Rainn Wilson on God, Banana Bread, and the Dwight of It All

Summary

Podcast Title: Good Guys
Episode: Rainn Wilson on God, Banana Bread, and the Dwight of It All
Release Date: June 19, 2025
Hosts: Josh Peck and Ben Soffer
Guest: Rainn Wilson

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1. Introduction to Rainn Wilson

The episode kicks off with Josh Peck and Ben Soffer warmly welcoming Rainn Wilson, highlighting his multifaceted career as a brilliant actor, podcaster, author, and theater performer. Josh shares his admiration for Rainn’s recent theater involvement, setting the stage for an engaging conversation.

Notable Quote:
Josh Peck [02:04]: “We have the great Rainn Wilson here. Brilliant actor, podcaster, author, theater actor.”

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2. Rainn Wilson’s Theater Journey

Rainn delves into his recent role in the stage production of Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot" at the Geffen Playhouse. He expresses immense pride and discusses the physical and emotional demands of performing in a two-hour play with minimal stage exits.

Notable Quotes:
Rainn Wilson [04:06]: “I don’t know that I’ve worked harder on anything I’ve ever done in my life than on that play.”
Josh Peck [04:41]: “It’s also over two hours where you really don’t leave the stage.”

Rainn elaborates on the challenges of bringing a postmodern, existentialist play to life, emphasizing the depth and discipline required for such a performance.

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3. The Significance of Residuals in Entertainment

The conversation shifts to the critical topic of residuals for actors, with Rainn passionately advocating for fair compensation. He highlights the disparity faced by actors in non-unionized shows like "Drake and Josh," where talent does not receive ongoing financial benefits from repeated show airings.

Notable Quotes:
Rainn Wilson [07:45]: “Residuals are a must.”
Rainn Wilson [09:35]: “There's a lot of... paying for kids tuitions, it's paying for Trader Joe's groceries for the thousands and thousands of middle class actors.”

Rainn shares his frustration over the lack of residuals in certain children's shows, arguing that residuals are essential for the financial stability of many actors.

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4. Exploring Spirituality with Soul Boom Podcast

Rainn discusses his "Soul Boom" podcast and book, exploring themes of spirituality, mental health, and the search for meaning. He articulates his belief in diverse spiritual pathways beyond organized religion, emphasizing personal experiences that transcend traditional religious structures.

Notable Quotes:
Rainn Wilson [17:56]: “There is a relationship to a higher power that doesn't have to exist within the confines of religion.”
Rainn Wilson [21:49]: “The connection between the arts and spirituality is something that isn't kind of explored enough.”

He reflects on his spiritual experiences, such as attending sound baths and flotation tanks, and connects these to broader spiritual and existential questions.

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5. Embracing Fatherhood

Rainn shares personal insights as he and his wife prepare to welcome a new child. He humorously discusses practical fatherhood tips, such as using a Diaper Genie, and reflects on the fleeting nature of time with children.

Notable Quotes:
Rainn Wilson [27:54]: “The stupidest cliché known to man, but it is so, so true. You have to just love that time with your kids.”
Rainn Wilson [28:07]: “It's gonna be watching from the hospital.”

He emphasizes the importance of cherishing every moment, acknowledging how quickly children grow and the profound changes they bring to family life.

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6. Reflections on "The Office" and Acting

A deep dive into Rainn’s iconic role as Dwight Schrute on "The Office," he discusses the evolution of his character and the show’s transition from its British origins to its own unique American flavor. Rainn highlights the balance between scripted lines and improvisation that contributed to the show’s success.

Notable Quotes:
Rainn Wilson [35:56]: “There's a big shift between season one and season two... the show became a little bit warmer and a little more human.”
Rainn Wilson [45:04]: “Maybe some episodes, 85%. Maybe some 75%. But those little moments of gold where there were some improvisation or extra lines, you know, that's the frosting.”

He credits Greg Daniels, the showrunner, for fostering an environment that allowed for creative improvisation, enhancing the comedic and emotional depth of the series.

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7. Audience Questions and Advice

The hosts engage with listener-submitted questions, offering humorous and heartfelt advice. Topics range from dealing with unwanted banana bread to navigating complex family dynamics during weddings. Rainn provides thoughtful yet comedic solutions, blending empathy with lightheartedness.

Notable Quotes:
Rainn Wilson [50:55]: “She makes the best banana bread. I really appreciate it so much... and then just give it to your neighbor or your dog.”
Rainn Wilson [58:47]: “Maybe you need to connect with AI for fantasy... but use the banana bread.”

Their responses showcase a blend of humor and genuine support, addressing listener dilemmas with a mix of practicality and wit.

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8. "What Are You Nuts?" Segment

In the final segment, Josh, Ben, and Rainn share their pet peeves, humorously labeling certain behaviors as “nuts.” Topics include Uber drivers overusing cologne, intrusive speakerphone conversations in public, and misleading Instagram captions.

Notable Quotes:
Ben Soffer [60:32]: “Uber drivers that wear cologne are completely nuts.”
Rainn Wilson [61:11]: “Speakerphone conversations in public... What are you nuts?”

This lighthearted segment adds a fun and relatable conclusion to the episode, allowing the hosts to connect with listeners over shared frustrations.

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The episode wraps up with Rainn promoting his "Soul Boom" podcast and expressing his admiration for Jay Shetty, suggesting potential future collaborations. The hosts encourage listeners to rate the episode highly and stay tuned for future installments.

Notable Quote:
Rainn Wilson [64:36]: “This episode is 5 stars. Otherwise, what are you, nuts?”

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Overall Summary: In this engaging episode of the Good Guys podcast, Rainn Wilson opens up about his diverse career, from theater to television, and delves into important industry issues like residuals for actors. He shares his spiritual journey through his Soul Boom podcast and book, offering insights into personal growth and the intersection of art and spirituality. As a soon-to-be father, Rainn provides humorous yet heartfelt advice on parenting, while also reflecting on his iconic role in The Office. The hosts and Rainn connect with listeners through thoughtful Q&A sessions and their signature humorous segments, creating a rich and relatable narrative that resonates with both fans and newcomers alike.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Josh Peck [02:04]: “We have the great Rainn Wilson here. Brilliant actor, podcaster, author, theater actor.”
• Rainn Wilson [07:45]: “Residuals are a must.”
• Rainn Wilson [17:56]: “There is a relationship to a higher power that doesn't have to exist within the confines of religion.”
• Rainn Wilson [35:56]: “There's a big shift between season one and season two... the show became a little bit warmer and a little more human.”
• Rainn Wilson [50:55]: “She makes the best banana bread. I really appreciate it so much... and then just give it to your neighbor or your dog.”
• Rainn Wilson [64:36]: “This episode is 5 stars. Otherwise, what are you, nuts?”

---

This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the episode, highlighting Rainn Wilson’s perspectives and interactions with the hosts, while ensuring that listeners who haven’t tuned in can still grasp the meaningful discussions and entertainments shared.

Transcript

[Josh Peck]

The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

[Ben Soffer]

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[Josh Peck]

Two jewels, both big and tall, no subject too small for the Good Guys. A Mother's Dream Premium Podcast Team make.

[Rainn Wilson]

It your weekly routine.

[Josh Peck]

It's a Good Guys.

[Rainn Wilson]

And if you don't give us five stars.

[Josh Peck]

What are you nuts?

[Rainn Wilson]

What are you nuts? Yeah, we're the good gu.

[Josh Peck]

Great guys.

[Ben Soffer]

Whoa.

[Josh Peck]

We already have started. I mean, for anyone who doesn't know, we have the great Rainn Wilson here. Brilliant actor, podcaster, author, theater actor. I saw you recently on the. On the stage.

[Rainn Wilson]

Where?

[Josh Peck]

Theater. Well, I will tell you, but you guys are just talking about the Knicks and it makes sense.

[Rainn Wilson]

And Knicks fan.

[Josh Peck]

This is a high te. Uber masculine pod. I don't know if you notice, but this is just like, look at me, I'm.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, boy, this is broke. Just total bro culture over here. You Joe Rogan? Yeah, she is in your bald head. Come on, let's do it right now.

[Josh Peck]

Let's do Jiu Jitsu naked.

[Rainn Wilson]

Doesn't make me gay. If I. If I jizz on your bald head, which would be fine anyway.

[Josh Peck]

Yes. But I'm not gay for watching.

[Rainn Wilson]

Hey, enjoy. Enjoy the show.

[Ben Soffer]

You know.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, my God.

You might. You might be gay for watching, but that's fine.

We're actors.

[Josh Peck]

We don't do things without an audience. Yeah. I saw you in Waiting for Godot.

[Rainn Wilson]

Whoa.

[Josh Peck]

At the Geffen Playhouse.

[Rainn Wilson]

That's crazy.

[Josh Peck]

And it was kind of a fun.

[Rainn Wilson]

Why would you come to Waiting for Godot? That's. I'm having trouble.

[Josh Peck]

What?

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, I'm thinking about your vine comedy videos and your show. Your show, the Nickelodeon show and the POD and stuff like that. It didn't. It's not. It doesn't quite sync up to me.

[Josh Peck]

I missed all the things I'm proud of.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Peck]

No, I'm kidding. It's just an Oppenheimer.

[Rainn Wilson]

No, I.

[Josh Peck]

Here's the thing. I love theater, and we're a bit. We don't get enough of it, in my opinion, in la.

[Rainn Wilson]

We don't. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

And I'll never forget, I had heard so much about the show, and friends of mine who loved theater had seen it, and it was the final performance, and.

[Rainn Wilson]

Wow.

[Josh Peck]

I have two kids and a pregnant wife.

[Rainn Wilson]

Wow.

[Josh Peck]

And I just was like, I found a single ticket for the last performance.

[Rainn Wilson]

No way.

[Josh Peck]

And so there I am walking around Westwood. I'm like, I am an artist. I have a single ticket to the theater. And I sat there and loved it. You were awesome.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, great.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah. What a great show.

[Rainn Wilson]

I'm so proud of that show. I really am. We worked so fucking hard on that thing. I don't know that I've worked harder on anything I've ever done in my life than on that play. It was the, you know, Waiting for Godot. For those who don't know Samuel Beckett, it's this kind of postmodern, existentialist kind of also vaudeville romp. You know, it's part comedy and part, like, despair and kind of all this kind of eclectic language. And it's. Man, it's really challenging on every level as an actor, and we struggled to bring it to life, but I'm really proud of the production.

[Josh Peck]

Well, it's also over two hours where you really don't leave the stage.

[Rainn Wilson]

No.

[Josh Peck]

Ever.

[Rainn Wilson]

No. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Peck]

It's a lot.

[Rainn Wilson]

And whenever I left the stage, which was only for, like, five to 15 seconds at a time, I would just be, like, guzzling water for a while. Like, it was so draining on my body. I'd use, you know, those little goofy the Goo things.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah. Like, for Iron man or.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Like you.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. You drink the Carbo Goos. Like, I was shooting Carbo Goos backstage. Yeah. You Joe Rogan.

[Ben Soffer]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

I was doing Carbo Goose backstage, waiting for Godot, man. But it's worse than MMA rain.

[Josh Peck]

Gets, like, a bunch of Clif Bars and Goose into him, and they're like, oh, are you doing, like, the Boston Marathon? He goes, no, Shakespeare, Becket. That's so good. Do you love doing stage? I know you're trained as a theater actor.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah, you know, I do, and I. I'm so grateful for it. I started in the theater. I fell in love with it. I. You know, I had. You know, I always struggled to find my tribe. I was such a nerdy kid. I played the bassoon in the orchestra. I was on the chess team. I was in Model United Nations. Hell, yeah. And then I got into theater, and all of a sudden, like, the world changed. Like, I was accepted, and I could be funny and goofy, and it was a. It was a weird tribe of, you know, misfits, and we're putting on a show, and, you know, and there were cute girls around, and they would laugh at my jokes sometimes, and. And I was like, I mean, I'm in. I'm in it to win it. I'm doing this. Yeah. And so I went to theater school in New York. We were talking about the Knicks. I. I moved to New York in the late 80s to go to theater school at NYU. And I was doing theater. And the reason I realized that I needed to get into TV and film was I had just done this theater, Shakespeare theater tour with the actor Jeffrey Wright. You know Jeffrey Wright?

[Josh Peck]

I just worked with him.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, you did? In what?

[Josh Peck]

On the Last of Us.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, no kidding? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That's fantastic. He's. I've known him since 1991. 92. Right in there. And we finished this Shakespeare tour, and I was broke, and I had been working for, like, I had, like, $1,200 in the bank, and I had been doing theater for nine months. And then we went into the main theater offices to get our mail, and he got a residual check for doing three days on a Harrison Ford movie for, like, $5,000. And he was like, yeah, I got $5,000. Oh my God. And, and in my head I was like, okay, I need, I need to, I need to do the TV and film and I can't, I can, I can't, I can't survive otherwise. So that was like a big shift in my thinking at that point.

[Josh Peck]

You as a quasi civilian, you're, you're entertainment folk, Ben, but you're also an entrepreneur and do other things. What are your, what are your views on, on residuals? What do you think about them?

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, first of all, residuals are a must. You know, Josh didn't get any residuals for Drake and Josh because it was a kid show. Just so you know, the memories he was on, he was on the most popular kids show of all time. Not a single dollar from fucking Nickelodeon and Joe Rogan.

We just had, we, we just had Steve Burns Blues Steve from Blue's Clues on our Soul Boom podcast. And I, I think it was the same kind of thing. And that, that is like a stake in my heart that's so unfair to the kids and their families and college tuitions. And I mean, why, why is that an exception? It's non union or something or what?

[Josh Peck]

It's, you know, it's so funny because obviously everyone has an opinion about everything. But what I will say is in a world where the same people getting rich off my show are the same people getting rich off any massive TV show except those actors get residuals. Right? Like that's, that's only my position on it. It's like in a world where this is the norm to have these weird outliers like Blue's Clues or Drake and Josh or these shows that don't do residuals. It's not the coolest, but yeah, it was an after contract buyout, so they would pay you like the minimum wage and that was considered like a buyout of all your residuals.

[Rainn Wilson]

Wow, that's terrible. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

I mean, it's only taking advantage of kids.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, but, but putting that aside, the taking advantage of kids, like, what a lot of people don't understand is that there's a lot of middle class actors. You know, they think of actors and you look at, you know, you look on Instagram or Entertainment Weekly or whatever and you're like, oh, everyone is like Gwyneth Paltrow and, you know, flying around in their private jets and wearing Gucci and going to the Met gala and stuff like that. But look on all these TV shows, you know, I'm just watching the Pit, you know, which is a Good. Terrific show. I love it.

Well, we love it. We love it.

Yeah. It's.

So pick us.

It's, it's. But it's great seeing all of these like just so many guest stars and these work and that's how I used to pay my rent, you know, doing a guest spot on a show and like, yeah, and you come in and you get between like seventeen hundred and five thousand dollars to do a guest spot on a TV show. And that's pretty good money, right? But where you really make your money is if it airs over and over again, you make the residuals and you're going to make two, three, four times that over the life of your, of the show or you know, of your career. And that's, that's just paying people's mortgages, it's paying for kids tuitions, it's for their college funds, it's for Trader Joe's groceries for the thousands and thousands of middle class actors, especially in New York and la. And people don't really think about, about that, how important the role residuals play in that.

[Josh Peck]

And to all the people saying like, well, you picked it. It's like, you know what? You need us, like you need us to be nuts and take the road less traveled into this weird artsy life to distraction from your incredibly hard life when you get home at the end of the day.

[Rainn Wilson]

Or for your boring, pathetic, sad little lives, that too, we provide a little bit of glamour, spice, humor and panache that you're missing. Suckers.

I'm fairly certain there's not one person that is arguing that you shouldn't get residuals.

[Josh Peck]

Josh.

[Rainn Wilson]

So you're like barking the wrong group. There's, there is, there should be a class action suit. We should go down, we should start picketing. I don't know. I think that there are reparations to be had. We could have you made whole within five years if we have a targeted attack. Reign. If we can get Reign on board.

Sign me up.

I think we can get it done.

Sign me up.

I think we can get it done. I'm just saying when I hear the.

[Josh Peck]

Word reparations, I think 90s kid actors.

[Rainn Wilson]

That's right.

Yes.

That is the greatest injustice that needs to be righted in cultural America. Yes.

[Josh Peck]

Oh God.

[Rainn Wilson]

And all I'm asking is a small 10% fee. I'm watching the Sopranos Reign for the first time as a Jew myself, I obviously find I'm watching, I'm looking at Hesh. I'm like, this guy, this is amazing. I could be The Hesh of the kids actors.

I love that.

I'll get you your reparations. I'll keep my fee. No problem.

Perfect. Win, win.

Right?

Win, win, win. Yeah.

Win, win.

[Josh Peck]

So you have your podcast, Soul Boom. And you've written a book with the same title.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yes.

[Josh Peck]

And it's sort of your foray. And tell me if I'm saying this correctly, your journey into discovering spiritual life and finding. And listen, I don't know if you know this about Ben. He's very into Eastern medicine, which I think is his original foray into his spiritual life.

[Rainn Wilson]

Like New Jersey Eastern medicine.

[Josh Peck]

Tell him, Ben. Tell him the supplements you're on and what happened recently.

[Rainn Wilson]

Is it ayurvedic medicine?

I love Auric.

Why are you laughing too?

I love.

And you laugh too much, man.

Turmeric rain.

You love some turmeric?

Yeah, I love oil of oregano, even though I recently overdosed on it. I love magnesium.

How do you overdose an oil of oregano?

See, this is an excellent question.

It's a wonderful oil, by the way. People, you have no idea.

I thought that it was just a wonderful anti fungal. Good for. I get a lot of sinus infections. Or I did. I thought I could take it. You know, all of a sudden I found out I'm taking too much of it. Maybe a little bit lightheaded. Shouldn't take too much of it. You have to only take it at the onset of an infection. But when Josh says that I am a man of Eastern medicine. I love my turmerics to reduce joint inflammation. I've done away with Advil, Rain. No Advil for me. And I'm supplementing with these things and it's working.

Good Guys podcast, brought to you by Turmeric.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Big Tea. Big Tea.

[Josh Peck]

Plenty. Thorn Pharmaceutical. Whatever.

[Ben Soffer]

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[Rainn Wilson]

That's right.

[Ben Soffer]

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[Josh Peck]

So this is his foray into spirituality. He's also something I really respect about. Then he went to the Yeshiva University in New York.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah, yeah, wonderful.

[Josh Peck]

Has a beautiful religious spiritual life. But I like talking about it. You know, you and I are, we're part of the secret club. 17 years.

[Rainn Wilson]

Okay. 12 step congratulations.

[Josh Peck]

You're 12 step two.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

12 step guy. So I don't know, I just like, I just like talking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

There's an intersection between all of this stuff which is, you know, we kind of live in the secular materialist society that is like everything can be proven by science and reason and there's kind of nothing beyond the material world. But anytime you're venturing into something where you know different modalities of healing, whether you're looking at the kind of God centered serenity that one needs to apply, when you're in 12 step recovery, you know, when you're thinking about what is sacred in your life, when you're, when your wife is giving birth and this miracle of childbirth, you know, unfolds in front of your eyes. Even we were talking about acting and even like waiting for Godot. Like the idea that a couple of people could be sitting on this blank space, this empty space, you know, lit and a crowd of people in a dark room are watching this kind of strange story unfold and you can be moved and transported and have transcendent emotions. Like all of these are pathways to the divine and spirituality. It doesn't have to be through church or synagogue or mosque or guru or what have you. There's a lot of different paths to explore when exploring spirituality. And that's, that's what soul boom's about. Yeah, that was pretty good. We should end it right there. Goodbye everybody.

That was great.

[Josh Peck]

That was you, Joe Rogan. Goodbye.

[Rainn Wilson]

It's interesting.

Fuck you, Joe Rogan.

It's interesting to hear you say all of that because I recently, Josh and I joke about it, but I went, my wife is 10 months pregnant. We went to a spa, I don't know, two or three months ago and I did.

Ten months pregnant?

Yeah. It's really ten months. It's really ten.

[Josh Peck]

Technically it's ten.

[Rainn Wilson]

Really?

[Josh Peck]

Kind of, yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Josh Peck]

Ok. Yeah, it's weird.

[Rainn Wilson]

You find out at one month that you're pregnant and then there's nine to go. So really it's ten.

Wow.

But I can say for nine she's full term.

Okay.

She's full term.

Okay. Ready to pick up? Yep.

And a couple months ago we went to a spa and I did my first ever sound bath. And I didn't know what it was. I went into it and let me tell you, there is something as it relates to the way that sounds, especially with closed eyes and in a meditative state can really transport you to just another world. I told Josh I was in there for an hour. I felt like I was in there for 10 minutes. And wow, there is, there is this. If you haven't done a sound bath, they're, they're amazing.

I, I, I have heard great things and I've never really done a sound bath. But you know what I've done is those flotation Tanks.

[Josh Peck]

Deprivation. Sensory deprivation.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah, yeah. And you. You sit in saline water that's the same temperature as your body, and you're enclosed, and you can just kind of lay back, and you can either have music playing or you can have it be total silence. But it's the same thing. Like, at first, you're like. I'm like, what the is going on? Get me out of here. I'm claustrophobic. And you're like, oh, my God, this is never gonna end. And your mind is just, like, racing and whirring, and then. And then all of a sudden, you're just, like, in this completely Zen state. And they're like. Then the lights come on slowly, and they're like, okay, your time's up. That's been an hour. And you're like, whoa, what the hell? Like, it's a completely different relationship to time when you undergo some of these experiences.

It's amazing. And none of these are religious. That's what I love that you brought up. Like, I am spiritually and religiously Jewish, but there is a relationship to a higher power that doesn't have to exist within the confines of religion. Like, these experiences are clearly very deep and spiritual without being tied to something greater.

Right. And for me, one of the things I talk about in Soul Boom, like, the most spiritual experience I've ever had was at a Radiohead concert where I was just utterly transported and my heart was moved and I was crying and I was. And I'm in a sea of people that are just, like, moving and no drugs involved, and it was utterly transcendent. And I think that connection between the arts and spirituality is something that isn't kind of explored enough. But that's not to poo poo organized religion. And that's one of the points I try and make in the book and on the podcast is, like, there are a lot of positive aspects of organized religion. It gets a bad rap in a lot of ways. It's responsible for a lot of wars, a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of judgment, you know, a lot of corruption. And I get why people, especially younger generations, would. Would be leaving organized religion. But what I say in the book is, like, sometimes we've. Have we thrown the spiritual baby out with the religious bathwater? And are there things to be gained and learned from the community that we're missing? You know, we're in this loneliness epidemic right now, especially among young people. Mental health epidemic. And loneliness is as toxic to one's health as smoking half a pack of cigarettes a Day. And isn't it kind of funny that we're. That we're experiencing this, especially younger generations when we've discarded organized religion that gives you community and a shared sense of purpose and communal prayer and singing together. And, yeah, it has some, you know, obvious drawbacks. And I can picture the comments section of this podcast right now with what people are saying around it. But there is. There's much to be learned from what an organized religion brings to a community of people.

[Josh Peck]

But it's also. Everything is a microcosm. Like, I'll be in a 12 step meeting and they'll say something about, like, can you believe so and so did this? I'm like, you know where we are, right?

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Like, this is a clubhouse for carnies.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Like we're drug addicts. Yeah. Yeah, I can believe he cheated on so and so. Like.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

And that, that's why I don't find any of it too surprising because we're all just these human beings trying to, like. I don't know. I try to forgive myself for being human at times. You know, to. To a certain extent. I saw that as one of the stoic virtues recently. I'll take it anywhere I can get it.

[Rainn Wilson]

Right. Right.

[Josh Peck]

Stoics, whatever.

[Rainn Wilson]

I mean, I love the stoics and the. Yeah. I'm doing this, like, workbook right now. It's like the self forgiveness, stoic shame workbook thing that my therapist had me do. And because I'm so hard on myself too, at the same, you know, I talk a good game, but, you know, putting it into practice and self forgiveness is. Is really important. But. But you bring up 12 steps and, and the 12 step is, you know, it's the greatest. I think the Dalai Lama said it's like, it's the greatest spiritual movement of the last hundred years. And it's. It's so beautiful in so many ways. But again, a community of people in shared transcendence, in surrender, relying on each other, needing each other, sharing each other's, you know, wisdom, experience and hope and, you know, turning to a higher power. And it's a. It's an incredible and a beautiful community. I've gotten so much out of it.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah. I think the main reasons why it's been able to survive and be so impactful is that it's poor.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

There's no governing body.

[Rainn Wilson]

No.

[Josh Peck]

And it has no opinion on outside issues.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. No. And, yeah. Servant leaders. Servant leaders that are elected. That. And there's. There's no money to be gained anywhere. Yeah. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Just have Enough for the cookies and coffee.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah, the shitty coffee, exactly. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah. It's an interesting thing. Do you think I suffer from this? I remember early on when I was getting sober and you know, it would be brought to me this idea of ego and being egotistical and self centered. And I was like, but of course I'm not self centered because that's reserved for people who like themselves, right? I said, that's reserved for the quarterback and the cool guy. And I was like. And they said if you spend your whole day thinking about how great you are or how awful you are, you're self centered. So congrats, you're self centered.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. That's so fascinating. You say that. I've learned a lot about, in therapy and in 12 step around narcissism. And narcissism is unlike what people think. It's not just like, oh, I'm the greatest. If you're also thinking like, I'm the worst, that's also a form of narcissism. It's kind of this roller coaster between like, I'm the greatest and I'm a piece of shit. And as opposed to just, I'm a bozo on the bus. I'm just a normal, everyday, you know, average kind of person. And this one therapist I worked with on this, in this workshop, he was saying like, if you are ever in an, if you're ever feeling entitled and working out of kind of ego entitlement, let's say really what that is is like, it's because of your deprivation. Like, go, where were you deprived? Because that's a counter to deprivation. Because people who feel and that, that makes me think of, I, I don't want to get in the hot water. Do you tell me to shut up? But President Trump, can I, can I mention this or.

Yeah, you talk about whatever you want.

Okay. Yeah. But you think about, you know, you know, Trump, God bless his soul, is like one of the most narcissistic people around. I'm the greatest. Everyone loves me and I'm the. And when you think about that in terms of like deprivation, like, how did he experience deprivation as a child? Like, where was he not loved? When was he not held? When did he not get what he wants?

[Josh Peck]

Did he not get a jet? Now he needs the jet.

[Rainn Wilson]

He needs the jet from Qatar. But it's an interesting, it's an interesting perspective. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Peck]

What? You know, as Ben said, he's going to be a beautiful bro Hashem father sooner than later in the next couple days.

[Rainn Wilson]

You're a Dad, I am. Yeah. I have a 20 year old son. Yeah. So, yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Any, any advice, any, any, anything to share with our new young, young dad to be here.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, God, I don't know. Get one of those, the, the diapers things that. The diaper, the special diaper. Garbage cans.

Diaper genie.

Yes, the diaper gene. That wraps it up so it doesn't stink.

[Josh Peck]

So.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yes.

Yeah, I go with that. No, it's. Listen, it's this. It's the stupidest cliche known to man, but it is so, so true. It's like, God, you have to just love that time with your kids. Like it's. And it goes, it goes so fast. And everyone says that you roll your eyes. Oh, yeah, it goes so fast. It feels kind of endless. But. But before you know it, you're a teenager, then you're dealing. They're a teenager and you're dealing with a whole other set of issues. And then before you know that, then they're off at college. My son's off at college, and, and that's a, That's a whole other ball of wax.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Ben Soffer]

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[Rainn Wilson]

Thank God.

[Ben Soffer]

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[Josh Peck]

It's so I heard. You know, because this is such a high tea.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh oh yeah. And do the sleep training. It sucks but you gotta do the Sleep train. Trust me. If you want. If you want 10 years of your life to suck, don't do the sleep training.

Yeah, no. Gotta get them on a schedule.

And it sucks because they'll wail and shriek and they'll cry like they're gonna spit out their lungs. It's. It's torturous. But you gotta do sleep training.

Okay, Diaper genie and sleep training. I'm in. Yeah, I'm in.

And. And. And. And love every minute of it. And just.

I. I can't wait. I really, like. It's. It's so. It's so funny how it hasn't happened yet. Like, my. Like, I think it's just the relationship with my wife. But, like, we've really been hunkered down for the last nine months. We've already had that shift. We were. We've been together for 13 years, married for eight. Like, very ready. We had. We led. We had our entire life together already to do everything that we wanted to do. We feel very fortunate that we're like. People are like, oh, get ready for your life to change. Like, you're. It's like, yeah, I'm. I'm ready, and I'm excited about it. I'm not leaving anything behind. I feel very fortunate that I was able to get everything done that I felt like I needed to with her.

[Ben Soffer]

So we're.

[Rainn Wilson]

We're very excited.

And there's Nick's onesies.

Exactly. We're gonna be. We're gonna be watching from the hospital. And then I've already. I have an arrangement. If they make it to the championship, I have to go to one game.

One game.

I have to go to one game. Yeah, one game. And maybe.

[Josh Peck]

And baby name Inspiration. He's having a boy. Maybe it's like, Mish Anthony Town Soffer.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yes. Everybody's saying Brunson. Can you imagine? Honestly, I've been thinking about this Brunson Soffer.

[Josh Peck]

Kind of sick.

[Rainn Wilson]

It's pretty good.

It's also kind of nuts. Like, when you go to, like, the. You were mentioning narcissism. The idea of naming my son after a player that I like is insane. Like, that idea is insane to me. The fact that there are so many. So many Michael Jordan pecks walking around because their dad was a huge Bulls fan.

[Josh Peck]

My daughter's first name is Jovic. But don't worry.

[Rainn Wilson]

Like, what are you nuts? That's crazy.

You know what's a good name? Rain.

Rain's lovely.

Yeah, it is. And it's gender neutral. Like, if you didn't Know the gender. It works either way. Neutral name right here.

[Josh Peck]

Not like Joe and Joseph from the Bible. You ever think about what we've talked about this on the pod. You ever think about poor Joseph the carpenter? Right. There's Mary. Right. The Bible kind of leaves out the teenage years of Jesus. Sure couldn't have been easy. You're the stepdad to Jesus.

[Rainn Wilson]

That's gotta be hard, right? Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

You're like, you know, put your tunic away. And he's like, really? My dad's God.

[Rainn Wilson]

That's.

[Josh Peck]

Can it. Can it, Joe.

[Rainn Wilson]

That sounds like a good comedy movie of like, young Jesus or teen Jesus.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Or something like. Yeah. Performing miracles at Joseph. Yeah, he. It's not his kid. That's got to be hard. It's got to be hard. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Like, we do it differently here then where? Heaven, you know. Do you mind if I asked you a few office questions? Of course, my man. I'm fascinated to know when you've created.

[Rainn Wilson]

No, you cannot ask me office questions.

[Josh Peck]

Sorry.

[Rainn Wilson]

I am finished with that chapter of my life, and I. I only want to be known by my spiritual path. I thought I was being interviewed.

[Josh Peck]

Sorry. When you have a character that has become part of the lexicon, one of the seminal characters of the last 50 years, I'm dying to know that from your audition to maybe one year in five years in, was that character fully realized in the audition or was there a moment, season two, season three, where you were like, this is the guy. I've completely found it now.

[Rainn Wilson]

That's a great question. You know, it's interesting. You can see my audition tape online on YouTube. And honestly, I would say, like, there's not a huge difference between my audition for Dwight and DWight in season nine. You know, a more fully realized character. Sure. More kind of character attributes. You know, maybe he did him a little simplistically at first, but you know how it is as an actor. Like, you kind of like, you lock into the essence of the character in such a way what you. What you want, what you aspire to do is lock into the essence of a character in such a way that you can be kind of thrown any material in any situation and you can just respond in character. And that kind of like, self serious, you know, inability to kind of view himself from the outside and have a perspective, you know, the kind of hyper determination, all of those kind of aspects drove him super early on in season one and drove him in season nine, I think. But, you know, where would I say the whole show, like, fell into gear? It was like halfway through season two, it was kind of like the Halloween episode, the Christmas episode, the Dundees episode. Somewhere there in season two, everyone just kind of like. It just stopped being worked at so much and just kind of like fell in. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

And was there an edict from the beginning of. Cause now it seems like a lot of half hour comedies are not borrowing the style, but this idea of, like, having a bunch of alts ready to go and was the style of working, the style of working for the Office seemed like you guys started. Created something new as far as half hour comedies go. Was that on day one, like, this is the way we're gonna work, or was it sort of. That was found throughout the process?

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, there had been other mockumentaries, obviously. It was like Spinal Tap was mockument. Gary Shandling show, which we. The guy who directed our pilot in like 10 of our episodes, Ken Kwapas, and he was a producer. He had directed Gary Shandling show. And that was a kind of mockumentary behind the scenes of a talk show. And the. But early on, we would come in. In season one, we would come in and for like half an hour or maybe even an hour, we would just work at our desks and they would just film us working and we'd kind of improvise and like, make copies and make phone calls and like, get a glass of water from the water cooler and just totally to kind of like sink us into the reality of this being a documentary. And. And so that went out the window later on. But I don't know if you. There's a big shift between season one and season two. I don't know if you notice that if you watch season one, it's very drab, it's very dark, it's darkly lit. People don't have any makeup on. We're poor. There's. There's nothing like American television about it whatsoever. And then in season two, like, Steve does his hair a little better, we're wearing a little nicer suits. The, the, the. The. The set gets a little warmer in the way that it's lit, it's shot just a little bit friendlier. And, and, and it did help a lot. We were. I think we were a little too close to the original BBC kind of really dark kind of version of the Office early on. And wait, I said Gary Shandling. Larry Sanders.

[Josh Peck]

The Larry Sanders.

[Rainn Wilson]

Larry Sanders. There was a Gary Shandling show, and that was great, but it was Larry Sanders. So. Sorry, Different. Just different. S name. If we can plug that in. Yeah, here I'm Gonna say it over and over again. And then you can edit this in of the audio. Just. Larry Sanders. Larry Sanders Show. Larry Sanders Show.

[Josh Peck]

Cool.

[Rainn Wilson]

Larry Sanders Show.

[Josh Peck]

This is cool.

[Rainn Wilson]

So you just take those and then bleep that in from what I said previously. So there was a. The show changed and just became a little bit warmer and a little more human. And I think Michael Scott became a little bit more likable in a way. Like, I remember there was. I think it was the Halloween episode where you see just Michael Scott handing out candy to children and just loving it. And just to see that, like, Michael Scott's got a big heart. You know, he's. He's a doofus. And he says. He always says the wrong thing, but, you know, he's. He's. He's a lovable guy. So more of that was kind of brought in as the show went along. And then, you know, when Steve left, then it was a little bit chaotic of trying to figure out the tone of the show and who's the lead and how are we telling these stories without, you know, the comic engine of the show, which is Michael Scott, and without one of the greatest comic actors in American history at the center of our show. So that was. That was also a struggle.

[Josh Peck]

Is that a gut punch when you.

[Rainn Wilson]

First hear that, that he's leaving? We knew it was coming for a long time. He was such a big movie star at the time. I mean, he was doing. God, I don't know how many millions of dollars he was getting for these big giant movies, but he was. You know, he was doing, like, Burt Wonderstone and these big comedies, and I'm forgetting all the names of them at the time. Sure. But Get Smart, you know, and stuff like that. Like, they were in 2000, you know, theaters, at the multiplex, kind of. So of course he's gonna leave the office when he can. So we were. We were prepared for it, but that was definitely a struggle to find the tone of the show without. Without Steve.

I was just gonna say we had Brian Baumgartner on the podcast probably, like, six months ago, and he mentioned that there was just so much improv on the show, which I never realized.

Yeah, like how.

Like what.

[Josh Peck]

How.

[Rainn Wilson]

Like, at what point did the improv start to take over? And how much more fun is it working on a show where you can really just improvise like that. That and the directors keep it and support it and, like, it was like.

Nothing I'd ever been a part of and ever will be a part of. It was incredible. And we really owe it to Greg Daniels, our showrunner, because he was so secure in his abilities and talents. He wasn't like, this control freak. So we. We had great scripts and great writers. We always made sure that we got every line as scripted, and. And that's great. But then we could improvise, and then he would. The show is made. Any piece of media content is made three times. It's made on the written page, it's made when you shoot it, and then it's made in the editing room. Right. But our shows were really assembled in the editing room, and at that point, they would, you know, they would look at what's on the script, but it's whatever's funniest. And Greg Daniels would. True story. He would. If they didn't know, like, how to end a scene, let's say. And here's an improvised version, here's the scripted version, and here's this other crazy version. They would bring in, like, the security guard, the caterer, the janitor, the accountant, and they'd bring them in, like, this little test group into the editing suite, and they'd be like, hey, we're gonna play you three endings to the scene. Tell us which one you like the best. And they. He would go with the one that.

That so good that the group tested.

So there's. There wasn't that kind of ego around, like, no, this is my script, and this is how it's gonna go, and you're gonna use this. But, yeah, the ability to. There's also something about. And I'm wondering if you can relate to this as an actor is when you know that you can improvise at any moment, and when you know that the other actor can also improvise at any moment, it keeps you on your toes in a different way as an actor at any time. Like, if I'm doing a scene with John Krasinski and he knows I could go off script at any time, I'm. And I could say whatever the fuck comes to my mind, and he could do the same thing. There's a. There's a kind of like, you're. You're on a tightrope in a way, as an actor that is. I think a lot of the comedic magic of the show was often in a scripted scene, but where two actors don't know at any moment, like, what's going to come out of the other actor's mouth. It really forces you to really listen and respond, right?

[Josh Peck]

No, it makes you listen, and it makes you not make choices before, because it sounded great in the shower that morning because you don't know if they're going to serve it to you the way you heard it in your head hours before. And I did a show that Danny Chun, who was a writer on the Office, that he was the executive producer of, and I'd love to hear what you found in the final product of the Office, because what Danny would say is, you have to be careful with improvs, because sometimes it's funny because it's new, because you've. Now we've rehearsed it and we've done the joke on the paper eight times.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

And he's like, and sometimes you get a brilliant gift with good improv. He said, and sometimes what's on the paper was funnier, and you have to decide kind of in the edit what works. So what would you say was the. The ratio in the final office product?

[Rainn Wilson]

50.

[Josh Peck]

50, 60, 40.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh, no, it was. It would end up being 80% scripted.

[Josh Peck]

Got it.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. Maybe some episodes, 85%. Maybe some 75%. But those little moments of gold where. Where there were some improvisation or extra lines, you know, that's. That's the frosting. You know, that's. That's the gravy. And there's a. There's a lot of sprinkly magic dust there. But he's absolutely right. Like, you do a scene and it's scripted and there's a funny line, and you do it 10 times, and then it stops being funny. And then someone says, you know, you know, I'm going to eat a watermelon with my anus. And it's ha, ha, ha. It's so funny. And everyone laughs and like, oh, that's great. But you're right. You get to the editing room and it's like the scripted line is actually better and smarter and funnier, but maybe it got a little stale in the telling. Did you break all the time?

[Josh Peck]

Who was the biggest breaker on the Office?

[Rainn Wilson]

Who broke? Brian Baumgartner was the biggest breaker on the Office. Not even this close second. John and I would set each other off. Like, if John and I were doing a scene and there was just a little bit of a. Like a. A twinkle or the corner of a mouth going. The other person would just lose it immediately. Oscar. I think he broke once in nine years.

[Josh Peck]

Wow.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. I don't. I don't even remember what scene it was, but someone told me that I think that he had broken one. He would never break Oscar. Never break Nunez. And he's on the New show. The paper. Wow. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Great. What he heard. He doesn't break.

[Rainn Wilson]

He's like, get him. Give me the guy that doesn't break. We need. Let's get Baumgartner for it. No, he breaks all the time. Him. Screw him. Can't trust that. Nah.

Still very close with the cast. Like, is there like a group chat still? Like, does any. There is. Okay.

Yeah, we gotta, we gotta, we got a lot of group chats. I got the group chat with the, you know, the, the kind of the, the leads. If we're talking about something like, oh, they want to do an office thing, what do you think? And then the full office group chat. And then, you know, I talk to Jenna and Angela all the time. And then, you know, there's very variations of the chat. Then there's the Jenna, Angela, Brian Kate, Oscar Creed version. And then there's the Craig Robinson, you know, it's, it all, it's all there.

[Josh Peck]

Now when you say office thing with the leads, you mean like.

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, like NBC wants to do a photo shoot for the 20th anniversary, blah, blah, blah, and do the thing. Like, did we want to do this? Are we sure? Like, we're not talking reboot? No, no, no. Sorry. I mean, there was, there's, there's definitely the reboot has floated up many times, but there's, you know, Steve's doing all these other movies and shows and John's directing and doing other stuff and you know, I, I would be open to something like it, but not for like doing a show, you know, maybe a one off or a special or a movie or something like that would be fun. But people have, are in different places and you know, have, have different needs and stuff like that. So I think we'll just let it stay that we made 200amazing episodes and. Well, 183amazing episodes and a few middling episodes and. Which is a pretty good ratio. Josh?

[Josh Peck]

Yes, please.

[Rainn Wilson]

Should we get to how many Drake and Josh episodes are great versus middling?

[Josh Peck]

Oh, God.

[Rainn Wilson]

How many Drake and Josh episodes were there?

[Josh Peck]

There were 60. They rerun them a lot, which is why it feels like three.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

What were you saying, Ben?

[Rainn Wilson]

I was gonna say, having watched them, I think 55 were great.

Thank you. God bless. That's great. That's so sweet.

Yeah, it was so.

[Josh Peck]

Merry Christmas. Drake and Josh didn't quite hit the mark and we all know that. And Rain says it all the time.

[Rainn Wilson]

All the time. All the time. It's in my Instagram bio, actually. Yeah. Merry Christmas. Drake and Josh didn't work. It's in my.

[Josh Peck]

I agree. It's weird.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Should we get to a speak pipe then?

[Rainn Wilson]

Yes. Yes.

[Josh Peck]

So we do this thing where we get questions from the audience. They want advice from us for some reason.

[Rainn Wilson]

Okay.

[Josh Peck]

But it's fun.

[Rainn Wilson]

It's cute.

[Josh Peck]

Okay. All right. So I think we could maybe try one or two before we get to our final segment. Yes, Ben.

[Rainn Wilson]

And. And in case you hear them refer to themselves as morons, that's just the name of our family.

Okay, fair enough.

So they might say, hi, I'm a moron. Don't be alarmed.

I fit right in with that.

It's endearing. It's endearing.

[Josh Peck]

We'll start with if you want to leave us. Get some advice. Want to leave us a message? Go to speakpipe.com goodguys Keep it brief. Brevity is key. Let's hear from. Let's do a light one with Catherine.

[Catherine]

And what up, good, guys?

[Rainn Wilson]

Here we go.

[Catherine]

Brevity is key.

[Rainn Wilson]

So my dad's new wife keeps making me banana bread. I don't fucking like banana bread. I just keep getting loaves and loaves.

[Catherine]

And loaves of banana bread.

[Rainn Wilson]

She's the new wife. She's so sweet, and I just don't have it in my heart to tell her to stop. What do I do?

[Catherine]

I just.

[Rainn Wilson]

I can't keep having all of this banana bread in my house.

[Josh Peck]

Champagne problems. Am I right?

[Rainn Wilson]

Banana bread problems. Listen, banana bread. The Katherine is her name indeed. Catherine, you're doing the right thing. Suck it up. Keep the banana bread. It doesn't need to be in your house, though. Catherine. You can give it away. Do you have any friends, Catherine? Do you have any neighbors, Catherine? But I'm way to not shame the wife and just be like, thank you so much. You make the best banana bread. I really appreciate it so much. And then just give it to your neighbor or your dog.

I love it. I think Catherine should start a side business. She should pretend that she's baking the banana bread. Meanwhile, she's selling it off to her neighbors. She walks, she goes door to door, sells it for $8 a loaf. She keeps getting all the banana bread. Meanwhile, she's lining her pockets. I think it's a win win.

Banana bread food truck.

[Josh Peck]

Yes.

[Rainn Wilson]

I'll invest. I'm in.

Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

And maybe you're not eating it right. Toast it. Put some peanut butter on it.

[Rainn Wilson]

Who did that? Hey, delicious.

[Josh Peck]

I'm 17.

[Rainn Wilson]

Did you hear that? Okay. I need something. Yeah. To get you through the night. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Peck]

No, I've Done that. I do do that. I party.

[Rainn Wilson]

All right. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Peck]

I'm crazy. Okay, next one is from. All right, let's get a, this, let's get really saucy here. Oh, this is one from Lauren.

[F]

Hey, Josh and Ben. So my fiance and I are getting married in October. And long story short, my fiance has made the decision not to invite his father to our wedding. He's a piece of shit. We found out that he had an affair with my fiance's best friend. Like childhood best friend who's also his best man, like for a large portion of his marriage of like 30 years. And he, his dad actually ended the marriage and then didn't tell anyone. And then we found out about the affair. He lied, told everybody different lies, then tried to somehow blame everybody else. He hasn't said sorry once or accounted for any of his actions. So I think it's a valid decision for my fiance not to want him there. It's his day. He doesn't want to be stressed out. But here's the argument and I need your guys opinion on this. Is it more drama for his dad to be invited or is it more drama for his dad not to be invited? The way I see it is if his dad comes, everybody's watching us under a microscope to see how we're interacting with him, how he's interacting with the rest of the family. Because everybody knows what happened. But if he's not there, then, you know, everybody notices. At the beginning they're like, oh, what a shame. And then we move on and celebrate the rest of the night. Curious to know what your guys's stance is on this. Thanks.

[Rainn Wilson]

So just to clarify, the dad cheated on the mom with the son's best.

[Josh Peck]

Friend, who's also his best man, who's.

[Rainn Wilson]

Also currently his best man.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Oh my, oh my, oh my.

But why is the best man invited?

That's. I was gonna ask the same question.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah. And not just an usher.

[Rainn Wilson]

I mean, why is he, why are they still friends?

This is very complicated. Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

Maybe we do just a high level.

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, I think I, I, I'll dive in. Yeah, I think, you know, and maybe this is the perspective of being in my late 50s. I just think more forgiveness needs to be shown to people. People make a lot of mistakes. They do a lot of shitty things. I have, you have. I'm guessing Ben has.

I have. I have.

We've, I have.

We've terrible things.

You know, we've made mistakes and been short sighted and, you know, operated off of some of our baser worser instincts and. And, you know, maybe a wedding is just a time to, you know, you know, to. To celebrate and come together and, and just let that stuff go. This does sound especially complicated, but maybe it's a kind of thing like, hey, you can come to the ceremony. And then after the ceremony, we just. We need you to leave. I don't know. But it doesn't sound like there's a lot of communication going on. It's like, this isn't like, being hashed out about, you know, it sounds like half the people don't know this has happened, and some do, but it's all very. There's a lot of, like, everyone's going to be watching and they're going to be talking and they're going to be whispering and, you know, maybe there needs to be some, Some. Some group therapy here. We need the. The best man. The bride, the groom, the dad, the mom. Yeah. The caterer, the dj. The dj.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah. It sounds hectic and I, I agree with you. I think that as long as they're not worried, the dad's the type to make a scene. Like, if. That if there's a chance that he acts out at the wedding, can't come. But. Yeah, I think. I also think, and I know this with my own wedding, if there's a chance that you will reconcile with someone in the next 20 years, you'll be happy they were there, even if in the moment it wasn't great. And so.

[Rainn Wilson]

But how would. How would the. I wonder also, how was. How does the mom feel about it? Because she's really the person.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

She's the one who was cheated on. How does she feel about it? Does she know about it?

I'm also trying to understand is the best man. I assume the best man is a man. Right. So how does the mom. There's a lot that we don't understand here. The mom is still married to a guy who is clearly gay and cheated with a. Like, a younger man who's best friends with her son. I don't understand any of it. I'm just gonna say that based on what I do understand. It seems that the. You can't call the dad a piece of shit but still be best friends with the best man who's also a piece of shit because he was cheating with your. Your dad on your mom. Like, how can you be best friends?

[Josh Peck]

Like, this whole thing is full Springer.

[Rainn Wilson]

This is it. Rest in peace.

[Ben Soffer]

This.

[Rainn Wilson]

This is insanity. So. I don't know. I agree. Ask the mom. What do you want what do you want us to do here? Do you want us to invite dad? Do you want us to not be friends with this guy anymore? I would ask the mom if you invite the dad.

The only thing I would ask is that you film the whole wedding and put it on YouTube so we can watch how the whole thing unfolds.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah, no, that'll get bought by Netflix.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah, in a heartbeat.

[Josh Peck]

100. We go banana bread. We go infidelity. Let's have one more from mm.

[Catherine]

Hey, good guys. Shalom from Tel Aviv. Bhb. I wanted to ask you about a dilemma I'm having. A few days ago, a friend of mine blocked a guy from dating apps for harassing her, and he took it way too far, sending her requests on our version of Venmo with continued disgusting messages. She denied the requests and he stopped, but I told her that if he continues to message her like this, she should call the police. Cut to today. I got a frantic call from a different friend about how she got a call from the police saying that they received a complaint from a guy about her and that she needs to stop messaging him or else she'll have to come down to the station if they get another complaint. She then admits to me that the guy who she was supposed to go on a first date with last week and ghosted her, and then she texted him and he blocked her. And then she found him on Facebook and he blocked her and then messaged him on OkCupid and he unmatched her. Then she adds, she emailed him a few times out of desperation. She admits she went overboard because she was feeling very low, but tells me that she's mad that he called the police instead of answering her. I'm in shock that both of these things would happen within a few days of each other. And basically my question is, how do you support a close friend who's freaking out over her own unhinged actions when she made decisions that you disagree with? She's lonely and single for a while. Has pretty horrible luck, dating. But that's not an excuse for this absolutely inappropriate behavior.

[Rainn Wilson]

What do you think? I think we're doomed. I think we're doomed. I think dating, I've heard. Do you guys have young. You're youngish folks. Do you have young friends dating, it's such a. It's supposed to be just terrible out there right now. So hard. And the way the algorithms and the apps work and it's just. It's terrible. And even the idea of these apps where it's almost like A gambling app that. The dating app almost looks like you. Sports betting apps, you know, and it's like, what's the next thing? And then it's. It's. It is not a formula to find, like, true intimacy. But it's so hard to meet people. And I get why people use them at the same time. I don't want to be judgy, but it's. It's got to be hard, right? Yeah.

[Josh Peck]

But it sounds like she.

[Rainn Wilson]

But also, don't stalk people. Okay.

[Josh Peck]

It sounds like they had found each other's perfect match. He was a stalker, she was a stalker.

[Rainn Wilson]

Why not? I mean.

Yeah. Connect those two.

[Josh Peck]

Perfect.

[Rainn Wilson]

Done. Win, win. Yeah.

Yeah. This girl needs new friends. These friends are causing you too much stress. And I would connect them and I would never talk to either of them again because this is just. It's too much. It's too much for the one heart to take. I don't know.

[Josh Peck]

If you're having to reach out over Yelp, they're over you. It's not working.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah, totally. No good.

I feel like. Who's the guy who shot the guy? The. The CEO, the healthcare CEO.

[Josh Peck]

Oh, Luigi.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. I feel like all of them need to fall in love with Luigi and write. Write him and stalk him and send him letters. They would be great. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Or AI. AI. That's a big thing now. People are finding AI lovers. I just read an article about how that's happening in Japan and that is coming here, that the lonely aren't going to be lonely anymore because of AI. So maybe go and talk to AI and they'll always respond back, but how.

Do you have sex with AI?

Oh, we don't know. How about this?

You have sex with banana bread.

[Josh Peck]

Yes.

[Rainn Wilson]

Use AI for fantasy. But you know, where the rubber hits the road is. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Use the banana bread. I like it gooey, soft.

[Josh Peck]

Yeah.

[Rainn Wilson]

Banana bread always loved me.

I have it on Inside information. Joe Rogan fucks banana bread.

[Josh Peck]

I. You know what?

[Rainn Wilson]

I believe it. I believe it.

[Josh Peck]

I'm gonna go and say.

[Rainn Wilson]

Yeah. Yes.

[Josh Peck]

Should we get to our. What do you.

[Rainn Wilson]

Nuts, Ben?

[Ben Soffer]

Yeah, let's.

[Rainn Wilson]

You guys have a lot of segments.

[Josh Peck]

It's our final one, we promise our what are you nuts? Moment of the week is our gripes with people, places and things both big and small. Whatever's sticking in your cross. So Ben and I will start. Take your time to think about it. There's no bad nuts. Whatever. You walk down the street right now. You were driving here you were like, what are you, nuts? Who would do that? Anything, everything. Take your time, no pressure. Ben and I, I'll give you some examples. Ben.

[Rainn Wilson]

Uber drivers that wear cologne are completely nuts. Rain. You walk into an Uber, you sit there, all of a sudden you can't breathe because they are wearing so much Armani. It is just too much. I just want to know who are they wearing the cologne for? Right? If they're wearing it for themselves, they can wear less. Right? But they're not. Unless you're trying to make a pass at the person in the backseat and you think that they're going to smell your beautiful cologne and you're going to hop to the front seat and all of a sudden you're going to form a relationship. There is no need for this. My wife got in it again. I mentioned she is full term. She couldn't breathe. Pregnant women and this cologne, you can't do it. Wearing cologne in an Uber is a complete. One of you nuts when you are a driver. And when you're a passenger, don't stink it up for him either.

I got a couple. What are you nuts? One is speakerphone conversations in public. You've probably been over this.

[Josh Peck]

Good.

[Rainn Wilson]

But I was sitting in pan quotidian the other day having a cup of coffee.

[Josh Peck]

Okay. This guy's syndicated.

[Rainn Wilson]

We're having a nine dollar cup of coffee and working on my laptop. And then next to me is a guy and he's. The phone rings. That's fine. He can take a little phone call. That's fine. You know, there is an option to hold it up to your ear and have a conversation. He puts it on speaker in front of his face like this, this. And it's like, hey. Hey, Gary. Hey, how you. What are you doing? I'm having some coffee here and that. And, and that's a very New York thing, Ben. Right? I don't, but I don't understand because it's so loud. I just, I don't get it. It doesn't make sense on so many different levels. And now on airlines, they have to, they make an announcement that if you're going to watch media that you should use earphones. Like, why do they even have to announce that? But yet I see people, I have seen people do it where they're, they're watching, you know, Grey's Anatomy on their phone with like the speaker blaring nuts. So that everyone around them can hear it. What are you nuts?

We spoke about narcissism 30 minutes ago. That's what it is. Josh. How were they deprived?

I go up to them, I'm like, how were you deprived as a child? Do you need a hug right now? I am going to give you a hug.

They do. We've each independently experienced people on speakerphone in steam rooms and saunas.

No. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes.

In a three, four person enclosed sauna. Speakerphone. What are you nuts?

Well, why do they have a phone, but the phone would be damaged in the sauna anyway, right?

[Josh Peck]

There's an epidemic of people with phones and saunas.

[Rainn Wilson]

Wow.

[Josh Peck]

As a sauna guy. Yeah, Constantly Steam room too. I'm like, so much moisture.

[Rainn Wilson]

You guys are in a lot of saunas and steam rooms. What's going on?

[Josh Peck]

We're married.

[Rainn Wilson]

No.

[Josh Peck]

My witty nuts is silly. Captions for your photos on Instagram, shout out. The great Craig Conover, wonderful guest of the show, reality TV star, entrepreneur. We love him. He posted this beautiful photo collage recently. He's doing ads for, for all of his companies. He's, you know, in Charlton, Charleston, South Carolina, living beautifully. So many one, like eight, ten pictures of just like a beautiful life. And his caption is match my chaos. What are you nuts?

[Rainn Wilson]

It's not chaotic.

[Josh Peck]

You're eating a club sandwich, dog. Match my chaos. Like what, by wearing chinos like, homie, everything's fine. Nothing chaotic here. What are you nuts? Love you, Craig.

[Rainn Wilson]

That's so funny. I saw that and I was thinking, nothing about this is chaotic.

I had the same thought. So good.

[Josh Peck]

It was a movie.

[Rainn Wilson]

You know what else is good, Josh?

This podcast.

[Josh Peck]

Sorry, Rain. Do you want to plug anything you want to plug the pod? Anything you want to?

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, yeah, I think the Soul Boom podcast is something I'm really proud of and we've been doing it for about a year and we have fun conversations about mental health, spirituality, the meaning of life, with a few laughs along the way. And love to get some of your good guy morons to come on over and join the ride.

[Josh Peck]

Awesome.

[Rainn Wilson]

Well, you have a new listener in me, folks. This episode is 5 stars. Otherwise, what do you announce? We should also introduce. Have you met Jay Shetty before I close? You know Jay Shetty?

I. I have not met him. We texted a few times and I, you know, huge admirer of. Of his work in bringing spiritual conversations to large audiences. Makes it very accessible. Brings a lot of healing to folks.

Yeah, he was just on our podcast. My wife was on his, like, I think that, that he would be a perfect guest for Soul Boom. And if you haven't been on his, like, that's right up Jay's alley, and he's so funny and nice, and he's great.

You're gonna make that happen, Ben. Thank you.

I'm gonna make that happen. I'll set that up.

I'll.

I'll. I'll do that. And, folks, this is why this episode is 5 stars. Otherwise, what are you, nuts?

Listen to us.

Wherever you get your podcasts, watch us on YouTube, share our clips, Instagram and TikTok Mondays and Thursdays. Folks, the great Rainn Wilson. We will see you next time.

[Catherine]

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.