[Music] welcome to ear biscuits season two I’m Rhett and I’m link joining us today and kicking off our new season is TV star and Internet tone setter Rainn Wilson yes we are happy to have him at the roundtable of dim lighting and I’m happy to be back here with you link at the round table of them like oh yeah and thank you for being here with us bringing your ears to be biscuit ‘add yeah the the lighting is dim or dimmed that was the funny thing was a second ago right now were just discussing maybe we’re a little rusty but I refer to it as the roundtable of dim delighting and then you were like hold on we’ve never caught it at its did it’s the round table of dim lighting dee I am NOT di mm Edie but you might be technically correct I mean is dim a word or is it always dimmed is it like stupid lighting you think is what that the implication is I’m gonna go with them it is well that means we’re gonna stick with it because that’s what we’ve been doing but it doesn’t mean stupid it just means dimmed but it is a lot different in here in this room because we used to be semi surrounded by the good mythical morning set which is now moved to the new building we are in transition if you watch good mythical morning you already know this but we’re moving into a new building but it’s not happening quickly and it’s not just because it takes a long time to move but there’s work being done at the new building you’re right the round table has not moved from its original location under the unmoved dim lighting the dim light in it so it kind of feels like empty in here it’s almost like we’re in a like an abandoned doctor’s office like a weird doctor that did bad things to people that’s what I feel like this room feels like just that like he would he would like conduct experiments on people yeah well the reason I’m thinking that is because I watched this we’re watching a the black list on Netflix and last night episode was about this nurse that was taking people into his home and inflicting injuries upon them the same injuries they inflicted on other people he was very it wasn’t thought it was a difficult episode to watch and now I feel like our studio looks like that place where that guy tortures people hmm what kind of tone is that set well I haven’t watched you know I’m not gonna watch that show but you wanted I told you what I’ve been watching Vikings yeah on Amazon because it’s go yes on Amazon Prime and there’s some disturbing violent stuff in that show I’ll just go ahead and tell you if you if you’re saying it with a smile on your face there’s lots of blood and like acts work lots of Acts working on my ex work so but I I’m into it I I like it well let’s check in that out keep just talking about the shows are watching but we had it we felt you felt the need to apologize to rain when he came in here about our place we started playing into it like how bad it was we care about the aesthetic I mean we care about aesthetics it’s like he knew no different I mean you know exactly if you didn’t apology you know exactly at your point he thinks we work in a doctor’s office torture chamber I don’t want him to think that about us what well I think you cleared it out okay repeated apology okay well we were played in – super excited to have rain on the show and to kick off season 2 of course you already know rain as Dwight the pompous assistant to the regional manager on the Emmy winning sitcom the office what is my perfect crime I break into Tiffany’s in midnight do I go for the vault no I go for the chandelier it’s priceless as I’m taking it down a woman catches me she tells me to stop it’s her father’s business she’s Tiffany I say no we make love all night in the morning the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms I tell her to meet me in Mexico but I go to Canada I don’t trust her besides I like the cold thirty years later I get a postcard I have a son and he’s the Chief of Police this is where the story gets interesting I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero she’s been waiting for me all these years she’s never taken another lover I don’t I don’t show up I go to Berlin that’s where I stashed the chandelier okay but before he was Dwight Rayne spent many years on stage in the New York theater scene on Broadway doing all types of stuff worked just he the dude’s got chops after he made his move to LA he started to get film and TV traction his first big recurring role was on HBO’s Six Feet Under I actually haven’t seen that yeah but I bet it’s got some ax work in it or some blood work it’s in between kind of like well those people are dead I watched a little no Joe of course then he moved on to the TV behemoth the office for nine seasons I remember that one oh yeah I mean being very obsessed with that show I think at one point I know at one point in the conversation with the rain I went into a little Dwight and he called me on it and I didn’t realize I was doing it you know it’s just a subconscious thing when you’re when you’re talking to a guy that you’ve watched on television all these years right in your and you’re kind of being self-conscious you’re like I know that he’s known as Dwight but I don’t want to make it seem like I feel like I’m talking to Dwight and I feel like I did that you didn’t you didn’t do it well but I feel like at least one of us did you’re joking right you did fine okay good and we need to know that I did okay and we in particular were really interested in talking about SoulPancake it was kind of where our worlds meet on the Internet that’s his website slash book slash YouTube channel that he co-created that he describes as a place where young people can connect to talk about life’s big questions so and you get this if you have ever heard rain talk just candidly you know outside of one of his characters you already know this but you’re gonna learn it today he’s a thoughtful philosophical guy he has a very strong worldview and thinks about things deeply we were fascinated to discuss that and also talked about his Baha’i faith which he’s been really public about and also to discuss the intriguing animals that are his family pets so that may or may not be links favorite animal yeah my mind gets blown at a certain point and he but life after the office I think the bottom line is that it’s looking good for rain Backstrom his new TV show just premiered on Fox Thursdays at 9:00 DVR it we’d like to thank me undies for helping to make this episode of ear biscuits possible you may remember me talking about me undies oh yeah last season passionately and I will say that since that point I have slowly but surely replaced every single pair of underwear in my underwear drawer that was not a me undies pair and now my entire drawer is all me undies I’m not making this up these are the most comfortable thing you can put on your body well especially underwear maybe it it all you know including anything you could put on your body but definitely underwear Christy got me something for Christmas and I was I was really pumped so we’re happy to have them as a sponsor bomani have styles for men and women my mom got me some other kinds of underwear for Christmas and I took him straight to the thrift store don’t tell my mom I don’t think she listens to here but know what hmm my mom got me some too and I couldn’t do that so I’m wearing them a little bit but I think I’m gonna go they’re eradication route just like you and you should to go to me undies comm slash rhett and Link and get 20% off your first order and free shipping people you can save even more when you buy a pack of them but yeah me undies calm slash rhett and Link get that 20% we also want to take a second to help you get prepared for Valentine’s Day because that’s coming up if your sweetheart says she doesn’t want anything for Valentine’s Day that is code for get me something for Valentine’s Day and listen don’t get her a potted plant I made the mistake of getting my wife a potted plant not roses but a potted plant since to me she said that’s the most unromantic thing you’ve ever done for me ouch but it lives forever it doesn’t wilt I don’t know either way but we have a solution this year because we’re bad at this we’re assuming that many of you are very bad at this berries dot-com go to Sherry’s berries get giant freshly dipped strawberries they got a strawberry big big strawberries dipped in white chocolate milk chocolate dark chocolate at the top with chocolate chips something to call a decorative swizzle link you can get a decorative swizzle all these various swizzle on mine is or I don’t know what that means that’s not their slogan they didn’t ask me for that and I shouldn’t have offered it strawberry’s good chocolate good put the two together add some swizzle on my nizzle and there you go I don’t know where you’re going with that but assortments start at $19.99 that’s over 40% savings go to Barry’s comm click on the microphone and type in our code rhett and Link and they’ll know that we sent you and you can also use that to double your berry order the number of berries for just $10 more yeah click on the microphone rhett and Link dot not Ren Ling calm let’s go to berries dot can you do that we’re not selling berries on our website yet we don’t have the capability to put swizzle on anybody’s nizzle so go to berries ber RI es calm and then use our code rhett and Link now enjoy our air biscuit with Rainn Wilson I was just apologizing for how lame this place is you guys are really there’s so many I walk in here and there’s so many apologies happening really face just like yeah it pretty much sucks here it’s pretty it’s pretty awful and bear moans din and lame but it’s okay man it’s okay like a ward but look that way it’s DIY man it’s punk rock okay YouTube oh yeah that’s hot cast comedy man joy anti-establishment the man I kind of rhettandlink kind of bolt up in here and Burbank okay feel L mr. king can you feel his stare because we left him I love Elvis I my son is 10 years old he used to be obsessed with Elvis because we had the Elvis channel on the Sirius XM so we would listen to hell this guy came into school so preschool kindergarten first grade he just loved I knew all the songs sang along because you liked Elvis you listened to it and he just assumed that was using about any channels that we listened to and then but he would always request all of us he’s got a good taste yeah and now he likes imagine dragons no well I have a ten-year-old it’s really super all the 10 year olds the imagine driver yes he every ten year old you have a nine year old son so we’re all in the same okay good now my son huge imagine dragons fan but he was just telling me he’s gotten into this stage where he begins talking and I’m like you sound like an adult like the way that you’re forming your cynicism your opinions very adult he’s like then I’m not gonna get that I’m not gonna get the new album I’ve just been disappointed he’s already sounds like he lives in Silver Lake disappointed with yeah did he finish their live performances or haven’t been to their new songs are not as good as their old song yeah right yeah we should go just like our videos your our old videos always tend to be better than our new and according to the comments yeah funny like you used to be known I could tell you a funny rhett and Link story yes you don’t know that we had a street yeah let’s do that give us some history oh this is good so I’m gonna say I’m still trying to figure out why you’re here on five um for your own sake I love I love Burbank I love all these streets out here and Brad likes the victory straightness oh yeah yeah that’s just like sun-baked it’s there’s an old ‘no Stu I love it out yeah right I love it out here no so I’m gonna say five or six years ago when did you guys have your very first viral video but the car the car dealership or the furniture store yeah the red house furniture Red House for ya oh my is that oh nine right yeah yep oh so right when that came out I saw it and I emailed everyone on at my agency and I have my management company I’m like you guys sign these guys immediately really these guys are super super talented I am not I’m not making this up I’m not booking you for real I did that and they all won’t like look that and like yeah that’s pretty funny I don’t know really what we do with them like they’re so funny that there’s got to be something you can do them I mean um that’s as far as it went but I just want to let you know that I was well thank you for the effort from the get-go Wow I wish we had like a reciprocal story for you it’s all right so I watched you on television and I thought many times that it was great I made a lot of phone calls Oh was that you yeah I’m sure I told family members throughout the years to watch like the office and sure okay okay you don’t need to pay me back it doesn’t need to be quid pro quo well just give me a price I’m $1400 okay okay what are some rice for I don’t get it is that the time value of money I don’t know what the price what’s the price where the for the plug to the ER agents and people Oh $1,400 okay okay do you remember the time value of money did I never I never understood that now what is it I don’t know this is seventh grade well it’s inflation I guess it had something to do with inflation and it was it was okay well this is $1400 and o.9 but it’s oh right now yeah the time valium that’s an actual thing that yeah yeah it’s like you’re learning we owe you like two grand oh no I was assuming he already took that into account oh okay 1,400 now we met like the first time that we actually met and shook hands was on a plane well as a year ago on a plane – son – yeah and you know we you run the beautiful Burbank Airport you were doing a show there and Sundance we were YouTube had it’s like own set up there and we did a QA okay so we went to Sundance is great but so we were we saw you in the Burbank Airport okay stalker I think you were with your with your family my wife and son you know so we gave you your space then Leonard Maltin was also waiting to get on that plane fantastic and Rockwell right Rockwell was on era he said across from me right and so then we’re walking on you sat down first and then the you you past rain yes and but then I stopped and said hello oh and that was our meeting this is this is a great story and then it gets better I start and said hello it gets worth telling a little bit here a good so then we weren’t sitting together I was sitting with Sam Rockwell’s yeah the thing that really got me was I was looking over at Sam and he was reviewing a script he was memorizing his lines and tell anyone about him but at a certain point we got into a conversation I started talking about his technique and he was listening to he was listening to a read-through of his lines that was his technique for learning his lines was listening to them repeatedly in kind of a monotone on acti kind of a way which I understand is an actress like me for learning oh and lines so we select mean to the other people queuing the line no he was just listening to himself he reading he had two versions he had himself himself monotone and then he had a dialect like a southern dialect guy read it which is dialect from Tennessee right so he owns a funeral home that his dialect coach found and got him to read the script some funeral home owners like Alabama we even know what this movie is um it’s a Jared Hess movie Jared Hess movie that I don’t know what’s happening with it but he’s a biblical archaeologist oh yeah you kind of tongue-in-cheek I think it sounded hilarious hmm but it you know I was just fascinating kind of watching him work he was he was Sam was listening to the guy he let me listen to it it was hilarious and he’s you know he’s underlining certain words and then circling in other words and it was almost like his printed out script became this scribble of kind of something I would want to keep if you know I took it from him but I’m I’m wondering like for you I know you got like a theater background what’s your technique how do you how do you learn lines cuz literally I googled cuz I can’t learn lines for crap do you Google how to lie mines I googled you learn like and that’s where I read about the audio listening thing that Sam was doing and that’s why I knew what he was doing cuz I googled it a few months earlier you’ve never done that I have never done that what I have done some times before is read the other people’s lines and leave a space for my lines okay so I can hear the cues yeah because I’m more I don’t here my lines I want to hear the other people’s lines so then I respond accordingly I don’t I wouldn’t know what to do with that technique and that’s why they it’s red monotone so at least you don’t get like the acting cue right and you get into some ditch of well this is I gotta say it like a right maybe I should try that a divin think I’m gonna try it I’m for real but you you don’t have a problem but how do you remember what you’re gonna say in those gaps just whatever well I have like the script and I’ll kind of be half on half off just kind of saying them you know what I mean because to me I think there’s this weird thing about repetition and if you just say the lines a ton a ton of times like it really it does really help and you say and make sure you say it in a lot of different ways don’t just say it the same way every time that’s one thing that helps me is just repetition just going through it the script or saying it out loud saying and saying and saying it um it’s you know it really is like what’s my technique I don’t this is a heavy question I don’t really have a technique per se on the office it was pretty easy because it was short scenes and usually you didn’t have to memorize a ton you could improvise and kind of go off the script and and and go crazy and it was super super fun in that way Backstrom is was so hard this new TV show because yeah yeah I’m the lead of it and it’s an hour-long TV show and I would have seven or eight pages of dialogue per day to to work on and I’d have to work I’d memorize a scene or two at night before mm-hm and then I’d memorize a scene like driving in and going through makeup so then by that point I’d have two or three of the scenes memorized and then I’d like memorize one at lunch you know so it’s constantly memorizing but so that was a little bit different but the first this time on Backstrom was the first time I ever worked with an acting coach so that was crazy this guy Larry Moss who’s a very famous acting coach and yeah I mean you got a lot of experience some what led to get an acting coach well this one specifically because I was going from the office and then two weeks later I was shooting a really complicated character there was an alcoholic and he’s it addicted to all these different things and he’s self-hating and he’s kind of twisted and he has a very warped worldview and so it was it was a lot of work and yet and also like a cop like I you know I’m this pudgy suburban character comedy guile and you know and I don’t you know how am I gonna be believable as a cop like how does this work do I want to act like a cop I just wanna but I want it to feel real but I don’t want to put on anything and I don’t want to you know there was a danger with the role that it could be kind of like one of those who is that guy in NYPD Blue Caruso no the other guy the tough guy with the pockmarked face oh yeah the one who the guy that always gets them to know that he’s got his hair on the side of his head yeah yeah the bald guy is really craggly faced guy google him you have computers yes we do we do guys that’ll be rude no that’s that’s what we should be doing um I don’t want to lose my tab how to remember my lines I don’t want out it up yeah I don’t want to Google anything else yeah I had it but you didn’t want to be him um you’re are you googling it right I gave up but apparently someone upstairs is uploading a video to YouTube we adorable you would think that guys who make you to everyone listening right now is going we’ll just edit that I don’t know how are you talking about I’m gonna tell you and I’m gonna tell you in less than seven seconds okay Dennis Franz Dennis Franz that’s it and everyone listening I do not know that I blanked senior moment okay but I didn’t want to be like Dennis Franz a tough cop guy and I didn’t want to be like there’s just a lot of there were a lot of pitfalls to be had and the character of Backstrom when you’re playing like a a messed up police detective tough-talking self-hating it was easy traps to fall into and I didn’t want to fall into them and I wanted to and I also really wanted to make sure that I was doing it very different than Dwight that there wasn’t any any aroma of Dwight and them all in and playing the character so it worked with this guy was really cool and was there like one big take away like in a moment of Epiphany or was it just more of like walking through the paces with this coach and you arrived somewhere I think that the there was a big take away it’s a pretty basic acting thing but he was really on me about you how does this guy see the world I see the world through his eyes and how did he get that way so he sees the world through his eyes in that way so it’s really all about like how does he see the world and how did he get that way so it was a lot of internal adjustments to think to think about that emotionally this guy’s obviously been very abused he has uh he has a dark past he’s got a did a lot of abandonment abuse and neglect in his in his in his life so there’s kind of that dark underbelly that that’s why someone sees the world away so you can’t you can’t put stuff like that on from the outside and just be like a blustery I didn’t want to be like a blustery old I’m a blustery old cop hey bucum shut down there get to evidence you know I I wanted to like really find him okay every week I’m up I got a jam my guns jammed so yeah so that was interesting I don’t really I don’t know I don’t really have a technique it really depends on the role that I’m doing there was a part I’d well you want to send this guy work I mean you know I give a lot of secrets away we don’t you maybe I need to go to the guy he’s expensive yeah yeah I’m $400 yeah and lighter exactly good luck it’s probably not justified for you to sketches anyway but I mean you mentioned it sounds like this is a maybe a calculated move how you’re seeing in your history with Dwight yeah what what’s your current relationship with Dwight as a character you know I feel like on my tombstone it’s gonna say here lies the guy who played Dwight you know I think I’m always gonna be known as Dwight it’s it’s gonna be Who I am I’m totally at peace with that I get it I am I knew that as soon as the office took off and yeah I’m I’m happy that Dwight was put to bed I’m happy that the Dwight spin-off didn’t work out and wasn’t picked up by NBC because I wouldn’t want to still be playing that same character ultimately and I’m happy to be moving on now were you part you know the the story goes that the cast got together and said hey let’s let’s listen this show is is that is that that’s that’s that’s pretty true I don’t know that NBC would have continued but the cast that all the leads of the cast were kind of like this make sure there’s our last season and make sure every episode really builds to a great ending and let’s do it right and let’s um let’s bring in all the previous characters and let’s have a big parade and Scranton and and do our final season the way it really should be done and but the fact that it became the final season was kind of a groundswell from the young C actors yeah and and I think that you know Greg Daniels was the only one that was kind of like um really sure is there a way to continue the show maybe without some view or a new cast of characters he had a lot of like thoughts in his head and he’s a great guy and very loyal to us but he was just thinking that he just didn’t really completely want to give it up but you know so we put a lot of work in that final season and then no one really watched it and it’s it it’s a really good season like the final like five or six episodes of our final season or as good as anything we had ever done but Emma was like oh so much better when Steve was yeah so it was a lot of that and our finale was great I thought we want to talk about the period of time between you know when they office ended and then now Backstrom because you’ve done a lot of interesting things that sort of have some overlap with our world okay it’s you know specifically talking about SoulPancake yeah and I remember seeing that happened it was a part of a bigger movement where some traditional celebrities were coming in and we’re like oh well it was the original YouTube fund right and guys like us we’re like it’s is it we we’ve had our party it’s over real talented people are coming into the space well traditionally I mean triggers for media you got and NBA stars like Shaq yeah yeah Amy Poehler had a channel yeah yeah a lot of name people had Jeff we wanted rain well rain will cease in the memory how did that come about was this a kind of thing that like you were a fan of YouTube videos or was somebody like ring you got to get in on this online thing that’s cash cow right they’re throwing around millions of dollars they were they and that’s of yeah that’s her if that’s the answer so we were scrambling to find our identity what SoulPancake was we started remember as a website to discuss life’s big questions and that was fun for a while but it didn’t really take off it didn’t really go anywhere so we made an app that went with it and that didn’t really go anywhere then we did a book and that was good it was a best-seller but and we were just kind of struggling for identity what’s next for SoulPancake we we have this mission as we I mean I’m me and the founders there’s really four of us me and the guy started with Devin Gondry and then his wife gol Ruiz Lucina who still works there and our current CEO Shabnam Megara be who I think you guys know her or met her over email yeah okay she’s awesome she’s super super awesome and the other to suck the just kidding so we were like what do we do we have this great mission we have people behind us we we know that we’re know we’re on to something we want to do uplifting content that’s not sentimental and treacly and stupid we wanted to do something edgy and cool and funny and outrageous but also makes the world a better place and it’s philosophy it’s part spirituality it’s all about creativity and being an artist and expressing yourself and so you know that we were scrambling for money and there’s no your tube is giving out money for channels and we’re like what about that we’d already done some videos for The Oprah Winfrey Network and they were very popular they were like the most popular thing on that that whole dumb network and then so we’re like yeah let’s let’s go down here so we just came up with a bunch of show ideas based on our philosophy and our worldview and we pitched it and went great and and then really we’re so grateful to that experienced anti YouTube and the YouTube channel phenomenon thing because that’s where we found our voice in our identity and our YouTube channel has taken off and we really see ourselves more of a media company so we you know we produce videos either for a YouTube channel for television or for commercials and they have a certain you know magic mojo in them and you’ve got involved personally I mean hosting a few though shows and yeah I am so my show is metaphysical milkshake and now you know that YouTube money is dried up so we are trying to find other ways to fund what we like you know how that goes it’s a crazy it’s a crazy business the the YouTube game the YouTube channel game and I mean how much of yourself are you able to to put into SoulPancake the channel at this point you know with with the new show and everything else that I assume you got going on with your life are you watching every video that’s on the channel are you i watch most of the videos on the channel I once I watch every single one but I’ve really stepped back over the last year and I was very involved early on in in the shows and giving notes on the cuts and who you know casting Candice here and giving her a show thank you the little girl from Ohio that you stole from us and you know I was very involved in doing a lot of promotion for it trying to get the viewers trying to get like my Twitter followers to head over to the YouTube and and watch some of our videos and subscribe and stuff like that but now it’s going gangbusters Shabnam our CEO she’s just awesome and running it and and it’s we’re moving to a from our lame space to a really cool oh yeah – on the Miren we’re in Hollywood yeah you’re the wrong straight a seedy side of the hill now a an interesting thing about doing any sort of content that has any kind of spiritual theme I mean we’ve noticed that anytime anybody senses that you’re making some sort of religious statement or statement about anything metaphysical that just starts like the YouTube argument in the comments it’s just and they can be just most inane arguments but if you a religious conversation and your yourse watch the comments equals troubling you you basically in one sense you’ve started a conversation around spiritual themes on YouTube a place where there’s not a lot of mature conversation about spiritual themes like I have used like what’s your experience with that you’re like oh well yeah well well let’s back up a little bit because you’ve thrown out a lot of words yeah so you throw out spiritual than religious then metaphysical and they’re all very different and there really depends on how you define them so religious we don’t do anything religious on our channel so it’s not religious it’s not about religion its spiritual in this in a sense yes but what how do you define everyone to find spirituality different I mean some people it’s like talking to the ghosts and the beyond some people it’s crystals and yoga classes some people it’s their Christian faith some people it’s kind of Oprah and Deepak Chopra and kind of new agey podcasts and stuff like everyone has a very different thing like we define spirituality differently so it’s spirituality is just anything that’s beyond the material that’s it and that creativity is and being an artist is the main part of being spiritual so it’s it’s expressing yourself and it’s making cool and it’s making the world awesome and being of service to people and making people laugh and uplifting their spirits and telling beautiful stories that make you remember what it is to be a human being and connecting people and building bridges and having fun along the way like that’s spiritual it doesn’t have to go down any kind of sentimental road or new-age Road or religious road and that’s the kind of the the juicy stuff that we explore on SoulPancake well in in and I guess that’s just it is regardless of how well you state it and how well you present it I mean 75% of all YouTube commenters are still gonna misunderstand and think that you’re saying something that they want to be offended by just then causes a Carly’s opinionated about yeah right up on you guys hate your YouTube comments no I’m just saying that okay okay here’s an example so we got we got invited to the White House two months ago as part of a the it’s on us campaign it’s on us campaign the campaign to address sexual assault on college campuses okay and so the Obama administration has been doing this thing where they get youtubers and they want they want more of it less of it I think less it was it was confusing in the meeting I just want to make sure we’re on the same and we were like this is a cool cool opportunity and we’re going to go and part of this is going to be how can we be a part of this movement sure you know things like well I’m gonna change my Twitter icon to the it’s on us campaign icon but hey I list tell the story of us going to the White House because there were some funny things happening we thought we were gonna get to shake hands with the president but it turned out we got like a foot from him and we missed this opportunity and some weird stuff happened but he didn’t give us a foot we were that far away yes we we told this story hand you his foot right when we tried to shake his hand right you’re a foot away I mean you couldn’t get right last when I had at home you couldn’t close I had an awkward moment with a secret security a Secret Service guy security yeah and it was like I got into staredown and I was did you get shake hands with him at least nope but just telling a story yeah and also plug in the campaign which you would think that reducing sexual assault is a everybody can get behind sabore – kind of yeah I uh I had hope I had hardened and noble cause and still and still you got a lot of haters they were just like what would you guys even want to meet this guy and I’m just like and we weren’t even making a political statement sure but they wanted to make it wouldn’t matter if it was a Democrat or a Republican in the White House this is a great campaign they invited you to be part of it and sure yeah right and I mean we observe across YouTube that the same thing happens if there’s anything that okay if there’s anything that people can interpret as something in the religious realm then they’re gonna they’re gonna start throwing their baggage out there sure that’s not that didn’t happen on you know what I’ll tell you something on on our YouTube on our SoulPancake calm there’s definitely a lot of arguments there but it’s still pretty civil and on our channel you know we just um I guess we kick off those people or something but it’s pretty civil you know people get it’s pretty simple people get along for the most part there’s a we try and create a just a really positive command miss fear and community around SoulPancake ins this is not the place to go and say there’s no God or say you’re going to hell or or all whatever the you know that yeah the black and white diatribe of the day is or right Obama or Romney or whatever yeah so yeah it’s been we’ve been really lucky that way honestly check out our comments I mean go look they’re there they’re pretty they’re pretty civil I mean that’s encouraging I think that’s a that’s a testimony to the tone that you guys set mm-hmm and even though the there’s so many different things that you that you hit on but there is that there’s an across-the-board tone that you know what you’re gonna get with soul pancake that it’s gonna be that’s gonna be thoughtful it’s gonna be sincere it’s gonna be there’s a positive motivation behind that then activates you yeah to the same end yeah it can be like kid presidents a douche bag yeah yeah yeah well you you’re you’re a dick why as if like the channel that brought you kid president is gonna be that yep you know I would I’d love to go back and you know in your story and then kind of derive what brings you to a point to want to create this kind of community in this kind of channel we know that your bahá’í faith is something that you’re very vocal about well yeah so I’m a member of the Baha’i faith and my religious faith is really important to me and it’s a part of my life it’s part of my daily life and it means a lot to me and there’s a lot of ideas in the Baha’i faith that I try and bring forward in my work so I don’t really I never want to be any kind of Baha’i spokesperson or a Hollywood behind spokesperson or anything like that and I really don’t want to do that but people ask I’ll talk about it and it’s you know here’s things I love I love Radiohead I love the Seattle Seahawks I love the Baha’i faith you know I love sushi and if you ask me about these things I’m going to talk about the things that are part of my life you know some I just not really shy about it and a lot of people are gonna think I’m weird or in some weird cult or that there’s something freaky going on there and there’s really not and you know but there people are just gonna think whatever they’re gonna think and no matter what your faith I think that there are certain important thing I think just making the world a better place and uplifting people and serving people that are less fortunate than yourself is something whether you’re an atheist or an agnostic or Christian or Baha’i or whatever or Muslim like those are things we can all get behind and that’s what we should all be doing regardless of our beliefs oh is SoulPancake has some inspiration from the Baha’i faith there’s certain things about SoulPancake that we were inspired to bring to life like that idea of creativity being a form of prayer of making art as a as a as a sacred and a beautiful thing the individual investigation of truth finding the truth for yourself engaging in life’s big questions that’s a core tenet of the Baha’i faith of not just taking what your parents believed or what your culture believes or but really finding the truth for yourself so some of these things have like definitely influenced influenced soul pancake but it really is just ultimately like I believe and I think that most people believe no matter what their belief system that we should just try and make the world a better place and we just front try and find ways to do that and as I became a celebrity you know a lot of doors opened and I was like oh here’s an opportunity let’s let’s try and do something really cool on the Internet that brings people together get some talking about big ideas inspires them uplifts them celebrates art creativity and awesomeness and let’s do it in a way that is not treacly and stupid and syrupy and dumb so that’s that’s really what it was about and you described the Baha’i faith as faith of unity right so how do you engage with all the individuals out there I mean when we a lot of people say well religion is the number one calls for disunity in the world today right we see it all the time whether you’re talking about a Christian who says that it’s you agree with me or you’re going to hell or it’s a Muslim who says convert or die or all the horrible things that we see happening so how do you engage with other people of other faiths when you’re trying to say hey know you’re a part of something bigger but I know that and they’re like well no I’m not well first of all you just gotta ignore the haters no matter where they come from whether it’s an atheist or a born-again and like I just said it’s about finding that commonality you know we work with Muslim crew members at SoulPancake one of our top employees is very devout in her Christian faith we had a channel manager who was a devout atheist you know but all of these people wanted to make a difference and it’s about finding that commonality and I get it you know people think that organized religion is it causes much more disunity and and pain in the world then it brings solace and for the most part I agree with that and it’s it’s really awful what’s being done in the name of religion and it it’s sickening but we have to as a as a culture and as a species not throw the baby out with the bathwater because there are some spiritual truths that Mohammed broad that Jesus brought that the Buddha brought that bahá’u’lláh who is the founder of the Baha’i faith that he brought and these kind of basic true spiritual truths can really can help heal the planet you know they they’re there they’re a healing message of love and unity underneath all of this rancor and and book that you read about in the paper all the time in fact I just read remember that best-selling memoir of that six year old it was in a coma and went to heaven and floor Fralick but he made it all up he made it all up dude made it all up I don’t know did he do it with his parents or was he just I don’t know I just saw the article today – yeah I just popped up on my phone I was like hold how old was he when he wrote it I think six and he liked to hold it to his parents yeah and then I frolicked with the Angels and then they took me to see Jesus and then we went over here and we saw God and we said hi when a movie was made about or there was another kid that I don’t know there’s like at least two books should have done to deter kids brought this into the pod but you hear stuff like that – and you’re just like oh man come on this is all bull so I don’t know well how it how is it how is the Baha’i faith different there’s a way more handsome in person oh yeah well I could say the same about you yeah just be more specific we listen to the USC commencement speech yeah we we weren’t students we just watched it oh yeah yeah a couple hours ago it’s a big youtube video I mean you talk about eliminating desire which is a Buddhist principle but huh so I was curious how the Baha’i faith was different than Buddhism the Baha’i faith has different than Buddhism because the highs believe that there’s a God first of all and Buddhism there’s hints at something higher but the Buddha didn’t really talk about God so much and that’s a longer discussion about why that was but um the highs believe that God and there’s only one God and that all the religious faiths worship this one God and that God sends down every once in a while these divine teachers or divine healers really that are there to uplift mankind and teach them these spiritual truths and that’s you know the Mohammed and and Jesus and the Buddha and Krishna and Abraham and Moses and these and now the highs believe that Baha Allah is the most recent one of these divine teachers and they bring a message for Humanity – – for their spiritual healing to that particular people in that particular time you know Muhammad’s message was for the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula in the year 600 you know there’s still a number of universal truths there and what he spoke that are that are really beautiful if you really look at the Quran but a lot of it was for his audience you got to know your audience right your podcasters so believe that by Allah’s teachings so house by faith different buddha we believe that by how Allah’s teachings are the way to help heal the world and there’s in its current incarnation its current iterate state you know you know in this modern world and that unity is the key word word in unity of the races equality of men and women universal education elimination of prejudice Aeolus re seeing the unity and in in all of the religions eliminating extremes of wealth and poverty as we see more and more that you know that’s a spiritual teaching in the Baha’i faith eliminating the extremes of wealth and poverty but not through like communism but through but spiritually you know tackling this issue okay so the Baha’u’llah Baha’u’llah yeah hi oh well I know it’s a tough it’s a tough one here bah ha ha ha like Baja Peninsula ha hula-hula bahá’u’lláh they you go and the name that mean name means the glory of God in in Persian is he is he like is he hanging out in Agoura Hills or where where is he right he is in the gore Hills he’s he’s in my basement he lived in he lived in Persia in the mid 1800s and he died in like 1890 or so okay yeah but Baha’i faith spread from there he was tortured by the Muslim authorities and tens of thousands of bizarre killed by the Muslims in the early days and he was banished from country to country he ended up going to like Syria and where Jordan is and then over to Turkey and then down to Egypt and then he was in Palestine where he spent his whole life in prison but now the Baha’i faith is very it’s the second most widespread religion in the world there’s about five or six million adherents around and you know but I hope that people have positive experience applies but highs aren’t allowed to proselytize I’m not allowed to try and convert anybody oh that’s a law to not try and convert anybody Oh that being said we talk about it like I’m doing right now people interested in checking it out that’s totally cool but we don’t like go to people’s doors no Pam grab them and shake pamphlets in their face or anything like that so got it no your parents are Baha’i faith yeah raised Baha’i faith I was raising the Baha’i faith my parents are kind of hippie bohemian types in Seattle and then when I went to New York City I was 20 years old I went to acting school and I basically rebelled against everything I’d grown up with and I became an atheist and it’s something happen or it was just that you know I just didn’t want any morality I didn’t yeah I didn’t want any morality I was angry at my parents and I just rebelled against all of it and so I you know I wanted to drink and use drugs and I wanted to have sex and I wanted to be a bohemian and Greenwich Village in the 80s and I went to acting school and dyed my hair black and smoked filterless cigarettes and talked about bertolt brecht a lot and and so I was really annoying how long did that phase less hmm ten years for reals so I really was had nothing to do with any kind of spirituality or faith and and I really just focused on being an actor and kind of in a weird way theatre and acting became my religious faith so I really thought that we could change the world if we did really important cool theater so we could do the right Chekhov play in the right church basement to the right 14 people that we could like blow their minds but you were but so you were you didn’t become a bad person you just started doing things that were kind of outlawed but you still wanted to make a difference but it was through the power of theater that’s it that’s exactly right yeah I wasn’t yeah I wasn’t no I wasn’t a bad person I was an annoying person I’m probably still an annoying person yeah a little bit so there’s that did you become hopeless yeah so that was I really did that was um you know I was in all of us and so this one I talked about that at the USC speech about happiness I feel like I learned firsthand that we think about happiness as like oh if I get this then I’ll be happy if I get X Y & Z those puzzle pieces fit together then I’ll be happy and basically I had everything I’d ever wanted which was I was a working actor playing great roles working with great directors in New York City living in New York City I had a beautiful girlfriend now my wife holiday Rhine horn and she was awesome and here it was I had I had the woman I had this career that I’d always wanted I was living in in the coolest place on earth and I just was really unhappy I just found you know just at night I was just waking up super unhappy and unmotivated and I was like what is going on and it was kind of that deep thing of like is there’s gotta be some other meaning to this I can’t just you know cuz I realize pretty soon you realize you’d do any art like oh I’m not gonna change the world with the theater I mean I’m gonna do some really cool plays and people are gonna be jazzed I’m gonna do some really plays and people are gonna be pissed that they had to come see me in them and and and so I realized that the truth was not to be found there and that’s kind of when I went on a spiritual journey of sorts and read a lot of spiritual books and holy books and did a lot of hating and so that was an interesting time did you did you maintain a dialogue with your your parents at that time about I didn’t really per issues I didn’t really talk to them about it no no but there was a moment when you said I’m back to yourself yeah well I god this is a much this is a very long story I didn’t know we’re gonna get so heavy in this podcast how we’re gonna joke around about the new Star Wars movie well something you know we’ll get there okay no I mean this is you’re digging on this oh you’re like let’s dig this rich stuff okay I mean I know you’re just like that six-year-old it’s you’re making it up as you go I’m buying the book okay I saw angels yeah man I basically I was reading a book about Native American spirituality and it described the Lakota Sioux definition of God as one can Tonka and this idea that God is it’s everywhere and it’s within us and without us and coursing through all of nature got it beyond time and beyond space it’s all loving that is reflected through nature and in the four directions and our ancestors are part of this experience in animals and and I was reading about one Kentucky knows and and the name literally translates as the great mystery so the Lakota Sioux called God the great mystery you know I was like wow I can totally get with this and that kind of led me back to God I went from like atheist to agnostic and I was like I can get with the great mystery I feel that in my heart that there’s something more there’s some higher purpose we’re not just a random assortment of molecules who somehow gained consciousness on this ball of mud up here and then when we die what’s just the end and then when the earth blows up it’s just this matter floating around in space and I I just really felt like there was something more and that’s kind of what led me to read the holy books of the world I read the Quran in the Bible and I read the works of the Buddha and the Dhammapada the bhagavad-gita of Hinduism and I just really dug in and then I and then I found my way back to the Baha’i writings and I read them again and I was like you know I just this just makes sense to me it just makes the most sense and you know it was a long slow journey kind of tiptoeing back but it’s been it’s been it’s been nice and it yeah and you bailed on you been married 19 years Wow yeah going on 20 well you know I mean so going on 20’s this has got to be like a special celebration and you can’t screw this up what kind of expectations do you have and does your wife have about stuff like that is it like 20 ok we’re going to Italy what cause I think that’s what my wife has already said yes my wife it’s so funny she like now like things mean a lot like her birthday and anniversary we never celebrated like Valentine’s Day that was never like a thing and now all of a sudden it was kind of almost started like last year like she’s good she I don’t know I thought you got older that stuff went away but and she said live romantic crisis well yeah there’s not a crisis but I definitely once I don’t recommend that being irresponsible honey you’re just going through a midlife romantic crazy yeah but I’ll be waiting on the other side no birthdays anniversaries Valentine’s Day that’s yeah it’s it’s good it’s it’s almost 20 years we’ve been together been together 23 24 years old so it’s it’s great I you know it’s it’s awesome she’s incredible person she’s um a great writer she wrote a book of short stories and went to the Iowa Writers Workshop and she’s writing a novel right now and she rides horses she does like dressage riding and horses competes and stuff and well you can do that kind of thing when you when you live outside of town yeah is that why you’re out there in the like the the Far Hills yeah the way far end of the valley is yeah there’s horse country out there well you know there’s rednecks out there too yeah we went to a Merle Haggard concert at the Canyon Club oh that’s that’s that’s very close to my house and we’re huge Merle fans and we’ve we’ve kind of developed a connection with him and his son who’s in his band we’ve been fans forever so we got invited to the to the concert at the Canyon Club relationship goroh Hills you’ve been right down the road candy Club yeah been there yeah I saw that’s cool I saw Courtney Love there I saw X there well when you see Merle there yeah I want to see I mean you could you guys you have the dinner it’s like a dinner theater yes yes did yet what you have like this body you know what yeah we all know he’s got drinks because they were like we’re gonna find you a place and we ended up they put us in the way back and it was you know he was about to start yeah but we’re from you know rural North Carolina so we’re very familiar with what a country bar looks like but I was just like this is you know this is right outside of town these you know for real yeah okay but you’re out there for your wife to have the horses yeah and I’m like you ride a horse I know no I like the countryside tomb and we have like owls and foxes we had boxes outside our house not coyotes foxes but a fox in a tree yeah whatever we have a zonkey blink we have a donkey like personas on a donkey we only donkey it’s in our backyard oh my goodness it’s a it’s a horse in a think about it zebra and a donkey yes yes what why do you need the horse at all no there’s no there’s no I’m sorry I said horse it’s donkey zebra mix Derek the donkey he lives at our house what what does he do I mean he eats and he eats how did you acquire an a Derek kind of a deck can you take pictures with him yeah you guys want to come out absolutely I mean that’s we’re to it yeah that’s the name of the up coming up yeah honky no how did you get Derek what my lady where does one acquire Wow okay did you breed him okay my wife saw a donkey she fell in love with it she said I want a donkey I was like yes dear whatever you want dear of course dear so she two donkeys no she went to zebras are us calm I’m not kidding you lit right now but I am NOT Oh will I’m not kidding zebras are us calm Riverside California and she plunked down like three grand and they delivered a donkey to our house and my son named him Derek now if I may well imagine being the first donkey in your group of donkeys to like to mount a zebra I mean just think about what you’re thinking at Emma hi you haven’t seen sexy two zebra you guys you haven’t seen that video well it’s the stripes man just think about the elation of this is working I think it’s working first of us is welcome to your trusted source for zebras is it trusted yeah for sale this is this a top menu for sale what we do there’s a donkey grease for a photo op see for hire I’m interested meet the herd meet the herd at how much of the derek has stripes is it just his legs just lift the leg as the legs are stripy but his mane dipped in zebra a little yet exactly a perfect description but his mane is um zebra esque but he’s got a big donkey head what’s his temperament we should have started with this he’s been really sweet um he was really sweet but now he’s kind of being a dick like to me he’s – he’s like territorial you know like feed him and he like pushed me out of the way to get to the bucket and get his head in there and kind of like swing his butt around he won’t like kick at me but it’s just kind of like bullying so we have to do some training a Sish I mean my mom has five donkeys yeah and once I tell her about this donkey thing I knew they existed but I never brought it up to her and she’s gonna just you know want one of nuts but donkeys are sweet mostly right she’s got some mean ones and they have to be separate you can’t have two jacks in the same pen because they’ll you know yeah they’ll fight yeah and they’re partial like you can’t miss you human jacks like Jack Black Jack Bauer could never be in there that never works I can’t think of one ago he was up for the role Wow did I know that Wow fantastic did you say fact as a testament to Dwight just that I think it was subconscious no it was it wasn’t intentional but yeah but it was definitely it was their shy pologize no it was great I love it Oh fact we won Lopez tonight I see you got the mug oh yeah I was hoping you would notice that we were both on Lopez – no really yeah other thing that unites us yes that was let’s talk about how great that was I liken it to when I first made love to cebra you know you’re really excited but it was a little confusing like this is working yeah he’s really energetic he’s really into the audience was the audience is loud it was and it was our first ever late-night they’re not like normally they’re not like that we’d go on and like hey thanks George the audience is like and there’s a lot of them it was a big it was a big plate was scary it was scary yeah I was not a good first experience the shows not on anymore I don’t know if you I know I noticed but the mugs still works lives on it’s a beautiful mug do you have any other animals because we should have we should have started and showed up with this awesome we really don’t take it at the time you don’t add it you know it’s just this is we don’t get it’s we you have any other ones we have a miniature horse with – oh you got to understand what just happened how many what I can’t believe this miniature horse no lie is links favorite animal so much so that we have miniature horse Monday on our Instagram know every Monday can I buy a ticket to your house yes and we have tried teen hundred dollars we have tried many a times effect we were trying to get a chariot pulled by a miniature horses recently into we were told that that was inhumane but is that inhumane I don’t know that’s what the Humane Society told us it’s inhumane to have miniature horse pulling they’re like oh they can’t grow their miniatures they can do that if we were like it’s a wheels and he’s like oh they’re as big as a donkey you donkeys could pull a chariot well it could be a small chariot with a small person on it childs what do you have the chariot pull around that kid made up the story about the Angels Oh Brigid this is really gonna be fun when we come out yeah I am so inviting my so invited yourself mission accomplished what’s the miniatures his name Reba she’s a little she’s a little feisty little gal well and what is what utility to see serve because they can be seen i ponies some people she does come in the house she has shoes what she had miniature horseshoes my wife puts on and brings her in the house does she like it in there she looks around she goes over to the refrigerator yeah and she wants carrots oh here’s your nose there’s carrots in there great um why your son can ride Reba no you can’t not you can’t drive Derek or Reba they they’re they’re too difficult okay my wife likes him she loves animals and she’s also got some horses and it’s fun man it’s it’s fun and you know I get I I don’t touch him really I don’t really have much to do with well this sounds like Swiss Family Robinson at your home it’s a little bit yeah it’s a little bit well fun it’s a fun place well what else any other odd animals and just some fish and some guinea pigs yeah least got a couple of hermit crabs it’s a sore subject because well I don’t anymore you have a zero now yeah you ate him well he neglected one oh sorry Mike it’s my kids yeah he was left in charge when they went back to North Carolina and one of them died Oh oh yeah it’s not good that’s not good that’s why I said sore subject I’d rather not talk about it mm-hmm okay but this one if we just go yeah if we just go back to the zonkey just go back to the zonkey energy to wrap up yeah just we don’t have to talk about it let’s just i’m just feeling that energy yeah as a wrap-up that’s close to the hermit crab everybody that really yeah yeah I took the crab writer of the show this room yeah and this this pathetic room let’s bring it all the way back to killing this sad pathetic room in Burbank that you’re leaving and apologizing for yeah donkeys donkeys are fun yeah he makes a crazy sound he goes like this it’s got a little ring of ten in it it is like Planet of the Apes just like the yeah the orangutan is in Planet of the Apes well we’ll let you know where we’re coming out you can my Lopez mug until until then we’ll send up a flare I’ll take it in trade Lopez Tonight mug and you can visit the donkey okay deal yes deal rhett and Link thanks for having me on your show yeah well thanks for being here and there you have it our ear biscuit with Rainn Wilson super appreciative that rain came and hung out with us and let us get to know him in this dimmed lighting atmosphere you should let reign know on Twitter what do you think tweet at him Rainn Wilson of course there’s two ends in rain and at the end well no it’s in the middle of Rainn Wilson at the end of rain are a double Rai double N Wilson yeah I think they know what I was saying yeah I I know what you’re saying to anyway just tweet at him and tell him what you thought of this ear biscuit use hashtag ear biscuits I gotta say I it made me feel a little bit better about myself when I found out that Rainn Wilson knew who we were in 2009 was making phone calls like yeah that’s a thrill and I’m gonna add something to that right now I’m I’m beginning to realize that he there could have been even more to that that he didn’t know there’s a connection here right think about this okay he sees the red house furniture commercial and he said that he shares it with all of us people says somebody needs to represent these people in the industry mm-hmm what happened to us totally independent or was it we started getting calls from production company which eventually led to us turning our local commercials on our on our YouTube channel into the show on IFC getting getting the IFC show which led to us moving to LA all of that happen in the most significant phone call that we got was from readily which is the production company which was also behind what shell the office so I I don’t know if he obviously didn’t realize it we didn’t realize it right when he said it but now I’m well we just got a call Todd is yeah we could ask Todd is rain Todd is the producer that reached out to us he worked for revelry and helped to produce commercial Kings was it rains email about our red house furniture commercial that got the ball rolling with revelry which led to us getting the television show which led to basically everything the fact which led to this moment right here this conversation with Rainn Wilson does it all go back to Rick and I now is that what you’re saying like the circle is complete well no I’m just saying we need to we need to go back to reign and tell him hey thank you even more because you may very well be the missing link in us getting our television show maybe we shouldn’t call Todd because if he’s like no no no then it ruins it it isn’t it’s not as romantic let’s just let’s just assume that the reason that we got a television show is because of Rainn Wilson Thank You Rainn Thank You Rainn and thank you for introducing us to zebras are us calm yeah let me talk a lot of time there talk about life changing I think we’re a but he’s about to send our life in a totally new trajectory of zorse care or zonkey I wasn’t eight they sell sources all I want is a couple of horses a couple of donkeys and a couple of zebras of various genders and I want to breathe donkeys and horses that’s where the money’s at the money’s not in just you know having one having one it’s making more it’s making more we can make as many zombies as you want in fact that’s our name of our website all the donkeys you want calm all the sakis you want for Less doc okay we’re gonna undercut zebras are us okay look guys please leave us a review on iTunes it certainly helps also you can comment along with the conversation on SoundCloud give that a shot and we’ll see you again next week we will be on the backs of two zombies for another biscuit [Music] [Music]