Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 58 - Duncan Trussell Returns

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

LOVE this one! Two of my favorites - the great Duncan Trussell helps with an existential bagel crisis and the lovely Lizzy Cooperman puts peacocks on the menu. Scones!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey, it's our goal. Hey, it's time for Breaking Bread with Papa. Hey, don't you know? Hey, it's also a show. Hey! Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. I am Tom Papa. Thank you so much for joining us at the table for another amazing episode.

I'm very excited about this episode. You're going to be very excited as well. We've got Duncan Truzzle and Lizzie Cooperman. More about them in a... Order. Very excited for today's show. I love these two comedians so much. Duncan Tressel, a national treasure.

He's just so positive and so inventive. And Lizzie Cooperman, the same. Just a unique, funny, bright spot in the world. And I'm very excited about this. This is going to be so much fun. And Lizzie has this amazing story. Duncan has this amazing interview. The Quick Bite is with Lizzie.

because I read an article about how in L.A. we're having a peacock problem. We're having trouble with peacocks. They are running rampant through the streets, through parking lots, bothering people. And Lizzie had a peacock encounter over the pandemic. During the quarantine, there was on her Instagram, she kept posting about this one peacock.

who she was interacting with. And when I see interacting, I thought she was just taking shots of the peacock, sometimes close, sometimes far away, around where she lives. I gave her a call on the quick bite today. Wait until you hear this story. This is an amazing story. It goes so much deeper than I thought.

This was a real pandemic, soul-searching, nature battle. triumphant fight. I can't even, I don't even know how to begin to explain it. You're going to just have to listen for the quick bite. That's what Lizzie Cooperman. It is an amazing story and she's so funny when she tells it. And Duncan Dressel, you know Duncan Dressel from his Netflix show, The Midnight Gospel, which if you haven't seen it, he's been on our show a couple of times already. I just love him so much. He's just such a positive, positive force. And the Midnight Gospel is such a great animated show on Netflix where he takes things from his podcast and interviews and they animate it. And it's always soul-searching. It's always looking for the

parts of reality that maybe don't present themselves all the time right in our face. He's an explorer. I would call him a spiritual explorer. And he's so damn funny. And we have a great interview with him. He's left LA. So this is, I use the podcast as a way to touch base and spend time with him. And I always feel better for it and you will too for sure. And also it's Duncan Trussell Family Hour. His podcast is amazing and he's also on Rogan all the time and he's just one of the best. So you're going to enjoy that as well. I want to share this with you real quick before we get started because it is an action-packed show and we have a lot to get to. We, this morning, when I say we, I mean me and my baker self, check this out if you can see it on the YouTube.

Do you listen to it or do you watch it on the YouTube or you do both? Here is a little thing, reason for you to go to the YouTube. Look at that. Look at that beautiful blueberry scone that I baked for you today. Ooh, I had bought two containers of blueberries because I saw a recipe for blueberry muffins, um, Ritz-Carlton style, paraphrasing from the New York Times, from the cooking app. And they look like these amazing blueberry muffins. And I was like, oh, I should give those a shot.

So when I was in the store, I wasn't sure when I was going to get to it, but you have to buy a lot of blueberries. And not cheap. I think they were like eight bucks a package. And I needed two of them, which actually was a little short from what that recipe was calling for. And I realized it was unprepared. There's one of those things where you're like, that sounds like a good idea. And then you realize, oh, I don't have unsalted butter. Oh, I don't have the little cups for the muffins.

it just seemed like it was going to be a thing. And then I, what am I going to do with these blueberries? Well, more than muffins in my everyday life, I like the scone. I know our friend Kira Soltanovich and I got in a fight here on the podcast. She thinks that they're dry and terrible. I literally want to drive this to her house. It is so moist, so good, so easy. Scones are not a tough thing to pull up.

just flour, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest, buttermilk, blueberries, of course, sugar, a little eggwash at the end, just mix it all together dry, mix in the buttermilk and the lemon. You put it out on the counter, you mush it into a big rectangle or circle, take your knife and just chop it into triangles, and you get about 15 of them. Pop the minute 350 for 15 minutes until when you press it down. If it comes back up, you know you're in a good spot. And I'm sorry, Kira, in your face, they are so damn good. I would eat it right now on camera, but I know you guys get angry when I chew on the mic.

So I'm not going to do it. But man, it is delicious. You know what? Maybe just a little bite. No one's going to really matter. Someone's going to... Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Totally better than when you leave a

plate of a new bake good out on the counter and you just watch it slowly disappear. I didn't even see anybody from the family eat it, but it just keeps going down throughout the day, and then people

start taking halves, and people start taking quarters, and but for the end of the day, this is all going to to be gone. Oh my God. That was well done. Well done. I also had a big bread thing this week where my friends from Preston and Steve in Philadelphia, it was Steve's birthday, great DJs there in Philadelphia. And it was Steve's birthday. And he's been clamoring for bread,

baked it, got it out, overnighted it, made it onto the show. delivered my friend some bread and some starter in a little glass mason jar. I don't think he'll ever bake bread, frankly, but it was a nice gesture. And got him bread, made him very happy. Haven't heard the review. I haven't heard if they ate it yet. But it was, man, I don't mean to go right to this, but it's expensive to send bread. To send a little loaf of bread overnight.

way too expensive. I would send it to all of you. I would send you all bread. If I could just get the price down, I would happily send it to the listeners. Why not? Just spread it around. But right now, it is cost prohibitive. But for a special occasion like Steve's birthday, why not? So that's my baking antics for the week. Hey, let's get right into it. Let's go to Duncan Trussle. I called him. He is in the Carolinas and got to spend some great time with them. I really think you're going to enjoy the interview. And when we come back, we will go grab a quick bite with Lizzie Cooperman. And I'm telling you, you have to listen to this story.

It is the craziest peacock story you'll hear this year. I know what you're thinking. How many peacock stories do you hear? If you do hear one, this one will be crazier. I guarantee you. All right. But right now, enjoy. Boy, Breaking Bread with Duncan Trussell.

All right, Duncan, holy Toledo. This is what I, this is this right now. This moment is the thing that gives me joy in doing this podcast because there are certain people who, as we're running around in our busy lives, we don't get to connect other than a text here and there. And then, no, this podcast is making us sit down together. You're one of my favorite people. This is why.

we are doing breaking bread. Good to see you. Good to see. I feel the same way about you. And you're one of those people I just randomly think about. Wonder what Tom's doing. Yeah, you just pop it in my head. It's cool.

All right. Well, let me start off with this first question because I'm thinking about doing this as the first question for breaking bread all the time. And you're going to be my first one. Okay. What did you eat today? Oh, wow. What have you eaten so far? Okay, that's a great question. I ate a bagel at Brueger's bagels. And, because I was in a hurry, and I didn't do the process. You're supposed to ask the person behind the glass to make the bagel that you want and not ask the cashier. I didn't know that. So I asked the cashier. And she took the money and I sat down. I was waiting and waiting and,

waiting and then I went up and said, hey, what's going on? I ordered a bagel and they're like, did you only tell the cashier? Somebody turned and looked at me from a booth like, what's fucking wrong with you? Don't you know the system? That is the hardest part about going into the world right now is that every single place has their own system and you have to learn it from the time you open that door, you have to to know exactly what their protocol is, what their plans are. And it almost makes you just want to stay at home and pop an ego in the in the toaster. Oh, God, yes. Yeah, I don't, I, you know,

it just makes me feel embarrassed. Like, I had lost my keys that today, I lost my found him, but, you know, that on top of that. And I start thinking, like, am I all right? I didn't know the Brueger's bagels process. I know. You literally turn into a third grader, getting yelled, that by everyone in the world. Like when you're that size, everyone's bigger. Everyone's just telling you how dumb you are. And it's still at this age,

you have those days when you leave the house. You're back to that kid getting yelled at by everybody. Thank you for opening up a Pandora's box of hellish memories that up until you said that I had successfully suppressed. Now I'm remembering, I'm remembering the anxiety. I'm remembering like you get done with. the playground and there's a water fountain and you're thirsty. But I remember that the teacher would pull the nozzle.

She wouldn't even be allowed to touch it. And then someone, she would count one, two, three, scat. And you would have to, it ended with a scat and you could eat, no matter how thirsty you were, you couldn't keep drinking. You're like some kind of POW. Your little tongue dress trying to get one more drop on the way out. It's so hard being a person. All right, so you had the Brueger's bagels, when you went back and corrected it,

did they, what did they do? Did you get cream cheese on it? Did you go butter? No, I went lunch bagel. I went brisket, cheese. Not good for you, bagel. It was not good. It was so good.

It was so good. It was, you know, definitely, definitely not what I should be eating. It's a good. That's a good one, though. It was really good. And is that all you've eaten today? Let me think. Let's see. Yeah, that's all I've eaten today. I skipped breakfast. You start off with coffee? I do. Does that count as eating?

No, but it is one of my joys. Same. Yeah, I love coffee so much. You do the chameleon coal brew? No. Don't. It's scary. Like, something's, like, it's the most powerful coffee. And, you know, my, what do my wife say? the other day. She said, she was like, you know, I don't know if I want to go to movies in the evening. I'm just, you know, there's been a lot of shootings. And I'm like, Aaron, have you

been drinking Camelian Cold Brew today? She's like, yeah. Like, see, this is what happens. I'm see, it's that powerful. It makes you anxious. Like, yeah, extra anxious. So you're suddenly like, It will turn you into a prepper. It's that level of powerful coffee. It is amazing what that does. I mean, I haven't had the chameleon, but I know just like when I'm like, I just want that sensation of that, the aroma of the coffee, the late afternoon. Just give it to me. Late afternoon?

I'm sorry to cut you up. Late afternoon? Uh-huh. You do late afternoon coffees? That's the one too many. That's the one too many. Yeah. why are you saying that you can't do that i can't i will not if i do a late afternoon coffee i'm

not sleeping that night it's yeah it's rolling the dice it's definitely rolling the dice i i have to then think about uh can i get a heavy meal in will i work out will i these are all prices you have to pay for the joy of an espresso at at four o'clock but the other i just love it so this is this is what an addiction is you know it's bad for you you know you're not going to sleep. Yeah. And the chances of being a little too anxious and you're just walking around with no identifiable cause, just that feeling like, uh, something's not, am I supposed to? It's just because you had another shot of coffee. Yeah. Well, I, you know, I think once you realize that, you're fine. It's when you forget. That's where you get into trouble. Yeah, that's a great

point. That's a great point. Whenever you're doing anything, mind-altering, as long as you can know that that's what's going on, you're okay. You're okay. Yeah. Yeah. You just ate too much weed or did too much acid or drank too much coffee or whatever the particular thing is. That's all. You just took too much acid. It's no big deal. Yeah, it's okay. I'm supposed to feel weird right now. Yeah. You took acid and it's like you thought you were going to come down in six hours. But, you're, I'm supposed to feel weird right now. But no. No. You're not.

You're not. And you smoked a little at the last hour, and now you rebooted and gave yourself another three. Congratulations. Yeah, I think as long as you remember that, you're all right. The people who freak out a lot of times, they just forgot that they were high. Yeah, I remember in college we had like a big park day, and there was mushrooms floating around. And this one kid was just having a whale of a time. was just not in a good place.

And it really is that thing where you, you just, he was trying to figure out why the world had collapsed around him. And it's like, no, it hasn't. You just ate these weird little mushrooms on Park Day. Yeah. But once you lose that, you can't like, it's hard to get them back onto the path. Well, especially if you take too much,

because you get the same effect that happens to people with like concussions, which is they have this looping amnesia. So they get stuck in, I have a friend who, you know, worked at a festival as a doctor, and I was asking him, what's the worst thing you ever saw? And he said it was someone who accidentally took 30 hits of acid or something. Whoa. Yeah, accidentally took it. I think he was dripping it onto his tongue or something from a bottle,

and it broke and spilled on his mouth or something. Oh, my God. Like that. And he said that the guy was just, like in a loop he was he would he was freaking out you'd ask what you'd ask what you'd ask the exact same questions yeah over and over and over again and they would tell him you know you're high you took too much lSD or i don't know if they said too much i don't think you're supposed to say that when people were freaking out but right anyway he like ran out and ended up i think finding a rock and

trying to bash his teeth out with it whoa yeah bad day bad day So a bad day. Yeah, which could end up a bad lifetime. That stuff is just so deadly. That could that could rattle the toolbox forever. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if that, I don't know about, I don't know if it truly does that.

I think they've done a lot of research into it and that might not be true. But definitely it's going to be a rough year, I'd say. I don't know about forever, but you're going to, you know, you can get PTSD. I've like legitimate PTSD from psychedelic. So that's the place where you can get really a little screwy if you're not careful. Yeah, yeah. I know.

And it just like keeps coming back. And not to say the chameleon coffee is as potent as that, but it is the same kind. It's close. If you don't want to go to the movies anymore, that's a lifelong affliction. Yeah. So that, so that was good. So how has your life been? Your little boy is amazing.

Thanks. You sent me that a little shot of him getting the sink bath. Yeah. It brought back so many memories. I love that. And so you'll see, like, as you go through, there's just so much on a daily basis in raising them that you end up with like just vague memories of stuff until you see things like that. And you send me that beautiful shot of him getting a. bath in the sink. Yeah. And it just brought back all the flood of having the girls when they were

that little that they could fit in a sink and have a whole party. Oh my God, you were in a good spot. Yeah. I, yeah, I, yes, I'm in a good spot. I'm really loving being a dad. And, I'm loving being up in the mountains with the kids. And yeah. And, you know, what's cool up here is that the mask mandate has been lifted. So, no. No one's wearing masks anymore. The rates are, hardly anyone has it out here right now. And so it's really cool and really, yeah, it's amazing to go into a place and no one's wearing masks and I'm vaccinated.

So it's, you know, it's just. Yeah. It's cool. Freedom. Freedom. And we just took our two-year-old to a gymnastics class. and this is like the first one of the first things like that he's done in like 16 months you know and so that's a kind of bittersweet thing because you're like damn you lost a year

of this sort of thing but look you get to you get to do it now and we get to and we're realizing like oh wow we just signed him up for soccer you know we're realizing oh my god we could do be around people again yeah you forget that that that all those little elements Like you thought about like career stuff or like the big things of seeing your family, whatever, but it's all that little minutia that was causing everybody to kind of unravel. Yeah. Really like all those little extras of just running into people on the street and all that little tiny stuff that was just part of the cacophony of life. Yeah.

That was really, well, we're supposed to be, it feels pretty open here now. and June 15th is supposed to be then you're back to walking into the grocery stores without masks and stuff. Great. You're going to love it. It's that, isn't that, I mean, not to be super cheesy, but isn't that, there's something wonderful about realizing how much you were taking everything for granted

and realizing like you just, everything, you could, you know, grocery stores, who wants to go to a grocery store anyway? You know, but being in one now without this stupid thing on your face and so great yeah oh my god well that this is something that was on my mind because i was talking about it with uh my producer joe and we're talking about how there's a segment of people that are coming out and they're more grateful they saw what we lost and they're they're

cherishing these little moments like you said even going to the store is like a almost like a religious experience it's just like You're just having appreciation for the world and how it's slipped away. Then there's all these other people. We keep seeing daily clips of people in stadiums watching basketball and baseball, punching each other in the face, running across the court in the middle of the game. There's people in airports. They don't want to serve alcohol because the people are just,

there is another segment of the population who I think lost it a little bit, don't you? Oh, yeah. Well, it's a, you know, it's a, so I think what we're seeing is an emergent philosophical movement that is at its heart a bizarre new form of nihilism. And it's a group of people that have deconstructed everything to be not true. They don't believe anything. they don't believe the vaccine is real. They don't believe the pandemic was real. They don't believe the election was real.

Many of them don't believe the earth is round. Like anything that's generally embraced by the collective, they reject as being some form of lie told to us by the elite. And so it's a really interesting, it's a philosophy. Nileism is a fascinating philosophy. You know, but I've just never seen. seen at this level. And I don't know that these people necessarily refer to themselves as nihilists necessarily, but it seems like that at its base. They've managed to deconstruct

everything into a kind of meaninglessness that has left them confused and aggressive. Yeah, 100%. And as you're saying that, there's also another side of it that, like, if you go to kind of, I don't like, I even hesitate to say right and left, but on the left side of that is this deconstruction of all institutions. Like everything was a lie. Yeah. I wouldn't classify it as nihilism as as much as just tearing down the past, which in some of it is justified to question things. But once you destroy every institution and all religion and all practices, and all practice and schools are bad. And they're left also in the same place of having nothing to grab onto. Right. So now you're talking about these two, and then saying two is probably a little too

monolithic, but it's, you are, you have a lot of people in the population who have nothing to believe in. Yeah. That's such a scary place to be. I think so. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's, it's, I think there's something legitimate about analyzing all forms of, like, of everything, whether it's your own DNA, all the way down to your own DNA. And sort of thinking about whether or not there's permanence there, you know, or whether or not it's like a lasting thing or whether or if, you know, it goes all the way to the identity. Like, what are you?

Like, don't stop with the institutions. You got to keep going. Like, where do you exist in your body? and what is the thing you identify as yourself? Is that even a thing at all? And in that sort of process, the idea is there's liberation because you realize you're not weighted down anymore by whatever the thing was. But also, you were supposed to honor the fact that it does exist, though. It's here, but it's not here. It's like, you know, the term Lila? It's like the game, like the game God plays.

It's called the Eternal game. It's called the Leela, and it's a game. And a beautiful game, but that doesn't mean once you realize it's a game, you're supposed to stop playing it necessarily. Because even that is another game, too, by the way. You know, that stop playing the game is a whole other interesting game. But anyway, I'm babbling. The point is, yeah, I think it's worth deconstructing all the institutions,

deconstruct the police and find where it's bad, but then recognize whenever you see a thing that's fucked up, it implies there's a non-fucked-up version of that thing. Right. There's a balanced version of it. Right. It doesn't mean because of things imbalance annihilated completely. It means where is the imbalance and then correct that

and now you'll have an improved thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very, it's a really, it's a puzzling thing. thing because when you talk about all of it, like my problem always is, okay, I understand questioning everything. I understand railing against wrongs. I get all of that. But you can't separate yourself from it. You are a part of it. So like if you're railing against the country and saying that all this is wrong, well, yeah, but you're still a part of it, aren't you? You're still a

citizen here. So you don't have the luxury to say it's all wrong without saying I'm all wrong. You know? Yeah. You've got a you've got a kind of yeah. But but see this is here. Okay. So we're talking about all these people that are like spinning and running across the basketball courts. And we both seem to be enjoying a little gymnastics class and going and picking up a a bagel in the shop, it's those little things. Like, it doesn't always have to be like this big gigantic thing that you have to tackle because you with your little pea brain aren't going to be able to do it. You only have so much energy in your life.

You do you kind of, you think about bigger, broader things, but you also live down here. Yeah. Is that something that you consciously practice? Yes, because I used to do the, you know, when I first ran into these Ram Dass people, and the first podcast I did with this guy, Raghu Marcus, who runs Ram Dass's foundation, I was saying to him, when do we go to, when do we take to the streets? When do we start throwing Molotov cocktails and burn it?

We have to burn this fucking thing down. How many people are going to die because the United States has been at war for 93% of its history? And that's one of the major ways that it makes money. we've there's no there's nothing left to do but you know to destroy it all down and he it was like whoa but you you know he was he was like you know see what you're doing there like you're just flipping it now you're the aggressor now you know now there's a them and then there's an us and that's what you've done is you've created an us in them situation and in that creation of that, you're going to have war and fighting and all the horrors of the world.

And so there has to be, so the idea is instead of, if you start letting your ego go messy anic or whatever and like maudibing yourself into imagining that you're going to be part of some bloody, violent overthrow of this thing or that thing, then you are only going to fail. It's not going to work, and you're going to be miserable. But the idea is like, so bring it back down to where you're at. And that's what Jack Cornfield says. I quote him a lot. He says, tend to the part of the garden you can touch.

And so the idea is like, where is the war in your life? Like, where are you in some rotten war, even if it's a cold war? Where are you not being honest? Where are you not connecting with your community? or where is the war in you and you and so that's where you start is you the idea is like where you need we work on ourselves so we can help the people closest to us and that is a formula that I think if everyone adopted it could lead to the result that the people who are recommending violence is a solution yeah think that they're going to get to via violence which if that worked

we would be living in a global utopia. I know, exactly. It doesn't work. I know, it doesn't work. You can't get everybody in the world to meditate. No. But that is there, but like I do. No, wait, I'm sorry.

I meant if war worked as a solution. Oh, if war worked. Then we would be in a global utopia by now because the history of humanity for the last many thousands of years has been war. And all that it's resulted in is division and more problems.

And, you know, so that's what I'm saying is like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, that didn't work. We already tried it. That process doesn't work. Time to try something new. Right, right, right. And I agree with you though. You're not going to get everyone to meditate.

That's for sure. You can barely. No, that's what I thought you were. That's where I thought when I heard utopia. That's what I was, I was thinking if you did have everybody tend to the part of the garden that they could touch. That's reflection that is meditation. that is smallness.

If everybody was just doing that, you'd be in a good spot, but it's all outward. It's very little in of what my problem is. When you saw these people like running around the Capitol and like any kind of like outrage, you know, in Portland, whatever it was,

it's always out. It's always them. It's always, when I see guys, when I see like those angry 65 year old guys with a dirty t-shirt and they just want to fight somebody, I know what that's coming from. It's not, it's, it's coming from their own fear, their own mortality.

Yeah. They're, they're feeling this foundation that they had all this years starting to, starting to shake. And what are you going to do with that? You know, a lot of times you just look for someone to punch in the nose. Yeah. That's, that's it. Yeah, some people just love doing that.

Some people love to fight. They love it. They go out on the weekend and they're hoping to get in a fight. Like that's a nice, that's like how they blow off steam. I know. I know. I know. I had a moment yesterday at the airport.

I was picking my daughter up at the airport. And, you know, I know everyone's on edge and whatever. But anyway, it's one of those you just got to pull up when you got to time it right from when you pull up when they're coming out because they don't let you hang there. And you pick your friend up and you go. So I pull over and she's there. She's got huge bags. I've got kids.

I've got her. We've got the whole thing. And I open the door and the doors open a little bit. Like I just left it open so I didn't lock myself out. That dad thing of the worst thing you could do is lose the keys, which you did this morning. Yes. And a guy in a big giant black SUV just starts laying on the horn. And I'm like, what?

What? I'm like looking at him. I don't even know what he's doing. We're all parking here. What are you trying to get. And I load her up. He honks again. I'm putting their giant bags in.

I come around the thing. And now he like, you know, and they like pull in front of you real quick. Yeah. He pulls up and he opens up the trunk and he's getting the guy in front of him. I'm like, what do you want me to do? And he's like,

he said, you, you can't just pull over there and then leave your door over. And I, and I, just, and this is, this was the, the ego coming out in me. I just, and it felt great. Yeah. I literally just yelled at him, what do you want me to do? I'm picking up my family. The car is here. Yeah. Come up with a solution. What do you want me to do? I said, have, and we're really loud. I go, have a

wonderful day. I got in the car, but I'm telling you, I did understand the cathartic, like this is clear black and white. This guy is wrong and I'm just letting it out, which I never do in my life. But it did feel like okay.

And not to use that as an excuse for people who are doing it for the wrong reasons when they're on a flight and a flight attendant tells you to put your mask out and they pop them in the nose. But there is that thing. of like, wow. And also, I do think, like, something ends up, like, an unrealistic depiction of how you need to live in the world can appear in spiritual people, where it's like, sometimes you're

going to, like, there are times where you might have to be aggressive to survive or, you know, there's just times where you got to do that. That doesn't mean that you're, something's gone wrong with you as a person or you're, practice is fucked up. It's just that's the way it works in the world is sometimes you have to push back. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, the, the, the only, the place where it gets bad is, like, and scary is some people, then, they're like, what do I want you to do? I want you to bleed. And, you know, they're like, you know, they're like, you know, you know what I mean? And then, you're laying on the ground, and you're like, wait,

is this how I die? Or just, you know, or just, you know, you know, or just, you know, you know, Yeah, or just like going out looking for that all the time. Like every time you get in the car, you're looking to have that conflict. You're searching for that fight. And if you are, guess you're going to find it. Hey, you are absolutely going to find it. Do you know, I have a story. Can I tell you a quick story that I read in a spiritual book?

This gets passed around. Stop me if you've heard this fucking story because I feel like a lot of people have heard it. But did you ever hear this story of the monk who was getting fisted in that? in that BDSM. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm thinking if I could never get passed around. Okay.

No, there's a, the story, you know, that old classic. Oh yeah, that old tale. Yeah, I got that one. No, the story is there was a, I wish I can remember what book this is from.

There was a, someone who went to Japan, was studying martial arts, intensely for a few years, and was getting like really good. He's on a subway or he's on a train. And there's this big guy who's drunk and who is, you know, yelling at people.

He's like screaming at a pregnant lady. He's like violent and completely out of his mind. And so this guy is getting excited because he's thinking, holy shit, this is the moment. You're not supposed to fight with martial arts, but I might really have. to do something because he's violent and I'm going to have to probably do something. So he starts standing up, getting ready to confront this drunk when there's like this old man sitting in a

seat by himself and he looks up at the drunk person and very sweetly says to him, what have you been drinking. And the drunk person says, Saki. And he's like, oh, Saki. I love Saki. You know, when the sun is setting, I like to drink it with my wife. And the drunk starts crying and says, you know, my wife died three days ago. And the old man says, come sit, sit, sit, sit. And so the drunk sits with him. And then this Marshall, this guy is all of a sudden watching is within a few minutes, the drunk guy has his head in this old man's lap and is weeping while the old man is like

patting his head and he said that's when I saw what actual martial arts looks like. Wow. You know, there was that. That's amazing. I know. That was amazing. Yeah. That's so good.

So maybe if you'd said the right thing, you could have cradled that man in your lap and patted his head instead of screaming. I'm just kidding. I was screaming at him. Well, no, sometimes you got to, when I drove away,

you know, when I drove away, I was thinking, I was proud of myself that I didn't, even though it was a sarcastic, have a wonderful day. I could have easily just been like,

F you. Yeah. Attacked him for whatever he looked like or whatever he was doing. Yeah. I just could have been, I could have been vile and, and harsh.

Yeah. And I wasn't. I was, I was defending myself, frankly. I'm in dad mode. I've got kids floating around the SUV. I've got someone just returning from school.

I'm loading in luggage. I've got a wife in the thing. You know, I'm in full protecto mode. And I have somebody who I don't understand for some reason is just pushing aggression towards me. I'm saying you, you've got to stand up. Good for you. You have to. And I wasn't quite the old man, but I wasn't.

the guy like giving him roundhouse kicks to the face either you got to stick up for yourself did your family like it was there a sense of like wow dad that was intense i don't think they even noticed they were just like ah damn it my daughter they're like when i got in the car i would be so ready to get like some kind of compliment for defending yeah i was i really was i was i was craving it and they were just like we should get tacos tonight it's tuesday I know, exactly. You want to get a little, get a little, a little cred for it. So do you think that, so where do you think it's headed? And do you think that it's a, that was the biggest problem I had with the past years of the whole Trump era thing was making us the them. Like we were saying earlier. Yeah.

But turning us against each. I was thinking about that the other day. I was like, I know there's been comedy bits about it. like we needed, but it's almost like without an enemy, we become the enemy. Yeah. And we always had Russia for a long time with Sylvester Stallone and Reagan and you had those bad guys over there and it gave everybody something to think about of like who we were going after the Nazis or whatever.

China doesn't really satisfy it for people. That doesn't seem to have the same narrative that gets everyone excited. And it's like, we're going to have aliens. like what is we really are at this moment without this cause of like something from the outsides coming to get us so we're looking at each other and we're looking at people from New York and New York's looking at people from Texas and it's like yeah this is the most unsettling part for me in recent times we weren't always there was always differences but we were never the enemy and that has been stoked I feel over the especially over the last four

years yep that's the most upsetting part to me me. Well, you know, I just was, I pulled out one of my favorite books, which I haven't finished because it's so dense, but I love it so much. It's called The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. Oh. And it is incredible. It was written years ago. Yeah. And in it, he sort of lays, you know about Kurzweil, you know about him? Yeah, I used to, I used to read a lot of him. I've never read the book, though. Oh, it's good. He's the anti-aging guy. Like, he was always trying to figure out ways to live forever. Yeah. And he, so what's cool about it now is that vaccine that we all took,

or most of us took, is something he predicted in this book. He said, we're going to start having this kind of like medical technology, MRI medicine. And that is going to be one of the signifiers that we are almost at this event, he calls the, singularity. And so COVID accelerated something that is going to drastically transform humanity is already done it in the sense that we just got this insane disease and it's vanishing in a lot of places because of this. And that is crazy because the reason it's vanishing is because someone figured out a way to get your, to talk to your deep. DNA, tell it to make this specific protein spike so that your immune system would identify that as being out of place and bad without you having a disease.

It wasn't a lot of dead virus, live virus. It's literally reprogramming you by communicating with your DNA. And so now you'll notice in the news they're saying now they're going to, they're looking at using this for cancer. Now they're using it, you know, looking at using this for a lot of things, which they will do. And then that's going to, that's going to be the bridge, I think, to get us into Kurzweil land, where suddenly, you know, human lifespans start increasing and human health increases with that because of this technology. So, so I think what we're seeing is a lot of turbulence related to this thing that's happening, which is we're about to, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're, there's. no way to stop this shit, man.

It's like once you learn how to talk to DNA like that and program DNA and just say, hey, you know what? You know, I would love it if you could maybe grow my hair back or help me. It's so funny. You said that one already. I was literally, I was like, well, I've got the joke locked and loaded. He's going to say something very profound about living forever. And I'm going to bring it back to my balding.

Your hair is coming. All of it's coming back. All of us coming back. And it's all going to be met with the most intense resistance from people who are superstitious and worried that this is demonic or satanic. And that's what we're seeing is like all the people who didn't want to get the vaccine and all the people who are terrified of the vaccine, they're just going to keep resisting. And while they resist, people who aren't afraid are going to start getting a little smarter,

a little healthier, a little more advanced, merging with technology a little bit more. And then it's going to create, it's essentially going to create the species. It's going to split, I think. It's going to split. Yeah. I think we're going to look at a kind of like,

one of the most ridiculously accelerated, like breaking apart of a species ever. Because usually, I think usually with evolution, it takes a long time. Right, right. because you have to wait for mutation, natural selection to happen. But in this case, we'll be engineering ourselves. This is what Kurzweil says, by the way.

I mean, I'm just parroting him. So, okay, the most pressing question is, will we live long enough to participate and get some of the benefits? Oh, yeah. If you're a lot. Yes. You already are. We're getting some of the benefits now, but will we be getting,

will we are we going to stick around for a lot longer as a result of it? Yeah, I mean, yes. I would, I mean, well, what Curzwell was saying is, you know, I think he was trying to, he's trying to stay alive. I think, yeah, I think if we can make it another 10 or 20 years, I think we have a shot at probably living a much longer life. And also, you know, the stuff with the UFOs right now is really interesting in the sense that. Yeah. We have this technology that is, that is like terrestrial now. I don't know where it came from, but we have some kind of earth-based technology that is

defying the way we understand how propulsion works. And so, you know, that that's really exciting. I don't care. Everyone's like, it's aliens. I don't care if it's aliens. Holy fuck. We've got these things that are going so fast going under the ocean. ocean traveling through the ocean at this insane speed. It doesn't matter what it is. It's here.

And so that kind of, that's, I think we can expect to start seeing more and more things like that as we get closer to this event. And it's, it's almost like, uh, like these things are too big for it to be the lead story. Because I kept walking around. I keep saying to my daughter's like, why isn't this the number one, the only thing we're talking about that there's some kind of alien. whatever, floating over the oceans. And it's, it's almost like what you're saying, like the resistance. It's like we keep almost, your brain can't allow this to really, to really be real. You got to just kind of, until it comes and really hits you over the head, it's like, yeah, but no. It's too much.

It's just too much for our little monkey brain. That's right. Yeah. Well, that's, I think that's why it's good to just stay grounded. I mean, all that stuff is fun to think about. truth of the matter is, this is what I realized, is like, if aliens reveal themselves or whatever, yeah, how long before you're just sick of them? Like, seriously, how long, like a year? Before it's like, who gives a fuck? He's giving another appearance. Yeah, you don't care. It's like,

that's, that's what's cool about humans is we just get used to stuff. So, yeah, there might be a couple of years where maybe the new ages are right we get invited into the galactic you know society because we managed to like in like all this COVID shit was just some kind of like global plan stop the wars their stupid condition is that most wars have to stop before they reveal themselves to us we've kind of pulled it off we got out of Afghanistan we stopped most of the wars here and there there's like flare-ups but compared to what we've been doing it's pretty great they're going to show up, wow, there's a galactic civilization. We know how to do wormholes.

You want to go to another planet? Great, we can get you there. And then, like, within a couple of years, you're still going to be telling someone, have a nice day, maybe on another planet, but it's talking a different fucking thing. You know what I mean? But we'll still go back to the same way, no matter what. You go through a giant wormhole and they'll be, like, looking at you, really? You just talk to the cashier.

Exactly. No, you got to go to the Norselex device and flip it up three times. Then you'll get the splonks. All right. I know what I'm doing. I can do things. Yeah, exactly. And you know, we're going to irritate them. They're going to, oh boy, another fucking planet got into the galactic count. Oh, great. Right. They act like it's theirs. They just got here. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That's so great. Oh, this is why I love always talking to you. who's the garden guy what was that that's jack cornfield he's a buddhist teacher he teaches mindfulness he's you know what there's a place called inside l.a that his wife trudy goodman runs it's a wonderful place where they teach mindfulness and they're just wonderful people really nice great people

that's good so um when dinner rolls around tonight who's making it or is anyone making we're going out to eat we're going to have a date night so i don't and i'm i'm not i'm not sure we're going to go yet. But yeah, because my, our kid's grandma is going to be at the house to take care of them. I'm not really sure where we're going to go. I think my, I think my wife wants to get a drink, though, because she texted me that she wants to get a drink. I don't know why I'm looking at my phone.

It's summer. It's cocktail time. Yeah. She wants a spritzer. So I think we're going to go find spritzers. That's where we're out. That's what's it. That's the part of the garden you can touch.

The spritzers. Oh, man, you're the best. You're the best. Well, great seeing you. I hope my tour brings me somewhere near you. It would be good to sit and have spritzers together in person. Just let me know. I'll meet you halfway.

I'd love to see you in person. So, yeah, let me know if you end up in the South anywhere. Yeah, all right. You're the best. You're the best. Thank you for having me on. Oh, thank you so much. See you soon.

See you soon. There you go. The great Duncan Trussell, everybody. I hope you enjoyed that interview. I told you he's a joy. Don't you feel better? Just positivity all the time. Breaking bread.

Okay, now, all right, the moment we've all been waiting for. This is so great. This is epic. You're going to love this, not only because it's hilarious, but because it's going to be a story that you are going to learn a lot about the crazy world of Los Angeles.

and peacocks. Please sit back and listen to my quick bite with Lizzie Cooperman. How are you? Everything's skyrocketing over here. I've done my laundry. Nice work. I tried a new coconut creamer in my coffee this morning. That was great.

How did that go? It was really good. I'm just like there's got to be more out there than almond milk. That's so funny. just had, I literally just got a text from Joe Rogan saying all about all the poisons of almond milk. Really? Yeah, he was on, he's on, he's on an anti-a-ammon milk campaign personally. I don't think he's doing it publicly.

He's just trying to take away my one joy. Well, I was, that's, oh, so you use it. Yeah, well, I don't like using regular milk. Right. Whatever you got, oat milk. What's this coconut concoction you're working on? It's really good. The other day at the coffee shop, I thought, is this almond milk doing anything?

Or is it just, you know, kind of like opaque water? Oh, this has almond creamer in it. It's lactose-free coconut and almond creamer, vila flavor. It might add a few calories to your daily count, but for me it was good. It was worth it. I know. I always feel that I feel like almond milk is just making things wet. Yes.

It's like you can't have a bowl of cereal just on its own. You know, I use milk, but probably could use water. Right. If I'm using almond milk. That's so funny. Well, I miss you. I haven't spoken to you in a while. I know.

It's been a while. What's new with you? Well, I was actually, everything's cool, everything's just going along fine, looking forward to running around with no masks and all that stuff next week, which would be very important. But I was really what made me think of you was I saw this article in the paper about how these peacocks are overrunning Los Angeles. And I know you were in a long-term relationship with a peacock. I named a peacock. peacock in my life every single day during the pandemic. I remember that.

I remember seeing it on Instagram. One day, this was like in April in the beginning, I walked out to my car and plopped on top of it. There was just this giant gray peacock. Like bigger than, you know how like pizza delivery people have a car topper? Yeah. It was bigger. It was like the size. of like a well-fed kindergartner.

And it wasn't one of the like blue dazzlers. It was a female, which I believe is called a pea fowl. Uh-huh. Who, yeah. Like, ew? Pea-fowl. Exactly. I mean, eventually, yes.

Because they love to defecate, which is something I learned almost immediately. But this one was, she looked like, she looked like, she'd been through a lot in her life, kind of a haggard one. Uh-huh. And she was sitting on top of my car. I have a black car, and I guess they like dark cars because they use them as mirrors, and they pack at their reflection. Oh, really?

Yes. They pack at their reflection. Mm-hmm. Does that mean they're arrogant or self-loathing? Oh, that's so interesting. You're like, are they doing cocaine? your car. Yeah, maybe.

It was wild. She was just staring at herself. And I thought, well, that's unusual. And I just waited until she was gone. And then the next day, and I had purchased, I have this little balcony and I bought this little bistro set during the pandemic thinking, oh, at least I can go out on my balcony and have a place to just be outside, you know, without contact with people. at 9 a.m. I heard a thud.

Oh, no. And I went outside and she was on my table. Oh. Yes. And she seemed to for some reason, and that happened every single day I would wake up and hear the thud. And look outside and she was courting you. She looked everything of mine. Yes, it was weird. I was like, okay, she liked my car, my table and then for about a week she was blocking my door. You mean you'd come home and she'd be sitting in front of your door not letting you in?

It was more like I was inside and couldn't go out. So I was online constantly like how do I get rid of Peacock? And I read this article that said, oh, they hate you. dogs. So I went on YouTube and I found this video of vicious dogs barking. Uh-huh. Smart. Very smart. Thank you. I feel like my neighbors would say the opposite. I was like, do they think this is the music I'm into? Because I would just blast. Did the peacock flinch at all when they heard the barking? Yes. So in the beginning, it actually worked. She would start looking around and then eventually take off.

Right. But she caught on to it. I think she realized there were no wolves in the area. She's like, I have YouTube. I know what you're doing. Exactly. She's like, they tried this in Arcadia. Because I think they all came from Arcadia. Arcadia, where's that? I think it's east of Pasadena. Oh. So when all this happened, I was, you know, I did so much research. I found out they were brought here in like the 1800s from India.

Uh-huh. This guy named Lucky brought them over. It's so funny. I guess a gift or something exciting. I don't know. Sure. What Lucky's deal was. But working with the dogs.

someone said, well, try using a squirt bottle. Oh, God. Right. This is where... Now it's warfare. Exactly. And I was scared to, because you don't really know how aggressive they're going to be or what the behavior is like. It's not like...

Sure. So I would just open my screen just a little bit squirt and then shut the screen. And sometimes it wouldn't even go far enough to... you know, make contacts with the peacock. Yeah. And I truly went online and was looking at super-soakers at one morning. How many months in are we at this point? This was, so I ended up leaving the apartment in October,

and I have to say that was a determining factor. Oh, wow. And then, so we're talking from March. So it was every day. March, every day from March? From like April to October, yeah. Wow. Every single day and it made a huge mess on my balcony.

There were these winding gray sculptures of GCs. It was a nightmare. And they scream like someone being tortured but in like this operatic voice in vibrato. Oh, my God. that's just their call that's just what it's just how I'm actually like reliving it I'm so sorry I didn't know

no I love it it was just a unique thing and I had to talk to my therapist about it you were saying well what do you think the peacock represents in your life because it was and then at one point

I realized this is the only company I have right and the peacocks I mean not to take the peacock's side by any means, but maybe in the isolation of the pandemic and not seeing people, the peacock was like, that's my people. Right. No, absolutely.

And what's interesting, too, is I went from loving it to hating it. Like, I just vacillated between these two extremes constantly. I would say hello, and then I would almost break down. Like, I can't even, you know, it was the stress of the pandemic. Oh, my God. It was just exacerbated by feeling trapped by this bird. And it was kind of controlling my life for a while. And I was building a credenza at the time.

And so I ended up naming her credenza. And then eventually I ended up leaving the apartment. I escaped to New Mexico during the pandemic. Really? Yeah. My least. was up and I couldn't think of anywhere else that I could think of that made me feel excited. And I love New Mexico.

So I was like, I'll just put my stuff into storage and drive and stay in an Airbnb. So I ended up living in this little studio above a reflective jewelry shop for like three months. Oh, wow. But the day that I was about to leave for this 12-hour drive, Yeah. I went out to my car and she was standing right at the driver's side. No. Right at the door.

I could not even believe it. I thought she knows. Like, she sensed. Yeah. She sees you packing. Yeah. She looked in the window. She saw.

She looked in the window. She saw your search history for Airbnbs in New Mexico. That is so funny. I mean, it was just. it's such a crazy it was a roller coaster with her in a way and what's weird is I ran into one of my neighbors you know down by our parking area

and I started to think about the peacocks thinking we would be you know complaining about the peacocks you know like oh have you seen the peacock that's just up there on the railing he was like oh yeah isn't she beautiful and I thought okay so I can't like complain to this guy Yeah. Because people have differing opinions on them.

And there's actually, I read all these articles about this neighborhood in Florida. I think it's in Miami where they ended up having to come in and transport all the peacocks to a sanctuary or something. Because it was causing so much disruption in the neighborhood and so much conflict. Yeah, yeah. Between the residents. Oh, the rest of the, they're beautiful, leave them alone and get them off. Yeah, because some people want to feed them and they think, oh, what a unique, beautiful experience. Yeah.

But I love, I've never trusted them. I've never trusted them. Right. They seem to me like living bagpipes. Like there's like things sticking out haphazedly. They're kind of annoying. I didn't like the males, I guess, or the really pretty ones. You got the feeling like they thought they were too pretty.

Right. Yeah, they definitely. So we had a few stragglers, a few blue stragglers on my street as well. And yeah, they definitely strut, and you get the sense that they would happily just whack you with their fans. Right. Now, if this was a movie, you would be in New Mexico on top of the jewelry shop in your studio apartment and just here. Tom, I'm not kidding you. Yesterday when you said, oh, I'm going to call you, I could have sworn I heard a peacock sound in my neighborhood.

It was like, hey, like they just. Well, there's a lot of them now. apparently it's becoming a bit of a thing here in Los Angeles. Okay, just another thing. I call it Animal Control. Uh-huh. I mean, I really was like, it just felt like at certain points a huge disruption. Sure.

And they were saying, well, what do you want us to do about it? There's nothing we can do. It's a bird, you know. They, I think they recommended the water bottle and stuff like that. And then someone to animal control said, well, you should call 911. And I did call 911. And they were actually pretty receptive and understanding. But they said, how do you think it's going to look if we come over there with a hose?

Pretty great. Yes, I agree. Jeez. So now you've settled back in L.A. Now I'm back in L.A. Are you constantly looking over your shoulder? I mean, yesterday when I heard that noise, I was thinking, I haven't seen the last of them. It's exactly, like how you said the movie would end.

It's exactly that. Because they're moving. I feel like COVID also changed a lot of migration patterns because the states were so empty for a while. Like, I remember reading stories about, you know, alligators turning up on. any golf courses. Yeah. Taking up the empty bar stools. Yes.

Exactly. Exactly. They love trivia. I love trivia. I just feel like they're going to keep moving west. You're right. Wow.

There's nothing unless, yeah, then I was reading an article where they were saying, Well, we're going to have to learn to coexist with them. Uh-oh. And I guess my question is why. You know what my question is? Hmm.

Did a peacock write that article? Ah. Holy who else? Yeah. Have you seen any? I haven't. I only saw them. I haven't seen any out in the wild of the San Fernando Valley.

but I'm on I'm and I thought it was just kind of like a funny little story and then I remember you vaguely your Instagram with you with a peacock I had no idea this was a such a a fraught situation I think I was patient zero yeah I really do I feel yeah I felt like I was being tested in so many ways because yeah it took I I had to shift, you know, my perspective so many times of, no, this is a beautiful thing. Right, right. Is this a beautiful thing? Yeah, right.

It's that same thing with the whole pandemic experience. It's like if you were safe, then you came down to, well, am I grateful for this time? Or am I freaking out because of this time? It really kind of encapsulates that whole struggle. It's so true. It's so true. So at the end of it all, which side do you come down on? I think we need to, in your backyard, create a peacock sanctuary.

Right. A place, I mean, I feel like I see, you know, open lots all the time in L.A. Why not just put up a fence and have them live happily? Although I think they can fly. Yeah. Yeah, I think that my approach might be too kind-hearted. Right. I think we're in the beginning of a war.

I think we might be too. And the other thing is one theory that I had was that maybe, because there were some trees across the fence. For me, she had a nest in one of the trees and was watching the nest. Uh-huh. And kind of using my Wayfair brand bistro table as a lookout point. Ah, right. But I ended up having to give away because it was destroyed.

Oh, my God. By her bodily function. At the very least, I think we should monetize this situation and create a, write a Alfred Hitchcock type movie. and just call it bird rather than the bird. Oh my God. I love that. I thought you were going to say we should monetize this and put these birds on cameo.

I'm sure they have an account. I love that, just bird. That's incredible. Well, Lizzie, thank you so much. This was so much deeper than I thought it was going to be. I was just excited to say hello to you, but this is epic. I can't even believe it happened. And it feels good to express it because I obviously still have some pent-up feelings.

Right. Yeah. And if they hear this podcast and you look out your window and you see them, call me. Don't call my one. I will. I'm going to for sure. All right. Thanks, Tom.

You're the best. You are. See you soon. Okay. Bye. I told you. I told you was a great story. Do you tell me you're not.

going to rewind and listen to that a couple of times. Thank you to Lizzie for sharing that story. Thank you to Duncan Trussell for being on board. Thank you to our good friends at freshly.com for sponsoring today's program. You guys are the best. Make sure that you go to wherever you listen to this podcast. Make sure you subscribe. Make sure you don't miss out on all these great episodes and all of these and great conversations and podcasts. And listen, we are going to be expanding a little bit. We are going to be including more recipes. I'm going to put up the scone recipe from this week's episode,

give you a little more content that way. And make sure you like and subscribe. Make sure you tell your friends. Make sure you give us lots of stars. Reviews always help to spread the word. And we'll be back next week with another episode of Breaking Bread with Tompapa. You guys are the best. You're doing great.

Thank you.