Speaker 1: I've lived at l A off and on. I went
Speaker 1: to undergrad there and then stayed for like ten years.
Speaker 1: But this past spring I was working there and it's
Speaker 1: the first time I lived by the beach. I grabbed
Speaker 1: an Airbnb in Venice, and I will never not live
Speaker 1: close to the beach. When I'm back in l A.
Speaker 1: It was gorgeous. I was with some Caribbean friends in
Speaker 1: New York. You know, We've been walking around and looking
Speaker 1: on the things, and it was amazing and the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And then we finally got to the Hudson and they
Speaker 1: suddenly relaxed and they were like, thank God, like we
Speaker 1: didn't know where the city breathed. I was like, I
Speaker 1: gotta yeah, hello, I'm Mini driver. Welcome to Many Questions,
Speaker 1: Season two. I've always loved Pruce's question. It was originally
Speaker 1: a nineteenth century harl game where players would ask each
Speaker 1: other thirty five questions aimed at revealing the other players
Speaker 1: true nature. It's just scientific method really. In asking different
Speaker 1: people the same set of questions, you can make observations
Speaker 1: about which truths appeared to be universal. I love this discipline,
Speaker 1: and it made me wonder, what if these questions were
Speaker 1: just the jumping off point. What greater depths would be
Speaker 1: revealed if I asked these questions as conversation starters with
Speaker 1: thought leaders and trailblazers across all these different disciplines. So
Speaker 1: I adapted prus questionnaire and I wrote my own seven
Speaker 1: questions that I personally think a pertinent to a person's story.
Speaker 1: They are when and where were you happiest? What is
Speaker 1: the quality you like least about yourself? What relationship, real
Speaker 1: or fictionalized, defines love for you? What question would you
Speaker 1: most like answered, What person, place, or experience has shaped
Speaker 1: you the most? What would be your last meal? And
Speaker 1: can you tell me something in your life that's grown
Speaker 1: out of a personal disaster? And I've gathered a group
Speaker 1: of really remarkable people, ones that I am honored and
Speaker 1: humbled to have the chance to engage with. You may
Speaker 1: not hear their answers to all seven of these questions.
Speaker 1: We've whittled it down to which questions felt closest to
Speaker 1: their experience or the most surprising, or created the most
Speaker 1: fertile ground to connect. My guest today is the actor, author,
Speaker 1: and former OBAMA staff member cal pan Cal is an
Speaker 1: extraordinary mix of creative talent, and intellectual acuity, which don't
Speaker 1: always go hand in hand in my business. A native
Speaker 1: of New Jersey and as keenly political as he is creative,
Speaker 1: Cal has been a standard bearer for actors of Southeast
Speaker 1: Asian heritage, bursting onto our screens with John Show in
Speaker 1: the Harold and Kumar series. And his experience of casual,
Speaker 1: systemic racism in Hollywood and how that is changing is
Speaker 1: so clearly and candidly examined in our interview. Amongst many
Speaker 1: other things, I will also forever hold close the idea
Speaker 1: that for Cal, when I asked in what relationship, real
Speaker 1: or fictionalized, defines love for him, he said the Muppets.
Speaker 1: I hope you really enjoy this conversation as much as
Speaker 1: I did. So, now, what person, place, or experience most
Speaker 1: altered your life? I was gonna say, I will say
Speaker 1: my grandparents, And I want to define that altering does
Speaker 1: not imply that my life was going in one direction
Speaker 1: and then it changed course. So I would say maybe
Speaker 1: impacted because they so I got to know all four
Speaker 1: grandparents when I was a kid. But the stories they
Speaker 1: would they would tell us my grandparents, especially on my
Speaker 1: mom's side, would talk about how they marched with Gandhi
Speaker 1: and that those were the stories. So it was stories
Speaker 1: like about literally, you know, you're they're trying to get
Speaker 1: you to eat your vegetables. And so Grandpa's talking about
Speaker 1: getting thrown in jail and beaten by British soldiers for
Speaker 1: standing up for his human rights. And of course the
Speaker 1: eight year old you was like, there he goes again,
Speaker 1: Grandpa with another Gandhy story. So rolling eye, rolling story.
Speaker 1: I'm this like American kid born and raised in the
Speaker 1: suburbs of New York City, and I'm like, here we go.
Speaker 1: But of course then when you understand as a kid,
Speaker 1: you know, I think for me it was in sixth grade.
Speaker 1: There was a very small section in our history book
Speaker 1: that tied Gandhi a non violence of the disobedience to
Speaker 1: Dr King. So you connected it, you connected it to like, yes,
Speaker 1: they were still alive at that point. So I had
Speaker 1: the chance to ask my grandparents questions. And my one
Speaker 1: grandmother in particular didn't speak any English. So one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that I am bilingual and fluently so is
Speaker 1: because in order to communicate with her, I had to
Speaker 1: learn a language called I wouldn't say it changed the
Speaker 1: course of my life, but it offered perspective in a
Speaker 1: certain type of grounding where recognizing the things like this
Speaker 1: are not things that are in ancient history, but happened
Speaker 1: to and have happened to, and involve our relatives, people
Speaker 1: we've met and known and loved in our lifetimes, and
Speaker 1: then the idea of and folks who are multi lingual
Speaker 1: will will know this. I'm so grateful because Lord knows,
Speaker 1: my high school French didn't turn out too hot. So
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful for my grandparents being multi lingual because
Speaker 1: it just offered a perspective on getting to know people
Speaker 1: and being able to travel, and being able to travel
Speaker 1: in another language that I don't think I would have
Speaker 1: had the exposure to otherwise. Is the most spoken language
Speaker 1: in India. I think it's something like they're they're sixty
Speaker 1: or eighty million speakers. Because there are a billion people,
Speaker 1: it makes it. Yeah, it's a it's a minority language. Regionally,
Speaker 1: it's a smaller language, but by global standards, it's pretty big. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean more than more than how many people are
Speaker 1: in England. Yeah, I mean, goodness, Wow, I love the
Speaker 1: e learned a language to be able to communicate with
Speaker 1: your your grandma, Like, that's really, that's really wonderful. When
Speaker 1: was the last time, when was the most recent time
Speaker 1: that you use your good rat There's a movie on Netflix,
Speaker 1: I think it's Netflix called Wrong Side Raju and it's
Speaker 1: in good and I was like thumbing through. I was like,
Speaker 1: wonder if they have any good language content, and they
Speaker 1: did so I watched it and it was wonderful. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, how brittains. Then maybe I will go and
Speaker 1: check it out. The name again, Wrong Side Raju's okay? Good?
Speaker 1: Will you tell me where and when you were happiest
Speaker 1: in your life? Yes? And I was trying to think
Speaker 1: about this. I had wished when I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this answer, I was like, so, I'm a big astronomy nerd,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I wish I had the hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars to go into space talking about talking about
Speaker 1: things that are morally questionable. By the way, forty five
Speaker 1: minutes and you're not even in space, because he wasn't
Speaker 1: in space. He was literally not in space. He was
Speaker 1: just up high in the sky the wade. You are.
Speaker 1: I annoyed about this, so annoyed by how much weightless
Speaker 1: sure space? Not really you weren't really in deep space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I was gonna I was gonna say I wish
Speaker 1: I wish I'd done one of those. It would have
Speaker 1: been my easy answer for me. I feel like part
Speaker 1: of it in terms of, like, you know, where have
Speaker 1: I been happiest. There was a work experience that I
Speaker 1: had on a film called The Namesake, which is based
Speaker 1: on a novel written by a wonderful author named jimpola
Speaker 1: Here she won the Pulletzer for her first book, The
Speaker 1: Interpreter of Melodies, and the film I had the chance
Speaker 1: to play the one of the leads in the film
Speaker 1: was directed by a woman named Mary, and I are
Speaker 1: who she's InCred of all. She's amazing and she was
Speaker 1: a role model of mine from the time I was
Speaker 1: a kid. She's actually one of the reasons I decided
Speaker 1: to become an actor because when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: she had this movie come out called Mississippi Massala. I remember,
Speaker 1: my god, it was incredible, the hottest, most beautiful, amazing movie.
Speaker 1: And for folks I don't know Sta Childrey, Denzel Washington
Speaker 1: and uh And the first time that you know, the
Speaker 1: thirteen or fourteen year old me had seen characters on
Speaker 1: screen who looked like me, who weren't played by people
Speaker 1: in brown face or cartoon characters. My god, that was
Speaker 1: how I wanted to look more than any other. I
Speaker 1: mean once when I was a kid, it was Sigourney
Speaker 1: Weaver because there was no one else that had the
Speaker 1: same hair as I did. But Surrita in that film
Speaker 1: was the most my It was my epitome of female beauty.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. Basically walking out of that theater, I thought,
Speaker 1: oh wow, these are these are families or characters that
Speaker 1: that are like mine. And they're in addition to just
Speaker 1: the the feeling of like why do I feel this way?
Speaker 1: And and the characters also weren't one note right. They
Speaker 1: were flawed, and they made mistakes, and they were racist,
Speaker 1: and they had sex, and they all of the beautiful
Speaker 1: and tragic things that happen in life were happening to
Speaker 1: these characters. So it was one of those things where
Speaker 1: I thought, well, if if this, if these women can
Speaker 1: do it, then maybe it's something I can do as well.
Speaker 1: And then in college, I remember waiting for hours there
Speaker 1: was an announcement that Mire and I are was going
Speaker 1: to speak on campus, and I went. It was I
Speaker 1: think it was like a seven pm start time, and
Speaker 1: I must have showed up at like three pm, and
Speaker 1: I waited in line with my head shot. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I feel like if I sit in the front row
Speaker 1: it's too eager. But if I sit like two rows back,
Speaker 1: then I can get her my head shot at the end.
Speaker 1: And I loved, you know, I loved her her conversation.
Speaker 1: And at the very end I managed to kind of
Speaker 1: get up to her and handed her my head shot
Speaker 1: and she was very polite. She said, oh, how how lovely,
Speaker 1: and that was obviously you don't from people when you
Speaker 1: bombard them that way. Um. But that was in college,
Speaker 1: and then two thousand and five or six, I had
Speaker 1: the chance to work on the namesake. And I will
Speaker 1: tell you I only had the chance to work on
Speaker 1: the namesake because Mira's then fourteen year old son, Zaran,
Speaker 1: was a huge fan of the Harold and Kamar Go
Speaker 1: to White Castle film, and he apparently had shown her
Speaker 1: the a trailer or a couple of clips from the
Speaker 1: movie to say, hey, cal Penn would be perfect as
Speaker 1: go Gol, the title character or the lead character in
Speaker 1: the film, and Mira apparently saw this like silly stoner
Speaker 1: movie and was like, this is obviously not the guy.
Speaker 1: But I had written her a letter asking to audition
Speaker 1: for the film because I heard she was casting it,
Speaker 1: and I never heard back, and so I found out
Speaker 1: that the reason that I was finally allowed audition was
Speaker 1: because of her son. So basically he convinced her to
Speaker 1: let me audition. Now, Harold and Kumar, I think one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that I had tipped my myself or
Speaker 1: the edge was I was one of the few South
Speaker 1: Asian actors in those days who had a film credit
Speaker 1: on his resume because of a comedy I did in
Speaker 1: like two thousand and two thousand and one called Van
Speaker 1: Wilder with Ryan Reynolds. His first was his first big thing,
Speaker 1: and the name of the character was taj Mahal that
Speaker 1: I played like it was this it was I had
Speaker 1: a great I mean I I have a book that
Speaker 1: recently came out where I talked about the whole story
Speaker 1: about getting cast in it and and how gracious by
Speaker 1: the way both Ryan and Terry Reid were. But to
Speaker 1: go from like that first job where you're an actor,
Speaker 1: you take what you're gonna get right and you build
Speaker 1: your resume from it. But the problematic nature of playing
Speaker 1: a guy named taj Mahal, to that leading to the
Speaker 1: Harold and Kumar movies, to that then leading to the Namesake,
Speaker 1: where I get to work with a woman who is
Speaker 1: one of the reasons that I decided to be an
Speaker 1: actor to begin with, and then starting on that project
Speaker 1: and realizing it was, especially in two thousand five, guys
Speaker 1: who look like me don't get to do literary adaptations
Speaker 1: that are that are beautiful dramas. You're right, because now
Speaker 1: you know, I look at I don't know, Depitel, that's
Speaker 1: like just total movie stars. But in two thousand five,
Speaker 1: you're right, Yeah, you were so for all those reasons.
Speaker 1: When you say when were you most happiest? I was like,
Speaker 1: isn't a cop out to mention something work related? And
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, it's not, because the whole reason
Speaker 1: we love art and storytelling sometimes it's tied into so
Speaker 1: much more, including the fourteen year old me and the
Speaker 1: twenty six year old me and then the twenty eight
Speaker 1: year old me, and you know, it's just at every
Speaker 1: iteration when there's something like that that inspires you, and
Speaker 1: then you have the chance to work with those people.
Speaker 1: I can't even describe how content I was and how
Speaker 1: much I felt like I was able to excel in
Speaker 1: my craft during that period of time. I completely understand that,
Speaker 1: and I think it's so connected. And also, your desire
Speaker 1: was the straight shot. Everything else was just constantly bisecting
Speaker 1: the straight shot of your kind of intention. But the
Speaker 1: fact that it does, it doesn't necessarily come in the
Speaker 1: way that you thought it should. It didn't. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe you thought that you would hand her your head
Speaker 1: shot and it would all sort of happen then, and
Speaker 1: it's like, no, and actually it's still not going to
Speaker 1: happen in a super competitive audition process. But then a
Speaker 1: fourteen year old kid who's seen this movie, I love
Speaker 1: it when happiness is genuinely in the gray areas. It's
Speaker 1: not in the it's often not in the way in
Speaker 1: which we divine it should be. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: How amazing. Also, the fact that Mirror and I would
Speaker 1: be this continuous creative punctuation through your story, I think
Speaker 1: that's really I think that's really amazing. I'm also I
Speaker 1: cannot believe that the character in Van Wilder was called
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I'm ever going to get
Speaker 1: over that. It's shocking. It is absolutely shocking that that
Speaker 1: was only that was that was two thousand five, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not that, I mean, that's not that long ago.
Speaker 1: Two thou Well, I'll one up you if you're if
Speaker 1: you're surprised by that, because you're ready. It wasn't that
Speaker 1: long ago. I think every actor goes through this in
Speaker 1: the appropriate comparison. But you know, sometimes you audition for
Speaker 1: stuff and you you want to know if you're gonna
Speaker 1: get it, and you're not sure if you're gonna take it,
Speaker 1: and so this was one of those things where I
Speaker 1: was like, let me just see because I know I'm
Speaker 1: a I'm a I'm an aspiring actor. At that point,
Speaker 1: I was like, let me see if I get this job,
Speaker 1: because I need a credit on my resume. In the realities,
Speaker 1: I know, I know what people think I look like,
Speaker 1: and so if I'm going to get credits on my resume,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna probably have to do some of these types
Speaker 1: of of parts. And so I remember going back for
Speaker 1: callbacks and I knew what the last callback. I was
Speaker 1: told it's between you and another guy, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know who he was. And the issue with diversities, of course,
Speaker 1: it's never a question of there aren't enough actors. It's
Speaker 1: you know, everybody, there's so many talented actors to choose from.
Speaker 1: And so I walk into the room and the other
Speaker 1: guy had arrived before me, and it was a white
Speaker 1: dude in brown face. I'm not kidding, and any any um,
Speaker 1: any question that I had about whether I was going
Speaker 1: to take the part if I got it, all went
Speaker 1: out the window because I saw this dude sitting there
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, yeah, no, you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to play this. You can play Brandon from Iowa all
Speaker 1: you want, because you're gonna get tons of aliens or
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And it made the decision a lot
Speaker 1: easier because I thought, no, so the choices like this
Speaker 1: dude gets a credit on his resume or I do.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how your approaches, but I rarely
Speaker 1: have beef with other actors in any situation, especially even
Speaker 1: a situation like this, because I understand the desperation of
Speaker 1: wanting a job and how competitive the field is. So
Speaker 1: I was more curious. I was like, Okay, here's the deal.
Speaker 1: My god, did this guy he like, did his agent
Speaker 1: tell him to paint his face or did he decide
Speaker 1: to do that on his own. Number two, it's a callback.
Speaker 1: Had he painted his face before and everyone was cool
Speaker 1: with that? Number Three? Where did he do it? Did
Speaker 1: he paint his face at home? If so, did it
Speaker 1: increase his chances of getting pulled over by the car?
Speaker 1: Or did he come to the audition and then paying
Speaker 1: his face in the bathroom? That was all the stuff.
Speaker 1: I was so fascinated. I'm just I know, and I
Speaker 1: know that you're you're laughing and you're brilliant and you
Speaker 1: have long metabolized this. But it's like the awful sort
Speaker 1: of passive sexual assaults that happen on female actors all
Speaker 1: the time, and how one just sort of metabolized and
Speaker 1: it becomes part of your narrative. But it's only like
Speaker 1: when I tell that story people, I think they're going
Speaker 1: to laugh or they're like, oh my goodness, they don't,
Speaker 1: and like hearing you, hearing you tell that story, like
Speaker 1: of what of what that must have been like like
Speaker 1: walking into I just I'm I'm I'm so, I'm so shocked.
Speaker 1: And I'm also it makes where we are now in
Speaker 1: terms of this business that we're in, because I know
Speaker 1: it is really local to what is happening in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: where we are seeing significant change and inclusion is actively
Speaker 1: being pursued, that I sort of feel like perhaps the
Speaker 1: boat is turning, but still you you're so good humored
Speaker 1: about something that is I thought that didn't happen after
Speaker 1: Fisher Stevens like brown based in Short Search, which is
Speaker 1: still one of the most insane things I've ever seen
Speaker 1: in my life. Like now to watch that film, it's yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it still happens. I mean, look, the reason I laugh
Speaker 1: about it, the reason that I in in the book
Speaker 1: and especially in the audiobook because I read it myself
Speaker 1: for this particular reason is like, you know, the the
Speaker 1: one of the many reasons that I laugh about things
Speaker 1: like that, not that it doesn't happen. It happened. As
Speaker 1: recently is the live action Aladdin, where a lot of
Speaker 1: extras were painted apparently, and Disney, who I happily have
Speaker 1: worked for and hope to continue to work for, I
Speaker 1: think their their statement was something like, well, it wasn't
Speaker 1: possible to hire enough brown background actors, and they were
Speaker 1: they were shooting in fucking London. I mean, come on, really,
Speaker 1: that's not what the real answer to that is. We
Speaker 1: didn't want to invest the financial resources in getting them all.
Speaker 1: It's not that they don't exist. Are you gonna have
Speaker 1: to work a tiny bit harder to find them? Maybe?
Speaker 1: And there were there were some lively conversations about it
Speaker 1: where I think, thankfully, like you had mentioned, people within
Speaker 1: the industry, we're like, oh, yeah, that's not a thing.
Speaker 1: That's cool. We shouldn't. We shouldn't. We can we can
Speaker 1: do better, right collect, we can better. But the biggest
Speaker 1: reason I laugh about telling those stories is I'm so
Speaker 1: happy with being able to turn on the TV today
Speaker 1: and just seeing so much diversity in terms of content.
Speaker 1: And I don't even just mean the ethnic or gender diversity.
Speaker 1: I'm talking like you turn on some of these shows
Speaker 1: and it's stuff that I couldn't have conceived of, would
Speaker 1: would even be a show ten years ago, or something,
Speaker 1: you know, something like never have I ever write so
Speaker 1: many South Asian characters of a different generation like two
Speaker 1: below mine. I never would have thought that we'd ever
Speaker 1: see something like that. So it's I tell those stories
Speaker 1: in a good natured way, I think, because I'm so
Speaker 1: happy with how much our industry has progressed, And to
Speaker 1: your point, there's obviously so much more work that still
Speaker 1: needs to be done. But it's a nice I think
Speaker 1: it's a nice moment in the last few years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I also think that I've realized that the way in
Speaker 1: which people metabolize hard conversations is often when there is
Speaker 1: and even though it seems to fall on the shoulder
Speaker 1: of the person to whom that bad ship has happened,
Speaker 1: but when you being able to tell it, tell that
Speaker 1: story in such an erudite, funny, clever way. It's like,
Speaker 1: but again, I find that awful because I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, Cal's giving me permission to laugh and be
Speaker 1: okay with this. You should laugh. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: it is it is better to laugh than to feel
Speaker 1: still in a ditch around that stuff. And I laugh
Speaker 1: telling the stories of being aggressed upon by revolting casting directors,
Speaker 1: directors and whomever it was. Yeah, your point is so
Speaker 1: well taken because it reminds me of I think it's
Speaker 1: it's difficult if if these conversations are overly sanitized, it's
Speaker 1: difficult to explain, Like I remember Twitter, By the way,
Speaker 1: Twitter mentions obviously are not a good barometer on taking
Speaker 1: the temperature on anything, but but whether it's whether it's
Speaker 1: Twitter or people who will actually have conversations with you.
Speaker 1: I remember a couple of people said, why are you
Speaker 1: whining about something like like a Laddin brown face when
Speaker 1: you played that that character in Van Wilder, And I
Speaker 1: realized that if these conversations are overly sanitized, and you
Speaker 1: don't have any experience with the story that somebody is
Speaker 1: telling you, and if you've always grown up seeing characters
Speaker 1: who look like you on screen, it's very difficult to
Speaker 1: succinctly explain to somebody when you're absent from what you
Speaker 1: see every day, from every cultural reference point, you feel
Speaker 1: as a kid like your your options are limited in life.
Speaker 1: You just feel that way. It just is I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not telling you that you should feel
Speaker 1: differently because your experience isn't that. But your point I
Speaker 1: think that you made about about casting directors and about
Speaker 1: being pitted against each other is there's so much nuance
Speaker 1: to these conversations and in order to actually tell those
Speaker 1: stories again, which is why I try to use humor,
Speaker 1: because I think it draws people into curiosity. Is then
Speaker 1: I think it sets the tone for the complexity of
Speaker 1: what that is and ultimately what we all want, which
Speaker 1: is to move beyond that and celebrate what is possible
Speaker 1: instead of just looking backwards. Absolutely, there is simply no
Speaker 1: way of me, a white person, knowing what it is
Speaker 1: like to not grow up seeing myself represented because it's
Speaker 1: all I've I've ever known. And I think that, like
Speaker 1: you said, what's happening now where you just turn on
Speaker 1: the television and it's across the board. It's not just
Speaker 1: about color or gender. It's about it's about everything that
Speaker 1: has been marginalized and turned into fringe that is now
Speaker 1: being pulled into this crucible of like cultural awareness, which
Speaker 1: is that's how we change. It's where it's where change,
Speaker 1: meaningful change happens. I think what relationship, real or fictionalized,
Speaker 1: defines love? For you, the Muppets, I can tell from
Speaker 1: the look on your face that nobody has said this before,
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure if that's a good thing, But
Speaker 1: I'm not now that you say it, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: why no one has said it before, because of course
Speaker 1: they define love, please please continue. Just it's love for
Speaker 1: each other, obviously with all of the complexities that come
Speaker 1: along with that. And I'm not just talking about Kermit
Speaker 1: and Ms Piggy and a love for what they do,
Speaker 1: because there's such an obvious love for the audience as
Speaker 1: the the extension of that fourth wall, that it's all
Speaker 1: a celebration of what they're doing. All of it is
Speaker 1: based in the love of this collective thing. And I
Speaker 1: just think it's the coolest thing. It's so true. What
Speaker 1: was it? It's time to put on makeup, It's time
Speaker 1: to like the whole thing is about the show. I
Speaker 1: love that you chose the Muppets, and also that it's fictional,
Speaker 1: because I often all my great loves have been fictional.
Speaker 1: Did you watch a lot of Muppets when you were
Speaker 1: a child? I did, and still Who is Your Well?
Speaker 1: I was called animal at school. That was one of
Speaker 1: my nicknames that people called me because I had crazy
Speaker 1: hair and I was really sort of tall and thin
Speaker 1: with had like the top of a palm tree. Who
Speaker 1: is who is your most beloved Muppet? I have always
Speaker 1: been gravitated towards Kermit. But I will tell you why.
Speaker 1: I know that you assume it's because, okay, well, he's
Speaker 1: like the leader, and you're you know, and the poet.
Speaker 1: It's it is all of those things. But the real reason,
Speaker 1: the real reason is that he is the only one
Speaker 1: who appears on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street.
Speaker 1: He does both, and so I was always very very
Speaker 1: in all of the fact that that dude had two jobs.
Speaker 1: I could watch him in the morning on Sesame Street
Speaker 1: and then he was also on The Muppet Show in
Speaker 1: the evening. By the way, that is also a really
Speaker 1: South Asian work ethic coming out right there. That is
Speaker 1: fully cultural of Absolutely, that's one in the morning and
Speaker 1: one in the evening. That's something that nineteen uncles would
Speaker 1: probably point out. Yes, that's fantastic. I've never thought about that,
Speaker 1: and you're absolutely right. I love Kermit. I love him. Also,
Speaker 1: the Willie Nelson version of Rainbow Connection is honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever not cried listening to that song.
Speaker 1: What question would you most like answered? Oh boy, I
Speaker 1: was about to say, what happens after you die? But
Speaker 1: the answer is nothing. Well, you don't know that. You
Speaker 1: definitely don't know that that is the us. That's true,
Speaker 1: that's true, that's true. I mean there's nothing, there's nothing
Speaker 1: for your body. But I don't know who knows that
Speaker 1: that that that the kinetic doesn't kicker carry on? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I would like answered where where specifically the
Speaker 1: the closest civilization is outside of out Oh that's good.
Speaker 1: And now you see I'm really thinking about that because
Speaker 1: I've had all kinds of aliens and after we die answers,
Speaker 1: which are always fun to think about, but actually thinking
Speaker 1: where geographically or where whatever the word can you use
Speaker 1: geographical if it's not pertaining like to the Earth surface,
Speaker 1: that can you use that in the universe? Is should
Speaker 1: there be a word we can We've just decided that
Speaker 1: that's acceptable. Great. I'm so glad that the King and Queen.
Speaker 1: What's the new telescope? What's the good the web? The
Speaker 1: James Web telescope, which, by the way, someone wrote something
Speaker 1: so funny. They were like the day after they showed
Speaker 1: those pictures, they were like Hubble's waken up today, like
Speaker 1: the before picture in a boat dogs had bless Hubble.
Speaker 1: Do you think, though, that that exponential development of our
Speaker 1: ability to go and do you think that's what will
Speaker 1: help us answer questions like the one that you've just
Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, I think so, I hope. So
Speaker 1: how far off do you think we are? Do you
Speaker 1: know you like astronomy? What do you somebody was saying
Speaker 1: that the hope was in our lifetime. My god. I
Speaker 1: was having this conversation with this man called David Eagleman,
Speaker 1: who is this this neuroscientist, brilliant scientist person who teaches
Speaker 1: at Stanford, And he was talking about the vastness of
Speaker 1: our ignorance, the complexity and vasts of our ignorance, But
Speaker 1: not in a way like ignorance has such a kind
Speaker 1: of pejorative flavor, but in the like excited the vastness
Speaker 1: of our ignorance, like within that is all of these answers,
Speaker 1: and that if we keep exploring the varses of arguments,
Speaker 1: that we will come across it. And I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that idea because it's sort of becoming pioneers
Speaker 1: of the unknown, like I mean, and and being excited
Speaker 1: and curious about that as opposed to feeling bewildered and
Speaker 1: and hopeless, which is how I often feel when I
Speaker 1: think about the unknown, like where's my next job coming from?
Speaker 1: What would be your last meal? Tackles? I love tackles.
Speaker 1: They're really good tacos in New York. I don't think
Speaker 1: anything compares obviously to Mexico, but l a Mexican food
Speaker 1: in l A compared to New York, there's no there's
Speaker 1: no comparison. California and Mexico are just that. There's there's
Speaker 1: nowhere I've eaten. I've eaten tacos everywhere, and there's nowhere
Speaker 1: like l A in Mexico. Yeah, my favorite taco spot
Speaker 1: is still place called Los Tacos on Santa Monica. Bouli
Speaker 1: are just west of Fairfax. It's in a strip mall
Speaker 1: next to its sandwich, between a seven eleven and laundromat.
Speaker 1: I used to live in the neighborhood fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: and that laundromat is where I used to do my laundry.
Speaker 1: And so early in the morning you would see these
Speaker 1: lines of construction workers getting their breakfast. At night you
Speaker 1: would see a whole bunch of drunk people getting their
Speaker 1: munkey food. So one day, while I was doing laundry,
Speaker 1: I was like, let me see what the hype is
Speaker 1: about here, and it was so delicious. It's open, and
Speaker 1: I have been known to stop there to and or
Speaker 1: from l A X. So like the plane lands and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, can you guys give me an extra
Speaker 1: forty minutes before the first meeting because I need to
Speaker 1: hit up Los Tacos roll. Oh my god, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to go that. I'm literally going up in town
Speaker 1: on Monday. I'm going to Los Tacos. Okay, what do
Speaker 1: you get number two? Which is, uh, two tacos rice
Speaker 1: and beans? But what, senor are you I've done. Their
Speaker 1: chicken and their veg their veggie are going to be
Speaker 1: soft tacos and their chicken. You can get either soft
Speaker 1: or hard. I'm really hungry now. Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 1: There's nothing father I would are you? Are you vegetarian? No?
Speaker 1: I don't eat red, mate, but I eat I eat
Speaker 1: a bit of chicken, and I eat fish. So a
Speaker 1: funny story about that place. When I first started going there,
Speaker 1: I was strictly a vegetarian, and I remember I remember
Speaker 1: asking the guy. I was like, hey, man, I'd like
Speaker 1: to try your number two. But are the beans and
Speaker 1: rice vegetarian two? Or is there like lard in the
Speaker 1: beans and chicken stock in the rice? And he goes, no, no,
Speaker 1: no vegetarianos. And I was like, cool, awesome, I'll do that.
Speaker 1: And it was so good that I've then been going
Speaker 1: there for like eight years. My vegan brother came to
Speaker 1: visit and I was like, I'm taking you to the spot, man,
Speaker 1: the spot. We go to those tacos and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask if everything's vegan. I was like, it's
Speaker 1: vege gitarian. What else are they going to put in it?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask anyway. So he asks and they go, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a different person. And the person goes, oh, no,
Speaker 1: it's not vegan. In fact, there's lard in the beans
Speaker 1: and there's chicken stock in the rights. And I was like,
Speaker 1: what wha time out? You told me no? And then
Speaker 1: I was replaying it back in my head and so
Speaker 1: clearly what the guy said was no vegetarian. Nos not
Speaker 1: no comma veg know that there isn't anything that's vegetarian.
Speaker 1: And I was so excited about these tacos that I
Speaker 1: ate them anyway, thinking that he meant it's vegetaran. My
Speaker 1: lovely yeah, yeah, who has helped me take care of
Speaker 1: my son. When I asked her how she would make
Speaker 1: her beans, I was like, I remember saying exactly the
Speaker 1: same thing. I was like, are they are they vegetarian?
Speaker 1: And she was like yes, And then she was like
Speaker 1: except for the polk knuckle. It's all vegetarian except for
Speaker 1: the pool knuckle that you cook in with the beans
Speaker 1: to make them taste delicious. Yes, yes, exactly. Was I
Speaker 1: loved that though, Oh my gosh, your poor brother in
Speaker 1: your life. Can you tell me about something that has
Speaker 1: grown out of a personal disaster? Yes, so, you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked briefly about the brown face of it all
Speaker 1: that I was laughing about. But experiences like that, we're
Speaker 1: going on auditions where I would be for non actors. Here,
Speaker 1: I'll give you the full disclaimer of every actor. When
Speaker 1: you start out, the only thing you're allowed audition for
Speaker 1: is what producers and casting directors think you look like, exactly. So,
Speaker 1: so my version of that obviously has ethnic and racial undertones,
Speaker 1: because the late nineties and early two thousand's for somebody
Speaker 1: who looked like me, we're a lot more about that
Speaker 1: than anything else. So I would go on auditions and
Speaker 1: it seemed like I was only getting auditions for parts
Speaker 1: that were already written to be Saltatian or or Latin
Speaker 1: X frankly, or like you could pass. And a lot
Speaker 1: of those are are the you know, sort of one
Speaker 1: dimensional stereotypes. And I had always sort of said to myself,
Speaker 1: you know, an accent alone does not make a stereotype.
Speaker 1: Plenty of people have accents, and the stereotype comes from
Speaker 1: accents that are added in a reductionist way, meaning the
Speaker 1: producers know the writing sucks, therefore covered up with an
Speaker 1: accent and people will laugh. Right. And I realized that
Speaker 1: early on on on, you know, audition for things like
Speaker 1: Sabrina the Teenage, which which you know, a sweet show
Speaker 1: and it's for kids. And I remember going on this
Speaker 1: audition and the audition was three lines, and I was
Speaker 1: so excited that idea. I was like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to create a backstory for my character. So I
Speaker 1: was like, it's three lines. I don't care. Okay, this
Speaker 1: guy is from the Pacific Northwest. He's maybe grow up
Speaker 1: outside of Seattle, and he wears a lot of flannels,
Speaker 1: and he loves small batch organic coffee and like maybe
Speaker 1: he tried to brew beer once in his bad tub
Speaker 1: and it didn't go well, like things like I think
Speaker 1: it had nothing to do with the stupid three lines
Speaker 1: about the study group, right, But I went into this
Speaker 1: audition confident and with all this backstory and uh, the
Speaker 1: cashing new corector. I remember ran out as I was
Speaker 1: getting to my car and he said, hey, the producers
Speaker 1: would love for you to do it again. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is awesome. And so as I'm
Speaker 1: about to walk back in the room, he goes, this
Speaker 1: time with an accent, and I was like, okay, there
Speaker 1: is a bit of coercion, as you mentioned that, the
Speaker 1: things that you're made to feel like you have to withstand.
Speaker 1: But ultimately I could have said no, I could have
Speaker 1: walked out of there. But the thing that went through
Speaker 1: my head was, Okay, this job pays about seven bucks
Speaker 1: my rent is month, and this is going to be
Speaker 1: a credit on a resume that's currently non existent. So
Speaker 1: I should probably do this because that's what happened hundreds
Speaker 1: of times, right. And so the thing that I would
Speaker 1: always say when they would say we'd like you to
Speaker 1: do with an accent, is sure, what kind of accent
Speaker 1: would you like? I can do Scottish, Irish, Southern Italian.
Speaker 1: You know. I would just go off and they were
Speaker 1: never amused, but they in this case, the director, who's
Speaker 1: a real prick, leaned in and he goes, uh, why
Speaker 1: don't we just stick to Indian? So I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I did the audition and I walked out of there
Speaker 1: not feeling great, and so I went back to my apartment.
Speaker 1: I called my agent to tell her what had happened,
Speaker 1: and she she picked up the phone ands at congratulations,
Speaker 1: They called you got the part. I felt so disappointed,
Speaker 1: like I was almost hoping I wasn't going to get
Speaker 1: the part because I didn't want to have to deal
Speaker 1: with what this was going to be. And I immediately
Speaker 1: felt like, the hell is this? This sucks. When my
Speaker 1: friends get their first few roles, we all go out
Speaker 1: for drinks and we celebrate and we encourage each other
Speaker 1: and they're excited that they're playing the frat boy from
Speaker 1: Indiana or whatever. How Come I don't get to be happy.
Speaker 1: I don't get to celebrate because I I don't want
Speaker 1: to do the stereotypical thing. So I said to the agent,
Speaker 1: is there any what you could call them and say
Speaker 1: that I'll only do it if if I can just
Speaker 1: play it the way I did before, like the dude
Speaker 1: from the Pacific Northwest, And she goes my experiences that
Speaker 1: generally agents are the worst people to have this conversation.
Speaker 1: What you should do is like, so if you know
Speaker 1: you're taking anyway, why don't you go early, Go in
Speaker 1: a half hour early, talk to the director and see
Speaker 1: if you can make your case. So I went in
Speaker 1: a half hour early. I found the director and he
Speaker 1: was very nice to me, unlike at the audition, and
Speaker 1: I said, hey, man, thank you. You buttered him up.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. What a fun
Speaker 1: script um I was. I was hoping that I could
Speaker 1: play him the way I did it in the first
Speaker 1: round of my audition, without an accent. And he goes, oh, no,
Speaker 1: that accents hilarious. You're you're going to do it. That's
Speaker 1: why we hired you. And and so then again in
Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, ah, because you know, the writing
Speaker 1: was subpar. There we go, and then I this voice
Speaker 1: came into my head that was like, you know, they
Speaker 1: say that racism comes from ignorance, so perhaps he doesn't
Speaker 1: even know, you know, And and I don't want to
Speaker 1: presume the guy knows or feels things that he doesn't.
Speaker 1: So I said, I gotta be honest. My little cousin's
Speaker 1: love this show and they're you know, they're like in
Speaker 1: fourth grade. I just thought it would be so cool
Speaker 1: if they could watch a character and experience something that
Speaker 1: I never got to experience, and like see themselves in
Speaker 1: a way that that I never got to see myself
Speaker 1: and laugh with the character instead of being laughed at.
Speaker 1: And he looks at me and he goes, uh, well,
Speaker 1: your cousins should feel lucky that you're allowed to be
Speaker 1: on TV to begin with, and so should you. And
Speaker 1: he walks off. So my first thought was, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: so it's not that ignorance sequels racism sometimes like there's
Speaker 1: a prick who knows exactly what he's doing and he
Speaker 1: just doesn't give a shit. But then the second part
Speaker 1: was again, could I have left? Of course today? Was
Speaker 1: anybody forcing me to do anything? No? I was the
Speaker 1: one who decided that this is what I wanted to
Speaker 1: do to get a credit on my resume. But the
Speaker 1: big takeaway from me was that and it is a
Speaker 1: story that I tell him the audiobook in the book,
Speaker 1: not because I want somebody to IMDb this guy, although
Speaker 1: you're certainly welcome to, but them the idea that it's
Speaker 1: but truly, I mean, it's like this is uh, these
Speaker 1: things are all systemic, right, It's not about this one
Speaker 1: guy or this girl show. It's a out the things
Speaker 1: that thankfully we have slowly but surely moved on from
Speaker 1: so so that story that I just told you, there
Speaker 1: were like probably stories like that over a period of
Speaker 1: five or six years. And there was a point where
Speaker 1: I basically was like I would see audition sides and
Speaker 1: I would know exactly what they wanted, and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: prepare at all because I saw, you know, okay, it's
Speaker 1: a guy named Abduel from Pakistan. I know exactly what
Speaker 1: they're gonna ask for. Do I even want to bother?
Speaker 1: And then on the rare occasion when I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a guy named Justin from Milwaukee. While I'm obviously
Speaker 1: not going to get that part, So the same thing
Speaker 1: I wouldn't prepare, I wouldn't come up with the backstory.
Speaker 1: I would sometimes go on the audition and and so
Speaker 1: there was a moment after a long time of doing
Speaker 1: this where I just realized, what the funk are you doing? Man?
Speaker 1: Like you've already decided before you audition that you're not
Speaker 1: getting this part. You've just decided that, so you're not
Speaker 1: putting any work in, You're just showing up. Why are
Speaker 1: you even showing up for this? If this isn't something
Speaker 1: you're passionate about, or that you want to figure out
Speaker 1: strategically how to build career and what sacrifices a you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to make before you have the chance to
Speaker 1: call it a career then do something else. And so
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I'm gonna take the l's at,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take you know, I'm gonna go to law school.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do something else. And that from that darkness,
Speaker 1: that realization that I know a lot of artists, period
Speaker 1: musicians say this stuff a lot, athletes say this a
Speaker 1: lot where it's the difference between it like, it's not
Speaker 1: a choice, right, you have to do it. So when
Speaker 1: I when I had made the decision that maybe this
Speaker 1: isn't what I want to do, immediately I was like, no,
Speaker 1: that's wrong. This is what I have to do. This
Speaker 1: is what I am passionate about, this form of storytelling.
Speaker 1: And so that means so I reevaluated everything. From that point,
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going to have to start saying
Speaker 1: no to certain auditions. There's nothing wrong with saying no
Speaker 1: to them, and I shouldn't consider it a personal assault.
Speaker 1: Every time I see audition sides that are boring and
Speaker 1: racist and understand that the reason that I find them
Speaker 1: so abhorrent, aside from obviously racist, sit is really bad.
Speaker 1: But but a lot of the reason creatively that I
Speaker 1: find it so exhausting is that it's boring. I wish
Speaker 1: there was a word could talk about this without it
Speaker 1: drawing equivalency, because there is not equivalency. Racism is racism,
Speaker 1: and sexism is sexism. That they're they're different, their systemic problems,
Speaker 1: but they're different. But I cannot tell you the familiarity
Speaker 1: of what you're saying, of the sensation of looking at
Speaker 1: something of a woman being an adjunct to a man
Speaker 1: perpetually through a career, that if you're lucky, you can
Speaker 1: massage it, if you're clever and you're smart, and you
Speaker 1: make it seem like it was all the guys in
Speaker 1: the room's idea for this woman to become more interesting
Speaker 1: and more intelligent, then you can up the experience. But
Speaker 1: I actually did leave Hollywood. I actually left and went
Speaker 1: to Hawaii. And when I can't, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't keep fighting for and and be
Speaker 1: told that I should be grateful for the mediocrity that
Speaker 1: I'm being offered, how do you continue to believe that
Speaker 1: you're good at something if that is perpetually you're perpetually
Speaker 1: being told this is a good part and you read
Speaker 1: it and you go it isn't It is an overly
Speaker 1: sexualized adjunct to this dude story. So that recognition of
Speaker 1: either I do this and I figure out a way
Speaker 1: of staying connected to what I want to do and
Speaker 1: say no to those things and maybe have some leaner
Speaker 1: years because I just go, no, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: do that shitty fucking movie, even though it's big, because
Speaker 1: it's dumb and it's stupid and it's perpetuating an idea
Speaker 1: about women. But you're absolutely right, like there's enormous freedom
Speaker 1: in reaching that moment, but it's also pretty terrifying. I
Speaker 1: am really I understand. I understand that choice that I
Speaker 1: think those comparisons, while you're right, they are, they are different,
Speaker 1: But I think it's it's it's a very fair more
Speaker 1: than a fair comparison, because that's the systemic stuff that
Speaker 1: I think we're talking about, right, And that idea that
Speaker 1: when when I was at that low point of saying
Speaker 1: I'm going to say no to certain things and I'm
Speaker 1: going to recognize that one of the reasons I felt
Speaker 1: so disappointed that I wasn't able to go out and
Speaker 1: celebrate with friends when I would get these small jobs.
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out what, what what did
Speaker 1: I actually have a problem with him? Like I said,
Speaker 1: it's not that it's just an accent, it's recognizing that
Speaker 1: an accent is is a reductionist way of covering up
Speaker 1: shitty writing or that you know this idea that you
Speaker 1: hear people say this a lot. Unfortunately, things like he
Speaker 1: had to play a seven eleven owner. I'm sorry, is
Speaker 1: a seven eleven store clerk somehow a less than noble profession?
Speaker 1: Are these guys not working sixteen hours a day? What
Speaker 1: people mean to say is that that reductionism of a profession,
Speaker 1: especially a working class profession, tied to a character that
Speaker 1: has no other merit or actionable agency in a piece
Speaker 1: except for their profession and their ethnicity, is by definition
Speaker 1: what creates a stereotype. So the kind of analyzing all
Speaker 1: that and then being like and basically I'm like in
Speaker 1: my early twenties at this point, I want to play cool, fun,
Speaker 1: interesting characters. I don't want to play characters that we're
Speaker 1: already played eighteen times on The Simpsons. But like we've
Speaker 1: we've seen it all before, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: We don't have to the definition, especially they who loves
Speaker 1: comedy like comedy continues to evolve in great ways when
Speaker 1: you have great writers. It's lazy if you always look
Speaker 1: backwards for what worked before, because that's already been done
Speaker 1: exactly to do. So that whole conversation was part of
Speaker 1: what came out of that. For me, Where were you
Speaker 1: at mentally when Lawrence what was his last name on House? Cutner? When? When? When?
Speaker 1: When that character came along? Where were you at in
Speaker 1: terms of of your career and how you were seeing
Speaker 1: it and how engaged you were with the kind of
Speaker 1: work that you wanted to do. Yeah, thank you for
Speaker 1: asking me that question, because that is one of one
Speaker 1: of the thankfully many, because I feel like we've only
Speaker 1: talked about the problematic one so far. Wonderful audition process.
Speaker 1: So David Shore, who created House, I love him. I'm
Speaker 1: honestly a devoted David Shaw fan for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life. Yeah. When I was on House, they were
Speaker 1: adding I think six or six or nine characters. We
Speaker 1: had to compete our characters were competing for permanent slots.
Speaker 1: First of all, it was men and women alike, and
Speaker 1: the age range of those characters was like, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty two to seventy. And I remember going in for
Speaker 1: the audition and I was given sides of a Mormon
Speaker 1: doctor and I thought, somebody has made a terrible mistake,
Speaker 1: or they seriously think that I could play a Mormon doctor,
Speaker 1: whichever it is. That's crazy. And then I walked into
Speaker 1: the audition and it's men and women twenty two to
Speaker 1: seventy in the same waiting room, with the same sets
Speaker 1: of such amazing, amazing and I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 1: Surely is this what color blind casting looks like? Uh?
Speaker 1: And even gender blind casting to some extent. And so I,
Speaker 1: you know, callback after callback we're realizing they're whittling things down.
Speaker 1: And they must have been two years later when I
Speaker 1: had really gotten to know David that I had the
Speaker 1: guts to ask him, hey, man, what was the deal
Speaker 1: with that audition? Why was it like that? And I
Speaker 1: described it exactly as I just did with you, and
Speaker 1: David goes, what are you talking about? And I said,
Speaker 1: come on, David, that is how you ran that audition,
Speaker 1: And he goes, no, No, I know that's how I
Speaker 1: run all my auditions. What do you what's your actual question?
Speaker 1: I said, well, why do it that way? You know?
Speaker 1: Usually if I'm reading for something, it's either people who
Speaker 1: sort of look like me or I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: never going to get the part. And he goes, oh,
Speaker 1: I just do it that way because I want to
Speaker 1: hire the best actors. How are you going to find
Speaker 1: the best actors if you don't open it up like that?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, this is why you're so good at
Speaker 1: what you do, you know, So I like that that
Speaker 1: is going that's happening at the same time as the
Speaker 1: other shitty stuff that you're talking about. No, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of there's a lot of great stuff. I
Speaker 1: definitely don't want to make it sound like it's a
Speaker 1: it's a ship fest. No, it's part of it that
Speaker 1: two things can be true at once, more than two things.
Speaker 1: Because it must have been amazing with hald and Kuma,
Speaker 1: like fat incredible. I loved it. To an Asian actor,
Speaker 1: a south as An actor running that movie, yeah, and
Speaker 1: it was all it was a happy experience. Loved it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and John Show and I are clothed the
Speaker 1: whole team. You guys are both just assompletely hilarious. Oh Cal,
Speaker 1: It's been such a pleasure talking to you. Likewise, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Cal's new memoir, You Can't Be Serious, is out now
Speaker 1: in paperback and audiobook. You can also see Cal in
Speaker 1: the Santa Clauses on Disney Plus. Mini Questions is hosted
Speaker 1: and written by Me Mini Driver, supervising producer Aaron Kaufman,
Speaker 1: Producer Morgan Levoy, Research assistant Marissa Brown. Original music Sorry
Speaker 1: Baby by Mini Driver, Additional music by Aaron Kaufman, executive
Speaker 1: produced by Me Mini Driver. Special thanks to Jim Nikolay,
Speaker 1: Will Pearson, Addison No Day, Lisa Castella and Nique Oppenheim
Speaker 1: at w kPr, de La Pescador, Kateree Driver and Jason Weinberg,
Speaker 1: and for constantly solicited tech support Henry Driver h