Nicolas Cage + Ken Burns (Carolla Classics)

Summary

Adam Carolla Show (Carolla Classics) – May 23, 2026

Episode: Nicolas Cage + Ken Burns

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Overview

This edition of The Adam Carolla Show: Carolla Classics features two highlight interviews from the show's rich archive: a lively 2019 conversation with eclectic actor Nicolas Cage and a deep-dive 2009 exchange with celebrated documentarian Ken Burns. The episode blends Adam’s signature irreverence, humor, and pop culture acumen with thoughtful discussions about filmmaking, fame, history, and iconic movies. Listeners are treated to memorable moments, amusing stories, and surprisingly insightful exchanges on cinema and American culture.

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Part 1: Interview with Nicolas Cage

Original Air Date: 2019
Starts ~[16:11]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cage’s Latest Project: "A Score to Settle"

• Adam welcomes Nicolas Cage, who introduces his new film, A Score to Settle ([16:13]).
• Cage highlights the heart of the film as the father-son dynamic, especially moved by his scenes with Noah LeGros:

  "It wasn’t so much the revenge or gangster element—it was more the kind of reveal at the end. And also those scenes where I’m taking them to dinner and I’m trying to make up for lost time." ([16:44]).

2. Training, Martial Arts & Family Connections

• Gina Grad reminisces about training with Terry Claibon and seeing Cage’s son, Weston, boxing ([17:45]).
• Cage shares his long history with martial arts including Wing Chun, boxing, and Jiu Jitsu, but admits:

  "I think I’m not the right person for martial arts because it kind of got in my head too much." ([18:47]).

3. On Fame, Humility, and Public Life

• Cage discusses the surreal nature of fame:

  "I don’t wake up in the morning and go 'Oh, I’m a movie star.' So when someone acts strange toward me, I start thinking there’s something wrong with me." ([21:51]).

• Credits the humility to his grandmother's strictness and values ([23:28]):

  "She was pretty tough about being humble and, you know, no profanity...So I’m almost afraid of doing anything wrong."

4. Work Ethic and Creative Longevity

• Cage reflects on why he works so much:

  "There’s a number of reasons I work so much. Some of it is definitely financial. But I don’t do very well when I don’t have a job... it’s like a working dog. I need work to stay on balance." ([24:44]).

• Sees value in VOD (video-on-demand):

  "I’ve never really made the transition to episodic television, but I did embrace Video on Demand...I now see Video on Demand as a good thing because I’m allowed to still play interesting characters." ([26:04]).

5. Television, Reboots, and Hollywood Trends

• Cage is cautious about TV, waiting for the right opportunity ([28:07]):

  "I have one blue-chip card to play with that, and it has to be 100%."

• Rumors about reboots:

  "The one that keeps sort of coming up but then not fully is National Treasure 3… It never really happened, which is too bad." ([29:22]).

6. On Quentin Tarantino and Film Nerdiness

• Expresses admiration for Tarantino and notes their shared roots:

  "We always have a really good conversation that has a lot of energy… but I heard he’s not directing again." ([31:03]).

• Offers critical thoughts on the portrayal of Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood:

  "I heard that Shannon was not happy with the portrayal of her father...He’s like such a maestro icon—Bruce Lee. So I’ll probably side with the family on that one, but I’ll enjoy the movie." ([33:05], [34:00]).

7. Moviegoing & Recommendations

• Enjoys seeing films with his son, specifically mentions Midsommar as "extraordinary," calling director Ari Aster "the Bergman of horror" ([35:16]).
• Enthuses about airplane and car movies, looking forward to Midway and the then-new Ford v Ferrari ([35:45], [40:30]).

8. Cars, Racing, and Personal Passions

• Adam and Nick discuss rare cars (Miuras, Porsche 935s)—bonding over shared interests ([38:06]).
• Cage fondly recalls owning and racing a Kremer 935:

  "It was so easy to drive, and yet it was a monster... you became one with the machine... I really wish I still had it." ([41:32])

• Adam invites Nick to visit his shop to view Paul Newman's race cars:

  "If you ever want to come down, I’ll give you an open invitation to see all of Paul Newman’s race cars." ([38:17])

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "I think my grandmother did that to me, where I want to be gentle and soft, but sometimes they'll say something that... I do feel like I should toughen up." – Nicolas Cage ([24:00])
• "I would break down and cry [if L.A. had a real traffic czar]...It would be a weepable, weepable moment." – Gina Grad, on local infrastructure, demonstrating the show’s signature comedic detour ([15:24])
• "I’d love to come by and check out some cool race cars." – Cage, closing out a friendly rapport with Adam ([42:51])

Timestamps for Highlights

• [16:13] – Cage joins the show
• [18:47] – Martial arts and acting
• [21:51] – Life as a celebrity
• [24:44] – Work habits & longevity
• [29:22] – National Treasure and reboots
• [31:03] – Quentin Tarantino and Bruce Lee
• [33:05] – On controversial portrayals in film
• [38:06] – Car talk and mutual invitations

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Part 2: Interview with Ken Burns

Original Air Date: 2009
Starts ~[103:13]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Art of Documentary Storytelling

• Burns describes his process as ongoing research and writing:

  "We never stop researching. We never stop writing...So it takes a really long time, but allows you to add layers of nuance..." ([104:36])

2. Endurance, History, and Emotional Connection

• Inspired to make films seeing his father cry during a movie as a child ([111:11]):

  "I watched my dad cry for the first time...I realized the power of the medium."

3. Chronicling the American Experience

• Discusses his work on Baseball, Prohibition, The Civil War, Jazz, Vietnam, and more—how each is constructed as a human story and not just a collection of facts ([109:45], [145:16]).
• The narrative strength of documentary:

  "Everything requires a story. That’s why we wanted to do it." ([125:00])

4. On Prohibition and Societal Change

• Lays out the core of his Prohibition doc ([151:07]):

  "This is a story about right-wing single-issue campaigns that metastasize... about the demonization of immigrants... about unintended consequences."

• How banning alcohol created more problems than it solved ([151:58]):

  "It made half the country lawbreakers... Female alcoholism, which was almost non-existent, became a huge social problem."

5. Race and the American Narrative

• Burns argues race is the central theme of American life:

  "African American history is at the center, the burning center, of American history..." ([161:59])

• On Chris Rock’s comment about trading places:

  "Chris Rock understands it. He says, 'I'm a millionaire and you would not trade places with me for anything.' And he's right." ([163:34])

6. Thoughts on Fame, Filmmaking, and Creative Satisfaction

• On not succumbing to commercial TV limits:

  "What’s great about PBS is that if that hour has to be...2 hours and 5 minutes, I get 2 hours and 5 minutes." ([143:15])

• When asked about the economics of documentaries:

  "You measure your richness in far more ways than the bottom line." ([145:53])

• Passion for continual discovery in his work:

  "Monday is like anticipation...I feel like I got the best job in the country." ([146:27])

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "There is no laughter in heaven." – Ken Burns, quoting Mark Twain on comedy and sorrow ([107:23])
• "Nothing so needs reform as other people’s habits." – (Mark Twain, cited by Burns, [154:31])
• "Baseball is the only sport in which the defense has the ball. The only sport without a clock. The only sport which has a rigid set of rules, but every outfield is different." – Burns on baseball’s uniqueness ([132:27])

Timestamps for Highlights

• [104:36] – Burns explains his process
• [111:11] – Early inspiration and power of movies
• [145:16] – Documentary economics
• [151:07] – Prohibition insights
• [161:59] – Race and American history

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Memorable Comic asides & Show Tone

Throughout both interviews, Adam and his co-hosts infuse serious topics with irreverent, fast-paced banter. Adam riffs on everything from L.A. traffic woes ([10:18]) to old sports anecdotes, and there are lighthearted bits about aging, race cars, and softballs. The guests match Adam’s playful but thoughtful tone—Cage with his eccentric enthusiasm for cars, fame, and acting; Burns with dry wit and deep perspective.

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Episode Timeline Guide (Key Segments)

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:45 | Carolla Classics intro/setup | | 03:13 | Adam and crew on listener families, Cage films| | 16:13 | Nicolas Cage joins the show | | 38:06 | Deep-dive into vintage cars and racing | | 43:01 | Post-interview car lore & Porsche stories | | 103:13 | Ken Burns interview begins | | 145:16 | Documentary funding/economics discussion | | 151:07 | Burns' take on Prohibition | | 161:59 | Race in American storytelling | | 169:27 | Outro/Carolla Classic segment ends |

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Takeaways for New Listeners

• Nicolas Cage appears as a thoughtful, self-aware veteran actor, passionate about work, family, and automotive history, candid about the complicated reality of fame and humble origins.
• Ken Burns gives a masterclass in why history matters, how documentaries are shaped, and why the American story is inexorably tied to race, ambition, and paradox.
• The show’s tone is irreverent and quick-witted, with Adam Carolla steering playful tangents alongside earnest explorations—appealing both to longtime fans and podcast newcomers interested in film and American culture.

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Notable Quotes Recap

• "I don’t wake up in the morning and go, 'Oh, I'm a movie star.' So when someone acts strange toward me, I start thinking there’s something wrong with me." – Nicolas Cage ([21:51])
• "Everything requires a story. And that’s why we wanted to do documentaries." – Ken Burns ([125:00])
• "Monday is not a bummer. Friday is not liberation. The people I work with are the people I play with." – Ken Burns ([146:27])

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For those who haven’t listened, this episode provides a satisfying blend of pop-culture anecdotes, deep dives into Hollywood and American society, and the signature Carolla humor—making history and celebrity feel equally human and accessible.

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

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[Brian Bishop]

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[Gina Grad]

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[Brian Bishop]

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and more at Apple Co AirPods.

[Gina Grad]

Welcome to Cruel Classics.

[Dave Dameshek]

I'm your host, super fan Giovanni.

[Gina Grad]

This is the podcast we play the

[Dave Dameshek]

best moments, highlights and fans like the

[Gina Grad]

clips from all 17 years of the Adam Carolla Show. If you would like to access the

[Dave Dameshek]

AD free archives, the Adam Corolla show,

[Gina Grad]

the Adam and Dr. Dream Drew show,

[Dave Dameshek]

as well as the podcast Beat it

[Gina Grad]

out, make sure to check out Adam

[Dave Dameshek]

Carolla substack adamcarolla.substack.com and if you'd like

[Gina Grad]

to request a clip, Please email us classicsamcrolo.com all right, let's get to the clips. Coming up first, today we have Adam

[Dave Dameshek]

Crolla show 2630 featuring the great Nicholas Cage along with Gina Craddock and Brian Bishop from 2019.

[Gina Grad]

Hope you guys enjoy.

[Producer/Announcer]

Sliding into a superset of the hits that radio forgotten, sifting through the bottom of the toolbox to pull out this one. Let's face it, everybody owns Zepp4 and no one is racing to play Stairway to Heaven. So we dig deep while the others sleep, going where no station dares to go inside your favorite albums for a

[Gina Grad]

deep track delivered to distract from the

[Producer/Announcer]

rage of the modern age. As Marianne Williamson says, it's all about love, folks. So let's make that tumbleweed connection and name all of our daughters Amarina. Others may have forgotten, but we remember love on the toolbox.

[Gina Grad]

I've been thinking how much I miss my lady.

[Adam Carolla]

Amarina's in our coffee

[Gina Grad]

riding in the

[Adam Carolla]

debris Living like a luster flower Running

[Gina Grad]

through the grass for hours Rolling through the cave like a puppet child and when it rains the rain falls down Washing out the cattle town and she's

[Adam Carolla]

following somewh

[Gina Grad]

in her eyes are down and she dreams of crystal strings of

[Adam Carolla]

days gone by when we would leave laughing.

[Producer/Announcer]

From Corolla One Studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Carolla Show. Adam's guest today, Nicolas Cage with Gina Grad on News Vault, Bryant on Sound Effects will play around of the Rotten Tomatoes game and Dave Dameshek's here for good sports. And now a man who spent more time studying Face off and Con Air than some rabbis have spent studying the Torah.

[Gina Grad]

Adam Carolla. Yeah. Get it on. Got to get it on a church, but to get on mandate. Get it on. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for sharing. I love when you share the show with a co worker. Loved one. I love when I go to the live shows and the father and the son come in, or the mother and the daughter frequently, actually, and they say, I got my mom into it. Or vice versa. So good on. Good day, Gina grad.

[Brian Bishop]

Good day to you.

[Gina Grad]

Handball. Brian, don't worry, I can talk. All right. Nick Cage gonna be phoning in in a couple of few. And yes, I have seen the Rock many times. I've seen Con Air many, many times.

[Brian Bishop]

You can take a deep dive with Nick.

[Gina Grad]

Ghost Rider. I've seen many times.

[Dave Dameshek]

Gina expresses befuddlement at the rock. Of those types of movies, the Rock is excellent.

[Gina Grad]

Yes.

[Dave Dameshek]

For that genre. The Rock is towards the top, it's

[Gina Grad]

noted, of those type of movies, big

[Dave Dameshek]

action movies of that era.

[Gina Grad]

And we have a list of Nic Cage's big ones here. But of course, off the list, not on the list, I don't believe is Raising Arizona, which is his best. It's hard to say what his best is, but that is a. That's a groundbreaking. That's a groundbreaking movie. Absolutely, absolutely groundbreaking. I mean, Coen Brothers. And I was just watching. I was watching, like, casting Randall Tex Cobb in that scene when he's going in and talking to Nathan to see whatever. Yeah, yeah. And I just love that. I love all those exchanges where you gotta go, the FBI goes to the guy runs the place. He goes, any disgruntled employees? And he goes, hell, yeah, they're all disgruntled. I'm not running a daisy farm. Daisy farm. They're all disgruntled.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah, they're all disgruntled.

[Brian Bishop]

Would you buy furniture from a place called Unpainted Hoof Hines?

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. Randall text Cobb going in there and just sitting down, smoking his cigar, grabbing the fly off the guy's nose.

[Brian Bishop]

He was especially cruel to the little things.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, God.

[Dave Dameshek]

The flower burst into flames as he drives past him.

[Brian Bishop]

The bunnies.

[Gina Grad]

That movie, man, what a mix. What a. What an artistic endeavor. Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Dameshek]

Early in their career to the cobras. I think they do one or two movies at that point.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah.

[Dave Dameshek]

And like, hardcore, like, dramas.

[Brian Bishop]

And Brian, you would probably know this because it's so random, but have you ever seen an opening of a movie that long before the opening credits?

[Dave Dameshek]

Oh, wow.

[Brian Bishop]

Was it like 15 minutes I mean, it's, it's lengthy.

[Dave Dameshek]

Good call.

[Gina Grad]

So, all good. And we'll talk to Nick about that or whatever he can talk about. I don't know. I feel like the last time I talked to him I did one of those things. It is one of those things where. What the hell? I have a thing. It's an interesting thing when you talk to somebody about like, Nick Cage had a Lamborghini Miura and I had a Lamborghini Miura.

[Dave Dameshek]

Miura Bros. Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

They don't meet a lot of guys who own Lamborghini Miuras, but he had one, I had one. And the last time we spoke 12 years ago on my morning show, I remember thinking, oh, there's something.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

So it's sort of like, oh, we went to the same high school back and we missed each other by two years, but we went to the same high school or something.

[Dave Dameshek]

Some point of coming out.

[Gina Grad]

And I just brought up, hey, Nick Miura, man. Huh? I have a Miura. And he was like, okay. It's like, all right, next. Next. Wow. Okay, I have a belt. It's made of leather. What about you?

[Brian Bishop]

Big shiny buckle.

[Dave Dameshek]

I've seen Con Air. You were in Con Air.

[Gina Grad]

Let's talk Con Air. So it was a little stilted, so I'm. I'm worried we may run into a little of that. But we got that working for us. Brought Sonny in with me today. He's going to be doing a little work with Dave Nameshek and myself with a little sports after this.

[Brian Bishop]

It's about time he gets on a sports show.

[Gina Grad]

He was explaining that he enjoys talking into a microphone. So we got that working for us. Let's see, there was a tweet. I'm trying to think of what I can do here in the next three and a half min minutes. Somebody did tweet me when I was complaining about the Arrow in Burbank and leaving the Burbank airport, why the arrow was red and why all the cars were backed up and why it wasn't just blinking yellow and how come we're not smarter. I saw a sign that it was weird. I had this moment. Every once in a while you have one of those moments like you know everything and everybody by the pattern. I was standing in the kitchen this morning and the doorbell rang. So how did I know who was on the other side of the door? It could be ups, it could be Amazon just dropping something off. It could be any Postmates, Some ihop. Yes, Postmates. Ihop. Breakfast. Apro, Vechecha. Los ahoros de Memorial Day en los y compra los vasicos pare lugar pormenos ahoro centadola resend char Royal Performance Series. It could be anybody. The doorbell rang, and I thought, hmm, who's that? And then it rang again, and I said, natalia's at the front door. Because that's what Natalia does, and no one else does that. Everyone else presses it once, and then, like a human being, they wait for you.

[Brian Bishop]

Patiently waits.

[Gina Grad]

But not Natalia. She hits it again three seconds later. If you were running, coincidentally, if you were sprinting toward the front door, coincidentally, just like I'm racing to the front door doing my laps, you still wouldn't make it before she hit it again, after she hit it the first time. But that's how I know, because of the pattern. And so I was looking up at a freeway sign. I was driving into whatever morning, whatever, whatever. And I just. Like, there was like, a truck in front of me or something. And I spotted the top of one of our electronic freeway signs in la, which my beef with la. In a town with the worst traffic in the world and the longest commutes in the world, every single sign just reads, slow it down.

[Brian Bishop]

Right?

[Gina Grad]

It's slow for the cone zone, slow for the workers. Click, click it. Or tickets. It's safety or slow. They have two modes. Safety or slow. There is no. You can turn right on a red. There is no move over and let people pass you in the left lane. There's no way. It's all slow it down. Which is a bizarre pitch in a town with the worst traffic and the longest commutes. Bring it down. It's like if a guy was high on quaaludes and ether and you walked in and just went, hey, bring it down a notch, dude.

[Brian Bishop]

Like, grab a chair.

[Gina Grad]

Yes, you're spread out. Slow it down. No, we're already ground to a halt.

[Brian Bishop]

A little taunting.

[Gina Grad]

I saw a. I saw the top of the electronic freeway sign as I glanced up and it just said. It said move over. And I thought, could they be saying, move over if someone. Like, when you're in the left lane, or there's faster traffic behind you, or make room, like, for one fleeting moment, might we be talking about moving? Hey, when you're in that left lane and someone's moving, move it on over. Let them by. So I was like, holy, Dear God. Christ. First off, the ruskies have hacked into the system. This isn't something our fucking pussy mayor would ever write or anyone I've ever known. Would ever put on this goddamn thing. And it said, move over. And then it's. Then the truck kind of passed and it said, for construction, it says move

[Dave Dameshek]

over or slow for.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, then slow down. I was like, I was like, okay,

[Adam Carolla]

all is right back on track.

[Gina Grad]

All is right in the universe. They're telling us to slow down. I've never seen anything saying anything about speeding up or efficiency or get it going or pull it over when you get an offender better. There's nothing involving movement. It's all retardation, not advancement. Retard. Retard. I can legally say retard. All right. Yes.

[Dave Dameshek]

It's a perfect microcosm of L. A and how they screw everything up that could be. They have this infrastructure, right? These signs are everywhere. You can communicate to everyone in L. A, any message you want. And they choose the most inefficient execution of that ability.

[Adam Carolla]

You know what I mean?

[Dave Dameshek]

Like, the thing that makes me think of is, okay, so they, people outside the area, they opened a, an expo line that goes from downtown from the Coliseum all, all the way to the beach in Santa Monica. You know, it's gonna, it's a train that's gonna get people to and from high speed, blah, blah. It's gonna alleviate traffic.

[Gina Grad]

Wow, great.

[Dave Dameshek]

It was like a three year, four or five year project. Like it was multi million dollar project. Like, wow, what a great idea. It's gonna alleviate congestion downtown, congestion to the beach, blah, blah, blah. Of course they did the most inefficient way. It like goes along surface streets and you have to say it makes traffic worse on these major north south streets and it stops at red lights in certain parts of the city as the most inefficient execution of this potentially great thing.

[Gina Grad]

How excited would you guys be? And the fact that LA has the worst traffic in the world and it has no. And there is no traffic czar. Although Toronto has a traffic czar and Orange county has a traffic czar, But LA doesn't have a traffic czar. You tell me if this is a weepable moment. There's teachable moments. Is this a weepable moment? Would you fall to your knees and break down into tears if we got Christoph Waltz? You didn't know who Christoph Waltz was, but he was a Christoph Waltz from a Tarantino movie type character. Mustache with some wax in it, whatever. He's dressed in a full blown racing suit, fire suit.

[Adam Carolla]

So far so good.

[Gina Grad]

He just pulls in to the center downtown at the Civic center in front of the Federal Building and He's driving an F1 car. And he gets out and he announces, I am your new traffic czar. I will fix this goddamn town. And he does a thing with his mustache where he twists it a little bit.

[Dave Dameshek]

In my hand, I hold all the answers he has like a document or like a little dossier, right?

[Gina Grad]

I've been studying this from afar. I've been here, hill and dale. I've been covering this town. And now I have this. And then he reaches to his right and pulls out a energy drink. That's the NAS energy drink. And this says nitro on it. He just takes a hit off it and throws it over his shoulder. And he says, not interested in pollution. Not interested in recycling. I am interested in traffic.

[Dave Dameshek]

Sole focus. I sold my company years ago and dedicated the last five years to studying LA traffic patterns.

[Brian Bishop]

Superhero.

[Gina Grad]

And at some point, he announces he drove here from Germany. And you go and you go, wait a minute, you mean you. Silence.

[Adam Carolla]

He yells, is the shuttleback.

[Gina Grad]

And that's it. Gets back in the car, throws a couple of revs, lights up the rear tires and just goes off into the sunset.

[Dave Dameshek]

Our conquering hero.

[Gina Grad]

I would break down. It would be a weepable, weepable moment.

[Dave Dameshek]

Even Alyssa. Take my money.

[Gina Grad]

I would break down and cry. Yeah, we don't have a traffic person.

[Dave Dameshek]

That's crazy.

[Gina Grad]

Look, okay, you can say traffic, all right? But okay, the mayor doesn't care about traffic. The governor doesn't care about traffic. But you do care about pollution. Yeah. Yeah. Are you listening? Now, worry about the poor people and the super long commutes and the home ownership and people having to live so far out of town to afford a home and then the super long commute in and all. What about all that that comes up? That would help. It would help that. Oh, is Nick on five?

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah, five.

[Gina Grad]

Nicholas Cage.

[Nicolas Cage]

Hi there. How are you?

[Gina Grad]

I'm good. This is Adam Carolla. Good to speak to you again.

[Nicolas Cage]

Good to speak with you again as well.

[Gina Grad]

I very much enjoyed Score to Settle. That's the name of the new movie. It is out in theaters and it's available on VOD today. As you hear this with Benjamin Bratt in it as well.

[Nicolas Cage]

And Noah Lagrosse, who plays my son, who's very good.

[Gina Grad]

And I'm trying to think of where I know him from. Noah Lagrosse.

[Nicolas Cage]

Noah. It's interesting, his performance. You know, there's a huge twist to the movie which I won't give away, but I thought he was really dead on because there's a kind of a spectral quality to the performance that reveals itself, but there's an element to it that is a surprise. And also, you know, he reminded me a bit of my actual son, Weston. So it was an easy fit for me to get ramp up and get it in my imagination that I was actually having father and son conversations with Noah. And that's why I made the movie. I thought it had a ton of heart in those scenes. It wasn't so much the. The revenge or the gangster element. It was more the kind of reveal at the end. And also those scenes where I'm taking them to dinner and I'm trying to make up for lost time.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, it's very moving. It's very touching, and it works. I was thinking about your son, Weston, many years ago when I was boxing with Terry Claibon as my trainer. I think I passed your son who was training boxing with Terry Claibon years ago as well. Is that right?

[Nicolas Cage]

That is 100% right. And I'm so glad to hear that name. I thought Terry was terrific. I love Terry. What's really going on? Isn't that what he always said, what's really going on?

[Gina Grad]

He would just yell, what's going on?

[Nicolas Cage]

Weston to be his heavyweight. Weston had tremendous martial arts skills. And I thought Terry. Terry and Weston worked great together.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, Terry was a great guy. Is a great guy. I worked with him for many years. He trained me and he trained me for a movie I made called the Hammer as well. And I know you probably have a martial art. I mean, you've done a ton of combat, a ton of fighting in the action movies. You have a martial arts background, Nick?

[Nicolas Cage]

I started in martial arts when I was 12. I went to gung fu. I started with wing chun. My teacher, Jim Lau, and then I did a little bit of boxing. I didn't get back into it until much later when I trained with Hoist Gracie. I made it to blue belt in jiu jitsu. But I found that the martial arts started messing with my head. Like if I went into a bar, I would start looking at people's necks. I didn't like power, so I can I use it now only in terms of training. If I have a scene in a movie where the training comes back, like in Mandy or even. I just did something recently called jiu jitsu. But I'm taking a much more gentle approach and philosophy in my life. I think I'm not the right person for martial arts because it kind of got in my head too much.

[Gina Grad]

I'll tell you what works. You go into the bar. You initially focus on the necks, but then you tilt down 6 inches and stare at the tits. And I find it to be a pleasant distraction.

[Dave Dameshek]

No more necks.

[Gina Grad]

You gotta just move the focus down a little, Nick.

[Nicolas Cage]

That's exactly right. That's the spirit. Yep, that's right.

[Dave Dameshek]

My neck is up here, fellas.

[Gina Grad]

So, you know, we had Martin Cove in here a couple days back, and he was explaining to his son and your son, not that it's all about Wesson, but it's a weird co. Are working on or finished a movie together.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah, I saw it. I thought they were terrific together. And what's more, first of all, I was very proud of Weston, and I thought that Weston handled a mass dialogue as that character brilliantly. I thought Jesse was. Had a lot of movie star energy and charisma. And what's more, I thought Marty was. He was brilliant. He played this Polish kind of hunter who was a refugee, who was. There was something so unusual about his delivery and there was a rhythm that he had that I thought was completely unique. And I was blown away by what Marty did. Cope did in that movie. So.

[Gina Grad]

D day. Yeah, well, it was just. We know. It's all these confluence of things. I remember Terry Claibon. I remember your son being over at the gym.

[Nicolas Cage]

It sounds like you and I should get some coffee. We're almost family at this point.

[Gina Grad]

Well, I'd love to go out with Nick Cage to the Starbucks, but people flock around me so much, Nick, and they hound me for autographs.

[Dave Dameshek]

They'll hand the phone to Nick and say, nick, sir, can you take a picture of me and Carola?

[Gina Grad]

It just be a waste of our time. We should just sit. We'll sit in the car and talk, drive through Starbucks.

[Dave Dameshek]

They have those.

[Gina Grad]

Do you. Can you get outside? Can you go about. Can you go out to dinner? Can you go to Starbucks without people bothering you?

[Nicolas Cage]

Well, no. The thing that's interesting is, you know, I don't wake up in the morning, go, oh, I'm a movie star. Oh, I'm famous. I really don't. And so there are moments where when it happens, and it does happen quite a bit, you know, I've had some great moments and interactions with people. I've had some not so great moments and interactions with people. But I don't understand why some people are acting so strange. And I start thinking there's something wrong with me because it is that I feel like I have triggered people in some ways because they've seen me in a movie. And of course, I haven't. I don't even remember the movie they've seen me in, or I don't. I'm not thinking of myself in those terms. I'm just thinking, I want to go get some coffee. I'm going to go to the grocery store and I'm going to buy some bell peppers and what am I going to make for dinner tonight? I'm not, you know, so it's kind of like every time it's like, fresh. It's complete rethink. And I know it sounds odd, but I don't. I don't meet people thinking, oh, oh, that's right. I'm someone they've seen in a movie. So it is a kind of a. Every time I have to go through it again and go, okay, I see what's happening here. And that has something I've never really gotten used to.

[Gina Grad]

Well, do you think that's something that's just burned into you? I don't know if you want to call it a humbleness, but. But a sort of something that's burned into you as a young man, and it'll never change that. It just seems odd. Or sometimes people come up and they'll say your name, and you'll think you must know them from high school or from some other walk of life.

[Nicolas Cage]

I think there's something like that going on. I do. And I think probably a lot of that I have to attribute to my. My grandmother, who did a lot of the raising of myself and my brothers, who's no longer with us, but she was pretty tough about being humble and, you know, no profanity. And I remember she would wash my mouth out with dishwashing soap if I said, damn it. And, you know, it was pretty rough. And I. So I'm almost afraid of doing anything wrong. I mean, I'm actually the guy that goes into a restaurant, and I think they want me to leave. And I keep asking who I'm with, are they upset that I'm still here? And so I think my grandmother did that to me, where I want to meet and be gentle and be soft. But sometimes they'll say something that just. I don't know what I did wrong. And so I do feel like I should toughen up a little bit.

[Gina Grad]

What is Score to Settle is the name of the movie. It's very good. I watched it last night. It's in theaters, and it's available on vodka today. What's the longest you've ever went without working, without making a film, since you essentially became a working I think I

[Nicolas Cage]

went for about a year. Yeah, I went for about a year between Joe movie I made several years back and I don't know what the movie was just before Joe. It might have been Spirit of Vengeance, I don't know. But I went for about a year and that was the longest I ever went. I think that there's a number of different reasons why I work so much. Yes, some of it is definitely financial. Other things are, you know, I don't do very well when I don't have some, a job to do. You know, sometimes I'll, I'll, I can, I can I get kind of anxious or. It's like, like a working dog. Like if you have a Doberman and you don't exercise a dog, he's going to get hyperactive. And so I think that I need work to stay on balance. I'm much more healthier, I'm working out, I'm more careful with my well being. And the other thing is that by working I'm staying in shape as an artist, if you will, if I can use that word, my instrument, which is my body and my voice and my imagination is in shape because of the amount of practice. And then I began to remember old movies that would come on television. We had something called the Million Dollar Movie and also the Movie of the Week. And I was always so excited to see these actors like Charles Bronson or Rock Hudson or Dennis Weaver. There was like macmillan and Wife. There was Once Upon a Time in the west. And they would have these, or James Garner actually, and they would have these like returned characters on these movies of the week. And there was a lot of them. But I began to develop in my own mind. I had a relationship with, with these stars. And I think that's what's happening with Video on Demand for me anyway. I now see Video on Demand in that format as a good thing because I'm allowed to still play interesting characters. And I've developed a relationship with folks at home. I've never really made the transition to episodic television, but I did embrace Video on Demand. And I think by being there and continuing to have movies that you can surf and find on a channel, I'm hopefully developing that relationship that I thought I had as an audience member with Bronson with Dennis Weaver, in the Cloud with the Hudson and macmillan and Wife with Bill Bixby. I mean, and I. Courtship of Eddie's

[Gina Grad]

Father, Night Gallery, all that Trilogy of Terror I saw, all those Trapped, those amazing Dobermans. Everything was about James Brolin.

[Nicolas Cage]

Oh, that was a great movie. That was Brolin in that one.

[Gina Grad]

Brolin, he's trapped in a department store with killer Dobermans. There was Dobermans that robbed banks.

[Nicolas Cage]

That one slipped me out. Yeah, that slipped me out. That was terrifying.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, there was Bad Ronald. There was Killer B.

[Dave Dameshek]

All the classics.

[Gina Grad]

There was Kill Dozer, another.

[Dave Dameshek]

What was that about?

[Gina Grad]

Well, there's a bulldozer, but it's not friendly. Nicholas, I know our time is limited. Tv. Everyone is doing tv. All the big stars are doing television now. But I don't feel like you are. Do you want to. Are you being asked? Do you refuse? How's that work?

[Nicolas Cage]

I've had many opportunities to do it. As I said, I'm enjoying the video on demand relationship that I have, but I think I do have to start diversifying my portfolio and looking at television. It just has to be the right one. I mean, I really want to nail it. I.

[Gina Grad]

Because that's.

[Nicolas Cage]

That's the gamble with television. If you don't get it right, you know, that's it. I have one blue chip card to play with that, and it has to be 100%. And so I'm just waiting for the right television opportunity that I feel I'm going to get. The return on that. I want the. I think there. I think it could work, and I think there could be an audience there, and it would be interesting. And I. And I want it to be, you know, stellar.

[Gina Grad]

Well, maybe they'll reboot Killdozer and we'll find a juicy.

[Nicolas Cage]

Well, I have to see that now. That one I didn't get to see. I missed that one.

[Gina Grad]

I think James Brolin may be in that bad boy, too. Tell me who's in that, Chris. They must. They must be talking all the time about rebooting the Rock or Face off or Con Air. These conversations must come up. In a world where everyone is renewing or rebooting everything. Has this come up?

[Nicolas Cage]

Well, the one that keeps sort of coming up but then not fully is National Treasure 3. I mean, I think that one, that was such a.1 very entertaining. It was funny. It dealt with history on some level, and it was. It was appealing to the whole family. And I think it just. It would be a very successful movie if they managed to find a way to do it. It's just. I don't. It never really happened, which is too bad, because that was pretty solid entertainment.

[Gina Grad]

I loved them. I saw them in the theaters. It was right up my alley, by the way, Killdozer, Clint Walker, James Wainwright, Neville, Brandon, Bob Urich. Robert Urich was in that bad boy. I see you in the Urich role.

[Nicolas Cage]

I remember him. Very good.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, Robert Urich.

[Nicolas Cage]

There's so many good actors that sometimes kind of as we get on, we forget about them. But they were great actors. I mean, Robert Culp is a great actor. He did some great stuff in television as well. He was on the Outer Limits, and he made some great. He even directed a terrific movie called something. Hickey and Boggs or something. I'm not sure.

[Gina Grad]

How about you and Tarantino getting together on something? I feel like you're both sort of film and TV nerds, almost the same era, the same type. When I hear you talking all of this history, I hear a little Tarantino. You guys ever got together and discussed.

[Nicolas Cage]

Well, we've met each other socially, and I've always liked. And I think we always have a really good conversation that has a lot of energy and enthusiasm. But, yeah, I heard he wasn't going to direct again, or he's just one more movie. I guess it's not really in the cards. But I like him as a person. I like his presentation, even on interviews. He has so much great energy about the craft of filmmaking. By the way, I'm probably gonna go see the new movie today or tomorrow. I heard great things about it, and I always thought Brad Pitt brought something surprising to each and every one of his characters. I always admired what he did, so I'm looking forward to what he does with it.

[Gina Grad]

You know, you're gonna enjoy. Cause you and I are the same age, and Quentin Tarantino is a year older than us, and we all grew up in the Valley, in the city, I guess. You grew up. You went to Beverly Hills High, but you grew up in what city? Nick Cage?

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah, I was. Grew. I was Long Beach, California. So I was in the 70s, you know, that all that kind of stuff was on my mind. The only thing that I'm a little worried about with the movie, and if I can be so bold as I. I read that the Bruce Lee family is not too happy with the portrayal of Bruce in the movie. And I'm a huge Bruce Lee enthusiast and admirer. And he's been kind of like a, dare I say, surrealist father for me in some of my own choices as a film actor in terms of the size and the exaggeration of his characters, which I always enjoyed. There was a kind of an operatic quality about it. Indeed, I tried to adopt it even a little in the movie Mandy, but I heard that Shannon was Not happy with the portrayal of her father. And Linda, the wife, was not happy. Am I accurate in that assessment?

[Gina Grad]

Well, the only family more upset is the Manson family, who's upset over the portrayal of their children.

[Brian Bishop]

Bad optics.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. Bruce came across. You don't hear this that often about diminutive Asian men, but he came across as a little douchey.

[Dave Dameshek]

He's a bit two dimensional in the movie. It's kind of like portraying Elvis Presley. He's such a larger than life figure, historical, that they kind of got away with making him a caricature. But yes, he's not a well developed character.

[Gina Grad]

But it is.

[Nicolas Cage]

I'll probably take some umbrage with that, but I'm sure I'm gonna love what Brad Pitt did and I'm gonna love Quentin's extraordinary filmmaking style.

[Gina Grad]

You will, and you'll have a good laugh during the Bruce Lee segment because it was funny.

[Dave Dameshek]

It's at the service of Brad Pitt's character. That helps develop his character a little bit.

[Gina Grad]

That is. That is true. Nicholas, I know you have. I know you're on a.

[Nicolas Cage]

He's like such a maestro icon, Bruce Lee. So I'll probably side with the family on that one, but I'll enjoy the movie.

[Gina Grad]

Now, when you goes out and see the movie, you're gonna be wearing like a ball cap and sunglasses and a turtleneck sweater. Are you gonna get recognized? And then is someone gonna want to sit next to Nick Cage?

[Nicolas Cage]

Vegas. So we're at 110 degree weather, so I'll probably lose the turtleneck.

[Gina Grad]

But I thought you left Las Vegas.

[Nicolas Cage]

A black baseball cap and some sunglasses until the lights go down. Yes.

[Gina Grad]

And how often do you make it

[Dave Dameshek]

out to see movies? You obviously love movies, but you make five or six or seven a year. How often do you make it out to the movies?

[Nicolas Cage]

Well, it's kind of a family event for me. I like to go with my younger son, Cal, who's 13. I go with him. And there's some movies I'm more excited about than others. I still like to enjoy the widescreen cinema, both sound and visual. I'm excited about seeing this new Midway movie, which I. When I love all those airplanes. So that's certainly something I'm going to want to go to the theater to see. I was a fan of the old one with Heston.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah.

[Nicolas Cage]

So I'll step out for that. I'm gonna go see Quentin's movie. I thought Midsommar was extraordinary. I thought this Ari Oster is like the Bergman of horror. And indeed I found out he did a podcast himself where he said so and I, I saw the movie and didn't even know that. I told, I said he was Bergman and then he talked about how he was using the close ups from Persona. So that was a real treat to see some movie like that in the theater.

[Gina Grad]

That, that's called Mid. Is that Mid Sumner or something?

[Brian Bishop]

Midsommar S mmar, I believe.

[Nicolas Cage]

Midsommar, yeah.

[Gina Grad]

And it's.

[Nicolas Cage]

The Girl in a Pew is probably gonna win the Oscar this year. She's outstanding.

[Dave Dameshek]

I saw it too, Nick, and she was fantastic.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah. Now she's the new black widow, I'm told. I think that's incredible.

[Dave Dameshek]

She's good. She's very talented.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, by the way, Nick, Terry Claibon, you know what he would yell when you walked into the gym? He would yell, I got it. I got it is what he would yell. Been bothering me for a while.

[Nicolas Cage]

I don't remember that. I got it. What was the connotation? What has he got?

[Gina Grad]

You know, the beauty about being a boxing trainer is you need no contact. One time Terry said to me, adam, you know what boxing's about? Boxing is about putting faces in seats. And I think he meant fannies in seats. But he said taking faces and putting them in seats. And I nodded my head and I said, you've never been, you've never been more correct. Gary Claibon. Nick, when you're in, you go back and forth between Los Angeles and Vegas a lot.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah. Well, I do want to say one thing. Do you remember when Kerry would go boxing stance?

[Gina Grad]

Yes. And everyone would snap into boxing stance.

[Nicolas Cage]

You got to get ready and get in position. Yeah, I got it. Yeah. I split my time between Las Vegas, Nevada and downtown la Santa Southern California. I have a modest apartment in downtown la and I have a play a little place in Vegas. And I like it like that. I enjoy both energies of both cities. I particularly enjoy downtown la. I feel like it's not like anywhere else in the world. It's almost like a dreamscape. When I'm walking around and I go to my Japanese restaurant or wherever I go, I feel like I'm in some sort of a De Chirico painting. It's just so unusual and odd that I really enjoy it.

[Gina Grad]

I'm gonna put this out there. I don't know if you're a fan of Paul Newman.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah, I mean, I thought the Hustler was his best work. He's not my main influence, but I thought the Hustler was pretty terrific.

[Gina Grad]

Well, I Have you like airplanes? I like airplanes, too. I like race cars as well. I know you like cars. And I have 11 of Paul Newman's race cars at my shop, which is not too far from downtown. All the cars he raced from all his seasons. So if you ever want to come down, I'll give you an open invitation to see all of Paul Newman's race cars that he ran in the 80s and the 90s through the trans Am series.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

Hell, yeah.

[Nicolas Cage]

I would love to see that. That's really interesting. That's one of the things I genuinely admired about him was, well, first the hustler and then, of course, later, the Verdict. I thought he was brilliant in that movie. But the fact that he was racing well on into his years and he was a true race driver and a true enthusiast, I thought that took a lot of guts. And so I always admired him for that.

[Gina Grad]

He raced up until the age of 83 and ran at Le Mans and won four championships. Was a legitimate, legitimate driver.

[Nicolas Cage]

He was. And the other thing that's really remarkable is that Newman's own, that brand. He did all that. So that's, you know, that's about as good as it gets.

[Gina Grad]

I'd say it's a pretty good. Pretty good legacy. And I actually made a doc called winning the racing life of Paul Newman that you can look up if you like, and it covers that entire world score to settle. Well, watch it. I think you can. You don't have to leave the house. You don't have to put on the sunglasses and the cabbie. Enjoy the aircon and movie score to settle in theaters. And it's also available on a VOD as well. Nick Cage. Honestly, I'm out in Glendale, and if you want to come by and I don't know, bring your boy, bring west, and I'll bring Terry Claibon. We can have a reunion, and you can look at a whole bunch of Paul Newman race cars. That'd be fun.

[Nicolas Cage]

Oh, I would love that. Do you have a GT? The old GT40 with the Golf colors?

[Gina Grad]

I have. Which, by the way, this whole building's painted like that. The building we're in right now is painted like the Golf livery of the GT 40s at 1 in the late 60s at Le Mans. I know Ford v Ferrari movie coming out with Matt Damon and Christian Bale in it. I don't know if you're excited about that as well. Made a doc called the 24 Hour War, which is all about that. And no, I don't have a GT40. I do have Newman's Porsche 935 that he wanted one Le Mans in about 10 years later.

[Nicolas Cage]

I love that car. What Was it? The K935K. Was that.

[Gina Grad]

Was it called Kremer K?

[Nicolas Cage]

Yes. I have one of those. And I raced it out of Willow Springs, and that was absolute. I had it in a Lowen brow colors. One of my favorite cars I've ever driven. I really wish I still had it.

[Gina Grad]

You had a Kremer 935?

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah, in the low and brow colors. It was light blue, too. And, oh, my God. You know, I described the car as a pussycat when I sold it because it was so easy to drive, and yet it was a monster. But it was like you became one with the machine. You were a cyborg. It did everything you wanted to do, and you never felt like you were in danger.

[Gina Grad]

I have Newman's 935 that he ran at Le Mans in 1979. He came in second overall, first in the GT class, second to a Kremer K935 driven by the Whittington brothers from 1980. And I'm taking this thing to Laguna Seca in two weeks for the Monterey Rolex Historics and racing it. So if you want to come by the track, please.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah, no, that sounds great. I'd love to see that car again. Great car. Not surprised he won in that.

[Gina Grad]

You should have hung on to your Kremer 935k, because I think those things are kind of expensive now.

[Nicolas Cage]

Well, cool. I'd love to see your cars, man. I really enjoy a conversation. And also, I'll say to Weston, I'll talk about it with Terry Claybourne and all that. He'll love to hear about it.

[Gina Grad]

Tell him to come by. I'll hold the focus pads for Weston. Work on that jet.

[Nicolas Cage]

Okay? That would be great.

[Gina Grad]

All right, I'll get your info off the air, and we'll put a date on, and you guys can come by and check out some cool race cars.

[Nicolas Cage]

Beautiful.

[Gina Grad]

Thanks.

[Nicolas Cage]

Thanks again.

[Gina Grad]

Thanks. Hey, Nicolas Cage, everybody. Score to settle. Name of the movie? Movie in theaters as we speak and also available on VOD. He had a 935k. Why wasn't I warned of this? I should have been aware of this. What kind of research did you do? Segment producer. Yeah, the first thing you do.

[Dave Dameshek]

I know for every guest, all her was Mira.

[Gina Grad]

All right, now listen. Wednesday, when Tina Fey comes on. God damn it. Before she comes on this goddamn program,

[Dave Dameshek]

find what vintage race cars he owns.

[Gina Grad]

Look, I'm not saying it's a 935k.

[Brian Bishop]

He's not crazy.

[Gina Grad]

It could just be a straight 935. I don't know. But we're. Or it could be an RSR or it could be 934. We don't know. But in. The reason we don't know is because we don't ask. Right. So find out what kind of vintage Porsche Tina Fey is driving before she comes on. Don't make me stumble into it on the air.

[Adam Carolla]

Got it.

[Dave Dameshek]

I'd say once I put the spooky

[Adam Carolla]

house thing on there, that's cool, right?

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. But the fact that he had a Kremer 9:35.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Gina Grad]

I'm really sorry. That's the car. Remember the Whittington brothers showed up to

[Brian Bishop]

Le Mans that was all tricked out and padded with.

[Gina Grad]

No, I mean, later on they did it. The Whittington brothers were the drug smuggler airplane racers who showed up at Le Mans and said to the Kremer guy who built the 935k for Kremer, he said, well, we're driving in this race with this professional driver. And the Kremer guy said, yeah, first, guys. Klaus, whoever has been driving this car for a year, he's won a bunch of races in Germany. He goes first, then you two go after him. And then they went, what if he crashes or something happens to the car? What if the car breaks while he's driving it? And the Kramer guy goes, well, then, tough. That's racing. And they went, how much for the car? The guy went, I don't know. 300 grand. This is 1979. And he went, okay. And they just went to the trailer and got it out of their duffel bag and just gave the guy 300 grand and went, now we drive nothing shady. We drive first. We go first. And the German guy goes last.

[Dave Dameshek]

I am the captain now.

[Gina Grad]

And they win the goddamn race. Wow. The whole race. That was a Kremer 935. And then the cage back on the phone. Then the Whittington say, okay, now we're going to take three of these. We went by buying three. And we're going back to. We're going back to, you know, Florida, like Atlanta. Ship them to Atlanta.

[Brian Bishop]

And was that the car that I'm thinking of that had all the little extras that they shouldn't have?

[Gina Grad]

They ended up trying to hide or successfully hiding a nitrous bottle in the K car.

[Brian Bishop]

In the Kremer.

[Gina Grad]

In the Kremer, Yeah, in the car.

[Dave Dameshek]

Rich man Poured me a K car.

[Brian Bishop]

I was confused at first too. When he said it was a cake.

[Gina Grad]

That was. Yeah, Kei car that was also. That Lowenbrow 935 was. I don't know when Nick Cage sold it, but if he sold that thing more than 10 years ago, he didn't get over 300 grand for it. And if you own that car today, it's well over 2 million bucks now. I don't know how much over 2 million. Maybe it's over 3, I don't know. But it ain't cheap. Jesus Christ. He had a K. So weird. That's a very. I mean, there's. I don't know how many K935s there are on the planet, but there's less than 10 or less than 20, probably. So that's.

[Adam Carolla]

Canopa has it.

[Gina Grad]

Bruce Canopa still has that car. I wonder if that was Nick. The reason I'm saying is liveries change and there could have been a couple of low and brow, you know, things. But Bruce Kennepa, who I'll see at the track for Laguna Seca, probably has.

[Dave Dameshek]

Do you have Nick Cage's car?

[Gina Grad]

Bruce Kenepa with a K, not with a Z. But Bruce Kennepa is the guy who organized the entire thing of having. Sorry. Cage had Kennepa's 935 from 99 to 2002. 2002, he got that thing is under 300 grand in 2002. It's over 25 now. Anyway, Kennepa famously is the guy who orchestrated coming full circle, the 935k that the Whittington brothers bought and won Le Mans in where Newman came in second. That car, he totally. At some point, another Bruce, Bruce Myers, bought the car, sent it to Bruce Kennepa, had Bruce Kennepa rebuild it. That's where they found the nitrous bottle and everything. Took it out to Laguna Seca for like winter speed day session where they just invite people to come out, have the track is closed and blah, blah, blah. He's the guy who organized a practical joke. This is Bruce Kennepa. Of all the guys in the DEA agent windbreakers in the flatbed who showed up at the track that said, this car's evidence. These guys owe us big time money. The Whittington brothers are criminals. This is what they bought with their drug money. And it's ours. The state or the state owns it and we are collecting your car. It is gonna be an impound and lockup and good luck getting it back. It's Evidence, essentially.

[Dave Dameshek]

Practical joke.

[Brian Bishop]

It's the original punked.

[Gina Grad]

It's basically a $8 million Ferrari that you thought you Porsche that you thought you owned, and a bunch of DEA guys show to take it on a flatbed.

[Dave Dameshek]

No, it's only funny if there's something to it. Otherwise that jokes make no sense.

[Gina Grad]

Right. And he knew who owned the car before him. And he knew, and it was a completely plausible thing. They had given it to the Indianapolis Motorsports Museum, but then they wanted it back. This is the Whittington brothers. They said they donated it. They didn't want it confiscated when the government was taking everything. Then after they got out of jail, they went back to Indianapolis and they went, oh, we didn't give you that. We just lent it to you to put on display. There's a big court battle. And it turned out that the judge said the museum did own it. Then Bruce got it from the museum by trading them an Indy car that they wanted, and they took that car. But it still very much could have been in jeopardy. Anyway, who knew we were going to talk about Terry Claibon? I used to see his Nick Cage's Weston when that guy was 16, who's a behemoth giant of a heavyweight guy, leaving the gym when I was walking in, and Terry, I'd go, who is that huge man? And they go, terry Clay, Nick Cage's kid.

[Brian Bishop]

Wow.

[Gina Grad]

I got it. He doesn't. Yeah. All right.

[Dave Dameshek]

What a delightful conversation.

[Gina Grad]

All right, let me tell you about Legal Zoom, and then we'll play the Rotten Tomatoes game. Summer here. Legal Zoom here. Let's go. Last thing you're thinking about is completing your last will or living trust. But now is the perfect time. It's National Make a will month at LegalZoom. For 18 years plus, LegalZoom has developed a straightforward way to protect your family and assets. They have tons of online resources to figure out what's right for you. And their network of independent attorneys can provide advice you need and point you in a direction you need to go. LegalZoom isn't a law. They're not a law firm. So. So you won't get billed by the billable hour. Easy to fit into your busy schedule before another summer passes. Join over 1 million people who counted on LegalZoom for will or living trust. It's LegalZoom. Right, Dawson?

[Producer/Announcer]

Make things easier for those you care about the Most. Check out LegalZoom's last will and Living Trust estate plans now during National Make a will [e-mail] and for special Savings. Be sure to enter Adam in the referral box at checkout. That's code Adam for special savings. LegalZoom.com Where Life Meets legal.

[Gina Grad]

All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and play the Rotten Tomatoes game right after this.

[Producer/Announcer]

It's time for Nicaraguan Name that movie with Adam's buddy Oswaldo. See if you can guess which movie this famous line is from.

[Nicolas Cage]

Wrong.

[Gina Grad]

I could eat a peach for hour

[Producer/Announcer]

if you said face Off. I can eat a peach for hours.

[Gina Grad]

You're correct. Now back to the show. All right, we're going to play the Rotten Tomatoes game. We've sponsored by Adam's monthly nut. And this month we got a kind of nice. We got a 15 pack of flushable dude wipes better than TP. We got the go nuts walnuts. It's three different flavors. This fan has started this company and sent them all in and we've been eating them here. They're pretty. I haven't gotten deep into vinny with these, but they're good snacking because it's walnuts and it's not a bunch of. It's not much much else but flavor and walnuts. So it's good stuff, especially if you're on the, like the garlic, parmesan walnuts, all natural gourmet walnuts and blah, blah, blah, low carb and all that good stuff.

[Brian Bishop]

It's sweet and savory.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yep.

[Gina Grad]

And of course, somebody thought of this one, which I love. It's Beets by Ace. My bracelet.

[Dave Dameshek]

Finally.

[Gina Grad]

Finally, when you eat beets and you have that big beet salad at noon, and then that night you're sitting on the pot and you look down and you think you're about to meet your maker. And you go in and you make your peace with your wife and your kids and your kids.

[Brian Bishop]

Get your affairs in order.

[Gina Grad]

Get your affairs in order, and you realize, oh, no, I was eating beets. But it takes a while and it's very scary. But with Beats by Ace, it's a Lance Armstrong live Strong bracelet, but it's purple and it says Beats by Ace. And you just put it on. On those days you say you eat beets. Let's say you're not a beet lover. Let's say you only eat beets four days out of the week. Well, you'd put the bracelet on those days. That's right. That's what I'm saying. I think Mike August has one of those and frequently wears.

[Dave Dameshek]

Was free, wasn't it?

[Gina Grad]

My buddy Ray is gonna Sign his chapter of Not Taco Bell Ma. Everyone's favorite chapter and not Taco Bell material. And Ray will personally autograph it. And of course, you get a bottle of Mangria or 33 wines, your choice. And you go to corolladrinks.com and sign on up for Adam's monthly nut. Say hi to Lynette. It's doing a great job running that. All right, shall we do the intro and play the game. Noise? Such a high falsetto voice that can only mean one thing and you can feel it. Got some names of flicks and the game makes their picks guessing if it's rotten or fresh.

[Adam Carolla]

If it doesn't exactly, we'll get a bonus fire.

[Gina Grad]

It's the Rock Til Tomatoes game. You know how we do it. Give me the Rotten Tomatoes game. Now it's time to play it.

[Producer/Announcer]

So the fourth month of Adam's monthly nut launches today. So this game of the Rotten Tomatoes will be themed around items within that shipment.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, oh.

[Producer/Announcer]

Now, in between dropping massive turds, the great John Witherspoon scolds Ice Cube for losing his job and tries to convince him that George Clinton was a dog catcher. Badger dude wipes would have helped wipe the o ring clean in 1995's Friday.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. All right. Ice Cube, Chris Tucker. People like this movie, and I think critics probably like this movie.

[Dave Dameshek]

People love this movie.

[Gina Grad]

It's a silly movie, but I, I think I feel. And Ice Cube wrote it, right?

[Dave Dameshek]

I think so now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Pretty sure.

[Gina Grad]

And it's very gay type or sort of not, you know, gangsta rap and all that kind of stuff. Yes, go ahead.

[Brian Bishop]

Well, it seems funny for the first, you know, 90%, but then it takes a very dark turn at the end, if you remember.

[Gina Grad]

All right, Terry Crews, I believe so. I think people, I think the critics probably think it's a good idea. African American comedy against type, whatever. Now, this movie came out before everyone was super woke, so it's. It's probably would have scored even higher in today's work climate.

[Dave Dameshek]

Funny anecdote about this movie. I told the story once before, but it was such a funny moment to me. Siskel Liebert did a live show in Chicago, right. Because they're big Chicago guys. One went for the Tribune, one went for the Sun Times, and of course there are, you know, national icons from Chicago and did a live show with Michael Jordan, like on stage with an audience. And he's a Chicago icon, of course, also. And they're like, michael, what is your favorite movie? And he goes hmm. Probably Friday. This is like 1996. 1997. And both Siskel and Ebert.

[Gina Grad]

Awkward.

[Dave Dameshek]

And the crowd cheers. They're Michael Jordan fans. They're Friday fans. Awkwardly. Maybe we can find this. Awkwardly. They both go, I haven't seen that. This is a major release. This is insistent.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm Kiana, and I leveled up my business with Shopify. Once I figured out that Shopify was a thing, I never turned back. I can create a site with my eyes closed. Shopify thinks ahead of us, you know, and it thinks about the customer more than anything. Every day I'm thinking about some other new business, but Shopify is doing it

[Gina Grad]

to me because it's so easy to use.

[Adam Carolla]

It's like, I can't stop.

[Gina Grad]

I'm addicted. Start your free [e-mail].

[Dave Dameshek]

movie stars.

[Gina Grad]

I know. And you've. They've never seen it.

[Dave Dameshek]

Either of them had even seen it.

[Gina Grad]

I. I am not sure. I'm not sure why more people don't have the. Oh, yeah, there you go, Gene. You know what I mean?

[Brian Bishop]

Holstered like.

[Gina Grad]

Like, you know, you'll talk to people all the time, and they'll go like, oh, everyone went to the beach over the weekend. And so. And you'll go, oh, it must have been fun. Everyone had a good time. And then someone will, like, jump in and go, I didn't go, no, I. I had to move my bowels. So I didn't go. And you're like. I just nod your head and go like, okay, moving on. We don't have to stop and interact.

[Dave Dameshek]

And maybe that's where I learned my point. Shitting that moment. It says Colin ever.

[Gina Grad]

Well, look, they're. The point is, is, like, just. We've all had that thing where somebody brought up, like, an actor's name. Like, you know where they go, I love working with so and so. And you go, oh, yeah, yeah, good guy. Just to kind of move it along. You don't stop. I've not heard that name. I don't know. That is.

[Dave Dameshek]

Please refresh me of his credits.

[Gina Grad]

Right, Right. So maybe Siskel neighbors should have done. Movie Reviewers Friday Fresh. Never thought about it. It's not the thing that would get a high score, but I think the critics probably were pleasantly surprised. With an 81.

[Dave Dameshek]

I went much lower. I can guarantee the audience score is gonna be higher than the critics. I said, the critics missed the boat on this one with a 50.

[Adam Carolla]

Whoa.

[Brian Bishop]

I went the other direction. Maybe it's just the time we're in now that this.

[Gina Grad]

I think so. It's It's a.

[Brian Bishop]

It was a big deal. I said 88.

[Producer/Announcer]

Friday is fresh, damn it. At 78%.

[Gina Grad]

Okay, 91 with the people.

[Dave Dameshek]

I count those. A win

[Gina Grad]

people.

[Producer/Announcer]

Being deathly allergic to nuts is certainly a sign of the apocalypse. It's a shame that they can't sample any of this month's crazy go nuts flavors because they might end up knocking down an isle of Benadryl like Will Smith did in 2005's Hitch.

[Brian Bishop]

Anybody see this?

[Dave Dameshek]

The allergic reaction?

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. This is one of those movies that's very watchable. You would never call it good. It's just a super likable watchable kind of rom com.

[Brian Bishop]

Who's his client in this?

[Dave Dameshek]

Eva. Is it Eva Mendes?

[Brian Bishop]

I don't know.

[Gina Grad]

It is. It's. What's his name?

[Brian Bishop]

Kevin James.

[Gina Grad]

Kevin James is the client is crying to hook up. It's also one of those, you know, when I do my. If you get the trailer. If you find the trailer. Max Apata. You know, I have my algorithm. When you're watching not a trailer, but a TV commercial for a comedy. If in less than 10 seconds there's head trauma, still a great sign, probably not going to be funny. And this is right at the beginning. They're. They're book. Sorry, they're ski daddling or ski dooing or whatever In. I don't like in the Bay. Like in whatever. And Will Smith goes to climb off of it and just throws a wheel kick into Eva Mendez's head and you hear like clonk and her like fall off and it's like, it's so funny. It's like, I don't know in real life if that would be that funny. If a large man just took his heel and put it into the orbital socket of a 121 pound woman and she fell into the bay. I don't.

[Dave Dameshek]

I mean there are funnier things.

[Gina Grad]

I don't know that that's funny for either one of them. I get it's like an uncomfortable date moment, but you still just kicked a woman in the head.

[Dave Dameshek]

She legitimately uncomfortable.

[Gina Grad]

I guess it's good if you're sort of into the cuckolding thing.

[Dave Dameshek]

Okay, that's true.

[Gina Grad]

And so we'll find that. But anyway, watched it, have not seen this. It is, it is per. It's one of those Kevin James typed movies, Will Smith type. It's perfectly likable, perfectly forgettable. And there's no way the critics would go get down with this kind of movie because it's very cotton candy Ish. Do we have the. The beginning of the TV commercial or whatever? He can show you the moves. Elbows 6 inches from the waist. Oh, white guy angles. This is home.

[Nicolas Cage]

You see somebody you know. I don't want none of this.

[Gina Grad]

Don't bite your lip. Stop biting your lip.

[Nicolas Cage]

None of this.

[Gina Grad]

Okay, See, now that's what I need to be learning.

[Dave Dameshek]

Oddly.

[Gina Grad]

Don't ever do that again. He can teach you the rules. It's really necessary.

[Nicolas Cage]

Have you seen your back?

[Gina Grad]

Oh, never seen that joke before. All the answers. Whenever I'm around, I just can't get my stuff right. I saw that going differently in my mind. He knocked her out with that kick to the wall. And by the way, in the TV trailer, that kick was in the first 10 seconds of the TV trailer. He knocked her out, kicked her in the Chuck Liddell style. Right in the back of that arm. Funny, too.

[Brian Bishop]

She's hilarious.

[Gina Grad]

Wouldn't it be funny if somebody kicked you in the head later on?

[Brian Bishop]

I never stopped laughing when I came to.

[Gina Grad]

Bam. All right, people. Critics didn't like it, but it's very charismatic characters in the cast, and it's good looking and people like it. White guy trying to dance. Come on, get the heck out of here. All right. Likable, but not that likable at 41.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah, I wrote down 61 initially, and then I saw the trailer and crossed that out. So going back to the well with 50 again.

[Brian Bishop]

Oh, wow. I guess I'm coming in the rottenest. I said 39

[Producer/Announcer]

hitches. Fresh.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, damn it.

[Producer/Announcer]

At 68.

[Brian Bishop]

Shut your face.

[Dave Dameshek]

And I recrossed out the 50 and circled the 61.

[Gina Grad]

And the people have it at 60. People have it. At it lower.

[Brian Bishop]

This is shocking.

[Gina Grad]

Damn it. That's a weird one.

[Dave Dameshek]

Shouldn't have seen a trailer crossed out 61.

[Gina Grad]

What'd you put in 50?

[Dave Dameshek]

50.

[Gina Grad]

All right. Well, I can't believe this movie is fresh. That's insane. To me, it had every trope of every one of those kind of 90s, early 2000, you know, he wants the girl, but he's a klutz. But of course, the beautiful heiress does fall for the fat guy who can't dance. For some reason, she's wildly attracted because. Because of his words. Right, Cyrano de Berger?

[Adam Carolla]

Kind of. Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

Yes. Sorry. All right.

[Producer/Announcer]

Adam invented Beats by Ace as a helpful tool to let people know that they weren't dying after eating beets. This film doesn't feature beats, per se, but it does have them in the title. Michael Keaton in 1998's Beetlejuice.

[Gina Grad]

Now, I've gotta say, I didn't vibe on this movie as much as everyone else did.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah, I love this movie.

[Gina Grad]

Everyone loves it.

[Brian Bishop]

It's a classic. Baldwin.

[Gina Grad]

I don't know how much of this is sawed at 14 and in love with it, versus if you saw it for the first time at 41, would you have that relationship with it?

[Dave Dameshek]

I'm afraid it doesn't hold up. I loved it as a kid and loved it well into my teen years. And so.

[Gina Grad]

So people liked it. Critics liked it. They like Keaton's performance.

[Dave Dameshek]

Keaton's performance was fantastic. No way around that.

[Brian Bishop]

Am I just fantasizing this after kicking the headstroke, or did I see that they're going to do Beetlejuice 2 coming out.

[Gina Grad]

They have to do.

[Dave Dameshek]

Always kind of in the hopper, I

[Gina Grad]

think they have to do everything again. Everything that has big recognition, big name recognition has to come back because of all the value, all the currency built in to the name. Yeah. Every clothing line, Bugatti cars. You know what I mean? All the stuff that went away. It all has to come back because there's so much. It has such a head start. Right.

[Brian Bishop]

And they got fresh eyes.

[Gina Grad]

All right.

[Dave Dameshek]

Geena Davis. Vanilla Ryder. Great. Catherine o', Hara, of course. What's his Face. Jeffrey Jones, the Calypso.

[Gina Grad]

All right. Fresh. People liked it. Did they love it? It's not in the 90s, but is it that high up? I've never seen it start to finish. I've seen lots and bits and pieces of it. I say the critics like this one. I'm going back to 81 right with you.

[Dave Dameshek]

78.

[Brian Bishop]

81.

[Gina Grad]

Wow.

[Producer/Announcer]

Beetlejuice is certified fresh at 84.

[Gina Grad]

All right, we got a close game, bro. In here.

[Producer/Announcer]

People, people, we all know that Ray is an insane person, but we're thankful that he's going to be signing some books. Another film about a crazy man penning novels features Johnny Depp and John Turturro. 2004's Secret Window.

[Brian Bishop]

I have no recollection of this movie. I've never heard of it.

[Dave Dameshek]

I don't think Johnny Depp has recollection.

[Gina Grad]

I've been riding along, keeping a good score here. This is gonna be tough. I have no idea. Now, we've been burned by these in the past because we've done in the past. We've went, well, no one's seen it. No one's heard of it. It came and went. How could it be fresh? Blah, blah, blah. 37. And it's been like 85.

[Dave Dameshek]

This could be like a very tight thriller for all I know. I've not seen it.

[Gina Grad]

What year?

[Producer/Announcer]

2004.

[Brian Bishop]

Never heard of it.

[Gina Grad]

This would have been sort of kind

[Dave Dameshek]

of remembered hearing on the heels of Pirates of the Caribbean or right around the second one, I guess.

[Gina Grad]

Okay, I'm going back to what burned me the last time we did this. Nobody's ever talked about this movie. No one's ever said, oh, you haven't seen, oh, USC Secret Window.

[Adam Carolla]

You need real good.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, you'd like this one. This is no boned tomahawk in my world.

[Dave Dameshek]

So do we know a director? Can we get like a spelling beak, country of origin, anything on this?

[Brian Bishop]

Can you use it in sense director?

[Gina Grad]

They say no. David Cope.

[Brian Bishop]

Oh, what's that do for you?

[Dave Dameshek]

It doesn't help.

[Brian Bishop]

The great David Cope.

[Gina Grad]

All right, All right. Rotten at 49.

[Dave Dameshek]

Oh, thank God. 44.

[Brian Bishop]

Funny because I always swing for the fences and screw this part up. I said 50.

[Producer/Announcer]

Secret window is rotten at 46.

[Dave Dameshek]

Okay, right between us.

[Gina Grad]

Wow. That did not hurt any of us as badly as we thought it would. Is this the last one?

[Producer/Announcer]

Last one.

[Gina Grad]

I gotta say, even though I emotionally oftentimes don't keep track of Gina grad score, although she has been dominating this series as of late, in my loose calculations, in my mind, I feel like everyone is within five of the lead and I don't even know who's in the lead. So here we go.

[Producer/Announcer]

This month's shipment of Adam's monthly nut will be the best one yet. So to end this game, we're gonna feature one of the best nut related films of all time. And nuts are central to the plot of this movie. Does he have them? Does she not? The mystery remains unsolved in 1994's It's Pat.

[Brian Bishop]

Oh, that's not what I was expecting. It's Pat the movie.

[Dave Dameshek]

I was afraid we're gonna go crying.

[Brian Bishop]

That's why I started writing Crying Game

[Gina Grad]

would be too easy. Yeah, we all be in the 90s, right? It's bad.

[Dave Dameshek]

Now this, that could be in the 80s. This is a game. Uncredited rewrite by Quentin Tarantino.

[Adam Carolla]

Why?

[Dave Dameshek]

He's good friends with Julius Sweeney.

[Gina Grad]

Huh.

[Dave Dameshek]

Okay, that does not mean it's good. I'm only pointing out he's good for 12 points.

[Gina Grad]

Jesus Christ Hoofa. This is one of those SNL skits that they just. First off, it was kind of interesting premise and everything, but it still wasn't that hysterical. An SNL skit. It was just a funny kind of

[Brian Bishop]

Premise and does not age well.

[Gina Grad]

And they just stretched us out into 95 minutes.

[Dave Dameshek]

Pat's a hero for our time. We should just come back.

[Gina Grad]

That's true. Maybe. Yeah. All right, let's see. Yeah, well, the Pat of today is Jules Dash.

[Dave Dameshek]

All right, Ambiguous

[Gina Grad]

boy. All right, we're all knotted up. I'm just going to say we're all of the finish line. Anyone could win this foot race. Now, this movie's not fresh. What? But we don't know if it's in the teens or single digits or, you know, and also some credit for Julie Sweeney. I don't know. We weren't woke enough back in 1994. I had a number. It popped in my head. I wrote 19%.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah, I'm. I'm think I'm playing from behind because that first one is off by 20, so I had to be bold.

[Gina Grad]

Zero.

[Brian Bishop]

Whoa.

[Dave Dameshek]

Perfect. Zero.

[Brian Bishop]

I've noted in my. In my past memory I go too low on the last score. So I brought it up.

[Adam Carolla]

Just.

[Brian Bishop]

Just brought the nose up a little at 22.

[Dave Dameshek]

Oh, this ought to be good.

[Producer/Announcer]

Ooh, somebody's on the nose.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, it's.

[Producer/Announcer]

Pat is rotten at zero.

[Gina Grad]

God damn it. This is the best.

[Dave Dameshek]

This is like. Chris, notify me. This is the anniversary of my -16. The one year anniversary of -16. What better way to celebrate?

[Gina Grad]

Oh, God damn.

[Brian Bishop]

How hard you have to work for a zero.

[Gina Grad]

You never get zeros.

[Dave Dameshek]

That was like a 25 point swing, mother abs. Let's hear the scores. Let's hear the scores.

[Producer/Announcer]

Adam Corolla coming in with a score of

[Gina Grad]

55. That's good. It's a good show. Never your condescension.

[Producer/Announcer]

And the way Kayin wrote it, it spells out a ass. That's the way 55 looks.

[Gina Grad]

Mm.

[Producer/Announcer]

What do you thinks, Gina?

[Gina Grad]

Grad?

[Producer/Announcer]

We're gonna put you in third place, my dear, with a 68. Was that five point deduction enough for bald Brian?

[Dave Dameshek]

It's the happiest day of my life.

[Producer/Announcer]

Unfortunately, it actually didn't matter because bald Bryan takes the game by six points. 49.

[Nicolas Cage]

Wow.

[Gina Grad]

Pat, he didn't need the five, but he did need the zero.

[Nicolas Cage]

Zero.

[Gina Grad]

What was it leading into that last round?

[Producer/Announcer]

The math says you were in the lead.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

So at before the last round, Adam

[Adam Carolla]

had 36, Brian had 54, and Gina had 46.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah, I made up 20. Almost 25 points in the last one.

[Gina Grad]

God, making up that many points in one, you know, is gonna be like under 20 is insane. Wow. When you said zero, I was like, oh, good. It's gonna be seven. Like, it's not gonna be zero.

[Dave Dameshek]

I thought I chanced between zero and five, so I just went bold.

[Gina Grad]

That's when you're behind a little and you gotta make up a little. That's when you don't choke up and you go for it like Ball Bryant.

[Nicolas Cage]

All right, It's a rock to Toma.

[Gina Grad]

You know how we do it now? I would say this is the second time in, you know, four outings where you've won by getting the exact number with the five point deduction. Although you didn't need the five point deduction. You did need the exact number. Or. Or one off.

[Dave Dameshek]

Oh, yeah. Had I had. I guess had I guessed one, I probably would have. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

[Adam Carolla]

Or.

[Gina Grad]

Or close enough.

[Dave Dameshek]

I almost did.

[Gina Grad]

God. God damn it. Snake bitten, I tell you. Snake bitten. I'm gonna go get my 935 Kremer and cry my eyes out.

[Dave Dameshek]

The last few weeks have gone down

[Gina Grad]

to the last round.

[Adam Carolla]

Like the last, like, month almost.

[Brian Bishop]

I hate it.

[Gina Grad]

Okay, we got unprepared. Me up on stage in Montclair. Me and Sonny's out there, gonna be at the Golden State Theater, that is next Saturday, August 17th, doing Unprepared Adam Ray there. It'll be just after the race with the 935, so you can come on out and say hi. The audio is a little rough on this because it's from the camera. I think Max, the guy who's running the board, screwed the pooch a little bit. We'll play you that in a second. First, I'll tell you about Castrol Edge. Stronger under pressure. Engines can lose up to 10% of performance due to friction. Castrol Edge with fluid, titanium transforms under pressure. Keep the metal parts from rubbing three times. I got it. Stronger than leading. Full synthetic against viscosity breakdown. Edge formula always exceeds the toughest industry standards. And they got the new and improved formula. It is Castrol Edge. All right, here's a couple minutes from last Friday or two Fridays ago, actually, in Montclair. Claire, this says hair. Hair. I gotta tell you this. As you get older, the hair just keeps coming, keeps going with the ears, you know, you're getting old. The first time as a dude, when you go to the barber and you're done getting your haircut and the chick goes, you want me to trim your eyebrows? And like, oh. Or maybe Pagoda over here. What happened? I used to be so scry. Or they go, wait, let me do your ears, dude. And you're like, why? What's going on? This couple small oak trees coming out of your ears and women. You guys spend way too much time, way too much time on that hair just blowing. They got that. By the way, every hairdresser slash makeup lady I've ever had in Hollywood has been batshit crazy. Always telling me, like, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, we got some.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

You guys are nuts. They're like, my cat's a Pisces, so he doesn't get along with the metal man. Nuts. What are you, nuts? It's not your fault.

[Nicolas Cage]

Fault.

[Gina Grad]

I realize what it is. You live in a world of Aquanet, just sucking up these noxious fumes all the time. And then you get the hair dryer out. You weaponize it. You're living in this hot cloud of noxious fumes rotting your brain all day. Working in his asbestos factory. Like working in a shipyard or something worse. The blowout bar. I was initially excited when I saw the sign. I knew it was gonna cost me money, but I thought there'd be something in it for me. I do a power move, by the way, when I'm at the. When I go to the barber. When I'm done, they always do that move. And I go, here's the mirror, you know? Want to see the back? I go, I'm good. They're like, you don't want to see the back of your head? Looks like. Like, no. Well, first off, what if I hated it? The are we going to do now? You use the number two. There's nothing left back there. You didn't carve in a SWAT sticker, did you?

[Producer/Announcer]

No.

[Gina Grad]

Well, then we're cool. You ever walk down the street, wonder wondering how other people are judging the back of your head? No. You don't. So it. I get a lot of this one, too. You go to the barber, they go to the guys that do this one on guys. You get this one on time, and they go, hey, you want round or square? You went round or square? I go, I know. I don't know. Where are we now? What did we do last time you asked me this? What did I say? You got a buffalo nickel? We can flip it or you can just finish it off and we can get to D. I'll tell you what, why don't I tell you round. You do it square just to with me and I'll never look. How about that, rebel? Cause you're an outlaw yeah, really. Once they're done with the back of your hair, what can they do? My hair's Always so short by the time they're done as don't have nothing they could do other than just go full bald. Brian.

[Dave Dameshek]

Yeah.

[Nicolas Cage]

All right.

[Dave Dameshek]

You have one solution.

[Brian Bishop]

I love that it sounded like a classic George Carlin bit because the audio is kind of cool.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, well, the board was jacked up. The place is a big, like, music hall. It's not really, like, a club, so the acoustics are rough. But Mexape, he dug out the audio, unearthed it. All right, we'll take a quick break. Come back with the news right after this. Give me the News with Gr. News with Gino Grad. Breaking viral.

[Producer/Announcer]

All those crazy Trump tweets.

[Gina Grad]

Give me news with Gina Grad. Trouble in the Middle East, Celebrity Trump meltdowns with Gina Gina.

[Producer/Announcer]

The News with Gina Grad.

[Brian Bishop]

Well, Donald Trump took a few minutes late last week to make a promise. He's going to cure AIDS and childhood cancer. The president said at a stop at childhood. Just the kids at a Cincinnati rally on Thursday, quote, the things we're doing in our country today, there's never been anything like it. We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America and curing childhood cancer very shortly.

[Gina Grad]

Him and Biden are both gonna cure cancer.

[Brian Bishop]

This is great.

[Gina Grad]

If they work together, we should get them together, man. I don't know. Could there be a. I know it's unprecedented. Pardon the pun, but could we get Biden to be vp? He's already been a pretty good vice president. And between the two of them.

[Brian Bishop]

Cancer treatment.

[Gina Grad]

Audios to cancer.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah. So just to give you a little insight.

[Adam Carolla]

Sorry.

[Dave Dameshek]

That almost happened. That was close to being a real thing. When McCain was running, he almost picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate. And that probably would have changed the election. I mean, the process. Well, that would have changed the results of that election. And the world today might look very different.

[Gina Grad]

Huh.

[Brian Bishop]

So just so we can kind of get. Wrap our heads around what's actually possible.

[Gina Grad]

Listen, can we have AIDS in this country kind of under control?

[Brian Bishop]

Under control, but not eradicated. The Kaiser Foundation.

[Gina Grad]

You always sigh. Here's how you know. By the way, if you want, there are little tips that you guys will. Should listen to, which is like if you. You know, when you meet the. At some point, when you meet Tessa's new boyfriend who's 19, and you go,

[Dave Dameshek]

she's three, for God's sake.

[Gina Grad]

At some point when you meet him.

[Dave Dameshek]

Oh, I see.

[Gina Grad]

And. And you say, so what are you up to? And he goes, right now? Or currently? Or what am I doing? Or what do I want to do because I want to be a celebrated playwright now. I'm working at Coin op London. Right. So when you hear AIDS or anything like that, child mortality, any bad stuff, and you hear them go worldwide, the statistic, we're done. That means the United States. We're done.

[Dave Dameshek]

We have a handle.

[Gina Grad]

We got a handle.

[Adam Carolla]

We're good.

[Gina Grad]

If they say in the United States, many people die of aids, then you gotta listen up. When they switch from in the United States to. When they switch to worldwide, now we're done. That means we don't have to deal with it.

[Dave Dameshek]

And the right now thing, as it pertains to jobs, gets exponentially worse the older you get. Because if you're 18, you're figuring things out. You know, if you're 45 right now.

[Gina Grad]

Right.

[Brian Bishop]

So here's kind of the breakdown of where we're at with childhood cancer and aids. The Kaiser foundation says the cure rate for childhood cancer is around 80%, but we haven't moved the needle on that number in about 20 years. The White House has pledged $500 million in additional research funding over the next 10 years, hoping that will increase to 10% to 90% for a cure rate. The administration wants to reduce transmission of HIV by. By 75% in the next years. I'm sorry, in the next five years. And 90% in the next 10 years. It plans to target hotspots for increased funding, use data to track infection rates more closely, and create local task forces for education and outreach.

[Gina Grad]

Wasn't Trump going bareback with one of his lady friends?

[Brian Bishop]

Just the one.

[Gina Grad]

Well, I remember the.

[Dave Dameshek]

He finds condoms irritating.

[Gina Grad]

I think it was the Playmate. There's the lower key. Not the Stormy Daniels. There's the McDougal.

[Brian Bishop]

Okay.

[Dave Dameshek]

She was playing man of the Year. Man.

[Gina Grad]

Was she playing man of the Year?

[Dave Dameshek]

I'm almost. She was a big deal when I

[Gina Grad]

was becoming a man. Right. So I do kind of remember, like, the interview with her. And there was some sort of no condom thing in there.

[Brian Bishop]

No condom clause.

[Dave Dameshek]

It was a tacit agreement.

[Gina Grad]

I seem to remember either that or Stormy Daniels. I can't remember. But I remember Playmate of the. Of the year 1998, back when it meant something. But there was some condom and no condom talk.

[Brian Bishop]

Okay.

[Gina Grad]

And I do remember that anyway. Good.

[Dave Dameshek]

I often have this thought about the US Given our massive resources, if we. Everyone's. Everyone being scientists and doctors and whatever, are so focused on the spectrum of everything, if everyone just focused on one thing for a year, we could probably eradicate the one thing then Move on to the next big thing. Move on to the next big thing. Because the massive resources we have and

[Gina Grad]

the brain power, I guess I don't know if you could do it under the.

[Dave Dameshek]

It's unrealistic. It's a hypothetical.

[Gina Grad]

I know. If you could do it under the umbrella of cancer, but colon cancer maybe, like if you pick a form of cancer, brain cancer being number one.

[Dave Dameshek]

Let's get to that pretty quick.

[Gina Grad]

I wish. I also always, whenever I hear about this, like, we're gonna take $500 billion and we're gonna do a five year program. I hear about that. Like, and we're gonna get rid of AIDS or whatever. And then there is also that. And then we'll do. We're gonna take 200kajillion dollars, we're going to Mars and whatever. And I always hear about that. And there's always a part of me, I don't know if you guys are wired like this, but I always fantasize like I used to when I was a kid. I had a sister that was a year older than me. She ran away 13 and a half. I never sporadically, but I always had that sort of fantasy about the brother who was the high school jock who had his own van, who was a good looking dude and popular, who then went off to college or started a business and had a successful business. And then I could like that sort of like the feeling. So it's. So I grew up with incompetent parents and no family structure. And I always had this feeling of vulnerability, like, who's gonna take care of me? How could I get a job? It was never like, well, your dad, he'll pay for college and then you can get a job at his law firm. There was none of that. He owns a car dealership. So you'll get a good car for college. There's this weird insecurity to never having a safety valve or anybody with money or assets or anything. And I feel that way. Like as a country, there's times when I go, I wish there was another United States. Some place that everyone else went to. Some place where, where, well, there's a tsunami in Vietnam. Well, what are they doing about, like, why isn't that other United States? You know, it's always like, what are we doing about how come we're not letting in more people? Why haven't we innovated? How come we're not curing aids? How come we haven't put a man on Mars? How come we. Wouldn't it be some great if you just heard there was some doppelganger of the United States and it's like they've pledged $200 billion to end bone cancer. And it's like. And then they figured it out and you'd be like, oh good, now give us the recipe.

[Dave Dameshek]

The other edge of that sword though as well. Always be measured up against them. Well, they figured, they figured out.

[Gina Grad]

This is the thing I was thinking about. Like it wouldn't be like they would bomb us cuz we don't bomb Canada. You know, it's like we don't do that. I wouldn't do that. But there would be a weird kind of thing where we would like more like your brother. Yeah, there'd be an element of like we're number one. Like it'd be kind of a weird like. And everyone, everyone wants to be here. Like it's, it's the microcosm of that. That was. Now that it's turned into a rolling pile of shit. Not so much. But living in Los Angeles used to be that, well, everyone wants to get here and I'm here already. So at least I got that going for me. I'm not in Montana. Everyone wants to come here. Now everyone's going by fleeing by Jackson Hole. Right. But there is that sort of what would that do to you emotionally but still quietly the better twin. Wouldn't it be cool if there was just one kick ass country? And look, there's you got your Swedens and your Germany stuff. But I mean it needs to be bigger. That just was going to behemoth. They were going to eradicate this disease and that disease and they're going to put a man or woman on Mars and we were going to just go, fine, we'll enjoy seeing the photographs and all the data you pick up from when you land on Mars.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

Yes.

[Brian Bishop]

And enjoy not footing the bill.

[Gina Grad]

That's right.

[Dave Dameshek]

As it pertains to aids. We've come so far so fast. Doesn't it make you guys frustrated that like it's crazy that there are diseases like ALS or Alzheimer's where it's like, yep, don't, don't know the cause, don't know the cure.

[Brian Bishop]

Maybe it's deodorant.

[Dave Dameshek]

No treatment. Yeah, like we've come so far so fast. Almost one thing. It makes you realize like, yes, if there was enough attention focused on any one thing, any one thing could be eradicated or at least addressed in a realistic way and meaningful.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, I agree with you. I've sort of brought this up in front of Drew a time or two, and they usually give you a good reason as to why that one thing is different than the other thing and why you and attack certain things and eradicate them and why others are much more difficult. So I wish it was as satisfying as just go, well, just take the same focus and the same money and put it on ALS and let's get rid of that. Drew would probably tell you why that wouldn't work, but AIDS was considered a death sentence.

[Dave Dameshek]

You get it, you die. That's it. And now it's a chronic condition.

[Gina Grad]

That's right.

[Brian Bishop]

Well, if Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were following on Instagram, we have bad news. They're not following you anymore. But there's a way to get them back. In an Instagram post, Meghan and Harry explained that they want their followers to nominate, quote, your force for change for a chance to earn a follow from their Sussex Royal account. The Royals say each month they'll change the accounts they follow to highlight various causes, people and organizations doing amazing things.

[Gina Grad]

Yes, I got thoughts. I'm picturing the, like, what is it? The. Oh, God. What was all the thing going on? Like, just be calm and whatever. Keep calm and carry on and carry on and stuff. I've been noticing kind of the royal colors, ironically, kind of a royal blue and white feel like that's the color scheme. The thing we're looking at is a blue with a white bucko. It's called British racing green for a goddamn reason. That is their color is green. Their color is green. That's their color.

[Dave Dameshek]

Start using that E type color.

[Gina Grad]

That's right. Different countries have different colors. You know who's blue and white? Goddamn United States, Shelby America. You look at all the Shelby race cars from the 60s, it's blue and white. Yellow, France. Because they're cowards. They're gallow bellies.

[Dave Dameshek]

They know it. They know it.

[Gina Grad]

They knew what color to pick. No one assigned them that color. We didn't have an old time miner show up and go, you folks in yeller. We know, we know, we know. They assign themselves yellow. Germany, silver, Italian. Okay. Those are their colors. It's interesting that. Oh, shit, is France. God damn it. Is France light blue? Or is it yellow? And it's yellow. Brazil or something like that? Anyway, the point is this. I like the joke of being ill. We'll stick with that. British racing. What's the color flag? God damn. I'm not asking what the colors. Flags are. The British racing green. It's British. That's the goddamn Bentley Is green. Jag is green. Aston Martin. That's their goddamn color. So listen, Prince over here and the Popper and whoever's doing this, you go to green. That's your color. Then maybe we'll see white in blue. Show me a Max Pata. Show me a 65 Shelby Mustang and you shall see a white car with a blue stripe on it. Those are. Those are American racing colors. Those are the colors we race. Sorry. How dare they? I'm sure many podcasts are upset about this as well. France has that light blue.

[Dave Dameshek]

Damn it. Damn it.

[Gina Grad]

Who's yellow then? Brazil. Find me yellow. I gotta know who yellow is. Probably another cowardly country. Probably more cowardly than France even. I had no resistance. Yes.

[Brian Bishop]

So you don't even want to be a force for change until they change these colors?

[Gina Grad]

My force for change is you change your color to British racing green on your website, and then I shall join you until they. Until then, we're not having a conversation.

[Brian Bishop]

Bugger off.

[Gina Grad]

Bugger off.

[Brian Bishop]

So over the past 20 years or so, more parents all over the world are waiting to have kids to a later age. And with this trend, a Dutch study conducted across multiple universities set out to examine behavior patterns among kids who are born to older parents. And research discovered that children born to these older parents tend to have less external behavior issues like aggression and disobedience. They're often more well behaved.

[Gina Grad]

Yellow is Belgium, Spain, and Sweden, those cowardly countries.

[Brian Bishop]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Dave Dameshek]

A study conducted in the Bishop household says, this is a total bs.

[Brian Bishop]

You're the exception to the rule. For the study, researchers analyzed the behavior patterns of 33,000 Dutch children between the ages of 10 and 12, and problem behavior was recorded by the teachers, the parents, the kids themselves, the children's parents. By the way, ages varied from 16 to 48. I imagine that's when the children were actually born. Researchers say this drop in behavior issues persisted even after they accounted for socioeconomic stuff, saying that it's not all about income level. When it comes to children's behavior, the older parents tend to have more well behaved kids.

[Gina Grad]

Well, older parents are more mature, obviously, and are just better. You're just better at every look. When you were 23, how good were you at anything that didn't have to do with a physical endeavor? I'm not talking about ultimate Frisbee, but any kind of thinking, any kind of planning, any kind of how. When I hear about people having kids at 19 and stuff, and then I think of myself at 19, holy shit. I mean, I don't Think. I knew how to think until I was 25. I couldn't imagine parenting. I waited specifically for that reason but

[Dave Dameshek]

could barely take care of ourselves.

[Gina Grad]

I know. So I don't know how it would work. All right, let me hit Tommy John and then tease the next story. What are we gonna do?

[Brian Bishop]

All right, well. Well, older people aren't great at everything. I have something they're not so good at.

[Gina Grad]

All right, first Tommy John. Lots of underwear brands out there claim to be big on comfort. This is the best. Gene, I'm going to show you my leg right now. Look at those charcoal colors, Tommy John. Nothing better. I will be very frank about my habits. I wore them last night. I did my rowing machine for half an hour. I worked up a little lather. I hung them out to air dry. I went and did a stand up set commando. Just in case. Yeah, you should have warned in case it goes bad.

[Brian Bishop]

Grateful ladies.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, just in case. I meet some grateful ladies on the way out to the car and this morning, put the Tommy Johns back on. Little shot of talc. Good to go. Over 7 million pairs sold. The stuff dries fast. It's light, it's breathable. The fabric is great. Men and women. 0 panty line for the women stuff. All backed by the best pair you'll ever wear or it's free. Guarantee Tommy John the best. No adjustment needed. Right, Dawson, hurry to tommyjohn.com Adam to

[Producer/Announcer]

get 20% off your order. That's tommyjohn.com Adam for 20% off. Tommyjohn.com Adam.

[Gina Grad]

All right, let's do one more.

[Brian Bishop]

All right, well then I want to do something different.

[Gina Grad]

All right. Now you teased old people.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah. You're terrible at driving. Okay, so basically a study finds that when it comes to older drivers, they're very distracted by technology in their cars. More, more so than younger drivers. So on average, drivers between the ages of 55 and 75 take their eyes off the road more than eight seconds longer than younger drivers when performing quote, simple tasks like programming navigation or turning on the radio using all the infotainment technology. So potentially unsafe distractions.

[Gina Grad]

One of the simple things as I was pulling up behind a RAV4 today. And again, if I see a RAV4 or Honda CR V, that just says to me, I wish I didn't have to drive, but I live in la, so I have to drive something. It shall be the RAV4 or CRV. The people going from the 134 freeway onto the 5 freeway. The people that merge, the people who slow down to merge. I wish we could coach those goddamn people up.

[Dave Dameshek]

Like a network of signs.

[Gina Grad]

I know. It's like you can merge much more safely and much more easily if you speed up. You're going 44 miles an hour. Everyone else is going 63.

[Dave Dameshek]

Still on the freeway.

[Gina Grad]

I'm behind you. And now you can't merge because the cars are coming up too fast. How about you accelerate, people? Like, I got to slow it down. I'm moving the wheel 1 degree to the left. I must slow it down. Like, no, no. Speed it up and zipper right on in.

[Brian Bishop]

Slow with traffic.

[Gina Grad]

Right. They slow down to merge and it doesn't. They're probably wondering why it's not effective. They're like, they start slowing down and they go, all these other cars are coming up.

[Brian Bishop]

Why don't they notice me?

[Gina Grad]

I'll slow down more. We'll be safer.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

Slower isn't always safer, people.

[Brian Bishop]

Well said.

[Gina Grad]

Any football coach will tell you on that kickoff kickoff return team, kickoff coverage team, you go half speed. That's when you get hurt. Right, Brian?

[Dave Dameshek]

That's right. Take a knee helmet on a chair.

[Brian Bishop]

I would love to point out this one really quick two sentence story because I just want you to see the video.

[Gina Grad]

I just want to picture a close up of Nic Cage's face watching Bruce Lee act like a douchebag in that new Tarantino movie. I just want a close up, like a camera. It's a very tight shot of just his face. No words, no dialogue. I just want to see what his face wants to see his face moving. Okay.

[Dave Dameshek]

They have reaction videos on YouTube. They're very popular.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

All right, Sorry.

[Brian Bishop]

So this wave pool and I'll show it to you in a second. This wave pool at a water park in China malfunctioned late last week and turned into a terrifying scene where a massive wave just swept through this pool, injured multiple park goers. No deaths being reported.

[Dave Dameshek]

One of these wave pools at the cruise island we're going to.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah.

[Brian Bishop]

Everybody put your seatbelt on.

[Gina Grad]

A man made tsunami.

[Dave Dameshek]

That's right.

[Brian Bishop]

According to multiple news outlets, the wave was caused by an electrical malfunction to the wave machine. We could put this up. You just gotta see this wave.

[Gina Grad]

Dying to see this wave.

[Brian Bishop]

So nice little wave pool. It's coming out of a cave and it's just mowing over people.

[Gina Grad]

This is awesome.

[Dave Dameshek]

That's pretty good.

[Gina Grad]

I don't know why it's awesome. Everyone's fine, right? A couple bumps and bruises or whatever.

[Dave Dameshek]

It's the size of a medium sized Wave, it's in the ocean. But in the context of a wave pool.

[Brian Bishop]

That's way too ready for it.

[Gina Grad]

Right. I gotta tell you, we'll tease it, but later. Somebody was sending me a tweet. We'll get into it tomorrow, maybe write it down. Maxapata. My navageddon proclamations from 15 years ago when the satellites were gonna take over the cars and drive everyone into the Grand Canyon. It's on, baby. It's on.

[Dave Dameshek]

Now it's The Russians using the satellites

[Gina Grad]

are gonna kill us behind our own wheels.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah. Where we feel the safest.

[Gina Grad]

I was yapping about this like 15, 13 years ago. Whatever.

[Dave Dameshek]

It goes back to Loveline. Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

And maybe Loveline, if not Loveline, the morning show. But I had a good 15 year head start on this one. But it.

[Brian Bishop]

It's coming.

[Gina Grad]

It's here, man. It's coming. God damn, Nick. Crazy. Yeah. Bruce Willis is the guy who drove the old Bronco. And of course, the opening scene had to be. He's working for like Caltech or something, you know, and he pulls in and he's late and he pulls in and there's a hot scientist chick who's standing out front like the presentations already started. He's like, the Bronco overheated again. I had to pull off until. And she's like, why are you driving that old dude? Why don't you join us in the new age for something modern?

[Dave Dameshek]

Tesla lock. Blip, blip.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. And he's just like. I just. I don't listen. Call me old fashioned. I like a car I can bump start if I have to. And they laugh and they walk in. That's the beginning. Yeah, that's the beginning of the near the end.

[Dave Dameshek]

Tune in tomorrow.

[Gina Grad]

That's right. That's Tease Navageddon. All right, let's bring it home.

[Brian Bishop]

You got it. I'm Gina Grad and that's the news.

[Gina Grad]

Ritar, Right?

[Producer/Announcer]

That was the news with Gina Grad.

[Gina Grad]

Wow. Thank you. San Diego. The first show we put on sale there, sold out in pre sale.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

It didn't even fully go out yet.

[Gina Grad]

So that's December 1st. So at belly up. So they added a second show. So why not? Why shouldn't the ace man work a little more in a weekend? So put the second show up there at Belly up in San Diego, Monterey. Come on out and say hi. Coming up, man. And come to the track and find us and say hi as well. Go to amcarolla.com for everything you need. Go to check out microventures.com for meme Gods. And when we went mad as well. Laughs with Bald Brian. We're going to tell you more about that. Did the walkthrough on tomorrow's show. We'll put up some stuff. We'll put up some walkthrough video and all that. And we'll get you that. Laughswithballedbrian.com Not Taco Bell material. My stand up special. And you can go to our YouTube YouTube stand up channel and subscribe as well if you like. And until next time, good sports Coming up next, Podcast One survey at Podcast one. Study and get a nice gift card for your troubles. Until next time, Adam Crolla for Nick Cage, Gina Grad and Bob Ryan say mahalo.

[Nicolas Cage]

I'm a movie star. Oh, I'm famous.

[Dave Dameshek]

All right, There's Adam Carola Show 2630.

[Gina Grad]

It was indeed a very interesting development for Nicolas Cage and his son to become involved with the Adam Carolla show over a decade into its production. Quite the surprise.

[Dave Dameshek]

Coming up next, we have Adam Carolla

[Gina Grad]

show 375 of the great Ken Burns from 2009.

[Dave Dameshek]

It's Adam and Ken, one on one.

[Gina Grad]

Hope you guys enjoy.

[Producer/Announcer]

Dearest Martha, my soul is weary from the toil and hardship of battle. The only thing that heartens me in these troubled times are thoughts of your lovely visage. And this exchange by a historian and a witty man by the name of Corolla. An Italian, I believe, but he might be a Hebrew. Mr. Carolla's jibes and witticism make my heart soar. I suggest you listen forthwith. Colonel Michael E. Dawson, Glendale Regiment.

[Gina Grad]

Well, get it on. Got to get it on. No choice but to get it on Mandate. Get it on. I feel weird saying that in front of Ken Burns, documentarian and all around good guy. Ken has a new documentary coming out September 28th and 29th that is coming up this September 28th and 29th on PBS. It's called baseball and it's the. It's the 10th inning. We've already done the. It's 94 to yesterday.

[Adam Carolla]

92 to yesterday.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, 92 to yesterday.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. We came out in 94 with our nine episode, nine inning, 18 and a half hour, which you think would be enough to which we've added. Added two. Two hours. So we have four more hours.

[Gina Grad]

What's your longest documentary to date?

[Adam Carolla]

Baseball. And now baseball plus the 10th inning.

[Gina Grad]

I saw the War, which is just unbelievable.

[Adam Carolla]

Thank you.

[Gina Grad]

I mean, and I'm trying to think, is it how much of what you do is just dogged Determination and patience. Meaning, you know, if you're Bruckheim or. It's a different part of your brain, I guess, you're using. If you're making a film and you're making one that's just involved in, like, you know, what if somebody says, we need a documentary on the Civil War and you have seven weeks to do it? It's impossible.

[Adam Carolla]

We say no to. Yeah, no, we want to. You know, most documentaries are. Or at least in the past, documentaries have been homework. You know, they're castor oil. Something you know is good for you. It's somebody telling you what you should know, and we avoid that. We'd like to tell you something we've discovered. So our whole process gets attenuated because we don't have a research period followed by a scripting period and then follow the template that that script represents through shooting and editing. This is. We never stop researching. We never stop writing. With the last day of editing, we're rewriting something in this stuff. So it takes a really long time, but allows you to add layers of nuance and to get stuff that you didn't get to have, you know, very complex parallel constructions in the structure of the film. And it's the only way I know how to do it. I've been doing that for 35 years. And that's it.

[Gina Grad]

Is castor oil the same as cod liver oil? And then which one tastes worse? They're both bad.

[Adam Carolla]

They're both very, very bad to taste. And they're really, really good for you.

[Gina Grad]

Really.

[Adam Carolla]

You literally have to hold your nose and you go like this, and you think that people had to take it every single day, and they did. Like, my dad took it every single day. And that's why it explains a lot.

[Gina Grad]

Have you ever. That's why he's so angry and holding his nose all the time. And have you ever had brewer's yeast, by the way?

[Adam Carolla]

Yes, I have.

[Gina Grad]

That's another thing that's supposed to be good for you that tastes horrible. Why would you do this? Do a documentary on the punishment of

[Adam Carolla]

all the good stuff is like our

[Gina Grad]

ho ho's delicious but are gonna kill you. But code liver soil and brewer's yeast and tofu. Do a doc on that.

[Adam Carolla]

I had a patch where I would sometimes sprinkle brewer's yeast on grapefruit, and it was actually all right. And it was like a granola y thing.

[Gina Grad]

But it's almost like when martial artists punch a piece of birch. You know what I mean? Like, that's just you trying to toughen up your palate, you're taking the two worst tasting things on the planet and combustion.

[Adam Carolla]

See, I think it all went wrong when Thomas Jefferson said he could have followed John Locke and said, life, liberty, and property. We understand that. Get the hell off my glass or I'm going to shoot you. But he said, pursuit of happiness, and we didn't know what that meant. And was the pursuit of the happiness after things in a marketplace, or was it a lifelong learning of the mind and the heart? Which is what I think it was, but I think a lot of it has been. We think that we are deserving of happiness and that anything that's friction, difficult, oppositional, like castor oil, brewer's yeast, and tofu, it's not for us. So we're fat, we're dying of heart disease, we have diabetes. And, well, we think.

[Gina Grad]

And we think we're happy, but we're not.

[Adam Carolla]

And we think we're happy, but we're not.

[Gina Grad]

Well, you know, I've always said this. The best way to. I always talk about this when I talk about comedy was, which is. It needs a little pathos mixed in there to make the comedy pay off.

[Adam Carolla]

Mark Twain said the source of laughter is not joy, but sorrow. There is no laughter in heaven.

[Gina Grad]

Hold on. Google Matt Twain.

[Adam Carolla]

Mark Twain.

[Gina Grad]

Mark Twain.

[Adam Carolla]

He's a famous American author.

[Gina Grad]

A lot of our listeners don't know.

[Adam Carolla]

Famous American writer.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, yeah. All right. We're gonna check that.

[Adam Carolla]

He wrote. He wrote. Yeah, he's a pretty. Pretty funny dude, you know.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, Twain's. Yeah, there's a restaurant.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, okay.

[Gina Grad]

Check that out. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's true, I always say.

[Adam Carolla]

He also said, by the way, that it's not that the world is filled with fools, it's just that lightning isn't distributed right. Which will be funny in a thousand years when no other humorist from the 19th century has any. I mean, when they fired in the back of Lincoln's brain in Our American Cousin, which was a comedy, the line that got the last. That gave Booth the sort of the COVID to shoot was you sock dologizing Old Man Trap. Really not funny now, considering what happened.

[Gina Grad]

But that's what created the laughter in the theater.

[Adam Carolla]

Usoctologizing Old Man Trap. Ha ha ha. Like that. Between the things he said, like lightning being distributed right is going to be around. If we haven't gotten rid of our species in a thousand years, that will still be funny.

[Gina Grad]

Well, it's funny because there's a Nick Cage movie. You know, every Nick Cage movies either involves some historical event like Lincoln being shot or the extinction of a species.

[Adam Carolla]

Exactly right.

[Gina Grad]

He's doing double duty.

[Adam Carolla]

He's heading backwards or forwards.

[Gina Grad]

Well, speaking of, I was thinking about this before you started talking about Mark Matt Twain and what he might, what his legacy was in his. I was thinking for you and the work that you do, this stuff is. It's forever and it's the first time that it was. I mean these things have been documented in various ways, shapes and forms. There's been a lot of, you know, world at War kind of stuff, World War II, and there's been plenty of documentaries made on baseball, but not a definitive sort of we took everything and put it under one roof kind of collection. And so a hundred years from now or 2,000 years from now, when somebody wants to know about the World War II or when they want to know about baseball, they'll go to your work theoretically. And that's got to be a pretty nice.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you know, a lot of it, it is exciting and it's nice to see that they are evergreen and you hope that, that the emotional archaeology that we are partaking in will last and be durable. That it isn't just going to be about the buckle collectors or the guys who are interested in the caliber of the guns or the movement of regiments, but a human story that we try to tell. The Civil War was bottom up as well as top down. The World War II, of which it's the only film that I've ever done in which the territory was filled with other projects, hundreds, thousands of documentaries, but no one had decided to try to tell the two things theaters, the European and the Pacific Theatre simultaneously as they happened. World of War didn't do it. Nobody did A Victory at Sea and nobody tried to then also fold in the home front as well as a bottom up thing. So we took four geographically distributed American towns, Waterbury, Connecticut, Mobile, Alabama, Sacramento, California, and tiny, tiny La Verne, Minnesota and said let's see the war through their eyes. How they went off to the war. It didn't mean that it was end limited in that way. The scope could be global, but you could find the universe in a grain of sand.

[Gina Grad]

What are some of the documentaries that you've liked over the years, other than all of yours, which Ken normally says he rattles off his 15 and then he gets to everyone else's. But what is your. What are some that have moved you or maybe ones that you saw when you were younger that made you want to get into this?

[Adam Carolla]

I know I actually, my mom died when I was 11, and my dad had a really strict curfew. But if there was a movie on TV that lasts till 1am on a school night, he'd let me stay up and watch it like an old movie. Or he'd take me to the Cinema Guild or to the revival house where I'd see European stuff as well. And I watched my dad cry for the first time. And I realized, like 12 or 13 years old, this is what I want to do. Because I understood why he hadn't been able to deal with. With the stuff going on in our family, but he could deal with it through a movie. And I realized the power of the medium. So I wanted to be Howard Hawks or John Ford or some such other director of the time. And then I went to Hampshire College in amherst, Massachusetts, in 71. And everybody was a social documentary, still photographer. They were interested in the truth of what is and what was. And all of a sudden I had my molecules rearranged and I'm now interested in doing documentaries. And that combined with a completely untrained interest in history to start doing this sort of stuff. And that's. That's where it came from.

[Gina Grad]

My stepdad took me to see Smoking the Bandit once when I was 13. And that's, that's. That was my experience with the cinema. Cinema, you know, what's cinema? You know, what's kind of nice is, you know, if you want to make movies, you're going to take your lumps. I mean, if you want to get into this business, I don't care how much money you've made. I mean, you know, Robert De Niro has five stinkers. You know, Marlon Brando has a few stinkers in there. Everybody has a couple of stinkers, even the great directors and the writers and blah, blah, blah. The thing that's got to be nice about making documentaries is I'm sure some are received better than others. But you never get any one and a half stars on any of these babies, do you?

[Adam Carolla]

No, no, no. I mean, every once in a while you get a critic who's decided that they're going to take you down for the pretentiousness with which you've decided to approach baseball or some other such thing. Or maybe you find a jazz errati guy who thinks that, you know, because you left out the second sideman in Count Basie's band between 47 and 48, you failed miserably. The two you weren't the telephone book.

[Gina Grad]

So you do have some credits.

[Adam Carolla]

So it's A really nice sort of thing. And it's kind of cool to be able to respond to them because you always go and you say, okay, so who of today's or criticism that you didn't do? Modern jazz guys. Who of today's jazz guys are as important as Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane. And they'll go, well, we won't know for 25 years. I go, yeah, and that's called history, you know?

[Gina Grad]

And there's your answer.

[Adam Carolla]

And there's your answer.

[Gina Grad]

So now baseball. And are these doc as far as picking a documentary? And do you get pissed off when people call the doc like, I get pissed off when people call Curb youb Enthusiasm Curb.

[Adam Carolla]

I hate it only when they call me K. But doc's okay. I know I don't ever use it when people say, yeah, I like docs, meaning they don't like docs.

[Gina Grad]

In terms of deciding, I mean, I assume you, you like jazz and you like baseball and.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, I didn't know it. I mean, I knew baseball. I grew up. I don't remember a time when in the little movies of myself, there wasn't a mitt in my left hand and cod liver oil. And some cod liver oil. But instantly working on baseball, way back when, I realized how little I knew. So every, every film essentially has been a complete immersion into something else. And that's better that way because you don't want me to tell you what you should know. You want me to say, hey, I got to tell you what I just learned. That's always better than the sharing of discovery rather than. And there'll be a quiz tomorrow.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, you don't want to get preachy.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

You want to take people on a journey of discovery and hey, chickapees, ace man here for my good friends at GoToMeeting. Now, I've been talking, talking about these guys for a few weeks now, but I got some new news. That's right. You can take GoToMeeting to go. How? On your iPad. Jive turkey. GoToMeeting, brought to you by Citrix, has a free app built specifically for your iPad. You just download the GoToMeeting app and join sessions on your iPad in seconds. And you can try it out for free. That's right. Try GoToMeeting free 45 days. Visit GoToMeeting.com, click on the Try it free button and type in the promo code Adam. Be sure to type in the promo code Adam for this special free extended offer. 45 days, such a deal. How can you lose? Go to meeting. And so do you have your topic sort of lined up where you know, here's what we're to going, going to get to down the road.

[Adam Carolla]

I've got a sort of Stalinist ten year plan going on right now. So after baseball, the 10th inning, next year is Prohibition. The year after that is the Dust bowl, which we're both of Prohibition is done. We locked the picture Dust bowl. We're just beginning editing. We're just beginning editing. A big thing on the history of the Roosevelts theater. Franklin and Eller, believe it or not. No one's told them as a connected family drama. They'd done Theodore book and film. They've done Franklin book and film, sometimes Franklin and Eleanor, but they're all related. She was born with the last name. And then beyond that, Vietnam. We're also doing a film in the Central park jogger case. Those black and Hispanic boys accused of wilding who served their term in jail didn't do it.

[Gina Grad]

And her story, it happened to Wilding. I feel like it was all the right age about 10 years ago.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it was invented by folks at that 1989 thing and these kids didn't do it.

[Gina Grad]

Son can bring that back at the schools in a few years. Just, it's just, you know, kind of old school. Well, so now do people pitch you topics?

[Adam Carolla]

No, we just do our own stuff. It's within our own. There's. These are all handmade, so there's a half dozen of us.

[Gina Grad]

But does anybody ever go, hey man, how about that Lindbergh baby? And you know, what about that Lindbergh baby? And then they tell you a couple things and you go, that's happened a couple times.

[Adam Carolla]

I made a film on Huey Long. I actually helped a friend make a film on Lindbergh for exactly that reason, you know, 20 years ago. But yeah, no, we, you know, somebody says, look at this footage of Huey Long giving a speech. And it made Broderick Crawford, who has got an Oscar for All the King's men in 1948 or 49, it put him to shame. I mean, the real Huey Long was so much more interesting, just like the real Jack Johnson. The film that we made a few years ago was much more interesting then the Great White Hope.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, I don't know if I saw your version of the, you know, Jack Johnson, but Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight and really the first, I mean he was long before black athletes had made it into, you know, mainstream sports.

[Adam Carolla]

They had a gentleman's Agreement that no black could fight for the heavyweight championship. And this was a decade in which more Africa, African Americans were lynched than in any other time. And he's not only beating up white people, he's marrying white women. And this could not stand.

[Gina Grad]

And transporting them across the lines, well,

[Adam Carolla]

that's all ex post facto. That's how they. When they couldn't beat him in the ring, when they couldn't find a great white hope to beat him, and they found, you know, they pulled out many and he dispatched them all. Then they went after him for his private life. Nothing that any other boxer, white or baseball player or even statesman, the great black scholar W.E.B. du Bois, said. It all comes down then to his unforgivable blackness. And so we called our film Unforgivable

[Gina Grad]

Blackness because that was what unbelievable story. And again, 45 years before Jackie Robinson

[Adam Carolla]

and before Muhammad Ali, like, we think Muhammad Ali is the greatest of all time. And we feel also sympathy for the trials that he, you know, his government went after him in a decade we now say was dedicated to civil rights, the 60s. Well, I can tell you that between 1905 and 1915, which is Jack Johnson's huge period, that was a decade dedicated to getting rid of as many black people as we could.

[Gina Grad]

Did you in your baseball doc, cover the story? And are you aware of what is quite possibly my favorite baseball story of all time, which is a minor league league catcher with a man on third base jumped up and did that move after the pitch where he was going to fire the ball down the third base line and see if he could pick off the guy who was taking a little too big a lead, threw what looked like the ball way over the head of the third baseman. The guy on third base saw the ball go sailing into left field and jogged in of front home plate, only

[Adam Carolla]

to be tagged out. Only to be tagged out by the rosinbag. Was. That was what went.

[Gina Grad]

He threw a potato.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I think you know the baseball rules now strictly forbid it. We don't know this, but stop the presses. We have got to open up this 10th inning and add that.

[Gina Grad]

Cut it, break it, break it open. Because get out the habit. This guy threw a potato. He came out onto the field with a potato. He threw the potato. The guy trotted in, he touched him with the ball, and then he got fired the following day, I'm sure. But either way, I always thought it was the funniest thing ever that the guy brought a potato out of the house.

[Adam Carolla]

They still try the hidden ball trick. They still they do all that stuff. It's so the game.

[Gina Grad]

I did it in the celebrity softball game. It works like a charm.

[Adam Carolla]

It does. Of course.

[Gina Grad]

It has to work.

[Adam Carolla]

It has to work.

[Gina Grad]

You just go, I'm going to go talk to

[Nicolas Cage]

him.

[Gina Grad]

He takes his lead off and you touch him on the head. Yeah, it should be. It should be illegal, but it's. Anyway, the next. So we're talking about. You gotta. You gotta.

[Adam Carolla]

10th inning.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, the 10th inning. Yeah, sorry. We're talking about that now. What. So that covers 92.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So the last bit we. The thing that came out in 94 when the strike season. We came out when. And we thought we were going to be competing with other baseball and we weren't. We were. The only thing on the last bit of action we Described was the 1992 World Series between the Phillies and the Toronto Blue, which Toronto won, and a walk off by Joe Carter. We back up to the nlcs where a young, skinny Barry Bonds fails to throw Sid Bream out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth in Atlanta and Atlanta wins the pennant. The Pirates go down, Atlanta's ascendant and they. That's the last play that this young Barry Bonds will play. And it's his narrative, his arc of his biography is sort of the underlying story because of course going to carry both the promise and the shadow, the peril of baseball over the next two decades that are, if you separate out, say the 40s, when Jackie Robinson came up were the most consequential. The last two have been among the most consequential that we've ever had with the strike, with the specter of steroids, but also enormously dramatic performances. The braves and their 14 consecutive division titles. Joe Torrey making some sense of the Bronx Zoo, the home run chase, the strike and the aftermath of Cal Ripken and the rise of Latin players. And then 911 and Ichiro and Barry Bonds as a giant and his post season woes and the Red Sox being defeated again in 2003 and then coming back in the greatest with the Red

[Gina Grad]

Sox coming back down 30 to the

[Adam Carolla]

Yanks, it's this highlight. Listen, I live in New England. I've lived in New England for 40 years. When that happened in 2004, it was the first time time the antenna went up and you said, you know, maybe we should do this. And then it wasn't until two years later when the specter of steroids was so. It was just being shoved up everybody's butt that I just thought, I've Got to go back and treat it. We have to figure out a way to put it in perspective because you know, in 1977, George Foster hits 50 home runs. Cecil Fielder, Cecil Fielder does it for the Tigers in 90. And that was it. A 50 home run season was a rarity. Then all of a sudden middle infielders were hitting 50 home runs. I could hit 50 home runs. And then now it's a rarity again. So stuff got inflated, home run stuff. But there weren't that many more. 300 hitters. Nobody hit.406 as Ted Williams did in 41. No one went on a 56 game hitting streak as DiMaggio also in 41. So in some ways with baseball going from the worst testing to now the best testing in professional sports, you feel like if the genie's not back in the bottle, at least the steroids era is a little bit in the rearview mirror.

[Gina Grad]

Well, so the thing that's interesting about the steroid era is the home runs one up. But you're saying no one hit. 400 and nobody hit as well as a lot of the guys hit 40 years earlier. So did it change? Just add pound. What's your assertion there?

[Adam Carolla]

I think basically the ball popped a little bit more because of the muscle mass that they were building up. And yeah, I mean we're always going to have to deal with it. But you know what? Baseball, where statistics really matter, they don't matter in the other sports. How many points does will Chamberlain have?

[Gina Grad]

55,221. I'm a huge. I have no idea.

[Adam Carolla]

So we know how many Babe Ruth has, we know how many Hank Aaron has, you know, so it matters here. But you still need to tell a story. Like if I ask you who won the 1919 World Series and you looked it up, it would say the Cincinnati Red Stockings. But then you go, wait a second, wasn't that the Black Sox scandal when the White Sox threw it because Arnold Rothstein and other gamblers paid them to do that? Yes, it was. But it still says the Cincinnati Red Stockings won, that it doesn't say Babe Ruth asterisk. He never had to play against the Negro Leagues, which were clearly once they were allowed in, belatedly and in a quota system so much better than anybody else that he never had to pitch against them or fly to the other side of the coast to play a night game or split fingered fastball or all this other stuff. Or that Bobby Thompson was stealing the signs and knew exactly what Ralph Branca was going to pitch to him in the 1951, one game play playoff between the Dodgers and the Giants.

[Gina Grad]

So.

[Adam Carolla]

So everything requires a story. And that's why we wanted to do.

[Gina Grad]

But to be fair to Babe, he was getting drunk on trains. Yep. And whoring. So I would say that makes up for jet lag and split finger fast.

[Adam Carolla]

I agree. I agree totally.

[Gina Grad]

He probably saw four balls coming at

[Adam Carolla]

him and hit them all.

[Gina Grad]

And he had to hit with that crown and the cigar.

[Brian Bishop]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

And the, and the fur coat on and the Hong Kong car.

[Gina Grad]

That's gonna be rough.

[Adam Carolla]

It's tough.

[Gina Grad]

So as far as. Then something like steroids in general, because I actually flew out to Chicago next to. Sitting next to Mr. Universe bulging over the seat, very large. Yes. Lats kept knocking my bloody Mary off my tray. And you know, we were talk. I was talking about steroids. And you know, he said, you know, in my business, it's impossible without it. Without it. And if you take a look at the. And he also said, you know, the natural competitions, those guys don't get endorsement deals that get prize money. Don't get anyone. Nobody gives a crap who Mr. Natural is. They want to see Mr. Two Step Steroid. And then also, you know, there's this thing where it's like, well, Lyle Alzado got a brain tumor when he was 30. And he says it's because he's juicing. But we all know people, housewives have gotten brain tumors and died at 38.

[Adam Carolla]

We know that the steroids, the side effects of steroids are just debilitating, particularly in the megadoses the athletes took. Not just roid rage, not just the pimples, but a whole sets of things from cancer to heart disease to whatever.

[Gina Grad]

What's happened? I mean, do we have cadavers that we've examined?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, because people have been doing it. The Nazis gave it. They were developed by German scientists, synthetic stuff to make their soldiers more aggressive.

[Gina Grad]

Usually comes out of the Virgin Islands. The Nazis are behind this one?

[Adam Carolla]

Of course they're behind it.

[Nicolas Cage]

Wow.

[Adam Carolla]

And the Cold War, you know, the East Germans gave all. Everybody. And we started getting them in the 60s. And our Olympic athletes and then later some of our pro football. And then pitchers started taking.

[Gina Grad]

Well, I mean the pro football guys, you know, the head trauma stuff, we finally figured out not a great thing to get your bell rung, you know, 20 times in the course of a career. And so they dissect those guys brains. And the guys in their 50s have brains of 80 year olds.

[Adam Carolla]

80 year olds.

[Gina Grad]

Whereas I don't know how old you are. Ken, But I see you as having a brain of like a 19 year old when you're 80. I sees you as a clean liver who exercises his brain quite, quite a bit.

[Adam Carolla]

Pretty, pretty accurate there. I'm 57, but I don't look at. I'm going to be a grandfather.

[Gina Grad]

Insane. Well, I, I think it's. I think it's not. I think a lot of time in

[Adam Carolla]

a dark room that's right out of

[Gina Grad]

the sun meets no vices.

[Adam Carolla]

Some. Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

Meets not a care in the world.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah, right. Yeah. No, no, me. Not a care in the world.

[Gina Grad]

Thanks for taking a quick time out for us kitties. We'll be right back with the show in just one moment. But first, time to pay some bills and talk to you about our good friends over at Stitcher. You've heard me talk about these guys before. Stitcher.com such an app, iPhones, BlackBerries, Androids and Palm. That's right. Stitcher.com. it's free. It's a free app. No more downloading or syncing. Daily pop in that Stitcher app and hear the show in its glory as intended. And let's not forget about the Stitcher extra content. The only way you can come out and see us in person at the Adam Carolla show. That's right. Stitcher Extra content [e-mail]

[Adam Carolla]

somebody asked me once, I live in this tiny little village in New Hampshire, and somebody come to the little greasy spoon breakfast place and they said, how do you stay so young, this old lady? And I said, excessive worry and travel. So it may just be counterintuitive, really.

[Gina Grad]

So they have done autopsies on these Russian athletes and these German athletes, and they found horrible things, horrible things that steroids have done.

[Adam Carolla]

But look, you know, the thing, the point about the steroids is not trying to legitimize them. We should all be taking them. And maybe the next generation of baseball players should be 7ft tall and 3ft wide and whatever it is. But that what's, you know, the players and the players association made this terrible decision to permit some to not test and therefore permit some people to advance because they did take it, and others perhaps to fall back because they didn't want to ruin their bodies. Well, it's a, that's a, you know, kind of a Faustian bargain they made.

[Gina Grad]

I'll tell you what happens is it's in my business a little bit. It's sort of like publicists and lawyers. They're evil, they're bad for you, they're expensive. No One wants to deal with them. But once a bunch of other people start lawyering up and publishing, or publishing, they get a publicist, they get a lawyer. Now you need a publicist and a lawyer or otherwise you can't compete. And so once you realize that can sake up juicing, you go, well, I got to be competitive too.

[Adam Carolla]

This is the Typhoid Mary of it. And he made it happen. That's what happened. We're also in an age we sort of isolate the baseball players and see them in a vacuum and permit our moralization to take place. But in fact, these guys are in the same culture in which we advertise, you know, Levitra and Viagra on daytime tv. We think that we can take a pill to make ourselves better in the bedroom. We can get our kids pills so they'll be better at school. And in the film, in the 10th inning, Chris Rock looks at me and says, if they made a pill that would have you be paid like Steven Spielberg, you'd take it. You would, you know, and that's the dilemma that those middle infielders were facing. It's not just the big stars. It's the guy who says, man, if I do this, I might get that five year contract that will put me through till I'm 40. My family will be set and, and you know, I'll be okay. Otherwise, if I don't do it, I might fall back to the AAA and I'm making nothing. And I've got to, you know, get something going.

[Gina Grad]

Well, basically, baseball is one of the sports, I would say different than basketball and even different than football, where there's a lot of guys that are really. I mean, there's a handful of elite guys and then there's just a massive amount of guys that were the star of their high school team who played aaa, played some college ball. And those guys are almost interchangeable in the sense that they're a good outing away, a good at bat away from making it to the show versus playing butt hands for the rest of their lives.

[Adam Carolla]

For the rest of their lives, right?

[Gina Grad]

And in, in basketball, when you got a guy who's just a big power forward and you can see, see that he's got that shot and he moves like a guard. He's just in. I mean, baseball is that one sport because size isn't as big a factor.

[Adam Carolla]

You don't have to be 7ft tall or 7ft wide or on skates.

[Gina Grad]

There's just a lot of guys that had a real legitimate shot of making

[Adam Carolla]

it to the shoot. What's the difference between a.275 hitter and a.300 hitter? It's just a couple of bloop singles, you know, a month.

[Gina Grad]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

Literally something falling in as opposed to being caught. And that's, that's an amazingly. I mean, look, you fail seven times out of 10 in baseball. You're a.300 hitter. You do it for 20 years, you're in the hall of Fame. That's a lot of failure.

[Nicolas Cage]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

And this is the only sport in which the defense has the ball. The only sport that, the only sport without a clock. The only sport which has a rigid set of rules. But every outfield is different, every foul territory is different. And the man scores, not the ball. Name me another sport in which, you know, you need the basket, the ball to go through the basket. You need to cross the end zone, you need to go in the cup. You need to do. In this baseball, you know, the ball can be literally out of the park and you're scoring.

[Nicolas Cage]

You're.

[Gina Grad]

I know you think you like baseball now, but you're going to be throwing out the first pitch at the Dodger game. Yeah, you're not going to like baseball when you're done tossing out that first pitch.

[Adam Carolla]

I threw a. At Target Field two days ago. Three days ago, I threw a strike.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, really?

[Adam Carolla]

And to the fanatic who wasn't wearing a glove, sort of pulled up a little bit at Citizens bank and I really grooved one in Texas. I threw up before Steven Strasberg's debut.

[Gina Grad]

Wow.

[Adam Carolla]

Which was 40,000 people.

[Gina Grad]

You're jinxing yourself.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, you know it. But see, look, I'm keeping my day job. If I bounce it, what are they gonna do? Oh, Burns. What's he doing? What does he think he is? But if I groove it, they go, whoa.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, I had the guy at Target come out. Who caught it was a coach. He said, that's the first strike I've had all year.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, I've, I've done it a few times, never had a strike. You know why they set you up to fail.

[Adam Carolla]

Of course they do.

[Gina Grad]

They don't give you any warm up pitches.

[Adam Carolla]

No warmup pitch.

[Gina Grad]

They don't give you a mitt to

[Adam Carolla]

wear, which I bring my mitt. Oh, I've got my mitt with me.

[Gina Grad]

And ringer.

[Adam Carolla]

I, I bring my mitt.

[Gina Grad]

You need it for balance. You don't.

[Adam Carolla]

Because we don't throw like this. And, and you know, you get up on the mound and that. The mound is also a problem too, because you've all your life you've never been throwing like this.

[Gina Grad]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

So then you throw the kai. It's all in follow through balance. It's all in follow through.

[Gina Grad]

The other thing too that drives me insane is I used to play baseball in high school and, and one time got to go out to Vero beach for just a man show bit and train with Tommy Lasorda and the Dodgers and had a great time.

[Adam Carolla]

But there's a good clean living guy.

[Gina Grad]

He, he, he cusses more than people know. And one of the, well, I have a couple good Tommy Lasorda stories, but

[Adam Carolla]

one of them, you can't go on a family network show.

[Gina Grad]

This isn't family. We can say whatever we want. We, we, me and Jimmy were doing a parade for Mardi Gras in New Orleans that we were feeling in for Tommy Lasorda who pulled out at the last moment. So his wife told him, you're not going to New Orleans. You're not being grand marshal of a Mardi Gras parade two days before he was due to do it. So they asked Jimmy and I to fill in, so to speak. Some pretty big cleats to fill. But we were able to fill in for the skipper. They didn't have time to change the beads that had a huge medallion of top Lasorda's head on it. So every. You were throwing out beads and it was the same thing. Everyone would catch the beads, they would go nuts. I mean, they put their kids up on a frame matter.

[Adam Carolla]

Exactly.

[Gina Grad]

They put a coat hanger around the guy's head that's shaped like a basketball hoop. And yeah, literally they put their three year old up on it. Child protective services should just follow those parades around and just start rounding up people because it's like, first off, it's a school day. What are your kids doing? Diapers full, you have on top a nine foot, a frame ladder. He has a beer in his hand, he's yelling, show us your three. So everybody would chuck the beads, dude. They'd go nuts and then they'd look at the beads. Why is this 70 year old fat guy, why did Corolla. I don't think it even said Tommy Lord.

[Adam Carolla]

It was like you had to know who he was.

[Gina Grad]

You had to be a huge Dodger fan. So that was my lord of story. But a cool guy and had had fun playing with him. But once at a certain point you make the switch from hardball to softball and you just get used to playing these games with your buddies and your company picnic and all that. And once you get used in girls, once you get used to chucking that softball, it's hard. Then someone puts a baseball back in your hand. It's like throwing a golf ball.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, man, it's hard.

[Gina Grad]

I'll tell you something I don't do, Ken, because chivalry is not dead at the Corolla house. When. When the girls come up in the softball game. I don't do that bullshit where I walk up to the edge of the infield. It gives them no shot at getting a hit, right? What. What. What's up? I stay back there. If you want to hit a Texas state leaguer perfectly first base, it's perfectly okay.

[Adam Carolla]

I agree. I agree.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no. You don't move in. I like outfield.

[Gina Grad]

I like. There's always some guy or gal who thinks they have to stop at first base.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Gina Grad]

They don't know they can run through it.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Gina Grad]

There's. There's a couple things that drive me,

[Adam Carolla]

like, some real basic things.

[Gina Grad]

The company softball game. One is the person who's either not from this country or never somehow. Now there's things that escape them about

[Adam Carolla]

baseball since the company picnic is so democratic. Oh, sure, you can play, right?

[Gina Grad]

They'll do the move. They'll be. They'll be this guy. They'll be the person that stops on first base, right. And gets out because they didn't run through it.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Gina Grad]

They'll then be the chick that runs through it, but turns to her left and starts walking back to the bag and is tagged. Somebody tags around, and then you have

[Adam Carolla]

to make that decision where he goes.

[Gina Grad]

Connie does. Doesn't know. And then the guy is at first base is an a hole. He's like, she's out. You're like, give her a break. She barely. Oh, and then female women's softball. I was one. I watched.

[Adam Carolla]

Could you hit any of that stuff?

[Gina Grad]

No. I watched 10 minutes. I, I. You couldn't time it. It's, like, coming from underneath. It's moving around. There's a. Plus, there's a hot chick doing it to you. You. It's distracting. She's wearing eyeshadow. But there's a couple things that bother me in the ponytail about the women's softball. And you tell me what you think of this. So I watched the US Playing, like, Hungary and some international whatever at espn, you know, two in the morning. The other. I was in charge.

[Adam Carolla]

I was watching with you. We boosted the rating.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. So I was watching. Now the number one and the number two hitter do some kind of Weird drag bunt shop.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Kind of a Nichiro thing where they're.

[Gina Grad]

Ichiro way out of the batter's box. The. The bag is 60ft away. So all you got to do is get the ball on the ground and you can run it out. The. The. The shortstop who's charging, fields it cleanly, gets it out of her mitt into the first basement as fast as humanly possible.

[Adam Carolla]

And they're still safe.

[Gina Grad]

They're still safe.

[Adam Carolla]

A.

[Gina Grad]

You're right. Ruining the sport because people. It'd be like someone saying, hey, we got a heavyweight fight, but only jabs, no right hand. Everyone's a CNA maker.

[Adam Carolla]

The male version, too, because they throw it this lobbing underhand, which they put all this English on. So if you don't. If you're not like a gigantic linebacker who can crush it, it's gonna just spurt away.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And then the women's stuff is too fast to hit. Yes. And then it dribbles down the.

[Gina Grad]

The unlimited arc is a. Travis. I'd like to find the guy who invented the unlimited arc softball and just kick that guy right in the nuts.

[Adam Carolla]

I take the 4th of July game. You know where you're throwing it.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Everybody gets a chance to hit it,

[Gina Grad]

and you tell the pitcher where you want it. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Like, no, I'm not going to hit that junk that you're throwing me.

[Gina Grad]

You know what pisses me off at the company softball game? When the guy rolls the first one in, throws the next one in over your head. The third one in. In. The catcher doesn't even have a shot at. Now he's getting ready to throw the fourth one in. And the guy in right field yells, come on, Burns. Yeah. Hit it. We're not here all day.

[Adam Carolla]

Jesus Christ.

[Gina Grad]

You want to serve it up on a silver platter? And you're like, none has come in that I could hit. But the pressure gets you.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no, no.

[Gina Grad]

And then he throws one. The tie.

[Adam Carolla]

And you swing at it and you

[Gina Grad]

pop out to the catcher or ground to first. I hate that.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I hate that, too.

[Gina Grad]

And I always promise myself, no first pitch. Pitch. No.

[Adam Carolla]

And then it comes in and it's a.

[Gina Grad]

It's so fat. All right, but so the. So the women. So I'm watching the women.

[Adam Carolla]

First of all, you see why we had to take four hours to do this update.

[Gina Grad]

There's just so much the women need to wear caps. Number one. I don't like the idea that they're wearing all. They're wearing visors. Like they're dealing blackjack.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Gina Grad]

50s. Like, I wear a baseball cap. I don't like the. Some of them wear visors, some of them don't. Right. And then they run out of the batter's box. Slide. They do a technique where they let go of the bat, it slides through their hands. They grab it at about the halfway point and then chop at it. They're 10ft out of the batter's box. It's first off, why do we have a batter's box if your ass is going to be outside when you're making contact with the ball?

[Adam Carolla]

They're wearing a short little skirt and knee socks, and they still have to slide.

[Gina Grad]

Well, some of it will wear the pads. Now they've wised up. The number four hitter, by the way, in the slot. Did a legitimate bunch.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Gina Grad]

Why you w. The number? Why you clean up and you're bunting. Of course, people aren't falling in love with your sport. They're not offering any. It's nowhere near everyone.

[Adam Carolla]

You and I are watching it at 2am Only two on ESPN7.

[Gina Grad]

I'm masturbating. That's. I don't know why you're there, but the point is, this is why. The UFC baseball.

[Adam Carolla]

We have an update to do the 10th inning. That's why I'm there. It's homework.

[Gina Grad]

It's homework that you tell your wife. So speaking of your wife, what is the schedule like? What's a normal day for Ken Burns?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I was on the road in 2009, 301 days, and when I told my best friend that my wife was unexpectedly pregnant, he said, that's great. Who's the father? So we're on the road, so we do a lot of promoting. We do of a lot, lot of shooting remotely. But, you know, a typical day when we're at home is getting up and spending 10 hours in the editing room trying to make something better on.

[Gina Grad]

On site. You have your own?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, in this little village in New Hampshire. Yeah, we got four or five avid bays and we work on these, you know, series. You know, I move from one room to another.

[Gina Grad]

And when you're doing, I mean, I did a 90 minute independent fit and there's a lot of, you know, oh, it's dragging. It feels too long. We're in the, we're in the museum for too long. We need to cut it down. But when you do in 19 hours,

[Adam Carolla]

then you, then you've got that problem come times 19. So you're. It's always critical.

[Gina Grad]

Really?

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah.

[Nicolas Cage]

Always.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, we're Always trying to figure out how to tell it right.

[Gina Grad]

Do you have, I mean, like when you're doing an independent com and your first cut comes in at 2 hours and 10 minutes, somebody will say, hey man, this thing's got to be 90 minutes. Do you do that with. You say, hey man, this thing's got to be 17 hours?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, we've started and sometimes the material just says it has to be this long or that episode is going to be an hour and a half or that episode is going to be two hours. And what's great about PBS is that if that hour has to be, that episode has to be 2 hours and 5 minutes. I get 2 hours and 5 minutes. And then they fill the other stuff with the making of conversation. And because who said everything had to come out to 52 minutes or 56 minutes or an hour?

[Gina Grad]

You know, network prime time half hour is like 20 minutes and 30 seconds or 21 minutes, but it's not 23 and a half minutes. There's no accordion effect at all.

[Adam Carolla]

Everything's structured to the commercial breaks. So you know how to write in these little tiny things. And maybe that's not the way it goes. So the fact that we can have two, sometimes two and a half hours of clean, uninterrupted time on television is like, unknown. I mean, you get it a little bit in the, in the premium cable stuff, but they don't.

[Gina Grad]

It.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, PBS says we want you to do it the way you want to do it.

[Gina Grad]

How does the economics of it work?

[Adam Carolla]

It's totally different from anything else. It's all grant funded. So we get corporate under underwriting, not investment, about 25%. It's bank of America in this case. And they've been fantastic. We get some from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and every once in a while from the neh, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the rest are foundations. And you got to go out and pound the pavement and get it. But then when you do it, you're free, you've got that wall and you can deal with. Tough subject, as you know. I mean, the number one subject theme of American life is race. And people don't want to talk about it, don't want to deal with it. It's in the front pages today, but no one will really come to terms. When Thomas Jefferson said all men are created equal, he went. He didn't sort of look back home and see that he had 100 people or more that worked for him, that he never saw that contradiction or Hypocrisy, and more importantly, never saw fit in his lifetime to free any one of them. And so we deal with these difficult stuff. We deal with lots of complex themes, but still try to tell them in an engaging way.

[Gina Grad]

How does it work for you? Because as far as your income goes, because in a way, tell me if this is right or wrong. I mean, I'm sure you make money doing speaking engagements.

[Adam Carolla]

We get paid modestly for the budgets themselves. They get paid for speaking engagements. There's sometimes a companion book in which you can get some money if it does well. And then if the film does well, afterlife, like DVDs or foreign sales, it trickles down and you get a little bit. Most of which gets just put right back into the next stuff. But you live in rural New Hampshire. You measure your richness just in far more ways than the bottom line. You know what I mean?

[Gina Grad]

Well, I know for you.

[Adam Carolla]

And they haven't invented a pill that Chris Rock suggested that would have me be paid like Steven Spielberg.

[Gina Grad]

Well, but now do you. I'm guessing you don't have a lot, lot of expensive vices. I mean, no, the.

[Adam Carolla]

The jets in the shop, it's been up on blocks for a long time. The butler and the chauffeur and the maid and the valet are all, you know, on maternity leave.

[Gina Grad]

But this is your life's.

[Nicolas Cage]

Your, your.

[Gina Grad]

Your work, your muse, your passion. It's. It's all wrapped up into one.

[Adam Carolla]

You know what Monday is like? Anticipation. Monday is not a bummer. Friday is not like, like liberation. The people I work with are the people I play with. I feel like I got the best job in the country. It educates all my parts. I meet lots of very interesting people. I travel around the country. And you engage these things. You become not an expert, but you just dive down deep for a couple years, but then you have to spend 40 years, you can leave it alone. And my first film for PBS was on the Brooklyn Bridge. I can talk to you for an hour about that, what's cool about that. And the next film was on the Shakers. I could talk to you for an hour about what's important about the Shakers. But I've also done 20 other films since then. Civil War and baseball and Jazz and, you know, I've biographies on Mark Twain and Frank Lloyd Wright and Lewis and Clark and Jack Johnson and, you know, the war stuff.

[Gina Grad]

Did the guy. Did one of the architects of the Brooklyn Bridge die of blood poisoning because he got his toe smashed by bars?

[Adam Carolla]

Very good. His name was John Rose. He was a German immigrant, the favorite student of Hegel, apparently. He came, he moved to western Pennsylvania, and he saw that he could make a fortune doing wire rope instead of hemp rope, because he watched these barges trying to go up over the Alleghenies, break and crash and kill people. So he moved back to Trenton, started this wire company. He designs the Brooklyn Bridge. He's out on a ferry, and this boat comes in. I mean, out on a dock, and a ferry comes in and crushes his foot. He. He dies of tetanus because he's hydropathous, which means he only does water cures, Right.

[Gina Grad]

He wouldn't.

[Adam Carolla]

And so he wouldn't treat it. And his young son, Washington Roebling, who'd gotten his only training as an engineer in the Civil War, where he's building military bridges, takes over the greatest construction of the era now, I mean, and I haven't even brought in Boss Tweed and all the shenanigans of bad politics that would make today look kind of clean Bill.

[Gina Grad]

What? And speaking of today, could you do a project like that today? Or. I mean, you could do it, but would it take twice as long and cost 10 times as much?

[Adam Carolla]

It would probably cost a lot more than it cost. I mean, I lived on 2 cents an hour. That's why I moved from New York to this little village, because I knew I had just taken this vow of anonymity and poverty by becoming a documentary filmmaker for pbs, focusing on American history. And then I'm happy that it didn't turn out that way, but I've used the sort of economic spartan model of working to make it happen. Yeah. And the other thing is, is that there's a fire that takes place down in the caissons, These great wooden boxes the size of a city block where they're down. Men are in there excavating the river bottom, and then they're piling rocks on top of it. And then they get to bedrock and they fill this thing, this caisson, with cement, and that's what the tower's going to be on. But they have to use compressed air to keep the water out. So when they come up, they get the bends, right? So it's this hellish thing, and there was a fire in one of them, and that takes like 18 or 30 seconds. In this original documentary I made, like today, I know so much more that I could turn that fire into five minutes. So then you're talking about bends are

[Gina Grad]

basically just because it's sort of like the runs in that it's Just named after bending over.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no, no, no. Night. I don't know why I get it's

[Gina Grad]

got name the bands.

[Adam Carolla]

I guess because they were doubled up. What happens is that you have nitrogen as a gas in your bloodstream. When you're under extreme pressure, that gets pulverized and it reforms as a bubble. And those bubbles cause, you know, a million little heart attacks. And people were dying in the Brooklyn Bridge of what was originally called the technical military term, I mean medical term, is caisson's disease. From the construction of bridges in the 19th century, specifically the Brooklyn Bridge.

[Gina Grad]

It's so insane how what they needed to do, the technology that wasn't in place, now they just get some caisson rig and drill it, you know, from a barge up above.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, every once in a while I stop on those cable channels where they're building the new super duper bridge across the Japanese or Chinese thing. And you know what they're building caissons. They got it all down. But it's the same sort of principle where you keep the sea out and you put this box down and you excavate until you hit bedrock. And then you fill that in and build your tower.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. Now it's just, you know, it's actually the same with dental work too. If you ever get dental implants. Everything's basically based on the caisson, but

[Adam Carolla]

they give you some premise and they don't tie it to a door.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah. So the next we have, we have a Vietnam one way in 2015.

[Adam Carolla]

Before that is the Roosevelt Central park jogger Dust bowl. And prohibition is next now.

[Gina Grad]

So what did you learn? I mean, obviously you became an expert. You become an expert on all this stuff, Prohibition as it pertains to, I guess, you know, a lot of people draw the parallels to drugs.

[Adam Carolla]

You know what, it's such a stupid parallel to draw. And the reason is. Yeah, I mean you can talk about that stuff, but. But drugs have always been parts of some very rare subcultures. Every culture drinks alcohol. It has fermented or distilled spirits. The real connection about prohibition, to me, the thing that there's nothing new under the sun is that this is a story about right wing single issue campaigns that metastasize. This is the story about the demonization of immigrants. This is the story about state and local governments complaining about unfunded mandate. This is the story of smear campaigns against Democrats. This is a story about unintended consequences. It is almost exactly what's going on now. It's the last gasp of Protestantism. We keep these Romanists from getting their wine, you know, we'll still be able to hold on. It's like a tea party thing. It's unbelievable.

[Gina Grad]

Did it backfire on us?

[Adam Carolla]

Of course it did.

[Gina Grad]

Well, I mean, I know it backfired, but to what extent in every degree would we not have organized crime?

[Adam Carolla]

We would probably, probably wouldn't have organized crime to the extent that we have today. It made half the country lawbreakers. Female alcoholism, which was almost non existent, confined to housewives taking Lydia Pinkham's vegetable compound which was mostly made up of alcohol in the 19th century. And women were never when, unless you were a prostitute, you were never in a saloon, which is what the anti Saloon league wanted to get rid of. So when you get rid of the saloons, you replace them with speakeasies. There's no governance. Kids can drink and did women drank and female alcoholism becomes a huge social problem by the time prohibition's over. And nothing ever excludes alcohol.

[Gina Grad]

Unintended consequence of prohibition is bringing the women into the speakeasies.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, and I mean it got passed because of a lot of different factors, but it also after World War I, there's that typical after the war, change in habits. And so women, the mothers who had worked so hard for temperance and then got suckered into accepting total temperance T. Capital T, total abstinence.

[Gina Grad]

Totally.

[Adam Carolla]

That's where it comes from. You know, suddenly looked in horror as their daughters were bobbing their hair and their short skirts and they're not wearing bras and they're drinking and they're driving and they're, you know, it made half the country, you know, lawbreakers.

[Gina Grad]

It never works. Adam Caroll on the Weed. Well, I've just polished off my first 750 milliliter bottle of cherry mash flavor blended bourbon from our good friends at Jeremiah Weed. Yes, that's right. The ace man has put his red wine medicine aside and poured himself a nice frosty tumbler of his favorite Jeremiah Weed cherry mash. Couple ice cubes, Lil tivo. No better way to unwind at the end of the night. But if you're like my wife, you like the sweet tea vodka. So refreshing, goes down smooth. Think of it as a high octane wine cooler without all the negative baggage. The perfect summer cocktail out on the porch. Little sweet tea, vodka, some lemonade and a lemon wedge. Couple ice cubes, you are good to go and feeling fine. And as I've said before, fish will drink. A fighter pilot. That's right, they do. A toast to their fallen comrades. With a shot of Jeremiah Weed. Believe me, if it's good enough for the fighter jocks, it's good enough for your whining lips. Jeremiah Weed. It never works. It's always bites.

[Adam Carolla]

You know that guy Mac Twain I was telling you about earlier?

[Gina Grad]

Marty Twain, I mean Mark Twain.

[Adam Carolla]

Mark Twain. We start the film with a quote from him. He says nothing so needs reform as other people's habits.

[Gina Grad]

Right? Sure. I mean it's so true when they say, should we add $2 to the pack of a. To the price of a pack of cigarettes and give the money to the schools. All the non smokers, hands go up and go, yeah, my kids and I don't smoke. Yeah, it's very dangerous. I saw a thing on Elliot Ness, a doc. Sorry, on Elliot Ness.

[Adam Carolla]

What's that?

[Gina Grad]

Not too long ago. And it turns out none of these heroes were ever heroes.

[Adam Carolla]

He doesn't make an appearance in our film.

[Gina Grad]

He really.

[Adam Carolla]

We've got some great bootleggers, guys who are like well respected police lieutenants in Seattle and a well respected defense attorney in Chicago. And they went, I can make a lot more money as bootleggers. And became like the king of the Puget Sound bootleggers. And this one guy moved to Cincinnati, was making like $6 million one year back at when. $6 million a year.

[Gina Grad]

So this sort of myth of Eliot Ness and the Untouchables and all that nonsense never really factored in. Well, I mean he was trying to grab headlines.

[Adam Carolla]

Capone, Capone and Torrio in Chicago, they did live up to the hype for a while. But the problem is that trope of the rain slicked Chicago streets with the Model T careening around the corner, machine gun blasting actually clears the territory for us from a much more interesting. We've got that in the film. It's in there and it's fun and it's exciting. But the social transformations, the religious dimension the century before of how it actually happened. I mean these cynical right wing politicians who allied themselves with progressives who wanted to balance. There was no income tax and the beer and liquor industries were going. There's no problem. The government gets more than half of its revenues from our industry. This never going to happen. So they go in and they say, yes, we agree in the redistribution of wealth, let's pass an income tax. So they pass an income tax and oh, they don't need the tax money from the brewers and the distillers anymore. Then World War I comes along and who's the enemy? The German Hun who makes beer In America, the Germans, so suddenly, you know, they're saying the Anti Saloon League is saying that the biggest enemies are Blatz and Anheuser and Schlitz and Miller.

[Gina Grad]

What do you think the Anti Saloon League meats? You know what I mean? Because you need a saloon to meet at. You need to have a place, maybe an ihop.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, there's also hypocrisy. The three chapters, it's three, two hours. The first one's a nation of drunkards. By the time distilled spirits came, presidents were drinking for breakfast. John Adams had, you know, a cup of hard cider. Hard cider. This is not what you have with donuts. Hard cider for breakfast. The second episode is called A Nation of Scofflaws from when they first put the law into effect in 1920 and everybody broke it. And the last one is an nation of hypocrites because Harding, who was an ardent dry. The President of the United States, had a whiskey cabinet every week. And they got their liquor from a bootlegger. These guys that were, you know, voting the laws about Prohibition were continuing to drink.

[Gina Grad]

Well, it breaks my heart every time I see one of that black and white footage of guys taking a fireman's axe to a barrel of beer and it's going out into the gutter and I'm like, no.

[Adam Carolla]

And washing down the sea. Yeah, we got a lot of that.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, it's heartbreaking to see those barrels of beer going to the sewer system. I can't believe that this thing ever got any traction, like in 1919 or

[Adam Carolla]

20, or the moment it began in 1820. And they started just building and building and building really, and building and building. And the Women's Christian Temperance Union came along and they did lots of progressive education. Progressives liked it, radicals liked it, conservative liked it. You know, the big industrials didn't want their workers to get drunk. The communists, the wobblies, the socialists, they thought that liquor was this plot by the capitalists to keep the workers enslaved. Booker T. Washington thought that black people would be able to advance if they didn't get drunk. I mean, everybody was sort of for it. And they wanted it to be an amendment because no amendment had ever been repealed. So it was sort of locked in, it was cemented in. But of course it's unintended consequences. It created so much damage, it did so much bad stuff that it's the only amendment that's ever been repealed.

[Gina Grad]

Do you believe now, what do you think about. I was going to say, you know, America's but the world's reliance on alcohol and sort of being altered, you know what I mean?

[Adam Carolla]

There's a guy who says, why do

[Gina Grad]

we want to escape what is with such a passion?

[Adam Carolla]

This universe is so chaotic and so random. And what we do is we invent religion and art and literature and love and conversation to superimpose some order on what's happened. And that's what we do over the chaos of what's going on. And we set a frame around it. If it's a painter or a photographer, we write about it. We try to control what seems to be the randomly uncontrollable events that happen. But shit does happen. And you know, after a while, that

[Gina Grad]

should be the name of your next

[Adam Carolla]

die, don't you think?

[Gina Grad]

19 hours of shit happens one minute and you take Larry Johnson was fine and a drink, clean his gutters out and he fell off and he broke his neck and died.

[Adam Carolla]

What can you say?

[Gina Grad]

Shit happens. So you try to take a drink too.

[Adam Carolla]

And a drink helps you just is one of those things that we've invented to sort of separate us from the mercilessness of what goes on in the world. And some people find in faith, but you see how that metastasized faiths are responsible for more deaths in the last thousand years than any other force.

[Gina Grad]

I like, I like you, Ken, because you don't like religion or white people.

[Adam Carolla]

I live in New England. Why don't you ski? And I said I don't like a sport in which African Americans don't excel.

[Gina Grad]

I am only here because Jimmy Kimmel made an off colored remark about an African American skiing. Do you know that?

[Adam Carolla]

No.

[Gina Grad]

I owe my entire career to Jimmy Kimmel making fun of, of Bobby McFerrin breaking his leg on a ski slope. He story must have been out of 94. Bobby McFerrin was skiing the don't worry, be happy. Yeah guy and I'm sure you know about. And he broke his leg on a ski slope. Jimmy, who was doing sports for ran with it, ran with it and said, what's a. What's a brother skiing for? The brother he worked with on the radio station. Michael, the maintenance man, ran in and got angry, took umbrage with that statement, challenged him to a boxing match. I was working as a boxing instructor at the time, heard it on the radio and decided to volunteer my services to train. One of the guys ended up this match for the match ended up with Jimmy. And the rest, as they say, is history. But the only reason I'm here really is because he Made fun of a black guy ski.

[Adam Carolla]

I get it. Well, see, I just think that you should be careful about making fun of it. Not because it might cause you to get into a fight, but because when African Americans do turn their attention to skiing, that's it.

[Gina Grad]

It's silver and bronze from that point on, if you're lucky.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, we always put. We put African American. We put black history in February, which is our coldest and shortest month, as if it's the politically correct addendum to our national narrative, when, in fact, African American history is at the center, the burning center of American history. When Thomas Jefferson said all men are created equal, and he doesn't deal with it, he set in motion an American narrative that's going to be not only bedeviled but also ennobled by a question of race. The only art form that we've invented, jazz, is born in a community of people who have had the peculiar experience.

[Gina Grad]

You say unfree. You mean America.

[Adam Carolla]

America's. Our art form is people that are unfree in a free land. I mean, this has been. Our genius is improvisation. And if you're a slave in America, you got to improvise a hell of a lot more than anybody else. And so a great deal of our music, our culture, the dynamics, the soul of the country is built on the backs first of African American labor and then of African American experience. And rather than putting it in February, it could be. We could consider it in a different light.

[Gina Grad]

Well, what would you do then if you were in charge and, you know, the black community is not thriving as well as you would probably. And I would probably like it. And I think there's a sort of a fun fundamental problem, which is when Bill Cosby says, you know, pull your pants up and speak English and get good grades. And you know what? You getting an A on an algebra test doesn't make you sell out to your race. People come down on Bill Cosby, or at least people in that community come down on Bill Cosby.

[Adam Carolla]

But that presupposes that that community is the dominant African American, American community. And it is not. It's a fraction. I think it just goes back. Chris Rock understands it. He says, I'm a millionaire, and you would not trade places with me for anything. And he's right.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, really?

[Adam Carolla]

And until that moment when we would go, oh, yeah, I'll beat Chris Rock. I will be him. Until we. Then there's work to do. And I'm not sure you can legislate that work. I'm not sure you can Say that it's just as simple as pull your pants up. Of course, discipline and self discipline is about it. But we have African American examples. I mean, this is a race that's called lazy and shiftless. They worked 14 hours a day as slaves, and when there was a full moon, they worked more. And we're suddenly. Our default position for all African Americans is somehow they're lazy and shiftless. This is the people that we were lazy and shiftless. And we wanted them to do all the work for us. Right. And now we're upset because of we

[Gina Grad]

were smart, lazy and shiftless. I mean, to be fair to us. But like Chris Rock, I do think you, Ken Burns probably wouldn't want to trade places with him, but.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, no, I'm closer to that. It's so interesting.

[Gina Grad]

But don't you think most people would.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no. And he's absolutely right. I'm closer to doing that. I mean, because we've engaged so many African American themes in our films. Because if you scratch the surface of American history, I don't go looking for it. It's not politically correct pursuit of this stuff, but it's there, there. It's always there. And people say we're post racial. Yeah, right. You know, I mean, Franklin Roosevelt was given 10 years to clean up the Depression and he didn't do it. And World War II was the greatest stimulus program. A year later, you know, blame the black guy for everything. You know, Tarp. Well before it happened, before his watch, it's his problem. You know, all of these different things. I get responses from African Americans like somebody got it. Like, you understand the dynamic. We aren't just all the baggy pants guys. It's not all a rap song. It's not all this. And that's a legitimate manifestation of culture too. I'm not even denigrating any of that. I'm just saying that we will be able to live out the full meaning of our creed. As Dr. King himself said, when we figure out how to deal with it and where Chris Rock is finally wrong about switching places. About switching places. And he was. Would be the first to say that is true. But no matter what picture, if his

[Gina Grad]

wife was hot or not. I mean, I was going through my brain trying to figure out what aspects

[Adam Carolla]

of his life you'd have.

[Gina Grad]

Well, I mean, hanging out with Adam Sandler, that part would be cool.

[Adam Carolla]

That would be very cool.

[Gina Grad]

I think his wife's attractive.

[Adam Carolla]

A black man in America still, you know, driving while black, you know, job, housing, all this sort of stuff.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, but see, for Rock, I figure that's all right. But he's not gonna. He could.

[Adam Carolla]

He.

[Gina Grad]

The. The. The commune. Who runs the. Who runs the condo association in Manhattan's gonna have him in, right? He's Chris Rock. You don't know.

[Adam Carolla]

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

[Gina Grad]

But we're saying a Chris Rock, he

[Adam Carolla]

lives in a neighborhood. He lives in a neighborhood, he said, in New Jersey. Suburb of New Jersey. Of New York City. Where he's like one of two black guys in his neighborhood. And it's only because I'm a multimillionaire.

[Gina Grad]

Right. And you are amongst nothing but white people in your neighborhood. Correct?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, our hood is pretty. Pretty lily white. At least in New Hampshire.

[Nicolas Cage]

Yeah.

[Gina Grad]

So, Donnie, how much time do we have? What time is it? One hour. All right. We gotta go back to the studio too. For you, after. Oh, okay. Well, Ken, you know, I feel like, first off, I feel like you locked up in a dark edit bay 10 hours out of the day is like taking the Mona Lisa and putting it in someone's basement. I feel like there's so much more. I've interviewed you.

[Nicolas Cage]

I love you.

[Gina Grad]

I know you're good at it, don't get me wrong. But I've interviewed you two times, I believe. And I'm always so impressed at how opinionated you are and how articulate you are and your wealth of knowledge and. And you really should be on the View or something. I mean, full time. I mean, there's so many people on television whose. Their education's a little suspect, their sense of humor's a little suspect, their knowledge pool's a little suspect. Have you been approached to do shows?

[Adam Carolla]

I love my job. It's so great, and I love doing that. And then coming out and sharing the film. And that evangelical dimension is as important as being locked in that editing room or being out shooting, you know, the national parks at 3am at the Rim of the Grand Canyon. All that stuff works, including this. And I love that part of it, but I don't think I'd be the same if that's all I did. I would just. I watch friends of mine who go out on the speaking circuit, and that's all they do. I sort of do enough to survive, but they just become their rap. And then that's what you're looking at at tv. It's not so much that they're not that smart or what, whatever, is that they're just doing it all the time. And they need. And I get experience. I get exposed to real life stuff. I got three Daughters and something on the way and a grandkid, you know, I mean, that's enough to give you real life experience.

[Gina Grad]

Wow.

[Adam Carolla]

Meaning a boy or a girl.

[Gina Grad]

I got that. Yeah. Well, I'm tickled pink for your success. And, you know, about the greatest compliment I think you could pay to almost anyone is when people think of a smart guy, they just throw out Einstein. You know, when they're making an example, they go, listen, I'm no idiot. I'm no Einstein. You know, they do that. I think Ken Burns, if someone is using, you know, documentarian, filmmaker, documentary filmmaker, I think you're about the first name anyone can summons.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, that's right.

[Gina Grad]

And that's. It's again. It's sort of. You're the again, Frank Lloyd Wright of doc.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, that's a very nice thing to say, but I'm a nicer guy than Frank Lloyd Wright.

[Gina Grad]

He's a hole. Well, when you're good at what?

[Adam Carolla]

Skipped out on creditors, cheated on his wife.

[Gina Grad]

Really? I got to rewatch your doc on

[Adam Carolla]

you, Lyn and I made that in 98.

[Gina Grad]

It is, by the way, the 10th inning, and it premieres September 28th and 29th on PBS. We'll be watching.

[Adam Carolla]

I can't wait for you to see it. I'm sorry. Excited by, really by this thing.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, I, I, I love. Well, I love sports. And I. I, of course, will be watching it. And, Ken, anytime you're in town or anytime we can get a phone or

[Adam Carolla]

going, anytime, I love every conversation.

[Gina Grad]

I love it.

[Adam Carolla]

I love it.

[Gina Grad]

Thanks. Ken Burns. Nice to see you. Good to see you.

[Producer/Announcer]

And now, Stitcher Radio presents your Adam Carolla Extra.

[Gina Grad]

Well, there you go, Little Ken Burns for you. Or as I call him, Kenny Burns. Thank Kenny in advance. Or I should thank him, actually, in post for doing a blurb for me in my book. Gracious guy, really smart guy, interesting guy. That guy needs a talk show. Thought I'd share a story with you kids that has nothing to do with Ken Burns, but it was kind of funny. I was tweeting about it, but I can give you the extended dance version. I did a Funny or Die Short with Larry Miller. Our good friend Larry Miller, a couple days ago, actually. Yesterday. Shot over at Griffith park and a couple things that were funny. At some point, me and Larry Miller were just standing alone in a big sea of asphalt. Just. There's a. It's Griffith Park. You go up a hill, you go up a driveway, you turn down a thing, and it's just a big. It's a Big driveway, that whole 300 cars. And down the hill is a Ferris wheel. And we're in fire season. And that whole park caught on fire a couple years ago and they're really freaked out about it. So they have guys out on foot and they're out patrolling everywhere and they're walking around. And so me and Larry Miller are just standing there talking about the Funny or Die video. I'm, you know, standing, leaning next to my car in a sea of asphalt, and a fire marshal comes up to us and he goes, what's going on? Like, nothing. You guys, Anyone here smoking? Any smokers here? I said, I don't know. I don't think so. There's 20 guys on the crew and a few actresses and a makeup chick and a hair chick and a fucking couple extras. I'm like, I didn't check everyone's breath before I came on the set. So now Larry, because Larry's old school, and I love this about Larry, he thinks the guy is asking for a cigarette where I know he's telling us not to smoke, but it's the kind of thing where it's like, yeah, don't. No smoking where it's fire season. He's kind of doing a sort of preemptive dressing us down. And I was also. And then he walked away. And I'm sure he bugged somebody else, but I thought, you know who starts the fucking fires? Assholes. The homeless fucks that are up in the hills making the Mulligan stew and cooking up the crack. They're the guys who start the fires in the hill. If I was smoking, I'm standing in a fucking sea of asphalt. And by the way, I wouldn't. When I was done with my cigarette, I wouldn't duct tape it to a five gallon drum of gas and throw it into. I would put it on the ground, I would rub it out with my foot and I'd probably throw the butt in the dirt. I'm not your problem.

[Adam Carolla]

I.

[Gina Grad]

This is the part that fucking drives me nuts about society. It's. It's the same with the airport security. Tired of seeing grandma being fucking strip searched and patted down. She's not a terrorist. She's not part of the problem. If Larry Miller and I were smoking in the middle of the parking lot in the middle of a Tuesday, it wouldn't. We would. We wouldn't be the ones who started the fucking fight. We were standing 200 yards away from the side of the hill. And like I said, my car would have caught on fire before the fucking hill. There's nothing there. And I would have disposed of this cigarette. The guys who started those fires were fucking bums up in those fucking hills. Now, LA doesn't do anything about the homeless problem. That's a non issue. But mean Larry Miller smoking in a parking lot, that's a big issue. The other thing that was funny is then the director came up to me and he said, what have you got, an Audi? And I said, yeah. And he said, jeez, is that the V8? And I said, yeah. He said, wow, that thing's got some grunt. I said, 340 horsepower. And then I said, you like cars? And he said, yeah, I like cars. And then I opened the trunk and inside it were two racing slicks mounted on a couple tires. Because I'm doing a vintage race this weekend. And I was bringing them over to the shop and I like, these are my racing slicks. I'm going vintage racing racing this weekend in Coronado. And I turned around and there was Ed Begley Jr. On his bicycle. And I was like, did you hear me talking about the V8 or the racing? Because I was just kidding, Mr. Begley Jr. It was the funniest thing in the world. Ed Begley Jr. Is the nicest guy in the world. He was in the video too. He chose to ride his bike to Griffith park, by the way. But it was just funny. The quick pucker factor. Talking about horsepower and vintage racing. And by the way, you think These guys hate V8s? How about V8s? Going in a circle and going nowhere. An entire day either way. That's my little story and your Stitcher Extra content.

[Producer/Announcer]

That was your Adam Carolla extra on Stitcher radio. Stitcher wants to fly you and a friend to LA to come see a taping of the Adam Carolla show. Just email the new word every day to Adam Stitcher.com we'll have another word and another chance for you to enter tomorrow on your Stitcher. Adam Carolla extra winner will be announced Friday, October 1st. Go to Stitcher.com for official rules.

[Gina Grad]

Hey, kitties ace man. Here. Your Stitcher secret word for today is police.

[Dave Dameshek]

All right, this is Adam Cole Show 375 with the great Ken Burns.

[Gina Grad]

That does it for today's cruel classics.

[Dave Dameshek]

Make sure to tune tomorrow for an all new installment. Until then, mahalo and get it on.