Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - PAUL DANO Loved Being Reckless on The Ranch

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

The one and only Paul Dano shared some of his best childhood memories with Seth and Josh! From growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in a 1 bedroom apartment he shared with his whole family, to moving to Connecticut and the fun times he had at the Ranch, there were so many good stories Paul told! Airbnb.com Thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips and for the reminder to find your more. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/download-app.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAo7KqBhDhARIsAKhZ4uiBZme79FOIX8IvDM5Q7xb4_f4Xg3QGcoMy3jRzaMA_WwzX7oy3T_oaArhxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Go to usbank.com/altitudego to learn more about how you can earn 20,000 bonus points, worth $200, if you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days of opening your account. Eat out or eat in, with the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card. Limited time offer. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Some restrictions may apply.

This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Hi, Pashi. Hi, Sufi. How are you? I'm great. I feel like we haven't talked about it. Maybe people have seen in the photos. You are now recording from sort of a soundproof booth.

Yeah, I hope it's soundproof. Otherwise, whoever walks by out here is just hearing everything that I'm saying. They're getting the podcast for free. But I think it's pretty good for sound. I think it has been good for sound. It would also be heartbreaking if it wasn't soundproof because the walls would just be so dumb if people could hear. If you just had all that foam on the walls

and then everybody walking by could hear you. Yeah, it's like a yellow sort of egg crate type material. You know, this just shows how much you care about the podcast. Is it construction near your home that has led you into this egg crated room? Yeah. I live in a building with 17 units and the unit directly through the wall is putting in a couple of bathrooms and a new kitchen. I think they already had bathrooms. They're redoing them. Yeah. That was a very unpopular unit. Yeah. Now they have five bathrooms and a two-bedroom.

They're like, we have good news, bad news. Good news, it's a five-bedroom. Bad news, it's a no-bathroom. Yeah. So, yeah, so I had to join one of these sort of little home-away-from-home workspaces, and they have these phone booths. And this is why I have to come these days. Not bad though. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. I like having a place to go as well. When I'm home, I always feel like I'm just, the dogs might sort of come

talk to me and I'll be like, all right, I'll take you for a walk. The TV's right there in front of me, kind of no matter where I am in that house. And when you walk into this, I would assume this is some sort of work share place? Yeah. When you walk in, are people like, hey, family trips? No.

When I walk in, I have to come in so early that I'm typically the first one here. Another thing that's very kind is, you are a West Coaster and I'm an East Coaster, and you've had some real crack of donners because sometimes our guests are only available at sort of like 10 a.m. East Coast time. And so you've really had some early starts.

Yeah, those are 5.30 wake-ups for me when that happens because I do have to get up and get the dogs out and take them around the block. And I got to shower up because even though it's a podcast, sometimes we post a little bit of a video thing to go along with it. And you can't be disheveled. What would mom say? Can I tell you, though? I think you can. Can I tell you why I think you can be disheveled?

And it's why I really just embrace this podcast life. Is it because you're disheveled? Yeah, all the time. But I think when you wear big old headphones, you can't kind of tell how much of it is disheveled and how much of it is because they got headphones on. Yeah, that's time. But I think when you wear big old headphones, you can't kind of tell how much of it is disheveled and how much of it is because they got headphones on. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah.

I know we are in the era now with tiny little ear pods, but I just want to wear these headphones all day long. Yeah, they're nice. They're cozy. They are cozy. They're like earmuffs as well. That's a good way of putting it. Yeah.

We had a very temperate day today in New York City. It is the winter, and it should be colder, but it was very warm, and Axel decided he wanted to wear, somebody bought him when he was real little, like a Harley Davidson leather jacket. And so he wore that to school today. And he's already outgrown it a little bit, so it's also like a, picture a Harley Davidson jacket that's also sort of a half shirt. Yeah.

So any piece of coolness and toughness you get from wearing a leather jacket is completely erased by the fact that it also is exposing your lower torso. A Harley Davidson jacket that a five-year-old is too big for. Yeah. That's got to be tiny. It's a little jacket. It's a little jacket for my awesome dude. He is a cool dude. He is a cool dude. He's a cool

dude all the time. Yeah. We took our Christmas card photos this year. Have I told you what they are? No, you haven't told me. Pretty exciting. Yeah. You know, we do a themed Christmas card every year. Just the kids are in the picture. I don't want people to think that Alexi and I are also in the Christmas card. And last year, we very much leaned into Hanukkah. I think one of them was a dreidel. Yeah, somebody was a dreidel. One of them was Gelt. This year, the Grinch.

Oh. Yeah. Someone's making socks right now that are Grinch socks. I forget if it's like Bombas or Stance. Yeah. One of those. The color scheme on the Grinch. Yeah. That green. That green is really gross to me.

Oh, interesting. I thought you were going to go another way, but there you go. Yeah. So we'll see what I think of the Christmas card this year. But as a palette, I find it unpalatable. So obviously, I don't need to tell you, Addie was Cindy Lou Who. Natural casting. Right.

Both boys wanted to be Max, the dog. Uh-huh. But, you know, on a size level, it only made sense for Axel to be Max, the dog. Also, Axel's tongue is out anyway in every picture we've ever taken of him. So it seems silly not to make him Max, the dog. And so then Ash was in a bad mood

that he had to be the Grinch. And then we're, like, posing for the photos, and he's got this real sour look on his face. And finally I'm like, Ash, it's a Christmas card smile. And then he looks at me like I'm crazy, and he goes, I'm the Grinch. I was like, oh. Nailed it. I think the Grinch has some smiles, but they're evil smiles.

They're evil smiles, yeah. Which Ash is also very capable of. He has a real shit-eating grin when he knows he's done mischief. Yeah. I got some really heartbreaking news the other day. I was at Trader Joe's, and we've talked about how much I like the Trader Joe's turkey-less vegan roast around the holidays. And it was my whole plan, my whole scheme for Thanksgiving through Christmas, get one of these for each of those holidays

and maybe one for the middle. Like it's really a special time of year. And I went to Trader Joe's the other day and they didn't have one. The people in Trader Joe's, I gotta say, so nice. Anytime you ask anyone for anything, they walk you over. So I asked this woman, I was like, hey, do you know the turkeys are out?

Do you have these turkey-less vegan roasts? And she's like, I'm not sure. I don't see them. Let me go check the computer. And she came back and she's like, I'm so sorry. They've been discontinued because of poor sales. And I said, I used to call different Trader Joe's and race over to get them. And they're no more.

And she says they're going to work on a new product, but it won't be around for this season, to hopefully generate more sales and be on the shelves in the future. So I just, I'm beside myself. More like Trader Joe's. I just, I don't know. Maybe I live in LA and there's a lot of vegans around here, so we would snap them up in other parts of the country.

Maybe they were less popular, but I know they were popular here. And I got to imagine you can't just get a turkey and then take the turkey out of it. It feels like you got to start from... Yeah, that's like a whole, I don't know, scientific process that's beyond your at-home de-turkeying a turkey. Yeah, I've never been able to de-turkey a turkey. So I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'm sorry, buddy. That's disappointing. Yeah, for me. I mean, there's probably part of you that enjoys this, but for me, it's... Yeah, I mean, I'm... I know I said I'm sorry, but I've already forgotten about it and moved on.

Yeah. Our next guest is Paul Dano, who I'm a big fan of, and he's in a really great new movie, Dumb Money, which is about the GameStop stock saga. Stonks. Stock saga, which is a story I think everybody's heard a little bit about, and maybe you don't listen to an episode of The Daily or something that had it explained to you. But it's a really fascinating story. And it is one of those movies that moves very quickly, is wonderfully written, well acted. And I just highly recommend it. And he's always good at everything. Yeah, I listened to another podcast, Script Notes with John August and Craig Mazin. And they occasionally will talk about stories in

the news and say, can this be a movie? And I forget they did talk about this because people were talking about it like, oh, this is definitely going to be a movie. And I feel like they were saying, this can't be a movie. And now it is a movie. Yeah. And I'm hearing good things about it.

I'm excited to see it. We had the writers for the movie on our show as well during the actor's strike. When the writer's strike was over, the actor's strike wasn't. It was very hard to promote a movie like that without actors. So we had Lauren Sugarblum and Rebecca Angelo on,

and they really did a great job because I don't think it's crazy to think, oh, that probably shouldn't be a movie, but they bring a lot of great characters and great humanity to it. I really enjoyed it, and I also really enjoyed this conversation with Paul Dano. And before you listen to it,

why don't you really enjoy this incredible... They say it's the song he's most known for oh yeah yeah it just it just came up over uh jesus incorporated i want to say jesus etc etc oh boy jesus incorporated jesus etc is number one and then i think this is number two and then jesus incorporated is his third here's jeff tweeting Here's Jeff Tweedy. Recording. Recording. Recording Recording Recording Yes

Hey Hello Paul Oh golly look at your setup I know I'm in a weird place There's construction near where I live And I've moved into this office now That has these phone booths that are all very color coordinated. I'm in the yellow booth this morning. Nice. Yeah. I'm in a closet. Yeah. I look like you're in a closet. Yeah. No, it really does look that way.

Now it's so nice to see you, Paul. I just saw you. You were just on my show. And so this is a delight to get a nice longer conversation with you. This is different. This is less pressure, maybe? I think there is less pressure. There's a certain level of intimacy when one is in one's closet. I think that, yeah, you don't achieve on a talk show set. In one's closet. This is a different phrasing. Now, Paul, I'm fascinated by anyone who

had your upbringing. And I know it wasn't for long, but you were a Manhattan-born child. And you lived in Manhattan for how long before you guys left the city? Till third grade. And we were in a- Oh, so a while. So yeah, a while. We, we were in a one bedroom apartment. So me and my sister in bunk beds and my parents in the bed, you know, a big bed next to us, but we had like a fancy address. So we were up on the Upper East side, but we were in one bedroom and we just had to go to the suburbs, you know, it, it, it wasn't. Yeah. Yeah. As a kid, were you aware that that was cramped quarters? No, I think you normalize what your life is. Like, this is what life is. So certainly I had friends who maybe had bigger places, but some kids, you know, I mean, it was apartment living, right?

Not everybody, especially in Manhattan, right? It wasn't like a lot of people I know in Brooklyn now, you might have a house. You know, that's a totally different bag. So people had apartments. I think kids sometimes had their own rooms, but we were small enough where, I mean, I'm actually wearing a sweatshirt I stole from my sister. So we're still close. We grew up that way.

I think I liked it. I remember walking to school in the morning. We lived close enough to Central Park. We lived close enough to FAO Shorts, which was the real thing, which sadly is not there. But that was like to go there, if my grandma was in town, to walk to FAO Shorts, which was the real thing, which sadly is not there. But that was like to go there, if my grandma was in town, to walk to FAO Shorts and have her buy me a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. That was like, that was as good as it gets. Yeah. Did you have a hierarchy?

Was there a turtle that you preferred? Did you? I was a Donatello and a Michelangelo guy. So sort of, you know, the two parts of me. Donatello probably leads, but, you know, hopefully I got a little Michelangelo in there somewhere. Great. I'm a little ignorant to the different personalities of the turtles. What was it about Donatello that appealed you? Okay. I hit a sore spot. I hit a nerve. Either that or I asked the question you've been dying to be asked

for years of press doors. Didn't Donatello have a staff? He had the staff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say, was he maybe the more quiet, intelligent one? You know, Leonardo was kind of the leader with the swords. Raphael was kind of the angry hotshot. Michelangelo was the goofball. I guess that's a slightly different, you know, for us. I mean, for people of my, I think the turtles were,

turtles were important, Seth. Yeah, yeah. I know, I'm of my, I think the turtles were, turtles were important, Seth. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I'm not denying the importance of the turtles. The turtles were born, we're from New Hampshire. The turtles were New Hampshire dudes who had like an independent comic. I think they were born in a sewer.

I think ooze went to, no, no. Yeah. They're from New Hampshire, the turtles. Yeah. Yeah. The turtles are from, which is so funny because I don't think there's a single sewer in New Hampshire. And yet, so this really speaks to the imagination of those fellas. That's cool. Eastman. I have a couple more questions about the one-bedroom apartment.

We have bunk beds for our boys. Older top bunk. Were you the top bunk? Yeah, for sure. Older top bunk. Yeah, the top bunk? Yeah, for sure. Older top bunk. Yeah, I think you have to do that. Our five-year-old wants a bunk bed. Bunk beds are just cool, right, for kids? Yeah. I mean, yeah, but definitely top bunk. The bunk beds that we grew up in are in my parents' house in Pennsylvania now, so my kids now sleep in them when we visit my parents.

Oh, that's outstanding. That's great. It is strange because kids are pretty little. I mean, you were obviously little when you were sleeping in bunk beds, but to put a kid, and Seth, you do this now, a young child in an elevated bed where, you know, we're all a bit disoriented when we wake up in the middle of the night. We might have to go to the bathroom, but like, yeah.

Were there ever any bunk bed accidents for you, Paul? Yeah, I think that's, is this one of the things that culturally with parenting over time has just changed? Because I was definitely in a top bunk at five. I'm not letting my five-year-old sleep in a top bunk. I'm like, she's going to fall out. I mean, there is a guardrail. I wonder if it was just more normal where now I have a bit more, and I think parents

generally do. I don't remember any incident. There was a little sort of ledge at my feet and I had a couple items I kept up there of mine. And I remember having a little toy safe, which felt very important the way kids like this, you learn to count and you're like, I have some quarters and I keep them in my safe here. No, I liked my top bunk. Don't remember any incidents. My sister was in the bottom. Yeah, but that's funny. Our seven-year-old who's top bunk, he, at night, will go because the little guy falls asleep first and we let Ash, the older one, he has a little nightlight.

We let him read. He brings 50 books into his bed. And he also has 50 stuffed animals. And so when he falls asleep, it's almost like he's shrink-wrapped. There's nowhere to even move because of all the pack-ratting that he has done in his bed. But I think that idea, like the little shelf is that. The fact that they can have a place that is just for their stuff, I think, makes them so happy. That's very sweet.

That's very sweet. Does he go to sleep on his own, or do you say he has to turn out the light at some point? We're getting to the point now where we have to go in and say, enough's enough. Because he can really just stretch it out. And then he's so drag-ass tired in the morning that we have to. Yeah, that's very sweet. I think a safe, to me, seems like a very cool thing for a kid. And last year, I want to say, I gave Ash, my nephew, a book that was hollowed out.

And so it looks like it's the Jungle Book, I think. And then you open it up, and it's just empty. And I was like, you can put whatever you want in here, and you put it on the bookshelf and no one will know it was there. And he just looked at it and was like, yeah, but where's, where's the gift? And I was like, no, this is the gift. This is, and he was like, yeah, I don't, I don't get it. So hopefully, hopefully he'll come around on that. That's cool. And that's gives me a good gift idea for Christmas. Cause I do think my, I do think my five-year-old would like that. Cause we like anything that's a little bit cheeky. We can hide something.

That sounds fun. What were the logistics? And I'm assuming you guys go to bed and then your parents' bed is in the same room and they just come to bed just later on on their own and you guys don't wake up? I guess so. I mean, I don't totally remember, honestly. And we were a late-night family. My mother says, well, you guys never went to bed early. And I was like, we make our kids go to bed early.

She was like, no, you guys just wouldn't do it. So we were always, I think, a late night family. And once I started doing theater young, so by the time I was in middle school, I was doing Off-Broadway and Broadway. So I was living up, I was always a night owl, I think. So I think we just went to bed late. My dad had a place in Pennsylvania. And so one of the family trips that I was thinking about before doing this was like most weekends on a Friday, my dad would pull his car up outside the apartment building and we would drive out to Pennsylvania, through the Lincoln Tunnel and get on 80 West and we'd go out to his place. And I texted my sister about this because I was like, do you remember the family trips? What are these? And she had the same memory I did of we were driving out.

And I'm going to read you what she wrote, actually, because it's pretty funny. She was like, I remember being in dad's shitty gray tiny car amongst all these huge trucks waiting in line at the tolls pre-easy pass and dad getting into it with the trucker. The trucker got out of his car and dad got out of his car and they were yelling and that was scary. And I was like, yes, that's like one of my key childhood road trip memories is when we thought our dad was going to get like killed by a trucker, you know, on the side of the road. And we had a lot of car rides from that one bedroom apartment to my dad's place. And my sister also remembered that his radio didn't work. So our big game was like, we would hum, somebody would hum a song and you would have to guess the song because there was no radio.

That's fantastic. What, in your head, what was your dad arguing with the trucker about? Do you have any memory of what would make? No, I mean, you're in traffic. There's no, no. But I remember my dad, I think, was getting a kick out of it. I think he was laughing at first, you know, hollering back at the guy from the car. And we were terrified. And then once they got out of the car, that's when things really turned. And it's funny, you know, kids are protective of their parents, right? It's like that reverse relationship. And, you know, something happening to your parent is like the scariest thing that could happen to a kid in a way. Nothing bad happens. But yeah, my other memory there now that I say it is just what a thrill it was to throw when it was tokens.

Throw the token into the thing from the car. My dad had his cigar out the window. He'd then keep his cigar in the windshield wiper whenever we'd go in somewhere. So he'd pull in to get a slice of pizza along the road, and the cigar would go in the windshield wiper. We'd come back out. He'd pick that cigar right off the windshield. There's nothing cleaner than a windshield wiper.

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I think sometimes you talk about things from the past that were fun, and I think modern kids are like, oh, man, that's a bummer. We don't do that anymore. I feel like both those examples, kids, if they were listening and be like, I think I'm all right, missing out. Like when you're like, you can't believe the thrill. Cause I agree, Paul, my, the thrill of throwing coins into the basket and watching, especially when they, cause then there was the era where there was a digital

counter. And so you could, well, you know, if you had to hit like 65 cents, you know, you'd start throwing in the money and watching it go up. It was just the best. Yeah. But I do feel like kids listening might be like, I feel like EasyPass might be a massive improvement. They might not want to be bothered, right? They're on their phones. Also, super, super long lines.

Longer lines when you had to throw coins into a basket. But I think your kids would be crawling over each other to get coins to throw out the window. You're right, Josh. I think I'm forgetting. I'm thinking of teens who look at their phones, but you're right. I think Paul's kids, my kids would be like, yeah, I might get an inside basket for the car

and make them throw change into it when we hit the tolls. You each get to throw a coin. How long was the drive to Pennsylvania on Fridays? Two, two and a half. So that's a doable drive. It's a doable drive. Now, we were a driving family. If we were going to take a vacation, which was rare, we drove.

We were not a flying family. And I think maybe that was more typical of that time, or maybe not. I'm not sure. I think it is. That's been our experience so far, talking to people. Okay, it's funny, right? I mean, so our vacation was really my grandparents would organize a vacation. You know, I think my dad was the kind of guy who was like, what do I need new shoes for?

And he's got masking tape over the front toes, you know, that they still work. And I think the same way with vacation, like, well, we've got, you know, this place in Pennsylvania right here. What do we, you know, need to go on vacation for? But my grandparents would organize vacation. And the sort of essential memory of that is we would go to a place in Georgia on Sea Island, Georgia, which is a pretty good drive from Connecticut at this point. But we would always drive. We'd drive every summer from Connecticut down to Georgia, me and my sister in the backseat, my parents up front.

And I think about that now and somebody would have to be paying me to sit in a car for that long. Yeah, that's got to be 12, 15. Definitely over 12 and under 16. I think whenever, if it was over 16, like I think Disney World, I think we flew to. Right. I think it's possible we drove though. I really don't remember flying with my family. And is that still a no radio car when you're driving? I'm hoping. No, no. I think it was a different car. Again, I'm going to read because it was so fun to text my sister about this. Here's what she said. And I hope that future guests, I encourage

future guests on this podcast to text siblings because it's a very novel take you've used, Paul, that I highly appreciate. Good. No, no, it's fun. I mean, look, you guys are siblings. That's what I was like... She said, I remember getting in the car to drive to Georgia with all of us skull emoji and driving out of our road. And you put on that John Mayer song, Why Georgia? And we all kind of questioned if it was a good idea or not to embark on this trip because we were driving to Georgia.

That's obviously a song you played knowing it was funny. Were your parents the kind of parents who also thought that was funny? Well, my sister remembered it, so she did. My mom might have found that funny. Yeah, my mom liked to laugh. I mean, my mom laughs so much

that my five-year-old daughter tells her to be quiet when they're watching a movie together. Oh, great. Like, she's a really easy audience, and she's a total sucker. You can get a pretty cheap laugh Oh, great. Like she's, and she's a really easy audience and she's a total sucker. You can get a pretty cheap laugh out of her. Did she laugh at your dad?

Did she think your dad was funny? You know, I'm not sure if she was laughing with him or at him, you know. When you have a one bedroom apartment situation and 16 hour car rides, you know, the relationship develops. And so I don't think that was a key to their relationship. Yeah. When your sister says you're driving with all of us, is that with grandparents as well?

Or were you just the four of you in the car? No, but funny enough, this is maybe where, where it came from on my mom's side. At least my grandpa's grew up in Michigan. His dream was to work for Ford motors. He did forever. They drove everywhere. If my grandparents were going to go to somewhere in Arizona, they drove, you know, from the East coast. If they were going to sun Valley, Idaho, they drove from the East coast. Like it was just their thing. And they, you know, that's a much earlier generation, but they would have driven as well. Um, but just not, not all in the same car. We never had a camper van, you know, it wasn't that kind of thing. It wasn't, it wasn't a camping family, but it was very, I mean, like the Griswolds, we still watch the Christmas vacation

movie every year, Christmas at our house. It does remind us of ourselves. When you got to Pennsylvania, what was that vibe there? When the four of you would go down, was there other members of the Dano clan there or was it just the four of you? It was just the four of us, but we talked about this last night. I have a lot of Pennsylvania-based families, so our Thanksgiving is like 50 to 60 people, which is a lot. And it's at my dad's place every year, and it's just a great memory for me growing up. No, my dad's place is proper country, not suburbs country. He's on a lot of acres. There's logging trails throughout the woods. He has friends who hunt on the property he doesn't

hunt but it's that kind of vibe in the summers he has a bar of soap attached to the little dock on his pond he likes to bathe in the pond in the summer oh great nice and you can say this is where i get my my manly yeah we were wondering we're about to ask where do you get it from but now we know is my father you know who's a real um uh no he's like got a backhoe, you know, he's like a, he's that kind of guy. And I love him. I'm just not, you know, I wish I had that. Yeah. Cause it would sound, it would sound cool. And I think it would be impressive. When did you know you weren't going to be that? Because obviously your dad had that. And I mean, there's certain things I feel like my dad that I realized I was going to share it and other things where I was like, Oh, I'm never

going to, I don't care about that at all. I think pretty young when he was probably like, Paul, like, you know, help me move this rock or get, you know, this chainsaw. And I was like, I think I'm just going to play my guitar. But he also, he was a financial advisor, correct? Or is, or was? He was, but he's old for my age. So my dad's 88 now. And so he, you know, in his, by his 60s was retired. By the time I was in middle school, he was working a lot less and spending a lot more time in Pennsylvania. He was a city slicker. Then he just sort of changed to, I don't know if it was a life that he grew up with or not, but it just slowly went that way.

His true essence. Going back to the woods. Good for him. Were you on a pond, the Pennsylvania place? Yeah. I mean, well, the house was on land, but yes, there was a pond on the property. But it was close enough to bathe, right? When I'm picturing the soap on the dock, I'm like, well, you got to be able maybe to see the house from the okay.

Yes, you can. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can. I mean, it's really nice. It's fun to take my kids there. It's a place that's just as if put together at a garage sale. There's just trinkets and weird stuff everywhere. Kids love it there because it's a little strange, too.

I mean, it's nice. It's the woods in the country, but it's not decorated by someone who cares. Yeah. You also, you keep calling it your father's place. Did he say, I'm buying this place and you guys can come, but it's mine? I think it's that because it predated my mother and us. So it's a place, I think he bought basically, it was like a broken down old dude ranch. Gotcha. Oh, fascinating. And it had to be re slowly reconstituted. I think it was not livable when he got it. I think he got it really cheap.

And then him and I think some family, some cousins and some friends slowly kind of got the place together. Do you have a name for it or is it just like the Pennsylvania place? No, we call it the ranch. We're on the ranch. Yeah, the ranch. It does sound like now a thing when you were a kid that you were probably excited to go to. For sure. But also because, again, my dad had a three-wheeler, a four-wheeler.

There were guns. Like, you know, it was, yeah. It was also fun to bring friends there. You just kind of stepped into a different world. And it was especially fun actually later, like in high school, we could kind of just go there and be reckless, you know, and have a good time.

So I have really good memories there. Did you ever get to go with friends where your parents weren't there? Was there ever like, hey, I'm going to take forever? Was there always an expectation that your parents were going to be there too? I think so. But I'm going to say this. My parents, I don't think they're going to hear this podcast.

They have cell phones, but not smartphones. I think they only turn their cell phone on to use it. Yep. Got it. We recently had a family thing in Southern Pennsylvania in the spring, and they showed up like three or four hours late because they were using like a real map. Yeah, great.

So I don't think they're going to hear this, but I think we probably were there alone, but my dad was also the kind of person like, you guys aren't doing drugs out there, right? And we'd just be like, nope. And he'd be like, okay. So it didn't really matter, I guess, is what I'm saying. My parents will drive to come see us.

And it's the two of them in a car. And my wife will say, will you call them and find out when they're going to be here? And I'll sometimes call and neither of them answers their phone. And I'm like, what is the purpose of the cell phones? You're driving in a car. Neither of you wants to have the ringer on. But they come from a different era. And I say that knowing full well they will be hearing this. Yeah. Yeah, okay.

They don't have the ringer on, but dad also does have the voice on the map telling him where to get off the highway. And that voice always interrupts any conversation that you're having or any flow that might be happening with something on the radio. Wasn't it, I think it was on this that I heard you, Josh, saying that yours is always on Do Not Disturb. Yeah. And that you're never so, it sounds like you're just like your dad. Yeah, kind of. But then I will look at it and then I will call someone back.

I'll also send an ETA. Yeah, he's very ETA friendly. Yeah. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Posh, these days too many people have to settle for the next best thing, especially when it comes to choosing a car. Yeah, but at Nissan, there's a vehicle type for everyone,

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I like a nice ride. I like a nice sound system. I like something that's, yeah, that's comfortable. You like to have room to load up a bunch of gear, go somewhere, do an adventure. I do. I'm never happier than when I have sort of a full car, a roof rack on my car. Makes me happy.

And all I need is a cup holder for an iced coffee. And Nissan can provide you with both of those things. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. And for the reminder to find your more. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. We are supported by Airbnb. Hey, Pashi. Hi, Sufi.

I love an Airbnb because I like taking vacations with a group. I've taken so many great vacations with groups, and they've really been made that much better because of staying in a place that has so much space, a place where everyone has their own room, and then a place where everyone can sort of convene in a nice living room or in a nice private backyard. Yes. I think my favorite part about the group stay is the morning convening in a kitchen.

I like when I'm in a city with friends and we've gone out to a great restaurant and then we've gone out to a great bar and everybody comes home and goes back to their beds. When you stay in a different location as your friends, sometimes it's like noon or one until you all run in together. But if you've got that kitchen and everybody just sort of starts wandering in and making their coffee, especially when it's like noon or one until you all run in together but if you got that kitchen and everybody just sort of starts wandering in and making their coffee it's especially when it's like college friends yeah it is a real reminder of what college used to feel like you know we had uh our friend we were talking to our friend will forte about the wonders of a jigsaw puzzle yeah and i think when you have a shared airbnb you just come in first day, find that coffee table, start the jigsaw puzzle, and then that is the center of your universe for however many days you're there. It really is. An Airbnb, there's more opportunity for conversation and catching up in a way that is just comfortable and familiar.

It's the best. comfortable and familiar, it's the best. So how often do you get to bring your kids to the ranch? Well, we're going on Wednesday, going for Thanksgiving. We go every so often. I mean, one thing Alma really loves out there, my daughter, is there's an old roller rink out there, like a real blast from the past kind of place. And it's actually kind of awesome. Like the lights, the disco ball, it just feels great. So she loves to go rollerblading. She's happy to go. She gets spoiled by grandma and grandpa. But honestly, we go out there like once a season, I want to say. They would like us two more, but I think with just life, it's like, okay. It's getting two kids in the car. I mean, this is the thing now,

thinking back that we did it almost every weekend. Man, getting our two, well, one. It's getting two kids in the car. I mean, this is the thing now, thinking back, that we did it almost every weekend. Man, getting our two, well, one of them's a baby, one of them's one, but getting our two kids in the car, that's just a whole thing in itself. It is a whole thing in itself. Getting everything packed up. Yeah. I do want to know, because your daughter is five, is that right? Yeah, yeah. What are her skills on rollerblades, roller skates?

Oh, just going around in a circle. But she can stay on her feet? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that going around in a circle. But she can stay on her feet? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's impressive. Yeah, and we'll go ice skating out there too, which is fun. I mean, as you know, having kids, I think just having activities is kind of the key to the weekend. Yeah. It's like, okay.

100%. We need our activities set. We take our boys, and then starting in January, we'll start skiing again. Josh is a skier. I don't enjoy it at all. But I actually, just on a cold weekend, having a thing to do. It's just the value of it. I actually don't even mind that it's an hour drive each way

because that also kills time where otherwise my wife would say we should go sledding. You don't think of it as time well spent with your kids? You just think of it as killed time. Yeah. I think of it's like a little bit closer to when I get to die. Totally. Totally. Yeah.

No, we, we took her skiing for the first time last year. She really liked it. She just wanted to go fast though. Yeah. That was her. She just wanted to go fast.

And I do like to snowboard. And that was, you know, we, I was in high school in Connecticut and almost every weekend we would drive up to Vermont or New Hampshire, you know, maybe Massachusetts, three to four plus hours though to go snowboarding. When we couldn't drive, we'd take the bus from the local like ski shop and they'd have like a 5 a.m. bus and you'd go up. That was great. It was the best.

You would do that just with friends your age? Friends. That's amazing. Friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But my grandparents lived in New Hampshire actually at that point. Oh, wow. Whereabouts?

Grantham, east of Grantham area. So far north. Sorting your hand over. Yep, yep. Yeah. Up there. That's beautiful. Yeah.

Shout out to Whaleback where we'd go night skiing. Yeah. All right. I don't know that I've ever been night skiing in my life, but I thought it was fun. Oh, great. But cold. It's got to be so much colder. I guess so. But when you're a kid. Yeah, when you're a kid, you don't know that I've ever been night skiing in my life. But I thought it was fun. And cold. It's got to be so much colder. I guess so. But when you're a kid, I don't know. You don't care.

But I did care. That was the problem. When we would go skiing, I was... And to this day, if it's a little bit cold, the tips of my fingers turn white. I just think I have bad circulation. So my entire upbringing, I had so much dread about skiing. I just think I have bad circulation. So my entire upbringing, I had so much dread about skiing.

It's why I'm, and I know this is going to rankle Josh, it's why I'm pro-global warming. I think this has been great. I'm enjoying skiing more than I ever have. It's called climate change. It's not global warming. Whatever it is,

it's working out great for me. How did that make you feel, though, being in New Hampshire, surrounded by people who I would imagine are built for the cold? Out of place. Yeah, very out of place. You found some other indoor kids to play with. I did. I've had a lot. We had some of those, too. Now, you were talking about your guitar, and neither of your parents were artists, correct? No, but I did find out, it was a while ago now, but my dad did take an acting class when he came

to the city in his 20s. This was, golly, in the 60s, I guess. And he said he did it to meet girls. Yeah. I don't know whether he was just sort of fudging that he, did he actually have interest in that, and it didn't work out or something, or that makes a lot of sense too. Like he said, there was a, an acting class, you're like a,

like a girl's school. And so they, they took acting classes there in their twenties. No, although my, yeah, my dad secretly has like maybe a bit of creativity. He's like in his older age,

he's written some things I think for himself. And he's always kind of worked the land in a certain way, like building waterfalls and stuff. That counts. But I got started acting because going to private school here in New York, there was so many extracurriculars and one of them was like a speech and debate public speaking thing. So even in elementary school and my mom really wanted me to do that because I think likely she wanted me to be a lawyer or a politician or something that most parents think that would be a good job, right? A lawyer or whatever. And then we moved to Connecticut, there wasn't that stuff. And so

she put me in the community theater to keep up my speaking in public thing. And then it turned out I was good at acting. And so the community theater led to me doing regional theater in Connecticut and like summer theater and stuff like that. At that point, it was just like the way you go to soccer camps or like, you know, whatever it was an activity, but then it kind of led to doing regional theater, which then led to doing like off-Broadway and Broadway. And then when you're living in Connecticut and you start doing Broadway, off-Broadway, is that a pain to have to be coming into the city? Or is that? I mean, if we count that as a family trip, the amount of times that I went into New

York City with my mom, it's crazy because I did. I started, I would go to school. I would maybe go to soccer or basketball practice. Then we'd drive into the city and I'd do a play at night. And then I would come back and I guess I would do my homework when I could. And when I look on that now, 10, 11, 12, I go, wow, okay, that's, I don't think I knew it again. I think I sort of just normalized what your thing is, but I go, okay, that's like a pretty heavy duty schedule because those proper plays at six days a week too, right? Eight shows a week. And they were how long a runs were those plays, the early ones you were in? Probably four months, three or four months. I think like 16 week runs were kind of common then. Some of them were musicals, some were plays. Were the kids in school, were they aware that that was a thing you did? And if so, were they impressed or did they think you were weird?

Yeah, there wasn't awareness because they had a class trip and camera was sixth or eighth grade, but it was definitely in middle school where the whole class came in to see one of the productions like on a bus and were in the audience. And so I think maybe actually people thought it was kind of cool. Maybe I was a pretty dorky guy. So no, I think if anything, maybe it was kind of interesting. Yeah.

I'm sorry. I said, right. When you said you were a pretty dorky guy, I said, right. Like I know. I think the audio actually dropped out. So you were going to get away with it. But now you swung back for it. No, I'm glad you came for me.

Now, I have a question. Do you remember the day, whether you were a sixth or eighth grader, where your entire class came to see your show? Do you have a memory of that making you more nervous? It probably did. But honestly, what I remember about it was that they cheered, and that was a nice feeling. That's outstanding. That's what I remember now, talking about that.

I still get nervous. I got nervous before coming out last night on your show. It's just what happens, and I don't know what it would be like if it didn't. I would like to know. Some part of me would like to know what would it be like if I wasn't so nervous, but I don't know if that's just part of how you get it up, so to speak. Coming out as a guest is different, but if I'm going to do a play on Broadway or go on a film set, even if you're trying to like, quote, act realistically, you're not working at the same temperature that you do

in life. It's more like an athlete or something. There's just like a different, I'm sure SNL was that way a little bit too. 100%. It's just not your normal speed. It's not your normal temperature. It's a different bag. And so I don't know what would happen if the nerves went away, but they're definitely still there for me. I remember when I started at SNL, one of the writers said,

if a host ever says they're not nervous, it's about to be a terrible show. And it's true. You realize the ones that just thought it was going to be business as usual were not prepared for how fast it went and how off they were going to seem. And so when you watch an SNL and someone is just eating shit as a host, no, they were feeling really good like an hour ago. But who are those people? I know. I mean, is it confidence or is it just, you know, stupidity? Yeah, I think there's some, there's a level of confidence.

And I think I've seen it more, I mean, and again, I don't, because this is just sort of the folly of youth. It was always sort of younger people who'd been met with a great amount of early success who thought, oh, well, I've already overcome so many hurdles. This is not going to be. And then you'd watch them kind of eat it. And you realize, well, welcome to the big leagues, kid. I started young enough, and I don't think it did that to me.

If anything, I think for some reason I had the opposite, which is almost, and I don't say this in a good way, but almost like I had to keep my guard up because I started young. I think I had the opposite feeling. Like, oh, it almost makes me feel like I have to be better or get better because I didn't want to just be an actor when I was 18 or 20 or 25. Right. And what about with community theater?

Does that mean, my assumption is, so you start doing that when you're young, but you're also working with actors of all different ages. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That must also, I would feel like, put this sort of burden on you to be prepared and not be the kid. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah.

I remember doing in the community theater a play called A Thousand Clowns. And I don't remember the other actor's name, but I remember really liking him. I have to say that I think that peek into the adult world, like, so my daughter is five. Like, if she gets to hang out with a bigger kid, she thinks it's so cool. Yes. You know, like, she thinks she's so happy about it. And I wonder if it was a little bit like that for me, where my experience around these adults who were all really wonderful to me you know professionally

like and some of them I occasionally still see and it's this weird they knew me when I was this like kid poly like you know this little you know guy like who sang and like you know and I'm like it feels so self-conscious for me but it's really sweet I think it was actually one of the cool parts about it was to be sort of taken in and be like I'm'm like, I'm seeing something or I'm getting to do something or I'm hearing stuff or, you know, it's a window into an adult world that most kids don't get, you know, like, you know what a dressing room is like. There's, you know, fun stories, talk. Yeah. And I think that adults in a dressing room can be aware that a kid is there, but they can only adjust, you know, a little bit.

They can't fully behave like kids are around the whole time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A Thousand Clowns, I just want to say real quick, which I have never seen, is a movie our dad always says is fantastic. And he's been saying it since I was like nine. I feel like it's like some weird rebellion against my dad. Yeah, I feel like I've blocked it out. I feel like I've heard of it as a play,

but I don't recall dad ever talking about it. I hope it's a movie. It is. Maybe he said it so much that I'm just like, no. Yeah. Yeah. You know what,

what movie I, I want to, uh, just with the holidays coming up. So we, we always had like, uh, movies that became family films,

you know, like, like I said, we watched the Christmas vacation movie and watch home alone every year or two at Christmastime. And it's not going to fly in my family, but I really want Tony Erdman to be my family's film, me, Zoe, and our kids. Have you guys seen Tony Erdman?

No, but it's on my list. I have a website that tracks things to watch. I'm so glad you brought this up. I just saw Tony Erdman. Like within the last month, I saw Tony Erdman after so many people saying to watch it. It's unbelievable. It's so good. It's so good. Paul, I thought, I wonder if our parents will like it. It's a little slow.

Yes, it is. At least for my new family with my kids, I'm like, that's hard because a good dysfunctional relationship between a father and daughter. I'm like, that's our, because a good dysfunctional relationship between a father and daughter. And I'm like, okay, that's funny. That's what I would love for our, to be our little traditional. If you said, can you pick Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan's family Christmas movie for their kids? And somebody said it was Tony Erdman. That would be exactly the funniest answer. Ours was a Christmas story. That is be exactly the funniest answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ours was a Christmas story. That is the one we would watch every year.

Yeah. And then there's one, do you know the Jim Henson, Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas? No. Oh, you gotta. It's in the pocket for your five-year-old. Okay. It's like an early Muppets, 40 minutes long, Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas. I've got the pen out.

It's being written down. Yeah, pristine. It's excellent. Kermit's there just to introduce it. And then it's characters you will never see anywhere else again, but they are so near and dear to our hearts. You'll never forget them. Oh, that's great.

That's great. So here's the thing. With Josh and I, there's another difference between Josh and I. Josh is such a good present buyer, and I'm the worst ever. I'm so bad, I think of it so late. But we love Emmett Otter. And this year, in November whatever now, I think, oh, I'm going to look and see if there's any Emmett Otter nonsense on Etsy. And sure enough, somebody

makes these beautiful Emmett Otter dolls. And I'm like, great. I'm going to get a whole set for mom. Josh is going to finally eat shit. I will have it. So anyways, I order it. And after I click, it's like, it'll be ready in five months. I'm like, oh, man. And so then, making matters worse, on Christmas Day, we all unwrap them. Josh has also bought them.

But Josh bought them, whatever, in April. The woman that makes them is in Romania or something. And makes each one by hand. I don't think they even have them ready. It's like, when you click buy, they go to work making them. That's so good. That wasn't even the biggest burn. Because it was opening it I was like

son of a gun because he got me a set too they're great I love them but the real burn was like in March when mine came and I was like

I don't even know what to do with these now that's so good this is like confederate money now I get the idea early and then I just don't click the button

yeah then it's like a week before and I'm like oh my god yeah we're recording this in mid-November. Josh, have you bought Christmas presents? A couple. Yeah, a couple.

Heartbreaking. I'm already so far behind. That's a couple better than me, Josh, but I, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I've got some ideas. Josh, just be on. Mom likes Starbucks gift cards, right?

Gosh, just be on. Mom likes Starbucks gift cards, right? I want to swing back, Paul, if I can, to Sea Island, Georgia. Any memories of Sea Island? What do you do down there? Yeah. My sister was like a pool person. I loved to play ping pong in the rec room.

Oh, yeah. A good rec room? It's hard to beat a good rec room. We loved a rec room. Oh, yeah. A good rec room? It's hard to beat a good rec room. We loved a rec room. It was great. It was great. And I'm still okay at ping pong, but literally from the three summers we spent there in elementary school, middle school,

I became obsessed with just playing ping pong down there. There were some sweet things. We would go out on the beach at night with flashlights and help lead baby turtles back to the ocean because they get attracted to the land lights instead of the moonlight so you you can go help them like get back um i do remember the classic thing of like how many shampoos can we take home you know from this hotel you know and everybody in the family the uncle and the and my dad okay like how many you know like yes so just like taking shampoo from a hotel.

I'm glad I don't still do that or need to do that. That's a nice. Right. Is the ranch in Pennsylvania just full of Georgia soaps and shampoos? Yeah, from 1996. Yeah. Would you go to the hotel for a week? Was it two weeks?

How long would you go down there? Yeah, I'm going to say a week. I'm going to say seven to ten days. Two weeks sounds long. There would be a little other family down there. I'm not a beach person. I can be okay with the beach. You know, if the water's like clear and blue,

but I've never been like a big U.S. beach person in general. So yeah, I don't know what he says about me, but yeah, ping pong is the first thing that comes to mind. Yeah, we're not big beach people, I wouldn't say. Yeah, we're not. If there's a game happening on a beach, I enjoy it. But I don't. Yeah, I can find no.

Every other place is a better place to read. When people say, oh, I love reading on the beach. I'm like, what part of it is better than the couch? Yeah, me too. I'll just fall asleep. It's too bright. Oh, you know what that I really loved as a kid? Now I would be like a little more. I would still do it, but a buffet.

Yeah. Like the buffet at this place, you know, just that was like the coolest thing. I thought, you know, just, oh, we're going to get to go to the buffet and you just get to eat all you want. You pick out just what you want and you have to make your plate and. Get pancakes and French toast and waffles. Yeah. Yeah. Now I'd be a little bit more suspect of a buffet i'd be like okay what are they serving you know yeah what how long

has it been out there okay you know hey we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors this episode of family trips is brought to you by the mcdonald's app sometimes i'm heading to work and i'm craving a sausage McMuffin with egg and a premium roast coffee, but I stop, the line's too long, and I just bail. And I'm brokenhearted because once you have that in your head, it's very hard to get out of your head. But now with the McDonald's app, just order in the app, pick your favorite location, select curbside or counter, and then head to McDonald's and boom, your food is ready. That means no waiting in line, no dealing with a lunch rush, just some hot and fresh McDonald's that's ready when you are. Now that's a VIP experience. And then I'll bring it up to the office. My writers are like, hey,

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Visit usbank.com slash altitude go to apply. Limited time offer. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply. I don't know how you guys are, but my wife is very on it with how healthy the kids eat. And she takes nutrition very seriously. And I celebrate it. The kids are healthy and they've got a lot of energy. It's great. But now they go to school and it's basically, they decide what they're going to have for lunch. It's not like there's an adult, there's a teacher there, but they're not going to sit with every single kid. And it is the funniest part of every morning because we'll ask the kids what they had for lunch yesterday. And it just breaks my wife's heart because my son will be like,

I had a cheeseburger, but just the bun and oatmeal and ketchup. It's just like, yeah, it's all carbs and ketchup. Yeah. I mean, kids are kids as long as they're eating. As long as they're eating. Yeah. I mean, kids are kids. As long as they're eating. As long as they're eating. Yeah, I agree. Ketchup is a side.

You and your sister are what, four years apart? Two years. Two years apart. She's two years older than my little sister. She lives pretty close. We share a car, in fact, because we don't really need a car in the city. So we share one.

So we're really close. I think we're not like we tell each other everything, but I don't know who tells each other everything. You know, when I hear people say that, like we tell each other everything, I'm like, come on, you know, I don't tell my, I don't tell my wife or my, my shrink everything, you know, like, you gotta keep something back. That's how we, that's identity. It's called identity. When you think back to your travels, were you the two of you doing stuff together? Yeah, we did. We did stuff together. One trip, my mom wanted to take us

to London because she lived there for a few years. This was in high school. And I think I was really at that teenager point where nothing to do with my parents could ever be cool or fun. We showed up, we were jet lagged in the morning. We showed up, couldn't get into the hotel. So we had no place to... It took forever. I don't know if we were just there too early or what. And then we all just had to sleep, even though we were supposed to meet friends. And apparently I picked up the phone during our nap and wrote down where we were supposed to meet these people. And we all got up and what I wrote down was completely illegible. You could not make heads or tails of it at all. This is before we didn't have cell phones that worked in London

and the UK. So we knew they were going to see a show in Piccadilly. So we just spent like a couple hours, my sister and I walking around Piccadilly thinking we'd bump into our friends, which is like going to Times Square and being like, you know, well, and we did end up meeting them at their theater, like, you know, probably two hours late from when we said, oh, we'll meet up and hang out. The Hadley Hotel, I remember it was called. I remember it was called that because, of course, I just wanted to be in our room. And I wrote a song about it.

It was like, the Hadley Hotel, living in the Hadley Hotel. And I didn't want to go out with my mom and see sights. And before that, yeah, no, my sister and I would do stuff, but we also wouldn't. We do our own thing. So, yeah. Any other trips outside of going to the ranch and going to Sea Island that you can recall? Like when you went to Disney, do you remember how old you were there? No, what I remember that is I had a sleepwalking incident in Disney,

and I left our hotel room in the night. And I think I even went outside, came back, tried to go to the soda machine, didn't have any money, and then came back to the room, apparently. And that was the big highlight. I also remember it was such a big deal to go to Disney, right? And then- Of course. And I just remember then some of the rides, like thinking I wanted to do them and then waiting in line like 90 minutes and then be like, I'm not going on the roller coaster, you know? And be like, you know,

this was young. I can't remember exactly what age, but it was like, oh, I wanted to do the thing that people said. Then we did it and it ended up being fun. My grandparents also lived in North Carolina. So we just had a lot of, again, we just had a lot of car rides, a lot of car rides, a lot of car rides. Me and my sister in the backseat, one of the things she texted, which I, which I didn't read on purpose, but I will because I can clarify it. She's like, I remember the time driving out of the road with the song. She's like, I remember when you gave me a fat lip in the backseat. And I was like, what?

And I was like, what was that? She's like, no, we were just playing. And it was her stuffed animal named Tibby, her sea turtle named Tibby. And I think I whacked her in the face with Tibby. And she got a fat lip. She still remembers that. That's a real reminder that these, these, these are lifelong traumas. When your kids are in the backseat and you're like, cut it out.

Just know whatever happened there, they'll be talking about on podcasts like 50 years. Oh golly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We, we, you know, I mean with our kids, you know, we each choose a song. I mean, Lou is one, he can't choose a song. So, so we, or I'll choose a song for him, but we just go around, we choose a song. That's a pretty fun way to, to share the car ride. Yeah. What kind of songs is Alma picking at five? She'll go through, you know, phases of being obsessed about one song. Sometimes it's something from, you know, Frozen or Encanto or whatever, but sometimes it's like a Jessie's Girl or Crazy

Train. You know, she was really into Crazy Train for a long time. And then there's, do you know the Freeze Dance song? No, I don't think so, no. It's good. You're saying it's good? No, it's good you don't know it. It sounds like I would hate it. And I feel it's very unfair to judge

it on its title, but that sounds like a disaster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a total, yeah. But she likes, you know, she'll like certain songs of ours, especially if we dance. She likes to dance. So as long as I can, like, be a little silly with her, like, she'll listen to our music too.

So it's really, I mean, that is one of the really fun things about, I guess, kids or her age or whatever is, like, really, like, silliness is kind of the prime commodity. It's like, okay, if you could be silly, like we're good. So yeah, that's fun. We were talking in the intro about how much I loved dumb money before you got on, but you filmed that locally. Is it great when you get to film close to home? Well, it is now. And funny enough, I used to not like it. I used to like being on location because you just get to check out from your life. And I don't even necessarily mean in a super character-based way.

I mean, even just not getting your mail, you just don't want to have to, if you're working super long days and you're only doing it for a couple of months usually. And so you just, to get that free pass, so to speak, from friends, from family, I used to really like that. And then I'd come back and I'd have my time in my normal life. So I liked them being separate. But as soon as I became a parent now, it's like, yeah, I mean, we shot in Jersey. I'd commute from here to there. It was super easy because you're getting up so early in the morning anyway, there's not a lot of traffic. And yeah, that's a real blessing. We also filmed that. I finished filming that maybe a week before Lou came. And we moved into a new place like a week before Lou came as well. So we chose to kind of just, it's like the last minute

Christmas present buying. We're like, okay, we have another kid coming. We're in two bedroom. Let's shoot a movie and move a week before the baby comes. That's how we did it. Well, I imagine that's then all you do for the first months of that child's life is we're going to get this house right and we're going to start to learn how to be a family of four. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's been a nice year. I mean, the strike, my sister is a costumer. She's a crew member. The strike was not a great thing. But I mean, for me, one silver lining was that it was actually a really nice moment for us just with our, our baby and our sort of home to like, okay, like let's adapt to this and, and sort of make the most of it. And it was much better than the pandemic for me. Cause the pandemic, we didn't have childcare and there wasn't school yet

for, for Alma. So that was like a lot harder where this was like, okay, I'm actually just in my house and have some time to be with them or read a book or watch a movie. Or Zoe wanted to organize the basement. That was thrilling. That's exciting. That's a really fun thing to do. All right, before we let you go, Paul, you have to answer some questions. These are the questions we ask all of our guests, and Josh is going to take the lead. Okay, here we go. You can only pick one. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous,

or educational? I want to say relaxing, but I think it's a lie because I'm not good at relaxing. I think educational is actually me. Excellent. What is your favorite means of transportation? me. Excellent. What is your favorite means of transportation? Train, plane, automobile, boat, bike, your feet? I like to drive myself. I like to be in control. When I'm on set on location, I self-drive. If I'm in a city, I won't because you don't know it in London or something or New York, but otherwise I want to drive myself. I like to, yeah. Otherwise train. I love a train. Yeah. Does a movie set give you a hard time when you want to self-drive? Yes, they do. Yeah, they do, right?

And occasionally I've not been able to. But for the most part, it'll work itself out. And I honestly really prefer it. I like having that moment alone in the car to just be with myself in the morning. It helps wake me up and focus. I feel like they're like, you know what? Paul's going to make it. I bet your co-star Pete Davidson, they're like, we can't let Pete self-drug. We're sending two cars for Pete.

All right. If you could take a vacation with any family other than your own, alive or dead, fictional or real, which family would you like to take a vacation with? Oh my God. What a question. It's good, right? Okay. Being totally honest, I'd want them to be pretty well off and do something that I wouldn't do. Family, vacation. Oh, God. God, what do people say to this?

I should have prepared. I mean, yeah, they're all over the map. Yeah, we've had like the Swiss Family Robinson. Oh, that's sweet. We've had Kardashians. You know the Roy's from Succession? They might check that box for you. Oh, my God.

No, no, no. That sounds like a nightmare. Kennedys. We've had Kennedys. No, I don't like conflict. I don't want any of that. All right. So we need a wealthy, conflict-free family for Paul to go on vacation.

Maybe you know a family personally. You're like, oh, those people. Well, I mean, that's just kind of not a super fun answer if it's our best friends. Yeah, but they'll be happy if they listen to it. They'll be'll be like oh we did our first family of skiing vacay with our best friends and that was really nice actually it was great and they now live across the street from us and and we're like a little family in itself so that's it do you want to say their last name to give them credit and make them feel good or you don't have to also yeah no that's giving too much away okay yeah they know who they are. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I want

to think of a better answer, but okay. We'll come back. Yeah. We can come back to it. I think Paul doesn't want to say their last name because he doesn't want other people to jump in and try to be best friends with this family. Yeah. He's got a good thing going. Right. You know what I mean? If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? island with one member of your family, who would it be? My God. Now, is this blood family or is also my... It could be married family. Yeah, it could be. Anything legally bound or otherwise. What happens to the others? What happens to the one I don't... Oh, you're the first person to ask this question. Yeah. I think they're probably better off that they're not on a desert island. Okay.

So if I don't choose my own children, this is actually I'm saving them. Yeah. Okay. And we'll assume that you've arranged, before you go to a desert island, you've arranged to leave them with someone. So they're not just like in the house. Thanks for that, guys. That was a very generous answer.

I didn't think, I thought you put me in a harder position than that. Because at first I was like, well, how am I going to choose? You know, I would, I would take Zoe. Okay. Yeah, for sure. Well, I, it breaks my heart to tell you, um, that we lied and your kids aren't in the house alone. Good luck Alma. You're a hell of a parent, Paul. You're a hell of a parent. What do you consider your hometown? Is it Manhattan or is it Connecticut? You know what? I say New York for sure. But in my essence, I think my adolescence being in suburban Connecticut is a big part of what defines me. All right. Well, that's more interesting for this question. So it's Wilton, Connecticut,

correct? Yeah, no, that is the real answer, but I'm going to continue to say New York publicly. Well, we know New York's a great vacation destination. Would you recommend Wilton, Connecticut as a vacation destination? Not unless you like to go sit at a picnic table in the woods and smoke a bowl and do nothing else like a 16-year-old. Yeah. So not like a family vacation. By the way, the town of Wilton right now, if they're listening, is like,

that's what he remembers us from? Oh, yeah. I know. The smokeable picnic tables? We got to take the picnic table down. And then Seth has our last questions. Have you been to the Grand Canyon? No.

Do you want to go? Yeah. But not like really. I feel like a why not? Like, you know, honestly, some of my favorite. Sure, but why not? Do you want a few nots? Oh, sure.

Seth can give you some nots. Do you really, I mean, Paul, come on. Do you really think you're going to get there and just be blown away? Yeah, yeah, actually, yes. Yeah, I do. All right. Yeah.

I'm with Paul. I would say a road trip is my favorite vacation, actually. Now that I think about it, this predates kids, but Zoe and I would, I think driving around my favorite vacation, actually. Now that I think about it, this predates kids, but Zoe and I would, I think driving around the U.S. is awesome, and bed and breakfast, and seeing national parks. That's a really wonderful vacay. And you would just do that in a small car, the two of you.

Yeah, rent a car. That's great. That is a good trip. And it is so fun now to think about doing that without kids. Just everything where you're like, where are we going? And then you're like, oh my God, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm going to just send my kids over to your house where your kids live alone because you took your wife to a desert island.

Japan. Is there a Japanese family we know that I could go on vacation with? I really want to go to Japan. I've never been to Japan. I'm still trying to think of an answer to that question. I've never been. That's on my list too. That's number one on my with. I really want to go to Japan. I've never been to Japan. I'm still trying to think of an answer to that question. I've never been. That's on my list, too. That's number one on my list.

I would love to go to Japan. It is so lovely to talk to you. Dumb Money is fantastic. Thanks. And we hope everybody sees it. And this has been Paul Dano, everybody. All right. Thanks, Paul.

Thanks, guys. Thank you so much. All right. Cheers. Bye. All right. See you. On the George Washington Bridge

Dad and a truck are getting into it see you on the George Washington bridge. Dad and a trucker getting into it. Roll up to the toll booth. Toss some coins like you were shooting hoops. Soon dad will be soaping on the dock of the ranch. Moving stones around to be a man. Meanwhile, Pauly's got some other plans with his guitar. Went to Sea Island, Georgia. Got pretty good at old King Pong

Took flashlights to the beach To help some baby turtles find their home But Dad is still soaping on the dock of the ranch Scratching his back

with an old tree branch Paul is off certainly not doing drugs With his friends Thanks to Airbnb for sponsoring this episode.