Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - DOMINIC MONAGHAN: Lord of the Rings Brotherhood, Venomous Spiders & Letting Go of Judgment

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings, Lost) joins us for a wide ranging conversation that moves from Middle Earth memories to real life adventures with dangerous animals. Dominic talks about the lasting bond between the Lord of the Rings cast, why those friendships still matter decades later, and how his love of wildlife has led him into some extremely risky encounters. We also talk about the unexpected emotional lessons of psychedelic ceremonies and why losing loved ones has reshaped how he approaches compassion and connection. Thank you to our sponsors: 🛍️ Shopify: https://shopify.com/inside 🍽️ Hello Fresh: https://hellofresh.com/insideofyou10fm ❤️ This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/inside and get on your way to being your best self __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou⁠⁠ 👕 Inside Of You Merch: ⁠⁠https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🤣 TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast⁠⁠ 📘 Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod⁠⁠ 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do you keep needing to go back to the well? And I'm like, well, showers are good for you, right? But you don't need one a year. Like, you can't say you're getting yourself clean. Let's clean it up. I had to come to turns with the fact that what I consider to be baseline normal is not baseline normal for you guys in this country. Listen, some people don't want to crack the seal.

And that's fine. That is fine. But I personally believe that we are all on a physical, mental, spiritual path. And if you're not letting a free amount of water, run through those river trails, then you're just missing out on a huge amount of growth for yourself, you know? Because at the end of the day,

how is that fear serving you? Do you know what I mean? If you acknowledge the fear and do it anyway, that is an amazing place to grow from. Do you love acting as much as you used to? If the 20-year-old Dominic Monaghan met you today, would he think you became who he hoped you'd become? Which Lord of the Rings actor

beside you would survive longest in the wilderness? What did that's me? Well, if it's you, my advice at that point, I let you down? No. No. No. No.

I'm going to. I don't know. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Thank you for listening to the podcast. There's so many podcasts around. And I think people are listening because, you know, I keep it real. Let's be honest. I like to talk to guests the way you guys would that are listening, the questions you would ask.

And I hope you're enjoying it. And thank you for all the support. If you want to continue to support us, this little podcast, go to patreon.com slash inside of you. There's a lot of perks. If you join tiers, you'll get you. get packages from me every couple of months. You get your name shatted out. You could be on the show,

Zooms, et cetera, et cetera. It's so much fun. So join Patreon and help the show out, if you will. That would be great. Also, go to my Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum and go to my link tree. You can get me on Cameo and you can check out the smallville cruise, cruiseville.com. We're going on a big cruise and much more.

A lot of cons and all, and keeping up to date with me and what's going on. So do that. Also, Rosie's puppy fresh breath. If your dog's breath is shite, guys, listen to me. Just get some Rosie's puppy fresh breath. It's a picture of me and my dogs on there. And it's a capful in your dog's water. Odiless, tasteless, and your dog's breath is going to be better.

And a lot of people love it. So Rosie's puppy fresh breath. Maybe I should start giving away. Sign copies of Rosie's puppy fresh breath. Sign bottles. But hey, thanks for supporting me. And I'm going to be at Cackle Freaks on March 27th at 9.30 p.m. I told this improv group that I would do it.

It's at the Lyric Hyperion, March 27th, 930 p.m. Go to my Instagram and then to cackle freaks and you can check it out. And also stop by the good neighbor restaurant and venture in Studio City. It's a mom and paw place. I've been going for 25 years. Maybe you'll see me there. Rick and Betty own it. I love them.

They're like family and just supporting them as much as I possibly can. So that's all I have for that. we have a wonderful interview today with good buddy Domic Monahan and i will uh preface this interview with the fact that we talk about you know iawasca and things that expand the mind and have helped a lot of people and i wanted to ask dom questions that anybody would want to know the fears like i don't want to do that like i you know what happens and what is it free you from. Because I'm always exploring new ideas to help with anxiety and life and depression. No, we don't often hear about this kind of stuff. But it's really interesting. It's really

interesting. It's really interesting. We never talk about this stuff. No. And I was like, you know, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to, I'm interested. I hope you're interested. I hope you like Dom and there's some good stuff in there after that. But let's get inside of the always, uh, entertaining and loving, lovable Dominic Monaghan. It's my point of you. You're listening to Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. Mr. Monaghan, we've been buddies for a long time. And we go our separate ways.

We do our thing. You have two muffins on your phone, by the way. Thank you. So congratulations to that. Well, just to speak to that very quickly, because I was thinking about this in the car coming over. Is this going to be hot coffee? Am I going to burn my dog? Yeah.

Okay. I was thinking about this because you're like highly social, right? I mean, you think. I have a theory for this because I'm social, but I get social anxiety. I remember meeting you at some Lakers game with my agent, who's also your agent, right? Ryan. Ryan.

And he said, oh, you and roses should hang out. You guys do the same thing. You guys like the same music. You guys like the same movies and stuff. And I was like, okay. And then you would invite me. You'd be like, hey, I'm having a house party. I'm having a karaoke party.

I'm having this. Kickball. Softball. Yeah. I came to softball once. Yep. But I've realized as I've got older that I don't. do much better in kind of more intimate one-on-one or small group situations.

Because what happens when I'm in a large group? You feel like you have to talk to everybody. Yeah, and it's all small talk, banter, shy. Hey, how's it going? Oh, good. You're good? You know that person. I know that person. I'm and see you later.

Okay. And then you spend 45 minutes saying bye to people in a way that doesn't really matter because none of you don't. It's like, oh, good to see you. Hey, and we'll see you. You're 100% right. And I can't deal with small talk. It like makes me feel fake.

I understand that. But at the same time, like I had people over or what, Ryan, Saturday night. And it was a bunch of my close friends. You know, it was like 15 of us or whatever. And, you know, I want to get to talk to everybody and this and that. But it's like, it's sort of like everybody's just catching up and hanging out. Yeah, yeah. But I know what you're saying when you go to these places and you know so many people. It's like, oh, I want to say hi to them. I want to say hi to. But it's not, you're not having a real one on one. You're not. No. And, you know, I think maybe everyone is empathetic on a certain sliding scale. And you know, I think maybe everyone is empathetic on a certain sliding scale. I don't necessarily profess to being more empathetic than others or less than others. But the feeling that I have when I get involved in a group of 10 to 15 people all just hanging out and then leaving is because everyone was very surface level, just nonsense chatter, I feel like, oh, I'm a kind of surface level nonsense chatter kind of guy. And I do not feel that way. I want to get into it. Like if I'm your friend, I want to sit down and be like, what's been going on?

First of all, that's the one thing I will say about you. is unlike anybody I've ever met where you really are interested in human behavior and helping people. And it's like you could, you have this sensibility. And I know you do wild things and, you know, with animals and one with nature. But I think that's all part of it. I think with you is you want to like like I do with these interviews, you want to find what makes people tick. Yeah. What what helps them.

And I think that you are always looking at that. you're looking at your friends to like enjoy them but also help them in a way. You're not an empath, but you're also, but you feel a lot. Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, I've had a lot of surgeries and stuff and you've always, my anxieties through the roof a lot. And you've always wanted to help me. You've always wanted to like, you're trying to get me to do ayahuasca in South America.

It's not surface at all. You're one of those guys that's, it's not. It's like, hey, this could really help you. Yeah. I'm looking out for you. Do what you want. But, you know, and I think you're like that. I think that's why the boys, you're.

your fellow hobbits like Billy and Elijah and Sean all love you so much. You guys all, because there's a, it's a real relationship. Yeah. Hey, listen, it's helpful for me too. It's helpful for me too.

I feel like in those situations, I am helping myself. I am feeling more invested in the conversation. I've obviously had my journeys with those things. I mean, we can, I think we should talk a little bit more about hallucinogenics and ayahuasca in Peru. I'm turning 50 this year.

So it is kind of my 50th birthday kind of. Happy birthday. Thank you. 50 years old. I know. You're half a century. We're saying to friends last night. You know,

you know Rob Cordry, right? I know him. I don't know him well. You should have him on the pot. Yeah. He's very cool. But we were saying last night, outside of maybe 21,

do you think 50 is the biggest kind of celebratory year for most people? 18 maybe? You know, 50 is pretty freaking big because it's like you've lived at this point. Like, you don't have a lot of years left. And what's next? You're not really celebrating 60. And a lot of your friends, I hate to say it, people are passing away now. You're finding out, I just had a guy from Smallville who was our focus puller, Marcus, who just passed away.

I loved him dearly. And young guy and gone. And so many people gone too early. And so I think when 50 hits, you start thinking about your own mortality. You start thinking about, hey, maybe I'm lucky and I'll live until I'm 80 or 90. but maybe I might be done at 50 or 60. You don't know. You don't think about these things when you're 30,

40 even, but 50. And also, listen, you might have good people around you and they might celebrate your 60th, but it's not a bonanza year, nor 70, nor's 18, nor's 18, nor's 90. You have to get to 100 for people to be like, we're doing a party, you have no. And you don't even know you're there.

Right, you have no idea. You're just drooling into your napkin. Exactly. So I just kind of thought, all right, I'm turning 50, I need to do something for my, 40th I was in Peru for my 30th I was in Peru I've been down to Peru probably I don't know nine eight or nine times at this point why someone was asking me this the other day they were like if

you're doing let's talk about specifically ayahuasca why do you keep needing to go back to the well and I'm like well showers are good for you right but you don't need one a year like you can't say you're getting yourself clean let's let's clean it up there's a whole bunch of stuff going on you need to get into. Yeah, it is. It's wearing tear. My brother, who's, uh, was a, got a degree in biology, is a science teacher, is very kind of like, show me the empirical evidence, show me the facts, show, let's crunch data and then I'll believe it. He is on a very strong physical path in his life. So he runs. My brother's like an amazing athlete. He'll just get up and be like, I'm going to go for a run. He'll go for a two-hour run. Come back. I'll be like,

how much did you run? He's like, eight, nine miles. I'm like, just like that. You just ran eight miles. It's all about science, about, like, health and science. Health, science. His physical, sorry, his physical journey on his life is quite profound. He looks after himself. His mental journey, he reads scientific books, data. He reads fiction, all that kind of stuff. He seems to have no spiritual interest or path at all.

Wow. And I said to my brother, I'm like, look, you're really invested in this physical path. You're invested in this mental path. Like, where's that spiritual path? Because for me, the spiritual path has nothing to do with God. I'm an agnostic. at the most. I want to be an atheist, but seems a bit arrogant to claim you're an atheist. I kind of agree. Well, who knows? We don't know. You don't know. So agnostic. But the spiritual

path for me has always been, you know, this journey into hallucinogenics. When I was younger, I think I thought it was just a goof, you know, well, my brain can think different things and I can go to different places. As I've got older and not been crossing the streams with, let's get drunk and do hallucinogenics or, you know, let's smoke a... Because that was an issue growing up. Well, it's just part of being English, I think. Is that what you blame it on? Yeah, I think so.

It's the culture. It is the culture and it is a sick culture. Do you still drink a lot? No, I don't drink in the same way that I used to anymore. That was probably a big thing during COVID. I had to come to turns with the fact that what I considered to be baseline normal is not baseline normal for you guys in this country. So I did not necessarily kind of understand a weekend unless I was,

Blitz. Destroyed on a Friday night, a Saturday night, and maybe a Sunday afternoon. So if you're doing that, and a lot of people in England are doing that, then almost half of their week is either drunk or hungover, like your t-shirt, very apropos. It's funny.

It's because people look at it and they're like, you don't even drink. I'm like, no, but I could be hungover from pot. Yeah, sure, sure. It's that whole thing about not getting, I wasn't getting the enough juice out of the squeeze. Do you know what I mean? Yes, and on top of it, going back to your brother,

it was like, in terms of ayahuasca, he's like, show me, show me the data, show me the, like, because he didn't have that. And so you were trying to prove to him that this could be beneficial. Hey, I showed him, excuse me, because I'm eating a muffin now, but not for long. So many ones, I won't last month. Muffin lover. I showed him articles on Google Scholar. You know Google Scholar, right?

I showed him articles on Google Scholar. Hey, here's some empirical scientific evidence. An ethnobotanist started to break down the peptides and the alkaloids in ayahuasca, and this is how it affects the brain. I'm not interested. I'm like, listen, man, you ask me to show you data. I'm showing you data. If you now don't want to read it or you don't know accept that data, that's on you, but you ask me. Because my brother's like, listen, you can't tell me this anecdotal story of a dream, of a vision, of a thing. And this doesn't work for me. I'm like, all right, fine. He said,

give me data. I'm like, his data. He went, I don't want it. No. And he's probably thinking also, it's like, my life's great. I'm doing all this. I'm running. I'm healthy. I'm in a science. Why do I need to add something into it when everything is fine? Listen, some people don't want to crack the seal, and that's fine. That is fine. But I personally believe that we are all on a physical, mental, spiritual path. And if you're not letting a free amount of water run through those river trails, then you're just missing out on a huge amount of growth for yourself, you know. And this is interesting because we've been talking about it a little bit. I think one of the really interesting, like, if we're talking, if I'm going to try and continue with this river analogy, one of the interesting bridges to cross with that is fear. That's my biggest fear. This is, this is interesting. It is. I fear like being out of control, not being able to, you know, or or all these thoughts that come to my mind, like it's going to be so dark that I can't deal with it and that I'm going to crumble. And, and maybe that's part of it. Yeah. The mind is a really brilliant thing to lose every so often,

I think. I think you have to get out your own way. You've lost your mind before? Absolutely. I've, I've been crux. side and drooling into my lap where someone would come over and say, what's your name? And I would think, I have no idea what those words mean. It would come out like, and I go, what? But who takes care of you when you get when that happens? Well, so let's back up a little bit. Yeah, let's back up. Just to back up on the fear thing, because I think we're really on something. Yeah, please. This fear thing really trips people up. And there's a distinction. I think you would like that, that thing that I wrote on, on Instagram the other day. There is a distinction between danger and fear.

So I'm a little scared of heights. If I'm at the edge of a cliff, if I'm walking over a rickety bridge and there's a big drop underneath me, I can feel my knees get a little jelly. I can feel me doing something that makes me feel clumsy and silly when I'm completely safe. So that is a slightly irrational fear. But what I try to do in those situations,

which is challenging, but I do try myself to do that, is are you in danger? If you're in danger, if this bridge is susceptible to breaking, then it's dangerous. outside of being scared, because at the end of the day, how is that fear for you or for anyone else for me as well?

How is that serving you? Do you know what I mean? If you acknowledge the fear and do it anyway, that is an amazing place to grow from. Because you're basically saying to your brain, I see this tiny little mini-dom or this tiny little mini-Michael brain that's going, don't do it, don't do it. We don't want to grow.

We don't know. It's unknown. It's unknown. And you go, I acknowledge the unknown. I acknowledge the darkness. I'm going to go into that. That's an amazing amount of growth, Rosie, specifically in that place. Yeah.

But like you had said, you're, like, scared that you're going to have big emotions, or you're scared that you're going to crumble and not be able to do with it. What if I divulge too much information about myself that I don't want? Well, you're not speaking to people. No? No. So you'll have a sham. We go down there.

There's a facilitator, obviously. Would you call him a medicine man, a shaman? Well, he has shaman there, but he himself, Slocum, would not call himself a shaman. I think he's extremely talented and touched and magical and probably could claim to have some shamanistic abilities. He wouldn't be arrogant enough to say that he is. But he brings in local Shepibo shaman. So the people who work in and around the city of Akitos in the jungle, there's a community of people called Shepibo. It's like the people that, you know, come from that jungle.

Lots of those people grow up with an understanding of significant plant medicines down there. So, ayahuasca, de Torah, tobacco. You know, there's a whole bunch of different stuff down there. You'll usually start with tobacco as like the base level medicine to work from. And then from there, you'll move into different places. So he'll open the ceremony and the shaman will then sing. And then he'll come over and sing to use. Will you comfort you?

Like to make sure, hey, no matter what, you're going to be okay. Yeah, if you put your hand up and you want help, he'll come over. Have you ever done that? No, I haven't. See, I have a feeling that's going to be, oh, Rosenbaum wants help again. Yeah, I mean, people want help all the time. People are asking for help and can you take me to the restroom? Can you stop this thing from happening?

You have to be aware of the fact that these guys have sat in ceremony, you know, four or five times a week for years. They've seen it all. They've seen it all, bro. So a lot of times when you're asking for help, they will, of course, come over and be like, how can I help? And if you're like, I've dropped my water bottle and I can't find it, they're like, oh, here's your water bowl.

But if you say, you know, this thing is, is, you know, tapping on my consciousness. I'm really scared. And I'm scared. I think a lot of times the shaman will say, okay, well, you might want to, you might want to face it because there's no growth or benefit in going, that's too scary. I'm going to face it. I was feeling I'll want to, like, work around it. Like one time I was doing mushrooms years ago and I was having a really bad time and I didn't like it. And so I tried to do anything to distract myself with something else.

So I wouldn't think about being so high. Right. And there, they want you to face it. They're like, you know, you have nowhere to go. Like, there's no distractions. You're here. Everybody else is working on themselves. Yeah.

So you're forced to, you know, confront your demons. And which is, which is good. Like, I have a lot of fucking demons. I have a lot of fear-based stuff that stems from childhood that, you know, I feel shame sometimes when I'm like, why do I feel shame? Why am I embarrassed about something that, you know, has to do with my intellect or my abilities or whatever? So there's a lot of stuff that I carry from childhood that, you know, I'm sure it would help because I've heard so many things, but, I mean, continue on. Well, I don't know anyone. I've been down there. I've been down to Peru,

you know, it's in and around eight or nine times and then, you know, have sat and drank ayahuasca in different places, Ohio and places like this. I only know two people out of the hundreds. It might be getting up for a thousand now, or it might be over a thousand potentially. I only know two people that would probably say that their experience was less than ideal. One was a guy who just didn't have any experiences. He had a perfectly pleasant time. And he said it was nice to be in the jungle and nice to hear these songs and nice to be in that space. But he didn't cross over into this kind of, you know, medicinal worthwhile space. He was like, it just didn't quite resonate for me.

Okay. Gotcha. And then another person who was a doctor who just didn't, didn't like the cell, was scared of the jungle, we're scared of the animals. Did not have fun. Did not have fun. Was scared of the forest. Was scared of the noises.

We're scared of the medicine. Did not like it. What did that mean? Well, if it's you, my advice at that point. Will I let you down? No, no. See what my mind goes? I don't care about those things, man.

You just have to lean into that, you know. Like if you, if you, if you hold you. your hands up and say, it's not for me, I'm leaving. No, they're not going to let me leave. No, they'll definitely allow you to leave. You're not, it's not mandatory for you to stay. How long does Ayahuasca stay in you where you feel it intensely? You mean like the acute feeling of being inebriated by it, intoxicated by it? Or do you mean how long does it last when you come back to civilian lives? I'm talking about the in the moment, like when you're freaking out or your fear, you're facing your fears and all that. What is it? Is it a three, four hour intensive?

five hours. It really depends, Rosie. It really depends. It depends what you need to get into. You know, I've had ayahuasca experiences in which you might drop in after half an hour, 40 minutes, and you might be in it for another 40 minutes, and then you're done. You're just out of it. And that might be drinking a full cup of it. And then I've had experiences where you're drinking, you know, a little bit over a thimble of it, and you're in it for five or six hours. Well, would you tell them, look, I'm a lightweight. Everything I touch is, or it's sort of like, it doesn't matter. This is what you're going to take.

Shaman kind of like does a little. I don't care what a lightweight you are. Yeah, he does a little x-ray of you. Because I think that has something to do with it. I mean, you know, growing up where you did and you talk about the culture initially, that, you know, you've been inebriated. You've done all this stuff. So you've had a lot of experience. I don't think I've had that much experience being out of control in my life.

Yeah. So this might be a more intense thing. Yeah. And what's scary about being out of control for you? I don't like when people are around me are out of control, like when they can't handle their liquor, when they can't handle certain things. I just feel uncomfortable,

and I think that has to do with, again, you know, my family and things like that. I don't like seeing people out of control. But when I say out of control, it's different, I think, with this, because you're all there for the same purpose. You're all there to face fears, to grow, to spiritually grow. So I think it's, different because you're not judging anybody there.

It's not like you're fucked up and I'm not. Yeah. We're all kind of fucked up right now. Yeah. It's also pitch black in the jungle. You won't see anything. What if there are animals that come at you? There are animals that come at you.

What do you do? Shoo them off, you know? We've had spiders in medicine space. We've had... Has anyone ever got bitten or... No, I took a spider out. I took a wandering spider out, which is arguably the most venomous spider on the planet.

Took a wandering spider out of ceremony just as we were getting going. Like, They were setting up the situation. Everyone sat on their mats getting ready to go. And my friend Lauren was like, who. And I was like, oh, no. And my friend Jackie was like, who! And I was like, what?

And she was like, spider, spiders. It was a big spider's like this big. Just like traipsing over to her. So we got like two little coconut husks and took it outside. There's cockroaches that will eat your puke. Because everybody pukes. Yeah, not everyone. I think the majority probably do puke.

But it doesn't, I think we talked about this before, it doesn't feel like puking. It's almost like you do it and it's, you're done. It's not like, oh, I'm sick, I'm sick. It's not like that stomach sickness that you've had so much booze and it's like rolling around. This is more like, you know, like before, after you brush your teeth, you like rinse your mouth with mouthwash? Yeah. So you're doing that thing? And then you like spit it out.

It feels like that. Also, the end usually of some sort of culmination of an experience or conclusion of an experience will very often end with puking. And it feels like you've got that thing out of your system, you know. So if you do have demons, we all have demons. And if you have things that you want to face in meditation or with a shrink or with a psychiatrist or whatever, my argument has always been, wouldn't you rather face it with an entity that shows up in a godlike power, you know? Like this is God mode stuff.

And I've laughed and joked with. How so? Listen, I don't believe in God. So I've not been around anything that powerful before. I would assume that if there is a God and God expose themselves to you, that it would feel as powerful as this. She can like end you like that. And she'll show you that she can do that.

So I've said to her, she was laughing at me one night where I said, are you God? Because I don't believe in God. So I was like, oh, maybe I'll test my religion here. And if she had said, yeah, I am actually God and I'm just kind of hiding. I would be religious at this point and I would pray to ayahuasca. But I said, are you God? And she laughed and said, no, I'm just. the plant. And I was like, but how can you be this powerful? And she was like, well, for you

it feels powerful because there are all these different modalities, but she was like, I can't move around. I can't, you know, go eat this thing that you're eating. I can't jump on a planet. So all these things that you think are just normal, that's a power that I don't have. But she presents in this way that is overwhelmingly powerful. And I don't, I don't really know how else to describe it. planet, is it sort of like almost like it's on another level where your spirit is above you in a way? Like it's almost like numbing like, uh, I have this feeling like it's almost like you're there. You know you're there, but like you're almost everywhere in a sense.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You're not Michael anymore. You know, you've, you've transcended to a different place. And that vibration is ayahuasca. This show is sponsored by Better Help. March brings International Women's Day, a moment to celebrate women's strength, progress, and while recognizing how much they carry every day, with so many unseen responsibilities, their emotional well-being can easily get overlooked. Women deserve a space to care for themselves, and therapy can help. And with better help, that support is always within reach.

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Well, let me ask you this. Why do you have to travel to Peru? Why can't you just go somewhere an hour from here and do? it. Is there something more special and something that it's part of their culture that makes it the experience more worthwhile? Yeah. It would be like saying watching soccer here as opposed to watching soccer in England. Yeah, watching Manchester United on TV here or going to Altraffat. There's a massive difference. Right. You know, I don't know. I'm trying to think of an equivalent. It's like it's like eating Iberico ham here that has gone through thousands of

miles worth of customs and excise and sat in a cafe somewhere or going to, you know, rural Spain. Real Italian. Yeah. Real Italian, I bear a car. No, I hear you. It's different. It's also like, I mean, it comes from the Amazon, right? And it comes from that culture of people.

So you're dealing with, you're working with people that know how to deal with any situation that might occur. The other thing, as you know, I'm a big fan of ecology and nature and stuff. There is something to be said for, you know, you know, imbibing this plant in and around the jungle in which it comes from because the frogs and the toads and the plants and the bats and the insects and all this kind of stuff. They've evolved with this thing too. So there has been moments in ceremony where I'm really struggling in a situation.

You feel like you've suddenly been dropped into like a nighttime ocean and there is no ship anywhere to be seen and you're just looking for a light and you'll hear this like, but there are other. people around you. Yeah, you're doing it like 20 people. And do you stay the night? They can't, they can't help you. Do you sleep in the jungle? Oh, you have Tambo's. It's like a little place. You have like a bed, a shower, a toilet. Okay. You know, you have a place where it's right near mosquito nature. Is that? So you could go in your room if you want. No, you have to stay in ceremony. You can't do it outside of ceremony. So you come, you show up at ceremony at like seven o'clock.

By eight o'clock, everyone's drank. And then they won't let you leave ceremony until the shaman closes ceremony when everyone's kind of coming towards the end of their experience, which is usually around about 12 midnight and then you walk back. Do anybody have a longer high where they're like, I'm still going? Yeah, yeah. Guys, you guys go to sleep. I'm here. Or could you stay hanging around?

I'm a little nervous. Yeah, yeah. No, it happens. You know, I've drank twice before in a night. I've drank three times before in a night and that experience will go on until four or five in the morning. Jesus. I was down there with my best friend last September, and he didn't seem to drop

into any kind of medicine space in ceremony. Ceremony would close. We would walk back on these elevated platforms to our tambo. He was above me on a floor and I was below him. And once we got to the rooms, he would then drop into ayahuasca for like four or five hours and I'd be reading my Kindle or going to sleep. So everyone's different, you know.

But I agree. At this point in our lives, I'm turning 50 or 53 is that I? Of course we're all carrying around breakups and deaths and issues and baggings. and baggage and stuff. And my argument is always like, it's like that line at the end of Harry MetSally

where he says, you know, when you found the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start immediately, you know? And it's like that thing, it's like that thing with ayahuasca. You're just like, if you've found the thing

that's going to have you evolve in real time and level up your life, wouldn't you want to do that sooner rather than later? Yeah, the more you talk to me, the more I'm sort of wanting to do this. Because look, there's only, you know, therapy is great and you know medications can be great for certain people to deal with anxiety and depression and a lot of things and you know nature and all these things but this seems like it's

the next level where if you really want to find out a lot more about yourself and grow sometimes you have to face the fear and just do it and you know the chances of dying on this are slim right yeah people No one's died directly of drinking ayahuasca now. People have died in ceremony, but that's because lunatics have drank ayahuasca and brought a knife into ceremony and tried to kill someone, and it's not turned out well for them.

But none of my group are going to be bringing nunchucks or nature stars. Do you ever, have you ever asked any of the boys, Billy or Sean or Elijah to do this with you? Yeah, I have. Have they done it? No. There's a little bit of fear there, I think, with everyone. They all feel the same way.

Is there anyone that's close to like, you know, maybe? Out of all of them, I would say Elijah's closest then the other two. Billy's a hard no, Sean's a hard no. Yeah, Sean's now, Presidente. Yeah. Sean's just like...

When I've talked about it seriously with Sean, he's like, it would be ugly. And I'm like, well, I guess ugly for a lot of people. And he just said he is nervous that he would completely flip out the whole ceremony. And I was like, listen, they've seen it all. There's nothing that's going to freak him out. Elijah's curious, like me. Elijah has two young kids, so he's not a place where he can do it. Billy's a hard now.

He's a hard now. And you love those guys more than anything. They're like your brothers. Yeah, yeah, we're brothers for sure. You really have tried, I'm sure. I have definitely tried. They are used to me, probably more than anyone else, approaching them in a very animated style.

You have to see this movie. You have to see this TV show. You have to listen to this song. And they're a little bit like, I'm the boy who cried wolf at this point. Yeah, yeah, dumb. Okay, great, great. They know that it's been a big thing in my life. The people cry.

Do people yell? Yeah. Scream? Yeah. Is it like scary? No, because you're kind of in this supportive place. Like you had said earlier on, this feeling of being judged, you know. No one's in a judgy space because I-Waska will take that away from you immediately.

It is very much a death of the ego. And the ego is where we come from our place of judgment, right? Yeah. Because like our highest self is not judgy. Our high self is like, do whatever you want. That's great. If it works for you, do it. might not do it, but if you're doing it, that's cool.

So the people you're going with, they don't judge. No. You're going there and they want to see you get help. Yeah, listen, everyone judges. Everyone's in a place of judgment at times. And I can certainly be judgmental of people's choices. When you're in medicine space with ayahuasca, one of the first things that you'll take away from you

without you even knowing it is the element of judging. So if you're hearing someone crying, if you're hearing someone laughing, if you're hearing someone puking, you're just delighted that they're in the midst of growing and learning and changing. So that's cool. But like the ego,

I think I grew up thinking that the ego was me. Do I mean, that was my personality. That's what I thought was my ego. It's not. That's just a version of your personality. You know, the shaman down in Peru was talking to me about the ego a while ago. And he said, if you imagine yourself in a car,

your higher self should be driving the car. and your intellectual self should be sat in the passenger seat with the maps saying, okay, you're doing good, you need to be going like this way, go right, go left. Your physical self needs to be sat in the back seat

with the seabelt on, just kind of witnessing. And your ego needs to be in the kid's seat strapped in, being quiet and just enjoying the ride. That's the kind of like order in which you should be living your life. Of course, in these situations,

life, just life in general, lucid life, I think our ego probably does dictate a lot because it stops you from getting killed. It stops you from stepping out in front of traffic. It stops you from saying the wrong thing or exposing yourself. There's some value to the ego, for sure, and especially the job that you and I do.

But it has no basis at all in medicine space. So she'll just dismiss it out of hand. And a lot of times if you show up with the ego, it's, I don't like this anymore. This is getting too strong. I'm scared. This is freaking me out. I want it to stop.

That's all ego-based insecurities. and she'll challenge you on that. Oh, this is the smaller version of you. Do you want to stick with the smaller version of you? Because you can. And if you go, yeah, it's too scary. She'll go, okay, see you tomorrow. And she's out and you're sober.

So you do it more than one night. Yeah, you'll do it. It depends on how long you come down there for. Like, if I do it once, could I be happy and go, I'm good once? Maybe. My argument would be when you do it once, more often than not, ayahuasca will give you a little bit of a baby step. So she'll be like, hey, I'm cool, I'm gentle.

This is like mushrooms. This is like strong mushrooms. You can have a great time with me. your guard down. So most people's first experience was like, that was a lot better than I thought. It was great. And you go, cool. And my night two, night three, she's going to be like, okay, now I'm going to show up in a big way because you know what it's like. I would say, I would say if you drink it three times, you've actually had a little bit of a shake of the dice. If you do it once, I think you're like dipping your foot in and might be a little bit scary.

Is it an expensive thing? No. You fly down to Akitos, which, you know, you go L.A. to Lima, to Akitos. I would say you'd probably be at a pick up a flight. for 600, 700 bucks, and then it's 150 a night. 150 a night and you're there for... That's your bed, your board, your food, your ayahuasca, anything you want, everything all taken care of. Now, there's no electricity down there. So, you know, you're lighting candles when it gets dark and you're reading.

See, I've never, see, the difference is, I mean, you're, I mean, we know who you are. We know the adventures you've gone on. And I've never really camped. I've never really tripped on mushrooms. I've never really done a lot of these things. So my experience could be, holy shit, like, what am I in for as where someone like you, like, I've done so much stuff that even though this is intense, I can deal with it because I've dealt with acid, I've dealt with mushrooms.

So someone who hasn't done a lot, that's my concern. Yeah, I hear, but, you know, there are things that you know down there. There's a bed with a mosquito net. There is a toilet. There is a shower. You know, you, I don't know if you have a Kindle or like a bookreader or something like that, But, you know, like at nighttime, if you still want to read your book, you can read it by the light of the Kindle. So there are certain things that you can rely on.

The other thing that I would say is all of these things that feel difficult to you. What if I'm out of my comfort zone? What if it gets scary? What if it gets weird? That might. Those things might happen. The hardest thing that you will do down there is drink. That's it.

Everything else is taking care of for you. You don't have to worry about anything else. You just sit. The guy gives you your drink. You decide whether you're going to drink or not. As soon as you drink, you're not driving the spaceship anymore. You're just sat back watching. So there's no, it doesn't get difficult.

What are the odds of having a good experience? What's good? I think a sense of like, hey, less is better. It's okay to feel this way. It's okay. Like just an understanding of how you're feeling and just an acceptance. And as opposed to the fight, how much is it, I guess it all depends. Once you cross over, I think it is, you're on a.

you're on a different plane. I do these Q&As sometimes in Instagram. How can I help when people ask me questions? And a lot of times, you know, based on what we do, people will say, I want to be an actor, but I'm scared as to where to start. And I'll always ask them, how is that fear serving this situation? How is that helping?

So you want to do something. It is scary to try a new job, to jump into the deep end of a swimming pool. But how is that fear serving what you want to do? Right. If it's not serving you, then just kick it in the ass. And that, in regards to that, what have you noticed about yourself since doing ayahuasca improvement-wise or just whether it's minimal change, nuance, whatever it is, that this is the thing

I mostly am aware of now? Yeah, it's been a long time, Rosie. So I probably, first time I drank ayahuasca was probably in my mid-30s. I think it was pretty broken-hearted at that point. gone through a pretty brutal breakup and it was grim and pretty public and I just felt embarrassed and humiliated and I did not want to break up with this person. So it was tough. I think I was able to let go of a lot of that stuff. Like, oh wow. You know, okay, this happens. People go through breakups, you know. The ego, right? Yeah, the ego. You're not the first person that's been through

a tough breakup. You're not going to be the last. Of course it's tough. Of course it's difficult. But you'll survive and you'll be all right. And ultimately it gave me that breakup, that situation. gave me a lot more compassion, understanding of hearing someone saying, I'm going to a pretty shitty break up. Yeah. When I was younger and people go, I'm going through a pretty shitty break up now. I'll go, all right, well, get over it. Go shag someone else. What's going on? Yeah. Until you really experience it. You have to experience it. It's, it's terrible, yeah. And you know, we all know when you've gone through a breakup like that, it, it forges you in a lot of different ways. You become kinder. You become probably more kind of. Probably more kind of

to yourself, more gentle to yourself, certainly more gentle to other people. So ayahuasca and all of these other things, I think it's maybe more compassionate. I think this is kind of a freaky thing, because I don't really understand this myself. But before, because I had done shrooms before, I'd done assy before, I'd done some other hallucinogens before, which is strong, but nowhere near as strong as the DMT-based stuff in ayahuasca. Before ayahuasca, I don't think I connected to any kind of element of magic. in the world. I thought like my brother, crunching, yeah, crunching scientific data.

That's it. Let me see the numbers. Let me see the charts. Let me see the graphs. If you're not showing me that empirical data that's tested every 18 months so, just not interested, you know. And I very quickly said, you really think you're going to understand everything in the world? Like, how could you be so arrogant? You don't know. I, ayahuasca didn't know either. So lean into that magic element of life. There are things that we will never understand that serve us, that makers understand that like our existence can be beautiful.

Yeah. It can be a magical thing, you know. So leaning into those silly, little, amazing, gifty moments without any element of cynicism. You know, I was in Thailand for Christmas, my girlfriend, and there was a jumping spider. How long have you been with her? Off and on, like two years. Not that off, I should say. So mainly on, but we separated for like six or seven months for me to figure out some stuff,

because I've been vibrantly single for a long time. And you have to like slough off a lot of that fictional little black book stuff. You do. It's amazing how the more you, at first it's really difficult. It's an addiction, right? You want to go out with new people, do this, do this. And like, you're always. And then you kind of settle in a little bit where you just kind of go, you know,

No, this outweighs the other. Yeah. There's something nice about this. There's something comforting about this. And it takes time like anything else. It does take time. It is a transition. It's that thing of like there are known knowns and there are unknown knowns.

And one of the unknown knowns about being with someone. And I've had, you know, serious girlfriends before, six-year relationship, three-year relationship, three-year relationship. But when you've been single for a long time, you think, oh, existence and life and the opposite sex. or the same sex, if you're inclined to do it, is fun and it's hot tubs and it's tequila and it's new boobs and it's new bikinis and all that's what it is. And you're like, well, yeah, it is that. But then when you're with someone, it's planning holidays, it's Christmas, it's Easter, it's meeting there for each other. Right, meeting their parents, a consistent, my friend Stevie, who is my trainer for a while, who's been happily married for years and has a

daughter, he'd said, Dom, like the depths of a relationship where all, all of your energy is going there is so much more significant than a little bit of your energy going towards Sarah and then she gets not interested anymore. So then a little bit of your energy goes towards Denise and then she's exhausting. It's exhausting. And I didn't realize how it's exhausting. It's exhausting. I don't have time for it. Yeah. I don't think I do either now. Not anymore. I mean. It's a young man's game. Yeah. So young man's game. Because it's associated with booze and it's associated with late nights. I'm not into impressing people in the same way anymore. No, no, I just want to wear my sweats and my t-shirt and just move on.

But wait, let me go back, right? So you and your girlfriend. We're in Thailand for Christmas. We're sat having Thai ice tea, whatever. And there was a jumping spider behind me. A little tiny jumping spider. They're tiny, these little guys, one of the best sets of eyes in the spider world. They have incredible eyesight.

They see things in ways that we can't. And I was talking to my girlfriend. I was like, oh, check out this little jumping spider. I said, if I put my hand out here, it'll jump on my hand. She was like, how do you know? And I was like, oh, I don't know. I was just going to do it. And I did that.

And the jump in my hand. She was like, oh, my God. And I was like, yeah, that's cool. And it made me think, I didn't know the jumping spider was going to do that. But because I lean in and have leaned in for a long time into this idea of like the unknown, the magic, you know, the incredible joy that you get about not knowing, you know. And believing. Yeah. Just close your eyes and just trust that the universe has gone.

got you back. I did not connect to that before. That's amazing. You know, so it's, and also you, you find yourself in this interesting group of people. It's almost like everyone has this secret that from an egoic point of view, they're not interested in like holding on to, but they're also not interested in goshing over. Like you're on the same wavelength. A little bit. A little bit. There's something I, there's a calmness. There's a experience. There's something behind the eyes. And you and I have been circling around this for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because you've known me long enough and you've talked to me. Oh, I trust you wholeheartedly. Yeah, yeah. You know what we've been talking about this one was the whole podcast. Should we change the subject? I like it. It's interesting, don't you think? Well, you know what's interesting?

I really think it's interesting. I hope people will find it interesting too because I am, yeah, I wanted to hear this. This was for me and for you out there. So I hope that you stayed with it. It's infinitely interesting. to me and it becomes more interesting when you actually drink it, but potentially what might be interesting for your viewers or listeners, if you were to do it would be for them to say, oh, I can see Rosie pre-Iahuasca and post-Iahuasca. I can hear it in his voice. I can see it in

his physical body. I can see it in the way that he speaks. Dude, you can see it. The reason why I drank ayahuasca the first time, I did season one of Wild Things, my herpetologist Donald Schultz, went down to Peru. He disappeared for like three weeks. Couldn't get in touch with him. We're chatting every day. And he came back. I was like, where you been?

He went, I've been to Peru. I had an amazing experience. Went, oh, okay, let's meet up and chat. We met up. His face was different. The way that his face rested was different. More carefree. Yeah, it was just before it was just a bit more of a furrowed brow

when we're making season one of wild things. He was a bit more like this. And I just thought that was his face. When I saw him in Little Dombs in Las Vegas, he's like, hey, I was like, what happened? He went, I don't know, I drank ayahuasca. It all gone. Yeah.

This thing about carrying rocks, carrying your furrowed brow was just gone. So that would be a really interesting thing for me to hear the first podcast that you do post-Iahuasca. What if it's like this? Yes. Tell me about yourself. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. You know, it's funny.

Not funny, but more profound. My grandfather, he had Alzheimer's. He passed away. He was my best friend and he, um, he, uh, the last year or so, he looked so peaceful and handsome, not a care in the world. His skin was great because he had no cares. And even though that's, you think that's bad, but I, I assume that, you know, that is the, if you could live a life where you're completely comfortable with yourself, if you're

completely at ease or. something that could help attribute to that, you know, it could be life-changing, like you said, because to just kind of be, to just kind of like not have to try as hard, not to try and press, not to try and, you know, be, you know, be bogged down with fears and, you know, and let that, you know, get in the way of your potential. I see it as just something that can only, help, you know. There's no question it's an improvement to your experience on planet Earth

and you have to weigh that off by doing a little bit of work. Yeah, yeah. But like I said, the hardest thing you do is drink. All the rest of it is you're along for the ride. Yeah. Let your mind. Like the roller coaster, right?

You know, you stand in line. You're like a little bit nervous about the roller coaster. I don't know about should I go? Should I stay? Oh no, I'll stay. I'll stay online. You sit in the rollercoaster. And as soon as you sit in the roller coaster and they put the seatbelt on? You're like, all right, I'm good.

The resistance is gone. See, the difference, though, is when they lock me in that seatbelt, I hate it. I hate being fucking and I'm claustrophobic. But, um... I change the subject. Ah, where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any. Winter is hard, but your groceries

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I did. With Billy. Yeah. What was that experience like? Yeah, it's amazing to do a play. You've done a play, right? Oh, yeah. That's how I started.

I feel like it's my favorite place to be as an actor. Do you know what I mean? And with your best friend. Yeah, yeah. It's like an all-encompassing actor experience because the whole of you is exposed on stage. So, like, from the top of your head to, you know, the tips of your shoes. people are looking at them. So Rosencrenz's shoes have to be positioned in the way that Rosencrancy's shoes are.

I can't have my shoes like Dom's shoes. Right. You know, it's not like TV where the camera is shooting your face or whatever. It was great. What's great about that play. Tom Stoppard? Yeah, probably his most famous play. He did Arcadia as well.

He just recently died. It's like waiting for Godo or waiting for Godo, as you guys say. Two idiots talking about the real massive theme. of life. So if it's too genius, you know, if it's Edison and Einstein sat around and talking about the grand themes of life, I think most of the audience is like, ah, it's too heady, it's too weird. I'm not smart like you guys. These are two idiots, talking about death, talking about time. It's Hamlet's messengers, right? Yeah, there is best friends that, it's funny, because in the, in the, in the Shakespearean play Hamlet, they don't do a lot. Nothing. They're barely in it.

Right, right. They come and go off stage and they, they're basically confused. Where is my lord? Oh, my lord is over there. Why is he there? Why is he so sad? Yeah, but this is all about this is them going we've been summoned to the castle hamlet's in a shitty mood uh ophelia seems to be completely heartbroken why are we here and in the shakespearean play they are killed and ultimately what you come to realize quite quickly with rose and crescent and gildenstern are dead with with both those characters is there is a destiny for them which is their deaths that they are just blindly walking into and even though they try and shuffle their way out of it, they can't because of the play,

because of the Shakespearean play Hamlet. It's fate. Yeah, they die in Hamlet, so they die in real life. And it's lovely and it's cute. The characters are vulnerable. I don't know, man, it's just like... Do you love acting as much as you used to? I do.

I wish I worked more. Well, you're doing your show still, right? Sure. I mean, what season is this? Well, the show with Billy? Yeah. We'll only start to do season two. Oh, it's season two.

Yeah. What about Wild Things, I think, is like, Shell for a little bit, we've been trying to work out different ways of doing wild things, like an aquatic version of wild things. You miss it? Yeah, I miss the work aspect of being around animals because I'm around animals, but when you're doing it for work, it's a built-in kind of joy experience for me. Do you think that's your passion more now you like being with animals and stuff more than, in a

sense, with people? Oh, I much prefer animals to people. No question. I mean, obviously we are animals. People are animals. but wild animals, yeah, unfortunately. And a lot of people will kind of challenge me on that statement, but it's not changed yet.

Because unfortunately, and I'm not saying this kind of boo-hoo, whatever, I'm just saying it as a point of fact. I have been let down and disappointed by people before in profound ways and in small ways, but I've never had that with animals. Yeah, that's special. I mean, you know, it's funny because even my dogs, I'm obsessed and they're just there. They just want to love me.

And it's such a beautiful thing. And it's like that's why I think to me like losing a dog is one of an animal is one of the hardest things you'll ever go through. Yeah, you've lost a few, right? Well, I've lost my dog, Irv and then I lost my grandfather, Irv and I just lost my grandmother all in the last like a little while. But, you know, I've only had really one dog that was my dog that, passed and that was really tough. But I never thought I could care as much as I do for these animals. Yeah.

You know, and I love what you do because, you know, you put it, you know, it's everywhere. People see, you know, you're educating people. And you love this. This is your world. So why wouldn't this be where you belong? Yeah. You know, and I know you want to act more. Like, what do you want to do?

I don't know, man. I just want to work. Listen, like, we know that I'm sure you've talked about it on this part of us. I mean, obviously everybody knows how super talented you are. You just, you just are. All right. And everything I've seen you and I'm just like, you know, this guy's great. So you should, you know, and I'm sure people say, you know, Michael, why aren't you

acting more? I'm like, you know, it's, it has nothing to do with abilities and talents and this and that. And it also has to do with what you really want. Yeah. Listen, the state of the business, which I'm sure you've talked about a lot of the podcast, you know, and I don't want to bore anyone. But the state of the business, obviously we went through writers strikes. We went through COVID.

We went through SAG union issues. We went through the death of the studios, which is what's happening now. All these studios that I grew up with, Paramount and Warner Brothers and Fox and Sony, they're either dying or dead. And the new boys, the Netflix, the Amazon's, the Hulus, they're coming in and we're all living in a city that is going through this extremely profound transition in the business. And I don't think you hear anyone in the business say that it's anything other than the most unhealthy. How ironic is it that we're in Hollywood, California. This is where movies get made. Supposedly.

And not anymore. And they talk about this, you know, we could talk about it ad nauseum. I think the city was a little naive and silly about not making it as attractive as possible to come and film here. Because you go to Toronto, you go to Vancouver, you go to Atlanta, you go to Montreal to make movies now. You don't come to L.A. because there's no tax break. L.A., California, one of the richest economies on the planet, should have been able to politically put forward.

Hey, can we get a 25, 30% tax break and bring the movies, bring the projects back to Hollywood, but they don't do it, you know? So it's sad, man, because since COVID and all of those kind of, you know, shuffling around things, if I could click my fingers, I'd work 300 days at the year. I'd have two or three weeks off in the summer to go explore. I'd have a couple weeks off at Christmas.

The rest of the time I'd be on set and I'd be working. So you want to work. Yeah, I want to work a lot. I love working. It's still, even alongside things like animals and plant medicine, acting is still the thing that I'm the most interested in. But obviously, my agent is like, well, you could do this. You could go on set and do that.

And I'm like, no, it's not going to do it. So you have choices, but there's some things you're just like, no, I'm waiting for this. I'm not. I've done enough independent films now that, go nowhere. Do you think you still have something to prove? I mean, I think we all do in a way. Yeah, maybe. I don't know about prove. I like working. You know, I just like working and would like to continue to work at a nice level. My agent will constantly be like, there's this. It might

go to a festival. They're talking about this and I'm like, I know what this is. They're going to say, the amount of times that someone said, this is going to go to Ken, this is going to open Southby. You're going to get a back end point, which means nothing. Nothing, because it doesn't do anything. Yeah. This is going to be the third film they'll show at the opening night of Sundance. You're like, well, that's what you want to happen. It ultimately disappears, does nothing. You just wasted your time. Dude, I 100% know what you're talking about.

I just like, yeah, I mean, we can get into that. Let me ask you a funny question. Which Lord of the Rings actor besides you would survive longest in the wilderness? I'm saying Vigo. Yeah, probably Vig. Probably Vig. He's a good fisherman. I've not seen him hunt, but I'm guessing he probably could hunt pretty well.

He doesn't mind a little bit of discomfort. You know, he's probably slept out in cold and wilderness and stuff like that. Have you had him on the pod? Has he been on the podcast? I've been dying to have him on the pod. He's quite shy, Vig, and I don't think, whenever we do these conventions, the amount of posters that I've signed where the last person they need out of the fellowship is Vig. And they're like, can we get him?

And I'm like, listen, Vigo's difficult because he does not do conventions. he'll do plays in Madrid because he speaks in Spain because he speaks perfect Spanish so he spends a lot of time in Madrid. And I said to these people, if you're really desperate to have vegan, go to a play in Madrid, hang outside, tell him that you saw the play you loved it,

could you quickly send this, you might gain. If the 20-year-old Dominic Monaghan met you today, would he think you became who he hoped you'd become? I think the 20-year-old version of Dom would probably be more inclined to take the piss out of me a little bit more, like to kind of, oh, you got a bit soft. You got, where did all your edges go? Oh, you're nice. Yeah, you're nice. You're kind. Where did your edges go? I was probably known for being a little sassier, the person that is going to kick up a fuss or, like I said,

the whole comment me correctly. If you come at me correctly, I'll comment you correctly too. But if someone, if someone like comes at me incorrectly, I'm like, oh, okay. No, you're, you're a tough guy. You're like, you're not, yeah, I'm not going to deal with that. Right, right. I can be a dick. Yeah, no, I know. especially when that woman smacked you at that bar, remember? Because she was drunk. Yeah, yeah. You weren't even mean.

She just smashed you. She just said, can I sit here? And I was like, we're in the middle of a conversation. And then when I look around, she just wailed on me. Yeah, man. Dude. What animal has scared you the most in real life? Well, that's interesting.

Because we were talking about fear earlier on, right? Like, I have been with probably some of the world's scariest. But in terms of, like, getting tweaked in danger. no, getting tweaked. I'm not sure because the danger. I try and separate this part of the job that I do. I try and separate. Black Mamba is dangerous.

They'll kill you in half an hour. No one survived a black mamba bite. That is an extremely dangerous snake. But I'm not going to be scared around it because that's going to make me slip and fall and they're going to bite me. So I have to separate that thing. The thing that is challenged my fear the most where I had to go, take a deep breath.

this is happening was king cobra. We did king cobra in Bali and it was so big we had to wrap it around a tree. It was like 15 feet. How fast can that kill you? That'll kill you in under an hour. In fact, it killed my... Slowly. Yeah, it killed my guide. So my guide, whose job it was

to take king cobras out of residential areas, we worked with him and three months later he'd been killed by a king cobra. This thing is the largest venomous snake on the planet. Well, they'll reach upwards of 16, 17 feet and it can stand up half its body size. So this thing, which was 15 feet, was stood six foot in the air, way taller than me, looking down at us and growling like a dog, like that. You're like, well, that's not a snake. It's showing a lot of strange, non-snakey. Are you terrified? Yeah, that was the thing where I, when we walked in to the environment,

our guide, Eddie, had the snake and he's like, you can't work with this on your own. It's too big. In fact, you need me here at all times because this thing's an unwieldy snake. And if it unwraps itself from around the tree, it's in control. So I was like, okay, fine. As myself and my film crew walked into that little depression into the forest, and these are film crew that's been shooting wild animals now for four years running. You could see my entire film crew go, ooh, like everyone took a step back. Oh, this is huge.

So that was the thing that tweaked my fear. But then I was just like, all right, you're scared. Keep going. Faced your fear. Keep going. It's a big thing, you know. Tired of partisan noise. America's more divided than ever.

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If you want to join and you get to ask questions. Taylor R says, what makes you happy when you're down? What makes me happy when I'm down? Um, sour sweets, like twin snakes from Harrow. I'm a big fan. I usually have them on long haul flights. If the flight's just killing me, I'll just like eat sour sweet. hanging out with wild animals, watching Manchester United School goals, watching Lionel Messi do magical things. Watching any excellence in sport, I can go anywhere. I can do Tom Brady. I can do Michael Jordan.

I can do Kobe. I can do Tiger. Anyone who's excellent in their field, it's just like they're capturing this weird magic, you know? And also, for you, what you forgot is what makes you happy is watching your friends be happy and living the best life that they could live. I sense that. You know, I included you on this email about ayahuasca, and on the very end of the email, I say this thing, I cannot wait for you to say, I can't believe I waited so long to do it. It's one of my favorite things down in Peru. Someone will come over and say, I cannot believe I waited this long to do it. And I'm like, yeah, man. Jeremy C, what would you choose for your last meal? Or you can eat buffet? Can I have that? Sure. Just keep going. No, that's a cheat. I would do crispy duck and pancakes. Have you had that in London? No. It's no.

They take a duck and they deep fry it. So it becomes crunchy and crispy. And then they shred it. And then you have spring onion, cucumber, hoist and sauce, and they wrap it in a pancake. I can eat 50 of those. Dude. Next time you're in London, do it. Jessica B, what's a risk you're glad you took?

Well, I mean, we are talking about it. All of those plant medicines. Right. Working with dangerous animals, doing pretty advanced scuba diving qualifications. Um, yeah. Gary F., what's your favorite thing to do for me time? I'm partial to, at the moment, in LA, some video game stuff. I'm playing a game called Kingdom Come Deliverance too, where you play the kind of

servant to a knight and you get separated. So it's a choose your own adventure. You start with nothing, you know, the game spawns and you're now in a pair of shorts, no shoes, no sword, no shield, and you have to level yourself up. That's kind of fun. I like Skyrim. I like FIFA. love watching Manchester United,

but the only play once a week currently because they're not in any other competitions. I've got a lot tidier over the last few years. So I am inclined to, like, clean the kitchen surfaces. I like clean, orderly. DJ Kento, last question. The only question that matters, will you wear wigs?

Oh, yeah, do you know this? No. It's this thing that I, this fake mock interview that I did with Elijah years ago where I pretend to be a German journalist. He can't see me and so I'm talking like this and he can only hear me in his headphones. And I have this long interview.

Christoph Walter sounds like. Yeah, so I have this long interview. That's amazing. Elijah doesn't know it's me. And the final question that I ask him is this thing about Wigs, which just kind of came out of nowhere. Unfortunately for Elijah is very good human. You've had him on the show.

He's very kind-natured. Elijah's one of the most gentle, sweetest kind of humans out there. Every single convention that we go to at some point in the Q&A, someone will say, when will you wear wigs? And Elijah will have to go, oh, yes. I'm going to quote something that you sent me. Oh, yeah.

And you're going to tell me what it means. Oh, yeah, okay. To gaze transfixed at a sacred flower so that I may reform, leaving behind myths, caring only what serves. That's an ayahuasca poem, right? So there have been many times in ayahuasca where she'll just present a, we talked about it, she'll just present an image and just say, just look at this and it will be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen

and you're just like hypnotized by it. And the reason why she's doing that is because while you're looking at this incredibly beautiful ornate orchid that you've never seen before, she's pulling stuff out of your kidneys. And it's painful, but you're not aware of it because this is the anesthetic that she's given you. Wow. And once you do that,

all of those things, It's all of those ideas, those myths and legends that you think serve you. She's like, you don't need that anymore. I love this. Aya, I have become a word. You are a vast night ocean, black and terrifying, waves puking out color and thought. I am drowned to be saved. It is what it is.

Yeah, yeah. It sounds exactly what Ayahuasca is. Yeah, she will consistently say to you, we're going to kill that piece and it's going to feel like the whole part of you is dying, but you're not. It's just a piece of you is dying. So you're okay with that. And you're like, yeah, okay, let's do it.

And it does, we hang on to these things, do you know what I mean? But that's my issue. That's mine. You're like, yeah, but it's an issue. You don't mean that. So it does feel painful at times. One of my exes that I went down with called over the shaman one time. and she said to the shaman,

I feel really scared because I feel like I'm going to die. And the shaman said, yeah, part of you is dying right now. So you need to be okay with that. And then she was like, okay. And what she realized was it was this thing that she didn't need was dying. It was, you know, she's puking it out. Yeah. This has been awesome, dude.

I love having you here. It's always good to see it. Like I said at the start of the podcast, I'm always a little self-conscious when I see you because you've always been so kind and generous and sweet and consistent with saying, saying, hey man, I'm doing this thing. Hey, man, I'm doing this thing.

And I'm always like, oh, thanks for the invite. I'm not going to do it. And I'm like, I really hope that Rosie doesn't think that this is anything to do with Rosie. It's due to the fact that when I leave large group scenarios where everyone's having fun, I feel less than I do. I understand completely. I understand completely. In fact, it's hard to get me to go anywhere.

It's hard to get me to go out to an event. It's hard to get me to, you know, I'm not good at that. I don't like it. I, in fact, they asked me to present at the Saturn Awards. And I just was like, it's going to be overwhelming. It's going to be a bunch of people. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. And then I'm going to be exhausted and feel like shit.

And like nobody really gives a shit. And I didn't do it. What recharges your batteries? Going somewhere. Like taking a vacation. Like actually doing it. People don't do it enough. I don't do it enough.

But like going on a cruise or going to Vegas for three days just to hang out with the boys and not think about anything. Just enjoy. and distract. I like to be distracted by things so I'm not thinking about all the things that aren't that important. Where's next? You got a place next?

You got a plan? What's my plan? I'm going on a cruise to Alaska. Very cool. So that would be cool. So I'm excited about that. But, you know, honestly, the first thing I think about really is

at the end of a long day, I go downstairs and I smoke a little pot and I just hang out with my dogs and play with them and watch stupid crime shows or documentaries and just be, just relax and it's all okay. Yeah, so that was what I was going to actually then was, when you've hit the joint a couple of times and you're in that place

where your brain is a little bit like, ooh, I'm not sure if I'm fully like compass mentis and, you know, maybe I'm not using my entire brain at this point. I need to put something on that's just going to scratch that itch. You go on YouTube and you go to a crime documentary? Like, what's your go to? I watch a lot of dark shit. I'll watch documentaries on serial killers.

I watched a documentary about this famous boat race where in 1969, I think, in England, they left. And it was a one man operated the vessel. And it was a trip around the world and they go solo and all these different, you know, guys go out on these boats. And there was this one guy who was like a weekend sailor. And he wasn't supposed to be where he was. And he didn't have all the skills like all these people had.

And so it's this amazing story of like, wait a minute, this guy's winning the race. Wait, is this guy winning the, wait, what's going on with this guy? Who is he? And finding out all about this guy, Donald Crowhurst. And I remember that and I love documentaries that just like, and the, in the documentary, it says, Donald Crowhurst sailed into the horizon and into. oblivion. And that was the trailer.

You have to watch it. You'll love it. You'll love it. It's called Deep Water or something. But I like finding documentaries where I learn something where I love history. I love all that stuff. It's my favorite genre. Is it your favorite genre?

Because my thing is like, I want to be entertained and learn. And learn. And learn. Yeah, I want to learn. And I like watching like New York City Medical where they, it's Lennox Hospital and them dealing with, it's like the pit, but it's real. Right, right. And them saving lives and what they really go through.

and, you know, I'm fascinated by it. I'm like, how, I don't understand how these people could be so fearless operating on an infant, like opening their chest. And like, and the one guy says, you know, you feel how overwhelming it is. Like, this is the biggest. You're cutting open an infant to save their life. But the thought of being able to save their life to me is they get so much out of it and the adrenaline. and where I think I would be like, I don't want to cause death,

but they don't look at that. They're trying to save lives. Yeah, and death is just part of the equation. Yeah, they also have that amazing qualification that neither one of us have, so they come into the situation, well, I'm not going to cause death. Also, do you know what that job satisfaction must feel like,

where the parents come to them and they say, your baby was born with a hole in their heart? We saved your child. We actually just saved his life, and he's now going to have, he's now going to enjoy existence because of me. like the job satisfaction. And I'm worried about the stress that is so,

like it's incredible what I worry about compared to what these guys are doing and how they're saving these lives. And you're like, and they really, I mean, I'm sure they feel the pressure and they feel the stress, but I'm just amazed how calm they are and how they can do this

and their hands are so steady. And it's like, I could never do that. I envy, I admire. Yeah. Like I could never do that. And when I say I could never do that, I wasn't built to be a doctor. I wasn't built to be whatever.

My gift was, I'm good with people. I feel like I'm kind. I try to be kind. I try to be a good person and I make people feel good. That's my gift. I think that's my gift and I'm going to go with it. Oh, well, it's just different skills for different people, right? They might be really bad with personable skills and make people feel crappy and they're great in surgery, you know?

Yeah. Find what you're good at and keep. doing it, you know, we can all do different things. But the interesting thing I think about Western society and the way that it's set up is to maybe promote a certain amount of stress so that you lean into some of these crappy things so that you lean into junk food and Netflix and worry and, you know, this 24-hour news cycle thing that started with CNN and keeps going now. Of course, I understand that there is something newsworthy and noteworthy happening with the United States and Iran right now.

We should be informed on that. Maybe you'd be informed first thing in the morning and you check at it following morning. It's purposefully designed to build up these adrenal dogs. I always say that.

Why are we? Why you continue to watch this? Stop. Check out the news in the morning and then turn it off. It's not helpful. You know, you don't need to know everything.

Oh, and then he said this and you know what that's going on. I'm like, you can't control it. What is that from? What is that from? Do do do do. Yeah. This is the end of the episode with Dominant Monyhan.

It's a TV show. It's from the 70s. Ding, ding. All right, give me some clues now. Start hard and go. There's cars going over a bridge. Taxi. Got it.

Boom. I love you. Thanks for being on. It's great to see you, man. It's the best. Thank you. You might be tempted to let Taco Bell's new Lux value menu go to your head. Because 10 indulgences for $5 or less makes you feel fancy.

Like you might think you need cloth napkins. Well, you don't. Just use the one. that come in the bag. Don't let the luxe go to your head. I love you, Dom. You're always welcome here. Your open invite. It was fun. Yeah. He's just, he's great. And I hope people appreciate it and appreciate him. His, uh, his affection for the human race. Yeah. It's got a lot of affection for the human race. Yeah. I think he cares. I think it's in this world, this hustle and bustle world. It's hard to find people that actually give a shit. Yeah. And, uh, when you do, keep

around you know keep them around so thanks thanks for coming on dumb uh it was a blast and i'm considering the iwasco so don't don't worry about that and of course patreon.com slash inside of you if you want to join patron these are our top tier patrons that get their name shouted out every episode they're so important to me and uh hopefully you'll be a patron and i'll send you a message and you know have a relationship because that's what i have with these patrons i get to know them and i've known a lot of these people. These names I know. And when I see them, I get so excited. Nancy D. Little Lisa, Eukiko, H. Nico P. Rob B. 4, Jason W. Raj C. Stacey L. Jamal F. Janelle B. Mike L. Duns Supremo. 99 more. Santiago M. Kendrick F. Belinda N. Dave H. Brad D. Ray H. Tab of the T.

Tom and Talia M. David G. Betsy D. Rian C. Michelle A. Jeremy C. Mr. Melski. Mr. Melski. Eugene R. Monica Thie. Mel S. Eric H. Amanda R. Amanda R. Amanda R. Kevin E. Jammin J. Leanne J. Luna R. Jules M. Jessica B. Frank B. J. J. Tarterman.

Randy S. Claudia. Rachel D. Nick W. Stephanie and Evan. Charlene A. Don G. Jenny B. 76. N.G. Tracy. Keith B. Heather and Greg Grether Ben B. Jammin, PRC, Sulton, Dave T, Brian B, T-Paw, Gary F, Jackie J,

Ritzel, Ritzel, Benjamin R, other brother, Darrell, Ivan G, John A, and Michaela L. Could not do it without you. I love you guys, and I'll be messaging you, I'm sure, messaging you. And, yeah, I hope everyone has a great week.

Ryan, good to have you here. Yeah, thanks for being here. Yeah, well, I need you here. To you. Well, I changed things. Yeah. I need you. I like you here, but I need you here too.

Yeah. Yeah. But you've been busy. Last year you've been really busy. Well, I front-loaded my year with traveling. Well, you got to traveling, and now you're producing Talkville again, season eight. Yeah. And, you know, you're doing engineering.

Yeah, we've been back blogging a lot of interviews. So it's been busy. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm going in for neck surgery. Yes. And I'm having next surgery, April 8th. and I'll have a lot of time to think.

But I'm excited hoping that, you know, it helps. The surgery helps and greener pastures, you know. So anyway, thank you for listening. All my love. We already said the Hollywood Hills, didn't we? No, yeah. We didn't? From the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California.

I'm Michael Roosevelt. I'm Michael Rosenbaum. I'm Ryan Day is. A little way to the camera. I forget where I am sometimes. Give me a break. You know, my head's not in the game. game the day. All right, we love you. Thank you. And we'll see you next week. Please be good

to yourself. Okay. I mean it. I'll see you. The Muser's the podcast. So why a podcast? Podcasting's very intimate. That's why I'm shirtless. Your weekly dose of absurdity and fun. The things in life that we put up with simply because we don't get around to fixing them. And I let be a problem for much longer than it should be a problem because of the single problem of me. I'm the problem at the center of my life. The Musers, the podcast. Are we podcasting now? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.