, John Owen. He's got The Floor.

• 1:13Mike Rowe?

  On Fox.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  Is it Fox?

• 1:14Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:15Mike Rowe?

  Lone Star.

• 1:17Speaker 01

  911?

• 1:17Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. It's so...

• 1:19Speaker 01

  He's everywhere.

• 1:20Mike Rowe?

  The reason we're not totally clear on this is because we really didn't talk too much about what he's doing. And the reason we didn't talk too much about what he's doing is, you know, I try and put myself in his place and just say, "Man, what questions am I just sick of answering?"

• 1:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35Mike Rowe?

  So, no, we don't talk about The Outsiders. We don't talk about The Brat Pack. We don't talk about the scandal that nearly upended his career when he was just a teenager. We don't talk too much about his memoirs. You know, we kind of mention him. I'm not even sure what we talked about, but the time flew by and it was really fun.

• 1:53Speaker 01

  It was really fun. And I can tell you one thing, Sammy Davis Jr. was talked about. You know, that's old-school Brat Pack, or The Rat Pack. Sorry, that was The Rat Pack. He was in The Brat Pack.

• 2:03Mike Rowe?

  That's true. Very true.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a lot of fun. It was like a lot of...

• 2:07Mike Rowe?

  Chuck, hang on a second. This is my mom.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 2:09Mike Rowe?

  Hey, Mom.

• 2:09Speaker 02

  Uh-oh, you busy?

• 2:11Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, we're just recording the intro to a podcast with Rob Lowe. I just interviewed him and he just left, so we're just recording this real quick. Can I call you back?

• 2:20Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, nothing urgent. You go right ahead, honey.

• 2:23Mike Rowe?

  All right, all right, love you. Bye.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 2:25Mike Rowe?

  Bye.

• 2:28Mike Rowe?

  Anyway, sorry about that. But you know what, man? She's 86 years old.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  When your mom calls, you answer the phone, bro.

• 2:32Mike Rowe?

  You answer the damn phone.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:33Mike Rowe?

  Right? She's got a book coming out, you know? That's what I should have given Rob Lowe a book.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  Well, yeah.

• 2:38Mike Rowe?

  I didn't give him anything.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  No, not a-

• 2:40Mike Rowe?

  I was gonna give him a bottle of whiskey, but he doesn't, hasn't drunk in 30 years.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  You gave him a bottle of water as he went out. That was it. Yeah.

• 2:47Mike Rowe?

  And you know what? What's he gonna do with more stuff? People have been giving you stuff all your life.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  He says he's a curious guy. I bet if you gave him a book, he'd read the book.

• 2:55Mike Rowe?

  You're right. Right now, he's probably wondering why he didn't get anything. Coming here and talking to me for an hour and a half. Yeah. Anyway, look, what a nice guy. What an absolutely unfailingly nice and authentic guy. We come in pretty hot with a true story about the circumstance that actually led him to agree to come on this podcast. And spoiler alert, it involves bears, favors, and his son. Oh my, oh my. I'll explain all of that and more right after this.

• 3:36Mike Rowe?

  Do you think glazed hams glaze themselves? Or do you suppose there's a specific job for that specific task? This was the topic of a recent dinner conversation with some friends the other night. And while those assembled failed to resolve the question, we did agree that if such a job actually existed, then ZipRecruiter would be the only logical place to find a qualified glazer of hams. Why? Because nobody's better at helping you find qualified people who are excited to do whatever it is they do than ZipRecruiter. And right now, you can try them for free at ziprecruiter.com/row. Also, ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested, qualified candidates first. That's a game changer.

• 4:20Mike Rowe?

  So you meet the right people faster. And then your candidates can tell you in their own words, also important, why they're excited about your job. For instance, when Chuck first said to me, "Mike, I've always wanted to work with a glazed ham." I had no choice but to hire him.

• 4:38Mike Rowe?

  And that was over 10 years ago. And look, he's still here impersonating a podcast producer. Let ZipRecruiter find the right people for your roles. Try them for free today at ziprecruiter.com/row. That's ziprecruiter.com/row. Meet your match at ZipRecruiter. Build your team, build it sooner. Meet your match at ZipRecruiter. Try it free.

• 5:11Mike Rowe?

  Thank you for doing this.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, thank you. I'd go anywhere just to listen to your voice.

• 5:15Mike Rowe?

  Oh, come on. Don't make it weird. I got a Rob Lowe story. I'm only going to tell one because I got the one, but I think you'll appreciate it. It's two years ago. I'm in Tahoe. Actually, I'm on Fallen Leaf Lake. Have you ever been?

• 5:30Speaker 03

  I know where it is.

• 5:31Mike Rowe?

  It's right next to the big lake, and it's great. And I got a buddy with a cabin up there. I get up one morning and I take the big walk. I walk every morning, sometimes, sometimes seven, sometimes 10. I'm going all the way around the lake.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  Big walk.

• 5:44Mike Rowe?

  So I'm out there. I'm about, I don't know, six miles in, I mean, deep, deep, deep in the woods. And I got my phone with me and my headphones, so I download some podcasts. Let's see who's on Rogan. Well, it was an old one. You'd been on there a couple of years earlier.

• 6:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:00Mike Rowe?

  I start listening to you and Joe Rogan get me through this walk. It's great conversation. But it gets to the end of it, and you start talking about your podcast. And I'm like, really interested in this because he's asking the questions that I would have asked.

• 6:16Speaker 03

  Yes, for sure. It's great about Joe.

• 6:18Mike Rowe?

  Terrific, right? So I'm really into the conversation, and it'd been going on for a couple of hours. And I look up and I'm on a straightaway. It's a path. And about 150 feet in front of me is a bear, a big bear, and he's running toward me.

• 6:35Mike Rowe?

  As I'm listening to you talk to Joe Rogan.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  This is amazing.

• 6:39Mike Rowe?

  So.

• 6:39Speaker 03

  Amazing.

• 6:40Mike Rowe?

  That puckering feeling like I immediately forgot my Boy Scout training. I did not make myself.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  Big.

• 6:46Mike Rowe?

  Big. I did not make myself noisy. I turned and I ran. Okay?

• 6:50Speaker 03

  And you made yourself wet.

• 6:51Mike Rowe?

  I made my, I didn't have to, man. It was, it just happened. So I'm running through the woods of Lake Tahoe. A bear is chasing me and I'm listening to you. Okay? Now, you're gonna love this. I run as fast as I can and I run for maybe 30 seconds and I turn around and the bear is about as far from me as he was when I started running, but still just galloping along. I'm like, God, this is just not good. The altitude, I'm gasping for breath and you're going on and on about your new podcast because I don't have time to take the earphones out. So I come to a little curve in the path.

• 7:31Mike Rowe?

  I take a hard right and then I get behind a tree and I just stand there still and I'm thinking, you know, their eyesight's not so good, but I know they can smell anything. And is this thing just gonna follow me right behind the tree? My heart's pounding. You're going on and on. And I peek behind the tree and the bear just jogs by. And I realized he, he wasn't really running. He was just kind of galloping.

• 7:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 7:55Mike Rowe?

  And I realized in that moment, he wasn't chasing me. He was just out for a run.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  Just like you.

• 8:00Mike Rowe?

  Just like me.

• 8:01Speaker 03

  Just out for a run.

• 8:03Mike Rowe?

  And I'm just standing there behind the tree, listening to you ask Joe Rogan for advice on your podcast as this bear vanishes in the distance.

• 8:12Speaker 03

  That's an amazing, I, I can't imagine that any was on the planet has ever had that experience, but you.

• 8:17Mike Rowe?

  Well, it gets weirder. That night, back in the cabin, I get a phone call from a guy named Arum. I don't know if you know Arum, but you know some people he knows.

• 8:30Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:31Mike Rowe?

  And apparently your son is turning 30.

• 8:36Mike Rowe?

  The message says, I hate to ask you this, Mike, but Rob Lowe's son is having a birthday and he's a big fan of Deadliest Catch. Do you think maybe you could send him a little birthday shout out?

• 8:49Speaker 03

  This is the day you've been chased by a bear?

• 8:51Mike Rowe?

  That night.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  No way.

• 8:54Mike Rowe?

  So in the span of 12 hours, I swear to God, I'm listening to you and I didn't seek you out, I'm just trying to listen to something on my walk.

• 9:03Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 9:04Mike Rowe?

  But it's you. And then hours later, you ask somebody who asks somebody and the next day, I'm making a birthday video for your boy.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  And you're the hit of the video. You were the hit, the hit of the video. That is really some weird kismet.

• 9:23Mike Rowe?

  Dude, I feel like now, most of the things that happened to me that feel apocryphal and like powerful, I never know it when it's happening. It's only years later when you look back and you go, well, that was weird. This was weird in real time.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  In real time. It's hard to deny that. You go, something is at work here. I'm glad that those roads, those bear paths led us to this moment.

• 9:46Mike Rowe?

  You were there for me, man.

• 9:47Speaker 03

  Thank you, and you're welcome. And you really are welcome. Thank you.

• 9:51Mike Rowe?

  Speaking of your boy, we don't really do much prep for this thing, but I went on Instagram.

• 9:57Speaker 03

  Bro, he's serious, isn't he?

• 10:00Mike Rowe?

  Dude, funny, both of them.

• 10:02Speaker 03

  Both of them.

• 10:03Mike Rowe?

  Explain what's going on on Instagram with your sons, because I think it's a terrific model for fathers and sons everywhere.

• 10:08Speaker 03

  Well, look, so it started with my youngest son, not the oldest who had the birthday, that's Matthew, who's the fisherman. He's the outdoorsman. Hardcore outdoorsman and he works in finance right now. So he's got like a real job. My young son's got a phony baloney job like me, you know, in show buses, puts on makeup and acts for a living. But sadly, he-

• 10:33Mike Rowe?

  John Owen.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  John Owen.

• 10:34Mike Rowe?

  And he's quite good.

• 10:35Speaker 03

  He's quite good, but he had so much more potential, Mike. You have to understand, he was the youngest-

• 10:44Speaker 03

  Intern at the Eli Broad Stem Cell Laboratory at UCF, University of San Francisco, during his high school tenure, that got him into Stanford, graduated with straight A's, and then comes out and tells me he wants to be an actor.

• 10:59Mike Rowe?

  Oh my god.

• 11:00Speaker 03

  And I just wanted to kill him and myself. Forget the tuition that I could have saved.

• 11:07Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 11:07Speaker 03

  He could have gone to Jamba Juice every day and waited by the phone. I didn't need to pay a tuition to Stanford to be an actor. But in the interim, he would just eviscerate me on social media. He's a very funny kid. And he would just work me over. I would post something that I thought was cool, and he would just come up with some comment, just shellacking me. It would make me laugh, because I love a good joke, even at my own expense, maybe even more so at my own expense.

• 11:38Mike Rowe?

  What makes it so good is that your boy understands the power of brevity. Right?

• 11:45Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 11:46Mike Rowe?

  He's not going on, he's not telling big shaggy dog stories. You should look at this, Chuck.

• 11:50Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:51Mike Rowe?

  They're just cutting. Now, in the boy's defense-

• 11:54Speaker 03

  So cutting.

• 11:55Mike Rowe?

  The old man does post some, I mean, some beefy kinds of pictures.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  Use it or lose it, bro. I'm 60 years old. Come on.

• 12:02Mike Rowe?

  There's a lot of topless stuff.

• 12:04Speaker 03

  And the great irony is, I spent 15 years of my career going, "They just want me to take my shirt off."

• 12:09Mike Rowe?

  And now you're like-

• 12:10Speaker 03

  And now I'm like, "Can I take my shirt off? Because it ain't gonna last forever."

• 12:15Mike Rowe?

  Have you seen Matthew McConaughey on, I guess it's Letterman, talking about, I forget the movie, but, no, it's Matt Damon talking about Matthew McConaughey, and how every moment just is an opportunity, "Oh, Mr. Soderbergh, I was thinking maybe-"

• 12:32Speaker 03

  About taking-

• 12:33Mike Rowe?

  Right, right. "Maybe a good time to take our shirts off."

• 12:35Speaker 03

  Our shirts off. I like the way we've turned Matthew McConaughey into Bill Clinton.

• 12:39Mike Rowe?

  Adjacent.

• 12:39Speaker 03

  It's the same, right?

• 12:40Mike Rowe?

  It's so close.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  All my impersonations are adjacent of the same four people.

• 12:44Mike Rowe?

  What's your strongest?

• 12:46Speaker 03

  Um, my Clinton is pretty strong. My Arnold, but a lot of people do Arnold.

• 12:51Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 12:52Speaker 03

  Mine, I think, is the kind of thing where, you know, everybody is thinking about that and going like, okay, it's going to work. It's really going to work.

• 12:59Mike Rowe?

  It's not good. That's solid. Yeah. We had a time. There may have been some beverages involved. It was a long time ago, but for some reason I, I realized I could kind of sound like Sammy Davis Jr. Just a little bit.

• 13:12Speaker 03

  More than a little bit.

• 13:13Mike Rowe?

  If I wanted to, man.

• 13:14Speaker 03

  And also you've got the lower mouth going.

• 13:16Mike Rowe?

  I dig it. He digs it.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Hey, man, I can get in on this too.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  I got a great, you'll be the judge of whether it's great.

• 13:22Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Is it as good as the bear story with the boy?

• 13:25Speaker 03

  I don't know. That's so unique. I don't even know.

• 13:28Mike Rowe?

  I set the bar.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  You set the bar. I'm gonna try to up you with Sammy Davis.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  So no bear stories from Rob Lowe.

• 13:34Mike Rowe?

  No bear.

• 13:35Speaker 03

  No bear stories.

• 13:36Mike Rowe?

  We have our title.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  I starred in a movie with a bear, Hotel New Hampshire. Mstacy Kinsky in a bear suit. That was a stupid idea. Most beautiful woman in the world, put her in a bear suit. That'll work. Dumb.

• 13:47Mike Rowe?

  John Irving.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  Yes. I mean, good for a book, not good for a movie. Bombed.

• 13:51Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, man.

• 13:52Speaker 03

  Bombs away.

• 13:52Mike Rowe?

  But a great book.

• 13:53Speaker 03

  But a great book and the movie's okay. So Sammy Davis Jr.

• 13:57Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, man.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  It's the eighties. My agent represents me, but also Liza Minnelli, who, you know, I mean, Liza Minnelli. So I'm supposed to go to.

• 14:07Mike Rowe?

  Is this Bernie by any chance?

• 14:08Speaker 03

  It's Michael Black.

• 14:10Mike Rowe?

  Wow.

• 14:11Speaker 03

  I go to dinner with Liza, Andrew McCarthy, starring St. Elmo's Fire. And I think my girlfriend at the time, and we're having dinner at Spago.

• 14:20Mike Rowe?

  Of course you are.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  And at the end of the dinner, she goes, let's go back to Sammy's. And I thought, is she talking about Sammy Davis Jr.? Wait, what? We might go to Sammy Davis Jr.'s house tonight? And we go and.

• 14:33Mike Rowe?

  1980.

• 14:34Speaker 03

  I'm gonna say it's 83.

• 14:37Mike Rowe?

  Okay.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  1983. And we go, it's one of the biggest houses I've ever seen at that point. He had it lit like it was, um, Stalag 17. It was, there were more floodlights.

• 14:50Speaker 03

  I don't know what he was expecting, but it was like illuminated in like a prison. They were watching a movie and we kind of waited for him to come out from watching the movie and then we, he says, I'm gonna have you do the, you play Sammy and you say, let's shoot some pool, kid, say that.

• 15:06Mike Rowe?

  Hey kid, you wanna shoot some pool?

• 15:07Speaker 03

  And I say, I'm terrible at pool. And you say, how good can I be? I'm blind in one eye.

• 15:18Mike Rowe?

  It's great. I mean, I listened to him sing, uh, obviously the Candyman is a bigot, but he, the whole album, like he, growing up with that kind of sort of, uh, generational ubiquity. He was before we came of age. And so I always kind of knew of him, but I never ever sat down and really listened. He's one of the greatest singers.

• 15:43Speaker 03

  I just got a vinyl of, for my, so he had a huge album that came out the year of, that I was born, 1964. And I had a friend, really thoughtful gift, got me all of the albums that one would want to listen to from 1964.

• 15:57Mike Rowe?

  That's terrific.

• 15:57Speaker 03

  And one of them is Sammy's.

• 15:59Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 16:00Speaker 03

  I haven't listened to it yet, but based on this, I'm, I'm gonna listen to it this weekend.

• 16:03Mike Rowe?

  Listen to in particular, I Gotta Be Me. It just gets higher and higher, but wider and wider. He was just such a master. Just a little guy and he danced so well. It actually drove me, listening to that recently. Life now is a two-screen experience, right? Like every single thing is a portal into something else. You hear a story and they go here and you go there. As soon as I heard him sing, I Gotta Be Me, I hop online. And apparently he had something to do with the Church of Satan, which I didn't know.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  Well, isn't that something?

• 16:38Mike Rowe?

  Google it. Google Sammy Davis, Church of Satan. Now, it's the internet, so whatever.

• 16:44Speaker 03

  The Satan.

• 16:45Mike Rowe?

  The big S. Old Scratch.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  Satan Leibowitz.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  I'm sure that's Satan, which was like a designer of the time.

• 16:54Mike Rowe?

  Sorry, Saturn.

• 16:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, he liked Saturn, Mike.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Isn't it Santa? Why Sammy Davis Jr. joined the Church of Satan?

• 17:03Mike Rowe?

  I know.

• 17:04Speaker 03

  What? What was he hoping to get out of that?

• 17:07Mike Rowe?

  Candy man. Just some candy.

• 17:11Speaker 03

  Old Scratch has really got the sugar.

• 17:14Mike Rowe?

  Um, when we were chatting before we were rolling, you told me how much you were enjoying the floor.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:21Mike Rowe?

  I've seen two episodes.

• 17:23Speaker 03

  Super addicted.

• 17:24Mike Rowe?

  It's clear that you are. Although you're a very good actor and I suppose you could act like you were enjoying it.

• 17:30Speaker 03

  Right.

• 17:31Mike Rowe?

  So several questions. When you're hosting a show.

• 17:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:36Mike Rowe?

  Are you acting like a host? Are you trying to draw from other great hosts? Or are you, or are you you?

• 17:41Speaker 03

  No, and by the way, the greatest host of all time for anything was Dick Clark.

• 17:46Mike Rowe?

  Agreed.

• 17:47Speaker 03

  And I had the honor of doing an episode of, this tells you how long ago it was, the $10,000 Pyramid.

• 17:55Mike Rowe?

  Wow.

• 17:56Speaker 03

  With Dick Clark.

• 17:57Mike Rowe?

  Hmm.

• 17:58Speaker 03

  I was 15. And like Ty Cobb said, it ain't bragging if you done it. I went to the pyramid round every time and won. And so I, I love trivia and I love game shows and I love Dick Clark. But the way I look at hosting is it's like doing, I sometimes do a one man show when I have the time. It's like doing my one man show while I'm being an air traffic controller.

• 18:26Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  Because the notion of keeping track of who has won what, what the storytelling is vis a vis the gameplay, how much money is currently on the table? How much time is on the, all of the sort of making the trains run on time? Is sort of one part of my brain and the other part of my brain is the entertainer, trying to be funny, keep it light.

• 18:51Mike Rowe?

  Looking for a moment.

• 18:52Speaker 03

  Looking for a moment, knowing when to bring the gravitas and make it real.

• 18:56Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  And.

• 18:57Mike Rowe?

  And knowing when to let some air out of the tire.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  That's the fun, the broadcaster part.

• 19:01Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 19:02Speaker 03

  I don't get to do any of that as, as a straight actor.

• 19:06Mike Rowe?

  By the way, on his Instagram, there's a picture of him doing this one man show.

• 19:09Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 19:10Mike Rowe?

  And his boy's caption simply says, John Stamos would have sold it out. Cause there are a few empty seats.

• 19:17Speaker 03

  There's like four empty seats in the top row.

• 19:20Speaker 01

  That is so wrong.

• 19:21Mike Rowe?

  It's that, it's that. And there's another one where you're drenched in sweat. You've just come from some workout and you take this selfie.

• 19:27Speaker 03

  It's at my house, my home gym. And Johnny says something like, ah, the art of subtly posing in front of your wall of Emmy nominations.

• 19:36Mike Rowe?

  Exactly.

• 19:40Mike Rowe?

  Oh, so good.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  It's brutal. He's a good boy, though.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  He's funny, too. I love that show.

• 19:45Speaker 03

  Unstable.

• 19:46Mike Rowe?

  Unstable.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Right now.

• 19:47Mike Rowe?

  Terrific.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  Unstable is streaming now, our second season on Netflix. Our co-star, Lamorne Morris, just won an Emmy yesterday.

• 19:55Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah, that's great.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  I love doing comedy. I'm blessed that I get a chance to do both. I'm glad, listen, I'm blessed that I get to dabble. I'm a dabbler.

• 20:02Mike Rowe?

  You are. Can't hold a job.

• 20:04Speaker 03

  You know, Renaissance man.

• 20:06Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, journeyman.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  But I love doing this. I love my podcast. Literally, we've done like, these numbers are gonna sound small to you. You've been doing this since 2018, I think. I think we're way over 100 episodes now and...

• 20:19Mike Rowe?

  They go by quick, man.

• 20:20Speaker 03

  They go by quick. And I look back at the people that I've had a chance to talk to. Jeff Bridges is the current one. And that's, I mean, to talk to Jeff Bridges. I mean, I could talk to Jeff Bridges about the first 10 years of his career. How about this? I talked to Jeff Bridges for an hour and a half and I didn't even get to The Big Lebowski.

• 20:37Mike Rowe?

  Wow, right? Well, because The Old Man's out now, which I assume you're watching.

• 20:40Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 20:41Mike Rowe?

  Which is just, we don't have many celebrities on this podcast. Mostly because I don't really know how to talk to them for that reason.

• 20:48Speaker 03

  Right.

• 20:49Mike Rowe?

  You can't sum up. It makes no sense to look at your resume and start asking you about. And by the way, probably isn't a question you haven't been asked, and I don't want to be that guy either. But do you think about that when Jeff is sitting across from you?

• 21:02Speaker 03

  Somebody like that, I'm like a music nerd, so I had like Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, alright?

• 21:08Mike Rowe?

  That's...

• 21:09Speaker 03

  And I'm like, can he log? I'm like a yacht rock guy, right? So, I get like Kenny...

• 21:14Mike Rowe?

  You said that out loud, by the way.

• 21:16Speaker 03

  I did.

• 21:16Mike Rowe?

  We're actually recording this.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Do you know what? I know, I'm wearing it as a badge of honor. I know it makes me a national joke to say that I am the king of yacht rock. But, come on, man. So...

• 21:28Mike Rowe?

  I'm with you.

• 21:28Speaker 03

  I had Lindsey on and it's all I could do to, I mean, I went track by track, so... Or a guy like Jeff and talk about this movie and that movie and... I mean, for me, I just want to find the deep cut to talk about.

• 21:41Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 21:41Speaker 03

  Like, there's a reason I didn't get to Big Lebowski, I realized. It's like everybody asks him about Big Lebowski. That would be the first question they'd ask him on Entertainment Tonight.

• 21:54Mike Rowe?

  What if, say, five years ago, some big oil company offered a promotion that gave you a chance to lock in the price of gasoline at $2.50 a gallon for the rest of your life? Would you have taken that deal? Or what if a nationwide grocery store had given you an opportunity to lock in the price of ground beef at, say, $2 a pound for as long as you live? Would you have taken that deal? Yeah, me too. Unfortunately, those deals were never on the table, but this one is. Today, as in right now, for a very, very limited time, Pure Talk is offering every American the opportunity to purchase unlimited talk, text, and data, along with a 30 gig hotspot,

• 22:39Mike Rowe?

  for just $29.95 a month for life. Not your phone's life, your life. No contracts, no commitments, just a very rare opportunity to lock into a ridiculously low rate for unlimited talk, text, and data for the rest of your life. It's the Unlimited Data Plan from Pure Talk, and it will not be around for long. $29.95 a month for as long as you live. Taxes and fees not included. Some restrictions do apply. See puretalk.com for details. Offer ends 11/15/26. So chop, chop. Pure Talk. I mean, that's what I was getting at before

• 23:24Mike Rowe?

  when I asked you, like, the difference between impersonating a host. And by the way, nothing wrong with that. I impersonated Dick Clark for a while because I didn't know of a better example.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 23:37Mike Rowe?

  But, of course, who did Dick Clark impersonate? And when did he stop doing that and start, you know, start being Dick Clark?

• 23:46Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 23:47Mike Rowe?

  Very interesting. I mean, because hosting is not acting.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  Well, I'll tell you where I see to be contemporary is I see it with Tom Brady on Fox.

• 23:55Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 23:55Speaker 03

  And when you think about Tom Brady, the greatest of all time, everybody knows one of his greatest things was he was coachable. He was in there, knew the play. It was, he was a coach's dream.

• 24:07Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 24:08Speaker 03

  I don't think that's serving him well here because we need to be ourselves. That's the lesson.

• 24:15Mike Rowe?

  Yep.

• 24:16Speaker 03

  And so I can just see Tom coming into this. He's never done it before. He's listened to quote unquote experts. I want to go, bro, you're Tom Brady. Should be Tom Brady. With all the best intentions, I'm making this up. I don't know any of this to be true, by the way. But I can see, based on my experience in these type of things, where it's like, so listen, in the first quarter, let's make sure we focus on the this and that. And so, and that's when we'll build a narrative like in the second quarter, we're going to a package where we talk about the defense, but let's let the defense establish itself in the front. And the next thing you know, you don't know what the to say.

• 24:49Mike Rowe?

  You don't. I don't know if we were rolling when we were talking about this, but it's the executive who wants to imagine the kind of sunset that you're going to film.

• 24:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 24:57Mike Rowe?

  As if it's going to have something to do with the quality of the work. And to obsess on the details at the expense of the larger thing, that's the weird. I'm so interested in hosting, not because I am kind of one, but because it's not broadcasting, really. And it's not acting.

• 25:16Speaker 03

  No.

• 25:17Mike Rowe?

  There are times when it's all just jammed in together, but you described it right. You're actually a traffic cop with a sense of humor and hopefully some time.

• 25:26Speaker 03

  And a proper host.

• 25:27Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 25:28Speaker 03

  You know, it's like, okay, this person's had enough to drink. They need to no longer be toasting. Let's move on to some, do you know what I mean? It's like all the stuff you would do at a party. Oh, that person's been sitting in the corner. They seem nervous. I feel like they've got something to give though. Let me see if I can see it. What it's, it really is just an amazing, there's so much more to it. Then you think if you're doing it in the fashion that I, you, the Dick Clarks want to do. I mean, they're playing a host to just go up and read a prompter or whatever.

• 26:00Mike Rowe?

  What did you learn from Dick Clark as a guest on Pyramid Once Upon a Time?

• 26:06Speaker 03

  Oh, I remember he screwed up my introduction seven times, seven consecutive times. I'll never forget as long as I live. It's like, it's like that famous voice. It's in my head. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rob Lohn.

• 26:21Speaker 03

  And then I would come out and somebody would whisper to him, they got, and he would just be quiet. Reset, lighting cue, music. Ladies and gentlemen, from the new ABC TV series, A New Kind of Family, Rob Loeb.

• 26:40Speaker 03

  Reset. Lighting cue. Music cue. Ladies and gentlemen. He's just a tall drink of water. He looks like he's six years. Rob Logue.

• 26:53Mike Rowe?

  At this point, you gotta think.

• 26:54Speaker 03

  No, it's unbelievable. It was un. No, but he was deadly serious. And what was like, he had zero shame.

• 27:06Speaker 03

  I mean, each introduction, he sold it as if it were the first. It never affected him. It was like water off a duck's back. You wouldn't. I was like, that was unbelievable. He didn't. He was just like a complete pro in that he was able to let the moment pass and live in the next one.

• 27:27Mike Rowe?

  He was so kind to me. I met him in.

• 27:32Speaker 03

  One of the nicest guys ever, kind of notoriously, right?

• 27:35Mike Rowe?

  It was suspicious. It was suspicious to me. I kind of spent a lot of time around the edges of this industry and scrupulously avoided. Well, the path that you took, not that it was offered to me, but I decided early on I was going to try and make a living in the periphery. And this, I got hired to host a show called No Relation. It was on FX and it was through Dick Clark Productions. So Dick oversaw the whole thing. And we filmed over at where they do The Price is Right, CBS.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  CBS Television City.

• 28:09Mike Rowe?

  In fact, I had Bob Barker's dressing room.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  Come on.

• 28:14Mike Rowe?

  Bob was shooting Monday through Friday or whenever he felt like it. Never on weekends. We only shot on weekends. So I would go into his dressing room on the weekends and I'd put on my, my little outfit. And I was hosting a show called No Relation. You would actually like this. Five family members sit next to one another and agree to be questioned by three B-list celebrities. One of the family members is an imposter. The real family member is back there, but one of them is no relation to the others. The B-list celebrities have to try and figure out which one is not related through a series of questions. My job, of course, is to host the whole thing. And.

• 28:58Mike Rowe?

  Sidebar, it would still be on the air if the celebrities weren't so damn stupid. We gave away all our fabulous vacations, literally, in the first week. Everybody got a grand prize to Mexico.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  Everybody won.

• 29:11Mike Rowe?

  Everybody wins. In fact, Tom Frank, who was the EP on the show, he was so frustrated with the celebrities, he renamed it Hello Mexico. And he started casting Chinese people to sit in a black family to give them a hint. They still couldn't figure it out. They thought he was trying to trick them.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  That's not good. That's not good.

• 29:33Mike Rowe?

  Not good, Daddy.

• 29:34Speaker 03

  Not good, Daddy.

• 29:35Mike Rowe?

  Anyway.

• 29:36Speaker 03

  Pour some sugar on me.

• 29:39Mike Rowe?

  Dick walks up to me after maybe the third taping. And he said, "Mike, your instincts are good. I really don't have any notes. Everything's going great. We're giving away a lot of prizes, but that's not your fault. One thing, though, when you walk out and say, 'Hi, everybody, I'm Mike Rowe. Welcome to No Relation,' you might not want to say, 'Hi, everybody,' because what I've learned, and you can take this for what it's worth, Mike.

• 30:06Speaker 03

  Oh, this is heaven right now.

• 30:07Mike Rowe?

  He says, "What I've learned is that even though you're broadcasting, and even though that you're very aware that you're talking to a couple million people, and even though the people are probably aware in the reptilian part of their brain that they're part of an audience, that's not why they're watching you. They're watching you because you're talking to them. So the word 'everyone,' it's not really the right word. Just say hi."

• 30:35Speaker 03

  Amazing.

• 30:36Mike Rowe?

  And I felt like I had been touched.

• 30:39Speaker 03

  Touched by the hand of God. You've got the 11th commandment.

• 30:44Mike Rowe?

  Right. There is no everyone. It's just a guy sitting across from you. Talk to him.

• 30:49Speaker 03

  That's so amazing.

• 30:53Mike Rowe?

  I mean, it's no bear in the woods, but it's good.

• 30:55Speaker 03

  No, it's amazing. You having Bob Barker's dressing room.

• 30:59Mike Rowe?

  Now that was something.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  Can I tell you?

• 31:02Mike Rowe?

  I was hoping you would.

• 31:04Speaker 03

  So, there was a time in the eighties where they were shooting a lot of movies in Chicago. And, there's no real television studios there. Oprah hadn't built anything yet, she didn't exist yet. There were these-

• 31:18Speaker 01

  Oh, look, someone's here.

• 31:19Speaker 03

  Matthew Lowe!

• 31:20Mike Rowe?

  That's gotta be the boy.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  Yay!

• 31:23Mike Rowe?

  He's killing it, man. Hey, how are you? Mike.

• 31:25Speaker 04

  Matthew, nice to meet you.

• 31:26Mike Rowe?

  Nice to meet you.

• 31:27Speaker 04

  I know you guys were like in the middle of recording.

• 31:28Speaker 03

  No, come on, so we're just-

• 31:29Speaker 01

  We're definitely recording.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  Come on, buddy, yeah, take a load off. Tell them a little story. This is Matthew who you did the birthday wishes for.

• 31:35Mike Rowe?

  Oh, fantastic.

• 31:36Speaker 03

  That's my oldest Matthew.

• 31:37Speaker 04

  Pleasure.

• 31:38Mike Rowe?

  It's a pleasure to meet you. Yeah, I'm sorry we don't have a proper chair.

• 31:41Speaker 03

  But, guess what? And the company that he works for owns Dick Clark Productions.

• 31:47Mike Rowe?

  When did that happen?

• 31:47Speaker 03

  There's kismet going on around this conversation.

• 31:52Mike Rowe?

  I was just telling a Dick Clark story.

• 31:54Speaker 03

  We were just doing ten minutes of Dick Clark Productions.

• 31:56Speaker 04

  No way.

• 31:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:57Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 31:57Speaker 04

  I work in the Dick Clark, where the office is where Dick Clark Productions is.

• 32:00Mike Rowe?

  Over on like Olive?

• 32:01Speaker 04

  Hundred North Crescent.

• 32:03Speaker 03

  When he moved to Beverly Hills.

• 32:04Mike Rowe?

  Oh, they moved to Beverly Hills?

• 32:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. He works at Dick Clark Productions. What, isn't this bizarre?

• 32:08Mike Rowe?

  Honestly, man, I'm glad he wasn't here for the opening story, because that's just too weird.

• 32:12Speaker 03

  Well, a bear would walk in.

• 32:14Mike Rowe?

  When you listen to this later, your head's gonna explode. It's a bear story.

• 32:17Speaker 03

  Hey, knock down-

• 32:19Mike Rowe?

  And you're in it. You're actually in the story. That's what we call a tease, Matthew, in the business. Just a tease. Anyway, why don't you just sit on the sofa there? You're making me nervous, perched up there on the, uh, there you go, put that anywhere. Fantastic.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  So I'm in Chicago.

• 32:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  So, uh, you have, you have your, uh, um, Bob Barker is a dressing room. I'm in Chicago, mid-eighties. These little weird quasi-TV studios are tiny, that are sort of decrepit, and we're shooting class there. We built the apartment set in, or whatever. And there's a dressing room, and it's disgusting. It looks like, it kinda looks like a waiting room in a railroad station from nineteen fifty-five. Do you know what I mean? Like those kinda couches, those nogahide fake leather-

• 33:07Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 33:08Speaker 03

  Stained.

• 33:09Mike Rowe?

  And bowed. Like, there's so many asses have sat in it for so many years, right?

• 33:15Speaker 03

  I was young and probably drinking still, and I think it was six in the morn- it was very early, and I'm asleep on the couch. And there's- Who are you? And I look up, it's Marlon Perkins.

• 33:31Mike Rowe?

  Wild Kingdom?

• 33:32Speaker 03

  Wild Kingdom.

• 33:35Mike Rowe?

  That's amazing.

• 33:36Speaker 03

  I am in his dressing room.

• 33:40Speaker 03

  He thought he was shooting that day. He wasn't. And the note, being startled out of a hungover sleep by Marlon Perkins is one of my favorite weird memories.

• 33:52Mike Rowe?

  You must have thought you were being hunted for a moment.

• 33:55Speaker 03

  I literally, and then the other thing.

• 33:56Mike Rowe?

  While Jim and I watch from the shrub.

• 33:58Speaker 03

  From the shrub. And then the other very quick thing is not to say that sometimes I, I maybe fought below my, my weight class in my dating life. But I remember trying to impress a girl and said I would take her anywhere on a trip. And she said she wanted to go to Omaha because she wanted to see the Wild Kingdom.

• 34:21Mike Rowe?

  That's adorable.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  Because the beauty of Omaha is Wild Kingdom.

• 34:23Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah. I was on a date at the Ponderosa with a woman who asked me what the P stood for on the chair. And we're at a Ponderosa. And so I just told her, honest, whatever, try not to be too judgy. And on the ride home, it started to rain and I had my wipers on intermittent. And she was sitting there next to me, watching the wipers every five or six seconds clean off the windshield. And she says to me, how does the window know when there's enough water on it to trigger the, the wiper like that? And at that point, I realized, you know.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  You're gonna have some fun with her.

• 35:10Mike Rowe?

  You bet I am.

• 35:10Speaker 03

  You're in.

• 35:11Mike Rowe?

  I mean, in every way I could, in every way that I could. So I just explained that I had a friend in the automotive industry and he had developed a sensor. It was still in the prototype stage. I had the car that actually allowed this to happen and she became incrementally fascinated with me. And one thing led to the next, but the ultimate success of that evening, I walked back to that spectacular lie. And her childlike innocence and wanting to know and my, I'm not proud of it, but you know, in the scheme of things, I guess people have done worse. But yeah, I lied to the girl and, and she found me fascinating for it.

• 35:48Speaker 03

  I once was on a date. It was gonna be a double day, but the other couple didn't show up and girl said, why isn't Johnny, you know, whatever? And so I said, well, Johnny's studying for the bar. She goes, oh, I didn't know there was a test to be a bartender.

• 36:09Mike Rowe?

  God bless him.

• 36:11Speaker 03

  See, we collect stories. That's what we do.

• 36:13Mike Rowe?

  Do you keep a diary?

• 36:14Speaker 03

  I never have. I should. I've tried countless times. I probably have 10 amazingly bound books with one entry in them.

• 36:27Mike Rowe?

  Isn't that interesting? I resolved to start keeping one. The same week I decided that I could no longer ignore social media. There's a tape of me somewhere telling Jay Leno, I'd rather stick hot needles in my eyes than than go on Facebook. Never send a tweet. Never. Well, I started doing that instead of keeping a diary and wound up writing, I don't know, probably 400,000 words on social media over the years, but I always did it with, it's like, you know what? I'm gonna do this instead of keep a journal. I'm not sure in hindsight, it was a good trade. In fact, I'm in some trouble right now. Chuck, did you know that?

• 37:06Speaker 03

  What'd you do now?

• 37:07Mike Rowe?

  With, with what? Well, with Mary, but because I posted something on Facebook yesterday that I thought was really funny.

• 37:15Speaker 03

  Oh, okay. Yeah.

• 37:16Mike Rowe?

  I mean, yeah.

• 37:18Speaker 03

  Are you, am I on a, somebody's show who's been canceled and I don't know about it?

• 37:21Mike Rowe?

  Possibly. I don't think so. I don't think it's gonna happen, but

• 37:25Speaker 03

  Matthew's really a, my sons, Matthew and Johnny are really good judges. I run of that. Matthew, we're using you right now.

• 37:32Mike Rowe?

  Okay, so here's what

• 37:33Speaker 03

  Is Mike, here's a new game show. Mike Rowe, stay or go?

• 37:39Mike Rowe?

  The floor, showing the floor. Have you been following these crazy memes? That are going around with this Springfield thing?

• 37:47Speaker 03

  That's the best thing ever, following them, following them.

• 37:50Mike Rowe?

  I have never laughed.

• 37:51Speaker 03

  I've never laughed harder in my life.

• 37:53Mike Rowe?

  Okay, so it's not just us.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats. Have you seen the ones where they change you as like, eat the cat, eat, eat, eat, eat the cat?

• 38:00Mike Rowe?

  Oh, my God. Have you seen the guy that's got the whole sort of Trinidad Caribbean riff going?

• 38:07Speaker 03

  Love that. Greatest, it's making me laugh.

• 38:11Mike Rowe?

  Look.

• 38:12Speaker 01

  Well, Mike did the barbershop version of that.

• 38:15Mike Rowe?

  So, I'll show it to you a second. But I just want to say, this is not a political podcast.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  By the way, nothing about it is political.

• 38:21Mike Rowe?

  No.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  Nothing about that joke is political.

• 38:23Mike Rowe?

  But what's funny to me, or like, what's really sweet, is to be reminded of the level of creativity that's out there.

• 38:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 38:31Mike Rowe?

  That comes from people that you've never heard of. This is shockingly great, man. It like reinvigorated my appreciation for the creative mind.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  I had the exact same conversation.

• 38:46Mike Rowe?

  I got a dog named Freddie. I used to do this thing called Fridays with Freddie, where I'd post stuff.

• 38:51Speaker 05

  If you're in Springfield, where puppies are under siege.

• 38:57Speaker 03

  It's a barbershop.

• 38:58Speaker 05

  And kittens hide from hungry thieves. If that's a fact, it's time to act. Don't eat the dogs, don't eat the cats.

• 39:15Speaker 03

  How'd you get that harmony?

• 39:16Speaker 05

  Don't eat the dogs, don't eat the cats.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  Oh, the high harmony with.

• 39:21Mike Rowe?

  No, thanks. And the low one.

• 39:23Speaker 03

  You could be in the Eagles. Oh, and you, Jesus. So that's how you do it?

• 39:28Mike Rowe?

  We sang in a barbershop quartet in another life.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  Yeah. Is that true?

• 39:31Speaker 01

  It is true, in high school.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  Yeah. Did you have the boater hats?

• 39:35Mike Rowe?

  We didn't go that far.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  I was gonna say.

• 39:36Speaker 01

  Tell them our name and pre-war.

• 39:38Mike Rowe?

  We were called semi-formal. F-O-U-R-M-A-L.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Very clever.

• 39:43Speaker 03

  Oh, you guys are wordsmiths.

• 39:45Mike Rowe?

  And we wore tuxedos and tennis shoes.

• 39:47Speaker 01

  See?

• 39:47Speaker 03

  I see. Cause you're edgy too.

• 39:50Mike Rowe?

  Very edgy, very edgy, but still accessible. We killed the nursing home circuit, man. They loved us. But anyway, the sponsors on the podcast get unauthorized jingles sung in four-part harmony, because I just think it's.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  That's amazing.

• 40:03Mike Rowe?

  Cause nobody else does.

• 40:04Speaker 03

  That's such an extra for them.

• 40:05Mike Rowe?

  People are so angry with me.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  That's how we ask people to subscribe and like us as well. We have like seven different songs at the end of every episode. There'll be, there's a different one.

• 40:15Mike Rowe?

  I mean, I can't tell if it's clever or tragic, but this thing, man, people are just like.

• 40:21Speaker 03

  What's the beef?

• 40:21Mike Rowe?

  Well, the beef...

• 40:24Speaker 03

  He's out of tune. He's pitchy.

• 40:25Mike Rowe?

  No, they're actually very complimentary about all that. I think what I misdiagnosed was the degree to which people were enjoying all the other memeing. I thought everybody was in on this joke because my whole newsfeed is filled with nothing but this. But of course, it's filled with nothing but that because I went looking for it.

• 40:47Speaker 03

  Well, no, I'll tell you exactly. Another reason why, you have a dog.

• 40:50Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  So it knows that. So I have dogs and so they feed me pet memes. And the basis for me of all that makes me laugh are the, you know, it's the thing of the pets going "huh?" When they hear that there might be pets being eaten.

• 41:06Mike Rowe?

  The side-eye thing?

• 41:06Speaker 03

  The side-eye thing. It just makes me laugh. And I'm getting it not through a political prism, but through the animal prism.

• 41:13Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  It doesn't even occur to me that it is a political thing, but obviously I can see how easily and maybe truthfully, people could construe it as that.

• 41:20Mike Rowe?

  Everything is political, obviously today, and everything is magnified here. But I just, my instincts are usually pretty good, especially on my own page. You know, I mean, it's, and I don't have a ton, but there are six, seven million people.

• 41:32Speaker 03

  Matthew, would you let me post Barbershop Quartet version of that with one of our dogs?

• 41:36Speaker 04

  Uh, no.

• 41:37Speaker 03

  No?

• 41:38Mike Rowe?

  No. Why?

• 41:40Speaker 04

  Uh, if you want air on the side of being safe these days, don't even touch anything remotely political.

• 41:46Mike Rowe?

  Uh, but...

• 41:47Speaker 03

  What makes it political? But is it political because Trump said it? Yeah, that's the only reason it's political. And it may not be true.

• 41:53Mike Rowe?

  Right. True.

• 41:54Speaker 04

  If we're to believe everything that's currently out, it is not true that they're eating, quote-unquote, cats and dogs in Springfield.

• 42:02Speaker 03

  Here about this. I grew up, my dad was the tennis pro in Springfield.

• 42:06Mike Rowe?

  Springfield, Ohio?

• 42:07Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 42:07Mike Rowe?

  No kidding?

• 42:08Speaker 03

  My dad was the tennis pro at the Springfield Country Club. A lot of kismet going on here.

• 42:13Mike Rowe?

  Seemingly impossible coincidence.

• 42:14Speaker 03

  A lot, a lot of weird coincidences going on here right now.

• 42:17Mike Rowe?

  I'm troubled by something your boy just said.

• 42:20Speaker 03

  What'd he say?

• 42:21Mike Rowe?

  If you want to play it safe, you're an outdoorsman. You're a fisherman. Risk is something you must assume simply to enjoy the life you have. Why would anyone want to play it safe?

• 42:38Mike Rowe?

  Ho, ho, ho. It is that time of year, my friends. Medicare's annual enrollment period is here. And if you forgot to decorate, don't worry, I didn't either. But it is time to look at your coverage in all seriousness, because renewing your Medicare plan without checking what's changed is like buying work boots without trying them on. Could be fine, could make you walk funny. Plans do change, doctors change, your prescriptions change, and reading the fine print almost never improves with age, which is why I'm proud to work with Chapter. Their independent advisors compare and contrast every Medicare plan nationwide.

• 43:22Mike Rowe?

  They're not paid more to steer you toward one plan over another. In fact, you don't pay them at all. They look at your doctors, prescriptions, and budget, and there's zero charge to you. It's an honest recommendation. It's changing people's lives. I hear every week from people who called Chapter and got hooked up with a better or more affordable plan. If your current plan still fits, they'll tell you. If there's a better fit, they'll help you switch. It's free, takes less than 20 minutes. You probably spent longer looking for your reading glasses, which, if you're like me, are probably on your head. Call 804-Chapter. That's 804-Chapter.

• 44:04Speaker 03

  Got him quiet. Did you see all the quiet he got? Yeah, sure thing.

• 44:07Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, I think that inherently, being in the outdoors and being enjoying nature, I think they said the average kid today spends less than like 10 minutes a day outside. You know, it's a world of being on your screens and playing video games. So I think that's inherently dying anyway.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, but why do you want to play it safe?

• 44:26Speaker 04

  Oh, to succeed in any form of career these days.

• 44:30Mike Rowe?

  So, and here we have the eternal struggle of our time.

• 44:33Speaker 03

  Right.

• 44:34Mike Rowe?

  Right? We have to somehow figure out.

• 44:38Mike Rowe?

  What to do with risk? I mentioned to you off air, sitting right where you are now, yesterday, was the aerial photographer for Deadliest Catch. I haven't seen him in 20 years. He just reached out and I invited him over and we had this amazing conversation. And a lot of it had to do with the necessity to take chances and the willingness to assume risk and how really something has changed today because we've so elevated safety and we so value carefulness, but we still aspire to success in all of its forms.

• 45:20Mike Rowe?

  But we seem, we're just so careful about taking chances. And I wonder what a man of your experience might have to say about the business of taking chances from time to time.

• 45:34Speaker 03

  Well, I don't consider myself a thrill seeker or an adrenaline junkie, but I am always barraged with people saying, "You do that? What are you, crazy? Oh my God, I don't even like you. I mean, when do you re-" and like, I'm just living, like I'm hella skiing, I'm, you know, big wave surfing, I'm scuba diving, you know, but that's like just living life, right? And I went to Jackson Hole recently. I was like, can I get 100,000 vertical feet in one day? Because they have an app. I did. And, but that's the way I'm wired. I'm wired to do stuff like that. But there's stuff I won't do. I don't want to jump out of a plane.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  Don't ask me why, but I will jump off of a cliff into water or a bridge.

• 46:22Mike Rowe?

  Hmm, like at what height?

• 46:24Speaker 03

  I mean, I have my limits, but I'll jump off of stuff that people would not jump off of. But the notion of a plane, probably because I'm such a bad packer, I figure I would, that I don't trust anybody to pack.

• 46:36Mike Rowe?

  Pack your own chute.

• 46:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, pack your own chute.

• 46:38Speaker 01

  Go with the Golden Knights like Mike did.

• 46:41Speaker 03

  But you're so you're on the guy's back?

• 46:43Mike Rowe?

  First time.

• 46:44Speaker 03

  Matthew's done it. Of course he's done it.

• 46:47Mike Rowe?

  So me too, but I've never jumped out of a plane where there wasn't a camera pointed at me. I have a whole different risk tolerance and risk profile when I'm working.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  Oh, same. Put a camera on me, I'm liable to do anything. Actually, I know that I can't trust myself.

• 47:04Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  If you put a camera on me, I cannot trust myself.

• 47:06Mike Rowe?

  What is with that? Why do we become bulletproof when a camera's pointing at us?

• 47:11Speaker 03

  Because the juice becomes worth the squeeze. Because film is forever. It's just that simple.

• 47:20Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 47:21Speaker 03

  And when I play in golf tournaments, like I want the gallery. Crowds, cameras, I want that. It's when I'm alone is when I play my worst golf.

• 47:32Mike Rowe?

  Interesting. The crowd makes you better.

• 47:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, just it's like, you know, I'm a performer.

• 47:37Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 47:38Speaker 03

  The light goes on, I know what to do.

• 47:40Mike Rowe?

  Well, except you see it in reality shows too, right? You see people who are not performers.

• 47:46Speaker 03

  Oh, you that's the so back to the floor, the thing that I just that I did not anticipate is that regular people, contestants, in the hot, bright light of the set and the television and the clock. I have seen the kind of fold melting. And sometimes it's the most entertaining and I feel terrible, but it is the most entertaining. I literally had, it was a picture, it was eighties rock duos.

• 48:23Speaker 03

  So you couldn't have the actual people, you had to guess. And it was a picture of a hall.

• 48:31Speaker 03

  And a bowl of oats.

• 48:35Speaker 03

  And this, literally, this was like, um, hallway bowl oats.

• 48:42Mike Rowe?

  Ally Wheat, Ally Wheat.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  Hall oat bowl way. It's like, it went on, and so you just never know.

• 48:53Mike Rowe?

  It is interesting because you can't judge the human condition by performance under that level of scrutiny and circumstance, for sure, but my God, it's a deep well online. If you go down game show bloopers, I'm sure you have.

• 49:07Speaker 03

  I mean, the famous, the famous one really did happen, right?

• 49:10Mike Rowe?

  Newlywed Game?

• 49:11Speaker 03

  Because for years it was debunked. Remember it was debunked?

• 49:13Mike Rowe?

  No, it happened.

• 49:13Speaker 03

  Forever. It was a guy, it's a wives tale. It never happened.

• 49:17Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 03

  And then recently.

• 49:18Mike Rowe?

  They found the footage.

• 49:19Speaker 03

  And that's not an AI foot, it's real footage.

• 49:21Mike Rowe?

  That'd be in the butt, Bob.

• 49:22Speaker 03

  The greatest.

• 49:24Mike Rowe?

  Just to see Bob Eubanks, like, his expression, he goes through the five stages of grief in about three seconds. Everything just runs out, the blood, the expression, and he just hangs his head. He doesn't know where to look.

• 49:40Speaker 03

  He doesn't know what to do.

• 49:42Mike Rowe?

  There's no playbook for that.

• 49:42Speaker 03

  Let me ask you a question. Paul Lind, Hollywood Squares.

• 49:46Mike Rowe?

  You win a cookie.

• 49:47Speaker 03

  You win a cookie.

• 49:51Speaker 03

  By the way, I'm obsessed with doing the Paul Lind story as a movie.

• 49:56Mike Rowe?

  Oh, wow.

• 49:57Speaker 03

  Because you know the shit was going on.

• 50:01Mike Rowe?

  Well, based on your turn in Liberace.

• 50:04Speaker 03

  Behind the candelabra, right? Isn't that a good companion? It's a companion piece.

• 50:10Mike Rowe?

  What's the great, wait.

• 50:12Speaker 01

  I can do it.

• 50:13Speaker 03

  Paul Lind?

• 50:13Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, do it.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Smells like.

• 50:16Mike Rowe?

  I think.

• 50:21Speaker 01

  I'll cut that out.

• 50:22Mike Rowe?

  I don't think so.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  I'll bleep it.

• 50:23Speaker 03

  Did he get the questions in advance?

• 50:26Mike Rowe?

  Yes.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  Of course, yeah.

• 50:27Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:28Speaker 03

  For sure, right?

• 50:29Speaker 01

  For sure, yeah. I do a version of that called North Hollywood Cubes, and that's what we do.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Right.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  Swear to God.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  Really?

• 50:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:36Speaker 03

  It's for, because he's too, they're too good and too quick.

• 50:38Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 50:39Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 50:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, everybody gets them in advance.

• 50:40Mike Rowe?

  Everybody gets them. I was, uh, number two for the reboot of that. I forget who actually hosted it.

• 50:47Speaker 03

  Whoopi.

• 50:48Mike Rowe?

  Whoopi.

• 50:49Speaker 01

  She bought it. She bought that.

• 50:51Mike Rowe?

  Hosted Hollywood Squares, yeah.

• 50:53Speaker 03

  And Alec Baldwin was in the Paul Lind Center Square.

• 50:56Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Well, I came close. They called me back a couple of times and I asked that question and they were like, well, of course they got all of it. But as a kid, I remember watching that show and just, there were so many great things about the Hollywood Squares. That was the best show at making you feel like a fly on a wall at a party you wanted to be at.

• 51:19Speaker 03

  Yes, you wanted to be one of those squares.

• 51:21Mike Rowe?

  I just felt like I was around them, just watching.

• 51:24Speaker 03

  Here's what I never said, who's Cliff Arquette?

• 51:27Mike Rowe?

  Don't know, gray area.

• 51:29Speaker 03

  Do you know what I mean? Like that char- Charlie Weaver?

• 51:31Mike Rowe?

  Charlie Weaver.

• 51:32Speaker 03

  Isn't he Charlie Weaver or Cliff Arquette's? I don't understand any of it, but he had the bow tie and he sat there as if we were supposed to know.

• 51:38Mike Rowe?

  Upper right.

• 51:39Speaker 03

  I don't understand. I never understood that and he looked like an old man, but he wasn't. I never got that part of Hollywood Squares.

• 51:44Mike Rowe?

  Well, it's back to the Sammy Davis thing. There's a very weird kind of fame that isn't directly connected to your specific experience of it. Like Kitty Carlisle.

• 51:57Speaker 03

  There's another one.

• 51:58Mike Rowe?

  Charles Nelson Riley.

• 51:59Speaker 03

  Oh, hoodoo from Lidsville. Come on, I know who Charles Nelson Riley is.

• 52:03Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, but as a kid watching those things, all I knew was everybody around me knows who those people are.

• 52:09Speaker 03

  Right.

• 52:09Mike Rowe?

  I don't. I was too young. So it's just that feeling of like, man, I'm not quite in on this show.

• 52:15Speaker 03

  Match Game was great.

• 52:15Mike Rowe?

  I was just thinking that. That was my favorite.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  What's the best match game? I'm always trying to like remember like he didn't want to put it in her blank, whatever.

• 52:25Mike Rowe?

  My favorite, it was really a sweet one too, is the, the woman was from like South Carolina. And Gene Rayburn says, and he had that mic, remember about a yard long.

• 52:39Speaker 03

  It's a weird thing.

• 52:40Mike Rowe?

  Like a yard long, it's like a.

• 52:41Speaker 03

  And tiny, but all yard long, like a pointer, looking like a point.

• 52:45Mike Rowe?

  And he would hold it like with his fingers, like a little T-Rex-y thing. It was so weird.

• 52:48Speaker 03

  Really weird. But we all remember it. We're talking about it 40 years later.

• 52:53Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, he'd probably be buried with that thing.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:57Mike Rowe?

  Superman is so tired these days.

• 53:01Speaker 03

  How tired is he?

• 53:03Mike Rowe?

  That all he does is lean against the lamppost, looking at his big red blank.

• 53:15Mike Rowe?

  What? It was... And the woman says, "Ass?" And everybody's like, "What are you talking about?" And then she makes this sign on her chest, "His ass." You know? You know, "His ass."

• 53:30Speaker 03

  That's the right answer.

• 53:32Mike Rowe?

  It's the right answer.

• 53:33Speaker 03

  Pronounced weird.

• 53:36Mike Rowe?

  That's how she did it. It was... She was just kinda innocent. She wasn't trying to be crappy about it.

• 53:41Speaker 03

  Those were the greatest. See, that's the stuff that makes...

• 53:43Mike Rowe?

  So what is it? So here you are. You've got this show. It's a bona fide hit, right? You're back for season whatever it is now.

• 53:48Speaker 03

  Two and three.

• 53:50Mike Rowe?

  Did it pick up both at once?

• 53:51Speaker 03

  At once.

• 53:51Mike Rowe?

  No, they're not screwing around.

• 53:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, when they do, that's how you know, right? They're not messing around.

• 53:56Mike Rowe?

  Dirty Jobs, we did three, shelved it for a year, came back, did a couple, and then they ordered thirty-nine.

• 54:03Speaker 03

  Wow! Thirty-nine?

• 54:05Mike Rowe?

  Thirty-nine!

• 54:06Speaker 03

  How do you find thirty-nine Dirty Jo... Well, that's what you do.

• 54:08Mike Rowe?

  Well, we were doing three in episodes. So really, the question is, you know, how do you find a hundred-some? Fast, you know? And the answer is, the viewers. The viewers programmed that show. Totally programmed it. But this thing, why are you doing it, man? I want to understand why you're doing a game show. And I really want to understand why you're doing your podcast.

• 54:28Speaker 03

  Okay, so here, both are the same answer. Because a lot of people go, "Guys, you're sixty years old, but you seem so youthful and blah, blah, blah." And I feel... What is the hallmark of a child? Curiosity. And I need to be curious in my life. And I need to learn. And I follow things that I'm interested in, however weird it may be, i.e. hosting a game show. If it's something I'm curious about. If it's something that I feel like I'm gonna have fun doing. And if I feel like I'm gonna learn. And I don't know anything about hosting a game show. Nothing. Zero.

• 55:11Speaker 03

  And, I mean, read a prompter. I don't read prompters for a living. I don't know any of it. So anytime on a... I'm on a traditional movie set or TV set, just by virtue of how long I've been doing it, I will be the most experienced person there.

• 55:26Mike Rowe?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:26Speaker 03

  Always. Almost every time. I walk onto the set of the game show, and I'm a rookie. And I get to learn and I get to prove myself and I get to, I make it fall on my ass. There's no guarantee. People might laugh at it. It might not work. I don't, and like my adrenaline is up. So the podcast is that with, I knew with my decades of relationships across all sectors, that I could talk to people in a way that nobody else would be able to. My interview with Gwyneth Paltrow is gonna be unlike anybody else's interview with Gwyneth Paltrow,

• 56:07Speaker 03

  because I'll be able to say things like, "Tell me about the time my wife taught you to give a job."

• 56:13Mike Rowe?

  Good one.

• 56:14Speaker 03

  I mean, you're not gonna hear that from Oprah.

• 56:16Mike Rowe?

  No, but you're gonna cut it into the open. I'll tell you that.

• 56:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're right.

• 56:19Mike Rowe?

  You're gonna lead with that.

• 56:20Speaker 03

  So, and look, I don't always have that kind of insight. But again, or like Robert Downey Jr., do you remember the time when we were-

• 56:28Mike Rowe?

  Same question.

• 56:28Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 56:35Speaker 03

  We were in eighth grade history together.

• 56:38Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 56:39Speaker 03

  So we'd talk about Sam Ohi.

• 56:40Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 56:41Speaker 03

  And also like Jeff Bridges. I don't need to ask him the 17th, 100th question about the dude. For better or for worse, love him or not, my interviews are like Rogan's and, I mean, I'm not trying to compare myself to Rogan or Howard Stern. Those guys are the greatest. But what I think we do have in common is that there are interviews that only I could do.

• 57:01Mike Rowe?

  You're more Tom Brady. Back to that comparison. You established yourself in a obvious and meaningful way in a pretty specific space. And now you're outside of your lane.

• 57:14Speaker 03

  Right.

• 57:15Mike Rowe?

  But you don't, you gotta be you, right?

• 57:18Speaker 03

  Gotta be.

• 57:18Mike Rowe?

  You gotta be, as Sammy Davis would say.

• 57:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:21Mike Rowe?

  You really, you gotta be me daddy.

• 57:23Speaker 03

  And that's what people want. They want authenticity. The takeaway I have about where entertainment is going is, you know, there used to be a time when mystery- Was a thing and was valued and love it, don't love it, argue about it, don't argue about it. Mystery being valued has been replaced with authenticity being valued.

• 57:47Mike Rowe?

  Interesting.

• 57:47Speaker 03

  And the only way you can be authentic with people is to be known at your deepest level by people. And the only way to do that is to approach everything through that prism. So.

• 58:04Mike Rowe?

  Got to show your ass, too. You have to be vulnerable.

• 58:07Speaker 03

  It's like I wrote two books. They're among my proudest things that I did. If you're going to write about yourself, you've got to be honest. So the podcast, the books, it's a way to share who I really am with the audience because today that is what people want. They don't want mystery. They don't.

• 58:26Mike Rowe?

  And you actually have the receipts. I would say maybe 90% of the memoirs that I've read were written prematurely. You just haven't lived enough yet.

• 58:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 58:38Mike Rowe?

  You haven't seen enough yet. I get it. Your life's yours and it's interesting. But, you know, especially in the celebrity world, when yours came out, I'm like, you know what? That guy has permission to write whatever he wants to write.

• 58:50Speaker 03

  There were people that didn't want me to write it in my life who I respect that felt like I hadn't. That book.

• 58:56Mike Rowe?

  Which one are we talking about?

• 58:57Speaker 03

  Stories I Only Tell My Friends.

• 58:59Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 58:59Speaker 03

  So that opened up the floodgate because the memoir, the celebrity memoir thing was moribund. It was not happening. And then that book worked. At the same time, Tina Fey's book worked. And then, so now we're living in a world where everybody is writing their memoirs. But back then, they were like, you're not even halfway through your life. You shouldn't be doing it. You do it either when you're done or when you're cashing out for a check. But nobody in the middle of their life does this. I feel like I have stories to tell and I feel like I have stories to tell now. And it worked.

• 59:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 59:34Speaker 03

  But again, that's taking chances.

• 59:36Mike Rowe?

  Absolutely. Right. I mean, what publisher would say, "Go for it. Go ahead and tell all of it." I wrestle with this too, especially in the reality space where you know the spectacle is gonna sell. You know the train wreck. You know all that.

• 59:52Speaker 03

  Right.

• 59:53Mike Rowe?

  But that's not really who you are. That's not the sum total of all the parts, you know?

• 59:58Speaker 03

  Right.

• 59:59Mike Rowe?

  And so, like, was there pressure from your publisher, I guess is my question? Because I've been down that road a bit too. To push you further than you wanted to go, to reveal more than you wanted to reveal? Or was the whole thing cathartic for you?

• 1:00:17Mike Rowe?

  Can't believe it's been 15 years since that headline first appeared in Slate Magazine, the one that said, "The Greatest Hoodie Ever Made." That's the headline that put American Giant on the map. And that's the same year their CEO sent me one of these hoodies unsolicited in the mail. I didn't know Byrd Winthrop back then, but he was a fan of Dirty Jobs. He and his kids watched it, and he wanted me to have one of his sweatshirts, so I beat the hell out of it. I mean, I wore it, I don't know, on dozens of different Dirty Jobs. I just saw an old episode last week of me castrating lambs wearing this hoodie. No garment in the history of the world, in my opinion, has ever been bespectacled with

• 1:01:00Mike Rowe?

  a more curious array of unholy fluids than my American Giant sweatshirt, and it's still standing. Honestly, at this point, I'm less concerned about replacing it than I am deciding who gets it when I'm gone. But what made American Giant famous, of course, was not just a sweatshirt that refused to die. It was making that sweatshirt right here in America with skilled people doing good work. That's something I'm happy to support, especially when I can support it while wearing something comfortable. If you're looking for a gift that might outlast your relationship with the recipient, consider the hoodie that started it all. Go to American-Giant.com/mike. You'll save 20% when you drop my name at American-Giant.com/mike.

• 1:01:44Speaker 05

  American Giant, American-made. American Giant, American-made.

• 1:01:52Speaker 03

  It was cathartic. It was super cathartic. I'd never been more certain of how I wanted to tell the stories. And I knew that you've got to deliver on the expectation. You can't be coy and do a bait and switch. A lot of people do. You realize this was nothing. It was all a snow job or whatever. But there's a way to dish the dish in a way. David Niven did it great in the book The Moon's a Balloon.

• 1:02:19Mike Rowe?

  Haven't read that.

• 1:02:20Speaker 03

  It was the very first classic. It was a revolutionary book. It sold and sold and sold and sold and sold and sold and sold. And I remember seeing it on my grandmother's library as a kid.

• 1:02:31Mike Rowe?

  The Moon's a Balloon.

• 1:02:32Speaker 03

  The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven. And, you know, David Niven was a serviceable, mid-level character actor. But he wrote this revolutionary, and that's sort of the thing that people aspire to in that genre. Because what he did was he dished everything you wanted to know about all of his co-stars, but in a way where you never felt like he was telling tales out of school.

• 1:02:58Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:59Speaker 03

  Making them look bad, being overly provocative or exploitive, I guess.

• 1:03:03Mike Rowe?

  Or gossipy.

• 1:03:04Speaker 03

  Or gossipy. But it was so beautifully done. And I was like, I'm gonna do it in that vein and see if I can. And I really, I think I did.

• 1:03:14Mike Rowe?

  I hope I'm not conflating my urbane, sophisticated, English, character actors. But I think it was David Niven. Speaking of grandmothers, I was watching the Oscars.

• 1:03:24Speaker 03

  Streaker.

• 1:03:25Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, The Streaker.

• 1:03:26Mike Rowe?

  Streaker Runs By.

• 1:03:27Speaker 03

  David Niven.

• 1:03:28Mike Rowe?

  Now, see.

• 1:03:29Speaker 03

  That was staged, for sure, by the way.

• 1:03:32Mike Rowe?

  Really?

• 1:03:32Speaker 03

  I'm convinced we need to get who would be the old, the, you know, producer. Because why I always thought it was staged. First of all, streaking was a thing.

• 1:03:41Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:42Speaker 03

  It was all over the place.

• 1:03:43Mike Rowe?

  Yep.

• 1:03:43Speaker 03

  It was the hippest, coolest. It was in the zeitgeist. And the notion that the streaker shows up and they're perfectly framed to not show something they didn't want to.

• 1:03:55Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  So you'd either catch it and have stuff in the frame you can't show. So you can't use that angle.

• 1:04:01Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:02Speaker 03

  Or you miss it all together. But the notion that they caught it perfectly, I call bullshit on it and always have.

• 1:04:09Mike Rowe?

  Ah, it's so disappointing.

• 1:04:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't think so.

• 1:04:12Mike Rowe?

  Because my thought, he was so unflappable, though. That was my point.

• 1:04:15Speaker 01

  He had such a great line.

• 1:04:16Speaker 03

  His shortcomings.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It's a shame that he's gonna be remembered for his shortcomings, something like that.

• 1:04:22Mike Rowe?

  It wasn't actory, it wasn't broadcastery, it was kinda hosty, but it was really, it was just a guy. Seemed like, oh, you know, he handled that with a plum.

• 1:04:30Speaker 01

  You gotta ask yourself, how did he get there? Who missed the naked guy backstage?

• 1:04:36Speaker 03

  Right? Yeah, and if he got in with his clothes on, past security, all those levels of security.

• 1:04:41Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:04:41Speaker 03

  When he started taking his clothes off, nobody looked askance.

• 1:04:45Speaker 01

  Red flags, anybody?

• 1:04:47Speaker 03

  Complete bullshit.

• 1:04:48Mike Rowe?

  I think you're right.

• 1:04:49Speaker 03

  Now we need to solve the Kennedy assassination. Let's move on to that.

• 1:04:53Mike Rowe?

  We've come pretty close to that. Actually, we've had a guest on here a couple of times. You might enjoy, a guy called Clint Hill.

• 1:04:59Speaker 03

  I know, the Secret Service scientist, sure, of course.

• 1:05:01Mike Rowe?

  He's my neighbor.

• 1:05:02Speaker 03

  No way, Clint Hill?

• 1:05:04Mike Rowe?

  I met Clint Hill.

• 1:05:06Speaker 03

  His book is great, I read it.

• 1:05:07Mike Rowe?

  Which one, Five Presidents? Travels with Mrs. Kennedy?

• 1:05:10Speaker 03

  Mrs. Kennedy, yeah.

• 1:05:11Speaker 01

  That's a good one, yeah.

• 1:05:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's great, it's really great.

• 1:05:14Mike Rowe?

  I mean, he's 92 now.

• 1:05:16Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:05:17Mike Rowe?

  He's 92. I just gotta tell you this, man. I met him in a bar. I didn't know who he was. He was an old man, standing at the bar, ordering a drink. And I walked up next to him. The bartender comes over and this guy orders a Clint. And the bartender says, I'm not familiar with the Clint. This old guy reaches in his pocket, pulls out a business card with a picture of a cocktail on it and the instructions on how to make it. And it's called The Clint. And he hands it to the bartender. It's one of the coolest moves I've ever seen.

• 1:05:52Speaker 03

  No kidding.

• 1:05:53Mike Rowe?

  And the bartender says, thank you. Now, I'm sitting here watching this, so I can't ignore that. You wouldn't ignore that.

• 1:05:59Speaker 03

  No, I would not.

• 1:06:00Mike Rowe?

  So I said, excuse me, sir, you strike me as a gentleman of some experience who, through time or perhaps discretion, has determined precisely what it is he enjoys in this life. He says, I am that man.

• 1:06:15Mike Rowe?

  And I said, you also strike me as a gentleman who from time to time has encountered the sorts of frustrations that might lead a man in your position to streamline affairs and take the necessary steps to eliminate any potential miscommunications. I am that man. No shit. So, we laugh, shake hands, I introduce myself, I go over, meet his wife. Does he say, hi, I'm Clint Hill, and does that ring a bell yet? Doesn't ring a bell, didn't really know, didn't not know, but it wasn't like, oh my god, yes. Right. Hadn't read his book. Right. Sat down, wound up having dinner with he and his wife, and during the course

• 1:06:57Mike Rowe?

  of the meal, I learned that he was in the Secret Service, and then I learned that he guarded not one, or two, or three, or four, but five presidents. This is all insane to me, I'm like, this is, so, we exchanged numbers, and I just feel like I made a friend, but here's the crazy part of the story, Rob. It's the day before President's Day, so I go home, and I've had a couple of Clintons, to be honest, which is not a terribly, it doesn't taste great, it doesn't taste It's like a Negroni, isn't it? It's a lot of Campari. A lot of Campari, yeah. And vodka and whatnot. Anyway, whatever, you know, I was, wouldn't be sociable, and it's pink, which is just so weird, for like, this James Bond cat to be drinking a pink cocktail.

• 1:07:39Mike Rowe?

  But I go home, and I Google him, and I get a photo of his book, Five Presidents, and I wrote a President's Day post that basically said, look, as we toast our current president and all the past presidents, let's raise a glass, specifically one filled with the Clint, to the author of Five Presidents. It's a great book. So, post a picture of the book, I tell the story I just told you about meeting him, and I post a picture of his business card, and the next day, maybe it's the day after, my publisher at Simon and Schuster calls me and says, what have you done? And I said, I just told Clint's story, she's like, he's our author, and we now have orders

• 1:08:24Mike Rowe?

  for 20,000 new books.

• 1:08:28Mike Rowe?

  So then his wife calls. Now we really become friends.

• 1:08:31Speaker 03

  No kidding.

• 1:08:32Mike Rowe?

  I just sold 20,000 books after drinking a few clints, right? And so.

• 1:08:37Speaker 03

  That's amazing.

• 1:08:38Mike Rowe?

  It's a weird, small, funny world, man.

• 1:08:40Speaker 03

  Isn't it?

• 1:08:41Mike Rowe?

  And it's why I still take stupid chances with this Facebook thing. Sometimes, whether it's a song or a post or a, I mean, you just never know.

• 1:08:50Speaker 03

  But you gotta, like, at the end of the day, truly, all, we have our, our spirits, we have our bodies, we have certain things. But one of them is our instincts, and that's all we have. It's all we have. Nobody went to the Hall of Fame batting a thousand. About 300, you're going to the Hall of Fame.

• 1:09:05Mike Rowe?

  You bet. And the difference between, you're a baseball fan, right?

• 1:09:10Speaker 03

  Sure, huge.

• 1:09:10Mike Rowe?

  I mean, I just think, no sport better lends itself to statistics.

• 1:09:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:09:18Mike Rowe?

  Well, life analogies for sure. I mean, for sure. But just statistics, the distance, the 90 feet to first base. And you think about the number of plays at first that go.

• 1:09:29Speaker 03

  Bing bing, yeah.

• 1:09:30Mike Rowe?

  You just think about that. I mean, it's amazing.

• 1:09:33Speaker 03

  It is amazing.

• 1:09:34Mike Rowe?

  So much math in baseball. Who's your team?

• 1:09:37Speaker 03

  Dodgers.

• 1:09:38Mike Rowe?

  All the way.

• 1:09:38Speaker 03

  All the way.

• 1:09:39Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:40Speaker 03

  Shohei, all the way. So I met him.

• 1:09:43Mike Rowe?

  Oh, really?

• 1:09:45Speaker 03

  And it's a sort of, tell me what your takeaway from this story is. Cause I knew when it happened, it was significant. So I go into the clubhouse and he was the only person there. And he's got the cutoff workout sweatpants on and then his full uniform at the top. And I introduce myself and he's perfectly nice. And I say, would you mind if I take a selfie with you? And, you know, his English is not great, but he know, you know.

• 1:10:11Mike Rowe?

  Does he know who you are?

• 1:10:12Speaker 03

  Hard to tell.

• 1:10:14Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Which, which is very strange for you.

• 1:10:17Speaker 03

  Either you know, or you know, they don't know.

• 1:10:19Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:10:19Speaker 03

  But the in-between, I just don't know.

• 1:10:23Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:10:24Speaker 03

  So, so I get the camera and I figured we're just gonna stand up, we're taking the photo. But no, no, no, no. He gets fully dressed. He puts the socks on. He puts the stirrups on. He gets the pants. He pulls them up. He gets the belt. He buckles the belt. He walks across the room to get a new hat. He puts the new hat on. And then, and only then, does he pose for the selfie with me, which is on my Instagram page. Amazing. Then I go out and I sit on my seat and I'm sitting with my friend who works for the Dodgers and he goes, hey, check this out. And it's a text from Shohei. Ask Rob if it would be okay if I also post it.

• 1:11:04Speaker 03

  Now you tell me what superstar on planet Earth would do that.

• 1:11:10Mike Rowe?

  Do you think he knows he's a superstar? And do you think most people who follow the game understand what we're seeing?

• 1:11:18Speaker 03

  No, they don't. I don't think people understand.

• 1:11:20Mike Rowe?

  I don't think they do.

• 1:11:20Speaker 03

  And I'll tell you another thing, I understand the game and I didn't understand what we were seeing until I saw him play. You have to see him in person. He's so big. The thing that blew my mind, two things, the sound of the ball coming off of his bat. I thought I was crazy. Ask Dave Roberts. He's like, oh yeah, no, we'll talk about it. There's never been a baseball player whose ball off the bat sounds like Shohei Ohtani and his speed. And now we know he's going to steal 50 bases, but opening day, he had a double down the line. And when he made the turn at first, I could not believe my eyes. We are blessed to have him. It's amazing.

• 1:11:59Mike Rowe?

  What was the turn? What left you breathless about it?

• 1:12:01Speaker 03

  How, he's 6'4". He's 6'4" and he runs like a gazelle. You just can't believe how fast he is.

• 1:12:09Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Do you remember Frank McCourt?

• 1:12:13Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 1:12:14Mike Rowe?

  He's sat right where you're sitting.

• 1:12:16Speaker 03

  Unbelievable. Still owns the parking lot at Dodger Stadium.

• 1:12:19Mike Rowe?

  Yes.

• 1:12:19Speaker 03

  Best sale, the best sale.

• 1:12:21Speaker 01

  Taylor has some issues with that.

• 1:12:25Speaker 03

  And I love my Dodgers. I just wish we could figure out a way to get people in and out of the stadium.

• 1:12:28Mike Rowe?

  Oh my God. He's on a whole new mission now.

• 1:12:31Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 1:12:31Mike Rowe?

  You know, he sold his share, obviously, but he's trying to, I think, form a consortium to buy TikTok.

• 1:12:39Speaker 03

  I heard this.

• 1:12:41Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. He wants to take the internet back. I don't think he's messing around. He's serious. In fact, I'm gonna hopefully see him when I'm going to Boston next time.

• 1:12:49Speaker 01

  He wants to create an internet where individuals own their own personhood, basically, where all of your data is owned by you and you decide who gets to use it and what they pay you.

• 1:13:00Speaker 03

  It's good just to sit back and think about in five years, two years, 10 years, the discussions we will be having going, remember when?

• 1:13:08Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:13:09Speaker 03

  Like, it's gonna be insane.

• 1:13:11Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. It's happening.

• 1:13:13Speaker 03

  So fast.

• 1:13:14Mike Rowe?

  I don't, yeah, it just seems platitude-ness to even say it, but it feels like part of it's getting older. I know, but it's the tech and it's the AI and it's so fast. I don't think people have time to process the last breakthrough in the same way. We don't have time to understand what this kid means to baseball right now. It's happening right in front of, everything is happening.

• 1:13:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:13:40Mike Rowe?

  All at once. Everyone's drinking from a fire hose, it feels like.

• 1:13:45Speaker 03

  Somebody, I've been trying to articulate what AI is gonna mean to people, you know, when asked. And everybody has their own answers to it, but this is one I heard the other day. It's like, it will be the Gutenberg press if the Gutenberg press then also wrote whatever book it wanted to write.

• 1:14:07Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:14:09Mike Rowe?

  What is the, going back to that, the other thing I remember when I wasn't running from the bear with your voice in my head.

• 1:14:16Speaker 03

  Amazing.

• 1:14:17Mike Rowe?

  You said something else that stuck. What's the point of being famous today? Maybe it was Rogan who said it to you. And I thought that was so interesting because you're, here you are alive and well, living your best life, about as famous as a person gets. But what a difference forty, thirty years makes.

• 1:14:35Speaker 03

  Well, in spite of all of the complexities and challenges and frankly, very, very, very bad things that are going on in our world. I believe that we're living in the best time in human history.

• 1:14:47Mike Rowe?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:14:49Speaker 03

  And I believe that I was a young man in the best time to be, I mean, come on, bro. To be young, single and.

• 1:14:59Mike Rowe?

  In nineteen eighty-five.

• 1:15:01Speaker 03

  Famous in the eighties. I wouldn't trade it for any other decade. I don't want to be the Beatles in the sixties. I don't want to be Valentino in the twenties. I don't want to be Shakespeare in the fifteen forties. And I sure the hell don't want to be Taylor Swift right now. That was the time. It was all of the good and there was always some bad. That was the moment in time and I'm just, man. I'm just super grateful.

• 1:15:35Mike Rowe?

  Just the idea, though, of a hit, a hit show, back then, meant forty million people.

• 1:15:42Speaker 03

  I remember I did my first TV show, I was fifteen years old, it was nineteen seventy-nine. There were sixty shows total on television, only sixty. The reason I know that is we were always number sixty. We were literally the last rated, lowest rated show on all of network television. And how many people watched? I think we had thirty million people. Right. Thirty million. The last place. And it was like, you were dead. I remember even as recently as The West Wing, my follow-up show was a legal thriller called The Lion's Den that I really liked, and I remember our ratings came out and like, oh, you're dead, you're dead. We did an eight point six, you're dead.

• 1:16:20Mike Rowe?

  God, can you imagine?

• 1:16:21Speaker 03

  An eight point six was a death knell.

• 1:16:23Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:24Speaker 03

  Death knell.

• 1:16:25Mike Rowe?

  They're looking for one in the demo.

• 1:16:27Speaker 03

  If you get a one, you're a smash. Yeah. Today.

• 1:16:32Mike Rowe?

  That's what I was getting at. How do you become famous today? What are the odds? You have to be...

• 1:16:37Speaker 03

  The odds are good you become famous, the odds are bad that you stay famous.

• 1:16:41Mike Rowe?

  Right, no shelf life.

• 1:16:42Speaker 03

  Being famous today is easier than it's ever been. But look at the Hawk Two-E girl.

• 1:16:46Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:47Speaker 03

  Right. Well, I don't know what that is. I've never heard of it before. Tell us more. You know what I mean? It's longevity. Longevity is very hard for the current crop of everybody.

• 1:17:02Mike Rowe?

  I'm gonna go back to Samo for a minute. It just occurred to me that you and I have probably shared the same stage.

• 1:17:09Speaker 03

  The Samo High Auditorium.

• 1:17:11Mike Rowe?

  You must have, were you doing plays back in the day?

• 1:17:13Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, just think, see, I fancied myself a pro already.

• 1:17:19Mike Rowe?

  Hmm.

• 1:17:20Speaker 03

  And I wouldn't, I wouldn't sully myself. He's kind of a...

• 1:17:23Mike Rowe?

  Big deal.

• 1:17:24Speaker 03

  With high school.

• 1:17:26Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:26Speaker 03

  Plays.

• 1:17:27Mike Rowe?

  Of course not.

• 1:17:28Speaker 03

  And so in fact, I had never been backstage there ever until about

• 1:17:35Speaker 03

  three months ago, the boys and I were filming a little documentary, or I forget what it was, but we were filming in the wings and there written, everybody who'd ever been there writes on the wall and there's a thing where this is Emilio Estevez.

• 1:17:49Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:50Speaker 03

  Up there.

• 1:17:50Mike Rowe?

  I saw it.

• 1:17:51Speaker 03

  Right. Well, there's no Rob Lowe back there. I'm in the pro leagues. Come on. The NFL. I just, I, it's so. By the way, here's a great, do you remember Rick Monday, the baseball player?

• 1:18:00Mike Rowe?

  Sure.

• 1:18:00Speaker 03

  So next time you're at Samo, go look at home plate and then look at the, what they used to call the boys gym back when there could be such a thing as the boys gym and the girls gym. The boys gym, Rick Monday hit a ball off the roof when he was at Samo High.

• 1:18:15Mike Rowe?

  Wow.

• 1:18:15Speaker 03

  And people talked about it. I wonder if people even remember it, but it was lore and legend when I went there.

• 1:18:22Mike Rowe?

  I never thought about, I mean, I, I was telling Rob earlier, we filmed the way I heard it there. All of the Spalding Gray stage beats in that thing. And I never thought of what it must be like to be already famous while you're in high school. But of course this would be the place where that would happen.

• 1:18:43Speaker 03

  Well, here's an added element that makes it even freakier. Already famous, but unemployed. Like I thought my career was over already because I'd had a TV series at 15 and all of a sudden I wasn't working. And I was like, was this it? Was I a one hit wonder?

• 1:18:56Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:57Speaker 03

  And I was like, I know, I'll be a marine biologist. That's what I was going to go do.

• 1:19:01Mike Rowe?

  You really thought that was lights out? That was it?

• 1:19:03Speaker 03

  I thought it was over. God bless her. There was a casting director named Janet Hirschenson, who cast a lot of big movies and she was like, they're just hiring 18 year olds because of the child labor laws that can work longer than 16 year olds and 17 year olds. It's not you. Give it until you're 18 and I'll be damned if I didn't turn 18 on the set of The Outsiders.

• 1:19:26Mike Rowe?

  Did I hallucinate this, or did you tell a story once upon a time about that time period? And you caught maybe Jack Nicholson's eye in traffic or something like that? Like Jack Nicholson looked over at you and gave you a thumbs up or some kind of encouraging word?

• 1:19:44Speaker 03

  Of that? I think if anything, Jack Nicholson looked across the floor of the Lakers game in the 80s, when we were dating the same women and gave me the "I'm gonna kill you" sign across his neck.

• 1:19:56Mike Rowe?

  Did he really?

• 1:19:56Speaker 03

  I think maybe that's what you're thinking.

• 1:19:58Mike Rowe?

  Could be, could be. I don't know, man.

• 1:20:01Speaker 03

  "I'll kill you punk."

• 1:20:02Mike Rowe?

  Wow.

• 1:20:03Speaker 03

  "Get out of my dojo."

• 1:20:05Mike Rowe?

  Who was the girl at that point?

• 1:20:06Speaker 03

  There was a couple of them.

• 1:20:11Speaker 03

  But that's the thing about getting older. Now I look at Jack and I go, "Wait, we were swimming in the same river?"

• 1:20:16Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:20:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:20:18Mike Rowe?

  A river runs through it.

• 1:20:19Speaker 03

  There's a big difference between 47 and 27 and 60 and 80.

• 1:20:24Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:20:25Speaker 03

  Do you know what I mean?

• 1:20:26Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, in fact, I do.

• 1:20:28Speaker 03

  Right?

• 1:20:28Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, things happen real quick nowadays.

• 1:20:30Speaker 03

  Really quick.

• 1:20:31Mike Rowe?

  Real quick.

• 1:20:32Speaker 03

  I just remember some girl saying to Jack, "Rob thought he'd come over and we'd all..." And he goes, "That sounds like Three's company to me."

• 1:20:45Mike Rowe?

  I don't want to keep you all day.

• 1:20:46Speaker 03

  This is great. This is so fun.

• 1:20:48Mike Rowe?

  But I do want to land the plane back sort of where we started with this... With your boys, man.

• 1:20:54Speaker 03

  I love that he came here. I didn't even know he was coming.

• 1:20:56Mike Rowe?

  He's probably a ride home.

• 1:20:57Speaker 01

  You know, what happened was is I remember talking to Sarah.

• 1:21:02Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:21:03Speaker 01

  And she said, you know, "Is it okay if Matthew comes along?"

• 1:21:06Speaker 03

  That's so great.

• 1:21:07Speaker 01

  And I was like, "Yeah, no prob..." I asked Mike. It was like, "No problem." And then just earlier today, I was like, "Oh, wait a minute. I know Rob's son wanted to be here." So I called your new guy.

• 1:21:16Speaker 03

  Oh, that's so great. I'm so glad.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  And it all worked out.

• 1:21:20Speaker 03

  I said to you off camera, you and Deadliest Catch are kind of like the, what Elton John was to me on the radio in my childhood, you were.

• 1:21:30Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:30Speaker 03

  For my, raising my kids, it's nighttime, I've gotten home, we got a couple of hours before they gotta go to bed. What are we gonna watch? And I mean, years and years and years of it. So it's a huge pleasure.

• 1:21:43Mike Rowe?

  I didn't know, of course. You never know it when you're in the thick of it. But I wanted to tell you too, your love affair with curiosity. You know, I did have a front row seat to the Discovery Channel. I knew John Hendrix when he formed it. From his garage, basically, is one of the great entrepreneurs of all time. Basically pirating space, a transponder off a satellite and buying these documentaries from Australia and beaming them down. And he just, he had this vision in his head that something could be done on TV that really hadn't been done. We came close with Marlon Perkins, came close with The Wild Kingdom. But that, you could still see the mitts of broadcast all over that, right?

• 1:22:28Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 1:22:29Mike Rowe?

  This thing, as I'm sure you know, Discovery has since purchased Warner Brothers. They're now the largest entertainment conglomerate on the planet.

• 1:22:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:39Mike Rowe?

  But it all starts with John Hendrix. I asked him in the late eighties, you know, what, what's the real plan? And what, what are you looking for? And how are you thinking about TV and everything else? And he shrugged and he said, I have one agenda, three words, to satisfy curiosity. That's it. Everything this company does under my tutelage will satisfy curiosity in some way, shape or form.

• 1:23:10Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:23:11Mike Rowe?

  And I got him toward the end of it before David Zaslove came in. And so, shows like Dirty Jobs, shows like Deadliest Catch, they were new. You said that we had kind of traded mystery for authenticity. My rap around that same time was saying we were transitioning from authority to authenticity. So Marlon Perkins was an authoritative voice and David Attenborough and all those-

• 1:23:42Speaker 03

  They're up in the ether.

• 1:23:43Mike Rowe?

  That's right. Cousteau and Jane Goodall. Those people, I love them to this day. Terrific. But if you really watched what happened over there through the lens of how curiosity shifted. I just think it's so interesting that suddenly a guy like me could wind up at the center of some of these shows, who in fact doesn't know anything, like a true dilettante, who tries to be honest about his shortcomings and just look under the rock or crawl through the sewer or haul up the pot and see what might be in there, you know? And somehow dude, when nobody was looking, that became dominant in my little lane.

• 1:24:24Speaker 03

  Yeah. And your little lane powered the company that's powering the whole industry now.

• 1:24:29Mike Rowe?

  Well, from your mouth to everybody else's ears, but yeah, there was a time when Jobs, Deadliest Catch, and Mythbusters pulled that whole train.

• 1:24:39Speaker 03

  We always knew what we would be watching.

• 1:24:42Mike Rowe?

  It's so amazing to hear that from you. And I know you deal with it every day, but when you grow up with somebody, I deliberately tried to not ask you any of the questions you typically get asked about all of the things that you've done. But to imagine that you guys 20 years ago were watching me do this, that, and the other thing. It's a consummation devoutly to be wished, you know?

• 1:25:11Speaker 03

  I mean, literally, I, the last voice I might hear might be, meanwhile, back on the Cornelia Marie.

• 1:25:20Mike Rowe?

  234 miles north northwest of Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

• 1:25:26Speaker 03

  Right?

• 1:25:27Mike Rowe?

  When's the next fishing trip?

• 1:25:28Speaker 03

  I would just make me think, we've gotta have that. We gotta bring you on a boat.

• 1:25:32Mike Rowe?

  It'll be great. I love the idea that I could be the last voice you ever hear.

• 1:25:35Speaker 03

  No, I'm telling you, it's like, there are certain, I don't know, it could be Mick going, please allow me to introduce yourself. It could be John Lennon sings Strawberry Fields. I put it up in that category.

• 1:25:46Mike Rowe?

  Some high cotton, my friend.

• 1:25:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:25:49Mike Rowe?

  If I can ever return the favor, don't hesitate to ask.

• 1:25:52Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 1:25:52Mike Rowe?

  I know the podcast game is a barking dog at the back door. You might love it, but before you know it, it's time to record another one.

• 1:26:00Speaker 03

  Oh, isn't that unbelievable?

• 1:26:01Mike Rowe?

  Dude, it's one of those things that compresses time. But this guy, my old dear best friend buddy is so far up my ass now. Every time I turn around, there's a new stack of ads.

• 1:26:10Speaker 03

  Hey, we're gonna get in.

• 1:26:12Speaker 01

  It can be unpleasant, yeah.

• 1:26:13Mike Rowe?

  It's just.

• 1:26:14Speaker 03

  It's a conveyor belt.

• 1:26:15Mike Rowe?

  It is, but once you're in it, man.

• 1:26:17Speaker 03

  See, this is why we do it, because this feels like time stopped. It's just like, alright, on Wednesday, we're gonna drive to the hook.

• 1:26:24Mike Rowe?

  Kind of dragged at the end a little, I thought, but by and large, I mean.

• 1:26:27Speaker 03

  I thought we did okay.

• 1:26:28Mike Rowe?

  We came out hot.

• 1:26:28Speaker 03

  I think we did. We came out hot!

• 1:26:32Speaker 03

  There's so much to unpack in this one.

• 1:26:35Mike Rowe?

  There is. I love the fact that a guy who made his living from scripts is now in this world of quasi telepromptered, seat of your pants game shows and totally off the grid podcasting. I love that you're curious. I love that you've evolved and pivoted.

• 1:26:54Speaker 03

  You have to meet the audience where they are.

• 1:26:57Speaker 03

  You have to. And I was at a place the other day where there's a room full of 28, 30 year olds, and I'm not being facetious, and I'm not exaggerating for the point of it, they did not know who Bob Dylan was.

• 1:27:09Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:10Speaker 03

  And, by the way, Bob Dylan's give a shit, nor should he.

• 1:27:15Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:27:15Speaker 03

  But my point being, if one of the things you aspire to is to be relevant today and continue to be in relationship with an audience, you've got to meet them where they are.

• 1:27:29Mike Rowe?

  Right. How in the world, I'm sorry, I know we gotta split, but how in the world? Like, everything in me wants to talk to people who share my frame of reference.

• 1:27:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure.

• 1:27:44Mike Rowe?

  Like, when you're talking about the 80s, I just want to explode with like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that, and then there's that, and then there's that." Because it becomes more important to people, I think, as they get older, right, to circle back at the time.

• 1:27:55Speaker 03

  And remember, yeah.

• 1:27:56Mike Rowe?

  So how in the world do you talk to somebody who doesn't know who Bob Dylan was, or who never saw Rotary Phone?

• 1:28:02Speaker 03

  Well, it's like, what's the great yacht rock? Steely Dan, Walter Fagan, Hey 19, We Got Nothing in Common, She Don't Remember the Queen of Soul. I mean, to me, that's the, that is really the ultimate, isn't it?

• 1:28:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:28:17Mike Rowe?

  Thanks to you, I'm gonna go home, and I'm gonna listen to more of that Sammy, but...

• 1:28:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm gonna do it too, baby.

• 1:28:23Mike Rowe?

  Hey, man, it's gonna be fantastic.

• 1:28:24Speaker 03

  Hey, man, how good could I be? Blind in one eye.

• 1:28:27Speaker 01

  You can do it, pal, man, you can do it.

• 1:28:29Mike Rowe?

  But you, since you invoked Steely Dan, I don't know that they were ever better than Countdown to Ecstasy.

• 1:28:37Speaker 03

  A lot of people say Gaucho's the one.

• 1:28:39Mike Rowe?

  It's a good one, but I listened to Countdown the other night.

• 1:28:41Speaker 03

  Okay, I'm gonna do it. What's the hit off that? Is that like Bad Sneakers?

• 1:28:45Mike Rowe?

  Guadalajara.

• 1:28:46Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:28:47Mike Rowe?

  My Old School.

• 1:28:48Speaker 03

  My Old School's amazing.

• 1:28:49Mike Rowe?

  Screaming on it. It's so many, I know, I know.

• 1:28:52Speaker 03

  We're getting the wrap up. If we go down, if, listen, if we start up on Yacht Rock, or Steely Dan, we're gonna be able to, the sun comes up.

• 1:28:59Speaker 01

  I'm trying to help you, I think you have a call, so...

• 1:29:01Mike Rowe?

  Christopher Cross.

• 1:29:07Speaker 03

  We're shedding, listeners, now, shedding.

• 1:29:10Mike Rowe?

  Run for your life! He won't say goodbye. Rob Lowe, everybody, you're the best. Alrighty, adios.

• 1:29:15Speaker 03

  That was fun.

• 1:29:57Speaker 06

  What's that? My fresh detector. Uh, your what? There it is. What is it detecting? Fresh produce, fresh meat. Okay, what happens if it detects something really fresh?

• 1:30:11Speaker 06

  Apparently, we celebrate. At Food Lion, you can count on fresh food at fresher prices.

• 1:30:18Speaker 05

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