Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 169 - Alisha Wainwright

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

We know Alisha Wainwright is a great actor but it's the baking that makes her a star on Breaking Bread.   Thank you to our sponsor Caldera + Lab! Get 20% off top tier skin products at https://www.calderalab.com/papa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to another edition of Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. I am Tom Papa. And I'm here with my pal. Why did your voice go up so much? I don't know. It just felt like... Felt appropriate? It felt like, yeah.

It felt like, oh, we're doing... This is a sweet opening. Aw. Right? Okay. Yeah. Kira Sultanovich. There we go.

There we go. I was kind of lobbing it in for you to say, Kira. Oh, you want me to say my name? Well, I don't know how to pronounce all that. Yeah, no, that was good. I think they know. You did it. Yeah, I think they know from your attitude that it's here.

We've got a great show today. We have a guest coming in, Alicia Wainwright. Very talented actor, a very talented podcast host. When Science Finds Away is her new podcast. Very good. She's very smart. Loves to bake. Loves to botany.

Loves to botany and just a delightful person, and we're very excited. She'll be coming on the show in a little bit. Oh, you want to know who our sponsor is today? I would love to. Oh, okay. This is going to be very exciting, and you're going to be like, oh, now I get it.

Now I know why you're a little more attractive than you were last time we did this. That's what you're saying to me. We'd like to thank the good people at Caldera Lab. Caldera Lab. They are clinically proven to reduce wrinkles, fine lines, and signs of aging. Caldera Lab is the leader in men's skin care and is here to save the day. Look at my skin.

It looks amazing. Thank you. That's because the people at Caldera sent me their stuff. I have a mustache. So if I used it right there on my manly spot. Yeah, I guess. Could I use it? Probably.

Okay. Get 20% off with our code. Papa at Caldera Lab. That's C-A-L-D-E-R-A-Lab.com. That's 20% off at caldera-lab.com by using the code Papa. Jump into skin and first impression royalty with Caldera Lab. Go to the link in the description, calderalab.com slash papa for more. I really do like their products and they have this eye serum.

We'll talk about it later. How do my eyes look? I love us good serum. Your eyes look great. You're very youthful. Thank you. You know, you're glowing. Mm-hmm.

They don't do anything for growing hair. Oh. But the rest is okay. Biatin? Did you see my post yesterday about on Instagram of me? Paul Rubin Dine, the Pee-Wee Herman? You were quite a biscuit. I would dip you in a cup of tea.

You saw it. Wow. I can, now a lot of things make sense. Uh-huh. Now that I see what you looked like in your youth. Yeah. I get it. You do.

I get it. Well, because I don't know how to take that because. Yeah, no, take it the bad way. Because a lot of the comments were, wow, you were handsome when you were young. You're still handsome. They were like, le, time has really done a number on you. No, you're fine. My point is, my point is, in that picture, a lot of things kind of plinko into place.

Like what? Well, like you were a kid who got some action. Yeah. This is before Caldera took over and you look, you know, as handsome as you do. Caldera is going to save me for the rest of my way. But I get it now. You know, you've watched enough 80s teen movies. I know who you were.

I know who you'd be cast as. Was I the mean guy? No, but you're the guy who also tries to flirt with the hot lead. Right. And she's like, I'm going for the sensitive guy who cleans pools. And but you would also, like, you'd be the sidekick to the football player that was a little bit of a dick. Right. But not as mean as the main douche.

No. But, you know, a close second because you're good looking. You got that jaw line. It's all about the jaw line. It was chiseled. It's still chiseled as a matter of fact. But it was like weapon. If I get fat now, it loses the chisel because it goes right to my face, face first, then love handles.

That's right. Yeah. But I get it. I saw that picture. I was like, oh, it all makes sense. Every question I've ever had. Yeah. Yeah.

Really. Interesting. Yeah. I was dating since about fifth grade. For sure. Are you kidding? That profile? I don't think it was that I was overly handsome.

I thought I was just. not an ass and I was funny. It was charming. Those help, you know. But also chiseled. But that was me as pee-wee. I was trying to be pee-wee.

I get you. Yeah, I saw the red bowtie. And that little suit. Yeah. That was good. You did it. Yeah, not too bad. But yeah, the number of comments of, whoa.

Back then you looked. Great. Well, I posted. I mean, you know that's youth, but still. It's youth. And also it's pixel, you know, those bad photo quality. It wasn't really. It makes everyone look a little bit.

It's like putting Vaseline on a camera. What did you look like in high school? Well, I did post a picture a while ago when I thought I was fat. When you thought you were fat. I'm in a bikini in Hawaii on vacation. And in that moment when my dad was taking the picture, I was like, oh, God. Because I was 16 or 17 And I was just like, oh God, this is like the worst day of my life

I'm gigantic Meanwhile Wait 80 pounds I mean I wish I was that fat After two kids I wish I wish But you know

It's youth We have a great metabolism on our side I know I know It is amazing The stuff I could eat back then Oh Because when I think about like

you know, I'm, I'm really been trying to get credit off of my 210 week streak on the Peloton. I tell everybody I see. You know, that's four years of constant, at least once a week on the Peloton. It's impressive. It's impressive. And you'd be like, well, then I should be as skinny as that guy in that Peewey Herman shot. But the reality is the workouts that I'm doing now were warmups for what I was. doing as a young athlete.

You know what I mean? Like, and then it would be hours of like really, really intense. But when you're a grown up, you're like, how far, how much do I want to push myself? Well, and also you're just breaking even now. Yeah, you're maintaining. You're just breaking even. So, you know, I, we used to live in an area near college. I went to SDSU where people would just walk around with one of those big, huge oven bags

with these personal sized pizzas. and just walk around looking for drunk kids who want a snack. Oh, really? Such a genius, genius business plan. They would just sell pizzas. They just walking around because there's frat row, there's parties, there's dorms. People are just, you know, coming home from a bar, drunk, whatever. And they're just walking around and they would sell out within 13 seconds.

Right. And we used to just eat four or five pizzas. I know. Just sit there and just eat a pizza and then go to bed at 2 a.m. Yeah. And then if you wanted to burn that off, yeah, you would do like whatever, a light little workout. But now if, I mean, if I eat one slice, I know. I have to work out five times harder to break even.

It ruins your whole week. Yeah. I went to a Dodger game last night. And we, you know, it was with some friends, fortune and the people from the radio show. And we've been talking it up for like a year, how much we're going to eat when we're there and we're going to be eating hot dogs. So when we got there, we really just turned it on. And I had like four hot dogs, nachos. And in the middle of it, I was like, this is going to ruin my month.

I've been trying to get in shape for my doctor. Yeah. And this is going to set me back. Like it's 100 degrees here now in L.A. I'm like, I have to go on a run in the middle of the heat. There's the only way I'm going to burn these hot dogs off. Four? Yeah.

Oh, wow. I mean, Dodger dogs are pretty good. They are good. They are good. They are good. But, yeah, it was a lot. It was aggressive. You had a birthday.

It came out quick. What do you mean? I tried to get a bunch in before I knew what was happening. Okay, I got you. You had a birthday show. I did. This was myself, Fortune, Aaron Foley. Right.

And that was a glutton of food. It was so delicious. Yeah. And it was so amazing. Yeah. And it was before I wasn't doing what I'm doing now. Yeah. But, wow, that was.

Like, I know. That, I felt that the next day. I feel like those celebrations are like the most delightful moments of my current life. Yes. It's not about getting drunk. It's not about getting high. It's like when there's something to celebrate, it's food. It's, it's food.

It has, there's a memory inside of, our tissues, like in our muscles of food. Russian parties, if you go to a Russian event and the plates are not stacked like this, people think it's a disaster. People will talk about you the next day. How was so-and-so's whatever, 50th wedding anniversary or whatever it is? And they're like, oh, the food was kind of, there wasn't enough food. There was plenty of food.

Right. But in your mind and you have Russian goggles, it's not like, stacked. and smushed and like a plate on top of a plate, and then people just keep bringing, you know, just different, because that's what they're all about. It's about beating you into submission with food. And it probably comes because it was that tradition started at a time when there wasn't a lot of excess.

That's right. So the celebration was, we are okay. We are alive. Look at all of this. And now we're kind of on the other side where we have too much in everyday life. It's too much. A celebration should be we're just going to fash.

We eat like we're like we're all doing intermittent faster now. The height of Rome all day long for our birthday. Let's just sit. I mean, we're all just getting a sandwich with a crust cut off and you'll be happy with that. Yeah. My kids sometimes I'll pack a lunch for them and I'm and I'm acting as if they're going out with bare grills. You know, like, well, what if there's no water or food for miles? No, I'm picking them up in three hours.

I know. And I pack this lunch of like, I got to make sure. I give them two sandwiches. Right. I give them double sandwiches. That was an old bit of mine when I was, it drove me crazy that you had to have food service on a commuter flight that's an hour long. Why are you bringing the card out? Why are you bringing snacks out?

We can make it. We can make it from Sacramento to L.A. So I think legally they have to serve you a job. drink because there's some sort of medical reason. Is there really? Yes. I think airlines, like you have to make sure that people are hydrated if they need it. And so that's why they apologize so much if it is an hour flight with turbulence.

Yeah. And they're like, sorry, we can't bring the drink card out. Like it's like a medical issue at that point. I thought it was a disgusting American issue. Well, the food part. Like, we've got to have something. We can't not chew for 20 minutes. You can, you cannot.

chew. Right. Yeah. Yeah, four hot dogs is a lot. It's a lot. It was, but it was delightful. I'm sure. They're big, though.

That's the thing. I'm not judging the four part. Yeah. Dodger dogs are like three hot dogs. Can I make it a little worse with some honesty? I love honesty. One of them was a sausage sandwich, which was double the size of the hot dogs. Oh, my God.

So good. Okay. Some movie theater. have delicious food. Have you been to the new one in Westwood? No. They have waiters and waitresses come out to you. Oh, really?

And the food is incredible. Like what? Like those big sausage sandwiches. They're so good. Doesn't it smell up the theater? It really does. It's really a terrible idea, but also, how can you not? The feet go up, you're lying down.

Some UCLA college kid is like, Can I help you? You know, they're going through puberty right in front of your eyes. And I'm just like, I would love another sausage sandwich. You know what movie was so prescient about our future? And actually, our current state was Wally. Yes. Which is starring the great Jeff Garland.

It was such, what happens to people, like they would just be like in, they were like in those little baby toddler things and just lying back and being fed and their ankle. They couldn't stand any longer. And the commercials were always like, now it's cool to be. be red and then like they would do red stuff and yeah we really turned into a mess i went to see oppenheimer the other night oh my husband wants to take me to that and i said no thank you why because i have a bladder i'm a human being and i will have to get up and miss the movie for three hours you know

there's a new app my friend told me about that tells you exactly at what point to go to the bathroom I love it. Okay, then maybe I'll go see it. You know, just don't drink a lot that day. Oh, great. And so what? You miss a minute of a three-hour shabang. But it's always when I get up to pee.

I come back and go, what did it? I miss. Mike goes, everything. Everything happened while you went up to pee. So you're not, it's really a pee issue. It's not a nuclear Armageddon issue. No, it's that too. I mean, you tell me, what's your review?

because it was good. Okay. Great performances. I'm sure. Nolan is an amazing filmmaker. I can't even debate that. Yeah.

It's a pretty disturbing. He does a good job of telling the story of we made this discovery. It was going this way around the world. How are people going to turn this splitting the atom into a bomb? and why that momentum took over and now we're in this scary world where we could annihilate everything at any moment. He did a really great job with that. In interest of you being able to pee, I could have cut 30 out of that. Yeah, I would think.

45. You know what I mean? Like once the bomb goes off, then. Credits. Credits, exactly. Go to your cars, kids. and put a little tag up that says Oppenheimer had to deal with some shit afterwards from the government.

Put some stuff to read and then... Yeah. Did you see it, Joey? Yep. You saw the Oppenheimer's? Yeah. Oh, you don't have a mic. No.

Out of four stars, what did you give it? I'd give it three. Three? Yeah, but no one's like capable of giving me fours all the time, you know? No, yeah. So it's harder to. How many stars do you give it? Yeah, I would give it three.

Three. All right. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's a great piece of work. But then there's, yeah, you know, I could have shortened it up. So here's the thing. If we go at night, I will fall asleep. Yeah.

If we go during the day, we got to, you know, find something to do with these kids. Right. I know. I know. It did feel pretty decadent that I was going to a movie at 830 without regard of having to pick anyone up from karate class. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

You have a lot of years before that. I will fall asleep 100%. Someone was a young person that we went with was snoring through the explosion of the nuclear bomb to the end of the movie. Wow. Just. Oh my God. I still want to see Barbie. Yeah.

Mark Marin on the internet. Instagram called it a masterpiece last night. A masterpiece. And he's like, you know, who's more crumaginy than Mark? Yeah, he's the ultimate. Yeah. But he said it was a masterpiece. Did you see that, Joey?

Did you see Barbie? Oh, yeah. I barbenheimer. You barbentheimer? What? What? What? What is?

Probably more. More. So you're giving Barb's the four stars or three and a half stars over the Oppenheimer three? Yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah.

What is Barbine? Is it when you see like Barbie and Oppenheimer in the same day? Whoa. Because the great. Who are these people? The great thing is that they've, they're the childless. Yeah. They made going to the movies very exciting and it kind of like revived.

Tom Cruise did, you know, Tom Cruise saved film last year with Top Gun. It was like a big event and it was the first time people were going back to the theater. And then he pulled a, he. when his movie, he did a little PR shout out to the other movies that are coming out this summer, Oppenheimer and Barbie and good luck. And then, you know, come see Mission Impossible too. And it was like, oh, he's not really celebrating the movies. He's just talking about his movie on the heel of these other movies. Also, they're coming out a year later.

Who's like, hey, go see this in a year. What? No, no, no. He did it this year. Oh, he did it this year. Because Mission Impossible was coming out. Oh, I'm sorry. It sounded like, oh, wow, he just loves the movies.

And then he tagged it with and Mission Impossible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, gotcha. Okay. Which I hear is good. Did you see that, Joey? I have it. Same with here. It's kind of flying under the radar.

Yeah, I didn't even know. Yeah, that's, yeah, it didn't know. I thought you were going to say I saw Tom Cruise on the Tonight Show with Fallon. Oh. doing the most cringe lip syncing. I wish we could bring it up. Oh.

But I think it's the weekend. I think he's lip-sicking the weekend. Oh. I can't feel my face when I'm with you. No, this was just two days ago. No, they're not on the air, are they? Aren't they on strike? They're posting Instagram.

Yeah, maybe they're posting old stuff. Right. It must be old stuff. But, who, whew. Yeah. It was. And, you know, Fallon loves it. He's sitting there in the background whenever his guests are lip-sinking.

And he's just dying, laughing, and he's, like, cracking up. And he's just high-fiving himself. It's so cute to watch. It's like, dude, if you don't understand karaoke's been around for many decades. He's like, we just invented this today, guys. That's the Fallon Switch. That's the Fallon Switch. Yeah.

So you won't go to any movies. Well, that's good. I will on the road. That's the only time I go see movies. Yeah. Because I'm on the road. I don't have any response. Right. Or anything to do.

I mean, I should be doing way more cool stuff. When you're on the road. Yeah. I usually just go find a spot to go get naked and sweat. Yeah. But I should be like doing drugs, going to the movies. I know, I know. You know, prostitution, you know, whatever.

All the fun adult things. Yeah, I know. But then when you're out there, the massage thing is a good call because you're traveling and you're just like, that would be, I was going to say you should come up with an app. that can tell you as a traveling comedian where the spas are, but all I have to do is text you. Oh, yeah, just people do text me. Yeah. Oh, Jackie Kayshan will text me. I'm in Milwaukee.

Where should I go? Right. All right, I'll tell you. Hold on. I told you, I think last time I was on your podcast that I went to Calgary with a comic. Uh-huh. And I messaged her the day before. Bring a bathing suit.

Don't ask me questions. Because Calgary has a lot of Russians, a lot of banyas. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm going to New Hampshire. Nope, nothing.

Nothing. Zero. No, maybe some apple picking. All right. Well, how about we do this? We've got a very talented guest. We should bring them in. Yeah.

And spend some time with the very talented Alicia Wainwright. Well, thanks for being here. It really is very cool to meet you. This is very cool. And you kind of check so many boxes for us. Oh, yeah? Yeah, because you're a great actress. You bake.

I do. You love food in a couple different ways, which is kind of an curious thing of like the science of food and not only enjoyment of food and your amazing podcast. Thank you. Yeah. She's a runner. She runs. So that also is your thing. Yeah, kind of.

How much you running these days? Well, it's funny, right? Like for me, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes, you know, last year I did like a 10K and then years before. I did a half marathon, but now I'm getting back into it, and it took me 30 minutes to do two and a half miles. And so that's like, you have to start somewhere. That's where that's me. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. So we connect on that. Yeah, yeah. It's like going nice and so this is advice that I was given that I will take on if you haven't heard it before. Yeah. Go so ridiculously

slow for as long as you can. And you build up that endurance so that all of a sudden, once you start trying, you will actually impress yourself on how fast. you really are. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I want to get back into it. I saw that. There's a guy who has a book out about slow running, and he's like a big, hefty guy, and he's

like, just go slow. Who cares? You're not in a competition. You can do all these marathons. You can do it. Just go slow. So I got back into it, like, earlier this month, and I was on a beach road, and I was going pretty slow.

And there were two walkers, like an older couple walking, and I was like, look at these guys. And I took a good half mile to pass them. So you're like on pace with them. I have to read that book because he's got to have some chapter on how to get over the humiliation of going slow. Yes. You know what I mean? You feel like the tin man when you haven't ran in a while. I haven't run.

Everything hurts. And especially here in L.A. where I stay in like Silver Lake area, it's super hilly. Yeah. So it's like that last half half like mile back to my place. You're going uphill. You know, someone walking their toddler is going the same pace as you. But it's, I try to, to, like, get too hard on myself and more so, like, when you get home, do you feel good?

Did you do something? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, okay. Yeah, we're good. Do you ever do, like, the hipster steps? Like, where all the cool kids do their steps? There's, like, one in Santa Monica, and I think there's one in.

Culver City, like, those, like, big stairs. Where everyone comes to work out. They do the stairs. Oh, like running in a stadium. They do running, but they get a little bit nuts. Like this one chick had 20 pound weights, and as she's going up the stairs, she's also doing these overhead presses. And every time I passed her, I'd get like an elbow in my head. And then she's doing her legs behind her, so every step is like a butt workout.

So I did something weird in this sort of vein. Driving from Sonoma County to L.A. a couple days ago, I was listening to the Huberman Lab podcast. which always makes me feel like I'm never doing enough to be like my prime self. Yeah. And on the drive, it's like, do these workout snacks. So a tiny little workout to make you feel like you did something. You're sitting in the car for hours and hours. So I got out and in front of all of these cars, I just did jumping jacks.

And like that is a weird social experiment on yourself. Yeah. Trying not to make eye contact. So I turned around and I did them at a wall. and you feel stupid. But I will say once I got in my car, I was like, okay, like there's some energy now. The last little leg of the drive's not so bad.

But you do have people who are like, what is she doing? 100%. There was a guy at the beach during my running sessions when I was just sitting in a lounge chair at the beach in a beach chair. And there was a guy kind of doing what you're doing. The little snack, there's kids around making sandcastles, and he's doing like planks and the thing where you lift your leg and you do the things.

And yeah, the whole time I was like, get a load of this guy. I know. I know. You kind of can't help it, but whatever. It all depends on what side you're on, like, at the moment. Like, as you're doing it, you're like, this is a totally normal thing to do. No. If I was doing jumping jacks and you saw me, you'd be like, get it together.

There's never, even if I was, like, the most positive, like, person on the most positive day that I could have. If I saw someone doing jumping jacks at a rest stop, I would be like, what an asshole. Right. Exactly. There's no world in which you can't look at it and judge it a little bit because you're not doing it. I know. I wish you could and you can't. Yeah.

If you're on a long flight, I think you should move around, you should stretch. You should do those knee bends, right? Yeah. But then there's always that one chick who does a full Pilate session, like in the bathrooms, like down the aisle. And I'm just looking at her. I go, lady, we get it. Like we all want our blood to flow better, but we're going to France. So that's also the upside.

Yeah. Imagine if everybody, like, thought, took that advice. It's like, it's time to stretch. Time to stretch. All of us at the same time. Oh, Jesus. And there was no one. Hopefully.

There was no, like, flight attendant in those last rows near the bathroom. Yeah. Her leg is on top of the seat. Come on. Flight crotch. We don't need that. I do have awkward long flight tendencies, though. Like, you know, I have this giant,

inflatable pillow thing that I put in between my seat and the seat in front to kind of create. Because I am currently sitting with my legs crossed. This is how I like to sit. Right. And when I'm sitting on a seat without that like air gap in between, I can't quite get that position. So I'm that person blowing up in the dark. I wait for the lights go down. I blow it up in the dark.

Which is even freaky here. Wait, what is it exactly? I mean, it's dark and kids are crying. It's like. I want to say like two feet by like one and a half feet black little like. Yes, I've seen them. Like, yeah. And then it kind of fits perfectly in between the base of your seat and the seat in front.

And it's the same. It's made for kids. You can put your feet up on it and you can kind of like find like a like sleeping position that's not horrible. Right. But there is the humiliation of the blowing it up of the person next to you taking their book kind of like, oh God, this person. Yeah. I got a good night's rest. I've seen the guys that put their heads inside the hole.

Have you seen those? No. What do you mean in the hole? They blow it up. It's like your thing, but it comes up, and it's like those massage table holes, and they put their heads inside and they sleep. Oh. But it's also, like you're sitting next to this person. Now you're always a window person.

Yeah. Now you're never getting, you can't wake up a person with a head in a hole. No. That's, you know what I would, though. You would. Yeah. Me too, because I got to go to my Pilates. Yeah.

Your obligation, if you're on the aisle, you've got to. It's a social contract. Yeah, you got to get up. Yeah, exactly. I'm not going to hold you prisoner. I also have this thing called the turtle pillow. Oh, Jesus. That's like literally a neck brace that you wear so that your head doesn't fluff.

Oh, yeah, I've seen those. Yeah. You look insane. You're really. So you've got a lot going on when you sit down. I'm not out like this, but if you look at me, there's a lot happening. You should definitely put in one of the blindfolds, too, just to avoid people's glares. Yeah.

Yeah. Not for the light. But if this is how you sit, I will never get in a car with you. That's fair. She's like, this is how I drive. Cross-legged. I do put one foot up if it's like long drives. Right.

In my own car. I'm not doing it on your plane. Don't get in a car with me. I have an excellent driving record. I believe you. Can I tell you a crazy thing that happened? Yes, please. This is a podcast, right?

So up in Sonoma County, it's very, very. friendly. Like you almost feel like your neighbors with everybody. Yeah. And Facebook Marketplace is where I thrive. And I found this, um, like bed frame. And it was perfect exactly what I wanted. And I messaged the lady. She's like, yeah, come on by. And, um, we tried to fit it in my car and it wouldn't fit. And she was like, how's your driving record? I'm like, impeccable. She's like, well, why don't you just take my car and drive it home? I was like, are you sure? She's like, yeah. Take it. Let me get a picture of your driver's license just to make sure.

Wow. And I drove her car. Dropped it off. That's pretty great. And she was like, great, thanks. Didn't even check it or anything like that. Just took her keys, went back inside. But she had your car as collateral.

I mean, parked down the road, like fully locked up. But yeah. In L.A. you'd be like, oh, she's taking my license and making a passport now. That. That. Or, like, I come back in my cars, like, in parts. You know, for some version. Or I'm like a drug mulling something.

Right. And I don't know. Yeah. That was when I was in the car. I was like, oh my God, if I got pulled over and there was something horrible in here. Like, how do I explain this? Basework marketplace. She's so nice. Yeah.

That happened to me once. I will say that happened to me in Marquette, Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Okay. So I flew in for a gig and it was one of the worst storms. I think every winter it's the worst storm. Yeah. And I get to my hotel. Everything's, of course, closed way earlier.

Like, nothing to eat. Nothing's open. My little motel, you know, I had to wake up the woman. Like, she went to bed. You know what I mean? Like, I finally I check in. The next morning, it's still snowing, insane amounts of snow. And I said, is there any place to eat?

She's like, oh, about a mile down the road. But you don't want to, you know, walk there. Do you have a car? And I go, no, I do not have a car. She goes, take mine. So I took her car a mile down the road to this little diner, and this is how small this little town is. I pull in.

They knew her car. I walk in and they go, why do you have Sheila's car? Sheila, let me borrow it. They were like, are you kidding? One guy calls Sheila right away. And they were like, Sheila, all right, that's so Sheila. We believe you. It's so funny.

So that once, that one time, that was very. sweet. I'm also glad you did it because I told a few people that and they're like you're insane to get in some random person's car but it really felt like a genuine act of kindness. Yes. Yeah. She was just, I could tell she also really wanted to get rid of this bed thing. She's like, I'm here to make a deal. Right. Like get this thing off my, my, my, uh, outside of my garage. Yeah. Is that where you grew up? Is that why you keep? No, no, I'm from Florida. Oh, okay. But, you know. I baked you some bread. Here we go. Yes. They came out. They came this morning.

Is this a Garfield little? It's, it's, no, it's really me. It's because that's how much hair I have. Three lights. I was thinking about that today. This is also, this has great, like, hide and.

Yeah, pretty good, right? Whoa. This looks like, Gertie. This looks like, um, bakery quality. Yeah. We don't mess around. He's the real deal.

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Do we eat it now? No, take it home. Here is kind of off bread right now, so we try not to bring up bread as a subject too much, even on the Breaking Bread podcast. I love bread.

I love bread. I buy people bread. I love how you've all this bread behind you. Isn't that like the Oprah? Like, I love bread. Listen, can I tell you? I went to nuts.com. I know we're not doing a thing right now,

but I want to tell you, and they have gift trays. Uh-huh. Even though I'm not going to eat yogurt-covered pretzels, which are amazing. Yeah. I got some for my mom's, um,

nursing home caretakers you know those people that like work so hard for five dollars a day yeah a gift tray oh that's nice of you i don't have to consume it but i will still participate in the you can eat bread the loveliness and you bake i do bake yeah tell me about your baking well it kind of started as a i mean i don't know i had like an easy bake oven back of the day and i've always been super interested in baking but then it became a very therapeutic outlet for I'm stressed at work. I'm stressed in this way. They say you should, when you feel stressed, like give. So I would bake a thing and then just put it out there and give it away much in the same way you're doing. And it feels very like pleasing to try and make a thing. And also if you screw it up and you give it as a gift, people still find it endearing. And so you can at least

pass it off. Here's my bad brownies. But you eat. I mean, it tastes good. It might look horrible. But that's like most of the shtick of my baking, but I'm always trying to try something new. So I want, like, to explore making croissants or I want to make some weird, like, Kugamon or something that's just out of the realm of normal every day. And most of those get messed up. Yeah. But you do pawn them off and people love them. I have a hard time with that, with, like, when you dial in, you get something and you're

really good at it. And then I'm like, I should really branch out. And then I branch out for a second. and everything falls apart, and I go right back to. Let me get this one that I've kind of mastered for a while. Well, it's interesting. Like, I go back and forth too, right? So there are these things called canale.

They're these beautiful little, like, pillows of souffle. I don't know if you call them pastries, but they're kind of crunchy on the outside. And then they have a sort of souffle texture on the inside, and it's like an egg custardy sort of thing. And traditionally in France, they're made with these copper sort of, they're very specific shape. And they're very expensive and hard to find. So I got the silicone ones.

And you don't get nearly the same thing you could get at a bakery. But I've kind of perfected it. And when I make them, they're so pleasing because you have to eat them that day. So it takes two or three days for the batter to set. And it's a whole thing. And they look great when you give them as a gift. Yeah. So then I met this baker who,

has a fantastic bakery in San Francisco and she gifted me the copper canolate molds because she happened to be in France on a work trip. So I have them and I try them and they don't work. Every single time I use them, they stick to the copper. They're just as crunchy, but what does it, what good does it do you if you can't get it out of the mold? So I actually was like, how do I solve? She's like, yeah, I don't know why that keeps happening to you. So it's a thing where I'm like, Do I just go back to the silicone ones because it's the pleasure of, you know, having a finished product. There is something so elegant, though, of having that copper thing like that, if you can pull that off, it will ultimately be more satisfying. Yeah, they're my most prize possession in the kitchen because they're so, they're so ridiculously over the top.

Like, what a funny tool. It's like a garlic press. Like, you don't need it, but it's nice to have the tool. It's nice to have these beautiful copper things, but they're not. don't work for me. The thing that makes me happiest, and this sounds so stupid, but in that same vein, is any time someone gives me a wooden spoon,

spatula, any wooden kitchen device, I just get, it's like, I don't need a car. I don't need a new iPad. Just give me a wooden spoon that I don't have in a shape that I don't have. It's something so satisfying about it. Do you have the

spoon that has the hole in the center? Yeah. Okay, you do. Yeah. What is that for? Like, I guess maybe you would have a better answer because I don't have one. Yeah, just when you're stirring and you, like a custody kind of a thing. Sure. I was like, well, now I know it's get you for Christmas.

You know, there's something, those little tool things. They're just very, very sad. What about YouTube? They'll tell you how to copper. You're right. I don't know why I didn't go to YouTube University for this question. For like everything in your life. Car jumping jacks, pillows.

I'm trying to, again, now that the union's on strike, I have nothing else to do. I'm like, I wonder if I can learn how to make lotion. So I've been on YouTube University trying to figure out how to make lotion, not body butters, which are just like basically whipped up oils and creams and things, but a water-based thing, it's really hard and very scientific. And I'm realizing, like, I was like, oh, what if I use this? super all natural preservative. And it turns out if you mix it with this other thing,

you create benzene, which is like a highly toxic chemical. I was like, oh, cool. So I might be making an all natural thing that's going to give me cancer. So I'm definitely learning from you too. You're going to do it.

Your background, you have a science background. So it was botany. Yeah. And you went to school for that? You liked it going into school? Did you find it? Yeah. So I grew up pretty solidly middle class.

I was like a pretty okay student, but my mom was always kind of pushing me to have, you know, some sort of a STEM interest. And so she found this summer program where you drop your kid off and over the course of several weeks, every week they give you a new STEM subject matter and you learn something new. And that was my first exposure to things like ecology and botany and marine biology. Right. I was so fascinated as a middle schooler. And then fast forward, I wanted to go to school for photography. And my mom was like, well, I won't pay for your college if you do that. And so I was like, well, what about botany?

Because I liked that. And maybe I could be a doctor or something. I don't know, make her happy that way. And I did it. And I was like, well, I don't want to be a doctor. And but I was super intrigued by science, by the scientific method, by creating elegant solutions for challenging problems. And so I went and pursued that degree on my off time.

I would go and do internships at different universities, and I just found a deep passion for it. Wow. Then once you graduate and you realize you get paid nothing, and it's super bureaucratic, and it's so hard to get money for, like, the niche sort of interests that I had, it became really challenging to really see game game for my career.

So I enjoyed it while I was in it, but it definitely was more real world than I was ready. I mean, coming from, from nothing other than basic bachelors in comedy. I would think those jobs, I think there would be like the world would be craving smart science minds. I mean, there are a lot. First of all, it's just reassuring to know that there are a lot of smart people out there. Yeah.

Are there? They're not on Twitter. Oh, okay. Fair. But they're out there and they're doing incredibly fascinating things and being. Being in the same rooms as them, I quickly realize I don't have this level of dedication to the things that I'm pursuing. Right. And also, what I was interested in was almost this gap between, like, anthropology and botany.

So I wanted to figure out how were indigenous people using plants? Like, how can we sort of refashion this sort of sustainable way they were using, like, textiles and medicines for our, everyday capitalist consumption society. And no one wanted to give me money for that. They were like, that's really cool. They're like, boo, what do you know about plastics? Yeah, or cancer or like one of the many subjects that actually when I interviewed at a university for a PhD program and they were not interested in me being a part of the

program in what I wanted to study this sort of ethno-botany thing. But they were like, what about beach erosion? This is a really important. thing that needs to be addressed. How can we figure out what to plant? What sort of plants are creating beach erosion or stopping it or the people and all that stuff? And I was like, this is super cool. I don't want to do that. So like this is an impasse. So I ended up leaving it all together. But I have a lot of friends in the, as you can't call that, industry in that field. And I have such a deep respect. And so it is funny to host a podcast now where I get to kind of honor that respect by just

giving them a platform to talk about their really interesting science. When Science Finds Away is the podcast. How long you've been doing it? Well, it came my way last year. I got an email from a production company in Base Out of London. They found my senior thesis that I had written in college. What? People read those?

They weren't reading mine. So they were watching a show I was on. And they looked up me and they were like, oh, wow, she used to be a scientist. And they did the digging. They found the article. I ended up getting it published in the Journal of Economic Botany. Wow. My email is still the same.

And so they found that email and they sent me a really beautiful message about what they were trying to do. They were trying to give a platform to people who were on the ground trying to make real changes in the public health space. And I was like, is this a joke, right? Like, what a crazy way to be connected. They're like, if you want, we can go through your agent. Like, we just want to do it the right way. And then fast forward, about a year later,

we've wrapped up recordings on our first season and we're about halfway through the release cycle of the first season. And yeah, it's pretty cool. It is super cool. And I got to go to London. and meet not only the producers, but the organization that's backing it, it's called Welcome Trust.

It's not really known in the U.S., but they're basically the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of the UK. They're the third largest, I don't know, I don't know the numbers, but they have a lot of money. And they take that money and they give it to people to do incredible research. And they just wanted to showcase what they're doing. It's so cool. That's such a refreshing podcast.

space. Yeah. Really. I mean, I feel like I'm a podcast listener. I listen to a lot of like dating and relationship stuff and then also like true crime and just interesting sort of fact-based science stuff. And so it's nice because I like what we're doing. And I think it fits in the portfolio of what I would listen to if it wasn't me and it

was someone else. Right. What's one of your favorites so far? Gosh, well, today's one came out today that talks about ancient DNA. So this incredible researcher based out of Denmark, he found ancient DNA in a tuft of hair that was tucked away somewhere in one of those museums, right? And he realized through analyzing the DNA that the DNA came from an ancient community the indigenous people of the area,

like they could trace where they came from. So the remains actually belonged to a community that was present like today. And something that's very different from how you and I think to maybe how other indigenous communities think is that you have to give remains a proper burial or they can't,

it doesn't work with their after life process. It's part of their process. You have to all. honor and respect the remains. And for maybe our like Western sensibilities, we're just like, it's whatever. And then it goes back in a drawer. But to these communities,

it's actually incredibly important that they receive these and do... Their ceremony. Just honor their ancestors. Right. And, you know, previous colonial scientists would come through and just kind of desecrate these remains. And you have to shift the way you think about things like just samples.

It's not just a sample. Right. Henrietta Lax and like the samples that she gave that ended up creating all these downstream positive effects. Basically, we have a COVID vaccine because of this woman's samples. But she wasn't honored. And so that's why her family took the people who took her, samples to court and they won fairly because you have to honor and respect where you're taking

these things from. We've all seen poltergeist. You have to honor it. There will be the worst consequence. You left the bodies. I mean, it's just like, it's, I think what I'm learning the most about this podcast is you have to shift what you think is right and actually ask people, what do you do? What do you think?

What do you need? And that's like the overall. overarching philosophy of it. So this researcher started realizing if I'm going to pursue this path down ancient DNA, every bit of DNA I discover, I might have to ask for permission from different communities to make sure it's okay to take them and take samples and then give it back so that they can take the remains and take care of them. And we also had a tribal representative on that episode as well.

And they get on like gangbusters. These guys are like peas and a pod. They love each other so much. And it made me so happy because I was like, this is what happens when two opposing philosophies on life come together and learn from each other and grow and you become a better system when you can learn from each other. Right.

That's kind of. We're going to have 23 BC and me from this where you can connect with your May and your S-T. relatives. I love that. My as tech cousin is your Aztec cousin. I love that. And also it's like pretty

controversial, you know, to be able to say like what I'm doing is wrong because maybe not other scientists feel the same way or have the same process of connecting with indigenous communities. But I like talking about this stuff because if you're not willing to

acknowledge that some people make mistakes and you're willing to curb and change, how are we ever going to progress in some sort of direction. Yeah, yeah. So you have to engage in the conversation. Kira. Tom? First impressions matter.

They really do. There are no two ways around it. What's the first thing that someone notices about you? Don't say boobs. Oh, forget it. On men? On men? Face.

Yeah. Right? Yeah. Their eyes. Eyes. Mm. I have a weird thing on my eye. If you aren't already.

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They sent me a bunch of stuff. They sent me a little box. And it had in it this eye serum. this stuff, what is it called? The clean slate, the base layer, and the good. And this eye serum, which you put, that's my thing. I'm always, because I'm exhausted, because I have a family. My eyes are always the thing.

I went as, well, I don't know if we'll say it during the podcast, but I went for a, there's a lot of stuff out there as a dude. Like a lot of dudes don't think you need anything. Right. But that's for dudes who don't want to look good. Well, also they forget. Like, you are humans with the same pores that chicks have. I know.

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Jump into skin and first impression royalty with Caldera Lab. Go to the link in the description, calderaLab.com slash Papa for more. The products are great, they smell great, they feel great, give it a try. Okay, I have a question. Okay, so correct me if I'm wrong. I barely graduated eighth grade. Did you study plants, trees, the science of those? Potany.

Yes, potany. So is it true? that trees can communicate with other trees. By the resistance? Yes. And send them messages like, bur, I think a chill is coming.

Yeah. Isn't that nuts, though, guys? Why aren't we talking about that trees could be the aliens that we're like constantly searching for? And they're not, they don't look like,

you know, the little men with the crazy heads. They are just these aliens that talk underground. Come on. I mean, Okay, I'm going to break apart your question into. All right, next question.

Botany is the study of plants. Right. So it's a huge umbrella, just like biology is, you know, it's just, it covers a lot of things. I specifically, in my undergrad, I did a lot of, like, microbiology, not necessarily focused on botany, but then as I graduated, I did an ethno-botany senior thesis. And then when I graduated, I worked for the Smithsonian studying basically big trees. So when you were like trees and things, I actually studied large trees in tropical climates. And yes. What are they talking about?

They, you know, I don't know the most relevant data on it now, but essentially these root systems also have, you know, like fungi and everything sort of connecting them together. So there is a communication pathway that happens. I don't necessarily know that it's super sophisticated. For example, if there's some sort of pathogen that's coming in and then one tree's affected, it might have a system in which another tree might know, but it won't necessarily stop it. I'm not really sure how it works, but I do know that there is a sort of like chemical system that's happening underground that we have no idea about like you and I, but I'm sure they're incredible, very smart people who know a lot about it.

Isn't that crazy? When I was in Africa, they had these trees that the trees would communicate about about weather that was coming and alert the birds. So they were talking to the birds. Come on. Yeah. Guys. That's pretty neat. And they would literally like close up different parts to protect the birds.

It's super fascinating how plants talk with birds and other pollinings. because there is a symbiotic relationship between them, so they want to make sure that the birds stay healthy so that they can take the seeds and move them, you know, so they have a personal vendetta as well, these trees. Right. But they're trying to, like, coerce the birds. Yeah.

Ooh, do you like it sweet? Dirty, dirty bird? I have a question for you. No, I'm not smart like she is. I know, but I know. Oh, no. It's not. Stop it.

It's not hidden. But you are very, you are very smart. But you're also very interested in a lot of alternative medicines and homeopathic cures. And you're a self-proclaimed gypsy. Yeah. And I'm a witch. Got it. I love.

When Alicia was talking about making lotion, yes. I felt, I could feel you wanting to ask a question. Oh, for sure. Right? First of all, what's your Etsy page? I know. No, I should have one, right? I'm all about, I wanted to start making.

So I was going to say, come to my house later today because I promised my eight-year-old we would make soap. Oh, fun. She got a soap thing for her birthday and every day since she's like, how do you make soap? Soap is very sciencey. It's very science. It's very science. Yeah. I have no idea.

And I'm calling the mom that gave her this gift and saying, thanks for the kinetic sand. i.e. it's never coming out of my rugs. Yeah. And also the homemade soap. So now I have to, I have to sit there and put like goggles on and boil a thing. Yeah, be careful because it's probably like lie and stuff in there. No,

there's like all the crazy stuff. Yeah. So I promised her that I would look up a more, you know, because I am crunchy, a more homeopathic way to make soap. Right. But there's like so many cool ways. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. But I'm into it. I'm all about it. I'm not a bar soap girl. I'm a like pump soap. Yeah. girl and I made my, I made my body wash. You did?

Out of what? So I brewed some lavender and used that as the base, so like lavender water with just some Castile like Dr. Bronner's mixed in there and a little bit of olive oil. So it makes it, so it has like a nice slip on it. Have they ever gotten some Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap in the wrong places? Yes, I absolutely have. And I don't know why people put that in their showers. What happens?

It will prolapse your uterus. It really will. How are you washing yourself? She's very aggressive. I didn't know this would get personal, all right? I wash myself, but whatever messages I get from the trees, okay? The trees tell me wash extra good, and I'm doing it. No, but Dr. Brauners is no joke.

It's funny to start off the lavender, olive oil. It's like we could be talking about baking right now. And then we throw us a little castile in it. That's how you know it's good. If you can eat it. If you can ingest your shampoo, you're okay. So this is the thing. That's what I thought for most things.

But once you start getting into the technical stuff, like maybe making like conditioner for your hair or like a lotion that you're putting on your body that has water in it, it molds immediately. So you have to put a preservative in it or else it just goes off. And all of your hard work and all your, you know, alchemy and witchery goes out the window. So I've just been learning very recently, again, YouTube University, about the proper preservatives that are the healthiest. Right. But inherently, preservatives, they basically stop organisms from growing.

So there are some, you know, interesting things that some preservatives can do that are good. I have a question. Why, when I went in the airport into the little keels place, did they sell me a thing of moisturizer this big for 48? dollars. Because they saw your watch. They were like, here comes a sucker. They were like, look at this guy with the fancy shoes. I've seen the shoes you wear when you travel. They're nice.

They are nice leather made. No, it's ridiculous. You're buying the cursive. You're buying that font. Totally. And go on her Etsy page and buy her $48, you know, soap and know that it's at least going to a better place than, you know, a corporate. By curis? No, some other woman that homeschools.

No, but here's the real truth. That's crazy. Look up beef tallow. I know you're going to hate me. Just don't, just don't let your wife listen to this part. Beef tallow. For soap. For anything.

Yeah. Conditioner, cream. What's tallow? It's the rendering, the fat rendering of the beef. But you have to like, you know, you don't just like cook up a steak and then scoop up what's in your cast iron and put it on your body. You have to like, well, I guess you could. But you have to, you know. know, put it through a sieve and then whip it up and then do some, use that thing with the hole in it, that spatula.

What do you, yeah, and what do you use it for? You can use it for moisturizer. Is that what you use it for? I'm not going to answer any more questions without my lawyer present. I demand my lawyer be present. Maybe there's a conditioner in my bathroom that I made on my own. Yeah. Or maybe not.

Uh-huh. But it didn't smell like beef or anything like that. No, no. It just feels like whipped. Yeah. It's just like a really rich. whipped, buttery, like how you were saying the body butters. Right, right.

Yeah, it's like that. I'm starting to feel less bad about spending $48. Okay. All right, fine. It's like you want some backyard meat dallow. We got you. It does sound like a moonshine for cream. I get it.

I get it. But I'm just slowly moving in that direction. Like I have an awesome garden and I'm growing like lemon verbena and camomile. and echinacea and lavender and rose. And so I'm every on windowsills around our place, it's just filled with jars of oil with different like herbs and petals and stuff in there. You didn't have to say marijuana, but message received.

Message received. We get it. We get it. You're growing a lot of amazing plants. Flowers, buds, buds. This is what happens when there's a sag strike. Well, that's the joke I made on my sense. social media, I was like, hi, guys, if I made

a, if I made Moistiser, would you guys be into that? And then the poll was like, absolutely. And then, like, how are you dealing with the strike? Not good, right? I'm like, yeah, no. It's like Is your Netflix show coming back? Yeah, yeah. Your show is not

coming back, raising Dion? Oh, we're not a lot of talk about that stuff. On your Insta. On your Insta. On your Insta. On your Insta. Right, right, right. Tell me about your process. in acting. All shows aside.

Do you still study? Do you still study acting? I definitely was in an acting class where I would go once a week and do a scene study many years ago. And then what I found through getting busier was that that wasn't really possible. But there were people that I worked with. And I also had great friends who are very talented and give great notes that I ask for advice on different things. Yeah. Yeah, I guess when you're actively doing it, when you're in your shows and you're kind of humming along, you are practicing it.

Yeah. You're doing it. I haven't in a while. And I was like, why be so arrogant to think that you can't get better? I don't know. Yeah. I feel like just for myself, because I'm doing much more. stand of than acting these days.

I feel like I should be working that muscle in some regard. Just studying with somebody, just trying to get better at auditioning or something like that. I absolutely, I feel like Los Angeles is filled with a lot of snake oil salesmen. So you have to be really conscious and do

your research on you're going to give your $4 a month to or whatever. But there's so many great teachers out there. And also as you start working more in the industry, you have people in your your rolydex that you can be like, hey, I'm working on this thing. Do you have like 20 minutes to read it with me and tell me what you think?

And that's kind of what I do more so now. But I did take an acting class. What's funny is like as I'm talking about it now, I'm trying to remember what was it even about? But it was somewhere in Glendale, like I did an acting class just a few months ago for like a weekend. And it was really. Was it fun? It was helpful. And I think at the end of the day, just like,

Like pick up little things, put it in your toolbox. And I think if you get hard and fast for me on any one thing, it becomes kind of more challenging. Yeah. I know I'm new to the podcast, but I want to pitch something. Okay. Okay. So, you know, we're going to have like fancy schmancy actors as guests.

Let me be, well. Not yet. This is kind of the pinnacle right now. It's the fanciest. Okay. The best you guys can do. I'm sorry. Well, well, we're going to, maybe you can get the word out.

And then we have a segment where we go, this is the part of the podcast where we have you do a cold read. Oh my God. Yes. Come on. People are going to love coming on. Of the same thing, though. We have the same thing so you can see how different people would read it. Right.

Right. And so, like, everyone has to do, like, that sad speech from Steel Magnolia or something. Can I take your idea and twist it a little bit? Absolutely. Yes, and. Yes, and? Yeah. We have that Steel Magnolia monologue.

and every guest comes in and watches you try again. And they give their advice. I think it's great. You can take that your own acting school. I don't mind. I don't mind. But it's so interesting because, you know, you see people like yourself and they make it look so natural and real.

But they're such a crazy insane process, like the audition process or the acting class process. It doesn't feel the same as when you're on set. And I think it would just be cool to kind of be like, okay, we're going to throw you a cold read right now. I'm just going to be like, or I guess you would be the cold reader. No, I'm going to put it back on you again. You're the cold reader.

I'm the cold reader. Yeah, because getting guests on a podcast, you know, with your podcast, getting guests is the hardest part. And to say then, we're also going to humiliate you with a cold read. It's not great to get people in the door. Some people are, like they're in it for the fun of it, but I know a lot of actors who get very tense. It's interesting.

So I, you know, directed a short film a few weeks ago, and I've never directed anything before. And it was really interesting to be on the other side of working with actors. Because there's a level, I, being, coming from my journey of being a scientist and, you know, being all logic and analytical and, like, this is real work. And then becoming an actor, I always had a huge judgment on, like, I don't do anything. Yeah. Somehow I've conned people into this job that I have in which I get to perform and people give me money. And I think that's crazy. As comics, we get it. Yeah, you're just like, I make you laugh and I get them. This is great. And I think I always had a judgment on like you are not like any of the other, even in our industry directors, writers, you know, you kind of are the bottom. And watching actors work and to see how hard it is to, take something that was in someone else's brain, put it in your own body, and then communicate it in a way that's actually natural and believable and earnest. It makes you feel something.

That's actually really hard. Really hard. And I can have, it was strange. I almost had more of an appreciation for what I do looking at it from another point of view. So, I mean, I still will probably cycle back into feeling like there's, I don't know. Yeah, useless. Yeah. And the. bottom of the barrel, but it's also really, it is hard and it is challenging and also seeing people experience the challenge gave me a lot of anxiety because it's like, oh, I don't want you to be stressed.

I actually want you to be relaxed and, yeah, but it's hard. What was the thing that attracted you to it in the first place? Acting? Yeah. Well, when I, probably insecurity and wanting to feel like there were eyes on me, I think that's what most actors get involved. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, no, right?

Can you expand? Yeah, my mom was stopped in a grocery store, and someone was like, oh, you should put your kid in something. And I had some pictures taken, and I did a commercial. And it started to become very challenging for my mom to drop me at audition. So she was like, we're not doing that anymore. And I ended up doing karate instead or something. And I always had the general understanding of what it was in curiosity,

but almost sort of the encouragement of like, but science. Right. And in the back of my head, it was always there. I took an acting for non-majors class in college, and the teacher was like, good thing you're a scientist, because you're terrible. And even still, once I left science and was pivoting to wine, and I thought I wanted to be a winemaker, and then a sommelier, I realized, why not give it a chance? Because the worst case, you live in California, none of your friends live here. You can fail, and no one knows you here, so it actually doesn't really matter. And then it just became

such a deep, like, meaningful way of self-expression. And I'm trapped with a lot of feelings. And I like being able to share things in that way and make people feel something. Right. And it's also, like, pain. Like, it's, like, hard to act and then act in front of people and you feel humiliated. But it's also, and, like, makes you feel alive. Yeah, yeah.

It's way more interesting to me than science, you know. And then we give her the Jack Nichol. SIN speech, you can't handle the truth in this moment, and she does a cold reading. I'm telling you, you've got to be on board with this idea. It's pretty good, but we do, yeah, we probably have everyone on once. Yeah. But how did you guys get into that movie then? I was court ordered.

Oh, wow. I want to meet that judge. They sound like a real, real loon. Yeah, they were like, get yourself to Albuquerque and find some drunk people. Well, you were a ham at a young age. So I tell people that have kids listen to your children, because I did tell my parents when I was five. Really?

I didn't know a comedian, but I said, I want to be whatever Mork is from Mork and Mindy. And my dad said, you'll be quiet. And then as immigrants, they were like, stop talking. We don't need to listen to you. And so I said, whatever he is. And then my brother said, he's a comedian. I go, whatever. I don't even know what that word was.

I was five, but I thought that. So I knew then. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. A little. Yeah.

Like, yeah. I was always funny. And then seventh grade, I heard that comedian was a job. I connected adults telling jokes on albums. I was like, oh, wait a minute. You could be funny forever and get paid for it. Like, that sounds exciting. Yeah.

And then I just got kind of focused on it. That's really cool. Yeah. Seventh grade for me too. I bought tickets for Care Bears, the movie. Oh, sure. So I bought tickets for that, G movie, and then Rachel and I made a left and went into Eddie Murphy's movie. Ah.

Rated R. Nice. Trading places. Yeah, coming to America. Raw. Raw. Raw. Raw.

Oh, raw. Yeah. Oh, his stand-up special. Oh, his stand-up special. Oh, boy. Yeah. Care Bears. I bought tickets.

Rachel Dan. Hey, Rachel, if you're listening, we bought tickets. Yeah. And we were like, two for a care bear. And by the way, we cut school that day. Wow, this is late. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got school.

We left at like lunch. And she's like, I support your dream to be a comic. I will cut school with you. And we, I had never done that before, by the way. I'd never snuck into a movie. I'd never bought a ticket and gone to a different movie or seen a double, you know, never my first time. That's great. And then Eddie Murphy and then just watch.

him like, this is incredible. I have a question. So you knew you wanted to be a comedian and your friends knew. Oh, my friends encouraged me. I used to sneak into comedy clubs. That's why I could ask me about Sonoma. I grew up in San Francisco. I would sneak into comedy clubs that I knew had like a loose back door.

Like the old cobs when it was on Columbus and it ran into the cannery had like a weird back door. And it was like, oh, this weird like jing, ching, right? And so I would sneak in and just kind of like walk. around the corner and pretend like I was, are these the bathroom? And I was only 14, but it was the 80s, so I looked 28. I had big 80s hair

and like crazy makeup and just Madonna, like shirts. And then I would just stand in the back. And if people were like, do you, I'm like, oh, no, no, I'm just, and then I would just keep moving. Right. I would just stand there or just sneak out. Like I was just.

Everyone's busy. Everyone's busy. Nobody in comedy clubs cared. Cared. Do you remember a favorite during that time? that you would. Rich Scheidner. Rich Schneider.

Shidener. Rich Shidener. Who I became friends with. Yeah. I love that. He's great. Just a force. And he was sober.

Because I told him what year I saw him and goes, ah, I was finally sober then. Oh, really? So I saw sober Rich Shidener. Right. I can't even imagine what drunk Rich Shidner must have been like. He must have been amazing. But he was, he was great. I would see, I would see Prevenza.

I would see Mario Joyner. Right, right. Amazing. All the people that I'm now pals with. Yeah. That's so great that you had a community of people who supported you. I feel like, but maybe your parents were still like wary of your. My parents were still wary.

Yeah. Yeah, really. They're not on board with this podcast. It's so funny. My mom's fully on board now. She's like, oh, it's great because you're successful. Yeah. You're on shows.

Yeah, like, oh, this worked out. This is great. I think once you become successful at anything, it's like, hey, mom, I bought you a house with my drug dealer money. I'm so proud of you. You just don't want to. It just means that they're worrying less. My tinctures. Yeah, exactly.

Hey, your Etsy might blow up. Do you feel like you've built that community now, though? Well, yeah, I think, you know, working and also, like, acting, when I was on the picket line today, I actually ran into a couple of friends of mine from the Bay Area acting class that I took when I first dipped my toe into acting, and it's so incredible. one of the gents is no longer an actor but he's a writer now and so he was picketing for the WGA and we met maybe like 11 years ago

and it's just wild to kind of see his success and my success and the fact that we're picketing in front of Disney and you know kind of where the industry is right now but I have a really healthy aware group of actors and writers and creative people who are just hungry to make things and that's great yeah and it's like

pretty positive for the most part. When you said before that you're afflicted with feelings or that you have, there is, when you are in the arts, it is because you're sensitive and you do have the burden of feelings and exploration and insecurity and all of that stuff. And community is a big part of it to kind of ground you. But the community is also filled with people that have the same afflictions. Do you think that your science mind, your love of baking, those things kind of offset the artistic sensitivity? Or does it give you?

Or is that? I think it's always, they've always kind of been there in my mind. I think I've been told, oh, you're so sensitive for so much of my life. that it's almost like I used the science and analytical part to harden myself up a little bit. But underneath that crust is a nice little gooey center of feelings. And so I feel like if anything, the science was always trying to help me like rationalize my way through everything. And sometimes that has a really positive outcome. And sometimes you rationalize things that you should just feel.

Right. So if anything, acting kind of helps me get back to the reality of being a present person who has feelings and wants to collaborate. So I like kind of awesome back and forth. It's a healthy. Sounds like a healthy mix. I mean, sometimes. Sure. No one's perfect.

And sometimes I got big feelings. I'm more akin to a shower cry if we're going to have a random cry. Oh, a shower cries. All the tears. It feels like just all tears. Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that's good. And you lean against the wall. Totally. Where do you cry? A vestibule? A vestibule. Tell me more. I once cried in a vestibule.

And I looked up in New York. It was, no, it was Montana. I mean, it depends where you are in Montana. Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of places to cry, Montana. Yeah. In a bad hotel. I looked up and the business had.

a security camera. They probably caught the whole... You're on local access. Yeah. The whole breakdown. Yeah. It was a while ago, but yes, it did happen. A new reality show called Visiting LA Girls.

Vestibule tears. Oh, man. Where do you cry? Hotels. Yeah. Yeah. I don't cry that. Since I had kids, I cry easy.

easier. Like anything, I have two daughters, so anything on TV with any, like, bad commercial, anything saying goodbye to children or a father and a daughter, it's coming. But if I really have to cry, like if something big, you know, who knows what, or why, usually in a hotel by myself just to, like, I can let it out here. Cleanse the palate. I still don't like crying in front of my wife. She enjoys it too much.

I was like, I'm sure she loves it. She loves it. It's connection. Look, you're a human. She loves it. And whatever I was crying about, she'll like feed it to see if she can get me to do it again. I'm the opposite. If my husband cries, I'm like, holy shit.

No, I know. We have to batten down. Like we. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Our leader's losing it. Yeah. It's very unsettling for me.

Yeah. I wanted to stop immediately. Oh, no. No, my wife, I think, clocks it as, oh, you're a human. Yeah. Right? I mean, like, his grandfather died. Get it.

You know, of course. That was fine. Get over it. I wasn't going to be like, get your shit together. I mean, I get it. I get it. Okay. But we're good.

What's for dinner? I mean, it was late 90s. I'm not cooking. I just say like he cried right before our wedding and I think it was just stress and I was like oh God you better shut that down right now I will not come down this aisle if this sissy man is waiting for me at the other end

But you know what my kids in plays God oh my God yes no me I'm sure he gets he actually gets sniffily like at movies he's actually a very like it's a great balance. He will knock the hell out of someone playing hockey and then go, I have to get a spice at William Sonoma.

Like he's really balanced in that way, which I love. He will cry to a movie and he'll even be like, oh God, I got so misty at, you know, whatever. That's healthy. Stealing Magnolia. But I, but my kids like on stage doing their little Alice in Wonderland,

I'm like, I'm trying to just, hold it together. You know, I pretend like allergies. And I just can't I can't take it. When kids sing, it's too much for me. When kids sing. It's overwhelming. When you're doing your monologues

and you're getting critiqued by future guests on what you do. Which Tom's going to green light. Thank you. That's a something I've learned and picked up is that if you ever cry maybe on camera or on stage, it should never feel like you want to.

It should always feel like it's the last thing you want to do. Right. Because that's what real people do. Teach me right now. You just said, you said you fought trying because that's a real human behavior. Right. In auditions. You're trying to fight it.

So even if it's a comedy and you're not supposed to laugh, you should fight it and they'll feel it. Right. This is good. Okay, this is me fighting it right now. Does this look good? This is good. Yes. I would say more go further.

Why don't I book more? Why don't I book? No comment. Honestly, I'm terrible in auditions. The only things I've ever booked is when I go in and I just start cracking jokes. I just start doing stand-up in a subtle way. You never want to make it look like, well, how's it going, guys? Oh, you guys are drinking?

Like, you don't do that. You just start, I just start doing my set. Really? casually. And then they just end up liking you. And then they're like, all right, we'll bring her back for a callback. So she can really do the actual lines. Right.

But I never book things just going and going, hi, my name's Keir, represented by Shapiro, Weinstein, Rosenblatt, and, you know, all the Jews. And then do a, here's my Jew profile. Is this good? You guys want this on your camera? Probably not. And then I do shitty lines where I'm not fighting back the tears, where I just start crying because you want to work so badly. And then, and I never get, never. Yeah.

I go in and I just start doing jokes. That's really smart. I think knowing yourself is probably the best tool you could ever have. And I will say, you know, not to think bring it back to the strike, but like one of, leading up to the strike, I sat in on a couple of workers and wages meetings where they kind of have these small groups where you can air your grievances and things. And I sat in on a lot of self-tape. W&Ws they called them. And so many people were so fed up of how many auditions

they were having to do because nothing's in person anymore. So you're doing everything at home. If you have a family, you have to work around your family schedule, find a quiet place and all these things and it's such a fucking pain in the ass. I would love to get back to this world

in which you give the profiles and you talk to a human being, but now it's like in this vacuum of my living room that it's just kind of of a nightmare and part of acting is like communicating and connection and feeling it and like instead I'm like reading with my boyfriend being like can you read that better because he's not an actor so it's like really challenging it is really challenging I abhor them I've had to stop on vacation to go do a self tape yeah it's a disappointment it's almost what do they say book a trip book a job or something like that

yeah 100% yeah and then the you know you probably from your Direct, did you cast that film when you did that film? Yeah. You have an idea of who you want. And then everyone on tape is, it's kind of the backup if things go wrong and you don't get, you know, you know even when you're setting up your camera and you're annoying your family and getting your boyfriend to read that there's a good chance no one's even going to look at it. That's right. That's the most of them. Well, they're looking at yours.

Not ours. No, they're not looking at ours. So something I think that's really fascinating is no matter where you are, it's still somewhere. at the bottom. Like it's, there's always someone bigger and better and more interesting and you're, that's like almost like a game. You never are made to feel special or interesting or whatever. No. No. And yeah, they, I've definitely, you know, had conversations with friends who are directors who are like, I have so many tapes to go through. I can't watch them all. Right. I'm only really watching 10, 15, 20 seconds of it. And I'm like, dang, someone put in their whole afternoon, they got a

babysitter. I know. They have the. this unpaid person who's reading with them and gets nothing out of it if you book the job, you know, other than a thanks for doing that. I always feel like there should be a first round of, okay, put yourself on tape and just say, hello, hey, this is me, hey, I'm here for the role. And because they're no, not what we're looking for, some of the type, right, there's all that, and you're sitting there with all these pages and going through, just first round, this is me.

And then they call you and say, okay, read. You know what I mean? It's incredible. I think, you know, I have done so many self-tapes for things that I've read the breakdown and I'm like, I am not this person. I don't think I should read for this. And it's like, no, but they want you to. And then I don't end up working those jobs. And I can't help but look at who did and like, oh, that is what they wanted. Why? Why did we go through this whole process? And pre-pandemic when self-tapes weren't the norm, I probably wouldn't have read for those things, which mean I would audition less,

but it would mean that what I read for was probably way more up my alley that I'm more appropriate for. Yeah, you know what you're good at. But it's weird, it's like my, you know, the union's so big and everyone's striking for, you know, AI and pay and stuff like that. But there are all these little nuancy things

that maybe don't get so much media attention that it's like, no, but there's weird, unpaid work that we do that should be managed in a better way. 100%. It's funny because when it all was coming down, I didn't know self-tape was a part of the grievance. And when I heard other actors, I was like, oh, I'm not alone.

Yes, it's like the secret because you're in your vacuum, doing it wherever you, in your hotel rooms, after a cry, you have to go and put yourself on tape. It's just so, it's stressful and it's weird. And there was a great, I, just before Christmas, my girlfriend's getting married and she's having a big bachelorette party. upstate New York, so I just flew into New York. This is everyone's on vacation.

Right. Everyone is on vacation. No one is working. So I didn't even bring my self-tape stuff. Yeah. And I get to her apartment and I get a call that's like, hey, you're meeting with X, Y, and Z people for a job tomorrow. Can you do it? And I'm like, of course I can do it.

But now I have to rearrange my entire trip to meet them late up north and all this stuff. And you do all the things and then crickets for the entire holiday season to only find out that I didn't get it once once the New Year started. And I just was thinking like, what a nightmare process. It's just, you know, you love these beautiful opportunities to be able to showcase and I'm so grateful for them. But I think there's also a better way. There's got to be. We can do it. I'm going to pitch it.

Okay. Oh, let's hear it. Casting Zoom. So it's still, you can still be... Well, they do that. They do that. Okay. But only on the, maybe like a second call or like that.

That's what I'm saying. The first call. The first one. And so it's the casting director. And she just has everybody in the waiting room and she just lets the next person in the thing. And you just do, it's kind of like what you just said. You don't have to do like three pages in front of her, right? But she just goes, hey, how's it going?

Hey, how are you? I get to still crack a joke. Right? And then they get to still see your personality. And they get to see that you weren't in an accident since the last role you had. Right. And they can have like a body shot, whatever separately. Okay.

So they know that you have legs, if that's important. It might not be. And then great. And then that's it. And then you're gone. And then there's a next person. I think that's a great idea. And you know something that's been happening a little bit more that I hope gets encouraged

is casting will give their phone number. And they're like, if you have any questions about the tape that we just sent, were available to talk through it. So that's happened to me a couple times. And so it's not the same like meet and greet in that formal way, but I've definitely picked up the phone and been like, these are my ideas and she'll be like, that's right. That's maybe you should start thinking about it in a different way.

And that's good. That's a connection with the person. It's like I crave the interactions. And I think COVID robbed us of that. And now that it's, they realize like, oh, it's a lot cheaper if we don't have to outsource this stuff. And I don't have to schedule it as a casting person. I can read 10 times as many people and still hire who you wanted to hire anyway.

So it's this strange. But you know what? I'm good friends with a really good casting director. And she does it the right way. Like she is all about that. And I guarantee you like the more successful ones are doing a little bit something. Yeah. In the in the person to person slow it down.

This is the right way to do it. Yeah. It's hard. It's like, um, it's competitive. in so many different areas of what I mean I don't know much about comedy but I can only imagine like there's competition for a slot at a certain venue. Yeah. These casting directors, you know, if they're not doing the big budget films, they're fighting for these other opportunities. And if someone's willing to do it for cheaper or they're willing to read more people, they seem more attractive.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I get off my soapbox, but I just feel like there's a better way to do some of this stuff. People are, I also want to say it's people who are like, oh, actors, shut the look up. Like, you guys don't know what you're talking about. You guys are so whatever, but there's so many of us that are not the A-list people. We're just people who want like a little more dignity about the way we source our jobs. What was amazing to me when I first started working was realizing, and this is the way the world thinks of actors,

you see somebody in a movie and you think, oh, their life is made. And then you get into this and you realize, oh, no, that was a job they had in 1989. And we all love it and love that thing. And we have not seen them do a lot. They're actually poor. They're actually poor. Also, this generation, if you've seen and loved something within the last five years that was on a streamer, there is a very good chance that that person that you know and love sees zero dollars.

That's right. from that opportunity. And not only that, they're paid a fraction of what you think. If you go online and type in your name and net worth, whatever that number is, divide it by 10. And maybe that's close to what's in the bank account. You know what I mean? It's just not reality.

But I also can understand the other side of like, this seems like an aspirational lifestyle and look at what you're doing on social media. It seems like very whatever. And that's also a fault of the front-facing person. and they're trying to live a certain persona. But then now actors are trying to break that by being like, no, it's actually not like what I've been putting on social media.

It's actually really hard, and I'm living paycheck to paycheck, you know. Yeah, exactly. But the facade is a... I'm doing jumping jacks in front of a wall. You know, it's not easy. It is not easy. All right, before we let you go, because this is a... I hope you enjoy the bread and make sure...

I know I will. I'm going to go in my car. I'm going to... I just eat it and cry. She has rosemary in her car. She'll sprinkle some rosemary butter. I don't have rosemary, but I have my lavender hydrosol that I'll spray on myself. Feel my positive lavender energy, and I will break bread in my car and shed a tear for how lovely.

It's today. Mission accomplished. What is the next thing you think you'll bake? Oh, that's a good one. Well, I've been tinkering with some sourdough starter. Oh, yeah. And I was thinking about trying again to make a sauce. sourdough croissant, which I just don't think is a real reality.

But also sourdough pizza is a tasty one, so I'll probably do that. That's good. And again, I know it's not technically baking, but there is a lotion that may or may not be toxic in my future. That needs to be cooked on the stove. So I feel like that's baking. I mean, you're coming over to make soap at my house later. Absolutely.

All right. Well, this was so great. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for having me. This is a real delight. Yeah. it's also fun to do a science podcast and then end up talking to two really funny people who know nothing about science yeah well I feel like most of the time I don't know anything about science

either those are those are my favorite podcasts are yeah hearing really smart people talk about stuff and you try and keep up it's kind of over your head but it gives you just like a scope of what's happening what people are doing those are my favorites I also think this when science finds a way what's cool about it is it's an applied science. So it's not the like, the math and all the analytical papers and stuff. It's like this is what happens once you take all the science and do stuff with it. So it feels a little bit more lived. Yeah, exactly.

Well, thank you so much. This is great. Got it, Joey. You know that scene where Robin Williams goes to Harvey Feinstein in Mrs. Doubtfire? And he says, make me into a woman. Yeah. And Harvey goes, oh, finally. Right?

Yeah. That's kind of how I feel when my husband's like, can I use some of your facial cleanser? I go, oh, honey, you're ready. I know. I had to call my daughter and I was like in a hotel and I didn't have anything in my toilet you bag. And I was like, can I use body lotion on my face? She was like, do not.

All right, there you have it. How great was Alicia? So great. Right? She is so cute. I can't stand it. I know. It was hard talking to her about.

getting roles in things because she's at such an advantage because she just is this bright, beautiful, youthful thing. I'm not even casting anything. And when she walked in, I was like, oh, you got it. You got the part. Whatever you want. Right. Exactly.

She was great. And just loves to bake, which is my more impressive than all of her acting work. I know. I'm going to wear you down. slowly during the podcast. There's going to come. I am baking. Are you?

Of course. I bake for my kids. You did? Yes, I made a banana bread. With what in it? Banana extract. And? The other things.

Flower? Yes. Real flour? Coconut. Yeah. Okay. Alicia's podcast is when science fades away. Go check it out.

Also check out Raising Deon and Shadowhunters, both a series that, oh, we can't really promote that. right because of the strike yeah we need to strike that yeah from the podcast strike that joey uh when science finds away is her podcast go check it out anything you want to plug uh your face looks great beautiful uh go to tompapa dot com look up all of the tour dates the book we're all on this together so make some room and we've got big shows coming up in las Vegas here is going to be on the show with me i'll be putting it on my instagram kira comedy beautiful um that will be

September 2nd, Labor Day weekend, tons of fun. And we've got shows coming up all through the fall. We're also doing San Francisco together. Yeah, we're doing like... Salt Lake City together. Four or five, five dates? Are we doing Tacoma? Are you doing that one?

I think so. Yeah, a whole bunch. Go to Tompapa.com. You'll find all that stuff. You guys are the best. We'll see you next time.