From the Archives: Michael Douglas

To celebrate 15 years of great conversations, we're revisiting Alec's first episode from 2011. Michael Douglas has lived in the same apartment overlooking Central Park for decades. Alec joins him there for a compelling conversation about what makes a great director and why playing the villain is so wonderful. Douglas reveals how competition with his father, legendary actor Kirk Douglas, shaped both his career and his life as a parent. He says he’s much more honest with his young daughter than he ever thought he’d be. Douglas explains how his father’s early brush with death, and his own cancer diagnosis affected them each in different ways. Originally released October 23rd, 2011. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:33Alec Baldwin?

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• 2:19Speaker 06

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• 2:27Speaker 05

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• 2:33Alec Baldwin?

  This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing from iHeart Radio. Today, we're going back to my very first guest on Here's the Thing, actor and producer Michael Douglas. In a career spanning more than five decades, Douglas has won two Academy Awards, the first for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the second for his performance as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. His films include The China Syndrome, Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, The Game, and Traffic. He has also won an Emmy for playing Liberace in Behind the Candelabra. This month, Douglas released his new memoir,

• 3:17Alec Baldwin?

  One Hell of a Ride. In the book, he writes about growing up in the shadow of his father, Kirk Douglas, and shares the stories behind some of his most iconic films. When we spoke back in 2011, Michael invited me into his New York apartment, where we talked about what makes a great director and why playing the villain can be so much fun. With his new book out, we're revisiting that conversation with Michael Douglas. We're here for Mr. Douglas.

• 3:47Alec Baldwin?

  Michael Douglas is American acting royalty. Thank you, sir. He's the son of Kirk Douglas, one of the greatest actors this country has ever seen, in my opinion. That alone would ensure him a place at anyone's dinner party, but Michael Douglas is his own man. He has two Academy Awards as an actor and a producer, and has played some of the most iconic roles in film over the past 30 years. Roles that have challenged the way we think about family, power, money, sex. Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, Nick Curran in Basic Instinct, as well as Romancing the Stone, Traffic, and Wonder Boys.

• 4:32Speaker 04

  Hello?

• 4:35Alec Baldwin?

  Michael was at his home in New York City when I visited with him. He's worked with everyone from Oliver Stone to Curtis Hansen to Steven Soderbergh. In 1987, he worked with British director Adrian Lyne on Fatal Attraction. Douglas says Lyne was one of the best.

• 4:51Speaker 04

  He was great, and he has a great knack and talent for that. And I remember, you know, when Glenn and I, when we were doing Fatal Attraction, and we had the scene in the kitchen, the first time we were kind of going at it, got her up on the kitchen sink. And so he did a take on that, and he said, well, that was wonderful. Love, that was just great. What could we do? I think, and Glenn would say, well, maybe I can take the water, and I can stick my wet fingers in his mouth. Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely.

• 5:16Alec Baldwin?

  How many of your fingers can you grab into his mouth? Can you get all of your fingers into his mouth, darling?

• 5:20Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 5:21Alec Baldwin?

  I'd love to see that.

• 5:22Speaker 04

  He was great. He was.

• 5:23Alec Baldwin?

  I love his films.

• 5:24Speaker 04

  And a lot of fun. Every day, he said, well, do you want me? I said, I should get a little in shape this picture. No, no, no, no, you're a New York lawyer. You should look good just the way you are. And about three weeks, geez, Mike, you look like Orson Welles. But that's that favor. They love to shoot that down angle, you know? And we all look better with the camera above our eye line.

• 5:46Alec Baldwin?

  You don't want to raise that camera.

• 5:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:48Alec Baldwin?

  Don't you drop that camera. You, yeah. When you work now, what's it been like for you now in terms of you show up and you're pretty facile at getting there emotionally in terms of how you want to play it? And is it more technical for you?

• 6:03Speaker 04

  Yeah. Someone early on in my career told me, you know, the camera can always tell when you're lying. Ooh, I was like, the camera can tell when I'm lying. So I used to.

• 6:16Alec Baldwin?

  Thank God, so I wasn't on that date with me last night. Good God.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  I used to method it up. I got to be truthful. One day, I said, wait a minute, I lie every day. I said, but he and I lie.

• 6:28Alec Baldwin?

  The camera can tell if you're lying, not me. I'm different. I'm talented.

• 6:32Speaker 04

  Right, exactly. What's acting about, except lying? That freed me up a whole lot when I realized that. But the last 10 years, the biz has changed dramatically. The technical part is definitely.

• 6:49Alec Baldwin?

  To me now, it's all, you know, where's my light? Where's the camera? Raise that camera. I used to say, well, we got to have a clean take, and I got to burn one great connected master. Now I'm like, we're going to do four pickups of this line, and it's so technical to me now. It's unbelievable.

• 7:05Speaker 04

  I learned that a lot from Maxie from Jack Nicholson on Cuckoo's Nest. I was watching, you know, the, it's editing. You do sometimes take after take, and then you go sometimes look at the dailies, and you see how minute the differences are. And then they can judiciously edit.

• 7:21Alec Baldwin?

  I mean, I was working with some people early on, and I didn't know better. And I was looking at people, and I'd say, my God, when they watch the dailies of this, they're going to really be unhappy, because this person's as boring as you could possibly be. They're not doing anything. And that was my sin, was I felt like I always had to be acting or, you know, or doing something. And I guess my question is, sometimes you go to work, and you got to, you know what you want to do. What do you do when you go to a movie, and the director has nothing to offer you? He's really just a traffic cop pointing a camera?

• 7:53Speaker 04

  My feeling is with movies, I mean, first of all, you get a good part. And the Gekko is a great part, you know? And sometimes you get a good part. And a lot of, a lot of pictures I've done where I'm in every single scene, and I'm carrying the plotline, and somebody else has got the colorful, good part. But I always think that if you, if the picture's cast properly, or if you're cast right, I never expect to hear much from a director.

• 8:18Alec Baldwin?

  You don't?

• 8:19Speaker 04

  No.

• 8:20Alec Baldwin?

  The world is so different now. I've got people walking up to me all the time quoting some of the most corrosive lines from Glengarry, Glenn Ross. They think it's good to talk about the kind of thuggishness of the sales industry when I say, you know, coffee is for closers. And you say greed is good. Do you think in our lifetime that that line has changed greed is good, where people really believe that's true?

• 8:44Speaker 04

  Well, the affirmation that I got from that villain.

• 8:49Alec Baldwin?

  From that community.

• 8:50Speaker 04

  From that, from that community, you know, if I get one more drunken guy from the street going, hey, man, greed is good. You're the man. You're why I got into this business and everything. I go, hey, you know, I was a villain.

• 9:02Alec Baldwin?

  I got people walking up to me drunk in the lobbies of hotels, and they're going, come do that speech for us. I'm in sales, baby.

• 9:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:08Alec Baldwin?

  And I'm sitting there going, you don't get it, man. This is like Arthur Miller. We're trying to wake you up. But they're like, no, they don't get it.

• 9:14Speaker 04

  No, they, they love the accoutrements, and you spoke well.

• 9:19Alec Baldwin?

  What is your relationship to going to the movies now?

• 9:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm really embarrassed to say this, but I'm not a moviegoer. I don't see many movies.

• 9:27Alec Baldwin?

  Why?

• 9:28Speaker 04

  I waste so much time watching news and sports. I love watching sports. But you know, I can't tell you how it's going to end. My problem with movies, you know, is you get halfway through a movie, eh, you see, I was right. I love making movies, but I'm really bad, Alex, when it comes to seeing them.

• 9:46Alec Baldwin?

  When you were younger, did you always sense you were headed in this direction in some way?

• 9:53Speaker 04

  No, I never, I never thought I was. I mean, probably a lot of it was resentment as a young kid. My folks getting divorced, and both of me actors. But I never even thought about doing this at all. And I said, I was like a junior in college.

• 10:05Alec Baldwin?

  What were you dreaming of doing back then?

• 10:07Speaker 04

  Nothing, really. I was a hippie, you know? And I mean, in the early 60s, and they took me into the vice chancellor's office. I mean, you're in your 30th year in college, and you're not in a major. And I'm like, all right, so I guess, you know, drama should be easy. You know, I got both parents I hung around. My mother was in, did a lot of theater, and so it's hung around there. But it's not something I dreamed about.

• 10:27Alec Baldwin?

  But the success you have now came in stages. When you were younger, and you did your early films, you were what you said, the gentle young man.

• 10:38Speaker 04

  Right.

• 10:38Alec Baldwin?

  But I wonder, in your case, because you eventually played a very tough, very powerful actor on film. So do you think when you were younger, you pulled your punches because you didn't want to step in what you thought was your dad's territory? You didn't want to be compared to him?

• 10:54Speaker 04

  First of all, you look at his career. He played the sensitive young man for his first six or seven pictures until he did a movie called The Champion. I just think I was just trying to define who I am because the one problem about being second generation is, you know, half of me is made up of my father's genes. My mother, Diana, is an actress too, but not as well known. So when you see behavioral or mannerisms that are like your father, it feels like it takes away from your individuality, right? And it's sort of like, oh, earlier on, I just was trying to find out who I was and being a nice guy was a way of pleasing everybody. But the truth be told, a villain is the best way to go.

• 11:35Alec Baldwin?

  Yeah.

• 11:35Speaker 04

  Playing a bad guy is better lines, it's more colorful. Audiences vicariously love you because a lot of times everything that they want to do in real life, but they can't do what you can do in the movies. Contrarily, women, it's taken them so much longer to be comfortable in playing the villains. I mean, I look back to us producing Cuckoo's Nest and all the actresses that turned down the part of Nurse Ratched because they didn't want to play a villain. Louise Fletcher gets an Oscar, yeah, you know, for playing it well.

• 12:08Alec Baldwin?

  When I went to Strasburg, the acting school, we did a gender reversed production of Cuckoo's Nest.

• 12:13Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 12:14Alec Baldwin?

  And the girl was McMurphy. And all the inmates were females and I was Nurse Ratched as a man.

• 12:19Speaker 04

  Ah, that's a great idea.

• 12:21Alec Baldwin?

  Is your relationship with your dad more father-son now, or is it more two great colleagues in motion picture history?

• 12:30Speaker 04

  No, it's more father-son.

• 12:33Alec Baldwin?

  It is.

• 12:33Speaker 04

  It's more father. I mean, he's 94 years old. I'm just so proud of him and, you know, he wasn't a great dad in the prime as an actor. He was like, a lot of us were consumed with his career. For him, it really started when he had his helicopter accident when he was 70. With a friend's helicopter and they hit a aerobatic plane when they were taking off and the people in the aerobatic plane crashed and died instantly. And the helicopter dropped about 40 feet and he just was black and blue. It started him on this, you know, why am I alive? And this 18-year-old student pilot and the instructor dead. So

• 13:16Speaker 04

  he started getting back into his religion, reading the town mood, reading the Old Testament, working with a rabbi, and has become a much more spiritual person. And I look to him with all of the great things that he's achieved in his acting career and producing career, which a lot of people don't really realize how much he produced. I am in so awe of him in the third act of his life. And I'm 66 now and I think of him being 70 and what he's accomplished between 70 and 94, which is about nine books. Called him last week. The housekeeper said he's down at the office. What the hell are you doing down at the office? You know, he says, well, I'm just finishing the edit on my last book. You've got another

• 14:01Speaker 04

  book, Dad? He says, yeah, yeah, yeah. What else? He says, well, I got a book on sculptures. I said, wow, that's such good, Dad. That's really good. You know, so he's, he's on. So I, I look at him much more as a father now because I'm, you know, much less competitive with him.

• 14:23Alec Baldwin?

  What did he do to you or not do for you, the positive or the negative, that you've passed on to your children?

• 14:31Speaker 04

  The negative is you got to watch your quick temper.

• 14:35Alec Baldwin?

  You think you had a temper like your dad?

• 14:36Speaker 04

  No, no, I didn't have one quite.

• 14:38Alec Baldwin?

  Few people.

• 14:39Speaker 04

  Few people, few people did. I mean, it was, it was a reason why you saw.

• 14:44Alec Baldwin?

  Mitch Kelly.

• 14:45Speaker 04

  Right. I think I realize now, because he's a white Russian Jew, you know, Belarus and all of that.

• 14:52Alec Baldwin?

  And you were pissed off at his dad?

• 14:54Speaker 04

  Well, that and also he saw how much anti-Semitism there was in the world because people would talk to him because they didn't know he was a Jew. How much.

• 15:01Alec Baldwin?

  Mr. Douglas, please, come sit down. Nice to be in the club. Whether or not those people are around, isn't it?

• 15:05Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 15:06Alec Baldwin?

  He would see that.

• 15:07Speaker 04

  Exactly, exactly. Because he changed his name. It's not, no longer Danielevich.

• 15:12Alec Baldwin?

  But you didn't have as bad a temper as him?

• 15:13Speaker 04

  Not, not as bad. I mean, I've, I've learned to, to monitor it.

• 15:17Alec Baldwin?

  Me too.

• 15:17Speaker 04

  Be aware of it. You used to have a short handle.

• 15:20Alec Baldwin?

  I used to. I'm a lot better now. Yeah. Because I don't care as much. That was the trick.

• 15:25Speaker 04

  There's things that you can't control. Is that God grant me the serenity?

• 15:29Alec Baldwin?

  Sure.

• 15:29Speaker 04

  To accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference. And it's true.

• 15:34Alec Baldwin?

  Mine was even worse. It was even more narcissistic. I was just angry because nobody else cared about it, whatever it was, as much as I did. I wonder, what was your relationship like with your mom in terms of your career? What would you and she talk about? Did she have a lot to say to you about the business and what she thought about what you did? You seemed very geared toward making your dad proud.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, my mother's English background. She was not so much the business. She's, she's very bright and was probably more politely critical of me as an actor. It was not bad, not bad.

• 16:12Alec Baldwin?

  What did you get from your mother? What did your mother is in you?

• 16:16Speaker 04

  Diplomacy.

• 16:17Alec Baldwin?

  The guy that could produce films?

• 16:20Speaker 04

  I think Jack Lemmon said it when we were doing China Syndrome. He said, Michael, he said, he hits you with a thousand powder puffs, you know?

• 16:28Alec Baldwin?

  It takes that to produce.

• 16:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:30Alec Baldwin?

  To be able to massage people and work with them and get top people to work together.

• 16:33Speaker 04

  Rather than confrontational, you know, it really does. It tried to get people in that way. And I think she has that. I think my father has made it more difficult for himself in his confrontational and his anger, you know, in his career. The positive side of Kirk is a sense of tenacity and stamina. My son is a cross-country runner now.

• 16:54Alec Baldwin?

  Your son's?

• 16:55Speaker 04

  My 10-year-old son, Dylan.

• 16:57Alec Baldwin?

  Dylan.

• 16:57Speaker 04

  Dylan, right.

• 16:58Alec Baldwin?

  You're doing this now with 10 years old?

• 16:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 17:00Alec Baldwin?

  He's already starting.

• 17:01Speaker 04

  Tracked, he's seen out of? Yeah, about his, about his track stuff.

• 17:04Alec Baldwin?

  And your older son has had his problems. What's been your relationship with your son's alcoholism and drug addiction?

• 17:09Speaker 04

  Um, I think there's a certain genetic part. And I think as far as drug addiction, you know, your peer group plays a huge part of that. I'm of the belief that, you know, 13, 14 years old, as a parent, you've lost a lot of your influence.

• 17:28Alec Baldwin?

  They're taking their signals from other people.

• 17:30Speaker 04

  From other people and by their peer group. That triggers and starts it off. And then, in my older son's case, there was no end until he was incarcerated. I think secrets play a part in this, in the fact that whether it's a bad marital relationship that you're trying to keep from your children and the tension is there and you're not really kind of upfront. I mean, this go around, I'm finding myself much more honest with my seven-year-old daughter than I ever thought I would be. Also, just because of what they have access to. I mean, just watching Glee, which is, which is our family night. You know, I don't know why I'm so surprised, but I am. I'm looking at it and, and they're watching, you

• 18:15Speaker 04

  know, Right or Wrong without, without any kind of ratings on it, you know, two boys kissing each other and all that. Besides the guy actually physically seeing things free for all. And it's a little, a little different. So I, I think that in that way, trying to get, get rid of this, or not, not keeping as many secrets.

• 18:37Alec Baldwin?

  Isn't it funny how people, men in particular, who have, I don't want to put this delicately, who have played near the third rail sexually speaking.

• 18:45Speaker 04

  Right.

• 18:46Alec Baldwin?

  Are very sensitive about that when their children are growing up. They're like, no, no, don't need to watch that. Yeah. I mean, your dad has that great line. My son was sent to rehab for sex addiction. He thought, wow, I didn't realize that was a problem.

• 19:00Speaker 04

  Right, yeah, yeah.

• 19:02Alec Baldwin?

  How much did you inherit that? Which is, this is what men are supposed to do.

• 19:05Speaker 04

  Um.

• 19:06Alec Baldwin?

  Before your current marriage?

• 19:10Speaker 04

  Probably, I'm, I'm sure, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm watching, I mean, my father's been very fortunate. His second wife, Anne, who's French and they've been married 56 years, I think, and has a different, had a different attitude earlier on. He was a rascal.

• 19:33Alec Baldwin?

  More from my conversation with Michael Douglas is coming up in a minute. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.

• 19:46Alec Baldwin?

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• 20:24Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by my friend, John Legend. How does music actually enter your mind?

• 20:47Speaker 05

  I'm not sure why or how the music comes to me, but I think people who love music and write music, our brains are just filled with music.

• 20:56Speaker 03

  Right.

• 20:57Speaker 05

  Like, we have listened to so much music. We've been a part of so much music. I think of the story that I want to tell, the mood that I want to create with the music, start playing chords, see where they lead me.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Sometimes I'm just not even thinking about music, right? And I hear this little thing and I go, oh, that could be this.

• 21:18Speaker 05

  You know, you just have to be ready for when the inspiration hits.

• 21:21Speaker 03

  It comes.

• 21:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 21:23Speaker 03

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• 22:01Alec Baldwin?

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• 23:01Alec Baldwin?

  I'm talking with Michael Douglas at his home in New York City. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.

• 23:13Alec Baldwin?

  So you've been sick. What was your relationship to cancer before you had cancer? How was it in your life, family, friends?

• 23:24Speaker 04

  Never really, nothing. My, my, my father, remember, had a little skin thing. My mother had, again, a slight skin issue, but no real history.

• 23:34Alec Baldwin?

  Was it an event in your life when you were young?

• 23:36Speaker 04

  No, no.

• 23:37Alec Baldwin?

  And then what'd you find out? How did yours play out?

• 23:38Speaker 04

  Well, I, I actually, it was right after I finished The Wall Street Money Never Sleeps. My throat was a little sore and I thought maybe it was from, you know, like from tension, from the part where you haven't placed your voice, where you're swallowing your words and you're, you speak from the back of your throat. I had a little bit of a, like a sore gum and so I saw doctors. I thought it was some sort of sore and I had antibiotics, this and that. And then, you know, I, it went on for another couple of months. Your, your general practitioner then sends you to experts. I go to an ear, nose and throat guy and a periodontist and this and that. And another round of antibiotics.

• 24:19Speaker 04

  And then I went away for the summer and I came back and I was in Canada. And I called and said, listen, something's going on here. All right, something is really going on here.

• 24:31Alec Baldwin?

  How long, how much time has passed since you first felt?

• 24:33Speaker 04

  Now, we're in August and I first went to him in January.

• 24:36Alec Baldwin?

  So it's almost more than half a year.

• 24:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, half a year. Finding an ear, nose and throat doctor at a Jewish hospital in Montreal, Quebec. And he literally opened my mouth and he took a tongue depressor. And I'll never forget that moment when he looked up at me and looked back down. I knew. And he said, well, I guess we're gonna have to take a biopsy. I said, a biopsy of, he said, well, there's a polyp here.

• 25:06Alec Baldwin?

  Root for your mouth, gum line?

• 25:08Speaker 04

  It was on my tongue. Two days later, he called me back in and said, you got cancer for, for head and neck cancer. The best place was Sloan Kettering. And I went down and, and within a week and found out that it was stage four, which is the maximum. So seven weeks of radiation and chemo. The reality is with all the doctors that I could have here in New York, if I had been checked back in January for head and neck cancer, this could have all happened a lot early. And the thing with cancer is you want to get it as early as you can.

• 25:50Alec Baldwin?

  Because I want to mention that I came to this door, to your home here in New York, fully expecting you to look, I'm gonna be very honest with you, not as great as you look now. You look pretty damn good. I really, you're making me sick to my stomach right now.

• 26:04Speaker 04

  I got to go to Costa Rica.

• 26:05Alec Baldwin?

  You're your normal self. You look fantastic.

• 26:08Speaker 04

  Well, thank, I lost a little bit of weight to help out, but you got a, you got a job.

• 26:11Alec Baldwin?

  I got a job, man. I got a job.

• 26:13Speaker 04

  The one, the one advantage of this is, you know, deciding I'm taking the rest of this year easy. Enjoy my family and just take her easy.

• 26:21Alec Baldwin?

  Now, you had kids, you had your son's 10.

• 26:26Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:26Alec Baldwin?

  So you had your son when you were how old?

• 26:28Speaker 04

  56.

• 26:29Alec Baldwin?

  God, I love that. Should I have more kids?

• 26:32Speaker 04

  Yes. Yes, I mean.

• 26:34Alec Baldwin?

  At this very moment, the door opens.

• 26:37Speaker 04

  I think, here's my daughter.

• 26:38Alec Baldwin?

  Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

• 26:42Speaker 04

  This is Charis.

• 26:43Alec Baldwin?

  Hello. Charis was coming home from school and she jumped into the chair next to her dad's. Has she seen a couple of your films at least?

• 26:53Speaker 04

  I have hardly any movies that she can see. The Jules and I. And the other one, The Stone.

• 27:00Alec Baldwin?

  Romance in the Stone.

• 27:01Speaker 04

  Those are like my favorite movie of all time.

• 27:04Alec Baldwin?

  Oh, really?

• 27:06Speaker 04

  I love you.

• 27:09Speaker 04

  Well, because a long time, she didn't really know what I did. You know, she knew mommy because of Chicago and all that. Mommy was an actress. The longest time, you didn't know. It went to my, my friend said, what does your dad do for a living? And I said, he makes pancakes.

• 27:26Speaker 04

  And they were like, I want to go to your house. I love pancakes.

• 27:33Alec Baldwin?

  Michael Douglas will be flipping pancakes for a few more months before he begins filming the lead role in Liberace. Matt Damon will be his lover.

• 27:42Speaker 04

  Liberace was a lovely guy. I mean, the truth, I haven't played a lot of nice guys. When my dad was in his prime, Kirk, as, as an actor, there were good guys and bad guys, black hats and white hats. And not over analyzing it, but I think the Vietnam War had a lot to do with kind of redefining about, well, you know, we thought we were good and then it was seen in a different light in some of the situations that we're in now.

• 28:23Alec Baldwin?

  This is Stugatz from Stugatz and Company Live. Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on an all-wheel drive Camry, Corolla Cross or a Corolla Sedan with the latest features N-Tech or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or adventure-ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you can get more at trade-in. Get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  Hey, I'm Niall Rogers. This fall, I'll be driving across the country, meeting some of today's coolest and most fascinating artists. We'll explore the stories before the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the moment where it all began. Experience Before the Moment. A Lincoln Original Series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 29:33Speaker 05

  This life check-in is brought to you by State Farm. Porque el bienestar de tu familia también merece protección. When we had our first baby, I had it all planned out, right? Everything, apps, books, todo. Now that baby number two is here, I'm definitely going more with the flow. Hi, I'm Wilmer Valderrama and I've learned that with family, it's not about being perfect. It's about showing up every single day. Breathe, respira, change a diaper and I guess repeat. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

• 30:04Alec Baldwin?

  Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.

• 30:35Speaker 05

  I'm not great at costumes, but I know which bottles to bring. Every Halloween, I stop at Total Wine & More before the party. Cold beer for the crew, ready to drink cocktails for the night, and a bottle of tequila for whoever wins best costume. Halloween plans come together fast and Total Wine & More makes it easy to bring something for everyone at the lowest prices. I'm ready for Halloween. Are you? Get the party started for less at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B21.

• 31:05Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.